If you have your Bible today, go to Matthew chapter number six. Matthew chapter number six is week number five, I believe, in Matthew six alone, we're in a series called the greatest sermon ever. And if you're a guest with us today, this sermon you're going to hear is not the greatest sermon ever.
I can guarantee you of that. But we are going through verse by verse, Jesus' sermon on the mount as he sat on a mountaintop and he preached Matthew chapter number six. Chapter five through Matthew chapter number seven.
This is week number nine of the entire series. And I hope that you have learned something, but I hope it has challenged you. One of the amazing things is from to our vantage point that this is one long sermon that that Jesus proclaimed and preached to all the different people, some disciples, some Pharisees, critics, and and everybody had kind of gathered there together. And Jesus sat on a mountaintop and he delivered. This we call this the sermon on the mount. But I tell you, as I have studied this, it should be referred to as a mountain of a sermon, because Jesus, he talks about so many different what I would consider cultural things, things that are relevant for you today. So if you're in here today, and you say that, that the Scripture is not relevant, or, or possibly you think that the Scripture doesn't speak into some of the things that you deal with in your life, or, or perhaps you have somebody in your family or a friend that feels that way, you're like, this doesn't make any sense for them.
All you need to do when that happens is take them to Matthew five through seven, because Jesus addresses some of the biggest issues facing our lives as churches, but also our society's life as well. He's talked about lust, he talked about divorce, he talked about adultery, he talked about keeping your word. The last few weeks, he's been talking about spiritual disciplines, he's talked about giving, he talked about praying, he talked about fasting, he's going through all of these different things.
And now he kind of transitions back after he talked about those three disciplines. And he comes back to the very first one that he started chapter six, talking about and it is the idea of giving, it is the idea of giving again. And I want you to know, like, this is a kind of wild to me is like, when you kind of embark on a sermon series this long, you don't always know exactly how this is going to play out. I spoke on giving for Matthew six, one through four, just a few weeks ago, and now Jesus is coming, coming back to it. And so anytime giving is mentioned in a church, we always get a little bit nervous.
I know that. And so I want you to know I want you to know we do not address giving every single week. It is something that is a biblical discipline that I think every single follower of Jesus should participate in. It's not a question today of man, should I give?
That's not the question. Jesus makes it very clear that we should give but he talks about the way in which we should, should give and and so I want to make a couple of things about this first is because if you don't like us teaching about money from time to time, you would have never liked Jesus's sermons very much like you would not have been you would have been the one that's like, man, I can't handle this out of left or, or you would have been the one that he talks about a Pharisee because he mentions money throughout if you follow Jesus's teaching throughout the gospel, about 15% of his teaching involved money. In fact, he talked about money more than he did heaven or hell combined.
And so as we look at this, it's important. And I think that there's a correlation between money and our heart that he is trying to get because the thing is with your money is money does not sneak up on any of us, right? Or it does sneak up on any of us. Like when you think of going out and and sinning, like for example, he's talked about so many different things.
So let's use a couple of those examples. You think about adultery, right? adultery doesn't sneak up on you, you know what you're doing, you're making a decision and things like that. It's not something that it just sneaks up on you and you're surprised by it.
But here's what I'll tell you about money and the love of money and some of the things Jesus is trying to warn us about is that the love of money can just sneak up on somebody and then not even know it that it is an idol in their heart. Here's what I mean by that is a lot of times Have you ever Have you ever heard of somebody who says or admits that they're greedy? Nobody's gonna admit that right? Like there's nobody in here that's gonna say you know what?
I'm a greedy person, right? Nobody's gonna admit it. But here's what's wild is that there's a lot of you who know greedy people, right?
But they're never going to admit it. That's why it's a blind spot in the Christian faith because it sometimes just slips into our life. And we don't realize that we have a a money problem. And here's the thing, Jesus is not opposed to money. In fact, if you read throughout Scripture, I mean, just the book of Proverbs in general, gives you so many principles for how to manage money well, and how to save money, and things like Jesus is not against money. So if you're in here like man, Jesus is against me having any money and no fun, and now I got to give everything away and stuff like that. Jesus is not against you having money.
