201 C Lasting investments

Market place facts: Lasting investmentsMarket place facts: Lasting investments

MARKET PLACE FACTS

Module 201 CLASTING INVESTMENTS

Mario Denton

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Overall purpose of this series on Marketplace

To understand and learn from various marketplace facts so that you can: • Be more effective and anointed wherever you are in the marketplace.

• Adapt and benchmark your marketplace practices and principles discussed in this series.

• Use these material to facilitate the work of evangelism.



Just How Lasting Are Your Investments

• As an old man, Solomon agonized over the futility of his investments:"When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun ...so I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me ...A chasing after the wind" (Ecc. 2:11,17)




• Do your investments parallel Solomon's?

• Or are you making the kind of investments that will outlive you, lasting for eternity?




• If you want:A one year return on your investment, plant grain.




• If you want:A ten year return on your investment, plant a tree.




• If you want:An eternal return on your investment, plant people.




• It is God s intention to destroy everything physical, including your earthly investments

• The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away ...and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. (2 Pet. 3:10)




Can we therefore grasp the fact that only God, His Word, and

people are eternal?




God: Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (2 Pet. 3:8) (See Psa. 102:12; Eph. 3:21; 2 Pet. 3:8)




His Word: Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. (Psa. 119:89) (See Psa. 119:152, 160; Matt. 5:18; 24:34; 1 Peter 1:25)




People: Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. (Dan.12:2) (See Matt. 25:46; Rom. 2:7,8; 2 Thess. 1:5-9)




Consequently, the only investments that will withstand the coming holocaust will be those made in the lives of people.




• God regularly places individuals in our path with whom He desires our investment: The person at the club.

• That neighbour across the street. • A business associate. • A relative. • Someone in distress.



QUESTIONS:

As you encounter these people, are you blithely brushing past them to fulfill your agenda?

Or are you viewing each one as a divine appointment?



QUESTIONS:• Are you responding to the prompting

of the Spirit by graciously and determinedly investing in their lives for the purpose of bringing Christ to them?

• Or building Christ in them? • Even when it means altering your

pre-determined schedule?



The answers to these questions

• Are determined by whether we are living for the temporal, or investing in the eternal.



Prayer Focus• Father, In the name of Jesus, I

surrender myself to walk in the Word in the marketplace. Your word living in me produces the Life in this world.

• The word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. It makes my way plain before me.

• I boldly and confidently say that my heart is fixed and established on the solid foundation – the Living Word of God! Amen



Learning, application and commitment: James 1: 22-25

• “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.

• Do what it says. • Anyone who listens to the word but does not do

what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

• But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does.” (NIV)



Learning, application and commitment

• One of the principles that I have learned from this lesson was …

• I intend to apply this principle in my market place by: …..

• With the help of the Holy Spirit, I will begin applying this truth immediately.



Jesus said: Take what I have given you and change the world!



Sources and acknowledgementCHRIST@ WORK NEWSLETTER

• Copyright Notice• © 2005 FCCI- Limited permission to copy without altering text or

profiteering is granted subject to inclusion of this copyright notice. Copy is limited to member and/or FCCI small group use.

Unauthorized use of FCCI, Christ@Work, Crown Companies, their trademarks or logos is strictly prohibited.

• The “Facts of the Matter” is also available through the Internet: www.factsofthematter.org. 2003 R. Dwight Hill.

• Slides compiled by Mario Denton. • Please commit yourself to inform us of the results regarding the

effectiveness thereof should you wish to use this material.



Let's keep the good marketplace vibes alive. Let's network.

Become a member of the Crown Companies Marketplace Coaching Forum.

Tel (w) + 27(0) 82 88 29903. e-mail address:[email protected]

Website: www.crown.org.za

Blessings from Dr Mario Denton as the Africa: Continental Program Director - Marketplace








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201 C Lasting investments