My faithfulness, with my laughter riding on, My faithfulness to all generations,
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing, I will sing, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.
Thank you.
My faithfulness passing moment, strength I fight to meet my trials here,
Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment, I'm no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is guide me on all measure, His unto each day my healing's best,
Loving me is part of pain and pleasure, Being linked all with peace and rest.
Every day the Lord himself is near me, With a special mercy for each hour,
All my cares he faith would bear and share me, He whose name is count to learn and buy,
The protection of his child and treasure, Is a charge that on him shall be laid,
As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure, Place the flesh to me he may,
Help me then in every tribulation, So to trust, I promise, says the Lord,
That I lose my faith's reconciliation, Offer me within thy holy word,
Help me Lord when toil and trouble meeting, There to take as from our Father's hand,
One by one the days the moment's pleading, Till I reach the promised land.
I have a song I love to sing, Since I have been redeemed,
Oh God redeemer, save your king, Since I have been redeemed,
Since I have been redeemed, Since I have been redeemed,
I will glory in his name, Since I have been redeemed,
I will glory in my Savior's name, I have a price that satisfies, Since I have been redeemed,
To do this will my highest crime, Since I have been redeemed,
Since I have been redeemed, Since I have been redeemed,
I will glory in his name, Since I have been redeemed,
I will glory in my Savior's name.
I have a song that Jesus gave me, It was sent from hell above,
It never was a sweeter melody, Tis the melody of love,
In my heart there rings a melody, There rings a melody with heaven's harmony,
In my heart there rings a melody, There rings a melody of love,
I love the Christ who died on Calvary, For he washed my sins away,
He looked within my heart a melody, And I know it's there to stay,
In my heart there rings a melody, There rings a melody with heaven's harmony,
In my heart there rings a melody, There rings a melody of love.
Of last will be my endless theme and glory, With the angels I will sing,
Will be a song with glorious harmony, With the chords of heaven ring,
In my heart there rings a melody, There rings a melody with heaven's harmony,
In my heart there rings a melody, There rings a melody of love.
Oh, for a thousand times to sing, My great Redeemer's praise,
The chorus of my God in being, The triumphs of his praise,
Jesus, the name that charms our fears, And is our sorrow seized,
His music in the sin of tears, His blackened health and peace,
He breaks the power of heaven's own sin, He sets the prison free,
His blackened name, the blood of His King, He's the nail for me,
Hear him, he can't his crazy thunder, Listen, drums and horn,
Hear my reward, your Savior come, And can be lame for joy,
My gracious pastor and my God, Assist me to the pain,
Test me through all the earth, But from the honors of my name.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That's made the rent by me, My God's, my son's, my now, I will,
Was by the now I see,
Such grace that taught my heart to him, And raised my fears free,
How precious he had grace of me, He arrived first to me,
The Lord has promised good to me,
His word, my Lord, said, Your word, He will, my...
Good afternoon, everybody. It's great to see everybody here again.
We can go ahead and find our seats. We will get started.
And for tonight's first song, we'll be singing Joy to the World.
Song 423,
Song 423, Joy to the World.
Song 423, let's sing it out on the first.
Joy to the World, the Lord has come, Let earth receive her name,
Let every art prepare him fruit, And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the World, the Savior reigns, Let men their songs employ,
While he wields land, floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
Weeping the sounding joy, Weeping the sounding joy,
Weeping, weeping the sounding joy, No more it sings and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns impact the ground, He comes to make his blessings flow,
Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found, He rules the world,
With truth and grace, And makes the nations prove,
The glories of his righteousness, And wonders of his love,
And wonders of his love, And wonders of his love.
Great singing, everybody. Let's open up the service now with a word of prayer.
Lord, we just thank you so much for this church.
Thank you for the ability to come here and sing unto you.
Lord, we just thank you for everything you do for us.
We love you so much.
We just ask now that you bless this church and bless this service
and fill it with your spirit.
That's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 421.
Song number 421, The First Noel.
Song number 421.
Sing it out loudly on the first.
The first Noel, the angel did say,
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay,
In fields where they play keeping their sheep.
On a cold winter's night that was so deep.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel.
Born is the King of Israel.
And by the light of that same star,
Three wise men came from country far,
To seek for a king was deterrent in,
Where the fall of the star wherever it went.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel.
Born is the King of Israel.
This star to die to the North West,
Or Bethlehem may took his rest.
And there it did, oh stop and stay,
Right over the place where Jesus lay.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel.
Born is the King of Israel.
And entered in those wise men,
And reached forever and be among them.
And all were there in his presence,
Their golden fur and fringes and sins.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel.
Born is the King of Israel.
All right, great singing.
Thank you for coming to Stetfast Baptist Church.
If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high.
One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin.
We're still memorizing Matthew chapter 28.
And then on the inside we have our service
and soul winning times.
We also have down below our church stats.
If you have any soul winning,
make sure you're just putting that in our church group.
And then also if you have a map,
make sure you're marking through that
and putting it in our done bin.
You can give it to a evangelist or myself
and we'll help you to organize those maps.
On the right, please continue to pray
for our expecting ladies and our prayers
for the rest of the church and our friends and family.
On the back, there is a note about a volunteer cleaning luncheon.
And so we might put something in the chat
so that way we get an idea of who's planning on attending.
But if you're planning on attending,
that'll be next Sunday immediately following the morning service.
And we'll be meeting in our fellowship room.
So also that'll just be only for the cleaning luncheon
just next Sunday.
December 25th is going to be our Christmas cookie bake off.
Again, there's really not any rules.
It's just bring whatever you think is your best cookies.
And of course, just to be honest though,
there has been some awesome cookies in the past.
So it is a pretty stiff competition,
but you got a lot of hungry eaters
and so it's always been a lot of fun.
And I encourage you to make a lot of cookies
and we'll have some fun.
January 1st is our men's preaching night in pizza.
Any men that want to preach will probably put you in the hat
and we'll do some popcorn preaching.
You do have to wear a button-up shirt and tie.
And your sermon needs to be around five minutes
and we'll have some pizza fellowship after our service time.
So that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
We're going to go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week,
Psalm 67, Psalm 67.
All right, that was Psalm chapter 67
in your laminated handout or your King James Bible.
Psalm 67.
Does that note well sing it out?
On the first.
