Money Talks

Josh Thames // May 18, 2021

Money determines many things in this life, whether we have a little or a lot. God isn’t out to get your money, but he doesn’t want your money to get you. In this message, we study James 5:1-6 to see how the way we view, make, and use money reveals what we’re really living for.

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Hello, Porch! My name is Josh Thames. Like you heard, I get to be part of our team over in Fort Worth. Welcome to everybody in the room. Welcome to all of our friends online in Scottsdale, Arizona; Boise, Idaho; and especially you friends in Fort Worth. Here's what I want to do. I'm going to pray for us, and then we'll jump in.

Father, thank you for the opportunity tonight to gather around your Word. Thank you for the fact that it is living and active and that it changes hearts. It is a sweet thing to be in a room full of people who want to learn about you, know more about you. Father, I pray that if there is anyone in the room tonight who doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, tonight would be the night that you miraculously show them just how desperately they need you and how great you love them.

Father, I pray that as we jump into James, you would get me out of the way. Would nothing that I say that comes just from me, Father, be heard tonight, but would you speak through me. Father, would you clear my head and all of the insecurities it's easy to have here, Father, and may your Word speak through me. It's in your name we pray, amen.

Okay, friends. I'm really excited to be in the room tonight. It has been a while since I've gotten to be here. Here's where I'd like to start. I'd like to tell you guys a little bit about myself. I grew up in the Midwest on a farm. We didn't actually farm it. We just lived on a farm. Then I was one of those kids… I was kind of geared toward adventurous or, what you might call, reckless things. I just loved to do things that were crazy. I had a little XR70 dirt bike, and I would just jump everything. I'm kind of wired that way.

After some time, I was introduced to the wonderful sport of rodeo, specifically bull riding. It's really amazing. It's one of your better career choices. So, this is what I did. I jumped into high school rodeo, and then one day, one of my high school buddies was like, "Bro, we should go down the road. There's a pro rodeo." At this point I'm only 17. I'm not supposed to be there. "We'll just lie to them, tell them we're 18. We'll get in." I was like, "I'm in."

So we go. I go to the first pro rodeo of my life, and that night, I end up winning that thing. If you guys don't know how bull riding works, you strap yourself to a really wild animal, and then you just make a funny face for as long as possible and try not to fall off. That's what you do. I did that twice in a row. Sixteen seconds later, and I made $8,000. Right. That was what I thought. I was like, "I cracked the code. I know exactly what I'm going to do. This is going to be awesome."

I no longer look or dress like I rode bulls, so I was trying to show with these pictures I really did do this thing. It was really fun. What I did was I went home to Mom and Dad, and I was like, "Mom, Dad, it has been great. High school was awesome." Two weeks into junior year, I said, "I'm out." I did the math. I'm like, "I make way more at 16 seconds, $8,000, than all of my friends who graduated college." So, I said no to high school, bought a minivan, turned it into a little miniature motor home, threw my pit bull named Cowboy in there, and off we went.

My dad, of course, was like, "Doesn't the Bible say something about testing the Lord? Isn't this kind of dangerous?" I was like, "We'll figure it out." So that is what I did. Here's why. Here's what happened. In 16 seconds, I was like, "I just made so much money. This is seriously going to be epic. I can make all this money. I can do whatever I want. I can be totally free." Here's the thing about bull riding: No one was in charge of me. I didn't have a coach. I got to go wherever I wanted to go. I made $8,000 this night, and then I did it again, and I did it again. I truly was like, "I'm going to do this."

No matter what person you meet, no matter how cowboy they are, here's the deal. If someone wasn't paying me… If there wasn't money involved in riding bulls, the only people who would do it would be your drunk cousins, like, "Bro, check this out." No one would actually do this. But because of this love of and pursuit of both money and the significance I found in it, I dove headfirst. It really is comical to think that I willingly was strapping myself, literally tying myself to 1,500 pounds of wild animal in the hopes that I would get a paycheck.

The reason I start there is because James tonight is going to show us that our money talks. Your money says something about you. Most of you are thinking, "Yes. My money mostly says goodbye," which I understand. Here's why this is so important, though. Money determines a lot in your life, whether you have it or you don't. It determines where you live, what you do for fun, which college you went to, and even what major you picked, what clothes you wear if you have clothes to wear. Money is how we acquire food. It's how we acquire shelter. It's also how we acquire value for our skills and the work we do.

