Audio on demand from Vision Christian Media When you think about investing in eternity, you probably picture spiritual pursuits like studying the Bible and serving in ministry.
But there's a literal meaning as well. Today on Turning Point, Dr David Jeremiah shares biblical insights and wisdom on proper stewardship of the finances you've been entrusted with. To introduce the conclusion of his message, Invest, Outlive Your Life, here's David.
Thank you so much. Isn't it interesting to consider that you can do things today that will still be bearing fruit after you're not here any longer? Well, we've been giving some illustrations every day about that, and especially yesterday, and we'll do some more today about how you can do things now that don't end when you go to heaven. They actually continue to work on this earth in behalf of your God and in your name.
Today, we finish up what we started yesterday, how to outlive your life, right here on Turning Point. The work of God is eternal. 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? And 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, and 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. So you see, your primary task here is to invest yourself in the personal ministry God has for you. 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 it's 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. If you're like me, I wouldn't know what to do with a bicycle. When my bicycle breaks down it's over until someone comes to help me. But just look around at your life. What are you doing? What do you enjoy doing? What are you good at doing?
That's the question. You see, God has given to every one of us something that we do, that we do well. So what he wants us to do is to find out, take inventory of ourselves, find out what we're gifted to do, and then leverage that to the kingdom of God.
Take an inventory of everything you do and say, Lord, you made me usable, so show me how you want to use me. When you find an area of personal ministry and begin serving the Lord in the simple but wonderful way that he gives you, you'll never suffer boredom. And whether God gives you a ministry of prayer or writing letters or visiting nursing homes or raising grandchildren, you'll be investing in a divine enterprise that will never ever file for chapter 11. You will be investing in the eternal kingdom of God. So develop a personal ministry.
Every one of us can do that. Second thing I want to tell you about is this, to devote yourself to your local church. In many quarters the local church has come on hard times. But while we're each called to invest ourselves in a personal ministry, we're not isolated entities when it comes to the Lord's work.
Listen to Romans 12. For just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not have the same function, so in Christ, though many, we form one body and each member belongs to all the other members. Now, when Christ went back to heaven, he left behind one and only one great organism for continuing his work.
What is that? He left behind the church. And his church is eternal. It isn't made of bricks and mortar, but of human beings, living stones.
We're his family and he's made us part of the family business. Trudy Smith discovered that truth about the church. She grew up in a family that valued regular church attendance. And even when she headed off to college, she found a church and she maintained the habit of attending every weekend. But as time went by, she became so involved in ministries on the street that she neglected church attendance. In fact, she grew very cynical toward the church. She said, on one occasion, I followed Jesus right out of the church and into the streets, communing with homeless people over slices of pizza and hearing sermons in the words of the people who lived in the shelters on Skid Row. It occurred to me that perhaps what was more important than how often I showed up for a Sunday service was how often I showed up for people who were in need.
Trudy grew frustrated with churches because they didn't share her passion for helping the poor. But then another strange thing happened. She said, I kept following Jesus and eventually he led me right back to the church.
I was so surprised. Trudy came to realize that the church wasn't an exclusive club for people who thought themselves superior. It was more like a refuge where all sorts of people could gather to remind each other of the story we're all in and the one about how God loves us and is renewing our world and our souls in spite of all the damage we have done.
Trudy said, it wasn't perfect. Sometimes I felt frustrated in the church, sometimes bored or hurt, but it was good and God was in it. Yes, church people could be apathetic, judgmental and selfish, but so could I.
And just like everybody else, I needed to be welcomed and loved anyway. One day an older lady came to Trudy and she was with her husband that day and this lady asked them if they would be in charge of finding people to serve communion every week. Now that's not much of a task, not much of a calling you might say, but Trudy and her husband decided to do it and it became an opportunity, an encounter and it became something that caused them to realize they were necessary. They were a part of this church.
They needed to use whatever they could to enhance. So the question becomes, what are you doing? Are you doing something? You know, some Christians, they just come to church and they sit and they sour and they don't do anything and they lose the joy of their faith. You know, we've been in a pandemic here for a number of weeks and little by little, we're trying to get back on our feet and get back into the church and there's been a whole lot of stuff being said about the fact that you can still go to church online, but I want to tell you that's not true. The church is in the church online. The church is the church gathered. The power of the church is not in the pastor. It's not in the building. It's not in the place where you meet. It's not in your creed. It's not in your doctrine.
