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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you your hand real high will you you you you 4 p.m. Wednesday night 7 is our Bible study. We're at chapter 22 of the book of Isaiah. This week we've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvation and baptisms through the month of August. Let's go ahead and count up any salvations to report for the week. Anything that was done? I got a little worried I didn't see it for a little bit. Glad to see that you're here. Everything's all good. Was anyone raising your hands over here? I couldn't tell. All right. Yes sir. One on Friday. Awesome. All right. Is that it for the salvations? Very good. Keep up the good work out. I preach in the gospel taking every opportunity that you can to give the gospel to people even if it's not just going out door to door but just every every opportunity you have sees those opportunities and it's what it's all about. Down there at the bottom page we got the offering totals listed through the month of August. Prayer requests. I tried to clean this up a little bit but the the big thing to point out here and I'm so if I missed anything let me know because I don't know what I did with my bulletin from last week. Is there anyone that added a prayer request here that's not on the list? I didn't think so but I lost my bulletin so that's what I work off of. I think we're I think we're good here. Continue to pray for everyone. Is there any updates for anyone that's on this list? Mike how's your mom doing? Is she still having treatments? Is she done with the treatment? She only had to do that for 30 days right? She's reacting from the okay that's a long it's I think it depends on the person but that's not always the case right but she is with her. Is there any expected permanent damage from that or no? You don't think so? Pretty good. So continue to pray for brother Micah's mom Carrie and because she's done with the treatments but that does take a big toll on the body so let's pray for her recovery there and and she there's nothing has been showing I like I assume they she still has to do yeah well they're gonna keep monitoring too as well but there's one more test coming up that's kind of a big one after the treatments right and then okay anyone else have any updates on the prayers well down there you notice at the bottom of the page here the churches and pastors we added more so I want to explain this little bit usually is pray for one church a pastor during the week but this one we're gonna continue to pray for sort of spirit Baptist Church their church has a lot of people have gotten COVID at their church and I know one lady in particular if you if you're in the whatsapp group you saw that was was not is not doing very well at all so pray for them and honestly this is a time of year that that things kind of went through our local area and a church last year and it seems to be similar this year I don't know so take that for what it is you know if you're if you're not feeling well if you think that you know you're sick just it's better to play it a little bit safe and stay home and watch catch a live stream and you feel welcome back to church I've got a couple kids at home nothing big at all just some sniffles some some sore throats mild fever but they're they're at home because of that so just try to you know pay attention to that we obviously don't want we don't want disease spreading through church but obviously at the same time I don't you know I'm not all for the draconian measures either of trying to live in a bubble and whatever so I do plan on getting along those lines I'm gonna be publishing a document up on our website for anybody who might want to point to some religious exemption type material for vaccines if your employer is going to start mandating or enforcing that some people are especially in a medical industry they're doing that and if you're opposed to that if you agree with the churches stand if you agree with the doctrine then definitely point to that and if other people are looking for that reference you can point them to it well it's not up yet but I plan on getting that done this week and having that available as a link probably right on the home page of our the church website at least for the time being it'll be right kind of upfront where people be able to see it pretty easily just because it's crazy what's what's going on with all of that and you'll be able to check that out I'll let you know when that's completed but that's the plan and then so they're having that issue at sort of spirit Baptist Church and you know it got to the point where they they they canceled services because everybody was was pretty sick so pray for that church and then pray for those these two churches pastor Kevin Sepulveda is pastoring Blessed Hope Baptist Church in Sydney Australia and New Life Baptist Church in Queensland and the measures there are insanely restrictive so I saw a message on Facebook the other day that that they're asking for prayer because I mean they haven't been able they haven't been able to hold church or even go soul-winning they've got like a 9 p.m. curfew you're not even allowed to go and like visit family members like you can't even go to someone else's house even if they're family there's you know all kind of I think this they said they're requiring vaccines for their employment and you know there's it's affecting I think he said the vast majority of their church is now impacted by that so it's like you're not gonna be able to work you're not gonna be able to do anything you can't leave your house you can't go talk to people you know this is what's going on in Australia and Australia like doesn't even have some massive outbreak supposedly or anything like not even not even saying that at least according to the numbers it's that's not what's happening so it's insane so pray pray for their churches you know pray for pray for the people there that that that will that oppression will cease those people and definitely keep them keep them in your prayers he can't pastors above it can't even go travel now from the one church to the other because those are you know Australia those different they're like states right and it's not able to even travel from Sydney to Queensland so that you know there's there's all that problem all of this for a while but he I don't know things just got worse and I haven't been keeping up with all the you know restrictions in Australia but that's that's a big deal and very significant I know the Philippines had some really really severe restrictions as well they had lifted but I don't know if they've gone back that direction again I think they were going back that direction so just just be in prayer as we've got you know thank God that we're not there and we don't have that here I should say not that we're not there but you know speaking in the sense that the government here isn't where the government is in Australia it's not it's not that's not to that point yet so thank God for that but pray for those that are being afflicted by by those those measures because it is just utter absurdity on the next page here so we're still in the month of August I know that today's the last day for the church visitors