No Limit

Matthew 22:37
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, September 13, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Gregory Broderick

Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matt. 22:37)

He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we owe Him everything.  We owe Him everything because He gave us everything, especially eternal life.  This is the one thing needful in this life, and He achieved it on our behalf.

We were all sinners, dead in our transgressions and sins.  We committed infinite sin against infinite God, and therefore we owed an infinite debt that we could never repay.  This was an unsolvable problem—unsolvable for us—and we were doomed to eternal hell to suffer forever for our sins.

Then, for no other reason than His great love and rich mercy, God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to become a man, to live a perfect life of passive and active obedience to God, and then to die as a sacrifice on the cross in our place, to die as a sacrificial lamb.  He bore the full wrath of God in our behalf, even though He was without sin.  He did not deserve any punishment, but He bore it in our behalf.  This was the only way that the holy and just God could forgive our sin.  Our infinite debt required an infinite sacrifice, so He had to be infinite God to make it.  And He had to become man.  He had to be very man to stand in our place as a representative.  This was the only way, and He provided it for us.

As a result of His person and work, we can have peace with God.  As a result, we can go to eternal heaven to experience the fullness of joy with God forever, and it is guaranteed.  More than that, He made it all available to us for free, by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  Even though He did all this for us, even though He made it available for free, even then we would have rejected it due to our sinful nature, due to our total depravity.  So God regenerated His elect people.  He gave us each a new heart, able to love Him; a new mind, able to confess the truth; and a new will and emotions, able to receive His gracious offer of eternal life to us.  So, yes, God truly gave us everything.

Now, I am sure that virtually every person hearing this knows all of these truths and even subscribes to them.  Indeed, the vast majority of us have confessed Christ as Lord and we have professed our faith in Him.  And we would surely say that we have trusted in Him alone for our salvation.  So I want to look today not at the truth of these claims but rather at our obligations in light of them, that is, as recipients of God’s free grace, what are we to do, and do we do it. 

Put It All on the Altar

Jesus spells out our obligations clearly in Matthew 22:37 and Luke 10:27.  When asked, “What is the greatest command?” He replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.”  All, all, all, all.  We must give our all—all of our all—to God.  We must say with the song, “I am not my own; I belong to Jesus.”  We must gladly say, as Paul said, “Paulos doulos,” “Paul, a slave of God,” “Paul, a bondservant of Christ.”  We must live to do the will of, and live to obey, our new Master, Jesus Christ.

Our salvation is free of cost, but it is not free of obligation.  We as God’s people are obliged to obey His holy law.  We are obliged to obey His directions given to us by His undershepherds and delegated authorities.  But we must go further than just simple obedience.  We must actively seek to know and do God’s will in every situation with great joy, whatever the cost.  That is what it means:  all, all, all, all.

This is our obligation, but sometimes we do not do it.  Especially after a season of walking with Christ, we can begin to think, “I have done enough.”  Or we can begin to think, “I have repaid my debt to God.”  We would, of course, never say such things out loud.  We would not even think them so starkly.  But it begins to creep into our thinking:  “I’ve done enough.”

The old sinful man is still in us, you see, and the devil tempts us with such thoughts.  “I gave up A, B, and C for God.  What else must I really do?” Or, “I did X, Y, and Z for the kingdom.  What else does God want from me?” Or we hold back that one thing, we draw a line.  “Okay, God,” we think.  “I have done enough.  What else must I do?  We have gone far enough.”  We begin to think, “This far but no farther.”

This is dangerous thinking.  This is ungrateful thinking.  This is unbiblical thinking.  It is demonic thinking.  If we entertain such thoughts, if we give in to them, we give the devil a foothold, and it will take us down.  It can shipwreck our salvation and send us to hell.  You see, there must be no limits on what we will do for God, on what we will give to God.  We must hold nothing back, and nothing means nothing.

It sounds radical.  It is radical.  We must be either all in for God or all out for God.  A ninety-nine percent commitment is a failing grade in this situation.  All, all, all, all—that is what God requires.  It is not some of the things all of the time.  It is not even all of the things some of the time.  It is all of the things all of the time forever.  There is no limit.  Nothing is off the table.  We can never give enough; we can never do enough for God, because that is what He demands.  He demands our all, and that is what we owe.  And what a bargain it is for us to give our all for God, for we have received eternal riches, we have received eternal glory, we have received eternal joy in Christ Jesus.

