It's time again for us to come and do what we were created to do. And that's to glorify our Lord and enjoy his presence. But with these type of gatherings, we get to enjoy his presence in the company of other believers, brothers and sisters in Christ that have the same attitude of gratitude, that have the same attitude of praise, worship, and adoration. The same attitude of appreciation for what was accomplished for us to reconcile us back to the father. The same attitude of appreciation for the fact that he's not only died for us, but now he lives in us. And he now empowers us and strengthens us and encourages us, illuminates our understanding, matures us, and causes us to be like his son. And so we bless him for that. So let's just carry that appreciation into his presence. Lord, we bless you. We thank you, Lord God, for this gathering. Lord, you said wherever two or more gathered in your name, there you be in the midst. And so we know you're faithful to your promise. So we want you to just magnify yourself in our gathering. We want you to be lifted up in our gathering. So Lord, before we start, Lord, come boldly before your throne room of grace, knowing that we will obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. We have various needs, so we appreciate that grace. Lord, now we just pray, Lord, that as you present yourself in this gathering, Lord God, that you forgive us and cleanse us of all sins of omission and sins of commission, things that we should have done throughout the course of the week and neglected to do. Things that we should do, but things that we shouldn't have done that offend you or grieve you, Lord. We don't want anything to get in the way of intimate communion with you individually and corporately. So Lord, just have your way, move by your spirit, bring order out of the chaos, Lord God, individually and collectively. Put us on one accord, put us in one mind, Lord. You know, it's your desire that we be one, even you as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. strengthen that bond of unity in a way that is is only supernatural. Now, Lord, arrest our emotions, arrest our thoughts. Lord, we want you to be lifted up in this gathering and we want you to draw people in that don't know you to yourself. And those who know you, those of us who know you, we want to be drawn in more a more intimate, close communion with you. You said you take us from glory to glory and from strength to strength. So we want to just grow and graduate and mature in you. and accomplish the purpose for which you set out for us to do individually and corporately. So Lord, give us ears to hear what you have to say. Use the preacher mightily, Lord, with your dunamis power, Lord. Lord, you said, Paul said, I don't come with lofty words of human eloquence, but in the demonstration of spirit and power. And so let that power be manifested in our gathering, bringing conviction, transformation, deliverance, healing, Lord, we just want you to have your way. Use the singers, use the musicians, use the congregation. Your anointing destroys the yoke, so we just want you to be large and in charge in this gathering. Have your way, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Bless the Lord. So we're gonna read together. From the book of Matthew. Chapter seven, verse seven through 14, let's read. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good gifts, good things to those who ask him? So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Enter by the narrow gate, For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. Bless the Lord for his word. Bless God. Amen. Amen, everybody. How many of you came to lift up the name of Jesus on today? Hallelujah. How many getting ready to lift him up? I came ready to bless him. Hallelujah. We are excited to be here. Just excited at another opportunity to give God thanks. Hallelujah. Give him praise. To say thank you. Come on, let's lift up the King of kings and the Lord of lords. My savior, my deliverer, my way maker, hallelujah. Bread of life, Savior, Redeemer You are wonderful, Counselor, Holy One Bread of life, Savior, Redeemer You are wonderful, Counselor, Holy One Jehovah, Jireh, Elohim. You are. High priest and heir of all living things. Jehovah, Jireh, Elohim. You are. High priest and heir of all living things. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Resurrected Son and Righteous One, You are Mighty Strong Towered Beloved One. Resurrected Son and Righteous One, You are Mighty Strong Towered Beloved One. Famous God of the world and the earth. You are. King of kings but of true royalty. Famous God of the world and the earth. You are. King of kings but of true royalty. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah Lord we worship you not just for what you've done But Lord we worship you just for who you are Lord we worship you not just for what you've done, but Lord we worship you just for who you are. Lord we worship you not just for what you've done, but Lord we worship you just for who you are. We worship you because you are who you are. Give Him the highest praise. What's the highest praise? Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Anybody not talking back? Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. You are, you are. You are, are, are. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Jesus lives. ♪ Yeah, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, you are, You're the living word. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You are. You are. You are. You're Jesus. You are. You're Jesus. You are. My deliverer. You are. My deliverer. You are. My way maker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You know he love when we call his name. Hallelujah. I dare you to just scream Jesus. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are God. You are. You are. You deliverer. You save me. Yes, you did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You are God. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are deliverer. You are. You are way maker. You are. You are strong. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. Hallelujah. Oh, I know he's my god. Yes, he is. I know what he can do. How many just say I've seen your works? Yes. Wonderful. The marvelous are the works of your hands. Y'all God has carried us all the way through. I can guarantee you, when I started January, I had no idea my December would look like this. But bread of life, he has been. Bread of heaven, he is. Hallelujah. He's an awesome ruler. Yes. What a friend we have in Jesus. I'd be honored to call him a call a servant. I'd be honored to be a servant but he called us friend. sent down from glory. born of a virgin. and all of that so that we would have a right. Yes, lord. Yes, lord. Way to get back to god. Bread of life, sent down from glory. Many things you were on earth, a holy king, a carpenter. You are the living word, say now. Bread of life, sent down from glory. Sent down from glory. Many things You are on earth A Holy King, a Carpenter You are the bread of heaven Sent down from glory Many things Many things You are on earth A Holy King, a Carpenter You're an awesome ruler, awesome ruler, gentle redeemer, gentle redeemer, God with us, God with us, the living truth, and what a friend we have in you. You're an awesome ruler, gentle redeemer. God with us, yeah. The living truth and what a friend. Oh, we call you Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus. That's what we call you. That's what we call you. You were born. You were born then on a tree. You died to save humanity. You are the living word. Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus. That's what we call you. That's what we call you. You were born. You were born below the tree. You died to save humanity. You are the living word. Jesus, Jesus. That's what we call you. I'm so happy you were born. One more time. That's what we call you. You die to save humanity. You want to save the world? Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Say oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Lift your hands if you believe. You want to save the world? Say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus That's what we call you now Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. What we call you. Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus That's what we call you Jesus, Jesus, Jesus You are the living word. You are the living word. You are the living word. You are the living word. You are the living word. You are the living word. You are the living word. They said death was coming for me, but you are the living word. They said pain was coming for me but you are the living word. They said thirst was coming for me but you are the living word. Oh, you are the living word. You are the living word. No matter what you are, you are. You are the living word. No matter what comes my way, you are. You are the living word. You are the living word. You are the living word. You are the living word. You are the living word. You are the living word You are the living word Give god some glory in this place. Hallelujah. He's everything that we need and more. Thank you lord Jesus. We pray that you are blessed. Amen, family. Amen. Thank you. Thank you for the beautiful renditions from our choir. Very moving. Thank you so much. You know, what an amazing time we're going to have praying and worshiping and tearful giving today. God is definitely in the room. I don't know about y'all, but I've had a few challenges. for the last couple of weeks, you know, but thank God, leaning on him, was able to make it through. So I just have to say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Thank you for my TLC family. You know, thank you so much. Oh boy, wanna officially welcome you to Transforming Love Christian Center. Our services are held every Sunday at 1.30, and join us in Bible study every Thursday on Zoom at 7 p.m. However, you all know that on Christmas and New Year's, we will not be having those. We will be with family, okay? Okay? So, go ahead, hop across the aisle and give somebody a smile, a hug, or a high five. And don't forget, we also have our offerings, right? So you can do that, of course, online at titherly. Also, we have baskets on each end of our steps here. So you can also give, and please. know that Pastor Hawkins has a lot of things that he wants to do and is in the process of doing and we want to be sure that those things can be accomplished and we want to support him as well. Okay. So, if you all haven't done so, please, you know, take out your phones and and give