The Exchange Part 4

Good morning, Abundant Life. Church house is tipped in. We're so glad you're here. Let's praise the Lord this morning. Hope you got some reasons to praise. He's worthy today, amen? Let's lift up this song together. Come on. ♪ I praise Him in the valley ♪ ♪ And praise on the mountain ♪ ♪ I praise when I'm sure ♪ ♪ And praise when I'm doubting ♪ ♪ I praise when I'm numbing ♪ ♪ And praise when surrounded ♪ ♪ His praise is the water ♪ ♪ My enemies drowning ♪ ♪ Sing a song as I'm breathing ♪ ♪ I got a reason to praise the Lord oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord oh my soul ♪ ♪ I praise when I'm feeling ♪ ♪ And praise when I don't ♪ He's in control, amen? ♪ I praise cause I know you're still in control ♪ ♪ My praise is the water my praise is the water ♪ ♪ It's more than a sound my praise is the shout come on ♪ ♪ That brings shame and glory down ♪ ♪ Sing a song as I'm breathing oh I got a reason to praise the Lord oh my soul ♪ We're gonna praise. ♪ Praise the Lord oh my soul ♪

♪ I won't be quiet I won't be quiet my God is alive how could I keep it inside ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord oh my soul oh my soul ♪ Oh we got so many reasons to praise today. God we celebrate you, your goodness, your grace, all that you are, all that you've done. Come on let's remind ourselves today of how he's worthy to be praised. We sing. ♪ I praise cause you're solid praise cause you reign ♪ Sing it. ♪ I praise cause you're golden and you reign in the grave ♪ ♪ I praise cause you're faithful praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise cause there's nobody greater sing it again ♪ ♪ I praise cause you're solid praise cause you reign ♪ ♪ Praise cause you rose and you're kneeling in the grave ♪ ♪ I praise cause you're faithful praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord oh my soul we sing ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord oh my soul praise the Lord oh my soul ♪ ♪ My soul praise the Lord oh my soul I gotta praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh no my water looks white I won't be crying my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it I won't be crying yeah ♪ ♪ My God is alive how could I keep it inside no I won't be quiet my God is alive how could I keep it inside I'm gonna praise the Lord oh my soul oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord oh my soul oh my soul I bless your name today so many reasons to praise yeah ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord oh my soul praise the Lord oh my soul I bless your name today so many reasons to praise yeah ♪ Hallelujah let's praise him in this place he's worthy of all glory and honor Hallelujah we serve a living God a God who is breathing interacting with us we just changed the line up I won't be quiet my God is alive there's some people who are praising a God that is dead praising a God that does not breathe but we praise a God who is active in our lives we praise a God that is he is God with us

God amongst us and we praise him this morning I want to read Psalms 145 this is David singing songs of to God and the toward the ends of his life he says I will extol you my God O King and I will bless your name forever and ever every day I will bless you And I will praise your name forever and ever great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts, and I will declare your greatness They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion Slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works All of your works shall praise you O Lord and your saints shall bless you They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations Can we give God praise for his kingdom that will endure? The word says that all of his works shall praise him you and I we are a work and we're gonna lift him up this morning We're gonna praise him give him glory because that's what he's do We sing to our God Yahweh The one who reigns the one who rules Oh You read One holy No one this No I You You're a You Your

No No You'll remain the same, no one like you Yeah My back is blue, see Pumps spinning from the rain For every good thing that you've done There are greater things to come And if you live with cloud and fire Through the day and through the night You will climb every step You will keep on ♪ You need it now ♪ ♪ And if you fell back every drop of the water ♪ ♪ Until you see, you can draw a path before me ♪ ♪ Far beyond what I can see ♪ ♪ And the river down from heaven ♪ ♪ And the water from the storm ♪ ♪ You can fill my weary soul again ♪ ♪ Bring a life unto these bones ♪ ♪ You make good on every promise ♪ ♪ You only leave the ones you love ♪ ♪ Not my mind and not my power ♪ ♪ But my spirit says, Lord ♪ ♪ Yahweh, Yahweh, you reign forever and always ♪ ♪ Forever, you are Yahweh, Yahweh, you reign forever and always ♪ ♪ Yahweh, you reign forever and always ♪ ♪ Who else is like you? No one beside you, no one besides you ♪ There's no one like our God, there's no one like our God. ♪ Who else is like you? No one beside you, no one besides you ♪

