Invest With Your R.O.I. In Mind Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Some might see putting money in the offering plate a one-way trip to nowhere. I had ten dollars, now I don't.

Jesus told a parable, exploding this myth once and for all. The bottom line, money given to transform the lives of others bears a thousand percent return on investment. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, is there any risk in the kind of investing you advocate?

Dave, I don't think that there's any risk at all. If you give to a ministry that is run with integrity, a ministry that is committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, I believe indeed that there will be people in heaven who will thank you and say that part of the reason that we are here is because you gave. What an investment.

We here at Running to Win are of course deeply committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ and we share it in more than 20 different countries. And during the month of August, we have a matching gift challenge. Some of our friends have said that they are willing to match whatever people give dollar for dollar up to $90,000.

Would you help us? Here's what you can do. Go to RTWOffer.com. RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. If you are blessed by the ministry of Running to Win, it is because other people have given and they've made that investment. Consider it.

RTWOffer.com or 1-888-218-9337. When the offering baskets are passed at Moody Church, what I like to think of it as is something like a mutual fund, investing in a mutual fund. Because you know that when you're giving, you're investing in children's ministries, in family ministries. You're investing in the lives of young people, singles, college students, professional people. You're investing in the lives of missionaries around the world. And in that sense, we are all committed together and we are seeing, we are seeing lives changed, lives that will meet us in everlasting habitations. I'm sure that this is true of you too, but in addition to giving to Moody Church, Rebecca and I support missionaries, other missionaries as well.

I'd like to think that when I get to heaven, there'd be at least one person who would rejoice and say, thank you for your gift and the impact that it had in my life. Talking about your return on investment, your ROI, you invest in eternity when you give to the transformation of lives. There's a third principle. The first is that we don't own it.

The second is we must transmute it. The third principle is money is a basis for testing. Money is a basis for testing. First of all, let's look at how Jesus viewed money. We already commented on the fact that he referred to it as the wealth. You'll notice he says dishonest wealth. He says, the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

Make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth. You know the old King James, God bless it, it had a different kind of language, but here the King James used to translate it filthy lucre. We may not know the meaning of that exactly today, so you should. I just read a week ago that 95% of all the bills in circulation in the United States have a drug residue on them. The money that you kept today back from the offering plate probably at some time was drug money. Now what's wrong with calling it filthy lucre? What Jesus is doing is reminding us of the deception of wealth, and then he calls it something else, a little thing. You'll notice it says one who is faithful in very little, verse 10, very little.

I have to smile. Money is to Jesus very little. What do you mean is very little? To the world it is huge. You live for it, you die for it, you scheme for it, get it legally if you can, illegally if you must, but above all things get it.

It is huge. Jesus said it's a little thing. And then he makes this statement.

He says how we should use it. Dr. Haddon Robinson, who preached a message on this passage that I heard many, many years ago, talked about the deception of our heart regarding money, and we are all deceived and wanting to be deceived. You know, the Bible says that there's nothing wrong with money. It's the love of money, right?

So we say to ourselves, well, you know, I have money, but I don't love money. Mind you, I date it. I kiss it. I think about it all the time.

I'm always wondering about it, but I don't love it. Oh, no, not me. We deceive ourselves, don't we? And then Jesus made this amazing statement. If you are faithful in very little, you are faithful in much. If you are dishonest in very little, you are dishonest in much. You remember, Stuart Briscoe, he worked at a bank in London and the bank manager wanted him to do some cheating. And Stuart said to him, if I steal for you, what makes you think that I will not steal from you?

Right? You're dishonest in that which is very little. You're dishonest also in that which is much. If you have not been faithful in unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? Jesus is saying that money is a test of the true riches, which has to do with ruling with Jesus Christ in the kingdom, which are really what the rewards spoken of in scripture are, and this business of money is a test as to where you will be slotted in the kingdom. Why is it that oftentimes we do experience downturns financially? Why is life so hard? Why is it that we don't know where we are going to get enough money to pay our bills? One reason is this, that it is almost impossible to develop worshipers in an affluent society.

It is poverty. It is financial need that keeps driving us toward God. But in the midst of it, Jesus is saying, you have to be faithful in that which is little or else I'm not going to entrust the true riches to you.

