I Have a Question

HOW BIG IS YOUR VISION?

When I think of vision, I think of something really big and exciting…the perfect idea or goal to achieve. Six or seven years ago, our church envisioned our faith family located in a more strategic location to reach people in our community for Christ. Our ministry today is the end result of that vision that we all took hold of in our hearts and minds. When Jesus left this earthly realm, the last command he gave his followers was filled with vision ...huge far-reaching vision as he said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

There is enough in that statement to affect our personal and corporate vision as a faith family. Personally, we need to commit ourselves to the task at hand. It means looking into the future and believing the reality of what can be accomplished when we invest ourselves completely. Why? Because it affects our corporate strength in attempt to fulfill the vision of reaching a lost world for Christ. The more of us engaged in striving toward the goal, the more abundant our resources.

We have a goal this summer of $850,000. This does several really important things. It helps us complete our stated objectives for summer ministry through VBS, Student Camp and three mission trips to Mexico, Haiti and Alaska. However, one of the most important things it will do is provide us the financial strength to purchase a modular to increase our ministry to adults by over 40%. Now that is BIG!

This is a big challenge, larger than anything we have attempted in previous summers. It is more than just
meeting the bills for this summer. It is about affecting lives of adults and their families beyond our current ability.

How big is your vision? The size of your vision impacts the size of our collective vision as a faith family. Let’s do this together! Let’s not only think big, but act in a big way for God!

Give today through the offering plate, via the giving kiosk located in the lobby or through the website at www.bearcreekchurch.tv.

HOW COMMITTED ARE YOU TO THE VISION?

There is a story in the Bible about three young men in Babylonian exile. Their names were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. One interesting thing about this story is the image presented of these three men in the furnace calmly walking among the licking flames without being affected in the least by the unbelievable heat. And, on the outside was King Nebuchadnezzar looking in with complete amazement at what God was doing through these young believers. Did you get that? He was on the outside…looking in.

That is a snapshot worth reflecting on. Why? We speak often about the future and what it requires of us as a faith family. There is so much we must accomplish. But the question has to be asked, Am I on the outside looking in, or am I on the inside looking out? There is a significant difference. These three young spiritual giants were given a choice location to exhibit the power of God in their lives, thereby affecting the lives of those in their world in deep spiritual need. Nebuchadnezzar was shocked and their commitment instantly changed the way this king perceived the one, true, living God.

We have a financial goal this summer of $850,000. Reaching this goal helps us complete our stated objectives for summer ministry through VBS, Student Camp and three mission trips to Mexico, Haiti and Alaska. Even more exciting is that it will provide us the financial strength to purchase a modular building to increase our ministry to adults by over 40%. This is not just a goal, but a real need!

Three men saw beyond themselves and believed that God would see them through anything. We should be inspired to the same confident faith that God will see us through. Our vision as a church is to be a relevant environment of life change where everyone is moved to Worship God passionately…Grow together authentically…Serve others sacrificially…Share Christ everywhere.

Commitment will determine how deeply invested we are in this vision. We have the privilege of being on the inside looking out to a world in need of God’s love. This kind of vision will enable us to act boldly and demonstrate a faith determined to reach all the Nebuchadnezzars of the world for Christ. Indeed, it is that important!

You can give today through the offering plate, via the giving kiosk located in the lobby or through the website at www.bearcreekchurch.tv.

DO YOU "GIVE" OR DO YOU "BRING"?

Several years ago a key leader spoke to a group of pastor’s. He was carefully guiding them to a better
understanding of how to have a healthy environment of stewardship. In doing so he made an interesting comment. He said, “teach your people to ‘bring’, not ‘give’. Of course, a familiar passage of scripture immediately comes to mind - Malachi 3:9-11…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 there will not be room enough to store it.

How does this one word change our understanding about how we relate to the Lord with our financial resources?

First we are not to come empty-handed. What he calls on each of us to bring provides adequate resources for
accomplishing ministry. Additionally, the Lord is very specific in this passage about the amount he expects us
to bring. It is not our prerogative to decide on something different from a “whole” portion, or as he says here…a tithe (10% of our income).

