Life Management Blog

Our 5th Gift To Manage: Spiritual Gifts/Talents

2006-12-03T16:48:00.000-08:00

This is from a talk I gave on Sunday, October 15, 2006 and I finally got a chance to post it!

Intro:
I want to start today with a story I saw online…

The great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, willed his amazing violin to Gen-o-a -- the city of his birth -- but only on the condition that the instrument never be played again.

That was too bad, because wood has a unique characteristic that as long as it is used and handled, it shows little wear. As soon as it is discarded, it begins to decay.

The amazing, mellow-toned violin has become worm-eaten in its beautiful case. It’s now valueless except as a relic.

It’s the same with the spiritual gifts and talents we’ve been given, if they’re not used they just decay!

The 5^th gift that God has given us to manage in life is our talents and spiritual gifts. We'll talk more about that in a minute, but first...

Let me let’s go over what we’re trying to do in this series. 5 Sundays ago we started our “Life Management” series and I told you…

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For 5 Sundays, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

The FIRST week, I talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at this as the building block of all we do in life. I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

You only get 1440 minutes everyday. If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes. You can never get more. The only way to make more time is by managing it better. How we manage our time becomes our worship to God.

It makes Time Management a holy thing!

The SECOND week, I talked about the second gift that God has given us to manage, which is health. I showed you in the Bible that God cares about all of us – not just our Spiritual Health, but also our Mental, Emotional and Physical health.

I told you that how you manage your gift of health will decide the quantity and quality of your life.

The THIRD week, I talked about the third gift God has given us to manage, which is our wealth. It’s one of the only gifts that has a dangerous side to it. I told you also that God is the one that gives us the ability to gain wealth.

We looked at three ways to help us manage our wealth better: don’t waste it, grow it and give it.

Last week, I talked about the fourth gift God has given us to manage, which is our relationships.

God’s given us relationships to help us. If you think about it, relationships are the real currency of life! Relationships matter to God! The Bible is filled with ideas about why/how to interact with people! It’s a relational “How-To” book!

We were created for relationships! Daniel Goleman in his new book called “Social Intelligence says is that our minds are wired to connect!

One of our core beliefs as a church is that you need two connections to succeed and reach your full potential: you have to have a connection with God and a connection with others.

If you don't have BOTH of these connections, then you won't be able to reach your full potential! Learning how to manage and grow in our relationships is one of the most important things we can do.

I ended last Sunday by showing you three reasons God’s given us relationships.

You can read these last 4 talks online at my “Life Management Blog”. The web address is in the bulletin.

Today, I want to talk to you about the 5^th gift God has given us to manage which is our talents/spiritual gifts.

God has preloaded and programmed each of us with talents and abilities that he wants us to manage. When we committed our lives to Jesus we were given Spiritual gifts through the Holy Spirit that God wants us to manage. Did you really hear what I just said?

Right now you have two different type of presents: spiritual gifts and talents that God’s given to you. Some of these presents you might know about already BUT some of them you haven’t even discovered yet! They’re waiting dormant in you– ready to be used by you!

Let’s look at the difference between Talents and Spiritual Gifts…

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 Paul talks about Spirtual Gifts. This is what he says this…
⁴Now there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. ⁵There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we’re serving. ⁶There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us. ⁷A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church. Let’s stop there…

Spiritual Gift – This is a spiritual power you’re given to help other believers and to help live out God’s will for your life. – Only a Christian can have Spiritual Gifts! What type of Spiritual Gifts are there? Paul gives us a list of SOME of them in verses 8-11. Listen to what he says…

⁸To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another he gives the gift of special knowledge. ⁹The Spirit gives special faith to another, and to someone else he gives the power to heal the sick. ¹⁰He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and to another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, ^F61 and another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. ¹¹It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

So when you began to follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit came into your life and gave you gifts. He decided which would be right for you based on the purpose God created you for and based on the needs of the church.

So what’s the difference in a talent? A talent is the ability to do something well. A Christ-follower or a non-believer can have talents.

Example:

Talent – playing the piano - You can use this for God or for yourself.
Spiritual Gift – faith - This gift was given to you to help the church – help other Christ-followers.

Let’s think about something for second…

I want to show you a reason WHY you’ve been given these talents and spiritual gifts -- and it’s a reason that you might not of thought of!

To help you see this, I want to go on a tangent for a second that will make sense it a minute.

We Have To Start With Something

Everything that exists started as an idea in someone’s mind. That’s true about this world. All this – including you and me - was once an idea in God’s mind until God created it all!

But, that’s also true about everything else… This building, those chairs, the cars you drove in to get here, this projector – they all started as an idea in someone’s mind until they were made.

Everything started as an idea! But the difference between God and us is this…

Only God can create something completely out of nothing! When we create something we have to start with some kind of material. This building started as an idea, but it had to be created out of wood, sheet rock, steel. Those chairs out of metal, etc…

When we create something we need tools. Hammers, saws, lasers, whatever… God SPOKE this world into existence! Let’s get back to our spiritual gifts and talents and how this ties together…

Our spiritual gifts and talents were given to us to as the starting material to make something in life out of! They were given us to use as tools to start with. Without them we wouldn’t be able to be or do what we were created for!

God wants us to do something with them! He wants us to make something with them!

Jesus tells a story about this you’ve heard before in Matthew 25:14-30…

14 "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.

16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.

20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' 21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

22 "The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' 23 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

24 "Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'

26 "His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

28 "'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Let’s look at this story a little deeper for a minute… Talents are the man’s property – on loan to servants. He gave them and expected them to GROW them! You see, back then, a person would leave servants in charge of his property and expect them to not only KEEP the property, but MAKE him more!

If he left a field of grapes, he didn’t just expect to JUST have a field when he came back! He expected to have more grapes that had grown – or more money from selling the grapes!

It’s the same nowadays. That master isn’t more harsh than any business owner. If you left someone to manage of your store for a month, you expect them to make you some more money by the time you get back!

You don’t want them to say, “I didn’t want anyone to steal anything while you were gone or have to worry about failing you, so I shut down the store for the month you were gone and I gave everyone a vacation. We didn’t make any money last month, but your store is still here! You’d be mad at that manager! He didn’t do his job! He’d be fired! Just like the servant hug buried the talent!

God’s the same! He’s given us talents and gifts to manage and he expects us to gain more for his kingdom with them. He expects us to grow! God wants us to use the talents and spiritual gifts he’s given us for others and for his kingdom!

I want to tell you a story that will give you another unique reason why God has given us talents and spiritual gifts -- Story: The Grain Of Rice

God’s given us our gifts to learn how to rule – to learn how to manage! They’re given to us for practice for what he wants us to do and be. God has given us our gifts/talents to prepare us for what he has for us later in this life and the next life.

Let’s look at the Math of this parable Jesus tells from Matt 25 for second…

The master gave the 1^st servant 5 Talents. How many did the servant make? 5!
The master gave the 2^nd servant 2 Talents. How many did the servant make? 2!
The master gave the 3^rd servant 1 Talent. How many did the servant make? 0!

Notice in the parable that Jesus said the master didn’t give each servant the SAME amount! What’s it say in verse 15?

He gives each based on their ability. God won’t give you more or less than you can use! He won’t give you what you can’t handle! God might have given you more talents and spiritual gifts than me, but I only have to worry about what I’VE been given!

“People are not equal in talent (or gifts), but they can be equal in effort.” We can’t all be equal in what we do for God, but we can be equal in the effort we put into it!!

I want you to notice something else here…

Look what the master said to the servant who received 5 Talents, "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

Now listen to what Master said to the servant who received 2 Talents, "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' De ja vu! Sound familiar doesn’t it?

He said the same thing to BOTH even though the second servant gained 3 less than the first servant! Do you realize what that means? That’s REALLY good news for us!

They both put in equal effort and were rewarded equally! God will reward us for what we do with what we’ve been given – NOT based on what someone else has been given and what they’ve done. He doesn’t compare us! It’s not a competition!

The only person you’re competing against is YOURSELF and what you’ve been given!

Let’s look at the servant that’s punished….

The master said to the servant who received 1 Talent, "'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest '

He got punished because he didn’t even try at all! Back then, “doubling your investments” was a normal thing ANY servant should have been able to do! (Check this fact in commentaries.) These guys weren’t doing some super-star thing!

Imagine facing God one day and you say, “Hey God, I’ve still got that talents and spiritual gifts you gave me!” God says, “Good! So what’d you do with them?”

You say, “Oh nothing! But I’ve still got them. I didn’t LOSE them!” Then God says, “You do ANYTHING with them?” And you say, “No, I didn’t want to fail, so I didn’t do anything, but I protected them!”

God’s not going to be too happy! But wait a second; I want you to realize something if you still think that’s harsh…

It’s pretty hard to do NOTHING at all for God! There might be a lot of people who didn’t gain MUCH – or hardly anything – but to gain NOTHING means you must’ve never really believed in Jesus, because you have nothing to show for it.

Even the worst REAL Christ-follower will have at least done and gained SOMETHING! God expects us to do something with the talents and spiritual gifts He’s given us!

He expects us to use them for Him and others, the best we can. When He returns he wants people will be better off because of us. He wants more people to know him because of us. He wants people to be better Christ-followers because of us!

And through all of it, He wants US to have grown into who he created us to be by USING the spiritual gifts and talents he gave us!

