"The Principle of Investment"

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio. And now let's get to the word of God. We're in a short series entitled handling money God's way. The way we got into this series is we're doing the life of the Apostle Paul. And as we were tracing his life through the book of Acts, he's been in the city of Philippi now. And in the city of Philippi, the most generous, the most liberal, the most open hearted and open handed church in all the New Testament of all the churches Paul started developed.

They gave to an unbelievable degree to the work of God. And so we said, hey, this would be a good moment to stop before Paul leaves Philippi and moves on and talk about this. Now I made you a deal.

The deal I made you is we're going to talk about money for a couple of weeks, but I am not going to ask you for a cent. And that deal still goes because friends, the purpose of this series is not to get more money from McLean Bible Church. The purpose of this series is to educate you and me as to how to handle our resources biblically so that we can mature as followers of Jesus Christ. And so we learned last week that the Apostle Paul was in jail in Rome when the Philippian church sent him another offering, one of the many.

And in response, he wrote him back a thank you note. The book of Philippians is really just a big thank you note for the money they sent. And in chapter four, Paul comments on their giving and gives us all the principles we need to set up a biblical system of resource management. Last week, we looked at principle number one, the principle of contentment.

Today we want to go on to principle number two, the principle of investment. Let's look beginning at verse 14. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles, Paul writes. He's talking about the money they sent.

Earlier on, he has said, I'm content. I'm trusting God to take care of me. But nonetheless, I appreciate the money you've sent. Verse 15. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel message, when I set out for Macedonia, when I left Philippi, we're about to leave with him in our study of his life in just a couple of weeks. You sent me aid, money again and again when I was in need. When I set out for Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you only.

They were the only church. Can you believe this? Of all the churches he started, it's the only church he gave to his ministry? Then he says, for even when I was in Thessalonica, the next city he went to, you sent me aid again and again. And now you've done it and I'm in Rome.

You've done it again for me. Now, you know, it's clear here that the apostle Paul was very excited about the generosity of this church. But, you know, money is a funny thing, friends. It's very easy for us to misunderstand other people's motives when it comes to money. And I'm sure there would have been some Philippians who would have said, oh, yeah, well, no wonder he's excited about our giving because we give to him.

Of course, he's just saying that because he wants more money. So to counter that very quickly, look what Paul says, verse 17. He says, not that I am looking for a gift. The reason I'm really excited about your generosity is not because I'm trying to get more and more of your money. Well, Paul, why are you excited then?

What makes you so thrilled and happy about a church being this generous? He's going to tell us, verse 17. But I am looking for what may be credited to your account. Now, the New American Standard translates this, but I seek the profit that increases to your account. The Old King James translates this, I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. But to really get the sense of what Paul is saying here, we need to go back and look at the Greek words themselves in the end of verse 17.

And when we do, we find that every single one of those words is a bookkeeping word, a financial word, an accounting term. And here's how the verse really translates literally. Paul says, what I'm really excited about is the interest that will excessively accrue into your bank account. I'm excited about the interest that will excessively accrue into your bank account. Now, in the end of verse 17, we find this principle about monetary giving to the work of God, the principle of investment. And there are two very important truths we find here. Truth number one is found centered around this word that there is interest that's going to accrue to our bank account. The truth is the Bible teaches that the day you and I gave our lives to Jesus Christ, God, that very day, opened up a heavenly bank account for each one of us in the pearly gate savings and loan. Now, you have your account, I have my account, and the Bible teaches furthermore that every time we use money here on earth in a way that honors God, every time we give to the work of God, whenever we use money to help homeless people, orphans, refugees, disaster victims, people in need in any way, and we help them in the name of the Lord, the Bible tells us that we are making deposits into our heavenly bank account.

We are transferring funds into our heavenly bank account. And the Bible talks about this throughout the New Testament as storing up treasure in heaven. You say, Lon, are you sure you're not reading too much into this verse?

Well, listen to these other verses. Matthew chapter 9, verse 21, Jesus told the rich young ruler, Go and sell all you have and give it to the poor, invest it in the work of the Lord, and you shall have treasure in heaven. Jesus said, Luke chapter 12, verse 33, When we give to the Lord, we provide ourselves with purses that will not wear out treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted. Matthew 6 in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but rather store up for yourselves, here it comes, treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.