So we must put it all on the altar.  As Christians, we have a new purpose in life.  We used to look only to our own interests, but now we look only to God’s glory.  As the Westminster Shorter Catechism question 1 reminds us, “Our chief end”—in other words, the purpose of our existence—“is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”  So every act, every scheme, every purpose, every thought, every feeling in our life must now be re-tasked for God.  I used to be out for my own purposes, but now I am re-tasking everything for God.  First Corinthians 10:31 commands us, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  That is as comprehensive as it gets.  Even our minimal basic functions, such as eating and drinking, must be reimagined, must be repurposed, must be rededicated for God’s glory.  Our new objective is to glorify God.

This verse is easily applied to our own lives.  First Corinthians 10:31 means I cannot eat what I like – tasty food.  I cannot be obese or unhealthy.  I must discipline myself and eat only in a way that glorifies God.  And the converse is also true.  I cannot starve myself either.  Abusing the body that He gave me does not glorify God.  So I must eat not too much and not too little, but what God wants me to eat and drink.

Little children, you can apply this to your lives.  Eat and drink with thanksgiving the food that Mom and Dad have given you.  If you complain about eating that dinner that God provided, that Dad worked for, that Mom labored to prepare, you are not glorifying God in your eating and drinking.  So there is one verse with a very simple and concrete application of how to do it all for God.  Do what God wants, the way God wants, with the attitude that God wants.

Now, reasoning from the lesser to the greater, eating and drinking means whatever we do, big or small.  It literally says, “whatever you do” in this verse.  What you spend your money on, do it for the glory of God.  That is God’s money.  How you spend your time—spend it for the glory of God.  That is God’s time.  What you think about—our thoughts are included in “whatever you do.”  Even what you like or dislike:  emote for the glory of God.  What church you attend—that is up to God.  Whom you marry—you must marry for the glory of God.  What job you take—you take that job and you work at that job for the glory of God.  Where you live.  Even if you live or die, do it for the glory of God.

It is all up to God.  We place no preexisting limits on God—on where I will go or what I will do for God.  No limits.  Whatever will glorify God the most in any situation is what we want to do.

Jesus died for me, so I will live for Him.  Even my body is not my own.  I will gladly offer it every day as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1).  I gladly surrender all.  I gladly put all on the altar for God—not sadly, but gladly.  It is not that we grudgingly do God’s will but we really long for something else.  That is not the attitude.  No, we are glad to do it.  I am glad to know what God’s will is for me and to do it.

As the apostle says in Acts 20:24, “I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me.”  When Paul wrote this, he knew that suffering and death were ahead of him.  He knew that only trouble awaited him.  But he went, and he went with great joy to suffering and death because he knew that he was about his Master’s business.  Even in this suffering and death, St. Paul was fulfilling his greatest purpose to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

So we see that every aspect of our lives must be fully dedicated to God.  What I do and what I do not do, I do or do not do it for the glory of God.  Even what I think.  The Bible says we must “take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).   So I must do it.  I must take those thoughts captive.  It is not optional.  I must do it for the glory of God.  I must do it out of thanksgiving toward God who saved me.

It is not just our thoughts, but even our emotions.  You see, we may feel this way or we may feel that way.  Those feelings are going to come.  But we take command of those feelings and we redirect them for God’s glory.  Fear may come in, but we are not slaves to fear (Rom. 8:15).  We say to ourselves, “Fear not; God is with me and He has called me by name” (Isa. 41:10).  That fear comes, but I take command of it and I fear not because God said, “Fear not.”

We may feel downcast.  But we say to ourselves, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God” (Ps. 42:5).  So that downcast feeling comes, but we preach to ourselves, “Put your hope in God,” and then we do it.

It is not that we do not have feelings or that we become unemotional.  We have feelings, but we do not give those feelings free reign.  We do not let those feelings direct us.  We do not let them run riot.  We put those feelings under God.  God gave us those emotions so they are good, or at least capable of good.  But we do not let them rule us.  We put them into God’s service.

The kingdom of God is not a feeling-free place.  But our feelings are not outside the kingdom’s jurisdiction.  We should grieve and mourn, the Bible tells us, but we grieve and mourn for sin.  We should be angry.  We should even hate.  But we are angry at, and we hate, wickedness (Ps. 97:10).  In other words, we use those emotions as God directs.  We should have peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  We should be full of joy, in fact—full of the joy of the Lord, joy unspeakable and full of glory.  That is emotion for the glory of God.

