Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. All right, Hallelujah.
We've got, you know, we're going to have other people, you know,
coming in and they're going to miss it.
That's OK. You know, hopefully we can get
this one online like we did the last one because this is, this
is pretty important. I, I shared with you guys as far
as when I did the management, management messed up some folk,
I guess when we did that in a particular lesson, and
especially when I took it up to Valdosta, I had had it refined
by then, OK, 'cause you guys were the first guys to get it.
Then the second people to get it was Ki and then I took it to
Valdosta and I knew what I was doing then, right?
OK, well, you're getting a first, you're getting a second
tonight because I haven't taken this to Valdosta.
But I tell you what, we're going to go ahead and pray.
I want you to listen intently, OK?
Because the things that I'm going to talk about, I have
never heard a teaching on, OK. But it is so important for the
Kingdom for us to understand this, where we're headed in the
Kingdom and where we're headed as a church and where we're
headed as, as business people. OK.
So let's have a word of prayer and then I'm going to get
started. You all heard the subject
before, but I don't think we've studied it out together as we're
going to do tonight. Father, we thank you and we
praise you for the opportunity to come together again.
And, and Lord, we never want to take it for granted that you've
given us a country to live in, that we don't have any fear
whatsoever about coming and, and sharing the, the good news of
the Kingdom and the different principles and laws that you
have in there that govern, govern how the Kingdom operates.
And sometimes when we don't. See the things that we think
we're supposed to see according to scripture.
It just takes the time for us to re evaluate the principles that
you set in to law basically. For the Kingdom and how we're
supposed to operate in it. So again, it'll be a night, I
think, Lord of just self evaluation again and and and
find out where we are in relationship relationship to
where we're at. So we give you thanks in advance
for the outcome tonight and we thank you in Jesus name, Amen.
When I taught just a couple of months ago and we talked about
management and you know, there was some things that the Lord
was giving me. And and if you'll remember some
of the stories that I gave early on about management that the
Lord helped me get an understanding of how important
it is, you know, to manage and what people are looking for in
the earth is good managers. Well, there's another subject
that the Lord has just started dealing with me on, and it is a
subject of covetousness. And so tonight I'm going to
break this word down and we're going to break down the
scriptures, not unlike when we talked about management that,
you know, that one month we talked about management and in
the management, we talked about all the scriptures and, and,
and, and I didn't even list them.
I didn't even go into them and we may do that at another time
completely, but when we talked about management, if you'll take
every time Jesus told a parable about finance or about money, it
was all on how the people were managing.
OK. And so when we talk about, I
think it's interesting. Because the first scripture then
I'm going to just jot down Mark Chapter 7.
And I'm going to give you a kind of a prelim before I get into
the the verses that I want to go over.
But this particular account was the Pharisees came to Jesus and
they were talking to Jesus and they're always trying to get him
on something. Have you figured that out that
every time they open their mouth, it was not going to be
good and they were always going to try him, trap him in
something. Well, this particular day, they
were asking the questions because they said, why do your
disciples All right, eat food without washing your hands, like
the traditions and, and, and Jesus, you know, was talking to
him about that. He said, listen, you know, while
I'm with them and the different things that, you know, he
discussed, but it said the disciples came in, they said,
tell us what you were meaning by that.
And and when you get to the 21st, 21st verse of Mark Chapter
7, he's telling them this. He said from for from within,
out of the heart men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders. Verse 22, thes the word
covetousness. And and I'm going into a deep
description of that wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness and evil
eye, blasphemy, pride and and foolishness.
He said all these things come from within and defile a man.
See, they were thinking, man, these guys aren't washing their
hands while they're eat, so they're defiled.
He said no, it's not the stuff that goes in that defiles them,
It's the stuff that comes out and he tells you where it's
coming out and what it's about. Well, all the things that I just
listed that defile a man, OK, are things that people spend a
lot of time thinking about. You just don't wake up and think
I'm gonna murder somebody, OK? That's not usually not a
thought. Even though with the worst
criminals there's something, some altercation or something
that basically, you know, precedes that.
But it, it talked about wickedness and deceit and the
evil eye and blasphemies and pride.
He said all these things. Come out of a man.
Well, one of those things that he mentioned and Jesus has given
us a pretty complete list of the things that really can mess us
up. And one of those was the word
covetousness. Now we think about, you know, we
think about covetousness, but I want to give you the definitions
of it, OK, in the Greek language, and you can write this
down, it is the Greek word. Play on Nexia, PLEOPLEONEXIA,
all right, now we can change. The word covetous.
Now to the word greed, because that is the definition.
And, and from here, we're going to talk about, we're going to
talk about greed in, in certain fashion.
But then there's another word. And I didn't know what this word
meant, so I had to look it up. It is the word avarice.
OK, Avarice. It's spelled AVARICE.
Avarice. This is what the word avarice
means. If you look it up in your
dictionary it says it's a insatiable desire.
Insatiable desire for money or riches.
I put the word unsatisfiable desire for money or riches, so
Jesus has. Given us a warning here in just
a minute. I'm going to read it where he
gave a warning because this is one sentence you need to write
down. Covetousness or greed?
Or an unsatisfiable desire for money is forbidden in the
Kingdom of God. OK, now if you remember you took
a very, very long definition for management, let me give you the
the. Size or smaller version.
Now, all right, when we talk about management, it is the
expected and correct use of another person's resources or
property. Good management is only realized
by producing an added value back to the person who owns it.
And we established in that lesson who owns it.
