Wisdom On Peacemaking — Shane Idleman

Desperation for Revival Is Our Only Hope

I would end up at that altar just crying, holy. Do you understand that's our only hope? I hope you understand that is our only hope, that God has to awaken his people. Just quick sermons aren't gonna get any more, quick services, come to church every now and then.

You've gotta begin to be men and women who fall on your face before God Almighty, begin to cry out to him and say, Lord, holy, holy is your name. God, change me from the inside out. Awaken our nation, change our nation.

We're desperate, and desperate people do desperate things. We might cling to that altar. We might come to all-night prayer meetings. We might fast and petition God to change our landscape. It's desperation, that's the only thing that's gonna work.

Everyone's talking about 2022 elections. Well, okay, good, but do you think that's our only hope? 2024, hey, the next president might get us in more trouble than this one. There's no hope in those things, and that's coming from someone who thinks we should be active and involved, for sure.

But ultimately, the hope is gonna be that God reviving his church. Can you imagine thousands of churches being revived, and then going out, it's contagious. And that's our only hope, it really is. I have no other hope.

Shane, what about stock market? Nope. What about Newsom becoming a Christian? I'm praying. I mean, you see how crazy. The Supreme Court justice nominee doesn't know what a woman is. And I had to check that to make sure it wasn't fake news.

I'm like, no, she didn't say that. These guys, these guys on Facebook. And wouldn't you know it? Wouldn't you know it? I'm not a biologist. But see what it is, that's appeasement. I can't upset this side of America, so I have to be very careful in my language.

Well, how do you rule on cases that are gonna come against discrimination, sexual discrimination, or issues where you have to know what the genders are? And see, we're just living in unprecedented times.

You see these things coming out in California, we might send it out an email of opposing some of these, AB means assembly bill. These things that they're trying to force on the families, it's just not good.

So leadership does matter. Politics matters because policy matters. Policies matter because people matter. So these things do matter, but they're not the answer. The answer is having full churches, seeking God as often as possible, and crying out to God.

Abram, Lot, and the Call to Peacemaking

So anyway, that was my rabbit trail for the day. Wisdom on peacemaking and prosperity, pulling it from Genesis 13. But I wanna ask the question, are you a peacemaker or a boat rocker? Do you rock the boat, or do you strive to make peace?

And that's the heart of God. Chapter 13, what we learn is Abram inherits the land and he was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. He was very rich in these areas. And Lot, who was related to him, had flocks and herds and animals, and they had tons of things.

And God blessed them in this way. But the land was too small and it caused strife. Anybody been there? Strife in the home, strife in the church, strife. Now, we often think sometimes all strife is bad.

And really, it's not always bad. The heart behind it is really what matters. But some strife can cause people to take action that God wants them to take. For example, when I had to leave my profession, there was some strife that really caused me 22 years ago to leave and to get out of it.

And that redirected me. Or how many of you have strife in your marriage and it finally breaks you? You finally wanna work on things and make a difference. Or strife in the church can motivate people to maybe look at their heart.

Or so, strife, what is contentions. In this case, the land was too small. They had these flocks and all these animals and the herdsmen were arguing with each other. There's no more room for us. And we also find in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 18 and 19, Paul said, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you.

And to some extent, I believe it. No doubt, there has to be differences to show you which one of you or which group of people is approved of God and which group of people is not. Is that interesting? So we think there shouldn't ever be any strife in the church.

Sometimes there is. And it really, what it shows, it reveals the heart. It shows that there are people in the church who are loving God, serving God, and those sometimes who are not. And it causes some strife.

Or it encourages you to look within your heart. And so verses 13, I'm sorry, verses eight, Abram said to Lot, please, let there be no strife between me and you. And he encouraged him to choose whatever section of land he wanted.

Now, I would think he would say, I'm older, you look up to me, here's the land I want. And Lot, you have to go elsewhere. But what we can learn from Abram here is this key to peacemaking. The desperate need for humility to put others first.

James 4 .6, God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. That's an interesting verse. It's written to Christians. It's God opposes those who are proud and self-righteous, but he gives grace to the humble.

Strive to be a peacemaker, strive to be a peacemaker. One of the number one characteristics of a hard heart, one of the number one characteristics of a hard heart is this area of strife and not putting others first.

