Treasure Hunt
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Last month, when musing about this time of year, I thought of March Madness, the beginning of a promising year for the Red Sox, upcoming graduation for our seniors, and the joy of spring. Within a few short days all of that has ended. We now assemble in what will probably be the last time we are together in this building for some time. WOW! What a mind bending shift of circumstances.
What was once important has drastically shifted. Who knew it would be all about the toilet paper! In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned his disciples not to get the priorities mixed up. This morning as we reflect on the truths of scriptures. Let see where our hearts are truly fixed… let us go on a treasure hunt.
Avoid Crashing Stocks
Avoid Crashing Stocks
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Lay = store up / work hard to amass
Temporary Treasure
How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!
prov 1
Corruptable
Unstable - not secure
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
Money/ Material
Pleasure
Prestige
Invest In A Sure Thing
Invest In A Sure Thing
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Eternal Life
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Eternal Truth
That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
colos
Eternal Relationship
Lasting Legacy
I’d like to begin this morning with a story. It involves these men [photo of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs]. You probably recognize them: Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. The two men who founded Apple Computer. Right? Well, no, actually that’s not completely accurate. Here is a photo of the original partnership agreement, dated April 1, 1976 [Apple partnership agreement]. As you can see, it has three signatures, not two. The first is Stephen G. Wozniak. The second is Steven P. Jobs. And the third is Ronald G. Wayne. Here’s a picture of him
[photo of Ronald G. Wayne]. Who is that, you may ask.
Ronald Wayne was the third co-founder of Apple, with a ten percent ownership stake. Remember that figure: ten percent. He wasn’t an engineer, but he had a significant role in the early days of the company: he designed the first Apple logo, he wrote the user manual for the Apple 1 computer, and in general he provided administrative oversight of the new venture. He was the unofficial adult in the room: he was in his forties at the time.
So why haven’t most of us ever heard of Ronald Wayne? Is he a wealthy recluse, staying out of the public eye while he sails around the world on his 300-foot luxury yacht? Perhaps he’s a philanthropist, distributing his millions to deserving charities. No. No, neither of those things is true. In fact, today Ronald Wayne is far from wealthy. Because just twelve days after these partnership documents were signed, he and the others signed a second document [Dissolution of partnership document]. And in this document, he gave up his ten percent stake, in exchange for eight hundred dollars. Eight hundred dollars.
Let me ask you, would you be willing to pay $800 for ten percent of Apple Computer today? So what happened? Well, Wayne had second thoughts. As a partner, he would have been liable for any debts incurred by the new company, and that was a risk. He had assets that creditors could come after if the company went broke. He also felt a bit out of his league with Jobs and Wozniak, these two whiz-kid geniuses. And so he bailed. Took the $800 check and parted ways with them. And the rest is history.
Now, just for fun, let’s calculate what Wayne’s ten percent stake in Apple would be worth if he had held on to it all these years. Apple today is worth about $800 Billion dollars. And so that ten percent stake in 1976 would today be worth about $80 Billion dollars. That’s right. The ownership stake that Ronald Wayne relinquished in 1976 for eight hundred would today be worth over eighty billion dollars. In other words, about a hundred million times what he sold it for. Just let that sink in for a moment. Now, for the record, Mr. Wayne says today that he doesn’t regret his decision, and that it was based on the best information he had at the time. So, he’s made his peace with it. But you have to suspect that more than once, over the years, he’s said to himself: “If only . . . “.
However, Ronald Wayne isn’t the only person who sold their Apple stock too soon. Apple went public on December 12, 1980. And for 23 years, the stock didn’t do much. [chart: Apple stock price IPO-2003]. A lot of people sold their stock during that time. But beginning in 2013, the stock really took off. Here’s a graph [chart: Apple stock since IPO]. What that all boils down to is this: an investment of one thousand dollars in 1980 would today be worth about $400 thousand dollars. An investment of $2,500 back then would be worth close to a million today. Why is there never a time machine around when you need one?
I don’t share that story to gloat about buying Apple stock in 1980. I didn’t. If I had, I would probably be spending my winters in a warmer climate than Cleveland offers. Maybe on my own private yacht somewhere. No, I share that story to urge you not to do what Ronald Wayne did when he sold his stake in Apple for $800 instead of waiting to cash in at $80 billion dollars. I’m urging you not to do what all those Apple investors did who sold early and missed out on returns of literally hundreds of times what they had paid. I’m urging you to follow the ultimate buy-and-hold strategy.
Are You Headed For Recession or Is Your Investment Secure?
Are You Headed For Recession or Is Your Investment Secure?
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Will you be remembered for the things you did or the things that you owned?
I was asked that question the other day and the asker simply asked me to name, in ten words or less, the one thing that I would be most remembered for. It really didn’t take me long to figure that one out. Seeing as I am one of the few people around these parts that travels around daily (and have done so for years) in an old Corvair, I felt compelled to make that my answer. Once I am long with the Lord there will be, no doubt, someone, somewhere, who remembers me by that label. “He drove a Corvair, didn’t he? You know--that car with the engine in the back?”
He drove a Corvair! You know, that didn’t sound so bad to me at the moment. I could have been remembered for my temper or my lack of finishing things. I suppose there could be a lot of things worse than owning a Corvair that one could be remembered for. Right?
Perhaps! But, the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me that this was my answer. This was something I owned, not something I did. Ultimately, wouldn’t being remembered for our deeds be more important than our possessions? What I can put in my life, cars, houses, collections of this and that, are all testimony to what I have acquired in life and say little about the things that matter most, the things that we do, not the things that “do” us.
I remember reading sometime back about a robbery that took place in London. Armed gunmen broke into the deposit boxes in a London bank and stole valuables worth more than $7 million. One lady, whose jewelry was appraised at $500,000, wailed, “Everything I had was in there. My whole life was in that box.” What a sad commentary on her values! (Our Daily Bread.)
The Bible tells us that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Owning things is not a bad thing. Getting enjoyment out of a car, a home or even a hobby are not bad in and of themselves. But, when our lives become so focused on “what” we own as opposed to “what” we do, we are guilty of idol worship. When our lives revolve around what we can put in a box, whether that box be a safety deposit box or a garage, our values can be suspect. Life was never meant to be lived in a box. Seeking fulfillment in our obedience to God is really living “outside” of the box.
COVID-19 is a divine litmus test of what we really hold dear… it gives us a chance to examine our priorities and go on a spiritual treasure hunt… find your treasure… find your heart.... where did you find it?