"New Year's Resolutions: CHURCH" (1 Timothy 3:14-15) | 1/8/23
1 Timothy 3:14-15 | 1/8/23 | Will DuVal
Have you heard the joke about the pastor who skipped church one Sunday to go play golf? He teed off on the first hole, and a HUGE gust of wind carried his ball an extra 100 yards to sink a 450 yard hole in one.
An angel turned to God and asked, “Why’d you REWARD him?”
God smiled and said, “No, that’s punishment; who’s he gonna tell?”
Even pastors can be guilty of devaluing the Church. The bride of Christ, the very BODY of Christ, Scripture calls her. Acts 20:28 says Jesus loved the Church SO much, that He BOUGHT her “with his own BLOOD” (v28). Ephesians 5:25 “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”
So this morning as we continue our 3-part mini-series on “New Year’s Resolutions” to kick off 2023, we must recognize that IF we are going to recommit ourselves to the LORD this year, as I exhorted us to last week, then we MUST recommit ourselves to his CHURCH as well; to love the Lord IS to love His people.
1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, [that we’ve been SAVED; that we are truly God’s CHILDREN… HOW?!] because we love the brothers.” It’s when we love God’s family, our spiritual brothers and sisters, that we have assurance of faith.
So: how do we LOVE the Church? I’m going to commend 4 simple, practical ways that you can love the church this year; love THIS church, West Hills. There are 59 “one another” commands that God gives to the Church in the NT, and not a single ONE of them makes any sense outside the context of the LOCAL church. “Accept” one another (Rom 15:7)... “Instruct” one another (Rom 15:14)... “Live at PEACE with one another” (Mark 9:50)... “Greet one another” (Rom 16:16)... “Forgive one another” (Eph 4:32)... “Carry one another’s BURDENS” (Gal 6:2)... You can’t do ANY of that for a church gathered halfway across the country that you decide to stay home and livestream on Sunday cuz you woke up late, and you like the pastor’s preaching better than mine anyway. The only way a Christian can obey ANY of these NT commands is by belonging to a real, embodied, local church.
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There’s not one single passage that perfectly fits with all FOUR of my calls to action this morning, so we’re going to be bouncing around a LOT, because there are a LOT of NT texts that have a lot to SAY about the importance of the church (and we won’t even get to HALF of them)! But it’s helpful to have one, central passage that we’re working from, expositing. And 1 Timothy 3, vv14-15 is probably as good as any I could find.
SCRIPTURE: So I invite you to STAND with me… 1 Timothy 3:14-15:
[The apostle Paul, writes to his spiritual “son” Timothy…] “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
#1- Christ calls us to COME.
Before you can “Greet”, “Accept”, “Instruct”, “Forgive”, “Love”... before you can do ANYTHING else, first you gotta simply SHOW UP.
Where do we see this command in 1 Timothy 3?
Well, I would argue it is IMPLIED by the very NAME that God uses for us here (and 72 additional times throughout the NT): the name “church”.
The Greek word is ekklesia; it means “assembly, or gathering”.
What defines the church as much as anything else, at an etymological level, is its COMMUNAL, corporate, congregational nature; the church IS a gathering. So whatever it was we were doing in the spring of 2020, for those 2 months after Covid first hit, when me and the worship team came up here on Saturdays to film a worship service to post online for you all to watch on on Sundays - whatever that was (and I’m not trying to beat myself, or us up; I think we probably did the best we could, given the circumstances), but whatever that was, it WASN’T “church”. Because it wasn’t a “gathering”.
And what makes church so unique and so special isn’t just that we are gathered - you can go out to LUNCH after this and be gathered with other people: an ekklesia of the HUNGRY… you can join us Saturday mornings for pickup basketball and be gathered with others: an ekklesia of the HOOPERS - what makes the church… the church is that we are a gathering of God’s people… a gathering of Christ’s BODY.
