The Danger Of An Unfocused Life

A good week. We got some good rain in my house yesterday. I don't know if y'all got some or not, but we we did get some rain in our house yesterday. We need some more and it looks like we may be able to get some in the coming weeks. Well today. I want to do a sermon. We're not going to start a series right now, maybe in the next few weeks. I'll look about that. But I want to do a sermon today. I've actually preached this before. and I usually, I never go back. And look through the notes that I wrote, when I preached it before because I want new stuff. I want it to be fresh. So I never go back and, and really look, I may use some of the same points, but I tried to look at it from a different angle. So today I want us to think about in the title of this sermon is the danger of an unfocused life danger of an unfocused life. Now, many of you know what it's like, To lose your focus. Don't you never lost your focus at work and then you boss. Come on out. What in the world you do and you doing this? You for you, not even thinking about what you're doing, you know, it's easy to lose focus and I know we have a couple of teachers in here and I bet you can say, you know what it's like when you were students lose focus, they just lose focus and they start thinking about other things and they write down these crazy answers to these questions. It's because they have lost Focus. Well, it's easy for us. To lose focus in the Christian Life. It is very easy to lose focus in the start living. For ourselves. And not God and that is so easy to do. Well, Jesus. He told a a story. He was, he was teaching about attitudes and all of a sudden this man jumped up and he just hollered out to Jesus and ask him a question.

And Jesus answered him like he does like many times by telling a story because he knew what was in this young man's heart. You see? Jesus was grade at Payne word, pictures, and the exciting thing about it is these word pictures always had a significant purpose for the people. So he created stories, I guess to articulate Timeless truths that would really leave an impact on the listeners. So what I want you to do today is I want you to turn to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. And this is in your, on the back side of your bulletin, as well, Luke chapter 12, and I'm going to read this story. It's only we going to start in verses 13 and 13 will go down to verse 21. And this is what the Bible says. Then one from the crowd said to him. Teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Now. Jesus was teaching. He was talkin about attitudes and all and all of a sudden this guy pipes up. He says teacher Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, speaking of Jesus. Man. Make me a judge or arbitrator over you. Couldn't you just hear him saying that man? What are you doing? Asking me that who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you? And then Jesus said to him. Take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life. Does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses and I want you to notice something here. This man told asked Jesus question and he says, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me and Jesus didn't even answer his question. But what Jesus did is he pronounce judgment on him when he said take heed, and beware of come to this, when one's life does not consist of the things that he possesses. The how could Jesus say that? Because Jesus knows our hearts. And when we ask something and say, say he knows what our motives are and he knew what the motive of this man was. This man's motive was not. Will give me the inheritance so I can give some back to the Lord. No, hit hit his motive was. I want what's mine. Now? When you look at that you saying well, there's nothing really wrong with that. You know, if he's got an inheritance coming to him. He should get it. That's true. But for this man to say divide the inheritance, tell my brother to divide the inheritance, that means that a couple of things happened. Number one, their daddy. So his father just passed away number to yet older brother because he told Jesus to tell his brother, which would have been older because he was the one did he and Out The Inheritance? So he had an older brother, but he didn't come to Jesus say, Lord. Help me to mourn. Lord, teach me how to grieve my father, just passed away. What he said was, Lord my brother to give me my inheritance. He was concerned with nothing but money. And he wanted it for himself. And so, Jesus exposed his heart. He didn't answer his question at all. He just said, Beware of covetousness cuz I know your heart. And I know why you're not concerned about your dad. You don't want to grieve him. You don't want to make a man's where you brought. You just want, what's yours? All right, vs. 16. Did he smoke a bowl to them saying? All right, so he's going to tell a story and he's talkin to all of them but specifically to this man. So here's the here's the story. The Ground of a certain rich man. He'll did Planet flea and he thought within himself saying, what shall I do? Since I have no room to store my crops. So he said, I will do this. I will pull down my Barns and build greater and they're our store all the crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul. So you have many Goods laid up from many years, take your ease eat drink and be merry. But God, there's another one of these but God's again, but God said to him fool. You fool this night. Your soul will be required of you. Then. Whose will those things be with you have provided? And then he gives this summary statement. So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. This farmer, and this young man whose father had died. They both had the same problem. And it was covetousness how many, how many of you use that word in your vocabulary today? I never use it. I never say. Oh you just I covet her. I don't say that. Most people wouldn't know what you're talkin about. So, let's just, let's just put in for covetousness. Let's put in the word materialism. That's what our culture knows. And I've got a definition here. I want to give you for covetousness / materialism. This is my definition. You won't see this in the dictionary. But this is my little short, to-the-point definition. Here's what it means to have it. Or if you are overtaken by materialism, or if you've lost focus in your Christian Life, here. It is. Materialism is an unquenchable thirst for getting more and more of something. We think we need in order to be truly satisfied. That's what covetousness, that's what materialism. Is there something in our life that we want more and more and many times. It is something that someone else has. We look at someone else and we see what they have and then we want it. And we think if we get it then we'll be truly satisfied. Don't this go with Ecclesiastes? What? We just, what does Solomon say? He said if there's no judgment and if there's no afterlife, yeah, just go and get all you want. And can I call you yet, but he said, since there's a judgment and afterlife. This will never bring happiness. He found out himself. He was not satisfied at all, but we fall into this thinking that if I can just have this more of this, then I will be truly satisfied. Well, this is what this young man. This is what this farmer fault. So this brother he kind of comes up and he says look Lord. He says I want you to divide inheritance. Now, why would he say something like that? Because in those days the people would usually go to the scribes who were the caretakers of the law and if they had a division or if they had something and opposition. Something wasn't going, right. They would go to the scribes. They look settled. For us. Well, with Jesus, the great teacher that he was, knowing this man here, just yelled out to Jesus and said, you know, look, if Jesus will be on my side. Everybody will be on my side because he has a great teacher so he kinda yells out. But instead of the Lord answering him. He took this as an opportunity to teach the people and important concept. You see Jesus is dealing not with the symptom of the problem. He's dealing with the root of the problem. And he says, well, whatever. Gave you the idea. I'm supposed to solve your problems. See The Inheritance wasn't the problem. Man's life doesn't consist, what the real problem was materialism or covetousness, that he wanted so bad. So, here's what I want to do. I want to give you four ways point one, four ways, four instances that can occur. When we lose focus in our Christian Life, and we going to see this exactly from the farmer. So let's look at it. And number one. Is this, we lose focus. When we focus on having and not giving and this is what this man does in verse 15. He says, Jesus said, take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life, does not consist in the abundance of Think. Jesus knew that this man was not focused on grieving for his father. He was not focused on giving back to God. When he got his inheritance. He was focused on recording everything that he was going to get. He knew this man heart and soul when you think about covetousness and we when you think about wanting something so bad, that you think it's going to truly satisfy, think about how prevalent that was in the Bible who was the first Covetor. Eat. He wanted to be like, God. Satan said you eat this fruit. You will be like God. She couldn't stand it. She wanted to be like God, Lot's, wife, coveted, the pleasures of Sodom. Coveted that.

