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Men, the title of my sermon this morning is Poor Little Rich Girl, Poor Little Rich Girl. The dictionary definition of this expression is a wealthy young person whose money brings them no contentment, often used as an expression of mock sympathy. Now today we live in a generation of spoiled brats where people don't realize how good they have it and so all they can do is just complain about what they don't have and how they don't have what someone else has. There's just a lot of complaining and whining and really just a lack of thankfulness and contentment for how good we have it today in 21st century America. We really live like kings compared to how people have lived throughout history and how people live in many other parts of the world. If you would, turn to the book of Numbers chapter 21. Numbers chapter 21, the Bible tells us to give thanks unto the Lord and to be content with such things as we have and that we should not covet. It's one of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not covet, which is desiring things that don't belong to you. But so many people today who have so many blessings and especially young people, because remember the title of the sermon is called Poor Little Rich Girl. Even young people, teenagers, maybe young 20s or whatever, but growing up in a Christian home in a prosperous nation, they have all these blessings, all these benefits, everything handed to them and yet they're unhappy, they're miserable because they've not learned in whatsoever state they're in to be content. Now look what the Bible says in Numbers chapter 21 verse 4, and they journeyed from Mount Hore by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. So basically in verse 4 they have to go around Edom. They're not going to go through Edom, they have to go around, which is what it means when it says that they have to compass Edom, and then it says that their soul was much discouraged because of the way. So it's a more difficult route. It would have been easier just to kind of cruise through Edom, but they have to go through some rough territory and some difficult hiking as they go around. And it says in verse 5, the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loathest this light bread. Now wait a minute, excuse me, say that again slowly. There's no bread. Man we hate this light bread. Which one is it? But you see, this is people, they're so focused on the fact that the food that they have is not the food that they like, that now it's just like, we don't have anything, there's nothing to eat mom. Well what about the dinner I made? Well I'm not hungry for that, right? And I mean you can understand that human nature has not changed thousands of years later in the Word of God, the children of Israel are complaining and saying that they have no food. And they're actually saying that they're going to go hungry, but really it's just because they don't have the food that they prefer. You know, where's Marie Antoinette when you need her to tell them, hey, let them eat cake if they have no bread. You know, let them eat manna. Eat what you've got. But today this is a picture of human nature that is on display every single day, today, back then, it's just life. And look what the Bible says, this is how God feels about this. Verse 6, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died. He's going to give them something to complain about. Like, oh you don't like the style of bread that I gave you from heaven, well here's some fiery serpents to bite you. And so we need to take a lesson from this, the Bible specifically talks about this period in the wilderness and says that these things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. And so when we read the Old Testament, we shouldn't just sit back and think, oh man, these bozos, of course, you know, typical Israel, God's got to keep punishing them. And then we turn around and complain because we don't have the exact food that we want, we don't have the exact clothes that we want, we don't have the exact drink that we want, we don't have the exact vehicle that we want. Meanwhile, someone else has no vehicle, no food, no drink, no clothes, and here we are living in the lap of luxury, but often we don't even appreciate it because we're spoiled today and we need to be thankful for everything that God has given us. Go if you would to Numbers chapter 11, just go back a few pages to chapter 11. The Bible says in verse number 1, and when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. When you complain about what you have and the food that you have and the life that you have, when you complain, it displeases the Lord. And you know, I wonder how many children there are today, how many teenagers there are today that are murmuring, hopefully not against God, but they're often murmuring against Moses. They're often murmuring against dad or mom about how it isn't fair and they don't have what they want, they don't have the gas jeans or the jean skirt or the, you know, they don't get to have this food or drink or toy or bike or whatever. You know, we need to be thankful for what we have because when you complain, it displeases the Lord. And what you have to understand is that God is the one that controls our destiny. God holds our fate in his hand. And if he hears you complaining and he gets displeased, you think he's going to make things better for you or worse? I mean, if things are going good for you and he looks down and sees you complaining about things when they're going good, you know what he's going to do? He's going to give you something to complain about and he'll show you what it can be like. Because how do we learn in whatsoever state we're in to be content? Well, the Apostle Paul learned it by going to some rough places. And if you're unthankful when times are good, God will often have to take you to some dark places just in order to teach you to appreciate the things that you have. Because if you've never gone through anything hard in life, it's like you have no reference point. You can't compare anything. You can't do like skipping a meal is the end of the world or, you know, having the wrong meal is the end of the world. Whereas if you actually went hungry for a few days, you'd realize, hey, that's nothing. That's no big deal. I'm just thankful that I have something to eat. Because it's all relative. And so God has blessed our country with prosperity. God has blessed us individually with prosperity, uh, you know, as Christians because as we serve God as parents, then our kids grow up in prosperity because we serve God and so God blessed us. But they need to understand that this is a blessing from God and that not everyone has these blessings and