Parable of the Soils-A Portfolio for the Heavens-Building Eternal Wealth-Part 3

Beyond us and we do that I think in a healthy way in this church with missions and different things and these are all intended to be applicational comments for making you a good Steward of the things that God given you you say well John wait a minute in fact how can you tie the love of God and money together tightly and the answer to that is it’s because the Bible does it first John 3:17 if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but

has no pity on him how can the love of God be in him B James chapter one this is pure and undefiled Rel visit the widows and orphans in their distress so we are expected to be a people who with open hands hold the resources that we have in a way that attempts to honor the instructions of God someone wrote A yepy Prayer years ago and it goes like this now I lay me down to sleep I pray my cusin art to keep I pray my

stocks are on the rise and that my analyst is wise and all the wine I sip is white I’m not sure why that is and that my hot tubs water tight that ret b ball won’t get too tough that all my Sushi freshen up I pray my cordless phone still works that my career won’t lose its perks just to the side I just noticed yesterday that apparently one of the perks that President Trump misses at White House now is that he could push a button and

get Diet Coke that’s completely aside from anything I’m talking about here I a guy that’s worth a zillion dollars is into Diet Coke I guess moving on that my career won’t lose its perks my microwave won’t R radiate my condo won’t depreciate I pray my health club doesn’t close and that my money market grows and if I go broke before I wake I pray my vvo they won’t take the YY pray the fact of the matter is we all live in the world and we have

resources that we have to ask God how should I live and the series we’re on is called face to face with Jesus and the point is that we want to ask and answer the question in the circumstances of my life what would Jesus do it’s a fair question it’s an honorable question and today it’s an question that impacts the fact of how we use our resources and our money we’re in chapter 4 where we’re dealing with the third soil and you remember we said that the

soils are akin to the heart and as the heart goes so goes the life in the scriptures and so we have found so far that if in fact we’re going to be journeying along the Christian Life and this is Jesus’s teaching kind of in a summary toward the end of his third year Ministry he starts off in chapter 4 with actually parenthetically ending chapter three we haven’t talked about that yet in our two weeks but we are Today Chapter 3 and verse 31 then Jesus mother

and brothers arrived Standing Outside they saw someone call to him they saw someone they sent someone in to call to him a crowd was sitting around him and they told him your mother and brothers are outside looking for you and then this rather bizarre instruction who are my mother and brothers he asked then he looked at those seating and a circle around him and said here are my mother and brothers whoever does God’s will was my brother and sister and mother now we don’t think that

Mary was interrupting Jesus’s ministry here she just needed him for some reason and Jesus took advantage to distinguish to Define true family would to God that all of our physical family are our spiritual family that your physical mother can be your spiritual mother your physical father can be your spiritual father but for many of us that’s not the case and for the disciples as they h into what it means to follow Jesus they understand that their allegiances are not to the physical they’re to the spiritual

and there may be a time when you’re separating from your physical family in order to follow God’s purposes in your life and your spiritual family and so the disciples as we H to this parable of the soils in chapter four already are taking a breath been a tough time John the Baptist has been martyred and they know that every town they go into there are religious leaders who are trying to test Jesus in a way to kill him and so their association with Jesus is a

scary one in chapter four we find that in fact Jesus starts out with the seed being sprinkled along the path and the birds come and eating it and we learned two weeks ago that that according to this Parable is Satan Satan drives Satan is the one who comes and snatches away the word and we talked at some length about who is Satan in the Bible and the fact that his opposition is against God and his word and if you want to know how to define that

better you go to his word and you apply that and you understand the demands in distinction to disobeying the word and in saying disobeying the word I’ve got to talk two different kinds of moralities in the Bible we’ve talked about it before when I was going through James but it’s important to remind yourself of this there are a whole range of things in the Bible that says do it and if you don’t do it you sin James chap 4 verse 20 to him who knows the

right thing to do and doesn’t do it sins straight out black and white well John my life isn’t always that black and white the whole second category of Morality In the Bible it has to do with wisdom it has to do with judgment it has to do with discernment it has to do with taking advantage of the opportunities that you have because the days are evil Ephesians chapter 5 so we are into the second section today in this Parable the soils we’re talking not just about

