I take this 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 take this to all generations, I will sing, I will sing, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever always.
Thank you.
My day and with each passing moment Strength I find to be my trials here
Trusting in my Father's wise bestowments I'm no cause for worry or for fear
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure Gives unto each day what he deems best
Loving me is part of pain and pleasure Mainly joy with peace and rest
Every day the Lord himself is near me With a special mercy for each hour
All my cares see faith, would bear and share me He whose name is counselor and mind
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 pledge to me he made
Help me then in every tribulation So to trust thy promises, O Lord
That I lose thy face with consolation Offer me within thy holy word
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble be deep Fair to take as from our Father's hand
One by one the days of home is fleeting Till I reach the promised land
I have a song I love to sing Since I have been redeemed
Of my Redeemer, Savior, 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 price
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 sin from many above
It never was a sweeter melody Tis a melody of love
In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody
In heaven's harmony In my heart there rings a melody
There rings a melody of love I love the Christ tonight
I'm now free For he washed my sins away
It 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
In heaven's harmony In my heart there rings a melody
There rings a melody of love I love the last
It will be my endless theme in glory With the angels I will sing
For the assault with glorious harmony With the thorns of heaven ring
In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody
In heaven's harmony In my heart there rings a melody
There rings a melody of love
Oh for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer's praise
The worries of my God include The times of his grace
Jesus the King that charms our fears And gives our sorrows peace
His music in the sinner's ears Is like an elf at peace
He breaks the power of kinds of sin He sets the prison free
His love can make the palace free He's but a veil for me
Hear him begin his praising hunger Loosen tongues in glory
He might behold your sliver come And make me lame for joy
My gracious Master and my God Assist me to proclaim
Tis red through all the earth above The office of my name
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm well Was blind, but now I see
What grace that taught my heart to fear And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed
The Lord has promised good to me His word my hope
Send your voice, we will find you
Good afternoon everybody. It's great to see everybody here again.
If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started.
And for tonight's first song, we will be singing Joy to the World, song 423.
Song 423, Joy to the World.
Song 423, sing it out on the first.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come Let earth receive her King
Let every arm prepare Him room 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 ill their floods, rock, tills, and plains Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy No more the sins and sorrows grow
Nor thorns infect 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, 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 Lord and love you so much.
We just ask now that you bless this church and bless this service and fill it with your spirit.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, 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 and fields where they lay
In fields where they lay 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 there in ten Where the fall of the star wherever it went
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel
This star drew nigh to God on quest For Bethlehem they took its 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
Then entered in those wise men three Forever in Thee among them
And offered there in His presence Their own emperor and frankincense
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel
All right, great singing.
Thank you for coming to Steadfast 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 Evangelist Fur 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'll we may 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.
So FYI, 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, you know, it is pretty stiff competition, but you got a lot of hungry eaters.
And so it's always been a lot of fun and encourage you to make a lot of cookies and we'll have some fun.
January 1st is our men's preaching night and 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 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.
Those that know well sing it out.
God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us.
That thy way may be known upon earth, that it may be held upon all nations.
Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the people.
Righteously and governed the nations upon earth, the nations upon earth sing along.
Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, then shall the earth yield her in griefs.
And God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us in all he is.
Of the earth shall hear him. Let the people praise thee, O God.
Let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
Great singing everybody. Now his offering plates are being passed around.
Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew Chapter 6.
That's the book of Matthew Chapter 6.
Matthew Chapter 6
The Bible says, Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them.
Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore when thou doest thine 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.
Verily 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.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut 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 ye 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 ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if ye 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.
Verily 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 doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 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.
Ye 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 sow 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 clothed the grass of the field, which today is,
and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith? 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.
I 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 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 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 balance.
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 19,
Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust doth 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 what we do practically speaking.
But we can 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 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 ye 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.
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 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 the 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 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 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,
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 and make this dinner.
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 sow 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.
It's almost like a disc.
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 ladies that think 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.
