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There in verse number 8, where the Bible reads, For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. And what I want to preach about this morning is shortsightedness. Not being able to see afar off. Not looking at the big picture, but only being able to see something that's just up close. Now there are people that are physically shortsighted, meaning that they can see things that are close, but things that are far away become blurry and they can't see them very well. And the Bible says here that if you lack these things, if you're unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ, he says you're blind and you can't see afar off. Now go to Colossians chapter number 3. I'm sorry, go to Hebrews 11. I'll read for you from Colossians 3. Go to Hebrews 11. Hebrews chapter 11. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 13, there's a few pages from 2 Peter there, it says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. Notice, so faith is seeing afar off. It's not being shortsighted. He says, Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek the country. Verse 15, And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is in heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he had prepared for them a city. So part of not being shortsighted is being able to see the future, see the big picture. The Bible says in Colossians 3, 1, don't turn there, If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ dideth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. You see, the Bible is saying here that these great people of faith in Hebrews 11, they did not receive the promises, but they could see them afar off, and they realized that this world was not their home. They were just passing through, and they were looking to a greater future in heaven, and all the glory that they would share one day with Jesus Christ in heaven. And it wasn't just that they could only see what was right in front of them, the nasty now and now of life that we're living in right now. Go back a little further in Hebrews 11 to verse 24. Verse 24, the Bible reads in verse 24, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. So Moses was not shortsighted. If he would have only been shortsighted and only looking at the immediate future, he would have been better off to just remain as Pharaoh's daughter, to enjoy the treasures of Egypt, to enjoy all the pleasure and all the fun that comes with having money and fame and power and prestige, because he had all of those things. He was living in Pharaoh's household. He was called the son of Pharaoh's daughter or the grandson of Pharaoh. And he had access to all the pleasures and fun and everything that the world had to offer. But he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. You see, sin has pleasure in the short term. And to a shortsighted person, sin is appealing because it's fun right now, because the enjoyment comes right now. But the person who delves into sin is very shortsighted because they don't see the long-term consequences of their sin. For example, if I wanted to get the enjoyment that sin has to offer, I could have it immediately right now. I could go out and get drunk or fornicate or commit adultery or take drugs. Whatever it is that sin can do for me and give me pleasure, it's all right now. It's right here. It's right in front of my face. Whereas serving God and living the right kind of a life and doing the right thing, it doesn't bring immediate gratification. It's in the future that the gratification comes. It's in the long run that you're better off. And so the shortsighted person lives a sinful life because they can't see afar off. They're blind to the consequences that are down the road. For example, if I were to go out to eat today and I wanted something just really fast, it's probably not going to be a quality meal. If I want to go to McDonald's drive-thru and drive-thru, I'm probably going to have my food in about 53 seconds. But it's going to be garbage. Whereas if I went to a nice restaurant and sat down at a steakhouse, my food's not going to be out in 53 seconds. I'm going to have to wait longer. And it's going to have to cost more money. Meaning that I have to work long hours in order to make the money. And then I've got to wait through all that work until I've earned the money. Then I've got to sit there and wait for the waiter to bring the food out to my table. Or I could just have no money, find some change in the couch cushion, and go to McDonald's and be gratified and filled right now. But what I'm putting in my body is probably destroying my body in the long run. Because I'm not getting the vitamins and minerals and nutrition I need. I'm getting junk food that's going to be unhealthy for me in the long run. So I can have gratification right now, but we ought not be short-sighted. We need to be able, as the Bible said, to be able to see afar off and not be blind to the future of our lives. Now, God said it about those in the Old Testament. They didn't receive the promises. They saw them afar off. They had the faith to believe that they would be rewarded in the long run. Now, jump back if you would or jump forward to chapter 12, verse 16. Now, let me give you an example of somebody in the Bible who was very short-sighted. They didn't see the big picture. They were only thinking about the short term. And that's how many people are today. But Esau is a perfect example. Look at Esau in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 16. The Bible reads, Lest there be any fornicator... You say, what's a fornicator? A fornicator is somebody who goes to bed with somebody that they're not married to. That's what a fornicator is. It says, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau. So Esau is the bad example of the fornicator or profane person. Who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Now, go back to Genesis 25. I'm going to show you this. Genesis 25. See, God very clearly in Hebrews 12... You don't really get this when you're reading Genesis. God very clearly in Hebrews 12 explains that the reason God allowed him to lose the blessing later was that he sold his birthright. Okay? Esau thought he was a victim. Esau thought that Jacob had supplanted him and stolen the birthright by subtlety. And that was the only reason... Or the blessing, I'm sorry. And that's why he lost the blessing. But God said that the reason that he lost the blessing was because he sold the birthright. That was the punishment that happened to him. Look at Genesis 25. I'll show you what I'm talking about. It says in Genesis 25, these are two brothers. They're two twin brothers. Esau was the firstborn. Therefore, he gets a double portion of the inheritance, okay? The Bible's very clear that if a man had multiple sons, then the oldest son would get a double inheritance. For example, I had three sons. So if I were to die, my three sons that would inherit my property, if we were living back in those days and in that culture, basically, I would divide the inheritance into four parts. And I would give two parts unto Solomon, one part unto Isaac, and one part unto John. So Solomon's getting double what the others are getting. That's how it worked in the Old Testament. The firstborn got a double inheritance. Now, Jacob and Esau were twins. But Esau came out first. Therefore, Esau was the