Simplicity: When Less Is Better - August 10, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Hey, I want to tell you just very simply that this message today,

and really the message all this month, have the potential to impact your life

in an amazing way, if you will let them.

You know, last week we learned that we all tell lies sometimes,

and really the person we lie to the most is ourself, when we're not honest with

ourself, when we haven't evaluated ourself in the light of Scripture.

And, you know, that's kind of an eye-opening thing, I know, for some of y'all

who think, you don't have anything wrong. Everything's great.

I mean, you don't even have to look in the mirror. You know how good looking

you are already. You know what you're going to see, and your life is kind of like that too.

But I want to tell you that one of the big lies, if we're not careful,

that we will buy into, and the lie that we will tell ourself is that more is better.

It kind of reflects all the way back in Genesis, the very first lie.

When Adam and Eve were in the perfect garden of Eden created for them,

and there they were, and a serpent came up to Adam and Eve, Eve first,

of course, in the garden.

I mean, Adam and Eve, there they were, naked and in love. Woo!

Hey, it was okay. The Scripture says they felt no shame.

There was nothing to be ashamed of. It was perfect. It was, as Scripture says, good.

And here they were in this great place that God had created them for them.

And they had jobs there. They could enjoy anything that they wanted to in the garden.

They could manage this garden. God told them, be fruitful and multiply.

They could have fun in this garden.

They could eat of any tree that they wanted to, except for one tree that God

said, this tree is mine. Amen.

Don't mess with this tree. It's mine. It belongs to me. But everything else, have at it.

Manage it. Care for it well. Go for it.

Now, I think Adam and Eve, I think this is where we got it from.

If you had all that, wouldn't that be enough?

But it was that serpent that came to him and said, Hey, you got all this,

but what about that one tree you're not supposed to go to?

What about that one tree? and we see the liar comes and he begins to lie to them.

The serpent said, did God really say that you weren't supposed to go to this tree?

Or did God mean that he didn't want you to become like him if you were to take a bite of this fruit?

The serpent began to give out this message, but we know the message was clear

that Adam and Eve were to have nothing to do with that.

It was a sanctified tree. It belonged to God and to God alone. It was his tree.

Now, dads, have you ever purchased something at the grocery store,

a snack you're waiting to have that for the big game that you want to watch,

and you make it clearly known to everyone in the household that this is yours?

This is mine, and nobody better eat my Twinkies, I'm telling you.

Nobody better eat my Chex Mix. Nobody better eat my little Smokies. Them are mine.

And you make it clear but then the big day of the game comes you're excited

you know your team's gonna blow out the other team and so you get everything

ready you got your surround sound just right you got the picture there it's

the pre-game and so you're going in to get ready to get all your snacks ready

and what usually happens when you open the cupboard.

Someone's been there. Yeah. I won't rat out in who my house does that,

but the girls could tell you.

They know who it is because this same guy gets their snacks too.

So disappointing when you have something reserved just for yourself, just for you.

Well, the serpent said, hey, you need this.

If you're truly going to be happy, you need this. if you're really going to be fulfilled.

You need this if you're going to have that true contentment in life.

Here, Eve, Adam, eat this fruit, this fruit that doesn't belong to you.

Yeah, you got everything else, but just one more. It won't kill you.

Well, we know the serpent is a liar, and we know we still can fall prey to this

same lie today that more is always better.

What do we look for? More money. Cha-ching. More toys.

More shoes. More clothes. More watches. More muscles.

More square footage. We just need to add an addition on over here.

And then we'll need to add an addition on over there.

My family's growing after all. We need to keep knocking walls out.

We say, well, I just need to travel more. Or I just need more likes on my Instagram

or my Facebook. I need more views on my social media. more, more, more.

And we fall into this trap. And I just want to ask you this question rhetorically,

but you can answer it if you want.

What if the stuff you have is keeping you from the life you want?

Or better yet, what if the stuff you have is keeping you from the life God has for you?

