["Running in the Rain"]
And what would happen if we ran?
The boat turns out to be the way
The rainy season pours a dream
And I watch them feel out of place
But if the life could be for real
If all our hearts were on the road
What if the man who turns the dream's eyes
Got that she longed for what to do
What if his people prayed
And loved him as he saved
What harm did he do?
["Running in the Rain"]
Alright.
Okay, so we come to that moment in time
where we ask ourselves how Lord is speaking this week
or what have you seen happening that God is doing.
And so it's really up to you, up to me
to provide these inspirational moments
to listen really from God
and then bring it here and share with others.
This is your opportunity to testify
how God has been working or what you've seen.
And asking you to pray.
Our spiritual discipline focuses on prayer.
So I would hope that you would pray
and listen to what God would say to you.
And then when God says something to you
then you come and you share with us
what the Lord has said to you.
Okay? And here we go.
What do you got?
It's like RJ's trying to film a video.
Have you prayed this week
and been listening to what the Lord would say?
Is there a testimony?
You made RJ?
I got some.
Go ahead. Yeah, we got some. Let's go.
So yes, just once again
people that know me already know me.
But those that don't, I just thank God
that I'm in a healthy church.
The greatness of God is in this church.
Not that people are great, but God is great.
And the greatness is in every person,
every born-again believer.
It's let people know that I was in an unhealthy church
and not here to talk about that or this.
But it left me with a lot of consequences.
But I am sure thankful that I could turn back to God
and follow Him.
Back.
So last week I was taught the top five things
about prayer.
Number one was the goat.
He's the greatest of all time.
We can go before God at all times.
He's not like us. He is God.
He's always been God.
And through Jesus, and it is a born-again believer,
anyone can pray to God.
But through Jesus, we can actually speak to the Father.
We can actually, through the Holy Spirit,
we can ask for strength and grace.
The whole world can ask God for hope.
But to the born-again believer,
we are His and He is ours.
There's a true relationship.
So the second one that I would share today is freedom.
The word freedom, if you look at the word free in the Bible,
it always comes with the word freedom.
It's not free like something's free.
Because if you get something from the store and it's free,
you're always going to say, well, what's the catch?
It has to be some kind of catch, right?
Because nothing's really free.
So when you say the word free, it's freedom.
And the word freedom literally means that you're set free.
You're free to follow God.
You're free to follow His will.
You're also free to do whatever you want.
But it will always lead to not being able to be with God,
not being able to work in His strength and His grace.
But the thing with prayer is that we can ask God
that freedom we have for His strength, for His grace,
for His love, for His mercy,
to be something that we can't be.
I'll tell you what, and I'm not the only person,
but if anybody has known what I've gone through
in the last three to seven years, who knows what it is,
just the pain of just unhealthy teachings
and had to scarl that,
but I still ask God through His will, through His strength,
to have that freedom to still follow Him again,
have that freedom to be who He says I can be.
And that's for anyone.
This isn't like, oh, Tony has freedom.
No, every born-again believer has freedom in Christ,
freedom to turn to Him.
And if you think about it, and I'll be really quick with this,
but think about a video game.
Who wants to play a video game where you lose every time?
Who wants to play a video game where you play like
your half-average person?
No, you want to be a superhero. You want to be a superstar.
You want to win the game.
You want to be the best you can be.
In sports, who wants to just say,
hey, I just want to be just above average?
No, you want to win. You want to go.
Or you just say, I just want to give a little bit.
You know you want to give it all you've got when you train,
when you practice.
So if that's your concept every day,
then that's who we should strive to be in Christ,
to be everything that God says we can be.
So the last thing I want to share was really cool.
I was talking to a basically God gave me this counselor.
I asked to see a counselor, and I was going through a lot.
And I said, do you have any advice or some encouragement?
And they said, when you're going through stuff
and you can't find control, you can't find out what's going on,
they said, take a step back.
And I was like, that really meant a lot to me.
And the idea is to take a step back,
take a step back and see God's view.
Take a step back and see my view.
Take a step back from the other person's view.
Because the thing is, we're running in this life.
If we're running in on our own, we're going to hit a wall.
We're going to go through something.
It's going to hurt, and it's going to knock us back.
But if we run this with God, if we turn to Him, we follow Him,
we can take a step back and just kind of say, OK, God, what are you doing?
OK, not everybody is going to be faithful, but you are.
Not everybody is going to get this right, but you are right.
I can't do this in my own strength, but you can.
And so I just encourage you today,
what God was sharing with me this week, is that because we are born again,
and not just here at New Heights,
everyone on Facebook, everybody hears this message,
anyone that has turned to Jesus and Jesus has given the Holy Spirit,
turn to them, and now and forever, even into eternity, forever His,
that you can have that, that we can take a step back and just say, OK, God,
this is your day, and give it to Him.
Anyone else?
Yeah, I think it's your turn.
OK, we're not going to try. If not, you just tell us what you're going to tell us.
For those of you who are in the wrong country, sorry, not sorry, guys.
Oh, man.
Sorry, not sorry.
But this song, there's a lot of deeper meaning to it if you really think about it.
I'll explain it a little bit more out of words, but it's a really good song,
and it's got a lot of meaning.
I said, Grandpa wants this picture here, it's all black and white,
it ain't real clear is that you there.
He said, yeah, I was a lover.
Time for a tub back in 35, that's me and Uncle Joe just trying to survive a cotton farm
in the Great Depression.
If it looks like we were scared to death, like a couple of kids just trying to save each other,
we should have seen it in color.
So I guess one of the biggest things that I really like about the song is it tells a story,
but not only does it tell a story, it shows how certain details can be missed.
I mean, obviously everyone's heard the saying a picture says a thousand words
because you don't really know what's going on in that picture.
So you don't really understand what that person's going through.
Like when he was talking about how he was overseas in the wintertime, it was cold,
you can't see that kind of stuff in the picture.
However, you still remember those days.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is as we live, as we live our life, as we get older and grow more,
we have to remember those moments.
And not just some of the bigger moments, but some of the smaller, more down moments,
like at the beginning when he says that they were just trying to survive a cotton farm
in the Great Depression.
I mean, obviously those were probably one of the roughest times in America.
And you have to remember those low times too so you can be more proud of the higher times.
Like when he was talking about getting married, you have to understand that life,
the value of a human life is so important and so amazing.
And yet our existence on this planet is just a blip of our actual existence with our father.
So everything we do here has purpose, has meaning, ultimately so we can hopefully get to that point
where we're in heaven and can live for the eternity and look back at this little blip of our life
and go, you know what, I really, I tried.
I did my best. I did everything I could.
I did everything to the best of my ability to follow God.
And you know what, I'm here now and now I know where I'm going to be forever.
Alright, we're going to put it together?
Oh, yes please.
I'm new here at the moment.
I see.
I'm beginning to confess some of the things. Now, you want to tell everything and you tell the bigger things
and the little things will eventually disappear as you go along, as long as you're doing what the Lord wants you to do.
I recently in April I had a heart attack and it took me to the hospital and everything like this.
And knowing he was there, I got stench proven, I got 200 on this side, 80 on this one, 180 on the bottom
which would have been a cardiac arrest, would have been really bad.
But the man says, he said, I remember him saying, do you need an order?
And he wouldn't even matter, I said yes, he's right.
He said, because there's nothing wrong with the right man, he's right.
For me and that man to have been stenched with men, it would have definitely been, you know, me.
Like I said, I'm just getting into it, I can't comprehend too good what I do.
But people, you know, that's told me along the way, like if I'm doing exactly what he wants me to do in any way,
I don't have no conscience feeling, I won't have no worries.
And like they said, someone said, if I'm wrong, I'll prepare myself for whatever happens.
So what I do here is bring my people there.
Another thing I just kept going, June 2nd I had 18 years old.
And that I know with a lot of hope in me to do. Like I said, I'm trying.
