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

Hey man, so you're going to keep your place there in 2 Kings chapter 18. We're going to leave 2 Kings chapter 18 and come back to it towards the end of the sermon, but this is a story about the Assyrian siege of Samaria, which is the northern kingdom of Israel, as we are looking at a little bit at some of the things Hosea is warning about in Wednesday night's Bible study. But we see that the siege happens actually and the Assyrian empire actually takes away the northern kingdom of Israel and then they go to siege the lower kingdom of Judah as well. And this is Hezekiah, who is a good king. Hezekiah gets a little bit of a bad rap because there's kind of a couple things about him, but he's a good king in the Bible. He was a good king of the lower kingdom of Judah and he's under siege by the Assyrian empire. We're going to look at some things this morning about this story as the Assyrian king sends his messengers to Judah to try to convince the people to abandon not only Hezekiah, but abandon the Lord is really what they would be abandoning. So let me just give you the title of the sermon this morning, but I want you to keep your place and bookmark 2 Kings chapter 18 because we're not going to get to this story until the end. Tonight, or this morning, I'm sorry, we're going to talk about entitlement and the attitude of entitlement. Now you say, what is entitlement? Now when you think, when I say the word entitlement in this culture in our country today, most people think of things like, you know, people are going to think like, oh, this is an entitlement state, it's a welfare state. People will think about like federal entitlements, things that the government wants to give you, right? They'll think of things like, you know, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare itself. They'll think about just, you know, food stamps. They'll think about SSI, you know, payments to people. These are entitlements, common entitlements that people would think about when they hear the word entitlement. All right, but that's not really what the sermon is about this morning. The sermon this morning is about the dangers of having an entitlement attitude. All right, so it's not like I'm upset at you if, you know, you actually take or have taken some of the things that I listed here this morning, but what I want to talk about this morning are the spiritual dangers of developing an entitlement attitude. So what do I mean by that? Let's just look at the word entitlement and see what it means like. Just forget about all the entitlements and the politics of that just for a minute. The definition of entitlement is this, the belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment, and that's what I want to talk about this morning. I want to talk about the spiritual dangers of developing an attitude of entitlement. All right, so those things that I just listed off for you, you know, you say, well, you know, those are things that I have taken or I do take or whatever. I want to warn you. It gets my job as a pastor to teach the Bible to you, and one of the applications, the main applications of the Bible outside of the gospel in your Christian life is to warn you about the dangers of the things in the world against your spiritual life. All right, there is major danger here to developing an attitude of being entitled. All right, so this is a spiritual warning this morning. Using the Bible, I'm going to show you the warnings of becoming a person that is entitled, someone that deserves, believes that they are inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment above somebody else because not everybody gets entitlements. That's why they're entitlements. Okay, so look, this is a question. Are you entitled? You need to ask yourself this question this morning. Do you think in certain areas of your life that you deserve more than other people? And it is very spiritually dangerous to go down this path, and I'm going to give you five points from the Bible this morning that show you the dangers of not only, look, entitlements, taking an entitlement is one thing, but the danger of it is that you develop an entitlement mentality, that you become an entitled person. All right, so I'm going to give you five points this morning on the spiritual dangers of developing that type of attitude. The first one is this. It can make you proud. It can make you a proud person. All right, I mean, look, just the government services that I listed above, you know, I mean, you have not everyone is, you know, qualifies for those services, and the danger is that maybe you have somebody that has worked hard for years, maybe that somebody has gained skills, they've gained abilities, and not everyone gets those entitlements from the government. That's the first thing. And you'll get an attitude or you could develop an attitude by taking entitlements from people that says, yeah, but I just need this to get on my feet. I just, you know, I need it more than somebody else. This is the danger, and look, turn to Luke chapter 14. I want to show you that just having that attitude that I need something more than somebody else is pride creeping into your life. Turn to Luke chapter number 14, and I will show you this from the Bible. Let me just give you an example. What if I had a lottery prize or something that would provide a universal income for you for the rest of your life? Just imagine this for a second. Let's say it would provide you $5,000 a month, and look, I'm using the example of money and income, but there's much more to having an entitlement attitude than just income and making a living, all right? Let me just give you an example though. Let's say that there was this prize, and this prize would be awarded to someone, and if you won this prize, you would receive $5,000 