Please take a seat.
Welcome to Shul Foundation Baptist Church Sunday afternoon service.
You will turn your hymnal to Psalm 409.
The fight is on Psalm 409.
Psalm, the trumpet's sound is ringing out.
The cry to arms is heard far and near.
The Lord of Hope is marching on to victory.
The triumph of the Christ will soon appear.
The fight is on, soldier.
And face to face, sing, "Stern Array."
With armor gleaming, streaming.
The right and wrong is strong.
And if God before His banner holds,
sing the victor's song.
Rouse these soldiers, bro.
And through the joy, victory will assure.
Go bomber guns, giving you and him.
For will is on, so.
And face to face, things turn dark.
Colors streaming bright and raw.
Gauge to day.
The fight is on.
He's strong.
The year before is better.
All sing the victor's song.
Defund to certain victory.
The burst the eastern sky.
His glorious name shall out the mong.
The dawn of peace is nigh.
So, Christian soldier.
And face to face, things turn ugly.
Color streamage to fight is nigh.
Be strong and ye smile.
If God be full, it's better.
Sing the victor's song.
We sing, let's open the service with a little prayer.
Thank you Lord for this wonderful sound day.
I pray that we'll have a great service and a great preaching from your word.
I pray that we'll take something away from the sermon.
I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Alright, turn to Psalm number 369.
Psalm 369, I know the Bible is true.
No one was sad from God.
Well-spotted Islam is that he returned to comforts me.
So, like you're seeing, this time let's go over the bulletin.
The verse of the week is Proverbs chapter 8, verse 36.
But he that sineth against me wronged his own soul.
All they that hate me love death.
That's why we should not celebrate Halloween,
because it's a holiday of darkness.
It's a holiday of death.
And looking at the inside page,
we have service time Sunday morning at 11,
Sunday afternoon service at 4,
and Wednesday night Bible study at 7 p.m.
This Wednesday we'll be going through judges,
chapter number 3.
We will see three judges in this chapter,
so please join us.
And then we have Sunday afternoon at 1.30,
and Saturday morning at 10.30 a.m.
Upcoming events, pie and pray service,
will take place during the Sunday afternoon service
on November 23rd.
Please bring a pie to share.
It will be a modified service with a shorter sermon,
with song requests and all the other fun activities.
Christmas service will take place on Sunday,
December 21st.
Please invite family and friends.
I will have a sign-up sheet for the potluck later,
probably in November.
And then Christmas Eve service will be on Wednesday,
December 24th.
So if you don't normally come on Wednesday,
this is the Wednesday that you want to show up.
And then please use the QR code for the baby registry.
Also, there's a link in the WhatsApp group as well.
There will also be a baby shower right after the service today.
And then Gary's Sonya Marathon next month will be November 22nd.
More details to come about the time and the meetup location.
And then December 27th is the winter Wonderland Sonya Marathon.
We'll meet up around one o'clock or Sonya for three, four hours,
and then we're going to probably go to City Barbecue or some place like that.
And then please help us with the cleaning of the church building right after the service.
If you flip on the back side, we have birthdays coming up.
We have my birthday and Brother Wade's birthday.
So let's sing Happy Birthday to Brother Wade.
All right, let's do it.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, God.
Self.
That's on Halloween.
So anyway, I'm kidding.
All right, let's sing one more song, and then we'll take up the offering.
Go to song number 396.
So little time.
396.
On the first.
So little time.
The harvest will be over.
Reaping down.
We reapers taken home.
Report our word to Jesus, Lord of harvest.
And hope He'll smile, and that He'll say, "Well done."
So go the day is king, us lost souls too.
To say some dear ones from the day when some sinner touch.
I shall have strongly plead, strictly warn.
Spirit, mood, I pledge Jesus.
The grained is false, once not reborn.
Day we reek, lost souls too.
To say some dear ones from the day when some sinners.
By the heat, ceaseless toil.
The harshest cannot win.
Understood regrets.
To say some dear ones from the day when souls are brought.
To have a sad to face the slacker lane.
To say some dear ones from the day when some sinners.
One reaper's fill his way.
Stains for saying some sinners.
Please come.
Brother Brett, would you pray for the offering, please?
We're going to be in Ecclesiastes chapter 6.
Ecclesiastes chapter 6 today.
If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand so you can read along.
Ecclesiastes chapter 6, verse 1 says,
"There's an evil which I have seen under the sun,
and is common among men.
A man to whom God have given riches, wealth, and honor,
so that he wants nothing for a soul of all that he desireeth.
Yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof,
but a stranger eateth it.
This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
If a man beget a hundred children and live many years,
so that the days of his years be many,
and his soul be not filled with good,
and also that he have no burial,
I say that an untimely birth is better than he.
For he cometh in with vanity and departeth in darkness,
and his name shall be covered with darkness.
Moreover, he have not seen the sun, nor known anything;
this have more rest than the other.
Yea, though he live a thousand years, twice cold,
yet have he seen no good, do not all go to one place.
All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
For what have the wise more than the fool?
What hath the poor that knoweth to walk before the living?
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire.
This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
That which have been is named already, and it is known that it is man.
Neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life,
which he spendeth as a shadow?