Here's what that means: money just hits different. It has a unique role in our lives. Truly, there is something really deep down, even all the way to survival… God in his kindness designed money to be something we needed, that we couldn't be dependent. That's what makes money so dangerous. If you get enough of it, because of how you can exchange it not only for clothes and food but how you can begin to have fun with it, and people begin to look at you differently if you have a lot of it…

If you gain enough money, it begins to make you feel like, "Maybe I don't need God. Maybe I can be independent. Maybe I can be autonomous." What was meant to remind us of our dependence and need soon becomes why we forget, because we have a lot of it. "I can take care of myself now. I've got money. God, I don't need you. You just kind of stay in that place, and I'll just do whatever I want."

Here's what I want you to know: this isn't a message where we're trying to get your money, and also, God doesn't want your money. He owns it all. He doesn't want your money to get you. So, James is going to dive into this. Here's the thing. Some of you aren't just putting 8 seconds of your life on the line for money. For some of you, it's like 8 years or 80 years or maybe the entirety of your life all centered around the one goal of acquiring more money.

As we said already, we are in the book of James. James is really cool. This is just for free. James, I think, is the greatest… To me, I'm going, "This is how I know Jesus is real." This dude's brother said he was God. I don't know if you guys have siblings. One of my siblings is here, and I don't know what I would have to do to convince him I was God. James is one of the greatest proofs that Jesus was really real.

So, James is the half-brother of Jesus, and at this time, as he's writing this letter, he's the leader of the church in Jerusalem, the first church that started, and he's writing this letter to all of the Christians who are scattered throughout Palestine. I promise you all this context matters. A major theme of this book is that Christians are to be doers of the word, not just hearers; that our faith isn't simply a matter of the heart, but it is something that compels us to action and changes how we live.

It was also written in a time where there wasn't really a middle class. You had rich and you had poor and nothing in between. This little section, James 5:1-6, is written to, I believe, all people who are rich…not just rich Christians, but everyone who is rich. If you guys are anything like me, you're like, "Thank goodness. This guy is talking about being rich. Phew! I'm out. This is not me. This is awesome. I don't have to worry about what's coming next. I can just enjoy the good vibes of good worship and then leave here."

Here's what I want you to do, and I really want you to do this. Everybody listening online, I want you to do the same thing. I want you to pull out your phone for me, and I want you to type into your browser howrichami.org. As you guys are doing that, I want you to then type in your salary, type in what you make, and then hit "Calculate." You guys are laughing because you're nervous. I get it. It was convicting.

Here's what I found out. If you make $33,500 a year, you are in the top 5 percent of the world. The world. I'm not talking just underdeveloped places. I'm talking even in the whole developed world you are in the top 5 percent. You might be in here tonight like, "I have so much debt. I'm living off things…" You might be thinking, "It's still not for me." I would bet that maybe everyone in the room is going to leave here tonight, and you're going to go home, and there's going to be this little thing on the wall that if you're like, "I think I want it two degrees warmer," you can hit that.

Why do I do that? I do that because this little text really applies to us in the Western world. So, tonight, we are going to see how you view money, how you make money, and how you use money reveals where you find your security, significance, and satisfaction. Ultimately, it reveals who you are living for. So, jump in with me to James 5:1-6.

"Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.

Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you."

You're like, "Bro, James, you hit hard, man. Why do you have to be so straightforward with this?" I think it's really amazing. We see inside of here there are four indictments of the rich people James is talking to: hoarding riches, stealing or withholding wages, living in luxury, and oppressing the righteous. Overall, James is talking about the misuse of money and what misusing money says about you and then what it will bring you.

  1. How you view money says something about you. I'm just going to read verses 1-3 again. "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days."

So, what are these guys doing? Here's the indictment against them. At this point, all of these rich people are taking all their stuff and just hoarding it. They're keeping it for themselves. There are people in need… Like I said, there were rich people and there were poor people. Even the rich Christians are going, "I'm going to keep all this to myself," to the point that they've hoarded their riches enough it is starting to go to waste. It's truly just going to waste. They've decided, "I'm going to keep this."