do your offering and if you want, you can come up of course and just Put your envelopes if you have those in the baskets, or if you want to touch your phone to the basket, that's all good too. OK? But we want to make sure that we are supporting and giving, because we've got a lot of stuff to do. And as Sister Dani said, I can't believe it's December either, because the whole year has gone. OK? And we're almost ready to embark on a new year. So we certainly want to start off the right way. So again, while you're giving and so forth, you might want to hop across the aisle and give each other a hug. Someone that you didn't come with us, the pastor always says, but give someone a hug, a high five or a smile or whatever in the process, right? And we want to make sure that we welcome and say hello to our members online because we're glad you made it as well. So take a few moments to do that. Remember, we have materials on the back table. Remember to silence your phones. So we want to make sure that we hear what pastor has to say, the message he has to bring to us today. OK. This is such a beautiful sight to see everybody embracing and sharing love. Thank you, Jesus, for this wonderful day and for our friends and family here... Sister Danny has envelopes for anyone who did not get one or who needs one. Okay, we're gonna have to reign it in now. We're just about ready to hear from Pastor Hawkins. All right, let's begin to make our way to our seats. And while you're at it, remember to silence your phones, because we don't want to miss a word of the word. OK? OK, we're almost there. Remember, silence your phones, and now we're going to hear from Pastor Hawkins. Thank you. Praise the Lord, everyone. I'm normally used to my other microphone, but my microphone is actually disabled this morning. So I have to preach in a way that I'm not exactly totally comfortable with. But hopefully, That won't be too much of an interference. Amen. It's good to see everyone. Amen. It's a blessing to be here in the house of God. Good to be with everyone. Amen. My week was rather interesting, but I am trusting the Lord in spite of it all. Amen. I don't know about you, but God is still good. God is faithful. Amen. And he deserves honor and glory. Amen. For everything that he's done and everything he's doing. Amen. Amen, let's go ahead and pray and go before the Word of God this morning. Father God, I thank you so much for being here with us today, Father. I thank you so much for your faithfulness. I thank you for your Word because it is true. And you know good and well, Father, where we are and where we struggle. You know the things that we have need of, Father. You are sensitive to everything. And so today I just ask, Father, that you would preach this message through me. because the words that I am speaking, Father, they come from you, and I do not want my corrupt heart in any way to get in the way of what you want to say, Lord. I pray right now, God, that you would remove all the hindrances Any nervousness in me, any pushback from anyone else, Father, that would try to disagree with you this morning or try to ignore what you're saying this morning, Father, I pray that you would set us free from ourselves. Set us free to worship you. Set us free to live in the way that not only pleases you, but is best for us. And we thank you for these things in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Good to see some visitors this morning. Amen. I'm going to try my best not to disconnect this microphone cord because that's normally what happens with me. Amen. I will be very honest with you and say that today's word is a very challenging word for me. It heads right down my street. And I don't know if it's an issue for you as well, but these words that I'm about to read and what I'm about to preach is not something that I actually even like. But I know it's right. And it's not about me and how I feel or how you may feel. It's about the truth of the Word of God. Amen. This is what He said. And even though at times we may be like, oh, Lord, I'm not really ready for that one. The truth is that we have to preach the truth of God so that people will be free. Amen? Amen. And I am not pointing a finger at anyone this morning. I am right here with you. Amen? There are some things that are very challenging. in the Sermon on the Mount. God spoke through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus Christ to preach the Word and tell us things. And a lot of things that we will hear in this Word are not things that are most comfortable for us. Amen? So, let's go ahead and stand and read the Word, Matthew 6, 19 through 24. Help me, Holy Spirit. Matthew 6, 19 through 24 says, lay up treasures in heaven. Amen? Verse 19 says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? Last verse. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Amen. Let's be seated. I want to speak to you today from a sermon titled, The Wise Investment. The Wise Investment. Remember Jesus is speaking to primarily his disciples. The crowd is allowed to hear, but he's talking to people that he knows definitely struggle in this area. So if Jesus is preaching a sermon, that means that people are struggling with a certain issue, and that there's nothing that, you know, we can hide from. We can't be like, well, this sermon is really not for me. Amen? We're talking about God who knows everything and everyone. Amen. Here's the truth. Money makes us feel secure. We've been taught from birth that you build your lives around money. We are born, then we go to school, we learn a skill, we get a job, we get a bank account, and we keep putting money in that bank and we live off of what's in the bank account. Amen. Then we attach people and things, friends, and we go out with our girlfriends or our guy friends on Friday night after we got paid. We like houses and cars, and we might get children or wives or people that we love, and all of that is paid for by the money we get. Amen. We try to make wise choices. with the money. We try to save the money, and we try to invest, because to us, it just makes sense to try to hold on to as much money as we can. And the more money we have, the more secure we feel. When you're broke, you kind of don't have that edge, right? How you feeling, Brother Jamie? Yeah, I'm all right. But when your pocket is full and your money is right, how you doing, Jamie? I'm good, man. How you doing? Right? That's how we are. We feel more secure when we have some loot. Jesus says this, Matthew 6, 19. Don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Amen. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. Jesus is telling his disciples, he's telling his church, the people that are following him and are wanting to be like him, he's saying something that the world will never tell you. What he's saying in this passage here is that really there are two types of currency. One currency provides real security. The other currency does not provide any security at all. Amen? One is material or monetary or financial. The other is spiritual. But only one currency is protected from decay, from destruction, from thieves, right? The other currency is susceptible to all of them. Amen. Material goods, you know, they suffer from depreciation. The moment you get it, it loses its value most cases. Amen. The thing wears out or something that causes it to decay. Right? There is high risk in investing in the markets. You know, that will cause you to lose money. I read a statistic that said something like 90% of the people who invest in a stock market lose money or will lose money. Amen? So putting your money in something that can crash is not secure. Right? Then there's folks that will flat out rob you. There are financial crimes. We have people that commit fraud. And then there's folks in Oakland that just pull up on you. Take your money, right? What I'm saying here, Saints, is it's clear that the money we have in an earthly sense is not totally safe. And to really bring the point home, Whatever money you get while you're here, you can't take it with you when you die. So, hear this point, saints. With one particular currency, there is a 100% guarantee that you will lose it. One way or the other. While you're alive or while you're dead. Amen? But Jesus said there's another currency. a spiritual currency, and it's safe in an account in heaven, and it's not laid up or stored on the earth. This currency is not susceptible to decay, to destruction, or theft. You cannot break in God's bank and steal from Him. You can't touch His money. Amen? Nothing can affect or change our currency that is stored up in heaven. It is eternal. The treasure is safe in heaven forever and ever and ever. Amen. But what are the treasures of heaven? Don't lay up your treasures in earth, but store up your treasures in heaven. where neither moth nor rust nor thieves can break in and steal. Well, the treasures of heaven, listen very carefully, are things like paying tithes and offering, investing in what God is doing, amen, like buying Bibles for people that don't have Bibles so they can get the Word of God, amen, and giving them away, amen. Guess what else? Heavenly currency or the treasures of heaven are acts of obedience to God. Every time you do what God tells you to do, you're actually storing up treasures in heaven. Obedience to God has a spiritual currency that can never be taken from you. Amen. Amen. Evangelizing and bringing souls into the kingdom or bringing souls to Jesus Christ, that is a spiritual currency. Heavenly treasure. Heavenly treasure is the eternal value of whatever we accomplish on the earth for the glory of God. I'm going to say that again. Heavenly treasure is the eternal value of whatever we accomplish on earth for the glory of God. Every time we do something for the glory of God, we're storing up treasures in heaven. Amen. The old folks used to have a saying that said something like this. It sums up the difference between having earthly treasure and having heavenly treasure. They used to say, only what you do for Christ will last. In other words, everything that you're paying attention to and distracted from, that's trying to keep you from doing the will of God, that stuff is robbing you. Amen. The only way to have something that lasts forever is to do things for God. Do things for the glory of God. Every time we obey, every time we give of the currency that we have, that He's given us, we actually are storing up treasures in heaven. Are we clear? But let's dive deeper into this word treasure here. He says, for where your treasure is, verse 21, Matthew 6, 