So welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church this evening.
If you are just coming in, please find your seat.
We're gonna put up the service
with our first hymn this evening.
Hymn number 143, Blessed Assurance.
Hymn number 143, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh, what a foretaste of hymn number 143.
First opportunity to count on you,
set aside this day to the week,
and to put away the things that busyness of our life, Lord,
and to really just focus on you to hear from your word.
God, I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley
with your Holy Spirit, preach unto us this evening,
that you've laid on his heart.
We pray these things in your son's name, amen.
- And our next song is gonna be 276,
hymn number 276, "Where He Leads Me."
276, "Where He Leads Me."
- You guys, a bulletin at Vast Baptist Church.
We have passage, Romans 10 verse seven,
under you can get an ice cream treat.
On the inside is our service and soul winning times.
An update to our evening bulletins,
we have a congratulations on the birth
of Luke Gray to the Compicis.
He was born on the 20th, 11, 39 a.m.
Six pounds, 13 ounces, 20 and a quarter inches long.
Congratulations to them.
So we have several other ladies who are still expecting.
Please keep them in your prayers.
Brother Furr has been working on this
and sent out our giving statements
or donation statements for 2025.
If for some reason you didn't receive it
or there's something off or you had a question about it,
please just see him.
Occasionally we have maybe one or two times a statement
that needs to be modified or adjusted.
So if you did notice something, please just update us
and we'll try to get it corrected.
But they should be out there.
College soul winning, we have that on our website
if you'd like to check that out.
As far as our marriage workshop,
we're still planning on doing the event as scheduled.
However, I know that a lot of people
have said something about the weather.
I don't know exactly what's gonna happen.
You never know, it's Texas weather, so it can change.
Sometimes it's gnarlier than you think,
sometimes it's milder than you think,
so you never really know.
Obviously, if there's ever ice on the roads,
you need to be careful in the Dallas-Forth area
just because that can be dangerous,
but we are still encouraging people
if they can make it to the event
and if they can drive safely to do so.
If you have any other questions you can ask us,
but that is the plan for now.
Also, down below is the note about our missions trip
that's gonna be going on.
At the end of the month, please be in prayer for them.
On the back is our prayer list
and so that's pretty much all I have.
We're gonna go through our prayer list here.
We have the Carlson's that we continue to pray for,
work and their parents' health.
If you'd pray for Brother Scott,
his parents as also their health.
Please pray for Brother Tony's health.
Also, we pray for the Foley's dad for his kidney disease.
Please continue to pray for the Weathers and Brother Paul.
If you'd pray for the Goodwins family,
please pray for Miss Lola and Phoebe Rowe
for their situation.
Please also be in prayer for the Burns and their brother Joe.
Also, we have the Warner family.
Please continue to pray for them,
for work and for their vehicle.
If you'd pray for Brother Jameson's father, his health.
Also, Brother Suhail's asking for prayer
for his mother's health.
And then Brother Billy Dave's asking
for his mom's health as well.
And then we have Brother Spurgeon.
You pray for his work.
I continue to pray for the Canaries.
If you pray for the Urbanax grandmother
who's been diagnosed with dementia,
please be in prayer for her.
We're also praying for Brother Brian.
I guess he has an abscessed tooth.
That sounds horrific.
Please be pray for him.
Also Miss Ginger, we're praying for her niece
who has pneumonia and is in the ICU.
Please also be in prayer for Brother Evan
for health and some work.
So several prayer requests there.
We'll say a quick word of prayer
as a church family this evening.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church.
Thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting.
I pray that you just continue to bless their pregnancies.
I pray that you would also be with those
who have recently given birth.
Please just help them to have full recovery
and for good growth and development.
I pray that you'd also please just be with our church family
that is struggling with these serious illnesses,
these cancers and these serious diseases.
I pray if possible, you could just give them health.
Please give them recovery.
I pray that you'd please give them comfort during their tribulation.
I pray that you would help those that are sick with colds and flus
and that they would be able to have recovery
and that they could be in full health and get back into church.
I pray that you'd also just bless our church family
that needs help with either work or with their finances
or with their vehicle, that you would just please bless them.
And I pray that you'd bless our upcoming events.
Please keep us safe and please allow us to have the best weather possible.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
So that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
We'll go ahead and sing our third song of the evening.
It's going to be Psalm 11 in our Psalm binder, Psalm 11.
Psalm 11, songbook to Deuteronomy 15 as the offering plates go round.
That's Deuteronomy chapter number 15.
Deuteronomy chapter number 15, the Bible reads,
"At the end of every seven years, thou shalt make a release.
And this is the manner of the release.
Every creditor that landeth ought unto his neighbor shall release it.
He shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother,
because it is called the Lord's release.
Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again,
but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release.
Save when there shall be no poor among you,
for the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it.
Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God
to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.
For the Lord thy God blessed thee as he promised thee,
and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow;
and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.
If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren
within any of thy gates and thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother.
But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him,
and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, and that which he wanteth.
Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying,
"The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, that thine eye be evil against thy poor brother,
and thou givest him not."
And he cryeth unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee.
Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him,
because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works,
and in all that thou putest thine hand unto.
For the poor shall never cease out of the land, therefore I command thee, saying,
"Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land."
And if thy brother in Hebrew man or in Hebrew woman be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years,
then the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty,
thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress,
of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, thou shalt give unto him.
And thou shalt remember that thou was a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee,
therefore I command thee this thing today. And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go
away from thee, because he loveth thee in thine house, because he is well with thee. Then thou
shalt take an all, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant forever.
And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise. It shall not seem hardened to thee,
when thou sendeth him away free from thee, for he hath been worth a double-hired servant to thee,
and serving thee six years, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock, thou shalt sanctify unto the Lord thy
God. Thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.
Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God, year by year, in the place which the Lord shall choose,
thou and thy household. And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame or blind,
or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt eat it within
thy gates, the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike, as the road buck and as the heart.
Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof, thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your word, Lord. Thank you for this chapter of the Bible. Thank
you for your church. Thank you for the souls that are saved. I just pray that you would bless Pastor
Shelley Fulham with your Holy Spirit as he preaches unto us and help us to make changes in our lives
to become better Christians. Pray us in Jesus' name, Lord. Amen. Amen. Deuteronomy 15 verse 1,
that says, "At the end of every seven years, thou shalt make a release." And this chapter really
kind of deals with the principles of redeeming in the Bible. Redemption is a lot of times in the
context of purchasing something or paying for something in full so that there's no debt. It's
essentially the idea of redeeming something. It's like paying off the debt or there's no debt anymore.
