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

And that's the end of the show. If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe. And if you are not already, be sure to subscribe to the channel. And if you want to join us on our next video, please subscribe to our channel. And as always, thank you and we'll see you next time. We're happy to have our pastor with us. Pastor Thompson's here with us tonight, he's going to preach with us. Praise the Lord. While we're getting ready for the preaching to start though, let's turn in our hymn books to page 257. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord, sing it out folks, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I prove him o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace, to trust him more. On the second, oh how sweet to trust in Jesus, just to his cleansing blood, just in simple faith to plunge me, need the healing cleansing flood, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I prove him o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace, to trust him more. Dial it up just a notch, a little louder you guys, come on. On the third, yes it's sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease better, just from Jesus, simply taking life and rest and joy and peace, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I prove him o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus, just Jesus, oh for grace, to trust him more. On the last, I'm so glad I learned to trust thee, precious Jesus, savior friend, and I know that thou art with me, wilt be with me to the end, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I prove him o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace, to trust him more. Now Joseph's going to pray for us and open us up here. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for this evening, thank you for a pastor and thank you for everybody that came. Blessed service, I pray you're with us, with the singing and with the preaching, dear Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. 274 is our next song, 274. Jesus never fails, amen. Amen. Earthly friends may prove untrue, doubts and fears assail, one still loves and cares for you, one who will not fail. Jesus never fails, Jesus never fails, heaven and earth may pass away, but Jesus never fails. Though the sky be dark and drear, fierce and strong the gale, just remember he is near and he will not fail. Jesus never fails, Jesus never fails, heaven and earth may pass away, but Jesus never fails. 281 will be our last one. 281. 281. I've seen the lightning flash, the thunder roar, I've felt sin's breaker's dashing, which tried to conquer my soul. I've heard the voice of my Savior, he bids me still fight on, amen. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. Leave. I'm sorry, I haven't sang this song in so long. I forgot it was supposed to go to the top. Of course, you guys all know that, right there. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. On the second. The world's fierce winds are blowing, temptation sharp and keen. I have a peace in knowing, my Savior stands between. He stands to shield me from danger, when all my friends are gone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. Up at the top. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. And on the third. When in afflictions valley, I tread the road of care. My Savior helps me carry the cross so heavy to bear. Though all around me is darkness and earthly joys are flown. My Savior whispers his promise never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. Oh, that's good. That's kind of a, that'll be good. Pastors are going to come to our announcements now. I'm ready for them. All right. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Bible Believers Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements. If you need a bulletin, just flip up your hand. One of the ushers will bring you a bulletin. Does anybody need one? Just lift up your hand. No? Everybody got one? All right. On the front cover, we have the verses of the week there. It says if they, it's Psalm 89, 31 through 33. It says if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with a rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from them nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. So great scriptures there. God will punish his children, but he also is ready and quick to forgive, and he is long suffering. So he doesn't just pull out the hammer every time he does something wrong, and I'm glad he's like that because we'd be getting smacked around quite a bit, right? So on the inside there, there's that short message for me. I'm here, so if you have any questions for me while I'm here, or you just want to take some time to talk to me after the service, feel free to come up to me, ask me any questions you want. And if you look at the attendance from last week, we had 25 in our morning service, so it was a good service there. 15 in the evening, and 8 for last Wednesday's service, our July offerings and ties are right there in the middle bubble there. And our salvations, where's the total? 119 for the total for the year, and let's see, looking at, let's see, the salvations, okay. So also, of course, we're family integrated. We do have air conditioning now in the mom-baby room, so praise the Lord for that. I'm really happy that brother Jason came and refilled that tank, and so it would have been a pretty rough summer without any air conditioning, so we were almost at that point. So he came and fixed, well, he at least gave us the instruction how to fix the main area here, and I believe the heat's going to be pumping when we come to winter, too, right? That fixed both things. Okay. Well, we got the insulation anyway, I think, with the heaters. Hopefully, we won't have to do the heater thing, the portable heater thing again, but it did suffice, but we definitely, we probably need to start looking at what it's going to cost to replace all that stuff, and that's probably not going to be cheap, so probably need to start saving for that. But anyway, that's something for a different time anyway. I won't talk about all that tonight, but the upcoming schedule, well, of course, our church services are 1030 a.m. on Sunday, and there's soul winning in between the services, and then we have a 3.30 p.m. service on Sunday, and Sunday evening there, and then we do have a rotating preaching schedule, and Wednesdays are 4 p.m. for soul winning. Do we have anybody out soul winning today? No? Okay. And last month, I had a pretty sore knee, and just as it started to feel better, I dropped something on my toe on Saturday, so I went and got an x-ray on Monday, and I'm pretty sure, well, I don't know, it's probably, I don't know if it's broken or not, but it sure looks broken. My right big toe is pretty rough, so that's why I'm wearing these weird looking shoes. So I would have went with the sandals, but I didn't want to go that crazy. No. I know, exactly. I know. I'm being a Pharisee. I'm sorry about that, but anyway, so, it's just been a little bit rough with my, well, I went, after I smashed my toe, I went and preached, you know, Sunday, and then I went out soul winning and everything, but when I got home, I was like, man, why is my foot hurting so bad? And I took it off, and look, there's like just this huge hematoma that popped my nail up on that right big toe, and it's just like up over the nail bed, and it looks like if you just took like a little pin and just popped it, it would just shoot blood out of it, so it's pretty gross. So, I'm sure that made you all hungry for supper, right? But anyway, yeah, that's, so if you pray that that would heal fast, I'd appreciate it. I'm sure you all have your own ailments. The older you get, the more ailments you get, you know, it's like nothing feels right anymore the older you get, right? Anyway, let's see. The preaching schedule, you can see that on there, and let's see, upcoming events, well, we do have the, our church that we planted in Canada has their sixth anniversary coming up. It seems like there's always an anniversary, right? When you have a lot of church plants, that's kind of what happens, but also to note, October 6th and 7th, if you'd like to see Pastor Amanda just preach in the flesh, I don't think the first snow quite gets here in October, usually, but if you wanted to come down and enjoy a weekend down in Vancouver, you could always come down for the pumpkin patch trip, it's absolutely free, you don't have to pay anything, and we all kind of do this pumpkin patch thing every year, the church pays for everybody to get in, and then Pastor Amanda will be preaching the evening service on the 7th, so if you'd like to come here and preach, it's only a three hour drive for you as the crow flies, if you drive like I drive, or three and a half hours if you drive normally. So, and then there's a missions trip at Faith Ward Baptist Church down in Tempe, that's the 6th through the 10th of November, and then we have a really profound speaker and a very knowledgeable man on the King James Bible, he knows a lot of stuff about the King James Bible, and he teaches all over the world, he's in the Philippines actually right now, and he's going to be preaching for us in December, so just some things to mark on your calendar if that's something you're interested in, and I think that's all we have for announcements, just want to say happy birthday to Joseph also coming up, and is that Iela? Iela, I'm