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Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located

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in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship

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Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,

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discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church

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and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be

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your host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages

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are a blessing to you and bring you closer to God.

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Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Again, my name is Pastor David Bickford. I am the

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pastor here in Salmon Arm. The message I have prepared today is, prepare now to get rich.

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The subheading would be, lay up treasures in heaven. As we get going and jump into this,

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just a little bit about what the purpose of this podcast is. It is simply an outreach

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tool, an evangelism tool. These are sermons that I have preached already in the church

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and I basically just reformat them into this podcast. Eventually I will probably do video

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for YouTube as well, but they are uploaded to YouTube in audio form as well. We are working

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on getting a little bit better with the technology as time goes on.

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Anyway, let's go ahead and jump in this day. The text that we are working from today is

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Matthew 6 verses 19-24. If you are following along, you can go ahead and get there. It

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is Matthew 6, 19-24. At the time of recording this, we are getting close to Christmas. We

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are about 10 days away from Christmas. I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas. It is

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an awesome time of the year for us as Christians because we can share the gospel a lot more

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freely. People are a little bit more open to it. If you are not doing that already,

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that is part of the reason why you wish people Merry Christmas is to share your faith with

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others. So don't be discouraged by people trying to push you off and say, oh no, no,

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you have to say happy holidays because not everybody is a Christian. Well, that is the

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whole point, isn't it? Isn't the whole point to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those

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you come in contact with? What better to do that with than by saying, hey, Merry Christmas,

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here is a whatever your favorite drink is, not alcohol, of course, but your favorite

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holiday drink like an eggnog latte or peppermint mocha or a peppermint hot chocolate. You could

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go up and say, hey, Merry Christmas, would you like a peppermint mocha? It is a very,

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very powerful time. You are hearing more Christian music played openly because a lot of the Christmas

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songs of the season are Christian in nature, of course. So let's use that to our advantage

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for the evangelism of Jesus Christ and really just focus in on bringing the love of Jesus

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Christ into the public square and not being deterred by the world telling us to keep that

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silent and separate because we all know that they are not doing that with a lot of their

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messages with a lot of their gospel that they're preaching, which is not from our Lord. So

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let's just do that in a kind, caring, loving way. And again, Merry Christmas as we get

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started with this message today.

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So prepare now to get rich. So when I was reading this book, and I actually am still

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reading it. I haven't finished it yet because I took a break, but it was a book about Andre

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Augustine. And believe it or not, when I was a young, young man, I was, I was growing up

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in Los Angeles and my dad was very into tennis when we lived down there. And I remember my

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first pair of really good shoes were a pair of Andre Augustine shoes, Andre Augustine

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being a very famous tennis player in the, uh, the nineties. And so anyway, on, on the

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court tennis legend, Andre Augustine seemed to be unbeatable during his heyday in the

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1990s and early 2000s. The superstar was very successful and earned tons of money. He is

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currently worth $175 million. And at one point he was even ranked world's number one. But

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in this, but in his 2009 book Augustine revealed that his life as a tennis superstar was one

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that he hated. He says that despite his wealth and success playing the game interfered with

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his personal relationships and he felt disconnected with his life. He then became very involved

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in philanthropy and was especially interested in education. And he opened up the Andre Augustine

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college prep Academy in 2001. And he has said that he finds that work far more fulfilling

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than he did during his days as a tennis player. It's interesting how, you know, once you get

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out of the limelight a little bit, we're out of the, you know, it's all about me and my success kind of realm.

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And you start pouring back into others, how much more fulfilling that can be. And there's

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a biblical principle with that, right? And so let's look at Matthew six, 19 through 24,

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lay up the treasures in heaven and verse 19, do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth

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where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourself

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treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys a where thieves do not break

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in and steal for where your treasure is there. Your heart will also be the eye is the lamp

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of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your

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eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. And if then the light in you is

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darkness, how great is the darkness? No one can serve two masters for either he will hate

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

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You cannot serve God and money. So as we jump in, the first point I want to look at is watching

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your desires, right? And so let's define what that means a little bit, you know, desire.

