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Newer service this evening here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. It's good to see everyone here on this Sunday night. Let's all take our seats please as we take our song books and let's turn to hymn number 21. We'll begin tonight. Hymn number 21, What a Wonderful Savior. Hymn number 21, we'll start on that first verse. Christ has for sin, atonement made. What a Wonderful Savior. Hymn number 21, sing it out. Christ has for sin, atonement made. What a wonderful Savior. We are redeemed, the price is made. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. I praise him for the cleansing blood. What a wonderful Savior. I reconcile my soul to God. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. He has cleansed my heart from all that's sin. What a wonderful Savior. And now he reigns and grows therein. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. He gives me overcoming power. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. To him I've given all my heart. What a wonderful Savior. The world shall never share a part. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. Can I ask Brother Kevin if you want to put something over prayer please? Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here tonight. I thank you for all the souls that were saved this week. Please fill us all with your spirit as we sing praises to you and please bless the services and the preaching to come. It's in Christ's name I pray, amen. Amen number 119 is next. Till the storm passes by, hymn number 119. In the dark of the midnights, hymn number 119. Sing it on this first verse together now. In the dark of the midnight, have I often my days. While the storm does not love me, and there's no fighting place. In the crash of the thunder, Christ is Lord in my life. He will save till the storm passes by. Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more. Till the clouds roll forever, from the sky. Hold me fast, let me stand, in the hollow of my hand. Keep me safe, till the storm passes by. Many times Satan whispered, there is no need to try. There is no end of sorrows, there's no hope, I am blind. But I know thou art with me, and tomorrow I'll rise. Till the storm, till the dark in the sky. Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more. Till the clouds roll forever, from the sky. Hold me fast, let me stand, in the hollow of my hand. Keep me safe, till the storm passes by. When the long night has ended, and the storms of the war. Let me stand in thy presence, on that bright and peaceful shore. In that land where the tempest never comes, Lord may I come out with thee, when the storm passes by. Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more. Till the clouds roll forever, from the sky. Hold me fast, let me stand, in the hollow of my hand. Keep me safe, till the storm passes by. Let's sing that chorus acapella, till the storm passes over. Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more. Till the clouds roll forever, from the sky. Hold me fast, let me stand, in the hollow of my hand. Keep me safe, till the storm passes by. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service times. Sunday mornings at 10 30 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. Starting a brand new book this Wednesday night will be in Ezekiel chapter number one. We've got the soul winning times listed below, as well as salvations and baptisms. And then across the page are the birthdays and anniversaries. And then tomorrow is the first day trip to Mexico for the Mexico Mondays. See brother Segura, if you have any questions about that. He's the one who's going to be spearheading that. On the back we've got the note about the baby shower coming up on Saturday, August 14th. And here's the big one, the roller skating night. All right, so this is Thursday, August 19th, 6 to 8. We rent out the entire skating rink. So it's just our church people there. No music, no games. It's just skating in all of its glory. And so we love this. We've done this as a church maybe what, five, six times or something. And it's always super fun. So I hope you can make it out. Of course there's zero cost to you. All of our church activities are always free. We never sell any materials. We never charge for activities. That's part of our philosophy. So it's all paid for by the church. You just show up and skate. And so mark the calendar for that, August 19th. And then below that, the ladies retreat in Oracle is August 25th through the 28th. And so there will be more details on that soon. If you're not already signed up and you want to go, you better sign up fast. And then below that, other upcoming events. Music emphasis night this Thursday night. Various small town soul winning trips and a camping trip at the end of September. So that's about it for announcements. Let's go and count up the soul winning from the past few days. Going back to Thursday. Anything from Thursday? Yes. Okay. All right. Any other soul winning from Thursday? How about Friday? Okay. Okay. What about Saturday? In the Heber trip, five. Anything else from Saturday outside the Heber trip? And then what about today? Sunday? Seven for the main group with brother Scott. Four, three. Okay. Anything else from today? All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning with that. Let's sing our next song. Sing Psalm 117. You should find the insert there in your hymnal. If you don't have one, please raise your hand. Pray toward us, where the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise be the Lord. Praise be the Lord. Okay, then in your hymnals now, please turn to number 127. It tastes so sweet to trust in Jesus, hymn number 127. Sing along that first verse, number 127. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for praise and trust in Lord. Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for praise and trust in Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for praise and trust in Lord. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for praise and trust in Lord. I'm so glad I learned to trust Him. Precious Jesus, Savior friend, and I know that Thou art with me, will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for praise and trust in Lord. All right, this time we'll pass the offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter number 4, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Ephesians 4, beginning in verse number 1. In Ephesians chapter 4, the Bible reads, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first in the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him all in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, under the edifying of itself in love. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not the holy spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Lord thank you that we all here we can all be here tonight. Please feel past your answer with your spirit and give us the wisdom to understand and apply it to our own lives. In your name I pray. Amen. Amen. Title of my sermon tonight is greed and excess. Greed and excess. The Bible reads there in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Go over to chapter 5 verse 18, just one page over to the right in your Bible. The Bible reads, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. So the Bible talks about people being characterized by greed and excess. You know the Gentiles that are outside of the church, they're out just working uncleanness with greediness. They're just greedy of more pleasures and more sins that they can do. And he says don't be drunk with wine wherein is excess. The Bible says in Proverbs 27 20, hell and destruction are never full so the eyes of man are never satisfied. So this is just within our nature as human beings to be greedy and to take things to excess. Instead of just enjoying a little bit, wanting to just get greedy and take too much and go too far with things. Now there are lots of examples of this in the Bible. Let's look at a few tonight. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 2. Go back to the Old Testament, 1 Samuel chapter 2. Again we're talking about greed and excess. You know wanting too much, not being satisfied, not being content, but always being greedy of more and taking things to excess. Look what the Bible says in 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 12. Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord and the priest's custom with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice the priest's servant came while the flesh was in seething with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand and he struck it in the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the flesh hook brought up the priest took for himself so they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. Also before they burnt the fat the priest's servant came and said to the man that sacrificed, give flesh to roast for the priest for he will not have sodden flesh of thee but raw and if any man said unto him let them not fail to burn the fat presently and then take as much as thy soul desireth then he would answer him nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I will take it by force. Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. So here you see the priests they have a certain portion that God has given them and you know God in the law says that he's the one who gave them that and he appointed them that when the children of Israel would bring their sacrifice unto the Lord there was a part that the priest got to eat. That was their food, that was their livelihood. They didn't have to go out and farm fields and work out in agriculture because they as the priests as the Levites they received the tithes from the children of Israel and the offerings of the Lord. That was their inheritance so they didn't get to inherit farmland that they could work and and make a living that way. They were supposed to take from the sacrifices but there was a certain part that they were supposed to take and then there's a part that's burned on the altar for the Lord. You know the fat was supposed to be burned on the altar before the Lord and the blood was supposed to be poured out. There were parts that they were supposed to eat and parts they were not supposed to eat. Now these sons of Eli are greedy and instead of just being satisfied with a good meal I mean these guys are eating good because think about the children of Israel are bringing them the first fruits. They're bringing them the best. They're bringing them the first fruits so they're getting the fresh fruits and vegetables and then they're bringing them the firstlings of the flock and they're bringing animal sacrifices and so these guys are not you know short on good food. They get to eat well but they're not satisfied with that. They wanted to eat too much and the Bible says that these men were gluttonous. It talks about how their father Eli was a very heavy man okay and so they instead of just eating what God has appointed them they're actually stealing from the Lord. They're stealing and people are seeing this and people are bringing offering to the Lord and they want to burn the fat under the Lord and then give the part to the priest but because the priest is saying no no I want that fatty stuff myself. Give me the fatty stuff before it's cooked or else I'll take it by force. It caused men to abhor the offering of the Lord. It caused people to have a bad attitude where they don't even want to put money in the offering plate. They don't even want to bring the offerings because they see the greed of the sons of Eli and then it gives the Lord a bad name. Think about today the same thing. You know you can see preachers that are living in these multi-million dollar homes and driving fancy cars and wearing all the fancy suits and everything and flying around a private jet. That makes people get bitter and rightly so when they see these bunch of sons of Eli all these televangelist sons of Eli just becoming greedy and fat of the things of God instead of just taking the portion that God allotted for them they just want more. It's not enough. So this is part of the sinful nature of man to be greedy to be gluttonous. You know food is good. It's good for us but we can overeat right. We could go too far and over indulge in that and that's what God is showing us here in the story that these men they're wicked and they're gluttonous and they're greedy and God had appointed them a certain thing and they just say no that's not enough we want more. Go through it to Proverbs chapter 23. Proverbs chapter 23 and the bible I'll start reading it while you're on your way there. Proverbs 23 verse 19 hear thou my son and be wise and guide thine heart in the way be not among wine bibbers among riotous eaters of flesh. Proverbs 31 verse 21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee and despise not thy mother when she is old. So he says you know don't be around wine bibbers and riotous eaters of flesh for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. He's warning us about drunkenness and gluttony. Now here's the thing I don't believe that we should drink any alcohol whatsoever. That's not what this sermon's about. That's what I believe and I've preached a lot of sermons about that but you know all Christians would agree that drunkenness is a sin. You know it'd be pretty rare that you'd find a Christian that would actually try to defend that okay. Now I've talked to Jews who told me that in their religion not only is it okay to get drunk but if you're an orthodox Jew drunkenness is actually prescribed. You know on the holiday Purim I was talking to a Jewish guy the other day and and the holiday Purim they have to get so drunk that they wouldn't be able to tell Haman from Mordecai. So they're prescribed to be drunk and I've had other people tell me that too that in in these Jewish holidays not only they drink alcohol but they'll often get drunk and and if they're very orthodox the more orthodox they are the drunker they get on Purim is what I was told. So I've talked to a few people about that and you know but but but that's not Christianity that's Judaism. I don't think any Christians would justify drunkenness because that would just be bizarre. I mean you're pretty far from the word of God at that point and so what is drunkenness if you think about it what is drunkenness? It's basically drinking and drinking and drinking and you see that people who drink typically drink to excess. It's it's rare that people drink moderately usually especially in the United States when people drink they pretty much get drunk and it's it's rare you know oh it's just a glass of wine with my dinner or whatever you know that's pretty rare because most people that I've known well I'll put it this way everybody who I've ever known personally who was a social drinker I knew them to get drunk and so so typically this leads to that this lends itself to that and what is that but just an excess right? Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the spirit. People just drinking themselves sick just eating themselves sick just gluttonous drunkards. The Bible is explaining that this is something that people have a tendency toward and this is something that we as Christians need to avoid that mentality. We need to do things moderately and not go overboard into anything okay uh like it says hell and destruction are never full so the eyes of man are never satisfied and so eating is good and and you know I don't think that there's anything wrong with eating sweets and desserts and things but you can definitely take that too far can't you and so you know the Bible is telling us don't be a glutton don't be a wine bibber don't be a drunkard. Now in Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4 it says behold his soul which is lifted up is not a pride in him but the just shall live by his faith yea also because he transgresseth by wine he is a proud man neither keepeth at home who enlargeth his desire as hell and is as death and cannot be satisfied but gathereth unto him all nations and heapeth unto him all people. So this is talking about a king who just keeps conquering more lands and he's just never satisfied with it and also he's a drunkard in his personal life. The Bible says because he transgresseth by wine he's a proud man because drinking begets pride in people who drink and it says he doesn't keep at home he enlarges his desire as hell and so this is talking about the king of Babylon but you know if you think about it there are other examples of this just from history like you think about Alexander the Great. You know here's a guy who's greedy of just conquering more and more and you know his army is just away from Macedonia for years and years and it's like they just keep pushing it further and people kind of want to go home at some point but