We're here in Matthew 6. This is the fourth sermon for Matthew 6. We'll be finishing Matthew 6 here today.
The name of the sermon is God or Mammon. God or Mammon. The Bible gives us a comparison.
We're going to see here in Matthew 6 of God and Mammon or God and money.
It's kind of an interesting comparison because you would probably think like God and the devil, right?
Or something different than God and money, but we're going to see why it makes this comparison.
Matthew 6 says here in verse 19, it says,
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through in steel.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
He's going to make this comparison between treasures upon earth and treasures in heaven.
Things that you would accumulate here on earth versus getting heavenly rewards.
Now, he mentions moth and rust. So we're going to go back to science class here a little bit and explain moths and rust a little bit.
Because if you're like me, I didn't really pay that much attention in science class.
But now as you read the Bible, there's all these interesting things that you want to learn.
But let me just give you this comparison between moths and butterflies.
Because both moths and butterflies, they start from caterpillars.
And if you're actually looking at a caterpillar, unless you're an expert, according to what I read online,
you cannot tell if it's going to turn into a butterfly or a moth unless you really know caterpillars very well.
But they both start with caterpillars. But there's kind of a big difference between moths and butterflies.
Because when I think of the butterfly, I think of one of the most beautiful and amazing creatures that God made.
Especially in the U.S. because during the wintertime, it's just like the dead of winter, there's snow on the ground where I come from.
And then your spring weather, you see these beautiful butterflies. Maybe they have blue streaks in them or red.
I mean, such an amazing creature. And then you've got the moth. Right? The moth is a pest.
The moth is annoying. And then you kill it and it just kind of leaves that trail of its body like all over. Right?
I mean, even like where I come from in West Virginia, there's like this horror movie, The Mothman Prophecies.
Because they believe it's kind of like their version of the Aswang where there's like this gigantic mothman that comes up and terrorizes people at night and everything.
You wouldn't do that about like a butterfly because it's a very beautiful creature. Right?
But here's the comparison it says from this article.
Many people may confuse moths for butterflies and vice versa.
And they belong to the same animal order, Lepidoptera.
Both go through a growth process known as metamorphosis to transition from larva to adult.
There are around 160,000 species of moths all over the world compared with 17,500 species of butterflies.
People associate moths with fabrics and textiles as moths typically eat these, but not all of them do.
Fabric moths or clothes moths like to eat fabrics made from wool and cotton.
Many adult moths eat nectar from flowers, rotting fruits, and plant sap.
Some moths, such as those that invade pantries, will eat pantry foods such as grains and cereals.
So depending on what type of moth it is, it might destroy your clothes or it might go after your food. Right?
Now here's what he's saying. Laying up treasures upon earth versus laying up treasures upon heaven.
Here's the thing. If you don't have many possessions, you know what you're also not going to have?
You're not going to have moths. You know why?
Because you actually pay attention to the clothes that you have.
They don't start wearing away without you being, you know, noticing it.
I mean you don't have all this leftover food.
I mean I remember in college I went over to my friend's house and in their freezer there was like chicken that was like one year overdue.
And it's like, I don't know how they managed to do that, but it's just kind of like if you have an abundance of things,
you have lots of clothes, you have lots of food, you just kind of don't notice stuff.
It's like, wait a minute. Right? See right? Nah. Right? It's already bad. It's already spoiled. Right?
So one of the things he's mentioning here is, you know, hey, if you're laying up treasures upon earth,
you have all this abundance of things, you know what you're also going to have?
You're also going to have problems. You're also going to have your clothes wear out.
You're also going to have, you know, your food go bad. That's just the way it is.
He also mentions rust. It says here from this article,
given sufficient time, any iron mass in the presence of water and oxygen could eventually convert entirely to rust.
Surface rust is commonly flaky and friable and provides no passivational protection to the underlying iron.
Unlike the formation of patina on copper surfaces.
Rusting is the common term for corrosion of elemental iron in its alloys, such as steel.
Many other metals undergo similar corrosion, but the resulting oxides are not commonly called rust.
And look, you know, you can think of like a bike or you think of metal weights or something,
and then eventually they just start to gather rust.
And, you know, especially if you have an abundance of possessions, you don't really notice it,
and then, you know, water will be on them, moisture, they start to go bad, they start to get rusty.
You know, being in the U.S., especially being in college, you kind of move around a lot,
like a different apartment every year, and it's like at the end of the year,
I'm always amazed at all the junk that I have, that I can't wait to get rid of.
And I think to myself, never again. I'm going to be a hardcore minimalist.
