More Money, More Problems (Proverbs 15:16) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: Proverbs, we're gonna be in chapter 15, chapter 15

And we're gonna talk about money.

It's gonna be, it's gonna be good.

We're talking about money.

So, uh, while you're turning there, though, I saw this video recently.

It was really, really interesting.

It was really funny.

It was about, uh, LeBron James, in case you've heard, heard of him.

Um, he, when he was a senior in high school, was about to become

a pro basketball player, right?

'Cause he went pro at 18.

So he's, he's about your age.

He was 17 years old, senior in high school, and becoming

a pro basketball player.

He got a shoe deal, right?

So he got a shoe company that wanted to sponsor him.

"Hey, we want you to wear our shoes.

We'll pay you a ton of money if you only wear our shoes."

And it was, uh, Nike, Reebok and Adidas that wanted him.

And so his first meeting was with Reebok, and, um, here's how they did their pitch.

He said this was the best pitch he got, actually.

Better than Nike, better than, um, Adidas.

He said Reebok was the best pitch.

Here's what they did.

So he, him and his mom, right, he's a high schooler.

His, his mom, they're from, you know, lower income family, a single mom,

and, um, he, he sits down and they, they slide him a check face down.

Um, imagine it's like, you know, they slide him a, a check

and they say, "Here you go.

If you don't talk to Nike or Adidas and you just take our pitch right

now, you can have this money."

They said, "Here you go."

He takes it, opens it up, $10 million.

Senior in high school, and this is in like 2000, you know, whatever, right?

Before you were born.

So $10 million if you take that deal right now.

You don't have to, but if you don't take it now, you're not gonna get it.

So then he said, "All right.

Time out.

Let me talk to my mom.

Let me, you know…"

So he, he j- LeBron ends up deciding not to take the deal because he was

thinking, "Okay, if Reebok is willing to offer me this much, then maybe

Nike and Adidas are gonna offer me other deals that are similar amounts

of money," and he was, he was right.

But $10 million right there.

He was like, "On the way home, I was so sad."

Could've had $10 million, and he was like, "Ugh, turned it down."

But think about it, $10 million probably could've bought the whole

building he was living in, right?

He was, he was, like, crying, you know.

Imagine this is, like…

He's basically your age.

Could've had it, didn't want it.

And he turned it down, but think about that.

Think about it.

Someone offered you $10 million.

You can have it right there.

All you gotta do is just say yes.

Everyone has a, has a price, right?

A certain amount of money that you would do something for or anything for, right?

What if Reebok offered him $15 million or $20 million?

Maybe they're probably still thinking about that.

The guy who made the offer is probably like, "Man, we should have

offered 15, should have offered 20."

Everyone has a, has a certain amount of money they'd do anything

for, and maybe that's you.

Maybe you think, "You know what?

If someone gave me $100 million or a billion dollars, I'd, I'd do it.

I would, I would, I would sign up for whatever they asked me to do."

Everyone's got a price.

Now, I wanna ask you, if someone slid you a check and said, "If you take

this money, you don't have to be a Christian anymore," how much would

you take to say, "You know what?

I'll do it.

I won't be a Christian.

I'll take the money"?

What would your price be?

Would you have one?

Would you, in that moment, be able to look at the money, one signature

away, and say, "You know what?

Not worth it.

I don't want it"?

And maybe you're thinking, "Oh, whatever.

It doesn't matter, right?

It's money.

And what, you know, money can't buy happiness.

Well, yeah, okay.

You know, I'd rather go to heaven forever than have a

certain limited amount of money."

Sure.

Maybe that's what you're thinking.

But what we're looking at today, we're gonna talk about money.

We're gonna talk about loving money and contentment and, and all these things.

W- and maybe you think, "Oh, not that big of a deal, right?

It's just, that's for, like, really greedy people who are horrible people."

Love of money is actually what killed Jesus.

I don't know if you think about this.

Judas betrayed Jesus because of money

Someone who loved money.

That's what ended up leading to Jesus' death.

It's a big deal.

Judas lived with Jesus for three years, and he said, "I'd rather

have the money than Jesus."