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It's usually a verb used with an object and it's to wish or long for, to crave, to want,

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to express a wish to obtain or ask a request. Other words that are similar to desire are

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covet, fancy, solicit, aspiration, hunger, appetite, thirst. All right. Most of us want

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more money. We want more stuff. I mean, people all the time that have tens of thousands of

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dollars in toys. And what I mean by toys, I mean like big boy adult toys, like boats,

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quads, campers. Oh my. And some of us like to have the newest technology as soon as it

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comes out, the newest iPhone or the Samsung phone that comes out. You know, we, we want

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to upgrade. In fact, I myself, you know, I I'm an apple guy. I have, you know, apple

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computer. I have an iPhone. I have an older iPhone. It's an iPhone XR and I'm, I'm, I'm

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saving up, you know, to get an iPhone, you know, 15, you know, pro and the other silliest

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reason I want that is because finally, finally, even though I love apple, they're, they're

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switching over to the C type connection instead of the lightning connection. So I will be

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able to get rid of a bunch of useless cords because I'll be able to only have one charger

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hanging around versus all the other chargers that, that I end up with. So I'm not immune

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to wanting to have some of the newest technology, but I'm still rocking the iPhone XR right

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now. So, uh, that's, that's, that's where I'm at, but yeah, we, we, we battle with this,

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right? There's nothing wrong with stuff. There's nothing wrong with wanting, you know, a Tesla

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or a giant truck and trailer. The issue always comes back to your desires. Why are you dry?

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What, why are you driving your appetites and what, what direction are those? Are you allowing

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those appetites to drive you? What are you feeding yourself? What does your diet look

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like? You know, from a spiritual and emotional level. So let's think about that for a minute.

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The more you eat some items, the more you crave them. You know, sugar and simple carbohydrate

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foods are very appealing, but as you eat them, you tend not to be satisfied and crave them

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more and more. And I've, I feel this, you know, quite a bit. So one of my vices, cause

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I typically eat like a keto or like a fat adapted diet. I don't eat a lot of carbs,

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but one of my vices is like, um, is mini wheats. Right? So, you know, frosted mini wheats and

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I'll take a handful of those, you know, try to limit the amount I eat, but it's always

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amazing. The, you know, you eat a little bit and then you want more. And so it's kind of

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like the idea of, of the potato chip. Oh, you can't eat just one. There's something

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about, you know, these, these either, you know, salty carbohydrate treats or these sugary

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carbohydrate treats that it just drives you to want to eat more and more of it. Whereas

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if you were eating, you know, a clean fat or a clean protein and you focused on that,

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you would be fuller and more satiated because it's, it's actually a better food choice,

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you know, in most cases. Whereas healthy foods, complex carbohydrates, even good proteins

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in fat, they, like I said, they'll satiate your appetite and provide you with more energy

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that you actually need. If you avoid the junk food, you can, you know, in time curb your

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desire for them, but only if you remove them from your diet, if you, if you limit the amount

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of influence they have in your diet. So if we turn our diet now to the soul, like the

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soul or our diet for our soul, there's a well known quote that has been attributed to many

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throughout the years, but the version I like best is from a guy, Frank Outlaw. And this,

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this is a mantra, if you will, if something that resonates with, you know, it's something

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that resonates with me. Uh, it calls us to judge our thought life and we're told to do

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the same throughout the Bible. In fact, in Proverbs 4 23, it says, be careful what you

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think because your thoughts run your life. So Proverbs 4 23, I want to emphasize this

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before we get to the quote Proverbs 4 23, be careful what you think because your thoughts

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run your life. So here's the quote. Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your

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words. They become actions. Watch your actions. They become habits. Watch your habits. They

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become character. Watch your character or it becomes your destiny. And this is by Frank

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Outlaw. He was the late president of a chain of grocery stores, buy low stores. Let's read

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that one more time though. Or let's, you know, you listen to this, watch your thoughts. They

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become words. Watch your words. They become actions. Watch your actions. They become habits.

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Watch your habits. They become character and watch your character for becomes your destiny.

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Part of why this quote is so moving to me is that it emphasizes the choice that we have.