I'm not doing this again. All these possessions.
One thing you learn in life is that the possessions you own end up owning you.
That's the way it works.
I mean, part of me thinks, man, it would be nice to have like a gigantic house
with like eight bedrooms and four baths and having a weight room, a playroom, and all of these things.
And it sounds good in theory, except you've got maintenance that you have to do and all that stuff.
I mean, in theory, I would love to have, I mean, I like to read,
so I would love to have bookshelves with like a multitude of books.
And in theory, it sounds great.
But generally, I just stick to the PDF for free that I can find online.
Because it's a lot easier.
Because you have all of these possessions, and they just gather,
and then you kind of get to a point sometimes, you're like,
I don't really want to throw this away yet, but part of me is like, maybe I should throw it away now.
Right?
I'm just saying that the possessions you own in life, they end up owning you.
Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to have possessions,
but the reality is having fewer things can often make you a lot happier.
And certainly laying up treasures in heaven is going to make you a lot happier
than laying up treasures here on earth and not laying up treasures in heaven.
Go in your Bible to Luke chapter 12.
Luke 12.
Luke chapter 12.
I mean, there's a lot of things that it seems like it would be really cool to have,
but if you're only going to use it a couple times a year,
it's kind of like, actually, it's probably not worth having around.
It's just going to take up space.
It's just going to be in the way.
One of the common examples, I know in the U.S. a lot of people,
they'll get really excited with New Year's resolution by various exercise equipment,
and usually it just collects dust.
Usually they do nothing with it.
But of course, if you spend money on it, you don't want to sell it
because it's like, wait a minute, I spent hundreds of dollars,
but it's really just taking up space in your house.
Right?
And oftentimes in life, there's actually a lot of benefits of having fewer things.
And look, I'm not a hardcore minimalist.
Honestly, I don't really have an opinion on it,
but I'm just saying that, you know what, if you have too many possessions,
it can kind of end up making your life a hassle
rather than having those possessions being a blessing to you.
Luke chapter 12, verse number 13.
And one of the companies said unto a master,
Speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me.
And he said unto a man, Who made me a judge or divider over you?
Now this man says to Jesus, he's like, hey, tell my brother
to basically divide or split up the inheritance.
Now, we don't really know about the situation.
I mean, maybe let's say the father had a million pesos
and he decides I'm going to give the one son 800,000
and the other 200,000, and then the one that gets less is upset about it
or maybe got nothing, you know, or whatever.
And, you know, of course, part of you is going to want a 50-50 split
if you get less.
And of course, I get that.
But at the same time, it's like there's kind of different situations
in life, and honestly, the parents can do whatever they want with the money.
They might decide that, you know what, someone deserves more
than somebody else.
Let's say, for example, a family has like a family business
and one of the children really invested a lot of time and energy
into that business.
Well, you could certainly see the argument that they deserve
a higher percentage of the share of it since they invested
so much time into it.
But of course, you could see the other side where it's like
it should be 50-50.
But here's the thing.
Regardless of this specific situation or the specific situation
any of us could be in, it's kind of like
it has nothing to do with me.
Jesus is like, I've got bigger fish to fry.
I've got more important things to worry about
than the inheritance that you're getting.
It could be this guy is right and he's being wronged
and it's not fair, but it's kind of like
that wasn't the purpose of Jesus to be here
to basically just make sure everybody gets a fair shake in life.
Because here's the reality.
You don't get a fair shake in life.
It's just not the way it works.
Everybody doesn't just get an equal amount
of everything in the exact same situation.
You have different situations in life
and you just take what you have
and do the best that you got with it.
But notice this in verse 15.
And he said unto them...
So this is not a response merely to that one person.
He said unto them, not unto him.
Right? On to the plural.
He said unto them,
Take heed and beware of covetousness,
for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth.
And he spake a parable unto them, saying,
The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do?
Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits.
And he said, This is what I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater,
and there I will bestow all my fruits and my goods.
So he's given this parable,
but this is a parable that many people
have gone through in their lives.
I mean, I would say that the love of money,
chasing after money,
is probably what most people do in life.
And this man says, I just have too much stuff.
What am I going to do?
Sounds like a good problem to have.
Right? How about just sell stuff,
give to the poor, give to church, whatever.
I mean, you have many options of what you can do.
What this guy says is, in verse number 17,
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do?
Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits.
And he said, This is what I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater,
and there I will bestow all my fruits and my goods.
So he says, I'm going to put in a lot of work and an effort
and just make sure I keep everything that I have,
everything that I've been given.
