Collierville First Baptist Church

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Well, good evening. Good evening. I'm so glad that you're here tonight.

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Well, you can see the title of the teaching tonight.

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It's a pretty common thing that we have to deal with, wealth and worry.

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The modern day relevance of our text tonight is absolutely unquestioned.

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This addresses two powerful challenges that we face at one time or another in our lives.

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When it comes to wealth, maybe you have it, maybe you need it, maybe you lost it, or maybe you want it.

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As a result of all of this, worry can set in over our wealth or lack of wealth.

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So I'm going to begin tonight by asking you a couple of questions.

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Where's your treasure?

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What is your treasure? What do you really treasure? What are your most prized possessions?

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Is it a sin to be wealthy?

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Do this. Nope. Not at all.

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There are some very wealthy people in the Bible that are found in Hebrews chapter 11, the roll call of faith. All right, let me give you one.

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Abraham was a super rich guy.

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And yet God chose Abraham and Sarah to have a son that would be the beginning of the Jewish race.

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Isaac, a covenant son.

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Job was very rich.

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And after God allowed him to suffer for a little while, God doubly blessed him and basically gave him double of everything he had before he suffered and lost everything.

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So there's nothing sinful about having wealth.

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It's what we do with it. It's what it does to us.

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That's the issue in first Timothy chapter six verse 17.

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The Bible says instruct those who are rich in this present world. By the way, I bet you that compared to people scattered throughout the world today that are living in unbelievable poverty, every person in this room could be categorized as rich seriously.

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Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceded or to fix their hope

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on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

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Hey, if your life is centered on the stock market and you wake up every day and you look at the Dow Jones industrial average, some days you may feel great and some days you may feel like chicken little in the skies falling in.

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But those who are rich in this present world not to be conceded or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of rich. You know where my hope is? My hope is in Christ.

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It's not in my retirement account. It's not in my checking account. It's not in my savings account. My hope is in Christ, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Now I love that. I love that you that our heavenly father richly supplies us with all things to what church to enjoy.

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See that back to that picture I talked about Sunday in the message.

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Some people have this picture of God.

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He's got his arm folded. He's got a scowl on his face and he's looking at us and he's shaking his head. See after all this time, really, but listen, your heavenly father loves you. He cares about you. In fact, he loved you enough to sacrifice his son on the cross of Calvary in order that you might be saved and have the gift of eternal life.

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And it says right here, I didn't make it up that he richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

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You know, the Bible says in Psalm 1611, in the presence of God, there is fullness of joy and in his right hand, listen, in his right hand, there are pleasures forever.

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We can imagine the joy and wonder of stepping into heaven and receiving the blessing of heaven.

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You can't imagine how wonderful it's going to be. Our little peanut brains cannot do that.

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Francis Schaeffer wrote, it is my observation that Americans are driven by two things, affluence and personal peace.

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Now Jesus understood this tendency in our lives and he spoke, look at this, he spoke about money in 16 of his 38 parables.

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In some form or another, he spoke about money in 16 of his 38 parables in the gospels themselves, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, one out of every 10 verses touches on the subject of money in one way or another.

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Is that not amazing?

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Do you think Jesus reads our mail and understands who we are and what we struggle with and how the pull of the world is so powerful on our lives?

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In Matthew 6, and that's where we're going to begin tonight, Matthew 6, verses 19 through

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Jesus gave us a principle here.

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He said, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

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In the Greek language, Jesus is saying, do not treasure up treasures for yourselves.

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Do not treasure up treasures for yourselves.

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It's a picture of hoarding money, clothes, other possessions for your own personal use.

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I'll tell you one of the greatest lessons we can learn as followers of Jesus Christ

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is the lesson of generosity, being generous.

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In the first century, riches were defined as clothes, precious metals, grain.

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So why would Jesus teach this rule right here, this principle?

