Where Your Treasure Is | Sermon 05/19/2024

Apologia Utah

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to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 6. This is the

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Sermon on the Mount. We're not going to dwell in here the whole sermon today, but we're going to be in quite a bit of scripture today, old and new.

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So starting in verse 19 of the gospel according to Matthew in chapter 6, hear now the inerrant and infallible word of the living and true

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God. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal, for where your treasure is there your heart will be also.

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The eye is the lamp of the body, so then if your eye is clear your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness.

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If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

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You cannot serve God and wealth. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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Let's pray once more as a church body. God, we come before you today. I ask that you would bless this time.

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God, we have so many ideas from our various backgrounds and traditions of what money is to be for and how we ought to spend it and what it's used for in the church and how much should be used and things like that,

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Lord. There's so much to consider, but God, I pray that you would make it clear that your word would be the thing that shines forth,

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God, that we would challenge all of our presuppositions about these topics, Lord, that we'd be challenged today and even next week as we go over these two weeks with money and giving and all that goes with it,

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Lord. So, God, we come before you and ask that you would bless our time now and show us,

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God, that you gave the greatest gift. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, brothers and sisters, when we first arrived here in Utah in 2021 to plant this church,

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I was told all kinds of advice by all kinds of pastors when

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I got here and I remember I was considered crazy for doing our first expository series on the letter of James.

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That's too works -based. Go to Galatians, go to something that talks about grace, but we saw

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God's grace in that letter. I was told that many of the evangelical churches here in Utah don't have formal church membership.

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Don't ever talk about it. That's the M word. That's membership, and I refused.

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I knew it was biblical, and so I preached on what someone told me would be a church plant ender.

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But everyone here heard the word of God, and we submitted to what the word said. You don't talk about fasting.

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You don't talk about gluttony, they say, but we did it. We heard that the Lord helps remove the bonds of sin when we fast for him.

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We went over that in Isaiah. I preached on the fear of man and man -pleasing, sins that are often the modus operandi of churchgoers.

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We preached on the five solas. We preached on the doctrines of grace. You're going to lose people. Be careful,

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Pastor Wade. In between all of our expository series,

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I have ventured into some topics that many would consider too taboo in the church to talk about, which we will do for just a couple weeks before we head into Ruth and then

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First Corinthians. So I don't say all those things, though, to pat myself on the back, all right?

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I don't do this sort of thing because I like controversy. I say and do this because I want to,

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I'm telling you guys, I want to be able to stand before God one day, and like the apostle

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Paul told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, and he said, I did not shrink back from giving you the whole counsel of the word of God.

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If it's in the scriptures, it's profitable, amen? If it's in the scriptures, we should look at it.

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And so that's what I want to do today. We'll be looking at things like money and giving, and this is by no means exhaustive, and also it's purposefully a general look.

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It's not a specific look. It's not looking at every aspect of the the

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Mosaic legislation through the New Testament. That would take weeks. I'm giving a general overview on money and giving today, so I want you to keep that in mind, okay?

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Why is this important? Well, this is especially important considering the context in which we live.

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The general handbook for serving in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, I would argue, is double -tongued, okay?

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While it says that the tithes and offerings of members are to be confidential, it also reports in section 34 .312

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that each ward's bishop is to meet with every single member during the last few months of the year to receive the member's tithing declaration.

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Tithing declaration, and in that meeting, they must declare to their bishop personally their status as a tithe payer or not, and then he is to give an exhortation if there needs to be correction.

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He corrects them and is exhorted to under compulsion. They must give under compulsion and continue in giving.

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Now, one might say, I love giving. What's wrong with that? There's several issues with that sort of thing.

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One may point out that God has outlined compulsory tithing in the Mosaic law.

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How is that any different than the Mormons? You see, the most atrocious error that the

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Mormons do with this, this Mormon business, is that with their theology, it says that it's not enough to give out of free will that one must declare rightly that they are a tithe payer and prove it often, and that's often not said anymore.

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Oh, no one has to prove it. They just answer yes or no. You go on Reddit. You go on the internet.

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I'm telling you, for decades, people have proved this sort of stuff. I'm sure it doesn't happen at everyone. I'm not saying that this is something that's in the handbook, but yes, many have had to show that they're actually doing that, and the atrocious thing is about that, that if they don't tithe rightly, they'll lose temple access, and if they lose temple access to do temple works, and they don't give tithe, then they're not obeying what's called the gospel ordinances and principles, according to the fourth article of faith.

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That is to say, they have a work to gain heaven. They have a work to earn heaven, to gain access to God's presence, making payment to see

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God, and the Bible categorically denies such a thing, okay?

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Nevertheless, it is possible, it's also possible to get away from the right principles of money and giving in the opposite direction.

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There are entire churches who are devoid of genuine generosity, and that's a problem.

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I'm telling you, that really is a problem, and then you have the prosperity gospel crowd who says that the scripture, they'll take the scripture and they'll twist it, and you give to get.

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You sow a big seed, the only seed you have left, and the storehouses of heaven will open up, and you'll get gold, right?

