Intro: A Dominion Attitude (What To Do When You Lose Your Shirt)

Last week we looked at the relationship of accounting to prosperity and what the bible had to say about that. There are skills that we have to learn to prosper in any area of life. But today I want to look at a very intangible asset that I am calling a Dominion Attitude. Attitudes are kind of difficult to get your hands around, and yet I believe they are critical to dominion and the prosperity that God loves to bless His people with. A person with a dominion attitude will press on no matter how many times he has failed or how many times he or she has lost everything. I think that William Carey had a tremendous dominion attitude - when fire destroyed years worth of work that was not backed up. I'm not the first person to fail to back up my data. And boy does that hurt!

But there are other losses. I know a person who lost his entire life savings three times because of bad investment decisions, and yet who did not give up. He's actually learned some good lessons from these losses. But it is so easy to decide to give up on dominion simply because of set backs. Thomas Edison had a dominion attitude when it came to pressing on after hundreds of failures. And it can be as simple as getting a book published. Herbert Schlossberg was turned down by most of the book publishers before his blockbusting book was finally published. It would have been very easy to grow discouraged and give up. We think of Robert Frost as a famous poet, yet initially all his poems were rejected. We think of Albert Einstein as a scholar well received in his life time. But early on he was ridiculed. His dissertation was rejected by the University of Bern and he was unable to get his PhD there.

But you know what? Many people lack the intiative, the hope, the future orientation or the determination to be able to prosper. And the Scriptures give antidotes to each of those deficiencies. We are not going to look at all of them. But I do want to examine some essentials that need to be in place if we are to have a dominion attitude.

Be Prepared to Face Losses at Times (vv. 1-2 with 24:1-10)

And the first essential is that we need to be prepared to face losses at times. The likelihood is that at some point in your life you are going to have a financial setback, and you will have setbacks in other areas where you are praying for prosperity. It may not be as devastating as what these Jews faced. But it can be enough to set some people back on their heels. If you have the illusion that a Christian will never face sickness, or will never lose assets, then when it happens you can end up being cynical. Some of the people most vigorously opposed to any kind of healing are people who went from one extreme to another. Sop let's look at verse 1 and see that Christians can have temporary setbacks.

Verse 1. Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive - to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. It might be thought that those who were carried away to Babylon were the worst of the crowd ("That's why they got hit"), while those left behind were the best. But I want you to turn back to chapter 24 so that you can see that these losses were sustained by the good people - people like Daniel, Shadrack, Mesheck and Abednego.

Jeremiah 24:1 The LORD showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

Jeremiah 24:2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Jeremiah 24:3 Then the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”

Jeremiah 24:4 ¶ Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Jeremiah 24:5 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans.

Jeremiah 24:6 ‘For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.

Jeremiah 24:7 ‘Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

Jeremiah 24:8 ‘ ¶ And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the LORD —‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.

Jeremiah 24:9 ‘I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.

Jeremiah 24:10 ‘And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”

Well back to Jeremiah 29; in Jeremiah 29:17 he identifies the ones who were still in the stock market in Jerusalem as the bad figs. The ones who hadn't lost anything yet were the bad figs. They were shortly about to lose not only all assets but even their lives. But in the mean time it did look a little backwards. The ones being addressed in Jeremiah 29 were the good ones that had lost everything, and God had taken them to Babylon to protect them and because He loved them. And its just a reminder that God cares about your souls a whole lot more than he cares about your assets. Christians will face losses from time to time. It should not surprise us. If we have unrealistic expectations it would be easy to become bitter. Now your losses may be minor. It may be that the appliance you bought is a lemon and the company won't back their warranty. It may be that the child you invested in doesn't make good on all that you invested into him. The loss may be emotional, physical, financial or other. But Christians do face losses and it is no indication that they are not Christians, or even that you are not loved by God. Job stands as a testimony against all those who say that if you are poor you are living in sin.

From a human perspective, Israel had everything to be discouraged about. They lost everything; they were captives; they were taken to a foreign land. Their best children were forced into the public schools to serve the king’s humanistic purposes. They were completely surrounded on every side by the triumph of humanism. If anything, they had far more to be discouraged about than we do in America. And I believe this message from Jeremiah can bring us the same encouragement and the same strategy for winning that it gave the exiles. God does not want these losses to discourage us from dominion, but rather to strengthen our resolve and our abilities to take dominion. So yes, Christians can face losses.

