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Let's open our Bibles together today to the Gospel of Mark and the tenth chapter, please.

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Tile of my message this morning is Where the Rubber Meets the Road.

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I think you'll understand how that applies even as we look at our text today, from which

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we'll quickly depart.

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And as Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him and

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began asking him, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

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And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

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No one is good except God alone.

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Please understand that Jesus was not saying that he was not God.

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He was simply helping this man to come to an understanding that if he was calling him

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good, he needed to understand that in fact he was God.

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You know the commandments.

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Do not murder.

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Do not commit adultery.

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Do not steal.

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Do not bear false witness.

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Do not defraud.

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Honor your father and mother.

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And he said to him, Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.

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And I think he said that sincerely.

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He was measuring himself, however, externally by the righteousness of the scribes and the

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Pharisees.

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And looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, One thing you lack, go

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and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and

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come and follow me.

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Jesus took him from the external measurement of verse 20 to an internal measurement of

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his heart.

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He was not saying to this young man that by doing these things he would have eternal life.

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Eternal life would come by following Jesus by faith.

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But first there was an obstacle that had to be removed in his life before he could follow

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the Lord.

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And that obstacle was covetousness.

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At these words, his face fell and he went away, grieved, for he was one who owned much

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property.

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And Jesus looking around said to his disciples, How hard it will be for those who are wealthy

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to enter the kingdom of God.

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And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus answered again and said to them,

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Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.

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It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter

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the kingdom of God.

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They were even more astonished and said to him, Then who can be saved?

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Looking upon them, Jesus said, With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things

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are possible with God.

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Let's pray together.

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Father, as we continue on our spiritual adventure today, my prayer is that the examination of

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our hearts in the light of your word will prove profitable for us and for your sake

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and your work in the world.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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I was struck last Sunday by Robertson McQuilkin's remark about the all-American commandment,

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Thou shalt covet, he said, using 1 Corinthians 12.31 as his tongue-in-cheek proof text.

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I smiled at his humor but winced at the point of his remark.

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Covetousness is a temptation every one of us faces.

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Especially in the culture in which we live with its materialistic values.

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We struggle daily with this green-eyed monster and often not very successfully.

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You see, we are wonderfully gifted at creating rationales for our selfish accumulation of

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personal wealth.

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By the way, the greatest that has ever been known by any people in the history of the

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world.

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Yes, we give at the office.

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We hand out at the door.

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We pledge to charity.

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We even put something in the offering plate at church.

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And then we conclude that we have done our fair share for others.

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Now we can lavish the remainder on our own pleasurable lifestyle or perhaps save it up

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to secure for ourselves a comfortable future.

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We are wonderful at these rationales.

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We reason that we're not the rich ones.

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After all, we can look around and see others who have much more than we have.

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Why, we're only the middle class.

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Beloved, I am convinced of this, that our attitude toward money and earthly possessions,

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however much they may be or how little they may be, that it's there where the rubber

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meets the road as far as our spiritual confession is concerned.

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Have you carefully considered the stewardship of your money and your possessions?

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Perhaps the ownership prayer has struck a sensitive nerve in you as you have prayed

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it over the last few weeks.

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I have found from my own experience that one cannot pray those words for several weeks

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without having a dramatic impact in our attitude toward our things.

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By the way, that prayer is one that you may want to hang on to.

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We have made available to you this morning an item that is suitable for framing.

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It's really a lovely printing of the ownership prayer on a card.

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These are available for all of you who have chosen this as one of your disciplines during

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the spiritual adventure.

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You may not have prayed that every day as you had intended to at the beginning, but

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if this has been a discipline that you have sought to incorporate during these 50 days,

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I think you'd probably like to have a setting of that prayer that you might be able to put

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in your office or your home or your bedroom, someplace where you'll see it frequently.

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We have them available for you today.

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There are some stacked here along the front and there are some on tables in the back.

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But until we have enough to go around, we'd like to say one to a family at least to start

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with and if we have a few left over, we'll make those available if you'd like to have

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a couple of them, maybe one for your home and one for your office.

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But feel free to take one of these today.

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Have you considered the items that are mentioned specifically in that prayer, which we prayed

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together a few moments ago?

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It talks about these possessions, these resources, these gifts.

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What do we mean by possessions?

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Will has suggested that possessions include all of the material objects that we own, from

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our home and land to our car and stereo, the wardrobe that we have, the adornments and

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collectibles in our houses.

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Even the guest room that we own, those are our possessions, at least suggestively.

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What do we mean by our resources?

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What do we have in mind in using that term?

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What do you have in mind as you've prayed that prayer and thought about it?

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Perhaps resources to you would include your bank account, that safe deposit box that you

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have, your inheritance or investment, insurance.

