Greed and Charity

Here is the auto transcript from this week’s sermon on the Greed Abstinence is not deliverance

I had the distinct honor of preaching last night at a Good Friday service for

Norman Bible Church down in Norman Oklahoma. That church is pastored by some

of the pastors. He's like, "I got away. Run for dear life." That's okay, we're a family

fellowship. I also scream and run randomly at places. I don't understand

why you can't do that as an adult. Like kids get away with it, but as an adult

they're like, "That guy's going crazy." So I had the honor of preaching there last

night and this is one of those weird years. It's one of those cycle of years

where the church's liturgical calendar, and there's multiple different

liturgical calendars, but the church's liturgical calendar in Christianity

does not align with the liturgical calendar of Judaism, Messianic Judaism,

Messianic Israel, Messianic Hebrew roots. We've got more names than we know what

to do with, but this is a year where there's an additional month. And so

rather than Easter and Good Friday falling at the same time of Pesach and

first fruits, it's actually a month apart from each other. And so that actually

works out great for Brent, who gets to do a lot of Passover Seders for various

different churches around the Oklahoma City area. You get to spread it out more

than just a concentrated week to two, and then also for our family to be able to

speak at some of these other congregations that we have a

relationship with. It also makes it a little bit easier to fit those in when

you have a month later that you actually come and gather for ours. Speaking of

gathering for ours, on April 12th we will be here in this room for the

Oklahoma City Passover. We do four cups of the Passover. I know there is

multiple different traditional elements of Judaism and what is a part of

those Passover Seders, but our Passover Seder for HFF has always been one of the

greatest outreaches we've had to the Christian church, showing the beauty of

Yeshua in the Passover through the four cups. And so we'll be here once again

on Friday night, April 12th. That is sold out. So if anybody is interested in

coming and helping be a part of that, we always need servers. Farrah needs help

with servers and cleanup and all the work that goes into hosting 13 tables

full of individuals to learn about Jesus and the Passover Seder. So get with Farrah,

get with Tim, get with any of the team leads. Vicki, who is in the lobby

with the coda. You saw her at the door when you came in today. Get with them if

you'd like to help kind of serve the people who will be here. We're in the

midst of one of the happiest series we've ever done at HFF on the seven

deadly sins called the Taboo Series. In preparation for Pesach, in preparation

for firstfruits, in preparation for that time, we always talk about looking

under the couch cushions. We always, with the kids, we have some fun

and it's like, "Hey, can you find the leaven?" And inevitably, no, you don't find

the leaven. Inevitably, halfway through unleavened bread, you find some piece

under Brent's driver's seat. Not that I was looking, but somebody, the Holy Spirit

told me, and I went and it was there. Or you'll find it in your kid's cup holder.

Or you'll, my kids, Jude, you'll find it hidden under his mattress where he

stuffs all the things that he's not supposed to eat and acts like mom and

dad don't know it's there. We have a black lab. He tells us where all of the

leaven is. I know sometimes you see your dog and it's like, "Oh, do we have

rodents in the house?" It's like, "No, Jude's hiding food again." So yeah, you got told

on. Straight told on in church, man. It's hard to be a pastor's kid. This week,

we're going to be on the topic of greed. Quite honestly, when I spent a

couple of months while Brent was going through the Gospel of the book of

Hebrews, and I was looking at reading through the deadly sins and the virtues

that help us combat those deadly sins, I had a whole idea of how I was going to

go about this sermon series, what kind of my goal was, and how they would

kind of play off each other. You know, they're kind of like building blocks

where one sin could potentially lead to the other, to the other. I spent

months in study, reading, preparation, and then true to God fashion, he basically

says, "Well, great. Good for you. That's not what I want you to teach on. Good.

Great. Good for you. That's not how this series is going to go." So this week

on greed, I had this concept that greed was a problem, but lust and

pride are way bigger, and greed isn't that big of an issue. Well, as I

was studying this week, I came to the realization that the love of money and

what money can help you obtain, what it can help you gather, what it can help you

buy, is actually more rampant according to data in our culture than pornography.

So we talked about lust, and we talked about what we see with our eyes, and the

unhealthy sexual desire. Remember, sexual desire was given for husbands and

wives. It was given to be good. However, lust is when we take it too far, when we

desire something that the Lord doesn't tell us to desire. However, the love of

money and what it can help you obtain, especially in the United States of

America, is actually more rampant than pornography. Money in and of itself isn't

bad. Money in and of itself is not greed. It's when the love and pursuit of money

becomes your first and primary goal or target. Greed is an intense and prideful

lust for something, especially money, power, or food, that has become gluttonous.