See, what I want to talk about this morning is this next habit of a healthy heart.

Besides self-examination last week, and that is this week, is simplifying.

I want to propose to you why less is better.

Not this less. Oh, he's pretty good.

But why L-E-S-S is better for our lives. Let me pray for us.

Lord, thank you for the opportunity we have.

We can have fun together. We can hear from your word. We can build one another up.

Lord, I just thank you. This is a special day. And Lord, a special day because we get to gather.

Lord, are we going to see people we haven't seen in a long time?

Lord, are we going to see people that have come back from vacations?

Are we going to see people that have been out for a while that maybe we saw

last week, but it feels like an eternity? And so, Lord, thank you.

Lord, thank you for the people that you've put in our lives.

And God, this morning, we just ask that you be with us as we search your scripture this day.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So, you may ask yourself, what is enough?

How much do I have to have to have enough stuff? How many friends do I have to have enough?

And when we think about this idea, especially with regards to simplifying things,

to simplicity, it's really a question we need to wrestle with.

Because to practice the habit of simplicity, I want you to repeat this phrase with me.

Say, I have enough.

That's what simplicity is all about. Maybe it's time to sing the song, We Go Home Early, huh?

Well, I haven't read any scripture yet, and that's kind of vital to what we do in here.

When we say, I have enough, it's the expression that what I have in my life right now, that's fine.

That's great. It's exactly, exactly the amount that I need.

But see, the problem is we don't always believe that we have enough.

We don't always believe that. We think we're lying to ourself.

And there's a prayer I want to share with you this morning, very simple,

to help us to practice simplicity. It goes like this, God, give me less of what doesn't matter.

God, give me more of what does matter.

See, there's a trade-off that takes place here. The trade-off,

God, give me less of what doesn't matter.

Wouldn't you agree that there's a lot of stuff we do that, why are we wasting our time on this?

You know, why do we waste our time? I think back to when we first got cable

TV in my little trailer there in Boise and my family.

And it wasn't a remote control that was cordless. It had a cord on it and it

had all these buttons you push.

And if you weren't careful, you get too excited that when a football game's

on, you jump up, you kick the wire, the thing goes flying and changes your channel.

You don't know if they got a touchdown or not.

But one of those old things, and I watched a video.

A guy was so mad, he got one of the first cable TV systems, and he bought a

$500 VCR with hopes that he could record any channel on the TV, but he couldn't.

He could only record what he was watching at the time.

I mean, he was an early adopter, and this whole little old video clip was about

him not being satisfied with that, with all the newest technology.

And we think about what doesn't matter, man. How much time do we waste just

watching commercials our whole life?

And then they came out with cable TV, supposed to save not having to watch commercials,

but then they introduced that.

And now when online streaming video started, there wasn't any commercials,

but now there's commercials.

And I just think, how much time do we waste watching commercials that tell us we don't have enough?

But I want you to hear Scripture this morning. When we pray the first part of

the prayer, God, give me less of what doesn't matter, reminds me of this verse,

this passage from Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Verse 19 all the way through 21.

Would you stand and honor the word of the Lord if you're able to and willing this morning?

The scripture says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where

moth and vermin destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for

yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy,

where thieves do not break in and steal.

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

Father, thank you for your word. I pray you'd bless it to our lives.

Lord, may we sink it down deep, and Lord, may from out of the Scripture invest

it in our life, may it yield a holy living, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you. You can be seated. I said last week, if you want to change your life,

then change your habits.

I said, if you want to change your habits, you got to change your heart,

and the only way that you can change your heart is to submit that to God.

Well, if you want to change your habit, let God change your heart.

Jesus said here, do not store up treasures here on earth. Don't accumulate.

Don't hoard. Think about what we accumulate.

I mean, I know what we want to accumulate, and that's a big bank balance.

We want to take care of ourselves, have set for the rest of our life.

