Seventh-day Adventist Church

2003 NAD Offering Call

“Becoming Faithful Stewards”

THE BETTER INVESTMENT

In Money magazine (January, 2000) it was reported that researchers from Duke, Harvard and Northwest Universities asked investors how they thought their mutual funds performed last year compared to the investors yard stick , the Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index. A third of them claimed their particular funds outperformed the market by at least 5 percent and one in six believed their funds fared even better, claiming a 10 percent increase.

However, a check on the portfolios belonging to those claiming to have outperformed the market showed that 88 percent had over estimated their earnings. In fact, some of these “market beaters” actually were as much as 15 percent below the S & P rating. One of the researchers, Don Moore of Northwest, put it in a nutshell, “Everybody wants to believe they’ve done better than average.”

In the Christian’s life there is only one stock account that consistently outperforms, and that is found in the promise given by Jehovah when we return our tithes and offerings to Him. The Bible clearly demonstrates that to do so is worth the effort. “Bring

your full tithe (and offering) to my Temple so that there will be plenty of food in my house. Try me, and see if I will not open the gates of heaven and pour out so many blessings on you, spiritual and material, that you will not be able to count them all . . .People everywhere will call you blessed and your economy will be a delightful place to live.” (Malachi 3:10-12 -- The Clear Word). If you have not yet invested in Heaven’s mutual fund, why not try it out and then wait for a downpour of blessings?

Appeal text: Store up treasure in heaven, where. . . no thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” [Matthew 6:20-21 NEV]