Gripped By Greed - Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Please open up your Bibles to first Timothy chapter six first Timothy chapter six verse nine. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Bow with me in prayer, please.

Father, we're just saying great is thy faithfulness. All that I have needed thy hand hath provided. And father, we just pray that as we open up your word that we would realize and understand your perspective on money, your perspective on possessions and materialism, and that, Lord, we would see that how you have ordained us to perceive it and to receive it and to operate with it and to enjoy it. We would trust that your word is true. And Lord, at the same time that we would see the dangers of it and how it can lead to devastating consequences if we do not submit ourselves to the guidelines that You have given us concerning these things.

And Lord, we just pray that You would shed light on our own hearts to see where our treasure is this morning. And we're praying that our hearts would be able to testify with Your Word that You are the one thing that we desire above all else. And so, Father, we pray for your presence and your power. Let every man be veiled. Let Christ be seen.

Let his word be received. We pray against every bird in the air that is coming to take away the seed of your word from the hearts of these individuals today. And we're asking for good soil, Lord, in the hearts of every person sitting in these chairs that they may receive it and bear fruit with it. And so Lord we pray for a change of heart. Would you sharpen our perspective and our discernment?

Would you be able to once again refresh our faith to realize that one day we will stand before you and we will take nothing with us? We honor you and we trust you this morning. In your name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

Becoming a Christian becoming a Christian alters every arena of relationship that you have in this life. Whatever you relate to in this life is altered when you come into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Primarily, when you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, your relationship with God changes. You have peace with God through Christ. You become a child of God, no longer a child of wrath.

Your relationship changes concerning your family. Jesus even said that he has not come to bring peace but a sword, and that there would be division within the home because of one's devotion to Christ. Your relationship with the world is altered. You do not see the world as you did before. In fact, Paul said that the world is crucified to me and I to the world.

Now just think about that for a moment. The world is crucified to me. There is probably nothing more hideous than a crucifixion concerning a death penalty. A man hanging there on a cross with blood and his skin hanging off of his body, bone showing, entrails hanging out. And as one preacher said, the moment that you were on a cross, you lost all your rights.

Man can do whatever he wanted to you. And what Paul says is that the world is crucified to me. The same way a crucifixion is so hideous is the same way I see the world. It's despicable. There there's nothing attractive about it.

When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, you do not relate the same way to the poor. You see the poor differently. You have compassion. You have a desire to come and help. You have a desire to give.

When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, it changes the way you relate even to your enemies. Whereas before you hated and plotted against your enemies, wished death and hurt upon them, now you pray for them. And it comes down to the point it comes down to the very details of your life to which you even change the way you relate to money. You change the way you relate and see and engage with money. You know that people can have relationship with money, right?

There are people today that their primary relationship is with their paycheck, their primary relationship is with their bank account. Jesus said in Matthew six twenty four, No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one or love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. No one can serve two masters. No one can serve two masters.

You cannot serve God and Mammon. You cannot serve God and Mammon. And he draws this black and white picture. You're either gonna love one and hate the other, or you're gonna be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

The newer translations say money, but mammon is a personification of money. What a powerful verse that Jesus takes money and personifies it, and it's a it's a term that was used in that day, mammon. And he says mammon, which is an idol of materialism, can be seen and can be related to as a master. Money can be a master. Like a master, money can be served.

Money can be devoted to. Money can be loved. It can have an influence on your decision making and your life choices. Money can demand so much of you that it brings you to a place where you actually forsake all other relationships because you have devoted yourself and determined yourself to the possibilities that mammon can offer you. Mammon can bring you into a place where you are such a slave to it that your very ambition is to simply pursue it, even to the point of death.

He relates money to a master. He elevates mammon to a place in which it can actually be loved and devoted to and sacrificed to, and he says you can't serve God and mammon at the same time, and I'm realizing more and more, more and more that there are so many people that cannot even begin a relationship with God because they are not willing to divorce themselves from mammon. One of the primary reasons why people cannot and will not surrender their lives to Jesus Christ wholeheartedly, I believe, is because of other people. But more and more, I'm realizing that mammon is popping up in the excuses of so many that are not willing to surrender their lives to Jesus. Mammon has a hold on their lives.