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Well, moths, moths can ruin clothes. Have you ever had a good piece of clothing and you go to put it on and there's a little hole in it? So moths can ruin clothes, rust can destroy metals, thieves can break in and steal. I remember not long ago, Darlene and I got home, thank goodness Darlene was not there, but I got home and the door was basically laid out in the floor and thieves had broken into our house and taken a bunch of stuff.

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Thank goodness Darlene and Cade, Cade was about that tall about that time. Thank goodness Darlene and Cade had left right before they, I think they were watching the house and they got a bunch of stuff.

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So thieves can break in and steal. I remember I had some old coins right there in the thing by my bed, gone, gone.

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I never did recover those.

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So thieves break in and steal. I guarantee there's not a financial planner or broker that will share this principle with you of storing up your treasure in heaven.

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Lowe became the official photographer of John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign.

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And after Kennedy was elected, Lowe became his personal photographer.

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He had an estimated, look at it, an estimated 40,000 negatives of images of John F. Kennedy and his family.

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While he was alive, Lowe watched over those negatives like a, there's a duck that always shows up here on our parking lot.

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He's in a flower bed every year. I don't know the same one, but it's his cousin. He keeps telling him to come back here. I don't know. And this duck has some eggs and this duck is sitting on the eggs every year.

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And that's the way Lowe was with the way that duck watches over those eggs is the way Lowe was with those negatives of John F. Kennedy and his family.

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When somebody wanted a picture, he would take the negative out of the vault and he would make the picture and then he would put it right back in the vault. He thought, he thought, look, this, these negatives are super secure.

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The vault that he put it in was a JP Morgan Chase bank branch at five world trade center.

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Lowe's daughter said he was being more prudent than most.

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He really believed they were as safe as they could ever be. He chose to have them there because he was only six blocks away from them, the negatives. And he felt psychologically as if they were under his bed.

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This was a bank that was heavily damaged on 9-1-1. And they brought in a team of engineers, a hundred ton crane, Fort Lifts, iron workers, pump trucks, and they wanted to move the vault from the second floor. But workers found that major fire damage in the vault area had burned up all of the stuff in the safety deposit boxes and all those negatives were gone.

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Now what does that tell us?

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There is nothing that is absolutely secure on this planet. I read about a guy who had a bunch of very expensive old watches and he went to his bank and he had a safety deposit box and he had all of his old, I mean, it's worth upwards of a million dollars in that safety deposit box.

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And when he went to get them out, he discovered that it was empty.

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And it happens that the bank gave somebody the wrong key or some way they opened it some way and this other person got all those old watches and he didn't have a single old watch left.

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I don't know how that happened, but it happened.

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So here's a principle, invest your treasures in the kingdom of God and they will be eternally secure. Let me tell you, when you give your ties and offerings, you are making a kingdom investment.

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You are supporting missionaries and we got a young couple in this church who will be

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stationed at the Southern Baptist convention this summer, Zach and Becca, and they're going to be IMB missionaries in Mexico.

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And when you give, you are investing and getting the gospel through our missionaries to people who desperately need the gospel.

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When you give, you are ministering to poor disadvantaged people inside the 240 loop that we minister to.

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That's a kingdom investment.

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In Proverbs chapter three, verses nine and 10, the Bible says, honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.

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Look 638 give and it will be given to you. They will pour it into your lap, into your lap, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over by your standard of measure. It will be measured to you in return. Malachi chapter three, verse 10, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house and test me now in this says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

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You know what I've Darlene and I, when we were dating, we started tithing before we got married.

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We've been tithing for almost 50 years now and you know what? I can tell you this. You cannot give God.

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You cannot out give God.

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He has blessed us in so many ways, not necessarily all financially. He's blessed us with our kids, our grandkids. He's blessed us with fairly good health. We're both alive. We both came close to dying. We're both alive.

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So Jesus taught us that the way you handle your money is a barometer of your spiritual condition.

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The way you use your possessions gives a clear indication of where your heart really is.

