Week Two Messages

Hey there again everyone!  Again...sorry for the delay, but here is the next post in the Zachary Holzer series here in Virginia Beach, VA.

Last time we chatted, we talked about week one.  Well, this time, I'm going to be diving into the details of what happened during week two!

Let me introduce to you Eric Sanzone.  He is the head teaching pastor at Grace Bible Church here in Virginia Beach.  Grace Bible Church is the facility that we use as our meeting place for our thursday night sessions each week.  He is a very charismatic man, with a strong gift with not only telling stories and relating them to the situation in any given instance, but he is also skilled at being bold in his faith, his opinions, and the way he just lives his live out for Jesus in general.  He is quite a great speaker that always knows how to make messages make sense and apply it to our lives in a very practical way.

Monday night was a very convicting night.  The message was about the parable that Jesus talks about in Luke chapter 16, the parable of the shrewd manager.  The story talked about how essentially it is impossible to serve two masters: God and money.  As humans, we were called to work for the things that we have.  In the case of this story, however, we soon learn that in that idea we are never satisfied with what we actually DO have.  Once we have something, we naturally start wanting something else.  What this also means is that, in a nutshell, money truly cannot buy happiness.

The overarching themes that we learned in this evening were as follows:

1) It's hard to live for the future, because the present is very overwhelming.  We have to live in the present, doing what we are called to do at that very moment in time.  And we have to understand that GOD IS ALWAYS A PART OF IT.

2) Do not make decisions simply based on the idea of what the money is like.  We have to make decisions in our lives knowing that God is truly with us in it.  Make wise decisions, but don't make them strictly based on the money factor.

3) It is possible to successful financially REGARDLESS of the amount of money we have.  Bigger does NOT mean better all the time.

Essentially, we learned the importance of seeing money not as a separate entity from God.  If we really think about it, God provides money to us so that we may live life the way we need to live.  It's ALL GOD'S.  We should treat it that way.  Being selfish with our money probably isn't the best way about going giving honor to God.

How does one do this?

1) Give to God's community in a practical way.  Tithe ten percent of what we make.

2) Really focus on what the other 90% should go to.  Be responsible, but also be ready to take risks knowing that the Lord will provide bountifully in every situation because He cares.  He knows.  He loves us.

I really found this message to be really convicting, because the idea of tithing has always been really hard to wrap my mind around.  I've always been afraid of what was going to happen if I gave up part of what I made.  It just never really make sense.  But, after he talked about everything it started to make sense.  All of the money I make is in fact another gift from the Lord.  He has entrusted me with this gift so that it simply furthers his Kingdom.  It's really intriguing stuff!  I'm really thankful that the Lord provided a message that changed my perspective on the little green pieces of paper that ultimately cause so much unrest, crime, and pain in this world.  And I also realized just how blessed I have been in my life to have received what I have.

Alright, BRIEF MOMENT OF BREATH IN BETWEEN MESSAGES.

On thursday, Eric returned for the fourth main session of the summer.  This time, he was asked the same question as Jim the first week: "what is one thing that every leader in the Lord should know about?"

For Eric, his answer was knowing about the importance of prayer.

The section that we looked at was over Ephesians 3:14-21, the prayer to the Ephesians.  Here it is below:

"For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his GLORIOUS RICHES he may STRENGTHEN you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that SURPASSES KNOWLEDGE - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

"Now to him who can do IMMEASURABLY more than we can ever ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus and throughout all generations for ever and ever.  Amen."

Now, for any person that follows the Lord, this is some pretty powerful stuff.  Something that I have seen time and time again as I have studied the Word is just how eloquent Paul is in everything he writes.  This is a really strong message that does two things: encourage and enlighten.  God is very much edified in this passage.

The areas that Eric focused on were the parts in the previous section that were capitalized: glorious riches, strengthen, surpassing knowledge, and immeasurable.

Now, all of these words separate would probably not mean a whole lot, but together make perfect sense.  And they all relate very well to the idea of what our prayer life should look like.  In fact, all of these things were mentioned in a PRAYER BY PAUL, to the Ephesians.  Now I don't know about you, but that is one wicked awesome prayer for someone that Paul has never met before.  That in itself is a great lesson, but don't worry! I will continue. :)

Eric during his message was trying to get to the idea that God possesses many riches that are FAR more glorious than anything we could ever possess on earth.  For example, eternal life.  That is something that I don't think anyone yet has ever been able to attain on earth.  In our lives, we have the opportunity to attain that.  By having faith in the God that, who Paul puts so eloquently, "can do IMMEASURABLY more than we could ever ask or imagine," we have the opportunity to engage with him and feel the richness of his deep, wide, and high love for us.

Something else Eric alluded to was the idea of strength.  When we look to God for things in our lives, we should in fact not be looking up to God to get things from him at all.  Asking him for things we need is never a bad thing, but something else that we need to focus on is seeking strength to endure the things in our lives to bring us closer to God and also to see, feel, and hear his truth in our life.  The example Eric used was this:  "Don't just ask God for money.  Ask God to STRENGTHEN our heart and mind to believe that God will provide."

It's a heart issue.  And I'm willing to say that EVERYTHING we do in life is a heart issue.  When we know that the Lord loves us, truly and deeply, then we can do anything.  Nothing changes externally, but EVERYTHING changes internally.