Skip to content You Can't Trust It - The Truth About Money, Part 1 Nov 6 · 50 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 We're gonna talk about money. And I know you get really excited when you talk when the church talks about money. Don't you? Who who who's just so excited that the church is gonna talk talk about money? Oh, yeah. Yeah.0:09 Yeah. Yeah. I am thrilled to take on this content for you. I wanna give you my resume because I want you to hear why I'm doing this0:20 series. It's because my heart is for you. My heart is really torn up about what has happened to you, to everybody watching for the last 2 and a half years. And we'll get0:32 to that in just a moment. But I am a success story in the financial world. I don't like to brag about myself, but I will in this case, only because of this.0:45 I don't deserve what I've got. I'm telling you that I am not smart enough. I'm not talented enough. I'm not0:56 handsome enough. Well, maybe I am handsome enough. Just joking. To have as much as I have. Every day I wake up and I say, God, you are too good to me. And I I1:08 thank God for the family that he gave me. He gave me a a wise mother and father. My father was a treasurer for our church when I was growing up. I used to watch him write the checks and watch him do the ledger and and1:18 then I'd watch him reconcile the checkbook. How many know what that means? Reconciled checkbook? Like something like, does that mean my checkbook gets saved? It could. And I still do that1:30 to this day. Every family has somebody that runs the finances. I run the finances. My wife and I started out in ministry making 30000 dollars a year. We had 2 kids and a mortgage. And I was doing youth1:42 ministry and launching this church up here in North Attleboro at the same time. And my wife was pregnant for our second child at the time. And we were just starting out in life and1:53 every penny mattered. Anybody ever been there? Maybe you are there, where you would just every penny mattered. And I I would not for anything2:05 wanna go back to those days, but I thank God for them. Because it taught me the value of money management. It is something that has been2:16 lost in our culture. And it has been lost in our culture in in large part not because of you on I I I can't blame you. I can't I mean, some2:28 of you, it is your fault, and I and I hope that as we do these next 5 weeks together, and this is a 5 week series, I'm gonna give you 5 statements about money that are true, that2:40 will undergird, I and I believe change your life. And I'm really excited about this. I never have a problem with teaching about money. I love teaching about money because I know the power that the that of2:52 God and what he can do through you with your money that can bless you and prosper you. This past year, my wife and I were able to give the amount of my first year's salary3:05 to this church already. Yeah. So what did I say 30000 dollars Now listen, that does not mean I make 300000 dollars a year. So just3:16 let's get some clarity on that first. We were phenomenally blessed with a very unique investment and God supernaturally supercharged that investment. Did not3:28 expect it when we got the money. We said that's a simple solution. That was not us. That was God. We are not smart enough. We're not good enough. We're not talented enough. We're that's just a blessing. So we just gave3:37 10 percent of that that blessing back to this house. And we did it with joy because God loves a cheerful giver. But what I'm trying to tell you today is as we start this journey, I believe this with3:49 all of my heart and I want you to hear me on this. God is about to change your life. I'm excited about this. I really am. Because we don't talk about this enough. Jesus talked about money all the time.4:01 16 out of his 38 parables were about money and possessions or finance. 16 out of 30, that's 40 percent of Jesus's teaching was about money.4:12 2350 verses in the Bible deal with money. 2350 verses in the Bible. There are 500 verses on prayer, 500 verses on4:24 faith. There are 4 times as much, almost 5 times as much verses on money. Do you think that God's trying to say something? He knows the money will be a chief rival in4:35 our heart for him. And what happens unfortunately for many of us is we stop trusting God and we start trusting money. So here we go. The truth about money4:47 part 1, you can't trust it. Just turn your neighbor everybody at all locations just that you can't trust it. And then just go, just make sure they got it. Genesis4:59 chapter 47, I'm gonna read a passage just a moment. I didn't think this was about money, but it's about money. I heard about a grandpa though that won 1000000 dollars in the lottery. Grandpa won 1000000 dollars in the5:09 lottery. The family was shaken. They were kinda shook up about it because they're like grandpa's got a bad heart. What if we tell him and he falls, kills over, dead