Job 24, verse 1, the Bible reads, Why seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty do
they that know Him not see His days?
Some remove the landmarks, they violently take away flocks and feed thereof, they drive
away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
Now this chapter kind of divides nicely into three different sections as I was going through
this.
You see that verses 1 through 12 are basically just talking about the types of wicked things
that people do that are ungodly, bad people, and the reason that Job is talking about that
is that he's explaining to his three friends that a lot of times, wicked, ungodly people,
they seem to be getting away with the life that they're living.
He's listing all the bad things that they do and saying they get away with it.
Then in verses 13 through 17 he talks about how those that are evil, they love the darkness
and they hate the light.
Then in verses 18 through 25 he explains how he realizes that eventually the wicked will
be punished, eventually the ungodly are going to get what's coming to them.
But honestly we look around today and we do see people often committing a lot of really
bad sins and doing a lot of really ungodly things and seemingly getting away with it
and prospering and it seems like they're being blessed even though they live a wicked, sinful
life.
That's what Job's pointing out because his friends have this attitude that if you do
wrong, God's going to punish you and if you do right, God's going to bless you, which
is true in the long run but in the short term often people get away with a lot in this life.
Of course we know that those that are not saved are not really getting away with anything
because they're going to spend eternity burning in hell.
So even if they live this life in a prosperous way, what does a man profit if he shall gain
the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Think about it, no matter how good of a life that you lived on this earth and no matter
how much pleasure you enjoyed, how much money you had, spending eternity in hell would erase
all of that very quickly, whatever enjoyment that you had from that.
And so we understand that as we go through chapter 24.
But let's go through this first section here in chapter 24 where he lists off the wickedness
of the ungodly.
He says in verse 2, some remove the landmarks, they violently take away flocks and feed their
off.
So he's talking about robbery there.
When he talks about removing the landmarks, what they used to do in the olden days is
that they would mark who owned what property based on landmarks.
They didn't use a GPS coordinate.
And even today, if you've ever owned a piece of property, by the way I own a couple of
worthless pieces of property in California that are pretty much worth nothing, okay.
But I have a couple pieces of property, hopefully someday they'll be worth something.
But when you go down to the county recorder, there's always like a physical description
of that property.
Have you ever seen that before?
And it'll explain every geographic feature and explain exactly what that property is.
So there were certain landmarks that would be set up in the old days and they would basically
put like a large stone and set that there as a landmark and say, okay, this stone represents
where my property ends and where your property begins.
So when he says some remove the landmarks, he's talking about people who would actually
move those landmarks slowly over time to give themselves more property and to take away
their neighbor's property.
It'd be sort of like building your fence just a little bit on your neighbor's property and
just keep moving it and so forth.
And then he says some people violently take away flocks and feed thereof.
Verse 3, they drive away the ass of the fatherless.
They take the widow's ox for a pledge.
They turn the needy out of the way.
The poor of the earth hide themselves together.
Behold as wild asses in the desert, they go forth to their work rising betimes for a prey.
Their wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.
They reap everyone his corn in the field and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.
They're wet with the showers of the mountains and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
They pluck the fatherless from the breast and take a pledge of the poor.
They cause them to go naked without clothing and they take away the sheep from the hungry.
Now if we look at all these things, the people that are being oppressed by the wicked, by
the ungodly, are the fatherless, the widow, the poor, the naked, the hungry, people who
are weak, people who are vulnerable.
And that's what this whole thing has in common here in verses 1-12.
People that have power abusing and taking advantage of those that are weak.
Now this is the wickedness of mankind and this is human nature for those that are sinful
to want to pick on those that are weaker than them or that have less power than them.
And we need to be careful that this never characterizes us.
Now this can even start with children in a home.
The older siblings beating up on and picking on the younger siblings.
You know it's ungodly and it needs to be corrected even at that young age so that they don't
grow up and become a bully where they push people around and hurt people that are weaker
than them.
Obviously if you go to school this happens on the playground all the time.
The big kids will beat up on the little kids and push them around, steal their lunch money
and so forth.
Now today people talk about bullying and bullying has been twisted into some new thing where
you preach against homosexuality and you're bullying.
And today the media wants to brainwash us that oh these poor little homos, these poor
little queers are being bullied, oh the poor little faggot.
And we're supposed to feel bad about that because somebody actually has some semblance
of decency and morality and normalcy and tells somebody look that's gross, that's disgusting,
you're a freak, you're a pervert.
That's what the Bible, the Bible calls, and people say oh don't use words like that, but
the Bible calls it filthy, vile, these are the biblical words.
And teaching kids to grow up and say hey it's okay to do this stuff, it's okay, just whatever
you want.
But here's what's so hypocritical about the whole thing, the same public school system
will have red ribbon week and tell you oh man if you smoke you're shaving years off
your life and if you drink it's bad.
But here's the thing, I agree that smoking shaves years off your life and that it's not
good for you.
They say I'm not for smoking, but just look up the statistics on the lifespan of somebody
who's a homosexual.
It's 20 years shorter than a normal person.
So they're going to sit there and say oh don't smoke because your life expectancy is going
to go down by five years if you smoke or seven years.
And again, I'm not for smoking, but let me say this, isn't it hypocritical for them to
tell you hey if you smoke you're damaging your health and statistically you will die
sooner even though there are some people who live to be 95 and 100 that are smokers.
Isn't that true that there are some people who live to be 95 and 100 that smoke?
But does that make smoking good for you?
No because the average, the statistic will show you that if you smoke you are shaving
years off your life.
You are more likely to die sooner.
But the statistics on homosexuality show that the lifespan for homosexuality is shortened
by 20 years, far more than smoking.
And I'm not saying go to some right wing website.
Go to the Centers for Disease Control.
Go to even pro-homosexual websites and you can find those statistics that will show you
just to just Google the lifespan and there have been studies that have been done.
So isn't it hypocritical for them to sit there and say oh yeah kids, it's okay to be at home
and this is what they teach in public school.
It's okay to be gay, maybe you're just born that way, maybe you just like, and they brainwash
them at a young age to think that that's normal and something that they should try
and experiment and see if it's for them.
It doesn't even make sense when they're going to sit there and turn around and tell you
not to smoke and not to eat junk food and don't order a large Coke, but be a homo?
It doesn't make any sense.
But today we've just been brainwashed into thinking that oh bullying, we can't ever criticize
any sin.
We can't speak against sin because that's bullying.
And if we tell people that fornication is a sin, that's bullying.
