Managing 2024 Well
Part 2
Don’t Miss “God-Opportunities”
“The Parable of the Bags of Gold”
Matthew 25:14-30
[Kingdom of Heaven = the sphere of where God works] “Again, it will be like a man [Jesus] going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two …to another one … each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags… put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two… gained two more. 18 BUT the man who had received one bag 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 [2nd Coming of Jesus] and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. 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… Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; 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… Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold 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 gold 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 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
-Matthew 25:14-30
Key points
1.Don’t miss “God-Opportunities”.
(It hurts God’s ministry)
2. “Come and share your master’s happiness!”
(Missing “God-opportunities” will hurt your amount of happiness)
“Do NOT DO” Lists
are just as important as
“To DO” Lists
What is on which list in your life?
Do you have things a little mixed up?
Everyone does.
Romans 7:14-25
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
-Romans 7:14-25
Billy Graham’s conversations with John F. Kennedy.
“OB Portu” (Latin)
- A ship waiting to port has to wait for the exact right time with the tide.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, [missed opportunities] all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”
- Shakespeare
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”
-Psalm 24:1
God sets opportunity before us to take and use for HIS purposes as well as to give us meaning and happiness.
“Carpe Diem”
Seize the Day
[Don’t miss “God-opportunities”]
If you missed a God-opportunity because of sin, God forgives you.
If you missed a God-opportunity, not related to sin, then God will “recalculate” for you, like the best GPS system in the world as He guides you through life.
Jesus said; “With God all things are possible.”
-Matthew 19:26
Comments