Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Common Sins and Struggles" by Joey Morgan - Part 9

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"Common Sins and Struggles" by Joey Morgan - Part 9 · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

• 0:00
  Got some soldier earners here today.
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  Y'all working at FCA?
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  Are y'all the group that's working at FCA?
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  Well, good morning, everyone.
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  So we've been talking about common sins and struggles this quarter, and today we're going
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  to talk about something that affects every single one of us, and that is money.
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  Byron, I didn't see Byron in here this morning.
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  He always likes to call it the filthy lucre, or whatever that is.
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  I wanted to do this one near the end, but it might take a couple weeks, so I'm going
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  to go ahead and start it today to make sure that we get it done since this is the last
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  month of this quarter, and also within this, the reason why it might take a couple weeks
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  is because within the talking about money, we're also going to talk about other struggles
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  that go along with, if you replace the subject money with something else, same type of struggle
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  that you might have, whether it's worry, envy, those kinds of things like that.
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  So it's not just a, we're not only going to talk about money, we're going to talk about
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  what that causes, and then again, if you replace money with whatever the struggle is that you
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  might be struggling with that same thing with, it still applies.
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  So we'll talk about others slightly as we cover it, and we're not just going to talk
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  about having money, not having money, but how do we think about it, how do we use it,
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  how it quietly becomes maybe one of the biggest spiritual struggles in our lives, and again,
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  it's one of those topics where I think we also don't like to be honest.
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  Like I talked about with pride or laziness when we talked about those things, sometimes
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  it's very hard to maybe see that we struggle with this within ourselves, we always think
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  that we don't, but we may very well, and that might be the case because you can struggle
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  with it, one is, if you don't have it, you can struggle about money.
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  We can also struggle with money if we have too much of it.
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  Sometimes that's going to be a problem.
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  And it's just like Goldilocks and the three bears, you can also struggle with it if you've
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  got just enough of it.
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  There's different struggles that come with all three of those.
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  So money can get you in a bunch of different ways, is what I'm basically trying to say.
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  It's a common struggle.
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  And one of the things, if not the thing, that I think Jesus warns us about the most
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  that's going to get in between us and God, it's one of the main things that might stand
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  in our way between us serving him or serving something else.
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  But the Bible is going to speak very directly about it.
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  So we'll start off with a very simple question.
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  How many of you would say money has ever caused you stress in your life at some point in time?
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  And again, it could be I struggle with it because I didn't have some at some point.
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  It could be I struggle with it because it seemed like everybody wanted mine.
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  It could be I struggle with it because I have just enough.
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  There's different ways in which you can struggle with it.
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  But I'd say it's caused all of us some form of stress throughout our lives.
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  And here's the truth that I know you all probably know, but we need to get this out of the way
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  at the very beginning.
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  Money itself, is it the sin?
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  No.
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  It might be what's causing the struggle, but the actual object itself is not the sin.
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  Not having it or anything along those natures.
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  Money may be one of the easiest objects that may lead us into sin, but it's not the sin
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  itself.
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  If you go to 1 Timothy chapter 6, this will kind of be one of the main themes that we
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  talk about throughout the whole entire lesson.
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  So Paul is talking in verse 5, he's talking about people who suppose that godliness is
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  a means of gain.
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  So that's the purpose behind why they're doing the things that they're doing is because they
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  expect to gain something from it, whatever it might be.
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  And he says from such withdraw yourself.
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  And then he says in verse 6 of 1 Timothy chapter 6, now godliness with contentment is great
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  gain.
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  So that's where the gain comes from.
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  For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.
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  And having food and clothing and these things we shall be content.
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  But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish
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  and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
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  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the
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  faith and their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
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  So Paul giving some insight on how we view things, basically, how we should be content
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  with the things that we have.
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  Our view on things should be what?
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  How does he kind of phrase it here?
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  It's kind of the phrase of, you know, you don't see a U-Haul at a funeral.
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  You can't take nothing with you.
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  You know, it's all temporary.
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  It's all going to be gone.
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  You bring nothing into this world, you're certain that you can carry nothing out.
