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It’s Not About Us!Part III

Matthew 6:19-24

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Recap: It’s Not About Us

Theme: Placing trust in the Lord and not in ourselves is wise.

We keep making it about us because of our culture, our narcissistic attitudes, and overstating our importance to the Church.

How Do We Make Sure Its NOT About Us? (recap) If we remember and embrace the wisdom of

God given to us through Solomon by (Prov 3): Being merciful and truthful, Trusting God’s wisdom instead of ours, Fearing the Lord, Giving, and Embracing the Lord’s discipline, then

We can make sure we are living lives that glorify God and NOT ourselves.

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How Do We Make Sure Its NOT About Us? (recap) Learning to do these things results in:

Long life and prosperity Finding favor with God and man, The Lord directing your steps, Physical health, Abundant blessings from the Lord, and God’s love and care as our Father.

When we learn to live like “It’s Not About Us”, then we truly find abundant life.

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It’s Not About Us – Part III

One of the best ways we can tell if we’re living a life that is all about us instead of God is to look at our . . .

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It’s Not About Us- Part III

DEBT!!!

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US Consumer Debt Statistics

The national average debt per household from 2010 was around $50,000, with some states as high as $80,000.

The national average debt to income ratio for 2006 was 1.27 (more debt than income)

96% of all Americans will be financially dependent on the government, family, or charity at retirement. 

Almost 1 in every 100 households in the United States will claim bankruptcy.

The average American home has 13 credit cards. Americans make over 1.5 trillion dollars worth of credit card

purchases annually. The typical credit card purchase is 112% higher than if using cash.

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Scriptural Text – Matt. 6:19-24

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. 

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It’s Not About Us – Scriptural Text

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  Jesus, in His sermon on the mount, proclaims here that

our main goal should be to seek after and acquire things that make our God happy instead of making us (and others) temporarily happy.

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It’s Not About Us – Scriptural Text

21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Why Lord? Because if your mind is focused on

acquiring that stuff that doesn’t last, then it can’t be and won’t be focused on God.

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It’s Not About Us – Scriptural Text

22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  We are routinely led astray by what we see (I John

2:15-17); if we get caught up focusing on earthly stuff, we will be full of darkness

If we are to be associated with God, we can’t be associated with darkness (46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. –John 12:46)

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It’s Not About Us – Scriptural Text

24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.  Don’t get confused: there is no straddling of the fence.

You either make your life about God, or you make your life about you. You can’t serve God and money!

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Who Said I Was Serving $?

Who said I was serving money? I’m serving my God. God knows I need my stuff.

RIGHT?????

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Who Said I Was Serving $?

Your Greed says so: “I want what I want when I want it! I deserve it!” 6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we

brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. -I Tim. 6:6-10

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Who Said I Was Serving $?

Your Vanity says so: “My stuff shows how far I’ve come; validates me myself and to others!” 17Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun

was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind. 18Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. 20Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. 21For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? 23For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.  -Ecc. 2:17-23

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Who Said I Was Serving $?

Your Worry says so: “If I don’t do it, who will?” 25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or

what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31"Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?' or "What shall we drink?' or "What shall we wear?' 32For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. -Matt. 6:25-34

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Who Said I Was Serving $?

But your God says this: If you owe someone, that’s who you serve. 7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower

becomes the lender's slave. -Prov. 22:7

Your debt, for whatever good reason you might think you have, enslaves you to someone other than God.

You were bought with a price (you belong to God now). Don’t go selling yourself back into some man’s slavery

You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.  -I Cor. 7:23

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Uh oh . . . I’m already there!

But I’m already in debt! What does God expect me to do about that? 1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor

or entered into an agreement with a stranger, 2 you have been trapped by the words of your lips -- ensnared by the words of your mouth. 3 Do this, then, my son, and free yourself, for you have put yourself in your neighbor's power: Go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor. 4 Don't give sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids. 5 Escape like a gazelle from a hunter, like a bird from a fowler's trap. -Prov. 6:1-5

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It’s Not About Us

This is us

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It’s Not About Us

This is debt

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It’s Not About Us

If we don’t do this:

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It’s Not About Us

We’ll end up like this:

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It’s Not About Us

Debt is the ultimate form of us falling into the belief that its about us and not about God.

If we are truly concerned about living lives that glorify God and not ourselves, we will get past our greed, our vanity and our worry and follow God’s advice: we will run from debt like our very lives depend on it, and we’ll remember that if we focus our lives on what we can do to provide for ourselves, we can’t focus them on God.

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It’s Not About Us!Part III