John K. Jenkins Sr - Moving Forward Requires Proper Money Management - Part 5

Moving forward requires proper money management. For Requ, that's a nice try ; let's try one more time. Moving forward requires proper money management. You cannot move forward if you're not managing your money properly. I thought I was done when I talked about obedience by giving tithes a couple of weeks ago, but I have one more thing to discuss. Moving forward requires proper money management through challenging times and seasons. How many of you can identify that we are in the midst of a challenging season economically and otherwise?

2 Corinthians chapter 8 is the passage we will deal with today, so turn to that. This past weekend marked the culmination of the $640 million Lotto deal . Now, I'm not going to ask if any of you bought tickets because I don't want to make anyone lie in church, but I know there are people here who bought some tickets . If you all say Amen together, nobody will know I'm talking about you. As a matter of fact, reports say that $1.5 billion in sales at a dollar each were purchased by people . I heard that one of the three winning tickets was somewhere in Baltimore County , Maryland. Y'all know where it is if you live in Baltimore.

Oh, it was on the news! Sister Nain said that if she had won , she would have given me a tithe. She 's here; would I have taken it? Money is green ! Come on, some of you all's money that comes in offerings on Sundays hasn 't totally been made clean!

Now, 1.5 billion dollars' worth of tickets were bought in hopes of a small investment yielding a big return. As a matter of fact, they wanted a huge, unnatural return. Here 's what I want to talk about because here's what Proverbs says- jot this verse down; you don't have to turn there, I just want you to write it down: Proverbs 10:22. You all try to buy a ticket and hit it big, but what you need to research is what happens to people who win these lotteries and how their lives spiral out of control. Proverbs 10:22 says , "The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it." Woo! Y'all missed a great spot to say Amen ! When God blesses you, there's no sorrow associated with it. I don't want any blessing that has sorrow connected with it, and the track record shows that people who win the lottery have sorrow galore added to it.

What I want to discuss this morning , as we look at Paul's letter to the church in Corinth , is that he writes this letter to the church because it is his second letter . He wrote the first letter to them because they were messed up and had all kinds of drama going on . But in this second letter , they're doing better ; they have progressed and moved forward . Amen? They have achieved some things , and he's bragging about them. In fact, he's bragging about this church to one of his sons in the ministry. When you read chapters 6 and 7, he's bragging about the church in Corinth.

When we get to chapter 8 , he begins to brag to the Corinthian church about another church called the Macedonian church. He's bragging because the Macedonian churches have contributed to the needs of some poor saints in Jerusalem. It is significant that this church in Macedonia has given , and Paul is writing to tell the Corinthian church about them. Matter of fact, here's what he says in verse one. Are y'all with me? In verse one, he says, "Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia ."

He says he needs to tell them how God smeared His grace upon the churches in Macedonia, and that one little verse is jam-packed with significant information. The church in Macedonia was smeared with grace. Y 'all have heard me talk about grace before, and I can never talk about it enough because in order for you and I to be what God wants us to be, how many of you know we need grace? Grace is God's empowering presence; it is God's ability to give you what you need to be what you're supposed to be and to do what you're supposed to do.

When God gives you grace, listen to this, grace gives you the desire to do what you're supposed to do . If you don't want to do right, you are lacking grace. When you don't want to make the right decisions, grace is diminished in your life. Paul says God took His grace and smeared it, and I've come to the conclusion of how much I need grace. I need grace to love my wife ; I need grace to raise my kids; I need grace to pastor you all. I need grace! I need God to help me want to be your pastor. I need grace to want to love my wife because sometimes my wife and I have intense fellowship . Can I get an Amen from anyone here who is married ?