Aiken coveted, The Spoils of War when he was not supposed to take anything. Who was it that coveted, you Rhys? Why wife David? David stepped out on the roof one day and saw a woman over there. You rise Why by sheebah, and he said, I want that woman and he got that woman and he got her husband killed. And that woman had a baby and that little baby died because of sin of David. Because he saw so he's I've got to have that woman even though he had plenty of women. So what we need to understand is when we covet, we start down a road that leads to destruction. So Jesus tells a story about this rich man, this farmer who was very successful had a great harvest had the mini crop store and he said, you know, what I'm going to do. I don't have enough space to store my food. You know, what I'm going to do. I'm going to tear down my old Barns and build bigger Barnes, nothing at all. Nothing wrong, but that's good. That's good business. I think then he reasoned that he could live the life of e. You see this man. Allowed his life to get out of focus. And we can all do that and it's so subtle. And it's so easy for all of us to do things. Little things can happen that will cause us to lose our Focus for living for God's glory. And one way to get it back is to study the word of God, but friends, we live in a culture that is constantly applying pressure to do one thing and that is to accumulate more, our culture tells you. It's all about you. It's all about me, you work, and you get as much as you can, and you can all you get. And you look after for number one. We are constantly bombarded with that message on TV internet and everywhere. It's life is all about you. Exactly, right. So we lose our focus when we focus more on having, then we do giving in. This is what this man did and materialism is the god of our culture and it is a trap that Satan uses to trip us up as Christians because we get all, we get all excited about our job. I work and making money, and having things, and all of a sudden, we find ourselves. We just focus on having and keeping what we have and not giving, you know what? One of the Number one, fastest growing businesses is in the United States. Self Storage. Why why would that be? Cause we all want so much stuff? We don't have anywhere to store it. So we have to take it off site and put it somewhere. That's what we have to do. The United States is one of the few countries that has self storage facilities. Most countries, don't even have them. But yet you ride by, you see, boats parked out there and people rent all this storage space to put all their stuff in, because we like to hoard our stuff. We're not going to give it away. We're not going to sell it. We're going to keep it as if we can tear it to heaven with us one day, which we know that we can. So we lose focus when we focus on having and not giving number two. We lose focus. When we focus on the body and not the soul know, that's probably number three up there or see, but I'm going to go with the scripture. So we're looking at see right now, focus on the body and not the soul. Look at verse 19. He says, I will say to my soul. So you have many Goods laid up for many years, take your ease eat drink. And be merry. I want to ask you. So have you ever talk to your soul? Never said, so.

