“Make a Long Term Investment in God”
Sunday Morning, October 28, 2012
scriptures: Matthew 25, Mark 10, 1 Kings 17
keywords: invest, heaven, reward, fruit, trust, persecution, eternal, life, parent, child, goal
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Investing
Teach your kids how to invest in things in the Lord. You may be thinking short term but you should be thinking long term.
Matthew 25:14-29 God is intending for us to go invest what we have. We are not going to grow in righteous if others do not invest in us. You have a lot that God has given you so use it to help others. The stock market works the same way. A child should see that if they clean their room, for example, that their parents will reward them. When you just consume and consume and consume but never give back then you become dull and without life. We shouldn’t just look at others and become discouraged because others have more. We should try to give more whatever that we may have.
Some investments involve risks and we have to take risks as believer and open up. When it comes to encouraging a believer, we have to let ourselves open up and their could be a risk of getting hurt. As believers, we should take the risk of opening up our home and letting others be apart of our lives.
Mark 10:17-22 Jesus was telling him to give up his life so that he could have a long term benefit. When you think short term like putting your hopes in football then that can vanish. We need to have a heavenly goal and seek to be with the Lord. When you invest in someone’s life, you may not see the fruit of that now but later your reward will come. When a parent invests in a child they may not see that fruit right now, but later in life they will see the fruits of that investment. Our life is not our life anyway and it really belongs to God. Everyday we should think how we can make an investment in God. Give what you have- your time or whatever it may be.
The rich young ruler went away sorrowful because he did not want to invest in God and he didn’t realize that he would get more in return.
Mark 10:28-31 You don’t want to be the kind of person that complains because you may give things in God but it will not be without persecutions (Verse 30). God has promised us eternal life and that is the biggest return that we can imagine. Any thing that you doing for God will be for God’s glory. You can still make phone calls or whatever you can do then do it.
1 Kings 17:8-16 When we are going through a tough situation and we may sometimes just
look out for things for ourselves, we need to trust in God that he will provide. Never go into that mode when you just think on yourself. God wants you to have a mind for others. The woman with the meal did not have much and she thought she was getting ready to die because she did not have food. Yet she still gave unto the Elijah. Keep thinking about others and be others minded.