How To Get Rich Quick

0:00 It's something. Let's all stand to our feet right now. We're looking at a message starting now in chapter 3 of Proverbs. Listen to this. I have to apologize for somebody who's visiting. Verses 7 to 10. The title of the message this week is this, How to Get Rich Quick. Oh, no. I just brought my friend, Pastor. Listen, I understand that. Here's the deal. We never talk about money here at this church. By the way, relax. Take it easy. Did we pass the plate? No. You're encouraged. You're encouraged. If you want to help us, that's great. Relax. Your wallet, you can relax the grip on your wallet. We don't want your wallet. We're going to be talking about what God says about the resources that you and I have, but most importantly, the true wealth that you and I have or that some of you can have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Very important, very powerful word of God to us today.

0:58 And so Proverbs chapter 3, I'll read verse 7 if you pick it up in the even-numbered verses. This is what Solomon is saying to his son, and this is what God is speaking to us. Proverbs chapter 3, verse 7, do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of your increase. So Barnes will be filled. with plenty and our vats will overflow with new wine. Father, we pray that you would cause your word this practical portion of Proverbs. I guess the entire, every verse of Proverbs is practical. It's the practical book. But Father, we pray that today we would learn not only so much about what it is that you've given us, but Lord, that we would know so much about how to manage what it is you've given us from time, health, a penny in our pocket.

2:03 to the focusing of our attention. All of these things have been loaned to us and we're responsible for what we do with them. So Father, we ask now for your teaching to be in and through us. We pray in Jesus' name and all God's people said, Amen. You may be seated, church. Here's some interesting statistics for you as we get into this study today.

2:33 Now, this is just a random search, I'll just say that. The three worst fears about winning the lottery. After the reality of winning sinks in, watch out for these dangers. Now, don't raise your hand, I'm just going to say it. If you play the lottery, according to statistics, there is this remarkable effect that the lottery has. And first of all, as Christians, my opinion, you ought not to play the lottery. Why? Because it's not your money to play with. You ever think about that? Well, you will today for the next 55 minutes because I'm going to drive you crazy. But it's important to realize that, in fact, I just want to read this to you. California and New York lead the nation selling of lottery tickets as well as lottery game winners. But the immediate or sudden gains awarded the winner comes at the expense of all the losers.

3:31 Which I find that amazing. My dad used to tell us when we were driving northbound on the 15 freeway, my dad would always stop in Vegas to fill up the tank and then to South Dakota we would be heading or Wyoming we'd be heading. And my dad used to say, boys, you see all that light? You want to know who pays the light bill? All the losers pay the light bill of Las Vegas. And when I read that, I thought, oh my goodness, I can hear my dad talking. But statistically, those who analyze the lifelong effects of lottery winners have concluded that some 70-plus percent of lottery winners are financially bankrupt within five years of having won. If married, over 50-plus percent become divorced. 76% are treated for mental, emotional, and relational disorders believed to be brought on by the result of feeling disillusioned, guilty, and confused.

4:31 Wow. All because they won the lottery. Why would they participate in such a thing? Why would they gamble? What is that all about? Because there's a sense of, I need this. My life is lacking. I need security. I need to do this. I need money. By the way, here's another statistic that I found remarkable. Regarding California and New York, they're also the most expensive states, watch this, to live in. We already know that. and with the highest amount of taxes and some of the highest levels of homelessness and increased economic distress, watch, resulting in lotteries being played by those at or below the poverty level of their particular state. I found that interesting. People are not involved in the lottery because they have disposable cash. It turns out that people that are trying to better their life go about it by acquiring, hopefully, the win of the lottery.

5:31 Why? Because they are thinking that riches or wealth is going to be the answer to their problems. And that's not the case. Interestingly enough, there is this saying that we've all heard, the poor get poorer, and the what? The rich get richer. And I studied that, I looked into that this week, and it's quite remarkable. The poor get poorer. That saying is based upon the statistics also that show an interesting fact that among those who start out with virtually nothing, there's a lot, by the way, there's a lot of people that started out with nothing. Okay, we don't often talk about them. But do not apply themselves toward personal wealth or responsibility have been labeled as the poor get poorer. In other words, if you're poor, at least in America, thank God for this country, you don't have to stay poor. If you're poor and you stay poor, that's your decision to stay poor.

