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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Good morning, everyone. I'm the Faith and Word Baptist Church. Great to see you all here for our Sunday morning service. I want to call that hymn of the Son, number 14. You can give this morning service by singing the Son, number 14, Kneel at the Cross. ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] Amen. We're going to continue. Would you pray for us? Yeah, Lord, I'll thank you for this church service, Lord. Thank you for everyone that's here, Lord. In grace and in mercy, Lord, I pray you would just bless the service and do this thing. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother. Let's turn to hymn, song number 10. Song number 10, Kneel at the Cross. ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] ["Kneel at the Cross"] Amen. Great singing, everyone. At this time, we'll go with the announcements. The evening will follow. We'll be singing song number 27. All right. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for coming out. If you need a bulletin, go ahead and just put up your paw, and Brother Fabian will bring you one. We've got the service times in there, as always. Every Sunday at 1030 a.m., as you well know, this morning. Then again, tonight at 530 p.m. Thursdays at 7 is our Bible study. We're going to be in Acts, chapter number 18, this week. We've got the churchwide soul-winning times below that, as well as the salvations and baptisms below that. And also, just a couple notes about some of the big missions trips that are taking place this month. So continue to pray, if you would, or begin to pray, either way, for a mission trip to St. Lucia. And then, of course, the one to the Dominican Republic. So there's a couple of big trips, lots of people going. So pray that there'll be a great harvest of souls, that the word of God will go out with power, and that people will get saved. Also, continue to pray for the expectant ladies in our church. Of course, our church being here and in Tempe. I know that they would covet your prayers. On the back, also, don't forget that we're going to be having the FWBC missions conference. Of course, again, this is up in Tempe. That's going to be Wednesday, November 8th through Sunday, November 12th. And just a heads up, I kind of have to, I need to be there every, for that Thursday. So it's kind of tentative right now what we're going to do that week for the midweek service. I'm thinking about maybe just moving it back to Tuesday. You know, I'm assuming a lot of people from here are going to be up there throughout the week anyway, and they can just kind of get there midweek. But I know not everybody can make it. So I'm thinking about moving it back to Tuesday, but just so you have a heads up. But either way, you know, if you can make it up there for this missions conference, even if it's just for one day, try to do so. It's a real exciting time. A lot of people come from all around the world and show up at this thing. So it's a big service. Hundreds of people. There's lots of great soul winning. And it, you know, of course, the preaching, too. So there'll be a more, you know, detailed schedule as we get closer that I'll put out. But do note that there's going to be roller skating and there's also going to be a risk tournament. So I'll have more details about that, too. So if that's your thing, you know, hey, this is this is the conference for you. There's also the sign up sheet back there for anyone that would like to help volunteer clean the help volunteer cleaning the building. And if you have any questions about that, you could speak to myself. That'll do it for announcements. We'll go ahead and sing one more song before we get into the preaching this morning. Twenty seven. You'll run across. You. I don't. I don't. It's. I. I. See. Let's turn our bodies to Leviticus, chapter 19. That's Leviticus, chapter 19. As always, we'll read the entire chapter. These follow on slightly. Leviticus, chapter 19. Leviticus, chapter 19. First one, the Bible is. And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying to them, He shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. He shall fear every man, his mother, his father, and keep my sadness. I am the Lord your God. Turn ye not unto idols, or make to yourselves most of gods. I am the Lord your God. And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, he shall offer at your own will. It shall be ye in the same day ye offer it. And on the morrow, and on the ox, remain until the third day, it shall be burned in fire. And if it be ye at all on the third day, it is abominable, it shall not be acceptable. Therefore, every one that yeeth shall bear his nickname, because he hath profaned and hollowed from the Lord. And that soul shall be cut off from among his people. And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not only reap the corners of thy fields, and thou shalt not gather the gleanings of thy harvest, and thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, and thou shalt not gather any grape of thy vineyard. Thou shalt leave them for the poor and strangers. I am the Lord your God. It shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie with one another. It shall not swear by thy name falsely. And thou shalt not forfain in the name of thy God. I am the Lord. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob her. The wages of him that is hiding shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse to death, nor put a stumbling block before the blind. Thou shalt fear thy God. I am the Lord. Thou shalt do no unrighteousness in judgment. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. But in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. Thou shalt not go up and down as a tail-bearer among thy people. Thou shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbor. I am the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart. Thou shalt any wise rebuke thy neighbor. Do not suffer sin upon thee. Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. Thou shalt keep thy statues. Thou shalt not let thy cattle with gender with diverse kind. Thou shalt not sow thy fields of being seed. Thou shalt garner meaningful women and woolen upon thee. And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a bondman, a trothon husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given, she shall be scourged. Thou shalt not be put to death because she was not free. And he shall bring his trespass to offering them to the Lord, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Even a ram shall trespass to offer them. And the priest shall make an atonement for him with a ram when he trespass to offering before the Lord for a sin which he hath done, and a sin which he hath increased thereof. I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt not eat anything but the blood. I shall not use a chattel or observe times. Thou shalt not round the corners of your heads. Thou shalt not mar the corners of thy beard. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. I am the Lord. Do not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore. I am the Lord. Be not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore. I am the Lord. I am the Lord. Be not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the death or prints any marks upon you. Something I've been wanting to preach for a little while, but I want to preach about biblical business practices, biblical business practices. Now, to a lot of you, you might have already tuned me out because maybe you're not a business owner, you're not self-employed, you're not an entrepreneur of some sort, but all the same, we should know these things because they're written in the Word of God. Even if you're not somebody, maybe you're more on the employed end, rather the employer end of things. There's still a lot we can learn from this and how to treat other people, and I'll make a broader, more spiritual application for everybody this morning. Of course, the Word of God is always profitable. Leviticus 19, although it's the Old Testament, it's still profitable. It always cracks me up when people criticize us for things that we preach and say, well, doesn't the Bible say you should love your neighbor? It's like, well, yeah, it's Leviticus 19. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. We just read it, but that's kind of outside the scope of this sermon. Let's talk this morning about some of the biblical business practices that we can see in Scripture. If we learn these and know these things and put them into practice in our lives, God will bless us. God will help us in and become fruitful and to abound and to be able to be more generous and giving. I believe that there's some great principles in here that will lead to God's blessing. Look at verse 11 of Leviticus 19. It says, first of all, you shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. Of course, that goes for everybody. You just say, well, I'm not a business owner, so that's off the table for me. Obviously, none of us should be stealing. None of us should be dealing falsely. None of us should lie one to another. Now, it goes on here. Of course, there's the immediate application of not stealing, not dealing falsely, not lying. In what ways does that type of thing happen? In what way do people steal, deal falsely, and lie? Well, sometimes that's something that happens in business. People will deal falsely and lie one to another in order to make more money, rip people off, they'll treat people poorly. If you look there at verse 35, he kind of gives us some more specific examples that we should be on guard against when it comes to our business practices. If you look at verse 35, it says, you shall do no one righteousness and judgment in meat yard, in weight, or in measure. What he's saying there is that you shouldn't have corrupt scales kind of type of thing. You should make sure that you're giving what you pay for and you should be getting what you pay for. It should work both ways. Today we kind of see this taking place. Isn't there a thing going around called something with the inflation where the products are being mislabeled almost? The old 16 ounce bottle, now it has a deeper concave in the bottom. It's like, well, it's 15.7 or it's more close to 15 ounces, but they just rounded up to 16 because when you're producing just millions of bottles of Gatorade or Pepsi or whatever, those ounces add up, but when you're mislabeling it, you're kind of dealing falsely at that point. You're kind of saying it's one thing, but it's another. I know there's a term for that. Does anyone know the term that's going around? Shrinkflation. Yeah, I knew somebody knew. Shrinkflation is out there. The candy bars are getting smaller, but they're not changing the net weight of it. That's probably not the greatest travesty it's ever befallen mankind. Some of us could probably do with a smaller candy bar anyway, but that's just kind of an example. We don't want to be people that are saying, oh, you're getting this, but I'm actually giving you that just so I can line my pockets a little bit more. You should do righteousness and judgment in meat yard. A lot of times, things are measured different ways, obviously, so you have meat yard. That's not really a word that we use today, but you might think of a metric yard. If you go to an aggregate yard, you're going to pick up stone or sand or something like that. A lot of times, that's measured to you in cubic feet, a cubic yard, how much topsoil you need or whatever. In weight, that's a pretty easy one. We should make sure that we're saying, hey, you're getting so many pounds, so many ounces, that's actually what we're selling. Or in measure, so maybe that apply more to a textile or something, the length of something. You're buying stuff by the foot. The Bible's real practical, isn't it? The Bible touches on every single aspect of our lives. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hen. Of course, these are ancient measurements that we really don't know exactly what those would equate to today, an ephah, an hen. People speculate, but how do we really know? The point is is that they should be just, meaning they should be balanced, they should be correct. We should not steal or deal falsely or lie one to another, even in this way. We might not just hold, of course, none of us should just tell a bald-faced lie right to someone's face. But also, we shouldn't be unrighteous in our judgment and in our measurements. Look at verse 37. Therefore, you shall observe all my statutes and all my judgments, and do them, I am the Lord. Now, again, this might be a drier topic for you this morning, but this is something that God takes very seriously in the Word of God. This is something that we should, especially if we are people who are in business, and I know that's several people. We're all, at least the vast majority of us, employed. We all have business dealings. Maybe we're not running a business, but we might sell things. We might have a side business going. We should understand that God takes this seriously and not just cut corners or just try to scan people or make a buck or lie or deal falsely in any way. The Bible has very strong language about this. Keep something in Leviticus 19 and go to Deuteronomy 25. The Bible says, I'll just read to you a few proverbs about this subject, a false balance is abomination to the Lord. Now, the word abomination is not something that God uses often. When he uses that word, that's a very strong word that he's using there. He's saying this is something that is just abominable to me. There's some things I don't like, but not everything's an abomination to me. I don't like black olives, but I'll eat them. If it's going to be too much trouble to pick it off the pizza, if there's enough other toppings that I do like that are going to drown out the black olive, I'll eat it. But here's the thing. I don't like them. I wouldn't prefer it. I'm not going to order with that. But here's the thing. I'll eat it. Because it's not an abomination to me. And while I'm giving this example, I'm trying to think of a food that's an abomination to me, but nothing's coming to mind. There isn't any food I can't say is an abomination. Does someone have an example? I love sauerkraut. You've got to be confused with somebody else, buddy. I love sauerkraut. I eat sauerkraut. I've got it in the fridge right now at home. The cold Cleveland kraut from Sprouts, garlic flavored, beet flavored, regular, you put that in with a can of tuna, some sour cream. Make sure you measure out two tablespoons exactly if you're counting calories, stuff like that. You've got to have that just weight so you can get to just the right weight. I'm sorry. There is nothing. Nothing comes to mind. I'm trying to think. Some of you might be tempted to say manudo. I know I've ripped on manudo. But I don't count manudo an abomination. I would eat manudo. It's on par with black olives. If it's all that's there, it's all that's available, manudo it is. Maybe something will come to me throughout the service, but it's definitely not sauerkraut. I appreciate the effort. But you get the point, right? Obviously, there are things that we dislike, but there's certain things that we would consider an abomin... We would just be disgusted by them. We'd say they're an abomination. We'd spit them out. You would say, oh, that's disgusting. That's the kind of language that God is using when it comes to this topic. He says a false balance is abomination to the Lord. People might be tempted to say, well, among business dealings, it's just kind of the way we do things. Well, if it's dishonest, if it's false, if it's stealing or lying, it's abomination to the Lord. Ultimately, that's who we are accountable to. A just weight, it says, and a just weight and balance are the Lord's. All the weights of the bag are his work. We should always have God in mind when we're in our business practices. Of course, in every area of our life. Look at Deuteronomy chapter number 25, verse 13, thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house diverse measures, a great and a small. So what is he saying here? Well, the bag you would think, well, that's what you would take to the marketplace. You'd have a bag with diverse weights. Of course, back then, they didn't have the digital scale. They were using literal weights to weigh things out. That's not something we see a lot of today, but there are examples of it out there. A kettlebell, who knows what a kettlebell is? A kettlebell is actually a Russian weight that they use to weigh out hay and grain and things in Russia. It was their system of measurement. It was called a pood back then. I don't know if they still call that, but sorry for bringing up some Soviet communist example here and go to the USA. That's one thing that comes to mind. If you're one who swings kettlebells or whatever, you're actually lifting up a weight that would be used to weigh out grain in Russia. That's where that came from. So we might see that a lot today, but this is something that was obviously more in practice back then. You'd go to the marketplace, you would bring weights, and he's saying you're not going to have a great and a small. He's not saying have all these diverse weights where it's where you're trying to scam people, where you're not having corrupt weights, that they have to be the