Money – A Matter of the Heart and Mind - Pastor Greg Addison - April 28, 2024

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you guys for that worship.

Well, as we finish our Faith Ford uh series, uh I want to talk to you today about uh how we apply these things we've been talking about.

So if you think about the trajectory of the last couple of weeks, we started off talking about why the Bible tells us to give, how it is our response to the Lord.

And we've been using uh Matthew chapter six as an anchor passage.

Last week we talked about the standard of generosity.

And so the question often becomes well, how do I do that?

Like, what does that mean?

I want to do that.

How do I do that?

Well, what we're gonna look at today is really why Jesus talks about money so often.

He talks about money more than any other topic or as much as any other topic.

Not because he needs money or he was trying to work through money or whatever, but because he recognizes that, as we've talked about through this month, it is simply a tool that we use, and so the things that we do with it reflect what's in our heart.

And so Jesus understands that this is one of the most important spiritual thermometers that help us understand what is your trajectory in life?

What is your biblical view of life?

What are the things that are most important to you?

What are the most important priorities to you?

And so here in Matthew chapter 6, he uses that illustration.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Now, there are three things that he commands us to do in this passage of Scripture.

Uh He tells us three things that He is challenging everyone that are actually matters of the heart, but they come out in the checks that we write, or the deposits that we make, or the money that we give, or what we do with it.

First, he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

The first and most important priority that should be in all of our lives is pursuing the Lord and pursuing his plan for us and what he wants us to be a part of as he is advancing the gospel around the world.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

You cannot do that without it affecting how we structure the financial part of our life.

It is going to be inherent in that process.

The second thing he tells folks is he commands us, don't worry.

And in that, he is trying to capture this idea that we trust in God's provision.

And we've talked all along about how God provides.

In fact, all that we have, it comes from him.

And so that's where he tells them, look, you don't, you're worrying about what you're going to wear, you're worrying about what you're going to eat.

Look, God has ordained the beauty of these flowers and all of those things, and look at all the gloriousness in that creation.

And don't you think he loves you more than them?

And so God will provide for you.

So don't worry.

If you pursue him, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all these things will be added to you.

And then the third thing he tells us to do is collect treasures in heaven.

And that means we are collecting things that last for eternity, that we are investing our lives, our service, our finances, our priorities, our focus in things that will last for eternity.

He says, don't collect for yourselves things here as a primary focus because you can't take them with you.

Moths are going to eat them, rust is going to make it decay, it just collects dust and all of that.

That we should be focused on collecting up rewards in heaven that are the result of our pursuing the Lord, pursuing his kingdom, the advance of the gospel, and investing ourselves in things that will last for eternity.

So those are those three commands he gives us.

And if you'll notice, none of those have a specific dollar amount, a specific percentage of your salary or anything else.

He is telling us, as a matter of heart, what our priority should be, where our trust should be, and where our focus should be.

So the question then becomes well, Pastor, how do I do that?

How do I do that?

How do I make that behave in life?

What does it mean for me to trust in God's provision, to collect for myself treasures in heaven?

Well, all throughout Scripture, you have this incredible wisdom about how you take the instructions and commands of life and you put feet on them and hands on them and you make them behave in the life in which we live.

And so Proverbs 3 is an incredible chapter in the book of Proverbs.

And the book of Proverbs, as you know, is a book of applied wisdom.

So I want you to turn with me to Proverbs chapter 3.

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

And I want to show you how Scripture gives us the practical instructions of how we live out those heart commands that Jesus gives us.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Don't worry for your provision.

Trust in God's provision, and then collecting for yourselves treasures in heaven.

Now, this is a book of Proverbs, and as you know what proverbs are, they are not promises necessarily, but they are a captured biblical truth and principle for life that when you apply them in life, they bear fruit in your life spiritually.

They are there to guide us, to help us see life the way God would have us see it.

When Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, what he's saying is you get in God's word, you understand life as God sees it, you choose those behaviors as a matter of faith where you're obeying God's instructions, and then you watch what God does.

And so this book, Proverbs, is all of that.

Chapter 3 really encapsulates how we go about in the financial part of our lives being obedient to the instruction of what God calls us to do.

Let's read through this chapter and select passages and verses here.

Read with me and beginning in verse 1.

My son, don't forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commands.

And so when Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, how do you do that?