And I will say to my soul,
Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.
Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
So basically, I'm just going to save up a lot of money
and just sit back and enjoy the fruit of my labor.
You know what this is very similar to?
It's very similar to when people reach retirement.
And especially in the U.S., this is very common
because of the fact in the U.S.,
you generally get a pension if you work for a company.
So I'm not going to get super technical,
but at my old company I worked for,
I worked directly with pensions in retirement.
And you have defined benefit pension,
and you have an annuity where basically every month,
you get a certain percentage of your salary
based on how many years you worked,
what was the formula for the company you were with.
And so let's say, for example,
you work for 30 years.
The formula could be you get 3% of your income
times by the number of years worked,
so 3% times 30, 90%.
So basically in retirement,
you get 90% of what you got while you were working.
And so it could be less.
It doesn't really get more
because 100% is going to be the cap of it, basically.
But depending on what it is,
basically people are saving up money,
and they're working, and they're saying,
I cannot wait until I can just sit back
and relax and enjoy life.
And you know what they do when they retire usually?
They sit around and watch TV for eight hours a day.
They sit around and it's like, man, I've worked so hard,
now I want to just sit back, kick my feet up,
and just eat potato chips and relax.
And you know what you see when people retire often?
They end up getting very depressed
because they thought, man, work is so miserable,
life is so hard, if I can just make it to retirement,
I can be happy, no problems, no issues.
And they reached that point and they realized
they didn't get as much happiness as they expected.
And I'm not against people retiring.
I mean, if you're able to save up money
and God has blessed you in that way,
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it,
but just some advice,
don't just sit around and do nothing for hours every day.
It's going to lead you to depression.
It's not going to make you happy.
And it's also going to lead you into living a life of sin,
having too much free time, nothing to do,
you're going to get worldly, you're going to get backslidden.
Now, I would say that if you're really involved in a church,
I mean, honestly, and someone reached an age of retirement,
they could really dive into church and volunteer and do a lot,
and very much keep themselves busy.
But what most people do when they reach retirement
is they just kind of sit back and just kind of do nothing.
And guess what?
That does not make you happy, right?
This is what this person is basically saying,
and it says here in verse number 20,
But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee,
then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself
and is not rich toward God.
The problem is not that this man has collected things on earth,
the problem is he has an improper balance.
His whole life is about what to gather on earth,
and then all of a sudden he dies,
and it's kind of like you wasted all your life,
you've got all of these treasures,
and you don't get to keep it.
This is not the ancient Egyptian religion
where if you get buried with it, it comes to you to the afterlife.
I get buried with gold, I'm going to have gold in the afterlife.
It doesn't work that way.
You gather up a bunch of stuff on earth,
and guess what?
It's going to perish.
It's going to be done.
It's going to be a waste of your life.
But if you gather up heavenly rewards,
it doesn't gather moth.
It doesn't gather rust.
It doesn't get old.
It is there forever.
Verse number 22,
And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you,
Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat,
neither for the body what ye shall put on.
The life is more than meat,
and the body is more than raiment.
So you can see that this is basically parallel
to what we read in Matthew chapter 6,
and he uses this parable to say,
Hey, don't just live your entire life
for the things of this earth,
and then you pass away one day,
and it's kind of like I have nothing,
no heavenly rewards.
Go in your Bible to Psalm chapter 16.
Psalm 16.
Psalm chapter 16.
Now look, I don't want you to get the wrong perspective either, though,
because sometimes you preach sermons,
and you can preach specifically in one way,
and people can kind of go too far,
you know, that direction.
We need to have a proper balance on stuff.
I don't sit here and say,
Well, you know what?
The rapture is going to come in your lifetime,
so don't prepare.
Just, you know, live by faith,
give all the money to the church,
eat, drink, and be married,
because we're going to be done.
You know, I don't live my life that way.
I live with the expectation
that Christ will not return in my life,
and I'm not saying He's not going to,
but I'm not going to live my life and just say,
It's definitely less than 10 years,
so I'm just going to, like, not prepare for my future.
I don't think that's the right balance either,
because the Bible does say,
You don't have to turn there,
but it says,
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children.
And so the thing is,
one thing as a parent,
specifically as a father,
you should really look toward and say,
Hey, you know what?
I want to put my kids in a good situation in life.
I want to put them,
and obviously there's things more important than money,
but one thing that I do think in my head is,
I want my kids to be in a good situation financially.
And that is something that we should strive for,
is to be, you know,
financially doing pretty decent, working hard.
