Financial giving principle #3

3.  How you manage your money is a lens into the condition of your heart.

Matthew 6:21 (ESV)

²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

It makes sense right?  Where a person invests himself shows what he loves most.  Time is one way we invest in something.  Take sports for example, we invest time in watching, playing, reading and talking about the sports we love.  But if you think about it, it's very difficult to invest time into something for very long without eventually investing money into it as well.  Before too long we are buying tickets to games, getting the sports cable package, paying to get in a league, buying new equipment, etc.  Or take for example dating.  You find someone you are interested in and you begin to spend time with that person.  The more time you spend with them the more you being to invest financially into that relationship.  Why? Because simply going to the park and hanging out talking isn't enough.  You want to go on a date, get dinner, go to the movies, get them a gift, etc.  Before you know it, you are buying them a ring and a house.  It's a natural progression that Jesus is saying shows your passions.  Neither a love for sports or relationships are wrong by any means.  They are just simply to be very secondary to our pursuit and love for Jesus.   He isn't our hobby - "I'm a musician, love art, fix cars, follow Jesus, etc.”  Rather, your identity as a follower of Jesus encompasses everything you do as a musician, artist and mechanic.  This mission of God defines those hobbies where you live and act within them as a child of the King seeking to bring redemption to those spheres of life.  Let’s be honest, simply going to church is a pretty lame hobby…and Jesus teaches us that our money reveals much about our motives and passions.

Financial giving principle #2

2. God wants your heart before he wants your money.

2 Corinthians 8:5 (ESV)

⁵ They gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Most Christians have a bent toward religion (God accepts me because I obey him).  There is a great danger here especially when it come to giving financially to the local church.  If we are not careful, we'll view it as buying God's favor (literally), which will breed begrudging submission, rather than joyful obedience.  Joyful obedience always flows out of unearned favor wrought through the finished work of the Son of God in his righteous life, perfect death and fulfilling resurrection.  Naturally we just want to give God some of our money so he'll "get off our back" and then we can do whatever we want.  That natural tendency says, "God be my savior, but I'll be my own lord."  But God's got something so much bigger and better for us.  He says, "I want to be your savior AND Lord" and how you handle your money, specifically in your giving to the local church, indicates whether he is your God or you are your own god.

 

To the Praise of His Glorious Grace

Ephesian 2:5-8 is the motivation behind our series, Stories:The Grace of God on Display. I wanted to spend a bit of time laying out the thought that these verses give us.

First, your adoption is born in the grace of God. There is forgiveness and redemption that is a major part of everyone's story. That forgiveness and redemption is there because of the grace of God. Because gravity exists, you and I do not float away. Because gravity exists to extent that it does we do not ever so slightly float away. Because grace is exists, redemption and forgiveness are ours. We do nothing to earn gravity, we do nothing to earn grace. But our lives are a testimony to its existence.

Your adoption is to praise of his glorious grace. In other words, you are really jacked up and God still brings good out of you (REDEMPTION) and you are really sinful and God still loves you (FORGIVENESS). When this is put on display attention is brought to God who is the giver of this grace.

Our series seeks to bring attention to redemption and forgiveness that the grace of God has brought into the lives of people. Think about how this is true in your own life and tell someone about it.

Financial giving principle #1

This month is budget projection month and I want to put some more practical things in your hands about giving and what the Bible teaches about it. So throughout this week I will post several biblical principles about giving in the local church. Here's #1...

1. Everything belongs to the Lord in the first place.

1 Chronicles 29:14–16 (ESV)
14 “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 15 For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. 16 O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.


Let's be honest, we know this but we just don't want to fully accept it and operate within it. Why? Because if God owns it, then he determines how it's managed, but if we own it we can determine how it's managed, right? On a fundamental level, we have a real problem with authority and fully submitting to Jesus. We must, by his grace, come to grips with the reality that He created everything, include us, and he has absolute authority and ownership over everything, even the money we worked hard to "earn."

