Created for Good Works
Transcript
He was talking about this and he was saying that they found this out. And so they said, OK, we're all going to Disney World. And that the closer they got to going to Disney World, the more this child's behavior just bottomed out. That she was doing everything she could to be as bad as possible, because in her mind, she had decided that the reason she never got to go to Disney World with the other family was that she had done something wrong. And so she began to basically sabotage her ability to go to Disney World. And he said he was getting close to about a week out from going.
And he's talking to her and she says he's fussing her about something that she had just done that was just terrible and kind of out of character for her. And she said, I know what you're going to say. I don't get to go to Disney World. And he said in the article, he's like, I hadn't even considered that. He said for half a second, I thought about going. Well, you won't if you don't straighten up just to try to see if it works.
And he's like, then I was just like, no, I won't be helpful. So he just said he was like, no, you're going to Disney World. It doesn't have anything to do with this, but you need to change your behavior. And he said he explained it to her. And you would have thought maybe her behavior would have gotten better. It got worse up until the point when they're loading the car.
She's breaking down and throwing fits. And they drag her to Disney World. And they take her. And he says they have a day at Disney World. And it was like Disney World. Very, very hot and terrible with just enough magic sprinkled in that you think maybe we'll come back.
And he said that he puts her in her bed that night. And she looks at him and she says, I get it. Or, Daddy, I understand. And he said, what? And she said, I got to go to Disney World not because I was good, but because I'm yours. And he just was like, that's grace.
That's how that works. That it's not because we're good. It's because of who we belong to. And that when we understand this, that by grace we've been saved through faith. And he keeps going. He says it's not a result of works.
This is verse 9. So that no one may boast. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Not a result of works.
So that no one may boast. You didn't do it. If you're saved, if you're in Christ, you are saved not by something you did, but because he's generous and gave you a gift. That both your faith and your salvation are a gift from God to you. My wife works at a bank. And periodically they'll have people come through that are just hard to get along with.
And some of the ones that frustrate her the most are when somebody breaks down, starts yelling at the tellers, and cites their church membership or their church attendance as a reason why they should be cared for. Or a reason why they're a good person. So she's had some people before say, I'm a member of this church and I've been a member of that for 50 years. And it's like, what does that have to do with teller service anyway? Secondly, what does that have to do with anything? You're not even going to get to cite that the day you stand before God because you don't get to boast in anything.
It was not your own doing. It was not your work. It was not your effort. It was not your intelligence. It was not your morality. You don't have anything that you come and present to God.
We walk to God hands empty, not hands full. We walk to God with a terrible resume that disqualifies us rather than one that qualifies us for the position that we had nothing we brought to the table. And when we understand this, the church, Christians, those who belong to Jesus, have a humility and a confidence. A humility that's unparalleled and a confidence that's unshakable. We have a humility that's unparalleled because we know we didn't bring anything to the table. And we have a confidence that's unshakable because we know we didn't bring anything to the table.
So it's not based off of us. It's not based off of our work or our effort. One of the things that used to happen between nations when they would go to battle is that they periodically, rather than everybody fighting, they would just send forth a champion so that your side of the army would send a champion out and their side would send a champion out. This is at the beginning of the movie Troy. This is what happens in the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel. That Goliath comes out and he's a giant who's been part of war since he was a child.
I don't know if I can say since he was little because I don't know if he was ever little. He was like 10 feet tall. He comes out and he basically says, send forth your baddest guy, your biggest, toughest man, and we'll fight. And whoever wins decides for both nations. So if I win, you're our slaves.
And if he wins, we'll be your slaves. And this was a normal practice to keep from having to have these big bloody clashes. They would send out a champion. And daily Goliath stood and he issued this threat and he mocked them. And every single warrior wearing their shield and their helmet would have to line up every day for the Israelites and mentally look at themselves in the mirror and say, Mm-mm. Not me.
I think maybe at first people were looking around like, who's going to go? I think after a while nobody was making eye contact. It was just you lined up and put your head down. This is the daily shaming. As everyone knew, I'm not big enough. I'm not bad enough.