♪ There's no one beside you, you stand alone who is like our God ♪ ♪ There's no one like you Lord, no one beside you, no one beside you oh ♪ ♪ There's no one like you Lord, no one beside you, no one beside you oh ♪ ♪ Yahweh Yahweh Yahweh Yahweh Yahweh Yahweh Yahweh Yahweh Yahweh ♪ ♪ Yahweh, you reign forever and always. ♪ ♪ Yours is the glory, yours is the power, and all of the honor, yours Jesus. ♪ ♪ And all of the honor, yours Jesus. ♪ ♪ Lost in your wonder, beauty and splendor, yours is the kingdom. ♪ Come on, he's worthy. Sing it again. ♪ Yours is the glory, yours is the power, and all of the honor, yours Jesus. ♪ ♪ Yours Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm lost in your wonder, your beauty and splendor, yours is the kingdom. ♪ ♪ All the praise belongs to you, and all praise belongs to you alone on earth as it is in heaven. ♪ ♪ All the praise belongs to you, and all praise belongs to you alone on earth as it is in heaven. ♪ Our prayer today, come on, sing. ♪ Your kingdom come, and all will be done on earth as it is in heaven. ♪ ♪ All praise belongs to you, God. All praise belongs to you alone on earth as it is in heaven. ♪ ♪ All praise belongs to you, God. All praise belongs to you alone on earth as it is in heaven. ♪ ♪ Your kingdom come, and all will be done on earth as it is in heaven. ♪ ♪ All praise belongs to you, God. All praise belongs to you alone on earth as it is in heaven. ♪ ♪ Your kingdom come in my world. Your kingdom come. All will be done on earth as it is in heaven. ♪ ♪ On earth, on earth as it is in heaven. On earth as it is in heaven. ♪ We declare, we won't quit. ♪ Yours is the glory. Yours is the power. ♪ ♪ With all of the honor of your kingdom ♪ ♪ I'm lost in your wonder of beauty and splendor ♪ ♪ Yours is the kingdom, yours is the kingdom of God ♪ ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise him all creatures here below ♪

♪ Praise him all the people below ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ Come on, isn't he worthy today? Let's sing it again. ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ We give you the praise. ♪ Praise him all creatures here below ♪ Praise him. ♪ Praise him above the heavenly host ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ We praise him. ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise him all creatures here below ♪ ♪ Praise him above the heavenly host ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ We praise. We praise. We praise. Come on, one more time, make this your prayer today. The kingdom, the glory, the power belongs to him. Let's sing. ♪ Yours is the glory and yours is the power, Jesus ♪ ♪ All of the honor is yours, Jesus ♪ ♪ We're lost in your wonder, your beauty and splendor ♪ ♪ Yours is the kingdom, Lord Jesus ♪ Come on, if he's your Lord today, would you give him the loudest shout of praise? All the glory, the honor, the power belongs to him. We worship you, Jesus.

Good morning, Abundant Life. Happy Sunday. Oh my gosh, happy Sunday. Hey, my name's Kyle Worsham. I'm the multiplication pastor here at Abundant Life. And I'm Kylie. I'm the multiplication ministries leader. Hey, I don't know if you know this, man. God is constantly moving in our church, our church houses, our campuses, and even with people all around the world. I literally talked to a lady in India this week and people in Bozeman, people in Maryland, also right here in Kansas City. And we want to come alongside of you no matter where you are in the world to help you with your relationship with Jesus and maybe taking your next steps in Abundant Life. So would you go to abundant-life.com slash connect? And we really want to know how we can come alongside of you no matter what your next step is. Well, Church, speaking about next steps, we are halfway through our A Life Discipleship journey, which has really been all about taking next steps to pursue that abundant life in Jesus. And so we're in the middle of a series about it right now, and it's been incredible. And part of this series, we have been using some discipleship guides on Sunday mornings to kind of follow along

through the sermons, but also throughout the week that these guides are designed for you to engage with them, maybe with your spouse or your kids or your small group or whatever that is that we want you to be using them throughout the week to kind of be discovering what is God saying to you right now? What is preventing you from living that abundant life? And so if you're at a church house, ask your church house leader for one. If you're at home or you're traveling or wherever that you are, we have those for you in a digital form. So go to abundant-life.com slash alife. Yeah, and also don't forget, next Sunday is Big Give Sunday. So be praying this week. Let's God land on your heart to pursue our core value of generosity. We want to take our next steps in all of our core values. Next week is a clear next step in generosity on Big Give Sunday. Also, the week after that, I believe Easter. Yes. It's coming up. One of the best days of the year. Yeah, I love it. We've been talking about it every week for the last few weeks. Oh my gosh, he has risen.

Yes. Risen indeed. We want to celebrate with you and your family that might be coming into town. And so would you go to abundant-life.com slash Easter? You can get the details on the Saturday afternoon services. That'll be two. And then Sunday morning. Those will be normal, though, three services. But you need to go there, get all the details. And then there's also invite cards. You should invite somebody. They are there digitally for you to download and print so you can invite others. That's awesome. Well, Church, we want to enter into a time of worship through our giving. Generosity is a core value of ours. We want to give away what God has given us. And we just want to encourage you that, man, when you give to Abundant Life, you're giving through Abundant Life to the kingdom. And it is your generosity and your dollars that allow us to do the things we're doing, to have food pantries and church houses and serve our communities and just putting the love of God on display in a very tangible way through your dollars. And so if you call Abundant Life home,

would you enter into a time of giving with us? You can go to abundant-life.com slash give. Pastor Chad is leading our next sermon right now. Can't wait for you to hear it. After Alexis and I left that first week of the exchange, we came home knowing that we wanted to be a part of what the Lord was doing this year at Abundant Life in a more extreme and abundant way. We started attending Abundant Life in 2024 when we started dating. Pastor Phil was speaking and preaching biblical topics and speaking from the Bible. And we wanted to be in a Bible-believing church, starting our family. That was really important to us. And it's so neat to be a part of a church in a community where the Lord is clearly moving. The way to do that is through tithing and through giving. And the vision of where Abundant Life was going with the A-Life initiative is something we wanted to be a part of. I think for us, looking to Jesus for the example of generosity, He gave up the biggest gift and possession to Himself, which was His life for us. And so there's a huge parallel between what is so precious to us, which is our tangible money, and the reflection of the life of Christ, which was a sacrifice. So whenever we look at generosity and we look to giving, seeing it through the lens