I think there are probably a lot of reasons we would hoard or why they would even hoard riches. It may be plain selfishness or greed, but the one I want to highlight tonight is the fact that when you and I have a lot of riches, it makes us feel secure. What they're looking for and what they're finding inside of money is their security.

What's interesting is that James describes the rich people here very differently than you and I naturally would. He's talking about how they should be weeping and howling because of the miseries that are coming. That's very different than how I would describe my friend who's driving his new Jeep Rubicon down to the lake house, and no matter what happens, life is set for him. I probably am not thinking, "Man, that looks like a miserable life."

What's James saying? Why is he saying that? Why is he saying, "Here's what the rich have, and here's what they have coming"? What he's talking about here is the last days. When he says, "You've stored up treasures in the last days," he's talking about when Jesus is going to come back and there's a judgment day. There's going to be a time where he looks at you and me and everyone, and we'll either know him or we will not.

This is what James is saying. If you know Jesus, you spend the rest of eternity with him. If you don't know Jesus, you spend the rest of eternity in the lake of fire. He literally is saying, "Their riches are going to be evidence against them, and it will lick their flesh like fire." He's going, "How they have viewed their riches will tell me where their allegiance lies, who it is they really love."

So, they had found security. There are really two things that are happening here. They found security, first, in things that don't last. He's going, "You rich people are putting all of the security in things that are going to rot. They're going to go away. Your clothes get eaten. The food will rot. It won't ever last." They've bought a lie. Even in the life we live now, we all know it's temporary. Things don't last forever.

I brought this for you to see. This was a really big deal to me back in the day. I don't know if you guys know what this is. I saved up for this thing. I was pumped about it. Like, a couple hundred dollars. It's the big one…160 gigs. Yeah, bro. I used to watch movies (don't do this) while I was driving on this little thing, kind of like one of these. Anyway, this was a really big deal to me. I was careful with it. I made sure I didn't leave it anywhere someone could steal it. I didn't leave it out in the sun where it would get hot.

Do you know what it does today? It sits in an extra bag I have. It's like old electronics, and it just sits there. Why? Things on this earth don't last. Friends, we are eternal beings, and temporary things are never going to satisfy you for the rest of eternity. These temporary things will never provide the security for the eternal, and these people James was talking to had done this. They had put their security in things that don't last.

The second thing is that their wrong view of money was evidence against them. As I said earlier, Jesus is coming back, and the determiner on whether or not you spend eternity with him or eternity in a lake of fire is whether or not you know Jesus. He says, "How they have viewed their money is going to be evidence… It's going to tell me whether or not they know me."

I'm going to say something really provocative here. Listen. If your relationship with Jesus never gets to a place where it moves your money, then I would suggest that you maybe don't know Jesus like you think you do. That's what James is saying. He's telling us this. He goes, "How you view your money will be evidence on whether or not you know Jesus."

Hear me clearly. Money is not bad. It's a good thing. God designed it, and God isn't out to get your money. He doesn't want your money to get you. That's what James is saying. He's going, "You need to be really careful, and you need to watch and see what these guys did so you don't make the same mistakes." These guys had hoarded their riches. They were stockpiling their clothes and their medals and their valuables.

That's what they did. What do we do? How do we do this? Well, the way we stockpile this is we put our money in stocks or Bitcoin (bless y'all in that Bitcoin thing; it feels like that's a whole secret club and y'all have only one goal: tell everybody about Bitcoin), to acquire as much as possible even if others are in need. And why? Because it gives us security, because I feel safe. When that number in my bank account is higher, then I feel like I'm good. I'm taken care of.

Here's what's really the ironic thing. (This was funny. I tried to get a $100 bill and they only had fifties, so here we go.) Do you know what it says on all of our bills? "In God we trust." The irony, friends. No, really. It's going, "In God we trust," and we say that, yet so many of us trust in how many of these we have or don't have. James would plead with you to evaluate and, if need be, change your view on money. Matthew 6:19-21 says this. This is Jesus talking.

"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 destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

So, what's the solution here? What's the solution if you're honest with yourself and you're like, "I think I look to money to be my security"? If you have trusted in Christ, you are secure. I just wrote down a few passages here. John 1:12 says I am a child of God. I'm God's child. Romans 8:1: I am free forever from condemnation. Romans 8:28: I am assured that in all things God will work for my good. Romans 8:35: I cannot be separated from the love of Christ.

