Better to have less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does

Better to have less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does

Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 4:6 

 …“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15 

One Handful or Two?

1. THROW OUT.

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Matthew 19:22 

2 REASONS WE HOLD STUFF:

FEAR

SENTIMENT

2. BUY LESS.

Cause my heart to bow before your words of wisdom and not to the wealth of this world. Help me turn my eyes away from illusions so that I pursue only that which is true… Psalms 119:36-37 TPT 

3. GIVE MORE.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 1 Timothy 6:17

Command them ** to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:17-18

Discussion Questions:

If you had to pack one quirky, totally unnecessary item for a year-long trip (something that makes zero sense but you’d miss it), what would you bring and why?

What would “one handful living” practically look like for you?

Which cultural pressure to have more affects you the most?

What memories show you that experiences matter more than stuff?

Which is hardest for you: throwing out, buying less, or giving more?

If you entered 2026 “traveling light,” what would stay and what would go?

Thank you for listening to the Relate Community Church podcast! Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. If today’s message spoke to you, share it with a friend or leave us a review to help spread the word. To learn more about Relate Community Church, visit us at www.relatecommunity.com. You are always welcome here, and remember—you are loved

Transcript

Welcome And Legacy Vision

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Alright, good morning everybody and welcome to church. I'm so glad that you are here. It is the first service somebody said, Amen. It's it's early and it's getting better outside. The weather looks like it's getting a little bit better outside, but it's cool and everybody's comfortable, I hope. Reach over and touch your neighbor on the leg, say, I'm glad you're here. And now you can tell the other neighbor too. Alright, alright. Awesome. Well, welcome, welcome, welcome. The band's gonna stay with me just a second. Let's give it up for the band and the worship team. Every every Sunday, they do an awesome job of just bringing us into the presence of God and leading us in worship. What a what a very talented group of people we have. Our dream team is so amazing. You guys, everybody who serves on the dream team is awesome. Awesome. I want to uh take just a second and kind of give you guys a heads up of what's coming next week. Actually, December 7th, we are having Legacy Sunday. It's the one special offering that we do all year long. And if you are a guest today, then I just gotta tell you, you landed on a day whenever we talk about our special offering. So it's not just because you came. This is not just it doesn't happen every week, but it is one opportunity every year that we get to uh think about how we're gonna leave a legacy, how we as a church can come together and do something that really doesn't have to do with us. It's not about us, it's not for I think for the past uh for almost six and a half years, we it we were so focused on doing all the things, reaching the community, but at the same time just getting a building. That was a huge hurdle, and we learned that we can do a lot of things without a building, but a building helps. A building really helps, and it helps if the building is fully functional. So we spent the last year double down and focused on how do we get this building rocking and rolling and all the little things that need to be done, and we are we are very quickly coming to the end of that list. And as you can see, the building, there are less and less things that look unfinished. Although that that will be uh we hope to have that completely finished by the end of the year. And I'm not gonna give you a long list of the things that have happened if we've been talking about it for months, just giving you updates on what things I feel like just to not have a building update is huge for me because we're we're that's the building update. There are no building updates. We're for two years almost, we've been looking for building updates, year and a half. And so I it is my extreme pleasure to be able to tell you that our focus is shifting in 2026. How can we make a how can the legacy that we leave be beyond just us, not just about having service and uh meeting here during the week, and and all of those things are a big part of our legacy because they enable us to serve the community and do all of the serve projects and programs and outreach and the systems that work in this place really are making a difference, as you can see, people being baptized and giving their lives to Jesus and reaching the homeless and the um the hopeless and all of the many uh many things that we do that are in your heart to do and and more. Uh, but our legacy offering, a few of the big projects that we're looking at uh last week. If you were how many of you guys were here last week and got to hear Pastor Luigi? Awesome, awesome. He is planting a church in early 2026 in uh Medellin, Colombia, and we are excited to partner with him. Part of our legacy offering will be uh will be towards uh Pastor Luigi and his family and the church that's being planted there, as well as uh other churches around the nation that are being planted in coordination and partnership with uh Association of Related Churches, that's ARC, that we we are excited to be a part of, always