of the life of Christ and the sacrifice He made, makes it so much easier and so much more tangible to know that His life and His sacrifice was the greatest thing He could have given up. I didn't grow up in a Christian household, so for me, when we first started talking about giving and just the A-Life, I know it kind of scared me a little bit. So just praying about it and just discussing it more and kind of what we want for our future for our kids and family, it just kind of changed my heart. We live in the Northland, and so being a part of that expansion has been awesome for us. But that expansion couldn't have happened without people giving generously towards that vision. We're super excited for the Northland campus. We've been a part of planting the church and just seeing already how much change it has on people in the Northland, meeting our neighbors, and we're super excited to be a part of that. I think after hearing that first message from the series and the exchange, we were both reinvigorated for what the Lord is doing through Abundant Life and for what the Lord could do through us if we continue to sacrifice more. After Alexis and I took time to pray after that first service, we came home and opened up our commitment card and decided that we wanted to give more this year than we did last year, because we know what the Lord did in Abundant Life

and through Abundant Life last year, and we want to see it move forward in a greater way. Amen. Amen, amen. Well, hey, if you have a copy of God's Word, why don't you go ahead and grab it and find 1 Timothy chapter 6. If you are new to the Bible, all of the T's are together in the New Testament. So if you find a T, you're in the right neighborhood. 1 Timothy chapter 6. And as you are finding your way to 1 Timothy chapter 6, you can also grab your discipleship guide. And we just want to invite you to turn to page 85, and that's where you're going to find this week's message and a place for you to take notes. And then hopefully, you've been tracking along with this throughout this series, using this piece of literature that's telling you a lot of the things that God is doing in our church, things that we are running after in the days ahead, and just even some takeaways for you to go home and get in your small group or to get around your table with your people and to process the things that God is teaching us through His Word. Now, I don't know if your backyard is anything like my backyard, but we had a little bit of a rodent hotel taking place in our backyard, and the latrine was my patio. And we have an unwritten rule in my house,

and maybe this rule is in your house, and the rule goes like this. Happy wife? Happy wife. Yeah, I guess that's a rule in your household, too. And so, your wife or your people may be good with this, but my wife and rodents, they can't cohabitate, all right? And so she's like, Chad, you need to do something about this stat. I said, yes, ma'am. And I'm kind of a DIY guy, and so before I call professional, I'm always going to go to the. best place for information, YouTube, right? And I'm like, all right, how do you deal with rodents in the backyard? And I discovered that you can make a water trap. Now this may be worth you coming to church this morning. I'm not real sure. It's spring and they're out running, all right? And so I made a water trap out of a five gallon bucket, put about half, you know, half filled with water. And then I poured sunflower seeds on top and they float to the top. And then I made like this little ramp, a little board, a little plank, if you will. And I put little sunflower seeds on the plank and then, you know, those rodents, they just crawl up that plank and then they'd get to the end of the plank

and they'd look down. And, you know, I just kind of imagine what they were thinking, like, the jackpot, you know? And then they just jump into the water and they didn't know it was water. They quickly found out. And I helped them go to be with the Lord. And so, and you know, I'm just, you know, just helping them. And anyway, so, and just to be like, before you start judging me, I did not kill anything. All right? They took the plunge, all right? They did it themselves. I simply just set everything up and then they were the end of themselves. And I just tempted them. I tempted them with something that they like. And I don't know the heart of a rodent, but I think that the heart of a rodent is, you know, there's lots of acorns in my backyard. They could have been satisfied with the acorns in my backyard. There was sunflower seeds on the plank and they could have been satisfied with the sunflower seeds on the plank. But I think inside of a rodent's heart is a covetous heart. And so when they saw the jackpot, they're like, oh my goodness, this is the deal of a lifetime. This is the most sunflower seeds I've ever seen.

And they took the plunge, never to return. Now, the reason why I share that with you is because every one of us is being treated in a similar fashion by an adversary. That the way that I see the rodent is the way the devil sees you. That he has come to steal, kill, and destroy you. I mean, this is personal, all right? And the way that he does this is by feeding you or feeding me things that we like. And I think that there's a lot of us here this morning and we are on a path of being tempted to feed some sort of appetite and to feed a heart of covetousness where whatever we have on that path is not quite enough. And if we see that we can get a little bit more, we want it. And then we get to the end of that plank and we're on the brink of taking the plunge into destruction. And this morning, I don't want you to be on that path. I don't want you to be at that border, if you will. I want you to experience, and more importantly, Jesus wants you to experience life and life abundantly. And so this morning we have come in here and I wanna invite you to exchange covetousness for contentment. If you don't know what covetousness is, you probably know that it's kinda like greed. It's I've gotta have more and what I have isn't quite enough and I'm comparing my life to people