6:28 Isn't that amazing? You live in the land proverbially known as the land of opportunity. Is that true? Well, history shows it is true. The rich get richer. Listen to this. However, statistics also show an interesting fact that among those who start out with virtually nothing and work hard and as a result achieve wealth, the same applies that the rich get richer. We think that you've come into the situation and you're bound to be stuck in whatever thing or that if you're rich, you're just going to be rich and you're going to get richer. But the fact of the matter is clearly you can be rich on Monday. And according to these stats, you can become bankrupt in about five years time. What is the deal? What's going on? The answer is this. According to the Bible, your wealth is not determined. Listen, your wealth is not determined upon how many zeros you have in your bank account.

7:24 You and I think, Wall Street, we think, determines what wealth is. And according to God, that is not wealth. How can you and I have wealth if it can be fleeting in a moment? That's not wealth. Every little baby grows up, and in between feeding cycles, what does that baby suck on in between feeding cycles? It's called a pacifier. In many ways, wealth without God is like a pacifier we suck on, but it's eventually going to deliver nothing to us if we maintain our wealth on this earthly plane. Christian, listen. Every single one of us, no matter whoever in this room right now is the most wealthy on paper or the poorest on paper, the fact of the matter is living in America, even the poor is richer than most people in the world. that said the challenge to us today is what are we going to do with it what are we going to do with it are we going to be people that are going to grow up and listen I'm going to say some strong words there's a lot of parents that are saying to their kids look no matter what ditch this ditch that ditch the other thing you've got to go and you've got to get a degree here or there and get rich you've got to make it you've got to make money I would say this to your kids you've got to be a man or a woman that grows up with integrity and with character and that you love God above all because if you really want true riches that will carry you through this world and into the world to come putting God first is the key to what is defined as wealth.

9:02 That's what we've got to do. So many people are sacrificing their children and their faith by sending them to a secular institution that winds up giving them neither. there's somebody I'm not going to say his name that attends this church now and very famous individual and somewhat retired but not really but he started a foundation and his passion is to reach kids that have no opportunity to make it and to teach them skills with their hands with their minds and with their feet to give them a chance that they wouldn't normally have. I love that. And we're going to be talking more about how we implement those opportunities for people here in this church, young people, to give them a future.

10:00 And then some of you have seen Mike Rowe. Have you seen Mike Rowe? Mike Rowe works. What a great, great guy. That guy is doing a tremendous work. and he too is doing a work where they're teaching kids how to be welders and plumbers and you name it, where they have a life and that means something. But by the way, all along the way, deep spiritual biblical values are the key. And so as we look at this, the way of wisdom is our series and today we're looking at how to get rich quick. Will you mark this down? It is this, number one is to humble yourself. That's right. We're talking about God's word, the Bible. We're talking about being Christians. And the word of God teaches us right here, humble yourself. How do we know that? Look at verse seven. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

10:54 Humble yourself. Today, you want to get rich quick? Humble yourself in the sight of God. This is the tough thing for the rich man or the rich woman in approaching God. The riches get in the way. It doesn't have to be that way, but predominantly it is that way. First of all, riches deceive us in our ability to think wisely because riches give us a false sense of security. Oh, I've got money. I've got wealth. I've got this. I've got that. That means I'm okay. How do you know you're okay? There's a sense of being delusional about it, like the lottery winner. I just won. I'm going to be okay. and five years later, they're not okay. Something's wrong. By the way, apparently, those five years, you saw a moment ago, there's divorce, there's broken relationships, there's the need for therapy.

11:49 Did you know, and this is a whole other study, you can do it on your own, but it is fascinating. The people that start out with nothing and make something out of their lives are much more psychologically stable when they obtain physical wealth over time rather than somebody being handed a million dollars. Imagine handing your 16-year-old a million bucks. How do you think that's going to be spent? But a lot of people have not matured much beyond the 16-year-old.

12:19 God wants you and I to be wise. Do not stop. Don't go there anymore of leaning upon your own understanding. You say, Jack, we've been hearing that a lot in these messages and proverbs. You're going to hear it a whole lot more too. It's got 31 chapters of announcing that. But don't be wise in your own opinion. Don't think like that. Why? Because the answer is fearing the Lord and departing from evil. And the great problem for us is human arrogance. When the word fear, and of course you guys know this by now, two words, the fear and depart, to be in awe, are awe-inspiring. God is awe-inspiring. When we stop and take a look at him, he's awesome in the true meaning of the word. Not like a Southern California word, awesome. awesome. We say that too often. I'm guilty of that the most. Most of us who were born and raised in Southern California, we use the word awesome enough to where it almost doesn't mean anything. God is awesome. He is awe in his greatness. Reverence to stand in absolute awe of God.