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In Matthew 6 21, Jesus said, for where your treasury is there, your heart will be also.

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I challenge you.

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Don't get locked in. I've seen people before who have had some unfortunate things happen with their retirement account, unfortunate things happen with their savings account and stuff like that. And they just go to pieces.

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They go to pieces.

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How many of you believe that if you lost everything today, that God will still take care of you? You believe that? I believe that with all my heart.

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He promised to do that. In fact, we're going to look at some scripture here in a moment that proves that. I love what Jim Elliott, the martyr missionary to the Alka Indians said. He said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

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That is one powerful statement.

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Now in this next set of verses, Jesus expands on his command to invest in eternity and kingdom things. He says in verses 22 and 23, the eye is the lamp of the body.

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So then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

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But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

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If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?

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The good eye here pictures a good heart.

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The bad eye pictures a bad heart.

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I'm not talking about a physical heart. I'm talking about a spiritual heart.

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Your heart is the real issue when it comes to your money and your stuff, your heart.

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That's why in Proverbs 4 23, it says, watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the issues of life.

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Your heart is what counts with God.

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I was reading this morning my quiet time. I'm about through reading the Old Testament and I was reading in the book of Micah.

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And the book of Micah, he's talking, he's prophesying against the people of God and basically saying, look, here you are. You're worshipping these calves, these golden calves. You think that the religion that you practice is all that matters to God, but he's looking at your heart.

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See, on the outside, they look very religious, but on the inside, they were rotten spiritually.

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So your heart is what counts with God.

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James spoke of wisdom and there's a wisdom of the world and there's a wisdom of God.

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Okay. In James chapter three, verse 13 to 17, James wrote, who among you is wise and understanding?

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Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds and the gentleness of wisdom.

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But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.

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This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is look at this. It's earthly, it's natural and it's demonic.

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For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder in every evil thing. But now look at verse 17, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, good fruits, unwavering without an hypocrisy. Let me ask you a question.

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Which kind of wisdom are you going to operate with?

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The wisdom of the world or the wisdom of God?

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Both of them are explained in great detail right here. And every person within the sound of my voice, whether you're watching live stream tonight or whether you're in the room, you can choose which kind of wisdom you want to live your life with.

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May I suggest that you choose the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of the world. You see the wisdom of the world says, get all you can and can all you get.

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That's what the world says.

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But God says, look, everything I give you, do you realize that everything you have, your house, your vehicle, your health, everything you have, your checking account, your savings account, your retirement, every bit of that, God gave it to you.

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He gave it to you.

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You say, oh, pastor, you got it all wrong. I worked hard for that.

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Well, let me ask you the $64,000 question.

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Who gave you the breath to get up in the morning, go to work?

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God did.

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God did.

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He has blessed you.

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And the Bible says, I think it's Galatians, we have been blessed to be a blessing.

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Find ways to bless people.

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Find ways to encourage people.

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One of the great joys of my life is when I can help somebody who has a need.

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It's a joy.

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I don't regret it. One iota.

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Have I been taken?

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Have I been taken before? Absolutely. I remember one time I was pastor of First Baptist Richland, Mississippi, just south of Jackson.

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And there was a guy that came in. We live right, our church was right there on highway 49, one of the busiest highways in Mississippi.

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And this guy stopped in and he had a sad story.

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And I need some help.

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And he said he was a preacher.

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And listen to him. I guess I don't have good discernment.

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Really.

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And I bought it.

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And we helped him.

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We helped him a good bit.

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And found out later that it was all alive.

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But you know what?

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That didn't bother me very long.

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That's his problem.

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We did the gracious thing that we felt led to do at that time, even though we didn't discern very well. But we helped a guy that we thought had a need.

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We made a kingdom investment.

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And he made a devilish withdrawal. I promise you.

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So, all right.

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So let me ask you, are you wise in understanding? Look at that first verse, James 3 13, who among you is wise in understanding?

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Are you wise in understanding?