a month for the rest of your life, and all you had to do to get this prize was you had to write an essay on why you deserved it more than the other people that were writing the essay. Is that an essay that you would write? Is that something that a Christian should write? But a lot of people would write that essay. A lot of people would write that essay, and a lot of people would write, yes, I would write that essay simply because, well, I deserve it more because somebody has more than I do. I deserve it more because other people make more than I do, but here's the thing. What if that person, even though other people do maybe have more or make more income or whatever that is, have more than him, what if it's because he wasted opportunity? What if it's because he has not worked hard in his life? What if it's because of that? But the point is this. By definition, just the fact that you would write that essay saying that you deserve it more than somebody else to try to get that means that you're prideful. Look at Luke chapter 14. Look at Luke chapter number 14. Jesus gives an example of this in Luke chapter 14. Look down at verse number 7. Verse number 7 of Luke chapter 14. Jesus gives a parable here. He said, He put forth a parable to those which were bidden when He marked how they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit down not in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. And he that bade thee come and say to thee, Give to this man a place, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. Jesus gives this example. We're going to have a wedding coming up here in a couple months, and Jesus gives an example of somebody that would go to Max and Ella's wedding and would just seat themselves right at the head table. And we just sit right down there and say, I deserve to be in this spot, or even just in the front row. Say, I deserve to be here. Why? Maybe because they think they're important. Maybe because they think that, I'm guilty of this one. They think that, hey, I'm early. I deserve to get a good seat because I'm always early. I'm never late. I'm never the guy that's looking for a seat because I'm always there first. But even that attitude right there that, oh, I think that I can sit in this prized seat just because nobody else has taken it yet, is a little bit of pride right there. So Jesus is explaining somebody that thinks that they deserve something, and he shows, look, he shows just one of the small dangers of pride here. Pride could be a sermon series for the next 20 weeks. But he shows one of the small dangers, and one of the small dangers that you see here is that this person is going to be embarrassed. This person is going to be put, literally put, in their place. They're going to be told, hey, you don't belong here. That's where the groom sits, or that's where the groom's, you know, relatives sit, or whatever, and they're going to be put in the back. Jesus is saying, it's much better to just go in the back. This is where my wife has always helped me out. We're early. We're early, and the whole church is empty. And she picks out the back row of seats. And I'm just like, can we go two rows up? I mean, come on. We're earlier than everybody. But I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that, because that's what you should do. You should pick the lowest seats, and then, look, in the case that you have picked a seat that's too low for yourself, someone will move you up to a better seat, all right? In verse number 11, it says, for whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Look, you want to be exalted. You don't want to be abased. You know, the Bible talks about pride literally ruining you. In Proverbs chapter 16, it talks about how pride goeth before what? Before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Meaning, somebody that's lifted up has a prideful spirit. Look, they're going to fall down. They're going to be put down. They're going to have destruction come in their life. So look, pride is something that should be avoided at all costs, because it will literally lead to your very destruction. Having an entitlement attitude or getting an entitlement attitude that creeps into you makes you a prideful person, or at least has the danger, the spiritual danger, we're talking about spiritual danger this morning, of turning you into a private person. You know what the right thing to do to write that letter would be? If you were presented with that pride, you know what, the right thing to do would be like, you know what, these people probably deserve it more than I do. That would be the right thing to do. That is somebody that would not have an entitlement attitude. Yeah, I think that I just need to work hard in my life, and I think that that would maybe damage me and all this, and I think that there's probably somebody out there that needs it more than I do. That is the proper attitude. But look, people who are entitled that gain an entitlement attitude, they justify all the entitlements that they get, and they do that through pride. They say I need it more. They say to themselves, I have had it harder than everybody else. They say, you know what they're saying, they're essentially saying, I deserve that seat. I deserve to sit there. I deserve it more, is what they're saying. So that is the first danger of developing an entitlement attitude, and look, taking entitlements will tempt you to develop this type of attitude. So if you are taking entitlements in any way or another, you should make it a goal in your life to get off of that situation so you aren't in these dangerous situations. Here's the next one. Turn to Romans chapter number one. I told you I'd give you five points this morning. The second point is this, developing an entitlement attitude will make you unthankful. It will make you an unthankful