Don't buy the lie that acquiring money will give you security, because it's a lie. That's only found in Jesus. So, if you find in your heart, "I think that's what I'm doing; I think I'm looking to money to be my security," look to Jesus. "Hey, I think my view of money is broken. God, will you show me how I can be secure in you, not just in this lifetime but for the rest of eternity?"

So, to transition, a wrong view of money often leads to wrong actions for money. This is verse 4: "Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts."

  1. How you make money says something about you. So, what were these guys doing? These guys were withholding wages from their workers in order to make more for themselves. Here was the goal. Money was the goal, whatever means necessary. That's what these guys were doing. I think there are a lot of reasons as to why they or you and I would make money for unjust reasons, but the one I want to highlight this evening is because we often find in money our significance.

I'm able to go, "I feel significant when I have a lot of it." So that's what we're going to talk about. How we make money sometimes makes us feel like we are significant. We like what having money says about us. Here's the deal. We all know the Ford Explorer works just as well and is as functional as the G-wagen. Yeah? Okay. But why do we want the G-wagen? Because it says something about us. Because when I pull up in that thing, it's a status symbol. "Hey, I'm driving this."

Why do I want the G-wagen over the Explorer? Every single one of us could go buy a pair of white sneakers, scuff them up, and put a little star on them. Y'all know where I'm going. But instead, what are we doing? We could buy any hoodie with a smiley face on it, but instead, what are we buying? We're buying Drew House hoodie. Why? Because it says something about us. Instead of any functional leather purse, we buy the Birkin bag. Why? Because they make you feel significant.

When you have things that money buys you, it's easy to be like, "Hey, I'm significant here." Here's what's really broken. This grieves me. When we have a lot of money, not only do I feel significant, but I also begin to think I am more significant than you based off of how much money I do or don't make or how much money you do or don't make. We do this. It's crazy how naturally we do this. If someone walks into the room who we know is really wealthy, the way you treat them versus someone who's maybe not…

Here's the deal. You're not alone in that. In those pictures I showed you guys of me riding bulls… Those boots I was wearing were $400 and that hat I was wearing was $600. Things that were literally going to end up in bull crap were things I paid $1,000 for. The name brand one… It was a special company that made it custom fit to my head and to my feet. It was lizard's skin. We all get here because we like the way money makes us feel and the significance we find in it.

Here's what happens when we do this, though. Now we need money just to keep up this image we've built. All of those times you've swiped that credit card… You don't own much of anything, and really, you're just a slave to payments. What does this do? This makes you and me more susceptible to make money any way we can even if it hurts others in the process. God cares about how you make money.

So, if they were holding back wages from their workers, what do we do? It looks like, for us, running over people to make more money. That might look like for you… Maybe you gossiped about a coworker in front of your boss so maybe you would get the promotion. Or maybe instead of faithfully working all eight hours, you spend about an hour and a half on Instagram at work, but you're like, "Hey, it's all right."

Or maybe you justify leaving a really terrible tip. I mean, it did take them five minutes to get your sweet tea. This is how we do it. We begin to go, "I'm going to hold on to this. I want more of it. I don't want to have to give it away. So, even if that means I'm putting someone else down or even if that means I'm hurting someone else, I'm willing to do so." James is saying that the money acquired in an unjust way is crying out to the Lord, and he hears it.

I get this temptation. One of the things I do as a side gig is I sell gym equipment. I know that's random, but I do that. One day I found a Concept2 rower for $600. I'm like, "Yes. I'm in." I bought that thing. Then someone was like, "I'll pay you $950 for it." I was like, "Boom. Done. You can come pick it up tomorrow." Then someone else got ahold of me, and they were like, "Hey, I'll pay you $1,200 for it, and I'll show up tonight."

I was like, "I'm in, bro." I'm not kidding. I was like, "Yeah, I'm in." I had committed to this person that I was going to sell them this rower for $950. I sat in that. I felt sick. I had to get ahold of him and say, "I can't do it," because I had said to someone else… I had committed that I was going to sell them this rower for a different price. We are all tempted to do this. Friends, how you make money says something about you.