God be merciful unto us and bless us
And cause his face to shine upon us
That thy way may be known of honor
That saving hills upon all nations
Let the people praise thee, oh God
Let all the people praise thee
Oh let the nations be glad
And sing for joy
For thou shalt judge the people
Righteously and cover
The nations upon earth
The nations upon earth see law
Let the people praise thee, oh God
Let all the people praise thee
Oh let the nations be glad
And sing for joy
Then shall the earth yield her increase
And God even our own God shall bless us
God shall bless us in all he is
Of the earth shall wear him
Let the people praise thee, oh God
Let all the people praise thee
Oh let the nations be glad
And sing for joy
Chapter number six.
Chapter number seven.
Chapter number eight.
Matthew chapter six.
the Bible says, take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of
them, otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven. Therefore
when thou doest sign alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do
in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.
Barely I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let
not thy right hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in
secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they
may be seen of men. Barely I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou shalt thy door, pray to
thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they
think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be ye not therefore
like unto them, for your father knoweth what things you have need of before ye
ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye, our father which art in heaven
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is
in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. For if you
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.
But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father
forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites
of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto
men to fast. Barely I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou
fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face. That thou appear not unto men to
fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon
earth, where moth and rust death corrupt, and where thieves break through
and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust death corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor
steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 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? 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. You cannot serve God and mammon. 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 so
not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly
father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by
taking thought, can add one cubit unto his 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 unto you, that even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so
clothe the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, oh ye of little
faith? 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 ye have need of all these things. 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. Let us pray. Dear
heavenly father, I thank you for steadfast Baptist church.
Thank you for the souls saved. I ask you to help us to be
mindful of all of your blessings and to be thankful for that in
this Christmas season. I ask you to bless Pastor Shelley now
and help us to have ears to hear in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Matthew chapter number six is a chapter that we're
going to be going through on Wednesday night. But since
usually when we by the time we get to the end of a chapter, I
don't have as much time. I actually get an opportunity
this evening to kind of dive into a little bit of the end of
this chapter tonight. And we can focus on the beginning on
Wednesday. But I'm also wanting to kind of couple this
sermon with two others that I'd preach. It's kind of a
trilogy of sermons. I had talked about two weeks ago
on Sunday night, the concepts of a poverty mindset and how it's
an excuse often for being lazy, and the importance of us
working hard in our jobs and the things that we have. And
then last week I talked about greedy of gain and how many
people will acquire wealth through sinful means,
through covetousness, they'll have bad attitudes, and they
may result in sinful actions. And this evening I want to
kind of balance all of these ideas with what the Bible just
clearly says here in verse number 33, but seek ye first, the
kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these
things shall be added unto you. So the Bible does have for
us priorities. And that's the title of the sermon this
evening is priorities. You could look at it as quote
financial priorities, because that's what I'm mostly
going to be speaking about. But the Bible is really
clear that when we talk about what's the most important
thing and what we should be seeking first and what we
should be seeking the most is the kingdom of God. That's
what the Bible just clearly and explicitly states. And so
when it comes to priorities, we also have to understand
though it does not say but seek ye only the kingdom of
God, but rather it says seek ye first, meaning that
there must be a second, meaning there must be a
third. And so we have to understand that in our lives
there's always going to be balanced. There's going to
be many responsibilities that we have. And yet we have to
make sure that in balancing these priorities, we're
maintaining those that are first in the first place,
second and second and third and third and so on. Whereas
many people mix up priorities or they will get confused
on what's the most important thing. And the Bible is
abundantly clear that we should seek the things of
God first. It also says in this chapter, if you
notice in verse 20, I'm sorry, verse 19, lay not up for
yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust
are corrupt and where thieves break through and
steal. So the Bible tells us to explicitly not lay up
treasure on this earth. The Bible tells us to seek
ye first the kingdom of God. Now I'm not going to
read all of this, but notice it says in 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. You
cannot serve God and mammon. Why does it say you
cannot? You could try, but the reality is when push
comes to shove, you will inevitably favor one over
the other. You'll spend more time, effort and
energy on one. One will get the priority over
the other. And so he's saying it more from a
practical perspective that it's impractical. No one
could truly serve both. By serving one, you'll
end up having to sacrifice the other and vice versa.
By ended up serving God or seeking first the kingdom
of God, it'll end up making sacrifices for mammon.
And by seeking first mammon and serving mammon,
you'll end up making sacrifices for God because
you can't do both equally. One is going to be
more weighty than the other. One is going to
take from the other in priority. And so that's
why it's important that we have the right
priority. And that we're putting God first and
mammon in its place. I'm not even saying it's
necessarily second, but I am saying it's behind
that particular priority. Of course, serving God
is the most important thing that we can do.
It's just number one. But it doesn't mean that's
the only thing we do in the sense of like what
we do practically speaking. But we could say
in a sense everything we do is serving God
because everything we do is supposed to be in
the glory of God. But I'm just saying like
explicitly things that we know as spiritual,
like reading your Bible. Reading your Bible is
something that we should do on a daily basis.
This is kind of a checklist in our minds of
are we really making sure that God's first.
You can't necessarily check everything off the
list and that'd be for sure. But it just
gives us an idea how are we're doing. If
you're not reading the Bible on a daily
basis, you're really probably not putting
God as a priority in your life. You're not
really seeking Him first. Additionally, if
you're not praying daily, then you're probably
not seeking God first in your life. If you're
not attending church, then you're not really
making God a priority. And I would argue if
you're going to make Him first, if you're
going to do what the Bible is saying, but seek
Him first, the kingdom of God, you'd probably
go to every single service. I think that
that would be someone that's really making
Him the priority. Now does that mean that
we're saying that it's sinful not to go
to every service? No, I wouldn't
necessarily say that everything you do
that's not perfect is sinful, but at the
same time there's good, better, and best.
You know, I don't want to necessarily see
how I can live the bare minimum Christian
life. And at the end of the day, it's
not necessarily always a question of
whether something's sinful or rather
just what's the most pleasing to God. God
wants us to seek Him first. He wants us
to prioritize Him first. And I believe
that God is pleased with us when we are
seeking Him first and putting church
ahead of other things in our life. If
you're going soul-winning, you know, at
least once a week, I would say that,
yeah, you are making God a priority. Now
does that mean you only go soul-winning
once a week? No, but I think you should,
if you're capable, if that's a season
of life that you're in, you have the
means to go soul-winning once a week, I
think you should do so. Are there
going to be exceptions to this?
Absolutely. Of course, children may not
be able to participate in something
like that. Obviously, ladies, when they're
pregnant, at any time when we're all
sick or we're, you know, having some kind
of a special thing that's going in our
life, there can be exceptions to this.
But just generally speaking, I think
you should strive to at least go at a
bare minimum soul-winning once a week.