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  Our view on things in this world should be temporary in nature.
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  Then he talks about what happens if our desire is placed on being rich or when our desire
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  is for that money.
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  But notice what he says carefully.
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  He says money is the root of all sorts of evil.
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  There's a couple other words in there, isn't there?
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  Says the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.
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  So right away we're dealing with, it's a heart issue.
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  It's a heart struggle.
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  And our desire for something, and it so happens that that object may be money.
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  Again, throughout this study we're going to talk about some different struggles and you
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  can replace money with something else and it's all the same.
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  So if you're not struggling with maybe money per se, but you've got something else that's
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  causing you to worry or causing you to covet or causing you to do these other things, it's
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  the same type of idea.
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  But money becomes dangerous when we have a misplaced desire for it.
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  That's what Paul's kind of saying here.
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  Paul says in verse 10 that the love of money even causes some to stray away from faith
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  and their what?
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  And their greediness.
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  I've always said you can be greedy with a million dollars and you can be greedy with
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  a nickel.
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  Depends on what your desire is for that money.
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  You can desire a nickel the same as you can a million dollars.
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  And money and how much you have of it and how little you have of it, that's not the
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  problem.
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  It's what you feel about that money.
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  What your desire is for that money.
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  Do you lust for that money?
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  Do you love that money?
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  That's what the problem is.
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  So we're going to talk about why it's so dangerous, ways we're deceived by it, and things that
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  make us love it.
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  So I have three, but I'll throw it out there, we'll start that way.
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  Why do you think people love money?
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  What are some reasons why you think people would have this love for money that is the
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  root of all sorts of evil?
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  Security.
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  What'd you say?
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  It buys things, which is another thing of, it gives me the things I need.
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  So security, happiness.
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  They think that it brings them the happiness that they desire.
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  Status.
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  Power.
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  Somebody said something in the back.
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  It buys peace.
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  Somebody say something over there.
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  Power.
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  I've got three.
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  Again, and all those are good.
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  I didn't want to do 30 because we'd be here for 10 days, but one is money gives us
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  a false sense of security.
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  Turn over to Proverbs 18, Proverbs 18, we're going to look at verse 11.
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  Proverbs 18, 11.
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  Says the rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his own esteem.
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  That's the New King James Version.
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  Anybody have the ESV?
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  So a rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his imagination.
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  What's that proverb really saying?
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  What does money, what does a rich man's wealth is his strong city, that's again goes to security.
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  You know, I've got, my wealth is my walls around me that's protecting me and keeping
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  me from danger and making me feel safe and all the things that go along with that.
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  Maybe even if we're not, we thank it because we have it.
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  You start thinking, you know, if I have saved enough, I'm going to be okay because money,
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  that's what it's going to do for me.
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  It's going to provide me for the security that I need to let me know that I'm going
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  to be all right.
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  If my income is stable, if I've got a job and it's coming in and I've got everything
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  going for me, I'm good because that's, I've got the money coming in.
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  That's what's providing me with that.
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  It's giving me my security.
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  And once you start feeling that way, then you start having different feelings for money.
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  You start to love it because you think it's what's bringing you that security.
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  It's what's making you feel safe.
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  We would love anything that would make us feel that way, wouldn't we?
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  You know, if we had something that would make us feel secure and safe, that's something
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  that you're going to want to love.
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  But what happens when your savings get wiped out by something?
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  Maybe the stock market crashes or, you know, I know a lot of people many years ago when
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  the stock market kind of hit a shift, if you were just so happy to be at the right age
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  where this was the year I was going to retire and then half of it's just gone, you know,
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  where's that security in that?
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  What happens when you lose your job and your income's taken away?
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  Where's the security in that?
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  You know, money can disappear pretty quickly.
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  Wealth can fail, jobs can end, all those things.
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  So the question that we have to ask ourselves is, where do I really place my security?
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  Because that's where your love is.
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  Wherever that security's at, that's where your love is.
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  Is it God or is it my bank account?
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  Is it God or is it my things that I've got?
