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Commercials: Priceless
(Series 4 of 4)
Pastor Kris Vos
So much of life in the Kingdom of God is
counter-intuitive. What do I mean by that? Well the kingdom is something that
Jesus spoke about on a regular basis. It is an invisible Kingdom for the moment.
It is inhabited by those who submit their lives to the rule of God. They enter
into a covenant with the Lord of life. They are transformed by the grace of God.
They learn to live counter-intuitively. Things
like the natural desire to be in control. We learn to relinquish control. We
have a natural inclination to preserve our own lives to work for our own gain;
we learn to put others first and live beyond ourselves. We have the natural
feeling that we control certain elements of our lives, so we learn that life is
really out of our hands.
Our topic this morning is probably one of the
most counter-intuitive things we learn in the kingdom. The most important thing
we do with our money is give it away.
I have taught a lot of people to water ski over
the years. One of the hardest things for them to get through their heads is that
they don’t have to pull on the rope. Our natural inclination when we are
sitting in the water and we have a rope in our hands is to pull ourselves up out
of the water. What happens when you pull on the rope? Do you fall forward or
backward? You fall backward almost every time. We pull the boat around and try
again. Let the boat pull you! They get up and they get going and they think I
got up. Now I need to pull on the rope! Let me tell you it hurts worse to pull
on the rope after you have let the boat get up some speed!
The same is true in our finances. We learned
where the power comes from in our financial lives. There is no need to pull on
the rope when there is a V-8 300 and some horse engine pulling in the other
direction. You will lose every time.
Most of us in America are pulling on our rope. We
have this notion that it is vitally important to pull on the rope. I hope this
morning you will learn to let God pull you. If you try to out pull his momentum
you will fall flat on your back.
I have had folks who finally just gave up. They
could not get their minds around the idea that they needed to let the boat pull
them so they just decided it was more fun to swim than it was to skim along on
top of the water. And those of you who have ever learned the joys of skiing
COUNTER - INTUITIVE
Malachi 3:10 “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.’”
2001 - 8% of US Households tithed.
2002 - 3% of US Households tithed.
2001 - 14% of Christians tithed.
2002 - 6% of Christians tithed.
After 9/11 Everyone moved up their tithing, by
the next year it had reached an all time low.
Where there is no giving, there is no commitment.
– Larry Burkett
We always here, “If I had more I would give
more!” The reality is we are so wealthy already!
Mississippi ranked 49th
in income but they ranked 6th in charitable giving.
New Hampshire ranked 6th in income but they were
45th in charitable giving.
Average family in 2004 2.5% of their income to
all charities including church. That is the lowest it has ever been since the
great depression! It was 2.9 % during the great depression.
Just having more doesn’t mean that you will
give more.
FLOODGATES OF HEAVEN
Ezra
Rebuilding Jerusalem
3 Great Things that Happen During the time of
Ezra
1. Secular leaders looked with Favor on Israel.
Is it okay if I serve even though I am not a
Christian? I can’t even get the Christians to serve! We have had the favor
of this community – Kahler, Town in Process of Building,
2. Ezra praised God in chapter 7 that God
looked on him with favor and He had done all this great work. Because the hand
of God was on me I took courage and gathered trustworthy men. There are areas
that I don’t lead well. I am worried about people getting the wrong idea.
a. God has commissioned me to lead this
church. I need to have courage and not waver from the task that is needed!
3. Lord that is too easy! Why was it so easy
for Ezra?
a. Why doesn’t somebody call me and say
hey I have a couple of tons of money for you. If you can get your
mini-vans over here you can have it all.
b. When it comes to getting into groups I
will preach it readily and passionately. But when it comes to giving I
back off.
c. Without even trying we will take in a
million dollars this year. The Finance Team and the Elders just went, “What
did he say?” A million dollars is not going to be easy. I think it is.
Because our giving potential is far beyond a million dollars.
We have the system down. We know where to park.
We know how to get our kids in the nursery quickly. We know how the church is
doing and how much they need.
Maybe you don’t believe tithing. NT giving
makes tithing look like nothing! There is no way that we can minimize giving in
the NT!
As your leader I need to challenge you to do
this!
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Why I will always belong to
a church that needs money.
They wanted me to pay for
Lance my new baby! It was the first of thousands of checks that I would
pay for Lance. The cost just got worse and worse!
Then one day Lance died. 21
years old. Since that day we have never spent another nickel on Lances
expense. It is growth that requires money. A living growing church will
always require cost.
Excerpt Taken from Andy
Stanley’s message on stewardship. |
We want to be accountable to you. We want to be
open to you about where it is going.
GIVE BACK TO GOD
We don’t do bake sales, or bazaars, casino
night or anything like that!
Movie Clip: PAY IT FORWARD Scene 10 32:58 –
34:26
Somebody started a chain reaction. Somebody
already paid for your coffee. Well then I will buy the coffee for the car behind
me! For 2 hours people were buying the coffee for the people behind them! It
made the papers and everything.
1 Timothy 6:17-19
“Command those who are rich in this present
world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain,
but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our
enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous
and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a
firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that
is truly life. “
We are all sinners—Jesus came and paid for that
sin.
This is not how you find salvation. This is said
so that after you have salvation you know how to live the life!
As we grow there are more and more who don’t
know God. So our giving drops while our attendance increases.
Every time God gives you 10 of these, you give
him 1 back to His kingdom work here at our church. You get to take the other
nine. Every time you get 100 you give 10. Every time you get 1000, you give 100.
Every time you get a million, you give 100,000 to the work of God.
If we would just do this we would generate
thousands and thousands of dollars for God’s work! Not only here but around
the world.
If you can’t give back to God here at this
church, find a church that you can give to!
“While women weep, as they do now, I’ll
fight; while little children go hungry,
I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out,
as they do now, I’ll fight; while there
is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost
girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of
God – I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end!”
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