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Thank you very much. Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to Mountain Baptist Church. Take your Christmas song books, these ones right here, and turn to song number 59. Song number 59. So we're going to sing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and then what we're going to do is we're going to sing that and then the kids are going to come up and they're going to sing a couple of songs, and read some scripture, and then we'll go from there like a normal service. So if you would stand, we'll sing song number 59, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day, to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray, O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy. And Bethlehem and Jewry this blessed babe was born, and laid up in a manger upon this blessed morn, the witch's mother Mary did nothing taken scorn, O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy. From God our heavenly Father this blessed angel came, and unto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same, how that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name, O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy. The shepherds at whose tidings rejoiced much in mind, and left their flocks a feeding in tempest storm and wind, and went to Bethlehem straightway the Son of God to find, O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy. All right, let's pray and then we'll have the kids come up. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just want to thank you God just for everything that you've done for us. Thank you God so much for this, just this Christmas season to where we can pay a little bit extra attention to your birth and coming to earth and your ministry, God. I pray, Lord, that you would just bless this time. We're going to hear the children sing and the preaching also later. I pray, Lord, all of this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, if the kids want to come up. All right, let's pray and then we'll have the kids come up. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, and all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth and to Judea and to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. To be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child, and so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. All is calm, all is bright, Round yon virgin mother and child, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Silent night, holy night, Shepherds quake at the sight, All is calm, all is bright, Round yon virgin mother and child, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, All the way in a manger, no crib for a bed, The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head, The stars in the sky look down where he lay, The little Lord Jesus, thus sleep on the hay, The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes, But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes, I'm lovely, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky, And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh. Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay, Close by me forever and love me, I pray, Bless all the dear children in thy tender care, And take us to heaven to be with thee there. And when they had seen it, they made note Abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child, And all they that heard it wondered at those things Which were told them by the shepherds, But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart, And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God For all things that they had heard and seen As it was told unto them. Joy to the world, the Lord is come, Let earth receive her King, Let every heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, And heaven, heaven, and nature sing. Joy to the world, the Savior reigns, Let men their songs employ, While fields and floods, rocks, meadows and plains, Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy, No more let sin and sorrow grow, Nor thorns infest the ground, He comes to make His blessings flow, For as the curse is found, for as the curse is found, For as, for as the curse is found, He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, And wonders, wonders of His love. Alright, good job. Alright, great job. Awesome job. Alright, take your, the same song books, the Christmas song books, and turn to song number three. Song number three, we'll sing, Oh Come All Ye Faithful. Song number three. Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, Oh come ye, oh come ye to Bethlehem, Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels, Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Sing choirs of angels, sing in exultation, Sing all ye citizens of Heaven above, Glory to God in the highest, Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, Born this happy morning, Jesus to Thee, All glory give. Word of the Father, Now in flesh appearing, Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Amen. Well, I know it's not Christmas anymore, or yesterday was Christmas, but we're close enough, so Brody is going to be happy after this. We can go back to singing the other songs. But I enjoyed the children last week and this week, and so good job on that. And when it comes to announcements, our normal everyday announcements, the offering boxes in the back there, or by the doorway, and then the mother baby room over here is for mothers and babies only, so no men allowed, but also we want to keep that to the babies and the younger children, and try to keep the older children out. And when it comes to our service times, all that's the same today, so we have our afternoon service at 4 p.m., but before that we're going to have our sowing time at 1 p.m., so be back here around, well, before 1, so we can get teamed up and everything for sowing this afternoon. Bible memory, we have our chapter memory for the month is Psalm 2, and then our verse memory for the week is 1 Corinthians 4, 2, and just so I don't mess that one up. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful, and so that is our memory verse for the week, and then don't forget about our sowing, our regional sowing times on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I know with the holiday seasons that could get all messed up, so just get on the WhatsApp there and see if there's any changes to that this week, but brother Charles leaves up that Tuesday time and brother Richie the Wednesday time, but obviously with brother Richie just having, well, Jennifer had the baby, but obviously he has obligations and things he's got to do, so we'll give him a little bit of grace there obviously with that, so just get on the WhatsApp there to see what's going on with the sowing times, and then we have our New Year's Eve party that's coming up this Friday, and so that will be at 7 p.m. tentatively. That's not a hard time, so if you come later or you don't want to be here that long or you'd rather be here right at the end where we're coming to the midnight hour, I completely understand, but that's just one of those things where we're going to try to start round seven and then be here until midnight, so we'll see who stays up for that, so with kids and everything, I understand it's hard, and if New Year's Eve is ever on a Saturday, we're not doing it, so not with church the next day, so that gives you another Saturday to kind of relax, and then we do have the women's prayer meeting January 8th on the list here, and I know technically our men's prayer meeting is supposed to be on the 31st, and maybe what we'll do, men, is at 7 p.m. we'll go ahead and do a prayer time, like a short kind of prayer time, and do something like that if you can make it out at that time. I was thinking about putting it on Thursday, but that's a lot of different times to come out, so we're coming out Thursday and then coming out Friday and then you're coming out Sunday, so I don't really want to do that, so we'll try to make some time in there and kind of at the end, when we do the New Year's Eve party, when we come down to midnight, we usually pray in the New Year anyway, but there's obviously a lot of things we usually pray