Just look at how PAUL identified the church above: we are “the church of the living God”. Now, you could read that as “we are the church that BELONGS to God”. But remember: ekklesia means “gathering”. So we could also understand Paul here, more literally, as saying: this is the “gathering OF the living God”, as in: Sunday mornings are the time of the week when God Himself gathers with His people in a unique way.
JESUS said, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Mt 18:20). Ephesians 2:22 says, “In [Christ] you… are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” So when those of us who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ - and have thus been FILLED with His Holy Spirit - when we come together AS His people, IN His name, FOR the purpose of worshiping Him… according to God’s word, God Himself is here, DWELLING amongst us.
Ps 22:3 says God “inhabits the praises of His people” (KJV).
Because 2 Corinthians 6:16 - “we are the temple of the living God [His Holy Spirit now lives INSIDE US, plural]; as God said: “I will make my dwelling among them”.
What does all this mean? Brothers and sisters: it means you really need to COME on Sundays, because when you MISS, the rest of us don’t just miss YOU; we miss out on something of the very presence of GOD. Listen: I love y’all; I really do - you are my spiritual family. But even more than that: I love the God who lives INSIDE you! Don’t deprive me, and the rest of us here, of HIM on Sunday! And don’t deprive YOURSELF of Him, by staying home.
Just listen to that language again: “we are the God’s TEMPLE… “I will make my DWELLING among them.”
Remember in the OT when God dwelt with His people, when His presence lived inside the TEMPLE, in the Holy of Holies? Can you imagine being an Israelite out in the Sinai wilderness for those 40 years, and God coming down to DWELL AMONGST you - a cloud of smoke by day, a pillar of fire by night… to GUIDE you, to PROTECT you, to COMFORT you - can you imagine experiencing that, and thinking, “Ehh, I’m good. I’m kinda tired. Y’all go on ahead; I’m gonna stay out here, in the wilderness, on my own.”
Or say you were the HIGH PRIEST, and you were granted access to enter INTO the Holy of Holies in the Temple, once per year, to meet with God; can you imagine thinking, “Ehh, that’s okay. I’m gonna play a round of golf instead.”
Of COURSE not! Then why in the world, when Jesus promised to be where 2 or 3 are gathered in HIS name; listen: Jesus TOLD us where HE’S gonna be on Sunday mornings: He’s HERE! So why in the world would we wanna be ANYWHERE else?
Listen: if you are SICK, please stay home on Sunday. We will MISS you,, but it’s the LOVING thing to do; remember: “love one another”? Stay home.
If you are AFRAID of getting sick, by coming, I’d encourage you to consider the examples of brothers like Mike Pijut, or Isaiah Burridge, who had life-threatening forms of cancer and had to undergo immune-system- destroying treatments that have left them compromised, but they put on a mask and they come because church is WORTH it.
If you’re traveling, find a church to “gather” with wherever you happen to be on Sunday morning. And then go back and listen to OUR service on your trip home, because otherwise you’re missing out on important family stuff.
If you’re TIRED: we’ve got coffee; COME.
If your kid has SPORTS: show them what’s more important; COME here instead.
If you’re scheduled to WORK: look for a new job. Maybe you can’t FIND one, in your field, where you get every single Sunday off; but it doesn’t hurt to look. Church is THAT important.
So let’s make this personal and practical. Here are the numbers, at OUR church. We have 452 adults listed in our church directory. By the way: if you are NOT, or if you’re not SURE, or if you’ve moved or gotten a new PHONE number in the last year, please fill out a contact card in your bulletin right now!
But even WITHOUT some of you newcomers who have now become regulars but aren’t yet listed there, we’ve got at LEAST 452 folks who call West Hills their church home. That’s not just MEMBERS. Only about HALF of those who call West Hills their church home have officially, covenantally joined as members; that’s a whole ‘nother issue I’m not even TOUCHING on this morning.
But anyone wanna guess what our average weekly attendance is, between both of our “gatherings”?
About 250.