Alexander the Great just keeps wanting to push it all the way to India and just keep conquering and conquering and it's just never enough for him to have more power and then how did Alexander the Great die? Well he died young I believe he was what 29 years old and the story is that he drank himself drunk. He got super drunk and he ended up getting pneumonia and I don't know but he drank himself into some kind of a stupor and ended up dying shortly thereafter so he's known to be an immoderate person, a drunkard and somebody who just greedily wants to just conquer more and more and the Bible is describing a similar character in Habakkuk chapter 2 whose soul is lifted up because of wine. You know you think about when Belshazzar drank of the wine and then he became lifted up and is praising all the false gods and he blasphemes God and everything right before he sees the handwriting on the wall. My grandfather actually quit drinking because he went to a church where a sermon was preached about Belshazzar drinking and blaspheming God and he said you know what that's exactly how I am when I drink. I get arrogant, I get cocky and that's when he decided to quit drinking because of that Bible story about Belshazzar. But go if you would to 2 Chronicles chapter 11. So obviously there are people who are eating excessively, there are people who are drinking excessively, becoming extremely drunk, binge drinking and all of these other things and then that's not enough. They move on to drugs and they indulge in that and they're never satisfied with that either. Another thing that people indulge in or are greedy for is fornication or adultery. You know God has prescribed for us that we engage in that relationship within marriage. So God has provided us something beautiful. He's provided us something pleasurable to be enjoyed within the confines of marriage. A man leaves his father and mother and cleaves unto his wife and they too are one flesh. That's what God has designed marriage to be between one man and one woman and that's what marriage is supposed to be all the way back to the beginning. That's what God created. That's what God ordained in Genesis chapter 2. But human nature of course is to be greedy and that's not enough. So look what the Bible says in 2 Chronicles chapter 11 verse 21 says in Rehoboam, loved Mayacah the daughter of Absalom, oh isn't that sweet, above all his wives and his concubines. For he took 18 wives and 3 score concubines. Well that's not as sweet anymore of a love story there. So 18 wives and 3 score concubines. That's a lot. Let that sink in. 18 wives. I have one wife. You have one wife. You had 18 wives. But then that's not enough. 3 score concubines. Now what is a concubine? A concubine is a woman that you're sleeping with but she's not your wife. She doesn't have the status of being a wife but the literal meaning of that word concubine just means someone that you lie with is what that means. Okay so he's basically, he's got his 18 wives that are the legitimate wives that have that status of being a wife and then he's just got basically 60 other bed buddies, you know if you want to call it that, concubines. I mean how do you translate that into our modern vernacular? We don't really have a term for that. So I guess we'll just call it a concubine. And he begat 20 and 8 sons and 3 score daughters. I mean that's a lot right? I mean this guy, he's got 18 wives, 60 more concubines, so of course he's just begetting a whole bunch of kids, 88 kids. Now this guy sounds pretty excessive. This is excess. This is too much. 78 women and having 88 kids, it's too much. It's overboard. Right? God provided, you know, hey you have one wife. Why? Because there's more to life than just that, isn't there? There's more to life. There's other things we're supposed to be doing with our lives than just dealing with these 78 women. We're supposed to be out doing other things, but this guy, he's taking something good, marriage, and he's overindulging in it and going overboard in it and saying, well one's not enough, how about two? Why not 18? Why not 60 on the side? Okay, this guy is excessive, but oh, but we're not done reading the story yet. Keep going. And Rehoboam made Abijah, the son of Maacah, the chief, to be ruler among his brethren for he thought to make him king. And he dealt wisely and dispersed of all his children throughout all the countries of Judah and Benjamin unto every fence city and he gave them vittles and abundance. Oh, and by the way, and he desired many wives. So is this guy satisfied? I mean, he's got it dialed in, man. It's like I got my 18 wives, I got my 60 concubines, that ought to keep me busy. Not enough. Let me explain something to you. If one's not enough, 60 is not going to be enough. 78 is not going to be enough. You know, you've got to be moderate and not go into excess and not desire more than what God has given you. It's like God provided the sons of Eli with a certain amount of food and they just want to gorge themselves on more food. And look, we could always eat more food, right? I mean, there's always more, you know? Well, we could always have more fun and more food and more enjoy, but you know what? There's a limit where God says, look, this is what is appropriate. Don't go beyond that. Don't push past that. And it's our tendency as human beings to be greedy and to take things to excess. And that's what Rehoboam is clearly doing. He's excessive. Here's a great verse to illustrate what I'm saying. Go, if you would, to Proverbs 25. This is probably one of the best verses in the Bible on this subject. Go to Proverbs 25. While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you some other Bible verses. How about Isaiah 56 verse 9? All ye beasts of the field, come to devour. Yea, all ye beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind. They're all ignorant. They're all dumb dogs. They cannot bark. Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. And he's talking about the preachers, the men of God, the guys who are supposed to be watching out for the souls. They're asleep at the job. They're dumb dogs. They're greedy dogs. Verse 11, yea, there are greedy dogs which can never have enough. They can never have enough. And they're shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to their own way, everyone for his gain, from his quarter. Some say they all fetch wine and we will fill ourselves with strong drink and tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant. Those are the greedy dog pastors, the ones who are not looking out for the flock. They're not warning them about sin and warning them of the dangers out there. It's just greediness, don't preach anything controversial, eat, drink and be merry, excessive paycheck, etc. That's why the Bible says of the pastor in 1 Timothy 3, he's supposed to be not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. Of the deacon it says, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre. False prophets in the book of Jude are described as running greedily after the error of Balaam for reward. Running greedily after the error of Balaam for reward. It's human nature. The sinful human nature of man is never satisfied. If a person wants to drink, they don't want to drink a little bit, they want to get drunk. You offer someone some good food, that's not enough. They've got to have a second helping and a third and just go overboard and just do it too much. Ruin it. People get paid for their work, it's not enough so then they have to steal to get more because they just are not satisfied with what they're getting paid and what they legitimately receive. People are married, they have their wife, that's not enough. Second wife, third wife, action on the side. We see it all throughout scripture, people falling into this trap of greed and excess. We need to identify this in our lives and look at ourselves and say, am I being greedy here? Am I being excessive here? Is this too much of a good thing? And we need to check ourselves and realize that it's possible even for something good to be done in excess or for us to get greedy, we need to be content with what we have and satisfied with what we have and learn to be moderate in these areas of our lives, of eating and so forth. Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 25 verse 16, hast thou found honey? And this is before you could just kind of go to the gas station and there's just all these candy aisle. These people are living in a more primitive time. He says, hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith and vomited. And you know, this is again human nature. You come across something good, honey. Well, you know what? Not only is honey sweet, not only does it taste good, it's also good for you. Honey has many health benefits for eating it. So God says, hey, you found honey? Great, eat it, enjoy, eat it up, buddy. Eat as much as is sufficient for you, but he warns of eating too much because if you eat too much, you will throw up. And you know what? This has happened in our house before where, you know, there's some kind of a party or some kind of a church activity or something. There's a lot of cake and pints and sodas and ice cream and sometimes the children will overindulge and they will throw up. Who knows what I'm talking about? I'm seeing a, can I get a witness? You know, and one of my kids just raised their hand, so okay. Yeah, so I'm glad you remember that too. But anyway, you know, the point is, you know, it's just, it's a phenomenon that happens, right? People eat, I mean, what's the Bible say? You know, you eat too much honey and you throw up. Well, guess what? I've seen it. It's real. The Bible's true. You know, people, they overindulge in sweets and their body's like, no, you're going to kill me. I don't want diabetes yet. And just puke it up and throw it, your body just rejects it. No, stop giving me little Debbie's or whatever. So eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith and vomited. You know, it's just, God gives us something nice. Instead of just being happy with it, it's like we want more. Isn't that the wickedness of human nature? To just want more, to just be greedy, to just overdo it, just to go crazy with it. And then in the next verse, it's interesting the next verse kind of ties in the same way. Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee. Again, too much of a good thing. You know, your friend wants to hang out with you, but your friend might eventually need a break from you. And so, you know, you can have a great relationship with your friend, but if you're just constantly at your friend's house, eventually they might just get sick of you and hate you is what the Bible says, right? I mean, that's what the Bible says. Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee. You know, I guarantee you that that visit to a friend's house is a good thing, but you know, look, I like having people over at my house or going over to their house sometimes, but like sometimes it's like, okay, it's time to go home now. You know what I mean? Sometimes it's like, all right. You know, I remember when we used to have church in the house, you know, it was like I couldn't just leave and go home because I was home and sometimes people would just stay for hours and hours fellowshipping and it's like, all right, so, you know, getting kind of late, huh? Kind of give you a little hint here, you know, it's getting super late and everything and you're still here, huh? Of course I never felt that way ever. But the point is, you know, again, it's just too much of a good thing. Being greedy, excessive instead of being moderate in things, right? So we've got to be careful about this. Go to 1 Peter chapter 4, if you would. 1 Peter chapter 4. I mean, this is all over the Bible. 1 Peter chapter 4. I'll read you some other verses while you're turning to 1 Peter chapter 4. The Bible talks about wicked people coveting greedily all the day long, but the righteous giveth and spareth not. Look what the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 3. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you. You know, the world thinks it's strange when you don't do things to excess, when you don't go out and party and binge drink and do all these revelings and excesses of wine and all the lasciviousness and the lust and all the banqueting and partying and just overdoing everything. They think it's strange. Why? Because it's human nature to overindulge. That's why. It's human nature to overindulge, which is why when you have Christians being temperate and moderate and abstaining from that kind of a lifestyle, they look at you like, whoa, what are you doing? You're not going to indulge. You're not going to drink with us. You're not going to party with us. You're not going to stay out with us until, you know, the middle of the night till 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. What are you doing? You know, but they're the ones that are being excessive and staying up way too late and eating too much and drinking too much and partying too much and playing too much. And look, I'm for playing and having a good time. But, you know, you can play too much. You can have a good time too much. You can joke around too much. You can eat too much. You know, there's a time to get to work and be serious and do something with your life that matters. And there's a time to just say no and, you know, push away that plate of food, push away that beverage, say no to that temptation. You know, there are things that are just too much. Here's another good Bible story that illustrates this. Go to 2 Kings chapter 14. 2 Kings chapter 14. And, you know, I was thinking of a historical example too that it kind of ties in with this 2 Kings 14 story. Another good example of this I think is Adolf Hitler. So those of you who know a little bit about history and especially World War II history, here's the thing about Adolf Hitler, okay. He took power in 1933 and throughout the 30s he actually really like turned things around in Germany because the economy was really bad under what's known as the Weimar Republic. And so there was hyper inflation. The economy was bad. Also Germany was just kind of in the toilet morally. There's a lot of just sodomites and weird stuff going on in the 20s. You know, we had our roaring 20s over here. Over in Germany it was a pretty debauched time. The economy was depressed. Things were just going bad in a lot of ways, okay. So, you know, Adolf Hitler took over and ended up turning around a lot of that stuff and actually, you know, fixing the economy because things had been bad in Germany ever since World War I. When the Germans lost World War I, things were bad. He comes along and, you know, he kind of took advantage of the things that were going bad because if you look at the Nazi party was very small and unpopular until the economy crashed. And then when the economy crashed, you look at their popularity just skyrocketed, okay. Because they'd been predicting a lot of those things and basically, you know, they were claiming that they were going to fix everything and whatever. So then, you know, people jumped on board with that. And so Adolf Hitler, you know, he turned around the economy such to the point to where Austria, which was a separate country, you know, you have Germany and you have Austria, but in Austria they speak German. And so they actually, the Austrians actually voted to join Germany. And they, by an overwhelming majority when Hitler was in power, it was like 90 some percent of Austrians said like yes, make us part of Germany. Like we want to be absorbed into Germany as part of the German kingdom. And it was just overwhelming. And, you know, Hitler, you know, rode into Vienna, Austria, because he was originally from Austria. And everybody's cheering, there's like parades, you can see pictures and video of it. I don't know, I think there's a video, but there's for sure pictures of him entering Vienna and everybody's just going crazy. Like he's the biggest hero to them that they're just, they love him. Because, you know, that's what people care about is fixing the economy. You know, they're loving it. So they were real happy. But not only that, here's some other things that Hitler did in the 30s. Is he started taking back territory that Germany had lost after World War I. So there's like a big chunk of Germany that had been taken by the French, a big chunk of Germany that had been incorporated into Czechoslovakia. And here's the thing, he basically seized that territory back. So he got back land over here. And so he's adding territory to Germany, but without any warfare happening. Like, you know, there's no fighting. There's kind of, you know, he's just kind of pushing it and getting it diplomatically. And he ends up seizing land in France and seizing land in Czechoslovakia. And so, I mean, Germans are loving this. It's like