Obviously we're not here gathering just treasures on earth,
but at the same time,
you can't just say,
Well, you know what?
I'm just going to be like one of the apostles and quit my job
and just roam the earth.
No, I mean, obviously you've got to work hard
and provide here on earth.
But here's what I will say as a parent,
and this is the way that I look at it.
Let me just read you this verse quickly,
and I'll show you what I'm saying.
Psalm 16, verse 5,
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance,
and of my cup.
Thou maintainest my lot.
The lines are fallen onto me in pleasant places.
Yea, I have a goodly heritage.
You know, the most important thing
that we as parents should be striving to do
to teach our kids
is that they have a godly heritage passed on.
That when they grow up, they can say,
You know what?
My parents, they weren't perfect,
but you know what?
They taught me the word of God.
They got me saved.
They taught me how to go soul winning.
They taught me, you know,
the need to read the Bible every day
and to pray and not to be worldly
and to be a hard worker.
And I can look at my kids and say,
Hey, if in 20 years, somebody says,
Hey, you know, pastor,
this is what your kids are going to be like in 20 years.
They're going to be struggling financially.
You know, a lot of the things in life are just,
you know, they're not going to be doing well financially
or their jobs or whatever,
but they're going to be the godliest people
that you can imagine.
I'd be like, praise God.
I mean, if you tell me,
Hey, my son in 20 years
is going to have 100 chapters of the Bible memorized
and go soul winning several times a week
and read the Bible 45 minutes a day
and be a hard worker and godly and respectful,
I'd say, praise God.
Now, of course, what I would like for my kids,
I want my kids to grow up
and be successful in a lot of areas.
I want them to be intelligent.
I want them to have good careers,
doing well financially, all of those things.
But far more important than any of that
is that they have a goodly heritage.
They have a godly heritage
that they realize life is not about
just the abundance of things we get in this life,
but life is about serving God.
And I encourage every parent,
I mean, ask your kids questions like this.
You know what?
Like, what is, you know, the goal of life?
What should you be striving to do?
And of course, you know, if they're saved,
they can understand, get saved.
It's like, well, what else?
I mean, I asked my son this specifically yesterday.
And it's like, teach them, hey, you know what?
It's about serving God.
It's about getting other people saved
and serving God and obeying God's commandments.
This is what we should be striving to pass on to our kids.
So what I would say to all the parents in this room is
that even if you fail in some areas,
which all of us are going to do as parents,
if you pass on a goodly heritage,
in my opinion, you've done a good job.
Turn to your Bible to Matthew, chapter 6.
Matthew, chapter 6.
And look, as Christians, we need to get this in our heads
that we're going to live our lives differently
than the way the world lives our lives.
How does the world live their lives?
Life is all about money, money, money.
I remember before I was saved when I was in college,
because you start to get to college,
you start to contemplate things that have some meaning,
or at least I hope people do.
I mean, I did.
Rather than just thinking of video games and TV shows,
you start to get older,
and you're kind of wondering, like, what am I doing?
And I remember I was not saved,
and I was thinking in my head, what's the meaning of life?
I was just thinking to myself,
because I was majoring in engineering,
I just thought, so I'm going to graduate?
You know, I had a desire to get married
and have a family one day,
but I was like, I'm going to graduate,
and I'm going to have this career,
and I'm going to go to work.
Is that what life is all about?
And I just felt this massive thing missing,
and I didn't know what it was.
I couldn't figure it out.
And I remember right after I got saved,
immediately I was like, I figured it out.
I mean, immediately it's just like, I get it.
I understand the purpose to life.
Now, I mean, there's this big void,
and I didn't understand it.
I was like, I don't know what it is.
Why is it I feel like there's this emptiness?
And then when I got saved, I realized my goal,
what I'm here to do,
is get other people to go to heaven also.
Now, I didn't know what that meant at the time.
I didn't understand soul winning or what to say.
I didn't know anything about the Bible.
But I realized, you know what?
My life is not about me.
My life is about God.
It dawned on me immediately.
I was like, I get it now.
I understand what the purpose and the meaning to life is.
And what I would say to all of us is,
hey, let's get back to what the real meaning of life is,
because that's probably how you felt when you got saved.
But sometimes life kind of just gets in the way, doesn't it?
And all of a sudden, the things that you know,
the things that you realize,
they just kind of get faded out
because we get so focused on things of this life
that mean nothing for all eternity.
Matthew chapter 6, verse 21.
Matthew 6, verse 21.
And by the way, I didn't really expound upon it
in the verses I read in the Psalms,
but it said,
the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.