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It'll come down on you, it'll rain gold on you, and I'm telling you, you guys, that sort of theology and ideology is damning, and it's led many into bankruptcy, not just in America, but in other countries.

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It's led people into poverty. In fact, that's a big issue as gospel preachers go into places like the southern

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Africa and places like that, and these people have nothing, and they're telling them to give everything.

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It's just incredible. They have nothing, and they lose everything, and because of this sort of damning doctrine, but look, many of the people who get upset about a passage in the

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Bible or a biblical study on giving or a sermon on giving, I'll tell you, it's not because they are giving, it's not because they give tons.

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Often the people who are most upset about something like this is because they aren't. That's statistically what it is.

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It rubs them the wrong way, and we'll talk about why that might be, but it's in the scripture, so we ought to be able to talk about it.

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Grace should be our posture here, so in the end, we go to the only objective standard for truth for this topic to discover what's righteous and what's true on a subject that so many people abuse, so many.

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Okay, we're going to look at a lot of texts today, and I will mention a lot of references. I'm telling you a lot, so hang with me.

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It's in your printout. If you're losing track with me, in the bulletin or even on the round table is the printout of all the verses that I'm about to mention.

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Okay, so if you need that, follow along. The first thing we must consider when delving into this topic is that when

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Genesis 1 .1 says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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When that statement came, the heavens and the earth and everything they contain are inherently

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His possession. The Creator has full rights over the creation.

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Psalm 24 verse 1 says, the earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it.

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Deuteronomy 10 .14, behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens and the earth, and all that is in it is

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His. Psalm 50 verse 10, for every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

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Haggai 2 .8, the silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the

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Lord of hosts. The Lord Almighty goes to Job and says, who is first given to me that I need to repay him?

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Whatever is under the whole heaven, He says, is mine. He says that every single seed that drops from a shrub or a tree, anything is

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His. Every piece of fruit on a tree, He says, is His. And He says the same thing of humans.

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They're mine. And especially those of us who are redeemed, He says, for you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify

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God in your body. That's what Christ did. He purchased us with His blood. And there's so much more to say of all this.

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The reality is everything and everyone belong to God. Everything and everyone belong to God.

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Now you might say, that might be so pastor Wade, but everything that I've worked for, everything that I've earned is now mine.

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It's mine. There's been a transfer. It may have been God that started with God, but now it's mine. God doesn't see it that way.

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He doesn't see it that way. One may labor, but the increase is from God. One may exercise and look to be fit and improve their health, but God is the one who gives health.

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One man may try to strive to woo a girl, but the

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Bible says that a good wife is from the Lord. You see, all the possessions that we buy with those shiny cards that we have, all those possessions are from God and belong to God ultimately.

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James 1 17 says, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the

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Father of lights. And those of Israel would have understood that not only a spiritual, material things come from God as well.

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They know that. Psalm 1 45 15 through 16, the eyes of all look to you,

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God, and you give them their food in due time. You open your hand and here it is, you satisfy the desire of every living creature.

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Paul tells Timothy, God is the one who richly provides us with everything. Even to the shrewd businessman who thinks he's a whiz with the stock market.

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God says in 1 Samuel 2 7, the Lord makes poor and the Lord makes rich.

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He brings low. He also exalts that, that, that bonus that you got, that was from God.

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That gift that someone left for you on your doorstep, that was from God.

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That grocery haul is from God. Especially you who do, you all who do carnivore.

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It's like, that's from God, man. That takes money. Carnivore diet, right? All that meat, that's from the

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Lord. Even that bi -weekly paycheck, week in, week out, that is from God.

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And he does not relinquish ownership. It's impossible. You may have heard this title before, but we're simply what's called stewards.

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And as Paul tells the Corinthians, he says, quote, it is required of stewards that one may be found trustworthy.

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This means a steward is to be faithful and reliable. Okay? You think about this, when a king goes off to war, when he's away for a period of time, an extended period of time, a king appoints a steward of the throne, a steward of the kingdom, that he would sit there in the king's absence.

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But the throne, nor the kingdom, nor the possessions, nor the subjects actually belong to the steward, but to the king.

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The steward's just sitting there. So the question is, then what are you and I doing with what belongs to God?

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If we're stewards, what are you and I doing with what belongs to God? Like in the parable of the talents, will we be found to be wise and faithful with what the master gave us?

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And just as it started to occur in the Jews' day of that first century, so is the case for us that goods and services that you and I render, create, or labor for, they're exchanged for money.

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Okay? Money. So let's talk about money. Deuteronomy 8 .18 says, but you shall remember the

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Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you the power to make wealth. He gives the power to make wealth.

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And by the way, for the purposes of this sermon, I will use wealth and money interchangeably.

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Wealth is not to be confused with being rich. You see, if you have one item, you have wealth.

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If you have no items, you have no wealth, if that makes sense. It doesn't matter how much you have, you have wealth if you have one thing.

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And so, as I said, God is the one who gives wealth and the power to make it.