I can't go out there. It gets desperate to the point that the first person who's a boy who tends sheep, who says, I'll fight him, they were like, you're the best we got because you're the only one who said you'd try. We're going to lose anyway. At least we don't have to lose a warrior over it. Just a shepherd. They send him out there.
He wins. That's why you've heard about it. That's why you've heard about fighting Goliath and David and Goliath and stuff because if Goliath just stomped him, people wouldn't quote that all the time or bring it up. He wins because God works through him. And the truth is that's the church. That's us.
That we have sent forth a champion to face our sin and our inability. And so we have humility because we had to look at ourselves and say, I couldn't do this. I couldn't be good enough. I couldn't be big enough. I'm not strong enough. I'm not smart enough that the church should be filled with very humble people.
But we have an insane amount of confidence because Jesus was big enough and strong enough and smart enough and good enough and he fought the giant on our behalf. And that's why we don't boast in anything because we didn't do it. The Bible says if you're going to boast, boast in the Lord. And that's what we get to do. We get to boast in Jesus, our champion, who faced the enemy for us. So that's the point.
By grace, you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. After you graduate from school or get a promotion, people say, congratulations. And they're saying, you did a good job. You worked really hard.
When you brag about a Christmas gift, people don't say, congratulations. You worked really hard. Man, you crushed it having her as a grandmother. People don't say that. We just say, that's great. Or we say, your grandmama's nice.
Her knitting skills are legit. Whatever. Whatever. Like, you just brag on the gift and the giver. And that's what he's saying. It's a gift.
We didn't earn it. You didn't achieve it. You have nothing to brag about other than in the one who gave the gift. Okay. So Paul says that, and he's about to make a big shift.
And there's a reason why he ties these ideas together. There's a reason why he hammers this into the ground. You didn't do this. It wasn't your work. It wasn't your effort. You didn't accomplish it.
You have nothing to brag about. And then he turns, and in verse 10, says this. For we, that's the church, that's all who belong to Jesus. Church, when I say that's the church, I don't just mean you're a member of a church or you go to a church on Sunday. What I mean is you belong to Jesus. It's the big, all of those who place their faith in Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross.
That he died for our sin. That he rose again. And that he was good in our place. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Okay. He says, you didn't do it.
You didn't accomplish it. You're not good enough. You have nothing to boast about. And then he says, we are his workmanship, his craftsmanship, meaning Jesus specifically designed us, built us, poured himself into us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. So here's what he's saying.
Good works don't save you. But we were saved for good works. Good works don't save you. You're not saved because of what you did. You're saved because of what he did. But we are saved for good works.
Martin Luther, the guy we talked about earlier, has a quote where he says, God doesn't need your good works, but your neighbor does. And that's the point, that God has decided to use his church for a purpose. So Ephesians 1 says that we're his body, meaning that Jesus shows himself, displays himself through the church. That when people see the church and the work that the church does, they should be able to see Jesus. Ephesians 3 says that God has chosen to display through the church his wisdom so that his plan is that people would be able to look at Christians, those who belong to Jesus and see Jesus.
Ephesians 4 says that he equipped the church in order that the church might grow collectively in maturity and grow by seeing more people become Christians. So that the good work he's called us into is all of the good things that are laid out for us in scripture, like generosity, service, telling people about Jesus and the grace and the freedom and the joy he offers. That they don't have to save themselves. They don't have to be good enough. They don't have to be work hard enough that they get Jesus because he died for us and loves us like that. That all of the good work that we're called to do is repentance of sin and pointing out sin in each other.
And so when it says you were created for good works, that that really just means all of the good things that the church is supposed to do. That we're called to do. So it says that Jesus is a craftsman and this is really encouraging. We have some people in our church family who are good at building things. They can, we've got some people that can make wood, sing and dance. I mean like they are able to work on things and there's just something about when they show you something they've worked on.
And they'll point out things that you wouldn't have noticed and they're like this took me like an hour and a half or it took me a while to figure this one out. And I got better as I worked around and they have these things that they did. I got to go to Bradley's house. He's one of our pastors and he has a deck where he's got two latches so that he can latch his deck shut or he can latch the doors open. And I had never seen that before. But when I saw it, I was like, man, that's really smart.
