21 Nov For the Sake of the One | Part 2 “How to Make Friends in Heaven” – All Locations
Announcements:
Tuesday Cafe: Our Cafe is open for coffee and pastries from 10-1 every Tuesday. This will be a great way to connect and meet people! This is not a forum for Life Groups. If you have a life group that meets at this time, please meet at your usual spot. Thank you.
Holiday Hours:
Open:
Nov 23
Nov 30
Dec 7
Dec 14
Dec 21
No First Tuesday in December in NE which would normally be Dec 7 and there will be a guide that week, There may not be a guide next week.
Phil Wickham & special guest, Josh Baldwin, will be performing the Hymn of Heaven Tour at Waters Church North Attleboro on Sat, May 14, 2022!
Pre-sale password: HEAVEN
Ticket link: https://www.ticketweb.com/…/phil-wickham…/11394965…
All announcements can be found at: waterschurch.guide
Our text alert number is 81411. Text ‘waterschurch’ to 81411 to join our text alert system.
The Deep End, the new Deep Dive Bible Study, and 10 questions with Tim are back! Please note that The Deep End will only be available on timhatchlive.com/live. Be sure to like and subscribe to the channel to be notified of each new podcast.
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Key Verse: Luke 16
We gave out 400 boxes to the Woonsocket community and the SoCo community this past Saturday! Thank you to all who donated and served! Please pray for those who have received a box that they will come to Church! Also, continue to pray for your ‘One’. We won’t understand Waters Church until we bring a friend that does not know Jesus. We tie everything we do here to a soul.
Q. What testimony can you share regarding either the Thanksgiving Outreach or the ‘One’ for which you have been praying?
Luke 14 talks about dinner at the Pharisees house. Luke 15 talks about dinner at a sinners house (outcasts of the religious society):
Luke 15:30 (ESV)
The Prodigal Son ends with the older obedient son (the religious son) outside the father’s house. He got gnarly and refused to go inside. It is entirely possible to be religious and not know Jesus. Jesus was telling this story to the ‘insider church people’ showing them that they can have a moral ‘appearance’ and still not have a heart for the Father.
Luke 16:1-9 (ESV)
Luke 16 ties this all together. It is about a manager doing wrong things with his money so he was told his job is ending. He then sets himself up to be in good standing with the people. Jesus says this is how we should use money, to help people make it into the family of God.
The #1 Thing Christians Get Wrong About MONEY: MONEY has NOTHING to do with the MISSION of Jesus.
Some Christians think money is a dirty thing. It is not the root of all evil, but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Money is amoral, it is a tool.
Luke 16:13 (ESV)
We are going to serve one or the other, we cannot serve both God and money. God and money both offer us the same things, but only God can deliver. They both offer power, significance, and status but only God can do this. He gives us everything money promises us.
Q. What might be something you have looked for in money only to realize God is the only one that could provide that for you?
Luke 12:14-15 (NLT)
Greed is hard to see. We can be greedy and poor. We can be greedy and not even know it. No one accidentally lies, murders, or commits adultery but its possible to be greedy (full of the love of money) and not realize it. It is entirely possible to be religious and totally sold out to money.
Q. What are some forms of greed you may have never of thought of as forms of greed therefore not realizing you were being greedy (i.e. wasting money)?
1. Handling money with God’s mission in Mind: It’s NOT ours.
Luke 16:1 (ESV)
The money we have does not belong to us. The rich man is God and the manager is us.
Everything we OWN is really on LOAN.
Deuteronomy 8:18 (ESV); Proverbs 10:22 (ESV)
Everything we have is from God and we will be leaving all that we have to someone else. We need to learn how to let it go because we are going to leave it behind. We are not our own made person. All we have is from God and he gives us the power to get wealthy. It is not about how much we have it is how our heart handles how much we have. We are managers not owners of all we have. This is freeing because we can let God worry about it. Most of our stress is rooted in. money.
Q. In what ways have you stressed over money or possessions (maybe you lost a job, lived paycheck to paycheck, struggled in a relationship etc.) ?
Jesus tells us not to worry that God will supply richly and abundantly. He is generous even to those we don’t think deserve it. We need to stop being insecure about the world. We have something money cannot buy or take away – eternal life!
2. I Handling money with God’s mission in Mind: I’m ACCOUNTABLE to God.
Luke 16:2 (ESV)
There will come a time when all of us will give an account to how we handled stuff. We should fear God (respect) and use it the way He wants it to be used.
Tithe (Proverbs 3:9-10; Malachi 3:10). The tithe is 10 percent of the gross, first fruits.
Save (Another 10 percent for emergencies, rainy days, and vacations)
Pay Taxes (Mark 12:17; Matthew 23:23)
Support you family (it is not spiritual to be poor)
Enjoy reasonable comforts (1 Timothy 6:17)
Give generously (give to those in need, sponsor a child through compassion etc.)
Q. What, about money, can you honestly say you are not handling the way God wants you to (if any in which of the above might you be lackadaisical)?
3. Handling money with God’s mission in Mind: I need to PLAN AHEAD… WAY AHEAD
Eternal retirement. Retirement is not the end. We have eternal life.
Note: December 11/12 – Year End Offering – we will have an opportunity to give our best year end offering so we can get Tiverton built out and replenish our funds for what is to come in the future. Pray for what God will put on your heart to give.
Luke 16:4 (ESV)
Prepare for the next life with what we have in this life.
Illustration: the rope is our life . One small end of the rope (about 2 inches) is our life. Next to that is an even smaller portion which is our retirement. The rest of the rope which goes on and on and on is eternity. Retirement is not the end we are going to die and go to heaven. The portion of rope that is eternal life is way more than that which is for retirement.
Luke 16:8 (NLT)
The manager was planning for eternity. We are not of this world we have eternity in heaven with Jesus to look forward to. We can’t say we believe in Jesus and live like the world with our money. Give little, get little. Give much, get much in heaven. We will be rewarded according to what we have done.
Q. What are some ways you could better use your money to gain eternal rewards?
4. Handling money with God’s mission in Mind: It can CHANGE someone’s ETERNITY (including MINE).
Someone paid for the church building before we got there. We are where we are as a church today from the giving in the past.
Luke 16:9 (ESV) ; Luke 16:9 (NLT)
Question: What does God REALLY CARE about?
He does not care about how much we have.
Luke 19:10 (ESV); Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV); Acts 1:8 (ESV); John 3:16 (ESV)
Answer: God CARES about getting people out of HELL and into HEAVEN.
He cares so much about this that he sent his Son to die for us.
Luke 16:10-11 (ESV)
We cannot afford to wait until we make more money, we must start now. Who we are with little is who we are with much. We can say if we win the lottery we will start giving, but we won’t.
Q. In what way has your giving has changed a particular persons life?
5. Handling money with God’s mission in Mind: It’s a MATTER of Worship.
Worship is what we put worth into. We don’t just worship with music. If we want to make Jesus worth it to someone, we must invest into His kingdom. Only the name of Jesus brings dead people back to life.
Luke 16:13 (ESV) ; Matthew 6:19–21 (ESV)
Sermon Summary:
MONEY is a TOOL that GOD can USE to CHANGE LIVES for ETERNITY. Am I INVESTING in that?
Challenge: Start investing into your eternal retirement. Become a better steward of your resources.
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