13:22 The Bible tells us the beginning of wisdom is for us to be in absolute awe of God. And then secondly, look at the word depart. This is a great word. It means to turn aside from or to flee from, run from evil, depart from evil, to be separated from, deprive yourself or to push away from evil. And we're going to see that wealth in the hand without the wisdom of God can buy you a lot of evil. A lot of trouble. Doesn't mean that God doesn't save the rich. He can save the rich. It doesn't mean that if you get rich that you're going to lose your salvation. It means that you're going to have a tough time at it. Not your salvation, but a tough time at work. A tough time in business. A tough time in life. Because a simple life, the Bible says, godliness with contentment is great wealth. Isn't that a great word? By the way, I'm going from memory here, so watch out. Write it down, check and see. I think it's 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 6, that godliness with contentment is great wealth. Isn't it interesting that when you're in pursuit of wealth, you'll never be content?

14:35 you'll never be content if you're pursuing wealth. How can you be content? In pursuit of God. Look, I don't know anything about Elon Musk, but he's a pretty wealthy guy. He was a trillionaire there for a couple of weeks, and then he dropped down to just being a 950 billion heir. And he goes between a trillionaire and not. It just goes like this. I don't know anything about him. I don't know him. I don't know anything about him. Here's the thing. How's his soul before him and God? Where's he at? Is he content? He appears to be content. It's interesting because he lives in a little house.

15:20 He says he doesn't carry cash, that he doesn't operate with cash. He uses his credit card. Now, that would drive Dave Ramsey crazy, but... he didn't seem to care. And maybe that's true. I don't know. But the fact of the matter is, here's a guy that, as far as I know, doesn't know Jesus Christ, but he seems to be okay with wealth or with no wealth. He's made it on his own.

15:53 He's one of the very, very few. But there's a tendency with human arrogance that when we acquire things, we think that this wealth now has granted me respect. Folks, listen, wake up. Just because you might have made some money doesn't mean that people respect you. They might act differently in front of you. It doesn't mean they respect you.

16:16 Respect, that's a different economy altogether. Well, it's this or it's that. This is what wealth has brought me. Wait a minute, let's look and see what God has to say because truly, if we are wealthy before the Lord in all that he's given us, there's going to be a humility about it because it is God given. Do you have, what's the term, two coins to rub together? Who gave you the coins? You might say, I made those two coins all myself. God gave you the ability to make those two coins. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 14 verse 12, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Jesus said that there's a way that leads to eternal life and few people find it, but broad and many people are on the way that leads to eternal destruction. And the disciples struggled with this.

17:11 Jesus said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. He didn't say it's impossible. he said it's easier to stuff a camel through a hole of a needle. Meaning it's difficult, it's hard because things attach onto us. We begin to care about them. Look, you know this is true. If you've ever had anything new, you protect it at all costs for about a week, a month. Have you noticed? Let's be honest. Did you get a new shirt and it's like, oh, it's so nice. I love it. I just love it. And then eventually you got spaghetti sauce on it and you like fluff it off. It's like, oh, big deal. You get a new car and you park a mile out in the parking lot from the mall entrance so nobody parks near you because you don't need to get scratched. And then a month or two later, by the way, all that has to do is get its first scratch. And you look at that scratch and you go through a fit for a moment.

18:07 And then you realize it's no good anymore. And it's over. Dreams can be like that. When we have dreams that are to seek carnally this thing, that thing, the other thing. And then when you have it, Hollywood's a testimony of this. When you have it, you're disillusioned. Hollywood's not satisfied today. Hollywood is yearning and longing and they buy more. And they get more homes and they get more planes and they get more clothing. And they get more you fill in the blank and they're still empty.

