Give Thanks Series

Give Thanks…

The Life – part 7

Today is the one year anniversary of an incredible day at Central. The Sunday before Thanksgiving last year was the day of our miracle offering. It was an awesome day… After almost a year of planning we as a body brought our cash offering and our 3 year commitments for our building expansion…

I will never forget the energy in the room that day… So many people making huge sacrifices in order to bring a cash gift… (things sold, vacations not taken) AND - many families cut back or did not buy any gifts at all last Christmas. Preferring instead like the wise men to lay their gifts at the feet of the King…

A treasure chest was placed up front – with the words “Where you treasure is there is your heart also…” FIRST – our kids lined up and dumped in their change… They gave over a thousand dollar in pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters… THEN – as we played – the song, “I Will Not Forget You” – the rest of Central came up here and placed in that treasure box our gifts/our hearts…

LISTEN - November 18th was a day when the faith in this placed shined. It was a day when we stepped into the valley and faced a giant that was much bigger than any of us – (1.3 million dollars, that’s a fairly good size giant) – it was a day when we as a church said that we would enter the promise land… it was a day when we boldly declared that we would not let the giants in the land hold us back – even though compared to 1.3 million dollars we did seem a little like grasshoppers…

QUESTION – why was there so much confidence in this room that day? Because we knew that God wanted us to go forward – and because we knew that we needed a new building in order to grow His kingdom, in order to change more lives…

AND – on that day Central had her biggest one time offering in her history – about $75,000 was given on that day and another $197,000 was pledged in 3 year commitments…. NOW - that’s a lot of money. AND – the reason why people gave, was because of their love for God and their belief in what He was doing and would continue to do in this place…

WELL – a lot has happened since then – a lot of work has taken place… UNDERSTAND – even though there is nothing right now construction wise above ground level… I can tell you that much work has been done by many people… (meetings to design the building and fine tune the plans, crunching all kinds of financial numbers, moving dirt). YES – a lot of work has been done – it just hasn’t been the real visible stuff yet.

BUT LISTEN – in 2003 we will see rather quickly, the fruits of the work that has been done… Sometime in May – we will have our first worship service in our new building…. Yeah God!

YES – a lot of work has gone on in this place in the year 2002… AND as I said, not all of it has been real visible, but in 2003, much of it will rise to the surface and beyond… AND LISTEN – I am not just talking about the physical construction – the pouring of concrete, hammering of nails, painting of walls… YOU SEE - there has also been in 2002; a lot of work (though mostly unseen) going on in the lives of many people in this place… LISTEN…

There is a growing army of people talking about spending time in God’s word, about journaling about quiet times…

I have had a bunch of people talk to me about how to have time with God…

People are getting up early in the morning to meet with God – they are using the ACTS of prayer card, and they are choosing each day to rejoice…

Many others are choosing even now to seize this moment and embrace spiritual disciplines… They are learning how to hoist their sails to catch the wind of God to change.

40+ people have attended the S.A.L.T. classes that we started in October… AND – the energy and excitement in those meetings is contagious.

The Bearean class is talking about sharing their faith…a burden for the lost is growing

LISTEN - people are beginning to BOTH, get a glimpse of and a desire for, what Central can and should be – an Acts 2 church…

During the Thanksgiving banquets as people shared – it is obvious that many are letting God move in their lives… (Fridays banquet went into OT)…. LISTEN – it is obvious that a majority of people at Central – BOTH - believe in, and are experiencing what God is doing in this church…