have been a part of since we started. Um as well as our building project um with the orphanage in Kenya. You guys have always excited to see updates about that and uh putting together, I'll be showing you pictures next week about the uh dormitories that are being finished there. It is uh truly amazing to see what God can do through us and uh outreaches here in our city, and uh our hope is to not be uh to be able to do more than just relate stuff, to be able to pour into the community and pour into the uh the families around us. And uh I know that that's something that you guys, I know that because we talk about it all the time, that you guys value that too. So um here's what we're asking. We're asking not a specific amount, we're asking everyone to participate, like a hundred percent participation. So just pray about whatever God would have you to give, whatever uh between you and the Lord. I'm not gonna come and ask you, hey, how come you didn't give more or how much are you giving? It's just between you and God. We're just and some people have already asked, hey, I can't give, uh, I'm putting together my offering, but I can't do it on the seventh. Can I do it on the next week or the next week? Yes. This is uh one of those things that we're just asking you to participate in whatever way you can. And there's still we have a no hassle, no pressure guarantee anytime it comes to giving or serving. We're gonna go and grow as fast as you give and serve, and just God will always provide for the things that we need and the things that you need, and we'll go at his pace. Amen. Somebody said amen. So, all right, I'm gonna let the band go. Thank you guys. You guys are awesome, very cool. And I'm gonna ask, I got a couple guys helping me right down here, they're gonna assist me with some stuff. All right, today is is uh uh a message that we are not in a series, so that is that happens so rarely on a Sunday morning here. We're almost always in a series, and today we are not in a series, so that's a little bit weird. Uh, although I feel like it's a year-long series, every message just kind of runs into the next one, and God has us in a like a strategic overarch of the the direction that he's pushing us in, I think, or leading us. And I think that this one is no different than that, even though we're just not in a series. But you can go ahead and pull your notes out. We do have notes every week. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a little white binder. If so, if you have your white clicky binder, would you just hold it up in the air real quick so somebody can see it? We got a few floating around so that we are a note-taking church so that we can walk out of here with it more than just uh a few thoughts in our mind and a few, we're writing scriptures down. We're taking it home and studying and going to our small group and unpacking it a little bit more and digging in every week, expecting that God has more for us. So, today's message is really I want to talk about this idea that uh as we walk through life, we kind of pick up things. And so uh it's easy to imagine that that the things that we pick up are emotional, spiritual, uh hypothetical, all of the uh the seen and unthings. And I I do specifically want to focus on the things that we see today, but um, I want you to kind of just grab this idea right up front, and that is that the things we pick up in life hold us back from where not necessarily just we want to be, but also the place that God wants us to be. There are things that we pick up in life that we just carry with us, and that it's crazy that the thing in your hand, the thing around you, the thing you've been carrying, the things, maybe it's stuff in your heart, but specifically today, I want to talk about things that are in your hand, the things that are in your hands can be keeping you from being the person, the people, the family, the husband, the wife, the parent, the minister, the child of God that he created you to be. So, first off, I want to say this that Jesus, you when you read thing in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the beginning of the New Testament, we see the story of Jesus four different times from four different perspectives. And nowhere in the gospels, nowhere in the story of Jesus do we see him ever rush around. Do we see him ever like, hey, grab a few more boxes and bags and let's carry some more and we need some more stuff. And one of the big pictures of the Bible is that this world is not our home. Your house, even though we build a home, even though we build a family, this world is not our home, because ultimately, if you are a Jesus follower, then we have something that that the eternity is our destination. This world is not our destination. So the things of this world should not be the things that we value so much that they are our our ultimate goals, our desires, our trophies, if you will. So here's here's what I want you to write down. The first thing in your notes is this that it's better to have less of what doesn't matter and more of what does. Can we just say that out loud together? I think it's on the screen. It's better to have less of what doesn't matter and more of what does matter. The problem is that everything in our culture, everything on social media, everything that you see advertised on television, everything you see anywhere, screams the opposite of this. In fact, if you go back to the very beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve, the very first people on earth, God puts them in a garden and says, Here's everything you need. You have you can eat any of from any of the trees, it's all