Family Talk

One of the reasons that we want a building is so that we can have a home. One of the things that you find in the Bible is concerning the kingdom of God. Is there three elements to the kingdom of God? God, His people, and a place. That's how the Bible begins. The Garden of Eden was a place where He puts man and He's home there.

And so we think it's a good thing for local churches to have a place. Sometimes you can't, and sometimes churches have to be on the move all the time, and some parts of the world, they never meet in the same place. But we have that privilege in this country, and so we're looking forward to getting our own place. And I have some things to share with you this morning that is really family talk. That's why it says that in the bulletin. So if you're visiting, please don't be offended by this.

This is just some family talk about some things that have come to a head in the last couple of weeks, and we need to talk about, we'll look in the word in just a few minutes and kind of in light of this, but I need to share some things. As you know, we have been working towards a building project for some time. We want our own place to worship, preach, teach, train, serve, fellowship, strategize, send, and support the work of the gospel for the glory of God. That's really our purpose. We want to have a facility, for example, where we can have rooms set up for teaching children. Our ladies work under the most incredible circumstances teaching our children today.

You ought to go over and look sometime. It's really amazing how hard they work at preparing to teach these kids, and they're teaching them some places that they teach are very difficult. We have to come and set up every Sunday morning. We have a crew that comes here and spends about an hour and a half solid working, setting up, and then after the service tearing all of that down, putting it back in a trailer, we put it in that trailer, and that's our church facility, is that little trailer that we hauled back and forth. We've been looking forward to, now that we've celebrated our sixth anniversary, we really have been looking forward to having our own place, that we could design and build in a way that would really facilitate the ministries of this church. One of the things we want to do, for example, in adult education, teaching the Word of God, and the teachings of the Word of God to adults, is we're going to have an extension of great school theology in our local church.

We'll have a place for it, and we'll be able to design it and set it up in a way that's going to be very helpful to us. To have a preaching center, we can worship like this and break bread together as believers. A place where every age group has a working space to do the work of ministry. So many things that God does through this church, and yet we do it under sometimes very difficult circumstances, because we don't have a place. So we've been praying for this, and we're getting closer. Where we're at right now, let me explain.

Our status is that we, as you know, we have seven acres of land that we've had for a while that's paid for, free and clear. We just now are able to take it off the tax rolls, praise the Lord. That's going to be about $3,500 a year that we'll save. We have a use permit. We've been working on that for a year, diligently, as fast as we could go, answering every question, doing everything the county approaches about. We now have a use permit.

We have to do a few things to complete that, some details to take care of, which we will be doing over the next few weeks. We have about $300,000 cash in the bank that's been given towards the building. There's probably been, I was trying to think, just a while ago, because I didn't even think about this, but there's probably been about $650,000, $700,000 that's been given towards the building project. And of course, we've purchased the land, and we've spent a lot of money just getting this use permit, taking care of all the details they've given us. We have another $400,000 that's been pledged in this building on the rock campaign that we started about a year ago. And then, when we look at the estimated cost of the building, this figure is a little lower than we've talked before, and the reason is that we are really looking at the very real possibility of downscaling the size of the building.

We were going to build a 17,500 square foot building, which would include an auditorium that was going to be a gymnasium. After looking at it and sharpening our pencils and looking at the reality of things, we have, we are considering scaling that down by 3 to 5,000 square feet. A 10,000 square foot facility would give us an auditorium that would seat about 400 between 400 and 500 people, plenty big for us. This auditorium seats 600, and you can see we got a lot of room to grow here, don't we?

But we wouldn't build a room like this where everybody feels so distant from one another. It would be much more intimate, and we would construct it in a way that we could facilitate the preaching of the word as well as multi-use where we could have fellowship events and those kind of things. And then all the classrooms we need in offices and all those things. If we can scale it down, if we can get this done through the plans, then that would bring the cost, the total cost of the whole project down a bit, perhaps around 1.5 million. Sounds like a lot of money, but if you stop and think about it, it's about the price of three median priced homes in this area now. And we will, we have, from the very beginning, tried to do the best we could to get the most for the dollar that we're going to have to spend.

So we still need, beyond the pledges that have already been made, we need about $800,000. My prayer and my hope is that we'll be able to raise that money before we finish the project. We have one year between now that we've received this use permit and we have to apply for the building permit where we actually take working plans to the county and begin that process. We had planned on beginning that very soon, but there's a couple of things that we have to face right now and that's going to determine a lot about the timing. If we begin this process right away, then we would get to the building process within a few months.

But realistically, if we do it within this first year, this is how much money it's going to take to finish this project. Where in the world would that money come from? Well, it would come from God moving the hearts of people to give. As he always has in the past over these last six years, he's done the supernatural. We've had people, I was talking to a man the other day, who was Steve Flesher from, he called me from Tennessee. Steve was with us for a couple of years, three years, I think, and Steve and Vina and they were really a part of the core of this church.

When they moved, they had to move to Atlanta. They continued to support the church for over a year, continued to give their support to this church, used to have amazed me to see those letters come in. Why would they do that?

Well because God moved their heart to, and he's always calling me wanting to know how things are going, and how's the ministry going, and how's the building project going, and how are all these things going? Because his heart is here. Every church, any church you go to is like this, unless there are probably a few that don't even have this, but almost every church, it's a Bible teaching, Christ, and a church, is structured something like this. There is a core of people that are absolutely committed to the work of that local church. Their heart is there, their bodies are there. Their money is there.