That means on any given Sunday, we are missing almost HALF of the Body of Christ here. And we NEVER hit 300, except Christmas and Easter.
Now as I said: any given Sunday, some of us will be sick. Some of us will be traveling. But TWO HUNDRED of us?! Almost half the CHURCH?!
And here’s the saddest part, friends: we’re doing better than MOST of the churches out there. The average church-goer in America attends church 1.5 Sundays per month. That’s 18 times a year. The average West Hillian attends 30 times a year. Should we pat ourselves on the back?
Church: I don’t point this out to try and GUILT you into coming this year - please don’t come on Sundays because you’ll feel guilty otherwise; come on Sunday because you want to meet with GOD!
Come on Sunday because you earnestly desire to worship Him for all that He’s done for you, and you earnestly desire to experience His presence, as He inhabits your worship.
Come on Sunday because you need to HEAR from God, as His word is preached.
Come to church to BE the church, the gathering of the living God.
#2- Christ calls us not JUST to “come”, but to LIVE life together.
We’re not JUST the ekklesia, the “gathering of the living God”; according to 1 Timothy 3:15, we are ALSO the “HOUSEHOLD of God”, the oikos, the FAMILY of God. An oikos… family; household… is a group of people who “DO LIFE together”. If we want more context for what Paul means when he uses this term, we can look just a few verses back, in 1 Timothy 3,v4, where Paul lists the qualifications for being an ELDER, a spiritual FATHER of the church, and he writes, “He must manage his own household well”; his oikos, same word. What does Paul mean? Are we looking for men whose physical houses are in good repair? Men who know how to fix a leaky sink, keep their gutters clean, their lawns are always pristine? (I’D be disqualified!) No, Paul clarifies in the next verse: “He must manage his household well… keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own oikos, how will he care for God's church?”. We are God’s household, His children. Kids deserve good parents. GOD’S kids deserve the BEST parents, spiritually. That’s what Paul is saying here.
But the point I’M trying to make is that we cannot call ourselves God’s “oikos”, we can’t call ourselves FAMILY, brothers and sisters, if we’re not doing LIFE together. Listen: if it feels awkward to CALL one another that - “brother”, “sister” - then we’re probably not doing it right. We’re probably not actually God’s oikos. We may be an ekklesia, a gathering, a “congregation”... but God wants even more than that for us; He has made us into a spiritual FAMILY.
Look back with me at a few of those “one anothers” the NT exhorted us to:
“Love one another as brothers” (1 Pet 3:8, NKJV)
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love…” (Rom 12:10)
This is FAMILIAL language. And most of these “one anothers” only make SENSE for a group of people who think of each other, and treat each other, like family:
“…Be at peace with each other” (Mark 9:50)
“…Be patient, bearing with one another ” (Eph 4:2)
“Forgive each other…” (Eph 4:32)
The Bible ASSUMES that we’re gonna get ANGRY, IM-patient, and SIN against each other. God wouldn’t have to instruct us to “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another”, if all He had in mind was a group of folks who gather once a week for 75 minutes to passively consume a “service”. No, God’s word assumes that we’re gonna FIGHT:
(James 5:9) “Don’t grumble against each other…”
(Gal 5:15) “If you keep on biting and devouring each other…you will be destroyed by each other.”
Who do you GRUMBLE against? Who do you “BITE” and “DEVOUR”? You reserve that kind of behavior for FAMILY, don’t you? You wouldn’t DARE do that to a perfect STRANGER!
Biblical command after command: all ASSUMING that we are intimately involved in one another’s lives:
“Confess your sins to each other…” (James 5:16) → You do THAT with strangers? “Hi, I know we just met, but can I share my deepest, most personal spiritual shortcomings with you?” No!
“admonish one another” (Col 3:16) → “I know we don’t really know each other, but I really need to REBUKE you, reprimand you, CORRECT you…”
No. But they ARE things that healthy FAMILIES do for one another.
