Sermon Central
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Requires Gathering The Resources Series
Contributed by Rick Stacy on Oct 21, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: Sermon 3 of 4 on Building a great church. How did it happen that in the course of building a place of worship that the people were giving so much that it was becoming a distraction to the actual work and Moses had to tell them to stop?
Building A Great Church Requires that You Gather the Resources
The LORD has given to Bezalel, Oholiab, and others the skills needed for building a place of worship, and they will follow the LORD’s instructions. Then Moses brought together these workers who were eager to work, and he gave them the money that the people of Israel had donated for building the place of worship. In fact, so much money was being given each morning,that finally everyone stopped working and said, "Moses, there is already more money than we need for what the LORD has assigned us to do." So Moses sent word for the people to stop giving, and they did.
How did this happen? These were not special people. These were regular people, ordinary people with families to feed, bills to pay, gas tanks to keep filled. How did it happen that in the course of building a place of worship that the people were giving so much that it was becoming a distraction to the actual work and Moses had to tell them to stop?
It is a simple thing really. It is the difference between taxation and generous giving. It’s the difference between the token offering of $5.00, $10.00, or $20.00 and the grateful return of a tenth of your increase to God. It’s the difference between guilt driven, duty inspired, grudgingly presented contributions of a major donor and the cheerful giving of joy filled widow.
Jesus said that “God loves a cheerful giver”. This morning I want to talk to you about you becoming that kind of person. In fact, I want to talk about this church becoming a body of believers who are cheerful givers. I mean wouldn’t it be wonderful – really – to be able to have so given that we have enough to do everything we need!
We have a lot!
We have a solid and experienced leadership with Godly Elders. We have a young, energetic staff who want to rock the world. We have a warm, loving and encouraging body of believers. We have good solid and basic programs in place.
What we need:
We need to minister to believers who are here.
We need a powerful men’s ministry; a vibrant women’s ministries; a solid marriage ministry that builds good marriages and saves rocky marriages.
We need to build up the lives of our people through personal discipleship. To teach, encourage, and prepare you to become dependent on your prayer life and focused on the reading of the word of God for your own growth and strength.
We need to further develop the leaders and their abilities of the leaders in our body through Leadership Training Seminars and regular training activities.
We need to build up our children’s ministries
We need to reach out to the regular normal people in our world. Listen, it’s time to tell them about what we’ve discovered!
We need to tell people boldly! Lets tell the people we know that we want help them find their way home – to experience the joy of a guiltless life without the weight of sin; to experience the warmth of acceptance no matter what they have done or where they have been.
We need to tell people by investing in relationships with them. I’d like to build an active sports ministry. Not just a team or two but entire leagues - a winter volleyball league; a summer softball league, a soccer league, and a soccer camps for kids.
We need to tell people by meeting their needs. The Meridian Angels activities are a big piece of this! We need programs and places where the Meridian Angels can work, plan, and prepare to meet community opportunities for ministry to others.
We need to minister to the children
Children’s Ministry
To be able to build a Children’s ministry that really rocks – not just on Sunday mornings – but also throughout the week. To prepare the curriculum, build the stages, purchase the equipment, and organize the programs, which will change a 7-year-old child’s life forever. I would like someday to be able to build a day care ministry for families who want their children to be trained up with Godly values. Even better to create a latchkey program running from 3-6 pm to help parents who work and provide safe positive environments where caring people give daily guidance
We need the resources to make this place our own home until the day we can build our own home
A rented home is ok. I’m not complaining. It’s a little warm in the summer. It’s not easy to run around and set up every Sunday. It’s a little tiring to work in a basement under florescent lighting for hours on end but it works for now. We have to get really good at setting up and tearing down.