correct weights. Thou shalt not have in thine house diverse measures of weight in a small, but thou shalt have a perfect and just weight. You don't have this big weight that you've shaved off a little bit extra on it, so it's a little underweight, but it looks like it's going to pass. Thou shalt have a perfect, now what's perfect in the Bible? We should all know this because of James, that it's perfect, complete, entire, wanting nothing. That's what it means in the Bible is to be complete. So he's saying that you should have a perfect and just weight, that your weight should be whole. You shouldn't be skimming a little bit off the edge or whatever to try to, you know, don't practice shrinkflation. That's what people are doing today. And look, that's not really anything new. I read somewhere or saw something somewhere where people, someone was explaining why our quarters and our currency actually have those ridges around the sides. You ever wonder that? Why they have all those little ridges, the rough edge, the side of your coin is rough, is because you could be able to look at it and see if somebody had, you know, clipped it. It's called coin clipping, and people used to do this back when coins were actually made out of something valuable. You know, I don't even know what half of them are made out of today in our fake currency that we have, right? It's all paper now. It's not even that. This is like, it's just on a computer screen somewhere. But they started putting that on there because what people were doing, they were shaving the edges of the coin, right? You say, well, how much, that's not, is that even worth it? Yeah, but you know, it's, it's, it's exponential. The more you get, you know, you just keep piling that up, shave this coin, shave this coin. You shave enough coins, you've got a pile of shavings. Now you're, you know, you don't have a perfect weight. You don't have a perfect coin. It's not whole, right? So it's saying now shall have a perfect and a just weight, a perfect and a just measure. It should be equal. It should be real, right? It should be just and that, that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God give thee, right? So God's, God's laying down, you know, if you catch that last part, he's saying, otherwise, if you don't do this, you're not going to have lengthened days in the land. God's going to judge us for that. God will judge his own people even if we are not careful in our business practices. Look at verse 16 again, the strong language for all that do such things. What things? People who do not have a perfect weight, people who do not have a just weight. All that do these things and all that do unrighteously are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. He's saying, look, this is an unrighteous thing. It's an abomination, the sight of God. Don't do it. And if you don't do it, then your days will be lengthened. You know, you'll prosper. You'll have a long, successful career. And look, this is just some, this is just good practical advice in business. You know, the people that tend to do well in business are the people that are fair in their dealings. They're not cheap. They're fair. Okay? And, you know, this is something I, I obviously, you know, being as someone who's been employed and been out there working in the, in the world, like I, I can, I know a little bit about this just from, even from the employee aspect. You know, I remember when I worked in a locksmith shop, we had a lot of return business. And those were the people that you really wanted to see. You wanted to see the same people coming back. And I remember the owner telling me, he said, hey, we're not here to take people's heads off. You know, if people come in and we just, just charge them as much as we can the first time, that's all the money we're going to make. That's it. We're only going to make so much money. Right? So I had another boss who's also very successful in business and he said, hey, get every dollar they're willing to spend. You know, if someone's willing to pay this much for, for something, charge it, right? Don't be cheap. That's another extreme that people go to and it's, it can actually hurt a company where people are trying to just, you know, do things as cheaply as possible. We're not in a race to the bottom as they say, but we also don't want to just cut people's heads off when they walk in and overcharge. We want to be just, right? We want to, we want to find that fair dealing, right? Because we want the return customer to come back. We want that return customer. You're gonna make more money over the long run over the guy that keeps coming back and spending money with you over years, over a lifetime even. Okay? And this is something you see a lot of, I'm sure in a lot of different industries, you know, I was in locksmithing. Okay? I don't know why they call it that. I have never smith the lock, you know, I, but that's what they call it, right? Where you're cutting keys and re-keying locks and selling door hardware, yada, yada, yada. So here's the thing, there's a certain element in that industry where that is their business practice to take people's heads off and never see them again, okay? And let me just, you know, let me just do a little public service announcement for everybody. If you are ever locked out of your car and you get on Google, do not call the first guy, do not call 24-7 locksmith. The people that are paying for Google ads, they can afford that Google ad. You know, it's expensive to be the number one ad on Google. You know how they afford it? By taking as much money out of your pocket as they can. And I remember I would have people come into our shop with invoices from these companies and they'd say, hey, I paid $600 for a guy to come open my car. Who's ever had their car open by a locksmith? It's real easy, right? It's simple, right? And it's not, it's because of the tools. It takes, you know, it takes longer to drive there than it does to actually do the work. You know, we charge like an $85 service call during normal business hours, 85 bucks to drive a guy out there. And even then, people are like, oh, it's so much. It's like, well, that's the cost of doing business. It's gas, the employee, the insurance, it's everything, right? But then you have these other guys in this industry that would charge hundreds of dollars, right? Look, there's whole videos out there. They're exposing these guys, they'll go to people that are locked out of their house and they'll just drill through all their hardware and say, oh, I've got to destroy your hardware and then sell them like the cheap, like the cheap stuff you'd get at Home Depot or whatever replacement hardware for like hundreds of dollars. And people would pay it and they'd say, oh, cash only, you know? And by the way, all these people were from Israel. Coincidence? I don't know. Right? You say, I don't believe it. It's a fact. I've dealt with these guys. All Israeli owned. It's a total scam. It's out there. I know because I was in it. I've dealt with these guys. I've had them show up on, I wasn't, I went to a lockout once. I was helping a lady with some business, some strip mall somewhere, helping her with some lock. I can't remember the exact details of the job, but she said, she called us and we were literally like across the street from her, it was where our shop was. And she said, I called this other guy and I was like, did they have a Middle Eastern accent? Was it 24, 11, 7 locksmith? It was like, yeah, with some 800 number, right, because they move their call centers around all the time. And she said, yeah, and I told him not to come after he quoted me the price. And I was like, okay, good, because that's an exorbitant price. The guy still showed up. He came anyway. It's like, well, I'm already here. You have to pay me. And I told her, I said, you don't have to pay him anything. And he's trying to shout me down and we're like getting in a shouting match right there because this guy gives our industry a bad name and he's just scamming people. And they get away with it, folks, because look, how often do you call a locksmith? Probably hardly ever. A couple times in your life. It's not like ordering a pizza. You know, you call Domino's or whatever, you know about what you're going to pay, right, because you do it all the time. Maybe not all the time, right, but you don't get black olives, hopefully, right. But you know, you call a locksmith maybe once or twice. People have no idea what they're supposed to pay, 300 bucks, okay. I had one guy come in and he said, I was at my bank, you know, drawing money out of the ATM after hours, I locked my keys in my car, the guy showed up, unlocked my door, grabbed my keys and said 600 bucks or