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.