for at the men's prayer meeting besides just praying in the New Year and asking for God to bless and everything there, so we'll see what happens, and it may just be a few men. Maybe we'll meet up in the office or something like that and pray while everybody's getting things together or people are coming in and stuff like that, so we'll play that one by ear. Birthdays. No birthdays this week that I know of, right, so there's none in January, like January 1st, right, because that would be the only day. That's not in December on this week anyway, and then the scenes, we'll get them next time, so they're on the 26th. They're today. What? Yeah, that's all right. I wasn't going to say it. I didn't say it, so if they're watching, you can guess who said it. No, but be in prayer, though, for all those in the pregnancy list, and so the pregnancy list is getting smaller because babies keep getting bored, but yeah, be in prayer for all the ladies on here. Exciting stuff for sure when it comes to that, but yeah, but be in prayer for all the ladies that just had babies and all that because that recovery process is not fun. That's about all I got for announcements. Brother Dave's going to come and sing one more song, and then Brother Joseph's going to be reading Luke, Chapter 16, for us. One more announcement. We got new invitations. We shouldn't worry about it as far as we were getting rid of all the old ones that have the old address, but just so you know, you don't have to tell them, like, hey, the address is wrong on here, so now we finally have invitations that have the right address on them. Yes, yeah, so if you have any invitations in your car or stuff somewhere, you might want to get rid of them so you don't mix them up. All right. All right, take your songbooks and turn to song number 25. Song number 25 will sing I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Song number 25. I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old familiar carols play And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good will to men I thought how as the day had come The belfries of all Christendom Had rolled along the unbroken song Of peace on earth, good will to men And in despair I bowed my head There is no peace on earth, I said For hate is strong and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men Then pealed the bells more loud and deep God is not dead, nor doth he sleep The wrong shall veil, the right prevail With peace on earth, good will to men All right, take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter number 16. Luke 16, we'll have brother Joseph come and read that for us. Luke chapter 16. And if you found your place there, you'll say amen. And he said also unto his disciples There is a certain rich man which had a steward And the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods And he called him and he said unto him How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship For thou mayest be no longer steward And the steward said within himself What shall I do? For my lord taketh away from me the stewardship I cannot dig and I cannot beg, I am ashamed I am resolved what to do, what to do that When I am put out of the stewardship They may receive me into their houses So he called every one of his lords So he called every one of his lords debtors unto him And said unto the first How much oest thou unto my lord? And he said in a hundred measures of oil And he said unto him Take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty And he said to another And how much oest thou? And he said in a hundred measures of wheat And he said unto him Take thy bill and write four score The lord commended the unjust steward Because he had done wisely For the children of the world are in their generation Wiser than the children of light And I say unto you Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness That when ye fail They may receive you into everlasting habitations He that is faithful in that which is least Is faithful also in much And he who is unjust in the least Is unjust also in much If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon Who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful In that which is another man's Who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters For either he will haste the one Or hate the one And love the other Or else he will hold to the one And despise the other He cannot serve God and mammon And the Pharisees also Who were covetous Heard all these things And they divided him And he said unto them Ye are they which justify yourselves before men But God knoweth your hearts For that which is highly esteemed among men Is abomination in the sight of God And the law of the prophets Were until John Since that time the kingdom of God is preached And every man presses unto it And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass Than one tittle of the law to fail Whosoever putteth away his wife And marrieth another Committeth adultery Whosoever marrieth her That is put away from her husband Committeth adultery There was a certain rich man Which was clothed in purple and fine linen And fared sumptuously every day And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus Which was laid at his gate full of sores And desiring to be fed with the crumbs Which fell from the rich man's table Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores And it came to pass that the beggar died And was carried by the angels Into Abraham's bosom And the rich man also died and was buried And in hell he lifted up his eyes Being in torments And seeth Abraham far off And Lazarus in his bosom And he cried and said Father Abraham have mercy on me And send Lazarus that he may dip The tip of his finger in water And cool my tongue For I am tormented in this flame But Abraham said Son remember that thou In thy lifetime Receiveth thy good things And likewise Lazarus evil things But now he is comforted And thou art tormented Beside all this Between us and you There is a great gulf fixed So that they which would pass From hence to you cannot Neither can they pass to us That would come from thence Then he said I pray thee therefore father That thou would ascend him To my father's house For I have five brethren That he may testify unto them Lest they also come into this place Of torment Abraham saith unto him They have Moses and prophets Let them hear them And he said Nay father Abraham But if one went unto him From the dead They will repent And he said unto him If they hear not Moses And the prophets Neither will they be persuaded That one rose from the dead Let's pray Lord father thank you for this time We were able to gather together Lord thank you for the time That we were able to spend with family And celebrating your birth Lord Lord I thank you for your pure And holy words you've given to us Be with Pastor Robinson That defies this morning In Jesus name Amen Amen So you know it's after Christmas And I'm going to preach out of Luke 16 So actually a lot of times when you go to Luke 16 You're expecting a sermon on hell But actually I'm preaching on the first portion of Luke 16 Which is not dealing with that Actually the name of the sermon Is called Being Good Stewarts Being Good Stewarts And the day after Christmas A lot of us have received gifts And I know a lot of the children Have received a lot of gifts And I want the children specifically To be listening up to this sermon But obviously adults as well We need to hear this sermon This sermon is dealing with the fact of Not only being grateful for what you have But also taking care of what you have Especially those things which are given to you And a stewart is basically someone That takes care of their master's goods Or basically they're looking over possessions For somebody But the idea here is that We're going to get to Luke 16 But go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 1 Corinthians chapter 4 1 Corinthians chapter 4 And verse 1 There's a tendency when things are given to us And we don't get them ourselves To not take care of them There's a tendency that when you work for something And you've earned money and you got something By working for it You tend to keep a hold of it and take care of it And the Bible