Revision as of 14:29, 13 February 2019

Objectives

• Teens will understand that high importance that God places on their word and obligations.
• Teens will understand what Godly financial decisions look like.

Materials

Reputation Handout

Introduction

• What are some examples of contracts that you know about?
  • Contracts to play for a specific team.
  • Marriage
  • Contracts to buy a house
  • Contracts to rent a house
  • Treaties made between nations.

• If you had to define the word "name," what would you write?
  • The dictionary definition of name is "a word or phrase that constitutes the distinctive designation of a person or thing" ^[1]. However, this misses so much of what a name actually entails. The greek word for name is οναμα and this word carries a much greater idea.

    the proper name of a person or object (Mt 10:2); 2. LN 9.19 person, figurative extension of above (Ac 1:15; Mk 16:17 v.r.); 3. LN 33.265 reputation, what is said about a person (Rev 3:1); 4. LN 58.22 category, being of a certain type (Mt 10:41; Mk 9:41); 5. LN 53.62 ὀνομάζω τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου (onomazō to onoma kyriou), say that one belongs to the Lord (Ac 19:13; 2Ti 2:19+); 6. LN 33.210 βαστάζω ὄνομα (bastazō onoma), inform (Ac 9:15+); 7. LN 33.396 ἐκβάλλω τὸ ὄνομα (ekballō to onoma), slander (Lk 6:22+); 8. LN 33.128 ἐπιτίθημι ὄνομα (epitithēmi onoma), give a name to (Mk 3:16, 17+); 9. LN 11.28 ἐπικαλέομαι τὸ ὄνομά τινος ἐπί τινα (epikaleomai to onoma tinos epi tina), be people of (Ac 9:14; 15:17) ^[2]

    TDNT further states that "There was and is a world-wide belief that the name of an object, man, or higher being is more than a mere label incidentally associated with the one who bears it. The name is an indispensable part of the personality. One might say that a man is constituted of body, soul, and name."^[3] The simple fact of the matter is, our name or our reparation should be very important to us. Not more important than our God, but very important.

Contracts

• What general principle is given in Ecclesiastes 5:5?
  • In all things a Christian should be a person who fulfills their obligations. The word for vow carries the idea of "make a binding promise to God, possibly with sanctions if the promise is not kept ^[4]

• What do Matthew 5:37 and James 5:12 indicate?
  • Christians should be people of their word. We must be marked by integrity, our integrity should be so great that we don't need to promise, swear, or take an oath because we are known as people who follow through with their word.

• Does God really expect a Christian to do everything they say they will do?
  • Yes, 1 Peter 3:16 calls on us to have a clear conscience.

• What if I forget? If I tell someone that I will do something and I then forget is that excusable?
  • No!!! God holds us to our word. Consider the following example of Tyre.

The Case of Tyre

• What relationship is developed in 2 Samuel 5:11, 1 Kings 5:1-12, and 1 Kings 9:11-14?
  • Tyre was part of contrasting David's palace
  • Tyre was part of the construction of the temple
  • Tyre and Israel had a close relationship.
    • It is important to note that Tyre was a Phoenician city.

• Why would ancient princes and kings marry?
  • In ancient times, kings and princes married with the goal of forming treaties.

• Who did Ahab, king of Israel, marry in 1 Kings 16:31?
  • Ahab married Jezebel who was the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians a Phoenician city. In effect this would have created a treaty between Israel and Phoenicia.

• The book of Amos was written between 790 and 739 B.C. Ahab reigned in Israel in approximately 870 BC and David reigned in about 1000 BC. In other words well over 100 years had passed from the reign of Ahab and over 200 years from the reign of David. Do you think God expected Phoenicia to keep a covenant they had made so much earlier?
  • in Amos 1:9-10 God proclaims judgement on Tyre. The punishment was severe,

    Alexander the Great overran the city of Tyre in 332 B.C. after besieging it for seven months. Six thousand people were slain outright, 2,000 were crucified, and 30,000 were sold as slaves. Tyre had sold Israelites to Edom as captives; later many Tyrians became captives. ^[5]

Apparently God takes contractual obligations very seriously, even when hundreds of years have passed.

A Biblical Command

• According to 2 Corinthians 6:14-17, what should believers be very careful about?
  • We must be very careful not to put ourselves in a position where we are contractually bound to someone who is an unbeliever. In this particular case, we must take care to ensure that our spiritual well-being and testimony is not impacted by contractual obligations. In short we must be very careful about who we enter into contracts with.

