0:01 Heavenly Father, we just come to you through Christ's blood. And Lord, ask you to speak to our hearts regarding money. It doesn't matter what I say. I want to hear what you have to say. And so, Lord, teach us. We love you and 0:14 praise you in Jesus name. Amen. All right, we're continuing uh a series. I when when I started, I never intended it to be this long. Um, but we're going to continue looking at money in the scriptures and and seeing what the Lord 0:31 wants to teach us about it. And to just to give a a quick recap of the remote control not working. There we go. All right. So, the very 0:48 first lesson was was what is it? What is money? And we learn from the scriptures that the grain silo or the barn is really what what money is. It's a it's an object that allows us to not have to use what we earn from working right 1:03 away. It allows us to kind of store it and save it for later. And so the Bible's definition in all that I've studied money seems to just be the best definition of money. And it can be in any form. It doesn't matter the form. 1:14 Can be in rupees or dollars or bitcoin. The the concept is exactly the same. In other words, this Bible seems to know exactly uh what money is better than even maybe we understand it. Then we looked at the giving and especially u 1:28 doing it the right way. You know, doing it such that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Doing it according to scriptures. Like it's good to give. It's better to give than to receive according to Jesus. But we must 1:39 do it the right way. And I I've you know I think we've made a lot of mistakes in giving. And though and when we go back and look at how God wants us to do it, we can learn a tremendous amount about his heart. We talked about debt in the 1:51 third lesson. We said that, you know, the scriptures say that we shouldn't be in debt. We should owe no man anything. And we want to take that seriously. Talked about discipline and it being a fruit of the spirit and it being 2:03 essential to dealing with money. We have to be disciplined, especially in our day and age. Um, so we looked at the the scriptural significance of that. We looked at possessions that when we're called to be a disciple, there's three 2:14 conditions. The last condition is we give up everything. We can't hold on to anything. And it doesn't mean we have to sell our home or sell our cars. It just means that we have an attitude of open hands. Lord, it's your house. It's your 2:28 car. You let me live in it. You let me use it, but it's yours. And the Lord lets us go through testing where we'll see if we curl the hands and try to grab onto it. But the condition is very clear when we decide to follow Jesus and 2:40 become disciples of him. We give up our possessions. But we see an attitude of grabbing very often and we learn from examples in scripture of of people that grabbed for stuff and the outcome of it. And so we're warned, hey, be careful not 2:53 to grab what you think is yours. Wait for the Lord to give it to you. And then we looked at this concept. This is my This is something I've been thinking about for years of just as an American, I've always been taught that more is 3:04 always better, especially with money. More money is always better than less money, right? More is always better. But is that true? So, we we looked at this concept of is there a place where enough is? And we looked at a very specific 3:18 example where Jesus where his disciples say, "Hey, we got two swords." And he says, "That's enough. One is too little, three is too many, two is the perfect amount of swords you guys need." And so we can go to Jesus anytime and 3:29 say,"Lord, I don't know what is enough. Can you tell me what is enough for me? I don't even know." In humility, I'm going to ask you to tell me what is enough for my life. And then we looked at famines. We noticed in Joseph's life that when he 3:42 gave that dream that uh or Pharaoh's dream when he interpreted it that we see that the Lord will sometimes give us an abundance so that we can endure a famine. And we even looked at sometimes he'll let us go through famine like he 3:54 did with Joseph so that we are disciplined enough to have an abundance to endure another famine. And I suggested that that famine may not even be my famine. In other words, the Lord lets me go through something so that in 4:09 my time of abundance, I save to help somebody else go through a famine. And that's exactly what Joseph did, right? It wasn't necessarily Joseph that endured the famine. It was the the people of Israel and the pe and the 4:21 people of Egypt and every all the land surrounding it that he saved through Joseph's discipline and saving. And I think we can learn something uh from that about money. And I also told you no matter how many times we no matter how 4:36 many sessions we have, we will have two verses every time because it's important to be anchored in these two verses. And you guys already know it, right? Matthew 6:24. Everybody already knows that one. We're we even covered them on Friday 4:47 night. We said that in this world the two things that are going to try to draw every human being the two opposing forces if you will are not God and Satan. That's what that's what people think. I can either follow Satan or I 5:00 