This man thought the heat on his own soul. That he was the caretaker of life and death. He didn't say body. He didn't say self. He said soul. He talked to his soul but yet he was focused on the body and not the soul. This man has cultivated his land. He had a good production. Nothing wrong with that. If you are farmer, you want to produce, he did nothing wrong to gain his money. He didn't go out and steal money. He didn't go out and extort money from someone else. He didn't, she, he worked hard for his money because he was a farmer. And then he said, if you know something, I've got a lot of produce, I don't have enough room. I want to build bigger, Barn, all that is good. Anybody who comes into well, or if you make a lot of money at your job, you ought to think about how I'm going to handle this money. That is it is good to plan. What you're going to do. Nothing is wrong with what this man has done so far. That's a good idea to ponder. What you going to do with you or well because you don't want to make snap decisions. Well, I've come into this money. I'm going to spend it all here. You don't want to do that. You want to think about it. You want to play this man was a good businessman. He was a good businessman and he thought, thought through his plans. But it's the plan that he came up with, that gave him trouble, because he decided the purpose of his wealth. What's the make his life easy and secure? Now, how many of us have ever thought?

I can't wait till I retire. I just can't wait out. I surely wish I could win the lottery. If I won the lottery, you know what I would do. I would travel, I would go places, I would sleep late. I would take it easy. I would eat the finest food. I can have what I wanted, the car, the house, the whole, the land. I could have everything that I want. That's what we say. I've never heard someone say, you know, something if I win the lottery. I'd love to give $1000000 to North American Mission board and international Mission board. I would love to go and give $500,000 to all the southern baptist seminaries across this United States. I would love just to give back to. I've never heard him. I say that ever. But I thought to myself, if I come across some money, I sure would like to retire. I sure would like to take it easy. I sure would like not to live, paycheck-to-paycheck. I'd like to have all these good things, you know, there's some people they get within ten years of retirement and they put it on the calendar, start counting down the days and they're ten. What can happen in ten years, but they start counting it this long till I retire. This long till I get to quit working. You see this guy here. He's the purpose of his wealth was to make his life easy because he says the first 19. So you have many girls laid up for what many years, take your ease eat drink and be merry friends list. I don't know how much anybody's got in here. How much money you got? But let me say this, if you have a lot of money, if not a scent. I have a lot of money. It's not a sin to have money, but it is a sin to hoard money. And this is what this man was doing. This. Man's problem, was his unwillingness to recognize the hand of God and what he was doing. Did you notice in the story? This man never say, God. Thank you for blessing me with this. He has blessed me with bigger. Barnes has blessed me with crops. He has blessed me with a good family. Know, it's all about me and my is what he talks about. You see the question on how we use, our money is a Temptation for all of us. Are we going to use it for ourselves? Or we going to try to buy something to make us happy that God never intended, could make us happy. You can't buy happiness and you can't buy security or we going to trust God to take care of us and then find a way for us to give the money back to him. So we can bring honor to him and his kingdom. This man was out of focus because he was focus on just himself. He was focus on the body and not the soul. He was kind of like the layout of the sea in church and Revelation, 3 says that they were rich and in need of nothing, but the Lord said in reality, you Richard miserable poor blind and naked. Because you without the Lord, This is the way this man was he was focused on having and not giving he was focused on the body. Not the soul. Next, he was focus on himself. And not God. You say, we lose focus. When we focus on ourselves and not God and how do we know he was focus on himself. Well, if you look in these verses I want, I'm going to start in verse 18. I want you to listen to the personal pronouns. He uses. So he said, I will do this. I will pull down my Barns and build greater there. I will store all my crops and my good. I will say to my soul like he own his soul.