Sometimes I want to get someone to keep saying something to me instead of walking away.
I want to be the ocean, you know, and I know I shouldn't, you know, I don't want to be talking about things like that.
But like I said, I'm just starting, I got in the Bible.
It's got a big print. She knows a lot of it. She knows a lot of the Bible. She's helping.
We used to have an army of shape or form that God would have to read the verses of the Bible.
And we'd have to come around and share a lot of that stuff. But like I said, I'm available to do anything.
The things that we probably, I guess, not the only thing, overlook.
Overlook the things that we know can be dangerous.
Like I said, we don't do this. We have that point. If I don't know, I still don't.
We want to do this. We want to do this.
I'm not going to do it. I'm going to start to learn how to do it because I'd be lying to you.
I wouldn't say that I'm not yelling back at someone. I snap and you know when they snap back.
It's not so much a friend of the country. It happens and happens and happens.
We, you know, like I said, by doing these things and helping each other, I said there are things that I can reach out and talk to someone about.
That's the way I feel.
So, like I said, I really appreciate the support you've given us this year.
And I hope it will be my better year.
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate that.
Okay, so at this time we're going to pray.
Ariana, you're on here to pray for the third prayer.
And then you call on someone to pray after you, okay?
Pray and then call on someone.
Dear God, again I want to thank you for this day. Thank you for bringing us here to learn about you.
Lord, I know there are distractions. There's always distractions.
That doesn't mean that we can't still focus on you.
Bless the offering. Be with those that are sick and in pain and hurting.
Be with those that could not be here today. Jesus, my hybrid.
Amen.
Let's listen to the next song.
If I could have everyone on their feet this morning, spread out a little bit.
If I could have the young people towards the front, take the aisles, give yourselves some space.
You need about this much space.
If you don't want to jump and move, you can just say.
Get somewhere that you're not going to kick anyone.
Stop doing that, you're going to hurt someone.
Alright.
Not that cool.
Perfect.
Alright, so we are going to do a song this morning, a motion song called the Joy Song.
The kids have seen this one before.
You can stay right there with me.
Alright, so we're going to start, we're going to do it really slow so we can get the motion.
So get where you can see one of us. Are we ready?
I've got the joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart.
Spell it, J-O-Y, deep down in my heart.
Deep, deep down in my heart, where'd it come from?
Jesus put it there, and nothing can destroy it, destroy it, destroy it.
I've got the joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart.
Okay, are you getting it? We're going to go a little faster. Ready?
I've got the joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart.
Spell it, J-O-Y, deep, deep down in my heart.
How'd it get there? Jesus put it there, and nothing can destroy it, destroy it, destroy it.
I've got the joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart.
Super fast, here we go.
I've got the joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart.
Spell it, J-O-Y, deep, deep down in my heart.
How'd it get there? Jesus put it there, and nothing can destroy it, destroy it, destroy it.
I've got the joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart.
Alright, good job, guys. You did a great job. Thank you.
Alright, go sit down. Go sit down.
Alright, this time we're going to release the children to your lessons.
The kids are on the side right here. Teachers will meet you there.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I lost, was lost, but now I found, was blind, but now I see.
Grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears freely.
How precious did that grace appear, beyond I first believed.
When God our friends set free, my God, my Savior, has restored me.
And I can't stop, feels no sea-rains, unending love, will you raise in me.
The God has promised good to me, His word my hope secure.
He will my shield and portion me, as long as I can do.
My chains are long, and I'm set free, my God, my Savior, has restored me.
And I can't stop, feels no sea-rains, unending love, amazing grace.
My chains are long, and I'm set free, my God, my Savior, has restored me.
And I can't stop, feels no sea-rains, unending love, amazing grace.
Fear shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbath the shrine.
My God who called me here below, will be forever mine.
Will be forever mine, you are forever mine.
Thank you.
You are my light in place, who always fill my heart with songs of deliverance.
Wherever I am on the break, I will trust in you.
I will trust in you.
Let the weak sing, I am strong, in the strength of the Lord.
You are my light in place, who always fill my heart with songs of deliverance.
Wherever I am on the break, I will trust in you.
I will trust in you.
Let the weak sing, I am strong, in the strength of the Lord.
I will trust in you.
Alright, praise the Lord.
I'm going to have a little object lesson before we begin, so in just a moment I'm going to call for two volunteers.
So you can be thinking about whether you want to volunteer.
I will clear warn you that the volunteering involves handcuffs, so if your wrists are claustrophobic, I would not recommend you volunteer.
Alright, need two volunteers.
Nicole and Tony, come on.
The first two hands I saw.
Stand right there.
I feel like I've done this before.
Oh yeah, this is going to hurt.
These are the ones you don't have the key for?
Oh, crap.
Actually, I have a key.
Here's one key. That's your key there, Tony.
Alright, so when I say go, when I say it's okay to start, the two of you are going to try to get out of the handcuffs.
Now, that's your key, and that's your key.
That's all we're doing.
Go.
Thank you so much.
I don't think she was going to resist you.
But also, Nicole's pretty wise. She doesn't always get credit for how wise she is.
She's very wise.
Alright, so I want you to bear that in mind then, that little object lesson that we just saw there as we go to the scripture.
You may recall that we are working through the book of Deuteronomy, and this continues that today.
So maybe you'll say amen, or just give a little hooter holler as we go to Deuteronomy chapter 15.
Amen. Thank you very much.
This is the word of the Lord, and from here on out, as much as I get it right anyway,
as much as I get it right, this will be the word of the Lord, and God will be able to speak to our hearts,
and we'll be able to grow and even be changed by what God is doing.
Now, I may not get it all right, so you have a responsibility to know the word of God yourself.
Study, listen, listen to God's Holy Spirit as He is speaking to you during this message.
So we're going to be doing the first 18 verses of chapter 15 of the book of Deuteronomy,
and you'll see the title is up on the screen there.
It's a little blurred in because we've got this fall beautiful background thing going on,
but contingencies that say it all. A contingency is a backup plan.
If you don't know the definition of that word, a contingency means a backup plan.
And so we're going to read today about God's backup plans that He gives the Israelites
in lieu of His primary plan.
We'll see the primary plan as we go through it, and then we're really going to learn from the contingencies.
So Deuteronomy chapter 15 beginning in verse 1, and it begins like this.
It says, At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts.
So in other words, those who owe people money inside the Israelites, those who owe people money,
at the end of every seventh year the debts are gone.
So if they borrow $10,000, we'll just say dollars, they didn't have dollars,
we'll say $10,000 from another Israelite because they need it to pay for whatever,
then when the seventh year rolls around the debt will be gone.
Then it goes on to say in verse 2, it says, And this is the manner of the remission.
I love that because basically what he's saying is, let me put this as simply as I possibly can for you,
this is how this will be done.
Okay?
Every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor.
In other words, whoever is owed whatever will say, you no longer owe it to me.
It's very simple, right?
The reason I think that's put there and made so simple is because as soon as you start talking about money,
everybody wants to complicate everything, right?
And they say, well, okay, now it's the seventh year and yeah, we can do that,
but the bottom line is you still got to pay me a little bit.
You got to pay me some interest or whatever, right?
And he says just this simple, the manner of the remission will be this,
every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor.
He shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother because the Lord's remission has been proclaimed.
In other words, when the time comes, you're not going to look to get paid back.
It's over. It's done. It's settled.
God says no more on the seventh year.
Verse 3, from a foreigner, you may exact it,
but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother.
Okay, so now we've got a different standard.
Your God's a different standard.
If you've loaned money to somebody from another country, somebody who is not an Israelite,
or in our case, somebody who is outside the king of God, somebody who is not a believer, right?
Then you can ask for that money back if they pay back in 20 years, they pay back in 30 years.