So this is a big deal.

And what our proverb today is gonna s- show us is that it's better to fear the

Lord than to have any amount of money.

Okay?

So we're gonna be in Proverbs 15:16, okay?

Proverbs 15:16

And that's what we're gonna see, is that it's better to fear the

Lord than to be wealthy, right?

Read our verse here.

Better is a little, right, this is almost like kinda Yoda language, right?

It's a little backward.

But better is a little, it's better to have a little, and fear of the Lord,

with the fear of the Lord, than a great treasure and have trouble with it, right?

It's better to have a little bit, to be poor, and to fear God.

Right, we talked about this for a few weeks now, but what…

Fearing the Lord.

What does that mean?

Fearing the Lord means I let God be God and I let me be me.

I don't try to be God.

I don't say, "I'm cool without God."

I'm not independent from God.

I need God so badly, and I…

In, in a sense, I, I fear Him because I, I worship Him, I respect Him.

He's God.

He's amazing.

He's incredible, and I'm just me.

Right, that's what it means to fear God, is God is God and I'm not.

It's better to, to be poor and feel that way about God than to have a ton of

money because, like we said in our title, usually more money means more problems.

Right, but again, maybe you're out there, "Oh, whatever.

Why, I wouldn't trade Jesus for money.

I wouldn't trade God for money.

I wouldn't trade heaven for money."

People do it all the time, and it's more subtle than you might think, and I want

to warn you and protect you from that.

So our first point tonight is beware the danger of loving the world

Beware the danger of loving the world.

It's not really about money, right?

Money, no one's, like, worshiping money.

No one's, like, got a dollar bill up in their house and,

like, bowing down to it, right?

People aren't worshiping money.

People aren't like, you know, you know see the, the movies, whatever,

where they like, they got their pile of cash and they're like rolling

around in it and they're like, "Oh, I'm so happy, I love it."

Right, no one's doing that.

Right, people aren't loving money like that.

But a lot of times, the, the problem or the…

what people love is not money, it's what money can get them, right?

You ever heard that money can't buy happiness, but it can buy

things that make you happy, right?

People- I've heard people say that.

There's a country song about that.

Um, it's kind of a funny song, but he basically says, "Money

might be bad for you, but it can get me a lot of cool stuff."

It's ca- the song's called Buy Me a Boat, right?

And the song's called, "I could buy a boat if I had a lot of money."

Um, so maybe it's not that you love money, but you love the things money can get you.

Right?

Money promises a lot of things to you.

Money has offers it makes you, right?

Money says you can be secure, you can have all your needs met.

You won't need anything else.

You won't have to work, you won't have to worry about what happens

if bad things happen, right?

This is how people sell you insurance.

They say, "What if this happens?

What if you get hit by a tornado?

What if you get in a car accident?

What if you have a bad diagnosis and you get sick?

What if you have a baby?"

Right?

You need insurance.

Hospitals charge, like, your whole bank account, right?

You need insurance.

So this is how they, they get you.

They say, "You're unsafe unless you have money."

So money doesn't just offer you dollar signs, it offers you security,

or maybe it offers you control.

You think, "Well, if I have money, I can live the life I want to live.

If I have a lot of money, I can do the things I wanna do.

If I have a lot of money, I, I can be in control of my circumstances.

I won't be anxious anymore.

I won't be worried.

I won't be worried about how my life's gonna go, or what's gonna happen, or,

or what the future's gonna look like, or what kind of career I have to have,

because I have money, so I am safe.

I'm in control.

I get to make the decisions."

Or maybe money o- is offering you importance.

"If I have a lot of money, I'm cool.

I'm important.

People respect me.

People like me.

People wanna be friends with me.

People wanna come to, come to my house and hang out 'cause I got all the cool stuff."

So maybe it's not just money, maybe it's, it's things, and they, they promise

you importance or acceptance, or they promise you that people will like you.

People wanna ride in your car if you have a nice car.

People wanna talk to you if you have … If you look like you

have it all together, right?

You got cool clothes, people wanna hang out with you now.

Or maybe money is just promising you fun.

