From Exit and Support
04/24/2020 Sabbath posted 04/23/2020
[Begin sermonette by Andrew Locher] (emp. by ESN)
God measures our faith. Rev 3:8. I know your works… He knows our faith. He only opens doors for only for those who don’t deny His authority in their lives. Js 2:18. We demonstrate our faith by our works thru our actions. We give God a sacrifice–an offering.
Ex 12:31-36 (Modern day miracle for God’s Work.) Promises for those who allow God to fight their battles for them. The more perfectly we allow God to fight for us; the more we trust Him in faith, the greater the miracles we can expect.
…Our income is pretty close to what we had last year, it is down just a little bit, and we are anticipating the likelihood of a loss of productive work from members, prospective, co-workers, donors, surely there will be some that will be affected by the coronavirus lockdown and that will likely lead to a decrease in income. …
I heard that some members were adversely affected. But nonetheless, there is going to be some impact to God’s Work. There is going to be a financial pressure or a need present… So how do Philadelphians respond? …we look to God to fight for us, we step out in faith, knowing God that will respond and He has responded.
Recent events: Sat., March 21, the CARES Act passes Congress and President Trump signs it into law. …PPP would provide a loan to small businesses. We are a non-profit in the eyes of the govt. We meet all the gov’t criteria. April 6 our application is finalized. Told not to expect too much. Reads: Ex 12:36. Sometime on April 8 the gov’t approved a 1.1 million loan for the PCG. It was the exact same day Egypt was spoiled and they gave to the Hebrew people [that] we received the loan from the govt.
On April 9, 1st day of Un. Bread we were notified the money would be in our bank as soon as we signed a few loan documents. April 10 the money was immediately deposited and we started spending it that day.
(Talks about how PCG has been faithful in little things) ..and we continue to obey the law of God, faithful in our tithes and our offerings, have obeyed the coronavirus restrictions, we have been faithful to our duties to warn this world. We have had a tremendous respond in the last month to the Work of God. We do have a job to do and it does require resources to do that job. God commands us to give an offering and He tells us to be generous and He tells us to be faithful to the directions, to doing it His way. And so we will do that today knowing God has already supplemented that offering with 1.1 million dollars, an offering from the federal gov’t. That 1.1 million dollars will not have to be paid back if we follow their rules, which we will. …
Explosive opportunity before God’s Work. God has provided the treasure and our part beyond giving an offering, our job is to walk by faith, to show our faith by our works. (Talks about Ezra and Nehemiah trusting God and He provided treasure.) If you look back at these miracles… what lies ahead? How absolutely exciting and faith-building to be part of God’s miraculous Work. …
God proves to us that if we trust Him in faith He will open doors, to do things for us that we simply can’t do for ourselves. … Please, please don’t let down on your financial offerings, or your obedience to God’s financial laws. … opportunity that lies just ahead of us, we will use this 1.1 million dollars–and perhaps even more. So step out in faith, do your part, show your faith by your works, and give generously to God’s Work, and He will bless us like we can’t even imagine. [end of sermonette by Andrew Locher]