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I'd like to read you a verse today that maybe some people don't think is all that encouraging,

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but I'd like to point out to you how it's quite encouraging if you're in the right place.

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Here it is, Luke 16, 14.

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It says, Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things,

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and they were scoffing at him.

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Three key points in here.

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First of all, this was the Pharisees.

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We need to remember that these were some of the most devout religious men of Jesus' day.

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Nicodemus and others like him were desired preachers and teachers and speakers all over

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the place, and they were well known, and they fast two days a week, and they worshiped all

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the time, and they memorized whole books of the Bible.

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I mean, whole books of the Bible, not the names, but the actual book, every word.

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The Pharisees had become lovers of money.

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Now that's a really dangerous place to be, but if you're not there, then this is encouraging

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in that way.

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They're listening to all of the things that Jesus was saying, and they were scoffing at

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him.

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See, it tends to be that when people pick a different God in their life, they tend to

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scoff at Jesus.

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Jesus is a servant.

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He's a giver.

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He is love.

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He chose to die.

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And who would do that?

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He chose to die to pay the price for sins.

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And if you're rich, you know, you've got a lot to live for.

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You're not going to die for anybody.

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You might pay somebody to die for somebody, but that's not who Jesus is.

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Jesus was the richest of them all.

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He was God in the flesh, having come from heaven, taken up residence on the earth, first

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as a babe, then as a man, then sacrificed himself on the cross, then rose again on the

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third day after being put in a borrowed tomb.

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That's the kind of model that Jesus has for us.

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So whether you've got money or you don't got money, what you don't want to be is a lover

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of money.

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What you do want to be is a lover of Jesus.

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Don't scoff at these teachings.

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Everyone has a plan.