The Church Just Wants Your Money! – Lies of the Enemy #23– Purity 1035

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a rainbow over multicolored trees of spring comes to us from Dawn Kananberg-Steward, who shared this scene, presumably from near her home in Chatham, New York, on social media on May 2nd, commenting, "Never gets old." Dawn is the president of Our Community Cares, Inc., whose mission is to provide financial and emotional support to residents of Columbia County who are facing hardships in their lives or in the life of a family member. I met Dawn and co-director Lori Weaver back in 2019 when I was the walk chair for the AFSP's Columbia Green Out of the Darkness Walk. And I can tell you that Dawn and Lori showed that their organization is the real deal by providing me with much-needed support to pull off that event. Uh, just like enjoying the beauty of a rainbow never gets old, their continued service to the Columbia County community show, uh, shows that their passion for helping others, uh, never gets old either. Well, it's Friday, and I hope that you will indulge me in thanking God that it's Friday, because for me, Thanking the Lord never gets old, as I make an intentional practice of gratitude part of my morning routine each day. I have been forgiven much, and I have been blessed with the support of family and, and a Heavenly Father who have been with me through all the ups and downs of my life. And so when I remember the hard times that I've been through and consider the peace, love, and joy that I am experiencing now, I, uh, giving thanks to the Lord comes pretty naturally. And I hope to never tire of it. A significant part of finding joy in my life has been due to my involvement in— with the community of the saints, the church, where I was able to learn and grow in my faith because of some faithful men and women decided to faithfully worship and serve the Lord by encouraging us to seeker like me. Uh, I have been a member or regular attendee of at least 5 different churches in my life, and while I can, can say that I don't think I was really saved and definitely not following the Lord until 2010 or 2015, if you— if we are talking full surrender, uh, I can say that all the faithful men and women I have met along the way through all those churches didn't have any ulterior motives or hidden agendas. As far as I know. The people who served in those churches, as far as I know, seemed to be sincere in their faith and seemed only interested in encouraging others to serve and follow the Lord too. However, in those communities of faith, and in regards to Christianity in general, there is a dissenting opinion that the worship is not sincere and that the motives for meeting are more are monetary rather than missionary. Some claim the purpose of churches have more to do with the almighty dollar rather than the almighty deity. And that brings us to our current series, The Lies of the Enemy, which is an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily whispered into our minds as first-person statements, that the enemy tells us to cause us to doubt our faith or the faith of others, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives. Today's big lie is Lie Number 23: The church just wants your money. Uh, the enemy delights in every church financial scandal and every plea for cash from a prosperity gospel preacher because it helps to make the case that the church just wants your money. The enemy has plenty of support to try to convince us that this lie is true. Some churches actually boldly proclaim and list it on their websites that members of their church are required to pay a tithe, 10% of your income, to be a member of their quote-unquote Christian fellowship. Um, on the flip side of this, I know from experience that some church members practice the dollar tithe $1 a week, sometimes per family member, sometimes for the whole family, for the week— for the weeks they go to church. The preaching at many churches turned to the subject of tithing or the financial needs of the church on a regular basis to invite congregates to put their money where their faithful proclamation is, um, to raise needed funds or to, uh, welcome people into a deeper trust in God and investment into their faith life. All of these things, and the proven cases of financial mismanagement and theft in the church, uh, build up the enemy's case that the church just wants your money. The enemy does this, of course, to sow seeds of division and encourage people to forsake the assembly of the saints. Churches of United Christians are a threat to the enemy, and so he appeals to people's more selfish instincts to harden their hearts when it comes to giving or to separate themselves from quote-unquote organized religion altogether. And that's the point on which I would like to make a stand for the quote-unquote church, the true spiritual body of believers. Buildings, denominations, and organizations are not the church. The people that follow the Lord are the church. And while local congregations and organizations need money to operate The church doesn't just want your money, they want all of you. They want your presence, your fellowship, your talents, your obedience, your encouragement, your service, and anything else you can contribute to God's kingdom purposes. There are various opinions on the subject of tithing, and I encourage you to follow the Apostle Paul's instruction in 2 Corinthians 9:7, uh, that says you must 'Each decide in your heart how much to give, and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure, for God loves a person who gives cheerfully.' Um, decide in your heart