S1: And we wonder why there are shadows in our lives.
S1: It's because we've let some moon come in between. What
S1: is a moon? A moon doesn't possess its own. It
S1: only reflects what the sun gives it. What is it
S1: that God has given you? That now you've allowed that
S1: to replace him?
S2: This is treasure truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr,
S2: senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm
S2: Steve Hillard. Glad you're with us today as we're continuing
S2: a study of Luke 12 and Matthew six. It's called
S2: God's pleasure and your treasure. And pastor, so often it
S2: can be tempting to do exactly what you were just
S2: alluding to there. We take something that God has given
S2: to us. He's allowed us to steward something, and then
S2: we allow that to replace God in our lives.
S1: It happens all too easily. Steve and I can speak
S1: from personal experience on all of that kind of thing,
S1: where I began to learn and to grow in the
S1: grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
S1: And understand it's really not about the amount. It's about
S1: the attitude. Yeah. You know, and I say this all
S1: the time, Christ Bible Church is tired of hearing me saying.
S1: I say, you know, there's two things that everybody loves,
S1: but nobody wants to talk about either one of them
S1: in church. Do you know what that is, Steve?
S2: What's that?
S1: Money and sex.
S2: Oh, sure. And the church is one of those places
S2: where we ought to be talking about.
S1: Oh, my goodness, we ought to. I had a person
S1: really castigate me because they thought that, well, there's a
S1: lot of people that think sometimes my straight no chaser
S1: mentality is not good for the pulpit. And so she
S1: sent me an email and I just asked some questions.
S1: I sent an email back. I said, do you watch scandal?
S1: Do you watch power? Do you watch Empire? You know?
S1: And she answered yes to all of them. I said,
S1: then please don't critique me because I use no profanity.
S2: Yeah, sure. And like you point out, culture is constantly
S2: bombarding us with what it says are behavior ought to
S2: be our attitude ought to be. Our mindset ought to
S2: be the way that we, you know, should be free
S2: to do whatever we want to do. Right. The church,
S2: like we were talking about in yesterday's program, needs to
S2: be the voice of truth and holding onto truth, holding
S2: out truth and saying, this is God's standard.
S1: That's it.
S2: And if the church isn't going to do that, well,
S2: shame on us.
S1: Well, you know, I challenge our assembly with this question
S1: every year. Christ's Bible church, if we would shut our
S1: doors today, would the community miss us? Hmm. If the
S1: answer is no, then we need to close our doors.
S2: Close our doors, or change drastically. Yeah. Yeah. Well, right
S2: now we are going to open our Bibles to Luke
S2: chapter 12, in Matthew six. Hope that you will join
S2: us there as we continue a message called God's Pleasure
S2: in Your Treasure. Here is Pastor Ford.
S1: See, here's what he's trying to get us to see.
S1: Christ does not just want to be the first one.
S1: He wants to be the only one. Imagine if I
S1: went to my wife and said, you know, I got
S1: nine other women, but out of all ten, you're the first. Yeah.
S1: Some of you know, some of you know what she
S1: would say. I don't have to repeat it because my
S1: wife don't already told me what happens if I ever
S1: mess up. She said, I ain't going to divorce you.
S1: But why are you sleeping at night? You'll wake up
S1: and see Jesus. I said you'll kill me in a heartbeat.
S1: Mess up on me. That's what you're going to get.
S1: I said wow. C.S. Lewis said, this way. Aim at
S1: heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at
S1: earth and you'll lose heaven and earth. And I'm not
S1: going to quote it, but Philippians chapter two talks about it.
S1: Philippians chapter two says, there are some believers whose God
S1: is their belly, who mind earthly things. And to the
S1: detriment of heavenly things that is so materially minded. We
S1: had an eclipse and I was on a plane. I
S1: didn't get a chance to see it. But what? What
S1: is an eclipse? You know what it is. It is
S1: when the moon comes between the sun and the Earth. Now,
S1: our last one was on February 28th, 1979. And and
S1: our next one is going to be April 8th, 2024.
S1: But but what happens now? You know what happens. The
S1: sun s u n r supplies our light in the day,
S1: and the moon does not have its own light. It
S1: merely reflects the light of the sun that we can't see.