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  One of those two things is where I feel like my security comes from.
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  If we're being honest, you have to ask yourself that question and be honest with yourself,
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  which one is it that you feel like it is?
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  Which one do you place your trust?
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  If you go up one verse from 1811, in Proverbs it says in verse 10, the name of the Lord
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  is a strong tower.
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  The righteous run to it and are safe.
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  So a rich man feels like his wealth is his strong city.
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  That's what makes him safe.
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  That's what gives him peace.
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  That's what brings him comfort.
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  That's what makes him feel stable.
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  But verse 10 says, the name of the Lord, that's the strong tower.
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  And the righteous run to it and are safe.
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  So one idea is that money can make us feel like that is what makes us safe and secure.
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  And if we feel that way about it, we're going to love it because that's what we would want
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  to do.
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  I have in here, money also feeds pride, which goes into power and status and the things
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  that some of you mentioned.
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  Go over to Deuteronomy 8, Deuteronomy chapter 8.
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  We're going to look at verses 11 through 18, Deuteronomy 8, 11 through 18.
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  And here we will see how riches and wealth can, again, all these things are, it can make
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  these things.
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  It's not a definite that you're going to do these things or that you can have pride or
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  that that's where you feel like your security and things are, but it's the fact that it
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  can cause that to happen.
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  But wealth and riches can lead us to a wrong sense of ourselves.
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  Verse 11, he says, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his
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  commandments, his judgments, and his statutes, which I command you today.
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  Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them,
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  and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied
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  and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the
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  Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who has
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  led you through the great and terrible wilderness in which where fiery serpents and scorpions
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  and thirsty land were, where there were no water, who brought water for you out of the
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  flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know
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  that he might humble you and that he might test you and to do good in the end.
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  And then he says in verse 17, and then you say in your heart, my power and my might of
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  my hand have gained me this wealth.
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  And you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth
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  that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers as it is this day.
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  So here he's talking to the Israelites and he's saying, don't forget God.
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  Don't forget his commandments, his statutes, all those things.
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  Don't forget that whenever, you might not have it now, but there's going to be a time
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  when your flocks are going to increase, all the things are going to be multiplied, you're
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  going to have a lot of silver, a lot of gold, you're going to be wealthy.
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  And then he says, what are you going to end up saying in the end?
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  Oh, look what I've done for myself.
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  This is my wealth, my power, my hands have gained me this wealth.
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  That's a false sense of where it came from, right?
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  He even says right after that, and you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who
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  gives you the power to get wealth.
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  You know, we talked about this a lot when we spoke about pride, but isn't this really
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  an easy thing to do?
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  For us to be in a position where we need God and we come to him and decide I'm going
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  to give my life to you because of all the things that you've done for me, all that you've
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  promised me.
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  But then time goes on and we maybe aren't in the same shape of what we were in at the
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  time whenever we decided that we needed him to free us from bondage.
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  You know, we're not the Israelites coming out of Egypt, but we're coming from the bondage
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  of sin, aren't we?
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  And then maybe when we're not in that position anymore, we're no longer in bondage, and we
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  start to be doing a little bit better, sometimes we can forget.
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  Do you have something Russell?
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  Yeah, that's where your love is too, again, it's the same idea.
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  But it's an easy way of thinking to fall into if we start thinking, I worked hard for this.
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  And again, you may very well have physically worked hard for what you've got, pretty good
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  chances that you did.
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  People start saying, I earned this, I built this.
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  But we forget that God gave us, us.
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  Am I here without God?
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  Are you here without God?
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  It doesn't matter what you did to build anything, it doesn't matter what you did to earn something,
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  it doesn't matter what you did to work for whatever, because we're not even here if he
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  didn't create us.
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  So there's no us without God, so we can't take really credit for much.
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  We aren't here without him, he created us, so that means the ability that we have, we
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  all do different jobs, whatever ability it is that you have to do the job that you do
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  very well, he gave it to us, because again, he created us.
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  So again, it goes back to him.
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  The opportunities that I have don't exist without him, the health I have doesn't exist
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  without him, the time that I have doesn't exist without him.
