Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 11, 2017 | Men's Fraternity - Spring 2017, Session 1

Transcript

January 11, 2017 | Men's Fraternity - Spring 2017, Session 1 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_01: All right, men, good morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another semester of uh men's fraternity.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: Glad to see you guys all here.
0:09
SPEAKER_01: Anybody new?
0:10
SPEAKER_01: Anyone not here last semester?
0:13
SPEAKER_01: I think all the faces uh look familiar.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I think uh by way of announcements, I believe it is uh a week from this Friday is the uh men's retreat.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: So uh do get uh do get signed up for that.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: And Grant English, uh cool guy.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: If you guys don't know Grant English, he's the pastor out at uh Baptist Church.
0:35
SPEAKER_02: Yes, extreme Baptist, great guy, he'll he'll do a good job.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that uh that should be good.
0:41
SPEAKER_01: Um I was telling Jim, I'd actually kind of lost track of uh where we were.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: I missed the last one last time, but we are uh on chapter seven, I believe, is uh Matthew.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna do that for uh for two weeks, um probably about two weeks a semester or two weeks uh for a chapter, like we did uh last time.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: So uh and hey, I guess uh we want to continue.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: I I'm I'm really glad we have breakfast this morning.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: Thanks to the guys who uh stepped in for uh for Tom.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Kevin.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't sure.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: I knew he I knew he had some great uh sous chefs helping him, but uh we just want to continue to pray for Tom.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: Man food this morning, no crepes.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really, yeah.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: Bacon and eggs, yes, protein.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, uh that's about all I've got this morning.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: No great uh words of wisdom.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: Just uh welcome, happy new year to everybody, and uh maybe we'll get some sports, uh a little sports.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: We had a lot of sports here in the last few uh days, it seems like.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, I'm gonna turn it over to the guys.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: Congratulations to you, Paul.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: We've been prepped job, and you know, he's working, he's got a sort of a temp job with perhaps permanent at Goodyear, and he's also working a little bit early.
1:48
SPEAKER_02: He's pursuing the KBS option.
1:50
SPEAKER_02: So we're excited about that, hoping that Paul gets a uh ends up with a great job, which will still allow him to introduce this on Wednesday morning.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: A couple sad things, you know, since we last met.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: Carl's uh son, Carl Folster's son, Chris, passed away.
2:07
SPEAKER_02: He'd had cancer, and but I mean there was a chance when Chris had preached.
2:11
SPEAKER_02: I watched his message online because he preached over here uh in I think October at Central Park, and then he preached at the end of November over at Northland.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, it looked even then like he could live up to, he'd mentioned in his message, maybe nine years.
2:29
SPEAKER_02: And what happens is that uh the same thing happened to my father-in-law, he just suddenly goes a lot quicker than you ever thought.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: So, but it was an amazing, God-honoring service and um with five testimonials from Carl and his wife and and the siblings.
2:47
SPEAKER_02: And also got bad news this week, uh, if you're following that, and that is that little Blake Kazir, who we featured, you know, on Thanksgiving Day, uh his white blood count has just spiked.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: They rushed him to the hospital yesterday in Kansas City, but it looks as though it looks as though um the Lord's gonna take him home in the next month or so.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: It's just really tragic.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: So anyway, um, how are you doing this morning?
3:12
SPEAKER_02: Good to see you, bro.
3:13
SPEAKER_02: I'm doing good, bro.
3:17
SPEAKER_02: Well, a lot of stuff's happened in sports in the last, you know, since we last met.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of should we cover every game that's happened since we've been gone?
3:26
SPEAKER_02: Wildcats.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean, isn't that amazing how they seem to go to a bowl every year?
3:31
SPEAKER_02: And you got a coach who's like 89, 99, 112 years old, 77, 78.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's got a contract.
3:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:41
SPEAKER_02: Isn't it forever?
3:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:44
SPEAKER_02: We're all scared of what happens when he leaves.
3:47
SPEAKER_02: But they uh it's so nice to beat SEC teams.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Did uh I I forgot did KU win their bowl game?
3:54
SPEAKER_02: Oh shut up.
3:56
SPEAKER_02: They they didn't see Alabama last time they played in a bowl back back in 04.
4:05
SPEAKER_02: Keith.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: Did you hear that?
4:16
SPEAKER_02: So K-State gets in bowls but doesn't always win them.
4:19
SPEAKER_02: Nice one, Farwell.
4:21
SPEAKER_02: That was good.
4:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but the real happy thing is that uh this week we got to see Nick Saban cooking.
