“Prepare Our Hearts to Offer Thanks to You, O God!” Ezekiel 36.25–27, Stewardship #1, Oct. ‘17

1.                   Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word today as we begin our Stewardship Emphasis is taken from Ezekiel 36:25-27.  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                   Two toddlers sit and play with their toys. One reaches for the toy of the other, and what does the second toddler do? If possible, he or she will reach for the toy, grab it, and pull it close to keep it away from the child reaching for it. Did anyone have to teach the child to grab the toy in order to keep it from another? No. Keeping things for ourselves comes naturally. Keeping things for ourselves comes from the nature we’re born with—the old sinful nature.

3.                   Everything you need for your life God gives you. That sinful nature at work in the toddler not wanting to share a toy—that same sinful nature still lives on in adults. That sinful nature can show up when you prepare your offering for church. On the way out of the house to go to church, do you or your spouse call out to the other, “Do you have something to put in the offering envelope?” That would be a leftover offering. Or, do you plan everything else in your family budget first and then see how much is left for the church offering envelope? That also would be a leftover offering. God is not looking for leftovers when you prepare your “thank-you” to him for all he gives you.

4.                   Despite that old sinful nature that’ in each of us, it’s possible for you to offer a heartfelt “thanks” to God for all he gives you. In fact, in his Word, God has a beautiful plan for his people to prepare their thank offering with a heartfelt “thank-you.” This morning, we’ll be looking at God’s plan in his Word for you and your giving with this theme:  Prepare Our Hearts to Offer Thanks to You, O God!

5.                   As we mentioned, God provides everything you need to support this body and life. God gives you your food, your clothes, your home, your health. God even gives you your money—the ability to bring it in. So how do you offer your thanks to God for all that he gives you? A leftover offering at the church altar hardly seems a heartfelt way to offer your thanks.

6.                   Some people say that what they give to church is between them and God. We agree; what you give is between you and God. You have your thoughts about what you give to church. And because what you give is between you and God, you need to know what God’s thoughts are. Some of God’s thoughts about what you give as a thank offering to him include these: “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper” (1 Cor 16:2); “For they gave according to their means” (2 Cor 8:3). God has several more thoughts to help you prepare your thank offering.

7.                   When it comes to preparing an appropriate offering to say “thank-you” to God, Satan tries to shackle the hearts and thoughts of believers to make them stay in one place—to make them think there’s only my way of getting the Sunday offering ready. But God says through Isaiah,  “The Lord of hosts has sworn, ‘As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand’ ” (14:24). In other words, God has a plan for a good way to offer your thanks to him. And God prepares your heart to move you from doing the same old thing as you offer your “thank-you” to him.

8.                   Satan carefully trains people to do things always the same way, as if they can stand only in one place. Because of Satan, people think they can never make any changes, even in how they prepare their thank offerings. It’s as if a person’s heart and thoughts are shackled to stay in one place and can never move to doing something another way. It’s as if their heart has been set in stone and they can do things only one way.

9.                   Coming as a good doctor, God makes the correct diagnosis of the problem. His people have heart trouble. They have hearts of stone. Only a heart transplant will correct the problem. God consults with his people about the transplant he’ll do. The surgery God will do is described in our text from Ezekiel 36: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (v 26). With new hearts, God’s people would now be free from Satan’s shackles, free to move around to make new decisions.

10.               In our text, Ezekiel says that while God is doing the heart transplant, he also will give you an implant. V 27, the first part: “And I will put my Spirit within you.” Ezekiel was echoing the words of King David in Ps 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” David was asking God to implant deep inside him a right, steadfast spirit. He wanted God to put a spirit in him that would not waver from God’s Word. Instead of the sin he had committed, David wanted to follow God’s direction for his life.

11.               In King David’s day, unclean things and unclean people were made clean by the blood of sacrifices. Our heart transplants would require a sacrifice too. God’s heart so ached for us that he gave his own Son to be the sacrifice. Jesus laid down his life by being lifted up on the cross, the all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of every evil heart.

12.               Now Ezekiel promised God’s people that God will use water to make them clean and renew them. Ezekiel promised, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses” (v 25). Just as Ezekiel promised, God sprinkles clean water on you. “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”  Martin Luther teaches, “With the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water . . . the new birth in the Holy Spirit” (SC, Baptism, Third Part). A “life-giving water”—baptismal water, giving you new life, not a life shackled by Satan to stand in just one place. And more: your Baptism is “the new birth in the Holy Spirit.” Ezekiel, speaking God’s promise: “And I will put my Spirit within you.” David asking God, “Renew a right spirit within me.”

13.               God creates a clean heart in you and renews a right spirit within you. Now God has prepared some steps you can follow as you offer your thanks to him. First, he gives you clear, straight thinking, as Peter tells you: “Therefore, preparing your minds for action . . . set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you” (1 Pet 1:13).

14.               God gives you a basic guideline in 1 Cor 16:2. Paul writes in the opening part of v 2, “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper.” First, think of your thank­ offering each week, each Sunday. Second, put your offering “aside and store it up.” Prepare ahead of time—not on your way to church on Sunday morning. Finally, prepare your thank offering in proportion to how God has blessed you—as the verse says: “as [you] may prosper.” God recognizes that each family prospers differently. Some prosper more; some prosper less. But each does prosper. Prosper means the increase each person has earned or received each week.

15.               Paul explains further in his second letter to the congregation at Corinth: “For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord” (8:3). Each person prepares a thank offering according to what he or she is able to give—“according to their means.” And each person prepares it “of their own accord.” That is, according to what they have decided between themselves and God.

16.               When you stood as an adult and heard “I baptize you,” or when your sponsor held you and the pastor said, “I baptize you,” right then God did a miracle on you. God reached across the centuries and, in his own way, took you out of the arms of your sponsor and buried you right into Jesus’ grave with him. Rom 6:3–4 says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” In your Baptism, you died to living sinful ways. But that was only half of the story of the miracle that God did when you were baptized.

17.               Rom 6:4 goes on to explain, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” “Newness of life.” Sprinkling water on you in your Baptism, God is giving you that new heart, that new spirit. And God repeats that miracle of death and life again and again, every day you remember that you are a baptized person. Jesus offered himself on the cross to pay the price for all sins, including the sin of offering a leftover as a way of saying “thank-you” to him. He was raised to new life by the heavenly Father. And the Father raises you also to live a new life. You are freed from the shackles Satan wants to put on you. You are free to move ahead to a new way to offer your thanks to God for all he gives you.

18.               God prepares your heart to thank him for all this he does for you. Part of that preparation, we pray, will be through his Word over the next two Sundays. Our sermon next week will give more guidelines from his Word for preparing your thank offerings. The sermon will be titled “Ten Bags of Gold Relate to the Plate,” the offering plate. And the sermon in two weeks will answer the question “Why do I climb into the offering plate?”  Do prepare our hearts to offer our thanks to you, O God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.  Now may the peace that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.