talks about this About riches gotten with vanity You know basically fly out the way But the idea there is that If you didn't have to work hard to acquire it You tend to not care what happens to it Or if it were to just all fall away You know stuff like that But in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 1 It says So the idea is that you can be a steward And not be a faithful steward And that's where Luke 16 comes into the case Where you have the unjust steward And obviously it's a parable that he's bringing forth We don't really know if it's a parable But it's more so just stating like a certain person or whatever But either way It's a story basically talking about an unjust steward Or someone that was not faithful As being a steward And the idea there was that he wasted his master's goods Go to 1 Chronicles chapter 28 I just want you to see The first mention of steward or stewards In the Bible Just so you can kind of get a definition of what we're dealing with here Now you can think of like stewardesses Like on an airplane or whatever They're serving people and all that But in the Bible when we're talking about a steward We're talking about someone that basically is put in charge Over your house It's basically someone that you employ To look after your stuff To deal with You may even be over people But a lot of times they're over Possessions, money Dealing with the books Different things like that When it comes to finances That's what a steward is supposed to be doing And in 1 Chronicles chapter 28 verse 1 It says And David assembled all the princes of Israel The princes of the tribes And the captains of the companies That ministered to the king by course And the captains over the thousands And captains over the hundreds And the stewards over all the substance And possession of the king And of his sons With the officers and with the mighty men And with all the valiant men unto Jerusalem So we're talking about David And just the different things that he has But he talks about that he had stewards That were over all the substance and possession Of the king and of his sons So basically it's over his family's possessions Okay So when you think about what a steward is That lines up with what Luke 16 is talking about Now go back to Luke chapter 16 Luke chapter 16 You know taking care of the things that you have Or the possessions that you have What I'm going to be getting into Is don't mix that up with being covetous And some people can accuse you of being covetous Just because you take care of what you got And that's not being covetous That's just being a faithful steward There's a difference Okay Of being covetous and taking care of what you have Because the whole point is that you don't want to be a Waster You want to use what's been given to you You don't want to Basically the idea Especially with Christmas Because we get so many different gifts We get so many different gifts and everything Is that you don't want to waste what's given to you Because you know what, someone purchased that for you Someone got that for you And it's disrespectful To basically destroy or waste something that's given to you It's also not honoring Okay To do that And so And there are people out there There's adults out there That are just disrespectful to other people's things They don't take care of their own things They destroy everybody else's stuff Right You know the type that will get in your car and like Throw their feet on top of your dash And like You're stepping on my toes preacher None of you have done that As far as I know in my vehicle But it's just that type of disregard To other people's things This could apply also when it comes to The church things Now here's the thing I know that things are going to get Stuffed up and I know that things are going to happen And I'm not here to say like listen This church needs to never have any Accidents or holes in the walls or anything like that Things happen But we shouldn't just be like Just disregard any type of Care for the church building For the church things To the point where it's just being Disrespectful and not honoring Because this is the house of God The things that are in this church are the things For the Lord, the things for the service of the Lord And obviously nothing in here is You know we're not selling anything But at the same time all the stuff here is for a purpose Even the pastries And all that stuff or the drinks Those are all because people are coming here To hear preaching, to go out, soul winning Different things Those are all things that are being used For the Lord and we need to Take care of those things And so this can apply on many different facets It can apply at your home Children with your parents This can apply here at church Dealing with the things of the church This can apply with spiritual things When it comes to being a steward Of the things of God In the spiritual realm I'm more so hitting on the physical stuff Because sometimes people over spiritualize Things that are talking about physical matters And this chapter right here is talking about Physical things No doubt This story right here is talking about Dealing with physical Like goods, physical money Because it's telling you It's giving you a dichotomy of physical Things compared to spiritual things Or physical things That you're over compared to maybe even Things that are even more grand in the physical realm Okay And again you don't want to get that mixed up With covetousness and like well I'm serving And I'm doing this for Goods No that's not what I'm stating That's not what the Bible is stating Go to Luke chapter 16 verse 1 It says and he said also on to his Disciples there was a certain rich man Which had a steward and the same was accused Unto him that he had wasted his Goods So notice in verse 8 Because it just talks About the steward right And I said it's you know The story of the unjust steward, this is why In verse 8 it says and the Lord commended the unjust Steward So what made him unjust? Faithful, there's another verse that's going to show You that also dichotomy of being A faithful person compared to An unjust person And basically if you're not faithful Over Your possessions and things that you have Then you're unjust Okay, so this isn't something to Just like throw off and be like well whatever And listen I'm not here, listen everything's going to be burned up in the end Okay, so anybody could Take this sermon and be like well you know pastors up there Reparationing about like possessions and how you Just need to be thinking about your possessions all the time Listen everything's going to be burned up with fervent heat In the end, but that doesn't change The fact that what the Bible teaches here is that If you are faithful over The things that you have, whether it's as Small as you know Someone gives you a watch, I don't know Like or your Parents give you something If you're faithful over something that's little You'll be faithful in the bigger things as well So this is a lesson that needs to be taught And especially with children And obviously as a father I'm trying to teach my children that And when it comes to Christmas time Especially when they're over Flown with gifts Listen it was different back in my day Back in my day The grandparents gave clothes And we were like We were like open the lame gifts first Because we wanted the toys It is not that way today It is just like coming from all ends So in the end Even back then My dad always had to teach me about Not being materialistic And telling me things that were more Obviously my mom did too My dad, especially when we get bigger gifts Like I got a dirt bike one time And he would always remind me that it's not about The physical things, the material things That's not what life's about But we need to be reminded Of this especially at this time of year Because there's so many things that have been given to us With Christmas and all that And I'm not against The gifts But you have to have a biblical Understanding as far as how you Treat that, how you think about that How you deal with all the things that are Given to you And notice in verse 2 Of Luke 16, so we see that he Wasted his master's goods He wasted his Lord's goods It says in verse 