Realize that God is in Control of the Loss and Seek to Learn from it

The second point is that God is in control of the loss and we need to seek to learn from it. We shouldn't give Satan more credit than he is due. Yes, Satan may be an instrument that is used from time to time, but we must recognize that ultimately it is God who brings such disasters. This was not life out of control. Verse 4 of Jeremiah 29 says, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Now that doesn't rule out Satan's involvement. The book of Daniel makes clear that Satan was very much involved in these affairs, and was no doubt celebrating and having a hay day. Satan loved what was happening because it may have made him feel that he was winning.

But you know what? It was the very opposite. God was strengthening his people through this. And during their 70 year stay in Babylon the Jews exerted enormous influence and dominion. It is incredible the degree to which the Babylonians, Medes and Persians were influenced by Christianity. So there was benefit in the social arena. But there was also benefit to their individual spiritual lives. The godly Jews were humbled, they were drawn closer to God and they learned many valuable lessons through these losses. In effect these financial losses were reproofs in their lives that were designed to make them more holy and therefore to draw them into even more effective dominon.

And God uses financial reproofs in our lives as well. I've had them. And the reason for the loss may be different from one person to another. For example, Paul said that he learned contentment through his financial losses. In Psalm 119 David said that his losses were designed to correct him. He said, Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your Word… It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes. With another person it might be to help him to see that his riches go far beyond money and possessions. Proverbs says that a family with love and only bread to eat is richer than a house with lots of food and continual strife. Proverbs 17:1 says, Better is a dry morsel with quietness, Than a house full of feasting with strife. And it does - sometimes it takes losses for people to wake up to that truth and to spend time with what they consider to be their most important possessions - their family.

Proverbs 13:7 gives this paradox, There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing (there are a lot of rich people who could testify to that. They are rich but have nothing. "There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing); And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches. So God sometimes takes away prosperity in one area to cause us to enter into a richer and fuller prosperity in other areas.

With Job it was to test him and to uncover the pride of his heart. And when Job learned his lesson, God restored his fortunes more than he had before. Let me quickly list some of the other ways in which finances can be a reproof from God:

First, the constant need to borrow money. Deuteronomy 15:5-6 says, only if you carefully obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. [It's only when our soul is prospering that it makes sense for God to prosper us in other areas. That's the lesson of 3 John 2. But he goes on to say,] For the LORD your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

Proverbs 28:22 indicates that God sometimes brings poverty to those who insist on a get-rich-quick scheme. And I've known people who just can't seem to get ahead because their sure plans are constantly backfiring. Proverbs 21:5 is a similar passage.

But according to Matthew 13:22 God sometimes finds it more effective to bring the barrenness in the spiritual realm to make people realize that the god of money leaves you empty. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. Whether you are financially unfruitful or spiritually sterile, it may be God's reproof for the same thing.

Ecclesiastes 6:1-2 shows that God reproves his people with an inability to enjoy what they have worked so hard to accumulate.

So this second point indicates that our first reaction when we have loss is not to get angry with Satan, but to submit to God's hand, and to learn whatever lessons he may be teaching us. Proverbs 1:23-26 says that God will restore our prosperity when we learn, and He will turn up the heat when we fail to learn. He will bring more financial reproofs.

So learn from God's financial rebukes or reproofs.

Don’t Give Up On The Future During Times Of Loss. (vs. 5-6)

In the next verses Jeremiah goes on to tell these Jews not to give up on the future during this time of loss. And it's so easy for that to happen. If a person gets hurt badly enough he can so fear the risks of the future that he willingly becomes a present oriented slave who doesn't have to worry about what the future will bring. And Jeremiah says, "Uhh, uh. Uhh, uh. Babylon may think that it has enslaved you, but I want you to realize that God alone controls the past, present and future, and it is imperative that we not seek to escape from this world. He says, Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and give your daughters to husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters - that you may be increased there, and not diminished. Man! What a vision!! "That you may be increased there, and not diminished!??! This is a message the church needs to hear today! As long as the church has an escapist mentality, it will never conquer the world. God is telling them to plan for the future. They were not to despair of life. Rather, they were to plan as if they were going to be around for a long, long time and to be in a position to take advantage of that fact several years down the road. No matter how great your losses have been, don't give up on the future. Jeremiah later encourages them in effect that if God is for them, who can be against them? They can tackle the future with the confidence that God will enable the dominion that He is commanding them to take.

