|giv| Week 2
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. Sounds like a couple of you might have what I got the other week. So I apologize if at some point I have to cough or drink out of the water here this morning. But as has already been mentioned this morning, we are in the middle of our Give series. And so every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we as a church take the opportunity, while our culture is pressing in on us with a message of consumerism, to look to the scriptures. What does Jesus have to say about what is an appropriate way for us to approach our money and our stuff? And at the center of it, at the heart of it, is giving that he gave himself. And so we want to look at what it looks like to be generous people. And as a part of our Give series, we have what we call a Give project. And so every year we have an opportunity to partner with some organization, mission opportunity, ministry, something, somewhere, someone in need that we can help fill the gap in as a church by giving of our money, giving of our time, resources, whatever it might be that year.
This year we've been focusing on international mission work. And last week Chet got to introduce phase one of our project. So if you weren't here, I'm going to briefly explain what we're doing in this phase one. We are partnering with mission organization based in Mexico called elam. And they specifically help partner with local churches in Mexico to share the gospel to people who don't know. And one of the ways that we specifically get to partner with them is that several times a year they do short term mission trips, medical mission trips into indigenous communities in Mexico where they go in trying to help meet physical needs of people, whether it be that they have a hard time seeing, hard time hearing, so some ailment in their body, and that is a doorway by which they use to partner with local churches to share the deeper spiritual need of the gospel of Jesus. And so we're specifically helping raise funds for that avenue of ministry that they do.
We're looking to provide for them an enclosed trailer so that they can transport materials. And then we're also looking to fill that trailer with all sorts of medical equipment for them as they do this work. So I'm excited that thus far we have been able to raise in the last week a little over $7,000 toward this project, which is exciting. Yes, very exciting. And so right now, if for some reason this all had to stop, we'd at least be able to at this point be able to purchase them a closed in trailer where they could transport their supplies. But we're hoping we get to continue and we get to continue to raise funds. We're looking for another $15,000 for this part of our project where we get to fill this trailer full of medical equipment to help them, equip them for the work that they are doing. And then Chet's going to come back at the end of this morning and introduce what phase two of this project is. And this is really a great opportunity for us as a church to give toward the mission that God is doing in these other mission organizations. And not only is it a good opportunity for us to give to them and in this participation of giving, this is a good opportunity for us to have our own hearts drawn in toward the mission that God is working across the world.
Today that's what we're going to be looking at in this passage. Jesus is going to be specifically addressing the orientation of our own hearts toward our stuff and our money. So let me pray and then we'll dive into the text. Father, we thank you that you first gave to us. And so we pray that this season, as we are pressed in to think that we should take and that it's about us, that we would consider others as more important than ourselves, like you did, and that we would be people of generosity. This morning, would your word speak to us? Would it inform what it looks like for us to be followers of Jesus? In his name we pray. Amen.
If you will, you can turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter six. We're going to be in verses 19 to 24. If you don't have a Bible with you, you can use one of the blue ones in the chair, chair in front of you. That's going to be on page 473 as you're turning there to give a brief context to the passage that we're going to be in. Because we're just jumping right into the middle of the book. We are in the Gospel of Matthew. So this is an account of the life of Jesus, his ministry on earth. And specifically in chapter six, we're in the section that is commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. So this is the longest chunk of Jesus's teaching that we have in a row back to back, where he's sitting down and teaching his disciples. Specifically in the Gospel of Matthew, the main theme is the kingdom of God coming. And so he has a whole scope, a broad scope of topics that he's teaching on. What does it look like for the kingdom to be coming here and now? And if you actually look inside of those three chapters, 5, 6, and 7. And look at all the individual things he talks about. There's one that stands out that he talks about more than any other, and that is specifically our relationship to money, our relationship to our material possessions. And so that's what we're going to be looking at.
In this passage today, Jesus is going to be taking us on a journey from our outward experience with the material things with money, down into the inner experience with money and stuff. And he's going to do so in sets of two. So I'm going to cheat. I'm going to tell you exactly what we're going to talk about all morning, and then we'll get to go in more detail. So first, Jesus is going to teach on two different treasures. Two different treasures. Then he's going to teach us about two different eyes. Eyes. And then he's going to teach us about two different masters. And that's where we will finish out this morning. But first we'll start with two treasures. So let's read starting in verse 19, Jesus says,
> "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19–21, ESV)
So Jesus starts out by comparing laying up treasures on earth with laying up treasures in heaven. Don't do the one, do the other. So let's take this one at a time to start off. First, Jesus says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Now, what exactly does he mean by this? On the surface level, I think we can understand the basic principle of don't store up too much stuff on earth here. But how much is too much? Can I store a little bit? Dave Ramsey told me that I should save $1,000, then I should pay off all my debt, and then have three to six months worth of an emergency fund. Can I have an emergency fund? Is that something I should have? We don't even have to go outside the text for this question to come up. In Proverbs 21:20
> "Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it." (Proverbs 21:20, ESV)
So it's wise to have money, to have treasure stored up. But I thought that's what we're not supposed to do. Well, before we get too confused here, let's take a step back, look at the full context of what Jesus is teaching here. Because I definitely don't think the Bible is contradicting itself. I just think that Jesus is after something different than what this proverb is. So let's go back to the text, read it a little bit more in its full context. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.
