The Trap of "More" | And How to Escape it

TRANSCRIPT

You don't have to look very far to see that we live in a world that worships the word more, don't we? We live in a culture that worships that word, more money, more success, more fame, more pleasure, more control, more recognition, more everything, really, when you think about it, and yet, as Kev was mentioning, the more we get when you talk to people, the more that you get it seems the more that you want.

More is never enough. You know, we upgrade our lives constantly, but our souls remain restless. They, they, they seem to be constantly chasing. We accumulate more things, but we feel less fulfilled. We chase more experiences, but we feel more empty. Why? Why is that? This is what has led us, uh, to. To focus on and, and look at this series on more.

Over the next few weeks, we're gonna have some different angles and different, uh, thoughts towards this and towards the word more and how it affects our lives. You see more is never enough when your heart is actually hungry for God. More is never enough when your heart is hungry for God, because fundamentally it's a heart thing.

It's a heart thing. It is all about our heart. I love the, the worship this morning, and I love it when God lines things up without any collaboration between anyone. Uh, just the way the, the songs that the team chose to sing this morning, what Kev just shared about how the devil has a a, a game plan toward us that we're gonna be talking about in a minute.

It's just cool when God does stuff like that. Because it's a heart thing. It's a heart thing. Proverbs chapter four, verse 23, says, above all else, above all else, guard your heart. Guard your heart. Look after this thing, we've gotta guard it. It says, for everything, everybody say everything. Everything.

Everything you do flows from it. Everything. Everything you do flows from here. In other translations that calls it the wellspring of life, the wellspring of life, your heart, and we're called to guard it. Guard our heart. You know, Augustine famously said, our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

They're restless until they rest in you. Now, that sounds like poetry, but it's not poetry. That's reality. That is reality. God has designed our heart. God has designed your heart. He's designed my heart, and he's designed them for eternity. It was always, always meant to be for him, for nothing else because this world fades.

We are in this world for a short while, and then we are not in this world anymore. And what happens on the other side is what God has designed our heart for. We've gotta remember that. Nothing temporary can ever fill our heart. Nothing temporary. You can't fill a God shaped space with an earth shaped thing.

It just doesn't work. And people will strive their entire lives to try and do that. Fill a God shaped space with an earth shaped thing that push God to the side and say, no, no, no, no, it's not about him. They may have had people talk to them about him through their lives and no, it's not that I've just gotta get more of this or I've gotta get more influence, I've gotta get more success at God shape space.

So last week, and Kev mentioned earlier before we, our word for the year,

and I believe that, uh.

Vibration required, and it might hurt a little bit. It might

shame some ideas or some, some habit that's gonna be required. I believe that as we,

and ultimately as we've talked about of our hearts, our hearts, it's a heart thing. So we can learn to stop chasing more and we start chasing him, or not so much start chasing, I'm sure all of us are trying to chase him, but it's more that we refocus on chasing him and let go of some things that, that are hindering us or slowing us down.

Does that sound like a plan? Sound good? Yeah. Woo. Okay. You with me? Now, don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong, when I'm not preaching down on having nice things, okay, oh, I'm gonna go home and sell everything. I'm getting out. I'm gonna live in a hessian sack. No, that's not, that's not what I'm, we're not preaching about not having nice things, or not having a little bit more in life.

We're not preaching about that. What we're talking about this morning, fundamentally, as I said, is guarding your heart guard, your heart. It's, you see, it's when possession becomes obsession, when no matter what cost you're gonna get that thing, or you're gonna do that thing, or you're gonna influence that person.

It's when that happens that we need some recalibration and reset our focus. Because the truth is we're not preaching down on nice things, but the truth is we like nice things, don't we? Yeah. But let's be honest, we do. We like nice things. We'd like to have a little bit more Every now and then. We like to have a win.

We like a win. Who likes a win? I like a win.

I was taking names down of people. Okay. Counseling sessions. I, um, I grew up in a large family. I'm the youngest of eight kids. I think I might have shared this story, but youngest of eight kids. So every night at dinner table, there was 10 of us around the table. 10 people, just big oval shaped. Fake marble, fake marble, laminate table.

It's big, oval shaped, egg shaped thing. 10 of us all sitting around this table every night for dinner. And every now and then, occasionally there would be dessert. And when I say dessert, it is just a bowl of ice cream, right? It's, it's not, no toppings, nothing else, just ice cream. And my mom would sit at the head of the table.