You go find the instruction manual that tells you how, and you put it in place.

So he says, Let your heart keep my commandments, for they will bring you many days a full life and well-being.

Now, who don't want that life?

Who don't want that to be what life looks like?

And so how do I get there?

I get there by ingesting the word of God, by letting my mind be changed to be the mind of Christ.

I set as a pursuit, as an intentional activity in my life that I'm going to seek the Lord.

I'm going to try to live the way Jesus would want me to live.

I'm going to try to pursue what he would want me to do.

And I do that by taking his commands, by investing them in my heart, by setting my heart on trying to be obedient, on learning, on growing to be like him, and then watch the promise of that.

They will bring you many days of full life and well-being.

You watch how this plays out as you read some of these.

Look in verse 5.

This, when we voted last summer on our top ten favorite verses, these two verses were in our top ten as a church.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.

In other words, you, when you set out in any part of life, whether it is your career, how you're going to address that strategically, some business decision, how you're going to raise your children, or how you're going to structure your finances to behave to the priorities that God has given, how do you do that?

You trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

Now, if I were adding anything to Scripture, which I'm not, I think I would add in there, do not rely on your own understanding or how-to videos on TikTok or YouTube.

Because we go too many other places to find out how life should work instead of in the instruction of Scripture.

Think about him, verse 6, in all your ways, and he will guide you on the right paths.

Don't consider yourself to be wise.

Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.

Now, in this path in this chapter of collected Proverbs and Wisdom, one of the reasons I chose this one is because it deals with finances in a lot of these places of instruction.

So look at what he says in verse 9.

Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce or the first fruits of your entire harvest.

In other words, what he's saying, when they would tithe in the Old Testament, when if you were tithing, you were a cattle farmer, a sheep farmer, and you were tithing of that, you would have your sheep and your flock, and they would come by, and the very first one, you would count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and the first one was God's.

You didn't go look and see, well, that's really the best one.

I need to keep that one.

So I'm gonna give Jesus that one.

You couldn't do that.

The very first one was his.

When the crops began to be harvested, the very first and most fertile crops, you automatically gave those to the Lord off the top.

Because you recognize all of this is his and he's the one that made it happen.

And so I am honoring him with the most important, with the first, with right off the top.

It is all his from the very beginning.

Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest.

Then your barns will be completely filled, and your vats will overflow with new new wine.

Do not despise the Lord's instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as the Father, the Son, he delights in.

Happy is a man who finds wisdom and acquires understanding, for she, wisdom and understanding, is more profitable than silver, and her revenue is better than gold.

She is more precious than jewels.

Nothing you desire compares with her.

Now listen to the blessings of the godly wisdom.

Long life is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor.

Her ways are pleasant, and all her pea paths are peaceful.

Godly wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who hold on to her are happy.

Verse 21 Maintain your competence and discretion.

Don't lose sight of them, my son, for they will be life for you and adornment for your neck.

Then you will go safely on your way, and your foot will not stumble.

When you lie down, you will not be afraid.

You will lie down and your sleep will be pleasant.

Don't fear sudden danger or the ruin of the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will give you your confidence, and it will keep your foot from a snare.

Now look what else he says.

Another financial instruction.

Don't accuse anyone without cause, and when he has done you no harm, don't envy a violent man or choose any of his ways, for the devious are detestable to the Lord, but he is a friend to the upright.

The Lord's curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.

Hear Jesus say, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness, and these things will be added to you.

He blesses the home of the righteous.

He mocks those who mock, but gives grace to the humble.

The wise will inherit honor, but he holds up fools to dishonor.

So there he talks to us about the application of wisdom in our life.

And of course, we know that the principles of wisdom in Proverbs are built on this proverb.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

And so when the Bible is talking about wisdom here in Proverbs, he is talking about what Jesus said: seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

It is, I am pursuing God, I'm trying to be holy, I'm trying to learn how to do this, I'm trying to be obedient to him, I am trying to honor him, and so I'm going to take that applied, godly biblical wisdom, and I'm going to behave that in my life.

Watch how it helps us obey these three things.

And it impacts our heart and how our heart directs our financial truths.

Here's the first one.

Jesus, this is the first principle he tells us.

Seek God and His righteousness.

Well, how often did we read in here about the importance of following God's plan and not yours?