can either follow God. True to some extent but when we look at this verse what Jesus says is actually going to draw our hearts one way or the other is either going to be God or money. And we have to pick. And as we study through 5:13 the teaching on money, we want to make sure, Lord, I want to make sure that I'm hating it more and loving you more. So, this verse we're always going to anchor on. And then the second one is Luke 16:11. And the significance of this verse tells 5:26 us why it's so important, why we're already up to nine uh lessons on money. Because you know it but but by being faithful in money and you know money also represents all the things that can be traded for money like houses and lands and stocks 5:42 and bonds and everything else, right? By being faithful with it, God will test us and say, "Okay, now I can give you that which is truly valuable." So we want to be faithful with it. So as we start this morning, I just want to ask a question. 5:56 And I I think as a kid, as a teenager, as a young man, even as an adult, uh you know, questions would come up with it, you know, that involves something some uh some way of expressing what's on the screen right now, right? If if if I'm 6:11 sitting with a somebody else and we we hypothetically go through this and it could come across in different ways, like what if you won the lottery, but I'm going to ask it like this. What if suddenly you got a million dollars, 6:22 right? if you know through an investment or your job you know your your company went public and suddenly you were a million dollars richer what would you do and I was I was thinking about some of the answers that I would give some of 6:35 these are my answers and some of them are answers that other people have you know have given but you know one of the things that they say well I I would I would pay off my house that's the first thing I would do if I suddenly came into 6:44 a million dollars my my house or my car whatever I I would pay that off you know I I have a little bit left on my student loans that would go way, right? So, that's what I would do. Or, you know, you know what? I've always wanted to go 6:57 places and see people or see things. And so, I would take advantage of that. I would travel with the money with my million dollars. If I got that, I would uh I would definitely put it in the bank. I would save it. I've learned that 7:09 things come up. So, I would make sure that if suddenly I got a windfall, I would put it away and save it for a rainy day. Some people have said that and would say that. Um, I've heard this the spiritual people or the Christians try to, you know, give 7:23 this answer. They say, "Well, I would definitely uh I would give most of it away. Maybe all of it. Maybe I would just give it away." Right? So, maybe that's maybe that's the right answer. But what about this answer? If I got a million dollars, I would weep 7:38 and I would howl. I've never in my life that I can remember heard anybody say that. But did you know that it's in scripture that this would be a biblical answer? Well, the first thing I would do, Josh, if I suddenly came into a 7:53 million dollars, I would weep and howl. Hm. That's interesting, right? And I've been thinking about this more and more, honestly, that you know that maybe that's what I maybe that's what I would do. And so, that's what we're going to 8:05 look at this morning. The ninth ninth installment, if you will, is is called howling. And it's from this verse. And don't don't get ahead of me. We'll go we'll go to James 5. Don't get ahead of me. You don't have to go there. Now, if 8:16 you have Bibles, if I put a verse up here, I encourage you to go to the Bible and see if that's really what the Bible says or if that's just Josh giving his opinion. I I would highly encourage that. But we'll come to James 5 in a 8:27 minute. But for now, you know, I want to tell a story. About five or six years ago, I was in the military. I was a reservist, meaning I was part-time military. and I had an assignment and I'd been there a couple days and we have 8:39 a there's a a meeting and I'm one of the enlisted people there. I'm one of the lower ranking guys. There's about four of us enlisted people there and there was a conversation around the conference table. Now picture it's something like 8:52 this picture that that that's pretty close to what it looked like except everybody was in uniform and so you had an officer that was in charge and most of the room was officers important people not like me. I'm just a a lowly 9:05 sergeant. And something came up about something that did not get done right. And I remember thinking that can't be my responsibility cuz I just got here. I'm a reservist. I just showed up. And in my mind, I'm just being honest with you. I 9:18 was like, woo, not me. And then, you know, as the conversation was going around, it turned out that Sergeant Holiness, I'm not kidding, that's his name. Sergeant Holiness. If I could trade names with somebody, if they say, 9:32 "Hey, you gotta give up Meguire and you got to pick another last name." I want Holiness's last name. I loved it. Right. And that's that's a true story. That was the name. Well, in the course of the conference, it appeared that Sergeant 9:44 Holiness was the one who might have dropped