How much is enough?

This question can apply to many different areas of our lives, but today we're looking at this question in regard to money and wealth.

Other than theological issues like faith and God's kingdom, the number one issue that Jesus addresses in the Bible is the issue of money and wealth.

He doesn't condemn wealth. He doesn't say that money is inherently evil, but Jesus sternly warns us against the dangers of the love of money. >>Watch on YouTube

Have you given much thought to retiring someday?

Richard's guest is Phil Reddick leading this seminar on how to maximize your impact as you think about retirement or are already retired.

Meet our guest panelists:

• Mark and Julie Edwards - Mark is with McGriff Insurance Services. Julie is a full-time homemaker.
• Felix "Tank" Tankersley - Tank is a Senior Wealth Advisor at BMSS Wesson Wealth Solutions.
• Roger F. Cartwright, Architect - Roger is a retired Architect and now a consultant with Cartwright Consulting

>>Watch on YouTube

FinishWell is a ministry of The Center, and is led by Phil Reddick. This seminar was co-hosted by Young Business Leaders (YBL) and Women Business Leaders (WBL).

What kind of man are you? What kind of man am I?

Jesus' well-known "Beatitudes" from His Sermon on the Mount contains some of His most vital promises to us. These verses are Jesus' formula for how to have a successful life and a successful eternity:

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." - Matthew 5:6 >>Watch on YouTube

Jerry Leachman of ⁠⁠Leachman Ministries⁠⁠ is a favorite speaker at The Center's events. Along with being an associate Chaplain in The NFL for many years, Jerry has done ministry in Guatemala, Scotland, Russia, Europe and Africa as well as all over the U.S. He and his wife Holly have been on Young Life Staff and continue to be involved with Young Life here and also internationally.

Are you looking to strengthen your prayer life? Join Richard's guest Dr. Mark Gignilliat as he teaches on the prayers of the apostle Paul.

Paul's prayer to believers, from the first chapter of Colossians:
"...Grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.

In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace."

Dr. Mark Gignilliat is professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, where he teaches courses in Old Testament and Hebrew, and also serves as theologian in residence at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Birmingham, AL. Dr. Gignilliat is married to Naomi, and they have four children.

Did Jesus have an opinion on money and wealth?

There are five primary teachings given by Jesus in the Bible.

• The Kingdom of God
• God the Father
• Faith
• The nature of Satan and the power of sin
• Life and everyday living, money and wealth

Jesus says a lot about money—He says a lot of hard things about it as well. Why do you think he taught on money and wealth? I believe one of the main reasons is because we struggle with money, primarily because it is hard to see money's real effect on our lives. Like the concept of greed; it seems easy for us to see the problem in other people's lives but not our own.

Jesus tells us that a man's life is not measured by the abundance of his possessions. Yet too many people—men particularly—find their identity in what they possess because we think our possessions tell the world that we have power and influence and prestige.

⁠In Luke 12:13-34, Jesus tells a chilling parable about the rich fool:

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”

Then He said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

And He told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.' And I’ll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.'

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”>>Watch on YouTube

What is Epiphany?

The idea of epiphany is a pulling back of the curtain, so that one can see something clearly. These are normal, historical events that can be explained by natural cause and effect.

Yet these epiphany moments reveal that there's a lot more going on here than what you see on the surface. This is the unveiling. It is a revealing. >>Watch on YouTube

Dr. Mark Gignilliat is professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, where he teaches courses in Old Testament and Hebrew, and also serves as theologian in residence at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Birmingham. Dr. Gignilliat is married to Naomi, and they have four children.

Where do you find community? Do you feel isolated from others?
Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist who taught at Stanford, and by the way was a Christian, says this:

"There's nothing more detrimental to a person's life than isolation. There's no more destructive influence on physical and mental health than the isolation of you from me and us from them."
Zimbardo believed a primary strategy of the evil one in the times that we currently live is to trivialize human existence by isolating us from one another, so that we lose the power of community. Then he creates the delusion that the reasons for our isolation are merely time-pressures, work demands, economic uncertainties, etc.

What can we conclude from these observations?

Living in isolation without being in relationship with others is not only detrimental to our mental and emotional health, but it can lead to destructiveness. >>Watch on YouTube

Why is instruction important? The purpose of instruction is to help us understand the basis and foundation of our faith.

Deuteronomy 5:32-33 gives us this wise instruction:
"So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess."

>>Watch on YouTube

Dr. Mark Gignilliat is professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, where he teaches courses in Old Testament and Hebrew, and also serves as theologian in residence at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Birmingham. Dr. Gignilliat is married to Naomi, and they have four children.

This message was hosted by FinishWell, a ministry of The Center. >> Learn More about FinishWell

As we start this new year, what kind of plans, thoughts and ideas have you been having? Have you made any resolutions.

Two days ago I went to the gym early in the morning - usually only a few people there, but this day the parking lot was jam packed!​ ​Of course by mid-February things will probably be back to normal.

My question to each of us today is, "Do​ we need to make any sort of resolutions regarding our spiritual lives?" And before we can answer that, we must first ask ourselves, "Where am I spiritually?"

Revelation 21:5-7 tells us this faithful promise from God, "And He who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'

Also He said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.' And He said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be My son.'" >>Watch on YouTube

Both CS Lewis and RC Sproul asked, "If you could boil down take Christian theology and boil it into one word, what would it be?"

Love? Faith? They answered that the one word would be Grace.

Grace is like a huge bank account and faith is the account number to get access to it. God provides the grace, and we respond to it with faith.

Another way to look at it is to contrast 3 words and what they mean:

• Judgement - getting what you deserve
• Mercy - not getting what you deserve
• Grace - getting something that you don't deserve

Grace is something that costs everything for the Giver (Jesus) and nothing for the recipient (you and I).

John 1:14 tells us that, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, ...full of grace and truth."

Today we're studying Matthew 20:1-16.