How do I get ahead in life?
The truth is, you can't get ahead in life
by leaving God behind.
God's the one who gives us everything
and he wants us to put him first
when it comes to the use of our time,
talents, treasures,
our temple,
and his truth.
The church word for that is "stewardship."
Now stewardship has gotten a bad rap,
but stewardship is a vital part
of the Christian life.
A steward is just another word for a manager.
And so stewardship
is managing God's resources
God's way
because of God's love.
And we're not just talking about
10 percent of our money.
We're talking about 100 percent
of everything he gives us.
And so each day this week,
we're going to take a look at one of those five T's
that God gives us to manage.
And so I want to start with talents today.
The Apostle Peter says,
"Each one of you
should use whatever gifts he has received
to serve others."
So first off,
how many of you have gifts?
Well, Peter says each one.
I actually know some people
who have said that
they don't have any gifts.
But that's simply not true.
God has given everyone talents
and he wants us to use those talents
not to serve ourselves
but to serve others.
I love the way the Apostle Paul
pictures God's relationship
with us and our relationship
to each other when it comes to our talents.
This is what he says in 1 Corinthians,
You are the body of Christ.
What's Paul's point?
Well, first off,
there is nothing in the body
that I want to sacrifice.
Do you think you're an unimportant
part of Christ's body?
Think again.
Do you think your toenails are unimportant?
Well, I just recently golfed with someone who,
because of an accident,
lost his big toenail
and he had to golf in flip flops.
You know what? He would tell you
just how important that big toenail is,
especially from the sand trap.
But secondly,
when it comes to our talents,
we have to realize that each one
is unique.
There is no one like you.
No one has the same gift set as you.
The body needs you.
And since you're part of the body,
one body,
there's no need for jealousy in the church.
My gift is your gift
and your gift is my gift
because we are part of that one body.
When a pitcher throws a no-hitter,
the paper doesn't say the next day,
"His right arm won the day."
No,
it gives credit to the whole person.
And here's the best part:
Jesus is our head.
He loves us so much
that he won forgiveness for us
on a cross
so that through faith,
he made us part of his body.
And this is
such a beautiful thing to think through.
Jesus doesn't need
anything.
But he chooses to need you
as part of his body.
And now he gives you talents
to serve him
and to give him glory
and to serve
one another.
God's blessings on your service to him.
How much time in an average day
would you say you waste?
Probably more than we'd like to admit, right?
What are the prime suspects?
There's TV.
You've got email.
Devices.
Internet.
Facebook.
These very things
that were meant to save us time,
it's ironic to me that
they're some of our biggest time wasters.
Not that they're bad things.
I mean, is it wrong to
watch a 21-minute Netflix episode
to wind down at night?
No.
But six hours of binge watching?
I think you see my point, right?
Listen to what the Apostle Paul says.
So we want to use our time in a way
that is pleasing to the spirit,
not to our sinful flesh.
Now, does that have to be bad things?
No, not necessarily.
It's all about keeping the proper priority in life.
The church father Augustine
called God
"the highest good"
and he said that anything we put above God
becomes evil even if it's a good thing
like our work or even our families.
So it's not necessarily that we love bad things.
It's just that sometimes,
we
love
good things badly.
But there was one who never wasted a second.
He never viewed a minute
of his time as his own.
He never hesitated to wake up
each day
and live each day for you
and die on a cross for you
so that one day,
you could spend each day with him forever.
Now, does that change things,
knowing that
that we have eternal life waiting for us?
Absolutely.
And so let's say you wake up one day
and you
have the alarm clock going off,
the most annoying noise in the entire world,
and it won't
shut off, kind of like on the movie Groundhog's Day.
And you throw it out against the wall and
and then you sit up in bed
and you hit your bed, head on the headboard.
And then you get out of bed and you walk
down to the end of the bed and you stub your toe
on the footboard and and then the coffeemaker broke
so you have no coffee
and you get in the shower
and the water heater went out through the night.
How good is the first 11 minutes of your day?
Not so good.
But now imagine that the whole rest of the day
was the best day you have ever had in your life.
Everyone's nice to you.
You meet the love of your life and
you get engaged in the same day.
You win the lottery three times without even playing.
Just, you name it.
You get a promotion at work.
It's just the best day.
Now, imagine that I come to you
at the end of the day and I say,
"So, how was your day?"
What would you say?
"Ugh, you would not believe my first 11 minutes."
No!
You wouldn't even remember that first 11 minutes
because of how awesome that day was.
That's what it's like knowing that
we have eternity before us,
knowing that my life is just a sliver
compared to eternity.
I can give a ridiculous amount of myself
and my time in service to God
and my neighbor.
And in fact, that line doesn't even do it justice.
What is the hymn writer John Newton
say in "Amazing Grace?"
"When we've been there, 10,000 years,
we've no less days to sing God's praise
than when we'd first begun."
What better way to use our time
than for Jesus.
God wants us to be managers
of the body or the temple
that he's given us.
This is what he says in God's Word,
he says,
Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
That puts in perspective
how we want to treat our bodies.
Well, how do you treat temples?
In the last congregation
that I served, shortly before I arrived,
someone actually threw a beer bottle
through one of the beautiful
stained glass windows of the church.
What do you suppose people's reaction
was when when they heard about that?
They were appalled!
They said,
"This is a church! You can't do that to a church!"
And that's a right reaction.
Because that building
is a symbol of God's presence.
And yet,
it's still just a building.
How much more appalling is it
if we defile the temple
where the Holy Spirit says
he dwells?
