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from this earth. And God, I just pray that you would help us to learn some great truth from this chapter, dear God. There's so much here that we'll only get into portions of it. But Father, please just speak to every heart, my own included. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Now in Matthew chapter 6, we're in the second chapter of the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter number 5 was the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, which is what we preached on last week. Then there's chapters 6 and 7. He's continuing the same sermon. In chapter number 5, we saw him start out this sermon with a chapter promoting a higher standard of living among God's people. He started out with a list of the Beatitudes, giving some very, very tall orders of how he expected God's people to to live and to be self-sacrificing and so forth. Then he ends up, the whole chapter after he's explained six different times, that in the New Testament he's asking more of people in the way of righteousness and holiness and clean living than even was expected of people in the Old Testament. He's raising the bar, so to speak, in the New Testament because the Bible says, to whom much is given of him shall much be required. And so here we are in the New Testament. We've got the entire Bible at our fingertips. We've got the most powerful thing in the world right here, the Word of God at our disposal. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us and hopefully we have the Holy Ghost's power upon us and we have every resource available that anybody has ever had in the history of the world and more so. Here we are in the New Testament and so Jesus Christ says, this is how you were living and he says, you heard that it was said don't commit adultery. I'm telling you not to even look at a woman to lust after her. I'm telling you, and he goes on and on, not to even be angry with your brother without a cause, let alone kill him. And he goes on and he goes through these lists and at the end he sums it all up with that great verse, be ye therefore perfect as your father which in heaven is perfect. And so he is really preaching a high standard. Then in chapter number six he gets into a little bit of a new subject. Now I saw one outstanding theme in this chapter. He talks a lot about money, I noticed. He talks a lot the first half about hypocrites and people who do things so that people will see them. But you'll notice that the first four verses are about money. And verse number 11 is about money. Verses number 19 through 21 have to do with money and verses numbers 24 through 34 have to do with money. So basically 20 of these 34 verses mention money. So while I'm teaching this chapter I want to talk a little bit about money and I want to give you a little bit of God's philosophy about money. It's such a different philosophy than what the world has and it's such a different philosophy than even many churches have. What God says about money. The first thing I want to draw to your attention is verse number one there, if you look at it, it says take heed, that means watch out, be careful, take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Now what God is saying here in Matthew 6 one is that when you do alms, now first of all we need to know what alms are. If you look up that word alms in your Bible every time it's mentioned you'll find that alms has to do with a person who is hard up for money, a person who's poor and God's people are reaching into their pocket out of their own accord and doing a good turn and giving that person money. That's what the word alms means. For example there's a man in John chapter 5 who was sat outside the beautiful gate of the temple every day and he says that he was asking for alms. He was handicapped, he could not walk, he was laying on the ground, he was crippled and he had no way to work so he sat at the temple and he asked for alms. God's people as they went to the temple if they felt moved to do so and if they wanted to show some love of God to this man, if they wanted to show their compassion they'd reach into their pocket and they'd give them some money. On and on you'll see that word alms that's what it means. Now many people misinterpret this passage and they'll apply this to tithing and to giving offerings and they'll say look at verse number three if you would look at your Bible it says, but when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. And that's what they'll say, they'll say see when you give your offering, when you give your tithe you should not let your left hand know what your right hand's doing it should be secret, nobody should know about it. Now look that's not what the Bible says, this is talking about alms. You'll notice in the Bible there are even some places in the Bible in Acts chapter 4 and 5 for example where people walked up to the front of the church auditorium in the book of Acts and put their money in the collection plate. They didn't even pass the plate around. And you'll see in the Old Testament that that's what they did also, they had just a pot of money there and people would put money in. Now the point that I'm making is this tithing is not a secret otherwise am I supposed to count the money blindfolded and you're supposed to kind of just slip it in you know when the offering plate goes around make sure nobody sees you. And you'll see a lot of modern type churches they won't even use offering plates anymore for this reason. Have you ever been to a church that doesn't use offering plates? Have you ever seen that where they use the bags? Or they'll just have a box like hidden in the back somewhere and you have to go and put the money in. I've been to churches like that many times. And the point that I'm making here is that you have to distinguish in the Bible between three different classes of giving and I'm going to explain this to you and I'm going to show you this from the Bible. There are three types of giving that a Christian can do. The first type of giving is tithing. And I want to show you this. Turn if you would to Leviticus chapter number 27. Third book in the Bible right at the end. Leviticus chapter number 27. And I want to explain to you these three different types of giving and we're going to see these again in Matthew chapter 6. Because the chapter deals so much with the subject of money. But if you look at Leviticus 27 I'm going to show you the first form of giving, the most important. And look at verse number 30. This is just one of hundreds of verses in the Bible about tithing of course. I'm just picking one for the sake of time just to give you an idea of what God says about the tithe. The Bible says in Leviticus 27 verse number 30, And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy unto the Lord. Now what I want you to see in that verse about the tithe is that it says the tithe is the Lord's. So the tithe does not belong to us. When I get my paycheck from my boss and he writes me a check for a thousand dollars. Well, a hundred of that is not my money. A hundred dollars of that check is not my money. So in essence I'm not even really giving my tithe. I'm returning my tithe to the rightful owner, to God. That's why the Bible usually uses the word paid tithe. Like for example in Hebrews chapter 7 the Bible says that Levi paid tithes in Abraham. Almost