S1: So the sun gives light to the moon, and the
S1: moon shines on the earth at night. Now in eclipse,
S1: the moon comes between the sun and the earth, and
S1: it causes the sun s u n to be obscured
S1: from view, and it casts a shadow on the earth.
S1: You already know where I'm going. For some of us,
S1: our money is the moon that has come between the
S1: s o n and us. And we wonder why there
S1: are shadows in our lives. Why we're not the light
S1: of the world. It's because we've let some moon come
S1: in between. What does a moon? A moon doesn't possess
S1: its own. It only reflects what the sun gives it.
S1: Y'all with me? It is. What is it that God
S1: has given you? That now you've allowed that to replace him? Abraham.
S1: Offer up Isaac. Why? So I can see whether you
S1: love the gift more than you love the giver. So
S1: sacrifice him to me to show me that you love
S1: me more than Isaac. And he said I love you
S1: more than what you gave me. Huh? You know, I
S1: thought it interesting, you know, and, uh, I was like,
S1: how is the moon? Which is which is 400 times
S1: smaller than the sun. Block it. And then I and
S1: then I read it on Google, on Wikipedia, because the
S1: sun is 400 times farther away from the Earth than
S1: the moon. Get it? Okay, you get it on the
S1: way home. I ain't got to tell you everything. You
S1: say what you know. What is the moon that blocks
S1: out the glory of the sun. And leaves us in
S1: the shadows? Christ was born once so that we could
S1: be born twice. Uh, Jesus took all of our sin
S1: that we could have all of his righteousness. He became
S1: poor so that we could become amazingly rich. Second Corinthians
S1: eight nine. He became poor that we became rich. He
S1: became homeless so that we could have a heavenly home.
S1: He was stripped of everything on the cross so that
S1: we could be clothed forever in his righteousness. He was
S1: forsaken so that we would never be forsaken, never be left.
S1: He was bound so that we might be eternally set free.
S1: Because whom the son sets free is free indeed. He
S1: was a servant that we may become the sons and
S1: daughters of God. He was hungry so that we could
S1: have our needs met, because he's the bread of life.
S1: He he was the one who became sin for us.
S1: He died so that we could live. And he's coming
S1: again so that we could spend all eternity with him.
S1: The priority of Christ. I say it all the time,
S1: don't I? Christ plus nothing equals everything. Everything without Christ
S1: equals nothing. The Bible teaches us he's all that we have,
S1: but he's all that we need. He's our salvation. Hebrews
S1: two one through four. He's our security. Romans 829 through 34.
S1: He's our serenity. Philippians four six and seven. He's our stability.
S1: First Peter two two through nine. He's our strength. Philippians
S1: 413 and he's our supplier. Flyer. Philippians 419. If I
S1: need pastoring, he's Jehovah Rohi. If I need peace, he's
S1: Jehovah Shalom. If I need protection, he's Jehovah Nissi. If
S1: I need provision, he's Jehovah Jireh. If I need pardon,
S1: he's Jehovah. If I need a physician, he's Jehovah Rapha.
S1: If I need purity, he's Jehovah. If I need a
S1: place to abide, he's Jehovah. He's everything we need. Focus
S1: your eyes. The songwriter said turn your eyes upon Jesus.
S1: Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of
S1: earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of his
S1: glory of grace. He's the good Shepherd. He died for us.
S1: He's the great shepherd. He lives for us. He's the
S1: chief shepherd. He's coming for us. And so Scripture teaches
S1: us our eyes should be on him. Why? I'm glad
S1: you asked. You ask intelligent questions. In him. We live
S1: and move and have our being. And apart from him
S1: we can do nothing. He's the source of our life.
S1: He's the sustainer of our life. He's the very substance
S1: of our life. We need Jesus as a priority. Now
S1: notice this and I'm going to go ahead and let
S1: you get on out of here, because what you find
S1: is he clarifies for us, some people, well, what does
S1: it mean to make Christ your priority? Seek ye first
S1: the kingdom of God, the plan and program of Christ.
S1: How do I know I have him as a priority?
S1: Because I have his plan and program as my priority.
