GOOD SEEDS OF FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP PT 3
Notes
Transcript
INTRO:
Prayer and Fasting (Mon-Wed)
Graduation for Fuel class
Ariana Murillo, Angelica Murillo, Jennifer Willette, Jeremy Klick, Chelsie Herbst, Rigo Sosa, Shawna Sosa, Daisy Reyes, Jamie Young, Michael Young, Maria Mitchell, Cindy Williams.
KB Flyers in the chairs in front of you.
This is our final message on Good Seeds Of Financial Stewardship
Part 3: “Seeds Of Eternal Investments”
We started out with Stewardship (90%), Tithing (10%), Offerings (KB)
Matthew 6:19–21 (NLT)
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
Solomon the wealthiest man to ever live, writes about diversifying your seed:
1 Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you.
2 But divide your investments among many places, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.
3 When clouds are heavy, the rains come down. Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls.
4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.
5 Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.
6 Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.
7 Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning.
8 When people live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life. But let them also remember there will be many dark days. Everything still to come is meaningless.
9 Young people, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do.
10 So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless.
9 “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop.
10 It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.
22 “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.”
Gleaning - We might classify it as compassion or justice, but according to Levitical law it was a fruit of Holiness and set apart God’s people from the surrounding nations.
This is the Old Covenant “The Law”
So how does that apply to us today?
While we not under the Old Covenant we embrace the principles and heart behind it that applies to us today.
Israel, God’s children, were called to be a blessing to the surrounding nations and foreigners
We are God’s children…
EXAMPLE: Boaz (Jew from Bethlehem), Naomi and Ruth (Moabites)
Boaz was known as a generous man by the amount of crops left at 4 corners of his fields for the poor to collect.
9 See which part of the field they are harvesting, and then follow them. I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly. And when you are thirsty, help yourself to the water they have drawn from the well.”
10 Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly. “What have I done to deserve such kindness?” she asked. “I am only a foreigner.”
11 “Yes, I know,” Boaz replied. “But I also know about everything you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers.
12 May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.”
Remember what Jesus said? Much like Boaz’s comment to Ruth…
29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News,
30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.
31 But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.”
Boaz symbolizes redemption, sacrifice and blessing in the OT
His name means: “in him (bo) [there is] might (‘oz)”
Power to get Wealth
18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
In the NT Generosity is actually a God given gift:
6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.
7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.
8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
9 As the Scriptures say, “They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”
10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.
11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.
1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia.
2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.
3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will.
4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem.
5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.
6 So we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to return to you and encourage you to finish this ministry of giving.
7 Since you excel in so many ways—in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us—I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving.
Seeds of Eternal Investments
Seeds of Eternal Investments
The Tithe is about obedience
Kingdom Builders is about generosity (this is to specifically advance the kingdom of God)
We Give Locally - (building campaigns, church planting, QC Mission)
We Give Globally - (Pastoral training, BGMC, STL, Convoy of Hope, Wells for Wellness, Foreign church plants)
We Give Towards the Future - (Scholarships, and Training pastors locally and globally)
MESSAGE:
Look At What’s in your hand?
Seed of faith (Planting a seed) is sowing something i have; for something I don’t have. (Some tithe off the salary they are praying for)
Gleaning
First fruit offerings
First fruits is the offering made from the first proceeds of the year. For instance, the first salary you receive in a new employment or business venture or the proceeds from your first contract in the new year should go to the church.
There will never be a day in your life you have nothing.
Widow oil Elijah took something and multiplied it
Farmers plant specific seeds for a specific result
Seed type can be determined by the season or geographical location you are in. (Winter wheat, corn, beans) (Cotton, coffee, pineapples, banana’s)
If your seed is nothing your harvest will be years of nothing
The seed leaves your hand but not your life, God will look over the seed to produce a harvest for your life
So, As Christians We Should:
Give Secretly
1 “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.
2 When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get.
3 But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
4 Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
1. Begin With Obedience
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!
Tithe first
2. Establish A Financial Plan
5 Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.
Plan to give generously above the tithe
ILLUSTRATION: Dr. Ken, I will give 50% of unexpected income
Gleaning, Offerings, First Fruits…
Living Will and Trust leave a portion of your assets to the church
3. Dream and Establish a Vision Concerning Your Role In Expanding The Kingdom Of God
2 Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
How can God use your Time, Talent, and Treasure to be a blessing and a light to the nations like he called the Children of Israel to?
CONCLUSION:
Money is the mechanism
Generosity is the catalyst
Kingdom Builders is the outcome
Make reference to kingdom builders flyers