And turn with me again to 1 Timothy chapter six, and we'll be looking particularly at verses six through 10. this evening. I may not finish my comments there, but we'll start at, our reading will start at verse 1 of 1 Timothy chapter 6. And again, one of the main themes in this book, in this letter to Timothy is the theme of Eusebia, good worship. and how Christians are to live their life in this world in a way that worships and glorifies God. And in chapter 6, verse 1, he applies that to the work world, too. Let as many bond servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed. And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, that's good worship, he is proud knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such, withdraw yourself." And here's kind of the main building block of this whole text. Now, godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and ensnare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Thus ends our reading. Let's ask God's blessing on his word. Father, again, having read your holy and fallible inspired word, and again. Father, we know that without you we can do nothing. And so we pray again in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you are here with us, that you are here with me, that you be with my mouth, that you bring forth the meditation of my heart and mind in a way that is pleasing to you. And Lord, you know my limitations and my needs, and take the little that's been prepared and make it enough to feed all. And Father, be with each one here present. You know exactly what their need is. Strengthen your people, encourage them, lift us up. And Father, again, for those that do not yet know you as Lord and Savior, have mercy. Open their hearts and turn them. that they might know Jesus Christ before the judgment. All these things, Father, we ask in Jesus' name alone. Amen. So, like I said, the last couple of weeks we've been looking at this idea in 1 Timothy 6 concerning godliness, this eusebia, this good worship. And again, I mentioned it, I think, a couple of weeks ago, too, that this was one of the powerful things out of the Reformation. that Martin Luther, John Calvin, all these guys, they knew that the life that we're being called to in Christ is a life of worship. It's not just what we do here. It's not what we just do on Sundays. Good worship is something that we live out in every aspect of our life. And so last week we were looking to that in verse six, now godliness with contentment is great gain, and that's a strange word, it's only used two times in the New Testament, and here's one of them, and then the other one is in 2 Corinthians 9, verses six through nine, and I wanna just remind us of what that is, because it's kind of the heart of everything that, literally this contentment, I believe, is the engine that drives the good worship of our lives. But this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one, as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, For God loves a cheerful giver. What's happening in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is Paul is imploring the people of Corinth to send a gift of money to the saints at Jerusalem because there's this great famine going down. and they need help, and so he's imploring them, but he doesn't want them to do it out of guilt. He doesn't want them to do it out of command. He wants them to do it out of the fullness of the grace that is in their hearts in Christ Jesus, and so this is what he's talking about. And God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you, always having all sufficiency, and this is the word that is translated as contentment in verse six of our passage. So that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. So God is able to make all grace abound toward us, always having all sufficiency in all things. This is what we have, that by faith in Jesus Christ, that the Father and the Son come to dwell in us, and we are given this knowledge of His love, His mercy, His compassion, and His goodness to us, and it's literally working in us like this, like I said, like this engine that's inside our heart and mind. It's the sufficiency of His grace should be inside of us, and that's what helps us to be able to do and to obey the commands that are given to us for good worship in this world. So, This really is an amazingly beautiful statement. The divine writer is telling us that as faithful children of God in Christ, that we have sufficiency in all things, which is really the abundance of God's abounding grace toward us in Christ. And it's that always abounding grace that gives us the abundance of all things that we need for every good work. In 1st Timothy 6 verse 6, the Apostle is saying that it's this all sufficiency in all things alongside the good worship is great gain or profit. And so we saw that the good work we need to be performing in the world, this good worship that we need to be in the world is how we are to honor a harsh or uncaring employer or even a workplace filled with employees that at least they come off to us as harsh and uncaring, that we need that sufficiency. We need to be filled with that heart and mind to be able to counteract the other things that are working against us. When we work for a harsh or an uncaring employer or have to work day by day with harsh and uncaring fellow employees, our souls are literally under attack from the inside and from the outside. And by the way, brothers and sisters, the greater, the more powerful enemy is on the inside, not on the outside. The outside is those people who are treating you badly. The inside is that old man that still dwells in us and aches to fight fire with fire. This is exactly what Paul is saying in his second letter to Timothy, which is the last letter that he wrote before he died. He's waiting to die. He's imprisoned in Rome in