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Would it not even include the influence of your life?

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That's a resource that you have.

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And what do we mean by gifts as we say that we want to make those available to the Lord

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for His kingdom?

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Gifts would include our skills, the spiritual gifts that God has given to us, our talents,

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our children, friendships, physical attributes that God may have given us, our creativity

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perhaps, certainly our time.

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You see by nature we tend to grasp onto all of these things.

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And isn't that really the heart of the issue?

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You see all of us struggle with this idea of ownership.

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We have yet to realize that actually none of these things is ours at all.

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They belong to our King and are entrusted to us only to manage for our lifetime.

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And then we shall leave them behind.

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They are not ours to use for our own selfish purposes.

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We indeed are expected to make them available for the use of the Lord in the work of His

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kingdom.

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We've invited our Savior to come into our homes, to be the King and sovereign here for

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these weeks.

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As we have said, He was there before and He's not going to leave when the 50 days are up.

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But now we are concentrating on the fact that He is in our homes.

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And when we remember that He's here for a visit, we are reminded to see our things,

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our possessions, resources, and gifts through His eyes.

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You know, when you talk about a subject like this, people often have objections.

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There are several of them.

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One is, what right does Jesus Christ have to claim my money, possessions, and gifts?

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That sounds almost a little too strong, doesn't it?

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Maybe even bordering on blasphemy, but does it not perhaps accurately reflect the attitude

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that all of us have from time to time?

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What right does He have to my money, resources, and gifts?

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Let me suggest to you several rights.

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In the first place, He created all things.

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And so all of these things are His by right of creation.

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In Colossians 1.16 it says, by Him were all things created.

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All of it.

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So whatever we may name as being ours is actually His because He's the Creator.

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And if He had not brought it into existence, it wouldn't be in our hands today.

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It's His by right of creation.

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Secondly, I'd like to suggest that He endowed each of us with these things.

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Therefore they are His by right of prepossession.

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You see, He possessed those before He gave them to you, to me.

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Therefore they are His by right of prepossession.

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As Paul says to the Corinthians, what do you have that you did not receive?

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First Corinthians 4.7.

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John the Baptist said in John 3.27, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given

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him from heaven.

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And James echoes the same thought in chapter 1 verse 17 when he writes, every good thing

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bestowed and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights.

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What right does Jesus Christ have?

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He has the right of prepossession.

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All of our things were His before they were entrusted to us.

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Thirdly, I'd like to suggest that He purchased us with His own blood.

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And therefore whatever we have belongs to Him by right of redemption as well.

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In 1 Corinthians 6.19 the apostle reminds us, you are not your own.

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You are bought with a price.

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If indeed today you have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and His blood

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has ransomed you from your sin and lostness, then He has purchased all of you, including

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these things that we've talked about.

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What right does Jesus Christ have to our things?

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He has the right of creation, the right of prepossession, and the right of redemption.

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He has every absolute right over everything that we have and are.

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I'd like you to open your Bible again to 1 Chronicles chapter 29.

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The context here is a prayer, a prayer of David as he gathers together the material

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for Solomon to later build the temple of God.

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So much was given by David and then the leaders and then the people that it says in verse

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29, the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly for they made their offering

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to the Lord.

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Isn't that a great thought?

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As we bring our gifts today, we're not bringing them for a man, we're not bringing them for

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the church, or even for the ministry primarily.

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Rather we are bringing them for the Lord.

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It says that they brought these gifts to the Lord, their offerings, with a whole heart.

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King David also rejoiced greatly.

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So David blessed the Lord, verse 10, in the sight of all the assembly.

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David said, blessed art thou, O Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.

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Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty.

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Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and the earth, thine is the dominion, O Lord,

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and thou dost exalt thyself as head over all.

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Both riches and honor come from thee, and thou dost rule over all, and in thy hand

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is power and might, and it lies in thy hand to make great and to strengthen every one.

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Now therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name.

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Who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this?

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For all things come from thee, and from thy hand we have given thee.

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Boy, David has a hold of something, doesn't he?

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He says, Lord, who are we to offer so generously to you?

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He says, after all, what we have given you was first placed into our hands by you.

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Is that the way that we look at what we have?

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Our possessions, our resources, our gifts?

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Someone says, but don't I have the privilege to enjoy the things God has given me?

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After all, isn't there in the Bible somewhere a verse that says God has given us richly

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all things to enjoy?

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Amen.

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That is a Bible verse.

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First Timothy 6, 17 says that.

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But what does it mean to enjoy?

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That's the question.

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It does not mean that we are given these things to live luxuriantly, to pander our greed.

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That is not the meaning of the verse.

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What does it mean to enjoy these things that God has richly given to us?