Some of us Gen Xers, we would like to retire someday, whatever that means. Yeah, right.

And some of our Gen Zers, you've already got enough money to retire.

How's that work? But the problem is when we want to accumulate stuff,

whether it's money or whether it's possessions, we seek our security in that rather than in God.

We seek our security in stuff rather than in the Creator.

We seek to foresee the future and what we might want to have in retirement instead

of trusting God right now for what he's doing in our life and our relationships.

A lot of times we just buy stuff for no good reason. We want a new outfit.

We want a new pair of shoes. We need a new hat. We need new this or that.

A lot of times we're trying to feel a need inside of our life because we just

feel empty and we're looking to get some kind of external attention to validate us.

There's this internal void. I read once about a couple that they were on the

tent remodel of their kitchen.

Come to find out they were doing these external things because they had a bad

marriage, because inside things were just broken.

And the only newness they could think of what to do was to remodel their kitchen

rather than go to counseling, to do the hard work of self-examination of simplicity.

A lot of times we might see ourself caught up in some other kind of struggles

that manifests itself differently.

But I think what we really need is to want less of what doesn't matter.

Here's what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12.1, let us strip off every

weight that slows us down.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus.

We focus on Jesus.

The writer here giving the illustration of a runner, and you're going to run,

You're not going to put on a full camo and boots and gear if you're really trying

to win an Olympic race. You strip all that off.

There's a reason why some of the Olympic runners ran nude. They didn't want

anything encumbering them as they ran.

Some of our marathoners in the way, way, way passed.

But the author here says to strip off everything you don't need. Take it off.

Get rid of anything that is going to trip you up and run the race.

And I went out to my garage last night looking for our little vacuum sealer thing.

We had some corn to take care of, and I wanted to vacuum seal that stuff and

get it in before we let it go bad.

And I looked around and said, where'd all this garbage come from?

Where'd all this stuff come from? It seems like we just moved twice within a

little bit over a year ago.

And usually when we move, we purge stuff. But we collected some more somewhere along the way.

I need to ask Noah if he kept the garage door open and people were just coming

by and just stuffing stuff in there.

We just accumulated out of nowhere. We've got stuff.

We've got closets that are overflowing. We've got our garages.

We've got storage units for our storage units, it seems like.

Remember, I have a friend. He will remain nameless because the Nazarene Church is a small family.

You probably would know him. One time, he had a big storage trailer with storage

totes inside, parked in a gigantic RV storage unit with stuff on the outside of the trailer.

So much storage for all kinds of stuff.

And I think what the author of Hebrews reminds us is that we need to throw out

the stuff that we don't need as our life depends on it.

Why? Because maybe our life does depend on it Maybe we're too concerned about

stuff You know, the gurus for purging and cleaning and simplifying Will say,

if you haven't used it in over a year, throw it out.

I say, oh, ouch, that hurts the old oaky inside me, my grandparents. I think it's genetic.

Both on my grandma's side, my mom's side, excuse me, and my dad's side,

they lived through the Great Depression, right?

And they didn't have anything. Literally, they didn't have anything.

My grandma and grandpa Huey came from the Grapes of Wrath era.

They were some of those that came over from Oklahoma, Missouri.

They came to Central California to pick cotton, to pick grapes,

picked tomatoes, whatever it was, just to provide for their family.

And I remember how sad they were when their little garage burned down that had

just a bunch of stuff in it.

It was kind of cool when I was a kid to go snooping through and see what I could

find, but it was just all coated with vineyard dust and everything and nothing

real valuable, just stuff.

I'm like, Grandma, you got a bag of trash sitting in here. Why are you saving a bag of trash?

Oh, I forgot about that. It was for the burn barrel coming up next week.

But so much stuff that maybe we can stand to get rid of some.

But it's not just stuff, it's also time.

We fill a lot of our time with things that don't really matter.

I don't know if you've done this before, and I'll just admit it for myself.