that there are people in other places, at other times, in other situations that are suffering, that are struggling and that would love to have the life that you complain about constantly. They would love to be in your situation because there are a lot of people out there who have it worse off. Jump down to verse 18 of Numbers 11 there. Numbers chapter 11 verse 18, and say thou unto the people, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow and ye shall eat flesh for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord saying, who shall give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give you flesh and you shall eat. You should not eat one day nor two days nor five days, neither ten days nor twenty days, but even a whole month until it come out of your nostrils and it be loathsome unto you because you've despised the Lord which is among you and have wept before him saying, why came we forth out of Egypt? And Moses said, the people among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen and thou has said, I will give them flesh that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice them? And the Lord said unto Moses, is the Lord's hand waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass under thee or not. So get the picture. The children of Israel, it's not that they don't have any food to eat, it's not that they're starving, but it's that they have to eat a meatless diet. They're having to eat manna and they want to eat meat. So they're saying, give us flesh to eat and God gets angry and he says, I'm going to give you so much meat to eat. You're going to be eating it until it's coming out of your nostrils for a whole month. Now Moses, the great man of faith, the great leader, the godly one who's kind of the intercessor, you know, here where he kind of goes back and forth between God and the people. Even he's like, whoa God, wait a minute, you know, it kind of reminds me of when Peter takes Jesus aside and starts to rebuke Jesus. You know, Moses starts to tell him like, okay, whoa, hold it. I know you parted the Red Sea. I know you've done these miracles. I know you're raining manna from heaven for us to eat on a daily basis, but what you've said is impossible. Where is all this meat going to come from? Is every fish in the entire ocean going to be killed to feed the meat? And then of course God tells him, you know, I have the power to do anything basically. My hand is not waxed. I can make this happen. And of course it does happen. Now go to Psalm 78. Psalm 78 is a psalm that looks back on this story and retells this story from the book of Numbers. Some of the best commentary on these Old Testament Bible stories is in the book of Psalms when Psalms will retell stories about the wilderness and Moses and various events from the children of Israel's history. So it says in Psalm 78 verse 15, he claved the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great depths. So the drink that he gave them was ice cold. It was like coming from a really deep protected artesian well in Iceland or something, right? And so it's like it came from the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers and they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most high in the wilderness and they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea they spake against God. They said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Now here's the thing about this. You know we today in America eat an incredible amount of meat. I mean we eat meat every single day. If not with every meal almost, but we eat meat every single day. It's probably rare for anybody in this room to go more than a day or two without meat and that probably never even happens. They probably just eat meat every single day. But you know throughout history this has not necessarily been the case. In many other parts of the world that is not necessarily the case that everybody is able to just gorge on incredible amounts of meat. And I'm not saying it's not a blessing. It's nice to be able to get all that wonderful animal protein goodness, but the point is that if times get tough and you have to reduce the meat in your diet because times are tough, you know what? That's okay. You'll be okay. You don't just have to have just the fatted calf every single day. Like you're just, I mean we in America, we're killing the fatted calf every day. I mean we are just dining on all of this flesh constantly until it is coming out of our nostrils. But let me tell you something. If times get tight and maybe your parents have to serve you some rice and beans and you have to eat some bean and rice burritos and tostadas and maybe a lot of mashed potatoes or rice to kind of stretch things out, you know what? Don't complain about that. You know there are kids in this world who would love to have that peanut butter and jelly sandwich that you're eating. They would love to have that vegetarian meal that's being served. They would love to just feast on as much rice. You know there are people in North Korea right now that would just love to just have an unlimited supply of rice to chow on. They'd love it. But today in America, we've just taken this for granted. We must have these incredible amounts of luxury food items and meats and drinks and all these things. You know you could literally go the rest of your life just only drinking water with every meal. Think about it. I mean you could literally live to be a happy elderly 90 some year old and never drink another drink besides water for the rest of your life and you'd be okay. You'd live. You'd survive. This is not an essential part of your diet that you must have the sodas and the juice and the milk and the Kool-Aid and everything else. Now look I love milk. Milk does a body good. You know I drink a lot of milk. Okay I got to be careful you know now that I'm older because it makes me gain weight. But like I you know if I had my way, my heart's lust were satisfied, I would drink two pints of milk with every meal. Three meals a day. I don't care what the meal is. I don't care if it's pizza, burgers. I don't care. Like give me milk with every single meal. I love it. But here's the thing about that though, I understand it's a luxury, it's a privilege and I have to be careful of it because the thing about milk is that you grow thereby. You know this is seer milk of the word that you may grow thereby. So when you're a child it's good because you need to grow this way but you may grow thereby this way. So I got to watch out. So I've had to really tone down my milk consumption. But the point is I could, look I've been to South America and talked to people. I asked this lady at the grocery store because the grocery store didn't even sell milk and we were in the