Dan Cruver on "What Should Motivate Us to Give Financially for the Good of an Orphan?"

Dan Cruver, at Together for Adoption writes the following:

What should motivate us to give financially for the good of an orphan?
by Dan ~ November 12th, 2009

Here’s one way to motivate people to give financially for the good of an orphan: “If you make at least $30,000 annually, your income is in the top 7.16% worldwide. You are one of the wealthiest people in the world. Orphans are the poorest in the world. What’s preventing you from giving financially for the good of an orphan? You can certainly afford to give something!”

Here’s another: “‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich’ (2 Corinthians 8:9). You know what it’s like to be the poorest of the poor. Remember that you were at one time without hope and without God in this world. You were a spiritual orphan. But God in His great kindness sent His Son so that you might receive adoption of sons. When Jesus was forsaken by his Father at the cross, he suffered infinite poverty. He was forsaken so that you could be forever embraced. Look at how much you are loved! The love of the Father is your main wealth. When Jesus became poor for your sake, he gave you the eternal embrace of his Father.”
Both of these ways of motivation are legitimate. But the first seeks to motivate Christians merely on ethical grounds. The second seeks to motivate by overwhelming them with the wealth of love that is theirs in Jesus. Tim Keller, commenting on 2 Corinthians 8:9, writes:
Jesus, the God-Man, had infinite wealth, but if he had held on to it, we would have died in our spiritual poverty. That was the choice—if he stayed rich, we would die poor. If he died poor, we could become rich. Our sins would be forgiven, and we would be admitted into the family of God. Paul was not giving this church a mere ethical precept, exhorting them to stop loving money so much and become more generous. Rather, he recapitulated the gospel.
This is what Paul was saying. Jesus gave up all his treasure in heaven, in order to make you his treasure—for you are a treasured people (1 Peter 2:9-10). When you see him dying to make you his treasure, that will make him yours. Money will cease to be the currency of your significance and security, and you will want to bless others with what you have. To the degree that you grasp the gospel, money will have no dominion over you. Think on his costly grace until it changes you into generous people” (Counterfeit Gods, 67-68).

Yes, it is important to let people know what economic class they are in. We need to know how wealthy we are in comparison to most everyone else in the world. But if you really want to see people give, if you really want to see Christians become generous givers for the benefit of orphans, give them a fresh telling of the gospel. Melt their hearts with the good news of the gospel. Nothing motivates like the gospel. Nothing.

Sermon Outlines from Yesterday Morning and Evening

Sunday Morning, November 15th, 2009

"A Godward View of Money According to Ecclesiastes"
Ecclesiastes 5:10-20, 6:1-6

Three Ways Money and/or Possessions are Meaningless in these Verses:

I. Wanting a lot of Money as Meaningless from Earth’s Perspective
(5:10-11)

II. Having A lot of Money as Meaningless from Earth’s Perspective
(5:12-17)

III. Owning A lot of Stuff as Meaningless from Earth’s Perspective (6:1-6)


The Key to a Joy-filled Life: Contentment with God (5:18-20)

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Philippians 4:11-13
1 Timothy 6:6-8


Moving Toward a Life with Contentment and Joy in God:

1. Work toward putting a cap on your current lifestyle.

2. Getting more money is to be viewed as a direct means of demonstrating your supreme love of God.

3. Believe that this current economic recession or strenuous year for a farmer as a means of God’s protective grace for your soul.

4. Ecclesiastes 5 and 6 is not only true of an individual or a family, but true for the way a church operates as well.

5. Do an honest evaluation of your heart to, seeking as to whether or not your hope and joy is found in money or in God.




Sunday Evening, November 15th, 2009

“For GOD Has Done…” cont’d
Romans 8:1-17

How is it that one can know for certain that this has actually happened? (vs. 5-17)

(3). There is a longing to destroy the sinful works of the flesh (vs. 12-13).



What we must recognize right up front in Romans 8:12-13:

(a). Recognize where I get this third way to be certain of salvation.


(b). Recognize that there is a direct connection between verse 12 and what has gone before it (“So then…”)


(c). Recognize that the Christian life is war with one’s self.



