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Let's pray together.

I ask Father that you would grant to me a fatherly affection for this flock and that you

would give them toward me a readiness to hear and respond. I pray that Jesus' words would be

understood and have the power that he meant them to have and that we would be moved to be rich toward you.

I pray that the way we handle our money would be so dramatically affected by the

word of Christ that his value would shine more brightly in our lives.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Jesus and the Apostles considered money to be hazardous and helpful

to be hazardous and how to maximize the hazard.

And they taught us how to minimize the hazard

and how to maximize the helpfulness.

And that's what I want to do in this message.

I would like to spare you the tragedies that threaten when money is much and I would like to help you maximize the unadulterated joys of giving.

And the use of money in the wisest way possible to make Jesus look great

and to make people go to heaven.

Let me clarify something at the outset here about the nature of money.

Money in and of itself is the pieces of metal, we call them coins and little pieces of paper, we call

them bills. And the only reason we have any concern about these little piece of paper and these pieces of metal at all is that in our culture we've established that they will function as currency.

That is, they function as currency.

That is, they represent value.

And you can therefore exchange them for things that you value. That's why it's a concern to us. Money is

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