0:00 I want you to speak to our hearts. Lord, we open ourselves up. We invite you to come in and to the deepest depths and show us if there's anything that you want to show us. We love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. 0:16 All right. I don't know if you can see it on the Zoom. Uh those in the audience, can you tell me what I have right here to my right? >> A trash can. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, what do I have right here in my hand? What is it? 0:32 >> $1 in US currency, right? >> What is this? >> Can anybody see? Yeah. $5, right? Abraham Lincoln. Everybody see that? Yep. What is this? >> $10. >> $10 bill. Who's on the front of the $10 bill? >> Very good, Joey. Alexander Hamilton. We 0:53 don't need a dot. What is this? >> 2020. Who's won it? >> Andrew Jackson, right? It's trash. What is this? >> $100 bill. Almost 9,000 rupees. If you 1:08 guys you guys like that math, right? Dwight, can you come take out the trash for me? Thank you, Dwight. All 1:27 right. I can only imagine if I were in your seat what I would have thought. Right. There was some There's some emotion I would have felt. There's some analyzing going around in my brain. Does anybody have the total? Who has the total? Who knows exactly how 1:46 much I threw into that trash can? [laughter] >> What do you got, Joshua? >> 136. Right. $136 I just threw away. Really? It was actual money. It was not monopoly money. That was actually $136. And I think something if I were in your 2:05 shoes and you think what you want, but I'm going to tell you what I would have thought. Wow. He's just wasting it. He literally just watered it up, threw it in a trash can, and he wasted it. And that emotion. And one of the things that 2:18 happened uh in my Bible, it became more real to me at a certain point. I remember this was years ago. The Bible suddenly started becoming real and I could feel some of these emotions when I would read the stories. Something like 2:31 you just experienced where I would read it and I would go, "Wo, that was a waste." And I praise God for that because even the Bible itself says that it's sharper than any double-edged sword. It's able to divide soul and 2:43 spirit, joint and marrow. The Bible, if you allow it, will cut you deep and will reveal things in your heart. And that's what would happen. I would I would read these stories and suddenly they became real to me and I would think things like 2:56 that like I would think like wow that's a that's a waste. One second. Can somebody help me with the clicker? And I want to go through a few Bible 3:15 passages while we're getting set I want to go through a few Bible passages where this emotion comes out in me where that wow this is wasteful or that's a waste uh comes out and I think you're familiar with most of them. That's that's 3:30 actually the slide I wanted right where it's like they're just throwing something away and you're familiar with most of these passages but I want to I want to look at them again with that same emotion you felt as I was throwing 3:40 away uh US dollars. And so the first one I think you know right where a woman basically throws away a year's salary and I think this is the best one to start with. And so it's a passage it's in all four gospels. This story is in 3:58 all four of the gospels. And Jesus even said about the woman who threw away a year's salary. She said he said whenever the gospel is preached this woman will be remembered. And that's incredible that it's in all four gospels. All four gospel writers 4:14 said, "We need to make sure we point out this story." And I want to go through it in reverse order. I want to start at John and go back to Matthew because it's it's like as I'm going through these passages and as I'm letting this open me up, I'm 4:27 seeing things that I never noticed before. I didn't really pay attention to. And you guys you guys know the story, right? A woman anoints Jesus's feet with the alabaster jar. I'm going to I'm kind of picking some things out 4:39 because I don't have time to go through the whole story. So, I assume that you all know and if you don't know, you need to know this story. I mean, this might be one of the most important books of the or most important stories in the 4:48 Bible where a woman, a sinful woman, a prostitute is, you know, pouring herself out at Jesus's feet, takes a an an alabaster jar of perfume that cost her a year's wages and is just wasting it on Jesus. And I hope you know this story, but I 5:08 want to look at some things maybe a little closer that you may or may not have noticed. Um, so we start in John. And you guys are welcome to fall in your uh Bible. I encourage you to do that, but I'll put them up here on the screen. 5:19 At least the parts that I want to emphasize, I'll put on the screen. Now, something interesting about John's account, you'll find it in John 12, is he focuses the story on Judas. So the same story gets told multiple times but 5:33 in John's version he focuses on Judas and what Judas how he responded to the what was going on with this woman and he points out this is a waste. This woman is wasting money that could have been given to the poor. Right? And 5:51 John says though this is why Judas said that said that Judas was actually a thief and he was stealing. So he wasn't really thinking about the poor, even though he came across as very pious. He was really looking out for himself. 