He is against money having us. And that's the point that he really brings up here in Matthew chapter number six, it's the idea of do you have money or does money have have you here's the big idea that Jesus says is found in verse 24. And this is what we're going to talk about here today is this, you cannot and if you forget anything I say this is a big idea of this passage of Scripture, you cannot serve both God and money at the same time. You cannot serve both God and money at the same time.
So Jesus here in Matthew six, verses 19 through 34. He really begins this idea to get us to rethink how we evaluate money. And here's what he said, he's telling us to think of money, like an investment, like an investment, you know, many of you, I mean, everybody in here probably has heard of somebody giving them some advice to invest their money. I know, my dad has talked to me, you know, as a young man, hey, you need to be investing your money, you need to be thinking of, you know, 30 years down the road. And stuff like that. And so what we do now is we put aside money and we invest it so that way down the road when your kids are older and things like that, that you have prepared something for them or whatever. And so that is not foreign to us.
We all agree to that. But here's what Jesus is going to say. He's saying, don't think 30 years in advance. Think 300 years in advance.
Like think of 30,000 years in advance. When you look at your finances and your possessions, he's telling us to not just think of here and now in this life, he's saying think of his kingdom, think of his kingdom, and he tells us to invest our money in his kingdom and not our kingdom. So three things I want you to see here today real quick. Number one is this invest your money, here's what he says, and we'll read it, invest your money with his kingdom in mind. We should all invest our money with his kingdom in mind.
Look at verses 19 through 24. He says this, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But rather lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.
He goes on and here it is, verse number 24. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and he will love the other, or else he will hold to the one or in other words, be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon, which literally means riches. You cannot serve God and riches. You cannot serve God and money.
You cannot serve God and materialism at the same time. And so Jesus is saying, invest our money with his kingdom in mind. Now, remember, it's important that you understand in context what Jesus is saying. If you look throughout Matthew five through Matthew seven, that's the Sermon on the Mount that we are going through. The Sermon on the Mount is all about, it is all about the kingdom of heaven. It is all about the kingdom of heaven compared to our kingdom. And what Jesus is constantly reminding his followers about is that our kingdoms here on this earth look nothing like his kingdom. The kingdoms that you draw up for your life here are not going to look anything like like his kingdom. So what he's saying is as followers of Jesus, don't live for your kingdom. Give your life, specifically what he's talking about here, your finances, make sure your finances and your money are living with his kingdom in mind. And he mentions this in a couple of different ways. He gives us some reasons.
First ones found in verse number 19. The first reason why we should invest our money with his kingdom in mind is this is because earthly treasure decays, right? We all know that earthly treasure, it decays. Let me remind you that everything on this earth will rot and decay one day. Everything, all of the possessions that you invest in here on this side of heaven are going to rot and decay, specifically your possessions.
Think about it. Our clothes gone, right? Shoes gone, houses gone, cars gone, golf clubs gone, boats gone, everything that that we invest. Some of you got nervous because I hit on one you like to spend on, right? Yeah, I feel I felt that in the room.
I some of those I use them because I struggle with them too. Here's what I'll tell you. All of those things are are gone. So in other words, what Jesus is saying, the reason why it's important for us to invest our resources in his kingdom is because all these things we spend money on here on this side of heaven, all of those things, it's going to rot. It's going to decay. Like, why invest in things that are going to decay, right?