They are committed to the life and growth and ministry of that church. If the church were to shut down, if the God was to remove the lampstand, they would weep over it. That's the core of the church. We have a wonderful core of people in this church who would lay down their life to see the work of Christ continue on through this local fellowship. Then there are concentric circles out beyond that. Some people are still wondering where they are going to stay here, whether this is their church home, some want a relationship with the church where they just kind of keep distance and tend once in a while, and that's fine.

That's the spirit of God's work in hearts. If the church was to cease to exist, they would say that's really too bad. I hate to see that, but they wouldn't shed any tears. With that core of people who have given sacrificially and systematically and with deep satisfaction because that's how Paul describes the way we are to give in 1st, 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 and 9, where to give systematically on a regular basis, where to give sacrificially, and where to give with deep joy and satisfaction. People who give like that to a local church, it's just one aspect of their life as a believer. Some people aren't aware of this, but Jesus, if you look through the teaching of Jesus in the gospels, 15% of what Jesus says is about finances and material possessions.

Why does God care so much about material things, about your money and your possessions? Well, it's because your money and possessions reveal the truth about your heart. That's just a fact. Where you invest your money, how you spend your money, the possessions that you have and how you treat them, reveal the true spiritual condition of your heart. So Jesus is always, and Paul is always using that as a reflection of where we are in our spiritual walk. What we need God to do is to do something to the hearts of people.

That's really where it matters. God is perfectly able to fill your wallets. The other thing he needs to do is to open our hearts. He needs to open our hearts. We are dependent totally upon the work of God, among the people of God, to accomplish this task. Our need is, first of all, we need God to expand the committed core in this church.

Just through this normal flow of life, we are having some families that are part of this church, our very important part, that are moving away for one reason or another. And we hate to lose them. It pains me to lose these people that are so much a part of the life of this church.

But God knows what He's doing, and we believe that in His sovereign to He brings people and He takes people away for His purposes. Now we pray that some of these people that are planning on going, their plans are going to be ruined. They're just going to have to stay here, you know. And I just heard Joe, the colors house deal fell through, so praise the Lord, He's answering prayer. Might even have to keep Him here.

But we need God to expand the core. We need God to bring in, to draw in from this outer circles and from people that He brings in, people that will become a part of the heart of this church, who not only love the gospel and love Jesus Christ, but love His work here and the people here. That's a wonderful part about the kingdom of God, a God, a people and a place. You know, without the people of God, the Christian life is pure drudgery. If you're not connected with the people of God, if you're simply one of those Christians who sometimes place faith in Christ, but you never got anchored into a local church, where you lay down your life, where you give of yourself, and where you receive as God pours His grace in the lives of people and they pour it out into your life, then you're missing a great dynamic, a great part of the Christian life, and you'll never grow without it. It's just a normal part of God's design.

So we are praying that God would expand the core of this church, the number of people who are committed to give not just their money, but give themselves in support and prayer. Have you prayed about this? Is it all your prayer list? That's a good question to ask yourself. Have you been praying about this project? Because we've talked about it, you know the needs that we have.

Have you been praying about it? Well, that reveals something about where your heart's at. Let you pray about reveals, just as the way we handle money in our material things reveals something about our heart. And then we need to ask God to increase the general giving, the giving to the general fund by about 20%. This is a problem we face, and we can't really move ahead on this building until this is solved. And let me explain it to you.

This past year, this church has given an abundance of money. They gave nearly $80,000 to missions. I mean, imagine that, a little church like this. $80,000, it's about 40%, almost 40% of our general operating expenses that people gave specifically to the work of missions around the world. That's wonderful. They gave around $300,000 to this building project. And yet we had a shortfall on our general fund.

Now some of that is circumstantial because we sacrificed to give to this. We robbed Peter to pay for all kind of thing. And that puts us in a bind because in this year, we began in 2004 with a $30,000 deficit. And that deficit has continued exactly the same through these first four months. It hasn't diminished at all. So what we are praying that God would do very specifically is to increase the general giving.

And we're not talking about, I'm not here to make an appeal today for you to give a big amount of money. If you want to, please do. But that's not the point. The point is what we need God to do is to move in our hearts so that there is a commitment and a continuance in this. That we continue to do this. We want the Lord to bring this up and keep it there so that we can continue on in the work.

Our expenses, we've tried to keep down as best we can. We're conscious of that and we try our best to keep our expenses low. Some things grow because of the number of people. We have more children. We have 50 children coming to Wawana, for example. We had to increase our overhead for buildings because we have to rent the cafeteria on Sunday evenings for our Wawana program.

We have more people doing Bible studies, more printing, all kinds of things. So that's just the normal path of things. But we have kept our spending down. We've kept our budget the same for these past two years.

But we need the Lord to work in our hearts and to empower us and to motivate us to commit long-term to bring this up so we could remove this deficit and see the norm. Normal operations of the ministry continue on. And then we need him to provide all the resources for this project through our giving. I don't have any doubt that he can do this. I don't think it's wrong to borrow money. I just think it's better not to.

And I would love for God to supply us so we have to borrow no money. That would really be an amazing thing, wouldn't it? That he would empower us to give and we would receive gifts that would bring this to fruition without us going into debt. To me, it would be such a wonderful thing not to burden this congregation down with alone. It would be so wonderful to have a church facility free and clear. And if we need to scale it down in order to help facilitate that we want to.

