How Not to Waste Your Life

Father God, we come before you this morning and we thank you for preparing our hearts already. Your song, your children's lesson, what you would want us to hear. And pray, Father, for Roger, that you would just have him hit all the points this morning that you'd want him to hit.

That we would all get out of the way and we'd let your spirit do his work here. But we also just thank you for saving Juniper. And we don't understand how you save some and don't save others for those who are going through tragedy right now.

We just pray for your peace, a supernatural peace. We praise you, Lord, for your sovereignty. We praise you, Lord, for the love that you have for your people.

And that life doesn't end when the last breath is taken. Thank you, Jesus, for this time that we have. Prepare us even more for what you want to say to us.

Amen. Amen. I'm trying to make do with a whiteboard here.

I'm not sure how this will work, but we'll see. This right down here. Just a compliment on everybody's singing.

You sounded so nice that this morning we saw a little, when we started singing that last song, maybe it was the tune, maybe it was our music. Not sure which one it was. But anyway, a little mouse comes out from underneath that grill right there.

Just sits there listening, just enjoying it. So, I mean, that's pretty good if you can get a mouse enthralled with music. He must not be interested in the sermon.

Oh, no, he's still there. So that's fine. We'll see how convicted he feels by the end.

He might leave. But anyway, it's good to have all of you here. And again, I'm not sure this whiteboard, if I can get it to work or not.

But we're going to try. A couple Sundays ago we had sung a song that was, I think, new for the words, but the tune that we've had for a long time. So we're going to try to sing it again.

It's that one that says, Lord, here I stand before your holy throne. And it's to the tune of, how's it go? Where shall I go but to the Lord. It's to that tune.

So I don't know if there's somebody here. You know, I saw Trevor back there being an usher. Would you be an usher again and hand out these to whoever wants them? And you know what? I'll try.

Here's what I'll try to do. Before we sing it, I'll just read the verse we're going to sing. And I think most people know the tune already.

And so the words go like this. First verse is, Lord, here I stand before your holy throne, facing a future all unknown, young and untried, yet trusting you to guide. Show me the way you'd have me go.

And again, it's for young people. I think it applies to all of us. And then the chorus goes, where should I go? What shall I do? Seeking a purpose for my life, longing to serve thy kingdom to preserve.

Help me to say, Lord, here am I. Let's sing this. Lord, here I stand before your holy throne, facing a future all unknown, young and untried, yet trusting you to guide. Show me the way you'd have me go.

Where should I go? And what shall I do? Seeking a purpose for my life, longing to serve thy kingdom to preserve. Help me to say, Lord, here am I. Life lies before me, beckoning me on. My heart is filled with youthful zest.

Channel my zeal, my purpose to fulfill. Just use me, Lord, as you see best. Where should I go? And what should I do? Seeking a purpose for my life, longing to serve thy kingdom to preserve.

Help me to say, Lord, here am I. Though it may seem my life is all in vain, others my labor may not see. All is worthwhile if I may see your smile. Gladly your servant I will be.

Where should I go? And what shall I do? Seeking a purpose for my life, longing to serve thy kingdom to preserve. Help me to say, Lord, here am I. All right, I thought that was a good song to introduce some of the rest of what I have to share. Maybe we could bow for prayer one more time before we go on.

Lord, we come to you in the name of Jesus, and we thank you, God, that you do have a purpose for us. And I thank you for what has already been shared, the songs that have been sung and the children's lesson on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ. If we build on him with a life of obedience rather than hearing and not obeying.

And so, Lord, we pray that you would just come and be with us. Thank you, Lord, for this yard to meet, and thank you for the King family and their hospitality. Thank you for the nice weather, the sunshine, the shade.

Lord, we thank you most of all for your spirit to guide us into truth. And we pray that as a result of our gathering together, you would send everyone home today with a blessing. With a purpose, Lord, that is of you.

Not something that we have hatched up, but truly is your heart and your will and your plan for us. Thank you, God, for all that you've done. In Jesus' name, amen.

I suppose everybody at some point in life has asked the question, what is my purpose? And that song talks about purpose. That God, we think you must have made me for a reason. And I'm not sure what that reason is.

I'm sure more of an issue with younger people. Probably by the time you're my age or ten years past my age or twenty years past. By that time, life is largely gone.

And you think, well, whatever I did, I kind of already decided. So the younger you make that decision, or the younger you hear the call of God and let Him make the decision, the better. And so that's why I think the words of that song were written.

Many people still don't know. I don't know what God has for me. I think He must have a reason.

But I don't know what that reason is. And my question is this. Is there a possibility you, one of you here, maybe several of you, let's just make it personal.

One of you will get to the end of your life and look back and decide it was wasted. God gave me X number of years, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. I don't know how many years He's going to give you.

But when it's all over, you'll look back and say, I wasted it. It was 80 years, a very precious time, but it was wasted. And, you know, that's my burden.

I have a burden that it would not be wasted. And so this sermon is, I'm going to call it this, How Not to Waste Your Life. There was a sermon by John Piper, it was pretty famous.

It was just simply called, Don't Waste Your Life. And it was quite a challenge to the group of people he was talking to. This sermon, I'm going to be more specific, How to Not Waste Your Life.

So I'd like to challenge you to think about what that is. Now this sermon is something else as well. A while back I had given out to the congregation here copies of the new book that I just had published, How to Shake the World with $100.

And I decided at some point I'd like to just give a summary. And I decided I'm going to do that this morning. Just a summary of the new book.