With the big eight liter tub of ice cream, one eight liter tub, big pile of plates, and she'd start scooping into the plate and she'd pass it over and you'd get the first person, we'd get it and they'd look at it and they'd go, Hmm, maybe the next one's gonna be a little bit bigger than this. So you'd pass it on, you know, we'd pass it on.

And then that person would think the same thing, and he'd go all the way around and come and end up next to the purse on this side. And mum clued onto this. And so she would start making the scoops a little bit smaller. And so you'd get the, and you go, Ooh, that's a bit smaller than the last one. Ooh. And you sort of gingerly pass it on.

And then the next one it comes, ooh, smaller again. So, so you did a couple of those go by and you think, right, I'm, I'll take, I'm keeping this one. If they getting smaller, I'm keeping this one. So you take a couple of bites 'cause then it's yours, no one else can have it. And then you just pass, you know, you'll be eating and passing the others on.

And then mum in her cruelty, she'd spot this, and then she'd start making the serves a bit bigger again. So you'd be going, oh no, that one's bigger. Oh, no. Cruel. It's childhood cruelty. That's how I, that's how I grew up,

a large family. But the truth is sometimes we do enjoy a bit more, don't we? We enjoy a win. We enjoy a win. I'm gonna prove that we enjoy a win. Gonna do something very different today. I have

any

a hundred dollar note. Stop. Stop it. Now. Everyone's listening. People are like, what? What? What's you talking about?

That's your young people. This is what real money looks like. A hundred dollars note. This isn't even my money. I borrowed this from Kev. No, I said, Kev, Kev, you wouldn't have a hundred dollars. I could borrow it. True story. He pulls out this, pull out this big wad and he goes, how many do you want, mate? I'm like, well steady.

I just need one. Like I'll give it back after this. He goes, no, you just keep it. It's fine. Such a good guy, Kev, but it's a hundred dollar note. Okay, we've done something a bit different. We're gonna play a game. And there's some rules to the game. First rule is you can't get out of your seat. You have to stay in your seat.

Uh, you can't choose someone else's seat or a seat where there's no one sitting. You've gotta sit in that seat. And second rule is you can't get outta your seats. Just stay seated. Okay? It's really simple. What we've done is earlier on, we came in and we stuck a hundred dollars note underneath the front of one of the seats that someone is sitting in.

I know which one it is, and I, I'm not trying not to look at the seat. So what I want you to do is just to reach down, just really gingerly reach down. You'll feel it, it'll be right at the front edge of your seat. A hundred dollar note. It'll be all yours to have. Could be anywhere. It could be over here with care.

Could be over, could be. And it is. No, no, it's, it is under. It'll be, you don't have to climb any seat. It should just be there. How are we going? Really? You can't What? What's that? Oh. Oh, really? Oh, no. Oh, sorry. Sorry guys. Sorry. There's no, this is actually the a hundred dollars.

Sorry. You can stop looking. Oh, dear. Oh, well, maybe next time. Hey,

come on. Just like your mom.

Yeah, just like my, see, I learned that from my mom. I did. Yeah.

Sometimes we all like to have a bit more, don't we? And there's nothing wrong with that. We like to have a win. It's true. And there's nothing wrong with that. Everyone in the room had a little look for that a hundred dollars note. 'cause it would've been nice. I mean, you might've wanted to give it away to someone.

Yeah. You know, that's exactly what Tom, I know. You know what? I can really bless someone with this a hundred dollars. Yeah, and there's, but there's nothing wrong. What I'm trying to say is we're not preaching down on having things and having nice things and having a little bit more. There's nothing wrong with it.

It's when it takes control of your thoughts and of your actions, and when it starts to seep into your heart, that's when we got some issues. That's when we need some recalibration. That's when we need to fine tune some things. And the hardest thing, I was talking to someone about this this week and they said, how do you know?

How do you know when it's creeping into your heart? And the answer was that I gave was, you know what? You just know. You just know because someone around you close to you is gonna tell you. Or you're gonna feel it. Remember, God designed us, God designed our heart. He knows how we work, and there's gonna be feelings that we get.

And you know, you know that that's God giving you a little nudge or giving you a little twitch and you say, you know what? I think I need to change something here. So you just know that's, that's all I got for you. Would you, you just know, right? You just know. So a theme for the message I have is having more is not wrong, but living for more.

It will never satisfy you. Never satisfy. No matter how hard you try, it'll never satisfy. Whoa, never satisfy. You can't fill a God shaped space with an earth shaped thing it'll never satisfy. Only God can do that. So what I wanna do, I wanna take a look at a portion of scripture this morning. And this is the cool part I was talking about how God seems to intertwine and link things together.