So when you think of an inheritance,
you usually think of a financial inheritance.
What he's trying to say there is like,
more important than a financial inheritance
is a godly inheritance that is passed down
from parents to their kids.
Matthew 6, verse 21.
Now, there's a couple of things
that you can think about with this verse, verse 21.
Number one, where you spend your money
is actually a proof of where your heart is.
The things that you care about, you spend money on.
When you were growing up, if you had a certain hobby,
you spent money on it.
You bought things that you found interesting.
Whatever your hobby was, you'd spend money on it.
You don't buy things that you have no interest in.
So it really kind of reveals where your heart is.
But what it also does
is it determines where your heart's going to be.
What I mean by that is,
if you're spending a bunch of money on something,
your heart is going to stay in that direction.
For example, let's say that
you worked really hard to save up money.
Let's say you're a teen in this room
and you say to your parents,
hey, all my other classmates have an iPhone.
I want an iPhone too.
And your parents are wise and they say no.
Get a job and pay for it yourself.
And then all of a sudden you get a job
and all of a sudden you're working.
You start to realize the value of a dollar, don't you?
We all had to learn that the hard way.
Where our parents are not just,
I mean, look, you know, I love my kids.
My kids are great, but they ask for things sometimes.
I'm like, no.
And I say it in a joking way,
but I was like, no, get a job, right?
Now obviously they're very young,
so I'm not going to expect that,
but it's kind of like, no.
It's like money doesn't grow on trees, right?
But here's the thing.
You work and work and work,
and let's say you save up for six months
and you get a cell phone
and you don't buy protection for your phone
and then you accidentally break it
right after you buy it.
You're going to be devastated.
You say, why?
Because you spent six months to save up money.
Let's say, for example,
your parents just give you one
and then it breaks.
You're not really devastated.
You're just like,
Mom, can I have another one?
That's the way people are.
Because where you're investing your heart
and your time and your energy into,
that's what you care about.
And so here's the thing.
When you invest your heart and your energy
into the things of God,
you know what's going to take place?
You're going to start to really desire those things
more and more and more
as you invest all your energy
and your time into it.
Verse number 22.
The light of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light.
Now in the Bible,
when it mentions the word eye,
obviously we're looking directly at a literal eye,
but it also symbolizes
what you allow into your system.
So the Bible speaks about, you know,
the things you see and the things you hear.
So basically when it's saying,
you know, what's your eye,
thine eye be single,
it's saying what you're allowing into your system,
whether it be through your eyes,
what you watch,
what you listen to,
anything that comes into your system.
And the Bible's saying this,
that if you're focused on the right thing,
your whole body is going to be full of light.
But it says,
the light of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil,
thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness.
So it's a question of,
what are you looking upon?
What are you listening to?
What are you letting enter into your system?
Because if you watch movies for hours every day
and watch every TV show under the sun
and just listen to all the world's music
and pay attention to everything the world has to offer,
you know what you're going to care about?
You're going to care about the things of the world.
Because what you let enter into your eyes
is going to affect the entire body.
That's just the way that it is.
On the contrary,
let's say you wake up every day
and you read the Word of God.
And you memorize the Bible.
And the things you're listening to
is Godly preaching
or Alexander Scorby reading the King James Bible.
You know what's going to take place?
Your whole body is going to be full of light.
I mean, sometimes you hear sermons
and you hear something and you know it's true.
But it's hard to actually do.
I mean, it's a battle.
You're like, man, the same thing
that I keep messing up on.
I keep doing it over and over and over again.
And what you're trying to do
is get the willpower and strength to give it up.
And of course, that's part of the battle.
But really, here's the answer.
If you would just spend your time
looking upon this book,
spend time with God,
and let the things that enter into your system
be Godly things, you know what?
You wouldn't have to work that hard
to get rid of it.
I mean, I remember when I first got saved
and then I started to feel guilty
about a lot of the music and movies
that I listened to and I watched.
But I wasn't ready to give it up at the time.
And I remember I just started reading the Bible.
I started memorizing the Bible.
I started listening to sermons.
And you know what takes place
when you're listening to sermons?
As I've said before, it's basically
a spiritual surgery.
It's the sword that hits to your heart
like nothing else,
and then it kept hitting me,
and I was like, you know what?
I'm throwing away all my movies.
I'm getting rid of all my music.
Because there are things that I still struggle with
in 2024, obviously, like all of us do.
But I don't struggle with listening
to the wrong music.
And I did when I got saved.
I was trying to get rid of it.