And if we tell people they should remain a virgin, that's bullying.
And if we attack homosexuality, we're bullying.
But you know who the real bullies are?
The homos themselves.
They're the bullies.
Trying to force their viewpoint on everybody else, trying to force their disgusting lifestyle
on all of us, and they're the bullies.
Okay, well let's look in the Bible.
Don't turn there, but Genesis 19, Sodom and Gomorrah.
Who was the bully?
Lot or the homos?
Who was the bully in Judges 19?
Who was the bully in Genesis 9?
It's pretty consistent throughout the Bible.
But the true bullying that's wrong bullying is the type of bullying where the strong take
advantage of the weak, or where those that are powerful take advantage of the powerless.
And I remember, there were bullies in school when I was a kid.
And I remember the worst school year of my life was seventh grade.
I went to this school that was in a really bad area.
It was in South Sacramento, and it was a Christian school, but this Christian school used to
be just for the kids who actually went to the church.
But they started running into financial problems.
So the Christian school that I went to, they opened up and started to just allow anyone
to enroll in the school.
And what it turned into was that people would get expelled from public school, they'd get
kicked out of public school, so their parents would send them to the Christian school.
So it ended up that the school I went to just became a place where all the worst kids from
a really ghetto area would all be sent when they got expelled from public school.
Then they'd go to our Christian school.
And I was there, I was in seventh grade, and the portion of the school that I was in went
from seventh to twelfth grade.
So basically I'm there mixed in with students that are eighteen years old, seventeen years
old, sixteen years old, because it's seventh through twelfth grade, I'm in seventh grade.
So I'm a twelve year old, my peers are all twelve year olds, we're in the same class
with sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen year olds from the worst ghetto that have been
expelled from public school.
Do you think any bullying went on?
Do you think anything bad happened?
I remember literally just every day being dropped off at school, literally just in fear.
And just thinking like, I just need to survive this day, another school day.
But my dad had always taught me when I was a kid, he said never give in to bullies.
Because he said if you give in to bullies, then they'll bully you more, they'll push
you more.
And he said you have to stand up to the bullies, because if you back down, it's not going to
make them happy.
They're just going to realize, oh, here's somebody I can take advantage of.
And then it'll just get worse and worse and worse.
I remember one time, going back younger in my life, I remember one time I was nine years
old.
And when I was growing up, I was really short when I was growing up.
Now I'm average white person height.
But when I was a young kid, I was really, like if you look at my class picture from
when I was like nine, ten years old, I was the shortest kid in the class.
It was me and a Filipino guy, and we were the two, we're like in the front of the picture,
just the shortest guys.
He was my best friend, by the way.
So we were like really short right in the front, and so you're going to get picked on
when you're small.
And I remember this guy, and I told my dad one time, I was like yeah, this kid's at school
is picking on me.
And he said well, you know, he said if this kid's too big, this is what my dad told me.
He said if this kid's too big for you to take on.
He said just catch him when he's not paying attention.
And he said just sock him in the stomach as hard as you can, just when he's not ready
for it.
I'm like okay, you know.
So I went to school, and I caught this guy off guard, and I socked him in the stomach
as hard as I could.
You know, and the guy just doubled over in pain, and the kid never bothered me again
after that.
But here's the thing.
Now I'm not recommending that obviously to children today, but honestly, if you're in
a school like I went to, you might have to, you know what I mean?
But if you're homeschooled, yeah, you don't need to do this.
And you could kill somebody by hitting them in the stomach very hard, so that's my disclaimer.
But honestly, obviously you shouldn't be a brawler, you shouldn't get in fights, you
shouldn't hit people.
But you know what, when you have people that are literally trying to abuse you and hurt
you, because when I say these kids were bullying us, I'm not saying that they just called a
us names.
Because you know, that's today, what the media has told us is bullying is like a name calling.
When I was growing up, I was told that sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will
never hurt me.
And we should have some freedom of speech today where we can say what we want, and people
can say whatever they want.
When I'm talking about bullying, I'm talking about people who would actually injure you.
I'm not saying that this kid called me names.
I'm saying I socked this kid in the stomach because this kid would hurt me and injure
me.
These are big kids that are older than you, and I remember when I was in 7th grade, these
kids would kick you in the groin, just when you're not ready for it, just kick you in
the groin, rip the hair out of the back of your neck, say all kinds of sodomite things
to you, steal your lunch money, that's what I'm talking about.
Who's ever been exposed to that kind of bullying when you were in school?
These are big 17, 18 year old guys, you're 12 years old, they're threatening you, they're
attacking you, they're assaulting you, and so forth.
And I remember there was this one kid, and he would give him his lunch money every day,
or he would give him some snack from his lunch every day.
I mean every day he would give them a bag of chips, or he'd give them cookies, or he'd
give them a dollar, every day, and it just got worse, it got worse, and my dad always
taught me, don't give in to these guys, don't give in to them, because I noticed that that
kid who would always bribe them, he got it worse, he'd get attacked more, he'd get abused
more, because they just saw him as a weakling.
And the ones who fought back, kick, scream, punch, you were at least could survive it
and get through.
But you never give in to bullies.
You never let people push you around.
And then it even carries over into adult life.
You'll have people sometimes try to bully you.
I was talking to somebody recently, their neighbor was basically trying to just be really,
just being really unreasonable with them, and started threatening them to call Child
Protective Services, because they didn't like the fact that his dog was going to the bathroom
in its own backyard.
And they were cleaning it up on a daily basis.
But the neighbor's just like, we just don't like dogs.
And it was like, they're cleaning it up, and it's in his own yard, but they're like, we
don't want to smell your dogs dropping from your yard.
I mean, that's unreasonable.
It's like, come on.
And then he starts photographing, he was photographing, the neighbor is like photographing the backyard
and photographing the kids playing in the backyard, saying they're playing amongst dog
dews.
Because a dog goes to the bathroom three times a day.
Does anybody have a dog?
It goes to the bathroom three times a day, even if you clean it up every day, there's
going to be a few dog dews laying around.
So this guy is bullying and threatening, and look, you have to stand up to people like
that.
Now, I strongly believe what the Bible says when it says, a soft answer turneth away wrath,
but grievous words stir up anger.
And so my first course of action when people, especially my neighbors, want to start something
with me, or be unreasonable with me, I always try to be nice at first, and be reasonable
and friendly, and let a soft answer turn away wrath.
But see, sometimes bullies, they want to be a bully, and they can't be reasoned with.
So I think you should always start out by trying to be nice, and try to use that soft
answer to turneth away wrath.