Mammon has gripped them. They are gripped by this Master. And even Jesus himself says in Luke 18, when he faced a young rich ruler in verse 24, looking at him he said, how difficult is it for those who have wealth to enter into the kingdom of God? How difficult is it for those who have wealth to enter into to enter into the kingdom of God? This was Jesus's response to a man who eagerly desired to follow him, who ran to him, who fell on his knees before him and said, I've kept all your laws.

I've kept all that the word of God says. And though this man put his confession on the altar, Jesus challenged him not to just put his words on the altar, to put his wallet on the altar. And he couldn't because it says that he was extremely rich. And when Jesus laid the standard, he went away sad. He went away sad.

The love of money. Why do people love money? Why do people have this grip towards materialism, into possessions? Why does mammon rule over the lives of so many individuals? Here's why, Ecclesiastes ten nineteen.

Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money is the answer for everything. Money is the answer for everything. Perhaps you never stumble upon this verse, but context is important because people love to take this verse and go wild with it. Money is the answer to everything. The context, Solomon is explaining and describing different types of ruler of a land.

And this one type he describes is one who has been absolutely driven by a lifestyle of pleasure and extravagant living. This type of ruler is a man that has a certain attitude towards money, where he believes that it is the answer to everything because he knows that through money, that money is the means by which he can have access to this lavish living. People don't love money because they like to collect a piece of paper with a number on it. People love money because of what money can bring into their lives. And this king believed that money was the answer to everything because his heart his heart is set on things that only money can buy.

And so he is determined within himself. Yes. Money. This is an attitude. This is a mindset.

Money is, in fact, the answer to everything. It is the means by which I can have a certain lifestyle. It is the means by which I can be comforted in this life and secure in my days. But once again, I go back to my first point. We have a different relationship to money.

We, as followers of Jesus Christ, do not have the same attitude, do not place the same value on gold or silver or the plastic cards in your wallet. We don't. And we come back to this in first Timothy six nine to 10. Paul is about to describe the dangers of riches. The danger of riches?

No. The danger of desiring riches. And he goes on to explain something, not just for those, like the rich young ruler who can't even walk into a relationship with Jesus Christ because they're gripped by greed. But he but he also describes the danger of those who are currently walking with Jesus and might down the road be gripped by greed. So it's not just by those who can't even say yes to the Lord because they have a job that they're not willing to give up.

They're not willing to give up a certain lifestyle. No. No. No. No.

It's for those who are walking with him today that down the road can be derailed because of their desire for riches. And I believe that this is more applicable to the North American church than any other place on the earth. That this is something for us, especially at this age and the majority of those that are sitting here this morning because of the career choices you're gonna make and because of the time that you're giving over to studies and perhaps of the things that you've heard growing up concerning what it means to live a life comfortably and enjoyably, we have a different perspective on money. Don't you forget it, and the Bible is about to tell us. Paul here is talking to pastor Timothy, and there are some false teachers around.

And he begins to describe what these false teachers teach and what they believe. And one of the unfortunate doctrines of these false teachers, one of the mindsets that's being spread around like gangrene, is at the end of verse five, That imagining that godliness is a means of gain. So there are false teachers out there that have jumped into the religious sphere and into spiritual leadership for the sake of monetary gain, bleeding people for money. And not only that, but convincing other people that godliness, true godliness, is a matter of gaining more, is a matter of living comfortably and extravagantly, is a matter of what you wear and what experiences you can have in life. And so he's saying there are those that believe that godliness is a means of what you get and that God's will for your life is to get more and to have more and to experience more, that he has established it as his children, being a heavenly father, to have the best life now, that everything in this life surrounds you and how you can live it flourishing.

Paul says, I'm gonna unpack how dangerous that thinking is. I'm about to tell you why this is deadly thinking. And so he begins to say, verse nine, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation. Read that very carefully. Those who desire to be rich.

The danger is not in riches. The danger is in the desire for riches. So hear me out here. Be very careful because the warnings that are about to come through this verse don't necessarily apply to rich people. In fact, you can be rich, and none of these warnings apply to you because your heart is right towards money.

And you can be street poor, and these verses shout towards you because you have a desire for riches. Do you understand that? So it's not about those who have more. It's about the heart. It's not about possessions.

It's about your passion. It's not about dollars. It's about desire. It's all about what you think and how you feel towards mammon where these verses apply to you. Those who desire to be rich, those who have made it their life ambition that I want to be a wealthy person, This is for you.

This is a warning for those, not just non believers, for those who are walking in the faith. So it begs the question, how do I know if I desire riches? That's an important question, isn't it? How do I know that this right off the get go applies to me? There are some clues.

