{"id":3858,"date":"2020-07-07T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=3858"},"modified":"2020-07-06T08:23:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T13:23:28","slug":"seven-disciplines-of-healthy-christian-living-continued-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/seven-disciplines-of-healthy-christian-living-continued-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Disciplines of Healthy Christian Living (continued)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last week, we looked at four of the seven disciplines necessary for healthy Christian living.<\/span><\/div>\n
The first discipline is a personal one and is the basis for all the other disciplines\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
1. A Private Time Daily in the Word and Prayer (quiet time)<\/span><\/div>\n
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The next three have to do with developing Christian relationships, which is the basis for maintaining  a love connection within the church\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
2. One Large Group Worship Experience Each Week<\/span><\/div>\n
3. One Small Group Interactive Bible Study Each Week<\/span><\/div>\n
4. Regular Meetings With One or More People For Accountability of One\u2019s Moral, Ethical and General Life Focus. (men with men; women with women)<\/span><\/div>\n
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The last three are about reaching beyond ourselves and our church to include others\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
Yesterday, we discussed\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
5. Maintaining an Avenue of Ministry:<\/span><\/div>\n
We declared that EVERY MEMBER IS A MINISTER.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The last thing I said was \u201cspiritual input with no spiritual output = Stagnation.  God wants to flow to you, so that He can flow through you.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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God also wants to flow through us with our money\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
6.  Expressing our Faith Through Our Tithes and Offerings<\/span><\/div>\n
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Matthew 6:19\u201321 (NIV84)<\/span><\/div>\n
19 \u201cDo not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. <\/span><\/div>\n
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I purposefully placed this discipline after ministry because it has been my observation that when one ministers with the right heart and for the correct reason, their money will follow.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The acid test of our heart and our faith is our money. Jesus said your heart follows your treasure. So, let me ask you, what do you treasure?<\/span><\/div>\n
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Do you want to know what you treasure?  There is a simple way to know; just look at your bank statement. When I look at mine, I discover that I treasure food a lot more than I should. Not just what I buy at the grocery store, but how many times I eat out.  <\/span><\/div>\n
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I also find that I treasure comfort. That\u2019s why I pay my electric, gas and water bill.  <\/span><\/div>\n
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I treasure my wife\u2019s health. I spend hundreds of dollars each year for her medications. And of course, I treasure my own health enough to buy what meds I need.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I treasure entertainment. For those of you who have a cable bill, have you noticed how much you pay each month? Golf is not cheap either. <\/span><\/div>\n
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I treasure communication. My phone bill tells me this is very important to me.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Now, I\u2019m not saying that any of these are necessarily bad, in and of themselves. The key to all of this is moderation, so I\u2019m not judging you and I\u2019d appreciate it if you won\u2019t judge me. What I am saying is that, to many of us, these things are more important than eternal matters. <\/span><\/div>\n
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That\u2019s why my bank statement tells me one more thing I treasure. I treasure my church and what it stands for. When I give to my church, I believe I\u2019m laying up treasure in heaven. I believe that because the church is a heaven-inspired institution. It is more than an organization; it is a living organism. It is Christ\u2019s body with Him as the head. So, when I give to my church, I give to Jesus.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The heart of why one gives tithes and offerings is faith. It is believing that God will meet our needs as we trust Him and obey Him.   <\/span><\/div>\n
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Jesus also said, \u201cNo one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he  will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.\u201d  (Matthew 6:24) <\/span><\/div>\n
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If my bank statement shows me that all my money goes to me and mine, then money has become my master. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Hebrews 13:5 (ESV) gives us a final exhortation: \u201cKeep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, \u2018I will never leave you nor forsake you.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Some complain that we preachers talk too much about money. Frankly, I don\u2019t believe I talk about it often enough. After all, Jesus talked more about money than He did about heaven or hell.<\/span><\/div>\n
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So, let me ask you, what do you treasure?<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, we looked at four of the seven disciplines necessary for healthy Christian living. The first discipline is a personal one and is the basis for all the other disciplines\u2026 1. A Private Time Daily in the Word and Prayer (quiet time)   The next three have to do with developing Christian relationships, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3858"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3861,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3858\/revisions\/3861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}