Melanie can exempt herself from this. I won't say whether or not she's been a party to this,

but have you ever got on the TV and you want to watch something on Prime Video

or Netflix or YouTube, and you spend all the time that you would have watched

watching a program trying to find something to watch.

Like, ooh, another crime documentary. Ooh, this looks good.

Someone very close to me says, no, I've seen it before. Oh, here's a Hallmark movie.

Ah, that's the same plot as the last 50 of them. We've talked about that before.

Oh, here's the NASCAR race. Oh, wait, I watched it last week. Okay.

I mean, you spend all this time trying to pick a show. Finally,

you just get tired from trying to pick a show. It's time to go to sleep.

We spend all of our time trying to do these things that, man,

maybe we don't really need to do.

We spend all of our time scrolling through social media.

Oh, just one more funny video, and then I got to get to sleep.

Before you know it, you went to bed at nine, and it's midnight,

and you're plugging your phone in, going to sleep.

The author of Hebrews says, strip off every weight that slows you down.

I says, is there anything slowing you down that you don't need?

I will mention that we had an announcement today about a yard sale coming up

for our missions council.

Hey, you want to take this sermon to heart? I know some people that will help you in our church.

We'll go to a good cause. So God, give me less of what doesn't matter.

But the second part of that prayer was, God, give me more of what does matter.

Ecclesiastes 4.6 says, Better is one handful with tranquility,

with peace, than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind,

meaningless activities.

We want less of what doesn't matter, because then we have room for the good stuff.

Have you ever tried to eat your favorite snack with two hands?

I mean, you're so hungry, you're so maybe greedy, you're just digging with both

hands, and then you find yourself hogging it down, and that doesn't feel good.

But better is your treat when you dip in with one hand.

Ah, those starburst jelly beans.

Diabetics nightmare, and you can just pick out the color you want.

Savor it. Let it melt in. I've never done wine tasting, but they do that weird

thing with their mouth and they're savoring it.

I've tasted jelly beans like that, but you just savor each and every one.

Where your hog man, if you've got two handfuls, you can't even pick out.

And then you go say hi to someone and your face is all colored because all the

sticky jelly bean juice is all over you and the candy.

Popcorn, oh yeah, popcorn definitely at the movies. And I got to get two handfuls

of popcorn and my family won't leave me none.

What better is peace with one hand. You've got a hand freed up.

Folks, we're too encumbered with things today, with our stuff.

We're too encumbered with things that don't matter.

It's good to get rid of some of that. Maybe even both of it in the case of my starburst jelly beans.

Maybe we need to make room to give that hug, to give that handshake to someone

that needs it, just to give, to encourage, to praise, to surrender to the Lord.

Palms down, God, here's my whole life. Here's everything.

Better is one handful with peace, one handful with room for what matters instead

of two filled up with stuff that doesn't matter, a toiling, working, chasing after the wind.

But to have more of what matters most, we need to know what matters, right?

What matters to you?

How do you determine this? Well, there's a country song that I heard before. I think it's Tim McGraw.

He sings a song to live like I was dying. Have you heard that before?

You don't have to admit it.

But in that song, he talks about going skydiving, going Rocky Mountain climbing,

going 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu.

Goes down the list of things that he was doing if he was going to be dying.

And I kind of think, man, what would we do if we found out we only have a month to live?

Would that social media number be so important to us on how many likes we had on our picture?

Would that program that we're just so religious about watching,

would it be so important for us to try to catch the season ending on it.

I mean, what really matters when we find out the end is near?

Is it the stuff we have? I got to play this video game one more time. Oh, just one more time.

I mean, what really matters at that point when you think about it?

How about your relationship with God? Does that come into play when you know your time is almost up?

How about your relationship with your spouse?

Those things you said not thinking you said in anger don't you want to get that

fixed before you can't say i'm sorry anymore before you can't seek forgiveness

before you can't offer forgiveness,

what about your kids the relationship with them is that what really matters

when you have a finite time when time is almost up what about making a difference

of seeing that your church family as much as you can in that time.