We're not saying we won't because we may get to the place where it would be much wiser to get alone to finish the project than it would be to wait and then the cost of building go up. And we'll have to use wisdom. But that's our prayer that God would provide that we could accomplish and finish this project in a way that's going to glorify God. So we could put a little sign out in the front of the building and saying this project was financed by the people of God instead of the Bank of America. Wouldn't that be wonderful? The God does this and over the years, when we were the first piece of property we had, we bought.

Well, how much was that anyway? 150 or something like that was over it was? I don't remember. But whatever it was, the first thing to happen, we got a gift from somebody totally outside this church who sent us $20,000 because they heard about us wanting to buy this property, send us $20,000 unsolicited and totally surprising. That's how God does, isn't it?

And so we want to pray concerning that. We pray for needs. It glorifies God for us to have needs and to come to Him and ask Him to meet those needs. I don't have any doubt about it. This is the sovereignty of God that we are at this place, that we have this deficit, that we have these needs that need to be addressed. It's the sovereignty of God because He wants to bring our attention to the fact that we need Him and we can't do it on our own.

We must trust Him. I don't want you to put your giving on your credit card. I don't want you to go and get a loan to give the building fund. I want God to bless us and to motivate us to give and so that this project will be completed. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, now this I say, he who sows sparingly also reap will reap sparingly, he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one, now get this, this is a great principle, this is the principle of New Testament giving.

The New Testament giving principle is better than tithing under the law. Now I think you should tithe until you get going because tithing is like training wheels. And sometimes when you're very young the faith you need training wheels.

But once you discover that God is able to do so much more than you can imagine, you can take the training wheels off and enjoy the freedom of grace giving. But look at the principle of grace giving. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart as each one has purposed in his heart. This has to be intentional. It has to be something you think about, pray about and decide to do. You will never accidentally give the way God wants you to give.

You must decide that you're going to do it intentionally as he has purposed in his heart not grudgingly or under compulsion. Under compulsion means when I, if I were to get up here and begin to twist your arms. As we talked this past week about this need we have for our general fund and the need to bring this up and to get rid of this deficit, we talked about all the possibilities. What could we do? What are some things that we could do that would encourage us as a congregation to give? One suggestion was we passed the plate.

Now I think it's perfectly legitimate to pass a plate. It's not that we're more spiritual because we don't pass a plate. We have a box in the back and what we want you to do is go to that box, fill out your envelope and put your money in that envelope as you have determined in your own heart. Over the last 30 years, 33 years, I've been in three churches as a third church and we have done it both ways except in this church. We've only done it this way and I can tell you what always happens. The difference is simply this.

When you pass a plate you get some incidental spontaneous giving because when somebody puts up offering plate in front of you, you feel a little bit of an obligation so you start reaching and people will give in a kind of a spontaneous, unthinking way. You know what, that's fine and there is a benefit to passing the plate because it becomes a part of your worship and you can give God thanks for this part in worship of offering up good things to the Lord from your substance. But we prefer to have a box, a giving box where you determine and you pray about with your family and you determine what you're going to give and you give systematically. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, every first day of the week, now they did it in the first century every single week because they were paid daily. Some of you were paid once a month so you're not going to give every week but you're going to give on a regular systematic way. That's a part of the disciplines of the Christian life and you're going to give with deep satisfaction earlier in this chapter in chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians, Paul said that the Macedonians who were very poor, he says they're deep, crouching poverty mixed with their overflow of joy and it resulted in liberal giving.

Now what they gave wasn't a large amount but it was big because it was a sacrifice and you know why they gave because they were full of joy and I would say to you, I really mean this, don't give unless you can have joy in giving. Now you'll never find out until you try it. Mary and Lawrence told me his pastor 40 years ago said to him, you start giving just try it and see if you like it and he says I tried it and I like it and I've done it ever since.

Well that's pretty good and what you will discover if you do it out of obedience to Christ and out of love for Christ and His people, as being a dispenser of the grace of God, you will discover it's one of the greatest joys in Christian living is to give sacrificial systematically and with deep satisfaction. So I commend it to you but that's between you and the Lord and we're not going to use compulsion, we're not going to send you out letters saying, hey don't you remember you promised to give this much and you haven't given it so you better give it. We're not going to do that. We are going to trust the Spirit of God to work in your hearts. We're going to teach the Bible and as it comes up in the Bible we're going to talk about it and he says this, this is why God wants it this way rather than compulsion, it's because because God loves a cheerful giver. The word cheerful, he lost, it comes from the word he lost mass or he lost staryon and the English word from which we get that is hilarious but it means with deep satisfaction.

God wants you to give with deep satisfaction. I've been thinking about this because we had this meeting I've been thinking about this whole thing and I actually thought about possibly doing a series on giving but you know what? I want to go back to Romans and next week I'm going to go back to Romans, I'm not going to do a series on giving but I am going to do a series of praying on giving. I want to pray that God would move our hearts and I want you to pray about it and I want you to consider it. This is a big commitment to be a part of a local church. It's a commitment and it's a joyful commitment and you will discover the smile of God when he teaches you and I would say this and I mean it from my heart.

You need to be in a church where you can cheerfully give. If you're in a church, if you're in this church and there's some reason you just can't bring yourself to give then either get your heart right or get in the right church because it's such an important part of the Christian life. It's for you to give cheerfully and with deep satisfaction. I hope I'm not running anybody off. And God is able, Paul says, to make all grace abound you. Notice all these a's, a's and a's and a's efficiencies look at this.