how much to give and to do it without pressure and to give it freely with joy. If you feel like— if you feel the conviction to give 10% or less or more, give it with joy. And the same goes for our service or the other ways we give to the body of Christ. Don't do it out of pressure. Do it out of love you have for God, not the good opinions of men. Do it with joy. God is the head of the church, and he wants your heart, not your cash. The Lord doesn't want financial gifts or false expressions of worship where we just go through the motions. And speaking through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 1:11-18, the Lord says, "What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?" says the Lord. I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle. I get no pleasure from the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to worship me, who, who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony? Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts. The incense of your offerings disgust me. As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days of fasting, they are all sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings. I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals. They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them. When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look. Though you're— you may— though you offer many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims. Wash yourselves and be clean. Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. Come now, let's settle this, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them white as wool. The war— the Lord wants us to repent and follow him sincerely, sincerely. So all that we do should be done out of our love for him. Otherwise, no amount that we give or anything, or of anything, will please him. He wants us to follow him with joy. So give of yourself as you feel led and continue to seek his will for, for your life. Hosea 6:6 tells us, I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. God wants our love and to know him, and what you give to him will only be a small investment on the huge blessings that will come from walking humbly with our God. The church, the body of Christ, is led by God, and it doesn't want just— it doesn't want just your money. Um, he wants all of you, but he only wants what you freely give. So deny that lie of the enemy that the church is just after your money and go to the Lord with, with your offer of full surrender and give him what you can with joy. Today's Bible verse comes from us— to us from the New Living Translation's Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is James 1:24. 25, and it says, but if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. Today's verse encourages us to know the word of God and to do what it says, with the promise of God's blessing for doing so. Uh, this verse can easily be misconstrued to support those prosperity gospel preachers who promise great returns for your great faith. But when I encourage people to follow the Lord's will for their lives and to obey the word of God, I try to temper their expectations by keeping it real, by assuring them that while they may be blessed by the fruit of the Spirit when they decide to walk in the Spirit, they may have to find their peace and joy in the midst of hardship, suffering, and poor persecution, because Christ said we could expect it. When we walk with the Lord, we are blessed by his presence and the peace we have when we are in harmony with him. And that is a great blessing. The joy of the Lord is our strength, and the peace He gives goes beyond our understanding. So we shouldn't be necessarily— we shouldn't necessarily be expecting material or circumstantial blessings, because if we put our hopes in the things of this earth, we will be disappointed. So look into the perfect law that sets you free and do what it says. And expect the blessing of a rich relationship with God, and wait and see what he has for you. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from, um, from June Hunt's Satan, Demons, and Satanism: A Sinister Reality. And today we're We're sharing from the section that, uh, asked the question, what are the signs of satanic involvement? And she provides a list of signs of possible satanic curiosity. And so we have to be on guard and make sure our loved ones aren't going the way of Satan, and we might be able to, you know, head off, uh, you know, demonic oppression beforehand. By encouraging people not to look into the occult, to forsake their sins, to forgive others, to cancel any ground from, you know, soul ties or generational curses. And what's the other one? Let's see, sin, um, I forget, it's soul, it's It's sin, occult, unforgiveness, lineage, and lies we believe. So yeah, those are the things we have to take care of to cancel any ground the enemy may have in our lives. So, uh, you know, if you have any of those things that make up the soul— the word soul with two L's for lies and lineage— um, you want to take those to the Lord and repent of them. And, uh, you know, cancel— say, I cancel any ground the enemy may have in my life. Be because of these things, Lord, and I repent and I want to follow you. You know, um, last night in our Deeper Walk International Prayer Ministry cohort, um, we were talking— we were blessed to have, um, Randy Peterson join us, who's, uh, who's someone who does, uh, the Steps to Freedom in Christ, who's done— led several hundred people apparently through the Steps to Freedom in Christ over the years. Um, um, talk about leading people through the steps and helping people. And