You can be generous and not godly;
but you cannot be godly and not generous.
We’re in Part 3 of our latest series - New Year, Less Me - and this week we’re talking about everyone LEAST favorite topic to hear about in church…GIVING!
But even though we’re talking about giving, this message has nothing to do with money; rather it has everything to do with your heart. Because in the end, it’s not about how much you’re giving, but rather how much you’re holding back.
Read MoreIRRATIONAL GENEROSITY: We genuinely believe it is more blessed to give than to receive and we seek opportunities to express our love to God by sacrificing our time and our money.
It's part 4 in our Family Matters series and this week we're talking about everyone's [least] favorite topic: GIVING. But this wasn't just a message about money; it was a message about WORSHIP and the connection between your heart and your wallet/checkbook.
If you've never been inspired or motivated to give generously, I challenge you to listen to the message above and see if God changes your mind/heart.
Read More"If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon (wealth), who will commit to your trust the true riches?" Luke 16:12
We wrapped up the Realizing Rich series by looking at why this issue of money and riches is so important: because God uses riches to test you and He will hold you accountable to what you do with it.
The way to fail? BELIEVING THAT "MORE" IS ALWAYS FOR ME.
The way to pass? BECOMING INTENTIONAL AND ABOVE AVERAGE GIVERS.
Read More"...he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful." Matthew 13:22
What did Jesus mean by that? What does "the deceitfulness of riches" mean? There's no way that applies to me. Right???
Part 2 of Realizing Rich and this week we examine that question. What is "the deceitfulness or riches" and could it be possible that I am falling for it without evening realizing it? In the message, I speak about 3 ways to tell whether or not that "deceitfulness" is affecting me.
Read MoreIf I don’t FEEL RICH,
I’ll continually try to GET RICH,
Never recognizing that I am ALREADY RICH,
Which means I will always LIVE POOR.
We kicked off a new series yesterday called Realizing Rich and in it, we're trying to answer a question that you may never thought to answer before: WHAT IS RICH?
"Rich" is something we're all after right? So how do we know when we've gotten there? And is there any chance that we're actually already there and just don't know it yet?
Read MoreIt's time to get back to work! After a 2 week break, we got back into the swing of things yesterday with Part 3 in the Burnt Out: Finding Peace on Earth series. This week our topic was MARGIN IN OUR FINANCES (aka, our MONEY!).
What's more important: our standard of living? Or quality of life? Are the two the same? Are they correlated? Why does it even matter how I spend my money? Could the way I manage my finances really have that great an impact on my ability to be a disciple of Christ?
All that and more in this week's message - including my 5 step strategy to help you figure out the first steps to building financial margin. Enjoy!
Last summer I sat down with my wife and two fish tacos at Baja Fresh. We prayed and I was just about to dig in after a day of fasting. Suddenly, a young woman walked in with a cardboard sign that said something about starving family members. Despite the many people who were there, for some reason she walked right up to us.
What was I to do? I handed her one of the fish tacos in front of me, and the woman was out the door. I’d like to say I was generous and thankful. But the truth is, I was sulky for having to part with my taco.
That same summer I was leading a Coptic Orphans staff book study with On Social Justice (St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary Press, 2009) where St. Basil the Great preaches on the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-22 who walked away from Jesus sulky, too. In “To the Rich”, Basil says “those who love their neighbor as themselves possess nothing more than their neighbor…” (§1, p. 43)
But what about my Health Savings Plan? Retirement? Surely there are some exceptions, right?
I’m learning that God isn’t out to part us from as much of our substance as He can. He wants to use our money to show just how good He is—to us and to others. So what exactly does He want then?
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