Undivided Treasure | Matthew 6:19-34

Welcome back ASU. It's good to have you guys Sun

Devils, we're glad you guys are here today.

Welcome back from your Christmas break.

I hope there was copious amounts of resting for you.

Some of you might have taken AJ term class and for you, good

job, overachiever. I love you.

I never did that, but I respect you.

I really do turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

I'll meet you there in just a second.

Hey, I I don't know if you've ever had this experience where

you just know it was time for a change in your life.

Like it was time. There was a, a moment not too

long ago where I was experiencing a, a, a, a

condition affecting men all over the world.

Male pattern bombed this. Yeah, that happened last summer.

I was like, oh, I'm losing it up top.

So what I do, I committed to it. I shaved my head.

That was the greatest intervention of my life so far.

I've never actually experienced an intervention before, like a

real 1. You know, the kind that you like

see on TV or you hear about if you have.

I'm so glad that you're here, but I've never been in the room

for this very, very awkward scenario.

You see, an intervention, if you're unfamiliar, is a party

where everybody knows it's not a party except you.

You're the one who shows up and every single person in that room

is like, yo, bro, it is a time for a change in your life.

I was listening to a comedian talk about his intervention

recently, and he was depicting how basically every SNL writer

was there with him. And so I'm trying to picture the

seriousness of his intervention coupled with the most unserious

people in America, Right? And it's over Zoom because it's

during COVID and people are trying not to crack jokes or

making a bit of it. But the thing that emerged from

talking about his own intervention, that was like

really interesting to me, that was only found in the

perspective of him having been the one experienced

intervention, is his denial that a change needed to take place.

That the interesting thing about an intervention is everybody in

the room except one knows it is time for a change.

And the person who's being intervened, they're in utter

denial that something has to shift.

What's about to happen in Matthew chapter 6 for all of us?

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Is Jesus about to confront us about our relationship with

money? He's about to have an

intervention with your heart and with your mind on your

relationship to money. He's going to pull us out of our

denial, out of our divided hearts, and into the life that

he wants for you. The best life, the flourishing

life, the undivided life. You see, many of us experience

anxiety here on Earth and in America because of the division

in our hearts. We live fragmented and broken

lives without integrity, without connection.

We try to separate different parts of our life rather than

having an undivided whole mind, whole body, whole heart, whole

soul together. That you were made to live an

undivided life and one of the greatest threats to division in

your heart. A problematic perspective that

you need to change out this morning to trade out is your

perspective on money. We're going to find ourselves

exchanging our worry and the lies of this world about money

for the promises of the God who cannot lie and the reason why

money. Talking about it like this from

a pulpit can be interesting for you guys.

You're like, man, there's another preacher talking about

money. Did you know that Jesus talked

more about money than heaven and hell combined?

That there are over 2000 verses in the Bible talking about

money? It's not that God necessarily

wants your money. He doesn't need your money.

He wants your heart. And the thing that's standing in

the way of your heart, the thing that's standing in the way of

you changing your relationship with money, is because likely

you don't like loss. Loss of your things, loss of

your plans, loss of your status, loss of your comfort.

Ultimately, the thing you don't want to lose most is your

control over your money. I think we're going to discover

together in Matthew 6 something better for us, something that's

going to settle our anxious hearts in a divided world.

This big idea. Write this down if you like to

take notes. An undivided life changes how we

handle our money. An undivided life changes how we

handle money, because a divided heart brings an anxious life,

and an undivided life brings a peaceful heart.

To live undivided, we have to offer our whole selves to God,

holding no parts of ourselves back.

There's nothing off the table with God.

He is the Lord of every arena of our heart, mind, and soul.

And so he gets to have a say in how we handle ourselves,

particularly our money. So I want to read for you

Matthew 619 through 34. I want to show you what it means

for your life. If you're if you got God's word

in front of you, go ahead and open it up there.

If not, we have it on the screens beside.

But follow along as I read. Matthew 6 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 don't break in

and steal. For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body.

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

light. But if your eye is bad, your

whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the

darkness? No one can serve 2 masters.

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

devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money. Therefore, I tell you, do not be

anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will

drink, nor about your body what you'll put on.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor

gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour

to his span of life? And why are you anxious about

clothing? Consider the lilies of the

field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin.

Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed

like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass

of the field which today is alive, and tomorrow is thrown

into the oven, will He not much clothe more Clothe you, O you of

little faith. Therefore do not be anxious

saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what

shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all

these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them

all. But seek first the Kingdom of

God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added

to you. Therefore do not be anxious

about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

These are God's words for us today.

I want to help you understand what they mean for your life and

how an undivided life changes how we handle money.

So what needs to change and how you handle your money?

Well, three things. The first is this 3 areas of

change. The 1st is my loyalty, who I

serve, what needs to change, what needs to shift, what needs

to be different in 2026 is how you handle your money.

So if the anxiety doesn't swell up in your life related to money

so the worry goes down, first you need to change your loyalty.

Who you serve. Look back at verse 24 with me.

Nobody can serve 2 masters. For either he will hate the one

and love the other or he will be devoted to the one who despise

the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Money is a crummy God. It will not save your soul.

It might have a temporary fix of buying a jet ski and getting a

big smile on your face, but it does not hold the keys to

eternity. And to serve it with your life

is to, as the Bible just said, hate the other master or to

despise if money is your God. Guess what that's basically

saying God hey I despise what you have to say about my life.

It's a lesser love is what hate is.

It's disordered. God is worthy of having the

first place in your life, not just a place in your life.

Jesus is the greatest treasure of your life, and money is a

great rival to that affection. That's why Jesus opened in verse

19 with do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,

but in heaven. We need to be loyal to treasures

in heaven, not loyal to treasures on earth.

There's two reasons why Jesus gives on.

Hey, don't look at the security that money gives you.

Don't look to it for meaning and for purpose and for your

loyalty. Because guess what?

Moths can get to it and thieves can get to it.

Now, I am not a zoologist by any means.

In fact, when it came time to learn about the animal Kingdom

in high school, I would play my Game Boy instead regularly.

OK, confession hour at church. I just did not pay attention.

But I did learn something this week about moths, that the moth

itself isn't actually what eats clothes.

What happens is a moth will get into a closet and it will lay

eggs called larvae. And the larvae to escape what

they do is they eat through your clothes.

And that's a moth of itty bitty insect flying about.

And in the ancient world, they were incredibly great destroyers

because a person's wealth was often attached to their clothes.

Back then, there was no central banking system.

Their wealth was in their closet.

And so for a moth to destroy it was significant.

And Jesus is saying, hey, don't put your money into your closet.

Don't lay up treasures on earth. Don't be loyal to that.

It can fade. It can be destroyed by a itty

bitty insect that lays larva on your closet.

But not only Moss can destroy the treasures on Earth, he also

says thieves can get to it. I don't know if you like heist

movies, but they're some of my favorite to watch, particularly

Ocean's 11. I love that movie.

I love the idea of them coming up with a plan and getting into

it. Listen to me though.

The treasures you have on Earth, the things you hold close.

Many of us are settling for the trash and trinkets of this earth

instead of the treasures of heaven where thieves can get to

our trash and our trinkets. We've decided that, hey, you

know what, this thing, it's going to go away in just like 10

years. And we're so worried about

getting the new shoe or the new piece of clothing with the brand

on it. We're so worried about our car

looking like this or our fashion looking like this, but Jesus is

saying to us, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth

where moths can get to it and where thieves can break in and

steal. His point is it's going to fade.

It does not last. It won't last.

You can't take it with you when you die.

Likely it won't even make it until your deathbed.

The thing you're most worried about, we have to be a people

who are loyal to treasures in heaven, because if you're loyal

to the treasures of earth, you're going to be worried and

competitive with other people about the treasures on earth

that you have. We have expression for that

called keeping up with the Joneses, right?

If you're a Jones family here in the house, we love you.

OK, that's just an expression, right?

We are loyal, though, to the treasures in heaven, not earth.

But not only that. Look at the next section, that

part of the lamp and the body. We are not only loyal to God,

not money, not only loyal to treasures in heaven, not earth,

but we're loyal to generosity, not covetousness.

That's what that verse 22 and 23 is getting at.

Light is a metaphor for generosity and darkness is a

metaphor for greed or covetousness.

That the person who follows Jesus, the person who wants to

live inside of God's Kingdom, the person who's listening to

the Sermon on the Mount right now, what you are intended to

live your life as is a person who is marked by generosity, not

greed. The eye is the lamp of the body,

and so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of

light. If you are a generous person,

your whole. If your eye can see generously,

guess what? Your life fills with generosity.

