In this introductory message, Pastor Jeff opens the discussion of how to approach the big questions of life and faith. We see that even John the Baptist faced serious doubt, and we learn from his example that we need to bring our questions directly to Jesus and be ready to hear even a surprising answer from him.

Speaker: Jeff Mikels :: Passage: Matthew 11:1-15

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Next week, we begin our new series called “Big Questions” in which I tackle some of the largest questions of life… yours.

Seriously, for the next few weeks, we will be addressing YOUR questions about life, faith, family, anything. We’ll even have live question / answer sessions at the end of every Sunday lesson. You won’t want to miss it.

Last Sunday, we asked people to submit questions for consideration, and here are just a few of the ones that came in:

Questions from November 1, 2009

• I’ve been struggling to understand if it’s right for us to celebrate Halloween. The history of this holiday is in evilness and witchcraft and even pumpkins with faces cut in them and candles were originally rooted in keeping evil spirits away. How do we know that God is ok with us celebrating this even though we don’t celebrate it for the same reasons as in the past. Aren’t there places in the Old Testament or elsewhere that discuss the sins of nations by celebrating festivities aimlessly that were previously rooted in evil not God?

• When Jesus says “give to Caesar what is his, then give to God what is His” about tithing, doesn’t that give us a clue that the 10% we must tithe on is the amount after taxes are removed, not before?

• 2 Timothy 3:16 says all scripture is inspired by God. When Paul wrote this, what was defined as “Scripture” and to what extent was it “inspired?” Was he talking about the Old Testament or can we interpret this as the canonized Bible we have today? Since it is inspired by God (yet written by sinful, imperfect men) is the Bible completely error free? Can we interpret “inspired” as men transcribing God’s every word, or did God lead them to a topic, give them an outline and they prayerfully filled in the blanks?

• Why is it so hard to believe and live as if God truly loves me?

• Is it wrong to believe that I am special and important to God?

• Can Satan be saved?

• When we get to heaven, will we have NASCAR? (Just kidding!) but seriously, will we be married, have kids, have brothers, etc?

• What does the Bible teach about savings?

• What is the correct way to stand up for yourself without passing judgment?

• Which is better, to purchase quality at a high price or to get lower quality for a good price?

• How much caffeine could Pastor Jeff ingest before he started to act like Twitchy from the movie “Hoodwinked”?

• Why is it so hard to reach out to strangers and share about Jesus?

• We seem to always have debt. How do we get out and stay out of debt?

More questions are coming! To add your question, leave a comment here or visit http://myquestions.org and post your own.

For the past few weeks, we have been talking about generosity on Sundays and we have been making progress through Randy Alcorn’s little book The Treasure Principle. It has been an amazing journey and many people have told us that they haven’t realized some core principles of finances until this study.

Specifically, we have been spending a good amount of time talking about the biblical principle of the tithe (giving the first 10% of your income to your God through your local church) and whether it is valid for us today and what it means.

Well, a number of people have told us that this series has led them to make a tithing commitment and Sunday was the day we challenged people to begin that commitment.

Well, the results of our offering are in and we’re thrilled to say we had a record-breaking offering. More than $3400 came in! Praise God!

Now, we need your prayers.

1. Pray for wisdom in how the church uses our finances. We still face great challenges, and we want to make sure we make wise choices. Our biggest challenges are related to staffing, office remodeling, and meeting the needs of the poor in our fellowship and in our city.
2. Pray for God’s provision especially for those who have taken the risk to begin tithing. He promises his blessings for those who serve him faithfully with their finances, so we already know he plans to answer this prayer.
3. Pray for the effectiveness of our ministry at reaching people far from God and helping them find life in Christ.

Again, we want to thank you all for your generosity and your faithfulness!

In early October, Brandon and I went to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, and while we were there, we got to witness this remarkable moment when Jimmy Wambua got to meet the man who was his sponsor for many years, the man who saved his life from a distance. Watch the moment for yourself:

Catalyst 2009 Compassion Moment from Catalyst on Vimeo.

To learn how you can rescue a child from poverty, visit Compassion International