Ways to fight indwelling sin according to Romans 8:12-13:

1. Ponder and embrace why Paul does NOT say that believers are debtors to the Spirit.

2. Be confident that you already have the power to fight sin by the Spirit that is in you.

3. Know clearly, however, what your role is and that overcoming sin is not automatic.

a.Recall that the war is not with the deeds themselves but within the spirit before
the deeds are committed – Ephesians 6:10-12
b.Fight inferior pleasures with a superior pleasure – John 16:13-14
c.Fight lies with truth – Ephesians 6:17
d.Fight by hoping in the greater outcome: life – Hebrews 12:1-2

Some of God's Purposes for the Recession

Yesterday morning I mentioned that this current economic recession we are in is actually a gift of God's grace for our souls. We are being forced to evaluate and think through some of the things that really matter in our lives and what things are ultimately important. God is giving us the chance to hope in Him and remember that our hope is not in our bank accounts or in our stuff.

I had planned on quoting from John Piper who had preached a sermon on this very thought a year or so ago. You can read, listen to, or watch his sermon here.

He lists five possible purposes of God in the recession (I was going to list the five in my message). They are:

(Some of) God’s Purposes in This Recession

1. He intends for this recession to expose hidden sin and so bring us to repentance and cleansing.

2. He intends to wake us up to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where there is always and only recession of the worst kind.

3. He intends to relocate the roots of our joy in his grace rather than in our goods, in his mercy rather than our money, in his worth rather than our wealth.

4. He intends to advance his saving mission in the world—the spread of the gospel and the growth of his church—precisely at a time when human resources are least able to support it. This is how he guards his glory.

5. He intends for the church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love.

Tim Keller Quote from Yesterday

During yesterday morning's message, I quoted from Tim Keller's book Counterfeit Gods. You can order it directly from Amazon by clicking here. I highly recommend it.

Here's the quote:

"Sin in our hearts affects our basic motivational drives so they become idolatrous, 'deep idols.' Some people are strongly motivated by a desire for influence and power, while others are more excited by approval or appreciation. Some want emotional and physical comfort more than anything else, while still others want security, the control of their environment. People with the deep idol of power do not mind being unpopular in order to gain influence. People who are most motivated by approval are the opposite--they will gladly lose power and control as long as everyone thinks wells of them. Each deep idol--power, approval, comfort, or control--generates a different set of fears and a different set of hopes.

" 'Surface idols' are things such as money, our spouse, or children, through which our deep idols seek fulillment. We are often superficial in the analysis of our idol structures. For example, money can be a surface idol that serves to satisfy more foundational impulses. Some people want lots of money as a way to control their world and life. Such people usually don't spend much money and live very modestly. They keep it all safely saved and invested, so they can feel completely secure in the world. Others want money for access to social circles and to make themselves beautiful and attractive. These people do spend their money on themselves in lavish ways. Other people want money because it gives them so much power over others. In every case, money functions as an idol and yet, because of various deep idols, it results in very different patterns of behavior.

"The person using money to serve a deep idol of control will often feel superior to people using money to attain power or social approval. In every case, however, money-idolatry enslaves and distorts lives."

Jerry Rankin on the Great Commission Resurgence

Below is an article from Baptist Press reporting on a recent meeting between Jerry Rankin (current president of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention) and the IMB trustees. I, personally, think his words, thoughts, and challenges are right on the mark and we would all do well to heed diligently what he advises.

From the article:

SHREVEPORT, La. (BP)--If Southern Baptists truly want to experience a Great Commission resurgence, they must turn their backs on business as usual and be willing to make radical changes in their missions commitment and approach, Jerry Rankin told International Mission Board trustees Nov. 10 in Shreveport, La.Rankin, who plans to retire as IMB president July 31, 2010, believes the 23-member task force studying how Southern Baptists can be more effective in obeying the Great Commission will bring some radical recommendations to the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting June 15-16, 2010, in Orlando, Fla."We should not be afraid of making radical changes. If we come out just kind of tweaking what we are doing to try to do it a little better, that would be most unfortunate," Rankin said. "We are at a watershed time in history, with an unprecedented opportunity. God has blessed us and we must not become ingrown and self-focused, committed simply to continuing what we are doing in the way we are doing it. We've got to be willing to change."

