0:00 if you guys don't mind. Heavenly Father, we just come to you through the blood of Jesus and Lord ask you to show us some things about money uh from your perspective and from your heart in Jesus [music] name. Amen. All right. So, I believe I in my prayer 0:16 kind of gave away what I was planning to talk about this morning. Um there's so much in scripture about this and there's so much in life about this and so the Lord um you know seems to use this to reveal things um of of his wisdom and 0:34 his truth and I think every one of us you know from a of for me it was from a very young age we interact with money and so um you know in this country we trade money for time for um you know it's it's uh it's just kind 0:52 of the way of the world. So, I want to talk about I want to use look at three passages this morning. And I would encourage you even after what I've shared to continue to um to continue to think about these passages that there's 1:06 a lot of truth in there. And I've I've spent, you know, a few of them like years thinking about this like Lord, what are you trying to say? Like what uh for me um do you want me to see from this? And so there's a lot of there's 1:21 actually so much uh so many passages about money. Um but these three have been in my heart and particularly two terms. There's two things that I see in scripture uh words that are used by Jesus that I think I've gotten a little 1:34 bit of light on but maybe not all of it yet. Um but I'm on that journey and I trust that you guys are too. You're on a journey when it comes to money. So I want to look at this passage first. So, if you can turn your Bibles to the book 1:47 of Luke and turn to chapter 16. This one is almost exclusively about money. And um we could spend hours this morning just in this chapter. Um I'm only going to pick out a few things that I want to focus on because these three chapters I 2:03 kind of they flow together for me. They may not for you, but kind of there's been a progression as I go through this. And this is the first one. And this this chapter ends with the story of Lazarus uh and a rich man. And it's one of the 2:15 most uh you know surreal stories like Lord where am I? Who am I in the story? What does this for mean for me? But it starts off with uh another story about an unrighteous servant and it looks like Jesus is commending this guy for for his 2:35 behavior and telling us to do something similar. or or is he, you know, and you know, you know, he is and we we'll get into that a little bit. Um, but it kind of shows the the way of the world. And so, this chapter has tons in it. I'm 2:53 only going to take a few things out this morning. One of the things I'm I'd like to take out anytime I talk about money, I like this verse. I love I love this um because it tells me Josh here's your interaction with with money in a way. 3:09 It's like a it's like a treasure map. I'm going to give you and this is for everybody. God gives us a certain allocation of money and he says I want you I'm going to teach you things. I'm going to show you things that are truly 3:22 valuable through it. I'm going to test you. I'm going to use that to be the tool by which if you're faithful in that, you'll discover what's truly valuable. Now, the world stops at the money itself and says that money and 3:34 everything that money buys is truly valuable. Our Lord, our father doesn't. He says, "Look, I can teach you things if you have a little bit of money, if you're very poor. I can teach you things if you have a lot of money, you're very 3:46 rich. But for everybody, I'm going to use it to reveal to you what's truly valuable." And that excites me. You know, I want to know. I want to know what's really valuable. I I I think I agree with you, Lord, that that money is 3:58 not really valuable. I mean, it it's nice. It gives me food to eat, and you yourself said if I don't work and earn money to buy food, I I can't eat. So, you know, it's very interesting our our interaction with this. Um, but we see 4:14 that the Lord wants to give us something more, but he needs to test us in this first. And so, anytime I talk about money, this verse almost always comes back. And again, it's in that same passage that I just talked about. So, I 4:25 want to pull this this uh out, but I want you to notice something. I said there'll be two terms that I want to focus on today. And this is the first one. That money, mammon, all of it is called unrighteous. Unrighteous wealth. 4:46 And And wait a minute. Like, Lord, I I don't think it's unrighteous, right? like I I go to work at my job. I I sacrifice time and energy. I put a lot of effort into it and you're saying that it's unrighteous. Like I I don't understand. You know, I 5:03 think of a verse that's often misqued where and I think you guys are familiar with this is in first Timothy where it says money is the root of all evil. You guys ever heard that? Money is the root of all evil. And then as I became a 5:17 Christian, as I studied my Bible, we go, "Oh, you're you're taking that out of context." It does not say that money is the root of all evil. It says what? The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, you know. And so, ah, it's not 5:34 money itself. And again, that kind of lets me off the hook a little bit, right? Okay. So, money is not as evil as I first thought. It's not that bad. It's it's my love and attachment to it that is the real problem. And that's 100% 5:46 correct, right? It is money that competes in your heart against God. And I think most of you, I hope all of you know, you know, from being in this church, that