Sermon Archive
Surefire Investment Strategy

“A Surefire Investment Strategy”  

During one of the most unstable weeks the global markets declined by $7 trillion. I am not able to get my mind around a trillion, but let’s try. A trillion dollars, that's 12 zeroes to the left of the decimal point. A trillion is a million million dollars. If you laid dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from earth to the moon & back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills! It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills.
 
If you got a call from the editor of the Fargo Forum & was asked, “Tell me how should a person invest during a crisis like this? What would you tell him? What’s a sure fire investment strategy for 2009?
 
Here’s what I would say: John 3:16, says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one & only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God so loved the world that he made an investment, an investment of love. And because God has invested so much in me, I will take his investment & reinvest it. Here are three principles about investing your life. 
 
1. Choose an Investment that will honor God.
 
God has shaped each one of us differently with different personalities, experiences & spiritual gifts. God wired us so that each one of us can make an impact. I Peter 4:10-11 tells us: “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another….. with all the strength & energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ….” (NLT) We need to make sure what we do to make an impact is God honoring.
 
How many of you remember the name of Bubba Smith? He used to play professional football. After he retired from football he started making beer commercials. He was a guy who tore the top off of beer cans & then engaged in an argument whether it tastes great or is less filling. But what was interesting about Bubba is that he didn’t drink alcohol. It was just a job that paid real well. One day when he went back to Michigan State, his alma mater, he was the grand marshal at their homecoming parade. As he road down the middle of the street, guess what the crowd was shouting at each other as he passed by?
“One side would shout “Taste great” & the other side would shout “less filling.” Bubba Smith suddenly realized that he & his beer commercials had made a tremendous impact on the students at Mich. State. The message they had gotten was, “It’s great to drink beer.” So when it came time for him to renew his contract, He refused to sign it. Why? He said he didn’t want his life to count for something like that.”
 
Choose an investment that honors God! “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”    I Cor 10:31
 
 
2. Pursue your Investment Wholeheartedly.   When I lived in MT I loved big game hunting. Every Sept. the ritual would begin. I got this twitch in my trigger finger & I knew it was time. It was time to get out all my hunting gear, my rifle, ammo, hunting knife, binoculars, typography maps, etc. It was time to site in the rifle & shoot off some practice rounds. I would begin dreaming about the hunt. There was a reoccurring bad dream. I would dream that I was out hunting & I would see the perfect Bull Elk, a 7 by 7 & I would reach for my rifle but it wasn’t there. And I would panic. It was an awful dream.   One year when I was hunting at Butte Creek, in the Little Belt Mt’s it happened. I saw it coming. And my heart began to pound, my hands began to sweet, my muscles tightened, I was excited. I waited & waited until the Bull was in the clear & I could get a clear shot. I pulled the trigger & it jerked around & ran about 50 yards & then I got off one more round & it went down. I waited a few minutes & began walking slowly to where it was laying. The closer I got, the bigger it got. When I finally got next to it I realized how big it was & I saw this huge set of horns. (Uncover the horns).
 
I Cor. 9:25: “All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.”  ( NLT).   Elk hunting was great, but seeing people choose to become faithful followers of Jesus is the greatest. Why? Because hunting lasts for a season but investing in people will last for eternity. Pursue your investment whole-heartedly!
 
3. Share your Investment with Others. The greatest use of the talents & abilities that God has invested in you, are to be used to invest in others! With all the strength that I have, I urge you to share what God has invested in you with others. 
 
Dave Stone shared this story. “I went to Cincinnati Christian U. with a guy named Rich. When it came to organized religion he wasn’t much into the church, but that changed through the years. When I graduated he was in his 7th year & he was just a junior at that time. Needless to say, academics were not his strong suit. But Rich had some incredible music ability. He loved Jesus & he loved people.
 
When my sister-in-law was a freshman her mother died suddenly. Rich didn’t have a car but he somehow got to Dayton, OH to her home to express his sympathy. He just hung out with her family & my brother in their time of grief. At one point Rich said, “I wish I could say something so you won’t hurt so much. I wish I could give you something. But all I can give you is this song that I just wrote & hopefully it will minister to you.” He played a song on the piano that really comforted their family. Two years later a young new Christian singer heard that same song he wrote & so she recorded it. Her name was Amy Grant & the song was “Sing Your Praise to the Lord.” It rocketed to #1 & Rich Mullins became know as NOT just as a singer around Cincinnati, but as a great song writer. And through the years I watched him grow & saw how God had gifted him & used him. He never got into himself, he just would write music & point people to Jesus. He had a passion to use his music to connect people to Jesus. Rich Mullins wrote the song “Awesome God” which was later voted as the Christian song of the 20th century.
 
But you may not know that Rich had taken a vow of poverty & gave away everything that he made – millions & millions of dollars. He tragically died in a car accident after one of his concerts several years ago & when he was only 41 years old. Jesus was his passion; music was the vehicle he used to share that passion.” Rich shared his God given investment with others through music. 
 
We too have a responsibility to invest our lives in & with others.
I Peter 4:10 “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”  How are you sharing what God has invested in you with others?
 
What is your investment strategy for 2009? I pray that you will:
1- Choose an investment that will honor God.    
2- Pursue your investment wholeheartedly.  
3- Share your investment with others.