It was interesting when I started looking at Webster's Dictionary. Now,

that's not what Webster's Dictionary says. They actually use different words

in there, and when I started looking at the thesaurus, I was like, "Wow,

interesting how pride and lust fit right into those words, and then gluttony

fits into this word." So greed is actually an intense and prideful lust for

something, especially money and power or food, that has become gluttonous. It's a

selfish pursuit of something that we think, by overindulging ourselves,

whether it's our ego or our pride, our security, that it will somehow give us

hope. It will somehow give us the feeling of being filled up and secure in this

world. It replaces the fact that the only thing that can give you security in this

world is Jesus. It replaces the fact that the only thing that can actually give

you hope in this world is Jesus. I gave the testimony a week or so ago about my

father, who was a businessman who owned multiple companies, had worked in finance,

was worth millions of dollars. I think at one time it was 20 to 23 million dollars

in my childhood, and in a matter of moments, when the housing market crashed

under George W. Bush and the economy went in the tank real, real quick, he lost

everything. He lost all the houses. He lost all the cars. He had this Volvo XC90

Ocean Rally Blue. I think there was maybe 500 in existence. That was back when they

allowed you to make gas cars, nice cars. It was this beautiful car, and he had

given it to my wife because he had said, "No daughter of mine is going to drive

around with a granddaughter in one of those little pickup trucks." So he

gave her this beautiful car. However, we hadn't transferred the title, and so in a

moment, literally everything was gone, even the inheritance that he had said he

was going to leave for us. Now, ironically, we had already had a

conversation, April and I, and we had said, "Well, it doesn't matter if this

inheritance, if this money, if this wealth is able to be passed down to us. We're not

going to touch it. We're going to take it, and we're going to build it as an

inheritance for our children. We don't need it. We're happy with what we have."

And then, I don't know if it was a year or two later, all of a sudden, it didn't

matter what we were going to do with it or not do with it, because it didn't

matter what he was going to do with it or not do with it, because poof, it was gone

in an instant. And it wasn't necessarily that there was this selfish pursuit. I

never knew my dad to really love money. It just was something he was very good

at. However, I have witnessed, since he lost all of the money, this overwhelming

pursuit of the things of the Lord. It's not an overwhelming pursuit of finances

or power or these things. It's an overwhelming pursuit of the Lord. And

I've heard my father speak more about Jesus and sermons and topics in the last

couple of years of my life than I did probably in the first 35 years of my

life. Wealth isn't bad. Having things isn't bad. But when wealth in the pursuit

of assets becomes your primary goal, you are operating out of greed and

selfishness. Greed is just another way. It's funny, we say the same sentence in

the opening of every sermon, and it just fits. Greed is just another way that the

"Yetzirah," what the Jewish say, call the "Yetzirah," the evil appetite, competes

with inside you for what God would have you do and what your flesh would have

you desire. Greed is underneath all pride, lust, and gluttony. So let me ask you,

church, how much money is enough? What's the dollar value? Is it $75,000 a year? Is

it a million dollars in your savings? Shepherd, you know what the value is. How

much money is enough, buddy? $400? Oh man. Zero. $400. That will get you something at

McDonald's nowadays. Buy dynamics. Build back better. Greed is underneath all

pride, lust, and gluttony. How much power is enough? You know, I've testified over

the last year and a half that I spent 17 years not only founding international

messianic ministries, but then also working in the executive space of other

international messianic ministries, and yet it felt like we had the most

influence ever internationally, and I can't speak of one bit of fruit

that came out of it. I'm sure there is, and I'm sure that the Lord, there's

stuff that he allowed us to do in that time. I just can't, off the top

of my head, I can't think about like one individual who I could say their lives

were radically transformed, and then all of a sudden the Lord gives us an Exodus

moment. He gives us probably one of the greatest gifts ever, which doesn't make

any sense because all of a sudden he takes your income away, and he

takes your power away, and he releases you from operating in that space, and yet

now we see people get healed, we see miracles, we see signs, we see wonders, we

see things restored. So how much power is enough power? I don't know. What is the

bar, and what is your baseline? Everybody has one. Everybody has some bar or

baseline that they consider to be, if we're in this space, we're comfortable.

Whether it's your finances, or it's your assets, or it's how much

influence you have, we all have something, some metric by which this is how we

operate. So church, let me let you in on a little secret. Whatever that bar is,

whatever that metric is, if you cannot fast from it, you are a slave to it. If

you cannot abstain from it, it owns you. I want to say that again. If you can't

fast from it, you are enslaved to it. If you cannot abstain from it, it owns you.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the

opportunity to come together on the Sabbath to praise you, to worship you.

Lord, as thousands and millions of Christians all over the world celebrate

your death, burial, and resurrection this week, Lord, we just

praise you for all that you have done, all that you are, and all that you will

be, Lord. We praise you for the constant reminder that you alone walk through the

covenant of the pieces and keep your promises, even when we don't deserve for

those promises to be kept. Lord, today as we spend some time in your Word, I pray

that I would not have eloquent speech, that there wouldn't be some

knowledge that I would impart on the people, but Lord, that you would

impart whatever your Spirit wants to do through me, that you would prick the

hearts, Lord, of your people. You would charge them to become more like you in

everything. And so, Lord, we commend this time to you. In the name of Yeshua, amen.

Amen. Everything that you see around you is an expression of God's generous love.