Does he own everything or just the 10% Everything.
So you, whatever you have, he owns all right by right of
creation, all right. And he tells us that, yes, he
wants 10% for us to dedicate to the ministry, but he owns the
other 90. And that's really where the test
starts. Are we listening?
Because he may have given us something even in the form of,
you know, when people tell me. And then I got a bonus.
I wonder why you got that bonus. You know, are you listening on
why you got that bonus? Because there may be something
God allowed you to have that bonus.
Remember, we talked about tithing at one time and, and,
and I, I haven't taught it here. I'll probably teach it in the
next couple months. But when we talk about the the
tithe, it says that God will open the winds of heaven pours
out a blessing that would not have room enough to receive it,
and he'd rebuke the devourer. In other words, my translation
of that was when we tithe, God is saying, listen, if you'll
take care of what you can take care of and that I've given to
you, all right, I'll take care of the things you can't.
So when you get that bonus, you may have deserved that bonus,
but in the end of it, you didn't have the power to write yourself
that check or EFT, whatever you got, right?
All right, so when we look at the definition here of greed or
avarice, here's the definition of greed and listen to how
interesting it is compared to the definition of management
greed. Is the mismanagement of
resources or property for one's personal benefit.
In other words, whenever greed shows up, there's only one
person that it's aimed at and it's the person that has it.
They're thinking about what can I do to get this?
What can I do to get that? All right.
Now, if you'll take a look at that, you know, greed being the
mismanagement of resources, a greedy spirit.
Here's the deal. A greedy spirit will always
manipulate so that you can become the person with the
ultimate benefit. So you know, when you try it
like I, I, how many people that I've visited with that have
tried to make certain deals happen or by twisting something
or getting something that lets me know what spirit they're
working with because it can benefit them.
All right. And, and, and, and again, I've
had, I've had certain companies that I worked with.
I had one large company years ago, big company and and and and
probably a half $1,000,000 account a year.
And, and all of a sudden we lost them.
So that was who that was a that was a drop.
OK, Couple years later, get an e-mail and one of the people
that we did business with in there said, we want you to tell
us what it's going to take to come back.
And I said, well, tell me what happened.
And they said, well, we found out that the buyers, a couple of
the buyers that were using this new company were taking money
under the table. As a kickback.
And when we found out about it, obviously we fired them because
that's not how we want to do business.
So let us know and they they came back and they're still with
us. All right.
But The thing is that, you know, when you see people that you
have to do business with that are doing the underhanded
things, you know, you're dealing with a spirit of greed.
You know, you're dealing with spirit of covetiousness, all
right? You want to make sure you don't
do that, all right? Now, we've gone over this
scripture before. It's Luke chapter 12.
I want to go there again and we're going to start in verse
13, Luke chapter 12, verse 13. And it says one of the companies
said unto him, Master, speak to my brother that he may divide
the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man who
made me a judge or a divider over you?
And he looked at everybody that was standing around listening to
this. And he says, take heed.
Anytime you see the words, take heed.
You know what you need to do, Take heed, right?
All right, you need to pay attention because the next
things that Jesus is going to say or Paul's going to say when
they say take heed is going to be extremely important.
Now listen to what he said, take heed and beware of covetousness.
For a man's life consists not of the abundance of the things
which he possesses. All right here in is why the
prosperity message is so skewed because people equate prosperity
by the things that you possess. Now hopefully in this church we
have destroyed that, OK, because we define the word prosper.
It is not what you have. It is not what you can get.
It's not what you can amount amass to yourself.
Prosperity in its simplest form means to have help on the road.
OK, by definition in both Hebrew and Greek.
So when he tells us in there, Jesus said listen, beware of
covetousness. The word beware in the original
language it means to be on. Guard or to keep?
From being snatched away. So it sounds like to me that
money and the things and accumulation can be a trap.
Because he says be on guard, pay attention, all right?
Pay attention to those things he said and keep from being
snatched away. He's saying beware of
covetousness, beware of greed. You know, the whole thing about
entrapment being trapped. All right?
Many of you all have heard, you know, my testimony.
And this absolutely blows my mind on being offended, OK?
And what it cost me cost me 10 years, all right.
And when I, you know, when you get offended and you, you're not
paying attention to the Bible, you're paying attention to your
emotions, all right, you're upset because somebody did you
wrong. And, and you know, and, and you
know, you, you just can't seem to get over it.
There's a book written called the Bait of Satan.
All right, We go through it in school, all right, talking about
the fact that there's going to be opposition, there's going to
be people that are offended. But what blows my mind is when
we have people in this church, then all of a sudden they, they,
they went to Kingdom Institute and graduated.
I saw them walk the stage, remember one side to the other
with Pastor Earl and Marcy with their diploma.
And then I don't see them for a while.
And I just happened to ask somebody.
We're so and so and they go, oh, they got offended and left.
See, that absolutely blows my mind.
How can that even happen when you've given them the
illustrations and you've pointed out how in the world could you
ever think of being offended? Well, that same kind of trap is
also in the arena of money that sometimes we get involved in
things and we get involved in in.
Thinking a little more than we need to be thinking, you know,
about money and about finances. But Jesus was very clear.
Now let's go over the parable again that Jesus told on this He
said, Beware of covetousness for a man's life, beware of greed,
beware of avarice, OK? For a man's life does not
consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.
Now go to verse 16. And he spoke a parable unto
them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth
plentifully. And he said, And he thought
within himself, What shall I do? Because I have no room where for
to to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do, I
will put down, I will pull down my barns and I'll build greater,
and there I will bestow my fruits and my goods.