Now compare that mandate to the thinking of Christians who don’t want to have children because they believe they are living in the last times and they don’t want to bring up children in a time of persecution. These are quotes from three prominent and very influential Christian theologians. The first one says,

"Forgotten is the fact that sin and the curse made it forever impossible for the cultural mandate to be fulfilled in this present world.”¹ • “The world [is] filled with sin and getting worse, a hopeless situation beyond repair and impossible to salvage”² Well, with an attitude like that, whose going to try? I wouldn't invest in the future if I believed that.

Another author said,

“Without the hope of our Lord’s return...what future do any of us have?”³ And his implied answer is that we don't have a future. Our only future is to get bailed out by Jesus at the end of time. Another author said,

Christians have no immediate solutions to the problems of our day.” (Walvoord)⁴

In contrast, when Martin Luther was asked what he would do if he knew Christ was coming back tomorrow, he said, “I would plant a tree.” Now that statement would be shocking to many evangelicals. Plant a tree!? That's not spiritual. But to Martin Luther it was. It was obedience to the Word. And that is what God is advising in these verses. Some of these Jews were tempted to think that all was completely lost. God said, “Prepare yourselves now for the long term victory.” Don’t ever give up on this world. Christ said, “Occupy till I come.” What are soldiers doing when they occupy? They are taking over enemy territory, not retreating. Christ insists that we must occupy until the very day that He comes back in glory. So an optimistic view concerning the future is imperative if we are to engage in dominion with any degree of enthusiasm. That's why I have always said that eschatology is important.

Invest What You Have (vv. 5-6)

Invest labor (sweat equity) (v. 5)

But someone may respond, "That's all well and fine if you have something, but I have just lost everything that I own in a bankruptcy." Well, point IV is that we should invest what we have. God won't hold us responsible to invest what we don't have, but many Christians have plenty that is underdeveloped. The first thing that we see being invested here was simply labor, or what some people call sweat equity.

Verse 5 says in part, Build houses… plant gardens… If you can't afford to have other people work for you, and you don't have money to make money work for you, about all that you have left is your own labor and skills. I don't know who said it, but one person said, "There aren't any hard and fast rules for getting ahead in the world - just hard ones." And work is one of those hard rules.

Work, don't wait to get bailed out. The false prophets were saying that at any time they would be able to return to Israel and their fortunes would be restored. And Jeremiah's reponse was "Don't wait for the big bailout from the king of Israel, or from Nebuchadnezzar's hoped for death, for from the lottery or from the rapture. Don't wait, work. Even if you don't have money, you can usually invest labor. Think of your labor as a scarce resource that needs to be invested and marketed to God's glory.

And the objection might come - well, I know people who don't have the health to invest physical labor. They have lost their health through a disability. Well, don't let a physical disability stop you from laboring with your mind. John Bunyan was in jail for most of his life. If he had waited to take dominion, I would not have multiple volumes of rich theological works that he wrote. He wrote pilgrim's progress and many other books. He took dominion with what he had. He didn't have physical labor, but he used the mental labor that was available to him. Now its true, some people are in a comma and they can't even labor with their minds. If you are in a comma, you are off the hook.

But for some people they excuse their lack of investment because of a past catastrophe. You may have seen years worth of work going up in flames like William Carey did - start over and take dominion. Jeremiah's command is tp use at least what you do have. When immigrants from certain countries came to America, they many times faced discrimination just like these Jews did in Babylon. The only thing that enabled them to prosper in America despite discrimination was their effective use of sweat equity. They worked harder than others, they tried to do a better job and they worked for less money. And millions of them succeeded because they were competitive enough with the marketing of their labor. And many people envy their wealth, but they got it the same way any other American can get it - through working harder and working smarter. Teddy Roosevelt said, "I am only an average man, but I work harder at it than the average man." So the first thing that you can do is to invest your labor.

Invest what small things you can find (tiny seeds) (v. 5)

The second thing that you can invest are the small things that are available to you. These exiles didn't have much, but they were able to find seeds, a patch of ground and to plant those seeds. Remember that we are not talking about immigrants who could bring their stuff with them. We are talking about captives who came with the clothes on their backs. He said, plant gardens and eat their fruit. Some of them may have only been able to obtain seed to plant gardens by gleaning what was wasted from others. And yet they were still responsible to not eat everything. If they believed the false prophets who promised imminent release like moderns are promising an imminent rapture, they would never have planted, and they would have starved. But Jeremiah convinced them to invest the little that they had. Don't eat your seed corn. Scrimp and save and invest so that you can have in the future.

