INVEST - Out Live Your Life 1

There's a lot of truth in the old cliché, you can't take it with you. Are you guilty of pouring your life into things that are destined to die when you do? Today on Turning Point, Dr David Jeremiah makes the case for investing your life in pursuits that have eternal significance. Continuing the series forward, here's David to introduce today's important message, Invest, Outlive Your Life.

My name is Dr. David Jeremiah, and I am your host, Dr. David Jeremiah, and I hope you do, too. Some of you are discouraged because what has happened in these past days can be very discouraging, but we have to determine by the grace of God that we're going to keep moving forward. We're not going to live in the past, we're not going to get stuck in the negatives, but we're going forward to make a difference.

And did you know that it's possible, when you have that mentality, that you can live your life so that after you're gone, your life is still influencing others as a whole? And we're going to talk about that today as we talk about Invest, Outlive Your Life. So far we've talked about dreaming and praying and choosing and focusing and risking and pursuing and believing, and today it's investing, Outlive Your Life.

Well, I can't wait to share with you how you can outlive your life. So let's get started. Today, we're going to talk about a new company called Sees Candies. They have amazing displays of chocolates.

Over 200 of these stores dot California and a few other states, along with hundreds of kiosks in airports and malls. The chain was started back in the 1920s, when a Canadian couple named Charles and Florence C. moved to California. Charles' widowed mother Mary came along, too, toting a handful of trash cans and a bottle of coffee. It was the first time that they had ever measured candy recipes. The C family opened their first candy store in Los Angeles in November of 1921. The C family sold its business a few years ago, and guess who bought it?

No, the owner wasn't named Hershey or Nestle. It was Warren Buffet and his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. Buffet paid $25 million for Sees Candies, and since then, the return for his investment has topped more than $1.3 billion. Buffet has called Sees one of the top investments he ever made. Well, with respect to Warren Buffet, the sweetest investments in the world don't come in assorted boxes of nuts and chews, nor in stock portfolios, nor in Wall Street transactions. The Bible talks about investing for both time and eternity, providing a legacy that will outlive us on earth and eternal returns that will never fade in heaven. So no matter how well you invest on earth, if you're not involved in the long-term investments of eternity, you're pouring all of your resources into short-term ventures.

Someone once said that the real measure of our wealth is how much we would be worth if we lost all of our money. So let me give you an incredible example of that in the story of Austin Carlisle. When Austin Carlisle was 15, his parents divorced, and he felt ripped apart.

He went to live with his mother, but within two years, she died from an aneurysm caused by the Marfan Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. Austin threw up his hands, and he cursed God, and he turned to music, and he said, and a lot of this rage was toward God, and I could yell into a mic and get all that rage and all that hate out, and so that's what I did. He started a band called Of Mice and Men.

It took off like a rocket. They hit the charts day after day, week after week, and Austin raked in the money. Sadly, he also inherited his mom's genetic disorder, and he began facing incredible pain. Austin called and drug use took over his life. One day after a show, he climbed on the roof of his touring bus, and he called his father, and he said, what am I missing?

My band is building this success, but I feel so empty and so hurt and so lost. His father asked him a simple question. Where is God in your life? He prayed, and he said, God, I want to come back, and even as he made a spiritual turnaround, his health continued to deteriorate, causing him to give up life on the road, and he put all his belongings into a storage facility and moved to Costa Rica so he could be near to his father. The rent on his storage facility was paid by monthly drafts to his credit card, but when the card expired without his knowledge, the storage facility cleaned out his unit, sold all his belongings, and was left with only three suitcases of belongings. Recently, Austin sat down with author Doug Bender, and he said, I still don't have anything.

I don't have a job. I don't know what's next. I don't know what God is planning, but I have so much joy, so much peace, so much happiness now that I've had in my whole life.

God has showed me that everything I need is in him. You need to move forward toward God's plan for the next phase of your life. You've got to have a dream.

You need to pray. You need to set the right priorities. You need to focus on the right goal, take the right kinds of risks.

You'll need to pursue your dreams with enthusiasm and believe in those dreams with optimism. In addition to all of that, you'll need the kind of wealth that will survive loss and the kind of investments that will never become insolvent. That's the power of investing in an eternal legacy. To do that, you have to determine which assets are eternal in essence, things that will never cease to exist. Moving forward means pouring yourself into those assets. Here are the top three of those pursuits. God is eternal.

It stands firm in the heavens. Many people that you and I know long for more education, but it's a pricey venture. One of the most critical issues for our economy today is student debt.

The cost of education has skyrocketed, and the amount of student debt some young people bear is daunting. But it's not just young people. It's not even primarily young people at all. Do you know the fastest growing group of college loan debtors?

It's Americans over the age of 60. It's not that retirees have old student debts from their own. Some of them may. Nor are many of them going back to school. Some of them do.