bringing visitors to church challenge who has brought at least one visitor to church this month in the month of August first-time visitors I count three I know we had more than that so I'm missing someone maybe someone's not here that had brought visitors I know one of one of our newer visitors brought a visitor and they got baptized that was like one of the first weeks someone had visit us once I think then came the next week and brought and brought a visitor I might be Christian I don't know if he's I don't know if he coming back or not he's taught he was going to school out of state so I'm not sure if he's coming back or not but I want to make sure I get everybody accounted for because you're gonna get a small prize for the August challenge but then you could see here we've got the September challenge I'm not giving out prizes for this it's kind of not it's not that type of a challenge but the whole challenge for for September is a church attendance where we're gonna be focusing on making sure that you're getting into church just just as often as you can obviously I say as often as you can making it a point there's always a reason why people can't go to church and I put that in quotes sometimes it's legitimate and real of course but oftentimes we make excuses for ourselves as to why we can't be in church so I want you to think about that this month and see if you can at least make it a point to say you know what no I've been slacking you know what we need to get in church more whatever the case may be and I know we have people driving from all over the place but what I always do when we do this challenge is I recommend and I you know hope that you can find somewhere to attend if it's really far you can only make it here on Sunday or for one service or whatever because of because of the distance we appreciate you coming here we love you coming here we want you keep coming here try to find something if you can that you can attend in person near you and you know what if there's nothing there if you say better versions there's just like no like there's no body of believers in my area that I can make it to okay but I mean the the point is to you know try try to find something maybe look again you use this month to see if there's anything out there you might have missed and you know I'm not offended if you go to some other church like the whole point is to get in church and try to learn something it may not be you know the ideal church or the best church but just by going and putting in that time I think it's valuable to go and do that so the church attendance challenge three times a week for the whole month that's the challenge and hopefully we'll see a lot of people participating in this challenge we've got the upcoming events listed there where I added one more event there to the middle so as we've been this has been growing and growing the gingerbread house making activity we do that we try to do that every year that's scheduled for December 4th this year it should be a Saturday and we have and then notice I'm gonna skip ahead real quick on the back is the home school field trip list so instead of doing home school field trip in December it's going to be the gingerbread house activity but you can see the schedule there we have sign up sheets and I'm gonna need you I'm gonna have to require that you sign up for these events if you want to attend okay the sheets are on that table right by the window for the mother-baby room and just you just need to put your name and how many people are coming so that we can accommodate that and plan for that and some of these there's more details on the sign-up sheet for like the the times and the addresses of these places a lot of these two of these tiny town tell us we've done before in the past but I know that there's some things scheduled at the tele science museum some programs and some tours and things like that that they're that are scheduled so just check that out and I'll give you I'll give you a little bit more details or maybe my wife will on if you're playing on attendees talk to talk to my wife because she knows the moat more about this than I do she's her and mrs. my stellar have been coordinating these events so some of them will include lunch or some food and and others won't it's not it's not always easy to deal with that and plan for that on a big scale so if you're planning on attendees these events just be prepared to pack a cooler and bring a lunch to just be able to to feed yourselves to your family right we're offering these events to be able to do this but logistically it's not even always a good use of time and resources to be able to just feed everybody that comes so but that's going to be dependent on a lot of things with the actual event itself if there's a if there's an easy convenient way to get food and it happens to be during a time that would include like a lunch hour or something like that then yes we'll we'll be providing that but sometimes you're going off to places where it's kind of rural and there's not close food around anyways and honestly my wife's not gonna make like packed lunches for everyone in the church to go to a homeschool field trip that's gonna be on on you to do that for yourself I think it's very reasonable so that's the plan with that I'm glad they even get these started again they're always a lot of fun and then appreciate everybody participating that that does homeschool here and let's see we'll go back to where we left off like I said if you have any questions on any of those things then then you know talk to my wife talk to mrs. Masala they've been instrumental in getting those things going Bible memory passage so I had a count of seven people who finished John chapter eight the whole chapter if you finished and you you know let me know I've heard from a few people already we've given out one prize and I've heard from two other families on how they want or when they want to use theirs so let me know what you're planning if you earn that prize and of getting the the stay for at one of the state parks let me know what you're planning and so then I can I could coordinate if you don't if you don't know the dates or exactly whatever that's fine but just let me know what you're thinking what you're planning as early as possible and we'll get that figured out because there is a little bit of work that we need to do to get the points allocated to people and we do they give us they do us a little bit of a favor I think that we're not supposed to be able to do all of that but since we've spent so much money with them they kind of are open to doing that and helping us out so but it but it requires a lot of time on the phone to kind of get that taken care of so not a big deal but just let us know so that way we can make sure that that you get your time and dates and everything set up the way that you want it and that it's not you know that this still sites available and everything else so just just remember there's a lead time is what I'm saying right so if you find something online today oh man we want to go in this day and then you say well password is we need it in this day there's gonna be a little bit of time before like that actually happens so just be aware that there may be that gap of saying oh well now