2 And said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship How mayest be no longer stewards? So he's basically saying, you know what? Give an account of what you've done because you're not going to be my Steward anymore Now what is this unjust Steward's response to this? It says in verse 3, Then the steward said Within himself, What shall I do? For my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship I cannot dig To beg, I am ashamed. Now think about this This guy's basically saying, manual labor? I can't do that So this guy's just like, you know It's above him to do manual labor But He also can't beg Or he'd be ashamed. So he's basically ashamed to do a blue collar job But he's also ashamed to beg for money You know, it's like He can only do one thing or whatever Now obviously you shouldn't be begging for money You should be working for your money But there's nothing wrong with digging There's nothing wrong with doing a job where you're digging ditches Or whatever, as long as you're doing it honestly And everything else So this is his Mindset. He's like, I gotta do something about this Because I don't want to go into manual labor To try to live and I'm not gonna beg for money So what's he do? It says in verse 4 I am resolved what to do So he's like, I got an idea It says That when I am put out Of the stewardship, they May receive me into their houses. So the day Is actually gonna be talking about Other people Are gonna receive him. Why? Verse 5 So he called every one Of his lord's debtors unto him So this is the day that he's talking about Who's gonna receive him after he's Cast out of being a steward From this rich man He called all these debtors unto him and said unto the first How much oest thou unto my lord? And he said, in a hundred measures of oil And he said unto him Take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty Then said he to another How much oest thou? And in a hundred measures of wheat And he said unto him Take thy bill and write four score So what do we have here? He basically calls all the debtors Of his lord and basically He's giving him a discount And This is gonna be two fold A smart thing to do One Is smart because he's getting on the good Side of all these debtors So when he's kicked out They're gonna look at him and be like, oh I remember that guy He like gave me like a fifty percent discount On my bill And they're gonna receive him And like treat him well That's his idea There's also another wise thing there too Is that fifty percent's better than zero Eighty percent's better than zero Right? Because in one case It's like write down four score So it's eighty instead of a hundred So there's two fold A wise thing there is that he's basically He's getting on the good side of those That are not the person That he's working for It's kind of like if you have an employee You have clients or whatever That you're working for And you just get on the really good side of the clients Before you get fired And then you try to basically go to them For work or whatever But then also There is some truth that if Someone's not gonna pay a bill And you're like okay I'll give you a fifty percent discount And you'll just eat that fifty percent Fifty percent's better than nothing Okay? Knowing that you're not gonna get it at all If you just keep that bill where it's at Okay? Because you know in the day We live in If someone like owes you money Who gets that money? The government and lawyers Not you Right? I mean If you ever owe a bill You could maybe put a lien on someone's You know House or something like that to get the bill But do you ever see that money? Whoever sees that money It's a bank, it's a lawyer You never see it And so in the end the wisdom there of Getting something instead of nothing Okay? And notice what it says here In verse eight And that's I believe why the rich man's Commending him It says in verse eight For the children of this world are in their generation Wiser than the children of light It says and I say unto you So he's basically stating that The children of this world meaning the unjust In this world When it comes to business and dealing with how to Survive In the world The unjust people are wiser In that than the children of light, right? Because the children You know When it comes to people that are They don't wanna They're not gonna short change people You know what I mean like Obviously he's short changing his His Lord at some point In the way he's doing that Although the Lord commends him for it At the same time You know what? It's stating here that You don't see Many saved people that are billionaires Okay? Just facts Actually find one I don't know You're like Donald Trump No Not when he has Paula White Is it Paula White? Is that a cook? Or is that Or is that a woman preacher? Who's the cook? Paula Dean Paula's all over the place So anyway I know it wasn't Paula Crandell She's a good cook Anyway But all that to say is that Obviously there's There's a lot of truth to what's being said there And it's not saying wiser as far as spiritually Wiser because we know that those that aren't Saved, the unjust are fools, right? So that's not what it's stating here But it's talking about like worldly wisdom And knowing how to like Survive and get by And get through life without Digging or begging kind of thing That is what it's stating here In verse 9 it says And I say unto you, make to yourselves Friends of the mammon of unrighteousness That when ye fail They may receive you into everlasting Habitations So what's it talking about? Everlasting habitations This isn't talking about eternal life Or habitations in heaven It's talking about what he was just saying In verse 4 So when he's put out from the Sewership they may receive me into their Houses Everlasting meaning like As long as he lives It's going to be there And the lesson Here is that if you're Faithful With those that are unsaved And those that are In the mammon of basically rich people People that have money And you're kind to them, you do them well All this stuff that they will help you In the end That's what this passage is stating It's not saying to be friends with mammon As far as like money It's talking about the mammon of Unrighteousness meaning that You're talking about debtors and people that have Money and people that are Going to basically be able to help you out in the end This goes into Ecclesiastes talks about casting your bread Upon the waters and basically Coming back to you And that's what's going on here So in context you're talking about like this Unjust steward that does Favors for these people And then they're going to end up receiving Them into their house Because of that And you know the Bible's teaching is that That's a good thing to do If you do good unto these people That have Money and all this stuff and I'm not saying to be a respecter Of persons But it is A lot of truth to making friends With those that have money And just different things You don't want to scorn them off and be like wow you're rich I don't want to do anything for you or anything like that You know what Again you don't want to be a respecter of persons right Because if you're going to do something for a poor person You should be able to do something for a rich person as well Okay You know if a rich person asks you to help with something You're going to be like wow you got a lot of money why should I help you with that I'm going to help a poor person out No we should help everybody out And listen if a rich person will hear the gospel I'll give them the gospel just as much as a poor person Now we know that most Rich people aren't going to hear it as well As the poor because He had made the poor rich in faith But when it's talking about Going out and doing good unto others And all that stuff We're supposed to do that indiscriminately And it's teaching us a lesson here Now When it comes to This unjust steward What did he do? He wasted the Lord His Lord's goods okay He wasted them That's what it says in verse 10 I want you to just really get this down here It says he that is faithful And that which is least Is faithful also and much Okay So if you're faithful of something that's given to you That's minor Something that's small Something that's