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Andy Stanley - Money Talks Part 2 Send Me Away · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Hey, Today we are in part two of this series on Money Talks,
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and in a few minutes, I'm going to challenge you to do something I've
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challenged people to do for years. And for some of you, you've heard
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me say this before. For others of you, this will be new.
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For some of you, you've heard me say this before and you never did
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anything about it, and you're going to be like, oh, no,
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that again. But I'm going to ask you to flip the script on your
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entire financial world and I'll explain what I mean by that in just a few
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minutes. For some of you, that's going to be a little bit more
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complicated than others. But you are smart people and you can figure this out.
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So it's not about how. It's just a matter of deciding that you're
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going to do it now. Also, before we get to that part of
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what I want to talk about, I just want you to know that I
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know I am not the boss of you. Okay, nobody died and left
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me in charge of you. I don't have any authority over you. But
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I'm going to use all the persuasive skills I have to try to get you
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to do something that some of you know you need to do and you just
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haven't done it, and others for others of you. Again, this is
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going to be brand new. And I've been saying this for so many years,
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and I've gotten so much feedback from people who said, I finally did
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it. I finally did it, and I'm so glad I did that.
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I know that if you will take this one step financially, you will be
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so glad that you did. Now, if our money could actually talk and
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our money began to give us financial advice, none of us, for the
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most part, would be shocked about the advice that our money would give us.
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The shocking thing is the parallel between what our money would say if it
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could talk and what Jesus did say when he did talk. As we talked
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about last time, Jesus said more about money and possessions than he did about
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heaven. And perhaps he talked about more about money than heaven, because for
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most people, there is no money would be worse news than there is no
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heaven. And so perhaps he knew where our hearts were, and he knew
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where our interest was, and so he leveraged what was most important to us
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to get our attention, and perhaps Jesus knew as well that money never promises,
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That money promises more than I can actually deliver, the promise being as
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soon as you get a little bit more, I'll finally deliver. Right.
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So if money could talk, if money could talk, it would tell us
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things that we already know. If money decided to start giving us financial device,
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I don't think we would be shocked. So last week we looked at
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the first thing we know for sure our money would tell us. And one
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of the things our money would tell us. One of the things your money
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would tell you is this. I can add meaning to your life, but
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I'm not the meaning of life. I can add meaning to life, to
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your life, but I'm not the actual meaning of life. That money becomes
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most meaningful when you begin to view it and you begin to use it as
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a means to an end. That isn't you. The thing that gives anything
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meaning is that it's a means to an end. That's what meaning actually means.
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So last week I left you with this question to wrestle with, and
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I hope that some of you did. And the question was this, to
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what ends plural, because it's not just one thing. To what ends do
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you want your life to be a means I mean, do you want your
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life to be meaningful? Yes? Well, to make your life meaningful,
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your life has to be a means to an end that's not you, or
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else you won't have any meaning in life. Right, so you should decide
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to what ends do you want your life to be a meaning? And when
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you answer this question, or when you begin to answer this question, your
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money will follow, and your money will be what it was intended to be,
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all along, a means to an end that goes beyond you. So
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that was first. That was last week today. The second thing that our
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money would tell us, if our money could talk, is simply this,
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and you're not gonna love this one. Your self control determines one of us
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or which of us gets control. Your money would tell you know, by
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the way, this isn't about how much you have. This is about what
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you do with it. Your self control is actually going to determine which one
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of us gets control. That the financial pressure that many not all understand that,
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but the financial pressure that many of us feel has less to do with
