Sermon preached by John A. Huffman, Jr.
October 15, 2006
Copyright © 2006, John A. Huffman, Jr.
All rights reserved.

Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16:13)

Today, we conclude our study of 1 Corinthians.

I'm not going to try to repeat everything we've talked about in the course of this series.

What we do know, though, is that the Apostle Paul felt a heavy responsibility to interact with this community of believers for whom he had been the founding pastor and with whom he had lived and served.

A careful reading of 1 Corinthians makes it clear that Paul himself saw the importance of expressing personal words about his own comings and goings. There's a common thread that winds its way through these final words. Up to this point, he has dealt with the huge themes, such as: divisions in the church; sexual immorality; lawsuits between Christians; meat offered to idols; problems in worship; the nature of the Lord's Supper; charismatic gifts; love; the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and the resurrection of the body and the life hereafter for the rest of us.

Now, he shifts his attention to what appears to be the day-by-day details of church administration. What in the world could possibly be helpful to us from such a miscellaneous assortment of comments he makes in chapter 16?

On one hand, we could dismiss these words as just perfunctory personal statements at the end of a long letter. Or, on the other hand, we could take them very seriously as summary expressions of what is most important.

There is a major common thread, a theme that holds all of these miscellaneous observations and teachings together. This bottom-line idea is that, if we are true to the church of Jesus Christ in spite of all of our differences, methodologies, biblical interpretations and personal temperaments, we function best when we are doing what we are doing in harmony, in concert.

So, my theme today is to remind you and me of the importance, the very privilege of doing it together.

I may look naive, and, in some ways, I am. Some weeks ago, I sent out to the staff a memo listing all of my sermon topics for the months ahead. I received a somewhat whimsical comment from Jim Birchfield, who was warning me that I may not fully understand what "doing it together" means in today's youth culture. He wanted me to be aware that there were sexual undertones to this.

Now, I will not claim to have intentionally chosen a sexually freighted sermon topic. But I'm not bothered by the fact that it is. Because "doing it together" involves an intimacy of human interaction as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ that is comparable to the intimacy and sense of responsibility one has in a husband-wife relationship. It's ironic that the word used frequently for sexual intercourse in the King James translation of the Bible was the phrase "to know." So, when it refers to Abraham "knowing" Sarah, it refers to his having sex with her. The implication is that something is going on here that is much more intimate and mutual in expression than two people simply ripping each other off for sexual gratification. Another synonym used in English is the word "intercourse." It involves a communication of two people in some situations marked by sexual intimacy. Again, it's more than just some kind of physical or sexual, fleeting transaction.

Please understand me in the highest and noblest terms when I declare that what the church is all about is doing it together. What is it that we're doing? It's doing the work of Jesus Christ, being the people of God, living together as individual Christians within a community of faith in which we share responsibility for each other. All of this we are privileged to do and to be together--the privilege to know each other, the privilege to enter into the intimacy of conversation, love and care for each other.

Let's look at some of the implications of what doing it together means, both in terms of this final chapter and in terms of the practical matters facing us as a congregation today at St. Andrew's.

First: Doing it together means a mutual love for Jesus Christ.

Even as Paul begins his letter by referring to the "saints" at Corinth, he concludes it by referring in 1 Corinthians 16:1 to "the saints." He's not talking about just the saints at Corinth. He's talking about all people who are part of the church of Jesus Christ. In some settings, we see the church made up primarily of people who come from similar backgrounds, who enjoy the same kinds of things. But that's not all that he refers to here. He's talking about the church of Jesus Christ being made up of men, women and children from all nationalities, backgrounds, walks of life, who have acknowledged the fact that they are sinners who put their faith in the crucified and risen Lord. They are the redeemed people, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Doing it together involves a mutual love for brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, those with whom we share our common faith. So he talks about the believers in Galatia, who live hundreds of miles away. He talks about the believers in Corinth, Southern Greece. He talks about the believers in Macedonia. And he talks about the believers way off to the east in Jerusalem, who were going through some hard times. What he's stressing here is the importance of family, the family of God, people all over the world who love Jesus Christ. We are saints, a holy people related to each other.

Second: Doing it together involves a mutual desire to share God's love with others.