4:27
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
4:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was the Christians against the Lions, and the Christians won in one of the best college football finals ever, with one second to go.
4:36
SPEAKER_02: And I'm sorry if you're an Alabama fan, but Saban has been voted one of the three most unpopular sports figures in America, and for good reasons.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: Oh, he just, you know, you don't remember back when he was at Miami, and what is at these other places?
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Are any of you guys Clemson fans?
4:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we root for Christians.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
4:59
SPEAKER_02: And we have last night, uh, last night, and this is one of the big plays, an inbounds play, where where Josh jams it down, and they were down by nine, but came back and beat beat an upstart Oklahoma team by 11 finally.
5:15
SPEAKER_02: And did you watch any of that?
5:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I did not watch any of it.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: But by what?
5:22
SPEAKER_00: The number one team in the country went down yesterday.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Did you guys see that?
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Baylor?
5:27
SPEAKER_02: Baylor got smashed.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: Baylor got smoked.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: So number two KU will probably be named number one next week.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: It's a possibility.
5:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: By 21 points.
5:39
SPEAKER_02: Well, KU may lose by 21 in West Virginia, too.
5:42
SPEAKER_02: West Virginia's a tough team at home.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they cheat or something.
5:47
SPEAKER_02: Terrible, terrible, terrible last 20 seconds.
5:51
SPEAKER_02: If you uh followed any of the K-State, K-State was ahead, gave the ball to their best uh athlete with 20 seconds to go instead of giving it to their smartest player, their best athlete.
6:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh this was the key play of the game.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: And uh he turned it over, and uh this was with 17 seconds to go.
6:09
SPEAKER_02: Texas Tech scores the bucket at the other end and wins it by one.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: So that was too bad.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: Because K-State's rated uh 25th, and they if you've watched them play, they're they're definitely in the top, they're a top 20 team.
6:23
SPEAKER_02: They're really good.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: But they can't lose games like that.
6:26
SPEAKER_02: Uh pretty exciting.
6:28
SPEAKER_02: Chiefs win AFC West.
6:30
SPEAKER_02: They've got a home game.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: They got a home game, they got a bye.
6:33
SPEAKER_02: Partly because we were all praying that something bad happened to Oakland and the Lord answered our prayers with their top two quarterbacks getting injured.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but he's a Christian.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: Who dare?
6:44
SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
6:45
SPEAKER_02: So I should not have prayed that prayer.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: He prayed against the Christian.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
6:50
SPEAKER_02: I feel bad about that.
6:51
SPEAKER_02: All of a sudden I feel bad about that.
6:55
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: God will forgive you.
6:57
SPEAKER_02: So they play at home against the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, and most people will pit will pick Pittsburgh.
7:04
SPEAKER_02: The Chiefs always seem to play Pittsburgh well, so I'm gonna pick the Chiefs.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: That'll be an interesting game.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: Especially with Big Ben and all those guys coming into Arrowhead.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: Then the Chiefs will get to go to New England Patriots.
7:14
SPEAKER_02: Good luck.
7:14
SPEAKER_02: And then get smoked, probably.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: That's might be showing my Patriots' hand then.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: And then uh in one of the great sporting events to come on the 20th of January, we have the inauguration of Trump.
7:28
SPEAKER_02: And and uh and uh this will be quite entertaining uh uh the inauguration.
7:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh Mariah is going from our church, he works for Go Bach, and he'll be sitting on stage.
7:43
SPEAKER_02: So that'll be that'll be kind of fun.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna look for him.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: And I love these two.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: Some of the best cartoons in the world are coming out now about the inauguration.
7:53
SPEAKER_02: My favorite one is the Snexon from the New Yorker magazine.
7:56
SPEAKER_02: And I will, to the best of my ability, which is terrific ability, by the way.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: Everyone agrees, I have fantastic ability, so there's no problem with my ability, believe me.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate his confidence.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh he's not he's not scared, at least on the outside.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: The cartoonists are gonna have a great time with his hair for the next four years.
8:24
SPEAKER_02: Maybe eight years.
8:25
SPEAKER_02: Everybody seems, every president seems to go eight years now.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: Which one?
8:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh thank you, Jason.
8:38
SPEAKER_02: So, uh, but we are doing something high and holy here on Wednesday mornings.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: We're going through the apostles of Jesus, who we've learned are a very diverse group.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh you have Peter the leader, James the Warrior, John the Lover, Andrew the Connector, Philip the Realist this morning, and next week Matthew.