American style grocery store. Not even where the locals would shop. This is where visitors would shop, rich people would shop, the American style grocery store in Georgetown, Guyana and there's no milk. They had a big sign and I tell somebody that's in the missions group, I said hey I'm telling you right now I've been here before, there's no milk. Don't bother looking. There's no milk. And he's like Pastor Anderson it says right there, milk. I said okay go look what's over there and go see what that is because I said it's not going to be milk. And of course he went over there and it's almond milk which is another word for water, okay, colored water, almond milk, soy milk or whatever. The first day I poured some of that almond milk or soy milk on my cereal and I was just like this is water. And so for the whole rest of the trip I just poured water on my cereal every day. And you say man you were really suffering for Jesus. No I wasn't because you know would I rather have milk on my cereal? Absolutely but you know what it's not going to kill me to put a little water on my cereal and I don't even need to eat cereal. What we usually did for breakfast was we just went to some vendor and ate some Hindu food you know that was made at a little booth, at a little stand and then we brushed our teeth with Hindu toothpaste, amen? No I'm just kidding. That's another story, inside joke that a lot of people apparently get, okay. It wasn't toothpaste sacrificed unto idols, don't worry. So anyway let's get back into the story. But oh yeah you know what I totally lost track of where I was even going with that story. In the grocery store I asked the lady behind the counter when was the last time you had a glass of milk? She said it's been about 18 to 20 years since I've had a glass of milk. She said you can get milk in Guyana but you have to go to like a farmer who will just get it out of the cow and give it to you. But you know it's not sold anywhere, it's not sold in the store, it's just you'd have to go to like a farmer who is milking a goat or a cow or whatever. She hadn't had a glass of milk in 20 years but we just take for granted just the unlimited supply of these things. You know all the fun drinks and you know those fun drinks are expensive. You got to eat, you buy your food, the fun drink adds several dollars. You know maybe your parents might be a little tight financially, maybe the economy might tighten up at some point. Who knows right? I'm just preparing you for whatever you have to face in life. Hey you know what? It's not going to kill you to eat a vegetarian diet not out of some weird conviction or something but just because you can't afford meat or you can't afford these things. You know sometimes you have to just eat what's there and just be thankful that God gave you your daily filet mignon. Is that what you pray every day? Lord give us this day our daily lobster. Lord give us this day our daily chicken, our daily mashed potatoes and gravy and corn and fried chicken and turkey dinner. No it's give us this day our daily bread. If God's given you bread and water, he has done what he promised to do. And by the way you say well that's just not healthy. I want to be paleo. I want to eat more meat and dairy. Okay but here's the thing about that. Hey I'm for eating animal products. I'm for it. But let me say this though that you know God was able to work in the life of Daniel, Shadrach, and Abednego where even when they did have to buckle down and eat some less savory foods and they had to just eat beans and lentils and things like that, you know what? God made them actually healthier than the people who were chowing on the good stuff. You know what I'm saying is that you could eat all the healthiest foods and have the perfect diet. God could snap his fingers and you could have cancer tomorrow because he just afflicts you with that. Or you could eat whatever's in front of you. I'm not saying to go out and choose an unhealthy diet. But if you eat what you've got and it's all you've got and it's all you have, you know God can still bless that if you pray for your food. It's sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. And so I'm not saying to eat junk food but I'm saying that if you need to eat the beans and the rice and the lentils and you can't afford the expensive sources of protein, you know what? You're going to be okay. You're going to survive. God can even bless you and give you good health and we need to stop complaining about our food. It says in Psalm 78 verse 19, yea they spake against God, they said can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the Lord heard this and was wrath. Wrath means angry or filled with wrath. He was wrought so a fire was kindled against Jacob. Jacob is another name for Israel. And anger also came up against Israel because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation though he had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them of the corn of heaven. Manna did eat angel's food. He sent them meat to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven and by his power he brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as dust and feathered fowl like as the sand of the sea. Now look, I don't know exactly what God did here in this scripture but personally I don't even believe that God actually just created necessarily a bunch of extra birds. I mean maybe he did. I don't know. But what the Bible actually says that he did was that he brought winds and basically just blew all of these birds into the camp where they could be eaten by the children of Israel. He basically just brought in birds. Because think about Moses' statement, you know, so we're going to kill all the fish in the whole sea so that everybody can have enough to eat. But here's the thing, Moses is underestimating how many fish really are in the sea. Because think about it, you would only have to kill a very, you know, and there's 600,000 grown men, footmen, soldiers, and their families, so we're talking about a few million people. So how much meat is it really going to take to feed a couple million people for 30 days? Couple million people, 30 days. That's a lot of food, right? But guess what? Phoenix has like almost 5 million people in the surrounding area. So how much food comes in over the course of 30 days into our city? Was the entire ocean drained of fish? Was the entire world emptied of birds in order to make this happen just last month alone? In fact, it would be two weeks for us because we have more than twice as many people probably as the children of Israel. We don't know how many they had. But let's say, let's say twice as many people live in Phoenix. So in 15 days are we just draining the ocean of its fish, draining the