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how much we make and more to do with what we did with it or
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what we're doing with it. In fact, the reason I know this is
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that the financial pressure that most of us feel, and that most of you
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feel. The financial pressure that we feel, would make absolutely no sense to
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over half the world's population. If you were to sit down with over half
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the world's population and explain how much money you make and how much pressure you
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feel, they would look at you like you are crazy, because in the
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context of what happens in the rest of the world, we are so ridiculously
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well off and so ridiculously wealthy, but because we have no margin, we
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feel financial pressure. That the half the world will look at us and say,
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if I made that much money, I wouldn't feel any pressure. All
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my dreams would come true. So we say, if only I had more
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money. Money says if only you had more self control, because your self
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control, as we're going to see, determines who or what gets control your
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life. If your money could talk, it would tell you I'm a much
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better servant than I am a master, because ultimately I will always go,
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I'll always go where you send me. Now, this is where the topic
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of faith and finances intersects, because if you're a Christian, and by the
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way, if you're not a Christian, you're going to be so glad you're
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not. I'm telling you, at the end of this message, you're going
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to turn to your Christian friend and say good luck with that. Okay,
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But if you'll listen, and if you will decide to do what I suggest
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at the end, I promise, I promise you will either thank me or
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somebody later on. This is where faith and and and finances intersect. So
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if you're a Christian, here's the thing. Your heavenly Father, your heavenly
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Father will always nudge you towards. Actually, I think I'll let a professional
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tell you. The Apostle Paul talks about this. The Apostle Paul steps into
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the pages of history, as you know, somebody who hated Christians. Then
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he became one, and he wrote letters all to gentiles, non Jewish people
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all around the Mediterranean Rim in the first century, planted all these churches.
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And he talks about this tension that we all feel when it comes to self
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control and our stuff. And here's how he said it. He says it
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way better than I ever could. He says to Christians Jesus followers, he
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says, look, I say, I want you to walk by the spirit
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in other words, walk and sync with the internal spirit. And this isn't
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spooky. This is simply that God will nudge you in your conscience that when
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you decide to become a Jesus follower, when you surrender your life to Christ,
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your conscience will change over time and things that never bothered you before will
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start to bother you. And that may bother you, but the bothering won't
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go away because the Holy Spirit of God moves inside of you and through your
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conscience begins to nudge you. And here's the direction in which the Holy Spirit
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will nudge you, Paul tells us. He says, by the way,
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the outcome of that internal nudge looks like this. The fruit of the spirit,
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that is the outcome of saying yes to that internal nudge, is actually
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things that you want your sister in law to have more of, your brother
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in law to have more of, your children, to have more of,
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your fiancee, to have more of your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your husband,
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your wife to have more of. And your heavenly Father would like for
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you to have more of it too. The fruit of the spirit is this.
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It's love, it's joy, it's peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
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faithfulness. And then here's our phrase, our compound word and self control,
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that the Holy Spirit is going to nudge you towards self control in all
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things. And the reason he's going to nudge you towards self control in all
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things just because all of these things on this list war with our internal natural
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appetites, including our appetite for more stuff and the security that comes with more
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money. And we shouldn't be surprised that God, who says he loves you,
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and God who's invited you to relate to him as a heavenly father,
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we shouldn't be surprised that God would nudge us towards self God control. Why
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because he's some sort of cosmic killed joy, because he wants to take over
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and ruin our lives. No, because God knows what you know. Nobody
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wants to be mastered by an appetite. In fact, in a room this
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large and with an audience this large, there are a lot of people who
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spend a lot of money wrestling and trying to get free from an appetite,
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an appetite that baited them into something that they thought would just be a pastime.