yours. Take care of it. Um oversee the animals. You got a you got a big job to do. And what is the first thing that the devil comes along and tells Eve? The one thing you need is the thing you don't have. You need more stuff. You need like you have everything, but there's one thing you can't have. Did God really say you can't have that one thing? And how that uh that ultimately applies to all of us that we live our lives, we have so much stuff. We have our hands full, our pockets full, our bank accounts. We have we have enough to operate so often, and then the thing that we need is the thing that we don't have. Or what you don't have is what you need to be happy, or the thing that you don't have is the thing that you need to be fulfilled, the thing that will complete you is the thing that you don't have because you don't feel complete now, and you have God's provided stuff for you, but you just don't feel complete or fulfilled or happy, so it must be the thing you don't have that gets you there. So our culture tells us this, and so I think this is really the perfect message going into the holidays, going into a brand new year as we begin to. I hope that you, like Angela and I, are uh thinking strategically about what does this look this year, 2025, look like compared to next year and last year, and how are we gonna grow and do better? And as we walk through life, instead of thinking like is typical that uh more is better, more is better. If one dollar is good, then two dollars is right. If one vacation is good, then two vacations is better. If one wife is good, then two wives are oh come on, somebody said better. That was a test. Most of you passed. We pick up a lot of stuff through life. In fact, I brought some stuff today just to show you an example that we got we gotta have all of our basic stuff and we'll we're willing to walk through life, and then what happens is we see another thing. Oh, I I definitely need this too. I need uh I need all this stuff, so I'll just put this on. I'm gonna put my I can carry this as easy, I can get this one, but I need this one too. I'm gonna take this with me. I really couldn't do without this. And then we see something else advertised as seen on TV. I definitely need this. This one's gonna, this one's gonna make my life so much easier, so much better. I've seen everybody has this, you know. But I can't, I gotta take this too, so I've got so much going on here, but I'm not sure. But I definitely need these two also. This one has a handy, a handy handle. Maybe, maybe I can do this. No, almost. All right, I got I think I can do this. All right, we'll just sling this one on because I can't I gotta have all of it. It's not working. All right, hold on. I'll just put this one on the front. All right, all right, feeling good, everybody. All right, you know what? I see some more stuff I need. I'm gonna take this with me. I want this too. Why is it that we always need one more thing? You thought I had enough, he's got he's got it all. No, there's more, there's always more, there's always another thing. And to make my point, I'm gonna put this down. There's always more. The problem is, more is not always better. More is definitely not always better. I'm gonna leave my bags right here as a reminder. More is not always better. And yet we continue to reach for another thing. We continue to tell myself I'm fine. This is not too much. Actually, this makes my life better if I have a little bit more. I want to read you what uh Solomon said in Ecclesiastes chapter 4. He said, better one handful with tranquility. Everybody say one handful, than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. One handful is better than two handfuls. And yet, what's the first thing we do when we have an empty hand? Oh, I got an empty hand, I can put something in it. And yet, ultimately, what the what the scripture is saying is that we should have an empty hand. We should be able to live life and not fill to the capacity to the fullest extent because it it hurts us. It's better to have one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. Now, I think this applies to so many things in our life. You're probably sitting thinking, oh, he's talking about this. But there are so many different facets of our life where we just jam full. It could be time, it could be money. I just need another dollar, I just need another$20, another thousand dollars, another$10,000, another hundred thousand. I'm gonna retire, but I need this, I need another house, I need another car, I need another relationship, I need some more time, I need another day in the week, I need another job, I need another kid, I need another, etc., etc. There's so many things that we just push and push and push till there is zero margin left in my life. I don't have an empty hand, an empty hour, an empty day, an empty afternoon. I don't have any empty space because even whenever I have a little bit of empty time, I fill it with social media, or I fill it with entertainment, or I fill it with this, or I fill it with that. So we need less of what doesn't matter and more of what does matter. I think that um if if you read if we're Jesus followers and we're living life like Jesus live life, he did this. He slowed down, he spent time with people. He wasn't so fully packed in his schedule that he couldn't when someone interrupted. If you just count the interruptions that Jesus received. In fact, if you if you start looking at the miracles that happen in the the times when Jesus is interrupted, it's amazing that he slows down because so often there's something that can happen in an interruption, and we're so busy we can't