NUTS Stewardship “Whose Fries Are These”?
GNLCC 10/26/2002 Malachi 3:1-12 Matthew 19:17-21 Text 1 Chronicles 29:10-16
We are continuing our theme of becoming a NUTS church. What is a NUTS Church? A Church that never underestimates the Spirit. The Theme comes from our adaptation of Leonard’s Sweets message. Today I am going to enlist the help of these French Fries to help us become NUTS for Christ in our giving. Each time you eat a French Fry, I want you to remember this message.
One day James wanted to do something special with his five year old son Jimmy. He asked “son, is there anything you’d like to do right now?” Jimmy said, “I want some McDonald French Fries.” His father said, “if that’s what my boy wants, then that’s what my boy gets.”
They got into the blue and white chevy truck and headed toward McDonald’s. Jimmy’s lips and tongue were silently moving as he could taste the fries before they even reached the store.
His Dad made the order, and Jimmy’s heart pounded when his Dad said make it a super size fry. James took the money out of his wallet to pay for the fries and a drink. Jimmy’s little teeth were ready to sink into those hot golden fries, before they made it to the table.
When they sat down, grace consisted of “God bless this food amen”, but it seemed like way too many words to Jimmy who was eager to delight himself with this huge blessing of French fries.
James was happy to see his little boy so happy over something so simple. He decided to join in the fun. He reached over to get a couple of Jimmy’s fries for himself.
To his surprise, his son quickly put his arms around his fries as though building a fort and pulled them toward himself and said, “No, these are mine.” His dad was in a state of shock for a moment. He could not believe what had happened.
James pulled back his hand and began to reflect about his son’s attitude toward the fries. Let’s walk together through the things that went through his mind. He was thinking, my son failed to realize that I am the source of those French fries.
At the counter, I was the one who gave the cashier the money from my wallet. I did not give him the size fry he was expecting, but something twice as big. Yet here he is talking about his French fries.
Not only was I the source of the French fries, he has forgotten that I at 6ft 1 and 195 lbs, have the power to take all the fries despite his little arms surrounding them as a fort. Or that if I wanted to, I could go back to the counter and bring him so many fries that he could never eat them all.
He also does not understand, “that I don’t need his French fries. I could go back to the counter and get as many fries as I wanted.”
As the Dad thought about it, one or two fries really would not have made much of a difference for him that day. What he wanted was for his son Jimmy, to invite him into the wonderful little world he had made possible for his son. He wanted his son to be willing to share the very blessing that he had provided.
When we talk about being NUTS for Christ, we have to realize that everyday God gives us the choice to live out the chance to Never underestimate the Spirit. God takes us to McDonald’s on a regular basis in our lives.
God blesses us. He blesses you and God blesses me. He’s given us all some French fries. Some have small bags, others medium, others large and some super size. Some are narrow and light in color like McDonald’s others are thick and dark like Rally’s. Some are straight and some Wendy’s are curly. But God has given us all some fries.
Like that Dad James, God desires to sit down at the table with us for some fellowship. When God reaches over to use some of the blessings he has given to us, far too often we say “No God, these are mine. No, No, No. Go and get your own.” We try building our own little forts around our blessings.
Is there anybody here this morning that understands that God is the source of all that we receive? Sure we may have went to work, but how many know you’ve got to have something within you that you didn’t put in you to have the ability to get up and go to work.
Is there anybody here today that understands, God has the ability to take away everything we think is ours and God has the ability to give us far more than what we have. There’s not a single person here today who knows how many times God has already spared their lives when death came knocking. We should never underestimate the Spirit’s power to protect us from things we did not even know about.
Is there anybody here that recognizes God does not need our French fries, and that it is an honor and a privilege to be able to share our fries with God. God does not ask us to give because God is hurting and in desperate need.
God asks us to give because God wants us to be like Him. God has a giving attitude and he wants that giving attitude modeled in his children. The first verse many people learn is John 3:16 which begins, for God so love the world that he what….He gave His only Son.
Throughout the Bible, you find that God is always giving. In your own lives, how many of you know that you cannot underestimate God’s ability to provide for you in ways that you had not thought possible. God is very interested in response to the blessings He sends our way and what we choose to do with them. Let’s look at a passage of Scripture in 1 Chronicles chapter 29.