sorry, goodnight, so that'll be coming up the 28th. Alright, so happy birthday, that's all I have for announcements, let's go ahead and sing one more song, and then we'll receive the offering. Is anybody going to come up and sing one more song? Did you sing the third song and you were supposed to wait on that one? Do you just want to play a pretty piano piece while the men come forward and then we'll have so let's have the men come forward and we'll have a word of prayer and then yeah you just we'll just do it after we'll wait until they we'll pray and then you can play the piano piece and then we'll just do the Bible reading and get on with the preaching. So come on come forward guys. It's okay brother Rick. The time fills either way. Alright, brother Paul what do you bless the offering please? Let us pray. Thank you Lord for today Lord. Bless this offering father and bless those who showed who came. Bless the preaching father. Thank you for your love, grace and mercy and for everything you do for us father God. In Jesus' precious mighty name I pray. Amen. Amen. Alright if you guys can turn to your Bibles to Luke chapter number 12 Luke chapter number 12 I think brother Rick is just anxious to hear the preaching. Well you still got 59 verses to go through. Alright Luke chapter number 12 In the mean time when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people in so much that they trode one upon another he began to say unto his disciples first of all beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light and that which ye have spoken in the ear and the closet shall be proclaimed upon the house and I say unto you my friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more no more that they can do but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him which after he that killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea I say unto you fear him are not five sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten before God but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered fear not therefore you are of more value than many sparrows also I say unto you whosoever shall confess me before men him shall the son of man also confess before the angels of God. Be he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God and whosoever shall speak a word against the son of man that shall be forgiven him bond to him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven and when they bring you unto the synagogues and unto the magistrates and powers take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer or what ye shall say for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say and one of the company said unto him master speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me and he said unto him man who made a judge or a divider over you and he said unto them take ye and beware of covetousness for a man's life consisteth not in abundance of the things which he possesseth and he spake a parable unto them saying the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself saying what shall I do because I have no room where I where to bestow my fruits and he said this will I do I will put down my barns and build greater and there will there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods and I will say to my soul soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but God said unto him thou full this night thy soul shall be required of thee then who shall these things then who shall those things be which thou hast provided so it is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God and he said unto his disciples therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life what ye shall eat neither for the body what ye shall put on the life is more than meat and the body is more than raiment consider the ravens for they neither sow nor reap which neither have storehouse nor barn and God God feedeth them how much more are ye better than the fowls and which of you which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one qubit if ye then be not able to do that thing which is least why take ye thought for the rest consider the lilies how they are how they grow they toil not they spin not and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these if then God so clothed the grass which is which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven how much more will he clothe you O ye of little faith and seek not ye what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink neither be of doubtful mind for all these things do do the nations of the world seek after and your father knoweth that ye have need of these things but rather seek ye the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom sow that ye have and give alms provide yourself bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where not thee for projeth neither nor moth corrupteth for where your treasure is there will your heart be also let your loins be girded about and your lights burning and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord when he will return from the wedding that when he cometh in noggeth that may open unto him immediately bless there are those servants whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them and if ye shall come in the second watch and come in the third watch and find them so bless there are those servants and this know that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come he would have washed and not suffered his house to be broken through be ye therefore ready for the son of man that an hour when ye think not then peter said unto him lord speakest thou this parable unto us and even to all and the lord said who then is the faithful and wise steward from whom his lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season blessed is that servant whom the lord when he cometh shall find so doing of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath but if that servant say in his heart my lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink and be drunken the lord of the servant will come in the day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in asunder and will point him his portion with the unbelievers and that servant which knew his lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes for unto whom so ever much is given of him shall be much required and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more I am come to send the fire on the earth and what will I if he if it be already kindled but I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightened till it be accomplished suppose ye that I am come to give on earth I tell you nay but rather division for from henceforth there shall be five and one house divided three against two and two against three the father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father and the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother and the mother in law against the daughter in law and the daughter in law against her mother in law and he said also to the people when ye see a cloud rise out of the west straight way ye say ye say there cometh the showers and so it is and when ye see the south wind blow ye say there will be heat and it cometh to pass ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth and how it is how is it that ye do not discern this time ye and why even of yourself judge ye not what is right when thou goest with thine adversary and the magistrates as thou art in the way give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him lest he hail thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer and the officer cast thee onto prison into prison I tell you that thou shall not depart thence thou thou hast paid the very last mite whew alright I just pray dear god be with pastor tonight I pray you give him a clear mind and boldness to preach your word dear lord in Jesus name I pray amen that was a long chapter maybe I should have picked a different one sorry about that and the even thing that's going to make me even more mad is that I'm only going to use one verse out of the whole chapter the title of my sermon tonight is just simply gambling and I've been preaching some vice sermons and I've been kind of preaching at our home church there in Vancouver and let's see what I preached about last time I was here do you remember smoking yeah quitting smoking is smoking sinful and so really the topic is is gambling sinful is is there is is gambling and most people would say yes but is there a verse that you can find in the bible for me where it says thou shalt not gamble there really isn't let's look down at the verse though and we'll get into the sermon here it says in verse 15 luke 12 it says and he said unto them take heed and beware of covetousness for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth so what is gambling well gambling is where you try to make money off of chance or playing games or staking your money and thinking that some bet is going to come through that you place on something and there's a lot of different ways to gamble you know there's especially nowadays I mean they have scratch offs and keno and you can do sports booking sports gambling online you can go to casinos and of course there's casinos fairly close to here I mean they have how many casinos do they have in this area right here do you guys know? anybody know? legends yeah so there's multiple right there's at least so it's kind of a big thing around here and so you know I'm sure and I really hope I mean you never