What Do You Most Treasure? (Matthew 6:19-24) | Pastor Rod

Speaker 3: This is an illustration of Jacob Smith's vision.

He's 15 years old and he is legally blind.

But he's also a free ride skier, which means he finds the steepest, craziest,

most dangerous mountains to go down.

And he goes down them, but he's legally blind.

In fact, his, his, his, uh, his vision is 20 over 800, which is four

times the level of legal blindness.

So this guy would not be able to see really anything.

Again, this is kind of what he's looking at.

So if you can imagine that going down a steep terrain, that's what it looks like.

So the question then becomes, how does he do this?

And it's amazing.

It's really one simple trick.

Matthew, not Matthew, Jacob's dad is guiding him down on a radio.

And so this kid who cannot see is flying down these steep terrains with

other people who are not legally blind.

And all he's doing is following his dad in his ear.

Again, he has, he has enough vision to see something, but he's

following his dad in his ear.

Now, this is so good because if Jacob doesn't follow his

dad's voice, he crashes.

That's the alternative.

He either follows dad's voice or he crashes.

You have an opportunity tonight to follow your father's voice.

And the alternative is the same.

If you don't follow your father's voice on this particular topic, you're gonna

crash and it's not gonna be good for you.

In fact, one of the challenges that we're gonna talk about tonight is you're gonna

feel like this sermon doesn't apply to you because, well, Pastor Rod, I don't have

any of the things you're talking about.

But I promise you, you need this sermon now more than ever.

What I want to tell you, In one short message is this.

You ready for it?

Okay, here's what I want you to know.

You should value what's valuable.

Value what's actually, truly valuable.

Otherwise, what you're gonna do with your life is you're gonna value things that

aren't really worth your time or energy.

You should value things that God says are really valuable.

And if you don't, you'll end up crashing.

You'll be like Jacob.

You have to trust your father's voice to guide you So that

you avoid all the hazards of materialism and money in particular.

If you don't, it would be like climbing a tall ladder.

climbing a really tall ladder only to realize that your ladder was

leaned against the wrong building.

Or let's say you're doing homework for six or eight hours.

You're pounding away at the books only to realize you're doing the section

that's not due for four weeks later.

They're doing the wrong section.

Tomorrow's section is due and you haven't even started on that.

That's what's happening here.

I don't want you to make this mistake with your life.

So this Bible verse that we're going to talk about tonight is going to

encourage you to value what's valuable.

Turn with me to Matthew chapter six and Verses 19 through 24.

We're gonna look at those six verses tonight, and I need you to know

a few things as we jump back in.

Matthew 6 19 through 24.

In fact, just to remind you, we've been in the Sermon on the Mount for what feels

like forever, but we're still there.

We're still in Matthew 5 through 7.

This is Jesus teaching.

He's teaching, he's teaching his disciples.

He's teaching lots of people who are listening in.

And on this particular teaching, he's going to warn you about

something that a lot of people get wrong, which is their money.

Their possessions, the things that they most value.

Here's what Jesus has to say about it.

Really simple.

He says this, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where

moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for

yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and

where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus is saying, there are two kinds of treasures that you can acquire.

You can acquire treasure here on this planet, on this earth.

You can get money, and houses, and cars.

I saw a really nice car drive by the other day and I thought,

man, what do they do here?

Like, what's, what do people in Texas do to make all that money?

They're probably ranchers or farmers or something like that.

But you can accumulate those things.

And Jesus is saying, if you do that, the challenge with the things that you can get

on this planet, they can really go away.

They can be stolen, they can be lost, all the things that you can acquire

here is not going to be easy to keep.

In fact, it can go away really quickly.

Earthly treasure is vulnerable, and easily lost.

Uh, earthly, stockpiling earthly treasure would be like, you know, let's say,

let's say you have a kid, a, a sibling.

A sibling who's kind of, you know, they're, they're young,

so they don't know any better.

They stockpile cotton candy.

That's their form of wealth.

And they put it all in the backyard.

They stockpile this huge mountain of cotton candy, and in their minds,

they're the wealthiest in the world.

Five year old they ever knew but little did they know that the rain was

coming and after five minutes of rain all of their cotton Candy was gone.

That's how fleeting Wealth is on this planet It can be gained quickly.

