UNCLAIMED INHERITANCE

 

Father, open our eyes, that we may see wonderful things in Your law. Jesus, open our minds, so that we can understand the Scriptures. Holy Spirit, teach us all things, and remind us of everything we now receive from You.

—(Psalms 119:18; Luke 24:45; John 14:26)

Did you happen to catch that article on the front page of yesterday’s Evansville Courier?

  • No, not the one that told Vanderburgh County homeowners that our taxes might jump 30% in 2003
  • I’m talking about the one right next that, by staff writer Tom Raithel:
    • "Stock market watchers have been talking a lot lately about ‘CAPITULATION.’ It’s a fancy word that means investors throw up their arms and run, according to Dave Nicholson, senior vice president at A.G. Edwards in Evansville.
    • "…just when experts seem to think the market has hit bottom, it seems to fall a little more. ‘This is the worst market I’ve dealt with in my career,’ said Nicholson, who has 20 years as a stockbroker. ‘This has been a slow bleed.’
    • "Barb Howard, branch manager for Charles Schwab in Evansville, said, ‘For the most part, we have been able to calm (investors’ fears by refocusing them on the LONG TERM…’ That meant stock investors should be looking at holding their investments at least FIVE YEARS.
    • "Thomas Ruder, investment representative with Edward Jones, said… For the first-time investors who have been hurt, ‘they just need to take that as A LEARNING EXPERIENCE…’ "

A while back, Judy told me about someone younger than we are, who had taken early retirement

  • We got to laughing –
    • Looking at our retirement fund…
  • Remember when everybody else’s retirement funds were going through the roof…
    • Ours was going up, too – by INCHES
  • It was like our FRIENDS’ funds had taken the ELEVATOR and OURS were huffing and puffing on the stairs!
    • But finally…exhausted and sweaty in the stairwell…
      • Our little retirement fund heard a "ding!"
        • An ELEVATOR door had opened!
  • Beside itself with excitement, it ran as hard as its little feet could carry it…
    • And do you know what – it MADE it!
  • Before the elevator doors could close – it slipped inside!
    • YES!
  • JUST in time for somebody to cut the elevator CABLE –
    • So we could get in on the FREE FALL…all the way to the bottom

Judy and I have calculated that if we retired today…

    • And if we really watched our expenses and stretched every dime…
  • We figure we could maybe last till CHRISTMAS before we had to unretire and go back to work!

I certainly agree with Barb that, "This is not, in the GREAT SCHEME OF THINGS, such an aberration…"

  • So instead of looking at bank accounts and retirement funds and the stock market today…
    • Why don’t we look at –
      • "The GREAT SCHEME OF THINGS"?
  • We’re talking TRUE long term –
    • Just a little longer than a stock market investor’s drop-in-the-bucket five years!"

Do you know of anybody who has a real gift when it comes to money?

  • I do –
    • It goes beyond good information and training – though some of them have that, too
  • They just have an instinct for it, don’t they? A sixth sense…
    • …for what to buy…WHEN to buy it…and when to get OUT
  • Actually, when it comes to money, I’m a bit of a magician myself –
    • I can make it DISAPPEAR!
      • Anybody else have that gift?

When Tom refers to this financial bloodletting as "a LEARNING experience…"

  • I have to agree
    • It HAS been…
      • …POTENTIALLY…
  • The question is: Have we learned anything USEFUL!?

When Dave talks about that word: "CAPITULATION"…

  • It rings a bell: Let me tell you how Judy and I have "capitulated"
    • We’ve come to face the fact that we don’t HAVE the gift of making money grow
      • We just don’t have the touch
  • Now, don’t misunderstand me –
    • God has been unimaginably GOOD to us!
      • We have FAR more creature comforts than we deserve
  • But have you noticed that no matter how much God blesses you
    • Satan can always trot somebody right under your nose –
      • Somebody who’s got something so much bigger and better than you have –
        • that you start feeling like Job’s TURKEY?

"Well," you say, "Why not learn to be CONTENT with what you have?"

  • And if that’s your advice about how to view things in the short-term down HERE…
    • …you’d be RIGHT!

But contrary to popular opinion, the Bible was not written to make people feel better about being LOSERS

  • God never has been about APATHY…about teaching people how to just get BY!
    • These verses of Scripture that come from the mouth of God are not PLACEBOS for PAUPERS!

