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The Joy of Giving by Pastor David

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Worship – Since Your Love – United Pursuit Band

Yesterday, Pastor Chris preached a great message on giving.  In his sermon, he referenced a Harvard Business research article written by Michael Norton which suggests that the old adage, “Money can’t buy you happiness,” is wrong.  Money can in fact buy you happiness if you spend it right.  In Michael’s TED talk he describes the happiness one receives in giving rather than receiving.

 

Mr. Norton, whether he realizes it or not, is highlighting a 2,000 year old principle that Jesus preached to His followers,
“It is more blessed to give than to receive”  Acts 20:35 NLT

 

In the original Greek “blessed” can also mean happy.  In other words, Jesus tells us– you are more happy when you give than when you receive.   I’m sure many of us would agree that giving is a wonderful thing in which to participate.  Yet, the action of giving is more difficult than meets the eye.

 

Why is it that giving is so hard to do?

 

Because giving requires sacrifice.  And by and large we don’t like to sacrifice.  Sacrifice costs something.  It isn’t free. It comes with a price.

 

A certain joy therefore only comes about by sacrifice.  Some happiness is wrapped up in surrender.  Jesus also taught us, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.” Matt 6:19-20 NLT

 

The act of storing up treasures in heaven is partly done in the way in which we give.  We store up by giving away.  It’s a paradox.  But Christian spiritual principles usually are.  The first shall be last, the humble are exalted, the meek inherit the earth.  God urges us to experience true happiness through sacrifice.

 

This week I’d like you to spend 5 minutes a day in prayer to God.  The focus of our prayers this week will include us asking God what He would have us give.  What is He asking you to sacrifice?  It’s a difficult question to ask, yet for those who are willing to be obedient,  I guarantee that you’ll experience great spiritual joy!  Go ahead, I double-dog dare you!!

 

At 6:48 AM or PM, (set your phone alarm) I’d like you to:

 

Exalt Him
Ask what you should give
Thank Him for His blessings in your life

 

 

Don’t Worry…EAT! – Pastor David

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STRONG GOD – Desperation Band

4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! 5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

The Grammy Award-winning Song for 1989 was, “Don’t Worry!” Remember that one? The first verse of the song went like this:

Here’s a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note

Don’t worry, be happy

In every life we have some trouble

When you worry you make it double

Don’t worry, be happy

Don’t worry, be happy now

It was a catchy little tune with quite a bit of truth laced throughout. However, it was missing one key ingredient, PRAYER. Much like the song, Paul urges believers to let go and relax. He is simply restating one of the commands of Christ in Matthew 6:25-34, “don’t worry about anything.”

That’s a strong command. It’s a difficult command too because there are a lot of things to worry about in life. The bills, our health, the kids, the job, the school, the country, the world, the “you fill in the blank”.

There are so many things that can distract us from the life of Christ. If we are not careful though, we will feed on the wrong things and find ourselves with terrible indigestion.

You see, Jesus knows when we feed ourselves with worry it only brings harm into our lives.

In our passage for today, we are encouraged to gorge ourselves on JOY. Read the passage again, verse 4 states, ALWAYS be full of JOY in the Lord. I say it again-rejoice! Then a little bit further into the text we read: Fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, and right and pure and lovely and admirable.

When we EAT and fill ourselves with Joy and all of these other beautiful things our spiritual body is strengthened.

So let me leave you with this thought: Don’t get indigestion from EATING the wrong things, FILL yourself with JOY by EATing the right things. Remember, at 6:48 we are all EATing together!

**E**xalt God

**A**sk God

**T**hank God

Don’t worry, PRAY

Oh and here is a link to that happy song! Don’t worry…

Christian Chat – By Pastor Matt

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Song: Restless

Artist: Audrey Assad

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

James 5:13-18

For the first thirteen or so years of my life I lived on a little street called Knodishall Dr. It was a decent enough street, long and straight, with a big downhill right in middle. As you might imagine, this created a bit of a problem: cars would fly down our street.

So, the people responsible for the safety of our community took action. First, there was the stop sign at the top of the hill. Then, there was the stop light. But finally, they called in the big guns…the rumble strips.

I was just a kid. I’ve got no idea if they were effective. But I do know they were loud. Every few yards the sound of cars bumping over those rumble strips. It was almost rhythmic. B-bump, b-bump, b-bump.

Reading through James’ letter reminds a bit of that street from my childhood. Seems like every few sentences you’re running over the same bump: the way we talk matters. Every couple of yards, rumble strip. A warning – pay attention to what you say. He cares an awful lot about how Christians talk and how that talk affects the community.

Just before our reading today, James has challenged his readers not to make oaths (5:12). Have integrity in your speech – plain talk. Let your yes…be yes. Think about it – typically, it’s when you’ve broken trust or lacked integrity that your speech is full of oaths. I swear I’ll never… Or, I promise I won’t… Rumble strip.

Just before that bit on oaths? James says stay away from grumbling against each other (5:9). B-bump. Before that? Careful with boasting (4:16).  B-bump. Before that? Don’t speak evil against others (4:11). B-bump. Before that? Quarrelsome and selfish chat (4:1-3). B-bump. Before that? Boasting (again) and falsehood (3:14). Before that? The tongue and hellish flames, deadly poison, and cursing (3:8-10). Before that? You get the idea.