whatever it was. And then he comes to us with the invoice, he's like, did I get ripped off? I'm like, you sure did. He said, what would you charge? $85, you know. But here's the thing, do you think they're ever going to call that guy again? You know, we warn people about this, like hey, don't call them. Call a brick and mortar shop, you know, find someone who's got good ratings, you know, and somebody that has good reviews, you know, take your time. You know, that's good business practice. You know, if you're fair and you're just, those people are going to come back to you. If they're getting a good product at a fair price, they're going to continue to come back to you. If, you know, and that's just man to man, that's just, you know, amongst brethren, that's just amongst our fellow man that, you know, you develop that good reputation. But if we as God's people are unjust, if we are stealing and dealing falsely, if we're lying in this way, you know what, God says that's an abomination and it's not just going to be that, you know, you don't have the return customer, you're going to actually have God getting upset with us and that's not something that we want. Did I have you go to Leviticus 19? Go there. Go back to Leviticus 19 where we were. He says in verse 13, this kind of ties in with verse 11, right? Verse 11 again was, you shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. Look at verse 13, thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired, thou shall not abide with thee until the morning. So he's saying don't defraud your neighbor, right? And then of course we looked at the latter verses there in 35 through 37, in what ways you could defraud your neighbor, ripping them off. Neither rob him. You know, we would think, oh, don't rob, don't go rob, you know, your neighbor at gunpoint. You know, don't sneak into their house and steal things, right? That's one way of robbing, but another way to rob your neighbor or to steal from them would be through having, you know, unjust, you know, corrupt business practices. Now notice here in Leviticus 19, 13, this is also, what are we talking about this morning? Biblical business practices. Probably everyone knows you shouldn't rip people off, right? When people find out that they've been ripped off, they don't take kindly to that. They're going to mark and avoid people like that and we made the point that even God counts that as an abomination. But another biblical business practice is how we treat employees. Look here at the latter end of verse 13, it says, the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. He's saying you're not going to hold back their wages. So the Bible actually teaches that people should be paid at the end of the day, okay? Obviously this was probably a lot more practical back then. You know, businesses, you know, you have these multi huge corporations with just multiple billions of, you know, millions of people working for the thousands of people. It's probably not as practical today, okay? But you know, this might not be something that we do and this isn't really something we practice today in our society. You know, we typically get paid on a weekly basis. You know, we have the direct deposit, you get the check and while we might not be able to do this, you know, we should be prepared to do that. You know, that's something that I would recommend is that if an employee would come to you and say, hey, I need to get paid today, you should be prepared to do that. You know, and I've worked for pastors in the past where they, I didn't even bring this up. They came to me when they hired me and said, hey, this is what the Bible teaches and I just want you to know, if you ever need to be paid the day of, just let me know and I'll cut you a check right there in the spot. If I don't have cash, I'll cut you a check. We'll make it happen. Because you know, sometimes, you know, people need, they can't wait that week. You know, sometimes something comes up financially. It's hard. If anyone's ever been in that position where you're waiting on that paycheck, that's tough. You know, cause you've got to eat, every day you've got to eat, every day you got to put gas in the car. Every, you know, there's some need that you're waiting on and you're just living paycheck to paycheck. I get it. That's how our world operates. I'm not saying if you're doing things that way that you're wrong, but you know, if, if a hired servant came to us, if an employee came to us and said, hey, I really need to get paid today, we should be prepared to do that. And not begrudgingly. We should say, hey, absolutely. Because that is a command in scripture, that his wages should not abide with thee all night until the morning. I'll pay you tomorrow. Well, it's like, yeah, but I got to get the diapers and the jug of milk on the way home tonight. You know, I got, there's needs that we have tonight. My kids walking around with a, you know, in a bucket, you know, they've got, we got the old t-shirt wrapped around them, you know, just, just throwing out a couple ideas. You know, if you find yourself in that position, cut a couple holes in the bucket, just stick their legs through that little string. Okay? You know? Just kidding. You know, don't, if you're that point, just come see me. Okay? We'll help you out. All right? But, you know, sometimes people get in a desperate situation, you know, that $50 to $100, you know, could mean the world to them. It could be the difference between power getting shut off or not, you know, so we want to make sure that, you know, we're at least prepared to do that. And I believe that just because it's biblical. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 22. Deuteronomy chapter 22. Again, we're just looking at biblical business practices this morning. No man, it says in Deuteronomy 24, shall take the nether or upper millstone to pledge, for he taketh a man's life to pledge. You know, we shouldn't, of course, he's saying, you know, don't give something as collateral. You know, if someone's going to give something as collateral, make sure it's not, you know, the upper or nether millstone. You know, because that's what that guy needs to make his living, okay? If thou take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it to him by that the sun goeth down, right? For that is his covering, it is his raiment for his skin. So we don't want to be defrauding people of things that they need. We don't want to be taking advantage of people, especially if they're, you know, between a rock and a hard place. Here's another biblical business practice, is to make sure that you're providing, you know, a safe work environment. And this is something I kind of take personally, because I've worked for some people where this was not their concern. You know, they were more concerned about getting the job done, and they didn't care about stretching that ladder out to the very last rung, and just, and if it's, you know, if it broke, well, you should have lost weight, you know? And I could tell some stories, buddy, you know. I've been on ladders and scaffolding, it's just like, if OSHA showed up, man, that guy would have gotten hauled off to prison, because it was bad. But you know what? That was my job. And it was either climb up there with that bundle of shingles, I don't care what that ladder's rated for, get up there and get that job done. Or, you know, go find another job. And you know, sometimes people are just in that position, they're going to, they will put themselves in harm's way, and potentially harm, you know, permanently disable themselves or even die. Why? Just so they can make, just so they can not lose a job. It sounds crazy, but look, people do it all the time. You know, and I know we get after OSHA, these government agencies, and you know, all these safety regulations, and the safety meeting at work, and we kind of scoff at that, but you know, there's reasons why people have the rules that they do. And you start, you know, I remember going to a lot of these safety meetings, and then the safety guy gets up and just says, okay, just to wake everybody up and make sure everyone understands why we're doing this, they start to tell horror stories. You know, about the guy who didn't buckle himself up in the front end loader, and then when the, when he hit the brakes, he bounced out the front of it and then got ran over. So it's like, buckle your seatbelt. And the employer needs to make sure that that piece of equipment is there, that there is a seatbelt in the front end loader. Or the guy that, you know, has the ponytail, he's already got other issues, right, he needs to make sure he tucks that thing away when he's working around grinding equipment, because if it gets