a terrible place. And this is one of the last things he says. He says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. I have fought the good fight. The greatest opponent we face every day as we pick up our cross and follow Jesus in our words and in our actions, the greatest opponent is the old man in us who wants to strike back so bad. Fighting the good fight means to lay down our pride, to lay down our need for constant recognition. to lay down our need to feel appreciated all the time. When people don't appreciate you and they don't treat you good, that part of our flesh really gets very upset about that. We get very angry about that and it is enough to make you want to fight. Out of this abundance of God's grace in us, out of the humility of Christ that's in us, we need to follow Him. We need to take that narrow pathway, which is to lay down our pride and just not take offense. Without that constant vision of God's love for us in Christ, without that sufficiency, that all-giving sufficiency, we're not able to fight this good fight. And I mentioned that phrase, I have fought the good fight. Brothers and sisters, some of us, especially in the conservative reformed churches, we sometimes get this idea, it's all Jesus, it's nothing to do with you. No, Jesus didn't lay down his life so you could just lay there in the back room while he does all the work. No, he actually is saving us so that we can begin to live out the image of God in our lives. And we do it in his power, We do it in the name of Christ. We do it through his word and through his spirit. We don't do it on our own. But we are very much involved. When Paul says, I have fought the good fight, he's not just saying Jesus in me. He's saying, I and Jesus in me, I have thought, I'm involved in this. And when we get popped in the mouth by someone, and I'm speaking in a way of metaphor, right? If someone really offends us, laying down our pride, not taking offense, praying for that person, caring for that person, seeing their brokenness. Brothers and sisters, that's part of the good fight. So in the last two weeks, we saw how that godliness with contentment, or all sufficiency in all things, is the key to being able to deal righteously and uprightly with the harsh and the uncaring employer. But it's also the key to respecting and honoring the employer who is a fellow Christian and who wants to really take good care of us. Because again, the old man comes out of us in a different way. When we see somebody's being really sweet, really decent, really nice, and really trusting of us, there's a part of us that says, we should take advantage of this. We should jump on this, right? Maybe I can get some extra vacation days or whatever. We want to take advantage of it. And that's what the Apostle Paul's saying. He's saying, some of you guys have Christian masters and owners now that are treating you Like you've never been treated before and there's a part of you that desires to take advantage of that. Don't do that. Don't do that. That doesn't help anyone. And when you actually honor him and respect them properly, it's for the blessing of all. So, in sin we have a tendency to take advantage of people who are really nice and considerate, therefore we also need this sufficiency in all things in that case also. But this evening, Paul's last words concerning godliness with contentment are illustrating the contrast between the gain or the profit of godliness with contentment versus against, in contrast, to the gain or the profit of the riches of this world. Paul illustrates that the profit or gain of godliness with contentment is better than the riches of this world in two ways. First of all, by reminding us of the temporary nature of our flesh, and second, by showing the grief of worldly riches. So first of all, by reminding us of the temporary nature of our flesh. Verse 7, for we brought nothing into this world, it is certain that we will carry nothing out. This is one of my favorite verses, I just love that verse. Because the simplicity of it just slaps us in the face. It reminds us of a brutal truth, we're gonna die. And that's a fact, that's a reality. We brought nothing into this world. Job 121, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. He was an incredibly blessed and wealthy man. And then one day, it was all taken away. And that's when he says these words. Now, I don't remember when I came into this world what I was wearing or what I wasn't wearing, but I have seen 11 children born in my house, or I think three of them in the hospital. I was there, and those little freeloaders came in with nothing. They had nothing. They had nothing. They had no clothing. They had no food. They didn't bring a lunchbox or anything. We had to provide everything. I can I I figure that the Lord of God all these people they know they saw it and and everybody comes into this world with Nothing, and it's a certain it is a certainty that we will go out with nothing. So I'm 49 16 and 17 Do not be afraid when one becomes rich when the glory of his house is increased. For when he dies, he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall not descend after him. And this is something that is very important for us to remember, because brothers and sisters, we're no different than anybody else. By the grace of God and the working of the Holy Spirit, as we walk down the road, one of the ways that God keeps us in the road and in the pathway is to remind us of all these things. because it is easy, especially in this country. We've been so blessed, and honestly, because it was a God-fearing country at one time, and we are still reaping the blessings of that. Now, that will come to an end, because when you turn away from God and you reject God and you reject His word, you reject His law, you reject His truth, and you reject His kingship, then what's