What Kev mentioned just earlier, just after, as we came up out of our singing this morning, I wanna look at a portion of scripture and it's an account of Jesus and being tempted to chase more by the devil himself. Jesus gets tempted and how he responds. Okay, so we're gonna look at. Jesus response to this in the, the scripture is from the book of Luke, chapter four and, and verse one.

Now it's, we've got a little bit of reading to do here, so bear with me. It says, Jesus full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, 40 days. Okay. Just imagine. Hang on. And at the end of them, he was hungry.

Just pretty obvious. The devil said to him, if you are the son of God, came up to him and said, if you are the son of God, tell this stone to turn into bread. And Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone. Then the devil let him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

And he said to him, I will give you all the authority and splendor. It has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to. All you have to do is worship me and it will be yours. And Jesus answered. It is written. Worship the Lord your God, and serve him. Only The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

If you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here, for it is written. This is very cunning what the devil does here. He uses scripture against Jesus. He says, you know, for it is written that he will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone.

And then Jesus answered it is said, do not put the Lord your God to the test. And then he told the devil to nick off that bit's. That bit's not in the scripture. That bit's not the i. I added that. So Jesus is in the wilderness. He's hungry, he's physically weak, and he's alone. And Satan comes with three temptations, three temptations, three Coercions, three smoke and mirrors if you like to make things look different to what they really are, similar to what he does with us.

Do you know, just as a side note, it's the same three temptations that he uses on each and every one of us to this very day. He's got no new tricks up. His book, in his book or up his sleeve, wherever he wants to put 'em. No, he's, he's very unoriginal. He's only got those three, but man, do they work

three temptations? Yeah. Each one of them is offering more, offering more to Jesus. They're offering more comfort, more power, more recognition. But Jesus refuses every offer, refuses them all, and he refutes them with the word of God. He refutes them and says, God is enough. God is enough. 'cause Jesus knows he can't fill a God shaped hole with an earth shaped thing.

You know, in the early nineties there was a movement that took place and it's, uh, it took place in Christian churches all around the world. Mainly in the young, in young, young people, mainly in youth groups. And it started in Michigan, in, in the United States. And it was a young youth pastor, and they'd read a book earlier that were written by a Christian author, like in the 18 hundreds.

And one of the chapters in that book was titled. What would Jesus do? And she read that this young youth pastor, and she got inspired and she went back to her youth group and she said, right, let's make this a challenge. Let's make this a challenge that we will daily ask this question. What would Jesus do?

And she made up out of her own mate. She went and made up these little wristbands with the letters, WW JD. And she handed 'em out to all her young people and said, you know, this is, this is to remind you, what would Jesus do? And she didn't know. But that took off like wildfire. It went all around the world.

We had it here in Australia. We had it here in our church, in our youth group. People walking around with the wristbands. What would Jesus do husking that question? You know, we have a, we have a mantra here that we say, you know, what would love require of you? Same thing asking that question. What would Jesus do in this situation?

What would Jesus do? So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a look at this scripture, this account, and let's pull it apart. And let's ask that question, what would Jesus do? So it's a temptation, number one. Okay? Remember, these are the same three, the the stinking devil uses and we can combat them and make them not work.

Number one is more comfort. The temptation always come more comfort. I want more comfort. So he says, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus is starving. He hasn't eaten for 40 days and we've gotta remember he was God, but he was also man. So he, he got hungry, okay? He felt emotion. He, he felt pain physically, so he was hungry.

And Satan whispers to him, he says, come on, you deserve it. No, that's a good Satan voice, isn't it? Come on. Come on, Tom, on your shoulder here though. You know. Come on. You've worked hard. You deserve this. Come on. Just do it. Fix this yourself. You don't need God. Just fix it yourself. Snap your fingers and it's done.

The temptation wasn't bred. We've gotta just, just hope you realize that the temptation wasn't bred. The temptation was self-sufficiency. I can do this. I don't need anyone else, especially, I don't need God. I can do this. I can do this myself. Click my fingers and it's done. Bread is not sinful. Bread's not sinful.

We're not wanting to go home and stop eating bread, right? Bread's not sinful. Comfort is not sinful.

Okay.

The temptation was to stop trusting God and to start relying on himself. Stop trusting God. You don't need God. You can fix these little things yourself. Think about our own lives, stuff that we have get going on in our lives. A lot of stuff you can probably take care of yourself, and it's easy to sort of move God to the side and just pull him out when you need him.