If he’s given you the gift of faith, he expects you to have more faith.
If he’s given you the gift of encouragement, he expects you to have used it to become the best encourager for him you could be!
If he’s given you the talent of singing, he expects you to be the best singer, for him, you can be!

Growth Comes Action

Growth can only happen from use! Muscle, skill, etc… Playing it safe doesn’t help in the end, because you don’t end up with your talent or spiritual gift – you end up with nothing! Your talents and gifts were given to be USED for this life, not to be held onto until the next life!

I want to take a minute and talk to people here who already know you have spiritual gifts and talents. I want to talk to people that are already using their spiritual gifts and talents. I want to encourage you to do something: Go Bigger!

Why should it only be people in business or in science or other fields - that aim high? Donald Trump doesn’t go for just the million dollar deals – he aims for the multi-million dollar ones! Scientists aren’t just trying to help people get better – they’re looking for the cure for cancer or the cure for AIDS!

If you’ve been using your spiritual gifts and talents already, then good! That’s better than some people. But don’t settle for that! Go bigger! Set BIGGER goals for what you can do and be for God! Ask God for a bigger vision!

Here’s what I also want to challenge you to do… Use your passions to change the world! That’s what Jesus did with a small group of fishermen! Remember?

Matt 4:18-22

Jesus is walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee and he sees these two guys he’s met before. (He met them when John the Baptist pointed out Jesus and said, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”)

He sees Andrew and Peter fishing, which is what they did for a living. He called out to them and says, “Come be my disciples and I will show you how to fish for people.”

I won’t you to notice some things. Jesus is picking two guys who have common interests:

They’re fisherman! It’s their passion!
Not only that, they’re brothers.

They have a huge amount of things in common just because of these two facts!

And when he calls them out he use the language of their common interest. He says, “Come be my disciples and I will show you how to fish for people.” Or some translations translate it, “I will make you fishers of men.”

In a way, he’s saying I will teach how to use your interest, what you’re passionate about (fishing), and then use it gather up people.

Back to the story…v. 21-22…

Right away, Simon and Andrew leave their nets and follow Jesus. As they go a little further up the shore with Jesus they see two more brothers: James and John. They’re also fisherman and they’re sitting in a boat mending their nets with their father Zebedee. Jesus calls out to them and tell them to follow him too. And they do! They leave their father with the hired help.

James and John know Simon and Andrew. In Luke 5, we find out that they fished together as partners in the fishing business. That means that these guys (James & John) had the common interest of being fisherman and they also knew Simon and Andrew well. Plus, they were also brothers!

Do you see how Jesus is strategically choosing people that already have connections?

Jesus knew that people with the same interests and passions already have a natural connection and even use the same language. He knew that if they were connected around a Common interest(s) that they could them use those interests to change themselves and the world!

Quote from Mark’s book pg. 121 – if have time Use your passion to change the world!!! Use your passions to…

Connect: Get to know each other, grow in friendship and trust. Like I’ve told you before - we all need these types of friends!

Grow: Grow in your knowledge of God, his word and in your relationship with him

Reach out: Reach out to other people who have the same common interests, but who just might not know Jesus and invite them to hang out with your group.

Minister: Use your common interests to directly or indirectly minister to others. (People that are a part of our church or the community) Builders can use their passion to help a needy person.

Close/Close series:

God has given you (you already have) spiritual gifts and talents! They’re the material and tools God given you to make something out of in your life! Without them you can’t be or do what we were created for! But we have to use them! We have to manage them and use them to help others, build God’s kingdom, and reach our destiny! Go big with your gifts and talents – aim high!

Those are the 5 gifts I wanted to look at. I hope I’ve inspired you to be a better manager! How you manage these 5 gifts (these 5 raw materials of life) from God: Time, Health, Money, Relationships and Talents/Gifts will have a HUGE effect on what you accomplish in life and what you become.

There are other gifts that God’s given us, but these are the major ones! To succeed in life we have to be successful managers and take care of what God’s given us. Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your these gifts or cherish them?

We need to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help us. We need to regularly focus on each of these different areas and do a check up to see how we’re doing. We need friends to keep us accountable in these area.

I’m going to keep blogging about these different areas and rotate the emphasis on each one, because I need to keep living this out! You’re welcome to read the blog and comment – interact and let’s grow together! Let’s pray!

Our 4th Gift To Manage: Relationships -- Part 2

2006-10-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

(I left off with Pt. 1 here)

I want to remind us today about some of the benefits God's given us in the gift of relationships and try to inspire us all to cherish and manage this gift more!

1. God gave us relationships for influence.

We’re like chameleons. We become like the people we hang around. God created us in a way that we influence others and they influence us. The people we hang out with the most have the most influence on us!

Proverbs 22:24 gives us an example of this. Listen to what it says, “24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, 25 or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.”

If you hang around someone who gets angry easily you will too!

In the book “The Power Of Focus” one of the co-author’s, Jack Canfield, tells what his mentor taught him about this idea…

“One of the first things my mentor, W. Clement Stone, suggested I do was to make a list of my friends. Then he directed me to put the letter “N” next to each person who nourished me and encouraged me to be great – people who were positive, optimistic, solution-oriented and had a can-do attitude. Next, he asked me to pit the letter “T” beside every person who was toxic – people who were negative, whined, complained, put down other people and their dreams, and who were generally pessimistic in their outlook. Then he asked me to stop spending time with the people who had a “T” next to their names. This is one lesson you must learn – surround yourself with positive people. Mr. Stone taught me that you become like the people you hang out with. If you want to be successful, you must hang out with successful people.”

You want to do well in school? You want to be more productive at work? You want to be a better Christ-follower?

Find a friend like this!!

Think about this...

Each relationship you have has a give and receive factor. Some relationships are more one way or the other. You need both types of relationships!

If you only have relationships that you give to, you'll feel drained.
If you only have relationships that you receive from, but none that you can give to, you won't grow.

Why?

Because we grow when we give/teach someone else! If you don’t have any relationships where you can give/help/teach the other peoples, you won't feel fulfilled!

We need both of these types of friendships!

I want to encourage everybody here to: find a mentor and be a mentor.

It can be an official mentorship where you ask someone to be your mentor or you look for someone to mentor OR it could be an informal thing where you've prayed and asked God to help you pick friends that can help you grow and to show you friends who you can help grow!

This is really important spiritually, but it's also important to have people like this in any and every area of life you can!

Watch how you grow when you find someone to mentor you. Watch how you grow even more when you start mentoring someone else!

One of the commandments Jesus gave in Matthew 28 is “go into all the world and make disciples...”

Start to pray that God would give you someone to disciple and that he'd give you someone to disciple you! This is a prayer God WANTS to answer in your life!

2. God's given us relationships to protect us.

I've told you this before we ALL need someone to speak the truth to us (encouragement and warnings) and someone we can speak truth to (confess).

Here are two verses in Proverbs that show us the friend speaking truth to us part that we need...

Prov. 27:6
“Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.”

Prov. 27:9
“The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. 10Never abandon a friend—either yours or your father's. Then in your time of need, you won't have to ask your relatives for assistance. It is better to go to a neighbor than to a relative who lives far away.”

See, the speaking truth to us part, can and should be encouragement sometimes and warnings at other times!

We need friends to speak the truth in both these ways! Encouragement keeps us going and warnings protect us!

Who’s your friend who does this for you? If you don’t have one, then pray and ask God to give you someone like this!

In the book of James, Jesus’ brother tells us about the part about needing someone to speak the truth to us. He says this in James 5:16… “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

We NEED people we can confess to so that we can heal and move on in life!

Daniel Goleman in his book “Social Intelligence” says it like this…

“Simply reviewing something painful from the past with someone who helps us see a different perspective… can gradually loosen some of the distress by recoding disturbing memories. This may be one reason for the relief that can come when client and therapist rehash troubles: the talk itself may alter the way the brain registers what’s wrong!”

These are all things I've talked to you about before, but it's good for you and me to be reminded about these things!

I want to take the rest of the time today and talk about the most important and influential relationships God has given us...

Our relationships with our families! These relationships can be some of the best and/or the worst relationships we have!

3. Our families (Parents, Sibling, Spouse, Kids) are the foundation God’s given us in life.

God gave us families for love, support, strength, encouragement, help, etc.

He cares how we treat them!

The Bible is filled with advice to obey your parents, love and respect your spouse, love your children, how to raise your kids,..

Have you ever thought of the POWER there is in a family?

· There’s no other group that knows you as intimately – the real you.

· There’s no one you can call “yours” like you can your family.

· There’s no one else you can love like your own father, mother, brother, sister or your own child.

· There’s no other person who can teach you like a parent can.

· There’s no one else you’ll probably influence as much (for bad or good) than your own kid.

· There’s no other person who can love you/hurt you like a family member can.

If you had a bad family, here’s the good news: God gives you 2 ways to make your own family!

1. God gives us the ability with a spouse you create a new family unit.
You are your family's chance to change the direction for your descendants – to redeem them!

If you had a bad family, upbringing, think about this...

What if you were given to your family as a GIFT to change the future of your family line? What if you were given to given your family line another chance at following God?

2. The other way to make a family of your own is through your friendships. Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Either way you look at, your our family (your birth family, new created family, or "family" friends) is your foundation. They’re your cheering section.

