If we could please lift up our voices.
Just over in the glory land I'll join the happy angel band.
Just over in the glory land I'm with the mighty host I'll stand.
Just over in the glory land I'll lift up our voices.
I am on my way to those mansions fair.
Just over in the glory land.
There to sing God's praise and his glory share.
Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land I'll join the mighty angels stand.
Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land there with the mighty host I'll stand.
Just over in the glory land.
What a joyful thought that my Lord I'll see.
Just over in the glory land.
The happy angel band.
Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land there with the mighty host I'll stand.
Just over in the glory land.
With the blood washed throng I will shout and sing.
Just over in the glory land.
Glad hosanna to Christ the Lord and King.
Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land I'll join the happy angel band.
Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land there with the mighty host I'll stand.
Just over in the glory land.
A great job.
Lord God we thank you Lord for bringing us here today.
Lord giving us a church to attend.
Lord where they preach the Bible.
We thank you for the salvation that we've seen today.
Lord thank you for a so winning program.
We ask that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit tonight Lord.
And we ask that you be edified.
Get us all home safely.
We love you.
Thank you.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen.
All right if you would turn in your hymnals to page 86 in the garden.
That's page 86 in the garden.
Let's lift up our voices nice and high for the Lord.
That's page 86.
I come to the garden alone.
While the dew is still on the roses.
And the voice I hear falling on my ear.
The Son of God discloses.
And he walks with me and he talks with me.
And he tells me I am his own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there.
None other has ever known.
He speaks and the sound of his voice.
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing.
And the melody that he gave to me.
Within my heart is ringing.
And he walks with me and he talks with me.
And he tells me I am his own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there.
None other has ever known.
I stay in the garden with him.
Though the night around me be falling.
But he bids me go through the voice of woe.
His voice to me is calling.
And he walks with me and he talks with me.
And he tells me I am his own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there.
None other has ever known.
Good evening, thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you need a bulletin, lift up your hand nice and high and we'll get you a bulletin.
We have on the inside our service and soul winning times as well as our church wide and regional soul winning.
Is there any soul winning that someone had forgotten to report that just needs to get reported for the last few days?
Alright, keep with the good work on soul winning.
And of course you should report that to your soul winning captains.
But we just want to make sure we're capturing all that data.
Please continue to pray for all of our expecting ladies.
We also have our prayer list.
I think I had misspoken.
We need to add Miss Eva Garcia for back pain to the prayer request.
And then on the back of our announcements we have a Shreveport Louisiana Marathon September 24th this Saturday.
If you'd like to participate in the church wide transportation we'll meet here at 5.30 in the morning.
Otherwise you can just meet us out there.
I don't know if we have the address listed on the sign up sheet but you can ask brother Dylan what that address is.
I think also we have a video online.
It's some park that's kind of over by the river.
So I can't remember off the top of my head.
Does somebody remember what the top of the name was?
Alright, we'll double check.
Also we have the Sunday Sundays September 25th.
So that's the following day.
I know my kids are excited about that.
So I'm sure your kids are too.
And then also we have our conference October 6th, the 8th Heritage of the Lord Conference.
We did put our spelling bee words on our website.
So if you'd like to download them.
If you have any problem getting them you could just ask us.
We can email it to you or try to find a way to get that to you.
Also we have a soul winning blitz October 29th in Arlington.
We have our Texas chili cook off October 31st.
We have our music recital November 5th.
There was another activity that's not mentioned on our bulletin or we can add.
It's in October as well.
It's October 22nd.
Mrs. Armeno is going to be organizing a fall swap that day.
That's a Saturday.
And so I know that a lot of people have liked that and participated in the past.
But she was organizing that.
Was it 9 a.m.?
Yeah, 9 a.m. to about when? 3 p.m. I think? Yeah, yeah.
So 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. is going to be the fall swap.
And basically it's just anything that you don't want that has value you could bring and drop off.
And then when you come you can take anything that you want.
It's not really please bring your trash to church to get disposed of.
But it is if you have anything of value.
Now, sometimes one man's trash is another man's treasure.
So I'm not saying that it has value to you.
It just has value in general sense, okay?
So if you have some items that you say, you know what, I don't really have much use for this, but I'd like to bring it.
So, you know, things that are not like this are broken, torn.
Your kids vomited on it and they don't want to wear it anymore.
Those aren't necessarily what we're saying.
We're just saying they're things that you can't use but they still are good products.
You can bring them and then if you come, sometimes there's something here that you weren't anticipating, you can snag.
You don't have to bring anything to participate.
It's simply just optional.
Some people only want to drop off.
Some people only want to take.
And there's really not, both of those are great.
So if you want to participate, please do at your own risk, okay?
If you do want to come pick something up, you got to get it that day too.
So it's a one-time, get it while it's hot.
So that's pretty much another opportunity, October 22nd.
November 5th, our music recital.
November 10th through the 12th, our Matamoros Soul Winning Marathon, our trip down there.
November 23rd is a Thanksgiving dessert fellowship.
December 2nd is our ladies' Christmas party.
So a lot of great events coming up.
We have the congratulations to the Carrasco family on the birth of their daughter, Leilani Brielle Carrasco.
She was born 9-13-22 at 6-25 p.m.
She weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and measuring 19 and 3 quarter inches long.
So congratulations to them.
Definitely want to keep them in our prayers as well.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements are concerned.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song this evening.
Page 63, what a day that will be.
Song 63, what a day that will be.
All right, page 63, what a day that will be.
There is coming a day when no heartache shall come.
No more clouds in the sky.
No more tears to dim the eye.
All is peaceful evermore on that happy golden shore.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see.
And I look upon his face the one who saved me by his grace.
When he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
There will be no sorrow there.
No more burdens to bear.
No more sickness, no pain.
No more parting over there.
And forever I will be with the one who died for me.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see.
And I look upon his face the one who saved me by his grace.
And for me by the hand and leads me through the promised land.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
I wish that song was a little longer. I like that song.
While the offering plates are passed around, turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 23.
We're going to read the whole chapter as is our custom.
You can follow along silently starting in verse 1.
Proverbs chapter 23, the Bible reads there,
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat.
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.
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye?
Neither desire thou his dainty meats.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
Eat and drink, saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee.
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up and lose thy sweet words.
Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
Remove not the old landmark, and enter not into the fields of the fatherless, for their redeemer is mighty.
He shall plead their cause with thee.
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
Yea, my reign shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things.
Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long,
for surely there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh,
for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty,
and drowsiness shall clothe the man with rags.
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
Buy the truth, and sell it not.
Also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice,
and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bear thee shall rejoice.
My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
For a whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
She also lieth in weight as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions?
Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause?
Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine,
they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,
when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea,
or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick.
They have beaten me, and I felt it not.
When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
Let's pray, Father. We thank you for Proverbs 23, Lord,
and I just pray that you would enable Pastor Shelley to thunder forth the message
that you've laid on his heart, and also, Lord,
I pray that you would just be with us as we go our separate ways after the service.