I can't go through it all. Some of you may have read it. Some of you have not.

A lot of you have it. Now I know we have some visitors here. And if you would like a copy, you're welcome to have one.

There's some extra here. Once again, can I call the usher? Trevor, do you mind taking some of these? And if there's anybody here, just raise your hand. And if you don't have one and you'd like to have one.

There's one for I'm sure every household. So if you'd like one, hand it out. If not, nobody's obligated.

But again, I'd like to at least make it available for free to anybody who wants one if you haven't got one. And if you're a single person here and don't have one yet, that's okay too. You're still a household.

So this is a plea. Don't waste your life. There's a million ways to waste your life.

Many people choose all kinds of ways to waste their life. But there's also a number of ways not to waste your life. And it's any number, anything that God says is worthwhile.

Anything that God says, this is my calling for you. That is not a wasted life, no matter what God's call is. There's a popular song.

It's an old song. It was popular, probably more than it is now. But it's a missionary song.

It's called From Greenland's Icy Mountains. And it talks about people of, you know, it encourages people to go into missions. Go and preach the gospel.

From Greenland's icy mountains, from India's coral strand, where Africa's bright fountains roll down their golden sand. From many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain, they call us to deliver their land from error's chain. And so that's the call.

What are we going to do about that? There's another phrase in the song. It says this. The heathen, in their blindness, bow down to wood and stone.

And then the last verse, the last part, says, Salvation, O salvation, the joyful sound proclaim, till each remotest nation has heard Messiah's name. Do you have any idea how big that claim is? Every remotest nation, everyone has heard the claims of the Messiah. What would it take? Do you know how many people are in this world? I, you know, went through some numbers of how many people are here.

We start out with Greenland. You know, Greenland is, I think, considered the biggest island in the world. The next biggest body of land would be Australia, and they call that a continent.

So back down one notch to Greenland, the biggest island in the world. Well, what if you were going to do what the song says? We're going to go to Greenland. We're going to evangelize Greenland.

How long would it take? How many people does Greenland have? It has about 55,000 people, which is roughly the same size as the town of Albany, Oregon. And so, okay, you look at the whole town of Albany. That's about the amount of people that's in the entire island of Greenland.

How long would it take to evangelize it? Well, if you would share the gospel with 10 people every day, it would take you around 15 years to cover Greenland. You say, wow, that takes a long time. Well, Greenland certainly isn't the biggest group of people in the world.

You can move up a notch to a country called Guam, or a little island called Guam down in the Pacific. And Guam has about three times as many people as Greenland does. Just a tiny island, doesn't seem very big, but it's packed with people.

Three times as many, so it would take three times as long to evangelize as Greenland. But even Guam isn't all that populated compared to a country some of you have been to, the country of Belize. Belize has like 375,000 people, so over double what Guam has.

And so, once again, it makes Guam and Greenland small. But then you can move up to Bhutan. Bhutan is a Buddhist country, has about 800,000 people, so over double what Belize has.

So in other words, Belize and Guam and Greenland, you pack them all together, they wouldn't come up to as many people as Bhutan has. Well, let's keep going. Another country is Bahrain in Asia.

It has over double what Bhutan has. But even that's small compared to Mongolia. I think it has around 3 million people, so it's even double what Bahrain has.

Well, you can move up to Nicaragua. Nicaragua has over double the people that Mongolia has, which means you add all those other countries together, you're still not up to the size of Nicaragua, a country down in Central America. Greenland, Guam, Belize, Bhutan, Bahrain, Mongolia all put together would not get you to the same population as Nicaragua of around 6 million.

But even that isn't all that big. There's a country in Africa called Somalia, has like 15 million people, so over double what Nicaragua has. Or you can say it another way, more people than all the other countries put together that we've just talked about.

And then we have a country called Nepal, which is approximately double the size of Somalia. And I think it's around 29 million, something like that. We could go on up to Tanzania, Tanzania in Africa.

Tanzania has close to 60 million people, double the size of Nepal. But even Tanzania isn't all that big compared to our next neighbor to the south, the country of Mexico. It's the 10th largest country in the world, at somewhere around 120, 130 million people.

So it's huge in terms of population. Double the size, over double the size of Tanzania. Or again, you could lump all of those countries together, it still wouldn't be as big as Mexico.

But Mexico is not the biggest country in the world. Indonesia is double the size of Mexico in population. The biggest Muslim country in the world by population.

250 some thousand people. A million, I'm sorry. 250 million people.

It's the fourth largest country in the world behind China, India, and the United States. Indonesia, huge country. But that song that we quoted, that Greenland song, it also mentions India.

How big is India? India has over 1.3 billion people. If you'd lump all those other countries together, it wouldn't be the size of India. In fact, if you'd lump all of those other countries together and double it, it still wouldn't be the size of India.

In fact, if you want to get another idea how big India is, you could start up in Alaska and add all the people there, come down and all the people in Canada, all the people in the United States of America, which is the third largest country in the world. You could go down into Mexico, get all those people on board, and you'd move on down into Central America, Guatemala, Nicaragua. Go on down into Ecuador and South American countries.

Get Brazil, which is the fifth largest country in the world. Get them on board. You still wouldn't be up to the size of India.

Get Argentina and Peru. Get the entire Western Hemisphere all put together. Still wouldn't be the size of how big India is with 1.3 billion people.

This just gives us a little idea of how big our world is, how populous our world is, how many people our world has. And every one of them needs Jesus. Every one of them is going to perish without Jesus.