The other month, my wife and I got to go to the State Museum, the South Carolina State Museum we were actually invited to. It was. Apparently you can rent like the lobby space. So it was a private event after hours. It was a wedding ceremony, reception that was being held afterwards. So we're there, we're having a great time, and then we find out like halfway through this event that apparently when you rent the space, you also get access, or at least when they rented the space, we had access to all the different floors of all the different exhibits. So we thought, perfect, we're here, let's take advantage of it. So there was like nobody in the museum. We're just walking around, having a great time. And on that first floor, when you walk in, you know, you got that big shark that's hanging down from the ceiling and you get to walk through. It's like the prehistoric exhibits and stuff. And we come across this one that I'm looking at, and it's called a fossil, a petrified fossil. I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool. It's impressive. It's been a while since I've been in the State Museum. And then I'm looking at it, it's not like in any enclosing, it's just out in the open. So I start reading in more detail. This is a replica of a. Immediately as soon as I read that, my care for this went from really to almost not. I could have seen a picture on the Internet of a replica of a petrified fossil. And so we move on from that. We're going through the different floors. Eventually we're on that top floor, which is like the Revolutionary War and Civil War memorabilia, and they got the Industrial Revolution stuff. And right in the middle of all that, there's this like 15 foot by 15 foot structure, which is apparently an old house that used to be used as like a schoolhouse where they would have gathered. And walking in, I'm walking on the floorboards, I start to read the description. This is the real deal. Apparently the boards that I'm standing on, the ceiling that I can touch, not just because I'm tall, because it's also short ceiling. Everything about this structure, it was the real deal. It was actual history from back in that time. Now, I'm assuming they probably deconstructed it and put up pieces in and put it back together. But this is really it. It's like from the 1800s, this old building. And I'm amazed being able to stand in here. I'm just taking it all in, soaking it all in. And the reason that it was so exciting is because it's not supposed to be there. That's not our experience with stuff. When was the last time you came across something from the 1800s? I don't know. You can go to the State Museum, you can see that. But this is the reason why we would even have something like a museum, that we would get excited about walking around and looking at old things. But because old things aren't supposed to last, that's not our experience. Things fade, they break. It's why we have to have replicas of fossils, because they're not around. That's our experience. So Jesus is saying, don't lay up treasures on earth because moth and rust destroy. Because stuff, it crumbles and falls apart.
He continues on. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Now notice here that Jesus isn't condemning laying up treasure. He's just telling us where there's a better place to put it. Now, what would you say if I told you that there is a house that has zero maintenance issues and zero maintenance fees? Can you imagine that maybe. No. I get one head nod back and think, no, it doesn't exist. If you could maybe envision it, it's possible that you have in your head that you don't have the maintenance issues or fees, but somebody else does and you just get to live there. Because that's not what we're used to. Stuff breaks, it falls apart. But if we take Jesus at his word for what he says, do you know that there's a place in which the things that you and I possess, they never fade? It never breaks. Did you know that there's a place where your check engine light never comes on again? There is a place where your H Vac unit doesn't make that weird clunking noise every time it turns on? There's a place where your phone screen no longer has a crack running right through the middle of it? Or that you know that Tupperware that you've got positioned just right under that leaky faucet underneath the little shutoff valve? Yeah. You know that Tupperware. You know it's there. That valve Never leaks again. That's a real place. And if you start to really think about it and consider it, I want to be there. Don't you want to be there? What would it look like for us to invest in that kind of place? Because Jesus says that kind of treasure, it never fades. And it's found in heaven is what he says.
It's found in the place where the glory and the presence of God is perfectly and fully manifested. And the story of the Scriptures is that that place, that heaven at the end of this time will come to be with us here on this earth, that that perfect place where the glory of God is perfectly displayed, where things don't ever break, things don't ever end, it comes to be with us. And Jesus says that he's going there to prepare a place for us. There's a seat at the table of the feast of the wedding lamb. The imagery at the end of the Book of Revelation, it's filled with beauty and wonder. The streets lined with gold walls and buildings held up by foundations of precious stone. A perfectly clear river running through the city, with a tree of life ever producing perfect fruit. Treasure abounds. Everlasting treasure abounds there in that place.
Now, laying up treasure in that place, I think it looks a little bit different than what you and I are used to because we're very physical, tangible, immediate response type people, right? And so it's easy for us to look at, you know, like numbers on a bank account screen. And that feels tangible as like a storing up of treasure. It's easy to think about the house or the car, the toys and the trinkets, because it's immediate feedback stuff. We invested our time, our energy, our money, whatever it is, and immediately there's something there. But when it comes up, when it comes to laying up treasures and heaven, Jesus says things like this in the Gospel of Luke, chapter six. He says,
> "Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets." (Luke 6:22–23, ESV)
A little later he says,
> "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil." (Luke 6:35, ESV)
A little later in the Gospel are in, Jesus says this, and whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water, because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.
> "And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward." (Matthew 10:42, ESV)
Or in the Sermon on the Mount itself, chapter six, a little bit earlier than where we're reading. Jesus says,
> "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." (Matthew 6:3–4, ESV)
So this isn't quite as simple as hitting the Buy now button on the Amazon app and two days later a package arriving at your door. Maybe it looks a little bit something like this. Maybe you don't get invited to go hang out with the co workers at dinner after work because you've been labeled as one of those weird Christians. You've talked about Jesus one too many times for their comfort. Maybe it looks like you know that next door neighbor of yours that seems to hide out in the bushes with binoculars and wait until there's one too many leaves in your yard to report you to the hoa. Well, one week, you know, you notice his car has been in the same spot in the driveway for longer than usual and the leaves are piling up. So this is finally your opportunity to go and blow his leaves into your yard so that you can pick them up. Or maybe it looks like something as simple as carrying some cold water bottles in your car on a hot summer South Carolina day so you can hand out to the beggar at the side of the intersection. Maybe it looks something like someone in your group is talking about how money's tight and the grocery budget is really slimming up and they don't know exactly how it's going to work this month. And so the rest of you talk and deliberate. You get some money together, a couple, you go down to Walmart and you fill up bags with food and you go take it to their house and drop it off. This is the kind of stuff that it looks like to participate in storing up treasures in heaven. I'm sure we can continue on with different types of examples, but what Jesus tells us as well in this, if you were paying attention to these different references, Jesus says that the Father sees it all, the Father sees it, and in his justice will reward every effort that is made.