the spiritual Battle of Satan not just last week the issue of persecution because of the word and you remember that that is not the frailties of Life the vicissitudes of life that come to everyone it is the times when you take a stand in your life for God and for Jesus and because of it you persecuted Dr Bruce waly was one of professors I was fortunate to sin under back before the Earth’s crust hardened and Dr Walky taught the Old Testament he’s only Professor that I

ever had where when he prayed we opened our eyes and took notes he was a remarkable man he’s been in a number of seminaries he’s written a commentary on Genesis that I love Dr walkey tells a story where he and his daughter were walking in the forest and They Came Upon something you rarely see it was an almost born butterfly the little cocoon was spinning and and part of one fabulous Wing was already out this was right at eye level for his daughter so his daughter

looked and said dad what shall we do Dr Wy said I’ll just help it and he said I reached down ever so carefully and gently took the bottom of the Cocoon and split it and it all dropped in a blob and killed the butterfly he said I learned a lesson that day the need to struggle of emergence to survive and that’s what the second soil last week says it says the strapon hard times that come in your life because of your stand for Jesus because of

your desire to love God and work it out in your life is a deepening process and in the vernacular you go deep before you go broad you go you get good before you get fast and in the spiritual life it’s the same way so it says that the second seed fell among the weeds and it didn’t have root and so when it grew up it withered and we talked about that third seed today Mark chapter get to Mark chapter 4 and the and the parable says

still others have seed that fell among Thorns they hear the word but the worries of this life the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come out and choke the word the surface restrictions of the second soil was Weeds the Restriction in this soil is thorns and I don’t think we can make too much of this but we also can’t make too little of this it really is a sense a more aggressive attempt to choke the life of the weed and remember the whole

point of this is productivity and so Jesus says these are thorns that that come in and they choke the weed and as a result it affects the productivity those kinds of things that we find that the scriptures talk about are things like desire for other things they are worries of this life they are deceitfulness of wealth all of us have a certain amount of discretionary money you say John you don’t know my budget well maybe that’s true actually statistics say 56% of people in America right

now are living paycheck to paycheck for different reasons but statistics also say that 18% of Americans are millionaires and so there are substantial amounts in every grouping of people and in this church of people that are not only paycheck to paycheck but are substantially economically wealthy and so the message comes whether you’re looking for paying your bills at the end of the month with the next paycheck or whether you have more that the warning is that in fact there’s going to be challenges that you face

Thorns what the Bible calls Thorns you know we used to have things when you talk about the subject of worries of this world we used to have things called lay away and if if you didn’t have the money to pay for something you went to Sears or wherever you put on layaway in a few weeks you paid for the last of it you took it well we’re not there anymore because of credit cards credit cards have completely and radically changed the economic landscape of the western

world we come to Amazon Prime and I look at those things just like everybody does Amazon Prime last week sold billion dollar worth of product we don’t have to wait anymore because of the vehicles and credit applications that we have so why worry when you can just borrow and pay for it the problem is that you’re kicking the can down the road economically in terms of the things that F give you focus or give you distraction it’s not just worries of this world it has

to do with deceitfulness of wealth what does that mean well I guess you could look at your 401k in the last year or two and you could find out that that’s the rising and falling of investment stocks you know Dave Ramsey’s a a great person to talk about these kind of things and he came out just yesterday with an article on how to be a millionaire well that grabs your attention just the way the TV show a few years ago grabbed our attention about Who Wants

To Be A Millionaire and Ramsay said there’s a way to do that he say it’s two ways one you invest in mutual stocks from the time you’re young okay I guess that’s good Financial advice I don’t have any stock but I guess that’s good advice the second thing he said is you pay off your house so you do those two things and by the time you reach retirement age you’ll be worth well in excess of a million and I have no reason to believe that he’s

not right about that but in fact the question that b that that begs is what direction should I go is it wrong for example to try to improve myself I took my car into the dealer a couple weeks ago and here comes transparency and it was an expensive repair only outdone by Vicki’s repair at the Mercedes dealership that I heard about but it was multi thousand to repair that little red car and I’d always taught my kids look drive your car 10 years and then replace

it so my kids said Dad it’s 9 years old and I thought well I’m that’s fine especially after this repair but they’re sneaky they give you a they give you a loner that’s a new car and the dealers know that the feel of the wheels half the deal and so in fact with the urging of the kids I ordered a new car is that right does that please God 8,000 it’s not as expensive as you could do a car but it’s not cheap a couple of