8:57
SPEAKER_02: The businessman.
8:58
SPEAKER_02: We've got Matthew.
8:59
SPEAKER_02: It's a nice thing to call him tax collector.
9:02
SPEAKER_02: As you know, his real name, his given name was Levi, which makes me think that he was probably, good chance he was probably then from the tribe of Levi.
9:13
SPEAKER_02: Which um, if you uh Levi, Levi was the one tribe remember that had no property of their own, no land, no regular income.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: So they were like they were like pastors of uh in places not like America, because you guys are generous to your pastors in America, thank the Lord, but but uh the Levites were always the poorest people, which is in my view, probably why he was sick and tired growing up of growing up hand to mouth with no money, and why he jumped on the opportunity that the Romans offered to Jews to become tax collectors, because they wanted Jews to tax collect from Jews.
9:56
SPEAKER_02: So that's my view of why he became a businessman.
9:59
SPEAKER_02: Later on, his name, as you know, is Matthew.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: So if you open your book to chapter seven, uh, I was glad to see that Gene Getz starts with a story, lasts for about three pages, of a guy he calls his friend named Bob Buford.
10:15
SPEAKER_02: One of the best books I read last year was a book called Halftime, subtitled Moving from Success to Significance.
10:27
SPEAKER_02: Halftime in your life.
10:29
SPEAKER_02: He talks especially to guys who are approaching 40, and I grabbed this book, um, even though I'm long past 40, and found that a lot of what he says about living the last half of your life was incredibly challenging to me.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: And I spent hours, yea, days in Colorado, uh mapping out the last uh part of my life based upon this book.
11:01
SPEAKER_02: And as he says in chapter seven, uh Bob Buford had come to this point in his life.
11:07
SPEAKER_02: He was a multimillionaire, he was the owner of a cable TV network across a number of states, and uh he was a Christian, and he had a friend, uh his sort of mentor, who was an atheist, uh atheistic businessman, and he had and he was trying to figure out what to do with Live Pop Buford.
11:30
SPEAKER_02: While he was a Christian, he was primarily uh mega, you know, TV channel guy.
11:37
SPEAKER_02: And he admitted, you know, that uh one of the big moneymakers was the fact that he had Showtime.
11:43
SPEAKER_02: He had some of these channels on that made him a lot of money that showed porn movies.
11:48
SPEAKER_02: And uh, but anyway, it's a wonderful story in halftime.
11:52
SPEAKER_02: And um, and this uh this atheist says to him, and a little bit of the story is carried in your chapter, I recommend you get the book Halftime, um, but what's in your box?
12:04
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, What do you mean?
12:06
SPEAKER_02: Well, he says, There's really one thing really in your box.
12:10
SPEAKER_02: Is it Jesus Christ or is it money?
12:13
SPEAKER_02: You keep talking about Jesus, but you keep talking about money as well.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: And the atheist friend says, You need to decide what's really in your box and map out the last half of your life, you know, based upon what that is.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: And um Buford made the decision that wow, uh, maybe he if he was gonna have to pick one, maybe it should be Jesus Christ.
12:39
SPEAKER_02: Now, he's still a multimillionaire.
12:41
SPEAKER_02: In fact, he started a foundation leadership network or something, I think maybe it's mentioned in the chapter, in which he helps very rich and famous businessmen now map out the last part of their life.
12:54
SPEAKER_02: And Bob still lives, you know, has his private plane and still does all these things.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and he distinguishes in this chapter, I recommend that you read it, and you'll have a good chance because next week, uh, when I'm in California at a board meeting, uh, Derek and maybe Jason will cover the major part of this chapter next week.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: And um and he distinguishes very nicely Christians who have material things, and we go thumbs up there, or I put a little girl on here clapping her hands.
13:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh because that's a good thing.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: We know Abraham, we know Job, we know a lot of people in the Bible who are well-to-do, and I would I pray for people, I pray for all of you that you become well-to-do.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because we need more well-to-do Christians who use their money well.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: It distinguishes that from Christian materialists, and that's the that's the little girl with a frown on her face.
13:49
SPEAKER_02: That is, who who have money in their box and who don't use it well.