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We choose to cultivate certain thoughts. We allow the seeds of thought to be sown into

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the soil of our hearts and out of that and out from that grows our actions. Those actions

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multiply and multiply reaping a bountiful harvest that creates a strong habit. As habits

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are re-sown with the same actions fed the same thoughts, we build out a fortress or

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a silo that becomes our character. That tower that we are building from our thoughts and

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our actions then habits has a character that becomes our destiny. So we're building our

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resting place, if you will. That's what our destiny is. It's like our resting place. So

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as we build upon, you know, our, our thoughts, our actions, our habits and our character

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that we are building our resting place, which is our destiny. You can look at this in a

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different way. Instead of building a beautiful and purposeful tower, it could be that you're

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building a pit. So either you're building this, this tower that's your destiny, this,

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this, uh, you know, pillar, uh, or, or landmark or altar in your life that is your destiny

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and God, or you could be building yourself up a way, a gateway path into the pit. Right.

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So you could think about it either way. Are you digging yourself into a deeper hole or

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are you building yourself a resting place with the Lord on high?

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In first Timothy six, three through 10, it says to be careful of false teachers and,

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and true and fine true contentment. So let's read. If anyone teaches a different doctrine

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and does not agree with the sound words of the Lord Jesus Christ and teaching that accords

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with godliness, he has puffed up and get seated and understanding nothing. He has an unhealthy

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craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander,

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and indecisive suspicions, constant friction among people who are depraved in the mind

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and depraved truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain, but godliness with contentment

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is great game for we brought nothing into the world and we could take nothing out of

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the world. But if we have food and clothing with these things, we will be content. But

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those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful

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desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is at the root of all

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kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith.

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It pierced themselves with many pangs. So then what are we supposed to do? The scripture,

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the word of God is always our lighthouse. It is our measuring stick by bathing in the

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word of God regularly and praying for God's discernment. We can have faith that God will

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direct us towards his path and his godly desires for our lives. In Christ we have hope. That

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is why we preach the message of Christ to all who will listen.

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This brings me to my next point, which is earthly riches. As we think of earthly riches,

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again, keep in mind that our original text that we're working from, Matthew 6 19 is telling

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us not to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth. So when I'm talking about building

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your destiny, I'm not talking about earthly gain. I'm not even talking about salvation.

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If you've given your life to Jesus Christ, then you are saved. If you've repented of

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your sin and accepted him as Lord in faith, then you are saved and you will enter into

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heaven. You will enter into the kingdom of God. But he does tell us to lay up treasures

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in heaven where the moth and rust destroy. So that is as you become saved, you're going

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to want to serve the Lord. You're going to be in alignment with him. That's basically

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this desire from Jesus telling us that his desire for us is to work towards the kingdomly

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things, to the heavenly things. He's telling us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven

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because where we are working for, when we're laying up treasures in heaven, that's where

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our heart will be. If we're laying up treasures on earth, that's where our heart will be.

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Right? So let's keep that in mind that we are talking about spiritual treasures when

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we're thinking about the things of God. So as we look at earthly riches, riches being

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the abundance of invaluable possessions or wealth, there are many other ways of describing

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riches, abundance, treasure, wealth, affluence, assets, fortune, gold, opulence, plenty, property,

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resources, substance, worth, the opposite of course being lack or poverty or debt. And

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some similar synonyms to this would be like carnal. When we talk about earthly riches,

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we're talking about a carnality, temporal, terrestrial, or worldly. So there's a powerful

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excerpt from the Lay of the Last Minstrel by Canto, or in Canto 6, sorry, by Sir Walter

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Scott. And it goes a little something like this. It says, Breathe there the man with

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soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land, whose heart

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hath near within him burned, as home his footsteps he hath turned. From wandering on a foreign

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strand if such there breathe go mark him well, for him no minstrel rapture swell. High though

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his titles, proud his name, boundless his wealth, as wish can claim. Despite those titles,

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power impel, the wretch concentrated all in self, and doubly dying shall go down, or actually

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living shall forfeit, fair renown, and doubly dying shall go down, to the vile dust from

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whence he sprung, unwept, unhonored, and unsung. So like the pleasures of sin, earthly riches

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last only for a very short season. You know, if we're lucky in life, you'll live to your

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seventies or your eighties, or by strength of will you make it into the hundreds. This

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is why we're warned about fostering this covetousness relationship, or covetous relationship with

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wealth, fame, and riches here on earth. Blessings is not the concern here. We can see from the

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story of Job that God enjoys blessing his people. We can see that with the entire story

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of Israel, there are blessings, they are a blessed people, and their propensity to turn

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away from God didn't stop God from blessing them as a nation throughout their history,

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and trying to call them back to him. The issue isn't having the riches, but rather hoarding

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the riches, or the use of earthly gain for things outside of God's purpose. If you look

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at the story of Solomon, he was the wisest of kings and the richest of kings, but it

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was his foolishness in the end to show off his wealth and splendor in a way that was

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unbefitting such a wise king that ended up causing problems for his ancestors down the

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line. So again, we're called to be emissaries for this heavenly kingdom, but if we were

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to be witnesses to the world for God, the creator, then what example are we setting?