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And since it is ultimately His, He gets a say, in fact, He gets all the say in how we spend

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His money. He gets the say.

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But we need money to live, don't we? We need money. From the beginning of time, we had to work to earn a living.

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No independent person, key word independent, no independent person sits there and gets fed and clothed by doing nothing, right?

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That's not how it works. Therefore, we must work to make a wage, exchanging work and skill and time mixed together for a profit, and that profit becomes money.

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Money, contrary to what many say, is not bad, okay? Money is not inherently bad.

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It can be used for righteous or unrighteous pursuits. According to the verses that I've already cited,

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God has given us the right to possess money. Some would say, though, that it is a sin for Christians to have money.

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Christians just got to sell everything and live on the streets and have nothing of ownership. It's a sin.

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That's false. They bring up passages like in Acts chapter 2, verses 44 through 45, when after Pentecost, people were coming to Christ, and it said that they had all things in common, and they were selling property and possessions and sharing with anyone who might have need.

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And what's interesting there is Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, purposefully puts selling and sharing in the imperfect tense.

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So as to say, they continued to sell for many years. They continued to share as needed.

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It was an ongoing profit process, which means that no one became destitute.

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You know, you have this idea in Acts 2 there that everyone sold everything to the point of destitution, and they're all sitting in rags, and they're sharing it like communists.

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That's not the context of Acts chapter 2. They continued to share as needed.

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And if money was bad, why are the Christians selling possessions to get it, and then to use it to share it?

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Because money can help people. Money helps people. Money can also hurt people.

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But in this case, Christians used money to assist others. Now, what are some right ways to use

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God's money that He's given us? First, this is how we can use

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God's money. Number one, we can spend money to care for our family. In fact,

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Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 5 .8, if one does not provide for his own, those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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The Lord tells us in the Exodus that a man must use what

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God has given him to provide for his wife and children with food, clothing, and shelter.

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This is mandated. He must. It's not only wise to spend money, but also to save money for difficult times.

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Proverbs 21 .20 says, there is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise.

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But a foolish man swallows it up. So a foolish man gets these treasures, gets extra oil, and he just consumes the fact that he has more.

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But the wise man has some sort of stored up savings for the future.

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According to Ecclesiastes 11, Proverbs 31, and even Jesus's parables, you can invest money in property or in an interest -yielding account.

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Solomon says to invest in it seven different ways. Obviously, the fact that America is now under fiat currency.

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Did you know that those greenbacks you have aren't actually money? They're currency.

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But they no longer represent something of value like gold. That was taken away. The gold standard's over.

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And what's scary is every society that has turned to fiat currency, a piece of paper or a coin that represents nothing, they've all gone down the tube.

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And that's what's scary. So when Solomon says invest seven different ways, boy, if you can't afford gold, silver right now, things like that, okay?

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Consider that. The Bible says it's wise. So those are ways to spend.

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Now what is one way in which we spend money that is involuntary? You see, there's the family government, there's the church government, and the state government.

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And the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 13 that we are to be subject to the governing authority as it is a quote, as he says, a minister of God for you for good.

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In fact, Romans 13, 6 through 7 says, for because of this, you also pay taxes.

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For rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them, tax to whom taxes do, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

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And that's what it is. We have this involuntary spending. God warned the people that as soon as they wanted a king, the king, that is the the magistrate, the government, would impose up to a 10 % tax.

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And so get this, biblically speaking, you could say that all that the government should be allowed to take for its

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God -given operations, which is to bear the sword, protect its citizens, reward those who do good, and punish those who do evil.

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That's the realm of the government according to the Bible. And it says here in the Bible that they should take no more than 10%.

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But according to one statistic, the average person in the United States will give up to and over sometimes 30 % of their total income to taxation over their lifetime.

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Even Pharaoh in Egypt applied a 20 % tax rate during a famine in Egypt, and that was considered outrageous.

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Some have said when the government asks for more than 10%, then it's trying to take the place of God in society.

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It's interesting. These taxes we pay under compulsion, and yes, we ought to try to reduce this percentage within all accessible means before revolution can be necessary, and that's happened in our country.

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Taxes have been a cause for revolution before. I'm not making any statements right now of anything like that.

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We need to exhaust all necessary means, of course, but right now there is theft taking place, especially when you consider our taxes can be paying for transgender surgeries and mutilating men in prisons, and abortions for women, and sterilization to men, all these wicked things that our money is often going for.

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So we've got to continue to work on that. The Bible shows, though, that there's an enjoyable way to spend money as well.

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For special times, God tells the Israelites in Deuteronomy 14, verse 26, you may spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, strong drink.

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I thought this was a Baptist church. Strong drink, or whatever your heart desires, and there you shall eat in the presence of the

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Lord your God, and rejoice you and your household. I would imagine vacations and celebrations are very much a part of this liberty.

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You can allot some money and spend it for entertainment, okay? Notice, though, that it's money, not your debt, buying these things.

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Because the American way is to buy things you don't need with the money you don't have from people that you don't even like or want to support.