You can ask for a reasonable amount of interest or other verses that disallow what's called usury,
which is a lot of interest, right?
But bottom line is you can ask for it back if it's from a foreigner, somebody outside the king of God,
but at a certain point, he's saying you're not supposed to get it back if it's from your brother.
Meaning, if it's from a member of the kingdom of God, or in this case, he was talking about Israelites.
So I'll read verse 3 again so you can see it clearly.
It says from a foreigner, in other words, somebody who is not an Israelite, you may exact it.
For us, that would be talking about people who are outside the kingdom of God.
But your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother, verse 4.
However, there shall be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you in the land
which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess.
So there is the actual plan of God, right?
Here is the actual plan. The actual plan of God is God's going to take care of it.
God's going to make sure everybody's got what they need.
God's going to make everybody wealthy in a sense, not rich.
We're not talking about riches like I'm going to be a billionaire or something like that.
Or not you can have all kinds of fancy cars, things like that.
But you're going to have everything you truly need.
You're going to be okay because God is going to take care of it.
Okay? That's the primary.
Verse 5 says, and it's a continuation of that, God is giving you as an inheritance to possess.
If only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God
to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.
In other words, it's saying, if you'll just do it this way that I'm telling you to do it,
God is going to bless everybody inside his kingdom and there ain't going to be anybody that's poor.
About 15 years ago, I had the opportunity to preach at First Baptist Tullahoma,
which is actually called Highland Baptist, it's on the high ground in Tullahoma.
Anyway, in Tullahoma, and when I was driving down there,
I noticed as we were driving that there was this huge snowbank on the side of a water reservoir.
It was a pit basically that had been dug out to make a hill in the expressway.
And there was a huge snowbank on the side of it that wasn't melting because the sun wasn't hitting it.
And I thought, well that's peculiar.
Everything around was pretty clear, but there's a huge snowbank.
We're talking about, it must have been a ton of snow, literally,
like 2,000 plus pounds of snow on the side of this reservoir.
Then I get in Tennessee, and when I get to Tennessee and I'm going to preach,
they're in the midst of a two-year drought where they had not had a half an inch of rain in two years.
And their land was drying up. They couldn't grow anything.
And people were freaking out. The water reservoir is down there.
The water had drained down so much.
And this is what the Lord expressed on my heart that day, and it wasn't out of Deuteronomy 15,
but this is what he said. He said, that water that's being trapped here belongs over there.
And it's the same way with the wealth of God.
People are blessed, and they're not sharing what they're supposed to be sharing with others who are not blessed.
In my time preaching, I've had two separate families.
One of them came to me, the man came to me with his wife standing behind him, and he said,
we have a problem. And I said, what's the problem?
He said, it seemed like you're preaching that we should be helping other people in the body who are in need.
We feel like we're wealthy. We have all the money we need.
He made $30 an hour. She's a full-time person. She made $50,000 a year, whatever.
He said, we feel like we're wealthy.
And when you preach, we feel a conviction that we should help other people in the body who are struggling
when they don't have enough to pay for medications or when they don't have what they need to put food in their fridge
or when one of their appliances break down or something.
And I said, well, I certainly never use those words, but I absolutely think that's true.
And he said, well, we have a problem with that. And I said, well, what's the problem?
He said, the problem is it seems like that's a never-ending road.
There's always going to be people that need help.
And I said, well, that might be so, but if it's so, has God blessed you and given you what you have?
And he said, well, yeah, we're blessed. What we have is a blessing from God, and we know that.
And I said, so if God has blessed you and given you what you have, do you don't think God can do it again?
You don't think God can keep adding money in the pot?
So if you give, you're saying if you give too much, which is what God calls us,
if you give too much generously out of what you've been blessed with, that God can't replace it or won't replace it.
And that is the opposite of what his word says.
It went long, and that person came to tell me that they were leaving the church.
Fast forward another half dozen, 10 years.
I'm particularly not naming these people because I don't have their permission to do so.
And I had a young man come to me and he said, you know, we've been saving hard for retirement.
And we see people are struggling. Are you saying we should be taking part of that money that we're saving hard for retirement
and taking care of those people who are in need?
And I said, well, I haven't used those words.
I said, but I surely think that is something God would want us to do if you know if somebody has it.
So you're saving for years that are 20 years down the road, making sure you're going to have enough money when that time comes.
But here's somebody over here who doesn't have enough money today to pay for their medication.
So you're saying you want to make sure you have the money in 20 years and you're willing to make allow them not to have what they need now.
Yeah, I think I would make sure they have what they need now and then still try to save for the 20 years.
And they said, I don't agree with that. I saw.
It's not me. It's the word of God. So let's check what it says in the word of God.
And here's what he is saying.
He says there shall be no poor among you since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess.
If only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all this commandment which I command you today.
And by the way, what was the commandment? Well, it started out with and as much as we've gotten of it so far is that in the seventh year there to release whatever they have loaned to someone and say they don't need it back.
So you could say principally they are supposed to be willing to loan to someone if someone is in need.
And then they're supposed to having loaned it after a period of time when it becomes evident that the person is not paying it back in short order within the six years.
Then they should say it's OK. You don't have to pay me back. That's what they're commanded to do so far in this text.
Verse six then says because the Lord your God shall bless you as he has promised you and will lend to many and you will lend to many nations.
But you will not borrow and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
So basically God was saying he was going to elevate the kingdom of God, which at that time was the Israelites going to elevate that people to be up over top of other people.
If they would follow all the commands of God, he would elevate them to get now again.
He's not saying he's gonna make them rich or have a you know, 24 cars in the barn or anything like that.
He's saying that they will be have all that they need and more. That's what God promised.
If they will follow the commands of God, God will keep his promise. That's what he's going to do.
Verse seven. Then he says if there is a poor man with you now, remember he said there won't be any if they would do everything that God has told them to do.
But now he says if there is a poor man with you, one of one of your brothers, somebody inside the kingdom of God, which at that time was the Israelites in any of your towns in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart.
So now we're talking about something that goes on inside a person. We're not just talking about the practical practical being willing to help somebody.
We're talking about a condition inside you. Okay. So you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand from your poor brother.
In other words, don't be stingy. Don't hold back from taking care of somebody who's in need.
But he says you shall freely open your hand to him and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.
So I don't miss it that there are two different things happening there. The freely opening your hand to him is doing what giving right.
So out of my abundance, I see so and so has need. I give to them what they need. I open my hand. I let it go.
Here it is. You need it. I don't need it. It's yours. But now there are situations where you're talking about giving them more than that,
which is maybe to make them stable or maybe they're going to try to start a business or to help them with a job or to get something that they need ongoing like a car to get to and from work or things,
things where you're going to sustain them a little longer period of time than rather just getting them what they need right now.
And he is saying that you should be ready then to lend them whatever is sufficient for his need, whatever he lacks.
Now bear in mind that at the end of the seventh year, you would still have to give it up.
So if you lend it and he can't pay it back in six years at the seventh year, you still would have to give it up.
So even though you might say, well, I see a person has a need. I give out of my abundance. Let me take care of your need. Boom. Taking care of.
Then the person has a more substantive need, something that you're just not carrying around in your pocket or whatever. You got to go into your bank account.
You might have to sell some stock or sell some appliance or something to have enough money to give them something more extreme than that.
You say, OK, well, I can do this, but you got to pay me back.
Now, if they can't pay you back in what would be considered a reasonable time, which according to their era was six years, then you're still going to release it.
You're still going to give it up and say, I no longer you no longer owe that to me.
Verse nine says, and we're halfway through the text, Beware, lest there is a base thought in your heart.
So now he's going to say to watch out because this is what you might think.
Saying the seventh year, the year of remission is near and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother and you give him nothing.
Then he may cry to the Lord against you and it will be a sin in you.
So in other words, he's remember he's speaking to the condition of your heart and your thoughts.
