Life Church Annual Business Meeting – 2024

Life Church Annual Business Meeting – 2024

Subject - Trust – Test – Faith

By Rick Welborne

--My devotion tonight is in regard to our present circumstances with our finances personally and corporately as a church. We are facing a challenge. So what do we do?

--I have said many times; you don’t know what is in an orange until is squeezed or until it is broken open. Is it sweet and good to the taste or bitter and dry on the inside?

--In light of our circumstances, personally and corporately, have our trials made us sweet and trusting or have they made us bitter and snippy? 

--So many times when our lives are not going the way we want or expect, we react or over-react and it can affect our ministry and relationships.

--Obviously as pastoral staff we have a greater responsibility to handle life’s problems with trust and faith because so many are watching us.

--Yes, we can be transparent about having issues but during that time we must reflect faith and trust in God. Also, we must use wisdom not to get ourselves into self-made traps.

Don’t drink your own Kool-Aid. Jim Jones.

--What we must do. What I must do and what I must understand.

1. Trust

Proverbs 3:5-6&9-10 (NKJV)
⁵  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
⁶  In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
⁹  Honor the LORD with your possessions, And with the first fruits of all your increase;
¹⁰  So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine. 

--Again personally and corporately are we trusting God or are we depending on our own wisdom. One will help you succeed and the other will make you fall on your face.

--Honor the Lord with your possessions…with your first fruits. This is making God first with everything I have and everything I am blessed with. Laying up treasures in heaven.

--So many times when we struggle financially it is because we have been drinking our own Kool-Aid. God says when we do it His way we have “Plenty.” Might need to repent and start today.

2. Test

Malachi 3:8-10 (NLT2)
⁸  “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! “But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’ “You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me.
⁹  You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me.
¹⁰  Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 

--Put Me to the test…this is what God challenges us with. Again this is personally and corporately. Right now Life Church is going through a test and so are a few of you.

--First of all, can God be trusted as we face this test? Absolutely. Our part is obedience to His Word and His part is opening windows and pouring out blessings. It takes faith and what we do work together.

James 2:24 (NLT2)
²⁴  So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. 

3. Faith

1 Peter 1:6-7 (NLT2)
⁶ So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while.
⁷  These trials will show that your faith is genuine. 

--There is wonderful joy ahead. Right now…we have to endure many trials (tests) for a little while. Corporately we have been going through many trials.

--According to God’s Word and according to our genuine faith, corporately we will experience God’s blessings and abundance. 

--We have honored God with our possessions, we have been obedient to give the tithe and beyond, we have recognized this is just a test arranged by God, and now, by faith, He will come through.

--The Lord says: “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 

--As a testimony and to verify what I am saying…the GF increased approximately $65,000 in January. PTL!

--Summary of what I just said from the Word of God.

2 Corinthians 8:1-3 (NLT2)
¹  Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia.
²  They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.
³  For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 

A. They were being tested. Trouble with finances and the economy.

B. They decided even in there test to be richly generous. $533,000 to Missions in 2023.

C. They not only did what they could afford, but they did far more.

Weight Loss - 1

                 Weight Loss - 1

Subject – Laying Aside Things in 2024 We Do Not Need

By Rick Welborne

Hebrews 12:1-3 (NKJV)
¹  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
²  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
³  For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 

--Missionary Ben Pitman shared these verses with us when he preached for our Mission’s Conference and what an amazing message. I’m sorry. Cleanse me. And Thank You! 

--When we fast I hope we are not just looking at fasting as a way to lose some weight even though that can be one of the benefits. My friend in Lakeland fasted three days every month. Was not a believer.

--I am sure most of you are aware that weight loss programs are big industry here in the United States and every year many try to start their new venture in losing weight. The gym was full in January.

--This information was out in January 2021 so it is pretty much up to date so listen to these mind blowing statistics. 

--Forty-five million Americans go on some kind of diet or weight loss program every year and there are only 330 million people in the US. About 1/8 of the population.

--I love trying to guess numbers (I don’t play the lottery) so I guessed it was probably a five-billion-dollar industry but I was not even close. In 2020 it was over $71 billion. 

--I also believe you will not be shocked about this statistic based on what I have heard many of you tell me over the last 35 years. 95% of the people who try these diets or fads fail.

--Even Christians spend ridiculous amounts of money on diets and weight loss programs when the Word of God makes it pretty clear how we can handle problems like this. 

--In our text it makes it very clear that people are watching us (surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses). The context is this…because they are watching us, we should do certain things.

--As soon as you tell people that you are a Christian, it is like saying to them…watch everything I do and observe how I live my life. 

Romans 14:7 (NLT2)
⁷  For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves.

--If you will have a good year in 2024 it will happen because you make certain choices. The first is to obey the Word of God. We must be disciples. We must be disciplined. What does that look like?

1. Look to Jesus

Hebrews 12:2 (NIV) ²  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…

--I particularly like NIV with this verse because there is the implication that something isn’t right with where we are looking for our help.

