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Mar 18, 2018

Eternal Priorities

Eternal Priorities

Speaker: Dennis Gallaher

Series: Transformation

Category: Sunday Morning

Transformation doesn't stop with ourselves. We need to take the opportunity to allow what God does in us to affect others. We have an incredible opportunity to see God transform not only our community during this Easter season, but also the nation of India.

Opening Scripture:

Luke 16:9   And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

Our two eternal priorities:
1. Through your efforts, people who are apart from God will be brought close enough to hear the Gospel and be born again.
2. Through your giving, we will greatly impact the preaching of the Gospel, the planting of the church, and the advancement of the Kingdom through the Darjeeling Bible Training Center.

Read Luke 16  - Jesus tells a story about people, God, and money.

vs. 14  Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.

This scoundrel, who is managing a rich man’s accounts while stealing from him, tries to fix the accounts before he is fired. When his boss discovers the ripoff, instead of condemning him, his boss commends him because he acted shrewdly.

Luke 16:8  And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

In other words, the world is better at providing for their future than God’s saints are at providing for their eternity.

Two Challenges Given by Jesus:
1. “Make friends…” - constantly be seeking out those who are along and without Christ.
2. “Through the wealth of this world…” - use the money we have to invest in soul winning, Kingdom building, and church planting.

Why? Because money will fail. There will come a day when money will no longer have the power to provide.

“I judge all things only by the prize they shall gain in eternity.” - John Westley

Ask yourself this: Five minutes after I die, what will I wish I would have given away while I still had the chance?
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God’s ultimate purpose is to redeem mankind with an everlasting covenant that would transform His creation and fill them with His glory.

Our part as His church is to make friends with the lost in this world and use the blessings and finances He has given us to invest in souls and the work of the Kingdom.

The next two weeks are dedicated to two things:
- making friends
- extravagant giving

Next Sunday, Friendship Sunday, invite those you know who need a relationship with God and others.

Use the wealth of this world to demonstrate your friendship with God by winning friends and blessing others. Then, when this world falls apart, your generosity will provide you with an eternal reward.
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Questions:

1. Where are you storing your treasures, here on earth or in heaven?
2. Who do you know that needs to encounter Jesus that you can invite next Sunday to church?
3. What is God telling you to give to further the Gospel in India?