the ball or not accomplished what he was supposed to accomplish. And so, the conversation went around and then it turned out as we as it was discussed, oh, it wasn't Holiness's 9:56 responsibility. Sorry. Holiness didn't. It wasn't even his problem. It was somebody else's who wasn't at the conference that day. And before we moved on to the next item, Sergeant Holiness said out loud, "Oh, I'm so glad it 10:10 wasn't my fault. That is the greatest feeling in the world when you think it's going to be you." And I mean, he went on kind of like a 30 second monologue. I mean, you don't do this in the military. So, it was so refreshing to hear this 10:19 level of honesty, especially cuz I had been thinking the same thing. But he was honest and he had such a great feeling that wow I thought that was my level of responsibility but turns out it wasn't. And he kind of went on for a while and 10:31 it was funny. I appreciated Sergeant Holiness that day for his honesty. But let me ask you this. Do you ever read the scripture the same way? Do you ever read the scriptures the same way you go, woo, not my verse? And in 10:47 some in some cases that is correct. Like I'm not a woman. So the verses about head covering I can't go out and do those don't apply to me. So in some cases that is correct. They that that verse doesn't necessarily apply to you. 11:02 But I remember reading the verses about elders and deacons in my young immature days and I thought woo doesn't apply not me somebody else right that paid staff at that church those leaders they better pay attention to these verses. Josh 11:19 doesn't have to worry about those verses. Doesn't apply to me. I had that sorry holiness is relief in reading scripture a lot it's a lot of it doesn't apply to me not mine I'll look for the verses that apply to me you know even 11:31 how about the verses in red I'll only focus on what Jesus said because those that's what I want to apply to me but I would be very selective and and I would discount verses that maybe don't and by the way those verses to elders I I would 11:43 challenge you to not be so quick to discount those because if you look what they're telling uh you know when when Paul tells Timothy and Titus to appoint elders what he's saying is I want you to look for the people that actually do 11:56 this, but there's other verses of scripture that tell you to do it. But when it comes to appointing elders, Paul's telling those guys, "Hey, make sure we're actually getting guys that do it. Not just guys that uh have heard it 12:08 or or teach it, but guys that actually do it." And so you can apply this because I guarantee you spiritually every one of you is probably elder to somebody else. and you say 'Lord this is my verse because I'm an elder sister or 12:22 an elder brother to to that young man and so I want to follow this so that they can follow me as I follow Christ and so once I stopped doing that I I I try I tried to take on a different attitude and this has been tremendous 12:36 blessing for me once I've tried to adopt this attitude where I go to verses of scripture and maybe they don't apply to me you know when I read a verse like husbands submit to your wives or you I I know that's for me because I'm a 12:48 husband. But when I read a verse that says, "Wives submit to your husbands." Do I say, "Lord, is there something in that for me? Is it I does this a even though it looks on the surface I'm not a wife, but is there something in there that I need 13:03 to learn?" Brothers and sisters, once I started reading my Bible like that, looking for whether it applied to me, if it's my verse, and I get this from the disciples, you know, Peter, when Jesus said, "Hey, you know, you're going to deny me three 13:19 times. Jesus gave often gave Peter very hard words. You know, Peter said, "No matter what, Lord, I'll die first before I ever leave you." And if you read the scripture carefully, it says that all the disciples said the same thing, 13:36 you know, but the at the Lord's table the same night, you see something different. You see, whenever Jesus says, "One of you is going to betray me." You see kind of a, you know, looking around the room, they're not sure who it was. 13:47 And so, when I come to these scriptures, I want to have that same attitude. Lord, I I don't know if you're talking to that brother or that sister or if you're talking to me. I don't know. Here's what I know. that once upon a 13:59 time disciples were adamant they would never leave you but all of them all of them left you. So when you try to warn me in your scripture and you try to give me a hard word, you try to discipline me like a father like Samantha was talking 14:12 about earlier this morning, I want to hear it. So any scripture I want to go, Lord, is that for me? Is it I? And so now as we come to this verse, James 5 1-5, I want to go to it with that attitude because I haven't always. And as we read 14:30 through it, I want to contrast the way I would look at it once upon a time to the way I'm trying to look at it now and to ask Lord, is this for Josh? When when you had James write down James 5 1-5, when he wrote that letter, was was he 14:45 was it intended? Did you intend it for me in 2023? That's all I need to know. And I know if it's hard or if it hurts that my Jesus loves me. My