Life Together | The Full Measure

Welcome to the First Preds Sermon Podcast, where each week we dive into scripture, wrestle with truth, and discover how faith intersects our lives.

God's word meets us where we are, challenging, shaping, and calling us into something greater.

No matter where you are on your journey, you belong here.

And we're praying that this sermon might help you take a next step in faith towards Jesus.

Hey, let's dive into today's message together.

Good morning.

My name is Mark Albers, and I'm one of your first pres elders.

Pastor Tim Mass, before I read the scripture passage this morning, I share a brief reflection on what giving to the church has meant to me and my family.

Having been an elder for two and a half years now, I've had the privilege of working with Caring Ministries team, starting with John Gooddale and now headed by Matt Holtzman.

Prior to becoming an elder, I had no idea of the outreach of this ministry team.

It ranges from the Deacons to the Grief Workshop to Stephen ministers to over a half dozen more groups.

I can see firsthand how the giving of my time and financial support keeps these programs vital and growing.

And I've had the added benefit of understanding what it means to receive from this church.

When we lost our home in the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire, First Press dropped off a laundry basket filled with food.

It hosted a grief workshop for those who had lost homes.

They helped organize a party to write scripture on the framing of our house as we rebuilt.

They filled the worship center with Christmas items so that we could replace some of what we lost.

We have a friend who wasn't a member, but who joined First Press because of how the church wrapped arms around people who were both members and non-members.

So, as you look into tithing for 2027, think about the impact that we have had and can have going forward as we bring light and life to the city.

Now I invite you to open your Bibles to our New Testament reading, Romans 15, 23 through 29, on page 1729 in the Pew Bibles.

But now there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I've been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain.

I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there after I've enjoyed your company for a while.

Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the Lord's people there.

For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord's people in Jerusalem.

They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.

For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.

So after I have completed this task and I have made sure that they have received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in full measure of the blessing of Christ.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God, and thank you, Mark.

Great.

Thank you for serving as an elder and helping us to follow Christ.

Let's pray together.

So, Lord, we pray that you would open our hearts and settle your eternal word in our hearts and ways, Lord, that lead to life and grace and blessing.

And we thank you, Jesus, that you are right here with us as we listen and learn from you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Church said, Amen.

So in this passage, I want to focus in on one verse toward the end and one phrase of that one verse and one word of that one phrase, of that one verse, one letter?

No, not one letter.

One word.

We're really drilling in.

We're drilling in to Romans this morning.

And what it is is that last verse, verse 29.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.

In a series called Life Together, today we're talking about the full measure.

The full measure.

It's one word in Greek, it shows up a lot of times in the New Testament.

It's just one word, the full measure.

And what does that inspire in your own mind?

When I say the full measure, what do you think of?

What pops into your head?

For me, I I think of uh making cookies with my my mother when I was a boy.

I took home economics at Cheyenne Junior High.

Anybody else?

Home ecome students?

We learned we made pinwheels.

That was the big thing, that was the big project.

But we learned in Home Ec that you you scoop the flour into the cup measure and then you scrape it off the top so you get exactly the right amount.

But with the brown sugar, especially when I was a kid making cookies with my mom, the brown sugar, I would pack that thing as hard and tight.

I mean, I just put everything into it, you know, just strained on it, stand on it a little bit.

If I could pack that any tighter, I would have made a brown sugar diamond.

And it came out of that cup measure like a brick, you know, quop, down into the down into the cookies.

The full measure, pressed down, overflowing, running over.

Luke 6, 38.

Give, and it will be given to you a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

It'll be poured into your lap.

For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Isn't there a children's song?

Does anybody know the children's song?

Oh boy.

I tried to find it this week.

I couldn't find it.

You have it?

Motions and everything?

That's about it.

That's as far as he can remember.

The full measure.

The phrase also makes me think of something else that's a lot more uh serious, a lot heavier.

It takes me back to seasons where I was in uniform as a chaplain and and that phrase would come up because someone had given their life, someone had lost their life at service.