Like, "If I had a lot of money, I could have a lot of fun.

I could enjoy life.

I'd be so much happier if I had a lot of money."

So it's not just about the money, it's about what does money offer you?

And really, what money is trying to do is money shows you your heart, right?

Money shows you what you care about, what you love.

And that's why this point is really not about where you spend your money,

but about where your heart is, right?

Beware the danger of loving the world, right?

This is a desire-driven point, right?

It's a love point.

It's not a spend point or a save point or a give point or a be generous point.

It's a love point.

'Cause what, really, what, what money shows you is your heart.

That's what Jesus says.

"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

If you wanna know what you love, show me what's important to

you, and that's what you love

And so maybe you're pursuing those things that we talked

about that money's promising you.

You're like, "Oh, I'm not pursuing money.

I don't want a lot of money, but I want to be accepted by people, so

I wanna fit in and, and have the nice things that my friends have

or the people at school have."

So it's not that you want money, but you use money to get what you really want,

which is people to like you, people to think you're important, respect maybe.

Or, "Oh, well, I'm, I don't want money.

I want to feel like, I wanna feel safe."

And so you're using money to get what you really want, and

that's part of loving the world

One way that you can ask yourself, "Do I love the world?"

is how do I feel when I lose things?

Sometimes it's not, "Oh, I just really think about it all the time.

I really want this."

Or maybe you're not like that.

Maybe you're not thinking, "Oh, I'm not super greedy.

I'm not out there, like, wanting.

You know, I'm not out there scrolling through Instagram looking at super

nice cars or nice houses or whatever."

Maybe you are.

Maybe that's you, right?

Maybe you're, you're coveting.

Maybe your phone or your computer is just a way for you to covet and envy people.

Maybe that's what it is.

But maybe you're like, "Oh, it's, it's not really about … I

don't want a lot of money.

I just want enough money."

And maybe that means you love the world.

It might.

Because if you lose it, it would hurt.

It would hurt you way too much.

And that's one way you know you love something too much, is if

it's hard for you to lose it, hard for you to give it away, hard

for you to let someone borrow it.

All right, so how do you react when you lose things?

That'll show you if you love it too much

There was a book I read about contentment that was really good.

One thing he said, he said, "If your heart is glued to the things of the world…"

So imagine your heart is like a piece of paper, and you know, like,

sometimes people glue paper to the wall they're not supposed to, and then

you have to take the paper off, right?

If your heart is glued to the things of the world, it will

tear when they're taken away.

Right?

Imagine a piece of paper, and it, it, it gets ripped, okay?

'Cause the part of the paper stays stuck to the glue and the rest

of the paper comes off, right?

If your heart is glued to the world, when you lose possessions, when

you lose opportunities, when you lose maybe friendships, worldly

friendships, your heart tears, right?

You're heartbroken, right?

Maybe not romantically.

But, oh, you…

Someone, you know, ruined your, your favorite clothes, or you

lost your favorite possession, or someone broke your favorite game.

Maybe that means you love the world.

Or maybe it's not the things, maybe it's the opportunities, right?

Oh, you missed out on the opportunity to, to date that person.

You missed out on the opportunity to go to that school.

You missed out on the opportunity to be good at that sport, for those

people to like you, to be friends with those people, to be at those parties.

And maybe you're missing out on those things because you're a good kid or

your parents make you, and your heart, your heart is broken, it's tearing.

It's because you love the world.

If your heart is glued to the world, when you lose those things and you miss out

on those things, it breaks, it tears.

That's one way you can see, do I love the world, is what happens when I

miss out on what the world offers?

Because of my parents or because I'm a Christian or because I just missed out

on them or because the world stinks and sometimes you just miss out on things

because the world's not gonna satisfy you

But another way you can see that is what occupies your resources, right?

Think about your resources, right?

You've got time, you've got attention, you have effort, you have energy,

you have even, like, concern.

That's a resource, right?

You can't be concerned about a ton of other things.

You can only be concerned about a few things a lot.

You have these resources.

How do you spend them, right?

We think about you pay attention.

We talked about that before.

