Living Generously in a World of Scarcity

Part 3: Investing in Kingdom Priorities

God owns everything and I’m His money manager

Godliness + Contentment = Great Gain

Luke 12:1 (ESV)  "In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples…”

Year 1: Year of Inauguration
Year 2: Year of Popularity
Year 3: Year of Opposition

Rabbi

Mark 4:33-34 (NIV)  "With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything."

1.  Jesus cares more about our actions than our likes.

James 1:22-25 (ESV)  "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

Luke 12:13-15 (ESV)  "Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

7 Deadly Sins

1 – Pride
2 - Greed or Covetousness
3 – Lust
4 – Envy
5 - Gluttony (drunkenness)
6 - Wrath (overdone anger)
7 – Sloth (laziness)

Covetousness = “eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth or possessions” (Dictionary.com)
Covetousness = “marked by inordinate desire for wealth or possessions or for another's possessions”
(Merriam-Webster)

2.  Stop investing in things that in the end don’t matter

Luke 12:16-21 (ESV)  "And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Matt. 6:19-21 (NIV)  “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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

3.  Investing in Kingdom priorities leads to Heavenly Treasures

Worldly Riches                              Heavenly Treasures

Matt. 13:31-32 (NIV)  "He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

4.  Once planted, the kingdom of heaven is burning to come out of us