And what did God say to you fool? He says you fool friends lesson when God gives us material blessing.

There's two things that we can do and here's what they are. We can either choose to see it as as a representation of God's goodness. And then reflect that goodness back to him with thankfulness and gratefulness. Or we can see it. As how great we are and how wise we are and how wise we have been, there's no middle ground where they're going to thank God for it or we going to see ourselves as so talented and so gifted. And so used that. I am so great. Look at what I can do. You see there's no middle ground. The material blessings that you have in your life. They're either a window in which you see God or they are a mirror in which you see yourself. Now, which one is it? When you look at everything that you have, do you see God and are you thankful? You looking through a window and see God or you look through a mirror and see yourself. This man saw himself. I me my all the way through, never once mentioned God at all and I've known Christians before who would experience a financial blessing and they were just ready to claim all the credit for it are used to help people. Before I said you tired and I don't feel well that's god's got my name on it. Don't have God's name on it. I mean just saying, stuff like that. Who gave you the ability to do the job? Who gave you the help to get up every morning and go to work? He can take it away, just like that, but see, people don't see it like that. And so the rich fool forgot that he says, it's all on me is my what I have done. Let me show you the scripture. James talked about this to look at James chapter 4. Verses 13 through 16. Here's what he says, come now you today or tomorrow? We will go to such-and-such City, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit here. Some men who said we're going to tomorrow. We going to go to this city and we're going to stay there a year and we're going to buy and sell. And we're going to make a profit is all about them. Look what the Bible says. Where is you? Do not know what? Will happen tomorrow? For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time. And then vanishes, wait, and I watch this.

Instead you ought to say, if the Lord Wills, we shall live and do this, or do that. In other words, what you ought to do is recognize the Lord's hand in your life. That's all the Lord won't he wants you to recognize him? But now you boast in your arrogance. And all such boasting is evil. That's exactly what this farmer did right there. That's exactly what he did. So Focus. Focus on having and not giving focus on the body and not the soul and focus on ourselves. And not God, then there's one more. We lose focus when we focus on time and not eternity. Look at versus 2221. But God said to him fool this night. Your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be? But you have provided. So, is he who lays up treasure for himself? And is not rich toward God. What did Jesus say in another scripture? Where your treasure is is where your what heart is. See, he knew this man's heart. And many people come into money major. Well and they began to think money can buy them. Anything. You can buy them happiness. He can't do it. He can buy my way out of trouble. Sometimes it can with this corrupt as the court system, is if you got enough money, you buy your way out of trouble. But this man had all the money he could use. But there's one thing he couldn't buy. That was one more day of life when God said your life is over. It's over. You can't buy another day. But this rich man thought he said, I have saved enough from many years. How did he know that? What? Probably because I said to my soul, he thought he was the caretaker of his own life. He said I've laid up stuff for many years and on the very day. He made his boast about living long. The Lord required his life. He felt that money would give him security, but it will not. So instead of barns. He had a burial. That's what he had instead of giving orders to his accountant, put this money over here, put this money over there. He was going to stand before God that night and give account for his life. That's what he was going to do in the question is being. Who's those things? Who will they be? In other words, the rich man couldn't take one grain of corn with him into eternity. So, We see here. We lose focus. We focus on have any not giving on ourselves and not God on the body and not the soul. And when we focus on the temporary things of this Earth in eternity, you see wealth cannot keep us alive when it comes to our time to die. Nor can it buy back all the opportunities that we lost while we were thinking of ourselves and ignoring God and others. Now, many of us if we heard this story, you know, how we would respond, we would say. Well, that is an absolute shame. This man planned his whole life. He worked hard, his whole life. And now he died at such a young age. He's not going in. Be able to enjoy the fruits of his labor. What a shame. That is. That's what we would say. We're friends. Let me tell you what the real shame is. The shame is not what lay behind this man. The shame is, what lay before this man? And that is an eternity without God. That's the real shame. That's the shame right there. His wealth was just an incident in his life. God was not impressed whatsoever with all his money. Not whatsoever. Well, what how does this happen? And why does it happen? How can this is so subtle, how can we start focusing on ourselves and not other in our body having focus on this temporary life? How does it happen to us? Well, I've already said one way is called you because culture it tells us that this is all there is you have to understand, we live in a Godless culture who don't believe in God. Believe in the afterlife. So it's going to tell you you just get all you can while you can and then hold it and keep it so you can live the good life. That's one way but there's another way. And that is point to The promises of materialism, materialism promises us things that it cannot produce and I want to give you three up. Number one riches will promise a full life. It cannot provide a full life, it cannot provide. You see this man was rich, but he wasn't rich in Good Works. He wasn't ready to give he was ready to horde. You. See, riches are deceitful. They will convince you that they are more important than God. That's why Paul called Riches of snare and warns that they can steal your soul. So they promised a full life. They cannot provide. I've heard people say before if I could just win the lottery and be rich, I can live a full life, the friends. Riches will not linked in your life. They don't add depth to your life. In the Bible teaches that lusting. After these things. Covenant, after these things makes us smaller in areas, that really count. But let me tell you this.