that maybe have something different and I want what they want and I have this insatiable part of my heart and every one of us has covetousness in our heart to some degree or another. But Jesus wants you to exchange that covetousness for contentment. If you're taking notes, I've titled the message Exchange Covetousness for Contentment. And I wanna give you a couple of warnings. I wanna warn the people that are rich here this morning. I wanna give a warning to the people that want to be rich here this morning. And before we leave, I wanna invite all of us to choose godliness and contentment. If you're new to the Bible, a guy named Paul had his life radically changed by Jesus. And when his life was changed by Jesus, everything changed in his life. And he gave his life to start new churches all across the known world. And one of the churches that he helped start was a church in a town called Ephesus or modern day Turkey. And he gave the task to a protege named Timothy to go to that church in Ephesus and to set it up if you will. That there were some things that needed to get in order. He uses this phrase in 1 Timothy. He says that this is how the household of God should be. And he gives instructions about men, women, about leaders.

And he gives instructions about many things. And he finishes this letter to Timothy on behalf of this church in Ephesus to warn them about their wealth. Because Ephesus was arguably one of the most affluent cities in the first century. And it was arguably probably the most influential church in the first century. And so Paul's writing to this church that has a lot of impact and a lot of capacity and a lot of potential, but also has a lot of temptation. And he writes very, very intentional in this final chapter about wealth, resources, and the rich. And I want to kind of take the chapter in reverse because I want to draw us to what I believe is the most important thing by the time that we finish. And so here's what Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter six, starting in verse 17. He says, command those who are rich in this present age. Now, I know a lot of you right now are already like, good, that's not me. I can check out, I can go check my Amazon shopping cart and check my Costco app and also check my Sprouts order pickup. I can check the Facebook marketplace and I can check all of the other things that I would like to purchase and that I am probably purchasing because I'm not rich on my smartphone. Thinking about the money I'm gonna spend.

Listen, before you check out, you're probably more wealthy than you realize. There's a website called howrichami.com or .org. You can go to that website and you can plug in your annual income and it'll tell you how rich you are compared to the world. I had a little fun with this and I plugged in, if you're one person making 40K a year, then you are wealthier than 96% of the world. Let me just put it this way, if you've got more than one TV, you're doing all right, all right, compared to the world, okay? And so before you check out, this is probably more relevant to you than you think. And so here's the warning that Paul's giving. He says, hey, warn those that are rich in this present age. He says, tell them not to be haughty. Now this word haughty is not like you can't look good, like you're a haughty. It's like you don't wanna be proud or pride, okay? This is like you saying, I don't wanna be so rich in this present age that I say to myself functionally, I don't really need God right now, I'm doing pretty good. And he says, warn them that are rich in this present age, not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God. This is such a key thing. That if you've come in here

and you have some sort of wealth, there is a temptation that you and I are on that says, you know what? I'm gonna trust in my ability to do a thing rather than God's provision in my life. And there's a temptation to look at your finances as your means of security and your means of I've got this God, I don't go help someone else, I'm good. But Paul's saying like, warn them to not put too much faith in their riches, but to trust in the living God. He says this, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. He says, let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. Point number one, if you're taking notes, you can write this down, a warning to the rich, a warning to the rich. Paul's telling Timothy, warn the rich to make sure that they're not on the path of trusting in uncertain riches. I wonder, are you on that path? So I think there's a tendency for most of us to come in here and we want just enough wealth. Like we're not trying to be Elon, or we're not trying to be Bezos, we're not trying to be the richest person in the world,

but we just want, God, we just want just enough where we don't need you that much. And there's a tendency for us to want just enough money where we can go to God and say, God, thank you, but I'm, you know, go help someone else and I don't need to trust you that much. So Paul's saying that wealth has this way of misleading our trust. Now, I love that the Bible doesn't just say things like, hey, warning to the rich, stop it, let's pray. You know, that's not what it does, all right? Like the power of repentance is not just calling you from a certain path, the power of repentance is calling you to a better path. Again, this isn't the stop it series, this is the exchange series. We want to exchange covetousness for a different thing. And so I love that Paul says, warn the rich not to be haughty or put their trust in uncertain riches, but trust in the Lord and enjoy the things that they've been given. And then here's what you need to do with your wealth. And so here's three things I want to invite you from this section of scripture to do with your money. The first thing that you can do with your money is you can enjoy things. All right, some of y'all came in here sucking on a sauerkraut sucker, all right? Like that should be like a great spot for like a, yeah, at least, you know, maybe a amen at most, all right?

All right, it's okay with the money God has given you, it's okay to enjoy things. Yeah, you should enjoy things, okay? The name of our church is abundant life, all right? We should be enjoying the things that God has given us more than anyone else, because we know the giver of the, we know the giver of the things that we're enjoying. Like I went down to the motherland this last week for spring break, and we went down to Texas. And I don't know if you know this or not, but the best ice cream ever invented comes from Texas. It's called Blue Bell. ice cream, and if you haven't had Blue Bell ice cream, what's wrong with you, all right? And so Blue Bell ice cream is amazing. And I just believe that I enjoy Blue Bell ice cream better than a pagan does that doesn't know the one that made Blue Bell ice cream, all right? Because as I'm eating my scoop of cookie two-step ice cream or cookies and cream ice cream with a touch of milk on the top, because it crystallizes, it makes it kind of crunchy, and it's just so good. Anyways, I'm enjoying that. Like, what I'm doing in my mind is I am praising the Lord and saying, God, thank you. Thank you for, I think it's in Brenham, Texas, that you made this, and the cows and the udders and the salt and the sugar and the, thank you. Thank you, yes, Lord.

