The Great Exchange |11.17.24| Money Shouldn’t Make You Miserable pt.3
The Great Exchange
Nick Breach
Well, good morning.
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All right, in my church, everyone says good morning back. So good morning. Good morning. All right, I’m originally from Australia, so in Australia at my church, we say g’day, right? So g’day. G’day. G’day. It’s even better. You should try that every week now.
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Fast improvement. Well, again, my name’s Nick. I serve with a ministry called Compass, Finances God’s Way, and we are a ministry that teaches people,(…) well, let me say it differently. We are a ministry that helps people learn what the Bible says about money, how you can apply it to your life, and how you can multiply it. Disciples others, teach others, share God’s word on money with others.(…) And why do we do this? Well, let me tell you in a moment, but let’s open in prayer.
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Heavenly Father God, we thank you for this church, this place, this moment in time, Father. And God, I just pray for everyone that’s hearing my voice, Father, that you would impact their lives today with your truth. Father, may we be hearers and obeyers of the word.
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Father, may we do what you are asking us to do because you have so much more for us.(…) And so, Father, just help us today. Help us to be faithful. Help us to learn. Help us to apply, and help us to go forth today and multiply your truth in the lives of others. We love you, and thank you in Jesus’ name, amen.
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So today’s verse that I’ve been asked to really focus in on is Matthew 6.24, and you’ll find it on the screen. “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you’ll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
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As Pastor Drew alluded to, “For most of my life, I’m like, Jesus, you’re wrong.
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You’re wrong. I can serve God and money. I can serve both. I can have a foot over here in the world and make all the money I want and just give you your commission.
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And I can have my other foot over here in the church. And I can come in, I can say, “Hey, brother. Hey, sister, how are you? Can I pray for you?” I can be involved in Tuesday night Bible studies, even teach at times.
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And I’m like, “I can do this. I can have both.
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I can serve money and I can serve God. And so for most of my life, I’m like, that is not correct.
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I’m gonna prove Jesus is wrong.”
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And thankfully, I learned that Jesus is right.
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And that I was a fool to even try. Because what I was essentially saying was,
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I’m a lover of money and I’m a hater of God, except for those moments when I’m in church, in community, and I wanna appear as if I’m a lover of God.
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And so for so many Sundays, for so many weeks,
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I was a lover of money and I’d just be pretending to love God. My outward appearance was very, very carefully crafted. “Hey, how you doing? Hallelujah, good to see you. Let me pray for you.” You would have thought I was a follower of Christ.
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The problem was I hadn’t surrendered my wallet.
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I hadn’t surrendered my kingdom.
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And so I was in a position where I was over here as someone who loved money. And that verse tells me, if I am loving one,(…) I’m gonna hate the other. I was a hater of God,(…) a despiser of God.
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And so God was inviting me into this choice.
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I learned about Compass on a radio program. I heard Howard Dayton talking about finances God’s way.
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And the reason that Jesus is asking us to choose
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is fairly simple.
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And what I wanna unpack with you today is a little bit of my story. So don’t do finances next way, right? If you take away anything, don’t do it next way. Do finances God’s way.
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And I wanna unpack a couple of stories in scripture of people that did choose God over money. One of them almost missed it.
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But he chose God over money and we see the results in our lives. Jesus is asking us to choose God over money for a couple of reasons. One, there’s intimacy with Jesus that’s available to us beyond anything we can imagine when we surrender.
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Our worldly wealth.(…) Look 1611 says it like this. If you’ve not been faithful in the use of worldly wealth, who then will entrust you with the true riches of heaven? The true riches of heaven is a relationship with Christ, the joy, peace, the fruit of the spirit that money can’t buy.
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And so Jesus is inviting us into more with him.(…) He’s also telling us you can’t serve money and him
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because there’s so much in scripture about money. So many warnings he walked around. He’s like, watch out for all kinds of greed. A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
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As we read in the scripture earlier, his pastor drew red, store up treasure in heaven, not here where moth and rust eat it away.
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And so Jesus is asking us to choose him because there’s so many warnings about money.
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So many deceptions when it comes to the love of money.