There are some hints. There are some evidences within the heart more than anything that will shed light on this. Those who desire riches are those who give more attention to discontentment than thankfulness. They find themselves discontent. They find themselves unhappy because of what they don't have, more than thankful for for what they do have.

They lean more into that. They mope around. They complain. They are weighed down by this idea of I don't have this and I don't have that. And they fail.

They have failed to see what God hath provided. All that I needed, thy hand has given me. No. They don't see that. It's why don't I have more?

A person that desires to be rich is envious, is jealous, is stricken by those who have more than them, and their thought life is flooded with, if only I had more. If only I was like that. What would it be like to be in their shoes and to live that kind of a lifestyle? And once again, they failed to see what God had given them. A person that is driven by the desire of riches is one who has an unusual thrill when they purchase something.

There's a sense of jolt of adrenaline that is experienced when you go out and you buy stuff, and not even stuff that you need, stuff that you just want. There's this sense of excitement that comes in purchasing things, and that high quickly dies and is only experienced again when you find yourself going out to buy something else. Not what you need, what you just want. There's this excitement. There's this thrill.

There's this fun aspect to it. There's a sense of, once again, a high almost that's injected in possessions and materialism that you access for yourself, dangerous emotions towards things. A person that desires riches, and this is a great indication, is a person that finds it very, very difficult to let go of riches. We think of the rich young ruler, and we kinda isolate that, but we forget who's coming up next in the next chapter, in Luke chapter 19. In Luke chapter 18, we're introduced to the rich young ruler.

And he was eager, and he was willing, and he wanted to follow Jesus. And when Jesus laid down the standard because he saw his heart, he says, If you just give up everything, you give it to the poor, acquire treasure in heaven, and follow me, you're gonna enter into a lifestyle that you never thought you would. And he went away sad because he could not find it within himself to give. I can't give this. It's it has a hold on my life.

It means so much to me. But then you go over to Luke chapter 19 where Jesus doesn't even tell Zacchaeus to give up everything, but because of Jesus and his compassion and his love, the fact that he invited himself over, the fact that Jesus knew his name, he stands up and he says, Lord, I will give half of my goods to the poor, and whoever I've defrauded, I will return fourfold. And Jesus says, today, salvation has come to this house. Two rich people, two different attitudes towards money. Those who desire to be rich, and here's the objections.

Oh, here are the thoughts. Oh, here are the the guards and everything else that is just the walls that are being built up. Hold on, sir. Hold on. Are you telling me that I can't be ambitious?

Are you telling me that I have to reject a promotion if I get a promotion at my job? Are you telling me that I can't strive to excel in the career that God has gifted me in? I'm not saying any of that. Neither is the Bible. I hope you excel.

Go for it. Succeed. Enlarger territories, so to speak. But I'm gonna answer your question, your objection with another question. You say why.

You say, should I not? You say, am I not to be ambitious? And I will answer with this, why. Why do you wanna succeed? Why do you wanna advance?

Why do you wanna grow? What's the heart behind it? What's your motive behind it? What is it for? That makes all the difference.

That changes everything. If it's to enhance a selfish way of living, be careful. Or if you have a different agenda, a godly agenda, as we're gonna conclude with with certain verses in the same chapter, God be with you. God speed. But even within that, we can almost give these excuses and try to justify our desire for riches with these cliche Christian statements and these cliche understandings.

You know, if I have more, I'll give more. If I have more, then I'm gonna donate more. Okay. That's that's fine. But be very careful.

Even with that, even with that kind of mindset, that can just be the surface level, justifying thoughts behind something that's truly motivating you. All those things can just veil. It can just be the curtain behind what's backstage in your heart because the desire and the pursuit of riches is risky business, as Paul is about to tell us. He says, there are three things that you will fall into. Listen.

You think that this is aggressive? You think that this makes people feel uncomfortable, especially those that work in the work I'm not I'm not aggressive. Look what the Bible is about to say. There are three things that somebody who desires riches is risking themselves to fall into. Three things.

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into many senseless and harmful desires, and before that, into a snare. Into a snare. You wanna desire riches? You want that to be the motivating factor of your life? You are you a person that wakes up every morning and the motivation for for you to get out of bed in the morning is I'm one day closer becoming a rich man or a rich woman?

