Utah's Hope

Our country has the strongest economy in the world. Is it the happiest country? No. It didn’t even make the top 10. It didn’t make the top 20! Money is not the key to happiness. So...what is? Well, Pastor Greg Laurie addresses that pressing question today on A NEW BEGINNING. The Bible isn’t silent on the subject . . . in fact, Jesus Himself addressed the issue in a memorable way. If happiness seems to be in short supply these days, you’ve tuned in for the right study.

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Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

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What if financial success isn’t the destination, but simply the foundation for something greater?

We spend a great deal of time thinking about how to earn, save, invest, and manage money wisely. Those things matter. Faithful stewardship requires care and wisdom with what God has entrusted to us.

But what happens when you’ve done many of those things well and still find yourself wondering, Is there something more?

Scott Highmark, President and Co-Founder of Mosaic Wealth, a Certified Kingdom Advisor®, and author of The Significance Pyramid: Climb Beyond Success to Find Lasting Significance, believes there is.

His “Significance Pyramid” offers a framework for moving beyond financial success toward a life increasingly shaped by purpose, generosity, service, and ultimately surrender to Christ.

Our culture often encourages us to keep moving “up and to the right”—more income, more achievement, more possessions, more recognition.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with achievement. The problem comes when we expect it to satisfy desires it was never designed to fulfill.

Highmark points out that even people who reach the top of their professions often discover that the fulfillment they expected doesn’t last. Accomplishment may bring genuine satisfaction for a season, but our appetites continually reach for something more.

Ultimately, the human heart's deepest longing cannot be satisfied by another financial milestone or professional achievement. We were created for God Himself.

That conviction is at the heart of the Significance Pyramid. Every life points somewhere. The question is whether ours ultimately points toward ourselves or toward something greater.

The pyramid's first level is stewardship.

Stewardship involves wisely managing all God has entrusted to us—not simply our money, but our time, abilities, opportunities, and relationships.

Financially, that means understanding what we have, knowing where it is going, and learning to live within our means. Practices such as budgeting can sometimes feel restrictive, but healthy financial boundaries can actually create freedom. When our finances are in order, we can spend and give more intentionally instead of constantly reacting to financial pressure.

But stewardship is only the foundation. Once money consumes less of our attention, we can begin asking deeper questions about what our resources are actually for.

As Highmark puts it, money can help fund our purpose, but it cannot help us find our purpose.

The second level is symmetry, or alignment.

Most of us can quickly name what matters most to us: faith, family, marriage, generosity, service, relationships. But would someone looking at our calendars and financial statements reach the same conclusion?

Symmetry means aligning the way we actually live with the things we say we value.

James 1 describes a person who looks at himself in a mirror, walks away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. In a similar way, we can profess certain priorities while organizing our lives around completely different ones.

Highmark tells the story of a successful executive who traveled more than 150 days a year. His children were nearin

This was not the plan. Not the diagnosis, not the heartbreak, not the prayer apparently sitting in God’s inbox. So what does trusting God in suffering actually look like? Grammy-winning artist Laura Story, author of Stand in Awe, joins FamilyLife Today guest host Cheryl Shumake to talk honestly about unwanted stories, unanswered prayers, and believing God is good when you’d really prefer some supporting evidence.

Show Notes and Resources

• Laura Story’s book, Stand in Awe: How Reverence Transforms Our Worship and Our Lives.

• Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at CSBible.com.
• Follow us on all social platforms: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
• Find resources from our podcast at shop.familylife.com.
• Download FamilyLife's app!
• Help others find FamilyLife. Leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
• Check out all the FamilyLife's podcasts on the FamilyLife Podcast Network

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Learn how the body of Christ benefits from those with the gift of service.

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Does investing have to be complicated to be effective? Some investors prefer active strategies, while others want to simply track the market. But what if the best approach is something else? On the next Faith & Finance Live, Mark Biller joins Rob West to explain Sound Mind Investing’s “Just-the-Basics” indexing strategy. Discover why simplicity, diversification, and a little flexibility matter. Then, it’s on to calls. That’s Faith & Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. That’s weekdays at 4pm Eastern/3pm Central on Moody Radio.

Faith & Finance Live is a listener supported program on Moody Radio. To join our team of supporters, click here.

To support the ministry of FaithFi, click here.

To learn more about Rob West, click here.

To learn more about Faith & Finance Live, click here.

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Topics: 

Not My Department, Breaking Animal News, Shock Jock, What Are We Looking For?, White After Labor Day, Robot Races, Hot Take, Quiet Study/Solitude, A Challenge From The T-Wolves, History Segment, Psalm 131, Neighbor Study


BONUS CONTENT: YouTube Bible Study Recap, FOLLOWERSHIP Conference!

Quotes:

"They're big boned parrots."

"You'll find whatever you're looking for in this world."

"Going back to Jesus with everything I need is the way to health."

"Let me get centered."

"Very few things in our culture will remind you that God can be trusted."

"Not every alarm bell needs attended to."
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Prerequisites. Students certainly know what those are. Those are things that have to come before other things. Before you can take English 201, you have to take English 101. Well today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us explore any prerequisites in making a genuine commitment to Jesus Christ. If heaven hangs in the balance, we want to make sure our hearts and minds are sincere in fully accepting the Lord’s invitation. Today’s message serves as the finale to our studies in Acts.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your Bible’s under yesterday’s mail. Your coffee’s cold. Your thumb somehow opened Instagram again. How do you grow closer to God when your attention is being mugged by notifications, deadlines, kids, and plain old exhaustion? Grammy-winning artist Laura Story, author of Stand in Awe, joins FamilyLife Today guest host Cheryl Shumake to chat about moving beyond a shallow faith—and building one sturdy enough for ordinary Tuesdays when life hits hard and tries to elbow God out of the way.

Show Notes and Resources

• Laura Story’s book, Stand in Awe: How Reverence Transforms Our Worship and Our Lives.

• Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at CSBible.com.
• Follow us on all social platforms: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
• Find resources from our podcast at shop.familylife.com.
• Download FamilyLife's app!
• Help others find FamilyLife. Leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
• Check out all the FamilyLife's podcasts on the FamilyLife Podcast Network

See cru.org/us/en/about/privacy FamilyLife’s Privacy Policy