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Nothing but the blood of Jesus, all the precious is of God. That is, he mightest know, O Father, that I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, and for my part in this I see. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, for my part in this I see. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, all the precious is of God. That is, he mightest know, O Father, that I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, nothing can for sin atone. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, not of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, all the precious is of God. That makes me mightest know, O Father, that I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, this is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, all the precious is of God. That makes me mightest know, no other count I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Whosoever be fair, shout, shout, be sound, spread the blessed tidings all the world around. No town is open, there is where ever man is found. Whosoever will, may God. Whosoever will, whosoever will, send an obligation over hell and fear. He's a loving Father and comes to love you all. Whosoever will, may God. Whosoever cometh, be not delayed. Now the door is open and to all you may. Jesus is the truth. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started. And for tonight's first song, once you find a hymnal, go to song number 429. Song number 429, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Song number 429. Everybody sing it out real loud in the first. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Join all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies. With their relics most proclaimed, Christ the Lord in Bethlehem. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold Him come, offspring of a virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh, the God had seen. Hail the incarnate deity, pleased as bird with men to dwell. Jesus our Emmanuel, hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Hail the heaven, Lord Prince of Peace. Hail the Son of righteousness, light and life to all He brings. Risen with healing in His wings, while He lays His glory by. Born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Come these iron nations come, mixing dust thy humble home. Rise the woman's conquering sea, bruising dust the serpent's head. Atoms like this now He face, stamp thine image in its place. Second Adam from above, reinstate us with thy love. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Great singing everybody let's open up the service now with a word of prayer. Oh Lord we love you, we just thank you for a great afternoon of soul winning, thank you for a great church, thank you for everything you do for us Lord we love you and we just ask you to bless this church and fill it with your spirit as we sing unto you Lord and in Jesus name we pray amen. All right for our next song let's go to song number 426. Just a few pages over, song 426, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Song 426. I heard the bells on Christmas day, their old familiar carols play. And loud and sweet the words repeat, of peace on earth, goodwill to men. I thought how as the day had come, the bell cries of old Christendom, had rolled along the looking song, of peace on earth, goodwill to men. And in despair I bowed my head, there is no peace on earth I said, for hate is strong and marks the song, of peace on earth, goodwill to men. Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead nor doth He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right we live, with peace on earth, goodwill to men. Till living, singing on its way, the world revolved from day to day, have voice a charming chance upon, of peace on earth, goodwill to men. Good evening, thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't get one of our bulletins already and you'd like one, just lift up your hand real quick, one of our ushers can come by and get you one. Inside our bulletin we have the missionary update about Evangelist Urbanic and all the great work that they're doing in the Philippines, and they had 495 salvations for November, and 2800 for the year so far, and so they're really doing great. Brother James is out there visiting them, and so we're really pleased with the work that they're doing out there, and they had a recent sowing missions trip, and they're kind of just Evangelist Urbanic is still kind of exploring other church planting opportunities, while also partnering with, helping, and assisting in some of the church responsibilities of Pastor Stuckey's Verity Baptist Church, and they actually have multiple church plants in the Philippines as well as some other church plants, and so it's a lot of work, a lot of burden. Evangelist Urbanic can help preach some for Pastor Stuckey and helps with some of the church activities as well as just identifying a lot of other opportunities, so make sure you're praying for Evangelist Urbanic, and so we definitely really appreciate him and his family. Also, we're doing our Bible memory passage Matthew 28, but we did do Complete Jonah 2 recently, and I forgot to bring the prizes with me this morning, but I do have some prizes with me this evening, and so if you had completed Jonah chapter number two, you can come on down, and you can claim your prize. This is the benefit of coming to Sunday Night Church, right, is you actually get to come on down, so I got a couple different options here for you. Let's see, I need to open these ones, sorry. So there's either these, these, or you can have one of these. So take whatever you'd like. Let's give them a round of applause. And if I missed you Sunday morning only, so I'll get you next week, all right? So there you go. Nice. All right. Yep, and the real reward is having the Bible in your heart, so there you go. Thank you for those who participate. Of course, Matthew 28 is a little bit more challenging of a passage, and so we'll probably have a little bit better prize for Matthew 28, but definitely you got those last few verses probably memorized. Inside of our bulletin is pretty standard. We've got our service time, soul winning times, church stats. Make sure you're turning that into your soul winning captains. On the right, we have several ladies who are expecting. Please be in prayer for them. We also have our prayer list. Also, if you'd just add to your prayer list, just be in prayer for Miss Eva and Tony Garcia, because his brother passed away, and so they actually are going and traveling down there to go to the funeral. But good thing is, Brother Tony had told me that he'd gotten his brother saved two weeks ago, and so he's definitely very comforted by that, and talk about kind of last minute, and so you never know with people, and we should always be praying for people, even older people that we want to see come to the Lord, and maybe sometimes when they get a little bit closer, have health issues, it's a great opportunity to take the seriousness and the soberness of life, and try to share the gospel with them, and so that's a great testimony, and definitely be in prayer for them as they're traveling. On the back, we have the note about the Turkey bowl, December 7th, and so that'll be a lot of fun. If you have any questions, you could ask me or Brother Marcel. Our ladies Christmas party's coming up, and we're excited for all the ladies who are going to participate in that. Down below, we have caroling on the 9th. I'm going to try and bring some material with me for Wednesday and Sunday, but we really don't necessarily need a ton, but we're just going to ask some of the ladies if they want to make a few cookies. We'll put them in bags, and we can hand them out as we go caroling. Also, we have then a cookie bake-off on the 25th. We just like cookies here. It's the Baptist. And then, of course, January 1st. We've had a New Year's Eve party in the past, but we're just going to make that our January 1st service, which is a Wednesday night, and we'll have a men's preaching and pizza. So that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We'll go ahead and sing our third song, which is our holy, holy, holy, and our special handouts. So if you'd like to sing along with us, holy, holy, holy, there in the special handouts. All right. Holy, holy, holy, in your laminated handouts. Holy, holy, holy. Everybody sing it out real loud on the first. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the classy sea. Cherubim and Seraphim falling down before thee, which word and art and ever more shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide thee, though the eye of sin told men thy glory may not see. Only thou art holy, there is none beside thee, perfect in power and love and purity. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons blessed Trinity. Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter number 22. It's the book of Proverbs chapter number 22. Proverbs 22, the Bible says, A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold. The rich and poor meet together. The Lord is the maker of them all. A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward. He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. The rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity and the rod of his anger shall fail. He that hath the bountiful eye shall be blessed for he giveth of his bread to the poor. Cast out the scorner and contentions shall go out. Yea, strife and reproach shall cease. He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend. The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge and he overthroweth the words of the transgressors. The slothful man sayeth there is a lion without. I shall be slain in the streets. The mouth of strange women is a deep pit. He that is a hoard of the Lord shall fall therein. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want. Bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee. They shall withal be fitted in thy lips that thy trust may be in the Lord. I have made known to thee this day even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things and counsels and knowledge that I might make make thee know the certainty of the words of truth that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that sinned unto thee? Rob not the poor because he is poor. Neither oppress the afflicted in the gate. For the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them. Make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go. Lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul. Be not thou one of them that strike hands or of them that are sureties for debts. If thou has nothing to pay why should he take away thy bed from under thee? Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men. Let us pray. Dear heavenly father I thank you for this day. Just want to thank you for this holiday season reflecting on all that we're thankful for and now as we reflect on Jesus Christ and his birth please help us to have a good heart and be thankful towards you. Please bless the sermon tonight. Please give us a tin of ears in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I want to look back at verse 13 here in Proverbs. The Bible says the slothful man saith there is a lion without I shall be slain in the streets and really what the Bible is describing here is an excuse. There is an excuse that's being delivered of the lazy person making excuses and what I've kind of noticed and I've seen through the years of not only pastoring but even just attending church is sometimes while we don't necessarily fall in the same traps as your televangelist crowd and the mega church crowd and the Joel Osteen blessed life crowd where we think that everything's about getting money and riches we could kind of fall into maybe a little bit different trap where we almost elevate poverty or elevate being poor and what I've noticed is it almost seems like sometimes this mentality is a dangerous mentality that's just an excuse for sinful behavior and so what I want to preach about this evening is this idea of poverty mindset excuses. Poverty mindset excuses and the Bible is very clear that no matter how much money you have that has no impact on your character. The Bible makes it abundantly clear the poorest person in the world could be the greatest person in the world and the richest person in the world could be the greatest person in the world. I mean Job is pretty much the most wealthy person on the planet and is considered the greatest person in the world. John the Baptist is considered the greatest man born among women has nothing. Jesus has nowhere to lay his head it's considered great. The apostles when they go through talk about I mean silver and gold have I none so obviously there's a wide array even certain men go through both experiences. Joseph at one point in his life is in prison with nothing and then later is the second in charge of the entire kingdom and so the amount of money you have the abundance of possessions that you have does not determine your character worth value whatsoever. It's completely meaningless in the context of you as a character or a person but what is dangerous is a poverty mindset and this poverty mindset that causes excuses for sinful behavior. So here is a very clear example of one of the things I'm talking about where someone will make an excuse and they have an ulterior motive. What is the ulterior motive of this particular person? It's just to be lazy and what I've noticed is sometimes people they almost attack people that have more than them or do better than them or more successful than them or are doing great things that they almost attack them as being not spiritual or not godly whereas really they're just trying to make an excuse for the fact that they're lazier than that other person. It's not that they're necessarily more godly and more spiritual because you compare them you say well they're both going to church the same they're both going soul winning they're both reading the bible like from a spiritual checklist it's the same but then the one's doing better maybe in the world or carnally or has more possessions and they act like they're less spiritual because somehow they have more carnally and really often the case is the problem is the person's being more lazy and they're really kind of lashing out or attacking someone that has more of them really just so they feel more justified in their own laziness they're just making excuses and and you'll see these excuses all the time they'll say oh the reason why I can't get ahead in the workplace is because I'm not white you say like what's what's one of the big problems in the quote black community today it's a poverty mindset excuse that claims you cannot be successful in america unless you are white and you know what that's a lie that's a lie and that's an excuse to be lazy and it's an it's not a legitimate and justified excuse because there are plenty of people that are not white that are very successful very hard working do wear very well financially and you know there's no law saying you have to be white in order to be successful in america there's no such thing as systemic racism because it literally doesn't exist there is no laws and outspoken thing in fact I would argue the opposite is true that because of diversity in many in many ways not being white helps you get into college helps you get certain jobs and in with big companies because they want that diversity on purpose they're hiring less qualified candidates and so in reality you probably have a better chance not being white if I were to be completely blunt now again white privilege is usually just you had parents that loved you and you're a christian and that's really the privilege wasn't that you're white because there's plenty of white people that grew up in the trailer park and they don't have any privilege either okay they grew up with meth heads or or whatever bad parents you know there's not some like magical skin that causes you to just have a better life it just doesn't exist there's pros and cons to everything in life but what is bad is just being lazy being lazy and making excuses for being lazy and suggesting that there's some reason why you're not successful other than the fact that you're just lazy and let's be honest a lot of people are poor in america the day simply because they're lazy go to proverbs 26 they won't get a job they won't hold down a job i know people they will have a new job every week they show up late they do drugs literally and then get fired for doing drugs and then claim oh well it's because i'm black or it's because you know i can't get ahead no it's just because they're lazy and derelict and causing problems you know what and then they get mad at other people for having more than them just because they're not lazy and look there's nothing justified and being lazy laziness is going to cause you so many problems in life the bible says in proverbs 26 verse 13 the slothful man said there's a lion in the way of lions in the streets oh that sounds familiar it's the exact same verse you know when the bible repeats itself that's something that we should pay attention to and let me explain something most people in this world make excuses for being lazy you go to work today i go to work and there's always these excuses there are people and and that i work with they're late every day they are late every day and then they always have a new excuse oh well this one light was you know it was really backed up at this one light or oh i didn't hit my alarm or oh i didn't do this and it's just like dude you're just lazy let's just be honest like you can be late every once in a while there can be something that happened that you can't foresee life happens we get it but when you're late every single day you're just a lazy person quit making excuses and just change and it's just so lame instead of people just saying sorry i'm lazy and have no character oh there was traffic okay whatever all the electricity went out my alarm didn't go off every day like you know you're just kind of thinking like how do you have these problems every single day it's really you're just a lazy person it says as the door turned upon its hinges so did the slothful upon his bed yeah you didn't get up that was what would happen okay the slothful height of his hand in this bosom agree with him to bring it again to his mouth there are people so lazy they can't even feed themselves isn't that weird obviously the bible is using a lot of hyperbole here but it's just in a sense there are people out there that are so lazy that just getting up getting out of their chair to go get themselves something or help themselves is too much of a burden and boy it causes so many problems in their life it says here in verse 16 the sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render reason this is important verse because the lazy person always has a justified excuse they always have a justified reason and what i notice is that when people won't work hard and don't do things right they come up with a reason why they're better than other people in their own laziness and that's where this poverty mindset comes into play where people will literally act like they're more spiritual or more godly because they they're they have less money but it's not because they have less money it's because they act like they're more spiritual but the reason is is because they're just simply lazy and it's like look you're not more you're not better than somebody because you have less money you're not better than somebody because you have more money but let me say something you are worse than people when you're lazier the hard worker is better than the lazy person just period okay and so we just shouldn't have a poverty mindset that enables us to have all these excuses of not working hard go to proverbs 20 look at verse 13 the bible says the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury the talk of the lips tended only what does that mean maybe the reason why you're not succeeding in life is because you're just wasting time talking and i've even noticed this and the workplace some people they don't want to work they just want to talk they just want to chat they're just chatting it up with people distracting people not getting things done and look there's nothing wrong with having a conversation with co-workers or