And in this particular chapter it's describing a lot of practicalities when it comes to debt,
crediting, lending, and there's a principle for the nation of Israel to have this idea of debt
cancellation or just forgiving debt as a principle. Unfortunately in our society we don't really have
these similar principles enacted but they are good principles so that somebody doesn't just
necessarily stay just impoverished forever. They just have these huge debts that just last with
them forever and so they have this seven-year principle that's being mentioned here and the
release again would be in the context of a debt in the context of something that has been borrowed
whether that's monetary or just simply some kind of a good that basically the debt would be canceled
every seven years and basically reading the text it's not necessarily like I borrow something
and then seven years from now the debt is canceled but rather the way the text is actually
describing this how it should be implemented is it's just literally every seven years
so it just happens to be just every seven years all debts are canceled and then there's a bigger
picture jubilee that would be like a seven of sevens and that's like a 50 year and that's
another release cycle says here in verse two and this is the manner of the release every creditor
that lindeth ought unto his neighbor shall release it he shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his
brother because it is called the lord's release so anyone who has essentially given someone
something on credit so any kind of loan of any sort they are supposed to forgive it at this
seven-year mark and again this is not necessarily just what we think of as like a bank this could
be anything someone borrows your coat someone borrows your you know you give them a car you
lend them money you lend them goods you lend them whatever that essentially at that seven-year mark
you just say yeah it's just theirs and i'm not even going to collect anymore it's just completely
just released that there's no debt owed there's nothing that you would have to pay back in this
particular seven-year window now it says here also in verse 3 of a foreigner thou mayest exact it
again but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release save when there shall
be no poor among you for the lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the lord thy god
giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it only if thou carefully hearken under the voice
of the lord thy god to observe to do all these commandments which i command thee this day
so he has a couple exceptions here he says in the first exception here in verse number three
that technically a foreigner or stranger you don't have to release your debt so if if someone is
perhaps you know living among you that's not a citizen of the nation of israel they're a
stranger or foreigner and you lend them something when this seven year cycle hits you don't release
it of them it's also just saying that technically you could have a situation or at least hypothetically
you could have a situation where if just everyone's you know well to do if no one's even poor then you
wouldn't technically cancel their debt and i think again that this is more of a principle
than it is probably a direct event that happened most of what we're even reading never really even
happened or at least not mentioned in the bible is happening very much what's the principle the
principle is essentially that you wouldn't want to impoverish poor people with debt for the rest of
their lives that doesn't mean that rich people or well-to-do people may not still borrow money or
lend money from time to time but they're not the ones that need this debt forgiveness it's more the
poor people it's more the impoverished people that this is really geared towards that this is
the principle that's being applied towards them obviously you could have individuals in our society
today someone like Elon Musk who borrows money to buy Twitter he doesn't need us to forgive that
debt okay but there could be people that are very impoverished people living paycheck to paycheck
just the poor people in our society it's saying it's best every seven years we're just all just
letting that go so that this guy doesn't happen necessarily live this just extremely impoverished
life for the rest of his life and again you know their economy their society is going to be a
little different from ours in some ways we have a lot of jobs that are different than perhaps the
way they maybe ran their economy in times past everybody has a farm and everybody has their own
land and stuff like this so when someone is truly destitute someone truly has no money you know what
do they do they can't just go work for amazon they can't do some kind of a delivery business
they can't do uber or something on the side so what they typically do is they would sell themselves
unto a neighbor and the neighbor would basically hire them as an indentured servant and they would
work for them but instead of just being in this situation permanently the bible is bringing up
another context and it's going to be in here that they would eventually forgive any kind of debt or
any kind of money they lend to them and they would even furnish them with a bunch of money later
so that they would be able to basically get themselves back onto their two feet in a sense
and so this is kind of a principle in two ways number one you could just borrow something from
somebody or you could possibly even be their servant that you're serving them and working
with them and in both cases they would basically let you go so that you could move on and build
your own wealth and not necessarily be just impoverished or a servant or a debtor for the
rest of your life now it says in here verse four also that god is going to greatly bless them to
the point where virtually kind of no one's poor and you know it being poor in some senses is a
relative contextual idea because obviously sometimes you would talk about someone in
america and you could say well this person's poor and what we mean by that is that they're
basically one of the lowest income individuals in america but even some of the most low individual
income you know people in america still typically have way more money than people in other countries
or maybe other circumstances or other situations even some of the most impoverished people in
america they still live in a house that has electricity they still live in a house that has
indoor plumbing they still live in a house they still have like a lot of dirt certain accommodations
that you can go to foreign countries in foreign areas where they don't have these type of things
even the their middle class even their quote middle class may not have the same level of
running water electricity indoor plumbing all kinds of different conveniences and delicacies
they can't just have juice whenever they want it you know we have all kinds of programs to
even help the poor where they can have virtually all the same kind of foods and the same kind of
benefits and they have i mean look have you ever met a poor person in america that doesn't have an
iphone i mean that's a that's a pretty big luxury when you think about it and so like in a sense
america it kind of emulates this idea of like everyone's kind of blessed in a sense and everybody
kind of is being benefited from what the fact that we've been a christian nation and we've been
blessed by god and so when when you have a nation that is dedicating itself to the things of god
and that serves the lord for a long period of time it'll probably become such a wealthy nation
that even the poor people it's not really that bad you know another country that's similar to this
is the bahamas itself in a sense that obviously some of their housing is is kind of lower
but when you talk to the people there they kind of just say like yeah everybody's kind of middle
class and and from their perspective and i get that their living standard is lower than our
living standard and i understand that some areas seem really impoverished as far as the housing
and stuff is concerned but just for them they you know they get to eat all pretty much the same
meals they can drive around they have a phone they get to do their stuff so from their perspective
everybody's just kind of like middle class you know from their quote perspective and again it's
a christian nation by and large at least on paper i know that not necessarily a lot of them have
been saved and we've been trying to work on that but again nations that are christian nations god
can bless and make it to where it's almost like there's not really that many poor people
in the nation this is a basic principle communism will make everybody destitute look at false
religion you look at india india has a large group of people that are the lowest level of their caste
system that live in abject poverty you look at many african nations and other countries in this
world they have just huge populations of very impoverished people very poor people muslim nations
have very very low poverty you know just the circumstances the living uh you know situation
there is just the living conditions are horrific in many cases so one of the principles we can
learn from is this that when you have a nation that serves god even the poorest tend to be a
lot better off than when you compare that to another nation or another religion or another
group of people because god's going to greatly bless his people and bring in more prosperity
and as our nation turns away from god we're going to see an increase in poverty an increase in
inequity an increase in living standards and conditions decreasing as a result but we can
still live in goshen as god's people even though the world is in egypt and you know we can still
you know for the person that works hard and the person that puts in a lot of effort energy and a
lot of wisdom you know to their craft in america you can do well for the most part people don't
do well in america because they don't apply themselves they don't put in much effort they
don't put much energy in or maybe they are but they haven't been doing it for a very long time
obviously i get that america itself has highs and lows has recessions and and you know booms and
all this kind of stuff but just generally speaking the reason why people struggle financially is
because they're lazy in america some other nations though you could be very hard working
and you just can't even get ahead just because of the way the system is just because it's so much
harder you know you think it's hard to succeed in america you know let's put you in like the
the Philippines, let's put you in Mexico, let's put you in Africa, and let's see how
hard you have to work to get out of that situation.
And in some cases, it doesn't matter how hard you work, you just virtually can't get out
of that circumstance, out of that poverty.
So again, we should praise God and we should thank God that you live in America if you
are born in America or you're able to travel and move to America, because hey, we live
in the most prosperous nation in the world.
Not only we live in the most prosperous nation in the world, we live in a very prosperous
time in human history as well.
