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Dear Calvary Family,

Money (and giving) is one of the hardest topics to talk about in church. Money is private, money is important to us, money is an area of stress, and money is a competing god for our worship. The Bible even says that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. (1 Timothy 6:10)  How we use our money is a reflection of the condition of our heart. (Matthew 6:21) That’s why it’s so important to talk about in church even though it’s hard and even when it’s been done poorly in the past.

We value generosity here at Calvary Church. Generosity includes giving to the church, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about sharing with those in need, giving to other organizations that are furthering God’s Kingdom work, expressing hospitality to people in your life, going above and beyond to express love and care for others, and more. It’s not about the amount of the gift or about the wealth of the person. It’s about the heart.

We talked about generosity this past Sunday with a message from long-time member of Calvary Church, Bob Shank. Bob is one of the most generous people that I know. He has given when he had little and he has given more when he had more. He has expressed all the other forms of generosity as well. There is a core of his message that is so important for us to remember. There are biblical examples and commands to tithe - give 10%. (Leviticus 27:30) There are actually additional tithes required for festivals and for charity in the Old Testament so it’s possibly more than that, not less. Then Jesus seems to ask for us to give everything, our very lives as well. Bob shared how a tithe is obedience, but an offering above that is generosity. It stretches us. And again, it’s not all about giving to Calvary Church. It’s well beyond that.

There was one line that Bob said that he wants to provide some clarification about specifically. “If we pray every day but don’t give every week, God doesn’t hear our prayers.” That’s clearly not true and Bob wants to be clear that God does hear our prayers no matter what. It’s also true that there are consequences to our sin, especially unrepentant sin. There are the eternal consequences of condemnation and separation from God. Jesus’ death and resurrection has paid for those consequences entirely. As believers, our debt of sin is canceled. However, we will experience consequences for sin in this life, especially as we continue to live in it. Those consequences vary but all sin tends to have them in varying degrees - lying to your friend is likely less than murdering your friend as an extreme example. But “robbing God,” greed, and hoarding for yourself over the needs of others is a sin. We are commanded by God to give. Plain and simple. Not giving is robbing God, breaking the commandment of “Thou shalt not steal.” It’s not a perfectly clear if/then situation, but there are consequences or lack of blessing for those that rob God.

Bob would also like to clarify some of his intense tone and other comments made during the sermon last Sunday. We both agree that this was out of the norm for him. Bob, Matt Doan and myself will be recording a podcast to release next week where we talk all this out in more detail. We will discuss tone, some of the side comments made, and the heart of the topic. I would love for you to listen to that to get a clearer understanding of our teaching on this important subject. I will let you know when it’s released.

Matt and I also released our regular weekly podcast episode yesterday with some discussion on the topic of generosity and reflections on some of the sermon. I highly encourage you to listen to the Calvary Life Podcast on any podcast platform or CalvaryLife.org/Podcast

Finally, here are highlights of a couple simple ways you can show generosity of your time:

• One is through serving in God’s House Care. There’s a group of volunteers that help clean the Worship Center on Monday mornings at 7:30am. This team of people with available time on Monday morning needs several more members. Email John Sherman at for more information.
  
  
• The other is to come serve widows in need at Operation Love this Saturday morning, starting with breakfast in Fellowship Hall at 8:00am and then going out into the community doing yard work and home repair. Learn more at Calvarylife.org/Love

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
Eric Wakeling