being friendly but you don't want to take away from the work you want to make sure that you're still focused on work you're accomplishing what you need to do and you're not just wasting time people just love to hear themselves talk and to chat about everything but you know what it just causes problems and it causes poverty talking too much proverbs 20 look at verse 13 love not sleep lest thou come to poverty open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread what is the bible saying the bible is suggesting that the reason why someone is in poverty or poor is because they're simply not working hard enough or they're not working enough hours or they're just sleeping too much and boy talk about the most common thing you'll see when it comes to homeless people is them just sleeping on a bench in the middle of the day i mean they just i mean they're just literally just sleeping everywhere and they're just lazy and derelict and they just don't want to do anything and the bible is saying hey just get up and get to work and you'll have everything you need i mean that's what the bible is saying thou shalt be satisfied with bread it doesn't say that you'll just have bread it says that you'll be satisfied with bread meaning you'll have everything that you could possibly want everything that you'll need if you just open your eyes and just get to work and be a hard worker go to deuteronomy chapter number eight this is an important point the bible does not teach a poverty mindset in the sense that we should strive to be poor what is the bible saying the opposite the bible is saying awake open your eyes work hard so you don't get poor so that you're not in poverty now again we live in america so i can preach this there are places in this world there are countries there are circumstances where you live in communism you live in all kinds of different situations where you could work super hard and never really escape any kind of poverty i get that and i'm not really preaching to that crowd i'm preaching to an american audience to an audience in texas where there's all kinds of opportunities still we still live in a capitalistic society and you have great opportunities to get ahead and the reason why many people go into poverty is because they're just simply lazy they're just simply not willing to work hard and that causes a lot of problems now that's not the only reason that's one of a that's one reason why that can happen there are still people that are lazy and and rich you know it's you could be lazy and be rich it's like these tik-tok famous people you know what i mean but their riches are going to come to naught pretty soon you know they'll end up you know haste riches coming by haste are going to surely fly away they're going to make wings and fly away but i want to show you that the bible is not teaching and god is not teaching you strive to be poor that is not something the bible teaches it literally was saying the opposite here's more verses on this deuteronomy chapter 8 look at verse number 17 and thou shalt say in thine heart and this is talking about when you've gotten wealth my power and the might of mine hand has gotten me this wealth so god's worried he's saying hey when you get into this rich area when you have the the milk flowing with honey when you have all this great blessing i'm afraid that you might end up forgetting me and then thinking like you're special but he says in verse 18 but thou shalt remember the lord thy god for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he swear unto thy fathers as it is this day now this is what's important about balancing these concepts is the fact that let's say you do work hard and you end up getting wealth or you get riches or you get a lot of money you shouldn't then think again that you're better than other people if someone's working hard and has a modest income and someone works hard and they have a lot of money well if they're both working hard then they're kind of the same in god's eyes but notice that god still gives people though the power to get wealth notice it doesn't say that lord thy god that giveth the power to get poverty the lord that god that giveth the power to get poor you know how easy it is to be poor do nothing you literally have to do nothing to be poor you literally ask a homeless person hey i was kind of interested in your profession what kind of qualifications what all kinds of things do i need to do to get into your profession here he's like pretty much you do nothing right it actually takes work to get wealth but notice that god gives us the power to get wealth why would god give you power to get wealth if he never wanted you to ever get any kind of wealth that doesn't even make sense that would be kind of a fool's errand if god's saying like hey i want you to have the ability and power to do this thing but don't do it no no he's giving people the power and the ability to get wealth but you get it through working hard and being honest and being faithful to god and keeping god a priority in your life and when you turn away from god what does he do he takes wealth away from you he takes the land flowing with milk and honey away from you he takes riches and blessings away from you that's what god often will do and so it's important to work hard and keep god in his priority in your life so that he can give you the power to make wealth go to proverbs chapter 13 go to proverbs chapter number 13 why is america the most prosperous nation on the earth why is it that in america individuals have the greatest individual prosperity and freedom let me tell you something it's because it was based on christian principles and it was built by christian people and they worked really hard and you know how you get wealth by working hard often many people that have money that have built something they had to work very very hard to get there a lot of hours a lot of time a lot of energy that's how they got there and you say why would someone do that because they're motivated by christian principles of just working hard okay now again not everybody that's making money is doing it honest with integrity and and that's a whole different section you know i probably need to preach a whole sermon on greed greed is essentially the acquiring of wealth through the means of either sin or harming other individuals illegal activity all kinds of stuff like that that's wrong we should never want to acquire wealth through greed we should only want to acquire wealth through working hard as christians but you know what we also want to make sure that we're not having this poverty mindset excuse of acting like well i don't want money because i don't want to be these terrible people that ever make money or something and it's really just an excuse for you to be lazy it's like hey i'm more spiritual than this guy because he works over time or works too much at his job and he's not spending time playing video games like me it's like oh you're so much better way to go way to play video games he doesn't sleep 20 hours a day like i do you know they don't realize that they're replacing laziness with working harder i mean the bible says six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work many people are working much less than full days work six days a week now i'm not saying you have to do that i'm just simply saying that we shouldn't criticize people for working hard for working hard we should really say maybe i'm lazy you know when i see people that work harder than me i'm not sitting here thinking like what a terrible person i'm thinking like i'm kind of lazy there was a lot of guys that i worked with at one company and i was like i'm the laziest person here because i only work like 45 50 hours a week and that was lazy because they're working like 60 hours they're doing stuff at nights and weekends without being asked and i'm thinking like dude i just want to like not look like the worst person here by just doing what i'm expected to do but just doing what you're expected to do made me seem like i was lazy and i didn't look at them as being bad i looked at myself as saying hey i need to kick it up i need to do more i need to work harder you know we should be motivated by people that work hard not criticize them or look down upon them this is what the bible says in proverbs 13 verse 22 a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just but notice the bible says a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children so again the good man doesn't leave poverty he leaves an inheritance this could be physical this could be spiritual and we want both okay go over to proverbs 29 so point one that i really want to talk about and i kind of spent a little bit of time on this one because i think it's most important is when people have this poverty mindset it's really just simply an excuse for being lazy and the bible is clearly clear we should not be lazy whatsoever we should encourage laziness we should be hard working and if god's giving us the power to make wealth we need to do that but obviously always recognizing that it's god that gave us that ability it's god that gave us these opportunities and if you know what you do better than other people we shouldn't look down on them we should just encourage them to work hard too just say hey i work hard you work hard let's all work hard together some of us are going to have more than others some are going to have less than others but you know what we just don't want lazy people on the team we want people to do their job you know when you're playing football when you're playing a sport not everybody's the same position not as the same skill level not everybody's going to do the same thing but you want everybody just do their job and work hard at it you don't want the lazy guy just because uh it doesn't matter what position it is you don't want the lazy guy even if he's really good you don't want him to be lazy you know you don't want to be the ryan leaf of quarterbacks who was really talented but a lazy not a hard worker and you know the quarterback position is really important think about this if somebody is not very skilled and not very good at making wealth is lazy it doesn't have that much impact but what about somebody