firstborn. Therefore, he gets a double inheritance. That means when Dad divides up his wealth... And by the way, his dad had a lot of wealth. When he divided up that wealth, it was going to be basically divided into three parts. And Esau would get two parts, and Jacob would get one part. Jacob would get a third, Isaac... Or Esau would get two thirds. But look what happened. It says in verse 27, The boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. And Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he didn't eat of his venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sawed pottage. That means he boiled pottage, or cooked it on the stove. And Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray to you, with the same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day, and he sware unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pockets of littles, and he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way. Watch this. Thus Esau despised his birthright. So he had no respect for it. He despised it. Basically, he's starving hungry. He's been out hunting for days, and hasn't eaten in days. So he's just starving hungry. You know, we say that a lot. We're not really starving, but you know what I mean. He's like, Oh man, I'm starving. I'm so hungry. So he hadn't eaten in a few days. He's really hungry. And he comes in, and he asks Jacob to give him some of the food that he has. And Jacob says, I'll give it to you in exchange for your birthright. Okay, now, the birthright is something that's way off in the future. It's not something that they're gonna get today or tomorrow. It's way off in the future when their dad dies, decades and decades and decades from now. And he says, I don't care. What is that gonna do for me? I'm at the point to die here. I'm so hungry. Just feed me. I'll sell you the birthright for this bowl of soup. Now, think about how ridiculous that is. Giving away tens of thousands of dollars of inheritance or hundreds of thousands of dollars of inheritance so you can have a bowl of soup right now. But when you're really hungry, and that soup smells good, and it's the only food available. But you see, this is how stupid people are. When they're short-sighted. They can't even have a concept of off in the future that it's just a huge amount of money that he just gave away. And he's probably thinking, oh, we're gonna inherit so many millions of dollars from dad or hundreds of thousands. So what if you could have the double portion? Just give me that bowl of soup. That's a very foolish thing that he did. But this is exactly what we do when we live a life of sin. Because notice what God compared it to. Go back to Hebrews. Go back to Hebrews. And of course, here's the thing. Whenever we're short-sighted and sin and give in to the flesh, because he gave in to the lust of his flesh, right? He's lusting for food. He's so hungry. He gave in to the lust of his flesh. It always costs you more than you think it's going to cost. Because Esau's weighing the cost and saying, OK, I'll give up an inheritance many decades from now. I'll take the smaller portion. I'll give him the bigger portion to get the soup in my stomach right now, or the pottage, or bowl of chili, or whatever you want to call it, OK? But it actually cost him more than that. Because not only did it cost him his birthright of the double portion, but it also cost him the blessing of God. Because God looked down and saw what he did. And it made God angry that he despised his birthright, that he had no respect for it. And because God was angry with him, God took away the blessing off of his life and ended up causing him a lot more grief and a lot more harm in his life. And so there are bigger consequences sometimes than what we count. Sometimes we have a choice before us. And the alternative is to do the sinful thing or to do the right thing. And we weigh out the options. But the problem is, it always costs you more than you expect it to cost you when you sin. You know, you think to yourself, well, I can do this sin. And yeah, it's going to cause me bad consequences. Yeah, there's going to be a punishment. Yeah, there's going to be repercussions. But you weigh it out. It's sort of like when you're a kid and you want to break mom and dad's rules. And you're thinking to yourself, OK, how hard of a spang am I going to get? And then you kind of weigh it out. Is it worth it? Is it worth the chance? Who knows what I'm talking about? Or let's say if it's going to be getting grounded. Or even like, let's say the consequences like when you are speeding and you're going to get a ticket. And you're thinking to yourself, OK, how much is the ticket? How bad do I need to get there? How fast do I need to go? Am I willing to take the chance this time? So that's how people think, right? And that's how kids especially think. You know, it's worth risking because it's going to be a small spanking. Or it's going to be a dad's spanking or a mom's spanking. You know, whichever one they think is less severe. And they're kind of weighing it out. Can I get by with it? But you know what those kids are not thinking about, though? Is that God's up in heaven. And God said, children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. And when God sees you disobey your parents, you might get that spanking and say, yeah, it was worth it. But wait a minute. What else is God going to do to spank you? What other consequences is God going to bring upon you because he's displeased with you rebelling against your parents? And so what I'm saying is when you sin and do wrong against your parents, and I'm obviously speeding is a dumb illustration. Actually, God's rules, the rules that actually matter is what I'm talking about. But anyway, just kidding. Actually, I'm not. But anyway, when it comes to God's rules, when it comes to obeying your parents, when it comes to obeying your boss at work, when it comes to obeying legitimate authorities that God has set up in your life, when it comes to obeying first and foremost God's commandments in the Bible, and you sit there and think, well, it's not that bad. I can get by with it. It always costs you more than what you think it's going to cost you. And it costs Esau more than what he expected it to cost him. And it's going to cost you more every time. But people who live a life of sin are short-sighted. Look down at it. Are you back at Hebrews? Hebrews 12, 16 says, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one more soul of meat sold his birthright. Now he compares Esau selling his birthright. He compares it to fornication. Now here's why. Because Esau is giving in to the lust of his flesh because he's hungry. And he wants food. And it's going to make his body feel good for that food to enter his stomach and refresh him and revitalize him. And yet, he threw away his future just for one bowl of chili. Isn't that ridiculous? But that's the same thing that people do when they commit fornication. Because when you commit fornication, you're committing a huge sin against God. You're losing the blessing of God. Just like Esau lost the blessing, you're losing the blessing. Why? To gratify the lust of your flesh. Just as he gave Esau a few moments of enjoyment to spoon the chili into his mouth and swallow it down into his stomach, that is the same way it is with fornication. You get a few moments of enjoyment. Listen to me now. You get a