like paying a bill is the wording there. He paid tithes. You'll notice many times throughout the Bible it says bring the tithe. Now that's because the tithe is the Lord's. That's not you saying, well I'm going to take some of my money and give it to God. No, it's God's money. Now look if you would at Malachi. This is the last book in the Old Testament. Malachi, right before the book of Matthew. Malachi chapter number 3, these are very famous verses. But Malachi chapter 3, right before the beginning of the New Testament here, just a couple chapters before the book of Matthew. You'll see Malachi chapter 3. The Bible says in verse number 8 of Malachi 3, will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house. And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. So here's what we see about the tithe in the Bible. The tithe already belongs to God. It's in your wallet because God is testing you to see whether you're going to steal his money, whether you're going to rob him, whether you're going to put a gun to God's head and say, listen God, I know that's your money, but I want to spend it, so I'm going to spend it on what I want to spend it on. That's what you're doing when you don't give your 10%, your tithe. Now, don't ever have this attitude, and sometimes we get this attitude that God needs our money. God does not need your money at all, he doesn't need my money at all. God has all the money he needs, and so this isn't something where, wow, we need to give to the Lord because God needs our money so that the gospel can be preached. Let me explain something to you. It's free to preach the gospel. I don't remember charging anybody when they come from soul winning. In fact, I remember Amanda and my wife were out soul winning the other day. Soul winning pays. They went to the door, they'd give the gospel, they didn't get saved, but they gave them each five bucks. And they said, I don't know which one's better, getting somebody saved or getting 10 bucks. But anyway, the point is, soul winning doesn't cost any money, and so don't ever hide behind money and say, well, if only I had enough money, then thus and so. I'm talking about in your personal life, I'm talking about as a church, I'm talking about a pastor saying, if we just had more money, we could win people to cry. Look, get off your backside and go win somebody to Christ for free. And then, you know, missionaries, if we could only just give more money and more money. Look, money is not the answer. Being a soul winner is the answer. That's what we preached on several months ago. But here's the thing. Tithing is important not because God needs your money, because God has all the money he needs, but because God commands you to tithe. That's why it's important. And because if you don't tithe, you're stealing God's money. And so what happens is, God says, prove me now herewith if I will not pour you out a blessing that you can't receive. It's so great. He says, if you test me out by just taking your tithe and just writing that check and putting 10% of what you make in the plate, he says, I'll pour you out a blessing. I'll bless you if you do that. He said, if you don't do it, I'll curse you. And that's kind of the way God is, because you'll notice that with things in the Bible, there's no middle ground. If you obey God's laws, he said in the book of Deuteronomy, if you obey everything that is written in this book, and that's a lot to obey, he says, then I'll bless you, and he lists all the blessings. And he says, if you don't obey everything in the book, I'll curse you. See, there's no neutral ground where you can just go through life neither being blessed nor cursed by God. He says, no, if you're obedient, I'll bless you. If you're not obedient, I'll curse you. And there's nobody who God is just not dealing with. He's either blessing somebody or he's cursing somebody. And so God says, give me the tithe. It belongs to me already. I don't need it, but I want you to give it to me because I'm God and I want you to show me that you know that I'm God and that I call the shots of where my money goes. Now, look where it goes. It says right here in verse number 10, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house. So it's God's house is where the tithe goes, which is in our day the local church. In the Old Testament, you'll see a man named Jacob. The first time that the word tithe is mentioned in the Bible is with Abraham. He gives it to Melchizedek, which is Jesus Christ, according to Hebrews chapter 7. Then the second time you'll see it is when Jacob builds an altar, he calls it Bethel, and he says, this shall be God's house. And he says, and the tenth of whatever God gives to me, I'm going to give to him. And then on and on, you'll see through the Bible, tithing is done to God's house. And then here's another example. So you tithe to the local church because the Bible says that today the church is the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So that's the first type of giving. Now, the tithing, this is the thing. If you're not going to tithe, like if you're not going to give the whole 10%, and I'm just saying between you and God, then you might as well not even give anything, to be honest. You'd be better off because God is saying, look, this isn't where you throw me some little bone. If you go out and work your job, sir, and make $1,000, I don't want $50 from you, this is what he said. I don't want $90. That's not what I asked for. It's just like when Cain brings an offering to God. He brings fruits and vegetables. It's not what God asked for. He said, I don't have respect for it. And God will not respect you if you bring $99.99. When it's $100 of his money, he has no respect for that. And you'd be better off because, remember, he doesn't need your money. He doesn't need you to throw him a bone. He says, bring the tithe. Pay the tithe. I'll bless you. If you don't, I'll curse you. Okay? So that's number one. Number two type of giving in the Bible is an offering. Now, an offering is something that you of your own free will, just because you want to show your love for God, just because you're thankful to God, perhaps, for something that he's done for you, you just decide, I'm just going to give a little bit of extra money. And that's just totally up to you. The Bible says, let every man so give as he purposes in his heart. It says, you purpose in your own heart, this is 2 Corinthians 9, how much you're going to give and give it. Because God loves a cheerful giver. It's up to you how much you give. You decide. And in that case, it's actually talking about missions. It's talking about giving to missions. And he says, you decide how much you want to give. But he says, I'll tell you this. He says, if you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly. And if you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully. He says, if you give a lot, I'm going to bless you a lot. If you give a little, then I'm going to bless you a little. But either way, I'm going to bless you. It's up to you how much you want to give. Again, that's just something between you and God. Then the third type of giving is alms. Now, alms does not go to church. It doesn't go to the Lord. It doesn't go to a missionary. Alms goes to someone else. Let's say, for example, that somebody in the church is having a hard time. And they're just really struggling