Thursday, November 21, 2013
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Each year in my Campus Life Club we would have a meeting honoring the football players and the cheerleaders. And we had a crowd-breaker that was always great for laughs. We'd get three cheerleaders up front. We'd give them a bag filled with a complete football uniform, pads and all, minus a couple of items that would have been inappropriate. And then with a player coaching them verbally, the cheerleaders raced to see who could get all their uniform on first. You don't realize how much gear a football player has to put on until you try to figure out where all those pads go; knee pads, shoulder pads, hip pads. I mean, it's a lot to figure out!
But when you are colliding with other bodies at high speed, you need to protect yourself. So the smart player makes sure that he is protected in the spots where he's most vulnerable.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Vulnerable Spot."
Physically we know we should protect our vulnerable spots. It's a good idea morally and spiritually as well. The Apostle Paul seemed to realize the spot where many of us are quite vulnerable spiritually; the area where we may be most subject to criticism, to temptation, to compromise, an area where temptation hits pretty hard. Paul knew he had to do some serious things to protect himself in that area. That vulnerable spot - money.
Paul had been raising funds for a special relief offering for the impoverished saints in Jerusalem. It was time to put all those funds together and deliver them, which of course meant handling a lot of money given by God's people. This is how determined he was to protect himself from any injury to his character or his credibility.
He says in our word for today from the Word of God from 2 Corinthians 8:20, "We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift." That's a good idea. I mean, few things bring more discredit to the name of Christ than a Christian who's messing with money that isn't his, or that's even handled in such a way that he could be accused of messing with it. He says, "For we are taking pains to do what is right." Pains—that means going out of your way to guard your integrity; doing whatever it takes to do it right. And sometimes it's a pain, but it's worth it.
That's got to be the standard for every follower of Jesus Christ when it comes to the handling of money; taking pains to do what is right. And it goes on to say, "Not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men." Oh, isn't right before God good enough? Well, not when it comes to money.
We're called to do what is right before the government, before God's people, before those who would love to have an excuse to discredit Christians and the Savior they serve. So the standard is simple: when you're handling money, always take the high road. Don't see how close to the edge of integrity you can play. See how far you can stay away from the edge; always erring on the side of taking too many precautions.
Money seems to have spiritual power and Satan knows it. He's used the abuse of it, or maybe just naive carelessness with it, to majorly harm the name of Christ and the trust of God's people. So take a page here from a spiritual champion, the Apostle Paul. Take whatever precautions you have to take to cover this vulnerable area called money. Don't ever allow yourself to be in a position where you could possibly be tempted to do something unethical, or where you could even possibly be accused of doing something unethical.
Our opponent wants to hit us hard in our weak spot to take us out of the game. But we could stop him by covering ourselves with heavy protection in anything that involves money. If we can stop hits in that vulnerable spot, I think we can finish the game victorious.