Secondly, we bring in response to his command or instruction. He doesn’t say, “when you come perhaps
you might bring a gift.” He says, “bring”. It is definite and without room for negotiation.

Thirdly, it is an invitation to test or prove the Lord’s desire to bless us. He is essentially inviting us to test his love for us. He has no hesitation in wanting to demonstrate the width, breadth and depth of his enduring love to each of us. According to him, there is not enough capacity anywhere to contain the blessing or love he is able and willing to lavish on us.

No doubt we should be givers and we will use that term many times in the future. After all, 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 says, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” However, we should always look at both sides of the coin and understand it is not about an individual decision to bless God on our own terms. It is in response to his call on our lives to demonstrate a willing heart motivated by love and obedience.

The future is bright, but God’s plan involves our willingness to commit personally to the task. This summer we need $850,000 to ensure our ability to reach more adults in our community. What will you bring this Lord’s day?

Don’t forget you can also give via the Lobby kiosk on Sundays or online at www.bearcreekchurch.tv.

IS IT ABOUT MONEY OR MINISTRY?

People give for a lot of different reasons---strategy in climbing the social or economic ladder, obligation,
indebting someone to us, or maybe so as to not being bested by another person’s lavish gift. These are just a few rather disingenuous motivations for giving.

Young children have it right! They present us with crayon-colored snapshots of their love for us, freely offering generous, unlimited, unsolicited hugs and kisses throughout the course of any day. Who among us doesn’t melt at such honest expressions of adoration that these little people shower upon us as parents, grandparents or friends? No motivation. No strategy. Just love.

It seems pretty clear that Jesus understood this about children in Matthew 18:3 when he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Why is it that we lose the ability to express such basic appreciation and love?

Money matters in the church often reveal this change in our hearts as adults. Too many times, we lose focus and want to hold on to what we declare is ours. We forget that what we are giving back to the Lord is His and that we should be doing this out of love for Him. We should be excited about the work of ministry that can be accomplished in His name to make him famous to the world. Our motivation should be love, childlike in honesty and expression.

It’s a fair question. Is our giving about money and what that means to us personally or is it about our demonstration of love for God and His work? There is no question that we have been given an important task in this world. 5901 Fry Road is our home base for ministry in this part of west Houston. It is important, necessary work. It is His work! It is good for us to go back to the crayon-inspired expressions of our love for a Savior who gives us love in a way that no one else can.

The only way the red heart on the graphic below gets larger is out of our growing love for Christ. This summer
we need $850,000 to ensure our ability to reach more adults in our community. Let’s get back to our childlike
roots and see if our hearts don’t grow in proportion to the ministry at hand.

Don’t forget you can also give via the Lobby kiosk on Sundays or online at www.bearcreekchurch.tv.

DO YOU ACT OR REACT TO THE CALL TO GIVE?

“This is what the LORD has commanded: 5 From what you have, take an offering for the LORD. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering…and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the LORD. Exodus 35:4-5,21a

The message related in these three verses recorded in Exodus are wonderful. The Lord commands us to give, but He calls on those who are “willing”. Three things stand out in these insightful words.

He has expectation as to how we give

There is no mistake what the Lord was saying to the Israelites. Moses related to the people of God His
instruction to take an offering. They were to consider their resources and bring an offering to the Lord. It is a command, an expectation, something important and not to be ignored. How many times have we discounted what the Lord really means based on personal attitudes or desires?

He desires our motivation to be pure as we give

Even though the Lord is very clear as to His command, there is no coercion. The act to give is totally up to those who were willing. It is to be an act of our free will. It is to represent the love we have for the Lord. To read between the lines, would suggest the Israelites were no different than people today. There were some who were probably not so willing, who held back out of insufficient faith causing them to react by not participating. Importantly, He clarifies that it is a work of the heart moved to action.

We can do great things when we follow His command

A really wonderful thing happened when those who were willing to give acted. Moses had to instruct them to quit giving to the project of constructing the tabernacle. Why? Because in Exodus 36:7 he announces it is,” because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.” What an amazing result! All because of people with willing hearts moved to give to the Lord.

It is our time to give. The call translates to $850,000 to ensure our ability to reach more adults in our community. How wonderful it would be to have the same great result as above. It is truly amazing what happens when willing hearts take action.