If your eye is greedy, your whole body will be full of

greed. That's another way to read that.

And back then, loyalty. What's interesting back in the

medieval times is loyalty wasn't actually measured by how much

affection you had. It wasn't whether or not you

sang the loudest songs or you did the best in listen to him

right away, but rather this whether or not you betrayed the

person you say you were loyal to.

Loyalty was defined against and in contrast to treason and greed

is spiritual high treason against a good and generous God.

That's why God talks about money so much is greed is high treason

against a good and generous God. There's an intimate correlation

in scripture between a man's character and how he handles

money. In Luke 19 you get a guy named

Zacchaeus who upon meeting Jesus released funds that reflected a

heart change in him paying everybody back that he

manipulated and stole from. Not only Zacchaeus, but in Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 we have the early church releasing funds to

another church that needs it as a heart change, selling all they

possess so that others in their church would have what they did

not that they could give to them.

Not only that, in Matthew 19 you have a rich young ruler who's

unwilling to depart with his possessions.

And interestingly that one of the disciples, Judas, the one

who is known and synonymous with treason, what did he betray

Jesus for? 30 pieces of silver AKA money.

There is a serious and intimate correlation between someone's

character and how they handle money.

That's why Jesus says for where your treasure is, there your

heart will be also. What is it you actually treasure

is not what you say you treasure, but it's where you put

your money. I can tell a lot about a

person's life if they show me their budget, what they actually

value now, what they say they value.

But where their dollars go, so goes their heart.

So put your treasure where you want your heart to be.

In fact, as a point of application, would you just do

this, that if you were to look at your budget this week and

say, ask yourself this question, based off my budget, who do I

serve with my money? Do I serve my appetite in my

belly with how much I eat out? Do I serve my future with how

much I'm investing in it? Do I serve the church?

Do I serve God and His Kingdom advancing on earth?

Do I serve my hobbies? Do I serve my family?

The point is, if money is going to be right, if we're going to

have a right relationship with this year, we have to recognize

that our allegiance to Jesus is first and foremost, therefore,

He is worthy of our worship with our money.

We have the undivided in it. Based off your budget, who do

you serve with your money? Here's the next level question

for those you've been walking to Jesus for a while.

Has your generosity grown alongside your relationship with

Christ? Is it the exact same it was when

you met him when you were 20 and you're 40 now?

Or have you grown in it? I just think when you read this

that it's just so obvious that Jesus is intending for us to be

a generous people. Christians are supposed to be

known as the most generous people on planet earth because

we've received the greatest gift.

We've received Christ himself. So our loyalty, who we serve

with our money has to change. That's our first thing.

The second area that needs to change is my security where I

rest, my security where I rest. Verses 25 through 31

consistently say this phrase, do not be anxious.

Do not be anxious. Your Bible might translate that

word as worry. We as human beings were made to

rest in, to be secure in God's care and control for us, not our

own. That's why the Bible calls a

sheep all the time, and that's why he called it calls Jesus our

shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want, says Psalm 23, one that the person who trusts

that is the sheep who goes. I have a Good Shepherd who is

leading for me, caring for me, providing for me and in control

of my life. And that's a good thing.

I trust Him Worry. That word there, anxiety or

worry means this. It literally means to divide the

mind with concern, being preoccupied.

Think of it like mental real estate.

That worry is a bad residence for you to rest in, to feel safe

in. And when we worry, our security

and rest is not in God's care and control, but our very own.

And that is what worry is and does.

Worry is believing the lie that you consider and care for your

life more than the all knowing, all powerful God.

I'll say that again. Worry is believing the lie that

you consider and care for your life and your needs more than

the all knowing, all powerful, compassionate Father who loves

you. That's what worry actually is.

And here you'll see in this section, 25 through 31, it

occurs 6 times. That's nearly 1/3 by the way of

that, of how that word is used in the whole New Testament.

It's right here, right here in Matthew 625 through 31, it says

do not be anxious about your life in verse 25, Verse 27,

which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to this

man of life? Verse 28, why are you anxious

about clothing? Verse 31.