one of the things he pointed out was that, uh, you know, that when people know who they are in Christ and stand in their faith and know the process of, uh, you know, confession and, um, you know, commanding the, the, the enemy to leave, um, and they decide to live a discipled life um, they get free and they stay free. Um, you know, our deliverance ministries, you know, you call them deliverance ministries or freedom appointments or whatever you want, but, um, I've come to understand that the freedom comes from a life of discipleship. Um, yeah, you repent and you, and you confess and you command the enemy to leave, but Um, after you clean the house, if you leave it empty, uh, the enemy comes back. And so you have to be prepared, um, for temptations and, you know, negative thoughts and everything to come into your life after you get set free. So, and you have to stand in your faith to combat it. Um, but when you walk in the Spirit, you know, you experience the, the fruit of the Spirit and, uh, the and the demonic oppression doesn't really come in there too much. We do have to be on guard at all times and be diligent. But, uh, man, I'm telling you, when, when I say I have a life of peace and joy, it's not continuous. It's not like kumbaya. I still have to work and do things in the real world that are difficult or challenging or frustrating and have to face my failure sometimes. But when I say failure, it's usually not— it's not necessarily a moral failure. You know, it's not like I have a sin-confess cycle going on here. We're talking about frustrations or, you know, overindulgence in food on occasion, okay? Because the Lord really has set me free from addiction and sexual immorality and, you know, a lot of things. Maybe I'll say a bad word in traffic or something. That's what I say when failures come. Or just depending too much on myself. I consider that a failure, um, because when the Lord sets you free, you're free indeed, but you have to keep walking with him to stay free. You have to maintain your freedom, and that's what we encourage here in the podcast, in the, uh, in the blog and our YouTube channel, is that you follow the Lord and you don't do it to show other peoples how you're following the Lord or or present your tithe in front of everyone to show how faithful you are. Um, you know, those things are, are really up to you and your relationship with the Lord and what he leads you to do and that what you can do joyously. Um, he doesn't want forced obedience. He doesn't— it's not a walk, it's not a march, it's a walk with him. It's a relationship, not a religion, and it's about progress, not perfection. So that's what we encourage here on the podcast, and we do that by presenting, you know, how do I do this? Well, we provide lessons to possibly help you in your walk, from Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ are all on the podcast and our YouTube channel. They're all based— and those teachings are all based on the work of Dr. Neil Anderson and the Word of God, and we found them very helpful in our walk, and that's why we teach them, and that's why we put them on the podcast for people to listen. We also offer the handouts from those classes. If you email me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com, I'll send them, the Word docs, to you for free to help you in your walk of discipleship. We also encourage Bible study, and I sort of got backwards today. I'm going to do my Bible study after the podcast. I don't know, once you start get rolling, you know, you better get it down on paper sometimes. And so I will be reading Amos and, uh, and Job, uh, right after this. Um, but we encourage Bible study, and how we do that on the podcast is we provide a weekly Bible study. Uh, it's a topical study that we do with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti that we encourage people to follow the Lord, and we talk about different topics. So if you don't have a Bible study or fellowship with the saints, you can join ours, I suppose, by listening in and, uh, you know, um, or watching us on YouTube, um, their video there. Um, anyway, um, I do have to work and I do have Bible study, and so I want to pray and, uh, get this Friday started. Um, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much, um, for for the faithful men and women of God that make up the body of Christ that have encouraged me to follow the Lord all my life. And I didn't listen for a long time. And, you know, there's a lot of doubt whether or not I was saved before the day you, you know, dragged me out of my darkness and false religion back in 2010. I guess I— yeah, I mean, that's a pretty good indicator. Um, but Lord, you've encouraged me and, and led me all my life. And, um, when I started to— when I finally heard your voice and accepted you as my Lord and Savior, um, that's when everything changed. And, um, Lord, we thank you for what you've done in our lives. And Lord, we thank you for anyone who's listening or, or reading this message, uh, Lord, that you'd bless them. And we pray for you to come alongside their prayer requests We pray for our friends who are hurting, um, physically or emotionally or financially. Lord, we pray for you to bless them. And, um, Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us today, um, because we, we need your help. And, uh, we, we ask that you open our eyes to the things you want us to see and that you lead our steps in the things you would have us do, Lord, because we need you desperately. And, uh, all we want to do is represent you here on the earth. And, uh, Lord, so we, we, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.