stuck in a pulley, he's going to lose, you know, and you think, does that ever happen? That's why they're telling the story, because it happened. The guy had his whole head just whoop, not his head, but all of his hair in his scalp just whoop. Because the machine's just a machine, folks, it's not, it's not thinking, it just does what it does. And if you stick your hand in there, or your ponytail, you know, it's not going to end nicely, okay. So we might scoff and mock at all these safety regulations, but you know what, people do things that they shouldn't, and they get put in positions to do things. Climb up that ladder that, you know, that's attached to that scaffolding with wood clamps for woodworking. Been there. Was it ratchet straps, was it anything, you know, remotely safe? No. It was a literal wood C-clamp that you would use for gluing down, you know, woodworking. But that's supposed to hold me and 70 extra pounds of shingles, and I'm up there walking, you know, it's like, it's not going to work. But we got to get the job done. Look, I mean, I've been on roofs, on scaffolding where it's like, if I fell, I was going right into a river in January. In northern Michigan. Around here you'd say, oh, that sounds nice. This is in northern Michigan, like right off the lake of Lake Michigan, where it's like blowing snow. The only reason the water isn't freezing is because it's rushing by, okay. So it's like, at least you have the comfort of knowing that if you hit the water, you'll die of cardiac arrest instead of, you know, blunt force trauma or whatever, you know. Hopefully you hit your head on the way down so you're unconscious. It's, you know, been on those roofs, okay. So a good business practice, a biblical business practice is actually to provide a safe working environment. Obviously within reason, okay. People don't need to show up to work wrapped in bubbles or something like that, you know. Bubble wrap them, make sure that all the, every corner has a piece of foam on it, you know, and all the walls are padded or something like that. No one can get a little bruise at work. You know, if people can't handle a knife, you know, or use equipment properly, you know, then they're a liability and should be let go, okay. All these stories are coming to mind. I got to move on here. It says in Deuteronomy 22 verse 8, when thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, thou shalt not bring blood upon thine house if any man fall from fence. So he's saying you build your house, make sure that there's scaffolding, thou shalt build a battlement. So that when the people that are building are working, they don't fall to their death and then you have, you know, blood on your house. There's blood guilt involved there. Go to James chapter number 5, James chapter number 5. Another you say, you know, that's just one verse about safety at work, you know, about not putting people in precarious situations unnecessarily. Exodus 21, it says, if a man shall open a pit or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it and an ox or an ass fall therein, the owner of the pit shall make it good, meaning, hey, you need to, if you dig a pit, make sure that you wall that off, you know, and when I worked in excavating, we did that every, at the end of every day, you know, we were constantly opening up pits and the last thing we did is we put up all the cones, we put up all the caution tape, we put up all the reflective, you know, boards and everything, we put up the signs, open pit, so that people wouldn't go into it and you'd be surprised how often that still happened. I remember when you were working out at some resort on a little two-lane road, it was just like a, it was like a, it wasn't even like a main road, it wasn't like a county road or anything, it was just like part of a parking lot, it was just like a throughfare on some property, just a little two-lane road, 15 miles an hour, whatever, but we had, we were running like conduit or something and we had dug these two-foot by maybe like three-foot trenches in different spots across the road and we still, I remember very clearly, we had all the signage up and I remember the owner of the company like waving his hands at this person and this lady drove right into it, I remember watching her front, the two front tires just go ka-tunk, right into the pit. Now that was, nothing bad happened, but she slowly crept up, ignored all the signage, ignored the guy waving and saying stop and just went thunk, right? Why does the Bible say we should take precautions? Why does the Bible say hey, cover up the pit because people are dumb? Because some people are like the ox or the ass, right, they're just gonna fall right into it, you know, they just walk right into it and I've seen that a lot, I used to, another job I had was, I was the sign holder when they were, you know, redoing the roads, you know that guy that makes you stop, holds a little sign, I've done that for hours, that's not a fun job at all, right, and you would, I remember, I would have to like throw cones at people on more than one occasion, I'd be out on some county road, you know, in the middle of nowhere, northern Michigan, you know, the big board, you know, that's like blinking flat, there's like already, they've already driven by bright orange signs that say construction ahead, be prepared to stop, work zone, one lane, whatever, all the warning signs, and then there's a guy there with a reflective vest in front of a giant board with a giant sign that says stop standing, like in the middle of the road, like stop, and they still try to go around you, and they're just like well no, I gotta go, and there's oncoming traffic coming, you notice how those things work in the work zones, right, there's a crew out there, there's people, you know, shoveling asphalt, running machinery, there's the oncoming traffic coming from the other direction that's been waiting, and I remember one time I had to grab a cone and like throw it at a guy's windshield, just to get him to stop, because my, my supervisor was like, it's the safety of them, and the crew, and the other people that are coming, whatever you have to do, obviously don't throw yourself in front of a vehicle, if anyone blows through it, get the license plate number, they're gonna, sheriff's gonna come pay him a visit, it's a major fine, but I, I remember like throwing a cone at a guy, throwing my, just like getting so irate with people, because people just, they just, they just go right through this stuff, they don't care, right, they're like the ox, they're like the ass, they just wanna go right through and just walk right into the pit, blow right through the construction area. So biblical business practices, we don't wanna be people that take advantage of our customers, we don't wanna take advantage of our employees, we don't want to make sure we're putting them, we don't wanna put them in unsafe work conditions, we wanna make sure we're providing for their safety within reason, obviously. So you know, there's not a lot to say about it, but you know, those are some things that we should keep in mind, you know, obviously the honest dealings is probably the biggest one, you know, that's, that's huge, right, because that's tantamount to, to stealing. Did I have you go to James? Okay, James chapter five, look at verse one, he says, go to now you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten, your gold and silver is cankered and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasures together for the last days, behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is kept back by fraud, kept back to view by fraud, and the cries of them that are reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. So again, really strong warning against those that would hold back wages, those that would defraud their employees, we do not wanna make sure we're doing that. Obviously it's, it's a, you know, an equal pay, a fair wage is what's appropriate, okay, because I mean look at all the, the countries in the world where people are just taking advantage of like this. They're poor, there's, there's multitudes of poor people that will do a job for far less than the next guy and that's who the rich men go for. They'll ship, you know, their companies over there to China or wherever just so they can, you know, get their product made for less, you know, and, and the people that are working for them are just making enough money just to get by. You know, they're, they're barely able to feed themselves. That kind of corrupt thing goes on even to this day. You know, I don't have a list of examples, but I'm sure they're out there. You know, there's plenty of people that are being taken advantage of by these