How God Sometimes Blesses Our Obedience
by Larry Stroble, member of the CCCC Stewardship Committee
In 1976 when Lynne and I first got married, I was an intern at Park Street Church in Boston and she was working as an occupational therapist. At the time, I was making $40 a week. That summer, we heard a message on tithing and we decided to try it. After all, we learned that God is our Provider and we are stewards of everything that he has given us. In that sermon, the pastor quoted Malachi 3:10 where the Lord said: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.’ (Malachi 3:10-11). We later discovered Luke 6:38 where Jesus said: Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Though it was a stretch, we stepped out in obedience, trusting that the Lord would take care of us.
That fall, I became the youth pastor at a church in Cincinnati. One day when I tried to start my Vega station wagon, the engine groaned, and then it stopped. When I looked under the car, there was huge puddle of oil, and it became clear that the engine had frozen up. We didn’t have any money to replace the car, but I shared my need with my youth Bible study, and they prayed for us. I also shared it with a men’s group, and they also prayed. At the end of the week, someone handed me an anonymous gift of $300. We later discovered that the church owed us $1,000, and then someone else said, “If you buy a new car, we’ll pick up the tab.” I could hardly believe it! Now this kind of thing did not just happen once. It started happening over and over again.
One evening a woman called me and said, “Do you need any money?” I said, “What?” She said, “Do you need any money? I just received an inheritance and I was praying what the Lord wanted me to do with the money, and the Lord brought your name to my mind.” I said, “Lynne, do we need any money?” She said, “Tell her we need $1,000 to cover a car repair.” That weekend, she handed my wife a check for $2,500, which covered the complete cost of a motor job on my van. I couldn’t believe it!
In my early years at Mt. Zion, all we ever talked about at the Board meeting was how we didn’t have enough money to do the ministry. Then one day I said, “You let me raise the money. All I ask is that you support me when I preach four messages on stewardship each year and then ask Mt. Zion to either increase their giving, become tithers, or become liberal givers, giving over and above the tithe.” I started doing that in 1990. I used John Maxwell’s stewardship series as a guide and every year preached a series on stewardship until tithing became a core value at Mt. Zion. Each year a few more people began tithing, and over the last 32 years our giving has grown more than 20x. When I started in 1981, our church’s income was about $80,000 a year. Again and again, when things got tight, we have seen Lord intervene in our finances. He has done it so much that I have stopped worrying about our personal and our church finances. Jesus said: Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:38)
