May 18, 2007
A CHALLENGE AND A QUESTION
Various Scriptures
I have decided to take a break from our series in the Pentateuch today. It is my plan to come back and finish up with one more message next week. But today I want to address my thoughts and remarks toward our building project. There are several reasons for this. First of all, we are approaching the end of the school and church ministry year. Over the next month or so, many of you will be traveling, taking vacation, going home for summer leave. So I want to catch you before you start leaving. Secondly, we are approaching the final stages of our project. By the time we are all assembled again in September, Lord willing we will be in the final phases of finishing work. So we are entering some very critical months in our project. Finally, it has been just over a year since I last preached on the challenges associated with our building project. So I think it is time for a review and an update.
How are we doing on the overall project itself? I am going to ask Ray Atallah to help me by running the projector to give us a clear view of progress. (Run through pictures of the project with comments.)
The projected completion date is October, 2007.
The total cost of the project is 10.6 million dirhams.
Donations to date total 5.1 million dirhams.
Internal Financing (loans from church members) total 1.6 million dirhams
Remaining: 3.9 million dirhams.
We are prepared to secure a bank loan to cover the remaining money, but it is our desire to keep that loan to a minimum. The more we give, the less we will need to borrow. So that is where we are today.
As we move into the next few months, I have two things I want to share with you. The first is a challenge from the Lord. The second is a question for the Lord.
First of all let us consider the challenge from the Lord. Here it is: Let us finish what we have started. I believe that is the challenge that the Lord himself is giving us today. Turn with me to II Corinthians 8:10-12:
And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
The context here is that of a special collection that the churches in Asia Minor and Greece were taking for famine relief for the Jewish Christians in Judea. What happened was that as Paul and his companions traveled through the region, they shared the need and the burden for this important ministry. As they did so, many of the churches expressed a desire to help and pledged to give toward the needs. Now a number of months have passed, and Paul is passing through the region again, at least in part to collect the money that has been pledged. That is the context of his remarks here. And his message is simple. Let us finish what we have started. Last year you made a good start. But now it is time to complete the work.
I believe that is the challenge the Lord would give to us today. In April 2004, I preached the first message on the vision for this building project. We opened our building fund at that time and began to encourage giving. Then in April/May 2005, I preached a series of messages from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, with special focus on the spiritual principles and lessons we could glean relating to our building project. And then last May (2006) just as the actual construction was getting under way, I preached another message about our project. I concluded that message by challenging people to make a faith pledge to give one month’s income toward the project over and above your regular giving to the needs of the church. Many of you responded to the challenge, and our level of giving to the project rose to a new level. Since that challenge (May, 2006) our church has given just over one million dirhams toward the building project.
That brings us back to the challenge from the Lord. Let us finish what we have started. Let’s take another look at II Corinthians 8:10-12. There are three phrases that I want to focus on in those verses.
The first is eager willingness in verse 11. This phrase captures the essence of true giving. It is a consistent theme throughout the Scriptures. In the past, as I said, I have reviewed and preached from some of the great building projects in the Bible. Over and over we come across this same description for the people’s participation. I just want to go back to one such example, taken from the book of Exodus. I skipped over this as I preached through Exodus, but it is found in the account of the construction of the tabernacle.
(Read Exodus 25:2) I love that phrase “whose heart prompts him to give.” That is a great description of eager willingness; giving that is prompted by the heart. The story continues in Exodus 35:20-22. (Read) The people gave because they were willing and their heart moved them. This is the kind of giving God blesses. Giving that comes from the heart. As Paul says in II Corinthians 9:7: God loves a cheerful giver. That is described as the opposite of reluctantly or under compulsion.
The Israelites had this eager willingness when they built the tabernacle. The Corinthians had displayed it when they first heard about the needs among the believers in Judea. But there is another phrase in II Corinthians 8:11 that also needs our attention: matched by your completion. Look at the whole phrase: Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it. Eager willingness must be matched by completion. Finish the work. Good intentions alone are not enough. They must be matched by our actions.
There is one more phrase that I want to point out in these verses: according to your means. It is found as the last phrase of verse 11: Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. But then Paul goes on to expound on this principle in verse 12: For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
I find this phrase very encouraging. I don’t know about you, but I find myself intimidated by large numbers. Then when I measure my resources against those large numbers, I can become discouraged. What difference does my small contribution make? It’s just a drop in the ocean. But this verse makes it very clear that God honors faithfulness. He looks at my heart’s desire to give, and he looks at my actual giving, and he measures that proportionate to my means. In our congregation, we have a wide variation in income and resources. But this project belongs to all of us. God wants all of us to be a part so that we can all share in the blessing. Those who have less may be able to give less, but that does not mean that they will receive less of God’s blessing.
Those are the three phrases that I want us all to ponder this morning, and use to measure our past response to this project as well as what God may be prompting us to do now. Eager willingness…matched by your completion…according to your means. Let us be obedient and finish what we have started. That is the challenge from the Lord I want to share with you.