Sometimes Ebb and Flow, and I know everybody's like it's not the 1950s or whatever, but let
me tell you something.
We still live in very prosperous times and very good times, generally speaking, and we
are blessed with a lot.
You know, you look throughout history, I was reading this book, one of my kids had this
book, it's called The Story of Texas, and you can basically just read about all the
different circumstances of Texas, and boy, I'll tell you, for a long period of time in
Texas, it was rough, it was brutal rough, and I didn't even realize, I guess, how much
of an impact the Native Americans had still in Texas, even in the 1800s, even in the early
1900s.
I mean, there's families that would move here to Texas and build a settlement, and then
just the Native Americans would come and just rape and pillage and just take it and just
kill everyone, even in the 1800s, and if it wasn't them, then the Mexicans would come
up and just rape and pillage and kill everybody, and so it was just like, you've got it from
all sides, you've got all kinds of foreign interests involved, you've got France wanting
to get involved, you've got Spain wanting to get involved, America, it wasn't until
they really got annexed by the United States that Texas became a little more stable of
an environment for people to even live, for the most part women didn't want to live here,
the ratio of women to men was like something crazy, like four to one, you know you guys
complain about not finding wives, let's put you back a couple hundred years, you got to
fight off the Mexican army, you got to fight off Native Americans and you're fighting on
a four to one ratio of women to men, good luck, you know today's world is way different,
it's way more opportunities, you know as everybody wants to go back to a specific point in time
it's like let's drop you back then and see how long you complain, you know and want to
come back, okay, so it's just interesting that people always want to complain about
their circumstances or their situation.
We live in one of the best times ever, like the complaint and this is what's so funny
about humans, it's like I guarantee even those people living in really crappy conditions
in the past, they probably complained less than the people now when they have even more.
It's funny, it's like you give people more and they complain more, they have a better
situation and they complain more and you put people in a much more humble situation often
they complain less and it's kind of a sad reality how spoiled people can get and how
ungrateful they can be and how little they actually understand about their circumstances
in their situation, constantly complaining and belly aching and moaning about their circumstances
rather than just blessing God for what they have.
Being a poor person in the richest nation is still way better than most circumstances.
So even if you are humble or you don't have that much money, first of all you're really
blessed anyways.
And then number two, a man's life consisted not in the abundance of things which he possessed
it anyways.
So according to the Bible, it doesn't even matter how much you have, obviously you can't
take it with you.
So at the end of the day, we should just be thankful for God, for what he does for us
and the good that he gives us.
And of course there's nothing wrong with having money because if we didn't have money then
the poor would have no one to help them.
Okay, so that's the whole point of this particular passage, is that you have people that have
money and what they're supposed to do with it in this particular passage.
In verse 6, it's bringing up a national idea, it says, "For the Lord thy God blessed thee
as he promised thee, and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow.
And thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee."
So the Bible is saying as a national policy, the nation of Israel could lend to a foreign
nation, whether that be Egypt or Samaria or Babylon, or just what are the nations that
exist at that time.
And for us, it would be a similar policy that America should technically only lend money
to China and Europe and Mexico and different nations, not that we should be borrowing a
ton of money from China and borrowing tons of money from other nations.
This is a bad policy.
Why?
Because borrowing ends up becoming subservient to the person that they're borrowing from.
And that's what it's saying.
It's talking about ruling.
Notice this.
It says, "And thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee."
When someone is in debt to another person, the Bible describes this as a picture of someone
ruling over you.
There's a principle in this in Proverbs.
Keep your finger.
Go to Proverbs chapter 22 for a second, and we'll notice this principle.
You say, "Who's in charge?"
The banker.
It's just the principle that the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches that the person that has the money is the ruler, is the real person
ruling.
Proverbs 22, look at verse number 7.
"The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."
This could raise all kinds of questions like about, I don't know, about the Federal Reserve.
I wonder who's really ruling America, who's really ruling the nation.
I'll tell you what it is, it's the person that everybody owes money to.
It's wherever the money goes back to.
And they're like, "Oh, you think a bunch of bankers are ruling over America?"
"Yes, I do."
Because guess what?
That's what the Bible teaches.
The Bible says that the borrower is servant to the lender.
So if our nation owes a bunch of money to a bunch of bankers, then guess what?
They're ruling over them.
There's this conspiracy theory that there's a bunch of Jewish bankers that a bunch of
European nations borrowed money from.
Well then I guess who runs Europe?
A bunch of Jewish bankers.
Just like America and just like Israel and just like the world, whoever is borrowing
the money is servant to the lender.
That's the biblical principle being taught.
And if we were going to have a Christian nation that was organized by Christian principles,
then we would not borrow money as a nation.
This is a bad principle, it's a bad idea, it's going to lend itself to being subservient,
being highly taxed, being taken advantage of.
And of course we're borrowing money from China, we're borrowing money from all kinds of places,
it's wicked, it's wrong, we shouldn't even do it.
We should get rid of that immediately.
We should pay all that off and not be like that because we should be technically ruling
ourselves and be independent.
We don't want to be constantly borrowing all this money from other people and having
them rule over us.
Going back to Deuteronomy chapter 15, Deuteronomy chapter number 15, often also how nations
work is when a nation conquers another nation, typically what they'll do is they'll exact
some kind of a tax upon that other nation.
And they basically have to pay them, I don't know, 15%, 20%, just some arbitrary number
of money to that other nation for having ruled over them, taken over them.
You'll see of many wars after the fallout of the war, there'll be an agreement and this
nation just has to pay all this money to the nation that beat them or survived or won.
And then it's funny, it's like we won World War II and then we pay money to Israel.
How does that even work?
Why would we give money to them like we won?
You're welcome.
You should be paying us money for not only, not only do we rescue you from Europe, we
also bought like, just gave you a nation in the Middle East and like did another war for
you.
It's like if anybody's going to pay money, it'd be the Palestinians.
But of course, that's a different argument.
But you know, at the end of the day, it's weird to be giving money to the people that
you conquered.
And they have to ask the question, did we conquer them or who conquered who, who's really
leading who around, who's really in charge.
And okay, our Congress today is able to receive lobbying money.
So pharmaceutical companies, all kinds of companies that receive government contracts
can pay money to Congress, give them money.
So who's really in charge?
Is it really our Congress members or is the people giving them money and paying them off
and buying them off?
You know, we need to eliminate insider trading, all lobbying, all this kind of stuff so that
we can actually have leaders that are in charge.
Do we have a nation that's in charge?
And when you don't, just don't fool yourself and think like, oh, no, we actually rule over
ourselves and we're actually in charge.
No, we're not.
The people that are giving them the money are the ones that are in charge.
And you say, well, who are the people giving the money?
I don't know, like BlackRock, because don't they own like 15% of all these companies that
are then giving them the money?
And then you like look into who owns BlackRock, and then you start noticing all these patterns,
and then you just see noses everywhere, you know, you're just noticing noses everywhere.
It's how it works, it's a dangerous, dangerous principle.
And of course, God warned them about these kind of things and not allowing foreigners
to come in, not allowing strangers to come in, not allowing them to rule over them.
Because if you, you know, go down this money path, it's going to be really hard to get
out of it.
It's a hostile thing.