You say, what's the secret?
Well, the secret is the more you spend time
in God's Word, all of a sudden
the things of earth, they just kind of
grow strangely dim.
You just don't care about them anymore.
You just don't have the same interest anymore.
And what I'm saying is
the big answer to overcoming these sins,
these besetting sins in your life,
is spend more time in God's book.
Spend more time listening to godly preaching.
When you memorize the Bible, what you're going to find
when you memorize the Bible,
thy word of thy hidden mind heart,
that I might not sin against thee.
It's going to help you not sin against God.
It's going to help you actually think about
the things of God rather than the things of this earth.
Turn in your Bible to Ecclesiastes chapter 2.
Ecclesiastes 2.
Ecclesiastes chapter 2.
It's interesting, as I've been reading
a lot of books from atheists recently
for a sermon series,
and one thing that
I found interesting
as I was reading is how
all of these atheists
praise Buddhism.
They bash every religion under the sun,
but then they're like,
Buddhism has a lot of good things to it.
And what I came across
as I saw this, I read articles,
Buddhists will look to the book
of Ecclesiastes, and they say
this is great Buddhist teaching.
They'll say this really lines up
with their doctrine. They said,
everybody should read the book of Ecclesiastes.
And the thing about Buddhism
is you focus all of your attention
on the things of this earth
and the suffering that you go through,
and they teach, do not focus on the heavenly things.
And I'm just amazed.
It teaches the exact opposite.
When it teaches life is vain
and empty and meaningless,
that's if you focus on the things
of this earth.
The whole point is, don't focus
on the things of earth.
Remember your creator in the days of your youth
and focus on the heavenly things.
It teaches the opposite of what you're saying.
And of course we see that with Solomon
as he talks about hating life.
And Buddhists are like, yeah, that's how life is.
It's horrible. It's miserable.
It's depressing. We just want to die.
It's like, if you focus on the things
of heaven, you don't feel that way.
The problem was Solomon was
acting like a Buddhist.
Where he's basically doing the exact same thing
that they're saying, focusing on the things
of this earth, and he was miserable.
Notice what it says here in verse 10.
Ecclesiastes 2, verse 10.
And whatsoever mine eyes desired
I kept not from them.
I withheld not my heart from any joy,
for my heart rejoiced in all my labor,
and this was my portion of all my labor.
Then I looked in all the works that my hands had wrought
and on the labor that I had labored to do,
and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit,
and there was no profit under the sun.
And it said in verse 10,
whatever he looked upon,
whatever he desired,
he just said, you know what,
I'm going to fulfill that desire.
Look, if that's the way that you live your life,
you will destroy your life very, very quickly.
Because there are a lot of things
that we can look upon,
and there might be a small desire in our heart
for those things. You're going to destroy your life
if you do that.
This is the way that people live their lives.
It's called hedonism when you just
search after happiness
and just gratifying the lust of the flesh.
And what you're going to find is
there's no profit under the sun.
You've wasted your life.
But if you actually focus on the things of heaven
and set your affection on things above
rather than things on the earth,
you know what you're going to find?
You're going to live a happy
and fulfilled life.
Turn back to Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew 6.
Matthew 6, verse 24.
No man can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
He cannot serve God and mammon.
And he makes this comparison of serving God
or just chasing the almighty dollar.
As people say,
why not chasing the almighty God
instead of the almighty dollar?
Why not instead of just trying to lay up
treasures here on earth,
laying up treasures up in heaven
that will never gather moth or rust,
they'll never be corrupted,
but they're there for all eternity.
It says here in verse 25,
Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life
what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink,
nor yet for your body what ye shall put on,
is not the life more than meat,
and the body than raiment?
Behold, the fowls of the air, for they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are ye not much better than they?
Look, the birds of the air,
the fowls of the air,
they go out on a daily basis
and their whole life is about,
I got to find food.
Where am I going to get it?
They just fly around just looking for food,
looking for food, looking for food, looking for food.
And yet, you know what takes place?
I mean, birds are provided with food.
They find food.
I'm not going to say that there's never been a bird
that's died of starvation,
but, you know, birds, they search around,
they don't know where their next meal is going to come,
and yet they find it.
And here's the thing, as a child of God,
as a child of Almighty God,
and God loves you,
He cares about you,
you can go to Him in prayer,
of course God is going to provide your physical needs.
It'd be foolish to think that God is not going to provide your physical needs.
I mean, we have a loving Father that we serve,
of course He's going to provide your needs,
but you know what the key is?
Put God first.