Now at the end of this comparison between the storing of treasures on earth, storing treasures on heaven, Jesus gives us the reason why. In verse 21 he says this. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Very basic principle. You care about the things that you put money into. I'll let you in on a little secret. I don't know if you knew this, but before six years ago I never cared about the property at 327 Piney Grove Road, which, if you don't know me, that's my home address. You can send mail there or something. I'll accept a Christmas card. Never cared. So pre2019, didn't ever think about it. Now, here's the rest of the secret. For the last six years, I have cared more about the property at 327 Piney Grove Road than any other property in my life. Because for the past six years, my wife and I have lived there. We've invested our time, our resources into making a home for us and our family and people to come over. But it's just how it works. Wherever we put our money, wherever we put our resources, our time, that's what we care about. We start to be drawn into that thing. Maybe we never cared about it before, it's just a thing, but we started investing our money, our time. All of a sudden, our heart is drawn there. In other words, Jesus is telling us, don't store up treasures on earth, not just because it doesn't last. That's an important thing to understand. It's because when we start storing up treasure here in this place, where does our heart go? Our heart starts to be drawn to this temporary space. But if we start to invest, if we start to store up treasures in heaven, where does our heart go? Our heart goes to that eternal kingdom. Our heart begins to care about, be drawn toward the Father, toward his work, toward his glory. That's what we care about when we start to do that.
So this brings us all back to that confusion where we started off. Here, Jesus says, don't store up treasures on earth. The proverb we read said, the wise man has it there. But remember that Jesus is after something else. That proverb, it's. It's teaching us about practical wisdom, of, you know, having a budget and being good stewards of the things we have. But Jesus, he's turning us in a different direction. He's focusing on the heart. So I think that when we ask the question, how much is too much? We've just asked the wrong question. And not just that, but actually if we ask that question, which I think we all have, if we've come across this, it exposes our heart that we don't know what Jesus is talking about. If that's our question, how much is too much? So I think rather the better question is, how can I store as much treasure as possible in the eternal kingdom? I think that's the better question. How can I store as much treasure as possible in the eternal kingdom? Because it's what Matters, it's what lasts. So when we're asking that first question, we've got our eyes in the wrong place. And that's why Jesus doesn't stop there, he continues on. So he's going to move on from talking about two treasures to now talking about two different eyes.
Verse 22.
> "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" (Matthew 6:22–23, ESV)
So we've got a healthy eye and we've got a bad eye. Now I'll be honest with you, this illustration throws me for a loop just about every time that I come across and read it because I get stuck like envisioning a lamp in place of somebody's eyes on a face. And it's just a weird image and it throws me off and I get all tangled up. But I think it's actually much simpler than that when we slow down when we read it. And very basic principle here that we all understand. A lamp gives light. And so a lamp that's working well provides light. A lamp that doesn't work, no light, it's just darkness, you know. I help with our student ministry to middle and high school students. And so we have student nights during the fall and spring semester. We meet here in the building and we always play some kind of game. I like to have something fun and exciting put together and I'm always trying to figure out what's the game that they like most to play. Over the years I found they really love to play hide and seek. It's one of their favorite games. However, they do not want to play that in August because in August at 5:36 o', clock, the sun is still about 3/4 in the sky and this whole place is lit up. And it's not very challenging to hide or to seek. But November comes, the time changes. The sun at 5:36 o' clock is already down. It's dark everywhere in here. We turn the lights off, we have appropriate safety measures, boundaries, and the leaders spread out and the kids get to go and they get to hide. And now it's challenging because now you can't see there's no lamp that's giving off light to participate. So this is a basic principle that we understand about light and darkness being able to navigate this space.
So if we hold on to that idea and then we also. There's one other thing that I think is helpful at Least it's helpful for me when reading this verse. Reading this message that Jesus is saying is substituting in the definition for the word I. And so the definition that I think Jesus has in mind when he says the word I is how you view your stuff and money. So in other words, it would read like this. Now, what's about to be up on the screen in parentheses, that's my own words, not the words of Scripture, but you can track with me here. So if Jesus were to say it this way with the definition instead of the word, it would read something like this. How you view your stuff in money is the lamp of the body. So if the way you view your stuff and money is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if the way you view your stuff and money is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? So our view of our stuff and our money, it shines a light into our inner being. At least it has the opportunity to shine a light into our inner being. Because if we have a healthy approach to our stuff and our money, it exposes that we have light. Or in other words, remember what we just talked about earlier, that we can see, we can navigate, we understand the world as it is, and we can appropriately engage with things. And more importantly, we can appropriately engage with people because we have a healthy approach and understanding of what this stuff is. But if we have an unhealthy view of our money and of our possessions, then it's darkness. All of a sudden, it becomes challenging to navigate this space that we live in. All of a sudden, it becomes challenging to relate to people because we don't have an appropriate understanding of what this stuff is, what money is.
Now, I think a fair question to ask would be, what is a healthy or an unhealthy view of our stuff and our money? That's an appropriate question that flows out of this. Now, unfortunately, we don't have the time to dive the full depths of that question, and Scripture has much to say on it. So I think we would be wise to consider that question in our own hearts and then see what the Scripture teaches. But we can at the very least right now refer back to what we have already just labored to understand because Jesus has been teaching on this idea. A good starting point of having a healthy view of our money and our stuff is knowing that it's temporary. It's temporary. It's not all that it's cracked up to be, especially compared to the worth that awaits us in the eternal kingdom. I think that when we start to see our stuff and our money as just dust that's packaged in a neat little form for a little while, then our perspective on it starts to change. Those grandiose promises that wealth and riches make, they start to be exposed as lies.
And that leads us to our final set. We're going to see what truly is at stake here. This is where the true issue lies in two masters. Jesus finishes out with this in verse 24.