there's not there anymore so so the earlier you get it done the better and we'll do our best to help you out with with getting those prizes we've got the new Bible memory passage Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 through 11 so this is this is not a very difficult passage as much easier than than John chapter 8 for sure you get a prize being able to quote this word perfect and you got six weeks to do this this is very it's kind of a lot of time to do a shorter passage so hopefully we get to see a lot of people participating in this one upcoming birthdays and anniversaries we've got a lot in the month of September is there anyone that has a birthday or an anniversary in September that I missed don't be shy apologize if I missed it but our records are pretty good brother Jesse I don't think I don't know if I got your family's information yet okay we'll have to figure that out we'll get get with everyone I don't I have pretty much everyone updated so I think I think we'll be good on that that's about it for our announcements this morning so I'm gonna ask brother Peter come up and lead us in our next song and we're 56 I must tell Jesus and 356 I on the first in my distress I I'm Jesus Jesus Jesus I I if I make up my troubles quickly Jesus I must tell Jesus I cannot bear my burden so long I Jesus Jesus I I Jesus I cannot bear my burden so long I must tell Jesus I must tell Jesus Jesus Jesus Oh Jesus Oh I I Jesus Jesus Jesus it's time to play their Sunday morning offering I'll ask for the wind all right church while the offering plate is being passed around if you can open up your Bibles to the book of Proverbs chapter 20 that's the book of Proverbs chapter 20 and as we do customary here at stronghold Baptist Church we're gonna read the entire passage I'm gonna ask brother Devin you can please do that for us that was Proverbs chapter 20 wine is a mocker strong drink is raging whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise the fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion who so provoked at them to anger sent against his own soul it is an honor for a man to cease from strife but every fool will be meddling the sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold therefore shall he beg and harvest and have nothing counsel in the heart of man is like deep water but a man of understanding will draw it out most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness but a faithful man who can find the just man walketh in his integrity his children are blessed after him a king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure for my sin diverse weights and diverse measures both of them are alike abomination to the Lord even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure and whether it be right the hearing ear and the seeing eye the Lord hath made even both of them love not sleep lest thou come to poverty open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread it is not it is not say at the buyer but when he has gone his way then he boasted there is gold and a multitude of rubies but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel take his garment that is surety for a stranger and take a pledge of him for a strange woman bread of deceit is sweet to a man but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel every purpose is established by counsel and with good advice make war he that goeth about as a tale bearer revealed secrets therefore met on not with him that flattereth with his lips who so curseth his father or his mother his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness an inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning but the end thereof shall not be blessed say not thou I will recompense evil but wait on the Lord but wait on the Lord and he shall save thee diverse weights are an abomination unto the Lord and a false balance is not good man's goings are of the Lord how can a man then understand his own way it is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after bows to make inquiry a wise King scatter at the wicked and bring it the wheel over them the spirit of man is the kind of the Lord searching all the emerald parts of the belly mercy and truth preserve the king and his throne is upholding by mercy the glory of young men is their strength and the beauty of old men is the gray head the blueness of a wound cleansed at the way evil so do stripes the emerald parts of the belly let's pray dear Lord thank you for this chapter I pray that you would bless our service now and bless pastor burzins as he comes up and preaches for us I pray that you would give us all ears to hear now and and hearts to understand and and in Jesus name I pray amen mark their foot back if you want to do toronomy chapter 25 that everybody should already have settled and established except you know as is the case thank you brother Brian so I was saying you know the the truth that what I'm preaching on this morning is real simple and something that that it's not going to be shocking or anything it's anyone you probably already have this established as far as it being true and right but the reason why these things need to be taught and preach you say pastor persons I know this this is like kindergarten level Christianity this is something that everyone should already know it's true it's true but like with all sin right sin creeps in we have a way of justifying sin and we need to hit even some of the most basic topics just in repetition every so often every year every couple years whatever and just you know when it comes as far as from the pulpit you should be getting this in your reading to be able to analyze and just look at our lives again and see am I allowing certain sins to start to creep in am I allowing my behavior to become a little less godly and start to to turn maybe towards a direction it's not good or our flesh is always going to be driving us into sin so we need to be paying attention to this and what I'm preaching about this morning is a false balance what the Bible is referring to their improv 20 we're going to look back at Deuteronomy 25 I'm going to read for you from Leviticus 19 Leviticus Deuteronomy Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law basically it's it's a reiteration but I'm going to show you that it's in both of these places you're going to stay in Deuteronomy 25 but the Bible commands us that everything that we do as far as measurements and weights and when you're dealing a lot of this has to deal with business right when you're when you're saying I'm going to give you so much money or so much time or so whatever it is we're going to I'm going to provide you with this much material and it's this long it's this many yards is this much weight that you're honest when you do those things you see that's so simple right it is simple but how many people are deceptive and use guile in business and in their life and are always trying to just get that little bit extra out of people and feel like you got one over feel like you you know you're winning and just a little bit more and you ended up at the better side of the deal than they did because you kept back a little bit you shaved off a little bit here you shaved off a little bit there look it's wicked and ungodly and we're going to