6:04 That's what John exposes to us. And at the table, if you read a few verses before, there are other characters in the story that I don't know if you paid attention to, right? Mary and Martha are there. You remember Mary and Martha? You know, 6:18 Mary is sitting at Jesus's feet. Same Mary. In other words, John's gospel tells us who this woman was. was Mary, the one that sat at Jesus's feet. Well, here she really sat at Jesus' feet and used her hair to wipe his feet, used her 6:34 tears. Mary was a a woman who knew to how to sit at Jesus's feet, right? And and in the story, Martha's serving now. And I picture Martha with a different spirit than we saw in in Luke 10. I see Martha as her sister is pouring herself out at Jesus' feet just 6:53 smiling and serving. She's serving like anything, but she glances over at her sister who's who's doing this and anointing Jesus's feet for burial. And she smiles this time. And Lazarus is there. Remember the guy that rose from 7:05 the dead? He's at that table, too. There's a lot of things that we can use our imagine to picture what this scene looks like. All we have is the narrative from John. And really, what he emphasizes is Judas. Yeah. Judas made a big deal about what a 7:18 waste this was, but deep in his heart there was something else. Brothers and sisters, have you ever done this? I have. Or you say, "Oh, look at that person wasting." And you're trying to make a a point of it, but really deep in 7:32 yourself, what you're really concerned about is how this is going to impact you. Right? My sibling is wasting the inheritance. What am I really concerned about? I'm not getting the inheritance. At least not as much as I should because my 7:46 sibling is wasting that. That ever happened to you and or something like that. It's me and this book tells me this the my Bible tells me, look, I'm I'm exposing that. That's bad. You don't want that kind of attitude. You don't 8:01 want an attitude where you look good, you look pious, but really you're worried about yourself. And so John points out Judas in the story and says, "Look at his attitude." But that's not it. When you come to Luke, Luke focuses 8:14 the same story on a different person. He focuses on Simon the Pharisee, right? He points out how Simon, and please go look it up if I if I if you think if you doubt what I'm saying, go read the story. Luke 7, Simon invites Jesus, wants he so bad, 8:32 wants Jesus to come to his home, but then he finds this other woman in his home. He he didn't invite her. And he points that out to Jesus. If you knew what kind of woman this was that was washing your feet, you wouldn't dare 8:46 let her touch you. And Jesus sets Simon right. He says, "Listen, when when I came here, you didn't offer me anything. Right. You you you have not treated me the way she's treated me." And he says something very important. You can go 9:05 fill in the details, but I just want you to see this point. He gives us a principle through this story. Through this real life story and the parable that Jesus tells in relation to the real life story, we get one of the most 9:16 important principles that we need to know as Christians. He who has been forgiven much loves much. And he who has been given forgiven little loves little. And as you weigh your own sin, it will determine how much you love 9:32 Jesus. If Jesus hasn't forgiven much in you, yeah, you're probably not going to love him very much. But if you know your sin and you know how far short you fell of the glory of God and how much you wasted in your own life, 9:48 you're going to be amazed that God even loves you and you're going to love much. So we get this as Luke focuses not on Judas but on Simon. So it's interesting this gospel writer focuses on a different person in the story and then we come to Mark. Who 10:06 does Mark focus on? Because we know that what we know what Judas said. But if we look at these verses, we see that that Mark, who wasn't there at the scene, it's believed that Mark heard the gospel account, got the account from Peter. So, it's believed 10:22 Mark got it secondhand, recorded everything that Peter said. And here's what Mark says. Now, some of the disciples were indignant. Some were indignant. They were very upset. Now, it can't This is interesting because it doesn't just 10:35 focus on Judas like John did. It says there were quite a few disciples, more than one. And it said they were indignant is such a strong word. They could not believe what's happening right now. This is crazy. And something that I didn't catch 10:53 or or I didn't think much about at least is what's at the very end, the last sentence. Now, use your imagination. We use our imagination for all kinds of things. Use your imagination to picture this scene. 