gonna happen is darkness is gonna come. And so all that wealth and all that riches will just fly away. But when we have all this wealth in our own families, in our own lives, and we have retirements, and we have all these things, we just kind of take it for granted, and we don't even think about how these words apply to us, but they do apply to us. Whatever we have in this world, the minute that we leave it, it's gone. It does not transfer from this world to the next world. So whatever glory you have in this world, whatever wealth you have, whatever excellence of life you have in this world, the minute you leave this world, it's gone. It does not descend or ascend after you. Ecclesiastes 5.15, and as he came from his brother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and he shall take nothing from his labor, which he may carry away with his hand. We strive so hard, brothers and sisters, in this world to gather substance, right? We strive so hard to gain our desires, to gain wealth, to gain safety and security in this world. But here's the bottom line. It's all going to burn. And the bottom line is for you and me, the minute that we leave this world, it's gone. You cannot take it with you. So Paul adds this, having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. The word for content in the Greek speaks of being possessed of unfailing strength, to be strong, to suffice, to be enough. And here's how the writer of Hebrews uses it in Hebrews 13, verses five and six. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. And then he tells us why. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? This is really the heart and the soul of the child of God versus the child of this world. Is that we're given this knowledge by grace through the working of the word and spirit in our hearts and minds that we have someone who owns us here and will bring us through to the other side. We have someone who's the king of kings, the lord of lords, and in one place it says that he's given his own son for us. What will he withhold from us? All things are yours. That's literally what the word of God says. All things are yours. Don't worry. If you have enough, revel, rejoice, glorify, and the only one that can give you true assurance in life and in death, which is our Lord. So the writer of Hebrews is saying the same things that Paul is saying with the exact same understanding of why food and covering is enough in this world. Because the Lord God of heaven and earth, the creator and owner of all things, the master of the universe himself is literally with you at all times of every day and night, the Lord himself is our riches. Okay? Matthew 13, verses 44 through 46. Again, the kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid. And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. He finds this hid treasure in this field, and he knows that, I've never seen anything like this, and he says, I'm gonna buy that field. The next one, again, the kingdom of God is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who when he found one pearl of great price, a pearl like he's never seen before, a pearl that is in excellence, so much better and so much higher than every other pearl he's ever seen, he sells everything. and he buys that pearl. He sold all that he had and bought it. And I really appreciate what the apostle is doing through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit here. He's speaking realistically about how Christians are to live their lives in this world, and he's also speaking realistically how difficult that is. But he's given us an image that all through the Word of God is given by the inspired writers. And what that is, is that God himself is our treasure. God himself is our assurance. God himself is our all in all. And if you're a child of God living in this world, and you will struggle. just like the psalmist in Psalm 73 struggled. You and I will struggle sometimes with the other way, right? Because I understand the psalmist in Psalm 73. I grew up, and we were quite poor, quite frankly. I went to a Christian school. It was a good Christian school, and good people were running it. But there were 200 people there, and we were probably the poorest in that school. And I'm telling you what, that stinks. And as you get a little bit older, and you see your raggy clothes next to their nice clothes, and you see their nice houses next to your house, right? You're looking at this stuff, it's not good. And it actually raises resentment and anger. And by the time I was 17, 18, I was pretty hateful, right? And I was pretty angry. And I did not like middle-class church people from Hudsonville, et cetera, you know? Because, right, they have things I don't. And so there's an envy. And out of that envy comes anger and all these other things. And it's not until later, you know, God opens your heart and mind and gives you to see other things and better things. So, brothers and sisters, he understood The apostle understood how hard it is to give up your desires and ambitions to accomplish something in this world, to gain something in this world that's valuable and precious to the world, and to be content with the love of God in Christ. Like the psalmist in Psalm 73, right? He experiences this. He sees, you know, he sees the riches He sees the good life of the ungodly and the boastful. And he sees how they just seem to have life so, you know, I mean, one of the things, you know, he says that they speak against oppression and they speak loftily. And the reason they can speak loftily is because they feel like they're in control of the world. They feel like they are gods in this world. And I've heard it. Right? Because there's a lot of the mighty ones, you know, you can see them on television almost every day. Billionaires, you know, hundreds and millions of dollars and they