Some of the wealthiest people in the world. Are the loneliest people in the world. Many people think if I had riches, you know what? That's going to buy me friends. It's not going to buy you friends at about you. A lot of acquaintances. It's not going to buy you friends. There was a man I used to work with and he was in his late forties and he had inherited a lot of money from his family and he was very rich and we know why you work, but he did. And I asked him one day. I said you ever been married and he said, no, I said what why not? He said, because I never know when somebody pretends to like me whether they really like me or where they want my money. This was a lonely man. Because he could never trust anybody. I understand that. There's women out here right now that would marry any man that had money. And there's me and I hear right now that would marry any woman, simply because she had money. So, I understand why people say, you just don't know who to trust because you don't, but rich people, it will not bring you happiness. Sometimes it will bring you frustration and it won't just destroy your life because you're so lonely. Some of the loneliest people in the world are some who are the richest because rich people never know why someone wants to get close to him and they can't trust people. The thing. They thought would create happiness destroys happiness, riches are deceitful because they promised a full life that they cannot provide. We need to understand that. Number two will be Materialism promise is a security. It cannot produce. This man here is that I'm going to be a bigger Barnes. I'm going to store my crops and he felt secure. He looked over his balance sheet. I'm sure he surveyed the new Barnes and he thought everything was well, why wouldn't? Because he did not think of the possibility of death and judgment. He just thought he was going to live forever, friends. Lessen. The rich man has no more Security in his help. Then the homeless man does living on the street. The hand of God can touch the rich man, just as it touches the homeless man with health problems. You see God has created life wealth, May promote Financial Security. Let me say that but it can't produce a secure life. You think God is placed in each of us?

A hole if you will in our hearts and it's a god-shaped hole in. The only thing that will fill that hole is a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you don't have that relationship, you're never going to have complete contentment and happiness. You're always going to be looking here here for more and four more, and you can try stuff in that hole with dollar bills and luxury apartments or anyting else. But friends. I'm telling you it will not work until Christ reside in your heart anything. Other than God that offers security is a dangerous thing and it will not produce what you wanted to produce. Look what Matthew 13:22 says.

That he, who receives seed among the forms. Is he who hears the word and the cares of this world? And the deceitfulness of riches, do what choke the word. Let me see what riches will do. It will choke the word in your life. It will choke out the word of Outlook what Paul said in Timothy 2 Timothy 1st Timothy 6:17 through 9, to listen to this command, those who are rich in this present, a present age, not to be haughty, not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the Living, God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy? I watch this, let them do good. In other words, be rich in. Good works that they be rich in. Good Works ready to W, give and willing to share. was the first way we lose focus, focus on having instead of giving Storing up for themselves. A good foundation for the time to come. That they may lay hold of eternal life friends. Let me just say Materialism offers that security? It cannot produce and then lastly, it offers an investment. It cannot purchase then, Rich Man invested in himself, the wise, man. Investing God. Rich man invested in the things of this world. The wise man invest in eternity. The rich man invested in taking care of his body, but the wise man invest in taking care of his soul by drawing close to God, you say, Satan wants to trap us. By getting us to think about our possessions and money, then he can be sure that we going to invest all of our time thinking about, what's the next way? I can make a dollar bill and then the devil laughs while he watches us, spend all of our energy longing over the things. We don't have comparing ourselves to others and trying to hold everything that we have. He loves that. Because you think about yourself and not. This is what Satan wants. So let's close very quickly. Number three. So we see how we can lose focus, we see the promises of materialism that it cannot deliver. So here's what we need to ask this morning in my life.