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Jesus talked about money a whole lot. In scripture, there’s 2,350 verses in the Bible
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on money and possessions. When Jesus was walking on the earth, he talked about money 15% of the time. If you add up all the words in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and then look at the words on money, 15%, one five.
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That meant that if pastor drew was preaching and speaking at the same frequency with Jesus, he’d have about seven or eight weeks a year, just on money.
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I know you’re already doing many, many weeks on money. So praise God for that.
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The Sermon on the Mount, we just read the Bible. The Bible reading was from the Sermon on the Mount. In the middle of that sermon, greatest sermon ever preached perhaps,
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21% of that sermon had to do with money. 40% of Jesus’ parables have to do with money. So again and again and again, the money is there. In Jesus’ teaching, in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, it’s everywhere.
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And of course, as soon as we walk out the doors and we engage with the world, money is everywhere.
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We need money to exchange. To exchange for food, for shelter, for clothing,
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and maybe even for some stuff that’s inappropriate as well. We use it.
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So God’s telling us, you gotta choose.
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You gotta choose.
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So let’s take a look at a couple of people in scripture
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that got it right.
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Matthew 26, six through 13. Well, Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the leper.(…) A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.(…) When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. Why this waste, they asked. This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.(…) Aware of this, Jesus said, “Why are you bothering this woman? “She’s done a beautiful thing to me. “The poor you will always have with you, “but you will not always have me.”(…) When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.(…) Truly, I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.
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The title for the message that I’ve put together is the Great Exchange.
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Jesus is asking us to choose. He’s saying, “If you want to, you can choose money. “You can choose the things of this world,
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“but you also have to realize that you’re a hater “and despiser of God.”
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He’s also saying over here, “You can choose God. “In fact, that’s what he wants us to choose,
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“but then you have to be a hater and despiser of money.”
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And we know that love is an action word. It’s not just a feeling, “Oh, I love God and I hate money.” Love is an action. It’s a sacrificial action. It’s a serving.
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It’s a giving up of self to serve God and to serve others.
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And so that means hate is also an action word. If we declare ourselves as lovers of God, then we have to hate what the world says about money and actively teach and work against that. How do we do that? We do that by teaching people what God’s word says about money. This is the correct way to engage with money. And in fact, Pastor Drew and the team here have many courses, many Bible studies that they will be launching over the next few months to help you so that you can learn, apply and multiply what God’s word says about money.
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And so here in this verse,
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we have this expensive jar,
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a year’s wages as we find out,(…) just poured all over Christ.
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And the disciples are like, “Oh, that’s a waste.”(…) Because the disciples, they’re over here saying, “We could have exchanged that money for money.(…) We could have exchanged that money for food.”
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And Jesus is saying, “Nope, she’s done a beautiful thing because what she did, she exchanged everything she had
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for a relationship with Christ, to grow closer to Christ, to honor and glorify Him and to be with Him,(…) physically, yes, but to also be in relationship.”
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And of course, in this time, it’s very unusual for a woman to even approach a man, and certainly a man of stature like that.
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And she gave everything that she had. She made this exchange. She made this choice to say, “The money, this jar of perfume is so irrelevant, so unimportant compared to the intimacy that I want,
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the intimacy that Jesus offers, the relationship that I can have with Him.”
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And certainly Jesus’ prophecy came true. Wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her, because it’s a mortal life in Scripture now, her generosity.
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Let’s keep going in John 12, one through eight.
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Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him.(…) Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard and expensive perfume she pored on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray Him, objected,(…) “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”
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He did not say this because He cared about the poor, but because He was a thief. As keeper of the money bag, He used to help Himself to what was put into it. “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
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And so what can we pull out of this? First of all, Jesus is defending the woman, which is very unusual in that culture and that time. It’s like she’s done a beautiful thing. And then He reminds the disciples, “You will always have the poor.”
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And so one of the takeaways, one of the things that we can take with us into our Sunday, into our week, into our workplace, into our mission field,
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you will always have the opportunity to give up
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to exchange some of your worldly wealth to give to, for example, in this case, the poor.
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And elsewhere in Scripture, we know that Jesus personally identifies with the poor. When you give to the poor, you give to me.
