Vineyard Church of Knox County
Putting Our Mouth (and Hands and Feet) Where Our Money Is
Sermon Audio from Sunday, November 20, 2005 — If you are unfamiliar with our church, I want you to know that this is a generous church. This church has a generous heart, a generous spirit about it. In our two years of existence we have conducted free car washes; we've held free parking lot giveaways; we gave out free frozen turkeys in the community yesterday for the third time; we've organized along with other area ministries free backpack giveaways for the community each of the last three Augusts. We've donated thousands upon thousands of dollars to various ministries in town as well as international missions. When there has been a unique need, like the tsunami and the hurricanes, we've always responded with an outpouring of financial help.
That's so satisfying to me because as the church was beginning we laid down 10 core values that we wanted to see manifested in our church. One of the 10 core values is generosity, and so it's very satisfying to see that we are indeed a generous church. But I also am not satisfied in some ways. Maybe it's my personality or maybe it's God's message for us as a church. But I have to be honest I'm not satisfied, and I believe that God is not satisfied with our financial sacrifice. Oh, he's so pleased with our generosity, and believe me I'm overwhelmed by the amount that we've given, but I believe he wants us to know that financial sacrifice is incomplete and, yes, unsatisfying to Him unless it is followed by merciful action. Unless we follow up with merciful ministry to people in this community, our financial commitments becomes worthless, I believe.
