May 3, 2025 • 24 mins
In today’s world, we buy more, but we enjoy it less. We have bigger houses, but smaller hearts. We have more conveniences, but less time. We have multiplied our possessions, but we have reduced our values. And we have learned how to make a living, but we haven’t learned how to make a life. When you join us for the next Treasured Truth, we’ll continue to look at stewardship and Pastor Ford will encourage us to not follow the world’s example of how to handle and view our money and possessions.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
We buy more, but we enjoy it less. We have
bigger houses, but smaller hearts. We have more conveniences but
less time. We have multiplied our possessions, but we have
reduced our values. We have learned how to make a living,
but we haven't learned how to make a life.
S2 (00:24):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago.
I'm Steve Hillard, glad you're with us. And pastor. Just
hearing that little snippet of the sermon right there just
is almost convicting, because I think about the, I guess,
area in which I live and the lifestyle that my
wife and I are able to enjoy. And then we
travel to another part of the world where by our standards,
(00:48):
we're not rich, but by their standards we are. And
you see the joy that other people have with seemingly
so little. And every time we come back from a
trip like that and we take a look at what
we have, were convicted and reminded of just how sometimes
our priorities can get so out of whack.
S1 (01:06):
They can, especially where we live here in the U.S.. Yeah,
and Jesus said it best. He said, life does not
consist in the abundance of the things that we own.
And most of the time, our problem is not that
we own things, it's that our things own us. Yeah.
And we need to realize that, you know, the Bible
(01:28):
tells us that we ought to lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven. That is, you can't take it with you,
but you sure can send it on ahead. Yeah. That
when you give to God, it's an investment in the
kingdom of God. Like. Like this radio station. You know,
those who give during share, they're actually investing. Will they
(01:49):
ever draw a dividend? I don't know about here, but
I do know hereafter they will, because God will reward them.
He gave us the money. Sure. This. This is paradoxical.
He gave us the money. We are stewards, so everything
we have belongs to God. By ownership, ours by stewardship. Yet,
(02:10):
if we're good stewards, he's going to reward us for
being good stewards of all that he's given us. And
I think there are six areas. Most people say three,
I say six. Time, talent, treasure, thought, talk and truth. Hmm. Yes.
S2 (02:26):
Yeah. You're right. We hear those first three all the time.
But those last three. I have to admit, I'm not
sure I've heard much.
S1 (02:34):
In the Bible. Stewardship. We shall give an account for
every idle word. That word literally means words that do
not edify or build people up. Yeah. And then Paul said,
we are the pillars of the ground of the truth.
That is, the church is responsible for the truth.
S2 (02:50):
Yeah.
S1 (02:51):
You know.
S2 (02:51):
Yeah. Yeah. We could spend the rest of the time
probably talking about that. But we got to get into
God's word. Right now we're in Luke 12 and Matthew
six today as we continue a message called God's pleasure
in your treasure. Here is Pastor Ford.
S1 (03:04):
I came to tell you the kingdom is more than
red bottom shoes and Gucci purses and wallets and Benzes
and Benjamins and Bugattis. See, the problem is, some people
have to have something to be something. Yeah. What do
you mean? I already said it. That there are some
(03:25):
people who determine their self-worth by their net worth, by
the clothes that they have on and the label on
their clothes. I know y'all don't believe that by the
kind of car they drive by, the house they live in.
And the Kingdom isn't about that. It's not about that.
It's about serving Jesus Christ. Some of it don't make
(03:51):
sense anyway. Our striving for the gold and the glitz
and the glamour say, why not Pastor Ford? Because you
have a $50 hat on a nickel head. That's why
it just don't make sense that your child has $200 Jordans,
(04:12):
but they're sleeping on an air mattress. It don't make
sense that you drive a Mercedes and have a link car.
It don't make sense to have a Land Rover and
a landlord. Don't. You ought to have a Land Rover
(04:32):
and a mortgage. No. Mama used to say it this way.
She said some folk look, they're driving the Cadillac, but
they cooking on the motor and they sleeping in the
in the trunk. They have champagne taste on beer money. Yeah.
(04:53):
It don't make sense. Yeah. It doesn't make sense that
your car cost more than your rent. I'm gonna leave
you all. I mean, people, not not anybody here. But,
you know, there are people who buy what they want
(05:14):
and borrow what they need. I remember I was talking
to this guy, and and my my rule is this.
I'll buy you food. I'm not giving you money. I'll
buy you food. You're hungry. You say you want a ride.
They don't want to ride. All you have to do
is look, look, look, look. Believe me, I do it
almost every time I'm trying to get the source, I
(05:35):
take you. Oh, well, see, I ain't going straight. Well,
if you going on the bus, you're going straight. I'll
take you where you want to go. Oh, you ain't
got time to mess with me. I know I ain't
got time to mess with you. But you ain't going nowhere.
