OPEN: There was once a rich man who was very, very miserable. He had all he could buy, but nothing seemed to please him and he didn’t know why. So, one day he visited an old friend and explained his misery to him.
The old friend smiled and said “Fred, I know what your problem is, and I can show you what is wrong.”
With that he took Fred over to a window and asked him what he saw.
The man stood there for awhile and said, “Well I see several men and women out on the sidewalk and I see a few children."
The friend then took him by the hand and led him across the room to a mirror and said, "Now, look in there and tell me what you see."
The man frowned and said, "Well obviously I see myself."
"That’s interesting. In the window there is glass, in the mirror there is glass. When you look out the window you see the world. But when you look in the mirror all you see is yourself.
Do you know what the difference is between those two kinds of glass?”
(addressing the audience) Do you know what the difference is? If you took a pane of glass and mounted it on the wall, would you see your reflection in it like it was a mirror? Of course not. Why not? What is the difference between the glass in a window and the glass in a mirror?
(wait for a reply) That’s right - the back of the mirror is lined in silver!
The friend said “No sooner is silver added than you cease to see others, and only yourself."
Silver and Gold can have that effect on what you see.
It can have an effect on your relationship with people, and it can affect your relationship with God.
Jesus said: No man can serve two masters.
He didn’t say that you SHOULDN’T TRY to serve two masters
He didn’t say IT WASN’T A GOOD IDEA to serve two masters
He said NO ONE can do it… You CANNOT serve two masters
It’s impossible!
It cannot be done!
If you try to serve both God and money you’ll end up hating one and loving the other. You can’t focus your life both on serving gold… and serving God. One of them will be subservient to the other.
ILLUS: An excellent example is the story of Cain and Abel. Cain was a successful farmer and Abel was a successful shepherd. They both brought their offerings to God… but God rejected Cain’s offering. Why?
Genesis 4:4 says that “…Abel brought FAT portions from some of the FIRSTBORN of his flock.” He brought the best he had.
But Genesis 4:3 says that “….Cain brought SOME of the fruits of the soil as an offering…”
Now notice the underlying message here:
Abel gave God THE FAT portions.
He gave from the 1st born of the flock
His gift was deliberate and choice portions of his flock.
But Cain didn’t do that.
Cain gave SOME of the fruit of the soil.
He didn’t give God his firstfruits… he gave Him the leftovers.
One person so aptly said:
“Abel gave God Filet Mignon.
Cain gave Him some old broccoli.”
Cain gave his leftovers. Why would Cain do that? Why did he give God his leftovers?
Because HIS possessions were more important to him than his God was. Cain loved his possessions… he didn’t really love God.
ILLUS: I heard a young woman telling about her grandmother. When Birthdays or Christmas came around the grandchildren on one side of the family received lavish toys and gifts. But she and her brother got items that came from Goodwill and garage sales. How did they know? Some of the items she got still had stickers from those places and some of the clothes hadn’t even been washed.
Now, WHO did that grandmother love?
Not that young girl and her brother.
How did they know?
Because that grandmother gave them her leftovers. Grandma gave those grandchildren something that didn’t cost her much. You could say that grandmother loved SOME of her grandchildren… but she hated the others. That grandmother INVESTED her money in the grandchildren she loved.
Now, Jesus is saying we will do the same thing.
We will invest in the things that we love
The things we care about.
The things important to us.
Jesus said “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Jesus is saying: where you invest your treasure is where your heart will be.
ILLUS: Let’s say that you’ve come into an inheritance of several thousand dollars. And you think – “I want to invest that money.” So you go to an investment counselor and you tell him that you’ve really been impressed with General Motors and you want to put all of your money into their stock.
What do you think you’re going to start doing?
Well, for one thing, you’re going to start reading the stock prices on the computer or in the paper. If you see an article about GM and you want to read about it.
Only days before, you would have ignored it. But NOW, you care about GM because you’ve INVESTED in GM.