those are the two masters, right? That those are what's going to 6:00 compete for your attention. God and money. And you got to decide who are you going to serve? Who is your master? Which one's going to call you and you're going to respond? And we all go through that. But this term I can't get around 6:13 the same way I can. It's not money. It's the love of money. This says very clearly that it's unrighteous. And so now what does that mean? And so I've been thinking about and I believe the Lord is showing me um at least for me and you can examine your 6:32 own relationship with money. You can examine your own relationship with the Lord on this. But for me, you know, I think most of you know I joined the military when I was 18. And I did not leave the United States until I was 30. I served in the military 6:47 in different forums. I never left this country until I was 30 years old. And then when I left this country, I left the country. I would go to other countries, but really I took America with me, right? Like when I traveled 7:01 with the military, you know, everything came with me. I didn't really have to go to that country. It was almost like I stayed in my country in other countries. But in the last few years, something has changed. Like in my 7:14 journey, the Lord has given me more light on things. And he allowed me to go to uh to a country in Africa. And he allowed me to go to India. And not not until I was older, till I was in my 40s. And he he says, "Okay, now you you're 7:30 you've been searching for a long time why I call it unrighteous, haven't you, Joshua?" And I I like yes Lord I have what do you have like are you showing me and I believe he has he's given me a little more light and I'll I'll use uh 7:42 my journey from from just this year to explain the light that I think I I got on it while I was in uh in Nigeria you know I was meeting people talking to people you know we always when cultures interact we share things of our culture 7:57 we're learning about each other and we're learning about the Lord through it's one of the most tremendous gifts the Lord gives is to bring people from different cultures together and see what's the same about Christians and 8:07 what's different, you know, what is what is critical things of God and what is just differences and perspective and things like that. So, it's a beautiful colorful tapestry that the Lord does. And so, I'm in Nigeria and having 8:21 conversations and you know, one of the one of the things that came up was was money. You know, the money in Nigeria is different than the money in the United States. I'm very familiar with the United States money. It's in dollars. I 8:33 know that I know all you know I know a lot about money. I know who's on face is on the dollar bill for example. Do you guys know who faces on the I know that I know the $5 bill. I know all our currency. I I get US money because I've 8:46 I've always lived, you know, it's always been my currency. So tell me about Nigerian currency. What is it like over here? And in the course of the conversation, the term minimum wage came up. You guys know what minimum wage is? 9:00 You know what it is here? I think it's something like $7.25. It ch it fluctuates sometimes. It keeps going up, but I think that might be what it is. I I remember when I was a kid making it and it was like $3 and something. So, I remember what minimum 9:14 wage, right? Because that they have to pay me by law. They have to at least give me that much for my hard work. So, I got it. And it came up, what's minimum wage in Nigeria? And they threw out some figure. sure it was in a currency and 9:28 then then we tra you know we converted it to dollars because I you know I think in dollars how many how many dollars is that and it turned out to be $50 a month right when I was 16 years old working minimum wage I made six or seven times 9:45 that amount as a teenager living with my parents wait a minute there's something not right about that. And then I was talking to a brother and he he was telling me about an office manager that worked for him and he said 10:03 that you know that he had to let him work from home a few days a week. Now work from home is a big deal in this country. I mean people will change professions if they're not allowed to work from home. You know in the office 10:15 like oh they're making they're making us come back in the office is a common thing that's that's expressed in our country. And and now I'm having a conversation in Nigeria and he said, "Yeah, I I had to let my office manager 10:28 work from home. I had to." I'm like, "Why did you have to let your office manager work from home?" And he said, "I let him work he I he said I brought him into the office three days a week. I let him work from home two days a week." And 10:40 I was like, "Oh, why?" You know, because in the United States, he did he complain? Did he leverage his, you know, his his position and his expertise to say, "Hey, you need to let me do because that's how it works here. you need to 10:50 let me do what I want to do or I'm going to go work for this other company. Is it did something like that happen? And the boss, I'm talking to the boss. He's talking about his office manager, his his worker whom he is the master. You 11:02 know, if you use scripture to to understand the situation, he said he was paying half his salary for petrol. Now, let that sink in. Imagine if half of the money you make went to buy gas 11:21 for your automobile. And he said I had to let him. Like he couldn't afford to come in five days a week. It was the I had to. It was the