And now truth be told,
scripture gives us an awful lot of freedom
in making decisions about how we manage
our bodies.
Christians
can disagree
or make different decisions, we'll say,
and they can still be good Christians.
I know some Christians who drink
coffee and soda and some who don't.
I know Christians that
drink beer or wine
and some who don't.
I know some that work out seven times a week,
or two to three times a week,
or one time a week.
Is it wrong to eat a Big Mac?
I kind of like Big Macs.
Everything in moderation, right?
The point is this:
If you remember that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
then it helps you make those decisions
about how you're going to treat your body.
And Paul gives us the "why."
He says,
"You are not your own.
You were bought at a price."
There we were,
penniless and alone,
destined for the fire of hell,
and an eternity of suffering,
when someone saw us
and took pity on us
and simply put, loved us.
Jesus went to his father
and asked,
"What will it take to buy them?"
And the father said,
"Only the most priceless offering will do."
And so Jesus offered himself on the cross.
You were bought at a price.
That almost sounds like an understatement.
So what is the only thing
we can think to do?
Honor God
with the body he's given you.
God wants us to manage his truth.
He's entrusted it to us.
1 Corinthians 4 says,
Well, so how do you manage
God's truth?
A part of it
has to do with
just appreciating the treasure
that we have here,
and not go looking for meaning in our lives
anywhere else.
There was a farmer who lived in Pennsylvania
in the 1850s.
And he was very happy on his farm.
But then his cousin moved to Canada
to go work the oil fields.
And suddenly the farm didn't seem that great.
And so he sold the farm.
The county records said that he sold it
for $883.
When the
new owner came out to survey the land,
he came across this stream.
And he noticed that the farmer
had placed a board diagonally on the stream
because there was this black scum
on the water
and the cattle didn't want to drink.
And so he put the board there
and it would skim off the black scum
so that the animals would drink.
Do you know what the black scum was?
The farm was in Titusville, Pennsylvania,
where there is so much oil,
it, it seeped out of the ground
and went into the streams and rivers.
In Titusville, Pennsylvania
is the site of John D. Rockefeller
and Standard Oil.
The farmer sold the farm for $883
and for the next 50 years,
Titusville was the site
of the most millionaires per capita
in the world
because it turns out
the only thing you needed to become a millionaire
in Titusville
was to
own a farm.
The guy went searching halfway around the world
for something he already had.
When you're searching for treasure,
you don't have to go anywhere else.
You have that treasure right here.
Just think about what you have
in this book.
You have a love letter
from your father in heaven,
written and signed
in the blood of Jesus
that gives you all of the answers
to life's biggest questions.
It gives you counsel
in every situation.
Comfort
in every tragedy.
And it tells you about
the heaven that waits for you
because of Jesus' life and death for you.
This is the truth
you've been entrusted with.
So how do we manage it?
Well,
it starts with:
read it every day.
Always
be prepared to give an answer
to someone who objects to it.
We want to make sure we read it every day.
We want to make sure that we don't
water it down.
We want to make sure that we read it every day.
And then we also
want to share it with everyone
in our lives.
And then, oh yeah,
read it every day.
And then
make this
the only guide for our lives.
Did I mention
read it every day?
God's blessings as you manage God's truth.
Let's say that you go to the bank down the road,
and you take $10,000 to put on deposit there,
expecting the bank manager to
manage the money and then
come back with interest.
And after a year you go back,
and you say to the bank manager,
"I'd like my $10,000."
And the bank manager hands you a check for
$6,423.
And you say,
"What in the world? I gave you $10,000.
I'm expecting it back with interest."
And the bank manager says,
"Oh, you're totally gonna understand this.
You see, my wife and I haven't been on a vacation
in forever.
And then she saw these shoes
that she absolutely needed, and, well,
here's a check for $6,423."
Would you be okay with that?
No way! You would say,
"But that was
my money."
Right?
Do you view
your money
from God's perspective
or do we view it as
our money
like that bank manager?
God tells us that
in order for us to have contentment in life
we need to make him the priority.
And so he gives us guidance in his word
about how to do just that.
This is what it says in 1 Corinthians 16.
It says,
And so I want to break down
what this passage teaches us
about putting God first.
On the first day
of every week.
In other words, this goes back
to the whole priority thing
we were just talking about.
That God wants us to make
this the first thing that we do.
It's what gives us contentment.
What would you rather have?
Contentment or a billion dollars?
There's a right answer.
It's contentment.
And we can't have contentment unless we put God first.
Next it says,
"Each one of you."
In other words,
everyone who's been blessed
can give. This includes children.
And I think this is one of the neatest lessons
for both parent and child
when this takes place.
When Grandma and Grandpa give
my 4-year-old
$5 for her birthday,
and I say to her,
"Well, how much do you want to give to Jesus?",
do you know what she says at that age?
She says,
"All of it."
And then I'm in the awkward position of going,
"Oh, sweetie. You don't need to give all of it."
But it's such a powerful lesson.
Why does she want to give all of it?
It's because she implicitly trusts me
to provide for her needs.
We can trust God, too.
And finally, he says,
"in keeping with his income,
saving it up."
So God wants us to plan
our offerings
and then give a proportionate amount.
Is $10,000 a big offering?
Well, absolutely
if you make $50,000 a year.
But if you make a billion dollars a year,
not so much.
Well, why are we going to want to do this?
Well, it's a way for us to say "Thank you."
This is the time in worship
when we can say "Thank you"
with not just our mouths
but our hands as well.
The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians,
Managing our treasures
is one way that we can say,
"Thank you, Jesus."
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