But I said I also wanted to share a question for the Lord. To introduce that question, let me tell you a story. When I finished seminary in 1975, I accepted a call to be the pastor of a little church in Alaska. It was called Lazy Mountain Bible Church. It was called that because it was located at the foot of a mountain called Lazy Mountain. There were various theories about where the name came from. Some said it was because from a certain angle the mountain looked like a man sleeping. Others said that it was called Lazy Mountain because, in contrast to most of the steep peaks around it, it had relatively gentle slopes.
During our first year there, Esther Ruth and I decided to climb Lazy Mountain one day. It started out gently enough, but we soon found ourselves puffing and panting and stopping frequently to rest. We persevered however, and after an hour or so, we came over the first shoulder of the mountain and set ourselves to press on toward the top which we could see in the distance. By now we were having to push ourselves pretty hard to keep going. But we were young and determined, so we kept on climbing. The grade of the climb continued to get steeper, but we could see the peak gradually grow nearer. We were nearing the end of our energy when we finally pulled ourselves up over the final rise to the top and we looked around. Guess what we saw? There above us in the distance was the real top of Lazy Mountain! What we had thought was the top of the mountain was not the top it all. As we’d climbed, the real top of the mountain had been hidden by the lower shoulders of the mountain. Only now could we see the top, some distance yet ahead. At that point we sat down to consider our options. We had a choice to make. We were tired. We could turn around and go back down. No one had told us we had to climb all the way to the top. The view was pretty good from where we were. Or we could gather what energy we had left, and push ourselves to press on to the top.
Why am I telling you this story? I am telling it because in a very real sense, we are facing a very similar decision in regard to our building project. We are approaching the top of the mountain we set ourselves to climb. That was to demolish and then rebuild the right hand side of our building and expand the available space for worship and ministry. As we are nearing the completion of this project, though, it has become clear that there is another peak just beyond. This peak would involve demolishing the second half of the building, the part we are currently using and rebuild this half of the building as well.
There are a number of very good reasons for doing this and doing it immediately upon the completion of Phase 1. For one thing, all of the churches and ministries currently meeting in this part of the building could be relocated in the new building when it is finished. So ministries can continue while construction of Phase 2 takes place. However if we delay and expand into the two halves of the building, it will be very difficult at a later date to relocate churches and ministries during a period of reconstruction. Secondly, we will save considerable mobilization costs if we continue from one project to the next, as well as saving on the cost of joining the new construction to the old building. Thirdly, construction costs and material costs are going up rapidly. It will never be cheaper to build than it is right now. Finally, by rebuilding, we can build three floors instead of the present two, as well as expanding to utilize a new boundary line which the municipality has recently granted us. So we would gain a considerable amount of new space. One utilization of that space that would benefit our church directly would be the including of a suite of offices on the second floor for our church which would replace the villas we are currently renting.
So there are lots of good reasons for pressing forward. What is against it? It involves a steep new challenge financially. We don’t have any firm figures, but rough estimates would put the cost at an additional 6/7 million dirhams. Can we meet this new challenge? Where would the money come from? Are we just too tired to press on?
All of this brings me to my question for the Lord. Lord, do you want us to press on with Phase 2? I can honestly say to you this morning that I don’t know the answer to that question. What I am doing is asking you to join me in praying for God’s clear leading. Both the construction committee and the finance committee for the project are engaged in feasibility studies to consider all the practical ramifications of the decision. The decision will have to be made over the next couple months if we want to take full advantage of all the benefits of pressing ahead. We truly need God to answer this question. There are Scriptural principles that can be cited on both sides of the argument. There are verses about faith and trusting God to move mountains. There are also passages that tell us that it is wise to count the cost before building so that you do not start what you are unable to finish. It is not going to be an easy decision. That is why we are asking for your prayers for those representatives of the different churches that will be involved in making the final decision.
Well, that is what I wanted to share with you this morning. A challenge from the Lord: Let us finish what we have started. Let us finish Phase 1 and finish it well. And then a question for the Lord: Lord, do you want us to press on?
How can you be involved? Take the flier out of the bulletin. We have listed the information and the various ways you can be involved. The first is prayer. Prayer for the project as a whole, and especially prayer for God’s guidance in the decision we need to make about Phase 2. As a first response in this area, I would invite you to the prayer meeting tonight for our building project.
The second is to continue to give as God prompts your heart. Be obedient to what he shows you. On the other side of the flier we have listed the different ways you can actually give the money.
The third is, if you haven’t already done so, make a faith pledge to give one month’s income to the project over the next year. There are pledge slips in the bulletin that you can fill out, and if you turn those in at the table in the foyer, we encourage you to take one of the bookmarks as a reminder of your pledge.
The fourth is to consider making a loan to the project through a certificate of deposit. The information is there for how to do that. Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions about how it works.
Fifth, we would encourage you to publicize the building project to your friends and churches back home, and encourage them to give as well.
I close with Paul’s words from II Corinthians 9:6-7: Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.