father loves me and it's for my very best. But I want my attitude to be one of humility and 15:02 saying, "Okay, that could be for me." So let's look at it. Let's read it together. It says this. James 5:1, "Come now, you rich, weep and howl, for that your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your 15:21 garments have become moth eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you, and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. Behold, the pay of the laborers who 15:38 mowed your fields and which has been withheld by you cries out against you, and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life 15:52 of want wanted pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. Now, there's three areas that I look at this verse and I see uh that it challenges me. And so, I want to contrast both. The way I used to discount it, that it wasn't for me. And 16:09 the way that I see it is for me. The first one, it says uh come. So, who is this verse for? You rich. It's easy to say I'm not rich Lord. You must be you must have written the Bible for like uh that guy that owns Amazon or you must 16:23 have written it for those uh you know those those CEOs. that must be their verse. But when I look at a graph like this, and I could I could have picked a number of things to put up on the screen. But I thought about just how 16:33 about a map that shows the distribution of many medium incomes across the the whole world. And when I look at the country that I'm living in and that I've always really lived in, it's bright red. Like even when I lived in other 16:49 countries, I was under the authority of the country that's in bright red up there. That is my country. And if it if you see the breakdown at the bottom, it shows that the darker the red, the more rich that country is. And so I have to step back and go, well, 17:05 maybe Lord, I am rich. You know, I can't remember ever going without a meal because it wasn't available. Now, maybe I I I decided to fast or maybe I was busy and skipped a meal, but not because I was poor. I don't remember that any time in my 17:20 life, Lord. That's the truth. So maybe I'm rich, right? Okay. So I have to just kind of go I'm going to read a little bit further, Lord, because this might be a verse for me. So I I I keep going and I say, well, okay, so maybe I'm rich, but 17:35 I don't have a servant, right? I you know, if I read that verse literally, I go, I mow my own grass, right? I don't pay anybody to mow my lawn, so I'm good. This doesn't apply to me. But it's not talking about mowing your lawn. 17:49 He's talking about people that serve you. Here's something I find very interesting. You know, encountering people that have come from the country of India that grew up in India, it was kind of remarkable to learn to me that 18:01 they had servants growing up. Now, I grew up what you know probably by most American standards was was lowerass like not not necessarily poor. Like I said, I I never went without food. We always had stuff. My parents provided for us. But 18:15 even my rich relatives, none of them had servants, right? Nobody, nobody, you know, servants are like, you know, in the United States, if you have a servant, you're you're definitely a millionaire. You have a a butler who will, you know, 18:29 you know, bring you something like this guy's bringing a a cupcake to somebody or you would have a a chauffeur that would drive your limo. Only the richest of the rich had servants, you know, in my mind. Therefore, this verse doesn't 18:40 apply to me, but it must apply to Indians. That's just crazy to think, isn't it? That Lord, it applies to my brothers and sisters that had servants. These verses don't apply to me. That's crazy. It doesn't make sense. Now, it does 18:55 apply to them, right? They they these verses hold them accountable to the have servants, but it's it it would be ridiculous for me to discount it growing on growing up in a much richer nation than India. So, I'm challenged with that. Okay. So, 19:10 maybe I do have servants and I want to look at that. If I look at other scripture, I can see three areas where financially I have a responsibility to those that have served me. And so I want to look at that honestly. I want to say, "Okay, Lord, I'm starting 19:26 to see that these hard verses, if you sit down and you read those verses that we just looked at, those five verses, you read them slowly, they are very strong. They are very strong." And so it was so easy for many years just to discount 19:40 them as I'm not rich. I don't have service. not for me. But if I'm opened up to those first two, you know, if I'm willing to say like, "Lord, maybe I do have servants. Would you teach me who who was my servant?" You know, the first 19:51 thing he's going to say is, "Your parents, Josh, your parents served you for many years. They brought you up. Your mom carried you in her womb for nine months. Carried you around on her front for nine months before going through excruciating 20:08 pain to birth you alone." Just start there, Josh. Okay, Lord, maybe I have a financial responsibility for my parents. Maybe they served me and I need to take these verses seriously. And there's a verse where Jesus calls out people, calls out 20:23 teachers saying, "Hey, listen. It doesn't work in