In last week’s sermon to his congregation, my son Rusty thanked all who donated so generously to help cover his son’s heavy medical expenses.
He praised the New Day Christian Church in Port Charlotte, Florida, for giving above and beyond what anyone could expect. But it wasn’t just members of New Day Christian who spontaneously responded to Charlie’s three-month stay in ICU and his subsequent loss of income. The outpouring of love and grace from across the country has been incredible.
People who didn’t even know us heard of Charlie’s life-threatening ordeal and opened up their hearts and pocketbooks to our family.
Now that my grandson is finally home and his lengthy physical rehabilitation therapy is underway, the family has had time to assess the anticipated expenses and loss of income.
While it is impossible to calculate the number of bills that will not be covered by insurance nor anticipate the amount of time Charlie will be unable to work, Rusty addressed the issue in his sermon last weekend. Take a moment to watch his comments from 1:03:38 to 1:06:19 below:
Something you do not hear from a pulpit very often is, “Give to the church but stop giving to my family. Charlie and Faith have enough. God’s people have given so generously that it’s enough.” I have often been proud of Rusty’s Godly character and his bold, Biblical preaching. Yet I don’t know if I have ever been more proud of him than when I heard him say, “We don’t need any more money.” Forgive me for boasting about my son, but there is a time to applaud and pay honor, and this is one of those times. For him to say, “We don’t need any more money,” is refusing to exploit circumstances but instead, it is trusting in Jesus’ words: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
I do not know how much has been donated. Yet, clearly, it was a lot! So, while I am in the process of giving “honor to whom honor is due,” I also need to express that I am incredibly grateful and proud of the generous way Christians across America have responded to our need. Rusty’s statement was not only a demonstration of integrity but also dramatically underscores the generosity of Christians. Christians are often maligned these days, and not much is mentioned about their positive contributions to the world. This is an example of how thousands of Christ-followers across the country have spontaneously given and done exceedingly, abundantly more for the Russell family than we could have asked or imagined. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your constant prayers and your amazing generosity. God has responded to the prayers of His people with favor, and we thank you.
Rusty reminded his church of a similar incident that happened in the life of Moses. God had ordered the recently liberated Israelite slaves to contribute to the construction of a tabernacle so they would have a place of worship. The people lavishly contributed gold, silver, and bronze items they brought from Egypt. Others donated blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, fine linen, and expensive leather goods.
The Bible says, “…the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing and said to Moses, ‘The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.’”
Then Moses gave an order, and they sent this word throughout the camp: ‘No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.’ And so the people were restrained from bringing more because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work” (Exodus 36:3-7).
Thank you. You do not need to give anymore. My grandson and his wife have more than enough.
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:3-6).
.
Follow BobRussellKY on Twitter and LIKE the Bob Russell page on Facebook