18:40 Why? Because they need wealth toward God. And this is so very important. And Matthew, listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 15, verse 14. Jesus said concerning those who pursue status and wealth and position, he says, let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, I mean, that's funny. The blind leading the blind, he said, Jesus said, both will fall into a ditch. I mean, that's tragic, but it's comical. But he's talking about those who were the religious leaders of the nation of Israel. And Jesus referred to them as the blind leading the blind. They had all the wealth, all the status, all the clothing. They had everything, but they didn't have riches toward God. And Jesus said, they're blind. and look without knowing God personally not religiously the Bible says we're blind and I say that I pray to love you into the kingdom and to challenge you not to keep you out but how to get rich quick is getting rich by God and in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 or 4 excuse me, verse 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7. It says, for who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Listen to Paul's beautiful sarcasm.

20:09 Now, if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? So for example, everything, think of Job. Naked I came into the world, naked I leave. blessed be the name of the Lord. Are you, please don't answer. That would be weird. But are you good looking? What?

20:36 Okay, well. if you're not meeting up to the standards of Madison Avenue or Rodeo Drive, or if you think you are, let's say you are attractive, whatever that is. That's another, I don't want to derail myself, but physical attraction toward another is actually mathematics. It's geometry. That's for another day. It has nothing to do with your perfume. It has nothing to do with your nose. It has to do with geometry. You should research in the psychology of the human mind what geometry does regarding attraction. You might be blown away. So listen, if you are as ugly as sin this morning, just know this. God's got someone out there that's going to think you are as cute as...

21:33 Yeah, isn't that great? So be thou encouraged. The Bible says what you have, you can't boast about that. Have you seen people that are just, they got it all put together and they're like this. I'm not kidding. You know what I'm talking about? And they act like you don't exist. They're like... they look over and above you and if you were to speak to them, they can't even hear you. what's wrong with them? They think what they have has somehow come to them by their own doing. Well, in this day and age, that might be true in some regards.

22:19 But the fact of the matter is, what you have, God gave you. You might say, oh, I have such a beautiful, what, eyes, nose, my chin is amazing. You know all the Kardashian thing? Wouldn't it be amazing if all the Kardashians, which I don't know any of them, I'm just, I know their names, I've never even seen one. Maybe you're here, I didn't mean to bring you up. I'm just saying, what are they famous for? Listen to all of you. You're trying to fish for an answer. Nobody knows what they're famous for. How'd they get rich? Listen. Whatever, if it's based upon their looks or whatever, God gave that. Think about that. Today, you can be the most amazing intellect in this room right now.

23:13 God gave you that. God should get all the glory. You and I should be humble. We should be humble with what we have. Well, this is, do you know how much this jacket cost? I sure do. This thing is from Nordstrom's rack. It's probably about 37 bucks. Here's the thing. You didn't know that until I just told you. You said, nice jacket. How much did he pay for that? Listen, if I paid 37 bucks or 37,000 bucks for this jacket, number one, it's God's resources that bought it. and number two, God owns it. I don't own it. Why? Because he could recall at any moment. How would he do that by recalling me? He could recall me right now. This suit would be laying down right here. Right? Think about that.

24:06 But listen, your life and mine, according to the Bible, listen up, has been loaned to you. Did you know that? The Bible nowhere says that your life is your own. The Bible says you've been loaned a life from God. In John chapter 3, verse 27, the Bible teaches us, remember, we are to be humble regarding wealth of any sorts. Wealth of knowledge, wealth of income. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. Jesus has said that. I typed John in there wrongly, I guess. I don't know why that's there. Here's the point. I love what Jesus is saying. A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. Listen to this, Luke chapter 19.

25:01 You guys okay? For the Son of Man, Jesus says of himself, has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now as they heard these things, he spoke another parable. Because he was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately, That was their error, not his. Therefore he said to them, and he's going to explain to them what's really up. A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And so he called 10 of his servants and delivered to them 10 minas. Let's just say 10 bucks. It's a currency. And he said to them, do business till I come. Before I move on from this, Jesus is speaking about himself. He's telling his disciples, Hey, look at it this way. there's an owner of a kingdom, he's going to leave.

25:55 and he's going to come back to his kingdom. While he's gone, he's going to invest in these 10 guys. What's he going to do? He's going to give them the opportunity to get involved. in John chapter 1 John the Baptist said that Jesus is the light of every human that comes into the world the light being life you can be an atheist right here today this morning you don't even realize it the life that you have has been given to you by God and he's like this he's coming back and when he comes back he's going to ask for his investment portfolio to have increased from each of our lives.