Help us to apply this message so we can be more complete Christians
and serve you to the best of our ability, and we love you,
and thank you for everything you've given us.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen.
We're in Proverbs chapter 23, and we're looking at verse number 10.
The Bible says, Remove not the old landmark,
and enter not into the fields of the fatherless.
For their redeemer is mighty, he shall plead their cause with thee.
And what's interesting about this first verse is,
remove not the old landmark is the association it has in the book of Proverbs.
So, specifically, a landmark is real self-explanatory.
It's a physical object that's situated in a field
or on someone's land that indicates a boundary.
So this would be known as a landmark.
Often there's many landmarks in our society, even,
that not only are boundaries from personal property,
but even dividing state from state, or city from city,
or all kinds of different things that landmarks are used for,
but typically it's to denote territory.
So you have a landmark which could be as simple as a fence post.
It could be as simple as a rock.
It could be as simple as a tree.
It could be as simple as a river, or a lake,
some body of water often, or landmarks that divide or separate cities.
We're going to Shreveport for the soul-wanting marathon,
and there's a body of water that travels through the city,
and on the other side is Bossier.
So it's like a completely different city,
even though, realistically speaking, it's not even but, you know,
hundreds of feet from one another, and you just drive across the bridge,
and it would feel like you're just traveling from one side of the road
to the other side, but yet it's a completely different city,
that body of water would be a landmark.
And in historical times, people would have large sections of farmland,
or different inheritances that they had,
and they would use large stones or different objects
to denote where their properties start or begin.
So the idea of removing the landmark is simply the idea of
you go up to the edge of your property and where your neighbor's property is,
and you take that big stone and you roll it a few feet generously in your own direction.
And then the next year you come and you roll it another few feet,
and then another year you roll it another,
and you're basically, you're just kind of slowly taking away and shipping away
from the inheritance, the land of your neighbor you're stealing from him.
But notice here in Proverbs chapter 23,
and enter not into the fields of the fatherless.
So saying that typically when people will rip someone off
or take advantage of them, removing that landmark,
it's they're taking advantage of the weak.
They're taking advantage of the fatherless.
So the fatherless is the idea of a, you know,
a widow or a young woman who no longer has a husband for whatever reason,
and her children are the ones that are going to inherit this property,
so they have no man.
They have no good men of the house or some father to defend them and protect them.
So it's easier for predators or criminals to want to steal from that particular family
because there's no real threat of anybody doing anything about it.
You know, you know, of course,
handguns and shotguns and things like this have become an equalizer in a modern day context.
But, you know, several hundred years ago or thousands of years ago,
if a man went and just took over some lady's property,
she wasn't going to be able to do anything about it.
She can't fight him for it,
and children wouldn't be able to do anything about that.
So it's just basically taking advantage of people that can't do anything about it.
But what does God say?
Don't enter into that person's field.
Don't even take a step, you know,
respect that person's boundary,
even if they're not capable of defending themselves if you could get away with it.
You know, the old adage of taking candy from a baby,
but God's saying don't take the candy out of that baby's hand because I can redeem them.
I will notice that.
I'm not going to look favorably upon you when you're taking advantage of people or ripping people off.
He says this, verse 11,
He shall plead their cause with thee.
Meaning God is going to get mad at you
and is going to fight you on you taking advantage or stealing from the poor in essence.
Now, I want to look at another verse here in chapter 22.
It's right next to this.
Verse 22.
So it's Proverbs 22, verse 22.
Rob not the poor because he is poor.
Neither oppress the afflicted in the gate.
For the Lord will plead their cause
and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.
So the Bible is essentially saying you're going to reap what you sow.
You take advantage of people and you steal from people.
God will make sure that you get stolen from and you get ripped off and bad things happen to you.
And this is generally the case.
People that are very scummy, people that are often taking advantage of people and they're thieves,
they often have thieves take advantage of them and steal from them and they live just miserable lives.
We don't want to be people that are constantly stealing from others,
ripping people off, taking advantage of the poor.
This is not the type of lifestyle for God's people.
God's people are not supposed to just take advantage of the weak because they're weak.
Notice that it says, Rob not the poor because he is poor.
Why is that phrase in your Bible?
Well, not only can you take advantage of someone because they won't defend themselves,
but often you can take advantage of people's stupidity.
So it's not so much that you're even necessarily doing anything wrong as far as like you're just moving the landmark,
but what you're doing is people are so dumb that you can just take all of their money
and they'll hand it to you.
You don't even have to ask them to steal it.
You can just use means by which to take advantage of their stupidity, their weakness, or their bad situation.
And the Bible is telling you you shouldn't do that.
You should just take advantage of people and rip people off just because you can.
There are many ways that you can rip people off and take advantage of them
and gather extra wealth into yourself because people are poor and they're foolish and they're stupid
and they don't understand money.
That's why he's saying because he's poor.
The reason why this guy's poor is because he deals with a slack hand, because he's lazy,
because he is not very well educated.
Maybe he did grow up without a father.
Maybe he did have a bad situation and they're down on their luck so you take advantage of him.
What would be a scenario like this?
Well, one real obvious is these payday cash loans that exist everywhere in our society.
This is taking advantage of poor people because the interest rates and the fees that they charge these people
would scare you to want to stand before God after you just took that much money from somebody.
I mean, sometimes they're so egregious they would make Jews blush.
And I say that because a lot of the people that own these businesses aren't even Jews.
They're just taking it from their playbook.
Now, go to James, chapter one, James, chapter one.
The Bible teaches the exact opposite.
That instead of robbing the poor, you should bless the poor and do good under the poor and help the poor.
Now, I want to make something clear because I even brought this up a little bit in my sermon this morning.
There's a difference between what the Bible describes as poor people and what America often describes as poor people.
Poor people in the Bible are not lazy, drug-addicted freaks standing on the street corner.
Poor people are just simply down on their luck.
They actually are without.
They often will even have a reason why they're poor.
And that's why the Bible often says that the righteous will consider it the cause of the poor
or considers the cause of the poor because we have to determine why someone's poor
to determine how we would actually help them.
Are you poor because you're crippled?
Are you poor because you're fatherless?
Are you poor because you're a widow?
Or are you poor because you're addicted to heroin and you refuse to get any treatment?
Are you poor because you refuse to work and you just want to play video games?
Are you poor because you're just a jerk?
You know, these are completely different people.
The people in the second category, the latter category, that are willingly poor,
choosing to be poor, not doing anything about it, I refuse to help those people.
And I believe Scripture dictates and commands that if they won't work, they shouldn't even eat.
So that's not even just Pastor Shelley's personal preference or idea.
That is Scripture.
That is just hard, fast facts of what Jesus is saying.
But there's other places in the Bible that talk about assisting poor people.
What would be some legitimate reasons why people are poor?