God is able to make all grace abound you so that always having all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed. I want to tell you something that our problem financially has nothing to do with how much money we have in this congregation. That isn't it at all because all we are is conduits through which the grace of God flows. God places, according to 1 Corinthians 12, God places in the church just the people he wants in a given local church. He puts the gifts there as he builds his church. It's a matter of us opening our hearts, opening our lives and letting the grace of God flow through us.

Not just in material things, but in spiritual things, in ministry and service and laying down your life for the very ones that Jesus Christ laid down his life. Let's look at a passage in 1 Peter. This is one of my favorite passages when I begin to think about, are we doing what we're supposed to be doing? My mind is always drawn to this passage. 1 Peter, chapter 4, 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 7. What kind of church are we to be? I want you to notice the context because it relates so much to where we are this very day.

Most of you are aware, many of you who are Bible readers especially are very aware of the marks of the last days. In other words, the Bible talks about what's going to be going in the last days, what's going to be happening in the world before Jesus Christ comes back. Before He comes and sets up His kingdom on this earth, and when righteousness covers the earth, when He judges the unrighteous and rewardous people and establish His kingdom upon the earth, we're told that certain things will be happening and as we see these things begin to happen, we know that His coming is closer and closer. For example, there's going to be an increasing number of authoritarian religious leaders, false Christs in the world, who will mislead many. There will be increasing international unrest. There's going to be wars and rumors of wars all over the face of the globe.

There's going to be increasing occurrences of natural catastrophes like floods and plagues and famines and violent storms. And what we have discovered over the last few decades at many times, famines and plagues are caused by human beings and it's happening around the world in increasing ways. There will be increasing hostility towards Israel by their neighbors. You see any of that? We're told that there will be increasing movement toward a one-world, these events marked the last days and certainly we know that we have been in the last day since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Bible refers to us basically as the eschatological people.

Here are the last days people because we are the people upon whom the Holy Spirit has been poured out. And Joel says that's going to happen in the last days. That's all right. I don't need this. I'm fine. Yeah, it is unplugged.

There's no plug. Yeah, so well, there is one down there, but I'm not going to plug it in now. I'm just going to go on. We don't need it overhead. We are living in the last days and I'm all confused now.

Let me get my mind back here of what I'm doing. We are living in the last days and Peter says here in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 7, listen to these words, the end of all things has drawn near, therefore there's something we ought to do because the last days have drawn near, because we're living in the last days, kinds of times, how should we be? What kind of church should we be living in these last days? If you're not aware of the fact that this culture you are living in is vastly moving away from Christianity and is becoming more and more anti-God and anti-Christian, then you're just blind and deaf. I won't say you're dumb because you probably speak, but you just aren't thinking because we're moving in a direction where the things of God and the things of the gospel are despised more and more. We're living in hostile environment more and more and churches around the world are.

These are the last days, but listen to what Peter says we ought to be doing. What kind of church ought we to be in the last days? Are we to take up arms, defend ourselves, become more political, get more aggressive?

Well, listen to what he says, therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins, be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. I want to put out four things if you're taking notes, four things that the church ought to be in these last days.

First of all, we are to be a praying church. God wants us, Christ wants us to be a praying church in the last days. Our temptation, especially in days like this, is to be distracted by so many things. Jesus said in Luke 21, when persecution comes on the church, there will be many that are distracted and will not be able to pray. The primary and reason many of us aren't praying like we should is because of this very thing. We are distracted.

And so Paul says, you sound judgment and be sober. Have your right mind about you. Be sober about your life and about the things of life and about the things of God. Be sober and alert for the purpose of prayer. That's what keeps us from praying. What is your prayer life like?

As a part of the body of Christ, as a part of the church of Jesus Christ, as a part of the kingdom work of God, and spreading the gospel here and around the world. What is your prayer life like? And notice, he said, it's for the purpose of prayers. What's going on here when he uses this expression in a plural sense in this way, this word, prayers in the plural, he's referring to all the times that we as believers pray together. Prayer meetings, seasons of prayer, times of prayer. He says, be sober and alert so that you can pray together as the people of God.

I read this morning from Hebrews chapter 4, think of the privilege that you have as believers in Jesus Christ, that you have access to the throne of God, to the center of the universe, to the ruler of all things. You have access. The writer of Hebrew says, we ought to come to God with boldness, with freedom of speech, and to know that we can express our hearts to the living God, as we express the needs of His people. We are helpless in our own power. And all the stuff we do when we are prayerless, all the busyness we have, even in the work of God, is simply displaying what we can do ourselves.

But when we pray, when we ask God, when we come to God, when we get to the end of ourselves, and we must turn to God for help, then we see what God can do. Many of you were here a few years ago when Mina Flesher almost died at Delta Hospital and how all the so many of us gathered together to pray for her there at the hospital. And we saw God do a miraculous thing in saving her life. And it was amazing. The atmosphere in that room is about 30 of us gathered is we were in absolute desperation. There was nothing we could do, and the doctor said there was nothing they could do.

And so we had to depend upon the living God. And as you poured your hearts out, as we prayed and came before the Father and pleaded with Him to move and to heal and to raise up He did. He answered our prayers and none of us had any question about it. It was the work of the living God. He did it. We pray and He answers.