Do you ever demand your way? This is what I want, this is how I feel. I, I, I, I, I, and it is a number one characteristic of a heart that has grown hard. Because a tender, loving, gentle, humble heart is gracious and flexible, not in theology, but flexible and bending and wanting to build or mend a relationship, wanting to fix the damage that was done.

And so maybe you should look within your heart this morning. I did this week. Is there a hardness there, a hardness that has crept in? And it's all about you and you being right. And we see here from Abram, this is a wonderful lesson, to be a peacemaker, to strive to be a peacemaker.

Taking Responsibility for Peace

And here's what I like about peacemaking. You only have to worry about you. Does anyone ever get frustrated when things don't go like they thought? Like, I thought we were gonna be friends after this.

I thought this was gonna work out. But I'm making peace, why aren't they? And we get frustrated. But Paul said here in Romans, if it's possible, or as much as it's possible, as much as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all men.

So in other words, my responsibility, my responsibility is a lot different than the other person. And if I get caught up on worrying about the other person, the Bible reminds me, well, just worry about me.

Same thing in marriage, what we tell couples. You can't change the other person. Can I get amen? Amen. Did you know that men go, women go into the relationship often thinking, I'll change them. And what do men say?

I hope she never changes. And both happen. He doesn't change, and sometimes she does. And the men can set the tempo or the temperature of the marriage. But the point I was trying to make is we wanna change the spouse, not my case, nope.

Not our case, we got it down. But most marriages, right, gotta be careful here. No, this happens in all, all relationships. We want to change the other person. So we'll shoot them text messages of Scripture.

You know what Scripture say, you know what Scripture says. And we wanna change them. But God says, no, you worry about yourself, and let me change them. As you humble yourself, the grace of God will be poured onto your marriage.

But if you are proud, God resists that marriage, or God resists that person. So when it comes to peacekeeping, the lesson we can learn is you just do what you can do. And often it doesn't fix it right away.

Many times a person does get upset, or it'll get even more challenging. Ever been there? And but you hold that course as much as you can, and that's why he says, if it's possible. Sometimes it's not possible.

But many times it's possible, just live peaceably with all men. You know what, Lot, you take that acreage. You take those, who knows how many hundreds of acreage they gave, he gave to him. And you take the lower road.

And isn't this interesting? We all know what happened with Lot. He moved close to Sodom. The Bible says he pitched his tent near Sodom. And what did Sodom begin to do? Eventually now Lot's living in Sodom.

And I think that's another sermon, though, about living too close to the world. Too close to, Sodom's right there, Sodom and Gomorrah. And he pitched his tent there, and then the influence of that city, I believe, began to draw him in.

And he went into the city, eventually was living there, then God destroyed the city, and I don't think he left with much. Everything he had. And so Abram took the lower road, the humble road, because here's what happens.

We look at it from our perspective. Abram probably said, man, he's gonna choose all that land. Look how green it is, and that little stream running through it, and the mountains, and that's perfect. That's gonna cost me, how am I gonna, that's a better piece of property.

But he took something different, and then because of that, God blessed him, because he took the lower road. See, with God's not concerned, he owns 1 ,000 cattle on 1 ,000 hills. He's not taken back by our decisions.

He's not in heaven going, why did they make that decision? Now I can't bless them. Boy, that's it, he got himself in a pickle. Now, my hands are tied. God's always looking at the heart. And so one key to peacemaking is taking that lower road.

Maybe not winning the conversation. Maybe, okay, you know what, let's have it your way. That's how you wanna do things. As long as it's not capitulating and harming people. I mean, I hope you understand I'm not saying that.

Speaking Truth in Love

But also we learn here, be a caring communicator. Abram was a caring communicator. What does that mean? Well, he brought up the elephant in the room. Have you heard that saying before? When people try to avoid the elephant in the room?

But Abram brought up the elephant in the room. He said, obviously, this land is too small. And so part of being a peacemaker and loving others is you communicate those things that are obvious. Hey, this is a point of division.

This is a point of contention. We need to talk about that. Because if we just let it fix itself, how many of us know that rarely happens? Do problems fix itself? Just like cancer fixes itself? Usually some adjustments need to be made.

Some extremes need to be taken. And so we see here that Abram, he focused on communicating the truth. That's why in Ephesians, that famous verse, speak the truth in love. And something that our woke culture has really forgotten is that when you love someone, you actually will say some hard things.

I mean, everybody wants to be correct now. Politically correct. That's gonna offend. That's what they ask now. That's gonna offend that group. That's gonna offend that group. That's what politically correct is.