> "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." (Matthew 6:24, ESV)
If you work for Apple, then you sign a non compete, which means that you can at the same time also work for Microsoft, or if you work for Coca Cola, at least maybe high enough up in the ranks, you also would sign a non compete, which means at the same time you can't work at Pepsi. Basic understanding, they're in competition with each other as businesses. Jesus saying here that you can't live for God and also live for money. They're in competition, they're exclusive. You sign a non compete. This is what we mean when we talk about here being gospel centered. We don't talk about having our little Jesus stuff on Sunday morning and Wednesday night. And for the super spiritual 15 minutes in the morning, no, Jesus takes over it all.
Now here's the bigger issue with what Jesus just said. Because Jesus just said that you and I, we are servants and we have one of two masters. Either the Lord is our master and we serve him, or money is our master and we serve it. I think our American skin crawls when we hear that we don't have a master. No one tells me what to do. Well, Jesus has a different take. It's not a question of whether or not you will serve. It's simply a question of whom will you serve. And outside of Jesus, you and I don't have have a choice. Outside of Jesus, you and I are enslaved to money. It owns us. Just ask yourself these types of questions here. Do a little thought exercise. Outside of Jesus. So think before your life was surrendered to him, or maybe even some. When your life was, what was your drive? What woke you up in the morning? Why'd you set the alarm? What orients your schedule? Why do you live in that location? Why did you study at that college? Why did you take that job position? You think on these types of questions, you might start to see a pattern. Well, I Set my alarm for that time because I have to wake up to be a work and I have to be to work because I have to make money. And I moved here to this area because, well, there was a job, it was pretty good job, pretty good money. Well, I moved, I moved here because, I work remote and I was living in a big city where cost of living was extreme. And I came here, Columbia, you know, it's kind of still up and coming, so it's kind of cheaper to live here, but still got good amenities, you know, that's why I live here. Well, I studied at that college, I took out some loans to go to that college because I was convinced that it would pay off and I'd be able to make some money. We're enslaved to owns us. It works us and it grinds us until we're just shells of people. And the worst part is that it tricks us. It makes promises. And what we thought was going to be our deliverance from the guilt within and from the suffering imposed on us, it turns out to be the very force that holds us in captivity.
And if this morning that is what you feel like, you feel stuck under the compulsory rat race that we call the American dream, let me tell you that more isn't enough. It never satisfies. You can't have enough money in your bank account. You can't have a nice enough house, you can't drive a nice enough car, you can't have enough toys and trinkets to satisfy what is within you. It's a bottomless pit that just keeps on going. And if this morning you're prone to self righteousness, let me also tell you that you can't give enough to deal with that guilt within you. Because only Jesus is enough. Only at the cross of Christ is the guilt for sin actually paid for. Atonement is only found there. And when we close this morning, the news doesn't stop there. At the cross, Jesus rose from the grave. He rose in power and paved a way for you and I to live inside of new resurrection life. And this life, it's not theoretical. It's not just ideas that you and I talk about on a Sunday morning or on a Wednesday night when we get together. It's real power to live.
Do you know that you've been set free by Jesus for money? It no longer owns you. It is no longer your master. Jesus is. So as a church, we're going to participate in storing up treasure in the eternal kingdom because we see this stuff for what it is, just temporary Dust and a neat little form that fades away. But there's a place where the treasure abounds eternal. And that as we give to that, our hearts are drawn into him and his work. And so as a church, we're going to be people that give our money away. We're going to give and we're going to give and we're going to give. We're going to give to things like this give project to international mission work. And our hearts going to be spurred and drawn on towards that king kingdom work. We're going to be people that use our homes as places of rest for the weary and the broken, not as places where we can put up walls to block out those types of people. We're going to be a church that lend out our cars to people who need transportation because we can be inconvenienced. It's just temporary. We're going to be people that give food to the hungry. We're going to give shelter and care to the orphan and the widow. And we're going to give more and we're going to give more and we're going to give more. And we're going to ask the question, how much treasure can I store up in that eternal kingdom? Because that's what matters. That's what's eternal. It's not temporary. It doesn't just come and fade. It's forever. And most importantly, because when we belong to Jesus, we belong to him. And money no longer is our master. It does not own us. We are set free from it. What a beautiful, wonderful truth that we could belong to him.
Father, we thank you that in your generosity and your love for us you would set us free from what held us in captivity because we were being promised life in the path that leads to death. But we want the life that you offer. So would you remind us in your spirit of the resurrection power of Jesus? And would we be a church that participates in radical generosity? Because we are utterly and truly convinced that life is not found here. It's found in you. And we want to live and we want our hearts to be drawn towards you. Father, we love you and we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
One of the ways that we regularly remind ourselves of where true treasure lies and who the true master is is by participating in the Lord's Supper. This is a very practical and tangible reminder for us. We have real tables with real drink and bread up here and in the back and up in the balcony there's gluten free in the back right over here. And up in the balcony as well. But it's a real practice that you and I are about to stand up and walk and really grab some bread and eat it. And it's a reminder of who Jesus is and what he has done for us, that he went to the cross so that you and I could be set free from the bondage to something like money. And this is what Paul says about it in First Corinthians. He says,
> "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." (1 Corinthians 11:23–26, ESV)
So this morning, if you don't know Jesus, this practice isn't for you. Because we don't want you to be confused about who he is. We just want you to respond to Jesus, to respond in faith. This morning, though, if you belong to Jesus, this is a practice that we participate in, to remind ourselves of the cost of the generosity of our Father, that the Son would come and he would die on our behalf. And so take a moment wherever you are, and consider where is your heart? Where is the focus? And then confess. Confess that before the Father, but don't stop there. Come to the table and in coming, confess the work of Jesus that you and I have been set free from bondage and slavery to money. So when you're ready, come to the table and receive the most wonderful gift of his broken body and his poured out blood for you and I.