Honoring the Lord with your possessions, embracing his discipline when we do wrong, acquiring his understanding.

I love that verse in verse 21.

Maintain sound wisdom and discretion.

How do you do that?

Everybody gets in a moment where you do something stupid, right?

I mean, all of us have times we do that.

But especially in our money decisions, I am a sucker for any beautiful picture of food.

I'm just, I'll buy it automatically, right?

I mean, you look at those things on television, they got some hamburger and it's dripping with grease and the cheese is melted, and you got, I'm like, okay, Janet, get in the car.

We're going to the restaurant.

I mean, it's I'm just a sucker for it.

I'm a sucker for stuff.

I mean, how many of you guys remember shamwows, right?

I mean, I was buying shamwows every time we sat out and watched television because I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.

Look at that commercial, it'll do that.

You remember the deal where you had the pillow and uh they they had this pillow and they would put a glass with some kind of liquid in it, and they would drop a bowling ball on that pillow and it wouldn't spill anything.

Okay, I bought one of those.

I mean, it's just you I just lose my mind.

The first car we ever bought as a family, married family, we were in law school in Knoxville, Tennessee, and we were driving our two old cars that we'd gotten in high school.

Now, everybody remember those, right?

You they're like falling apart, the air conditioning doesn't work anymore, all that kind of stuff.

We're trying to limp them until we get a job or whatever.

I got through my second uh year of law school, and in your second year of law school, you it's very important you spend the summer interning somewhere, and that's like a job interview.

And so I had spent the summer, I'd gotten a job with a great firm, I was excited about it, I was looking forward to that.

And they began to talk to us about you know, get to the end of the summer, we're gonna have a job, and I was driving this car in Memphis, 104 weathered, they had no air conditioning, and I'm supposed to be this lawyer, and I'm driving this raggedy car from high school, it's got no air and all this kind of something.

As soon as they made us a job offer, like I got a job in hand, I still had another year of school.

I was still going in student loan debt for another year, right?

But I had a job offer in hand, and I said, Janet, we're gonna buy a new car.

And she's like, How are we gonna do that?

Because I have a job a year from now, but I'm gonna go buy a car.

And so we're we're heading down to uh in in the Knoxville, Tennessee area, where is the car thing with all the dealerships and all that, we're driving by there, and there was a particular black sports car that was sitting up on the rack.

You know how they do that?

They drive it up on the rack, and I mean, I was the greatest sucker in history.

I mean, I saw that thing, we're going this way.

I mean, we're squealing the tires in my raggedy old Corolla.

We're going back this way.

We pulled in the dealership.

Some guy saw us coming.

I know he's thinking in his head, yeah, I'm making some money today.

I mean, I drove in there, I got out that car, I looked at that dude, I said, You see that car up on that rack right there?

I want you to bring that car down because I want to drive it.

And he's going cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.

His dumb kid's gonna buy this car.

I just know telling how much I overpaid for that car.

Maintaining sound discretion and confidence is difficult at times like that, right?

So, how do we do that?

How do we do that?

You have to find a way to take the spiritual instruction of seeking the Lord and his righteousness and making it behave on a daily basis.

Making it a priority of behavior where I'm actually in a real way changing the things I'm doing in my life to pursue Him.

Well, in the financial part of your life, one way to do that is to have a budget and to live on a budget.

If you read the statistics on how many people live on a budget, it is stunning how many people don't live on a budget.

If you read the statistics on how many people are broke, which is 75% of the world, none of them have any intentionality or purposefulness or budget in what they do.

As a believer, if Jesus in the context of money is telling you not to worry about money, collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, seek his righteousness, if he warns us in Matthew chapter 6, you cannot serve money and God at the same time, you're only going to have one master.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

How do we serve the Lord?

Well, as a believer, you find his commands, you put them in your heart, verse 3, you tie them around your neck.

Number verse 5, you don't trust in your own wisdom and how you would handle it.

Instead, in verse 6, you think about him in all your ways, which includes what you do with your paycheck.

You trust him to guide you in that path.

Verse 9, you honor him with your possessions.

Verse 11, you don't despise his instructions.

Verse 13, you acquire wisdom and understanding what to do with those so that your financial life can behave to the command of collecting treasures in heaven and seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

You sit down purposefully and you realize this paycheck that I have, God provided this to me, and he has given this to me as a steward, and it is my job to honor him, to prepare, to give to people, as it says, who are in need and not withhold good.