S1: We're going to study it on Wednesday night. Our father,
S1: who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come,
S1: thy will be done. The word church is in the
S1: book of Matthew three times. Can anybody guess other than
S1: the choir, how many times it's in the word kingdom?
S1: Is there no 119? Now don't start counting. Do it
S1: when you go home. 119 times the word kingdom. Do
S1: you think it's an important word? Oh, yes. What does
S1: this have to do with bottom line in Pastor Ford? Okay,
S1: I will, because you said you're going to get us
S1: out of here. Okay. The sovereign rule and reign of
S1: God over his people. He said, the kingdom of God
S1: is in you. Why is the kingdom of God in me?
S1: Because the King is in me. And the King brings
S1: with him his kingdom. And I am just an ambassador.
S1: So what's an ambassador? An ambassador? We're ambassadors. You know
S1: that already. You know that already. Who are we? We
S1: came in here. Why? Because this belongs to God. Up
S1: in here. This belong to God. Up in here. Up
S1: in here. When we come in, we are kingdom citizens.
S1: And this is where we come as ambassadors. We represent
S1: another place. Uh, that is, we're from heaven for real.
S1: And we represent heaven here on earth. And so we
S1: come here, and this is our. What do you call
S1: that place where ambassadors live? Embassy. Embassy? This is our embassy.
S1: I couldn't think of getting old. This is our embassy.
S1: And we come here. Why? To get instruction from the
S1: king to go back out into the world and be
S1: an ambassador, to take heaven to earth, to take heaven
S1: so that we can get him out of hell. That's
S1: who we are. You come in here for the Kingdom agenda.
S1: Where's Tony Evans when I need him? And so here
S1: it is. Let me just. Bottom line this. Hey, bottom line,
S1: pastor for Elder Robert Brown, when he was a member
S1: of our church, he was the first person I saw
S1: had this shirt because he worked for the IRS. And
S1: it said, In God We Trust. On the back of it,
S1: it said, all others we audit. You've seen that before.
S1: So he came. He said, we may be leaving Pastor Ford.
S1: I said, oh man, no, no, no, he's my finance
S1: elder bad boy, you know. And I said, no man. No, no, no.
S1: He said, yeah. I said, well why? What's happening? He said,
S1: they want to give me a promotion. So yeah. And
S1: it's not, you know, because some people will sacrifice their
S1: Sunday worship for extra $100 a month. I said, well,
S1: what are they offering you, if you don't mind me asking?
S1: He said they're going to make me a department head
S1: over a tri state area. So. Yeah. What kind of
S1: money are you going to give you, if you don't
S1: mind me asking? 30,000 a year, I said to myself.
S1: He gone. Because you know how it is when we
S1: always project on other people. Because I know I'd have
S1: been gone. A couple weeks later, he came back, he said.
S1: I said, I know you're getting ready to say when
S1: y'all are leaving. We're not. I said, you're not leaving.
S1: They they rescinded it. He said, no, I turned it down.
S1: You turned it down? Why? Get this. Because I went
S1: down for a couple days where they were going to
S1: get our house. I looked around the area and there
S1: wasn't a sound church anywhere. And I'm not moving my
S1: family to a place where we're not getting the kind
S1: of spiritual food we're used to. So I turned it down. Man.
S2: That's a pretty powerful story here on treasure. Truth. You're
S2: listening to a message called God's Pleasure and Your Treasure.
S2: And we'll get back to this teaching in just one moment.
S2: Maybe you've got a story about a way that God
S2: has used something Pastor Ford has been preaching on to
S2: impact your walk with Christ and to help you grow
S2: in your relationship with him. We'd love to hear your story.
S2: You can give us your feedback or even ask a
S2: question when you come to our website. It's Treasure Truth
S2: Radio org. Click on the contact link. Let us know
S2: where you're listening, why you listen, and what difference Pastor
S2: Ford's teaching is making in your life. Just come to
S2: treasure Truth Radio and again click on contact. Well, if
S2: you're just joining us, our message is called God's Pleasure
S2: and Your Treasure. Let's get back to it. Here is
S2: Pastor Ford.
S1: Then notice not just the purposes of Christ, the purity
S1: of Christ. Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness.