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That baited you into something that you thought would be a pastime, and
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when it was too late, you discovered it was a pathway, and your
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appetite took control of your life. And if anybody had asked you who's in
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control of your life, you would say I am, But secretly you would
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know, no, I'm not. There's something else that's taken over. And
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if God loves you, then of course your heavenly Father doesn't want you to
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be mastered by an appetite. And besides, if you're a Christian, you
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already have a master. In fact, at the end of the parable that
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we looked at last time, if you misspart one of this series, please
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go back and watch. You can find it on our apps, you can
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find it anywhere on the internet. But last week, at the end of
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the extraordinary story that Jesus gave this extraordinary parable, Jesus swings back around and
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he makes this very familiar statement, something perhaps you've heard before, even if
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you didn't grow up in church. It's not only it's not only familiar,
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it's extraordinarily brilliant. In fact, it's statements like this after you begin to
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understand and unpack what Jesus is talking about, that makes me believe that the
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Gospels, Matthew, Martin, Luke, and John are actual events that they
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record, actual events and actual stories and the teachings of Jesus. Because I
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don't think anybody could make this up. And even if they could, I
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don't think anybody would make this up. And here's what Jesus says. He
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says, by the way, while we're talking about masters and who's going to
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be your master, and if it's going to be an appetite or something else,
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he says, let me direct your attention to this thought. No one
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can serve two masters. And the little word master here the Greek word is
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curios, which is one who is in charge by virtue of ownership, someone
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who is in charge of another person by virtue of ownership. In fact,
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it's usually translated in the New Testament as the word lord. He says,
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you can't have two lords, you can't have two masters. And when we
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hear the term master, we think, well, not only do I not
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have two masters, I don't have any master. I don't even have one
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master, to which your heavenly father would say, we'll see. Jesus continues,
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he says, here's your choices. You cannot serve no one can serve
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both God and money. Now, this is the brilliant part of Jesus teaching,
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because if you've never heard this statement before, and I were to put
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a blank there, and you were to look at the contrast, you cannot
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serve both God and fill in the blank. Virtually nobody would put the word
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money there. You may be tempted to put the word devil. You can't
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serve God and the devil. You can't serve God in yourself. You can't
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serve God. You know, I don't know. And Jesus says, let's
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just be honest. Okay, what this really comes down to in the real
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world is you can't serve God and stuff. You can't serve God in the
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pursuit of wealth. You can't pursue God in the pursuit of something that you
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think will make your life richer if you have more of it. And here's
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the interesting thing, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus viewed money along with the quest
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for more, as the chief competitor for our hearts. That Jesus viewed your
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money and your quest for more as the chief competitor with him and with his
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heavenly Father for your heart and for your devotion. His question to you,
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his question with me would be something like this, do you have money or
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does money have you, to which you may shrug and respond, it doesn't
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have me because I don't have enough of it to have me. I would
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like to have so much money that I struggle with that having me. I
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would like to be more materialistic. I'd like to have more options to see
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how I get, you know, to see how I would do. I
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mean, if wealth is a difficult test to pass, I'd like to at
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least sign up and take the test. Right. If having too much creates
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too much stress, I'd like to sign up and just see how well I
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handle that stress. Right. So who is he talking to? I mean,
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is Jesus just talking to rich people? Who is Jesus talking to?
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Is it possible that Jesus is talking to a group of people who get home
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from work in the afternoon and see three Amazon boxes, Amazon Prime boxes sitting
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on the porch, who pick him up and look at him, and they
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have our name on him, and we don't even know what's in him,
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and we ordered it. Could he be talking to us? It's Christmas every
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week? Look, I got a prize. Who is it from it's for
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me? What is it? I don't know. Could Jesus be talking to
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people who go to the mall? What are you looking for? I hadn't
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seen it yet. As soon as I see it and I'll know what I'm
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looking for. Oh, there it is. Here's something I need. I
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didn't even know it existed. But once I know it exists, now I
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know I need it and I gotta figure out a way to buy it.
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Could he be talking to people like us? See Jesus this way, so
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brilliant miss two thousand years ago. He's talking to everyone. And here's why.
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Because everyone is at risk of making money their ultimate pursuit or don't miss
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his part or their ultimate concern. Everybody runs the risk of making money or
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the pursuit of stuff their ultimate pursuit or their ultimate concern, which makes it
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their ultimate It makes it their lord. Now here's something really odd that I
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hope bothers you so much you pay attention to the rest of the message.
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Okay, think about this if you're only for if you're a Christian. If
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you're not a Christian, again, talk amongst yourself. But for those of
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you who are Christians, this is a big deal. I want you to
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think about how much easier it is for you to trust Jesus with your sin.