More, pour it on me, right? And listen, you can enjoy things. It's good, but enjoy them unto God. Some of you have a hard time enjoying things because you really shouldn't have bought that thing you're trying to enjoy. And you feel like a guilt every time that you're driving the thing or at the place because you're like, I really had no business doing this. Some of you, you have a hard time enjoying things because you're idolizing the thing that you're trying to enjoy. And you think that, you know, this is the thing that's gonna make me somebody, and I finally moved into that neighborhood or into that zip code, and you're looking to that to give you what only God can give you. But when you understand that God is the giver of those things, and you are positioning yourself to enjoy things appropriately, then this is like, we should enjoy life. We should live life and give glory to God Almighty. It's okay to have a good time. So one thing you can do with your money, you can enjoy things. The second thing you can do with your money that Paul says is you can do good. Again, he says in verse 18, let them do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.

I love this, this is really like unique phraseology that Paul uses in the Bible. And he's basically telling them like, do with your money what you wished wealthy people would do with their money. Like, have you ever thought of ways you could spend Elon Musk's money? Have you ever thought like, you know what? If I was a trillionaire, have you ever thought of like when you see like somebody's signing bonus like a few years ago when we, you know, published the deal of my homes that he, you know, got here in Kansas City, and we're like, half a billion dollars, you know? Well, this is what I would do if I had all that money, you know? I wonder if God had access to all of your money, and how he would spend it. What would he do with it? I wonder if God had access to your calendar, and your resources, and your assets, what would he do with them? And what Paul is saying is like, the same way that you envision maybe spending somebody that has wealth, their money, like imagine if God was envisioning that for you, and how would you, what would you do with the things that God has given you? I mean, there's some incredible things happening at our church, and I love hearing the stories

of people getting creative with how they can use the resources God has given them. We just, we're celebrating over 100 young adults that went on an inner city mission trip a couple of weeks ago, right here in Kansas City. The most ever in the history of abundant life. Mobilizing paradigm young adults to go serve the city, and push back the darkness in the city. Yeah, we can clap and celebrate that. And so here are young adults that by and large, they're wealthy enough to have some margin on their weekend to be able to do what they wanna do. And so they chose to use their time to go serve the Lord. We have a family in our Blue Springs campus that has a shop, and they work out of their shop, and so it's not just a shop just to have a shop, but it's a shop. And they thought, you know what, we can reach people with our shop. And so we're gonna open up our shop once a month, and we're gonna have shop church, is what they're gonna call it. And they know that people will come to their shop, they would never come to a church. And so they're doing good with the resources that God has given them. Many of you have given to our church, and you've helped build things, and you've helped start ministries. And man, there are so many stories.

I can't begin to tell you all of the stories, but one of them out of our Johnson County campus is that there was a lady that was far from Christ that came to our Johnson County campus, and she is studying here. She's from Iran, and she gives her life to Jesus, and now she's on a pathway of following Jesus. And we have no idea what this person who speaks Farsi, and this person that is multicultural, and that's studying, is well-educated, what this person, the impact that she's gonna have in the world, because many of you gave a penny towards this initiative. You gave dollars towards this initiative. It helped influence and impact people that you don't even know, praise God, that you would do good with the things that God has given. Yeah, we can celebrate that. And our church is full of stories of people that are affluent, but they're not just affluent to be affluent, they're doing something to build the kingdom with their wealth, thank you. The third thing you can do with your wealth is that you can enjoy things, you can do good, and you can invest in eternity. Again, in verse 19, Paul says that you can store up for yourself a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay. they may lay hold of eternal life. Now, is this saying that you can buy heaven?

No, no, that's a bad teaching. You cannot buy heaven. Jesus bought heaven for you. You could not afford it, all right? Even if you had all the wealth in the world, you could not afford it. And that's why we have to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. But the Bible does teach that we will give an account for the way that we have lived our life. And that God has entrusted in you all that you have, not so that you can keep all that you want. He's entrusted in you all that you have so that you can build the kingdom of God, live your life, enjoy things, but also know that you're gonna stand before the Lord someday and give an account for the life that you lived and what you did with the resources that He entrusted in you. And so let me ask you, are you investing in eternity? Look, the language that Paul's using here in verse 19 is investment language. He's like, hey, there's a sweet deal. You can invest in a company called heaven and it's gonna pay some amazing dividends for a really long time, all right? And you're gonna reap dividends in this life and the life to come. Do you want to invest in this today? Because there's two things that'll last forever,

the Word of God and the souls of men. And what are you doing to invest in those things? And that investment will far surpass any other investment that we can make in our life. Now, do you believe that? Like, do you believe in forever? Do you believe what the Bible teaches that God has given you what you have and you'll give an account for what you have been given that He owns it all and you and I, we're just stewards. Do you believe that? Well, if you believe that, what are you doing with that belief? Like, let me put it this way. If you're being tried in a court of law and you're being accused of being a Christian and the only evidence that was brought forward to find you guilty of being a Christian was your bank statement, would there be enough evidence from your bank statement to convict you of being a Christian? Because listen, money doesn't lie. And what if God created economy and money in every culture and every society just to give us a diagnostic tool to reveal if we really believe the things we say we believe? Because money doesn't lie. And if your bank account is not giving anything towards eternity, but you believe in eternity, you're on the wrong path and you need to repent.