It says in verse seven, "If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren, within
any of thy gates in thy land was the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden
thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother, but thou shalt open thine hand
wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need and that which he wanteth.
Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the
year of release is at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou
give us him not, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee."
So what is the Bible saying?
The Bible is saying, well, this seven year clock just happens on its own.
It's not like basically, I loan you money and then the clock starts then.
Clock is just always ticking, right?
So it could be, it's like, oh, we're in year six, and we know like next year we're going
to hit that seventh year, and so someone comes up, you're like, hey, I need to borrow some
money, and you're just thinking like, man, I'm going to give this money to this guy.
He's never going to pay me back.
I mean, it's going to hit the seventh year, you know, it's going to just basically hit
this thing.
So what does the Bible call this person?
It says in verse nine, beware that there'll be not a thought in my wicked heart.
So it's actually wicked to give money to somebody if, if you would only think like, I'm going
to get it back.
It's saying you should basically give without any kind of expectation.
And if he didn't pay you back, that you'd be fine with it.
And look, I think this is the principle that we should apply in the New Testament as well,
that anytime you give anybody anything, you should basically go into it with the idea
that I may never see this again.
I may never get repaid.
This might be a gift.
And I'm not saying that there could be a difference between gifts and loans.
You could loan money to people, but you should just go in with a heart principle of is it's
kind of like a gift.
So then that way, even if they don't pay you back or whatever, move on.
And if you did lend something to somebody, what would be a principle?
Even though this is not something that has been forced in our society, you could still
do it to yourself that if you give something to somebody and they're supposed to pay you
back and it's been a while, it's been years or something, then you just let it go.
That you just, at some point, you just say, "Hey," you know, they come back and they're
like, "Hey, man, I'll really get you, hey, man, I'm sorry I haven't got you," and maybe
just as a principle sometimes, you're just like, "Hey, you know what, I don't really
need it, don't even worry about it, just, just, it's good, we're good," and you just
kind of move on and you just kind of cancel the debt yourself.
And I would say like, this doesn't have to be a seven-year principle because think about
it, the, the seven-year principle was not, "I, I lend money to someone and I start a
seven-year clock," it could happen at any time.
It could have been one year from now, two years, three years, four, it could be within
seven.
So, probably a good principle, rule of thumb would be that if you borrow, if you lended
money to somebody, or if you give somebody, to somebody, it's been seven years, let it
go at that point.
But even beyond the seven, even before the seven years, at any point, it could just be
like, hey, you know, I just decided, I don't even want to, don't even worry about paying
me back.
Just have it.
Just let it go.
And it's kind of like, you're just enacting that principle as a discretionary thing, you
know, when prompted, when you feel is appropriate, as just a general principle.
Again, is this something that is a law?
No.
Is this what our society does?
No.
Just saying as a general Christian attitude, a general Christian principle, that you wouldn't
necessarily sit here and grab your fellow by the throat and demand that they pays you
ought and everything.
Because obviously we live in a paradigm of Christianity where Christ has forgiven us
and he's blessed us and so we should apply these same kind of principles to our brothers
and sisters in Christ.
Now again, there's also room for just giving people money or giving people stuff.
That happens and then there's also like actual just lending people things, letting people
borrow stuff and kind of using these principles to help us how would you handle that circumstance
or handle that situation.
Now it says here again in verse 9 that it would be wicked and your eye would be evil
if you do such a thing.
I think what the Bible is describing here is like this evil eye is just kind of this
idea that just it's just a covetous attitude in general where you just care so much about
money and you don't really care about people, you don't really care about just doing good,
you just kind of have this bad attitude and you're just a very covetous person.
This is mentioned in the New Testament, go over to Matthew chapter 20, it's not necessarily
the same situation, it's a different situation but it uses that same language and I think
it would be interesting to just compare these two.
So in one circumstance your eye could be evil because you just won't lend money because
you're afraid of not getting it back.
In Matthew it brings up a slightly different scenario, it's a scenario where you don't
get what you expected or you're expecting or hoping for more money based on a certain
circumstance and then you have what the Bible describes also as an evil eye.
It says here in Matthew 20 verse 11, "And when they had received it they murmured against
the good men of the house."
So these are a bunch of guys that agreed to go out and do work and the guys that worked
longer kind of thought based on how the situation unfolded they were going to get paid more
money than agreed.
Just because some people got paid a lot of money in their mind even though nothing has
been violated nothing even changed.
They say hey this guy comes up and hey I'll give you a penny to work today and they're
like okay and then they do the work but they saw some other guys get in later and still
get paid a penny and so in their mind they're thinking like they should have gotten paid
less than us.
So you know I'm guessing I'm going to get more than you know if this guy is going to
be quote fair I'm going to get quote more.
But whenever it's time for them to get paid you notice in verse I'm sorry let's read
verse 10 but when the first came they suppose that they should have received more and they
likewise received every man a penny and when they received it they murmured against the
good man of the house.
So they kind of thought oh I'm going to get more.
Not based on the guy saying he's going to get more.
The guy didn't get everybody lined up and say hey I decided I'm just going to get everybody
more than I actually said.
Then you could be like well you said you were going to get more and then you didn't.
They got exactly what they were owed.
Some other people got more than they think they deserve.
And as we keep reading it says in verse number 12 this is what they said these last have
wrought but one hour and thou hast made them equal unto us which have borne the burden
and heat of the day.
But he answered one of them and said friend I do thee no wrong did this not thou agree
with me for a penny take that thine is and go thy way and I will give unto this last
even as unto thee is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own is thine I
evil because I am good so the last shall be first and the first last for many be called
but few chosen.