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And we grow in intimacy with Christ when we take the choice and say, “I don’t love my money. In fact, I hate what the world does. I hate what the world teaches about money. And I’m gonna show something different, which is I’m gonna take some of what I have, which by the way is from the Lord anyway,
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and I’m gonna transfer and exchange it and bring it into His kingdom.”(…) And in fact, I challenge you, I’d ask you
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to pray this prayer as a family.
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God, who is it in this community who has a need that you’ve uniquely equipped our family to meet?
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And then remember this Scripture, you will always have the poor among you. So there’s always going to be people around,
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people visible to you. You don’t even have to look for them according to the Scripture.
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In fact, it says they’re among you. There might be someone next to you right now that has a need.
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And Jesus is saying, choose, choose God. Trust me in the area of money. And if He asks you to give up some of your worldly wealth to give to the poor, just do it.
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But even more than that, when we go on the attack and we say, “I’m gonna hate money, despise money,” I’m now praying, “God, bring the need. “Bring the people across my path
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“so that you can use me to meet that need.”
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Especially as we get to Thanksgiving, to Christmas, to the colder winter season, those needs are gonna increase.
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So you’ll always have an opportunity to make this exchange. You’ll always have an opportunity to choose God over money.
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Let’s keep going into Luke 19, one through nine.(…) Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and he was very wealthy.
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He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed the sycamore fig tree to see him since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. “I must stay at your house today.”
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So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter. He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.
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But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions “to the poor and if I’ve cheated anybody out of anything, “I will pay back four times the amount.”(…) Jesus said to him, “Today’s salvation has come to this house “because this man too is a son of Abraham.”
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When Jesus is asking us to choose God over money, he’s also inviting us into relationship with him.
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He’s asking us, “Desire me over the things of this world. “Don’t store up treasure on earth, store it up in heaven.”
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You cannot be my disciple unless you give up, unless you surrender all that you have.
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As we see in Luke 14, 33,
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he’s saying choose, transfer, exchange, whatever word you wanna use, but make a decision. Don’t be like Nick.
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You like this,(…) Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, Sunday and on Tuesday night.(…) You cannot serve two masters. You gotta make a choice.
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And so Zacchaeus, he made the choice, but he almost missed it.
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Because he’s over here loving money. We see that he’s very wealthy.
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He was the chief tax collector. He’s like the CEO of the IRS.
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And he’s extorting people. He’s probably on the take from all his lieutenants as well.
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And he almost missed it because, what was his first mistake?
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His first mistake was he wanted to know about Jesus.
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He just wanted to see him. He wanted to catch a glimpse of him. And many of us, we know about Jesus. We know his birthday. We know where he was born. We know his mom and dad. Actually he’s got two dads, Pastor Drew can unpack that on another day.
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All right, we know about Jesus, but Jesus is saying, “I don’t want you to know about me.”
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He’s like, “I want you to have eternal life.” What’s eternal life? What we hear about, we learn about eternal life in John 17.3. Now this is eternal life.(…) “That they may know you and the one whom you’ve sent.” Eternal life is a relationship with God and the one who he sent with Jesus.
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And so Jesus is asking us to despise,(…) to hate money and choose to love and be devoted to God because he’s bringing us into relationship.
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And so Zacchaeus is over there saying, “I want to know about Jesus.” And Jesus is saying, “Ah, it’s not enough for you to know about me.”
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I mean, you think about it this way, right?
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Brett Favre was a quarterback for some, half-right team up in Wisconsin.
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And if I went to Brett Favre’s house(…) and knocked on the door and opened it, Brett’s like, “Hey, can I help you?” I’m like, “Yeah, buddy, it’s me.”
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And Brett would be like, “Who are you?” It’s like, “Brett, I know you.”
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Right, this was your passer rating, how many touchdowns? I know you led an interception, sorry about that.
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But he’d be like, “I don’t know you.” And I’d be like, “But dude, I know you.” And he’d be like, “You don’t know me. “You know about me.”
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You know about me. And Jesus is saying, “Don’t know about me.(…) “Know me,(…) be devoted to me, love me, “surrender all that you have.” And so that was the message that Jesus gives to Zacchaeus. Today, I wanna be in relationship with you.
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I’m coming to your house. I’m not just gonna pass by and wave like at some Christmas parade. Nothing wrong with Christmas parades.