insignificant maybe To most people It's stating that if you're faithful with that You'll be faithful with something that's big Something that's greater in value But notice what it says on the Flip side of that It says he that is unjust in the least Is unjust also and much So When it comes down to this it works on the flip side If you're not faithful In the smaller things If you're unjust in the smaller things Then you're not going to be In the bigger things It's not like well you know what Yeah the stuff I got is kind of small and insignificant So I'm just not going to take care of it I'm not going to do much with it I'm just going to rip it apart Whatever But if I had something bigger than that I would take care of it No you wouldn't No you won't You'll do the same thing This is why you need to learn right now Especially children And obviously a lot of things That your parents give you are actually very Valuable and cost a lot of money And I don't think kids realize Too how much things cost And we're teaching Our kids about money because As far as Clara got Some money for her birthday And we took her to the store And kind of taught her how You give them the money they don't give it back To you when you make a purchase Unless it's like change or something like that But just Understanding like how much money things cost Okay Because I don't think children realize that when we go to the gas station We're just putting Tons of money in that tank every single week Where as you look at You're like oh I got $20 I can go do something It's like What's $20 going to do For a week when you think about Gas money, food, grocery Bills, like all these things Cost a lot of money So when you get something on top of that Listen, you know what the Bible says? Having food and raiment be there with content The only thing that we owe our children Is food and raiment Because that's the only thing that God owes us So if we just fed our children And clothed them, we'd be good enough That would be fine That would be taking care of our children But if anything above and beyond You need to look at that as something that's just That much more that you should be respecting Obviously you should be respecting your parents For giving you food and raiment Because they could literally feed you water And bread of affliction And give you rags to wear But yet they give you nice clothes And different things And food that you like to eat So they're not just feeding you Stems of broccoli Day in, day out Nothing that you like Now some people like broccoli I know my girls like broccoli An example that obviously Your parents don't just give you everything That you hate all the time Although some of my kids I think we Make food just because they don't like it But it's not the case But keep reading there In verse 11 Luke 16 verse 11 says If therefore you have not been faithful In the unrighteous mammon Who will commit to your trust The true riches? Notice this dichotomy here because What are we talking about? We're talking about Physical riches and we're talking about mammon We're talking about money We're talking about money And if you are not going to be faithful In that, right Things of this world The unrighteous mammon that's in the world Then who's going to commit to you The true riches? Verse 12 Notice this It says if you have not Been faithful in that which is another And who I'm sorry Who shall give you That which is your own? So think about like taking care Of things that aren't yours You borrow something Or you're just Having to be using something Like maybe the person's using It as well but you're kind of Think about a car You hitch a ride in a car How do you treat that car when you're in it? You're like oh I got some mud on my shoes Let me get that off you know And you're just like scraping it on the side of the You know people do that type Of stuff But you know why they do that type of stuff? Because no one has taught them differently You know and there's like There's kids that will do this type of stuff Obviously everybody is accountable To their own deeds in the end But we as parents need to teach Our kids like that is not the right thing to do Right you don't just Don't go into someone's house and just start like Kicking all the mud off on their carpet You know and different things like that And what it's teaching here Is that if you're unfaithful in that Which is not yours Who's going to give you that which is your own? And God is the one Obviously that gives us Everything in the end But verse 13 just to close off Kind of the whole thought here in verse 13 He says no serving can serve two masters For either he will hate the one Or else he will hold to the one And despise the other He cannot serve God and mammon Now again what we're not talking about here Is this steward or being a steward And serving money There's a difference between serving People And serving money And even in Colossians It states this you can turn it if you want Colossians chapter 3 Because we're obviously not supposed to love Money The love of money is the root of all evil Not money in general it's the love of money So when it comes to Serving People You need to serve them As unto the Lord and that's what the Bible is going to teach here Verse 22 It says Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh Not with eye service as men's Pleasers but in singleness of heart Fearing God And whatsoever you do do it heartily Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive The reward of the inheritance For you serve the Lord Christ So when it comes to Working your job And you're like well my boss isn't safe So the Bible says to serve As unto the Lord Now obviously if your boss tells you to do something sinful Then you're not supposed to do that Just as much kids if your parents tell you to do something sinful You're not supposed to do that Obviously God is the ultimate authority But when it comes to Your boss tells you to go Do this certain job There's nothing sinful about it You just need to go do it and do it well And do it as if you're doing it for the Lord And when you're faithful And those type of things You may say well that's insignificant That's just a job that's just physical things You know what if you're faithful in that God will put you over bigger things But you got to look at What you have and the possessions you have The things that are given to you And that is a testing ground For how God Or what God will entrust with you later on in your life Because If you're not going to be faithful over The little things today Then why would he trust you With greater things later on Now this kind of comes into the You probably heard this phrase There's a prepared place for a prepared person And the idea is that You know what There may be opportunities in the future But if you're not prepared then what's the point You have to prepare Way before that opportunity comes And when it comes to God entrusting you with You know even physical things Or anything like that You know what you need to be found faithful And stuff before that I mean I think of children And obviously Don't get me wrong there's a lot of people that have children That were not found Not faithful in the little things Not being faithful And being mature And taking care of things Before you have children To take care of children later on You've got to prepare yourself for that To some extent If you don't you're in a world of hurt If you can't take care of yourself If you have problems taking care of yourself Getting yourself up in the morning And doing what you should be doing Going to work What are you going to do when you have kids They're completely dependent on you That's the word I was looking for I'm just kidding Okay But they are completely dependent on you Until they get to a certain age right You know until they at least get When they're teenagers I don't have teenagers so if you want to You can all just say no they're still dependent But obviously as they get older They can do more things They can do things on their own They can at least dress themselves All these different things that they can do But you're still providing for them You're still paying the bills You're still doing all this stuff for them And you know