Those that have prayed for you, carried you along, will continue to pray for you.

You have hope to see for all eternity.

But make it a difference in the ministry that you're involved in.

As much as you can, storing up that treasure in heaven, showing God's love with other people.

How about making sure your loved ones know Jesus? That it might be your last

chance to share the good news of Jesus, that they can be saved,

that their lives can be transformed.

You know what's not on anyone's list? That brand new nice leather sofa that

sits in front of that 85-inch flat screen, ultra high definition TV.

I don't think that's important. The new latest and greatest Apple phone or Android

phone or watch, new countertops in your kitchen, another kitchen remodel.

None of that's going to matter at that point.

You see, I want you to get this, that the most meaningful things in life are not things.

Meaningful things in life is not stuff. I think about my own life.

What's the most meaningful thing to me? Got half of my kids sitting right here on the front row.

One kid serving with his wife in

another church and another kid wandering around. Who knows where he's at?

His whole life, I'm telling you. My kids, the time I've had with them from the

time that they were born.

And I got to walk around and show them all off while Melanie's still sitting on the table there.

The time I got to take Noah out and Melanie was knocked out.

And I got to share that he was really a boy and not a girl. To my mother-in-law

who thought I was pulling her leg.

And some other stories there, right? To my girls who were born.

Finally some normal births. Planned births, births per se.

I think about all the times that they've been sick. And I think about our struggle

with Adam and his cancer two times.

Think about that. That's what's important. How did God get us through those things?

How did God get us through traumatic births of our children?

He did give me a wife. Praise the Lord. I won't be able to do that.

I think about growing up in relationships I had with my dad and my mom.

The great times we had together where we were dirt poor. We didn't know it.

We was living life in the trailer park, baby. Good times.

Where I had a mom and dad who worked so hard, worked overtime just to provide what we could have.

Shoes for the track team, took photography and had to buy a little 35 millimeter

camera that's obsolete now.

But they worked hard for that stuff. I think about times with my wife.

Times in prayer before God for our son, for our kids, for other people, for some of you.

Crying out to God. At times just being together. Times fighting together.

Times making up together. Woo-hoo!

You think about the sum total of why God gives us a spouse.

And all the memories there. What's important there? I think about the churches that I've pastored.

Witnessing when people seek the forgiveness of God and they receive salvation from Jesus.

I'm blessed to have a front row seat to those holy moments of reconciliation

between two people who have hated each other before and they come together and

they find Jesus and they make up and their lives are reconciled.

I think about the times when I get to baptize people. I get a front row seat to that.

The times when I stand before a young couple or an older couple even,

and they exchange wedding vows, promising before God and everyone else,

pledging their love to one another and their commitment to one another.

I think about those times.

I think about the times that we prayed for these same kind of families,

that they would find Jesus or stick with Jesus.

And then on Facebook, a picture comes up that their kids are involved in a church

way back in Tennessee, even today.

I think about these times. These are what's important.

I think about the mission trips that I've gone on to where we were just going,

well, just to do what we could do and how the church we went to or the people

we went to were so blessed and was like, man, we ain't nothing special.

We just have an opportunity. We're here and yeah, look at my construction project.

It ain't all that good looking, but they were just overwhelmed. Yeah.

Painted this lady's trailer, can you believe this, on the Indian reservation in Wyoming?

We painted it. We let her pick the colors. And I'm like, whoa,

I would not want that on my house, but she loved it.

It was the worst paint job in the world.

But her res trailer was standing out, shining bright. It looked like it was brand new.

That's important. Folks, it's not the stuff you have, it's the people around

you, the people in your family, those relationships that you have,

the friends that you have.

The most meaningful things in life are not things.

Remember, the scripture said, better is one handful with things that matter

than two with things that don't.

We want to pray, give me less of what doesn't matter and give me more of what

does. So I want to ask you again to say this. Say, I have enough.