But there comes a point, though, where people just become abusive, and people just want
to just take advantage of you and hurt you, where you do have to stand up to them and
tell them no.
And this person that had this problem, you know, stood up to this guy and said, hey look,
you know, you're not going to take pictures of my yard, you're not going to look over
my fence, you know what I mean?
He said, I'm doing everything I can, but he basically used some really stern words with
the guy to back the guy down and tell him, look, you know, don't mess
with me, you know, you're threatening me, I'll threaten you, buddy, you know.
And basically, you know, there are times when you do have to stand your ground and stand
up to the bullies of this world and face them.
Obviously, you start out trying to overcome evil with good, soft answer turneth away wrath,
but I don't believe in this thing of just letting people just walk all over you.
You know, the Bible doesn't teach that.
Yes, we turn the other cheek, yes, a soft answer turneth away wrath, but there does
come a time when you have to stand up to the bullies of this world.
And so what we see here from verse 1 through 12, these guys are true bullies.
It's basically the rich abusing the poor, it's the strong abusing the weak, it's the
powerful abusing the powerless, and we need to make sure that this is never something
that we do in our lives, that we are never that guy.
You know, first of all, children should never bully their younger siblings, and we should
never be one that uses physical force, whether it's at school or at work, just because we
know that we're stronger than somebody, you know, to just push them around and intimidate
them and take advantage of people.
We should never use strength in that way, we should never use our power in that way,
in an abusive way, but we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and make
sure that we are never a bully.
And again, preaching against sin and speaking out against sin and wickedness is not bullying.
Bullying is people who hurt and abuse and take advantage of the weak, the powerless,
people that are stupid.
What if you're in business and you run into somebody who's stupid?
Don't sell them a bunch of stuff they don't need.
Don't make them sign on to a bunch of extras that they don't need, and a lot of salesmen
are like that.
They just take it, they see somebody coming that looks like a sucker and they just take
advantage of them, charge them twice as much, put on a bunch of extras that they don't need,
talk them into things they don't need.
It's dishonest, we shouldn't take advantage of people, abuse people, and so forth.
That's what this is teaching.
Now look what it says in verse number 10.
It says, they cause him to go naked without clothing and they take away the sheaf from
the hungry which make oil within their walls and tread their wine presses and suffer thirst.
Men groan from out of the city and the soul of the wounded crieth out, yet God layeth
not folly to them.
Now notice what it says in verse 11, which make oil within their walls and tread their
wine presses and suffer thirst.
Now this is talking about people that are employed by the rich, by the wealthy, by the
powerful, and they're actually employed to tread the wine presses.
Now what does that mean to tread the wine presses?
To tread means to step on something.
Back then, the way that they would make wine is that people would actually step on the
grapes and smash them because they just have so many grapes that they would actually have
their feet nice and clean and wash them and then they would trample on the grapes and
smash them in order to make wine, in order to make the juice come out.
And this is talking about people whose job is to tread the wine presses, which is obviously
not a very high-end job when you're just doing this physical, mindless task of stomping on
grapes, but he says they suffer thirst.
Do you see that at the end of the verse?
Now there's a biblical principle in the Bible that says, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that
treadeth out the corn, and that the laborer is worthy of his reward.
And so the Bible teaches that when someone does a job such as treading grapes, they should
be allowed to drink of the wine that is produced from treading on those grapes.
That's a principle that's taught throughout the Bible when he says not to muzzle the ox
that treadeth out the corn.
And that's why most places that you work, they'll have a policy if it's a restaurant
that you get free food.
You work there, they say, hey, you get to eat them.
And it always made me so angry when they'd say, well, you get ten percent off, or you
get half off.
And you had to actually pay for the food at the place that you're working, and it always
just went against the grain with me, and it kind of goes against the grain with everybody.
But the reason why is because the Bible actually teaches that you should be able to eat of
the fruits of your own labor when you work on that.
And so maybe this sermon, or this part of the sermon doesn't necessarily apply to everyone
because our church is not filled with rich and powerful people.
Okay, I'm not a rich and powerful person.
You're not a rich and powerful person.
But if you were, you need to make sure that you treat your workers right.
And maybe you do have people that work for you.
I don't know, maybe you do own a business.
I in the past did own a business.
I don't anymore, but I did own a business, and I had people work for me.
And I honestly tried my hardest to follow biblical principles with the workers that
I had working for me.
And I tried to use the principles of the Bible.
Part of that was not making people wait to get paid if they needed to be paid.
Paying them immediately the same day if they needed the money.
I always had that policy that at any time anybody needed the money, I would pay them
up to the minute for what they had worked.
Because the Bible says not to, you know, the wages of the poor, not to withhold it overnight.
Okay.
And then the Bible here is talking about that we shouldn't muzzle the ox.
You know, people shouldn't be going thirsty while they're treading the winepress.
And so I always made sure to feed my workers and make sure that they would be given food,
you know, and that I would pay for their food when they would be out working for me and
they'd be going places and working.
Because I was trying to follow these biblical principles.
But see, there's a mentality out there that just says make as much money as possible and
just pay your workers as little as you can.
I mean if you can find somebody that will do that job for eight bucks an hour, just
pay them eight bucks an hour.
Even though maybe the job is worth more than that, even though you're making money hand
over fist and that person's just struggling and making eight bucks an hour.
But you know what?
That isn't right.
If you're ever a Christian business owner or if you are one right now, you should always
pay your workers a decent wage and you should pay them what is a fair wage for the work
that they're doing and for the experience that they have.
Now maybe they don't have a lot of experience, maybe they're not making you a lot of money
because they don't know much, they're not that good at the job, then you don't pay them
a whole lot.
But you should never have a mentality that says I want to see how little I can pay this
person to do this job.
Now our government wants to mandate a minimum wage and make it by law.
And they have different minimum wages in different states.
But honestly, that's not really, I'm not for that.
I don't agree with that.
I believe in free market economics and free enterprise.
I don't think the government should tell people how much to pay.
But I think that it's still wrong.
Just because I don't think it should be illegal, I think it is sinful when people pay a tiny
wage to their workers.
And they're making money hand over fist and they pay people a very minimal wage.
It's selfish, it isn't right, and it's an abusive practice.
We as Christians should not live our lives that way.
And when we hire someone to do a job for us, we should pay them a fair wage for that job
and take care of people.
And be generous because you know what?
Being generous with people will come back around to you.
Let's say you have somebody do some work at your house or whatever.
