I don’t normally see, much less respond to this kind of stuff, but someone dropped a note in the offering bucket that said something like, “You shouldn’t talk about money, because people will just give what they can.”  After a week of thought, I’d like to respond.

I think this person might be on to something.  I know Jesus talked about money more than he talked about heaven and hell, and I know Jesus said that our treasure was connected to our heart and I know the Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver.  But money is a tense topic in the church, so I should probably just ignore it.

In fact, I should probably stop talking about being a Godly parent, because if people want to be good parents, then they will do it on their own.  And if people want to stop lying, then they can figure that out themselves.  I’m thinking I could just talk about God being love and ask everyone to hug each other for 30 minutes every Sunday.  That shouldn’t offend anyone or step on people’s toes.  We shouldn’t talk about serving the community, because people will serve where they can.

I understand that listening to a sermon on money might be tense for you.  But I’d venture to guess that’s because you’re selfish.  If you’re a liar, you’re probably uncomfortable when I talk about telling the truth  If you dress like a tramp, you probably wanted me to move on from the purity stuff.

I’m not setting out to make everyone feel good…I’m trying to help us all become more like Christ.  I’m trying to lead our church to become generous, to impact eternity, to reach children and students and their families…and you know what?  That costs money.  That requires sacrifice.  That requires a whole bunch of people getting out of their comfort zone.

It may be completely wrong, but if I was in Vegas, I’d bet that the person who wrote that comment doesn’t give anything.  God doesn’t want us to give what we can.  He wants us to give our first fruits.  He wasn’t us to give cheerfully.  He wants us to live our lives for a purpose that is greater than the here and now, because he’s planted eternity in our hearts.

The messages during the Hope series were not built on guilt, and I’m not trying to guilt anyone into anything.   You may not agree with me, and you may get mad and leave.  But I’m not going to apologize for challenging you to follow Jesus in one of the most practical areas of your faith.  I’m not going to apologize for asking you to give to something that has eternal significance.