Rankin said he finds some merit in the idea of merging the denomination's international and North American mission boards but only to the extent that it helps Southern Baptists accomplish the mandate to take the Gospel to "the the ends of the earth" and "make disciples of all nations.""If we're thinking of combining [the two boards] just for the sake of efficiency, thinking it will release more funds to be more focused on our mission task, I think that would be a huge misperception," Rankin said.Trying to merge the two entities could merely wind up creating "a complex, bureaucratic structure that would dilute the effectiveness of what each of us is doing," Rankin said.On the other hand, the current geographic dichotomy between North American and international missions "doesn't make a lot of sense and is a detriment to fulfilling our Great Commission task," he said. Nearly every "people group we would ever hope to reach anywhere in the world is found right here in our own country," Rankin said. "If there could be a way to come to a global missions entity that is focused on evangelizing and planting indigenous churches and reaching all the peoples of the world, whether here or overseas, there could be some merit in that.... We could not afford to be diluted in [the] focus and application of our resources on taking the Gospel to all peoples.

"One challenge in facilitating a Great Commission resurgence among Southern Baptists lies in that "Great Commission" is not a term found in the Bible and people differ in their definitions of its mandate, Rankin added.While the Bible passage usually identified as the Great Commission -- Matthew 28:19-20 -- makes it clear that Christ's mandate is to make disciples of all the world's people groups, the words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 often are misunderstood, Rankin said.When Jesus told the disciples they would be His witnesses "in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth," He was outlining the progression the Gospel would take as it moved toward the "ends of the earth," Rankin said. Understood in the light of Matthew 28:19-20, the Great Commission is to focus on people groups that have yet to hear the Gospel and become disciples, he explained."Certainly God wants us to reach our home community, to evangelize our state, to minister to people in need," Rankin told IMB trustees. "But let's not misuse the Scripture to divert our attention from the focus of what the Great Commission is all about: reaching the ends of the earth, those that are yet to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"I am quite concerned we will miss [a Great Commission resurgence] if we miss that very foundation of what we're talking about when we talk about a Great Commission resurgence: to restore Southern Baptists to God's heart, God's priority as His people in reaching the nations and peoples of the world," Rankin said."If you define the Great Commission as anything and everything we do as a denomination, an increase in baptisms, more healthy churches, greater cultural impact on our society, there's not going to be a lot of change because we will just continue to do anything and everything the best that we can," Rankin said. "But I am convinced that God has blessed Southern Baptists, He has raised us up in numbers and resources, not to take pride in being a great denomination and how many programs we can implement and how well we can do them but to be His instrument to reach a lost world and fulfill His mission."

Rankin noted a recent report from Empty Tomb, a Christian research organization in Champaign, Ill., that Southern Baptists set a goal several years ago to fulfill the Great Commission and complete the task of reaching all peoples with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and calculated that if Southern Baptists could field 8,000 international missionaries, the remaining unreached people groups realistically could be engaged.The report, however, then went on to analyze what Southern Baptists do with the billions Southern Baptist churches receive each year and the amount of money actually allocated by the denomination to send out missionaries and finish the task of the Great Commission, Rankin said. The research organization's conclusion was that the Southern Baptist Convention has obviously implemented a goal not to fulfill the goal of the Great Commission, Rankin said. "We must be very careful of how we speak of other entities in our denomination. I know the leadership of our state conventions, our SBC entities, how conscientious they are, how sincerely dedicated to serving the Lord ... and the wonderful job they are doing. That's not the issue," Rankin said. "If we are to have a Great Commission resurgence, we've got to be willing to ask, 'How does it all stack up in relation to reaching the nations and getting the Gospel to the ends of the earth.'"

Mark Kelly, an assistant editor with Baptist Press, wrote this article for the International Mission Board. The picture posted above was retrieved from the Baptist Press web-site.

Two Views on the Cooperative Program and the Great Commission Resurgence

Through the Baptist Twenty-One Web-site (which I highly recommend checking out and surveying), I came across these two articles regarding the future of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Cooperative Program, and the Great Commission Resurgence.