right thing to do. But it just it it suddenly gets you thinking, Lord, I don't spend a a fraction of that 11:38 on my gas to get to work. That's crazy. Half my pay. And then with the rest of it, I got to figure out how to feed a family and how to make ends meet. It was so crazy. And so you go, how is that right? I'm pretty sure, you 11:54 know, I started thinking about this like, Lord, do I just work harder? Do I work harder than than that guy's office manager? Is that why I my salary is so much more than his? You know, and there's so many of these situations that when you start thinking 12:08 about, you're like, that doesn't seem fair. It doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem righteous. But that's the situation I'm in. And this verse tells me that's right. And I believe the Lord would say, it says it. That's right. It's not fair, Josh, that 12:22 you get more than than that than that brother in that country. It's not fair. And then this tells us what to do. Okay, now you're finally at the right spot. It took you until your 40s to figure this out, but you're there now. Okay, Lord, 12:38 what do I do? And now I go back and read the scriptures again. And I go, "Okay, now I understand that I don't deserve the extra that I get because I don't have to use half my salary to pay for fuel." And again, I'm not not even 12:52 talking about the car itself or the maintenance or the insurance, the gas, you know, I don't have to do that. Lord, you provided uh plenty. That's not my situation. I do have an abundance. I do have some of this extra unrighteous 13:06 wealth. What do I do? And the verse uh the same passage we're looking at, there's a verse that tells you what to do. Jesus makes the parable so clear in that verse. He says, "Use that unrighteous wealth or wealth of unrighteousness." This is the 13:26 second time in it's in there. It's in there twice. We looked at it in Luke 11 or uh you know Luke 16:11 and it's also 16:9. In other words, it's almost like I couldn't get away from it. If it was in there once, maybe they mistransated it, 13:39 maybe they got it wrong, but it's in there twice. And I checked the, you know, you have tools online now. I went in on on online this morning just to make sure maybe it didn't get translated right. It got translated right. That's 13:53 it. Josh, you have unrighteous wealth. Okay, Lord. And brothers and sisters, I don't believe it's just me. I'm just I'm admitting it before you. I think we all do. Again, if you if you're unsure about that, maybe it'd be good to save up and 14:10 take a trip to another country and experience what I got to experience and say, "How is it fair that I get all these things and they get nothing or they get very little?" And then suddenly you'll see the imbalance and you'll come 14:24 to the same place. You'll say, "Wow, I got it pretty good here. It's pretty nice. I have an I have an imbalance in my favor." And it says that you use that to make friends for yourself. It's very clear. Use it to make friends 14:40 for yourself. So that when this unrighteous wealth is gone, and it says when it fails, not if it fails. I believe this scripture in my in my life, the US dollar has been the most powerful currency in the world my entire 14:56 life. And so there's something practical that says it's not going to fail. You know, everything's traded on it. Oil's traded on it. It's it's solid. That's as solid as it gets. But I believe scripture that says when it fails, the US dollar is 15:10 going to fail. Everything is going to fail. All currency, all of it. All of it will fail. It says that when it fails, I need you to be thinking eternally. It uses the word eternal there. I need you to be thinking about when the the 15:27 house that I'm building for you that I'm going to go away and I'm going to prepare a place for you. I need your mindset there. And there's going to connection, Josh, between the things that happen here and what's going on there. And when you get 15:39 there, I want them to receive you because what you did for them here. That's how I read it. If you have a different understanding of it, please come talk to me. But I think this is so clear with what I'm supposed to do with 15:53 my money. Okay, Lord, I get it. Thank you for telling me. Thank you that I didn't figure this out when I'm on my deathbed. Thank you that you told me early in life and so that I get a chance to work this out and to learn and to grow. And 16:07 there's more. The second passage. So now I'm convinced, right? Lord, you've shown me in scripture that that I don't deserve like it wasn't, you know, I just was I I'm privileged to be born in a rich country and to have what I have and you've given 16:23 me so much. You've given me abundance. I get it. I'm supposed to use it to help others. I see that you made that clear from scripture. But here's another passage I want to look at. It's in Luke chap chapter 22. This is the second one. 16:38 Now remember, I'm convinced of the first one of what I'm supposed to do with my wealth. Now, this is at the Lord's table. You know, this is uh right before Jesus is about to go to the cross and go to Gethsemane. You know, they're having 16:52 a dinner together and the disciples are arguing about who's going to be the greatest. I mean, it's kind of I think I think sometimes we read our Bibles too fast and we're like we you know, we don't fully understand the scene or we 17:04 we don't use our imagination. Can you imagine that? You got Jesus right there. You're having dinner with Jesus and you're arguing over who could be the greatest. And if you know your own flesh, I guarantee you, you get this. 17:17 You understand it. It's in you. And if you doubt it, the Lord will bring circumstances in your life where you see you're trying to be great in that situation. You're trying to take control. You want to be the prominent one in that situation. 