God invites humans into the world to be his guest, a world, especially in America,

that operates in abundance, a world that operates in many, many blessings. You know,

we not only have the ability to go out to eat, but we have the ability to

literally have the arguments and spousal issues on whether it is tacos tonight or

whether it is pizza. We are a blessed people. There is an overabundance of what

we have at our fingertips as Americans. Yet, I want tacos too. Thank you. Yes.

Eli, praise God. Taco Tuesday. Get it while you can, because unleavened

bread is basically the feast of tacos. He charges us as co-heirs with him in this

kingdom. Whether the kingdom is Uganda, we've seen that outside. Uganda is a

mission field for Westmore Community Church, or it's here in America. He

charges us to be co-heirs of the creation that's around us. We're to work

the grounds, keep the ground ready, scattered seeds, and spread his image

daily all over creation. And in doing so, we provide a witness and a testimony

through our actions and what people hear from us that our faith is in him to

provide, our faith is in him to give us what we will need, our faith is in him to

sustain us and to keep us from dying. Yet, this isn't really what we normally see.

We see people acting in what is known as a world of scarcity. It's a scarcity

mindset. There's a struggle. There's a fear that there's not enough, that

somehow we will miss out, that if somehow God blesses your family, he doesn't have

the means and the methods to bless another family equally. There's a fear

that if God is going to give me this gift, this healing, this miracle,

this abundance, this whatever, that somehow God is not going to do it for

other people. Somehow God has a limit. Somehow God is finite like we view the

world. That God has a limit to his capabilities. And it's not just material

capabilities. It's if he heals me, he doesn't have the ability to heal

somebody else. Like he only has like a one heal a day card. Like there's

a cap on the limit. It's, well we can only offer, it's like a manager of a

discount store, it's like, well I can only offer one discount today and the cap is

20%. This is how we approach God. We approach him from a perspective that

says somehow he's got a limit because we have a limit. There is no limit to God.

God creates all things and through him are all things. And so we we have to

change our mindset to say that just because God is pouring out

something to someone in some place doesn't mean that he cannot do it in

another place. But we also shouldn't approach God as if he is some sort of

welfare system. God I saw you blessed trolling. Here, can I get my cup today?

Can I get my portion? His Word tells us he will already give us our portion. His

Word tells us he will already protect you. He will already feed you. He says

that the birds don't worry. Why are you? Are you telling me that a sparrow is

smarter than you? I'm looking around the room. There's some pretty intellectual

looking people here. Not me, but you. Why do the sparrows not worry? Why do the

Robins not worry? But yet we have a fear that somehow God can't show up. That

somehow God can't do. We come up with theologies and we say, "Well the

gifts of the Holy Spirit and the offices of the Holy Spirit and the

miracles and the wonders and the signs and the manifestations of the Holy

Spirit that somehow these were just for the first century apprentices of Jesus."

And yet all around us if we're looking, there's testimony over testimony over

testimony of how God provides in miraculous ways. But sometimes we miss

the most basic of miracles. Like the fact that you woke up this morning. Like the

fact that you had gas in your car or electric in your car. Used to be able to

just say one. Now I got to say both. Or the fact that that God allowed you to

have a roof over your head. Even if you're sleeping in your car, God allowed

you to have a roof over your head. Or the fact that God allowed you to have

clothing. I'm personally grateful for that miracle. It would have been very

awkward at Saturday Church if he had not provided you with the miracle of

clothing. As a whole we miss the most basic things that we take for granted

because we say, "Well my shoes aren't nice enough. Michael has way cooler

shoes on this morning. God why do I have these and not those?" Doesn't matter our

age. Sometimes we run around like spoiled toddlers and we're saying, "Mommy he took

my car. I want my car. Mommy why does he get to have that and I don't? Brother had

a lollipop. I didn't." That it's the it's the same thing. Only we're talking about

cars or we're talking about jobs or we're talking about influence or we're

talking about whatever the topic might be. But it's the same thing. Replace

lollipop or starburst with they have a managerial position or they make more

money or they are better looking or they drive a nicer car or they have more food

or whatever it is. It's the same concept. We're more worried about how God is

blessing somebody else than to be thankful for the moment that God has

already blessed us. We were born to be creators and cultivators and yet the

world has turned us into consumers. Debt and poverty run rampant and yet our

culture as a whole has more, literally more, than any other in the world. We have

more than any other in the world. But even we've turned the church into a

product and we get mad at the preachers and we get mad at the worship leaders

and we say, "How dare you? This is the house of the Lord. Hellermans, how dare

you stand up here and bring that forth that way?" The Bible says this, "Well

people bring forth what what you constantly complain about and what you

want." I want the best worship. I want the best sounding. I want the best looking. I

want the most eloquent of words. Church, this is not what this church does. Church,

what this church does is we allow the Holy Spirit to do what the Holy Spirit

does because the Holy Spirit is God and I am not and Brent is not and Michael is

not and the Hellermans are not. And so we come and we bring all the inadequacies

that we have and we just lay our pennies at the feet of the Lord and we say, "What

can you do with it?" Because your Word says you took a couple of fish and a couple

of loaves and you fed thousands. So if I come with two cents, that's literally all

I have is two cents and I bring it to you. What can you do with it Lord? I know

you can do more than I can do with it. The Hellermans and the worship team, they

come and they say, "Hey look, we'll come and we'll bring you the best we have Lord.