get into some more examples of that but I'm gonna read you just what the law says God's law says in Leviticus 19 35 you shall do no unrighteousness in judgment in meet your in weight or in measure just balances just weights adjust ifa ifa is a unit of measure just hand a hint is another unit of measures old terms just think of a just pound adjust gram right adjust leader right whether it be a volume or weight it's these are all that's all this is this is using units of measure shall you have I am the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt therefore shall you observe all my statutes and all my judgments and do them I am the Lord that's in Leviticus you're in Deuteronomy look at 25 chapter 25 verse 13 verse 13 the Bible reads thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights a great and a small so what does that mean having different weights basically what this means is think about a balance or a scale and in old times you know and the concept doesn't matter as far as you know you still need to have just scales today regardless of its digital technology or whatever the technology is that you use to calculate a unit of measure doesn't matter the concept is still the same what the Bible is teaching here is there ever these these old scales right it's a real easy way to do it you've got you know your center point of mass on a rod essentially that's gonna pivot and you've got things you can hang on this side and things you hang on this side and how do you know that they're equal well when they when they are level right if with one ends dipping down and the other side that means this sides heavier than this side right it's it's so easy to understand simple concept but what people would do and think about this it makes sense you would have a standard if you had if you purchased a weight a whole scale I'm gonna purchase a scale so I could do business at like a cash register right people are doing business they used to weigh out money because they would use precious metals silver gold copper whatever you know whatever whatever it was that was that was precious or semi precious they would weigh it out because that's how much you're gonna get and you had to put that amount against another counterweight that you already knew how much it weighed right so that would be your standard so you have a bag of weights and they you can have them all labeled right this is one gram this is five grams is ten grams or whatever and you pull out whatever is appropriate say okay I'm selling I'm selling you this device and this is gonna cut you know this is gonna cost you six grams worth of silver so you get your little five gram and your one gram and you put on this side of the scale and then you say okay put you know we put your silver on there until it weighs out easy concept this is this is something that was done and still done to this day it just changes its form a little bit but the concept is the same because what people would do then is they would have you know that five gram that one gram say well these are your standard they would have one five gram that was actually a little bit more than five grams and one that was a little bit less than five grams and depending on the situation of whether they're receiving something or they're giving something they would use one or the other just to put it in their favor right so well this one's just a little bit less than five right it's real close no one's gonna know the difference no one's gonna see the difference but it's just a little bit off so that way every time I'm just getting a little bit more I'm winning on this deal right they're giving me what they're supposed to be they're actually gonna end up giving you a little bit more and I'm giving them a little bit less to balance those scales out and everything looks like it's legitimate everything looks good but the person who's doing deceiving knows that it's not true and again you know whether we're using physical scales or not it doesn't matter it's probably even easier to trick people nowadays with digital scales to go in and have a tear weight in there that that no one can actually see that's gonna oh it's gonna only start reading up to this much or whatever I mean that people have been deceiving people forever in this regard because ultimately it boils down to a love of money now this is important because there's a lot of applications that you can make with this in this concept of just making sure that everything is just and honest let's keep reading here though verse 13 is the only one we read verse 14 says thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures a great and a small so again whether it's a weight or whether it's a measure you know oh here's my yardstick but it's actually like a little bit more than a yard a little bit less than a yard same concept but thou shalt have a perfect and just weight a perfect and just measure shalt thou have that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for all that do such things and all that do unrighteously are an abomination unto the Lord thy God so God's saying look when when you cut those corners when you cheat people when you do these little tactics to deceive people and the cheap people out of money God hates that God says that's an abomination unto me I hate when people take advantage of other people and deceive them you say oh but it's just a little bit oh no one's gonna know the difference look God knows the difference and God says it's wicked and unrighteous it's an abomination and if you find yourself getting involved in practices that are kind of deceptive like this and you're untruthful to people you know there's gonna be many ways you're trying to justify it in your own mind to make you think well it's not really that bad oh it's not really that big of a deal oh you know no one's gonna know but God knows and God says abomination and if you want your days to be lengthened in the land which God gives you then you're not going to do that stuff and what does that mean if you do do these things it means you're gonna be your days are gonna be shortened it's a nice way of saying God's gonna wipe you out if you give yourself over to these practices if you start doing these things God's gonna say look and and you know this this is just the beginning because what where it stems from the real root is the love of money and the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil if you're doing evil you look you're doing evil when you steal from people you're hurting them you're taking more and not giving them as much as as is agreed upon whatever that's you're stealing from those people and you you are in a sense you are injuring those people now there's many reasons obviously to do what's right God said to do what's right we need to have a good testimony a good witness everything that we do should be on the up and up and above board you're gonna be targeted and attacked just because you believe the Bible already because you're claiming to be a Christian because you're going out and doing a work you are going to be attacked the last thing you need is to now have someone be able to drag your name through the mud because you're not doing things on the up-and-up because you have this unjust measure this you know and you