of a heart attack? So they called their pastor and they5:18 said, pastor, what should we do? Grandpa won 101000000 dollars in the lottery and they said, he said, oh, let me tell him. So the pastor went into the into the bedroom there where grandpa was just barely hanging on and5:29 he said, grandpa, I got news for you. You played the lottery a couple of weeks ago. You just won 1000000 dollars and by the way, what would you do with all that money? He said, I'd give it all to the church. And the5:38 pastor fell over and died of a heart attack. I like that joke because I want just to clear the air. We're not interested in giving having you give all your money to the church.5:50 We're6:02 money. This is the first series I've done on money since the pandemic started. Ironically, I was in a series on money when they closed the country down.6:14 I don't know if you remember that, I was doing a series called the fool and his money. I had preached on money every year of this church's life. It has been 2 and a half plus years6:26 since I've preached on money. I didn't feel it was appropriate during a global worldwide pandemic to preach about money. I kinda wish I had now because what's happened for the last 2 and a half6:37 years has been a disgrace. It's been a disgrace of mismanagement, lies, deceit, mistrust,6:50 and hear this word is on purpose, manipulation. You've been manipulated. This country has been manipulated. We've been manipulated with money. 2 and a half7:02 years ago, got done preaching part 3 of that series and everything changed. Doors were shut in this church, doors were shut in your businesses, mom and pop shops had to close-up7:13 while Amazon and Facebook and all kinds of other big companies exploded in profits. Home Depot was open, church was closed. Liquor stores were open, church was7:25 closed. It was just a disgrace. And all of us kind of went with it real easily. And I was taken aback by it. Then I ran across this article7:37 because then we're now on the back end of all this stuff. And the truth has been coming out. I don't know if you're saying what I'm saying, where the truth is coming out about all the lies that we were told. And it's7:49 not this is not a political thing. It's not left right. This is now the even the CDC is saying things. Even the scientists who are involved in the decisions that were made are coming out and saying things. And then we're7:59 finding out that the vaccines weren't even tested properly. And all this stuff is starting to come out, which proves to us that our government seriously did a number on everybody. And now8:11 we're looking at it and we're saying, where we gonna go from here? So an economist from Brown University right down the road here from our North Canterbury location, Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She8:21 wrote an article and it hit the pages in the Atlantic last week. The article's title I'm gonna put up on the screen here is let's declare a pandemic amnesty. Let's declare a8:32 pandemic amnesty. Let's focus on the future and fix the problems we still need to solve. This is a Brown University economist. And the article's premise is simply this, yes, the government messed8:44 up your life for 2 and a half years. But can we just call a truce? It didn't go over well.8:56 It kind of exploded all over the Internet. I don't think you may have read it. Some of you are nodding your heads as I just shared that picture. It would not well receive. Too many people paid too high a price for what9:08 just happened. Too many business owners lost their businesses. Too many children and grandchildren watched parents and grandparents9:19 die alone. We have an elder in this church did not see his mother for the last 3 months of her life because of these rules. And then we watched as they told us not to go9:31 to beaches or public parks. As they told us to mask up, wear 2 masks, heck, wear 3 masks. And then all the scientists now are starting to confess that that was also9:43 manipulated data to control. We saw civil liberty after that we used to sing was the land of the9:54 free and the home of the brave. And when I watched it all take place, at first, I was like, yeah, 2 weeks to slow the spread. What a laugh that was, by the way. And then I watched just about 3 weeks after that, I said10:06 something's up. And I started to wonder why weren't people starting to get a little bit more upset about this like I was. And I realized it was a very simple formula from our federal government. It was a very simple10:17 formula, here it was. Are you ready for it? It's gonna pinch a little bit, but you know what they did to keep you quiet? They gave you money. And they gave you money weekly. And they gave businesses money.10:30 And they kept giving you money and kept giving you money and kept giving and they just turned the printers on in Washington and sent you money to shut you up. What I mean10:41 by that is they manipulated