Read Matthew 6:19-21
Oskar Schindler saved more than 1,100 Jews from the fate of the Holocaust. In the closing scene of the movie, Schindler’s List, Itzhak Stern, the Jewish accountant who helped to save so many, presented a ring to Schindler for what he had done. Seeing the grateful people gathered around him, Schindler had a near breakdown upon realizing the real worth of using material things to save others. He looked at his car, a gold pin, and considered all the money he had wasted that could have been used to save more lives!
Matthew 6:19‐21 contends that most things in life have an expiration date. Whatever we store up for ourselves (or waste on consumer debt!) will be lost. Whatever we invest in eternity will last forever! Only God’s Word and people last forever. So we want to spend our lives—and all that we have—on what lasts forever. We want to live for posterity, not prosperity.
Oskar Schindler was an enigmatic hero who happened to be a member of the Nazi party, a womanizer, and a war profiteer. In Luke 16, Jesus tells a story about a similar man. This man was about to lose his job and did some under‐the‐table dealings at his employer’s expense to secure his own future. Jesus used this shrewd manager’s dealings as a lesson for the faithful: “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” In other words, use EVERYTHING to accomplish the MAIN THING: welcoming others into eternal life.
When we make money decisions, we make life decisions. So how we spend our money, in a manner of speaking, is how we spend our lives. We do not want to live our lives for the disposable nor the temporal. We all want to look back on life and believe we spent it on what is meaningful, what lasts, what is eternal. Every one of us wants to live a life well spent.
Oskar Schindler saved more than 1,100 Jews from the fate of the Holocaust. In the closing scene of the movie, Schindler’s List, Itzhak Stern, the Jewish accountant who helped to save so many, presented a ring to Schindler for what he had done. Seeing the grateful people gathered around him, Schindler had a near breakdown upon realizing the real worth of using material things to save others. He looked at his car, a gold pin, and considered all the money he had wasted that could have been used to save more lives!
Matthew 6:19‐21 contends that most things in life have an expiration date. Whatever we store up for ourselves (or waste on consumer debt!) will be lost. Whatever we invest in eternity will last forever! Only God’s Word and people last forever. So we want to spend our lives—and all that we have—on what lasts forever. We want to live for posterity, not prosperity.
Oskar Schindler was an enigmatic hero who happened to be a member of the Nazi party, a womanizer, and a war profiteer. In Luke 16, Jesus tells a story about a similar man. This man was about to lose his job and did some under‐the‐table dealings at his employer’s expense to secure his own future. Jesus used this shrewd manager’s dealings as a lesson for the faithful: “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” In other words, use EVERYTHING to accomplish the MAIN THING: welcoming others into eternal life.
When we make money decisions, we make life decisions. So how we spend our money, in a manner of speaking, is how we spend our lives. We do not want to live our lives for the disposable nor the temporal. We all want to look back on life and believe we spent it on what is meaningful, what lasts, what is eternal. Every one of us wants to live a life well spent.