For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
Evangelist Justin, could you please pray for us?
So, let's look again here, let's look at verse number 9 here of the chapter I was just read in Ecclesiastes chapter 6.
It says here, "Better is the sight of the eyes than the wondering of the desire."
This is also vanity, vexation, and spirit.
And the book of Ecclesiastes really covers a lot of the life under the sun, and just
a lot of things are happening.
Ultimately, in itself, it's vanity.
But, you know, if you're here for the Wednesday night series where we went through the book
of Ecclesiastes, it finishes off saying, "Hey, as long as you're living for God, as long
as you're living for the things of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, actually, if that's
your end, well, everything leading up to it is actually very useful."
And that's what my sermon's going to be about.
The title of my sermon is, "It Ain't Tricky to be Thrifty."
It ain't tricky to be thrifty.
So this sermon is going to be basically talking about being thrifty, being small with your
finances, stuff you have, being resourceful.
And I think we as Christians should be resourceful.
We should.
I think God has given us a lot of things so that we can glorify him, ultimately, because
I don't think God wants us to be wasteful people and things of that nature.
If you will turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 6, 1 Timothy chapter 6.
Now before I get into this sermon, I'll be covering some things, how you can be thrifty,
some tips and tricks, how to save money and things like that, because things are getting
expensive.
I wanted to just make this clarification.
So my first point will be, do not desire to be rich now.
Well, we should work hard, earn money, pay our bills, save money on the side, so we can
have money to bless others with, to be a blessing to others, for the church and for other Christians.
By the end of the day, that's not what our life is about.
Our life is not about just getting money, just stockpiling food, clothing, wealth, things
like that.
This is what the Bible says here in 1 Timothy chapter 6, look at verse 6, it says this,
"But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and
is certain, weak in brain, carrying nothing out."
And Job also talks about this, "Hey, I was naked when I came into this world, naked shall
I return, blessed be the name of the Lord, the Lord giveth, he taketh away, blessed be
the name of the Lord."
Now, that should be our attitude, we should have a loose grip on everything that we have
in this life, but we should also put it to good use as long as we have it, you know.
It says in verse 8, "And having food and raiment, let us therewith be content, for they that
will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which
drown men in destruction and perdition."
And you could also say, hey, women, if they get sucked into this, they could also be drowned
into many hurtful lusts as well, because a lot of people really talk to the unsafe people.
That's really their desire to be famous, get rich, make a name for themselves, get famous,
leave themselves a legacy for the next generation, right?
Well, that can be fulfilled by being a Christian, because everything you do is eternal as a
Christian.
Everything you do for the Lord, how many souls you win, you just being encouraging to your
brothers and sisters.
You know, let's say someone's going through a tough time in this church, let's say there
was a job or something, you're there, you encourage them, be like, "Hey, brother, I
was there.
Here's some verses that got me through it.
Maybe they'll get you through it as well."
You know, that's going to last forever.
God's going to remember everything you do that's spiritual.
And that's why we have this innate desire to leave a legacy, because it's really to
please God, because that will be remembered for eternity in heaven.
It says in Proverbs 23 verse 4, "Labored not to be rich, cease from thy own wisdom."
So Bible talks about the wisdom of the world and how, you know, the world has its own wisdom,
and it works.
You know, "Hey, if you follow the ways of the wisdom of this world, you'll get rich."
But to what end?
You know, and that's really why I love the book of Ecclesiastes, because it really addresses
that.
Okay, yes.
You could get all this stuff.
You could work hard.
I mean, King Solomon was the richest man on the earth at the time.
He had everything you could have ever wanted—fame, wealth, women, everything—but what was the
end of it?
It was vanity.
It didn't bring him true happiness and joy in life.
That's why he went through that whole episode in the book of Ecclesiastes being like, "Well,
I guess the only thing that really matters is just having what you have from the Lord
and enjoying it and then just serving others."
Again, the end is not gained in wealth in itself, but it can be the means to the ultimate
end, which is bringing glory to God in his kingdom, to heaven.
And again, the desire to be rich is a trap and it will destroy your life.
It just will.
I mean, I've never met a person that is making a lot of money right now, and that's their
desire.
And they're just like, "Okay, I've made enough money.
That's it.
I'm good."
No, usually they're like, "I want to make more money.
I want to keep making more and more."
And this wasn't on my notes, this just came to my mind, but the parable of the guy that's
building his barn in the farm, he was like, "Well actually, I'm running out of room to
store my goods, so I'm going to build a bigger barn."
But Jesus says, "Hey, that night his soul is going to be required of him, he was going
to die that night."
So yeah, you could work hard, spend decades of your life just doing all this stuff, and
actually know you die.
And then that's it, you couldn't even get to enjoy it.
And that's why in that chapter in Ecclesiastes 6, it's an evil disease when men can't enjoy
the things that they earn and actually get.
So that's my first point.
That's a pretty short point, just a little caveat.
Hey, you know, I'm going to be talking about some ways to save money, maybe make money
to help you, you know, in your life because again, things are expensive, but that should
not be your desire.
That should not be your ultimate thing in life.
It should be so that you can be a better Christian, help others and things like that, be a blessing
to others.