17:30 And so they're they're arguing over who is the greatest. And Jesus says to him, "The king of the Gentiles, the kings of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who have authority over them are called benefactors." And I want to point that word out, 17:46 benefactors. Again, just like the unrighteous wealth in the last passage that I wrestled with for months and years. This is another one, benefactors. And I want you to notice, remember, you have the scene. They're all around the 17:58 Lord's table and they're arguing over who's the greatest. And Jesus says, "Listen, in the world, it works a certain way. Things work a certain way in the world." And that kings and people that are important and people that are 18:11 wealthy, they lord over others. And they're called benefactors. We're going to come to that word in a little bit. I want to finish the rest the next verse though where Jesus says very clearly, "It is not this way with you. 18:28 But the one who is greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like the servant. There's a lot there and I'm learning I'm still learning all this. I I I'm understanding that Jesus's kingdom is much different 18:41 from every other kingdom that I've experienced on this earth. And it turns things upside down. And these verses like this tell you I'm turning it upside down. And so when I put this together, Jesus says you're not supposed to be a 18:55 benefactor. Now, do you do you agree that it says it is not this way with you? That Jesus told his disciples, I don't want you guys to be benefactors. Do you agree? At least from the context of what we've got so far. If you don't agree, this is no, 19:11 I don't really agree. If you s if you saw those two verses and you see Jesus telling his disciples, I don't want you to be benefactors, then please give me a this Okay. All right. So, what is a benefactor? Why do why did I emphasize 19:26 that? I I I there's a this thing called a computer and there's this thing called the internet and there's this search engine called Google and you can type stuff in and you'll get information. So, I typed in benefactor. 19:39 I'm going to read to you what Google said. Here's a benefactor. A person who gives money or other help to a person or cause Lord, now I'm now I'm confused, 19:57 right? Isn't that doesn't that sound like a good thing? Doesn't that sound kind of like what he just said? Right? That we we're wait I'm supposed to use my unrighteous wealth to, you know, to help others and to make friends 20:11 for the kingdom. But you're but you're saying we're not to be a benefactor, right? and benefactor. I I again I went to did a little bit of internet research and like okay maybe we mistransated that verse maybe it's not benefactor that 20:27 isn't the word and I think every translation that I came across of said benefactor benefactor benefactor benefactor benefactor one uh translation said friend of the people that sounds good too right that sounds like a wonderful thing like these are good 20:43 things like why what do we get what's what's the problem here Lord Why is it wrong to be a benefactor? And this what the world loves benefactors, right? There's something about being a benefactor. And if you read that verse 20:58 in carefully, you know, benefactors are the ones that are wealthy and they give their wealth away and need everybody to know about it. It happens all the time. I see ads pop up. In fact, my phone is listening to me right now. And there 21:14 will probably be all these feeds of this millionaire gave this much and that this person gave this much and this person heard that there's a new program to start retirement funds for kids and this billionaire gave this much money to that 21:28 program. Hats off to him. The world loves benefactors. Our TV programs are they love benefactors. They love guys that give money to people. But Jesus says, "Not you, Lord." I'm a little bit confused in the 21:46 two passages right now. I'll tell us I'll tell a story that uh from my own life that that kind of illustrates how you can become a benefactor without even realizing you're becoming a benefactor. All right? So, this is when we were 21:59 young. I I went from being unmarried to married. That's the way it works. Anybody you guys understand that you're unmarried, then you get married. So, I got I got married and something happened when I got married. I became a dink. 22:15 Do you guys know what a dink is? Raise your hand. I hear Brady. Brady's a dink. Actually, Brady. Brady's not a dink. All right. So, what is a dink? Here's what happened to me, brothers and sisters. I got married and suddenly in the same 22:33 place, two incomes came in, right? And instead of having expenses like where Amber had expenses over here, she had to pay for a telephone line over here. I had to pay for a telephone line over here. Right? She had to pay for an 22:47 electricity bill here. I had to pay one here, here. She had to pay here and here. And then suddenly that comes together and it one. So our income doubles and our expenses are cut in half. We are now rich with unrighteous mammon or unrighteous 23:02 wealth. I became rich when I got married. I'm not encouraging you guys to get married for this reason, [laughter] but I'm going to be honest with you. That's what happens. You