You out here every day I see you. So anyway,
here's what. Here's what he told me. Here's what he
(05:55):
told me. Elder Jones, I said, you know, I don't
give people money if they have alcohol or if they've
they been using drugs? That's poor stewardship. You know, the
Bible says you put your money in good soil. That's
not good soil. So even though they need help, I'm
not giving them help. I don't care if they really
need it because you got alcohol or or, you know,
and of course, I, I used to sell the stuff, so,
(06:17):
you know, I can look at you and tell when
you're on it. You know, you look, I ain't on it.
But what, them little burn marks on your. What, you
got them little holes in your shirt from. Look at that.
All the, all the reefer smokers are smiling because they
know the seeds pop and they get on your clothes
and you get holes in your clothes. Yeah. That you
get down because you got to get down on it.
(06:39):
You get it all down before you take the roaches
and put em in the blunt. Say, how do you
know so much about that? Somebody told me about it.
S3 (06:52):
I googled it, yeah, I googled it. That's a good one.
I googled it and so.
S1 (06:57):
So so I said, no, I'm not giving you the
money because you have alcohol on your breath. I just
tell them you don't say I don't lie, you know? No,
I'm not giving you money because you have alcohol on
your breath. Oh, well, you know, my boys brought me
a drink. Well, why don't you ask them to buy
you some food? Why? Why would you ask me for
the food? And take the drinks from them. And they
(07:17):
gave you the money. You know what he told me?
He said, oh, come on, man, you know they ain't
going to buy me no food. I said, and neither
am I not doing it. And so we do it
all the time. You know, there are people who have
more gold in their mouth than they have money in
the bank. Yeah, okay. Let me move on. Let me
(07:40):
move on. Now, I'm not saying you can't have money.
I'm not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I
tell you all the time, God says the poor you
have with you always. But he never said I had
to be one of them. You can have money as
long as your money doesn't have you. That's what this
is all about. This is a man. The money had him.
(08:01):
I know you're tired of me saying it, but I
never get tired of saying it. Say say. Say what?
We buy things we don't need with money. We don't
have to amass bills we can't pay to impress people
we don't like. Now come on, somebody tell me what's
wrong with trying to keep up with the Joneses. That's right.
(08:23):
Because every time you catch them, they refinance. And so
here he says, no, no no no no no no,
don't let money be your master. Let Jesus be your master. Why?
Because we spend more, but we have less. Help me.
Somebody that we buy more, but we enjoy it less.
(08:44):
We have bigger houses, but smaller hearts. We have more conveniences,
but less time. We have multiplied our possessions, but we
have reduced our values. We have learned how to make
a living, but we haven't learned how to make a life.
We've done larger things, but we haven't done better things.
We've added years to our life, but not life to
(09:07):
our years. We have higher incomes, but lower morals. These
are times of steep profits and shallow relationships getting so
bad that Chuck Swindoll said he was walking down the
street in California and looked in the pawnshop and saw
a sign that said, wedding rings for rent. And so
(09:30):
these are the days of fancier houses, but broken homes.
It's a time where there's much in the shop window,
but nothing in the storage bin. That's why. So your
perspective must change here. This. Secondly, your passion must be
the catalyst. He says. But seek. Let me stop there.
(09:51):
The word seek means to pursue something passionately. It's an
intense desire that drives you. You want it so bad,
you know, just wanting and wanting and wanting and want.
You want it so bad you'll do anything to get it.
You want it so bad you will make a way
out of no way to get this thing that you're seeking.
(10:12):
That's what the word means. Now, all my ex crackheads
know what I'm talking about, and we've heard testimony after
testimony of Brother Otis testifies all the time. He do
anything to get that crack. Anything. You know what I mean?
You can't pay rent, but you got the car you wanted.
You don't have food, but you get them drugs. You
(10:35):
got bad credit. But that ain't stop you from getting
a cell phone in your dead mama's name or in
your child's name. Can't find tithe money. Yeah, but you
sure get your hair did every week that Manny and
Petty to Luke 1234 says this where your treasure is.
He says it here too. He says, listen, let me
tell you something. Verse 30. Um, oh. Luke 1230. For
(11:01):
where your treasure is, there your heart is. Now, I
don't know if you're like me when I read it.
Here's the first thing I thought. I wouldn't have wrote
it that way. I would have wrote it. Where your
heart is, there your treasure is also. I think you
know my heart. My heart. You know my heart is
what I love, right? No. Jesus said, ah, don't fool yourself.