And so God has called us to do something about it. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That looks pretty overwhelming when you think of how large this country is.

But God wants us to make a difference. God wants you to make a difference. Can you make a difference? Your life is given for a reason to make a difference.

We can look back in history and find people who did make a difference in this world. We can look at people who made a difference. Maybe there's some great military leader.

Maybe they're a real bad guy like Hitler, Stalin. They shook the world. They made a difference, all right.

They just wrecked life after life after life, killed them left and right. Nobody will ever forget Hitler or Stalin as long as this world stands. I don't know what the next world is going to be like, but nobody will ever forget the difference that they made.

Other people who made a difference. You have people who had these inventions and scientific discoveries like Newton and Einstein. And you have people like Johannes Gutenberg who invented the printing press.

Probably no invention in history has made more of a difference in this world than the printing press. And you can talk about people who did other things. Maybe they were a great military leader of some sort.

They shook the world. They changed the world. They entered this world.

The world was in one condition. Years later when they passed away, everything was changed because of that one person and what they did. But more important than that, that I have, that I would, you know, the burden on my heart is the people who shook the world for Jesus.

You see, that psalm tells us to seek the kingdom of God. It tells us to, you know, thy kingdom to preserve, we just sang not long ago. What does that mean? You see, God's kingdom is the single greatest force that has ever hit this world.

Presented by Jesus Christ, he came, John the Baptist preceded him, said the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And that kingdom has shaken the world like nothing else. And so when Jesus called you and me to seek first his kingdom, he says you can take part in shaking the world in a greater way than any of these military leaders, any of these inventors, any of these other people that have ever joined forces to shake the world.

You can do even more than them. If you join my kingdom and do your part, what I've called you to do to change this world. And so I want to talk about, I would like to talk this morning about what you can do to change the world, to shake the world, to make a difference in the world.

And this is, I'm targeting especially one group of people here. There's different groups here, probably certainly within the kingdom of God. There are different groups of people, different callings.

God has called some to one thing, some to another. But there's one group in particular I would like to talk to. And that's the group of people that have a job.

You get up on the average morning and you go to work. You make money. You've agreed ahead of time I'm going to work for X number of dollars per hour, or X number of commission percentages for what I do, or so much per pounds of blueberries, or whatever it is.

You've agreed somehow to exchange your efforts for cash, green cash. Actually it might be some other color if you get paid by check. But either way, you're getting actual money.

And it's probably going to be somehow or another counted with a dollar sign, an American dollar sign in front of it. That's probably going to be the way it's designated, unless you're working in Canada or some other place. And so I'd like to talk to you.

Not everyone is called to that role. But the more I look at communities and people, I see a large percentage of us, that's what we do. We get up in the morning and we go to work.

We get up in the morning and we make plans to earn money that day. A few others may be called to be homemakers. I'm not primarily talking to you if you're called to be a homemaker.

And that's a very real calling. That's something that God wants you to be involved in. And if you're called, then be good at it.

If you're called to be a student, maybe you're still in school. Maybe you're in college. I don't know.

Whatever you're doing. You're not necessarily in the workforce right now. Again, I'm not necessarily talking to you.

Some are called to be a missionary. You've been sent overseas. Somebody else is paying the way.

You go and preach the gospel. I'm not necessarily talking to you. I'm talking to those who have a job.

You go to work almost every day. And the message for you today is please don't waste your life. Because there is a very high risk that you could end up wasting your life.

And your life. That sounds big. A life.

When you hear the word life, you think, oh, 80 years, 70 years, maybe 90 years. But you know, life is made up of little sections in it called a day. So the way to waste your life is just to start by wasting one day and then another day and then another.

And eventually you wasted the whole life. And the way to not waste your life is to not waste one day or another day or another day. And so we're going to we're going to use an illustration here to encourage you to give you an example of both how to waste your life.

And then also how to refrain from wasting your life. So we're going to give it. We're going to we're going to tell about five brothers, five brothers who woke up in the morning.

They all had a job. They were all professing Christians of some sort. And how they approached their first day at work.

So we're going to start with a man. This is alphabetical in case you don't get it. But his name is Andrew.

So I'm going to put on the whiteboard. Andrew. And we're going to call him Andrew the slothful.

Andrew woke up in the morning, woke up that Monday morning. And his alarm was ringing. But, you know, he really didn't feel like getting out of bed very much.

It was so much easier just to go back to sleep, even though he knew it was time to get up. But he just decided, hey, it would be so much easier to sleep some more. So he did.

Forty five minutes later, he woke up with a start. He realized, whoops, I'm going to be late. He rushed around and threw his clothes on, jumped in the car and rushed to work, trying not to be late.

But it was it didn't work. He was late. And, you know, the rest of the morning he was kind of sleepy and he was, you know, wishing the day would be over.

And he wasn't looking very cheerful. And his boss was trying to get him to work. It wasn't that it just it wasn't that exciting to him.

He didn't like to work all that much. And so he, you know, before long, it was afternoon. And, you know, hey, he realizes that quitting time is coming.

And so he starts looking forward to quitting time. And and finally quitting time came and he immediately rushes home to take a nap. His boss, you know, that has offered him some overtime, but he wasn't interested in that.

He just wanted to get home and forget about work for the day. He was worn out. And that's just the way his life went.

Next morning, it was a similar story in the morning after that, a similar story. You know, he didn't really take an interest in the work all that much. He just did what he barely had to do and barely that.