And this just kind of gives you an
idea, hey, am I really seeking God
first in my life? And to me, if
you're saying, you know, I don't go
soul-winning once a week because of my
job. I don't go to church every time
the doors are open because of my job.
I don't get my Bible reading in because
of my job. I don't pray because of my
job. Well, then it sounds like mammon is
ahead of seeking God. It sounds like
you don't have the right priorities.
I would rather say, well, I don't have
this job because of church. Well, I
don't have this church, I don't go to
this workplace because of what the Bible
says, or something like that. That would
be more conducive. Or I don't have this
career because it interrupts, you know,
serving God in some way. Because not
every career is created equally and it
may not allow me to serve God the way
that I want to. And so I'm going to try
and put God first. Now, again, there's
going to always be exceptions. There's
going to be different circumstances. I'm
not saying that if you have something
slightly off from this that you're
not seeking God first, but it is a
little bit of a test to see where are
you? Where are you and how much of a
priority are you making God in your life
and we should be striving to seek first
the kingdom of God. The Bible says in
verse 25, therefore I say to you, take no
thought for your life, what she shall
eat or what she shall drink, nor yet
for your body, what you shall put on,
is not the life more than meat and
the body than raiment. Now, I think
we have to understand these verses in a
little bit of a context. Obviously, we
can't just absolutely abstract ourselves
from the concept of needing to eat food.
Obviously, we're going to get hungry and
we have to figure out practically like
I'm going to go here or make this
dinner, right? I don't think that's
what the Bible is really getting at. I
think what the Bible is trying to get
at is outside of your necessary daily
operations of acquiring food or
clothing or all this kind of stuff,
it's the more the daydreaming, wishing
for and constantly worrying about
having these items when we're not
talking about the absolute necessary
operations of a day-to-day life.
Because I can sit here and constantly
worry about all the different foods
and all the different clothes and all
the different possessions that I can
have and wanting them and wishing for
them. And the Bible is basically
saying, hey, we shouldn't be daydreaming
about that. We shouldn't be
constantly consumed with possessions.
That's a waste of time in a sense.
That's not really redeeming the time
and it leads to being lazy,
being sinful, doing wrong things,
having screwed up priorities.
When we have free time, when we have
opportunity to think about stuff,
we should rather exercise ourselves
in godliness and in righteousness
or in something of value that the
Bible talks about rather than
worrying about food and our clothes
and all these different things
because there's more to life than just
simply eating and clothes.
That's what he's saying.
Life is not really just about having fun.
Life is not just about living it up.
There's a lot more to life.
He even says in verse 26,
build the fowls of the air for they so not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns,
yet your heavenly father feed of them.
Are you not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought
can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take he thought for raiment,
consider the lilies of the field how they grow.
They toil not, neither do they spin,
and yet I sand you, that even Solomon
and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
It's almost like a disk.
God's like saying, you guys can't even dress yourselves
as nice as the flowers of the field.
The flowers of the field,
the beauty and the creation of God
is greater than our best efforts
at dressing ourselves.
And while the Bible's not saying don't dress well,
the Bible's not saying don't concern yourself
with dressing appropriately.
It's just simply saying it's kind of vain
because you can't even do that great anyways.
It's a vain thing in your life
if you're just always worried about having the best clothes
or just always having the best fashion
or just always having the best dress.
I think that some people live their lives
almost consumed with this.
There are like ladies that think
like the most important thing about going to church
is being dressed the nicest of any of the ladies there
or being the most fancy or having the best clothes.
And it's like that would be the worst attitude
to have coming to church.
Like it doesn't matter.
Obviously we should be dressed modestly.
There's nothing wrong with having nice clothes,
wanting to be dressed well, looking good,
your family matching.
There's nothing wrong with this stuff.
But at the end of the day,
church is not about us showing off
the clothes that we have or even men.
Men can have the same thing.
There's all kinds of men's fashion lines
and men's clothing.
Even sports athletes have their own Jordans
and it's all about shoes.
I mean, I don't understand,
but there's like some big deal about like basketball shoes
or like certain kinds of shoes
that are worth so much money.
Guys are selling all these specialty shoes
and stuff like that.
And I'm just thinking like it's just shoes.
Like I don't even care at all.
I've had, I have a pair of shoes
that I've had for like 10 years.
You know, like dress shoes or whatever.
And it's just like, I don't really,
like it just doesn't seem like a worthy while,
a worthwhile thing in your life
to just constantly be worried about clothing
and food and your cars and your house.
I mean, all this stuff at the end of the day,
it's just necessary stuff.
We all gotta have shoes.
We all gotta have clothes.
We all gotta have a house.
We all gotta have food.
You know what?
I wanna spend my time thinking about the Bible.
I wanna spend my time thinking about my family,
thinking about the future,
thinking about friendships,
thinking about fellowships,
thinking about missions trips,
thinking about things that actually matter,
instead of worrying about constantly
these things that just the world is consumed with
that really don't have much value whatsoever.
This is the context.
He says in verse number 31,
therefore take no thought saying,
what shall we eat?
Or what shall we drink?
Or where shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek
for heavenly Father knoweth that you have need
of all these things,
but seek ye first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness and all these things
shall be added unto you.
Now, this is what's really important.
Think about what he just said.
You're worried about having really nice clothes.
You're worried about eating really good food.
You're worried about having a nice car.
You're worried about having a nice house.
And what God is saying, just put me as a priority
and I'll give you all that anyways.
Now he didn't say,
he's not saying you can't have it.
He's not saying it's wrong to have it.
He's not saying it's wrong to use it.
He's saying it's wrong to seek it.
Don't seek it and it'll come to you.
It's like a cat, okay?
You know, if you seek the cat, he gets mad at you.
If you leave him alone, he comes out of nowhere
and he just wants the attention
and say, you know, you kind of have to figure it out.
So it's like what God's saying is like,
don't worry about these things.
Just put me as a priority in your life
and I'll make sure you get all the stuff you need.
In fact, sometimes it's even just stuff you want to.
It's not even only just the needs.
But at the end of the day,
we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things will be taken and given unto us.
I mean, think about like Joseph as an example.
Joseph did not spend his life seeking position,
authority, clothing, food, any of this kind of stuff.
He just tried to serve God.
But at some point in his life,
he got elevated to the second command.
He never had to think about food or clothing ever.
And now he's probably got the best dress,
the best clothes, the best everything.
God gave him everything he could ever want and wish for
and he didn't seek it at all.
Even Job in the Bible, he had patience.
He stuck with God.
And at the end of his trial, at the end of his affliction,
everybody came out of the woodwork,
gave him a piece of gold, gave him a piece of silver,
gave him an earring, gave him whatever.