few moments of enjoyment, but yet you're throwing away a lot of blessings of God. You're throwing away a lot of things in your future. And you're enjoying pleasure for a moment. And then you're going to have pain for a lifetime. And it's going to cost you more than you expect it to cost you. And that's why God, I'm not even making this comparison. God is the one who has compared fornication to what Esau did. He says that's the type of person Esau was. He had no respect for what was in the future. He had no respect for the blessing of God. He'd rather have a physical gratification now for a moment than to wait and to suffer for Christ, to live the life that God wants us to live. And then he's going to have pleasure forevermore. But instead, no, he wants to be gratified now. He throws away his financial future. He threw away the blessing of God. See how short-sighted that was? And anybody who looks at that story of Esau selling his birthright thinks it's a silly story. I mean, every time I look at it, I'm just looking at it like, are you serious? You're selling your birthright for a bowl of chili? Are you really that hungry? But yet people will go out and commit fornication and think nothing of it. And God says you're just as short-sighted, you're just as foolish if you're living that kind of a life. Because it's not going to bless you in the long run. And it's going to cost you more than you thought. And it's exactly what Esau did. So we need to be careful not to be deceived by the pleasures of sin for a season. Go to Luke chapter 15. The pleasures of sin for a season. You see, if sin were not pleasurable, people wouldn't be doing it, right? I'm not going to get up here and lie to you and say, hey, there's nothing fun about sin. Sin has no pleasure. Sin gives you no enjoyment. Because sin does give enjoyment. Sin does bring pleasure for a season. But the suffering is never worth it. The punishment is not worth it. It goes on much longer than the pleasure goes on. And so we ought not be short-sighted. We need to see the big picture. God said, well, you're turning to Luke 15. I'll read for you from Psalm 1611. The Bible reads, thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. So the life lived serving God and at the right hand of God is a life of pleasures forevermore. The life of sin is a life of pleasure for a season or for a short time. But not only that, look at Luke 15. Here's a guy who was very short-sighted. And this is similar to the story about Esau. And it has to do with finances. It says in verse 11, this is Jesus speaking. He said a certain man had two sons, verse 12. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided out of them his living. So this guy has two sons. And one of the sons says, I want my inheritance right now. I don't want to wait until you die. I want it right now, whatever my portion is. And he's the younger brother. And so he basically is getting the smaller portion. But it's still a substantial amount of money because his father's a very wealthy man. And he gets his portion. It says in verse 13, not many days after, the young son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. And he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. And no man gave unto him. So here's a guy who's got a huge inheritance coming. His father has a great property. You know, if we read a little more into the story as we go further, we see that he has a great property. He has many employees. So he's a landowner. And he has servants. And he has facilities and buildings. And he has animals and crops. And he has a whole enterprise, a whole business going. Now, the younger son, he takes his inheritance. He should have inherited part of his father's operation and been able to use that money to make more money to live off of for the rest of his life. But instead, he just goes out and just parties with it. He just blows all the money. And eventually, the economy takes a downturn. There's a recession. And there's a famine in the land. And now, all of a sudden, nobody has any money. He's blown all his money. And he can't find a job because he blew all his money. And the economy has gone bad. You know, does that sound familiar? And so he ends up, the only job he can get is feeding pigs. And he gets this job feeding slop to pigs. And basically, he's just wishing he could eat what he's feeding the pigs. That's how bad he is. He has no money. He's that hard up. And he's staying with this guy. And he's feeding his pigs. And he can't even earn enough to eat better than what the pigs are eating. So he just went from having a great time. Now, let me ask you this. Do you think he had fun during the riotous living phase? I'm sure he did. Man, I'm sure he had the time of his life. But you know what? When he's in the pig pen feeding pigs with an empty stomach, wishing he could eat their slop, he is not thinking to himself, oh, that was so fun. Man, that was great. It was so worth it. That's not what he's thinking about. He's thinking about right now. I'm starving. I'm hungry. I've got my whole life ahead of me. He's still a young man. He's got his whole life ahead of him. He has nothing. Now, here's the thing. When you start out in this world and you start with nothing, it's hard to get ahead, isn't it? Now, I started out with pretty much nothing. I mean, I basically got married. And I was making a very low wage per hour. I pretty much just had very few clothes. Me and my wife, we did have a car that we shared, an old car that we shared. We had two plates, two forks, two spoons, two glasses. I mean, when we invited people over for dinner, we would have to tell them, bring two chairs, because we only had two chairs. There were two of us. At first, we didn't even have chairs. And then we had two chairs, and we would have to bring chairs. And we would tell them, bring plates, bring silverware. We only have it for us. We only have it for two. And I'm not exaggerating. Isn't that true, Zizia? We only had very little. We were very poor. We started with nothing. And you start out working for somebody else, right? You can't just go out and say, well, I'm going to open a restaurant. I'm going to open up business. I'm going to start this. Because guess what? Opening a restaurant takes a lot of money. Opening an electrical business, opening a fire alarm business, opening any kind of a business, starting, I'm going to start an ice cream shop. Guess what? That all takes money. Now, it's very difficult when you start with nothing. You've got to work. You've got to get paid by the hour. You've got to climb the ladder. You've got to gain the skills. You've got to save up the money in order to be able to invest. Or you have to build some kind of a line of credit or something in order to be able to invest to start a business. Because when you start a business, there's an investment there. Now, when you start a business, you're probably going to make more money than somebody who's just an employee working by the hour, right? So if everybody just started out life with, say, $50,000 in their hand, right? That'd be a lot easier to make money. Because you can take your $50,000 and buy some restaurant or buy a store or buy something and buy a business. And you could have more money coming in and so forth. You'd still have to work hard. But at least you'd have something going for you. Well, back in those days, most people were farmers. So if