Paul's calling us to know what to do with our wealth. He's saying, hey, we need to enjoy some things, not wrong to enjoy some things, we need to do good with it and we need to invest in eternity. And so Paul, he goes on and he says this in verse nine, if you'll jump down to verse nine, he says this. He says, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare or a water trap. He says this, and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. As one of the famous statements from the Bible, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Notice it does not say that money is the root of all evil, money is amoral. It's neither good nor bad, it's the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil. For which some have strayed from their faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Point number two, if you're taking notes, you can write this down, a warning to those who desire to be rich. A warning to those who desire to be rich. How many of y'all desire to be rich? Okay, I see a few hands, thanks for the honesty. I see y'all out there, yeah, yeah. If you didn't raise your hand, come on. Like you tell me, your boss came to you tomorrow and was like, hey, we wanna give you a spring break bonus. I know tax season's coming and we don't typically do this,

but we wanna give you a bonus. You're gonna be like, nah, bro, I'm good. And you go home, talk to your wife, be like, yeah, boss wanted to give me a bonus, but I was like, you know what? Nah, your wife's gonna be like, you're crazy, right? Like, I don't think we've come in here and we wanna be like Jeff Bezos or whatever the rich person is that we may know about, but we just wanna have a little bit more. We just wanna have, you know, one more dollar. That'd be nice. Just a little bit more. I think that we've come in here and if we're being honest, I know it's church, it's hard to be honest, but if we're being honest, we desire to be wealthy more than we care to admit. And Paul, he warns us against greediness. Now, greediness is something that is really unique in our hearts because typically when we're greedy, we don't know it. I mean, Jesus talks about greed. He talks about it differently than really other sins. He says about greed, he says, watch out for it. Like, you gotta go looking in your heart. You gotta do a heart inspection. It's not just gonna surface to the top easily. easily. If you're struggling with greed, typically you don't know it.

And what's confusing is you'll desire to be rich and then you'll like, you'll see a commercial or you'll see an ad about some need in the world and you'll feel generous towards that need. And so like, what's confusing in our hearts is that we're blind to our greed, we will feel generous thoughts, yet we are really generous. And so you're like, man, that's so sad that that's happening in the world. And then when it's like, click the link to give money, you're like, no, I'm not, I've gotta go out to eat. We don't act upon that. And so what's confusing is that we're unaware in many ways. And so what I'm doing is I'm praying that God would give revelation in my own heart and also give revelation in our body that we would be able to see these things because if we're on the path that is leading to destruction, man, we need to know about it. I don't know if you remember, but earlier I told you I had that rodent problem. Y'all may judge me, that's fine, but I set the water trap up in a place where I could watch. Yeah, we canceled our Netflix account and I was like, you know, I know what I'm doing tonight, flashlight on that thing.

Check this out, kids. So I caught one of the rodents like in action and I filmed it. I'm not gonna show you the film. Now, before you judge me, all right, if I looked at your Netflix account, if I looked at your Amazon Prime account, y'all watch some weird things, all right? And so, but it's just like, you know, the rodent comes and, you know, it runs up the plank and eats a few sunflower seeds and then it runs off. It looks around. Then it realizes everything's good. It comes up the plank, eats a few more seeds and then it runs off. And then I'm watching. I'm like, this is amazing, you know? And it comes up and you just see it get to the end of the plank and it sees all of those sunflower seeds. And then it just goes in after them. Quickly realizes it was a facade. And it drowns. And this is the language that Paul is using to talk about our desire for more. It's sadistic. It's final. It's not meant to be dramatic. It's meant to be diagnostic.

That if we've come in here and we love money or we desire this and we crave it and we lust for more, the end is destruction. And so, what are the seeds that the enemy's using to tempt you to get on this plank, if you will? Like some of the seeds that could be used in your life could be seeds like this, buy now, pay later. You can go home with this today and you're on that plank just eating that seed up. You're just like, this is amazing, what's next? Maybe it's the seed of more. You've got to have more, more is better. And so I've got to have, I've got a single car garage. I need a double car garage. I've got a double car garage. I need a three car garage. Got a three car garage. I need a bigger garage than I have a house. I need more. I need more yard. I need more house. I need more, more. Maybe that's the seed that you're on that plank just tearing that seed up. Maybe it's the seed of you need this and you need that tattoo. I know you got more ink than a ball pen, but you need another one. You need those eyelashes, girl. You need those.