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If people look into our spending habits, what would they see? Is your spending, your savings,

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your focus on the things of God or on the things of man? How do you go about gaining

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wealth? Are you doing this in an ethically or moral way? So people on the outside are

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looking at us as Christians, and they're judging us and trying to see, are they being ethical,

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are they being responsible? This is not an idea of, oh, well, they're not giving the

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charities that I like, or oh, they're not supporting things that I like. That's not

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what I'm talking about, because we all know that there's going to be judgment from sinners

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because we do not align with them spiritually, but we still have to work and ourselves and

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be ethical. Proverbs 28, 6 says, better is the poor man who walks in his integrity than

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a rich man who is crooked in all his ways. This speaks to that truth that we are called

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to have integrity in the ways of God first. And then if blessing comes through that, then

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great, but it is better to be the poor man and have integrity than to be the rich man

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and be crooked.

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And Luke 16, 19 through 31, we see this illustrated with the rich man in Lazarus. In verse 19,

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there is a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every

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day and at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores, who desired to

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be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked

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his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by angels to Abraham's side. The rich

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man also died and was buried and in Hades being tormented. He lifted up his eyes and

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saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy

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on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am

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an anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that in your lifetime you

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received your good things and Lazarus in like manner, bad things. But now he is comforted

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here and you are in anguish. And beside all this, between us and you, a great chasm has

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been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able and none

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may cross from there to us. And he said, then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's

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house for I have five brothers so that they may warn them, so that he may warn them lest

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they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham said, they have Moses and the

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prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, no, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to

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them from the dead, they will repent. He said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the

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prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. How prophetic.

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I mean, obviously, you know, Jesus knew what was going to happen in this situation and

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he's giving this this, uh, you know, a parable. But the reality is, is this is foreshadowing

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to what to come and is foreshadowing for the time that we live in now where we do have

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a risen Lord and people still choose not to believe. And Revelation 18, 16 through 17

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says, alas, alas for the great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet

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adorned with gold and with jewels and with pearls for in a single hour, all this wealth

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has been laid to waste. These scriptures highlight for us the frailty of earthly riches. Even

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in the story of Job, we can see a picture of how quick our wealth and abundance can

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be swept away. We see Job is a godly man being tested. Everything was taken away from Job,

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his kids, his wealth, even his health. He was only left with his very judgmental friends

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and an understandably bitter wife. Thank goodness Job remained a hedge of protection for his

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wife. Even though Job was considered blessed and rich by man prior to these events, it

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was not these riches that set him apart and why he can still be read and we can still

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read about him today. Job was set apart because his actual riches were stored up in heaven.

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He went through a tremendous trial, but in the end he was vindicated by and his blessings

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were multiplied. But his true riches are still the riches that he received stored up in heaven.

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Which brings me to my third and final point, which is heavenly riches. Synonyms for heavenly,

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angelic, blissful, celestial, delectable, delicious, divine, glorious, holy, lovely,

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supernatural, wonderful. These are the kind of riches that we're trying to store up in

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heaven. The focus of our life being one that we are trying to go forward in and align with

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the heavenly vision that we have received in Jesus Christ. As we move forward in that

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heavenly vision, we're storing up the riches in heaven that Jesus Christ tells us to focus

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in. Again in the text it says in verse 20, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven.

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This is from our Lord, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not

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break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart is. I emphasize again

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that this is the works that come by the faith that you've already put into action. You've

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already had faith, which you received salvation by grace of no work of your own. But because

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now you have Jesus in your heart, your life starts to change and you become aligned with

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him, now you have a desire to do the things of God, to work towards laying up these treasures

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in heaven. That's what we're talking about here is the outflow that comes from salvation

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by grace. We're not talking about works that lead to salvation. We're talking about works

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that come from a changed life because of salvation. In Hebrews 13, 5, it says keep your life free

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from the love of money and be content with what you have for he has said, I will never

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leave you nor forsake you. This is something I battled with all the time. I'm a working

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pastor. I'm a pastor full time, but I do have a full time job as well. What does that mean?

