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I know on days like today when we do
baby dedications in those kinds of things - really parent dedications
and we have a lot of guests with us, maybe who are here for the very first time, who are
... may be used to coming, either to church at all
or maybe even certainly coming to this church and you're going:
'yeah this is different for me'. I want to just say to you: if you're here
and you came, and church is not something that you're associated with, too very often
or maybe
talk of God and all those kinds of things first of all we're super glad
that you're here thank you for being here, we really appreciate it
and the second thing is this:
I'm gonna be talking kind of family talk today
and what I'd love for you to do is to listen in
on the way we talk in our family about certain things
I would love for you just to to just take this in, and just go okay
and he's kinda talking to family today. And that's great
but I'd love for you to listen & really pay attention to how we talk
about certain things
you know: as we mature, we grow
hopefully we learn through some of the experiences in our life we just continue
to grow we continue to learn, and all those kinds of things
and sometimes we have to learn the hard way. Has anyone here
ever had to learn something the hard way? Okay...
so that's pretty much everyone in the history of civilization
right everyone's had to learn something the hard way
and there are people that I meet in the pages of Scripture that learn somethings
the hard way
but they learn things about God in the process. Sometimes I kind of think to
myself: please don't let me learn things the hard way, I want to learn the
first time
I'd like to learn like the regular way I'd like to be a good student, God
or and you pray this for your kids ... when you have kids, "oh please don't let them
(you know) have to learn the hard way
but we all know it's a part of life in how we live
there's a guy in the scripture named King David and he was kind of
if you look over the annals of time in Israel with all of their Kings,
David would be the rock star of all the kings of Israel he's the man he's the guy that
you heard of
and he was coming toward the end of his life, and when you come to the end of your life
you reflect on a lot of things that you've learned, right
and if he was coming to the end of his life David really had
... had a heart to want to build this temple, this magnificent edifice for God
that a place where God's Spirit in God's presence would dwell
but God said no you're not going to do it actually gonna be your son, and the son's
name was Solomon
and today was like okay you know God ...
I'm yours, you can do with me whatever you want. And so David said to himself:
'Well
'since I was going to be the one to build it I want to see to it that I can help in the
process'
of funding it.' This is what he did: he not only marshalled Israel's resources
toward being able to build
this edifice for God, but even used his personal resources to be able to do that
see what David did as a leader is he led from the front
he didn't just ask his people to do something that he wasn't willing to do
himself
which I really highly respect and appreciate from a guy like King David
because that was always the case in the ancient world
and so when he got to this time of praying about what God was doing because
basically
Israel opened their hearts & opened their wallets & said "We want to get this building on"
and by the way just in case you think this is a set up to say hey
are we gonna build something? The answer's no
alright so when I gonna be building a building or anything like that so you
can rest easier right? Everybody chill out, right?
This is what they would do ... some yoga, what are you going to now say
we're building a palatial structure over there
'no we're not'. So here's what David was doing:
David began to pray and I want you to listen to the words of his prayer
in 1st Chronicles chapter number 29 this is in the Old Testament if you
don't know where it is & if you're new to this, we put it up on the screen so
you can take a look at it
1st Chronicles chapter 29 beginning in verse 10 says this: David praised the Lord
in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,
"Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our Father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor
for everything in heaven and on earth
is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all
Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise
your glorious name."
this is a beautiful prayer that David prayed not only just when you listen
to it and go
how that is really beautiful but what's beautiful about it is what
David at this point in his life as an older man
who was not going to be around for that much longer who was seeing his legacy
that was going to ultimately be carried out in Solomon
he had looked back over his life and David learned some things about
God about the nature of who God was even though this prayer was prayed
through this act of giving that Israel was giving toward the temple
to the building of it. this prayer is not just a prayer about giving, this is a
prayer about God
this is about what David learned about God
now I want you to look at just a couple of the little pieces other here's what he
said first he said
"Yours is the greatness" this is what he says beginning verse # 11
"Your's Lord
is the greatness now I want you to pause for just a second because we think that this
idea of God's greatness this is something that David learned and
believed from being a young man
do you remember what David did, kind of as just growing up
vocationally
he was a shepherd. I know you don't run into too many those people now we go hey
man what do you do? I'm a stockbroker; what do you do? I'm
a shepherd
it doesn't happen very often right? David tended sheep & also took care though
sheep
and would fight and defeat by the power of God's own greatness in his life
bears and lions and such
come on I mean this guy didn't you know he didn't have a shotgun he didn't have
an elephant gun
he had a ... a staff & a rod is what he had, but by God's
greatness and God's strength in his life
he was able to do some of these things in fact it was by God's own greatness
and David's own trust in God's greatness
that he showed up when Israel was fighting a battle with the Philistines
and he was coming just to bring some lunch to his brothers who were older and who
were in the
in the army And he runs in the King Saul and basically sees this Goliath
this giant whose challenging Israel all the time & making them look stupid
and David's like, "Whaaat? He's talking about our great God like that? is this guy crazy?'