Paul not only identifies these people in Southern Greece and Northern Greece and Galatia and Ephesus and in Jerusalem, who all loved Jesus, but he emphasizes the connectiveness which they have. He tells them how he himself has been staying in touch with all of them, and he's interested in helping them learn to share in each other's needs. He himself, one of these days, will be leaving Ephesus, crossing the Aegean Sea over to Philippi, Thessalonika, and coming down to Corinth, collecting money that he then will carry to his brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, who have severe financial needs. He underlines how linked they are in a loving relationship.

Third: Doing it together involves a mutual willingness to plan for the future.

He's concerned for the believers in all of these places. Most of them will never meet each other. There has been a bit of overlap. Some have traveled and made the connection. However, it is Paul himself who has this heavy sense of responsibility to somehow help facilitate the mission of Jesus Christ in its many expressions. He's concerned that they worship in ways that are authentic. He's concerned that they meet each other's physical needs by an offering he is endeavoring to collect. He's concerned that their moral lives be strong and right, that they live at a higher sexual standard than do the pagans who surround them. He yearns to see them, not just for the now but to plan for the future in ways that can help them and others grow in relationship with Jesus Christ.

Here at St. Andrew's, we are at a very significant and exciting stage in our ministry. Your first pastor was Tom Gibson. He stayed a very short time. Then you were blessed with the pastorate of Jim Stewart, a princely leader who understood the changing Newport Harbor area during those critical 1950s. Concerned that he was becoming too important to the life of this church and that it needed new leadership, he accepted a call back East. A new pastor was called in the early sixties, Charles Dierenfield, who, for over a decade and a half, brought inspiration, vitality and enthusiasm to this church and the larger community. When Charles left to become pastor of the Rancho Santa Fe Church, it was my privilege in 1978 to come from the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh as a thirty-eight-year-old with my wife Anne and our three young daughters. Now in our twenty-ninth year, blessed with wonderful staff colleagues throughout all these years, we've endeavored to be faithful in ministry. We've had our joys, and we've had our sorrows. We've tried to march to the drum beat of a biblical call to provide healthy worship, evangelism, nurture and servant ministry.

Now, at the beginning of my twenty-ninth year with you, I am very aware that the time is not too far off in which the baton has to be handed on in a smooth transition to the next generation of leadership. For some time, I've known that God does not want me to stay one day beyond the day I turn 70 years of age, and that's three years and seven months from now. And there is ministry to be done that demands, in the same period of time, the sound of some younger voices in our pulpit, complementary to mine, that better minister cradle to grave.

In short, your duly elected leadership, in conversation with me and the Presbytery of Los Ranchos, has come up with a transition plan for the future that is quite exciting. Instead of leaving a lot of questions in the air with my holding back on my time schedule for concluding this segment of my ministry, I have shared honestly with your leadership. They have picked up on this and have examined all the possible options. Last Sunday, at a special-called meeting, the congregation chose the one of three options that will enable there to be a national search for a new pastor in which present staff can be included. In order to do this, there needs to be a three-year tradition of a co-pastoral relationship.

In order to enable this all to happen, I read a statement that I submitted to the church's leadership on September 12, which reads as follows:

Dear Colleagues in Ministry:

On Friday of this week I complete my 28^th year with you as your pastor. What a privilege and high calling this is!

Although it may seem premature to announce my date of retirement, in my estimation it is important for you to know this as there are several critical issues facing us at St. Andrew's that will be better addressed if you officially know my timetable. Anne and I have prayerfully decided, the Lord willing, to officially conclude our ministry here on May 24, 2010, the date on which I turn 70 years of age.

By officially setting this date, you are now free to work out with the Presbytery of Los Ranchos succession plans that will enable you to do a full mission study that will help you to facilitate needed changes between now and then, avoiding the status quo/lame duck circumstances that sometimes occur. Also you will have adequate time, if you choose, to go the "interim co-pastor" relationship, which could be put into place with the long enough three-year precedent setting duration for you to then do a national search for a "co-pastor/successor" that could include the consideration of present staff. This gives you the most options from which to choose in enabling a smooth transition, three years and eight months from now, to the next pastor of St. Andrew's.

This is a critical time in the life of our beloved church. I want to be of help as you tackle these various issues, including: succession; denominational concerns; legal suits; building program decisions and implementation (with possible additional fundraising); and program/staff modifications to better reach the younger generation in this dynamic cradle-to-grave ministry.