WHOSE VOICE ARE YOU LISTENING TO?

...And the LORD called again, "Samuel!" and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. 8 And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the young man. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant hears.'"So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant hears."
1 Samuel 3:6-10

Imagine God calling you with an audible voice. I am sure many of us, like Samuel, wouldn’t even recognize that God was speaking to us at first. The truth is hearing the voice of God in the midst of the “noise” of our life can be very difficult.

Too Many Messages

We live in a noisy world. Go outside at night, and even when most of your neighborhood is asleep, you will hear passing cars, police sirens, and the hum of AC units. Beyond all of this, we are bombarded with messages from the media, friends, family, and our own flesh and spirit. When Samuel heard the Lord speak, he thought it was his mentor Eli. Far too often the opposite is true for us, we hear other voices and mistake them for God.

A Discipline of Silence and Scripture
To hear God’s voice requires us to do two things very difficult in this world: be still and be quiet. Our spiritual ears have to have time and silence to filter through the noise to perceive where God is leading. Most often his voice comes, not audibly as with Samuel or even in warm fuzzy feelings, but through his Word. Spending time in silence and reading, studying, and meditating on scripture is the only way to pick God’s voice out from among the crowd.

The Voice of Stuff

So whose voice are you listening to when it comes to giving? Our stuff, the material possessions in our life, can silently drown out the voice of God. Our wants and needs drive us to act in certain ways, many times to the detriment of our real spiritual needs. One reason God calls us to give back to him, is to help us cut through the noise of our stuff. It helps train our ears to listen to him.

Your gifts back to God will do really important things- providing for missions, ministries, and expanding our capacity to connect adults to discipleship. But the most important thing it will do is what it does to your ears.

WHO SHOULD GIVE?

The past six weeks we have asked several important questions of ourselves regarding personal stewardship. In fact, the intent was to make it a very personal matter. We have discussed questions
related to our vision, attitude toward giving, as well as our response and approach to giving back to the Lord. These are tough questions that cause us to reach deep inside and face the truth about our giving ways.

Now we want to focus on the biblical who, what, when, where, why and how of giving! These are good questions because they provide the foundation for shaping our personal attitudes about giving.

First, who should give? What does the Bible say? Are there exceptions as to who should give? I
immediately think of an unusual passage.
As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on. -Luke 21:2-4

I know this passage is a lesson on the measure of our commitment. It demonstrates that when we are too tied to our possessions, it is difficult to part with them. They become more important than one who provided them. It limits our ability to vision properly. It is an issue of obedience. All of these things and more are important.

What strikes me as significant is the inference that none of us is exempt from giving our all to the Lord. It doesn’t matter if you are wealthy or poor. God sees us for who we are. It doesn’t matter the clothes we wear, the job we have, or the technology we possess. Jesus commended the one whose genuine, generous nature cut through the noise of the crowd. Her actions said it all…I am supposed to give to God! I am supposed to give all of me without reservation. Who? Me!

WHAT SHOULD I GIVE?

Once a month or at each pay period, most of us sit in front of a stack of bills to decide how we are going to distribute our hard-earned income. Most all of those bills are due to decisions we made previously such as the type of house we would live in or the car we want to drive. Some of those bills are decided for us. For
instance, the taxing authorities don’t leave us much choice on what we pay them.

Regardless, we carefully manage our funds to ensure we are on time so as to protect the integrity of our credit rating. This is so important because it impacts other spending decisions we may need to make in the future. We prioritize the importance of what should be paid. Obviously, the essentials are important…house payment, utilities, and groceries. We don’t even think twice about these decisions.

So, where does what we give to God fall in the list of priorities? Is He first on the list, somewhere in the
middle, or last? People often ask whether they should give off the gross or the net. Most of us want to do the right thing, but struggle with the pressures of a culture that puts personal desires above God’s clear call to think of Him first.

The Bible repeatedly speaks of a tithe, or a tenth, as the measure of our giving. Malachi 3 charges us to “bring the whole tithe” immediately after plainly stating that the way we rob God is by not doing that very thing. This should make things a lot easier this month when you sit down to take care of your finances. There is no guesswork…no debate. What we determine in our hearts to give, will determine what the Lord Almighty will return as a blessing to us! Wholeheartedly giving back ten percent of our income is really what God wants of each of us. And, listen to what he promises in return!