If so, you're gonna fall into temptation. You're gonna fall into temptation. What does he mean by that? It means this. The person that is walking on that pathway of desiring riches exposes themselves and weakens themselves to fall into sin.

When you desire to be a rich person, you're willing to associate yourself with the wrong people. When you desire to be a wealthy individual, temptation to be dishonest with your tax reports is stronger. Temptation to make shady business deals is a lot stronger. Temptation to be dishonest in your dealings with money is stronger. You're willing to ignore prayer.

You're willing to ignore the word of God. You're willing to ignore meeting with the brethren because you know that if you can do that, you can make a little bit of extra flow. Temptation is stronger. The pull is stronger. When a man desires riches, see it all the time.

You say, I would never do that. I would never do that. Man walks in this morning, filthy rich. In fact, let's just pretend it's somebody that we all know, celebrity. And he walks up to this pulpit, and he comes up behind his mic, says, I just wanna make an announcement.

Sure. And this is a serious deal. This is a serious proposition. It's not a joke. And he looks at all of you this morning, and he says, I'm willing to give $10,000,000 check.

All I'm asking of you is to not pray a prayer, not read your bible, and not step foot in this church for three hundred and sixty five days, one year. And at the end of those three hundred sixty five days, I will hand you a $10,000,000 check. Do you feel the pull? Saying that's ridiculous. Well, people do it for $12 an hour.

Temptation is stronger. Temptation is more powerful when a man desires riches because he is willing to step over, bulldoze over, go through, compromise anything in order to have a little bit more, even at the expense of compromising your convictions. But not just temptation, they fall into a snare, into a trap. That's what it means. Now an element of a trap, a successful one at least, is that a trap does not come off as a trap.

If you wanna trap something, you wanna deceive the animal or the individual that you wanna trap into thinking that it's not a snare. That's what makes a trap a trap. There's an element of deception to it. So if you're walking down a path and somebody wants to get you into a hole, they're gonna camouflage it so that you fall into the hole. You don't see it as a trap, but it is a trap.

Depending on your goal, another element of a successful trap is a false sense of reward, is that if you jump into something, if you do something, you will get something out of it not knowing that it's gonna actually get something out of you. So you put a little piece of cheese on that mouse trap, and the mouse thinks I'm gonna get a piece of cheese. The mouse thinks that he's gonna get something out of it, but in fact, the moment he puts his little hand on that thing, it's gonna grab him. And so he says the desire to be rich will bring you into a place where you will fall into a trap. That pursuit, like a trap, will, in the end, disappoint you, will, in the end, bring you into a place that you never thought you would be.

Whereas you saw it or didn't see the dangers of it, and you thought it was safe, and you thought it was okay, and you thought that you can handle it right, and you thought that if you just do this and do that, and you're just gonna you thought that you thought it was gonna be all good. That moment, you're in a trap. Ecclesiastes five ten. What a powerful verse. Ecclesiastes five ten says this, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.

This also is vanity. You love money, guess what? You're not gonna love money. You're not gonna be satisfied with it in the end. You have an income and you're not satisfied with that income?

You're gonna be disappointed. What is he saying here? The thing with money is that you never have enough. I just want this amount of money. Sir, if you get to that amount of money, you'll be quickly disappointed, and you're gonna want more.

Hear me out. I wanna just make that amount. Get to that amount. And if that's the pursuit of your life more than anything, you get there. You're gonna want more.

That's what this this is the word of God. Not my opinion, sir. This is the word of God. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. You are never satisfied nor will you ever be satisfied if your pursuit in life is to be a rich man.

Psalms 4nine sixteen-seventeen, be not afraid when a man becomes rich or when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies, he will carry nothing away. His glory will not go down after him. Man has a nice house, and the glory of it increases. Don't be afraid.

Don't be intimidated. Don't worry about it because when he dies, none of that none of that is going down with him. Vanity. It's a trap. You live for this.

You'll be greatly disappointed. You pursue this, and you will get to your primary goal, and you're gonna set another goal, and you're gonna get to that goal, and you're gonna want another goal. You will not be satisfied. This is what the word of the Lord says. A very well known magazine did a study.

Say, what is a study? This is last year. They did a study on those who have won the lottery, and they spoke to a financial consultant of lottery winners. This man's job was to be a financial consultant for those who have won hundreds of millions of dollars. Look what the man says.