that actually was really smart and really capable had the potential of making a lot of money if they worked hard what if they're lazy that actually has a worse impact you know because that person could have actually done something really big maybe acquired a lot of wealth and used that for good so you know what we want to make sure that everybody is doing their part and working hard and is not being lazy you know being lazy is not a virtue being a hard worker is a virtue proverbs 29 i want you to turn and look at verse number three here's a second poverty mindset excuse that often happens and it says in verse three who so loveth wisdom rejoices his father believe that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance many people are spending their money on stupid things wasting their money and making bad investments and that caused them to end up being poor and then people that are making wise investments end up increasing their wealth and then this poverty mindset again looks down upon people for making wise investments when they themselves are making bad investments what are bad investments harlots that's a bad investment okay that's not something and notice what the bible says who so loveth harlots spendeth his substance what is that he's going he's becoming poor he's losing his money he's wasting his money he's not using it in a wise way what are other really bad investments drugs drugs are really really bad investments gambling really really you know people aren't becoming rich by gambling the only people becoming rich by gambling are the casinos the casinos love gamblers it's it's interesting the casinos are these like beautiful gorgeous buildings that are ever expanding somebody's winning it's not the gambler i mean it's really a bad bad investment scams the lottery and and you know honestly people just waste their money on junk they just buy stuff that they don't need they don't use they're not going to do much with and you know they also are just bad with money where they're spending money they don't have and putting on a high interest credit cards and not able to pay them off and then they're just spending tons of money on interest that they don't have to they're spending tons of money on even payday loans a lot a lot of people they get themselves in bad binds and they end up having it a payday loan which please never get a payday loan ask somebody for help before you get a payday loan because it's just it's you're being taken advantage of ripped off you know and again we shouldn't look down upon people that are poor or have hard times or go through issues but we also shouldn't look down upon people that didn't spend all their money on harlots drugs alcohol and interest and actually took their money and invested it in something that's a good investment like real estate or precious metals or something like that and they actually multiplied their money maybe invested their money into a business or invested their money into something that can actually help them and benefit them and then people look down upon the thing like oh man this guy is a bad person because he always reinvest his money into his business or his house and he has all this money and i was always investing it into video games and all kinds of drugs and alcohol and knickknacks that are meaningless eating out at mcdonald's for 50 or whatever and so they end up not having much money and they look down upon each other you know we want to make sure that we don't have this poverty mindset excuse of saying well this person's a bad person because they're look look what they have and it's really just a result of them making good choices with their money as opposed to you having made bad choices with your money because if you had made good choices with your money you'd be in the same boat as them but because you didn't well now you're the one that's suffering from that particular situation go to proverbs 22 we should make sure that we're not making poor investments and look again this really comes from a lot of the quote this this idea of white privilege and this black community the black community quote unquote i don't even believe in it but you know it's just this liberal terminology they'll suggest like oh the you know because of systemic racism white people have more money than black people and it's like maybe that's true of course that there's maybe more wealth in one group than the other but if you really were to just take a sample from each group and look at them you'd be like okay well one group's investing in businesses real estate and precious metals and the other group's investing in payday loans high-interest credit cards drugs alcohol and all this and it's like really what's the problem is the problem because of skin color again or systemic issues or government laws or is it one group is making wise investment choices and the other groups making bad investment choices and again then they act like they're better than other people well i'm not like these you know white people they're horrible and snobby and blah blah blah and it's like no no they're just making good choices with their money and you're not you know it doesn't make them worse and in fact to me you're worse because you're spending your substance on harlots and drugs and alcohol and lottery tickets and this thousand dollar weave you got in your hair you know that was a bad investment okay there are all kinds of people making all kinds of bad investments and we need to make sure that we're not investing in things that don't make sense wasting our money on junk how are you being a good steward at that point you're not but again the poverty mindset would act like there's no accountability for how they spend the money they have why would god give you more money when you're not even a good steward of what he has given you proverbs 22 verse 7 the bible says the rich rule it over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender the bible paints the idea of debt as being negative yet poor people almost think that like debt is a virtue debt is not a virtue i've had people argue with me about this and and i'm thinking like there's something there's something you're not getting okay they almost think that like renting a house is better than owning a house and i'm thinking like well technically the answer is just no but obviously in certain circumstances it could be if you're moving or temporary needing a dwelling place you don't want to buy some houses because you'll lose money fast okay there's all these closing costs and fees and blah blah blah and renting could be a great option but at the end of the day we're all being taken advantage of from anything we're renting leasing or having to get debt and taking it out of and we all have to live somewhere we all need a car to drive to work and so you know i think that debt is an absolute necessity for housing and cars if you don't own a house and you don't own car or cars probably have to acquire debt in order to get those necessary things now i do not believe in though that you need to acquire debt for a thousand dollar weave on your head i don't think you need to acquire debt in order to buy some 72 inch tv which nowadays they're free basically but back in my day tv's used to be expensive okay you know i don't think you need to acquire debt in order to keep up with the joneses and have the latest fashion and have all this kind of stuff that's not good but you know what to say well i'm not going to acquire any debt because debt's bad so i'm going to rent from silverstein and i'm going to lease my car you're really actually making again bad investments okay so you know biblically speaking when people enter the promised land they have their own lot their own inheritance they have their own source of income until you're basically self-sustaining in those areas you should probably need to get debt to get out of debt in a sense okay you're in a hole and you kind of need that debt to climb your way out of it but in general what is the bible saying debt's a bad thing because the borrower is servant to the lender and you know america is not better off for the amount of debt that we've acquired for the amount of debt that we've entered into and all the usury and the interest that's compounding on top of that it's causing so many more problems and we live in a society where they think that we should live by debt credit cards loans loan sharks payday all kinds of different debt scams we have elderly people being taken advantage of by reverse mortgages and all kinds of things like this whereas look because of our society and the way it's built debt's a necessary evil for most of us and we're going to have to have that maybe even our whole lives but if you could become debt-free that's great and that's what we should have the the whole of society like our whole society our whole country should be debt-free i mean debt is not a thing that's necessary it's only necessary for jews to extract wealth from our nation okay and bankers and all kinds of stuff but that doesn't need to be the case and it doesn't make everybody rich to not have debt it's just normal we're in a poverty mindset as a whole nation thinking that debt is somehow a normal thing when it's not debt is not a good thing it's not a normal thing you could have whole societies functioning with zero debt you know especially you think about in the old testament i mean you have your parents have 20 acres of land they have the farm you're a young man hey then they section off a section for you or you earn up money you buy your own land and you're just buying it you're not like doing it on loan or on mortgage the mortgage was bad when you had no money and you're starving and you could read about joseph doing this to his own people they had to mortgage their stuff after all their money had been dried up and they were you know in a bad situation we're just basically like one step away from money failing in our entire economy collapsing because of debt like there's layers like a normal healthy society no one has debt and not only that we own large sections of land and houses so then what happens is you also have this cash reserves so the first step is you lose your cash reserves the second step