11:06 It says, "And they were scolding her." What were they saying, brothers and sisters? What were they saying to to Mary? And now it's becoming more real. These are disciples. I want to be a disciple 11:26 of Jesus. I want to follow Jesus. I want to learn from Jesus. Right. And the and the Bible will shine things in my heart and say, "Josh, do you look down on people? Do you even scold people that are doing things for the Lord and you're looking down on them 11:41 and you're scolding them? Maybe you don't do it out loud, but you're doing it in your heart." These are disciples. These are ones that walked away from businesses, walked away from fishing and tax collector booth, gave up everything 11:54 to follow Jesus. And yet you see this in their heart and you go, "Lord, is there any of this in me? Cleanse it. I hate it. I don't want it. I agree with what the scripture says. I agree with what you're pointing out. I I accept the rebukes. 12:09 Leave her alone." Brother, you ever had the Lord tell you in your spirit, "Leave that person alone. Quit picking them apart. Quit being so critical. Who are you to do that?" And so when it gets to be disciples, it becomes more real. But that's not all. 12:25 Let's go to Matthew. Matthew expands the pool and he says the disciples, Matthew was a disciple. Mark was not. Matthew was there. And 12:43 it's almost like, you know, Matthew writes and he said it was all of us. The truth is, I know Judas, you know, I know Judas, you know, was it was kind of a a shock because of what he was doing with the the stealing and everything, but at 12:58 the end of the day, we all felt the exact same way about that woman. We all felt it. We all thought it. That's the truth. Maybe Matthew said, "I was quiet. I didn't, you know, it was Judas that was doing the talking and maybe another 13:10 one of the disciples. I didn't say anything, but I certainly felt that." And sometimes when somebody else gets rebuked, it reveals our own heart. And you say, "I didn't say it because I didn't have the courage to say it, 13:25 but I deserve the same rebuke because that's exactly what I was thinking. That's exactly what I was feeling. It was a waste. What this woman was doing was so wasteful. I had the exact same thought." And as Matthew pins this 13:37 gospel, he's honest. He says it was all of us. And so I just appreciate that. But I appreciate, you know, this whole story and the whole way it challenges my attitude towards things. You know, I try to be disciplined with money. Uh I try to do 13:53 things the right way, be disciplined with my time. I I try to have, you know, exercise self-control in all things, you know. So it's not that I want to be wasteful. But is it that like Lord, maybe I don't have the right perspective on it. Maybe 14:07 there's things that you still need to reveal to me. I'll tell a story I thought of as I was reflecting on this um about another woman. So before I met Amber uh this was more than 25 years ago obviously but there was a girl I was 14:23 interested in. Some friends had you know told me about this girl and kind of set up an opportunity for me to meet. And so we were talking. I was interested in her. I liked her. I thought well maybe this will be somebody that you know we 14:36 can get married or whatever. like I I I thought she was neat and uh you know we I was talking to her and one of the things that came up in conversation because I was really into I just graduated from college with a with a 14:50 degree in finance. I was really into personal finances. So a lot of my conversations were around money and finances and so I you know we were we got to talking about giving money to the Lord because that's something that I 15:00 think is very interesting. If you're interested in a boy or girl for a marriage candidate, I think it's good for you to ask a question like, "Well, what do you think about giving your money to the Lord?" It's a great question. So, I I said something like 15:10 that. This was years ago. I don't remember what I said. I said, "Do you know, do you give money to the church or do you tithe?" I don't remember exactly what I said, but I remember what she said. She said, "I do." And she was a little 15:21 perplexed at my question. I mean, this is a pretty, at least in the United States culture, this is a pretty intimate conversation you're having, meeting somebody for like the first or second time, right? And she said, she 15:33 said, "But my mom found my checkbook." And she was angry when she saw I'd written checks to the church. And I remember just my mouth I I didn't know what to say. I'd never experienced anything like that. I financial freedom. 15:47 But here's a young girl in her 20s, early 20s. She was young and she still lived at home with her mom. So she was still under her mom under her mom's authority and her mom was looking through her checkbook and found these 15:58 checks written to a church and she was angry and said, "Why this waste?" And as I reflected on it, I I admire that that girl. I don't know like you know obviously after I got married and moved on like I haven't talked to her 16:14 since but I think about that and brothers and sisters I hope you know you single if you're single I hope you marry somebody like that if you're going to get married marry somebody that has been tested in that way and I I don't know 16:26 what how it worked out I don't know if she continued to give or she obeyed her mom's authority I don't know I don't know what the right answer is I'll tell you honestly but I up to that point I'd never been challenged by that at all 16:37 you know my challenge was like do I give or not give or how much do I give? I never even thought of an idea of of my parent or my mom or dad telling me