Risk-Free Guarantee | Northstar Church

“So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” – James 1:4.

Many marketing campaigns include “risk-free trial for 30 days” or a “guaranteed warranty” for some amount of time. This is a guarantee without a long-term commitment. It makes sense because we live in a world where nothing is guaranteed long-term. There are caveats, rules, conditions and strings attached. There are usually limits.

As Christians we have a guarantee, a promise that is never to return void, fail, decay, or even have a limited time offer. It is the risk-free guarantee of salvation and it is good for all eternity. Not only is it free, but it is the best investment you’ll ever make. But once you have that risk-free guarantee, we still need to make some investments in God daily. Who you will be in five years will be largely determined by the investments you make in your life over these five years.

We live in a scary yet exciting time in history where investing in the Lord has significant returns. Returns that produce, not material gains, but eternal gains. Romans 5:3-4 says, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” So it’s not just preparation for this life, but also our eternal life in heaven.

Think of it as your eternal life insurance. Your life is literally insured in the guarantee of Jesus Christ—today tomorrow and forever. So what investments can we make over the next five years?

What in the next five years are you willing to give or surrender to God? Contrary to what most people think it doesn’t have to be something hard or painful. It could simply be thanking God. Giving thanks to God is mentioned over and over again in the Bible. So God expects and requires us to be thankful. We should thank Him everyday. Another investment we can make is trusting God to the point we let trusting God rule our hearts and mind completely. We can trade our problems for a purpose; trade our grief for joy; trade our weakness for strength; and trade our hopelessness for hope.

Even the best of us will make small, limited and even seemingly bad investments at times over the next five years. The good news is the size of our investments have no bearing on the excellent return we receive from Christ. We have a risk free guarantee for eternity from a loving God that is always working on our behalf.

Discussion Questions:

Is it hard to make spiritual investments? Why?
What will your life look like in 5 years if you start making spiritual investments today?