Seek the Father For Your Testimony
We are in the middle of this Rooted initiative. And, as many of you know, we want to raise a significant amount of monies… and apx. $3 million dollars of those monies, God willing, will go to renovations for this building.
But it’s not about the building. We don’t want to raise a bunch of money to make this building look beautiful. That’s not the goal. We want to raise monies to ensure that this building is a part of beautiful ministry… ministry to these twin Cities.
Next Sunday is Palm Sunday. That will be celebrated by Christians around the globe. And, in addition to Palm Sunday, here at Cities Church, next Sunday is also Commitment Sunday.
Next Sunday morning, God willing, we’re all going to gather back here, and together we’ll make pledges toward this Rooted initiative. I’ve been thinking about this and praying about this a lot, and I want to share this as a testimony this morning, a testimony of what God has been doing in my heart recently.
I’m sensing that God is wanting me and my family to commit to give a number that honestly makes me nervous.
I’ve been looking at this Commitment card and there’s a number I want to circle that makes me nervous, but I don’t just wanna circle a number that I know I can handle, that I know we can afford. I want to circle a number where I’m gonna need to listen to the birds singing (remember Pastor Jonathan’s sermon from last week). I want to circle an amount that will force me to look to God, and trust him, and that’s what we intend to do.
However, in order to make that commitment, my wife and I are going to have to make some changes. I’ll give you a few examples. For the last several years I have had the MLB package and NFL Sunday direct ticket. Well, this year, in the Ortiz home, we are gonna skip the MLB package and NFL Sunday Direct ticket… and we are gonna skip cable altogether too.
Why?
Because we want to give more to our church. Let me give you another example… this one is more bold for us. Currently, my wife and I typically put away a chunk of monies each month into HSA accounts and an IRA account, and we’ve decided we’re going to put less money per month into those accounts each month, for this season, so that we can give more money to Cities Church.
I share this as a testimony of what God has been doing in me, and in our hearts. This is a really important season in the life of our church; to my wife and I, this is worth re-arranging our lives around. My wife and I, we’re asking ourselves: “What can we re-arrange or cut-out from our lives in order to be able to give more?”
So often, in my life, I have given out of my surplus. But I want to go way beyond that. I don’t want to just give out of surplus. I want to live my life in such a way, where there are things that I want to buy, but I can’t buy, because we gave. I want to live my life that way. But, I need to be honest, that makes me nervous.
In a few weeks, my wife and I are going from being a two-income household to being a one-income household, because my wife is 30 weeks pregnant with our first child, and we’ve been told, many times, that raising a child can get very expensive. So, this commitment causes a little anxiety.
But I know my Father in heaven cares for me. He takes care of the birds, and I am more valuable than they are, right? God’s gonna take care of us. We know this!
Also, I believe in the ministry of this church. I believe in this vision.
Franky, I don’t care what this building looks like… but I do care that this building is quality usable space for decades to come, so that more and more churches can be planted, from this congregation, and from this building… out into these Twin Cities, and beyond! I believe in that! That’s worth giving to!
I want Cities Church to be the platform from which many truth-telling outposts are planted all across these Twin Cities. To me, that is worth re-arranging my life around.
Cities Church, this is a testimony of what God has been stirring in my heart, and my exhortation to you this morning: Seek the Father for your testimony. The Father cares for you. Seek Him. How is he calling you to give in this season?
Pray with me.
God, forgive me for my lack of faithfulness in giving. I have often allowed anxiety or greed or both to get the best of me. Forgive me. And I know that there are others here this morning that have sinned in similar ways… please, forgive us! God forgive us for not trusting you the way we should. God, I know you care for us. Help us to genuinely believe that. God, so often, so many of us have re-arranged our lives around so many other things, things of little value, and we so often seek to find our deepest satisfaction and security in created things rather than in you. God, forgive us. Lord, cultivate in our hearts a fierce commitment to generosity. God, help us be courageous givers. And now, God, we pause in this service to acknowledge our own sins. We take this moment of silence to confess our individual sins to you now.