So let’s consider the numbers again. We have really 2 ministries here at West Hills that are specifically designed for the purpose of fostering “brotherly, sisterly love” between spiritual family members who are “doing life” alongside one another: LIFE groups, and DISCIPLESHIP groups. If you’re new to West Hills, quick overview: Life groups are co-ed groups of 8-15 people who do life together. Discipleship groups are gendered groups of 4-6 men or women who do life together.
We have 16 LGs and 15 DGs here at West Hills.
And we have 209 West Hillians “living life” alongside one another in either a life group, or a discipleship group, or BOTH.
And if we just wanted to feel GOOD about ourselves, I could point out that it is virtually UNHEARD OF in the church world, in THIS country anyway, to have almost HALF the church, HALF your Sunday crowd - 209 out of 452 - plugged into small group community somewhere. That just doesn’t happen. I listened to a church strengthening podcast the other day and they were interviewing some pastor who’s considered a small groups GURU because he’s managed to get 20% of their church in a small group. We’re at 46%! Praise God.
And YET, that means 54% of you AREN’T in a small group. At least not HERE, you’re not living life alongside THESE wonderful brothers and sisters.
So if that’s you, I just want to lovingly invite you this morning not to settle for just COMING in 2023, for GATHERING WITH the church, but to go even deeper this year by LIVING YOUR LIFE with the church. Allowing yourself to know and be KNOWN by others, in intentional Christian community, where you can practice ALL 59 of the NT “one anothers”:
“Eat with one another” (1 Cor 11:33)
“Carry one another’s burdens” (Gal 6:2)
“Teach one another” (Col 3:16)
“Encourage one another” (1 Ths 4:18)
“…Spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” ” (Heb 10:24)
“PRAY for one another” (Jam 5:16)
“LOVE one another DEEPLY, from the HEART” (1 Pet 3:8)
And perhaps even one day eventually, when your small group is REALLY close, TRULY a family: “Greet one another with a holy KISS” (Rom 16:16).
#3 - Christ calls us to COME together, to LIVE LIFE together, and thirdly, He calls us to SERVE. He calls us to SERVE one another, and others.
Paul subtly points us to the most IMPORTANT way that we can serve one another within the church, as well as serve others outside the church, here in 1 Timothy 3:15, when he identifies the church as “a pillar and buttress of the truth.”
So TWO questions arise here: first, what is “the truth”? And second, what does it mean to be “a pillar and buttress OF the truth”?
Well, the answer to the first question - “What is the truth?” - is easy; two things: God’s SON is the truth, and God’s WORD is the truth.
God’s SON, JESUS, is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one gets to GOD, or HEAVEN, except through HIM” (Jn 14:6).
And the way that we COME to Him, come to know Jesus, is through God’s
WORD, the Holy Bible; because IT is truth; in Jn 17:17, Jesus prayed for us, “[Father] Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
So Jesus and the Bible are the church’s two tremendous truths; what does it mean, then, to call the church a “pillar and buttress OF the truth”?
Well NOW we need to know a thing or two about ARCHITECTURE.
The apostle Paul was FOND of architectural metaphors. Elsewhere, in Ephesians 2, he once again calls us, the church “members of the household (oikos) of God”, but then he goes on, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets [so the inspired testimonies of the apostles and prophets, the holy Scriptures, are the church’s FOUNDATION; he goes on…], Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, [Christ is our CENTER-piece, that holds it ALL together…] in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”
And what’s OUR role in this “structure”, this “temple”? We are a PILLAR and a BUTTRESS.
A pillar offers support by holding the structure UP. But they often serve an aesthetic purpose as well. Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, who pastored the church in EPHESUS. So when Timothy and his congregation read Paul’s imagery here of a “PILLAR”, their minds would have surely gone to the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, standing right there in Ephesus, with its 127 prominent pillars; each one the gift of a different KING, commentator William Barclay explains: “All were made of marble, and some were studded with jewels and overlaid with gold.” (The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975], 89; cited in John Samson, Effectual Grace, “The Church”).