21, there your heart will be also. This is tough for me because I don't know about you, but I have this concept that things are mine and they belong to me. Right? We think like that, right? Right? And then he's saying that an indicator of where your heart is is wherever your actual treasure is. So if your treasure, whatever your treasure is, that's where your heart is. And if your treasure is your money, and your money is in Bank of America, or Wells Fargo, or Chase, then your heart is also in Bank of America, Wells Fargo, or Chase. Because where your treasure is, that's where your heart actually is. But if your heart is in heaven, then your treasure is in the kingdom. So then your energy, your motive, your interest will be in heavenly things. Because whatever occupies your thoughts and your time is really what you treasure. Did you catch that? The treasure is what's ever constantly on your mind. constantly what you're thinking about, constantly what you're worried about, constantly what you're concerned about. That's showing you where your treasure is. Your heart is the processing center of the thoughts and the desires and the emotions. So your heart will follow after whatever your treasure really is. Your whole life and all of your choices will center around what you treasure. It will center around your choices, and the choices that you make are based on whatever you choose to be your treasure. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So if you don't know what your treasure is, just look at what you're focusing on the most. Whatever you're focused on the most tells you the location of your heart. Wow. whether it be earthly things or heavenly things, right? Matthew 26 and 22 says this, the eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then, verse 23 says, if then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. The eye is used to bring in light to the body. We are able to see where we're going because the eye has the ability to illuminate our path to the body. Amen. Jesus is saying here that His words about heavenly treasure bring light and illumination to your life. Okay? But if your eye is not healthy, you can't receive the light. Okay. What he's saying is, if your eye is not healthy, if your eye is not pure, if your eye is not singular, if your motivation and your devotion to God is not at the highest interest, then that means you're having an unhealthy eye. Which means the light that's coming in is actually filtered by some darkness that's in the way. What are you saying, pastor? I'm saying that if I'm taken in the light right now but there's darkness in the way, I can't see where I'm going, I can't see what I need to do, I can't see value. Are you hearing what I'm saying? He's saying that there must be a singular devotion to God. The healthy eye is the eye that is mainly concerned about the things of God and God only. Okay. Singular motive, devotion to God and devotion to His interest. With the bad eye, the darkness is overpowering the light that's in you. What are you saying? Because you're focused on money and material things, that causes you to have impaired vision where you can't see as clearly as you would. Your choices are out of balance, which means you don't know what you should value. So when I'm thinking about all these worldly things and the things that I want to have and the things that I must accomplish or the things that I want to get or I'm worried about, you know, money and this kind of stuff, all those things get in the way of me seeing what's really, really valuable. Okay. Verse 24. It means that no man can serve two masters. But he's basically saying the problem is we are focused on two different things at the same time. We're focused on the material wealth and simultaneously the things of God. Huh. Because the eye is not healthy. The eye is not singular. The eye is not pure. We have dual vision. One time, I forgot to take off my contacts. And I put my glasses on top of my contacts. And it was an interesting thing that happened. I realized, Pastor Rick, that you would think that wearing two different prescriptions is more power. No. It actually made it worse. And then because I'm so used to putting on my glasses, I forgot the contacts were on, I'm fumbling around trying to figure out why I can't see. It took me a minute to realize what was going on. Okay? I couldn't see. Amen. And so I'm used to wearing my glasses. The contacts are a new thing for me. Okay? The glasses I've been wearing since I was six years old. I've been blind for a very, very long time. OK? But in order to see, I had to choose between one or the other. I couldn't wear both and be able to see where I was going and do what I needed to do. I had to make a decision whether or not I was going to take off the glasses or keep on the car. I couldn't wear both. Jesus is saying the reason why we are serving two masses is because we've got our eyes on Jesus and our eyes on things. We're focused on Him and focused on the money. And Jesus is calling for singular devotion. He's saying, I want your all. You belong to me. And if you actually do what I'm telling you, I will free you from actually being, oh, here we go, a person who's got double vision and can't see where they're going. Some of us are sitting up in church because our hearts are