So now you think, well, he's not going to be so in our text, for example, our context, they say, well, I can loan him this, but I'm saying I'm loaned to him.
But there really he really has no way he's ever going to pay this back to me.
I can see that it's probably not going to come back.
So I'm not going to give it to him because he's not going to be able to pay it back.
Even though the Bible says I should lend it to him, I can't give it to him because it's not something common.
So I can't give to him.
Bible says I should lend it to him, but because now I question whether he'll be able to pay it back to me, I'm not going to lend it to him.
And the word says don't have that thought.
Don't do it.
Don't question that.
And all of this is part of the command in which God then says he will take care of us.
If that if you do that and you think, well, I don't think this person will pay me back.
And and so you don't give it to them.
And then they cry out to God and say, oh, God, woe is me.
I'm in a bad spot here.
No one is here to help me out.
Notice that last phrase.
It says it will be a sin in you.
That thought, that process, that step that you've taken there will be a sin in you.
A sin is what separates us from God is very dangerous stuff.
Ten says you shall generously give to him and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him.
In other words, don't be sad about it, because for this thing, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertaking.
So you give and God will take care of you.
For the poor will never cease to be in the land.
Therefore, I command you saying you shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.
So notice he said you won't be there won't be any of these people who are poor if you just do all the right things.
And now he's saying it's always going to be that way.
Do we know why that is?
What do you think, Solo?
Why might that be?
Idea?
Why will there always be the poor people in the land if God said there would be no poor people if the people would just follow the commands of God?
Because people are not all going to follow the commands of God.
And there's going to be too few people following the commands of God and being generous and willing to lend to their brothers in the kingdom of God.
Too few people doing that to cover everybody that's in need.
That's the problem.
So God is pouring in and will pour into those who are generous and lending like they're supposed to.
And they won't be poor because he's still pouring into them.
But there's still going to be others and they can't cover everybody.
You don't even know everybody.
Right.
And we we devise systems whereby we try to take care of the poor.
We make sure that there's food at least and so on.
But the bottom line is this verse.
These verses are commanding God's people to be do something more to be more generous, more giving, more lending.
Because they will never cease to be the poor does not mean then that you can restrain yourself from giving and lending.
Verse 12 says if your kinsmen a Hebrew man or woman is sold to you.
Now this was a real thing back then.
Somebody was in debt.
They would be sold to pay off their debts.
So if they were sold to an Israelite then he shall serve that Israelite seven six years.
But in the seventh year you shall set him free.
And when you set him free you know you shall not send him away empty handed.
OK. So get this.
You go to the market.
You see an Israelite being sold there for their debts.
And let's say you got ten gold coin in your pocket and you say OK I'm going to buy this guy.
He looks healthy strong whatever.
I don't want to be I don't be owned by some foreigner right or somebody that might whip him or beat him.
And I'm a good master because I fear God.
I don't want him to go somewhere else.
I'm going to buy it.
You pay ten gold coin for him.
Now he works for you for six years.
At the end of the six years all he's done is work off his debt.
Maybe not even all of his debt because in the seventh year his debt would be freed.
But maybe he didn't didn't work off all of his they got out a really big debt right in that period of time.
But he says in the seventh year you shall set him free.
And when you set him free you shall not send him away empty handed.
What do you owe this guy the guy that worked for you for six years.
What do you owe him.
You don't owe him anything.
So he calls on us for generosity.
He says you shall furnish him literally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat.
You shall give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you.
You shall furnish him liberally liberally means go overboard.
Don't hold back liberally is like if you really like hot sauce and you sit down to eat a taco salad.
It's how you apply your hot sauce.
You just shake it all over the place.
And that's what he's saying.
He's saying just shake it all over the place.
Douse them in your good fortune.
If you're OK and now you're releasing somebody from their debt to you in this case their servitude.
Pour into their lives so that they can be functional better than functionally can be doing really well.
He says do it as the Lord your God has blessed you.
Then he says in 15 and you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you.
Therefore I command you this today and it shall come about if he says to you I will not go from you because he loves you and your household since he fares well with you.
In other words you go to release him after six years and say you don't have to be a slave anymore.
I'm just going to let you go.
And then he says no I don't want to go.
I'm happy here.
My wife and kids are here now.
Let me get married.
I have kids.
I'm prospering under your.
And he says then you shall take an all which is like a pointy thing and pierce it through his ear into the door of your house and he shall be your servant forever.
And also you shall do likewise to your maid servant.
So it's the same way man or woman doesn't matter.
Almost done.
It shall not seem hard to you when you set him free.
Right.
So you've had this guy's been working for you for six years.
He's a hard worker.
You don't want to think about how hard it is to give him up.
Don't think about that and don't think about how hard it's going to be to really dress him up.
Give him all that he needs.
Right.
Don't do that.
Again this is governing our thoughts.
Don't worry about it when you're required by the law to give because God's going to take care of it.
Don't think about it.
It shall not seem hard to you when you set him free for he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man.
So now this guy who was owned we see he worked hard not like somebody who was paid but like somebody who cares about what God thinks.
Almost done with the text.
So the Lord your God will bless you in whatever you do.
There's that promise.
OK.
So the first few things I want you to see in here.
First of all this text is another what I call care declaration.
The God of the universe who literally owns everything.
He cares about you.
He cares that you have enough of what you have.
He cares that you're taking care of.
He cares about your health.
He cares about your relationships.
He cares about where you live and what you have where you live.
He cares about your transportation.
He cares about your bank account although that's a fairly modern invention.
He cares about you and your situation.
And he has promised to take care of you and your situation if you are in the kingdom of God.
Now I understand this is written to the Israelites originally who were to be God's people and the church has now replaced essentially the Israelites.
There are Israelites who are born of Jewish descent who have believed Christ and they are in the kingdom of God.
And there are Gentiles like you or I most of us in here I think everybody in here probably who is a Gentile meaning we do not have Jewish descent.
And we have believed in God through Jesus Christ and been saved and we have become part of the kingdom.
We now live where God reigns.
Now that should be you.
It also should include your heart and it should include your mind.
And if it does then God has made a care declaration to you.
God will take care of you.
Now that doesn't mean you can't suffer.
In the New Testament we find out that it is a great honor to suffer as Christ suffered for the faith.
We also know that as it was described by Isaiah that there is a road of holiness and when you are on it demons and evil spirits can't come on there.
But when you are on the edge of it or you are near the edge they will come and try to entice you off.
And we know that there is sorrow and sighing.
Meaning there is difficulty.
Sometimes life is hard.
We get tired.
Sometimes life feels hopeless.
And that is all on the road of holiness.
So it is for real.
And when I am on the road of holiness or you are on the road of holiness and you start to feel like that there should be somebody on the road of holiness that recognizes that that is what is going on for you and that steps up in their generosity and cares about you.
This God declaration is not only declaring that God cares about your situation but he is saying he wants to use his people, the people in the kingdom of God to take care of you.
And if you are in the kingdom of God he wants to use you to take care of the needs of others who are in the kingdom of God.
And I fully get that this is a challenging topic.
Because some days you might have a few extra dollars in your wallet and be thinking man I cannot get me this or that.
Your bank account might be starting to build up finally after years and years of dryness.
You are like man it has been really rough for a long time but now I am starting to get some money.
And then you start seeing somebody who is a follower of the Lord by their profession.
Best you know they are a Christian and they have a need.
And you do not want to dip into that savings or that amount that you have that you have set aside to meet that need because you might need it.
I get it. I fully understand that this is challenging. But what did the word say?
It said do not think like that. Do not let your heart be like that. Do not let your hand be closed around that.
The tighter you choke something the less it becomes.
If you squeeze a handful of play dough really tightly if it does not come out your fingers it is just going to get smaller and smaller and smaller.
And that is the way it is with all the blessings of God.
The tighter you squeeze them the truth is the less you have them.