know that you know I hope there's nobody in our church that is into gambling but to say gambling is gambling a sin well I mean gambling is covetousness you're basically wanting something for nothing really you're wasting money that you have earned to try to get rich for nothing and it is covetous because what you're trying to do is you're trying to get rich you're trying to get gain off of something to do nothing and the Bible is really clear that God wants us to work for what we have and as Christians we should not be partaking in things that have been known throughout history as a seedy way to get money I mean it was against the law to gamble and you know when they started doing the Indian casinos that became like a big thing and you know it's still a big thing today and in most places you can't just put up a casino anywhere you feel like doing it a lot of it's on reservations or you have to go in Nevada it's like there's Las Vegas and I think that you can have casinos pretty much anywhere in Nevada what is the other place that they it's Reno right there's the other place right so but again there's no verse that says thou shalt not gamble but there's no verse that says thou shalt not smoke cigarettes either there's no verse that says not to smoke crack but you know should you smoke crack there's no verse that says not to do heroin or eat magic mushrooms but you know you shouldn't be doing that either and the Bible does talk about being sober or being sober minded so we should be sober and sober minded and there's this verse here is Jesus talking about not being he said take heed and beware of covetousness we should take heed what does that mean well it means to pay attention and to be careful about it don't be covetous and to beware means to be cautious and alert of the dangers of it don't get into being covetous because being covetous is actually something that you would get thrown out of church for so if somebody has like a gambling problem obviously we'd want to get them help we'd want to help them to overcome that because is gambling an addiction yes it is it's an addiction that people ruin their whole lives over they ruin their marriages over they ruin their families over they'll gamble to the last penny and not and gamble away their rent money for the month they'll gamble away their grocery money and let their kids starve over these things and you think well do people really do that yes they do because that is the hook that people you know they design these games to hook you they design these games to win and you know somebody gets some kind of little luck what they call luck there's no such thing as luck time and chance happens to all people and you know if you if you win that's the worst thing you can do is be a first time winner when you gamble because then you're like oh well I won this time and then every time you think you're gonna win something look those scratch off games are just trying to hook you in so that you'll just keep buying the scratch off tickets and then you're gonna you're gonna lose the house always wins have you ever heard that saying before it's because it's true now look at Exodus chapter 20 verse 17 of course you know Wednesday night should be a Bible study and we're definitely going to study the Bible tonight but the Bible actually condemns covetousness God one of the Ten Commandments in the Bible in the in the Ten Commandments is about against coveting it says in Exodus 20 verse 17 it says thou shalt not covet and so when you're coveting what is coveting it's when you want something that doesn't belong to you and it gives us this list here this short list but it can mean anything right but it says thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife nor his manservant nor his maidservant nor his ox nor his ass nor anything that is thy neighbor's when you look at something that somebody else has and you say I want that then you're in dangerous territory because then you're desiring because another word for covet is desire and human beings can't help but desire things but when you start desiring things that belong to somebody else then you start to get to this mindset where you're like well I really want that and I'm going to make sure that it's mine then you get into where you can commit murder you can steal you can do all kinds of dastardly things commit adultery and you know you get yourself in all kinds of trouble and coveting is what leads into those things and coveting can make you can lead you into idolatry I'll show you that here in just a few minutes now let's look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 5 and so coveting is just one of those things that can go on in people's hearts and you don't know that they're doing it you can't really see covetousness it's something that happens on the inside but it does come out of people you can I mean you can catch people's eyes you can you know there's ways of seeing that they're coveting things but sometimes it's hard to catch so I've never thrown anybody out of church for coveting before but you know if somebody gambled away their life savings you know and they refuse to stop gambling well that's covetousness I would throw that person out of church if they did not repent of that so look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 5 it says in verse 5 it says perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thyself see the bible says we're supposed to withdraw ourselves from people that have this mindset that gain is godliness you know those people are the name it claim it people the Benny Hinn type preachers and the Christians that say well you're poor well you must not be right with god then and that's not true that is not true at all the bible doesn't teach you you're going to be some rich person just because you're saved now there are some people that are saved that have money and there's nothing wrong with that either but we shouldn't have the mindset that well since we're saved we should be rich or we should be trying to be rich someone was just trying someone was just telling me the other day that they were I think it was my son in law Brandon that he was in a church it was a non-denominational church and they were singing the song I want to be a millionaire so bad or whatever and they changed the lyrics to the song but a church is singing that song in church as a song in the regular worship service I mean they're singing a song saying I want to be a million you know it's a worldly song it's a wicked song and they're singing this song in church I mean talk about a covetous attitude all those people should have been thrown out for singing that song I mean he's there thinking this is weird I mean anybody that's saved hearing that come out of people's mouths and you know there's this is the worship service I mean that's crazy but it says verse six godliness with contentment is great gain when you're content with the things that you have you're not just always wanting more always wanting a bigger slice of the pie there's nothing wrong with wanting to take care of your family or have enough to pay your bills or whatever but to be content with the things you have is a good attitude to have and God will give you the things you need and the desires of your heart anyway verses later but it says for we brought nothing into this world when you were born you're born with just the skin on your body you know you weren't born with anything you weren't born with a gold sack you know tied to you or anything you're born with just your flesh that's it and it says and it is certain we can carry nothing out you can't take it with you either so just stacking up all this wealth and things like this you can't take it with you you're not going to be able to take it with you so it's you know to be content with the things you have is good and I've mentioned this before people your kids are just going to fight over it anyway unfortunately people family members fight over the wealth that is left behind so it's good for us to have our wills set up so that we know that who's getting what so that there's no fighting over it when we go so it's as much as we possibly can so anyway it says and having food and raiment let us be there with content now but most people probably wouldn't be content with that I mean would you be content if you had just food and clothes because most of us have a place to go to sleep at night we have a nice comfortable bed and pillows but there's people around the world right now that don't even have that they might have a shack if they're lucky but we you know the Bible is saying here that if you just have food and clothing you should be just content with that now of course God blesses us with more and he gives us a more abundant life than that but he's just saying this is the attitude that we should have if we have more than that we are blessed more than a lot of people are in this world and it says but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare this is what the gambler wants they want to be rich and they want to have money for nothing it says that they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men into destruction and perdition so the path to trying to be rich is going to destroy your life it's going to what is perdition where you would just fall away from the faith and it says for the love of money is the root of all evil and the modern versions will say well all kinds of evil no the Bible says in the King James Bible it says the root of all evil