Like I mentioned, cripple, hurt, injured, fatherless, or widow.
And that's why the Bible, when it's talking about assisting poor people,
that's who it's typically bringing up.
Someone that's cripple, fatherless, or widow.
Look what it says in James chapter 1 verse 26.
If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart,
this man's religion is vain.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
So the type of religion that Jesus Christ wants us to have
is one where we're helping people that cannot return good for your good.
You know, the Bible often talks about when you prepare a feast,
to not invite those that are your friends and those that would be able to pay you back,
but rather to invite people that can't pay you back,
people that are down on their luck, people that would never be able to return their favor.
You know, I often would even think about this as just as a general rule.
If I could bless this person but there's really no obvious way this person can bless me back
in a reciprocal way anytime soon, that's great.
That's a good opportunity to bless someone.
Now I'm not saying you can't have fellowship and fun with friends
and you can't invite people over that you like,
but often it's also good to try and make friends and to help people
that would otherwise have no other real option
or that can't necessarily bless you back.
You know, a couple that just gets married, they're often poor.
Why? Because when you start out in a career as a young man,
it's hard to make very good money.
You know, you don't have very much skill, you don't have very much experience,
you often don't have a lot of ability to make a lot of money,
so it would be nice if other people that are a little bit further down the road in life
could bless the younger couples and invest in them,
even though they'll maybe never be able to invite you to their efficiency apartment
to have ramen noodles, you know, for dinner or whatever.
That's okay. You know what?
I grew up where a lot of people did good unto me
and I was never able to repay them back.
I never did probably and I probably never will be able to
and it's okay that I didn't do that, right?
A fatherless person or a widow is really incapable of probably paying you back.
It's okay. You just do good unto them anyways.
You help them when they're down on their luck,
they're going through difficulty, they're going through struggle,
because is it really someone's fault that they're fatherless?
Is it really someone's lady's fault that she's a widow?
Or, you know, and of course in America,
we have a lot of ladies that are not necessarily widows
but are in a similar situation where they just simply have a man who's just a complete loser
and abandoned his family.
I don't understand this, but for whatever reason,
it's just totally socially acceptable, apparently,
for men to knock up a girl and then just abandon them.
And I say why that's socially acceptable is because
they don't have a problem, you know, at work or friends or family,
like nobody's giving these people a hard time, apparently.
Because you know what?
If there was a guy in my life that was like that,
that I knew, a family member or friend or whatever,
I would be giving them a really hard time about that all the time.
Because that's not fair for some lady to have to raise a child by herself
and to provide for it and to do everything,
so some guy is just a lazy jerk and refuses to take care of the responsibilities that he has in his life.
I mean, that guy is, according to the Bible, worse than an infidel.
Yet, many Christians, oh, let's be loving, let's be gracious.
You don't even know what grace is.
You know, it's not gracious to assist some man, some able-bodied man,
in being a jerk to some poor woman and a child.
That's not you being gracious.
And in fact, that's not even to be loving.
Loving would be to tell that guy off so that he goes and provides for his family,
so that he spends time with those individuals.
In fact, according to the Bible, if you knock up a girl, you get married, period.
I mean, the only caveat is if the father-in-law is like,
you're such a loser, I say no.
But you know what? In that case, you just still pay for it.
That's what the Bible says.
You know, and it baffles me.
There'll be even Christians.
They'll knock up some girl and they're like, I don't know what to do.
And I'm thinking like, the Bible is real clear, marry them.
It's like, well, I don't know.
I mean, I don't know if she's the Proverbs 31 woman.
Well, you're obviously not the Proverbs 31 guy.
You just knocked her up, bro.
I mean, what kind of double standard?
I mean, it's frustrating to me how guys just seem to have all these double standards.
It's like, I've got to marry a Proverbs 31 woman.
I'm thinking like, who are you to think you're going to marry that?
You know, none of us deserve a Proverbs 31 woman, first of all, okay?
But then second of all, you thinking that you deserve that
or you're going to get that, you're a fool anyways.
And who said that she deserved, I mean,
wouldn't a Proverbs 31 woman deserve some great, charming man?
It's like, you're not that guy anyways.
I'm highly skeptical that you'll ever get to the point
where I would wish that evil upon a Proverbs 31 woman, okay?
So it's just silly how people just often think of themselves
deserving all this wonderful blessing,
but then they refuse to give it to some other person.
You know, even if you did quote unquote marry down,
what's wrong with that?
Or, you know, like me, I married way up,
so it's a great blessing to me,
but I'm glad that my wife was willing to marry down
so that I could benefit from marrying up so high, you know?
I mean, what a great blessing that I get to receive.
And you know what?
Maybe she was just looking down upon some young man.
She's like, I'm going to bless this young man
with my hand in marriage, you know?
And of course I got that.
It's a wonderful blessing.
I'm so glad that I got to marry up for all of my life.
But this is the same concept and principle
we're talking about here where I look at a person
and I'm not determining to invite them over
because I like them or they can return favors,
but rather I'm thinking like, you know what?
This person just needs some love
and I want to show them some love.
And we learned earlier this morning
a little bit clearer picture of what love is.
Love is not the idea of her paying good for good.
It's doing good on the people that don't deserve it,
that arguably the opposite maybe even in that situation.
So we should try to visit the fatherless
and the widows and their affliction,
meaning we should pay attention to them,
we should consider them, we want to do good under them.
One of the best ways to do this is soul winning.
You know, going out and think about it,
we knock on every door.
We're visiting a lot of fatherless
and trying to instruct them.
You know, these young boys need a father to sit them down
and preach them the gospel
and tell them the importance of church.
And if their dad won't do it, we'll do it.
We'll go out into the neighborhoods.
You know, I like going into the ghetto neighborhoods.
I think most of our church does.
And really you see a lot of children
just running around with pretty much no inhibitions.
I mean, they have like no whims.
The parents don't seem to really care.
But you know what?
I guarantee they notice,
hey, this person seems to care about me
and wants to sit down and tell me the Bible.
And they're some of the most receptive people
in getting saved.
And that's a big deal for you to go out there
and try to reach the fatherless.
Or even if they have a father physically
but he's just not present in their life,
you're filling a void spiritually
to help give that guy, that kid at least,
salvation or to help point them in the right direction,
give them a Bible.
Let them know that there are people out there
that actually care.
You know, it's going to be harder
for the young black community,
the children of these black communities
to think so awful of white people
when there's a bunch of white people
walking around in their neighborhoods
giving them Bibles and telling them
how to go to heaven.
You know, it really flips the script
on their narrative.
Whereas if the white community
is never actually going out and visiting these people,
never actually going and seeing where they live,
never knocking on their door,
never preaching them the gospel,
they're being fed a consistent diet
of white people hate you, white people are evil,
kill white people.
You know, someone's got to actually combat that.
How about you just go out
and actually give them the gospel
and do good under them?