It's in the gathering of the people together. God created the church for us to come together. And when we come together, we have to serve. So when you're trying to move forward and invest your life for the future, there are only two things that are eternal. That's the word of God and the souls of men and women. Moving forward toward God's plan for the next phase of your life means you're investing yourself in these eternal ventures. It was to the church of Jesus Christ that Jesus said, listen to these words, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. There have never been more local churches on the face of planet earth than there are right now. There's no better investment of a person's time, money, attention, energy than in the local church.
It was designed in the creative genius of Jesus Christ and it has been the ordained channel of redemption in the world. When the Holy Spirit is living and working in a church, God will bless it and create evergreen opportunities to touch others with the love of Christ. It's hard to invest your life in the work of the Lord if you ignore, neglect or disdain the church that Jesus has established. None of us are perfect. If you're looking for the perfect church, you stop right now because there isn't one.
And if you go there, if it was perfect, it won't be anymore. Each church is filled with people of varying degrees of spiritual maturity. Some are cynical because of the failures of those in their lives in the past.
Some are bitter, some are angry, some are just overjoyed just to be there. But remember, the churches of the New Testament had problems too. If you read the Bible, you don't read about perfect churches. For instance, the church in Corinth was a very, very carnal church. When you read about the problems they had in that church and the letter that was written to that church about love, you wonder if anybody ever read the letter because they were always in trouble. And Paul had to chastise them in his writings because of their wickedness.
He wasn't speaking to them as if they were holier than others. If you have a negative attitude toward the church, men and women, try thanking God for the good people and the good qualities and the good work of that church. You know somebody who's making a difference in the church.
Go and help them. Give God thanks because of what they're doing. Determine that you're not going to allow a negative spirit toward the church to develop in your heart. Every day I teach a radio program called Turning Point and when I come to the Friday edition, almost every week without fail, I encourage people to go to church. I tell them that our radio program is not a substitute for church, could never be. We're here to encourage people and to supplement the teaching of the church but I always tell them to go to church.
I tell them to find a church where God's word is taught and Jesus Christ is lifted up and go tell your pastor you're here to help him. Let him know you want to serve. Invest in God's work. Invest in his word.
Finally, invest in his wealth. When you invest yourself in the word of God and the work of God, you have to also invest in the wealth of God. I said earlier that we're only here on this earth for a brief few decades but heaven is eternal.
Therefore, we have to shore up what we're doing with our money. We have to use our resources sorted to pay ahead and invest our lives into things eternal. All of us who are in Christ have a great surprise ahead of us. No matter how much we've visualized and anticipated heaven, it will be greater than anything we will ever have imagined by a billion miles and a billion years. Sometimes I read the last two chapters of the Bible and I try my best to imagine what the new heavens and the new earth will look like. I try to envision the city of New Jerusalem and its gold and its glory and its glitter.
Meditating on things above gives us tremendous comfort but what a joy to actually see it for ourselves and be heirs of its richness. The Bible says we invest in heaven's real estate as it were. One way we do that is by investing our money in the ongoing progress of the kingdom of God. The Bible's primary passage about this is in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
You know this but listen to it in the context of this message. Jesus said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. In the simplest terms, Jesus said the two ways we invest are in earthly treasures and in heavenly treasures. Earthly treasures are subject to ruin when the moths get them. They're subject to rust when they corrode.
They're subject to robbers who break in and steal them. But when you invest in eternal things, it just keeps appreciating over and over. You can never give something to God and not receive a hundredfold return. That's the promise. And Luke 6 38 says when we give, God gives back and he has a much better way of giving.
Notice, give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will he put into your bosom. Jesus was talking about the giving that was involved in the gift of grain. He said that when you give to God, God loves to maximize your investment.