attached to all these other things. We're as blind as a bat. Spiritual blindness is really rebellion because we've been told not to trust in the riches, but we do it anyway. Right? We've heard preaching about trusting in earthly riches, right? And how it's not good for us, but we do it anyway. Amen? So it's really a form of rebellion. The darkness is overpowering the light. He's not saying that you don't have the light. He's saying that there's so much darkness in you because of your focus that is snuffing out the light. The thing that is leading and forcing our life is actually darkness and not Jesus because of our heart's desire to have a bunch of things. Our heart's desire to accumulate. Are you hearing me? He says, how great is that darkness? Do you even realize that darkness is running your life, running your choices? Amen. No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon or God and money. Money can be, hear me saints, almost done, a servant or a master. Amen. Money can be a servant or a master. It can serve you as a tool to glorify God, or it can enslave you and turn your heart against God. God tells you to spend your money on something for the kingdom? And because your treasure is really earthly things, you tell God, no, because you are saving it up for something else. You either... You hear what's happening here? He's saying, listen, listen, you can't serve both. One is going to force out the other. Right? Okay? God gave you a command for freedom. And because we love things or want to hold on to things or find our security in things and money, we don't actually do what he says. We are locked up by another master. Money is controlling us when Jesus wants to control us. The thing about God is he's always been about freeing his children from the wrong slave master. Being a slave to Christ equals freedom. Being a slave to money equals bondage. It's no different than when he was trying to free the Israelites. He was saying, you gotta get away from Pharaoh because he's giving you bondage. But I come to give you freedom. Right? There's no difference. Just a different king that we're trying to bow down to. That's all it is. Are you hearing me? so worried about the temporary money we broke in heaven. Help me, Jesus. You know what? It even affects our thinking, saints. You know, it affects the way we treat people. You know, you got people that come in the church. James talks about it. People that come in the church and, you know, oh, oh, oh, Bishop so-and-so, why don't you sit up here in the front? Oh, then we got, you know, then Steph Curry walks up in the church. Oh, Steph Curry's here, but why don't you come sit up in the front? Right? People in the entertainment industry or politicians come in and, oh, you need to, why don't you come up here and sit in the front? Right? And then you got somebody who looks like a pauper, who's broke. They're not dressed nicely. They're a little unkempt. They don't look like what we want to aspire to be. So we tell them, you go sit in the back. James talked about that, am I right, Rick? He said that in the book of James. You know, we tell them to go sit in the back, and the most prominent good-looking folks, the folks that got some money, we tell them to sit in the front. Here's the scary thing. The person in the back that's broke may be more spiritually rich than the folks we sitting up in front. They got money here, but it's going to fade away. It's going to go away. It's not going to be kept. It'll all disappear. Somebody could rob them. Somebody could take them. They can't take it with them. And the person in the back is doing things for God, living a holy life, concerned about the kingdom. Wasn't supposed to get saved. Wasn't to obey God. That person is actually the rich one. King Nebuchadnezzar. with a very, very rich and wealthy man. He was given power by God to rule. He walked out, looked at his kingdom one day, and he said, look at everything that I built. While he was talking, God cursed him. He said, don't you know that everything you got came from me? He was given power, given riches. God made him powerful, and we would aspire to be like King Nebuchadnezzar. Why? Because of everything that he has. See, the earthly treasure can mess up your thinking when you're not thinking balance. The truth of the matter is, King Nebuchadnezzar had money only because God was using him, not because God favored him. He wasn't blessed by God, he just had money. He was just somebody that God was using. He was on God's chessboard, but he wasn't a child of God. Are you hearing? He's moving him as a pawn, using him. And we're saying, oh, I want to be like that person. I want to be like that person. That person is cursed. God help us. The truth is, saints, the money that Nebuchadnezzar had wasn't his. The power he had wasn't his. The truth is, the money that you and I have is not yours or mine. Psalm 24 and 1 says this. Psalm 24 and 1, it says, the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, the world and all those who dwell in it. Another translation says, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. The world and all his people, its people belong to the Lord. When I go and put, watch this, my money in the bank, I have to remind myself, dude, this ain't your money. Right? And since it doesn't