Trading

INTRODUCTION

Putting a new wine in an old bottle will destroy the bottle.

New creature needs a new mind

Religion killed Jesus, but He resurrected to kill religion. My advice: Don’t die with religion.

God is saying that the game on the pulpit is about to change. Pulpit is changing. From a corner in a Church building to your house, your office, inside the bus, at the petrol station. Everywhere you find yourself.

Because one man practicing Christianity is better than 50 men preaching it.

In the book of Genesis we see that God placed Adam in the garden to WORK IT and take care of it. We were made to work. As Christians we have a mission that our Lord expects us to accomplish in the here and now.

Far too many evangelical Christians today see their salvation as simply a “bus ticket to heaven.” They believe it doesn’t matter what they do while they “wait for the bus.” The Parable of the Talents teaches us what we are supposed to do while we await the return of our King.

God wants the kingdom of heaven to come on earth. That is why Jesus says we should pray like this in Matt. 6:9-10. “He never prayed for you to go to heaven, he prayed for heaven to come to you”.

One of the great mistakes of the church is that it has reversed the programme of God. It preoccupies itself with training people to leave earth when in fact the instruction was to OCCUPY until He comes.

We are to work, using our talents to glorify God, serve the common good, and further God’s kingdom. Biblical success is working diligently in the here and now using all the talents God has given us to produce the return expected by the Master.

The title of my massage is TRADING.

Text: MATTHEW 25:15 - 28

Trading: This implies giving something in exchange of another thing.

In trading we need to understand Assets, Liabilities and Time.

We all came into life with assets and liabilities.

Assets are those things and increase your power

Liabilities are those thing that reduce your power.

Everyday consciously or unconsciously, we TRADE.

Ideally, in trading, you should always ensure that your assets is always higher than your liabilities. That is to say, when you trade, you should increase your assets and reduce your liabilities. Else your balance sheet will enter into deficit. This can be a situation where your bad habits are greater than your good habits, what makes you cry and greater than what makes you sad. Etc. at that point you will have little or nothing to trade in life for.

The currency of trading here is TIME. Just as money.

Your assets are your strengths and your weaknesses are your Liabilities.

Your must therefore identify your strengths and your weaknesses before you start trading.

There are things we received originally in life, things that life gives to us, things we do not have power over. Like;

- Parentage

- Relatives

- Temperaments

- Inherent behaviors

- Family background…etc

These things we receive originally in life, some of them will be assets and some of them liabilities.

This is what you trade with.

For instance, if you naturally talk too much (a trait you probably got from your mother), by trading with time, you can use that to build a career in Public speaking, News casting, etc. Here, what seems like a weakness before has turned to something great, by trading.

Whether you know it or not every day of your life you are trading. Right here you are seated, you are trading your time for this knowledge (assets) which will eventually result into something great in the future.

The Parable of the Talents is not about salvation or works of righteousness, but about how we use our work to fulfill our earthly callings. It is about a whole-life stewardship.

Let’s analyze the parable of the talents in the following 7 principles as outlines by Dr. Mensa Otabil in his book “the value of the dot”

1. We do not determine what we receive originally in life.

2. All of us do not start at the same level in life

the master gives to each servant talents, “…each according to his ability.” The master understood that the one-talent servant was not capable of producing as much as the five-talent servant.

We want to protest this as unfair. But there is equality found in the Parable of the Talents. It comes from the fact that they were judged with only what they were given.

The master in this parable is not only wealthy; he is also wise. He knew that his servants did not have equal ability. Likewise, God never gives to us more than we can handle. He knows our strengths and He knows our weaknesses. However, he knows we can always increase when we trade.