my kids are moving over from the East Coast back to the West Coast and joining our firm for a while in the next few months and they’re looking to buy a house and in my car are the keys to a house they are purchasing for 0,000 it’s a lot of money does that make sense to buy a house that costs that kind of money maybe maybe not it’s not wrong to improve yourself but the radar that we have out there that says says worries of this

world deceitfulness of wealth desires for other things so what do you way what do you lay awake at night thinking about do you as one author said think in terms of I just want a little bit more Nelson Rockefeller thought that and at the end of his life as he worked they said to Mr Rockefeller why are you still working and he said I just want a little bit more well that probably can be challenged that that station in life for him particularly in terms of

the goals of Eternity I work in the area of probate and probate court and Estate Planning and things that I do generally goes pretty smoothly but every now and then the money colors come out in a family with who got what who didn’t deserve what and the Probate Court turns into what we call greed Court as the judges and attorneys have to try to sort out how to distribute all this the one thing that’s true is there are no U-Hauls behind hearse and none of us

are taking it with us so the things that you have and the things that God has entrusted you with are temporary and they are for we went through these when we were in James time possessions money and relationships and everything I do tries to sift itself through that grid my commitment to God my commitment to my family my commitment to this church my commitment to the larger body of Christ 22 years ago my business partners and I built a building and we were in that building

for 15 years and we all thought well by the time by the time we at 65 we’re going to want to retire so we put in the LLC to retire and then nobody wanted to retire at 65 except for one partner and she drove the sale so we sold it and I became in the building a tenant instead of an owner three years later five years ago those new owners didn’t want to keep the building they put it up for sale and I said okay what

do I do that building now is for sale and I have the opportunity to buy it do I buy it million is that smart within the whole kingdom of God does it good stewardship well we’ll see I bought it five years ago and so far things are rolling along but the deceitfulness of wealth says the underpinnings every time you have debt can get kicked out from under you Proverbs is right the borrower is the slave of the lender Donald Trump trump was right 20 years

ago when he said I’ve had a lot of debt I’ve had no debt and I’m here to tell you no debt is better so the worries of this world the desires for other things the deceitfulness of wealth are thorns that can choke a believer that can in fact distract us from the purposes that God has for us say well okay so what do I do the way we handle our money in now starts in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 1 Corinthians 16 is kind of the New

Testament primer on how we handle our money and that text says now about the collection for God’s people do what I told you galatian churches to do on the first day of each week principle number one on a regular basis each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income principle number two it should be proportional to your income so that’s easy John I spend all my income I don’t have anything left but the third principle is and should set

aside a sum of money and keeping with his income saving it up so that when I come no collections will have to be made so while it’s honorable to give on a regular basis it’s also wise to save so that when you hear about needs in the future you have resources to help that’s good say well John I I tithe I do 10% well that’s a bad news good news thing in the Old Testament there were three tithes there was a tithe that the Jewish people

paid every year there was a tithe every two years and there was a tithe every third year and if you go through Leviticus and Deuteronomy you’ll find that the sum total of giving in the Old Testament for the Jews was closer to between 22 to 25% I’m not sure how we ever came up with 10% but that’s kind of where the Christian church is stuck today nobody says I give 22% or that’s my tithe but in fact that was the Old Testament pattern the New Testament

pattern is to give generously to give liberally out of the income that you have and those that have mentored me have said if you give 10% give 9% or 11 something that busts you out of that box in a way that says I’m going to proportionately consider the needs of those around me so in the New Testament the Christian Church saved up money so that when Paul and others came and there were needs there were missionary Journeys he said I won’t have to ask it’ll already

be given saved up for me for my missionary Services that’s 1 Corinthians chapter 16 the instruction of the Christian sharpens in 1 Timothy 6 in 1 Timothy 6 we have the passage which instructs specifically Timothy and his pastoral responsibilities on how to lead the church I don’t think we’re going to have any verses on the screen oh we will okay good 1 Corinthians 66 the text reads but godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out

of it but if we have food and covering we will be content with that people who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction these are the Thorns that Jesus talked about for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil some people e eager for money have wandered away from the truth and pierced M themselves with many griefs it’s a real graphic picture that sounds like Thorns

doesn’t it piercing that kind of thing the same analogy is the parable of the soils and it says to you and to me I could take a bill and put on this Podium it’s not evil in itself it’s just paper but it’s the fascination with that the love of money that becomes a challenge and so Paul’s instructions to timoth Timothy is teach people that with food and covering will be content with that so I ask yourself how many people in this room today are rich

