The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on Stewardship Sunday, November 20, 1983. The title is, What Did You Do With My Money? And the scripture reference is Luke chapter 19, verses 11 through 26. 

Two farmers were discussing the whole matter of stewardship as a Sunday similar to this one came up in their own church. And they were talking about how much they wished they could do if only they had resources to do it for the Lord. They got on to the subject of tithing and one of them began to question the other and really press the point.

He said, now, if you had a thousand cows, do you really mean that you would give one hundred of them to the Lord? The other one said, yes, I would. If I had a thousand cows, I'd give a hundred to God.

Well, suppose you had 500 cows. Would you give 50 of them to the Lord? Yes, I would.

In the space of a heartbeat, I'd give 50 of those cows back to God. Well, supposing you only had 100, would you give 10 of those cows to the Lord? Immediately and gladly would I give 10 cows to the Lord.

Let me ask you one more time supposing you only had ten cows would you give one of those cows to the lord the second man said now that's an unfair question; you know i've got ten cows. 

Some of you may have heard me tell the story of three clergymen that were discussing how they made their decision how much of their own money they were to give back to the work of god in his church and the first one was a congregationalist and he said, well, I have a very interesting system. I'd commend it to you. He said, I cash my paycheck each month and then I just draw a line on the ground and I throw my money at it.

And whatever falls on one side of the line, I keep. Whatever falls on the other side, God keeps. The second one was a Presbyterian And he said, that's fascinating.

He said, I have a system quite like that. I think mine illustrates a little higher view of predestination. He said, I make a circle on the ground and I throw my money at the circle.

And whatever lands inside the circle, God can keep and I get the rest. The Episcopalian said, I've got the best system of all. I cash my paycheck and I throw the money up in the air and whatever God catches, he keeps.

I don't know how you make your decision on a morning like this but I know how you ought to make it for the committed Christian there's really only one question Lord what do you want me to do with your money? what do you want me to do with your money. Because it's His.

All of it. We read a few minutes ago in the first chapter of Colossians about a God who holds the very universe together. Just hear these words again.

For in Him. And that's specifically talking about the Lord Jesus. In Him.

All things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions principalities or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. Did you hear that? All things were created through Him and for Him.

Do you realize that the molecules in the brain of the atheist who denies that there is a God were created through and for this Lord Jesus Christ? And it goes on to say, He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He does not need our money.

He does not need our money. But He's given us an incredible privilege of participating with Him in establishing and extending His kingdom here on earth and in commending the glory of His name through our prayers, through our witness, through our obedience, and through the stewardship of His money. Not ours.

His money. O Lord, all things come from You. And of Your own we have given You.

Of Your own we've given You. If you've come to the place in your life where you have entrusted yourself to this Lord Jesus Christ, what that really means is that you're under new management. Everything that you are, everything that you have, everything that you ever will be, is at His disposal.

That's what it means to call Him Lord. I'm available to you, Lord. Do with me as you see fit.

And when you really understand that, then the discussion of tithing moves on to a whole different level. Because the tithe is not some lofty goal to be attained by only the most spiritually diligent among us. It's the minimum standard for our obedience.

Malachi says, and I know you know it, that if you fail to bring in the full tithe, you're actually robbing God. And lots of folks immediately say, well, wait a minute, now that's Old Testament and that's law and we're under grace. Well, of course we're under grace.

What that means is that we don't believe that by keeping the laws, we're going to earn any favor with God. We're not going to earn our salvation. But of course we want to keep those laws in obedience and in love to Him.

Of course we want to keep the law about honoring our parents and not taking the Lord's name in vain and having no other gods before Him and not stealing and not murdering and not committing adultery, not even coveting. Not because we think we're going to earn anything with God, but because we belong to Him and we want to do what pleases Him. And those are standards for our obedience.

Minimum standards for our obedience. And so too with tithing. Minimum standard of obedience.

The issue for the Christian is not how in the world am I ever going to get to 10%. The issue is, Lord, what do you want me to do with the other 90%? Amen?

Amen. Hope you mean it. I've come to the conviction that as large as our budget is, and it is large, we have seriously under-budgeted for 1984.

Let me tell you why. Number one, we must finish the site work. We've been given an extension by the city of Fairfax, but they will hold us to finishing it, and if we don't, there are consequences.