You need those. Make a camel jealous, right? Some long eyelashes. You, you, you know what? I know you got a bass boat, but you need a ski boat too because it's different. It's different. Fishing and skiing, it's different. You, you need a new fishing pole. It's crappie season. You need that. It's a need. You need some new camo. The turkey are going to see you. You need it. And I could go on and on and on, right? And we're just on that path, just tearing that seed up. I need this. I need that. Or maybe the seed that the enemy's feeding you is that if I have this, then I'll be somebody. And so many times we think if I get a certain thing, then I'll be important. People will recognize me. In order to be cool, you got to look cool. In order to be influential, you got to look influential. In order to be whatever it is, and we can put our identity wrapped around. around the financial security that we have, or we base our sense of self-worth on our net worth,

and we're just on that path, eating that seed up, and the enemy's just putting another one in front of us, another one in front of us, until we get to the brink of the end of that plank, looking over at the bucket of destruction, and we can't help it but give in to our cravings and take the plunge. So this would be a good question. What is your sunflower seed? You know what I mean by that, right? Like, what's the thing that God is putting in front of you? What is the thing that the enemy is putting in front of you that God is saying, don't eat that? What is the bait that he has put in front of you that you are taking hold of, and if you're not careful, it's feeding a craving inside of you that is insatiable? And if you're not careful, you may be at the beginning, but the destination is destruction. You may be halfway, you may be at the end, and God wants you to get off that path. Get off the path. Exchange that plank of death for something altogether different. I don't know if you're anything like me, but man, I mean, this is like, this is a war inside of me right now. Look, just because I got a Bible and a microphone doesn't mean I'm immune to the things that you are being tempted with. Like, it's all around us.

We're all swimming in the waters of materialism and consumerism and comparison, and we all wanna level up and do better and have more, and all of the things, all of the lies that are coming at you are coming at me too, and then we come in here and we open up the Word of God, and we're like, man, I don't wanna give in to those cravings. I don't want to love money. I wanna love God and use money. I don't wanna use God and love money. I want to be God's man. And so Paul, he directs Timothy to instruct this group of people with really a bullseye of what they can aim their life at. And he says this at the beginning of the chapter in verse six, he says this. Now godliness with contentment is great gain. He says, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. Point number three, and finally, if you're taking notes, you could write this down, a call to contentment. A call to contentment. This is what we need this morning, church. We need a spiritual, we need a mindset of enough. Because we are swimming in the waters of discontentment. We are swimming in the waters of more and now, and I've gotta have this.

But we've come in here this morning to exchange covetousness for contentment. We need to exchange, maybe you brought something else in here. You need to exchange that for contentment. Paul's the guy that wrote in Philippians, I've learned the secret of contentment. And the secret of contentment is that he is rooted in his relationship with Christ. And so he gives this formula, this famous formula for what is great gain in this life and the one to come. And it's simply this, it's godliness plus contentment equals great gain. This could be like a life motto for us all. And at the end of my life, if I could just be godly and content, I will have gained a lot in this world and in the world to come. Godliness plus contentment equals great gain. What does that mean practically? Well, godliness, just to put it simply is this, seeking to be like Christ, seeking to be like Christ. And if you wanna seek to be like Christ, it starts with a relationship with Jesus Christ. You can't be all that God made you to be without having relationship with God Almighty. And so I don't know if you know the story of the Bible, but the story of the Bible tells us this, there's bad news that you and I were born destined to walk the plank of destruction,

giving into our cravings, and that the enemy has put these seeds of seduction and of temptation along our path, and we're gonna take them. And if we don't do something, then we're gonna end in destruction forever. If we don't do something to get off the path, but here's the bad news, you're stuck on the path. And so the Scriptures tell us that Jesus, the Son of God, He came and He took the destruction for us. He was drowned, if you will, underneath the wrath of God Almighty, and took the penalty and the payment that we deserve so that we can now have the power to get off the path if we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. That's where godliness begins. And so have you started a relationship with Jesus? Has there been a time in your life where you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior? I love hearing the story of the Rogers earlier, because you know, you got the couple there, and they're just like, man, we're just processing, what does it mean? for us to follow the Lord Jesus and Alexis, she just says, man, I didn't grow up in church. And so like before you ever get to a commitment card, like Alexis, she started with making a commitment to Christ and then once she was committed to Christ, then those other things begin to follow.

So for you, have you started a relationship with Jesus? Has there been a time in your life where you've asked him to forgive you? If you haven't, man, today would be a great day to do that. And so if you want to be godly, if you want to seek to be like Christ, it starts with the relationship with him and then just spend the rest of your life following him. Christianity is not difficult, excuse me, it's not complicated, it's real simple. It's not complicated, it's not easy, it's simple. And so you just follow Jesus, die to yourself one day at a time, follow him. This is what it means to be godly and he'll show you what areas you need to work on. And so godliness plus contentment equals great gain. What is contentment? Contentment is just being satisfied in Christ. This is you saying, man, I'm gonna choose to cherish Jesus above all things. Jesus is first and he is best and he is most in my life. And the greatest thing about Chad Glover is Jesus Christ. It's Christ in me, that's the hope of my glory, it's Jesus. And so when you are content, you're saying, man, I'm satisfied in Christ. And I'm not gonna look to anything that this world has to offer to give me what only Jesus can give me. So I don't know if you're anything like me, but you're like, man, godliness plus contentment

equals great gain. You wanna put it to a chant, you know, and just run out here and be so fired up to pursue godliness and to pursue contentment. But what does that look like practically? I don't know if you've, if you picked this up yet or not at home, but we have a devotional guide that's going along with this message series. And so yesterday at my table, I grabbed this and I walked through the devotional guide with my kids and my wife. And so we were talking about what does it mean to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And so we processed that and went through the questions and I told my girls, I said, girls, if we're gonna be godly, if we're gonna be content, let me just kind of break this down for you real practically. I want y'all to remember three words, first, best, and most. And I was like, I've already forgot the three words. What were they? And they recite them back and they say, first, best, and most. I was like, that's right. And so let's talk about what this looks like practically with our time for a second. Mom and dad, we've made a decision that we're gonna seek first the kingdom of God.