this is a great God that we serve
and he learned this from a young age in fact listen to what it says in 1st Samuel 17:
Saul who is the king at the time said you're not able to go out against this
Philistine and fight and you're only a young man in
and this guy's been a warrior from his youth But David said to Saul:
your servant has been keeping his father sheep & when a lion or a bear came and
carried off the sheep from the flock I went after it
I struck it and I rescued the sheep from its mouth when it turned on me I seized
by its hair struck and killed
David is a stud by the power of God!
I mean - seriously: he's taking lions & bears by their hair
and striking down that's like, 'whew!'
your servant has killed both the lion & the bear
this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he's defied
the armies of the living God
the Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion, and the paw of the bear will rescue me
from the hand of the Philistine
And Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you."
right ...I mean, this is what he's saying. It's like, 'whew'
man this guy believes in the greatness of God
so David when he's praying he's saying: "God here's what I've learned I've learn this:
'Yours is the greatness." And then he says this right after in this prayer ... he says
"Yours is the power" this is also something David had to come to & learn
about because as a young man
he knew this & trusted this but as he got to be king
he may have forgotten what he had known at one point in fact
david knew that the power was all God's because God through the history of Israel
had given Israel
um victory both when they had many and when they had very few
and David knew this in the history of Israel and David had seen it even in his own
life
but David got to be king and got to be a little bit in awe of his
own power. I don't know if any of you have ever done that before
you've kind of said, 'God I can take it from here, and you actually know what David actually did?
David wanted to know what all these assets were
he wanted to know how many warriors he had ...and so
he numbered them and some people look at it was not such a big deal just taking
inventory on it was a big deal in the way that the scripture
refers to it because it says it this way in first chronicles 21
Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
So David said to Joe and the commander said the troops go & count
the Israel lights from Beersheba today and then report back to me so that I may
know how many there are
but Joab replied, "May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over
my Lord the king are they not all my Lord subjects
why does my Lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?'
The king's word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went
throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. Joab reported the number
of the fighting men to David
in all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who could handle a sword, including
470,000 in Judah.
why was this such a big deal? Here's why ... because David was now
trusting in the power of his own assets
instead of the power of God
this got to be a place where what happens when we trust
in our own power is we start now taking things that are of lesser value
and things that start to block out the power of God
in our own lives David was counting his assets
to figure out how much power he had. Have you ever done that?
you ever counted your assets to figure out how much power you have you look at your
bank account, you count your assets to determine
what God wants you to do but it's wise to be able to maybe look at some of
our stuff but
it reminds me a little girl who got a piggy bank from her dad
and she had this piggy bank and she was all fired about issues she's really little
and so you know change that was laying around in their couches or
whatever were fair game, right
and so you ... know dad went away, and you know he went to work and
came back the next day & went back to work and came back the next day and
pretty soon he said: 'sweetheart guess what?'
I've gotten you 2 of these (and this was back when they still made these...)