person. Now, again, prideful, unthankful, these are very, very, look, being unthankful is a very serious thing in the Bible. And again, I could do a sermon series for the next dozen weeks on being unthankful. The Bible warns so much about being unthankful. And I'll show you how important, you know, how bad being unthankful. Like you say, oh, I didn't, somebody didn't say sorry, or somebody didn't write me a thank you card or whatever. But just the idea of being unthankful is an incredibly wicked thing in the Bible. Look at Romans chapter number one and look at verse number 21. Romans chapter number one is talking about somebody that literally turns on God. It's talking about somebody that literally turns on the Lord and God literally gives them up. God literally, I mean, gives them over. It says it twice. He gives them up. He gives them over. He gave them over to a reprobate mind. This is talking about somebody that before they've died, God has rejected. It's real. It's right there in the Bible. But look at the very beginning. Before we go down that road of, you know, turning the truth of God into a lie, before we go into the road of all the, you know, maliciousness and all this, and then God rejecting them, them getting a reprobate mind and going into all sorts of unnaturalness as the Bible says as it continues through the chapter. Look at what the first stage was. Look at verse number 21. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were what? Thankful. What became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. The first step was turning the truth of God into a lie and also just being unthankful. People that have been rejected by God, they're not somebody that didn't know who God was or know that God existed. They knew who God was. They knew what he said. They rejected it and they were unthankful for everything. And that's where, you know, we go down this terrible road of the reprobate in Romans chapter 1. But the point is, unthankfulness is a huge deal in the Bible. I'm not saying that being unthankful makes you a reprobate. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying that we should have no characteristics in common with people that are literally rejected by God. These are things that we should be very careful with as Christians and make sure that we stay away from these traits. Being unthankful makes people and God not want to do anything for you. Look, entitled people, people that gain entitlement attitudes, and we've all met people like this. People that gain entitlement attitudes, they can get to a point where they literally expect things to be done for them. Where they literally expect all these special things and all these… I'm not just talking about money. I'm just talking about services, favors, all these things. They expect special treatment everywhere they go. This is a terrible thing. And look, it just becomes one thing after another. And look, they just become completely unthankful. And when things are not done for them, they're so unthankful that they become resentful that things are not… that they're not getting the special treatment that they think that they deserve. I mean, honestly, if you think that somebody owes you something, this is what it comes down to, of course you're not going to be thankful. If I think that Brother Edwin got an extra $10 at work this week and that he's got enough and he should give that to me, I'm by definition unthankful, even if he does give it to me. I'm like, no, because I deserved it, because it was mine in the first place. Look, unthankful people get to the point where many times they are so unthankful that they will many times lie and they will many times manipulate people to get things that they… to get people to continue giving and doing things for them. This is a terrible disease for a Christian to gain. It's a mind virus, so to speak. All right, turn to Philippians chapter number 2. So gaining an entitlement attitude will make you prideful, it will make you unthankful, but here's the third one. It will make you selfish. It will make you selfish. Look at Philippians chapter number 2. Look at Philippians chapter number 2 and look at verse number 3. Philippians chapter number 2 and verse number 3, the Bible says this, it says, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, meaning let nothing be done through strife, I get that, but vainglory means self-focus, focus on yourself. It says, but in lowliness of mind, this is somebody who would take the back row of the seats, let each esteem other better than themselves. It's saying don't you write that letter that says you deserve it more than everybody else, because you don't. You should esteem other people. The only time, you know, unless there was nobody else in the competition except yourself, but if there was anybody else, you should esteem yourself the lowest out of everybody. But look, you should be thinking about others that need things, not what you deserve or think you deserve yourself. Being entitled, the problem is, is that being entitled teaches people that it's all about them. And what do you, I mean, this is what politicians do. All politicians, I think there might have been a difference 30 years ago, maybe I'm wrong, but all politicians today do this. They stand up, I mean, where's the politician today that stands up and says, you don't deserve anything, you need to get out there and get to work. Where's that politician? What party is that? It doesn't exist. It's all about politicians standing up and saying you all deserve better and I'm going to give you better. You all deserve this. It's all playing into people that have entitlement mentalities. So many people in the country at this point have entitlement mentalities, that's why the politicians say what they want to say. They're like false prophets. They stand up and they just tickle the people's ears. They just tell people what they want to hear. And the person that's best, that does the best job and promises the most things and does the best job of convincing people that they've been wronged and they need to be given all these things, wins, basically. Look, the Bible here is saying is that you should have an attitude, like if you have an attitude of deserving things, that's the, it's selfish. It's the opposite of esteeming others better than yourself. I mean, it literally makes you think solely of yourself. And this is a problem. This is the opposite of what the Bible teaches. Alright, so look, the first things, the first three things here, that was easy stuff. Pride, selfishness, unthankfulness, these are easy. Now let's get into some more complex issues for the next couple of points that I want to make. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter number 7. Being, developing an entitlement attitude or an entitlement mentality will affect your relationships with people. It will affect your relationships not only with God, but with people on this earth that you come across. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter number 7. Having an entitlement, my fourth point is this, having an entitlement mentality or developing an entitlement attitude will make you an unrepentant person. You say, what do I mean by that? Let's look at what the Bible talks about. I'm talking about just getting right with somebody. I'm saying that, you know, I've offended, you know, a brother in Christ and I need to get right with that person. I said something or I did something or I took something or I wronged somebody in some way. And in order to restore that relationship, I need to, you know, fix that, right? We're not talking about salvation here. We're talking about just relationships with the Lord, relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. If I've done something wrong, I mean, if I do, I mean, just down to the point of like I've, I said I would do something and I didn't. And I did something wrong along those lines. I told somebody I would show up at a certain time and I would help them with something and then I just didn't show up and I just left them hanging. Look, I need to get that right. Whoever does something like that needs to get that right. And all that takes is to say, look, I'm so sorry that I did that. I will never do that again. You know, take the consequences of it. They're probably not going to rely on me much going forward, realize that, but be sorrowful for that and let them know that you are sorrowful for that. But the Bible talks about that there is a godly sorrow. The Bible talks about that there is a sorrow that's real because a lot of people just give lip service to things. And I'm pointing out that being an entitled person will make you an unrepentant person and most, and I'm going to explain it to you, but most entitled people that are unrepentant, they don't, and this is the danger of having an entitlement attitude, they don't even realize that they're doing it. It's super dangerous to fall into this. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter number 7. Let's look at what a godly sorrow is. The Bible says, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Now, verse number 11 is the key here. Remember, repenting means to change your mind about something. We're not talking about repenting of your sins for salvation. We're not making up something that's not in the Bible. The Bible says in verse number 11, it says, behold, this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort. So the Bible is saying that there's a godly sorrow. There's a godly sorrow. What carefulness it wrought in you. Now, it's giving you the signs of godly sorrow. So how do I know if, you know, brother so-and-so did me wrong, and I won't even use anyone's names, but brother so-and-so did me wrong, how do I know if he is really sorrowful or if he's just making it up, just giving lip service? It says, because what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves. It's saying that it will make you a careful person going forward. So you have godly sorrow, you're going to be careful going forward. What clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, you'll be so upset, you'll be so sorrowful that this person will be upset over what happened. Yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire to be right, to get it right. What zeal, yea, what revenge. Notice the wording here that this person that has godly sorrow has all these terrible, over-the-top feelings about how bad they feel about what they did. Alright, in all things you have proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Look, if you don't have godly sorrow, you won't be careful, you won't be cleared, you won't be all these things. You say, well, what does that have to do with entitlement and having an entitlement attitude? Well, here's what it has to do with it. If you have an entitlement attitude, you will never see the extent of your wrongdoing. An entitlement attitude is you get a skewed version of right and wrong. This is the problem with having an entitlement attitude and this is why it's so dangerous and it can make you an unrepentant person. You just think about the fact, somebody that's so entitled that they get used to manipulating people. They're used to lying to people and just making things up. I mean, it just becomes a way of life for people to just tell sob stories that are true or not true to just get people to continue doing favors for them and giving them things. They just make up hardships and they just get so used to it, it's nothing to them. They don't even realize they're doing anything wrong. You ever heard of people that believe their own lies? This is what we're talking about here. I mean, you never see the fact that these