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Choose to listen, line up your priorities with the priorities and the principles that Jesus is teaching us here in the Sermon on the Mount.

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Well, this has been a fascinating stay. I love the Sermon on the Mount.

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It all comes down to this. Who's your master?

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Who's your master? Look at verse 24. No one can serve two masters.

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For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. Look at this. You ought to underline this. You ought to put a star by it. You'll put two stars by it. You cannot serve God and wealth.

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If money is your God, then God is not your God.

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You are committing the sin of idolatry.

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You cannot serve God and wealth. That's as plain as a nose on the end of your face.

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In the first century, there was a lot of slavery, and the master exerted total control over his slaves.

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The slave owned nothing.

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The slave's entire life was built on trusting the master to meet his or her needs.

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In return, the slave owed full-time service to the master.

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So either Jesus will be your master or wealth will be your master. Which will it be? You can't have it both ways.

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Frank Sinatra's daughter, I think her name was Tina.

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You know, these boots are made for walking. You remember that?

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His daughter, Tina, recalled how her dad had an unceasing drive to succeed and to make money. Money was his God.

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His health later in life was in tatters, and his life was mired in financial mess.

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And he refused to stop doing concerts, even at an old age.

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Here's what he said to her over and over again, "I've just got to earn more money."

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His performances, Tina said, were becoming more and more uneven.

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Uncertain of his memory, he became more and more dependent on teleprompters.

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And Tina said this, his daughter said, "When I saw him at the desert inn in Las Vegas,

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he struggled through the show, and he felt so sick at the end that he needed oxygen from the tank that he kept on hand.

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On another show, he forgot the lyrics to his famous song, "A Second Time Around."

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He sung that multiple times, so much, but his adoring audience finished the song for him.

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She said this, "I couldn't bear to see my dad struggle.

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I remember all the times he repeated the old boxing maxim, "You've got to get out before you hit the mat."

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He wanted to retire at the top of his game.

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And Tina said, "I always thought he would know when that time came."

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But pushing 80 years of age, he lost track of when to quit.

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After seeing one too many of his fiasco's, I told him, "Here's what Tina told him, "Pop, you can stop now. You don't have to stay on the road."

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And he turned to her and here's what he said, "No, I've got to earn more money.

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I've got to earn more money."

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I hope and pray that nobody in this room allows money to become your God.

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There's only room for one God in your life, one Lord.

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And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Now you can conquer the temptation to surrender the control of your life to a constant quest for more and more stuff.

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But you've got to follow the principle that we just looked at.

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Notice it again.

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Look at verse 19, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth."

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Now, does that mean we shouldn't have a savings account? I'm not saying that. Don't misread what I'm saying.

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Listen, the Bible teaches us that we should save money. We should save money.

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We should prepare for retirement.

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I read in Proverbs, I think it was yesterday,

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that it's good for a grandparent to give an inheritance to a grandchild.

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It's right there in Proverbs.

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Why can you give an inheritance if you don't save some money?

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Right? So he's not talking about not saving and not preparing and providing for your family. He's not talking about that at all. He said, "Don't let it become your God."

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Don't let it become your God.

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It is a tyrannical master if you start going down that road.

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Now, Jesus moved from the problem of materialism to the problem of worry.

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Have you ever worried in your life?

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Yeah, we worry, don't we?

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I want you to know that Jesus, when he preached this great sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, he was surrounded with people who had the same kind of problems we have.

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He was surrounded by people who had allowed money to become more and more their God. He was surrounded by people who worried.

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Listen, I want you to look at verse 25.

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"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life."

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You ought to underline that in your Bible.

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Do not be worried about your life. Look at verse 31.

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Do not worry.

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You ought to underline that in your Bible.

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Look at verse 34. "So do not worry about tomorrow."

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How many times did Jesus have to say something for us to get it?

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Do not worry. I heard about a guy that worried so much that the hair in his toupee fell out.