My friend Randy Alcorn explains it. He said Christ offers us the incredible opportunity to trade temporary goods and temporary currency for eternal rewards. By putting our money and possessions in his treasury while we're still on earth, we assure ourselves of eternal rewards that are beyond comprehension. Consider the implications of this offer. We can trade temporal possessions that we can't keep to gain eternal possessions that we can't lose. This is like a child trading bubble gum for a new bicycle or a man offered ownership of the Coca-Cola company in exchange for a sack of bottle caps.
Only a fool would pass up this opportunity. So if we give instead of keep, if we invest in the eternal instead of the temporal, we store up in heaven treasures that will never stop paying dividends. Whatever treasures we store up in heaven will be waiting for us when we arrive. Someone once told me that in this life we're either moving away from our treasure or we're moving toward it.
If we've invested everything in the things of this earth, little by little we're moving away from it and one day we'll leave it entirely. But if we've invested in the things of heaven, we're not moving away from it, we're moving toward it. I encourage you to understand what it means to invest in the wealth of God. Today it's hard to imagine a safe place to put your money, but when you tithe and devote your resources to the kingdom, it propels the gospel to the whole world. Souls are saved and heaven is populated. When you support your local church, your funds are transmuted into literature and lives and ministry and missions. You may never see the returns till you get to heaven, but what a joy it will be to run into folks on the golden streets and learn that it was your gift that helped bring them to faith in Christ. Years ago there was a song written called Thank You. It was written to try to imagine what it will be like in heaven when you walk in the doors and pretty soon you run into somebody and they thank you for giving to the Lord because it was your gift that made it possible for me to hear the gospel and because of your gift I am here. I have no idea what that's going to be like.
I don't think anybody can because we've not been there and come back to report. Somehow when we get to heaven the reward for what we've done here will be so palpable no one will miss it. When you give, you give to the eternal word of God, you give to the eternal souls of men and women. You're investing in a way that can never ever be taken from you and your reward and your investment is waiting for you when you arrive in heaven.
I've left the most important thing I have to say for last. As we move forward in this life, we also need to invest in our footprints. In other words, we need to leave a pathway, a legacy of faith, leave an example behind us that will lead others to God.
Psalm 71 18 says, Now also when I am old and gray headed, oh God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come. I have great admiration for my friend Tony Evans and his powerful ministry, but there would be no ministry without his parents. Tony said, My father came to Christ when he was 30 years of age.
I was 10. Immediately he became a passionate follower of Christ. My mother didn't like him as a sinner and she resented him as a saint. Many times my dad would be found praying and studying the Bible in the middle of the night. About a year after Tony's father became a Christian, he was studying one night and he heard the steps creak as his wife began making her way from the upstairs bedroom. She saw her husband studying his Bible, but instead of berating him, she had tears in her eyes. Tony recalls, she told dad how she had been observing his transformed life over the past year and that whatever it was that was responsible for that, she wanted it in her life too. Tony said that night, my father led my mother to Christ. Our home was transformed and after that mom and dad led me, my two brothers and my sister to Christ.
That evening as he heard the steps creak, Mr. Evans had no idea his simple love for Jesus would transform his home, set his son on the road to ministry and touch untold thousands of people. Men and women, our days are numbered and we're moving quickly from today to tomorrow. All of our pleasures and possessions are temporary, but the legacy we leave for Christ will endure forever. It's been said many times and in many ways, but never better with these simple words, this one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.
Our love and labor for the Lord is never in vain. So let's not waste a single day. Let's live with eternity in mind. Let's invest in tomorrow and let's outlive our lives. Amen. Amen. What a great way to work your way through life.
Always looking at ways to invest in the only two things that are eternal, which is the Word of God and the souls of men and women. Well, tomorrow we're going to begin a two-part message on the subject of finishing. And I love the byline for this message. It's you're not done until you're done.
And it's important to finish. And we'll talk about that tomorrow right here on Turning Point. We'll see you right here tomorrow.
Thanks for listening. I'm David Jeremiah. Our message today came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church, where Dr. David Jeremiah serves as senior pastor.
How is Turning Point enriching your faith? Please write and tell us at Turning Point Post Office Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. 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 download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet, or search in your app store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries to access our programs and resources with just a tap. 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.
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