I'm about to quote him. Look what he says here. So many of them wind up unhappy or wind up broke. People have had terrible things happen. People commit suicide.

People run through their money. Easy comes, easy goes. They go through divorce or people die. The majority, he's saying. This is a financial consultant of those who have won millions.

And then through the rest of the article, they began to quote these people who have won in our lifetime, who have won the Powerball or the Jackpot, whatever it may be. I encourage you, the quotes are heartbreaking. Along the lines of, I wish I had never won. Along the lines of, if I had the chance to, I would have ripped up that ticket if I knew I won, along the lines of I wish I was broke rather than having all this money, along the lines of you will not believe the greed of the people you thought loved you when you have money. And then finally, there was one person who said, I'd rather be rich than broke, and they said, this is the fine exception of those who have won the lottery.

But the majority end up unhappy. The majority end up devastated in their lives, and they call it the curse of the Powerball. Don't be deceived. It's a trap. You want that lifestyle?

That lifestyle will have you, and it will destroy you. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, not just temptation, fall into a snare, a trap. Not only that, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. And it's just a continuation of that thought that when you desire riches, you will find yourself being engulfed by other desires. And that word plunge is the word drowned.

The same way a person is drowning and eventually that water completely consumes them is a person who will be consumed by depression, is a person who will be consumed by devastation, is a pursuit person that will be consumed by destruction. When they have set their lives and their hearts to pursue riches, they will eventually drown under the weight of that pressure and that pursuit, guaranteed. Many senseless and harmful desires. Many. And he goes on to explain why in the next verse.

For, oh, we all know it, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. What is Paul saying by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? You look at the evil of the world, and I'm sure you can trace it back to the love of money being the reason for it. You look at all the wickedness that we're seeing in the world that's rampant and plaguing our nation and plaguing this world, you can guarantee that money is probably a part of it. And he's saying this as well, that any type of wickedness is possible if you involve money with it.

Any type of nasty pit of hell, destructive anything can be possible if you just have the right amount of money in it. How many wars have started because of money? How many cases have been dealt with unjustly because of a bribe? How many young girls are being kidnapped into the sex trade because of the love of money? How many marriages are brought into union because one party is in it just for the money, not because of love?

How many preachers are preaching not because they have a burden from God, not because they were called by God, because they knew that people are gullible enough, and they don't read their Bibles enough to discern what a message is, and they can take money out of them and give them false promises because they don't fear God. How many? The root of all kinds of evils is the love of money. You present the right amount and watch what somebody will actually do to get it. You put that right amount on that check and watch what people will do to get to that point.

How many relationships have been severed? How many families have been destroyed because fathers or mothers are so addicted to the thrill of putting in a coin into a machine and making sure that those numbers line up so extra coins come out and have thrown away college funds and thrown away all these things because they just want more. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils, and it comes down to not just material destruction, not just familial destruction, not just politic political no, no, no. It comes down to the ultimate way of somebody destroying their own life. It is through this craving.

What a word. Craving. That's how you know you love money when you crave it. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains. You know what that means?

They literally take something and they pierce themselves with it because of their desire for riches. Interpret that verse how you want, but it's clear. There are those who walked in light of loving Jesus, desiring Jesus, wanting the things of God, and eventually down the road, like Demas, fell in love with this present world, have eventually come to a place where they sold Jesus for pieces of silver. So the warning is not just to the rich young ruler who wants to follow Jesus. The warning is for those who are in the faith that you would not be captivated alongside the road by the flash, by experiences, by the nice apparel, by the things that will literally derail you from walking with Jesus.

This is a serious warning because Paul himself has said some have abandoned their love for Christ, some have abandoned their desire for Jesus, some don't want God anymore, don't want the things of God anymore because they have elevated mammon above Yahweh. That's how dangerous this poll can get. That's how dangerous and convincing this master named Mammon really is. And more than anything, it's dangerous at this point of your lives. As you set yourself to study and to pursue a career, be careful that it does not consume you.

Be careful that you don't put your sense of security in something that is as fleeting as money. So what if riches do increase? I mean, it happens. There are rich Christians. There are those who follow God.

There are those who are men and women of God who have a lot of money. This is what you do. Psalm sixty two ten. If riches increase, do not set your heart on them. If riches increase, do not set your heart in them.

Don't. If God does allow you to have that promotion, if God does bless you with an inheritance, if God does allow because every good and perfect gift comes from above. If God does allow it, just make sure that your heart is not attached to it. Be like Paul who is content in all things. I've been content in much.