And he ended up having 10 more kids.
He was, the end of his life was blessed even more.
But he wasn't even seeking that.
He's not going after that.
Abraham was seeking to please God
and going into a new land.
And then along the way, God gave him
and multiplied his flocks and gave him all of this increase.
Jacob was just simply serving God, humble in the field,
just doing what he was supposed to do,
tending the Laban's flocks year after year
after year after year after year,
not seeking his own good,
but seeking the good of his employer,
seeking the good of his father-in-law.
And then at the end of the day,
God ended up just giving all of Laban's possessions
and flock unto Jacob.
And so instead of worrying about having possessions
and how to acquire possessions,
we should rather just simply serve God
and then just allow him to give us
the possessions he wants us to have.
And he'll figure out a way to get you what you need
when you put him first.
When you seek it on your own, you don't get it.
And when you just don't seek it
and you seek him, sometimes you get it.
Isn't that interesting?
It's interesting how when you seek it,
it's like Haman is seeking to have all this praise and glory
and he ends up not getting it
and he gets hanged on the gallows he made.
Mordecai is not seeking any honor or glory
and then Mordecai gets all the glory
that Haman was wishing for.
So it's like you want all that honor and glory,
but you can't get it by seeking it.
You just simply serve God and if he promotes you,
he promotes you, if he does it, he doesn't.
But you know what?
Blessed be the name of the Lord
because I'm just here to serve him anyways.
And at the end of the day, if you truly want it,
if you really think you're gonna get it,
you gotta put him first anyways.
That's what the Bible is basically saying
and we have to think about.
Now let's just read a little bit more here.
It says, take therefore no thought for the morrow,
for the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself sufficient
in the days of the evil era.
Hey, you don't need to worry
about tomorrow having problems.
You're gonna have problems.
You know what I mean?
He's saying just don't worry about stuff.
Just live in the present
and when you live in the present, what do you do?
Okay, am I being spiritual today?
And when you're not, try to change that.
Try to make him a priority every single day
and just take one day at a time
because we're not even promised the next breath.
We're not even promised tomorrow.
We're not even promised another hour.
We're not even promised the next breath.
And so therefore we should just keep him
as the apple of our eye.
We're seeking him first.
What is seeking first the kingdom of God?
Again, the kingdom of God is the spiritual family.
It's all the aspects of Christianity.
It's not only just salvation,
but then he also couples it with and his righteousness,
which would be the entire Bible.
So we should seek, of course, salvation once we have that,
then we seek the salvation of others
and keeping all of the commandments whatsoever
he's commanded us, okay?
And so we should constantly be seeking
how to be righteous, serving God, doing right.
That's really important.
Bit of first Timothy chapter number six now.
Bit of first Timothy chapter number six.
When we talk about priorities,
we wanna make sure that we balance ourselves,
especially in the context of finances.
What did we learn two weeks ago?
We learned the importance of working hard
and not being lazy.
Should always work hard.
Number two, we learned that we should not be sinful
in our acquiring of wealth or money or gain,
but rather we should only do it honestly.
We should work hard, but honestly,
with integrity and serving the Lord.
But then ultimately, we should make sure
and be careful that we're seeking first the kingdom of God.
That we're not allowing the acquiring of wealth
or making money to usurp our spiritual life.
If you're allowing your acquiring of wealth
or getting money or making money
to stop you from serving God,
you know, that's not the right pursuit.
You have something off in your priorities.
Now, it doesn't mean that you should not be a hard worker.
It just means, hey, let's take some of that hard work
and apply it to the things of God.
And of course, we should never acquire wealth
by sinful means.
We wanna make sure that we're always doing things
honestly and with integrity.
Now, first Timothy chapter number six
also tells us that we have to have a certain attitude
and that attitude is one with contentment.
What is being content?
That you're pleased with what you have.
You don't need to have any more.
That you're satisfied.
You're not gonna be having a bad attitude.
You're not gonna be unthankful.
So when we talk about the things that we have,
we should be thankful what we have, that's being content.
Verse six, but godliness with contentment is great gain.
Says in verse seven, for we brought nothing into this world
and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and raiment,
let us be there with content.
So, if you don't have food or clothing,
the Bible's, that's your exception, right?
You can essentially be complaining to God
and asking God for food and clothing.
But once you have those,
the Bible says that we have to have
at least some level of contentment.
And the Bible makes it clear
that when you have godliness and it's with contentment.
So it means you're serving God, you're doing right,
but you're also pleased with where you're at.
You're satisfied with where you're at.
You're thankful for where you're at.
That is really significant.
That is a great gain.
He says in verse nine, but they that will be rich
fall into temptation and a snare.
This is really important because honestly,
I think that verse nine,
honestly only applies to people that are not rich.
Because if you are rich,
then you're not necessarily having to worry
about becoming rich because you are rich.
I think it's really honestly an attitude
that's mostly talking about people that are not rich,
but they just want to be rich
and they're trying to pursue becoming rich.
And the Bible is saying that that is a dangerous attitude.
Now I say that because look at verse 17.
Charge them that are rich in this world
that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches,
but in living God who give us richly all things to enjoy.
So he kind of addresses rich people
in the exact same chapter,
but he gives them kind of a different thought.
He's not saying in their thought, don't be rich.
Right, because if the commandment was don't be rich,
then he would say charge them that are rich in this world
to not be rich.
Charge them that are rich to immediately be mad at themselves
and fix their problem, get rid of your riches.
Now he says don't think highly of yourself,
don't be prideful.
Well, verse number nine,
they that will be rich fall into temptation.
The people that are already rich
aren't necessarily falling into the temptation.
They're already there.
What is their temptation?
Becoming prideful because of the fact that they're rich.
Why do people want to become rich?
Because they think that their life will be easy
and they want to trust in riches.
That's what he says in verse number 17,
nor trust in uncertain riches.
People that are rich often are trusting in their riches.
This is like the young rich ruler
that comes unto Jesus Christ
and doesn't want to accept salvation
because Jesus is making it clear
that he's trusting in his money,
he's trusting in his riches,
how hard it is for them that trust in riches
to enter in the kingdom of God.
Why?
Because they have earned that money typically
through working hard and the works that they've done
and they have more desire
to earn their way into heaven
than to accept that free gift.
Just like Cain is upset
that his sacrifice was not accepted.
He's upset that the works that he made,
this fruit of the ground,
the things that he did was displeasing to God.
Cain wants to work his way into heaven.
Cain wants recognition for his salvation.
Cain wants to basically earn his salvation
but God had not respect unto Cain's offering.