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Oh, dear Lord, I've done it again. Please forgive me,
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Please forgive me, and please don't let him find out. Okay in Jesus
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name, Amen, I mean that didn't take much. I mean you're dry.
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He hadn't even gotten home yet. In fact, you're somebody who rarely
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ever prays, but every once in a while you do a real whopper and
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you're not even sure there's a personal God, and you're like to whom it
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may concern. Please, whoever whatever is out there, Please don't let them
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find out. Please help me to get home safe. Please don't let there
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be blue lights. I mean, you may never pray at any other time,
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but when you screw up, when you sin. Isn't it amazing how
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easy it is to take our sin and our failures to God. Isn't it
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amazing how easy it is to take our sorrows to God. God. I'm
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so lonely. God, I'm just I'm at the end of I'm at the
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end of myself. God. I don't know what to do. God,
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my heart is so broken. I'm just God, I don't even know what
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words to bring God. They say, you heard what the doctor said.
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I don't have to say what the doctor said. God, Please don't let
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him die. Please save my little girl God. Isn't it? Isn't it
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amazing how quickly, how easy it is to take our sorrows to God and
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give our sorrows to God. If I most of you, probably like me,
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at some point in your life, you gave your entire eternity to God.
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You pray to prayer that went something like this, Dear Heavenly Father,
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thank you for this day, because that seems like we have to say thank
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of you this day. But anyway, let's get down to business. Okay.
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I want to go to heaven, and I've been told that if I
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don't even have to sign anything, I just have to read this, Dear
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only Father. I asked Jesus to come into my heart and forgive me and
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my sins, and thanks you for accepting me into your family. So I'm
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good, right, I mean, think all of you to some I kind
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of oh confined. But it's amazing how quickly and how easily you have given
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your eternity to God. Isn't it interesting? How hard it is to give
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your money and your stuff. This is why Jesus was so smart. He
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said, come on, no more fooling around. Don't tell me about your
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thoughts, don't tell me about your feelings, don't tell me how much you
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love me. Show me. And he didn't say that, somebody else did.
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But anyway, it's like Jesus was so smart and he never asked anybody
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to give him money. This wasn't about him getting money. Do you know
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what this was about? This was him about. This was about him wanting
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to get you. So he was clear, if you haven't surrendered, this
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is harsh. This is Jesus. You know. If you haven't surrendered what
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you have, you haven't really surrendered. If you haven't given him access to
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what you have, he doesn't have access to you. You have opted for
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the lesser master. And Jesus addresses this, I mean, Jesus addresses this
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this head on. He addresses this tension between that some of you are feeling
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right now, that some of us are feeling right now, and he does
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so. It's so cool because he's so smart and he's so practical. Jesus
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addresses this tension in terms that we can all understand, He says, this
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isn't about either or, this is about priorities. And so Jesus still talking
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about possessions and money. Again, this is the verse I'm going to show
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you is so familiar. But again, taking out of context, that could
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mean one hundred different things. But Jesus is still talking about possessions and money.
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He says, So, here's the way forward. If you want to
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get this right, if you really want me to be your lord, if
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you don't want to be driven by your appetites, if the self control thing
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is eating your lunch, if you think too much about it, worry too
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much about it, here's the way forward. Here's the way out. Here's
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what he says. But seek first. Seek first. The key this is
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so important. The key to keeping the pursuit of more, or infatuation with
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better out of the driver's seat of your life is to prioritize something else.
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Seek first, the way forward. The key to keeping the pursuit of more,
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or the concern over even having enough, the way to keep that out
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of the driver seat of your life is to prioritize something else over it.
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So Jesus says, you want to get this right, you want to be
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free. You want to live a different kind of life. Do you want
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to find control over your self control, so that your lack of self control,
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especially in the area of finances, doesn't continue to get you in trouble
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or embarrass you. He says, Then here's my invitation, and this is
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this is this is amazing. He says, Here's what I like for you
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to do. I want you to seek first my father's kingdom and his righteousness.