But attention is something you, you give, right?

You have a limited amount of attention.

What do you give it to?

Do you give it to the world?

Are you constantly occupied by worldly thoughts like, "Oh, what am I…

H- How is my test gonna go?"

Or, "What, what if I have a bad teacher?"

Or, "How's my homework?"

Or, "What if these people don't like me?"

Or are you thinking about things that are not from the world, but from God, right?

How can I serve these people?

How can I honor God in this situation?

What promises does God give me about this type of thing I'm working through?

So where, what occupies your resources, your time, your effort,

your energy, even your money, right?

What you spend your money on.

If you have a job or you have an allowance, what you spend your money on.

Is it on yourself?

Is it on others?

Is it … Do you give from your money?

Are you generous with your money?

That says a lot about what you care about, what you love.

Right?

Your resources, whether it's your time, your effort, your energy, your money,

those show off what you really care about, and that's what I want you to see.

It's not really about the money.

It's about your heart, right?

Money is just a window into your heart, and that's why it matters so much

But the thing with loving the world is it doesn't feel dangerous, right?

It feels normal.

'Cause everyone loves the world.

The world loves the world, right?

You're in the world.

Everyone loves the world, right?

Have you ever wondered, like, does a fish feel wet?

No.

Right?

Fish don't feel wet 'cause they're always in the water, right?

Just like you only feel dry after you've been in the water, right?

You don't feel dry unless you, you've been wet, right?

Or like, what do you … You know, how does that work, right?

Do fish even notice that they're in water?

Or do they notice when they're out of the water and they're in air?

Right?

They notice probably that they're in the air, not that they're in the water.

Whereas you notice you're in the water, you don't notice

that you're in the air, right?

Not you're not flying, but you know what I mean, right?

The point is, right, you're in the world, and everyone at your school

probably loves the world, and the people maybe you see online love the world.

The videos you watch, those people love the world.

And so it's easy to love the world 'cause everyone's doing it.

Right?

Loving the world doesn't feel dangerous, it feels normal.

And there's a lot of things that the world offers you, and there's … Even

the way the world thinks about things, the values the world has, that are normal

because that's how the world works.

Right?

Loving the world also adopt … Uh, it means you kind of adopt

the world's value system.

You start thinking, "Oh, that's important because everyone

else thinks it's important."

Right?

Or you start to feel at home in the world.

Right?

I'll, I'll give you an example.

It, it's funny when you think about, um … When, when Shay and I were

planning our wedding, um, we realized that there's a lot of things people

do at weddings that they just do them because everyone else does them, you know?

There's just a lot of things that happen at weddings and

you're like, "Why do we do this?

I don't know.

Because I saw it on Instagram, or because this is how it works, or

because this is the way it is."

And you just start doing it 'cause it's normal.

And so what we did is we were like, "Okay, we wanna … If we're gonna

do something at our wedding," right?

This is, like, the one of the most important days in our lives.

We wanna do it on purpose, right?

We don't wanna just do it because, well, someone else did it and it was cool.

We wanna do it for a good reason.

And I think, as a Christian, when you see the world doing stuff, like

maybe everyone's watching a show, or everyone's gonna go see that movie, right?

You don't wanna just be like, "Well, okay.

Cool.

I'll go."

You wanna ask, "Why should I do this?"

Right?

Am I honoring God by doing this?

You don't wanna just do it because everyone else is doing it, right?

For example, if everyone in your small group decided to bleach

their hair- … you would wanna ask, "Well, why am I doing this?"

Like, just hypothetically.

Hypo- Imagine, right?

Y- Just imagine.

Imagine everyone in your small group was like, "Oh, well, yeah, guys.

Let's bleach our hair.

It'll be so cool.

I'll look tough.

Yeah, let's do it."

Right?

You wanna ask yourself, "Why?

Am I just doing this because everyone else is doing it?"

Hyp- Yeah.

Again, this is totally hypothetical, right?

I don't know, I don't know why anyone would do this.

But just imagine for a second that someone would do that, right?

But the whole point, the whole point of that, right, is you

don't wanna do something just because every- everyone else…

Right?