You know, rather than trying to take advantage of them
to get their vote or something like that,
like the Democrats will do,
or to just buy them some cheap meal
or to hand them 10 bucks at the corner
so they can buy more liquor,
we'd rather show up a Bible at hand
and try to give them the gospel.
And of course, even the widows
and even young women that are down on their luck,
you know, to help them out, to assist them,
to try and encourage them
even though they're in a bad situation.
Go if you went to Romans chapter 15,
go to Romans chapter 15.
It's just sad though because
all of the people that we're talking about
are so easily ripped off and taken advantage of.
And most of them don't even realize
how much they're being taken advantage of.
Our society as a whole
is very ignorant financially
and is getting ripped off so much.
And it really frustrates me
just because I have a little bit of a finance background.
I worked in banking
and so I kind of am aware of these situations.
But, you know, one of the worst things
that's happening in our society
is how many apartments are being built.
Because it's just like,
the apartment is not necessarily the evil
the evil is inflation, okay folks.
But what the man is doing
is because it's just drawing so many people
into a rental state and a rental mindset
inflation is just crushing
those who are in that situation.
Because all of their money
is just going to be eviscerated
to the point where they have nothing
and they can't afford anything.
Myself included, when I lived in Phoenix
specifically, when I moved there
to go to Fayetteburg Baptist Church
the only way I could even afford it
was if I bought a property
because rent was so much more expensive.
I was looking at
houses that ranged about
1,500 square feet
to 1,700 square feet
three bedrooms.
So not, pretty much you're just
typical, average, small starter home
or something like that.
It was going to cost me
1,500 to 2,000 dollars a month of rent
at the time.
But I bought a house
basically fitting that exact description
1,500 square feet
three bedroom, two bath house
it was 700 dollars a month
for me to own it.
That's a giant difference.
Not only that
I did nothing to my property
like almost nothing to it.
And then after two years of selling it
my property value went up 50,000 dollars.
But you know everybody that rented
during that phrase
they got zero dollars
and they had to pay more than double
in many cases of what I was paying
on a monthly basis.
Let me tell you what's happening
they were getting ripped off.
They were getting ripped off
and of course
why are most people in that situation
why am I different?
My parents helped me save
and then gave me a bunch of money
to help buy a house when I was younger.
Where if you're fatherless
you wouldn't have that option would you?
So of course you have to start
even further down the chain
you have to start even further behind
but the longer you stay in that stage
the longer you are in the behind stage.
You know recently
anybody that owns a property would realize
that from 2020 to right now
your property value
in the DFW area
has probably increased a minimum
of a hundred thousand dollars.
Maybe even a hundred and fifty
or two hundred thousand
depending on all the different circumstances.
Not based on you doing any improvements
to the property
based on one factor, inflation.
And what that means is simply
the value of the dollar decreased
and so it made all of the products
on the market increase in value.
So it's not like something good happened
people will think like
oh great my house increased by a bunch of money.
What actually happened is
everyone got stolen
two hundred thousand dollars got stolen from you.
The problem is when you didn't have any money
and you were a renter
you just got ripped off even harder
because what happened is
the starter home
that you were going to try and get in 2020
was three hundred thousand dollars
now it's four hundred thousand dollars.
So good luck getting involved in that game
and then it just keeps getting worse
and worse and worse
and the money that you have
just keeps getting lesser in value
and lesser in value
and they just keep building
bigger apartment buildings.
Why?
Because the guy that's owning the apartment building
is winning at life.
I mean
we've never had more people trying to move
the Dallas-Forth area
than ever before
and you know it's getting
you know it's mostly in these apartments
the fatherless and widows.
Young single people
women who get divorced
women who have a scumbag husband
that basically
or boyfriend that won't be with them
or just single guys
that are living that horror type of lifestyle
that didn't have a good father
that didn't instruct them
or teach them anything.
So you just have apartments
just filled with all of these life situations
and these people are getting ripped off.
They are being ripped off
just like the guy walking over there
and just kind of pushing the stone
on your inheritance
that's inflation
coming and just
kicking that stone
just a little bit further in
and a little bit further in
to the point where you have no property whatsoever
and that is what
the majority of Americans
it seems like that are young
like the young generation
has no assets.
They don't have a family farm
they have no inheritance
they don't have acreage
they don't have anything
and every single second
that they have nothing
inflation is just crushing them
that further down the road
it's just making it that much worse for them
and destroying
it's kind of like playing Monopoly
the longer you play Monopoly
and you don't have any properties
you're in big trouble
because everybody else
is getting property
and then building houses
and then you know
once they get a monopoly
the rent doubles
that was inflation remember
and then as soon as they put a house on it
it goes up again
and they put two houses
and they put three houses
if you never buy property
in Monopoly
you lose
you get eliminated
this is what
the world wants to do to America
is they want everyone
to stop buying property
and only build your own property
and only Bill Gates
and George Soros
and Black Rock
or whatever to buy property
and pretty soon
once they own all of it
what do they do?
