(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Come and reign over us, ancient of days. Come, thou incarnate Word. Gird on thy mighty sword our prayer attend. Come, and thy people bless, and give thy word success. Spirit of holiness, on us descend. Come, thouly comforter, thy sacred witness bear. In this glad hour, thou who almighty art, now rule in every heart, and ne'er from us depart spirit of power. To the great one in three eternal praises be, hence evermore, his sovereign majesty, may we in glory see, and to eternity love and adore. Amen. You doing the all right? This time, if you'll take out your bulletin. And if you don't have one, there are some on the back counter. And brother Eli will bring them around to you. Raise your hand nice and high. So we have our service and soul winning times. And I'm going to continue to just remind everyone that on Saturday, we now have two soul winning times. One meets here at the church, and one meets in Baytown. Both of those start at 10 AM. And if you're planning on coming to either one of those, please let either brother Mo know if you're coming to the one that meets here, or brother Brandon know if you're coming to the one that meets in Baytown. And then for our salvation totals, for the year, we're at 367. And actually, this does not include what we had from Sunday. So then, are there any other salvations to report for this week since Sunday, or that just have not been reported? We have one. OK, great. And then we have one today out soul winning. So praise God for that. We'll add two to the total for this evening. And keep up the good work on soul winning. And then we have our Bible memory passage, which is Proverbs chapter number one. We are in verse five, so still at the early stages of that chapter. So don't let yourself get too far behind on that one. Proverbs chapter five, which reads, a wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. Greatly, we are in verse five. Great, there are many great verses in this chapter. And of course, for the children, I don't think you guys need reminded. But if you memorize the verse of the week, and you say it to a non-family member, there's ice cream after the service. And then, of course, be in prayer for our expectant mothers. Continue to pray for them. And then we have our preaching schedule. Today we have Brother Chris Segura, who is here from Faithful Word Baptist Church. We're very grateful that he has traveled to come and preach for us, and that he brought his children, several of his children within this time. So after the service, be sure and thank them and welcome them to Houston. And then Sunday, August 16, we'll have Brother Jeff Goodwin from Steadfast. And then that Thursday, Thursday, August 20, Brother Dylan Oz, who is now from Steadfast, he will be coming on that Thursday to preach for us. And then Sunday, August 23, Brother Ryan Urbanic will be back. It's great to have him back preaching. And then a little further out, Sunday, September 13, we'll have Pastor Grayson Fritz from All Scripture Baptist Church. And then, of course, if you have any prayer requests, email them to the church. And Pastor Shelley will read those prayer requests and pray over those on Thursday when he's here. And then the last thing that Pastor Shelley mentioned that's not in the bulletins is the Wichita Falls Soul Winning Marathon, which I believe is in October. The date has not been set yet, but you can go ahead and take out Google Maps and see how far of a drive that is and start making plans for going to Wichita Falls in October. And with that, we will go to our third song. Brother Mo will come and lead. Turn to song number 309. Song number 309, Dare to be a Daniel. We're going to sing it out there on the first. Standing by a purpose, true, heeding God's command, honor them, the faithful, few, all hail to Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known. Many mighty men are lost. Daring not to stand. Who forgot have been a host by joining Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known. Many giants, great and tall, stalking through the land. Headlong to the earth would fall if met by Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known. Hold the gospel banner high on to victory ground. Satan and his host defy and shout for Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known. Amen. If you would, turn your Bibles to 1 Timothy, chapter 6. Brother Brandon's going to read for us. We're going to pass the offering plate. Over there in 1 Timothy, chapter number 6, the Bible reads, let as many as servants there unto the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of the God of doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved. Partakers of the benefit these things which exhort, if any man teach otherwise in consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ into the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and stripes of words whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmishings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness from such withdrawal thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. In having food and raiment, let us be there with content, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. 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, whereunto thou are also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who bare Pontius Pilate, witness the good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebucable and appearing to our Lord Jesus Christ, which is in his times he saw, who is the blessed and the only potentate, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. Charge them that are rich in the world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richously all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up and store for themselves the good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. O Timothy, keep which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain battling, and oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Great be with thee. Amen. Have a word of prayer. Dear God, we just thank you for this evening. God, we thank you for everyone here. Lord, we thank you for Christ of Europe for coming down, Lord, and we just pray that you just fill in with your spirit and just be with Him and be with us. And I want this sermon in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. 1 Timothy chapter number six, we're gonna go back to 1 Timothy, but if you have your Bibles, please go to 1 Kings chapter number five, 1 Kings chapter number five, and when you get to 2 Kings, I'm sorry, 2 Kings 5, 21, go ahead and go to verse 21, 2 Kings chapter number five is the famous story of the soldier named Naaman. Who has leprosy, ends up getting healed of his leprosy. So I wanna start with this, even though we read 1 Timothy six, we will go back to 1 Timothy six, but I wanna talk about this story in 2 Kings chapter number five. So if you have your Bibles right there in 2 Kings chapter number five, go ahead and meet me in verse 21, and just to give you a little bit of what happened in story, there's this soldier named Naaman, he has leprosy, he's told that there's a man that can heal you, and that was Elijah, and so he goes to go meet this man Elijah, the prophet Elijah, and he ends up actually going up to his door. So he ends up traveling who knows how many miles, maybe hundreds of miles to meet this man because he heard that he's a great man of God, a great prophet that can do miracles, and that can heal him of his leprosy, and leprosy is a disease that destroys your skin, and is deadly as well. It can definitely shorten your life if it gets that bad. So he goes up to his door, and one of his servants comes out, and he doesn't even let him see Elijah. He says this one, master Elijah said, go watch in the River Jordan, and you'll be healed. And he kind of wanted to meet the man, but he didn't. His servant told him go do that, and you'll be healed. Well he got very angry, he said that he was very wrong. So here he is traveling a long distance, he has all these gifts that he wants to give him, he's excited that he's gonna get healed up, leprosy, he believes that it's gonna happen, and he wouldn't have traveled, and so he gets to the door, and he's met not by the man who went to go see, but by somebody else. So that's already kind of like a disrespectful thing if you think about it, because here's a mighty soldier already on his way, and the individual knows he's coming to meet him, but yet another person meets him, and I kind of put myself in his shoes, where he's like who are you? I'm not here to see you, I'm here to see Elijah. And he tells him look, this is what my master Elijah said, go watch in the River, and you'll be fine. Go watch yourself seven times, and you'll be healed. So of course he listened, and he walked away, but he didn't listen with a grateful heart. He was upset, he was raffled, but then one of his soldiers tells him hey, if he would have told you to do some great thing, would you have done it? Of course I would have. Well, why don't you do this little thing? Something a lot easier, something small. Let's see what happens. So he was humble enough to go do it, and he watched himself, and he was healed. It says