All that we are and all that we do in word and in deed, in speech and in feelings—all of it must be for God.  We lay it all before Him.  We do it all for Him.  We do not have anything that is hands-off to God.  We gladly seek God’s will and we do it in all, all, all, all things a hundred percent.

So now we know what we must do—put it all on the altar for God.  And we know why we must do it—because He has done everything for us.  But let us now look at how to do that.

How to Put All on the Altar

1. We must do all for the glory of God.

First, we must do it all for the glory of God.  This is not just what we do, but it describes how we do it.  In other words, our motivation in everything is God’s glory.  The motto of the Jesuits is “Ad maiorem Dei gloriam,” (for the greater glory of God).  It is a good motto.  I am going to do everything for the greater glory of God.

If that is our motive, we must ask in every situation, “Is this action for the glory of God?”  That is a clarifying question.  Is this action for the greater glory of God?  Is this thought that I am entertaining for the greater glory of God?  Is this feeling I am nurturing for the greater glory of God?  Is the way that I am raising my children for the greater glory of God, or is it for my own short-term pleasure?  Is this job—the way that I do my job, the way that I spend my time, energy, and attention—is that for the greater glory of God?  Am I really living it out?

Friends, if we would stop and ask this question more often, how much better off would we be?   How much more on target would we be if we would stop and ask, “Is this for the greater glory of God?”

We must keep this motive in the forefront of our minds if we are to avoid the creeping yeast of the world, the creeping fog of the world that comes into us.  So, first, we are to do all for the glory of God.

2. We must do so willingly.

We must gladly put everything on the altar.  Just as our forerunner and example, Jesus Christ, did, so we must do.  We must give all to God cheerfully, not reluctantly, not under compulsion, not grudgingly (2 Cor. 9:7).  You see, God loves, and, indeed, God only accepts that cheerful, willing, eager offering.  He does not want our begrudging offering. 

3. We must do so in action.

In other words, we must do our all, all, all, all for God with actions.  As God’s people, we are to be engaged in the church and in the world.  We are not called to be monks, isolated out in the desert someplace, or insular people hiding in our homes.  Life in Christ is not just a private matter.  It is to be lived out in our daily lives.  We are called to live for and love God in actions.  That must first issue, of course, in personal obedience.  We must live holy lives for God.  But it must also issue in love for God’s people.  I read it earlier: “The second command is like to the first.”  So when He says, “All your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength,” the next thing He says is, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

A way we can live for God with our all, all, all, all is to love our neighbors, God’s people.  The ideas are closely connected.  Love for God must issue in love action for God’s people.  Proverbs 19:17 says, “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord.”  You are doing that action for the poor, but it is ultimately for the Lord.  Hebrews 13:16 says, “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices, God is pleased.”  So we do this action in this world, but our motivation is to please God. In Matthew 25:40 Jesus says, “Whatever you did for the least of my brothers, you did for me.”  Pastor Mathew recently preached extensively on this subject.  So we are to do things in this world for our brothers, but those things are really being done for God.

God has given us this command:  “Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21).  So we can conclude if we do not love our brother, then we do not love God.  Love for our brother is a necessary outflow of our love for God.

So we do not go to a poor person who is struggling and say, “Stay warm and well fed.”  No, we bring him food and clothing, and then we help him get a job.  And then we help him get a better job so he can provide for his family and have something to give to those in need.  And in that way,  he is fulfilling the word of God.  So we fulfill the word of God by helping you fulfill the word of God in your life.  We must do this in action in the world.  If we are not living out that love for God, the love for God simply is not in us.

4. We must do so without limit.

The fourth way to put it all on the altar is that we must do so without limit—we must love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all our strength all the time.  We must never say, “I have given up enough for God.”  Did Jesus say that?  Did Jesus say, “I have given enough”?  If He did, we would be doomed.  He gave it all—infinity—on the cross for us.  He suffered it all—infinite wrath on the cross for us.  If He had said, “Far enough,” we would all remain dead in our transgressions and sins.  But He did not do that.  He gave His all for God the Father and for us.

So we must never say, “I have given enough.”  Rev. Perry used to say to the college group that God is not interested in the ninety-nine things you put on the altar; he is interested in the one thing that you held back in your pocket.  Why?  Because that shows where your heart really is—it is with the one thing in your pocket that you will not give up.  That one thing is your idol.

If we are unwilling to part with something at God’s demand, if we are unwilling to put something on the altar for God, if there is something we cannot let go of, that thing is the idol in our life.  That thing has ascended above God in our hierarchy.  And that one thing will destroy us.