what you've got to prepare for that type of stuff Before you can get there So go to Proverbs chapter 12 Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 27 I'm going to show you a few passages here In Proverbs dealing with this Again this is a lot to the children But this is also us Adults Because we can all Get into just wasting things Or just having the mindset that hey You know what Whatever I'll say this If you're wasteful with your own things Like you bought it You can do whatever you want with your stuff But to God he's going to see that The bigger deal In my opinion when you're dealing with relationships In the church Friends, family You're dealing with their stuff Because if you trash other people's stuff They're not going to like you A man that has friends Must show himself friendly And it is not friendly to just Trash people's stuff, break stuff All that And you say well I'm not like that Well this is a preventative sermon then When it comes to sermons It could either be stepping on your toes Or it could be preventative But in the end we need to all take heed to this This is what it says in Proverbs 12 and verse 27 Now we're talking about food In this verse particularly Where you hunt, you get something You don't waste it You try to eat everything you got You know what I struggle with this When it comes to food Because I hate leftovers I appreciate that, amen The thing is I just don't like Warming up stuff Now some things taste better warmed up Pizza for example, I don't know why Pasta It marinates in there, I don't know But there's certain things like steak You cook a steak on the grill And then you warm that thing up It's like leather I struggle with not wasting Food that you make And that it's like leftover Unless it's sweets, unless it's like cookies And stuff like that, obviously I struggle with this to a certain extent And I'm sure other people may struggle with this Some of you may say no, I eat everything That is ever in the fridge And never let anything go to waste But if I said that my wife would probably Start knocking on that wall back there Because she knows that I hate eating leftovers I like things to be fresh I don't like eating the same thing over and over again As far as Again, it depends on what it is If it's a sweet thing, like if it's cookies Pie I could eat that over and over again Which is why I'm going on a diet Here soon That's another summer for another day Proverbs chapter 18 verse 9 Proverbs chapter 18 verse 9 But notice that the substance Of a diligent man is precious That's not A bad thing Some people could look at someone That takes care of their stuff Someone that, you know, maintains what they have They could look at that and be like That person is just materialistic That person is covetous Because they're just like taking this time To take care of things that they have No, actually That's being a good steward That's actually smart Because if you don't take care of what you got I mean think about your vehicle, right What if you don't change the oil It's kind of coincidental that my oil needs Changing my truck right now It keeps flashing at me, change your oil But if you don't change your oil, you know what's going to happen Your engine is going to blow up If you don't put gas in your vehicle If you don't change the filters If you don't do different things If you don't maintain it, it's not going to last As long And in the end, that's going to cost you more money Because then it's not going to last As long and you've got to get another vehicle You know what, I want my My vehicle, which I try to I want it to last like 200,000 miles Now my last truck didn't Kind of just started falling apart But I made it about 150 But not the Toyota, I got rid of that one But Anyway, the thing is that We should maintain what we have And it's precious in the idea that Whatever is given to us, whatever we have We should look at it as being a blessing Look at it as being something that God has given to us Or our parents have given to us Or a friend gave to us, or family members gave to us And look at it as being a precious thing That we should take care of and respect it And respect it in the fact that You're respecting the person that gave it to you If anything But in verse 9 of Proverbs 18 It says, He also that is slothful in His work is brother to him That is a great waster So what are we talking about When we're talking about someone that's slothful Well, the opposite of being slothful Is that your substance Is precious to you The opposite of being slothful Is not being a waster Not wasting The things that you have Proverbs 24, Proverbs 24 in verse 30 Proverbs 24 in verse 30 And ultimately, if you If you don't take care of the things that you have It is being lazy I mean, that's essentially what comes down You don't want to change the world because you're lazy You don't want to Maintain, well I hate Maintaining the yard I'm kind of preaching it myself because like Obviously, my yard is probably the worst in the neighborhood I mow it But people are out there aerating it And they're out there like watering it I'm like, no, it'll rain And if it doesn't, it's going to be brown and who cares But There's things that I choose to maintain And things that I choose to take care of But here, we're actually dealing with a vineyard Okay, maintaining Think about maintaining a garden Or, you know Different things like that And Actually, it's not a vineyard But it's basically just I'm thinking of another passage But the idea here is that You maintain what you got Okay, you take care of the things that you have Verse 30 of Proverbs 24 I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard Yeah, it is a vineyard So I don't know what I'm looking at here You never look at verses you're just like not looking at the one you want to look at Like looking at the one above Below, anyway I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard Of the man, void of understanding So Whatever I'm about to read is someone that is Slothful and void of understanding Says, and lo, it was all Grown over with thorns, and nettles had Covered the face thereof, and the stone Wall thereof was broken down Then I saw And considered it well, I looked upon It and received instruction Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little Folding of the hands asleep, so shall thy poverty Come as one that travelth And I want as an armed man So what are we dealing with here? We're dealing with someone That has a vineyard, that has like a wall That has all these different things about it And it's broken down It's grown over, you know why? Because you have to maintain that stuff You have to maintain a building, you have to maintain a house If it's not maintained, it will fall apart When we design buildings It's designed in the intention That you're going to maintain it You can't just expect Building, I mean even like the The ancient buildings Like in Rome and different places like that They eventually fall apart If you don't maintain it Now if they would have maintained that Over millennia, it would still be The way it was before But if you let it go, it will fall apart It will grow over You'll have trees coming out of your walls Or whatever the case may be And that is something that Has to do with being lazy It takes work to maintain something And go to 1 Peter 4 1 Peter 4 1 Peter 4 And verse 10 Let's look at something spiritual here It's not all spiritual But this is more of like being a steward Over spiritual matters And here's the thing If you're faithful And honoring and respectful Over things that are physical That will translate into things that are spiritual Because if you have integrity To take care of things And maintain things And do those type of tasks Physically That will translate very well Going soul winning Taking time out of your day to go do things For other people And that translates very well So this is very pertinent But it also shows you that There's a bigger picture here Because If you don't maintain your vehicle And it completely just falls apart Before it should You know what? You're the one that has to fork out the money To do that To deal with that But at the same time That will translate over into spiritual matters In 