so we got to be careful about not loving money and not wanting to be rich and desiring to be rich because God's going to take care of us anyway so we should just let God take care of that part we don't need to worry about constantly scheming on how we're going to get money that's the attitude that we should have that God's going to take care of us David said I was young and now I'm old and I've not seen his seed begging for bread you know God's going to take care of us He is it says for the love of money is the root of all evil or which some excuse me which while some coveted after and have aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows and you know what most people if they're gambling you know the places where they have to go to gamble are these seedy little places that serve alcohol and you know there's all kinds of scummy people going in there these slot machine places where you go in there video poker places where they serve drinks and you know there's people that are on drugs that go to these places it's not a good place to hang out like in order to gamble you have to go to some pretty shady places and you're like well no because I do sports booking I'm a good handicapper and I know what I'm doing I know what I'm talking about but here's the thing people cheat there's spreads for a reason and people take falls for a reason and people fix fights and that's been going on since the beginning of time you don't think that people go down in certain rounds of course they do you don't think that somebody misses a tackle on purpose to mess with the spread in the NBA there was referees that admitted they got caught shaving points call a foul here don't call a foul there and just making sure that the spread wasn't so they could win their gambling bets and stuff and they just are the ones that got caught what about the ones that didn't get caught so all these sports that everybody loves so much I mean there's cheating going on at all these different levels and now you have sports gambling being promoted in the NFL in all these different sports they have all these famous actors that are doing you know plugging these sports betting things and it's like when I was younger that was a no no I mean Pete Rose is never going to be in the Hall of Fame because he cheated on baseball and it's like he's you know he's begged and pleaded to come back and they just will never let him be in the Hall of Fame even though he had over 3,000 hits he's one of the greatest baseball players that ever lived but he cheated well a lot of people have cheated I mean Barry Bonds his head is like twice the size three times the size as it was when he first got into baseball he cheated doing steroids Mark McGuire cheated doing steroids Jose Canseco cheated doing steroids Sammy Sosa cheated doing steroids I remember watching them have a home run where they both like hit what 70 home runs each or I think Sosa hit 66 that year and then McGuire hit 70 something and then Barry Bonds broke that record they're all cheating it's all cheating and you know they cheat and people gamble on them and that's just one aspect of gambling what about card playing I remember that poker became you know the Texas Hold'em or whatever poker became this big thing and I think it's still pretty big where people are just playing these poker tournaments and stuff like that and you know I realize that there's a certain amount of skill with playing some of these things but you're still getting cards dealt to you that you don't know what you're going to get and you still have to play I know people will be like oh you don't understand you have to play the person I get that but you're still going to get certain cards you know and if you just think you're going to go in and take down these professionals you're wrong about that just because you read some book or something but you know you're going to pierce yourself through with many sorrows if you just think that you're going to get away with gambling and that God's just going to reward you because you're such a good gambler you're wrong about that and so turn to Colossians chapter 3 verse number 5 and really I mean gambling just a small aspect of covetousness but I mean what about the people with the get rich quick schemes I mean who's been at churches where someone's trying to sell them Amway you know you think that they oh someone so invited me over for dinner and you think oh that's really cool someone finally likes me or whatever and then they get you over there and after dinner they're like they pull out the pyramid scheme you know to try to get you to sign up for something and it's just like I mean we shouldn't be using churches as businesses to try to get rich you know to try to you know I mean those things are scams too and that is covetousness whether you want to admit it or not and Jesus said we're not supposed to buy or sell in the church anyway he flipped tables over he whipped people with cords over it he wasn't very happy about it that's the one time you actually saw Jesus actually physically get angry where he actually did something physically and it's like he made a cord he like just patiently sat there and wove this cord together and then it's like a cattle drive where he's flipping tables over knocking the money changers tables over the birds are flying all over the place and sheep and whatever because they're doing it in the house of God they're making God's house a house of merchandise and we ought not to be doing that it's covetousness you know they could have sold those things outside but they didn't do it Colossians 3 5 where it had you turn it says mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concubicence and covetousness which is idolatry so the love of money is the root of all evil because people can get to the point where they worship money and when you worship money what is that it's idolatry and so when you talk about covetous it says which is idolatry you get to the point where you're idolizing something you're desiring something to the point where that's all you think about that's what you're devoted to and so covetousness becomes idolatry to you think about Achan you know he's called the troubler of Israel and I won't have you turn there but I'll just read this verse for you this is you know and he troubled the whole nation of Israel they got they had a whole bunch of people got killed because of him they had to turn tail and run it says in Joshua had to find him out and it says when I saw among the spoils this is his testimony of what happened with him when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment so he saw what he liked right and 200 shekels of silver saw the money and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight then I coveted them so he saw what he liked he looked at them he saw it he wanted it he coveted it and took them so then he went to the next level and actually took those items and behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it so what's the big deal well god told them not to take any of those spoils the first place that they took they took care of the first place they they they took they he said don't take anything from them that's all mine and so the other places they were allowed to take spoil from but not this one and he just couldn't help himself he he saw that stuff and he you know after the coding he basically took it and it cost him his life it cost him his life he was killed for that and it really messed up his lineage because he was of the tribe of juda and he was of the of the two twins that were born unto juda through tamar he was of the other twin brother and he's mentioned in the genealogies and in first chronicles as if like maybe if he hadn't have done that that that line could have possibly gone through him but that line ended through him and it went through the other brother I mean I'm just I'm just thinking it was a possibility because they were twin brothers you know and one of them had the one that he was the one that had the scarlet thread he's the one that had the scarlet thread tied to him but it didn't go through him it went through the other brother so interesting but different sermon so so he stole from god is what is what it really boils down to and his covetousness affected the whole congregation and you think about other people that did this Ananias and Sapphira a very popular story in the book of Acts chapter number five where god killed them he killed a husband and wife you know they came in separately and Peter says to them you know what why did satan why did you allow satan to to fill your heart to lie unto the holy ghost you know you haven't lied unto us and the money they just sold their property and they pretended like they were giving them all the money but they held and kept some of the money back why because they were covetous because they wanted to lie and keep that money back so they sinned when it was theirs to do with what they wanted they didn't have to do that they could have just kept it and said hey you know what we really need to kind of live off the nest egg or whatever you know we're going to give the rest of this to you that's fine but instead they lied about it and god killed them for it so it's it's not just like it's not a big deal it is a big deal turn to first corinthians chapter five first corinthians chapter five now i've preached some i preach this whole sermon about this here about these different things but i just want to focus in on this one thing