Therefore, do not be anxious. Who is Jesus talking to on the

Sermon on the Mount? Primarily a bunch of peasant

farmers. This primary audience, which

means these people had a lot that was outside of their

control that they worried about regularly, the weather, whether

it was going to rain or not. They worried about feeding their

family and the livestock around them.

They worried about thieves getting in and stealing their

food and their crop. They worried about Roman

occupation. They worried about heavy taxes.

They worried about how to pay for weddings.

They worried about war. My point is, they're not all

that different from us. Worried about their four walls,

worried about their future, worried about their families.

And Jesus looked them in the eye and said, do not worry.

Do not be anxious because worry is stealing.

Your joy, Mark Twain said it this way, that I have known a

great many troubles but most of them never happened.

What a horrible place to live in.

Your brain is worry, Paul told the Corinthians.

I want you to be free from anxieties and that's how Jesus

makes his argument. He just asked 7 questions.

Is not life more than food? Verse 25 In the body more than

clothing? Verse 26 Are you not of more

value than they? Verse 27 Which of you by being

anxious can add a single hour to your life?

Verse 28, Why are you anxious about clothing?

Verse 30, Will he not much more clothe you, O you a little

faith. Now look at verse 31.

What shall we eat? What shall we drink?

What shall we wear? What's Jesus saying?

Hey, if you're anxious about food, if you're anxious about

fashion, God cares and considers your needs.

The Father knows them. He cares about them, actually

cares. Not like feigning consideration,

no, He considers you. He cares about you.

He cares for your actual needs, not your wants, but what you

need. And to be anxious about them is

to not trust in God's security, His provision, His power.

There's something interesting about that word worry that I

learned this week, that that word we get in English worry

comes from an old English word that I'm not going to tempt a

British accent on, but it's pronounced weary on.

OK, the British got that word actually from the old High

German word vergen. That word vergen in German means

this. To choke or to strangle, That's

where we get our word worry from.

Which would mean then that worry is like letting your mind be

choked, That you're letting the world suffocate your ability to

think, that you're letting the world choke out the hope in your

life. It's strangling the joy from

your mind every time an anxious thought is running rampant in

your brain. And Jesus is lovingly telling

you today, don't let your mind be choked by anxiety.

Settle it in the person and promises of God.

Your Father who dresses the fields of lilies and who feeds

the birds of the air, who provides in his powerful, He's

with you and he's ahead of you. You have God bankrolling your

life. Don't let the worries of this

world suffocate you any longer. That's what Jesus is saying.

So I think this is just a moment where we can just confess

together in church. Like, what is it that you're

actually worrying about financially?

I think that's a good thing to label and to recognize and to

define this week. What are you worried about?

What are you so worked up about? What is strangling your heart?

What bad outcome are you imagining?

And here's what I want you to do.

I want you to take a moment with the Lord this week and confess

your lack of trust in Him. God, I gave a small thing a big

shadow in my life. My problem was big because you

were small. Confess that and then give that

thing to God. Hey, Lord, I don't know how to

make this bill payment work for school.

Hey, I don't know how we're going to catch up with the

amount of credit card debt we have.

Hey, Lord, I don't know how we're going to make this happen

when we have kids. Hey, Lord, I don't know how

we're going to get this house. Do you see?

Don't you see? Don't you see that is worrisome.

That is anxiety. You can give that to God and

say, God, I don't know how that's all going to work, but I

know you are there and you're going to meet my needs.

And I'm giving that to you. And I'm saying, God, you can

provide because you have provided.

I trust you, God. Lord, I'm giving this to you.

I am just a steward of the life you've given me.

I am just a manager of it. And so, Lord, here I am with the

things that I have. I'm saying, Lord, this is what I

need all. Would you provide and then ask

for the faith to keep believing it?

Because you might start that prayer for a week or for a

month. But here at Saint City, we're

persistent with our prayer. We keep praying again and again

and again and again. Why?

Because God is working in the waiting.

He is teaching you and shaping you and forming you, even if you

continue to pray that He has become helping you become a

person of greater faith and the thing you can't see by trusting

in God. Faith is the assurance of things

hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.

And you have a substance to your faith, a real hope and trust you

can have because of who God is and His inability to lie to you.

He keeps His promises. The first part of the text was a

command to obey. This part is a promise to

believe. God will provide for you.

I'm going to say it again, God will provide for you.

God will provide for you. Believe it, seek it, ask it, and

let him be your security. Let him be the place where your

heart and your mind and your soul rest from the worries of

this world. Third and finally, another area

we need to change is our priority.

