Sermon Central
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Investing In Eternal Things
Contributed by Dan Stires on Nov 14, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: How a person invests in spiritual values that will last for eternity as opposed to investing in earthly values that will be destroyed. A salvation message and a message that encourages believers to a investment for eternity.
Investing in Eternal Things
Intro:
1. This morning I want to preach to you a sermon entitled: Investing in Eternal Things
To begin with this morning I want to ask you some questions:
1) Where are your thoughts?
2) What do you think about?
3) Are your thoughts on earth or on heaven?
4) Is your mind on earthly things or on the things of God?
5) What are you seeking for, the things of this earth of the things of heaven?
6) Where is your heart, focused on earth or focused on heaven?
It¡¦s interesting to note in this passage that Jesus is concerned about money, possessions, and material things.
And His big concern is that we guard ourselves against focusing our lives around houses, furnishings, cars, trucks, lands, buildings, stocks and bonds, and all the things that make up security and wealth on this earth.
And Jesus is going to tell us in this passage that nothing on this earth is secure.
Nothing on this earth is lasting.
Everything is aging.
Everything is decaying.
And Everything is wasting away.
All of it is corruptible and temporal
And what Jesus wants from everyone of us is for us to center our lives around Him and heaven, for that is the only thing that has eternal values.
2. Many of you have investments in the Stock Market We do that for our future retirement.
3. All of us know what has happened to the Stock Market this past year. It¡¦s been pretty devastating, but it also proves how volatile our financial security is.
ƒÞ The stock market is down pretty drastically from where it was.
ƒÞ Of course, a number of significant people who know about it, forecasted this would happen.
ƒÞ The money you and I have invested in the stock market is not worth as much as when we first invested our monies.
ƒÞ For the time being our investments are not worth as much.
ƒÞ Some people have lost great sums of money because of the downfall of the Stock market.
4. To make it real simple for all of us to understand is to ask the question what does the Stock Market and the church have in common?
Answer: They both have to do with investing.
In the stock market:
ƒÞ the game is to find a stock that you think will pay off in the future.
ƒÞ So you invest your monies hoping that it will reach the potential you think it will reach
ƒÞ And you make money on the deal.
In the Church:
ƒÞ In the church we are called to make investments.
ƒÞ Except in this case, we are called to make investments in something that is guaranteed a return.
ƒÞ There is no way the Stock Market can guarantee a return, but Jesus does.
5. Have you ever been to an auction following the death of someone when personal items are put up for sale?
ƒÞ It¡¦s a sad and sobering experience.
ƒÞ Especially if it¡¦s a parent and you go around and see the stuff that meant something to your parent.
ƒÞ I have a friend of mine who recently had an auction after his mother passed away.
ƒÞ He couldn¡¦t handle being there, so he asked a friend if he could be there in his place.
ƒÞ He took his family and went to Amish Country while the auction took place.
ƒÞ It was just too tough for him to be there.
6. Someone has made the statement popular that says,
¡§One man¡¦s junk is another¡¦s treasure.¡¨
ƒÞ And while this might be true, you can¡¦t help but observe that there is always a lot of junk that remains when the average person passes away.
ƒÞ Maybe you¡¦ve seen it, but they get to the place where they just throw things in a box and ask for a bid.
ƒÞ And most of the time you can buy the whole box for a dollar or two.
Illus.
1. My wife tells me that I have a lot of junk in my garage, in my shed and in my attic.
2. I didn¡¦t have enough room for all my junk, so I built me a shed and my shed isn¡¦t big enough.
3. I¡¦m trying to figure out how to make it bigger.
4. Now this junk isn¡¦t junk to me.
5. You know - its stuff that I¡¦m convinced I¡¦ll use someday.
6. So I keep it. I¡¦m convinced that I¡¦ll have use for it someday on that special occasion when all of a sudden, I¡¦ll say, ¡§You know Dru, I knew I would need that, I¡¦m glad I kept it. I¡¦m glad I didn¡¦t listen to you about throwing it away.¡¨
7. So the Big Question is - Am I living for Junk or Stuff?