financially. And they're not able to make ends meet. And let's say you go and you buy groceries for them. And you get them some bags of groceries. That's what God's talking about here in Matthew, chapter 6, if you're there. He says, don't do your alms before men to be seen of them. He says, don't do good things for other people. Don't help people for the motivation of getting some kind of attention or credit for yourself. He says, then you'll get no reward if you do that. Because your reward will be the praise and the accolades of men. Now, I'll tell you something right now. There is nothing more empty. There is nothing more worthless than having people praise you and give you accolades. Boy, there's nothing more empty. Look at the rock music singers of this world. Boy, they have people who literally worship them, don't they? They have sycophantic followers who just idolize them. And they have the posters and they wait in long lines to meet them. And they're crying and they're shaking. I mean, I've seen people. I've been backstage at a rock concert before. And I've seen people just crying and shaking. And they're just, woo! And they're freaking out because to them it's almost like God. And they love these people. And yet, I'll tell you something. The people who get that kind of praise and worship, these rock singers, what do they do? They blow their brains out. They hang themselves. How many rock and roll singers do I know of that have committed suicide? Think about Elvis Presley. Think about Jimi Hendrix. Think about Michael Hutchins from INXS. Think about Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana. Think about Ian Curtis. Think about all these rock singers throughout the years. How do you know all this stuff? Just from all the sinful people that I hang around. No, I know about it because I used to listen to that kind of music. But I'll tell you something. They had the praise of men. They had people worshipping them and telling them how wonderful they are. And yet, their life was so empty that they chose to end it all. Because there's nothing more empty than the praise of men. Now let me ask you something. Do you want to do your righteousness before men so that they see what you do and so that you get praise from them and that's your reward? That's a terrible reward. That's a worthless reward. I would rather do my alms in secret, as God says. Do my good deeds in secret so that God can reward me openly, I'm talking about in the next life. Or maybe even in this life where he rewards me openly, where God rewards me himself. I want to get rewarded from God. I don't want to just have somebody pat me on the back. Because there's nothing more empty than when you do something and somebody pats you on the back. It's not what it's cracked up to be. I want to have God pat me on the back. But you'll notice here just the fact that he talks about the reward three different times. And you'll see this. He talks about, don't do it in front of other people. Don't be a hypocrite because otherwise you'll lose your reward. So what can we ascertain from this? God is saying that we ought to want to be rewarded. Now a lot of people think maybe that it's carnal or that it's not the right motive to do something so that God will reward you. Absolutely not. Throughout the Bible, God is telling you, do this and I'll reward you. I'll give this to you. I'll reward you before in the presence of the angels and when Jesus comes as glory. Look, a lot of what motivates me in life, I'll tell you there are many things that motivate me. One of the things that motivates me is that I want God to reward me. I want to get to heaven and have God reward me. I want God to say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. I want to get the pat on the back from God when I get to heaven. You say, well that's kind of selfish. That's kind of carnal and worldly. No, then why does God talk so much about it? And why does God say, be careful that you don't lose your reward because, buddy, when you get there, you're going to want that reward. You're going to want me to reward you. And you say, well, I don't care about a reward. I just do it because I love God. Well look, if you love God, then you'll have the opportunity, like it says in the book of Revelation, chapter number 4, where they take their crowns, or maybe 7-5, but they take their crowns off that they received as a reward from God and they threw them at Jesus' feet. And said, thou art worthy to receive the glory and the praise and the honor. He said, for by thee all things were and are created. See, that's how you can show your gratitude to God is by earning the rewards that he puts out there for you. And then you can give some of that back to him in return. But I want God to bless me. You don't want God to bless you in your life? You want God to bless you? You want God to help you? You want God to give you what you ask him for when you pray? You want God to give you the desires of your heart? Well, that's what being rewarded by God is. Do you want God to give you praise when you get to heaven? Yeah, absolutely. And so you've got to earn these rewards. But if you do things in front of other people, you don't get the rewards, what he's saying. So, tithing is a public thing. We do it at church. God commands us to do tithing and offerings at church. And so we pass the offering plate. It's not a secret. We pass the offering plate, we throw in our money, and so forth. And that's totally scriptural. Don't ever think that that's not scriptural. And then the alms is something where we're doing that for other people. Look at them in the Bible. That's all it means every single time. Look at verse number 5. It says, And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Now look at this. Prayer here he's saying. Don't be like a hypocrite that goes out and prays in the corner of the street and in the synagogue. It says in the next verse, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. You see, the most important praying you do is the praying that you do when nobody's around. When you go into the closet and you shut the door, nobody even knows that you're praying. Nobody even knows what you're doing. Nobody's around to hear you. And it's just you and God. Kind of like what we preached on Sunday night. Kind of like what I preached so many times that what happens between you and God in the wilderness, that is what's vital. That's what's going to make you strong in spirit. And that is what's going to get you the reward. That's what's going to get you the power of God. That's what's going to get God to answer your prayers is when it's just you and Him alone. Most things in the Christian life are just you and God alone. And so, is it wrong to pray publicly? No, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2, verse 11, I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. So God says, yes, I want people to pray publicly and openly. But ten times more be on your face before God alone when nobody knows about it. You see, your prayer life is something that nobody knows about but you and God. And that's why it takes so much faith. Because humanly speaking, prayer does nothing. But if there's a God in heaven, prayer is the most powerful tool that there is. And so if you get on your face before God, nobody knows that you're there. Nobody's going to look at you and think that you're spiritual. Nobody's going to hear your prayer requests. Sometimes you hear these prayer requests like, oh, please pray for me that I get $3,452. Really, they're just asking for money. Missionary sales are like, pray for us that we get a vehicle and this is exactly what kind we want and we want it to be read. And because they're just asking you to give it. But no, when you get on your face before God and you just ask God for something, either God hears you or you just wasted your time. And so that's why praying in secret is what God wants to see. And he says, you pray in secret and I'll reward you openly. Yes, pray publicly, but 10,000 times more pray in secret to your Father in secret. And then look at verse number 7, it says, But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Here he's talking about people chanting. There are people who, there are religions who teach people to chant prayers over and over. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses and on and on. And they have people chanting a prayer and they have, the Roman Catholics for example, have rosary beads and they'll say a hail Mary, hail Mary, full of grace, whatever that garbage is. And then they'll switch off with that and they'll pray this prayer that's in Matthew 6 that we're going to read in a second. And they'll pray like 50 times in a row the same prayer that somebody else made up or that God made up. And they'll pray that prayer. God calls that vain repetitions where you're just chanting and repeating. Or you'll see sometimes people sit down at a meal and it's like, Dear Jesus, thank you for this food. Blessed are our bodies. And it's just a ritual. And God says, don't pray like that. He says, when you pray, I want you to pray to me. I want you to say something to me from your heart. I want you to go in your closet by yourself. I want you to get alone and I want you to talk to me as Moses talked to God, as a man talks. Speaketh unto his friend, the Bible says. And so he says, I want you to talk to me like you talk to your friends, like you talk to everybody else. I want you to talk to me alone and I want you to repeat some little fancy word that you heard in church or some kind of a fancy little thing. And notice, I'm always fascinated by the these and the thous and the ye's and the you's in the Bible. Notice the first thing he was talking about, somebody praying by themselves. He said, but thou when thou prayest, he talks about entering into thy closet. He's talking about you alone. Look at this. It says, but when ye pray, you see that? So now we're talking about people praying in a group. We're talking about somebody praying where there's other people around. Now we've gotten out of the personal into the public prayer. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions. He's saying, when you pray publicly, don't pray some vain repetition. You're not even thinking about what you're saying. Now the most bizarre thing about this is that right after this, he explains why. He says, you know, your father knoweth that ye have need of all. You know, he said, your father knows what things you have need of before you ask him. And then the next verse he says, after this manner therefore pray ye, our father which art in heaven. He starts to give an example prayer. Now this is what I find so bizarre. In verse number seven he's saying, don't repeat things over and over. Don't use vain repetitions. Don't be a heathen. And then he gives us an example, this is how I want you to pray. And then people who chant prayers, they chant what he gave as the example. So they didn't even read the chapter to see that he's saying, don't repeat things over and over, don't chant. Chanting is wrong. Chanting is heathen. Chanting is like what heathen false religion people do. They chant things over and over. Don't be like them. Pray like this. And they say, oh, let's chant this. Let's chant what he gave us to pray like. Isn't that ridiculous? It shows that the unsaved person, the unsaved person, the Roman Catholic, the Episcopalian, the United Methodist who go to these formalistic churches where they chant these prayers, they're blind. They can't even read the Bible and see the simple fact of what God's saying here. They don't chant. Pray like this. And then they chant what he just told them. It's because they're blind. Do you ever talk to somebody and try to explain them something out of the Bible and it just goes right over their head? Because they're blind and not until they turn to Christ, the Bible says, not until they receive Christ as Savior. It's like the Bible says scales come off their eyes and then they can see and all of a sudden it makes sense to them and they can understand. But they're blind. Boy, this stands out to me right here. Look at this. I love this phrase. This would be a great sermon. This would just be a great sermon like on Sunday morning or Sunday night. Verse number 8. Be not ye therefore like unto them. Man, you could preach a whole sermon on that. Because who are we talking about? We're talking about religious people who chant prayers over and over again. We're talking about the Roman Catholics. We're talking about the United Methodist. We're talking about the Episcopalian. He says, be not ye therefore like unto them. This is a whole sermon about don't be like the Roman Catholics. I'm not going to have a stained glass window on my front of my house there. I'm not going to have a Jesus hanging on the cross, some effeminate, queer little sissy Jesus hanging on the cross. I'm not going to wear a crucifix around my neck. I'm not going to have little rosary beads. Oh, no, I don't chant with them. I just use them. No, I'm not going to be like them. I don't want to be like them. I'm not going to wear a dress like them. I'm not going to turn my color around backwards like them. I'm not going to do anything like them and I don't want to be any way associated with them. God says, don't be like a heathen. Don't be like a Roman Catholic. Don't be like them. You see, Baptist churches, independent Baptist churches that will have a choir get up and sing and the choir will be wearing choir robes that are like dresses that look like you're in a Roman Catholic church. They look exactly what the priest is wearing. Now, is that right or wrong? God says, be not ye therefore like unto them. He says, don't be like them. Be different. And so, don't be like heathens in any area. And you say, well, what's wrong with thus and so? What's wrong with stained glass windows because it's like a Roman Catholic church? What's wrong with wearing a crucifix around my neck because it's like the Roman Catholics? What's wrong with putting a Jesus fish on my car? Well, number one, God says not to make any molten images of any animals and he lists fish and birds as the example. And he says, don't make any images, no graven images and secondly, why would you want to be like unto them? Why would you want to be like unto the Mormons who use that symbol? Why would you want to be like unto the Catholics that use the symbol? Why would you be like unto every Christian so-called that has their same little symbol so they can all be linked together and all grouped together? Listen, I don't want to be grouped in with some liberal charismatic. I don't want to be grouped in with the Catholics. I don't want to be grouped in with the Mormons. That's why I'm not going to go to