INTRO – SERMON CHANGED
I am going to do things a little differently this morning in that the message planned for today was on HONOUR THE LORD WITH YOUR WEALTH
PROVERBS 3:9,10
The sermon was done and dusted…It was entitled Will You Give God Your Lunch?
I kid you not – here it is….. all typed marked out etc.
REASON FOR CHANGE
But last night at about 8:30 I got a call that someone who I did not see much, but who had made an impact on me and had shared with me on a very personal and close level, and someone who was part of the team of people that I look towards as mentors, had passed away suddenly. So the message changed in an inkling. But out of this message that I had prepared, I do want to share something with you on our Resolution number 4.
HATTIE WIATT ILLUST.
A little girl arrived at a church one Sunday morning and a burly door steward telling her that the church was full and that there was just no more room because the church was to small, but actually thinking that she was a street tramp, the steward turned her away at the door. Seeing the incident one of the Pastors quickly went after her and took her by the hand and led her into the Sunday school.
The little girl was so touched by the loving kindness of the pastor that she had difficulty sleeping that night while her mind raced while she thought of all the children who had no place to worship because they had been turned away for one reason or another.
2 years later that little girl died and the parents called the pastor and asked him to conduct the funeral service. After the service the parents came to thank him for his message and handed him a small parcel which the little girl had left for him.
Inside the box the pastor found a purse with 57 cents in it. There was a note that read “This is to help build the church a little bigger so more children can go to Sunday school.”
For 2 years she had been saving those 57 cents. The Pastor took her offering and her story to the pulpit that Sunday. Through a series of articles about the little girl and messages from the pulpit, the donations begun to come in and very quickly the little girls 57c became $2 500 000.
So if you ever happen to go to Philadelphia, why not pop into the Temple Baptist Church. The church seats around 3300. The Sunday school handles upward of 1500 children on any given Sunday. But there is more. The Temple University has grown from the church and there is now a full campus and medical school serving 13000 students a year. And the is now two Hospitals The Temple University Hospital and the Hattie Wiatt Children’s Hospital. 57 cents was all she had, but she offered it to the Lord for his work and he did not feed 5000 but housed almost the same in a church.
LINK TO COLLECTION
So today I want you to know how much we will be able to achieve with your 57c. I want to let you know that we need to give of our first fruits. We need to commit to what we give to God and give it.
COLLECTION
So for those of you who give regularly and are buying things for the church and providing so much I want to say thank you, but as from this morning we put Oaktree in line with divine giving plan. Give your first fruits, don’t replace your firstfruits with a things that we need for the church. Give your tithe or give your first fruits and then lets see God bless our store houses and provide the things that we are trying to put together on our own steam. OK THAT’S ENOUGH ABOUT GIVING< YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HATE TALKING MONEY IN CHURCH.
SERMON INTRO
FRIEND PASSING _ MESSAGE CHANGED
With my friend passing so suddenly last night before last, I started thinking about my tomorrow. I started thinking about Kevin and Bianca’s life without mom and dad. And so I wrestled with God on what he was trying to give me as a message.
He told me that this one was not the one. So I left it.
As always, I know the Lord would tell me and it would probably hit home with me harder than any of you.
INTERNET TRANSFER PIECE ONE
So there I was sitting behind my PC and I thought ok I will quickly go and transfer funds for the trip tonight from my one account to the other so I would access to cash while away. I stupidly transferred a rather large sum of money into the wrong persons account. Instead of mine, one of my suppliers. Boy was I mad. Leanne leaned back and in her quiet way spoke, you do things to quickly she said, you think you have done it so many times that you don’t have to concentrate.
NEWLETTER
I took offense and through my toys a bit, but quietned down and decided to go through my mail. Now I get a daily email that I subscribe to, Free Bible its called, and during the week I make it a special time to go through this email as part of my quiet time.
The words of Leanne were still buzzing in my head and I started reading….
READ NEWS LETTER
APOLOGY AND PROVERBS 27:1
And so very humbly I apologised to Leanne and let her know that she had just been an instrument in giving me the message God wanted us to share today.
OPEN TO PROV 27:1
I want you to read it again and again.
EVEN IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN BIBLE
Even if you are here today and are debating whether you even belief in the bible, you have to admit that this saying has weight. It is true. You have to agree that we don’t have control over tomorrow. We are pretty useless at being eternal.
HOW GOES IT WITH YOUR SOUL?
If we don’t know where we will be – I want to ask WHAT IF?
If you are holding off for whatever reason of just giving this Christian thing a try, I want to ask you just for a moment, WHAT IF ALL these PRAISE THE LORD WEIRDO’s are right? What if all they have been saying about making sure of your eternityand your tomorrow is actually what we should be doing?
This morning I just want to get back to basics. For those of you who are here today and you are debating whether or not you should give this Christianity thing a shot, or whether you are here to try and put it out of your mind in getting to the bottom of your life’s issues, then I want to ask you this morning WHAT IF?
For those of you who are here this morning and you have been walking with Christ already, I want to ask you WHAT IF all you have built your faith on is not quite what its all about. WHAT IF Your comfort zone of being a Christian just does not cut it for eternity?
So this morning I ask you WHAT IF?
ILLUSTRATION
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighbourhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.
The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”
The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister...please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,” He pleaded. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop...” With tears dripping down his face
and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car.
“It’ my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his
wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.” Now sobbing, the boy asked the
stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his
wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat.
He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts.
A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.. “Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar.
I. Once Life Is Over You Cannot Salvage Things.............Share Them Now !
LINK FROM ILLUSTRATION
What if this morning is your brick. What if God is whispering into your soul right now and trying to speak to you, but we are so busy with saying No I cant or wont deal with eternity that you miss the brick all together!
“Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!” God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It’s our choice to listen or not.
STOP THE CAR
What if Christ is the solution?
II. Once Life Is Over You Cannot Seize Opportunities.......Seek God Now.
The story is told of a Persian prince who was about to ascend the throne. Acutely aware of his need for more knowledge (to be a good ruler), he summoned his wise men and commanded them to prepare a history of humanity (, leaving nothing unrecorded, for him to read). Twenty years later the scholars brought him 6,000 books.
Too busy with the affairs of the state to wade through that many books, the (busy) king told his wise men to edit their work and to condense their findings in one book.
Another twenty years passed, and the scholars presented the king with the one book he had asked for. The king, (alas,) was dying and not able to read it. From his deathbed, he (the sad king) looked up at the wise men and cried, “Then I shall die without knowing the history of humanity!” One of the group, (seeing how heartbroken the king was,) said: “Beloved King, I will sum it up for you in a few words: ‘They were born; they suffered; they died.’” (Ralph Spencer).
People prepare for life on earth, but seldom for life after life.
Conclusion
There is no salvaging of things.......no seizing of opportunities......no sharing of Christ once life is over !
And so this morning I simply want to ask you WHAT IF?
A few weeks ago I gave you a 60 day trust back gaurentee. I want to extend that to you again today.
So right now, if you wish to take me up on the offer, that I made, and that was give Christ a shot for 60 days, if for no other reason that you don’t know what will come tomorrow and what if Christianity is actually the way to go, I would like to encourage you to make that commitment today. Alter CALL