Jesus said – you can’t serve two masters.
The place you invest your treasure is where you heart will be.
ILLUS: Jesus told an interested parable about this: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” Luke 12:16-19
If you’ll notice, I underlined every time the rich man used a personal pronoun to refer to himself. By my count, ELEVEN TIMES he used I, I’ll, Me (and a third person “you”).
Guess where his money was invested?
In HIMSELF.
In fact, Jesus ends the parable by saying this: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." Luke 12:20-21 (from a sermon by Brian Bill)
His gold became his god, and it did nothing to help him. Nothing to save him.
So, the question this morning is… where do you INVEST your treasure?
Over the past 3 weeks, we’ve talked about how to get out of debt.
Now, that wasn’t just for your personal convenience.
I mean – it’s a good idea for Christians not to be in debt.
Solomon observed that “… the borrower is slave to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7 ESV
And we noted that God doesn’t want us to be a slave to anyone because we are servants of the Most High God. We BELONG to Him!!! And God’s not fond of sharing us.
But there are people who will work hard at getting out of debt but the fall into another trap of focusing on being rich.
Getting rich becomes their investment plan
Everything is geared toward accumulating more and more wealth.
That’s what happened to the rich farmer who wanted to pull down his barns.
He’s all about being invested in ME, MYSELF & MINE.
But Jesus advised a different kind of retirement fund.
Jesus advised us to invest in a GRA.
You know what an IRA is don’t you?
It’s an “Individual Retirement Account.”
A GRA is “God’s Retirement Account.”
Jesus said “… seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” Matthew 6:33
What’s that mean?
It means INVEST in God’s GRA.
In His Kingdom… in His righteousness.
Now, why does Jesus say I should do that?
Why should I invest in God’s Kingdom/Righteousness?
Well… Because it’s a GOOD investment.
ILLUS: Let’s say you’ve come into a huge inheritance and you go to an investment company. They tell you that they’ve got some great stock you should consider. Then they present these three as their top choices:
• One company is trying to revive 8 tracks cassettes and VHS tapes.
• Another company believes there’s a market for spoiled cans of soup. They can get them for practically nothing and then turn around and sell them for a profit.
• Still another company has hopes of a contract with the government to develop muskets for the military.
Now, how good do you think those stocks would be?
Not very.
They’re ALL BAD investments… you don’t want to invest your treasure there.
And that’s what Jesus is saying in Matthew 6. Don’t invest in things of this earth. Everything down here is a bad investment. Whatever the moths and rust don’t destroy – thieves will break in and steal.
One wit observed: “Money does talk… it says ‘goodbye’”.
It’s like investing in a VCR company today… the things of this earth are not really worth anything.
Instead what you and I need to do is invest in God’s GRA plan (God’s Retirement Account). And why should I invest in this God’s Plan? Because God has a great track record.
Just look at God’s done in the past (Jesus says)
Look at the birds of the air, they don’t sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
God’s got your back! That’s what Jesus is saying.
If you invest in His Kingdom and His righteousness God will take care of you. But if you don’t invest in God’s Kingdom – you’re pretty much on your own.
In other words – if you want to get the best return on your investment - if you want the most blessings and advantages you can have in this world - then you want is what God is offering.
So, that leaves us with one question:
How do I know if I’ve invested in God’s plan?
How do I know if I’ve sought first His Kingdom and His righteousness?
Well you test yourself.
One good test is this:
Do you wake up every morning and instantly start talking with God?
Are you so invested in God that you can’t hardly wait to talk with Him. I’m talking more than the “kneel down at bed” type of prayer. I’m talking about a desire to speak to Him so much that you turn off the radio in the car to do it. You’re so eager to share your day with Him that you look for times when you’re alone to tell Him all about the blessings He’s given you.
Or here’s another test:
Do you come to church and ask yourself – what can I do for God?