And that's why so many rich people
are unlikely to get saved
is because they want to earn their way into heaven
because they like the feeling of being better than people
and in their mind they think
that they're better than people by being rich.
Even though having money
does not make you better than anybody.
Having money is meaningless.
It does not prove you to be good or bad.
It's just your status.
And so if you are rich though,
you need to be careful that you're not prideful,
you need to be careful
that you're not trusting in your riches
and specifically verse 18,
that they do good and that they be rich
and good works ready to distribute willing to communicate.
Laying up and store for themselves a good foundation.
This goes well with what we learned in Matthew chapter number six
where it says lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.
So if you have a bunch of treasure,
not necessarily because you were just doing that on purpose
but rather you just worked really hard,
you earned a lot of money,
he's saying you should be willing to fork over a lot of that
and lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, right?
I mean, if you have a lot of treasure on earth
and you could give that to the Lord
or give that to the poor or do something with it
and get yourself a lot of riches in heaven,
that's what you should do.
That's what he's charging them.
He's saying, hey, if you're rich,
you should be ready to help people that need help
so that you can have lots of riches in heaven.
But he's not necessarily saying be poor,
he's just simply saying, hey,
you should be willing to use a lot of those riches
and a lot of the treasures you have
to make treasures in heaven, okay?
And so that's kind of dealing with them
but then we also need to deal with us
that are not rich
but they that will be rich fall into temptation is there.
Those of us that are not rich,
we could fall into the temptation of saying,
man, I kind of want to be that guy.
I want to be like him.
But when you have that attitude,
then you start to do what?
You stop to seek first the kingdom of God
and you start serving mammon.
You start trying to acquire wealth
as the primary goal of your life,
as the primary vision of your life
and what that can do is,
okay, now I'm not going to read the Bible as much,
now I'm not praying as much,
now I'm not going to church as much,
now I'm not so many as much,
now I'm not even necessarily willing
to follow certain commandments in the Bible
because that's going to stop me from acquiring wealth.
But we're supposed to say, no,
we're going to seek you first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness
and all these things are going to be added done to us.
I'm not going to put serving money above serving God.
Money has its place,
we have to make money
but we should never have this attitude
of I just, I have to be rich,
I want to be rich.
Why?
Because it's a temptation and a snare
and you're going to fall into many foolish
and hurtful lusts
which drown men in destruction and perdition
for the love of money is the root of all evil
which while some coveted after,
they have aired from the faith
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Notice what it says in verse 10,
they have aired from the faith.
Christians,
Christians can get a bug of a love of money.
Save people can get a bad attitude
and start desiring money
and seeking only after money
and just trying to acquire a lot of wealth
and what happens is they air from the faith,
they stop serving God,
they stop being spiritual,
they stop doing the things that are right
because they simply want to just be rich
and the love of money
will cause you to do everything bad.
I mean that's what the Bible says
is the root of all evil.
All evil somewhere comes down to
that someone has a love of money
and that's what's causing,
that's the initial cause,
that's what's the genesis of this evil,
of this destruction, of these problems.
Modern versions won't even say it like this.
They'll say it's like a root to all kinds of evil
but that's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says the love of money
is the root of all evil, just period.
And so we should be leery
and we should be careful with this attitude
and desire to be rich.
Man, it just floods our society.
I mean what is probably one of the most satanic things
we have in our society?
It's like rap music and rock music
and just a lot of music in general.
And I mean what is just the overall theme of rap music?
How about get rich or die trying?
I mean that is just the most obvious song
that I could ever think of when I think of this verse.
Like every time I think of this
I'm just thinking like, man,
this person is literally saying
they're willing to just die to get rich.
It's like life is not worth living if they're not rich.
And you know what, that's a bad attitude.
Life is great even if you're not rich.
And in fact, you know, having riches
could actually make your life worse than not having them.
A lot of people think that being rich is great
but in many cases it's ruined people's lives.
It's caused them to, you know, commit way worse sins.
Honestly, you gotta think about this is what money does.
Money just exaggerates who you are.
But here's the problem, if you're kind of a bad person
money will exaggerate that and it'll make you way worse.
Like you like drugs, like some people that likes drugs
but they can't afford that many
but then when they pour money on it
it's like unlimited cocaine, LSD, all kinds of stuff
and we see where it takes them.
You know, some people like gambling
but they don't have much money to gamble
but then they start getting all this money
then they start gambling themselves into debt
they could never pay back.
There are celebrities, there are sports athletes,
there are individuals that have made millions of dollars
millions and millions of dollars
and they've gambled it all away and then some.
They've made 20 million dollars in their life
and now they have a five million dollar debt.
It's like how do you even get
a five million dollar gambling debt?
It's like, you know, they're worse off.
People win the lottery, it ruins their lives.
It ruins their personal life.
Individuals who would probably have stayed married
came into riches, get divorced,
try to get another wife, do some,
get another spouse or whatever,
ruin their life, ruin their marriage,
ruins their kids.
You know, money doesn't necessarily fix anything.
All it does is it just exaggerates who you are.
Now look, if you are a really generous
God fearing person, hopefully money wouldn't even fix,
wouldn't change that.
Maybe you would just use your riches to serve God,
help more poor people and just move on.
You know, my hope or goal would be if I ever,
which will never happen, but if I won the lottery
or something, I would just try to like pay off debts
and stuff and just give it all away as soon as possible
so then I'm not rich anymore, you know?
Like just, just go back to a status quo
because you know, when you're rich,
everybody's your friend, but they're not your friend.
And I don't like that.
I already have enough fake people in my life.
I don't need any more.
And so, you know, having money,
you have way more fake friends.
You have way more, I mean when you're poor and ugly
and someone's your friend, they must really like you, okay?
When you're attractive and have money,
like you don't know if anybody actually likes you, okay?
So you always think like of these positive things
like oh, I wish I was rich and successful
and had all this stuff,
but their lives aren't even necessarily even better.
Solomon said that he had everything
that you could ever want and wish for any hated life.
So there's this attitude of a love of money
and it's not really even something you want.
You think you want it, but really all it is is a trap.
All it is is something that's there to deceive you.
Just like Eve looked at that fruit on the tree
and she desired it, but you know what, it's a trap.
It was a trap and the devil lied to her about it
and the, what does the Bible say?
The deceitfulness of riches.
Why would it say that?
Because riches in many cases are deceitful.
Riches are not what they're all cracked up to be
and it's a bad attitude.
We should just be content where we are.
Now if you end up acquiring riches,
I'm not saying you're a bad person,
I'm not saying rich people are bad
because the Bible doesn't say that.
But it is saying people that desire to be rich,
that's a bad attitude and that's a dangerous attitude
and it's hurt a lot of people.