In the first nine verses of the chapter, the Israelites had just taken up and incredible size offering for a new building project. They were going to build the first temple for God. The people had gone NUTS in their giving. They were celebrating because the leaders were pledging their gold, their silver, their jewelry and everything else they had of value.
Let’s look though at verses 10-17 which indicates the people knew that God is the source of every blessing that we have. 1 Chron. 29:10-17 David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, "Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. 11Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
12Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. 13Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
14"But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. 15We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. 16O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.
Take a look at the word “everything” in verse 11 and the words “everything comes from you” in verse 14. Look at the last six words in verse 16, “all of it belongs to you.” David, the writer, understood that everything comes from God. Everything!
In verse 12, the last part of the verse says , In Your hands are the strength and power to exalt and to give strength to all.” David understood that God was in control and could give us French fries or take them away from us.
In verse 14 it says, “everything comes from you, and we have only what comes from your hand.” That’s interesting. It’s saying, “God, you gave us everything we have, and we’re just turning around and giving some back to you.”
David is saying, “God you are the total source of all that we have. All this wealth we have given for the building of the temple, You have put it in our hands, and then we took it out of our hands, and put it back in your hands. It’s a circle of giving.
Now, am I saying that God is the source of everything. Yes. Whether we worked for it, won it, found it, or received it as a gift. God is still the ultimate source. The bible tells us, the earth is the Lord and everything it in, the world and all who live in it.
Everything we think we own, belongs to God. Wait a minute, are you saying my car, my house, my sega genesis, my clothes, by jewelry and my food belongs to God.? You may think you earned it, you worked for it, you traded for it. You could not have done those things without the strength God provides.
There are people more educated than you, smarter than you, prettier than you and more persuasive than you, but they can’t get up out of a hospital bed. Your health and the ability to get anything is a gift from God. Your family, you, spouse, your loved ones are all gifts from God.
There is nothing we have that God ultimately has not provided. We are growing in Christ when we realize that God gives to us and delights in us giving to others and giving back to God. Doesn’t it amaze you that we would act like Jimmy with the French fries with God.
God gives us all these French fries and we’re sitting around saying, “oh no, no, no these are mine.” God as a parent is hurt because we have such a limited understanding that everything we have was God’s and still is God’s. If you really think something belongs to you , die and try to keep somebody else from taking it.
In our Old testament reading, God asked the people to bring in a tithe and see if He will not bless them for it. A tithe is nothing more than a penny out of a dime, or a dime out of dollar.
If God sat with you at a table, and gave you 10 dimes, what would cause you to say no if God asked for one of them back? Yet 90% of all people who say they love God will say no God, this is mine.
We get upset about paying 10% when God is entitled to the full 100% to do as he pleases. The moment God puts money into our hands, “we declare this is mine. I’ll only give what I want to give.” Up goes the fortress around our fries. We have no idea of how blessed we are and of all the things that God has done for us.
God loves us so much, that He has not even given up on us yet even though we make it plain, I’m not letting you have my fries. Do you know what gratitude is. Gratitude is having an understanding and appreciation of the blessings that we have in life. Some of you here would like to show God your gratitude, but like Jimmy, you’re not sure you will have enough fries to meet all your needs and desires.
There are three things we should know about God when we are afraid to believe that God will meet our needs financially if we become tithers. The first deals with God’s power. By this I mean God’s ability. Does God have the ability to give us what we need, if we give to the work of God in this life?
This is going to boil down to whether or not we can believe Jesus. We trust Jesus with our eternal salvation which is by far the greatest thing we have at stake. I mean, if Jesus was lying to us, then we are all still lost and in danger of spending eternity separated from God in pain and agony.
Now this same Jesus who told us, “I am the Way, the Truth & The Life, also told us in our New Testament reading today, “anyone who gives up anything or any relationship for the gospel sake will receive up to a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”
This is the same Jesus that took five loaves of bread and two fish and fed over 5000 people. If Jesus could do this with a little boy’s lunch, can’t he do at least 1 % of that with what we have. We’re still talking feeding 50 people.
When we sing, You are the Love Of My Life, You Mean more than this world to me, do we mean it. Should God take us seriously with our praise and worship to Him. Or should we rewrite the songs we sing.