S1: What do you mean, his righteousness? And then we know
S1: about it. I'm not going to take time because righteousness
S1: is first imputed, then it's implanted, then it's imparted. What
S1: are you talking about, Pastor Ford? See, what he's saying
S1: is this living right is more important than living well off.
S1: Because if you'll live well off, I mean, you'll live, right?
S1: He'll help you live well off. Life does not consist
S1: in the abundance of things that you possess. It's being
S1: before doing. It's communion before conduct. You can do without being,
S1: but you can't be without doing. See, every Christian has
S1: a throne in an altar on their heart. If you're
S1: on the throne, Jesus on the altar. And why should
S1: he be on there? He already sacrificed himself. But if
S1: you're on the altar, Jesus on the throne Can't have
S1: it both ways. It's either or, not both. And. And
S1: the Bible says we're to be vessels under honor. That
S1: is God going to use us whether we clean or dirty,
S1: but he rather use us clean his purity, his righteousness.
S1: Which brings us to the last part. Notice then, your
S1: perspective must change. Your passion must be the catalyst. Your
S1: priority must be the Christ. Now notice your promise from
S1: Christ and all these things shall be added unto you.
S1: Let me break it down real slow. First of all,
S1: it's a complimentary promise. What do you mean? It's connected
S1: to the previous and serves as conjunction that serves as
S1: an equal sign to show continuity or continuation. Seek ye
S1: first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all
S1: these things. And see. In other words, if I don't
S1: see Christ, if I don't have his plan and program first.
S1: If I don't have his purity in my life, then
S1: I should not expect to get his provision. Shouldn't expect it.
S1: And so it's complementing its comprehensive promise. Why? Because it
S1: says all these things. I'm not going to ask you
S1: what all means. Then it's a conveyed promise. What do
S1: you mean? He gives it to you? Now, I don't
S1: understand why people can't get this. I don't know, because
S1: I guess greed is in our nature. We think about
S1: as the great theologians. De La Soul said, me, myself
S1: and I. And I guess I'm guilty of it too, sometimes.
S1: But here's what I find. The more mature I become
S1: as a believer, the less I ask God for stuff. Amen.
S1: I really do. Why? Because I understand if I just
S1: live right, he's going to have me live well. So
S1: some people look now it's like, okay. It's like, oh,
S1: I drive a nice car. Now I live in a
S1: nice house. Well, you should have saw me when I
S1: was living in the parsonage. You saw me when I
S1: was driving the orange and white cab station wagon with
S1: bondo on the top, where I took the things off,
S1: and the big old, big old bondo on it because
S1: I didn't know how to do all that stuff. I
S1: just wanted to stop the rain. And there have been
S1: plenty of churches, and I've shared them with you over
S1: and over again, at least three in the past. Mega churches.
S1: You know, Common candidate one right here in the south suburbs. Come,
S1: candidate know. Come preach. Know. Why don't you want to
S1: come preach? Because I'm afraid I get there and see
S1: all them people. And you treat me this way and
S1: treat me nice. And I be telling Christ Bible. God
S1: has called me to go somewhere. No, I ain't taking
S1: no chance because I don't trust me. And what did
S1: he do? He added things to me. He added it
S1: to me. I didn't seek any of it. I didn't
S1: ask for any of it, you know. You know, a
S1: couple people who are new say, you know, what's this
S1: with the pastor's anniversary? I didn't ask for that. No,
S1: I ain't going to turn it down, but I ain't
S1: ask for it. I was here for 11 years and
S1: refused to let him do it. Until they just pressure
S1: me and pressure me, and they pressured me and said,
S1: you know what? We want to appreciate you. You mean
S1: we can't appreciate our own past? What's the Bible say?
S1: You always quoting the Bible? Well, the Bible say give
S1: honor to those who do. And finally I said, okay.
S1: They wanted to give me water and towels and all that.
S1: I can get my own. I can carry my own Bible. No,
S1: somebody told me that's my ministry to the Lord. Alright.
S1: I'm not going to argue with you. Amen. But my
S1: point is this. I didn't ask for any of it.