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  Now I'm not saying we can't do things in our lives that maybe make some of those things
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  better by our choices, but without him, we don't even have a choice because we're not
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  here.
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  He created us, and sometimes we forget that, that no matter what it is we do, without him
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  we're nothing.
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  Yeah, Chuck.
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  Yeah, and that goes to what is your desire for it, it's like, we can understand that
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  we have to have it, you know, in this society that we live in and the world we live in,
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  we have to have ways of having things so that we can get the things we need and all those
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  kinds of things, but if you see it as this is just an object that I use to make those
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  things happen, but it's not my heart that it's now my desire and my lust for because
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  I feel like it again gives me security, it's the thing that provides me those things, it's
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  again how do you view it is the biggest difference, and the same thing here, money if we let it,
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  it can slowly push God out of the picture and us more into the limelight because we
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  start to think I'm the one who can obtain this because it's a physical object and I'm
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  a physical person, I see it in my hands, I get a paycheck and I think that it's because
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  of this that I did that I got that and it is, I mean, I went and did something, somebody
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  paid me for it, but at the same time, without God, none of this is even here, none of it
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  exists and we have to remember that, yeah, yeah, that's actually what I'm gonna get into
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  right now, so you just hold up a minute, Russell, you're jumping ahead, because that was the
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  other thing that I have is money competes with God, that's why it's dangerous.
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  Turn over to Matthew chapter 6 and we'll look at verse 24, the verse where me and Russell
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  are on the same wavelength.
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  My Bible has a bold heading that says, you cannot serve God in riches, it says in verse
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  24, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or
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  else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other, you cannot serve God in mammon.
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  So does Jesus say it's not a good idea to have two masters, is that how he phrased it?
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  Did he say, you know, you can do it, probably not a good idea to split yourself up between
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  two different people, you know, but it's doable, no, he doesn't say that.
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  Does he say it's a difficult task to keep up with?
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  Jesus doesn't say it's difficult, he says it's impossible, he says you cannot, he doesn't
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  leave any kind of little wiggle room there saying some people can't, but some people
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  can, no, he says you cannot serve two masters.
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  At some point, if you have two masters, what's going to happen?
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  What if this master tells you to do one thing and this master tells you to do something
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  else?
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  There's a choice that's got to be made, right?
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  You can't do what both of them ask you to if they're totally opposite of one another,
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  you know, it's not a doable thing, you're going to be forced to choose between the two
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  and only one of them is going to get your loyalty, which is going to end up causing
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  you to hate the other.
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  So here's a question to think about to see if this is a struggle for you as we're talking
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  about this one with money, when your financial decisions in your life and your faith conflict
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  with one another, which one wins out?
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  Again, only you know the answer to that, because usually it's something that we might keep
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  private and we like to think it doesn't exist and it's never going to happen or whatever,
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  but what happens when there's a financial decision to be made and you have to decide
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  what's my best interest money-wise or what's my best interest spiritually-wise in my faith
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  and things like that, which one of the two am I going to choose?
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  That's a choice you're actually probably put into pretty regularly and you may not even
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  think about it, it just may pass by and you're making split decisions and you're not really
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  thinking about the implications maybe sometimes and again, if that's the case, this might
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  be a struggle for you and you don't even know it.
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  That might be the case.
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  But who wins in that instance?
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  When you're forced to choose between maybe the first thing that we talked about, the
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  security that money might bring you physically in this world versus an opportunity of faith,
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  which one wins out?
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  So sometimes money becomes our master and what we make all our decisions based on, it's
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  the whole core thing that I make all my decisions based upon this, which in this case we're
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  talking about money and again, fill in the blank with something else as we go through
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  this, it's the same thing.
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  What we make all our decisions on, there's something that kind of is that for us.
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  No matter what we think about it, we have a master and it's either God or it's something
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  else.
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  What dictates what we do and do not do and whatever that is, that's our God.
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  No.
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  It's really hard to live with on the earth and the promises of heaven is going to be
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  Yeah, yeah.
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  I think this is probably again, we've covered a lot of struggles.