giant corporations, you know, and praise God, one day God's gonna hold those people accountable. And all those riches that they've heaped up, man, it's gonna eat their flesh as fire. It's gonna be moth-eaten and it's gonna be a witness against them. But you know, we wanna make sure we're not, you know, in doing the similar thing. We don't wanna make sure we're just taking advantage of people financially, you know, and paying them a lesser wage. And obviously in our society today, a lot of people have this entitled mentality where they think they should be paid more than they're actually worth. You know, ergo the, you know, McDonald's employee who needs to be making 20 bucks an hour or whatever it is, right? Let's keep increasing the minimum wage, right? And it's, you know, and it's just, it always boggled my mind, you know, that people can't figure out why that's not a good idea. Business companies aren't gonna be like, well, you know, you're right, we gotta be more ethical, you know, pay them a higher wage, and then we're just gonna take the hit just so we can feel better about ourselves. You know, that's how people, that's how businesses go out of business, right? They think, oh yeah, you need to be making 15 to 20 dollars to flip a burger, right? No you don't, okay? You need to find a better job. You wanna make more money, get more skills. Get a better job. You know, invest in yourself, do whatever you gotta take, do whatever it takes to, to, you know, improve yourself, right? You know, I remember I worked for McDonald's, I think they were paying 5 dollars and change an hour. You know, but I, guess what, I wasn't working for them when I'm, as a 40 year old father of 5. It's 5, right? Yeah, 5. You know, I wasn't doing that as a married man. That was when I was a teenager. When I was 12, not 12, I was 15. I had a paper route when I was 12, okay? You know, when I was like 15 or whatever, I was like, that was my first job was at McDonald's. I actually owe my existence to McDonald's, believe it or not. I'm kind of, in a way, I'm kind of endeared to that. That's where my mom and dad met, was at McDonald's in Chicago. Were it not for the Golden Arches, your boy wouldn't be here, right? That's where they met. And they were both working there, they weren't eating, they were working there, right? And I guarantee you they were making less than $5 an hour back then, right? Back when they had the styrofoam containers, remember that? Oh man, the good old days, right? You know, but here's the thing. People that are working down there today, they're demanding to be paid more than they're worth. Obviously that's not right either. So don't get me wrong that I'm getting up like some bleeding heart, making sure you should be paying everybody more than they're actually worth. People obviously have to assess that, a person's skills, a person's value, the job that they're doing, what's the fair market price, what's that go for these days, and make that assessment. But what we don't want to do is just take advantage of people. Take advantage of people who are in a tough spot and just not pay them what they're worth because we can. It's a very corrupt practice. And why do people do it? Well, look at verse 5 of James 5. It says, you have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. I mean, isn't that just disgusting to think that that's why people are doing that? That's why people are just farming out all this cheap labor, just taking all these jobs and going elsewhere just so that they can lie in their pockets. It's like you're already a billionaire, you're already a millionaire. How much is enough? The Bible says, he that loveth silver should not be satisfied with silver. It's never enough for these people. Verse 6, you have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brethren, in the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the eater in early and latter rain. Be he also patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh. If you would, go over to Matthew chapter 6. I won't drag this one out too much this morning. Here's the thing. Obviously, we started out this morning talking about having a just balance. We want to make sure that we're honest in our business dealings. That is probably going to be more applicable to certain individuals than others. Part of the reason why God has such strong feelings about this, why he says it's an abomination to do unjustly in your weights and measurements and so on and so forth, is because it's kind of a reflection of him too. God is somebody who doles out wages. God is somebody who has people in his employee, or is an employee, excuse me. That would be his children. This is the broader application I'm going to close with. We made some real practical application specifically when it comes to biblical business dealings. How do we apply that to everybody that's kind of tuned this out this morning? Let me bring it back. Let me get your attention back so that everyone can walk out this morning with something. Think about the fact that God, the Bible says that, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his works as his work shall be. God is also somebody who's going to dole out a wage. Obviously we don't earn salvation, we all get that, but the Christian life is more than just salvation. There are works that God has ordained for us to do that we should walk in them. On top of that, God will reward us according to those works. We need to be people that are considering our own ways. Obviously it's kind of a reflection of us as Christians. If we're corrupt in our business practices and we claim to be Christians, that might reflect poorly on the Lord. Some people might say, well, that's how Christians are. That's not good. God is somebody who doles out a just balance. He has just balance, a just weight, and God is going to give us exactly what we have earned in this life. God is fair and just in his balances. That can be very encouraging to those of us who put a lot of labor into working for the Lord and don't seem like we're seeing a lot of kickback in this life. We might be tempted to say, what's the point in serving God? It just seems like it's not going anywhere. It doesn't seem like there's much reward here on earth. In fact, it seems like a lot of times there's more heartache than it's worth. It might seem like I'm actually in the hole here. I'm in the negative. It's costing me things to serve God. It's inconvenient. I'm giving up things. I'm sacrificing and I'm not seeing a lot of return. As it's said in James, you have to be patient unto the coming of the Lord. You have to wait for the latter rain. God is going to return and he's going to give every man according to his works. That can be very encouraging to those of us that are laboring for the Lord in this earth. Our reward is not here. It's in heaven. Payday is in heaven. God's not going to come to us week by week. There's no spiritual direct deposit here. It's not a monetary gain that we have on this earth. Obviously, if we serve God, he's going to bless us. He's going to give us wisdom and strength to be able to make money and to gain wealth and to be able to be successful. I believe that. But again, the broader application is that we should continue to serve God because of the fact that he is just in his reward. That there is a reward for the righteous. It's just not exactly always in this earth. Where do I have you go? You're in Matthew. Matthew 6, verse 31, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. He's saying this is what unsaved people think about 24-7. This is all they're always concerned about. And isn't that the truth? And honestly, who can blame them? If Jesus is telling us not to take thought for these things, it's because that's our tendency as human beings. Because we have need of these things. We have need of food and raiment. He's saying all these things do the Gentiles seek. He's saying don't you be like them. Why? Because your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all things. It's not like God is oblivious to our earthly needs. And here's the thing, God will provide these things. And he says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. And I know it's a very familiar verse, and it's one that we probably all know and have heard many times. But this is one that you really have to put in practice in the Christian life. This is actually one of the harder things to do sometimes. To just trust God for your needs. Because that takes real faith, doesn't it? That's where the rubber meets the road. Where you say, I don't know, I've been doing everything I'm supposed to be doing. I'm serving God, I'm putting first the kingdom of God, and I've just got to trust him. I'm thinking, whenever