If you're generous with them, that's going to come back around to you.
And when you're a tightwad all the time and you're very greedy and want to hang on to
every cent, you know what, that's going to come back around to you too.
And so that's what the Bible's teaching.
But I think it's interesting too, if you look at verse 12, it says, men groan from out of
the city and the soul of the wounded crieth out, yet God layeth not folly to them.
So what Job is saying here is that he's seeing all these people who abuse their workers,
they're working hard, they're going thirsty, they're not even letting them break the product
of their own labor, they're abusing the fatherless, the poor, they're taking advantage of people,
and he's saying, man, it seems like God just doesn't judge them.
Flip over to James chapter 5 in the New Testament because you'll find a very similar passage
in James chapter 5, but it talks about the fact that God will judge them.
And it's interesting because James chapter 5 even talks about Job also, brings up Job.
And then there's a great tie-in with the book of Job in James chapter 5.
Look at verse number 1 of James chapter 5.
It says, go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Now here James is rebuking the rich.
And throughout the book of James, in chapter 1, in chapter 2, and in chapter 5, he rebukes
the rich in the book of James.
Now again, there are some people who are rich, who are good godly people, but most people
who are rich are ungodly, unfortunately.
Because the love of money is the root of all evil.
Now it says here in James 5, 1, go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries
that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you
and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.
Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back
by fraud crieth.
And the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton.
You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned and killed the just, and he did not resist you.
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and had long patience for
it until he received the early and latter rain.
Be ye also patient, stabless your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."
And so here he explains that the rich people of this world who abuse and take advantage
of other people and make money off the backs of other people, that they will eventually
be judged.
He said if they knew what was coming to them, they'd be weeping and howling and wailing.
If they knew the judgments that would come upon them.
And he's telling us to be patient because all of those who do evil will be judged on
this earth.
They will be punished.
They will get what's coming to them eventually.
Go if you would to James chapter 2, just a few pages to the left in your Bible.
It says, "'My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
with respect of persons.
For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and there
come in also a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the
gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand
thou there, or sit here under my footstool.
Are ye that then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
Harken my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and
heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
But ye have despised the poor," verse 6, "'Do not rich men oppress you and draw you
before the judgment seats?
Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?'"
So the Bible is explaining that, look, a lot of rich people oppress the poor and blaspheme
the name of God, and they feel that they're going to get away with it, and they have no
conscience about doing wickedness and who they hurt in the process of just making money
and just getting as much gain as they possibly can.
Now, maybe you feel like, well, that describes the company where I work.
That's how they are.
I hope that's not the case, because I've worked for bosses where I felt that that's how they
were.
They just really tried to pay as little as possible.
They tried to do as little as possible for you.
You'd ask them for any kind of a favor.
You'd ask them for any kind of help with anything, and they would just do nothing for you.
They cared nothing for you.
It was just how much money can they make, period.
I've worked for companies like that.
And then I've worked for other companies where I truly felt that the boss was being fair
and giving me a fair shake and paying me a wage that was an appropriate wage for what
I was doing.
Both kinds are out there.
But let me say this.
Even if you work for a job where your boss is a wicked person that just is greedy and
change your wages.
I mean, I've worked at a job where he told me, if you do this, if you go and take this
test and get this certification, you will get this much of a raise per hour.
Okay, I studied a bunch of books, I went out, worked really hard, took the test, and it
was some tiny raise anyway, but it mattered to me because I didn't make much money and
every little bit was going to help me.
I went out and worked and studied and took the test and then I got the certifications
and then I came back and he's like, well, I know we said we'd give you this much per
certification but we didn't think you were going to get three.
So we're just going to give you for the one.
Even though it was clearly laid out that this was going to be the, you know, just to save
them like 50 cents an hour.
You know, and they're pulling, the guy drives like a, what did he drive?
He drove some really sporty, fancy car.
What did he drive?
Do you even know who I'm talking about, Zuzia?
What did he drive?
He drove, I know, what?
His brother drove a Porsche.
His brother would come in a Porsche because it was him and his brother.
His brother drove a Porsche and he drove in in like some kind of a, I think it was like
a really fancy Corvette or something and then he had some, you know, all kinds of fancy
cars and here I am, you know, struggling to get by, living paycheck to paycheck.
I work my tail off, study, and go take all these tests to try to earn 50 cents more an
hour and it's just like, well, you know, we're not going to give you that.
You know, I mean, there are people out there like that, but here's the thing, the Bible
says this, and go to Ephesians chapter 6, let me just show you this.
Because there are a lot of businessmen out there that are like that and then you'd complain
to them and say, wait a minute, you know, you said I was going to make this much.
You said I was going to get a raise and I never got a raise and, you know, you claimed
that I was going to get paid here and, you know, and this company just lied to me so
many times.
It lied to you, oh, you're going to work on this job, you're going to make this much per
hour and then the paycheck comes and it's not there.
What in the world?
And then they just said, well, you're just lucky that you have a job because the economy's
bad right now and you're just lucky to have a job.
He's like, you know, you could be living as a homeless person.
I'm thinking to myself, you know what, homeless people are on drugs.
Homeless people aren't going to work every day, you know what I mean?
I'm not homeless.
I'm going to work.
I want to get paid what you said you were going to pay me, you know.
This is a verse that I have seen this verse ring true in my own life.
First of all, we know it's true because it's in the Bible, but I've seen this verse come
true in my life.
In Ephesians 6, it says in verse 5, servants be obedient to them that are your masters
according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ,
not with thy service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of
God from the heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that
whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be
bond or free.
So what the Bible's saying there is that when we go to work, we should work as unto the
Lord and not to man.
So even if our boss is somebody that we think is not treating us fairly, maybe he's even
lied to us, the Bible says when you go to work, you're not working for him, you're working
for Jesus.
You go to work and you serve as unto the Lord and not an amen.
And it says, knowing in verse 8, that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he
receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
That means that when you go to your job and you work hard, God will make sure that you
are rewarded for the work you put in.
Even if you went and worked hard and did a job and just didn't get paid, they paid you
nothing, God promises that he will pay you.
I mean, do you understand what this verse is saying?
He's saying, look, if you work hard, God's up in heaven looking down, you will reap what
you've sown.
And I remember that particular job I'm referring to, I hated that job the whole time I worked
there.
I mean, the job I left to go to that job was a good job where the owner was a Christian
and he was a nice guy and he treated you fairly, but it just, the job didn't have a lot of
future so I switched to this other job and from the moment I got there, I just felt like
I made a mistake.