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Now, that's worry, isn't it?

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I mean, that's some kind of worry.

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Do you ever find yourself worrying about things you have absolutely no control over?

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Zero control.

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You walk the floor instead of sitting and resting.

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You lay in your bed and you stare at the ceiling.

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Listen, the words that Jesus spoke 2,000 years ago are amazingly relevant tonight.

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Look at verse 25.

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"For this reason," what reason?

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Now, understand when you're reading your Bible and you see something like this, "therefore" or "for this reason," it's pointing back to what we just read.

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What did we just read? Look at verse 24. "One can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one who loved the other, or he will be devoted to one in despises the other. You cannot serve God and well. For this reason," for this reason I say to you, "do not be worried."

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See, worry and wealth go together.

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If you allow wealth to become your God, you will worry.

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You will worry.

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For this reason I say to you, "do not be worried about your life as of what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as of what you will put on. It is not life more than food and the body more than clothing."

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Do not be anxious for your life. Literally, in the Greek language, it's talking about being drawn in different directions,

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being drawn in different directions.

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The word "life" refers to all facets of life, including the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual parts of your life.

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In particular, Jesus mentions, in this text that we're about to look at, 25 to 34, he mentions what you drink, what you eat, and what you put on.

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Because you are a believer. Look, I'm assuming that everybody in this room has come to the place in your life where you realize that you're a sinner and you need a Savior.

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Sunday morning I talked about the fact that so many people have a wrong view of humanity. So many people think that you're born good and you turn bad.

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No, no, no. You're born a sinner. You're not born good.

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You're born a sinner and you need a Savior. And only Jesus can be the Savior. Only he can save your soul, forgive your sins, and give you the gift of eternal life.

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So, because you're a believer, you only have one master.

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Not two, one.

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There's only room for one. Jesus said this in Luke 9.23, he said, "If anyone wishes to come after me,

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let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me."

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There's only one master. There's only one Lord. In Romans 14.9, Paul wrote, "Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord, both of the dead and of the living." What does the word "Lord" mean? It means "master."

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It means he's in charge.

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It means he gets to call the shots. You don't get to call the shots. Your responsibility, my responsibility, is to serve the Lord Jesus and to trust him to meet all your needs.

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Listen, I made a statement here, you got to underline it. Worry is a badge of distrust.

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When you worry, you're saying, "God, I can't trust you. I can't trust you."

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You can trust God regardless of your circumstances.

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Now, contentment is the opposite of worry.

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In Philippians 4, verses 11 and 12, then verse 19, look what Paul wrote,

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"Not that I speak from want, for I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am."

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Look at that. You see that?

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Have you learned to be content in whatever circumstances you are? Here's what Paul said, verse 12, "I know how to get along with humble means.

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I also know how to live in prosperity.

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In every circumstance, I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need."

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Verse 19, look at it, "And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus."

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That is one amazing promise.

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Paul said, "My God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus." Now, if you have a physical need, he'll supply that need.

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If you have a spiritual need, he'll supply that need.

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If you have a financial need, he'll supply what you need, not necessarily what you want.

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Okay?

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Look at 1 Timothy 6, verses 6 to 8, "But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment."

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Now, let's don't just rush through that statement. Look at it again. Godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

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For we have brought nothing into the world.

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Look at this, so we cannot take anything out of it either.

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I heard about a guy, he's a pretty sorry husband, and money was his God.

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And right before he died, he called his wife over and he said, "Now, honey, when I die, when I'm buried, I want you to put my money in the box and put it in the casket with me."

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She thought, she said, "Okay."

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And so the dude died and they were having the funeral at the funeral home and then they went to the gravesite.

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And right before they closed the casket, she went up as a grieving widow.

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And in the box, she placed it in the casket.

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And the funeral home folks closed the casket, put the flowers back on top.

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And as she was walking to her car, her friend came up to her.

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And their friend said, "Surely, you did give that man all his money, did you?"