I am prepared to immediately make any adjustments that are necessary to provide the most dynamic fulfillment of our often-quoted mission statement in the determination that this transition period be one of great productivity as St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church becomes increasingly "missional" in its ministry.

Grateful for the privilege of serving you in the past and in these remaining years, I am

Yours in Christ,

John Huffman

After the reading of this statement and at the recommendation of the Session, the congregation voted unanimously to approve a position description to call a part-time interim co-pastor, namely Dennis Okholm, and to move with strategic planning that would enable present staff to be considered in the national search and for there to be a smooth transition to whomever God calls to be the next pastor three years and seven months from now.

Anne and I have committed ourselves to consider no other ministries elsewhere during this period of time. Jim and Marta Birchfield have promised that they will stay without considering any calls elsewhere during this period of time, open to considering the call to be the next pastor if God should lead the national search in their direction. There is no guarantee that this will be the case. But, obviously, in Jim's ten years as your associate pastor, he has emerged as a trusted, beloved, Christian leader, worthy of such consideration.

I am now appointing him to become Executive Pastor, having most of the Program Staff as direct reports. He will be preaching with approximately the same frequency that I will preach. He will be the liaison with a mission study that will begin immediately to assess where we are as a congregation and to make whatever changes are important in the immediate future.

Following the congregational meeting, we had an open forum. Three topics were discussed.

First, we looked at the building program and concluded that, as frustrating as the last eleven years have been as we've worked to build a family and youth center, God has been in this planning process. Apparently, His will is not for us to have a full, separate gym/family youth center. The City Council of Newport Beach so reduced our plans in size and added so many conditions to it that the Session has concluded that it is better to stay within our present footprint, tear down and rebuild Dierenfield Hall and the educational building next to it with up-to-code facilities that will best minister to the youth, family, Christian education, fellowship and contemporary worship needs, regretfully without a full gym.

Second, the report was received that the Superior Court judge has ruled in our favor once again, sustaining the church's demurrer. The litigant has sixty days to appeal the judge's decision to the Appellate Court in a matter that only deals with whether or not the two rulings by the Superior Court judge were fair or should be revisited. The Ecclesiastical Court, whose officers once dismissed the case, will be meeting on appeal in December. Your officers and pastor feel quite relieved that, as frustrating and as expensive has been this matter, it will soon be over, and we can devote our full attention to ministry.

We had an ample airing of our denominational concerns. A clear statement was made that our Session at St. Andrew's, in collaboration with a number of the other churches in our presbytery, will be moving at the November meeting of presbytery that our presbytery uphold, without exception, the standards of our Book of Confession and our Book of Order, and that there be no exception made for pastors, elders and deacons who are not prepared to live in conformity with those standards. A team of four of us will be, in November, attending a meeting at First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs with other leaders from "tall steeple" churches such as ours who share our concerns. We will keep the congregation informed on these matters while not becoming immobilized by them.

So, here we are primed to move ahead in ministry. I'm excited! A succession plan has been set up that enables the church to do the most creative and thoughtful planning for future leadership. The decision has been made on the building program, accepting it as God's adaptation, a new plan that will provide the facilities for the future that will honor the heartfelt concerns of our neighbors. And we will move forward in missional service of Jesus Christ, uncompromisingly faithful to our biblical mandate, planning for the future, even as did the Apostle Paul, so sensitive to the future of the first-century church.

Finally, doing it together involves a mutual financial sacrifice to carry out Christ's mission.

The Apostle Paul concludes his letter to the believers at Corinth with a challenge to financial stewardship. He writes, "Now concerning the collection for the saints: you should follow the directions I gave to the churches of Galatia. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come. And when I arrive, I will send any whom you approve with letters to take your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me" (1 Corinthians 16:1-4).

Paul does not hesitate to talk about money. In fact, the Bible, from its earliest chapters all the way through, is quite specific about the importance of money and the importance of putting God first in our use of it.

Religion and money is a dangerous mixture. Nothing can be more negative in the exploitation of people, and nothing can be more positive in doing the work of the Kingdom of God.

Frankly spoken, every pastor I know is semi-scared to bring up the topic. People will think we're just trying to raise the church budget. The fact is the Bible has a lot to say about money. God knows how excited at one extreme and unimpressed at the other extreme we can get over this topic.