because and people say well pastor thompson's mean he he's kicked people out and he's done this and he's done that and it's just like well the the thing is that people just don't preach the whole bible that's the real problem and they just want to preach the loving parts of the bible and they never want to preach the stuff that is actually you know where god is upset about things and first corinthians five you know paul tells us that we have to kick certain people out look at verse eleven it says but now i've written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous covetous or an idolater so that could be the covetous idolater right or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat so if they're kicked out of church and they've been marked you're not supposed to go outside the walls of the church and still continue to break bread with that person we're supposed to shun that person so they'll get right with god and then they come back and say and apologize and say i'm sorry or get right with god and come back that's the whole point of it right so not so that we'll be somebody else will baby them and say well i don't really agree with what the pastor said no that's why you shun that person so that they'll come back and get right because the purpose is to get them right not to just be mean so it says uh so we're not supposed to eat with them right it says for what have i to do to judge them also that are without do not eat judge them that are within but them that are without god judgeth see the purpose of kicking them out is so god will deal with them outside the walls of the church it says therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person so the bible's calling someone that would be covetous now of course everybody has covetous things about them but this i really think that this is someone that's just they're over the top it's just like it's like basically become who they are they're so covetous that they probably do have some kind of really bad gambling problem or they're just so obsessed with money that it just pours out of every uh oozes out of every poor every church service that's all they talk about is money and the things that they have i mean i don't know you know what your experience is in church but i'm sure you probably talk to somebody that they don't talk about the things of god all they talk about is the things that they have i don't know about you but i've i have run into people like that and they just they come to church and it seems like they're just networking rather than uh working for the lord so the bible's clear about just someone that's covetous that we're supposed to get rid of that person so um proverbs chapter 28 turn to proverbs chapter 28 proverbs chapter 28 the bible says in verse 16 the bible says the prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days so what's the bible teaching here that we should hate covetousness and maybe you don't hate it enough and see here's the problem with us sometimes we don't hate sin enough and maybe we should pray that we hate sin more because sometimes we kind of get a little too comfortable with sin and we're just like maybe we should just pray that we hate sin more maybe we should just pray that we understand why god hates it because god does hate sin and maybe we just don't understand why he hates covetousness so much but you know when someone marriage gets ruined because someone coveted someone else's wife and stole somebody else's wife maybe that's why god hates covetousness so much or maybe because all those people that got killed because of Achan's covetousness maybe that's why god hates covetousness so much maybe because a family that got kicked out on the streets and is living in their car because dad cared more about gambling and drinking and going out with his friends than he did about paying his rent or mortgage that month maybe that's why god hates covetousness maybe that's why god hates gambling so much maybe that's why god doesn't want those types of people in our churches that are gonna rub off and be leavened in our churches Matthew chapter 27 verse 35 you know we need to learn to hate sin and if we don't hate it maybe we just need to when we're alone with god sometimes just be like hey god for some reason I don't hate this sin enough and I don't know why would you help me to hate this sin like you hate it and so that I can understand and maybe I can apply this to myself and maybe I won't do this sin that you hate so much look at Matthew chapter 27 verse 35 the bible says and they crucified him and parted his garments talking about the lord Jesus Christ of course casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet they parted my garments among them and upon my vesture did they cast lots what is this talking about? well when Jesus is nailed to the cross they took all of his clothes off and they parted them out and they gambled for his clothing that's what it's talking about casting lots you know whoever gets this certain lot they're the ones that get that clothing now let's turn to John chapter 19 it explains it a little bit more carefully for us and helps us to really understand what's going on here because you know Jesus didn't have a lot in this life he was born taking on the form of a servant he said you know birds have nests and foxes have holes but the son of man have not where to lay his head he really was born to not much he was poor he was born in a manger he he didn't have some plushy life he wasn't born into some ivory palace even though he was the king of kings and lord of lords but he did have a couple nice things and one of them was the outfit that he wore he did have a nice outfit because why would they be gambling for something that wasn't nice? right? Look at verse 23 in John 19 it says then the soldiers when they had crucified Jesus took his garments from four parts to every soldier apart and also his coat now the coat was without seam woven from the top throughout so this coat is specially designed it's kind of almost like it's described as the high priest outfit where it wasn't able to be rent very easily but in verse 24 it says they said therefore among themselves let us not rend it and cast lots for it whose it shall be so I mean these four soldiers they probably make more money than Jesus they're professional soldiers why would they want Jesus' outfit? probably because it's pretty nice so the one nice thing that he has you got people as he's hung on a cross dying and they're just like let's part his clothes up, let's gamble away let's cast lots for it and they're gambling to the lord and savior of the whole earth his clothes really the last thing that he owns on this earth and it says that the scripture might be fulfilled which saith they parted my raiment among them and for my vesture they did cast lots these things therefore the soldiers did pretty messed up right? I mean among all the bad things that were done to them on that day one of the last things they do is strip all of his clothes off I mean he's on the cross the bible says he's naked I mean they got his clothes, they're gambling for him I mean who's heard of dice games? I'm sure you've heard of dice games where they throw them against the wall whatever, they have games called craps where in casinos and stuff they throw the dice against the wall, I've never played it before so I don't really understand quite how it works I've seen it played and I know that people do stuff like that, but lots in a godly way lots were cast so that the children of Israel could divide up their land, but do you think that this is a godly thing that's being done here? They're casting lots to see who gets a guy who's dying on a cross, his clothing now these guys are the soldiers that have been putting all the punishments upon him, these are the ones that mocked him and put a robe on him and said hail king of the Jews and smacked him in the head and put the crown of thorns upon him, these are those guys the four soldiers the four soldiers that were punishing him for something that he didn't do so the one time you really see gambling in the bible I mean it's being done to our lord, pretty messed up and so it had to have been a nice outfit, nobody's going to gamble for some rags if it was just some raggedy outfit nobody's going to be like hey let's get that for some homeless person's outfit or something, nobody's going to gamble for that like just get that away from me please you know but this apparently was nice enough that they're willing to wash the blood stains out of it or take it to a fuller or something and get it washed up so they can maybe sell it or wear it themselves so turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2 the bible talks about bishops not being one of the qualifications of a bishop is that they're not covetous they're not supposed to be covetous they have a lot of different qualifications they're supposed to meet but look at verse 2 it says a bishop then must be see that term must be these are things that have to be for a person to be a pastor it says the husband of one wife vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient not a brawler, not covetous so one of those qualifications is the pastor can't be covetous so Benny Hinn and all these guys that are charging this exorbitant amount of money and they're making millions of dollars to be preachers and pastors they're covetous if a preacher is rich and he didn't make his millions doing something else before he became a pastor