It can also be lost quickly.

Jesus is saying you should invest but don't invest in this life.

Don't put all of your hope in this planet.

Don't put all of your hope in this life because these things can fail.

Jesus wants you to invest in the right things.

Jesus is deeply concerned for you that you don't waste your life

investing in things that will not last.

Point number one, let's put it like this.

Don't hope in things that can fail.

Don't put your hope in things that ultimately won't

satisfy and cannot last you.

Don't put your hope in these things.

There's a story about a name, uh, but there's a story about

a guy named Henry Gibbom.

Henry Gibbom.

This guy went to his local, uh, his local carnival and he

came across this game here.

Do you know this one here?

This is the game where you throw a ball into a bucket.

The game is called, it's a game, and it's a really fun game.

It's, I don't know what it's called, but it's that game.

This guy, and you know how they get you, right?

Come on over here.

I'll give you the first try free.

And so he gets conned into it.

And then he sees something that he really needs.

He says, Oh, look, there's an X Box connect.

I really want one of those.

I need one of those.

And so he has first try, he loses.

And so he keeps trying and trying again after spending his entire life savings.

Yes.

His entire life savings on a carnival game.

All he had to show for it is a large stuffed banana.

Seriously, he lost everything at a carnival game walking

away with a reggae banana.

You don't want to be Henry Gibbom.

You don't want to walk away with the reggae banana at the end of

your life after spending everything.

But this guy was tricked into it.

He didn't know what he was doing.

You now know that Jesus says there's a kind of life where you can put a

lot of effort into it but really walk away with nothing good because you're

walking away with things that can't last.

Jesus wants you to know That he, that you should not live for this, this life alone.

And in fact, if you're gonna not hope in things that can fail, you really

ought to look at your treasure.

What do you treasure?

What's your treasure?

Jesus is saying there's a kind of treasure that lasts for a long time.

In fact, it can't be taken, but there's treasure on this planet, on,

in this life that can easily go away.

So when I ask you to evaluate your treasure, you should ask yourself,

what do I spend my free time on?

That's likely a good indication of what you really treasure

and value or how about this?

Where do you spend your money if you get free time or not free time money if you

get free cash from grandma or grandpa?

You get birthday cash or Christmas cash.

Where do you naturally want to spend your money?

That's gonna be an indicator of what you really value because

you don't get a lot of it.

You're young You don't have a lot of money to work with in the first place So

where do you spend it when you get it?

And finally What do you spend your time thinking about?

When you can think about whatever you want to think, you're taking a shower,

or you're just doing something else, your mind is occupied with anything,

what do you naturally think about?

Jesus is saying these are good indicators for what really captures

your heart, what you really treasure.

And again, the problem is that for most of us, we treasure

things that are not going to last.

We treasure things that aren't going to serve us for much longer than this

life, even if it does last that long.

Think about this.

You're going to treasure what's, if you're going to value what's valuable,

as I've been saying, you need to examine what am I valuing right now?

This is an important question because you might think, well, I'm young.

I don't really have a lot to think about, or I have a lot of money

to spend or a lot of free time.

You ought to be looking at the patterns of your life because you're developing

patterns now that are going to last all the way through your adulthood.

You're building habits, habits of thoughts, habits of spending, habits

of life that are really hard to break unless you're deliberate about it.

So I want you to think about what am I valuing and then once

you identify that I want you to choose to value what's valuable.

I want you to choose to put your hope in things that are going to

be truly valuable in your life.

Jesus said one of the one of the things that is most valuable is his kingdom.

In fact in Matthew 13 we're gonna get there in a couple weeks or sooner.

We'll see Matthew 13.

Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a valuable treasure a treasure hidden

in a field Which a man found and covered up and then in his joy He goes and

sells all that he has to buy that field.

He gives all his earthly treasure To buy heavenly treasure something that

cannot perish or fade if you're going to value what's valuable You need to

know what valuable was something that some you need to know what actually

is valuable 2005 I think How many guys know what bitcoin is if I say bitcoin?

Do you know what that is?

You guys tracking with that?

Okay bitcoin when it first started how much money was a bitcoin?

Anyone have a guess?

It was, it was less than that.

It was less than pennies to have a Bitcoin.

