Staying Even During the Holidays
Sunday, November 3, 2013 at 12:23AM 3 John 2. Beloved, I wish above all things that you will prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.
PROSPER – “Make Friends of Money”
Luke 16:9. "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.
1. Spend time with it
I didn’t say “Spend it”; I said “Spend time with it.”
If you want friends, you must be friendly. Prov 18:24
We aren’t very good friends of money because we don’t spend enough time with it
2. Check on it & account for it (care what happens to it)
You must pay attention to your financial status
3. Know its value
Money is more important than most of the things – because it takes money to get things
4. Make room for more – Get rid of the clutter
5. Increase it – Multiply it
Donna Summer attitude: She works hard for the money
Make your money work for you…
One way is to make your money work for the Kingdom
Jesus speaks repeatedly about “unprofitable servants”
6. Create an active stream or a flow
Luke 6:38. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosom.
HEALTH
We go to God & the Word for our healing
We must start going to God & the Word for our health
When we become healthy, we won’t always need healing
Rom 12:1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
We’ve interpreted that scripture spirituality and externally
Totally disregarding the health component
We must deal with the issue of our appetites
- · Eating the forbidden fruit
- · Esau traded the birthright
- · Israel got stuck in the wilderness – tempted God asking meat for their lust
- · Jesus’ 1st temptation to “change the stones to bread” was to about appetite
Prov 23:2. Put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.
- · High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis
Diet & exercise:
1 Cor 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
SOUL – Not getting mad, but getting even
Being balanced in your emotions
When your soul is in charge, you are controlled by your feelings & emotions
Our soul can open a door giving place to the devil in our emotions
Understanding our emotions, responding & dealing with them appropriately
Rest: God did
Get away: Mark 6. Jesus made the disciples take a vacation after a spiritual high
Change locations, change activities, period of time
Have a support system – friends, family, church, group
Laugh
A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. Prov 17:2
Laughter lowers stress, boosts immune system and is contagious.
KEY: At the heart of Getting Even…
Rom 12:2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Renewed in your mind
Input new information
Change your thinking
You can only live at the level of your thinking
God is not going to increase you until you increase your capacity
We've made it through the first 10 months…
Gal 5:1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
The Danger of January 2014: Being back at the starting line
Gal 5:7. You did run well; who or what hindered you…?
In 2 months we can undo what we’ve worked 10 months for
We are contending with a System
Luke 16:8. So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation* than the sons of light.
- · Geneá: literally means space of time, which signifies the purpose of a time
They understand their system, they work their system
They understand the timing, and they move in the moment
The system is seizing their moment
The system survives by doing in 2 months more than it’s done in 10
Their Black Friday – designed to turn a profit
Becomes Your Red Friday
They begin by controlling the atmosphere – sight, sound, smells
Caught up in the “Holiday Spirit”
In other words, not controlling ourselves
Eph 5:18. Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.
Ásœtos: prodigal, one who spends too much,
easily influenced by the surrounding temptations
The system gets us drunk…
- The system will govern our time: midnight sales
- The system will govern our money: entice us to spend
- The system will govern our health: promote food, drink & parties
In January they will offer us Health clubs & diets
The system attacks every area in 3 John 2 – prosperity, health, the soul
In addition to the financial pressures
There’s the stress of the holidays – cleaning, shopping, baking, entertaining
Unrealistic expectations leading to disappointment
Then there’s the spiritual component
X Christ out of His own holy day
Teach our children to have faith in Santa Claus
We’re so caught up in their ‘spirit’ that we don’t stand for what we say we believe
Then spend months shaking off the hangover
Focus on Finishing
2 Tim 4:7. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Finish the Race
- Stick to a budget for Christmas spending
- Don’t spend next year’s tax return
- Don’t use the holidays as an excuse to indulge
- Exercise
- Relax; resist the stress of the holidays
- Be realistic about your expectations
- Keep Christ in Christmas
Don’t forsake your system now, for the world’s system
You’re Getting Even
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