say well but I just have that as a as a prank right look don't have it in your house turn back if you would to Proverbs chapter 20 this it's a big deal being deceptive in in in your practice in your in your dealings with people powers 11 once as a false balance is abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight Proverbs 20 verse 23 the Bible reads divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord and a false balance is not good so whether you're messing with the weights or whether you're messing with the actual balance itself because you could also do that you could have one end of the balance just you know have it tapered a little bit just so you can't see the difference that that puts off the center of gravity on the center of mass on that on that thing you know there's so many different ways to cheat the person to cheat the system right and to make it look like everything looks okay from the surface but it's really not deceptive practices in the Bible says repetitively that this is an abomination look up jump up to verse number 10 there in Proverbs 20 Bible says divers weights and divers measures both of them are like abomination to the Lord I mean this is just mentioned over and over and over again in Scripture jump down to verse number 17 though Bible says bread of deceit is sweet to a man but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel so bread of deceit right you're getting this you're getting you're earning your bread right you're earning your food you're earning your money deceitfully Bible says that could be sweet to a man or that's sweet to people people takes oftentimes extra thrill or extra satisfaction in the sense that oh yeah they thought I gave them this much but I really only gave them this much so I win right it's a mentality a lot of people have just feel like I win you lose I tricked you I didn't really give you everything that I said out you know whatever the deal is I came out a little bit better than you did now that thought itself is just is wicked anyways it goes completely against a Christ like attitude and mentality we ought to be looking for everybody's mutual benefit right all good honest business is hey I've got a service or a product for you and you've got something for me and we could exchange this stuff and we're both the better off because I'm providing something for you you're providing something for me well happy this is good right when you start adding that deception and lies to it and taking advantage of people that's not good anymore bread of deceit it's a you know people think that they're doing so great and I've heard people brag and boast about how much money they've made off of being deceptive deceptive and there's meant like I said there's many ways to apply this think about I mean just about any industry every industry has this potential anytime you have someone offering a service or a good that another person doesn't really know that much about there's a potential to take advantage of people to be deceitful with them one of the first things that step pops the top of probably many people's head is the auto industry or car industry where people have a problem because so many people have automobiles you have a problem with your car a lot of people don't know anything about how their vehicles work they don't know the inner they don't know how things go inside how the oil works they don't know how the pistons work they don't know how anything works inside of an engine so when they bring in their vehicle because there's something wrong it's not running right they are bringing into someone and have to have some level of trust that what they're gonna tell you is actually the truth because if you want them then to fix your your vehicle do a repair for you then they're gonna you know quote your price everything else just not knowing enough about that it's easy for someone to go wow this person you know even through conversation you can pick up wow this person doesn't really know what they're talking about at all here's an opportunity for me to make a little extra money all I got to do is tell them oh man yeah here's this problem we could fix this but there's this problem in this problem in this problem and you need blinker fluid and you need you know all this other stuff and people just I don't know what that is okay if you say so if I need that yeah it's not safe if you don't you know if you don't get this done then they pay them that money for fraudulent charges you know fraudulent services or whatever or they do a bunch of work that didn't really need to be done because they're being deceitful and and think about your industry think about your area you all probably know of ways that that can be done whether you're dealing with a customer directly or how about dealing with your boss because there's also ways of being deceptive on what your end of the deal is on your job you know when you get hired for a job you're getting hot you agree upon your salary you agree upon your payment right because when you go and apply for a job and they say okay here's what we're offering you have an opportunity to negotiate at that point before you say I okay good you should you know we don't shake hands anymore but you accept an offer or whatever you go to work for somebody you agree that that's what you're gonna do I'm gonna work for you and you're gonna pay me this much and you're compensate me however the compensation works right once you do that now you have an obligation to provide your service for that employer and you know what's dishonest is milking the clock you're you're getting paid by the hour by set whatever whatever the case may be you're getting paid to get this work done and especially if you're getting paid by the hour to do some work you're supposed to be working during that time usually there's there's time set up okay you could take a break at this time you could eat food at this time and the rest of the time you're working now I don't care if everyone around you is not working if you work in a union and there's five people assigned to dig a ditch right why don't you be the one that's digging the ditch do some work right now obviously there's situations where you're kind of being told to do something but then there's really nothing to do but always find work to do okay here's the thing you need to be honest you need to be able to approach your job your situation going one okay if I'm being paid to do something and I better be doing that and not shaving a little bit off of my weight that I'm putting on here for my side of the balance my side of the scale going well you know what and look I know play people have done this and I've been guilty of this myself in the past okay we had a system where when you punch it would it would round to every 15 minutes in a place I worked so what that means you get paid by a quarter of an hour it was all hourly work and instead of paying you up to the exact minute that you worked the system was okay if you work to say say your shift ends at five right but if you're still working if you're working until five oh seven it's as if you only worked until five but if you work until five oh eight it's like you worked until 515 or really until like 522 right because that that window plus or