Unless you are ready today to commit all that you are, all that you have and all that you will do in this lifetime into the hands of the Lord God of Heaven through his son Jesus Christ.
Then I would be a little cautious about saying I am a follower of God.
Because that is exactly what we are asked to do.
Every penny you ever receive is grist for the mill. God can use it however he wants.
Any moment in time in which you say I am not going to let God use that particular penny the way God wants to use it then you own it.
He does not and for one it is not going to multiply and for two it is probably going to go down the drain.
I was talking with a young man who was a Christian and he was talking about how they had finally gotten ahead a little bit financially.
We finally have some money in the bank. Our bills are getting paid off. We finally have some money in the bank.
He mentioned so and so. A certain person was talking about it. We were thinking about doing this for them.
We were real nervous about it, leery about it, whatever because we are finally getting ahead.
And I said well I would encourage you if the Lord is laying on your heart definitely step up and do that for that person.
Because you do not want to say no to God. And I never heard anything else about it.
And about a month later that person, the person saying they are finally getting ahead, finally getting money in the bank came to me and said look I do not have any money.
We need help. Will you help us or will someone help us because we do not have money to take care of this and this is a need.
It is not I want to pay for my Netflix subscription. We are talking about like prescriptions or something like that.
This was a need. I need help now. And I am like well what happened?
Literally we had a conversation a month ago and you are like well we had all this money in the bank.
And we are getting ahead. I said what happened in the meantime?
And as we talked about it we found out that they had neglected the tithe.
They had neglected to give to the person that God laid it on their heart.
And this broke down and that broke down and that fell apart and they spent money because they felt like they were finally getting ahead.
So they could afford to go out a few extra times and go to dinner and so on.
And the next thing you know they had no money and they are coming looking for money.
This is God's economy. He declares He wants to take care of you.
And hold on because this will step on your toes if you are not careful.
He wants to take care of you and He disallows you to do that for yourself.
He wants to take care of you and you cannot take care of you.
You are not allowed. You are His child.
When you try to do it on your own and block God out and say no God I got this.
That will always go down the tank. It will always be burned up.
It will always be consumed. It will always bleed out on the road.
It's useless to say no I'm not going to let God do it. I'm going to do it myself.
It's worse than useless. It is an insult to our Father in heaven.
God's care declaration is not an option.
Either you are in or you are out. Either you are kingdom material or you are not.
And if you are kingdom material then you are letting God take care of you and letting Him use you to take care of others.
That's God's care declaration. It is not don't worry I got you.
It's don't worry I got you as long as you are willing.
As long as you are with me. As long as you are trusting me.
And when you are hoarding for yourself even holding back sustenance while someone else is suffering.
That is not trusting God. That is trusting what God did yesterday or months ago.
But it's not trusting what God is doing today or will do tomorrow.
The second thing then there and this is really where the meat of the sermon is.
Is these contingencies that God has placed in this text.
There is a care declaration that said God will take care of you and He will use you to take care of others.
As long as you are willing.
But there are also contingencies. They are simple. Each one. I'll point them out of the text to you.
I don't think we need to do a lot of going through scripture and supporting them.
But I think they will resonate with you as soon as I say them.
First of all see that in this text God is very clear that justice.
You know what justice is right. Justice is when somebody gets what they deserve.
Justice between brothers or between fellow kingdom members fellow Christians in our case.
Right. Justice between brothers has two feet upon which it stands.
The first foot is generosity. I think that's clear.
If you have somebody who is in need it is justice if you meet that need.
That's justice. Why. Because God has declared His care for you.
Assuming you allow Him to use you to care for others and for Him to continue to care for you.
So it's justice if you deal with others generously.
However there is a situation a business situation if you will.
A community where you're lending to someone or you're giving.
Even if you're just giving to them and never asking for it back.
There is a second foot to justice and that foot is diligence.
It's hard work. So in other words I say to you look.
This is just a gift. I'm just giving it to you. I don't need it back. It's just for you.
You know I feel like God laid on my heart. I'm just giving it to you.
Are you done? You got what you needed. But are they done?
No because they have a care declaration from God.
If they would receive God's care and allow themselves to be used to care for others.
Then they will be okay. And somehow along the road they ran into some suffering.
That either was because they weren't operating in the care declaration.
Or because there is sorrow and sighing on the highway of holiness.
Difficulty just happens. Things just happen. Suffering is real. It just happens.
Time and chance happens to all men.
And so they now have a responsibility to act out in the care declaration.
To be used to help others. To allow God to help them.
And that puts them in the situation. See now I have given them money.
I have not asked for anything in return.
So the diligence that God would call them to is for them to serve me back.
Now they may never have to pay me back. I'm not asking for it.
But they may want to nonetheless.
And if you're at the end of the six years and your debts are forgiven.
Nothing says you can't pay it back. Right?
Just that you don't have to. It says that the lender lets go.
I let go. I give you this. I let go. Same as if it were a gift.
And now you say okay I receive it.
But at the back of your mind and in your heart because you love me as your brother.
You say but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure your needs are met.
And soon if we practice this. Soon if we stand on the two feet of justice between brothers.
The feet of generosity and hard work or diligence.
We will have the kingdom of God in our midst.
God will begin to act through people to do things that you're going to be one day going.
Man I really need this. I'll never forget I was in my side yard working.
It was about 85 degrees but it was in the fall.
It was dry. My allergies were kicking up really bad.
And I think Alicia and Amalia were young and they were out there with me too.
And we had to do the leaves in our yard. And it was going to be a real chore.
And we were like man we may not get done today.
We figured we weren't going to get done.
Because a lot of leaves and pine needles and the pine needles get really heavy.
And we're dragging them to the street to pile them up so the city can come get them.
We're just like holy cow.
And while I'm working I'm saying Lord you know we're not going to get this done today.
And I don't know when we're going to get a chance to do it.
And all of a sudden another family shows up from the church in force.
Like five people show up and they're coming to do our to help us do our leaves.
Now nobody called them. Nobody texted them.
Nobody asked them to come.
Nobody told them we were out working in the yard doing our leaves or whatever.
But I'll tell you what when they came and they started working with us we had a good old time.
Everybody working together to do this job and it all got done in a couple of hours.
Because people will suddenly start showing up because they will recognize you have a need.
Before you even recognize you have a need to ask somebody.
By the time you go look I have a need. Can anybody help with this?
It's already too late. We've already dropped the ball.
We've already failed to stand on the two feet of generosity and diligence.
We should be working hard to have the necessary resources to take care of each other.
And then diligently looking for an opportunity to show up and be generous.
You got five bucks in your pocket. It's got a name on it.
And it ain't your name.
Be ready to surrender it unto the Lord to make somebody else's life better.
You say but gosh it's my only five bucks.
Listen if you can find a way, God's way to give that five bucks.
I promise you in no uncertain term if you find God's way.
If you do it God's way under his care declaration.
That the five bucks will get replaced and more.
That's what his care declaration says.
Now if you're the one supposed to spend the five bucks.
If you're the one that's supposed to use it for whatever.
Then use it for whatever God wants to use it for.
I'm not saying you have to give outside your means or anything like that.
But I'm saying exist inside God's care declaration.
And justice between brothers is two-feeted.
Generosity and diligence. We work hard and we are generous.
Notice also in this text in 9, 10, 15, and 18.
God makes it very clear that he is not addressing money.
This is not about money.
So if you're wrapped up in money, you're concerned about money.
You're thinking I'm telling you got to give your money.
If that's what your heart is as we're listening to this sermon today.
Or as we're reading this text.
You understand God wasn't talking about your money at all.
He said put money in the text. He says money.
He says serve. He says give up the sermon.
He says open your hand. Right?
You got to have something in your hand.
God was talking about our hearts and our minds.
Do you want to own the territory that is your mind?
Do you want to overcome the struggles that you have mentally?