in my book." I'm paraphrasing a little bit what he said, but you know, you're saying, "Well, I give money to the church, therefore, I don't have to help my parents." Jesus 20:33 goes, "No, that's a I don't know where you guys got that, but that's not honoring your parents. If your parents are your servants, then we owe it to them to take care of them financially if they need it. And again, this verse may may may not directly 20:47 apply. Maybe your parents don't have financial struggles, but our heart is one that Lord, if they do, I recognize it's my responsibility because they're my servant. And I don't want to not take care of them. I don't want to beat them 21:01 or not give them what they're due because I gave it to the church. I don't want to justify my actions, not taking care of them because I found another thing that eased my conscience. Okay, Lord, I did have servants. It wasn't just those that in India had 21:16 servants. I have servants, too. Here's another one. Look at the look how strong this language is. It says basically, I'll paraphrase it, that if you don't take care of those in your household, you're worse than an unbeliever. 21:31 That's pretty strong language. If you don't provide for those around you and and and it could be taken literally, those that are in your house, that grew up in your house, that are living in your house now, if you don't take responsibility 21:45 financially for them, you're worse than an unbeliever. And it could mean an expanded if you if you want to interpret household, you know, the church is called the household of faith in in in one verse. I think it's in first or second Peter. If you 22:00 don't if you want to expand this definition, what I would say is if you don't take care of those brothers and sisters around you financially, if the need is there, then you're worse than an unbeliever. I think you could get there 22:12 from this verse. And again, my opinion doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter. God's opinion does. Lord, are you saying that these people around me that I've grown up with or know many years they served me and I have a debt to take care 22:24 of them? Hey, if you're not paying attention right now, please do. If you're talking to your friend or you're laughing or giggling, I would ask you to please pay attention to this. Those of your household served you, do 22:41 you owe them a financial responsibility? Here's another one. Has anybody blessed you spiritually? Then you owe it to them. Paul asked this as a rhetorical question. If somebody has given you spiritual blessing, should you not, if they're in need financially, 22:57 take care of them, isn't it obvious to you that that's just a a way of doing things? Don't we value spiritual things more than than material things? Or do we not? Do we say, "Oh, yeah, yeah, people that have have taught me or or, you know, 23:14 encouraged me spiritually, yeah, that's that's not worth as much as as financial things." In other words, are our priorities so off that we don't take care of those that have blessed us. And just to be clear, the three elders have 23:27 no financial need. None. The Lord has provided. So, we're not I'm not telling you to give to the elders of this church. Don't telling you not to. But I want you to examine your life and think of those that have really blessed you 23:38 spiritually. Those that have labored for you and taught you spiritually. Are they in need financially? And do you have a responsibility because they served you to take care of them? That's what I mean. And in each of these three areas, 23:52 I'm just asking, do we have that willingness? It may not be practical for you or it may not apply to you directly that you have to go do something in response, but I'm just asking you, is that your heart? Is that your attitude? Yeah, Lord, I do 24:06 have a responsibility. So, those are three areas where maybe you do have servants even though you didn't have a guy in a suit waiting on your every need uh in your house. but it may apply differently. And again, ask the Lord to 24:19 show you if that's the case. The last part talks about living luxurious uh living a luxurious life on earth. And you say, "Well, that's not me." You know, I I don't know if it is or not. And again, I go to the Lord and I 24:35 say, "Lord, is is this me? Am I am I living a luxurious life? and I'm gonna assign some homework. And it's optional homework. And having three kids and listening to other kids, I know whenever you put optional on it, it it means to 24:49 most of you I don't have to do it. And the only reason I'm saying it's optional is because I can't force it and make it mandatory. If I could make it a mandatory assignment, I believe I would because I think it's very important that 25:00 if you're going to follow Jesus, you need to know these scriptures. And I need and I need you to go sit al get alone with these and ask this. And I've tried to do the same thing. I've tried to do this myself. Believe me, 25:12 before I would ever share something like this, I would want to apply it to myself. I don't know if I've done it perfectly. I asked the Lord to show me, but it's good to sit down and say, "Lord, is is are you talking to me?" So, 25:24 the first thing I three areas that tell me if they don't line up