I read about a prisoner in solitary confinement who had a bird fly into his cell, and for the next several years he studied every detail of a bird's behavor, the aerodynamic make of its wings, how the feather's were composed and wrote it down in a book that became well used in biology. Use the little that you have. Think outside the box. Don't be limited by what the paycheck says you can have.

Invest in a family (people resources). (v. 6)

The third thing that can be done is to invest in a family. Verse 6 says, Take wives and beget sons and daughters; That is a part of the Dominion mandate in Genesis 1 that has never been repealed. And let me tell you something - without it, we won't be as effective in our dominion. Marriage and children means division of labor. God wants His people to be fruitful and multiply. Even widows in the New Testament are admonished to get remarried and to bear children. In some counties this continues to be seen as an important way of taking dominon, but the West doesn't seem to get it. All throughout Europe and in America we are not seeking to replace ourselves. The only thing that keeps America's up to the 1.6 child mark is the fact that many immigrants continue to have large families. In fact, the irony is that the more wealthy a society, the more likely it is for them to have small families. As I have talked with internationals I have been shocked at how many emerging nations are imitating America's statistic of 1.6 children. Wealthy people are the most able to support a large family, and the least likely to do it. It doesn't make sense to me. But anyway, this is an admonition to invest in a family. These Jews may have been tempted to think that their economic times were so tight that they needed to wait to have children. But Jeremiah encouraged them to be fruitful and to multiply. Your children are a scarce resource that needs to be effectively trained and prepared to take their place in the world. I'm hoping to help my children to avoid my mistakes, to gain what I lacked in education so that they can prosper to a greater degree than I probably ever will.

Prepare your children to invest in a family (v. 6)

But it's not enough to simply have children, we must also invest in the future by preparing our children to invest in a family themselves. Verse 6 goes on to say, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters - that you may be increased there, and not diminished. Don't let your children buy into the lie that having large families is a curse. Don't assume that just because you have a large family that your children will automatically do so. You need to invest by preparing your children to numerically increase as well. It's an investment.

Invest good will in the community (v. 7)

But verse 7 gives two more ways that you can invest in the place where you are at, no matter how poor you may be. It says, And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace… Let me just quickly take those two points together. It's important to invest good will in your community. If you become well liked, your services are trusted, your volunteering services are helpful, over time you will begin to increase the degree of good will in your community. You are planting kindness and peace into the community, and some of that will come back to bless you if God prospers it. There is definitely a place for involving yourself in the social life of the community rather than becoming totally isolated. How can you seek the peace of the city if you are not involved in its life?

Invest prayer in the community (v. 7)

But the last investment is that we need to pray for our community of Omaha, Springfield, Louisville, Fremont or wherever it is you are from. Now interestingly, verse 7 indicates that God has chosen to make a connection between the degree of Shalom that a city experiences and the degree of Shalom that we experience. And we have already seen that the word shalom carries in it the broad concept of prospering that we have been talking about. It includes even the ideas of health and success. In its peace you will have peace. Now that's fascinating to me. It calls us not to be revolutionaries on the one hand or isolationists on the other. Instead, we are to seek the welfare of our city. I think too many times us Christians either beat the city over the head or ignore the city. But this calls us to invest good will and prayer. That's why I join the efforts of the churches of this city to pray for the welfare of the city. That's why I seek to hobnob with many different segments of the church and government. I see it as an investment. It certainly invests good will into our city that may one day come back to bless this church.

So there is always something we can invest in the future, no matter how much we may have lost. And by the way, the Jews did that. Daniel is an excellent example of how a godly person was able to take dominion and to have influence in an ungodly environment.

So to summarize the main points we have covered so far: If we are to have a dominion attitude which God will prosper we must 1) be prepared to face losses at times if it serves God's purposes, 2) we must realize that God is in control of the loss and seek to learn from it, 3) we must not give up on the future during times of loss, 4) we must invest what we have.

A Long Term Vision (vv. 8-11)

Commitment versus Escapism (vv. 8-9; cf. 28:10-11; etc.)

