December 4th, 2011 Disciples In Our Finances

In this midst of trying economic times for everyone, what is God’s message to his disciples about their finance?  Listen in for a very honest look at where the church is at and what God is doing in the middle of it all.

If you want a study tool to go along with the podcast, see Lift Notes here:

Disciples in our _______________

December 4th, 2011  by Kasey Crawford

Last time we gathered, our finance team told me: “You are not doing a good job _____________ our people in what it means to be a good steward of their finances.

Remember that in the book of Mark discipleship is: the response to that incredible invitation that the kingdom of God is at hand; that more of God’s goodness and wholeness and power of heaven is right there in front of us to grab hold of by regularly turning more and more of our life, our thoughts, actions, will, and goals over to the Lordship of Jesus as our Master, so that more of heaven opens over our life.

Finances, like every other issue in life are ultimately a ____________ issue.

Jesus teaches his followers to move above and beyond a tithe to ________ ______ giving but before we get there we need to move towards Jesus’ assumption that a tithe is already happening.

The basic idea of the tithe is that all our resources (no matter how hard we worked for them) are a gift from God and really we are stewards of God’s money. So the first 10% of it he wants us to show our trust in him as __________ and our surrender to his _____________ by giving the first 10% of our income to him.  For example

Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my commands and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ 8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.    Malachi 3:7–12

This passage is almost an identical picture of new testament discipleship found in the book of Mark: as we (re)turn more and more into alignment with God ways, God’s priorities and God’s will, the heavens ________ above our life.

God promises that when we line up with his command of bringing a ________ tithe to God, heaven will open with so much blessing our lives with overflow with abundance

Heaven is already opening over Elevation as many of you are turning over your lives to him more and more in many areas. What God has revealed is that this area of tithing is next for a lot of us so that heaven’s power will continue to open more.

Reflection questions for later as a disciple of Jesus….

What is God saying to me today?

What am I going to do about it?

jessecraig