Because I want to remember...

I just thought this text from Pastor Mark's sermon was excellent...and I wanted to keep it in here so I could reference it again some day. He has spent the last two weeks speaking on finances and giving...and I loved this thought: (copied from the PDF download at www.yourchurch.com)

When you live with the same kind of people who all have education, jobs, insurance, nice homes, and good schools you start to think that this is the normal way to live. In fact, it is easy to think forget the most people in the world don’t own their own homes with multiple cars in a garage and money for education for their kids. Money and affluence makes us feel normal.

6This is what money does. It makes us feel safe and normal. No one really intends for money to become their trust; it is just the way that money works. It brings security. It can become our trust. So how do you fight this? You give!

Money will create security and it will create trust. Therefore, giving is the only antidote to this natural trend. Giving money away is a powerful statement that your trust is in an economy that you cannot see and in a God who owns it all.

So here is what that means: if you don’t give; you really don’t trust God. Serving money doesn’t have to look like you are a workaholic or a miser or even have a lot of stuff. Rather it is simply finding security in stuff rather than God. It’s that simple. It’s that easy.