all right I’m GNA try it again how many of you have money beyond what it takes to cover your food and clothing that’s a little more the truth is most of us are rich you know as an attorney I don’t give Financial advice and I don’t give accounting advice I send people to financial planners I send people to CPAs but Jesus gives Financial advice and it’s here and it says your Baseline your Baseline should be food and covering and maybe in the 20th century vernacular automobiles

but whatever it takes to maintain yourself I feel like I need to justify that new car now look I don’t have any mechanical skills and I got to have a car that goes every day all day anyway whatever beyond the food and covering friends and compatriots we are all rich we’re all rich we all have frosting on top of our basic necessities and the challenge as Paul gives Timothy In this passage is first of all be content quiet your heart with what you have I heard

about something weird recently I didn’t even know about Amazon has a kind of of a wish list I don’t even know what you call it but some kind of things where you can put in there things that you want in the future well okay I guess maybe if it comes up for sale then you let you let they let you know but but it it’s too easy to let those kind of things and credit cards cultivate our consuming appetite it’s what I call in your notes

the consumer creep the kind of thing that says well it would be nice to get this I’ve always wanted it and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it and and we’ll enjoy it as a family those there’s nothing necessarily wrong about that but it’s all within the larger picture of as we continue in first Kim 1 Timothy 6 verse1 17 command those who are rich and we ask our question who are the ones that are rich and it’s everyone who has their Baseline covered food and covering

and that’s frankly friends you and me command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant not to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain but to put their hope in God which richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment command them to do good to be rich in good works and to be generous and willing to share the way they lay up their Treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of

that which is life indeed what I’m really talking about today is a spiritual portfolio for the heavens that’s what I want for you it’s what I want for me I want something that counts for eternity and this passage says the way you do that is flee from this pursue righteousness godliness Faith love endurance gentleness fight the good fight of Faith look for those who have needs around you and stay open to meet Meeting those needs now I want to warn you that when you help people

in need or in distress a lot of times their distress becomes your distress it doesn’t end up well at times say I deserve better than that for the generosity you don’t always get that but you remember you have an audience of one that you’re pleasing you’re not pleasing just getting recognition for what you’re doing you’re honoring him who is our savior so Paul tells Timothy command those who are rich to be rich in good works I don’t care what you do with stocks and fine if

you want to pay off your house fine but I do care that you be rich in good works that as we look back at your life on a week to week and a month-to-month basis we can find it marked out by the kindnesses and the compassions and the opportunities that God gives you in your circumstances to love others as a measure of your love for God where does that leave us well by way of conclusion there are two groups of people in the New Testament there’s

the employers and there’s the employees or in the vernacular of the first century slaves and 70% of the New Testament Church were slaves so they didn’t have a hard time understanding Beyond food and covering pretty modest for them but James chapter 5 gives instructions to employers and it says in James chapter 5 in verse one now listen you rich people weep and wh because of the misery that’s coming upon you your wealth has rotted your moths have eaten your clothes your gold and silver are corroded

their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh and for fire you’ve hoarded wealth in the last day look the wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you the one the cries of the Harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty you’ve lived on Earth in luxury and self-indulgence and that’s really kind of the measure of how you know that you’re in excess you have fattened yourself in the day of Slaughter you’ve condemned and murdered innocent

men who were not opposing you when I taught that through in James 5 year what two three years ago I said I hope none of my employees are hearing this they’re going to ask for a raise but in fact by by way of instruction we are told if you are ones that have responsibility for those under you and I and I have a dear Christian friend who puts my business questions in a shadow because while he wants to please God with what he’s doing he has

about 150 employees and does excavation projects all over the Northwest and whether it’s for him or for those those of us that are at a lesser level the instruction is don’t hold back with those that work for you pay them closer to the most you can pay them not the least you can pay them but if those workers get really excited about that passage and in fact want to apply it in an enthusiastic way we have of course Colossians chapter 3 slaves obey your Earthly Masters

and everything and do that not only that their eye is on you and to win their favor but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord whatever you do work at it with all your heart at working for the Lord not for men since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward so I guess that employer could say I’m not going to give you a raise you’re working for God not for me and you’re going get your reward in

heaven it it fits both ways the whole point of that is everybody within the conscience and circumstances and means that are theirs are to ultimately understand that they’re accountable to God for the people that they’re responsible for or for the people they work for that’s the first conclusion we come to from this passage the second conclusion is really a diagnostic and it comes with questions like this am I happier with just a little bit more does my life live on a day to week basis as