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I wanna be in relationship with you. I wanna spend time with you. I wanna interact.
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And that’s what Jesus is asking us to do today. He’s saying, “You have everything you need “for a life of godliness.
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“I’ve given you all this stuff.(…) “And if you seek me first, “I’m gonna take care of all your needs.” As we just read in the scripture, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you as well.
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But use what you have, which comes from me
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to build God’s kingdom. Unfortunately, in my life,
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I’m over here. I’m building my own kingdom.
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Who was my Lord? My Lord was myself.
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My job, my income.
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I used to work at a small company based here in Illinois. You may have heard of it. It’s called Caterpillar.
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And I worked there for many, many years and I made a ton of money.(…) And I’m like, my job is to give a little bit away and then keep the rest for myself.
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And unfortunately, I was selfish,(…) greedy.(…) My marriage was in decay. In fact, on our seventh wedding anniversary, I told my wife we should get separated. We should start the divorce proceedings.
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Because she was in my way of accumulating more treasure on earth.
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I mean, how dumb is that?
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And yet up to 80% of marriages end up in divorce because of disagreements, discussions,
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even infidelity around money.
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And I remember one day,
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God finally got ahold of me and he’s like,(…) I’m on an airplane. I’m flying over Kentucky, I think it was.
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And this little tiny airplane, I hear a voice from the Lord. And he’s like, Nick, I want you to join me. I want you to join Compass.
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And we had been volunteering in our church. We’d been leading Bible studies.(…) So Troy and Marty, watch out.
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We’d been volunteering and helping people learn what the Bible said about money. And I was starting to get to the point where I’m like, I need to hate and despise money because God wants me in relationship with him.
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And so he calls me on that airplane. I start bawling like a newborn baby on that airplane. And the person next to me is like, my movie’s he’s watching, I gotta switch the channel.
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I couldn’t stop. It was just tears of joy. Yes, yes, I’m in. Even after I landed, I called one of the directors at Wisconsin and he’s like, yeah, I wanna invite you to join our ministry. So he was hearing from God that I should join and I’m hearing from God that I should join. And I’m like, that’s a lock for me.
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So I did what every Christian who loves money did, I said, no, I said, no way God.
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There’s no way I’m gonna leave this beautiful, high paying job at Caterpillar and go over here and serve you where it’s 100% pay cut.
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There’s no way. And it was so ironic when I think about it in retrospect.
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God’s saying, I want you to go and work with Compass and teach people to trust me in the area of money. And I’m over here saying, I don’t trust you in the area of money.(…) The irony is not lost. So for three years, I did a Jonah.
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Jonah had three days in the whale. I had three years in the stinky whale.
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I’m like, God, I am over here. Let me build a bigger pile.(…) And in about eight or 10 years, according to my financial advisor, I could then retire in my mid fifties(…) and I could serve without a salary. I’m like, wow, that sounds amazing.
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Except Jesus was asking me to choose.
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He was waiting for me to choose,
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but he was asking me to choose today. That verse has some urgency to it. If we go deeper into Luke 16, especially verse nine, use your worldly wealth to bless others.
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So that when it is gone, you’ll be welcomed into eternal dwellings. There’s some urgency. Use what you have to bless others, to build God’s kingdom, if you like, so that when you’re dead,
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you’ll have a bunch of friends in heaven. They’ll be there because of your generosity, because you’ve hated money and loved God.
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There’s a sense of urgency that we need to do this while we’re alive.
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Solomon says, life is like a vapor. You can’t even grab hold of it. It’s like a hand breath.
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It’s just this mist that disappears in nanoseconds. And so there’s some urgency for us. We have to choose, and I believe we have to choose today.
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So we wanna desire more of a relationship with Jesus than Zacchaeus did. It’s not enough just to know about.
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Jesus says, I want to know you. I wanna give you eternal life, which is you will know me. We’ll be in relationship now and forever, but also now.
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So don’t settle for just knowing about Jesus.
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Seek intimacy with Jesus above all else. Cast off all that hinders. We’re told to run the race marked out for us. We have to cast off all that hinders. If money is in the way in your life, you’ve gotta cast it off and just say, God, I’m over here. I need to surrender it.