Like that's a cool thing. He also built a headboard that has lights in it and stuff. And I was like, that's neat. I'm not doing it because I'll burn our house down. But that's cool.
Like you just get to see some of these guys who know how to do stuff. And what it's saying is that that's what Jesus did, does with you. That you, we, the church, are his workmanship. Meaning that Jesus is going to work on you. To change you, to mold you. And then, even more encouraging, it says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good work.
Look, Jesus is not a 45-year-old Star Wars fan who buys the toys and puts them in a display case. He rips the package open, puts the lightsaber in the hand, and uses the karate action arm. Like we are designed for work. Jesus isn't a hipster. He gets mud on his duck boots. He wears flannel and cuts down trees.
Like when he, it's designed for work. That the church is designed for work. That he is actually a master craftsman who builds his own tools for his own distinct purposes. That's one of the cool things when you meet somebody who's worked in an industry for a long enough time. Worked on something a long enough time. They've begun to design their own tools.
They'll have taken three different tools and welded them together. And they'll have this weird looking thing. And it's because they realized they had a tool that was like this. And Jesus, when he was on earth, was a builder. And I can just picture that what he's doing now through the church is a very similar thing. When he used to pick the right tool for the job he was about to do.
That he does that now through his workmanship in us for the good works he's created us for. My wife and I are about to have another child. My parents were asking how we were trying to get ready for it. And I told them we were moving some stuff out of a room. And they said, well, we'll help you try to replace some carpet in there. And I said, sounds great.
And so they did. And the guy was replacing the carpet on Friday in this room. And he said the other guy was coming to help him be there in a little while. And there's two guys named Miguel. And they were real nice. But my first introduction to the second Miguel is he comes walking to my house because the door was open.
He comes walking to my house holding a hatchet. And I was like, I don't know much about carpet, but do you need that? Like, I don't know the tools of the train. I later saw him. Like, you know, it was just my first reaction. The guy walking to my house with a hatchet.
I was like, you can hear it with the carpet? Or you just, like, saw the door open? I saw him using it later. And it made sense. It was a hammer on one side. And he used it to tuck in carpet around on the outside.
I didn't know enough about putting in carpet. But I was like, sweet. But Jesus knows the tools. When he designed the church, when he designed you, when he saved you, he designed you in a specific way for a specific purpose. He does not save and put his workmanship and have all of the same gear. Like, if that guy, if I had gone by later and saw a bag and it was just a bag full of hatchets, I would have thought, no, I'm going to get murdered.
Because there's no reason why you'd need 17 of them. Jesus, when he designed the church, doesn't fill his tools, his workmanship with just a bag full of the same stuff. Does that make sense? The reason I'm saying that is if we say, well, there's a bunch of us. I don't have to really get involved. It's like, no, because God designed us for a specific purpose.
If you came to me and said, man, you've got 10 wrenches. Just give me two of them. I'd be like, dude, they're different sizes. Jesus, I can't just give up my 916ths because then I won't be able to do some of the work I need to do. I didn't buy 10 of the same size wrench. Jesus' tool bag makes sense.
When he designs the church, when he saves, he does it for a purpose. And then he displays his work through his church. And I get to see this all the time. Our church is young. We're a couple years old. I get to see this all the time in our church family.
Where Jesus is specifically showing off his ability, who he is, his work through us. I get to see it on Sundays with our host team. The people who intentionally wear Connect badges and go around and talk to everybody. And are intentionally friendly. And the way we recruit is we're like, hey, you're friendly. Want to do that on purpose?
Like Kelly Weed, who just, she's a hairstylist. She can have a conversation with anybody about anything. Dawn Gooch, Emily Teagle, Matt Toast. Some of these people that just intentionally go out of their way to welcome and host and be friendly. And the truth is, they show it off on Sundays. They actually are supposed to be doing it all the time in normal life.