That makes sense. That's what Jesus is trying to get us to understand. That's why it's important for us to invest in his kingdom. Don't waste your life on things like that. Don't waste your life on things that are going to decay. Don't waste your life on things that are going to decay. Don't waste your life on things that are going to decay. Don't waste your life on things that are going to decay. Don't waste your life on things that are going to decay. Don't waste your life on things that are going to decay. Don't waste your life on things that are going to decay. Don't live your life with just your 70 years that you're going to get or 80 years or whatever God allows you to have.
further in the future. So the second reason he gives us of why we should invest our lives in the kingdom is this, is found in verse number 20. It's because those things, heavenly treasure, it lasts. He said, heavenly treasure lasts. Why invest our life in things that are gonna decay and things that are gonna rot, things that when you die, you're not taken with you. It's not gonna mean anything. And by the way, a lot of the things that we possess here on this earth, like when we're long and gone, are probably gonna be old and nobody wants them anyway.
It's gonna be trouble for your kids probably, more than likely. And so you think about why invest our life in all of these things that are gonna one day decay and rot and not be taken with us. And he said, here's what you should invest in. Invest in the things that last. Invest in the things that last.
You say, what in the world lasts? Look at verse number 20. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, okay, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. And so he's telling us this, okay, if we're not gonna live for things and spend all of our money on the things on this side of heaven that are just gonna rot and decay and things like that, so we need to invest our life in what's happening up in heaven, then we have to think of our money as something we should spend ahead. You've heard the phrase, pay it forward, right? We got to think of our income and our finances and our money, we got to think of it as something that we should lay up for years to come.
Randy Alcorn said it this way, you can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. In other words, if we invest our life in what God wants to do around the world here, right, and you invest your life here for there, then here's what that literally looks like, is you might not have all of the possessions on this side of heaven that you wished you had, but if you spend your time investing in what he has up there in that earthly king or that heavenly kingdom that he's talking about, then what that looks like is one day, when you're dead and gone, right, you're not taking all those possessions that you spent your life on here, right, but when you get to heaven, he's saying build that kingdom up. In other words, because you gave to the church, there should be more people in heaven as a result of that because you gave to missions. Yeah, you might not be called to missions, you know, going across the world, but because you gave to missions that are being called across the world, that heaven is bigger and that the kingdom of God is bigger than that because of our giving.
Does that make sense? You see, that's what he's talking about. He's talking about heavenly treasure that lasts, things as giving to the church, supporting missionaries, helping the poor, helping widows, serving in the church. All of those things are the things that last, but you know what? The reason why some of us don't do some of those things is because everything about our bank account and our time and our talent is all being used for here in this kingdom.
Jesus is saying don't do that. Don't build your life and build your money and build all those things around things that are gonna decay. No, instead, build it in things that will remain forever.
He gives the third reason. Not only does earthly treasure, earthly treasure decays, so why invest there, heavenly treasure last, but he said here's the real reason. It's because you cannot live for both kingdoms.
You can try, but you can't. Don't get mad at me, that's Jesus saying that, okay? Jesus says we cannot live for both kingdoms. He uses the word in verse number 24, no man can serve two masters. So I think it's important for you to understand this point of what masters means.
Here's what Jesus is saying. When he would use the term master, he's talking about ownership. Think of it like a master and a slave, right? He owns this person, right? That's what Jesus is saying, and he's saying this, whoever you cannot be owned at the heart of who you are, you cannot be owned by materialism and God at the same time.
That's his point. You cannot be controlled by it. You cannot be owned by both kingdoms.
You're either gonna go after one and one has your heart or the other has your heart. You cannot serve both. Does everybody understand that? Think of it like this way is how many of you are grateful for a GPS in your car when you're driving places, right? We all love GPSs. It amazes me that there was a day, and if you're young in here, you're not gonna understand this, where when you go places that you've never been before, that there was like these foldable things that you put in the glove box that you would pull out, right? And it was called a map and you would pull those things out and you would have to find your way around.
It blows my mind that that was a day. Now, when I was growing up and when I became an adult, I basically, what we would do, and this is crazy too, it was before GPSs, and so we would go online on the internet, right? And we would go to a thing called, I don't even know if it's still around, MapQuest. Is that still a thing?
We don't know or whatever. I hope you didn't put all your stock in MapQuest, okay? And so you got MapQuest and when I was taking teenagers to a trip or something, I'd print off directions, turn-by-turn directions, and I would make sure somebody was in the front seat and they would have to tell me where I'm going. Well, now, today, you don't need that, but if you're married, you still have the person next to you telling you where you're going.