And he will And I said, I will say to my soul, so you have much
goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink and
be merry. But God said unto him, You're a.
Fool. This night your soul will be
required of you. And he said, then whose things
shall those be which you have provided?
And verse 21, we've gone over this so many times.
He said, so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not
rich toward God. That's a King James, a better
translation of that last phrase. It says so.
He is he that lays up treasure for himself, but is not becoming
rich. For.
God all right, why would we want to become rich for God?
Think of a parable, another parable.
How about the talents? Can you remember that the
nobleman he gave the the the king, the nobleman, he gave them
the talents gave 1512 and one one all right.
And they did what they went and traded with those and they made
double. That was the the key for them
double. And when he came and he reckoned
with him, he said, look master the the five you gave me, we've
turned into another five. Who's he becoming rich for?
The king, because why it was the King's king gave it to him, told
him what to do. 2 of them did it, the other one didn't and got
the label wicked and slothful or lazy or unrighteous.
Because he didn't do anything with it.
All right, So he when he's telling us in here, he said,
listen, don't be like that guy because you can go through this
whole passage. I have it in my Bible in there
because every time you see the word I OK in verse the verse 17
he said, what shall I do? Because I have no room to bestow
my fruit. Then he said this will I do I
will pull down my barns and bill greater.
Therefore I will bestow all my fruits and goods.
Then I will say to my soul, soul, you have much goods laid
up for many years. Take thine easy, eat, drink and
be merry. So someone that is covetous is
always thinking about. Who I all right themselves.
So that's what you have to be careful of.
When you hear people talking, what are they talking about?
All right, what are they doing? Let's go over to Matthew 6.
Let's one. More time Take a look at what
Jesus said. Because this guy laid up
treasure for himself. He laid up his goods for
himself, correct? Jesus told us not.
To do that. In verse 19.
Everybody ought to have this highlighted in their Bible, I
swear. Or put it on their put it on
their their refrigerator. OK, verse 19 lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rest does corrupt
and thieves breakthrough and steal.
But rather he tells you where. But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, whether neither moth nor rest does
corrupt, and where thieves do not breakthrough and steal.
He said for where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also. This is a 6th chapter of
Matthew. That's a verse 21.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
All right then he goes on and he says the light of the body is
the eye. If therefore thine eye be
single, your whole body is full of light.
Verse 23 If your eye be evil, the whole body will be full of
darkness. If therefore thy light that is
in thee is darkness, how great is that darkness?
Verse 24 No man can serve 2 masters, for either hate the one
and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the
other. Here's the phrase, You cannot
serve God and Mammon. Now you know what I think's
interesting about that? He did not say you cannot serve
God and the devil. So I think he's telling us
there's something that's more powerful in the lives of humans
than the devil. Especially after Jesus totally
defeated him. Everybody's afraid of the devil,
but he's defeated. He told us that, but he's
telling us when it comes to serving.
There's only two You either serve Him, you serve God, or you
can serve money. We see it happen all the time.
I've seen it in this church. I've had conversation.
Let me know exactly what they're serving.
All right, I've got a few things.
Does anybody remember years ago? Pastor, this is probably 2010 if
I'm not mistaken and he did this series.
It was called Seeing Green. And he was talking about that
and he. Did a little spoof.
Off of everybody know Jeff Foxworthy and you know if you
want to be a redneck, you ever heard those like you know if
you're mowing your grass and you find a car, you might be a
redneck, right? Well, pastor came up with a few
when and he called it. You might have a problem with
money. OK, well, I came up with a few
that might let you know who you are the servant of.
Are you ready? Let me count them 1234.
I just got five. Listen to this.
I want you to tell me. And if you're guilty, just look
straight ahead. If you know the person behind
you is guilty, look straight ahead.
OK, don't turn around, right, But this is going to equip you
to know those that you interact with with in our body and the
error that they're getting ready to find themselves in.
Listen to this if you spend most of your time.
Coming up or thinking of ways to make more money then you are a
servant of money Now did you hear me if you spend most of
your time coming up with or thinking of ways to make.
More money you are serving of money if most of your
conversations are focused on your latest deals, contracts,
profits. If most of your conversations
are focused on the latest deals, contracts are probably you are a
servant of money. If I can't get with you and talk
about the things of the Kingdom and all you want to let me know
is, hey, we got this deal. We got this deal.
This is what we're doing it. Yeah.
I I. I'm going to be interested in
knowing that, but sooner or later we need to talk about
something else a little more important.
Be cautious about getting involved in those type of
conversations. Here's the next one.
If you are constantly coming up with and researching ideas that
could make more money, you might be a servant of money.
If that's all you spend your time doing.
You're saying you know, or you hear the latest thing or you're
you know, you hear it. You hear it all the time.
If you are on social media, you hear everybody that can make 7-8
figures. All right, and how to do it and
how to do it fast and the whole bit.
If you spend your time looking into those things and spending
more time studying those things and getting into those things,
you are a servant of money. OK, If you'd rather be working
at the job or your business than being in church, you are a
servant of money. Here's the last one if you don't
have time to spend. In the word and prayer because
you need to be at work you or a servant of money if you don't
have time for the things of God, you've already told us, you
know, if you're not interested in serving in the local church,
you've already told us if all you want to talk about is money
or the next idea or the next thing coming or what's going on,
you are serving the money all right.