that his skin went from being leprous to it was a skin like the skin of a child, and so he was very grateful, and he wanted to go back and give him rewards, but Elijah didn't take any of the rewards. Didn't take his money, his clothing, and nothing he took off. Well, go ahead and meet me in verse 21. But Elijah had this servant named Gehazi, and let's read about Gehazi for a second. It says in verse 21, so Gehazi followed after Naaman. So Naaman leaves, he doesn't give anything to Elijah. Elijah refuses to take any money. He's like I don't want it, I don't want your clothes, I don't want your money, just go, go in peace, enjoy life, whatever, but then Gehazi wanted to take advantage of the situation. So this is what he says. So Gehazi followed after Naaman, and when Naaman saw him running after him, Gehazi was running after Naaman. He lied it down from the chariot to meet him, and said it's all is well, because I'm sure Naaman is thinking what's going on? Is everything fine? This man's running for his life towards me. He's assuming it's an emergency, assuming something's serious. So he says hey, it's all well, and Gehazi starts to lie, and he said all is well, which is true, but then he says my master has sent me, which was not true, not true at all. He says my master has sent me saying, behold, even now there be come to me from Mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. Give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver and two changes of garments. Total lie, saying yeah, Gehazi has sent me to say, hey, this guy's visited us, hey, give me some gold, give me some clothes, I can give it to them, because I have nothing to give him. It's a big lie. Verse 23, and Naaman said, be content, take two talents. And he urged them and bound two talents of silver and two bags with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants, and they bare them before him. And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand and bestowed them in the house, and he let the man go, and they departed. But he went in and stood before a master, and Elijah said unto him, what is comest thou, Gehazi? So now Elijah, he meets with Gehazi's servant, and he's asking him, hey, where you coming from? You know, and he said, that servant went, no wither. So he's like, I didn't go anywhere. Okay. And he said, verse 26, unto him, why not my heart with thee, when a man turn again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money? So he took money from Naaman. Gehazi, the servant of Elijah, lied, and ended up deceiving Naaman to give him money, and garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and man servants, and man servants. The leprosy, therefore, so now Elijah is saying, look, because you lied, because you sinned, now you're gonna get punished for being deceitful, wicked, evil. And he says, the leprosy, therefore, of Naaman, shall cleave unto thee, and not just him, but look at this, and thy seed forever. And thy seed forever. So not just him, but his seed, his children are gonna suffer, and they're gonna have leprosy as well. And we went out from the presence a leper as white as snow. So what happened? Bottom line, this was Gehazi's problem. He loved money, and that's the title of this sermon. The love of money isn't funny. The love of money isn't funny. I didn't say money, I said the love of money isn't funny. And this is something that can affect Christians, unbelievers, we need to be careful that in our hearts, we don't begin to love money. Now we need money to pay bills. Yes, that is true, I'll get into that in the sermon. But don't become the individual that begins to love money, and you just want it because you think it's cool to have an abundance of cash, because in your head, you'll think that that'll bring you joy, that'll bring you fame, whatever the case may be. You know what it's gonna turn you into? An evil, wicked individual. That's what the love of money is gonna turn you into. And that happened to me, what was it, yesterday. This is the situation. It was already starting out weird, but it was what it was. So I get to Houston, we land, me and my kids get our luggage and I take out my phone and I start getting to the Uber app and I'm walking to where the Uber usually picks me up when I come to Houston, and I get there and I'm flipping through my phone trying to find the app, and all I hear is from a little bit of a distance, hey, hey, excuse me, and I'm like, turn around, and there's this guy and he's walking past from me, hey, you need a ride, you need a ride? I'm like, I do, but I'm getting an Uber already. Oh, I'm an Uber, hey, I'll take you, hey, come with me. I'm like, whoa, are you sure? It's like, who are you? I don't even know who this guy is. Kind of reminded me of this guy, Kehazi, you know, I felt like Naaman. Like, whoa, is it okay, is everything fine? Why are you yelling at me, who are you? Oh, okay, I'm Uber. Oh, you're Uber? It's like, well, I'm about to get an Uber. He's like, oh, well, I'll take you, no problem. You know, and he kind of forces himself on me. And he literally takes my luggage, I had the suitcase, and he grabs and he takes it from me, and he's like walking away with it, so I'm like, wait a minute, so now I have to walk after him. Very aggressive guy. Opens up his car, puts it in the back, starts grabbing my kids' bags, and I'm like, okay, I guess, I don't mind, I don't care. You know, if you're Uber, then whatever. What does it matter whether it's you or another guy? Hey, I just want to get in my hotel. So sure enough, I'm like, how do I do it? Do I still order it, will you get it? No, he's like struggling to answer, and I'm like, well, are you Uber or not? I am, let me show you. Shows me an app, or he's an Uber driver, I'm like, okay, well, let's go. So I hop in there, and I'm like, so how's it gonna work? Oh, we'll use something else, we'll use Rideshare. I'm like, I'm not familiar with Rideshare. Do I need to download the app, how does that work? Oh no, once we get there, I'll just take your car, and you just pay me, no problem. Just tell me where the address is, I'll be happy to take you, sir. And he goes, very nice. He was a super nice guy, aggressive, but I'm thinking, oh well, maybe he's just like that. Who knows, maybe he really wants to take care of me, and you know, grasp my stuff, calls me, sir, right this way, he's nice to my kids. So I'm thinking, okay, sure, whatever, Rideshare. I'm like, how do I pay you, what's the situation? Oh, when we get there, once I figure out how far it is, then you know what, I'll just whatever, ask you for your car, and I'll swipe in, I'll send you a receipt, it's all legit, it's all fair, it's Rideshare, trust me, it's not a scam. I'm like, all right, whatever. And then sure enough, I'm just kind of whatever, doing my thing, even answering calls, you know, work calls as he's driving us there. Never been thinking anything, he's talking to us, the whole time he's very nice. So we get to the hotel, and he even say, sir, would you like to give me a tip? I'm like, sure, put $10. Sure enough, he puts $10. I'm like, so how much is it? From the airport to my hotel, he chose me, and he's like, $90, $90, does that sound legit to you guys? From the airport to the hotel, 31 minute ride, $90? When I was in Amsterdam, I was just tired, I got there at night, I just took the first thing I found. And what I found was this Tesla Model X, they were all over, and I was just standing there, and this guy comes out, kind of dressed like me. And he's like, sir, you need a taxi? I'm like, I do, well, I'm a taxi. I'm like, you are? With the Tesla, the Tesla Model X? He's like, yes, sir. I'm like, sure, whatever, you know? Sure enough, I walk up to the Tesla, he takes my stuff, opens up the back, puts my suitcase, opens up the cool doors, who knows what a Tesla Model X is? It's a hundred and something thousand dollar Tesla electric vehicle. So sure enough, he's like, come inside, sir, here comes the door. I know, they opened up, so the doors are wide open. I'm like, sweet, I get in there. Oh, leather seats, you name it, nice and warm. I'm like, whoa, big old screen in the front. I'm like, wow, this is nice. And I'm like, what's up with all these Tesla Model Xs? Is this like a super rich nation or what? So they're like, no, sir, my company owns hundreds of them. I'm like, what in the world? And sure enough, he takes me down there. How much is it, my friend? $60, and it was about a 30 minute ride as well. So as soon as the guy told me $90 yesterday, I'm thinking, dude, you are ripping me off. You don't care about me, you don't care about my kids. You just wanna make it easy, whatever. And of course, I wasn't gonna fight it. So Pastor Anderson, if you see that bill, that $90 share ride, I got ripped off. Yes, I did, all right, Pastor? But what was the problem? The problem was that this guy had the love of money. He just wanted to rip me off. He knew, he knew he wasn't gonna charge me what a Uber charges me. He already had it in his heart. He manually entered it in there. It all went to him. It didn't go to him in a company. It all went to him. And then he has the nerve to say, when you leaving, when you going back? I don't know. Friday sometime, you know? Because he literally