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Let me suggest three things.

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First of all, it means to have one's own needs met.

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Why does God enrich us that our needs might be met?

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Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things that you need, food,

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clothing, etc., will be given to you.

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By the way, pleasure, too, is one of the needs that we have.

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God has given us a need for pleasure.

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There's nothing wrong with having pleasure.

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The problem is when we make pleasure our chief end.

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When pleasure becomes our goal and our God, then it has become sin.

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The pleasure is a need.

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And God does give us our things richly to enjoy them, that our needs might be met.

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But secondly, that we might be able to give to the needy.

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Why has God richly given us all things?

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That we might share them.

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That we might distribute to those who have less than we have.

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Did not Jesus Himself say it is more blessed to give than to receive?

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The happiest person you will ever meet is the person who knows what it is to share.

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And it doesn't make if the person is in poverty or the person is quite wealthy.

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The joy of giving is there and evident in the life.

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One who is covetous and greedy is one who is miserable, however much may be in the bank

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account.

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God gives us richly all things to enjoy in that we are able to give, blessedly give to

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those who have need.

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God gives us richly all things to enjoy in a third way, that one day we might rejoice

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in heaven with those who are one to Jesus Christ by the wise investment of our money

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in His work in this world.

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That is an eternal joy.

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We can use our money now for some pleasures on earth that last for a while, but how wise

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it is to lavishly lay up eternal pleasures so that we can enjoy forever the investment

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of our money in this world.

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Join with me once more to the New Testament, to the 16th chapter of the Gospel of Luke.

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We don't have time to look at the story that Jesus tells about a steward whom He calls

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Shrewd.

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But Jesus in verse 9 gives us the bottom line of the story and that's where we'll pick

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it up.

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In verse 16 verse 9, I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness.

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That phrase is another phrase for money.

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That when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

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You remember Dr. Robert Smith preaching on this about a year and a half ago?

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He sent a written message to our congregation and he pointed out what you undoubtedly knew

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before he preached it and that is that Jesus here is talking about using our money in this

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world, which He calls mammon of unrighteousness, so that we can gain friends who will welcome

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us into heaven.

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Who are these friends?

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They are people that we may never meet in this world, but who are one to Jesus Christ

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because we have given to the Lord's work, His word has been preached, His kingdom established

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around the world, people come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they go to heaven and

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one day when life fails and we are no longer living in this world, we will be welcomed

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into heaven by those friends because we have been wise in the use of our money.

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We have been shrewd in the best sense of that term in the use of our money in this life.

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Yes, we have the privilege of enjoying all things that God has given to us, but let's

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enjoy them the way that God tells us to.

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What is the use of my money to do with spiritual things, someone says.

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Those two things aren't even related.

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Well, I think already we have seen that that is not true, but look at verses 10 and 11

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in this very chapter.

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Jesus says, He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.

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He who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.

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If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, and mammon

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again is another word for money, it's Aramaic, refers to our things, who will entrust the

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true riches to you.

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What is Jesus saying here in these strange words?

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He is simply saying to us that one's faithfulness in the use of his earthly wealth is a direct

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indication of his fitness for spiritual responsibilities.

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That's what He's saying.

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What has money to do with spiritual things?

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A whole lot, brother.

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I was never taught as a young man the importance of giving.

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Not that I didn't give, but I did not give very generously.

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And of course I reasoned through my college years that I didn't have much to give, and

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that was true.

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But I never picked up the habit of regular, planned, intentional giving.

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Thus it was quite a shock to me when I got to my first assignment in the Lord's work

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and as an assistant pastor in Covington, Kentucky.

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One of the first things Pastor Wiersbie said to me as I became his assistant there was

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now of course as one of our staff we expect you to tithe to set an example for the people

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of our church.

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I sucked in my breath very quietly and said, sure, you bet.

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And I began at that point in my life under some sense of gentle coercion to tithe.

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And I want you to know from my own personal experience that I found that God blessed as

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I learned to give regularly and in a planned way.

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There have been times in our family when we did not know how in the world we could afford

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to do that.

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You know what?

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God always made the remainder go further.

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And I see some of you shaking your heads.

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You know what I'm talking about.

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When a person is faithful to give to the Lord the first fruits of his increase in a regular

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planned way, not the leftovers, but in a planned way, giving God that first portion, God blesses.

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The income may not increase like some people like to tell us.

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I've received letters in the mail and maybe you have too.

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Send us your tithe and within one month you'll have double your money back.

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Well, somebody got the double money.

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God doesn't promise that kind of thing.

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But I'll tell you what God does promise to do.

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He promises to bless and He promises to give us greater ability to give.

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And I have found in my own experience that God makes the remainder cover what the whole

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thing couldn't cover before.