That's why, you know, years ago we used to have what we called
home groups and, and the thing was, is that I'd hosted.
A couple of them. And I tell you what, I got tired
of them real quick, you know, cuz all we sat around and talked
about was football. And I like football like the
next guy. OK, no problem.
Even my grandchildren are now asking Papa tell us about
football. OK, watching.
This OK, but it's not my life you know I I when I get together
I love sitting down and talking about things of the Spirit.
Now you know why all of those are important to me because I
can raise both hand and say I'm guilty.
Every one of them because I went back in my mind and, and, and
conversations that I've had and how much emphasis.
That I put and and I even eluded last month.
I was talking about it, the message that pastor was
preaching and and he and, and then he came here and he did
one, he wanted to kick the year off and, and have, you know,
opportunity to visit with the business people.
And, you know, and made the comment, He said, if your goal
basically is to make money so you can give more to the gospel,
that's not that. That's a wrong goal.
And it bothered. Me because that's a man, that's
what I'm about and I had to re evaluate my about because my
relationship with God and how I'm pleasing him, all right, and
seeking him first and his Kingdom and his righteousness.
All these things will be added so I don't have to worry about,
OK, what's the next business deal I'm going to get so I get
some more money put in the account here at the church.
That's not the motive is what I'm saying.
It should not be your motivation.
All right, yes, we, if we're going to be, if we're going to,
you know, become rich when he tells us how not to do it.
All right, with that one guy that he was he he became wealthy
and he started storing stuff up. And she said don't do that.
Don't be storing stuff up for yourself.
He said, store up things in heaven.
Now I've taught this before because how you store things up
in heaven is found in Mark chapter 10 and and and and a few
other just a few other places. But it's a story about the rich
young. Ruler.
And he came and most people from the stage, we had a guy one time
that was talking about finance and stuff and he was going to
that scripture and he was going to quote it.
And I just, I said to myself, and he's going to leave one
phrase out. Sure enough he did because
everybody does. But when he says in there, he
said, the rich young ruler came to him, you remember, And he
said, keep the commandments. And he said, I've kept all these
from my youth. Now I love it In Mark 10 it
says, and Jesus beholding him, loved him.
He said, But one thing you lack. Now you've heard me say it.
I just wish I only had one thing when you feel good.
If it was only one thing, just tell me the one thing.
Don't Jesus. He'd get mine and it'd be like a
scroll. Roll that thing out of all them
things. He.
Needs me to fix but he said one thing you lack go and and take
what you have. Sell it.
Give to the poor then you will have riches in heaven and come
take up your cross and follow me.
Most people leave out there. Then you will have riches in
heaven. They leave that part out.
What do they say? They say, well, go sell what you
have. Give to the poor, take up your
cross, Come follow me. That's exactly how they quote
it. Next time you hear somebody want
to quote that, let's see what? And they're quoting it, not
reading it. You, you, you tell me if they if
they put in there, then you will have riches in heaven.
Jesus telling us as we give to the poor, we consider those that
are, you know, maybe needing a little finance and maybe needing
something. If we consider them, every time
we give to them, we are putting money in the bank in heaven.
OK, now here's the deal. When we get there, we won't need
it. So that means that there's a way
that we must be able to, excuse me, withdraw here where we need
it. There's no American currency.
Everybody know that, right? In heaven.
You know that, right? I mean.
I, I, we don't know how to get there.
If it did, and if he decided he'd start printing his own,
it'd be counterfeit. So there ain't none up there,
all right. But we need that.
We need to take a look at the fact where Jesus said this.
Listen. You can't serve the two masters.
You can, you can, you can serve me or you can serve money.
And there wasn't nothing in between.
So when you, you see people talking about all those
different things and they're not really talking about the Kingdom
of God. They're not really talking about
the things that matter and what's going on in people's
lives and those that are getting the revelation of who Jesus is
in the lordship of Christ and being water baptized and all
those different things that the Kingdom is made-up of.
If you're not focused on those things, you really got to ask a
question, where me where, Where am I standing right now in the
Kingdom of God? Where do I stand?
What category do I stand in? Am IA servant of God or am IA
servant of the finances? Or the job.
All right, Hebrews chapter 13. Jot this one down and listen to
this careful because. The the the.
Barriers that Jesus wants us to have toward greed and
covetousness but in Hebrews chapter 13 verse five and six.
Let it let let's look at what he says he said let your
conversation be without covetousness and be content with
what things that you have for he said I will never leave you or
forsake you that we may boldly say that the Lord is my helper
helper and I will not fear what man shall do to me.
The words without covetousness. He tells us right here, he said.
Let your conversation. All right, when we hear the word
conversation, we usually think about what we're talking about.
The word conversation in the original language is the word
manner of lifestyle. It's how are you?
Living. What are people seeing when
you're living? He said.
Let your conversation be without covetousness.
All right? That Greek word basically is is
the the word a Phil or guras? OK, a Phil or Guras?
It's a Phil. And ARGUROS.
I'll spell it again. APHILARGUROS.
It's a compound Greek word. Phil comes from Philo, meaning
love. Or affection.
OK, the word arguras is the word in the Greek for silver.
All right, so greed or covetousness can be described
with people that have a love for money or love at the end.
Silver. This particular word has an A in
front of it which it. Reverses it.
So that's why he said without covetousness.
All right, He said. Do not, he said.
Do not let your conversation, do not let your manner of life, do
not let yourself be pulled into conversations or manner of
lifestyle. That all you're looking for?
Is money OK? And he said why?