angrily, you're wasting your money on God. And so I see something similar and I and 16:55 I remember that and I hope again I hope like as as you guys contemplate marriage, you you meet somebody that has at least been tested and considered this and has made God a priority and doesn't consider it a waste to give to the Lord. 17:09 So that was number one. That's all tied together. Here's number two. We have another situation where somebody could say, "Why this waste?" And it's in 1st Samuel 15. And this is about Saul, King Saul. And sometimes we get into the the the 17:24 narrative of the Old Testament. We we figured out now that Saul is kind of the bad king and going in a bad direction. And we're looking forward to David because we all know about David and uh and Goliath and what's coming in the the 17:37 future chapters. and David being a good king and we want to be a man after uh God's own heart like David and David becomes our hero and Saul's already at this probably point in the bible become a bad guy here's what I would ask you to do if you 17:50 want to is read chapter 15 of 1 Samuel as if you're Saul and I'm only going to be able to pick out a few verses but I there were things I had to leave out this morning and I challenge you go Lord do you see anything of Saul in me at this point at 18:07 this stage And so, you know, the direction from the Lord was, you know, he says, you know, God has a purpose for everything he does. We don't understand it. We, his ways are a bit of a mystery to us. Now, he reveals an incredible amount of of 18:21 his ways to his creation. He loves us so much. He He wants to show us things and teach us things and reveal his heart to us, but there's some things that we can't explain. And he says, "Look, Saul, I want you to go into battle, and I I've 18:34 been patient with Amalecch and the Amalachites, but now I need you to go into battle, and I need you to kill everything. I need them wiped off." Right? It's a very clear instruction. I want you to kill every person and all their 18:51 livestock, everything. And Saul doesn't do it. It says in verse 9, it says that Saul doesn't do that. And Saul thinks to himself like, "No, you know, I killed all the people. Got it. Check." But the, you know, the animals, the the choice 19:10 animals, we want to keep those. Those are valuable. Like, it would be a waste to get rid of all that stuff. That's money, right? Those livestock we can sell or we can use or we can eat or whatever. Like, why would we just slaughter all this? 19:27 That doesn't make sense. It goes against my reason. Regardless of what God said, I'm not going to do it. Doesn't make good financial sense to do that. God must have missed something, right? And if you if you read through his 19:40 excuses, I mean, the whole chapter reveals things of excuses that I've made probably, right? Where where, well, I reasoned this or this or this. And you just watch Saul's excuses. I was afraid of the people. They're the ones that wanted it, 19:54 not me. You know, if you just go read that. Um, but then God says something to Samuel, very interesting. So, this is in the next couple verses. He says, "I regret that I've made Saul king." And I just like when God says, "I regret 20:10 something." You know, like in Genesis 6, when he when he regrets that he made, you know, made the people, whenever God speaks of regret, I hope it bothers you and challenges you. Because this challenges me. I don't want 20:24 God to say, you know, I regret that, you know, I let Amber marry Josh. He's not the husband that I wanted for Amber. I regret that I made Josh the dad of these kids. I regret that I made him an elder. I regret that I put him in these 20:38 situations. I regret it. It bothers me. And so, there's something of this as And remember, my assignment was to read through the whole chapter. You can't just go to this verse. go through the whole thing and let the Lord reveal things deep in 20:52 your heart, but I don't want to hear that. I want to be faithful. Lord, if you told me to do something, I want to do it. I want to do it thoroughly, completely. I don't want to hold something back for myself if you've made 21:03 it clear that wasn't to be held back for me. It was to be sacrificed. And then we get the um where Samuel explains to Saul from the Lord, a word from the Lord and explains this is the principle that I'm trying to teach you 21:18 because one of the excuses you made for keeping the sheep and the oxen and all that is that oh this will make us such a great sacrifice to the Lord and I've done this. You know, I I I can't think of any specific instance because I hope I've 21:32 repented of all that I've done, but where you you start to go, well, if I hold this for myself, it can be great to the Lord. I guess one example I would say, you know, I always wanted to retire from the military. I mean, that was my 21:44 goal for many, many years because I knew if I could stay in the military for 20 years, I would get a pension for the rest of my life and I would get full medical benefits for the rest of my life. And so there was part of me that always 21:57 wanted to stay in the military like well maybe you know the Lord will do give me ministries there and I would held on hold on to something for me and I could justify it. Nobody would ever challenge