S2 (11:26):
I think many of us, like Pastor Ford, would be
a little surprised. But I think as we come back
in just a moment, we're going to see how if
we want to change our hearts, all we have to
do is start changing where we put our treasure. Our
message is called God's pleasure and your treasure. And as
I mentioned, we'll continue this in just a moment. If
you ever miss a broadcast or you want to go
(11:46):
back and listen to something again, come to our website.
It's treasure truth Radio.com. And if you just want to
find out more about Pastor Ford in this ministry, I'd
encourage you to come to the website and look for
the Stay Connected bar. There you're going to find links
to our Facebook page or Twitter feed, and a link
that will allow you to download the Moody Radio app.
That's at Treasure Truth radio.org. Once again, here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (12:08):
Here's what he's saying. He's saying you tell me where
you put your money, and I'll tell you who and
what you love. Every time. Oh, that's it. I left
it back in the office. Uh, but I was looking
at my checkbook. I get 30 checks in one checkbook,
and when I looked at it, I said, oh, wow,
(12:29):
look at this. This is really something. Uh, that 22
out of 30 checks in my checkbook belong to Christ's
Bible Church. And the organizations that we support on a regular.
That's the first entry of every 22 checks go out
to the work of the Lord in my checkbook. Before
(12:51):
any bill is paid. Now, you say, why do you
say that? Because I just want you to know where
my treasure is. There my heart. Here it is. Let
me just. Bottom line it. Show me your checkbook and
I'll tell you who you love. I love Jesus, show
me your checkbook. Show me what you do with your time,
(13:14):
your talent, your treasure, the truth, your thoughts, your talk.
And I'll tell you who and what you love. Because
you love who you talk about. You don't ever talk
about Jesus. You don't love him. Period. And so what
(13:36):
do I do? One person told me, hey, I like
the way you talk about your wife.
S3 (13:40):
You're always talking about your wife.
S1 (13:41):
Why? Well, I always talk about my wife.
S3 (13:43):
Because I love my wife. I always talk about my
wife because I think my wife is pretty. I think
my wife is gorgeous. I think my wife is the
best looking woman in the world.
S1 (13:54):
Amen. So I tell her all the time, and I
tell everybody else all the time. She's my caramel mocha latte.
She's hot. Yellow, sweet and smoking. Cause who you love.
You talk about. And so he says here look look
look look look. Show me. You know, I usually do this.
(14:16):
And I said I'm not going to do it. I
did it too many times, so I just I just
tell you what I do. I used to take a
$100 bill, put it in my hand and ball it up,
and I call somebody and say, get this out of
my hand. And I don't care how big they are,
they ain't getting that. Yeah, not just because it's an
illustration either. They're not getting it. Then I say, take
(14:38):
a $100 bill out of your pocket and put it
in my hand, but it can't go. Why? Because they
can't take anything out, but they can't put anything in. See,
we're supposed to be open handed with God so that
he can take out what he wants and he can
put in what he wants. See? He took out of
(15:00):
his hand $200 worth of junk and put in his hand.
$800 worth of junk. I'm still thinking about that because
we got a washer and dryer over there now, and
when they get bad, I'm pulling my truck up. Amen.
I'm going to the junkyard. Yeah. And so, what's going
(15:23):
on here? Let me let me tell you true story.
It's a true story. Uh, I'm with this brother I've
shared with you before about him. Uh, he's a giver.
He's a giver. And, I mean, he's a giver. Giver.
And so he. He was working on our church, and, uh, we,
we develop a relationship. And I said to him, I said,
are any churches ever stiff you? He said, why y'all
(15:45):
thinking about it? I said, no, no, we're not thinking
about stiffing you, man. And I just told him, I said,
you done already put over 100,000 of your own money
in here. How we going to stiff you? I said, man,
I want to know you do churches and this is
what you like to do. Do any of them ever sniff?
He said yeah, yeah, I got stiff for $15,000. Church.
Not three blocks from your house. I said, really? I said,
(16:09):
what did you do? He said, I didn't do anything.
I said, what do you mean you didn't do anything?
He said, I didn't do anything. Why? Because I love Jesus.
So what am I going to do, Pastor Ford? Am
I going to sue him? When first Corinthians six says
you should not sue another believer? Am I going to
go complain and cajole them about God's money because it's
(16:29):
not mine? And I'm saying to myself, man, this man crazy.
Somebody owe me 15,000. You better give me my money.
As a matter of fact, if you owe me 50.
As a matter of fact, if you owe me five.
As a matter of fact. If 500. If you owe
me $5. It's my money. And I want it now.