you had a piece of land, you could farm that land and you could make a big profit. It'd be hard work, but that's your business. Your farm is like a business that you own. And if you don't have any land and if you don't have any money, instead of farming your own land, you're going to be hired by the hour to go farm somebody else's land and you're going to make very little money. Does everybody understand what I'm saying right now? The people that are out in the field picking strawberries today in California, they're not making as much as the guy who owns the farm. Everybody understand that? The people who are working at McDonald's across the street are not making as much as the guy who owns McDonald's across the street. But it takes money to make money. So this young guy, instead of taking his money, he had this huge inheritance from his debt. That is a huge head start in life. Because he can take that money and he can buy a piece of property and he can use that for farming. He can take that money and he can buy a business. That's what his dad had been doing, running a business and making money. And he was living a better life than somebody who's just making a low wage feeding swine, for example. But instead of doing that, he took that large sum of money that he had that he could have invested and used to make money. He just went out and just blew it on just drinking, partying, women. And he was probably that guy who's always paying for everybody else. He's buying the drinks, he's buying the food, he's buying gifts, he's buying clothes, he's buying vehicles for people. He's just Mr. Cool. He's having the time of his life. Everybody loves him. Because the Bible says everybody's going to love you when you give gifts. I mean, when you're paying, everybody loves you. You're the life of the party. But guess what? As soon as the famine comes, all his friends are gone. No man gave unto him. Where are all those people that he was buying for? They're gone. They didn't stick around. Now he's got nothing. He's wasted his whole inheritance. Now for the rest of his life, he's going to have to work as a servant. He's going to have to work from the bottom. It's going to be very hard for him to climb his way back up to that level. Then he could have just started that, because he had all that money to start with. Does everybody understand the story? He blew it. He wasted it. He only could see what was right in front of him. And he was saying, it's going to be more fun right now. You know, starting a business, buying a bit of farming, buying land, buying a business? Nah. Let's just eat, drink, and be married, because tomorrow we die. Let's just go out and party and live it up, man. But then when the money runs out, now he's in the pink pen. He has no food. So finally he realizes, you know what? I'd be better off back with dad, even just as a hired servant. He's saying, my dad takes better care of his employees than I'm getting right now. He said, I'm going to go back to my dad and tell him I'm sorry and see if I can just be an employee. He goes back to his father. And he comes to him. And he says, I've sinned against heaven and against thee. I'm no longer worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of the hired servants. And of course, his dad's happy to see him. He kills the fatted calf. They throw a big party. He treats him very well. He's very kind to him when he comes back, even though he had a right to be upset at the son for wasting all his substance. But he was gracious and merciful to him and friendly to him. But here's the thing. At the end of the story, the story makes it very clear. Because the older brother who stayed home, he's a little bit mad, saying, why are you throwing a party for him? He went out and did all this sinful stuff. He went out and wasted the money. And he said, look, we ought to be happy, at least, that he's come to his senses that he's held. Welcome him back to the fold. But he explained to him. He said to the son, he said, all that I have is yours. He basically told the older son, guess what? That younger son's not getting any inheritance. Because he already spent it. He already wasted it. So yeah, his dad was happy to see him and treated him well. But his future has been forever altered. He's never going to own that property. He's never going to be successful. He's going to be like the hired servants. That's how he's going to live now. And was it really worth it to have that fun just for a short time, maybe a year? The Bible doesn't really tell us how long it was. But let's say it was a year or something. He blows all the money. He had that fun year. But he's got to live another 50 years with the consequences of his actions. And you say, well, the story's unrealistic. It's not unrealistic at all. It's a fact. People who win the lottery, they blow all the money. They waste it. They end up with less money when they're done. Because they know they can't handle it. And they think, oh, I've got millions of dollars that I've set for life. But they're not. They end up in debt. They end up in a worse case than before in many cases. You know why? Because the kind of people that buy lottery tickets, listen to me now, are the kind of people who make dumb choices with their money. Think about it. You say, why do these people always mess up their life? I look at it, and I say, man, if I got that money, I wouldn't screw it up. But you know why? Because I don't buy lottery tickets. That's why I wouldn't mess it up. And you look at it, and you're like, oh, these people are idiots. Look how they ruin it. And people even say, why is it that everybody who wins is always this idiot? And they blow all the money. And they make stupid choices with it. Maybe it's because idiots are the ones who buy lottery tickets. Sorry to offend you, but it's true. It's a stupid thing to do. That's why. Because you're flushing your money down the toilet. Because it's a rigged game. It's a game where very few people like it. And this is what's so silly. I think lately, I don't know. My dad told me about it. He said that the jackpot is like the highest it's ever been. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Somebody give me the details on it. How much is it? 600 million. Come on. Pull your lottery ticket out of your pocket and tell me. How much is it? Like half a million dollars. 600 million or something. 600 million dollars. Is it really that high? Wow. That's crazy. So it's like 600 million dollars. And here's what people do. They go out and buy it more because it's 600 million. Now let me explain to you why this makes no sense. The higher it goes, the less chance you have of winning. Number one. Number two. If you win 600 million versus 60 million, is it really that different? What do you even do with that amount of money? I mean, what do you do? Like, oh, you won 60 million. Yay. 600 million. Woo! I mean, is it really that different? I mean, look. What do you do? I mean, what do you do? You buy with all that money. You buy good food, right? How much food can you eat, though? 