Think of the rich young ruler.  He was very zealous for the Sabbath, at least as he tells it.  He would not steal.  He would not commit adultery.  He would not commit murder.  He would not bow down to statues or to foreign gods.  But then Jesus said to him: “One thing you lack”—just one.  “One thing you lack.  Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me” (Luke 18:22).  What happened to that rich young ruler?  He went away sad.  He went away to hell.

You see, he was put to a clear choice—money or Jesus; treasure on earth or treasure in heaven.  He was put to a clear choice and he made a clear choice.  He chose the money and he went to hell.

Contrast him with the poor widow.  She gave her all—all of her little.  She did not have much, but she gave it all.  She chose God over money.  In fact, in context, she probably chose God even over her own survival, her own life.  She chose God over the money and went to glory.  And I ask you this: Who is rich now?  She is.  She is rich in God.

Friends, give to God without limit.  He did it for you.  Give God your all.  He gave you His all.  He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should have eternal life.  If you give your all to God, He will pay you back tenfold.  No, He will pay you back infinity-fold.

And I warn you, if there is any limit to what you will give for God, to what you will do for God, eventually you will come up against that limit.  You will be confronted with a clear choice, just like the rich young ruler.  If there is any limit, you will confront that limit, and you too will go away sad.  Do it without limit.

5. We must do so by faith.

The fifth way to put it all on the altar is that we must do so by faith.  We must do everything by faith, in fact.  As Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “The life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Life in Christ can be tough sometimes.  God may ask a lot of you.  He told Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, your son whom you love, your son Isaac, and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.”  Now, that is a big ask.  This is Isaac.  This is the only son, the son of the promise.  This is the legacy.  This is a big ask, but Abraham did not falter.  He would not keep Isaac off the altar from God.  No, as Hebrews 11:17 says, “By faith, Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice, reasoning that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead.”  It was a big ask.  It was the biggest ask.  It was the biggest demand and request that God could make.

In our own strength, we could not do it.  But how did Abraham do it?  It says in 11:17, “By faith.”  Trust God and let it go, by faith.  God will not disappoint you.  (GTB) He did not disappoint Abraham, and He will not disappoint you either.  Put it all on the altar by faith.

6. We must do so with thanksgiving.

We must put all on the altar with thanksgiving.  We do not give our all, all, all, all to God in order to earn His favor or salvation.  We could never do it.  We do not even give our all, all, all, all to God to repay His free grace.  We could never repay it.  We do so out of thanksgiving.  It is all we can do for God, so we do it all.  Colossians 2:6–7 says, “Continue to live in Him, overflowing with thankfulness.”  That is how we live in Him, overflowing with thankfulness.  Look at Colossians 3:17, which echoes the language of 1 Corinthians 10:31:  “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”  So whatever we do, we are giving thanks to God.  Christ gave us this new life, and all of our new life is a thank offering to God.  We are saying, “Thank you, Lord, because you have done everything for me, and all I can do is thank you, thank you, thank you for my whole life.” 

7. We must do so even when it hurts.

We must put all on the altar even when it hurts.  That is the real test—even when it hurts.  After all, anyone can give up that which is not dear to him, that which is not costly to him, the thing he does not care too much about.  Anyone can let those things go.  But that is not how God gave to us.  God gave us the costliest thing ever given—His own eternal Son with whom He had perfect love and perfect fellowship forever, and He did it for us.

Let us do the same.  Let us give the costliest thing.  Let us hold nothing back.  Let us offer it all to God and put it on the altar.  Whatever that thing is, that prized thing—it could be a possession, it could be a relationship, it could be a feeling, it could be autonomy—whatever that thing is for you, put it on the altar.  It may cost you a lot.  It may hurt in the moment.  It may cost you money.  It may cost you opportunity.  It may cost you your dreams.  It may cost you relationships or position.  All kinds of things it may cost you.  But do it, and God will bless you.  God will bless you abundantly more.  Remember what Jesus told His disciples in Luke 18:30: “No one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come, even eternal life.”

So put it all out there for God.  Your very life, even.  Put that on the altar for God.  Live for Him who died for you.  Give Him your all.  And I promise you that you will come out ahead.  It may seem painful at the moment when you put that thing on the altar.  It may seem painful at the time, but joy—great joy—will come to you later.  In fact, it will probably come to you sooner.  But joy, great joy, will come to you when you are living a life fully dedicated to God.  It is a life of joy. 