What's truth number one that we find here? We find it throughout the New Testament, that every believer in Jesus Christ has a heavenly bank account, that we make deposits into that bank account whenever we use money here on earth in a way that honors Jesus Christ, and that as followers of Christ, when you get to heaven, when I get to heaven, my account, your account's going to be waiting for you there. Some of us are going to have a lot in our account when we get there, and some of us, well, our account's kind of going to be on a respirator when we get there. But you know, the worst part about this whole thing is that when we get there, if we don't like the balance that's in our account, we got nobody to blame but us. I don't make deposits into your account.

You don't make deposits into my account. See, that's why I hate golf. I play golf, but I hate it, and I'll tell you why. Because when you make a bad shot, there's nobody to blame but you.

See, if you play a team sport, you can say, well, if she did that and he did this and they did that over there, then I wouldn't have messed up. But what are you going to blame in golf? The ball? The tee?

The club? That's why it's such a stinky game, because when you hit a bad shot, the only person to blame is you. Well, when we get to heaven and we don't like the amount in our account, guess what? Well, friend, there's nobody to look at but you. You're the only one who decided how much went in there.

You say, well, Lon, this makes me feel really uncomfortable, because you know what? I don't have that much money. I mean, how am I going to possibly put as much money in my bank account in heaven as some millionaire Christian or some multimillionaire Christian who's got all this money? Well, friends, remember, God doesn't do accounting that way. Remember the story of the woman with the two little coins at the temple? And Jesus said, hey, you see all these people who came and gave thousands and thousands of dollars? This woman gave more, in my opinion, than all of them, because she gave everything she had and they gave out of their wealth. It really didn't cost them much.

Friend, let me tell you something. God is not going to line these accounts up and hand out rewards for these accounts based upon the dollar amount that goes in. He's going to look at what you had to give, what I had to give, and what we gave to the work of God proportionately, relatively to what we had, and he's going to account completely differently than we account down here on earth. Some of the people are going to get the greatest rewards. You're going to be surprised when you get to heaven who some of those people are going to be. They may not have given a lot of dollars.

They may have been some poor widow who gave ten bucks a week, but you know what? God looks to see what we have and then what we give, and that's how he figures this out. So don't you be intimidated in the slightest what somebody else has. God's not going to account for them, for you, or based on what they have. He's going to account for you on what you have.

And they say, well, Lon, what are you really saying here? Are you really saying that getting into heaven depends on how we spend our money down here on earth? No. No, the Bible teaches that if we trust what Jesus did for us on the cross, we have a guaranteed place in heaven when we die, and it doesn't matter if we never give one cent to the work of God here on earth. That doesn't make one bit of difference, because getting into heaven doesn't have to do with what we do or what we don't do, what we give or what we don't give. It's based on Jesus Christ shedding his blood on the cross to buy our way into heaven. But if you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus Christ in a real impersonal way, and maybe you're giving to the work of God, coming to church, singing in the choir, working in the flower garden in front of the church, doing everything else you can to help, and you think that's going to help open the door to heaven, let me just remind you, none of that makes any difference getting into heaven. Those are all wonderful things to do, but God doesn't let anybody into heaven because of what we do or what we don't do. It's because of our trust in Christ.

Now, for those of us who've trusted Christ, how we handle our money, however, does make a difference, because as I said a moment ago, God is going to dispense various levels of rewards when we get to heaven, based at least in part on the balance in our heavenly bank account when we get there. You say, oh, so I understand this is a pie in the sky, buy and buy sort of thing. No, that's part of it. Remember I said there are two truths here. That's the first one.

The second one is this. Look at the verse. Paul says, reading the Greek again, literally, but I am excited about the interest that excessively accrues to your account. The second truth here is that when we give to the work of God, God pays interest on the money that we invest. We're not just giving it away, we're investing it. And the interest that God pays on this is exorbitantly high, the Greek says, and it's paid right here on earth, not just in heaven. You go, wait a minute, wait a minute. You sure you're right about that?

Oh, I am. Listen, Proverbs three, verse nine. Honor the Lord from your wealth. Okay, now here comes the earthly interest. And then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over. Malachi chapter three, verse nine. Bring the whole offering into the storehouse and test me now in this, says the Lord.

Put me to the test and see. Here comes the earthly interest. See if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing that you won't even have room to store.

You'll have to move. All right, now Jesus himself, Luke chapter six said, give. Now look at the earthly interest that comes back and it will be given back to you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be poured into your lap. Jesus isn't talking about heaven here, friends. He's talking about right here on earth.

