UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTHERN CARIBBEAN

MARACAS ROYAL ROAD, MARACAS, ST. JOSEPH.

Sermon – “You can’t take it with you”

An Assignment
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Course
Church finance and Stewardship

INSTRUCTOR: Ps. Liverpool

By
Shakiel Gibbons
21 November 2016

Approval………………..
Ice Breaker

Good morning church! The privilege is mine to be standing here to proclaim the words of the

Lord to you. To be gathered here in the presence of the Lord to worship His marvelous and

glorious name in the beauty of Holiness. Praise God for His continuous mercies upon us. For

God is good and his mercies endures for all eternity. O Praise ye the Lord! For He is worthy to

be praised! He has spared my life today so that I can bring this message to you and by His grace

and His strength, to which he has bestowed upon me, I will do such.

Introduction

Turn with me in your bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 5: 15. I will read in your

hearing from the Amplified version and the bible says, “As he came naked from his mother’s

womb, so he will return as he came; and he will take away nothing from all his labor that he can

carry in his hand.” The title of the sermon this morning is “you can’t take it with you.” All heads

are bowed all eyes are closed as we pray to our loving God.

Prayer

O Father our Creator and God your people come to you this morning with humble hearts looking

and waiting for a word from you. We ask that you will open our hearts to receive Your Holy

Spirit. Rid us of any hindrance that may be distracting our focus from being totally on you.

Humble me and cleanse me of all unrighteousness and let everything I proclaim this morning be

strictly from You. Let the church say Amen.

Body

If we don’t learn it by life experiences, there is something we should learn from every funeral.

We don’t “own” anything because we don’t take it with us.Solomon, the wisest man ever, said,

"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing
from his labor that he can carry in his hand." (Ecclesiastes 5:15). The apostle Paul concurred,

"For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it." (1 Timothy 6:7). Job,

at his lowest point worshipfully agreed, saying, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and

naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD

be praised." (Job 1:21). God didn’t stutter about how temporary material things are. We only

have them for a little while.

If you have ever gone into a Massy department store, you quickly notice you are in upscale

territory. Let’s say that someone was given a one hour shopping spree at Massy Stores. They can

have everything they can carry from the store into their car in one hour. Sounds like fun, right?

But now consider this disturbing thought. What if in the exertion and excitement of running

frantically for an hour the person suffered a heart attack and died with their car filled with

hundreds of thousands of dollars of merchandise? They “owned” it alright but for only a few

moments. It was in their car, but when they died, they left it.That is basically a fast forward

metaphor of real life. That’s God’s perspective on finances. No matter what we gain materially,

it is short lived. Whether it’s a few groceries from Massy stores, $1,000,000 cash or a$50,000 car

we drive to work, it’s all staying here on earth. It’s all borrowed. The heart attack or some form

of death is coming. That means I need to emotionally pry my fingers off what I thought I owned

and with that in view, we must conclude that we are not owners. We are stewards.

Definition of Steward

We are all stewards but what exactly does being a steward entail or mean? A steward is one that

is placed in charge or is one who is assigned the responsibility of the owner’s possessions. The

biblical doctrine of stewardship defines a man’s relationship to God. It identifies God as owner

and man as manager. God makes man His co-worker in administering all aspects of our life. The
apostle Paul explains it best by saying, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field,

God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9). From this concept, we are then able to accurately view and

correctly value not only our possessions, but, more importantly, human life itself. In essence,

stewardship defines our purpose in this world as assigned to us by God Himself. It is our divinely

given opportunity to join with God in His worldwide and eternal redemptive movement

(Matthew 28:19-20). Stewardship is not God taking something from us; it is His method of

bestowing His richest gifts upon His people.

Does God really own it all?

Historic Christian theology has affirmed God as the ultimate owner. "The earth is the Lord's and

all that is in it" (Psalm 24:1). It is more than a cliché to affirm that "we can't take it with us." God

calls us into responsible partnership. We are given great responsibility. We are to "till the earth."

It is a privilege to make important decisions as we work "in the vineyard." Today, many of

society's historic standards are being tested. The biblical story of the exile rings true to numerous

people. Structures that gave us security are crumbling. How do we sing the Lord's song in a

strange land? How do we act as responsible stewards in a world that is so different from the one

our parents experienced? God invites us to look for new ways of living as stewards in this

"strange land." This is a task for us to work on together.

Does good stewardship really matter?

In the light that we own nothing and at death we take nothing with us. Then the question should

be asked, can I then use what I have as I please and if not why should it really matter? The fact

remains that all our material things will be left here on this earth when we die and also will burn

when Jesus returns but God still expects us to be good stewards here on earth to show case our

appreciation and love for Him and our fellowman. The question is what kind of stewards are we
today? When we look at a baby, many times when babies can’t have what they want they begin

to cry. If a baby is putting something in their mouth and someone takes it from them they

naturally begin to cry because they want to have the object but they can’t it. Many of us today

are just like babies. God is saying today that all you have worked for materially will eventually

burn and you will have to leave it here on earth. The objective of living isn’t about accumulating

as many material things possible but to be a good steward with the little or plenty to which you

are blessed.A starting place is the recognition that God has invited us to be responsible for our

lives and resources. We are not likely to manage well unless we acknowledge that we are

managers. We are not likely to exercise good stewardship unless we recognize that we are

stewards.Imagine Jesus standing before you and saying, "Take thou authority to be a steward."

