Time, Talents, Tithes

“Time, Talents, Tithes” was preached at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church on Sunday, October 1, 2017. This message was a collaboration of three sermons preached by myself and two youth preachers. I have been given permission to share their sermons on my blog. Inspirations for my own sermon came from Scripture, empowering youth, stewardship season, and faithful membership according to our Book of Order.

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Matthew 21:23-32

23 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

28 “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

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Taylor’s Sermon

Today is not only World Communion Sunday; today is also the first day of stewardship season, and this year the youth are kicking off our stewardship campaign by leading worship. For those of you who don’t know or might not remember, stewardship season is a time where we are intentional about discussing our giving in the church, especially financial giving. It’s sometimes an uncomfortable topic; no one wants to tell another person how they should handle their money, especially during worship, which is supposed to be the glorification of God.

Pastors especially don’t like talking about it. It would be hard to find a pastor that wakes up and says, “Yes! Yay! It’s stewardship season! My favorite time of the church year!” I mean, who would do that? I would rather preach a sermon how much God loves us rather than how much money we need to give.

But that being said, my first sermon at Sunnyside was during stewardship season. My absolute first sermon, and I had to talk to you all about money and encourage you all to give just a little bit more in your offerings. I even made a joke during that sermon that this was my initiation to Sunnyside. That Pastor Jamie and Pastor Susan were hazing me, “Let’s give the new pastor the sermon about money; it’s uncomfortable, so make him do it!”

So it’s almost funny… that Pastor Jamie, Pastor Susan, and myself have now given the youth this sermon. We’ll have the youth talk about giving!  

But at the same time, it’s almost fitting for the youth to kick off stewardship season. Mostly because the youth are entering a time where they all becoming more independent individuals. Maybe not financially independent yet, but they all are starting to develop unique gifts and strengths and talents and even ideas that they can give back to the church.

But also, like the passage we heard today in Matthew 21, the youth are accustomed to having their authority questioned similar to the church leaders questioning Jesus’ authority. Maybe it’s because of their age or their lack of life experience, adults may often question what the youth (or even younger!) can give to the church. But looking at the passage: when the leaders asked Jesus who gave him the authority, they all knew full well that it was God. So too it is God who has given gifts to all of us including our youth, and it is by God’s authority that we are called to share them with one another and through the sharing with one another, the giving of our gifts back to God.

In our Book of Order, which is all things polity and governance for our church, active members of the church of Jesus Christ as called to do eleven things. Number five is this: “Supporting the ministry of the church through the giving of money, time, and talents.”

Did you catch all three? Let me repeat it. “Supporting the ministry of the church through the giving of money, time, and talents.”

Money. Time. And talents.

You are called to give something that you already possess.

Today our youth are sharing their gifts with us by leading worship. And two of our youth will be sharing their gifts of preaching with us. They will be reflecting on how we can give our time and talents. As they talk about the giving of our time and talents, I ask that we all consider how giving financially can further allow our youth, our children, our entire church; how giving financially can allow us all to give what we possess. Just like God intended for us to do.

As we enter into stewardship season: let us be mindfully aware all that we can give: money, time, and talents.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Campbell’s Sermon

Giving of time. What is it? It is a way that we can give back and a way that we can show who we are as Christians.

In our Sunnyside Community there are two main groups of people that give their time and talents. The first being all the adults. They give their time by participating in worship, the session, and teaching bible journeys. The other group would be the youth. We volunteer our time in various ways. Lots of us are participating in worship today and volunteer in Bible Journeys. We all love to help with things around the church, and we feel like we can always work to make the church a better place for everyone. That is why it is important for the youth to stay involved in the church.

This summer as you all know, the youth went on a week-long mission trip in Michigan this summer. This was a great experience and allowed us to grow together spiritually. We did lots of work and got to be heavily involved with the camp staff and the counselors. This made for a great week and allowed us all to become closer to God. That is one of the main reasons that is very important to give our time.

Not only that week did we impact the campers and the camp but when we give time at church we impact you, our friends and the well-being of the church. Now when we all come together and use our time wisely and put it towards God and the church, we are being the hands and feet of Jesus. We as Christians are called to give time because that is our duty. We as Sunnysiders have to serve Christ.