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That means I have to in my day to day life remember that this is my calling is to preach

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the gospel and to reach the lost. This is my focus to do that. I had to grow in my own

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life into a place where I knew that I needed to have a job to help provide for my family,

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but for a long time I was chasing after corporate goals. I'd had jobs that were going to potentially

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lead me to higher responsibility, but they always required an amount of commitment that

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was going to take me away from the things of God. They were always going to take me

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away from my family to a certain extent. There's this corporate rat race idea of if you want

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to make it in life, you need to sacrifice all of these things on the altar of whatever

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corporation you're working for. It's a shame really because we're supposed to be looking

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towards the heavenly things and oftentimes many people will do this. I came to a place

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in my life where I had to understand that the benefits received from this corporate

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race were going to be hugely detrimental to not just my family and my life here on earth,

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but they were going to be detrimental to my spiritual life. I had to come to a place where

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I literally was able to say, I'm giving you my life, Lord. I'm going to be content with

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where I'm at. I'm going to be content with what I have. I'm going to do a good job with

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the responsibilities I have, but I need to focus in on the things of God. When we look

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at Andre Augustine, he says that despite his wealth of success playing the game interfered

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with his personal relationships, he felt disconnected with his life. He then became very involved

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with philanthropy and was especially interested in education. He started taking his eyes off

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of himself, his success, and a lot of the success drive that he had came from his relationship

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with his earthly father, the fact that his father desired for him to be this superstar

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in tennis. He had these barriers that caused him to be very aloof in his own personal life

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and it was very hard for him. But it wasn't until he was able to put that aside and start

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serving others that he started finding fulfillment.

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Why did Andre feel so unfulfilled despite his immense earthly success? As we read earlier

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in 1 Timothy 6, 9, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare,

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into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. Discontentment

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can drive people to desire riches when the root of their discontentment is that they

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are not connecting to the Father. Even with Andre, we can see that in his heyday he had

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issues with alcoholism. He was looking for love with all sorts of different women and

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models and different things. He wasn't finding fulfillment in what he was doing so he was

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looking for other things to fill this void in his heart. But here's a useful article

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that expands upon this thought. Discontent is one of the most powerful shaping influences

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in our society. Advertisers regularly attempt to dissuade us from the things we use every

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day in order to sell us their products. Political parties thrive on discontent, stirring up

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voters to covet things they do not have in order to elect a candidate who will take from

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one group of people and give to another. Truly contentment is rare today. So think about

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that though because this is not a new idea. This is one of the things that led to the

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fall of Greece was in the democracies of Greece they were true straight democracies. The way

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that political leaders would win their elections was they would take from one group usually

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the richer minority group because everybody in Greece got one vote and they would take

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from the more elite richer group and give to the poor group. As time goes on this process

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would continue to happen until now. There is not an affluent richer group. Everybody

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has a lot less of everything and it caused Greece to be ripe for being taken over. That

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is with Alexander the Great and eventually their empire collapsed upon itself.

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This is why there is so much advertising though to gaining riches, fame, and power is that

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this idea of focusing in on the discontentment of others. When discontentment is the driving

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force in a person's life all sorts of problems can result. Spouses can rush headlong into

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extramarital affairs. Households can pile on loads of debt as they try to keep up the

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lifestyle of their neighbors. Biblical truths can be distorted in an effort to make the

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message easier to sell. Timothy faced some kind of doctrine elaborations resulting from

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teachers who made monetary gain their chief end in life. The prosperity gospel is nothing

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new and that is why Paul urges contentment with one's own estate in 1 Timothy 6, 6-8.