They are your future - literally. Jack, Will and Addison will be alive way after I’m gone! They are who/what I leave behind to influence this world.

We need to invest time in these relationships! We need to reinforce our foundations!

Zig Ziglar said this about relationships with our families…

"The evidence is convincing that the better our relationships are at home, the more effective we are in our careers. If we're having difficulty with a loved one, that difficulty will be translated into reduced performance on the job. In studying the millionaires in America (U.S. News and World Report), a picture of the "typical" millionaire is an individual who has worked eight to ten hours a day for thirty years and is still married to his or her high school or college sweetheart. A New York executive search firm, in a study of 1365 corporate vice presidents, discovered that 87% were still married to their one and only spouse and that 92% were raised in two-parent families. The evidence is overwhelming that the family is the strength and foundation of society. Strengthen your family ties and you'll enhance your opportunity to succeed."

Friendships and families really are God’s gifts to us!

We need to invest more time with them. We need to invest more time in talking with them, listening to them, laughing with them, encouraging them, forgiving them and praying for them.

“Success guru” Brian Tracy says this in his book “Focal Point” says it like this “Happiness in life, in large measure, comes from good relationships with other people – in your family and your personal life as well as at your work.”

Later he says… “You owe it to yourself to become a relationship expert.”

We need to invest time in our relationships.

We need to give and serve our friends and family. They’re our greatest assets. They gift us emotional strength and encouragement.

You don’t want to run the race of life and win and realize you have no one to celebrate with!

Next, we’ll look at the last gift that God has given us to manage as we finish this series.

What's Your Habit?

2006-10-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'll finish posting the last parts to the 4th gift and then post the 5th gift talk here, but...

I found this blog post on "Have a Friday Habit" by Tim Sanders (author of "Love Is The Killer Ap" and "The Likeability Factor") and I thought I should tell you know about it.

It's all about measuring our goals/accomplishments in shorter time spans.

It's a good article on managing that 1st Gift God's given us to manage: Time!

Check out Tim's article here.

Our 4th Gift To Manage: Relationships -- Part 1

2006-10-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

I want to start with a story today that Max Lucado tells in his book, In the Eye of the Storm …

Clovis Chappell, a minister from a century back, used to tell the story of two paddleboats. They left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail's pace of the other. Words were exchanged. Challenges were made. And the race began. Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the Deep South.

One boat began falling behind. Not enough fuel. There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race. As the boat dropped back, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship's cargo and tossed it into the ovens. When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport. They ended up winning the race, but burned their cargo.

God has entrusted cargo to us, too: children, spouses, friends. Our job is to do our part in seeing that this cargo reaches its destination. Yet when the program takes priority over people, people often suffer. How much cargo do we sacrifice in order to achieve the number one slot? How many people never reach the destination because of the aggressiveness of a competitive captain?

It's so easy in the race of life to focus so much on trying to achieve and win that we forget what's really important in our lives!

Many of us don't realize the gifts that God's given us in the people he's put in our lives.

When we get to the end of our lives we're not going to wish we owned more things or had more power or fame or got more degrees!

On your deathbed, none of these things are going matter anymore!

What will matter? You're going to wish you had more relationships and that you would've treasured and invested more in the ones you had!

The fourth gift that God has given us to manage in life is relationships. We'll talk more about that in a minute, but first...

Let me let’s go over what we’re trying to do in this series.

4 Sundays ago we started our “Life Management” series and I told you…

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For 5 Sundays, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

The FIRST week, I talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at this is the building block of all we do in life. I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

You only have 1440 minutes given to everyday. If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes. You can never get more. The only way to make more time is by managing it better. How we manage our time becomes our worship to God.

It makes Time Management a holy thing!

The SECOND week, I talked about the second gift that God has given us to manage, which is health. I showed you in the Bible that God cares about all of us – not just our Spiritual Health, but also our Mental, Emotional and Physical health.

I told you that how you manage your gift of health will decide the quantity and quality of your life.

Last Week, I talked about the third gift God has given us to manage, which is our wealth. It’s one of the only gifts that has a dangerous side to it. I told you that God is the one that gives us ability to gain wealth.

God cares how we handle our wealth. We saw in what Jesus said at the end of a parable in Luke that, in some ways, how we manage our wealth is “practice” for the TRUE riches that God wants to give us!

I showed you three ways that will help us to manage our wealth better: don’t waste it, grow it and share/give it. You can read these last three talks here on the “Life Management” Blog. Don’t forget to email your friends any posts that you think they’d like!

Today we’re going to look at this 4th gift: Relationships.

God’s given us relationships to help us. If you think about it, relationships are the real currency of life! Relationships matter to God! Think about how much of the Bible is about why/how to interact with people!

Here's just some of what God's word tells us...

"Do for others what you would like them to do for you."
Matthew 7:12

"Stop judging others, and you will not be judged."
Matthew 7:1 (Jesus of Nazareth)

"And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?"
Matthew 7:3 (Jesus of Nazareth)

"Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don't be concerned that they might not repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate."
Luke 6:25-26 (Jesus of Nazareth)

This book teaches us to treasure people – to treasure our relationships!

It's a manual on successful human relationships!

I want you to realize something...

We were created for relationships! Daniel Goleman the author of the books “Emotional Intelligence” and “Primal Leadership” just recently came out with a book called “Social Intelligence”. I've been reading it and it reveals some pretty amazing things about the science of relationships!

One thing he says is that our minds are wired to connect! They are designed to connect with others! Listen to what he says...

“…our nervous systems are ‘constructed to be captured by the nervous systems of others, so that we can experience others as if from within their skin. At such moments we resonate with their experience, and they with ours. We can no longer… see our minds as so independent, separate and isolated, but instead we must view them as “permeable,” continually interacting as though joined by an invisible link.”

One of our core beliefs as a church is that you need two connections to succeed and reach your full potential: a connection (relationship) with God and a connection with others.

If you don't have BOTH of these connections, then you won't be able to reach your full potential!

It's obvious that without a connection to God you can't reach your full potential, but even with a connection to God, but not a connection to others you still can't become all that God created you to be!

When it was just God and Adam in the Garden of Eden, God said, “It's not good for man to be alone.” People were created for us to have relationship with, as a gift because relationships are a good thing. They’re what we need!!

Learning how to manage and grow in our relationships is one of the most important things we can do.

Dale Carnegie in his classic book “How To Win Friends And Influence People” said…

“Dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you are a business man. Yes, and that is also true if you are a housewife, architect, or engineer.”

A little later he gives the results from a Carnegie Institute Of Technology study that revealed..

“…even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one’s financial success is due to one’s technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering – to personality and the ability to lead people.”

Learning how to handle relationships with others in one of the most important skills we can have!

I want to remind us today about some of the benefits God's given us in the gift of relationships and try to inspire us all to cherish and manage this gift more!

I'll show you the first thing I want you to see about relationships when I continue tomorrow...

Our 3rd Gift To Manage: Wealth -- Part 3

2006-10-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

This is the third and last way I'm going to show us how to manage our money the right way today.

This last way is the THE major way to PROTECT and INSULATE yourself from the danger of wealth/money...

The third way to manage your money is to Give It Away/Share it!

Giving money keeps God “god” and keeps money from becoming your “god”!

John Piper in his book “What Jesus Demands From The World” says it like this…

“So the reason money is so crucial for Jesus is that across all cultures and all ages it represents the alternative to God as the treasure of our hearts, and therefore the object of our worship. It becomes the great threat to our obedience to the first and last of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3), and “You shall not covet” (Exod. 20:17). Money represents all the other material things and securities and pleasures that it can buy. Therefore, it represents the great alternative to God in our hearts. This is why what we do with our money is so crucial to Jesus.”

I want to give you some tips about giving today from what the Apostle Paul gives us in 2 Corinthians 9:6-14…

6Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give. Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully. 8And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9As the Scriptures say, "Godly people give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will never be forgotten." F29

10For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

11Yes, you will be enriched so that you can give even more generously. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will break out in thanksgiving to God. 12So two good things will happen—the needs of the Christians in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanksgiving to God. 13You will be glorifying God through your generous gifts. For your generosity to them will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. 14And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the wonderful grace of God shown through you.

Let's look at some of these tips:

Giving is always to God, not a church or pastor.
V.13-14 13 says You will be glorifying God through your generous gifts. For your generosity to them will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. "

Giving is a form of worship. It’s form of thanksgiving, a form of obedience.

You’re giving it to GOD to be used by a church or ministry. You’re NOT just giving to them.

There are two main areas the God says we should focus our giving on: poor/needy and ministry.

Give to as many ministries as you can, but you should first make sure give to God by giving to the local body of believers you are a part of!

Why?

That’s where God has planted you. It’s where you’re being fed spiritually. It will bless the church you are a part of, so it blesses the people you know. It helps your church to be able minister more effectively to the area where God’s put you!

The next giving tip is...

Giving should be planned.
V. 7 says, "You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give…”

Gene Getz said…

"When money is available because we've planned our giving, it becomes a joyful experience to share it with others. We've not only prepared our hearts for that moment, but we've prepared our hearts in a broader way ahead of time, because we've arranged our giving together with our overall financial plans. In other words, we've prepared a budget.