And look what he says. He says, for with the measuring cup that you use to measure out to the work of God, God will use that same measuring cup to measure back to you. Hey, if we measure out in our giving to the work of God with a thimble, God is going to measure back to us with a thimble. If we measure out to the work of God in our giving with a dump truck, God's going to back his heavenly dump truck into our backyard and dump more blessing on us than we know what to do with. The only person who decides what measure comes back is us.

We decided by what measure we measure out with. That's what Jesus said. Now friends, this is the language of major financial return, excessive interest on every cent you and I invest in the work of God. In fact, did you know the Bible actually tells us the rate of interest God pays? Did you know that? You go, no.

Yeah, it does. Matthew 19 verse 29, Jesus said, Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or mother or father or fields for my sake, anybody who's given up or given in anything for my sake, shall receive a hundred times as much here on earth. A hundred times as much as we give. A hundred times as much as we put in, as we invested. People look at giving when it comes to us giving to the work of God and they see, they call it giving.

It is not giving. It is investing with a rate of return a hundred times what we give. That is a rate of return of 10,000%.

Now listen to me. Merrill Lynch would sell their bull for 10,000% return and Ameritrade would give you that little talking bear on television too. 10,000% return?

Whoever heard of that kind of return on anything? You say, well Lon, if this is really true what you're saying, then a person would be stupid to turn down an investment opportunity like this. You're right. You're absolutely right.

If they knew it existed, and that's the whole point of the message this morning, is to make sure that you know and that I remind myself that this investment opportunity, an unprecedented investment opportunity, is offered to every single follower of Jesus Christ. And all we've got to do is take advantage of it. He said, Lon, wait a minute, wait a minute. Well, that's enough. I've had as much as I can take. Well, it's time. Stop.

You know, Lon, I've got to tell you. I've been given to the work of God and I have never ever seen 10,000% return on my money. I've never seen me give a dollar and I get $10,000 back in the mail.

Well friends, see the problem with this kind of thinking is that it fails to realize that God has all kinds of ways of making good on his 10,000% promise. I mean, we get a raise or a promotion and we go, well, yeah, that's because I worked hard. I mean, our portfolio is in good shape.

And we say, well, yeah, that's because I had a good broker that told me to sell everything in 1999. Our health's been good. And we go, well, yeah, but you know, that's because I work out three days a week. I watch my cholesterol. I watch my diet. Our children have been well.

We say, well, yeah, but I watch what they eat and I give them vitamins and everything, make sure they get enough sleep. Our car has been running fine. We go, well, yeah, but that's because I change the oil every 3,000 miles and I keep up on the preventive maintenance. You know, we survived the beltway. And we go, well, yeah, but that's because I drive defensively. I'm very careful.

You know, I use my side mirrors. Our children are walking with the Lord as they've grown up and we go, well, yeah, but you know, that's because I had family devotions when we were younger. Listen, folks, lots of followers of Jesus Christ give to the Lord and then they say, I don't see any 10,000%, but those same people live well, they eat well, they ride well, they dress well, they vacation well, their income is well, their children is well, their health is well. We need to realize that God fulfills his 10,000% agreement with us in lots of ways other than sending us a check in the mail with the postmark heaven and the return address Jehovah God. I mean, we walk around and say, I can't figure out why God is not doing for me what he promised me he was going to do and God's up in heaven going, I can't figure out why you can't see all I'm doing for you.

Forgive the personal reference here. But you know, my wife and I, Brenda, have seen God fulfill this principle of investment in our lives in spades over the last almost 28 years we've been married. When I came to Christ 32 years ago, everything I owned was in a knapsack on my back, literally. I was hitchhiking around the country with my dog and half of the knapsack belonged to my dog. By the time I took his bowl out, his food out, his brush out, I only had half the knapsack.

Well, that's how I started. And you know, when I went to seminary, I worked a giant food and I made $50 a week. There was a single guy and I gave God $10 a week because when I first came to Christ, the man who led me to Christ taught me this principle of investing. And I made a commitment to God. When I first became a believer, I was going to give to God as generously as I possibly could the rest of my life. I gave God $10. Now, $10 is not a lot of money.

But when you're only making $50, it's a pretty good percentage. And I thought I was pleasing God. Brenda and I got married and we talked about this and we agreed as a married couple that we were going to make this our pattern as a married couple. We were going to give to God as generously as we possibly could every year. And for the last 27 years, thank God, faithfully, we've tried to keep this commitment. You know, during all of those years, I've lived on a minister's salary, never had another job. During all those years, 25 of those years, my wife has been a stay-at-home mom.