then he's covetous if you have a private jet and you're a preacher you're covetous that's crazy no preacher should be making millions of dollars that's insanity unless like all the they just keep printing money to the point where our money isn't worth what it once was and I mean that could happen I guess so there is that I think when I started working my first job for like I feel like it was like less than $4 an hour what was the first job you ever had well how much did you get paid brother Rick do you remember yeah $1.60 what's the minimum wage now is it $15 that's inflation folks it's not that you get paid more it's just that that's how much money is not worth anymore because my grandpa my grandpa bought the first house he bought when he married my grandpa or my grandma excuse me I think he paid like I want to say it was like $2,000 or $3,000 or something for a house it was stick built in Portland, Oregon and I think it sold for like I don't know maybe $350,000 $400,000 might have been more than that I don't know but my grandma didn't work and he just worked as a forklift operator at United Grocers and he retired from there after 30 years and she didn't work outside the home so you could back then you could buy stuff you know this is yeah this is totally off topic but I mean I'm just saying you know money used to be worth a lot more than it is today so anyway let's move forward here yeah there's false profits out there and they want to make merchandise of us they're covetous and we do have to be aware of people like that let's see as far as we go though we have requirements that God has for us he doesn't want us just wasting our money on whatever we want you know and I'm not saying it is our money we earn it but you know God does expect us to be good stewards of the things that he's given us the money he's given us and you're like well I did that well you know God gives you the health and the ability to work and you know maybe God allowed you to have the job that you have that you just think you can do whatever you want and really you can but I mean God does take care of us and we should be good stewards the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4 it says moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful and of course this is talking about Paul saying stewards of the mysteries of God so I mean it is taking a little bit out of context but it is still true nonetheless that if you are stewarding your finances correctly that we should be faithful in doing so and we should not just be blowing money on gambling of course or trying to get rich by pushing you know doing all these get rich quick schemes we should work hard for what we get now turn to Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 so instead of just trying to get rich doing gambling or some other kind of you know easy money there is no such thing as easy money folks there just isn't unless you know somebody passes away and you didn't know you had a rich uncle and they just give you all this money or something that only happens in the movies though I mean I suppose it could happen in real life but probably the worst thing that could happen to someone that didn't grow up with any money is somebody just give them millions of dollars these people that win the lottery there's like books written about how it ruins their life all these people there's so many people out there and they're just like they play the lottery all the time and they're just like oh when I win the lottery how much money do you think they've wasted trying to just win the lottery all their life and most people never will you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning twice I think than you do of winning the lottery so winning those big you know most of the time it's probably rigged too I'm sure it's rigged it's somebody's great niece or who knows and you gotta pay taxes on it and then it ruins your life you know there's books about it so let's see Ephesians 4.27 says neither give place to the devil let him that stole no more but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth that he be God wants us to work for what we have not to just steal like people used to or you know he says to do that thing which is good Hebrews 6.12 says that he be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises so we shouldn't be slothful in our work for the Lord we shouldn't be slothful in our work in the world and we should be the example of workers out in the world you know when people say well hey how's so and so doing they should be like he's great they're the greatest worker that we have here that should be what people think about Christian workers now there's a lot of verses I could go to about the people being slothful and sluggards and you know it's a shame when Christians have these things said about them I'll go through a couple here you don't have to turn to these but I'm just going to read them as fast as I can here Proverbs 6.6 go to the ant thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise you know we should look at an ant just never stops working he said if you want to learn how to work hard just watch ants they're constantly just carrying things that are way heavier than them they're just back and forth always doing something he said consider her ways consider the way an ant works how long will thou sleep oh sluggard when will thou rise out of thy sleep hey if you love sleep you're going to be poor as vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes so is the sluggard to them that send them nobody likes to send somebody that just isn't going to get there fast or not going to get back fast that's the worst person you can send to do something and then they don't even get the job done right the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat the sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold therefore shall he beg in the harvest and have nothing there's always an excuse for lazy people to not do stuff Proverbs 12.24 says the hand of the diligent shall bear rule but the slothful shall be under tribute the slothful man rosteth not that which he took in hunting but the substance of a diligent man is precious so a slothful man he won't even skin the animal that he got he just probably wants to take the horns and take them home the way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns but the way of the righteous is made plain he also that is slothful is his work is is brother to him that is is a great waster in his work excuse me his brother to him is a great waster the slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again if you're that lazy I mean you got real problems it's like you put your hand in your bosom and it's like oh I can't quite get my hand nevermind you know and then it says the slothful in Proverbs 22.13 it says the slothful man sayeth there's a lion without I shall be slain in the streets you know it's just another way of saying there's just always an excuse why you can't get something done I went by the field of the slothful by the vineyard of the man of void of understanding the slothful man you know and what happens when he sees that well everything's destroyed you know he just isn't taking care of his home the slothful man sayeth there's a lion in the way a lion in the streets as the door turn upon its hinges so doth the slothful upon his bed you know lazy people just love to sleep and they don't want to do any work so here's a good one the desire of the slothful killeth him for his hands refuse to labor so you're like basically killing yourself because you know the one thing that you should be doing is laboring and you don't desire to do that so it kills you the bible says in Romans 12 11 not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the Lord this is how the Christian should operate and it shouldn't be by getting your gain from covetousness or any sort of get rich quick schemes or gambling I'm going to lay out some money management principles real quick and these are things that should help you as a Christian three plans that God has for our money receiving well the first thing how do we receive money well working hard for it right or you know you could pray that God gives you money you could pray or God giving you more and providing for your faithfulness you know God you know it's funny that God when you tithe God says prove me now here with saith the Lord and that I will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out of blessing when you know and I don't like to preach about money that often because people I'm sure you've gone to churches where the only thing that they preach about or the main thing that they preach about is money and that gets really annoying like every time the offerings called up the pastors like preaching who's been in a church where the pastors is preaching constantly about money it's it's annoying and it's like come on pastor we heard this sermon last time you took up the offering it's like it's annoying but you know it's important to talk about things every once in a while and tithing is a principle found in the Bible so but the the the thing about tithing though is if you obey what God's saying he promises that if you just prove him he will pour you out of blessing now that doesn't necessarily mean that next week he's you know a dump truck is going to accidentally dump a million dollars in front of your house oh sorry you know you know that's not what it's saying but like when you're poor it seems like it is harder