Now let's think about the circumstances here notice that they say they've made them equal
unto us so you know what these people did not like they did not like equality and in
a sense you could say like I have extra goods you are without I don't want to give my extra
goods to you because it's so close to the seventh year that you may not pay them back
and what could end up happening what would happen if I take some of my money and I give
it to somebody else that has less it's going to equalize us more isn't it now it may not
be perfectly equal but it's just going to equalize us even more than we were prior to
the particular situation and then what does the Bible say I'm not going to give it because
what my eye is evil so it's like this heart of man there's this attitude in man that is
very covetous and he doesn't want people to be equal they don't want people to be blessed
they don't want people to have more fortune than them to have more goods than them they
want everything to be just exactly just and exactly equal or for them to be ahead and
what does the what does the Bible say this is an evil eye and what's crazy is this guy
hired them gave them money and now they're mad at him they're mad at a guy for hiring
them and giving them exactly what they owed paying them and even paid them on the day
that they did the work it wasn't two weeks later there's no FICA taken out I mean this
guy gave them exactly their wage and then they're mad at the guy you know what this
happens and people add this attitude you know it's wicked it's wicked where you know someone
will do good unto somebody and then people get mad at them think about it it's like you
know this could happen in any circumstance and this definitely happens in a family if
i just gave one of my kids an ice cream wouldn't all the other kids just throw a fit i mean
they'd be like where's mine and of course this always happens you know it's hard to
take you know when you get when you start getting lots of kids you get like six seven
whatever it's hard to take them all everywhere with you so you know sometimes we just i just
pick it's like okay you get to go with me this time or you get to go and it's always
they just always throw a fit and they get mad because it's like i wanted to go or it's
my turn or i wanted to get this or you know it's just like it's never equal exactly and
you know frankly speaking well i do try to be nice to my kids i try to be equal as much
as i can i also sometimes i'm just not going to be equal because i want to teach them it's
like life isn't always equal and you know what you better not have a bad attitude just
because one of your siblings gets something better than you or nicer than you because
that's just life that's just life and you know what i'm not a bad person for blessing
one of my children think about it am i not a bad person if i just give one of my kids
something nice am i not a bad person because i didn't give all of my kids something but
that sometimes the logic that people have you could have that even in a church you'd
have them in a church where you know the pastor or somebody blesses a certain person in the
congregation give somebody an opportunity help somebody and then people get mad like
oh must be nice must be nice that you get blessed must be nice that you got this must
be nice to go on a trip must be nice to go hang out with Pastor Shelley but am I a bad
person for being nice to people is thine eye evil because I am good you know you're wicked
you have an evil eye if you're gonna be mad at me for blessing people in the congregation
because you didn't get blessed you know that's a bad attitude that is the wrong attitude
that's the wrong idea and you know you could do this to anybody in the room you know there
could be a church member in here that hands out a Christmas present at Christmas but
you didn't get one well don't get mad at them for doing something good oh this person invited
people over for Thanksgiving but I didn't get invited why can't you be pleased that
they invited people over thanksgiving were good to people oh this person gave this person
a ride this person gave this person a meal this person gave them a shirt Pastor Shelley
gave them this opportunity it's like quit being a jerk when people are doing good stuff
now look if I go over and I stab your tire you can get mad at me if I come over and I
slap you around for no reason you can get mad at me if I if I'm a rude jerk to you
then you have reason to get mad at me but why would you get mad at somebody for blessing
people why would you get mad at people for doing good unto people but then that is the
heart of man isn't it that's what's in our flesh that's in that covetous evil eye where
we look at something good happening to someone and we get mad because it's not for us or
we get mad because of sharing sharing is a hard lesson for people I mean this guy has
to lend but see you know what the biblical principle is is that when you lend unto the
poor and they don't pay you back God pays you back so then so then why do you have to
have this this wicked heart it's it's an absence of faith and it's living in the flesh and
it's being carnal and it's having evil eyes and you know what we should not have this
attitude where when someone does something good we have a negative feeling towards them
or a bad idea towards them and we should also if hey someone needs something and we're going
to bless them we shouldn't have a negative attitude like I bet he won't even repay me
you know if you actually have the right mindset if you actually had a lot of faith you know
what you would think I hope he doesn't repay me so that God will that would be the right
attitude the right attitude would be like you know I hope that the pastor blesses people
I hope that other people good things happen to them I hope someone takes care of them
I hope someone gives him a coat I hope someone gives him a ride I hope someone gives him
a meal I hope someone does something good under them I wish I could have been the person
to do that I wish I could help more people instead of being like why doesn't why don't
you help me you know there's there's two different attitudes in this room there's an attitude
of I want to help more people and there's the attitude of who's gonna help me and you
know what you can have an evil eye or you could be the kind of person like I don't want
to help anybody you know I I'm here on my own two feet look you got a lot of stuff no
matter who you are you've probably been blessed people done good unto you we all like to think
of ourselves as like why you know I'm here because I'm just so awesome okay mr. awesome
you know you've received a lot of good in your life too and a lot of people have helped
you out along the way so you know what you should have an attitude of paying it forward
and blessing other people you're gonna reap what you sow you should do good unto people
lend hoping for nothing in return as the Bible describes it and not having this evil eye
of just constantly holding on to everything and being Mr. Scrooge being the banker you
know he hates Christmas it's Mr. Scrooge the banker right I wonder who that pictures Gove
it back to Deuteronomy chapter 15 now why do you keep hitting on the Jews well they're
in the Bible I don't know and don't be thinking about other people think about yourself be
careful that you don't start getting this evil eye that you get mad when someone does
good to other people where you don't get the opportunity or you don't get whatever yeah
that's a bad attitude and look when you show this kind of an ugly attitude it makes me
want to help you less it makes me want to give you less opportunity and less money and
hire you less that the this guy that hired them he doesn't want to hire them as much
as the guys that only work the hour because of their bad attitude is thine eye evil because
I am good you know who you want to hire next you want to hire this guy that complained
and grumbled and murmured after getting paid what was owed or do you want to hire the guy
that didn't complain has a good attitude that's excited for people oh they made them equal
you know you need to have a humble attitude and you need to bless other people and care
more about other people and it's you know it's just it's really really infuriating
when you do good to someone and then people complain about it and people get mad about
it and the people want to attack you because oh you blessed this other person well you
know that's how life works you know who you should get mad at people that are just you
know running the you know the country those are not the the the baddest pastors of this
world the churches of this world your parents are not the people to get mad at okay deuteronomy
chapter 15 let's keep reading here it says in verse number 10 thou shalt surely give
him and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou give us unto him because that for this
thing the lord thy god shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou putest
thine hand to for the poor shall never cease out of the land therefore I command thee saying
thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother to thy poor and to thy needy in thy land
what does the bible say the bible is saying don't get mad about people needing money don't
get mad about people having want just open thine hand wide just bless people do good
unto people help people don't look down upon anybody that needs something just have a good
heart be happy to help be excited to encourage people you know we all need help from time
to time we all need you know a boost or whatever it is and we should never look down upon people
just because they need something what does the bible say in our heart we should not be
grieved when we give unto them god loves a cheerful giver is what the bible says and
look this is an important principle again I don't know exactly how to manage that for
you but you know I would never give money if you have like a bad attitude about it because
this is not really what the bible teaches you should try to have a good attitude about
it but don't be like well I don't give money because I just have bad attitude about it
no fix your attitude but try try to fix your attitude so that when you give you know you're
essentially going to be blessed by God for doing so God loves a cheerful giver the bible
says God loves it when someone gives with simplicity too you know you know God doesn't