So that was the temptation. Don't worry about God. You can do this yourself. Satan always tempts us to meet legitimate needs in illegitimate ways. Legitimate needs, you know, hey, you deserve to feel good. Just take that shortcut. You deserve more comfort. You've worked hard, you know, compromise. You don't need to do that or that.

Have about a little bit more pleasure. That'd be nice. No one's ever gonna find out.

But what would Jesus do? What would Jesus do? Well, he responded and he said, man shall not live by bread alone. Simple response, man shall not live by bread alone. And he's saying, comfort won't sustain me. Pleasure won't fulfill me more, will never satisfy me. Only God's word can 'cause. He said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

God's word will sustain me. God's word will lead me and guide me.

Temptation number two. More power. More power. Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. In a flash, he shows all the kingdoms of the world, and he says, I'll give you all of them. I'll give you all the authority for these ones. If you worship me, worship me. So this is the temptation of more influence, more control and more status.

And man, oh man, this is a big one in the world. Kev just shared that. So I've never heard that story about that influence with the Mayor Everest thing. That's crazy. Crazy. But it's not so far farfetched. 'cause we see it everywhere. People on the Tic Tacs doing their things. Hey, hey guys, this is what I'm having for breakfast today.

Who cares? Like, I don't. I don't get it. But it's influence. People live for it. They thrive on us, and they want more and more of it. They want power, they want control. Power itself is not evil. Just remember that power is not evil. Power is not wrong. God raises up leaders. We need to have leaders. Our country, we need leaders.

Okay? We've got some crazy politicians running around at the moment. I mean, there's always crazy politicians, but particularly today, I dunno, there's something crazy up, but you know, but God raises up leaders. We need leaders. We need people with influence, and God gives people influence. God blesses people in authority.

He does that. He places people where they need to be. We've gotta remember when God's designed things, he's designed us, but the desire for more power can actually become a trap. Because what happens is you want to get it at no matter what the cost, no matter who you trample on, no matter who you push aside, no matter who you hurt, I've gotta get there.

I've gotta get that. I've gotta be that person. That's when things get dangerous and it becomes a trap, and it is a temptation. It's a big temptation, and the devil knows it, and he just twists that a little bit further. He knows, but what would Jesus do? What would Jesus do? Well, Jesus responds and he said, Hey, worship the Lord your God, and serve him only so, so simple.

So simple. Like it just sounds simple. Does it just worship God and serve him only? That's it. That takes a lot of hard work to do that though. You've gotta be, there's some recalibration that needs to happen. There's some changes that need to happen, but he refuses to trade worship for power. He says no. He said God is the one.

God is the one. Because we've gotta remember, it's an eternal thing. It's an eternal thing. We are here for a fleeting moment. And then we have eternity. We have a chance of affecting and, and, and influencing people for, for good and for God's direction while we're here. It's an eternal thing. Always remember that.

Guard your heart, guard your heart. Third temptation is more recognition. More recognition. Look at me, more recognition. Once again, another big one around the world today when, uh, my kids. We're all in school. When they were in grade, when they got to grade one, you know, they'd have their first sports carnival, you know, and so, and the parents were all allowed, invited to come and watch the Sports Carnival.

You watch them do their first running race and tunnel ball and captain ball, all those games that they play and you to, and at the end of the day, they'd always have the dad race. The dad race now. Now the da, it was meant to be a bit of fun. Alright? It's a bit of fun. They'd say, okay, Dave, dads, don't forget we've got the dad race happening at the end.

Make sure you know, let your kids cheer you on and get excited. So they'd be all right. And so the kids were like going, dad can on you have a run? All right, I'll give it a go. So I'd get up there and some of these dads man, woo, I tell you, they took it a little bit too serious. Yeah, they're, they're in their Lycra running shorts and their $500 shoes.

They've got the heart monitors going and they're doing these ones, you know. I'm like, guys, it's, Hey, we're not qualifying for the Olympics here. Like it's just a bit of fun. And I'd be there in my work pants, like my heavy work trousers, my steel cap boots, mind you, my thick work shirt. And I'd be like, this is not gonna go well.

This is not gonna be pretty. And. Four years I came last every time. Every time I came last I'd become, you know, they'd say on your marks, boom, whoa, they'd all race off. These girl, these dads are doing these ones, you know, trying to be the first. And they'd get around and I'd be just like, you know, halfway coughing up a lung, blah.