airs of their poultry and their wildlife? No. No, see, we make problems out to be bigger than they are. And I'm not saying they didn't have a big problem, they did, but you know what? We blow it up and make it even bigger and God can easily just, he just goes like this and just fixes it. Just literally just by blowing birds into the camp that were already there. I don't even believe that he had to cause these to come into existence. Maybe he did. I don't know. I'm not claiming to know the exact mechanism here. But going by what the Bible says, it says that the wind blew in these birds. And so we need to understand that first of all, they didn't even have a problem in the sense that I guarantee you that all of their essential amino acids were found in that manna. I promise you that. You know, whatever amino acids they needed, essential fatty acids that they needed, I guarantee you that they were getting their omega-3 and omega-6, you know, it was all there in that manna because God's giving them a complete food, but it just wasn't a party in their mouth. Now when they first ate it, it was a party in their mouth, but after eating it over and over again, they didn't like it anymore. And so they complain and they whine and God's angry. So God says, okay, fine, you want flesh to eat, I'll send you so much flesh just to show my power, just to show my glory. I will bring so much meat that you'll have so much that you will eat it and eat it and it'll be all you can eat and it'll come out your noses and you still won't be able to eat all the quails that I bring to you to eat. Now you know, today we think about all you can eat. If you think about it, we kind of just live an all you can eat life, if you think about it. Because I remember when I was a kid, going to an all you can eat restaurant was a big deal. You know, those of you that are older, those of you that are my age or older than me, and I'm not that old, friend, I know I turned 40, but I'm still not that old, and here's the thing about it, you know, even in my day, back in my day, let me tell you something, back in my day, there were no free refills, not even at Taco Bell, not even at Burger King. Some of you are like, what kind of an archaic, other dispensation, what? Who remembers when there were no free refills at these restaurants? All over the building? Yeah. I mean, it used to be, I remember, I think it was like Arby's or I don't remember where, but at a certain restaurant, it was like 25 cents for a refill, but if it was root beer, it was a 50 cent refill, and it was still just coming out of the fountain. Same deal, 50 cent refills. There are no free refills, okay, and here's the thing, you know, we would go to fast food, we never, never, as kids going to fast food, we never ate as much as we wanted, never. We never ate like everything we wanted, and then just said like, oh, I'm full, I can't do anymore. Didn't happen. Did not exist. Okay, now maybe in your house it did, you spoiled brat, but in my house, I mean, we would go out to eat, and it was like, you were allowed to get, you know, you go to Taco Bell, it's like you can get three tacos or something, or two burritos, you know, and your kid, your teenager, you got a big appetite, and then it's like once you got your own job and you started having your own money, you kind of explored that hedonistic lifestyle of just going to Taco Bell and ordering whatever you wanted. You know, I remember my brother one time, took me to Taco Bell and he said, we're just going to indulge in hedonism by ordering whatever we want from Taco Bell, and he said, we're going to order everything that we were never allowed to order growing up. These exotic items, because we were only allowed to order off that menu that was $59.79.99. Okay, that's what little Richard told us to order on the commercial, and that's what we were supposed to order, it's like $59.79.99, and I don't even think we were allowed to mess with the 99. It was more like, stick to the 59. That's the way it was in our house, so we'd go down there, and we'd, you know, you order a couple tacos, maybe three tacos or something, you ate it, and then, you know, you started looking at other people who weren't finishing their food or something, and you're like, hey, are you going to finish that? And you'd start kind of grazing off other people's plates, okay. And the thing is, you know, me and my brother, I remember my brother and I, we went to drive through at this Taco Bell, and he spent like $9 or something at Taco Bell back then, and he had like enchiridos, like these exotic items that we would have never touched, Mexican pizza, enchirido, Mexican pizza, just nachos Belgrande, you know, just all of these wild things that cost like $1.50, $2.15 or something for one item, okay. And we're just like, we're just indulging on it and just, oh man, you know. And you know what, the reason that it was funny, the reason that we enjoyed it, the reason I'm still talking about it 25 years later, the reason that it's even remembered is because you didn't normally do that. And when you were brought by your parents to an all-you-can-eat restaurant, it was like, wow, we can eat as much as we want. You just would go crazy and party, and it was like, whoa, man, there's so much food. Because that wasn't just the norm. But today's kids today, it's like they want to do that at every single meal. And if they don't, you know, God forbid that they would ever have to go a little short or order off the 59-cent menu or whatever, I don't even know if that even exists anymore. How much is a taco at Taco Bell these days? Just a basic taco, just the King James version taco, how much is it? Dollar twenty? Can I get a witness? How much? Okay, so yeah, so it could be anywhere from like a buck twenty to a buck fifty today, you know. Back then it was fifty-nine cents, okay. But the point is, I guarantee you, the enchirito and the Mexican pizza are costing more than that if they still exist, okay. The point is, we today live in just this all-you-can-eat society where kids just take this for granted. Of course I eat till I'm sick at every meal. Of course I get as much as I want. Of course there's meat at every meal. You know, how dare you tell me what to order. I can order whatever I want. You know, when I was a kid it was like, get what's on sale. You get whatever the window had, a big lettering, that's what you're getting. You get what's on sale. If I had a nickel for every time I was told by my parents, get what's on sale, I would be a wealthy man. I'd have a net worth of like five million dollars, okay. If I were, if I had a nickel for every time, you know, I was told that. Alright, back to the sermon here. He rained flesh also upon them as dust