60 million is probably going to buy you all the good food you want to eat for the rest of your life. You can probably eat your favorite breakfast, favorite lunch, and favorite dinner every day, whenever you want, for the rest of your life, on 6 million dollars. Let alone 60 or 600 million. What are you going to do, travel? Okay, how much can you travel? What are you going to do with it? It's insane. It's bizarre. And yet people will buy it more because it's 600 million. And that their chances are going down of winning. It doesn't make any sense, folks. But buying lotto tickets makes no sense. Because the amount of money that people put into lotto tickets, if they would literally just put that in a piggy bank, they would end up with more money. Because by the time you win, you've probably put that much into it. Or if you would have put it into a bank account or put it somewhere and invested it somewhere, you'd be a millionaire. Okay? But instead, you're just throwing it away, throwing it away, throwing it away, throwing it away. And by the way, you say, well, Pastor Anderson, how dare you criticize my lotto tickets. Listen to me now. It's not biblical. It's wrong. The Bible says that if you, it says that it's wrong, it says, labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom. It says, he that maketh haste, listen to me, he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. The Bible over and over, I've done whole sermons on it, I'm not going to turn to all the scriptures. Just look up the word hasten to be rich or haste to be rich. People who want to get rich quick, it's sinful, it's wrong. We're supposed to just work hard and live our lives and not try to have some get rich quick thing. You know, you can make all this money from your apartment, you know? And, you know, some guy that's on a boat surrounded by women in bikinis telling you you're going to make $10,000 every month without leaving your apartment. You know, I had a friend who called that number because, you know, he's just like watching this thing and, oh man, I'm such an idiot, it's so easy. I wish I would have found this earlier. I'm making $12,000 a month from my 600 square foot apartment. Now I'm on a boat with all these women in bikinis on a infomercial. Okay, so you ever wonder, because they never tell you what it is, right? Because you've got to pay like a little bit of money to get started, you know? You've got to pay like 50 bucks, so you've got to call a 1900 number, they're going to tell you all about it. Well, I had a friend that I worked with, he called that number and he bought the package from that guy. It was, you know what it was? He was running, he was basically running like indecent 900 numbers and selling porn, okay? That's what it is. You know, when people think like, oh yeah, this is great, I can replace my job and then it's like, oh, you're selling porn. I mean, this is the kind of garbage and it's the same thing with lotto tickets. You're just, you're trying to take a shortcut to success instead of working hard, being patient, you just blow money on lotto tickets. But this is how this guy was, he blew all his money and he had to live with the consequences for the rest of his life. Look at verse 20, are you in Luke 15? Look at verse 20. It says that he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. This shows, this is a little bit of symbolism here, the father is not, is the father short-sighted? No, the father sees him coming a great way off. So the father spiritually seeeth a far off. The son, he can't see a far off. He's short-sighted, he blew all his money, wasted it. Not only did he lose all his money, but he's also humiliated. You know, he left, he left, it reminds me, we had some friends that got into Amway and Amway is like a get rich thing and my dad went to an Amway meeting one time, he said it was like a church service worshiping money. They sang hymns to money and preached about money and this infects people and it ruins their life. I've seen people's lives destroyed by Amway because they got so into worshiping of money and that's the culture of Amway. And this person that my parents were friends with they worked at Burger King and they got into Amway and they knew that they were going to be so successful at Amway and they actually got picked up in a limousine. They had a limousine and Amway taught them to do this. Amway literally taught them to do this that when you quit your job and you have a limousine come pick you up. So this person had a limousine come pick them up at Burger King just to show off. Now is that biblical, is that right? Being prideful and arrogant and showing off? Pride goes before destruction. And this person had a limousine and Amway, okay? Guess what? Guess where they ended up going back later? Burger King. Same Burger King. Same Burger King. Now how do you think you feel going back to that same Burger King that you left in a limousine because you were so successful at Amway? And so what does that tell you right there? That's what this guy, this guy left the prodigal son, that's what this story is usually called the prodigal son. The prodigal son left dad's house to go and then he had to come back. So son, what did you do with all that money? Why did you invest all that money? Sorry dad, I'm an idiot. I spent it all. I have nothing. I can't even feed myself. That's why I have to come under your roof now. You know, how many young people, how many teenagers listen to me now, how many teenagers when they're 17, 18 years old say I'm sick of living at home I'm going to go do it myself. I'm going to move out. And by the way, I'm all for you moving out when you get married. When you get married, move out. Not when you turn your 18th birthday to go party and be with your friend. Two men living in an apartment, two women living in an apartment. That's not God's plan. You grow up and you get married that's when you move out. You don't move out when you turn 18 when you're a 13th grader. You move out. That is not scriptural. Leave father and mother and cleave under your wife. That's what you ought to do. But these young people, they're not getting married. They're not starting their own life together, their own family together. They turn 18 and they say, I'm moving out. I'm doing it my own way. I'm going to take care of it myself. And you know how embarrassing it is when they have to come back a few years later? Or six months later. That'd be embarrassing, right? And usually they don't want to. So then sometimes they end up doing stupid things and moving in with stupid people because they're so ashamed to have to eat crow after they were so high and mighty to their parents. I don't need your rules. I don't need your help. I'm going to go do it my way. I'm going to live my own life. I'm an adult. I'm a big kid. Look what I can do. You're like 17, 18 years old. And then they move out and then they realize it's a lot harder to live on your own than they thought it was. That's what this guy realized. This guy thought, oh yeah, my parents. Look, the prodigal son grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. His dad had a lot of money. His dad had all these servants. His dad's a successful guy. So he just thinks that's how everybody lives. Right? He's just used to just always having things. And you know, our kids probably grow up, and they're used to the bills being paid, food being on the table, gas being in the tank. Guess what? When they grow up, they're going to find out someday it costs a lot of money to put gas in that tank. It costs a lot of money to keep the lights on, to keep the water flowing, to keep the heating on, to pay the bills. It's hard. It takes a lot of hard work. And I remember I thought about moving out when I was 