We're gonna just give it all to you so that you can join with the angels and

the elders in the throne room with us singing how awesome you are." It's funny

how you hear things and you're like, "Well that was way more eloquent and that

sounded way better than it actually was." That's not us. That's the Lord. Because

when we come and we try to consume, that's all we're here for is just to

consume. We set a standard. And guys, I don't want you to dislike me, but I would

much rather you dislike me and the Lord be pleased with the message that's

brought or the worship that's brought, than to create a house of consumers who

just come for a product, just come for an experience. God is not a product. The

kingdom of God is not a product. It is everything. And it is the most important

thing around us. Our prideful lust for more and more and more has made us

ravenous, impatient, materialistic, and gluttonous. We're more worried about what

features are on the new iPhone. Can we go back to the little Motorola thing that

was like this? Somebody said a Razr? Yeah. Yeah. We got some Android people in

the house. Oh, okay. Well, guess what? Pride is also a sin. So check out my superior

camera. Vanity is also a sin. I'm just saying. I know we're on like, I'm on like an

iPhone 13. I'm also being gluttonous. I should have had the original iPhone, but

it is what it is. I'd love to be a fly on the wall and watch my children negotiate

and deliberate on how they're not going to get what they called "screwed out of

the last donut." I have five children. There's 12 donuts. By the time April and I

have, that's seven donuts that are gone. And the amount of negotiating and

manipulation to make sure that they get their fair share of glazed or chocolate

donuts is unheard of. If Congress could negotiate like that,

Katie, bar the door. But this is things we do in our own mind, in our own

relationship with the Lord, and then also with others. We negotiate to make sure we

get our fair share. Our society has become successful in creating this

scarcity mindset that makes us believe that somehow the provision of God is not

enough for every single one of us. First Timothy 610 says, "For the love of money

is the root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have

wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs." Money itself

is not the root of all evil, but the love of money is. And when you chase after

money, when that's the goal is to chase after money, it comes with all kinds of

headaches, all kinds of wrestling, all kinds of issues. If it didn't, then how

come you wouldn't have all these billionaires and millionaires talking

about how amazing their life is? Most of them are addicted to lustful sexual

desires. They're involved in drugs and alcohol abuse. They're manipulative.

They're greedy. There's all these other things that come with it. Money isn't the

root of all evil, but the love of money is. Luke 12 15 says, "And he said to them,

'Take care and be on guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not

consist in the abundance of his possessions.'" I made a practice in my

home, and some people think that we're crazy, and we are, but not for this

reason. It's for many other reasons. But I make a practice in my home that anytime

my children get something, they have to give something. I personally just call it

purging, but that's...they're not on board with purging. So it's

a you get, you give type of thing. But every year come springtime, after the

lull of the winter, and kind of like you've gathered some weight, you've

gathered, you know, all these things, then we go through our house and we say, "If

you haven't touched it, we're getting rid of it." Now it coincides normally with our

youth garage sale, so it always goes to a great opportunity for the kids to go to

youth camp, but if you get something, you have to give away something. Because at no

point in time do I want my children to ever grow up in an atmosphere where

all their stuff becomes what they want to possess and what they want to hold on

to. Because the truth is, is that nothing lasts forever in this world. Nothing lasts

forever. So when my daughter gets a used keyboard, something needs to go. When my

daughter comes home with a whole bunch of books, something needs to go. And she'll

say, "But dad, this is a limited edition." And I say, "Oh, somebody's gonna be

blessed, because it's going." And we do this consistently. If something comes in,

something has to go out. If somebody's gonna give to you, whether it's your

grandparents or it's somebody from the church is giving you a gift, or you

worked and got it yourself, then bless somebody with something else. And at the

same point in time, we don't have storage units and all these other things all

over the place. There's multiple wins for that. Luke tells us that the status

symbols of this world actually don't produce life. The car you drive doesn't

produce life. The house you live in does not produce life. The clothes you wear. I

wear Gucci. Good for you. Like, it doesn't produce life. The things that are here

don't produce life. And so, when we look to them as a temporary hit or a

temporary high to say, "Man, it felt really, really good to get this." But it

doesn't last long. This is why we see the designer trends over and over and over

again. Subway tile is out and black leather tile is in. Like, in three

months, subway tile is back. And Home Depot is flipping the store with rugs. And

Amazon is constantly telling you, "You looked at this dress. Well, this is the

new dress that's in." Or, "You bought shoes. Here's the new shoe that's in." And it's

constantly keeping you enslaved to a cycle that does not give you worth or

value. But yet, we continue to do it. There's a song that was played as a

walk-up song because that's what youth baseball's turned into, is

we have walk-up songs now. You know, it used to be just the Major League

Baseball players would have, you know, songs or "Charge." Now, we've got like eight-year-olds

in youth baseball who can, like, pick out a walk-up song. And so, I heard

this song and I don't know it. And please don't go look it up because I'm guessing

just like all youth baseball songs, it's not appropriate. But the whole

phrase of the song is, "I look good today. I look good today." And they, like, strutting

their stuff at eight years old up at rec ball, like, "I'm about to hit a pitch, a

ground ball to the pitcher." But it's like, "I look good today." This is our society.