What's the solution here? How do we do this? If we begin to go, "Yes. The way I make money or how much money I make begins with how I view myself or what I think of myself or even the significance that I find," here's the solution: treasure Christ and not worldly status or significance. Second Corinthians 8:9 says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich."

Friends, keep an eternal perspective. Don't buy the lie. Really, truly, there are riches found in Jesus. He who had everything, who was rich, became poor so you and I, if we trust in him, can have ultimate riches, the greatest riches, the riches that last forever.

I wrote this down: Because of Christ, I am significant. Matthew 5:14: I am the light of the world. Second Corinthians 6:1: I am God's fellow worker. First Corinthians 3:16: I am God's temple. In Christ is where you find your true significance. James moves on from how we view money and how we make money to how we use money. Verses 5-6: "You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you."

  1. How you use money says something about you. So, what were these guys doing? They were living in luxury and self-indulgence, which led to murdering the righteous person. What James is speaking of here is not that they were walking around with swords and just killing people. He's talking about a judicial injustice, where they had the money to pay for the high-powered lawyers, and they could begin to oppress and take from the poor whatever they wanted.

The poor person couldn't do anything about it, because they couldn't pay for the lawyers. They couldn't represent themselves. They couldn't work the system like someone with a lot of money did. So, because they were taking their stuff and their means of life…food and water and shelter…this is how they were murdering the poor. They were living in luxury and using their money to get what they wanted.

The last half of verse 5 is interesting, what James says. "You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter." Like, what? It feels a little confusing. What's he talking about here? The image James is using is that of a cow that is indulging itself and making itself fatter, which in turn is making it more likely to be the one that gets slaughtered. Get it? That's what's happening.

He's going, "Hey, as they are doing this, you have done the same thing. The way you are making money, the way you are using money… All it's doing is being evidence against you. You are just making it more and more obvious, when the day of judgment comes, whose side you're on. You've either worshiped God or you've worshiped money."

There are a lot of ways to use your money, but I want to highlight the way we use it to find our satisfaction. There is a great difference between enjoying what God has given you and living extravagantly and selfishly. Hear me loud and clear, friends. God wants you to enjoy life. If you want both scoops of rocky road, go for it. God isn't trying to rob you of fun, but there is a difference between enjoying what God has given you and then living in a place of luxury and indulgence.

Here's the thing. It's not actually your money. God owns all of it. We're just stewards of it. God has got it to us on loan. He's going, "Hey, I'm entrusting this to you so you can use it," and then how we use it is going to be evidence of where our allegiance lies. It's God's money. Here's the thing. Luxury is interesting. Luxury has a way of ruining character. Proverbs says, "The rich man answers roughly."

Why does the rich man answer roughly? Because he thinks he's more important. He's like, "You're just this person. Because I have more than you, I can treat you in a certain way." Living in luxury tends to make you fat and selfish and soft and entitled. Here's the thing. If you match self-indulgence with wealth, the result is sin, but if you match character with wealth, you can produce much, much good. How you use money says something about you.

Let me ask you this. What did you do when you got your stimulus check? Where did the stimmy go? Were you guys like, "This is awesome. That debt I've been needing to pay off… Here we go. I'll put it to that." Or "I know someone who has really been impacted by this pandemic. I bet they really need this money." Or did you get the new pair of Jordans that you won't kneel down and crease? Like, where did that go? How are you using it?

It's not your money. Hear me on this. I don't think it's very often that when we look at getting more money we go, "This should make me be cautious. I should be aware this is a dangerous thing." This is what James is telling us: "It's a really dangerous thing." Just having more money isn't always a good thing, or at least you need to be aware of when you make more money.

It's kind of like… We have a fireplace at my house. Fire is a good thing. It's amazing…warmth, ambiance, and light. It's a really, really good thing. But if I just decided, "You know what? More fire is always better," and I was like, "Hey, I have this eight-foot log. Come on, baby. Throw that thing on." What would happen? Very shortly, I would no longer have a house. Right? Fire has the ability to both be a really amazing thing but then also take everything.

Money is really interesting. I would just implore you guys. As you think about getting more money, are you aware of the danger of it? Are you going, "Hey, God, what would you have me do with this so it doesn't begin to pull on my heart?" So, these guys were living in luxury. It was leading them to murder the righteous. What does it mean, though, for us? How does this apply to us? Here's what I wrote down.