18, and I remember just doing the math on a piece of paper. I sat down with somebody who actually had moved out, and it was a lot different than what I thought. They're listing all these things that I never even thought of. You know, when you're a kid, you don't think about buying toilet paper and Windex and a vacuum. And you don't think about stuff like that, right? You just think, well, yeah, I just pay my rent and buy food. That's it. You don't think about buying a bar of soap. You don't think about just dumb stuff that you're going to need. You don't think about the utilities. You're not thinking about the electric bill. You forgot to take into account the electric, the heating, the water, the trash, whatever. This guy, everything was given to him. He went out in the real world and figured out it was a little harder than he thought. Oh, I'll just get a job whenever I need to. I'm just going to get a job later. You know, maybe somebody's got several thousand dollars in their pocket, so instead of getting a job, they're just like, well, I'm just going to live off this money. I'll just live off this money because I can go get a job whenever I want. But guess what? You better get while the getting's good because sometimes jobs aren't available. So you better work now instead of just saying, well, I'll just blow through all this money, then see where I'm at. Then I'll get a job. Well, then what if there aren't any jobs? What if the only job is feeding pigs for less than minimum wage? You know, you're not going to have the job. Go to Proverbs 6. I'm almost done. But you see how people can be shortsighted with their life. They don't look at the big picture. People can be shortsighted financially, and really we can talk the whole sermon about finances. You know, going out. And it all kind of has the same theme. It's good now. It's fun now. It feels good now. But what about the long-term consequences? You know, the equivalent to the prodigal son today would probably be the way young people today get credit cards and rack up their credit cards. And today, if you're 18, all you've got to do is show them you're a student, and they'll give you a credit card. Isn't that true? You know, you've just got to show them your student ID. So, you know, you sign up for your basket weaving class down at South Mountain Community College. You get a Pell Grant, you know, and you get it all paid for by Obama or whatever. And you go down there, and you sign up for your basket weaving class, and, you know, you get a couple of PE, a couple of units of PE. That's one of the general eds. You know, you're tipping away your general ed with your PE and your electives and getting all those things straightened out. And you go to the bank, they'll give you credit cards, and young people will just rack up those credit cards. They literally think it's free money. I saw a story in the news, I think it was this Christmas season, that there was a glitch at a certain target. Correct me if I'm wrong, Zuzia, because I think you saw this news story. Okay, Walmarts. He's already corrected me. Okay, so there's a glitch at a Walmart, and when you first start reading the story, it sounds like it's a glitch where they're just giving out, like, free money. But this is what the glitch was. Anybody who signed up for a credit card that day at this Walmart, they were just automatically approved for a $1,000 line of credit. Now, here's the thing, folks. If I went down to Walmart right now, and I took out, and I wanted to get a Walmart credit card, I would be instantly approved. I know that for a fact, because I have good credit. I have perfect credit. If I went down there, I'd be approved for 1,000 bucks. So I'm thinking to myself, so what's the big deal? But yet, there were people literally trampling each other. Are you listening to me? Derelicts who cannot get any credit are trampling each other and going out with big screen TVs. They're just, was it 1,000 or 3,000? How much was it? 5,000. 5,000, sorry. $5,000. It's $5,000 of credit. But they looked at it as $5,000 of free money. So the word got around that everyone's being approved. So all these people who couldn't get approved are just going in there. They're signing up for a, I mean, they're still giving their social security, their drivers, all their information. They're legitimately signing up for a $5,000 credit card. And then they're just buying big screen TVs. They're buying sports equipment. They're just buying toys and fun junk at Walmart. And literally trampling upon each other. Am I telling the story right, Zisha? They're trampling upon each other to get there and get it. And I'm thinking to myself, I wouldn't go down there. You couldn't even pay me to buy that $5,000 worth of junk at Walmart. Because you eventually have to pay for it. But they're not thinking about that. They're just thinking about, yes, the TV I wanted. Oh, I wanted the new PlayStation mega packs along, or whatever the new thing is. It's stupidity. But young people today, they don't think about that. They're just 17, 18. Yeah, I can move out. I can put my groceries on a credit card. Because as soon as I graduate from college and I have my degree in art appreciation, it's going to be so easy to get a job and pay all this back. I mean, my four-year degree in art appreciation is going to open every door to me in the business world. And my four-year degree in gay and lesbian studies is going to be perfect. You know, my poetry degree, my degree in PE, every door will open to me. And they foolishly go out and put money on credit cards. Now listen to me. There are some people who say that it's a sin to ever borrow money. Now, I do not believe that it is a sin to borrow money. But I think it's very foolish to borrow money when you have no collateral for the money that you're borrowing. Listen to me. When you borrow money, like for example, to buy a house, you have like a home mortgage. Here's the thing. When you borrow money to buy a house, let's say you borrow $100,000 to buy a $100,000 house, that's different than spending money on a credit card. And here's why. Because you have the house, right? So basically, if something goes wrong, you know, you still have that house to show for it to balance out with your debt, right? So you owe $100,000, but you also own a house for $100,000. So you see how that balances out? Now, of course, in today's economy, your house might have tanked, you know, join the club. That's what mine did. When you buy a car, you know, you get a $20,000 loan, but you have a $20,000 car. So there's a balancing of accounts there. But when you pull out a credit card and you're buying food, you eat it, and then it's gone. So now you just have a debt and nothing to show for it. You understand? So this is a very foolish thing to do because you can have, like, let's say, $8,000 on credit cards and nothing to show for it. And if you're just living off of a credit card, just constantly just swiping that card, $8,000, $9,000, $10,000 for your living expenses, there's no pathway to ever paying it off because you go deeper and deeper and deeper in because you're living above your means. Now, this is exactly what our government is doing right now. Our government is run by politicians who don't care about the future. They're short-sighted. They don't care what happens 10 years from now or 20 years from now. You know what they want? They want