There are always several ways to look at everything. Some will no doubt look at the current state of the economy in South East Michigan and wonder what church in its right mind would decide to do a message series on generosity?
Others look at the same economic situation and see a truly amazing opportunity to become more generous toward God, His mission and the needs of others. We all understand that the economy has hit many of our 2|42 families particularly hard. Our natural inclination when times are tough is toward self preservation. We cut expenses and increase savings if possible in an effort to ride out the economic storm. Over the next several weeks we are going to see how God’s word challenges Christ followers to act counter intuitively by learning to trust God with our finances even during an economic crisis. God’s promise for those that learn to trust Him and even “test” Him in the area of generosity is that He will pour out so much blessing that we won’t be able to contain it all.
Many will no doubt find it difficult to talk about generosity when they wonder if they will be able to make their next mortgage payment. Let’s be especially sensitive to those in our groups that are facing these kinds of issues. We are confident however that by facing the issue of generosity head on during this series, that we as a church will come to a deeper understanding generosity. That, despite economic conditions, God is our provider. His Word teaches us that He can be trusted to supply all our needs. We pray that through this series we will all learn to faithfully honor God with our wealth by practicing sound biblical principles for eliminating debt, saving, and giving. Our hope is that through this series, the DVD’s and the cell group discussions, God will move in our hearts to help us become a more generous church.
In preparation for the series we have also created a Generosity FAQ (click here) sheet for you as the leader to be prepared for potential questions you'll be asked as we head into this series.
May God bless you as a leader in our community and may He continue to bless 2|42 as we grow and become more obedient.
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1 comments:
I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who doesn’t want to be more generous. Or maybe it’s just they would never admit that they don’t want to be generous.
From my personal perspective it’s hard to understand the push-back I’ve heard so far about this series. I have a secure government job a pension I can start collecting next year, we carry only our house as debt, so things seem okay. I get it people are hurting, losing their home, can’t pay bills, losing their jobs – So who is it up to take care of these folks – The “Government”, as a government employee, I sure hope not!
I heard the US Postal Carriers food collection was a huge success this year – That’s great – but it’s just “cans of corn”.
Do we dare ask God that our hearts would break for what breaks God’s heart?
I firmly believe that it’s up to the CHURCH – That’s you and me to care for our neighbors “All over the World”.
Please hear me, if your hurting, out of work, just scraping by, it may be your time to be blessed by Gods people.
I know it’s easy to trust God when things are good. Please add to these comments on when you have trusted God during those tough times. We all need to hear your story.
May God bless you.
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