--I have said many times through the years that your job or your family is not your source, Jesus is.

--If 2024 is going to be a better year and if you are going to lay aside some bad habits, get rid of sin, or, lose some weight, the first place you should look is to Jesus. He is your source. 

--Here is a novel idea for all of us when we are facing adversity, bad habits, or just blatant sin, why not take it to Jesus because He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith? One of my life verses:

Philippians 1:6 (NIV)
⁶  being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

--Why not…why not make a true resolution before God that you will make it your aim for 2024 to always go to Jesus in prayer with your needs and problems.

Resolution – a settled determination.

--How simple yet profound is that? You make a settled determination in 2024 that whatever you are facing, that you look to Jesus. You fix your eyes on Jesus.

--Jesus taught us to pray and He even gave us a pattern of how to pray…just as a reminder:

 Matthew 6:9-15 (NKJV)
⁹  In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰  Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹  Give us this day our daily bread.
¹²  And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
¹³  And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
¹⁴  "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
¹⁵  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 

--Brief summary when you pray…worship God, pray for His will to be done, ask for what you need, ask for forgiveness, ask for deliverance from the enemy, and simply forgive others.

--Until you realize Jesus is your source and that you need to look to Him, you will always be struggling.

2. Look to His Word.

--We all say that we believe the Bible is God’s Word. We say it is relevant for whatever we are facing. We say every need I have is answered in the Word of God. Yet we do not go to it very often.

--I was talking to someone not very long ago about working out and about losing or maintaining their weight and I told them I weigh myself every morning and every evening.

--They quickly said to me that I could never do that because some days I would be happy with myself and some days I would be disgusted. I said to them, “Isn’t that the point of looking at the scales?”

--They said, I am confused. I said to them if I weigh myself in the morning and see that I am up a pound or two more than I was the previous day, I can manage or plan my day to do better.

--I said, if I do not look at the scale day after day, I may be getting further and further away from what my intended goal is. Sometimes looking hurts. Truth hurts but also truth sets you on the right path.

--If we are looking to the Author of our faith we must assume that He has written something. The Word of God. That can help us and we must look at it every day.

James 1:22-25 (NKJV)
²²  But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
²³  For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
²⁴  for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
²⁵  But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

--James says so much here about our lives and our capability in laying aside the weight and the sin which so easily entangles us. He definitely ties it to the Word of God.

--He says coming to church and hearing a sermon will never be enough. He gives a warning to us. Just hearing occasionally may bring deception instead of freedom. Wow that is crazy.

--If we just hear and do not do what it says it is like looking in a mirror and forgetting what we look like. Hear James… he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 

--It is like looking at that scale in the morning and saying, you know what I am up a few pounds but I am having pizza for lunch and ice cream for dinner…yummy! I can’t say this better than James:

James 1:25 (NKJV)
²⁵  But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

3. Be Disciplined.

--Let’s face reality…we don’t lose weight or get in shape because we are not disciplined. We want the easy way. Take a pill and chill. Sadly, it does not happen like that. Maybe temporary help.

--Also, you will not lay aside the weight or the sin that entangles you unless you are disciplined enough to go to Jesus in prayer and to His Word that brings freedom.

--We hate the word discipline when all of us know that we are called to be disciples. Go into the world and make disciples. Instead we have raised up a lot of baby Christians.

Hebrews 12:5-8 (NLT2)
⁵  And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the LORD’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you.
⁶  For the LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
⁷  As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?
⁸  If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. 

--We want blessings but no correction…no instruction. Even when leadership tries to correct someone, their families rescue them from those mean pastors. 

--We don’t want anyone to tell us that we don’t look good. We don’t want any discipline in our lives from God or anyone else. Then, we are illegitimate. 

--For the LORD disciplines those he loves.

Poem…What’s Up!

What’s Up?

Pastor Rick Welborne

The world says “Give up!”

Your friends say “Break up!”

God says there is coming a “Shake up!”

Paul says we better “Wake up!”

Preachers are saying to the church “Grow up!”

If you can’t speak life and revival “Shut up!”

Those who believe are “Going up!”

You stay like you are and God is going to “Throw up!”

My message to you is to “Look up!”

You need to grow in the Lord and “Stay up!”

He’s not going to take the “Fake up!”

So please get rid of your spiritual “Make up!”

Get your heart right and get ready to be “Caught up!”

Because all of us who love God are “Headed up!”

So as your pastor, I thought I would let you know 

“What’s up!”

Emotions or Trust – 5

Emotions or Trust – 5

Subject – Battling our Emotions When a Test Comes

By Rick Welborne

1 Peter 4:7-8 (NKJV)
⁷  But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.
⁸  And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NKJV)
¹  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
²  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
³  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
⁴  Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
⁵  does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
⁶  does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
⁷  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸  Love never fails…

¹³  And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 

Mark Twain – If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principle difference between a dog and man.

--Let me give you this example about man’s best friend…I have heard married men and women say about their spouse…they are not only my husband or wife; they are my best friend.