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I want you to seek first my father's kingdom, my father's other's first,
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me second kingdom. And I want you to seek his righteousness. And
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this isn't a religious word, and this isn't a complicated word. If you
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want to know what this means, you just read Matthew, Mark, Luke,
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or John and watch Jesus. Because Jesus was righteousness personified, and righteousness
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was not stand apart hole in it. And righteousness wasn't praying all the right
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kind of prayers, and righteousness wasn't walking around like this righteousness was. It
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was Jesus in motion. It was Jesus in action. Jesus this is amazing,
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who fearlessly and courageously put other people first. It's better than that Jesus
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who fearlessly and courageously put you first. He says, I want you to
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walk in that kind of kingdom. I want you to operate with that kind
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of priority system. I want you to decide something's got to go first.
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And I'm inviting you into a world where you don't go first. And in
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the kingdom where you don't go first, you were going to find more peace
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and more joy, and more purpose and more me ning because in my kingdom
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you will become a means to an end that is not you. This is
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I can't even describe this scene. I'll just do my best. Jesus and
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his guys are going to Jerusalem and Apostles, and they've got all the camp
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followers. Everywhere he goes, there's crowds of people. They're going to Jerusalem
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and Jesus is gonna be arrested and die, and he knows this, this
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is our last trip, guys. And so he hears the guys behind him
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arguing and talking, and he hears them talking about, Hey, when we
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get to Jerusalem, who's gonna be number two and number three? Because we
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know Jesus number one. I got Jesus, just I do. I got
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Jesus, how about he's number one. Okay, give me a jay.
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Okay, he's number one, but there's gonna be a two and a number
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three. Okay. So they're arguing about who gets to be number two and
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number three because they think when he gets to Jerusalem, he's gonna rip off.
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We talked about this his rabbi robe, he's gonna be Messiah, he's
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gonna be king. He's gonna set up an earthly kingdom, and whoever's closest
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to the king you get to be kingly. You get to live like a
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king. They're thinking, you know, in terms of the only terms they
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know, kingdom, empire. Jesus says, okay, time for a little
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conference, sends all the crowds of ways, that's the twelve down, says
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okay, let's go over this one more time. We've been over this before.
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Let's go over one more. That's not the way it works in my
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kingdom. Do you want to be great? He says to that, Matthew,
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do you want to be great? Matthew's like, yeah, sounds great
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to be great. John, you want to be great? John's like yeah,
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I'd like to be Andrew, you want to be great. I mean,
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you know, all guys want to be great. Here's how great works.
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In my kingdom. You have to serve everybody else. You have to
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serve each other. If you're willing to serve each other, you can be
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great in my kingdom. He says to them. You know how it works
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in the rest of the kingdoms of this world, right, you know how
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it works. The person at the top, the person with all the resources,
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leverages their resources to get more resources. They leverage their power to get
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more power. They leverage everything they have to the detriment of everybody else.
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You know how it works in the kingdoms of this world. And they're like,
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yeah, we know how it works. Why do you think we want
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to be number two and number three? We want to be the top of
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that pyramid. And then Jesus he says, look at me, guys,
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not so with you, because that's not the way it works. And my
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father's you want to be great in my father's kingdom, you flip the script
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and you serve. And then he finishes with this. This shut him down
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for even talking about himself, For even the son of Man did not come
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to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for
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many. Now, come on, let's go what they get to Jerusalem?
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They have this final passover meal. There's so much drama, and all of
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a sudden they're talking amongst themselves and you know, where did Jesus go?
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Where to Jesus go? They looking. He's in the back of the room.