What does it say in verse 11?
But thou, O man of God, flee these things
and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith,
lay hold on eternal life,
wearing two thou art also called
and as professed a good profession before many witnesses.
So what does the Bible say?
We should stay far away from the love of money.
We should not have this attitude
of trying to just become rich.
We should have an attitude of I'm gonna put God first
and then I'm gonna work hard
and then I'm gonna make sure I don't do anything
that crosses some kind of a sinful boundary to make money.
Now you could seek God first and be right with God
and not do anything sinful to acquire wealth
and just by working hard and being godly
still end up making really good money
or having lots of money.
But you know what?
That should not be the goal.
You know, that should be a byproduct
of doing things right and working hard
and having all the right balance
and at the end of the day,
it should be a cherry on the top,
it should be a bonus that even if you don't get it,
you don't care because at the end of the day
you wanna be rich towards God.
It's not about laying up treasure on earth anyways
because you can't take it with you.
It doesn't really benefit you
and in many cases it just brings more problems
in your life.
Go if you would to Luke chapter 12.
I wanna go to another place.
Go to Luke chapter number 12.
You already got enough problems.
Money isn't gonna necessarily help that.
It could make things worse.
Now poverty has its issues too.
Not being able to pay bills has its issues too.
But at the same time, having excess funds
causes a lot of problems too.
So, you know, there's not necessarily this idea of,
what's the, why do I lose this guy's name?
What's the money guy, the Christian money guy?
Dave Ramsey.
It's like Dave Ramsey's plan
to get you completely out of debt
and have all this extra money
and wealth and stuff like that.
You could do his plan and it'll probably work
but at the end of the day,
that doesn't make you a great person.
And you can't take it with you Dave.
It doesn't really benefit you just like,
hey, there's not gonna be like a club in heaven.
Like we were the debt free club.
Oh, you had a lot of debt.
Oh man, you're in the lower heaven
or something like that.
No, you know what matters
is how much riches you had towards God.
Okay, now, here's a story about that.
Luke chapter 12, look at verse number 14.
And he said in a man who made me a judge or divider over you
and he said in them, take heed and beware of covetousness
for a man's life consisted not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth.
And he spake a parable of them saying the ground
of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.
And he thought with himself saying, what shall I do?
Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits.
Now, before we answer this question,
what did the Bible tell us so far?
We'll charge them that are rich in this world to do what?
To not be high-minded, to not trust in uncertain riches,
to be ready to communicate, willing to distribute.
So what should you do?
Hey, I have everything I could ever want and need
and then I have all this extra.
Maybe you should give it away.
Do something for God with it, right?
How about the Bible that says
that you shouldn't reap the corners of your fields,
you should leave it to the poor.
That's an option.
But what is this guy's option?
He says, I have, because think about it,
he's saying I literally have nowhere to put this.
I don't even know what to do with this.
And he said, this will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build a grater
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
He's just saying, oh, I'm super rich,
I don't even know what to do with this money.
Let's get richer.
Hey, I'll make sure to just have even more money.
And I will say to my soul,
thou hast much goods, lay up for many years,
take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry.
So what did he say?
Oh, now I never have to do any work again.
Well, you know what?
That's the silly attitude
because we're supposed to work till Jesus comes.
Hey, you know, if this guy says,
hey, I have all this money
so I don't have to do a secular job
so I'm gonna spend all my time serving God,
that's different.
But what is this guy's attitude?
He wants to be what?
Lazy.
And that's why many people wanna be rich.
To be lazy again is they just wanna simply sit around,
do nothing, eat, drink, travel, do nothing.
Play video games, play sports, ride a bike maybe.
Just like basically just do nothing.
Our lives are not to just sit here
into fair sumptuously every single day.
We're here to work.
Now that does not mean you have to work
a secular job but you know what?
You should be working.
If you are independently wealthy or rich
and you're an exception, then find something to do.
If you could go soul winning every day of your life
and you don't have to work a secular job to pay your bills,
go for it.
I'm not gonna fight you on that, that's great.
You're a trust fund baby
and you wanna be a trust fund soul winner,
trust fund evangelist, go for it.
I'm not gonna fight you.
But you know what?
We should not seek to be a trust fund baby
to just sit around and do nothing with our lives.
That's what this guy wants to do, isn't he?
I know what I'll do, nothing.
But God sending him thou fool.
This night thy soul shall be acquired of thee.
Then who shall those things be which thou has provided?
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself
and is not rich toward God.
You know what this guy's problem is?
He was rich carnally but not spiritually
and when he dies he has nothing.
And somebody else gets to enjoy
all the fruits of his labor,
all the money that he laid up
and all the wealth and all the things that he had.
Because you know what, we have no idea
if we're gonna get to enjoy the money that we make
but we do know that we're gonna get to enjoy
the spiritual awards that we are today.
Hey, you get paid probably two weeks from
when you work, right?
We all get paid, a lot of us get paid by monthly
or two weeks, we have like a two week thing.
So if you died five days from now
you may not get to actually enjoy
the fruit of all your labor.
You work for a week and you're gonna get paid
in the future, you may not even get that money.
But you know what?
The work you did this afternoon
by preaching the gospel, if you died right now
you will get that reward when you go to heaven.
You are gonna have that to enjoy
and you know what, I would rather when I die
have no money and be loaded in heaven
than to have Elon Musk's wealth of $247 billion
and have done nothing for God.
Because it just is meaningless.
That's why it's saying seek ye first the kingdom of God.
Don't be a fool, don't be a foolish Christian.
Don't constantly just seek wealth carnally.
Seek spiritual wealth, speak spiritual wages and riches.
Now you can't acquire that all in five minutes.
You acquire it slowly over time
just like anything else that's good.
So that's why you wanna be consistent.
Hey, I'm going to church regularly,
I'm going soul winning every week,
I'm preaching the gospel, I'm going on missions trips.
You know hey, take a missions trip every once in a while.
Give yourself a bonus in heaven.
You know, we all like bonuses at work.
What about a spiritual bonus, right?
And that's seeking first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness when you're prioritizing
the things of God.
Go over to James chapter number five,
go to James chapter number five.
What is the priority in your life?
Where are your priorities?
Of course, one other thing I didn't have in my notes
but just thinking about it.
I guess obviously even just money itself by tithing
you're supposed to give the first 10,
that's kind of a principle.
And so that's another way that you kinda show
hey, I'm putting God first, right?
I'm putting the first fruits of the offering
and the first 10% of all thine increase,
I'm giving that to him and that's showing
that I don't care more about making money,
I care more about seeking God.