Everything around us, the materialistic atmosphere, is meant to fill us up and

make us feel good about ourselves. And God is saying that keep doing it. The

definition of insanity is keep doing the same thing over and over and over again

and expecting a different result. What you're looking for, the value we're

attempting to find, cannot be found in anything that's in this world. It can

only be found in Jesus. You cannot be co-heirs to cultivate this world if you

can't find Jesus. Because who are you co-heiring with? Ikea? McDonald's? Bezos?

Warren Buffett? Those are all temporal things. The materialistic elements of

what's happening keeps you in a rat race that will never fill the void you feel.

Now, greed manifests itself in multiple different ways. This is

personally one of my favorite. I'm actually really against this one.

Hoarding. This element of greed plays on a person's fear and leads them to

believe that they cannot be generous to others because you'll need whatever it

is. That dad or grandfather that's like, "I'm gonna keep this one washer

from 1972 because at some point in time in some element of this family

dynamic, somewhere down that family tree, that one washer is going to save the day."

And that one washer turns into 40 washers, turns into 50 washers, and then

when they pass away, their grandson gets to go and sort through all of them. If

you have a nice grandson, if you have me, I just throw him away. That's where I get

a yes? And throwing away the washers?

They're afraid. There's a fear that somehow they'll need this and they can't

part from it. I understand that. My grandmother operated in that space. My

mother semi operates in that space. She's doing really, really well. Sorry, Deb. I'm

not outing you, but you're doing well. I'm proud of you. You know, doing great.

It's awesome. Kudos to you. We practice in our family the purge method. It comes

in, something goes out. We get blessed, we bless somebody else. And it's a consistent

cycle of recognizing the fact that whatever we got, even if we bought it

with our own money, was a gift from God. And so then we can then give a gift to

somebody else. And so we're constantly looking, if it's a new light fixture

we're put up, we're constantly looking on how we can take that light fixture and

bless somebody else. We're not throwing it in the attic. We're not getting a

storage unit. We're finding a way to take something of value, whatever the value is,

and get it to somebody who finds value in that, who can use that. Hoarding will

never make you happy. In fact, it turns out to be basically a waste of even the

materialistic stuff. You know, you see those shows where people had one of the

most beautiful trucks or cars and they could not get rid of it because they

loved it so much. And then their children come after they pass or whatever and

there's weeds growing up through it and the engine block is completely shot and

nobody ever got to find value in that vehicle. Number two, blowing through

money. Not just rich people blow through money. You know, that's one of

those things where it's like, well the rich will spend, spend, spend.

Unfortunately, most people overspend. I make $50,000 a year. I spend $55,000 a

year. I have $5,000 in credit card debt. But I needed it, Chris. You don't

understand, I needed it. Well, last night I needed coffee to go preach, but I

didn't need to stop at Starbucks. I chose to stop at Starbucks. I chose to get a

venti black coffee at 325 or whatever it was, when I could have just gotten a cup

of coffee at home for roughly 50 cents. I could have also stopped it on cue and I

could have also gotten a coffee for like 75 cents. I could have made other choices,

but I chose to do this. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not sitting here beating you up

and saying like, well you can't choose to indulge in things from time to time or

do nice things. Of course you can't. But we live in a culture where that is

the normal. I have a second job. I can't make ends meet. But every morning on the

way to your first job, you spend $5 on a latte. Why? Oh, because it's a status

symbol for the world to have that little fish-like woman on your cup. It's a

status symbol to have a Stanley or a Yeti or a name-brand. You guys just got

punked by a marketing team. And the only difference is Ashton Kutcher is not

gonna jump out and tell you you got punked. They're just gonna keep selling to

you. And you'll keep doing and you'll keep doing and you'll keep doing and

you'll keep doing and you'll keep doing it. Why? Because I also do it. I find

myself wrestling with it all the time. We all do. Blowing through money, my wife

and I, in the early years of our marriage, we made somewhere around six figures. We

had no children. She was a manager of an apartment community. So we got to live in

whatever apartment on the complex we wanted. Not only did we get to live in

whatever one that we wanted, we got to upgrade it with the new laminate and the

new carpet and we got to paint it before we moved in. Like we got the best of the

best. We have nothing to show from those years. We live for free. In a $1,300-

$1,400 apartment, yes you used to be able to get two bedroom apartments for that

amount of money. We have nothing to show from because we were young and we felt

like there was this status. We got to do this. We got to do this.

