Give it to the Lord

As the Campus4Christ I'd like to focus on one of our four-fold purposes
As a review, the four-fold purposes are:
Connecting to God
Connecting to one another
Connecting the lost to God
Connecting to the poor and needy
Would like to focus on the last purpose tonight: Connecting to the poor and needy
As you know, we in the Campus Ministry are held to a higher standard to serve because most of us do not have a full-time job, or kids to feed or kids to take to golf practice
If you are visiting tonight, some of the things that we do together as both a Campus Ministry and also collectively as a church are:
Serve the homeless at St. Vincent de Paul
Serve the elderly at Villa Ocotillo, which was this past Sunday
Great time to reach out and talk to those who have lived their life fully and can tell great stories about what life was like when they were young
Noblesse Oblige
High school motto
Etymology is French, and the literal meaning is "Nobility Obligates"
If born of a higher social class, you were expected to act with honor, generosity, and other attributes of that nature
The interpretation that my school made out of it was "To whom much is given, much is expected"
Sometimes difficult to see how we were given much
School has been around since 1927 and we never had a gym
We often wondered where all of our tuition money went, because it wasn't cheap
We were giving much, so we expected a gym
Finally after all these years we are getting a gym
Scheduled to be completed in May of this year
Looking back on it, we realized that we lost sight of all the things that we did have
In the Campus Ministry, sometimes we focus so much on what we don't have, that we don't see how much we have to give
Proverbs 19:17

Point #1: We Are Given Much

Let's look at an instance in the Bible when a woman who does not have much gives much more than is expected of her
Mark 12:41-44
As college students we are relatively poor
We have same struggles as this woman - always being in need/tight budget
Parallel that can be drawn in Western society is that time = money
We are all extremely busy, but if we were called to do so, would we be able to drop all we were doing to follow Jesus? Would we be able to drop all we were doing to serve God's kingdom?
This past week we saw an excellent example of three brothers who did just this
Reminds me of what a wise man once said, "An ounce of gold is not worth an ounce of time"
Dropped everything that was going on in their lives to help serve Campus ministries across the country for a year
This is truly inspiring, and has caused me to reflect on my bucket list
I'm sure many of you have a bucket list as well, and some of my goals are to:
Get a hole-in-one in golf
Bowl a 300 (perfect game)
Go skydiving/base jumping
But these are superficial and worldly ambitions
One of my major goals is to go to the Philippines, which is where my heritage lies, and help build the church and Campus Ministry there

Point #2: Much is Expected of Us

1 Peter 4:8-11
Romans 12:4-8
I really like this passage because it calls each and every one of us to use the gifts that God gave us to serve others
Relates to our four-fold purpose
Some of us are really good at praying to God and leading others in prayer
Others of us promote unity and can relate or connect with everyone in the ministry
There are also the evangelists, who are extremely bold and can go up to anyone and everyone to share their faith
Still others of us have a heart that rejoices in serving others, especially those who need it most such as the poor and elderly
As many of you know, I have gone on three medical missions to Mexico with a Christian Medical Organization, which got me interested in going into the field of Nursing
A group of surgeons, nurses, and general helpers (of which I was one) go down to Mexico to help the poorest of the poor
We perform surgeries that would cost tens of thousands to even hundreds of thousands of dollars in the United States at no cost to the patients
There's nothing like the feeling at the end of the week when we review the numbers to see how many people's lives we have touched
We not only help improve the quality of life for the patients, but also relieve a burden from the patient's families
Something that I have learned on these trips is that God will always provide because He never has failed us when we asked Him of things during the trips
Before the missions we have had times where we needed supplies, and the medical supply companies Air-Mailed it to us overnight completely free of charge
We have also had a few patients who should have died during the surgeries, but I believe it is by the grace of God that they survived
I am very excited about going to the Philippines this summer
Isaiah 6:8
Are we this eager to serve?
It’s a great thing for our hearts to serve those in a Third World Country
It also really helps those that are on the mission to see just how blessed we are to live in the United States
We will be helping the Campus Ministry there grow
According to an old Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
This relates to our trip because instead of just giving money to the Philippines, we will be going there to help lead them
Full days
Evangelism
Getting to know what Campus Ministry life is like in the PI
Much like what Nick and Derek were doing
Visit HOPE sites
The trip is going to cost roughly $2,000
However, it includes:
Airfare
Hotels which are much nicer than you would expect
Transportation while we're there
We will need to start fundraising soon to lower the cost of the trip
Please be thinking of fundraising ideas, even if you don't plan on going
If you are interested in going on this trip, please see Peter or Vanessa
Let us all keep in mind the things that we have been blessed with as we consider going on the mission trip to the Philippines this summer

Summary

1) Much has been given - We have been given so much, it is worldly of us to complain about what we don't have and not see that we are blessed with what we have been given
2) Much is expected - Out of His love, God expects us to have the kind of heart that is eager to give back to those in need

Mentoring underprivileged teens, connecting to the Third World, all these causes are calling out at us and we need to connect with them.
When we give, we are giving to the Lord because we are giving to Him - they are His causes. Whatever you do for the least of these, you also do for me. I truly believe that we must give as though we are giving to the Lord.