(they may still) silver dollars. remember those? nobody ever use them but remember
those
I get to these big silver dollars for you that I wanted to give you see you
can have them for your piggy bank. And she was excited, and she went upstairs
she came downstairs crying
they said sweetheart what is a matter with you any she said:
I can't put him in my piggy bank and he looked & the slot was big enough
but it was stuffed and so he open the piggy bank. Guess what he found
he found like 4, 5 pennings
a lot of toothpicks, paper clips
washers all this stuff was in there
what happened is she had settled for things that were
are significantly less, or little, or no value
and had effectively blocked out the ability for those things of great
value to be put in
you see that's what happens sometimes with us when we forget
that God is the owner of everything and we're the owned
and his is the power and we don't have to number our assets to figure out how
God can use us
we don't have to number our assets to figure out what God wants to do with us
we need to trust that it is His own power working with us and David
came to that he came back to that understanding when he was an older man
but then he also says yours is the glory now this word glory it means a variety
of things in the scripture but here the way that David using it he's referring
to beauty and he's talking about how beautiful
God is the beauty of who God is an astounding thing
because this is something that David lost sight of for a while
because David found some other things and other people more beautiful even and
odd
at some point in his life. When they were supposed to be going out to war
David actually hung back one time as the king you remember that story
it's in the second Samuel chapter 11 says this
in the spring at a time when Kings go off to war David sent Joab out with the king's
men and the whole Israelite army.
when the Kings go out to war David didn't go and they destroy the Ammonites
and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up
from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he
saw a woman bathing
the woman was very beautiful
and David said someone find out about her the man said she is Bathsheba,
the daughter of Eliam, and
the wife of Uriah the Hittite in you know the story from there it didn't stop
him you know why
was in close because there were things that became more beautiful to David
than God and now at the end of his life after that kind of was working itself
out David comes back to a place to say God
you are the one it is yours that is the glory your beauty is supreme ladies and
gentlemen I want to say something to you
you can't let anything become more beautiful to you than God
because it always leads us in a direction that we don't wanna go when we
let
other things become more beautiful to us
then God himself His is the glory many says yours is the majesty
this is ... kinda Kinglike statement
interestingly enough David had forgot about this too because when we saw this
episode that we just read about with Bathsheba
David forgot for a moment who the real king was
ever done that your life ever gotten who the real king or queen is depending on
your particular setup
have you forgot about that before where you gonna take the reins and take the
ownership and do what you do
any way that you want to do it you kinda like I've got it from here thanks God
I'll take it from here
David forgot this but David knew it he just forgot it for a little while
and then as an older man he came back to understand it. Infact...
even before he forgot it he knew it because he wrote these words
in Psalm Chapter 24: listen to what he says
this is of David. A psalm.
The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it
the world and all who live in it.
Here's what David knew everything is God's
everything is His, He is the owner
of it all. Why? Because he is the king over everything
he is the owner and ruler of everything
so David prays this beautiful prayer and then he goes on
and continues his prayer in verse #14 notice what it says
he says but Who Am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as
generously as this
everything comes from you and we have given you
only what comes from your hand
here's what David is saying everything that we have
we're giving to build this temple and I'm giving personally to build this
temple David saying
everything we have comes from you even what we give
comes from you we're not doing you a favor by giving you something that's
ours because you are the owner of the everything that is
even what we have to be able to give it is yours God
this is what David understood and here's the beauty of that
we understand that too because that's the heartbeat of the gospel
what the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us
is that everything is His and that ultimately even our very selves
are his do remember how Paul says it in first Corinthians chapter 60 says it
this way
you were bought at a price
therefore honor God with your bodies with with your very selves
in the way that you function in the way that you operate
you were to honor God with everything that you are because everything is
God's do you realize that you are
it like we've talked about in this series called owned we talked about it
this way
you are not the owner you are the only did
because the world that we live in is not our own
it's God's right so we're the only he is the owner but do you realize you are