1 Peter 4 and verse 10 It says I love this verse because It's basically saying if you've received the gift What? The gift of eternal life You have salvation The gift of God which is eternal life If you've received it He's saying even so minister the same Good stewards of the manifold grace of God So a good steward Someone that gets saved a good steward Would be to tell someone else To show someone else To basically Spread that abroad The grace of God because listen the grace of God Is for every single person in this world He died for every single person He died not for our sins Only but also for the sins of the whole world And so We need to Take heed to being a good steward on physical matters Because it does translate over To the spiritual matters Because obviously winning someone the Christ Means more Than taking care of your vehicle Means more than taking care Of your toys Taking care of your clothes Taking care of Whatever you have Obviously the spiritual Realm is going to be everlasting But taking care Of those physical things The smaller things He that is faithful in the least Will be faithful in much But he that is in just in least Shall be in just in much So Don't put that off because It does cross over Into The spiritual realm there Also being unthankful For things when you destroy Things that people give you And you know Children and obviously I'm talking to my Children as well you know like I write these sermons Thinking about my children first hand You know but obviously I'm sure if it applies to my children it would apply to everybody Else too When you destroy things and when you don't take care of things That are given to you That's not being thankful That's being unthankful that's being disrespectful That's not being Appreciative Okay which is not in the Bible you know being appreciative But the idea of being thankful Means that you appreciate it Okay And you know I was looking up the term unthankful It actually only mentions the term Unthankful once and it's in 2 Timothy and Neither were thankful as in Romans 1 And both passages are dealing with Reprobates Okay now obviously you can be unthankful And not be a reprobate But it's interesting that in both the Lists of Romans 1 It says because that when they knew God They glorified him not as God neither were thankful But became vain in their imaginations And their foolish heart was darkened It's interesting that that term like neither were thankful And Then in 2 Timothy it talks About for men shall be lovers of their own Selves, covetous, boasters Proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents Unthankful Unholy it's interesting that it's even close To the disobedient to parents But being unthankful and obviously being Disobedient to parents doesn't make you a reprobate either But it's basically stating that someone that is a reprobate Is disobedient to their parents They are unthankful, they are proud They are boasters, they're all of those things Okay But I'll say this whenever I see a list dealing with those that are Rejected by God I don't want to be I don't want to be guilty of any of those things that are on that list Okay Because these are attributes Of children of the devil as being Unthankful Appreciative And we need to be thankful for the things we have And I know it's not Thanksgiving, you know that's past But the idea is that You know being thankful for what you got If you're thankful for what you have You'll take care of the things that you have Okay And if you don't take care of the things that you have Then you're not thankful for the things that you have Those do go together Now The last thing I want to show Or show you here Go to James chapter 1, James chapter 1 Because I was going to show you, you know I kind of quoted to you First Timothy where it talks about You know we brought nothing into this world And is evident or is certain we can Carry nothing out Having food and raiment let us be there with content If you're Content with just food and raiment Anything that you get above and beyond That you're going to look at as being Precious and something that's just Not I guess not Expected And this is something that I've always wanted to instill On to my children That they should never expect Any gift on Christmas That's right I mean I know it's hard because obviously when I was a kid I expected gifts on Christmas And they're going to get gifts On Christmas I mean unless it's the end times And we're just trying to survive But Knowing that they know every year That someone's going to get them a gift or something like that But here's the thing In your mind you should say I don't expect anything Because you're not Ode anything The whole point of Christmas and gifts Or giving gifts in general is that it's not owed to you And let me ask you this Does God owe us salvation? No It's freely given to us though And a gift is freely given to us And when it comes to gifts You need to look at it that way That I don't deserve this I didn't earn this They don't have to give it to me They're not obligated To give it to me God's not obligated to save us But he did because he loved us And when you look at Christmas that way And you look at gifts and birthday gifts That you get as far as like I wasn't expecting this This is above and beyond what I was expecting Then you're going to appreciate anything And you're going to be thankful For what you get But the mindset No, I should get everything On this day Or even this I should get the same or more Than my sibling Obviously As parents we try to equal things out We're not going to just load up one child And be like alright Joseph Here's your coat of many colors The rest of the kids get Nothing Obviously most of us as parents We're going to be equal handed As much as we can When it comes to what we give our children But in the end We need to teach our children To expect nothing Because we don't As parents we don't owe you Anything on Christmas The reason we do it Is because we care about you And we do like giving you nice things But I'll say this If my kids Are not going to be grateful for the things That they get that's going to stop real quick If they start Being spiteful Or entitled To what Is given to them Then that's going to stop really Quick Because I'm not going to raise children That are just These entitlement type of children Okay we have enough of that in the world Okay So there's nothing wrong with giving gifts There's nothing wrong with having money But there's dangers with it Okay There's dangers to him that loveth gifts Okay the Bible teaches that in Proverbs And obviously that's talking about judgment You know getting bribes and all that Does apply. Go to James chapter 1 verse 16 It says Do not err my beloved brethren Every good gift and every perfect gift Is from above And cometh down from the father of lights With whom is no variableness Neither shadow of turning Listen up children The only reason that I have money and have a job Is because God allowed it to be that way The reason that your parents have money Have a job is because God allowed it to be that way And it was given to them by God Every gift, everything that I have Is only because God has allowed me to have it And blessed me to have it That means everything that I give to my children Is only because God has blessed me And allowed me to have it to give to them Now God has blessed all of us And I would say I'm blessed beyond measure For what God has given me But never lose that Never lose the fact that listen The only thing that God owes me is food and raiment Instead of having food and raiment Therewith be content And We need to not be entitled To even a house Entitled to a vehicle Entitled to anything above and beyond Food and raiment And God will provide for us And we as parents are going to provide for our children Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 1 Corinthians chapter 4 And verse 6 Because once you start Thinking that something wasn't given to you And listen I'm not some libtard That's going to be up here stating the fact that You know what you were given that By you know all the government officials And you know that business was given to you No it was given to me by God And by hard work That those things coupled