(16:51):
I said, so what'd you do? He said nothing because
it's God's, not mine. I said, wow. So he said,
you know, uh, he was taking me to Maggiano's because
I had never eaten there before. So he told me
this on the way down. So we get there and
a bag lady approaches us. She's got a cart. She's
got all her stuff in it. She's homeless. She walks
(17:13):
up to us and said, gentlemen, sirs. Listen, I don't
do drugs, I don't drink. My husband was on drugs,
lost his job, lost everything. I never worked, and so
we lost everything. I don't even know where he is now.
I'm staying at the Y. I need $15 to stay
at the Y for a week. The man I'm with
(17:35):
pulls out five crisp, brand new $100 bills and gives
it to the lady. I didn't say nothing, I just looked.
We go into Maggiano's. I say, man, you just gave
that lady $500. He said, well, this morning I was
at the bank and the Lord told me to take
(17:57):
out $500. He wanted me to give it to somebody.
I said, who? Lord, he said, you'll know when the
person confronts you. I said, well, I don't drink. I
don't do drugs. And, uh, so, so so I'm thinking, wow,
(18:19):
this guy is this guy is like nobody I ever
I've never come across anybody like him, ever in my
Christian walk. So a couple weeks later, he calls me up.
He said, come on over to the store. He owned
the largest paint store in the Midwest at that time.
I went over to the paint store. He said, look
at this. He showed me a check for $22,000. I said, whoa, man,
(18:43):
where did this come from? He said, remember the church
I told you about? He said, yeah. He said, they
paid me. He called me a couple days ago and said,
come a preacher. We ain't have no rest, no peace.
You gotta come get this money. I got a check
for you. He said, I went there and got the check,
and I said, but that check is for 22,000. You
told me they owe you 15. He said, yeah, let
me finish, let me finish. I said, well, what did
(19:05):
he say? He said, they gave me $1,000 for every year.
I had to wait for them to pay me my money.
Seven years, 15 and seven, 22,000. And this is what
he said. I'll never forget it, brother Ben, he said,
Imma tell you something. That's what happens when you love Jesus.
(19:28):
That's what happens when you seek him. That's what happens
when he's your passion and you, you. The paper is
not your passion. He's your passion. When that happens, you
know what? And he said this to me. He said,
you know something? Pastor Ford said what? He said, I
believe if I would not have been obedient with that $500,
I never would have got this 22,000. I said, well, look,
(19:50):
I'm inclined to agree with anything and everything you say.
But here it is. What's he saying? He is my passion. Man.
Is Christ your passion? Because if he is, then you
let him worry about your paper. I'm telling you the truth,
so your perspective must change. Your passion must be the context.
Notice this your priority must be Christ. It says, seek
(20:14):
ye forth, seek ye. Third, seek ye. Second seek ye
first the kingdom Protoss, the kingdom of God. It means
it must be a priority. Christ has to be our priority.
Now there are five firsts in Matthew. Here's the first
verse in Matthew. Matthew 524 says, you come to church
(20:37):
and you give your gift, but remember that a brother
or sister has something against you. Go be reconciled. That's
what Matthew 524 says. In other words, if there's a
wall between you and your brother and sister, there's a
ceiling between you and your God. Uh, the third first
is in Matthew seven five where he says, you worried
about getting the speck out of your brother's eye when
(21:00):
you got a log in yours. In other words, he's
saying to many of us are pointing things out in
the light that we sneak in and doing in the night. Mhm.
Fourth one is binding before loosening. Matthew 12 2829 he says, first,
if you you got to bind the strong man. In
(21:22):
other words, if you're going to break into my house,
you better have me bound. Amen. Amen. The fifth verse
is Matthew 2325 where he says, inside you are dead. Men's,
outside your whitewashed sepulchres, inside your dead men's bones. He's saying, listen,
that the inside is more important than the outside, because
(21:45):
you can be clean on the outside, filthy on the inside.
What proceedeth out of the heart defiles a person. But
here's the second first, the one we're looking at putting
the spiritual before the material. In other words, don't confuse
your physicality with your spirituality.
S2 (22:05):
You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. A message
called God's Pleasure and Your Treasure. Really a helpful look
at Luke chapter 12 and Matthew chapter six. Today we're
going to continue this teaching next time in the broadcast.
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(22:26):
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(22:46):
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(23:08):
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(23:30):
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a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
We buy more, but we enjoy it less. We have
bigger houses, but smaller hearts. We have more conveniences but
less time. We have multiplied our possessions, but we have
reduced our values. We have learned how to make a living,
but we haven't learned how to make a life.
S2 (00:24):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago.