Because God's gifted them and designed them for that work. To be friendly, to be welcoming, to make people comfortable. And the truth is, that's stuff Jesus did when he was on earth. That's Jesus doing it now through his church. Displaying himself. Showing what he's like.
I see this when, in Kid City, when people are gracious and welcoming to children. That we have an intentional time for them. We tell Bible stories to my son. And we were telling him the one about where the kids try to come to Jesus. And the disciples are like, no, you can't come. And then Jesus lets them come.
And so I would try to act them out. And I would say, okay. I said, Archery's two. I said, your mom's Jesus. Now you want to go see Jesus?
Go see Jesus. And I said, you have to say, I want to see Jesus. And he said, I want to see Jesus. And I said, I'm a disciple. And I pushed him to the ground and said, you can't see Jesus. He loved that Bible story.
He made us tell it like 35 times. And I made Anna say, stop it. And then he would get to go see her. And then we just played a game. Try to see your mom. I'm a disciple.
Stop it. And I thought, maybe I'm teaching bad things about the disciples. But they did it in the story. And so Jesus welcomes and was intentional with children. And there are people who intentionally volunteer for our church family to do that. Today, I had to stand outside because I was drinking some tea because my throat's been messing up.
And I could hear my son grabbing the little rail thing and yelling, Mama! And he belongs to me. And I was like, I'm going to go up and spank him. This is about to get serious. And there are people who he does not belong to, sitting next to him, talking to him, being kind with him, welcoming, like explaining to him why it's going to be okay. And it's like, yeah, that patience and graciousness, that's Jesus at work.
I see this in our groups, our community group and Pine Ridge group that intentionally does stuff with Gentle Pines, the apartment complex over here, where they're giving up time and money and effort to go do cookouts and welcome children and build relationships with people and try to help them get jobs and give them rides and go to the store and supply food. I see this every time our church family rallies around somebody to deliver food. Like, it's something so simple after somebody's sick or in the hospital or has a baby and we deliver food. But it's like, Jesus did that. He fed people. It meant something.
It meant something. We got to go to Midlands Tech Airport Campus. It was myself, Matt Freeman, and Jordan Surratt. And Matt and I set up cornhole boards. And our job was to hand out Mountain Dew and get guys to play cornhole with us. We just ran our mouths and got people to play cornhole.
And Jordan Surratt's Job was to play big Jenga. It's like Jenga but bigger. And hand out, like, cards about our church and talk to people because they were doing some kind of fair and they asked us to be there. And we wanted the opportunity to kind of get to know some of the students. And Matt and I were crushing our job. Hand out Mountain Dew.
Playing cornhole. I was great at that. Like, if that was actually like a paid position, I could just do that all the time. And every once in a while we would look over and Jordan would be holding hands with somebody. They'd be crying and he'd be praying with them. And we're like, Jordan, play Jenga.
What are you doing? And the truth is, it happened like four or five times. People are walking around a little thing. And then they run into Jordan Surratt. And he says, hey, how are you doing? And they say, I'd like to tell you secrets about my life.
And he says, I know you would. Tell me. And if I'd have been over there, I'd have been like, why? Why would you want to tell me secrets? But he's designed for that.
I've been with him at Lowe's. We're just trying to buy stuff at Lowe's to get back to work. And then the teller starts crying. And they have to like, I guess it's not a Lowe's teller. It's just a point of sale person. Cashier.
Thank you. She starts crying. And they have to, like, he's quoting scripture. And I'm just standing there awkwardly. We're like, we go to Lowe's. Like, peace be with you.
Oh, you give him a receipt. Okay. Like, he's designed for it. And the truth is, that's stuff you see in the Bible. That's stuff Jesus did. When he would run into somebody, when he'd meet somebody, he would just go to work.
There are people who are designed to share the gospel, to help people come to know who Christ is. There are three times this past year that people in my group sat me down and said, I need to address some sin in you. I'm so thankful for them. Because that's stuff Jesus does. Sit somebody down and says, you're wrong here. You're off here.
You shouldn't talk like that. You shouldn't act like that. Your attitude here was wrong. That God has designed his church for his good work. On purpose. Because he has actual things he wants to done.