Not biblically correct. Politically correct. And that's why I believe that Supreme Court justice nominee, she knows what a woman is, but she's, I don't know, I'm not a biologist. And that's why you find a lot of times, even in our current administration, that why they say things in the media, it's like, they're trying to, if I say this is gonna, this group and this group.

I mean, at some point, we just gotta speak the truth in love. And that's one issue with resolving conflict is saying, hey, this is an area of conflict. Let's speak the truth in love. Let's talk about the elephant in the room.

And let's make an attempt to restoration. And if they say, no, I'm not going there, and they're still coming at you, at least you've done all that you can do. Because here's the thing, we can be right, but we can be wrong in our attitude.

And God is looking at the attitude, but we wanna win the battle. And so again, it has a lot to do with the heart. So again, focus on restoration, not on being right. And then a final point, are you known for your grace?

Be known for your grace. Don't you love those people who are known for their grace? Not their rigidness, not their hardness, not, oh, you know such and such. But we're known for our grace. Colossians 3 .13, bear with each other.

What does that mean? Put up with. You may say, why do I put up with you? It's hard to put up with you. The church sometimes, why do we put up with each other? But he says here, so I guess they had this problem 2 ,000 years ago.

People haven't changed. Bear with one another and forgive one another. If any of you have a grievance against someone, forgive. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And this is a good reminder that forgiveness, forgiveness is a decision, but trust is a process.

A lot of times we don't release forgiveness because we think, well, that means the other person is right. That means the other person won. That means the other person's position was the right position, now I have to concede.

Actually, that's not the definition of forgiveness. The root word of forgiveness in the New Testament is really a release. I'm releasing, I'm releasing how I feel. I'm releasing how you made me feel. I'm releasing this hurt and I'm just releasing it.

I'm letting it go. So see, the person can still be wrong, but you're giving up the hold it has on you. Does that make sense? Can you, thank God, God forgives us. And so we're supposed to give that same forgiveness.

It's a release. And actually, many times the person doesn't know. The person is having fun, enjoying life, and you're holding all this unforgiveness in. It's really hurting you, not them. And so what it does, it releases you.

Biblical Prosperity Between Two Extremes

Be known for your grace like Abram was. And then I want to shift here for a minute. That was on peacemaking, but because Abram was very prosperous and Lot was very prosperous, we need to talk about this topic, biblical prosperity.

You ready? You got your seatbelt on? Because you know there's extremes. This extreme, you guys can be the prosperity gospel. Prosperity gospel is basically like marrying someone for their money. I come to Jesus for what I get.

And that's what they teach. You should be successful. You should be a millionaire, the largest home, the best vehicles, the prosperity gospel. What they do is they take some of scripture, because in Psalms, God says he's pleased by the prosperity of his people.

Sometimes prosperity flows from serving God. God just, I just want to bless. Have you ever been in a financial pickle where you just, you're living on your last paycheck? And it's like, it's hard, it's difficult.

Life is more challenging. So sometimes I believe God can bless his people, but that's not the prosperity gospel is not right, because we don't cling onto Jesus based on what he can give me physically.

We cling onto Jesus based on what he can give me spiritually. Say, Lord, I am lost, I am a sinner. If it wasn't for your grace, I come to you fully surrendering my life. I'm repenting of my sin, and Lord, I'm holding on.

And then he, thank God, holds onto me. That's why we come to Jesus, because we see our need for a savior. Has nothing to do with finances or prosperity. Very, that shouldn't even be in the mind. But that's what the prosperity gospel is.

That's why they'll come up here and teach in a $5 ,000 suit, the Rolex watch, a couple rings, and they'll see this is the man of God. This is how God can prosper you. And they represent that. And it really draws people in.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they'll look for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. Jesus is my get out of debt free card. Pay off my visa. That's the prosperity gospel.

However, you guys can be the, I don't even know if there's a word for it. It's this view, and the churches went through seasons of this, where the poorer you were, I don't know if this is good English, but it'll make sense.

The poorer you were, or the poorer you are, the more spiritual you are. Vows of poverty. Remember how the church went through, and the closer you get to the dirt, and just you have nothing, the closer you are to God.

And that's not necessarily true either, because I've seen a lot of spiritual pride in people who are poor. A lot of spiritual pride. They take pride in their poverty. But like Paul said, the biblical, Shane, what's the biblical model?