8. We must do so by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The eighth and final way to put it all on the altar is by the power of the Holy Spirit.  In our own strength, in our own flesh, we are stingy—stingy towards one another and stingy towards God.  The world, the flesh and the devil tempt us to hold on to the worthless things of this world, tempt us to be stingy towards God.  The devil tempts us to hold on to these worthless things, these temporary things in this world, so that our hands will be too full of trash, too full of refuse, and that we will have to let go of God in order to hold on to these other things.  That is the devil’s trick.

We need the Holy Spirit’s mind and power to put those things on the altar, to let them go, and to cling to God.  We need it.  Even Jesus needed the Holy Spirit for everything He did.  He was born by the Spirit.  He lived by the Spirit.  He obeyed by the Spirit.  He offered Himself as a sacrifice to God on the cross by the Holy Spirit.  He died by the Holy Spirit, and He was raised again and lived by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus needed the Holy Spirit to live this perfect life for God, to live this model life for God.  If Jesus needed the Spirit, how much more do we need the Spirit!

Happily, the Holy Spirit is available to us without measure, or at least it is available to us as much as we can receive.  For the book of Romans tells us that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in every true Christian also (Rom.  8:11).  So let us pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit and then let us do everything for God’s glory, whatever the cost.

Application

Let us close with a few points of application.

1. Examine yourselves.

First, let us examine ourselves and look deeply to see if there is anything we are holding back from God.  Let us look closely—not just doing a cursory examination, and saying there is nothing there.  Let us look deeply within ourselves to see if there is something we are withholding from God.  It can be something simple and obvious.  It can be as simple as tithes and offerings.  God commands that we pay the tithes and offerings.  Ask yourself:  Am I doing that?  Or am I robbing God by giving less than He commands?  If we hold back something as simple as our money from God, we have failed.  We have put money above God.

It could be something like our career.  You may say, “God can tell me everywhere else, but not here—not on my job, not where I go every day, not where my true fulfillment is.  That is off the table.”  If that is true, our job has become an idol, and we must put it on the altar.

It could be our family life.  You may say, “I will follow God, but He must give me a husband.  Or He must give me a wife.  Or He must give me children, or the right kind of children, or so many children.  He must give me that son that I have always wanted, or that daughter that I always desired.”  It could even be in our family relationships.  “I will follow God, but not if He allows my daughter to become wicked and apostate, or not if He allows my son to die as a young person.”  Or, more subtly, I may put that family relationship above God.  I take it off the altar by refusing to treat that apostate friend or family member as I would a pagan or a tax collector, as we are told to do in Matthew 18:17.  So ask yourself:  “Have  I put conditions on God?  Have I put my family or my family relationships above God?  Even those things which are most dear to us, which are good things, which even God endorses.  Have I refused to put those things on the altar, or can I put them up there and say, ‘Though none go with me, still I will follow’?”

It can be even more subtle than family or family relationships.  It can be our feelings.  God says I must forgive that person who sinned against me and repented and asked my forgiveness.  God says that I must forgive that man, but I just cannot.  God’s command is clear.  Forgiven people must forgive.  In fact, we must forgive as God in Christ forgave us (Eph. 4:32).  God’s command is clear, but I just cannot let go of it.  I just cannot get over it.  What I really mean is, I will not get over it.  If we do this kind of thing, we are making our feelings, our emotions, into an idol.  We are putting them above God and refusing to put them on the altar.

So let us examine ourselves closely and let us look deeply into these things.  Is there something I am withholding from God?

2. Be on the lookout for all things.

Second, this self-examination is not a one-time exercise.  Do not say, “I carefully examined myself on September 13, 2020, and I am in the clear, so I am done with that now.”  No, there can be many, many subtle idols in our lives, and they can change or manifest themselves differently over time.  We must examine ourselves and know them.  There are many, many ways we can put parameters around what we are willing to put on the altar for God.

We must carefully examine ourselves and carefully look into those things.  We must identify them and then we must get help to put those things on the altar.  You do not have to do it alone.  You can get help to put those things on the altar and then keep them on the altar.  In this Church we have elders and home group leaders who are there to help us and keep us accountable, if we are transparent with them.  Tell them, “I have a temptation in this area.  Please help me to put it on the altar for God.”  We can tell our spouses—our husbands or our wives.  They live with us every day.  They can see that subtle influence creeping in.  They can help us to put those things on the altar for God and to leave them there on the altar for God.  And we have godly brothers and sisters who can help sharpen us as iron sharpens iron.