And when I think of serving God and materialism, here's what I'll tell you. You can't be controlled by both, and when I'm traveling somewhere or whatever, here's what I have learned, okay? I cannot serve the GPS and Abby at the same time. Just impossible.
I can't do it. And so I go wherever the GPS tells me to. I trust it with my life. I feel like Google is smarter than me. I feel like Google knows better than me. I feel like Google knows that there's a slow car on that route that's gonna slow me down, and so I just trust it wherever I'm at. I'm like, listen, it's gonna take me to where I need to go, but here's what I'll tell you. Every single time that I try to obey the GPS, here's what happens in the passenger seat. I'm gonna be in trouble at lunch today. I can already feel it. And so, but here's the thing. I hope we go to lunch with people because it's always softer when we're with other people, right?
Joking. But here's the thing. It's like wherever I'm going by these turn-by-turn GPS directions, here's what's funny. Abby will always say, should have gone the other way, right? You should have gone this way. You can't serve both.
Bad illustration. I'll ask for forgiveness later. But here's the point, is that it's kinda like that way with your material possessions, with your money, with your finances, with your bank account. Here's his point, is that you cannot fully obey and fully be controlled and fully be owned by both at the same time. You're either owned by God and his kingdom or you're owned by your earthly kingdom that is gonna one day decay. And so will God or will materialism call the shots in your life?
What's gonna win out, right? And what Jesus is saying is that Jesus should be on the throne of your heart. You see, the point is, is that Jesus, when he talks about money, his whole job or what he's trying to teach on, it's not to get money out of your pockets. Some of us think that way when it comes to money. We think, ah, Jesus just needs my money every week and things like that. It's not, the reason Jesus talks about money, it's not to get money out of your pockets.
It's to get the idols out of our hearts. You see, that's the point. He's not, listen, Jesus can do anything with or without your money, okay? So his whole teaching on money, don't think of it like, man, Jesus just needs my money. He's just trying to get it all, you know, out of my pocket, empty everything. No, he's trying to get the idols and the materialism out of our hearts. You see, that's the point. And so he says, invest their money in the kingdom, in his kingdom.
That's not gonna decay. But he says, number two, invest your money knowing that God will provide for you. So not only does he spend the time in verses 19 through 24, and he says that we should invest our money in his kingdom and not our kingdom, but in verses 25 through 32, he tells us invest our money knowing that God will provide for you. Look at what he says in verse 25. He says, therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life. In other words, don't worry.
How in the world could Jesus say that? How many of you be honest before God because my hand's gonna be raised? How many of you are a worrier? You just worry, right? You worry about all sorts of things, right? I'm there, I worry about stuff like crazy.
And it's amazing how high the statistic is. I don't remember what it is off the top of my head. The amount of things that we worry about that never even happens, right?
You like that? You're kind of like worried about everything. And then it never even happens. And you spent all this, you know, head space worrying about something that doesn't happen. Here's what Jesus says. And he's talking specifically about finances, which is a big stress point in homes and a big thing that we worry about.
Here's what Jesus says. He says, don't worry about your life. Whoa, don't worry about our life. What you shall eat. Some of you are worried about that right now, right?
You're wondering about, I mentioned lunch just a few months ago and you're Googling spots right now. Okay, don't worry about it. What you shall drink, nor yet for your body.
Don't even worry about your life. What you shall put on the clothes that you're gonna wear, the raiment that you're gonna dress yourself with is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment. And then he goes on and gives us reasons of why we don't need to worry. He says, behold, here's why, here's his illustrations. The fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feedeth them.
Are you not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? In other words, what he's saying is that what you do with your money on this side of heaven, it is not gonna make any difference in your life. It's not gonna add one cubit unto your stature.
It's not gonna make a difference in you. And then verse 28, and why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all of his glory, he was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if, now this is the point, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, oh ye of little faith.