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And I said, "I sure did. I wrote him a check."

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Obviously, where he's going, he can't catch that check.

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You know, worry is a lot like sitting in a rocking chair. It'll give you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere, right? You just go back and forth, but you don't make any progress, you don't go anywhere.

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Now, listen, Jesus knew that worry would really rob us of the joy and the peace and the grace that we need as believers.

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So he established a rule. We're about to go over a rule here.

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And he also gave us rationale behind this rule, and he gave us a remedy there at the end. Now, look at it. First, Jesus deals with our need for food.

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And he used the birds as an example. Jesus was a master teacher.

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He could take the simplest, most ordinary things and use it to teach spiritual truths that would just literally jump off the page.

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Notice what he said here. "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?"

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Now, think about this. I want you to either circle or underline your heavenly Father. Just underline those two words, your heavenly Father.

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"Are you not worth much more than birds?"

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If you read Psalm 8, this would really offend some of the more liberal element in our culture today.

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But Psalm 8 teaches that the human race is the crown of God's creation.

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Not birds, not snail daughters, but people. We're the crown of God's creation.

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And what Jesus is teaching here, if God takes care of birds, I guarantee he's going to take care of you. He's going to make sure that you have something to eat.

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It may not be a ribeye steak. It might be beans and cornbread.

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But he's going to make sure you have something to eat.

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Now, second, Jesus deals with the subject of the length of our life.

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The word "hour" here...

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Look at verse 27, "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?" And another word for "hour" there is a cubit or 18 inches to his life.

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Do you really think that worrying is going to make you live longer? That's what Jesus is saying.

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No, actually, I would probably suggest that worry might take time away from you, right?

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I'm not a doctor or anything, but it would seem that worry could subtract time instead of add time.

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Our culture is obsessed with living longer. Have you noticed that?

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The diet industry, the supplement industry are absolutely exploding.

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People want to live longer. There's nothing wrong with living longer.

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But we've got to know that God is in control of life and death. He gets called shots.

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Listen, the Bible teaches that God knew the day you would be born and God knew the day you would die when you were born.

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Think about that. That's the sovereignty of God. He knows.

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Now look at this. Jesus not only deals with food, He not only deals with how long we live here, but He also deals with our need for clothing.

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And Jesus used wildflowers that surrounded Him as an example in His teaching here.

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Now, notice what He said, verse 28 to 30. Boy, this is beautiful right here. I heard Junior Hill, the evangelist, teach on this passage. Man, it was an amazing sermon.

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And why are you worried about clothing? There's that worry again.

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Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

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You know what it say?

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In these examples that Jesus is using here, He said, look, God's going to take care of you.

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That doesn't mean you won't go through difficult times.

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That does not mean that you won't suffer. Listen, we live in a fallen world.

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Bad things happen to good people.

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Although the Bible says there's none good, not even one. Right? In Romans chapter 3.

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So when we go through difficult times, and we all go through difficult, when we suffer and we all suffer, one point or the other, we need to remember that God's going to take care of us. And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow.

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Worry, look, there's a rule here. Jesus is absolutely forbidding worry.

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He's forbidding it, and He forbids it several times in our text.

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Worry is a sin of unbelief. Do you know the Bible in the New Testament, I think it's Luke's gospel teaches that Jesus went to Nazareth, His hometown.

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And when He got there, the Bible says that He could do no miracles there because of their unbelief.

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A lack of faith.

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What a serious indictment it is, especially for a believer.

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Hey, look, there came a point in your life when you repeated of your sin and you placed your faith in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. Right?

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Do this. Everybody do that. You did that. And you trusted Him to take all of your sin and like Micah said in his prophecy, cast it into the depths of the sea.

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You trusted God to do that. You trusted God to forgive you.

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You trusted God to give you the gift of eternal life.

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And if you trust God for major things like forgiving your sin and giving the gift of eternal life and promising you a place in heaven with Him,

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can we not trust Him for little things like clothes and food and our life, whether He wants us to live a long time or short period of time? We got to trust Him.