Here's how you do it.
Start making everything in your mind about how somebody else might need to be taken care of.
Live in the care declaration of the Lord.
Brothers said to me, see, you know, I have to get used to the fact that I encourage others.
And I don't get much encouragement.
Now whether or not that's true is irrelevant.
But here's the fact. That's the way it's supposed to be.
There are millions of people that you could potentially touch.
Millions. Now do you want millions of people encouraging you?
Listen to me. If those millions of people encouraged you.
You wouldn't have time to eat, sleep, or get a drink of water.
You'd be so busy getting encouraged that you wouldn't have time to do anything at all.
You should be walking around systematically going, now how can I help this person?
How can I help that person get diligent?
Plan time in your schedule. Plan time in your budget.
Then go beyond whatever time you plan and do even more.
And as you do that, you will be walking in the care declaration of the Lord.
And God will deal with your thoughts.
And God will deal with your heart.
When the scripture says they'll take a stone cold heart out of you and give you a heart of flesh
that is written in the context of you walking in God's care declaration.
If you are living your life, meeting out certain resources,
making sure everything is covered,
you've got a lawful organized plan or a chaotic, I don't know what the heck I'm going to do,
but I'm just plowing forward today, neither one of those is what God is calling us to.
He is calling us to allow Him to work in our hearts and our minds.
Which He will do both because we and so that we stand in generosity and diligence in His care declaration.
And until we do, He will not deal with the thoughts that are in our heads.
He will not deal with the thoughts that are in our hearts.
Because every time He goes to deal with thoughts that's in your heart or the thoughts that's in your head,
you go, nope, it's okay, got this. All the bills are paid.
It's okay, got this. Going out to eat because I'm just too tired to cook.
It's okay, got this. Already called the plumber.
And that's what people are doing.
You want God to deal with what's in your head and what's in your heart, then give Him your head and your heart.
When it's His terrain, you better believe He'll clean it up.
When it's your terrain, you're so busy messing it up, ain't no time to clean it up.
This is about our thoughts. It is about our hearts.
And it is about who will govern them. God says, don't have a thought like that.
Don't say in your heart that. Don't do that.
Because when you do that, you set yourself up for sin in you.
And He says about our giving and lending, that it should be according to the need of the person that we're giving our lending to,
not according to what seems wise or what seems like we can afford.
Whew, ouch.
Now I've written a lot of budgets in my day, a lot of spending plans.
We do pretty good in our house now sticking to our spending plan, but we had 20 years to try to figure out how to do that.
So we've written a lot of them. Well, this one's not working. Scrap that one. Do it again.
We've done a lot of that.
But I submit to you that what He is saying in verse 8 is that it is according to what the need is,
not according to what you think you can afford.
It's in the middle of a sentence, so I'll go back a verse, but I'll read it to you. It says this.
If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns and your land which the Lord your God is giving you,
you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand from your poor brother,
but you shall freely open your hand to him and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.
Does that have anything to do with how much you have?
It has to do with the fact that you recognize the need and you have a need you can do something about,
and you've already chased out the thoughts and the fear in your heart of not doing it God's way.
You've already let God take care of that. And you just go, boom.
I had a friend of mine, he's gone with the Lord now, so I'll tell you his first name was Forrest, great guy.
He called me up one day and said, can you go to lunch? I said, sure.
And I said, where do you want me to meet you? We went to lunch. I sat down.
He said, just before we start, I want you to know I'm paying for lunch today.
I said, well, I can pay for my own, gladly. I'll pay for yours. You invited me out. I'd be happy to do that.
He said, no, I refuse. I'll pay for it. I said, OK. So he's paying for my lunch.
While we're talking, he says, well, what's things going like?
And he's probing me. I understand what's going on. He's asking me about what's going on in my life.
And I just started sharing about how our car, our van needed new tires because we got a used van.
It was gifted to us. And then we're driving it. And all of a sudden, tires started to go bad.
And we're like, I guess we need new tires. We had the money to put new tires. It was $600.
We needed it. It was $600, $700, something like that. So we had the money.
I said, we'll get it. Don't worry about it. We'll get it. We'll figure out how to pay for it.
Then the lunch, the lady who owned the restaurant was serving us because she knew him.
And she came give us the bill. He took the bill and he paid it.
And then he got out his checkbook and he wrote me a check for the estimated amount of the tires, $1,200.
I was like, but first of all, OK, the tires are only going to be $600 to $700.
He goes, I know. But just in case anything else comes up, just in case there's any way,
he said, I want to give you this $1,200. And I'm like, but I don't need $1,200.
I only need maybe $600, $700. And I said, truth is, probably only need about half of that
because we're already working on it. I'm like, I don't want to take your money if I don't need it.
And he said, no, I want to give generously. And I said, well, but then maybe you need to give it to somebody else.
He said, listen to me. If I need to give to somebody else, don't you worry.
God's going to give to me before I give to them and I'll have plenty. That's not what's at stake here.
What's at stake here is whether or not my heart and my mind are in the right place and I'm able to give the way I want to give.
So I'm asking, will you, this is him talking. He said, will you let me give you this $1,200?
I want you to understand that God has asked you that question a thousand times if you're 18 or older in this room.
God has asked you so many times, will you let me give you X?
And more often than not, you said no. And I'm in the same place because to say yes would be us walking around diligently,
hardworking, looking for people who have need and finding ways to give away that which we've been blessed with.
And instead of doing that, we're busy managing counting our marbles, making sure we have enough.
We have a we have money marked out in our spending plan and give it. We give it people all the time.
But then I look at my spending plan. I'm like, I also pay for a Netflix subscription, which really irks me sometimes.
And I think it irks my wife that it irks me. But the point is we could cancel the Netflix subscription.
That would be $15 a month that we could then go around and give people $15 extra a month.
And then we give it and we want it with so much fun. Well, maybe we want Netflix. I don't know, because now we have more money than we started with.
I'm not joking about this. I'm just as confused by God's math as anybody else is.
But this is what I'm telling you. This is about our hearts is the battle for our hearts and our minds.
And until we decide to stand firmly and generously to hard work, walking forward, looking for others to bless, until we do that,
we are turning our nose up at God's care declaration. And we cannot start giving and lending should be done according to the need of the individual,
not according to what you might feel is wise or affordable. We are to be a people that cares for God's people.
That was clear in verses four and five. This is the kind of people God's people are. We are a people that cares for God's people.
Now, I understand fully that there is a looming elephant in the room and we'll get back to it because I get it.
You're going, wait, there's something in the back of your mind right now that's going, there's something that he's not saying.
And it's there. We'll get there in a minute. Okay.
Notice he also says that the prayers of the suffering amongst God's people might come up to God, pardon me, and they might wind up being against you.
And then in the New Testament, Jesus said, if you're going to give your offering to God and you recognize somebody has something against you,
he said, leave it there at the altar and go back and make it right and then come back and worship God.
So in other words, if there's somebody out there that you're not taking care of, that you're supposed to be taking care of
and you recognize it while you're on your way to worship God, you better take care of it first.
Ouch. That'll hurt. You can't correctly, accurately, adequately, generously, lovingly, gently, kindly with self-control and faithfulness,
serve a living God who has made a care declaration like this while not walking in his care declaration.
You can't. You must take care of those who you are responsible to take care of, because if you don't, they will pray to God.
And God and this will happen to be like this. Like a bill comes in the mail.
You know, God gets bills in a sense. And prayers come to him and he says, God, please help me. I need this on a box.
I can't pay for my meds. Please help me. My car's broke down and I needed help. Right?
And God pulls it up. And guess what our omniscient God does?
What do you think, Dustin? When God gets a request for something, what do you think he does?
Okay. So he's going to look at the request. He's going to consider it. And if it's within his will, he's going to grant it.
But as he does that, guess what else is going to happen? He's going to go, wait a minute.