And um the full measure meant a life had been lost.

We've got some chaplains in the room, and and um just I know many of you, but would you put your hand if you've served as a chaplain in the military?

But what it meant, you know, the full measure, sometimes that phrase is used in the in the police force.

That means there's a there's a black band across the shield, there's the the uh the badge.

In the army it meant there's a pair of boots that are filled with sand and an M sixteen propped up with a helmet on top and ID tags hanging from the the handle.

The full measure has been given.

The full measure.

It's a man hanging on a cross outside of Jerusalem two thousand years ago who didn't deserve to be there, who gave his life for us, a full measure.

Because when we were lost in sin, it broke God's heart.

And he gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins.

Nothing held back, the full measure, the full measure.

But there's a third gets used, or the word gets used, and that's how it's getting used today, and it's actually not to talk about um making cookies or or to talk about an ultimate sacrifice.

It's it's to talk about money, it's to talk about generosity, it's to talk about how we use our resources that God has given us, giving to the work of the Lord.

Will we give the full measure?

Malachi said, Will a mere mortal rob God, yet you rob me, says the Lord.

But you ask, how are we robbing you?

In tithes and offerings.

You are under a curse, your whole nation, because you're robbing me.

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 there will not be room enough to store it.

Part of God's plan for his people from the beginning was that they would give back to the work of the Lord ten percent of all that they gained.

Leviticus says, a tithe, a tenth, of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord.

It is holy to the Lord.

The first fruits, a tenth of all of it, the flocks and the grain and the olives, the apples, whatever, a tenth of it is holy to the Lord.

The people of God were meant to look at their resources differently from other people.

The first tenth, the full measure, goes to God's work.

You know, old financial wisdom is give the first tenth to the Lord, the second tenth to savings, and then live on the rest.

If you can live on less than 80% of your income, then you will find yourself thriving, contented, and at peace.

At peace.

Peace doesn't come from more money.

How many people have you known that more money gave them peace?

Peace doesn't come from more money, it comes from ordering our lives and the use of what we have and honoring God.

You can make a million dollars and be miserable because you overspend it and you're always worried about losing it, and there's never enough.

Or you can make$10,000 and be miserable because there's too little for the needs that are in front of you, and the challenges are too great, and you have no help.

Trusting God with your finances means the first tenth goes to the Lord.

And then you start to learn how God cares for you and cares for your needs.

You get to know Jesus better.

That's contentment and peace.

So this is the full measure in a financial sense.

It was always the plan that the people of God would fund the work of the church, this ministry, this mission to restore and renew fallen creation, this mission to evangelize and save souls from damnation, this mission to heal in the name of Jesus.

It was always intended to be funded by the first tenth of what we are blessed with.

That's the full measure.

And that's what Paul is talking about.

If it seems like I'm pulling really heavy on this one word out of this passage, the whole passage is about financial things.

It's about funding, it's about nuts and bolts development for ministry.

It's about how is this going to get done.

Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, the apostle to uh you've got the Jews and you've got everybody else, the Gentiles, right?

Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and so he traveled around Asia Minor and Greece and planting these churches.

The Jewish people were oppressed by Rome.

They were taxed to the hilt.

Every time the Romans could think about some new way to tax them, they did it.

They taxed them for the fish and the bait for the fish and the hooks for the bait for the fish and the nets, so that they figured out how to tax, what's the old joke?

Um, may I tax your patients?

And someone said, Why didn't I think of that?

If they could think of a way to tax you, they'd do it.

And and they were particularly taxing the Jewish people in Judea.

And so, as the church grew among Jewish background believers in the Holy Land, persecution also grew.

They were getting pressed down upon.

But as Paul went out and the church was growing among these more wealthy Gentile churches that didn't have all the pressure of the Jewish background believers, Paul said, Hey, you guys, I know you're new to the church.

But you've got brothers and sisters now back in Jerusalem.

And you should build up a financial gift to relieve their pain.