I'll come back to that here in just a moment. Verse 31, therefore, okay, because of all of this, take no thought, don't worry, saying what shall we eat, what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be closed, for after all these things do the Gentiles see. When it mentions the word Gentiles, here's what Jesus meant. He meant the pagans. He meant the lost people. He said lost people, those who are only living for this kingdom, not his heavenly kingdom, lost people are the ones that only worry about those things.
The people from his kingdom, they don't worry about those things because they're living their life for his kingdom, not for their earthly kingdom. Verse 32 again, he says, for your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all of these things. And so the first thing I want you to see here is we should, he says, invest our money knowing that God will provide for you. I don't know about you, but sometimes, and now it's just kind of a routine or whatever, but when I first started working, and my parents made me get a job at 15 years old, and so I had this job, really simple job, and so I would get paid in cash, and so I would get all this cash, whatever, and my parents instilled in me right when I started getting that, that I needed to give a certain amount to the church and stuff. They were teaching me what scripture said and all this kind of stuff, but when you're young and you're thinking, I want to buy this and this and this, and you have this long list of things that you wanted to try to buy for yourself or spend your money on, I remember vividly thinking, man, how in the world am I going to give to the church like they tell me to and have the money left over to do everything that I want to? I would worry about that, and I would stress about that, and I would argue with my parents about that, like, hey, isn't it a better thing that why don't I spend on what I want, and then I'll just, whatever I have left over, if I have any left over, why don't I give that to them?
Why don't I give that to the church on my leftovers, right? And here's what my parents, they instilled in this at a young age, and if you didn't grow up the way that I did, this might be brand new to you even as an adult, but here's what my parents would tell me. They would say, you can trust them. You can trust them.
They would say that to me all the time, and I would argue with them, and they said, you can trust them. It doesn't mean that God's going to give you everything that you want, but what Jesus is saying here is that he will give you everything that you need if you invest your life in his kingdom and not your own. So they would say, give to him and trust him with the rest. You see, here's the problem, is that for many of us, the reason why we struggle giving the way that Jesus tells us to give is found in that verse in verse number 30.
It's the last phrase. He says, owe you or owe you of little faith. You want to know why we struggle? Honestly, it's a trust problem. It's a trust problem. You struggle with giving to him. You struggle trusting him with your money. You don't believe that if you give to him, which by the way, we're going to look at this verse here in a moment.
If you give to him first, and then you spend on the rest, you don't believe that he's going to provide everything for you. That's what Jesus is trying to tell him. He said, when you invest your life and invest your money, invest in his kingdom, not our earthly kingdoms. And here's why.
It's because when you invest there, and you're thinking of the future, and you're thinking, man, I've got 70 years of my life that I'm going to invest my life in what is to come, not for what is going to decay from this life. Here's what he's saying. You can trust him. You can trust him. He knows what you need. Verse number 32.
The second thing is this. The father knows your every need. The father knows your every need. Look at what he says in verse 32. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.
All the materialism and all that stuff, those are what the pagans seek. For your heavenly father knoweth that you have need of all of these things. In other words, if you're worried about, and this is specific to what he's saying, worried about your food. Hey, doesn't he already know about your need?
You worried about the people in your house that you need to feed? Don't you think that our heavenly father sees that? Don't you think that our heavenly father knows that?
You're worried about the bills that you have to pay and the different things that are in front of you. Hey, the first of the month is coming, right? Don't you think he knows that? What Jesus is saying is listen, our heavenly father, he knows our needs, but I think too many followers of Jesus, we struggle to believe this. We say it. We might even get excited in church.
Say amen about it. But listen, does your life really believe that he knows what we need? And then he says, number three, he comes back to his kingdom and he says this, invest your money in his kingdom first.
Isn't that interesting? We love verse 33 and I love it. You know, I grew up in church my whole life and so we would sing the song, right?
