Enlarge Your Tent Series

It’s not based on our ability. It’s the Spirit that dwells in you - all of the fullness of God that God wants to unleash through your life. It’s not your ability, it’s your expandability. God needs expandable tents. God uses elastic vessels who are able to change and grow with what God is doing.

Which one is bigger, a water bottle or a balloon? The water bottle is bigger. Which one will hold more? The balloon. Now what is the problem with the water bottle? It is restricted. It cannot expand. It is not elastic. This isn’t about your size, it’s about your ability to stretch with what God wants to do. If you take this same balloon it holds even more because of its ability to stretch and expand.

It’s why Jesus said you can’t put new wine into old wineskins. They used to keep wine in animal skins. Old wineskins dry up and lose their elasticity, their ability to stretch, grow, change and expand in God’s capacity. To expand your influence for God you must expand your capacity.

You have to expand your capacity to increase your influence for God. Faith is a concrete action. It is not holding to a belief in your head. It is a concrete action that requires us to enlarge our capacity for what God wants to do.

II. Stretch Your Commitment

Stretching has the tendency to cause pain.

When you stretch you are working a certain set of muscles. So in order for us to stretch ourselves to what God asks us to become, it’s going to require some pain on our part both as a church and personally as well.

You expand your influence by expanding your capacity. Stretch your commitment. It’s like muscles. Do you know how you make a muscle stronger? You have to tear down some of the cells by over-committing your muscle.

Now I don’t expect you to all sign up for every bible study, ministry team, and community service activity that is offered. But I think It’s time to take a healthy look at the amount of spiritual commitment you are currently undertaking.

You know as a church we have faced a landmark decision with the desire to hire a youth minister. We all know what kind of a sacrifice had to be made and many families are responding by going over and above their regular giving. When we allow God to stretch our commitment there is no end to the potential of what can happen because of God working here.

One of the things that the survey’s told us is that of all of our people who come to worship, one third are involved in service, We also found out that less than one third attend a bible study or small group.

I would encourage you that one way of stretching your commitment is to add more balance to your relationship with God.

We hope you walk away from Sunday morning being refreshed and encouraged but the main purpose that we come together on Sunday is to give. We come to praise God and to give honor and glory to him.

It is my prayer that you will find a way to develop lasting friendships through bible study or small groups where you can be open to a deeper relationship with God.

One other thing I would like you to consider it to get involved in some kind of service, if you are not already doing so. Find an area that you feel God calling you to. It could be preparing information or helping with mailings, perhaps just cleaning the church would be a stretch for you. You may feel God asking you to lead a small group or prepare a dinner. There are a number of ways to become involved in service. If you don’t know where to start talk to one of our elders or me about current needs of the church.