I'm Steve Hillard, glad you're with us. And pastor. Just
hearing that little snippet of the sermon right there just
is almost convicting, because I think about the, I guess,
area in which I live and the lifestyle that my
wife and I are able to enjoy. And then we
travel to another part of the world where by our standards,
(00:48):
we're not rich, but by their standards we are. And
you see the joy that other people have with seemingly
so little. And every time we come back from a
trip like that and we take a look at what
we have, were convicted and reminded of just how sometimes
our priorities can get so out of whack.
S1 (01:06):
They can, especially where we live here in the U.S.. Yeah,
and Jesus said it best. He said, life does not
consist in the abundance of the things that we own.
And most of the time, our problem is not that
we own things, it's that our things own us. Yeah.
And we need to realize that, you know, the Bible
(01:28):
tells us that we ought to lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven. That is, you can't take it with you,
but you sure can send it on ahead. Yeah. That
when you give to God, it's an investment in the
kingdom of God. Like. Like this radio station. You know,
those who give during share, they're actually investing. Will they
(01:49):
ever draw a dividend? I don't know about here, but
I do know hereafter they will, because God will reward them.
He gave us the money. Sure. This. This is paradoxical.
He gave us the money. We are stewards, so everything
we have belongs to God. By ownership, ours by stewardship. Yet,
(02:10):
if we're good stewards, he's going to reward us for
being good stewards of all that he's given us. And
I think there are six areas. Most people say three,
I say six. Time, talent, treasure, thought, talk and truth. Hmm. Yes.
S2 (02:26):
Yeah. You're right. We hear those first three all the time.
But those last three. I have to admit, I'm not
sure I've heard much.
S1 (02:34):
In the Bible. Stewardship. We shall give an account for
every idle word. That word literally means words that do
not edify or build people up. Yeah. And then Paul said,
we are the pillars of the ground of the truth.
That is, the church is responsible for the truth.
S2 (02:50):
Yeah.
S1 (02:51):
You know.
S2 (02:51):
Yeah. Yeah. We could spend the rest of the time
probably talking about that. But we got to get into
God's word. Right now we're in Luke 12 and Matthew
six today as we continue a message called God's pleasure
in your treasure. Here is Pastor Ford.
S1 (03:04):
I came to tell you the kingdom is more than
red bottom shoes and Gucci purses and wallets and Benzes
and Benjamins and Bugattis. See, the problem is, some people
have to have something to be something. Yeah. What do
you mean? I already said it. That there are some
(03:25):
people who determine their self-worth by their net worth, by
the clothes that they have on and the label on
their clothes. I know y'all don't believe that by the
kind of car they drive by, the house they live in.
And the Kingdom isn't about that. It's not about that.
It's about serving Jesus Christ. Some of it don't make
(03:51):
sense anyway. Our striving for the gold and the glitz
and the glamour say, why not Pastor Ford? Because you
have a $50 hat on a nickel head. That's why
it just don't make sense that your child has $200 Jordans,
(04:12):
but they're sleeping on an air mattress. It don't make
sense that you drive a Mercedes and have a link car.
It don't make sense to have a Land Rover and
a landlord. Don't. You ought to have a Land Rover
(04:32):
and a mortgage. No. Mama used to say it this way.
She said some folk look, they're driving the Cadillac, but
they cooking on the motor and they sleeping in the
in the trunk. They have champagne taste on beer money. Yeah.
(04:53):
It don't make sense. Yeah. It doesn't make sense that
your car cost more than your rent. I'm gonna leave
you all. I mean, people, not not anybody here. But,
you know, there are people who buy what they want
(05:14):
and borrow what they need. I remember I was talking
to this guy, and and my my rule is this.
I'll buy you food. I'm not giving you money. I'll
buy you food. You're hungry. You say you want a ride.
They don't want to ride. All you have to do
is look, look, look, look. Believe me, I do it
almost every time I'm trying to get the source, I
(05:35):
take you. Oh, well, see, I ain't going straight. Well,
if you going on the bus, you're going straight. I'll
take you where you want to go. Oh, you ain't
got time to mess with me. I know I ain't
got time to mess with you. But you ain't going nowhere.
You out here every day I see you. So anyway,
here's what. Here's what he told me. Here's what he
(05:55):
told me. Elder Jones, I said, you know, I don't
give people money if they have alcohol or if they've
they been using drugs? That's poor stewardship. You know, the
Bible says you put your money in good soil. That's
not good soil. So even though they need help, I'm
not giving them help. I don't care if they really
need it because you got alcohol or or, you know,
and of course, I, I used to sell the stuff, so,
(06:17):
you know, I can look at you and tell when
you're on it. You know, you look, I ain't on it.
But what, them little burn marks on your. What, you
got them little holes in your shirt from. Look at that.
