Malachi 3: 10-12; 2 Corinthians 9: 5-15

God is able. What a great word in that 8^th verse! Each day He is just as able! Why, just yesterday He was able to make all grace abound to you! Grace, His grace, gave you all sufficiency in everything. Today, this same God moves through you and me with His sufficiency...to spread His love around. His supply came to you for you to use for every good deed! Consider what He has done in your church, and in you. I think we keep all this ability a big secret. Not today. Today we need to tell each other what God was able to do in and through your church over the past days and weeks and months.

Consider the wonder of worship: close to 70 regular and special opportunities were ours to enjoy the presence of God. 400+ classes were held in our building. Countless committees and fellowships and receptions filled our rooms. We met to see what God was going to do. Around the world, He was ABLE to provide so many things and so many godly people! For instance, medicines, x-ray and kidney dialysis machines are used by Nurse Irma and Dr. Salvador De La Torre. They work in the Kikuyu tribal area, where medical services are sparse.

God is able to see the gospel travel with a medical team regions where the caste of the Untouchables live. God ministers through health care givers to touch broken bodies. They also witnessed of Jesus Christ. The Great Physician entered many lives, because we helped support such ventures as the Presbyterian Medical Missions Frontiers.

God is able, at the same time, to strengthen Vera Lloyd Children’s Home, Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center and emergency needs that show up at our church door. You and I give over $63,000 each year just so this can happen worldwide and local!

Oh yes, God is able to do many things through your church. Did you know that He is able to do something through you? I know of at least three families who know God is able! He brought healing and reconciliation and a future hope for them. Like the commercial for Master Card: some things are priceless. But Christ is better than Master Card. All grace...all sufficiency...for every good deed- yesterday - today - tomorrow!

Paul makes us come back to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Remember what He has provided to us in verse 10. The simplest most basic meal is bread. Look how that bread came to us. A farmer purchases seed in Kansas or Montana. They plant it, care for it, and harvest it. Sent off to Great Bend or Billings, buyers move the seed to one of the many thousands of mills. The seed is processed and sold to bakers. You know the rest of the story. That baker could have been one of us. We eat! Anyone here miss a meal today?

This great Supplier that we have for seed and bread does something even more amazing - He supplies special seed to you and me! Paul called it the seed of righteousness. Plant good seed, get a good crop! The harvest of righteousness brings .... well, I’d better stop here. I have to tell you something - God is not able to do some things.

My God is not able to make you tithe? Why, He cannot even make you give a cent to the work of His church. Consider He cannot even make anyone go to church, or pray, or just be nice to another person. Right. You have to WANT to be about Him and His work.

You should also know another thing. He will not wait for you. He is able to use the very person or church others think don’t have it together! He is able to use someone who is ready to plant and to harvest that RIGHTEOUSNESS. What does this harvest look like?

You can find His righteous harvest when you look in the mirror. Righteousness looks like any one of us who eagerly promotes Jesus Christ. We delight to see friends draw close to Christ. We joyfully, hilariously empty our shelves of food. We help fill up the food centers distributing food in Christ’s name. We rejoice that we do not have to hoard food. Instead, we who want to see a harvest of righteousness, herald His good news when we do such things with abandon! It is more than that!

We know how to give and to receive forgiveness. When that happens, peace and love will flood the marketplace and the home place. We are people who make plans now to reach the people of Afghanistan with the gospel of peace. Already, Far East Broadcasting Company and Trans World Radio beam the gospel into that region in Pashtu and Dari. People beg for more information. They plead for Bibles. They want men and women who have a passion for Christ to come and tell them who He is and what He is able to do.

Our harvest of righteousness could very well come through planting that kind of seed faith in a new building on our property. They could help us to draw the hurting and the lonely ones to Him. That is just a part of a longer list...seed of righteousness that will produce a great harvest.

I have taken a few moments to show the proof of what God is able to do through us who love Him. We discover the amazing truth that God through Christ gets results! Because of the proof given by this ministry... Others give thanks to God. What will they see? Obedience and generosity! Verse 13 happens because we trust God. He not only is able to give us the food to live on, but His wonderful grace to make us bold for Him! Question: do you want to be part of what God is able to do? Then, simply declare -

III- Here I Am, Lord!

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible, indescribable gift! (Verse 15) How can we give thanks to Him for that? Respond! Here I am! Now is the time to boldly declare He will be our supply today and tomorrow. Do the right thing! Push for greater today’s. They will be the joys to remember when tomorrow comes. Time is running out!

Question: What time is it in your life?

"I will give more to You, Lord, when I have time and more money. A war correspondent observed soldiers dying instantly. But he reflected most people do not die that way, but instead, "most perish inch by inch, who play at little games." Many have wasted their lives and invested in nothing.

Harold Hill, the main character in The Music Man, wants to take Marian, the town’s music teacher, to the city picnic. She thinks it wouldn’t be proper. "Not today, but maybe tomorrow." "If we are not careful," Hill replies, "we’ll pile up so many tomorrows that all we have left is a bundle of empty yesterdays. Let’s make today something to last forever." What time is it in your life?

Place your life on the clock that begins and ends on this Sunday. Let’s say we were born at 6 a.m. today. Our life comes to a close this very evening at 10 p.m. At 8 a.m, we were age 10. At 10 a.m, (about an hour ago), we were age 20. After lunch, around 2 p.m., we passed age 40. By 6 p.m., we will be 60. By this rapid aging clock, we reach age 80, by 10 p.m. Now is the time to do something for our Lord God Jesus Christ!

One life to live, one death to die, one account to give.

Invest in Him. Take time to think, to read, and to pray. To give to others. To love and to be loved. To care and to be cared for! We can because He is able! We only must say to Him, Here I am, Lord.

You will be invited to come forward in a moment. Even if you have no pledge for the finances of this ministry, take a step forward to begin a new day in your life. Tell Him, "Here I am. I want to be bolder for You. I want to see Your power through me, through this church, to reach others for Jesus Christ."

Here I am, Lord, with Your inexpressible, indescribable gift! Make it count for You!