We know it's His hand. And so He's brought us to this place today. We have needs in the life of this flock. We're at a stage in the life of this church where we need Him to kick us into another gear. We need Him to pull into this core of people, others who are willing to hand shoulder to shoulder be with us in the work of the gospel as we do the work here and promote it around the world. We're told in the New Testament that God wants to work through prayer.

He has sovereignly chosen to do His work through the prayer of His people. Some people can't understand that. If God is sovereign, then why do we have to pray? He already knows what we need. The Bible says that He knows before we ask. Then why should we ask?

Because that is how He has designed it. And if we don't pray, He won't act. Is it because He can't? No. It's because He won't. He's determined to do it that way.

He's going to work for His own glory by answering the prayers of His people who pray in the Spirit. The second thing we are to be besides being a praying church in verse 8 is we are to be a forgiving church. What the world needs in these last days are churches that are forgiving churches, that are places they can come into and find a people who know how to forgive. And notice the expression.

First Peter chapter 4 verse 8, above all, in fact, this is the most important thing, Peter says, above all, in the first place, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. Love covers a multitude of sins. This love that is described here, that is unveiled to us in the New Testament, in the revelation of Jesus Christ, this love that was displayed on the cross of Christ, this love of God, and the love of Christ for His people that was displayed on Calvary, this agape love, the self-giving service, kind of love, He says, is to characterize the fellowship, we are to do it fervently.

Now that word fervently doesn't mean simply warmth of emotion, it doesn't mean be real emotional in your love for one another. Certainly, you are going to feel love deeply, but that is not the emphasis here. This word fervently means with consistency, stringuously, being committed to it, unremitting in your love for one another. That's what it takes to live in the context of a local church. How else can you possibly make it in this fallen world, in a church filled with sinners saved by grace, unless you are absolutely committed to love each other? That's what families all about, isn't it?

It is a commitment to each other, and He says that love covers a multitude of sins. You remember the story in Genesis 9, after the flood, Noah becomes a farmer and begins to raise grapes, and He makes wine, and He drinks wine, and He gets drunk. He gets so drunk and so heated by the drunkenness that He lays in His tent naked, and Ham walks in and sees His Father there. There's drunken in this drunken state stripped of all of His clothes. In a very humiliating state, and Ham goes in, and then He goes out and probably had His son with Him, Canaan, and He goes out and begins to make fun of His Father to His brothers.

Well, Japheth and Seth decide because they love their Father and they respect their Father, because of their love for Him, they take a covering, a blanket. They put it over their shoulders side by side, and they walk backward into the tent without looking at their Father in His nakedness, and they cover Him up. That's the picture that Peter is giving us here. Love covers a multitude of sins.

Now the word doesn't mean that love atones for. It doesn't mean that love conceals what should be revealed in dealt with. It means that love seeks to obliterate and cause to disappear sin and its effects. In other words, if you love a person, you want to see them deal with the sin in such a way that it will be removed from their life, and the effects of it remove from their life. It's a great title of a book. I don't know how good the book is, but a few years ago, other professors at Fuller University, I mean Fuller Seminary wrote a book and it was entitled Forgiveness.

The only way to change the past, aren't you glad for forgiveness? Aren't you glad that the forgiveness that Christ brings changes the past? It's talking to somebody the other day who's had a grudge against family members for 28 years, and won't speak to them.

Now what in the world could you have done 28 years ago, and it wasn't anything, there is no serious violation, it's the small stuff of life not taking me seriously, not treating me the way they treat other people in the family, 28 years, 28 years of separation and alienation because they won't forgive, they won't forgive. Isn't that horrible? Well in the life of the church, the church of Jesus Christ and Calvary Community Church is to be a church that is characterized by forgiveness. We are a fellowship of forgiveness. We are to be a place where people can find forgiveness with God and forgiveness from the people of God. Steve Flescher was telling me when I was talking to him on the phone about a membership meeting he went to and somebody asked the question of this pastor, it's a church in Atlanta, it's about 7,000 people, and somebody, one of the people in this class asked the pastor what his position was, what their stance was as a church regarding homosexuality.

And he said, I would like to have every homosexual in Atlanta attend our church and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be changed. This woman got a little upset and she thought that was quite a dangerous kind of response because what he should be talking about is taking a stand against this particular form of sin. And he said, and I couldn't believe this, what a bold thing to say, but he says, God doesn't hate their sin, any worse than he hates the sin of the adulterers who are sitting in this room. And everybody was very quiet and looked straight ahead like they didn't know he was talking about. And then he began to describe Jesus' description of what adultery is. And a man looks on a woman to lust after her, he has committed adultery in his heart already.

Isn't it something that some people find it strange that you could find forgiveness in a local church? That some people are afraid that if they were to go to a local church, they'd be judged. Isn't that what they do in local churches? Isn't that what they're supposed to do? They're supposed to judge your sin, right? Isn't that what we're here for?

No, we're a fellowship of forgiveness. We're going to tell people the truth about their sin and the truth about the cross and the truth about forgiveness and cleansing and transformation. Sinners can be forgiven.

First thing that has to happen is you've got to come, you have to fess up that you actually are a sinner who needs forgiveness. It's like we do on a regular basis as believers. We need forgiveness. And this is a place of forgiveness. It's important and it can't be overemphasized. The New Testament says this is a crown of all the activity in the church.