"Conversely, when we don't plan our giving, we usually don't have money to give. Many of us tend to allow our standard of living to rise to our present level of income. Then, when we're asked to give (either regularly to meet the ongoing needs of the ministry or through special gifts for special needs), we respond reluctantly. This is understandable, since we've already spent our excess funds on our own needs and desires or laid aside that excess for our future benefit.

"Under such circumstances, negative emotions are predictable. Often we not only have no excess to give to God's work, but we're worried that we won't even have enough money to meet what we believe are our own needs. Yet, as with the Corinthians, this problem often is not God's but ours – the result of not becoming systematic planners and givers."

That's why w should plan our giving ahead of time!

How much will you give to God to be used for your church this month? How much will you give to Missions (reaching people here and in other countries)?

Most of us don’t carry cash, so we won’t have anything to give if we don’t plan it out!

The next tip is...

Give with happiness.
Paul says in V. 7 “Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully."

Don’t give cause you have to. Give because you want to! God doesn’t want your offering if you don’t want to give it!

The next tip...

Give a Tithe.
“Tithe” means 10%. In the Old Testament under the old covenant it was required. But the New Testament doesn’t mention it, so some people think it doesn’t apply anymore. (The funny thing is that the N.T. shows examples of some who gave way more than 10%, but that’s another story!)

I give my tithe NOT because I have to but because I want to! I give my tithe out of FAITH because I believe God’s given me all I have! I give it out of WORSHIP and THANKSGIVING for what he’s given me!

I do it to remind myself and show God I believe he’s going to KEEP providing for me!

This is one of the few areas where God tells us to test him!

Malachi 3:10-12 says "10Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD Almighty, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! 11Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. F6 Your grapes will not shrivel before they are ripe," says the LORD Almighty. 12"Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight," says the LORD Almighty.

If you think about it the tithing is an amazing offer.

God’s saying, "I’ll give you everything, just give me back 10%." If you do, I’ll bless you even MORE!!!

It’s a SMART plan for God to create. It keeps us remembering that He’s our source. It keeps you relying on Him while at the same time it provides for the needs of the local church you’re a part of (v.10 "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple.)

Paula Davis told her story about her business making baby carriers that she started just awhile ago. She said that her sales started to dry up and she couldn't figure out why.

She realized she hadn't been tithing what she was making, so she tithed that Sunday.

That day she got 3 orders!

The sales stopped again and she tithed again and got a sale that day!

Tithing doesn't always work that fast or isn't always connected to seeing a direct blessing of money back.

Don't do it to get something back. Do it, because it's your worship, thanksgiving and faith in God for ALL he's done for you.

I have always tithed since I was a teenager. I don’t even think about it anymore. It's something on auto-pilot. I usually pay it first. It’s a habit.

If you haven’t been doing this, you might not even have the full 10% to give to God – even IF you wanted to!

If you don’t have it, but want to, then here’s my advice…

Start with what you can - maybe 5% or whatever - and make it your goal to work up to 10%.

REMEMBER:
Don’t do it to just to get back, but watch how God keeps his promise and blesses you!

You want to know something else?

This idea of tithing is talked about in a lot of secular success books as the KEY to gaining wealth! (I showed a stack of 4 books I brought.) They call it something like "a universal law of nature" or something like that!

That proves to me it’s a principle that works! Try it and see!

Here's the last tip on giving...

God will bless you when you give!
You’ll be rewarded now and in the next life. This is the way to store up treasures in heaven! Think of it as building up your Spiritual Assets column!

Jesus said it like this in Luke 6:37-38...
“Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down and overflowing… With the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

This is another thing I say a lot because I want it to lock in your and my minds…

God is looking for givers to give to! He’s looking for people to bless who will share the blessing with others and give it to be used to see God’s work that needs to be done here and around the world.

W. Graham Scroggie says something that I think we really need to think about…

“There are two ways in which a Christian may view his money--'How much of my money shall I use for God?' or 'How much of God's money shall I use for myself?'"

Money/wealth is a powerful gift.

You can use this power for good or evil. You can use it to hurt or heal. You can use it to help yourself or others.

If you have enough of it you can do amazing things that can have eternal results!

Managing your money in ways to please God is done by managing our money in the rights ways we looked at today: not wasting it, growing it and giving it!

How can you keep from loving money is by holding it loosely. Be generous to God and others. Don’t look to it for security, but only to God the provider!

When you do you’re money will grow and bless you and others in ways you wouldn’t believe!

Our 3rd Gift To Manage: Wealth -- Part 2

2006-10-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

This is continued from yesterday...

The first way to manage our money the right is...

1. Don’t waste it!

How can we do that?

Make and Keep Budget – This helps you now how much you have and where it's going. It’s obvious, but I bet you most wealthy people do this and most poor people don’t! In order to not waste our money we have to control it and track it!

Save Some Of What You Make – In Genesis 41, Joseph is released from prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. Joseph tells Pharaoh that the dreams mean that there will be 7 years of great prosperity and then 7 years of famine – a famine so bad that the prosperity will be gone and people will forget about those 7 good years!

The Pharaoh asked Joseph what to do. Listen to Joseph’s advice in verses 33-36…

33"My suggestion is that you find the wisest man in Egypt and put him in charge of a nationwide program. 34Let Pharaoh appoint officials over the land, and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. 35Have them gather all the food and grain of these good years into the royal storehouses, and store it away so there will be food in the cities. 36That way there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come. Otherwise disaster will surely strike the land, and all the people will die."

Joseph told them to save some of what they brought in!

He was telling them to live out the advice God’s word gives us in Proverbs 21:20,"The wise man saves for the future but the foolish man spends whatever he gets."

The Pharaoh not only took the advice, but put Joseph in charge! And look at what happened in Genesis 41:53-57…

53At last the seven years of plenty came to an end. 54Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. There were crop failures in all the surrounding countries, too, but in Egypt there was plenty of grain in the storehouses. 55Throughout the land of Egypt the people began to starve. They pleaded with Pharaoh for food, and he told them, "Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you." 56So with severe famine everywhere in the land, Joseph opened up the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians. 57And people from surrounding lands also came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe throughout the world.

I’m not a prophet. I can’t interpret your dreams, but I can tell you this…

There are going to be times of prosperity in your life and times of famine! The one way to survive those times of famine is to do what Joseph told Pharaoh to do. Save some of everything thing you make!

Don’t Use Credit Cards If You Can - If you have to use them, pay them off at the end of each month. Prov. 22:7 says, "Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.”

When I was youth pastor in Burlingame I wasn’t getting paid enough to live in this area and we went into debt! That's one of the reasons we went back East, so we could live with my in-laws for free and recover financially.

How To Get Out Of Debt. I heard this idea from a financial planner...

1. Find an extra $50 a month you currently are wasting somewhere. Cut out Starbucks twice a week and bring lunch to school/work and you'll easily find and extra $50!

2. Take that $50 and every month add it to the payment your making on your smallest credit card bill. Example: Let's say your smallest bill was $1200 and you were paying $50 a month on it. Take that extra $50 and now pay $100 towards that bill!

3. When you pay that bill off take that payment you were making and add it to your next smallest credit card bill. Example: Let's say your next smallest bill was $2400 and you have been paying $100 every month on it. Take the $100 you were paying to the $1200 bill you just paid off and add it to this payment! Now you're paying $200 a month on your $2400 bill.

4. Keep repeating the process and when you pay off that bill take that amount and add it your next smallest bill then do the same with the next until you're out of debt!!

The cool thing about this idea is that you only had to find that extra $50. After that you were only taking money you were already paying towards your debt.

Do whatever you can to get out of debt, so you don’t have to waste your money on all that interest you’re paying!

Those are some ways to help you stop wasting your money, but managing our wealth is more than just not wasting our money! I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it…

Most of us know how to subtract money, but hardly any of us know how to multiply it!

Most of us have spent money we don’t have but how many of us can MAKE money without using any money to do it? How many of us have the skills to take money you’re given and GROW it?

The next step to help us manage our money the right way is...

2. Grow it!
I want you to see some charts from the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki that I think will help us to know how to grow our money more…

His definition of an asset and a liabilit...

Assets = Puts money in pocket
Liability = Takes money out of your pocket

Poor Cash Flow = Don’t own anything, so no liabilities. All money come in from job and out for expenses.

Middle Class Cash Flow = Money comes in from job and it goes to cover liabilities and expenses. He says that the Middle class has a problem. They spend money on liabilities they think are assets!

Rich Cash Flow = The rich focus on buying assets that keep putting more money in their pockets!

He shows...

Middle Class Person’s Income Statement = Income and Expense are equal. Their liabilities are more than their assets. Whenever income goes up they spend more on expenses or liabilities. That leaves them with no money to buy any Assets!

Rich Person’s Income Statement = Income is more than their expense. Their assets are more than their liabilities. They spend more money on Assets so their asset column is always growing!

If we’re going to be wise managers of what God’s given us, then we should invest more in assets! We should reproduce the money God’s given us and not just spend it!

We also need to see more of the opportunities that are all around us!

Have you ever noticed what a person who comes here from another country does? They seize the opportunities. Many of them do that by starting their own business.

We need to not only learn how to reproduce the money we have, but also how to make money from our hidden assets!

In Cracking The Millionaire Code by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen the talk about how to uncover your hidden assets...