Got to see this this last year as Nick and Bianca McDowell. Nick had to have multiple eye surgeries. And our church family just rallied around him to help pay bills, to bring him meals. They had to change Job situation. Bianca had to do a whole lot to take care of Nick. And then Jordan wrecked a motorcycle and hurt his leg.
And Bianca said, come stay with us. I've gotten really good at taking care of sick people. And so he just got to go stay at their house for a while. And it's like, that's stuff Jesus does. That's his church at work. I get to see this every time somebody comes over to me and hands me a lot of money.
And says, will you go hand this to this person? Hands me an envelope. And says, will you go give this to this person? And all I get to do is walk over and say, hey, this isn't for me. But that's the kind of stuff that Jesus does.
And he still does as he empowers his church to do it. Because he's designed us for good works. Sam and Jen Garcia. So encouraging this year. Jen became a believer and was baptized at Easter. And one of the things we always say to people when they're getting baptized is, we don't want this to be the last time that you step into this baptismal pool.
We want you to get in again to help lead other people you've led to Jesus and told about this same amazing grace. We want you to get to baptize them. And then last week, Jen got to stand in the baptismal pool with her husband as he was baptized. And I just can't help but be excited because it's like Jesus has good work for Sam and Jen that he specifically designed them to do. And only Sam and Jen can do it. That he's poured himself in as a master craftsman into the people he wants to use for the good work he has for them.
And then Paul says this. Verse 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. He knows the job he wants to do. And that's why he's designed us the way he's designed us and poured himself into us on purpose for the work he has for us. That we should walk in them.
That he prepared beforehand that we should walk in the meaning that if you are a Christian, you have work to do prepared beforehand by God who specifically designed you for his good work and you should walk in it. You should do good work. I am. I'll take a second to just talk about our church in general, because that statement is true for us. It's true for us specifically Mill City Church that God has specifically designed us, the Christians in our church for good work, and he specifically designed this church collectively for good work that he's laid out beforehand. I don't know what our church is going to look like in 2025, and I don't know the ministries we're going to get to be involved in, but Jesus does, and he's going to work in us now for that purpose.
That he's building us now for 2025 and 2030 and 2035. That he's at work in the Christians in our church family for that purpose. We're a young church, and honestly, we're still getting to see like how are we, what's our church shaping up to be like? What is this? If this is Jesus's toolbox, what kind of tools? What's he, what's he shaping us for?
What are we going to look like? What are we going to get to be? What's he calling us into? What's the good work he's placed out for us? I was talking with a pastor of Midtown Lexington. He's a friend of mine, and their church is in a similar situation, about the same size as we are.
And he was telling me how they think about it, and I thought it was helpful, so I wanted to share this with you all. We have, this is our church family, we have about, we have 80 members, people who have actually committed to membership, and we have about 115, 120 so adults in groups. So, 80 members, 115 adults in groups, so, either way you slice that, if you're here, you're about 1% of our church family. You're about 1%. So, if you're in a group, a little, if we do it by groups, you're a little less than 1%, if you're a member, you're a little more than 1%, but you're about 1%, and since math's hard, just 1%, you guys.
You make up 1% of our church family. So, what you do, the work you're called into for our church family, matters, extremely, because we're still getting to set the stage for who are we going to be. What's Jesus designing us for? What are we going to look like? What does 2025 look like? If you grow in service, and giving, grow in generosity, grow in repenting of sin, and addressing sin in others, if you fight gossip, then guess what?
Our church grows in all of that, and fights all of that, and changes in all of that. Now, maybe it's possible that some of you just thought, well, 1% isn't a whole lot. There's two big problems with that. First big problem is, 30 of you just thought that. And that's damaging, insanely damaging to the health of our church. Secondly, you're responsible for your 1%.
You're held accountable for your good works, that He's designed for you to walk in. And so it matters, extremely, that your participation, or lack of participation, has a major effect on our church family, and on our obedience, and on our ability to walk in good works. That when three people call out on a Sunday from Kid City, that, we're not big enough to just handle that. That becomes a big issue. That's a hard thing to walk through. We just pile all the kids in one room, and lock the door.
