Better to Give Part 2

Here are the final 5 reasons why it is better to give than receive. (See last week’s blog) If you have been struggling with giving this Christmas season - if giving has become a chore for you - if you wonder if you can ever give a meaningful gift - if you want to get God’s perspective on life, then this blog is for you; because giving is at the very center of Who God is, and what we can become in Him.
6. Giving helps you to become part of God’s solution to the problem. Jesus said this in Luke 19:26, “Yes,” the king replied, “and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.”
7. Giving gives you the opportunity to glorify God. Luke 12:32, So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.
8. Giving moves you away from selfishness toward selflessness. Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus said to His disciples, “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it.”
9. Giving moves you toward Christ-likeness. Matthew 5:45, “In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For He gives His sunlight to both the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”
10. Giving prepares you for eternal life. Luke 18:29-30, “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”
Merry Christmas! Pastor Mike

Is It Better to Give than Receive?

Here are 10 reasons why it is better to give than receive. (first 5 this week, next 5 next week) If you have been struggling with giving this Christmas season - if giving has become a chore for you - if you wonder if you can ever give a meaningful gift - if you want to get God’s perspective on life, then this blog is for you; because giving is at the very center of Who God is, and what we can become in Him.

1. Having something to give means you have been gifted. 2 Corinthians 8:12-14, "Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have."

2. Giving makes you realize you have been gifted to become a gift. 1 John 3:16, "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up His life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters."

3. Giving brings you joy. Acts 20:35, "You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”

4. Giving brings you new relationships of love. 1 John 4:11, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

5. Giving opens the way for you to receive more gifts to give away. We can’t out give God. He promises that His treasures can’t be exhausted. In Luke 6:37-38, Jesus said, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

5 more reasons next Monday!

Merry Christmas! Pastor Mike

The Purpose of Christmas

Why do we give gifts? Sometimes we give gifts because we feel we have to because of social obligations or traditions. Sometimes we give gifts just for fun. Usually we give gifts because we want to share our love with others. We give because we enjoy helping others and seeing them enjoy the gift we have given in return.
What gifts do we give? Sometimes we give gifts that we like and think that means others would like them too. When we were young, my brother gave me music albums of his favorite groups, not mine. I would usually give those albums back to him. Sometimes we give gifts that catch our fancy, are ‘cute’ or are popular. That does not mean the person will appreciate those gifts too. Sometimes we re-gift to get rid of a gift we don’t want; not a good reason to choose a gift. Usually we try to give gifts that help others or would please them. We choose a gift based on the needs or likes of the person receiving the gift not on us. This requires a selflessness about giving. This means a personal concern and compassion for that person.
The very best gifts become treasured by the person receiving them because the gift signifies the giver’s love for them while also being a joy to use. My son just gave an engagement ring to his new fiancé. He spent a lot of time researching just what type of ring she would like. He invested sacrificially in buying that ring because it is a lifetime investment. He wanted that ring to symbolize his love for her. He wanted that ring to be pleasing to her eye and heart as she will wear it every day. It is a beautiful ring that takes on a much deeper significance because of the love they have for each other.
Consider the greatest gift ever known. God so loved us that He gave His only Son to us that we would not perish but have abundant, joyful and eternal life with Him. Christmas is about relationships not gifts. The true gifts of Christmas symbolize the relationships of love we enjoy. The Gift of Christmas embodies God’s love for us – Emmanuel = God with us! The purpose of Christmas was and is for us to know how much God loves us and wants us to enjoy life with Him today and forever.
Grace and peace, Pastor Mike

Can We Talk About Money?

Some don’t like their church to talk about money. They think the church is always asking for money for our own interests. I want to tell you today why we talk about money at church. Yes, we would like you to support our ministries and mission. Yes, we would like to do all we can for the kingdom of God. But we don’t talk about money so you will give more. We talk about money because money is one of the main topics of the Bible! That makes it important to talk about for that reason alone. 1 in 5 verses of the Bible deal with money. Why? Because how we handle our money is a spiritual indicator showing we are either Christ-centered or not.
Money talk consumes our media. Many watch the stock markets constantly with their emotions going down or up with every dive and gain of the DOW. Our government leaders debate and practice economic policies that will make or break our state and country. What the Lord God says about how we handle money will never steer you wrong, bankrupt or corrupt us. What the Lord teaches us about money insures us a sound and prosperous investment in our future. There has never been a more important time to talk about money than today, especially in the church.
I am not saying that every Christian will become a millionaire if we follow the Lord’s instructions about money. The Bible does say that if we let the Lord control our money use, He promises to take care of all our needs and generously bless us in many other amazing ways. The Lord dares us to test Him in this and see that we will gain far more riches than money can ever bring. If we learn how to let the Lord work out His blessings through the use of our money and resources, we will gain priceless treasures in relationships, achievement, meaning and purpose in our lives. Money can’t buy happiness, but using our money and resources to glorify God, love others and invest in our eternal future does bring a guaranteed reward of joy and satisfaction.
So, you see, not only should we talk about money in the Church, we must talk about money. We must talk about money as a way to grow in our walk with the Lord.
Grace and peace, Pastor Mike

Jesus is our Sabbath Rest

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Twice in this passage Jesus promises us rest. We first find rest when we give over to Jesus our weariness and burdens. We surrender our lives to Him, saying that we can't be God of our own lives. When we do this we receive the rest of eternal salvation. Jesus saves us for all time and welcomes us into His family. Eternal life, peace and rest from our efforts to save ourselves arrive the moment we come to Jesus so He can be our Lord and Savior.