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That's the American way. And that's not how we're supposed to use what is

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God's. So with money, you may spend it, you may save it, you may invest it.

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Unfortunately, we have under compulsion taxation, but another way that money is used is very much near and dear to the

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Lord, because He is the ultimate giver. And so when you and I give freely, it is much like our great

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God. You have giving to the poor, you have giving to your church, you have giving without consideration of yourself sometimes.

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The Bible calls this giving back to God, and we'll spend the rest of our time considering that final way to use

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God's money in giving, okay? Now, one of the first examples of giving back to God is seen in Genesis 14, verses 18 through 20.

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And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Now, he was a priest of God Most High.

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He blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be

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God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. Abraham gave him a tenth of all.

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Now, whether you believe this was a theophany of the pre -incarnate Christ or a type of Christ like Adam or David would be in theology, we see that Abraham gave this king priest, a representative of the

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Most High God, a tenth of all. And my point in going here first is not for the number tenth.

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That's not why I'm bringing this section up. But to see that Abraham, after God had given him victory, after God had promised a covenant with him to give him a people and a land that would last forever, this salvation that's coming through Christ, and then this representative of God at this moment, whom

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Jesus Christ is in the priestly order alone, who gave Abraham a bread and wine supper,

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Abraham gave him this offering. This is money represented by all his goods and property, all the spoils that he took from the kings.

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Strikingly, this is what's crazy, is Abraham did this not under compulsion, but from the heart.

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As far as we can tell, this was something he freely offered. And since Paul tells the

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Romans that Abraham is the father of the faithful, the Christians, that you and I as Christians are

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Abraham's true descendants, then this patriarch, Abram, in this moment provides an example to us all.

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Hebrews says that the father of the promise, that is Abraham, gave a tenth to the priest -king of Salem, opposed to giving a tenth to the

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Levites, the inferior priesthood, he says. In a sense,

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Abraham gives to the only one of the Melchizedek order, Abraham gives to Jesus, the son of God, in that way.

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Obviously, the Levites were still in Abraham's loins, that's what Hebrews 7 says, the

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Levites weren't around yet, they were to come later, but the example serves us all nonetheless.

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Giving from the heart was seen very early on in scripture. Abraham's grandson,

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Jacob, saw the same value in this. After having a dream of angels, these angels ascending and descending on a ladder from heaven down to the earth, which we saw in John 1 was, by the way, fulfilled by Christ.

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Christ is Jacob's ladder, he's the way to heaven. The Lord reaffirms this

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Abrahamic covenant with Jacob, and the Lord says in Genesis 28, 14, Jacob, your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

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And how does Jacob respond? Just like father Abraham, just like his grandfather, verse 22 shows

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Jacob saying, this stone which I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me,

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I will surely give a tenth to you. Again, I don't bring that up to bring up the number tenth.

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I want you to see the theme here. When gratitude of God swells in the heart of his people, it overflows into giving back to God what he has given you.

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God, you've done great things for me. You've sacrificed for me, God. How could

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I not for you and for your people? And this was Jacob's desire.

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This was what he purposed in his heart at the hearing of such a glorious promise of this incredible covenant, the

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Abrahamic covenant, which by the way, this covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, is according to Paul fulfilled in Christ for the church, for you and me.

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A giving of a covenant from God and an offering from the heart in response.

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And it's not payment. It's not payment. Only one could make payment for this covenant.

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That's right. No human could make payment for salvation for this

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Abrahamic covenant. Only the God -man, Jesus Christ, could give payment for this covenant, and he had to give his blood.

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He gave his life. This is the fruit of thankfulness.

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The Bible says that the covenant of works, the old covenant, was inferior to the new.

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The new covenant with Christ is better in every single way. The people in the old gave multiple compulsory tithes.

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I can go over that with you personally if you want to know more about that. But with each different tithe, there was a different function, but they also gave what was called free will offerings to God.

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The point is, how much more do we have to celebrate over with this new covenant?

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Salvation and forgiveness of sins through Christ flows freely.

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The Spirit has been given to all of us. God has given us so much, and I would argue that God's children now in our covenant have even greater reason to be giving people.

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We have even greater reason to be giving people. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

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And I'm about to give you some statistics not to compel you to do anything. You're going to learn that this whole thing is about your heart.

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But listen to this. According to some statistics, Christians in America on average give two percent of their income as evangelical

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Christians. Two percent. During the Great Depression, one of the worst financial crises of our country, evangelical

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Christians gave 3 .3 percent. The average giving by adults who attend

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U .S. Protestant churches is about $17 a week or $73 a month.

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Churchgoing Christians, $73 a month. To give you perspective, the average

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U .S. household spends about $288 on entertainment alone per month.

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So you have $70, $73 per month for giving, up almost close to $300 on forms of entertainment.

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About 40 percent of not visitors, but weekly and regular church attendees of evangelical churches, 40 percent don't contribute anything to their church in any way.

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Now you might be thinking, how is this all possible? Why? And you might expect me to go on a tirade right now, railing on church goers.