Today is Stewardship Sunday. How appropriate it is that we've begun with talking about the future of St. Andrew's, propelled forward by the succession plan, by our building program, by our determination not to be knocked off-stride by denominational issues, but to move forward proactively as a "missional church" committed to worship, evangelism, nurture and servant ministry.

Let me put before you seven straightforward bullet points that speak to biblical stewardship. And then it's between you and God how you will fill out that pledge card for 2007. We haven't even begun to plan a budget. We want to see what God's people in faith are prepared to do.

Bullet point #1: Biblical stewardship is the healthy recognition that everything we have comes from God.

The question now becomes how are we going to use everything we have from God?

Most stewardship sermons talk about money, time and talent. All are important. Your money, your time, your talent have been given to you by God.

I'm more inclined to talk about a slightly different positioning of words, possessions you and I have that are electric. Another way of defining stewardship is to say it is how you function in the areas of sex, power and money. Are there three more important topics to us?

Bullet point #2: Here at St. Andrew's, we do not believe in the Prosperity Gospel.

This is a hot topic today. The cover of Time magazine dated September 18, 2006, shows the front end of a Rolls-Royce with a cross as its hood emblem and the bold words, "DOES GOD WANT YOU TO BE RICH? Yes, say some megachurches. Others call it heresy. The debate over the new gospel of wealth." Some preachers make false promises in their endeavor to raise funds for their projects. They appeal to human greed.

Granted, when you put first things first in biblical stewardship, your life is better organized financially. A person who has learned how to live on ninety percent of their income will be less harried and much more peaceful than someone who is scrambling to survive as they spend a hundred ten or a hundred twenty percent of their income. To live within one's means is a much more peaceful existence. The fact is, though, that I'll have less things, if I don't spend everything on myself than I will if I keep everything that God has given me for my own personal use. I don't tithe so that somehow I'll hit the lottery jackpot. The happiest people I've known through the years are those who have put God first in their life in their use of time, talent and money and their use of their sexuality, their power and their money. They're not giving so as to rip God off for what they can get from God.

Bullet point #3: Giving is a spiritually healthy sign of gratitude.

If I'm convinced that everything I have comes from God, I want to make some kind of genuine expression of thanksgiving. Healthy biblical stewardship emerges out of a heartfelt sense of gratitude. It dare not be motivated by guilt and preachers whipping you into the frenzy of being convinced you better do this or else. What you give to God dare not be treated as "club dues." Frankly, the church of Jesus Christ is either the least expensive organization you'll ever join or the most expensive. We'll give you all the services of St. Andrew's free. That's our servant ministry to you. What God wants of you and me is all we are and all we have. He loves us. He wants to live in relationship with us. He has saved us by His grace. He has offered us the strength to live one day at a time, empowered by His Holy Spirit. He has promised to walk through difficult times of life with us, and He does it. He has assured us that, beyond this life, He has prepared a life for us in heaven better than any life we've experienced here. Giving is a spiritually healthy sign of gratitude.

Bullet point #4: Together we can do what we can't possibly do separately.

I've seen this happen time after time.

When I came here back in 1978, the annual budget was $500,000 with $150,000 of that for world missions. We needed a building program. For three years, we struggled with whether or not we could carry on a local mission, a world mission and, at the same time, build a new campus. Well, look around. The facts are that we built and paid off this $16.5 million building program, which involved a 250-space parking lot, a new administrative/chapel building, the refurbishment of Dierenfield Hall and the brand-new educational facilities, as well as this brand-new sanctuary. Twenty years after moving into this sanctuary, we refurbished it again. And now, we have money in the bank ready to move forward with replacing the last two of our original buildings, as soon as we come up with the right design and the city approvals. In this past year, our budgeted income and outgo was over $6.5 million with twenty-five percent for missions. When you add up all the rest of the monies that came designated for various projects, including the building program and monies given directly to World Vision for child sponsorships, we had at least a couple more million cash flow, with some $2.5 million plus for over 150 mission projects in the United States and around the world.

The wealthiest person in this church could not dream of being able to do that. Yet, together, we are able to do what we couldn't possibly do separately, combining the widow's mite of the person of the most modest means as the starting point all the way through those of us who have been blessed beyond what we ever expected to have in this life.