Nor is the reason simple. Senior adults are borrowing money so their children and grandchildren can afford an education in all 2.8 million Americans over the age of 60. They are contending with student debt.

I don't know how to advise you on student debt because everyone's case is different. But I have one thing to say. Education is important, but the most important school is absolutely free. It's called the school of the Bible. Think of God offering free scholarships to anyone who wants to study his word.

On earth are those who are students of God's word. All you need is a willingness to open its pages every day, pray for insight, and learn how to study it. And the time you spend in God's word is an investment that's both eternal and internal wisdom. You see, the Bible is God's wisdom, and God's truth will never cease. And since we hold in our hands an eternal book, we'd better invest in it. How do we do that?

Well, here's a couple of thoughts. First of all, study his word. Paul said, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

The Bible sort of drifted apart. Believe me, you can do a lot with a Bible, a pencil, or a pen in 15 minutes. Start in one of the Gospels, start in one of the Epistles, and read consecutively every day, marking the things you notice and appreciate.

Start with as little as five minutes a day, but do it every day. Read, mark, and pray. I have a feeling the five minutes will begin to grow before you know it. You'll be in the Bible forever. The Bible, you see, gives us eternal information from heaven so that we know from heaven how to live life on earth. And there's no better investment on earth than the time you spend every day soaking in the truth of the Bible.

We invest a lot of time today on our electronic devices, social media, computer games. What would happen if you devoted a portion of that time to serious Bible study? It would build you into a person with the essential skills that you need to face these days, whatever they bring forth.

So, just something you probably already know. Study the Bible. And then secondly, spread the Bible. Spread the Word of God. There's another way we invest in God's Word when we spread it.

Whenever you give away a Bible or a New Testament, or whenever you support someone who does, you're investing in eternity. Have you heard of Jack Murphy? He was one of the most notorious jewel thieves in American history. He was a gifted man on many levels. He was a musician. He was an actor. He was an artist. He was a surfer.

He was born in Oceanside, California, and his family moved to Pittsburgh where he played violin with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and also won a tennis scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. Unknown to everyone, he was also a cat burglar. On October 29, 1964, he pulled off one of the greatest heists in American history, stealing 24 precious gems from J.P. Morgan's prized collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Three days later, Murphy and his accomplices were arrested, and the story goes from bad to worse. And Murphy ended up sentenced to 2,244 years in prison.

That's a long time. One day, some men came to minister to the prisoners, and football stars Bill Glass and Roger Staubach shared the Gospel with Murph the Surf, as he was known, and he was intrigued. Later, a Christian worker who faithfully visited the prison followed up with a personal message from Scripture, and Murphy gave his life to Christ. Murphy was eventually released, and in the years since, he's visited hundreds of prisons with the message of the Gospel. His story was written up as a part of a book called God's Prison Gang.

But the story doesn't end there. In California, a man named Mike Larson grew up in an abusive home, which led to a very unstable life. He became enslaved to raging drug abuse, and he lost every job and every meaningful relationship. One day, he broke into a doctor's house looking for drugs, and he was arrested and thrown into prison. While Mike was in solitary confinement, a prison guard handed him a book called God's Prison Gang, featuring stories of prisoners who came to Christ while behind bars. And Mike read Jack Murphy's story.

He decided to leave his life of crime forever. When he was released, Mike decided to get a tattoo. The artist drawing the tattoo invited Mike to church with him, and urged Mike to join his motorcycle gang.

But there was an unusual requirement. You had to bring along a biker vest with a notepad, a pen, and a pocket Bible. Well, when Mike lost his Bible, he tried to hide the fact he didn't have one, but it bothered him so much that one day he literally yelled out to God to give him a Bible. Later that day, Mike drove to a pizza restaurant where a man got out of his car, came over, and actually gave him a Bible on that very day, just like that, and then the guy drove away. And that led Mike to give his heart totally to Jesus Christ. Today, Mike is a California pastor, leading his church to invest itself in winning others to Jesus Christ.

So stop for a moment and review what I've just told you. Think of the chain reaction from famous athletes to a diamond thief to a prison guard to a tattoo owner to a nameless man, a golden chain that's still forging new links every day. When we share the Scriptures, we're like advisors, helping people make the greatest investment in their lives. Matthew 13 puts it this way, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid, and for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has, and he buys that field. And the apostle Paul said, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may win Christ. Can you think of a better way to invest your life than by studying and spreading God's wisdom and his word?

So ask God how you can be a part of it. I have a friend who ordered 50 pocket New Testaments, and wherever he goes on a trip, he keeps some of them in his carry-on luggage, and he gives them to fellow travelers. He gives them to rideshare drivers and hotel bellhops and others, and hardly anyone ever refuses it. I don't think I've ever had anyone ever refuse a little copy of the Scripture that I wanted to give them. Only heaven will reveal the results of the eternal investment of sharing the word of God.