|giv| Week 1
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
If you will, grab a Bible and go to Acts chapter 17. It's our first week of our Give series. Recently, Starbucks released a barista cup and it's precious. That's it. That's the barista cup. There was an article about it in Forbes titled Starbucks Barista cup frenzy leaves big lessons for brands. So I just want to read the beginning of this article for you. It says the Starbucks barista cup caused a frenzy online and in stores. I don't exactly know what an online frenzy looks like, but that cup calls one. When Starbucks announced the release of limited edition holiday merchandise, including the bear shaped $29.95 glass cold cup, which you thought that the temperature of your cup was up to, you Incorrect. This is a cold cup. Actually, I think what it means is if you put hot coffee in it, you're going to burn your hand. So it's a cold cup. It says as part of their holiday menu, few people expected overnight queues in store brawls and a booming resale market. People camped out and fist fought each other. Then it says, beyond the surreal headlines, there are some valuable marketing lessons from the Starbucks bear cup drama. Starbucks barista cup has tapped into an undeniable human truth. I was on the edge of my seat reading this article. The barista cub has tapped into an undeniable human truth. And I had a lot of guesses, none of which prepared me for the answer. So here's the answer. People are obsessed with cuteness. Starbucks released 12 holiday items, but only one captured the public imagination. Cuteness is the primary explanation for the barista cup frenzy. Overnight cues, fist fights, cuteness, which makes a little bit of sense because you know you've seen like a baby so cute before that you punched its mother.
I would argue that Forbes analysis is incomplete. Cuteness may have contributed, but I think there are other undeniable human truths at work here. You know, as a pastor, I'm going to float sin out there. I also think that one of the things that this indicates to us is the absolute human ability to, to get our priorities out of line, to misplace value in things. That if you're punching someone for a cup because of the cuteness, your value system is off. And it's a real danger that we're all in. I think when I read these, sometimes I think like I'll read and go, oh my goodness, laugh at it and think, that would never, I would never do that. But really what I'm saying is I would never do that for a bear shaped Starbucks cup. I just have other things I'm willing to punch you for. I have other things that I've misplaced value in. Like, it just should give us the undeniable human truth that we are able to get our priorities out of, out of line. We're able to misplace value. We're able to suddenly think that something is more important than it is and to spend our time and our energy and our money on it. And that that is one of the primary reasons that we have our Give season, our Give series every Christmas season is that we're going to be pushed and pulled in a million different directions and told repeatedly that certain things have value that do not. And we want to always take this time to consider what actually is valuable and are we sending our effort and our money in the right direction.
So let's pray then we're going to start in on trying to figure this out together this morning. Lord, we ask for wisdom. We ask for discernment. We ask for the work of the Spirit to help us make correct valuations so that we do not waste our time and specifically for what we're talking about today, that we do not waste our money on things that have no real value. In Jesus name, Amen. Because of our ability to get this wrong, it's always very helpful for us when the Bible just tells us this has value, when it just steps in and explains to us this thing is valuable, it helps us know, okay, then that's something to pursue. That's something worth giving energy towards. I don't want to give away all of what we're doing in our Give series, but we're about to talk about Paul's missions efforts in the Book of Acts. So we're going to walk through. What we're going to do is walk through some of Paul's missionary journey, discuss it, see what's going on here, and then we're going to see something that's behind it, something that's at work in it that the passage doesn't talk about, but that we find out later as we read Paul's letter. So we're going to be in Acts chapter 17. We're going to watch Paul as he goes, who have just been in Philippi, in Acts 16, saw a few people converted to Christianity, got arrested and was beaten and then released. So he leaves. We're going to follow him as he goes to Thessalonica, Berea, and then on a boat down to Athens and then from Athens over to Corinth. And we're going to move pretty fast because It's a couple chapters of text, and we're just trying to follow along and see some of what's going on here.
So. Acts, chapter 17, verse 1.
> it says now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom. And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead, saying, this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.
So part of Paul's missionary strategy was when he went to a city, if there was a synagogue, he went to the synagogue because they were going to be studying the Scriptures. And so he would go and start showing them in the Scriptures that Jesus had fulfilled the promises of the Messiah. It's one of the things that we do around Christmas time. We read some of these passages like we read earlier, and we see that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises made to the Jewish people that he is their Messiah. And that's what he's doing. He's saying, the Christ has come. Jesus has fulfilled this. And he does this for three weeks every Sabbath day. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous. And that's where it goes into. After that verse, it's going to talk to us about. As people start to believe, some of the people in the area begin to fight against Paul. They actually attack them. And Paul and Silas sneak out at night. And so they were only there for a couple of weeks. They're seeing people believe and they're run out of town. So let's pick back up in verse 10 as the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.
> As the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.
So the brothers being the people who have just believed, it's just the beginnings of a church. And they're like, hey, we live here, but y' all, don't they want to hurt you, not us. Y' all get out of here. And we're going to keep following, figuring this out. And when they arrived, this is in Berea, they went into the Jewish synagogue. So Paul was like, I know my strategy. We're going back. Didn't work well last time, but we're going to do it this time. And it did work in some ways, because people believed. He's like, this is working. Even though some people hated me and wanted to Kill me. So he keeps going.
> Now, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness.
I just love that that note was in there. Just like these people were better than the ones in Thessalonica. And that's in Scripture, and it's there forever, you guys. All right? Many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there, too, agitating and stirring up the crowd.
So we don't exactly know how long he was in Berea, but. But he was there long enough for people to believe and for that to become such a thing that's happening there that they find out in Thessalonica. So they're like, oh, well, he's just going to keep at it. So they head over there to run him off out of Berea. Then it says, the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea. But Silas and Timothy remained there. And those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens. And after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
So Silas and Timothy stay. They sneak Paul out to a boat and ride him down to Athens. And then he says, when y' all get back, tell Silas and Timothy to come to me. And then he's hanging out in Athens by himself. While he's in Athens, he finds out that there's a place in Athens. There doesn't seem to. He does go to a Jewish synagogue. Then he also finds out that there's a place in Athens where they just gather and share news and anything new and debate new topics and new ideas. So he goes there and starts proclaiming the Gospel. And we're going to pick up in that.