All the, all the reefer smokers are smiling because they
know the seeds pop and they get on your clothes
and you get holes in your clothes. Yeah. That you
get down because you got to get down on it.
(06:39):
You get it all down before you take the roaches
and put em in the blunt. Say, how do you
know so much about that? Somebody told me about it.
S3 (06:52):
I googled it, yeah, I googled it. That's a good one.
I googled it and so.
S1 (06:57):
So so I said, no, I'm not giving you the
money because you have alcohol on your breath. I just
tell them you don't say I don't lie, you know? No,
I'm not giving you money because you have alcohol on
your breath. Oh, well, you know, my boys brought me
a drink. Well, why don't you ask them to buy
you some food? Why? Why would you ask me for
the food? And take the drinks from them. And they
(07:17):
gave you the money. You know what he told me?
He said, oh, come on, man, you know they ain't
going to buy me no food. I said, and neither
am I not doing it. And so we do it
all the time. You know, there are people who have
more gold in their mouth than they have money in
the bank. Yeah, okay. Let me move on. Let me
(07:40):
move on. Now, I'm not saying you can't have money.
I'm not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I
tell you all the time, God says the poor you
have with you always. But he never said I had
to be one of them. You can have money as
long as your money doesn't have you. That's what this
is all about. This is a man. The money had him.
(08:01):
I know you're tired of me saying it, but I
never get tired of saying it. Say say. Say what?
We buy things we don't need with money. We don't
have to amass bills we can't pay to impress people
we don't like. Now come on, somebody tell me what's
wrong with trying to keep up with the Joneses. That's right.
(08:23):
Because every time you catch them, they refinance. And so
here he says, no, no no no no no no,
don't let money be your master. Let Jesus be your master. Why?
Because we spend more, but we have less. Help me.
Somebody that we buy more, but we enjoy it less.
(08:44):
We have bigger houses, but smaller hearts. We have more conveniences,
but less time. We have multiplied our possessions, but we
have reduced our values. We have learned how to make
a living, but we haven't learned how to make a life.
We've done larger things, but we haven't done better things.
We've added years to our life, but not life to
(09:07):
our years. We have higher incomes, but lower morals. These
are times of steep profits and shallow relationships getting so
bad that Chuck Swindoll said he was walking down the
street in California and looked in the pawnshop and saw
a sign that said, wedding rings for rent. And so
(09:30):
these are the days of fancier houses, but broken homes.
It's a time where there's much in the shop window,
but nothing in the storage bin. That's why. So your
perspective must change here. This. Secondly, your passion must be
the catalyst. He says. But seek. Let me stop there.
(09:51):
The word seek means to pursue something passionately. It's an
intense desire that drives you. You want it so bad,
you know, just wanting and wanting and wanting and want.
You want it so bad you'll do anything to get it.
You want it so bad you will make a way
out of no way to get this thing that you're seeking.
(10:12):
That's what the word means. Now, all my ex crackheads
know what I'm talking about, and we've heard testimony after
testimony of Brother Otis testifies all the time. He do
anything to get that crack. Anything. You know what I mean?
You can't pay rent, but you got the car you wanted.
You don't have food, but you get them drugs. You
(10:35):
got bad credit. But that ain't stop you from getting
a cell phone in your dead mama's name or in
your child's name. Can't find tithe money. Yeah, but you
sure get your hair did every week that Manny and
Petty to Luke 1234 says this where your treasure is.
He says it here too. He says, listen, let me
tell you something. Verse 30. Um, oh. Luke 1230. For
(11:01):
where your treasure is, there your heart is. Now, I
don't know if you're like me when I read it.
Here's the first thing I thought. I wouldn't have wrote
it that way. I would have wrote it. Where your
heart is, there your treasure is also. I think you
know my heart. My heart. You know my heart is
what I love, right? No. Jesus said, ah, don't fool yourself.
S2 (11:26):
I think many of us, like Pastor Ford, would be
a little surprised. But I think as we come back
in just a moment, we're going to see how if
we want to change our hearts, all we have to
do is start changing where we put our treasure. Our
message is called God's pleasure and your treasure. And as
I mentioned, we'll continue this in just a moment. If
you ever miss a broadcast or you want to go
(11:46):
back and listen to something again, come to our website.
It's treasure truth Radio.com. And if you just want to
find out more about Pastor Ford in this ministry, I'd
encourage you to come to the website and look for
the Stay Connected bar. There you're going to find links
to our Facebook page or Twitter feed, and a link
that will allow you to download the Moody Radio app.