they're getting their territory back, economy's going great. Now stop and think about this. Here's like a little alternative history for you. What if Hitler at that point, you know, 1938, 1939, what if at that point he just decided, you know what, let's just stop there. I mean, he could have gone down in history as being, you know, this great successful lead. People would have just looked back and thought, man, this guy really turned Germany around, fixed the economy, he gave us our dignity back, he took back this territory and whatever. But then what does he do? Is he content to just say, hey, I've been successful, I fixed things, we got our territory back, this is great, now let's just have peace and be happy and enjoy. Note the problem with Adolf Hitler is that he's greedy. And so he wasn't happy with that. He said, no, no, no, we need more land. We want to take over all these countries in Eastern Europe. We're going to take more. And he'd already talked about this all the way back when he wrote his book Mein Kampf. It was always his plan to take over and invade territory in Eastern Europe because he said that the Germans needed more room and we need more land and whatever. So, you know, he took back what they'd lost but that's not enough. Now he wants to just go on a conquest and think about what a lack of integrity, because I don't want anybody to think that I'm praising Hitler because I'm certainly not praising Hitler. Hitler was greedy, I'm using him as a bad example. Okay, so I hope you're paying attention tonight. You're like, well, Pastor Anderson said that he did a lot of good things. Because here's the deal, this is what Hitler did. Okay, Hitler, just think about what a hypocrite Hitler is. I'm going to slam Hitler right now because let me tell you something, he was a big time hypocrite and let me tell you why he was such a phony and such a hypocrite. Because he spent all of the twenties and thirties just ripping on communism. How communism is the worst thing, communism is bad, and he was just super anti-communist. Amen. But then what does he do? He forms an alliance with Stalin, the evil communist dictator Stalin. He goes against everything he's been saying, everything he's stood for for the last twenty years, he goes against all of that and forms a deal with Stalin where they both invade Poland and of course September 1st, 1939, Hitler invades Poland and basically he's going to take half of Poland for Germany, Soviet Union's going to take the other half, and Poland's just going to cease to exist because basically they just divide it up and carve it up and that's where he went too far because when he invaded Poland, then what happened? It thrust the whole world into World War II. That's what was the spark that triggered World War II. You know the famous headline, Hitler invades Poland. And that's when everybody declared war and that's when it all, you know the story that basically led to what? Fifty to seventy million people dying in World War II. Fifty to seventy million, it was a bloodbath, it was horrible. But based on what I know, I've read many books about Hitler, I've read many books about World War II, and from what I understand, and I read David Irving's book, Hitler's War, which I think really gives you insight into Hitler and all of his personal thoughts and everything, I read that book and let me tell you something, from what I understand of Hitler, is that let's say Hitler would have got away with taking over Poland like that, let's say everybody would just let him do it and he got away with it, I promise you he would have just invaded somewhere else after that. And he would have kept pushing it until a war started. He wasn't going to stop because he was greedy like that. He was just like the man being described in Habakkuk chapter 2 verses 4 and 5. He was just like Alexander the Great in that sense where he's just greedy and just keeps wanting to conquer more. You know, if you've ever played the game Risk, who knows the board game Risk? Okay, lots of people, very good. I'm among friends tonight. You know, I grew up playing Risk, I love Risk, but here's the thing about Risk. The key to winning at Risk is not to do too much on your turn because you see people that are novices and they just get carried away and they just keep invading more territory and they spread themselves so thin and because you do the reinforcements at the beginning of the turn in Risk, at the end of your turn there's no reinforcements that you're adding. So you get all spread thin and then when it's the next person's turn, they get to reinforce at the beginning of their turn and then they just plow over you. They just conquest. Everything that you did, they just undo it the next turn. So you know, my strategy when I play Risk is just take over one territory and then get your card. Because if you don't take over territory you don't get a card. So you got to take over the one territory, get a card and pass the dice. The problem with Hitler is that he's just greedy and he's not happy just to take back these German territories. He just wants to carve up other people's territories and keep invading and he was just going to keep going until he hits a boundary. Okay, and that's what he was doing and that's what happened. That's why he failed. But think about it. If you could get in a time machine and go back and tell him, like, don't invade Poland. Stop. You're done. Look at all the success you've had. Look at all the things you've accomplished. Just stop. But you know what he'd probably tell you? He'd probably just tell you, like, you know, he'd probably wouldn't listen. Because this is who he is. Greedy. Not content to quit while he's ahead. To stop. Do you understand what I'm saying? Now here's a biblical example that's sort of like the Hitler example in a sense. Okay. But this guy is not Hitler. Okay. This guy is actually a good guy. But look at 2 Kings chapter 14 verse 1. In the second year of Joash, son of Jehoahaz king of Israel, reigned Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah. And he did that which was right in the side of the Lord, yet not like David his father. He did, according to all things, as Joash his father did. So he's saying, you know, this guy's a pretty good guy. He did that which was right in the side of the Lord. Not as good as David, but he was kind of as good as Joash. Okay. Look at verse 7. He slew of Edom in the valley of salt, 10,000, and took Selah by war and called the name of it Jochtiel unto this day. So he has a great victory. You know, he fights against the Edomites. He defeats them. He has a great victory. He's doing that which is right in the side of the Lord. Things are going good for this guy, right? But then look what he does in verse 8. Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, come, let us look one another in the face. Now he has no beef with Israel. He has no issue with Israel. He just picks a fight with Israel out of nowhere like, hey man, let's fight. Let's look one another in the face, man. Come face me. Come at me, bro, is what he basically says. In the modern versions it just says, come at me, bro. And Jehoash, the king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, the thistle that was in Lebanon, sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, give thy daughter to my son to wife. And there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trode down the thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom and thine heart had lifted thee up. Glory of this and tarry at home. You know, kind of like the time machine advice for Hitler, like, hey buddy, quit, pass the dice, take your card, you're done. Tarry at home, glory in what you've accomplished, but you're done. Okay? For why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt that thou shouldest fall even now and Judah with thee? He's saying, don't meddle with me. And remember, it's not God's will for Judah to reign over Israel. God divided these kingdoms and when Rehoboam wanted to fight and get Israel back, God told Rehoboam, don't do it. Don't go. Those 10 tribes were taken away from the house of David. That's Israel. This is Judah. It was divided into two separate kingdoms and this is not a legitimate warfare. It's not the king of Judah's place to try to conquer Israel. Okay? There's the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah. He's not supposed to try to conquer them. Okay? But Amaziah would not hear. He won't listen. Therefore, Jehoash, king of Israel, went up and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, looked one another in the face at Beth Shemesh, which belongeth to Judah. And Judah was put to the worst before Israel and they fled every man to their tents and Jehoash, king of Israel, took Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Jehoash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh and came to Jerusalem and break down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, 400 cubits. And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels that were found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and hostages and returned to Samaria. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, which he did in his might and how he fought with Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jehoash slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel and Jeroboam his son reigned in his stead and life goes on. But you see the story here. Here's a guy who gets greedy. I mean he has a success. The Lord blesses him. He beats the Edomites. He has a great victory. Everything's good. It's time to just be content, to be happy, to be satisfied, to enjoy the blessings that God has given him. But instead what does he do? He picks a fight with somebody for no reason, picks a fight with the northern kingdom of Israel because he gets pompous and full of himself and arrogant and just wants to greedily take more territory and just keep going and even fight against someone that he's not supposed to be fighting against. And as a result he ends up having his own capital wiped out. His own city Jerusalem gets destroyed. The wall, I mean look how much of the wall gets destroyed. It says, you know, 400 cubits. So that's like 600 feet of the wall gets broken down. There's a huge breach in the wall. You know the wall's supposed to protect and guard. Now there's just a 600 foot wide opening in the thing, ripped open. All the silver and gold, you know, the king of Israel takes all that and just completely humiliates him, defeats him, takes a bunch of hostages, people are taken captive. I mean don't you think he wishes that he would have just quit when he was ahead and just relaxed and been happy with what he had? But again this is human nature, right? Leaders just, they just want to get more power. They want to have more victories, more achievements, more money for the rich, right? More wives for Rehoboam, more food for the glutton, you know, more booze for the drunkard, more drugs for the junkie. This is human nature. If you would go to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. We need to, you say, why are you preaching about this? Because this is a tendency that exists in all of us to be greedy, to want more than is due to us, to be immoderate and to be excessive and to just not be happy with what we have and to just always push things too far. We need to know this about ourselves and guard against this. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall and make sure that we're not tempted by these things because this is something that people struggle with all throughout the word of God, all throughout history, all throughout the Bible. And then you know the other rotten thing about Hitler too, not only does he just go against everything he's been teaching for the last two decades and make this deal with Stalin and team up with Stalin to defeat Poland, which goes against everything he's been saying, but then he turns around after making the pact of steel with Stalin. What does he do? Then he double crosses Stalin and invades Soviet Union, which is like, you know, what's up with that? I mean he makes an agreement, he makes a deal, but he breaks his covenant with Stalin. Now he should have never made a covenant with Stalin, but once you make a covenant you're supposed to honor that. It's wicked to make a vow, to make a covenant, to make a treaty and then break that agreement. You know, when you make that agreement, when you swear that oath, you got to keep that. But then he just breaks his word. So it's like, you know, he's against Stalin, now he's teaming up with Stalin, now he's turning on Stalin. You know, that's somebody who cares more about just greedily taking more power and territory than about their actual core values that they're supposed to be standing for. You know, so it's not like, oh man, he really was just against communism and he was just a really just this altruistic guy. No way, because look, look what he's doing. He's teaming up with Stalin because he's just drunk on power and drunk on taking over more territory that he, not only does he want to take territory that's legitimate for him, but now he wants to just invade countries that aren't even part of Germany and just take over as much of the Eastern Europe as he can just to just use for his own benefit. And so he just wanted to keep going, didn't he? And just keep going and keep going and keep going and plunge the entire world into this bloody conflict. And obviously I'm not saying that the other parties were good, okay. Obviously there were lots of, we could point to, we could point to the wickedness of other leaders like Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill and all of these murderous, evil leaders of that time. But that's not the point. The point is that this is universal to human beings getting in positions of power, getting greedy and being excessive and not knowing when to stop and just be happy with what they have. Now, you know, thankfully when we make these mistakes we're not going to, you know, kill 50 million people, okay, or, or, you know, indirectly lead to the deaths of 50 to 70 million people in that bloody conflict. But, you know, we can nonetheless go down the same road of just where we just can't get enough money and we just can't get enough partying and we just can't get enough whatever, okay. We need to be more moderate. Look at Luke chapter 12 verse 15. The Bible says, He said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself saying, What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? You know, here's what you should do, farm less. You know, it's like, or, you know, do some kind of philanthropy or help people or something, you know, what am I going to do? I have so much money, I have so much food, I don't even know where to put it all. What do I do? I know what I'll do. Get a bigger barn. Build a second barn to just stockpile more and more. There's only so much food that you can eat. There's only so much food you can put down your throat, my friend. I mean, think about this, you know, I saw, I don't even know how I saw this, but I think somebody posted to Facebook or something. I saw a news article this week about an actress, Scarlett Johansson, suing Disney because she was in a movie recently and instead of just releasing the movie just at the theater, they released it on the theater and Disney Plus at the same time. So she's suing them saying, that's not fair. You're supposed to do it in the theater alone. And then Disney Plus later, because she's like, part of my paycheck is based on how much money is made at the theater. So, you know, I want to be just at the theater. Obviously, you know, I mean, I don't think theaters are doing very well right now. Okay, because of the whole COVID and the fact that there's just so much junk to watch online for free, you don't have to pay to watch the junk that Hollywood's putting out. It's all free now. So, you know, these greedy actors and actresses are whining and complaining. So then Disney's response was, well, you've already been paid $20 million just for this one movie. They said, you've already made 20 million. And what is, I mean, that's a lot of money. And I mean, this woman has been in a bunch of movies and she already got paid $20 million for this movie. And she's suing them, suing her employer or whatever, I don't know, whatever that relationship is considered, suing this company. Like, how dare you, you know, only pay me $20 million and then it didn't stay at the theater long enough or something. I mean, can you imagine the greed? I mean, how much money does this woman have? I mean, I'm assuming if she got paid 20 million just for this one movie, she's probably got like $100 million or something or $50 million or $200 million. You couldn't even spend that much money in your whole life. How do you even spend that much money? I mean, think about