people can never get to the point where they don't even see what they're doing to people anymore. It just becomes what they do to get things. And look, many people have a problem with this from the way they grew up. Maybe they grew up in a bad home where they just, they didn't have, they had to scrape by and they had to, you know, lie and cheat and steal to get things and then they take this into adulthood. Look, it's going to affect your relationships with people. I mean, just California alone, they say there's like 20 to 32 billion dollars in like welfare fraud or unemployment fraud or whatever. Like, that's like what the deficit is or close to it, I don't know. But the point is billions of dollars just because people are lying, but people are committing fraud, but do you think all these people that are committing this fraud are like hardened criminals? Like bank robbers? No, they're not. They're people that have an entitlement mentality that are justifying it in their minds and they think, I deserve it. They think I need it more than somebody else. So they justify the fraud. So the point is this, if you never realize and you scar your, you skew your conscience to the point where you don't even realize that you're doing something wrong, this is where you're going to get people that apologize to you like this. Well, if I've done something to offend you, brother, I'm sorry. That's not an apology. If you get somebody that is coming and trying to make things right to you by adding ifs and buts in the statement, that's not an apology. And this is somebody with an entitlement attitude. Well, if I've done something wrong, I'm sorry. Do you not know? Yes, you do know that you did something wrong, but you think that you don't need to own it. I'm sorry that I did you, did this. I'm sorry that I did this thing. I'm sorry that I didn't show up as I thought, as I said I would, but I had something else or but enter excuse here. No, this is an apology. I'm sorry that I said I would show up and I didn't. That was wrong. And I can't believe I did that. I should have done that. You must feel terrible. You must feel like you can't rely on me anymore. I'm so, you know, where's the revenge? Where's the zeal? Where's the godly sorrow? If I offended you by not showing up the other night, that's not an apology. That's somebody who has a skewed conscience when it comes to right and wrong. And look, folks, you don't want to scar your conscience in any way, shape, or form. The Bible tells us that the word of God will make our conscience clear. What does that mean? That we will see sin as exceedingly sinful, the Bible says in Romans. That sin will pop out to us. What the world will do and what developing attitudes and pride and selfishness and unthankfulness, it will cover the truth to you. It will cover things to you. And look, that will affect your relationships in this life. And the most relationship and the most important relationship in this life that you need to protect is your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He saved you and you're always saved. If you've trusted on Jesus, you're saved. But don't you want to have a good relationship with Him? If you can't have, you've got to figure out these relational things to protect yourself from so you can ultimately just have a good relationship with the Lord. And look, here's another thing. The point of this sermon is to not convert entitled people because becoming an entitled person is one of the hardest things that I have seen to convert once it has happened. The point of this sermon is to warn you so you don't become one. It's to warn you so when it starts creeping in, you can shut it down. Here's the fifth one. Turn to Romans chapter number six and verse number four. Romans chapter number six and verse number four which leads me to my fifth point is that it is very difficult to change. Becoming an entitled person can cover your conscience and scar your conscience to the point where you have the inability to change or because very difficult for you to change. Look, every Christian, no matter when they get saved in their life, should be able to change. And that's where science has it wrong. But it is so hard for certain people to change that scientists are out there saying, once you're 30, that's it. You're done. That's it. That's who you are. That's not what the Bible says. But they're just noticing how difficult it is for people to change. Look at verse number four. It says, therefore, talking about baptism here, therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death. This is right after you're saved. You go out and you get baptized that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. There's so much in that verse right there. But this is saying, this is why you go get baptized. You can identify with Christ, identify with the doctrines of Christ. And you go out there and it shows that you have this desire that you're going to walk in newness of life. What does that mean? You're going to walk differently. Notice it doesn't say that when everybody gets saved, you know, this is John MacArthur right here. It doesn't say, this is John MacArthur's worst verse in the Bible right here. Because it says when you get saved, you get baptized, you should walk in newness of life. That's why you need a King James Bible. Because individual words matter. You should do it. If you want to have a good relationship going forward with the Lord Jesus Christ, you should change what you're doing. You should. It doesn't say you're going to turn into a robot and the Holy Spirit that indwells you and seals you will take over your body and you will automatically do everything. No, it talks about the fight of the flesh and the spirit that you will have until you physically die and go to heaven. You should walk in newness of life. But newness means it's a new way. It's different from the current way. An entitlement attitude is dangerous in so many ways, but it's dangerous and the reason I warn you this morning is because it can take root slowly and it is something that once it has taken root and has caused this pride and selfishness and unthankfulness and unrepentantness to creep in, by the time you get to the point where you're unrepentant, you don't even know that you are. It is extremely dangerous and it is extremely hard for people to change. It's difficult to get out of, which is why there needs to be warnings. You know, it's a mistake people make that, oh, you know, I just need this for a little bit. It's a mistake people make. It incentivizes bad behavior instead of rewarding good behavior. Turn back to 2 Kings 18. 