minus seven minutes around that time like the five o'clock so it's minus seven minutes to plus seven minutes it's all the same thing as to how you would get paid okay that was the system so what do people do you hang around and you'd wait out wait around until 508 and you punch out a 508 because that gives you an extra 15 minutes every day that extra 15 minutes and that's overtime extra 15 minutes 15 minutes 15 minutes 15 minutes 15 minutes you know what it adds up and that's wicked and it's wrong it's an abomination in God's sight it's gaming the system you say but everybody's doing it that doesn't make it right look you work until you you're done working and then you clock out now if you're legitimately working and you've gotten and you know there's no problems with you working extra and getting paid extra whatever and that's the agreement then that's fine to work extra but my point is you shouldn't be looking to game the system you should be working until your job is done and then you clock out and go home if it's five oh one five oh three five oh eight six 37 whatever you work your job is done you clock out you go home and you're honest you say this is when I stopped working and don't worry about doing these these little tricks to just win a little bit more oh but I'm not getting paid enough well you agreed to work there and you don't have to end this is the beauty about working here you know you've got right-to-work states which means you have the right to go and work somewhere else and they have a right to employ you or not I mean I think that sounds pretty good and I'm not gonna get into all the political issues behind that but it's just if you want to work then do the job you say you're going to do and no complain later go no they're not paying look work harder I don't know and if they're not going to pay you then find another job work for somebody else that will pay you but people these days this one a demand enforce a wage that oftentimes companies can't even afford to pay anyway I don't want to get off into all that because I want you focused on what you are supposed to do in the eyes of God what is right and just in God's eyes you know if there's injustice going on from an employer God will deal with them and in fact if you want to make sure God's gonna deal with them then you keep doing what's right because when God sees injustices going on especially among his people and when his people are doing things right and they're just being humble being me working hard doing what they're supposed to be doing and people keep piling on them and and misusing them and abusing his people then God is more and more and more likely to start acting and acting swiftly to change that into to right the wrongs and right the injustices and to stand up and defend you because God sees all of that and we just need to trust hey these things they're not right but I'm not going to be abominable in God's eyes and start cheating and recompensing and revenging something that's being done on me again there's so many ways that you can do that I mean I've heard of people that in different industries in like mortgage trying to sell people stuff they don't need car loans oh you need this and this and this and just you know the difference between selling and being deceitful and having deceitful practices there's a big difference okay and sometimes you might not be able to find that line but I'll tell you what you need to be able to find that line because you don't want to be abominable in God's eyes there's nothing wrong with trying to sell people products and services there's nothing wrong with that but you cannot be deceitful in it and tell people they're they're you know they're getting stuff you know whatever that you have to get this or you know whatever there's there's a lot of there's a lot of fine lines and people want to tow that line just to get an advantage and it's it's wicked and it's wrong to try to just be looking to scam people just to make a little extra money turn if you would to Proverbs chapter 16 I think you're still in Proverbs 20 just flip back to Proverbs 16 and you know like I said at the beginning everyone in this church before I even started preaching probably would agree yeah we're supposed to be honest we're not supposed to be deceptive we're not supposed to be trying to steal from people or cheat from people but we need to have God's Word reiterated because what happens is you see patterns out in the world you'll see other people doing certain practices and you'll see them maybe start to flourish and benefit from it I've seen I've seen tactics and you know I'm not going to talk about my current job because that's not appropriate but just with with different things happening in sales and people taking things from other people and just doing things that are just not not appropriate and not right just to earn that little bit extra money and end up doing things that are just just dishonest dishonest gain and the reason why we have to go over these things though is because everybody you get to a point where you think that what you're doing is right oh there's nothing wrong with what I'm doing you justify your sin look at verse number two of Proverbs 16 about says all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes oh yeah I'm not doing anything wrong but the Lord with the spirits that's why I love you know it even uses that word ways right he's weighing the spirit what he's he's putting you in the balance and saying are you really just are your ways really clean here's cleanliness and here's you right this is God's gonna weigh your spirit God's gonna know whether what you're doing is just and right and legit or not jump down to verse number six their Bible says by mercy and truth iniquity is purged I mean just just that concept alone being true truth don't we all love the truth isn't Jesus the truth shouldn't we be exalting the truth well when you're being deceptive in your practices it doesn't seem like you have a high regard for truth and all these examples now are pouring in my mind think about people and jewelry business you know because there's supposed to be a certain weight for the that's literally closer to what the way things were then as far as giving weights and stuff and and I mean there's there's so many this happens in every industry in every business where you can be deceiving people for your own gain let's keep reading here verse number six by mercy and truth iniquity is purged and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil when a man's ways please the Lord he may get even his enemies to be at peace with him better and I love this verse this is one I had this verse up at my work for for years and years and years in Arizona verse 8 better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right it's a good verse to memorize it's a good verse to have like at your especially if you work in an area where it may be more prone to deception keep this verse with you better is a little with righteous it's better not to get that extra commission not to get that extra piece the extra money whatever it is because you would have to do it dishonestly it's better to have a little but you're righteous you can say I did everything right I did everything above board I haven't