But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.  Matthew 6.3-4

This Sunday we heard the call of Christ to identify with the poor and afflicted helping them in their distress.  We are to give to those in need in secret.  It is not to be an opportunity to show off our righteous acts, but instead to be an example of Christ with the goal of others turning to praise our Father in heaven.  The goal in giving is never to be praised ourselves, but that God would be honored through our obedience.  We are promised by Christ that we will be rewarded by the Father for our giving done in secret.

I want to encourage you to continue to give in this manner, as Christ has laid out for us.  I also wanted to give thanks to the Lord for your continued participation in the support and service of the saints.  You continue to be faithful and I am grateful to God for that. 

81% of our budget needs go toward ministry.  This includes salaries for our staff, resources for our ongoing ministries, benevolence and mission efforts.  19% goes toward our daily operational needs.  I wanted to thank you for your faithfulness in helping us meet these needs as a local church.  This year we have been blessed to use nearly $11,000 of the ministry expenses to help those in need whether it be with bills, rent or counseling expenses.  We also were blessed to be able to meet a need that UTURN for Christ had.  We were able to give them our bus.  I wanted to thank our elders for modeling Matthew 6 in how they handled the giving of the bus.  It has also been a blessing to hear from others in our body who were thinking the same thing when hearing about UTURN’s need for a bus.  I praise the Lord for our body’s like-mindedness.

Recently we received word of the completion of four more Jesus Wells being built in Asia.  These were the last four of the ten that you as a body helped pay to be built this past Advent.  That brings the total to 30 wells that the Lord has used you to finance to be built over the last three years.  Praise be to God!  You will find a link on the side column giving information about all ten wells built this year.

I want to encourage you to continue to look at the first century church, as a model.  I hear stories often much like the experiences in Acts 2.44-47 and 4.32-35 that happens throughout the week in LIFEgroups and beyond.  These are stories of redistribution, which is the act of taking our wealth and giving it to someone else in need to generously and sufficiently help (Deuteronomy 15.7-8, 10-11).  I don’t seek to use this word as a political statement, which I have recently learned is a hot topic in our day.  I use this word the way it is portrayed in the Scriptures.  It speaks of giving and sharing of what you have to help meet the needs of others.  It is what Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians 8.13-14 saying, For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality – at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality.

Above all continue to be fixed on Jesus this advent season and beyond.  Look at His example to motivate you, for as the Apostle Paul says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8.9).  Seek to be faithful givers doing what you purpose in your heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9.7).