We don't. I'm kidding. And if you're new, I'm sorry, if I just freaked you out, if your kid's up there. That's a big deal. I was reading this. Over the past couple years, a good bit of large church pastors, and large churches, have just kind of fallen apart.
It's been really sad. If you've paid attention to it, it's always harmful, and saddening to see that. And I was reading an article about a church, that it just kind of, it was a major church, a big church, and it had just kind of, disintegrated, imploded. And they were just trying to follow up, with people who had been a part of that church, and see where they were. They were talking, doing an interview with a guy, who had gone to a smaller church plant. So he'd been a part of this mega church, or he'd gone to a smaller church plant.
And when I read this quote, it was just, he said, when he first got to Tappery, that's the name of the church, he was shocked to realize, that if he didn't give, or serve here, the church dies. In a small church, he's an integral part of the system. And I read that, and was like, yeah, exactly. That's a good point. Like, there's something about us, collectively called to do, what we're going to do, that it matters, our good works, us walking in them, affects everybody. So, how do we respond?
If you've been saved by grace, not by your work, not by your effort, but you've placed your faith in Jesus, and you've been saved, to walk in good works, how do we respond? What do we do? Some of you, the Holy Spirit's already telling you, you already know, some of the work he's calling you to, some of the things that he's placed in front of you, and said, you need to get in on this, you need to get in on this, you need to get in on this. Some of you, maybe you are supposed to go be a missionary, in some place, where you're going to do that, for a couple of years, and then you're going to go to jail.
Some of you, maybe you need to go to a place, where you're going to fight, for the rest of your life, to try to translate the gospel, into another language, and they don't want to hear it, and it's not going to go well. Some of you, maybe you are supposed to go be a part of a church plant. Some of you, maybe you are, your group knows, and we're supposed to get involved, in this specific area, in our city. Some of you right now, it may be just real small, simple things. I've got to address this sin, I'm supposed to give money to this person, some of the good works, that you're seeing, that God's calling you into, but in order for us, to kind of have some, real tangible, immediate steps, for our whole church family, I've got four, that I think will help us, begin to take some steps, in walking in the good works, that Jesus has designed us for, because it matters, that we all get involved.
So the first one, commit to a group, if you haven't yet committed to a group. Now, committing to a group, I would not argue, is a good work. I mean, it's a good thing to do, I guess, but it probably doesn't fit, in the category of good work. But, being committed to a group, opens up an avenue, for a whole lot of good work, because there's sin to be addressed, and forgiven, and people to, you have to walk through life with, and burdens you need to share. Ephesians, as he keeps going, and he starts giving specific instructions, on how to live this out, he starts giving, love one another, forgive one another, bear one another's burdens, because it all applies, to relational connectivity.
So if you haven't committed to a group, commit to a group. And, I mean specifically, if you're not in one, you should get in one, because it's one of the best places, for you as a Christian, to walk out your faith. And if you are kind of in one, commit. Show up, when your group's meeting, when your group's serving, show up, when your group's throwing a party, show up, bring something. That's stuff Jesus does, by the way, one of the first things we see in John, is he goes to a party, and he makes it better. So go to the party, make it better.
Don't show up to a party, with a bad attitude, and make it worse. Go to the party, bring something, make it better, stay after and clean, help participate, in your group. So commit to a group, if you have not already, committed to a group, because that is where we, get to walk out, many of the good works, that God's designed us for. Commit to serve, if you have not committed to serve. So the second one, would be to commit to serve, if you haven't committed to serve.
If there are opportunities, in our church family, for service, and if you're sitting there going, I'm saved, I'm a Christian, I don't know what work, he's called me into, start trying something. One of the best ways, to find out whether or not, you're good at something, is to just start trying stuff. We believe, and the Bible says, that we're all designed, for good work. So we don't mind telling you, you're bad at something. Because we don't think, we're hurting your feelings, we think we're helping you, find the thing you're good at. So you're like, I'm filled, called to sing.