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But I think the decline of biblical preaching in the pulpit, that is preaching error and tickling of the ears and not spending time or money to outreach on the lost, sharing the gospel, not caring for the needy in the church or in the community, not being future -minded, those things play a part in this failure.

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Because why? In America, we've put all the money that people were, oh

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Lord, use this to help your people, use this for the gospel, Lord. And we've taken the money in the church, and we've given these pastors mansions, and we've given these pastors these compounds, and there's

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Starbucks, and there's gyms, and there's all these crazy things on these church complexes and campuses.

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All we need is a meeting house. All we need is a baptismal. All we need is the support for the officers in the church.

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But we've gone over, we've gone overboard with this. And I can see why many church goers would be disillusioned.

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They're disenchanted with it. My giving goes nowhere. It touches no one, they think.

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And I see that. And that hits me to the core. It's definitely a judgment on the

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U .S. Christian Church. Now, what does, what does Jesus think about giving?

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The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 shows us some of this. We often say, look,

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Jesus presupposed believers will pray. He says, when you pray, and he expects that prayer will be a part of the life of a faithful child of God.

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Well, similarly, Jesus says, when you give, when you give, our Lord presupposes that giving charitably will be an aspect of the devotion a disciple has to the

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Lord. Listen to Matthew chapter 6, verse 1 through 4. You can go there in your

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Bible or in your printout, Matthew 6, 1 through 4 in the ESV. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your

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Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

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Truly, I say to you, that they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your

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Father who sees in secret will reward you. You see, at this time, the scribes and Pharisees would make a big show of their charitable giving.

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You see, right outside the temple gates, where these men would go, the poor knew to be there.

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The poor knew to be at the temple gates to beg alms. And that's what would happen. And there'd be the pools of Bethesda, sick people, people wanting healing, people in need.

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And that's what they do. They flock to the temple, and they looked forgiving. And these scribes and these

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Pharisees, they would walk in, and they would look at someone, and they would, in front of all their peers, they would make a big show of it and go, oh, dear one, you're very much in a predicament, are you?

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Oh, okay, here you go. And they'd go to their pocket. Oh, yes, let me give you this.

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May God bless you. You know, they make this big show of it, whether it was in front of the temple, or it says here,

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Jesus says in front of the synagogues. Local synagogues were like local churches.

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They were in your region. And so that's where you would go to worship God when you couldn't go to the temple.

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And so at synagogue, once again, you know, giving alms. Oh, let me, look how much

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I'm giving here. And they would make a big show for themselves. And his peers would look and love it.

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They would love it. They would, you know, give him smooches, right? They would say how wonderful this scribe, this

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Pharisee is. They'd praise him. And that's what that person wanted. They wanted the praise of men. They didn't want the praise of God.

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They wanted the praise of men. So how does Jesus deal with this issue? Okay. How does

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Jesus deal with this problem? Does Jesus abrogate charitable giving? Does he get rid of charitable giving?

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In no way. The rest of the New Testament shows it being fully necessary.

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He says the phrase, when you give. Jesus addresses the heart of the matter.

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It's one's motivation behind giving. Abraham and Jacob did it out of love for God.

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A devotion to show even a token of gratitude. We give to love

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God and love others. But those who advertise their giving to get the praise of men.

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Those who give and want a plaque for their name. Name that building after me. Those who do this in these churches.

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Men. Men who give in great amounts. And the donor comes before the pastor.

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And he's just given tons of money. And he says, now you're going to do what I say.

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And now you're going to preach what I want preached. And now you're not going to teach on that.

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And you're not going to confront that. And see that man? He's high up in the community.

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He does commercial real estate. I want him to be the next elder. Okay? He's important in the community.

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And these big donors come in and they think they can buy rule and reign and power in churches.

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And I've seen it before. And any of those things are a deviation from the heart of the matter.

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From what God has called us to. All these things make one's giving of no eternal reward.

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Further down in Matthew 6 is where we find Jesus combating one's love for money. Verse 19.

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Do not store up treasure on earth where moths eat expensive clothes, or where rust destroys precious metals, or where thieves can break in and steal.

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Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And then Jesus says something here very astute.

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He says, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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And so as others have said, show me your pocketbook and I'll show you what's important to you.

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No one has a pocketbook anymore. Show me your online giving app and I'll show you what you consider treasure.

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And it's true, guys. I mean, it is absolutely true. What we spend our time on is what we value.

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You know, you invite someone to something, you invite them, you invite them and they don't go to it and they never go and they come out like,

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I'm sorry. It means a lot to me. I'll come next time. And then they don't come next time because they're doing something else.

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And it's like, obviously, they're doing something that they value. They don't value what you're trying to ask them to come to.

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People spend time on what they value, what they want to put their time in. And the same thing goes for money.

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Okay. What you spend your money on is also what you value, whether it be entertainment, the best house on the block, the best amenities in that house, the best toys and cars, the money spent on vanity and beauty.

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But what do people think about the mission of God? What do people think about the church of God?

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What do people think about the needy? What do we think about ending abortion in this country? See, Dr.

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Greg Bonson once gave a humorous illustration in one of his sermons. And he said this.

