We'll hear the conclusion of a message from Randy Alcorn today from his book, The Treasure Principle. Randy shared this at a Crown pastors conference a few years ago.
You can listen to the first part here.
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 How does God want you to handle money?
That’s what you should be doing right now.
God will grow you into the person He wants you to be.
God has made you to be a giver. There's great fulfillment in it. It's not in your best interest to be a keeper.
Yesterday, we talked about the Six Keys to The Treasure Principle. The first two were:
- God owns everything and I am his money manager.
- My heart always goes where I put God’s money.
Here are the other keys to the Treasure Principle:
- Heaven, the new Earth, is my home. The greatest discouragement to people giving is the illusion that this world is our home. People think their focus should be on building a kingdom here, their attitude is to live it up while they can. Christians don’t say that because it doesn’t sound spiritual, but their actions testify to that. The truth is that we live here on this earth only a short time, we die, and we go to the present or intermediate heaven to be with Christ, then there is the resurrection, and we live for eternity. We will live forever on the new Earth as God’s rulers over the world He created.
Satan lies about heaven. He tries to hid God’s ultimate redemptive plan. Satan wants us to think this world is all there is. He wants people to store up their treasure on Earth because He knows it will be destroyed. The real life is the one to come. There is continuity between this life and the next.
- I should live for the line and not the dot. The dot is our lives on Earth. It is small, it has a beginning and end.
Moses looked forward to his eternal reward.
We should too.
Jim Elliott said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
He wanted to gain what would last forever.
He wasn’t content with temporary gains.
Jim left this world in 1956 in his 20s, but he continues to live and will live forever.
- Giving is the only antidote to materialism. Things have mass. Mass has gravity. Gravity holds stuff in orbit around it. The more we accumulate, the more our lives revolve around that mass of stuff, which has gravity. But we can shift the center of gravity by giving. We transfer the things to the kingdom of God, and as we revolve around them, we revolve around kingdom stuff. It shifts you toward heaven and eternity. The gravitational pull is toward eternity. Giving is a paradigm shift that people, especially Christians, desperately need.
Materialism isn’t in our best interest. It’s a temptation and trap that ruins people, destroys lives. Too many people have lives set on that even though no one wants that outcome. Money and possessions won’t make people happy, that’s a deception. Solomon learned that through experience as he recorded in Ecclesiastes.
God wants us to enjoy the nice things He has provided for us, but we need to have our priorities straight.
By God’s grace, I am able to give 100% of the royalties from my books to God’s kingdom. My wife and I could not be happier and give God all the praise for that. We've spent a lot of time crying over the joy of investing in God’s kingdom. We are living middle class lives, no one should feel sorry for us. Giving brings so much more to ourr lives than keeping stuff. It’s the grace of God in our lives.
Everything belongs to God, so why wouldn’t you want to pass along things to people who are in more need than you?
- God prospers people not to raise their standard of living but to raise their standard of giving.
God’s grace is the lightning, our giving is the thunder.
We give because He first gave to us.
Giving follows grace.
The more God’s grace grips you, the more you want to give. Your plenty will provide for someone else’s need.
God doesn’t want us to have too much or too little.
God distributes resources unequally so those who with too much can give to those who have too little.
Giving solves two problems, the problem of having too little and the problem of having too much.
Prosperity theology is lie from Satan.
God does reward and prosper people in this life through acts of generosity.
But He doesn’t do that so we be rich for ourselves.
He makes us rich so we can be generous to others.
We’ve been entrusted with assets that will completely lose value one day. A good example of this is Confederate money.
If you’re smart, you want assets that will last.
God has a kingdom currency.
You want treasure in heaven, not treasure on Earth.
We should spend the rest of our lives closing the gap between what we wish we had given and what we are giving.
Many Christians are afraid to die because of their treasure on Earth, the closer they get to death, the more afraid they are, the more they despair.
But if you store up treasure in heaven, every day you move closer to that treasure.
That’s a reason to rejoice.
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Don't forget about the God Provides™ film tour coming to Atlanta Thursday, February 11 and Chattanooga, Thursday, February 18. I'll be teaching, too. These events are family friendly and free, so bring your children. We'll be showing Abraham and Isaac and the Widow and Oil films. You can register here.
This is not a fundraising event and there's no charge to attend. I encourage you to see God as your provider during these difficult economic times. I hope you’ll make plans to be there if you live in those areas.
If you do, please say hello and let me know you're a MoneyLife listener. |
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