We could even lose our occupancy permit. It's not primarily a matter of prettying things up out there. It's primarily a matter of getting proper grading and proper drainage so that we won't deluge our neighbors with unwanted water.

We must do that. It's not an option. And secondly, over the last few months, we've re-examined our commitment to outreach and asked very pointedly, do we still believe that God is calling us to match on a one-for-one basis every dollar that we're spending on internal ministry with another dollar that goes outside ourselves?

Is that, Lord, what you're still saying to us? And the answer has been an overwhelming reaffirmation. Yes, God is calling us to that level of an outreach commitment.

Well, let me tell you, you put those two things together and you have an enormous budget before you do anything else. And we're trying very hard to hold the lid on everything else. I told you last week that there is no cost of living adjustment for the staff this year.

None. We're trying to hold the lid on it and yet it's an enormous budget. But over against all of that, from my perspective at least, some things have been happening that bring us to a very different place than we've ever been in.

Number one, there's been remarkable numerical growth. Just look around you. See how many people.

Do you know that at 9 o'clock we've had standing room only, overflow in the Undercroft, the last two weeks? At 7.30 we had to move into the big church because we couldn't accommodate them in the chapel. Look at this group.

It's fantastic. we have numerical growth but more than that as we've been really concentrating taking seriously and wrestling with the Lord's charge that we love each other what does that mean? we've been investigating together what it is to be committed to each other and to be in a fellowship and to be bearing each other's burdens and to get to know each other and to become the family of God well you know what happens problems begin to surface people begin to betray who they really are and what they're wrestling with, what they're coping with.

The shepherds feel overwhelmed and the clergy is absolutely inundated with counseling and ministry like we've never had before. People that need to see us one-on-one and then the need also to be training others to try to share some of that ministry. We are overwhelmed.

The Biblical Counseling Center picks up some of the slack at this point, But I've come to the conviction that we're at the point where we need to provide much more adequate pastoral care and counseling as part of the regular ministry of this church, not on a pay-as-you-go basis. And that translates very simply into more staff and therefore into more money, and we haven't budgeted for that. So, as far as I'm concerned, the challenge this morning is not to make a $1.7 million budget, but it's to break it.

To go way beyond it. And I asked the Vestry on Tuesday night for their permission to present the stewardship call to you in just exactly this fashion, as a kind of a fleece before God. Like Gideon bringing out his fleece.

Lord, if the fleece is ringing wet, let me know that You've spoken. The fleece is. Lord, can we exceed this budget?

And if we exceed it significantly, we'll consider very seriously moving in this direction just as rapidly as God permits us to. I've got good news for you, friends. The fleece is already wet.

The returns from the past two services tell me we're going to do exactly that. Praise God. Praise God.

The question is, what part will you play? That's really between you and the Lord. In Jesus' parable, when the Master came back and called His servants to account, The only question in that particular parable, the only question that he asked them was, what did you do with my money?

What did you do with my money? He does have some other questions for us as well. But he will ask that one.

What did you do with my money? When I was a very little boy, my father did something that I have never quite decided whether it was one of the best things that he ever did or one of the worst things that he ever did. All I know is I've never forgotten it.

I was about five years old, maybe six. He sent me off to a county fair with some friends, and he gave me a five dollar bill. And he said, I want you to bring me back some of this money.

And he didn't tell me how much. So as soon as I paid the admission, I took the smallest coin that they gave me back, put it up in my top pocket and buttoned it, and then gleefully spent the rest. I got home and I unbuttoned my pocket and said, Dad, here's your nickel.

And he said, I'm disappointed. that you thought so little of me. I wished he'd punished me.

I wished he'd told me how much he wanted back. All he said was, I'm disappointed that you thought so little of me. How much do you think of your father?

Lord what would you have me do with your money let's bow our heads together dear Lord Jesus Christ thank you for loving me as I come to make this pledge This morning, what I'm really laying in that basket on your altar is my life. This morning, I would recommit myself to you. And I'd ask you to take all that I am and all that I have, My thoughts, my dreams, my attitudes, my wishes and desires, my achievements, my failures, my marriage, my family, my friendships, and my money.

And use them for your own purposes. and be glorified in them for Your own namesake. Amen.