Because we're one body, one church.

And that's what Paul was doing.

Paul's gathered this gift together, and he's gonna carry this money back to the Holy Land from Corinth, where he's writing this letter to Rome.

So he's in Corinth with picture of these big bags of money with dollar signs on the side of them.

No, that's a joke.

He's got this gift, and he's in Corinth.

He's gonna carry that gift, he's gonna carry that gift down to Jerusalem to relieve the pain there, and then from Jerusalem, he's saying, I'm gonna go from there and I'm gonna go to Spain.

And on my way to Spain, I'm gonna stop and see you in Rome.

And I need you to support me when I take the gospel to people who've never heard it before.

That's what's happening in this passage.

It's brass tacks, nuts and bolts, kind of development work kind of stuff.

So let's dig into it.

Verse 23.

But now that there's no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I've been longing for many years to visit you, dot, dot, dot.

That's a little funny.

He starts out now that there's there's nothing more for me to do in this region, now that I've converted everybody to Christianity, has he converted everybody to Christianity?

Not necessarily, right?

But what is he saying?

He's saying, you know, my heart, my ambition, as he's already shared with us, is to talk to people who've never heard about Jesus before.

I want to go places where the gospel's never been heard.

I want to talk to people who've never heard a word about Jesus.

They haven't heard a lick about what he did for us.

And I want to see, as I share the gospel news with them, what I love, my ambition is to see them get captured by the Holy Spirit and pulled from eternal darkness and into everlasting light.

That's what I want to do.

And since I've been here, I've kind of shared the gospel, and I trust you guys to cover the rest of the people that haven't learned about Jesus yet.

But I've got to go.

Time to move on.

He likes to go to the new, the new lands, you see.

But first, this errand.

Now there's no more place for me to work in these regions, and and since I've been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain.

I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

He says, I'm going to pass through.

And I want you to support me.

It's a privilege to support people on mission, isn't it?

It's a privilege.

Abigail and I feel privileged when we're asked to support someone and they're headed off.

Someone's going to Kazakhstan right now.

Say, I can't go to Kazakhstan right now.

I can't go to Kazakhstan, but you're going and we want to be with you.

Like the team that was up there.

I can't go to Guatemala right now, but you're going and we want to be with you.

And the way that we're going to be with you is to write you a check, to send you, to send you with some money, to send you with our prayers and our love and our support.

And that's how we get to be a part of that.

Sometimes it's a privilege, it's just a privilege to get to be a part of the work of the Lord.

And there's some things that come along that you just say, I just want to be on that list.

I mean, I want to be a part of that.

You know?

When there's some party in heaven for all the supporters of some bold work of God, I just imagine being in heaven and there's, you know, the list is published.

Hey, there's going to be a party.

Here's the list of everybody who gave some money to support the seminary for the underground church in Iran.

Party tonight, St.

Peter's backyard.

Everybody come.

Like, I want to be on that list.

I want to be on that, I want to be in that party.

I'm not sure that's how it works at all, church.

But I imagine that.

Because you just think, I just want to be a part of that.

You know?

I don't want to miss that.

And we get to be a part of it even if we can't go.

I can't go train pastors.

I can't go train pastors for the underground church in Iran.

But I could be a part of it, you see?

That's the gift of supporting financially.

Paul says, listen, I'm going to Spain.

I'm going to Spain.

No one's ever been there with the gospel of Jesus before.

I'm going to Spain.

Don't you want to be part of that list?

Don't you want to be in that game?

Now, however, he says, Verse 25, I'm on my way to Jerusalem.

I've got to do this thing.

And the service of the Lord's people there.

For Macedonia and Achaia, these wealthy Gentile churches, were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord's people in Jerusalem.

I've got this money in hand.

I need to take it to relieve the pain in Jerusalem.

And the Gentile churches, they were happy to give it.

God loves a cheerful giver.

It beats a grumpy giver every time.

I gave you this gift.

It was really expensive.

