04 Mar In God We Trust | Part 2 “Making the Most of Your Opportunities”
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR OPPORTUNITIES
Key Verse: Exodus 13:11-16 ESV
March 17/18 – 2 Weeks – Kingdom Builders Offering
This offering is for 273 more parking spaces, for an illuminated sign facing The highway, for permanent meeting places for Milford and Woonsocket and for a third campus. Prayerfully consider what God would have you to give to this offering.
A Donkey Was a Symbol of Opportunity in the Ancient World.
Nations would sacrifice any animal to please their gods. They were ignorant with no direction. So God raises up Israel to show them and He speaks to them so they would understand and so they would be prosperous.
We will have good success and be prosperous if we are careful to read and do what His word says. We then would rely on God and not on people or things such as our boss, our job or people.
> HOW TO MAE THE MOST OF YOUR OPPORTUNITIES:
1.THOU SHALT NOT KILL THINE OPPORTUNITIES.
Don’t kill animals that help you prosper. The enemy wants to convince us that our Father is stingy.
A. Respect the Opportunities You Have.
We should ask God to help us see our opportunities. There are things in our lives that we may hate, opportunities we are too blind to see.
Q. Think about your current situation, what are some things that could be opportunities that you might be overlooking (Perhaps a job you dislike, a person in your life, school, neighborhood etc.)?
Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV
We should maximize where we are right now; do something where we are right now.
We look at Joseph who was faithful in his father’s house. He had a dream and held onto that dream. He was then sold into slavery by his brothers – he maximized his opportunity as a slave, then he was falsely accused of rape and thrown into prison but even there he maximized his opportunity. Then from prison to the palace where he realizes his dream. He was faithful with what little he had and God blessed it and gave him much!
B. Take Good Care of the Opportunity You Have.
We should get a good nights sleep. We should avoid distractions and habits that are controlling us.
Q. What are some controlling habits you have that keep you from making the most of the opportunities you have?
Develop your skills.
Q. What are some skills you have that you can develop and how?
2: THOU SHALT CONSIDER THINE OPPORTUNITY A GIFT FROM GOD.
Exodus 13:13 ESV
When a donkey was born, they did not get to choose what kind of donkey they got. Sometimes our opportunities might not be what we would have chosen. There is always someone more blessed than us. We have to get over our obsession and not care so much about our neighbors opportunities; they were not the opportunities given to us. We each have just the right opportunities, we don’t need to be obsessed with someone else’s life.
Q. Are you obsessing over what someone else has that you don’t have and why?
A. God Has Given Me My Ability.
Whatever ability we have is from God and has got the power to make money. We should not despise it, we are to use it.
Q. Regarding the skills and abilities you have, how can you put them to good use?
When we make money (which is God’s money anyway) we are to bring it not give it. God does not need us to give him our money He already owns it . It is an act of faith when we bring it to him; telling him that it is His.
B. I Am a Manager of God’s Good Things, Not an Owner.
We do not own anything. What we have we will leave behind. We are temporary managers of God’s possessions.
Nothing on earth is truly ours, it belongs to God. If we don’t treat if like it is God’s, we will lose it anyway (ref Exodus 13:13). Living, knowing that all we have is because of God, releases stress and fear in our lives.
3: THOU SHALT REMEMBER GOD PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE
FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SAVE YOU.
We now have the opportunity to speak into our children’s lives. They are paying attention to what we do.
Q. What are some examples of where your children have followed what you do? What kinds of good or bad examples have you set for them?
A donkey is unclean. A sheep is clean. The clean is to die for the unclean.
THE CLEAN WAS CRUCIFIED FOR THE UNCLEAN.
WE GIVE GOD OUR FIRST BECAUSE HE PUT US FIRST.
Pray for each other, the lost, campuses, nation and leaders.
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