It is my job to acquire wisdom and understanding on this, so that I am doing this well.

If I don't do this well, I'm gonna worry about money and be stressed over money and all of that.

But if I am trusting God's plan for it, what's gonna happen?

Long life is in her right hand and riches and honor in her left.

Her ways are pleasant, her paths are peaceful, a tree of life, and I'm happy when I hold on to that.

In verse 25, I'll not fear danger or the attack of the wicked.

The Lord will be my confidence.

Why?

Because I have trusted in God's word and I have put that into practice in how I pursue righteousness.

Money and temptation and decisions and greed and all of that, they're not getting in my way.

I'm not worried about how I'm gonna pay the bills or how I'm gonna handle a difficult economy, because I've gone and found how God has told me to apply wisdom, and I'm trusting in God's provision, and because of that, now my life functions better because wisdom is making my ways pleasant and my paths peaceful.

It is allowing God to bless and use.

That budget keeps me from those stupid things or distraction things or temptation when God will when God is saying, do this, and I want to do this because everybody else has got it, and all of that.

And I'm able to maintain that competence and discretion in these.

Moments.

Why?

Because I've prayed over my budget and I've put it in place, and it is applied biblical pursuit of righteousness, and it guides me in what I'm doing.

You see, that's what he's trying to teach us.

It's one thing to say, seek first the kingdom of God.

It's another thing to get down on your knees with a calculator and a book of Proverbs and figure out what that looks like on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday.

It's another thing to say, I'm going to collect for myself treasures in heaven.

How are you going to do that?

I'm actually going to make that a priority, and I'm going to set those things in place in my life, and I'm going to pursue those because I believe what God's word tells me about wisdom.

And so I'm just going to encourage you.

I was struggling in writing this message.

I wanted like four weeks to go through all of Proverbs and hang all of the wisdom verses on what your budget ought to look like as a family and all of that.

Let me just give you a shorthand one that my dad beat into us throughout our lives.

If you take 100% of what you have, 100% of it came from God, and 100% of it is his, and you are responsible to be obedient to him, and you are going to be evaluated on your stewardship of that 100%.

And so the first thing we do is we take 10% in our home off the top, and that goes to the Lord.

Honor the Lord in your first fruits.

The second 10% of that, my dad called it the Addison Corporation.

You take 10% of your money and you put it in savings, and it's not to buy a car or to buy new golf clubs or go to Disney World or whatever it is.

It is to go build a corpus of dollars that you are being faithful to save.

You are not being a sluggard, as the Bible tells us in Proverbs and all of that, and it is going to build wealth.

And then you live on 80%, and the first priority in your 80% are offerings like this and other things where you are collecting yourselves treasures in heaven.

You begin to set goals on what those are going to be, and you give to those, and then you get down to 70%, and you begin to set budgets and goals on what you want to do in that.

That's how Janet and I have lived.

God's blessed.

That's how we were taught to live.

That's applied wisdom.

That's a budget.

If you want a shorthand, quick way to do that, there you go.

But my encouragement to you is this is to understand that intentionality requires purpose.

It requires activity and commitment.

And so if you're going to seek first the kingdom of God, if you are not going to worry, if you are going to collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, you've got to sit down and make a plan and pursue.

Or it's accidental, it's not seeking.

Principle number two, not worry.

Now, this we need to spend a lot of time on, and I'm not going to spend time because I know you want God to provide lunch today.

So here, but let's talk for a minute about God's provision because I don't think we talk about this enough.

Jesus was very clear in that command, do not worry, because God will provide for you.

He says, if you seek the kingdom of heaven first, and if you seek his righteousness first, if you are collecting for yourselves treasures in heaven, then God is going to provide for you.

And he even uses that illustration of the flowers are beautiful and he adorns them in all that glory, and even Solomon couldn't make it that beautiful.

And God loves you and he's going to take care of you.

We forget the fact that God loves us and provides.

He provides for his children.

And so we need to think through and capture the biblical truth that God provides for you and your family.

Now, this is not some weird do this and you're going to be rich and all that kind of stuff.

This is not some television sort of thing, and you know, we're not trying to buy airplanes for the staff and all whatever, all that stuff that people get into, all that business out there, right?