So if all your friends jumped off a bridge, you'd jump too, right?

Okay.

Well, I would jump 'cause I wouldn't have any friends, Dad, duh.

Okay.

No, I'm just kidding.

That's, that's not what you're supposed to say.

Don't say that.

Uh.

Thank you.

But the, the whole idea is if, if everyone around you loves the world

and you feel comfortable there, that probably means you love the world, too.

If you're, if you feel at home with everyone else loving the world…

Right?

You, you know the phrase fish out of water?

Right?

The whole point is the fish is at home in the water, so it feels

out of place out of the water.

If you're a Christian, you should feel out of place in the world.

You should expect to be like, "Oh, I don't really like that."

The world wants to do that.

They wanna watch that show.

They care about doing those type of things.

They want to feel that way.

They react to things this way.

You should start thinking, "Well, I don't feel like doing that.

I feel differently.

I don't like the same things they like."

If you love the world, you're gonna be like, "Oh, yeah.

That's great.

I love that.

I love the same shows everyone else loves.

I love the same videos everyone else wants to watch.

I love doing the same things everyone wants to do.

I love making the same jokes everyone wants to, wants to make.

I think they're funny.

I think they're hilarious.

It's what I do."

It's 'cause you love the world

And if you love the world, you are going to adopt the world's value system,

and the world runs on money, right?

What, the, what the world places value on are the things

that are the most expensive.

That's how money works, right?

Money is, is just a placeholder for value, right?

The world thinks something's really important, it makes

it really expensive, right?

Like flying to th- places, right, on a plane.

Like, the only way you can fly is if you do this, so you have to be able to do it.

And, or, like, think about sport-- We were talking about

the s- sport tickets earlier.

Like, why are World Cup tickets so expensive?

Because they know you're gonna have to buy them if you wanna go, so

they charge the price a ton, right?

If you love the world, you will be a slave to money because you need

money to participate in the world.

You need money to do the things the world wants you to do, right?

You need money to go on the cool vacations or to, to have the great career or to,

to be in, in the places or to dress the way the world wants you to dress, right?

So you will be a slave to money because you'll be following the desires

of the world if you love the world

It's kinda like i- remember Pastor PJ preached on the four soils, right?

He talked about the third soil, where it, it gets choked out by the what?

The cares of the world, right?

If, if you want to follow Jesus and you also want to love the world,

you're gonna find yourself pulled in two different directions 'cause,

'cause those are, those, those trains are going different ways, right?

You're not, you're not gonna be able to stay on one or the other.

You're gonna have to, you're, so you're not gonna be able to stay on both.

You're gonna have to pick one, 'cause they go different ways.

If you love the world, you're not gonna be able to follow Jesus very long,

'cause as soon as you hear something that Jesus says that you don't like,

'cause it, Jesus is the opposite of the world, you're gonna bail on Jesus.

And maybe that's why it's hard for you to do Christian things, is

because you actually have a lot of love for the world in your heart.

And so when Jesus says, "I want you to live my way," you're

like, "I don't like that.

It doesn't sound good.

You're asking too much of me."

And it's not that his standard's too high, it's that you love the world.

And so as soon as he attacks the things you love, it feels like an

attack, but it's really him saying, "I, I love you and this is what's

best for you and I care about you and I don't want you to be in love with

something that's gonna let you down."

But back in our verse, we talk about how this is a, a love battle, right?

This isn't a effort battle.

I just gotta try really hard not to love money and love the world.

It's a, it's a desire battle.

It's a love battle.

And that key word here is better.

Better.

Right?

Not smarter, not…

Right?

There's a lot of things that could have been true here, right?

Could have said it's smarter to fear the Lord than to have a lot of money, right?

Or it's better for you, you know, like it's better for your…

It's like healthier, right?

But he says better in like a qualitative sense.

It's like it's, it's more enjoyable.

It brings you more happiness.

It makes you happier to fear the Lord than to have a lot of money.

Right?

Saying yes to something is always better than saying no to something.

You notice that?

Like, when you're trying to do something that's hard, it's better

if you're saying yes to something than saying no to something.