owned your own twice
your own because you are made by God God is a creator
and he has created you therefore he is the owner of who you are
but in our rebellion against God whether actively or passively
in our rebellion against God we have now formed this catch-on that is impossible
for us to cross because we now cannot be reconciled to God on our own merit
we can't somehow earn our way to God or think that if we check in at church a
few times a year whatever that God's gonna go oh yeah man nice job
or if we give a couple a bucks then God's going to go oh yeah nice job or for clean up
our rooms, or pay our taxes on time
we show up to workers as we're supposed to the all that is going to burn us
salvation or favor with God listen closely
God is the only one who can bridge the gap we can't do it
and got initiated his love for a broken world
in giving his son who went to a cross willingly
who was sinless in spotless who bore arson poor
out upon him taking upon himself arson
past present and future and satisfying the Justice
Ave holy beautiful righteous sovereign King
any did it because we could never do it it would be impossible for us to do it
but he did it on our behalf and then Jesus rose from the dead
demonstrating that he had satisfied the justice of God
and so here we stand as EE own people we were created
but through Jesus Christ we r ball back
we are owned twice we are not the owner we are the only because the world that
we live in is not our own
and the Salvation that we experience is not our own it was given to us as a gift
from God
this is a beautiful picture for us to be able to grab a hold of because
alternately
this prayer that David is praying gets to the heart ultimately have what we
believe in the Gospel
that everything is God's even our very lives
even the things that we have in the stuff that we have so
David spraying about this idea I love
giving buddy saying this god is the owner is everything yet God
still gives this is a great picture
it reminds me that david was a building a temple
and so he was encouraging people to give to the building a temple because the
temple would become a
storehouse of sorts for that which they were giving head
machine the New Testament you don't compare the temple
and the church they're not the same thing did the same thing in this way
that the Spirit of God dwells
in the church and when I say the church for those who are
maybe familiar with this language or don't spend a lot of time here in our
context
I'm not talking about the walls that surround you I'm not talking about the
building that you drove up to at 500 CrossPoint Parkway
I'm not talking about the palace theater that people are worshipping in in
Lockport
I'm not talking about those things I'm talking about the people of God
the people of God are the church the people of God are the temple
where the Spirit of God dwells so when we talk about this
idea that the temple was a storehouse
back in that time sometimes pastors wanna say well yeah that's what you need
to give to the church because the church is the
is like the Old Testament temple where it was a storehouse. The church isn't a
storehouse ladies and gentleman
church is a clearinghouse
it's a clearinghouse that we are now
we are now a people of God to also give generously because we've got a
great and generous and sovereign God who teaches us to do so
and we do it so that we might be able to affect change & join God with
it to join with got on his mission in the world that every man woman and child
might
see and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ on repeated occasions
this is why we do what we do it's not just the storehouse
it's a clearinghouse for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ now
how do we do that here again I told you this is somewhat family talk here so we
do it here
instead of saying here's how we do here let me just say how we do it at my house
we do two things: the first thing that we do is that we give systematically
through and for the work at this ministry
every single week um that's just what we do we just planned it systematically
out of what God has blessed us with we do not teach here
some people ask me from time to time: 'Jerry do you guys have dues
at The Chapel now we might have some
don'ts but we do know that
now we don't have do's at The Chapel people asset sometimes and they ask it
in
you know in just a good faith question hey you know what I wanna be a part of
this but and so are their dues
we mean by that you know like if I'm a member of the gym I've got some dues I got
a pair from her
no there's no dues okay so I heard jerry
that you require 10 percent of your income
if you want to be a part of Chapel that is not true that is not true you're free
to give way more than that if you'd like
up to you now there's no we don't we don't do anything we don't like to hunt
you down we don't do any of those things that's not who we are that's not what we
do
here's the thing the 10 percent piece that you got this idea of the tithe is an
Old Testament concept is not a New Testament concept
it is not a post resurrection concept in the New Testament
it's not there you won't find it anywhere but what you will find as you
will find Paul talking to people about generosity she
that's what's taught in the New Testament the idea of generosity
because we don't live under the law anymore we live under grace but let me
ask you this question
"When is grace ever subservient to the law?"