> The times of ignorance God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
To Paul, as he's concluding, he says God overlooked ignorance, but not anymore. Now there's a man who's going to judge the whole world in righteousness. And he says, and God's proven this by raising him from the dead. So he's proclaiming the gospel that everyone everywhere needs to repent, which Just so you know, that's essential to the gospel, that everyone, everywhere needs to repent. Sometimes we'll pick specific isolated sins and someone will say, well, you think this is bad? And it's like, I don't know how to tell you this. We think everyone everywhere needs to repent, that you can't. If you just pick an isolated one, we're like, probably, yes, that's a sin. And that's a sin. And that's a sin. We believe that everyone has fallen short of the glory of God and needs Christ, that we aren't going to moral ourselves into this. We're not going to work our way into this. And this is what he's proclaiming to them. And he says that it's proven by. By the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
> Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we will hear you again about this.
So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. So several people believe he proclaims the Gospel. He goes to a new place, begins proclaiming the Gospel, and more people believe.
Chapter 18. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
> After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
So he jumped across out of. He was on Athens and then he jumped across Corinth, had to take a boat, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to them. And because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
> When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
So now, instead of making tents, his occupation, what he's at work in now is proclaiming the Gospel. He's had enough room now to share it. And he's spending his time trying to articulate to them this. And he's studying with them and proclaiming it to them.
> When the Jewish people opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.
And he left there, and he went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. I just appreciate that a whole lot. He's like, fine, I'm gonna go to the Gentiles. He walks out. He turns the corner. He walks in that house and is like, boom, Setting up shop. Here we go. So he's right next to the synagogue. He didn't go far away. He's like, I'm telling people about Jesus. I don't know. Right here next to y'. All. That's what he starts doing. Then it says, crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord. So he was next door. He was overseeing that. He just is like, I'm going to. And he heads over to the other house together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision.
> Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.
And he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. So he's been chased all along. He's in Corinth. Jesus shows up and says, stay here. Keep preaching. Because there are many people in this city who are mine, but not yet. So Paul is in a spot where Jesus says, there are people here who belong to me, but they don't know it yet. I know it. They don't know it. And you've got to stay and you've got to tell them. You've got to proclaim the gospel. You've got to explain what's happened, and then they will belong to me. To me, because they already belong to me. That's what he's saying. And that's one of the things that undergirds missions. One of the reasons we go, one of the reasons we plant churches, one of the reasons we send, one of the reasons we go to places where people have never heard. One of the reasons we go to places that are difficult is because all over the place, there are people who belong to Jesus. And we've got to go tell them. We've got to go tell him who he is. And the Spirit goes to work in their heart, and Jesus claims them it's not something that happens without their knowledge. They are going to come to genuine faith in Jesus that will be tangible and real in their life. But what Jesus is saying is that he sins at times and he puts somebody in a place at times because there are people there who belong to him. They just haven't heard about him yet. That ought to give us courage. We ought to begin to beg the Lord. Lord, are there people at work? There are people at my job. Are there people in this class? Are there people on the street who belong to you that I'm supposed to stay and proclaim the gospel to? And we ought to start praying over maps, and we ought to start going to places and saying, lord, there's gotta be people here who belong to you. Put me in the right spot, Send me to the right place. Help me to be there to proclaim the gospel.
Now, there's something else that's happening in this text that I think we need to consider. Alfred Hitchcock was a director. He did movies like Psycho and the Birds, and he had a concept that he called the refrigerator test. He just said he wanted all of his movies that he made to pass the refrigerator test. The point was, you'd go see a movie, you're in it, soaking it up. It's great. You leave, you go home, you open your refrigerator to grab a snack before you go to bed, and suddenly you're like, wait a second. How did they get on the train in the first place? And you realize that the movie just skipped a thing. It didn't explain something to you, or there's a logical problem. You're like, why didn't the bad guys just shoot him? They shot his wife. Why'd they shoot her and then leave him alive? Were they running out of bullets? You open your refrigerator and you think, why don't they ever shoot at Captain America's legs? You know, I've played paintball before. I picked up a pallet one time. I got shot in the legs, like 45 times. Seems easy enough. And as we're reading this passage, there's a little hint at it in one place, but I think there's a thing that we should go. Hold on a second. How does Paul survive not just not get killed, but we've watched him travel around for years at this point. There was one moment where they said he went and made tents. And unless he sold the most extravagant, amazing tents, that he just did that for a couple of weeks, and then he was set for several years. It feels like there's something else going on here now, you could say, well, it's fair to assume that the people that are believing are starting to tend to him, they're going to feed him, they're going to help him have a place to stay. And it's like that. That's reasonable. But there's places where he shows up and there's nobody. That hasn't happened yet. And so this is one of those things where you go, well, how does. How is he doing this? Is he independently wealthy, like Bruce Wayne or something? What's going on? And then it doesn't talk about it in this text, but it does show up in Paul's letters. And so I want us to go to. It's mentioned in Corinthians, but it's talked about directly in Philippians. And I want y' all to see this. This is the end of Philippians chapter four. He's writing to the church in Philippi. So that was the first dot on our map. And he says, and you, Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the Gospel. So this is right when I first started, was proclaiming this.
> When I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again.
So he's writing to this church, and he's saying, y' all partnered with me from the very beginning you entered into partnership with me. Meaning that the work that Paul did, they had a hand in it. They had a share in it. Even though he's the one traveling around the church in Philippi is helping make sure that's possible. And y'. All. He says something crazy. Look at this. That's Philippi. The whole big section here is Macedonia. When he gets out of Macedonia, he's in Corinth. So he says, nobody helped me when I left Macedonia except for y'. All. So he's like, y' all helped provide for me while I was in Corinth. And that's why he mentions it to the Corinthians, because I didn't take anything from y'. All. He says, I worked. He mentioned that. And then he says, and the churches in Macedonia helped me. But he also says, when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help. That was right after he left Philippi. He went through two towns, and the next town that it says he was in for three weeks was Thessalonica, which means that the Philippians, as soon as they believed, started helping Paul be a missionary. As soon as it happened, what they said Was, oh, we want everybody to know this. And if you're gonna go and tell people, we want in on that. We want to be a part of making sure that everybody knows what we now know. And it started immediately with them.
> Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
You know how that works, right? With your money, there are certain things where it's like your wallet magically appears in your hand that you're just willing to pay for. Usually people who get married to each other, those things are wildly different. So your spouse seems to have infinite money for this stupid category. When you know that you should never spend money on that. You should spend money on this brilliant category that you love. And that seems to be what happens. And what happens with the Philippians is as soon as they know about Christ and they find out that Paul's gonna go check, share it with other people, their wallet's just in their hands. They're just like, oh, yeah, we want this to happen. Make sure he has what he needs. And they do it the whole time. They find out he's in Corinth, and they're like, make sure he has what he needs so that he can tell more people about this. And Paul says that they've partnered with him. And then he says this. Not that I seek the gift, because they've just given him a gift. And he's telling him, thank you. That's what he was doing earlier. He says, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. He says. So he was telling him, thank you. He said, I appreciate it. He said, but that's not what it's all about. What it's about is that you are doing something that's valuable and that you receive credit for doing this good thing. He's basically saying to the Philippians, this is something you ought to do. It's a good thing to do. And I'm glad that you're doing it. Which if you've ever talked to missionaries, they do have that weird. They're really thankful, but they're also trying, like, they don't trying to be about money. So they'll say like, thank you so much. We also are just trusting the Lord, but thank you. But also, it's good for you to give. But also it's not all about, like, they have these weird. If you read this section in Philippians, you can see Paul being like, you should do this. But I'm not super worried about it. Cause Jesus is gonna take care of me. But not being worried about it doesn't mean I'm not thankful. I'm very thankful. And he just is trying to articulate all these things at once. And he says, I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent.
> A fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus,
so that they're getting to be stewards of God's provision for them by providing for Paul. And Paul says, God sees it, God knows it. It's a sacrifice pleasing to him. Now, I would argue that there are things we put money towards that do not fit the category of a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Not to say that everything we spend our money on is bad. And I think that there are things that are, you're perfectly fine to exist and pay your bills and do things. But I think that when we see that there are things that the Lord delights for us to participate in, that we get to join in partnership with missionaries, that we get to enjoy partaking in the endeavor that they're after, and that we get to do something that the Lord looks at and is pleased with than we ought to. When he sets our valuation of something, take him up on it. When he says this is good and valuable, take him up on it. And when Jesus is talking about this, at one point he says it's not about the amount. He just says not even a cup of cold water will be forgotten. That if you give anything to try to participate in this, if you give anything to care and to love and because you're a disciple and because they're a disciple and because they're going, he says, not a thing's forgotten. So every penny is remembered and every penny is worth it. But then he says this in Philippians 4:20, then this is why we do this to our God and Father. Be glory forever and ever. Amen.
> To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
That's the point. That's the reason the Philippians want a partner. It's because they want everyone everywhere to give glory to God. To know who Christ is, to know what he's done, to know how good he is, to know how wonderful he is, to know how much he loves, to. To know the grace that he offers. When you ever consider how merciful and kind he's been to you, if you consider the weight of your sin, the weight of your failings, the weight of your shortcomings, the depth of the destruction that we deserve and how loving and good and wonderful he is, and that he's designed so that we would belong to him and so that he can lavish his riches and kindness on us for all eternity. And that that's offered to all who will call on him, then we want all to call on Him. That's why John Piper says that missions exist because worship doesn't. He says worship is the goal and fuel of missions. That's why we go, because we have tasted of the joy of worshiping Jesus and we want all the families of the earth in included.
So while everything around you is going to push and pull you in a different direction and tell you, you need this, you need this, you should have one of these in order to be happy, you'll need this. My sons asked me, they said Halloween hadn't happened. Why are all the commercials, Christmas commercial? I said, oh, boy, they want money. Our whole economy runs off of you buying things you don't need. And we're trying to take a moment to just go, look, we want to celebrate well, we also want to pause and go, is my money going in the right direction? Do I have my priorities right? Is my value system correct? Do I look like a person who knows the delight and the goodness of Christ? Does that show up in how my money and my budget works? And that's what we want to pause and do every year in our gift series.
So this year what we do. Not this year. I started the wrong sentence. I'll start that sentence in a second. What we do every year is we pick a project or two one time, three, I think, and we just say we want to give money to this. It's just an opportunity for our church to rally together and be generous. So we've done different things. Sometimes we do local things, sometimes we do further away things. This year we're going to partner, hopefully Lord willing, with two different organizations to do some foreign missions work. So I'm introducing the first project today. So this year we're going to do two. I'm introducing the first project today, we'll introduce the next one next week. And then over the next few weeks we'll try to raise money to support these agencies in the efforts that they're doing in foreign mission work. So the first one we're going to partner with is elam. It is a missions organization in Mexico. When we started praying about this and looking, we were like, we want to do something with foreign missions. We want to give some effort in this direction. Scott and Kit's Hill's son Scotty, also Isaac Hill, is one of our pastors. It's his uncle also Isaac Hill's wife Lydia, it's her uncle in law, works with Elam in Mexico. So we just called him up and started trying to talk to him about what would it look like if we partnered with you? What kind of work are you doing? What's the labor looking like right now in where you are? So this is a picture. One of the things, as we said, just start dreaming a little bit if we partner with you now. It's an EFCA organization. So the money's going towards an organization that is very transparent in how they handle their finances. ELAM is they pick that name because it's the name of Oasis mentioned in the book of Exodus and what they do. I'll read some of this specifically. I can find my notes here. Yeah. ELAM is a mission development and mobilization organization in Mexico that focuses on equipping and mobilizing local churches. They do this through trainings and through short term missions trips to indigenous communities. So one of the things they do is they'll partner with a local church in a harder area and they show up and help do missions trips to try to help that church serve the community and have an opportunity for evangelism, have an opportunity to build goodwill with the community as that church is trying to develop. So what they've been doing recently is, is medical mission, short term missions programs. And so they'll go to a community and do medical missions for a couple weeks to try to help a local in partnership with a local church in a community. So the core activities are they do general medical exams and treatment, dental care and hygiene education, vision screenings and the distribution of eyeglasses. And then throughout that they're doing church support and evangelism as a part of it.