it. Like, what, I mean, how much money would you have to spend every day? I mean, think about this. If you're spending every day, let's say you're, let's, let's do a little math. You guys want to do a little math? Say you're just spending like $1,000 every day, just 1,000 bucks every day. On Monday I spend 1,000, Tuesday I spend 1,000, Wednesday I spend 1,000, Thursday I spend 1,000. That's a lot of money. I mean, for me, like, I can't imagine, like, trying to figure out, it'd be stressful to me. Like, how am I going to spend my $1,000 today? If somebody's like, you guys spend $1,000 every day, I'd be like, ah! I mean, that's $365,000 a year. That's like, that's a lot of money to spend. I mean, 1,000 bucks every day, right? Some of you are like, I think I could do it, you know? It's because you're greedy, you covetous, materialistic person. You know, to me, it sounds like a lot, 365,000 bucks, $1,000 every day, right? Think about this. Okay, so just, just to kind of simplify the math a little bit, just to kind of simplify the math, you know, that means, like, every three years you're spending, like, a million bucks, right? So basically, every three years you're spending one million bucks, it would take, like, 60 years just to spend the money from that one movie. Like, do you see what I'm saying? Like, just one movie, and if you're not getting any interest or anything, it's been, like, 60 years because you're spending $1,000 every single day. You know, I mean, this is just how I think. I'm just thinking to myself, like, that's an incredible amount of money. You know, and if, and if, let's say she has a hundred million dollars, which she probably does. I didn't research her portfolio or whatever. You know, assuming she has, like, a hundred million dollars or something. I mean, how long is it going to take to spend that 300 years of spending $1,000 every single day? And it's like, meanwhile, you know, other people are just kind of, like, struggling to get by and just, you know, they're just kind of living paycheck to paycheck and people are tightening their belts and making sacrifices and, you know, they took a pay cut here and, you know, they're just, they're thrilled if they can just make, you know, $1,000, you know, a week or something. You know, they're like, yeah, or 2,000 bucks a week, great, 2,000 bucks a week, right? She's making 20 million, like, how long did it take her to make this movie? I mean, how long does it take for a Hollywood actor to make a movie? Let's just say it took her six months, right? I mean, don't you think it probably took less than that? Who knows about these things? Any Hollywood people out there today? I mean, it probably took, what, six months to make the movie by the time she, you know, maybe prepared herself for the part, you know, and because I'm sure these movies are real intelligent, it's some comic book movie. It's some Marvel comic movie, so I don't think she had to really immerse herself in literature to really, like, understand the part or something. She basically had to read a few comic books. Okay, so giving her time to read the comic books, so she's got to read some comic books, you know, go to the gym every day and, you know, eat a bunch of brown rice and vegetables and have some personal trainer make her super skinny, get all muscle bound or whatever, so she can be this skinny, muscular chick beating up dudes in a comic book movie. But by the time she does all that, learns her lines, and then the filming of the movie probably takes two months. What's that? So the, thank you. Man, I love technology. The movie was filmed in 87 days. So therefore, I think six months is, you know, probably accurate of just kind of the whole process from her perspective. She's probably got to come back and do some voiceover and whatever. Let's just say it took a year. Twenty million dollars? For a year of your life? A year of your work? You know, most of us, that's probably how much we'll make, like, we won't even make that much in our entire lives. I mean, think about that. We'd make like a fraction of that. We'd make like a small fraction of that in our entire life. She spends 87 days filming, little extra time reading comic books and working out at the gym and starving herself. And it's just like all she can think about instead of just thinking about the fact, and I, maybe you can Google this too since you're helping me out. I thought I saw somewhere that she's like the highest paid actress in the world right now or something? She has a hundred and sixty-five million dollars. That's her net worth a hundred and sixty-five million dollars. So forget spending a thousand dollars a day. She could spend like eight thousand dollars a day, right? She could spend eight thousand dollars a day. It'll still take her sixty years to spend it all. Eight grand every day. Think about how much money that is. Eight grand a day. It's just stupid. It's like, ah, you're not paying me. You know what that shows me? It shows me, do you think she gives a rip about the fans? Oh, you love Scarlett Johansson so much and you want her autograph so much and you want to go meet her? She doesn't give a rip about you. She doesn't care about you. She doesn't care about the fans. She's not saying like, oh wonderful, my fans can now rot their brain on my stupid brainless movie on Disney Plus instead of having to go to the theater. It's just like, where's my money? I want more money. Best paid actress in Hollywood, that's not enough. A hundred and sixty-five million dollars, that's not enough. She's literally Hitler, is what I'm saying. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. All right, see now I'm getting excessive. See the tendency to go to excess? You just saw it happen. But folks, I mean, I'm sorry but, you know, what a rotten person. What a rotten person. Especially because, you know, think about the fact that, you know, I mean I could go on and on but it's like all the junk of COVID, COVID's been kind of a pain in a lot of people's neck over the last year and a half. Don't you think COVID has inconvenience to a lot of people? You know, let alone all the people that got sick and died. But oh, the inconvenience. But what about the fact that people got sick, they died and then plus a lot of people were inconvenienced, it messed up their job or it messed up their schooling or it messed up whatever their wedding plans, it messed up travel plans, it messed up the mission strips, it messed up all this stuff, right? And it totally, so obviously yeah things are still kind of messed up in certain industries or whatever, you know, and I don't feel bad for Hollywood because I want Hollywood to fail. I want the theaters to all go out of business and fail. But here's the thing about that though, like she's not even thinking about any of that. All she's thinking about is, I got 165 million dollars but now I only got 20 million for this movie. How dare you release this on Disney Plus? I want this to be theater only. I want people to have to go down there and watch it. I don't want them to watch it at home, they have to go down there. I mean, does anybody else think that that's just bizarre? No! You're kidding! Is that way, is it true though? Are you just throwing that out there or did you check, did you check the early life section? Well, if her mother's Jewish then she's Jewish buddy, that's how rabbinic law works buddy. Every single time. But here's the thing though, here's the thing, you know what, it's true though, whenever I look up any kind of an actor or actress on Wikipedia, you go to the early life section and it's like, oh, her grandfather is rabbi so-and-so and she's born a Jewish family, you know, this and that. So, alright, thank you for letting me get that off my chest. Thank you for that by the way. This sermon's very interactive tonight. But you know, you just had to play that anti-Semite card, didn't you? You just had to throw that in there. But the point is though, you know, we joke about Jews, you know, being greedy like that but guess what, it is just human nature, it's not just Jews. You know, it's all of us, okay. You know, some men's sins are open beforehand, going before the judgment, others they follow after. So, you know, yeah, it's an example though of how this Hollywood actor's just so greedy and so excessive and she probably thinks that she's just fighting some justice, righteous cause because, you know, she's fighting for all actors, you know. And