Right?

Like, let's say you w- you wanna work out, or you wanna be really good at your

sport, or, or you wanna be really, really good at your instrument or whatever.

It's better to say yes to being good than saying no to being bad.

Right?

If, if your whole motive is I just don't wanna be bad and, like, let

my coach down, it'll kinda work, but you won't get that good at it, right?

But if your motive is I just love doing this…

This is what we talked about last week, right?

Don't love your job, job your love, right?

That thing.

Um, whatever that means.

Um, it's better to say yes to something than to say no to something.

Right?

Saying no to stuff only gets you so far.

Saying yes to things is really the secret to being good at something, right?

And the same thing is true here.

You have to believe that it's better.

If all you think of is, "Oh, well, if I love the world, it's gonna be bad for me.

If I love the world, it's gonna be bad for me," that'll help a little bit.

But unless you think it's actually better to fear the Lord, unless

you're like, "I love to fear the Lord.

I love Jesus," you're not gonna get very far.

And so our second point is believe Jesus is better than anything

Part of this is a, a value statement, right?

Better means more enjoyable, but also means more valuable, right?

Jesus is more valuable to me than money

I don't know if you've thought about this, but when you don't buy

something, essentially what you're saying is, "That's not worth it."

Right?

Maybe you have.

Maybe that's obvious to you.

Wasn't super obvious to me until today, for some reason.

But maybe you're smarter than me.

But when you don't buy something, you're saying, "That's not worth it," right?

'Cause you have the money.

I'm assuming you have enough money to buy it.

Maybe you don't.

Maybe you just go into debt and buy it, which pro tip, if you don't

have money, don't buy something.

Pro tip.

Um, if you can't afford it, don't pay for it.

Pro tip.

You'd be surprised.

Um, but, um,

it's, th- this is, uh, the reason I thought about this, I

was thinking about Five Guys.

I was thinking about how I never go to Five Guys.

Like, I…

And it's not because I don't like Five Guys.

Every time I've been to Five Guys, I've enjoyed it.

I thought the burger was good.

It's cool that they give you free peanuts.

I, I just, I had a good experience.

It's, it's clean.

I, I wouldn't be like, "Oh, that was horrible," right?

I've been to burger places and it was really bad.

It's not that I don't like Five Guys, it's just not worth it.

I had to, like, take out a student loan to go to Five Guys.

It was h- it was terrible.

It was so much money, and you could just go to In-N-Out, right?

Like, why would you ever go to Five Guys when you can go to In-N-Out?

That's, that's kinda the way I th- I think about it.

Nothing wrong with Five Guys.

I don't mind Five Guys.

It's good.

I've enjoyed it, but just not worth it

And so I never go.

Maybe that's you, and that's why you don't love Jesus.

You're like, "Oh, Jesus is cool.

I like him.

He's kinda like Five Guys, but not worth it."

Maybe that's you, 'cause you don't actually believe that Jesus is better.

You think He's all right.

You think He's decent.

You think He's okay.

You like church.

You like God.

You like the Bible, but you also really like the other stuff more.

You're not op- you're not opposing God.

That's what you think at least.

But just not worth it, right?

Now, if In-N-Out cost as much as Five Guys, and Five Guys cost

as much as In-N-Out, then we'd really be in a predicament, right?

'Cause then I'd be like, "I really wanna go to In-N-Out 'cause it's

way better than Five Guys," but it's also more expensive, right?

But because it's the opposite, that's where it gets tricky.

So maybe that's you.

Maybe you're like, "Oh, well, you know what?

If Jesus was, was cheaper, if He didn't ask as much of me, I would follow Him.

But He asks a lot, not worth it.

My whole life?

Die to yourself, deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me?

Not worth it.

If it was lower bar, I'd do it."

And maybe that's you

In our proverb that we're looking at, right?

It says, "Better is a little with fear of the Lord, than great

treasure and trouble with it," right?

But sometimes I think we say, "Well, okay, can't I, like, have God and

also, like, have enough money?"

Right?

Maybe you're like, well…

'Cause, 'cause think about it this way.