We use that, and that is a distraction from Satan for us to forget the fact that God loves you and He provides for you.

And he provides for you in a lot of ways.

Here are just some of the illustrations of ways that God provides described here in Proverbs chapter 3.

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

When you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, how does he provide?

Look what he says in verse 9.

Honor the Lord with your possessions, with the first produce of your entire harvest, then your barns will be completely filled.

God just supplies our lives when we honor him.

He blesses your obedience, he loves you and he provides.

God is going to bless that heart for him.

When you are honoring the Lord with your possessions, your barns will be filled and your vats will overflow.

He's saying, Listen, you cannot outgive me.

I will bless and provide you in your life.

Janet and I could spend time over and over and over how God has blessed beyond what we can imagine.

God will bless and he provides by supplying.

Paul told the church in Philippi, my God will supply all your needs from his riches in glory.

He provides.

Don't ever question Jesus when he says, these things will be added to you.

He loves you and he wants to provide.

When we set that course and I ask the Lord, Lord, help me with this budget.

Help me to reflect my time, my energy, my giving and collecting treasures in heaven.

Lord, help me to apply that wisdom in my life.

He blesses you through that you obeyed and he made it work.

What do you think it means when he says, Let your heart keep my commands, for they will bring you many days, full life and well-being.

He is trying to help us understand.

Verse 6, think about him in all your ways.

You're being obedient, trying to set that path, and he will guide you on right paths.

Look at verse 13.

Happy is a man who finds wisdom, who acquires understanding.

I'm going to scripture, I'm learning how to do it, I'm trying to pursue the Lord.

What do you want me to do with this?

How you want me to do that?

And it says that that wisdom is more profitable than silver, revenue better than gold, more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire compares with her.

Why?

Because long life is in her right hand.

God blesses when we pursue Him and we're obedient.

In her left, riches and honor.

Her ways are pleasant and all her paths peaceful.

Listen, we don't stress over money because we have learned that God provides.

We have given sacrificially, and God has returned that, and we don't worry about it.

We have emergency funds that we've put in place because the Bible says that you're supposed to save and be prepared for rainy days.

It gives illustrations of ants versus sluggards and all of that.

I love this verse.

Proverbs chapter 21, verse 20.

Proverbs 21:20

It says, treasure and precious oils are in the house of a wise man, but a fool spends them all immediately.

Is that not true?

Well, when you are obedient, God provides through that wisdom that he creates in our lives.

And through that obeying our wisdom that we are acquiring biblically from him.

It's incredible to see how that works in our lives.

He protects us.

He protects us.

It's amazing how many times we've seen we do maintenance on something and it gets fixed, or God's provision protects this, or we are driven this car all this time through all this period, we never had to fix anything because God is making those things work.

He protects us.

They will bring you many days a full life and well-being.

He is saying, I am protecting you.

I think even in verses 11 and 12, don't despise the Lord's instruction, my son.

Don't loathe his discipline, for the Lord disciplines those he loves.

Just as a father, the son, he delights in.

When he corrects us, he is changing our heart and he's protecting us from making greater decisions down the road.

My dad used to say this all the time, son, can't believe you did that.

Son, we're going to sit down and watch another John Wayne movie because he's the greatest theologian you'll ever know.

John Wayne said, Life's hard, it's even harder if you're stupid.

Learn.

Yes, Dad.

Learn.

I mean, he'd do that all the time.

I mean, I just learn.

You got to learn.

You're going to waste that mistake or you're going to learn from it.

God teaches us from that.

Wisdom produces its own fruit.

When you are behaving the things that God says, you are saving and you're not in debt.

Debt is the, you know, slave, borrower is slave to the lender, and all of that.

When he talks about maintaining your competence and discretion and not spending everything you have and protecting and all of those things, all of those applied wisdom, if you'll spend a little time in Proverbs, all of that makes you smarter.

Christians ought to be smarter than the other people around because we have a home court advantage of the wisdom of God's word teaching us how to think and what to do, what to see.

This is wisdom that it provides.

Verse 21, maintain your competence and discretion.

Don't lose sight of them.

They will be life for you, an adornment for your neck.

In other words, jewelry.

You will look smarter and be wiser and be honored and recognized because of biblical wisdom.

You will go safely on your way, and your foot will not stumble.