trade and they buy, they sell. And there's the ones that are so confident they'll tell you in a heartbeat, you can take everything I've got today, I will start out and in five years, I will have a billion dollars. They'll just tell you that as confidently as can be because they're in control. And what we're being told here is that that actually is not true at all, brothers and sisters. They're going to die. They don't understand their end. In Psalm 10, it says the judgment is high above them. They have no understanding of the judgment of God. God actually keeps their eyes down here in the earth. In response, I don't know how it all works. All I do know is that they are not gifted to look up and to understand that there's a judgment coming, and one day, they're gonna find out that quick. That's what the psalmist sees when he goes and he sees their end. When he sees the judgment, he goes to the sanctuary of God, he goes to the temple of God, and he sees their end. And all of a sudden, he says, you set them in slippery places. He says, as in a moment. it'll be done that quick. And brothers and sisters, they'll be utterly consumed with terror at that time, and all their power, all their money, all the glory of this world will be gone. This is the horror of all those who put their faith in the riches and material blessings of this world while despising a relationship with the living God and with His church. It is literally heart-rending. Heart-rending. This is the constant challenge of the child of God in this world I'm convinced that the Apostle John uses the the language of over overcoming in 1st John and also in the book of Revelation to speak of those who in Christ through the power of his word spirit are Overcoming are fighting the good fight and and and are struggling that that flesh and spirit are struggling and they're fighting that fight in faith and and you know, sometimes they're going down sometimes they're going up but but the point is is they hang on by God's grace and and through his spirit of perseverance. They hang on, they fight that good fight, and they overcome. But secondly, in our text, we also see the contrast between these two by showing the grief of worldly riches. And again, brothers and sisters, I don't have a lot of time here, so I'll go very quickly. I'll try anyway. In verses 9 and 10, the inspired apostle tells the story of those who seek to fulfill their desires and ambitions for great gain in this world. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptations and a snare. and into many foolish and harmful lusts would drown men in destruction and perdition." I was blessed by God's grace. I ended up getting in business. Never meant to be in business, but I was in business, and the Lord blessed us with success. The business grew. Things were good, and I finally found out what it's like to have money. It's better than not have money, okay? I'll just tell you that. We all know that, right? But I also was able to glimpse the problems, too. because even when I no longer had to worry about where the next dollar was coming from, when I no longer had to worry about this month's bills or this week's bills, when I no longer had to concern myself or worry about that, my heart was not at ease. my soul was not at ease. Now there's nothing wrong with riches in themselves. There's many that were in the Word of God that were given wealth, that were given riches, many of God's saints. So it's not the money itself. It's not the riches itself. It's how we look at things. It's how we see things. It's how we depend on things. And for those who desire to be rich, And there's a lot of them around the world, especially if they grew up like I grew up, you know? You're looking at the other side of the tracks, you're seeing how successful and how good life looks on that side of the tracks, and you look at your own side, and you're saying, this stinks. Well, there's people that grew up far poorer than I did, right? All over the world, there are people that are growing up You know, you go to India, you go to China, there's places, brothers and sisters, especially like I think China or India and Bangladesh and areas like that, there are literally tens of millions of people that live hand to mouth. Africa, there's so many people that are living hand to mouth, day in and day out. And the anger and the fury that builds up when you're always wanting, always needing, And so what happens is, you know, he's not just talking about people that have money and have gained money. You know, people that desire riches, sure, there's plenty of rich people that desire more riches, but there's also plenty of poor people that he's talking about that desire riches. They think that that's the answer, but it's not. And brothers and sisters, I'm going to skip this part a minute. But one of the great benefits of living in this very technological and connected time is that we have more information about the wealthy and the successful and the glorious people of the earth than we ever have had. We have looks into the homes of the rich and famous, so whether they're models or TV stars or movie stars or you know, the billionaires on Wall Street. There is more information, more knowledge, more understanding than we've ever had before. We can see right into their lives because many of them will invite us right into their lives. But when you look in there, If you took one week off and you just spent your time on the internet and there's plenty of places you can go to study the lives of the rich and the famous, if you took just one week to study what's online about this, and you couldn't even get through it all, not even close, but you would see what Paul says under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is absolutely true. The lives of those people of whom so many of us are envious are not what you