Sunday's worship service was a great time to rejoice in both the need of the world, through Compassion International and our discussion in Ecclesiastes 5-6, and those in our own community who demonstrated their commitment to Christ through baptism. I have to confess that baptism services are one of my favorites services throughout the year. Of course I think the ultimate beauty of Sunday was seeing so many youth demonstrate their commitment to Christ.I will be the first to confess that it was a little weird to have baptism on the Sunday we are talking about money (Ecclesiastes Series). People following their commitment to Christ with baptism and money...weird combination. Yet if you really think about it, isn't that a great picture of the commitment that our money should be to Christ. I confess that in my 3 years and 4 months at FCF this was first Sunday I have preached a message about money. No, not because we are having money issues (the series through a book of the Bible determined when) or need more money (ok we can always use more money for the Kingdom)...but that it would be a great reminder of the full commitment that Christ calls us to. And much of that commitment is seen through the lenses of our checkbooks.
As we read on Sunday, Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). He made an undividing link between money and the heart. What we love...we give to. Jesus goes on to say, "you cannot serve God and money" (Matt. 6:24). What we give to is who we serve...who we love...what we really want. As Christians our motivation for getting more, should be to give more. The more I get the more I can give.
The problem is that we really don't believe we can make an impact with our giving. We think that our peasley amount will never change the world. And that is exactly the problem, our head gets in the way of our heart. We start overthinking what God has called us to. And in reality we are questioning the power of God to work with whatever we can give. See christianity is meant to be reactionary...we react to the grace, mercy, and blessing of God. As He gives to us, we then react by giving more back to Him because we know He is able to do more with it than I can. Solomon grasped this idea...that's why he said riches with only an "under the sun" perspective, are vanity. Are you looking at the eternal difference that can be made by your money? Or are you settling for the "under the sun" perspective that will never satisfy?