the Christian bookstore tomorrow and buy a little what would Jesus do with a little fish on it and put a little fish on the car and all this kind of goofy stuff on the back of my car because I don't want to be like them. I don't want anybody to mistake me for a new evangelical cheese ball, these cheesy people who think that the more effeminate and goofy you are, that means you're spiritual. If you wear some goofball shirt and I saw these goofy stickers, in case of rapture, this car will be unmanned. It's just corny. Real men love Jesus. It's like, wow, if that's a real man, then I don't want to be one because why would I want to be like them is my whole point. So I want to be distinctly different. That's why I don't dress like them. That's why I don't talk like them. That's why I don't sing their music because I don't want to be like them. I want to be like Jesus in the Bible, and I want to be distinctly different from the liberals and I want to be distinctly different from the Roman Catholic chanters. And on the subject of chanting, by the way, he says use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. Think about the music that's coming into our Baptist churches now. It's a lot of chanting is what it is. They'll get up and they get rid of the old hymns. You'll notice something about the old hymns. They're not very repetitive. Some of them don't even have a chorus. Some of them just the whole thing is different every time, like Sweet Hour of Prayer, for example, Amazing Grace, There is a Fountain. It's different every time. And even when they do have a chorus, they have different verses, and there's a lot of different content there. Look at the Book of Psalms, God's songbook, the Book of Psalms. Show me how much repetition you can find in the Book of Psalms. There's about one psalm that repeats things over and over, like the one where it says, Oh, praise the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. And it says, you know, praise Him, this and that, for His mercy endureth forever. And it keeps repeating that phrase, for His mercy endureth forever. Show me how many you can find like that out of 150. Barely any. It's very much content in the songs. But you go to churches today, and they've gotten rid of the hymn book, and now they put up on the screen praise and worship choruses. They're about four lines long, and you sing it about 300 times. And you just over and over and over and over again. And it's all working up a feeling, working up an experience. Look, there's nothing new under the sun. Religion has always done chanting to work people up emotionally. Look at the voodoo in Africa. They chant around the campfire. Look at the Native Americans chanting around the campfire, chanting and chanting and chanting and repeating things over and over and over. Think about, you know, the Roman Catholics, same thing. They chant prayers. They chant things over and over. They get worked up. Go to a charismatic church. They'll play one song for 15 minutes, the same song, over and over and over and over, and people will start crying and people will start, you know, swaying around and so on. And it's working up this emotion. That's what they do. It's a charismatic movement. And it's based on repeating things, chanting things, chanting things. And they'll just go for 20 minutes. 20 minutes. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an awesome God. You say, Pastor Anderson, how do you know the words to that song? Because I heard it 300 times in one service, you know. I heard them repeat it 50 million times. I've been brainwashed. But the whole song, now look, I just sang that song. How long does it last? 15 seconds. They'll sing that song for 10 minutes. Just over and over again. Over and over and over again. How long do these songs last? These songs have like four verses. We typically do, what, four congregational songs before we have the preaching and announcements and the offering. And we usually sing all the verses. It takes 15 minutes. I mean, the message usually starts 15 minutes after the hour we start reading the Bible. So the songs go through all four verses in like three minutes. And then they'll sing a song that's like five, 10 minutes, and it's like four lines long. And it's not of God. It's not God's kind of music. It's chanting, and it's not of God. Anyway, back to the lesson here. If you notice in verse number nine, this is where the sample prayer starts. Now, this is not something that we're supposed to repeat and pray to God. God wants us to pray to Him in our own words. But this is a sample prayer giving us an outline, so to speak, for what kind of things we should be praying. You could take this and use this. Sometimes I've done this. I've gotten this out and just looked at this commonly called the Lord's Prayer. And I looked at it, and when it says something, like, for example, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The first thing that he's doing is he's worshipping God. I mean, he's telling God how great he is. And he's praising God's name so that I can tell God how great he is for a while. First thing I do when I start praying, I can start bragging on God and telling him how great he is, naming some of the great things that he's done in the Bible, naming some of the great things that he's done for me, and just telling him how great he is. Then look at the next part. It says, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. I can start asking for God to do his will in certain situations. Tell God, God, I don't know what your will is. All the time, there's always people that I know that are going through hard times, just bad situations. We don't always know what God's will is. Things in my life that are going wrong, and sometimes we don't even know how to pray as we ought. I don't know what to pray for. I don't know, like Paul prayed for God to remove the thorn from his flesh three times. But God said, no, I'm not going to remove it. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. And so he said, it's not my will to remove that from you, and I will not remove it. And so sometimes we don't even know what to pray for. So sometimes I'll just find myself coming to God and just saying, God, I have no clue what to do in this situation. I have no clue what needs to happen. I don't even know what to ask you to do. But God, would you please just do your will in this situation? And I'll list the scenarios sometimes. I'll say, God, if it's your will that doesn't so happen, then let that happen. If it's your will that this happens, then let it happen. I don't care. I have no will in the matter. I want your will to be done. Whatever's going to be the best for Jesus Christ, whatever's going to be the best for me and my family, you decide, God. And that's called supplication. There's a word for that, supplication. It's when we say to God, we want your will to be done. Now let me ask you something. If I get on my knees on the Wednesday before our big soul-winning marathon in June, if I get on my knees and I skip my lunch and I skip my breakfast, I skip my lunch, and I get on my knees at lunchtime and I say, God, I want people to be saved. Now whose will am I praying for? I know that that's God's will because the Bible says he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He wants everyone saved. And so I know I'm praying God's will there if I'm asking God for