take an interruption. I can't take this call right now. I can't meet you this week, maybe in a month or so, maybe next year. But we need less of what doesn't matter and more of what does because your life is too valuable, your time is too valuable, your calling is too great, the purpose that God has built in you and made you for is so valuable. And we're trading it for things that are not valuable at all. We think they're valuable because they have a high price tag, but they have no value in the light of eternity. You can't take it with you, it doesn't affect anyone's eternity. So Luke, Jesus says this watch out. Everybody say, watch out, watch out is a is something that you might think, hey, the devil's coming for you. Watch out, the devil's a roaring lion seeking, like we know that verse, but when Jesus says watch out, watch what he says. He says, Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in abundance of possessions. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. That this is stuff. Life is not made of stuff. That of course this applies to time, and it applies to all the things that we cram in, and even experiences. We we we we need more, we need to do this, need to go there, need to experience this. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. Some of us, some of you in the room, some watching online today may have been, may have gone through the uh Thanksgiving holiday. You showed up with family, you did, you did what you were supposed to do, you went to this uh family meeting and that and but the whole time you were you're not happy, you're not fulfilled, you're not thankful. You have to remind yourself to be thankful because all you can think about is the next thing that you need or the thing that you don't have. It's almost like uh Eve every day just opening Instagram, looking, man, I wish I could get the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There's something, there's some things that just the you see someone else has this, and you're like, oh man, one day I'm gonna get that. Reaching for expectations of the way that you wish things were, instead of being able to settle with, okay, God, I'm so thankful for what you've given me. I'm so thankful, God, for where I am and who you are and who I am. It's not about the things at all. My life does not consist of my stuff. I am not what I have, or what I own, or what I drive, or what I wear. I think this message is very timely. Why? Because uh you're already seeing Christmas commercials, advertisements on the radio, advertisements on Spotify telling you what you need, what new subscription service you should have for Christmas, what new shows you need to be watching this season, every commercial, every ad, every post, every uh influencer online showing you, hey, you should do it this way. And to do it, to live life like this, you just need a few things. Angela and I joke a lot. We'll watch uh we fast forward through most commercials if we're watching a show, but sometimes you can't help. But there's there's a a commercial that'll come on for even if it's ask your doctor if you need whatever medicine. I always tell her, Angie, remind me next time to ask the doctor as a joke. I'm just joking. And then uh my birthday is coming, and so I have to be very specific about a lot of commercials come on. She said, You think you might want that? Or what would you? I'd like, I don't buy me that. None of the stuff. I don't want anything that you see on a commercial. Don't buy me, I don't want anything. I told her, I told the I told them to buy me golf balls. That's why I need more balls, I need golf balls because I can't find all my golf balls. Sad, but that's true. Get ready because as much as culture and society is screaming at you, telling you you need more stuff, I'm telling you this message is a reminder for the end of the year going into January. You don't need the stuff. Life is better with one handful instead of two. Life is better with one handful and not two. Because I I I have an empty hand here. I can live and do all the things that he wants me to do. So here we go. Here's a here's a question that I'll just set the pace for the rest of the message. What if the stuff you have is robbing you of the life you want? What if the stuff you have is robbing you of the life? What if the stuff you want robs you of the life you really want and the life that God wants for you? So the title of the message, if you need one, is this one handful or two. One handful or two. I'm gonna give you three ways, three ways that we can live with one handful instead of two. And it the first is a little bit um, the first might be a little bit scary for you because what happens is when you have two handfuls, the only way to get rid of one is to put some stuff down. And that is like, oh, can't do that, Pastor. If you don't understand, I need that. It my life uh depends on it. I I need it. Listen, you don't need everything. I'm just telling you, you don't need everything. So, number one, I'm gonna give you three things that you can do to live a life where we have one handful instead of two. Number one, you're gonna throw out. Throw out some things, like throw out as if your life depends on it, because it does. Like you were uh throwing water out of your uh life preserver, out of your out of your life raft, as if you're dumping water out. You need to be putting things out of your life that aren't necessary if it's not necessary. Because your life does not consist of an abundance of things, not just declutter, but de-owning things. Sometimes we think the answer. I have walked through my house so many times thinking, man, I