they start building houses
and hotels on it
at first it's cheap
and it's like
oh there's no problem
they own everything
who cares if they own everything
well you know why it matters
because when they start
building hotels on it
and they start building
apartment complexes on everything
and that's the only thing
you can live in
that's the only thing
that anybody can own
you know why is it
that California's
pricing of their housing
is ridiculous
supply and demand issue
but mostly because
they're not building houses
they're building apartments
and they have an influx
of people coming in
and most people
because they're not being wise
with their money
they're spending all their money
on Taco Bell
and Pizza Hut
and beer
and floozies
and you know
tickets to the sporting game
and a lease on their car
that's stupid
and just like all kinds
of just dumb ways
to waste money
then essentially
they just put themselves
in these horrible
weak
poor type mentality
and all of these rich corporations
just steal all your money
and I don't know
if you've been paying attention
but the corporations
don't actually love you
as a person
they'll turn you off
and censor you
and shut you down
and throw out
your name as mud
tomorrow
because they really
are some of the most
evil wicked people
on our planet
are some of the leaders
in these major corporations
because they love money
and they know like
if we do this ad
in this poor black neighborhood
everybody will do it
why do you think it is
that there's a cash
payday advance loan
over here in Arlington
and Grand Prairie
but you can't find one
in Collyville
you can't find one
in Southlake
I mean go show me
the advance payday loan
notice place
in Southlake
does one even exist
yet we could go down
to some of these
South Fort Worth
we'll find two
in the same shopping center
we'll find them everywhere
why
because they're taking
advantage of the poor
they're robbing the poor
they're robbing the widow
they're taking advantage
of all these people's
ignorance
of their foolishness
of the fact
they didn't have someone
love them
invest in them
and try to help them
to do that which is right
you know what
God's people
should do the opposite
we should invest in people
and love people
and try to help them
you know
a lot of the help
needs to be just education
I preach a lot of
sermons on this
because you know
obviously the Bible teaches
there's some good aspects
to poverty
and blessed be you poor
but most of those
are spiritual
you know
the Bible does not teach
being physically poor
is a blessing
I'm sorry
if you think that
you can show me
whatever verse you want
in the Bible
but you know
in the Proverbs
the guy's saying
give me neither
poverty nor riches
he's not saying
please give me
poverty
you know the reason
why people have
abject poverty
is because they're
lazy
according to the Bible
how's that good
or they're in
certain situations
I brought up
and there's no fault
to those people
right
I'm not mad
at someone who's
poor
because they're
a widow
or because they're
crippled
you know what
I am mad
at the lazy jerk
standing on the street
corner able-bodied
man who refuses
to work
that person
I have no sympathy
for
and that is not
a blessing
those people
aren't a blessing
there's nothing
good about
that situation
or that particular
person
and you know
what God's people
should not be
going around
trying to be
like a homeless
person
or thinking
you know having
a hard time
and I just thought
I'll just come
to steadfast
Baptist Church
and I'm thinking
like
that's not gonna
be fun for you
go get a job
oh well it's
hard
you're
lazy
look people
that work hard
in this world
are gonna make
good money
fact
people that work
hard and try hard
God's gonna make sure
to take care of them
there are some exceptions
but just generally
speaking
the reason why people don't make good money is because they don't work hard
they're not applying effort
into working hard
they're not like
educating themselves
trying to get
highly skilled
positions
getting jobs
that
just pay well
you know it's funny to me how many times
the world's philosophies even creep into Christianity
where
where men will complain to me about
not making good money
but then they don't want to do a job they're not interested in
and I'm like
well
you can't have your cake and eat it too necessarily
it's like
you know when I just signed up to
be the man of the house and provide
I didn't say like
well I want to do my favorite activity while getting paid
well you know what I gave up
playing being a professional golfer
because I wasn't gonna get paid
I wasn't good enough
I was never gonna make that
so then I said you know what I'm gonna do
I'm gonna give the job that pays me the best amount of money
not what I think's the funnest
not that's just the most enjoyable
not the easiest
what's gonna pay the best
and I didn't care if it was gonna be the hardest
if I had to work
you know
more hours
or difficult
or all these different things
it was just like
what's gonna actually provide for my family
and that's what I did
and that's what I encourage every man to do
not to sit here and think like
oh man
I just don't know if I really love work
it's called work
it wasn't called fun
you know
and of course ideally
if you could have
your cake and eat it too
of course you want to enjoy your work
I get that
but this is what I've noticed
men just enjoy doing good work
I really don't even think like
you know software development
I like it
but
I don't think that I would find less satisfaction
doing virtually any other job
I'm sure building cars would be fun and enjoyable to me
I at one point want to be an architect
I'm sure that would have been fun
building construction
you know building homes
that sounds really cool
I've done
I've done property management
you know
I thought about the idea
of doing commercial property management
that sounds like fun
I probably wouldn't evict people
for preaching the Bible
you know
so I got that going for me
hey I kind of want to still get into that arena
because I know some people
that would
would possibly rent from me
and
it sounds like a good agreement
you know
it's like
there's so many different opportunities
and jobs out there
and what I've noticed
is that
if you're a normal man
you just like
you like working
to get something done
you enjoy getting things done
most of the time
this is what people don't like about work
their co-workers
or their boss
or like
the bureaucracy
but here's the problem
that exists no matter what profession you're in
I mean
unless you're going to work for a church
good luck
you know
getting away from most of these issues
and even then
I guarantee Dylan doesn't like his boss every single day
okay
you know
I don't know
because I'm me
and he's his own person
but
I'm sure
ask Dylan if he's ever had to do a task he didn't want to do
or if he's ever had a day where he
was frustrated with work
I'm sure it exists
and that's okay
he doesn't have to tell me about it
okay
he can be like
Nehemiah or whatever
and never
have a sad countenance in my presence
but internally
I'm sure
that at
at times
it's not always the
the
the most enjoyable thing
or the greatest activity
or
you know
working for the church as a church
working for the church has its perks
and it has its downfalls
you know
hey
some people like the idea of
of working for a church
but
how about having people come and
and harass you at your home
because you work for the church
you know
that's not that cool
so it's like everybody just thinks that if they had a certain job
their life would be better
but that's not even necessarily true
there's always trade-offs
to every kind of profession that there is out there
um
you know
if I didn't work for the church
I love working for the church
I
I wouldn't
but if I didn't work for the church
you know
when I work extra
at my secular job
you know what happens
I get paid extra
but when I work extra here
no one
no magical fairy just comes and just sprinkles more money into my pocket
okay
whereas you know
so that's a benefit to having a secular job
that you go out and you work some extra overtime
you do some extra things
you could really get some extra money
and then you could use that to your advantage
you know
if I want extra money
I have to go and actually get another completely secular job
and do other secular work
to try and get some of that on top of everything that I'm already doing
and sometimes that's what men need to do
but you know
while
while we're all concerned
with ourselves
and our money
and our situation
you know the Bible challenges us to have a completely different mindset
look at Romans chapter number 15 verse 1
we then that are strong
so if you're one of these guys
I'm doing good pastor
I work hard
I make good money
I got a house
what does it say
ought to bear the infirmities of the week
and notice this
and not to please ourselves
let every one of us please his neighbor
for his good edification
wouldn't that be great if we went to a church
that was more concerned
with the needs
and the necessities
of our fellow church member
over ourselves
where we say I'm more concerned
with your job than my job
I'm more concerned with your family
than my family
and obviously we got to take that in its context
I'm not saying that I care about your family more than mine because I don't
but what I am saying is this
that if my family is going really well
and your family is going kind of poor
and I have an opportunity to hang out with my family
or try to help yours
maybe I put my family on the sacrifice a little bit
and I try to please and build up and edify your family
over my own
you know
sometimes you just go and hang out with a church family member
or you go and do something for a church family member
and it's at the detriment of your own family
in the sense that
you would have been spending that time with your family
or doing things for them
but you're rather just trying to bless other people
why?