to tithe it really is when you don't have a lot and you're just like barely making it and you're like I don't even know how I'm going to pay my bills without or without tithing how about with tithing but what you can't factor in and this is just something that you have to take by faith is that somehow God still allows you to make it and it's just a weird thing it's not weird it's just it's just when God says to prove me he really means it like you know have you ever heard those stories where people are like and then like next week a check came in the mail for such and such the exact amount of money like I used to think man that's just come on but it actually has happened to me when I like started being really faithful in my tithing like that stuff would happen to me and there would be times I'm like I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills or whatever but I'm just going to trust you God and things would happen you know I would somehow I'd make it somehow we always had enough and and it's true and so one of the ways we receive money or one of the ways that we receive from God is that when you're faithful to him he's going to be faithful to you and when he says prove me he really does mean it so and when it comes to us giving that's another thing that he wants that's one of the God's plans for our money he wants us to give back 10% that's what tithe means and you're like well that's old testament well before the law came about Abraham gave 10% Jacob gave 10% Isaac gave 10% like that was before the law ever existed how do you explain that well because it's always been a principle with God and you're like well does he still want that well yeah he still wants it it's still the way God operates how do you think how do you think that this building got paid for how do you think that the lights are still on how do you think that we get all the materials that we get tithing, giving and so that's how God still operates today it's just kind of incorporated into the new testament so and then free will offerings, special offerings that's another plan that God and again that's free will I don't ever expect you to give more than 10% if you're tithing you're right with God and I another thing that really bugs me is at churches where they're like whole paycheck sunday or you know it's just like you're going to give your whole paycheck just do it by faith and they're just like trying to get you to give more than you can't do that to people all the time it's just it's ridiculous or they always have a building project going on so I give to the building fund or you know it's just always or let's do faith promise you know first of all you can't promise what you're going to give because you don't know what's going to be going on for the next year how are you going to give to faith promise when you you're going to make a promise that you're going to pay these missionaries when you don't even know whether you're going to have you know whether you're going to break your toe and not be able to work next week or whatever you don't know what's going to come you don't know what a day is going to bring forth how are you going to promise something that you can't keep and then you promised God that you were going to pay these missionaries and then you don't do it it's better to it's better to not vow than it is to vow and not pay that's what the Bible says so we should just shut our mouths and not vow you know so a free will offering means just that if you want to give more you may do that if you're just like well you know I just wanted to give something over above the tithe well that's between you and God but I'm not going to ask you to do that I mean I'm not saying I would never ask for an extra offering I don't think that I ever have I can't remember if I ever have but if there was some great need I might ask for a love offering for someone maybe someone just hurt or sick or just needs something extra I might do something like that but it'd be a very rare circumstance but you can do that and I think that it's so I mean you see it happen in the Bible I mean when the when the temple need to be renovated you know they put it like a chest in the back and it just kept getting filled up because God's people were just like hey we need to we need to disperse this place up nothing wrong with that you know when things were being built and things need to be done it just needs sometimes stuff needs to get done so they would ask for you know for the people to do stuff like that but anyway alms alms is like that's not giving to the church alms is when you give to someone in need and that should be something that you do in secret as much as possible but again God's plan for our money would be how we receive it how we give and then how we manage so we live on the rest so really what we receive from our hard work and what we after we give the tithe the rest we live off of and you know we should pay our bills promptly we should pay our taxes and we should borrow as little as possible now I don't think borrowing is a sin I think lending in usury for us to lend to somebody else with usury is a sin for sure it's a wicked sin us borrowing and someone charging us usury that's not a Christian I think that that's okay to do but I don't think it's the best situation I think we should to the best of our ability we should pay for everything as we have the money for it so but it is you know I'm not saying don't ever borrow but as little as possible do that build up a sales resistance every week in the mail you get junk mail who gets junk mail every week it's annoying isn't it but you just can't help sometimes but to look through but what does that teach you to do it teaches you to covet doesn't it you really do kind of need a lawn mower you know the old ones you know if it still works it's like just skip that page or whatever you know the car you know you can get a new car here's the financing stuff it's just like we need to learn to build up a sales resistance you know we don't there's a lot of stuff that we buy that we really don't need and then stay out of debt as much as we possibly can so I understand sometimes you need to buy a new car your old one breaks down whatever but those those three things you know as much as possible you know we should stick within those parameters of working hard but make sure that you give back a portion of what God's already given you and you know what he will bless you but if you don't you'll have holes in your bags you know you think well I just can't afford to tithe well you know what you can't afford not to that's the reality of it because that new car that you decided to get instead well the engine might just blow up or you know the washer and dryer you just bought the brand new washer and dryer suck anyway because they're not as good as the old Kenmore and all the Whirlpools and stuff I still have some old school ones and I really don't want to buy any new ones the old ones are the best ones if you can get those repaired they're better but whatever stuff doesn't last like it used to but it's going to last even less if you're if God just wants to destroy what you have it's like he allowed the children of Israel's shoes on their feet to not wear out for 40 years he can allow your stuff to last longer too but you know what if you're robbing God and that's what the Bible says when you don't tithe he says well a man robbed God yet you have robbed me he said wherein have you robbed me in tithes and offerings that's what he says and it's like that's pretty crazy that we rob God like that but people have I have I'm sure you have too at some point so that's something we we need to do the Bible says in Proverbs 22 verse 7 it says the rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender so just know this if you borrow money you're servant to that lender you have to pay them and what happens if you don't pay them they come after you don't go to Aaron's to get your dishwasher okay that's like going to the mafia to get something really if you miss one payment they're going to be at your door like we're here for the dishwasher we got a baseball bat you know what I mean and they charge like the craziest the craziest amount of usury ever so the Bible says that we're supposed to owe no man anything in Romans 13.8 gambling does not fit in God's plan it just doesn't so turn to Matthew chapter 6 and I'll try to wrap this up here in just the next couple minutes but the Bible says in Matthew 6 24 this is a very famous passage here it says in Matthew 6 24 says no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and mammon what is mammon it's money things stuff it's not just necessarily only money but it's just the things you know stuff so Jesus said you can serve God you can serve mammon but you can't serve God and mammon you can't do it both at the same time you're going to hate one and love the other so if your life's ambition is to be rich and to make a lot of money then that's what you're going to do but you're not going to serve God you see the difference but if your life's ambition is to serve God and to love God then he's going to let the other things happen automatically not that you're going to be rich necessarily but he's going to take care of you so and the things that you're so worried about all the time are just going to happen automatically so it's like why worry about everything turn to psalm 37 verse 3 psalm 37 verse 3 I only have one two places left to go and we'll be wrapping it up here