people to be saved. If I'm asking for anybody to be saved, I know that it's God's will because it's God's will for everybody to be saved. And so pray for God's will. Number one, pray for things that you know are God's will, like people that you know to get saved. Number two, when you don't know what God's will is, just say, God, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, and so on and on. That's kind of a sample prayer that you can use where you can take these parts and pray something along those lines. Look at the next section. It says give us this day our daily bread. Now we're back on the subject of money again. Now, first we talked about the three kinds of giving, tithing, offering, and alms. Tithing is mandatory, offering is optional, and alms is optional. He says, but if you do it, this is how I want you to do it, I want you to be a secret. Here he says give us this day our daily bread. Now, God is telling us here not to pray, give us this year's salary, God, so that I know that everything will be paid for for the next year. That's not really the way God works. God keeps us on a day-to-day basis. He says later, take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take care of the things of itself. Today is the day that you need to be worrying about. You say, oh, man, I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills next month. It doesn't matter. Do you have bread today? Did God provide for you today? You just have to have the faith that God's going to provide for you tomorrow. And here's the other thing. This is forcing us to pray every day, because if we could ask for our needs way in advance, I could just pray and get everything all ordered. I could put in my order with God, and then like two weeks out, I'm covered for the next two weeks, and then I'm going to put in my next order for the next shipment of things that I need. No, he says no, pray for what you need today. Give us this day our daily bread, because that's going to force you to come back tomorrow and ask for your daily bread tomorrow. And again and again, he's saying I want you to talk to me every day. I want you to ask me daily for what you need. And no, I will not guarantee what's going to happen tomorrow, but I can feed you today. I can take care of you today. Skip forward, if you would, while we're on the subject, and I'm going to show you these other verses about this same subject. Look at verse number 25. It says, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment? He's saying, look, is that the most important thing that you have to sit around and think about all day is money? You have to sit around and fret and worry about where your food's going to come from, your clothes are going to come from. He's saying, look, isn't there more to life than food and raiment? He says, look at verse 26, Behold the fowls of the air. He says, they don't sow, they don't reap, he says they don't even work, and yet God takes care of them. And then he says in verse number 28, he says, consider the lilies of the field. He says, look, they didn't pay for those clothes, and they look better than the most decked out person that there is in this life with the fanciest clothes. He said, just the flowers are more beautiful than they are. He says in verse 31, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Now, look, do my kids have to come to me every day and say, Dad, please, I need clothes. Can you please dress me, Dad? No, they don't have to do that. Why? Because I'm smart enough to know what they need. They don't have to come to me. Dad, it's 11 o'clock. Are we going to have breakfast today? No. Look, if I know what my kids need, God knows what you need. This is part of why he said, Don't just chant to me all the time. I know what you need. But he said, Just pray to me from your heart, and you have to have some big long prayer out in public, begging me for something. He says, I know what you need. But then he says, Don't worry about food and raiment and just always trying to provide for yourself, because he says, I know what you need, and I'll give it to you. Now, quickly, I want to take the time to do this, because this is phenomenal, but look at Deuteronomy chapter 11. I just want to show you something in the Old Testament here that I discovered that gives me my philosophy for providing for my family the philosophy that I use to pay my bills, the philosophy that I use to go through life financially, I found in Deuteronomy chapter 11. This is God speaking to the children of Israel. They've come out of the land of Egypt, and they're about to go into the Promised Land. He's explaining to them the difference between Egypt and the Promised Land. Now, we have to see here the symbolism that in Egypt represents the unsaved. That's before you got saved. That's living in the world, you're unsaved, or you're saved but you're still living worldly and you're still living in the world. Then the Promised Land is after you've separated, you've been saved, you've been baptized, which is pictured by when they crossed the Red Sea in the book of Exodus there. Then you've gone through the wilderness, those early days of Christianity, where you endured the great fight of affliction, as we talked about in the book of Hebrews. Then you crossed the Jordan River by faith into the Promised Land where you by faith sell out for God and say, I'm going to live a sold-out Christian life. I'm going to give it all to God. I'm going to live by faith. I'm going to live a godly Christian life. I'm going to just be there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. I'm going to obey the Bible. I'm going to read the Bible. I'm going to pray. I'm going to go soul winning. I'm just going to jump in. That's the victorious Christian life. That's pictured by the Promised Land. Now watch. He's going to show you the difference financially between the Egypt mentality and the Promised Land mentality. Look at verse number 10. For the land whither thou goest into possession is not as the land of Egypt. He's saying this is totally different. It's not like the land of Egypt at all from whence you came out. Where thou sowest thy seed and waterest it with thy foot as a garden of herbs. So he says, look, when you were in Egypt, when you're in the world, this is what you do. You go out and you work and you earn the money and you pay your bills and you just take care of yourself. You make it happen. If it happens, it's because you make it happen. That's what he's saying in the world. But look at the difference. When you're saved, when you're God's child, now here's the difference. This is the way we're supposed to live. But the land whither you go to possession, now he's talking about the Promised Land, verse 11, is a land of hills and valleys and drinketh water of the rain of heaven, a land which the Lord thy God careth for. The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. And it shall come to pass. Now here's the key right here. Verse 13. This is the Matthew 633 of the Old Testament. Look at this verse and then you'll see Matthew 633. You see the same thing. I love this verse. It says, And it shall come to pass if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields and for thy cattle that thou mayest eat and be full. Do you see what he's saying here? He's saying, look, in Egypt, you make it happen for yourself. In my economy, you don't make it