Give Yourself to God First

What does it take to be a generous person? Do you have to be rich, have more money than you need, and have lots of resources and time? Do you ever think to yourself, “Someday if I get some extra money, I’ll be generous, but right now, I have to concentrate on taking care of myself?”

The people in the churches of Macedonia (the northern part of Greece and southeastern Europe) were made up of people who believed what the Apostle Paul taught them about Jesus of Nazareth: He is the Messiah that God has sent, our best look at who God is. Jesus died and came back from death to show God’s power over sin: all the destructive ways human beings live, and over death itself. These believers were asked by Paul to give an offering to help people in Jerusalem, because food was scarce for them in those days.

Here is how the Macedonian churches responded according to Paul’s second letter to the Church at Corinth. “While they were being tested by many problems, their extra amount of happiness and their extreme poverty resulted in a surplus of rich generosity. I assure you that they gave what they could afford and even more than they could afford, and they did it voluntarily. They urgently begged us for the privilege of sharing in this service for the saints. They even exceeded our expectations, because they gave themselves to the Lord first and to us, consistent with God’s will.” (8:2-5)

Clearly, what made those believers generous was not having lots of money. What made them generous was that they “gave themselves to the Lord first.” When we give ourselves to God first, we begin to understand that all we have comes from God and belongs to God. We are just the managers of what God entrusts to us. God intends for us to live our lives with “an extra amount of happiness” and share with others what we have, whether it is little or much.

In order to do what God is giving us to do here at New Hope, we need to give generously to our church. What will make us generous is our joy in seeing what God is doing and then giving ourselves to God.

Real Love Drives Out Fear

A commercial airline pilot called Greg Baer to say that he'd broken up with his wife, his children were a mess, and he was miserable beyond words. The stress was killing him, and he was making mistakes on the job that were endangering his employment. "I don't think I can fly anymore," he said. "I just don't have it."

Greg told him the story of Jumbo the Elephant.

A baby elephant is born in the circus, but the other elephants laugh at him because of his unusually large ears and give him the nickname "Dumbo." Feeling like an outcast, his spirits are lifted by the friendship of a small mouse, Timothy.

Dumbo proves too clumsy to contribute to the elephant acts in the circus, so the boss assigns him to be clown, falling from a platform into a vat of pie filling. After getting drunk one night--that's a story for another day--Dumbo and Timothy wake up the next morning high in a tree. Timothy concludes that Dumbo must have used his big ears to fly there, but Dumbo doesn't believe it and refuses to jump from his leafy perch.

Timothy finds a feather and convinces Dumbo that it's magic and will give him the ability to fly. With the magic feather, Dumbo flies to the ground and returns to the circus, where he discovers that he has been assigned to jump from a much higher platform. Terrified, he jumps but loses his feather on the way down. As he falls, however, Timothy tells him that the feather was never magical, and that Dumbo had his own ability to fly. Dumbo pulls out of his dive, flies around the audience, and is hailed as a hero and star.

"Dumbo could fly,” Greg said to the pilot, “He proved that by flying up into the tree. But once he was there, he couldn't fly anymore, and only one thing prevented that: his fear. Fear distorts our thinking, alters our perceptions, and twists our behavior. You've already proven you can fly. There's no doubt about it, but you've recently been severely handicapped by fear--not primarily of flying, but of being a less worthwhile person as a result of all the unloving experiences you have endured from early childhood to the present."

The pilot learned to tell the truth and allow some loving people to see him, flaws, fears, and all. He found God’s love flowing to him through a number of people. His fears began to evaporate, and he's now flying--literally and figuratively.

Fear is crippling. As long as we're afraid--until we address the root cause of all fears--we cannot make full use of our abilities.

No human emotion is spoken of more often in the Bible than fear. The Bible wants to help us get over our fear. One instance of the Bible telling us that God wants us to get past our fear is 1John 4:18 which says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Attend the Real Love Seminar to learn how love drives out fear.

Love Filling Lives

Can anybody doubt the need for the increase of love in our world? Just today, October 20, 2011, the front page of the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports a city official arrested for beating a man and shattering bones in his face, parents allowing their teenager to keep marijuana and poisonous snakes in his room, and a man in authority using his power to secure sex from young girls. What is the cure for the destructive actions we read about in the paper every day? It is the love of God filling our lives so that we don’t keep trying to fill up our emptiness with power or pleasure or praise.

People who are in healthy small groups tend to increase their ability to love others. I see it in “Grief Support Groups.” As members of the groups share their experiences, discover what they have in common, and encourage each other, love naturally grows in their hearts. I believe this is what God wants for each of us and what God wants for our church: that we learn how to grow in our love for God and for others.

In our Real Love Groups, I see it, too. When people in the groups are able to tell the truth about their own sins and selfishness and talk together about how they are learning to gather the love they need and give it to others – even those who are angry and unloving toward them – they grow in love for one another.

Here is the Bible on the growth of love among members of the church in 1 Thessalonians 3:11 and 4:9 (Message). “May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you. . . . Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don't need me to tell you what to do. You're God-taught in these matters. Just love one another! You're already good at it. . . . Keep it up; get better and better at it. “

This is what our church is about: learning how to let the Master pour on the love so that it fills us and overflows from us.

As We Grow: God's Tender Mercies

I don’t often change my sermon plans in the middle of the week, but this week I have done it. The reason is twofold.

1. Two young adults are ready to be baptized and talked to me about it Wednesday night.

2. We are observing communion today.

So I have changed my plans for my sermon today. It seems very important to talk to the whole congregation about the importance of baptism and of the Lord’s Supper and why we obey Jesus and do these two things Jesus told us to do.

The other day, I asked several people to pray for New Hope as we grow. We now have Sunday morning Bible Study Classes that need larger rooms. We have the potential to have three or four babies with us on Sunday and/or Wednesday, and we have only one baby bed in our small nursery. When you pray, ask God to give us guidance in answering the questions: How are we going to expand our buildings to match the growth we are experiencing? How are we going to raise the money we need to pay for that expansion?

Last Sunday as we dedicated Drew and Dusti Heil’s sons, Andrew and Ashton, we also dedicated T. J. and Stephanie Pullin’s daughter, Finley. Then we welcomed Drew and Dusti as new members of New Hope. Dusti came to us on promise of a letter of recommendation from another church. Drew came asking us to baptize him. We have scheduled his baptism for Sunday, October 23 at 2pm. Further details will be forthcoming. We give our thanks to God for all His goodness and tender mercies.