because you're concerned with other people's families more than your own
in that context
okay
don't take my words for something that is not
but what I am trying to explain to you is this
you know
we should look at the poor
we should look at the weak
in our lives
and we should try to help them and bless them and encourage them
not just think like
oh well that guy should work harder
that guy should be like me
well okay
let's be real
maybe he should
but don't get this puffed up arrogant attitude
help that person
you know if you think that someone could be better
help them get better
you know help them understand why they're making decisions
that they're making that aren't beneficial
you know it'd be easy for me to just sit here
and think in my heart and in my mind like
oh I'm so much better than other people
financially with housing and job
and blah blah blah
if I really think that
then I would have a humble attitude about it
and actually help those people that are not doing well
and give them the right information
give them advice
try to assist them
I've tried to even personally assist a lot of people
just in the profession
you know they have questions about jobs
or how to get into a different career
I try to invest time to help people with that
people ask me questions about real estate or housing
I try to give them advice or tips about that
you know or even some of you men that are skilled
you could even just help people
you know some people that even have a house or property
or something like that
and they're kind of lower on the totem pole
go help them make their bathroom nicer
or you know help give them advice or tips
on things like that
you know there's a lot of ways that we can help
one another and bless one another
and do good under one another
rather than just sitting and be like
well I'm strong
you know if you're so strong
then go ahead and use those muscles for a reason
and help other people
and bless other people
don't go around and just keep pushing the landmark
with everybody else
you know it's a healthy society
you know what's a healthy society
is when we have everybody in possession of goods
and we don't have this ruling class
and then everybody's poor
that is a dangerous society to live in
you know the more Christian a society is
and the more following biblical principles
a flourishing middle class will exist
it's interesting because it's almost like a middle class
determines how Christian a nation is
and if you were to think about nations
think about a nation that has virtually no middle class
like North Korea, China
why? because there's no Christianity there whatsoever
and the more a nation is Christian
and following Christian principles
the more you'll have basically everybody just kind of in the middle
and then you'll have outliers
whereas the less a Christian nation
or the less Christian a nation is
the more you're just going to have the ultra wealthy elite
and you're going to have just abject poverty
kind of there at the bottom of that rung
and so we as God's people need to start helping the weak
so that we kind of bridge that gap
and we kind of narrow the things out
and we kind of bring more people up
rather than just keep pushing those people down
and building ourselves up
because there's a lot of money to be had from the poor
wouldn't you think if I'm going to steal from somebody
I would steal from someone who's rich, right?
I mean because that guy has money
but that's not how it works
people are stealing from the poor
because the poor they're still making plenty of money
from a conglomerate aspect
you don't think of those payday cash loan places
or make it just ringing in all kinds of money
all kinds of profit
I mean they're some of the most profitable businesses
in fact one of the most profitable businesses I've ever seen
looking at from the bank perspective
was a liquor store
and it was in the Emeril area
and it was funny because their particular accounts
you weren't even allowed to look at
unless you had like specific privileges
because they didn't want anybody to know how much money they really had
but I mean if you drove by this shopping center
in this liquor store
you would think like they're about to go out of business
because it's just like it's the most ghetto
just derelict place
you're just looking at you're like this place is gross and filthy
and you know why would anybody even go here
but I'll tell you what
no businesses could touch them
all the businesses that were pretty and look nice and were in the nice area
they're just barely making ends meet
they're barely being able to keep the lights on
and this like dirty derelict you know in the gutter type business
I mean it is just making hand over fist cash
I mean we're talking about millions and millions of dollars of profit a year
one liquor store in the ghetto
why?
because every ghetto person around
that was their one place to go get liquor
and they weren't going to drive really far
because they're poor
so they just go to this one place and they had jacked up rates
because they knew it
they were in the poor and the poor people liked liquor
and they just ripped them off
and they just made tons and tons and tons of money
look the payday cash loan places
not only that
people that get scammed or ripped off are often
these people in bad situations
another group that often gets victimized is just elderly people
because they're kind of the best of both worlds
they typically have a lot of money and they're kind of easy targets
I looked at an article
there was a Chicago elderly woman
who recently lost $230,000 to a scam
and basically they called her up and told her
that she had been like accused of drug trafficking
and I can't remember all the specifics
so forgive me if I get a detail wrong
but in essence I think it was like the way the scam worked
is they told her that she was accused of drug trafficking
and so the feds or the government were going to come in
and confiscate her savings account
and so they were trying to convince her to move her money into a different account
to keep it safe from all these false accusations
and so they're basically trying to help her move her money
but what did they do?
they moved all their money into their account
and it wasn't even real
look if you're being investigated for drug trafficking by the feds
there's not going to be an Indian guy named Gupta on the phone helping you
oh you're being drug trafficked
let me help you
my name is Gupta
no, no
go to the cops
you know
don't try to pull something shady, alright
there was another one where
there would be people that go into these richer areas
or richer fairgrounds or things like that
and a lady will walk up
and she'll say
hey it's my birthday
and I'm just giving away free jewelry
do you mind if I just give you some free jewelry?
but as the lady's like saying it
come here Richard
she's like doing it
so she's like hey we got this free jewelry
just wanted to put it on you
and always this is what the lady's like
oh no no sorry I don't want it
and then they walk away
but here's what would happen
you can sit down
what would happen is they ended up
realizing that their diamond necklace
that was on their neck is gone
because all they were trying to do
is a pretext to touch you
so they could unhook your necklace
and actually take it off
so they're just walking up to these old ladies
and just saying
hey we want to give you this free jewelry
and it was a lady doing it
but then all the while
all she'd do is just unhook your necklace
and then just take it off
when you refuse to take this free jewelry
or whatever that she was offering
and they were none the wiser
look this stuff is happening all the time
in our culture
in 2021 92,371 elderly people
reported being scammed
for 1.7 billion dollars
that was in one year
someone's making some money
that was a 74% increase from 2020
you know the bible says
when the vilest men are praised
you know the wicked walk on every side
when the vilest men are lifted up
and we see because of criminal activity
increasing because of
all the evil that's going on
cops aren't doing anything anymore
and it's only getting worse and worse
more people are getting scammed
you know people are being taken advantage of
but God's people should not be doing this
go if you would to Luke chapter number 20
Luke chapter 20
now of course a lot of you
are probably not involved
at least I hope not
you better not be
and most of the things that I'm bringing up
these scams
but
you know some people are even just poor
because they got ripped off
you know I've been ripped off
for a large sums of money
and you know frankly I thought that
you know I thought that I was
a good money manager
and I thought that I was doing things well
but even if you're trying to do a good job
people can just take advantage of you
they can just steal from you
and obviously it was a humbling experience
because it helps me realize like
maybe I'm not as smart or as wise
as I think that I am
and I need to be more careful
than I even thought
and it's a good learning experience
because you can try to learn
how to be better or wiser
or not let people take advantage of you as much
but
everyone's out to get you
and they're also getting
they're out to get the weak
and of course what does the wolf do?