Lord, if after I pay for cable, call waiting, three way calling, designer clothing, a car I can’t afford, and last year’s Christmas shopping on my credit cards, if there’s anything left, I’ll show you my love. But right now don’t reach over here for 10% of my fries.
The second thing we need to know about God is God’s provisions. God’s provision is God’s willingness to give. God is willing to give you today what you need. God is so willing to give, that the Bible tells us He causes his blessings to flow on those who don’t serve him as well as on those who do.
God is so eager to bless people’s lives that they may see His goodness, that they would come into a relationship with him for what is really a blessing. But there is something special when God targets you to be the one to receive something special from him.
Anything that God asks of you today, God has made it possible for you to do it. Is there anyone here who would ask their child to go to the store and purchase some milk, knowing that the milk would cost $2.99 but you only gave them .50 to purchase it? No if you expected them to bring home milk, you’d give them enough money to do it.
There are people always wanting to give God something they don’t have. Lord If I had a million dollars, I would…..most of us would start lying. You see tithing is never an issue of amount, but rather of attitude.
God says, you keep the $500,000 you would have given if you had a million, but let’s talk about the $450 check you do get every week or every two weeks or once a month. I’d rather have that $45 which tells me, go ahead and eat some of your fries.
The third thing we should know about God is that God wants to work in partnership with us in reaching people. God could have sent an angel to preach the gospel on 711 East 105th Street, but God didn’t do that. He established Glenville New Life Community Church.
On any given Sunday, you can hear a version of the testimony, the Lord has been good to me this week and as Rosie testifies, “and I thank Him for it.” Michael sings a song, “When I think about the Lord, how he saved me, how he raised me, how he filled me with the Holy Ghost. It makes me want to shout, Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. How many Rosie’s and Michaels out there that God has entered into a a partnership with us to reach? People waiting to know of God’s goodness.
At the very core of our vision for the New Life Center is the partnership we have entered in with God to put the needs of others above our own desires to impact their lives for Jesus Christ. Our purpose is to bring people into a right relationship with God. When we get into a right relationship with God, then we’re equipped to deal with each other. God has you here today with an opportunity to make your life count for God.
The growth of this church is going to bring new life into the lives of many people as we lead them to Jesus Christ. God needs people who are willing to reach out and touch others as well as people who realized they need to be touched. We need you to make a difference. There is a tremendous future ahead for this church. What role is God going to have you fulfill to equip and enable you to be a giver of new life.”
Think of the lives we’ve touched. Our young people who use to know only one kind of dancing, are now dancing as liturgical dancers for the Lord. They’re using the voices to sing for the Lord.
We have provided safe summer experiences for hundreds of young people in our summer camp and other youth outreach programs. Some of them have entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Some of you who were not in any church a few years ago have become active here and know that God is making a difference in your life. Some of you who were almost destroyed by the presence of drugs or immorality are now clean, and feel good about what God is doing in your life.
Some of you have spent time in prison, but today you know the joy of being a prisoner for Jesus Christ. Some of you who were lost, now know beyond a shadow of doubt, if you died today, you’d be with Jesus Christ this evening. Some of you who were near death, came knocking back from death’s door.
All of this was possible because of a partnership we entered with God. God was willing to give Jesus Christ his only Son to make it possible for us to know Him. Many who have gone on to be with the Lord but some who are still here, gave to maintain the presence of this church. But now we need to give back some of the fries that God gave to us to keep this ministry and the vision alive.
Somebody whose on drugs still needs our help. Somebody whose home is falling apart needs our help. Somebody who does not know God needs our help. Somebody who is just about to give up hope needs our help. Can God call on us to turn over ten percent of our fries? We have the opportunity for an organist come this January. We can we depend on you, to turn over your fries to make it possible to pay for it?
The only time God asks us to test Him is when it comes to our giving back to Him. God isn’t asking us to become poor. God is not saying, we will not have anything if we give to His work.
God Himself said, Malachi 3:10-12 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
11I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. 12"Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.
God’s word is saying that we can all afford to tithe. It does not say we can all afford to tithe and hold on to everything we have. You see some of us have been spending God’s money so long on the wrong things, that we have to let some of them go and begin to get our finances in order. Maybe we have to let go of the premium channels on cable, or cable altogether.