This job is horrible, they kept lying to me, you know, and just treating me bad, treating
everybody bad and I worked there for, I want to say, two and a half years and I really
didn't like it.
The whole time I worked there, I was really unhappy, like I just didn't like this job,
but I just kept working there, kept working there, did my best, never got a fair shake.
And then after two and a half years, I put in my notice, you know, and I knew, I even
told my wife, I said, honey, if I put in my notice to this job, they will just punish
me and cut my hours and do all this, but I said, you know, if I were smart, I said, I
would just not tell them and just on my last day say, today's my last day, see you later,
because I know that they're not going to treat me well.
But I told her, I said, you know, it's the right thing to do, to just give my notice
and, you know, I'm just going to do the golden rule, do unto others as I would have them
do unto me, and I put in my notice and sure enough, and I needed all that money, you know,
I needed those hours and my last week, they're just telling me to take days off and just,
you know, just to punish you for leaving, you know, because I was moving to another
state, okay.
So I hated that job, I wished I'd never gone to that job, but you know what though, my
next job after that was a really good job where I made a lot of money and you know what,
I never could have done that job except for the experience that I picked up at the bad
job.
So all things work together for good for them to love God.
So even though I didn't get a fair shake at that job, I worked really hard and kept getting
deceived on my wages, at least then when I went to the other job, God blessed me and
I made money at the other job with the experience I had picked up over here.
So what I'm saying is, you're never going to go wrong by working hard.
So I don't want you to take this sermon and look at these scriptures about abusive rich
people and people that are powerful, taking advantage of the poor, taking advantage of
workers, and look at that and say, well yeah, that's how my boss is, I don't even want to
work hard for him, I'm just going to, you know, no, no, that's a bad attitude.
You need to work hard at your job, even if your boss is like this, because you know that
you're going to receive it of the Lord.
And again, I didn't really receive it from that company.
But at the next company, I made a lot of money and I know that God was blessing me from where
I got ripped off over here.
You know what I mean?
And God made sure that I reaped what I had sown, because what I learned, I mean, even
this company was so selfish and like literally years later, years later when I was getting
my contractor's license, I needed to get something signed by them just that I had worked there.
Here, sign this paper that I worked for you these years, and they just won't sign it.
It's like, what in the world?
But that's just how they were.
They're like, well why would we sign this when you're our competitor now?
Because it's the right thing to do?
Because I worked for you for years, you're just signing a paper saying I've worked there?
And I had to go through some other route because they wouldn't even sign off that I had worked
there.
You know, there are people out there that are like that.
God forbid that God's people would ever act that way.
That we as Christians would ever treat people that way.
That we would ever take advantage of people just because we're holding all the cards in
our hands.
Just because we have the advantage.
Just because we're strong.
Just because we're rich.
Or just because we have power.
That we would ever use that to abuse other people.
God sees when you bully and pick on people and push people around and hurt people, and
you know what?
He will bring that back around to you.
You know, when you abuse people, and I guarantee you that those people who treated me that
way are not going to be blessed.
You know, because God is going to bring that back around on people who are like that.
But let's go back to Job 24.
So that's kind of what's dealt with in verses 1-12.
Just talking about people who just take advantage of and abuse the poor and the weak and so
forth.
Now it's interesting because he says, the higher of the laborers who have reaped down
your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cry it.
You know, what's another word for kept back?
What was that?
Withheld.
Right?
So a synonym for kept back would be withheld.
I was just thinking about how much of our wages is withheld from us.
You know what I mean?
Because he talks about like, you know, your wages that are the higher is withheld or held
back or kept back by fraud.
And you know, so much of our wages is withheld from us today in America.
And it really does go to the rich.
That's where it goes.
You say, oh well Pastor Anderson, it goes to all these derelicts on welfare.
But you know what, honestly, that's not where most of our tax dollars go.
I mean that is part of it.
But if you actually look at what our government spends their money on, where your tax dollars
are really going to is the bankers, okay, and the military contractors.
That's where your money's going, okay.
If you look at it, because you say, oh well our taxes are to build roads.
No they're not.
Because when you buy gas, when you buy gas, you pay taxes to build the roads through gas.
Okay, because guess who builds the roads?
The state.
Arizona Department of Transportation.
Okay.
Yes there's federal money that gets kicked in, stimulus here, stimulus there.
But most of your roads are paid for by the gas tax, the sales tax, and the homeowner's
or what's it called, property tax.
Those type of state and local taxes.
And then when it comes to schools, well we've got to have the schools.
Yeah but the schools are paid for through property taxes.
Local taxes.
So the stuff, and we don't need them anyway, but schools, roads, stuff, police, fire, that's
all local.
That's not federal.
You think the federal government is paying for the police and fire?
There was no income tax before 1913 in the United States of America.
Didn't exist, okay.
So you say, well where's the income tax going if it's not building the roads, it's not doing
essential services, police, fire, surely it's the water that comes out of the faucet.
No, that's all paid for through your water bill.
You know?
It's all paid for locally.
You say, well what does it go to?
If you look at where our income tax actually goes to, 500, what is it, billion dollars
goes to interest on the debt or something like that per year?
Does that sound about right?
I think it's approximately 500 billion dollars that goes to just interest on the national
debt.
Now here's the thing, our government prints their own money.
So question, why would someone who prints their own money borrow money?
I mean just let that sink in for a while.
Someone who prints their own money borrows money.
Okay, why?
Because they don't print their own money.
The Federal Reserve prints the money and then loans it to the US government.
They print money out of thin air and then loan it to us.
It's like, what in the world?
Yeah, and charge interest of course.
So basically here's our nation today that is in debt tens of trillions of dollars spending
money that they don't have, printing money out of thin air and then loaning it to ourselves,
all this crazy voodoo economical stuff that they do.
So that 500 billion dollars is going toward just interest to bankers.
Just multi-millionaire, multi-billionaire bankers are just collecting money for nothing.
Five hundred billion dollars from our government every year.
And then not only that, but then the military industrial complex.
Also known as defense, defense, yeah invading countries, having bases in 150 countries.
Our empire building, our military industrial complex war machine is another, and I'm sorry
I don't know all the figures, but again somewhere around 500 billion dollars.
So over a trillion dollars is just going to those two things.
Just interest on the national debt and the military industrial complex.
Okay, there's these military contractors, multi-billionaire people that are running
these companies and making all this money and whatever.
And that's the amount of your income taxes.
That's where your income taxes go, pretty much to those two things.