So they currently have a donated auto refractor which is a machine you put on your face and it tells you what your prescription is. And then someone donated to them 6,000 pairs of glasses. So they show up to places, stick an autorefactor on people's faces, find out what the prescription is, find it and give them a pair of glasses. And so they're able to go to these rural places and under resourced places and help people see. They also have two mobile dental machines and chairs. And then they're using all this on supplies on borrowed trucks and on the open bed trailer covered with tarps. They've been going to Sierra Mezateca where there's about 300,000 Mezatecos and only a few local churches. They've been in Partnership with a church called Amigos de Fe. And they've planted churches and trying to plant churches in eight communities. They've done five medical trips in that area with about 80 to 120 medical patients, 40 to 50 dental patients, and then they were given out 20 to 30 glasses. And then in the areas near Veracruz and hidalgo, there's about 490,000 people. They have two medical trips they've done this past year. They've got a third one scheduled. On their first two, they had about 100 to 150 medical patients, 60 to 100 dental patients, and they gave out 50 to 100 pairs of glasses, which I don't know if you've ever tried to live without glasses and then got glasses, but it's magical. Just ask third grade Chet. So for them to show up to places where people have not been able to see and just outfit them, they walk in and walk out with glasses is a wonderful thing.
And so we just said, what would you need if we were going to give you money? What would you use it for? What would this look like? And so the biggest, they said the current biggest limitation is the logistics problem for them. They have an open bed trailer that they've just been throwing a tarp on. And so they said we'd love. Yeah, that. They said they have lost equipment due to rain. And some of the places that they go to, they end up having to park and hike up mountains. I mean, they're going to hard to reach places and difficult to resource places. And so they said they'd love to have an enclosed trailer. And so they sent us this sort of thing now just to help you all out. That 98,500 is pesos. So if you're like, nah, we're gonna have to smuggle in one of our trailers. We ain't paying that. That's in pesos. So don't stress out over that.
So here's what we said. We just said, start telling us what you would need. And they gave us a list. We said, dream. We've learned as a church that we want to. We want to get some options. We want to get some things in front of us and we'll see what the Lord does and what we're able to do together. Like we said, our hope is to knock this out, to be able to do what they've asked and do another one. But we'll see. We're happy to get to partner together however we're able to. But this is what. This is how the money would work for this Group the trailer is about $6,000. So the first $6,000 we raise, they're going to go get a trailer. After that, they would use 1250 for insurance, taxes, maintenance of the trailer. So they said if we're able to give them about $7,000, 7,500, they'll get a trailer and they'll be taken care of for a year, and then they'll, you know, just continue to operate with it. But they would be blessed by that because they'd be able to load it up, they'd be able to lock it up, they'd be able to show up to the place, unload what they needed to unload, keep. Like they just said this would bless their souls and their ability to get in and out of places and. And not lose equipment. So we said that sounded smart to us. So we thought, yes, let's try to get them a trailer if we're able to keep giving. Here are other things. They were like, well, look, y' all give us money, we're going to spend it. So they would love another auto refractor, which helps them to do multiple trips or to be able to just handle more people when they're coming in, getting them glasses. A lensometer is actually what you use to shine through glasses to make sure it is the right prescription. So auto refractor goes on the face, lensometer goes on the glasses. A diagnostic kit and a retinoscope is just the ability to try to actually check eyes, see what's going on. If they could have a mobile dental X ray with a computer, that would be amazing so that they could actually do X rays right there, see what's going on inside. And then they said dental chairs and lights, 600 general dental tools and supplies, 1500 general medical equipment, 500, for a total of $22,250. We'd love to be able to raise that for them. We'd love to get to join in partnership in a way that we get to be a part of people in areas of Mexico we'll never step foot in being cared for, loved, and getting a tangible picture of the gospel. As a group of people is trying to plant churches to articulate the gospel.
Just so y' all know, we don't do a whole lot as a church in partnership with any kind of foreign missions organization that isn't trying to plant churches and articulate the gospel. We think it is incomplete if we're just doing physical things, but we love to partner where they're doing some physical work, some. Some tangible help in connection with local church planting and church organization and these sort of things going forward. So as a church, every year we do every year at Christmas we partner with the Lottie Moon Christmas offering, which is, you see it on the tables and it's in your bulletin, which is a part of missions efforts for the Southern Baptist. We do that every year and then we pick a give project and then sometimes we pick as a give project a missions opportunity. And we've got two in front of us this year. This is the first one we're going to be able to get after we're excited to be able to partner in this specific way in Mexico for the sake of what they're doing and would love for you to begin praying about what does it look like for you to partner in helping see other people come to know Jesus and tangibly see what he does among a group people, let's pray.
Father, we're thankful. We're thankful that you have met us in our need. We're thankful that you have redeemed us and called us into something eternal. We ask that your spirit would be at work so that our church might be a blessing to those who are out and doing international efforts. We pray, Lord, that you would stir in the hearts of our church family so that we might be able to send people and we pray that you would stir in our hearts that we might be able to send money to the people who are already there. But may we be a part of what you are doing around the world in the places where people belong to you. There just hasn't been someone who's told them about you yet. In Jesus name Amen. Band's gonna come up. We're gonna sing. If you desire to give, there are there is a drop down menu online that you can give directly to it already. You can also give via an envelope or just put on the check that it's for our gift project. But we ask you to begin to pray and hopefully, Lord willing will be able to begin to move on this and then get into some of the other stuff, see what the Lord does.