Maybe we can’t keep our cell phone or all the features on our home phone. Maybe we need to lease a less expensive car or not eat out as much. Maybe we are living at a lifestyle we cannot afford to live. Tithing is simply a matter of choosing to do what we ought to do in our relationship with the Lord.
We serve a giving God. The more we serve Him, the more giving we should become. Will you break down your wall around your fries and say to God, Your plan and your purposes for my life and the lives of those around me, are far greater than what I could do with these fries. You take them and do as you please.
God is challenging us to allow Him to set us free from our fries so that we might enter into a deeper relationship with Him. It’s time for us to once again be NUTS for Christ. Let us never underestimate the Spirit’s power to give us far more fries than we will ever need as we joyfully give them back to God.
Take The 90 Day Tithing Guarantee:
Agree to tithe for 90 days. If after 90 days you consider you are far worse off financially, then we will give you back the amount you increased your giving to in order to tithe for the 90 day period. We do not believe that God will fail you.
Lay Pastor Celebration Today At
4pm At Glenville New Life Community Church.
711 East 105th Street Cleveland, OH
Come Share Your Words Of Appreciation With The Lay Pastors & Bring A Dish Of Food To Share If You Are Able. There Is No Charge For The Food Or Gathering. Just Come Out And Encourage The Ministry Of The Lay Pastors As We Seek To Honor Them.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
NUTS Stewardship “Whose Fries Are These”
10/27/02 GNLCC Malachi 3:1-12 Matt:19: 17-21
A. We Shall Become NUTS
1. Never Underestimate The Spirit
2. NUTS & French Fries
3. James The Dad- Jimmy The Son, McDonald’s
4. The Joy Of The French Fry Experience
5. The Reach, The Fort, The Shock
B. What Was Really The Source
1. Dad’s Money On The Line
2. Dad’s, Size & Power On The Line
3. Dad’s Love & Generosity On The Line
4. Let Me Share Your Blessing
C. The Opportunities Provided To Be NUTS
1. When God Takes Us Out
2. Fries, Fries, Fries, Rally’s , McDonalds
3. Look At My Fort
4. God Gives Us The Opportunity To Get
5. God’s Model In John 3:16
6. What’s Our Response To A Blessing
D. When People Become Nuts In Their Giving
1. What’s Mine Is God’s –Gold Silver Jewelry
1 Chron. 29:10-16 David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, "Praise be to you, O LORD,
God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.
11Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
12Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. 13Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
14"But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. 15We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. 16O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.
2. Look At 11 & 14 On Everything
3. Our Giving Is A Circle
4. God Is The Source Of It All
5. But What About My Stuff
6. Gifts, Earned, Won---But For God
E. Did God Really Provide It All
1. What’s Our Response To The Reach
2. A Tithe—Dime Out Of A Dollar
3. God’s Love Despite Our Fortress
4. Gratitude---Appreciation
F. Our God Is Trustworthy
1. God’s Ability—God Is Able
2. How Much Can We Trust Jesus
3. What’s This 100 Times As Much
4. Feeding 5,000 With Just A Lunch
5. What Were The Words Of The Song
6. God’s Provisions---Willingness To Give
7. God’s Blessings On The Just & Unjust
8. Get Me Some Milk $2.99 For .50
9. Let Me Give $500,000 If I Get A Million
10. Let’s Talk About $45 Out Of $450
G. God Enjoys Working In Partnership
1. Not An Angel-But New Life Fellowship
2. Changing Testimony
3. The Vision For The Church
4. People Finding People For Christ
5. How God Has Touched Some Lives
6. From Dance Floor To Liturgical Dancing
7. Young People Finding Christ
8. Adults Being Set Free
9. The Assurance Of Salvation
10. Somebody Needs Some Help
H. Anybody Willing To Test God—He Asked For It
1. God Not Willing To Turn Us Into Beggars
Malachi 3:10-12
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. 12"Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.
2. Yes We Can Afford To Do It
3. Lord What Must I Let Go
4. Loving You Is The Desire Of My Life
5. It Comes Down To A Choice In Life & Lifestyle
6. Willing To Be Set Free From The Fries
7. No Better Time To Go NUTS