26:53 Every single one of us. He's going to ask you, what did you do with the life I gave you? but his citizens hated him and sent the delegation after him saying we will not have this man reign over us and so it was that when he returned having received the kingdom he then commanded these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know how much every man had gained by trading Can I paraphrase? What every Christian did during these last 2,000 years with the life I've given them. Not only Christian, every human. then came the first saying, Master, your money has earned 10 bucks.

27:51 In other words, I took $1, I invested it, got 10 bucks back. And he said to him, well done, good servant, because you are faithful in very little, have authority over 10 cities. Wow. The second man came, or the second came saying, Master, your money has earned five more bucks. Likewise, he said to him, you also be over five cities. Then another came saying, Master, here's your mina, here's your dollar back, which I have kept and put away in a handkerchief. Interesting, a handkerchief is a symbol of burial. I put it I put the dollar you gave me like I'm 68 years old how about this 68 years ago the dollar you gave me I put it in a handkerchief and I played it safe I just put it I just put it in a box and buried it or put it under my bed and I just let it sit there because I didn't want to take any chances and I didn't want to get involved in anything and I didn't want to worship you at all and all that kind of stuff so I recognized yikes I'm at the end of my life Here, you can have it back.

29:07 Wow. Verse 21, for I feared you. This is not a good fear. Phobos. I was terrified of you. Versus I was in awe of you. Christian, you should be in awe of God. Not phobos. The Greek word's phobos, where we get the word phobia. You shouldn't have a phobia of God. You can have a phobia of spiders. I think that's pretty legit. I don't like them. but you should be in awe of God. This, by the way, proves that this man never took the time to find out who his master was. and so I feared you because you are an austere man you collect what you did not deposit and you reap what you did not sow and he said to him out of your own mouth the man the master said out of your own mouth I will judge you you wicked servant you knew that I was an austere man that's the way you saw me, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping where I did not sow.

30:12 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest? And he said to those who stood by, take the mina, take what he had from him, and give it to him who has 10. But they said to him, Master, he has 10 minas already, that guy's already got 10 bucks. Jesus says, for I say to you that to everyone who has will be given, and from him who does not have, meaning invested it, even what he has will be taken away from him. Verse 27, but bring here those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them and slay them before me. Jesus tells a parable. This is very strong. we can talk about money all day long we can talk about how to invest and how not to invest that's not the point the point is you're already in this you and I by God giving us life God's asking you today right now what are you doing with the life I gave you are you spending it on porn are you spending it on drink are you spending it on wealth are you spending it on power did you ever stop for a moment he would say secondly we look at verse 8 and it's to give yourself back.

31:34 Give yourself back to God. How to get rich quick? Be humble and give yourself back to God. Be humble and give yourself back to God. Verse 8 says, it will be, look how beautiful this is, it will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. If you are not wise in your own opinion, but if you do fear the Lord, if you do honor Him, if you do seek Him, the response is, by giving yourself back to God, you actually better your life. Didn't Jesus say this? Didn't Jesus say, if you seek to save your life, you're going to wind up losing it? Because all you do is think about your own life. Let's be honest, everybody. I know this is strong stuff, but look at it this way. You're not being charged for this. There's a lot of psychology in this message today that you would have to pay in counseling that you're getting for free. That's the upside to this.

32:27 The great thing is, listen, God covers all of us, body, soul, and spirit. There's no parsing out my body, my body, my soul, that's my mind, my thinking, and then my spirit, my spirit. No, you're one. That's all, you're one. It takes three parts of you to make one of you. Body, soul, and spirit. And they all belong to the Lord. And to the Lord, they all will return. Here's the deal. You want to return yourself back to God. You want to come back to him and say, Lord, I want to give up my life to your cause, to your plan, to your will. Lord, I want to give myself to you and those things that you want to accomplish with my life, which is very exciting, folks. You know all the stuff you're trying to invest in or find or buy to bring your life purpose and meaning? You're never going to find it.

33:19 Elon, Bezos, Gates. Who's out there? you're never going to find it. We know something you don't know. But you can find out. You'll never find it because it can never satisfy you. Things of this world cannot satisfy your internal passion and desire and meaning and purpose. The only way you can experience that is by giving your life back to God. Isn't that what that parable is about? Here's my life. I used it for your glory. And Lord, you've returned. Here it is back with interest. Look at this. I've done, you gave me a dollar and I made 10 out of it. Well, think about your life. You gave me a life. And Lord, you used my life to touch other lives in your name. That's wealth.