and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea. Verse twenty-eight. And he let it fall in the midst of their camp round about their habitations so they did eat and were filled for he gave them their own desire. They were not estranged from their lust, but while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all this they sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works, therefore their days did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble. I'm going to skip some stuff for the sake of time, but jump to First Corinthians chapter four. First Corinthians chapter four in the New Testament. What's the sermon about? Poor little rich girl. You know, you're so, you're so sad and, and afflicted and abused and it's so terrible because you just, your life is just so depressing and you know, it's like what kind of a society do we live in? You got a bunch of teenagers wearing all black and getting all gloomy and they can get literally whatever they want at Taco Bell and wash it down with an extra giant size whatever. Meanwhile, you know, kids are starving somewhere in India or Africa or something and it's like you're sitting here and whining and complaining about my parents don't understand me. It's like they put a roof over your head. They're feeding you. They're getting you this education. You know, everybody here is learning how to read. You're learning, you know, other kids, you know, we, we had our kids watch this program on YouTube, okay, a few years ago and this was a pretty good program. It was called the most dangerous ways to school. Who knows what I'm talking about? Who's seen it? Okay, so about 10, couple of you guys are excited, you're like, yeah, yeah, so you know, most dangerous ways to school. So we had our kids watch this because we wanted them to understand like how good they have it, how good their life is. So it's this little documentary show called most dangerous ways to school and it goes all over the world and it shows what route these kids have to take to get to school and they're literally like climbing down a cliff and they're having to like go across these rope bridges and stuff where it just looks like they could fall off. They're having to like hike for miles and miles, climbing mountains and go through all this or go through all these dangers or they're, they're, they're in the snow among the Eskimos and trying to get there. They're in the Philippines, you know, Africa, Asia, all over the place. And then they're interviewing these kids and they're, you know, like, uh, I love going to school because there's always something to eat there, you know, because it's like the school like gave them a bowl of whatever. And it's not an enchirito when they get there, it's some bowl of whatever. It's the, it's the rice and beans, but they're just glad that they could have a big bowl of rice and beans and, and, and get the food. And, and the main thing is that they're saying like, well, we have to go to school because our parents don't know how to read and write. And this is the only way that we can learn how to read and write is to get to this school so that we can somehow get out of poverty. We can learn stuff, we can get skills so we can get a better job and pull our family out of poverty. You know, we wanted our kids to see that because they need to understand that today we've got a bunch of depressed young people, depressed children, depressed teenagers, a bunch of goths and emos feeling sorry for themselves, living in the most prosperous nation in the world at the most prosperous time in the world. And it's just like, oh, poor us. Your parents are putting a roof over your head. You're being fed. You've got something to drink. You got clean water. I mean, the water I drink is out of the great depths too. And we drink that water and we eat that food and we're educated and we have access to books and education and learning and everybody's learning how to read and write and do math and we can go out and make a living and gain skills and do all these things. You know, we ought to be thankful every single day for the blessings that we have, lest God be forced to show us what life can really be like. And he's not going to show you a YouTube video called Dangerous Ways to School. He's going to put you in that dangerous situation. He'll put you in that, you know, it's a lot better to just watch the video and say, okay, I get it. I'm blessed. Then for God to have to put you inside that video and you be crossing some treacherous wasteland with poisonous snakes everywhere and, and you know, and they're even talking about, oh, people died and stuff, you know, but here we are. We're so afflicted here in America, aren't we? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 8, this is the apostle Paul speaking to the Corinthians and he's giving them a similar type message. He says in verse 8, now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us and I would to God ye did reign that we might also reign with you. For I think that God had set forth us, the apostles, last as it were appointed to death for we have made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men. We're fools for Christ's sake, but you're wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. You're honorable, but we are despised even under this present hour. We both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. Now look, here's the apostle Paul. He's serving God. He's with his fellow apostle and it says that even to this present hour, he's saying literally as I'm writing this letter, I'm writing this letter to you, this is the kind of stuff I'm dealing with while I write the letter. He said, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. I mean, how do you like that? You say, well, you know, why would the apostle Paul go naked? What's he doing naked? He's not some kind of a nudist, my friend. When he says we're naked, he's saying that they've been stripped of their clothing. This is not a willing thing. This isn't a choice like, you know, I think I'm just going to go with no clothes. No, he doesn't have any clothes. And you say, well, how could the apostle Paul ever get in a situation where he doesn't have clothes? Well, you know, a couple of ways to explain this. Number one would be it's possible that he means that he's relatively naked, meaning that he does not have sufficient clothing, meaning that he's cold and he doesn't have what he needs. And so he is lacking clothing, maybe not a full-blown nakedness, but a relative nakedness. Okay. Or it's likely that he could even be referring to a literal nakedness because guess what happens when you go to jail, when you go to prison, you could often be stripped of your clothing as a punishment. And you know, you could