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 don't understand, but there's some big deal about basketball shoes,
or 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, it's just shoes.
I don't even care at all.
I have a pair of shoes that I've had for like ten years.
You know, like dress shoes or whatever.
And it just doesn't seem like a worthwhile thing in your life.
You're just constantly 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.
But you know what?
I want to spend my time thinking about the Bible.
I want to 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 wherewith shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek
for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.
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 so, 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 ten more kids.
At the end of his life, he 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 to 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 doesn't, 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 going to get it, you've got to 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 that are self-sufficient in the days of the evil era.
Hey, you don't need to worry about tomorrow having problems, you're going to 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.
Go to 1 Timothy 6 now.
Go to 1 Timothy 6.
When we talk about priorities, we want to 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.
We 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 want to make sure that we're always doing things honestly and with integrity.
Now 1 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 going to be having a bad attitude.
You're not going to be unthankful.
So when we talk about the things that we have, we should be thankful for what we have.
That's being content.
Verse six, but godliness with contentment is great gain.
It 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 is actually an 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 of 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 the living God who giveth 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.
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 in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.
Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation.
This goes well with what we learned in Matthew chapter number 6
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 and snare.
Those of us that are not rich, we could fall into a 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 ye 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 sowing 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 ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and all these things are going to be added unto 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 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 covet it after, they have erred from the faith
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Notice what it says in verse 10.
They have erred from the faith.
Christians, Christians can get a bug of a love of money.
Saved 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 er 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.
Somewhere it 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.
You know, 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.
I mean, 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 like, that is just like 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 commit way worse sins.
Honestly, you've got to 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 will make you way worse.
Like you like drugs, like somebody 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 in their life and now they have a $5 million debt.
It's like how do you even get a $5 million gambling debt?
It's like 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, get another spouse or whatever,
ruin their life, ruin their marriage, ruin their kids.
You know, money doesn't necessarily fix anything.
All it does is it just exaggerates who you are.
Now look, if you were a really generous, God-fearing person,
hopefully money 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 that I'm not rich anymore.
Just go back to the status quo because when you're rich,
everybody is 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 having money, you have way more fake friends.
I mean, when you're poor and ugly and someone's your friend,
they must really like you.
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,
and he 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.
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, whereinto thou art also called,
and has 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 going to put God first,
and then I'm going to work hard.
And then I'm going to 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.
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 want to be rich towards God.
It's not about laying up treasure on earth anyways,
because He 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 want to go to another place. Go to Luke chapter 12.
You already got enough problems.
Money isn't going to 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...
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.
Like, hey, there's not going to be a club in heaven.
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.
Now, here's a story about that.
Luke chapter 12.
Look at verse number 14.
And he said unto them,
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, 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 greater,
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
He's saying, oh, I'm super rich.
I don't even know what all this money is.
Let's get richer.
Hey, I'll make sure to just have even more money.
And I will say to my soul,
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 a 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 going to 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 want to be rich.
To be lazy again.
Is they just want to 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 and to fare 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 going to fight you on that.
That's great.
You're a trust fund baby and you want to be a trust fund soul winner,
trust fund evangelist, go for it.
I'm not going to 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, doesn't he?
I know what I'll do, nothing.
But God sent him, thou fool.
This night thy soul shall be required 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 going to get to enjoy the money that we make
but we do know that we're going to enjoy the spiritual awards that we earn today.
Hey, you get paid probably two weeks from when you work, right?
A lot of us get paid bi-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 going to 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 going to 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 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 want to 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 to James chapter number five.
What is the priority in your life?
What 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 ten.
That's kind of a principle.
And so that's another way that you kind of show,
hey, I'm putting God first.
Right?
I'm putting the first fruits of the offering.
And the first ten percent 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 that 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 5.
It says in verse 1,
Go to now, you rich men,
weep in half 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.
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 in 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 does not resist you.
What is he saying?
He's saying, look, there's all these rich people,
but 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 ten times.
So he kept cheating him out of money, defrauding him.
You know, this happens all the time.