Well, the biblical model is I know how to, a base and a bound. I know how to be excited with a little and with a lot. I know how to steward what God has given me. No matter what God gives me, I'm content.

Lord, whatever, if you want to bless me with prosperity, and maybe I will increase my style of living a little bit. Maybe I'll have a little bit more clothes in this side, or I'll update my car, because it needs to get me somewhere.

It's got 250 ,000 miles on it. But at the same time, I'm gonna bless other people as well. I realize you've blessed me to be a blessing. And so it's finding that middle ground, because you could go to those, there were movements you can read about, some of the monasteries and different things, a vow of poverty, and there was a lot of spiritual pride.

They really tried to fight the flesh with works. And it was made out of, I don't remember what it was, maybe like leather and things, and they would actually hit themselves with it. And they would just, ah, and just whip themselves.

And just these monks or different people, and they vows, and they would actually look at it. I don't remember the theological definition in systematic theology, but it's where, it's a belief that material possessions are evil.

So a car is evil, it's evil. But they just have to read the Bible. It's the love of money that's the root of all evil. So if we love money, and we're gonna make decisions based on this love, and I've gotta have it, that's where it becomes the root, the cause of much evil.

I mean, I can only speculate, but I think of what's going on with Ukraine and Russia has a lot to do with this issue. Of course, they didn't want them to be NATO, then we could have troops and nuclear arsenals on their border, you know, that's a biggie too.

But there's also that the reserves, Ukraine is one of the top producers of wheat, and you've got the ports there, and the financial, and who knows, the love of money, that's what causes a lot of wars as well for oil and different things, the love of this.

And so I don't know exactly what the balance is, because I don't think anyone on this side of heaven can find the perfect balance. Because we'll gravitate towards a little bit more nicer things sometimes.

You ever make that mistake? Like, I didn't have to buy that. Just watch how many Amazon trucks pull down our street every day. Do you ever get there and like, why did I order this? I don't remember, why did I order this?

But then also, you know, poverty. And here's why I wanna be real careful, because unless you can really fully explain it, you wanna be careful when you talk about these things. You've heard the term poverty can be a curse.

I don't know if you have, but technically, biblically speaking, you can show some support where God will withdraw as a reaction to besetting sin. In the prophet Haggai, for example, they said we make wages, but there's holes in our wage bag.

We have food, but there's never enough. Why? Because you're not giving to God. You're not putting God first, you're not building His temple, you're building your homes. So see, that can be, and God withdrew.

He sent the swarming locust, the chewing locust, the consuming locust, four different types of locust. Why not just one? I can't imagine, four. Wiped out the land because of the sins of their people, brought them to utter poverty.

So see how poverty can be a curse. We get in trouble when we say it's always a curse. Oh, you're poor, you must have some sin. No, they could be very spiritual. Actually, the most spiritual people I know usually often are those living paycheck to paycheck.

If the truth be told, I think because it draws us closer to the Lord sometimes. We get in our, and sometimes God will allow us to go through a season. Maybe there's never that financial, maybe we just get through life with the washing machine working longer than it should and the refrigerator, and they just say, Lord, I am blessed.

I've got enough in my pantry for this week. I don't know where the rest is coming from, and that's where they live. It's okay, that's not bad either. We just have to be careful. Does that make sense? When we start to label certain things, like oh, you have to be prosperous or you're not in God's will, or you have to be poor or you're not in God's will, how do you pay for things unless God blesses you?

A friend of mine just, I don't know him very well, but he was a gardener. His daughter has Down syndrome. Somebody stole his gardening truck. He's like 25 years old. He's like, I can't work. And so we wanted to bless him a little bit.

Another couple needed a gas card. And so if nobody has any money, how do you bless anybody? So you see how that works. It's, you're meant to be a blessing to be a blessing to others. However, I know it's challenging because we, you know, our flesh gets in and we want to buy things.

I'll give you a funny example of the first service. I don't know if I should give this because my wife was at the first service, so okay. But I think she'll approve this one. If not, you'll find out Wednesday at the Q &A.

But my son has been wanting, you know what Crocs are, shoes? Because baseball players, they just take off their cleats and they just put their Crocs, and they're kind of big and ugly. They look like duck's feet, kind of like, yeah.

She's like, I don't want you having Crocs. You're not having, they look silly, and you know how kids are. Mom, I made my own money. Why can't I have it if I earn my own money? That's a good point. So I took him to get Crocs last night at Big Five.