belong to me, it belongs to God. And if it belongs to God, then the best thing we could do with his money is invest it wisely. Amen. Use the money as a tool to glorify God. Amen. God wants us to make wise investments. So Jesus here is forcing me and you, he's forcing us to see the question of loyalty. Are our hearts really loyal to him? Are our hearts really loyal to our security and our comfort? Or are we like a lot of church folks, myself included, where we got this mixed thing going on? Amen? You know, the truth is, is I would like for God to bless me with millions. But the things that I say to myself all the time is, will I do the right thing with it? Will I actually glorify God with more? Can I be honest with you? I don't know if I would. Yeah. I don't trust you to do it either. So I don't feel bad. I think we all have correction in this area, right? Jesus was preaching to His disciples knowing their issues. He was like, I'm getting ready to use you mightily, but I see a problem. There's divided loyalty. I understand the problem because you're trained to function in such a way where you take care of yourself and find security in having some things. That makes you feel secure. You've been born into that process. You know? Sinfully, yes, but also the environment around you. We've been taught this. You know? We got women that don't marry dudes unless they got some money. We got dudes now that don't marry women unless they got some money. Right? We're all thinking about it. I love you. I love you. How much you got? Right? That's kind of how we function, right? Oh, I would love to have this job. This is going to be a nice job. Nice and comfortable. I love all the perks. How much you paying? Right? That's what it comes down to. And then we come to church and we say, Lord, this is what I want you to do. I want you to bless me with more. My prayer request, Lord, is, you know, I'm struggling. I want this. I want that. I want things to be easier. The question is, is will I do the right thing by it? Will I be loyal to Christ or my flesh? Will I be in the kingdom pursuing, you know, God's purposes, or will I be, you know, about this world system? Am I praying and asking God to make me one of the people that you sit up in the front? I finally made it. God, you've been good. Think about it. And God is saying that there are people who have nothing that are outdoing us in the kingdom. And they're stinking filthy rich in such a way that nothing can be taken from them. They can't lose what they have because they're investing in the right kingdom. Their treasures are not on the earth. Their treasures are in heaven. I struggle with this, saints. Can I be honest with you? Is that okay for me to tell you that? That's a real issue for me. That's been a real issue in our family. You know, we want to be able to make it, right? Nothing wrong with that. The question is, is where's our heart? How many people am I trying to evangelize? Am I buying Bibles for anybody? Am I obeying God? If God told me to do something big, could I do it? But when I tell him, no. I'm saving this for something else. I'm sorry to tell you, Lord, but I have two masters. You and my money. Remember, Jesus is talking to his disciples. He's not talking to unsaved folks here. You're saved, you're in Christ, but you're struggling because you got two masters. And as long as we live under this dual leadership, we will have dual vision. We will not be able to see clearly what God has for us. We will not know what we should really value. We will be making investments time after time, year after year, in the wrong area. Our treasures will be in earth and will be broke in heaven. Jesus is calling for exclusive rights to His people. Why? Because He knows that He is the better master. He knows that money is a horrible, horrible God. He knows that money will have you doing all kinds of things out of the will of God to try to keep it and save it and hold on to it and, oh my goodness, Is it just me, or anybody else deal with this issue? Three people. All right. That's better than I thought. Maybe it's, no, she put up two hands. OK. OK. Is it just me? Whose message is this? I just want to see. OK. All right. Some people actually don't struggle in this area. You know? You say you struggle? You know? Some people are not affected when they get it and when they lose it. Some people are. You know, I went to the slot machine and put in 25 cents and lost it with upset. Upset. I put in one coin, pulled it down, they took it, and I was like, never again. Never again. You ain't going to take my money. I'm saying I don't gamble because I have a problem. But God wants to rid us of our dependence. God wants to rid us of our security issue. He wants to free us. Because if, you know, if we get to a place where we're trusting God, More than we're trusting this mammon thing, we are moving into the kingdom. And here's the thing, there's the promise of great reward for those of us who have sold into the kingdom of God. There's the promise of great sorrow for those of us who have sold into earthly riches. You can't keep it. You either lose it, it's stolen, or finally, when you leave, you go without it. So Christ is telling us, no man can serve two masters, for you will either hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.