he waits for one sheep
to get left behind from the flock
and pounces on them
so we need to remember that
and think
hey let's not have this jaded attitude
towards the poor
let's help the poor
you know Paul said in Galatians
only that they
they're talking about Paul
only they would
that we should remember the poor
the same
which I also was forward to
so the same guy that wrote
second Thessalonians chapter number three
about not feeding lazy jerks
also said that he remembered the poor
and often helped them
so there's nothing wrong with helping the poor
and doing good on the poor
it's just simple that
the righteous consider it the cause of the poor
saying is this guy just down on his luck
having a bad
time
there's some kind of an issue
or is this guy just
refusing
to work
okay
I would
I refuse to give money to men that are refusing to work
you know
but I would give money to a man
if you know he's down on his luck
or
you know
he doesn't have the best situation
or
maybe he's young
maybe he hasn't had anybody help him in his life
you know
I'm not against helping somebody in that scenario
but at the same time
you know we we consider it
right
we're not just
oh here's here's other people's money
like the Democrats
just carte blanche just handing
I mean you know you know why the Democrats are so liberal
it's because
they don't have any money
they're giving all your money away
of course that's easy
it's easy to give other people's money away
it's hard to sometimes give your money away right
the stingy Jew creeps up in a lot of people
Luke chapter 20 look at verse 46
beware of the scribes who desire to walk in long robes
and love greetings in the markets
and the highest seats in the synagogues
and the chief rooms at feasts
which devour widows' houses
and for a show make long prayers
the same shall receive greater damnation
now what I'm describing for you
of our culture is not a new thing under the sun
notice even back then
the religious political leaders of that day
were ripping off and taking advantage of the poor
weren't they
you know it makes me think of this stupid idea
called reverse mortgages
who's ever heard about reverse mortgages
this is a plan
to just rip off the widow
and to take all of their money
steal all of their wealth
while also patting themselves on the back
for helping them
man those commercials make me sick
how the banks get up there
and they're just like
putting all these fake actors on there
like
I would have lost my home
if it wasn't for Wells Fargo
giving me a reverse mortgage
it's like you're a paid actor
why don't we go get all the people
that actually got the reverse mortgage
and then as soon as we're done
and then as soon as the reverse mortgage ran out
and you stole all the equity from their house
they literally foreclosed on them
and then did take their home
what about that person
why didn't you put that person on the commercial
Wells Fargo helped me stay in my house
for two more years
and then took it from me
what a blessing
you know that wasn't cool
these reverse mortgages are wicked
there's all kinds of inventions
that the Jews have created
to take people's money
you know what we should be doing
is preaching to the youth
to take care of their father and their mother
not forsaking them in their old age
not letting them get in that type of a situation
in that scenario
plus you're even stealing
the bank was stealing their inheritance
that was their inheritance to have
by them refusing to take care of their elderly parents
they're just letting their inheritance go to waste
it's like you reap what you sow
refuse to help your parents
receive bills at their death
as opposed to someone that actually blesses their parents
and takes care of their parents
they might actually get a big payday
when their parents finally pass
which, you know, that should be the goal
the goal should not be to inherit bills
when your family members die
it should be an inheritance
and in fact
the Bible teaches that a good man
leaveth an inheritance unto his children's children
meaning that the grandchildren
are receiving money
that was in the grandparent's bank account basically
you know, they're getting that same inheritance
they were teaching their children
training their children
helping their children get to that stage
go over to Exodus chapter 22 for a moment
go to Exodus chapter 22
I want to show you a couple more verses on this subject
and then we'll kind of finish
but in essence, you know
I'm just trying to
basically with this sermon just bring to your mind
the idea that poor people exist
so that maybe you'll consider that and help them
right, it's just more of an awareness
we should remember the poor
that's what Paul was instructed
to remember the poor, to help the poor
when you see opportunity
you know, when you have it in your hand
don't withhold it
but rather bless that person in that moment
in that time
I was thinking about this, it's like
God maybe even just gives you
like a little bit extra money
or a little extra whatever
at some point in your life
just to test you to see if you'll help someone else
because he could always give you more
but what is internally that old man is like
wants to cleave
you get a little bit extra
you just want to cleave to it
you just want to hold on to it
rather than helping someone
even though you don't need it
it's like
it'd be like if you're watching your neighbor
starve to death
while you have too much manna
and you're like
but I want to hang on to this manna for tomorrow
but tomorrow's going to bread, worms and stink
whereas if you've just given that extra manna
to your brother today
tomorrow you could go get more manna
and God would probably bless you
but by you hanging on
and being stingy with all that
God may cause
wrath, muss, rust
and thieves to break through and steal
and to take all that extra
that you didn't need
and really it's just kind of a curse unto you
and instead of being a blessing
by helping the poor, doing good
not taking advantage of poor people
Exodus chapter 22 verse 22
the Bible says
ye shall not afflict any widow
or fatherless child
if thou afflict them in any wise
and they cry at all
unto me
I will surely hear their cry
and my wrath shall wax hot
and I will kill you with the sword
and your wives shall be widows
and your children fatherless
that was extreme
I don't even
like I haven't even preached hard at all
and then I just read that verse
and it was way harder than anything I've ever said so far tonight
so if you thought that I was mean
you know, take it up with God
because what did God just say
he's like hey, if you rip these people off
what is God going to do to you?
just, that's harsh
there's a lot of people that God is mad at
and if you're involved in one of these deceptive practices
or taking advantage of weak people
you should stop that immediately
this is your warning
this is your message of like, stop that, immediately
you know, there was a man kind of like this
the tax collector in the Bible
Nehi Amaya, right?
and, but he gave half of his money back to the poor
he's like, hey, anybody I'm taking advantage of
I'll, you know, bless them
or I'll get, Zacchaeus, I'm sorry
I'm screwing up the name, but
Zacchaeus was short too, okay
I'm just mixing up that name
everybody's looking at me like, who's Nehi Amaya?
sorry, thanks folks, okay
Zacchaeus
Zacchaeus is the man who
after encountering Jesus, what he's got
he's like, hey, I'll give 50% of my money back to the poor
because he realized like, you know I have a lot of this money
been ripping people off
been taking advantage of people
you know, and who do you usually take advantage of?
the weak, the fatherless, the widows
go to Deuteronomy 24
flip over to the right, just Deuteronomy chapter number 4
we should not be like
Zacchaeus was in the past
we should be like Zacchaeus in the future
where we
think about these people and bless them
and help them and encourage them
Deuteronomy 24, look at verse 19
when thou cutest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field
thou shalt not go again to fetch it
it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow
that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands
when thou beatest thine olive tree
thou shalt not go over the boughs again
it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow
when thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard
thou shalt not glean it afterward
it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow
and thou shalt remember that thou was a bondman in the land of Egypt
therefore I command thee to do this thing
so you're saying there was a point in your past
when you were not necessarily well off
when you didn't have a good job
when you had a bad situation
and I remembered you and blessed you and took you out of Egypt
so therefore, you shouldn't necessarily
just all the money that you have
just take that selfishly
you should consider using some of that money to bless other people
now of course I love this example
because it doesn't say
notice what it does not say
when you're gathering your harvest
gather all of the harvest
and then take some of that and give it to the poor
it said leave some of the harvest
and let them come and gather it
so you're not enabling lazy people here
you're not just giving handouts here
but what you are doing is you're affording them an opportunity
to be better off
you know, even one of the best ways to help these people in these situations
is offering them a job
or offering them an opportunity to make money
or to do some kind of a work
even if it's not really equivalent to the pay
because is it really equivalent
that you just get to walk in
I mean did they plant it
did they grow the crops
and do all the work necessary to get the harvest
they can just walk in and get the harvest
so it's a pretty easy labor
but at least they still made them labor to some degree
they still had them do something
and you know that's the best way to help people
is to help them a little bit
and encourage them
you know like your children
your children, it's okay to bless them
more than they deserve
but you don't want to bless them for nothing
it's good to have them work a little bit
start getting that right attitude
that right behavior
and then you kind of reward them incrementally
so as they have character and they're blessed financially
go to Jude 19 26
and look at verse 12
when thou hast made an end of tithing
all the tithes of thine increase the third year
which is the year of tithing
and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow
that they may eat within thy gates and be filled
then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God
I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house
and also have given them unto the Levite
and unto the stranger
to the fatherless and to the widow
according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me
I have not transgressed thy commandments
neither have I forgotten them
now here's another way
so we've talked about remembering the poor
this is another one that some people don't realize
but a way to actually bless the poor
or to remember the poor is by tithing to church
and it kind of clumps a few people
it clumps the fatherless, the widow, the stranger, and the Levite
meaning these are the people that benefit the most from church
and specifically financially from church
so, you know, what does that mean?