my dedication to this country or even to 22:11 God by the sacrifice I made. But the truth is there was probably something in it for me. And this principle in the Old Testament and it it's the same principle in the New Testament. You know, God is not looking for you to hold something back that you 22:26 can give to him later. God is looking for obedience. Just do what I told you to do. And again, like we allow the Lord to search us and say, "Lord, is there any area where I'm not doing this? Where where I think it will be wasteful to do 22:42 what you're telling me to do? Let's settle that. It's not wasteful." And the scriptures are speaking to me and telling me, "Okay, Lord, that thing that you've been trying to tell me to do, I'll do it because I see that you value more 22:55 obedience than if I saved up a million dollars and wrote a check to you. I see that you want me to obey on this little bitty thing and you value that and you love that more." And remember what the previous a couple slides back 23:11 where Saul says, "I regret that I made Saul king." or God says, "I regret that I made Saul king." Okay, Lord, I get it now. I want to be obedient. I want to be faithful. So, that's the second what a waste is Saul and the situation in 23:25 chapter 15. I thought of David, too. And there's a story in uh in 2 Samuel 23, and it's it's always been a bit of a puzzle to me. So, David says something like, "Man, I'm thirsty. I could sure go for, you know, one of if I could get 23:44 some of that water that's in Bethlehem, man, that would be awesome, right? And I think we've all done it. Like, like where we say, you know what I could go for right now? A Coca-Cola. And maybe you've never said that, but I'm pretty 23:57 sure I have, right? Where you just say something off the cuff and before you know it, somebody like maybe one of your kids is bringing, "Here, dad, I brought you the Coca-Cola you wanted." Well, you know, I was just expressing my thirst 24:06 or, you know, thank you. But these men go, it says that three of his probably most valuable men, his three most valuable men hear David say this. And so they break through enemy lines through the Philistines lines and they go get 24:21 the water and they bring it back to David. And then what does David do with the water? He pours it out, right? He just pours it into the ground and says, "No way. I'm not doing this." And I scratched my head. I mean like I 24:36 read the story many times and each time it was like is that right? I mean these guys sacrifice something for you like it's already done. The sacrifice is done. It's not you're like you're asking do more and they bring you this water 24:48 and you just dump it on the ground and you say oh this is for the Lord. I'm not going to I can't do this. Why why can't you do this? Like how did I don't know. I'm confused. I'm thoroughly confused. But then I thought about there's some 24:59 there's something in this chapter in this chapter same same chapter and there's a parallel uh chapter in in Chronicles that that says something very similar but basically it lists all David's mighty men. This story is the in 25:12 the middle of D of it listing all Dave's valiant warriors basically and these three it's telling a story of what these three did and it's it's incredible what they did. You know, I can't imagine being in war and I go, "Hey, I you know, 25:25 you know what I could go for is some whatever." And somebody, three men cross into another country, maybe, you know, somebody that's an uh not an ally, an enemy of the United States. They cross into that country, get that, and bring 25:37 it back. That's kind of what happened. The story is telling an an incredible act of bravery and heroicism, and you know, they deserve a medal for this. This is that's the context of what we're reading in these chapters. And then 25:51 David just dumps it on the ground. But one name is mentioned in there. Uriah the Hitittite. You guys know Uriah the Hitittite? Yeah. Some of you are nodding. You know Uriah the Hitittite. Do you know his relationship with David? 26:08 Well, do we don't need to go through that whole story. Right. You got where I'm going. Where David took something from somebody that wasn't his. And Uriah the Hitittite is listed as one of David's 30 mighty men. And I think David in in this chapter, he 26:27 has come to a place where he says, "Never again." This is what repentance looks like, brothers and sisters. God doesn't want you beat up over your past. He wants you to learn from it. He forgives it. The blood of Christ is able 26:40 to cleanse the mo most vile sin you've ever done. And don't let Satan remind you of it over and over again of things that happened years ago. But he wants you to learn from it. And what I see in this story is David learning from his 26:53 mistakes and saying, "It will dishonor God if I take advantage of anybody ever again. So, I'm not even going to drink a a glass of water from them. No more. I learned my lesson." He might there might have even been tears in his eyes as he's dumping the 27:13 water on the ground. and saying, "I'm not doing it again. I'm not going to take advantage of my soldiers." You can come to your own conclusions on this. But that's what I see. And it's interesting in 23 that Uriah's 27:30 name comes at the end of 23. And then we go into 24 and we see another one. We see another principle where, you know, David needs a threshing floor to build an altar. And he he goes to the he goes to Aruna and says, "Hey, you know what? Do you 27:47 want for it? How much you want for this land?" And this guy says, "You're the king. You're the king. Take it." And again, with that that's still in his mind. These are backto-back chapters, 23 and 24. With that still in his mind, 28:02 David says, "Never. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to offer to the Lord something that it didn't cost me. I'm not again I once upon a time I wasn't like this. I used to take things from people. You know I once took a 28:19 guy's wife and I once took a guy's life but from now on I will only give. And so what do you want for it? And I I'm I'm guessing in the next verse I'm guessing this was a lot of money. I don't know how it translate 50 shekels 28:35 of silver, but I believe that David erred on the side of letting Arona get a good deal. I think he was done taking advantage of people. And so I used to read the story and go, "What a waste." You know, king, you're the king. He's giving it to you. Why 28:52 would you pay for something that somebody's given you? That's a waste. And I think if David were here, he could correct me and go, "You're absolutely wrong. It is not a waste. It is righteous for me to pay for this land. 29:06 Because every king, I remember as I was looking at Saul's story back in 15, it says that Saul, anytime he saw a a man or saw something, he would just grab it for his army, right? He would just grab the best for himself. And you see a king that's doing 29:22 something different. He's saying, "I'm not just going to grab it. I'll pay full market value and then some for this land. I'm done taking. I'm going to give." It's a remarkable story when you just see what kings did in in the Old 29:34 Testament. So that's number three, David's two examples. Last one of what a waste is is Solomon's temple. You know, when you read that story, uh you know, and again, David was the one that God told him, "Hey, I'm not going 29:49 to let you build it. You're a man of bloodshed." And he was. He said, "I don't want you building my temple." David said, "That's fine. that's fine, but I'm going to get all the materials ready for Solomon to build it. Like, I'm 30:01 going to I'm going to have everything ready. And so, we still call it Solomon's temple. Like, it's still considered Solomon's temple. Solomon got all the credit. And I just love the story because God says, "I'm not going 30:12 to let you do it." And I love the attitude that says, "Fine, I don't need to do it. But if there's anything I can help that will bring glory and honor to you, and I could do it in a hidden way or in a secret way and get it all done, 30:24 I want to help. let somebody else get all the credit. I just want to do the work for you, Lord. And I see that in David. And again, that same heart of giving. Give, give, give, give. Remember, once upon a time, he took. 30:43 He says, "Taking is a waste. Giving. It is better to give than to receive." So Solomon can have all the credit, but I want to, you know, if I can help in any little way. Maybe I'll get some timber, you know, from uh from up north and I'll 30:56 make sure the the wood's ready for the temple. And so you see what happens once the temple's built. You know, it says they made sacrifices. And so King Solomon, again, I I'd encourage you to use some imagination here. I don't know if you've 31:13 been to a petting zoo or the stockyards up in Fort Worth and just imagine the volume of animals that that that are being sacrificed here. It says that King Solomon gave 20,000 sheep or 20,000 oxen 31:30 and 120,000 sheep and they're just slaughtered. You know, in my mind, you know, as I'm reading this, that must have cost the king quite a bit of coin. I mean, that's a that's a pretty valuable herd. If you're if you're a 31:47 Texan and you have this many cattle, you're rich, right? You're probably driving a very nice pickup truck. You got a lot of land. You're well to do. And here I see a king that just slaughters him, sacrifices for the Lord. Let's kill him. But then in 32:04 another verse in kings, I see this. And this is the one that gets me. You know, a king giving, you know, 142,000 animals is one thing, but it says that King Solomon and the all the congregation, like everybody, it says they offered so 32:21 many sheep and oxen they could not be counted or numbered like you couldn't even it's the number was so astronomical. What a waste. I mean, what does that do to the economy of Israel if these guys are taking their wealth and just slaughtering it before 32:37 the Lord? Isn't that a waste? If I look at it economically, you know, I picture like a family, you know, that's excited about this. Hey, they're telling a father telling their kids, "Hey kids, um, you know, they're going to dedicate the temple today. It's 32:53 finally built. It's finally built. After many years, we're going to dedicate the temple to the Lord." Are you guys excited? Yes, we're excited. There's already a festive atmosphere. Everybody's in town for this. I picture a child saying, "Dad, 33:06 are we going to give anything?" You know, maybe it's a poor family and one of the kids