I read that, I always think of this one example. And I apologize to those of you who maybe have heard it more than once, I don't know. But I always think about when we were first married, and it was really tight, and we were having a hard time. And my wife has like, she's got a lot more testimony to this, because she's the one that's, I guess, more concerned about earthly things. I'm just kind of freewheeling, I don't know. I'm free spirited. I'm just thinking, well, God will take care of it, God will take care of it. You know what? He does. When I was married, though, I was working at that same excavating job, and I had worn out a pair of boots. They were shredded, they were destroyed. That actually hit one of them with a chainsaw that was running, that's a whole other story. Didn't lose my foot, but I destroyed my boot in the process. Anyway, so I mean, and things were getting in the boot, I was wrapping them in duct tape every day. Sometimes twice a day. I'd have to just wrap, rub tape, keep the soles together. We didn't want to just go buy another cheap pair of boots, because in that line of work, boots don't last long. You have to invest in a good pair of boots that come up so far up your shins so you can keep stuff out, because it's important. It's hard work. You'll wear out these cheap boots from Walmart in a week, they'll just get trashed. These boots had finally seen the end of the line, and there was just no money. No money in the budget for these things. Unbeknownst to me, my wife is praying about these boots, and then one weekend we go over to my mother-in-law's, and I see this pair of boots sitting on the kitchen table, brand new pair of boots. I'm like, oh man, those would be so nice, and she said, yeah, I was out visiting my brother in New Hampshire or wherever it was, and he just out of nowhere went into his closet and grabbed a pair of boots and said, hey, take these back home, they don't fit me, maybe you know somebody that could use them. She's in New Hampshire visiting her brother. She didn't go out there for a pair of boots. She didn't go out there and ask him, hey, do you have a pair of boots? He just out of nowhere was like, hey, do you want these boots? I believe God moved it, put it on his head. Maybe God even told him to put it in his mind to go buy a pair of boots that were too big for him. Who buys a pair of boots without trying them on? But somehow this guy came across a pair of boots that didn't fit him, and they fit me perfectly. They're the exact size, and it was just given to me. I always think about that story whenever I read that, because it was such a great example of how God, if you just trust God and keep doing what you're supposed to be doing, God will take care of even the smallest needs, and look, that's just the most prominent one that's coming to mind. There's other examples of this in my life, and I'm sure many of you could give testimony to this exact same thing, where you've just seen God step in and just provide things just like that. You have a need, and all of a sudden, boom, it's provided for. It's not that the heavens split, and the new pair of boots descended like a dove and lighted themselves upon my feet. It was very practical how it came about. That's often how God answers prayer, just something very practical, where you could even be tempted to say, coincidence, it was just a coincidence. I give glory to God for those boots, even to this day, because I know the Lord did that for me. I thank God for that. And all I'm trying to get across this morning is that God is a just God. He has a just balance, and He does reward His children. He takes care of our needs here, and He will reward us for our labors and our efforts. If you would, go to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 3, we'll wrap it up here. Look at verse 9. He says, for we are labors together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. Now notice He says, ye are labors together with God. We're employed by God, we're His employees. God has work for us to do on this earth. There's things that we ought to be doing for Him. And He says, according to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid a foundation and another build thereon, but let every man take heed how he build thereupon. So the foundation of Jesus Christ has been laid, we're saved, that's the foundation, but you know what, we need to make sure we're building upon that foundation, and we need to take heed how we build thereon. He says, for other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is in Christ Jesus. Verse 12, now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. He's saying it's going to be made apparent at the end of this world what it is that you built upon that foundation. We're saved, that foundation of Jesus Christ is there, we're founded upon that rock, there's no other foundation that we're going to build on, everything that we do in this life is us building upon that foundation. And notice how He breaks it down, you're going to build either gold, silver, precious stones, or you're going to build wood, hay, and stubble. Now there's different, you know, people have different interpretations of exactly what all this means, but basically you have two groups of things, right, you have that which is very precious, right, the gold, the silver, and precious stone, the things that have high value, and then you have the wood, hay, and stubble that are not necessarily useless things, they're just very low value. You know, wood is not exactly, I mean I know with today's lumber prices we might beg to differ, but you know, wood is something that just grows in abundance. You know, I don't remember people digging miles into the earth to find wood, it just grows right on the surface. People will dig miles into the earth to find gold, silver, and precious stones, they'll go to great lengths, they'll blow the earth apart with dynamite to try and find that, but you know, wood is something that's just kind of right there, it's easily accessible, right, it's not a rare commodity. But is it useful? Well I would say so, I mean it's a pretty nice pulpit, I mean look at, we're surrounded by all this wood, it's pretty nice, right? But is it the most valuable thing? No. If I had a solid gold pulpit, you know, it'd probably have a little bit more of a wow factor, and it probably wouldn't stay in this building that long. I'm sure somebody would have hauled it off by now, right, which is why we build it out of wood, right, because it's practical. Who wants this? Right, well I do. This thing's iconic, right? But here's the thing, you know, wood is something that's easily accessible, it's necessary, you know, it's the same way in our lives. Look there's some things in life that you're just gonna have to do, just the practical things of life, you're gonna have to build wood, you're gonna have hay, even the stubble is gonna serve some kind of practical purpose in your life, but it's very low value, it has no eternal value whatsoever, that's what he's saying here, right? If we build upon this life, if all we invest in is wood, hay, and stubble, it's what we need to do in this world, it's very practical, it's required of us, but it has no eternal value. It's the gold, silver, and precious stone that withstands the fire, right? That's what he says in verse 13, every man's work shall be made manifest, meaning what type it is, whether it was wood, or whether it was precious stone. For the day shall declare it, the day when our works are judged by Christ, okay? Because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. Now, I don't know that's a literal fire, obviously, because it's not literal wood, and things like that. But you know God's word is likened unto a fire, God is gonna try these things, is basically what he's saying. He's gonna put them into a furnace, so to speak, and burn off the dross of our works. The things that have no value, they're gonna come to the top and be taken away, like silver dross, like gold dross, and cast away. And then whatever's left over is what we're gonna be rewarded for. Why? Because God is just in his business practices, right? And people don't like that word, business, today, right? But you know, Jesus said, I must be about my Father's business. They appointed the servants within the church in the book of Acts to look over this business in the church. Business is not a dirty word, okay? And God is in the business of rewarding his servants. And I'm saying this morning is that God is just, that God has a fair balance, and whatever we invest in this life is exactly what we're gonna get paid. And God's not gonna cook the books on our behalf, so to speak. He's not gonna fudge the numbers to make us look