Are You OK With This?
Acts 2:41–47
Stewardship Kickoff · September 13, 2026
Sermon
I know what you're thinking. ///
"The annual Stewardship Sermon. /
Yay." ///
Stewardship Sermons are sort of a triggering event for me. /
I've preached these things for 30 years. /
To my knowledge, /
not one person has ever increased their giving
because of one of my sermons. ///
I HOPE no one has DECREASED their giving. /
Your results may vary. ///
So today, / bear with me, /
because I'm working through my own anxieties in public.
I'm encouraged —
I'm given courage to preach this sermon —
because I know, / deep in my heart, /
that Trinity Presbyterian Church (USA)
works miracles of service and faith
with the gifts of money, /
gifts of time, /
gifts of talent you provide. /
Year in and year out. /
Your giving makes all this possible. ///
So, / thank you. ///
Knowing my personal win-loss record
on Stewardship Sermons, /
my hope is that you listen to what Scripture says. /
Listen to what God says to your heart about giving. /
And look around. /
Look around and see what God can do —
and has done —
the wonders and signs God does
with your generous gifts. ///
If you do only that, /
I'd be OK.
I think God would be OK.
And I hope you’re OK with it, too. ///
—-----------------------------------------
The scripture today is from Acts 2. /
It tells us about the very first church
and how they lived together, /
worshiped, / and practiced their faith. /
It says, ///
Awe came upon everyone
because many wonders and signs
were being done through the apostles.
All who believed were together
and had all things in common;
they would sell their possessions and goods
and distribute the proceeds to all,
as any had need.
Now, /
it's possible that — as often happens in a church —
the author of the Book of Acts exaggerated a smidge —
making their church sound a little better than it actually was. ///
Well, Duh! /
I mean, / what church doesn't do that? /
Build up the brand, / the image. ///
"All our children are well-behaved, /
our bathrooms are so shiny
you have to wear sunglasses, /
and no one ever gets into an argument
over floor coverings or window dressings." ///
"Our preachers are neither too liberal nor too conservative, /
the Youth never sneak into each other's cabins, /
the offering plates are so full
it takes two people to carry them." ///
Churches do tend to embellish, /
and the church in Acts may have been no exception. /
People are people. ///
Whether or not the Acts church
was exactly as generous as it says, /
we'll never know. /
It's safe to say it's how they WANTED to be. /
It's how they knew JESUS wanted them to be. /
And you have to have goals. ///
—------------------------------------
There's a story about giving
that you may have heard. /
The Rich Young Ruler. ///
A certain ruler asked Jesus,
"Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
And Jesus says:
"Sell all that you have and give the money to the poor."
And the ruler went away very sad.
There's a great sketch from the old comedy show Key and Peele, /
called "God Visits a Prayer Group." ///
There's a group sitting in a circle in a living room. /
The minister prays, /
"Father, / please hear our prayer for the poor. /
We beseech you for the disenfranchised. /
The less fortunate, /
and those that suffer. /
Show us your will
so we can continue to do your work." ///
The furniture shakes, /
an angel choir goes, / "Aaaah," /
and a bright light shines down. /
A deep, / resonant voice says, /
"My children, /
I've come to answer your prayers. /
Listen carefully to my instructions. /
I want you to sell everything you own
and give it all to the poor." ///
The group starts giving each other the side-eye. /
One says, /
"Um, / Lord, / I just want to clarify. /
You mean, / everything?" ///
God says, /
"Yes, / everything." ///
The minister clears his throat and declares, /
"...Oh, no! /
This house is HAUNTED!" /
And they all run screaming out the door. ///
Some of you may also remember the ghastly episode from Acts 5, / Ananias and Sapphira. ///
Now a man named Ananias,
together with his wife Sapphira,
sold a piece of property.
With his wife's full knowledge
he kept back part of the money for himself,
but brought the rest
and put it at the apostles' feet.
Peter said,
"Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart
that you have lied to the Holy Spirit
and have kept for yourself some of the money
you received for the land?
…You have not lied just to human beings but to God."
When Ananias heard this,
he fell down and died.
About three hours later his wife came in….
Peter asked her,
"Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?"
"Yes," she said, "that is the price."
Peter said to her,
"How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord?
Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband
are at the door,
and they will carry you out also."
At that moment she fell down… and died.
…Great fear seized the whole church
and all who heard about these events.