says, "Dad, what about us? Are we going to contribute to this sacrifice?" You know, the dad's like, "I only have two. I only have two sheep and 33:19 we're a poor family." Tells kids, "Yes, yep. Yep. We'll we'll give our we'll give one of our sheep. We'll dedicate it two." And then he thinks about it. He says, "No, this is a this is for the Lord. We'll give them both. 33:36 Right? Solomon giving out of his wealth is one thing, but I think there were situations in Israel where poor families were going, let's give them our animals. And there were so many that couldn't be counted. And what was the result of 33:49 this? That the glory of the L Lord filled that temple. And so I see something in this. I see that, you know, now today as I stand here, one of the things that we've been seeking as a church and I've been seeking as an angel, I want to be filled 34:07 with the Holy Spirit. I want the glory of the Lord in me abiding in me. I want those promises that I see in this book that cuts me open so much, but also promises me wonderful things. I want this. And I hope you're stirred and you want 34:24 it, too. And you want the glory of the Lord to be in his temple. Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. There's a parallel between what's happening here and what's happening here. And I want the glory of the Lord inside 34:39 of me. I want him change in me. I want him to make a home in me and abide in me. And I want his presence in me all the time and and and rivers of living water for my innermost being. Every part of me full of him. I want that. And it's like the Lord 34:55 says, "Are you willing to sacrifice for it? Or do you want it to come cheap? You know, are you willing to give up that in your heart which is most precious to you? I'm not talking about sin. I hope you've already made up your 35:09 mind on sin. I hope you've declared war on sin. You hate it. I hope you hate everything about sin. We can have an offline conversation. I'd love to talk to you about sin. I hate it. I hate what it's done to me. I hate what's done to 35:21 my family. I hate what it's done to my church. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I declare war on it. We're not talking about sin. talking about sacrifice and I'm challenged and I ask the Lord like, Lord, is there anything that I'm 35:33 holding on to, you know, that's that's hindering this in your new covenant age where you're wanting to fill me, where your promises in scripture say, I want to give you a gift. I'm like a good I'm better than your best fathers and I want 35:50 to give you the best gift. But you won't even give up something little to receive it. I think this was a milestone in human history where God's presence like filled into so temple so much that temple that the priest couldn't even do work inside 36:07 there. But I think the Lord promises something more in our age. And I do wonder like Lord, you know, when we talk about cost and we talk about waste, the world thinks that the cross is a waste. It thinks very little of the cross. It 36:24 despises the cross. Thinks it's foolishness to those that are perishing, right? But Jesus just gave up his life. It was a waste. He could have been a king, could have been great, but he just wasted his life. Poured it out as an 36:43 offering. Was it a waste? It was not a waste. It was a huge sacrifice. You know, one of our songs that we sing is, "I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross." You is that true? Do you sing it? Do I 37:02 mean, have you considered the cost enough to know what God and and our father sacrificed to put Jesus on that cross? Have you thought I mean, have you gotten at least above the point where you where you no longer say, "What a waste." 37:16 You understand that it was a very real cost. You've kind of waited against if I had to give up sacrifice one of my children, what would that be like? And you say, 'Oh wow, Lord, you did that. That gets you to here. But then you keep going and when you 37:31 consider that sin that you declared war on and the filth and the muck that Jesus endured because of me and you you keep going up and you keep wonder and then even when you get to a point you say I still don't know that cost but I know 37:44 it's not a waste but I want to be filled with your glory and the only way that I could even have a hint of this. The only way I could even have a hint of this is the cross of Christ cleansing me from sin. Now I can be filled with his Holy 38:03 Spirit. I want that. But I also want to be honest with myself. When this book when this book surgically shows me an area of selfishness and a lack of of of putting God first, 38:22 a lack of sacrifice and celebration at all he's done for me. I want to acknowledge it when the Lord says that Austin CFC is my body. Austin C I am the head. Gosh, Austin CC 38:39 is my church. I am the head and this is my body. I want to be willing to go down on my knees and wash the feet in this body and to serve it. And I need help. It doesn't come natural to you. My flesh has my flesh is every 38:58 bad guy that we looked at today. Judas, Simon, Saul, that is my flesh. But I don't want to settle for that. I want to be like Jesus who poured himself out who didn't consider a sacrifice to be a waste but counted the joy set before him that 39:17 you know it's going to be tough to go to the cross. But that brother and that sister and that sister and that brother and that sister and that sister will all be with me. It's worth it. It's not a waste for Jesus. So I want to look at things in light of 39:33 that. And brothers and sisters, there's no action item on this. I'm not telling you to go cash out anything and give it anywhere. I'm not telling you to put money in the offering box. I just want you to think about it and talk to the 39:46 Lord about it. Have a conversation with him about it and ask like, let it draw you closer to him. That's what I want. That's all I have, brothers and sisters. Oh, I'll recap. Sorry. In case you forgot, this is what we talked about. 