34:11 Because you know what? When you and I die materially, I'm talking about what you actually touch. I have a, I hope, I actually hope you agree with what I'm about to say, though I have this view of it. I think God is so total in all things that even the money that I can touch, if that's even, I mean, I don't know if you go around touching money. I don't even know you can do that anymore. It's pretty scary when you go to your bank. If you were to ask your bank, yeah, I'd like to withdraw my money. You know what they're going to tell you? We don't have your money. Have you noticed that? Did you know that? I've never done it, but I've heard about it where somebody says, I want my $100,000 out. I'm closing my account. Sir, it's going to take us a month to get your $100. What do you mean? It's in the bank.

35:01 Go back there and grab it. It ain't there. Did you know that? The bank is using it all over the world. They got to scoop it up and bring it to you. You can touch it. Move beyond that. Forget about what you can touch. Only the Christian can take what you can touch or what you can type out or transfer. Listen. And you can invest in the things of God that matter to God. And you wind up literally, it's the only way for you to take physical material money and hit send it. And it's converted into heavenly dividends and it goes into heaven and it's reserved there. So for example, if I give 10 bucks to advance the gospel to the lost in India, and one person or 1,000 people get saved, I may be owning physically $10 less.

35:58 Are you tracking with me? But just like going to England and you transfer your U.S. dollars to British pounds, I transferred U.S. dollars into heavenly treasure, heavenly reward. And I've made an economic change that goes from the mere little physical into the everlasting eternal. So what good do you get out of it? This is the good that I get out of it. There's gonna be a day when I show up in heaven and there's gonna be a guy standing there from India saying, it's so good to see you.

36:35 Do I know you? Well, we're gonna spend forever getting together and knowing each other, but here's the deal. You gave 10 bucks. It went out over the radio. I was riding my donkey and going to go get a bucket of water. I heard the gospel, accepted Jesus Christ. And since I got up here in heaven, the Lord told me, yeah, this guy gave 10 bucks for you to get saved. When he shows up, he's about ready to drop dead. He's gonna come on. He's gonna come into the kingdom any second. In fact, why don't you stand right here and you can say hi to him when he shows up. Just stand right there. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Something to that effect's gonna happen.

37:11 There's gonna be people affected by your life and ministry. I know this by the involvement of, I don't know anything about other ministries. I only know what's happening here. There's going to be people that are greeting you from China, from Indonesia, from Mexico, from Detroit, who are going to say, thank you.

37:32 If you get dividends in this world, how much more will you get dividends in the world eternal, the world everlasting, in the kingdom of God, because of spiritual investment, will return in spiritual blessings. There's no doubt about it. Remarkable. And so in verse 8, it says it's going to be health. That's amazing. Health to your flesh, strength to your bones. We don't have time to unpack this fully, but I will tell you this.

38:03 If you, especially if you're starting out on your career or on your life, you're young and you're heading off. Listen, we know this, that if you start to acquire stuff, we all know this to some degree. When you start to acquire stuff, if you're acquiring stuff that you have to worry about, it's not going to be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. Are you hearing me?

38:31 There are people who are considered poor, but they take their $5 to get this thing, and they worship that thing. They worry about it. It's the only one they have. they set it up, they look at it. Did you know that even though they're poor, they just cause themselves to become more poor? Why? Because they made that thing that they acquired as something that communicates to them some sort of wealth. Now I'm worth something. Dear family of God, listen, you are no more worth if you have a dollar or a hundred billion dollars. You're no worth, there's no increase in your personal worth to God. You're just as valuable. But humans, We think this way. Whoa! Look at that. Boy. I'm seeing examples of people in my head right now. That's why I paused.

39:32 And then I thought, no, I better not mention them. And then I thought, better not mention them either. You know why? I don't want to mess up their reward. Because their glory is in Jesus. They could buy the moon. But they don't. they turn around and they bless so many people in the world and you don't need to have that announced from a pulpit or from a broadcast God's going to reward them you say well that's great it would be so nice to be rich so I could just go do something like that ah the Bible says those who judge themselves among themselves are not wise you want to know why? you're not supposed to sit around and complain for the remainder of your life, I couldn't make big things happen because I didn't have big resources to do. First of all, you're saying it's God's fault. Number two, what are you doing with what you have? I don't have a penny, Jack.