We've lived on one income all those years. And I look around today and I say, Good googa mooga, what God has done for me. I mean, friends, Brenda and I are both healthy. We have three healthy boys who are all dedicated followers of Christ. You say, and yeah, you got a severely disabled little girl too.

You're right. But I just want to tell you, that little girl has been the greatest blessing in my life the last 10 years. I wouldn't trade her for anything. She's made me a better man, a better husband, a better father, a better pastor, a better leader. That girl was a blessing from God. We have a wonderful home that we live in. We have the privilege of serving this wonderful church here. And people, you know, the biggest miracle of all is that people actually like me at this church. I can't believe that. That's really amazing.

They do. But anyway, no, that's not them. You know, my dad came to Christ before he died. My mom came to Christ before she died. My only living sibling is an active follower of Christ today. I've had the chance to go to Israel 17 times.

I baptized all three of my boys in the Jordan River. Today I have five cars, for goodness sake. And I was walking when I met Jesus carrying my knapsack. And I look around at all of this stuff, some of it money can buy, some of it money will never be able to buy, and I say, is God my debtor? Does God owe me anything? Not on your life. Not on your life. If I'd have saved up every single penny I'd ever given God, invested it in the best investment going on this earth, I could never have done for myself what God has done. And that's just with the material things. Think of all the other things he's done that you can't even buy with money.

And let me tell you the neatest part of this. It's not about me. God makes this deal with anybody who'll take him up on it. It's just a question of whether or not you take him up on it. If you're willing to invest aggressively, God is willing to return aggressively.

So the deal's open to you. You will never outgive God, my friend. It'll never happen. God will never be your debtor.

So it's just a matter of how aggressively you want to invest. That's why, as your pastor, I'm not the least bit ashamed to stand up here and challenge you to give to God liberally, to challenge you to give to God generously, because I know I'm doing you a favor. I know that in response to your giving, God is going to outrageously reward you in this life, and that one day when you get to heaven and you stand before God and some little CPA angel with green visor and bifocals reads you the account balance that you've got in heaven, you're going to turn around and you're going to say, thank God for Lon Solomon. Thank God for McLean Bible Church. I wouldn't have anything in this account if these people hadn't encouraged me to do it and taught me to do it.

Thank God for those people. You say, Lon, you know what? Are you telling me that I should sell my vacation home and sell my boat and liquidate my stocks and my properties and give all that money, the work of God? Is that what you're telling me? Friend, I'm not telling you anything. It's your money to manage.

You do whatever you want to with it. It's your money. I'm just simply telling you that God is offering you and me the greatest investment opportunity that's ever been offered, 10,000%. If we were sitting around the pool one day and some guy was talking to you and telling you some lady, maybe, about a guaranteed investment that returned 20% and there was no risk at all, you'd fall all over yourself getting to the bank and getting everything you could out if you really believed there was no risk and you're getting 20%.

You know the latest Gallup poll shows that the average Christian in America gives less than 2% of their income a year to the work of God. Now, would you call that an aggressive investment strategy? Well, I don't know where you are, and you know what, friends, it's none of my business where you are. You're going to have your account, and I got my account. All I can tell you is God is offering you an unprecedented investment opportunity, no loading charges, no commissions, no brokerage fees, no capital gains tax.

How about that? It's all yours to keep what interest you get, and I just want you to take advantage of it. I mean, what you do with it is up to you, but I've told you about it, and I've urged you to take advantage of it. Remember, friends, the only thing we take with us to heaven is the money we transfer down here. The rest of it stays, and I don't know if it's possible to have regrets in heaven, but if it is, let me tell you the regret that more of us are going to have than any other regret, and that is simply that we didn't transfer more.

I don't want you to be one of those people. Now, what you do with this is up to you. May God help us take it to heart.

Let's pray. Lord, you know talking about money is a very sensitive topic, and I understand people's sensitivity with the church and money. Churches have taken advantage of people. Churches have manipulated people, and that's wrong, but by the same token, we can't avoid talking about money because money is a central issue in life. It's a central issue in having a biblical worldview, and so I pray that you would really remind people what my true motive is here today. It's not to get more money from McLean Bible Church.

It really isn't. It's to help each one of us here develop a biblical system of resource management so that we can not only have a maximum blessing from God down here, but really be in a position that we don't regret when we get to heaven. So, Lord, take what we've talked about today. Use it in our lives. If we need to make changes in our spending habits, you convince us of that and give us the courage to make up with your help, and I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We hope you will join us next time when Lon seeks to answer one of life's most important questions, So What?