That's what we do here at Turning Point every day. We share the word of God on the radio, on television, through social media, in books, in magazines. In everything we do, we have one purpose, and that's to share this incredible book, the eternal wisdom of the Bible with people all over the world.

And I'll tell you what, we've been doing it now for such a long time, some of the dividends are coming back. Every day we get a letter, we get an email, sometimes a phone call from people who say, I was listening to your program, I was watching your television program, and the Lord got a hold of my heart, and I became a Christian. And now those people who have become Christians will tell others about Christ, but here's the ultimate reality, one day we will all be in heaven, and they will be in heaven because the word of God was shared with them on earth. So invest in God's word, that's the place you begin. Here's the second thing, invest in God's work. Let's invest our time and our abilities in his work on earth. You see, the work of God is eternal. We'll still be serving him in heaven, his enterprise will never go bankrupt, his servants won't be laid off. We're to serve him as best we can until our last breath, and then we'll pick up where we left off and keep serving him in heaven forever. God's work will never go out of business, we'll always have a job in the kingdom of God.

So let's begin now, right where we are. Here's two specific ways you can invest in God's work. First of all, develop a personal ministry. Life is defined by serving. Jesus said the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. Do you know how many ways you can serve?

There's at least 7.6 billion, because that's the estimated population of earth, and every person has a need. Think of your time, think of your abilities and ask yourself, what can you do for the Lord? Jesus said, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money at the same time. Jesus invested his life in service, and he wants that to be the same thing that we do. In Romans 7, we read, so my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point.

You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ, and now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. Patrick Morley wrote about his friend Owen, who has a lucrative business leasing commercial real estate. For decades, Owen has also led a Monday noon Bible study in downtown Orlando. Owen has been instrumental in helping several new churches get started. One day someone asked him, Owen, why don't you go into the ministry? He said, I am in the ministry. God has called me to business. In telling that simple story, Morley observed, we don't need to be in an occupational ministry to serve God. A few are called to occupational ministry, but 99% of us will minister through our jobs, our families, our church involvements, and community activities. God's plan is for every believer to have a personal ministry. Do you know what the word ministry means?

It means service. God hasn't placed you on this earth for a few fleeting decades so you can serve yourself. That's where most people are in our world today.

They live every day for themselves. But God has placed us, who are believers, on this earth so that we can serve him. In order to serve him, you have to serve others. He brings you to the people that he wants you to serve. He puts you in the right situation, and then you have the privilege of sharing the joy of Jesus Christ with them. You see, your primary task here is to invest yourself in the personal ministry God has for you. And think of this. Everything you've ever experienced in your life, good and bad, has prepared you for what's ahead. God has a unique area of service just for you, and that service is part of his plan for you as you move forward.

That's what Bill Brantley of Pensacola discovered. He's been riding a bicycle since he was four years old. He estimates that he's put 100,000 miles on his 26-inch boyhood bike, and he learned how to fix it. Whenever the chain broke or the screws came loose in time, he learned how to take bicycles apart, repair them, replace them, put them back together. He became a bicycle doctor, and he's now 87 years old. And his personal ministry is bicycles. His local church has a ministry to the homeless, and one day Bill brought a couple of restored bicycles to the church, wondering if someone might need one, and soon everyone was bringing their old bicycles to him as a donation. Now Bill spends hours in his garage every day repairing old bicycles and getting them in good shape, and every bicycle goes to someone who is in need and is distributed by the people in his church. Bill and his wife Patsy often hear the recipient say something like this, Boy, I can get back and forth to my work every day. I love my bike. I'm so thankful.

I so appreciate what you did for me. Now that's just a silly little simple illustration, but just look around at your life. What he wants us to do is to find out what we're gifted to do and then leverage that to the kingdom of God. Amen.

Amen. You know, we try to make all of this so very difficult, don't we? I think one of the most confusing questions that gets discussed by Christians is how to know the will of God. And what they want to know is how to know the will of God for my life, and what God's interested in is how to do the will of God today.

And you know what? If you put enough today's together in the will of God, you will be in the will of God for your life. We should concentrate more on asking God to show us what to do today so that we don't get lost down a cul-de-sac someplace while we're trying to find the ultimate answer to what is God's purpose for my whole life.

I think you can know both, but I think you need to concentrate on your daily walk. Tomorrow we'll finish up what we started today on Outliving Your Life. On Friday we began my most poignant message in this series called Finish.

You're not done until you're done. So be sure to be with us for the rest of this week, and we'll see you right here next time on Turning Point. For more information on Dr Jeremiah's current teaching series, Forward, please visit our website, where you'll also find two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly magazine, Turning Points, and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. When you do, be sure to ask for your copy of David's powerful new book, Forward, Discovering God's Presence and Purpose in Your Tomorrow. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard Version, the New International Version, and the New King James Version.

All are available in a variety of handsome cover options. Visit davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio for details. I'm Gary Hooke Fleet. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Forward. That's here on Turning Point with Dr David Jeremiah.