The article is called "Two Views of the Future" found at The Christian Index (Georgia Baptist's news site).

The first view is found here.

The second view is here.

Both are written by Southern Baptist pastor's with great hearts and obviously pastoring great churches.

I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the views.

Check out this article too written by Doug Baker entitled "Our Ominous Future."

For Arkansans that are weighing in on this discussion, recall the unanimous vote last week at the state convention affirming the current allocations of Cooperative Program dollars.

Check out the story here.

From the article:

"Another resolution, on the ministry of the ABSC, affirmed the value and accomplishments of the various ABSC ministries and noted Cooperative Program funds given by Arkansas Baptist churches are 'managed prudently' and allocated with a vision for reaching the state, nation and world with the gospel. It further notes the value of associations, state conventions and the SBC in fulfilling the Acts 1:8 mandate.
'This resolution affirms our state convention in its use of Cooperative Program dollars and demonstrates that Arkansas Baptist pastors and church members both know about and approve of the Cooperative Program ministries across our state,' said Turner (Executive Director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention).
...All resolutions passed unanimously without discussion."

I would really love for WBCers to be 'in the know' on what is going on in and around our convention (speaking primarily of the national convention, but state as well). Please offer any thoughts or opinions you might have as you read and digest these things.

Upcoming Conference on Adoption

Looks like a great conference!

Click here to check out the details.

Dan Cruver on 'Seeing Jesus' and the Global Orphan Crisis

I came across the article below at Zach Nielson's blog. This was originally posted at Together for Adoption by Dan Cruver. I rejoice in this kind of thinking and agree wholeheartedly.


"Seeing Much More than Statistics"

We’ve all seen the statistics. There are more than 143,000,000 orphaned and vulnerable children in our world. I remind myself of that number every day.

All of us agree that we need more than statistics to awaken the church to address the global orphan crisis. We rightly say, “We need to see faces, images of these easily forgotten children. If the church is to be mobilized to care for these children, we must seem them as much more than statistics. We must see them as living, breathing image bearers.”

But I’m convinced we would also all agree that we need to see more than actual pictures and video clips of the orphaned and vulnerable children of our world, as important as those images are. If the church is to be fully mobilized to address the global orphan crisis, what we most need to see is not simply the face of an orphan but the face of Jesus.

We are all very familiar with these words of Jesus: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me . . . Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:35-40).
Jesus’ words tell us that when we look into the face of the orphan or the face of the sick and oppressed, we are to see more than their faces. We are to see his.

But as critically important as it is for us to see the face of Jesus when we look into the face of an orphan, if Jesus’ face is all we see, we have not looked nearly carefully enough.

Jesus spoke the words of Matthew 25 just two days before he was “delivered up to be crucified” (see Matthew 26:1-2). When Jesus made the profound statement that we give him drink when we give water to the thirsty, he was about to thirst like no man has ever thirst before or since (John 19:28).

When Jesus said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” he was soon to become the outcast of all outcasts (Hebrews 13:12). Jesus was crucified among “strangers, the afflicted, and prisoners, who live outside the mainstream of urban life” (Craig Koester, Hebrews, 571).

When Jesus said,“I was naked and you clothed me,” he knew that he would first have to be left to die in nakedness at the cross before those words could become a reality for us.

The only way Jesus could say, “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me,” is if he first suffered an unquenchable thirst, an unsatisfiable hunger, an unspeakable forsakenness at the cross for us. Jesus suffered these things so that he could deliver us from our self-satisfied, self-focused, self-indulgent, orphan-neglecting, needy-ignoring lives.

Only when we see the crucified and risen face of Jesus in the Gospel will we be fully mobilized to address the global orphan crisis.

Yes, when we look into the face of an orphan, we need to see Jesus. But before we look into the face of an orphan, we need to be melted by the face of the crucified and risen Jesus as displayed for us in the Gospel. Only then will we really be able to move beyond statistics to care for the children they represent.

Another Great Site and Church 'Doing' Adoption

For more great resources on things relating to adoption, from links to frequently asked questions and answers, click here.