Think of that. Colossians chapter 1 says the most important thing that you do in the activity of the churches to forgive each other, to love one another, to manifest that love in your forgiveness. Isn't that great? I love that. I am so glad that I am in the midst of a people who know how to forgive because God has forgiven us. You see, the only way you'll ever learn how to forgive is if you come to grips with the fact that you are a real sinner who God has forgiven in Christ.

Like the woman who came into the room when Jesus was reclining at table with Simon the Pharisee and began to weep over his feet, wash his feet with their tears, dry them with their hair, anointed his head with oil, and yet she was a woman of the street. And this Pharisee got all upset and Jesus says the reason that her heart is so filled with joy and she has washed my feet and anointed my head and kissed me is because she is so full of joy over the fact that she has been forgiven much. The church has filled, this church has filled and every church has filled with people who have been forgiven much. We've been forgiven much. And those who have been forgiven much are able to forgive others. This is the chief way that there is integrity in the life of the church when we love each other, as Jesus said in John 13, how are they going to know you're really my disciples?

By the shape of your building, by the clothes you wear, by the rules you have in the church? No, he says the way they're going to know that you're my disciples is when you love each other the way I have loved you. Well, how did he love us? He forgave us. He went to the cross and paid the penalty for our sins, for our forgiveness. Where to be a church that is characterized by forgiveness.

The third thing in verse 9 is that where to be a giving church, a giving church, look at that, be hospitable to one another without complaint. Be hospitable with one another without complaint. The word complaint means to murmur. You ever had people over, the good illustration of this, and now I'm trying to, should I tell you, I watched that program, let's see. I was watching, everybody loves Raymond last night. As I was finishing up some stuff and I saw as a little part of it, but the scenario was some friends that come over and they had this little kid who was an absolute demon and driving Raymond crazy and his wife wanted to engender this friendship and have him over all the time and when they weren't there, he was complaining and griping because he didn't like have to have to put up with that kid.

You ever done that? You ever been hospitable but with a lot of grumbling and complaining? Well, Peter says we must be hospitable.

But as we must lay down our resources for the needs of one another without complaining, without complaining. That's good enough just by itself, isn't it great to be in a church where there's no complaining? You know I love by this church, there's no complaining in this church. I have this system, it really works great, I have this system that nobody complains to me and whoever you complain to, they will never tell me. So I'm always assuming there's no complaining going on in this church and man it's great. A non-complaning church, be hospitable to one another without complaint.

Other words, be free. God promises and for the second Corinthians 9 to supply you everything you need to give away. That's the most amazing thing. He hasn't promised you to supply you everything that you need in order to have all the things that you want.

But He has promised you, this is a promise of Scripture, second Corinthians chapter 9, that He will always supply you everything you need to meet the needs of other people when you want to. Isn't that something? Have you ever been afraid that when somebody asks you for something that if you were to respond and give them, then you would be really be stuck because they would never stop asking you and you wouldn't have enough for yourself? And yet God says that He was just the one who supplies the sower with the seed will supply you with everything you need in order to meet the needs of those that God brings into your life, that you are to love and be hospitable to and to draw into your life. One of the worst things about any local church is when they get clickish, when you have these little groups and nobody can break in. We never want to be like that.

We want to be a welcoming church because we have a welcoming God. It's an easy church to get into and become a part of because we have a welcoming God who loves people and we are to love people and to embrace them. The church should be a place where people enjoy being because they are a church that has a heart of hospitality. They open their hands. They are giving. I love the pattern that Jesus has when you read through the gospels, all you have to do is read through the gospel accounts, read the teaching of Jesus.

If you want to see the true nature of material things, it's an amazing unveiling of the truth of things as Jesus unveils before our eyes what material things and riches are really all about. He tells us the truth and many of us don't know the truth. We believe the lie of this world system. This world system says you've got to get more. You don't do it unless it pays. For example, you know what the biblical theology of work is?

The biblical theology of work is this, do good work and trust God to provide for your needs. Isn't that odd? Do good work for God's glory and trust God to provide for your needs. The world says, find a good paying job and keep looking for a better paying one. God says, do good work and trust me to meet all your needs. Rich Young ruler comes to Jesus and says, how can I have eternal life?

And Jesus said, well, do the commandments. I've known the commandments since I was a child, I've kept the commandments. And Jesus knowing what his God was, which was his riches said, go, give everything you have away and come and follow me.

Now it's a symbol for me that you want to follow Christ and get rid of all your gods. And his God was material things. And so he says, get rid of your God and come worship the true and living God. And the text says that he went away quite sad because he had many things. Jesus says there is freedom in giving everything away.

Now we have to do it for giving is just like forgiveness. When somebody sins against you, you can't forgive them until they ask for your forgiveness. But you can be ready to forgive. You can already set your heart to forgive. You may have somebody who's got a grudge against you. I know some of you that do, that you have somebody who has a grudge against you and they've sinned against you years ago and you are ready to forgive all that needs to happen as they simply have to ask for it and you'll grant it.

But if they never admit, if they never acknowledge they've sinned against you, you can't forgive them. Giving is the same way. God wants you to come to the place where you open your hands, open your heart, and everything is available to God. Everything. That's what the early church did. Everything is available for God to use, whatever I have.