We got to do this. We got to do this. We got to do this. And no money. I don't

even think, like I think we gifted you a couch at one point in time, but

that couch was like gone. Like there's not even a couch. Like there's not even a

material possession I think that we still exist that exists at this point.

Even our mattress is gone. Like we've upgraded everything at some point in

time and so like we have nothing to show from even a time of great blessing

financially in our life. Because our goals and what we were trying to

accomplish were to feel good, to fit in, to have status. And we were in our early

20s. Nobody really cared except for us. And we talk about all the time how we

would go back and do it differently now in our 40s and what it would have looked

like if we would have done it then. You know a lot of people in this

congregation have worked with April and I on trying to get through, get out of

debt and do these things and the debt snowball and all these things. Like yes I

love Dave Ramsey but also I we don't use Dave Ramsey per se. And so we want you to

get out of debt and we want you to not have these burdens not only because

Jesus says that you're not to have them, but because we want you to see this

spiritual element that's there that you're supposed to walk in freedom. And

freedom is not only not being enslaved to a credit card payment every single

month, but it's also to not be enslaved to the mentality that you must use your

credit card in order to be liked or loved or seen. I don't like you or love

you or talk to you because you make money or don't make money. I like you, I

love you and talk to you because Jesus created you the same way that Jesus

created me. And in that you have value. That alone you have value. Ecclesiastes 5

10, "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves

wealth with his income. This is also vanity." Matthew 6 24, "No one can serve

two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be

devoted one and despise the other." You cannot serve God and money. Church, this

is a wake-up call for the church too. If your church is more concerned about how

much money is coming in in the tithe, it's the same thing. Either God provides

or he doesn't. Either his word is true or it isn't. Either God will pay your

mortgage or he won't. Now we're not going to get into laziness today. It's going to

come up in another teaching. I'm going to draw this out for seven weeks. You're

welcome. We're about to go to kids class every week, Eli. I got it. Message

received. I'm wrapping up. Comparison. Hey, we're a family church. Sometimes you need

to be humbled. Sometimes you need to be humbled and sometimes it's out of the

mouth of babes where he's like, "Can you wrap it up already?"

Yeah, it's not even table fellowship. Mom's got to cook food when we get home.

Like, checking that Apple watch over there. You have a lot. Greed.

Don't get into greed. Comparison. We're in competition with everybody. Somebody in

this room today walked into the church and was like, "They're wearing that. Hmm.

Somebody must have got a raise. Hmm." We're in comparison. I did this to my wife the

other day. She's got this nice-looking Stanley. Now, we didn't pay for it. She got

it for her birthday. But it's got that cool retro like, you know, those stripes

that they had on like the old Dodge Chargers. It's like the orange and all

that. She's got this cool Stanley. I'm looking on Amazon. I'm like, "Why don't I

see any cool Stanleys?" Like, "Where's the Stanleys?" And we're in competition with

each other to have a cooler Stanley. I know you love it. And I'm confessing my

sins under the congregation. We're in a competitive play... competitive world. I've

watched individuals walk in and they're like, "Man, did you see that Mazusa on their

door? Where'd you get that? That is so cool. It's way much... it's way nicer than my

Mazusa." Why are we in comparison on Mazusas and Talits and Kippas and clothes?

Or, you know, it's literally a little box on your door that has the commandments

in it. Like, where does it say on the doorpost of your house inside a

crystal-glass container, "You should put thy commandments." It doesn't. My silverware

is nicer than yours. Oh, my haircut is nicer than yours. This facility is nicer

than yours. We're competing against assets and concepts all the time. Can

somebody show me the Bible verse where it says that's okay? Can somebody show me

the Bible verse that says that's important? We're not to be in competition

with one another. We're to work cooperatively with one another to bring

the kingdom of God here. We're not to compete against others' gifts. If you

have the gift of the discerning of spirits, and I do not, I'm not supposed to

be like, "Hmm, I've been studying on the gifts of discerning spirits and I think

maybe you got a hole in your theology there." We're not to be

competing with each other for our spiritual gifts or our financial desires

or what we have or we don't have. We're actually supposed to help each other and

lift each other up by carrying each other's burdens so that we don't walk

around with the weight, the weight of, "What does the culture think about me?" The

weight of, "Is my house nice enough?" The weight of, "Do I have the right spiritual

gifts?" God says that you can't tell the hand that you don't need the eye or the

eye that you don't need the foot. So why are we standing around saying, "Well, I

need more of the hands." Or, "Why did God bless them to be an eye?" Everybody looks

at the eye. Why do I got to be the kneecap? But this is our culture. This is

the comparison. We're comparing all the time. And I use the word comparing, but

the truth is we're just judgmental. We're just judgmental. We're judging everybody

at every point in time and we still don't feel good about ourselves. We're

loving others the way we actually love ourselves and we're projecting onto them

our own hurt. Entitlement. Alright, boomer generation. This is not exclusive to the

Millennials. I just got to make sure you understand that because I've been on

social media for a long time and there's a lot of people in the boomer

generation who are constantly talking about the entitlement of Millennials. The

truth is, is Americans in general are entitled. We're just entitled. Now it does

get worse because we see throughout the Bible, especially with Israel, there's

there's cycles that happen. There's a generation that loves God and is

faithful to God and slowly but surely there's generations that fall away, fall

away, fall away, fall away, fall away. God wakes them up and they're like, "I love

you Lord. Oh, your mercy is never-ending." And then they're like, "I like you Lord.