Go here to see what Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, TX is doing. http://www.hopefor100.org/gabc/index.htm.

Great Site for Adoption/Orphan Care

Researching about how to create a "Culture of Adoption" at our church, I came across this page at www.abbafund.com.

Click here to go directly to their "Resources" page. Tons of information!

Russell Moore on Sesame Street and the Church

Below is an article posted by Dr. Russell Moore at his blog. I was struck by his insight and thoughts on what the church can learn from Sesame Street. Very intriguing read for sure:

Sesame Street turns forty this week. And, if you’re under forty, I’ll bet just seeing those words in type means a theme song is now running through your head. That’s because the children’s educational television show has worked itself through an entire generation of American popular culture. There’s something here I think the church can learn from the Children’s Television Workshop.

Now, as I soon as I mention Sesame Street, I know some of you will balk about its educational value. You’ll point me to studies suggesting that learning the alphabet from singing puppets actually shortens kids’ attention spans. No argument here. But simply learning facts was never the primary goal of the program.

As the New York Times puts it, this was a “messianic show,” with a “mission” to remake the way children envisioned the world.

Yes, Big Bird and Bert and Ernie and Grover and Oscar the Grouch and their human co-stars would teach you about letters and numbers and safety tips. But, more than that, they would show you, by the characters they featured and the plotlines they put forward, a new way of seeing things on issues ranging from racial equality to obesity prevention to the global fight against AIDS.

I know that some immediately will conclude that I’m saying simply that churches should contextualize in their teaching and mission.

Yes, Sesame Street did contextualize. The writers and producers picked up on familiar themes such as advertising commercials (”This broadcast is brought to you by the letter ‘C.’”). They built their segments around a typical child’s attention span. They featured songs that were easy-to-sing and memorable (pop quiz: can you hum the tune of Ernie’s “Rubber Ducky” song? Of course you can).

And, yes, of course, churches should contextualize the gospel, addressing people in a language that can be heard and understood. But contextualization itself is not enough. Some of the most self-consciously contextualized churches are faddish and hyper-consumerist. They’re more like the mass-marketed latter years of Sesame Street, and less like the early, innovative, culture-shaping times. And we’ve got all the “Tickle Me Elmo” kinds of Christian ministries we can stand.

Sesame Street was effective because the program didn’t just contexutalize to the present; it contextualized to the future.

Remember, after all, when the show started. It was in 1969, the era of George Wallace and the Black Panther Party and campus race riots and the Richard Nixon “Southern Strategy.” From the very start, the program showed kids what few of them had ever seen before: a racially integrated neighborhood.

Now, Sesame Street could have done this with preachy didactic dialogue (kind of like Norman Lear’s Maude series). But instead, they showed kids racial equality, and made it normal for them, without ever saying much about it in the process.

As I read that, it struck me that, years before my Mississippi elementary school was integrated via busing, I’d seen African-American and Latino characters (such as “Gordon” and “Maria”) functioning as equal members of a society, on the television screen of my home.

“It’s almost too perfect that the first African-American president of the United States was elected in time for the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street,” the New York Times says. “The world is finally beginning to look the way that PBS show always made it out to be.”

What would happen if, whenever our culture saw love or reconciliation or peace, our neighbors said, “This is exactly the way that church always made life out to be?”

I wonder what would happen if our churches were to recognize our role in showing people the future, not just in our teaching and in our going but in our being? What kind of witness could we be to our communities, as fragmented as they are by race and class and economics and politics, if the very makeup of our congregations signaled the “manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:10) in which “here there is no Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Schythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11)?

What if our children were accustomed to seeing black pastors of majority white churches, and vice-versa? What if a hotel janitor were named chairman of deacons in a wealthy suburban megachurch, because all recognized his spiritual maturity and nothing else mattered? What if our churches pioneered tort reform, not by arbitration alone, but by Christians agreeing cheerfully to be defrauded (1 Cor. 6)?

And what if all that started to seem normal to us?

The New York Times speaks of the “messianic mission” of Sesame Street and that’s, of course, tongue-in-cheek. But we really do, as the Body of Christ, have a mission that is, quite literally, messianic.