psalm 37 verse 3 I'm sorry I lied one two three yeah one two three places psalm 37 verse 3 I found this these verses this is great right here and this kind of just puts it all in perspective as to how God wants you to do things trust in the Lord and do good so shalt thou dwell in the land verily thou shalt be fed so you trust in the Lord you do good he's going to let you dwell in the land and truly or verily thou shalt be fed he's going to take care of you he's going to make sure you're fed you got food delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart you want all these things well hey delight yourself in God he's going to make sure these things happen commit thy way onto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass I mean that's good stuff right there you see how if you just put all your eggs in God's basket then all the other stuff is going to take care of itself turn to Matthew chapter 6 I'm going to read Proverbs 15 verse 16 Proverbs 15 verse 16 says better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith better is little with the fear of the Lord it's better to have just to just kind of be scraping by and you might not feel that way when you're scraping by but I guarantee you that when you look back on your life and you look back on the time with your kids and the time when you were kind of scraping by and you were just trusting in God and fearing the Lord you're going to look back on that time and you're going to look back on fondness of the times that you were just really close with God really close with your family and instead of just the time when you had abundance and plenty and it says better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith and really what that verse is trying to say it's better to have some asparagus for dinner and love and it's basically just like saying it's better to just not have a lot of stuff than to have that stalled ox you got the the bronco in the garage or whatever that you're paying $800 a month for and then your wife's mad at you because you don't have any money because you're paying for this stupid car or whatever you know what I mean like it's just it's better to have little and love it's better to love the Lord and fear Him and not have as much than to have all these other troubles in your life Matthew chapter 6 verse 28 the Bible says and why take ye thought for raiment why are you worried about all the clothes you need to get consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field which is which today is and tomorrow is cast in the oven shall He not shall He not much more clothe you O ye of little faith so he's just saying hey you're not so worried about this stuff and you got such little faith but you know he's gonna he cares about us he's gonna take care of us he knows what we need therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed for all after all these things do the Gentiles seek and you might as well just think this is what the unbelievers seek this is what the people that have no faith this is what they want this is what they are thinking about all the time and it says for your heavenly father knoweth that you have need of these things it's like do you think that God just doesn't realize you need these things and you're just like oh what am I gonna do we need all this stuff it's like God knows this stuff He already knows what you need He knows and He's gonna take care of us but we just have to focus on what what that our heart is right and that we're serving Him and He's just gonna make sure it's all taken care of look at verse 33 but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you see we have to be right and then He's gonna take care of us it's just real simple take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought of the things of itself He's just like you seek first the kingdom of God you seek His righteousness everything that you need is gonna be added to you are we gonna have hard times still of course we're gonna still have hard times this is a separate thing you know just because we serve the Lord doesn't mean we're not gonna have trials and temptations and heartaches and pain we're still gonna have all those things and when we get to heaven we have our glorified bodies then you know things are gonna be perfect and and all that but you know we're still not gonna we're we don't need to go seeking after money we don't need to be seeking to be rich we don't need to go gamble to make sure that we have the ends meet that's the dumbest way to try to make money it really is and it is a vice that is 600 or 66 $665 billion every oh no excuse me 66.5 billion in America every year 2.53 billion Washington state alone every year $565 billion worldwide 2022 that's a lot of money and you know where they're getting it from dumb suckers that bet on stupid things and this is the money they're making this is probably after they've paid everything out so people win but they're making this profit this is half a trillion dollars and that's just the ones that are official what about all the bets that people make that aren't official all the ones that you know you can't go online or whatever the bookies and I mean those things still exist people bet on all kinds of things and you know it's funny our own government is made all this legal why well they put all the mafia and stuff out of business because they were making all this money and they're like well this is a pretty good idea why didn't we do this the whole time and so then they make it you know because they get a slice of the pie and so now let's give all the Native Americans the casinos look at all the jobs that it brings forth look at all the misery that it brings forth also look at all the drunkenness it brings forth look at all the heartache and drug addiction it brings forth too do you think that casinos are a good thing for people it's if you look up the statistics about places that get casinos it's not a happy ending for people and you know the government is just it seems like everything that all the mafia and all these different places you know that everything that used to be illegal the government now just supplies those needs now and just make sure that you know it's in certain areas and all these things but there's all kinds of wickedness going on and our government is helping they're not stopping it so if you're a Christian the last thing you should be doing is being you know going and gambling in a casino or sports betting you know if you're a Christian and you're good at playing poker if you're just playing for fun I don't think it's sinful but you know what I do think I think if you're in a casino and you're playing cards and you're a Christian and you think well I'm just wanting to be good so like you know it's a skill pastor you just don't understand God's going to make you lose so I don't care how good you get at it and how much money you start winning you're eventually going to lose because you know what the house always wins and God is not going to just let you be some professional gambler and be you know in the end everything's going to work out for you it's not going to happen he's not going to allow it to happen it's just like if you're a murderer you're not going to get away with it it's just like all these other sins God you know what's the verse of the week you know if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments then I'll visit their transgressions with the rod you think you're going to get away with it? you're not going to get away with it God will not allow you to get away with making a living through gambling and covetousness it's not going to happen you might get away with it for a while but it's not going to last forever alright let's pray Lord we thank you so much for the Bible and Lord I pray that you would just help us to be people that would work hard and the things that we bring forth from our hands are things that you bless us with Lord I pray that you would help us to put you first in the kingdom of God and your righteousness Lord and that we would trust in the system that you put in place for us and that you would bless this church Lord bless everybody in it help us to love you and to keep your commandments and that you'd be pleased with the things that we do for you in your name Lord Jesus we pray, Amen Amen I'll turn this off okay thank you Pastor Thompson for that great sermon teaching us right from the Bible that we ought not to covet that's a good lesson well let's sing 321 for our final song our closing song 321 Paul's favorite, his new favorite Nothing Between Nothing between my soul and the Savior not of this world's delusive dream I have renounced all sin for pleasure Jesus' mind has nothing between nothing between my soul and the Savior so that his blessed face may be seen nothing preventing the least of his favor keep the way there's nothing between nothing between like worldly pleasure habits of life though harmless they seem must not my heart from him ever sever he is my all there's nothing between nothing between my soul and the Savior so that his blessed face may be seen nothing preventing the least of his favor keep the way clear let nothing between on the last nothing between even many heart-trotting though the whole world against me convene watching with much self-denial triumph at last with nothing between nothing between my soul and the Savior so that his blessed face may be seen nothing preventing the least of his favor keep the way clear let nothing between