know, suddenly you have you're single and you're having 23:15 to pay expenses. How wonderful it is to come together and share those expenses. It's wonderful. You you really do. Your income does increase. And but I was a Christian. And so I knew I had to use some of that money, right? Because of the sc the 23:31 verse we just looked at. I had to use that money wasn't all for me. I had to use it to give and help people, right? And and brother I I was not very mis spiritually mature. I want to be very clear about this. There was just 23:43 something that I was taught very young. You know, my parents taught me to tithe. So I'm not spiritual. I'm just maybe have it. And suddenly I have money. So I know I'm supposed to give it away. I'm supposed to give it to people. So I did. 23:55 There was uh somebody remember I was single and then I became married. But, you know, we still there was a singles Bible study that I've been part of. And there was a girl in there that that gave a prayer request and she said, "Lord, 24:09 please help my dad get a job. He's out of work." Right? We got to be very careful sometimes with prayer requests. So, I heard that and I was like, "Dad's out of work. I know a guy that can help with that." And so, I took a few hundred 24:23 bucks and I gave it to that single sister. I said, "Hey, give this to your dad who's out of work. Good or bad? Very bad. Very unwise. And I'll tell you why. Because about five years later, you 24:41 know, Amber and I didn't stay dinks for very long. We had kids and we had two little boys. And we remember this this single sister. I was with the military. So I caused this I the primary cause of this is on me to give that money 24:57 directly to her and say give this to your dad who's out of work. This is that was my idea. Amber went along with it. She submitted to it. But now I'm away in another country with the military. And Amber and I told Amber it'd be good to 25:08 go visit that girl. She's you know she's uh she's at her parents house. Go go go go go see them. Go stop in and say hi. And she happened to stop in at Christmas time. Right. And so they went crazy. They those little boys, well, one of 25:26 them's big now, but they were very little. They bought them all kinds of toys, all kinds of presents. They went crazy spending money trying to give us give Amber gifts. It was, she, you know, we talked about it on the phone. She 25:38 said it was so awkward. And the reason they did that is because we had become benefactors. They owed us, right? Five years ago, we had helped them out. you know, we'd dug deep, given them some money, and they felt they needed to pay us back. So, they went 25:54 over the top so that Amber was, you know, in a very awkward, embarrassing situation as, you know, the boys would loved it. You know, presents were coming out of the walls, but Amber wasn't. And I learned like, you know, okay, Lord, I see that. I see 26:11 what you're saying. I'm starting to get it. I'm not to be a benefactor. I'm not to give and then hold that over people even if I don't intend to even if it even if it's you know a situation like this where that let you know I I don't 26:28 remember what was in my heart I do believe there was something of you know what I worked hard for this money I want some sort of appreciation or something for that so when you go here let me help your dad out there was probably a little 26:42 bit of pride in it but it the result 5 years later we were benefit benefactors and they felt they really owed us because we held something over them even if it was unintentional. That's a benefactor. Now, benefactors can do it intentionally, too. In this 26:57 world, a lot of people do that. Hey, I gave you something you owe me. And that's the context that Jesus is saying at the Lord's table. Remember where this passage came from? He's saying, you guys don't work that way, right? You don't, even if you do have 27:12 money, don't ever hold it over somebody's head. Don't ever think that they owe you because you did something for them. In the in the in the world, absolutely it works that way. Not with you. I'm calling you to be different. My 27:25 kingdom is different. Everything I do is going to be so much different than the world. Don't do it. And brothers and sisters, if I've done that to you, if I've given you something you feel like you owe me, let's make it clear right 27:35 now. You owe me nothing. And I'm sorry I did that. I'm not I don't have anything in my mind, but I've been part of this church for 13 years. If I did that, I'm sorry. Right? I was immature. You owe me nothing. In fact, I owe you. Right? The 27:51 Lord teaches us these things. Where does that benefactor spirit come from? Why is it that we become benefactors, even if it's unintentional? And I believe it's in Ecclesiastes. This is not This is kind of like a bonus passage for you. 28:05 It's not one of the three, but it shows what happens. This is Solomon being completely honest. He's describing what's in our flesh. And Solomon says that he said, 'I hated it. I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I labored under the sun. And 28:21 so basically in this passage, Solomon's saying like, look, I do all the work and then I I give it to somebody and who knows if they're going to take care of it, if they're even going to appreciate all the work I put in it. There's 28:32 something in this in all of us that does this. And this what that's what makes that's why this inner attitude this is what makes us you know go to that position and if I I decided to bold some of the words I'm going to do it and