good if we didn't invest in this life, in the things that have eternal value. Look at verse 14, if any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. That's a guarantee. If any man's works be burned, he shall suffer loss. Meaning the works that are burned up, you're suffering loss because you're not being rewarded. There's no gain, it's loss. But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Know ye not therefore, excuse me, know ye not that ye are the temple of God, that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. So 1 Corinthians 3 is making it real clear that God will reward us, and it'll be a just and perfect balance. It'll be a just measurement, it'll be a just weight, it'll be the exact amount that we deserve in eternity. So take heat. Take heat, how you build thereon. Go to one last place, should I keep a bookmark there, Matthew chapter number 6. And look, this is something I bring up often, but honestly, it's because I've seen too many people fall victim to this. That people get so wrapped up in only building wood, hay, and stubble in this life. And look, I know we've all got to build wood, hay, and stubble. We all got the bills to pay, you know, but you're not going to get an eternal reward for going to your job. You're not, you know, obviously if you labor, there will be a reward from the Lord if you labor as unto the Lord, God will bless you in this life. But you know, that's just, you know, we're commanded to go do those things. There's some things that we just have to do in this life that are just, they're necessary, they're wood, they're hay, they're stubble, but they have no eternal value. They're useful in this life. And we can't let that be what our life is all about. And I preach this often because, you know, I see it, I believe this. I believe that if any man's work abide, he shall receive a reward. You know, and that's what I want for people. I want people to receive a full reward in heaven, as much as they can possibly get. Because that's the only, this is the only chance you got, have in this life to get it. That's it. You have one life and that's what you're going to be rewarded for, you know, for all of eternity. What you do in this one life, that's it. And people need to let that sink in sometimes. And I'm always bringing this up and always putting this out there from time to time, more often than not, because it's something we have to keep in front of ourselves. And I've seen too many people just get caught up in the things of this world, entangled in the affairs of this life, and, you know what, I'm just afraid sometimes it's robbing them of eternal rewards. Look at Matthew chapter 6 verse 19, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. The light of the body is the eye, therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body should be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? Verse 24, no man can serve two masters, for you will hate the one and love the other, or else you will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And mammon is money. That's what he's referring to there, money. And there's too many people today that get too caught up with just gaining wealth in this life. And they just, they make their life all about material possessions, and the here and now, it's a short-sighted view of eternity. And what they're ultimately doing is robbing themselves of the things that really matter, the eternal rewards that are waiting for us in heaven, if we labor. You know, and again, this is the broader application. We know that we will be rewarded because God is just in his business practices. We are his employees. He is going to reward us if we labor for him. Okay? And look, people get so caught up in the things in this world, there's people that are just completely out of church today, because they're more concerned with houses, they're more concerned with bank accounts, they're more concerned with the bottom line than they are, you know, God's business. And I'm not saying that, you know, we shouldn't have anything to do in this world. Obviously we have to work, we can be successful, but you know what? It should never come at the cost of serving God. You know, serving God, it has to be something that's a part of our life, if we want to be rewarded. If you want to be rewarded in eternity, that's how, you know, God's not, again, he's not going to cook the books. He's not going to say, well, I know you meant well. I know you would have served me. So here, you know, here's a little for you. That wouldn't be fair to the rest of us that did labor, would it? It'd be like the employee, you know, who showed up late all the time, you know, was constantly making mistakes, was constantly, you know, just calling in, absentee, just, you know, just a terrible employee, you know, and then they get the bonus at the end of the year or whatever. That, you know, the other employees would probably be a little bitter about that. And you know what else they would be? They'd be a lot less motivated to work. You know, it's called communism. It's never worked, where everyone gets treated the same, regardless of how, what effort they put forth. You know, human nature is to do as little effort as possible, right? People have to be incentivized to do things in our heart. It's the same in the Christian life. You know, that's why I preach these sermons like this. That's why I'm constantly putting Matthew 6 in front of us. Lay not up treasures for yourselves upon earth. It's all going to burn up. It's all going to, it's all going to rust. Everything that we count as dear and precious, it's all, it's all going to go. All of it. And not just the material things. I mean relationships, family members, you know, everyone we know and love is going to die. We're going to part company with everyone, everyone, everyone and everything on this earth. Job said, naked I came and naked I go. It brought nothing in this world and it's certain that we can carry nothing out. You know, and so therefore, you know, having fruit and raiment, let us be there with content. You know, because if we have our needs met, praise God, let's be busy about doing the things that are going to bring us eternal reward, that are going to earn us eternal wages. You know, I want that, I want that life end bonus. You know, the year end bonus is great, you know, if you get a year end bonus at work, you know, you get that Christmas bonus, it's great, right? Well you know what? God's got a bonus for us in heaven. There's this year end bonus and you know what, the better employee you are on this earth, the better the bonus is going to be at the end of this life. So you know, I know it was kind of, hopefully that wasn't two different sermons this morning. Hopefully you can kind of see the connection there. You know, we want to make sure that we use biblical business practices, right? One because it's just, you know, love thy neighbor as thyself, it's Leviticus 19. You know, your employee is your neighbor. Your customer is your neighbor. You know, treat them accordingly, right? But also it's a reflection, you know, for us all that God also is somebody that is going to reward us, that is going to give us a wage, if we labor for Him. Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer. Dear Lord, again, thank you for the word of God, Lord, thank you for the many great and deep spiritual truths that are there, and Lord, thank you for the many practical and just day-to-day principles that are there, too, that we need to enact in our lives and make sure are a part of our lives, and Lord, help us to labor for you in this life, Lord, help us to meet our responsibilities, to do the things that we have to do, and Lord, bless us in our work and our business, Lord, the things that we do to provide for ourselves to provide for others, Lord, thank you that there's people out there that have a desire to contribute to an economy, Lord, to help other people make a living, Lord, it's a great thing. Thank you that we live in a country where we can go to work and receive a just wage, Lord, that we're not living in some third world country where we're being taken advantage of by wicked men, Lord, thank you for that, and Lord, I pray you'd help us to not be negligent of your business either, Lord, but to make sure that we're doing the work that we ought to do for you, Lord, so that we can receive a just wage, a perfect wage, Lord, in eternity and heaven to come. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go. Let's open up our hymnals to the song of the 12th, the song of the 12th, Blessed Be Be. Blessed be the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one. Blessed be the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one.