Seek ye first, you know it, like the kingdom of God. And we go through and we sing that. And I mean, I knew it as a child and we know it. But you know what we never really talk about is the context by which Jesus said this verse. You know what he's talking about? He's talking about money. He's talking about possessions.
He's talking about materialism. He's talking about living for his kingdom and not our own kingdom. Look at what he says, verse 33. Seek ye first, after all of this about money, he said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Listen, the context of this verse, verse 33, is so important because here's what Jesus is saying. He's saying that his kingdom should come first in our life. And in order to do that, his kingdom must come first with our money. That's what my parents were trying to teach me.
I was 15 years old. They're trying to tell me, no, no, no, give to him first. In other words, what they're saying, this is a principle that they've always instilled in me and I think it's scriptural.
They would say this, that when you get money or whatever, get paid, give first. That's the biblical mandate, give to God first. And before you get upset, it's there.
It's there, we can't argue with it. Give to him first. Do what God has told us to give first. And then what they taught me is this, not only do we give first, right, and then they would always tell me about saving and investing and all that kind of stuff.
So here's what they would say. They would say, give to God first, right off the top. When you make money, when you get paid, when you start again, give to him first. He'll take care of everything else. Give to him first.
Don't give God your leftovers, give him your first. That's what they would always tell me. So they would say, do that, and then they would say, the second thing you do with your money is you save it. So they would say, save it.
Put it away. In other words, don't go out and spend every dime, right? Because I was a kid, and so I would. There's a lot of times I'd spend my money before the day I get it. They would say, save it second, and then they would say, spend off the rest. In other words, they were teaching me kind of a biblical way to manage my money and how I can handle money in my life.
But you know what the problem is with a lot of us? Is that what we do is when we get money, any type of income that you get in your life, here's what we do a lot of times. So we take the amount that we've been given, and we spend it all on this life, right? As much money as you can, you just spend it, spend it, spend it on everything that you want, this earthly kingdom, the things that are gonna decay, and stuff like that. And here's what happens is you say that, hey, assuming that I have some leftover afterwards, that's what we are going to give God. We tend to give him all of the leftovers.
What's leftover? Like God, assuming after this paycheck, assuming I got something left after my bills, then hey, if everything's good, then I'll give to you and things like that. And what Jesus is saying is this, no, his kingdom, remember, his kingdom, different than your kingdom. If you have a problem with what he's saying here, here's the problem, is we're probably too invested in this kingdom. If you have a problem with what he's saying here, it's because your possessions, this kingdom, this earthly kingdom probably is mastering your heart.
And so what he's saying is this, is his kingdom that looks nothing like your kingdom, his kingdom is all about others first. It's all about him first. It's all about the gospel first. Give to him, obey him with your finances first.
First. And then you can trust him that he will provide for all of your needs with everything that is left behind. And he says this, like verse 33, we sing this, right? What's the last part of verse 33? I'll even sing it for you to keep you engaged for a minute. He says this, and all, what's the tune of this song? All these things shall be added to you.
I'm not a singer, I'm a terrible singer in fact. And so if you ever sit down front, you know this, right? He says all these things shall be added unto you, right? Like what's he saying? What's he mean?
Here's the point. Everything that he just talked about, everything that worries us about this life, and how am I gonna pay for this? How am I gonna pay for clothes? How am I gonna pay for food? How am I gonna pay the bills?
How am I gonna do this? He says this, if you seek his kingdom first, all the things you're worried about will be added unto you. It doesn't mean you're gonna get everything you want. I don't want you to think that's what we would call the prosperity gospel, like you give to him, and then hey, you want this new thing over here, he's gonna give it to you, he's gonna bless you. Listen, if you ever go to a church like that, just get out quick, because that's not the gospel, okay? That's not the gospel at all. Here's what he's saying.
When you give to him first, all the things that we worry about, the day-to-day things that stress us out, all of those things will be added unto us. Here's what Jesus is saying. You cannot serve both God and money at the same time. You just can't do it.
There's no way. Like you can't be ruled by both. You can't be possessed by both. You can't be owned by both.