everything to be good while they're in office. That's what they want. Well, they're only in office for a couple of years. So what they do is they borrow more money. They borrow money against the future and make everything really good while they're in office. And then, you know, the next guy, here you go, sucker. Here's all the debt. Here's all the... Yeah, clean up the mess, you know. It's funny. People love to look back at, for example... And I'm not trying to preach a political sermon this morning. Not that I'm afraid to, but it's just not what the sermon's about. But, you know, people look, for example, at years that were good times. Like, let's say they'll look at the Clinton years and say, oh, man, things were so great in the 90s and the Clinton years and everything was booming. But here's the thing. Eventually, the bill comes. You know? Or you can look at the 80s and say the same thing. Oh, man, Ronald Reagan, things were great. It was great. Yeah, but then the national debt was going through the roof. The size of government was tripled under Ronald Reagan. You know? So it seems great at the time. Like, oh, man, I wish we could go back to the way it was in the days of so-and-so. Yeah, but we're paying for that now. Because they blow money. And, like, these stimulus packages and stimulus plans, it's dumping money into the economy to put a Band-Aid on things and make things a little bit better in the short run. But in the long run, somebody's going to have to pay for it. But they don't care about that. They only want things to be good while they're in office. Because if things are good while they're in office, that's what people will remember. When so-and-so was president, things were going good. They don't think about the fact that that's when the seeds were sown for the later crash, the later collapse. It didn't happen overnight. It happened throughout all those other presidencies. It got worse and worse and worse and worse. And this is how our government is. And that's why it's a wicked government. And this is how people live their lives today. They flush their toilet down the future. Or flush their future down the toilet. Or both. But anyway, they flush their future down the toilet because they just can't see it. They just can't see it. Just, oh yeah, just put it on the credit card. Yeah, just so what? I'm hungry. I mean, look, if I wanted to right now, yeah, I could pull credit cards out of my pocket. I could go out and buy as many state dinners as I want. I could go take a cruise to Norway right now, Alaskan cruise line, and eat, drink. But when I get back, the bill is going to come in the mail. And I'm going to be paying that bill for the rest of my life. You understand? You've got to be smart financially. Now look, I'm not saying lay up treasures for yourself on this earth. I'm not saying to be greedy and to lay up treasures. But you do need to have a sustainable plan for your finances. You know? You've got to have a sustainable pathway, a sustainable future. And just living off of credit cards and racking up credit cards, and then you're paying the interest payments. Interest payment. Interest payment. And you're like, well, the minimum payment's only 30 bucks. Yeah, but you're going to pay that 30 bucks until you die. You're going to pay 30 bucks a month for the next 50 years. That's a lot of money. Because you're just paying interest, interest, flushing money down the toilet. It's short-sighted. But see, everybody wants to have everything right now. You know, people who've been married for two months, they want to have the same luxuries that people who've been married for 20 years have. And it's simply not going to happen. You know, if you've been married for two months and then you go to the kitchen of somebody who's been married for 20 years, you might not have all the gadgets they have. But it took them 20 years to get there. You know, and people, it seems like they want to just start out with everything right now. When really, they need to be a little bit less short-sighted and say, hey, you know what? I'm going to suffer now. I'm going to work hard now. I'm going to do without now. I mean, my wife and I were married for how many years before we took a vacation that was more than just a one-nighter? Well, we'd been married for at least six years before we took... Why do you know that so fast? How do you just know that off the tip of your tongue? Yeah, it was six years and two months. I'm saying, my wife and I were married for over six years before we took even a single vacation that was more than just a one-nighter, just going somewhere, spending the night. I mean, when we were first married, do you know what our date night was? Go out to eat with my parents because they're mine. Because that was the only date night. Because there's no way that we could have afforded to even go out to dinner. So our date night was once a week, we would go out to dinner with my parents and they would foot the bill, okay? Because we just couldn't afford it. But see, we could have just said, oh, let's just use the credit card, right? But then we'd still be paying for it today. We'd be paying literally 11 years later for out to dinner at night. We'd still be paying for it. I mean, think about how crazy that is. And I thank God that I don't have any credit card debt, okay? Now, I've had some credit card debt in the past and I've made mistakes and done things that were not smart on a credit card. But I was able to work hard and to pay it off and now I don't have any credit card debt whatsoever. But I have credit cards. But I have the restraint and the self-control and the far-sightedness not to just go out and just, oh, I've got credit cards, let's just go blow money. Let's just go spend money. Because I have a credit line of X amount of $1,000, okay? Now, let's go to one more place, Proverbs 6. Did I have you turn there? Proverbs 6. Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 6, verse 6. Go to the ant thou sluggard. Now, a sluggard is a lazy person. It comes to the word like a slug. Go to the ant thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provided her meat in the summer and gathered her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelth in thy want as an armed man. And so the Bible is saying here that the ant doesn't have somebody standing over her as a supervisor, forcing her to make the right decision. She's smart enough to make the right decision on her own, and she prepares her meat in the summer because she knows in the winter it's not going to be available. She knows that it's not going to be available, so she prepares it now. So she has a sight for the future, thinking to herself, okay, instead of just playing in the sun all day, woo, it's summertime, let's play in the sun. She uses the summer to work, okay? And look, I know the Bible says not to lay up treasures for yourself on this earth, but to lay up treasures in heaven. I believe that, I preach that, but you need to get a balance here instead of saying, well, the Bible says not to lay up treasures on earth, so therefore I'm not going to go to work. That's a dumb philosophy. You need to work, and you know what? Sometimes 40 hours a week isn't going to cut it, because let's face it, in today's world, most people have two incomes. The husband and the wife both work in today's world. If I want my wife to stay home and rear my children, 40 