read the Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and he talks about many situations in Soviet prisons where the prisoners were forced to be naked or forced to go naked. And when they complained, they were told by the jail guard that the prison was their clothing, you know, the walls of the prison. That's your clothes. Okay. So, you know, however you want to take this, he doesn't have the clothing he needs. You know, he's suffering from a lack of the right clothes, whatever level you want to take that. We're buffeted. That means actually being hit or punched or smitten and he says we have no certain dwelling place. So he doesn't know for sure where is he going to stay that night. You know, we all today have a certain dwelling place or at least 99% of us have a certain dwelling place where we know that our bed's waiting for us and think about what a blessing it is that we can go home to our houses and it's climate controlled and the bed is there and we have locks on all the doors and look, I go to bed every night and you know what I never think about? I never think about somebody's going to break in here. Somebody's going to come get me. I'm not safe here. No, it's like you go in the house, you shut the door, you lock it, you go to bed and you just don't even worry about it. You know you're safe because the chances of something happening are so remote. It's a tiny chance that anyone would ever try to break in or harm you in any way and then even then most of us, you know, God has provided us with the means to have the arsenal that we need in a situation like that. But you know, even when I was young and newly married and poor and couldn't afford a sword or I couldn't buy a weapon, I didn't have a gun when I was first married, I had a baseball bat next to the bed and it was like hey, something weird happens in the middle of the night, you reach for that baseball bat and you got something. But the point is you're never even going to have to use it, okay? You know, I'm 40 years old, I've never had to use anything like that and I probably never will, I will probably go to the grave without ever having to swing a baseball bat at anyone or shoot a gun at anyone ever because we are so safe here. And so we live in all this safety and security and comfort and we have the right temperature and we have a nice bed but it's not the sleep number that we want. Well poor you. Don't you dare complain about your situation when God has blessed you so greatly. Then verse 12, and labor, working with our own hands. You know, God forbid that you'd have to do some manual labor. I need a desk job, office job. You know what, God forbid you'd have to get out there and work with your hands. You know, the Apostle Paul's a real educated guy, very intelligent, highly skilled, but you know what, sometimes he ended up doing just manual labor. He did what he needed to do, he worked with his hands if that's what it took. Being reviled we bless, being persecuted we suffer it, being defamed we entreat. We're made as the filth of the world and are the off scouring of all things unto this day. I write not these things to you to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I've begotten you through the gospel, wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me. Look, be like me guys. Look at the stuff I'm going through, okay. I'm going through this stuff and I'm still serving God, I still love God, I've learned whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content, I'm not bitter, I'm not mad at God, I'm not mad at my parents, I'm not mad at Moses, I'm not mad at, look, I'm just going through life rejoicing in the good things that I have because even if I have no certain dwelling place I know that my God shall supply all of my needs, according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, 2 Corinthians chapter 11. The goal of this sermon is to give you some perspective on your life. It's easy to complain and get bitter and, you know, you're mad at your parents or whatever. You know, are your parents feeding you? You know, there are other people, they just wish that their parents could provide them with the right food and provide them with clothes and provide them with a roof over their head, but, you know, like your parents' rules or whatever. You know what? There's always someone who's got it way worse than you, so just suck it up buttercup and just deal with it. 2 Corinthians 11, 23, are they ministers of Christ? This is the Apostle Paul speaking, I speak as a fool. I'm more in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one, thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I've been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, beside those things which are without, that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak and I'm not weak? Who is offended and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities. And so we see here this litany of horrible things that the Apostle Paul has been through, I mean five times he was beaten with forty stripes save one. So five times he got whipped thirty-nine times on five occasions. Thirty-nine lashings, five different occasions. Three times he was beaten with rods, he was stoned. Now here's the thing about getting stoned, you die. You get stoned to death. They throw stones at you till you're dead but they end up thinking that he's dead. I mean that must have been bad. I mean imagine getting stoned but you survive. And then you gotta get up out of that pile of stones and stumble home. I mean think about that. That's pretty bad. Not to mention the beatings and the floggings but then we today want a Christianity that costs us nothing. We want to serve God but we don't want to pay anything. We don't want to make any sacrifice. We don't even want to have the slightest convenience. We can't even be troubled to even just get our carcass to church or just get out soul winning for an hour or just get out and do something for God to witness to someone. It's just like, what, hold on a minute. These guys are going through a lot and we, it's like we can't skip a single meal. We can't skip a single soda. We can't even just go one night where we don't know where we're going to stay. You know you look at Jesus' ministry and you read about his acts and we see him preaching and teaching in the daytime and then many times he just goes up in the mountains at night and that's where he stays. He's going, he's just camping. And I guarantee you he didn't have some REI set up. He's not, you know, he's not going up in the mountains and he, you know, hey Peter, inflate the air mattress. And then he pulls out the little Jetboil, you know, and he gets out like his, his nine dollar MRE or whatever from REI and he rehydrates his