You could have it for less than, I mean, it was like one, one thousandth of a cent.

You could buy it.

Cause it was just an idea.

It was an idea.

So one guy bought thousands of Bitcoin.

He bought so much Bitcoin and it was so early that he thought, well,

how cool would it be if I could buy some pizza with his Bitcoin?

So he went on to a forum and he asked for takers.

He said, Hey, I've got 10, 000 Bitcoin.

Would someone like to give me a pizza?

Would someone like to trade me this Bitcoin for pizza?

And there was a taker.

And so, in May 22, 2010, this guy spent 10, 000 Bitcoin

at, uh, for two large pizzas.

10, 000 Bitcoin was equivalent to 41.

Okay, 10, 000 Bitcoin, 41.

If you were to check the price of Bitcoin today, or somewhere about

today, Bitcoin today is 100, 000.

One of them.

10, 000 times 100, 000.

Anyone have math, a math degree in here?

Yeah?

What is it?

Speaker 2: That's like a 10, 000, 000.

Speaker 3: I think it's actually 1, 000, 000, 000.

If I'm not mistaken.

Someone can check.

But I think it's 1, 000, 000, 000.

This guy spent 1, 000, 000, 000 on two large pizzas.

I mean future 1, 000, 000, 000.

10, 10, 000 times 100, 000.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Not important.

Valuing what's valuable is, is like a lot like saying, look, I've got Bitcoin.

This is going to be valuable for 100, 000 per Bitcoin, but you have to trust me.

You're buying it today in 2010, but in 10, 2025, man, you're going to be so wealthy.

Just hang on to the Bitcoin today.

A lot of people don't value the kingdom of God.

They're saying, well, is that really that valuable?

Is it really that, is it really going to be that cool?

And the thing is Jesus kingdom is more valuable than any

human institution, period.

It's not value today.

Most people don't like it.

Don't look at it.

Don't want to talk about it But his kingdom is worth more than any human

wealth can ever even fathom jesus kingdom is worth the investment

So the future kingdom you ought to value that it's a lot like bitcoin.

It's going to go through the roof It's going to skyrocket in value, but you

got to trust that jesus knows what he's doing He's going to win this

there's this guy with the 22 dollars or the 41 dollars worth of pizza

10 000 bitcoin Value is valuable.

Don't put your hope in things that can fail.

Don't put your hope in pizza.

Don't put your hope in money.

Those things fly away.

Jesus continues on.

Matthew 6, 19 through 24.

Actually, Matthew 6, 22 through 23.

Take a look at what else Jesus says.

This is a bit enigmatic.

It's going to take a minute to explain this, but follow along.

The eye is the lamp of the body.

Another way to think about the lamp is a window.

A lamp gives light.

The eye, have you ever heard someone say your eye is the window to your soul?

It's kind of like what Jesus is saying here.

Your eye, what you focus on, is what gives light to your person,

what gives light to your thinking, what gives light to your life.

So whatever you're focusing on is influencing the way that you understand

life, the way that you live life.

So here's what he says about that.

So if your eye is healthy, if it's focused on the right thing, if

it's focused on things that are eternal and good and godly, your

whole body will be full of light.

Everything about your life benefits and grows if you're

focused on the right thing.

But if your eye is bad, if your eye is bad, your whole

body will be full of darkness.

And if that light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?

In other words, if you're focused, if your eye, and we'll talk about the

meaning of that in a second here, if your eye is focused on evil or greed or on

generosity, not being generous, which is I think the point of this, He's saying

your whole life will be flooded with that darkness and it'll infect everything.

What you focus on is going to have a dominating influence on

the way that you live your life.

And Jesus is saying you should be single minded, singular, singular,

singularly focused on Him.

If it's not, if it's focused on money or greed, it's going to

have an evil effect on your life.

In fact, let me just show you in Proverbs 28, 22, here's what this says.

This is important.

A stingy man hastens after wealth.

A stingy man hastens after wealth.

And does not know that poverty will come upon him.

The reason I bring this up is because the word for stingy man is literally

a man with an evil eye, an evil eye.

The word underneath it is someone with an evil eye, which is what

Jesus is alluding to in this passage.

He's saying if someone has an evil eye, they're stingy, they're greedy.