--Let’s compare our spouses to our dogs…men, let’s say we lock our wives and our dog in the trunk of our car for, let’s say, an hour. Who do you think will be glad to see you when you open the trunk?

--The dog will still love you and be loyal to you, while your spouse may have you arrested or not speak to you for the next twenty years, if ever. Human beings struggle more to forgive than dogs do.

--It is obvious that the people we love the most are the ones who can hurt us the most deeply. Our goal is to learn to love people like we have never been hurt. Why is this necessary?

--As surely as you are listening to this message today you can count on the fact that someone is going to break your heart, someone is going to abandon you or leave you. You will be hurt.

--Someone is going to say something that is going to hurt you, someone is going to disappoint you, someone is going to let you down, lie to you, stab you in the back. Someone is going to reject you!

--There’s a really good chance that most of you listening to me today have been hurt and wounded like this. You may be remembering their face now.

--It may have been the mom or dad who walked out when you were a child, the spouse who cheated on you, the sibling who has not talked to you in 20 years, a child who rejected you and your God.

--The truth is, on some level, we all have given our love and our heart to someone who rejected it. We were wounded and felt betrayed. Now you feel the love supply is diminished. I can’t do that again.

--You don’t even know if it is possible for you to love like that again or you have made a conscious or unconscious decision not to put yourself out there again…the risks are too great.

--Let’s face it, any of us can love when everything is going well, when our politics agree, when our theology is the same, when our marriage or our church is in a honeymoon phase. No one lives there all the time.

Matthew 18:7 (NKJV) ⁷  Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!

John 16:33 (NKJV) ³³  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

--Getting hurt is a part of life…it is inevitable but it does not have to be the end of the story…the end of your story. God does not want us to be walking wounded or part of the walking dead club.

--God intended for us to be healed and whole. He intended for us to be able to love like we have never been hurt. Why? That is what He has done and we are made in His image.

Luke 23:33-34 (NKJV)
³³  And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
³⁴  Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

1. Stop probing the wounds.

Psalm 38:2-8 (NLT2)
²  Your arrows have struck deep, and your blows are crushing me.
³  Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins.
⁴  My guilt overwhelms me— it is a burden too heavy to bear.
⁵  My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins.
⁶  I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief.
⁷  A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken.
⁸  I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart. 

--Listen to David anguishing over his foolish sins…he is wounded…his wounds are festered…he is in pain and he is filled with grief…he is almost to the point of dysfunction because he wouldn’t deal with his wounds. 

--This is not how God wants us to live, He wants to give us a new beginning, a new story, a fresh start. He wants to heal what has been broken. He wants to reconcile what has been torn apart.

Luke 4:18 (NKJV)
¹⁸  "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 

Jensen Franklin – This is about understanding biblical forgiveness and reconciliation and establishing healthy boundaries. Love without limits is not about codependence or irrational thinking, and it is not an invitation to be used as a doormat or a whipping post.

--Biblical forgiveness is more about your spiritual health than it is about letting the other person off the hook. Forgiving them is about freeing you!

2. The bottom line is about healing relationships.

--Unfortunately, the body of Christ is full of parents who are estranged from their own children. Some of us have not spoken to family members for more than 20 years. Of course, not by choice.

--Some grandchildren have never even met their grandparents. Some believers who were abused or misused when they were young still harbor hurt and resentment. Hard to have good relationships now.

--Some (I will dare say many) in the church live with spouses, children, or parents where there is strife, anger, and continual hurt but no one will make the move toward reconciliation because of pride or bitterness.

--Some people have lost loved ones and now are too hurt to figure out how to love the ones that are left. The truth is, the only thing that will heal these relationships is love. Listen to the love chapter…relationships.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 (NLT2)
¹  If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
²  If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
³  If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
⁴  Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
⁵  or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
⁶  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
⁷  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 

--One of the reasons your pastor reads these verses at weddings is because there is no place like marriage that tests your willingness to work on relationships. Marriage is tough.

--Love is a powerful force. Paul is saying that we place these gifts of power over loving one another and having good relationships. Prophesying, having discernment, moving mountains without love will fail.

--I dare you to take the test…what test, Pastor Rick? Read 1 Cor. 13:4-7 (NLT2) in light of your home and in light of how much you love and see how you do. Many in the church can’t even get 50%...sad. 

⁴  Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
⁵  or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
⁶  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
⁷  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 

3. What really matters most.

--When we choose to love God, love ourselves, and love others we can learn to love despite what happened to us way back then…what they did way back then…when we love we can heal generations of hurt.

2 Corinthians 5:18 (NKJV) ¹⁸  Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

Franklin – It is never wrong to love, it is never out of order to love, you do not compromise when you love, you never lower your standards when you love. 

--Do you remember what Jesus said when He was asked what is the greatest commandment?

Matthew 22:37-39 (NKJV)
³⁷  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
³⁸  This is the first and great commandment.
³⁹  And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

--What matters most is that we love like Jesus did…we love like we have never been hurt.