Don't just put God on the back burner and say,
well, you know what, I'll put God on the back burner,
but I've got to do this, right?
I'll give you an example.
There's a family in Sacramento, California
that I met out soul winning
and I brought to church.
They started coming.
A lot of people that are interested in church,
that are new to church,
oftentimes they have a lot of problems in their life.
They haven't been basing their life on the Word of God.
And this family was living off the government.
They had just a lot of issues,
not working and stuff like that.
And I remember as the family was coming,
the mother is just like,
and she was raising her two sons,
and she was praying to get a job.
She's like, I want to get my life fixed.
And then she prayed for a job, prayed for a job,
prayed for a job,
and then she got the job and she's like, man,
God bless me as I'm coming to church.
He provided.
She never came back to church ever again.
Never came back.
And it's just like, you know what that's called?
It's called putting the things of this earth
above the things of heaven.
God gave you exactly what you prayed for and asked for,
and then once you get it,
never come back to church.
Right? And this was a family that had been coming for a while.
And I followed up with them, you know,
and I was trying to talk to them and say,
yeah, yeah, you know,
I'm just trying to get my work schedule figured out and everything.
Never came back to church.
Never came back.
Matthew chapter six, verse 27.
And which of you by taking thought can add one cubit onto a stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
They toil not, neither do they spin.
And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field,
which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith?
And, you know, here's the thing.
When I'm reading this and when I'm preaching this,
it's very easy to preach, but it's very hard to live by.
I mean, the things of God, it's like they're very easy to preach.
They're very clear in the Bible.
We know it's true.
And when you're in God's house now,
you're like, Amen, I agree that.
You're right, Pastor.
And then yet when we go home, it's like all of us, including myself,
we have such little faith.
Right.
And you know what this tells you?
Because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God,
not just to get saved, but to grow in your faith.
You know what that means?
Maybe you need to spend a lot of time in God's word
so your faith is actually very strong
and you can trust in the promises that God has given us.
It says here in verse number 31,
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat or what shall we drink?
Or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek,
for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.
And the Gentiles here are representing the unsaved world.
And it's like, this is what the unsaved world does.
The unsaved world, it's all about my career and making money.
And obviously that's a part of your life,
but that should not be the main part of your life.
As a born again child of God,
you should be living a different life than the world,
a different perspective, a different mindset.
Because when you got saved,
probably the same thing happened to you.
Immediately you realize, you know what, I'm here to serve God.
That's the purpose of life.
You realize it's more than just making money.
Okay, I have a job.
I have a responsibility to serve God.
Verse number 33,
But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow,
for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself,
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
So basically, you know what, don't worry about tomorrow.
Don't worry about the next meal.
Do what God says, and God is going to provide.
Now turn to Proverbs chapter 2.
We'll close up here. Proverbs chapter 2.
Proverbs 2.
Proverbs chapter 2.
The Bible says in Proverbs 2, verse 1,
And when you're reading through the book of Proverbs,
the first, I don't know, like nine chapters or so
in Proverbs are all about wisdom.
Right? It's amazing.
He just talks about the same subject over and over.
I've never preached through Proverbs,
but it's probably a bit of a challenge
because it's like, all right, I'm preaching on wisdom.
Wisdom and power.
I've never preached through Proverbs,
but it's probably a bit of a challenge
All right, I'm preaching on wisdom.
Wisdom part one, wisdom part two.
It's all about read the Bible,
get wisdom chapter after chapter.
It says here in verse one,
My son, if thou wilt receive my words
and hide my commandments with thee
so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom
and apply thine heart to understanding,
yea, if thou Christ after knowledge
and liftest up thy voice for understanding,
if thou seekest her as silver
and searches for her as for hid treasures.
The Bible talks about seeking and searching
after silver and treasures.
And see, here's the thing,
when we read this book,
there's a guarantee that you're going to get some wisdom.
There's a guarantee that if you spend your time
investing into this, it's not in vain.
Anything you memorize, anything you read,
any amount of time you invest into this,
it's not in vain.
Even when you think of Bible memorization,
you say, well, what if I forget the memorization?
I've memorized a lot of things in the Bible
and I praise God for everything I did memorize
because there's still part of it that sticks with you,
even if you can't quote it.
And you learn a lot of great things
and it motivates you to serve God.
So look, any amount of time you invest into this,
it's got profit.
But you know what?
People search after treasure in this life
and it doesn't always give them
the promise they expected.
Let me give you an example in the Philippines.
And I'm going to test how much you paid attention
in school or whatever.
