Welcome to Resurrection Parish, on this the 33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Thank you for joining us this weekend to pray and celebrate our love for Jesus Christ. This week is the sixth and final week of our message series, “Staying Power.” This is a series about how to grow in your faith as a follower of Jesus Christ and to keep growing.

We've identified five steps that we believe are essential for people to grow as a follower of Christ. And if you've been with us in the course of this series, you probably already know these well by now. We talk about serving in ministry or missions, tithing and giving, engaging in small groups, practicing prayer and the sacraments, and sharing your faith. Over the course of this series, we've dug down into each of these steps. This week, we want to look at one final step, what could very well be the most powerful step.

We are going to take a look at the step of, you guessed it, tithing and giving. It turns out God has a lot to say about money, because he knows how much we need it and how much we worry about it. Money is in fact a spiritual issue. It's a spiritual issue because so easily we can grow to trust in it rather than grow to trust in God. It's a spiritual issue because wherever our money goes, our hearts go as well. This matters to you, because money should serve you and not the other way around. God wants for us to be in control of our money and to use it as a tool for good purposes, like helping other people and honoring him.

We are going to look at the parable that Jesus told in today’s Gospel to help us better understand God’s plan for how we should use the money He gives us. Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one, each according to his ability, then he went away.”

Just as the master in the parable gave the servants money, so too God gives us money. And he also hasn't distributed it equally. God has entrusted his money to us, and the point is that it's his money, it's not ours. God is the master, God is the owner of the money. The source of your possessions and your income, it's not your business, it's not the company that you work for, it's not even your investments, it's God. God is the source, and those are simply the channels that he uses to bless you with. God is the owner, and we are his money managers, so to speak. We are his stewards.

The parable continues. "Immediately, the one who received five talents went and traded with them and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two talents made another two." Notice the first word in that sentence, "immediately." Immediately, the first two servants do something with the master's money for the benefit of the master. Immediately after we receive money, we should use it in a way that benefits our master, that benefits our God. This is why we say that giving should be a priority in your budget. It should be the first thing in your budget so that you give to God first. Whatever area of your life you want God to bless, put him first.

Money is like water. If you don't contain it, it'll go everywhere and often will go to the lowest places. If we don't give to God first, so often we find ourselves giving to God last. We give God our leftovers. God wants you to give to him first, not because he wants your money, it's his money anyway. He could take it from you if he wanted to. No, God does not want something from you, he wants something for you. He wants to bless your finances, and he wants what your money represents, your life and your heart, because it's in giving him your life and your heart that you will find fulfillment. Here at Resurrection, the easiest way, the most helpful way to give and to put God first in your finances is through automatic worship offering. The system we use is called “Parish Giving,” and you can sign up for it easily from the parish website.

The parable is encouraging us to put God first by investing income in an immediate kind of way in the things God cares about, which are his people, especially the poor and his church. So, the first two servants go out and immediately invest the money of their master in a way that benefits their master. They showed his interest were their interest. And that's what disciples do, don't we? Our hearts grow to share the same mission and values as the Lord himself.

Meanwhile, that third servant, he didn't exercise the same wisdom, did he? We read the man who received one, went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master's money. Rather than using the money to advance the cause of the master, to make an investment, to make a profit, he buried it. He wasted his opportunity.

Whenever Jesus challenges his disciples to take a step of faith, to take a step of discipleship, he never appeals to their sense of duty or obligation, he always appeals to their enlightened self-interest. The parable tells us about three rewards of investing our finances to build God's kingdom.

The first reward is affirmation. The owner says to the steward, "Well done, my good and faithful steward. Well done." The master is pleased with the servant, and the servant is affirmed. The first reward of giving is that we please God.

Before this master mentions the second reward though, he says this, let's take a look at this. The verse says, "Since you were faithful in small matters." This highlights the paradox to money. In God's eyes, money itself is a small thing, but how we handle our money, that's a big deal. Because this servant handled the master's money well, the master offers a second reward as he says, "Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities." The second reward is a promotion. He gets the opportunity to do greater work that gives him more pleasure and more fulfillment. When you get promoted, you share a sense of greater ownership in the organization.

Then there's the third reward, "Come share in the master's joy." 

Scripture promises the rewards of giving are affirmation, promotion, and celebration in which the rewards outweigh the investment by far. When we invest through giving, God matches our giving, and then he surpasses it. The only boundary to God's giving is the one we create in our giving, because we can't out give God. Everybody saves for the future, but it turns out you can give to the future. At the end of the day, at the end of our lives, all we'll have is what we've given away.