And other business taxes pay for everything else and everything else.
So the bottom line is that the taxation that we pay in this country, it's total fraud.
We pay huge amounts of money.
The members of congress are all millionaires.
And even when they go in, maybe they're not a millionaire, when they come out they're
a millionaire.
Because they cheat and steal and lie and they build a bridge on property that they own.
They own property and hey, let's just add into this other bill that has nothing to do
with it.
Let's just tag on, if you want me to vote for that bill, just tag on a bridge on property
that I own so that I can sell it to the government at ten times the price.
So they can build that bridge or whatever.
Whatever just shady dealings.
That's why the members of congress are all pretty much millionaires.
They're wealthy, they're powerful, they're abusive, they don't care about us.
Our whole government is a fraud.
And you're getting all this money taken out of your check and all this power gets centralized
in Washington D.C., all the money goes to the politicians, the bankers, the whole thing
is corrupt, the whole thing is a fraud.
And you know what?
If you're deceived by it, you're not wise.
And honestly, I want nothing to do with, and I know this is maybe getting a little off
track from the sermon, but this is what the Bible is talking about.
These kind of powerful rich people who just abuse the poor, take advantage of the weak,
withhold money, keep back money by fraud.
I'm not going to be involved whatsoever.
I'm not going to vote for anybody in 2016.
Anybody.
And I didn't vote for anybody in 2012.
Oh, you're part of the problem.
No, I'm not part of the problem.
Because you know what?
It's all fraud.
The Republicans and the Democrats are all wicked, they're thieves, they're evil people,
they're all pro-homosexual, they're all pro-abortion.
One side just lies about it and acts like they're not really, they could stop, there's
so many ways they could stop abortion, they don't do it, because they don't want to stop
abortion because they're liars.
It is pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, they want it as big government, Federal Reserve
system, smoke and mirrors, withhold our money by fraud, I won't support any of them.
I don't want anything to do with any of them.
They're corrupt, they're evil, they're wicked.
Our nation's government is run by thieves and criminals and gangsters.
One hundred percent of them.
Every member of Congress, every member of the Senate is a corrupt criminal.
Every single, what about his own, him too.
All of them.
That's the truth.
And these guys are just abusing their power today.
And we get all excited about it and get all worked up about Republican versus Democrat
and the whole thing is so stupid because we're in Bush's fourth term right now with Obama.
It's the same thing.
They do the exact same thing.
Same warfare, same pro-homosexual.
I mean just to give you an idea, the conservative candidate will sit there and say, oh I love
homosexuals, I'm going to hire as many homosexuals as I can.
In fact George Bush hired more homosexuals than any president in history before him.
And Mitt Romney, the hand-picked socialist candidate, the lesser of two evils quote unquote,
he said he would hire homosexuals to work for him and he loves homosexuals.
What's the difference anymore?
He said I'm pro-choice.
I mean think about it.
In the last election, both candidates, Mitt Romney and Obama, were both pro-abortion.
He said I'm pro-choice, I believe in a woman's right to choose.
Now when he goes over and talks to somebody different, he says something a little different.
They're both for homos, they're both for abortion, they're both for the atheistic school system,
they're both wicked people, the whole thing is corrupt and a fraud and I don't want anything
to do with it.
And you know what if you're smart, you know what you'll do with your time and energy?
Serve the Lord and win souls to Jesus Christ and quit wasting time with politics.
Do you get it?
Because it's a stupid waste of your time and donating your money to it is flushing your
money down the toilet?
Volunteering to work with the Republican party or the Democrat party is flushing your time
down the toilet?
Now, I believe in liberty and freedom and I don't think that we should just kiss our
country goodbye, but you know the best way that you can help our nation is by winning
souls to Jesus Christ, by preaching the Bible, by standing up for godliness and righteousness
and the truth and educating people.
If you want to educate people about what's really going on, that's worthwhile.
Educate people about the federal reserve system, educate people about what the Bible teaches
about how our government should be run.
But supporting these devils and these frauds is a waste of your time and money.
And getting so involved in rocking the vote or whatever you think you're going to do is
a total waste of your time because the voting is all rigged anyway.
The voting machines are all on computer, it's all fraudulent, it's not real, the whole thing
is a straight.
And you know what?
A lot of people, they work at it and they work at it and they work at it and they work
at it and then one day they're going to realize, I wasted my life.
But you know what?
Anybody who goes out and knocks doors and preaches the gospel to people, anybody who
spends their life serving the Lord and studying the word of God and teaching people about
salvation and getting people saved, they're never going to feel that they wasted their
life or wasted their time.
So don't be the pawn of the rich.
Don't be the pawn of the powerful and get sucked in to becoming their apologist and
their minion and their cohort in crime.
I won't have anything to do with either political party anymore.
And I was raised a staunch dyed in the wool Republican, I will never vote Republican again.
And it's not because I'm Democratic because Democrats are even worse.
But they're both destroying our nation.
They're both for everything that this book is against.
And I don't want anything to do with it.
Now back to the chapter, I've got to hurry here, but in verse 13 it says,
They are those that rebel against the light.
They know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as
a thief.
The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me
and disguiseth his face.
In the dark they dig through houses which they had marked for themselves in the daytime.
They know not the light.
The morning to them, even as the shadow of death, if one know them, they are in the terrors
of the shadow of death.
So what is he saying?
In verse 13 through 17, he's talking about how wicked people are people of darkness.
And that the righteous people are the children of the light.
Now let's just look at a few quick scriptures on this.
Go to Romans chapter 13, Romans 13, and then we're going to go from there to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5.
Go to Romans 13 and then we're going to look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
Course Romans 13 is the chapter that people will try to use to tell us to bow down and
worship the government and lick their boots and basically promote all their wickedness.
But honestly, Romans 13, what it's actually teaching is that the government's job is to
punish evildoers.
Like the only reason that we should even have a government is to punish the evildoers.
You know, robbers and murderers and rapists.
Not to just take all our money and confiscate it and redistribute it and all these programs
and all this stupidity.
But anyway, that's another sermon in and of itself.
But look down if you would at verse number 11 of Romans 13, it says, and that knowing
the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.
Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering
and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make
not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
Now flip over to 1 Thessalonians 5 and let me just explain what we saw there in Romans
13.
Basically when God talks about light versus darkness, when he's talking about the darkness,
one of the things he's referring to is he refers to sinfulness as darkness.
He talked about fulfilling the lust of the flesh, he talked about drunkenness, he talked
about living in wantonness, fornicating, partying, drinking, whatever.
