You Have a Choice

Good Morning

Turn to your neighbor and tell them your in the right place.

Welcome to Freedom Chapel. My name is Pastor Terry and I am the lead Pastor here at Freedom Chapel. If you are new with us this this morning thank you for joining us. Please fill out the welcome card in your bulletin or online by using the QR Code.

Church I am so thankful for you! I don’t know that I say that enough.

For the last 5 years we have accomplished amazing things together. We have seen salvations, baptisms, and lives changed.

This truly is a church that is growing into all that God has created it to be. We are not done yet though. I believe 2023 is supposed to be the greatest year for growth this church has ever seen. As I have been praying this week during our 21 Days of Prayer..........

I felt the Lord nudging me “What are you holding back for?” “What are you believing for this year?”

My thoughts are well God we are in a recession, politically things don’t look the greatest......... Last year was kind of rough on me.

Well God I don’t want to hold anything back. I want to keep moving forward.

I felt the Lord speak Hold Nothing Back.

So I believe that this year is supposed to be a year of Holding Nothing Back.

Over the course of the next three weeks I am going to be laying out what that looks like. Beginning today.

Tithes and Offerings

We are going to take up this mornings tithes and offerings today. Before we do that i want to teach for just a moment on giving. Giving is a form of worship. God set this system up way back in Genesis before the law and it carried on all the way through the new testament in Acts where we see believers selling off property to support the cause. Here we use the term Membership when it comes to being part of the church. I really dislike that term because membership implies benefits. I do x and you provide me x. This church and most all churches works in cooperation. We are a nonprofit which means the only way this church is able to pay it’s staff, the electric bill, property tax, and programming is by the tithes and offerings by our contributors. This is the system that God set up way back with Moses. The Israelites brought a tenth of everything they brought in to the temple and that is what fed the priests and provided for the temple needs.

When God talks about the Store house in Malachi 3:6 he is talking about the place temple where you attend worship service. Let me share some scripture with you.

Malachi 3:6–10 ESV

6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Tithing is a statute. A statute is a common societal practice. The Common Societal Practice is to Financially Contribute to your house of worship.

Your first giving responsibility is not to a missionary or ministry outside of your house of worship.

Let me put it another way would you take your kids out to Applebees and expect the restaurant to provide you a free meal. What would happen if you walked out without paying?

Now you all expect when you show up here on Wednesday Nights and Sunday Mornings that there be a spiritual meal prepared for both you and your family. I believe you are well fed here. Some of you are paying and some of you are skipping out on the Check. There is no substitute for trusting in God. God’s word literally says you are a thief if you skip out on the tithe. He also says your money is cursed.

Here is the good news. Anybody want some good news this morning. When you pay Applebees for the meal you leave full and your pocket is a little emptier.

When you contribute to the meal in this church you leave full and your Pocket is a little emptier but your pocket is blessed.

Malachi 3:10 ESV

10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

In this year of holding nothing back, I am praying that this year we see our attendance Break 200 people in average attendance, I am also praying for a $5,000 a month increase in our monthly giving, and lastly I am praying that we would be able to hire a full time youth pastor that would be solely focused on Ministering to and growing our youth group. I believe that my children and your children deserve to have consistency in the youth building.

I am not trying to Guilt anyone into giving I am simply trying to show you what is possible when everyone begins to do their part. I want everyone of you to experience all that God has for you. Spiritually and Financially.

Pray:

Grab a bucket and pass it down the aisle.

You can give three ways online, in the bucket, or in the black box at the back of the room.

Rib Cook February 11th

21 Days of Prayer

We Continue our Prayer Meetings tomorrow morning at 6am. Fasting is up to you!

If you have your Bibles please turn with me to Romans chapter 10

Romans 10:1 ESV

1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

This is where Paul picks up in this section of the letter speaking of his fellow Jews. His desire is for them to make a choice to follow Jesus.

This Choice he is speaking of is The Greatest choice a person could ever make. Heres Why.

Romans 10:13 ESV

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

When I call upon the name of the Lord I find my rescue.

When I Find my rescue I can Hang onto the promise found in verse 11

Romans 10:11 M:BCL

11 Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.”

We know this, The majority of you here this morning have gotten this concept.

Here is my first question for you this morning.

How Many Out There Don’t Know They Have a Choice?

Romans 10:13 ESV

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:14a (ESV)

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

Romans 10:14b (ESV)

14 And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

Romans 10:14c (ESV)

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Romans 10:15a (ESV)

15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

Well Pastor get out there and start preaching. That’s what we are paying you for right? Why aren’t more people coming to this church?

I did go out, I went out to the Fire station and look at the results in our church. Here is the issue. I am only one man. How can one man reach a whole city, and how can one man reach a whole county.

I can’t.

Well we hired a Kid’s Pastor now there are two of you. Get to work win our city.

We can’t.

It takes a community to win a community. You know what Jesus said about it?

John 20:21 ESV

21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

Jesus is sending you!

Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Do you know what the Bible says about those Who Go where They are Sent?

Romans 10:15b(ESV)

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Well what if they don’t hear me?

I ask that question of God every Sunday!

What if they don’t listen God.

Paul addresses this too.

Romans 10:16 (ESV)

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”

Just like you, they have to make a choice. However I will stick with this idea. How will they have a choice if no one tells them there is one.

Romans 10:17 ESV

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Your probably thinking right now. “Who in McPherson County hasn’t heard the Gospel”

Paul wondered the same thing.

Romans 10:18 ESV

18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

Romans 10:19 ESV

19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

Paul is saying that about Israel your going to miss it and then get mad because somebody else gets it.

Isn’t this so much like people we know in the church. They are so full of themselves because they have been going to church since before all of ya’ll. They see somebody new excited for the Lord or getting blessed and they get all mad.

Well wait until they get a reality check, wait until new wears off.

I have been guilty of it so have you.

Romans 10:20 ESV

20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

If you are sitting here today Isaiah is talking about you.

You found something you didn’t know you were seeking.

You saw something you weren’t even asking for.

Come on Church. Let’s wake up before we find ourselves in the same place as Israel.

Israel Chose to Not to Obey the Gospel

Israel Chose Not to Open Their Hearts to a Gracious God.

The question we must ask ourselves is this.

Am I going to choose to draw near to what I have found in Jesus?

Am I going to choose to just keep doing it my way?

Am I going to choose to keep it all to myself?

Am I going to choose to go where I am sent?

Romans 10:21 ESV

21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”