is you end up having to mortgage your land then the third step is you're literally a slave and what we don't understand as american society is we're all like so close to just becoming a slave okay because we have this stupid poverty mindset in our society we should be striving to be debt free and having cash reserves that would be healthy okay as a society but that's you know not realistic we're pretty far from that as a society and i'm not looking down upon people that have debt because we all have debt probably most of us have debt it's very rare that people don't have debt but it doesn't mean that it's right it doesn't mean that's the right mindset it's a poverty mindset excuse and you know people in like every generation before us did not have a 3 000 square foot home with a five car garage and a swimming pool okay and it's like well that's the only way i can get that is with debt and it's like okay and look i'm not even mad at you if you do but i'm just simply saying there are ways to still have a nice house nice cars or whatever and you could even avoid debt and maybe even better for you if you end up having a nicer home and you have to acquire debt that's how we all operate and in some cases especially now with the way interest rates work having a loan is even better than not because you know i got my house refinanced during like the the lowest part of interest rates and i think i have like a 2.65 percent interest rate and now interest rates are so high that's like i think five and a half or six percent if you're going to try and get a mortgage that cds are now like four and a half or five percent so what's crazy is that actually paying off my mortgage does not help me financially if i had extra income i'd be better off financially by buying a cd and getting four and a half percent interest on my money then paying off my mortgage and reducing 2.65 so it's even crazy is how weird our society is on some of those issues so again having debt can have its advantages i get that but in general we should not have a debt mindset we should not think that is a good thing we should try to avoid that when we can and only use debt sparingly use it in a wise way and not think that it's a positive thing go to ecclesiastes chapter 10 so what points am i making number one poverty mindset excuse excuse to be lazy there's an excuse to be bad with money and there's an excuse to acquire debt when you don't need it and you shouldn't have it and you know all these things should be avoided by christians we should make sure that we're not lazy we should make sure that we are not making bad investments and number three is we should make sure that we're not acquiring debt that we don't need to have there is debt to have and we all got to have that and i am making that clear as a distinction but there's a lot of debt that people get that they don't need there's a lot of debt that they should probably avoid and it's digging them bigger into a hole here's the fourth thing of this poverty mindset it's an excuse for you not having skills and you know what that is not a a legitimate excuse that's not a good thing what does it say in ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 10 if the iron be blunt and you do not wet the edge then must be put to more strength but wisdom is probably direct so imagine you got two guys chopping trees in the forest and guy a chops 10 trees in an hour guy b chops 10 trees in two hours guy b says i'm better than you because i worked for two hours it's like no the guy that worked for one hour is better than you because he was smarter and his axe was sharper and he was more efficient and so that was the better outcome yet this poverty mindset almost somehow praises sometimes the idea of working harder not smarter working more when you don't have to and you know what we should strive as christians to get more wisdom more understanding go back to proverbs chapter 4 and i go into a lot of proverbs because i want to give you a lot of the just general wisdoms from this and i want to use clear statements not just stories or parables but we should be striving to be working smarter and you know in the workplace it's not fair trees got to get chopped but some axes are sharper than others and some careers pay better than others some skills pay better than others and in fact i'll be honest sometimes there are jobs out there that are way more skilled than maybe a job i have or other jobs but they just don't pay well because it's been replaced by technology or whatever and so sometimes it's not even necessarily being the quote most skilled it's the most skilled in the context of what actually delivers the bucks and so it's important to think about what is valuable in the marketplace and not become a dinosaur and to not get replaced or not to have irrelevant skills you can get a lot of degrees today and have a lot of wisdom from college and it benefit you not much in the workplace because it just doesn't really generate a lot of revenue you know a degree in gender studies is probably not going to give you a lot of revenue there's a lot of you know i went to school and it's basically kind of known later i wish i'd known this before but you get a degree in business studies or management or marketing some of these you have no tangible skill set to offer the workplace and they really don't care it's like oh you have a management degree so you know nothing yeah okay whereas it's like someone graduates with an engineering degree or an accounting degree or something they're like oh okay this guy actually knows something they have some skill they have something to work with you know you're in the medical field those people a lot of times have skills people that and you know go to law school you're going to learn a lot so not everything's equal not everything's the same not all jobs are the same not all jobs give the same skill set even in software i've done a lot of software work not all companies you will get a lot of benefit from even working for them they could have proprietary code or working on older products and you really don't get much education you don't get to use that much and if you have to get a job in the future they're going to be like yeah you don't really have much value you don't have much skill you haven't done much and so you have to be careful thinking about what kind of jobs what kind of skills what kind of things you're doing and what that offers into the workplace i'm always typically putting my finger into the air and thinking like what is the workplace looking for what jobs are growing what jobs are not growing what skills are people needing learning i've been thinking about this for my kids you know and while i know a lot of software by the time my kids become 18 19 20 and enter in the workforce my skill set may actually be completely irrelevant what may actually be relevant is like learning ai and robotics and all kinds of different things with cyber security and stuff and so i want to think about that and i want to make sure i'm keeping my kids up to speed on like what is actually going to be relevant and needful into the workforce into the job force and so they don't have to just be do you want fries with that and that job is really easy to replace i've been to panda express there's a panda express near my house it uses ai to order who's has anybody else done this yeah it was it was weird it's just like back up and express what would you like and i'm just like you know i'm just giving the order but here's what i'll say it got the order right exactly right every single time and everything i said dialed in i'm thinking like this might be better than the pothead you know this might be better than the meth head i'm like if you guys can do better than i mean think about it they're like hey we want to use ai for a drive-through and they're like i don't know if ai can replace a you know person it's like it's the meth head it's like the the bar of entry was pretty low you know and hey they're gonna start replacing a lot of these low level jobs i better figure out how do i program the ai that takes the order now you know what i mean think about the jobs of the future and things that matter now there's going to be some blue-collar skill level jobs that'll never need replaced they're probably never going to figure out a robot to fix your plumbing and electrical and to build everything necessarily but you never know and you might have to keep up with technology you might have to start wetting that edge again in the workplace and getting some more skills that's a positive thing we don't have a poverty mindset of of being lazy again not acquiring skills what does the bible say in proverbs chapter four verse five get wisdom get understanding forget it not neither decline from the words of my mouth forsake or not and she shall preserve thee lover and she shall keep thee wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding exalt her and she shall promote thee she shall bring thee to honor when thou does embrace her wisdom promotes you learn something get some understanding get some skills that will promote you but often people just make excuses for not learning not studying not getting skills whatever and you know what it doesn't make you better to just not have skills we need to learn to have some skills go to ecclesiastes chapter 11 go to ecclesiastes chapter 11 and look at verse number six so we don't want to have excuses for being lazy making bad investments having a debt mindset not having skills we just need to work harder work smarter we need to make good investments we need to avoid debt when we can here's another thing is we need to take some risk every once in a while ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 6 says in the morning sow thy seed and in the evening hold not thine hand for that knows not whether they shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be a light good you know a lot of people just won't make risks won't take risks won't take a chance won't do something and then they just again it's just i'm i'm you know making excuse for the fact that i'm unwilling to do something most of it just stems from being lazy let's just be honest go to exes chapter 20 take some risks