How can you be faithful in one area or unfaithful and expect me to bless you in the other area? As providence would have it this past week, I spoke to the treasurer or someone who was the treasurer of a small church out west, a church of eighty people. Because he was a CEO of a big company, they asked him to be the treasurer, and as he began to look at the church's policies, he discovered that some of them were wrong. For example, the pastor had a parsonage that was given to him by the church, and that was not considered to be income when strictly speaking it should be, so that when he signed his income tax form and said that he was making this much money, actually it was a lot more.

When the treasurer pointed this out to the people, they just were irritated, and their whole point was, why are you bothering about, obviously it's not going to affect the IRS, the government's got tons of money, it's giving hundreds of billions of dollars away, must have, said with a smile, but at any rate, why are you just irritating us by these details? It's a little thing. So let's all agree today, it's just a little thing.

Alright, now let's read the words of Jesus. One who is faithful in very little, ouch, is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in very little, is also dishonest in much. Well, maybe this little thing matters, and it does. What I would think is that that man, that pastor is actually jeopardizing his opportunity, a full rule in the coming kingdom. When he stands before Jesus, Jesus is going to say, now wait a moment, you know, you had that little thing, you signed this statement, that didn't reflect your income, it was a little thing, right?

Yeah, yeah, well it was a little thing. Well, how am I going to trust to you the true riches? How am I going to have you rule over ten cities because you've been dishonest in the little thing?

I can't entrust to you the bigger picture. Remember this, this life is a college entrance exam, so God will know where to slot us in the coming kingdom. Money is a test. It is a test of faithfulness or unfaithfulness. So that's the third principle.

Money is a test. The fourth is that it reveals our loyalties. It reveals our loyalties. Notice what Jesus said in verse 13, no servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You can't serve God and money. You say, oh yes you can, I am.

I'm sorry, but Jesus said you can't. Money reveals our hearts and our loyalties. And especially when we have lots of it and when we have almost none of it. It is all consuming. We think about it when we don't have enough and we think about it when we have a lot. And it reveals our loyalties and the Bible says you can't serve God and money. Jesus said that. It would be like dancing to two different tunes.

You've got this band over here and this band over here and you're trying to dance to both of the sets of music. You just can't do that. Let me tell you candidly that if money becomes your God, it will eventually become your devil. That's why the Bible warns about it so much. You say, well Pastor Lutzer, this message is rather strong. Yeah, I think it is, but it's Jesus here that I've got to deal with.

You know, that's the problem. When you're committed to Jesus, you deal with him. What do you think the people of his day thought? Verse 14, the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard these things and they ridiculed him. The word is they were filled with scorn toward him. You think they liked what Jesus said?

No, no, not if they were lovers of money. And he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men. I'm sure they had 10 reasons why Jesus was going overboard on this topic, but God knows your hearts for what is exalted among men and what is exalted among men, money. And what does Jesus say?

It is an abomination in the sight of God. Obviously, I don't even have to say it, do I, that money is necessary. It's necessary for us to live. It's necessary for us to earn money, to pay bills, to transmute it so that we might meet friends on the other side. It's necessary for all that.

Be put to good use. But the reason that Jesus makes such a strong statement is because he knows, as we learned in the last message, is that money is always competing with God for our hearts, for our time and for our attention. And so Jesus makes this amazing statement. It is an abomination to God. There is a fifth principle and that is that what we don't use, we will lose.

What we don't use, we will lose. Jesus pointed this out in other contexts, another parable about the man who was given a talent and you remember he hid it and refused to invest it because he wanted to play it safe and in the end Jesus said, I'm taking the talent from you and I'm giving it to the person who is willing to risk it and to give all of the money and invest it in God's kingdom and I'm willing to give it to him. But let's take it from this servant who wanted to play it so safe that he refused to invest it for his master. But also in this story, in this chapter, there is a remarkable story of money and this is why Jesus told it.

We have to see this in context. It says in chapter 16 verse 19, there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen who feasted sumptuously every day and at his gate there was a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. You know the rest of the story. The rich man goes to Hades and is tormented and the poor man, Lazarus, he goes and he is in Abraham's bosom enjoying paradise. Why did Jesus tell this story here?

What's going on? We use the story to talk about the characteristics of Hades and paradise. Jesus told it for another reason. He wanted to show how that the fortunes of the rich and the poor may be reversed in the future, namely in eternity. And here was a man who excelled in bling, if you know what I mean. He excelled in all of the things that people grasped at and wanted and yet there he is. He's tormented forever.