40:33 Oh, I didn't say money. What do you do with your time? What are you doing with your vitality? Where are you spending it? Just think about it. Where's your strength going? time. Wow. But listen, obeying God, the translation is, it's going to work out some way, shape, or form to be health to your flesh. Wow. And strength of your bones.

41:08 Thirdly, it's this. Look at verse 9. Verse 9 is, it's for us to offer ourselves deliberately to God in worship. To deliberately, and this gets fun. Look at verse 9. He says, Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase.

41:31 I've told you guys before, and I'll repeat it. I became a Christian. No, let me back up. I was not a Christian. I was making a lot of money, became a Christian, and kept making a lot of money in what I was doing. It was all legal, don't worry about it.

41:52 So, making money, got saved making money. met my future wife, engaged to her three weeks before the wedding, lost that income. my thought became my words. Put the wedding on hold. Pause it. I have to have a job. you say well that's a very wise thing to do pastor every mother and father-in-law to be would love to hear that yeah but in this case God used Lisa's mom to kick me right in the face See, I was raised in such a way where to trust in my own wisdom.

42:48 In my wisdom, it made total sense to call the wedding off because I have to have a steady income, even though I had enough money in the bank. I wasn't about to touch that. Did you know the more money I made, the cheaper I became? And I'm not joking. there was something back in those days called Kmart two of my favorite stores and listen I could shop anywhere two of my favorite stores became Kmart and Pick and Save you know what began even when I was a Christian you know what began to happen to me I began to fall in love with the zeros behind the numbers I don't care what number you pick pick a number between 1 to 10 Zero. Zero is the most important number. Because if you pick the number nine, that's all you got is nine. If you've got zeros behind the nine, are you tracking me? I may be ugly.

43:42 I'm not stupid. I'm thinking this is how. And I'm going to take this money, and this is how that money is going to make more money for me. And then I meet Lisa. And she's a good Baptist girl. And we're on a date, and we're at church on a date. Sunday morning, tithing plate goes by. And I just, there you go, thank you. God bless you. And she goes, she was 18 or 19 years old. She goes, what just happened here? Hello, what was that? And I said, what was what? You just, you didn't put anything in. She said, of course I didn't put anything in. Of course not. Look around, this place is fine. That's what I said. And then Lisa, she just goes like this. She just goes. And I knew. and Lisa's mom said to me when I said you better call we got to pause the wedding because three weeks she goes where's your faith can you imagine a mother-in-law saying this she says where's your faith and I said right here right then and there I knew I was on my way to hell No, I'm kidding.

44:58 If I could have lost my salvation, that's the moment I would have lost it. I was so convicted. My point is this. There was this absolute reckoning to trust God. And here's the good news. From that point on, my income never recovered.

45:22 Coupons, hamburger helper, Denti Moore. Does anybody know who Denti Moore is? Denti Moore saved our lives. And I'm so glad. Lisa and I both are so glad for those days. But the Bible here says to honor the Lord with your possessions. What do you have in your life right now? Look at the word honor. The meaning of this word honor means, the root meaning is to be heavily loaded down with, weighty, abounding with honor toward another. In other words, according to God's word, right here, your life is loaded down with good things that God has given you.

46:11 Honor God with the things he has loaded into your life. I tell you what, if you're on top of the mountain right now, it's wow. If you're down in the valley of despair, it's going to cause you to look at what's good and give God thanks. And you honor him. What does this mean? And I was going to do this today, but I just honestly ran out of time. I wanted to have up here props set for you. I was going to bring a pickaxe. I have a pickaxe at home that I look at. I don't do anything with it. A shovel, hammer, saw. Are you with me? Each of those things have a specific purpose. You cannot cut down a tree with a pickaxe. You have to use the saw. But you cannot hammer a nail, right, with that saw. You have to use a hammer. God has established you in the body of Christ and God is saying to me and he's saying to you honor me with your possessions so I would take these tools and I would dedicate them to the cause for which they were created for shovel digs holes my name is Jack I lift people up that's my job I thought you'd like that somebody told me somebody told me that before they said no don't you know it's a pretty weird name Jack think about it what's it mean it's part of the horse family or something that you lift cars with I'll pick I'll pick the one that you lift cars with but everyone has every one of us have our place every single one of us as believers we're going to end with this your possessions that you and I have I'd love for you to take this verse and begin thinking what possessions do I have listen to this what possessions do you and I really have and it turns out we don't have any you think you do I thought I did so we've been living in our house

48:18 since dinosaurs ruled the earth I think we bought I think it was 1970 we bought our home in no we bought our home I think in 86 a little over 90,000 dollars and it's funny because even though it's paid off, it's not really paid off, I found out. It's a very shocking thing. Our house is paid off. It's ours.