If the only way to be a Christian was to be poor, would you do it?

If the only way to be a Christian was what Jesus said to the rich young

ruler, "Sell everything you own, come follow me," would you do it?

Right?

Say bye to your Nintendo Switch.

Say bye to your e-bike.

Say bye to your car.

Say bye to almost all your clothes.

Say bye to your phone.

Would you do it?

'Cause I think what we say is, "Jesus, I'll follow you as long as

you give me enough money, as long as you give me my standard of living"

And that's really just us not thinking he's worth it.

That's really just unbelief.

Jesus, you won't take care of me.

Because we're trying to hold on to, well, Jesus, you can have most of my

money, but not all of my money, right?

You can be in control of most of my life, but not all of my life

And something else that I want you to be aware of too is don't

believe Jesus is better because he's more useful to you than money.

'Cause I think when we start talking about money and Jesus, you can say,

"Well, duh, I wouldn't trade Jesus for money because then I'd be going to hell."

And it's really not about Jesus, it's about not going to hell.

And that's not what we're here for, right?

If you're saying, "Well, yeah, I wouldn't trade Jesus for money because

I don't wanna spend forever in hell," that's not the point of this sermon.

The point of this sermon is not, oh yeah, being rich and going to hell is bad, but

being poor and going to heaven is good.

That's not the point of the sermon.

The point of the sermon is that Jesus is better than any amount of money

you can ever have, and also having Jesus and having zero money is way

better than anything else either

That's the point.

The point is not, well, yeah, I w- don't wanna go to hell, so of course

I wouldn't pick money over Jesus.

That's not the point

'Cause if all you want is Jesus to be useful to you, to get you

what you want, who's your God?

You are.

Because you just want Jesus to, to make you feel good.

You just want Jesus to keep you safe.

You just want Jesus to take away your anxiety.

You just want Jesus to accomplish your plans.

That's you using Jesus.

That's not you worshiping Jesus

So this is a, not just Jesus is more useful to me than money, but Jesus

is better than what money can get me.

Having Jesus is better than what I can get from, from having money.

The opposite, right, of, of this sometimes isn't that, oh, I have a

lot of money and I forget about Jesus.

Sometimes it's I don't have much and I hate it.

And maybe that's you.

Maybe you're like, "Lewis, I don't have a job, my parents don't give me

allowance, I don't have any money, this sermon doesn't apply to me at all."

Well, it really does, 'cause it's not about the money.

Right?

Maybe it's you really wish you had the money

But you don't really wish you had Jesus.

Right?

Discontentment and grumbling are signs of an empty heart, right?

It's a sign of I don't have what I want, I need it, and I'm not…

Jesus isn't good enough for me, right?

Even if you're a Christian and you're grumbling, you're

complaining, you're saying, "What God gave me isn't good enough.

I need more."

Right?

Grumbling really is kind of rebellion against God, right?

So if you're someone who finds yourself complaining a lot and grumbling a lot,

I would say that's a really warning sign for you, 'cause you're telling

God, "God, y- I need something that you haven't given me, and I know better than

you, and I need it to make me happy.

And you can't make me happy.

I need you to give me other stuff to make me happy."

It's really what you're saying, is if I don't have this, I won't be happy, right?

If, if you're only content, if you're only happy when God's desires align with your

desires, you're not gonna be very happy.

Right?

If, if you're, if you only wanna follow God when God works out for you on your

schedule, your timetable, what your plans are, it's not gonna go very well for you

Because that's, again, that's I'll follow God on my terms, not His.

Right?

And that's, that's not what we're after here, right?

We're after following God on His terms 'cause He's better.

He's wiser.

He loves me and knows me, and so I wanna follow Him His way rather than my way

But your money and your heart are connected, right?

Hopefully you've seen that so far.

Um, but not just your money and your heart, but also your money and your

concern, what you care about, right?

So our third point is to be worried about the right things.

Be worried about the right things.

And maybe you didn't expect to talk about what you're worried about in a

sermon about money, but Jesus does.

When he talks about your money, he talks about what you're worried about.