What we seek first, what we seek first, but seek first.

Verse 33, the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these

things will be added to you. What do we seek first?

You have to be a preacher to know what we seek first.

It's right there in your Bible, right?

Seek first what? The Kingdom of God and his

righteousness. I think that's interesting.

It's his Kingdom, his righteousness.

Jesus is like, hey, put the First things first.

Put me in the 1st order of priority, worthy in every arena

of your life, of complete and total allegiance, of complete

and total trust, of complete and total priority.

Jesus gets the 1st place. He's the thing our whole life

orients around. He's the 1st place and that's

important as a father. I have 4 kids and I I wouldn't

say I'm like a kid person per SE.

I do love my kids though. Right now it's not wrong for me

to love my kids more than other kids.

That's part of the nature of the relationship.

To prioritize my kids is actually a good thing because

it'd be pretty obvious I was a bad dad if I took care of other

kids before I took care of my own.

If I made sure their snack stock was always supplied and my kids

were like hey dad, where the heck are the fruit snacks?

Dude? If I prioritize other kids

sporting events instead of my own, hey dad, why are you going

to that other kids sporting event and you never come to

mind? Isn't that so obviously broken?

Don't miss the brokenness. I'm not putting Jesus in the

first place in your life. He's meant to be first.

He's meant to hold that high value.

He's meant to be adored and loved and followed, but he's not

the exclusive priority in your life.

That's what makes him so great. He is first, but he's not

exclusive. Seek first the Kingdom of God

and His righteousness. So seek first the Kingdom.

It means give your offerings, give your money first to his

Kingdom, to his righteousness advancing in the world so the

gospel can go out and go for, so people can experience the

righteousness that is not of their own, but is Jesus Christ

alone. That they could experience the

good news that guess what, you are a Sinner in need of a Savior

and one has come that you are in need of righteousness, A

righteousness that you could never earn or deserve.

But guess what? Jesus Christ generously has

arrived on planet earth and He's given His life and His blood and

His body. So you could have eternal life

with Christ through God's righteousness in Christ.

That's the gospel. That's the good news.

You're never going to be perfect in doing this.

You're never be perfect and laying up treasures for yourself

in heaven. You're never going to be perfect

and trusting God as your security.

But guess what? You have a righteousness that is

Christ, and he's imported it to you, imputed it to you so you

can have it. When God sees you, he doesn't

see your sin or your unrighteousness, but he sees

Christ. And what's true of Jesus now,

true of you, That is the mystery and wonder of what it means to

be a Christian. You can be saved from your

unrighteousness because of Him. And that's where your dollars go

first is advancing that message, the Kingdom of God and his

righteousness. That's the first thing, the most

important thing for your money. And dare I say even like the

automated thing you don't like when the budget numbers are

coming back, you're like, hey, let me just cut back here.

And the first thing to go is always your giving.

That's a telltale sign off so that you serve something else

with your money rather than God. The thing you're willing to cut

is the thing you're willing to sacrifice on an altar for

something else. I'll say it this way, if money

to the church is the first thing you're willing to cut, it is not

God. You are worshiping with your

money. You're worshiping something

else. It's the thing that has to stay

strong. And this isn't just evidenced

here. It's all across the New

Testament, Second Corinthians 8 and 9 and the rest of the New

Testament makes it clear the spot to do that is your local

church. That's the first place your

money goes. And I, I recognize you're like,

wow, that's pretty advantageous of you to say pastor.

Like you're up there, like you're the one who manages all

that. Hey, guess what?

I actually don't oversee our budget.

Somebody else does. And what I want is not something

from you. I want something for you truly,

genuinely. I want you to experience what

it's like to prioritize God with your money.

It is the best way to live. Seek first the Kingdom of God

and His righteousness. That's what we call it, St.

City cross shaped generosity. And generosity is an integral

attribute of God's righteousness.

That's why we're cheerful and that's why we're generous.

That's why we're sacrificial, because God Himself has done

that for us. The God who you can't out give

has given it all. What little do you have that you

could bring to Him? He's want your money.

He wants your heart. And so in seeking first the

Kingdom of God and His righteousness with your money,

you're becoming more like Jesus and building His Kingdom.

Don't let worry grip your generosity any longer.