just need to straighten up, I need to put all this stuff in order. I need to reorganize everything. No, I don't need to re-or I sometimes I have so many things, I don't need to reorganize the things, I need to get rid of some things. Some of you are getting offended right now because I'm telling you, don't talk about my stuff, Pastor. Some of you can't even walk in your garage right now because you have so much stuff, and you're not gonna hear me tell you that it's not good stuff. I need all that stuff. I don't know what's in there, but I need it. So owning less is way better than organizing more. Owning less is way better than organizing more. It's in the in the Bible you see you see a uh an interaction between Jesus. In fact, this very uh circumstance is addressed by Jesus by uh a young man that comes up to him and says, and uh teacher, he asks Jesus, teacher, what must I do to be saved? And we know this story as the rich young ruler in uh Mark chapter 10 and Matthew chapter 19. We we get to see it from multiple angles, but he tells him basically do all the things. He gives them uh uh Jesus gives the rich young ruler an idea of, hey, just um don't commit adultery. He starts giving him kind of the Ten Commandments, like here's a starting point. And the the rich young ruler says, I've done all that. What else? What uh what else must I do? And so immediately, Jesus, I think, knowing this young man, and probably that there's some issues because we find out later, uh, he definitely has an issue. He says, I want you to sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me. And then you'll have treasures in heaven. You probably already know what the rich young ruler tells him. It he I can't do it. In Matthew 19, 22, he says, When the young man heard this, he went away sad because he had great wealth. Now you might be thinking that doesn't really apply to me. I can I can tell you this: that you never know what idols you have until Jesus asks you to give them up. You don't know what kind of a hold something has on you or how valuable it is to you, even if it's meaningless, until you feel like God's just telling you, man, I should uh I think I need to give this up. I think I need to give this to somebody. Because then you really feel how what kind of a grip it has on you. It's never wrong to have things. I'm not I'm not standing up here telling you that, hey, get rid of your things because you're going to hell because you have things. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that the the better life that God has for us is a life that is not full of things. If we could let go of things, sometimes what you have distracts you from what matters. Sometimes the things in your hands distract you from the things around you that God's trying to show you. I've got, I've got He's like, hey, wake up, watch out. You're distracted. Your hands are full. I need you to have an empty hand. I need you to, I need you to be ready. So here's two reasons that we like to hold on. There's two reasons that we can't let go. Two reasons that I may have two handfuls, but I just can't put this. The first thing is fear. The first thing is fear. I can't imagine what my life will be without this thing. If I put this down, like I have the basics, but it's not really a basic thing. But if if I lived without it, I what if I need it? What if so what if um what if in two months or a year or what if what if I don't have it when I need it? My children might want it. Can I tell you your children don't want it? They might, you can ask them. I don't want to waste it. I don't want to waste anything. I need to be responsible. I need to be. I um I was at at you guys know that we have a small warehouse not too far from here. I was at our warehouse and I was looking at uh one of our shelves and I thought, oh, we have some gloves. If we ever need rubber gloves, then I started counting. We have like a hundred thousand pairs of plastic rubber gloves. We don't need that many gloves. Maybe a couple hundred pair. Sometimes we just and I thought we were we might need these. I have to challenge myself. I don't need this. I don't need all of this. Because what happens is I think sometimes we need sometimes we feel like we need so much stuff because um here here this might challenge you a little bit, but we if it it could just be a lack of faith that whenever I get somewhere and I need something, God's not gonna be there to provide it for me. And so I better prov I better provide for it myself. I better put things in order and I better stack up my life to make sure. We went through uh COVID. This was extremely evident everywhere because you couldn't barely buy toilet paper. Because some of you guys had a mountain of toilet paper in your garage. I'm gonna need toilet paper, and I'm not gonna let them get it from me. Can the Holy Spirit maybe just speak to you a little bit today? Sometimes we think this is not spiritual. What are you talking about, Pastor? It is spiritual. Because sometimes the things in life get in the way of the things that really matter. The stuff in life gets in the way of where God wants to take us and how God wants to lead us. Things become so important that we can't let them go. Maybe you need to walk through your closet and decide that I'm gonna, I'm not gonna take this into 2026 with me. Maybe you need to walk through the garage and decide that uh sure. I I think a spiritual inventory is important. Every year we start the year with 21 days of prayer and fasting so that we can focus our hearts, focus our minds, focus our thoughts. But I think there also needs to be a physical preparation where you