Here's the answer: "never". So we are now a people that lives
generously and can give generously because God teaches us & calls us to
give
so what my family and I do is we select by
God's kind of influence .. here's a percentage of what we're giving out what
God has blessed us with because what God has blessed us with is his anyway and
even what we give is His anyway according to David
so we give that systematically every single week and then we do
something different
we also give to "Kingdom Come". Let me explain what that is super quick
I've already told you about it a little bit: "Kingdom Come" is when we say, 'Okay God'
this is not just gotta maybe just a pool their resources we may be saying God
we're gonna trust you to do something by faith
we're gonna ask you would you provide for us a certain amount that you lay on
our hearts
because we're just gonna ask for it by faith if you don't provide it
we don't know it simple we just want to ask you to do that because we know that
what you provide your gonna use this as an opportunity for us to be open handed
in receiving from you
and then to be open-handed in being able to give back
and this is what we do with our Kingdom Come giving so we pray about that
and then we write down God this is what we're kind of trusting you for
and then we give it
and nobody checks on nobody calls me up 'Hey Jerry how's that going? ... nobody does that
just what we do and our responsibility is to lead from the front
and that's what we do we got a responsibility to do that I would never
ask you to do something that I'm not willing to do
that's craziness, that lacks integrity, that's sickness
that's not cool particularly in the day and age that we live in
where people are getting like - you know - they're fleecing people
to get exorbitantly wealthy and do all this ridiculous stuff you know ...
'so you got your own plane you got your own palace and you got like
three islands and that's awesome
and so what is that doing for the sake of the gospel I think I lost something
I'm missing something in the translation
and I know a lot of people watch us on TV if you're a pastor who's doing that you
should stop
it's simple right you should stop that
I'm not saying you shouldn't be provided for I'm not saying that in fact
if you're a church that's watching
right now and you don't take good care of your pastor: shame on you
you should take good care of your pastor
he's doing wonderful work and you should make sure you can pay his bills
and his family can go on vacation from time to time
but you don't need a few islands man
seriously
so let me ask a simple question & answer it real fast
I'm going to give 3 simple answers to this question: why should we...
again we're talking family talk here
"Why give to Kingdom Come?" Can't we just answer that question for you with three
things that I'm really pulling
out of the heart of David's prayer okay here's the first
reason that I would say: 1. To make much of God in our lives
that's why you give to Kingdom Come to make much of God
see... sometimes we look at the way in which we give & the motivation for which
we give in various ways but I would suggest to you that
really a primary way that we ought to be giving us to make much of God in our
lives
you see: what giving to Kingdom Come does is
is it big knowledge is it God owns it and God's worth it
and that when we give we are doing something now with Kingdom Come is we
are doing something
tangible and concrete to trust God
and you know a part of our responsibility is as ministers of the
gospel
is to facilitate opportunities and challenge
for you to concretely trust God
in tangible ways real ways I don't know anything more tangible
than trusting God with our resources that's tangible
you see its all just a theory-real
and theoretical for us we talk about 'I used to have faith, I'm just trusting God, you know...'
really
what do you trust him with? With what really legitimately are you trust him with?
Are you trusting with things that are tangible with things that you can really
touch & you can feel ... because THAT'S where trust comes in right
that's where trust comes in. Are we willing to act on what God says
are we willing to trust God with everything that we have?
Do we really believe that he's the owner, and we're the owned?
Do we really believe that this is an opportunity for us to do that?
and so
I love it because it builds faith in the lives of people
in fact that there's a couple of people that I've seen (there's a lot to people)
that have seen God work
in & through that arena but here's 2 that I just want to share with you
a couple named Tom and Linda from our church
and just wanted them to take a moment and share with you how God has kind of
touched him through
their giving to Kingdom Come. Take a look...
because we know that it's God's heart to reach all people with the message of
His love in the good news the gospel we are his hands and feet
to accomplish this
we are blessed by God because He wants us to be a blessing to others
A couple of years ago I went through a downsizing... a major downsizing & I know I
kept my job but to it all, it gave me an increase, and that was really special
the special and my job was really
a year and a half uncertain. Our company was thinking of how they
actually
getting out of the business that I was doing so it was really up and down for a
year and a half
not knowing what was going to happen next and if you're gonna have my income
or not
and God provided me with a job same salary
in the same line work and I just slid right into something else in hindsight
finding out that I would've lost my job had I stayed at the company
he just kept providing my income in another source
part of things that we've also learned through faith in this time is that you know
God has provided for us, over & above
what we promised me and we really get motivated by
videos that we see and what Kingdom Come is doing so we're just...
honored to be part of Kingdom Come we'd never felt it as a burden to us at all
but a blessing
hundreds of stories like that ... they're just one of hundreds of stories of
people who are saying
it's been incredible to watch God provide when we've trusted him for what
he laid on our hearts and God's provided and we've had the opportunity to invest
it and see God work in a significant way
so the first reason is because it makes much of God in our lives
and that's what we want to see tangible expression of faith
but the second reason is that we should give is because
his Kingdom's bigger than our congregation you see
ultimately when I'm reading David's prayer
one of the things that stuck out to me was the latter part verse 11 where he says
this
"Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;'
'you are exalted over all.'
