Investing In Something Worth While Series

Invest and Invite

Part 1 “Investing in Something Worth While”

Brian A. Moon

Story – It was my first year at Palm Beach Atlantic College and I was a nobody, I had transferred in from another college so I was much older than most of the people I saw prancing around in their beach garb. But one day I was in the back of a class and I noticed that this girl sitting next to me was older too, so I asked how she was doing and so on… As the days went by we talked more and more and would hang out during our breaks. I did not think much about it, I was just being a friend to someone that had made a few mistakes along the way and now just needed someone to help her along. I did not look down on her, but was just a friend. One day she comes up to me and tells me that she quite smoking because of me, and was trying to live a better life and leave behind the bad stuff. The funny part was that she started baking me cookies and buying me gifts to show her appreciation, but it was amazing how simply being nice to someone could mean so much to them.

This week we are beginning a new two part series called “Invest and Invite.” All of us that came here tonight have different ideas about why people meet together every week and do this thing called church.

Some of us may think a church is place for old people that are stuck on doing tradition. Others of you may think it is just something that you go to once a week and then live your life like normal Monday through Saturday. But tonight and then next week I want to challenge you with part of what church is really all about. This week we are going to look at “Investing in something worth while.” This is a timely topic to me because of all that has been happening with the stock market. For those of you who do not keep up with this kind of thing; the stock market is down right now from where it was a few years ago. To make it real simple it means that people who invested thousands of dollars one year ago, now have less money than when they started. Their investments have not been worth while for the time being. So what does the stock market and church have to do with each other? They both have to do with investing… In the stock market the game is to find a stock that you think will pay off in the future,

So you invest your money into it now in hopes that when it reaches its potential you will have made money on the deal. In the church we are also called to make investments, except this time we are called to make investments in something that is guaranteed a return.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” NRSV

What Jesus is saying here is that you can do one of three things with your life.

You can:

 Waste it

 Spend it

 Invest it

Those are your three options for life; you can waste it on living for the moment, and wild partying, and wasting it on drugs and alcohol and sexually abusive behavior. You can waste it on being lazy and procrastinating and throwing opportunities down the drain. Or, you can spend your life. You can spend it trying to be the best and reach the top of whatever it is your trying to reach. You can spend it on doing whatever it takes to reach your goals and running over whoever it takes to get there. You can spend it on being self-focused and looking out for only number one,

Or, finally, you can invest your life. You can give back out of the things you have been blessed with,

You can use your time and talents to make a difference in the lives of others and you can invest in people by being a true friend and someone that they can count on no matter what. A man in the Bible by the name of Paul had something to say on this when he was talking to a church in Galatia, And this will kind of be our theme verse for this message series. This verse also answers one of my first questions and that is what is this church thing all about.