On Sunday mornings - there’s all kinds of things you can do to serve God
o You can volunteer for the nursery.
o Help with Junior Church.
o Greeting people at the door.
o Try your hand at teaching a Sunday School Class.
Or, you can take communion to the shut-ins.
You can help out at our Hispanic Church at 2pm.
Or you can invite people to Church/ a mid-week Bible study.
You might say… “well I don’t know HOW to do those things”
That’s ok… just have a little talk with Jesus
Ask Him to open a door for you so you can serve your God in some way. Tell him you’re not satisfied with just coming to church and filling a seat. You want to do something for him!
You want to invest in His kingdom.
And here’s another test:
What does your checkbook say about your relationship to God?
One preacher noted that some guys attach their wallet to a belt loop with a chain. But God connects our wallets to our hearts.
Jesus can look at our checkbook for the last 30 days and tell where you and I are spiritually - not only by what we return to Him, but also by our stewardship of the rest of HIS money, the ‘things’ we place such importance upon. (from a sermon by Jerry Shirley)
God has a great way of training us thinking about the money in our checkbook belonging to Him. Proverbs 3:5-6 says we should “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Do you believe that? Do you believe it’s important for us to trust God that much?
Well, Proverbs tells us one way that we can know if we have trusted God with all of our hearts: “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” Proverbs 3:9-10
When you came to church this morning, had you already planned what you were going to put in the offering plate? And was it your first fruits? Was it the first item on your list this week/ month?
Or did you offer God your leftovers? Did you open your wallet and say: I wonder what I’m going to give God today? Did you open your wallet and say “Well, here’s a $10 and a $5 and $20 and a couple of one dollar bills. I’ll give him the $20 (or the $10, or even all of it).”
It doesn’t matter if you simply take every bill out of your wallet and place it in the offering plate, you haven’t given God your first fruits. You haven’t planned to give Him any set amount. You simply have shown up in church and took whatever happened to be available.
You really didn’t give God your filet mignon… it was more like some old broccoli.
In Isaiah, God asked “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Isaiah 55:2
Jesus said: What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Mark 8:36
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”
So, the question this morning is this: have you really sought to invest yourself in God’s kingdom? Have you trusted God to provide for you if you did so? You realize, you can invest in all kinds of things in this world… but miss out on the best.
CLOSE: There is an old Scottish legend that tells about a shepherd boy tending his flock by the side of a mountain. One day he a beautiful flower beside the mountain and he knelt down and picked it, thinking to take it home to his mother. But no sooner had he picked the flower than he heard a noise as if the rocks of the mountain were breaking apart.
He looked up and sure enough - the great mountain had opened right before his eyes. The sun shined into the opening, and there he saw piles of the beautiful gems and gold and silver and chests of great wealth.
Still holding the flower he walked inside to investigate. He laid the flower down and began to pick up gold and silver and precious gems, stuffing his pockets and holding them in his arms. Finally he turned and began to walk out of that great cavern taking all he could carry.
Suddenly he heard a voice say, "Don’t forget the best."
Thinking that perhaps he had overlooked some choice piece of treasure, he turned and – finding a chest filled with more gold and jewels – picked that up and started to walk back out of the great mountainous vault.
Once again the voice said, "Don’t forget the best."
But he couldn’t think of any way to carry any more out with him. So he stepped out of the mountain cavern. As he did so, the hole closed up behind him and a voice said
"You forgot the best. For the flower was the key to the vault of the Mountain."
The point is – we can have all the wealth and power and position the world has to offer and still leave this world in poverty. If we don’t learn to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness we will have forgotten the best and left behind the key to wealth of God’s blessings.
We believe that so strongly here that we offer a time where you accept the most important part of God’s Kingdom – salvation through Jesus Christ. We challenge you to:
* Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
* Repent of your sins and turn to God’s life.
* Confess Jesus as your Lord and Master
* And be Buried in the waters of baptism and raised to live your life for Jesus.