So that's my first point.
Do not desire to be rich.
Point number two, God expects us to be good stewards of what we have.
So if you would turn with me to Proverbs chapter 27, we'll get into that.
And again, it says in Proverbs 27 verse 23, I'll read to you the verse, "Be thou diligent
to know the state of thy flocks and to look well to thy herds."
So the Bible says we should know the state of our flocks.
Now that can be interpreted in many different ways in our modern lives.
That could be your kids, make sure your kids are safe, they're healthy, they're getting
their nutrients and things like that.
Take care of yourself, make sure you're taking care of yourself as well.
I think God wants us to take care of our bodies to the best of our ability.
You know, make sure you're eating the right foods, you're getting exercise and things
like that.
But also, I'm more going to be applying this to financial.
Says here in Proverbs 27, look at verse 24, "I went by the field of the slothful, and
the vineyard of the man void of understanding."
So the applied is to modern day, let's say there's this lazy guy who owns a business,
and it's just run down.
It says, "And well, it was all grown over, with thorns and nettles had covered the face
thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down."
So this guy's not taking care of his property.
I mean, his wall's broken down, there's nettles and thorns overgrown and everything, right?
"Then I saw and considered it well.
I looked upon it and received instruction, yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little
full of new pants to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth, or as I want as
an armed man."
So it's always a little, right?
It always starts off with just, "Oh, I'm going to sleep in a little bit today."
"Oh, well, maybe I'll just skip church this Sunday, just to sleep in or something."
It always starts out with a little inch and next thing you know, you're going to be missing
out on a whole bunch of stuff, your whole life's going to crash and burn, but this can
also apply financially.
Now, "Oh, I really want this thing right now, so I'm going to spend the 50 bucks now," or
you could exercise some discipline in yourself, "Okay, I'll put a note on it, maybe I can
find it cheaper somewhere else and save that $50 for something else."
See, it always starts off something small.
That's what the Bible says we should be diligent instead of a flock, so financially speaking,
we should know how much money we have in our bank account so that we can be responsible
with it, use it so we can pay our bills, especially if you're a guy and you're a father of the
home and you're paying your bills, make sure everything's taken care of so that no one
in your house has to worry about if you're going to have food or not and everything
like that.
And in Proverbs chapter 24, you can turn it over if you want, Proverbs chapter 24 verse
30, it says this, "I went by the field, and of the slothful," again, the slothful man's
field, it's always run down, "and by the vineyard, and of the man void of understanding.
And while it was all grown over with thorns and nettles, had covered the face thereof,
and the stone wall there was broken down, then I saw and considered it while I looked
upon it and received instruction," oh, I already read that, yeah, we'll see, we'll
hold it in our hands, so again, you can look at other people's failures and get instruction
from it, right, that's what it says here, "I looked well and I received instruction,"
so it's, you know, a lot of people say this, and I agree with this statement, you know,
learn from your mistakes, absolutely, we should learn from our mistakes in our life, but even
better than that, learn from other people's mistakes, so that you don't have to make that
mistake, hey, I don't need to go out and waste my 20s getting drunk and come in for indication
to find out that it's bad for me, I can just look at other people that I work with, other
people I've known in my life, yeah, I don't want to do that, that's cool, I'm good, you
know, I don't want to get an STD, I don't want to get drunk and poison my body and destroy
my liver and next thing you know I get cancer or something like that, no I'm good, you know.
I think the last place for this one I want to turn to is Matthew chapter 20, you can
turn there, Matthew chapter 20, Matthew chapter 20 verse 1, "So for the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a man that is an householder which went out early in the morning to hire
laborers into his vineyard and when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day,"
so they agreed to a penny a day, that's their wage for the day, "he sent them into his vineyard
and he went out about the third hour and saw others," and notice verse 8 times we go to
verse 12, "so basically he hired a bunch of people, they were getting the same wage throughout
the whole day, some showed up later, he hired them later throughout the day, some worked
the whole day, but they all received the same payment," verse 12 it says, "saying that 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.
What didst thou not agree with me for a penny?
Take that thine is, and go thy way, I will give unto this last even as unto thee."
So they were getting a little envious and angry, because they were thinking, well, these
guys won't work for like two hours, how come they're getting the same pay that I got when
I worked all day?
Again, if you read in verse two, they agreed to a penny a day.
And that's the thing, when you let the desire to be rich into your heart, you can end up
like these guys, envious of other people, how much they're making.
I've met people like that, I know people like that, where, oh, when someone else is succeeding
financially in some way, they get a weird attitude where they hate that person now.
Like, especially in my family, I'm always happy if someone's doing well.
That should be your attitude as a Christian, and in church, if a brother or a sister is
just really excelling, really killing it, like it's soul winning or whatever, you should
be happy for that person.
You shouldn't be envious of that person.
I always, I never understood that attitude, it's just weird.
Like, oh, someone got 500 people saved, like, oh, you know, oh, that's great, more people
are going to hell, that's, I'm just amening because I'm like, great, at least someone
else is, you know, picking up the slack, doing the work.
So you can buy that spiritually and carnally, you know, if someone gets a promotion at work,
you should not be envious of that person, you should be happy for that person.