you can see 28:49 what what the problem is. I put some key words in this passage in bold and then I and then I think it becomes evident what's wrong with what the king, the teacher, however you view Ecclesiastes, what's wrong with what he's saying. And you see, it's all about 29:07 him, right? I'm the one that labored. I'm the one that, you know, must leave it. I'm the one that uh has to give it to somebody after me. My labor I labored by acting wisely. My intelligence 29:26 and I'd ask you, you know, don't answer this out loud. You know, those of you that come from, you know, most of us in Austin, you know, are probably better off financially than we were when we were kids. I believe that. And, you 29:36 know, um, like I think that's a generally true. Maybe not for everybody, but generally we're better off now than we were once upon a time. And has have you ever been in a situation where you're at work and you you think 29:48 something like this, man, I had to sacrifice for my education, right? I had to study long hours, right? While everybody else was having fun, I was hitting the books. I was working from early in the morning till late at night. Study, study, study, study, 30:03 study, study so I could get this job. And I I labor like anything. I spend my weekends, I spend my hours laboring. And here this this guy right next to me, you know, he's from the US. He grew up here. He doesn't work half as hard as I do. 30:18 You ever had that attitude? You don't have to. Please don't I don't want to see it. I've had that attitude. That's why that's why I can say that where I felt like I I was the one that sacrificed. I had to put myself through 30:30 school. My parents didn't pay for my school. I did it, right? These other kids, you know, their parents had set up a college fund for them. I didn't have that. I had to work. Then I had to join the military. You know how many how many 30:42 guys had to join the military just to get an opportunity to get work opportunities. I had to do that and I'm the one that sacrificed. I put my effort into it. You see the problem? It's all about me. Look what I did. Look what I did. Look 30:56 what I did. And the Ecclesiastes tells us Solomon is exposing it right now. I believe this is human wisdom. It's good wisdom, but it's human wisdom. It's the flesh. The flesh wants its attention on itself. There's nothing about thanking God for 31:09 what he's giving in this passage. It's all about me, what I did. And that the burden of leaving it to somebody else that doesn't care. And I think that's why when we give that attitude kind of subtly is there. I did this. I'm giving my money. I'm 31:25 coming off of my paycheck to give it to somebody who knows if they're even going to do the right thing with it. And that leads us to become bene benefactors. All right. So, what's the solution? And the third third solution is in the 31:39 greatest message ever preached by Jesus on the sermon on the mount. It absolutely, you know, it it hits the problem. It hits the solution and it tells us how we're supposed to think and how we're supposed to live. So I just picked out 31:54 three versat is is incredible. And I don't want to just know it. I want to live it. By God's grace, I'll grow more and more in that. I'm not there yet. But I'll grow more on it. And he tells us in Matthew chapter 6 in three verses 32:12 he tells us how it should be. He kind of sums it up. He says you. When you give to the poor, right? Not if, when. And I think every one of us, you know, will be an opportunity where we're better off than somebody else. In fact, I read once 32:31 upon time in the United States, the poor are more like far more likely to give than the rich. Poor people give better than rich people do in this country. And so it's assumed so you may think like, you know, I thought like this for for uh at once 32:47 upon a time like I don't have a lot of money to give away. But this says Jesus saying like, hey, when you give to the poor, there'll be somebody poorer than you. Maybe not today, but at some point down the road when you give, when I when I prompt you, 33:02 when my spirit prompts your heart to help that person, when that happens, he says, "Don't sound a trumpet." I'm going to paraphrase it a little bit. Don't be a benefactor. When you get that, when I give you that opportunity to help somebody else, 33:19 because I, the Lord, know it's better to give than to receive because I know that you don't be a benefactor. You don't make a big deal of it. You don't sound a trumpet. You don't, you know, expect credit for what you worked for and what 33:34 you gave. Don't be like that. And it's what I want you to see in this is not just the commandment part of it. The Lord is trying to give us wisdom. I want you to be different because my kingdom is different. When you give, 33:50 don't make a big deal about it. But even better than that, he says at the very end, your father who sees what is done in secret will will reward you. And I believe in that expression, the reward is being stated. What Jesus is 34:09 saying in this passage is like, yes, it's true. I will give you some unrighteous wealth. You will be in a place at at times maybe, you know, maybe you'll have times of financial struggle, too. You'll go through trials there, 34:20 too. But I'm going to let you do that because I love you so much. And I want to teach you through that, too. But I'm also going to be bring you through a period where you have a little more. You'll abound. And I'm going to bring you to a position 34:32 where you can give. And when I do that, I want you to have