So carefully examine yourself.  Get help with those idols.  And if you go through this examination and there is no such thing as this in your life at this time, that is great.  But know your temptations.  We all have those temptations.  And if we look within ourselves, we will know what they are.  Be aware of those things.  Know what things arouse this instinct in you, this stinginess in you, this refusal to put it all on the altar for God.  Know those things and avoid them like the plague.  Do not give the devil a foothold by nurturing those temptations which are stumbling blocks for us.

3. Live for Him who died for you.

The third point of application is that we must live for Him who died for us.  Give everything to Him who gave everything to you.  You hear the active verbs: live, give.  Live for God every day, and purpose to do it every day.  Wake up every day: “I am going to live for God today.”  Read the word of God: “I am going to read the word of God today and I am going to put it into practice today.  I am looking closely at what God is speaking to me in the Bible today, and I am going to purpose to live it out.”  Give Him everything, for He gave everything to you.  It is a good deal.  It is the best deal.

I had some personal experience in this department, and I can tell you, it is worth it.  His way is the best way.  His plan is the best plan.  His plan is to prosper you and not to harm you, and He prospers you.  He prospers you exceedingly abundantly beyond anything you can ask or imagine.  We are not preaching health and wealth here.  I am not saying, “Give it all to God and He will make you rich.”  He may make you rich; He may not make you rich.  But He will prosper you in the ways of God.  He will prosper you with eternal life.  He will prosper you, perhaps not in the way you thought, but in an even better way.  And it will be, as I said, exceeding and abundant.  As our Pastor always reminds us, you cannot outgive God.  He will give you a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.  He will throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.  That is not just me speaking, although I can speak it from experience; that is what God promised in Luke 6:38 and in Malachi 3:10.  He is going to prosper you eternally.  As Romans 10:11 reminds us, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.”

So I have told you what the Bible says, and I have told you what my own experience is.  But just look at your own life.  Take some time.  Count your blessings, and you will see.  Did you ever think you would have such a life?  Did you ever think you would experience all the things you have experienced in Christ?  Did you ever think you would have all of this—life, church, home, family, salvation, revival, every material need met, every spiritual need met?  The truth is, we live a rare life that most of mankind would only dream about.  In fact, most of mankind would never even dare to dream it.  And there is more.

Above all of this, we are destined for eternal glory.  We are going to heaven!  We are going to be with God.  We are going to worship Him face to face.  We will be out of the presence and out of the influence of sin.  We will be able to fulfill our purpose of enjoying God forever and of glorifying Him.  That is what we have to look forward to.

In view of this, there can be no limit.  There is never enough that we can do for God, never enough that we can give to God.  We can never sing His praises enough.  We can never extol His name enough.  We can never glorify God enough.

But I want to warn you that, if there is some other thing, something you will trade for God, something you will not give to God, something you will not do for God, something you will not put on the altar for God—there will never be enough of that.  It will never satisfy you.  It is an illusion.  It is a trick of the devil, meant to destroy you and take you away from God.  It will never be enough to satisfy.  Just look at Solomon.  A thousand wives and concubines.  Worldwide fame and adoration.  Billions and billions in gold.  It never made him happy.  It never helped him.  Like the rich young ruler, he was always seeking more, and it was never enough.  Like the rich young ruler, Solomon too went away sad, and likely was damned.  We are never told that he repented of his idolatry.

No, that other thing that you think will bring you happiness will never satisfy.  As Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in God.”  The devil tells us that other things can give us rest:  “Keep chasing it.  Keep finding it.  Go get it.”  But when you get it, if you get it, it will never satisfy.  It will never give you rest.  It will never give you fulfillment.  Why?  Because our purpose is God.  Our purpose is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.  That is what is going to give us rest.  That is what is going to make us happy.  That is what is going to give us fulfillment.  Anything else will always come up short.

Reject the deceitfulness of the devil.  Reject the deceitfulness of the riches.  Of the false promise of satisfaction in some other thing.  Reject it; it is a lie.  Reject it.  Instead, believe God’s word and believe God’s promises.  Trust in Him.  Put all that other stuff on the altar for God.  Seek first His kingdom and all these other things will be added to you, to the extent they are good for you.

Friends, this is the path.  It is the only path to true happiness—life with God, life with God’s people forever, life in the will of God.  It is the only path to happiness, and it is worth it.  It is glorious, and it is available today.  Take hold of it and let go of everything else.  Take hold of it and gain it all—righteousness, peace, and joy in God forever.  Amen.