The Righteous Man Doing It Right, Morning Briefing, 3.12.13

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Roots are incredible creations of God. You don't have to look any farther than the Lowcountry's Live Oak. There is nothing that can survive the elements and storms better. There is no wood that makes better ships. There is nothing more beautiful than our evergreen Live Oak. What is one of it's greatest assets? Roots.

In the same way, roots make a man mighty like an oak or wimpy like a weed. How we nourish those roots determine what kind of man we will be.

What makes a Righteous Man immoveable in afflictions and temptations?

It is our roots that quench our thirst us in the dry times. Roots store our food when we need it for growth. Roots keep us stable when the storms of life blow. It is our roots that not only feed life into us, but actually make us who we are. Who hasn't pulled out a chainsaw and cut a tree to the ground only to have it spring back as the same tree...over and over again? Why does it do that? ROOTS.

Here's what Proverbs 12 tells us about a root system that defines and develops the righteous man.

Our roots of righteousness are all about our...

• Thought life (v. 5)

We are defined by what we think about, men. You don't do one single thing without thinking about it first. It is why we must bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 COR. 10:3-5)

• Speech (v. 6)

Words tell us what's really in our heart. Yesterday, I said something inappropriate from my old way of living. Did I beat myself up? Well, a little. But, it was a check for my heart. What's really in there? Am I as righteous as I thought I was? Obviously not. Speech should be an outward checklist of the heart's true motives, beliefs, cleanliness, and desires. What do your words say about you?

• Fruit production (v. 12)

This is obvious, but wise Solomon knew it needed to be said. When your roots are deep in God's ways and righteousness, the fruit of our lives will produce righteousness that will not only feed others, but also spread seed when they eat it. Fruit is about reproducing the plant. Why are apples red, bananas yellow, and oranges, well, orange? To attract the animals that eat them. Once they eat, they spread the seed and reproduce the plant in other places. Righteousness produces righteousness. Evil produces evil. What is the fruit of your life?

• Truth speech (v. 17)

Many times truth is hard to share. We think it will hurt others. We think it will make us look weird. We even think it will get us in trouble (probably left over from our childhood when we did everything we could to avoid punishment). But, truth makes our life worth living. Jesus defined Himself as the Truth. Our lives and words should do the same.

• Disaster avoidance (v. 21)

Here's a great benefit, disaster avoidance. When our roots go deep, the winds will come, the water will rise, the fires will burn, but our roots will bring us back for another go at it. Interestingly enough, when we think of disaster, we think of getting out of its way, yet God knows that we rarely avoid disaster, we mostly endure it. Roots keep us where we are to grow back into a consistent, anchored, resilient, strong man. Is it any wonder the Lord tells us that "he shall be like a tree planted by streams of water" (Ps. 1:3)?

• People skills (v. 26)

Roots even helps get along with other people. When we are rooted in God we will know what matters most, God and people. Our relationships with others will be determined by our righteous lives. People that can't get along are not considered good people, but divisive and hard. Righteous roots develop skills in us men to have better relationships with our wives, our children, our friends, our employees, and even our bosses.

• Life Path (v. 28)

Finally, righteousness guides us on the path of real life. This is not the kind of life that wakes up with regrets, guilt, and fear because of what you did the night before. Righteous roots direct us to the right things even when our buddies at work are all pressuring us to go the wrong way. It is our roots that keep us planted and living in the right activities, thoughts, and words. Your roots will determine your path in life. Make sure they are not only deep, but fed with the right nutrition. The soil the tree is planted in will determine whether or not you make it, men. Get rooted in the soil of righteousness found only in Christ.

Men, this is your morning briefing. That is all.

Trey Rhodes

 

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Money Might Not Make Me Happy, But I Sure Would Like to Try It for a While

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I watched a Matlock episode last night on the Inspiration Network that was all about easy, quick money. It actually illustrated the point of the love of money being the root of all evil. Here's a quick synopsis:

A man meets an attractive woman while he's jogging. She meets him later for dinner where she tells him she made some easy money in the stock market. She gets him to invest with the same stock broker, and he makes several thousand dollars. He wants more, so he asks if he can invest $25,000 with this broker and make some real money. Of course, the broker agrees to the transaction. When the "mark" goes to meet the broker with the money, they stumble into what looks like a murder scene. Supposedly, the "police" have already been called, sirens are heard, so they scram, but not before hiding the $25,000 from the "police". Once they leave the area, the money is taken to be shared with the rest of what you now recognize as "con" men. This pattern continues again, but the next time, one of the confidence men is murdered. Is it revenge, or one of the other con men trying to get more of the split? Only Matlock can figure it out. At one point, the confidence man is accosted by Matlock's beautiful assistant. She asked, "Why would you choose to destroy so many lives?" His answer? "I'm doing nothing but using the greed that is in their heart. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they want to any way." Yikes, an admitted criminal understood greed that lurks in most of our hearts, more than we're willing to admit.