I'm supposed to sing. We'll say, cool, meet with Matt, and sing. And Matt will say, you're called to sing by yourself. Or maybe he'll say, yeah, maybe you are, maybe you are gifted to do this. One of the things, when I first started feeling called, in the ministry, I did a whole summer, I committed to doing, children's ministry. And I've never been around, children's since, until I had one.
Because I did it for a summer, and I was like, nope. It wasn't designed for this. And I started praying, I was like, Lord, let me yell at adults. That's what I got to do. So, commit to serve, we have opportunities for it. We've got Kid City, and our finance team, and people show up, every Sunday morning, here at seven, and begin to set things up, and line these chairs up, and vacuum up the glitter.
And if you don't know, what I'm talking about, come here at seven, next week, and help vacuum up the glitter. We don't know, where it comes from, but it's here. And we vacuum it up. There are people, who show up early, to help do all the stuff, that we're doing. People that built the walls, that we unfold, and try to keep standing up, in our hallway. Like there's, there's good work to be done, in service here.
And so if you, haven't committed to serve, commit to serve. Thirdly, commit to give, if you have not, committed to give. Our church, brings in about $10,000, a month. So, we run on about $120,000, budget for the year, which just means, things are pretty tight for us. We pay two pastors, out of that. We rent this facility.
We do all the upkeep stuff, we do here. And so that's, light bulbs that seem to go out, all the daggum time. And, we try to help upkeep, the area we're in. So we try to paint, and do some different things, to make the school nicer, while we're here. We, in our kid city, our kid city volunteers, are now writing their own curriculum, to save us some money. And I think their curriculum's better, so it's been a good, it's been a good change.
But, all the amount of graham crackers, and goldfish, and stuff it takes, to run that up there, and construction paper, and sticks to make swords out of, and all the mess they do, that's beneficial and good. Like, we pay for that. I have periodically, people ask, like, are we ever thinking about, getting our own place? And our response is, we think about it all the time. No, though, we don't have the money, to pay for that, we just think about it. We did have a church, that was talking to us, and they had some property, and we went and sat down with them, and we said, how generous do y'all want to be?
We're still praying about that, but, we don't really have the money, to pay for it. We're just like, if y'all are just looking, to get rid of this, if this land's getting on your nerves, you just give it to us, we'll put up with it. So, commit to give, if you haven't, if you haven't committed to give, that's one of the ways, to begin to do good work, with what God's blessed you with, and what he's designed you for. One of the ways, that helps us specifically, in that, is to sign up to give online, because it cuts out the, the having to remember, because I think a lot of our church family, like, we want to give, we intend to give, and then, by the end of the month, we've forgotten, or it just doesn't work out, and so giving online helps.
I really think, that our church family, we probably could be, in about the $15,000, a month range, and that really would allow us, to do all the stuff, we're trying to do right now, and more. There's some things, we're wanting to do with students, there's some things, we're wanting to do with, with kids ministry, and keeping up, with all that up there, there's some, I mean this year alone, we gave away $7,500, to people in our church family, just to help them pay bills, and that's one of the things, we think, is financially responsible for us, and so, we just, I think we can, I think we could do that, and I think it would be helpful, and I think it's a good way, for us to, to continue walking, the good work God's given us. The fourth one, is commit, to the mission, if you hadn't committed, to the mission. Commit to, seeing people, come to know Jesus.
The truth is this, everyone you know, is working on a self salvation project, they're trying to save themselves, either through their own good works, and their morality, or they're trying to give themselves purpose, through finances, or having a good marriage, or, or, or pouring something into society, but every single person, is trying to store up something, that they can point to, and say, this makes me okay, and we're the ones who know, that we can be saved by grace, through faith, in the finished work of Jesus, and if we're not telling people, we're not committed to the good works, he's called us to. We're not walking them out, because he's designed us, to help people know that.
We experienced some technical difficulties with this audio recording, but in the interest of serving our church family who could not be at the Gathering, we are posting what we have. We apologize for the abrupt beginning.
Reading is from Ephesians 2:8-10