And wouldn't you know, I came home with a pair on my feet too. Wouldn't you know it? And my son, he goes, but Shane, Pastor Abram wears them. He actually wore them to the first service and he took them off and put other shoes on when I gave this example.

But I'm like, these are comfortable. These, I can just slide my feet right in and it's like better than flip flops. And she's like, what, oh, those look silly. I'm like, well, I won't wear them to church.

I won't wear them in public too much. They're just big, bulky shoes that are kind of like sandals, but you can slide. And I got the kind with fur inside. And they're just so comfortable. So anyway, did I have to do that?

No, but there is some freedom there and flexibility and things, but I had to give you an illustration for my sermon. So I get an excuse for that. So the prosperity gospel is just like marrying someone for their money.

Stewardship, Diligence, and Trusting God’s Provision

Define prosperity, biblical prosperity. Successful and thriving. I mean, the Old Testament is just a plethora of examples. Pretty much anyone that God had his hand on, David, Solomon, some of the leaders.

Of course, you had Joseph, Abraham. I mean, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 tribes of Israel and came out of, even when they came out of, isn't this interesting? God told Abraham, we'll get to that, I believe next week, you're gonna be in bondage.

Your descendants will be in bondage for 400 years. And when they come out of that bondage, they will come out with great substance. And the Egyptians gave them their gold and their silver and their garments.

They came out of bondage carrying all this blessing. Because I look back and go, when did they ever use that? Because was God just making a point? He brought them quail, he opened up rocks for water, their sandals never wore out.

He was their provision throughout those 40 years in the wilderness. Now, did they save it for the building of the temple and things, and when they, probably so. Obviously, that's where some of it went.

But we could see that God blessed them coming out. And it's incredible examples of this. And so it's successful, it's thriving, usually economically. God often blesses his people. It's a reflection of his favor, but it's not always a gauge of his favor, if that makes sense.

So do I teach, I don't teach a prosperity gospel or the poverty gospel, I guess you could call it. What we teach is God may prosper you. We do know that God rewards the hand of the diligent. Look at Proverbs, God rewards a diligent hard worker, not a lazy person.

I believe that God blessed us early in our marriage with real estate investments and different things. We had nothing, I was in construction living with my mom. But kept, God would bless us and be a blessing to others and giving to the church.

And so, you can see that's God rewards hard work, he rewards diligence. But sometimes people are doing all they can. Maybe both parties are working and they're barely getting by. It doesn't mean there's besetting sin.

Doesn't mean, oh, you're just not spiritual, you don't have enough faith, you shouldn't live like that. I don't know God's sovereignty, I don't know God's will. God might have them there at that difficult season.

So they appreciate maybe where they are. Maybe, how do we know, if it's hard for a rich man to enter heaven, how do we know that sometimes God doesn't allow poverty to draw us closer to him? Thank God for the broken road that led me straight to you.

Thank God for the poverty that led me straight to you. And we do see that riches are a competing idol for God. Jesus said, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, Calvinists will have a hard time on that scripture, but I don't.

It's true, I have a lot, I'm good, why do I need God? And so, it's hard for a rich man to see their need for a savior because they don't see their need in physical things. They are technically their own God.

Enough money for finances, and that's why people like Elon Musk, I know he said something a while back maybe, but it wasn't, to me it wasn't a saving type of statement. These, the richest men in the world, or even rock star, superstar, I mean, why are they rarely coming to know the Lord?

Because popularity, they've got, when you have everything, you don't really see your need. However, they see their need because they take a lot of drugs and they're depressed all the time, there's no fulfillment.

Jim Carrey was open about that. Robert, what's the man who took his life, Mark and Mindy guy, if you're for the older. Robin Williams, and this just breaks my heart. Foo Fighters, you'll see in the news.

He just died, he's younger than me, had 10 different types of drugs in his system in the hotel room. And so, but they don't turn to God because they have, so that's why it's hard for a rich man to find God.

Because really, we find God in our poverty, spiritual poverty too. And also something about wealth, it can keep us distant from God because we buy more toys, we buy more things, we're striving to keep this going, this, what we built, we work more hours, so it really keeps us away from God too.

And so that, that poverty state can be a wonderful way of keeping us close to God. If God has us there, maybe forever, maybe for a season. I would never say it's not because we're not spiritual. I'd say it's where God has them right now.