Am I covering or trusting have I lost my focus. You say what, how can a person really tell? Well, you can tell by answering these three questions and here they are. Do I constantly dream? About the easy life. Just think of your own life. Now the keyword there. It's constantly we all dream about not having to work and having anything that we want. That's just human nature to occasionally, think about that. But do you constantly think about the easy life? Are you counting down the days until you retire? Even though it's 15 years away? Are you just keep buying that lottery ticket? Just thinking? If I could just if I could just win that, are you really wanting to win that lottery? So bad that you can't wait to give that money to the church know. You want to win it just so you can. Have the easy life. So you can have bigger Barnes. That's that's the reason do. I constantly dream about the Easy Life. The Bible says, we need to learn to be content with the thing that we have. The fact is having more is not going to change a thing. If you're always dreaming about the better life and getting to the next level, you are probably coming in instead of trusting because you're not content with what God has given you. That's question number one.

Do I always compare what I have to others? Again, the key word always. It's human nature to see what someone else. So I wish I had that. This is she human that I wish my children wear that bright and I wish my children without athletic. I wish my husband was that good-looking so-and-so, married. The best-looking man old so-and-so. This this woman here. He did. He just married best this man here. He got him. A trophy wife. I wish I had a trophy wife, just always comparing what you have to what someone else has. I wish I had that they got their nice car to Cadillac tonight, house. I wonder how I wish I wish I had that just always comparing friends. I don't know why. God, just some people more money than others. I don't know. but just maybe

some people are better at handling blessings. And some people are better. Handling Birds. Maybe you're good at handling burdens. Maybe you wouldn't be so good handling Financial blessing. I don't know why he does that, but the fact that you spend time making comparisons suggest that your spiritual life is out of focus. In the number 3.

Do I find it hard to tithe my money?

You find it hard to give money to the church. Well, let me just, no, let me say it like this. Do you find it hard to give 10% to the church? 10% off the gross, not the net. Do you find that hard? When you sit down and write your check to the church. Do you find it hard? Do you always take off the top 10% and give to God and then pay your bills or do you do the Bills first? And then if you have any left to give to God,

You say God in his word tells us that if we will give him our ties, which is 10% and go back to Old Testament, if you will give him your time. He will bless you. Like you never thought that you could be blessed. Why does he do that? Because he knows a person's money. Will show where that person's heart and devotion is. There's nothing more revealing than what we do with our money. Nothing more revealing. I want to show you a scripture in Malachi 3, verse 10. Now, I want you to look at this carefully. The average Christian * 2.5%. That's what Kia was not what I have. But that's what the average Christian Gift. Once you look at. This. This is what the Lord says. Bring. All the tithes into the storehouse ice. 10% that there may be food in my house. Only time in the Bible that he ever says this and try me now on this prove me. He says you bring your 10% and you proved me on what I'm getting ready to tell you. What, what is he? What do we need to prove him on? Look what he says?

Says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you, the windows of heaven and pour out for you, such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. He says you try me. You let me prove to you. If you'll give me your 10%, I will, I will pour out in the winners of having so much blessing on you. You'll have to build bigger barns. You won't be able to receive it. You see? This right? Our money shows, exactly. If we're out of focus, do I constantly dream about the easy life? And my constantly preparing comparing what I have two other and do I find it hard to tithe 10%? And the Lord said, if you will do that, he said I will bless you beyond your imagination friends. That's the danger. Of an unfocused life when we focused on having and not giving on ourselves and not God on our bodies and not our soul in on time and not Eternal. Amen, less bright. Father. We thank you, and praise. You and love you today. Lord for your word. Or we just thank you that you can't eat so much through. Just a simple simple story that this was Lord, thank you that you see our hearts and, you know, what's in them. Lord help us to be cheerful givers. Help us to focus on giving and not having. Help our lives to focus on you and not ourselves and other, we need to focus on you and others. Help us. Not the focus, just on the temporary things of this world. We know that we have to live here. We have to have a job. We have to make money make money. We have bills, we have to pay. We understand that Lord help us understand. It's not wrong to have money is not wrong to have a lot of money. It's definitely not wrong to plan and to look and to be a good business person. Lord help us to understand. But the problem is not. The diligence this in our head. The problem is the devotion that's in our heart. Where is our treasure? Lord, we thank you for all the blessings that you've given us and Lord. I pray that this church and all of us, as individuals would always be able to thank you and be grateful for what the hand of God is done in our life that we would never forget you that we would never use the personal pronouns. When it comes to what we have in, Christ's name. I pray, amen.