wanted to say, well, I'll pick you up. Because he figured, this guy paid me $90. He must be a real sucker. No, I'm not. I'm just giving you the benefit of the doubt. Actually, no, I'm not, you're evil. You're bottom line evil. You're a Gazi. That's what you were. But kids, don't become these people that care more about profit than about individuals. This is why pastors don't preach hard, because they don't wanna lose what? The money. They know if they preach hard and tell you everything the Bible says, they're gonna lose a lot of their church members. But the mistake that they make is they don't start off preaching hard, and then the church gets built by a bunch of sensitive, easily offended, maybe they're saved, maybe they're not saved, but that's what you're gonna attract. With positive preaching only, you're gonna attract people that just wanna hear positive preaching all day long. When you mix it and you give us everything, the whole counsel of God, then you're gonna get people that will not leave when something, quote, unquote, controversial gets preached across the pulpit. But what happens these days? These pastors, they start building and building and building. They start making their ministry bigger than they really should. They start bringing in whoever and whenever. Why? Because they start to realize that, you know what? If I start preaching hard, I'm gonna lose some people, and I won't have my monthly budget that I'm used to. And God forbid if other people notice that my church is getting smaller, my property's decreasing. Hey, you know what? I'm not the person that I used to be five years ago, 10 years ago. So what do they do? They continue to preach soft. They continue to preach positive only. And what do you end up having? A bunch of weak Christians. Now when persecution or tribulation is up hitting them, they're gonna be gone right away. That's what's gonna end up happening. But when the pastor's preaching hard because he doesn't care about money, he's not like a hay's eye. You know what? Yes, we're gonna have infiltrators. Yes, we'll still have people that when things get tough, they're gonna just get up and leave. But the majority are gonna stick around. 80 to 90% of your church will be solid, will be legit. Why? Because they're not here either for the love of money. The pastor's not here for the love of money. We use money as a tool, but guess what? It's not gonna be our tutor. It's not gonna be something that motivates us ever. That's what you need to understand. The love of money is the root of all evil. Why do people commit adultery? Why are people murdering? Why are people stealing? Why did a guy rip me off for $90 when it should have been 40 bucks tops? Why? Because he wants to make money. He cares more about money than about doing the right thing. That's the bottom line. So if you have your Bibles, what I want you to do is I want you to go, I want you to go to Genesis 12. Just go to Genesis 12. So the first thing I wanna talk about, kids, is this. I understand that the love of money is the root of all evil, but also I want you to understand that having money is not evil. Having money is not evil. There's nothing wrong with being rich. And if you're there in Genesis 12, I'm just gonna read very slowly, and I'm gonna show you that there's nothing wrong with having riches. It says in Genesis 12, Now the Lord hath said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee. And make dining great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee, and indeed shall all families of the earth be blessed. But what did he say? He says, I will bless thee. So go ahead and get your Bible and flip to Genesis 13. Just the next chapter over, and meet me at verse number two. Verse number two. If you're there, this is what the Bible says. And Abram was very poor. Is that what it says? No, it does not. First, in chapter number 12, God told Abram, at this point he's Abram, but it's Abraham, hey, I'm gonna bless you. So whatever comes to Abraham is coming from the Lord. In the next chapter, it says this, and Abram was very rich in cattle. Is that all he had? Nope, he also had silver, and then gold. So these things were wicked and evil but the Bible says that no good thing will I withhold from them that walk uprightly. So if these things were evil things, he would have withheld them. He would have kept them from Abraham. He would have never gave it to him. But before we get all excited and said, yes, am I gonna get golden riches for serving God like Abraham? Hold up, the Bible does say, and I'll cover it later, that the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. At this point, Abraham is well into his later life. He has enough wisdom where God says, you know what, I don't think it's gonna destroy him if I bless him, because if it would, if he never would have gave him this money. So if you wanna be somebody who's entrusted with wealth and this and that, and we'll cover it later on, what's the purpose of money, God wants you to be a smart person, a wise person, and yet maybe he'll still entrust you with riches, but it's not something that God ever guaranteed you. But if you wanna know how can I be ready in case God wants to bless me with these things, well, kids, it's time to get smart with money. Don't be a fool, because the prosperity of fools will destroy them. But why do I bring that up? That riches are not evil. Having riches is not evil, because you know what? Recently, it seems like that's what people believe, that being rich is evil. Being rich is immoral. Let's go take it from them. Let's go destroy their property. Let's go hurt them. And this is even coming from leaders. Let me read something to you. This is what this article says. Billionaires should not exist. Billionaires should not exist. Bernie Sanders says billionaires should not exist. Now, I'm pretty sure we all know who Bernie Weirdo Sanders is. He says, I couldn't agree more. So now we got two fools, two fools so far in this world. One is Bernie Sanders, and the other is a person who's writing this article. He says, I couldn't agree more. I find the fact that billionaires exist in astounding, especially given how much money a billion dollars actually is, most of the time, we don't think about it. Yeah, because if you're a Christian, you shouldn't be thinking about it. You shouldn't care. You shouldn't want to know how much money such and such has, or this guy has, or whatever. Hey, that's not our purpose, to be as rich as these individuals. But this guy's like, hey, we don't think about it. We won't realize how evil it is. Really. Most of the time, we don't think about it. We use words like billionaire and a billion dollars, but rarely do we stop to comprehend the sheer size of these numbers. Consider this. If you worked every day making $5,000 a day from the time that Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492, to the time you're reading this, you will still not be a billionaire. The math is simple. $5,000 times 365 days times 528 years, that's $963 million, $600,000. Even that might not register, so try this. If you work a full-time job eight hours a day at a living wage, $15 per hour, you only make $120 a day, or if you make what I do, $70 in a year, so this guy's not content with what he makes. If you make what I do, $70 in, that to me sounds reasonable, that to me sounds fine. If I made that the rest of my life, I'll be happy. Says, if you get about $191 a day, or this, if you receive compensation equivalent to the president of whatever college, you get, according to the 2017 data, $432,000 a year, or $1,184 a day, that means you'd have to make four times the president of this college just to get up to $5,000 a day, and make it every day for 527 years, and you still will not be a billionaire. That's a lot of money. For some, however, it's just chump change. Consider Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon and the richest person in the world. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I'll finish with this. Bernie's point, of course, is that hoarding that much wealth in society like ours, where so many people are suffering, is grotesque and immoral, is what this guy says. Being a billionaire is immoral. What Bible verse is that? If that's true, then explain away these verses. So King Solomon, and he's crying about Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos is the richest guy in the world. That's immoral. Having that much money is immoral. Immoral is evil, wicked. Oh, really? Well, what's up with this verse? First Kings 10, 23. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches, for riches, and for wisdom. Let me ask you this. Who gave him those riches? Where did those riches come from? They didn't come from the devil. Jeff Bezos' money probably came from the devil. But come on, let's face it. It came from God. And if it was immoral to give somebody that much money, God would have never done it. True? So this guy's an idiot. Guess what? Bernie Sanders is an idiot. And guess what? Anybody that thinks that having riches makes you an evil person, that's not a Bible. The love of money, whether you have money or not, doesn't say the love of money, if you're rich, is the root of all evil. You can be as poor as whoever, but if you love money, if your goal is to make that million, billion, trillion dollars, if you're all about the billions, then guess what? Then you're evil, even if you don't have any money, even if you're in the negative. But not just that, God is the one that gives us these riches. God is the one that gave it to Solomon. And even though I said it, I just like reading this story. First Kings 33, you don't have to go there. This is the story of when God came to Solomon. But it starts off by saying in verse three, and Solomon loved the Lord. Loved the Lord. Walking in the statutes of David his father, only sacrificed the burnt incense in high places, and the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place that dowsing burnt offerings that Solomon offered upon that author. And Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and asked, you know, what I shall give thee? And Solomon said, thou hast shown unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness the rightness of heart with thee, and thou hast kept for him this great kindness that thou hast given a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen a great people, and cannot be numbered or counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding and heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this that is so great of people? And the speech pleased the Lord. So God says, hey, what do you want? I'll give you whatever you want. He didn't say, give me riches. That shows that he didn't love riches. He didn't say, give me the life of my enemies, or give me a long life, I want to live a long time. He didn't say that. He says, Lord, I just want wisdom. I want to know what to do, because I need to judge your people. That's what I want. If you're going to give me anything, give me wisdom, because I want to know, I want to do the right thing. And it said that the Lord's, it's like the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon asked this thing. And God said unto him, because thou hast asked this thing, and because thou hast asked for thyself long life, now thou hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thy enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment, behold, I have done according to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches. So if it was immoral for somebody to have so much money, now he wasn't the second richest, he was the richest on the entire planet. You can say he was the Jeb Bizzle, Solomon was the Jeb Bizzles of his time, but maybe he had way more money than Jeb Bizzles. But to have that much money, to hoard that much money, according to Bernie Sanders in that article, guy, it is an immoral thing to have that much money. And guess what, this is why there's so much rioting today. Because you got these people that have nothing, they've been brainwashed, they make they think that the rich man's bringing them down, and they're going around even trying to rob rich people at their homes. Who remembers that story of that guy that came out with an AR-15, just to defend his home? Who knows what I'm talking about? Where this guy, he had a big house, his wife and him were eating dinner. Sure enough, this mob protesting whatever, break his gate, walk right through, and sure enough, their goal was to rob them. That's what their goal was. I highly doubt they was gonna march around this house and fight for their rights and fight against police brutality and they were just gonna go round and around and around so somebody heard their sound and then basically exit and go home in peace. Highly thought that was gonna happen. They were getting ready to break in, take as much as they can and leave. Why? Because these wicked people are the reasons why we're poor. They have all the money, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, that's the danger when you start to love money because when you start to love money, you don't do anything for it, including rob, steal, or even kill. Somebody heard of Cain, who killed who? Abel, why? Because he coveted what Abel had. And if you think about it, that's what the love of money really is, it's covetousness. How do we know? We'll get to it in 1 Timothy because that's what it said. Some coveted after have earned from the pain. Coveted after what? Money. That's the chapter that talks about the love of money. But here's what the Bible says, for the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. If these people were to ask me, why doesn't God bless me? I would say it's because you're not ready, you're not smart enough to handle that much money. That's what I would tell them. Are you calling me a fool? I'm telling you that you may not be one, but chances are, if you don't have a ton of money, it's because you probably can't handle it. That's just what I've noticed in my life. I've been saved, I'm 41 right now, I've been saved since, I got saved at age 22. I've been going to Independent Fundamental Baptist Church since age 23. And what I've noticed is when people leave the church, it start by them going after money. When they stop coming three times a week, it's because now they need more money to do whatever. They get a bigger car, newer car, whatever, now the bills are higher, now they got to work an extra shift, whatever the case may be. You know, and they tend to kind of just miss the service here, miss the service there, next thing you know, they're nowhere. They're nowhere. Or they want something else. They want something that's evil. They want to do something that the church doesn't allow, so they know they're going to get called out for it, so they end up leaving. What does that have to do with money? Well, here's why, they probably leave. Because they're coveting something. They're coveting something that's wicked, and because the pastor preaches hard on it, they know they can't get away with it at their church, so they end up leaving and going to either no church or a watered-down church where they accept it. That's just a fact. I mean, just on the way to my hotel, I'm just answering business calls and I get a call. So now I want to talk to Pastor Anderson. I don't know, well, he doesn't talk to people he doesn't know. Sorry, but you know what, we're here to help you out. You got a question? Well, I want to talk about him, about homosexuality or whatever. I'm like, okay, what's the problem? Well, my pastor says that they should be allowed in church. Okay. And because the church is a hospital, the church is a hospital for those that are spiritually hurting. That's what he taught, and I agree with that. And I said, well, this is the bottom line. Your pastor should be fired because that's not what the Bible teaches. And we're supposed to kick fornicators, straight fornicators out of the church. Guess what? Homosexuals, they're way worse, way worse, whether you believe it or not. And the reason your pastor's telling you all this is because he loves money more than people, or he's an unsafe reject and can't understand the word of God. That's why. That's just how we handle that. Job 42, 12 says this. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. And what did God bless him with? He blessed him with 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 she-asses. That sounds like a lot. Now, I don't know what that comes to as far as millions or billions, but the Lord blessed him with a lot, with a lot. So if having a lot, if having riches is immoral, why would God do it to Job? Why would he do it to Abraham? And why would he do it to King Solomon if it was immoral? So the first thing is, kids, having money, being rich, does not make you an evil, wicked person. Now, a lot of these people are. They're supposed to have over 600 billionaires in the US. I highly doubt any of them are serving God. But that doesn't make them automatically evil because they have money. What makes them evil is if they love their money. That's what makes them evil. But the majority of them are not serving God. They probably made a lot of money through their business. And if they ever serve God to the fullest, they may lose their business because it'll go under attack real quick, especially in 2020. They'll burn down their business if they stand up for God. And we know that is true. But let me just remind you guys that tonight I want you guys to go home remembering that having riches does not make you an evil person. Loving riches does. Desiring to have riches does. That's not the goal of life. Let's just kind of remind ourselves tonight of what the purpose of money is. So if you have your Bibles, I want you to go to Romans chapter number 12. Go to Romans chapter number 12. Go to Romans chapter number 12. When we get up, man, and we go to work, man, let's not forget the main reason that we're doing it. We're doing it for the Lord. Of course, He commanded us to work six days. But also remember that it's not to be rich. It's not even close. It's just for us to meet our basic needs. And here's your basic needs. First Timothy 6 says this, in having food and raiment, let us be there with content. Content means happy. So of course, it's not just be satisfied as being happy. In Spanish, it's contento, contento is happy. So having food and raiment, we should just be praising the Lord and be happy for that, that we have something to eat, amen? And of course, the Bible says, if you don't provide for your own, you're worse than an infidel. But of course, that is an easy one to figure out. The other one, why, why, why, why do we go to work? What's the purpose of money so we can help others? Here in Romans 12, look at verse 10. Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love and honor, preferring one another. Not so lawful in business, and now we're talking about working, we're talking about business, we're talking about money. Not so lawful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, and distributing to the necessities of saints. So the purpose of money is to help our fellow saints, our fellow believers. When they're working hard, when they're working their six days, and you know what, they may be a little short, just because right now they may not be in a situation where they make a ton of money. I've been there. Hey, it is what it is, it's perfectly fine. Just say, hey brother, let me help you out. It's better to do it in secret. Hey man, somebody gave me this letter to give to you. Whoa, don't know what to tell you. Keep serving God, he'll take care of you. The purpose is to help the fellow saints, the poor brethren. Let me read this verse, Proverbs 21, 13. If you got your Bibles, I want you to go to Malachi 3, 10. In fact, forget about Malachi 3, 10, go to Matthew 23, 23. Matthew 23, 23. The Bible says in Proverbs 21, 13. Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. What does that say? That say, look, what goes around comes around. You know someone's hurting, you got some ability to help them out. The guy's a guy who's serving the Lord, he fears the Lord, he keeps his commandments, he works as hard as he can, works at six days, but the guy's coming up a little short. Hey, the Bible says we'll have the poor always. We are to help the poor. Now, this isn't a sermon about the pathetic, lazy, this is just about the poor. People that are working hard, people that are trying hard, but they just come up short. We're always gonna have them, we'll have them in our church. If you know of any, the Bible says, don't stop your ears at the cry of the poor, because then you'll cry too one day, and God's not gonna hear you when you need help. So what goes around comes around. You help those in need, when it's time for you to be helped, it's not even gonna be something we have to beg for it. He'll be helped as well. The Bible says, what's every good thing you do the same, so you'll receive of the Lord. So if you're helping your fellow poor brethren, guess what? God's gonna help you in your time of need. Happens all the time, I see it all the time. In my church, my old church, people are doing great, all of a sudden something happens, you know, accident, you name it, they end up hurting, but we got their back, we help them out financially, and they're able to go through it. But it says right here in Matthew 23, 23, I didn't want to go to Malachi 3, we'll just go to Matthew 23, 23. Another reason for money is tithing. Go on to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you pay, what? Tithe, admit, and anise in coming, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These all you have done. What are these things? The tithing. He says, hey Pharisees, these things you should be doing. But you know what, don't forget about the other things as well that I commanded. Hey, don't leave those things undone. And you know, Malachi says, bring all the tithes into the storehouses, because that's what God wants us to do is keep tithing. So once again, let's just quickly review what I want you guys to remember tonight, that riches does not make a person evil. You shouldn't hate the rich. Now of course, if the rich are evil people, that's different, but having money, having riches, having abundance of things, that doesn't give you the right to despise or rob from your employers or whoever you may think, oh, they can afford it. They shouldn't have that much money. Don't have the mentality of Bernie Sanders and the writer that agrees that it's immoral to have that much money. It's immoral to have riches. Then why did God give people riches? Not just riches, but one of them was the richest person on the planet if it was so immoral. And the other thing, money is for what? To meet our own needs, to help others, and to help the church, how? Hey, you're tithing, you're paying tithes. You're not giving, you're tithing. You're doing what God told you to do. It's commandment of us, and God will bless you for it. And the other thing is, when it comes to the love of money, that's what God uses to try to destroy you. He's gonna try to make it to an individual that loves money. He's been doing it since the beginning of time. Remember what he did to Eve? Got her to what? To covet, to want things that didn't belong to her. She wanted to know more. She wanted this knowledge that supposedly God was holding back from her. That's what the devil does, and he's gonna try to get us to do the exact same thing. That car, that house, that job, that should be yours. You need to fight for that. You need to fight for that three-car garage. You need to fight for that second vehicle. I mean, come on, you go to church three times a week. You read your Bible every day. You deserve this. This is something that you've earned. This isn't something extra. This is just the normal, man. Come on, you live in America, 100,000. Yeah, you have to move to another state. Yeah, you might have to go to a watered-down church, but come on, you're still going to church, right? Right? Come on, now. Because look, if he tried it on Jesus, and if you have your Bibles, and I want you to go to Matthew chapter number four. Go to Matthew chapter number four. If he tried to use power, riches, to tempt Christ, and he did it to Eve, guess what he's gonna do? He's gonna try to do it to you, just warning you. It's coming. The temptation, the promotion, whatever the case may be. Oh, it's coming. You may end up being an Uber driver and deciding to use ride chairs instead of Uber one day. I got you, man. Don't worry, don't worry, just hop in. Oh, we'll talk about the money later. Very easy to do that. Hey, it's happened to me. I've been tempted, you know? But what happened in Matthew four? Let's take a look. Go to verse number eight. Says that again, the devil taking them up into an exceeding high mountain, and showing him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. He's trying to get Jesus to covet, to want riches, to want power. And say unto him, all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then say Jesus unto him, get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shall thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. And think about it, he tried that on Jesus. Doesn't he think he's gonna try it on you? I mean, he tried it on me. Early on, when I first started going to church, I wanted to be a police officer. I wanted to serve my community. I wanted to be a police officer since I started watching Cops as a Little Kid. Who watch that show, Cops? Come on. You know? Ever since I started watching Cops as a Little Kid, I'm like, that is a cool job. Because you're a foolish kid, you don't even know what really happens behind the scenes. You know, so my goal was to go to military, because they told me to help me to become a police officer. I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. You know, one of the reasons I joined was because I wanted to serve my country, but yeah, I also wanted to get into some career that can help me get into law enforcement. So sure enough, I got discharged, ended up getting saved, and was ready to go into the academy. War hit, pulled out, but sure enough, survived it. 22 months later, discharged again, signed up for the police academy, started going through it right away within three weeks. I mean, they were evaluating all of us, and I was doing very well. They told me, hey, you keep it up. You know, you'll get hired, because the one in is a non-affiliate. What that means is that you don't have to go through all the lengthy two-year, you know, recruiting. You can just go to the academy, because you already did the background check, you already got the gun permit, you got everything, and you just go to it. So I figured that's my fast track way. Instead of applying and going through the background and all that crazy mess, I figured, you know what, let me get my spot in the academy. If I pass the academy, boom, they'll hire you a lot quicker. And sure enough, that happened. Within a month, that's what happened. I got given an offer, saying, look, you're doing great. We want to offer you a job with a police department. I said, great, wonderful. I was excited, told my pastor back in California, he was excited, he's like, this is great. You know, so of course, starting pay, according to them, was $110,000 a year. That was the starting pay. But they said up to $134,000, if you do all this overtime and whatever. And it still hasn't changed. I went back last year, I believe, during the San Francisco so many marathon. And I just happened to not be able to make it. What happened, one of my kids got sick. So I, sure enough, had to stay with my mom at her