What a day…blown away by WHO God is, WHERE I serve and WHAT I get to do…I LOVE MY CHURCH…
- Today we saw 42 people surrender their lives to Christ…and 159 go public through baptism…THAT NEVER GETS OLD!
- The question isn’t “is God going to bless me” but rather, “how am I going to handle the blessings that God has already poured out all over me?”
- Yep, we got to chat about money again today…Jesus DID say it was the number one competitor for our hearts! (See Matthew 6:21 and Matthew 6:24)
- In America…we are BLESSED, we have so much more than we need.
- America is one of the only places on the planet where people can somehow struggle with “poverty” and obesity at the same time!
- If we followed the advice that Scripture gives on how to handle our money…our financial foundation would be SOLID and would not crash - see Luke 6:46-49.
- The world is not afraid to ask for financial commitment…but for some reason the church us! (Has your power company ever apologized for asking you to make a payment?)
- As we follow Jesus we do not become more greedy…we become more generous!
- Those who hold out on Jesus (in any area of their lives) do not understand WHO He is or WHAT He has done!
- I WAS DEAD (Ephesians 2:1-2) and HE MADE ME ALIVE…why would I ever hold out on Him?
- When we put everything in the hands of Jesus…He can do SO MUCH MORE with it!
- We cannot live with the assumption that everything is for our consumption! When God blesses us with more…often times it is so we can be a blessing to other people! (See II Corinthians 9:6-15)
- It’s not a sin to be blessed…it’s a sin to be greedy!
- Statistics show over and over again that the more money that people make…the less they give away. That is why when people say “if I had more I would give more” is a flat out lie. (See Luke 16:10-15)
- We do not drift into commitment…we DIVE into it! If God is calling you to commit an area of your life to Him (or maybe to flat out commit your whole life to Him) - DO IT!!! (Notice the IMMEDIATE change in Zack’s life - Luke 19:-1-10)
- Jesus came for the lost (Luke 19:10) and HIS CHURCH must be obsessed with them as well. (Here is the written version of the Charisse story I told at the end of the service.)
- I am SO thankful that I serve at a generous church…where people have been willing to literally put their money where their mouth is so that THOUSANDS of people could be reached with the Gospel.
- The best is yet to come!!!
One more thing to everyone at NewSpring Church…
Someone always asks every time I speak on the subject of money, “is the church in financial trouble?”
The answer is “no!” :-)
God, through His people, has been SO faithful to us…people have always been generous and even through one of the worse recessions that has ever hit our economy the percentage of giving has increased the past several years.
We do not teach on money at NewSpring because we want something FROM you but rather because we want something FOR you! We want FOR you to live in financial freedom rather than financial bondage (AND next week we are going break down HOW you can break loose of the financial chains that have you bound!!! DON’T MISS IT!) AND…if you will remember last week I challenged you that if you thought NewSpring Church was after your money to tithe to another church! :-)
The main reason I preach on money is the Bible talks about it way to much for me to ignore it. There are around 500 verses in prayer in the Scriptures, less than 500 on faith…but over 2,000 on money and possessions. Sixteen out of the thirty eight parables Jesus told had to do with money! AND…as I said earlier, Jesus said that money is the number one indicator of where a persons heart belongs.
We’ve been preaching about money and finances since we began. (Please remember we began in a living room…we didn’t have ANYTHING, and THIS is what God has done in only ten years!) We do not preach on money in order to maintain a budget…we do so in order that people may walk with Jesus in every area of their lives…and so that HIS church can reach the people God has commanded us to reach. (We really do need to begin two more campuses IN ADDITION to Charleston campus…more on that later!) :-)
The best really is yet to come…thanks once again to everyone for your generosity…God’s Kingdom is advancing because of it!