you know you could get mad at the guy for owning a business and having lots of money and you not but that guy took some risks that guy i guarantee lost some sleep that guy i guarantee had to work some extra hours i guarantee that guy had to do a lot of extra things and we shouldn't despise people for having more than us especially when they had to work hard to get it when they had to lose sleep in order to get it when they had to take risks to get it when they had to make wise investments to get there you know what we should actually look to that person's example and say wow that's something to be praised that was an honorable thing not a bad thing because we don't have this poverty mindset of making excuse and what i notice is this is the real danger of the poverty mindset is not only will it cause you to be lazy but it causes you to be covetous to be covetous and i think that a lot of people have again a lot of things upside down in the bible they think that rich people are covetous and poor people are not when in many cases it's actually the poor people that are covetous it's poor people that are covetous because the rich guy has stuff you know it's really hard for you to be covetous of poor people because there's not anything there to be covetous of you know people are covetous of people that have stuff i mean look what it says in exodus chapter number 20 verse 17 thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house who do you think when we're going soul winning in the areas that we go soul winning in you're typically not like man this is i wish i lived here especially if you're in a receptive area if you're in a receptive area you're not really struggling with covetousness now when we go christmas caroling that might be different right but i'm saying like whose house do you typically covet the guy in south dallas or in south lake okay it's a little bit different why because you usually like something that's nice right you're usually going to covet someone that has a nice house or what other things here that's not covering the neighbor's wife nor his manservant nor his maidservant nor his ox nor his ass nor anything that has neighbors people will often covet things that are someone else's they look at this guy that worked hard did something successful has a nice car has a nice house has a nice whatever and they fall victim of being covetous of desiring that which is their neighbors and they'll even look down upon them for having it they'll think that they're bad because they have that go to luke chapter number 12 go to luke chapter number 12 if you're looking down upon people for having nice things you should first ask yourself this question am i covetous am i covetous because you know what being covetous is not again how much money you have it's what's your mindset hey this guy has a nice car good for him oh yeah i can't believe it's a nice car maybe you're covetous maybe you have a bad heart maybe you have a bad spirit about that person and why are you mad at them you're not mad because they have a bad car you're mad because you don't have a nice car you're not mad at them having a nice house you're mad because you don't have a nice house you're not mad at them having a good job you're mad because you don't have a good job you're not mad at the fact they have a nice wife you're mad that you don't have a nice wife but you know what instead of constantly desiring that which is your neighbors and keeping up with the joneses and worrying about what they have why don't you just praise god and thank god for what you do have and then if you say i want more say why don't i work hard why don't i actually make good investments why don't i actually avoid debt when i don't need it why don't i actually work smarter why don't i take some risk and then maybe i could have something instead of just being mad at people for having stuff you know that's not the right attitude the right attitude is simply saying i'm content with what i have and if i want more i'll work hard to get it but not getting mad at other people for having worked hard and getting something that doesn't make any sense luke chapter number 12 look at verse 15 nor will it help you anyways and he said on them take heed and beware of covetousness for a man's life consisted not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth this is important because you'd say like okay we shouldn't worry about what we have absolutely no one's value or worth is in the context of what you own but why is that statement made why does this verse exist in the bible let's read the verse right before it what is the verse right before it i want to actually read two sorry and one of the companies said and a master speak to my brother they divide the inheritance with me and he said in a man who made me a judge or divider over you so somebody asked jesus a question jesus make sure this guy gives me some stuff and then what is jesus rebuking with hey it's not about the abundance of the things that you possess but what was that guy's problem that guy is covetous and he wants to make sure he has stuff he wants things he's desiring somebody else's things he's upset with the idea of somebody having more than him i want to make sure i get mine i want to make sure it's divided and he's like a communist and it's not fair if he has more than me this guy is not content if his brother has more than him let's make sure it's equal and you know what that is communism wrapped in a bow for you is this mindset of no it's not fair that this guy has more money than me let's make sure everybody has the exact same paycheck it doesn't matter that the guy literally works harder is smarter does a better job makes wise investments now let's make sure we all have the same car same house same everything and you know what the government ends up having all the money and nobody has anything because communism doesn't work communism is stupid communism is wicked it's unbiblical you know it makes sense some people have more some people have less and you know why some people work harder and some people don't and some people god gives the power to make wealth and some people don't take advantage of what god has given them but you know what the covetous person is mad at the idea of somebody having more than them and you know what it's the wrong mindset the right mindset is hey it doesn't matter how much you have and if you're unsatisfied with what you have work harder open your eyes earlier get smart do something about it don't complain about it don't get mad at somebody else for what they have take heed and beware of covetousness why did he say beware of covetousness because this guy was covetous he wanted things and he desired things that he shouldn't have and we shouldn't consist our life on the things that we don't have we should worry about the things that we do have this whole passage is really great of course we want to balance ourselves look at verse 21 so is he that laid the treasure for himself and is not rich toward god god has a parable he talks about a rich man who's only focused on acquiring physical wealth and we don't want to be that person but we also don't want to have a poverty mindset that suggests or gives us this idea of hey you know what we should never strive to make any kind of money or do anything those people are bad those people don't care about god you know that's not that's not true necessarily now the bible does say and i want to use this as a balancing verse go view it go view to revelation three i kind of want to just give you some more thoughts here but the bible says labor not to be rich cease from thine own wisdom so what does that mean though how can you have a verse that says that god is giving you power to make wealth how is the bible telling you to open your eyes lest you come to poverty and then i was also saying labor not to be rich well i believe what the bible is trying to explain the idea of laboring not to be rich is again a mindset you're working with a goal in mind what is the goal to be rich okay but you have to think about a few things number one the bible does clearly condemn striving to be rich so where you cut corners or you cause evil to get there you're being hasty you're doing things improperly you're not doing things legitimately there are unethical ways to make money the bible talks about usury's unjust gain you know making money off of illegal activity such as prostitution such as drugs such as hiring people to kill people the obvious prison industrial complex bribes extortion we have lobbying in the political sphere people who take positions of power and authority simply to acquire wealth for themselves there's all kinds of ways to make money improperly and that would be laboring to be rich they're not actually just working hard and making money they're they're trying to just get money from an improper illegal means or it could also be that your goal of being rich is because you just want to be lazy again like why is it that some people want to have a lot of money and so they can lay around and commit endless fornication and travel and just eat and do nothing well you know what that's bad that's a bad mindset that's the wrong reason to even have money or have wealth in the first place and the person that has that mindset will squander any wealth that they get anyways so really why would god want to bless that person or give that person great riches when they're going to ruin it and waste it you see this with a lot of celebrities athletes who acquire a lot of wealth quickly and they just squander it and waste it and they had kind of the wrong mindset people that win lottery or gamble come into this money and then they just wanted it to be lazy and to just be a derelict and it ends up destroying them so we want to make sure that when we're working when we get promotion when we start businesses that we're not going to cut corners we're not going to do things illegal we're not going to take advantage of of customers and our society and we're also not willing to make money through illegal or unjust gain we want to we don't want to get rid we don't want to make any kind of wealth from that type of activity and then additionally we're not striving to make money so