You're either owned by him and his kingdom, or you're owned by this kingdom. So you say, what's the next steps? Listen, you might not have had somebody teach you like I did, I'm so grateful for my parents that they taught me, I mean, birthday parties, they would tell me that. I'm like, man, what a damper on the birthday party. I just opened a card from Grandma, and she gives me 50 bucks, and they're like, remember, give some to the church.
I'm like, what in the world? And here's the thing, they were teaching me from a young age about the importance of giving and obeying God with what I'm supposed to do and seeking him first. Listen, you might not have had that in your life, and I get it. Here's what I would challenge you to do. Is this, is with your money, with what God has blessed you with, by the way, it's all his to begin with. That's what's amazing to me, is we wanna hold back our money, it's his to begin with. What God has done with you and your money, you're supposed to be a steward of what he's given you.
That's what we're supposed to do. That's how we're supposed to view money scripturally, right? I'm just a steward of what he's blessed me with.
So some next steps for you, here's what I would tell you, is you should, when you get money, give to the church. You say, pastor, you're not supposed to say things like that. Listen, the scripture teaches it. The scripture teaches that it's there, we can't deny it.
Like, don't get mad at me, I'm just the messenger, right? I'm the mailman for what Jesus has given us in his word. Listen, give to the church.
Here's what that means for us here at Union Grove. If you call this church your home, is your general tithes help us do ministry? Like, you want us to do more ministry in the community, that's where that comes from. It's with all of us collectively giving to what God has blessed us with. Give out of the abundance of what God has blessed us with. It helps us do ministry, it helps us do ladies' ministry, it helps us do men's ministry, it helps us do student ministry, kids' ministry.
Listen, we got a ton, my wife told me, because she helps in a Bible Fellowship class over here, she said when she got in here after the kids' ministry Bible Fellowship, it was packed in there. You wanna know how we get to do ministry to kids like that? It's through your giving, your generosity, that's the only way. And so I wanna challenge you, give, be faithful in your giving.
Be faithful in it, be consistent in it. Be consistent in it, knowing this, that when you give to what God has blessed us with, when you tithe, listen, here's the thing that you can trust in, is that he's gonna provide for you. That's what Jesus has said this whole passage, don't miss it, don't leave here and think, well, all that pastor wants is my money.
It has nothing to do with that. Here's what it's saying, it's saying, Jesus is gonna provide for you, he already knows your needs before you even mention it to him. He knows the needs of our hearts, so give to him and seek his kingdom first. So give to the church. The second thing I wanna challenge you to do, we believe in this, is give to missions.
Give to missions. Like, we love our missionaries, and the gospel is going forward in all parts of the world because of the generosity of God's people. And for us to send more missionaries, for us to increase missionaries' offerings, because listen, here's what we forget, is if we brought them on years ago as a missionary here, like 10 years ago, think about it this way, what was life for you here 10 years ago and how cheap things were compared to how they are now? Here's what I'll tell you, is that missionaries all across the world are experiencing the same challenges you are. I hear it all the time, like things have gotten so expensive, the rent for our church is so expensive, and so they're asking churches, hey, we gotta raise support or they're gonna have to come on furlough and start going to 50 new churches to get support.
We need you to be faithful in your giving to missions, and by the way, if we don't do it, be able to support everybody in our faith promise missions, the church takes it from the general and we go and pay some of that, so that our missionaries are provided for all across the world, so your giving is impacting the gospel going forward. Here's the point, that is the heavenly kingdom that I'm talking about. That is what Jesus is saying. That is when you invest your money and you give of your life and your possessions, and you say, listen, I'm only here for 70 years, why on earth am I gonna accumulate everything here? No, I want my treasure to be there in heaven. When I get there, I want tons of new kids running up to me, and guess what, they're not gonna do.
