Barns and Vats

You know we have CODE WORDS in the church, don’t you?

When someone asks you how you are doing, the code word for fine is Blessed highly favored.
When someone says, You have servant’s heart, code word-they want you to stack chairs after service.
And the code word, when preachers want to talk about people giving money to the local church, is STEWARDSHIP.

I am preaching today on the topic of stewardship, but that is a broad topic, so let me clarify. This is a sermon
specifically on giving money to the local church.

This is a topic that some people dread hearing, and some preachers dread preaching! That could be for many
reasons, some legit, some not.

Legitimate reasons to dread the topic are the clowns you see on TV (example: “If you send me a dollar, God
will send you 10! They don’t even believe that or they would be mailing out dollars.) Or perhaps you see
prosperity preachers. They view Proverbs as ironclad, in-every-case promises, instead of rules for life. So
these charlatans would have you believe that if you raise a kid in church there is 100% chance they never depart from the Lord. Or that if you trust in the Lord, you will be guaranteed material blessing! That is not how the Bible proverbs work, because that is not how any proverb works! Would these folks have us qualify every
proverb? “A penny saved is a penny earned” becomes, “Except in rare cases when an economy is destabilized, or there is rampant inflation and one is actually better spending money on goods and services than saving, generally speaking a penny saved is a penny earned.”

May not be easy to hear, but we get some encouragement. This is a tough instruction, word of discipline…

well..

You are being disciplined. Corrected. Instructed. look at Proverbs 3 verses 11-12