say, There's some things in my life and they're not in my heart, they're in my closet, and I don't want to take them into 2026 with me. I don't want to walk into 2026 with a cluttered life, with uh with double handfuls. What if God tries to send you something and your hands are both so full that you don't even see the thing he's trying to send you? Because you're looking at the two things you got. There's a a couple of different authors that have written several books. John Mark Homer and uh Marie Kondo. You can go you can Google it. They both have some really incredible strategies on how to pare down, how to how to simplify, how to how to um get rid of the excess and live the kind of life that Jesus lived. I'm not telling you to like sell your house and walk everywhere. I'm saying just maybe less is more. Not let the stuff cry out what matters most. Number two, after throw out, we're gonna we're gonna buy less. Maybe a little bit of self-control. 62% of people will admit to shopping to cheer themselves up. You know, we don't need the stuff. We just like to shop. Let me go look on Amazon real quick and see what I can find. Let me look in my shopping cart and see. Because it makes us feel I need it, you know what? I need a little pick me up. I've earned it, I deserve it. I'm gonna go, I'll just get a couple things, you know. We need it. No, we don't. Sometimes it's an escape. Sometimes it's a uh it's uh it's a feeling of power, like hey, I can't control anything over here, but I can't control this. I can buy this new little gadget. It's a moment of uh significance. Maybe we find a good deal, we feel like we've done something. We buy something we don't need with money we don't have. Psalm chapter 119 says this. Cause my heart to bow before your words of wisdom and watch this and not to the wealth of this world. Help me to turn my eyes away from illusions so that I pursue only that which is true. I know I'm stepping on some nose today. These aren't my words. There's a place where life is full of God where I don't need stuff to fill the void. Maybe it's choosing experiences over things. I know that going into Christmas this is not what you usually hear. My list maybe uh there's so many different ways of doing thinking about this. Maybe you have a limit on what uh how many gifts each person gets. You think you want this to be the best Christmas we've ever had? So everybody gets the most Christmas gifts that they've ever had. I don't think those are equivalent things. I don't think those are equivalent things. The last thing that we're gonna do is we're going to give more. The third thing is we're gonna give more. First Timothy 617 says this. Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in what? Some of you guys are paying attention. Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in what? In God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. We put our hope in God, not in stuff. He said, Tell those who are rich in this world. And if you're thinking, I'm not rich, can I tell you if you're sitting in this room and if you're watching online, you are very likely among the rest of the world, we are rich. I don't care if you have bills due tomorrow that you don't know how you're gonna pay. We are living in the wealthiest place at the wealthiest time. We all most of us do have toilet paper at home, most of us do have some food in the refrigerator, most of us do have a car that got us here, or a ride that brought us to church. Most of us do have most of our health. If you drove today, you are in the top five to seven percent richest people in the world. If you have three meals a day, statistically, you are in the top 40% of the world. Not to mention those some of you will go home today and you will door dash dinner. How rich is that? You know what? I'm just gonna sit at my house and someone else is gonna go and bring me a prepared meal, and I'm gonna do it all right here on this little electronic robot. Again, verse 18 says, Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, not in good stuff. Command those who are rich to be rich in good deeds, not in good, not in good stuff. Not hoard everything, not buy more, buy more. Get this season's most popular gifts and items so that your family's home can be full of stuff. He says, Command them to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasures for themselves as a foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. It may be possible that you're living a life that's not truly life, you're chasing after things and toil and chasing the wind because you just feel like you need two handfuls. You know, we go and buy stuff. I've never felt uh, I've never gotten emotional over it's never like a heart thing to buy stuff. Like we buy things or things we want, desires, but then the moment we get them. One time I knew I know a guy who had uh 10 cars that were probably all worth more than my house. And he one afternoon, as he was showing us around all of his stuff, he said, you know, every time I buy a car, I'm so excited to buy a new car, and then as soon as I get it, I can't wait to think about the next one. Something about needing another thing that it's not it's not fulfilling, it doesn't uh it doesn't really touch our heart. And so whenever the scripture says that we lay up for ourselves treasures as a firm foundation for the coming age, that's we're doing heart work, and almost never do the purchases that we make fulfill that. I've never thought, man, so looking back on my life, the first pair of AirPods I ever bought, man, it's just so good. Just touched my heart, Bo. It's just first guitar I ever bought. I can't