I've been content in nothing because my heart is not in that. If a season in my life I have it, then praise be to God, I'll use it. If it's not there, praise be to God. Like Job, he gives and he takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. If riches increase, do not set your heart on them because you can't serve two masters.

You can't serve God and money. But Paul doesn't leave us with warnings. He leaves us with instructions as well. He goes to verse 17, and he ends this chapter with instructions for the rich. He says, ask for the rich in this present age.

Isn't that amazing you can be rich in this present age and broke in the next life? I mean, just think about that. You can be rich in this present age and in the next life be bankrupt. Ask for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. One, if you are rich, if you are a believer that has that money, don't think you're better than anybody else.

Don't elevate yourself. Don't look down on somebody who doesn't have the things that you have or can't access the things that you can access. Don't be haughty. Don't be proud. Don't be arrogant.

Don't flash yourself to make sure that everybody knows that you have the right amount of money. That everybody knows that you have the bank account, that everybody knows that you're successful. Don't be haughty. Don't. What does he say next?

Nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. Some of us want riches just so we can have a secure lifestyle. Some of us want riches so we can be comfortable, and that's fine. But there's a danger because then you set your faith and hope on your bank account, not on God. Because right after he says, but on God.

Because one day the economy can be really good, and the next day it can crash. It's uncertain. One day you have it, and an accident happens, and you have to pay a lot of money for surgery, and the next day it's gone. Don't set your hope on the uncertainty of money, but on God. So where's your hope?

Are you so worried about what you're gonna wear and what you're gonna eat? Are you so worried about your future, thinking that if I just make it to this place, then I'll feel secure? Then your faith is in mammon and not in God. We just sang it. Great is thy faithfulness.

All that I've ever needed, thy hand hath provided. It's this daily trust in the daily provision of God. It doesn't promote laziness either because there are people that says, God will give it to me. God's not gonna open your mouth and put food in it. You gotta work.

But don't set your hope on it and see the fine line here. Yes, work. Yes, do these things. Yes, if you have riches, alright, but don't set your heart on them. Keep that relationship distant.

Don't serve money. Let money serve you. But on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Oh, God wants us to enjoy things. Yes.

He provides things for us to enjoy. You know, you can enjoy life, right? Things. You can enjoy life. And you can enjoy things that God has provided in this life.

You know what God doesn't want you to do? Worship it. If those things in your life that you're enjoying causes you to give more devotion to those things and to God, then you've stepped out of the boundaries of what he's intended for you. You enjoy it. You love him because of it.

You worship him and praise him in light of it because you recognize that from him, I've enjoyed these things. There are people who think that if you're spiritual, you just wear the same shirt and same thing every single day and just lock yourself in your room and don't enjoy things, don't enjoy nature, don't enjoy a nice meal. That's not spiritual. That's ridiculous. It's being able to frame it Who richly provides us.

You know what that means? It means that you depend on God to provide things for you. In light of you being, yes, in light of all scripture, active and working, you still realize that even what you do have from your job is given by God. Oh, you want to be rich? Alright.

You are rich? Okay. Bible says, charge them to do these things. They get uncomfortable. Preachers get uncomfortable when they preach about money because people, you know, money.

I don't blame them because so many people are preaching money for the sake of getting money. But Jesus preached on it. Paul is preaching on it. And he's saying, those who are rich, verse 18, they are to do good. They are to do good.

They are to do good. They are to do good. They are to do good. They are to do good. They verse 18, they are to do good.

They are to do good. So you don't become rich or you're not rich a rich person and you don't do good things. You just go with the flow and just enjoy life. No. No.

No. It says they are to do good. They are to be active. They are to be willing to do things. What does it say?

Rich in good works. You you're rich? Okay. Does your good works line up with your bank account, so to speak? Are you rich in money but poor in good works?

Do you serve? Do you serve God? Do you serve your church? And ready to share. And I have a retirement plan.

If you're in the kingdom of God, there is no retirement plan. Your retirement plan is No? Okay. No? Okay.

Dare to be rich in your works, ready to share, and to be generous so that you use what God has allowed you to have concerning money, ready to give it away for the sake of the kingdom, ready to invest your money into advancing the gospel, advancing his name, advancing ministries. And there are people like that in this day that God has allowed them to come to that place where they do have money and abundance, but they know how to give into ministries. They know how to give to advance the kingdom. Why? What's the motivation?