'Yours Lord is the kingdom.' Listen:
The Chapel is a congregation
we are not the kingdom
we are a part of the kingdom
we're not the kingdom it's interesting because sometimes the mission of a local
congregation
is to build their kingdom of thingdom to just continue to go
I'm going to build more I'm going to...
I'm gonna now multiply myself & brand-replicate myself. Listen:
at the end of the day although some of that's fine I'm not taking shots
anywhere
I'm just saying this our job is not that everyone in western New York
is a part of The Chapel; our job
is to help facilitate partnerships
and prayer and giving so that everyone in western New York has a repeated
opportunity to say yes or no to Jesus
and that those people that have an opportunity to say yes or no to Jesus
whether or not they end up in our congregation
or they end up in another gospel teaching congregation
is wonderful you know why: yours is the kingdom, God...
it's not ours, it is yours God
this is what we want to see we don't necessarily think everybody needs to be
a part of our
church but we do need this we do believe that we want to see everybody a part of
the church in the world that people know Jesus and that they find an opportunity
to get placed into
a place that teaches the Word of God and teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ
you see in our church over this past year it ebbs & it flows in our
Kingdom Come giving & so I get that
but over this last year you may not know how to benchmark this
but it is staggering when you look at this nationally; and our goal is not to
compare ourselves guess anybody nationally just gives us a benchmark
right we have to do what God says to do
no matter what anybody else is doing we have to do what God says do
be know that one out of every four dollars that came into this ministry 25
percent up everything that we received last year we gave away
25 percent. Some of you're going, 'is that a lot, is that not a lot?'
well we facilitate ministry through the context of The Chapel
and we have a lot of ministry going on reaching & touching a lot of people and
growing in our context. And we have a responsibility to do that
but we also have to understand that the kingdom is way bigger than our
congregation
that we can now do things that man
we're helping people dig water wells we're caring for orphans in Haiti
and in Sierra Leone
and right here in western New York we're planting churches
we planted 8 churches over the last few years
either directly by our own hand or through partnership endeavors we planted
8 churches
most all of which are not affiliated with The Chapel
you know why? Because they're not affiliated with The Chapel...
what matters is that they're affiliated with Jesus
yours is the kingdom God
it is His kingdom and you know that in there are four more by the way for more
church plants that are in the queue that are right on the horizon for this
upcoming year
this is what we're doing when we are giving to Kingdom Come we are
facilitating that you know when those 8 churches here in our region that we
helped to plant
you know there are two thousand people worshipping now in those churches
combined
2,000 people now we could say
we want to try and get everybody here we can't get everybody here
this isn't for everyone everybody's are gonna go 'Oh Jerry: man I think he's a
great teacher whatever some people are nice enough to listen
some people go I know I think I like listen to this guy and I know him and I
trust him
cool if he teaches the Gospel Jesus Christ thank God for that guy
were trying to befriend that guy we're trying to help that guy we're trying to
resource that guy so that they can be reached with the Gospel Jesus Christ
because yours is the kingdom of God
it's not our own it is His
man I'm sorry I'm a little worked up for those who you are guests I get all worked up on
occasion starting from
I got an email ... I was working this past week on this message
and got an email literally on the day
don't like people use the word 'literally' all the time ... literally on the day
that I was writing this message
I got this email from a some a couple in our church John & Carolyn
sweet, sweet people
"hey Jerry I just had to write and tell you about another wonderful God moment
and my wife Carolyn & I enjoyed this weekend in Scranton, Pennsylvania at
Steamtown church
we were just so lucky I'm not sure how many in The Chapel family have
had the opportunity to visit one of our church plants
but they really ought to try & have this experience it was just my wife and I
Steamtown what a great experience we had we were so welcome
and everyone knew The Chapel
Wow most everyone had a great grace story even as I waited in line to use
the single toilet facility in the vestibule
a young lady was sharing her story of grace with me
God is working in Scranton a wonderful way and there's a lot going on in
Northeast Pennsylvania and the church is growing
but best of ball Pastor Dan Nichols from Restored Church
in Wilkes-barre was preaching at Steamtown church
have you heard this guy? He referred to Steamtown
as their mother church & The Chapel as their grandmother church
this is people from our church or visiting there and now hearing people
talk about what we're doing
if all The Chapel family could have seen & heard what Carolyn I did they would
have such a true understanding of how Kingdom Come
is really working giving every man woman and child the repeated opportunity to
see and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ
and now it's available to all believers and non-believers in Scranton
and in Wilkes-barre Pennsylvania that's a cool email
that was super encouraging for me to be able to get
so when I think about these things I'm just I'm blown away when I
see what God's doing
so let me be a lasting reason very quickly .. the reason we give is that
its because we want to tell a different story about God to the world
I mean this is ultimately what David was doing. Do you know what David was doing?