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You own everything. Psalm 24, one, the earth is the Lord’s and all it contains the world and everything in it. Everything we had, everything we have belongs to the Lord.
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Everything we have comes from the Lord.
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And so he’s asking us to recognize.(…) So how do we choose God over money? We recognize first of all, God owns everything.
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Second,(…) we wanna build his kingdom. He wants us to build his kingdom, not our own.(…) If I’m over here choosing money and hating God,(…) my kingdom,(…) my Lord is mine and me.
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How can Jesus, we just did the Apostles Creed.
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Jesus is Lord is what we all declared. And what’s sobering is it would take the person sitting next to you about three minutes. If you showed them your banking transactions, it would take them about three minutes to determine if Jesus is actually your Lord.
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And so I’m sitting over here giving God a little bit of what I have and keeping the rest for me, greedy,(…) selfish,
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telling Julie, I need to separate(…) because you’re in my way,(…) building my own kingdom.(…) A North America director for Compass, his name’s Gary. He says it like this. He’s like, if Jesus isn’t Lord of all, is he Lord at all?
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And I would have told you Jesus is my savior.
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But until I took the money, the possessions, everything he’d given me and held it up,(…) right?
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Like Zacchaeus did and said, I’m gonna give it all back. I’ve made a massive mistake by storing all this up.
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Like the women that anointed Christ to say, I don’t care about this massive wealth that I have. I’m just giving it because this relationship with God is more desirable than anything the world could give me.
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And so we desire intimacy with Jesus above all else.
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Another way we can do this, just like Zacchaeus, right?
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And Mary and the woman anointing him, Jesus spoke directly to their hearts.
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Jesus doesn’t need our money, but he wants our hearts.
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He wants our hearts. Choosing God over money is a heart issue. It’s not a wallet issue, it’s a heart issue.
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And so I invite you as you read these scriptures,
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as you take notes, go back and read them again and hear these words of Jesus spoken to your heart.
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I wanna have lunch with you today.
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I wanna have dinner with you today. I wanna be there when you’re putting your kids to bed.
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I wanna be in relationship with you. I want you to invite me into, literally into your house
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so that you can be devoted and you can love God
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to experience these words of Jesus spoken(…) directly to your heart.
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Matthew 6.24 tells us, you’ve gotta decide.
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You’ve gotta decide in much the same way as when you, those of you that are married, you decided you would propose to your spouse. Your spouse decided to say yes, or no perhaps, but they decided.
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And you together, you’re a unit as I learned last night, a married unit because of that decision, because of two decisions.(…) You have to decide.
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You can walk out of here and say, I’m not gonna choose God, but that means
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that you’ve chosen money.
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You can walk out of here and say, I’m not gonna choose God, that means you’ve chosen money.
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That’s how I encourage you. How do we do this? How do we make this exchange? How do I choose God over money? We recognize God’s ownership.
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We surrender it and hold it loosely.
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And then we make that choice.
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That choice, I want the greater treasure.(…) I want the relationship. I want the intimacy because money cannot buy any of that.
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Money’s just a tool.(…) I wanna use it for your glory.
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We wanna exchange less for more. Normally when we talk about money, every time we exchange it, we exchange something for less. Every time you’ve tried to exchange currency if you’ve ever been to a foreign airport
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and you give them a thousand US dollars and they’ll give you a whole bunch of Kenya shillings, or Ghana cities,(…) or EU dollars, for example, euros, you get less back because they take this massive commission.(…) This exchange, this great exchange is the only time where you take less, the things of this world, and exchange it for more,(…) the things of eternity.
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The great exchange involves taking something that’s temporary, money,(…) can’t use it after you’re dead, you can’t take it with you, for something that’s eternal, a relationship you can have today and forever.(…) The great exchange involves something that’s limited and physical
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for something that’s spiritual and eternal.
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It’s a choice that Jesus is inviting us into.
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And Jesus says, “I can do this.(…) “I can ask you to make this choice.
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“Because I made the choice.”(…) We see this in Philippians, Philippians 2, starting in verse five.
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“In your relationships with one another, “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,
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“who being in the very nature of God “did not consider equality with God “something to be used to his own advantage.