What do you know that people would pay you to teach them? Your life experience is worth money to someone! Pg. 67
Your problems could be worth money. Find a solution to your problems and teach others to do it and you can make money! P. 68

There are ton of other ways you can read and study about on your own on how to make money.

My story:
Talk about my Recession ebook. I got 20 top business and marketing experts to write a book for ME from an idea I read in an ebook.

When you grow you’re money you’re managing it in a way that is pleasing to God!

If I gave you $1,000 to help you out and you took $300 and paid off some debt, $200 and got some things you needed (but usually couldn’t afford), and then invested the last $500 in something that paid you $100 a month for the next 2 years I’d be really happy!

I’d be way happier than if you just spent it all and wasted it on a big screen TV, going to the movies, and dinners out!

God wants you to grow the wealth he gives you!

But, here’s the key… He doesn’t want you to just have more money to keep it all to yourself!

Jesus tells a parable of a man that gained more wealth through a grain field he had and then built bigger storehouses to hold it all!

Jesus said he was foolish because he didn’t know he life was going to end that night!

The next step to help us manage our money the right way will actually help protect and insulate us from the dangers on money!

Continued tomorrow...

Our 3rd Gift To Manage: Wealth -- Part 1

2006-10-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

I want to start today by talking about unseen dangers. These are the little-known dangers that are around us, all the time. You can look just where you live and find them!

Did you know…

Household dryers can be dangerous? Dryers cause more than 15,000 house fires every year.
Toothpaste is poisonous?
If you shallow too much of it can actually kill you!

There are dangers like this from everyday items that we use all the time. I saw something funny online when I typed in “warning labels” on Google…

These are labels from the Fourth Annual M-LAW Wacky Warning Label Contest…

On Shin pads
"Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover."

On a toilet
"Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking."

MY FAVORITE label On A Jet ski
"Warning: Riders of personal watercraft may suffer injury due to forceful injection of water into body cavities either by falling into the water or while mounting the craft."

WINNER - HEAT GUN THAT WARNS: “DO NOT USE AS HAIRDRYER”!

The scary thing to me about these is that they had to put these warnings out because someone tried to DO there things!!

The gift we’re going to look at today is another amazing gift that can do a lot of good in our lives and others lives, but there also is a major danger comes with it.

It’s a danger that most of us don’t even think about, but it’s serious! It has the power to ultimately destroy our lives!

We’ll look more at that in a second, but first…

Let me remind you about what we’re trying to do in this series. 3 Sundays ago, we started our new “Life Management” series and I told you…

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For 5 Sundays, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

The FIRST week, I talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

You only have 1440 minutes given to you everyday. If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes. You can never get more. The only way to make more time is by managing it better. How we manage our time becomes our worship to God.

It makes “Time Management” a holy thing!

LAST week, I talked about the second gift that God has given us to manage, which is health. I showed you in the Bible that God cares about all of us – not just our spiritual health, but also our mental, emotional and physical health!

I told you that how you manage your gift of health will decide the quantity and quality of your life you have.

You can read these last two talks on the “Life Management” Blog (here). You can also email your friends to read any posts that you think they’d like!

Today we’re going to look at the 3rd gift. The third gift God’s given us to manage is Wealth.

This gift has one major danger.

It’s the danger that we’ll begin to seek this gift MORE than the gift giver – that we’ll love and rely on it more than God! The danger is that we’ll look to it as the source of our provision, instead of God.

Jesus warns us in Luke 16:13 - "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

So, the question is…

How can we protect ourselves from the danger of this gift?

The first way is to remember that God is the ultimate source of whatever amount of wealth we have!

Some of you might think, “Wait a minute! God didn’t give me my wealth! I worked for it!” That might be partially true, but God gave you the ability to gain wealth.

In Deut. 8:18, Moses told the Israelites not to forget, after God brought them into the promised land and blessed them, that He was their ultimate source! He said in verse 18... "Always remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill the covenant he made with your ancestors…”

When we forget the REAL source of our wealth we forget who to thank and who we really owe!

I think I told you this story before about a conversation between a self-made millionaire and his pastor, but I want you to hear it again…

The self-made millionaire told his pastor, "I started out with nothing. My parents were broke and didn't give me a thing. I put myself through school. And from the time I was a kid till now, nobody's ever given me anything."

The pastor asked, "You did it all by yourself?" The man said, "That's right." The pastored asked, "And nobody's ever given you a thing?" The man replied, "Not a thing."

”Well, let me ask you this," said the pastor. "Who gave you life? Who gave you your marvelous brain, your talents, your natural abilities? Who changed your diapers and put food on your table as a child? Who taught you how to read and write? Who spent hours, weeks, and years educating you?"

The pastor continued, "Who gave you your first job? Who mentored you in business? Who lent you money to start your own business? Who raised a little girl and nutured her into a woman who could give you herself, her love, and your children?"

Still the pastor questioned him, "Who buys your products? Who takes care of your customers and manages your offices?" Who gave you your health? Who cleans your home, your office buildings, and the toilets?"

The pastor finished by saying, "If you can still look me in the eye and tell me you've done it all by yourself and that nobody has ever given you anything, then my last question is: Who has blinded your eyes and given you such a foolish, arrogant, and ungrateful heart?"

The self-made millionaire was silent for a few minutes. It was one of those eureka moments. Then he said, "What do I have that I haven't been given?"

This self-made millionaire started a letter writing campaign. He wrote to everyone who had influenced his life and said, "Thank you!"

This man's name is John Marks Templton and he said in his autobiography, "For more than 30 years my family sent Thanksgiving cards, rather than Christmas cards to our friends, desiring to spread our gratitude for the many gifts of life."

We need to always remember that we got where we are today because of other people’s help!

Ultimately, we owe all that we have and all that we are to God!

Remembering He’s our source and thanking him regularly is one way to protect and insulate ourselves against the dangers of wealth.

We’ll look at some more ways to protect ourselves later, but first I want you to understand that God has given you the wealth you have, and because of that, He wants you to manage it in the best way you can!

If we manage it the right way it can bless us, bless others and bring glory to God. If we don’t, it can be a curse to you and your offspring!

I want you guys to understand that God cares not just about you giving your money, but also about you growing your money and not wasting it!

If you come to be with a church you EXPECT me to warn you about the dangers of money. You expect me to talk about sharing/giving your money, which I will, but first I want to talk to you about how to grow it and not waste it!

If we’re going to use our money in ways that please God we have to know how to handle it better! Listen to how Jesus ends this parable in Luke 16:10-12…

10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

God cares about how we handle our money!

How we handle worldly wealth, is in some ways, practice for the “true riches” that come from God!

That’s why I want to show you today 3 ways that can help us manage our money the right way.

Let’s look at the first way…

Continued tomorrow...

Our 2nd Gift To Manage: Health -- Part 4

2006-09-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Continued from yesterday...
(Remember: These are my unedited notes, so don't get bothered by any punctuation or spelling errors!)

The last area that effects our physical health is our Downtime (Rest/Sabbath/relieve stress).

How much downtime you give your body has a huge effect on your health!

In Mark 6, Jesus sent the disciples out in ministry groups. They had a lot of success and came back and told Jesus about it.

Listen to the advice he gave them in Mark 6:30-32..
30 The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and what they had taught. 31 Then Jesus said, "Let's get away from the crowds for a while and rest." There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn't even have time to eat. 32 They left by boat for a quieter spot.

Jesus cared about the disciples need for quiet and rest. He stopped them from being in "workaholic, adrenaline" mode and got them to pause from the busyness, because he knew our bodies need proper rest!

I heard on a recent news report that SLEEP is as important as diet and exercise! In this report they said that getting the right amount of rest can help you drop a dress size!

These are the three areas that will have a huge impact on this gift of health that God gave us to manage: Input, Output and Downtime.

There are two ways to focus on your health: on Prevention or Cure!

Some of us might need to change some of our habits that we've created in our lives, so we can cure some of the health problems we have.

Prevention is the best way to focus on your health!

If you want to be healthy 1 year from now do something about it today!

Don't try and make BIG changes. You'll only do it for a short time and eventually fail! You might see a big change, but it won't last!

Focus on making small changes that you can KEEP doing over a long time. That way you'll slowly build new habits and the accumulation of good choices over time will have a huge, lasting effect!

What I've been doing to improve my health:

Trying to drink more water.
Take a multi-vitamin everyday.
Drink less soda. (I limit it to one soda - at the most)
Focus on my posture.
Do simple exercises for about 10 minutes or so a day until I get back to the gym.
Prayer walks. (Spiritual & Physical Health!)

I want to encourage you to focus on prevention and begin investing more in the gift of health that God has given you!

I'm obviously, not telling you to forget about spiritual things.

In 1 Timothy 4:8, Paul said, "For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."

Keep focusing on your Spiritual health and growth. It has eternal value!

But, also make sure to focus on your WHOLE being. Study and live out what the Bible says about your emotional health, your intellectual health and your physical health!

One of the ways you can invest your gift of time is by working on your gift of health!

THIS Sunday, we'll look at the third gift that God has given us to manage!

Our 2nd Gift To Manage: Health -- Part 3

2006-09-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

Continued from yesterday...

Let’s look at the next area we need to manage our health with …

The second area that effects our physical health is our Output (exercise).

What exercise you put into your body through, or not, has big effect on your health.