love mortgage contracts boy talk about not being simple if you ever buy a house the paperwork
involved at the mortgage company and again we're talking about on a on a loan if you
buy a house in cash it's easy you buy a house with a mortgage wow it is it's like more documentation
than the bible itself you're gonna sit here and sign forever it's just like sign this
and this you're not a terrorist you didn't do drug money and like all kinds of just crazy
nonsense you know they have to go through and sign you promise this you promise that
it's called a promissory note I mean it's it's more involved than what most people do
at their wedding ceremony I mean you're gonna spend more time promising the bank that you'll
pay them back then you will promise that you'll never leave your wife that's how serious that
kind of thing is you know the Bible is saying though we should be giving with simplicity
you know not with this is huge contract with all these rules and regulations and stipulations
and just all I mean that's just that's not really giving that's not really lending in
the same way and you know that's not God's that's not God's design if you're giving
money to a foreign nation okay let's bring out the paperwork but when it comes to you
you know your brothers and sisters in Christ you know hey we should give with simplicity
we should be kind we should be charitable this should be the attitude that we have when
we give it says in verse 12 and if thy brother and Hebrew man or in Hebrew woman be sold
unto thee and serve thee six years then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free
from thee and when thou sendest him out free from thee thou shalt not let him go away
empty thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of thy floor and out
of thy winepress of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou
shalt give unto him and thou shalt remember that that was a bondman in the land
of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee therefore I command thee this thing
today so we're kind of transitioning a little bit from just goods and
possessions that are being lent to an actual person being like an indentured
servant and he's bringing up the idea of an indentured servant being an actual
kinsman an actual brother an actual Hebrew as the Bible describes him here
verse 12 and if thy brother and Hebrew man so it's making a distinction here to
an actual citizen of your nation and he's saying if they were sold unto thee
that you would let them go so no one could be a slave just permanently for
life or an indentured servant for life and again if you were a servant and
you're just living on their land and working their field and doing their
stuff if at the end of the seven years they let you go but you have no money no
goods no place to live well then what's gonna happen they're just gonna stay
there and so whether or not you have this law on the books or not they're
just gonna be a slave anyways just because of principle so that's why the
Bible is saying that when you send them out you can't send them out empty it
says in verse 14 thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of
thy floor and out of thy winepress now of course Jacob this is before the law
but of course Jacob leaving Laban it was important that he didn't just go out
with nothing because then he's gonna struggle so that's why he struck a deal
with Laban and he's saying hey of all the all the sheep that are spotted and
speckled and grizzled you know I'm gonna take all of them and then of course God
just basically turned the entire flock you know spotted speckled and grizzled
so then he basically got all the wealth and he got to just leave with basically
most of Laban's wealth at the end of the day again that's not necessarily Laban
exercising this particular principle that was God exercising that principle
but when you won't exercise that principle the wealth of the sinners laid
it for the just as the Bible says and maybe God will just figure out a way to
get to him anyways but what we should do is consider this principle that if
someone were to serve us like this that we don't want them to just go away empty
we want to furnish them liberally you know and you know there could be a lot
of applications this I don't know all the ones that you could think of but one
that I think of is you know we had a pastor Jill and Oz came and worked for
us and of course you know moving is expensive and you know working for the
church can be not necessarily the best career move you know I don't know if
you understand that or not but it's not always necessarily the best career move
it's like having someone just be here and serve here and move here and work
for us for a while you know at the end of the at the end of the day when we let
him go wouldn't want to just necessarily be like all right bye thanks it was like
hey we kind of think like hey let's furnish him kind of liberally that's
like help him let's bless him and of course we did you know we were very
liberal to him and his church and everything you know the anchor Baptist
Church we made sure that they had lots of money in their account when they
left you know and they got to be their own little church and of course if it
was insufficient hey we're still you know Papa bear we're still ready you
know help out and be liberal and do good under them if they've needed but
you know we just didn't want to be this kind of person where it's just like all
right bye you know good luck Chuck we wanted to say like hey we want to be
liberal and furnish you and do good under you so you can stand on your own
two feet so you can still do good you can be successful and so we can apply
this principle obviously even with your own kids you don't have to give them
anything but it would be nice if you know parents could potentially liberally
bless their children as they leave or as they go on that they get they get some
kind of a portion and I'm sure in today's society a lot of people are not
getting that but hey that would be a good principle that would be a good
thing my parents did give me a little bit of money whenever I left and it was
a big blessing it was a great you know start to life and so at the end of the
day you know that would be another way that we could you know apply this
particular principle you know if you have a teenage I mean think about this
if you have a teenager you might work them from 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 you
might work them pretty hard well be nicer than furnish them liberally after
that seven years you know what I mean it's like they've been sitting there
mowing the lawn doing the trash doing all this work around the house doing you
know running errands doing all this kind of labor for you then hey you could
furnish them liberally you could help them you could bless them some as they
leave as they go on and this has been traditionally how things work
traditionally parents would lay up for the children the children lay up for the
parents with the parents lay up for the children that they would bless their
children they would do good under the children they would help them
financially they would give them a kickstart but now you know boomers are
too concerned with themselves that I guess a lot of them didn't really do
that but again that's a principle that's an idea that you know I think
could be also applied here because most of us don't have a servant I don't know
don't I'm not asked to raise their hands I don't think very many people of us
have an indentured servant at home but you could have teenagers and again here
would be another principle you have somebody that works for you and they did
a really good job that perhaps that you might bless them when they leave do good
under them when they leave you know if they did a good job obviously if they
rage quit obviously if they did a bad job obviously all these are things maybe
not you know a lot of companies that are that are good companies and that good
employees they'll give them nice severance packages or they'll give them
nice you know retirement packages or they'll give them extra bonuses whenever
they leave because they did such a good job working for them again that's a
principle that's being applied here from the text or from the Bible and so I
think that that's something that we could learn he says in verse number 16
and it shall be if he say unto thee I will not go away from me because he
loveth thee and thine house because he is well with thee then thou shalt take
an all and thrust it through his ear under the door and he shall be thy
servant forever and also under thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise so
we have another principle here of a particular person not wanting to leave
their master and again we use these words master or servant you know some
people get triggered by these words or whatever but in general it just think
about it you could have a guy that's just very wealthy has a really nice
portion of land has a huge farm has a big enterprise and this guy's it's like
you know I could go on my own but honestly I'm doing so good with him I'd
rather just stick with him and just keep serving him and what the Bible is saying
is this guy just wants to stay here and just wants to be a servant they would
they would put an all through his ear and it's just like they would basically
make a hole just make some kind of a hole through his ear and then it would
just be a mark establishing that this guy is his servant forever so it's it's
it's basically indicating that he's not gonna ever the next year of release he's
not leaving it's just kind of a it's kind of a contract between the two guys
like hey I'm your guy forever you know there's a there's a movie I like this
movie it's the Count of Monte Cristo who's ever seen this movie okay it's a
really good movie there's a point in the movie where the main character and I'm
not gonna spoil the movie but there's a point in the movie where the
character rescues a guy kind of and the guy after he's done he's like I'm your
man forever he just kind of like makes this statement unto him and it's just
kind of like this principle where this guy's like hey I'm dedicated to you I'm
gonna be loyal to you I'm gonna serve with you and again that's helpful you
know there's a lot of people in the Bible that seem to be like loyal
servants loyal second men you know a guy that's just not necessarily gonna be