That brings me back to what the Bible warned us about, "The love of money is the root of all evil." Even TV shows recognize this to be a universal truth. I think before the episode was over, nearly every one of the 10 commandments (except disobeying parents) was broken.

Herein lies the rub, when it comes to quick and easy riches, the reason they are so destructive has to do with discipline and wisdom. You must know and understand how to use riches without destroying yourself or others. The Bible understands human nature and warns us of this grave error we should avoid:

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. (1 Timothy 6:9 HCSB)

as well as...

Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears (Proverbs 13:11a NLT)

You see, God honors three things when it comes to our money:

1) Hard, steady work

2) Self-control with the money we earn.

3) Long term, steady growth

The second part of Proverbs 13:11 encourages us to that kind of lifestyle:

wealth from hard work grows over time (Proverbs 13:11b NLT)

Here's a good way to get rich. It's not fast, but it is tried and true. Save $5 a day. If you will do that and invest it at *12% over time, your finances would look something like this:

In 5 years, you would have $12,250

10 years = $34,505

20 years = $148,388

30 years = $524,244

40 years = $1,764,716 25 to 65

50 years = $5,858,750 20 to 70

That's how money works for you 24/7, 365 days a year with compound interest.

"But, come on, really? No one really does that," you say. Truth be told, you're probably more right than wrong on that issue in today's world. But lots of people used to do that. My father-in-law being one of them. He worked hard for many years, retired at an early age, and still lives off of his retirement. He is able to help others, bless his family, give to his church, and even support other ministries. He understood then and experiences now the way that long term investment can work over the long haul. God blessed PawPaw's discipline and patience as he let his money work for him so he could live comfortably and have the ability to invest in other lives long after retirement.

Here's a challenge to each of us...don't seek to get rich quick. Seek to invest wisely over years, and watch what can happen as we wisely do what the Bible tells us to do. You'll be amazed, and then YOU WILL get to find out what it's like to have money.

Pastor Trey Rhodes

*Dave Ramsey gives these percentages in long term investments. Here's an explanation from his website with a way to requeast more information from actual ELP's (Endorsed Local Providers)

 

Coming Up at Oceanside Church...

Super Bowl Party - THIS Sunday Night, February 3rd. Begins at 6 p.m. at Oceanside. Bring your best tailgate food. Wear your team's colors. Enjoy the food. Let's have some together!

Valentine's Not Just for Couples Banquet - Sunday night, February 10th 7p.m. Games, Dinner, Even pictures for $5.

RVGC Video Game competition - 6 p.m. Friday Night February 22. $5 for Super Smash Brothers Competition. $75 grand prize. Total purse to be awarded, $150.

 

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A Snowball's Chance

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Snow is one of those things that we see from a distance here in the south. Yes, we do get snow in Charleston, but it is such a rare occurrence that I can think of every time it snowed here in my mind. We have hurricanes about as often. So, not an ongoing yearly happening for us. It seems that the I-95 corridor is a huge deterrent for any snow that might try and make its way to the Lowcountry. The weatherman seems to almost always say, "Snow will make it to I-95, but not much farther." It seems the snow is as scared of those crazy New York drivers as I am. So, down south, we really don't know much about snow.

But I do have some experience with snow. I haved lived in Greer, SC, Rocky Mount, NC, and Lynchburg, VA. I learned to drive in the snow. Work in the snow. Go to school in the snow. Play in the snow. One thing I learn is that snow is sticky. If you roll a small ball of snow, it will pick up more and more as long as you roll it. I learned this incredible skill when trying to make a snow man with the kids. We started with a small amount of snow not much more than what we could hold in our hand then rolled it around the yard until it got to the size of a large beach ball. It made a GREAT base for a large snowman.

From small beginnings, large things can come to pass. It is no different with our debt. Most of us have made enough money in the past to do what Dave Ramsey calls, "outspending our stupidity." In other words, we had enough income to pay for our impulse buys, our restaurant splurges, our exotic vacations, our brand new cars, and our oversized homes and were still able to stay close to the black. Now, many of us have no way to cover those costs anymore. So, we wound up in debt. That's where the debt snowball comes in.