The Bible doesn’t talk directly about exercise.

Instead it talks about it indirectly when it talks about work. Work in that ancient culture was hard labor and the main source of exercise that you got back then!

It used to be like in our country when many people worked on farms. It’s still that way in many 3rd world countries today.

You need to realize something...

You only need to worry about/focus on exercise in cultures like ours, cause most of us don’t do anything physical that increases our strength or burns calories!

We looked at the idea of a weekly Sabbath last week and talked about the importance of rest, but listen to what God tells us about work in the first part in Exodus 20:9 “6 days of work you should work...”

God told them that so they wouldn’t go to either extreme: work all the time or hardly ever! I want you to see the importance of work to God.

Remember:
God emphasized work because it gives people satisfaction, meaning, makes them productive and what we’re emphasizing today – it keeps them healthy!

I found this online...

"Early retirement might be dangerous to your health. So say the findings of a recent study published in the British Medical Journal.

"Entitled Age at Retirement and Long Term Survival of an Industrial Population: Prospective Cohort Study, a team of researchers tracked thousands of employees who worked at Shell Oil. The investigators found that leaving the workforce at age 55 doubled the risk for death before reaching age 65, compared with those who kept working beyond age 60."

I’m not saying you should work forever.

I’m telling you that God’s word, and science seems to be confirming, that keeping active is better for our health than sitting around doing nothing!

God emphasizes how important output is for our health when he emphasizes work over and over in the Bible!

We'll look at the last area that effects our health tomorrow!

Our 2nd Gift To Manage: Health -- Part 2

2006-09-26T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is part 2 from yesterday's post...

There are 3 Main areas that effect our physical health.

The first area that effects our physical health is our Input (Eating/Drinking).
What fuel you put into your body has a huge effect on your health.

In Daniel 1:3-20 there's a story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and their desire to guard their input and obey God's law...

3Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, who was in charge of the palace officials, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah's royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives. 4"Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men," he said. "Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good sense, and have the poise needed to serve in the royal palace. Teach these young men the language and literature of the Babylonians. F3 " 5The king assigned them a daily ration of the best food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for a three-year period, and then some of them would be made his advisers in the royal court.
6Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. 7The chief official renamed them with these Babylonian names:

Daniel was called Belteshazzar.
Hananiah was called Shadrach.
Mishael was called Meshach.
Azariah was called Abednego.

8But Daniel made up his mind not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. (He remembered God’s warning from his law about what we input into our bodies.) He asked the chief official for permission to eat other things instead. 9Now God had given the chief official great respect for Daniel. 10But he was alarmed by Daniel's suggestion. "My lord the king has ordered that you eat this food and wine," he said. "If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded for neglecting my duties."

11Daniel talked it over with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief official to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 12"Test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water," Daniel said. 13"At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king's rich food. Then you can decide whether or not to let us continue eating our diet." 14So the attendant agreed to Daniel's suggestion and tested them for ten days.

15At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king. 16So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the rich foods and wines. 17God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for learning the literature and science of the time. And God gave Daniel special ability in understanding the meanings of visions and dreams.

18When the three-year training period ordered by the king was completed, the chief official brought all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar. 19The king talked with each of them, and none of them impressed him as much as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they were appointed to his regular staff of advisers. 20In all matters requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, the king found the advice of these young men to be ten times better than that of all the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.

They guarded the input into their bodies and they became healthier than all the other guys who just ate whatever was put in front of them!

In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon says that people should enjoy eating and drinking and enjoy the results of their work, but Proverbs 23:1,2 says we need to control our appetite and show self control.

God cares about our input!

He wants us to enjoy food and drink, but just not let our appetites get out of control!

God’s word basically tells us what ever good diet does…

Eat better (healthier food) eat less (control how much you eat - lower your calories) and your health will be better!

I remember reading in a Reader’s Digest article awhile back that if you stay on your diet 80% of the time (about 5 days of the week) you’ll still loose weight!

That means we don’t have to be obsessed when it comes to guarding our input.

We can loosen up a little on weekends. That will help us to feel freer and keep it up! Just don’t go too crazy on your looser eating days!

But input isn’t the only thing that effects our health.

TOMORROW We'll look at the second area that effects our health...

Our 2nd Gift To Manage: Health -- Part 1

2006-09-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

These are the notes from my talk yesterday. They are unedited, so you'll probably find typos and punctuation mistakes! :)

I want to start today with a story that Robert McGarvey, shares in "Little Things Do Mean a Lot" from Reader's Digest. He says this…

Success is often reached through the little stuff. When Pat Riley coached the Los Angeles Lakers from 1982 to 1990, the team won four NBA championships.

In taking over the New York Knicks in 1991, Riley inherited a team with a losing record. But the Knicks seemed able to play above their abilities and even gave the eventual champions, the Chicago Bulls, their hardest competition in the play-offs.

How did Riley do it? He says his talent lies in attention to detail.

For example, every NBA team studies videotapes and compiles statistics to evaluate players' game performances. But Riley's use of these tools is more comprehensive than that of his rivals. "We measure areas of performance that are often ignored: jumping in pursuit of every rebound even if you don't get it, swatting at every pass, diving for loose balls, letting someone smash into you in order to draw a foul."

After each game, these "effort" statistics are punched into a computer. "Effort," Riley explains, "is what ultimately separates journeyman players from impact players. Knowing how well a player executes all these little things is the key to unlocking career-best performances."

We have a pretty amazing God.

He’s a God that cares about the “little things” - the details. He doesn’t just care only about spiritual things. He cares about all areas of your life!

He advises and coaches us through his word about all the little things that help us live the best lives possible.

I’m about to talk to you about something that I don’t think I’ve ever preached about in the 17 or so years I’ve been speaking.

I’m going to talk about something that I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sermon about before.

But first, let me remind you about what we’re trying to do in this series. ...

Last week we started our new “Life Management” series.

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given.

Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For 5 Sundays, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

Last week, I talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at how this amazing gift is the building block of all we do in life. I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

It makes Time Management a holy thing!

Today we’re going to look at Gift #2.

The second gift God has given us to manage is Health!

Remember, I just told you at the beginning about how God cares about the little things – the details of life?

A lot of people believe that God cares about our Spiritual health, but what about our Physical, Mental and Emotional Health?

He cares about these things too! We’re one being that is made up of spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical parts!

When we only focus on the spiritual we leave the rest of who we are out! It’s like deciding to only focus on the health of one body part and ignore the rest.

I want to make sure my right-hand is healthy. That’s it. If it works and doesn’t look to fat, then I don’t care about the rest. That’d be crazy!

It’s just as crazy to think that God or we should only focus on the spiritual and ignore the rest! God looks at ALL those things as one unit that make up who we are!

Steve Sjogren said this in the recent issue of his ezine called “Serve”…
(From this cover story "The Pathetic Segmented Life: Why people stay away from Church by the droves" here.)

We live in a time when virtually all of mankind lives a segmented approach to life. For the most part, people have a section of life that is dedicated to their married life, another section that is all about work life, another section that is for spiritual life, and so on it goes until, if you will, an entire wall of boxes or segments are produced that is called “Someone.”

Life for segmented people, looks like a multi-sectioned configuration, all of which go together to make up a whole which we call life.

He later says…

The segmented approach to life is not only not biblical in the least, it is not healthy mentally. Any therapist… will tell you that a person who is living a segmented approach to life, is attempting to control issues in an unhealthy way – in a way that is going to eventually break down. This approach to life, one that shifts from mask to mask, depending on the segment one is living out at the time, will ultimately fall apart under the pressures of normal living.

Jesus’ life was one whole square with no smaller sub-sections.

What I want us to understand today is that God cares about ALL of you. He cares about your spiritual health, AND your Physical, Mental and Emotional Health!

Let’s look at God’s word and I’ll show that this REALLY is true…

What did Jesus come and do that was a BIG part of his ministry?

He healed people!

Matthew 4:23-25 (NLT)

23 Jesus traveled throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues, preaching everywhere the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed people who had every kind of sickness and disease. 24 News about him spread far beyond the borders of Galilee so that the sick were soon coming to be healed from as far away as Syria. And whatever their illness and pain, or if they were possessed by demons, or were epileptics, or were paralyzed – he healed them all. 25 Large crowds followed him wherever he went – people from Galilee, the Ten Towns, F28 Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

Jesus attracted HUGE crowds because he cared about MORE THAN just their future lives in heaven. He cared about their lives now and he healed them!

Scott Morris of the United Methodist Church founded the Church Health Center in Memphis in 1987, “to provide healthcare for the poor,” he says. “The reason we do it is because a third of the Bible has to do with healing the sick.”

1/3 of the Bible has to do with healing the sick!!! God cares about our health!

If you look at the Dietary laws and other laws God gave the Israelites you see more proof God cares about our Physical health. Listen to what these verses warn the Israelites about and see if you hear God as a parent telling them best ways to live their lives …

Leviticus 3:17 - Eat neither fat nor blood.
Leviticus 15:2-11 - Washing the body and clothes to control germs.
Leviticus 13:46 - Quarantine to control contagious disease
Deuteronomy 23:12, 13 - Human body waste should he buried.

See! God cares about the details of our life! But cares for more than just our Physical health! Look…

Emotional Health - The health benefits of a positive attitude.