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  That's why I wanted to make sure I covered this one.
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  I think this one's probably the one that impacts us all the most and it impacts the world.
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  Even in a sense, they just don't know that they have a love for it or whatever it might
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  be.
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  But yeah, it's very easy to stand up here and say, oh, you shouldn't be thinking about
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  money in this way.
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  Yeah.
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  And it's a very hard thing to do.
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  Yeah.
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  Mm hmm.
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  Well, that's like him.
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  We'll get into it.
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  But in in Matthew, where he's saying here, you know, don't worry about the things that
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  you need, basically the food, water, clothing, all those things, all these things will be
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  given to you if you seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, seek him first.
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  And I've always said to people, you know, there's people out there who don't have that
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  and they're still seeking him sometimes or they don't have maybe what it is they they
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  want.
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  But there's still people out there don't have what they need.
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  And to me, that's how does God fulfill that verse?
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  Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.
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  How does he fulfill that?
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  Well, if I know that my brother or sister is destitute and doesn't have the things that
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  they need and I've got plenty.
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  And I'm not fulfilling my part of it, then I'm not helping God fulfill his promise to
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  those people.
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  He's not using me.
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  I mean, he's still going to use someone else.
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  But we're we're the hands and feet that are supposed to be helping fulfill that promise
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  while we're here on this earth.
• 26:01
  And it's a it's a failing on our part whenever we don't see those things as this person has
• 26:07
  need and I have more than enough.
• 26:12
  I need to help this person with whatever that might be as well.
• 26:15
  So we are the fulfillers in a sense of that promise in which he'll use us to accomplish
• 26:19
  those things or use someone else or whoever it might be.
• 26:22
  So sometimes I've always said, if we know someone within our circle who is actually
• 26:30
  in need of those things and we don't help get them those things, then we're failing.
• 26:38
  That's our problem.
• 26:40
  That's what we're we're we're not meeting the standard in which God has given us to
• 26:46
  take part in.
• 26:47
  Huh?
• 26:48
  Yeah.
• 26:49
  Yeah.
• 26:50
  Yeah.
• 26:51
  Yeah.
• 26:52
  Yeah.
• 26:53
  As with all of them, it's not even just this struggle.
• 26:57
  Every struggle is a whole lot easier for me to stand up here and tell you this is what
• 27:01
  we're supposed to be doing or this is how we should view it and all these things.
• 27:04
  But again, there are struggle for a reason, you know, and there are common struggles for
• 27:08
  a reason.
• 27:09
  Yeah.
• 27:10
  Yeah.
• 27:11
  Yeah.
• 27:12
  Exactly.
• 27:13
  Yeah.
• 27:14
  Yeah.
• 27:15
  Yeah.
• 27:16
  Yeah.
• 27:17
  It's all about everything we're going to talk about is your view of it.
• 27:22
  That's the problem.
• 27:23
  It's when it's where is your view of money come in?
• 27:28
  And it can be the same problem even for someone in that situation.
• 27:33
  If they have a perspective of the view of money, that that is what is going to fix all
• 27:38
  their problems, then it's still not going to it would fix some of their problems temporarily.
• 27:44
  But it's not fixing the problems.
• 27:47
  We all have to have it.
• 27:48
  We all have to have, again, money for whatever it is that we need in this life to go purchase
• 27:55
  and to actually do the day to day stuff and all those things.
• 28:00
  But when we feel like our need for it is more than God, then that's where it's going
• 28:06
  to lead you into the root of all sorts of evil.
• 28:09
  That's what can happen.
• 28:10
  Just like someone in the position of that is more likely to probably go do something
• 28:15
  that they wouldn't want to do because they have to.
• 28:19
  You know, that's just the case of what it might be.
• 28:22
  But sometimes when it competes with God, our desire, our love is pointed in the wrong direction.
• 28:29
  It competes with God.
• 28:31
  Yes?
• 28:32
  My favorite chapter in the three favorite chapters is Matthew 25 and I think we're all
• 28:40
  familiar with starting in verse 34, I guess, somewhere, it's talking about Judgment Day,
• 28:48
  but it's when you give me, this is when we know if we're really serving something and
• 28:55
  it says, I was hungry and you gave me food.