steak and potato dinner in a blue sack. You know, and then he gets inside of his zero degree sleeping bag, mummy pack, pulls it all around his face and everything, gets in there, right, wake up in the morning, get out the Jetboil, you know, he's brewing his morning coffee, scrambled eggs and bacon are on the fire, cast iron. You think that that's what he's doing up in the mountains or do you think he probably just had his coat, you know, because he did have a nice coat. We know, you know, remember they had to gamble over who got to keep the coat. And so he's, you know, he's pretty much got his coat and just bundles up in his coat and goes to sleep on the ground. That's pretty much what happened. Or maybe lay down some branches or something, you know, like some kind of a Bear Grylls style set up or something. You know, lay down some branches and lay on them and go to sleep. You know, he didn't, it wasn't like, hey what, Peter, you know, I see you're making the bed there for the night with those branches, what's the sleep number? You know, that was not a question that came into mind. He's dwelling in the mountains, he's dwelling outside. You know, we're not being asked to sleep outside, but you know what, if God does ask us to sleep outside at some point, you know what we need to do? We need to just sleep outside and just be okay with that and if we have to skip meals or eat something nasty or whatever, you know what, we need to be willing to make some sacrifices to serve God. You know, we all love the Apostle Paul. We all think he's a great man of God, he's our hero, but then it's like we don't even want to lift a finger to do what he did. We don't, you know, these burdens that he carried, we won't even touch them with our little finger. And I'm not trying to, as the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4, 14, I'm not trying to shame you. When Paul said these things to him, he said, uh, I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. He's saying, look, I'm not trying to make you feel bad because you never slept outside or you never skipped a meal or whatever, but I'm just warning you that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but out of them all the Lord delivers him. You're going to go through hard things in your life. You might come to a point, kids, where your parents get low on money and you might have to start reliving Pastor Anderson's childhood when you go to fast food. Or you might, you know, you might have to eat smaller portions or eat some vegetarian meals or whatever because that's what your parents can afford. You may have to drink water with every meal. And you know what you need to understand is that you're still blessed. God's still taking care of you and that having food and raiment, we should be there with content. It should be enough for us. Now lastly let's go to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3. The Bible says in verse 14 of Revelation 3, and the angel of the church of the Laodiceans writes, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou work cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and know it's not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent. Now back up, notice what he says in verse 17. Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and know it's not that thou are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. You know it's possible to have all of these abundances that we have today in America. And the reason that you're still sad and miserable and poor and feeling sorry for yourself, the poor little rich girl, it's because you have a spiritual problem, that's why. When you have all this abundance you should be happy, you should be rejoicing, you should be thanking God, you should be content, but if you are wretched, miserable, poor and blind and naked it's because you are not focused on the right things. Because you know what, at the end of the day there's a reason where this expression came from poor little rich girl and I'll read for you again the definition, this is actually a different definition, but go to Proverbs 15. Here's another definition I found in a different dictionary, a sarcastic and unsympathetic label for someone, especially a young person who has access to vast wealth but is discontent at a spiritual or existential level. And so the bottom line is that having access to vast wealth, having an all you can eat lifestyle, being able to eat and drink and have all of these comforts and luxuries and conveniences you say, well that doesn't make me happy. Of course it doesn't make you happy because it's never going to make anybody happy. Happiness is the Lord, right? The joy of the Lord is your strength. And so I'm telling you to be happy because you have all these blessings. Not because those blessings are the source of happiness, but because those blessings are a gift from God and if you realize, hey, God is taking care of me, God is blessing me, having food and raiment let us be there with content. But the Bible also says, be content with such things as you have for he had said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. If we have the Lord, if we have salvation, if we have Christ, that's how we can be happy laying out in the wilderness like Jesus, sitting in a prison cell like the Apostle Paul because our happiness comes from Christ, our happiness comes from the Lord. So quit complaining and being down about how you don't have enough food to eat or your parents have too many rules or oh, you know, I didn't get the clothes that I wanted. You know, instead of complaining and whining about those things, be thankful for what you have and find meaning in your life in the Lord. You know, think about the children of Israel, you know, would you want to be the children of Israel for those 40 years in the wilderness? You know, would you want to be there? Now here's the thing about that question. Would you want to be there? Would you want to do that? Now on the one hand, you're only going to eat one kind of food, manna, you're going to have to eat manna and manna and more manna and it talks about how they tried to find different ways to cook it. They're grinding it up, they're baking it, they're, you know, they're trying to figure out all the different ways, you know, they're selling cookbooks of 100 recipes with manna, one ingredient cookies or whatever. So basically on the one hand, yeah, they had to go through some hard times, they had to hike through the wilderness, they had to keep moving, they didn't really necessarily have a certain dwelling place, they have to eat the manna and drink the water of the rock, but hold on a second, they also got to see these incredible miracles and they also got to be around Moses and be around