Sometimes your mercies are for me." It's like, "Who is the Lord? I am fine with

myself." Something happens and it cycles back over. This is natural. It's

a biblical cycle. It's what happens. It happened to the Hebrew people. It

happened to the Israelite people. It's over and over and over again. But you

don't deserve anything. You don't deserve anything. Let's just go ahead and squash

the entitlement right now. You didn't deserve that Jesus took on flesh to take

on the beating and the mocking and the crucified nature of what happened to Him.

You deserve that. I deserve that. You don't deserve the car you have.

God blessed you with it. You say, "Well, I worked hard for it." Yeah, guess what? God

could have made sure you couldn't walk. God could have made sure you couldn't

talk. God could have made sure that you didn't have the mental fortitude to be

able to do the job. God blessed you with all of those things. So it's not that you

did anything. God allowed you and He gave you the gift to do it because through

Him is everything. This is where pride comes in. I did that. No, you did not. God

did that and He allowed you to participate in it. We have to change our

mentality. Worship team, you can come back. Greed is a sin of security and

self-preservation. There's some number, there's some metric, there's some element

of if we can obtain this, if we have this, we're safe. The Bible says that Jesus is

coming back to save us. So in Him we'll be saved, not in how much food you can

prep, not in how many weapons you can own. People acting like they're gonna take up

arms against the government. They're just gonna fly little planes over top of you.

Like this is not the Civil War. But we're like, "I have enough ammo to last me for

seven years. I have enough food to last me for seven years." And then a

tornado comes and wipes out your house. Yeah, driving down the corner of Norman

on 36th Avenue, there are a whole lot of people begging for food, let alone go

up here to 240. Begging for food. You got enough food to last seven years and

they're just looking for, they're looking for anything. They will eat your

leftovers. They will eat what you throw away.

You have to counteract the greed of consumerism with the charity of being

charitable to those who are less fortunate, who have less things. The

opportunity is around you all day long. Now this doesn't mean that you just

squander your money and you squander your food and you squander your

atmosphere and you squander everything. No, you're investing into the kingdom.

Well Chris, the gentleman's just gonna go buy alcohol. That's between him and God.

But he said to clothe them, he said to feed them. And we have seven years worth

of supply of food. We have a freezer full of meat. God is the only one who can

bring about your preservation. Ephesians 5.5, "For you may be sure of this, that

everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous has no

inheritance in the kingdom of God."

Fatherhood sets the stage for two things. The passing on of life and the passing on

of inheritance. Parents in this room, you've been entrusted by God to pass on

life to your children, to pass on an inheritance. That's not just financial.

That's the one we worry about the most. But the greatest inheritance you can

pass on to your children is how to walk like Christ. Daily. Not annually. Well I

showed up at Passover. Oh I showed up at I showed up at Tabernacles. Daily model

the integrity and the character of Christ. Are you sowing for personal gain?

Are you sowing for God's glory and righteousness? Or are you hoarding away

not only your finances but the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given you? The

harvest is plenty. The laborers are few.

To combat greed we have to understand that God has given you something that he

intends for you to sow into somebody else. The whole kingdom is about

discipleship. So when we come into a church we're like, "Well hey let's let's

let's get a discipleship program." And I'm like, "Hey why don't we become

discipleship people? Hey let's have a let's have an outreach discipleship plan."

And I'm like, "Why don't we just live an outreach discipleship life?" Well the

church should do this. Well no we all should do this. When we counter greed

with charity and being charitable to other people what we do is we lower our

emphasis of our own pride and our own lust and we realize that there's people

out there who literally have nothing like what we have. We're not talking

about abundance. We're not talking about six hundred thousand plus dollar houses.

We're not talking about Lamborghinis and a cop car. We're not talking about any of

that type of stuff. We're talking about his basic human needs like having a

shirt or some sandals. And this isn't just Uganda. This isn't just in Bosnia.

This isn't just some third world country. No it's in the west side of Norman. West

side is the best side I've been told. It's been told. It's an opinion. It's not in the

scripture. But on the west side of Norman you have homeless people all over the

place. So if it's the best side of Norman and yet there's homeless people, there's

people in our own backyard who need to eat. There's people in our own backyard

who need to be clothed. There's people in our own backyard who actually would love

to sit down and talk to you. To be seen, heard, and loved. We come into church and

we're like oh man we don't get seen, heard, and loved enough and yet we drive

by those people every single day. And don't get me wrong I'm not preaching at

you. I'm preaching with you because we all have these problems. I drive by them

too from time to time and as soon as I drive by it's like Lord I knew I should

have done it. I knew you should have done it and I go back and they're not

there. And I don't say to Yahweh I'm not like hey awesome thank you for you

know making me feel better. It's like no I missed the opportunity and the Lord

wasn't going to give it back to me because you want a direct obedience just

like I want direct obedience for my children. So next time when when you go

to get coffee, let's take baby steps, just baby steps. When you go get coffee think

about your friend who's struggling and go take them coffee and sit five ten

minutes with them. Sometimes we think well we're too busy we got to sit down

we got to have a play date we got to do all these things. No you know how nice it

is just to open your door and have a gift from somebody? Anything. Chicken soup.