You know, I'll say this, at my job, where I work at right now, there are some people
that are in similar positions to me that make more than me.
I could be like the one get mad at that, or I'm actually happy about that because it gives
me hope because maybe one day I'll make that much amount of money.
That's my thought process.
Anyway, that's point number two, point number one, do not desire to be rich, point number
two, God expects us to be good stewards of what we have.
And again, whatever we have, it doesn't matter how much we're making, we should be grateful
what we have, we should be content with what we have and be good stewards of it.
We should be diligent with the state of our flocks.
We shouldn't just be wasting money at whatever, we should have discipline, be able to save
money.
I get it, in this economy it's hard to save money with inflation, it's crazy, the Jews
have done an absolute number on this economy and everything.
I get that.
But point number three, we must balance these two things.
Yes, we shouldn't decide to be rich, we also should be good stewards of things.
How do we balance these things?
This is how.
In Proverbs chapter 20 verses 23, it says that a false balance is an abomination to
God.
So, Daver's weights are an abomination unto the Lord and a false balance is not good.
So we should have everything in the right balance.
We should have our time where we're going over our budget, going over what's in our
bank account, what we need, but don't let that overtake your life.
That's all you think about.
There's a lot of people, they're so worried about it, they're like, "I have enough money
this week."
Especially if you're a saved Christian, God knows what you need.
He knows before you even ask.
He knows exactly what you need.
Especially if you're a saved Christian, He'll help you out.
He will.
So we should have that balance where we're still putting God first in our life, we're
still putting church and reading the Bible and everything like that, but sometimes our
worries financially about the future and things like that, that can grip people where to the
point you can't function and you're just like, what am I going to be able to do a couple
weeks from now, a couple years from now?
Now sometimes we just don't know, at some point we just got to put our trust in the
Lord.
It says in Proverbs chapter 11 verse 1, it says again, "A false balance is an abomination
to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight."
And I'll go to this, you don't have to turn here, but Matthew chapter 6 says this.
So again, how do we balance these things?
This is what it says here in Matthew 6 verse 33, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
All things.
"Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought of the things
of itself sufficient unto the day as the evil thereof."
So does God really want us to be just so overtaken by worry with what we're going to eat, what
we're going to drink, how much money we're going to make?
No.
Now I'm not saying not to care at all.
That's not what the verse is saying here.
It's just saying, hey listen, take care of the things you have, ultimately just have
faith in God that he's going to take care of you, and just leave it up to him and let
God be God.
Let him do his work.
That's how I've been operating for the last three to four years, just allowing God just
to take care of everything else.
It works.
It does.
Is it always easy?
No.
That's why very few people do it.
So that was my first section of the sermon, just kind of going over the biblical backings
of being a good steward, just how we balance these things, how we shouldn't desire to
be rich, how we should allow God to just do what he needs to do.
I'll say this.
Because a lot of people think, "Oh, I drive so far to church, I'm spending all this money
on carbine and stuff like that.
I need to stop doing that.
I need to go, you know, take, I got to work more hours, I got to work on Sunday, and if
I do that, I'll make more money, have more money."
Actually, you're going to lose money if you do that.
You'll actually end up being worse off than you were if you were just staying put where
you are.
And I'll be honest with you.
I'll confess my fault to you.
I have that thought sometimes.
I'm kind of like, "Well, I'm doing all this driving, man.
If I just stopped doing this long drive Wednesdays and Sundays, I saved so much money on gas."
But then I'm thinking, "But God knows I have the ability to go to the best church in my
area.
So if I stop doing that, well, I'm not going to have God's blessings as I've been getting
initially.
So actually, it's going to be worse.
God will just make something happen.
He'll just have the decayer come to my car or something, or something else would happen.
You think you'll be better off not serving God fully to your ability, but you'll actually
be worse off than you were before.
And tithing is always the thing too, like, "Oh, if I stop tithing, I'll save so much
money."
But you know what?
I'd rather...
I think Evangelo Hassan said this in his sermon.
Yeah, I think he did.
He said, "I'd rather have 90% of my finances blessed and 100% of it cursed.
I'd rather just have all...
I'd rather have 90% of my finances that I'm earning, and the first fruits goes to God,
and I get to keep 90% of it, but it's all blessed, than have 100% of it under his curse."
Because in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, it's just "curse, curse, curse, curse."
And that can also apply to us back-slutting Christians, if we're not doing his will.
Especially if we heard the preaching, we know better, as Christians, what we should be doing.
We know what's acceptable, and we just stop doing the things that we know is right.
I mean, God will really come down hard on us.
No, he's graceful, he's very merciful, he's very gracious.
He's not going to, like, the moment you do it, he's just going to have everything be
new.
No, he's not going to do that.
He'll give you time, and he's understanding, too.
Like, let's say you skip a couple Sundays to work or something, earn some, to earn some
extra money, but you repent of that, God's going to forgive you.
Now, it's not like immediately the moment we stop serving God or something.
It just comes out with a sledgehammer and just, that's it, you know.
Now could that happen?
Yes.
And the Bible talks about that throughout the Bible.
Yes, sorry Christians, but God does punish believers if you don't obey his commandments.
That's just what the Bible says.