In spite of what you may have heard, Jesus is not opposed to your being WEALTHY

  • He just doesn’t want you to set your hopes on wealth that is TEMPORARY!
    • You know – one of those "market CORRECTION" things?

Jesus isn’t telling us we have to be POOR…

  • He’s simply recommending that we expend our PRIMARY energies on being rich…where it COUNTS

Most of us can recite at least part of what we know as "The Lord’s Prayer"

  • But sometimes I’m amazed at how often we forget what Jesus said 60 seconds AFTER teaching us to pray the Lord’s Prayer
  • Just six verses later: Matthew 6:19-21 [p. 685…Zchurch Virtual Bible]

When a rich man dies, reporters always want to know: "How much money did he LEAVE?"

  • Why BOTHER?
    • The answer’s the SAME every time: "ALL of it………"

Bottom line?

  • The difference between wealth on earth and wealth in HEAVEN
    • Is that whatever you and I accumulate in HEAVEN never gets used UP!
      • It’s money designed for ETERNITY!
  • Think about it – no other kind in heaven would even WORK!
    • If money up there could be REDUCED like money down here –
      • It wouldn’t make any difference HOW much treasure you STARTED with…
        • Because in ETERNITY…it would eventually all be used up!
  • So that’s the FIRST reason Jesus says to lay up treasure in heaven
    • You lay up a hundred dollars THERE…
      • And a billion years from now, you won’t have one penny LESS!

But that’s not all…….

In yesterday’s newspaper, Tom said he’s directing investors to stocks with:

  • "REASONABLE dividend yields, around 4 percent or 5 percent"
    • I have no DOUBT that Tom’s right –
      • —that DOWN HERE…4 or 5 percent is REASONABLE

But really…when you INVEST…

  • what you’re DREAMING to find…is something UNREASONABLE
    • AREN’T you?
      • You don’t want anything REASONABLE…
        • You’re looking for something that’s going to shoot up like CRAZY!
  • Now if THAT’S what turns your crank…
    • Matthew 19:29 will flat give you the SHAKES
      • Matthew 19:29 [p. 696]

Jesus says:

  • "Every time you make a sacrifice for Me down here…
    • "I promise to treat it exactly like a brilliant investment –
      • "That pays you back A HUNDRED TIMES as much!
  • "Which is going to come in real handy, in light of the fact that I’ve given you ETERNAL LIFE!

Which, of course, explains the very next verse – verse 30:

  • "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."
    • Let’s see if we can get a handle on this in concrete terms –

Suppose you have to choose whether to pick up an extra four hours each week of overtime pay…

  • Or turn it down in order to set aside the time it takes to be a small group leader…
    • And learn how to pastor and care for and nurture and grow and strengthen a dozen or so people for Christ?
  • Let’s say you make $15 an hour
    • That means that DOWN HERE, becoming a small group leader would cost you $60 a week…
  • Even if you and your small group took the whole summer off – that would still cost you – what?
    • $2,400 a year?
  • And suppose you loved it so much that you got carried away and kept serving God as a small group leader for the next 42 years?
    • Over a lifetime…that single decision would cost you more than $100,000…
      • Down HERE…
  • But what does JESUS promise?
    • That if BY FAITH…you faithfully demonstrate that you love Him THAT MUCH…
  • He will treat what you SACRIFIECED as an INVESTMENT –
    • And repay you 100 times what you invested
  • Any idea what a hundred times $100,000 is?
    • $10 million
  • Spendable – without diminishing by even one dime – for all eternity
    • By the way – we are now signing up ordinary, everyday people…
      • For the simple training required to be small group leaders
  • You really ought to think about it…
    • "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep…to gain what he cannot lose!"

One more thing…

  • Let me quote from a report titled: "United States Unclaimed Funds Search"

BILLIONS of dollars in UNCLIAMED INHERITANCE!

  • Wouldn’t it be a tragedy for you to take all of this to heart this morning and put all these principles into effect and become fabulously wealthy in good deeds...and then never get to spend any of your untold wealth...because you didn't end up in heaven? Wow. Talk about unclaimed inheritance!

Bow heads………