Whatever it is. You go and you sit and you make homemade pizza for people and

you just drop it off as a gift. Start with baby steps. Don't just immediately

say well I've never given to the homeless I've never never been charitable

I've never done these things and so today I'm gonna just change my life and

I'm gonna go all in. It's an unrealistic goal and you probably will not do it

just realistically. But start with little things this week. How do you become more

charitable to the kingdom of God and I'm not talking about your money. Church we

don't pass the bucket here. I'm not interested in that. You give to the Lord

what you want to give to the Lord but we have opportunities all day long to sow

into God's kingdom and to let God then sow into what we need. But if you're

sitting there like I'm hoarding what I have then the Lord's like that's fine you

hoard what you need I'm gonna go take care of the ones that you won't take

care of. But I also can't I can't richly bless you because you don't you don't

want to share with anybody. So go go Jonah go Jonah sit on a hilltop and and

Saul woe is me you save people you shouldn't save. Woe is me you bless

somebody who you shouldn't bless. He gets to choose who he blesses. He

shouldn't bless me. I'm no better I'm no greater.

There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people right outside this

door that are driving by every Saturday driving by every Sunday that do not know

Jesus. They don't know the King they don't know the kingdom they don't know

anything they're lost they're in need of hope they're in need of salvation some

need food some need clothing some need a hug some need whatever. What are we doing

to go and be the hands and feet of Messiah? To be charitable in everything

we do? This of all weekends and I know our liturgical calendar is different but

this of all weekends says Jesus literally came and gave everything he

had. And not only did he give everything he had he gave it knowing he was going

to receive the worst wrath possible. Jeremiah 25 says the cup of wrath that

was poured supposed to be poured out for all of us he took upon himself. So not

only did he give it all but he gave it all knowing that he was going to get the

worst repercussions back. Let me ask you a question. What's the worst repercussion

that's going to happen if you buy some raisin canes for a guy on the corner?

You're out 15 bucks max? That's if you feed them right. You're out 15 bucks? How

many here cannot find $15? If you can't find $15 Eli you can 100% find $15.

You were talking about tacos you have taco mile money at home my bro. Because

if you don't have $15 to bless somebody I promise you I will give you $15 to

bless somebody this week. It doesn't cost you anything to take one of your

Tupperware containers to take some chicken soup and to go hand it to

somebody on the corner. Like hey look I'm not comfortable I'm a female and that

gentleman's a male I'm not comfortable in doing that. It costs you nothing to go

reach out your window and hand them soup. It costs you nothing to reach out your

window and hand them a jacket. It costs you nothing as you're going through your

stuff to bless somebody else and to further the kingdom of God. Because when

you start thinking about them more you start erasing this selfish desire that

you have. I need another Ikea couch or Facebook marketplace has this really

good deal on something that I have absolutely no need for but I'm gonna buy

it anyways and I'm gonna figure out how to get it home and I'm gonna rent a U-Haul

and it looks really great in my garage. And then I need a garage sale. But I don't

want to do a garage sale because that's too much work. So you just give it to

Sarah. The harvest is ready but the question is are you gonna go? Are you

gonna go to the world? Are you gonna feed them? Are you gonna clothe them? Are you

gonna lay down even a portion of who you are in your comfortableness the same way

that Christ laid down at all?

We're talking about basic 101. Well I'm gonna I'm gonna reach the lost. You

want to reach the lost? Start reaching out to the lost. Well I want to win

souls for Jesus. Why don't you feed them first and maybe they'll give you the

opportunity to speak to them. Oh wait Jesus modeled that. Jesus modeled by

saying after he called the the Apostles and Matthew he went he started dining

with the tax collectors. He started dining with the sinners. He started

dining with them. He wasn't like hey come to my conference. Hey come to church on

Saturday. He was like hey come let me feed you. We looked last week where he

said that he didn't want people to just follow him because he did the fishes and

loaves and he fed him. So they were following him because their bellies were

full. He wanted them to follow him because their hearts were pure and they

recognized who he was. But there's something to be said there when you read

between the lines of the scripture. If you feed people who are hungry they

will they will they will listen. They will follow.

Preach the gospel. Die and be forgotten as long as Jesus gets the glory. Because

if you're seeking to get the glory, if you're seeking to give the glory to HFF

or to any church, he doesn't share his glory with anybody because there's

nobody else worthy of his glory. Preach the gospel. Die and be forgotten.

That's charity. Preach the gospel. Die and be forgotten. Give Jesus the glory.

Stand and worship with us church.