It's all over the New Testament.
It's all over the Bible.
So on to section two of my sermon, kind of more the practical tips on how to be thrifty,
be a good steward of the things you have.
So and you know, this one was a big theme for me.
I won't want to preach on it for a while because gas is just getting so expensive.
Show fans, who here is familiar with the app GasBuddy?
Car view?
Awesome.
Okay, cool.
Yeah, so that's what I'll be talking about.
Like the best way to maximize GasBuddy to save a lot of money on gas.
So a little bit about my driving situation throughout the week.
I drive roughly 600 miles a week with my car.
That's how much I drive to work every day and then to church Wednesday and Sunday.
That's about how many miles I put in my car every week.
That's why I went for the hybrid because, you know, they're very reliable when it comes
to that.
So what I've been doing for almost two years now is I'll get the premium membership for
GasBuddy, which is 10 bucks a month.
And I'm saving on average, like I'd say 30 to $40 a month overall, just doing that.
And then on top of that, go to a gas station that I'll only gas up at, and then I'll sign
up to their gas program, and then I'll earn points that way.
So now I'll stack both of them.
Between those two things, I'm saving on average a week, like three to four bucks every week,
just doing these two things.
So on top of that, I'm saving like $20 or $30 right there.
So I'm spending roughly $25 to $35 a week on gas for driving 600 miles right now to
the church.
And that's a great way to really be a good steward with the things God has given you.
Now I'm not saying you're going to get those exact numbers because every car is different
with gas mileage and rates and things like that, but this is a great way to really get
back at the, you know, at my old Ivy church I went to, my pastor called it the gas cartel
companies because they would always be so expensive and stuff like that.
It was kind of funny.
That's a good way to save money right there is everyone's got to gas up their cars, right?
Everyone's got to put gas in their cars to go anywhere.
So that's a great way to do it right there.
And just from me doing that consistently for almost two years, I've saved almost $1,000
just doing that.
And it's nothing special.
And I also snap receipts to earn extra cash as well.
You can get gift cards, stuff like that, just there's free apps you get on your phone to
do that.
And next thing you know, you're earning extra cash and gift cards.
It's just free money, just money you wouldn't be getting if you weren't doing it before.
And Proverbs 13, chapter 13, you can turn it off if you want Proverbs chapter 13.
So why go through all this? Why am I doing this?
"Wealth gone by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathers by labor shall increase."
So that's the thing. I'm earning, I'm working on my job, just getting a paycheck, working
hard on my job, and then whatever money I'm getting, I'm trying to keep as much as possible.
You know, that's what, that's what God wants us to do so that we can have more money to
bless others with. So that was my fourth point. Play the gas rewards points game and you'll
save big on gas. And point number five, this is just a good tip in general when shopping
to be a smart shopper to save, to save a lot of money to when you need stuff. Never pay
anything full price. You don't need to pay anything full price ever. Most of the time
you can find a deal somewhere. Um, I don't know if anyone's familiar with the app called
Woot, but it's a company owned by Amazon and they have like all sorts of surplus items
on there that is great to get. Like I just got a Roomba recently, you know, those, uh,
robots that, you know, vacuum up around the house. They're usually like $200, $250. I
was able to get one on Woot for $60. Now they have refurbished and surplus items on there
for sale for like over 70% off most of the time. So, you know, it's not like we as Christians,
you know, we'll sometimes work jobs, we'll have to make financial sacrifices for it because
we want to be in church, right? We want to be at church on Wednesday nights and Sundays.
So there's some high paying jobs that unfortunately you just won't be able to work for it because
of that stipulation, right? That doesn't mean you have to fight the financial bully. You
can actually find good deals and still maintain the same rate of spending and earning as someone
else that isn't going to church on Wednesday and Sunday. So you can actually almost be
parallel with that if you're looking for good deals and being a smart shopper. And nothing
is goodwill. I love goodwill because everything I'm wearing right now pretty much is on goodwill
except for my shoes because that's the only thing I don't cheapen myself on is good pair
of shoes. But pretty much everything I, I mean my whole outfit is less than $20. I just
got this from goodwill. You know you don't have to go to the, you don't have to go to
Target or Tarjay. I heard people say Tarjay. It's like oh it's a fancy store you know.
You know we don't need to have the newest fanciest thing all the time. We could just
have a hand-me-down. Or just something that's on sale. There's nothing wrong with it you
know. You know like I said goodwill is great for clothes. I mean goodwill has everything.
They got clothes, they got house appliances, they got all sorts of stuff. They got books
if you like reading. You know there's great books. Thrift stores are also great places.