They're not gonna come up and say, wow, that was a really cool boat, or a really cool car, or a big house that you had. No, they're only gonna be there by the grace of almighty God, and that's what we need to be investing in, is that. That's what Jesus is saying. And lastly, I'll tell you this, another next step, give to forward in faith. We just had a whole business meeting at 9 a.m. about this. Listen, I can't tell you how much we need you to be generous in order for us to go forward.
The banks, it's important. They need to see your giving. They need to see you being generous, and I'm grateful that our church has been so generous for so long, but in order for us to take that step, we all have to collectively own the mission of what God has called us to here in this community. And some of us, we're not owning it the way that he tells us to. We're seeking his kingdom last, not first.
And that's the problem. That's the problem in most churches, is that a lot of people, they're like, hey, we'll seek first the kingdom of God after I seek everything else first. No, Jesus says in the middle of this, he says, no, no, no, seek first the kingdom of, God, Randy Alcorn said this in his book, The Treasure Principle, I'd encourage you to get it. He said once, he was talking about his journey with giving when he started really giving to the church and giving to missions and nonprofits and stuff.
Here's what he said. Once his family understood that we were giving away God's money to do God's work, we discovered a peace and joy we never had back when we thought it was our money. He said, when I thought it was my money and I could spend it on whatever I wanted, I didn't have near the peace and joy that I have now that I've been giving it, recognizing that it's God's money to begin with and I'm spending it on God's work. Listen, I'm done. Here's all I want you to know about this passage. You cannot serve both God and money at the same time.
You can't do it. One of them has your heart. One of them owns you. One of them possesses you.
Which one is it? Some of you, you're like, man, I'm so far in debt. I think it's easy to know which one possesses you. Listen, live your life for his kingdom, not things that are gonna decay. And by the way, any time I talk about this, I don't want you to think we have it all figured out. I waste my money on the craziest stuff, like crazy, right?
And I spend my money on things that I probably shouldn't from time to time. But here's what I'll tell you. Me as well as you, here's what I wanna do. I wanna seek his kingdom first. Not last, not even second, not third, first.
And I wanna invest my life there. And if that means I have less here, that's okay. Because my kingdom is for his kingdom, and I'm not gonna live for my kingdom where I possess a lot of things that are just gonna rot and decay one day. Can we bow our heads for prayer?
Like to ask you to stand, nobody looking around. I know anytime you talk about possessions and materialism and money and things like that, I know it's not one of those like, man, I can't wait to get to the altar because everybody's gonna judge us thinking, wow, we've been living, they must have been living for this kingdom. Here's the thing, if we're honest before God, how many of you would say just today, say, pastor, I'm just gonna be honest before you, honest before God. I've probably been, my eyes, I've been seeking probably some things on this side, this earthly kingdom, a little more than I should. And I want to today make a decision to live my life for his kingdom, not this kingdom. How many of you would raise your hand and say that?
My hand's raised. I get so invested in the things of this kingdom. Well, listen, in just a few moments that we have, I just want you to pray. Maybe you need to evaluate, maybe you and your family need to evaluate your finances and what you're spending all your money on and where you're laying up your treasure. And by the way, remember, God's not against money. If you have money in here, don't feel like that's a guilty thing.
That's a great thing God's blessed you with. What he's telling you is don't let the money you have control you. Don't let the money you have own you. Don't let the money that you have drive you. No, be driven by the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God.
That's what should drive us. I'm going to pray. And then if your hand went up and you want to pray for your family to not be invested here, but to be invested there, this altar will be open or you can pray right there in your seat. Father blessing this invitation time. God, I pray that we as church members, as the pastor of this church, I pray God that myself, that I would live my life for your kingdom, not my own.
God, that I wouldn't just lay up earthly treasures that are going to decay, but I'd give my life for your kingdom so more people could be in your kingdom. Bless in this invitation time for it's in your name we pray. Listen, this altar is open. If your hand went up just a few moments ago and you're like, man, I need to pray. Listen, this altar is open or pray right there where you are and kneel with your spouse or with your kids. Maybe that's a step you teach your kids how biblical giving should look like.
