Month: November 2017

II Corinthians 9:6-15

Every night about 9:30 pm, unemployed, homeless and hungry men gather under the elevated train in Queens, NY; where relief comes in the form of Jorge Munoz’s white pickup truck, filled with hot food, coffee, and hot chocolate. The men eagerly accept containers of chicken and rice from Munoz. For many, this is their only hot meal of the day. One of the regulars says, “I thank God for touching that man’s heart.”

Munoz began his meal program, now his nonprofit, in the summer of 2004 when he and his mother began preparing 20 home-cooked meals daily. Numbers gradually increased over the years to 35, 60 and now about 140. Munoz estimates he has served more than 70,000 free meals since 2004. Sustaining this endeavor consumes most of his life. He and his family are funding the operation through their savings and his weekly $700 paycheck.

Asked why he spends so much time to help people he doesn’t know, he answers, “I am grateful for a stable job, my mom, my family, a house; everything I want I have. And these guys don’t, so I just think, ‘OK, I have the food.’ At least for today, they’re going to have a meal to eat.” ¹

Jorge Munoz illustrates what Paul is talking about in II Corinthians, where in five verses he uses the words ‘thanks’ and ‘generosity’ three times each. In other words, ‘gratitude’ (thanksgiving) and ‘generosity’ are kissing cousins. It is because Munoz is content and thankful for what he already has that he is able to act out of that gratitude and freely express generosity.

Gratitude; being thankful for the many blessings we have leads to generosity, which then leads to expressing thanksgiving. So really thanksgiving and generosity are more than kissing cousins, they’re cyclical in nature; gratitude leads to generosity which leads to gratitude. (more…)

Luke 21:1-4
II Corinthians 8:1-5, 9, 9:6-7

So, “God loves a cheerful giver” does He? Really, a cheerful giver? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Like awfully good, diet ice cream, fine mess, jumbo shrimp, Microsoft works, pretty ugly, small crowd; cheerful giver? At first glance, we’re only cheerful about giving when we fork over our hard-earned dough on ourselves.

On Sunday morning a father gave his son a couple of quarters and a dollar. “Put the dollar in the offering, and you can have the 50 cents for ice cream.” When the boy came home, he still had the dollar. “Why didn’t you put the dollar in the offering? his father asked. “Well, the preacher said that God loves a cheerful giver. I gave the 50 cents a whole lot more cheerfully than I could the dollar.”

On the other hand, author, philosopher, historian Thomas Carlyle tells how, when he was a boy, a beggar came to the door. His parents were out and he was alone in the house. On a boyish impulse, he broke into his own savings bank and gave the beggar all that was in it. And he tells us that never before or since did he know such sheer happiness as came to him in that moment.

Is it possible to give cheerfully? I think so. And I’ll tell you how it’s possible. (more…)

Luke 19:1-10
I Timothy 6:6-19

After worship one Sunday a little boy told the pastor, “When I grow up, I’m going to give you some money.”

“Well, thank you,” the pastor replied, “but why?”

“Because my dad says you’re one of the poorest preachers we’ve ever had.”

This morning I am preaching my 820th sermon since I have been the Pastor of CrossPointe Community Church. Of those 820 messages, a scant 28 have addressed the subject of how our wealth and possession affect our walk with Christ. That’s 1 and ¾’s of a sermon per year on this important to Jesus subject.

How do we know it was important to Jesus? Because one-third of all the parables He taught have to do with the wise use of money and possessions. Because someone took the time to discover that 1 out of 6 verses spoken by Jesus directly bears on how His followers would handle money. By that reckoning, should have given 140 by now. So that means I owe you 111 or a little over two year’s worth to catch up.

Why is this so? I’ll give you two or three reasons next Sunday. But for today let me say that in CrossPointe’s history, there haven’t been too many times when we as a church needed to address this for practical reasons.

But now we need to.

Last Sunday after worship Annie Dean presented CrossPointe’s Investment Plan for 2018.

The figure of $133,326.69 represents the amount of money we will need to raise to meet our ministry goals for 2018. It covers things like staff salaries, utility needs and other operating expenses and ministry and outreach goals. When you divide the total by 52 Sundays in a year we need to average $2564 per week. So far this year our average is 2395 per week. So in order for us to meet our ministry goals, we will need to raise an average of $169 more per Sunday.

But I’m not worried . . . for there is good news here. We have a lot of people who wholeheartedly believe in and therefore support this church. We have people in this church who have already wholeheartedly embraced the Biblical principles of faithful stewardship. And I am confident that we are ready to hear and respond to the word of God. (more…)

Luke 18:18-30

“It is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.”

If we had been within earshot of Jesus, we would have understood what He meant about a camel passing through the eye of a needle. Incorporated into the main gates to ancient cities there often stood a smaller gate, known as a needle’s eye, that was used mainly by pedestrians. The main gate was almost always closed at sunset and on the Sabbath for security purposes and to keep camels and their camel jockeys and their wares from entering the city. But people could still pass through if need be.

Now once in a while, there was an insistent camel owner, who for whatever reason wanted to get inside the city walls even though the main gate had already been closed. Was that possible?

Notice Jesus didn’t say it was impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle He said it was very difficult. In his commentary, Ivor Powell suggests it was difficult because it required three things:

The animal had to be small; the load had to be taken from its back, and the camel, somehow, had to go forward on its knees. It could be done, but it was difficult. ¹

Because we who live in America are rich, it would do us well to consider the same three requirements for it is still harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

First, that person must be on the small size, not physically, but attitude-wise.

For Jesus is more interested in the rich man’s attitude toward his wealth than anything else. (more…)