5 Questions Part 1: Do I Have The Right Attitude About Money

Heb 12:1 "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud

of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily

ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before

us..." (NKJ)

This past Wednesday evening, for those of you who were not here, I shared

concerning this passage from Hebrews 12 in relationship to the direction I

feel that God is taking us over the course of the remainder of this year

and beyond.

Just by way of bringing those of you who were not here up to speed, I will

be preaching in both the Sunday morning and Wednesday evening services for

the next few weeks. I believe that this is something that the Holy Ghost

has dropped in my spirit in order for myself, as the senior pastor, to

establish a practical framework for the vision that God has given this

church.

In the past six months, I have had to evaluate the direction and the

progress that we have made as a church and the progress that I have made

in my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon review, I have found

that both had become somewhat stagnant by way of moving in the prescribed

directives that God had lain down.

I want to preface the next thing that I am about to say with this: I am

not personally one that is given to ordering my life by personal words of

prophecy, or by dreams and visions. I believe as it says in 1 Peter 1:19

that we have been given a "more sure word of prophecy..." in which we need

to take heed to like a light shining out of darkness.

I believe that God has given us the prophetic giftings within the local

assembly to provide confirmation and not direction. But having said that,

in course of the past two years, I have received the same word no less

than (4) times- by (4) different men, who were in no way affiliated with

this church.

The first time that is was given, I thought to myself, "That's

nice....we'll see." The second time it was given I thought, "Boy, that

sounds familiar." The third time, I stopped and said, "I need to consider

this a little more." Then finally the third time that it was given, I

wept, because it began to make all the sense in the world to me.

The most amazing part of this whole story is that the word was not some

eloquent or lengthy discourse, but instead just (6) little words. "It is

bigger than you think."

Now to you, this may sound ridiculous. That is why I am going to explain

it in more detail this morning. Some people talk about want to be a

"bigger person" or as I heard someone say recently, "I want to be bigger

on the inside." This is not what I am talking about.

Let me explain it to you like this:

If you were the owner of a local lawnmower shop that also built go-carts

for children as a side line and I walked in one day and said, " I need

100,000 of those go-carts by years end- what would be your response?

First of all, you would probably be elated, because you would feel that

you were set for life. That you had the order of all orders. That you

would be known as the "go cart" king of the world. You would probably

surmise that, "You must have the greatest go carts and must be the best

builder of go carts- because why else would someone want 100,000 of your

go carts. You must be special. You must be different.

Then your thoughts would change and you would say, "You must be kidding!"

You would probably began saying to yourself:

? There is no humanly way possible that I could ever put together 100 go

carts in five months, let alone 100,000

? Where will I get the necessary parts?

? How can I keep up the other part of my business?

? I'll have to have a bigger building.

? I'll needs hundreds of more workers.

? There is just no way that I can do this, they called the wrong person.

What began as the most exciting thing that had ever happened, suddenly

became the most overwhelming burden that you had ever faced.

In comparison to the order:

? You felt inadequate to get the job done

? You felt overwhelmed by the prospects

? You felt intimidated by the scope

And it would be easy to tell the person, "Thanks, but no thanks. I am

doing just fine with my little mower shop. I am content with what I am

doing now. Why don't you ask someone else more qualified. You know, you