He said because he said be content and I like it.
Because the word. Content doesn't mean, you know,
just put up with it. You know, it's it.
You know there's nothing you can do about it.
No, basically the word content says I am not moved by my
circumstances. That's what the word means.
I'm totally separated from my circumstances.
They don't affect me. Where I am financially right now
does not affect me, He said, and he said be content with such
things as you have for the Lord says, notice I will never leave
you or forsake you. What does that tell you?
If you go with the prosperity word, you're going to have help
on the road. It's good to know who's with you
to help you. He is everything that you have
need of. There's not one thing he said
that you'll go without. And if so many people are trying
to get their own arms, Jesus, Jesus tells us that all through
those parables. All right in that.
And the Father even told us in Deuteronomy chapter 8, he said,
listen, don't come to a place when you get blessed, that you
say my arm and my power has got me this wealth.
For it is he that has given you the power to get wealth all
right, that he may establish his covenant, which he swore into
your Father's. All right, he tells us that, but
in in Hebrews he said that we may he said that I will never
leave you or forsake you. It's interesting.
Everybody says, well, Jesus said I'll never leave you or forsake
you. And we quote that all the time.
In fact, you got it on T-shirts. You got it on kind of stuff.
But what in context is he talking about?
He's talking about you and money.
He said, are you greedy? He said you don't need to be
greedy, you need to be content. You need to be a stepping aside
from your circumstances financially and know he's going
to take care of what you need. He promised that anybody
remember Matthew 633 seek first the Kingdom of God and his
righteousness and all these things will be added to you.
So therefore you can go and say the Lord is my helper and I will
not fear what man shall do to me.
You know, you can replace that what man shall do to me and you
can put in there IRSI mean, you know, I I basically, I've I've
been everywhere you can be with the IRS.
I've been there audits, probably three or four of them over the
last 40 years. You know, different situations
where I've had to talk to the revenue officer and and that's
what I call them. I even got one on speed dial
and, and any question that I have or any, she calls me back
and I'm thinking she's a good person to have on the team.
Oh, there's no doubt because you know, when you running into some
things and and going on, I'm telling you what I want to call
somebody that you know, can find out real fast and it's good to
have one. But he says, Hey, listen, I'll
not fear what man shall. Do to me so as we take a look
at. The next one in there that this
is a requirement if you ever wanted to be in church and you
wanna be a leader, and I would pray that everybody would have.
Some type of area that they could show leadership over.
But did you know that being covetousness, Being a person of
covetousness is basically it is it is.
It is a taboo. You shouldn't even you shouldn't
even be considered in leadership if you haven't got your money
thing fixed out figured out because hating.
Covetousness was a requirement of being a leader in the church.
Let me give you a few scriptures.
Exodus chapter 18. This is a story.
When Moses is coming, he's leading the children to Israel.
And his father in law's on the way to meet him.
He's got his wife and his children with her or with them.
And they show up and they have a big party and they're excited to
see each other. This is the 18th chapter of
Exodus. And the next morning, Moses
pulls out his little desk out of his tent, sets it under under
his little awning. And he puts his little desk
plate on there, says Pastor Moses.
And he said. And the people begin to line up
by twos. As far.
As the eye can see, you know how I know that anytime you get 6
million people, 3 million people unborn again in one place,
you're going to have some problems.
And so he would he would, he'd take them, come on up, what's
the deal? They tell him, well, they did
this or they did that and he would judge the people and he'd
say This is why this is what God said.
This is why you're wrong. You're right whole bit.
And you know, and then people leave next to come up, right?
And you know how things go. I mean, what?
What's going to happen? Them two guys that just left are
going to go back past that line again and see somebody else they
got a problem with. So them two going to go get back
in line. And this thing is never ending.
Well, Jethro, his father-in-law says, what are you doing?
And he goes, well, everybody comes to see me.
And he said, you're standing here from evening, from morning
to evening, every day judging these people.
And he goes, yeah, because I'm the only one we got.
And he said, well, the thing you're doing is not good.
You're going to wear out and you're going to wear the people
out. Now think about it.
We get wore out standing in line for 45 minutes and anywhere, I
mean, two hour wait, trying to get into a restaurant.
I mean, you know, you can imagine these people standing in
the heat of the day all day. And he said, listen, I'm going
to give you some advice. Right and he goes on, he goes on
to give him the advice and that one of the last part of the vice
is found in verse 21. He said, moreover, you shall
provide out of all the people able men such as fear God, men
of truth, haters of covetousness and place them over to be rulers
of thousands, hundreds, 50s and 10s.
So one of the requirements to become a judge, that's what he
was doing, is he's given the under.
Courts, he was creating them. All right, Bible tells us
another place where, you know, Moses was crying out saying,
man, you know, these people have absolutely lost their minds.
You know, they, I, I cannot handle them myself alone.
He comes with the great revelation and the Lord picks
out 70 to help him. Now, to me, 70 out of 3 million
ain't that much. Right.
But he tells him he anoints them with the same anointing he had.
But he said they had to be haters of covetous.
Why? Because they couldn't be
susceptible to a bribe. That was the main thing.
OK, now we get into the New Testament.
Paul's writing to. Timothy, he said if you want to
have bishops or you want to have deacons come in your church,
notice what he said in verse 3. This is first Timothy 33.
He said not give into wine. Not a striker, not.
Greedy. A filthy lucre.