That's at Treasure Truth radio.org. Once again, here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (12:08):
Here's what he's saying. He's saying you tell me where
you put your money, and I'll tell you who and
what you love. Every time. Oh, that's it. I left
it back in the office. Uh, but I was looking
at my checkbook. I get 30 checks in one checkbook,
and when I looked at it, I said, oh, wow,
(12:29):
look at this. This is really something. Uh, that 22
out of 30 checks in my checkbook belong to Christ's
Bible Church. And the organizations that we support on a regular.
That's the first entry of every 22 checks go out
to the work of the Lord in my checkbook. Before
(12:51):
any bill is paid. Now, you say, why do you
say that? Because I just want you to know where
my treasure is. There my heart. Here it is. Let
me just. Bottom line it. Show me your checkbook and
I'll tell you who you love. I love Jesus, show
me your checkbook. Show me what you do with your time,
(13:14):
your talent, your treasure, the truth, your thoughts, your talk.
And I'll tell you who and what you love. Because
you love who you talk about. You don't ever talk
about Jesus. You don't love him. Period. And so what
(13:36):
do I do? One person told me, hey, I like
the way you talk about your wife.
S3 (13:40):
You're always talking about your wife.
S1 (13:41):
Why? Well, I always talk about my wife.
S3 (13:43):
Because I love my wife. I always talk about my
wife because I think my wife is pretty. I think
my wife is gorgeous. I think my wife is the
best looking woman in the world.
S1 (13:54):
Amen. So I tell her all the time, and I
tell everybody else all the time. She's my caramel mocha latte.
She's hot. Yellow, sweet and smoking. Cause who you love.
You talk about. And so he says here look look
look look look. Show me. You know, I usually do this.
(14:16):
And I said I'm not going to do it. I
did it too many times, so I just I just
tell you what I do. I used to take a
$100 bill, put it in my hand and ball it up,
and I call somebody and say, get this out of
my hand. And I don't care how big they are,
they ain't getting that. Yeah, not just because it's an
illustration either. They're not getting it. Then I say, take
(14:38):
a $100 bill out of your pocket and put it
in my hand, but it can't go. Why? Because they
can't take anything out, but they can't put anything in. See,
we're supposed to be open handed with God so that
he can take out what he wants and he can
put in what he wants. See? He took out of
(15:00):
his hand $200 worth of junk and put in his hand.
$800 worth of junk. I'm still thinking about that because
we got a washer and dryer over there now, and
when they get bad, I'm pulling my truck up. Amen.
I'm going to the junkyard. Yeah. And so, what's going
(15:23):
on here? Let me let me tell you true story.
It's a true story. Uh, I'm with this brother I've
shared with you before about him. Uh, he's a giver.
He's a giver. And, I mean, he's a giver. Giver.
And so he. He was working on our church, and, uh, we,
we develop a relationship. And I said to him, I said,
are any churches ever stiff you? He said, why y'all
(15:45):
thinking about it? I said, no, no, we're not thinking
about stiffing you, man. And I just told him, I said,
you done already put over 100,000 of your own money
in here. How we going to stiff you? I said, man,
I want to know you do churches and this is
what you like to do. Do any of them ever sniff?
He said yeah, yeah, I got stiff for $15,000. Church.
Not three blocks from your house. I said, really? I said,
(16:09):
what did you do? He said, I didn't do anything.
I said, what do you mean you didn't do anything?
He said, I didn't do anything. Why? Because I love Jesus.
So what am I going to do, Pastor Ford? Am
I going to sue him? When first Corinthians six says
you should not sue another believer? Am I going to
go complain and cajole them about God's money because it's
(16:29):
not mine? And I'm saying to myself, man, this man crazy.
Somebody owe me 15,000. You better give me my money.
As a matter of fact, if you owe me 50.
As a matter of fact, if you owe me five.
As a matter of fact. If 500. If you owe
me $5. It's my money. And I want it now.
(16:51):
I said, so what'd you do? He said nothing because
it's God's, not mine. I said, wow. So he said,
you know, uh, he was taking me to Maggiano's because
I had never eaten there before. So he told me
this on the way down. So we get there and
a bag lady approaches us. She's got a cart. She's
got all her stuff in it. She's homeless. She walks
(17:13):
up to us and said, gentlemen, sirs. Listen, I don't
do drugs, I don't drink. My husband was on drugs,
lost his job, lost everything. I never worked, and so
we lost everything. I don't even know where he is now.
I'm staying at the Y. I need $15 to stay
at the Y for a week. The man I'm with
(17:35):
pulls out five crisp, brand new $100 bills and gives
it to the lady. I didn't say nothing, I just looked.
We go into Maggiano's. I say, man, you just gave
that lady $500. He said, well, this morning I was
at the bank and the Lord told me to take
(17:57):
out $500. He wanted me to give it to somebody.