And that was Andrew the slothful and his laziness. You know, the boss had overtime that somebody could have worked. He didn't want to do it.

He had things that people could learn about the business, but he didn't really want to learn. He just wanted he barely wanted to be there at all. That was Andrew.

He hardly made any. He didn't make as much money as his friends, his friends around him. He couldn't make as much money and he didn't understand why.

They said, well, maybe it's because of your work habits. Maybe that's why. No, he didn't think that was that he'd blame somebody else.

He'd blame the boss. He'd blame his coworkers. He had somebody to blame and he would complain about it.

And that was just his way of doing things. And he never did make very much money at that job, could barely pay his bills. He was always complaining about, you know, the lack of finances.

All his friends, you know, they had enough money to pay the bills. But he thought there's always somebody else's fault. So that's Andrew the slothful.

Well, along comes another brother. And this one's name is Brian. Now, Brian, he decided to do things different from Andrew.

Brian was a worker. He says, I'm going to not be slothful like my brother, Andrew. I'm going to be a worker.

So when his alarm rang Monday morning, he jumped out of bed. You know, he had read his Bible the night before. And it says there that, hey, you don't want to be lazy.

1 Thessalonians 4 says, work with your hands. And 2 Thessalonians 3 says, if any would not work, neither should he eat. Well, Brian didn't want to be that guy.

So he gets out of bed right away and he rushes to work. And he immediately reports to his boss and he takes an interest in his work. And he works hard all day.

And when the day's over and it's time to decide, do I stay late and work some overtime? He was quick to take the overtime. And throughout the next number of weeks, he would learn all he could about the business. And he'd learn to do better than he was doing the day before.

And he would work hard. And it wasn't long before he was getting raises. He was getting extra work.

His income was going up. And lo and behold, his daily salary, after all the different changes, was $100 more than his brother Andrew's. And not surprisingly, he was working harder.

And it allowed him to live a lifestyle that was quite a bit higher than his brother Andrew. He could go out to eat a lot more often than Andrew could. He could drive a nicer car.

He had the money to make a bigger payment on that car. And he could go on nicer vacations. He just enjoyed life with the extra money that he had.

So that's Brian the worker. Well, there was a third brother that looked at his two older brothers. And his name is Caleb.

And Caleb, we'll call him Caleb the saver. Caleb looked at Andrew and said, I don't want to be lazy like Andrew. He looked at his brother Brian and said, I want to be a worker like him.

And so he did all the same choices that Brian did. He worked hard. He learned about the business.

He worked overtime. He did what he could to be better at his work. And sure enough, his income went up like his brothers did.

But Caleb did something different. He looked at Brian and said, yeah, he's a good worker. But at the end of the day, he's got nothing.

He spent it all. Vacations, car payments, restaurants. And he looked at all the wise men in his life.

And Caleb said, they all seem to be not thinking about just this life. They're thinking about the future. Or today, they're thinking about the future.

They're thinking about, you know, what's going to happen tomorrow. And so Caleb says, I want to be wise like the people around me. So he opens up a savings account.

Instead of spending it on restaurants and car payments, he starts putting his money into the savings account. And that grows. Compound interest grew like crazy.

Until he decides, I'm going to move it out of this investment and put it into some other investments that are paying better rates of return. And Caleb starts looking around. He looks at different stock, mutual funds, maybe some properties.

He's putting his money to work, and it's growing. And he's getting wealthy. In fact, at a young age, he's saying he's wealthier than a lot of people that are years older than him.

And he does some calculations, and he says, I think my future is going to be well taken care of. Then along comes a fourth brother. His name is David.

And David, he looks at his older brothers, and he says, some of them I want to be like, and some of them I don't. He looks at Andrew. And Andrew was the lazy one, if you remember.

He says, I don't want to be lazy like Andrew. I want to be like Brian. I want to be a worker.

And he looks at Brian, though, and he says, just like my brother Caleb, I like Brian's work ethic. I don't like his spending habits. I want to live for the future like Caleb.

And then he starts looking at Caleb a little more closely. He says, do I want to be just like him? He's future-oriented. He's thinking long-term, not short-term.

He says, yeah, I want to do that. But then he starts to look at Caleb's decisions and says, I think there's something Caleb seems to be missing. All my ancestors, my great-great-grandpa, my great-grandpa, maybe even by now my grandpa, they've all died.

I think that means I'm going to die too someday. And my brothers are going to die someday. And Caleb's going to die someday.

And what Caleb isn't realizing is that everything that he's living for is going to be snatched from his hands the moment he dies or the moment this world is over. And he says, I'm not sure his, you know, it looks pretty secure what he's doing. He's got insurance to back up his holdings, his mutual funds.

You know, you've got a country that he's living in that's pretty secure. There's not high inflation. It looks pretty secure.

But when you take death into the equation, I think Caleb is missing something. It's going to be snatched from his hands. And so David starts looking at the teachings of Jesus.

What do you do about this? He realized that Jesus said that, you know, we should be making secure investments, not shaky ones. And Jesus said, don't lay up treasures on earth, but lay up treasures in heaven. And so he starts reading further.

Well, how do you do that? And he says, it's by giving to charity. And he says, wow, I'm going to do that. And so David says, all right, well, I've got this extra $100.

I make more than Andrew does. And so I got this extra. So he decides he's going to give it to charity.

Well, along comes the offering at church. And he drops his offering into the basket. He doesn't ask what the offering is for.

He just drops it in and says, OK, now I've done my part. And everybody's happy. And he goes home.