Then Jesus tells us how we work out that eternal rest in our daily lives. We are to take up His yoke upon our shoulders. This is working out what He works into our lives. We do our part and Jesus does His part. A yoke is always made for two. Jesus takes the bulk of the effort, while we do our part proportionately. If we just do our part, we will be successful, because we leave the rest up to Jesus. In that way His rest comes into our daily lives. This rest comes upon us when we stop trying to be like Jesus and start living in and with Jesus. Many of us enter into the first rest Jesus promises us. We surrender our lives to Jesus but then we try to take our lives back daily. We gave Jesus our eternal lives, but we still try to control our daily situations. We need to give every situation to Jesus. When we rest in Jesus and let Him control and direct us in each situation we face daily, we have the strength and time to meet every task the Lord asks us to accomplish. We take up His yoke every day and that means He comes alongside us every day. Then we don't burn out, feel overwhelmed or over-extended. We do our part and Jesus does His part and we succeed with Him.

Grace and peace, Pastor Mike

Each One Reach One!

Join us on our COV Outreach Saturday this Saturday, Nov. 7^th!

Love from Jesus is active in helping and caring for each other. If we have a heartbeat because we have received God's love, than our hearts must beat as God's does. We must love God, each other and our neighbors with Christ's love. We can't be the Church of the Valley unless we have God's heart for our valley. That is why we go out and share the love of Christ on "Outreach Saturdays". It reminds us of what we can do every Saturday or any other day of the week as followers of Jesus Christ. It shows us how easy it is to make a difference in the lives of those who live around us. We don't have to do anything special, just do the things that care. These are simple things like handing out lunch, thanking police and fire officers, cleaning up streets, encouraging those in the hospital, nursing home or care facility, generously tipping waitresses and waiters, saying nice things to tellers, looking out for ways to get to know and help our neighbors - taking them a loaf of bread or a dozen cookies; mowing the lawn of a senior citizen, bringing groceries to a sick friend, helping a neighbor pick up a car from the service center – the list of everyday actions of caring goes on and on. Treat others the way you want to be treated is all Jesus is saying. Love in the way you have been loved by the Lord. The best neighbor is the one who helps his neighbor. The best employer is the one who helps her employees. The best friend is the one who lays down his life for his friend. Jesus did that for us, so let's pass it on.

Grace and peace, Pastor Mike

The Value of Humility in Today’s World

Humility involves submitting to that which is greater than you no matter how powerful you think you are. The lighthouse wins over any ship any time no matter who captains the ship. This principle of humility applies to many situations in life for us. Some are common sense such as not fighting against the principles of gravity by jumping of a tall building or fighting the laws of physics by driving our car into a tree. Yet there are many people with inflated views of themselves that set them up for disaster; like Don Quixote they attempt to joust with windmills. It is much better to have a realistic view of ourselves; to know and work in our areas of strength rather than our areas of weakness, to become effective in our expertise rather than our ignorance. Humility certainly means that we should not think too highly of ourselves; but it also means not to think too lowly of ourselves.

Romans 12:3, gives us this very accurate definition of humility,
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. This verse agrees that humility means not thinking too highly nor too lowly of ourselves, but to think honestly of ourselves. This is hard to accomplish. Some of us think too highly of ourselves. Most of us think too lowly of ourselves. We don't know how to evaluate our standing with others. However this verse gives us something more – a way to measure our humility accurately; a standard by which we may evaluate our importance. We are to think of ourselves according to the measure of the faith God gave each of us. By valuing our contribution according to the standard of Jesus working through us, we end up thinking more highly of ourselves than we would think of ourselves by our own estimation. Our value to each other depends upon discovering how to work out in the church family the unique faith God has worked into each of us.

Do you know that in the Lord's Prayer there is not a single occurrence of I, me or myself. Here at COV in this part of God's Family, we are learning to replace me with we. We are finding that there is a greater joy and harmony when we learn to truly love each other through effective and active behaviors of serving each other in ministry. Humility is knowing our place of value in service in the Body of Christ. Ministry is using our spiritual gifts in accordance to the way God designed us to serve each other. And this leads to fervency, the passion that motivates us to sincerely, successfully and actively love each other in the Family of God. What is your function in this church? How will you serve each other in the Lord? What is the measure of faith God has given you so that you may be lifted up?

Grace and Peace, Pastor Mike