There's all kinds of employees.
They'll promise you, hey, after a year,
we're going to give you this kind of a bonus.
And then it's like, nah.
Hey, after this, we're going to 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 you 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 going to be a witness against you.
In 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 Greetingness 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.
I'm just telling you, it's not the right attitude.
Verse 7, be patient, therefore, brethren, in 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 going to be in the millenial rain of Christ.
And the only thing that's going to matter is who is rich toward God.
The only thing that's going to matter is what was done for Christ.
And look what these rich men are going to get.
Nothing.
Being rich didn't matter.
Cheating and stealing and all this stuff, it doesn't help you.
Go ahead 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.
1 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 going to be to your own detriment, to your own sacrifice.
You know, I praise God there's been a lot of people in my life
that I think that this verse has applied to
where they just took their time, effort, energy,
and invested in me for free.
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.
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, it just helped 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 under other people,
even if it doesn't even profit us.
That is a true Christian's attitude.
It's one that would help other people,
and they're not even concerned about their own wealth.
Going to Proverbs, we're kind of 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?
What you should do is you should just say,
you know what, I'm going to decide to be content,
and what I want to do is I want to help other people.
And what I want to do is I want to make sure that I'm seeking God first.
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 want to make sure that I start doing that now.
And I want to make sure that I'm not living 2025 trying to get rich towards the world,
but rich towards God.
It says in Proverbs 11, look what it says in verse 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 going to 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.
Money is meaningless.
I mean, think what the apostles 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 4.
Proverbs chapter 23, verse number 4.
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 leaves as soon as you make it.
He's saying it's meaningless.
You make a bunch of money, it's gone.
Inflation will kill you if anything else.
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 6.
The Bible says, better is the poor that walk in his 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 want to 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 why I think it's 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 going to 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 want to 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.
I mean, if you actually find rich people or if you ever know someone that acts as wealth, ask them how they got it.
You know what they're not going to say? Oh, there's this get-rich-quick scheme I found.
Maybe it was like there was this get-rich-quick scheme I sold, but there would not be one that they found.
Not one that they bought, okay?
Stay away from those things.
It says in verse number 22,
Hey, you try to do that, you're just going to get poor.
Look at chapter 30, verse number 8.
Remove far from me vanity 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 going to 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.
Go to Ephesians 6, I want 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 going to be greedy of gain.
But we also want to make sure that we don't venture into an attitude of being lazy.
And that's where I talked about these poverty mindset excuses.
We want to 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 6, it's telling us in verse 5,
Be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh,
with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart, as unto Christ,
not with eye-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 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 spiritual walk,
well then you're not even serving Christ in the first place. Right?
We want to make sure that we're balancing these things,
and we're saying I'm going to serve God with my life.
And then I'm going to find a job that allows me to serve God with my life.
And when I'm at the job, I'm going to 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?
Whatever our mind 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 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 families, 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 one thing at a time anyways.
We're just like, just think about God. Think about how to serve Him.
And He'll take care of the rest. Alright, let's go some prayer.
Thank you 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 can 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 would 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.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, in closing, let's go to song number 428.
Song number 428.
It came upon the midnight clear, song 428.
It's singing out loudly on the verse. Song 428.
It came upon the midnight clear, song 428.
It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their hearts of gold.
We are here on the hill to bear,
From heaven's Lord, gracious King,
The world in sorrow still displayed,
To hear the angels sing.
Silver and golden skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music flows,
O'er all the weary world,
Above its sad and lonely plains,
They win on the great queen.
And ever o'er its babble sounds,
The blessed angel sings.
And beneath Christ's crushing love,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the winding way,
With painful steps in slow.
But now for glad and golden hours,
Come swiftly on the wing,
O rest beside the weary world,
And hear the angels sing.
For all the days are wasting on,
By prophet God's foretold,
When with the ever-hurling years,
Comes round the age of old.
When peace shall over all the earth,
Its ancient splendor spring,
And, O world, give back the song,
Which now the angels sing.