And now he's given to charity. Now, as it turned out, he didn't know this, but that offering that morning was going to a new building, new sanctuary. And it turns out that that $100, eventually it went to purchase a few feet of carpet for the floor and then also a brass doorknob.

That's where his $100 went. All right, last brother is Edward. So we got Edward.

How's our mouse doing? Is he enjoying the sermon? He seems to be. He keeps coming back for more. We just scattered some poison around our place last night and see if it would cut down the mouse population.

OK, Edward was the final brother. And Edward, he decides to do something different. He looks at his brothers and he says, yep, I don't want to be like Andrew who's lazy.

I want to be more like Brian in my work ethic, but I want to be more like Caleb when it comes to thinking for the future rather than right now. And he says, you know, he talks to his brother David, and David explains to him about the glorious opportunity that we have if we give to charity. He says, that's actually an investment, not an expense.

And so he says, well, I want to do that. But he stops a little bit. He says, well, maybe I should think about this.

What do I want to do with my money? And so he starts praying about it. He says, God, please lead me. And he says, God, show me where you want me to put this $100.

Do you just want me to drop in the offering and not ask any questions? Do you want me to think about it where I give it? And so he starts doing an investigation. He starts looking at different opportunities to give. And he was amazed when he discovered not only was he able to make a difference in this world in some small way, he was able to shake the world with his $100.

He discovered a ministry that was giving Bibles to a third world country. And there was a tremendous revival going on. They didn't have Bibles there.

People were hungry for Bibles. They were waiting for Bibles. They were praying for Bibles.

And for $2 per Bible, or maybe $3 depending on the country, he could give this money and up to 50 people could have their own copy of the Word of God. And so Edward did that. And after doing the study, he decided, okay, this is it.

I've got this $100. I'm going to make a difference. And I'm going to just read a little bit.

With joy in his heart, with a prayer on his lips, and with visions of Christ's growing kingdom dancing in his head, Edward put his $100 into an envelope and he dropped it in the mail. And you know what? This world would never be the same after he did that. People who had never had a Bible would get a Bible.

Elderly ladies, old men, young people, they would get the Word of God. They'd be able to read it in their own language. And he was making it just that one day.

All it took was one day of work in which he was able to make $100 more than the lazy guy. And he made a difference in the world that would never pass away, that would never go away. But you know, it wasn't just the people who were getting the Bibles that were changed.

Edward himself was changed. You see, Jesus had made a prediction earlier. He said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And Edward was experiencing that. After he had done that, his heart began to change because his heart was not where Caleb's was. His heart was in the kingdom of God.

His heart was not in something that was going to pass away in a few years. His heart was in something that was going to last forever. And so, as you look at these five men, I wonder what words come to your mind.

Andrew, Brian, Caleb, David, and Edward. You know, years ago I wrote a book on a doctrine in the Bible called The Doctrine of Non-Accumulation. And I think there's, down through time, people have read that book and not sure what to do with it.

I mean, there were some commands before I wrote it that I was a little shocked with when I started reading some of Jesus' commands. I didn't know they were in the Bible. But you've got to do something with it once you find them.

And so I wrote that book. Anyway, as time went on, I started getting feedback. And I think there were people who looked at their life and read that book and said, Yep, that's me.

I'm obeying that. Because, here's what they did. They looked at the size of their bank account and discovered the bank account's pretty small.

Therefore, I must be obeying this doctrine. But if you notice here, Andrew didn't have any money in the bank because he was lazy. Brian didn't have any money in the bank either.

And I think there's a mistake that some would make that says, If I'm Andrew or I'm Brian, I'm actually obeying this doctrine that Jesus talked about. But if you notice the progression here, Caleb, the middle guy, the guy with all the money in the bank and so forth, he was actually closer to the will of God than these were. He was further along in this journey.

Let me just say it that way. Now, he hadn't grasped Jesus' teachings yet. But he had dealt with the problems that Andrew had of laziness.

He had dealt with the problems that Brian had of overspending. And he was thinking for the future. He wasn't there yet.

He was still, you know, I think God's will is that we be where Edward is. And if there's anything I want to do to inspire you, is to be someone who wants to shape the world for Jesus. Move down this progression.

Deal with the laziness. Deal with the overspending. You see, there's various ways to waste your life.

You can waste your life by living a life of laziness and idleness, like Andrew did. And you can waste your life by living a life of overspending. Just living for today.

A life of consumption. And finally, it's possible to even waste your life by living a life of accumulation of things that will not last. That's the third way you can waste your life.

And so, even Caleb, if he stays on the course he's doing and doesn't change anything, he is also ultimately, according to what his brother David looked at, he said, I think he's wasting his life. And truly, that's what Jesus said, too. You can waste your life if you're accumulating things that are going to pass away someday.

So let's be like Edward. So how do we do that? I don't want to leave this empty. I don't want to say, hey, you can just go your way and think about this and not give you any practical tools, practical things to do.

Well, let me give you a practical tip. Very simple. Open a checking account.

I think there's a lot of people that raise their children and say, hey, we need to get them at a young age. We need to get them a piggy bank and make it one of those breakable ones that you can't get into and whatever. Put your money into there, and you just keep on adding that up and piling it up.

And then you get old enough, you open a savings account and just keep piling that up. And that's what they teach their children to do. Okay, well, maybe there's a point to all that.

You know what I've encouraged my children to do? You can't do this more younger than a certain age, but that is open a checking account. And the banks look at you funny. Why in the world are you at your age opening a checking account? This is silly.