it's the same thing, it's like when these, it's like U2 or something whining about people pirating their music or something. You know, it's like these multi-millionaires and it's just like, oh, you're pirating our music, oh, Napster, oh. But it's like they want to just be these multi-millionaire, multi, it's just not enough, it's never enough. They want to still be getting paid from some song they came out with 30 years ago, they just want to be just making millions of dollars off it because they're greedy. It's because human beings are all greedy by nature. This is part of the sin nature and, you know, it's easy for us to get up and rag on these, you know, whores and whoremongers of Hollywood and their greed and, you know, you can always just be attacking Hitler for the umpteenth time. But let me tell you something, the real emphasis of the sermon tonight is not to just rag on Scarlett Johansson and Hitler and Eli's gluttonous sons and Amaziah. You know, the real point of the sermon is to understand that all of us, all of us have that sin nature that could tend toward greed or excess in our lives. And so we all need to watch out for this. And you know, these are extreme examples that we're talking about, but you know what, it's easy for all of us to fall into this trap where we have something good going, we have a good gig and, you know, things are going good and we receive something good and then it's just like we just want to take it too far. We want to have too, you know, we find honey instead of just praising God and just eating the right amount, it's just like no, we just have to keep going and keep eating until we puke. And people are out there tonight and you know what they're going to do tonight? They're going to drink until they literally puke tonight. Somewhere in Tempe right now, someone is beginning a long night of drinking that's going to end with them puking their guts out. You know that's true. Somebody's walking into that bar on Mill Avenue right now and taking the first of many drinks and eventually they will be puking. Why drink until you puke? Why eat until you puke? You know, why? Because it's human nature to be greedy and excessive and so we as God's people, we as Christians, we need to put off the old man, not walk in the flesh, we need to walk in the spirit and take heed lest we fall and realize, you know what, there's a little bit of Hitler in all of us. There's a little bit of Scarlett Johansson in all of us. There's a little bit of King Amaziah in all of us. There's a little bit of Nebuchadnezzar in all of us because we all have a sinful nature and we all need to understand that, you know, God has given us blessings. He's given us food, drink, clothing, a roof over our head. He's given you a wife. He's given you a husband. He's given you children. Don't get greedy. Don't get greedy and get excessive. Just be happy with what you have. Be content and don't go too far. Just say, you know what, this is enough for me. I'm happy. This is good. This is enough. Not like, no, I got to have more. I got to keep going. And you say, well, ambition's good. You know, that's the wrong kind of ambition. How much you can drink, how much you can eat, how much you can party, how much money you can pile up that you don't need, that you don't even have room for. You have to build another barn because you can't. You know, it's like, oh man, the FDIC will only insure my bank account up to $100,000. You know, what do I do? I know what I'll do. Open 10 more bank accounts. I'll open bank accounts in the Cayman Islands. You know, it's just like, then I can just shelter it all over there. Folks, a man's life consists of not in the abundance of things which he possessed. If you want to get excessive about something, you want to go wild, you want to go crazy, go wild serving God. Go crazy serving God. You know, if you want to have ambition, how about getting ambitious about laying up treasures in heaven and not be like those lost Gentile examples of people who go to this excess of riot, excess of partying, excess of drinking, or the Jewish excess of money grabbing or whatever that we saw in the case of Miss Johansen. You know, we need to be moderate in the pleasures of life, thankful for every pleasure, but do it moderately. And don't sin. Because that's already, you're over the line when you're partaking in sinful things. You know, no amount of fornication is okay. No amount of adultery is okay. But you're allowed to have one wife. Marriage is honorable and all. The bed is undefiled. But Hormag is an adulterer. God will just be happy. It's enough. One wife, it's enough. You know, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, that's enough. Right? Eating one serving, one helping, you know, it's enough. Don't go too far, don't go too crazy. And the Bible says in this story, I'll pull down my barns and build greater. There will I bestow all my fruits and goods. And I'll say to my soul, soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years. You've got 165 million dollars. Take thine ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. That's the lesson to the greedy. That God can take everything away. He's like, oh, I only got 20 million dollars. You know, she's just lucky to be alive right now because God could just go like. You know, she should be thankful that she's even alive, that God is even giving her life and allowing her to breathe. Because here's the thing, when she dies, she cannot take any of that 165 million with her. She's not going to be able to take any of the money with her. You know, and so if she doesn't get saved, if she doesn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, her whole life is a waste anyway. And money doesn't buy you anything after you're dead. And so we don't want to fall into the same trap of being like unto the heathen and laying up treasures and being obsessed with these things. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for these examples in the word, Lord, and I pray that every single person here would watch out for this, Lord, and would catch themselves being excessive and going overboard and that they would catch themselves getting greedy and taking too much, Lord. Help us to take what is due unto us. Help us to take a portion like you gave the children in the wilderness, a portion of manna, you know, one omer for every man. Help us to just take that amount that you've allotted and not go out and try to gather extra manna and load up and gorge on too much of a good thing, Lord. Help us not to be excessive and not to be greedy, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Take your hymnals, please, and we'll turn to number 410. Faith is the victory, hymn number 410. Camp Along the Hills of Light, ye Christian soldiers rise, hymn number 410. Sing it out on this first verse together now. And camp along the hills of light, ye Christian soldiers rise, and press the battle air, let life shall bail the rolling skies. Against the cold air, gales we blow, let all our strength be heard. Faith is the victory, we know, that overcomes the world. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, O glorious victory, that overcomes the world. His banner over us is love, our sword the word of God. We tread the road, the saints of all, we shout so triumph draw. By faith they like a world with friends, but don't for every feel. The faith by which they conquered death is still our shining shield. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, O glorious victory, that overcomes the world. On every hand the foe we find, drawn up in dread array. Let tensile needs be left behind, and onward to the fray. Salvation's helmet on each hand, which truth all gird about. The earth shall tremble, leave us dread, and echo with our shout. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, O glorious victory, that overcomes the world. To him that overcomes the world, white rain we shall begin. Before the angels he shall know, his name confess in heaven. Then onward from the hills of light, our hearts will love a flame. We'll relinquish all the hosts of night, in Jesus' conquering name. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, O glorious victory, that overcomes the world. You are dismissed. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, O glorious victory, that overcomes the world. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, O glorious victory, that overcomes the world. Thank you.