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He said, imagine if you're coming out of a grocery store and you walk out and someone approaches you with a clipboard.

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And this person says, would you like to save the whales?

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Would you like to save the whales? And in the parking lot, this person who's approached by this whale -saving clipboard person loves whales.

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They love whales. And this person responds to the clipboard lady and goes, we've got to save whales at all costs.

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We've got to save whales. And after the clipboard person shows this individual all the ways that their organization effectively saves the whales, the clipboard person then asks, would you give then to help us to continue in this work to save the whales?

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And the person goes, of course not. I don't want to spare anything of mine to save the whales.

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And anyone hearing that kind of conversation would be baffled. This would be a ridiculous situation.

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We would determine that this person doesn't really want to save the whales. But this is the posture of many in the

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Christian church. Yes, I want pastors. Yes, I want programs.

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Yes, I want a good church building. I want ministries. I want counseling. I want discipleship. I want you to answer my phone call at a moment's notice.

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I want events. I want evangelism. I want resources to give people. I want help to women who choose life at the abortion mill.

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We want to have money to give to the needy. It'd be great to have a school. All these things, these wonderful things, and we want them.

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But the question is, do we give towards any of those? Do you want to save the whales?

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Will you give? No, I'm not going to give. Do you want those things? What a man does with his money reveals his priorities.

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You can say you love your wife and children all you want. But a man who does not willingly,

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I understand there's different circumstances, but if you say you love your wife and children and you willingly desert them or not get a job to care for them,

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Paul actually says you're worse than an unbeliever. It's not about talk.

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It's about the walk, right? That's what it ought to be. And ultimately,

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Jesus shows in Matthew 624 what the problem is. No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

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You cannot serve God and mammon or riches. Worship God or the

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American dream. One saves and one kills.

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Paul echoes this when speaking to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, 9 through 10.

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But those who want to get rich, doesn't say those who are rich. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

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And here it is, for the love of money, not money, for the love of money is a root, not the root, a root of all sorts of evil.

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And some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

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The love of money, the desire to be rich, not being rich, not having money, the incessant desire of wanting these things can even take some people away from the faith.

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Okay, this is what Jesus is addressing. You can't worship God while you worship money.

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You can worship God with your money, but you can't worship

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God while you worship money. And you can't worship money with God.

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See, money isn't bad, but it becomes an idol when you love it. The love of money is a root of all types of evil.

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And just before this in 1 Timothy 6, Paul talks about having contentment.

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Contentment is one of the biggest weapons that we have in our arsenal against loving money, contentment.

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Because loving money makes one either spend it frivolously or hoard it.

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In both cases, hoarding or spending it frivolously, there is often no giving of it, no charity.

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In the end, Paul knows that there will be rich Christians. And as much as we think we're poor in relation to many in America, compared to the brothers and sisters in Christ in this world, we are rich.

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We are. And so Paul ends in 1 Timothy 6, 17 through 20, instruct those who are rich.

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So there's going to be those who are rich. Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God.

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You better not put your hope in your money. Better not put your hope in the stock market. You better not put your hope in what you have.

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You put your hope in God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

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He gives it. He richly supplies it. Instruct the rich to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

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Do good, be rich in good works. This is treasure in heaven, my friends. And that's key.

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He said, be generous and ready to give. And that's in the command form. This is for the body of Christ.

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And so contentment and generosity are two of the biggest things we have to fight the love of money.

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Next week, I told you I'm going to do one more sermon on this topic next week. Pastor Andrew, in two weeks from now, is going to go over family integrated worship.

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I'm excited for that. I'm going to go over this just once more. And in next week's sermon, I'm going to tackle some of the other verses on giving in the epistles.

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And we'll also address some of those errors that we've seen in the church surrounding generosity, especially the stuff that says when you give, you get rich.

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We'll talk about that. Now that we've established a basis, though, for giving to God what he has given us, why should we give?

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What's the point? You think, what does this serve in the

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New Testament era? What does giving actually do? Why do we need to do this? And I would submit to you that it affects everything besides the fact from the

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Old to New Testament, from Genesis to Revelation, that we see an assumption of giving.

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We see a presupposition of giving, an assumption of a posture of generosity.

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We see it in the whole Bible. You can't get away from it. I'm not making any of this up. It's all throughout.

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I'm barely scratching the surface, but there are several reasons behind it. And before I articulate those, let me first tell you what money has bought in the

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Bible. What has money bought in the Bible? For the apostles and Jesus to leave their vocations, they need financial support to do that.

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You see, the money bag that Judas stole from wasn't only for the poor. Luke chapter 8 verses 1 through 3 says, soon afterwards,

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Jesus began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God.

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The 12 apostles were with him and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses.

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Mary, who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who were contributing to their support out of their own private means.

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This is Luke 8. So these people, and many others were the words there, were contributing to Jesus and the 12 apostles' ministry, this three -year ministry out of their own private means.

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Yes, Christ accepted charitable giving. You see, money bought the upper room in which the

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Lord dined with his apostles. Giving purchased the bread and the wine for the last supper.

