Investing What Belongs to Someone Else

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#333366" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Investing What Belongs to Someone Else</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=165 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 35 ><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="21"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id314.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Investing Your Time By Gods Design"><U><B><IMG SRC="008151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="35" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="27"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> Previous/Next Sermon</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.stanbaker.org"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Biblical and Theological Studies"><U><B>Biblical and Theological Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church Ministry"><U><B>Church Ministry</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermon Notes"><U>Sermon Notes</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personal"><U><B>Personal</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:stan@stanbaker.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:stan@stanbaker.org"><U>stan@stanbaker.org</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>“Investing Someone Else’s Resources”</B></div> <div> <B>Berean Bible Church, June 9, 2002am</B></div> <bR> <div> <I>     </I>According to a January 15, 1989 article in the newspaper, the family living in a home in West Palm Beach, Florida, told a film crew it was okay to use the front lawn as a set for an episode of “B. L. Stryker” television series. They knew cars would be crashing violently in front of the house. While the front yard was being blown up, the owner of the home was tipped off and called from New York demanding to know what was happening to his house. It seems the people who were living in the house were only tenants and had no right to allow the property to be destroyed as the cameras rolled. Many times we live our lives under the mistaken impression that they belong to us (Bruce S. Bidwell).</div> <bR> <div> <B>I. As a Christian, you are a manager or steward of what belongs to God.</B></div> <div> <I>     </I>Think about the clutter of life, including in your time, activities, possessions – is this how God wants our lives to be? Is he honored when our finances are stretched too thin because we need more possessions? Is he honored when we are not content or satisfied, thinking that one more possession or experience will satisfy? Author Tom Sine said, “Whatever commands our time, energy, and resources, commands us.”</div> <div> <U>A. We, along with all we have, belongs to God</U>. 1 Peter 2:9-10; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Acts 2:41-47, “Everyone had everything in common” – they knew that what they had belonged to God, so they shared freely.</div> <div>      Dee Dee Ramone of the punk rock group the Ramone’s, died last week at age 50. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in March, Dee Dee Ramone praised his bandmates and himself. “I'd like to congratulate myself, and thank myself, and give myself a big pat on the back,’ Ramone, joked at the time. “Thank you, Dee Dee, you're very wonderful.” God does not honor such arrogance. Our every breath is a product of the grace of God. We owe are very existence and our eternal salvation to him. Therefore, all we are and have belongs to him.</div> <div> <U>B. When we make God the priority in our lives, he makes sure our needs (and our God-given desires) are taken care of</U>. Matthew 6:25-34.</div> <div>      Don’t allow the focus of your life to be how <I>you</I> can gain pleasure or prestige from your money, your time, your possessions. Use those things to advance God’s kingdom on earth, and he will see that you are well satisfied.</div> <div>      In Exodus 16, “manna” was provided in the wilderness <I>miraculously</I> in preparation of Israel’s obedience to God regarding the Sabbath. Malachi 3:10 says, “‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. <I><U>Test me</U></I><I> in this</I>,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.’” God honors it when we put him first!</div> <div>      It is called “The God Factor,” and it is an element of the supernatural. When you neglect God’s priorities with your time, possessions, and money, you will never have enough (even with abundance). When you focus on God’s priorities, you will always have enough (even without abundance).</div> <bR> <div> <B>II. Use your time recognizing that it is a gift from God for you to use for him.</B></div> <div> <U>A. Lessons From the Sabbath</U>.</div> <div>      Even if we do not celebrate the Sabbath as Israel did in the Old Testament, the Sabbath helps us recognize that 1) our time belongs to God; 2) we need regular rest. Mark 2:27, The Sabbath was made for man (as affirmed by Jesus). In the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11, it is based on God’s creation. In Deut 5:12-15, it is based on God’s redemption of Israel from Egypt. Whether or not Christian celebrate one special day as holy to God seems to be a matter of Christian liberty (Romans 14:5-6). Either way, Christians must recognize that everything we are and have (including our time) is devoted to God; it is not just one day.</div> <div> <U>B. Action Items</U>.</div> <div> 1. Evaluate your activities – leisure, work, everything. Do they reflect God’s control, and God’s priorities in your life? American’s on average spend 17 hours a week in front of the TV; does that mean you don’t have time to read God’s word and pray, or don’t have time to be in a small group?</div> <div> 2. Reorder your basic values and priorities around God’s plan for your life. His basic priorities include spiritual growth (worship, Scripture, prayer, community), family time, service to God and others, work, appropriate leisure. </div> <div>      “The great 19th-century naturalist and Harvard professor Louis Agassiz was once approached by the emissary of a learned society and invited to address its members. Agassiz declined the invitation, saying that lectures of this kind took up too much time that should be devoted to research and writing. The man persisted, saying that the society was prepared to pay handsomely for the lecture. ‘That’s no inducement to me,’ Agassiz replied, ‘I can’t afford to waste my time making money.’” (Today in the Word, June 4, 1992.)</div> <div>      Develop the basic habit of saying yes or no to every activity or opportunity. Saying “yes” to one thing means you have to say “no” to something else (this is true of time and of money). Regarding saying “no,” get over fear of offending people by having a healthy fear of neglecting what God has called us to (Stowell, <I>Shepherding the Church</I>, p. 267).</div> <div> 3. Trust that God will provide everything you need, and satisfaction too, when you follow his priorities for your time and activities. True of time, possessions, money.</div> <bR> <div>      There is the story of the little girl who couldn't eat anymore green beans (“too full”), but was immediately willing to eat pumpkin pie. She said he had a vegetable stomach (which was full) and a dessert stomach (which was empty). “What we eat reveals what we hunger for.” (Phillip Gunter, Leadership Journal, Fall '00, p. 67). What we make time for reveals what is important to us. Is what is important to God important to you?</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> copyright, 2002, Stanley Baker</div> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> </tr></table></body>