house. But then she said, hey, let's go out and eat. My son felt better, so I'm like, okay, let's go get him some food. Went out to a restaurant, met up with one of my cousins. They chose the restaurant, and the restaurant was literally next door to the place where I used to get my police uniforms. Right next door. So I brought all these memories, and it's like, oh, man, I can't believe the story. And I kind of just picked in there. And they had all these hiring signs. And the departments, they all said, starting pay $134,000. This is the Bay Area, of course. $134,000, I'm thinking, man, the pay hasn't really changed that much. But it's still high up there. But then three months into the academy, that's when I started to do the ride-alongs. That's when they started to get my schedule. And what in the world, I don't know how it just became this way, but my schedule was literally working Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And Wednesday. What do you think I was thinking? No way. Because at that point, I'd been going to church for probably about maybe close to six months, eight months, or a year, and it was a Baptist church. And what did it keep pounding? Three to thrive, Sunday morning, Sunday night. What's tonight? And I would say, amen, amen, amen. But now all of a sudden, it's like, what you gonna do? And I just got depressed. I'm like, I don't know. And I thought, you know what? I know I've been changing. Church has been helping me. And I can literally say, just those eight months of the stuff that I learned in church, all the morality, the laws, all of that, made me a better person. And that helped me. I believe that helped me to be a better person. And it showed in the police academy. And that's what helped me even to get the job in the police academy. Because one of the things my captain said was, I heard you go to church a lot. That's what we want. It's like, we want a guy like you. We have this police officer. He's really big on church. He's a great community police officer. This is what we want. We want a guy that are into church and into family. That's one of the key things. And that's what helped me get hired. And even my morality was showing with my students. I was treating them better, putting them before me, not worrying about competition because I left it all in God's hands. I'm like, these people are not competition to me. These people are souls. I'm gonna try to get them saved. So I was able to give them the gospel, everything else. So I did my best and they saw that, that I wasn't trying to push myself. So right away, I was the first guy to get hired out of 30 guys that were non-affiliate. They gave me the job right away and it was the best apartment out of the entire county. So I was excited, everything was going well. But then when they gave my schedule, I said, no, I gotta talk to my pastor. So I went and spoke to my pastor back in California and I said, here's the problem. They want me to work Friday, Saturday, Sunday for at least six months. And then maybe after six months, my schedule will rotate and I might get dazed. I'm gonna work nights. It's like, there's no way I'm gonna make it to church. There's no way I'm gonna make it on Wednesday night. I don't know what to do. I'm thinking about quitting. And he said, well, you're never gonna fail if you put God first. And he said, you know what? Then that's what I gotta do. So the next day I went to my police captain and I walked in there and it was scary and I was nervous and I was double guessing myself, but I knew, I knew, seek ye first the kingdom of God. I knew that. So I went up to him and I said, I gotta talk to you, captain. He's like, what's going on? You know, he was like, Naaman, what's going on? It's all right. And I said, look, thanks, but no thanks. I'm not gonna go into law enforcement after I graduate. I just cannot do it. When I started, I was 100% in, but now I'm not even 50% in. I'm maybe 10% in and I want you to hire somebody who's 100% sold. I'm not. He's like, what are you planning to do? And at that point, it was kinda like, oh man, how do I even bring this up? Because I didn't wanna look like a crazy man. And I just said, well, you know, I'm thinking of Bible college. And he's like, I was thinking about it, but that was a watered down way of me saying, hey, I just don't wanna miss church. You know, because even though I've been going to church for almost a year, I wasn't a super strong, mighty spiritual, but I knew enough that you know what, missing church is wrong. Missing church is not what God wants me to do. Missing church is a big, big mistake. And I knew going to church was helping to improve me personally. I knew it was. So I say, you know what, I am not gonna take this job and I don't care what department it is. I'm just not gonna go into law enforcement. I'll try something else. I'll try probation officer. I'll do something else, but I cannot miss church. I wanna have a job where I can go to church every time the doors are open, because already I noticed it was a big change, the fear of God, every time I heard some preaching, you know what, it is what it is. It was a piece of me that I knew I needed to keep, period. And the money was tempting. And I see that I had a church member that was from the Bay Area and they said, I wouldn't have done that. I would have picked a job. It's like, cause that's easy money. The police department you don't have to work for is not that dangerous. And it's like, I don't know if I would have done that, but I don't think I would have done it. It's like, I know it was hard, but praise the Lord. I mean, at the time I wasn't married, didn't have kids. So I just gambled on God and it worked out well. It worked out well. I don't make close to that money, but I don't care. That's all my needs are being provided. And God has allowed me to do more for him. And I think that was just the devil tempting me, testing me. And I had enough spiritual sense to say, I can't do this. I got to back out of it and I did. Why? Because godliness with contentment is great gain, amen. And 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. But they that will be rich fall into what? Temptation and a snare. And it's a many foolish and hurtful lust. And I've seen this time and time again. I've just recently seen this, which drowned men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil. While some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierce us up through what many sorrows. And I've just recently seen this church member started out great, loved the church, did a lot for the church, worked on a website for the church was happy that he came across this church will praise pastor Anderson. Now he's no longer at church. Now he's gone. And he didn't just leave, but he left bitter, upset, talking trash. Well, what's the problem? He's using all kinds of excuses to suit this content mind. But little does he know why he really left. We know why he left, because his mother told us why. Said pray for my son. He loves money right now more than coming to church. But they left because some drama happened at our church. And the guy doesn't realize that, hey, you know what? You're saying we'll find you out, the truth will come out. He's trying to beat the sea foal like I'm not coming back because pastor Anderson this, pastor Anderson that, he's no longer the same person, yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. But guess what? Before you left, we already knew what your problem was. Because your mom came to us asking for help. And all we can do is pray, hopefully things get better. And I guess they didn't. Because at the end of the day, he left because what? The love of money, that's why, that's why they left. But they can talk all they want. But God knows the truth. God knows why. And we also know as well. But let's not become these individuals that have the thought creeping in and they do nothing about it. Because next thing, you're gonna be about it. You're gonna be about trying to get that money. You're gonna be about there's three services a night. Does Thursday night really, really, really matter? Does it really matter? Yes, it really, really matters. It really, really does matter. And you'll find out the hard way or the easy way. Easy way is just read your Bible. You'll find out it matters. Hard way, go in and leave. I don't recommend that. I'm not just saying this to scare you to stay. But if you look around to the people who have been here and gone, you better believe that it was always something that they coveted, something that they wanted. And they knew going to this church, it was not gonna allow them to get it. Somebody asked me, hey, I'm thinking of law enforcement. What do you think? I'm like, good luck, as long as you're part of paperwork. Don't even think about a government job. Why? Guess what they're gonna do? A background check. Guess what they ask you to put on paper? Any program, any organization you're affiliated with. Go ahead and put paperwork back at the church and see what happens. You think the recruiter is gonna wanna hire you when he Googles Pastor Anderson? You think the police chief is gonna make an exception for you with the stuff that's going on with Black Lives Matter? You think he's gonna say, well, I know he goes to a, you know, a hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law or whatever. But you know what, he's a really good guy. I'll gamble on him. Ain't happening. The police chief is not gonna gamble his career, his retirement on you. He just ain't. That's just the facts of life. But if you seek ye first the kingdom of God, you'll be fine. Nothing can stop you. Nobody can stop you. And that's what happened to Eve. The serpent beguiled her, made her think, hey, you're missing out. People are like, man, if I keep serving God, I'm gonna miss out. No, you're not gonna miss out. In fact, serving God, you're gonna get everything you need. That's what the Bible teaches. Where does it say that? In many places. But here's what the Bible does say. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and meet me in Psalms 84. Go ahead and meet me in Psalms 84. Don't worry, kids, we're almost done. You don't need to cry, I know. I know. 48 minutes into it, I'll be done in 12. I was told 60 minutes. 59 minutes and 59 seconds is my goal. Like 40 stripes save one, amen? So you guys are in Psalms 84. I'm gonna read from Psalms 37. This is just a reminder tonight. I'm sure you know these verses. It says, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass. Talk about wicked people. It says, trust in the Lord and do good. So shall thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. So trust in and doing good, God will feed you, God will take care of you. Delight the self also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Not some desires, all of your desires. All of them. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Friend not thyself because of him who prospers in the way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Friend not thyself and any wise to do evil. And if you do that, look what it says in Psalms 84-11. For the Lord God is the sun and the shield. What does that mean? Hey, he's your power. He's your shield. He will protect you. He'll give you strength. He'll make sure you move forward and prosper. And not just that, it says right there in Psalms 84-11, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. I like preaching that everywhere I go. No good thing. Brother Segura, I prayed for this house. I even put down an offer and it didn't go through because it's not a good thing. That's why it didn't go through. And we never realized that until years down the road. I'm glad I didn't get that house because this one's better. I'm glad I didn't get that job because this one rocks. I'm glad I didn't do law enforcement because I wouldn't be here. That's just a fact. We're always like, man, did I make a mistake? Well, what were you trying to do? I'm trying to do what God wanted me to do. I'm trying to please the Lord. He made no mistake. And even if it is, God'll turn it around and fix it. Because guess what? None of us are perfect like Esau. It says that, hey, he wasn't perfect, but his heart was. His actions were, but his heart was. And God was pleased with him and blessed that man. But I'll quickly go over in the last 10 minutes because I already saw that, hey, number one, riches doesn't equal evilness. Hey, it's the love of riches that equals evil. It's not immoral to be rich. People that get rich, hey, enjoy your money, you earned it, whatever the case may be. If you earned it honestly, enjoy it. You know, use it for God's glory. But in the end, we shouldn't wanna steal their stuff. We shouldn't wanna rip them off just because they have so much. Well, you know what, he ain't gonna care. Take this stapler from the office. What does it matter? This company makes millions. What's a stapler? What's a screwdriver? You know, what's a highlighter? Doesn't make a difference to this company. They make millions every year. Well, we'll see. But we also understand that the devil loves to tempt you with riches, loves to make you think that Lambo, that Ferrari, you know, that wife, that guy, whatever. That's what I need to be happy. No, that's not what you need. I'll finish up with how you can have real happiness in life. But let's just quickly go over the dangers of riches. So maybe God will bless you. Maybe one day you will have riches. Well, you know what, take heed. And if you have your Bible, I want you to go ahead and meet me in Ecclesiastes chapter number two. And if you wanna go ahead and read before I even get there, go ahead and go to verse 26. Take a look at it, I don't mind. I'm just gonna read these warnings about, you know, prospering, God blessing you, giving you a ton, giving you enough, more than enough. Here's the danger, Deuteronomy 6 10. You guys can go ahead and read, you know, Ecclesiastes two. Says, and it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, which he swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things, which thou fillest not, and wells dig, which thou digest not, vineyards and other trees, which thou plantest not, when thou shalt have eaten, and be full, then beware, once God blesses you, and you have a lot, things are going well financially, beware, lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth at the land of Egypt. And that's the dangers, we're starting to prosper financially. We pray less, we read our Bibles less, you know, we don't take money, we don't appreciate it like we do, once we're getting an abundance, but when we're poor, we appreciate even a penny. Am I not, am I not right? You know, it's like when you got money in the bank, and you're cleaning out your car, cleaning underneath the seats, oh a nickel, whee, what is this trash doing in here? Whee, but we don't have money, you're like, a nickel's sweet, whew, sweet praise the Lord, you know it's true. You know, when I worked at Fry's Electronics, man, that was one of the most humbling time of my life financially. Here I am with a police academy certificate, because I did finish the academy, I did finish it, I figured you know what, let me just finish what I started, and if I'm wrong, Lord show me that I'm wrong, because I was 100% convinced that I did the right thing of not going there, it lasted three years, so I just kept it, so I figured okay, no big deal, if I ever need it, if I ever just goes back into my heart to go back into law enforcement, because I really did love wanting to be a public servant, then by all means I can use it, but then I ended up moving down here, praise the Lord, took whatever job, just took it, ended up working for electronics store, whatever, and then sure enough, ended up going to commission, and I was like whoa, that was so tempting, and I hate to say this, but every salesperson that work with me rip people off. They will lie to get that sale. One time this guy comes in, he wants a computer, sorry, it's a great computer, but we're sold out now. He's like what, and he's looking at the floor model, and he ran into the wrong salesman. Says yo man, I got a question, what you got, sir? Floor model, what do you think? So we're buying, absolutely. I demoed this last night, two lies. One, he didn't demo it, and two, I demoed it six months earlier, and that computer had been on 24 seven for six months. Do you know what that does to the screen? Do you know what that does to the internal, the components of that laptop? It wears it out. You have a high chance of this thing dying on you, but you have no problem, like a haze eye, lying to this man just to make 40 bucks commission or less. Unbelievable, but I was the guy that I said, you know what, I don't care if I go broke, I am not going this route. I did not come this far to curse myself and have God just destroy me, and I said I'm gonna just be as honest as I can, and I was the guy they made fun of. Customer comes in, sir, how can I help you? I'm looking for a computer. Which one, the one on sale? Right this way. This a good computer? Absolutely, it's a really good computer. Let me tell you why. Just hoping that, hey, if he buys it, maybe they can get a little warranty or buy a little bag, make some money, whatever the case may be. Other people, I would see it time after time because the sale items didn't pay any commission. The reason why they were on sale is to bring people in, and they're not gonna bring people in unless it's a really good sale. So of course, everything in the newspaper was the best deal possible, but when you walked in, guess what? It wasn't the best deal possible if it didn't pay commission, but as soon as it did, that's the best computer ever, sir! I highly recommend this thing! And they'll make up a few points just to make it sound good, and they would take a computer home with them that wasn't as powerful as the one on sale. It was just ridiculous stuff, but I wasn't running the show, and it was what it was. I was not gonna go that route, and I was fine making my $800 a week versus their $1,200, $1,500 a week. I'm like, you know what? As long as God keeps paying the bills, I'm happy. Everybody makes fun of me. Oh, they even made fun of me one day. Oh, this is a girl. Sir, hey, I'll help you out. Hey, what's the best computer? This one I sell that doesn't pay me no commission. They would make fun of me all day long, and I'd be like, yep, that's right, that's me, absolutely, but you know what? At