Give
七月 1, 2022
Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Luke 12:33 NLT
A car can be the newest version, fresh off the assembly line and full of excited people, but unless there is gas in the tank it can’t go anywhere. Same for the newest state of the art jetliner. It can get impeccable reviews and a full complement of passengers, but if there is no fuel in the tanks, it will simply sit on the runway.
The same is true of the church. The newest in programming, crowds of people, great reviews will never get a church off the ground in fulfilling the mission of Christ. If the church is not characterized by giving, the church will never fly. It will struggle to make any movement at all. The church must have a congregation of people who give of their resources in order for the church to fulfill the mission of Christ.
Now you might say that is not true—that the Holy Spirit is the fuel of the church. Yes, but it’s a matter of semantics. The Holy Spirit fuels the church, not by magically unleashing a truckload of cash on the church to meet the needs of the broken world, but by unlocking the hearts and opening the hands of committed and surrendered people. One of the most provocative stories in the early church was when the Holy Spirit overwhelmed the people, and their response was to completely surrender their lives to the cause of Christ. This included making financial sacrifices for the fledging church to minister to the needy. It was exhilarating. As they did, God met all of their needs personally and as a church community.
Typically some of the people were consumers. They wanted to enjoy the thrill of the church without committing to fuel it. Most stayed quiet about it, but a married couple named Ananias and Sapphira chose to pretend to be all in. No one told them they had to give anything, but they wanted to make a show. They gave a small amount and pretended they had given the whole profit from a piece of land they sold. When the apostles told them that they knew they were lying, they were consumed with fear and fell over dead.
No, the moral of that story is not “give or die.” 😊 The point is that when the Holy Spirit lives in and directs people, they evidence it by becoming givers. They fuel the mission Christ gave the church with their financial resources, and in the process, they get right in the middle of the adventure. To do otherwise is to miss the most significant opportunity of your lifetime. Through your giving, you will be fueling what matters most to Jesus and changing eternity.
- Engage or re-engage with NewPointe in fulfilling the mission for which Jesus came by signing up to be a regular and effective giver. There are many resources to help you get started.