Someone with the good eye then is someone who, like God, is generous and

understands what money and wealth is for.

So he's saying, don't be someone with an evil eye.

Don't be stingy, be generous.

Going back to this, you see, the eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eye is healthy, it's good.

If it's focused on God's kingdom and generosity, hey,

your whole body full of light.

You're not gonna be subjugated or you're not gonna be, uh, you're not

gonna succumb to this bad thinking.

But if your eye is bad, if your eye is evil, if it's stingy, man,

your whole body full of darkness.

That kind of person is someone who's focused on, on materialism,

greed, more money, more clothes, more cars, more whatever.

More house.

Some people want a lot of house, or I want a boat, or I want

these really cool Draken sliders.

Draco?

Draken.

Draco.

Same difference.

You know what I was talking about.

Point number two, you ought to be aware of these things.

And in fact, you ought to see that wealth tells lies.

Point number two, you ought to see through the lies of materialism.

Materialism.

The desire for more stuff.

To get more things.

More things.

So money, things, things, things.

Uh, these things are, it's a big deal guys, and it's hard for me to

describe to you because you live in a world where materialism is

the way that everybody operates.

Really cool.

I loved what Payless did the other day.

Payless created a pop up shop, actually not the other day,

this is a couple years now.

They created a pop up shop called Palesi.

They put all of their, you guys know what Payless is?

Payless is a cheap shoe brand.

They make really cheap, very poor quality shoes, but they're good.

They satisfy.

They're not great quality, but they're nice.

I grew up on Payless shoes, man.

They were great shoes.

I'll say that.

But as a trick, as an experiment, Payless created a high end

luxury shop called Pelesi.

And they said that their shoes were designed by this really great

designer named Um, I think Mario or something, this is an Italian guy.

And so they legitimately set up a shop and people were walking by and like, Oh man,

this new shop with these exclusive shoes.

And these guys paid hundreds of dollars for Payless shoes.

They walked out of there thinking that they got the best deal ever.

And they, they, they interviewed them and these people were gushing over the quality

and the design being so forward thinking.

I mean, these guys were so duped.

Go look it up on YouTube.

It's hilarious to watch.

But the truth came out that it was actually Payless behind

it, and people were stunned.

Stunned that what they, what had happened was they were bamboozled.

Payless came out, people were all over this.

It was a wonderful PR campaign, and only to realize, lots of people, that they

were tricked into thinking that what they thought was incredibly valuable was

actually was in fact worthless, valueless.

Again, you ought to learn how to value what's valuable.

And the world loves to trick you and say, look, this is valuable.

Beauty is the most valuable thing.

Masculine strength is the most valuable.

Intellect is the most valuable thing.

Jesus is saying, no, value what's truly valuable.

Learn to value what is truly valuable.

In Mark chapter 4, one of the things that Jesus warns us about is that there

Mark 4 · chapter mention

is a kind of person Who, because of their attention to wealth and money,

are deceived by riches and consequently don't follow God, don't follow Christ.

And when that happens, disaster takes place.

Here's what Jesus says about this kind of person.

There are those where their seed, the Word of God, is sown among thorns.

They are those who hear the word but the cares of the world and the

deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things enter in and choke

the word and it proves unfruitful.

There's a kind of person, a kind of danger for someone who loves stuff

where that stuff chokes the ability for God's Word to take root in your life.

It's that dangerous.

The Apostle Paul wrote to his young protege Timothy

about the danger of wealth.

He says this, Godliness with contentment, that's a great game.

To be content and be godly, that's a really good thing.

He says, we brought nothing into the world.

You're a born and naked baby.

You're gonna die naked.

They'll put clothes on you, but you're, you come naked, you leave naked.

You can't take anything with you.

Verse 8, But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

Notice what Paul says you really need.

Food and clothing.

He didn't even talk about a house.

Things that we would say, well, we need a house, Paul.

Well, we need warm water, Paul.

Well, we need internet, Paul.

But Paul saying, if we have food and clothing, we ought to be

content with just those things.

You want to know, and I said this to you before, but let me tell you again,

you and I are incredibly wealthy.

I know I'm not just talking about relationships.

I'm talking about money.

Like we are, we're, we're a really wealthy culture.

We live in it.