Here's how we can do it:

1. STOP CHARGING or GETTING LOANS on anything.

2. Begin to pay minimums on every debt you have.

3. Quit eating out, buying that daily cup of coffee, or find an alternate income stream like pizza delivery or another part time job that can get you $100 to $200 extra income a month. Please don't spend money to make money at this point. You can't spend your way out of debt. You might just need to quit your impulse buying to get the extra to apply to your snowball. Do what ever you can to get that extra money on a monthly basis.

4. List your debts, smallest to largest. similar to the photo above. You can get an online version at www.JoeSangl.com/tools.

5. Lastly, start with the smallest debt (not the one with the largest interest), use the $200 extra, and pay it off first. As many months as it takes to do that pay until it's finished. Now, you're on your way. Then you're ready to go on to the next debt, apply the minimum payment, add that to the same $200 plus the minimum payment you were paying on the first debt. Pay it off, then do the same thing with the third smallest adding it all to the next debt until it's paid off. The payment gets larger every time.

Here's how it works. Let's say you have a combined debt, excluding your home mortgage, of $41,000. This would include cars, school loans, credit cards, what you owe family, and anything else you owe other than your living expenses. using this method of paying debt, it will take 65 months to pay them off. And that's by only using $200 extra a month! Now, the alternative is paying for 30 years, and paying 10 times what you owe. Not a pretty picture.

My challenge to you is to beat this thing. Refuse to take anymore beatings from the bullies of the finance world. You are going to have to discipline yourself to live like no one else, so you can live like no one else in 4 to 5 years. Letting money serve you rather than serving money. When that happens, we can use our money to serve God.

Can you imagine the impact you can make for your family with the extra money? Can you imagine investing and saving with the extra and retiring without anxiety? Can you imagine impacting our world by building wells, feeding the hungry, and adopting orphans? Can you imagine the resources you can purchase? missionaries you can support? Lives that can be changed with the money that will be available to now serve the Lord as money serves you?

This is the kind of snowball that does have a chance. You can do it!

Join us this week at Oceanside Church for the "Strapped" sermon series at 10:30 a.m. See you there!

Pastor Trey Rhodes

If you need a video explanation that will explain it better, here's Craig Groeshel with one of the best explanations I have ever heard.

Coming Up at Oceanside Church

Super Bowl Party - Sunday Night, Feburary 3rd. Begins at 6 p.m. at Oceanside. Bring your best tailgate food. Wear your team's colors. Enjoy the food. Let's have some together!

Valentine's Not Just for Couples Banquet - Sunday night, February 10th 7p.m. Games, Dinner, Even pictures for $5.

RVGC Video Game competition - 6 p.m. Friday Night February 22. $5 for Super Smash Brothers Competition. $75 grand prize. Total purse to be awarded, $150.

 

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Make This Day a Day of Generosity

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How many hours and energy have you put into making Valentine's Day special for your love? What if you could have a day where generosity makes a difference in a life outside of your family or friends? One company is determined to look outside themselves and touch lives. Here's their take on "Generosity Day":

(One) investment firm (The Acumen Fund) has redefined the process of giving back and today they're encouraging the world to do so on Valentines Day. They've dubbed the romantic day "Generosity Day" and are attempting to get people to give up on the expensive gifts and flowers. Instead, they are asking people to embrace the idea of giving back. The concept is to spend the day doing small acts of kindness in a pay-it-forward structure. Suggestions include leaving a larger than average tip, giving a colleague a ride to work, or just being extra nice to people. Little things that they hope will make a difference. Many had taken to sites like Twitter to share their support of the day. Happy #GenerosityDay! Join others who are doing outrageously generous thing," Kevin Kruse wrote on Twitter.

Generosity is what our Lord has always been about. We read in the Bible an incredible word form the lips of Jesus,

It is better to give than to receive. Acts 20:35

That seems so backwards while nearly everyone is looking out for number one. People wanting to know what they can get out of someone or something. Even to the point of asking, "What's in it for me?" It would seem that the more you give, the less you would have. But God's economy is completely different.

We are reminded in the Proverbs by Solomon:

One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Proverbs 11:24-25

This is the principle, the more we give the more we prosper. It's not about what we have in the bag; it's what we can overflow from God's basket. If we give freely, we will "gain even more." That is basket living that makes generosity a way of life.

Will you hold on or will you choose to give freely? When it comes to Man vs. Money, may man win every time!

Cultivating a generous heart,

Pastor Trey Rhodes


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