13:54
SPEAKER_02: So we have the example, we moved to this chapter, and I'm gonna ask uh Derek to hit the Matthew, hit this part.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: But we're dealing with a guy who was a businessman who'd learned how to handle money and who had uh why don't you tell us a little bit about Levi, about this guy and his job and so forth.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just want to read a few verses to you guys.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: This is in Matthew 9, verses 9 through 13.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: And so we're looking at kind of the beginning of Matthew, we're looking at Matthew's background, kind of a little bit of his job, and some significant things that we can really pull out about him.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: So in verse 9 it says, As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, or some versions say tax collector's booth, and he said to him, Follow me.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: So he got up and followed him.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: While he was reclining at the table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came as guests to eat with Jesus and his disciples.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
15:01
SPEAKER_00: But when he heard this, he said, Those who are well don't need a doctor, but the sick do.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: Go and learn what this means.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: So one of the most important things and one of the key tags that we see with Matthew at the very very beginning is that he's a tax collector.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: And not only a tax collector, but oftentimes, um, especially in the gospels, you'll see tax collectors coupled with sinners.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: Almost as if those two are s are synonymous.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: So even the people in that culture knew the tax collectors were cheats.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: They knew that they were dirty, they knew that they were sinners, and it was not any kind of respectable, honest work that these guys were doing.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: And so Matthew's one of these guys.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus calls him and says, Hey, I want you to be one of my guys.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine what people are thinking.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, you you want this tax collector who's ripping people off every time there's there's imports or exports when people are passing through?
16:13
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have Matthew be one of the guys on your team.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Are you serious?
16:19
SPEAKER_00: And so we see Matthew.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: And the implied thing here, as Jesus says in verse 13, for I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners, he knew Matthew's state.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: He knew Matthew was ripping people off, he knew he was doing dishonest business, but Jesus still said, I came specifically for you.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Because you're a sinner is the reason that I want you to be on my team.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: That's the reason why I'm here.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: And so as we look at Matthew, he's sitting at his booth, he's he's making money, ripping people off, he's taking the normal tax that the government required, and then being able to take pretty much as much extra as he wanted.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: And so as we look at kind of the section on corruption, which is essentially what it is, Matthew's a corrupt businessman.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: He has his own business, it's in taxes, and it's not an honest trade.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: And we see that basically it's kind of a get rich quick scheme.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to pad his money his pockets with as much money as he possibly can.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus still calls him.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: And we see kind of an example of Zacchaeus.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember that song in Sunday school?
17:37
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus was a wee little man making fun of him because he's short.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: So Zacchaeus was one of these tax collectors, and it's very clear that tax collectors were not poor people, they were very wealthy.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, in this second paragraph on page 119, it says, you know, Zacchaeus illustrates this point that he was a tax collector and very wealthy, and he even had willingness to give half of his possessions away, and he had a willingness to pay back four times the amount to people he had cheated.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Now think about that in just our lives.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: If you have enough money, enough resources to give back half of your possessions, and to pay back everyone you've cheated times four, and still have some for yourself, you're you're doing pretty well.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Not in the sense that it is right is righteous the way that you earn that money, but he's obviously very business savvy and very good at it.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: And I think, have any of you guys seen the movie Flywheel?
18:51
SPEAKER_00: A couple of you guys have seen that put out by that that Christian church who start out making the really low budget movies and just kind of work their way up and great Christian stories.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, there's I won't spoil it too much for you guys who haven't seen it, but um it's a terrific movie.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Quality isn't the greatest, but terrific story about this used car salesman.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: And you guys, some of you guys might have seen this, but used car salesman, and he's just ripping people off left and right.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, he'll pay a thousand dollars for a car and it's broken, it's beat up, some of the things don't quite work on it, and he'll mark it up to like seven thousand dollars and sell it as if it's a great car to somebody.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: And even the pastor of his church comes in to buy a car for the pastor's daughter, and he even rips him off.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: And all the guys in the office, they know this.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: Making me worried, I buy my gloves from Les.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: This isn't Les.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: Les I knew it looked familiar.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't quite put the name on it.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, this guy in the movie is ripping people off.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: He's doing very well.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: But it's not right.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: That's one of my glove compartments just fell on the floor when I started driving out of the line.
20:10
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm kidding.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so make sure you know you gotta listen to your advisors.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Listen to your advisors.
20:20
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever worked for uh have you ever you ever worked in a place like that where you know somebody's been a ripoff artist, your boss has been a cheater or anything?