And God says, hey, if you do that and you're faithful,
he'll give you more and he'll pour out the windows of heaven
and he'll give you a blessing
and he'll rebuke the devourer for your sake.
But at the end of the day,
we should make sure that we're seeking God first
in every area, whether it be financially,
with our time, with our energy, with our thoughts,
everything, we're trying to put God as a priority.
And when we're doing something else,
we have to ask ourselves, do we have a mixed up priority?
Now, of course, being rich often is associated
with being something negative
because many rich people are acquiring their wealth
through sinful means.
This is kind of the context of James chapter number five.
It says in verse one, go to now you 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.
You have heaped treasure together for the last days,
build the higher of the labors
who have reaped down your fields,
which is of you kept back by fraud, cryeth,
and the cries of them which have reaped
are entered in the ears of the Lord of Savioth.
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 does not resist you.
What is he saying?
He's saying, look, there's all these rich people.
You know why they're rich?
Well, what does it say in verse number four?
It says that they're keeping back wages by fraud.
You know, there's someone like that, like Laban.
Laban who was keeping back wages from Jacob.
Jacob said that he had changed his wages 10 times.
So he kept cheating him out of money, defrauding him.
You know, this happens all the time.
There's all kinds of employees that'll promise you,
hey, after a year we're gonna give you
this kind of a bonus and then it's like, nah.
Hey, after this we're gonna give you
some kind of an increase, change their mind.
Hey, you do some good job for them
and then they just fire you, lay you off.
You get a big bonus, they don't give what you deserve.
This happens all the time in the workplace.
That's why they're rich.
Not only that, he says they've condemned
and killed the just.
They'll kill people in order to get money.
The pharmaceutical companies,
the military industrial complex,
all kinds of companies,
they don't care about innocent people
being killed, slaughtered, destroyed, whatever.
As long as they get a buck and God is saying,
hey, your gold and silver is cankered
and it's gonna be a witness against you.
And many cases, the people that will be rich,
they have to do this in order to get rich.
They have to rip people off, be a fraudster,
do things that are illegal, be willing to kill people,
take bribes, all the stuff that we talked about
in the greediness of gain sermon
and we should stay far away from that person,
that mentality, that attitude
because they start becoming like this
and eventually you're like, wow,
I must be a manager at Wells Fargo.
And I'm just telling you, it's like not the right attitude.
Verse seven, be patient, therefore, brethren,
the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husband waited for the precious fruit
of the earth and had long patience for it
until he received the early and later rain
or latter rain.
Be also patient, establish your hearts
for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
We should just be patient, even though we may be
the Jacobs that get ripped off and taken advantage of.
Pretty soon, we're gonna be in the Mojave of Christ
and the only thing that's gonna matter
is who was rich toward God.
The only thing that's gonna matter
is what was done for Christ
and look what these rich men are gonna get.
Nothing, being rich didn't matter,
cheating and stealing and all this stuff,
it doesn't help you.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 10,
go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 10.
Make sure that you're not doing things
to acquire wealth by sinful means
because it doesn't help you, it doesn't bless you.
We should seek ye first the kingdom of God.
Verse Corinthians chapter number 10, verse 24,
the Bible says, let no man seek his own,
but every man another's wealth.
Well, I don't like that verse.
Seeking someone else's wealth?
That's what the Bible says.
The Bible says that you should be more concerned
with helping other people be successful than yourself.
Wow, that's a really challenging verse.
But you know what, when you seek ye first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
it's not about you, it's about the glory of God
and many times we have to lay down our lives
just like Christ laid down his life in a sense
and we elevate other people's priorities.
I mean, in order for us to have the riches of Christ,
Christ had to set aside his riches, his glory,
his honor, and take on sacrifice and burden
so that we could be redeemed.
And in many cases when you help other people,
when you bless other people, it's gonna be
to your own detriment, to your own sacrifice.
You know, I praise God that there's been
a lot of people in my life
that I think this verse has applied to
where they just took their time, effort, energy
and invested in me for free.
Someone that just, I remember working for a company
and I was new to programming and I didn't know much
and someone that I worked with just literally
would for free during lunch just work with me
on free coding stuff and taught me all kinds of things
and helped me and blessed me.
And I'm just like, I didn't deserve that.
This is someone, and this is someone,
like that person could have spent their time
doing something else to make wealth for them,
help them, bless them.
It did not bless them or help them to just help me.
But at the end of the day, I'm really glad they did it
and I'm really glad that they helped me
to get better and to become better.
And you know what?
We should be willing to invest into other people
and bless other people and seek good
unto other people, even if it doesn't even profit us.
That is a true Christians attitude
is one that would help other people
and they're not even concerned about their own wealth.
Go to Proverbs, we're kinda probably finished
with a few Proverbs here.
Where are your priorities this Christmas season?
Are you thinking about you?
Are you thinking about what you have?
You know, what you should do is you should just say,
you know what, I'm gonna decide to be content.
And what I wanna do is I wanna help other people.
And what I wanna do is I wanna make sure
that I'm seeking God first.
You know, we're getting close
to entering into the new year,
but it's not a bad time to start now either.
To start right now, saying, hey, you know,
I don't think I'm prioritizing Christ
the way that I should be.
I don't think I'm prioritizing church.
I haven't been tithing, I haven't been praying,
I haven't been reading my Bible,
I haven't been going soul-winning,
I haven't been doing these things.
I wanna make sure that I start doing that now.
And I wanna make sure that I'm not living 2025
trying to get rich towards the world,
but rich towards God.
It says in Proverbs, chapter number 11,
look what it says in verse number 28,
He that trusteth in his riches shall fall,
but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.
You know, you think like, oh man, this guy,
he's not trying to make money,
he's trying to serve God,
but the guy that's trying to make money,
he dies the next year, and you live.
You'll make more money than him
over the period of your life because he died.
What does the Bible say?
Hey, you're gonna fall.
He that trusteth in his riches shall fall,
but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.
We should be concerned with being righteous,
not being rich.
Meaningless, money is meaningless.
I mean, think what the apostle said
unto Simon the sorcerer, thy money perish with thee.
Who cares about money?
It's not about money, it's about serving God.
People that are fixated on money
have the wrong idea about everything.
Go to Proverbs 23 and look at verse number four.
Proverbs chapter 23, verse number four.
The Bible says,
labor not to be rich,
cease from thine own wisdom,
wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings,
they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
Man, you make money and it just,
it leaves as soon as you make it.
He's saying, it's like meaningless.
You make a bunch of money, it's gone,
inflation will kill you if anything else, I mean.
And it's just like, there's no point.