the right attitude. I don't want you to be a benefactor over anybody you give to ever. I want you to live in such a way that your relationship is with your father 34:46 and nobody else needs to see it because he sees it. And brothers and sisters, I hope every one of you have this experience where you sacrifice. Maybe it's not actually money directly. Maybe it's time, maybe it's something else 35:00 where you sacrifice and the only one that knows about it is your father. And you see that smile? I want that for every one of you. I've had a little bit of it. I want more. or I'm not satisfied. I want that smile all the 35:12 time. I don't want anybody else to know if I give or don't give. I want him to know. I want him to teach me. I want that that that fellowship with him where he goes, "I got it. I see that." Yeah, it's a tough situation right there. Oh, 35:27 you don't know what to do. Okay. Well, I'm not going to tell you right away. You know, keep praying about it. Keep thinking about that. But but I'll be right there with you. And if you if you ask me, I'm going to make sure you don't make a mistake. 35:40 or if you do make a mistake, I'll teach you through it. Where everything is about your relationship with your heavenly father. This is some of that true riches. You know, I I I I I feel sorry for billionaires in this country 35:56 genuinely that don't have a relationship with their heavenly father. Right? That is what's valuable. A billion dollars. What are you going to do with that? How many Coca-Cas can you buy? That's Coca-Cas are nice. I like 36:12 buying Coca-Cas. But if I had a billion dollars, I could because I'm older, I could only drink maybe one a week, right? What am I going to do with all that garbage? But a relationship with my heavenly father that's eternal. 36:25 And having him look upon me and help me and teach me and walk with me and guide me and love me, forgive me, that is precious. And Jesus in these three verses is summing up everything we just talked about. He's saying, "Yeah, I'm going to put you 36:42 in positions. I want you to use I put you on this earth for a reason. I want you to make friends for yourself with money. I'm the one that gave you money, but I want you to do it the right way." And most of the world, Josh, does it the 36:55 wrong way and has the wrong focus. I want your focus when it comes to money to even be with on me. because I love you and I want you to experience true riches. That's why. Okay, Father. I I like your 37:13 ways. They're better than mine. All right, let's summarize. We went through three passages. The first was Luke uh chapter 16 1-15, but I really focused on two verses 9 and 11, where where we use that term unrighteous wealth. And again, 37:28 you may get more light. I hope you you guys read these passages, you meditated on, you may get more light than I have, but I've had to I've come to the place in my life where I go, you're right. It's unrighteous. It's not fair that I 37:39 make all these this much money I make and some guy in Sudan is is is grabbing for food. It's not fair. It's not right. I get it. I see what you're doing, Lord. And then we looked at Luke 22. We looked at three verses there and we came across 37:53 another term of a benefactor. We see the Lord telling us clearly, listen, not you guys. You guys are not to be benefactors. You're not to lord over anybody. You're not to nobody should owe you if you give to them. Not in my kingdom. Doesn't work that 38:10 way. And then finally, we see it all come together in Matthew 6 in three verses. We see we see the giving, we see the attitude, and we see the most important thing, the relationship with our heavenly father that the Lord wants 38:24 us to to continue to grow in. and and and and discover. And as we go through times of scarcity and times of abundance, he's saying, "I'm right there, and I orchestrated both for you because I love you so much, and I want 38:38 to share all of these experiences together." That's all I have, brothers and sisters. God bless you. Yeah, whenever Josh speaks on the 39:06 subject of money, I want to pay close attention. He's become an expert in that. Thank you, brother, for sharing from your life. Uh that's what always makes it powerful. Uh everything that you shared is so true, a great reminders. 39:24 Um [clears throat] I was thinking of few things as you were sharing. One verse that came to my mind is Psalms 24:1. Psalm 24:1 says, "The earth is the Lord's and all it contains. 39:43 The world and those who dwell in it. No matter how much I own, it's all temporal. As long as I'm alive, God has given entrusted me with something. But ultimate owner is the Lord, the earth. Everything I see sometimes I see people getting wealthy 40:03 and people becoming billionaires. Recently Elon Musk's wealth became like 600 billion plus and all of that. What that wealth is relevant only as long as it's alive. But ultimately everything that we own goes back to the original 40:17 owner which who is the Lord. And as we recognize that we rem we see that whatever we have is temporal like one day it is going to go back and we are interested for a short period of time as long as we are alive that's that's why 40:36 the word um that's why the word steward it comes to my mind all the time and it I come when I deal with money I'm a steward of this resource scarce resource that God has entrusted to me and I do it and I recognize that 40:55 that he is the ultimate owner and in Deuteronomy 8:18 it says he is the one who gives us the power to make wealth to power to make money. It is the lord who has given me health to go to office and work and the wisdom to perform my tasks 41:12 and he is the one who has protected me uh and gave me the job to earn the money. So Lord, it is you. You are the owner of this money and I have these expenses. I do all of that. I take care of the family and all of that. And then 41:26 what should I do? Um I not that I'm following every single time. I want to come back especially when it comes to giving I want to recognize when I'm giving I'm giving the Lord's money not my money. So I need to pray and wait on 41:41 the Lord. In the past, I also made mistakes in terms of moved by emotions, by seeing the need but not waiting on the Lord. Uh sometimes God places a specific burden uh in our hearts for someone and and we just need to respond. 