What’s Next?
Dear Friends,
We have certainly had a busy couple of weeks! It is so exciting to be in our new church home. I know many of you have been waiting and working towards this for a very long time. It would be so easy to now just sit back and relax. After all you did it! You answered God’s calling and you made it happen! Didn’t you? Well, you might have had a little help from the One who called you to leave your previous church(s) and to commit yourselves to a path that has now led you to this new home on Marsh’s Edge Lane. So, now that you’re here, I ask you, do you really think that God was merely interested in yet another building to add to His global real estate portfolio?
Psalm 50:8-12 (NLT)
I have no complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt offerings you constantly offer.
But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens.
For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.
We no longer make sacrifices of goats or bulls but the point that David is making in this psalm, under the inspiration of the Lord, remains the same. God has no needs that he requires from us. Our God is not a weak, poor God who needs anything (including money) from us. He made everything with a word. He has a limitless supply of resources. He has no needs; he’s never had one. And even if he did have one, he wouldn’t come to us with it!
I cannot stress this enough: God does not need our worship, our work or our money. So, why does He want us to worship Him, serve Him and give our money to Him?
Psalm 50:14-15 (NLT)
Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
He continues a few verses later:
Psalm 50:23 (NLT)
But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God.”
What God wants from us is an offering of thanksgiving for what He’s done for us. He wants us to sit in amazement at His salvation and then respond to Him appropriately out of our gratitude. At creation, God gave man free will. We are not forced to worship, serve, follow or support. God’s desire is to be glorified and there is no glory in compulsion only resentment.
So, back to where we stand today… Many of you have gratefully sacrificed money, time, talents and effort to make this building a reality. I believe, for most of you, those sacrifices were made out of thanksgiving to God for all that He has done and is doing for you. However, this is only phase one (and I’m not talking about the master building plan). Now, we must ask ourselves, “What does God want us to do now that we’re here?” You see, even though in light of eternity this building is only temporary, it represents an eternal investment in God’s Kingdom.
Randy Alcorn, in his book, The Treasure Principle, puts it this way: “Financial planners tell us, ‘When it comes to your money, don’t think just three months or three years ahead. Think thirty years ahead.’ Christ, the ultimate investment counselor, takes it further. He says, ‘Don’t ask how your investment will be paying off in just thirty years. Ask how it will be paying off in thirty million years.’” God’s greatest desire is to see His most loved creation, man, reconciled to Him and saved from his eternal bondage to sin. So, how can we leverage what God has had us create to make an eternal difference in accomplishing His desire?
We cannot turn in on ourselves in our nice new comfy surroundings and ignore the increasingly uncomfortable world outside our doors. It would be so easy to do that but that is not what God wants from us! God didn’t need a building but He had us build one, why? The only answer must be to glorify Himself by saving more lost souls for His kingdom! Does He need us to do that? Of course not! But He gives us the privilege of being His hands and feet, His ambassadors to deliver His message of salvation to those who are perishing around us. Our first job is to ask ourselves, how? Then we must leave this place and go out into the world around us and do it!
Only by Grace!
Pastor Mike