There are many ways we can do this and giving time is only one of those ways. The other ways are the giving of talents and the giving of money. A perfect example of the giving of talents is the Choir. Yvonda uses her amazing musical talent to perform for us each and every Sunday. An example of giving of money would be how all of you allow us to go on summer trips like the mission trip and Montreat.  Today we are putting one of the time giving ways into action with youth-led service.

Speaking on behalf of the youth we feel that it is important that our voices are heard because we can offer a unique perspective on God and the state of Sunnyside. We then feel like we can work in harmony with the adults to provide good insight on Bible Journeys, and youth group and summer trips that are beneficial for everyone. We cannot do it without the adults because we are empowered because of the way that they spend their time.

Many of them work on the Session and give us the ability to have a say in what goes on at Sunnyside. For example, Teo is on the session and he acts as a voice for the youth. The adults listen and plan accordingly allowing us to give our time as well.

As youth we also have the ability to give money to the church. Sometimes we cannot do this and then we substitute that with the giving of our time. The giving of my time was required to stand up here and preach today. This impacted the sermon because I not only had to write about giving up my time but I used my talents and time to create a message that would be influential for all of you to hear.

On that note I thank all of you so much for giving your time and talents which allow me to preach to you and allow all of us to grow with each other on our journey of faith. Amen.

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Teo’s Sermon

When Taylor asked me to write this sermon a few weeks ago, he sent me the passage and told me what I would be preaching about. At first the topic seemed simple: giving one’s talents to the church. But after reading the passage, I became hopelessly confused. It wasn’t until I had spent an hour researching the text that I began to see a connection. And I found it in the parable.

The parable discusses two sons whose father asks them to go and work in the vineyard. The sons have opposite responses. The first answered “I will not”. The second, “I go, sir”. The parable goes on to describe the sons’ later actions. The first son, who initially denied his father’s will, eventually changes his mind and goes into the vineyard. The second son, who answered yes, never goes into the vineyard at all. After telling the parable, Jesus asks “which of the two did the will of his father. The answer is obvious, no? The first son worked in the vineyard, therefore the first son did the will of his father.

Now, when Jesus originally told this parable, he used it as a way to show that the Pharisees were like the second son; but we can look at it in a different way. The father in the parable is God, and we are the children. Jesus challenges us to reflect on whether we are the first son or the second son. Do we do what we know is right, even when we don’t want to? Or do we say we do good, but fail to back up our words? This is our call to action. God calls us to give of ourselves for Him, through deed and not just word. What I am asking of you is to give your talents to God.

A few weeks ago at youth group, we had a worship service for the junior and senior high. Taylor asked us to offer some of our talents to God in prayer. Everyone had something to share. This really struck me. At the beginning of the prayer, no one wanted to say anything. It took a few minutes, and a few brave answers, before the pace began to pick up. Once it really got going, there was little pause between answers. Everyone had something to offer to God and to the church. This was only a small group of people. If we repeated this activity with the congregation today, I have no doubt that there would be no end to the talents which we could share. God asks us to use these talents, even when we may not want to do so.

My experience sharing my talents with Sunnyside began two years ago when I started singing in the choir. Singing is something I’ve always loved to do, and doing it for the church was something easy for me. But since then I’ve started taking on more responsibilities. This summer I became the youth elder, taking a larger role in the church than I ever have before. This wasn’t as easy. It was a challenge for me to give up those valuable after-school hours on Mondays; but I did it, because that is what God called me to do.

So I encourage you; find your talent and share it with the church. Maybe you’re like me, and you want to share your joy of singing or playing an instrument. I know Ms. Yvonda would love to have you in the choir. Maybe your passion is teaching others about God.  Or maybe your expertise can help benefit the church on a committee. Whatever your talent may be, you can find a way to share it.

Now it may seem strange to hear the youth asking you to give your time, talents, and especially your money. But one day we will be in your shoes. We want our children to have the same experiences that yours did. So please, what God gave to you, give back to God.

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