Quit laboring to be rich, labor to please God.
Look at Proverbs 28 and look at verse number six.
The Bible says, better is the poor
that walketh that is uprightness
than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.
It's better to be God fearing and upright
than to be rich and perverted.
Same chapter, look at verse 20.
A faithful man shall abound with blessings,
but he that maketh haste to be rich,
shall not be innocent.
You know what, just be faithful, be God fearing,
do the right thing, work hard,
he'll give you what you need.
But you know what, don't be quick, don't be hasty.
These get rich quick schemes are the worst things ever.
Stay far away from them.
If you think, man, I'm young, I'm 20 years old.
I wanna have lots of money and a nice house and a car.
I found this deal.
I found this thing online.
I found this program.
It's a scam.
This is what I think is so funny.
Do you really expect me to believe
if a guy knew how to just make like
a half a million dollars a year real easy on his laptop,
he's gonna sell it to you for $100 on YouTube?
Like, why wouldn't he do it?
You know what I mean?
I'm saying like, all these get rich quick schemes,
I'm always thinking like,
why would you wanna share that information
with anybody else if it was true?
It's not true.
You're just selling your book.
You're just selling your course.
You're just selling a scam.
You're just selling some multi-level marketing scheme
and it's not legitimate.
You know what's legitimate?
Just working hard.
You talked, I mean, if you actually find rich people,
or if you ever know someone who has access to wealth,
ask them how they got it.
You know what they're not gonna say?
Oh, there's this get rich quick scheme I found.
If maybe it was like,
there was this get rich quick scheme I sold,
but there would not be one that they found.
It's not one that they bought.
Okay.
Stay away from those things.
It says in verse number 22,
he that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye
and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.
Hey, you try to do that,
you're just gonna get poor.
Look at chapter 30, verse number eight.
Remove far from me, vandy and lies.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Feed me with food, convenient for me.
You know, we shouldn't seek for riches
and we shouldn't seek for poverty.
What should we seek for the kingdom of God
and his righteousness?
And when we're putting that as a priority,
he'll give us all the things that we need.
I believe that if you seek first the kingdom of God,
if you're seeking his righteousness,
you're working hard,
you're not acquiring wealth by sinful means,
you're not gonna be poor
and you'll probably not ever be rich.
But at the end of the day,
you know what, if you're rich towards God,
it doesn't matter anyways.
Because that's the only thing that really mattered.
Do you have a division six?
Go to division six.
I wanted to go one more place and we'll finish.
So I think it's important to balance all these concepts.
When we seek first the kingdom of God,
we're making sure it's our priority.
We're not trying to be rich.
We're not having a bad attitude.
We're being content with what we have.
We're not gonna be greedy of gain.
But we also wanna make sure
that we don't venture into an attitude of being lazy.
And that's where I talked about these poverty minds
that excuses.
We wanna make sure that we're still working hard.
Because when you go to your job,
the Bible says you're still serving God.
You should look at your boss as the Lord
is what the Bible tells us.
And in Ephesians chapter number six,
it's telling us in verse number five,
servants be obedient to them
that are your masters according to flesh
with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart
as unto Christ.
Not with eye service as men pleasers,
but as a servant 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 when you go to work,
you serve your boss as hard as you can.
You work as hard as you can.
But at the end of the day,
you realize, you know what?
My ultimate boss is still Christ though.
And so if your work is somehow interfering
with your spirit to walk,
well then you're not even serving Christ
in the first place, right?
We wanna make sure that we're balancing these things
and we're saying I'm gonna serve God with my life.
And then I'm gonna find a job
that allows me to serve God with my life.
And when I'm at the job,
I'm gonna work as hard as I can to serve God.
Because whatever we do,
we're supposed to do to the glory of God, aren't we?
What's over a hun finds to do?
We're supposed to do with all our might,
but we're supposed to do it under the glory of God
because all the glory of God,
all the glory is supposed to go to God anyways.
And what gives God glory
is when we have the right priorities.
No one can serve God in the sense
of just doing something spiritual every second of their life.
We still have to take care of our family.
We still have to take care of our children.
We still have to do things that are practical.
We have to sleep.
I mean we sleep a third of our lives,
I mean some of us, you know?
But at the end of the day,
we still have to sleep.
We still have to do all kinds of different activities.
But make sure you're carving out time for God.
Carve out some Bible reading.
Today's Sunday, you made it.
Sunday night church.
But you know what, tomorrow morning is a new day.
Read your Bible tomorrow.
Pray tomorrow.
Say am I seeking God?
Think about your life as a whole
and say am I really seeking God first?
And if you're not, if you say you know what,
I think I'm making something else
a bigger priority in my life,
well then you need to look at how you can change that
and look for a way to increase
your spiritual walk with God.
And then guess what?
God will give you all those other things you wanted anyways.
Because you can really, especially as men,
we can only think of like one thing at a time anyways.
So just like, just think about God,
think about how to serve him
and he'll take care of the rest.
All right, let's close in prayer.
Thank Heavenly Father so much for the word of God here
and giving us an opportunity to serve you.
And thank you for making salvation free
so that all the works that we do we could get paid for.
I pray that we would rather seek to have riches in heaven
than have riches on this earth.
I pray that you would help us not to have an attitude
or a mindset of loving money
or desiring to be rich.
I pray that anybody that is rich,
that you would help them not trust in their money
or trust in their riches,
but they would be willing to distribute.
I pray that those of us that seek ye first,
that you would pour out a blessing unto us
and that you'd give us all the things that we did want,
all the things that we did need.
But we wouldn't allow that to stop us
from giving you all the glory for everything you give us.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, in closing, let's go to song number 428.
Song number 428.
It came upon the Midnight Clear, song 428.
Let's sing it out loudly on the first song, 428.
It came upon the Midnight Clear.
It came upon the Midnight Clear,
that glorious song of old.
From angels bending near the earth
to touch their arms of gold.
They are near,
from them to men
from have your glorious key.
The world in song is still misplaced
to hear the angels sing.
To the golden skies they come
with peaceful wings unfurled.
And still there haven't been music
for all the weary world.
Above its sad and rolling waves
they bend on the green wing.
And never o'er its babble sounds
the blessed angel sings.
And they beneath high strut shingles
whose foes are bending low.
Who toil along the winding way
with painful steps in slow.
Look now for glad and cool
and now come swiftly on the wing.
O rescue side the weary world
and hear the angels sing.
For low the gays are ageing on
by love with hearts foretold.
When with the ever-nerving years
come round the age of old.
When we shall over all the earth
its ancients play their swing
and the world give back the song
which now the angels sing.