If we're gonna be godly, if we're gonna be content, then it's gonna play itself out in our calendar. And so every year, we put the big rocks on our calendar with seeking first the kingdom of God, giving our first time, our best time, and our most time towards building the kingdom of God. And so I told them, I was like, what does that look like practically in our life? And they're kind of looking at me like, you know, well, we serve at the church. I was like, yeah, we serve at the church. And we go to church, you know, like, and I asked them, I was like, what's the first day of the week? And they said, well, it's Sunday. Yeah, first day of the week. What time do we give on Sunday? Will we give the first part of our time? Yeah, the first part of our time and arguably the best part of our time. Typically, we're at the Blue Springs campus and my kids, they'll serve at the nine o'clock service and then we attend the 1050 together. And so they serve before they worship. And so they're saying, I'm gonna give my time in that area first, best. And then if you look at our calendar, I told them, I was like, girls, if you look at our calendar, you're gonna see that the most of our time is spent towards kingdom initiatives.

And this is the decision that we've made as a family. I said, now, let me talk to you about our finances because our kids are going through fusion. Our two older girls are in fusion and they're going through a similar series called Matters of the Heart, where they're talking about some of the things that we're talking about on Sundays. And so we're having conversations like this in our household. And so I said, we've made a decision as a family to give the first of our income, the best of our income and the most of our income to kingdom initiatives. And so I just told them, I said, we decided as a family, we pre-decided that we're gonna set auto giving where our tithe and offering comes out on the first day of the month. And I was like, why did dad do that? First, yes. And we give arguably some of our best resources to kingdom initiatives, to the local church, to missionaries, to orphan care, to widows. Why do we do that? Because we wanna give our best to the Lord, that's right. And I told them, I said, girls, y'all need to know this, that we also give the most to the Lord. The largest income that comes out of our paycheck goes towards kingdom initiatives. And I told them, I want y'all to know this because this is.

Important as you are understanding. What does it mean to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? I Finished up that conversation with them by saying, you know, why do y'all think we do this? You know, I mean I got a 14 year old a 12 year old and a nine-year-old I don't want them to leave that conversation like my daddy's better than your daddy and that we're the blah blah blah We're the Glovers. I don't want to raise up little self-righteous arrogant kids And so I want them to understand why do we do that? Why have we oriented our life around the kingdom of God? Why have we oriented our time and our resources around the kingdom of God? And I said, all right each kid you got to answer Well, my middle child she went first and she just said worthy of it all So grateful for our worship ministry here Because she's saying the answer that's that's right. He is worthy of it all My nine-year-old she pops in she said wait because he and her cute little voice he created it all That's right great answer And then my 14 year old so patient She just says well He gave it all First Best And God didn't give us most he gave us all Now I don't want to miss what we're running after we're inviting you guys to work through a commitment card like you saw on the video And the commitment card you're gonna you're gonna go seek the Lord and look at your finances And you're gonna write down what you feel like you can commit so that we can budget for the house here But it's not so that we can be great It's not so abundant life's name can be great Don't get it twisted The reason why the Bible was written was so that you would understand the glory of God Almighty and the glory of his ways And so the reason why we are running after the things we're running after is because he is worthy of it all Because he created it all Because he gave it all I'm about you to bow your head close your eyes I

Just want to have a time of prayer Before we get there. I want to ask you a couple of questions Question number one Are you trusting in your wealth more than your relationship with God? Are you Functionally saying to God God. I've got this go help someone else or are you seeking to trust God for your daily bread? Question number two is your desire to be rich Causing you to lust after things to chase after things that are going to end in your destruction Or to say it differently, what's your sunflower seed What is the thing that you are consuming that is feeding something inside of you that eventually will lead you To drown metaphorically Next question Have you began a relationship with Jesus are you on the path of godliness? Are you satisfied in Christ Are you living a godliness plus contentment equals great gain life And If not, would you join me and my family and begin to wrestle with what does it mean that God would be first? What does it mean that God would get my best? And what does it mean that God would receive my most? Lord Jesus, thank you so much for today God, thank you for your goodness in our life giving us your word Jesus we thank you that you you you go after the heart because you know That our heart is the place it's the decision-making center of our life And you said plainly where our treasure is there our heart will be and so God thank you for giving us diagnostic tools like our bank account Like our our resources to be able to help us see Where our trust lies and so gotta pray if we are on the plank of destruction That we would repent and we would move to the path of abundant life and you'd give us wisdom to be able to do that God that we would not be enticed by the things of this world and we would forfeit our soul But God we would be a generous people

That we would do good that we would share openly we'd be willing to give And God you would bless This effort in an incredible way. God. We love you. We thank you for what you're doing in our church In Jesus name I pray, amen. You give the Lord a hand.