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He's taking off his clothes. He's like, what's up. And then
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he puts a towel around himself and they're like, oh no, we forgot
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to get someone to wash our feet. Ah, we were such big shots
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coming into Jerusalem, Hosannah, Hosanna. And they're throwing branches down. They're
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like, we are you know they got we got it going on now,
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I mean, there we are. This is this is the day before coronation
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Day. It's gonna be amazing tomorrow when he declares himself king right here at
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Passover. And now Jesus the King has got a towel around his waist and
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he starts washing their feet and they're free out and he's like, sit down,
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guys, Peter ha, sit down and washing your feet. This takes
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a long takes a long time to wash twelve thirty feet. It's silent finishes,
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puts his rabbinic roadback on. Nobody's saying a word, and he says
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this to them. He says this to you, I think he says it
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first of all to me. He says, gentlemen, you call me teacher
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and lord. There's our word. You call me teacher and lord, and
23:25
rightly so, because that's who I am. And now that your lord has
23:30
washed your feet, you are to wash one another's feet. In doing this,
23:37
I have set an example for you, because the servant is never greater
23:44
than the master. I have flipped the script on the kingdoms of this world.
23:48
And if you're gonna be a part of my kingdom, if you're gonna
23:52
seek first my kingdom, you are joining an other's first kingdom. You up
24:00
for that, guys, And they were, and the next day they watched
24:07
the king give his life for the subjects, and the world has never been
24:17
the same. And he says to you, join my kingdom, Join my
24:23
world. Join the way. I see people flip the script others first.
24:33
But this isn't others an exclusion of you. I mean you got bills to
24:37
pay. I mean you got college tuition to figure out, right, I
24:41
mean you got you gotta you haven't had a job for three months and you're
24:45
starting a job and you got to catch up. And me, he understands
24:47
all that. Look what he says next, this is amazing. Seek he
24:51
first, the Kingdom of God. Seek he first, the Kingdom of God
24:53
and his righteousness. And by the way I love you, and all these
24:57
things that you worry, all these things that you fret about, all these
25:03
things that have to get done, all these things that have to be paid
25:07
for, all these things that are crucial to being able to survive in whatever
25:11
century we live in, for us, the twenty first century, he said,
25:14
they're gonna be given to you as well. This isn't either or,
25:18
this is one and two. This is first and second because somebody's kingdom has
25:26
to come first, and your heavenly Father has invited you into the other's first
25:33
kingdom. And here's the thing. Because he's so smart, Jesus knew.
25:36
Jesus knew what we already know and what everybody figures out. In fact,
25:38
if you're twenty five years old or older, you've already bumped into this.
25:41
If you're thirty five, it's like, oh yeah, if you're fifty five,
25:42
it's like I wish somebody told me when I was twenty one. Right,
25:45
here's what Jesus knew that we all figure out. When we put us
25:49
first, we eventually come in last. And here's why. Because when you
25:55
put you first, you have a difficult time saying no to you, right,
26:00
I mean, if you're first, if it's all about you and your
26:03
kingdom, it's hard to say no to you. And the problem is,
26:06
eventually you're not mastered by you. Eventually you get mastered by an appetite or
26:11
a bunch of appetites. And nobody wants to be mastered by an appetite.
26:15
And your heavenly father doesn't want you to be either. And here's why,
26:19
because you are a created being and you were created to seek first your creator.
26:27
And when this gets out of order, our lives become disordered. So
26:36
what do we do? And the great news is Jesus already told us we
26:42
have to put something ahead of us. We have to join in a practical,
26:48
tangible I see what you did their way, other people ahead of us.