I've got so much to say in so little time still hang with me right
David was basically saying to the world around him that had all of these Kings
all these pagan nations who didn't believe in God in the God of Israel
and all these kings who were oppressing their people
and who would overtax their people and who they themselves who live in these
palatial opportunities & their people were you know many of them were in
not great shape David goes about this whole idea of giving very differently he
leads from the front says look I wanna be one who's giving I wanna be one who's
serving I want to be a part of this
and i wanna see all of us doing this with incredible joy and with integrity
of our hearts
not because you're forced to not because you're manipulated to listen to how he
says it in 1 Chronicles Chapter 29, he says this
I know my God that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity in all
these things I have given willingly and with honest intent
and now I've seen with joy how willingly your people who are here
have given to you... Do you know what that does? It tells a different story about God to the
world
you see ladies and gentleman when we choose as leaders
to be able to live on what a Board of Directors
gives to us and we don't fleece people and we don't try and milk people because
it gives us extra benefit or any of those kinds of things but instead
we participate just like everybody else and being able to be people who out
front are serving and who are giving and all those kinds of things - listen:
it tells a different story to the world about God
because they look and they say ah this is just a 'get-rich-quick scheme'
rich-or-this kind of scheme
no it's not; it's an opportunity to retell and recast the story of God in
the world that we live in
for every church that we plant that doesn't have our name on it
and maybe no one even knows that we were involved in planting a church but people
are coming to Jesus
when they find out that we had something to do with it but we didn't take credit
for and we didn't need our name on it
it tells a different story about God to the world
that says it's not about us its not about our name it is about the Kingdom
of God for every time that we find ourselves in places like Sierra Leone
digging wells so that people can live we are telling a different story about God
to the world
when we have muslim tribal chiefs who are in some of these places who are
saying to us
if this is what it means for people to follow Jesus and this is how that plays
out
then you can share Jesus with all of our community
we are telling a different story about God
to the world when we are building hospitals when we are educating people
when we are building
homes for children that do not have any parents we are telling a different story
about God to the world
a great glorious king who is a father and who loves and who will redeem the
world through His Son Jesus
if we would simply trust him this is a different story than the world is maybe
concocting about God or God's people
and we want to recash that for the world. So...
every single thing that we do in our giving
helps to do that so here's the question that I would leave with you
what are you gonna say would you be willing to pray this prayer to God:
"God, what do you want me to trust you for?"
and then ultimately just answer that question
and do what God says. There's two things
in your bulletin that you had there's one little card like this and it just
says got owns my and has a blank
and that has like in real little letters below it 'doesn't he?'