• 28:58
  I was thirsty.
• 28:59
  You gave me drink.
• 29:00
  I was stranger.
• 29:01
  You took me in.
• 29:02
  I was naked and you clothed me and I was sick and you visited me and I said, when in the
• 29:06
  world like that?
• 29:07
  And he says, when you did it to these, my brethren, that's when you served me.
• 29:13
  And a lot of times when we look at those like that need things and we have extra bucks or
• 29:22
  whatever the case may be, or a lot of, if we're not looking to serve them in some way
• 29:28
  and there's, and there's the spectrum really on both sides of it.
• 29:38
  So someone cannot have any and feel like I'm, I need security, I need this, but then also
• 29:47
  someone can have a lot and say, I don't think I can afford to give this person some of mine
• 29:55
  because I need it for security and it's, it's the same thing on both sides of that spectrum.
• 30:00
  It can be, and it's how do we view the money?
• 30:04
  Is it, do I feel like I need to keep mine and not give it to this person, even though
• 30:07
  I know they need it because I might need it.
• 30:11
  Then you have a security problem.
• 30:13
  You've got the wrong thought process.
• 30:16
  What was the verse in Galatians six, Chris Wednesday, therefore do good unto who?
• 30:31
  All.
• 30:32
  Yeah.
• 30:33
  Especially those of the household of faith.
• 30:35
  If we have the opportunity and we have the means, then we should be willing.
• 30:41
  And again, if the problem comes in, whenever our feelings about the money is, I got to
• 30:46
  hold on to it.
• 30:48
  That's the problem.
• 30:49
  Yeah.
• 30:50
  Yeah, it is.
• 30:51
  Well, I've had this, yeah, I've had this conversation with people.
• 31:08
  I think I've even, you know, talked to both my boys about this as well.
• 31:14
  This is where relationships with someone, the only way that you really know if someone
• 31:20
  needs something is if you know them.
• 31:25
  And sometimes, and to the point of what Miller was saying there, there's tons of people out
• 31:29
  there that we see that we think need stuff, but I don't really know if they need it.
• 31:35
  If I don't know them.
• 31:36
  The same reason why if I see someone on the side of the road holding a sign and they say
• 31:41
  they need money, you can choose to do whatever it is that you want to do, but if I don't
• 31:47
  know that person, I don't know that me just handing them money is what they need.
• 31:52
  Because if what they are struggling with is maybe alcoholism or drug issues or whatever
• 31:58
  else and I just give them money, I may be very well feeding their problem that they
• 32:04
  have, but they might also just need money.
• 32:08
  Maybe they need food or whatever.
• 32:10
  Maybe I go get them food instead.
• 32:12
  But to the point of why there are so many people out there that are struggling with
• 32:17
  different things, that's why it's up to us who know the people who are around us.
• 32:24
  If they are struggling, we're the ones who know.
• 32:29
  What they need, yeah, we're not around a lot, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've even had
• 32:49
  people on the, just come up to me in my truck basically, you know, you can be sitting in
• 32:53
  the parking lot and they'll come up to you and ask you for stuff and I'll sit there and
• 32:57
  talk to them for a while, you know, I'm not just going to give you something, you know,
• 33:00
  I want to talk to you a little bit, let you explain maybe whatever it is that you need
• 33:06
  or whatever it is and then usually again, this is just mine, I'm not saying this is
• 33:10
  the way to do it, I typically don't give people money.
• 33:15
  If you're hungry, hey, I'll drive to the store and I'll buy you some food because I don't
• 33:19
  know you enough yet.
• 33:20
  If you're somebody I know, if it was somebody I've spent 10 years around and they call me
• 33:25
  up and say, hey, I'm struggling with this and I need this and I've got it, then yeah,
• 33:30
  because I know you and I know that this is what you actually need and I know the situation
• 33:35
  that you're in because I know you, I know that you're not going to go and do this with
• 33:40
  it that actually would be more detrimental to you than me just not giving you anything
• 33:43
  or whatever it might be.