I can't believe it. And I love guitars. But I don't think back and uh man, I can't believe when my kids were little, that first bicycle that I bought them, that was just amazing. That that bike, it was so so awesome. I wish I still had it. No, it's not this, it's not that doesn't that doesn't fulfill us. Keeping things rather than giving them away or never uh we just had to upgrade our new our soundboard for the building because for the I told you guys for the last uh all the time that we were portable, we moved all of our portable, we've been living and operating portable equipment. It doesn't we're trying to get to the next level so that we don't have ringing and sound. You can hear the singers when they sing. That'd be amazing. We're getting there, we're walking toward that, but it required that we got a new soundboard. But keeping the old soundboard doesn't think, yes, we have two soundboards. I love, I love though the opposite that we get to give one away. That we're act that we were actively looking for. Who can what other church, what other ministry, what other church plant, what other group can we bless so they don't have to buy this, we can give it to them. Something happens with the things we do by faith, the things we do for God, not the things we buy, those are the things that say you're not gonna look back at the end of your life and think about man, just I just remember the top 10 things I bought in my life. You're not gonna remember the purchases you made. You're not gonna remember the things you will. I I I I constantly remember the things that I've done for God in faith. When I look back at the financial decisions, it's not been the purchases I've made, it's the things that I've done that I've laid up treasure in heaven where I've thought about my the first time I ever tithed, it was a$40 check. It was$40 when I first got a job, and I worked for weeks to get that first paycheck, two pay periods. I worked for a month before I got paid, and still I look back at how nervous I was to give that$40 to God, but it was a moment where my life where my heart took a step of faith. There have been times when even in our marriage, when we've sat down, and Angela and I we've decided, okay, we're gonna give uh a faith offering, and there have been times where my like my hand is shaking writing the check. How many of you guys remember old-fashioned paper checks? There have been times when my hand was shaking writing a check, thinking, this is so big, I don't I don't know if I can write this check. I remember seven, oh eight almost eight years ago when Angela and I sat down and we thought, okay, we're gonna plant a church, we're gonna start a church, let's get together every dollar that we have. In fact, let's start having a garage sale every other weekend. We can sell some stuff and then let's let's liquidate everything so that we can come up with just enough money to start a church. Scary, but I don't think about buying stuff. I think about the times where I stepped out for God and made a decision. The times where I've gone without on purpose, sacrificed for the kingdom of God for years and years and years. I won't tell you how many years I went without any kind of compensation so that we could have a building, so that we could move forward and we could get the things that we needed. And God provided, and I I didn't know if I could do that, but we did. The first time we ever gave a car away, I was like, I don't know if we can do this. I don't know if we're gonna be okay, but every time it's been like God just shows up. This world is not our home. So I'll ask you this question as we close. Are you accumulating on earth what you cannot keep, or are you investing in heaven what you cannot lose? We gotta travel light because our time on this earth is short. We need to throw out, buy less, give more, do less and get less of what doesn't matter, so that we can have more of what does matter. Because life is too valuable, your calling is too great, God is too great, his plans and his purpose for your life, and this church and our families are too great that we can't have two handfuls that prevent us from reaching for the things that God has for us. Because when you have two handfuls, when I have two handfuls instead of one, I can't reach out and help someone, I can't praise God, I can't lift up my hand and praise God because I got two hands full, I got I got my life full. You need some margin, you need some space, that one open hand. So let me just challenge you with this as we get ready to close in prayer. Where do you need to empty your hand? Where do you need to empty that space? Where do you need to trust God to lead you to give up something so that you can encourage someone, you can give, you can have space to be able to follow after the way Jesus wants you to live? So we're gonna close. Would you stand up on your feet? We're gonna never let stuff keep us from living the life that God wants us to have. I want us to close in prayer and worship for just a moment, and then we'll release. But would you just look at your heart a little bit? Would you just look at your life and let the Holy Spirit speak to you? Because everything I've said today is very small compared to what God can say to you. Just into your heart, He knows where you are, He knows where your heart is, He knows where your life is, what you need, what you don't need. Would you trust Him enough to help you draw some lines, to help you give some things away, to help you let go and step forward and follow him by faith? Let's trust God and make some decisions so that 2026 will be better than the last three years now.

