We are only days away from the Feast of Trumpets, which pictures the return of Christ. Trumpets were often sounded in ancient Israel — either warning of an enemy approaching or some danger, or to designate something important, e.g. a Feast day.
As we near the end of this world, and the return of Christ, we see the world breaking down, financial problems, strife, war, depression, recession, liars, immorality, crime, etc. These signs are showing us that the end times are near.
Matthew 24:3–14 states:
“Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’
And Jesus answered and said to them: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.’ ” (NKJV throughout except where otherwise stated)
Continuing from verse 42,
“Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
We can see things in this world getting worse, changing, and we might wonder when will Christ return? We should not be worried about when, nor to become drunk, or a hypocrite as some do.
The trumpets should wake us up to what is happening, and what to expect in the time ahead. We might have financial worries, but we can trust in God to keep us safe from the serious problems that will afflict some.
Looking at 1 Timothy 3:2-4, we read:“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.”
The current financial meltdown that has seen banks go bankrupt, debts that cannot be repaid and great worry and concern about money, has its roots in greed.
And in 1 Timothy 6:10,
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
The greediness of banks, people and society has led us to this difficult situation. Originally, of course, it was Adam and Eve who chose for themselves the right to decide right and wrong. Since then, mankind has been swayed by the Devil to make mistakes and get closer to self-destruction. There is nothing more that Satan wants than to see us all dead and destroyed, with no one entering God’s Kingdom and God’s great plan thwarted.
People are greedy to borrow money to buy things they cannot afford and do not need, such as big plasma screen TVs, new and more comfortable furniture, lots of holidays, lots of booze, partying and entertainment. In the past people would save up their money before making a large purchase, buying only what they needed with the occasional luxury item. Today credit has been too easy to get, thanks to the greed of the banks in wanting to earn more money from lending it out to people, charging usury and high interest rates.
Quoting from an article on the UCG website:
“Earlier this year USA Today writer Dennis Cauchon wrote: ‘Taxpayers are on the hook for a record $57.3 trillion in federal liabilities to cover the lifetime benefits of everyone eligible for Medicare, Social Security and other government programs, a USA Today analysis found. That’s nearly $500,000 per household. When obligations of state and local governments are added, the total rises to $61.7 trillion, or $531,472 per household. That is more than four times what Americans owe in personal debt such as mortgages.’
Interestingly, the European Central Bank’s purpose differs from that of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy in recent times. The role of the ECB is to control inflation, which means currency must be kept strong, thereby limiting borrowing.
America’s Federal Reserve since 1978 has had the responsibility of ensuring continuing growth and full employment, a recipe for over spending and higher rates of inflation. The United States is now paying the price for continuous overspending.”
(http://www.ucg.org/commentary/america-debt-crisis.htm)
The greediness of Americans has led to a massive overspending, and a huge rise in debts. They have lacked the wisdom to plan sensibly for the future and keep their finances in order. They have been lazy when it comes to financial planning and selfish in their investing.
I want to look at a parable which you all know, but to modernise it and see what it means for us today.
It is in Matthew 25:14-30.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man who owned a large corporation, and he decided to open up branches in another country. So he called his top staff and told them to invest some money to bring in a good return, to make it all worthwhile. And to one he gave £500,000, to another £200,000, and to another £100,000, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
Then he who had received the £500,000 went and invested his money wisely, in things like hedge funds, bonds, and large stable corporations, and made another £500,000. And likewise he who had received £200,000 to invest gained £200,000 profit from his investments. But he who had received just the £100,000 was lazy and invested in shares in an overstretched investment bank without even bothering to do a due diligence and see whether it was a good investment or not.
After a long time the boss of those investors came and settled accounts with them.
So he who had received £500,000 came and brought the £500,000 profits, saying, ‘Boss, you gave me £500,000 to invest; look, I have gained £500,000 extra.’ His boss said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful employee; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you manager over many things. Enjoy your new promotion.’
He who had received £200,000 came and said, ‘Boss, you gave me £200,000 to invest ; look, I have gained £200,000 more.’
The boss said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful employee; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you manager over many things. Enjoy your new promotion.’
Then he who had received £100,000 came and said, ‘Boss, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and put the money into shares of an investment bank. Look, here is the report of what I did.’
But his boss answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy fool, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. According to this report, you did not bother to do any due diligence or research, and you put the money into Lehman Brothers. Now they have gone bust and the shares are worthless. You ought to have deposited my money in a bank account if you were too lazy to look for a good investment, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.
So I am taking whatever money you still have, your job responsibilities and salary, and giving it to him who has £1 million. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
And give this unprofitable employee the sack and get him out of here, and he will very annoyed when he has to go to the Job Centre and look for a new job.’ ”
In this parable, each of the three men were given something to invest. But only two of them made the effort to invest wisely. The third man was a risky investor, who was too lazy to find out what he had to do to make money. He was even too lazy to just put the money into a bank account where he might have earned 4% interest.
God gives each of us some gifts, and invests his Spirit in us. We must use what God has given us, with wisdom, to make good investments in our lives. I am not talking about finance, but about spiritual matters. We can invest our time in prayer, Bible study, keeping the Sabbath, working hard at whatever we do, and spending time with God and with His people. We can do a proper due diligence. In the world of business and investing, due diligence is where you get all the relevant information about a company before investing in it. We have to be diligent to study God’s Word to ensure that we are investing our time and efforts in the right things. For example, is it wise to invest time in going to the pub to drink lots of beer? Or to fight with people? The Bible tells us not to get drunk nor have strife, in Romans 13:13, “Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.”In a modern Bible version called The Message, let us look at Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
“Be generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns.
Don’t hoard your goods; spread them around.
Be a blessing to others. This could be your last night.
When the clouds are full of water, it rains.
When the wind blows down a tree, it lies where it falls.
Don’t sit there watching the wind. Do your own work.
Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on with your life.
Just as you’ll never understand the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman,
So you'll never understand the mystery at work in all that God does.
Go to work in the morning and stick to it until evening without watching the clock.
You never know from moment to moment how your work will turn out in the end.”
This speaks of investing in acts of charity, i.e. acts of love and doing good, doing what God wants us to do. We should invest in something that will give us a good return, a good spiritual return. This week Warren Buffet, the world’s richest man, invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs, because he always knows a good investment when he sees one. He knows he is going to get a good return, getting millions of dollars every week from his investment.
When we invest in what God wants us to do, our time, efforts, prayers, etc., God will bless us with a great return. The greatest return on our spiritual investment will be eternal life in the Kingdom of God, which we will receive when Christ returns to set up the Kingdom, as pictured by the soon-coming Feast of Trumpets next week.
So think about what investments you can make in your spiritual life, and what you can do to give to others, and what you can give to God. What will you invest in?