• 33:44
  Every situation is going to be different and it's a hard thing, like what he was saying,
• 33:49
  to figure out what am I supposed to do here because we could be doing worse by helping
• 33:56
  somebody in the way that we think that they're asking for help than it is just helping them
• 34:01
  with whatever it is they need.
• 34:14
  By the interstate, it's always travelers who are either coming to worship with us or
• 34:21
  a cafeteria with a gas station there would give you meals but there was never anybody
• 34:27
  in the services who stopped and asked for food.
• 34:31
  Yeah.
• 34:32
  Yeah, it's a very hard thing to figure out because it's actually more and more you see
• 34:40
  people on the side of the, I mean our city in the last, I don't know, 10 years maybe
• 34:46
  I guess, I don't, I've lost track of time as you get older every day, it seems the same
• 34:50
  but a lot more people on our corners than there used to be.
• 34:55
  I don't know if that's because there's a lot more struggling than there used to be or if
• 34:58
  it's because it's become a thing that you see because I see it in everywhere we go on
• 35:03
  a vacation if it's in the city or whatever it might be.
• 35:07
  So then there's the aspect of all of those people it's just a job that they're out there
• 35:10
  doing to get money but then that changes us, again we don't know that that's what they're
• 35:16
  doing but I also don't know that's not what they're not doing so unless we can figure
• 35:20
  out ways to meet a person, figure out what it is that they need, figure out is this the
• 35:29
  best way to help them because what you said about just throwing money at things, that's
• 35:33
  not always the fix, that's not always going to be the thing that's actually going to help
• 35:39
  someone in certain situations.
• 35:41
  It might be a help to some people but it's not going to always be a help to others.
• 35:45
  I think we're in it for our heart, it's up to them, if they do something bad on us, it's
• 35:52
  up to us to deal with the money.
• 35:56
  Yeah like I said, a good question to ask yourself in a situation might be based on what we've
• 36:03
  been saying is why do I not want to give this person money?
• 36:09
  Is it because I want to keep mine?
• 36:13
  Is there some other reason?
• 36:16
  That's a good question to probably ask yourself, why is it that I don't want to give this person
• 36:21
  whatever it is, again it don't have to be money, it could be your time or anything else
• 36:25
  fill in the blank with whatever it is because it's all about whether or not what I don't
• 36:31
  want to give up, I don't want to give it up because the three things we just said,
• 36:37
  I don't want to give up the thing that's given me my security and if that's how you feel
• 36:41
  about your money, you're not going to give it up or I don't want to give up the thing
• 36:46
  that I earned, the thing that I worked for, the thing that I built, that means you think
• 36:53
  it's all about you and what you have is 100% on you and you're forgetting that we have
• 37:01
  nothing without God and God has just given us to be stewards of the things that he's
• 37:05
  given us or money has competed enough with God that it is now your God and you don't
• 37:12
  want to give it up to someone else.
• 37:13
  Yeah Russell, we'll close with whatever you have.
• 37:17
  I don't want to sound like a dog.
• 37:20
  That's obvious when we hear you speak.
• 37:23
  But I do think we need to not miss the point, none of us, none of us have their hopes, give
• 37:33
  by day to day, but we depend on God and he seems fit to give the music for him so people
• 37:43
  can look for ourselves because he'll provide for us because we don't need God, we're not
• 37:51
  And that's what we need every day and how we use our time, use our pressure is when
• 37:58
  we give more than we spend.
• 38:01
  In Ephesians 4, Paul says that we should know that we will have to give to other people
• 38:09
  so it's actually part of us having things is to share.
• 38:15
  And again, if we have the love of God, we will follow that because we love him.
• 38:20
  But if we have the love of money, we won't because we'll want to hold on to it because
• 38:26
  it's our God instead.
• 38:27
  But very good comments.
• 38:29
  We'll pick up next Sunday, maybe even two.
• 38:34
  Like I said, we're going to talk about several things within this.
• 38:45
  Thank you.