with this, but when in Luke 16, you see a story about a rich man and Lazarus. And I think you're probably already familiar with it. But here's what I would challenge. Go sit 25:37 down with that story and ask the Lord to show you, Lord, which one more resembles me? Am I more like the rich man or am I more like Lazarus? Which one do you think resembles me? And regardless of the answer, determine. I'm not going to get discouraged, Lord. 25:55 I'm not going to get condemned. I just I just want to know so I can learn and grow in you. Will you tell me which of these two clo or more closely uh closely alike to Josh? I want to know. I want to know now. I don't want to wait and 26:10 discover on judgment day. I'm asking the question now. And then here's another homework assignment. If you've never seen these two verses in Ezekiel, I I I would encourage you to read them. These are verses from the Old Testament. I'll 26:23 I'll agree they're Old Testament verses, but they're they come to mind as as what diagnos diagnoses the state of the country I live in in 2023. If you want you want to know Josh, what do you think of America in 2023? I would 26:41 say, well, I see a lot of similarities in when I read these two verses. And just to give you a snapshot of it, it says uh it's talking to the nation of Israel and it's telling Israel, I see a lot of similarities in Israel that I see in 26:57 Sodom. And if you guys are familiar with Sodom, it along with Gomorrah was destroyed by hellfire and brimstone and it got God's judgment. And God tells Israel, there's a lot of similarities between Israel and Sodom. And I feel 27:11 like the Lord would say, Josh, there's a lot of similarities between the the uh nation you're growing up in and Sodom. And it's not a judgment of anything on the outside. I'm not saying the problem is anybody outside of 27:27 this room. I'm asking, Lord, is the problem me? Is the reason that you had to judge and destroy Sodom, is there any of that in me? And so I go to the scriptures and I say, "Okay, Lord, what was the problem?" And he says, "Well, number one, pride." 27:45 Arrogance. Josh, you have an attitude. I'm proud to be an American. That's pride. You just said it. I'm proud to be a Texan. Everything's big in Texan. I'm a Texan. You just said it, Josh. You're proud. What's the second thing, Lord? Yeah, 28:01 maybe you're right. What's the second thing? Abundant food. Go read it for yourselves. Abundant food. This is talking about Sodom. Abundant food. Okay, Lord. Okay, man. Yeah, definitely. I look at my pantry. I look at my fridge, man. I can even order 28:18 stuff on Amazon. It'll get delivered in my house in like hours. I have a ton of food, Lord. What else? Luxurious living, careless ease. However, whichever interpretation you read, tell me if I'm not telling what that what that 28:31 scripture says. Luxury, comfort. You're more concerned with your luxury and your comfort than you are anything else. It's all about you, Josh. I noticed a lot of that. You You want to be You want to relax and enjoy life. 28:46 You're more concerned about Okay. Yeah, Lord. This is hard. This is a hard saying. And the Lord says, "Okay, do you want to leave?" No, I don't want to leave. I don't have anywhere else to go. You have the words of eternal life. And 28:59 if you're telling me that any of these apply to me, I want to hear it. What's the last thing, Lord? What's the fourth thing he says? You you have no regard for the poor and needy. Okay, Lord. Four things. And I I think I 29:12 can get there. I think those might apply to me. So, Lord, if they do and you show it to me, I open it up before you. I walk in the light and I ask you to help me. I'm asking you to help me. I am proud. I do have abundant food. I do have I 29:31 drive a luxury car. I got the EX model. You're right. Now, that may not be wrong. I'm just willing to put it on the table and ask the Lord to tell me if it's wrong. Does that make sense? I'm not telling you guys to go out and do 29:43 anything. I'm only asking you to ask the Lord if this applies to you. That's it. And he'll show us and he'll care for us. And then finally, the last thing, there's a verse in Ephesians that you've probably probably read over, read it too 29:59 quickly, like I have many times, but it's the verse that says, "Do not be drunk with wine." Ephesians 5:18. And so, you say, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I know that verse. I'm familiar. I I I seek to obey that verse. I don't want to be 30:12 drunk with wine. I don't want to be drunk. I recognize that drunkenness is a sin and I don't want to do it." But then there's something it says right after that. It says, "For that is dissipation." It uses a big word that I 30:23 I I don't think I knew what that word meant or cared to know what it meant. I never paid close attention. But I heard a friend one time. He says, "Do you know what dissipation means?" And he said, "It means a wasting away on luxury." 