happen. You hearken diligently unto all the commandments that I command thee this day. That's your part. He says, Your job is to obey this book and hearken diligently to this commandment and I will send you the money that you need. He's not going to make you rich. But he said, I'll send you the food that you need. I'll give you the daily bread. I'll give you clothing. The Bible says in having food and raiment, let us be there with content. The only thing that God ever guarantees us, he says, I will feed you and clothe you, guaranteed if you're my child. So look, he says, no, it's not your job to worry about providing for your family. It's your job to worry about obeying God. And you'll find people that say, well, I just have to work on Sunday because I have to pay the bills for my family. You're wrong. You're living like Egypt. You're living like an unsafe person where you think that you've got to make everything happen. No, sir. You obey God and be faithful to church. You obey God and do what he told you to do and be a soul winner, read the Bible and pray and God will take care of everything that you need. You won't have to worry about it all. Now, am I saying that I should just sit around and say, I read my Bible today. I didn't go to work, but I read the Bible. I think God's just going to take care of it. Now that's stupidity because one of the commands that God commanded you to do in this book is to work. So part of obeying the commands of God is working hard, working hard for your boss, doing what God told you to do spiritually, morally, and on the job. I just got back. I just spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Kansas City, Missouri, working literally day and night. We stopped and slept that whole time. For three hours, we stopped and slept that whole time. And then other than that, we would just take, me and my brother-in-law would take catnaps while the other guy was driving from the next job to the next job, and I'd sleep in the passenger seat and he'd sleep in the passenger seat, and we traded off. And we worked. We worked hard. I'm going to close the service early and just go lay down and go to bed. But anyway, we worked hard and we slaved away. And that's what God expects a man to do because God said that a man is supposed to provide for himself. He says he's supposed to work by the sweat of his face, is what the Bible says. If you're not sweating when you work and you're a man, you're not right with God. But that's what the Bible says in Genesis 2, that God has ordained men to work hard and to sweat and to toil and to slave and work. And I believe in that. But because I slaved and worked for the last three days is not why I'm going to have a paycheck on Friday. I'm going to have a paycheck on Friday, because if I have a paycheck on Friday, it's going to be because I diligently obeyed what was in this book. That's why. It's nothing to do with my... My faith has found a resting place, not in MSAR security. My faith has found a resting place in Jesus Christ to provide my needs. Not a boss, not a man. And so I don't worry as much about pleasing man as I do about pleasing God, because I know if I please God, he's going to provide it. Now look at Matthew 6.33. You'll see the same thing in the New Testament. The same exact concept. Matthew 6.33. Famous verse. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. You see, what things? The food, the raiment, the clothing, everything that he listed here that the Gentiles are seeking after. The things that the Gentiles are so worried about, the unsafe crowd is who he's referring to here, is people that are just unsafe, and that's all they worry about. Their paycheck, their money, getting money. He says, look, you worry about taking care of me and let me take care of you. And that's how you have to go through life. That brings us back to the issue of tithing. You say, well, I can't afford to tithe. Look, you can't afford not to tithe, because you can't afford to have God curse your finances. People go to the mechanic unnecessarily because they didn't tithe. They go to the doctor unnecessarily because they didn't tithe. Because God will make sure that you only live off 90% of your money. You say, well, how do you know that? Well, in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel refused to give the land the Sabbath. They were only supposed to till their land for six years, and the seventh year they were supposed to just let it go. They weren't supposed to harvest it. They weren't supposed to plant it. And God said, you just have to trust me. You just have to have faith that I'll give you more in the six years, and if you take that seventh year off, I'll bless you, and you'll end up with more if you don't work on that seventh year. Well, what did they do? For 490 years, they obeyed it for a while, but for 490 years they refused to keep that Sabbath, where they gave the land the year off. For 490 years, and so you know what God did? God sent Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, down and had him take them into captivity, and he says, your captivity is going to last exactly 70 years, because that's 70 Sabbaths that you were supposed to let the land rest, and he says, it's going to rest because I said it's going to rest, and so it's going to rest while you're sitting in Babylon. Nobody's going to plant that thing for 70 years because you're not going to mock me. I said, don't do it. And God took it out on them one way or the other, and that's the way it is with tithing. God says, if you tithe, I'll rebuke the devourer for your sake. He says, your cow is not going to cast its young. It's not going to have a miscarriage because I'm going to bless you so that your finances increase when you give the tithe, but when you don't tithe, he says, I'm going to take it out of you one way or the other. And so you can't afford not to tithe. It's silly not to tithe. The only reason that it would make sense not to tithe is if there's no God, and if the Bible's not true. Then it would make more sense to have the 100% than the 90%. And so God is saying, if you obey me, I'll take care of it. If you tithe, and if you work hard, and if you do what you're supposed to do, let me take care of you. And don't sit around worrying about money because there's more to life than food and raiment. He says, worry about getting people saved. Worry about praying for people. Worry about reading the Bible. Worry about serving God. Worry about loving him and being in church and doing what you're supposed to do. Worry about raising your kids for God. Don't sit around worrying about money because he says, you're getting into my territory. You do everything you can. You work as hard as you can, and it may not just be 40 hours. He expects you to work. Maybe he expects a man, I'm talking about, he expects a man maybe to work a lot of hours sometimes and really slave and work. But he says, you do what you're supposed to do, and then don't worry about money. Don't sit around thinking about money because money is the last thing of importance. The things of God is what we need to seek first, and all these things will be added to us. Yes, God will bless you more if you be faithful to church and tithe than if you miss church to go to work and then pay your bills instead of tithing. Tithing is a bill. The first bill I pay every week is my tithe check, and I'm just like