the end of the year, I made more money than them. Why? Because I wasn't in sin like them. The people that made the most money because they were single, boom! They took a lot of their money from taxes. Not just that, a lot of these guys were fornicators. Guess what they had? They had baby mamas. You know what a baby mama is? It's a woman that you don't love who has a kid with you, had to pay child support. See, he would scream and rave about how his wages are being garnished and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and at least I was able to enjoy the labor of my work or the fruit of my labor, and it was what it was. Even though I didn't go that route, it was what it was, but I would pray, Lord, hey, you know what? My family's growing, I'm gonna need a better job, and sure enough, another job comes in, what I'm even trying. And sure enough, I took it and I helped other people get jobs, and that was what it was, and I did that for three and a half years, but working in an electronics store, the temptation was always there every day, every day. And when I would just give somebody an item and then check really quick if it paid commission, even if it paid five cents, I would run after that guy. Like, sir, sir, sir, what, what? Hey, you know what, can I just write you up a little ticket for that? We made commission of items, and that pays a little commission. And some people are like, no, I'm good, and they would leave. Other people be like, how much? I'd be like, five cents. That's it, that's on a patient, yeah, but I'll take it. You know, I'll take anything. If I knew it paid even a penny, I'd be like, hey, can I write that up for you? And I would just take it and I'd be happy, but like, whoo, you know? Because a penny meant a lot, five pennies meant a lot, you know, 25 cents, 20 bucks, whatever the case may be. It was what it was, you know? I was humble at that time, I would take anything. But that was my dream job. Anything that paid all the bills, allowed me to go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. They didn't cause me to break any commandments, and allowed me to go home every night and go soul winning. Hey, what else do you need? What else do you need, amen? I don't care what job that is. So I enjoyed my time there at Fry's Electronics, then I moved on and worked something harder, but it paid a little bit more, but God was merciful, God was amazing, amen? But that's the dangers that will forget the Lord. Also says in 2 Samuel, that God is the one that gives us the strength to make wealth, to make money. But I also want to leave you with this. You guys are there in Ecclesiastes 2.26? Biggest thing to worry about, Matthew 6.34. Obviously we know, it says take no thought for tomorrow, what we should eat, what we should drink, whatever thought shall we be clothed, for all these things that a Gentile seeks, 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 tomorrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Here's the Matthew 6.33 of the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes 2.26. Kids, listen up, if you remember anything, remember this verse, Ecclesiastes 2.26. It says for God give it to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy. Wisdom, and knowledge, and joy. I don't see the word riches, I don't see it anywhere in that verse, but it says if you're following me, I'm gonna give you wisdom, and whether they hate you or love you, if you're a guy with wisdom, everybody wants something to do with you. Even if you're the ugliest, fattest, most out of shape individual, if you're a smart guy, everybody wants to talk to you, everybody wants to be your friend. Yo, what do I do in this situation? What do I do in that situation? What does the Bible say about this? What does the Bible say about that? But God says look, I'll give you joy. So it doesn't matter if you read the Bible a hundred times in a day, you're not pleasing God, you'll be a big dummy. But if you're pleasing God, you'll be a smart guy. This is why people, I had a guy tell me one time, I've been reading my Bible two hours a day for the last 30 something years. I asked him a basic, very simple question, and this is the response. Well, I've been working on that one. I haven't figured that one out yet. You know what the question was? Well, what do you have to do to go to heaven? That was the question. I don't know, what's the answer? Mister, I've been reading the Bible two hours a day for 30 years, and guess what? He didn't go to church. Guess what? He didn't think church was important. He just thought me and God, we're good. I got his word, we're fine. No, you're not even close. And guess what? He didn't believe the gospel when we gave it to him, because he was prideful and arrogant. He wasn't open, but he's like, sure, tell me, but he wasn't really interested. He was just being nice or just wanted to see what I had to say. Kind of like when a thief goes to the police department, when they say, hey, you know you're under investigation. He doesn't go there because he wants to turn himself in. He goes there because he wants to see what the police know. Now he can start working on his story, so in case he does end up getting charged, he can figure out a way to sneak his way out of being guilty. But anyways, biggest thing to remember is put God first. Do those things that please him. Says when a man is good in his sight, his sight, not your sight, his sight, he's going to give you wisdom. He's going to give you joy. You're going to have knowledge. These are things that people spend their lifetime trying to get, but in the end, God is the one who will give it to you, especially his people. So let's never be the individuals that love riches. If you find yourself doing that, stop yourself. Say no, no, no. Don't let that be you. The thought of it is not even funny. The actions are even worse, and that's what the title of the sermon is, that the love of money isn't funny. It will destroy you. When you think about the people that is destroyed, Aiken got destroyed, Gehazi got destroyed. Think about all the people that got destroyed. Think about the mighty men of God that didn't care about money. Elijah, he didn't care about money. He's like, man, take your money, I don't care. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, if you don't bow down, guess what's going to happen to you? Throw in the fire. They were high in position, high in power. Hey, they didn't take the money. They stood up. They knew they were going to lose their jobs and lose their lives in a nasty, horrible way. Daniel, same thing. He's like, hey, the lion's dead, bring it on. I'm still going to pray. He knew he was going to lose his position, open up the windows, look towards Jerusalem, and start to pray. He wasn't the only one. John the Baptist, same thing. Well, if I preach hard, I don't think Herod would like me very much. You know what? I may lose all my followers. I may end up in jail, but he preached hard and lost his head. These men didn't care about their lives. They didn't care about wealth, period. Christ didn't care about wealth. I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. Obviously, you can't win with God, but you see the common denominator. Moses didn't care about riches. Abraham didn't care about riches. Remember when he rescued the people from Sodom, from the kings? They're like, hey, keep the goods. Give me the people. He's like, no, I'm not going to take anything from you, King of Sodom, because then you're going to say you made me rich. No, I don't want none of your money. These people did not love money, and it went far in life. Same thing with all of us. We want to be used by God. We cannot love money, because this is the root of all, all, all evil, amen? Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for everything that you've done. Father, it is what it is. Temptation is out there. Temptation to be rich. The love of money is out there, and Lord, not just that, the devil's out there, and he's going to tempt us with riches. He's going to make us feel like we're nothing just because we're poor, but I ask you to just give us the wisdom. Protect us day in and day out. Help the kids to remember not to love money. Help us all there, Father, to serve you with the right heart and to love you with all the heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and we ask you to do all this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Amen. Turn to your hymnals to song 169. Song number 169, Come Thou Fount. There on the first. Come thou fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing thine praise In dreams of mercy never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it Mount of thy redeeming love Here I raise my nebeneezer Hither by thy help I'm come And I know by thy good pleasure Safely I'll arrive at home Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God He to rescue me from danger Interposed his precious blood O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be Let thy goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to thee Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love Here's my heart, O take and seal it Seal it for thy courts above Amen. You're all dismissed. Thank you for watching. .