Celebrate Freedom Teaching Letter May 2011

What a ride it’s been over the last few months, and what an impact you’ve made! We had more than 1,400 people attend our Easter weekend services and, over the last two weekend services, we’ve had 40 to 50 people make decisions for Christ. Faith Life Church is growing, and Drenda and I are so excited to see people’s lives changing! We hear new stories every week about how the kingdom of God has changed lives. This is what motivates us to keep going.

I am writing to you this month to let you know that we just passed the million-dollar mark in our Celebrate Freedom campaign to raise the money to pay off the Now Center, and pay cash for the next addition. That is $1,000,000 above our normal income in just five months! That’s amazing! With that money, we were able to pay off our contractor, finish constructing the kitchen area, upgrade our TV studio and buy some needed equipment, upgrade our children’s wing, take care of some much needed building maintenance, and reduce our bank loan.

You guys are amazing, and I love to see your faith and your enthusiasm. In your love for the Kingdom, and your giving toward God’s purposes, you’re becoming an anomaly to those around you. It doesn’t make sense to people that you’re giving your money away, especially in times of economic uncertainty, but you’re discovering the greatest wealth secret in the world.

2 Corinthians 9:10 says: Now HE WHO SUPPLIES seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

We’ve read this a million times, but notice that God supplies the seed to sow so that you can be generous. God’s heart is for people. If He can find someone willing to work with Him in the earth realm to touch people’s lives, He will supply and increase that person’s seed, or ability to give, even more. We can talk all day about success systems and attend the latest seminars, but there isn’t a more powerful means to success than God working with you to prosper. It really only takes one good idea to launch a business and change your destiny. When God works with us, we can be sure that He wants us to win as badly as we want to win and His grace is there to help us. My friend, this is good news—and it’s the secret Drenda and I discovered years ago.

One of the mistakes that people make in giving is waiting until they have extra money to give before they give. This never works. See, when we don’t give, this powerful principle of increase isn’t activated. It takes faith to step out and begin sowing when you are sowing precious seed, but that is exactly what you need to do. We’ve all purposed to sow into Celebrate Freedom and, for most of us, the amount we desired to sow isn’t really possible with our current level of income. We could tell ourselves that Celebrate Freedom is for a three-year period, so we have plenty of time to just wait for God to bring in that extra money, but I’m telling you that we must step out in faith and give what we can during the process to actually activate this principle. It’s never easy to give when you have needs all around you, but you need bigger answers for those needs than your current paycheck. That’s why your partnership with God is the best answer for your finances, even though it might not make sense in the natural.

Drenda and I are, and have been, walking these same principles out every day of our lives. We know they’re sound and effective. And, as you may already know, Drenda and I desire to give the largest amount we’ve ever given before, so we’re right there with you believing God for ideas, concepts and direction for increase.

It will take courage. I won’t say that it won’t. But, I believe you’re up to the task. Yes, it’s quite a ride, but once you experience living by faith, you’ll never be content with the normal, complacent type of life most people live. You’ll always be looking for the next challenge. And, in the end, we’ll all have our stories of victory that will live on through our children.

Together, we’ll celebrate freedom!

Pastor Gary