Verse 19, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so they may take hold of what is true truly life. So Paul says, listen, I'm an investor. I'm a financial consultant, but for the eternal things. Hear me out. You want some you want some financial advice?

Invest in heaven. The more you have in your in wisdom, in the appropriate response, invest in heaven. Invest in these things. You're gonna store up treasures for what is truly life. And he says, this is what you ought to do if you do have money.

This is your attitude towards mammon. This is your attitude towards unrighteous wealth. It's a tool for advancing his kingdom. And so it's clear. It's very clear that we are to be careful to not let this heart fall in love with a different master.

Let me read a poem to you. It will not make much difference, friend, a hundred years from now if you live in a stately mansion or on a river scowl, if the clothes you wear are tailor made or pieced together somehow, if you eat big steaks or beans and cake a hundred years from now. It won't matter your bank account or the make of your car you drive, for the grave will claim all riches and fame and the things for which you strive. There's a deadline that we all must meet and no one will be late. It won't matter than all the places you've been.

Each one will keep that date. We will only have in eternity what we give away on earth. When we go to the grave, we can only save the things of eternal earth. What matters, friend, the earthly gain for which some men always bow? For your destiny will be sealed, you see, a hundred years from now.

Is what you're living for, is what you're pursuing, is what you're so anxious about gonna matter a hundred years from now? If not, it's probably not worth it. And there's this one prayer in the middle of the Bible that offers this wonderful balance of how we ought to approach money. Proverbs 30, and we're ending with this prayer, verse eight and nine. Proverbs thirty:eight-nine.

Prior to this, he says, Lord, I'm just asking you for two things: Remove far from me falsehood and lying. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. Lord, I'm just asking for this. I'm not asking for riches so I can come to the place in life where I say, who is God?

What does it mean to serve him? What a waste of time. Look at this lifestyle that I can live now. No. And I'm not asking, nor am I willing in the sense, don't take me to the place where I'm poor, so I have to steal, and I have to do things that will bring shame to your name.

Just give me what I need. Give me what I need so that I can honor you and have that balance in my life. Is that a prayer that you're asking the Lord? Give me what I need. Lord, give me what I can handle because you have given me grace, and I wanna walk in that grace.

I don't wanna walk in a place of dangerous territory where I fall into the trap of desiring riches. So just give me what I need. Let's pray that together. Father, we thank you that you call us to be dependent upon you and not mammon, And you call us to set our hearts to seek the kingdom and your righteousness first, and everything else will be added. Lord, more and more we see young people not willing to fully serve Christ, not willing to devote themselves to the things of God because they are so hypnotized by material possessions, by a lifestyle, extravagance, lavishness, all these things that are so futile in light of the kingdom.

And Lord, we just read that you give us things to enjoy. Lord, we just read that it's possible to be a follower of Christ and have this abundance of wealth, but you call us to have the right attitude towards it and to be very careful because it's dangerous. And we might have grown up with a different mindset and some of us in here might have a different attitude that's more bent on, I don't see what's wrong with it And I don't see the dangers of it. This is a little bit too much. But Father, help us trust in your word and not what our heart feels.

Lord, we understand that the Christian call is not even necessarily called to be poor. It's none of that. It's the right posture, the right perspective on these things. And so Lord we pray that you keep us from the danger of desiring the wrong things, that our hearts would be completely consumed by you so that whether we have or we don't have, whether it's steaks or beans and cake, whether it's the new model of the car or a car that's not so new but it can take us from point a to point b, let none of that affect us. Let us not be deceived.

And this morning, if there's anybody in here that has not fully given their lives to Jesus, may the Word and the seed of this Word not be choked up by the deceitfulness of riches, by the cares of this world. So many can't make that first step because the thorns of this life, the cares and the desires and the pleasures that it offer choke that seed. The Lord may not be so this morning that we would be like the man who fell upon a treasure in a field and with joy ran back and sold everything to buy that field. May we see like Moses in Hebrews eleven twenty four-twenty six, he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking to the reward. Help us have the same perspective as a man who had the palace, who had the gold, who had the chariots, yet said, I actually find it in greater wealth, the persecution, the scorn, the rejection, because I know that this is gonna add things to me in the kingdom.

Give us that same perspective, Lord, as we worship you even now. In Jesus' name we pray.