20:28
SPEAKER_00: I have actually.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: He was very corrupt in multiple different ways.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: But when I was in high school, I got a job during my sophomore year working at this little sandwich shop in Logan Sport, Indiana, uh little tiny town of about 20, 20,000.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: I guess not too tiny.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: But the guy that I worked for, he was a corrupt boss, doesn't have the business anymore.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: And me coming in, I think I was, let's see, 15 at the time when I got that job as a sophomore.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't I didn't really know any better.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: But he paid pretty much all the employees under the table.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: So every week straight cash.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: 20s, and he always he always rounded, so there were always 20s in there.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: So we would get to the end of the week and he would have a little safe, which was never locked, and so I didn't quite understand that, but it was never locked, it was always open, and everybody, all the employees, there's probably 10 or 12 of us, and we would all have an envelope with our name on it written in Sharpie, and inside the envelope was all the cash for the week.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: And he paid everybody like this.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: So later found out that he did pay a couple people with actual checks where people had you know actual W 2s delivered to them.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Um it was his mom who she stopped by and ate some food once in a while, didn't really work.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: There, his bread man, which he actually did work, he made all the bread, all the fresh bread in the morning, and himself.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Those were the three people that he paid with a check.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: So obviously, to try to make sure that at least try to cover up some of what he was doing with the IRS, so that there's some paid employees at this business.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: But at the time I didn't re I knew it something wasn't quite right.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: I knew that that it wasn't right, but I guess I didn't know the extent of it until I learned about what was going on later on.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: But I've worked for somebody like that.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: And so the point was so he didn't have to pay all these extra taxes, he didn't have to um pay extra money, and he could just gain as m every single dollar, every single cent that he possibly could.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: And now he doesn't have the business, and who knows what's going on with that.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: But I've seen it.
22:53
unknown: Wow.
22:55
SPEAKER_02: You're laughing, you know you've you've been around.
22:57
SPEAKER_02: Some of us have been around, right?
22:59
SPEAKER_02: How many of you have uh worked for or worked with people who have been I've hired a couple people in my career who have you really?
23:07
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
23:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:10
SPEAKER_02: When I was a sales manager, I once hired a guy who then they came after me for all the money that he had he had rooked people out of.
23:17
SPEAKER_02: He eventually went to jail, but anyway.
23:19
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that's uh so we have Matthew's up north or Levi's up north, Zacchaeus is down south, they're both real rich.
23:26
SPEAKER_02: And then uh Jesus comes up, and we're on page, oh, a decision few people, few men make.
23:32
SPEAKER_02: That's page 119 at the bottom.
23:35
SPEAKER_02: And uh so we've got this Caillus ripping people off, and I forgot to advance these slides.
23:41
SPEAKER_02: I was interested in what you're saying, but he's going, it's not enough, you owe me more.
23:45
SPEAKER_02: And because because the deal is like like Derek said, the deal was that the Romans uh would hire you, and you had to give them their money, but you could take whatever else you wanted.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: So that that's that's anyway, and but he had Roman soldiers who could enforce it.
24:00
SPEAKER_02: And so, yeah, and this is the verse, one of the verses Derek read, Jesus goes, follow me, and he got up and followed him.
24:07
SPEAKER_02: And so the issue, the question they ask you on bottom of page 119 is what kind of commitment to biblical values does it take to give up a dishonest, lucrative position in order to practice the principles Jesus Christ taught.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: And uh that's an interesting way of asking that.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: I remember it was with Fear and Trembling.
24:28
SPEAKER_02: There was a guy who had uh come to Christ in the church, I'd started spending a lot of time with him, and he was quite wealthy at his own restaurant here in town.
24:37
SPEAKER_02: And then meet with him once or twice a week at his restaurant for lunch and talk with him about the Lord, and I was mentoring him.
24:43
SPEAKER_02: It was in the 90s.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: And I just I noticed he was paying all of his employees by cash, even paying himself extra with cash, and he would joke about it.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: We go back and he just pulled a wad of bills out of the cash register and stick them in his pocket.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: He wasn't keeping good records, and he was and I knew I had to confront him, you know, about that.
25:05
SPEAKER_02: And uh and I did, you know, and uh picked picked a time I thought, and I and and I was glad to see that and he did respond and he started and I knew he was giving up lots of money.
25:22
SPEAKER_02: He was becoming incredibly wealthy really quickly by cheating that way.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: And um and and it was scary to confront a guy knowing that if he did what you were telling him he needed to do, he was gonna be giving up, you know, a hundred thousand a year.
25:38
SPEAKER_02: And and he did it.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: But uh I'm not sure he had a commitment to biblical values there.
25:43
SPEAKER_02: I think he just wanted to keep my respect temporarily, but um, but um that's a tough thing.
25:49
SPEAKER_02: I I don't know that I've known anyone else over the years who's given up you know, who's done what Matthew did or or maybe what this guy did.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: So you may want to discuss that issue at your table too.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: So but anyway, uh that's what Matthew did.