48:50 Not exactly. If I don't make my property payments, what's it called? Property tax. If I don't make my property tax payments, they can seize my home. They can take it. The government, right? They can take your house. My house is paid off. Good for you. Just read the fine print because if you don't make your property tax payment, they're going to come take your house. Why? Because it ain't your house. Nothing's really ours until this game's over, folks. I just bought a brand new car, Pastor. I think you're wrong. I just paid cash, drove it off the lot.

49:26 No, it can be taken because somebody can go across your lawn and pretend they slipped on a skateboard and not only get your car, they can take your house and they can take you. There is nothing for sure in this world. Cheer up. Be happy. The only thing for sure is what God has said and what God has done. I'm going to ask you to stand right now. I'm totally having to stop this and it's kind of a bummer, but I really... Amen. How to get rich quick?

50:04 I know a man. Actually, I know a man, so do you. I just don't know his name. He's the guy that got the richest, the quickest I've ever seen in my life, and I think it's safe to say in all of human existence. You want to get rich quick? There's a man who was absolutely the poster child of poverty.

50:35 I mean, if you want to talk about being poor, this guy is the guy. And his life finally caught up to him because of his choices and all. and he was crucified next to Jesus. what's it you know listen crucified next to jesus in fact all around the world you see a resurrection week three crosses and jesus's cross is in the middle we don't know the name of either one of those two guys on either side one guy we don't want to know the other guy we're going to get to know. We're going to meet him. We don't know his name, but that dude was poor. And he's crucified next to Jesus, and he says to Jesus, Lord, Lord, master is what that means. Okay, this gets weird. Listen. Master, remember, wait, all three of you are going to die. You're crucified.

51:47 He looks at Jesus and he says, Master, who in the right mind would say, I want a dying man to be my master? That guy did. You wonder how rich that guy became? He was there watching Jesus die. and he said, Master.

52:08 Maybe the other guy in his mind had the word loser. That other man looked at Jesus like a loser. the other man who was so poor said master remember the word remember think about it if this man is dying next to me why would I ask him to remember me Master, remember me when? When? brother what are you talking about when he's being he's crucified he's going to die master remember me when you you have a future I see you in the future master and all I'm asking you to do when you enter into your future master remember me when you come into your kingdom.

53:19 Poor man. Poor, poor man. who became rich quick when Jesus said to him, today, look, with all due respect,

53:40 imagine this is Jesus and you are that man. And Jesus, I want to see how that happened. Did Jesus turn to him and say, with his finger. Remember, the nails are right here where my wristband is. This is the hand from the wristband to the tip of the finger. Not here. The word hand is this. You with me? From here back is the arm.

54:10 Did Jesus go like this? did he go, today, today, you will be with me in paradise. You want to get rich quick? That's how you get rich quick.

54:34 You give Jesus Christ your life today if you believe that he's the master, that he's coming into his kingdom because he's alive. On the third day, Christ rose again from the grave. Jesus Christ lives.

54:56 You either believe that or you don't. If you don't, you don't own anything. if you do believe that, you own everything. Because you have him, that's how you get all. All is through him because he alone is everything.

55:24 Father God, we praise you. And I pray right now, wherever people might be here now, watching even those in airport terminals I saw that photo just the other day of people watching this service in an airport terminal maybe that's you right now where you're at you're about ready to get on get on the plane you got to go through a gate it's narrow the way to Jesus is narrow, no doubt about it.

56:03 There's only one who has come. There's only one coming back. He's the same. And he died for you and he rose again from the dead. If you put your trust in him, you come to him in your poverty. what he purchased for you on the cross eternal salvation will make you rich forever and no man can take your treasure from you folks

56:31 right now where you're at say Jesus I'm accepting you as Lord and Savior I'm saying yes to this I've tried it all I'm empty I'm broken you love me I want you you let him know that and then let somebody today know that tell somebody I prayed that prayer that's the code word today folks and you can just simply say, you know, hey, excuse me, I just want to let you know, I prayed that prayer today. we thank you Lord in Jesus name and all God's people said amen God bless you