the top guy not everybody gets to be the top guy but he just wants to serve with
them you know people want to serve with David that are loyal to David there was
men that were loyal to Saul there's men that are loyal you know there's the
armor-bearer that's constantly just mentioned Jonathan's armor-bearer this
guy's armor-bearer there's you know Paul and Silas you know you kind of got this
guy that's like a companion that's like there to help him or whatever you have
this picture in a biblical office you have people that are like deacons you
have people that are kind of in a lower level of status perhaps but still very
important to the church they're just saying hey I just want to be a deacon I
just want to be a servant I just want to do whatever I can to help the church
there's nothing wrong with that and you know this is a permanent mark that is
put on this particular guy I want to focus on this we'll we'll finish the
last part here in a minute but go if you would to let's go to Galatians chapter
number six from I preached a whole sermon on this this principle in this
concept but I think it's great to remind ourselves kind of of some of these
principles but you think about this is like a permanent mark and I think of the
Bible describes this idea of permanent marks and of course there's a lot of
spiritual symbolism in this entire chapter of course when we talk about
redeeming what is the ultimate redemption the ultimate redemption is
the Lord Jesus Christ purchasing all of our sins and you know while people may
not like this fact but being poor especially in America is often a result
of sin in the sense of just you weren't good money manager you were selfish you
were lazy whatever there was some kind of an issue and as a result especially
if you're getting into these extreme versions of debt extreme versions of
poverty it's probably they're just being lazy there's some problem there's some
issue there and someone paying off your debt paying off this picture is kind of
a picture of our sin debt none of us are perfect we've all sinned we've all come
short of the glory of God and someone's gonna just allow our entire debt to be
erased and of course seven is kind of a number of completion of perfection in
the Bible you have the seven days of creation and the seventh day is the
Sabbath day where of course you cease from your own works and you enter into
this rest and the rest is of God in the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ paid
for all of our sins and we enter into his rest we cease from our works in the
context of salvation and that all of our debts are forgiven you know I like
about this principle in the chapter is notice it never mentioned the amount of
debt notice it never said like the big debts or the small debts or whatever
it's just like every debt just released and of course it's only to the Hebrews
the strangers hey they're still going to hell only those that are saved hey they
got all their debt wiped away they got all their debt cleaned off and they're
they're totally taken care of and it's only for quote the poor in a sense that
it's only for sinners right obviously that problem is we're all sinners so the
Lord Jesus Christ in order for this to happen he has to do something what does
he have to do he has received permanent marks in his body from the cross and
he will then with that purchase our freedom forever and so in a same way
this guy is kind of getting this permanent mark you know it's kind of
similar how the Lord Jesus Christ has permanent marks for us but then there's
another aspect of this beyond just the salvation perspective because when you
get saved salvation's free notice in the in the passage we read the servant gets
redeemed he can just go he can do whatever he wants but he says you know
what no I want to stay and I'm gonna get an all through my ear so this is
going beyond the free salvation that he got the free redemption that he got that
he's now choosing to be a servant but to be a servant there's a cost and the
reality is that in Christianity there's tons of people that will accept the
redemption that will accept the free gift of salvation and will just move on
with their life but few will decide you know what I actually want to serve Jesus
too though why because there's a cost associated because there's a mark
associated with such a thing and of course the Apostle Paul brings this up
in the book of Galatians chapter number six he's bringing up this in contrasting
preaching the gospel and receiving persecution as a result of it but look
at what it says in verse 12 as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh
they constrain you to be circumcised only less they should suffer persecution
for the cause of Christ for neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the
law but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh
so he's saying that the people that preach work salvation they don't get
persecuted by anybody. Isn't that interesting that the churches that teach work
salvation nobody really cares that they exist they just get to do whatever they
want because the offense of the cross has ceased they don't suffer
persecution for the cross of the Christ now it says in verse 14 but God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world so the Apostle Paul uses a strong
language here saying he's crucified he says here in verse 15 for in Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature
and as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them in mercy and upon
the Israel of God from henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body
the marks of the Lord Jesus so the Apostle Paul had to actually physically
bear marks in his body for having served the Lord Jesus Christ arguably these
are you know marks from being whipped being beaten being stoned having
actually gone through physical torture as a result of being a preacher of the
gospel and he's saying hey I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ in my
body just like this guy getting this all in his ear to what serve his master and
many times serving the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna have its marks as well
and what you have to do is you have to count the cost go view into the Luke
chapter 14 you know the Bible tells us in the book of Romans chapter number
12 about our spiritual journey says I beseech you therefore brethren by the
mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly
acceptable in the God which is your reasonable service according the Bible we
are to be a living sacrifice this is that picture of what it costs to
actually serve the Lord Jesus Christ Luke chapter number 14 look at what it
says in verse number 26 here if any man come to me and hate not his father and
mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own
life also he cannot be my disciple and his servant does not bear his cross and
come after me cannot be my disciple for which of you intending to build a tower
sit is not down first and counted the cost whether you have sufficient to
finish it less happily after you have laid the foundation and is not able to
finish it all that we hold it began to mock him saying this man began to build
was not able to finish or what king going to make war against another king
sit if not down first and consulted whether he be able with 10,000 to meet
him that come up against him with 20,000 or else while the other is yet a great
way off he sent it than ambassage and desires conditions of peace so
likewise whose server he be of you that forsake if not all that he asked he
cannot be my disciple salt is good but if the salt of loss of Savior wherewith
shall be seasoned is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill but men
cast it out he that ears to hear let him hear what does the Bible saying the
Bible is describing that if you are going to serve the Lord Jesus Christ you
have to sell out you have to forsake all that you have look at a picture I mean
this guy has the freedom to go do whatever he wants according the text he
supposed to be furnished liberally of many goods and he says you know what I
don't want any of that I just want to stay here and serve my master and this
is a picture of the Christian life this is the picture of the actual disciple
that the Bible says he forsakes all that he has and he counts the cost and he's
willing to bear a permanent mark to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ now
look I'm not saying that every single Christian and every single disciple
will have a physical mark that they have to actually bear but I will tell you
this ye in all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution
you will bear marks you will bear burdens you will suffer persecution you
will go through hardships and you have to ask yourself this question are you
willing to do such a thing will you count the cost and say you know what
here my Lord send me yeah line my ear up against the wall and drill a hole in it
because I'm ready you know the Apostle Peter thought he was ready at one point
in his life but then when the push came to shove he went away and wept bitterly
for having been a coward for having not been able to actually do so but the
Bible says later he was converted and he's willing to die for the cause of
Christ but let me tell you something there's a difference between being
saved and being a disciple huge difference what's the difference one is
forsaking all and bearing permanent marks it's interesting parallel that
women in order to have children they have to get pregnant I don't know if you
know this it's a it's an interesting violet biological fact right but often
getting pregnant you're gonna have permanent marks as a result you know
stretch marks and even possibly more as a result of this in order to give life
she has to go through this permanent marking process the same way the way
that Jesus Christ gave us life is he had to get marked and you know what for
other people to get saved and for other people to go into the kingdom of heaven
it's gonna take Christians saying I'm willing to bear marks so that other
people can have life so that other people can be saved the person that it
has a zero effort and zero energy and the Christianity will get no one saved
I would love to believe that you could just get saved for free and just live
your life normal and people just walk up to you and be like what must I do be
