LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 101

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the best of all that your land produces,” you can
that for everyone of us this is in some way or
ether an immense challenge. Itis difficult to give God
ry, very best we have. It is so much easier to give
-whatis superfluous or left over. Sol want to remind
‘today that when the Holy Spirit leads us to the cross
: teaches us the richness of God’s grace to us in
t, we can’t help but want to honor God with the
‘best we have, our firstfruits. It happens because the
pirit fills us with an overwhelming sense of
tude toward God for all His goodness. This good-
includes His redeeming grace toward us in Christ,
overwhelming abundance with which He regularly
vides us with our daily bread, and the privileged
onsibility we have to serve as His stewards. Yet it
ds to be said that gratitude certainly isn’t the
inning and the end of good stewardship.
The apostle Paul also writes in the Scriptures: “We
‘ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize
at one Man died for everyone, which means that they
i share in His death. He died for all, so that those who
ve should no longer live for themselves, but only for
who died and was raised to life for their sake.”
* We want to give the Lord our firstfruits and to honor
m because the Holy Spirit fills us with the love of
hrist. As Dr. Merkens indicated, the Spirit makes of us
‘Christlike people who begin to share Christ’s desire to
se God’s will carried out among men.
“I think this was reflected in a great many ways in
hat happened to us through Forward in Remem-
brance. When our people looked at the Scriptures and
“were reminded again of the commission the Lord Jesus
‘f ave us to evangelize the world, and were helped to see
‘also what blessings God promises to His people, the
‘Holy Spirit led them to give joyfully and generously.

*- Weneed to remember that every act of good steward-
‘ship not only provides human and material resources
for ministry but also serves as a testimony to everyone
‘on this earth that the Triune God alone is good, that He
‘alone deserves to be worshiped and served. Our good
‘stewardship is a declaration on our part to all men that
‘God has committed Himself to remember us, His crea-
‘tures, with His grace and mercy from the beginning of
time into all of eternity.

You still should have before you those passages from
“Proverbs 3 and Malachi 3. They are helpful also in
another way, because when we look at them we see that

God’s grace is so great that even when we do the least
that the Holy Spirit prompts us to do—that is our just
and proper duty—God’s mercy continues to pour down
undeserved blessings on us. Giving Him our firstfruits
is the least we can doin view of all He has done for us in
creation and on the cross. Still, when we do this, He
continues to bless our gifts and us. Certainly God’s
stewards won’t bring their best to Him in order to win
His favor or in order to somehow strike a deal with Him
for even more blessings. It is Satan who speaks when
people are urged to give in order to get more and more
from God. That kind of giving isn’t giving at all. It is
purely and simply an exercise in selfishness and greed.

ESSAYS ON STEWARDSHIP 101

Nevertheless, the truth remains, the prophets make it
clear as do the evangelists and the apostles, it is
impossible for a Christian to return a loving gift to God
without receiving a blessing from Him in return.

Brothers and sisters, if we have never ever seen it
before in our lives, then surely we ought to be able to see
it today in what God has brought about among us
through Forward in Remembrance. Two years ago in
this very room we asked Him to bless us as a Synod so
that we could grow in our use of His Word, grow in our
use of prayer, and grow in understanding of His work in
the world. We prayed that He would bless our efforts to
train stewardship leaders in our congregations, and
that He would somehow—and we didn’t understand
quite how—enable us to raise a minimum of 40 million
dollars for His work in the decade of the 1980s. We said it
loudly and clearly for everyone in the church and
outside the church to hear. We wanted to become more
effective and efficient and faithful in fulfilling the Great
Commission.

But which one of us can count all the blessings that
have come to us because He first led us to take this step
forward in faith? We thought we would give Him our
firstfruits, and He taught us that we have fruit to bear
and gifts to bring that we never imagined we had. And
it’s not just that He has given us gifts in the form of 75
million dollars. His gifts have come in the form of
dedicated people, consecrated to the use of the Scrip-
tures, and in the promise of even greater things in the
time that lies ahead. He’s taught us to find a joy in
giving that few of us had ever experienced before. He’s
given us a new vision of mission work at home and
abroad. He’s blessed us with tens of thousands of lay
leaders in our congregations. He’s provided us with
resources for our seminaries and schools, not just here
at home but around the world, so that more professional
workers can be trained for His work. He’s building a
spirit of unity among us toward the work of fulfilling
His commission which has always characterized great
and strong churches. Heis filling us—and it is certainly
evident at this convention—with joyful anticipation
rather than apprehension about our future under Him.

We’ve seen it—the world has seen it—we’re living
examples of how God’s grace continues to bless even
those who first move slowly when the Holy Spirit
prompts them to take steps forward to become better
stewards. We’ve seen it, and the world has seen it. The
word of promise recorded by Paul in Eph. 3:20 and 21 is
true: “To Him who by means of His power working in us
is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for, or
even think of: to God be the glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever! Amen.”

But let’s look at 2 Corinthians, Chapters 8 and 9, and
1 Timothy, Chapter 6. These passages also offer a
wealth of information and help to us from God relative
to our stewardship. I’m going to pass over most of what I
think is obvious and is heard most often in the church.
I’'d rather focus today on what these passages teach
about the commonality that exists between the very
rich, the very poor, and those of us stewards who keep