well, look, some people financially benefit from church
I mean, in the sense that, like, the church provides a lot of different resources
you know, we've had food fellowships and stuff like that
you know, not everybody could afford to just go and eat a 70 or 80 or 100 dollar meal after church
but when we have, like, a big potluck and the church brings in a lot of brisket or whatever
like, some of the rich people in here, they're like, I can go eat there whenever I want
well, good for you
but not everybody else can
so then when we have, like, a big church potluck type of event
we get to bless some of the other people in our church
that maybe don't get to have that as often
or can't afford to have those type of things
and so we bless them
you know, sometimes we have extra food
and I've seen it, I help facilitate it
sometimes we have extra food, I just let the people that are in abject poverty or poor or worse off
especially the widows, quote unquote, or the women
take some of that extra food home
and that's a blessing unto them
you know, I've been to church, Faithful Word Baptist Church
there was a bread company or something that donated a bunch of extra bread to them
all the time
and so there was this free bread at the church that people could take
you know, and of course, even me
I personally benefit
Brother Dylan personally benefits from the tithe of the church
because we get paid by the church
to do a job
and you know what, if people didn't tithe at church and do whatever
then we would just have to do all of our same responsibilities
and work even harder out in the secular workforce
to pay all of our bills
so it's nice that those things are being brought in to help us
and to help the widow and to help the fatherless
you know, by the church having lots of money
you know what we do?
we go to Shreveport, Louisiana
and we go and preach the gospel to a bunch of poor fatherless people and widows
and preach them the gospel
by the church having a lot of extra money
we go to Matamoros, Mexico
and we preach to a lot of the fatherless and the widows
and you know what?
if church wasn't getting a lot of money
you know what would not be happening?
a bunch of God's people going and visiting
the fatherless and the widows
in their affliction and preaching them the gospel
and people that get mad at tithing
really have a bad heart
because they show that they don't actually care
about the fatherless and the widows
and all the other people
and God is just asking to take
some portion of your money
and think about it this way
it's similar to the gleaning of the field
you know, when you're giving money to the church
it's not like the church is doing nothing
we're still working
and the people in this room
you know, we're not just facilitating lazy people here
we're facilitating soul winners
I mean, when we give food to people
often it's associated with soul winning
hey, Sunday Sundays is after what?
soul winning
you know, if you have ten kids
it would be expensive to go to Cold Stone
and get them all an ice cream
not everybody can afford that
but you know what?
the church buys in bulk a bunch of ice cream
and then we bless all the kids with ice cream
for going out soul winning
you know, it's expensive to eat out
who's been on a soul winning trip with me
and every one of your meals is paid for?
oh yeah, hands all over the building
how did that happen?
but you know what we're doing?
we're not forgetting the poor
and that's an important aspect of church
is that you tithe so that
the church can operate at max capacity
and then when the church is operating
at max capacity, what happens?
all the poor people and the widows
and all these people are being reached
and affected positively
and it helps bolster society
it helps bolster that community
it helps us be right with God
God looks down at us and is very pleased with us
and happy with us
and it's just a win all over
plus he says then I'll bless you
you know, where you can't even receive it
I'll open the windows of heaven
and pour out a blessing that you can't receive
so it's just a win win win
you know, I believe that when it comes to money
number one, you tithe, period
and part of that is going to be helping the poor
but then number two, you can give alms on top of that
but you shouldn't be giving alms in place of tithe
and you've got to get your priorities straight
number one is tithing
then number two is your alms above that
you know, some churches, they put in your building fund
you know, on top of that
and then they put all these other things
I'm not against the building fund
I'm not saying that's wrong, per se
but you know what, I'm not going to get up here and demand that
or put a lot of pressure on people
you know, if we have to meet
wherever, we'll just meet wherever, okay
but at the same time
we shouldn't be robbing from the poor
and by not tithing
by not going out and preaching the gospel
by not helping anybody that's less
advantages you
you're robbing the poor
you shouldn't do it
God is mad at you when you're doing that
and we need to be having the opposite attitude
where we bless the poor
we're thinking about the poor
we want to help the weak
and we want God to be pleased with us
and our church
and our family
let's close in prayer, alright
thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this great message
thank you for looking at our poverty spiritually
and coming down and giving us all the wealth we could possibly want
through the gospel of Jesus Christ
I pray that we would take that richness
that you've given us that blessing
that we've gotten from you
and we would share that with others
we'd share the gospel
we'd not just share our spiritual blessings
but we share our physical blessings
with our money, with our time, with our effort
with our energy, with the skill
with all the things that you've given us
that we've blessed other people with those things
and we would not look to just
build ourselves up or edify one
ourselves, but rather we'd look to edify one another
we would look upon
the fatherless and the widows and our brethren
and we'd consider them
we'd love on them and we want to help them
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen
In the dark of the midnight
Have I obtained my face
While the storm sounds above me
And there's no hiding place
In the crash of the thunder
Precious Lord, hear my cry
Keep me safe till the storm passes by
Till the storm passes over
Till the thunder sounds no more
Till the clouds roll forever
From the sky
Hold me fast, let me stand
In the hollow of thy hand
Keep me safe till the storm passes by
Many times Satan whispers
There is no need to try
For there's no end of sorrow
There's no home by and by
But I know thou art with me
And tomorrow I will rise
Where the storm never darkens the sky
Till the storm passes over
Till the thunder sounds no more
Till the clouds roll forever
From the sky
Hold me fast, let me stand
In the hollow of thy hand
Keep me safe till the storm passes by
When the long night has ended
And the storms come no more
Let me stand in thy presence
On that bright, peaceful shore
In that land where the tempest never comes
Lord, may I dwell with thee
When the storm passes by
Till the storm passes over
Till the thunder sounds no more
Till the clouds roll forever
From the sky
Hold me fast, let me stand
In the hollow of thy hand
Keep me safe till the storm passes by
Good job, you guys are dismissed