Yeah. Do you believe that?

Or do you believe that that statement is complete?

Because I kind of think it's incomplete, and I'm the one that asked you to say it two times already.

Maybe we should make it more theologically correct this morning and say,

because of Jesus, I have enough. How about we do that?

Let's try that. Because of Jesus. I have enough.

Now, do you believe that? Because of Jesus.

Some of you will say, man, I love Jesus. I like Jesus, but I still don't have enough.

Forget the 85-inch TV and the nice leather couch. I don't even have enough to pay my bills.

Forget about all the stuff you've talked about.

I feel like some days I don't have enough to make ends meet.

I'm overextended, overdrawn, wondering how I'm going to get food on the table.

Hey, I acknowledge that.

Been there times before. My family's been there at times before.

We love Jesus. Man, we're serving Jesus.

We're serving in a local church and scratching our heads saying,

oh, kids were sick last month.

Didn't have great insurance. How are we going to pay this?

More than that, the challenge of how are we going to tithe? Well,

it seems like things aren't coming together like they should.

Well, I want to share this scripture passage with you if you're in one of those circumstances.

Philippians 4, verses 12 and 13 say this, I have learned the secret of being

Philippians 4:12

content in any and every situation,

whether well-fed or hungry,

whether living in plenty or in want.

I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength.

If I'm well fed and I have Jesus, woo-hoo.

If I'm hungry and I still have Jesus, yes.

If I'm in plenty and I have Jesus, praise the Lord.

If I'm in want, I know I still have Jesus.

No matter where I'm at, we've got Jesus. Because I have Jesus, I have enough.

Some of you, even today, though, you're still like, well, I'm pretty good.

I still have Jesus, but I still want more.

Some of us get like that. Well, why is that?

Why can we say, I still have Jesus, but I still want more?

Well, I want to help you admit that maybe because Jesus has been pushed to the

background a little bit.

And when Jesus isn't front and center, we don't focus on having just enough.

If we can't see them, the things of the world start to catch our attention, and we want more.

I'll just put this disclaimer in like it did some weeks back.

Stuff isn't bad if you keep it in the proper perspective.

Having stuff isn't wrong. Having an RV or a boat or all that kind of stuff,

there's nothing wrong with that.

But again, keep it in perspective. How do you keep it in perspective?

Well, you base it off of who Jesus is.

And is Jesus in the forefront of your life? Or have you made him take a back

seat and you're saying, I'm going to drive for a while.

Let's bring Jesus back to the forefront.

Let's measure everything by who Jesus is and what he wants for our life.

And truly, Jesus is enough for us. And what he gives us is enough.

When you put him in front, it's impossible to miss him because he's right there.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other

things will be added unto you. Everything else will fall into place.

Jesus is not just an historical figure that we read about in this ancient text

called the Bible, but Jesus is your closest friend, closer than even your spouse.

Jesus is your counselor, that he's the one to go to for advice that lasts, advice that matters.

Jesus is your confidant, the one you can tell anything that you wouldn't tell

even the most closest people to you.

Jesus is your comforter. He'll be there to comfort you when everyone else has abandoned you.

When we do that, when we put Jesus to the front, when we trust him to be our

friend, our counselor, our confidant, to be our comforter, something starts to change within us.

We can understand what Paul said, that it doesn't matter what I have.

I have Jesus, and that's all that I need.

It's interesting that the passage I read just a minute ago from Philippians

4, Jesus wrote that while in prison, while in jail.

And not just the kind of sweet jails we got this day and age, but like a pit.

And here is Paul writing, hey, I've learned the secret to be content,

to be satisfied, to be happy in any and every situation.

Here he is writing this from jail. I have lived long enough to realize that

there are fewer days in front of me than there are behind me.

As I look ahead and say, God, I want to be effective for your kingdom as long

as you will let me. I don't know what that's going to look like.