So as a pillar, then, the church’s job is not ONLY to support the truth, by holding it HIGH for all the world to see, but to do so BEAUTIFULLY as well. To attract outsiders IN! The GOSPEL is the most beautiful truth there IS - the truth that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners - that truth deserves to be held higher, with more ornate marble / jewel / gold -encrusted beauty than any other truth OUT there. We want the world to behold the truth of the gospel from MILES away, in ALL its radiant splendor!
A buttress, by contrast, also provides support to a structure, but by holding the walls IN. Dustin Benge writes: “On April 15, 2019, people worldwide were glued to their TVs as the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral erupted in flames. The cathedral’s spire snapped in two like a twig… crashing 314 feet into the nave, through the ceiling that skilled artisans had carved by hand in the Middle Ages, using 5,000 oak trees. During the blaze, there was much speculation as to whether Notre Dame’s 28 flying buttresses would collapse inward and bring down the entire building. Fortunately, they did NOT collapse, but it was a reminder to everyone watching that these buttresses, constructed in 1180, were the reason the structure has stood so long. Without them, the whole edifice would have cascaded to the ground like matchsticks.” (Loveliest Place, 78)
So not only are we (as pillars) to hold the truth of God’s word UP, for outsiders to see and be drawn to, but we are ALSO called (as a buttress) to hold the walls of the structure itself up - remember: the church IS the structure! So we hold one ANOTHER up. We “buttress” the truth by providing gospel support to one ANOTHER. To keep the walls from caving in; to provide extra REINFORCEMENT.
That’s why you come on Sundays, isn’t it? I mean, most of y’all have been Christians for DECADES now. You’ve read through the Bible cover to cover, perhaps multiple times. For many of you, it might be pretty RARE that you would learn anything brand NEW at church anymore.
But you still need the reinforcement, don’t ya? Because your flesh is so weak, the devil is so crafty, and the world is so LOUD, that the truth gets pummeled, twisted, and drowned out, and we need CONSTANT reminders; at LEAST once a week on Sundays.
THAT’s why what we’re doing here is so important, church; we are “pillaring and buttressing the TRUTH” for one another, AND for the outside world - a lost and desperate world. Lest we get too comfortable as the “household of God”, just “living life” together, like we’re all in one big happy, spiritual episode of “FRIENDS” together, let’s not forget: we’ve got a JOB to do. Pillars and buttresses have JOBS: hold up, and hold in.
THAT’s why Christ calls us not just to come, not just to live, but to SERVE. God’s word - the truth - calls us to serve both one ANOTHER, and to serve those outside the walls of the church as well, with the love and the truth of Christ.
We serve ONE ANOTHER, within the church, as buttresses:
1 Peter 4:10 “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another”
Gal 5:13 “serve one another in love.”
Mark 10:44, Jesus declared “whoever would be great among you must be your servant”
Heb 6:10 “God [will not] overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints.” The church.
And we also serve outsiders, the UN-churched, as pillars:
Matt 5:16 Jesus exhorted us, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
And we’re gonna talk a lot MORE about serving those OUTSIDE our walls next week, when we focus in even more narrowly on “need-oriented evangelism”.
But let’s wrap up point #3 by making it very personal and practical again.
We have I think I counted 22 different ministries running here at West Hills now. And we just got done giving out 165 blankets as “Thank you” gifts to those of you who served on ONE of those teams last year; 165 volunteers.
Now, again, I’m sure there are churches out there that would LOVE to have 36.5% of their people plugged in serving somewhere. We’re all familiar with the 80/20 rule: “80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people”. So the fact that we’ve managed to put almost TWICE as many of you, nearly 40% to work… should we pat ourselves on the back?
Or should we REPENT - in sackcloth and ashes! - that 63.5% of those who call West Hills your church home - almost ⅔ of our church! - is not regularly serving the church in ANY capacity? And that’s to say NOTHING of the stats on how little we are serving together OUTSIDE the walls of the church; we’ll get to that more NEXT week.