And God allows the church to take care of widows who may never be, a widow may never be a millionaire or even have a large bank account. A widow may always depend on the church. Doesn't mean she's not spiritual, you see?

Doesn't mean she's out of God's will. God has, I've just learned God has different people at different seasons, but it is a biblical principle that he rewards hardworking people. If you have two people and one is lazy and one is hardworking, God's going to bless that person usually.

And so see, there are biblical principles too that we can follow when it comes to this idea of prosperity. Psalm 35, 27, I don't know if I put it up on the screen in time, but I just came across this.

The Lord takes pleasure, the Lord takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. So when God says, look, they're working hard, I'm gonna bless them with that area. And I wanna bless them in that area.

I want maybe, you name it. I mean, how God blesses, there's a million different ways. I can give you tons of examples. But I wanna bless them, they're hardworking. And he likes, he takes pleasure in that.

The example I gave, the first service I gave some of you a while ago, but I'll never forget. Me and Morgan went to buy our first home and the salesman tried to get me to buy right then. You don't wanna do that to me.

Because I taught salesmen, Zig Ziglar, Anthony Robbins and all those, I, yeah, anyway. So actually, the more you pressure me, the more you're gonna lose me. But anyway, she was pressuring me, I said, no, we'll just come back next week.

If it's not available, it's not available. It's the only house left on the lot they're getting ready to build. We came back a week later and she smirked. I told you it'd be gone. Told you, too bad, sorry.

Like, okay, well, we're walking out, right? I mean, think, and she stopped and she goes, but there's a house that just fell out of escrow in the old phase. It's bigger and it's actually $15 ,000 less because you get the old price.

Do you want that one? But you have to be ready to move in now. I'm living with my mom. I'm ready to move in today. And so we just got a bigger house, more equity, moved in with a lot of equity right then because I think God loves to bless the prosperity of his servants in certain ways.

But again, it doesn't mean that's always gonna happen. And then we had a time where construction tanked in 2008 and nine and we lived off pretty much all the savings until we had about one month left.

And I changed career paths there. And so we weren't saying, well, we're in sin, we must not be spiritual. You see, you're right. I know how to abase and abound. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, even when I walk through the valleys of the shadow of death, when I walk through difficulties and challenges.

But here's the problem with prosperity, it's a blessing and it's a hindrance. Like I just said, whoever does not forsake all, Jesus said, cannot be my disciple. Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, Shane, you just said that, well, of course, as always, read it in context.

We don't have time to turn there, but the man had many possessions and he wanted to follow Jesus. And Jesus knew that those things were preventing following him. I can tell, I see that a lot. We want people to get involved or things like, oh no, I've got so much to do or I own so much.

And the more you own, the more owns you. Isn't that true? If I got a motor home, I gotta get out there. If I got jet skis, I gotta get out there. If I have a boat, I gotta get out there and go fishing.

There's people with all those things. I got a new set of $1 ,000 golf clubs, I gotta go out there. I don't, don't worry. And so you see, the more I own, the more owns me. And so this man had all these things.

I wanna follow you, Jesus. He pinned it right on that motive. Sell all that and then follow me. You can't have two masters. But so if we're following God, like let's say he said, what about if he would've said, we don't actually know how the story ends.

We don't know if he became a Christian later. But let's say he fought it for a while and he gave all that up for Jesus. And he began to follow Jesus. Maybe God would reward him with none of that. Maybe he would just live with Jesus and have nothing.

But now he has the greater thing. However, how do we know that he couldn't have been blessed? Like we see that in Job. That God brought back everything he lost. And so for me, it's just trusting God's sovereignty.

Lord, I don't know where this will go. I don't know if we'll ever own a house again. I don't know if we'll ever, you know, investments or where's, you think your social security is gonna be there for you?

You think retirement's gonna pan out? 401Ks, all that's gonna be very healthy here in 20 years? Hmm, I would not trust in anything except God alone. And there are people who took their life during the recession.

I knew a couple contractors who took their life. They lost everything. And I'm thinking, why don't you just go back to work? I mean, yeah, that stinks, but you got your life and your wife. Just go back to work.

But see, that's our God. And when our God dies, do you remember those people when it crashed, jumping off the bridges and buildings and taking, because Fortune 500 company, they lost everything. But when you lose everything, you can gain everything if you turn everything over to God.