26:06
SPEAKER_02: Where are we?
26:06
SPEAKER_02: Okay, it's about time to be done.
26:08
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, so we have we move up, we're gonna stop at the top of page 121.
26:11
SPEAKER_02: And on page 120, we have the story of him following Jesus, but I feel like Derek's already told you that story.
26:18
SPEAKER_02: Um, and we get to a universal challenge at the top of page 121.
26:24
SPEAKER_02: Though Jesus later delivered this message about money, don't lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
26:29
SPEAKER_02: That's at the bottom of 120.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh see you, Paul.
26:33
SPEAKER_02: Um, he certainly shared similar thoughts with the crowds in Capernaum.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: So Gene's saying, you know what, Matthew, certainly heard this message.
26:42
SPEAKER_02: And so next week you want to come back for that uh because we're gonna move from this principle.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: This is the principle we're leaving you with today.
26:50
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ wants all Christians to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
26:54
SPEAKER_02: So you give up the love for money and and follow Jesus.
26:58
SPEAKER_02: And that's the principle for today, which we want you to discuss.
27:02
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna move next week into the whole issue of tithing, how you handle your money as a Christian.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: But I want to leave you with a couple of things.
27:09
SPEAKER_02: I want to leave you with some of the best quotes that I liked from the book Halftime this morning, and leave you with some stuff to discuss.
27:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh, in at halftime in his life when he was 40, uh Bob Buford, uh uh his friend Mike asked him this simple, penetrating question, what's in the box?
27:28
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, No one had ever put such a significant question to me so directly.
27:33
SPEAKER_02: After a few minutes, which seemed like hours, I said, Well, if it has to be one or the other, money or Jesus, I'll put Jesus Christ in the box.
27:43
SPEAKER_02: And and he, because he realized, how was it that I could be so successful, so fortunate, and yet so frustratingly unfulfilled.
27:52
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, uh I'm gonna use this quote on Sunday morning sometime.
27:56
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Brad Pitt has recently said the same thing.
27:59
SPEAKER_02: It's really interesting.
28:01
SPEAKER_02: And this this quote is not, I think it was actually carried uh in Rolling Stone, where he says, People are not gonna believe me.
28:09
SPEAKER_02: But I've reached the point in my life where I have all the fame and all the wealth that I'll ever need.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: But he said, I've got to tell any any of you who want what I've got.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: It it doesn't deeply satisfy.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: It's astounding.
28:22
SPEAKER_02: Brad Pitt says this in Rolling Stone.
28:24
SPEAKER_02: Well, Bob Buford realized the same thing.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: And uh, three more quotes, and these are the quotes, uh, four more.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: As long as we breathe.
28:36
SPEAKER_02: This is in the challenge part of his book, it's never too late in life to discover a better way.
28:41
SPEAKER_02: And he's saying that too, because he's writing this book really for other millionaires.
28:45
SPEAKER_02: And he says, What's the one thing, not two things, not three, not four, but what's the one big thing in your box?
28:51
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, if your life were absolutely perfect, how would it look to you?
28:56
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, if the first half of your life is a quest for success, he says, the second half of your life is really a journey to significance.
29:05
SPEAKER_02: You need to move from success to significance.
29:08
SPEAKER_02: How can you make your life significant?
29:11
SPEAKER_02: So, anyway, those are some quotes for you to consider as you discuss some questions I've written down, Derek, for us to discuss in small group.
29:19
SPEAKER_02: Have you worked in a greedy, unethical situation?
29:22
SPEAKER_02: What feels familiar to you in the story of Matthew?
29:26
SPEAKER_02: How has Jesus changed your life?
29:28
SPEAKER_02: Has he changed anything about money in your life?
29:31
SPEAKER_02: What's in your box?
29:32
SPEAKER_02: And then pray for each other.
29:34
SPEAKER_02: Let's read this verse uh together.
29:36
SPEAKER_02: This is the verse which we're going to read together this week and next week.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: But seek first kingdom and his righteousness.
29:45
SPEAKER_02: And all these things will be given to you as well.
29:48
SPEAKER_02: As well.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: All right, here are the questions.
29:51
SPEAKER_02: Would you lead us in a word of prayer?
29:52
SPEAKER_02: And thanks again, Keith, for what you did.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for being in control.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for giving us your word.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for Jesus Christ and giving us the best, the best gift of eternal life and the best example to model our lives after.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: Help us to do that.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: Help us to not chase money, but to chase you.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: Amen.