think. While it is true that there are many benefits of always having enough money in this world, the cost is so high. Think of the story of the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus. And this story actually represents what we see in the world perfectly. He comes to Jesus with the most important question in the world, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says some things about, you know, why do you call me good, et cetera. But then he says, you know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother. And he said, all these things I have kept from my youth. Jesus says, you still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. And this is his response. But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful. And the word sorrowful there, a very powerful word because it doesn't just mean sorrow and sad and shoulders down. It means he was filled with anger and fury and distress. He was angry about it, and he was also very distressed about it. Here's a young man whose heart is telling him that something is missing. Something is wrong in his relationship with God. He has no comfort or assurance that he will inherit eternal life, even though he seems to think and seems to believe, and people around him are probably encouraging him that, that you live a good life, you're living a righteous life, you're living an upright life. And even though he knows that or has that, you know, is being told that, yet there's something missing in his life. And he comes to Jesus, and Jesus tells him, you know the commandments, quick as a flash, all these things I've kept from my youth up. But then Jesus says something stunning. You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have. Distribute to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Now I don't care who you are and how much money you have or don't have, but ask yourself this question. If Jesus came to me and said, sell everything you have, give it to the poor and pick up your cross and come follow me. Ask yourself honestly, look in the mirror and say, could I do that? Or would I be like this rich young ruler? Would I be kind of upset about it? Anyone who will truly follow Jesus knows that you have to lose your life in this world to save it. I just recently read a short article about a well-known Hollywood movie star who wondered what it'd be like to go out in public without being known. And he's got a very recognizable frame and profile. And so he can't just put on a ball cap and sunglasses and hide. So he had his makeup people put some prosthetics and stuff. And so he wasn't bad looking or anything, but he just looked different. And so then he went out, he went out on the street, he went down to Starbucks, and he mingled with the commoners, okay? And he came back and said, I hated it. He hated it, he loathed it. He goes, people were bumping up against me, and it's like I wasn't even there, people weren't noticing me. Nobody was saying, I love you so and so, which I guess happens to him fairly often. And nobody's treating him special, et cetera. I hated it. And this is the problem with the love of money. Because brothers and sisters, it's the love of money. And the text, by the way, they throw, you can see that it's in italics in verse 10. All kinds of is in italics. It doesn't belong there. And in all the old versions of the Bible, like around the Reformation, all those translations, it didn't. It just said the love of money is the root of all evil. And I'm gonna finish there tonight by just telling you what I believe that happened, right? Because the text is clear, and the Greek text is very clear. It's very simple, it's very clear. The love of money is the root of all evil. Very simple text to translate, not so simple necessarily to understand what it means. But I think it is simple. I think it's much simpler than we think. Why is the love of money the root of all evil? And this was my own experience. What's so great about money? Well, there's a number of things. I'm just telling you there's tons of things that are great about money. But if you have money, if you're successful, the way that people treat you is different. When I sold my company and went to seminary, and my phone died literally that day. It was like nobody called me. I was like, I was in outer space. I might as well have been in outer space. I was in outer darkness, you know. People used to recognize me. People used to talk to me. People used to treat me good. I go to seminary, it's like I dropped off the planet. And why? Because I'm just telling you, when you're When you're in this world, and you've got money, and you've got some status, they treat you good. They recognize you as one of them. So there's status that comes with money. But the key, most foundational thing of the love of money that is the root of all evil is this. Money gives you the sense of control, and it gives you the sense that you don't need If I have enough money, then I don't need you. I don't need your accolades, I don't need your appreciation. I may want it, I may desire it, I may try to get it, but it doesn't really matter to me because if I have enough money, I can just go somewhere else and I'll be accepted because I have money. But here's the biggest thing. The child of God is someone who knows with all his heart, mind, and soul I am poor and I am needy. When David left his son, Solomon, gold and silver and all the things to prepare the house of God, et cetera, it literally, if you run the numbers on the value of gold and silver today, we're talking billions of dollars. He was a very, very wealthy man, but he did not see himself that way. He saw himself as poor and needy. The child of God is somebody who recognizes that no matter where he is, in whatever state he is, whether he has a lot or whether he has a little, that I am poor and needy