He calls those the works of darkness.
In Job he talked about adultery as being a work of darkness, and he says putting on the
armor of light, casting off the works of darkness, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ what God
wants us to do.
Now the other aspect of darkness is found in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
It says in verse 1, but of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that
I write unto you.
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as
travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day.
We are not of the night nor of darkness.
For let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober.
So here, darkness is basically referring to not knowing what's going on around you.
Being unaware of what's happening around you, what's happening in the world.
Basically ignorance is darkness, according to this passage.
And being in the light means you're awake, you're watching, you're paying attention,
and you know what's going on in the world that we live in.
You know what's going on around you.
That is called the light.
Ignorance is the darkness.
Then he also says in verse 7, for they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be
drunken are drunken in the night.
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for
in helmet the hope of salvation.
And we can turn to so many passages, because all throughout the New Testament there's this
thing of light versus darkness, a ton of passages we could go to.
First John chapter 1, we could go to the four gospels, Jesus talked a lot about this, John
chapter 3, all kinds of places where the Bible contrasts light versus darkness.
But usually it kind of falls into those two categories, you know.
When you're walking in the light, it means that you're living a clean, sober, godly life.
And when you're walking in darkness, you're living a drunken, fornicating, sinful type
life.
And when you're walking in the light, you have knowledge and wisdom and understanding
and you're aware of your surroundings.
Whereas when you're walking in darkness, you're ignorant, stupid, unaware of what's going
on and everybody's dupe and everybody's fool.
That's what it means to be in the light versus being in the darkness.
God calls the light goodness and godliness and the darkness is wickedness and ungodliness.
Now let's just take a moment and think about literal light and darkness.
When do most bad things happen?
At night or in the daytime?
Go back to Job chapter 24.
It's in the night that bad things happen.
That's why he says in verse 16, look at this.
Job 24, 16, in the dark, they dig through houses which they had marked for themselves
in the daytime.
So in the daytime, thieves and criminals will case the joint.
They'll mark out houses and places that look vulnerable, but they go back to commit the
crime at night.
When people commit adultery, he says, they do it at night because they want to have that
cover of darkness, they disguise their face, nobody's going to see them, they do that at
night.
They murder at night.
They rob at night.
They commit adultery at night.
Now look, if you are a person who is struggling with sin in your life right now, and I'm sure
that there are people who hear this sermon who are struggling with sins similar to these
sins.
Now I'm not saying you're a murderer.
I'm not saying that you're robbing houses at night, but you know what?
If you're one who has a tendency to drink, if you're one who has a tendency to go out
and party, maybe fornicate, maybe do drugs, drink, whatever, one of the best things that
you could do in order to live a more clean and godly life is to not go out at night,
to sleep at night.
Then that's what the Bible says, they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be
drunken are drunken in the night.
You know, there are two kinds of people.
People who go to sleep at night, people who go out and drink and party at night, okay,
is what he's saying there.
And honestly, if you're the type of person who gives in to temptation or is struggling
with these temptations, one of the best things that you could do is just make sure that you
get up early and go to bed early.
That will solve some of the problems in your life.
And by the way, have a job to get up and go to early.
That will keep you busy and out of trouble.
But you know what?
People that are wicked people, people that are living an ungodly life, they often roll
out of bed at 10, 11, 12, 1 in the afternoon.
And you know what?
That is not a righteous lifestyle, I mean unless, okay, if you have a job where you
work second shift or third shift, okay, I understand.
I've worked shifts like that, okay.
That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about people who are just lazy and they don't get up early, they don't go
to work, they're bored, they have time, they go out at night, and they, look, you're just
walking down the street at night, you're going to get into trouble.
Just wandering around at night, walking through downtown areas at night, walking through the
residential neighborhood at night, just whatever you're doing at night, you're just more likely
to get involved in sin at night than you will in the daytime.
Even just your mentality is different.
When you first wake up in the morning, you wake up with a sane and serious and sober
mentality when you wake up in the morning.
Have you ever noticed that?
Have you ever had like a crazy idea at night and you're like, well, I'm going to do this
crazy idea.
And then you wake up the next morning.
What was I thinking?
Because in the morning you have like a moment of clarity when you wake up in the morning.
But at night, stupid things seem like a good idea.
At night, you get crazier.
First of all, children should be kept in at night.
Teenagers should be kept in at night.
And if you're one who wants to get your life cleaned up and wants to get right with God,
one of the best things that you can start doing is get on a schedule where you get up
every morning at 6 in the morning, you know, at 5 in the morning.
And if you get up at 5 or 6 in the morning, then guess what's going to happen when you
get around 9, 10 at night?
You're going to want to go to bed.
You're going to be tired.
You're going to want to go to bed.
And you know, you get up, you work hard, you go to bed at night, and you sleep at night,
and you'll stay out of trouble.
But when you just get up at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., guess what's going to happen when you get
up at 10 in the morning?
You're going to be up until 3 in the morning.
And guess when bad things happen?
11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, because you're bored, you're wandering
around, you're out, you know.
So just even literally, light and darkness, you know, and thank God we're getting into
summertime.
More light, less darkness, especially in Arizona.
So you know, make sure that you are not just out wandering the streets at night, partying
at night.
You know, you need to just work hard in the daytime and go to sleep at night, stay out
of trouble.
But let's go hurry up and finish here in Job 24.
It says in verse 18, he is swift as the waters, their portion is cursed in the earth, and
beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.
Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so doth the grave those which have sinned.
The womb shall forget him, the worm shall feed sweetly on him, and he shall be no more
remembered and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
So what he's saying here is that judgment is eventually going to come upon the wicked.
He says in verse 24, they're exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low,
they are taken out of the way as all other and cut off as the tops of the years ago.
So right now, the rich, the powerful, the famous, the wicked, the ungodly, you know,
right now they're enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season.
They're exalted for a little while, but eventually they're going to fall, eventually they're
going to be punished, eventually they're going to be destroyed.
We should not envy them or walk in their ways.
They are ungodly.
Let me just focus in on this last verse that I want to talk about, verse 19.
Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so doth the grave those which have sinned.
So what he's talking about there is that in the winter time and in the darkness, the snow
is frozen, but that when the heat comes, it melts the snow and it's gone, it disappears.
And he's saying that's how the wicked are going to be, they're going to be gone.
Now it's something that is just as certain to happen as, you know, spring follows winter
and summer follows spring.