We swim in it.

So we don't recognize it, but we are the 1%.

We're not the 1 percent in America, but we're the 1 percent globally.

We make a lot of money here.

We're very wealthy.

Paul is saying for those of us who are wealthy, there are special

dangers that we need to be aware of.

He says one of those things is that we may not be content with our needs.

We want more than what our needs, what our needs are.

So he says, look, if we have food and clothing, we should be content with those.

Verse 9.

But those who desire to be rich, now pause for a second.

Let's be honest with ourselves.

Is there anyone in the room here?

Don't raise your hand.

But is there anyone in the room that has a desire to be rich?

And if you want to, if you want to just have what your

mom and dad have, that's rich.

It may not be rich in your mind, because you're thinking rich like,

oh, Bezos or Gates or Zuckerberg.

That's like uber, super ridiculous rich.

But if you're thinking about your mom and dad rich, that's a lot

of money, it's a lot of money.

It's, it's, it's rich.

So he says here, if you desire to be rich,

you can fall into temptation, into a snare.

A snare is a trap.

Think about it.

A bunny rabbit getting caught in, you know, there's, there's a carrot in a cage,

the bunny rabbit jumps in, the cage clamps on the rabbit, rabbit strangles and dies.

That's a snare.

They get tempt temptation into a snare into many senseless and harmful

desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money.

Money is a root of all kinds of evil.

It is through this craving, this craving, this craving for money that some have

wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pangs.

Think about, man, I'm hurting myself when I love money so much that I'm willing

to do whatever I need to do for it.

Think about what money represents in our culture.

Money represents power.

It represents prestige.

It represents often beauty, because if I, if I can get, if I have

enough money, I could get the power.

Cosmetics.

I want, I can get the clothes that I want.

I can get the swag or the drip that I need.

I can get the right shoes.

I can get the right, I can go to the right school.

I can drive the right car.

Money represents a lot of things that a lot of people are saying.

I want that.

I need that.

Paul is saying, you got to be very careful because some people are just

hurting themselves saying, I want money.

I love money.

And he's saying people destroy themselves over the love of this thing.

He continues on to his protege.

Pastor Timothy, and he says, Pastor Timothy, as for the rich of this present

age, Tell them, charge them, command them not to be proud, nor to set their

hopes on the uncertainty of riches.

Uncertainty.

Riches aren't certain.

The stock market is good one day.

Great.

Stock market is bad the next day.

Awful.

That happens all the time.

Don't set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God.

And that's the problem with wealth.

It tempts us to trust it instead of to trust God.

And that's the biggest problem that we suffer with here.

Trust God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

And then look at verse 19.

Who does this sound, who does it sound like?

He says if they do good, they'll thus store up treasure for themselves.

Storing up treasure.

It sounds a lot like Jesus in Matthew chapter 6, doesn't it?

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

That's exactly what Paul is doing here.

He's alluding to what Jesus says about this.

He says if, if they do that, they'll store up treasure for themselves as

a good foundation for the future so that they may be able to take hold

of that, which is truly life, so they can, they can enjoy life as God

intended, to value what's valuable.

Solomon, the richest man ever, pursued wealth, pleasure, happiness.

Here's what his verdict.

Here's, here's what he said.

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who

loves wealth with his income.

This is also vanity.

It's a waste of time.

Don't try.

God allowed a man to become super wealthy, and he was very successful,

and his, his conclusion was, it's never going to be enough.

You will not be satisfied.

It's never going to work.

That's why you have to value what's valuable, and not value the things

that the world says are valuable.

Value what God says is valuable.

Last verse here, Matthew 6 24.

Here's Jesus conclusion on the matter.

He says this, No one can serve two masters.

You can't say God is my master and also something else.

He said no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and

love the other or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

You can't allow yourself to look at two masters and say well this

master demands me of this and this master demands that of me.

You can't have two.

You have to have only one.

I was telling your parents about this this weekend, and you guys

were there too, most of you.

I was telling your parents about this.

We must put Jesus in first place.

He must have our first and our best.

He will tolerate no rivals.

He will not tolerate you saying, well, I, I really, I like what Jesus offers,

but I also really want to be rich or beautiful and powerful or whatever else.

Point number three, you need to decide to treasure Jesus over everything else.