Garage sales you know are just great places to go to get stuff that are cheap. And turn
with me to Proverbs chapter 31. Now of course Proverbs chapter 31 is talking about the virtuous
woman but this I believe this can also apply to us just to both sexes to both man and woman
just on being a good steward. Being thrifty. It says here in verse 13 of Proverbs 31,
she seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands. Now we should be able to
work with our hands. That's a good thing to do. I do, I won't say a lot, but I do some
extra work and maintenance on my car that saves me a lot of money too. Now, if you know
how to work on your car, you know, check your car battery, fill, you know, wiper fluids
and stuff like that, change out your wiper blades, fill up your tire air and stuff like
that. I'll say, because a lot of these mechanics now overcharge you like crazy for labor. So
if you can do your own car work too, that also helps save you money. Obviously, if it's
something you don't know, just get the work done, get a service. You know, I'm not saying,
oh, I'll just try to do everything yourself and then next you know, your car doesn't run,
you know, use discretion. Verse 14, it says, she is like the merchant ships, she brings
her food from afar. So again, the virtuous wife knows how to get the good deals at the
supermarket, she'll go to different stores, she'll go, she'll get the coupons from the
obscure weird places. I don't know how people have coupons before online, but you know,
there's, if you go online, you can find good coupons as well. And good, good deals online
for grocery stores. She rises also while it is yet night and give it meat to her household
and a portion to her maidens. So this virtuous woman is always working. Even at night, she's
making sure her household is well fed, taken care of. Verse 16, she consider a field and
buy it that with the fruit of her hands, she planted the vineyard. Again, like in Proverbs
27 verse 23, it says, be diligent to know the state of thy flocks. She's purchasing
a field, you know, and we even probably verse 24, verse 27, our actual previous verse of
the week, it says this as well, or notice that 24, now 24 verse 27, prepare thy work
without and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build on house. So you
should be prepared before you make any big purchases like that, because it says in verse
31 verse 16, she considereth a field. So she didn't just buy the field without considering
it. She didn't put thought into it. She actually put some foreknowledge and thoughts of, hey,
does this field going to be good for me for what I'm bringing home? And it was, and she
bought it. So any big purchases you make, like in a car or a house, make sure to do
the preparedness. Make sure you run the calculations before you buy it. Make sure it's at a good
location. Make sure it's close to church. It's close to a town you could do business
at, go shopping at and things like that. So it's just very practical stuff like that.
Now, a lot of people are complaining about the economy and stuff like that, but I'm not
saying everyone that's struggling financially, it's like, Oh, it's their fault or something.
Obviously a lot of people are struggling and they're doing everything right. They're working
hard and stuff like that. I get that. I believe that. But also a lot of people, let's just
face it, most Americans there, I see all these evangelists on set earlier in their sermon
this morning. How much people spend on Halloween? Like, I don't want to hear you complaining
about the economy if you're dumping that much money into Halloween. Like, come on, dude,
just don't spend all that money on the costumes and the candy. If you're that hurting that
much financially, just skip Halloween that year or stop. Hey, being a Christian's a big
money saver. It really is. I got rid of my TV. I don't celebrate Halloween. I don't celebrate
all these pagan holidays. I'm saving so much money just being a Christian. So, you know,
maybe I should start doing that when trying to get people to say, "Hey, money's tight
right now. If you get saved, you'll probably save a lot of money." You know? That's a
joke. I'm not actually going to do that. That's just a joke. But again, like the virtuous
woman in Proverbs 31, she, you know, worked hard. She was always working with her hands
willingly, always going out seeking the merchandise, things from afar. And she considereth a field.
And she, you know, in Proverbs 31, of all the terms I heard about Proverbs 31, no one
ever said, "Oh, this woman's lazy." Never. She was always working hard, always working
with her hands. You know, that's the model woman, you know, that guys want, right? And
you know, again, we can apply this to ourselves as guys as well. We should be hard workers.
We should be diligent in everything that we do. So that's point number five. Never pay
anything full price. All right. So, so far, point number one, do not desire to be rich.
Point number two, God expects us to be good stewards of what we have. Point number three,
we must balance these two things. Point number four, play the gas rewards points game. It'll
save big on gas. Point number five, never pay anything full price. Point number six,
take care of your chariot, bro. Take care of your chariot is your car, by the way. So
I already talked about this a little bit. So just some practical tips on how to take
care of your car to always, to avoid a lot of the pitfalls of car maintenance. Change
your oil every 5,000 miles, or if it's specified in the manual, 10,000 miles. This will save
you a lot of trouble right here. Because a lot of times, a lot of people have a lot of
big troubles in their car, simply because they don't change their oil. I mean, I've
heard it a couple of times where people have like this huge mechanical engine issue could
have been totally avoided if they just changed their oil. So that's a big one. Also rotate
your tires at the same interval. And some might get, pretty much every time I get my
oil change again, my tires rotated. That helps really extend the life of your tires. And
everyone here, as far as I'm concerned, has to drive at least an hour to church. You know,
this is stuff that will help your car last longer. Now, cars are expensive. So I really,
now I want for my car, I want to get the most out of my car, most life. So regularly check
your tire pressure. I do every two weeks because especially now with, you know, how inconsistent
the weather and the temperatures have been, I believe it's like every 10 to 15 degrees
increase or decrease, your tire pressure can increase or decrease by one to two pressure
PSI. So I check my tire pressure every two weeks just to stay on top of it. I have one
of those portable inflators that you just plug into the car jack and it can inflate
the, inflate the tires. That helps a lot too, because if you've got tires that are low in
air pressure, that can cause issues with the tires and it's also going to kill your gas
mileage as well, which gas is expensive. You don't want to do that. And this is something
I do also every so often. So every time I get an oil change and things like that, and
next time I gas up after that, I also use a fuel additive that cleans out the whole
fuel lining system. I use Chevron Tecron. That's great to use because what that does
is you know, gunk builds up over time and the fuel injectors and the engine and things
like that. So you pour that stuff in before you fill it. The next time you fill up, it'll
clean all that out. Just make sure you do that when your tank's almost empty. That's
my tip on that as well. And again, what's the point of all this? The point of all this
is so that you can serve God with very little distractions. Can you effectively serve God
when you've got to constantly fix your car? Can you effectively serve God and be faithful
to the church when your car is constantly breaking down, where you're having trouble
paying bills? You can't, you know. And it's hard. I'm not saying this stuff's easy to
do. It's not. I mean, you know, sometimes I'll get home from work after work in 10 hours
and I'm spending another two to three hours just doing all this stuff in my car. I'm just
like, "Man, I just want to go to sleep," you know? But this is all stuff that is helping
me maintain and keep everything doing I'm doing right now for the Lord. And, you know,
if I wasn't doing this, I mean, I'd be broke. And I walked this. I'm not sure how accurate
this is, but chariots in the Bible, they're pretty expensive. In 2 Chronicles 1, 17,
you can turn there if you want. And again, I SAI this, and I tried to verify the sources.