hours ain't going to cut it, and I've had to work way more than that for pretty much my whole marriage, and there were a couple of years in my marriage. There were about two and a half years in my marriage where I only worked 40 hours a week, and guess what? That was when I didn't have any money and went into debt in credit cards to the tune of a couple thousand dollars. Nothing huge, but we had no money, and I was going into debt. I was only working 40 hours a week. Every other part of my marriage, I've worked way more than 40 hours a week, because that's just the reality of the world that we live in. Now, if you can work, there are some people who have very good, high-paying jobs that can work 40 hours a week and provide their needs, and that's great, and if you have enough money, I'm not telling you to go out and work more if you're providing for yourself 40 hours a week, but I'm just telling you that sometimes 40 hours a week is not going to be enough, you know, and look, we would all love to have all the free time entailed by working only 40 hours a week, right, but that just isn't reality, and so sometimes you've got to get up early and stay up late, and you've got to work hard to make the money necessary to provide your needs and to pay for your family and to provide a future for yourself. You've got to work hard like the ant. God's giving an example saying, look, your poverty will come upon you if you don't work hard enough, if you don't go out and work and make the money that you need, and so think for the future. Yes, I know it's more fun to play right now. I know it's more fun to just take time off and vacation and just hang out and sit around and spend time with your friends and so forth, but you know what, now might need to be a work time for you, you know, and sometimes when you're young, especially, you want to play more. People that are 18, 19, 20, 21, man, they want to live life. They want to have fun, but you know what? You probably need to be at work. Yeah, have a little fun, but it needs to be mainly work, okay, and then when you do that work, then later in life, once you've already paid for your house, once you've paid for your cars, once you've paid for the things that you enjoy, now it's time to relax a little and enjoy the fruit of your labor, but you know what, people want to enjoy the fruit of the labor before they've even done the labor. That's what a credit card is, and that's what people want to do. They want to enjoy the money now, and again, I'm not saying that there are not legitimate reasons to borrow money. For example, buying a house, buying a car, you have collateral. For example, when I started my electrical business, you know, there was an investment that I had to make or I had to borrow money, but of course, it was all paid off through the business and so forth, and so there are legitimate reasons to buy money. When the Bible says, oh, no, man, anything, that's talking about when you borrow money and you don't pay it back, and you're guilty or not guilty. I'm still used to speaking German. My father-in-law's been living with me, and I've been speaking German with him all day, and when you owe somebody money, it's your schuldig. How do you say it? Your indebted. That's the word I'm looking for. In German, it's the same word. Guilty and indebted is the same word in German. But anyway, when you're indebted to somebody, as in you're not paying your bills. For example, if I go out and borrow money to buy a car, right, and I have a car payment every month, that's not a sin to do that. There's no place in the Bible that says that that's a sin. But what if I don't pay the bill? Is that a sin? What if I go out and borrow money, and I borrow a $20,000 loan for my car, right, and then the payday comes, and I don't pay the bill? Is that a sin? That's what it means when it says, owe no man anything, where people are coming to you saying, hey, you owe me money. You said you're going to pay me, and you didn't pay. Or you're supposed to pay on the 15th, and you didn't pay. And if you can't pay, then obviously you make arrangements, and you're supposed to tell them, hey, I can't pay. You pay later, whatever. Have a plan to pay them back. But the thing is, when you're not paying your car payment, and look, there are people in this world who literally will go out and rack up credit with no intention of ever paying it back. There are people who go out and rack up like that Walmart $5,000. A lot of those people, they already do it. They're laughing. I'm not going to pay this back. And you know what? You're not going to be thrown in jail, because in today's world, they don't throw you jail. It just destroys your credit. And then you can't borrow money next time, unless the next glitch happens. But listen to me. People will destroy their credit, but the Bible says, the wicked borroweth and payeth not again. So it's not right. When you borrow money, you're supposed to pay the money back that you borrowed. And you're not supposed to not. So if you go out and buy a car, and you buy a house, and you buy stuff on a credit card, you need to pay that payment. And it's not right to just borrow money and not pay back. And I know the world will give you all these options, maybe, to not pay money that you borrowed. But when you borrow money, when you have a bill, you're supposed to pay your bills. And you're supposed to pay your bills on time. And obviously, things happen, and you run into trouble, and so forth. But what I'm saying is, in general, though, you need to pay back what you borrowed, and you need to pay your bills. But does that mean it's wrong to ever borrow money? I don't believe that. I do think it's wrong to lend money on interest. That's a whole other sermon in itself. You're supposed to lend to people that ask you without charging interest. That's what the Bible says. But that's a whole other sermon. So I'll close the Bible and say this. Don't be short-sighted in your life. Don't live a life where you blow money that you don't have, where you go out and sow your wild oats. Because you know what? You can't sow your wild oats and then pray for a crop failure. When you sow your wild oats, you're going to reap the whirlwind when you sow the wind. And so you need to think about your actions in the term of, what is this going to do to me in the long run? And even beyond this life, how am I going to feel about this when I get to heaven? Because I'm going to be in heaven for all eternity. That's thinking into the future, seeing things afar off, not being short-sighted. Let's prioritize in that word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your word, dear God, and these examples. The prodigal son and Esau both had the same problem. They couldn't see afar off. The father of the prodigal son, Esau, very far off. He could see the sun coming from a long way off because he was not a short-sighted man. Help us not to be short-sighted. With our church, dear God, help us to think about the future of our church, to lay a solid foundation, not to be hasty and in a hurry for our church to grow and thereby sacrifice equality. Help us to rather think about the future and think about the long run in our child rearing, in our business, in our job, in our finances, in every area of life. Help us to be people who look at the big picture and can see the big picture. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.