Decide.

You must do this.

You're old enough for it.

You're wise enough for it.

You must decide to do it.

You must say to yourself, Jesus is worth all that my life is and

all that my life ever will be.

You're old enough for this.

This is why I give you the message.

Jesus doesn't want you to be half hearted.

He doesn't want your halvesies.

He doesn't want your leftovers.

Jesus wants your first and your best.

And your job is to say, I'm not going to, I'm not going to pursue money.

I'm going to pursue God.

And if God gives me money, great, I'll be generous with that.

But he may not.

He may not.

And you need to be okay with that.

God wants her all.

One great example of this is a guy by the name of AJ Griffin.

AJ Griffin was in the NBA.

He made headlines though this last year because here's what he says, I

give up basketball to follow Jesus.

This guy made it.

He was making millions of dollars a year.

He had recently been traded to another team.

But this guy is at the top of his game.

He's 21 years old, if I remember right.

He's 21 years old.

And then he says I'm giving up the NBA.

Why?

Because I want to follow Jesus.

Instagram post talks about this to quote him.

He says I know that in a lot of people's eyes that seems like it

seems like a loss in the world's eyes.

It's a loss.

You're giving up all this money, AJ.

But I just want to let you guys know that I'm super excited because I truly get

to serve God, you know with my full yes, and I feel like letting go of basketball

is allowing me to go into full time ministry and truly serve the Lord with

all my heart with all my time too as well.

So I'm just excited to see where that leads me.

You know what that, that is?

No regrets.

Yeah, I'm giving up a paycheck of millions of dollars a year, but no regrets.

Jesus is more valuable than millions of dollars a year is what

AJ is saying, and I applaud that.

I don't know the guy.

I don't know what kind of Christian he is, but I think that's the right mindset.

Deciding to say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put Jesus over everything else is saying, I'll

take Jesus over the million dollar check.

I really want you to get this, because if you can get this,

everything else is gonna make sense.

Jesus is more valuable than anything else your life can offer, which is

why it makes so much sense for you to say, Jesus, you get everything.

And you can, as a young woman or a young man tonight, you could

say, I'm gonna follow Jesus.

I'm gonna trust that He's doing something, that He's real, that He really did

live in my place, that He really did die on the cross and then rise again

on the third day, and that He really said, I'm coming back, and that He

really will reward those who follow Him.

If Christianity's true, guys, this is radically life changing.

I challenge you tonight to decide to treasure Jesus over everything.

Value what's really valuable.

Before Joshua died, he said to the people of Israel, he said this, Now

therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness.

Put away the gods that your father served beyond the river

and in Egypt and serve the Lord.

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom

you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers or the gods of the

Amorites and whose land you dwell.

But ask for me in my house.

We will serve the Lord.

Those are some of the last words that Joshua gave to the people of Israel

before they entered into the promised land, before they continued to take

the land that God had promised them.

But I love what he says.

You choose this day.

You choose.

He didn't say, hey, have your parents choose for you.

He says, no, you choose.

Choose this day who you will serve.

The fingers in your chest.

As I told your parents this weekend, I want them to choose, but you choose now.

What are you gonna do with this message?

You can choose a value that's valuable, and now you know.

Now, you know, you can say I, I, Pastor Rod said the Bible, more importantly,

according to the Bible, there's a kind of wealth that you can have

that, that is fleeting, fading, or you can have wealth that is lasting,

unending, untouchable, imperishable, that God wants to give to you.

That's real wealth.

You get to choose which one you want.

Are you going to choose the wealth that the world offers

or the wealth that God offers?

You ought to value what's valuable.

I hope you choose wisely.

Let's pray.

God, give us the wisdom to choose rightly tonight.

As we go to our small groups, help us not to skirt good questions or

to not have good conversations.

Help us to have valuable conversations in the way that we interact tonight.

Let us be honest about where our hearts are.

Some of us really want money and money's attractive for a lot of

reasons and materialism has a lot of benefits, but we don't want to be.

Distracted by those things help us to know and to believe that the real wealth

that is out there is found in Christ He is all the wealth that we need and his

wealth will never fail We ask for your blessing as we now go to our small groups.

Help us have a great time in Jesus name.

Amen