I've been convicted lately about my library, my most prized possession, and I've decided when we get this new building, I'm going to set up a library where anybody can borrow my books, not all my books, but anybody can borrow those books that I will allow to go out of the building, but we're going to have a librarian who is mean as all get out. So if you forget to bring them back, they're going to come after you. But I decided I want those books to be used by as many people as possible. Because they're gods, right? Everything you own is his. Everything.

Remember the rich farmer who said, man, God has blessed me, I've been, I've made so much money, he didn't say God did it, I've made so much money, I have so many riches, I'm going to tear down my old barns, build new ones, and fill them up, and then I can rest. I'm rich. And Jesus said, what a fool. This very night his soul is going to be required and he is not rich towards God. Have you ever done this, have you ever calculated how much money you've invested in the kingdom of God in your life? I never thought about this until this week because I've been thinking about these things in my own life and my own patterns and my own giving of these last 33 years, I learned to give 33 years ago, October of 1981, 1971, sorry, these decades go so fast.

You weren't even born in 1971, Valley Bible Church started because I love that church, because I would lay down my life and I'm going to begin to give consistently, 1971, and I begin to think, how much have you invested in the kingdom of God and how much of you invested in your retirement plan? You ever think about that? How much of you invested in the kingdom of God did you? I never had thought about this before, but what if your life's goal was, I want to invest a million dollars in the kingdom of God during my lifetime. I don't know, that's not out of reach. That is not of reach.

I mean, for some people, obviously, they have a lot of money, but even you working stiffs like me, it isn't out of reach. If you're consistent, if you actually want to invest in the kingdom of God, think about it. What treasures am I laying up in heaven? You know, what if you were in the, what if you were living here in the war with the Confederacy and you had Confederate money? And you could see that they were going down and that this money was going to become worthless, but it still had some worth. What would you do with that money?

Well, you would exchange it, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you exchange it with money that was going to have some value? You remember Jesus' parable of the man who's walking along down the road and he cuts through a field because you could do that. When the field wasn't planted, it was okay to cut through a field, and so he's a shortcut. He's going through there, but the ground is rough. He has a walking stick, and Jesus said he's walking along, and his stick goes down, and he discovers there's a, his stick hits something that was, that was hollow, there was something down there.

It wasn't a rock, and so he stopped, and he started feeling, and then he dug it up, and when he dug it up, he discovered it was a box full of treasure, treasure like he had never seen before, silver and gold and jewels, and the kind of riches he could never imagine. You know what he did? He put the top on it, he covered it up, he went home, and he sold everything he had so that he could go and buy that field. That field cost him everything, but Jesus said he was a smart man, because what he was getting was the treasure in the field. He says, that's how the kingdom of God is. Think of that, that when I invest in the kingdom, I just, I, this came to me in October of 1971 as a young man in business for myself, struggling, trying to figure out what I should do with my money and how I should make it in life and take care of my family, and it came to me.

Whatever else you do, anything you invest in the kingdom is secure forever. Investment counselors will tell you, don't think of five years, think of 10 years, 20 years, 25 years. God says, don't think of 25 years, think of 10,000 years. What are you investing in? Imagine that, everything that you invest in the kingdom of God is eternally secure. We believe in the eternal security of the money you invest in the kingdom.

That's what Peter says, it's all protected for you when you invest in that. And then notice the last thing, the last characteristic of the church that he mentions in verse 10 is, we are to be a trustworthy church, a trustworthy church. And notice what I mean by this, notice in verse 10, as each one has received a gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Let me tell you what a steward is. A steward was a servant in a household who had the responsibility to take the resources of the owner of the house and dispense them to all the members of the household. The owner would buy and pay for all the necessities of the people in the household. The steward over the house was to dispense those goods to the people. He had a stewardship. You remember the parable that Jesus told about the steward who wasn't fulfilling his stewardship?

And the owner found out about it and he said, you're through. You're out of here because he wasn't faithful in his stewardship. Now let me explain something to you. Peter says in this verse that we, all of us without exception, every single believer is a steward of God. We're a steward of the manifold grace of God. Are you going to be faithful as a steward?

Now the emphasis in this verse, the emphasis I want to make is not on your money. It is on your dispensing, God's grace through the exercise of your gift. That may include money. You may have the gift of giving. When he's talking about us dispensing, God has gifted you every single believer here. Every believer in the body of Christ has a spiritual gift.

A unique way that God has given you to dispense his grace into the lives of people. He calls it his manifold grace. This is the word that's used in the Old Testament of the many colored coat of Joseph. Remember that? It has many colors and shapes and sizes. It comes in all kinds of ways, but the grace of God always meets the needs of His people.

He says, this is how I get grace to my people. It's through other people. How does He meet the needs of His people through people? How have I come to learn the truth of Scripture through people, through teachers, through men who are faithful, who open the Scriptures to me? How have I grown in the Christian life through the stewardship of people? There are people in this world whose fingerprints are all over my life because they dispense the grace of God into my life at crucial times.

Isn't that true of you? That God has placed people in your life at particular times, for a particular purpose to dispense His grace, the very grace that you needed at that moment. That grace may have been to be confronted about sin. It may have been that you needed someone to come alongside of you and encourage you because you were about to give up or may have been that you needed someone to come and face-to-face confront you about your sin. That's grace. Are you dispensing the grace of God?

Are you doing it intentionally? Some of you are doing it, but not intentionally. It's just kind of a natural thing. You don't think about it, but you're dispensing God's grace. That's wonderful, but we're to be intentional about it. It's like the writer of Hebrews says, when you come to church, you're supposed to prepare yourself.

