subject: Be Obedient To God [print this page] Tracy: Come onTracy: Come on. Ed: If you really want to start growing and developing, you need to start giving. You start giving ten percent to your local church and, I am going to tell you something, you will soar. But it"s a pipe dream to say, "h, yes, I can grow deep spiritually. I can really mature without giving." I can"t really grow if I am walking the check. So I want to be obedient to God.
I also want to play on God"s team. That"s the third reason why I give. Here is the cool thing, Tracy, about giving. Because I give, I have a part in everything that happens at Fellowship Church. Right now, hundreds of children are being taught in Children"s Church. I have a part in that. When they are doing drama over there, I have a part in that. When one of our athletic teams happen to be playing a game and doing a Bible study after the game, I have a part in that. When Rob or Vanessa or Liane or Eric are singing, I have a part in that. I can"t sing, but, because I give, I have a part in that.
In a couple of months, we are going to move into an awesome building called the Creative Communication Center. It is going to have all these cool children"s rooms. It"s going to have a Chapel. When I walk in there, I will be able to say that I have a part in this, because I have given to make it happen. Yet, sadly, a lot of people who are walking the tab are going to walk in there and their children will grow deeper in Christ. Maybe they will marry in the Chapel. Ed Young stated that maybe their sons and daughters will get married there. But down deep they will know they missed it. They walked the tab. Yet, they are feeding, they are eating and living off people like you, me, and others who give. So, this is kind of a wake up call.
Let me tell you this other story too. This is classic. Our twin daughters who are seven play in a little basketball league. I was watching them play and one of our twins did something I have never seen before in my entire athletic career. One of my twin"s teammates took a shot and one of our twins blocked the shot of her own teammate. Have you ever seen that before? I have never seen that in all the basketball I have played in my life. She just rejected it, slapped the stuff back.
All the fans are going, "Hey, Ed, what are you teaching your daughter: to block her own teammate"s shot?" When that happened, though, it was weird. It was like God spoke to me and said, "Ed, that"s what wrong with some of the church." A lot of you are so generous. A lot of you are shooting shots and shooting three pointers. You are giving. You are tithing. Yet, some of us here, who are walking the check, you are blocking the shots.