40:01 We talked about things that were wasted and you can say what a waste is. And the first one was the perfume and that woman and we looked at it through four different gospels. That's the first waste and then we looked at Saul's 40:12 attitude towards the the herds and saying it would be a waste to sacrifice these good quality animals and we kind of thought through that and there might be some homework for some of us on that. And then we talked about David where he 40:25 he you know he wasted the water and he wasted you know the gift that was be given given to him so he could pay for the land and how I used to read that and think that was a waste and then finally we looked at the temple and the place 40:39 that God was going to dwell and the glory that filled it and how it came at a cost of sacrifice sacrifice sacrifice so many animals that they couldn't be counted that's all I have brothers and sisters thank Let it sink in. 41:08 Thank you uh brother Josh what you shared and those um reminders of it may looks for our u earthly eyes and uh our mind 41:27 losing the logic why Jesus has to come and to die uh if he is a god, how can he die as a helpless human on the cross? I mean, there's all kind of logics people question. 41:46 But if he knew the price what he was paying as some of us like who realized the price what he paid it is worth 42:05 um we're sinful people like but his sacrifice made us to call him called the god father. The goal 42:22 set in front of him is priceless. No amount of dollar amount we can put in comparison with a person being saved saved from the eternity. 42:40 Eternity is hellfire. So nothing will look waste. Jesus was very clear in his teachings that the root is the divided loyalty. The divided loyalty between God 42:59 and money. He clearly warned no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and allow the other or he will be devoted to 43:18 one and despise he will despise the other. We cannot serve God and money. Matthew chapter 6 verse 24 and the root problem is the love of 43:36 money we didn't see as we read in John Judas's car was pilfering it is not the true genuine love it is the love of 43:51 money love of money in him is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away. 44:09 What a great warning. He he started well. He was part of his disciples. But some other attractions on the journey 44:23 made him to wander away from the faith and he pierced himself like he committed suicide. Again the root cause is the love of money. 1 Timothy 6:10. Where your treasure is, there your heart 44:48 will be also. Matthew 6:21. It's not a waste. This is the people whom experienced Calvar's love undeserved and we are willing to go u in the same 45:11 path what what Jesus Christ went through. Joyfully we'll surrender our plans. Joyfully we surrender um our everything our will. 45:30 Yes, we encourage in this church to uh be financially disciplined. Brother Josh spoke on that uh and a multiple messages. You can go on our YouTube channel, you can see that. Um but also 45:47 uh the intent of this message is not to um give you money to this church. There are some conditions even to give to this church. You can see on the box in the corner. So this is not intend to get your money. It is to set your confidence 46:04 or set your priorities on the right things. So I believe the Lord will help us to be be righteous and faithful with this unrighteous mammon. If we are not faithful with this 46:21 unrighteous mammon, who will entrust us the true wealth, true riches? discernment and reading when we read the God's word getting a revelation 46:38 and gift of the Holy Spirit and trusting in him. My heavenly father in control of everything. These are all true riches. Heaven and earth belongs to him. So may he help us 46:57 to think over these thoughts as we approach the end of the year. Where is our trust? Where is our true loyalty? Amen. Let's close with the word prayer. Oh Lord, thank you so much for your 47:18 word. Heaven and earth everything may change but Lord your word will never change. Help us to be loyal to you Lord in our financial dealings and in our choices we make in our 47:37 decisions. Lord thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your grace throughout this year 2025. Lord we give you all the glory. Father, as we are reminded about these 47:53 truths, help us to check, consider our ways, as you said, and to be loyal and faithful to you, Lord. And Lord, thank you so much for the great sacrifice you have done for us. Help us to live for you in Jesus precious name we pray. 48:12 Amen.