26:53
We have to flip this script, because this is the script that all
26:59
of us were born into. I'm gonna live and spend whatever I want on
27:02
me. I'm gonna save a little bit for my future kingdom, and if
27:04
there's any left over, I'll give it away. This is the me first
27:08
living with some left overgiving. Okay, welcome to average you want to be
27:15
an average person, knock yourself out. Welcome to just like everybody else,
27:18
because this is what everybody else does. And if all there is to this
27:23
life is this life, you might as well eat, drink and be merry
27:26
because tomorrow you die and you won't be concerned about your kids or your grandkids
27:30
because you won't be around to be concerned, and they'll have unfond memories of
27:34
you. But who cares? Live it up and consume it all? It's
27:37
all yours. But if Jesus is who Jesus claimed to be, let me
27:45
be more specific. If Matthew was correct, if Mark was correct, if
27:52
Luke was correct, if John was correct, if Peter was correct, if
27:59
James, Jesus' brother who decided his brother was his lord, is correct,
28:07
then the wisest thing you could do, the smartest thing you could do,
28:12
the most thoughtful thing you could do, is to flip this script so it
28:18
seek he first living that you give first, you save for your kingdom second,
28:26
and then you live on whatever is left over you prioritie something or someone
28:33
over yourself. This is evidence, This is measurable. This is tangible evidence
28:40
that Jesus or something or someone else is the lord over your life other than
28:45
you. This is what lordship looks like. Or to put it another way,
28:52
telling your money to go is proof. Your money and you're running the
28:55
show, right, Money you get out of here? Well what about I
28:59
worry about that. You get out of here and you go over there and
29:00
help them. Here, money, you go over there and help them.
29:03
But what about money? I'm in control, you're not controlling me. Yeah,
29:06
but you got hey money, you go there, you go there.
29:08
I'm running this show. You're not the boss of me. Andy's not the
29:12
boss of me. You're not the boss of me. Right. But more
29:15
importantly, more seriously, and this is the part you won't believe until you
29:18
experience it. This is a keystone habit. You know what a keystone habit
29:23
is. A keystone habit is a habit that affects a whole lot of things
29:26
that aren't directly related. This is a keystone habit. You get this right.
29:30
This impacts all of your finances. You get this right, this will
29:33
ultimately impact everything in your entire life, I promise, and ultimately this will
29:41
lead to a deeper, richer, stronger faith and confidence in your heavenly Father,
29:48
because when you put him first in a tangible way, in a way
29:53
that's measurable, in a way that initially feels like it's costing you something,
30:00
when you know He is truly my lord, because I am saying no to
30:04
me in order to say yes to him, everything begins to change and everything
30:11
will ultimately follow. Jesus was so clear the litmus test this is hard for
30:18
us. The litmus test of our devotion to God is our willingness to put
30:23
Him or others first in the arena of our money and our possessions, not
30:27
include them, not include them, or factor them in to put them first
30:33
in the arena of our money and our possessions. So, if you're not
30:40
already doing this, I want to issue you a two month challenge. And
30:45
I want to issue this to those of you who are Christians. If you're
30:48
a Jesus follower, I mean you're obligated because I'm telling you, but because
30:52
Jesus, if you're not a Christian, you do whatever you want. Obviously
30:55
I'm not the boss of you, but I want to challenge you to at
30:56
least consider this, Okay, for the next just two months, not two
31:00
weeks, not two paychecks, for the next two months, okay. There's
31:03
two parts that don't zone out after I tell you the first one, okay,
31:06
Or don't leave before I tell you the first one either, or don't
31:07
turn me off after I tell you the first. The first one is this.
31:10
The first part is this. I want you to choose a percentage,
31:12
and I want of your incoming. I want you to give it away as
31:15
soon as you get paid, whether you're getting bonuses, whether you're commissions,
31:21
whether your paycheck however it works, hourly, whatever it is. I want
31:23
you to pick a percentage, and I want you to pick a percentage you
31:26
feel don't do well. I gave a half a percent you won't even miss
31:29
that. I want you to pick a percentage that makes you do a little
31:32
bit of this, okay, whatever that is, okay, And I want
31:37
you to give it first. And you say, where do I give it?
31:41
You can give it anywhere. You want to just pick an organization that
31:42
supports something you love, something that breaks your heart that you think of,
31:47
Wow, I wish there was more of that in this community, because what's
31:48
happened in my communities. Just pick an organization, pick too ahead of time,
31:52
and don't wait to be asked. You're gonna as soon as you get
31:55
paid, as soon as money comes your way, you're gonna take a percentage.