OK, so he tells him, Hey, listen, we're not, we're not
going to have, we're not going to have the filthy lucre, you
know, part going on in, in our, our churches and filthy lucre,
basically. It's a real, real long word in
the Greek, but it means eager for base gain or greedy for
money, he said. As you're not going to have it,
not in leadership, all right. He tells Titus the same thing in
Titus's letter he said for a Bishop must be blameless as a
steward of God, not self willed, not angry, not given to wine,
not a striker, nor given to filthy lucre.
He tell him the same thing first Peter.
Peter even talks to him. He said listen when you're
talking about pastors, he tells pastors in verse two, feed the
flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof,
not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre,
but ever ready mind so. Even in the leadership, he had
to be Make them beware, all right, or make them have caution
of being against being moved by money, he said.
Don't do it. So I'll let you know how
powerful money money really is. OK.
But as we look at the last part that that I want to see as far
as the where your. Your your treasure is.
And let me go and down here as far as when we talk about it,
leadership can't have it, but one of the things that you'll
find out being covetous being. Always thinking about money, it
can condemn the soul. Do you remember the parable I
just read? He said he, you know, he said
your soul is required, right? Pastor is quoted how many times
the Scripture, All right, this says what will a man gain?
And and you know, what does it matter if he gains the whole
world and loses his soul? See, there's something about
money that can help. You lose your mind.
You can get so possessed in the money, you can find yourself
just constantly, constantly trying to figure out how we
going to do this, how we going to do that.
Do you not think that the Holy Spirit has the ability to tell
you what you need to do next? I mean, if anybody ought to know
what your next move is going to be, it ought to be the Holy
Spirit. Instead of figuring out, OK, I
saw this good idea, saw that good idea, stop and sit down
with the Lord. And say, what's the next thing
that you're going to have me get in?
I'm right now seeking him about different things because we got
such a shake up in the real estate market.
OK, there's some new laws coming out that we're going to have to
really, really watch ourselves on because the the realtor, the
Association of Realtors, all right, was sued for over $400
million because people were freaking out about commissions
and that they weren't communicating how they were
getting paid. And I'm thinking that is the
dumbest thing I've ever heard of because everybody we've ever
dealt with, we let them know and we show them this is how we're
getting paid and they what they won.
Now we're in the appealing and everything of it.
But you know, it's going to change a lot.
It's going to, it's going to change compensation.
And there's going to be some people that will not consider a,
a, you know, if you bring a buyer, they, they can tell you
no, we don't have to pay you anything.
Well then, what's the point? I mean, why would I bring you a
buyer? But you got to be careful
because you're not being showing any prejudice or you're showing
any animosity because you know they're not offering.
So you, there's a lot of things in the industry that we're
looking at. I'm seeking the Lord about it.
I'm not going to I'm not going to take everything every lawyer
says. I wonder, Lord, how do you want
me to respond in this situation? What do you need me to do?
You got something else going You want me to get involved in I
I'll listen. You know, that's what we want to
do. But when we get to.
Philippians chapter I'm sorry, Ephesians chapter 5 all right,
let's talk about what it it can do to us because in verse one he
said, if you there be for followers of God as dear
children, be that he said and walk in love as Christ also
loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a
sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour but fornication
all uncleanliness or covetousness.
Listen to this next phrase. Let it not once be named among
you as becometh Saints all right.
You are not supposed to be in a situation where people say man,
they're just. Greedy.
You know that all they talk about is money.
You know how you're going to make the next buck.
What do we got to do? Don't be that, it said.
Do not let that be named against upon you at once.
Don't even let it all right then, he said, Neither
filthiness, foolish talking nor jesting, which are not
convenient, but rather the giving of thanks.
It says. For this we know that no
whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an
idolater, have any in any inheritance in the Kingdom of
God. So people that are spending all
their time figuring out how to make the next buck, talking
about what we got to do to make the next buck, what can we do to
get the next dollar? All right, He says in there, he
said that covetous man is an idolater.
All right, What's some of the first commandments?
Thou shalt not make any graven image.
Interesting. You know how they print money on
a graven plate? It's etched.
Right, that's how they print money.
He said don't. He said, don't get into
covetousness because it is idolatry.
That's why he said, what did he say?
You cannot serve God and you cannot serve Mammon.
You cannot serve wealth. You cannot serve money.
That's what he tells us and in and in First Timothy chapter 6.
Listen to what Paul's writing in in First Timothy 6.
Two different sections. All right, we're going to wrap
it up. What do we got?
I don't have my time up there, but what about what, 15 after
great first Timothy jot it down six, nine through 10, but.
Those that will be. Rich fall into a temptation and
a snare, and in in many foolish and hurtful lust which drown men
in destruction and tradition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil, which some have coveted after they have
erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows. So Paul writing to Timothy tells
him, he said those that will be rich, the word will be means to
strive to be those that are constantly striving to be rich.
He tells the believer, he said you are going to fall into a
temptation and a snare. And he goes on, and he said, and
many foolish and hurtful lust, which drowned men in destruction
and perdition. You know, I mean, I can't tell
you how many times pastors even alluded to this, but I had
actually in Oklahoma, I had some people come to me.
They, you know, they'd come to me and say, hey, I just got this
job. I said, wow, that's great
because you've been looking for one for a long time.
That's awesome. And they said, but I'm not going
to be able to go to church on Sundays.
OK, well, we can go back to you might be a redneck.
OK, I said dude, I said I don't care.
What it pays? I don't.
I said you will mess up your life based upon this Scripture.
It said, yeah, in there they will be.