He's left all of his money behind. Jesus is not teaching of course that the rich go to Hades and the poor go to paradise. That's not the point of the story. The point is how money blinds you, blinds you to the reality of what is on the other side and how money can be so detrimental to your walk with God as it continues to encroach on your heart and take the place of God.

That's the point. When I was a boy I remember in this small church in Canada we had a missionary come and talk to us about Africa and I remember he spoke about how they would catch monkeys in Africa. They would take a pumpkin and they would hollow it out and they would put in the pumpkin whatever it is that monkeys like to eat, their favorite dessert.

And then of course they'd close the top of the pumpkin but what they would do is drill a hole through the pumpkin that was the size of a quarter and the monkey would come along and he would put his paw through that small hole and then he would grab what he wanted to eat and they could come and get him and kill the monkey. Now all that the monkey had to do even though he saw them coming, even though he knew that death awaited him, all that he'd have had to do is to open up his paw and let that food out and he'd be able to bring his paw back through the hole but he wouldn't he hung on to it and hung on to it and they could always trust him to keep hanging on until they caught him. Jack Benny the comedian said on one occasion that he had a gun shoved to his neck and somebody says your money or your life and he paused and the guy said well which is it going to be and Benny said give me some time I have to find out what decision I make on this one. So what you have is somebody being willing to risk the kingdom of God because of his love of money. See that's why Jesus said it is easier and Jesus is saying this don't lay all this on me today alright I'm just telling you what Jesus said. Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now the disciples said well who then can be saved and Jesus said well you know with men it's not possible but with God it is. Of course there have been many many wealthy people who have come into the kingdom of heaven but money is so deceptive in its power it can get such a hold of your life you are saying I will not give in to Jesus Christ because when I do I have to recognize that my money cannot save me. As a matter of fact after I receive Christ as Savior he may want me to be generous and I can't expect to do that and so you can hug it to your bosom and you can miss the kingdom of heaven just like this rich man did because you're so taken up with its seductive power and at the end of the day of course as you know as is evident what we must recognize is that salvation does come not because you're rich or because you're poor but because you come in all humility and receive the free gift of eternal life recognizing that what you bring with you does not help in your relationship with God you leave it all behind and you trust Christ as the only one who can save you. It is all God's we are going through a difficult time but God is going to be with us to test us and to develop worshipers. A pastor in Romania said these words he said that 90% of the people in my congregation passed the test of persecution when persecution came they passed the test they were faithful to God he said 90% of my people have failed the test of prosperity the minute they're prosperous they no longer attend church they no longer are involved in ministry now they don't need God to quite as much God is testing us and if we are faithful in that which is least the text says I'll give you the true riches I'll give you that which is your own would you join me as we pray father we do ask in Jesus name that you will help us we pray father God for those who are going through times of real economic adversity help us to know how to help them we pray for those father God who are in positions where they can help make all of us a generous people help us to delight in giving that we may have friends that welcome us into eternal dwelling places and for those who are here who have never trusted Christ as Savior help them to know that these principles though important are really beside the point that they must come and realize their need of a Savior that ultimately they must be saved from themselves first open their lives to your truth we pray in Jesus name amen well this is pastor luther and I need to say that prosperity oftentimes blinds us and I don't need to tell you that we are going through a very difficult time in America a time of fear pandemics unemployment unanswered questions and yet this is a time in which God is challenging us to be generous as far as we are able to be generous and to recognize that all that we have really does belong to him well august the 31st is just around the corner and during this month we have had a matching gift challenge that is to say that some of our friends have said that whatever people give they will match dollar for dollar would you consider helping us here's what you can do go to rtwoffer.com that's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 your gift will be used to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in more than 20 different countries when I hear reports from Iraq and Iran and some of the countries that we minister to because running to win is now in Arabic I am so fulfilled and satisfied that we are committed to the gospel and people are responding here's what you can do to help us rtwoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337 you can write to us at running to win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614 farmers know it's really pretty simple no seeds no plants no plants no vegetables no vegetables no harvest they know all about the laws of sowing and reaping laws God set in motion a long time ago next time on running to win we'll explore what Paul wrote about this to the church at Corinth don't miss believing in the harvest thanks for listening this is Dave McAllister running to win is sponsored by the Moody Church