I already assigned somebody to this task. I already put somebody in place who was supposed to provide this.
Where are they? Now, I'm being a little bit funny, aren't I? Because God knows exactly where we are.
And he says, oh, I told Dan to give that 100 bucks. I told Dan to take care of that problem.
Or I told Dan, if it's a thousand bucks, it might be, I told these three or these five people, right, to take care of that problem.
And none of them took care of the problem. So then God says, okay, well, now I've got this prayer and it's in the will of the Lord that I'm going to do it.
So I'll assign somebody else. Or, you know, time's getting short now. So instead of assigning somebody else, I'll just take care of it and make a miraculous thing happen.
And God takes care of it. And then the somebody else's that were assigned the task get disciplined by God because he chastises those whom he loves.
And so you were supposed to give a hundred dollars to that person's cause. You're like, well, I don't know why I would even give them a hundred dollars.
I just feel like I might. But no, I don't think I'm going to do that because I don't know why I would even do that.
And you don't. And then God gives them the hundred dollars. And then God chastises you.
Because you were supposed to be operating under his care declaration and letting him deal with what was in your heart and what was in your mind.
And instead you said, no, thank you, God. I got a hundred dollars. I'll just keep my hundred dollars. I don't need you today.
Notice that he says very clearly without any doubt. Listen to verse 18 and back in verse 10, he says, and I'll read 10 first, he says, oops, the wind blew my Bible.
OK, verse 10 says this. You shall generously give to him and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.
That's verse 10. And then in verse 18, he says, it shall not seem hard to you when you set him free, for he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man.
So the Lord your God will bless you in whatever you do. Hear me very simply. God is saying giving will never be your undoing.
When you fall down or come up short, you will never fall down or come up short because you gave when you were supposed to.
It does not work that way. So when you have it in your hand or in your power to do so, you're debating with yourself whether or not to give.
Just give because nobody ever under the sun inside the kingdom of God, if you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, nobody ever.
Was undone by giving a few been undone a million times, a billion times by being stingy or by having those thoughts in their hearts, feeling guilty,
feeling abandoned themselves because they pushed God away. All kinds of bad things can happen when you hold back in generosity or when your laziness gets the better part of you
and so you don't take care of others because you're not being diligent or you're not repaying the person you're supposed to repay because you're not being diligent.
So that does happen, but no one has ever been undone by godly giving.
And then the last one that was in here that was painfully obvious is that a closed heart is a heart. A closed hand is a hard heart.
A closed hand is a hard heart. And so if you have a hard heart, you'll find yourself not wanting to surrender things.
And the same is with God. You'll say, well, I have a thought and I need God to deal with it, but I don't want to give up that thought because my heart is hard.
Not because God's not good enough, big enough, or strong enough because he is good enough, big enough, and strong enough.
But because my heart is hard, I'm going to hold on to it. I'm angry at so and so, they mistreated me. And it was fair, it was right. They did. They mistreated me.
It was true. I've forgiven them, but I'm still not going to give. In the New Testament, Jesus says, loan even to your enemies.
Now mind you, almost all we've been talking about is in the kingdom of God today. I quoted Matthew 5 where he said,
if you're going to go to the altar and you realize someone has something against you, go back first and take care of that thing and then come to the altar.
I quoted Luke 14 and Luke 6 basically saying that we are to give and give generously even to our enemies.
But there is an elephant in the room, isn't there? There's still something that we're missing and we're coming to the conclusion.
So first of all, I want to read to you one last text for the day and then I'll explain the economy that it shows us. And it's in Psalm 49.
Psalm 49, so if you're following along in your Bible, you can, which I recommend people do that if they can because that helps you see another translation,
helps you read it as well as hearing it, so you're going to remember it more, that kind of thing. So Psalm 49, and I'm going to read from 16 to 20.
Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased, for when he dies he will carry nothing away.
His glory will not descend after him. Notice the word descend, kind of scary.
Though while he lives he congratulates himself, I'm doing pretty good, got quite a bit of money in the bank, my property's nice, my horses are fine, my cars are good,
my bank account's stuffed full of retirement money, whatever. He says, I'm doing pretty good.
Though he congratulates himself while he lives. And though men praise you when you do well for yourself, people are like, yeah, I see you're doing well.
Your bills are always paid, you're working hard, you're making good money, your skills are very marketable, you're doing well, man, that's awesome.
That's all anyone could ever expect in the world, right? But I think if you've been listening, you know the answer to that question.
That is not all anyone could expect. God expects something way more than you're doing okay.
He expects a diligent, generous walk, looking for who you can help. That's what he expects.
And that's how you get control of your heart and mind as you walk in his care declaration.
Back to the top of 18, he says this, though while he lives he congratulates himself, and though men praise you when you do well for yourself,
he shall go to the generation of his fathers, they shall never see the light.
Man is his pomp, yet without understanding, in other words, he builds himself up, he thinks he's doing great without understanding.
And it says, it's like the beasts that perish. When you think what you're doing well, you are like the beasts that perish.
My kid asked me, she said, will every dog be in heaven like they say? No.
I said, well, will there be dogs in heaven? Yeah.
The Bible says every type of flesh, every type of thing will be in the new heaven and the new earth.
Everything that God made that was good, probably lots of things you've never seen, probably dinosaurs, I don't know.
But the bottom line is, won't be nobody there who trusted in their riches while they were alive, who thought they were doing really good,
who failed to walk in God's care declaration. They won't be there. They will not see the light.
The light comes from in heaven, the light comes from God's throne. They will not see it.
They'll be so far off from it, they won't even see the light of the throne, because they did pretty well.
There's a parable, not even a parable, a story of Jesus. It's not a parable. It's a story, a true story,
about a man named Lazarus and a rich man, and they both die. One goes to hell, one goes to heaven.
The one in hell looks up and wants to get from heaven. He said, just send him there and let him take a drop of cool water and just put it on my tongue.
Let that guy who was diseased and sick and sat at my door and I never helped him, let him just come and stick his finger in cool water and just stick it on my tongue.
It's kind of intimate, isn't it? You want somebody to come and stick something on your tongue right now?
How about if I just stick a drip of water and put it on your tongue? You good about that? No, that's creepy.
I don't want nobody sticking nothing on my tongue. But he said, just let him put a drip of water on my tongue.
And he was told that as a rich man, he had his sustenance in life. And I would put this text in there.
He never lived in God's care declaration. He never walked in diligence thinking about who he could help and being generous toward others.
He let that diseased, sick poor man sit there and rot outside his gate every day and never gave to him.
He says, Lazarus is now being comforted in heaven because he walked in God's care declaration.
Of course, I'm adding that into the text from what we just read. He walked in God's care declaration while you would not.
So you had your riches in this lifetime and now you get nothing. And he had nothing in this lifetime and now he's getting everything.
Jesus also said this way, he said, go ahead and lend freely knowing that your father will reward you in the book of Luke at the day of the resurrection.
So if you start thinking to yourself that if I give this, I'll be just a little more poor and you forget that it's all about trusting God and really letting God pour into you.
You're missing out on some great blessing at the moment you walk into God's presence. That's what Jesus said.
What's the elephant in the room? It's the same elephant from last week. These directions are about the kingdom of God.
And we don't have the ability to know who's saved and who's not saved.
So you've been walking around and you have somebody come to you and you're wondering whether or not they're saved.
You don't know. You start sharing Jesus with them and they say they're saved, but they need a hundred bucks.
Should you give them a hundred bucks or not? Based on these verses, if they truly are saved and they truly need a hundred bucks, then you should give it to them because God's going to take care of you.
But you can't judge whether they're saved or not. But these rules are for people inside the kingdom of God.
So there we are stuck. Stuck because if I want to follow God and be a beating to God, I have to go around looking for people who are in the kingdom of God so that I can help them, so that I'm walking in God's care declaration.