Then explore what that will mean in your daily life.

What are we taking with us?

A very rich man died. One neighbor asked another how much the deceased had left behind. The

answer was, “He has left all.” Sad indeed when a dying man is leaving all behind.We have

established that we would not be taking any material things with us to heaven when Jesus comes

for his people but what we need to identify then is what we will be taking with us besides our

bodies which God states will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. (1 Corinthians 15: 52). The

only other attribute on this earth that we take to heaven with us is our characters.God wants you

to develop the kind of character described in the Beatitudes of Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit, Paul’s

great chapter on love, and Peter’s list of the characteristics of an effective and productive life

(Matthew 5:1-12; Galatians 5:22-23; 1 Corinthians 13; 2 Peter 1:5-8). One specific identifier of

this character of Christ is a giving heart which comes along with the lack of selfish

consummation of the material things of this world.

Focusing on what matters

We all have a treasure box in heaven and it’s up to us to fill this box with heavenly treasures. We

have now come to speak of the most interesting and delightful phase of the Christian life.

Nothing brings greater joy to the heart of a Christian than that of laying up treasures in heaven.

He so loves and enjoys adding to his heavenly store that he is eagerly seizing upon every

opportunity for the making of such addition. No miser ever counted his gold with such joy as the

Christian reflects upon his riches in glory. But how different the nature of the joy. The one is

“earthly, sensual, devilish,” (James 3:15) while the other is heavenly. How sweet, how blessed

the joy! No man in his earthly pursuits manifests such interest and eagerness as the saint in his

heavenly pursuits. The Christians should have a thousand times more interest, and find a

thousand times greater joy, in laying up treasures in heaven than ever man did in laying up

earthly store, for heavenly riches are a thousand times and more of greater value than earthly

goods.Two men had lived beside each other for years. One was a man who sought and gained the

riches of the world. The other was a man who sought the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

These men were both brought down upon their dying beds the same week. When the rich man

was spoken to concerning the future of himself and his neighbor, he said, “I am leaving my

treasures, but my neighbor is going to his. Many times I thought him very unwise in giving so

much in support of his religion, but when a man comes down on his dying bed, he can see the

folly of storing up riches here. I am leaving all I have lived for. My neighbor is going to what he

has lived for.” Why leave so much behind to be destroyed when this world is burning? Or why

leave very much behind for others to use in serving sin? Will it not pay you in eternity to give

your money to the cause of God rather than leave it for children to use in serving Satan?“Lay not

up for yourselves treasures upon the earth.” It is only by the aid of the Holy Spirit that we can
grasp the full meaning of these words. Let me first of all, say a few words about what they do not

mean. The quote does not mean that we should not be the legal owner of a single thing on earth.

Such being the case, a man could never have anything to give. Neither does it mean that a man

cannot have legal ownership of a considerable portion of this world’s goods; but it does mean

that whatever a man may possess in a legal way he has to hold such, not as his own, but in trust

for the Lord, so that if the Lord calls for the last penny, he will not go away sorrowful (Matthew

19:22). We hear people talking about dwelling deep in God and living close to Him. He who

holds all his earthly possessions in such a manner that he can hear the faintest call of God for any

part or all of it, and give it up to God with a willing and glad heart, dwells very near to the Lord.

This is one of the best tests of nearness to God. When we dwell deep in God, whatever earthly

store we hold in possession, we hold it not for its own sake, but because we are fully assured we

can glorify God more by possessing it than by not possessing it. But how careful we need to be at

this point lest the flesh deceive us.

Conclusion

We cannot take our possessions and materials with us to heaven hence our hearts should be

thrown to these things. On the other hand God expects us to be drawn to him with the

development of his character which produces a giving character. He expects us to build up our

treasures in heaven and not those on earth. The story is told about an older lady who was

determined to be prepared if someday she felt threatened. Then one day she finished shopping

and returned to her car. She found four men inside the car. She dropped her shopping bags, drew

her handgun, and screamed, "I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car." The

men got out and ran like crazy.Somewhat shaken, she loaded her bags and got in the car. But she

could not get her key into the ignition. Then it dawned on her, her similar car was parked four or
five spaces away! So she did what she had to do. She loaded her bags into her own car and drove

to the police station to turn herself in. The desk sergeant nearly fell off his chair laughing. He

pointed to the other end of the counter, where four men were reporting a carjacking by an old

woman with thick glasses and curly white hair, less than five feet tall, and carrying a large

handgun. No charges were filed.You see, she thought it was her car, but it really belonged to

someone else.Sometimes we get all bent out of shape trying to keep and defend what we think is

ours. People ruin their lives over financial rights, inheritance squabbles, and suing people they

think cheated them. But God is calling us to think differently, to be good stewards to just

faithfully manage what God gives us. “You can’t take it with you” but God can and is willing to

take you to a place where your treasure is greater than your immanent mind can fathom.

Wouldn’t you come and build up your treasure in heaven? God is waiting to bless you

tremendously.