Learning to trust Him with you,
Dave

South Asia Trip

Exciting things happening at North Church!!!  
January 3-13, we will be sending a team to S. Asia in partnership with Freshwater Church in Bolivar, MO.  The team will consist of 7 individuals (3-NC, 4-FW). 

The goals of the trip will be the following:

• A vision trip to see how NC can further partner and support the believers and churches there
• To encourage and train the national church planter and his guys
• To encourage and disciple believers within the 5 church-plants and 2 widow colonies
• To help break new ground through prayer, evangelism and story-telling

How you can get involved:

1.  PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!

• Team unity with 2 churches going
• Effective team training meetings as we are planning and preparing
• Reception of visas before we leave
• Our national church planing partner and his family - His uncle passed away Sunday and the funeral is Wednesday.  
• Raising funds - $2000 per person

2. EAT AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO EAT!

Helfer's Pastries and Deli Cafe - giving 10% of every bill to our team when you mention North Church.   Now until Jan 4.

Helfer’s bakes amazing Christmas cookies, pastries, and cakes that would be perfect for your office or Christmas party. You can also stop into the deli for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  M-F 6am-6:30pm, Sat 6am-6pm.

Helfer's is located on the corner of St. Ferdinand/Graham and Washington/Charbonier in Florissant. (380 St. Ferdinand St.).

Frontenac Grill - giving 15% of every bill to our team on DEC 29 only for lunch or dinner.

The Frontenac Grill is a new fine dining restaurant at S Lindbergh and Conway Road (731 South Lindbergh Blvd), owned by the Talayna family. They serve prime steaks, pasta and Talayna’s famous pizza in four different styles. This would be a perfect time for a client lunch or holiday dinner with your family.

Please make a reservation for lunch or dinner by calling 314-569-4115 and mention India. Print out this ticket to present to your server to ensure your bill will count towards our team.

3. GIVE FINANCIALLY!

Online donations can be made by clicking here.  Or you can make a check out to "North Church" and mail it to 49 Meditation Way Ct. Florissant, MO 63031.  All gifts are tax-deductible and must be received by Dec 26.

Greed, Baseball and Albert Pujols

I put up a tweet today that simply said "Greed..." I am not sure if greed was a factor in Albert's decision to leave St. Louis to go play for the Angels. I suspect that it was at least some sort of factor, but I do not know him personally. I don't want to make a judgment about Albert, at least I do not intend to.

Ultimately greed is bad and it is in everyone of our hearts. This Pujols situation is a platform to expose the greed that is in our culture. Again, I do not intend to label Albert as greedy, there may have been other circumstances in play that I am not aware of. Even if Albert was completely motivated by greed, the conversation of greed in our culture does not start or end with Albert Pujols. It is present with or without a $260,000,000 contract to play baseball.

Many have said, "If someone offered you more money to move, you would move." But that does not make it right. It just means that I might be influenced by greed or pride or the need to be respected through money. If I am influenced by those things then I am wrong and have sin in my life. We all have sin in our lives.

This is present everywhere. According to Forbe's magazine, in a 12 month period Johnny Depp made $75,000,000. Ben Stiller made $53,000,000. Tom Hanks made $45,000,000. That is just silly.

Meanwhile, take a look at the price of a movie ticket. Take a look at the escalation of baseball ticket prices.

What I object to is calling pride and greed, ambition and business. Pride and greed are sins and they are both present in us all and should not be celebrated. They should be identified and rooted out of us.

The whole process and this whole blog post serve to take us to the gospel. Proving once again, that we are filled with sin and in need of redemption. Forgiveness of sin and complete forgiveness and redemption is offered through Jesus Christ.

The Incarnation

Join us starting Sunday December 4 as we embark on a study examining the coming of Jesus Christ. We have title this series of worship experiences "The Incarnation" because we want to focus in on a beautifully artful theology that will bring us to place of wonder that God would leave perfectly rhythmic heaven to take on a breakable body and live among people who will abandon, lie and torture. All of this for the sake of becoming our hero.

This is the incarnation...God sending Jesus into the world as an absolute guarantee that he will do everything he has ever promised he would do.