Worry. The first thing to go with

worry, the first thing it chokes out and strangles, is generosity

in your heart. You get stingy.

But we have a God who is lavish and his giving toward us.

That's why in verse 34, Jesus says it this way.

Therefore, don't be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow

will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its

own trouble. Each day is going to have its

own money problems. They're not going to go away.

You have things you're planning for things you're unexpected

bills like the AC going out. You're going to have that hit

your life and it's good stewardship to save for sure.

Be good steward, be wise with your money, but wisdom is also

going first to the Lord with it. Take me take it one day at a

time. Jesus is saying here, trust me

one day at a time. Each day has its own troubles.

Walk with me day by day. In fact, if you could invert

this verse 34 and say it in its opposite.

Here's what would be true. He's like, hey, breathe today

instead of being choked by worry and anxiety.

Breathe, for today is the only day in troubles that you

actually have. That's what he's saying.

Seek first a cross shaped life and let it hit the church.

Let it hit others. Let your generosity hit waiters

and fundraisers and family members at Christmas giving them

gifts. Be the most generous person

somebody knows. It's a great way to tell others

about Jesus. It's a great way to reflect that

an undivided life changes how you handle money.

I remember when I was 20 years old, I was in college and I was

just being confronted with my greed for the first time.

Greed is a besetting area of sin in my life.

Just so you know. It's an area where I think often

confess to God, like, hey, I am greedy.

I am in need of your help. I'm in need of you transforming

my heart. And I remember this moment as a

sophomore in college, not wanting to do ministry because I

was afraid of being broke. My whole life I'd seen friends

who had pastors for dads and I just saw their life.

And I was like, I don't want that.

I don't want that for my family. I was letting worry choke out my

trust that God would provide. And I had to confess my greed.

And I started marching towards ministry full time.

But let me just tell you, this is an area of our lives, Maddie

and I, that we constantly have to go back to Lord and say Lord,

don't let us be consumed by worry, but let us be trustful in

worship that we're, we're in the same economy y'all are in,

right? We're figuring it out week by

week, month by month. But I'm committed to you.

I'm committed to living an undivided life with money that I

won't let worry choke me out anymore.

That's not the life God purchased for me with Jesus.

It's good to live an undivided life.

It's good to have God change your relationship with money

because guess what? It will settle anxiety in your

life. Let's live that way this week in

Jesus name. Let me pray.

Lord, thank you for the opportunity to worship you and

to get to know your heart for us.

Thank you for your gospel which purchased for us the hope of

heaven. God, we can actually hope for

treasures. We can actually believe and

trust that treasures await us on the other side of this life,

that this life ain't it. And so if we look out and see

our lack of treasures here on earth, God, we don't have to

grow discouraged because we don't live for here and now.

We live for then. That day when you will return,

that day when we can worship you.

That day where the greatest treasure we have ever known,

Jesus, we get to see him and be with him face to face.

And God, I cannot wait for the treasures of heaven.

I cannot wait to be with you every single day.

God. What's great about knowing you

is that's also true now. That your Spirit lives in me and

I can walk with you day by day. That the greatest department

bank account is the treasure of the Holy Spirit living inside of

me. That I don't have to make my

home in worry. I can make my home in trust

because You are with me wherever I go.

And so, Lord, help us to live an undivided life.

Help us to not be concerned and gripped by the cares of this

world. Help the seed of that to not be

choked out by the worries of this world.

But God, would you bear fruit? Would you bear fruit in being a

generous church? God, will we be shaped by

Matthew 6 so deeply and so formatively God that when people

meet people from Saint City, they'd be like, Oh my gosh,

y'all are some of those crazy generous people in Tempe.

God, I can't create that. I can't even lead that.

What I can do is I can pray for you to do that in our hearts

because God, I believe that Christians are intended to be

this way and a watching world is seeing how we handle our

finances. And if we are just like the

world, then maybe we're just of the world, but would we be in it

and not of it? Would we be different?

Would we be Kingdom people who are seeking first the Kingdom of

God and his righteousness and trusting that You will Add all

that we need in the midst? And so, Lord, we ask Jesus for

your name to be big and bright as we chase down generosity, as

we chase down obedience, as we chase down trusting in you for

security, for loyalty, and for priority.

God with the name of Jesus be shouted from our hearts and

lips. Jesus name, Amen.