Fly High - Acts Part 23 Series

Fly High - Acts part 23

Theme: The Acts New Testament Church – “Gives”

Thesis: The Acts New Testament Church consisted of members who gave to God what was His and also to those in need. They gave sacrificially because of their love for God and for others. The question to us today is “Who do you love more Jesus or money?”

Opening Video Illustration:

What price do you place on a human soul? Blue Fish TV clip

• Thoughts to introduce the clip: How much money would you have given to come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? How much do you think others spent on your conversion? What do you think it costs the church to teach you, equip you, train you, encourage you, help you mature in the faith, and reach out to others who do not know Jesus?

• The question “So what price do you personally place on human soul?”

• The Acts New testament Church revealed that they loved Jesus more than money or the things it could buy!

Introduction:

The problem I see in America today is reflected in the following statement:

Quote from A.W. Tozer, “Within the human heart ‘things’ have taken over. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.”

Here is the summary of giving at New Life for 2006 and my challenge to the congregation to give sacrificially for the upcoming 2007 year.

This summary of giving is reality check to awaken us to our spiritual condition:

*2/3 of the members of New Life Community Church gave 76% of all the tithes to the church in 2006.

*1/3 of the members of New Life Community Church did not tithe to the church in 2006.

*Non-members of New Life Community Church gave 18% of the total tithe to the church in 2006.

*¾ of nonmembers do not tithe to New Life Community Church.

Youth and others contributed the remaining 6% of the tithe to New Life Community church in 2006.

See Power point pie chart!

Quote: Doug Hagedorn stated, “I quote a number of Barna’s recent giving statistics, and giving to the church continues drop. The average American pays $1,000 a year in interest and only gives $754.00 a year to the church.”

I add and the income level in the United States continues to rise every year!

He also states:

We are overheating as a society, which means that we are over-heating as individuals.

We can go faster ……..But we have more places to go.

We have more room …….But we have more junk to store.

We have more light……But we work more and sleep less.

We have more income…..But we give less.

We have more religion……Bu we are less moral.

Wow! The choices that we make greatly influence both our finances and our

purposes in life. One of the benefits of simplifying our lifestyles is that we will have both time and money to respond to unforeseen needs…. Our closets are full. We need three-car garages and temporary storage facilities for all of our ‘stuff’ – and our things are really not even ours if we are in debt. If you stop a minute and really think about all of this, it should begin to stir up some anger and discontent with our lifestyles, hopefully enough to move you to action.

A Scary Revelation!

Here is a scary revelation:

First, we are manipulated into buying what we don’t need. Then we cannot pay for it. Then we do not even have a place to put it. Then we do not have time to use it! Something is wrong!

We have less time and money for the church and beneficial ministries, less time for prayer and meditation, and less energy and interest to invest in other people. We have been duped, folks! When our spouse ‘calls’ or God ‘calls’ or children ‘call,’ do they get a busy signal? (From Ease the Squeeze, pages 64, 65)

I want you to be aware what our vision is for 2007 and I also want you to know something – If everyone here who calls New Life their home would tithe we would have plenty of money to achieve this vision for the ministry:

• To buy 5-10 acres of land for building a new facility

• To build a church that seats 400 people

• To build a church with an education wing and a modern nursery.

• To build a church with a youth room

• To build a church with a fellowship and kitchen area

• To build a church with a counseling center designed into it

• To build a church to include a day care in it

• To build a church to run a bible institute out of it