that we can then just be lazy derelict commit fornication and do whatever we're making money for the fact that we're just working hard i mean we have to make money the bible makes it abundantly clear if a man provide not for his own especially day for his own house he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel we have to be able to feed our families and take care of the house of god and provide money you know if people are making tons of money and they're using it on their family and spiritual things in the church and whatever how could you ever say that there's anything wrong with that that person's not laboring to be rich though that person is laboring for another reason what are they laboring to have money to provide for their family they're laboring for their family they're laboring for god i mean the bible says that you when you work you're supposed to work for god you're supposed to do things for god and of course sometimes god promotes people into high positions of authority he gives them great wealth gives them great riches and they're supposed to be used for god specifically okay so if someone did come into riches or wealth they should be careful that they use that money for righteous means and continue to make wise investments but nobody should be laboring just to be rich that is a bad mindset that is the wrong idea now i want to transition the sermon just a second the point that i was making those that we shouldn't be covetous and we shouldn't be desiring other people's stuff and other people's possessions but there's nothing wrong with enjoying the fruit of your labor and i'm not going to go to the verses for this point but point one was this we shouldn't have this poverty mindset and be lazy we should be hard working we shouldn't make bad investments we should make wise investments we shouldn't acquire debt that we don't need we should try to avoid debt that we don't need we should not stay in low level skill positions we should strive to have skills we should work smarter we should not ever avoid all risks sometimes we need to sow thy seed and take some risk in life and we shouldn't covet other people's possessions and things and worry about whatever else has got going on we should rather just enjoy whatever we have and enjoy the things that god has blessed us with i want to chance i want to just take all those points and then and just make them into one other context what if we apply this into a spiritual context now what if we apply this into a church context and what i've noticed is it seems like this poverty mindset excuse also exists in churches and in pastors minds where they almost think that having a big church or a successful church is somehow bad and having these small churches makes them more godly and it's honestly an excuse for them being lazy because you know what the size of a church again is meaningless just like i talked about riches it is meaningless having a small church there's nothing wrong with it but also having a big church there's nothing wrong with it we have to understand and ask questions of why these things exist if you just start a church it should probably be small but you know what if you've been pastoring for 30 years in a big area hopefully you grew right if you're doing i mean if you're doing things right and hopefully you reach a lot of people because we need big churches in the world not just small churches but there's nothing wrong with having a big church we shouldn't look at a big church and say this church is obviously not godly has turned away from the things of the lord isn't doing things right look they're a big church look there could be a big church that's still on fire for god and preaching the hard truths of the bible and we shouldn't look at a church that's small and think like oh they're not very good because they're small no there could be great churches in this world that are very small but what we don't want to do is have a poverty mindset and say you can only be small and be godly no that's not necessarily true either okay why why are some churches not big it's because they're lazy folks that's the reason why they're not going out and reaching a lot of people doing big works not doing growing a church is hard hard hard work building a church growing people loving on people preaching good sermons doing all the work doing all the events i mean if a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work it takes work to build a church and we shouldn't despise people that build big churches because i guarantee every big church there was a lot of work put into that church why would a church be big well maybe instead of making bad investments they're making good investments you know i try really really hard with you know a lot of the money that we get from our church to reinvest it into the church by i mean i mean let's just be honest who in here has ever eaten a meal for free from this church oh yeah that was everybody again right i mean who's gone on a missions trip and meals are paid for gas is paid for lodgers it's like every yeah i'm constantly trying to take our money and reinvest it i've gone to a movie gone to you know see the films that we've made all kinds got a free t-shirt hey you memorized the bible and you got a free gift card or you got a free mug or you got whatever hey you memorized the verse you got a free ice cream i mean we're trying to constantly reinvest the money into the things of god instead of investing it in something else investing it into evangelists that's going to israel that and then they say like oh i wonder why our church isn't growing or doing good well maybe you're putting your money in bad investments you know and why would god want to constantly bless that church with more money if they're going to give all their money to israel or to the temple or to some weird program that they have or you know again i'm not trying to say all churches are bad or all our missionaries are bad but i'm saying i think some churches are probably making some bad investments and then you say like why are they not growing maybe they're investing in women teaching sunday school probably not a good investment they're investing money into a sodomite that is their choir director not a good investment and they cause all kinds of scandals invest i mean the churches have to do something with their money maybe you're not big or maybe you're not being successful because of that how about debt churches should avoid debt that's not necessary and sometimes churches get themselves in a world of hurt because of debt they buy a building they can't afford they purchase things on credit cards that they shouldn't and they get into all kinds of financial or money problems that they shouldn't churches also instead of trying to reach people by actually preaching better sermons and learning the bible and growing they just well i'm going to read more commentaries that's not working smarter that might be working harder because boy it's hard to read commentaries because they're dumb but it's not necessarily working smarter and let me tell you something you know what if you want your church to grow you should gain wisdom and gain understanding because people don't want to come here and learn how to get saved every single week there's churches like that people don't want to come here and me to just pontificate and pretend like i'm smarter than you well actually in the greek it really means this and no one in here can check me no one knows what i'm saying or using fancy vocabulary that you've never heard well if we talk about soteriology you know or we sit here and do a bible study there are churches that do a bible study they won't go through a chapter on wednesday night they'll go through three verses they'll be in they'll be in first john for like five months not five weeks five months you get mad at me for preaching a little long but at least we get through a lot of material i mean you have to admit even though i preach along like i preach long sermons let's just be honest okay but you have to admit i cover a lot of verses i'm still keeping it up to pace i'm still going through the material and i'm preaching a lot of stuff i'm not necessarily just repeating the same point for 50 minutes straight i'm sitting here covering a lot of different stuff people like that people like to learn people like to show up you know what there's a major major expectation on me to preach something interesting fun new i mean you guys i'm you're great but i'm just saying there's a real pressure to preach something that's entertaining not only entertaining educational not only educational biblical not only biblical fresh not only fresh but from the old king james i mean that takes work that takes skill that takes understanding and you say why the church is not growing because the preacher is lame boring lazy a bad investor getting death that he doesn't need to get and in many ways he takes no risks he doesn't make movies like the sodomite deception he doesn't preach hard sermons he doesn't scream at all the feminism he doesn't preach about women wearing dresses and skirts when women walk in wearing pants he doesn't tell people uncomfortable truths to their face when people come up and say hey were you preaching about me he doesn't say yes every single time he doesn't throw people out of church and cause a lot of drama and a lot of issues and a lot of you know things but you know what a lot of them are also just covetous they look at a bigger church and they say oh they must not be spiritual or they're worldly or they're doing something bad or i don't like this preacher or use the word i don't like or whatever and you know it's really just an excuse for their covetousness because they wish they had a bigger church they wish they had the great people that we have here and they're just mad at successful churches you know what nuts to that we don't need to have this poverty mindset you know what i want churches to grow i want churches to get bigger i want churches to reach more people but you know what it doesn't come from having this poverty mindset it comes from saying god has given me the power to make wealth god has given me the power to reach people god has given me the power of