2 Kings 18. You say, why is it that the government wants to give so much to everybody? They're so caring. The federal government that has slaughtered 65 million babies in the last 50 years, they're so loving. They care so much about me and they care so much about my family. Something doesn't line up here. You say, why is it that people would want to give entitlements? Here's point number six, and maybe this is just kind of an information point, but this is what you need to realize. If you look down at 2 Kings 18, the king of Assyria sends a messenger. There's a lot of sermons in this chapter here. Ezekiah tries to appease him. He tries to compromise, tries to give him some money to go away. He doesn't go away. He wants to take over Judah. He sends this messenger who stands at the gates of the city and he's yelling this. The reason he's yelling it in verse number 25 through 28, the messengers of King Hezekiah, they're like, could you keep your voice down or speak in a different language or something? No, he doesn't want to do that. He wants to speak in their language. He wants to speak loudly because he's not talking to King Hezekiah. He's talking to the people. He's talking to the people that are inside the gates. And what does he say? Look up at verse number 23. I just want to point out a couple verses here in this story. Look what he says. He says, Now therefore I pray, give pledges to my Lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee 2,000 horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. So notice he like insults them at the end too. He's like, I'll give you all these horses if you guys have anybody that can even ride a horse. He insults them. He has no respect for them at all. But what does he do? He starts promising things to them. Look up at verse number 31. And I want to show you, he is not talking to the king. He says, Harken not to Hezekiah. He's saying, don't listen to the king. Verse 31, For thus saith the king of Assyria, make an agreement with me, by a present, and come out to me. Then eat every man of his own vine, every one of his own fig tree. He's like, until I take you to a land like your own land. He's like, come with me. Forget King Hezekiah, come with me. And what? I'm going to give you all this stuff. You know what he's looking for? He's looking for people that are entitled. He's looking for people that are entitled. Why? Because entitled people can be controlled. And that's a huge, look, that's why you have all these entitlements being offered to you today. Because look, if somebody can provide everything for you, they can control everything about you. If you have somebody, I mean my wife was telling me about an article that she read this week talking about how, I don't know what country it is, so I'm not going to guess at the country, how there was this country that provided free daycare to all the small children in their country. Like everybody in the country got free daycare. And she said, I read the comments of this story, and she said the comments were unbelievable. You could imagine what we would think in this church about something like that. But the comments were like, this is great. What a loving government. All this stuff. And I'm just like, what in the world are you, what planet are you people living on? You say, but doesn't the government care about those people? No. For a hundred years, the government has been trying to get children away from their mothers in this country even. You say, what's the agenda there? Why provide that daycare? Did you know that in Nazi Germany, like kindergarten and the school system was the number one way that they indoctrinated the population into Nazi thinking? It was through the schools. And that's why it was mandatory. There was just some people kicked out of Germany, like, I don't know, 10 years ago for trying to homeschool. But it becomes mandatory. Why? Look, Satan has been trying to get children away from their parents since the beginning of time. That's the goal. And so you see, you're like, you look at what's happening in this country and you say, well, it's almost like they're coming, trying to make a perfectly covered path. Here's what they're trying to do, folks. They're trying to make a perfectly covered path from the time a child is born all the way through the school system, a perfectly covered path covered from who? From their parents. They're trying to take the children, cover them from their parents, from the time they're born to the time that they can go and ruin them. And it's the daycares are involved, the schools are involved, the medical industry is involved. So you better be careful. You better be careful when people are trying to cover you from your children because there's an agenda there. You say, oh, this is great, all these things that the government's offering. Why? So they can control you. And the Bible says that the only person that we should fear, the only person that we should be controlled by is the one of the Lord. That's it. And Satan is trying to offer these things so he can control you and