• What are some examples of contracts that person might enter that one might reasonably expect to involve their spiritual well-being or testimony?
  • Marriage
  • Church
  • Possibly a job if there is potential to work on Sundays
  • Possibly a business relationship depending not he nature of the business.

• Why would it be important to think about these things before entering into the contract?
  • God takes the contract seriously and the Christian should not expect to easily get out of the contract.

Some Case Studies

• Julia is a high school senior with a fair amount of volleyball talent. Last week she signed and committed to attending Creighton on a scholarship. However, this week she got a call from Stanford. Stanford is willing to provide Julia a full-ride scholarship. Julia believe that Stanford is a better choice both academically and athletically. What should Julia do?

• Shane and Josh grew up together and have always been good friends, the only real exception is that Shane attends church every Sunday and Josh sees it as a waste of time. Shane accepted Christ as his Savior when he was seven years old at VBS. Josh has never been interested in church, he told Shane "what you do with your time is up to you just don't expect me to go to church." Six months ago, after graduation, Shane and Josh decided to get an apartment together and live "on their own." They signed a 12 month lease and excitedly started this new adventure. Recently, Shane has become very frustrated. Josh has parties late into the night every Saturday night. Josh has also started watching a lot of pornography in the living room. Shane tries to avoid watching the pornography but it occurs so often that even walking between his bedroom and the front door Shane is exposed to inappropriate images. What should Shane do?

• Lisa has found herself falling for a guy in her college religion course. The guy has literally, in class, stated "I accepted Jesus as my personal savior when I was 10 years old at a Vacation Bible School offered by the church by my house, so yes, I am a Christian. But it seemed like too many rules and was really boring so I never went back." Lia has approached you to see if you think it is a good idea for her to date the guy, after all he is a Christian and her parents always told her she should only date other Christians. What advice would you give to Lisa?

Finance

• What parable does Christ present in Matthew 25:14-30?
  • The Parable of the Talents

• The parable speaks of "talents" what is a talent?
  • While many have applied this parable to the modern word talent, that is not what this parable is directly speaking about. This parable is speaking about the unit of measure called a talent. A talent was a unit of weight, commonly silver or gold, amounting to somewhere between 58 and 80 pounds. In this parable, the master has entrusted the servant with a. significant amount of money.

• According to the parable, what does the master expect the servant to do with the talent?
  • The master expects the servant to wisely steward the talent. I find it interesting that the servant is expected not to just place it in savings but to really invest and use it.

• What is the difference in reward between the man given five talents and the man given two talents? What is the significance of this?
  • God tells them "enter into the joy of your lord" in short, the master was happy with faithfulness, not just results.

• What is the broad message of this parable?
  • God has entrusted us with skills, abilities, possessions, finances, ... and we are expected to use these for Him. We need to be careful not to overemphasize a modern reading of the word talent as a skill or ability, the direct meaning of this parable is about finances. We can build a general principle to get to abilities but we cannot lose sight of the finances aspect.
• What do 1 Corinthians 4:7 and James 1:17 teach?
  • Everything we have comes from God. Additionally, Romans 14:7-8 states "For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s."^[6]. In short, everything we have is also God's and so we should be using our resources wisely and for God. This is the first principal of Christian finance.

• What does Romans 13:8 command?
  • Romans 13:8 commands us to owe no-one anything. This is not a command against borrowing. After all, the Bible provides guidance on how lending and borrowing should be performed (Matthew 5:42, Luke 6:34). Instead, this is a command the Christians must repay their debts. We must pay the money we owe when the payment is due.

• So what is the Biblical principle?
  • Christians should be very careful. We are not required to eliminate all debt, in fact, some debt can be used to our advantage. For many, owning a home is a good use of debt. However, we must be careful to never be in the position where we are deeply in debt and cannot get out. Also, Christians should be very careful with things like credit cards. Interest rates on a credit card can cripple the Christian and cripple their ministry.

Credit Cards

Conclusion

• What are some ways in which a Christian can destroy their reputation?

• Are there ways a Christian can have their reputation destroyed for the cause of Christ?
  • Yes, I believe there are attacks that can be made on a Christian that are to destroy the Christian's reputation. In some sense, although it may be a little of a stretch, Philippians 1:15-18 appears to be in this direction. It seems that some are preaching Christ so that Paul would suffer more punishment. Beyond that example there are countless Christians who have been jailed or worse because of persecution.

• What steps do you need to take to protect your reputation?

• If God asks you to give up your reputation for the cause of Christ will you bear that burden?

References

1. ↑ Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003).
2. ↑ James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
3. ↑ 5.242
4. ↑ James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997)."
5. ↑ Donald R. Sunukjian, “Amos,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1429.
6. ↑ NKJV