I'll bet. ///
The Book of Acts doesn't only exaggerate the nice stuff, /
it threatens people who don't share
with penalty of death. ///
"Give… or DIE." ///
Wouldn't that look good on a website? ///
Obviously, / hopefully obviously, /
you know by now that Trinity's Generosity Campaign
is built on neither exaggeration nor death threats. /
Not that I'm opposed to either. ///
But we're decent and orderly Presbyterians. /
We're nice people. /
We're squeamish about asking for money. /
We give quietly without being showy. /
Because that's the kind of people we are. /
We're nice. /
We're predictable. /
Predictable is okay. ///
—------------------------------------
Back at the church I served for 25 years in Tennessee, /
we had a financial genius who handled stewardship. ///
Brian worked high up in the TVA, /
the Tennessee Valley Authority, /
and traveled the world, /
spoke to committees in Washington DC, /
and helped oversee a budget of billions. /
Billions. /
With a B. ///
And, / out of the kindness of his heart, /
he also oversaw our church budget of… /
not billions. ///
Brian was so good, /
that from year to year, /
he had the ability to predict —
to within just a couple of hundred dollars —
how much money the church would be promised in pledges
every Stewardship Season. ///
We thought his intuition was a miracle, /
a gift from God. ///
Actually, /
what it was, /
was that Brian knew
that every year, /
everybody was going to give exactly the same
as they did last year. /
It didn't take a genius. /
He just saw last year's pledges and said, /
"Yup. /
Here's what it's going to be." ///
I think the church should have had a Campaign
where the theme was, /
"Surprise Brian." /
If the pledges went up by ten percent, /
the poor man would have dropped over like Ananias. ///
Maybe Trinity's theme should be, /
"Surprise Steve." /
"Surprise the Generosity Committee." /
"Make the Session dance like Pentecostals." ///
The fact of the matter is that Trinity is doing OK. /
OK is a safe prediction. /
But we're doing OK
because the church has reserves
that we draw down every year to balance the budget. /
About 10% of our annual budget comes from savings. /
That's OK-ish. /
But it's living on yesterday's riches
to maintain today's image. ///
UNLIKE Ananias and Sapphira, /
Trinity isn't going to fall over dead anytime soon. /
But also LIKE the church in Acts 2, /
we ARE exaggerating our health. /
Those reserves won't last forever. ///
We say, / "Give as you're able." /
Well, / of course. /
Giving as you're unable is irresponsible. /
You can predict how that would turn out. /
Able is relative. /
This is a tough economy /
and nobody has the disposable income we used to. ///
But giving to the church isn't disposing of your income. /
It's investing it. ///
Investing — /
in programs, / and ministries. /
Investing in staff and buildings. /
Investing in what Trinity provides /
and WILL provide in the future —
for Youth and Children and our Preschool —
for the music program —
for the food bank —
and all the other good things we do. ///
When you give, /
you're investing in God's mission
of caring for each other, /
caring for the community, /
the poor, / the disenfranchised, /
the less fortunate, /
and those who suffer. /
As well as caring for the people in the pews
and online every Sunday. ///
Trinity's house is not haunted. /
It's blessed. ///
Blessed by people who dreamed —
and do dream —
of outliving their savings. /
We want to outlive our accomplishments, /
outlive what we can say and do in this not-so-eternal life. /
So we can inherit /
and the next generation can inherit
at least some percentage of God's everlasting life. ///
We want to predict it. /
We want to provide it. //
Because of Trinity's tradition of giving, /
our church is alive and doing OK. /
OK is good. /
But Jesus never said, /
"Thou shalt be OK." ///
Maybe our slogan should be: "Be Okayer." /
Write that one down for next year. /
—----------------------------------
Awe came upon everyone
All who believed were together
and had all things in common;
they would sell their possessions and goods
and distribute the proceeds to all,
Trinity's budget is 1.7 million dollars. /
The church in Acts 2 would have killed for that kind of money. /
At least killed Ananias and Sapphira. /
Can you imagine what our budget would have been
in first century dollars? /
That's a LOT of shekels. ///
But the people of Acts 2
didn't have any disposable income. /
They were the disposed. /
They were the poor. ///
And yet the investments they made in each other, /
and in the world, /
made it possible for us to inherit 100%
of their eternal life they provided for us. ///
We'll never know their names. /
But we're here today because of what they did. ///
Imagine what our children and grandchildren, /
and the poor and disenfranchised /
DO inherit through OUR generosity. /
Imagine what they COULD inherit
If we were a little more okay-er. ///
Maybe, / like in Acts 2, /
awe will come upon us /
and upon the future usses /
from the wonders and signs our generosity can perform. ///
I think that would be absolutely… /
OK. /
OK with God. ///
Is that OK with you? ///