Now the verse that this reminded me of is in James chapter 1, where again it talks about
the rich, and it says, for the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth
the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth,
so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
So just as this scripture says that these wicked, powerful, rich people that abuse others,
he says that they are going to be like snow that melts, and it disappears, and it's like
a vapor and it's gone.
He says that's exactly how it's going to be, you know, with the rich in James 1 where they're
like grass, that the summer heat comes and just bakes it and destroys it and burns it
and it withers away and the flower falls off.
He's saying look, the wicked might look right now like they're beautiful and they're succeeding
and they're wealthy.
I mean, Goodnight, there was some guy in the news this week, and I don't really know much
about this story, but I saw this guy that was all over the news this week.
He was like the owner of a basketball team, did you guys see this in the news?
You know, the owner, the guy just looked so gross and ancient and old and disgusting and
just he was just like this old miserly, wicked, he's basically, and here's what he is, he's
a rich guy, super wealthy guy, and he looks like death warmed over, but he's got this,
he's got some 30 year old girlfriend.
He's married.
He's married to a woman that's his own age, but he's just publicly, openly just got this
30 year old girlfriend that he goes to these basketball games with and he's so cool.
And I guess he was in the news because somebody recorded his private conversation where he
said a bunch of racial things and then he was fired from his position, or he was banned
from the NBA, even though he owns a team in the NBA, he's banned from ever even going
to his own team's game because of the fact that he said some racist comment and it was
recorded.
But it's funny, everybody's so upset at the guy for hating on black people, which is obviously
wrong for him to do.
But what about the fact that the guy's committing adultery openly with a 30 year old girl that
he brings to the game?
You know, it's like, is anybody mad about that?
But this guy probably thinks he's so cool.
He owns a basketball team and he's got the 30 year old young woman, he's, I don't know,
what is he?
80?
He looks like he's 100.
I don't know how old he is, but you know, and by the way, you know, Jewish guy hates
on black people.
You know, a lot of people will try to make it out that Jews are always the victims of
racism.
Honestly, a lot of times Jews can be the biggest racist.
I mean, racism, anybody can be racist.
White people, black people, Jews, Hispanic, anybody can have a mentality that thinks that
they're better than everybody or whatever.
And it's wrong.
You know, the Bible says God's made us all of one blood.
But this guy is just now, you know, his whole life he's been taking advantage of people,
abusing people, making money through dishonest gain.
His whole life, right?
And now he's an old man, he's spent his whole life abusing and just stealing and making
money through means that are not biblical, that are not godly, okay?
And here this guy is, just openly committing adultery, just openly espousing wickedness,
and yet now he's being publicly humiliated.
Now obviously the guy loves basketball, if he even bought this team and goes to all the
games and everything, now he's kind of losing everything.
But that just kind of shows you when you live a wicked life, God's going to punish you for
it.
You know, and this guy's kind of probably just getting punished for just a lot of bad
things he's done in his life, or probably just coming back around now to bite him.
And now he's literally just the laughing stock of the whole nation.
I saw the picture of him on the news website I was looking at, and they just picked the
most unflattering picture of the guy.
He's wearing like a pink shirt, which I don't think men should wear pink shirts, but he's
wearing a pink shirt, he's got like a big gut, and he's kind of slumped over, and he
just looks evil, you know?
And it's just, look at this guy, he's a loser, and he can't even go to his own games and
blah blah blah, he's a laughing stock, but he's probably just reaping bad things that
he's done his whole life.
Because that's how it is with the wicked.
I bet there was a time when he was the coolest guy.
You know, he was probably so cool, throwing all kinds of money around, you know, he's
got beautiful women around him and everything.
Now he's just an old, sorry loser.
Because see, when people who've lived a godly life and they get old, they're exalted, they're
lifted up.
People who've been like a great preacher or something, when they're old, they're honored
and respected, because the Bible says the hoary head or the white hair is a crown of
glory if it be found in the way of righteousness, but you know, when you see somebody who's
lived an ungodly life, pursued the lust of the flesh, pursued the love of money, pursued
adultery and they get old, they just look disgusting.
They just look like just evil, you know, they're just a dirty old man, right?
And so this guy is reaping what he's sown and he's fading away and then he's going to
die and go to hell and burn in hell for all eternity.
But you know what, we look at other younger versions of that guy and think they're so
cool and idolize them, but you know what, that's how they're all going to end up.
You know what I mean?
They're all going to fade away and they're all going to be damned, those who do not believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But that being said, I think it's kind of scary that this guy, that we live in a society
where people are kind of recorded, people are recorded in their privacy and then that
stuff is brought out publicly because you know what, the Bible even says that everybody
at some time or another says stupid things in the privacy of their own home.
I mean it talks about how when you hear people cursing you privately, don't lay it to heart
because other times you've cursed others.
You know, it just says that basically when you say things, you don't always mean things
that you say.
Does anyone really want a recording of the stupidest things you ever said in your life
to surface?
You know what I mean, like it's probably everybody said stupid things in the privacy of their
own home.
So it's kind of creepy how everybody's being recorded all the time and then it just gets
put out publicly and then you can lose your job or whatever because of something that
was said privately in your own home, even if what the guy said was wrong.
Even if the guy did say something stupid, again, it's the society, and I can't help
but thinking that maybe this is in the news just to condition us for like, hey, you better
say stuff that's politically correct or else, you know what I mean, like we're gonna punish
you.
But anyway, that guy's reaping what he's selling though because I don't feel bad for him because
he's a wicked adulterer and that's what ought to be the outrage.
What ought to be the outrage is that here's your wife and here's your 30-year-old girlfriend
that you take everywhere you go publicly.
That's what we ought to be upset about.
But bottom line is, wicked people, that's how they are.
If you want to be that kind of a loser in your old age and you want to just be a laughing
stock of the world in your old age, then just spend your life partying and going after the
love of money and going after the lust of the flesh and just taking advantage of others
and bullying others and pushing people around.
That's how you end up a loser and if you live a godly life, you'll end your life in
a good way.
That's what Job teaches us.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for the lessons we can learn from Job, Lord.
Please just help us never to be bullies, help us never to physically push people around
that are weaker than us, help us never to take advantage of people that are in a bad
financial position and to be abusive with them, Lord.
Please just help us to realize that if we walk in the light and if we do what's right
and if we are fair and treat other people the way we want to be treated, we will reap
what we've sown and likewise if we live an ungodly, filthy life, that's going to come
back around and get us, Lord.
Help us to realize that there is a reward for doing right eventually and that there
is a punishment for the wicked eventually.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.