But a checking account is a very handy tool if you want to shake the world for Jesus. Because a checking account is designed to be a channel, not a reservoir. It's designed to be a channel of money passing through.

Money comes in and money goes out. Now, Brian and Andrew, they probably had checking accounts, and it didn't make any difference. So a checking account is not a magic pill.

It doesn't make you a wasted life. It doesn't change you automatically from being a wasted life to a productive life. But it can be, if you use it right, a very powerful tool.

Because most charities, most people that you can give to today will take a check in some form. I think there's probably more modern, newfangled versions, all these apps and so forth transferring money. I don't understand all that.

I'm not sure it's the best way to do it. A lot of times there's fees involved. Maybe we're going that direction.

But as of right now, my recommendation is open a checking account. That's a very good tool to use. And then start subscribing to newsletters of people that are actually making a difference.

And if you're not sure that they're making a difference, start looking at the newsletter. If you're not sure that their newsletters are telling you the truth, then look at other people who are maybe looking on from a distance. Maybe auditing their books.

Maybe doing a review of their books. There's ways you can tell whether your donations are really making a difference. So back to Edward.

Once he gave those Bibles, those 50 Bibles to the people that needed them, what did he do next? He started investigating more options. He discovered an opportunity called Gifts That Grow. He could give $1 and it would turn into $50, $100 because of donations of products from other people.

He could multiply that in a huge way. $1 of donations would result in maybe $50 of medicine going to people that needed it. Maybe $50 of food or clothing that went to people that needed it because all they needed was the postage, the shipping to get from point A to point B and it would greatly increase the amount that he gave.

And so he was excited about that. He was excited about another program called the Seed Program. Poor people overseas, they don't have enough to eat.

They have land, but they don't have high-quality seeds. And so missionaries are going in there and handing them seeds and giving them the gospel at the same time. And it was amazing how just one small donation could make a huge difference, truckload after truckload of food for one small donation.

And he would shake the world by buying seeds for people that needed them. He would discover about these native evangelists, these poor preachers overseas who are preaching the gospel and it didn't take them much to live, didn't take them near as much to live as it takes an American to go over there and preach the gospel, learn the language and fly on the airplanes and all that stuff that goes with it. And so he would give for these native evangelists.

He learned about literature. He learned how he could give Bibles at a very low cost, books at a very low cost, gospel tracts to people that needed it. It was so exciting to him, this doorway, that going down through these steps, dealing with laziness, dealing with overspending, dealing with love of the world and the things in the world, by dealing with those things in his life, God had opened up the door for him to make a difference that was beyond his comprehension, beyond his wildest dreams, his wildest imagination.

He had a dream one night about a war that was going on, a huge plane, an army. He's in the army. Across the plane is a fortress, an evil fortress with gates in front of it.

And across the doorway there it says, The Gates of Hell. And the commander, his good commander said, Let's go, we're going to attack the gates of hell. You all need to come.

He hands them all weapons, prayer, fasting, singing, rejoicing. But one of the weapons was the weapon of giving. He says, We're going to go and we're going to attack that fortress because within that fortress are needy souls, people that are captive by sin, Satan, and they're perishing.

And I'm calling you to come help. And so they would go and they would use their weapons, whatever weapons they would give. And Jesus had a promise, though.

He said, The Gates of Hell will not prevail against the church. And so they would use their weapons to attack those gates. And the gates would shudder and the gates would tremble and a few more souls would escape to victory.

And Edward was a part of that. Not by going as a missionary. He hadn't been to a foreign mission field once.

Not by going and translating Bibles. That wasn't what God had called him to do. He called some people to that, but that wasn't Edward's calling.

He was sitting at home, shooting his arrows into the enemy fortress with a checkbook and a pen. And we can do the same. And that's what I think, especially if God has called you right now at this place in your time to be one of those guys who wakes up on Monday morning and says, I've got a starting point coming.

I need to go and I've got to work today. And I'm trading my time for money. I think God has called us to that kind of a minimum.

It's a starting point. So often, when God calls you to one thing and says, Look, you're faithful. Well, what happens? If you're faithful in the least, I'm going to make you faithful in much.

If you're faithful in a few things, I'll make you ruler over many things. He opens those doors. So be faithful today.

If you're one of those people that wakes up on Monday with a need to go to work. Let me just read a little something. Somebody else wrote this.

It is a chapter in the book. It's called Put Your Money Into the Message. This was written by Oswald Smith.

He says this, We must decide if we're going to put our money into the building or into the message. For nearly 1900 years now, the church has been putting its money into the building, and instead of getting out the message, we've been erecting magnificent and luxurious auditoriums in which to worship God. Some false cults have been much wiser.

They put their money into their erroneous message. They know that the message is more important than the building. Yet all over the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada, we're still investing in bricks and mortar, whereas God wants us to invest in the message.

Not until the church realizes the message is more important than the building will we be able to evangelize the world. If for every 14 cents invented in the printed page, we can win a soul for Christ, then by all means, we should put our money into the message. God did not tell us to build luxurious churches and invite people to come in.

He told us to go out with the message and preach the gospel to the entire world. Let's put our money not into the building, but into the message. There's one more chapter in this book.

There's a lot more. I'm skimming through it. Still got just a few minutes.

It's called planting in plowed soil. And it's basically this. There's a lot of places.

The whole world needs Jesus. Doesn't matter if they're open to it or not. They need to hear the message.

If they're not going to listen, we at least have a responsibility to warn them. And we're doing that. I've been involved in gospel signs for a long time.