Yesterday, basically everybody failed, right?
But there was a gold rush in 1983 in Mindanao,
the Mount Diwata gold rush in 1983.
Who's familiar?
Anybody familiar with this?
Nobody's familiar?
All right, we didn't just have science class.
Now we're getting Filipino history class, right?
I am your teacher, right?
Mount Diwata.
And Diwata I actually learned, I didn't know this,
it actually comes from Sanskrit of Devata.
So it actually comes in from,
you know, Diwata and Tagalog,
we're talking about like a fairy or deity, right?
Something, you know, it's like enchanted mountain.
But it actually comes from like Sanskrit
and it's like basically bringing in
like one of the Hindu gods,
like one of their false things into the Philippines, right?
The same false religions just kind of get passed around.
It's also known as Mount Diwawal,
which Abuntero I think is a more common word for it.
But it says here in September 1983,
gold was discovered by a Lumad in the Greeks,
in the creeks of Mount Diwata,
leading to a gold rush,
causing the population to rise rapidly to 125,000.
And, you know, of course, 1983,
if you look at population charts,
because populations really grow very rapidly,
125,000 people is quite a lot.
You know, when you're talking about
most of them are searching for gold in one area.
If you have 125,000 people,
searching for gold, let me help you out.
You're probably not going to be the one
that gets the gold.
It's like entering the lottery.
It's like it's probably not going to be you, right?
But it says it rose to 125,000
who were mostly miners living in shanties
along the two kilometers logging road
where the gold mine volcanic veins are located.
On November 25th, 2002,
due to the unsafe and dangerous weather,
on November 25th, 2002,
due to the unsafe and lethal illegal mining
and siltation of Nabok River,
the government declared 8,100 hectares
area of Mount Diwawal
across Agusan Davao Surigao,
a mineral reservation,
by the proclamation number 297.
Mining was taken over
by the government-owned corporation.
Mining prospects include high-grade,
well, anyways, let me just go
later on in the article.
So it's taken over by the government,
and here's what it says.
They did a study in 2001
before it was taken over by the government,
and 86% of the miners in Diwawal
were contaminated with mercury.
So you've got all of these people
that are searching after gold,
trying to get rich,
and you know what takes place?
86% end up getting contaminated with mercury.
Now, look, maybe it's a conspiracy.
I have no idea.
Maybe the government's just trying to steal the gold.
I haven't researched this.
I'm just saying, you know what,
that it's like you search
after gold and silver.
That's what your entire life is about.
Very few of them actually got it.
And what you often find in money in life,
because when you love money,
you pierce yourself through
with many sorrows.
You actually cause sorrows
and pain to yourself.
It's not what it's cracked up to be.
You search and go after money,
and even if you get it,
even if a miner made all of this money
and died 20 years earlier,
whatever side effects there would be,
I would be like, you know what,
not worth it.
And yet, there's just this thing
about money where it's just like,
this is the way all of us are,
and I'm the same way.
It's like, money, money, get rich.
That's the way we all feel.
But you know what?
That's not what God intended for us,
because you know, for most of us,
if we actually did get rich,
it would not cause us
to pay for a job, and they got it,
and then they quit church.
This is probably how most of us
would be if we got rich.
It might actually be a blessing
that God just provides your daily needs,
and you don't have every single thing
that you want in life.
Right?
And I'll tell you this, you know,
Paul spoke about learning to be content.
You know, he basically,
before he became a missionary,
he was doing fine.
He had a place to stay,
and it's not a guarantee.
Sometimes he'd have a lot,
sometimes he'd have a little.
He said, I've learned to be content.
And that's what all of us need to do,
because what the Bible says is,
if you seek after wisdom as silver
and as hid treasures,
here's what it says in verse 5,
Then shalt thou understand
the fear of the Lord,
and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord giveth wisdom,
out of his mouth cometh knowledge
and understanding.
So you spend your life
dedicated to the things of God,
and it's like, yeah, they don't get it,
because once you search after wisdom,
then all of a sudden,
you understand the fear of the Lord.
They don't get it.
We do get it.
And look, if you're saved
and you've been out at a church
for any length of time,
you understand this.
You get this.
You know this is true.
But even though we know it's true,
you're saved for this life
and think that there's happiness here.
Look, don't go down the road
that Solomon did in life.
He destroyed his life.
Seek first the kingdom of God,
set your affection on things above,
and the things of earth
will be provided by God.
Let's close in the word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today
and just see this great chapter
from the word of God
and help all of us,
and all of these things in Jesus' name.