C3 Weekly
Growing Together Beyond SundayA weekly guide to help you take Sunday’s message into your everyday life.
Eternal impact | WEEK 1
money myths
📅 October 18, 2026 | ⏱ 5 min read
In this opening message of the Eternal Impact series, Pastor Adrian walks through Matthew 6 to expose common myths about money and how those myths can hold our hearts captive. Jesus taught about wealth and stewardship more than almost any other topic – and for good reason. The connection between our treasure and our hearts is stronger than most of us want to admit. This guide will help you wrestle honestly with what Jesus said and what it means for daily life.
THIS WEEK'S DEVOTIONALS
THIS WEEK'S BIG IDEA
Where we place our treasure shapes our heart, so we choose to trust and serve God—not money.
SUNDAY'S MESSAGE
This week, Pastor Adrian began our Eternal Impact series by looking at Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6 about treasure, anxiety, and the pull money can have on our hearts. Jesus shows us that money is not just a neutral object—it can become a rival master—so we are invited to trust God as our provider, practice generosity, and seek His Kingdom first.
DIGGING DEEPER
When Money Becomes a Master: Breaking Free from the Grip of Mammon
There is a question most of us would rather not sit with too long: who or what actually sits on the throne of your heart? We talk about faith. We talk about trusting God. But when the bank account dips low, when an unexpected bill arrives, when the numbers on the screen start moving in the wrong direction, the answer to that question becomes a lot clearer than we might like.
Jesus knew this. And that is precisely why he talked about money more than almost any other subject.
The Connection We Rarely Admit
In Matthew 6, Jesus draws a line between treasure and heart that is impossible to ignore. He does not say that wherever your heart is, your treasure will follow. He says it the other way around. Treasure first, heart second. Where you put your money, your attention, your concern, your energy will follow. It is not a moral lecture. It is simply how we are wired.
Think about the difference between being an employee at a company and being a shareholder. An employee cares about the next paycheck. A shareholder starts checking the news, watching the numbers, picking things up off the floor because they have skin in the game. The moment you invest in something, your heart follows. Jesus is pointing to this as a spiritual reality. Your financial decisions reveal, and actually shape, the orientation of your soul.
This is why he urges his listeners to store treasure in heaven rather than on earth. Not because earthly life does not matter, but because what you invest in determines what you care about. And what you care about determines the direction of your life.
A Word That Changes Everything
Jesus uses an Aramaic word in this passage that most Bible translations leave untranslated: mammon. This was not an accident. By keeping it in its original form, Jesus was personalizing it, giving it weight, treating it not as a neutral object but as a rival deity. Mammon is not just money. It is money with an agenda. It competes for the throne of your heart.
The word mammon shares a root with the Hebrew and Aramaic words for faith, trust, and certainty. The same root that gives us the word amen. To trust in mammon is to place your amen, your ultimate confidence, in a bank balance. And Jesus says plainly that no one can serve two masters. You will love one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon simultaneously.
This is not about whether you have a lot of money or a little. The love of money does not follow economic brackets. It shows up in the person who hoards out of poverty and in the person who clings out of wealth. It is a posture of the heart, not a reflection of a net worth.
Five Warning Signs Worth Examining
How do you know if mammon has gained a foothold? There are five honest indicators worth sitting with.
First, your financial decisions are driven by fear. There is a persistent anxiety about money that does not go away even when the account looks healthy.
Second, you believe more money will fix your life. There is always a number just out of reach that feels like the threshold to peace and happiness. But the threshold keeps moving.
Third, you delay obedience based on circumstances. You know what generosity looks like, but there is always a reason to start later. Once the mortgage is paid. Once the kids are through school. Once things settle down.
Fourth, you withhold generosity. Small moments of giving feel threatening rather than freeing. The grip tightens around even minor opportunities to release.
Fifth, you resist biblical teaching about money. Not wrestle with it, but resist it. There is a difference between wrestling honestly with a hard truth and shutting the door entirely because the teaching touches something too sensitive.
If any of these resonate, that sensitivity itself is worth paying attention to. Strongholds tend to announce themselves by how fiercely we protect them.
The Anxiety Connection
Jesus does not stop at identifying the problem. He traces it directly to anxiety. After addressing mammon, he moves immediately into worry, asking his listeners why they are consumed with questions about food, clothing, and provision. He points to birds and wildflowers as evidence that the Father who sustains creation without their effort will certainly sustain those made in his image.
The point is not that planning and working are faithless. The point is that anxiety-driven living reveals where your ultimate trust actually lives. When worry dominates, it is a signal that mammon, not God, is functioning as your security system.
There is a version of faith that looks devout on Sunday and thinks like practical atheism the rest of the week. Jesus calls his followers to something more integrated than that. To actually live as though the Father knows what they need. To seek the kingdom first and trust that provision follows.
How to Loosen the Grip
The path forward is not guilt. It is practice. Small, intentional acts of generosity begin to loosen the hold that money has on the heart. Tip extravagantly. Buy a stranger a cup of coffee. Give before you pay anything else, not because the amount is what matters, but because the act declares something. It declares that mammon does not own you.
The ancient practice of tithing, of giving the first portion of any increase back to God, is not a transaction. It is a posture. It is a way of saying, before anything else gets a claim on this, I am acknowledging who the real source is. It reorders the heart one act of trust at a time.
Every time you give, you are casting a vote for who sits on the throne of your life. You are saying, in effect: I do not want the money I hold to have a hold on me.
There is only room for one master. Choose wisely. And then put your money where your faith is.
LIVE IT OUT
Read Matthew 6:19–34 this week and ask God to show you where your heart is finding security.
Practice one small act of generosity—tip generously, buy someone coffee, give to a need, or bless someone without expecting anything back.
Pray before making a financial decision and ask, “Am I being led by fear, or am I trusting God as my provider?”
FAMILY CONVERSATION
Preschool Question:
Who takes care of the birds, flowers, and us?
Elementary Question:
Why do you think Jesus tells us not to worry about what we need?
Older Student/Teen Question:
What are some ways money, stuff, or future plans can start to compete with our trust in God?
Encouragement for Parents:
Your kids are learning trust and generosity by watching you. You don’t have to model perfection—just keep pointing them to God as the One who provides.
Family Challenge:
As a family, choose one simple way to be generous this week and do it together.
THIS WEEK'S PRAYER
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