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We can't worry about those things.

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Look at verse 31 and 32.

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He says it again. Look at it. Do not worry then saying, what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for clothing?

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For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

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Now, earlier I asked you to make sure that you underline Heavenly Father or the word Father.

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Do you notice how Jesus keeps coming back and keeps repeating the fact that your Heavenly Father will meet your deepest needs in one way or the other?

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Why? Because He loves us.

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For God so loved the world that He gave His only beyond Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

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But God demonstrated His love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Listen, if the Father will sacrifice His Son to save our souls, I guarantee you He'll make sure you got some clothes put on your back.

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You can trust Him.

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You trust Him for big things.

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We got to trust Him for little things too, right?

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That's what Jesus is teaching here.

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Look at verses 33 and 34.

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Now, here's the remedy for worry. You want the remedy for worry? Here it is. All right.

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But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

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Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Look at verse 33.

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Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

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Now, that may make God your first priority, your absolute first priority.

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The word kingdom refers to God's sovereign dominion and rule.

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Look, we've got to set some priorities in our lives.

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And Jesus said if you want victory over worry, you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. The word righteousness refers to a life of holiness pattern on the life of Jesus.

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It's doing the right thing.

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It's the first step in winning over worry.

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Now, look at verse 34.

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I can't tell you the number of times I've used verse 34 in counseling.

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Over the years, I've had a lot of people come for counseling and they're worried.

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And you know where it inevitably leads?

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It leads to tomorrow, next week, next month.

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And I always stop and I go to this verse.

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And I read it to them. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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If we would just understand that.

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I tell you, I've shared this with you before.

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Every day, I prayed it this morning.

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Lord, help me to do your will today.

[01:53:14;33 - 01:53:20;16]
That's what Jesus told the disciples there by the well at Sychar in Samaria.

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They said, "Lord, you need to eat some. You need to eat some." He said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me in to accomplish His work."

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And so this morning I prayed, "Lord, help me to do your will today

[01:53:35;31 - 01:53:39;35]
and help me to accomplish the work that you want me to accomplish today.

[01:53:41;04 - 01:53:44;26]
I can't do anything tomorrow yet. It's not here.

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And I can't clean up my mess from yesterday because it's gone, right?"

[01:53:51;59 - 01:53:57;34]
So Jesus is telling us that we have to live one day at a time.

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One day at a time. And let Him be the Lord of that day, the Lord of your heart that day.

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I tell you, I like it because Jesus makes things sort of simple.

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I'm a simple guy.

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I'm glad He simplified it for us.

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And if we would just listen to Him, if we would just obey Him,

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we'll be a thousand times better off.

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So we've dealt with two things tonight that can really jump on our back and really drag us down, allowing wealth to be our God

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and allowing worry to consume us.

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Jesus said you can have victory over both of those, but you've got to do it His way. He showed us exactly how to do it right here in this text.

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And I open pray that we'll not just be hearers of the Word, but we'll be doers of the Word and we'll apply what Jesus taught us here. Okay?

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All right, let's close the prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for the men and women in this room.

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I thank you for those who are watching live stream.

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And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would help us to never let wealth be our God.

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Lord Jesus, I pray as long as you give us a breath in our body,

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that you will be our one and only master.

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And we would live for you and honor you and glorify you.

[01:55:52;12 - 01:55:54;54]
And Lord, I pray that you give us victory over worry.

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I pray you'd help us to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness.

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I pray you'd help us to live one day at a time.

[01:56:06;35 - 01:56:12;44]
And I pray, Lord, that you would set us free from the burden of worry.

[01:56:14;15 - 01:56:26;04]
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you cared about us so much that you took two real life issues that just about everybody faces at one time or the other, and you showed us how to conquer them.

[01:56:28;00 - 01:56:33;08]
Let us live in victory, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. God bless you.