god's word you know what god's word reaches people it changes people's lives it can drag people in you know what when we go out weeping we're supposed to bring our sheaves with us we're supposed to get people baptized we're supposed to preach the gospel every single creature and you know what i hate these excuses for being lazy i hate people acting like they're better than you because they're lazy all right you guys you know doing all this stuff you guys have all this extra stuff and they try to criticize you and gainsay you it's all this negative stuff against you while all the time instead of building something they're just criticizing you know what don't go to a church that's just constantly tearing people down and criticizing go to a church that's building something that's reaching people that's taking risk that's trying to get somebody in here we don't want to be the calvinists that really they just have this excuse for being lazy all the time they have this poverty mindset where they think they can't accomplish anything whereas you know what we say we can do stuff we do impact people's lives we really do get people saved we really do bring them in we really do get them baptized we really do make a big difference we really do accomplish stuff on these missions trips we really are reaching people with our sermons and our documentaries and our shows and whatever and you know what nuts to the haters nuts to the gainsayers they're just covetous anyways they're just envious they're just haters and you know what the haters just are going to hate forever anyways and that's the haters nuts to the people that say i want to be poor nuts to the people that say i want a small church you know what hey if you start a small church a humble church god bless you i'm not mad at small churches but you know what why do i want to stay small and you know what you start in your career you don't make much money but why would i want to stay there you know what i want to do i want to work hard i want to make good investments i want to get more skills i want to keep growing and you know what the people that criticize you for actually being successful on that path like oh you mean you stayed up all night and studied stuff and you got extra jobs and you made wise investments and you broke your back and you fixed plumbing and you went in there and cleaned toilets and you cleaned up trash i mean yeah i started a rental company business and the first rental that we ever had after two months the people left and they literally it's like they took trash bags and just opened them up everywhere and their dogs just feces everywhere all over the house and you know what someone had to clean that up you know did that me i had to clean up literal trash from the filthiest and most disgusting people ever but you know what if you ask people to actually start businesses and make money and do something i guarantee they had a bad ugly job one time i bet they had to call somebody and deal with something you know people get mad at managers but managers have to deal with people management management can be rough because you have to manage the crappy people that you work for your company you have to fire people firing people's rough telling people that they are lazy is rough they don't like it and it's funny how in revelation three i wanted to take you here it's almost like there is the exact opposite mindset but it's the same result revelation chapter 3 verse 15 i know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot i would that thou were cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot i will spew thee out of my mouth because thou sayest i am rich and increase with goods and have need of nothing and know it's not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire thou mayst be rich this is the exact opposite of the spectrum but it's the same i'm poor and content being this way because i think that's the best this one i'm rich but i'm content being rich but in both cases they're just lazy the poor guy is lazy to get out of his poverty the rich guy is lazy to realize that he is poor because he's spending his time money and effort energy on the wrong thing we need to make sure that we are hard working no matter where we find ourselves and we're not just hard working in the carnal we're hard working in the spiritual because these people hey they took the advice of the cardinality they said hey let's work hard and get money but you know what they didn't do is they didn't have riches toward god and i don't want to be this poor man poor mindset of a church where we basically never get someone saved never get someone baptized never reach anybody i want us to be rich towards god and that only comes through hard work if we sit here and say oh it's not receptive anymore this this demographic's changed america is not very reachable and we do less soul winning do less missions trips we do less work because you know i talked to somebody today and and i talked to another guy godly guy love him he's pastor he said in the 70s when you would go soul winning you would knock on a hundred doors and get 20 people saved and he said most of them would come to church and get baptized growing a church in the 70s was not like it is today inflation i'll tell you what there's spiritual inflation apparently and i'll be honest with you preaching the gospel before 2020 before covid was much more receptive i don't know something changed and i'm telling you what if it gets harder out there then i'm going to work harder and i'm not going to make excuses and i'm not going to say well it was easier to build a church in the 1970s so we can't do it now no no we just have to work harder and we'll do it but i'm not going to be content being poor i'm not going to be content being poor carnally or spiritually i'm not going to have a poverty mindset i'm going to say let's do something about it let's get to work let's get smarter let's make wise investments let's avoid the debt that we don't need and at the end of the day let's not sit here and be covetous of joel osteen or be covetous of robert morris or covetous of big churches or covetous of jack hyles of the past or 1970s churches of the past let's not worry about what they have or had or whatever let's just say this is what we got and we're going to work with what we got and we're going to be content what we have in the sense that i'm praising god and thanking god but since we want more let's get it by working hard and let's pray to god and let's say god give us more doors than not give us more souls to win give us more soul winners i mean the bible literally says that we're supposed to pray for more labors are you doing that it doesn't say pray for less labor it says praise for more laborers i want this church to grow not for me not for you but for the lost we need more soul winners we need more missions trips we need more people going out there and reaching the loss not less and let me tell you something you know what america doesn't need more debt it needs more money and we need to take the wealth back we need a healthy metal class again instead of just all of us just being one little tiny step away from becoming a slave okay that is not helpful and you know churches are just many churches in america are just one generation away from not existing there are probably a thousand churches in america that if the baby boomer generation was gone they would be gone and i don't want to be that church i don't want to be in that spot i don't want to be that situation we need to work hard and not have this poverty mindset and make excuses all the time we need to have a mindset says i'm going to work hard not going to be lazy and you know what beware of these people they're the holier than now they act like oh you care about yeah i do care get over yourself nuts to you you're lazy if someone's going to criticize me i'm just going to call them lazy because at the end of the day if you're hard working and you're right with god he'll bless you blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly that's what the bible says and you know it's not a joel osteen type of message but at the end of the day it's also not a like let's just be let's be a homeless beggar that is not a virtue let us make sure to eliminate this mindset and let us work hard let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father so much for giving us so much wisdom in the bible thank you for giving us the power to make wealth not just carnally but also spiritually i pray that we would not have all these opportunities and just waste them i pray that we would not be lazy that we would not just take on debt and make bad investments but rather we would be wise stewards of what you've given us we'd be wise stewards of the king james bible we would take advantage of this church that you've blessed us with we take advantage of the soul winners that you've given us that we would reach more lost people that we would get more people to be baptized that we get more people to become members of a church and to serve god and i pray that you would help us to not be covetous of what other people have to be content with what we do have and if we desire more that we'd work hard and pray to you to bless us with in jesus name we pray amen all right in closing let's go to song number 420 song number 420 there's a song in the air song 420 everybody's singing out in the first there's a song in the air there's a star in the sky there's a mother's deep prayer and the baby's low cry and the star reigns its fire while the beautiful sing for the manger of bethlehem cradles a king there's a tumult of joy for the wonderful birth for the virgin sweet boy is the lord of the earth hey the star reigns its fire while the beautiful sing for the manger of bethlehem cradles a king in the light of that star lie the ages in pearl and that song from afar as with over the world every heart lives a flame and the beautiful sing in the home of the nation that jesus is king we rejoice in the light and we echo the song that comes down through the night from the heavenly throng hey we shout to the lovely angel they bring and we greet in his cradle our savior and king great singing everybody you were all dismissed