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“Rather, he made himself nothing(…) “by taking the very nature of a servant, “being made in human likeness(…) “and being found in appearance as a man, “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, “even death on a cross.
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“Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place “and gave him the name that is above every name, “that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow “in heaven and on earth and under the earth, “and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord “to the glory of the Father.”(…) Jesus made the greatest exchange ever.(…) He gave up riches and honor and praise and even being next to his dad
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to come here and be dependent on us,
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dependent on Mary and Joseph and the Kings and many others.
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He gave up everything he had and then he gave up his body.
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So it could be broken as we’re gonna celebrate and remember in a moment.
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So when Jesus is saying, “I want you to choose me over money, “I want you to be devoted to me, to love me, “I want you to despise and hate money “and the things of this world that are involved with money.” He’s saying, “I can ask you to make that choice “’cause I’ve made the choice.”
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We can make the great exchange. We can exchange temporal, physical for eternal
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and spiritual.(…) Jesus made the greatest exchange. He gave up everything to be with us.
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In my story for three years, I’m like,
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“No way, I’m just gonna stay over here.”(…) And I started to realize that I wasn’t a lover of God. You know what, I was okay with it. I’m sad to say,(…) ashamed to say, I was okay with being a lover of money(…) and kind of knowing about Jesus. And I remember after about three years, Julie, my wife came to me one day and she’s like, “What blessings are we missing out on “because we haven’t been totally obedient(…) “to Jesus calling in our lives?”
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And I’m like, I’m moving a little closer, but I’m like, “Honey, I don’t have the courage “to go to my boss’s office and tell him I’m done.”
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She’s like, “Well, aren’t there some friends, “aren’t there some people that can pray with you?”(…) I’m like, “Yeah.”
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So they invited me onto a prayer call(…) and they were crying out, “God, would you show Nick the time “for when he should leave the things of this world behind “and step into ministry?”
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That was a Monday in July about eight years ago.
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I hung up the prayer call, had a great day at work. The next day I go to the office, I get invited into the CEO’s office. I’m like, “Oh, do I need my notepad and my computer? “No, you won’t need that.”
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They started cutting 20% of management ranks. My job was cut, it was a 32-hour answer to prayer.
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So I got walked out, I get to go home early that day and every day after that,(…) and I called my wife and I said, “I’ve just been let go from the company.”
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And her response, “We are free.
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“We are free to serve.
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“God led us into a place of total and utter trust in Him.” And thanks to the generosity of God’s people,
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we’ve never worried about money.
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We make about a quarter of what we used to make and we’ve never lacked.
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And so God invited us into relationship with Him.(…) And now I get to serve with Compass around the world. We’re in over 70 countries. I’ve met people from Germany, people that have got missionaries and people they support in Tanzania, Kenya, and many other places, I’m sure. So praise God for your generosity.
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And so I wanna ask you, I wanna implore you, I wanna challenge you, I wanna demand of you
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that you make the choice. Do not do finances next way where you sit on the sidelines for years and then even when you know better, you stay on the sidelines
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and build your own kingdom like I did. Do not do finances next way. Choose God, be devoted, love God, build His kingdom. Use what He’s given you to build His kingdom. Take the demotion, you are not the owner anymore.
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You’re now a manager.
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Be a faithful manager.
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Moreover, it is required of managers
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that they be found faithful.
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So choose today.
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Do not walk out of those doors without choosing. God, I’m all in.
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All money, I’m all in, don’t choose money.
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Choose God over money because He has more for us.
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Let’s pray.
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Heavenly Father, God, we love you, we adore you.
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Father, we declare we don’t have any idols before you. And even as I say that, Father,(…) there are things I know that are tugging on my heart, things of this world that I have not surrendered to you, Father,(…) help us to surrender everything that you’ve given us for your glory. Help us to build your kingdom, seek first your kingdom.
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Help us to make you Lord of everything in our lives.
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Help us to hate money, to despise money and actively oppose the way the world teaches
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and spread your truth instead by loving you and being devoted to you.
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I pray, Father, that everyone hearing my voice today, Father, they would choose you
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and that the world would see that you are a good,(…) good God and you desire so much more for each of us. We love you, we praise you. Thank you, Jesus.(…) Amen.