They'll fall into a temptation to snare many foolish and
hurtful lust and drown in destruction and perdition.
And it wasn't too long after that him and his wife were
divorced. Kids are wondering what's going
on, you know, and the whole bit, you know, the Bible's true, Yes,
the trouble's true. You know, one verse that that I,
I, I learned years ago said he that troubles his house will
inherit the wind. OK.
And right here. When somebody decides to go
after money and you know, and and it may be the most innocent
God, I just want to be, I just want to do better for my family.
I just want to do we all want to do better for our family, OK,
But there's a way to do that that won't put you in a jeopardy
situation. It is becoming familiar with the
voice of God so that he can tell you all right, what it is.
And and the main thing is, is that we can go back every time.
Everything we teach, We can go back all right, to the the
management principle is that how are we managing?
How are we? How are we taking care of the
things that God gives? US because remember what we said
according to you know, Genesis chapter 2, verse five and six,
it goes on there and it goes in there to say that hey, he
withholds all right, his resources from bad manager.
He will cut off resources if someone starts managing poorly.
We have scriptures all through Jesus teaching about that.
The unjust steward? He got fired.
And he again tried to figure out what he was doing, you know,
and, and what he was going to have to do.
But Jesus said, don't be like them.
All right, now let me give you the last Scripture for tonight,
Second Timothy chapter 6. Again, it's just just down a
little ways in verse 17, he said.
Charge them that are rich in this world that they and and you
need to note these number one that they be not high minded.
In other words, thinking more of yourself than you need to think.
He said no trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God
who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
So he's telling you, get the the thought of finances out of your
way and begin to trust in the living God.
Money can leave quickly. I've been there.
I've lost all, almost all of it. OK, sad, sad situations.
I didn't know if there's anything I could do.
You know about it, but the Lord brought me out of all of it.
All right, and and and when you take a look in there when he
says, you know charged in the rich in this world that they be
not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches.
If you'll remember the parable of the sower in Mark chapter 4.
He said some are sown among thorns, and he said the cares of
this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other
things reach in and choke the word that was sown in their
heart. Now it's interesting to note.
OK. And you think about this, Pastor
pointed this out to US one time. He said there's four types of
soil. You remember the wayside, Stony
ground, thorny ground and good ground.
The harvest that he said you could expect from the sowing of
the word was only 25% OK. So when we talk about we talk
about the fact that he said charge them that are rich in
this world. They be not high minded nor
trust in uncertain riches. Why are they uncertain?
Because you don't know what the markets going to do unless God
tells you how to keep from something bad happening.
And he said, but you trust in the living God who gives us
richly everything to enjoy. But look at the next verse, he
said, and that they do good and that they be rich in good works,
ready to distribute, willing to communicate.
He said if there's a reason that God is going to bless you
financially, is those things right there that you would be
doing good? It is said of Jesus in Acts
chapter 10, verse 38, who went about doing good.
All right, He said he was anointed of God.
He went about doing good and healing all that were possessed.
Of devils, the word doing good in there is where we get our
English word philanthropist. OK, how do we know Jesus was a
philanthropist? Well, every time you turn
around, he's given to the poor. How do we know that?
Because the night that he was betrayed and Judas left, the
other guys assumed that he was either going to go buy some more
stuff to eat or go give something to the poor at the at
the request of Jesus. So it must have been something
that continued on or they didn't ever had that thought that he
was he was in it. So he says you need to be one
that does good and that you be rich in good works everywhere
you're serving in the ministry. Is a good work.
Do you think more about that than you do your job?
You know what we could do? Pastor said it the other day.
I thought it was so funny. He said, you know, because we
were talking about the tithe and, and, and I'd made a comment
about tithing your time. And I did the calculations on
how many minutes there are in a day. 10% of it would be two
hours and 24 minutes. OK, could we do that?
Well, I spend about half of that in the time of the word and
study every day. Never miss a day.
Don't miss a day. All right.
Then I spend the time I'm either praying or talking to the Lord
about the different things that's going on.
You know, how do you want me to respond?
What do you want me to do next? You know, we got a meeting
today, you know, have me give me an opportunity to talk about the
Kingdom, you know, those different things.
And I'm and I'm always. Looking at that because why I
want to be rich. In good works OK, you know,
works is the word works OK, Ergon in the Greek it just means
work. So while we're working.
That's why Pastor said your job is not your source.
Your job is not where you work. You don't.
And here's the deal. We get so caught up in trading
our life for money, it's ridiculous.
And we got to go to work. I've said it before, I said, you
know God's not going to trust you with your own business.
He's going to put you in an employment situation to see how
you handle yourself. If you can't be trusted with
another man's business, why in the world would he give you one
of your own? Did the Bible not say that in,
in, in? So in the 12th chapter of Luke,
he says that he said, if you've not been faithful on that which
is another man, he will not give you that which is your own.
And people are all the time, you know, thinking, oh, man, if I
could just go into business, you know, I could make, you know, I
could make more money and I could get this done and that
done. I said wrong motive for getting
into business. And, you know, I had one young
man tell me. He said, Oh yeah, man, he said.
I don't, I don't, I want to, I want my own business.
And he said, and I said, well, what, what's the, what's the big
deal? I said, I hear you're making,
you know, fairly good money as a, a, a, a server and tips are
good. You're at a good restaurant
because I tell people I said you need to evaluate.
Tips. OK, $100 meal has a better tip
than a $25.00 meal. Anybody figure that out because
I'm not going to go work at the $25 ticket.
