Grace Community Church of Ramona Podcast

The Lord should receive our firstfruits, not our leftovers. If we truly intend to honor Him our giving should be first priority, not last. How should we give?  We are to give willingly and thoughtfully. We are to give in faith, trusting God to provide. We are to give proportionately.

Key Truth: There is great freedom and contentment when we acknowledge God owns all things and when we trust His promise to provide.

Job understood he owned nothing; whatever he possessed had been given him by God. God, the Creator of all things, is the Owner of all things. More specifically, God created the material universe through Jesus.

We make a huge step forward spiritually when we, like Job and King David, embrace the fact that God owns everything and we own nothing. We make a huge step forward spiritually when we get our perspective aligned with reality that we are stewards of God’s resources.

Commissioning of David and Cindy Gettis

The fact of the matter is that money is an extremely important spiritual issue. The Bible has a lot to say about money. Of the 38 recorded parables of Jesus, 16 deal with money or possessions. In the Gospels, one out of ten verses (288 in all) deal directly with the subject of money. The Bible offers 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 on faith, but more than 2,000 verses on money and possessions.

Money is a critical spiritual issue because money is dangerous. Notice I didn't say money is evil. Electricity isn't evil but it is dangerous: I have a damaged pair of wire cutters that reminds me of this fact. Money, like electricity, is dangerous and must be handled carefully.

Christmas Eve 2016

Steve's sermon last week on the priesthood of every believer reinforced my decision to lead in worship next Sunday, Christmas Day. Steve pointed out that there is no formal priesthood in the New Testament Church because every one of us is a priest under the New Covenant. The Apostle Peter revealed this revolutionary truth to Jews scattered throughout the Roman Empire who had been raised under the Old Covenant priesthood.

Dr Steve Sammons
Why No Priest?
12/11/2016

When we trust in Christ for salvation we are born again into a new family, the Church. As family, we are called to care for one another. Previously, in chapter 5, the Apostle Paul encouraged believers in the Galatian churches to walk in the Spirit that their churches might be filled with His fruit. As he concludes his letter in chapter 6, Paul encourages us to care for one another in the church family and to persevere in doing good to all, but especially to the church family.

Because He's referred to as the Spirit we may not have an accurate picture of who He is. The Holy Spirit is the third person of our triune God - God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit. Like the Father and Son, the Spirit is a person Who thinks, speaks, acts and feels.

The moment you placed faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus for salvation the Holy Spirit came to live in you (Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:6). This miracle is called the indwelling of the Spirit. Every moment of every day the Holy Spirit lives in and with you; He does not come and go (this is a major difference between the Spirit's relationship to New Covenant believers and believers during the Old Testament period). When you rise in the morning and get ready for the day, the Spirit is with you. When you're taking your math test He is with you. When you're driving home from work He is with you. When you're scrolling through Facebook or texting or watching the news or eating dinner He is with you.

The Holy Spirit is with you every moment of every day and His primary goal is to renew your mind.