Kevin and I have the incredible privilege to teach during the first quarter of Quest University. Quest University, held Wednesday nights at Quest Community Church, was launched in order to help people become more wholehearted, transformed followers of Jesus. We are teaching a class called Open Hands. The objective of the class is to assist people in reaching financial freedom. I thought I would post a portion of our first night's teaching.
The goal of this class is to assist you in achieving financial freedom. Our objective is to give you the information that you need in order to successfully travel this road and reach the destination. During the summer we heard teachings on "Here to There." Now this may not be everybody, but if you decided to take this class you are probably Here - Financial Bondage. In Matthew 6:24 (MSG) Jesus defines financial bondage for us. He says, "You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both." We cannot serve 2 masters! Jesus said it and I believe it. It's impossible to serve 2 masters. We will become confused and chaos will happen. And... God will not share His throne. If we chose to be slaves to money, He will allow us to pick that path. To get to financial freedom we have to go through Transformation. Paul writes in Romans 12:2 (NCV) "Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect." Another versions says "but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." We need to take the information that we learn and allow it to transform us, to change us, to allow God to make us into something new. And then, we will reach our destination - Financial Freedom. We will experience financial freedom the way the people of the first church experienced. Acts 4:32 (NLT) states, "All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had." They lived as if what they owned was not their own! Isn't that amazing? Everything that we have does not belong to us but is entrusted to us from God. He provides us with all that we have and all that we need. God created everything and He owns everything. We are trustees. If you are familiar with the word trustee from a legal perspective, you know that trustess have no rights, only responsibilities - the responsibility to care for what belongs to someone else. I don't know about you but I tend to take better care of something that does not belong to me. I will protect and care for it. Can you imagine what our world would look like if everyone lived as if what they owned was not their own? Those of you who have taken the courageous step to take this class and to start the journey towards financial freedom can start the ripple effect that can change the world.
This class is not closed. You are welcome to join us on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm for the next 5 weeks. And if you have any questions, just post a comment or message me!