So take this with a grain of salt. I'm not sure how accurate this is. Just want to throw
this out there. It says in 2 Chronicles 1, 17, "And they fetched up and brought forth
out of Egypt a chariot for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so brought
they out horses for all the canes of the Hittites and for the canes of Syria by their means."
So a horse is 150 shekels of silver. A chariot is 600. So again, I don't know how accurate
this is, but 600 shekels of silver would be roughly $5,000 today, which I would say that's
probably not off the mark that much because that's about the average price for our used
car today with, I would say, over 120,000 miles. You could probably get a used car for
$5,000 to $10,000. But again, the Bible emphasizes the price of the chariots here. You know,
in the book of Judges, too, it talks about how they couldn't drive out the people with
the chariots of iron. So chariots were a really powerful instrument of war in the ancient
times, because again, there was no guns, there's no armaments back then, ballistic armaments.
So all they had was slingshots, rocks, stone, maybe a sword. So you have to go up toe-to-toe
with someone with a giant chariot with probably spiked wheels. They could just run you over
with that chariot. That was basically the ancient warfare of the tank. Now, can you
take down a tank with just your small pistol? No. Unless you're lucky, but more than likely
not. And again, they were expensive, yet you've got to maintain your car. Maintain that so
that you can continue to come here as well. It's a thing that's been happening. I've had
car issues. A couple other people in this church had car issues. It's a sacrifice we
make because we love the Lord. We love this church. We want to see souls saved. We want
to evangelize the lost and edify the brethren. That's why we come to this church. That's
why a lot of us are driving hour, hour and a half, even two hours to come here because
we love the work of God that's being done here in this area. I mean, is there, is there,
I can't think of any other church in this state alone that's getting protested as much
as we are right now as viciously. It's just God really is doing a lot of work through
us. So it's important that we keep doing what we're doing and this is how we're going to
be able to keep doing it. Point. So that was point number six. Take care of your, your
collar, bro, your chariot. Point number seven, save, save, save. It's very important that
you get in the habit of this. You know, if you don't have a budget, that's wrong right
there. You should have a budget. That's really important. That way you're able to take a
hundred percent ownership of all your finances, know where your money's going, because that's
the thing. A lot of people, they don't realize how much they're spending like on monthly
subscriptions or streaming services or stuff like that. So it's definitely a good thing
to do at some point just to take a walk and see where your money's going. That way you
can take a hundred percent ownership, know where everything's going, and have a budget.
That way you can have a good, clear idea of where you're at and what you can do and how
you can reach your goals in the future. And again, it may be hard at first, but once you
do it over and over again, it just becomes habit. It's like anything. You just get used
to it. You start doing it and it'll help. And again, it bears repeating Proverbs 24
verse 23, "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks." Again, I think we can apply
that to finances. God wants us to be responsible, especially as guys. We should, in my opinion,
in the marriage, should be running the finances. Hey, if the wife's good at it and she's trustworthy
to do it, that's fine too. I don't see anything wrong with that. We as guys should be able to
run a budget, be able to pay our bills on time and all the time. And I never like getting money from
the government. I just don't, you know, like all these government programs to help you and stuff.
And I get it. If you do that, you gotta do what you gotta do. I get that. I'm not coming down hard
on anyone that's done that. But I'd like to be able to take care of myself without needing help of
the government or anything like that. And I believe the church, you know, honestly, there's
nothing wrong with helping a brother out and the church is really struggling. If they're struggling,
they're working hard, they're paying their bills, nothing wrong with helping them out, you know.
So in conclusion, this isn't, again, this isn't about stockpiling money just for the sake of
having money. This is for forwarding the kingdom of God and His work. That is why I'm preaching
this sermon. The whole reason why I wanted to preach this sermon was there's some tips and tricks
I picked up on just being able to save myself some money. Maybe, hopefully, someone got something from
this sermon. Maybe that'll help them financially because it's tough. Money's tight right now. It's
not easy, you know. Inflation's gone through the roof. I mean, gas has gone up. Groceries are up.