before God. I need God. I need his Holy Spirit. I need his guidance. I need his love. I need his mercy. I need his compassion. I need what only he can give me. But the love of money, why do I love money? Well, money gives me power. It gives me security. so that I don't need. That's the problem with the love of money. That's why it's the root, and this is why the Apostle Paul says it's the root of all evil, is because that love is actually associated with every love that says, I don't need God. I don't need his redemption. I don't need his salvation. I've got it made in this world. I've got a good life going on, and God is good for some people, religion is good for some people, but I've got everything that I need, And you can't say anything to me. You can say something to me if you want, but I'm just gonna walk out the door and I really don't care what you think because I have money. That's the idea of the love of money. The love of money, if I have this, then I don't need. And the children of God in Christ, brothers and sisters, we are people who need. And it does not matter how much money we have, like Abraham, or like David, or others, Hezekiah, et cetera. I need what only God could give me. And no amount of money on this earth is gonna do it. So the love of money isn't gonna help me at all with what's really broken in me. That's the difference with the child of God. He realizes that the love of money is really saying, you know, if I have enough money, well, then I don't need to reach out to God. You know, I've spoken to people about this when I got into preaching, and, you know, this is the first time in my life that I ever, that I knew that if our congregation was gonna be blessed, if the preaching was gonna be blessed, et cetera, I needed what only God could give me. I needed to get down on my knees and pray. And brothers and sisters, to this very day, I do it. And some days it's easier than other days, but there's other days, it's hard. There's something in us that does not want to need. There is something in us that says, I don't want to get down on my knees every day. I don't want to need what you can give me, God. I just want to think that it's going to be there all the time. And I don't want to become like a beggar every day. That's our flesh. That's that spirit of the flesh that's resisting. this idea of God in me and me in God. That's the idea that I, you know, I, you know, because that's like a good marriage, a husband and wife. There's a sense we need each other. And that's the problem with marriage is that so many of us want to say, well, she does her thing, I do my thing, you know. And in the bottom line, do I really need him? Do I really need her? Well, if you're truly blessed and good marriage, you say, yes, I need. And the same thing is with our relationship with God. And this is why the love of money works against that, and that's why it's the root of all evils, because it's the foundational spirit that says, I don't need God, and I don't need what he can do. But brothers and sisters, by the grace of God, the working of his Holy Spirit, we pray that we'll be the ones like the psalmist, that no matter how much money he has, how much gold and silver he has, again and again he cries out, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon me. Amen. Father, once again, we come before you this evening hour, and we thank you for your words. But Lord, we pray too that you would apply them, that you'd apply them to our hearts and minds, that our eyes would be lifted high. Father, we know that you have blessed so many of us with a lot. And the truth is that we struggle with this more than we know. We always want more. We always want more of that security in this world. And there's no doubt, Lord, we'd be lying if we said otherwise. But we do. We confess ourselves and we open ourselves up to that and we say, Lord, you see it. But may it be that in each one of our hearts that there is a desire for you, a desire to know you and to be with you and to see you alone as the one who fulfills all our needs and the only one who can give us assurance. on earth and in heaven. Father, you are the only one in life and in death who will hold us through all things. You are the only one that can protect us from all the storms of life. And Father, we pray too that if there is some greed, this love of money, this love of the security and the assurance of this world in us, that you lift our eyes up, that we would confess our sin, that we would say, Lord, I want to need you. I want to need you more than anything. I want to be like those people that Jesus spoke about, that found that field with that buried treasure, and they went out and bought that field. Or that man who bought and sold pearls and found that great pearl, that pearl like he had never seen, a pearl that stood above every other pearl, And He sold everything to buy that pearl. May it be, Father, that we would give all, our all. For Lord, we know this, that You, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the God who's infinitely rich and powerful and sovereign, You gave everything. You gave what was most valuable to You. You poured Yourself out for us. Father, may it be that we, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and through the power of your Word and Spirit, would see it and we would see ourselves as poor and needy before you. and that we would cry out day by day, Father, I need you, I need our Lord Jesus Christ, I need your spirit, I need your word, and I need your love. Bless this congregation, bless all that are listening, be with all your people wherever they may be. Father, and again, we think of young Claire, and down at the hospital, and going through all these things at 12 years old, please be with her, watch over her, and guard her, all these things, Father, we ask in Jesus' name alone, amen.