Trying to get there. Sweat pouring off me. This is fun. Yeah, I'm having fun. And you come down the final straight and they'd say, all right kids, let's hear it for this dad coming in. He's tried hard, you know, give him a clap and you get the little pity clap. Hey. And that went on four years. Four years in a row.

I just like, not in a row, but over the time. So the last one, I thought, this is it. I'm not coming last this time, my last, it was 10 years. It was 10 year span between the first and the last one that I went. So I thought, I'm not coming last this time, but I've gotta remember I'm 10 years older now than the young dads that are here for the first time.

So the math's not adding up. So I thought, right, I'm not, I'm not coming last this time. So that's it. So I got there, bang, they all race off. Once again, I'm at the back just coughing up a lung, you know, trying my best sweat dripping everywhere. But I get to the final corner and I notice that I'm pretty close.

To the guy that's coming second last, and I'm thinking, oh, hang on a minute. And something, something in me said, you know what? You can have some recognition here, Simon. You don't have to come last. I'm like, right, and something happened. I dug deep, I'm just putting it in. I came right up next to him and then I passed him and I was putting in the big strides down the final str.

I did the lunge at the end, you know, did the. Oh, this time I was coughing up two lungs and the dad and the teacher's like, Hey everyone, let's give a round of applause to the guy dad coming in last. He's done a good job. I thought, oh yeah, I'll give him a pity clap. You know, I turned and I looked. And I, this is like a 70-year-old serious, a little Chinese man.

Turns out he was a granddad of one and I just blowing him away, mate. Oh yeah. Look at you mate.

Better luck. Next.

You better luck next time. Yeah. Good on you. Yeah. Well done. Well done. Yeah. But I didn't come last. I got my recognition, you know, I got my recognition. Satan takes Jesus to the highest point of the temple and he says, throw yourself down.

Throw yourself down. The angels are gonna catch you. You know, they will. This is the temptation of more attention. More attention. I want more applause. I want more validation. I want people to see me look at me. You know, Satan tempts Jesus to prove himself. He says, show off, make a scene, make people notice you.

And that's the desire for recognition. Recognition. And you know, you can talk to people and they say, no, that's not me at all. I don't really care what people think. But when you dig deeper, sometimes, maybe not all the time, but sometimes there's a little niggle that happens and it's not. Bad. Maybe for some people to notice.

You notice that job that you've done or that class that you've taught really well at school or, but you know, it's subtle, but it's also deadly. 'cause you see, we wanna be seen, we wanna be valued, we wanna be admired. But when we live for applause, what happens is we die when it goes away. When we are living for applause, when it leaves.

Then we start to die a little bit. And sadly, I mean, you see it in the celebrity and fame world in Hollywood. You think of over the years, how many famous people have checked out because their star has not shining as bright anymore. It's a real thing. But what would Jesus do? What would Jesus do? Jesus responds.

He said, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Don't put the Lord your God to the destiny. He refuses to perform for approval. Yeah. He says, I'm not gonna perform. We are. We've heard a, a saying that says we are performing for an audience of one, and that's God. He's the one who loves us. He's the one who designed us, designed our heart.

He's the one who cares about us. We're not performing for, for recognition from others. So that's, once again, there's a recalibration that's needed. There's a investigation into your own heart, and maybe you need to guard your heart a little bit, change some things. So there's a common thread in all three temptations.

Satan offers Jesus something that looks more, more comfort, more power, more recognition. Sounds familiar for stuff that we have today, but Jesus sees through it and he says. You know, Satan's more always costs more than it gives. Yeah. There's always a con. There's always a cost. If something's too good to be true, it often is.

It promises satisfaction, but it delivers emptiness. What does Jesus teach us about Satisfaction? Satisfaction comes from God's word, man shall not live by bed alone. It comes from worship. Worship the Lord your God. And it comes from trust. Putting God first, seek first his kingdom, and all these things will be added to scripture.

Says, all right, so let's, uh, let's wrap it up. I'm gonna ask the musicians if they could come back, 'cause we're gonna sing. I wanna sing that song. How great is our guide at the end of this? I was touring, I was thinking, oh, because once again it all lined up. I didn't know what songs the musos were singing this morning.

There was the one about freedom. Because when we start to live like this, we break away from chasing more and chasing God. We actually step into a freedom that the world cannot offer you and the world sometimes doesn't understand. So we could sing that freedom song, but I think, I think how great is our God is gonna be the gonna be the winner today.

