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Zac Poonen Illustrations - Set Your Mind On Things Above Zac Poonen · April 1, 2020 · 5m
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Summary The central message warns against setting one's mind on earthly things, particularly money, which can become an idol and lead to spiritual failure. The speaker uses the analogy of a rubber band to illustrate that while Christians must engage with earthly responsibilities, their focus must ultimately spring back to heavenly things and God's Word. True discipleship means prioritizing God's kingdom and righteousness in all aspects of life.
Transcript 0:01 [Music] in Philippians 3 where it speaks about the stomach being the god of some people who have denied the way of the cross the 0:19 enemies of the cross are those who whose God is their stomach verse 19 Philippians 3 the enemies of the cross mentioned in verse 18 who don't want to follow Paul or is the example of other godly men and whose end is destruction their God is their 0:39 stomach and the other thing is their mind is set on earthly things primarily money God has given us money to use and 0:57 I believe it's a test he tested many people through money Judas Iscariot failed the test through money he didn't fall into sexual sin it was money that 1:14 made Jesus the Judas a betrayer it's a great warning that the one disciple out of 12 fell away because of money there was a love for money there imagine him you can sit and listen to the most powerful message that Jesus preached for 1:34 three and a half years and he still loved money and you can sit here and listen to powerful messages and in your heart you can love your set your mind on earthly things in other words you don't use money your mind is set on it set on 1:51 it there's nothing wrong in using money there's nothing wrong in having a lot of money if God gave it to you and it's all earned righteously if all the money you have earned is righteously earned not because you cheated the government or 2:07 cheated other people or cheated in business or anything it's all righteously earned and if God decided to make you rich well he made Abraham rich who was such a godly man that God called himself the God of Abraham was Abraham a poor beggar 2:23 no Abraham was one of the wealthiest people of his time and God calls himself the God of Abraham imagine if God put your name and said I'm the god of so-and-so oh boy what an honor and in job's time he was the richest man in all the earth he was a 2:41 billionaire and he was the most godly man that lived on earth at that time so the Bible doesn't teach that if you have money you can be ungodly no but one of the things job said in his book was I have not made gold my god just like you 2:58 can make stomach your God you can make money your God where you worship it like people worship food they can worship money and I want this I want this and bow down you know what the Idol says do this you do it that's how many people 3:16 live this God says I'll give you money if you do all these wrong things and they do it and they get it so their mind is set on earthly things you heard me use the illustration of a rubber band to me this is the best illustration I've 3:35 ever found if you have a rubber band a true Christian is one who's got his mind set his mind is set on things above but because he lives on earth and he's got to do hundreds of things on earth for many hours a day he has to stretch that 3:54 rubber band to the things of earth for eight hours in his place of work and maybe another five six hours it's a lot of jobs at home but then when all the work is done the rubber band is released goes back up to think about the things 4:12 of heaven the things of God and things of God's Word meditate on God's Word that is a true Christian but he's spending 14 hours a day thinking about earthly things nothing wrong in it he has to work is to earn his living a mother has got to take 4:28 care of the children and cook the food that's this rubber band stretched to earthly things for many hours a day but when it's released when it's all over there does a rubber band spring back to the things of heaven what do you think 4:44 about that what do you think about when all your day's work is over you lie down in bed what do you think or when you're free from other things just sitting and relaxing where is the rubber band for many people for the worldly 4:58 people is the other way around it's never stretched to heavenly things but for Christians there are many Christians then the rubber band is tied to the earthly things and on Sunday morning they'll stretch it for two hours two 5:14 heavenly things like and go to a church service and think about God and hopefully nobody's thinking about money even now but some people even even in church they're thinking about that but it's stretch there and then the two 5:27 hours service is over then back to money again or earthly things it's not the way God intended a disciple of Christ to live you see well how will I survive I'll tell you if you see God's kingdom 5:43 first and his righteousness in everything all that you need on earth will be added to you
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