especially control your family. We have to be vigilant. He walks, he roars like a lion and he is walking amongst us. Don't become entitled. It is extremely dangerous. Realize, you say, what? But you know what? I work hard. But you know what? You need to realize that you deserve nothing from the government, from your friends. Someone that does something for you, you know, you should be uncomfortable about it. You ever have two guys that are negotiating, two honest men that are negotiating with each other and, you know, they're just like, you know, they're trying to like underbid each other on how much they'll pay for something? That's how it should be. That's how things should go. But be thankful because no matter what you have, you didn't deserve it. And then people won't have any problem helping you in the future because look, I get it. Everybody needs help. Everybody needs help from time to time. Everybody needs a helping hand from time to time. I love helping people. Most people in this church love helping people. People need help. And guess what? Some people are strong and some people are weak. And that's the way it's always going to be. Turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter number three. But you need to try to figure out in your life whether you are strong or weak, how can I help other people? And get the focus off of yourself. And guard yourself against this extremely dangerous mentality that will literally ruin you and ruin your family for generations to come. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter number three, verse number 12. The Bible says, Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. In 1 Timothy chapter five, literally the criteria for those who deserve financial support from the church are widows over the age of 60. Look, widows, it's even more than that. Faithful widows over the age of 60 that have had one husband. Look, if you would apply that to the law today, like you would fix everything in California. You'd say, whoa, whoa, what happened? That would be crazy. You know what would happen? People will get to work. That's what would happen. People would realize, and look, most importantly, the people that haven't made that choice to become a junkie and to not work and to ruin their life and to ruin their family, they wouldn't make that choice. It's a character destroyer. And it's not just money and services. A lot of people have an entitlement attitude about thinking that they deserve respect. It's everything. Just thinking that you're higher than you are will eventually lead to you being destroyed. Move to the lower seats. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number five. Actually, I'm going to read for you 1 Corinthians chapter five. You go to chapter 15. You go to Ecclesiastes chapter number three. The point is this. You need to realize every single day that you deserve nothing. Guess what? Not even the salvation that you have been given do you deserve. In 1 Corinthians 15, 19, you're going to Ecclesiastes chapter number three, the Bible says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Look, it's talking about like we have hope in Christ, but we could be miserable in this life. We could have nothing in this life, but if I have salvation, we're already ahead of the game. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter number three, but you're like, yeah, but my labor, I work hard. I deserve this. Nope. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter number three. Look at verse number 13. Look, if you work hard, the Bible says you're going to be rewarded for your hard work. You're going to be blessed for your hard work. But there's a key phrase at the end of this verse. The Bible says that also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. Hey, you want to go out and you want to work hard and you get blessed with a good job and you get blessed with being able to better your situation for your family. That's all great, but don't forget the last few words here. It is the gift of God. Work hard, enjoy the fruits, but it's all from God. And look, you don't deserve it because it's a gift from Him. That's the trap that people fall into. People go out, they work hard, they do well for themselves, they get successful, and then they don't realize that it's all a gift from God. That it's still a gift. Yes, it's a direct gift. God blessing you for doing what He wants you to do. But don't start thinking you deserve it because guess what? You go out and if God blesses you, you enjoy those fruits. But guess what? All those blessings go away. You still go out and do what He told you to do. You still go out and serve the Lord with your life. You still come to church. You still go soul winning. You still go to work and work hard. All those things. And if the blessings go away, you didn't deserve the blessings in the first place. They were a gift from God. Maybe they come back, maybe they don't. But at the very least, the one thing God promises you that He'll never take away is what? Is your hope in Christ, your salvation. Look, we can all slide down this road of thinking that we deserve things. And it is a real danger in a country like ours where things are so plentiful and there are so many blessings all around us. And it is just so much fruitfulness everywhere. It is something that all people can fall into thinking that we deserve these things. And we deserve better than this. But look, even if you're doing things right and you're not taking entitlements and all these things that we talked about, you can still start to think that because of your hard work and your efforts is where those things come from, but they are not. You don't even deserve the salvation that you have. And that's the attitude to take. Be careful of entitlement. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.