'cause it's all about him. He's the one who's designed us. He's the one who has. Made us the way we are and his, our heart is for him. It's an eternal thing, so we've gotta guard it. So what we're gonna do here, we're gonna wrap this up with five. We've all got a hand with five fingers on it. Five ways to break free from the chase of mortar.

Does that sound what you wanna do? That Let's break free from the chase of more five ways. Number one, we're gonna practice gratitude daily. Practice gratitude. Daily. Gratitude kills greed. It kills it. You can't be thankful and discontent at the same time. Impossible. Practice gratitude daily. Now, this can be hard at times 'cause if you are going through stuff and there are people going through stuff.

There's things happening at home in relationships, at work, in your finances. You're going through it and you think, oh, it's so hard. So hard to be grateful right now. Well, I'm gonna challenge you to count your blessings. Count your blessings. Even if they're tiny little ones, just count them and put them on the list and say, you know that, that's a blessing.

Yeah. You know, I might have all this, but you know, that's a blessing. I live in a country that's not war torn right now. I'm running for my life every day. I've got food. I can go eat food. I can get food. I've got shelter. I can get shelter if I want it, if I need it. They're all blessings. Tick, tick, tick.

I've got people around me. I'm part of a amazing church and family. Tick, tick, tick. All these little blessings, and you'll be surprised at how quickly they add up. Yeah, so you might have all this, but you got all these little blessings over this side. Count them. Count them, and thank the Lord for them.

Count your blessings. Be grateful. Practice gratitude daily. That's the first one. Number two, whew. This is gonna be fun. Simplify your life. Simplify your life. It might mean cleaning house a little bit. It might mean getting rid of some things. It's funny, you hear people, people that have had to shift house over the years and they're like, man, I can't believe is how much stuff we've got.

A house is like a big box that you put your stuff into. Simplify your life. Not everything that is available is beneficial, and not everything that you can afford is worth having. Just 'cause you can afford it doesn't mean it's worth having. Doesn't mean it's beneficial or gonna help you. Number three, give generously.

We often talk about this in our church. We love to be part of a generous church. We love to be a part of a church that just freely gives. We're not bound by the stuff freely gives. You see, generosity breaks the power of more. It breaks smashes. It smashes the power of more. 'cause you can't clinging onto what you're trying to give away.

You can't pulling it back as you're trying to give it away, it doesn't work. You look really stupid doing that. You just gotta give it away. Be generous, give generously. Number four, seek God first, at least, particularly only in any order. 'cause I mean, number four could be number one. Seek God first, probably should be number one.

Seek God first. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you. When God is first, everything else will find its place. It will happen. Yeah. Number five is rest in God's provision. Just rest. Know that he's in control. Know that he's God. Trust that he knows what you need and trust that he is enough.

Once again, you could be going through all this and stuff's happening. Trust, count your blessings, but also trust that God's got it. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. You might not be able to see it right now, but God can see it. We've just gotta trust him. Trust him. Guard your heart. Guard your heart.

Our hearts are restless until they rest in you. God designed the human heart with eternity in mind. It's a long game. It's the long game. Nothing temporary can ever fill your heart. You can't fill a God shaped space. With earth shaped things just cannot happen Above all else. Guard your hearts because everything you do, everything you do flows from it.

The only more we should chase is more of him because our God is so good. He's so good. Let's bow our heads and pray together. Father, we just thank you Lord. We thank you that you are our God, that you are our God. You are the God of more Lord. You are the God of more love and more peace, and more comfort, and more direction and more strength.

You are the God of more, the more that we need is in you. Lord. Father, we just thank you for that. Thank you that you have called each and every one of us, Lord, that you have your hand upon each and every one of us. And Lord, I just pray that you'll help us. Help us to guard our hearts this morning, today, this week, this year.

Guard our hearts Lord, as we ask the question, what would Jesus do? What would Jesus do? And Lord, I pray, give us the courage and the strength and the wisdom, Lord, to step into and to answer that question the way you would. Lord, we just do give you the praise. I pray for every single person in the room here, every family represented, everyone that's online and family there.

Lord, I pray as we run into this series, Lord, and as we, uh, delve into this Lord, that you'll open our eyes, our hearts, and our minds, Lord, and you'll speak to us. Lord, we give you the praise. We give you all the glory. You are an amazing, amazing God and Lord, we just love you. We love you so much. Lead us. We pray, and Lord, we wanna just honor you this morning, Lord.

And we wanna say how great you are and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand and sing together.