you. I don't get paid from this church, and I just work a job just like you do, and I take my tithe and I write out my 10% before anything else comes out, before taxes, before anything. I just take that money and I write out that check, and I throw it in the plate. It's like paying my bills. I don't even think about it. And do I feel like, wow, I just did a great deed. I just gave money to God. I don't feel that way at all. I just feel like, oh, this is yours, God. Here you go. That was in my wallet. Cheers. Take it. I mean, I owe it to him. And then there might be an offering on top of that. Okay. But the tithe is the Lord's, and so that's living by faith. Living by faith financially is not somebody who throws down $10,000 and some big offering, but living by faith financially is where you say, I'm going to worry more about being obedient to God than I'm going to worry about finances. I think God would just be pleased. I don't think God is really looking for you to throw your whole paycheck into the offering plate. I just don't believe that. I think that what God's looking for is for you to give him 10%, because that's what he asked for. And I think what God is looking for is for you not to give him a bunch of money and throw money at him like, Here, God, just leave me alone. Here, I'm not going to go soul-winning, but here, send that guy over to Korea, go soul-winning for a while. Those people. No. God says, no, I don't want your money. I want you to obey me. Give me the 10% that belongs to me, and then get out there and obey me and worry about it. If you want to give me an offering, fine. I'll appreciate it. It'll show me that you love me. But I'm not telling you to give me a bunch of money. He said, I'm telling you, just give me the 10% that belongs to me. I'll bless you anyway. I'll take care of you. You don't need that 10%. I'll give you everything you need anyway. But why don't you worry about serving me? Why don't you worry about the things of God? Anyway, we're about out of time. But just quickly, I want to just show you a few quick things in this chapter just so you can study this chapter in your own time. Again, the rest of the Lord's Prayer, go to verse number 12. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. We preached on that just a couple weeks ago about how God will treat you the way that you treat other people. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Tonight is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. Both kind of go together. He's saying, God, don't put me in a situation where I'm tempted to sin, is what he's saying there. Don't put me around things that are going to tempt me. God, you know my weaknesses. Just keep me away from a situation that's going to make me sin, is what that's about there. And then deliver us from evil is talking about delivering us from people that would harm us, that people want to hurt us. If I had time to show you that from the Bible. And then he goes on about fasting. I just want to show you one thing about fasting. It says, verse number 16, Moreover, when you fast, not if you fast, something God expects God's people to do from time to time is fasting. It's not optional. He says, when you fast. Well, what if I don't want? He said, look, I just expect you to fast. And when you do it, this is how I want you to do it. Do it as a secret. Do it in secret and your Father will reward you openly. Then you go on down the line. It says, let me see, let me find my place. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Again, telling you don't live for money. Don't try to amass your 401k. That's not what life's about. Life is about serving me and winning people to Christ and laying up treasures in heaven. No man can serve two masses, verse number 24. He says, you're either going to serve one of two things in life, God or money. It's either going to be God or money. And you can see that in the world that many people are serving money as a religion. And look at verse number 34. He went into all the stuff about not worrying about finances and so forth. And he sums it up with verse number 34. Take therefore. The therefore is referring to the whole chapter. He's summing up what he said here. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof is saying, look, there's enough bad things today for you to worry about. Don't worry about the bad stuff that's going to happen tomorrow. He says, the evil that's going on today is sufficient enough for you to worry about. Don't worry about some bad thing that's going to happen down the road. Just worry about the problems that you have today. Just say it. Don't say, oh man. And this is a great secret to life. If I was a psychoanalyst right now, like most preachers, I could preach a whole sermon on this how one of the great secrets that I've literally found in life is that I don't look too far into the future with my life. I don't say, for example, when my wife goes out of town every once in a while, she's gone to Germany like once a year. Is that about how often? I wish. Once every two years or something. She'll go to Germany for two weeks. And I'm just like, oh man, I don't know what to do with myself because my wife's gone and I'm not used to that. And so what do I do? I don't sit there and say, well, how am I going to make it through the next two weeks without my wife all by myself? That's not what I do. Here's what I say. I just say, well, I just need to, this is what I'm going to do today. I just need to make it through today. And then the next day, I say, this is what I'm going to do today. And just think, boy, when I just went to Kansas City, this was something that was kind of stressing me out, this trip to Kansas City, all this work I had to do. I didn't say, how in the world am I going to do 20 target fire alarm inspections in a row without sleeping and without resting and without bathing and how am I going to do this? No, I just pretty much just look to the next one. I just got to do one more. And it's like, I got to do one more because if I got to thinking, man, I got like 12 left, I mean, that would have discouraged me. I would have been depressed. And so don't look too far into the future, is what God's saying. Look, don't tell me all the bad things that are going to happen months from now or, oh, it's just going to be this way for years and it's never going to be right. Just look, hey, how are you doing today? Did you have a good meal today? Did you have breakfast, lunch, and dinner today? Are you comfortable today? Are you dressed today? Do you have clothing today? Do you have what you need today? Things are pretty good today, aren't they? He says, then what are you complaining about? We'll worry about tomorrow. When it comes, then who knows? I might do something for you, totally different tomorrow that you didn't even expect. So it's pointless to worry about the future and stress out about, just look, worry about today and then tomorrow worry about tomorrow and then the next day worry about tomorrow, because God's a very present help. The Bible says God's a present tense kind of a God and so he's worried about right now and so don't worry about tomorrow. What shall we eat? What shall we drink? He says obey God today and I'll take care of you tomorrow. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. God, thank you so much for the promises of God that you've given us to provide.