Fifth, we must have a long term vision. And while there are other factors that enter into a long term vision, verses 8-11 show three important components:

1. Commitment versus escapism
2. Optimism versus pessimism
3. Confidence versus insecurity (v. 11).

Now that first component: commitment versus escapism is so important. Look at verses 8-9. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD. Now why does Jeremiah bring these guys up after talking about dominion? The word "for" indicates that there is a logical connection. And my answer is that the escapism being promoted by the false prophets would absolutely destroy the ability of these Jews to take dominion in Babylon. They wouldn't start businesses, plant crops, build homes or do anything else long term. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel had to deal with these prophet's lies. And we won’t take the time to look at all of the lies, but they are all essentially escapist. Look for example at a kind of imminent rapture doctrine so to speak in chapter 28. Jeremiah 28:10-11. The exile has already occurred, but Hananiah, a false prophet tries to say that it is very temporary and people shouldn't make any long term plans in Babylon. Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and broke it. And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, "Thus says the LORD: 'Even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years.'" He said the same thing in verses 1-4 and claimed that all Israelites would be brought back to Israel imminently - sometime in the next two years - max. Well, the effect of this announcement was that the constant anticipation of the return kept people from doing any of the investments we talked about in the previous point. They were left in a constant state of waiting for their escape and as a result had no focus on the opportunities at hand. Your attitude is one of the biggest parts of prosperity. Would I plant 10 acres of corn this coming spring if I thought that I would have to leave for Babylon in May? No. My commitment would not be to dominion there, but to escape. Without a solid commitment, by definition there is no long term vision. And so commitment to dominion is critical.

Optimism versus Pessimism (v. 10)

The second component of a long term vision is optimism versus pessimism. Verse 10: For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. And you know, it doesn't matter how bad things have gotten in covenant history, Biblical eschatology has always given God's people hope and optimism. This was one of the most devastating judgments that Israel experienced under God's hand. For seventy years they will be in exile in a foreign country. Yet even in that judgment, there is optimism given to those who have ears to hear. God assured them of two things in verse 10: 1) First, Israel would be around in 70 years. That's encouraging. They might have wondered if they would be wiped out. And God says, "No. Not only will you be around. You will still be in good shape. So there is optimism for the present generation in terms of survival. 2) But he also gives a trans-generational optimism. In 70 years the Jews would return to the land of Israel. Now, most of the people he was talking to would be dead by then, but he wants them to be thinking long term - into their children's and their grand-children's lives. By clearing up the issue of when their rapture (so to speak) would take place, Jeremiah freed them up not to worry about future survival and to concentrate on dominion. If you are optimistic about God's plans for the future, you don't always have to worry about the future. True eschatology reinforces dominion. And its no surprise to know which view of eschatology has been coupled with the most dominion in history.

Confidence versus Insecurity (v. 11)

The third component of a long term vision is confidence in your relationship with God versus insecurity. And I think that Calvinism gives by far the most confidence. Verse 11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. If you are confident that God is for you, it frees you up to trust Him on your investments. You can make the best decision possible and know that if you have losses, God is bringing those for your good. And hopefully the realization from this series that God delights in prospering you in every area of life will give you an increasing measure of confidence in Him as well. But if you are filled with insecurity, you are less likely to take risks. Your plans will tend to be short term plans rather than long term. The more confidence you have, the more long term your vision will tend to be.

Stewards Heart Willing to Seek First God's Kingdom (vv. 12-14)

Prayer (v. 12)

The last major point needed if we are to have a dominion attitude is a steward's heart willing to seek God's kingdom first. Here's three evidences that you have it.

First, verse 12 talks about prayer and the confidence that God hears us. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. Disaster and losses may be discouraging, but they do not stop a person with a dominion attitude because he realizes that ultimately it is God who prospers anything. Loss will simply drive this person to prayer in the confidence that God loves to answer prayer. Prayer is an essential ingredient of dominion.

Seek God With All Your Heart (v. 13)

Next seek God with all our hearts (verse 13) And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Half-hearted efforts won’t do. We need to be in deadly earnest like Daniel was. We seek God not only in prayer, but in studying His Word. We seek God in the business meeting and in the home. Christ promised that when we seek God first and His righteousness (His law word), all these things will be added to us.

Persevere Until He Fulfills His Promises (v. 14)

Next they were to keep at these things until God fulfilled His promises (verse 14). I will be found by you says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. We must seek Him until we find Him and find the fulfillment of His promises. A steward perseveres.

All of these points will impact our willingness to invest during times of danger and difficulty. Of course they will inform how we invest as well. But without a dominion attitude it will be difficult to take seriously Jeremiah's call to invest in our children, our finances, our church, our community.

How do we maintain a dominion attitude in difficult times?

We must:

1. Be prepared to face losses at times if it serves God's purposes.
2. We must realize that God is in control of the loss and seek to learn from it.
3. We must not give up on the future during times of loss.
4. We must invest what we have.
5. We must have a long term vision for our investments
6. We must have a steward's heart that is willing to seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness.

May God grant to each and every one of us a dominion attitude. Amen.