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He expands upon this principle in today's passage reminding us that a desire to be rich

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fueled by discontentment can create senseless desires and result in destruction. Note that

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Paul does not say that those who are rich are the ones who succumb to temptation as

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if having wealth is evil in itself. Many of the saints who lived during biblical area

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were wealthy. For example in Genesis 13, Luke 8, 1-3 we can see this. So being rich itself

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is not sinful. What Paul is warning us against is the desire for wealth. But even here he

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is not cautioning against the desire to improve one's estate but the desire that makes money

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and things to be the end all be all of life. The apostle is warning us not to be like the

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rich fool who stores up possessions only for himself and never thinks about how he can

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benefit others. As John Calvin explains, having luxuries is not to be condemned on its own

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account but lusting after them is always sinful. Those who love money above all else will do

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anything to get more of it. They will fall into a snare. We just read that in 1 Timothy

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6, 9 which is the same word used in snare of the devil in 3, 7. People who worship gold

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and silver will find their bank account will not help them escape the same fate reserved

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for Satan. So as we close we need to look at the focus on heavenly riches. What does

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that mean? We are called to build our house on the rock of Christ. The revelation of Jesus

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the Messiah, the son of God. Our purpose then is to build our lives around that revelation.

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Our focus should be on the great commission of spreading the gospel, spreading the word

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of God, and seeing others saved by God's grace. As we move into the purpose that, as

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we move into this purpose that's laid out for us in the Bible and focus our efforts

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on God's will, then Jesus will be building our heavenly home and storing up our heavenly

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riches. John 14, 1-3, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Let not your hearts be troubled.

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Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I

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would not have told you, or would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.

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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself

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that where I am you may also be. So in closing, watch your desires. As we read in Proverbs

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423, be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life. Watch your thoughts,

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they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become

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habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character for it becomes your destiny.

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And then remember, we're not trying to store up earthly riches. As we read in our text,

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we're not laying up treasures here on earth because they can be eaten by the moth, destroyed

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by rust, and thieves can come and steal them. In Revelation 18, we see again that it doesn't

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matter how fine of clothes you're in, the city, the greatness of the city that you live

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in, how many jewels and pearls and gold you have, because all this can be laid to waste

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in just a single hour. And in the times we live in today, this is a very critical thing

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for us to understand with everything that could be on the horizon, with all the wars

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and rumors of wars, with all the tumultuous events that are happening in the economies

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of the Western cities. As the Western nations are collapsing in on their own lack of integrity,

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we need to remember that trusting in the riches that we have right now is foolish.

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We need to be laying up our heavenly riches. We need to keep our mind and our heart and

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our spirit focused on the things of God. Because that's what's going to help us to weather

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these storms like Job did and to build for ourselves treasures in heaven. Every head

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bowed, every eye closed. Of course, if you're driving, keep a 10 and 2, keep your eyes on

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the road. But everybody else, I always like to take a quick minute to give an invitation.

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As a Pentecostal church, we believe in the invitation and doing altar calls. And it doesn't

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matter where you are because anything can become an altar if you're doing it with a

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right heart. And what do I mean by that? It's simply we just give an invitation that if

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this message has impacted you, if this message has spoken to you and you know you're not

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right with Jesus Christ, you know you're not right with God right now, I want to give you

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the opportunity to get right. I want to give you the opportunity to be saved. And what

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does that mean? That just simply means that you're turning from your sinful life, you're

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accepting Jesus as your Savior and faith. And then therefore you receive grace. It's

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an invitation that's open for everybody. But you have to allow yourself to receive it.

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It's nothing we do. You just have to open yourself to receive it. So if that's you,

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it's as simple as this sinner's prayer, which is, Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner. And

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you can repeat this after me. Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you

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sent your son Jesus Christ and that he died on the cross for my sins. I repent of my sins.

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I turn away from them and I accept you Lord as my Savior. I ask you to enter into my heart

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and be my Lord and Savior in my life. And I thank you for the grace that you bestowed

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upon me in salvation that comes from that grace in Jesus name. Amen.

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If you pray that prayer, I'd really appreciate it if you shot me a message, if you reached

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out to me, I'd love to hear from you. And otherwise I just thank you for listening to

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this message and I look forward to you coming back again. I just want to quickly close in

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prayer. Dear Lord, I pray this message goes out from here and touches the nations of the

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world. I hope that it reaches the lost to bring them to call them to Christ through

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your Holy Spirit for nothing that I do can can bring people to salvation. But I pray

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that the Holy Spirit would use this to bring people to you to the foot of the cross and

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that they give their lives to you. I give you all the praise and glory and Jesus mighty

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name. Amen. Thank you again and I can't wait for you to come back next time.