you know I love that another but I think it is cool
additional card take-home maybe just make it as a little spiritual mile
marker and maybe you would say you know what from this message from
from listening to how God spoke through David I've learned some things about God
and what God owns and maybe God lasered in on something specific for you and you
could just write that down
and maybe bring it home put it somewhere as a reminder
God owns my what ... what
owns your house, owns your cars
he owns 'and fill in the blank' I don't need to fill in for you
so that's one the second thing that you have is you got a Kingdom Come faith
commitment card
here's what we'd ask a few would you pray about
what God wants you to trust him for remember this
your asking God maybe you don't even have it right now but you're asking God
for something
and you're gonna trust that when He provides that you're gonna give it and
if he doesn't provide it you don't know it how's that for simple
seriously ... he didn't provide it, you don't know it
if he does provide it and you don't give it
I'm not gonna know it this between you and God
God will build your faith
when you trust him because you'll see God intervene and you will see God work
but here's the thing: we need you to fill out a card & here's why
because what we do with Kingdom Come it is a by-faith budget
that means we look at what people are trusting God for
and then we go okay that some people are trusting God for
we're trusting God's going to do what he's going to do through His people and we're
gonna build our commitments
and our faith budget - our Kingdom Come budget - based on that
based on what God's people are trusting God foreseen. You know what that means
that means we're putting our ultimate trust in God but we're also putting a
whole lot of trust in you
because what we're saying to you is this: you can hear
God's voice
you can hear God speak to you
God will help you, He will teach you
he will speak to you he will provide for you
what is it I don't know the answer so you have been involved in
if you been involved in Kingdom Come for a number different years
thank you so much those of us that have been a part of this we've got to see so
much
this is where we see things like Philip this is where we see opportunities to
meet
to meet needs in the midst of crisis this where we see opportunities to see
2,000 people in our region worshiping in churches now
because we've had an opportunity to have a part in that this
is where we see those things
if we don't continue to be a generous people we don't have the opportunities
to do what we're doing
in giving away so you prayed about
that and then you got a card there if you already know what God wants you to
do fill it out
drop it in there's two like brown things on the atrium
brown things that's a really great explanation Jerry there's two
um wood boxes that have a slit in on that you can drop them in their
and is terrible 2 wood things and you're going to have people just sticking them to
the wall and stuff right
that's a wood... so there's two out there and you can just drop them in there
if not take it home bring it back next week
if you need some time to think and pray then do that bring it back next week if
you're a part of The Chapel if you call this place home
then I encourage you to do that. We don't have membership dues
what we have a faith dues we call you to a place of faith
we should never be about parasitic Christianity
where you wanna come and receive and receive and receive and never
get involved and never contribute we can do together
we could never do by ourselves in touching the world
with the mission of God which is every man woman and child hearing and seeing
the Gospel of Jesus Christ having an opportunity to say yes or no
so I encourage you to do that
because what it'll do ultimately it'll make much of God
it will also embrace a kingdom vision & going to tell the world a different
story
let me say this to you before you leave: if you're here
and maybe this is all new to you here's the story that I want you to hear:
God loves you, He wants
to know you, he already knows you because he made you
but he wants you to know him and he has facilitated that by giving his son Jesus
Christ
sinless son to die on a cross for your sin
let's not play any games you know when I know
that you've sinned & I've sinned. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, right?
put me at the front of the line we can't save ourselves
that would be an offense to God and that would say to Jesus
that whole death on a cross and resurrection thing really didn't matter
it's the only way that you can be saved and if you've never come to that place
where you've turned from your sin
and turned to Jesus as your Savior
not just in religious ritual not just in check and some spiritual box
but you've turned your life over to him and said: "everything I am is yours"
that I encourage you, when we dismiss in just a moment
there'll be some pastors and some friends in the Fireside Room that Benji told you
about earlier
it's right across the Atrium on this campus. If you're at the Lockport campus
you're going to just meet with Pastor Jonathan. But I encourage you
make your way over there speak to somebody. We'd love to talk to you about
what it means to know Christ
"Father I pray that you would be glorified and that you have been
glorified
in our midst today. We make much of you because yours is the greatness and yours
is the power & yours is the majesty
and yours is the strength and yours is the kingdom God
everything is yours our very selves are yours
our salvation is yours you have sealed it
even though we call it our own so God thank you for that
I pray that we would not run out of ever understanding
'you are the owner, we are the owned'
God help us even in those things which tangibly we have an opportunity to do I
pray that you would
speak in & through this congregation that we may continue to
to really just release generosity
in the world that we live in for the glory of God for the sake of Jesus for
the proclamation of the gospel
and a prelude allow us to do that in Jesus name. Amen"
"God bless you folks have a great week."