Is your first thought of how you can use your money for your own enjoyment and your own fun and your own vacation or is your thought, "How can I use this to provide for or bless others?" Here's the thing. Your bank statement is a gift to you. Truly. It is a gift to you. No one else can see it, but you can go back there and go like… If you want to know where your heart is at, if you want to know what things you're valuing, if you want to know how you're using your money or who you're using your money on, go look at your bank statement.

Is it dinner at HG, and then it's Dillard's and Nike, and then that manicure, that coffee shop? What's it saying about you? It really is a gift to you. Think about that. He's saying how you spend your money is evidence. Are you looking at your bank statement going, "God, how do I view my money? How am I making it? How am I using it?"

We often use money as a means to our own satisfaction, and it reveals where our heart is. The solution to this is to run to God to be satisfied. Look, friends. He's the one who made you. Look at me for a second. God made you on purpose and with a purpose. He knows exactly how you work, and he is the only one who can truly provide you satisfaction forever. Anything other than God is a fake. It's a phony. It will only give you satisfaction for a moment. Don't buy the lie. Run to God.

Psalm 16:11 says, "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Forever. Did you hear that? "In your presence, God, in your presence alone is where I am fully satisfied, where there are pleasures forevermore." Money is never going to do it.

In review, if you view your money as your security, if you make money for significance, and if you use your money for your own satisfaction, here's the reality: in the end, it will come back painfully empty. When Jesus comes back, it will also be evidence on who it is you served. Matthew 6:24 says, "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."

Do y'all hear me on that? You just can't do it. It's impossible. If you're like, "Yeah, I live for God, but I also live for money over here…" You either live for one or the other. He's just saying how you view your money, how you make your money, and how you use it is going to tell you who you're living for, who's your master. Here's where I want to close. The Bible says our hearts are desperately sick and intent on evil and that we are in desperate need of a Savior.

Here's how this works for me. For seven years of my life, I did that. I ran off, rode bulls, and I made it. I was making the money. I had the girlfriend. People knew my name. Then God, in his kindness, on a fall day in Prescott, Arizona, instead of on top of a bull I ended up underneath a bull. I took both of his hooves to my chest, one here, one here. It collapsed both of my lungs, broke all but two of my ribs, cut my liver in half, and rearranged all of the major organs. That sent me to the ICU for the next week.

Here's what's amazing. God in his kindness broke me in one fatal swoop. He broke me physically, financially, and spiritually. All that money I had made… Guess where it went. Yeah, $200,000 of hospital bills. That's where that went. I began to realize something. "I'm not big enough to be God. I've made myself god. I've been looking for significance, security, and satisfaction in things that aren't God. I need to think about what I'm doing."

I realized in that moment, "God, if you were to come back right now or if I'm not going to wake up tomorrow morning, I know exactly where I'd go." I was at least honest enough with myself. I'd been taught really well by my father. I knew that if Jesus came back that moment, he would look at me and say, "I never knew you."

Here's the deal. If you're going, "I think I might have a broken view of money," you are unable to save yourself. You just can't do it. You're unable. If your heart is sick, you in and of yourself can't do it. It's going to take God in your life. Look at me. He already did. He came down as a man in the form of Jesus who lived perfectly, and then he died on the cross.

The greatest injustice ever done in all of life, the greatest, most ugly thing, also the most beautiful thing to ever happen, God did for you and for me so he could free us of the way we search for things outside of him and that someday…oh, glorious day that it will be…when he comes back down, you could be someone that he would look at and go, "You've done my will. You're with me." I want that for you. I don't want you to hear, "I never knew you." Friends, a major barrier to that is you and your relationship with money. Let me pray for us.

Father, thank you for who you are and your kindness and the way that despite us, God, you moved toward us, said while we were your enemies, you died for us. I just confess in my heart it is so easy for me to start making money my god, for me to have false gods, for me to reject you and to live for myself. Father, may we be people who understand that there are riches forevermore by your side. Thank you for this group of people, everybody listening here and online. Father, would you, in only ways that you can, move in the hearts that still need you to regenerate them, to show them that you alone can satisfy? We love you a lot. In your name I pray, amen.