I still ain't got a lot of stuff figured out.

But the time gets shorter and shorter. And so what's important now?

What's important now as I look for the rest of my life? Is it accumulating more stuff?

That then my kids will have to figure out, why'd dad get this garbage?

Let's throw this away. hey, I already know that's happening with my baseball cards.

Hey, if I go first, Melanie's going to have some free cards for you all.

Nobody wants them, yeah.

I came and gave them to my kids. When we think about what's important,

it's not more things, it's more of Jesus.

I want to know all I can about Jesus. Will I still have life?

Will I still have breath in these lungs to learn more and more?

And how the knowledge of Jesus applies to a person's life and every single stage

of life and how I can serve and love people.

As I continue to grow into him, we're always growing into Jesus.

And so what about you this morning? I don't wish this on you,

but when you leave today, you could get in a car accident.

At that moment, you don't really need a pile of cash thanks to an attorney that

gets you lots of money. You need Jesus.

You could get wheeled into an operating room. And at that point,

as you take your last selfie, you don't need more followers,

right? You need more Jesus.

As you send your kids off into the world with shoes on their feet and a pat

on the back, you might give them a sack lunch, I don't know.

But they need to know that Jesus is in their heart when you send them off into the world.

When your life comes to its final days, You're not going to be thinking about

the cruise to Cancun you took last year.

You're going to be thinking about eternity and where you stand with Jesus.

Said, I've learned the secret to being content, and that was in the person of

Jesus Christ. Are you content with Jesus today?

Once you find him, you don't have to seek any longer. The scripture said,

you can do all things through Christ, even this.

When you're sick, he's the healer. When you're hurting, he's the comforter.

When you're sad, he brings you joy. When you've sinned, he's your savior.

And so I just want to ask you one more time this morning, You have enough since

you have Jesus, do you? The habit of simplifying.

Let's have less of what doesn't matter and more of what does.

Why? Life's too valuable. The call upon your life is too great.

God is too good for you to waste your life on meaningless things that don't matter.

Meaningless things that don't last.

Remember the scripture we read from Jesus in Matthew? you.

Store your treasure up where? In heaven.

Don't store it down here where thieves break in and steal. This is the new NIV.

And I shared this at staff meeting. It says vermin instead of rust,

right? Like vermin. Oh, okay.

I can relate to that. You get some vermin in, they chew up your baseball cards

and all your family mementos and pictures.

Pretty soon your kids are looking at a picture of your wife and you and your

head's gone. And they wonder why was mom mad at you that day?

It was that rat she had come in and eat the picture.

What's important is not what's here. It's who's here.

And we're blessed that God gives

us stuff, things that we can use for his glory to bless other people.

When it comes down to it for all eternity, I'm not taking my valuables with me.

But I sure hope my family is with me. I sure hope you're with me because of

your faith in Jesus that you've expressed.

Take one another with us through all eternity, not just that,

those that have gone on before us.

So as we close this morning, would you say this with me one more time?

Because I have Jesus, I have enough. Let's say it. Because I have Jesus, I have enough.

I want to invite the praise team to come as we pray once more.

Father, thank you for the sufficiency that your son Jesus is,

that we never have to want more once we have him, that, Lord,

you're going to make sure that we have exactly what we need.

Lord, we ask that you would help us not to make the foolish choices that get

us into trouble, but, Lord, when that time comes and we've made a bad mistake,

that, Lord, you're there to help us,

help us to learn from that, not to go back to it, not to encumber ourselves

in those things again, but, God, to step out in faith and to trust you as we move forward.

Father, Jesus is enough for us. And God, I just pray that as we leave this morning,

we leave with contentment, knowing, God, that you have provided everything we

need and being happy with that and trusting you with that.

And so, Lord, help us to live simply this week, trusting you,

Lord, for whatever comes our way. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast.

You can find a copy of today's sermon, as well as other sermons,

and the sermon outlined from today on our church's website, www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.