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 there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty.

WHEN SHOULD I GIVE?

Nehemiah gives great insight to this question. The Israelites have completed the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem and several things subsequently take place that provide us a right understanding about when we are to give.

First, Ezra publicly reads the Law and all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. Nehemiah 8:3. God’s Word should always be the first step in our lives. We should pay close attention to the instruction that God gives each of us in his written revelation.

Secondly, they confessed their sinful ways to the Father. Chapter 9: 2-3 says, “They stood in their places and
confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers…they spent another quarter (of the day) in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. God’s word exposes our need to acknowledge our failure before God. It sets the stage for the next important step in the process, a change of heart!

Finally, the ingestion of the word and confession brings them to a point to make a real commitment. In fact, they put their commitment in writing to be sealed by the Levites and priests. Nehemiah 10 outlines their many commitments. Particularly it says, “We promise…” or commit …to bring the first of everything to the Lord…crops, cattle, herds, flocks, grain, fruit, wine and olive oil.” Everything in this list is directly tied to their income or how they make a living. It doesn’t say, let me pay my bills first, make sure our vacation is protected or allow anything else to top the list. Our first commitment as believers is to the Lord and we should acknowledge that with our resources.

I honestly love the final resolve stated in verse 39, “We will not neglect the house of our God.”

When should I give?

I should give out of my response to the Lord’s work in my life.

 

I should give in recognition of His blessing provided me.

 

I should give my very best from everything resourced to me.

May it be our resolve not to neglect the house of our God!

WHERE SHOULD I GIVE?

A few weeks back we cited a familiar stewardship verse, Malachi 3:10, when discussing the difference between bringing and giving. That same verse is relevant to the question asked today as to where we should give. One phrase in verse 8 gives us the answer we need, Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse….

Specific Place
When the Lord was speaking to the Israelites in Malachi,
he was exposing their sin of neglect toward Him. They were not fulfilling their obligation of bringing a tenth or tithe into the storehouse. No doubt He was calling them to bring their gifts to a specific place - the storehouse…a place of worship for all believers. The church today is still the place where God expects us to support the ministry at hand.

Specific Person
It is clear that God was pointing them to a place to offer their gifts. But, more importantly Malachi was relaying to them that their gifts were to be given to a specific person – God! The place of worship represented Him, but the ultimate point we must prioritize in our hearts and minds is that we are to bring our tithe to the Lord. Verse 9 says to do otherwise is to rob or take away from God, the Lord Almighty. In fact, he plainly states …you are robbing ME. Therefore, it is to Him that we bring our tithe! It is as personal as our exchange with another person.

Bear Creek is a storehouse in this community where ministry takes place. Your gifts help to make it happen. Most importantly, your gift today is an acknowledgement to God that he is first in your life as a statement of your faith and obedience. It is not about budget or goals. It is all about our relationship to the Father.

Did you notice? Our heart is growing larger the more we give…as it should!

WHY SHOULD I GIVE?

Seems like a silly question. Yet, it is one of the most often asked questions by people today. Children too often
question parent’s authority asking “why” they have to follow their instructions. It has the distinct sound of rebellion as it leaves our lips. It drips with attitude that irritates one’s sensibilities sort of like fingernails grating across a chalkboard. Of course, what child has not heard a parent retaliate in
defense from the onslaught of a relentless barrage of “why…why…why” with the standard, “Because I said so!”?

Whew! Let’s take a moment…take a deep, calming breath and exhale all the rebellion and attitude. Relax.

Now, let me think for a moment. Why should I give?

God gives me love

God gives me salvation

God gives me relationship

God gives me resources

God gives me peace

God gives me happiness and joy

God gives me security

God gives me hope

God gives to meet my needs

God gives promises to me that he always keeps

C’mon. You name a few. . .

God gives me

________________________________________

God gives me

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God gives me

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God gives me

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God gives me

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God gives me

________________________________________

Maybe the question shouldn’t be “why?” Perhaps a more fitting question would be, “WHY NOT?”