30:36 And then the rest of the verse says, "But be filled with the Holy Spirit." And so what I understand it when I put that together that drunkenness is only one way you can encounter dissipation. It's one example of dis dissipation. So 30:52 the sin isn't just drunkenness when I look at that verse. It's a that you waste your things on luxury. And I look at the contrast and I see it for myself again. Brothers and sisters, go to the Lord with this. I see for me 31:07 that I get I get the option. I can either be I can either waste my resources on luxury or I can be filled with the Holy Spirit. I see that as my option. And I say, "Lord, of the two, I may be doing this and I may still fail 31:22 in this area, but I want this. I want to be filled with your spirit cuz once I waste something, I' i've had more I've had so many wasteful purchases in my life. This is why you should never get discouraged. I'm I'm saying this as 31:35 somebody that's made many financial mistakes. I don't think I would have authority to do this if I couldn't look you in the eye and go, "You're not going to do anything that I haven't done." The Lord was very merciful to me, but I've 31:46 wasted so many things on luxury in my life. I don't want to do it anymore. I'd rather have his spirit. So, these three things are homework. I would I would encourage you to go spend more time on them and examine, let the 31:57 Lord examine you uh for yourself, for your own good. And I guarantee you, I guarantee you it's for your good that he loves you so much. That's why he gives you a hard work. He to he called Peter Satan one time. Get behind me Satan to 32:15 Peter to a man to his disciple. And he loved Peter so much that he would get he would use a harsh word to get Peter to understand what the problem was. And he told him like you're focused on man's interest, not God's interests. 32:29 Lord, help us to do that. It's for our good. All right, let's summarize. So, we focused on a hard passage. We focused on James 1 5 1-5. And so in summary, I just I'm going to leave you with five questions that we want to go to the Lord 32:43 and ask we encounter this verse. First of all, does it apply to me? Are these verses for me? And let him tell you, it may not be. It may not be for you, but let him tell you, nope, that wasn't for you. Josh was talking to 33:00 somebody else. Actually, it was for Josh. It was for nobody else. It was just for Josh. But let him tell you that. And then say, Lord, is it me? Should I weep and how? Or do I think I'm the exception to the rule? Most Christians that I've encountered think 33:13 that if they got a million dollars, they would handle it wisely. They would have no problem. Brothers and sisters, I'm seeing that if I get come into a load of money, I'm in trouble. Just what I have, I have a hard time 33:25 managing. If I came into an, you know, a large amount of money, Lord, I hope that my my face would hit the dust and I would weep and howl because that's what you said I should do. So the question, should I do that? And then asking the 33:38 question, am I rich? Am I rich? And if I am, then I should be thankful. There are people today, right now as I'm speaking, that are starving to death on planet Earth. They're starving to death. So at the very least, it should have me 33:53 going, Lord, I think we're going to eat a meal as soon as this is done. You're going to feed us. We got people working right now, and they're going to feed me. Thank you. That's it. Number one place to start. Thank you. You've made me 34:04 rich. And then asking, do I have servants? Lord, have you put people in my life that you've called me to serve? I don't care if the world says I have no obligation to them. I only want to hear from you whether I have an obligation to 34:17 take care of them. And if it's the ones that have blessed me spiritually, even though it makes no sense to anybody else, if you tell me to serve them, I'll do it. Or if you tell me they serve me and I need to help them financially, I'm 34:27 in. All I need to hear is from you telling me to do it. And then finally, an honest question of that. Lord, do I live in luxury? I'm 47 years old. I've always lived in America. I know some of you don't have that testimony. I have. And I'm telling 34:43 you there, it's been a period of almost 50 years of unprecedented wealth in this country. I've lived in luxury. So, these verses definitely apply to me. So, I encourage you to go to them and say, "Lord, does it also apply to me?" God 34:57 bless you. Thank you brother for that message. Um I 35:30 don't I was sitting there and I was thinking like what should I share? Um it is much more convicting to [snorts] me uh the message than what I want to share. But something that that has been um going in my mind in in recent past is 35:50 that um I was talking to one of my cousins um and u recently uh because of the uh their business the way that it it prospered. Um they they became much more wealthy. And she said 36:06 that um as they were getting richer and richer, she felt that she was becoming lonely and lonely and I was I started thinking about it as the wealth increased she became much more lonely 36:25 and um and then today's message really brought me to uh basically when we have the the money when we have the riches unless we go to God and ask him Lord where you want me to use this whatever you have given me 36:44 if I start using that on my own pleasure it only brings me loneliness it will not fill my heart um so once again I I really want thank you brother I really want to um do that 37:02 exercise myself and see what the Lord uh reveals that to me. Thank you.
