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