I hope you like it.

Right?

God loves a cheerful giver.

But also, Paul says, you know what, though, they should really give.

They really should give.

Why?

Look at this.

Verse 37, 27.

Paul says they were pleased to do it.

And you know what they ought to be?

They were pleased to do it.

And indeed, they owe it to them.

Why?

For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.

They really should.

Pay attention to the channels that God is using to pour his grace and blessing into your life.

Pay attention to the places, the ministries, the institutions that God has used to touch your heart and take care of them.

Let material blessing and spiritual blessing let them link up.

Let them overlap.

There's real-world stuff, real material stuff to be concerned about.

You know?

There's walls to be rebuilt.

There's ceilings that need repair and paint and carpet and elevators.

Right?

There's stuff.

Stuff.

It's like this.

There's stuff.

And there's places of food insecurity and medical needs.

There's real stuff.

Let the spiritual and the material let them link up.

See?

That's what he's saying there.

So verse 28.

So after I've completed this task and have made sure that they've received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.

Now did Paul make it to Spain?

He never did.

He made it to Rome.

He was sent to Rome in chains.

And he finished his time in the Mamertine prison, right next to the Roman Forum, right next to the Colosseum.

With Peter, with him.

I believe.

I believe Peter is right there.

And then he was taken out of that prison and he and he was executed.

He was beheaded in the south of the city.

He never made it to Spain.

But that was his plan.

That was his vision.

That was the next steps for the expansion of the gospel.

And it was a worthy plan.

It was a worthy vision.

It was worth financially supporting.

Getting behind to the full measure.

That's where we come to our verse.

Are we going to deal in half measures or the full measure?

Are we going to dip our toes in the mission of God or are we going all in?

Do we look at giving, at tithing, uh putting something in the offering plate, participating in what God is doing in the world?

Do we see that as sort of like uh like tipping uh Jesus?

Right?

Tipping Jesus when we feel a little when we feel pleased with how things are going.

Is that how we look at giving?

Or are we going to look at it like fully devoted disciples of the Lord, who gave his whole life, his body and his blood?

For this.

Paul's confident.

When he writes this young church in Rome, some people he knows, some people he's never met.

He's confident that they're going to go in with the full measure.

That's why he writes this.

Can we read this together?

This is our memory verse this week.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessings of Christ.

Let's not talk half measures.

Let's go in full measure.

Amen.

Around here we talk about seven values in pursuit of Jesus, the first pres way, and one of them is deploy generosity, invest who you are and what you have in what God wants to do.

We want to be people that encourage one another to live generously, to be all in, following a generous, extravagantly generous God.

So let me offer some nuts and bolts about our ministry together.

The gospel did eventually get to Spain.

Paul did not, but the gospel did.

The gospel got to Spain.

It got to Asia, it got to Africa, it got to Britannia and all these places.

And then eventually, you know what happened?

The gospel came to Colorado Springs.

That's what we're a part of.

And I'm going to tell you, we're not done.

We're not done reaching Colorado Springs for Christ.

I don't know if you've noticed it, but there's a few people in our city who have not yet come to the Lord.

Have you seen that?

And so are we done?

No, we're not finished.

We're not finished.

And so each year we lean in and we fund this continuing gospel ministry.

We fund this outpost of the gospel with what we have.

I would love to say that we funded it with 10% of all that God pours into our lives.

We should.

You say, well, Tim, I'm retired.

My income is very different.

I hope that when I'm at that stage with you, I hope and trust that I'll still be pouring 10% of my household budget into the work of the Lord.

We should.

We should be giving the Lord, not robbing the Lord, not holding back all in.

The work isn't finished.

I estimate if we were funding the work of First Pres with a full tithe, it's very difficult to make any estimations, especially when you're just a simple Bible preacher like myself.

But I would estimate if we were giving a full tithe, First Pres, the ministries of this church would be funded somewhere in the$15 to$16 million range.

Last year, our budget, we funded this ministry at$8.9 million.