Bullet point #5: All the resources are here to do whatever God dreams of doing.

Think about that for a moment. All the resources are here to do whatever God dreams of doing. That's a true statement. That doesn't mean, however, that all of us are going to be willing to release to the Lord the first fruits of all He's given to us to help Him accomplish all He wants to accomplish. It just says the resources are here. I have to say, as I come into the last three and a half years of my active pastoral ministry, I look back and see how God has blessed the churches I've been privileged to serve. There have been enough people in each of those churches, including St. Andrew's, who caught the vision of being part of God's enterprise on earth that great things have been done in local and world mission.

Bullet point #6: Tithing is the starting point of stewardship.

Tithing is not two percent. Tithing is not twelve percent. A tithe is ten percent of one's gross income given to the work of Jesus Christ. To say you've tithed three percent is like saying you're a little bit pregnant. Tithing is not a legalistic principle. It's the starting point for stewardship. It's the benchmark.

Listen to what God says about tithing. "Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, 'How are we robbing you?' In your tithes and offerings! You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me--the whole nation of you! Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing" (Malachi 3:8-10).

We rob God if tithing is not the starting point. Some of us are able to go well beyond the tithe. And to tithe legalistically is not healthy. Jesus has this to say to very meticulous religious Jews: "'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!'" (Matthew 23:23-24). Here, Jesus endorses tithing. It says that's not everything. What you do with your money is extremely important. It's also even more important that you commit yourself to justice, to mercy and to faith.

Bullet point #7: God loves a cheerful giver.

Don't give if you can't give cheerfully. Don't let any pastor, including John Huffman, try to manipulate you into doing what you can't do with joy.

The Apostle Paul wrote a second letter to the Corinthians. That letter he wrote to them about exuberant giving. He wrote, "The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:6-8).

You see, the biblical call of stewardship means that you and I are blessed to be a blessing. We're channels through which God can do His work.

Another way of saying that you are blessed to be a blessing is saying that you are "meant to be sent!" God created you and me with intentionality. He has not given us everything we have just to sit and luxuriate in it. He wants to work through us. He wants to send us out. We are to carry His commission into the world, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year, being faithful stewards of all He has given to us in time, talent and money. How we use our sexuality, how we use our power, how we use our money are all indexes of how serious we are about our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I was privileged to be taught tithing as a youngster in both my home and church. I started tithing as a nine-year-old and have continued giving minimally, each year, ten percent before taxes to the work of Jesus Christ throughout all these years. What a joy and privilege it's been to do that. There are some things I haven't had, but I also have been blessed in so many ways more than I ever would have expected to be blessed, both materially and spiritually. Anne and I have put into our estate planning that, right off the top, ten percent is to go to the work of the Lord before a penny is dispensed to our children. We want them to know how serious we are about this. And the value of our home has gone up. We can't liquidate it now and survive, but the day will come when we're privileged to tithe not just our regular income, but all the assets of accumulated wealth.

How sad it is to look back on a life in which all we've done is accumulated and put on our shelves our acquisitions.

Fritz Kreisler, the world famous violinist who died in 1962, earned a fortune with his concerts and compositions. But he generously gave most of it away. So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, he wasn't able to buy it. Later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the seller hoping to purchase that beautiful instrument. To his great dismay, it had been sold to a collector.

Kreisler made his way to the new owner's home and offered to buy the violin. The collector said that it had become his prized possession, and he would not sell it. Keenly disappointed, Kreisler was about to leave, when he had an idea. "Could I play the instrument once more before it's consigned to silence?" he asked. Permission was granted, and the great virtuoso filled the room with such heart-moving music that the collector's emotions were deeply stirred.

"I have no right to keep that to myself," the collector exclaimed. "It's yours, Mr. Kreisler; take it into the world and let people hear it."

You and I have a life to live and to share. Our Heavenly Father created us as exquisite instruments, and the beautiful music we are to make is expressed in the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Everything we have is from Him, and we are to be good stewards of it. We're made to be played, in the sharing of our faith, through good stewardship of our time, our talent and our money. May none of these sit on the shelf collecting dust. Let's use them to the glory of Jesus Christ, together doing what we couldn't possibly do alone!