Pastor David reflects on Christ’s financial counsel to His believers. Join us as we study how we can lay up treasure in heaven.

<p>Pastor David reflects on Christ’s financial counsel to His believers. Join us as we study how we can lay up treasure in heaven.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

David Shin

God’s Plan for Financial Security

On the screen I have a picture of Ann Schieber.

In 1995 there was an article published in the New York Times describing the life of this lady and from all external appearances, she lived an ordinary life.

She lived in New York City on West 56th Street, lived in an average apartment, wore the same black coat, had dusty furniture.

She retired from the IRS in 1944 and took her life savings of $5, 000 and invested it in the stock market in 1944.

In 1995, she passed away at the age of 101.

Later on that year, the president of Yeshiva University was contacted by her lawyer.

In regards to her will, she had desired to donate her entire stock value investment options to Yeshiva University.

The president had never heard of her before, but was stunned at the amount.

I need someone like Ann Schieber to help me with my 401K.

Now, She wanted that money to be used for a scholarship for the college and the medical school, specifically for young ladies to be helped through Yeshiva University.

Ann Schreiber was a wise investor, not only in stocks, but she believed in investing in people, the development of humanity.

And believe it or not, Jesus himself gives investment advice.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives financial counsel, and I contend this morning that it's better counsel than you would get from Warren Buffett or Fidelity or T.

And here we have it on the screen, the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, 19-21, financial advice from Jesus Christ.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure In where?

In heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Jesus says, don't lay up for your treasures here on earth, because moths will get it, rust will get it, and if those 2 don't get it, thieves will get it.

So Jesus says, lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.

Now, this is not very practical, at least to me.

I mean, does God have like an offshore bank account?

I mean, I'm being facetious, but where do you lay up for yourself treasure in heaven?

And We still have to eat, we still have to function, we still have to take care of our families, but Jesus says, look, lay up for yourselves stock shares in heaven.

Now 1 of the ways that we discover what Jesus is talking about is to look through the Bible and see what heaven treasures.

In heaven, the Bible tells us that pavement is going to be made of gold.

The gates are going to be made of pearls.

Precious stones and gold in heaven is like wood and stone here on earth.

But when you look through the parables of Jesus, remember the parable of the pearl of great price?

The merchant finds that pearl and sells all that he has.

The other parable is the parable of the treasure hid in the field.

The worker sells all that he has and goes and buys that field.

And then you have in Luke 15 an all-out search for the lost sheep and the lost coin.

And here I have a quotation from an individual.

The way that you store up treasure in heaven is by investing in getting people there.

Do you know that when we transition from this earthly life to the eternal life, that There are very few things that you can take with you to the eternal paradigm, to the eternal life.

We're going to get an Upgrade considerably.

I joke all the time when I get to heaven I'll be tall.

Upgrade at the resurrection, at the translation event, at the second coming.

From an investment standpoint, you can't take your car, your home, your lands, all of your financial investments, you can't take with you to heaven.

The only thing that you can take, your character and people, that's the only thing.

And 1 of the reasons I believe that Jesus wants us to invest in heavenly treasure, that is in people ministering and leading people to Jesus Christ, is that when we get to heaven, he wants us to have a share in his kingdom that has eternal returns.

When you allow someone to, or allow the Lord to use you to bring someone to Jesus Christ throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity, that person will be Enjoying the presence of Jesus Christ throughout the ceases ages of eternity That's a tremendous return The way that you store up treasure in heaven is by investing in getting people there from a practical standpoint we can convert our dollars into souls.

There's gonna be a day when our money is worthless.

But right now, through faithful stewardship, you can convert your dollars into heavenly treasure.

So when you are faithful in your stewardship, when you give of your tithes and offerings to the Lord Jesus, there is a mechanism today where those dollars are reaching someone with the gospel.

And I believe that when we get to heaven, someone will tap us on the shoulder and say, thank you for your faithfulness in stewardship.

Because of you, I read this piece of literature, I went to a seminar, and I accepted Jesus as my Savior and I'm here.

And I just want to spend a little bit of time on this notion of tithes and offerings because you'll be surprised how many times I sit down in Bible study and people ask me, you know, what is tithe?

And they open up a tithe envelope that you have there in your pew, and they say, pastor, do I have to pay all of these?

I mean, there's not a lot of education, so I just wanna spend a little bit of time on this.

A tithe literally means in the Hebrew, a tenth.

And I praise the Lord for the Adventist system because we are not on the congregational model, meaning that your tithe at this local church does not affect whether I get paid this month.

So I'm not up here because I need grocery money or worried about paying my rent this month.

That would be very scary scenario or you'd be hearing this sermon every week.

A little low this month friends, please be faithful.

And in the Seventh-day Adventist Church we have a system where it doesn't matter if you're pastoring here at Hillside O'Malley or in Barrow.

So this is the way our system works, and people don't know this, but the church tithe does not stay here at the local church.

Now some of it trickles back down, but it goes on to the Alaska Conference, which oversees this state, percentage stays there, then a percentage goes up to the union, ours is the North Pacific Union, Pacific Northwest, generally speaking, goes to help the work there, and then a percentage goes up to the North American division and spreads around, helping gospel ministry there, and then a percentage gets spread all over the world.

So when you give up your tithe, it doesn't stay here, but goes up through the channels and supports gospel ministry all over the world.

And just a side note, you know, when someone gets up here and does an offering appeal and they say today's offering goes for, today's is local church budget, but sometimes it's for another project.

If you just put your money in there, it's your tithe, all the loose offering for that Sabbath goes for whatever is announced here.

If you want it to go for a specific thing like tithe, you need to put it in a tithe envelope, mark it, and then put it in, and then the marked offering goes for whatever is designated.

Now, tithe is 10%, but then we have something called offering.

Now offering is what we call free will, meaning that that's between you and the Lord.

I practice something called systematic benevolence, meaning that I give a set percentage every month.

So when I get my paycheck from the conference, right off the top I give my tithe and offering.

And The local church is supported by offering.

You know, the lights, the heat, praise the Lord for heat, especially this time of year.

All the Sabbath school supplies for the children's division, your quarterly, all of the church projects, kitchen supplies, that all comes from the local church budget.

I want to thank you so much for your local church giving, and that comes from the offering.

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God’s Plan for Financial Security

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