That's one of the burdens. We need to win souls for Christ. But what if they won't be won? Then we need to warn them.

But what if we had a choice? And the choice was between people that we knew were open and people that were not open. People that had their eyes shut to the gospel. They're rich and increased with goods.

They don't want to hear the gospel. But over here is another group of people with the same amount of effort that is hungry for the gospel. They're desperate.

It seems like we should at least prioritize to some extent those that are hungry. And you know who's the most hungry people in the world today? It's the people that have been suffering. The people that are in refugee camps.

The people that have gone through war. They've had their houses blasted apart. They've had some of their family members killed.

Those are the people that are going to be the most open to the gospel. 2020 is a year like no other. Not only are there groups of people around the world in refugee camps, but there was a force that hit this world this year that's totally changed the face of the planet.

I think we call it coronavirus. I think God calls it a plow. I think God is plowing this world and He wants seeds to be planted in the plowed soil.

One of my burdens for sharing the message today and not a week from today or a month from today or a year from today is because right now the plowing is happening. And if we want to be part in sowing seed in a plowed soil, there's never going to be an opportunity. I don't know.

There never has been, let's say, an opportunity like 2020. If there's ever been a time for the body of Christ to rally and do something about the plowed soil that's just waiting to be planted, it's now. There's been plowed soil before this, but the widespreadness of it, it's unprecedented.

It's something that we have right now an opportunity to do something about that I don't think we've ever had. So this is, I think, maybe the greatest giving opportunity that we've ever had in our lifetime. Maybe the greatest one we will ever have.

And in fact, one day that is going to be true because this world's going to end. Okay, one more chapter of the book. And this one's not in the book.

One more chapter that I'm going to share with you. The reason it's not in the book, I just thought about it a few nights ago. Edward is living a life of hard work.

He's living a life of generosity. He's living a life of investigation of all the needs in this world. He goes in a life of giving.

He goes to visit his accountant. And they're doing their annual tax return and his accountant's sitting there across the desk from him with his glasses down on his nose, peering at him. He says, Edward, I see how much money you're making and I see some of the choices you're making.

You know, if you would do things a little different, you could be living a different lifestyle. You could probably have a nicer house than you do right now. You could probably be driving a nicer car than you are right now if you just make some different choices.

You could probably have a good sum of money socked away in a retirement account or in a savings account if you would just make some different choices. Maybe cut back some on this. Oh, yeah, that stuff you're giving to.

Yeah, those things. If you just cut back on that a little bit, then you could probably have some of these things that are well within your reach. And Edward looks back at the accountant and he says, well, he said, actually, I've thought of that.

You know, some of those things would be kind of nice. You know, to have a nice place. I could call my own and, you know, do things.

You know, just a lot of neat things that would go with that. Have enough money in the bank. I don't have to worry about anything anymore, at least by the world.

But he says, you know, every time I start to think about those things, how nice it would be, he says, I'm not judging people who do that. That's fine if God's called them to do that. He says, but I just I keep thinking about Trump.

Trump. And the accountant says, well, OK, what do you mean? I didn't know you were into politics. Oh, no.

He says, sorry, not that Trump. I'm thinking of a different Trump. It's called the last Trump.

And in the Bible, maybe use a more modern translation will say trumpet. So let's use the word trumpet. There's a trumpet coming.

And he says, when that trumpet comes. We're told that the dead in Christ are going to rise. We're going to be caught up together with Jesus in the clouds.

And he says, I think of that trumpet. And all of a sudden, the things you're telling me about, they take on a little different light. They don't quite seem the same as what you just explained to me.

He says, because when that last Trump sounds, that last trumpet and I go start gaining altitude. He says, I keep imagining two different scenarios. And let me just describe to you, Mr. Accountant, these two scenarios.

I think, number one, as I'm going up through the clouds and I'm looking back like a zooming out Google Earth and all the land disappearing before me and around me are other Christians, other saints, angels, everybody. And I look down at this earth and I think, wow, I need to do something quick because I'm never going to see this. He reaches over.

He says, scenario one, I reach over and I tap an angel on the shoulder. Hey, Mr. Angel, can you see down there that house right there? That was mine. He says, I had it paid for.

I made the last mortgage payment last month. It's all paid for. And the angel looks down.

Wow, nice house. He says, but it looks like it's burning. It's on fire.

Oh, sure enough. But hey, look at the car in the driveway. That was a nice car.

It drove perfect. It hummed along. I love driving that thing.

And the angel says, yeah, nice car. But hey, that's burning, too. Well, hey, Mr. Angel, one more thing.

Look at that bank just three miles down the road, the little town there. I had $250,000 cash in that bank. It was all mine.

And the angel says, well, I'm sorry to tell you this, but it looks like the bank is on fire, too. In fact, it looks like everything's burning. That's scenario number one.

But there's another scenario. And this one goes like this. And Edward says, I'm going up through the clouds with angels around me.

And all of a sudden, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I look around, and there's an angel. Hey, Edward, do you see that cloud of people coming over there out of Africa? Those are people that you sent missionaries to to tell them about Jesus.

And over here is a group from India. You see that cloud of people. Those are people you sent gospel tracts to and Bibles to tell them about.

And over here in China, you see that group of people. Some of those are the widows and orphans that you helped feed and clothe and give medicine to. And Edward says, you know, as soon as I start thinking about that last trumpet, all the things that I could be doing, even though they're not wrong in themselves, it puts it into perspective.

