Good morning. My name is Keith Howell and I serve
Christ on your Stewardship Committee.
We wish to communicate the ways that your obedience to God’s will financially is
impacting the world around us.
In this light, this morning we
wanted to say “thank you”, because of your faithfulness, Trinity is able to
provide all of the building material for the Murphy Harpst Day of Service this
Saturday.
Let me
paraphrase some comments from Brian Hampton of MH:
Trinity
(Rome) UMC is a leader in supporting Murphy Harpst, a financial leader, ranking
in the top ten donor churches. In
addition to the financial support of the church itself and many individuals
within the church, as well as donations from many Sunday School classes. And Trinity makes an extraordinary
offering of gifts and gift cards at Christmas.
The
Trinity Day of Service on campus is one of the more significant dates on our
calendar. Trinity’s is the largest, best attended, and most productive service
day Murphy Harpst has.
Murphy
Harpst provides services to Georgia’s most severely disturbed children. Children who have suffered egregious neglect
and abuse. It is not uncommon for
these children to have experienced 14 or more unsuccessful foster placements before
arriving at Murphy Harpst.
For these
kids Murphy Harpst is a safe haven, a place to receive effective treatment, education,
and spiritual growth. They gain a
whole new life experience and a real chance to function in society.
But this you know.
What you
may not know is that Murphy Harpst can reasonably claim an 80% success rate
with the over 200 children they serve each year. Children who would otherwise be lost to the correctional
system as adults.
Each one of these kids ache with a dream to live with some sense of what you and I would call normal; but
for them, for them it is huge, it’s monumental.
So what does this have to do with
Stewardship?
Let me illustrate in closing:
Lets say that you got a call from
Donald Trump to come to dinner, the purpose being to discuss a potential business
venture that is so big, it would not only change your life, but the lives of
many others as well.
Now, Donald Trump does some big
stuff – grandiose stuff, monumental
ventures, and you, in our example, are invited to be a part of it. That would be too fantastic to pass up,
wouldn’t it?
Now lets also say that in advance
of this meeting you receive a check that is more than adequate to cover all of
your expenses to come to the meeting; more than enough for clothes, travel,
accommodations, etc.
Let me ask you: If you had this
opportunity would you set enough aside to pick up the tab for dinner?
Think about what he brings to the
table: capital, success, business experience, and personal banking, media, and
political connections. And you
bring to the table – well – you.
Seriously, would you save enough to, just out of simple gratitude, to
say when the check comes: “No, Mr. Trump, let me get this”?
How much more then, should we give
back to God?
Christ Jesus calls you and I to the table where Heaven and Earth intersect.
He brings all His majesty, and
glory, and we bring . . . well, ourselves. All He asks is that “Honor
the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;” (Proverbs
3:9) - To faithfully participate in ministry by our prayers, presence, gifts,
service, and witness
Heaven and Earth will intersect in Polk
county, Georgia this Saturday where 200 children can have their lives changed each year – changing these children’s lives for Jesus Christ is more than big, its monumental.
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