"The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work" - 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 ESV

The church appears to have a problem. I’m not talking about Netherfield or Newcastle, South Shields or Southampton, but the whole church thing has a problem. The product we have is what everyone needs but few people appear to want the product. Worse still, the church appears to have little confidence in the product.

Perhaps the problem lies with us.

Three things happened to me recently. The first thing that happened was that members told me that everyone is late for church. There is nothing new with that – but when everyone is late then you need to do something about the situation. In the process of changing things I visited people who told me, “Pastor, we need to pray”.

It wasn’t too long after that when I read 1 Corinthians 2 and 3 and learned that the church may be full of Christians who may not be spiritual. The spirituality is what makes us functional.

The third incident was that our Head Deacon and Head Deaconess decided that we would have a church emphasis on prayer. It is much better when the church has a lazy Pastor like me. The result is that members start doing things. Perhaps that is why I’m a lazy Pastor?

The fourth incident was that I read a book called, ‘The Big Four’ by S. Joseph Kidder. I will not tell you that I read on pages 82-93. I’m too lazy for that. The clue I will give you is that the section involves a chair, a slightly judgemental wife and an 80 year old lady.

All of that is a long way round of getting to encourage you to read the book.

Our time together has been to look at Christian Stewardship – and you thought I was only interested in helping you to get rid of your debts. The basic idea behind Christian Stewardship is that you can only really look after everything God gives you when God has changed you from the inside out – and that takes serious prayer.

Read the book! You may grow. Your church may grow. Better still, you’ll have an idea to take to your lazy Pastor and say, “I read a really good book the other day …”

We may be late, but as our music today tells us, "He's an on time God."  Click on the picture to listen.