Why? So that you could encourage other believers to incite them to love and good deeds. Do you do that? Do you come to church to meet with the saints? Do you prepare your heart to incite other believers to love and good deeds? There are people in this church that you know and you know they're going through certain things.

They've got a load that's heavy. They face things that seem as you look at it, you wonder how do they do it? Do you ever come alongside of them intentionally because you know that God wants you? You've thought about it. You've reasoned about it. You've prayed about it.

You've come to them and you said, God wanted me to come and to encourage you that I'm praying for you. And I know you have a difficult task, but he's going to bring you through. He's a faithful God. He's brought me through times like this, too. You ever do that? Do you know that is good stewardship?

We are to be a faithful church, a church that is faithful to its calling to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Do you know that it's your stewardship to learn the Word of God? Do you know that learning the Word of God isn't just, you know, that's a good thing to do. It'll make you a better Christian. You'll be happy. You'll have more joy.

Things will go better. You'll know how to live the Christian life. It isn't just that, brothers and sisters. It is the fact that you have a responsibility to learn the Word of God and pass it on. I have scripture for that. The writer of Huber says, it's time for you, you are at a time when you should be able to teach others.

God's called you to that. It may be your own children. It may be your husband, your wife. It may be other people in your family. It may be a Sunday school class. It may be just brothers and sisters that you meet with occasionally.

You have a responsibility to learn the Word of God and pass it on. How long have you been in the faith? How long have you been in the faith? Are you where you should be when it comes to understanding the grace of God that's unveiled you in the Word of God? Can you communicate the truth of God? It may be in a very simple way.

It may be in a way that you feel very timid about. I couldn't stand up before people and talk like a preacher or a teacher. Can you communicate the truth of God's Word in the simplest kinds of ways? That's a part of our stewardship. Are we a faithful church? This is what we must be in the last days.

A trustworthy church that takes our stewardship seriously. We have missionaries around the world that we are partnering with, that we're in fellowship with, that we support in various ways, and they're counting on us to pray for them, to support them, to even come once in a while and help them in the ministry. Are we going to be trustworthy in the stewardship that God has given us to whom much is given, to whom much is given? Think about that. Have you received much from Him? Then much is required.

The more grace you receive, the more grace you are responsible to steward, to dispense as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And I may just close with this. Look at the last verse, verse 11. This is his advice to us, as we exercise the spiritual gift that God has given us in dispensing his grace. He says, if you speak, if you have a speaking gift and there are several, if you have a speaking gift, then let him speak as it were, the utterances of God. Recognize that God's the one who will supply you the things to say and take seriously that you must deliver the Word of God, like a cryer who, a town cryer who goes out into the streets and announces the message of the king, the ruler.

He has a responsibility to communicate that message. If you have a speaking gift, you have a responsibility to take seriously what it is that God's called you to communicate. He says, whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies. Why is it necessary that we do service, trusting in, relying upon God to supply everything we need so that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever amen. We have a huge responsibility. God's placed us in the world at a crucial time and a crucial place.

He's got us here where He wants us. He's brought the people that He wants and He has given us a stewardship that we are to fulfill. Want to be wonderful to be able to stand before Christ on that last day and hear Him say to our brothers and sisters around us, well done, now good and faithful servant. Want to be great? Isn't that what you live for? The day when you're going to see Christ and He's going to say, well done.

What a day that's going to be. When He's going to speak to you and He's going to call your name. Think of that. Tom, well done. You good and faithful servant. Isn't that going to be a great day?

I am going to rejoice when He calls your name and He says, well done, now good and faithful servant. That's what we look forward to. That's what we live for.

And so He's called us to be a church that's a praying church, a forgiving church, a giving church and a trustworthy church that takes its stewardship seriously and fulfills its obligation. It will be a glorious day. I'd like to invite you, if you'd to pray, gather in your homes with other people. Come out with us this evening. Come out to our home this evening at 5. We're going to pray together about these needs.

We have so many needs. So many people in the church going through different things that have needs. We have a need as a local church. As we look ahead and we see this mountain before us, this project that seems so big for us is a small congregation. Jesus said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain be cast in the sea and it will be removed.

And so we're going to pray. That's what we're going to do. So I'm just calling upon you as a church to fulfill your calling as the people of God. Do what He's called us to do. Let's see His hand work and we can give Him praise. He'll get all the credit because it's Him that we ask.

Let's stand together, close in prayer. Our Father, we have gathered today in the name of Christ. We are so small, so limited in our personal and corporate resources. We have no mighty among us, no high born. And yet, oh God, you've chosen us for this task and you've placed us here at this time in redemptive history to do your work here among these people. We know you've called it to us, called us to this Father.

And so we pray even today, as we talk and as we interact with one another, as brothers and sisters in Christ, that you would produce a deepened sense of community and commitment to one another. Father, we do pray that you would increase the core of this church, that you would draw in more and more of your people to be a part of this and to be shoulder to shoulder with us in this work, that we could be faithful to the stewardship that you've given us. You have enriched us, Father, in such an astounding way. And we pray that we would use all that you've given us, that we would make it available, that we would lay down our lives for one another. So that on that day, when we stand before Christ, we could do it with great joy, as we look at what you have done in us and through us in the lives of others. As we leave this place, help us to be encouraging to each other, I pray, in Jesus' name, amen, amen, praise the Lord.