It's tough, you know. But there are ways you can still be on top of it. It's not impossible.
You know, some people, they got that attitude where it's like, well, that's it. I'm going to
give up, it's toast, you know, and they'll blame society. That's the wrong attitude. No, we can
still have an influence and effort and control what we have. I want to go back to Ecclesiastes
chapter six. This just came back to my mind. I think it was Ecclesiastes chapter six. Yes,
it says in verse nine, "Better is the sight of the eyes than the wondering of the desire." A lot of
people, they got this big dream what they want to do, right? They want to be like, oh, well, once I
have this, I know what I'm going to do. Okay, what are you doing right now, though? What do you have
right now? That's the question everyone should be asking themselves. What do you have right now?
Because that's where you can control. You know, honestly, I get it. Politics is ridiculous. I
mean, what we're doing over there in Israel is absolutely disgusting. It's just terrible. It's
horrific, honestly, just how we're supporting a genitalal state like Israel. But you know what,
I can't control that. What do you want me to do about that? Okay, all I can do is what I can do.
You know, you got a job, you're earning money, you're doing the best you can do. That's it.
You know, are you winning souls? Are you being faithful to the Lord? Are you going to church?
You know, you going out there just preaching gospel to people, that, you know,
I know we don't really see the spiritual realm, and it's kind of hard to keep that in mind
throughout our lives as we go throughout the week, because we can't see it. But when someone gets
saved, their soul is saved forever by the Holy Ghost. Like, that's God. According to Acts chapter
five verse four, that is God. The Holy Ghost is part of the Trinity. So when you're saved,
when someone gets saved, they're literally in God's hands forever. So the president of the United
States can't do that. He's not saved. Like, all these powerful people that are in power right now,
that have all access to all these resources, all this power, will they ever knock on someone's door
preaching the gospel? No. They say they don't know how to go to heaven themselves, a lot of them.
They just don't. You know, at the end of the day, you could be the most powerful person on this
planet. You can have all the wealth, all the resources, everything. But if you're not saved,
what was the point? That's why the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, "Ye know he lived a thousand years
twice told." So 2,000 years, yet he has seen no good. Do not all go to one place. You could live
2,000 years. If there's no good in your life, if you've done nothing good for the Lord with your
life, you're going to die and be in the grave anyway. I mean, all go to one place eventually.
Everyone dies. We're all going to die. You might, you know, that's the attitude. It is. You know,
we have a very limited time on this earth. We really do. I mean, next thing you know,
you're going to blank and five years went by. And one, when that day comes, when you die
and you're with the Lord in heaven, and it ain't going to matter how much money you have in the
bank. It's just not. I mean, this is really, the money we have is like the monopoly of play money.
Yeah. It matters when you're playing monopoly, right? But once the game's over, it's like,
who cares? I don't care how much money I had in monopoly in that round. It's going to be
like that when we get to heaven. It's only important right now because we're in this life
right now. But once we're dead, it's not going to matter. It just isn't. Again, be smart with
what you have so that you can do a lot for the Lord and maximize the work you can do for God in
this life. But don't let that overtake you. Don't let that be just everything because at the end,
it's not going to matter. So we're all going to die one day. And I'll end with this in Matthew
chapter six thing. Well, different part of Matthew chapter six. Matthew six, chapter 19. This is the
last place we're turning to. "Weigh not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through in steel." But watch this. "But weigh up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break through in steel." Every reward you get in heaven, no one can steal that. God's guarding
that. And no one can get to heaven if you're saved in the first place. So can even saved people
theoretically go to heaven and steal your rewards? No, because God's keeping that. Verse 21, "For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Where's your heart at? Is it in God? Is it
in the things of God, ultimately? Or is it in something else? Listen, if it's in something else,
you gotta tear that down. And, you know, I'm not, I don't have anyone particular in mind when I say
that. I'm just saying, in general, if you've got an idol in your life that is in the place of God,
you gotta get that out of the way. And you gotta have this as the forefront of your life, the Bible,
the Word of God. With that, we'll close with a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, so much for
this church, Lord. I just pray, Lord, for this church, Lord, that we would be good stewards of
the things that we have, Lord, so that we can continue to glorify you, Lord, in everything that
we do. And I just pray, God, you keep the church safe, Lord, from people that seek the hurt,
Lord. In your name, Jesus, we ask for your prayer. Amen. Thank you, Brother Stephen,
for a good applicable sermon. Let's sing one last song. Go to song number 384, "In the Service
of the King," song 384. On the 1st. I am happy in the service of the king. I am happy, oh so happy.
I have peace and joy that nothing else can bring. In the service of the king. In the service of the
king. Every talent I will bring. I have peace and joy and blessing in the service of the king.
Happy in the service of the king. I am happy, oh so happy. Through the sunshine and the shadow,
I can see the service of the king. Service the king. I am happy in the service of the king.
The service of the king.
Wishing you all the prayer, thank you for this day. I pray that you'll help us be thrifty,
be a good steward of our finance of what you've given us so we can glorify you better. In the
the praise in Jesus name. Amen. Alright thank you for coming today. I know