deceived anybody then great revenues without right so yeah but I can make all this money so what so what you're gonna sell out you think money is worth it sell out your integrity sell out your honesty sell out your testimony you do you want to be known as that is that you know slimeball we call the used car salesman type of a person that nobody trusts I don't want to be that guy there's plenty enough of those guys out there I don't want to be that guy it's better to have a little bit less with righteousness and great revenues without right verse number nine a man's heart diviseth his way but the Lord directeth his steps a divine sentence is in the lips of the king his mouth transgresses not in judgment a just weight and balance are the Lord's all the weights of the bag are his work jump over to Proverbs 28 Proverbs 28 look at verse number six the Bible reads better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness then he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich again it's not all about money your life isn't all about money it's not it's not really about money at all we don't need to be putting that emphasis and focus on thinking that we win if we have a lot of money people put their their stamp of success on someone who has a lot of things or a lot of money I heard from some friend of a friend whatever though it's you know that that had this philosophy or mindset that the man with the most toys wins that's how we live this life that's that's to me that's pathetic and sad and miserable because if that's what you think is winning if that's successful that's so empty it really is so empty and I'll tell you this much as someone who has been blessed in many areas things do not provide any real value or meaning to your life I possess some things now granted a lot of them are kind of beat up and broken down and whatever but I have some things right that that maybe other people don't have you can have a little bit of a fun enjoyment with it but you know what that is not satisfying just in itself if I didn't have those things who cares it's really empty and meaningless and hopefully you realize you know a lot of people don't realize that and they think that they could get rid of that that empty feeling once they finally achieve something by getting something well I just must need to get something more than I must need to get something bigger well I need to get a bigger boat and a bigger house and bigger cars and big you know it's never gonna if that's what you're looking to to be able to say look I'm successful because I have all this stuff it's you never will achieve it you'll never have enough because you're focused on riches of this world and money and those things there's no there's no satisfaction in that at the end of the day there's nothing because that stuff all breaks down and ends up costing you a whole bunch more money and you got to deal with all this stuff and whatever it's it's a big waste it's a big waste doing you know seeking first a kingdom of God and his righteousness that's what's going to provide the satisfaction the peace the joy the comfort and that's what we need to be focused on and that's where true success is true success is doing what God would have us to do and receiving rewards at the end of the day that are not going to go away they're not going to burn up they're not going to be taken away they're everlasting rewards that God gives you when proverbs 28 look down at verse number seven the Bible reads who so keepeth the laws of wise son but he does a companion of riotous men shameth his father he that by usury and unjust gain increases his substance he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor now another means of unjust gain unjust obviously the balances being off ripping people off scamming people but even just charging user user is interest okay the Bible says that that's wicked too that's an unjust gain but was is that you're not supposed to you know if if a brother or sister in Christ is on hard times and they need some money and then you know you're gonna lend money to them you know lend unto them that's great you know if you have the means and they don't you know love them by lending unto them the Bible says that you're lending unto the Lord that that you know that that God loves a cheerful giver and when you're able to help people out in that manner then that's that's great but you know what you don't do you don't charge them interest and say okay well you're on hard times so I'll lend you the thousand dollars that you need right now but you know there's going to be five percent interest on that there's going to be whatever any amount I don't care what the amount is one percent interest it's a great deal no one's giving you that because you're a brother in Christ look well you know what you're wicked by charging interest not looking to make profit or gain off of your brothers or sisters hard times yeah but I could make more money if I had this well is that what it's all about so you care more about making profit than you do about helping people in need that's pretty messed up that's very messed up you check your heart jump down to verse number 18 there in Proverbs 28 the Bible says who so walketh uprightly shall be saved but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once he that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread but he that followeth after vain person shall have poverty enough look you do your work you do an honest day's work and do that job and you'll be filled you'll you'll have plenty God will provide for you and and they'll be enough you don't need to be going after vain people unjust gain by the verse number 20 a faithful man shall abound with blessings but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent again the person who makes they want to get rich quick we want to get rich quick there's a lot of scheming involved in getting rich quick and you're gonna be you're gonna be doing things that are that are not right that are not godly and cutting corners instead of just working faithfully working day in day out just like God you know what it's just like a seed is planted it takes time for it to grow it needs to be nurtured you need to put in work hard work it'll end up growing and eventually one day it'll be real fruitful and abound if you're taking care of it you know that's the way that that we need to view our work and the blessings and what we need to do is just hey work hard work hard don't cut corners don't deceive people don't try to get rich quick and we shouldn't even be focused on just getting rich with the goods of this world anyways just work hard and trust that God's gonna help with you and take care of you and provide for you do what you're supposed to do and do it honestly verse 23 he that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favor than he that flattereth with the tongue who so robbeth his father or his mother and saith it is no transgression the same as the companion of a destroyer you know there's people who steal from and robbed from their parents how wicked is that I knew someone a long time ago back when I went like one of the high school years right around that time where he would actually just just steal from his parents and that blew me away