And that's this year, 2026, and we're praying to keep up with that.

And just to keep up with inflation, we need to increase that budget by 4% for next year.

But what if we wanted to expand the reach?

What if we wanted to reach new avenues of ministry?

So my charge to you as our stewardship week is as you receive your commitment packets in the mail if you're a member this week, and that you would pray, go to the Lord and pray about increasing your giving by 6%.

That we could increase our budget by 6% next year.

Maybe you could do more.

I encourage you more than that to take a step toward tithing, to get closer than you are to that 10% mark to the Lord.

And if you've never pledged, if you've never experienced making a promise to the work of the Lord, letting the material overlap with the spiritual, then let this be the year that you jump in and are a part of it.

If we all bring our full measure, the next year will be an incredible year for advancing the ministry of First Pres to reach Colorado Springs for Christ.

There will be special opportunities too, things that you're just going to want to be a part of.

We're reopening Cafe 225 with a Christian counseling center on top and a renewed partnership with Springs Rescue Mission to reopen Good Samaritan coffee.

This is going to be a center of hope that changes lives.

I want to be on that list.

I want to be part of that party.

I want to be in that game, don't you?

We'll have mission opportunities and relief moments, and we have plans to improve our kids and students' ministry space, maybe polish up our exterior of our building a little bit.

We need to keep at it.

And 2027 is a year for first presence to bear fruit.

The roots are healthy, the fruit is coming.

And we want to be ready.

We want to be ready.

So pray this week and come next week, ready to bring the full measure.

If you're a member of the church, you'll receive something in the mail this week.

If you're not a member of the church, but this is your church home, I encourage you to pick up a stewardship packet, a stewardship card and booklet from the uh the welcome center on your way out today.

But next week we come, and if you've never been a part of this, it's a very powerful moment.

We come and at the end of the service, we make our pledge where we say, Lord, I want to be in the game for next year.

I hope that I can fulfill this and say, I've been part of what the Lord is doing to build the kingdom in Colorado Springs in 2027.

That's next week.

Friends, Jesus gave the full measure for us.

He doesn't talk in terms of half measures, bit parts.

He gave the full measure for us.

When we were lost in our sins, separated from God, a holy God and a sinful man cannot have relationship that broke God's heart.

And so God sent his son Jesus who took on flesh.

And Jesus gave the full measure.

It wasn't going to be a half measure.

It wasn't going to be a gratuity.

That's not going to do it.

He gave his whole body, his whole blood, his whole life.

He poured his whole self out on the cross, an atoning sacrifice.

When he said on the cross, it is finished, he meant, I've paid it all, the full measure.

There's nothing left behind.

There's nothing hidden in the corners.

All your sin is forgiven.

Your whole life is redeemed.

From eternal death, you come to eternal life because Jesus died and Jesus rose again.

And when he rose again from the grave, he proclaimed and it was declared that the gospel is good news for all women, for all men, for everyone who believes in the name of the Lord will not perish, but will have eternal life in the full measure.

Let's bring the full measure to the Lord and just see what the Lord intends to release among us.

Let's pray.

We know we recognize we're living in a world that says, get all you can, get all you can.

And yet we hear your voice, our Lord, saying, Give all you can.

Give all you can.

Get on that list, get in that game, be part of that mission, be part of the kingdom.

Give all you can.

Give to those who ask.

Give to the work of the Lord.

So, Lord, give us generous hearts as we respond to your grace.

Fill us up with the full measure of your love that we can overflow into this world in need.

For it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Hearing God's word is just the beginning.

What connected with you?

What challenged you today?

Maybe it's surrendering something, stepping into community, or simply trusting Him more deeply.

Whatever it is, don't leave it for later.

Act on it today.

We're praying that this message moves you closer to Jesus.

And we'd love to walk with you in that journey and answer any questions you've got.

Connect with us by visiting firstprestos.org.

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Check in next week and we'll continue to grow in our faith together.

See you next time.