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Money bought the garden tomb in which Christ was buried and rose again. And it would be charitable giving that provided for the men when they became missionaries in Judea and Samaria and eventually to the rest of the empire.

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Yes, Paul sometimes worked as a tent maker. And you know why?

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You know, Paul often worked part -time as a tent maker to show that he was not what the super apostles accused him for.

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These false apostles, they attacked his character and they would say that he was doing what he was doing for money.

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It was actually the other way around. But at other times,

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Paul accepted giving. Listen to what Paul says about this in 1 Corinthians 9.

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This is long. Go there in your printout or go there in your Bible. 1 Corinthians 9 verses 1 through 11.

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1 Corinthians 9, 1 through 11, you got your printout or your Bible. Listen to this, what

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Paul says, Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen

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Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others

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I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. My defense to those who examine me is this.

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Do we not have a right to eat and drink? Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the

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Lord, and even Cephas or Peter? Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?

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Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of the fruit of it?

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Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock? I'm not speaking these things according to human judgment, am

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I? Or does not the law also say these things? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

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God is not concerned about oxen, is he? Or is he speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.

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If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

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That's it. Paul indicates, whether it be an evangelist or a pastor, and remember last week

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Jesus said the mission of the church was evangelism and shepherding those who are saved during that evangelism.

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If you've left your job, if you've left your way of living for the sake of the gospel,

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Paul says you have the right, that's the word, you have the right to receive financially from this work.

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Now again, think about our context in Utah. The Mormon organization is rumored to have upwards or more of 250 billion in stored up money.

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250 billion. And what do their evangelists get? What do these 18 and 19 year olds get as they go across the world?

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Nothing. Did you know that? The current 2024 cost to be a

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Mormon missionary is that these young men or their families would pay $500 a month for them to go on these trips.

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That's $6 ,000 a year, plus there's additional costs for clothing and any gear needed, typically bringing the cost for a willing man or young woman up to $10 ,000 a year.

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They don't get support from the Mormon church. They pay their way. And sure,

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I've heard of wards raising money for them, things like that, if the family can't pay for it. But they don't get anything from the

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Mormon organization. What about their bishops? They don't get paid either for their labor that they put into their wards.

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And believe it or not, this is a boast of the Mormon church. They boast of this. We don't pay anyone.

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We don't pay the shepherds. We don't pay the evangelists. We don't give them anything. Paul just said, you have the right.

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I personally, I'm telling you, I can show you, I've personally been mocked in this state because my congregation supports me in the full -time work that I do for the ministry.

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And I'm not shrinking back from that. I'm not cowering when they ask me, do you get paid to be a pastor?

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My church cares for me. My God cares for me. Your organization doesn't.

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It doesn't. Early on, leaders in the Mormon church, including Joseph Smith, ridiculed

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Christian ministers of their day, saying that they are hireling priests who do their work for the sake of what's called filthy lucre.

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That is to say, dirty profit. Pastors do their work for dirty profits. Brigham Young in the

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Journal of Discourses, volume 16, said this, quote, the elders of this church,

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Christian church, or I'm sorry, of their church, the elders of their church travel and preach without purse or script, and they labor at home as bishops, presidents, high counselors, and ministers free of charge, end quote.

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Then he says the Christian ministers beg people at their church.

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He mocks them. He literally quotes a fake minister and says that Christian ministers go up on stage and go, give me a six pence, give me a six pence, please.

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And he mocks them. He makes fun of them. You know what's astonishing though?

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As soon as Joseph Smith stopped getting the financial support that he was getting, he had a revelation from God in 1831 before the congregation, and in their book, the

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Doctrine and Covenants 43, he states this. This is as if it's

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God. And if ye desire the glories of the kingdom, appoint ye my servant

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Joseph Smith and uphold him before me by the prayer of faith. And again, I say unto you that if ye desire the mysteries of the kingdom, you provide for him food and raiment and whatsoever thing he needeth to accomplish the work wherewith

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I have commanded him. D &C 43, it is currently under public record that those in the

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Mormon presidency have or have had multi -million dollar properties and condominiums in Salt Lake City that are owned by the

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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. Doctrine and Covenants 42, get this,

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D &C 42 actually says that bishops in wards should receive what's called remuneration, which is another word for payment for all the services in their wards, but that revelation is rejected today.

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They get nothing. The actual word of God, what does it say to this?

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1 Timothy 5, 17 through 18 says, the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

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For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing, and the laborer is worthy of his wages.

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You guys, I'm not bringing this up to make an apologetic in this state to show why.

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I'm bringing this up because I want you to see the scripture. I want you to see all the ways that God has told us to use the money he's given us.

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I want you to see the way that this organization would abuse their people, that they would have to do all this work and they would get nothing.

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And Paul said that's not right. Don't we don't we have the right to eat or drink? Don't we have the right to take along a believing wife?

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Don't we have the right as we sow spiritual things to to gain what we need materially if we're going to put all ourselves into this every day of our lives?