together Is why you know We should get what we get Because we work for what we have God gives us what we have based off His blessings and his mercy He gives us breath to even Walk and live the next day But don't get this mentality that Well it takes a village and you know what If it wasn't for the People in office If it wasn't for the people in office we'd have more than what we got Things would be better off if it wasn't for the people in office So don't get it Don't take it that route where it's like Well you know what yeah you're right I'm going to build that I don't even know who said that I can't remember who said that Was that Obama? So you know what That's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about God obviously giving you That power Whatever the case may be He even said to Pilate you would have no power at all unless it was given to you from above So have that in mind In this passage right here In 1 Corinthians 4 Again this is the passage where it says And I'm just going to look at that first verse there Let me turn to the passage This is the last thing I'm going to show you And then we'll be done So very simple message really Being good stewards over the little things that you're given The physical things that are given in your life Being faithful over those type of things And taking care of those type of things That's going to prepare you to Be able to take care of bigger things And if you don't take care of those little things Then who's going to entrust them to you The true riches And then you know this is our The first two verses that we read off earlier today In chapter 4 here It says Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ And stewards of the mysteries of God Moreover it is required in stewards That a man be found faithful But then you look down at verse 6 And these things brethren I have in a figure transferred to myself Into a pause for your sakes That ye might learn in us Not to think of men above that which is written Notice this That no one of you be puffed up For one against another It says For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou That thou didst not receive Now if thou didst not receive it Or I'm sorry if thou didst receive it Why didst thou glory As if thou didst has not received it Now ye are full Now ye are rich Ye have reigned as kings without us God you did reign That we also might reign with you And he's basically stating that you've been prosperous You have a lot right now And he's like I'm glad But at the same time you're being puffed up As if this wasn't given to you You're being puffed up as if this is something that is entitled to you As if this wasn't given to you And blessed by God And when it comes down To being a waster And someone that's not a good steward I believe you're dealing with a lot of entitlement and pride On the fact that this is owed to you And we should never have that mentality That this is owed to us When it comes to anything in life You know what? You guys don't owe me anything I don't expect anything And you know what? Families in this church have Given us things And I am extremely appreciative But I don't expect any of that I don't expect it. I don't deserve it It's not something that I'm Looking for or like saying you know what You know what? This year I didn't get anything You know What's up guys? You know the first year It was funny because our first year anniversary There was like all these Gifts and everything and I remember Pastor Anderson Was in because You got me something really nice And I still have it But You guys got me something awesome And I remember Pastor Anderson He's like something to the effect He's like what are you going to do when it's a 10 year anniversary Or the 10 year anniversary of the church But you know what? Every year after that We never really did anything real big We kind of have a cake and stuff like that But I'm never looking at everybody like What happened to that? I thought I was going to get a gun every year You know? No like every year I mean I'm happy someone makes a cake You know I think that's great But I don't even expect a cake You know like as far as that goes And here's the thing it's the anniversary of the church not me And obviously When you guys did that there was a persecution That was going on and it was definitely very uplifting To know that like the church was Behind us we were smaller back then We just started and just to know That everybody's on board and all that stuff it was very uplifting But I don't expect that I don't expect that at a 10 year anniversary I don't expect that at a 20 year anniversary I don't expect that at a 50 year anniversary I don't expect any of that And If it does happen It's just going to be that much more Great if it did But don't think that I expect that Or looking for that This sermon is not so that you do that Just so you know But here This sermon is very simple We need to be good stewards And obviously good stewards of God And of the manifold grace of God But before and I had verses on this As far as dealing with a pastor because a pastor Is also to be as a steward Blameless as a steward of God And The bible even talks about one of the qualifications For a pastor is that He rules well his own house All these different things so that he Can rule the house of God And It comes down to the fact that You have to be A good steward so that you Can oversee the heritage of God Right Not being lords over God's heritage But being an overseer Taking the oversight And looking over it Because if you have someone that's not faithful In little things How do you expect them to be faithful over big things And that's what this passage is teaching If you're faithful in the least things You're going to be If you're faithful in that which is least You're going to be faithful in that which is much If you're unjust in that which is least You're going to be unjust in that which is much So don't think that it's going to just Turn around when something big happens It's like the people that say you know what Well when the great tribulation happens I'm going to start serving God Good luck with that Because that's not going to happen You know who's going to be serving God when that happens? Those that are serving God before it happens Do you think you're just going to pick up your Bible And just start going to town soul winning When you haven't been doing it at all You can't do it when no one's mad at you And no one's trying to kill you But you're going to do it when they do? Give me a break And that's the mentality people have They're like well when it starts getting hard that's when I'm going to do it When I get the good things that's when I'm going to be faithful over it No you won't Be faithful Go soul winning when it's easy You'll go soul winning when it's hard And you'll be faithful over that which is much Be faithful over the little things in this world And He will make you ruler over ten cities And over much in heaven Because that's how it works So This is a sermon Because we're right after Christmas And it's something that I'm trying to teach my kids And so obviously I think it's applicable to Anybody in the church It's applicable to us as adults as well Because we need to be thankful and not Be unappreciative or unthankful for things Or expect or be entitled To anything from anybody Oh no man anything But to love one another So that's it with a word of prayer Heavenly Father we thank you for today Thank you for your word and just pray that you be with us as we go out soul winning later on But also just pray that you'd help us To be good stewards Over those things which are least But also over those things which are great And Lord just pray that you'd Prepare us to be good stewards Help us to be good stewards over whatever we have now And Lord help us to be appreciative Thankful and honoring to you And Lord we love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name Amen So brother Dave will come and sing one more song And then we'll be dismissed Alright take your song books and turn to song number four Song number four in your Christmas song books We'll sing It Came Upon a Midnight Clear And if you would stand we'll sing song number four And touch their harps of gold