I wasn't even saved but it's just that blew me away the thought that you would like go and steal from your parents like what is wrong with you well the Bible says here they who so robbeth his father's mother and said it is no transgression because they didn't think they did anything wrong either this guy I'm thinking of it's like it's this entitlement mentality oh well they I mean I I deserve it anyways they should be giving it to me I'm just taking what's mine or whatever that's wicked and says the same as a companion of a destroyer turn you over to Micah chapter six and we're gonna close on this Micah chapter six we're see God's judgment on the people that that use wicked false balances and in that and that operate in this manner because we need to remember we need to remember God's judgment God's law and and to make sure that in in whatever area this applies to us because this applies to everybody in one way or another one fashion or another this applies to everybody are you trying to sell something right I've we buy and sell used cars you know we have our whole marriage my wife and I because whatever for a lot of reasons but you know we've had different vehicles that have had problems and it's an area where people are always not wanting to divulge the information why because they want to get as much money as they can for what they're selling they don't want to tell you what's wrong with it and I'm gonna tell you this because there's probably a lot of people who've been in this situation first of all if you know something's wrong with the product you're selling this someone it's deceptive to not disclose that you know there's a problem here that's gonna that could cost them a lot of money but you're trying to sell it with the value as if that's not a problem that's deceptive furthermore whether the person you're selling it to is an actual person who you can see oh man they're gonna be impacted by this I better not do that or a business who also you know will be damaged by not having you know it doesn't matter it doesn't matter you can't just say oh well that's a car dealer so who cares you need to be honest in your dealings you need to be upright because when you're not it's an abomination unto the Lord yeah but if I don't tell them I mean they're not gonna look for it they won't know about it I could get an extra $2,000 for that car yeah go ahead and be deceitful then go ahead and be an abomination unto the Lord get your unjust gain I'm sure that's gonna go real far for you with God's blessings because I'll tell you what you you think you get ahead and here's the thing as a child of God you're held to a higher standard in one sense because you're his child right God isn't gonna go around disciplining and beating people who aren't his kids they're gonna end up in the lake of fire one day unless they get saved but here's but he's not dealing with them as his children but he's dealing with you as his children so you might be able to see other people getting away with stuff and they seem like everything's going good don't have that wicked thought of looking to wicked people who do wicked things and saying oh well they're getting away with it so it's okay for me to do it no it's not because however much money you think you're gonna save and you're gonna get over by by deceiving people guess what God's gonna find a way of making sure that that comes out and you don't actually receive of that and you'll probably end up even worse it's not worth it don't do it look at Micah chapter 6 verse number 9 bow says the Lord's voice crieth unto the city in the man of wisdom shall see thy name hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked and the scant measure that is abominable again scant means it's not quite enough like it's this measure but it's not quite there it's coming up short it's scant and just as we saw in Proverbs and in the law it's abomination to have an to not have the right measurement verse 11 shall I count them pure with the wicked balances and with the bag of deceitful weights for the rich men thereof are full of violence and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth and this goes to you know people who are using the wicked balances and unjust gain everything else they're gonna be covetous covetous and that love of money is the root of all evil it's gonna lead them into being you know other you know getting into other sins and in being more willing to damage other people and be full of violence because of that you know it starts with something small it starts with being subtly deceptive but that's gonna grow and grow and grow that's what sin does sins like a cancer it's just gonna continue to spread and get worse and worse and worse if left untreated the rich men there of a full of violence verse 12 and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee in making thee desolate because of thy sins thou shalt eat but not be satisfied and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee and thou shalt take hold but shalt not deliver and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword thou shalt sow but thou shalt not reap thou shalt tread the olives but thou shall not anoint thee with oil and sweet wine but shalt not drink wine he's basically saying you're gonna be doing all this stuff now and you're not gonna benefit from it because you've been deceitful because you've done this wickedness you've got wicked balances now the work that you do it's not gonna produce for you and you think God's not capable of making that happen you better believe he can you think things are going great you're getting all this money because you're you're cutting corners left and right and making these shady dealings and deceiving people and while everything's going so good that could change in an instant if you're a child of God you better watch out and get right with God right now and repent and and start doing things on the up and up because you do not want to be on the receiving end of that chastening because you're you've got a bad report and you're being deceptive we ought to love the truth exalt the truth be honest in all of your dealings and and just take the moment to think on your life your day to day what you do you know whatever it is and and make sure you're doing things justly spot our heads have a word of prayer dear Lord we love you we thank you so much for your word we need these reminders Lord we still walk we still have this the flesh that we have to deal with that's gonna drive us and lead to try to lead us into sin and I pray that you would please help us to just continually be in your word and have your word living through us and in us to guide us and help us to when we get to those crossroads and decision points when that temptation of wanting to make a little extra money at the expense of being dishonest and deceitful dear Lord I pray to you please help us to bring these verses to remembrance and that we would be strengthened to make the right choice every time Lord we love you to Jesus name we pray amen all right we're gonna sing one last song before dismissed I guess brother Peter please do that for us you it's him I'd rather have Jesus Oh Oh dress way Oh Oh I Jesus amen great singing thank you so much for coming you guys are in space you