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Can't we be taken care of? And that's what happens with the Levites, right, in the Old Testament.

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They were the only tribe who were not given land. What does land mean? That means they had no quote -unquote inheritance, and when you have no inheritance and when you have no land, that means you can't raise animals for feed or to feed people for milk, for trade.

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If you have no land, you can't grow crops. That is to say the Levites had no way to produce or work for anything, and so that was part of the function of that Old Testament mosaic tithe.

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You're going to give to them, and they would get some of the meat, and they would get some of the wheat, and they would get some of the fruit, because these men serviced in the temple day after day, doing counseling, making judgments, teaching the law of God, teaching the

01:00:47

Word of God. When things were the way they were, they were good, but obviously those priests and the

01:00:55

Israelites, you know the story. They were taken into bondage away. These priests sinned.

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The people sinned, but do you see what I'm trying to get at? You see it's, according to Paul, it's wrong not to support missionaries, he tells the

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Philippians. It's wrong not to give so as to support elder overseers and make them go hungry.

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You're not to muzzle the ox while it treads the grain. It is wrong not to give so the church can give benevolence to those in need in the church.

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It's wrong not to give so that the poor or the widows are taken care of.

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I can say that with the authority of Scripture. You see, without financial giving, we couldn't have missionaries.

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I'm talking about us, Christians. Without giving, we couldn't have missionaries go across the world.

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We couldn't have gospel tracts made. We couldn't have wine for the communion. We couldn't have pastors who would be able to fully devote themselves to the

01:02:00

Word and to shepherding. We couldn't have fellowship meals. We couldn't have support for those who need money for rent or cars or clothes or food or Bibles.

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We wouldn't have the money to buy books and give them to the church like we do or people who need them.

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We wouldn't have anything to give away to new converts. In other words, without any giving in the church, there'd be none of that.

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Think about it. Think about everything you see. Think about everything that happens. And there's some generosity behind it.

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Now, absolutely, it's the gospel that's the power of God for salvation.

01:02:46

It's not money. It is the Holy Spirit of God in dwelling believers that empowers them to be evangelists and shepherds and for each person to use their callings for the body of Christ.

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But the Bible shows us in detail that backing all that up will be the generosity of God to believers as they give for the kingdom.

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You see, there's no way around it. The mission ahead, the dominion of this world for Christ requires it.

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The Mormon organization is statistically the best at giving in this country when you search it.

01:03:27

We know that it's to gain heaven by their works.

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But I ask all of us and every Christian in Utah, don't we, the true believers of the true

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Jesus Christ, have all the more reason to give because of what God has given us?

01:03:47

Don't we have a better reason to give than Mormons? We do.

01:03:54

If they can prop up a new fancy temple building anywhere in the world, how come we can't plant a church in every corner of the state and more?

01:04:04

If God's people, I'm telling you this, I'm not trying to be dramatic. If God's people aren't willing to sacrifice for the

01:04:13

Christian church in America, it should die. It should die.

01:04:20

He sacrificed for us. Will we sacrifice for him? And that's happening a lot to local bodies in this country today.

01:04:27

Churches are closing their doors everywhere. You know, the proverb says, a godly man leaves an inheritance for his children's children.

01:04:37

And we love that. And you might want to do that. You might say amen to that. But there are churches in this country that are still standing from the 1700s.

01:04:48

Did you know that? Will Christians in America not just leave their children and their children's children a home or inheritance?

01:04:58

But when will we start thinking about leaving our children and grandchildren with a better church than the one we have?

01:05:06

Spiritually and physically. Are we building Apology of Church Utah for us only or for our children and their children also?

01:05:20

That legacy, that longevity, the forward thinking. I submit to you church that since Christ gave his life for you and me, we have every reason right now to give our lives and our resources to the cause of Christ.

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Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That's the truth.

01:05:44

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the word that went out today.

01:05:52

God, your word is so challenging and yet it is so healing. God, it reveals things in us that we didn't know were there.

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I know what it's like to worship money. I know what it's like,

01:06:14

Lord, when we're fearful that if we sacrifice, we're fearful if we give, what that will do.

01:06:24

But Lord, let us trust you in it. Let us trust you as you, Jesus, have lavished us so much.

01:06:31

You've given us so much that everything we have, the clothes on our backs, the cars in the parking lot, everything we have is from your hand.

01:06:39

How will you not freely provide us with all things? You say multiple times in that Sermon on the

01:06:46

Mount, do not worry. Do not worry about tomorrow. Do not worry about what you will wear. Do not worry about what you will eat or drink.

01:06:56

And Lord, we do. We continue to worry. And we worry in this high inflation world. God, let us trust you again.

01:07:06

Let us be faithful. Let us see the needs of the body. Let us give ourselves over,

01:07:13

Lord. That's treasure in heaven, Lord. We repent from making so many treasures on earth.

01:07:23

Let's invest in heavenly things, Lord. Time is short. God, we pray that our giving of our lives spiritually, physically, monetarily, whatever we give,

01:07:35

Lord, will be used for your glory and for the sake of the kingdom of the Lord.