We’d still offend a lot of people. Jesus always does. But we’d offend them the way he did, with them peering over their shoulder in wonder on the way.

And some would come back, even if by cover of night, to ask us what we’re up to. Some of them would love our songs and listen to our teaching even before they believe it’s true, just because they would hope it would be true. They’d see a picture of the universe as it could be. As deeply as their sinful natures would draw back, the image of God within them would resonate with the beauty of a cosmos at peace.

It seems to me if this were the case, we’d have less abstract theology and fewer “faddish” principles to teach. We’d be announcing to the outside culture and to those who’ve taken refuge with us in Christ, “Welcome to the future, to the kingdom of Christ in miniature.”

Mission will always be difficult, as long as we’re fallen and there are demonic powers out there. Still, we can wonder what we might be able to get across to our neighbors if we market-tested the future (by faith), and not just the present (by sight).

The Sesame Street idea was a product of its time, a Great Society-era utopian project rooted in an understanding of history as “progressive.” The people of Christ know better. If our congregations are workshops of kingdom righteousness, we’ll have to make it clear that this isn’t natural, and it isn’t due to history or to progress or to us. We’ll have to say something like, ”This church has been brought to you by the letters ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega.’”

Mike Huckabee Interviews FORMER Planned Parenthood Director

Justin Taylor posted this interview between Mike Huckabee and a former director for Planned Parenthood. After watching an ultrasound of an abortion, Abby Johnson is not an advocate for Life! Fascinating stuff.

Click here to go to his post and to watch the interview.

Gospel Music Channel Showing "Cry of the Orphan" Simulcast

If you missed the simulcast yesterday of "The Cry of the Orphan," the Gospel Music Channel web-site will be offering it for viewing purposes for the next few months.

Click here to find out more.

AM Sermon Outline from Yesterday

For those who attended the morning worship service at WBC yesterday, you will know that I flew through tons of material and verses from the book of Proverbs relating to money.

The sermon should be up on our web-site today or tomorrow. The outline will be there as well. Below I am posting the outline, with the Scripture references, and some extra quotes. Some of the quotes I gave during the message, some I had to leave out for the sake of time.

“God Or Money: No One Can Serve Two Masters” Series

“A Godward View of Money According to Proverbs”
Various Scriptures from the Book of Proverbs


I. The Diverse Angles Proverbs Has on Wealth and Poverty

A. Wealth is understood as a wonderful blessing from the LORD.

Proverbs 10:22
Proverbs 15:6
Proverbs 22:4

B. Wealth is understood as a horrible and worthless thing.

Proverbs 1:10-19
Proverbs 11:7, 16
Proverbs 28:8, 20, 22

C. Poverty is understood as a good and better thing.

Proverbs 15:16-17
Proverbs 16:8
Proverbs 17:1
Proverbs 19:1
Proverbs 22:22-23

D. Poverty is understood as a sinful and evil thing.

Proverbs 10:4-5
Proverbs 13:4
Proverbs 14:23
Proverbs 19:15
Proverbs 20:4, 13
Proverbs 24:30-34


II. Saving is Encouraged If and ONLY If…

A. Proverbs pointing to saving for the future as NOT being a sin.

Proverbs 6:6-8
Proverbs 13:11, 22
Proverbs 20:21
Proverbs 21:20
Proverbs 27:23-27

B. Proverbs pointing to riches being worthless to hope in.

Proverbs 13:8
Proverbs 23:4-5

C. Proverbs pointing the wisdom of one’s security being in the LORD, not money.

Proverbs 10:3, 16
Proverbs 11:4, 28
Proverbs 19:23


Saving is encouraged and wise, if and only if your purpose in saving is for the ultimate good of others and the exaltation of God’s name.