I said, who? Lord, he said, you'll know when the
person confronts you. I said, well, I don't drink. I
don't do drugs. And, uh, so, so so I'm thinking, wow,
(18:19):
this guy is this guy is like nobody I ever
I've never come across anybody like him, ever in my
Christian walk. So a couple weeks later, he calls me up.
He said, come on over to the store. He owned
the largest paint store in the Midwest at that time.
I went over to the paint store. He said, look
at this. He showed me a check for $22,000. I said, whoa, man,
(18:43):
where did this come from? He said, remember the church
I told you about? He said, yeah. He said, they
paid me. He called me a couple days ago and said,
come a preacher. We ain't have no rest, no peace.
You gotta come get this money. I got a check
for you. He said, I went there and got the check,
and I said, but that check is for 22,000. You
told me they owe you 15. He said, yeah, let
me finish, let me finish. I said, well, what did
(19:05):
he say? He said, they gave me $1,000 for every year.
I had to wait for them to pay me my money.
Seven years, 15 and seven, 22,000. And this is what
he said. I'll never forget it, brother Ben, he said,
Imma tell you something. That's what happens when you love Jesus.
(19:28):
That's what happens when you seek him. That's what happens
when he's your passion and you, you. The paper is
not your passion. He's your passion. When that happens, you
know what? And he said this to me. He said,
you know something? Pastor Ford said what? He said, I
believe if I would not have been obedient with that $500,
I never would have got this 22,000. I said, well, look,
(19:50):
I'm inclined to agree with anything and everything you say.
But here it is. What's he saying? He is my passion. Man.
Is Christ your passion? Because if he is, then you
let him worry about your paper. I'm telling you the truth,
so your perspective must change. Your passion must be the context.
Notice this your priority must be Christ. It says, seek
(20:14):
ye forth, seek ye. Third, seek ye. Second seek ye
first the kingdom Protoss, the kingdom of God. It means
it must be a priority. Christ has to be our priority.
Now there are five firsts in Matthew. Here's the first
verse in Matthew. Matthew 524 says, you come to church
(20:37):
and you give your gift, but remember that a brother
or sister has something against you. Go be reconciled. That's
what Matthew 524 says. In other words, if there's a
wall between you and your brother and sister, there's a
ceiling between you and your God. Uh, the third first
is in Matthew seven five where he says, you worried
about getting the speck out of your brother's eye when
(21:00):
you got a log in yours. In other words, he's
saying to many of us are pointing things out in
the light that we sneak in and doing in the night. Mhm.
Fourth one is binding before loosening. Matthew 12 2829 he says, first,
if you you got to bind the strong man. In
(21:22):
other words, if you're going to break into my house,
you better have me bound. Amen. Amen. The fifth verse
is Matthew 2325 where he says, inside you are dead. Men's,
outside your whitewashed sepulchres, inside your dead men's bones. He's saying, listen,
that the inside is more important than the outside, because
(21:45):
you can be clean on the outside, filthy on the inside.
What proceedeth out of the heart defiles a person. But
here's the second first, the one we're looking at putting
the spiritual before the material. In other words, don't confuse
your physicality with your spirituality.
S2 (22:05):
You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. A message
called God's Pleasure and Your Treasure. Really a helpful look
at Luke chapter 12 and Matthew chapter six. Today we're
going to continue this teaching next time in the broadcast.
If you want to make sure that you don't miss it,
you can always come to our website. Right now it's
Treasure Truth radio.org. Sign up to begin podcasting the program.
(22:26):
That way you can listen whenever it fits your schedule.
You know, there are a couple other ways to do that. First,
you can come to the website and simply stream the
program or download an MP3 for free. But you can
also listen on the Moody Radio app. Now, not only
can you listen to this program with Pastor Ford, but
other moody produce programs and internet music stations really makes
(22:46):
it convenient for you to listen on the go. And
as it fits your schedule, you can download the app
by going to your favorite app store, like the iOS
App Store or Google Play, and searching for Moody Radio.
Or you can simply come to our website and we'll
link you to it. Again, our website address is Treasure
Truth Radio. Now I want to mention that everything that
we do here at Moody Radio and Treasure Truth is
(23:08):
made possible because of your generosity. So if you appreciate
the fact that you can turn the radio on and
you can hear pastor for just open up God's Word
and share what he has for us each and every day.
Would you help us continue to produce this program and
bring it to others? You can do that by becoming
a regular giving partner. Come to our website, npr.org. Click
(23:30):
on the donate button. And there you can give an
ongoing monthly gift or even a one time gift. Just
come to Treasure Truth Radio org and click on donate. Well,
thanks for doing that. Thanks also for listening today and
thanks 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.
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