And so really what your money does is show you what you care about, right?

And that's what Jesus says in Matthew 6.

Okay, I'll put it on the screen for you.

In Matthew 6 he says, "Where your treasure is," right?

That's money, what you think is important, "there your heart will be also."

So your treasure is a magnet for your heart.

Think of it like that.

What you think is important, your heart's gonna follow that, okay?

If you think you're important, your heart's gonna be about you, right?

Um, if you think people, uh, people's approval is important,

that's where your heart's gonna go.

Then he starts talking about your eye, which is weird, right?

Because it's like what does that have to do with this?

Is Jesus saying random stuff or how does this work?

Well, okay, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of your body."

So think of it this way.

Your eye, that's what you take in, right?

Uh, what I'm looking at, that's what I'm taking in, that's what I'm

putting my attention towards, right?

"Eye is the lamp of the body.

So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light."

So if you're putting your attention on things that are good for you,

that is good for you, right?

If you put your attention on things that are bad for you,

that's not good for you, right?

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

So where you put your attention affects you.

It changes you.

You become what you put your attention on.

That's what Jesus is saying.

"If the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?"

Right?

Again, big deal where you put your attention, your focus.

Then Jesus starts talking about money again.

Next verse, verse 24, "No one can serve two masters.

For he will, he will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted

to the one and despise the other."

So basically if you try to serve two masters, you won't.

You'll start liking one more, and then you'll start hating the other one.

You cannot serve God and money.

So he talked about where your treasure is in your heart, then he talked about your

attention, what you, what you're thinking about, what you're putting your eye on,

and then he talked about money again.

So clearly Jesus thinks these two things are connected, what

you're worried about, what you're concerned about, and your money.

And that's because your money is how you show what you care about.

You ever heard the phrase put your money where your mouth is?

What Jesus is saying is you put your money-

Where your worry is.

'Cause what does he talk about after this?

He talks about anxiety, verse 25.

"Therefore, don't be anxious."

Right?

You put your money what, with what you're worried about, right?

People are worried about their safety, they pay tons

of money for security systems.

People are worried about relationships, they spend a ton

of money on connections, right?

Phones, computers, Wi-Fi, right?

People are worried about traveling, they spend a ton of money on vehicles, right?

People are worried about having fun, they spend a ton of money on vacations

and, and things like that, right?

You put your money with what you're worried about.

So that's why your concern, what you're, what you're worried about,

is really gonna follow your…

It's really gonna show you where your heart is.

So I wanna ask you, what's it easy for you to worry about?

What's it easy for you to think about?

That's where your heart is

'Cause that's what you're worried about, that's what you're concerned about.

And that has everything to do with your money, because what's it easy

for you to spend your money on?

What you're worried about, what you're thinking about.

So it's the same thing.

They're all, they're all connected

Your money and how you pursue your money shows who your master is, right?

Who you're serving.

You're serving you, you're serving God

So I hope from this sermon, hopefully you, you've understood

that money isn't about money.

The point of money is to show that God is better than money, right?

God doesn't really care how much money you have.

He cares about how much of your heart money has, right?

God doesn't really care about how much money you have.

There's a lot of rich people in the Bible that are righteous, that

are following the Lord faithfully.

But he cares about how much of your heart your money has, how

much of your heart the world has.

That's really why your money matters, because it shows you your heart.

Let's pray.

We'll talk about that more in small groups.

God, we know that you are worth more than everything.

Um, in Philippians 3, Paul says that he has come to know the surpassing

worth of knowing Jesus, that knowing Jesus is better than everything else.

And so I pray that you help us to, to love you, not just to think you're important,

um, but to live like you're important, and to believe it for ourselves, not

just in our heads, but in our hearts.

And I pray that you protect us from loving the world.

I pray that you help us to see how dangerous and, and even subtle it can

be to give our heart away to the world.

And I pray that you help us to use our money to, um, to

show you that you're valuable.

I pray that you help us to be generous with our money.

Help us to be, um, open and not, not stingy and holding onto our money,

but rather be willing to use it for you, to glorify you, to love others,

and for your purposes, not ours.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.