III. Giving is ALWAYS an EXPECTATION for God’s people; Taking is ALWAYS CONDEMNED.

A. Honor the LORD with your wealth – Proverbs 3:10-11
B. Giving increases wealth, hoarding brings suffering – Proverbs 11:24
C. Giving generously to the poor brings blessing from the LORD – Proverbs 14:20-21; Proverbs 22:9
D. Giving generously to the poor is like lending to the LORD Himself – Proverbs 19:17
E. Not heeding the cry of the poor will prevent God heeding your cry – Proverbs 21:13
F. A characteristic of those who are righteous is that of giving – Proverbs 21:25-26
G. Oppressing the poor or giving gifts to those who are rich will bring poverty – Proverbs 22:16
H. Giving to the poor will ensure all your needs being met – Proverbs 28:27



Implications:

1. If the wealth you currently have is due to righteousness, integrity, and hard work, save wisely and give both generously and sacrificially.


2. For those who are thinking there is no way you can give generously and sacrificially as well as save for the future, be radically intentional and ask hard questions.


3. Seek after wisdom like you would $10 million.

Proverbs 2:1-7


4. Pray for a Godward balance in your everyday lifestyle.

Proverbs 30:7-9

5. Jesus, the wisdom of God Himself, is the only way for a life to be transformed to operate this way joyfully.

Quotes:

Richard Halverson said: “Jesus Christ said more about money than about any other single thing because, when it comes to a man’s real nature, money is of first importance. Money is an exact index to a man’s true character. All through Scripture there is an intimate correlation between the development of a man’s character and how he handles his money.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected. Hoarding is idolatry.”

Randy Alcorn says, “The distinction between financial responsibility and financial foolishness is this: Saving becomes hoarding when it is exercising our own sovereignty and financial independence so that God doesn’t have to come through for us.”

Larry Burkett, while he was still alive, said this about saving for retirement:
“Retirement planning so dominates the thinking of Christians who have sizable incomes that they overkill in this area enormously. The fear of doing without in the future causes many Christians to rob God’s work of the very funds He has provided. These monies are tucked away in retirement accounts for twenty or forty years. God’s Word does not prohibit but rather encourages saving for the future, including retirement, but the example of the rich fool, given in Luke 12:16-20, should be a clear direction that God’s balance is ‘when in doubt-give; don’t hoard.’”

John Wesley said, “Make as much as you can, save as much as you can, and give as much as you can.”

William MacDonald said:
“Reserves are crutches and props which become a substitute for trust in the Lord. We can’t trust when we can see. Once we decide to provide for our future, we run into these problems. How much will be enough? How long will we live? Will there be a depression? Will there be inflation? Will we have medical bills?
It is impossible to know how much will be enough. Therefore we spend our lives amassing wealth to provide for a few short years of retirement. In the meantime, God has been robbed and our own life has been spent seeking security where it cannot be found.
How much better it is to work diligently for our current necessities, serve the Lord to the maximum extent, put everything above present needs into the work of the Lord, and trust Him for the future?”

Bruce Ware's 10 Reasons to Focus on the Wonder of the Trinity

In preparation for Sunday night's message (of which I will be focusing on Romans 8:9-11), I came across these from Bruce Ware's book Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles and Relevance. You can order it from Amazon here.

In the first chapter he offers ten reasons on why to focus on the wonder of the Trinity.

Consider:

1. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most important distinguishing doctrines of the Christian faith and therefore is deserving of our careful study, passionate embrace, and thoughtful application.

2. The doctrine of the Trinity is both central and necessary for the Christian faith to be what it is. Remove the Trinity, and the whole Christian faith disintegrates.

3. Worship of the true and living God consciously acknowledges the relationship and roles of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

4. The Christian's life of prayer must rightly acknowledge the roles of Father, Son, and Spirit as we pray to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Spirit.

5. The Christian's growth in Christlikeness or sanctification is rightly understood and enriched when seen as the work of the triune God.

6. The triune relationships of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cause us to marvel at the unity of the triune God.

7. The triune relationships of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cause us to marvel at the diversity within the triune God.

8. The triune relationships of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cause us to wonder at the social relationality of the triune God.

9. The triune relationships of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cause us to marvel at the authority-submission structure that exists eternally in the three Persons in the Godhead, each of whom is equally and fully God.

10. The doctrine of the Trinity -- on God existing in three Persons in the ways we have described -- provides one of the most important and neglected patterns for how human life and relationships are to be conducted.