All of it divisive, corrosive, and destructive to the Christian community.

And then we hit this passage in James 5: Pray, sing, confess. A different kind of chat. An entirely different mode of…talking. And this kind of chat? It takes suffering and sickness and sin…and somehow works life and healing and salvation.

So today, as you E.A.T. (Exalt, Ask, & Thank), know that what you’re doing in that moment…it matters. It makes a difference. It takes suffering and sickness and sin and invites God to work life and healing and salvation. Bon appetit!

Keep on EATING! by Pastor David

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You can have it all, Lord – Worship

It’s time to EAT!

Good morning (or possibly evening)! For many of you it may be very close to 6:48. As our theme is prayer, I am challenging all of us to EAT each day this week at 6:48AM or PM.

  • Exalt
  • Ask
  • Thank

We chose 6:48 based on our theme scripture – James 4:8 –

So come close to God, and God will come close to you…

Luke 18:1-8

1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

I don’t know about you but I usually don’t like to wait for things. I remember being in a Wendy’s restaurant a few years ago. The lady behind the counter took my order and then apologized. She exclaimed, “I’m sorry would you like to order something else? We can’t have your burger ready for about 3 1/2 minutes? I looked at her and said, “Yeah, I’ll get something else.” As I looked at the menu it dawned on me, I just said no to an order because I didn’t want to wait 3 1/2 minutes. As my mind began racing I realized, I was not in a hurry, had no particular place to be and was saying no to a meal because it would not be ready for 3 1/2 minutes! What’s wrong with me? I looked at the woman behind the counter and smiled, “on second thought,” I said, “I’ll gladly wait.”

As I reflected on that moment it became clear to me that our culture does not value waiting. We want everything now. Everyone is in a hurry. Everyone is busy. Everyone has a million things to do. We live in a culture where speed is valued.

Jesus, however, taught us to wait. He taught us to be patiently persistent.

The widow in Jesus’ parable was patient in her persistence. In other words she persistently applied pressure to the judge but did not take justice into her own hands. She knew who could give true justice and appealed to him for the solution.

As believers we are instructed by Jesus to persist in our prayers. We are to pray always. We are to ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking (Mat. 7:7) Persistence is a virtue in the Christian faith. Yet we are not to take matters into our own hands. At the end of the day we are to trust God for his verdict in our situation.

What about you? What are you praying about? Have you given up on a certain request? Have you fainted and given up? Jesus is speaking to you today, to not lose heart. He wants you to be persistently patiently. Re-engage your heart with your Heavenly Father and begin to ask Him to help you with those things that have not been answered in your life. Don’t give up!

Keep on asking…it’s the kind of faith that pleases the Father!

What are you persistently praying for?:

Come and EAT with us! by Pastor Andy

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1“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
3“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
6“Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

7“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
9“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

12“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.  -Matthew 7:1-12

 

It’s time to EAT!

Good morning (or possibly evening)! For many of you it may be very close to 6:48. As our theme is prayer, Pastor David challenged us to EAT each day this week at 6:48AM or PM.

  • Exalt
  • Ask
  • Thank

We chose 6:48 based on our theme scripture – James 4:8 –

So come close to God, and God will come close to you…

As you pray (come close to God) this week, here are 3 thoughts from Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount.

1. The Golden Rule

I hope you noticed I added a bit before and after Jesus’ thoughts on prayer.

As the staff discussed the topic of repentance/humility last week, we pointed out how many times Scripture wrapped it around our interaction with people. Humility many times comes because of how we treat and deal with the people around us.

In His sermon, Jesus goes from self-righteous judgment to prayer to the golden rule. I think there is a principle at play there.

Our interaction with people affects how we interact with God.

When we approach God in prayer, we need to be conscious of our heart towards others. Is there unforgiveness? Is there pride? Is there anger? Is there strife?

If we have anything in our hearts toward a brother, sister or enemy, it will keep us from truly connecting with God.

2. Ask.

Matthew Henry has this to say about asking, seeking and knocking –

Ask as a beggar asks alms.

A beggar is totally dependent on the graciousness of the people who pass by. He may be embarrassed, but he asks. Why? He has no other option.

Too many times, we feel we have other options. Approach God in complete dependence. Ask, knock and seek like your life depends on what He doles out.

3. Expect

Here’s where the beggar analogy breaks down. God is so much more than a kindly passer-by dropping a few coins in a cup. He is a good, good Father who delights in answering our requests.

As I write, I reflect on my own children. Often they ask for great things, but I know it is best they wait. Sometimes the wait is a few minutes, hours, days, weeks or years. It all depends on what they are asking for.

I want my 11-year-old to watch television, but I know it’s best if he finish his homework first (a few minutes). I want my 8-year-old to have dessert, but I know it’s best if he waits until after dinner (a few hours). I want my 14-year-old to drive, but I know it’s best she wait until she’s 17 (a few years).

Don’t become discouraged. My children never stop asking. Do the same! Keep asking, and know God will answer at the exact right time. Expect Him to come through!

Is it 6:48?

I look forward to praying with you this week, and I am excited to hear about the wonderful things God does in your lives!

Is it 6:48 yet?