She heard that recent sermon of yours, felt convicted to tithe on the gross, shared it with me and a discussion ensued.

We beat the horse to death (pros and cons)…is that right or not?…and so on. Finally, I told her we have to trust the man of God and obey his teachings, but ask the Lord to deal with him and educate him if he is dispensing ungodly counsel to the flock (even if erroneously).

We committed to tithe…and to tithe on our gross…to our hurt this week. Well, you know the rest, sortof. {We received}  a check for each of us in the amount of $ _____ ……… this was almost the exact amount we were tithing to our hurt!

Yep. There’s a lesson for you and us. We learned you were “right on the money” (pun intended) about tithing on the first fruits (the gross…before Cesar–or Obama–gets his), and you will learn that God prompts the heart (and purse strings) in mysterious ways for His purposes, spiritually.

This week is “Prove the Tithe” Sunday. Why don’t you join us in claiming the promise of God and watch as He blesses your life – He promised!!

Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

A few weeks ago I spoke about the promise of God from Malachi 3:7-12 regarding tithing. I expounded the Scripture and explained that God would bless you for tithing. The best financial advice you can follow is God’s advice – tithe and He will bless you beyond measure. We are even giving you the opportunity to try it together as a church family on Oct. 17th when we have “Prove the Tithe” Sunday.  We are challenging everyone to test God {He told us to} and tithe!! Some have already tried it and found Him faithful.

The week after I preached on the Promise of the tithe I received this email from a church member. I got their permission to share:

Yesterday you spoke about tithing, something God had already been dealing with me on since He blessed {my husband} with a new job which you and I both know are scarce right now.  I wrote a larger check than I had planned on in order to step out on faith.  Today an unexpected check came in the mail that more than covered the one I wrote yesterday.  I cried tears of joy, and I wanted to share God’s goodness with you.  You are such a blessing every day to our family—thanks for always preaching the messages we need to hear even when they are hard ones to hear.

That’s not “preacher talk” – that’s a real life example. The truth is I could ask any number of people and they would give the same testimony.

Don’t you think it’s time you trusted God? Don’t you think it’s time you tithed?

It’s the best investment advice I can give!

If you lived life claiming every promise that God had about:

• Family
• Finances
• Fear
• Witnessing
• Church
• Life’s Purpose
• Priorities

…what would your life look like?

The #1 factor that is keeping you or me from doing it is FAITH!! We want to trust God but sometimes just don’t seem to have the faith. FEAR wins out!! And, those are really the only two choices we have when it comes to the promises of God – Fear or Faith!

Are you afraid to trust God? Are we afraid of the outcome? Are you afraid you will mess up your life? The answer to all of those is “Yes”! But, there is a solution. 1 John 4:18 says, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” The key to getting the fear out of our lives and filling it with Faith is the love of God!!

If you want to have faith to claim the promises of God, fall in love with Jesus!

So, why don’t you do it? Why don’t you just pick a promise of God and by faith say to Jesus, “God I’m not sure I understand all of this but I’m going to believe it and act on it!” If you would, you would change your life for the good forever.

Walk with Jesus – Throw out Fear – Take Hold of the promises of God by Faith!!

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world…” 2 Peter 1:4

So, before we move onto another week, there are at least 5 things you shouldn’t forget about this past Sunday:

1. An infatuation on Worry, Wealth, and Worldliness will mess your priorities up. They are weeds in the garden of your Christian life. Get rid of them. Don’t make stressing about the future, the pursuit of wealth, or the pursuit of pleasure the top priorities of your life.

2. Jesus shares top priority with no one or nothing! ‘Nuff said!!

3. Trying to juggle a bunch of top priorities will cause you to drop the ball of your relationship with God.

4. The Christian life is not “neat”. Weeds spring up every day in your life from nowhere. Recognize them and get rid of them and just know it is going to happen. Elsewhere in the Bible it would be called Spiritual Warfare.

5. It’s all not just “preacher talk”. Sunday night you heard from a businessman, mom, and business owner about how they do/have struggled to keep God their top priority and how blessed their lives have been because of it. If they can do it – you can do it!!

Keep living 4 Jesus!!!

As a matter of fact, this time of year many people make resolutions that revolve around molding them into the person they want to BECOME. Sadly, most people drop their resolutions within weeks.

According to A Marist University Poll,

Keeping Their Word?

33% of Americans recall making a New Year’s resolution last year, but how successful were they?  Of those residents, 65% said they kept their promise for at least part of the year while 35% did not.  Men were more steadfast than were women.  70% of men kept their resolution for at least part of 2009.  This compares with 59% of women.

Dedication has grown among Americans who have previously made a resolution.  While 65% of residents kept their resolution for 2009, 60% did so in 2008.

Why do we fail in our New Years Resolutions? Because we don’t know how to change. The Bible gives us clear instructions on how to BECOME the person we would like to be.

Starting this Sunday, I will share with you how you can BECOME all God intended for you to be. I will examine change in general, and then over the next few weeks we will look at some of the New Years Resolutions everyone makes and what the Bible says about them.

If you want to improve your family, finances, organizational skills, and many other things – don’t miss a service.

Check us out at www.libertybaptistchurch.ws

See you Sunday – prepare to leave changed!!