Eyes From Illusions To Truth

SPEAKER_01 46:55

Let's work on the levers, we are we follow Jesus.

Give More: Be Rich In Good Deeds

SPEAKER_00 49:26

That means that we are willing to trade this life for the life that He has for us. That means we let go of ourselves. The idea of surrender is letting go. It's I'm giving up my way, my life, my thoughts, my desires for yours. Mold me, make me, lead me, God. If you've never surrendered your life to him, if you've never accepted the offer where he says, I'll give you a new life in exchange for your old one. I would I would give you an invitation today to make a decision to trade your old life for a new one, a new one that is full of purpose, full of a future that He has for you in eternity. If you have never said that prayer, I'm gonna invite you to say it today. It's the first step in a journey of faith where you follow Jesus and He takes you by the hand and leads you through life and into eternity. But it all starts with one decision to simply surrender to Him this life. So would you just bow your head right where you are? And if you want to say that prayer today, maybe for the first time or the hundredth time, I'd invite everyone to say this prayer with me. Would you say these words, dear Heavenly Father, today I give you my life in exchange for a new one? Thank you for sending your son to die on a cross to pay for my sin. So forgive me. And from this moment forward, I choose to follow you with all of my heart, all of my soul, all of my mind, all of my strength. In Jesus' name. Amen. Would you put your hands together for those who said that prayer? I'm excited for you if you said that prayer and where God's gonna take us together. I love you guys. The prayer team is gonna come up to the front. If you'd like to pray with someone before you go, come on down. We're gonna continue to worship. Otherwise, you guys are dismissed. We'll see you next week.