31:56
You're gonna give it away off the top. But the second part of
32:00
this is just as important. In fact, in some ways it's more important,
32:05
because if you'll do this second part, you will learn something about yourself
32:07
and it may open your heart to the love God has for you. The
32:15
second part is this, I want you to pay attention to the internal internal
32:20
tension that this creates in you. In other words, when you start thinking
32:22
about this, that that battle you start having, I want you to hit
32:25
pause, and I want you to think about what is the struggle about.
32:30
I want you to listen closely to those internal conversations, the ones that you
32:32
have with yourself right the ones that you're preparing to have with your fiance,
32:36
the one that you're preparing to have with your wife, the one that you're
32:38
already having with me, because you're already arguing with me in your mind,
32:40
that's okay. I want you to pay attention. And here's why, because
32:45
I want you to discover what is at this is so important. You owe
32:49
this to yourself. You don't owe this to me. I want you to
32:51
discover what is at the center of your resistance. I want you to discover
32:58
what is it the center of your resistance. I want you to listen to
33:00
the excuses you're telling yourself, and then I want you to just give it
33:07
anyway, And what you might discover is this. This is not about money.
33:15
This is about something else. You might discover. This is exactly about
33:19
what Jesus said. It was exactly about who or what is going to be
33:25
the master and the lord of your life. And if your money could talk,
33:32
it would say, Hey, by the way, remember I'm a much
33:36
better servant than I am master. Don't put me in charge. Now.
33:44
I've told you this before, I gotta tell you again. I was raised
33:46
this way. I've never, in my life, since I was a teenager,
33:51
assumed that I could live on one hundred percent of what came my way.
33:53
So because I was raised this way, I'm being honest, this is
33:57
easy for me. I've never known done this, and yet I look back,
34:02
and I am so grateful that I was raised to do this, and
34:05
I know some of you are raising your kids to do this, so this
34:07
is easy. I'm so grateful. In fact, I raised my kids to
34:10
do this, and I didn't raise my kids to do this because I wanted
34:13
the church to get my kids money. I raise my kids to do this
34:16
because I don't want money to get my children. And I want them to
34:22
be free of a constant pursuit of more. I want them to be free
34:25
of worrying about is there going to be enough. I want them to be
34:30
able to pray with the clear conscience God to the best of my ability.
34:32
I am seeking your kingdom first and my kingdom second. I can cast my
34:37
cares upon you because I know you care for me, because I have prioritize
34:43
what you're doing in my community, in my church and in the world.
34:47
And Christians. Again, for those of you who are Jesus followers, one
34:52
last thing, please don't kid yourself until Jesus is first and your finances.
35:06
Jesus isn't first. You're not a follower, You're a user. And Judas
35:19
tried that. So once again, here's Jesus words to us. No one.
35:30
You can try, you can learn the hard way, but no one
35:36
can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other,
35:39
or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. What
35:42
is he talking about. He's talking about the He's talking about the Okay,
35:49
do I add a zo? He's talking about You're gonna discover it. You're
35:53
gonna experience it. That tension you're when you feel that tension, when you
35:59
start wrestling, when you start having those conversations, when you start making excuses,
36:01
when you start talking to yourself out of it. You have just entered
36:05
the war zone that Jesus puts his finger on and invites us into. You're
36:08
about to discover what's most and who's most important to you. He's so smart.
36:15
You'll love the one, or you'll despise the other. You cannot serve
36:20
both God and money. So my friends, come on, come on just
36:29
two months, two months, and then pay attention to what's going on on
36:35
the inside, and perhaps you will discover something about you that you didn't know
36:38
before. And more importantly, perhaps you, for the first time in your
36:43
life, would do this and make all of you available to your heavenly Father,
36:51
seeking first the Other's first kingdom that changed the world once and will continue
37:00
you to change the world to whatever degree we choose to live like this,
37:07
And don't miss next week as we wrap up our series Money Talks