41:58 But ultimately we do it for secretly. That's where the protection is. Do it secretly as much as we do. We do our best effort to do it secretly. Let the Lord reward us openly at his appointed time. But I in my deep in my heart I 42:15 should not have any desire inclination to get little bit of honor. All the honor and glory to the Lord. Do everything in the name of the Lord Lord Jesus Christ who owns everything. The my very life that I live I he owns. So 42:31 whatever I give also Lord you get all the glory and honor in in the world. I see growing up in India when there is floods and natural disasters, celebrities come and give a lot of money to the government uh basically ultimately to the poor. They print a big 42:47 check, huge check and they come and give and they make a they take a photo and it comes in the newspapers. They make sure that everyone understand they gave one lakh rupees or 10 lakh or 1 million and that should not be the case with 43:00 children of God. We must do everything secretly and even a little bit of a desire to bring it up somewhere. Our sacrifices here and there the things that we do for the Lord. Uh I always want to think compared to what the Lord 43:14 has done for us. Whatever we do pales out it doesn't even compare. It pales out. So there's not point even talking about it. Let God get all the glory, honor and praise. And and then that verse that um um if uh Luke 16:11 that 43:34 Josh showed us, therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, I think he explained why it is unrighteous wealth. Um it belongs to this world and it is temporal. Who will entrust the true riches to you? If you have not been 43:51 faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? This was came personally very strongly to me [clears throat] many years ago. I was in India and we have to sell a property and when the tax bill 44:05 was coming and it was u there were ways people were suggesting to avoid paying taxes to the government and all of that I rejected the broker that's the norm there uh you you do certain things it looks very legal but ultimately it's not 44:21 following this letter of the law it's not following the spirit of the law but the letter of the law whatever but God spoke to me with this verse if I not faithful with the unrighteous wealth who will enters the true riches. The true 44:35 riches are the spiritual riches, the eternal riches which will be with us forever. And those are the true riches I want to covet and seek after. This unrighteous wealth one day it will be with me one day tomorrow it is gone. It 44:49 is temporal. Uh this was brought all clarity to me in my decision. Even the temptation I rejected that I went ahead and paid whatever bill uh whatever tax bill I I'm supposed to pay because I never want to miss these true riches. 45:05 These are most important to me and God kept his promise and given me continue to give the revelation of his word continue to help me to have that fellowship with him and I would never trade this unrighteous wealth for that 45:18 true fellowship with God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us these reminders about how we handle the unrighteous wealth that you have interested to us as stewards while we are alive on this earth. Help us Lord to 45:36 recognize you as the ultimate owner the earth and everything in it belongs to you. You have given us as um interested that to us for a short amount of time. Help us Lord. Whatever we do, do it for your glory. Do it secretly, cheerfully, 45:51 Lord. even our sacrifices and giving everything. Lord, help us not to take up the role of a benefactor but you get all the glory through whatever we do. Help us Lord to hide behind you and uh do it and help us not to trade the true riches 46:07 for unrighteous wealth. Help us to recognize this riches are temporal. One day they'll be gone. We brought nothing into this world and we carry nothing out and the love of money is the root of all evil. While you give us something, Lord, 46:20 help us to enjoy and give you thanks. Always have an attitude of uh not not possessing it, but to have it with open hands. You give and you take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Thank you, Father, for being so good to us, 46:33 for being so faithful. Even the birds of the air, they don't work hard to find food, but you provide. We trust that you provide to us. You have proved faithful to us in our lives in the past and in the future, too. You're going to do 46:45 that. We don't have to run after. As long as we seek your kingdom and your righteousness in our lives first, it's your promise that you will give us all that we need. Thank you for keeping that promise and thank you for the way you're 46:59 going to do it in the future in each one of our lives. In Jesus mighty and precious name I pray. Amen.