You won't do the things and make the mistakes that other people make because you are applying God's wisdom, and through that, He is creating in you the ability to think and to see and to respond to Him.

He is giving you a wisdom that you apply in life, that He honors and blesses.

And we are stronger and we are smarter and we are better and we are more focused and we can see what God wants us to pursue.

And we can seek that because the Bible is directing how we make decisions.

If you don't spend time in the book of Proverbs, you are cheating yourself.

When you lie down, you will not be afraid.

When you lie down, your sleep will be pleasant.

Everything you read to say right now, there is an epidemic of worry, anxiety, and panic in our world.

People are struggling with that, they're afraid for this, they're afraid for that, they're afraid this isn't gonna work, they're afraid about the economy, they're afraid about stuff their kids are seeing, they're afraid about where that's gonna go, they're afraid about how to make that decision, they're afraid about what this is going to be.

Listen, when you have invested your life in pursuing God through the wisdom of his word, you are doing what Jesus said, seeking first his righteousness.

It creates in you a faith and trust in God's provision that you sleep at night without worry.

You can go to bed without anxiety.

You're not panicked, you're not freaked out, you don't need drugs, you don't need happy pills, whatever.

Because you are resting in the wisdom of God's word.

And then he provides peace when we trust in him.

When he talks about acquiring that wisdom and understanding, it says in verse 17, her ways are pleasant and her paths are peaceful.

She is a tree of life to those who embrace her and those who hold on to her happy.

Man, I want to encourage you, get in God's word, get your yellow legal pad, or however you sit down and do that as a family, and you sit down and look at your finances and you put everything on the table, you give it to the Lord, and you ask him to begin to direct you in what to do with it.

It'll require you to make some changes.

You'll do some things differently.

But you know what?

God will bless that in your life.

You will see him multiply.

You will see him protect.

It will create a trust in your life that you will know God provides, and it will deepen your walk with him through that path in a way that you never imagined possible.

If you'll sit down and trust in his provision and pursue how he wants you to do it.

And finally, collect yourselves treasures in heaven.

That's what it means to honor God with your first fruit.

Be a part of advancing the gospel.

Help, be generous.

Reach out, find ways that you can invest in something, some ministry in the church that you're excited about.

First choices that you go and help.

Whatever it is, find that place that you have a heart and invest in that and elevate that.

Put yourself into that.

Pray over it.

Serve there.

Tell the Lord, Lord, I see what you're doing here, and I want to be a part of that and collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, and you watch what God provide.

Because Jesus says that's how it works.

All of this presumes an understanding that you trust that Jesus provided a means of salvation.

The first and most important way he provides for all of us is that he stepped out of heaven and he went to the cross, and there he took our sins on the cross and he died in our place so that we could have a means of being saved and our sins are forgiven.

The judgment of sin being removed, and the opportunity to walk with him and to experience these things.

As this said in Proverbs, as a father disciplines a son in whom he takes delight.

When you trust Christ as your Savior and His death on the cross to be the payment for your sins, you are adopted as a son or a daughter of God, and you become that child in whom he delights.

He invests in you, he blesses you, he guides you.

Yes, he will correct you and change and grow your life.

But friends, he will do more with your life than you could ever possibly imagine.

If you will give your life to him.

What does it mean to trust Christ as your Savior?

It means that you recognize you're a sinner.

And then there's nothing you can do to forgive those sins.

You believe that Jesus stepped out of heaven, lived a real life as a man here on this earth.

He lived it sinlessly.

He went to the cross, and there he died so that his death could be a substitute payment for sin.

And then he rose again, conquering death and sin.

You come to him and you say, Lord, I'm a sinner.

I am sorry.

Please forgive my sin.

Thank you for how you love me and you died for me and rose again.

I take my life, everything I've been, and I am and I ever will be, and I give it all to you.

And then he'll do more with your life than you could ever imagine.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, we're gonna, I'm gonna pray, we're gonna stand and sing.

God's people are gonna sing a testimony.

And if you want to be saved, I want to invite you to come.

If you're watching online or at home, there are instructions there about how you can reach out and let us help you with any questions that you have about salvation and how it works.

I want to invite you to come to Jesus.

Lord, we ask now that you give us the freedom to respond.

Let those who need you come to you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Let's stand and sing, and if you need Jesus, I'll invite you to come.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.