But once again: I’m not looking to GUILT anyone this morning. I simply want to show you the NEED, remind you of God’s CALL, and then invite you to RESPOND.
So, quickly: the NEED.
Brad & Paula Baum lead our Welcome team, and they still need about a DOZEN folks to serve as USHERS for the 10:45 service, to fill out their volunteer rotation for the new year. If you can stand, smile, and hand someone a bulletin, you can serve.
Pastor Brian still needs about a HALF dozen more volunteers for the Audio-Visual team. If you can click a mouse button, you can be trained to serve.
We’ve had 8 babies born in the last 3 months here; we’ve got 6 more on the way, that we KNOW of. We opened a SECOND nursery class just this morning. We’re about to need quite a FEW more kids ministry volunteers. If you can rock babies and change diapers, then you can serve.
But here’s the thing: even if you can’t do ANY of that - you can no longer pick up a baby, stand up for half an hour, you don’t know how to work a computer - guess what senior saints: we’ve still got places for YOU to serve too! How about the prayer team! If you can PRAY, then you can serve your church!
The amazing thing is: we’re actually making it work - pretty well, in my opinion - with only a THIRD of the church serving; just IMAGINE what we could do if we DOUBLED that number. Even if a THIRD of you remained passive consumers, but we got ANOTHER third to join the third who are already serving, and we had TWO-thirds of the church serving, just IMAGINE the kind of ministry impact we could make. Raise the pillar twice as high, reinforce the buttress twice as strong. That’s exciting. That’s when, as a pastor, you can start to dream about the possibilities. And what God’s calling us to next, as a church. But it’s hard to dream when you’re still trying to recruit volunteers to help fill EXISTING roles. Brothers and sisters: the need is great.
And God’s CALL, is CLEAR: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace” (1 Pet 4:10). If you belong to Christ, he has uniquely GIFTED you for the expressed purpose of serving His Church.
Third: invitation to respond. Last week I had you pull out your phones and snap the QR code for the prayer survey mid-service; I considered doing that here with volunteering opportunities, but I’m not going to for 3 reasons.
First, I don’t want to take up valuable service time, while those of you who are not yet serving decide which ministry boxes you want to check.
SECOND, that should be a more thoughtful, prayerful decision ANYWAY. The response I’m calling you to TODAY, I repeat - if you’re not already serving somewhere! I appreciate that the 165 of you who are ALREADY serving would probably be the first ones to pull out your phones and sign up for a SECOND, or a THIRD volunteer role, for some of you; thank you, and God bless you, but God has given the OTHER 290 folks here a gift TOO, that they are currently IGNORING, so I’m trying to give THEM a chance to OBEY Him by stepping up! - So what I’m asking you 290 who AREN’T currently serving to do is 3 things: 1) make sure you’re on our church email list (you CAN mark the “add me to the email list” box on your connect card, and give us your email address, if you’re not sure), 2) CHECK YOUR EMAIL this coming week. Did you know that if we have your email address, you get an email every single Thursday afternoon from West Hills Church, with everything you need to know about what’s going on at the church? Most of you DIDN’T know that, because - speaking of stats, only like 20% of the folks who GET the emails OPEN them. You may need to check your spam folder. But find that email this week, and then 3) Click the link we’ll include there, and sign up to volunteer somewhere.
Because the THIRD reason I’m not just putting the link up on the screen for you right NOW, is that frankly, if you’re not willing to go to the trouble of checking your email this week, or if you can’t follow the very simple instructions I just gave, then we don’t WANT you serving. You’re not gonna be able to follow THAD’s simple instructions when he teaches you how to brew coffee for the Cafe; you won’t go to the trouble of seeking out a visitor, who is clearly new and can’t find the kids check-in station - if you won’t look out for an EMAIL, you won’t look out for that VISITOR, and we don’t want you serving here. We’re gonna raise the bar in 2023. Cuz we’re raising the PILLARS. God’s truth deserves nothing but the FINEST ornamentation.