S1: I didn't ask stuff just to be dropping in my lap,
S1: not looking for it. Why? Because Oz. I'm just living
S1: the way he wants me to live. Why? When Christ
S1: is our pleasure, he gives us his treasure. Let me
S1: tell you a story. If you want to read it
S1: in its entirety, what you ought to do is just
S1: go to Wikipedia and Google Chris Tucker and go to Wikipedia.
S1: Here's what you're going to find. Chris Tucker was born
S1: to a Pentecostal family. His mother and father are gloriously saved.
S1: They love the Lord Jesus Christ. And Chris Tucker wasn't
S1: saved even though he grew up in the same family. You.
S1: Some of y'all know what I'm talking about. And so
S1: he hooked up with Ice Cube and they did. Friday.
S1: He made under $100,000. So he became a Christian in 1997.
S1: And Tiny Lister, anybody know tiny the big dude? He's
S1: a Christian. They all they both go to the same church,
S1: same church with Denzel and that's a Bishop Blake's church.
S1: And Tiny Lister said, man, you're a Christian now. You
S1: got to cut all that cussing out. Christians don't cuss,
S1: he said. Yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. So
S1: he cut the cussing out of his comedy. Now Ice
S1: Cube came back and said, we're going to do next
S1: Friday and Friday three. Chris Tucker turned them down because
S1: he don't cuss no more. And the script was nothing
S1: but cussing. Jackie Chan was looking for a comedian that
S1: was African American to work with him, but Eddie Murphy
S1: turned him down. Chris Rock turned him down. That opened
S1: up the door for Chris Tucker, but Jackie Chan said, no,
S1: that guy cusses too much and somebody said he doesn't
S1: do it anymore. So Jackie Chan brought him onto Rush
S1: Hour and he made in Rush Hour two. $20 million
S1: rush hour three. $25 million and 20% of the box office.
S1: Were you trying to say, I'm not telling you. If
S1: you quit cussing, you're going to become a millionaire? I'm
S1: not telling you that, but I'm trying to show you
S1: what happened. What happened with Chris Tucker? He sought first
S1: the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And what did
S1: God do? Say, I'm going to open up some doors
S1: for you that ain't never been opened. You honor me.
S1: I'm going to honor you. It's like the widow in
S1: first Kings 17. He said, what do you have in
S1: your house? I got a little meal and I got
S1: a little oil. And he said, well, make me a
S1: little cake first. And then she made him a little
S1: cake first. And everything was multiplied because she sought first
S1: the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all those
S1: things were added unto her. And that's what I came
S1: to tell you today, that whenever you have Christ's pleasure,
S1: you'll also get Christ's treasure. And if you think you're
S1: going to get what he has apart from doing what
S1: he says do, Who is never going to happen.
S2: It's a good reminder and challenge as we wrap up
S2: together here on Treasure truth. A message is called God's
S2: Pleasure and Your Treasure, and you can listen to this
S2: broadcast again when you come to our website. It's Treasure
S2: Truth radio.org. That's treasure Truth Radio dot. You know, pastor,
S2: we often hear the word stewardship in Bible teaching and
S2: Christian radio. But how does that apply to supporting a
S2: program like Treasure, Truth or Moody Radio?
S1: Well, I think we need to understand that everything is
S1: God's by ownership and it's ours by stewardship. A steward
S1: is a manager of somebody else's things, okay? And so
S1: we understand it all belongs to God. And what we
S1: want to do is we have trusted God to provide
S1: us in our giving. Now we ask God to guide
S1: us in our giving. And what we do is we
S1: begin to pray and to ask, you know, we support
S1: our local church, and then we give to the organizations
S1: that build us up and edify us. The word edify
S1: is an interesting word, literally means to build a house.
S1: And when you listen to moody radio programs like treasure,
S1: truth and other Moody sponsored programs, you're being built up
S1: in your most precious faith, and you want to make
S1: sure that that kind of thing can continue where you
S1: grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord
S1: and Savior Jesus Christ. And that can't happen unless we
S1: have individuals who will give.
S2: Well, you can give online by coming to Treasure Truth
S2: Radio org and clicking on the donate button. Well, thanks
S2: for doing that and for listening. Thanks also to our producer,
S2: Amy Rios for Pastor Ford, I'm Steve Hiller. Treasure truth
S2: is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody
S2: Bible Institute.