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It's a marvelous experience.

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I've come to the place in my understanding of Scripture that I don't see tithing as

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a legalistic rule for the church age.

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There are those who disagree with that and that's fine.

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But I have to say this.

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How can I as a believer in this age under grace do less than what the Jews did under

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law in the Old Testament considering the greater privileges that I have in this age?

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While tithing is not a legalistic principle that we must do, I believe that God will bless

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the person who begins at that point and then increases.

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We no longer tithe as a family, but I believe that that's a beginning point.

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What I'm saying here in verses 10 and 11 does not mean that a prosperous person is automatically

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worthy of spiritual responsibility.

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That is not what Jesus is intending to say.

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The amount has nothing to do with it.

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The point is that how one has handled what he does have in terms of his earthly money

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indicates whether he is ready for spiritual responsibility.

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Some say, why can't I have the best of both worlds?

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I'll serve God, but I want to retain the rights to my own money, my own possessions.

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Look at verse 13 in chapter 16.

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No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or

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else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

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You cannot serve God and mammon.

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Jesus is saying here that it is impossible for any of us to serve two authorities in

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our lives equally.

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We cannot say that we're going to have the best of both, that we're going to serve God

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and retain rights.

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Either the Lord is God or He is not Lord of our lives.

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It is impossible to have two authorities.

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One of the other must dominate.

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Jesus Christ will not share the throne of our lives with mammon.

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Now Jesus is not here condemning wealth.

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Please understand that.

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It is the Lord who gives the ability to make wealth.

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He is not condemning its possession, but what He is condemning is making wealth one's God.

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Jesus is condemning here serving our money instead of using it to serve God.

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That is where the sin is.

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This may surprise you, but I think that there's some truth in it.

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At the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, when our life's work is examined for its worth

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and our service for the Lord, the King, and His Kingdom, when we are examined before Him

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as all true believers will be, I believe that our financial records are going to be subpoenaed

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for examination.

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Our heavenly guest for these weeks is gracious, lowly of heart, and yet He is no less than

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our Master and our Sovereign, to whom we owe not only loyalty, but also the right of control

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over everything that we have.

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Let me suggest to you a project.

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I want to encourage you with your family, if you're married and have a family, I want

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to encourage you to go on a walk through your home with Jesus.

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Visit each room in your home and ask Him what He thinks of each of your rooms.

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Let Him lay upon your heart if there is something in that room that is inconsistent with your

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faith in Him.

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There may be materials or objects that need to be tossed.

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Could be.

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Examine the objects of your family room, your bedroom, your garage, and dedicate those,

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each one of them, to the use of the Lord for the work of His Kingdom.

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And as you are in each room, pause for just a few seconds and see if the Lord doesn't

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lay something on your heart.

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David Maines suggests this to us, who is the director of the Chapel of the Air.

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Let me read to you a few sentences from him.

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Walk through your home and say aloud to Christ, this is your living room, Your Majesty.

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Are you pleased with the way it's being used on your behalf?

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Is there anything you would change?

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This is your kitchen.

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This is your garage.

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This is your guest room.

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Pause and give Him opportunity to speak in the quiet, to put His thoughts in your mind.

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Maybe He will speak words of affirmation regarding the way His resources are being used.

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He might challenge you to explore new means of service.

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Possibly He will ask you to remove certain items that do not please Him.

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Walk with Him through all that belongs to Him.

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Don't skip anything that He wants to see.

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Tell the Lord that everything else that you want Him to see is a resource to be used for

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His glory.

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The All-American commandment.

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You know if there is one commandment that is made to be broken, it's that one.

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At least in the context in which we have talked about it today.

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David Maines further writes, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asked this

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question, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you?

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Even today the cause of our Master is stymied on many fronts because servants hold their

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resources in tight fists.

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Stewards have forgotten whose name is on the possessions they manage.

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What are we saying on this sixth Sunday of our spiritual adventure?

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Very simply this, don't view what you have as basically yours.

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Do view it.

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View all that you have through Christ's eyes, whose it is.

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Let's bow together in prayer.

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My friend, will you, as you are bowed in prayer, ponder what the Spirit of God may have said

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to you?

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Perhaps some words have come to you this morning as affirmation and encouragement.

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Perhaps there are words that have been instructive.

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Perhaps you have been rebuked.

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What would you like to say to the Lord?

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Say it to him quietly right now.

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Will you open your clenched fist and say, Jesus, what is in my hand has your name on

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it.

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Give me the wisdom I need to make it available for the work of your kingdom, not mine.

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And Lord, there are words in that prayer that all of us need to repeat.

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Make us good stewards and faithful servants so that when all of the records are examined

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at the judgment seat, we may then hear, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.