Finally, #4 - Christ calls us to GIVE. I’m sure there won’t be any tears shed that I’ve run myself out of time to talk for more than about 2 MINUTES about giving. So let me cut to the chase:
Pillars aren’t FREE. Buttresses cost MONEY. And as much as I would love to say, “I’ve got the best job in the WORLD, and I’d do it for FREE,” the truth is I’ve got a family - a GROWING family! - to feed, and the truth of God’s WORD is: “the laborer deserves his wages” (1 Tim 5:18); pay your pastor. You wouldn’t go the doctor for health services, or go to the mechanic for automotive services, or go to a chef for gastronomic services, and expect to walk out without paying a BILL.
You know why God doesn’t have me BILL you? Because He loves a CHEERFUL giver. A JOYFUL giver. A WILLING giver. If I BILLED you, you wouldn’t get to “give”; I’d be “taking”. But Jesus said, “It’s more blessed to GIVE than it is to receive”, to TAKE (Acts 20:35). So instead, God instructs us to voluntarily give… 10%. I don’t have time to offer you a biblical defense of the TITHE this morning, but I did record a whole podcast episode for our “Ask the Pastor” podcast on the topic, that I’d be happy to direct you to.
I, of course, have no idea WHAT percentage of your income YOU give, but I do at least know IF you give. And you’ll be getting a thank you note from me and a giving statement from Dave Holmes in the next week or two. To those of you who DO give, financially, to support the ministry of this church, to help pay for the pillaring, the buttressing of the truth - thank you, thank you, thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart, for your generosity.
But, to the 164 of you who did not give a CENT to the church last year - and don’t worry: if you’re married, I counted you; I assumed you share a bank account and if your spouse gave, I highlighted BOTH your names… and by the way, if this is starting to UPSET you, that your pastor would take the time to literally go through the directory of 452 people and cross reference it with not only the small groups spreadsheets… and the volunteering lists… but the GIVING statements! If that upsets you, that I know who supports this church financially and who DOESN’T, then you should probably find a church where the pastor cares LESS about your discipleship. Because whether or not you come, live, serve, GIVE - ESPECIALLY - those are DISCIPLESHIP issues, church; show me where a person spends their TIME and the MONEY, their WATCH and their WALLET, and I’ll show you what’s important to them.
Is church important to you? It is to 288 of you. Important enough to give. But not for 36% of you, who call West Hills your church home.
So here’s your last call to action: in that same email where you’ll have the chance to sign up to SERVE this week, there will also be a button to login and set up an account to start GIVING. And if you’re one of the 36% - who have been here longer than a few months now; I didn’t COUNT those of you who are newcomers, who aren’t yet decided on West Hills as your church home yet; we’re just glad you’re here! - but if you’ve BEEN here for… 6 months… a YEAR… and you’re STILL not supporting the church financially, I’m going to encourage you this week to click the button in that email and do so. OR, find another church where you CAN joyfully, willingly, generously GIVE.
But please don’t do ANY of this - don’t come, live, serve OR give - out of a sense of DUTY. God wants you to do out of DELIGHT. Because it brings you JOY to gather with the church, to grow alongside the church, to serve the church, to support the church, because you know it brings JESUS joy. It’s HIS church you’re joining, cultivating, serving, backing.
And why do we do ANY of it? We love Christ, and we love His CHURCH, because He FIRST loved US.
We come because Jesus first came to US - in that lowly manger.
We live life together, because He lived with us - the ups, the downs; the joys, the sorrows - Jesus experienced it ALL right alongside us.
We SERVE because Jesus first served US - he healed diseases, cast out demons, fed the hungry, washed feet, but most importantly, he served as our perfect atoning sacrifice, dying in our place, for our sin, on the cross.
So we GIVE because Jesus has so richly, lavishly GIVEN to us - forgiveness, salvation, redemption, freedom… eternal life!