Place I'm going to go, if I'm going to serve, I'm going to go
to that. That would that would be your
main thing, right? Your thought.
All right. But he you know, he said yeah.
He said I'm just I'm just tired of my boss and everything.
And I said and you what, you want to go into your own
business? How many bosses do you have?
You said I got one. I said, well, go ahead and go
into business. You'll have about 100.
And guess what? They don't care.
They don't care if you do good or bad.
I mean, if whatever it is you promise you better produce and
they don't care if your place burns down, you know, they don't
care that you got sick. They don't care.
I mean, and so, you know, if you think it's bad working for one
guy, OK, get your next hundred. Line them up, you know, and,
and, and see how you fare there. All right.
But he tells, he said you got to be rich in good works.
Notice what he said, ready to distribute.
I mean, you know the thing in I'm always ready.
I'm listening. I mean, I got ears like an
elephant. You can't see them.
But you know, when I'm walking around the hallway out here and
I mean, is it not getting crowded or crowded or is that a
word crowded more crowded. I mean, you people talking about
everything and I got my ears open.
Who's going through some bad times, who's got a challenge,
who can't make this or you can't pay this or, or whatever.
I'm listening. I want to know who in the body
needs help because I'm ready. I want to be ready.
And, and, and you don't have to go very far down the hall, you
know, and get and, and, and find you see, read people's faces.
You can you, you know, you can listen to the way they're
talking, you know, the whole bit.
Be ready, be ready to distribute.
He said willing to communicate that Neil Diamond, you know Neil
Diamond, he's a singer. He had a song and it's called
Money Talks. He don't sing or dance, but it
talks money still. Talks.
You know what it says and that we need to train it to say I
love you. You're going through a hard time
right now. I've had that happen to me.
I mean, and you know, at at one of the worst times in my life,
me and Melanie both. I mean, I'm going through the
cancer. I'm highly distracted, all
right? I mean, money's not coming in
the way it should. I had some decisions to make.
I was sharing with one brother about it.
That brother went to another brother and went to another
brother, went to another brother.
Next thing, all these brothers show up at the house and they.
And they said. We're going to help you.
I never forgot it. I'll never forget it.
And, and when I was asking them, you know, about, you know, why
are you guys doing this? And I'd forgotten.
And that's the amazing thing because some people have a
Ledger sheet that never forget. But I had one of them say, Hey,
you know what, when my little boy was not doing well, you paid
for all the doctor bills we did. I forgot all about that.
He said, you know, when I had to work and I, I couldn't pay for
the daycare. You paid for all the daycare.
We. Did.
Had another guy tell me, he said you remember when my grandfather
died I couldn't go see him. He said cuz I didn't have the
money and you right there on your phone bought me a plane
ticket so I could be at his funeral.
I forgot all about it. You know, The thing is, Are you
ready? Are you ready to communicate?
All right? Are you ready to let somebody
know? Hey, I love you and this is it.
Don't worry about that. Don't worry, you know.
If you can fix it, fix it. All right, then that last verse
that said laying up in store for themselves a good foundation
against the time to come that they may lay hold of eternal
life. You know, I'm not real sure that
it defines out what that time to come is.
But I mean, we're facing all kind of crazy stuff in the
arena. Finance Banks.
Doing weird things, You know, you're hearing rumors all the
time that the government through the Fed, the Fed don't want to
be left out. So the Fed wants to come up with
a digital dollar and they probably will.
The International Monetary Fund, all right?
And all these different things. You know, he said you, you store
up when you give into the Kingdom of God, you're storing
up for the time to come. I don't know what that time's
going to entail, but I want to make sure I've invested in the
right place. And I'm not talking about a
world system that can complete and come, come cave in or or
come to complete nothing. But I want to make sure that I'm
investing in those things that God's saying this is eternal,
this is eternal. All right, that's what we want
to do. All right, everybody good.
All right, let's pray. Father, I thank you and praise
you for opportunity to just talk about some of your
considerations concerning how we look at money that we'd be
people. That want to talk about your
Kingdom more than money or we want to think about your Kingdom
more than money? We want to invest in Your
Kingdom more than any other investment that we could make.
Father, we thank you and praise You that You've given us the
ability as business people to be sensitive to those around us
that may be going through things or maybe needing a little help.
Father, I thank you and praise You that the love in our hearts,
well, it has to give. It has to give because you said
it in John 316 that God so loved the world that He gave.
He gave the most important thing that we needed and that was his
son. So we're grateful for that.
But father, let us take the things that we learned tonight
and and meditate on them and find out where do we really
stand? Where are we at?
What are we focused on? Lord, we want to be focusing on
your Kingdom. You said that you'd add
everything you said don't be anxious about tomorrow.
He said tomorrow has the ability to take care of the things that
itself. He said sufficient unto today is
a trouble. So Father, help us through that
trouble because you said that you were given to us to help us
and you gave us the Holy Spirit to do that exact thing.
So let us be sensitive and let us listen and let us be able to
conduct business in the Kingdom as you want it conducted and we
thank you for it in Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you so much for listening
to this message. If you want more, subscribe to
our message podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify and
SoundCloud. Rating and leaving a comment
will go a long way with helping our messages get better
circulation. If you'd enjoy watching our
weekend messages, visit youtube.com/anchor Faith.
We'd love it if you'd subscribe, leave a comment or a like on the
messages. If you'd like to find out more
information about us and how we're influencing the world and
help support the work we're doing by giving, just visit
anchorfaith.com.