I have to be diligent and hardworking and generous at the same time to help people who are in the kingdom of God so that I'm walking in God's care declaration, which I really want to be doing.
But I don't have the ability to decide who's in the kingdom of God and who's not.
And you have no obligation to help people who are outside the kingdom of God in the same manner that you do those who are inside the kingdom of God.
Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't be generous. It doesn't mean you shouldn't be kind.
If you see someone truly in need, this is true religion, helping widows and orphans.
But at the risk of slighting my brother James, who died almost 2,000 years ago, we're not called to true religion.
Not even true religion. We're called to faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
We're called to believing. What is the work of God that's given to believe in the one who was sent?
That's it. Not true religion, not 74 rules, not 10 steps to get there, none of that.
We have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ.
So, I'm a firm believer that if you get in that moment and you're diligently walking generously and you see somebody who's in need,
but you don't know if they're a believer or not, but you have the resources, what do you do?
You ask God. And you say, God, am I the one to meet this need? Am I supposed to lend here? Am I supposed to give here?
But guess what? There is one more process that is ours to use. And that is, who is the local church?
What do we do? We say, you can't, I'm just going to be blunt about this, you cannot join New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church
unless by your profession you are a follower of God through His Son Jesus Christ.
Anybody that wanted to join the church who's not a follower of Jesus, that would be worthless.
It would mean nothing because the church is Jesus' people. That's who we are.
You say, well, my name is on the roll somewhere, but it literally means nothing,
which is why when people come to join the church, we ask them for their professional faith.
Do you believe in God through His Son Jesus Christ? Have you committed your life into the hands of our Lord?
And if you have, then that's basically step one. Have you been baptized publicly recognizing who Jesus is?
That He died, was buried, and rose again? And we've essentially done the same thing.
Have you been baptized publicly? And if that's not happened, then you can't join the church.
And are you willing to come in and plug in and work and be the kind of person that got diligently and generously
working to serve God as New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church? Are you willing to do that?
And if you say yes, then you could be a member. But if you are unwilling and would say no to that,
then you cannot be. Are you willing to work toward tithing in the church, giving as the Bible commands?
And if you are not willing to do that, you can't be in. Listen to me.
Take your responsibility about who gets to be a member of your church way more seriously
than how you pay your bills or how you lay out your budget or how you respond to your boss on the job or anything else.
Because these people, when I look around this room, I know who's a member of the church, and you should too.
You have agreed to their profession. You have agreed to work alongside of them to meet their needs
and for them to meet yours and to meet the needs of the community the best that we can together.
We've agreed to walk in the care and declaration of the Lord.
And you know there's somebody in our church that's not doing that. Then let's have them out, shall we?
Let's remove them, because this is what it means to be a Christian.
I want to be able to walk in here on a Sunday morning, and if somebody who's a member of the church says,
I need a hundred bucks, I want to be able to faithfully, diligently have that hundred dollars available to them
and just go, done. Fine. Not even going to think about it.
When Forrest and I got done with our meal and he wrote me that check, he called me up about two months later,
and I thought he was calling me to check and see if we bought the tires for the van.
And the funny thing about it was I had texted him in between because we didn't want to have to buy tires.
We thought it was the tires. But there was another problem.
This is not actually the tires, it's something in the suspension.
And so I texted him and I said, is it okay if we use that money to fix the suspension instead because the tires are fine.
They said the tires are fine. And he of course said, yes, fine. That's what I was thinking.
And it was more expensive, by the way. It cost like, I don't know, eight, nine hundred dollars instead of the six or seven.
So if he hadn't given the extra, we'd have had to pay that out of pocket. It was fine. He took care of it.
We still had two, three hundred hours that we didn't have to have to get that repair done.
But I had texted him and said, is it okay? So he called me up and he said he wanted to go to lunch.
I thought he was going to ask me at lunch about the tires. And he didn't.
As we were sitting there talking, he asked me, he said, how's this going? How are things going?
How are your vehicles? How are your house? Whatever.
And I said, well, we're working on the house actually because the house needs a new roof.
And we had to get new gutters because the gutters basically can drain down and stuff.
And we have somebody who's willing to put the roof on for a certain dollar.
Oh, I know a roofer. And he said, I can I can get that roof put on for you for X dollars.
It was like less than half of what we thought we have to pay. And he said, and I'll pay for it.
He wasn't asking me about the tires. He was asking me about how he could help me again.
I said, of course, I can't let you do that.
I said, you paid for my tires, which we didn't want to need the tires, the suspension work.
And you and you paid for that. And he said, I did.
I said, yeah, you you wrote me a check. I was sitting in that booth right over there.
You wrote me a check. He said, I don't worry about it. Once I give it, I don't even think about it.
He said, if I went back and looked at my checkbook, it's probably there.
But once I give it, I don't even think about it. Listen to me.
He's gone to be with the Lord now.
Professing believers serve the Lord for over 40 years.
That's how it should be.
Diligently, generously, we give, then forget it. It's done.
Now, if you need to lend somebody money because it's a different kind of a situation,
you lend again generously.
And then if they can't pay it off in a reasonable period of time, then you go back to them and say,
look, you can still pay it off if you choose to. But I don't really need it.
God's taking care of me. So I'm not worried about it.
That's the kingdom economy.
Remember the handcuffs? That's where we started at, right?
I submit to you that if standing here, Tony Tate and Nicole had yanked hard on the handcuffs,
pulled really, really hard, they both would have got hurt.
Their hands would be scratched up.
And Tony still would have gotten uncuffed first because he's probably about twice as strong as Nicole,
even though Nicole's pretty wild, so she might have done something.
He probably still would have gotten uncuffed first.
By that time, Nicole would probably be laying on the ground, beat up, hurt, scratched, whatever.
And then if he wanted to see her uncuffed, he'd have had to drag her over to the other key and uncuff her.
And it would have been a much more violent, how is it, hateful episode.
But instead, in her wisdom, Nicole said, it's okay. He can be unhandcuffed first.
She walked over with him, watched him, kind of patiently, I might add, uncuff himself.
And then walked over and uncuffed herself.
Who's first in their life? I hope it's Jesus.
I hope it's God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Who's second in your life? I hope it's not you.
Because that's not God's economy.
God's economy, we walk in His care of declaration when we diligently work to bless others,
when we generously bless others. And if someone blesses us, we accept that, because then that makes them get poured into by God.
But that doesn't mean that we don't get to be part of pouring back into them.
We think about how we can help them back, how we can do something, how we can pay them back.
Anybody ever hear of a writer, Mark Twain?
Mark Twain, at one point in time, was not a writer. He was what was called a sack-friarist.
Basically, he did public speaking in Sarcasm.
People thought it was funny in his day.
If you think of somebody now who does these burns, you go for one person for the next burning people,
saying bad things about them in a tricky way, and it's sort of funny, and as long as it's not hurtful, it is kind of funny.
That's kind of what he was like. He would go around places and he would give speeches,
and he would tell, he would burn people, or he would say things that made you go,
that's kind of edgy, gross people. Yeah, that's what he would do.
And he was bankrupt. He had nothing. He was so broke and so beyond broke,
he owed more money than a bank had already in his lifetime.
So he filed bankruptcy. That's what you do in America.
By the way, do you know how often you can file bankruptcy? Every seven years.
Where do you think that comes from? You live in a nation that was founded by Christians, founded by people who read their Bibles.
So he filed bankruptcy and wrote off all that money, more money than a man could earn in his lifetime.
And then over the 10 to 15 years following his bankruptcy, he paid off every penny.
Because he became a very popular satirist, because he became a very popular writer, because he wrote a couple of books that are still famous to this day.
And Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain, and he became very popular.
So what I'm saying to you is, live in God's care declaration. Before, during, and after.
And according to God's Word, you'll be okay. So many people are not okay because they are unwilling to do it.