Annual Business Meeting – 2022

 Annual Business Meeting – 2022

Subject – How to Overcome Poverty

by Rick Welborne

Luke 6:38 (NCV)
³⁸  Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. Pressed down, shaken together, and running over, it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.

--Tonight I want to explain to you why we are so blessed and how you can be blessed. Maybe you are not aware of this but one of our Distinctives as a church is Generous Giving. Our Distinctives are:

1. Our First Distinctive: We should be passionate about the lost.

2. Our Second Distinctive: Home and world missions.

3. Our Third Distinctive: Being filled with Holy Spirit.

4. Our Fourth Distinctive: Generous giving.

5. Our Fifth Distinctive: Worship.

--Just a little history of Life Church to show the blessings of God. Condensed version of course. When I became pastor the first thing I planned was a Mission’s Convention. You know that.

--The church was in debt for our old facility and new property on the south side of Leesburg. God spoke to me to stay where we are and the Board appeased the new kid. Can we get more land here? I don’t know.

--Miracles started happening. In my first Board Meeting after I told the Board we should stay, Brother Kimes said let’s pray for more land here. The phone rings and boom…two acres for sale cheap. We bought it.

--We were able to sell the property we had accumulated on the other end of town and boom, we paid off the remaining debt to this facility. We kept making Missions and giving a priority. Nine acres became 26.

--We faced our first test. $3000 short. Instead of cutting back we borrowed the money from youth and paid our missionaries. God saw we were serious and for the last thirty years we have not struggled.

--We took the Great Commission seriously and started adding more and more missionaries.

Romans 10:13-15 (NKJV)
¹³  For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
¹⁴  How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
¹⁵  And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!" 

--15 missionaries became 50…became 100…became 150…and now 200 plus. We built this beautiful sanctuary 2.2 million dollars. If you have to make a choice between the building or missions, choose missions.

--We were able to pay this building off in three years as we continued adding more missionaries and giving more money. Two Sundays in a row guest put $100,000 in the offering for the building…say what.

--The more we gave, the more the Lord blessed. Our GF kept growing and growing and I kept discussing with God my concern. The crash of 2008 hit and was devastating for many ministries. But not us.

--We had built up $850,000 in the GF. Just like Joseph in the Old Testament God sustained us through the tough times. No one was cut and our missions kept growing. To God be the glory. Kept adding more missionaries.

--Then came Covid. I hate Covid. 2020 and 2021 again churches were devastated but not Life Church. Why? Because we were generous with God, with missions, and helping the poor.

--Our income did not go down but went up both years. We added more missionaries. Last year our missions went up six percent over all…during Covid! Our GF was the highest in years.

2 Corinthians 9:10-11 (NIV)
¹⁰  Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
¹¹  You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Quote – If God can get it through you, He will get it to you!

--Here we go, if it works for the church, it will work for you! It’s God’s promise. It’s His Word and He cannot lie.

Malachi 3:8-12 (NIV)
⁸  "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings.
⁹  You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--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 you will not have room enough for it.
¹¹  I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty.
¹²  "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty. 

--If you are a Covenant member of Life Church you know it is God’s heart and our heart to be generous in our tithes and offerings so make out your Faith Promise Card and get blessed!

--Our giving, our generosity should be always for the Glory of God!

1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV)
³¹  So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.