Proverbs 17:22
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength.”

1 Tim. 6:6
”…true religion with contentment is great wealth.”

Intellectual Health

Romans 12:2
2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

Philippians 4:8
And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

***How did we as Christ-followers miss this and get so focused on ONLY the Spiritual part of life?

God’s given us the gift of health that we have.

God gave you your genetic makeup from your family. That's how you got your body-type and your metabolism.

For some reason God’s given us each different levels of health. We start out at different levels of health. But no matter where you start…

How long you live and the quality of life you have are affected by how you manage your gift of health!

You can start out with a worse genetic makeup or metabolism and IF you manage it better you’ll end up healthier than a person who started with a BETTER genetic makeup or metabolism who manages their health wrong!

I’ll say it again…

How long you live and the quality of life you have are affected by how you manage your gift of health!

I gave a talk on guarding our hearts from Proverbs awhile back (which when the Bible says “Heart” means our mind, will and emotions) –, so I won’t focus on our Intellectual or Emotional health today. You can get it here.

Today, I want to just look at some things about what the Bible tells us about how to manage our physical health.

We’re gonna just look at the 3 Main areas that effect our physical health.

Continued tomorrow...

Our 1st Gift To Manage: Time -- Part 4

2006-09-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Continued from Yesterday Sept. 21st...

I want you to hear this today…

Time is our life and when we waste our time we waste our life!

How you manage your life is your worship to God!

In Romans 12:1 (theme verse for this series) , the Apostle Paul says...

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.”

Don’t waste time – invest it!

When you spend it you get nothing but that experience. When you invest time it gives you something back – now or in eternity!

Think about this…

You can’t save time. You can only give to God or others, spend it, or invest it!

There are only two ways manage your time:

Look at what we should do.
Look at what we shouldn't do.

We need to pray and ask God “What are some things should I stop doing? What are some things I should I start doing?"

We have a choice each day.

You can do what you want to do, or you can do what you should do. Each of these choices will give a different result. I've decided....

"Should do" is the path to success. "Want to" is the path to failure!

When I live my life constantly choosing to do what I want to do. I might get immediate gratification, but I won't get lasting satisfaction.

The people that succeed in life do what they should do, even when they don't want to!

They do the hard, boring task - right now, instead of procrastinating.
They say, "No," even when they really want to say, "Yes!"

That’s what Jesus did!

The people that fail in life do what they want to do, even when they know they shouldn't!

They do the easy, fun task - right now, instead of doing what should be done. They say, "Yes," even when they really know they should say, "No!"

If we want to a better or different life, if we want to do what God wants us to do - become what God created us to be, then we need to begin choosing what we "should do" instead of what we "want to" do!

Isn't this what God's trying to warn us through the stories, commands and warnings throughout the whole Bible?

The question for us, each day, is not "What do I want to do?", but "What should I do?"

What SHOULD you do today/tomorrow? Do it.
Ask God to help you to do it.
Ask someone to keep you accountable to doing it!

In Psalm 39:5 the Psalmist says...

"My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath."

Even those of us who live to 100 are going to feel like time flew by!

The crazy thing about life is that when you really start to understand it, you feel like it’s halfway gone! Age sneaks up on you!

Listen to what Erma Bombeck wrote in "If I Had My Life To Live Over"...

If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and more while watching life.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's".. More "I'm sorrys" ...

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute... look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back.

-----

Time management is holy. Organization is good. It's not that they're important and good, in and of themselves, but because of what they allow us to do!

David Allen “Productivity Guru” says his secret about why he creates "To Do" lists is so he can have time to do the stuff he wants to do - that aren't on the lists!

Managing your time allows you to do not just the things you really want to do, but the things God wants you to do!

It frees up your life to do and be what God wants for you.

Jesus is the only one who can redeem your past and give you a new future. He reaches into the trash bin of this world and is constantly looking for people and situations to redeem.

Let him do that in your life today!

Seize the moment. Make the most of your nows! We should live each day with purpose, on purpose!

In the next 4 weeks, we’ll talk about more ways to use our time effectively. The rest of the 4 gifts all can only be used in time. They all are used best when we manage our time for them.

***You can hear the talk on the next gift live this Sunday, September 24th!

Our 1st Gift To Manage: Time -- Part 3

2006-09-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Continued from yesterday September 20...

Are you ready for something that might sound like weird advice about time?

King Solomon the wisest man that lived said this in Ecc. 7:2-4...

"2 It is better to spend your time at funerals than at festivals. For you are going to die, and you should think about it while there is still time. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. 4 A wise person thinks much about death, while the fool thinks only about having a good time now."

That doesn't mean we should always think about death and be depressed. It's to help us wake up and not sleep walk through life!

God’s word teaches us to look at the end and make sure we know where the path we’re currently taking is going lead us.

Looking at our death can change the way we see things NOW!

From my Church Gatherer blog June 19, 2006…

In one of success "guru" Brian Tracy's latest issue of his "Time Management Success Newsletter" titled, "Consider The Consequences" he says this...

"Doctor Edward Banfield of Harvard University, after more than 50 years of research, concluded that "long-time perspective" is the most accurate single predictor of upward social and economic mobility in

America

"Long time perspective turns out to be more important than family background, education, race, intelligence, connections or virtually any other single factor in determining your success in life and at work.

"Your attitude toward time, your "time horizon," has an enormous impact on your behavior and your choices. People who take the long view of their lives and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities than people who give very little thought to the future.

"Successful people have a clear future orientation. They think five, ten and twenty years out into the future. They analyze their choices and behaviors in the present to make sure that they are consistent with the long-term future that they desire.

"In your work, having a clear idea of what is really important to you in the long-term makes it much easier for you to make better decisions about your priorities in the short-term."

Hmm... That sounds like Solomon might've known what he was talking about! :)

Keeping the reminder that one day your life will end will help you make better and different choices NOW!

Imagine you were on your death bed looking back at your life…

What would be important to you? What wouldn't be?
What would you wish you did today? What would you wish you didn't do?

God’s overall instructions to us about time are this…

Eph 5:15-16 says...

"15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil."

In Psalm 90:12 the Psalmist asks God…

"Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom."

Time can’t be stopped. It can only be seized!

God’s word teaches us to cherish and squeeze everything we can out our time.

Mark Twain said this, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

This moment could change all the ones after!

How many lost hours have we wasted?

I saw this quote from Steve Mariucci, former 49ers head coach on Glen Davis’s blog…

“I never wear a watch because I always know what time it is. It is always NOW. And now is when you should do it.”

Continued tomorrow: How to invest your time....

Our 1st Gift To Manage: Time -- Part 2

2006-09-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

Continued from yesterday Sept. 19th....

God’s given us instructions with this gift called time. One of them is…

Exodus 20:8 God said…

8 "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days a week are set apart for your daily duties and regular work, 10 but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God. On that day no one in your household may do any kind of work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.

God told us to rest!

In this 24/7 workaholic world we live in that’s a powerful thing to hear! Think about it…

Rest gives us a chance to STOP, look back and appreciate where we’ve been and what we’ve done (like God did in Genesis). When we rest we get a chance to learn from what we’ve done, see if we’re headed in the right direction, and plan where we want to go!

If we don’t do this, we get caught up in the fast paced flow of life!

Resting helps us so we can stop and remember God – remember what’s important! It’s helps us to refocus.

Every day we have a huge amount of choices thrown in front of us. A few of those choices have no consequences, but most have some consequences – big or small.

In Deut. 30:19, Moses is getting towards the end of his life and he gets up in front the Israelites and gives a speech to inspire them to keep following God. Towards the end of it he says…

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live!”

The choices we make everyday fall into these categories!

Would you purposely choose a small “curse” or a little death? No! But some of the small choices we make are small steps in those directions!

Joshua must have learned from Moses cause later he said this in Joshua 24:15...

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve . but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

How can we know what choices lead where? How can we know which ones to make?

The only way is to not just take a Sabbath every week to remember and refocus, but to daily spend time with Jesus.

In Matt. 6:11, Jesus taught us to pray for our needs for each day.

He showed us the example of daily getting alone with God early in the morning to get direction and guidance for that day!

We need to spend time with God everyday, because need help everyday!

There are too many important choices that we need to make. We need that daily Sabbath to remember and refocus!

If you don’t spend time with God daily, then I want to encourage you to find a place and time that you can get alone with God and talk and listen to Him.

Let’s look at the next thing about time.

It’s good news for those of you that feel stuck…

We need to remember that seasons come and go!

Summer is ending and Fall is coming. They won’t last forever. We know to appreciate summer while it’s here because it will be gone. We know not to worry too much during winter cause it will soon be gone too!

In Ecc 3:1-11, Solomon says a lot about this. Listen to the first thing and the last thing he says in this passage.

"1There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven…"

"11 God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."

Only God knows the BIG picture that’s why we have to trust him! We need to look for the reason/opportunity that’s in every season we’re going through in life.

If you’re going through a hard time right now I want you to hear me: This is just a season!
Be patient! Trust God!

If you’re going through a good time, then appreciate it – enjoy it cause we know that harder times will eventually come! :)

There’s something else I want you to think about this whole idea of seasons…

God is into things happening at the right time. Timing matters to him!

In Gal 4:4, Paul says...

"But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law."