Joshua and be around Caleb and they're seeing God do all these amazing things, the miracles, I mean, you know, they're at Mount Sinai, they hear the voice of God audibly, I mean, it's pretty amazing. And so we need to stop focusing so much on what we wish we had physically and, you know, I just wish I had this gaming console or this food or this clothing or this, you know, whatever and stop and realize the spiritual things that are around us. You know, we've got the Bible right there, we've got the King James Bible right there and it's like, oh, I'm bored, oh, my life's so boring, nothing exciting ever happens, oh, oh, you know, but we've got the Bible right there. We got church, we got soul winning, we got all these things, it's like, why don't you find some excitement serving God, and let me tell you something, serving God with your life's not a boring life. You know, say whatever you want about my life, but it hasn't been boring. It has not been boring, my life is not boring. Could be, you know, even someone such as myself, you know, there are times when I could get down in the mouth and feel sorry for myself about things that are going wrong in my life or things that have gone wrong in my life, I could feel sorry for myself just like you. I have problems just like you, I go through stuff just like you. You know, I could do the same thing, but I choose rather to look at the spiritual side and think about all the blessings and find my enjoyment in the Lord. Look at Proverbs chapter 15 verse 15, it says this, Proverbs 15, 15, all the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. You know, a person with the right attitude, a person who loves the Lord and they're walking in the Spirit and they're rejoicing in the things of God, every day is a feast to them no matter what they eat. Even if it's just PB&J, even if it's just bean and rice burritos, to them it's a party, it's a continual feast. A person who's got a good attitude, but then you have other people who you could put, I guarantee you these Hollywood celebrities and musicians, you could put some five-star meal in front of them and they'll probably just kind of pick at it, I'm not hungry, yeah. You know, meanwhile, just, you know, fry me up like three or four hot dogs and put ketchup on them, it's like, yeah! I mean, for me, like eating a patty melt, it just doesn't get any better than that. That's it. That's the climax right there, patty melt. You know, but for them, it's like, my filet mignon's not tender enough. Better is little, verse 16, with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. He's saying, I'd rather eat the vegetarian meal with love there than the stalled ox with hatred therewith, right? I mean, wouldn't you rather just eat anything but have love and joy and peace and all that. So here's what we need to understand. We've been blessed above measure today. You young people, you children, you are riding the coattails of parents who have loved God and served God and they brought you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They have provided you with abundance and God has blessed them because they served God. God blessed them and you are getting the runoff from that. You know, you're getting the residual blessings from that. You ought to thank God for that and you ought to figure out what it is that God wants you to do and the life that he wants you to live and get on God's program and serve God and love God and have a good attitude. Don't complain. Don't murmur. Be prepared to do without and go without and realize that happiness does not come from just having all of your wishes gratified. Just ask Hollywood. They're not happy. Those people are constantly going to rehab and shoplifting and taking drugs and getting drunk and weirdos. I mean, those people have issues. You know, I saw today in the news some weird thing about Britney Spears. She's like, because it turns out she's my exact age. She's my same age. She's 40 years. I'm 40 years old. She's 40 years old. And let me tell you the difference between me and Britney Spears. Britney Spears right now, I saw this thing on some kind of a newsfeed somewhere. It said that like she's just now getting released from her dad's custody or something. Like her dad has to be like her guardian for the last 13 years because she's just so crazy and weird and stupid and I guarantee you she started out as a normal person but just destroyed her life through drugs, alcohol, perversion, wickedness. She's lived this abomination of life and put out all this abominable music and then now she's 40 years old and she's like trying to be an adult and she's 40 and she's still like a child and then it's like she's some multi-millionaire but she was excited because she got her first iPad or something. It's like, what? What's wrong with you? I had an iPad a long time ago. You know, you're hitting these milestones at the wrong point. You're 40. It's like I got married when I was 19 and my dad didn't have to sign stuff for me last year when I was 39 and then I saw another thing that said now she's converted to Roman Catholicism. Oh good, now instead of going to hell number one, you go to hell number two. Folks you think those, and that's just one example because guess what, we could go down the list of all these celebrities just acting like complete idiots. Why? Because that's not what makes you happy. Happiness comes from the Lord. You're a wretched, miserable, poor, and blind and naked without the Lord whether you know it or not. You that are saved. You that are Christians. You're growing up in a Christian home. You live in America. Thank God every day for all the wonderful blessings. Quit coveting. Quit whining and if you get home today and your parents say, it's PB&Js, say thank you mom and dad. Thank you that this is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are good anyway. Let's probably just have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for all the blessings Lord. I pray that everybody here would realize how blessed they are Lord. I pray that every single person would just be content and thank you every day for their food and Lord even if they're served food that they don't like, even if it's a low quality food. Lord I pray that they would be thankful anyway just because it's nourishment to their body. And Lord help us never to get caught up in the materialism and greed of our society and stop focusing on spiritual things Lord. Help us to be thankful every day and to realize that there are a lot of people out there who have it a lot worse and to thank you and never get disgruntled with you or other people in our lives because we feel sorry for ourselves Lord. Help us to rejoice in you and in your blessings and in Jesus name we pray, Amen.