And, you know, after thinking about Trump one more time, I I'm not near as tempted, he says. And they go on and prepares taxes. Let's pray.

Lord, we come to you in the name of Jesus. We thank you, God, for all that you've done. We thank you for your glorious kingdom.

We thank you, Lord, that it's a kingdom that will never pass away. And you've called us to be a part of it. And we thank you, Lord, that you've given us so many of us more than what we need.

Tremendous opportunity in this country. Lord, I pray that we would not waste our life or our opportunities. I pray, Lord, that you would show each one of us what your role is for us.

If we go to work every day to use that time for your glory. If we are a homemaker and you called us to do that and raise children, help us to do it faithfully. If you called us into mission work of some sort, help us to do that faithfully.

Whatever you call us to, Lord, but help every one of us to purpose not to waste this precious life that you've given us. Thank you for every person sitting here in this yard. Thank you for the sunshine.

Thank you for the shade. Thank you for the hospitality. Thank you for the nice breeze.

We just bless you, God. You have been good to us. We commit everything to you.

Be with us as we go from here. In Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you, brother. So brother Roger asked us these different guys. The first guy, I wrote him down here.

He was lazy. Have you dealt with that in your life? Have you dealt with just an attitude of laziness where we just don't seem to have any purpose? Maybe you have, but maybe you're like Brian, who our brother encouraged us to deal with overspending. How are you in the area of overspending? Just seeing today as your life, and that's it.

Or maybe you've dealt with that, but you're at Caleb, but he still hasn't dealt with the love of the world. And even though he may not be spending everything today, it's being set aside for something in the world for later. Or maybe you've dealt with that, but you're at the place of David, which was a heartless Christian, really.

You know, he gave his money, but check, that's done. Move on with life. I did my time.

I gave my 10%. I don't really care where it goes to because hopefully people saw it. You know, that's a heartless Christian.

That's not a Christian that's seeking the kingdom of God first. We need to deal with all these things. And hopefully we're at Edward, as he said.

And even if you're at Edward, you know, temptations come. Edward gets older. Edward starts listening to the excuses.

Edward starts looking around and says, you know, that would be nice. Look at this nice area I live in. And one time Edward was pretty zealous about the kingdom, and he starts falling back into maybe some of the others.

We've got to constantly examine ourselves, whether we're in the faith and whether we're staying. If we make it to the end, Jesus said, we will endure. And I can feel that pull in my heart.

And Brother Roger said, you know, this is primarily to us who work. But, you know, I was thinking, you know, you ladies, you're housemakers or homemakers. But you know, you have an incredible calling.

You're the helpmeet of your husband. And you are also the one who encourages him. You are also the one that maybe discourages him, maybe tempts him to do something.

I mean, there's nobody in my life that probably has a bigger word than my own wife. And so, you know, we make these decisions together, whether we're going to be one of these. We make the decisions constantly, and it's constantly facing us which one we're going to keep our focus on.

So let's examine our hearts today. Let's do as the wise man did. He said, are we a channel or are we a reservoir? Something to think about.

Is that money coming in and just stopping? Or is it going out, like through a checking account versus a savings account? Is your checkbook an arrow, he said? Is it going out there and shooting into the kingdom and being used? You know, I read something, and as Brother Roger was talking about it, the news versus, he said, get a newsletter. How much would our heart be changed if all of our news came from missionaries? Think about it. If all the news we ever got came from missionaries overseas, we would have a different outlook, right? So where is our heart? Is our heart consumed with all the politics and all the things in the news? Or is our heart over here looking at all the things happening in the world through the eyes and the lens of a missionary? Brother Roger encouraged us to put our money into the message and not just into the brick and mortar.

Not to get our eyes set on a nice, big, nice church building, but the kingdom of God in it going forward. And that was a powerful illustration at the end there as it zooms out. And the earth, the things of earth are growing strangely dim.

Where is our house going to stand? Is it going to be, oh, it's all burning? Or is it going to be, here they all come? Here's all the people that the Lord has used through our income to help with the kingdom of God. Anybody else? Anybody have something that stood out to them, a testimony? Maybe you want to share something that, something in your heart? Prayer request? Wow. So true.

And you know, you children can be that, you know. Just a little candlelight in the dark can be seen across this field. We were at the grocery outlet and, no, we were at Buy Mart.

And the children helped this lady find crayons. And she was so impressed with that children could be thoughtful outside of themselves that she bought them one of those big cheese ball containers, you know. These little, little things anymore.

I mean, it doesn't take much anymore to be a light. I mean, we were up in Washington and the boys went out and helped this guy. Just, he was working in his field.

And he came over with tears afterwards. Crying. He said, I have not seen boys that seem to be involved, you know.

Seem to work. So you children have an amazing influence on people right now. Anybody else? Amen.

Or God guides, he provides. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Got to be open to the needs around us, Brother Glenn said. Anyone else? I was reporting the missionaries, the native, and I had to stop and kind of regret, you know, on a mission trip to Africa for a month. During this message, I was thinking, yeah, there was probably an impact of what our group did.

But I just wonder how far the impact is. So what's going on is there's still people that were touched back then. I don't know.

I kind of doubt it. I don't know, maybe. But how much more? That much money could have been just multiplied.

Cost of living in this country is so little. Sending them the supplies they need to go out and reach their disability. They can get to and feel like that.

Mm-hmm. Not that I'm against people going if God calls you, but really make sure God calls you. I think, yeah, one of the things Brother Roger said was pray.