I just got to get to this next level before I’m happy if that’s the case a red flag should go up in your head not for me you work that out with the spirit of God but if it’s I’m just not content John I’m I’m not yet in that house I want to be in and that job I want to be in and that marriage I want to be in the scripture says cultivate a spirit of contentment don’t think of just someday when I arrive XYZ

I’ll be happy the second diagnostic on that is the issue of spending how do I spend is my consumption exclusively for me and my family or do I have a measure of generosity of time of money of relationships that as God gives us opportunity we use those Diagnostics I think are biblical and they say to us that we’re always living kind of with an open checkbook an open Schedule an open relationship context to meet people and be to them or do for them what God wants

us to do and be you know ultimately the issue is as I mentioned at the beginning the issue is wisdom and on the subject of wisdom the the challenge is to wrap ourselves around the truth of God and the word of God in a way that lives skillfully because while in James 5 it says if you’re wealthy don’t mistreat those who work for you in James chapter 1 it says but when you encounter various trials know that the testing of your faith produces endurance and endurance

must have its perfect work that you can be complete and not lacking in anything and then that wonderful verse five that one that should wrap itself around your heart with Comfort James writes but if anyone you know what that means that means everybody in this room say well John I’ve I’ve kind of screwed up this area of my life pretty bad I haven’t done well in terms of relationships I haven’t handled money well I’m in so far in debt that I can’t see my way free

the text says but if anyone no exclusions lacks wisdom he or she she should ask God who does three things who gives generously to all without finding fault none of us get through life without mistakes none of us get through life making all the right decisions about the resources that God has placed in our hands be they family money time possessions understand the following you’re not taking it with you and the fact of the matter is that we are people who are committed to living in

a way that’s honorable now and building a portfolio that counts for eternity someone has said may not the inadequacies of much of our spiritual EXP experience be traced back to our habit of skipping through the corridors of the Kingdom like children through the marketplace chattering about everything but not pausing to learn the true value of anything that was aw toer that said that let me do it one more time may not the inadequacy of much of our spiritual experience be traced back to our habit of

skipping through the corridors of the Kingdom like children to the marketplace chattering about everything but not pausing pausing to learn the value of anything with the exception of those horrible commercials on TV that talk about how dogs are abused in the summer and winter that I can’t even watch with the exception of that when I drive down barar Boulevard and I see a woman struggling with two little children and pulling a card of possessions and waiting for the bus my heart goes out to her should

I stop can I do something for her and in the last time that happened I did not stop I didn’t have the time to do that I was buying a freaking new car but but the point is stay sensitive to those opportunities and times that you have in a way that as you see them in the marketplace as you skip through it you say there that’s an opportunity I’m GNA slow down I’m GNA honor God by saying can I help you I told you I think

last week I remember thinking this illustration but I don’t always remember whether I tell you all the illustrations I prepare that if you go into Providence hospital and you go to the right maybe it was at Judy’s memorial service I Miss Judy I miss her out there you see a plaque on the wall it says to so and so this is a major donor to the hospital who determined to become a donor to this hospital because one day a nurse walked by him saw him in

trouble in a wheelchair and said can I pray for you fast Rick does that at wico on a regular basis that’s his ministry field but look out for those opportunities that you can live with wisdom you don’t just skip to the marketplace and not see the opportunities that God has given you you know worry is something that never pays a benefit it never gives you anything to tomorrow and it takes away and distracts you from today but wisdom is the off opposite wisdom is something that

is impossible for you to conjure up on your own it has to come from God and when it comes from the Lord it comes in a way that says what you decide to do between the wisdom judgments you make and the spirit of God are things that count for eternity I won’t never represent you in Probate Court in heaven but I’d love in heaven to Rejoice with you at the portfolio of wealth that you have and that I have because in fact we have obeyed the

Lord you know it is true in James chapter 6 that the instructions end in a wonderful way when it says lay up for yourself a firm foundation for the coming age so that you may take hold of that which is life truly life but if we were to come back to the parable of the soils in this wonderful instruction from Jesus on how to be wise financially and avoid the Th

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 5,834 words.