saved sirs you know who got that question asked them the Apostle Paul in
prison the guy that was shackled in prison bearing the marks of the Lord
Jesus Christ he's the one that they bowed down and said sirs what must I do
to be saved that just fall into his lap and look if you're a soul winner if you
are you know following God I think that occasionally God's gonna bring people
that just basically just jump in the boat and they're like save me but let me
tell you something I lived for a long time in my life not being a soul winner
and not really doing much for God and you know how many times you are just
begging for me to get them saved never so you know if you really want people to
jump in the boat you got to go ahead and just start fishing you become a fisher
of men and like if you're a follower if you're a disciple Lord Jesus Christ he
will make you a fisher of men this is this is a question you should ask
yourself you know how much so winning you do because that tells me how much you
love Jesus and how much your disciple Jesus you see people not going so
winning de-emphasizing so winning I'll show you someone that's not following
Jesus and not a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ you can tell people it's
like oh why do you guys make a big deal about numbers and why do y'all care so
much about so many why do you act like so many so important because I want to
be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and look if we're not disciples of the
Lord Jesus Christ you know it'll be evident from our fruit because look this
is powerful God's words are powerful people that dedicate themselves to the
Spirit of God and are filled with the Holy Spirit they're gonna make a big
impact in this world I believe our God is extremely powerful and you know what
someone's not just walking around filled with the Spirit of God accomplishing
nothing the person that is filled with the Spirit of God is gonna preach like
the power of this book it's gonna get people saved like the power of this book
it's gonna do great exploits like the power of this book it's gonna piss
people off like this book does and you know what the person that's doing
nothing it's because they're not filled with the Spirit of God oh well you know
what people aren't gonna like you well count the cost you're gonna have family
issues count the cost you're gonna have to make sacrifices financially and
personally yep count the cost you know what some people say hey line my ear up
and drill a hole in it I love my master notice why he did it because he loves
his master why does someone dedicate themselves to the things of God because
they actually love God the person that doesn't doesn't really love God he said
hey if you can't do these things you can't be my disciple don't fool
yourself don't think like you know I can be a disciple of Jesus Christ and hang
on to all this other stuff wrong you have to in your heart kiss a goodbye and
say hey that's not what I want I'm done with that I just want to serve the Lord
Jesus Christ go back to Deuteronomy chapter 15 important principle and
powerful principle being taught here of redemption hey you've been bought with a
price therefore we're supposed to glorify God our body and our spirit you
know we're we're supposed to serve God we've been created unto good works but
of course we have the free will to decide that God didn't line everybody up
and put an all in their ear the guy that chose it got that but he did freely let
everyone you know go everybody gets the redemption all the Hebrews got the
redemption meaning what every saved person is saved every person that
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved but not everybody got the the all
through their ear not everybody's a disciple not everybody's a servant not
everybody loves the Lord Jesus Christ and you say who are those people the
people that have forsaken all they've counted the cost they're producing fruit
they're a fisher of men that's the person that's what it looks like and you
know what that's why the Apostle Paul said follow me as I follow Christ why
the Lord Jesus Christ made it clearer you know hey if you follow me I will make
you a fisher of men and then you know after he preached everybody laughs he's
like well you go away also so you know what do you what do you expect you would
you would expect that whoever is a disciple Lord Jesus Christ has those
attributes droves leaving them and the few doing the work you see the hated of
this world producing lots of fruit powerful preaching people want to cut
his head off you know just all of these factors that's where the Spirit of God
is you know church drama I mean show me the epistle in the Bible that doesn't
have any drama I want you to preach something nice okay show me the
epistle where there's zero drama zero problems zero controversy zero
negativity I mean in some cases it's like the exact opposite it's like only
drama which is like only problems because that's the reality that's the
world that we live in and hey who are you are you the guy that's just gonna go
free or are you gonna be the guy that says hey I love my master and I want to
serve him let's finish this chapter it says here in verse number 18 he shall
not seem hard unto thee when thou sent us away free from thee for he hath been
worth a double-hired servant to thee and serving these six years and Lord thy
God shall bless thee and all that thou doest I think he's just saying like
Christian workers are the best workers so you shouldn't feel bad about blessing
them verse 19 all the first sling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock
thou shalt sanctify on the Lord thy God thou shalt do no work with the first
sling of thy bullock nor shear the first sling of thy sheep thou shalt eat it
before the Lord thy God year by year in the places the Lord shall choose thou
my household and if there be any blemish therein as if it be lame or blind or
have any ill blemish thou shalt not sacrifice on the Lord thy God thou shalt
eat it within thy gates the unclean and the clean person shall eat alike as the
roberg and as the heart only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof thou shalt
pour it upon the ground as water so again it's still talking about redeeming
all the animals had to be redeemed the first sling of every flock had to be
sacrificed and that was to redeem that that animal or that that parent animals
a sense and again the Lord Jesus Christ is the first sling of the flock and of
course he was the one that was sacrificed for us and some of the
pictures here is showing that the Lord Jesus Christ there was nothing wrong
with him because notice it says if it's lame blind or have any ill blemish you
weren't allowed to make that sacrifice in the Lord picturing how the Lord Jesus
Christ was the spotless lamb of God how he had no sin no problem no issue he
died as a perfect innocent spotless lamb and notice it's a male only the males
got sacrificed and notice only the firstling of the flock and notice it had
no blemish these are all prophecies of what the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna be
like he was gonna be a man he was gonna be the first he was gonna be without
spot out blemish perfect lamb that was the sacrifice for the sins of the world
if it did have any kind of blemish and it was the firstborn you were not allowed
to sacrifice it you were not allowed to eat that so you know in a sense it's
like if we trust in our own works we're trusting in a lame lamb we're trusting
in an ill like an ill-spotted or an ill blemish or a blind lamb you know and
that's not gonna be a sacrifice that God accepts God does not accept the blind
sacrifice or the blemish sacrifice so our works coming to him even if it is a
sacrifice I mean it would be a sacrifice to kill the animal but God doesn't care
about it God doesn't want it God does not respect that offering just like
Cain's offering was not respected by God God does not just respect any and all
offerings it has been offering according to his will and when it comes to our
sins you offering any other sacrifice than the Lord Jesus Christ will not get
you saved you have to put all of your faith and what he did and only sacrifice
him and that's the only thing that's gonna give you this particular you know
salvation and in verse 23 you're not supposed to eat the blood but you're
supposed to pour on the ground again another picture of how Jesus Christ's
blood was spilt for us and so you know a lot of the carnal truths we have in the
Bible are because of spiritual truths spiritual prophecies we don't eat the
blood it was spilled for us and in the life the life is in the blood you know
we're not these satanic weirdos that eat and drink blood and adrenochrome and all
that's a different story it's a different sermon right it's weird okay
I'm telling you it's like Jews do the exact opposite what the Bible says in
every single way and it's just it's crazy it's crazy to read this and then
be like a Catholic and be like all right come down get your blood why wouldn't
the Bible like the Bible is like clearly saying you don't eat it you don't drink
it you don't have anything to do with blood like we just pour it on the ground
and so that would that would be our principle obviously if you're out in the
wild you know slit its throat drain all blood then cook it you know don't eat
the blood that would be a negative thing so let's let's close in prayer thank you
heavenly Father so much for these principles of redemption thank you for
redeeming us through the sacrifice of your your son and what he died on the
cross for us and how he took permanent marks in his hands and his feet and the
crown of thorns just shoved on his brow that can picture for us you know the a
perfect sacrifice I pray that we would appreciate the sacrifice that you've
made for us and we wouldn't just go free and use our liberty for
ourselves but rather we also would be willing to take a permanent mark and be
willing to serve the Lord Jesus Christ because we love our master and I pray
that you would give people a heart and a mind and a zeal to actually want to
serve the Lord Jesus Christ and they would actually want to be his disciple
in Jesus name we pray amen for the last song of the evening we're gonna be in
hymn number 166 I will praise him great song to end on in number 166 I will
praise him, sing it out nice and loud, especially through the chorus.