1 Tim 6:15 says...

"For at the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God, the King of kings and Lord of lords."

We should care more about this! Timing is important. Timing matters!

We need to pray and talk to God daily about making choices and doing actions in the right time!

Now the next thing I tell you could at first sound of the weirdest advice about time…

To Be Continued...

Our 1st Gift To Manage: Time -- Part 1

2006-09-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

I didn't get a chance to record my talk last Sunday so I'm going to post it in segments here. Here's part 1....

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

For the next 5 Sundays, we're going to look at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

We all like getting gifts. I don’t know anyone who hates getting gifts!

But a gift always leaves us with a choice: Will you accept it and use it or will you reject it and throw to the side?

I found this online…

An American Express survey about Christmas gifts found that the fruitcake was chosen most often (at 31%) from a list of "worst" holiday gifts. It even finished ahead of "no gift at all." When asked how to dispose of a bad gift, 30% would hide it in the closet, 21% would return it, and 19% would give it away. This suggests that the Christmas fruitcake might get recycled as a gift for the host of New Year's party.

What are you going to do with these 5 gifts God’s given you?

Will you accept them or reject them? Use them or abuse them?

An unaccepted or unused gift isn’t any better than no gift at all!

Over the next 5 Sundays, we'll look at the five of the top gifts that we all need to manage if we want our lives to be better and different.

Today we’re going to look at the first gift.

It’s Time!

If you think about it, this is a pretty amazing gift. Let’s look at this gift and really see what we’ve been given…

Everyday we’re given 1440 minutes. If you sleep 7 hours you end up with 1020 awake minutes to use. That’s it!

This gift is the basic building blocks of our life! You have just 1020 minutes to make today better or different than yesterday.

This is the only gift we’re going to look at that’s refillable. We're all given a new equal amount of each day. We get a NEW 1440 minutes everyday!

I get the same amount you do. Old and young get the same amount. Rich and poor get the same amount. All the other gifts we’re going to talk about will be things that some of us have more of OR some of us might have less of.

We all get a new amount of time each day, but this is the scary part…

None of us know how much TOTAL amount of time we’re going to get in life. Only God knows!

Ps. 139:16 says...

"You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."

None of us know how much time we have left.

Some of us here will live longer lives than others of us. We don’t get to decide how long we live. We only get to decide how meaningful we make our lives!

Time really is an incredible loving gift that God has given us!

I want to unwrap this gift today and really look at it to see how we can receive it and use it in the best ways.

The first thing I want you to notice…

PACKAGE: God packaged time for us in two compartments: Day & Night

Genesis 1:1-5 says...
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." Together these made up one day.

Have you thought about how much of a blessing this is?

I had a really stressful day the other day.

The cool thing was to get to go to sleep and get a new start! Without day and night life would be one long, monotonous experience.

It also let’s us deal with life in bite sized pieces! You only have a small chunk to deal with called “today”! Actually, the chunks of time you really have to use are even smaller – they’re called “now”.

You can’t mess with yesterday and change it. It’s gone! God’s done that to try and force us to let it go and only deal with now. You can only learn from the past and redeem it.

God gave us the future called “tomorrow” so that we’d have something to plan/aim for and something to inspire us in our “nows”.

Here’s our problem... A lot of time people try and live in tomorrow!

In Matt. 6:34 Jesus said...

"So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today."

There are things that we can control in life and things we can’t. When we worry and spend time on the things that you can’t control just causes the things you actually have influence over to get worse!

Plan for tomorrow, but don’t worry about it.

Don’t try and live in the joy or pain of what you think MIGHT happen tomorrow!

Example:

Last week I was worried about a conversation I was going to have. I started imagining the conversation and the results. It made my NOW really stressful!

Guess what? When I finally had the conversation, none of what I imagined happened! It was a totally good conversation with good results!

I had wasted my "nows" worrying about my tomorrow!

***I'll reveal to you one of God's instructions about time that helps us in this workaholic world when I post Part 2 TOMORROW! :)

How To Live On 24 Hours A Day

2006-09-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

Arnold Bennett in “How To Live On 24 Hours A Day” said this...

“Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. It is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions..."

He goes on to say…

“…you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste to- morrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you."

Then he says…

“You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness--the elusive prize that you are all clutching for, my friends!-- depends on that.”

At The Speed Of Life

2006-09-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

The time we each get in this life to do, be and have is so short!

King David said in like this (1 Chronicles 29:15)...

"We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a shadow, gone so soon without a trace." (NLT)

We need to live today remembering this fact!

"Life Management" Series: 9.17.06 - 10.15.06

2006-09-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

I'll begin a 5 Sunday series THIS Sunday where I'll talk about 5 important gifts that God has given us to manage.

Get more info here!

"How You Can Finally See Change In Your Life"

2006-09-13T00:32:00.000-07:00

This is the .PDF free report that I promised you. (I know it's late. Sorry!)

It contains these ideas and more:

A description of what I call "The Inside-Out" Way Of Living
Why just changing your thoughts doesn't change your life
3 things you can do to apply this right away

You can download it here by right-clicking on the link below:
"How You Can Finally See Change In Your Life"

You need the Acrobat Reader tool to open it. If you don't have it go here.

Everything You Need To Succeed...

2006-09-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

You have been given (and will be given) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your potential.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based NOT on what you had, but what you DID with what you were given!

How close you come to succeeding and becoming what you were created to be will be based on your choices.

It will be based on how you manage what you've been given.

Don't Forget:
TOMORROW I'm going to post a downloadable .PDF report that will reveal a missing key that is needed to succeed in life.

Stay Tuned For Tuesday...

2006-09-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

I think that it's important for us to guard our thoughts, because how we think has a HUGE effect in our lives.

But...

On Tuesday, I'm going to post a downloadable .PDF report that will reveal a missing key that is needed to see real change in our lives!

Until then, I'll be adding some more posts.

Stay tuned!

Live For Today

2006-09-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is a quote from Leadership Expert Chris Widener's ezine on August 18, 2006...

"What happens... is that we figure we will be able to live another moment in the same way we are passing on right now. Time becomes a commodity that we trade… and the riskiest commodity of all – our futures! We pass on this moment for the option to live it in the future.

"The problem is that there is no guarantee of the future… Take some time this week to think about the Once in a Lifetime opportunities you are passing up each day:

The opportunity to play with your children or grandchildren.
The opportunity to love your spouse.
The opportunity to take that business risk.
The opportunity to take that dream trip you have thought of for years.

"Live for today my friends. Make today the best day that you can. Be aware of every moment and how it is the last time you will be able to make the decision on how to spend it. Today is your once in a lifetime opportunity to live your dreams, love your family, and make a difference."

Subscribe to his ezine here.

Are You Guided By The Past Or The Present?

2006-09-07T00:10:00.000-07:00

Henry Ford once said...

"We should be guiding our future by the present, instead of being guided in the present by the past."

Success Secrets Revealed By A 16 Year Old Ice Skater!

2006-09-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

February 21, 2002. It was an unbelievable moment in ice skating history.

The winner herself couldn't believe it!

Sarah Hughes had just gone from 4th place in the "short program" to gold medal winner, after she performed an incredible set in the "long program".

The odds were against her, but her performance proved the odds wrong! The most incredible thing for me out of this whole moment was the words I was about to hear her say.

I didn't realize it, but this 16 year old girl was about to reveal a secret to succeeding in any area of life.

Before I tell you what she said, let me warn you.

The words she said will seem like they fly in the face of everything that you've ever heard about what it takes to succeed.

They will seem to go against goal setting.

But listen closely, because they don't go against any of these things! What she said is, for many people, another missing ingredient for success!

Many people are so involved in trying to succeed that they miss this one thing that this young girl instinctively knew.

What is her secret to success?

In the interview afterwards, she said that after getting 4th place she really doubted she would get gold, so she decided to do one thing: to just enjoy her next performance!

That's the missing ingredient to success!

Enjoy what your doing NOW! Enjoy the process! Don't wait till the future, because it might never come. Enjoy today!

Set goals. See yourself attaining your goal. Be positive, but enjoy the process!

Sarah wanted to win a gold medal. It had been her goal since she was a child, but the reason she won was not because she was determined to win. It was the simple choice to enjoy herself -- to have fun.

I heard a story once about a toll taker on a highway. He stood out from all the other toll takers. The line to his booth was always the longest.

Guess why? It wasn't because he was the fastest or the most precise. It was because he knew Sarah's secret!

When people pulled up to his booth on the way to work early in the morning, they saw an incredible sight. They saw a man with a big smile on his face. He was singing along to his music and dancing!

He was truly enjoying himself. His joy was contagious. It changed the attitude of each driver that came through his line. That is why his booth was so popular. That is why he succeeded at a job that most people do half-heartedly.

He enjoyed himself!

If a toll taker and a 16 year old can do this and succeed, then why can't you?
No matter what your goal is, decide today to enjoy the process.

You'll reach your goal and you'll enjoy yourself on the way!

Success Secret #2: Positive Addictions

2006-09-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Anthony J. D'Angelo said...

"Become addicted to constant and never-ending self improvement."

Success Secret #1: Everyone's A Manager

2006-09-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

No matter what your job, no matter what you're background is you are a manager.

We all are.

How you manage the resources you've been given in life will decide how successful you are.

Successful people are successful life managers.