you. They manipulated you through this device. Can I tell you that this is nothing new for governments and authoritarians? To offer10:53 you free things, free money, free whatever for your loyalty and for your observance to their rules. They they sent checks out every week,11:05 PPP loans to businesses. The government turned on the money printers and then suddenly nobody cared that their liberties were gone and then you couldn't go to the beach and you couldn't go to the park and you couldn't go11:15 to the gym. So, what did you do? You got on your phone, you opened up a Robin Hood account, and you bought yourself some Dogecoin. And that thing which is a worthless thing just went through the roof and everybody11:26 thought, okay, here we go. Here's my future. Look at this. Woo hoo. It's fun. Man, we were we were manipulated tremendously. Now, here we are 2 and a half years later and the chickens have come home to11:38 roost. Now we got sky high inflation, a higher inflation than they're actually even telling us because they keep gas and food prices out of the numbers. They said like 12 or something percent over the last 211:50 years. You gotta add up by the way, the last 2 years, not just the last month, the last 2 years of inflation. Last month, the index was 8 percent higher than what you're paying but you gotta add that to the 5 or 612:00 percent a year ago this month and so right now, on average at from 20 20 to 20 22, you're paying about 15 to 16 percent higher for everything in your life.12:12 I was at the grocery store, my my wife and I were having people over the other day. She sent me to the grocery store, go get some things for for some chips and dips and I love me some Tostitos chips12:24 with a touch of lime. How many love those? I don't give me regular Tostitos chips. It's gotta have just a touch of lime. It's a shot straight to my heart.12:36 Put that in an IV and soak it up in my veins. I love that stuff. So I was going to the grocery store and I was looking, I remember the last time that I went shopping for my wife was in 20 20.12:50 Just kidding. But maybe the last time that I ever looked for Tostino's chips with a touch of line was 20 20. I went up to the store. I remember all those are 3 29 a bag because they used to you know how they do that13:00 printed 3 29 a bag. 6 99. I'm like, Jesus, take the wheel. This cannot be. And and13:12 so times are tough. You know, there's a moment in the scriptures where the people of Israel are enslaved to the Egyptians and then god starts to do something with Moses. You know this story?13:24 And he says, go let my people go. Go tell Pharaoh, let my people go and and Moses goes and says, let my people go. We're gonna go worship god in the wilderness. We're gonna go and throw a we're gonna go and throw a13:32 festival in the wilderness to our God. And the first response of Pharaoh is, who is the Lord? I don't know who you're talking about. I'm the God of this world. And then he says, stop giving me these13:44 empty phrases. And then he tells the slave masters, you're gonna tell them they're gonna start making bricks without straw. And then they did that. They13:55 enforced this rule. They had to make bricks without straw. The Israelites had to go scrounge around for straw and they were suddenly forced, listen to this line, they were suddenly forced to do the same amount with less.14:08 That's the kind of a euphemism of where we are. You gotta do the same amount but with less. And some of you might be thinking, well, what do I do here? I I don't understand and some of you might be tempted to cut14:20 things off that you shouldn't cut off or some of you are struggling so much. You're just living paycheck to paycheck and how many know some of you are in that place where there's a whole lot of month left to your money14:29 and it's tough and you're wondering where is god? What's going to happen? Am I gonna be able to ever retire? What is gonna happen to my family, my life? I've I've never seen in my life and I mean14:41 this, I'm 46 years old. I've never seen a 2 year period of more disgraceful policies in our country that have hurt more people financially. So this message series14:53 is kind of overdue because it's hurting you. And so we're gonna go to chapter 47 of Genesis and I had no idea that this was anything about money. It's a weird passage because we gotta ask ourselves how15:05 did how did Israel get enslaved to pharaoh in the first place? Where did this idea of enslaving the people come from? And then the Lord directed me to Genesis chapter 47. And I want you to stand with15:17 me at all of our locations and we're gonna read together this passage of scripture beginning in verse 13. Here's what it says. Now there was no food in all the land for the famine. Somebody say famine. Famine. The famine15:28 was very severe so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan in exchange for the15:38 grain that they brought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house and when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, give us food. Why should15:49 we die before your eyes? For our money is gone And Joseph answered, give me your livestock and I will give you food in exchange for livestock. If your money is gone. So they bought brought their livestock to16:00 Joseph and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock, listen to this, that year.16:13 And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, we will not hide from my lord. There's nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land.16:25 I'm sorry, that all of our money is spent. The herds of livestock are my lords. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes,16:37 both we and our land? Now listen to this. This is the people talking to the governmental leader. Buy us and our land for food and16:49 we with our land will be servants to pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die and that the land17:01 may not be dustless. So, Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for pharaoh. For all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe on them. The land became pharaohs. As for17:13 the people, he made servants of them from 1 end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priest did he not buy. Skip down to verse 23. Then17:24 Joseph said to the people, behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now, here is seed for you and you shall17:36 sow the land and at the harvest, you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh and 4 fifths shall be yours as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households and your little ones. And they said,17:48 you have saved our lives. May it please my lord, we will be servants and some texts, some translations say slaves18:00 to Pharaoh. So Joseph made it a statue concerning the land of Egypt and it stands to this day that the Pharaoh should have the fifth. This is the reading of God's word. Let's pray together.18:15 Father, I pray that our hearts will be open to your word like father, if I could ask like never before. And that we will hear what you have to say18:27 about finances, about money, about our possessions. We pray the lord's prayer in that sense, lord. Give us this day our daily bread.18:39 Help us to hear your voice and see Jesus. In his mighty name we pray and everybody said, amen. God bless you. Have a seat. So this is a18:51 difficult passage in the Bible to read. I don't know if you take it as difficult as I do. But what happens essentially is in 3 years, or you could say almost 2 and a half years,19:03 the people of Egypt and I mean the Egyptians now, the Egyptians go from land owning private citizens to19:14 slaves of Pharaoh. That's kind of an ironic timeframe. From land owning individual people19:26 to slaves of fair. And by the way, did you pick it up at the end? They said we're happy about it. We're glad to do. Thank you. You saved our lives. And did you19:38 notice there was a name in the story that kinda bugged me. Don't know if it bugged you. The name was Joseph. Joseph was the prime minister of Egypt. How did he get there? He he he was sent19:50 into slavery by his brothers after being betrayed. Remember? And then he's sold into slavery and in Potiphar's house, he's accused of raping Potiphar's wife. He goes to prison wrongly. He spends 2 years in the prison20:02 and then he interprets dreams for the cup bearer and the chief baker of the king, Pharaoh, and then 2 years go by and then he's elevated because he interprets Pharaoh's dream of 7 years of20:13 plenty and 7 years of famine. And all this goes on and then Pharaoh hears Joseph's wisdom and says, this guy's got the spirit of god on him. Let's put him in a position to orchestrate20:25 all of this so that we will be able to get through this next 14 year season with with with everything intact and when we pick up the story here in Genesis chapter 47, we're seeing a side of20:37 Joseph that I don't know about you but I'm not really fond of. He's buying up the land of the people. He's buying up their livestock and then he buys up the bodies. And the very thing that becomes20:49 an instrument of dominion for pharaoh in Moses's generation was initiated by some of the policies that Joseph administrated. This is kinda21:00 nuts. You say, I'm supposed to reconcile this. Why? I will reconcile it with 1 little contextual insight in that pharaoh only asked for 20 percent of the land's increase. And21:12 I guess comparatively to other ancient world feudal systems, that was relatively low. But other than that, pharaoh's pretty much set up21:24 to be god of the country. How many know that our presidents and the people who run for president tend to get a little bit of a godlike complex? It's a voting week21:36 today, Tuesday, you gotta get to the polls and vote. Please vote, but vote for someone who has some humility. Vote for somebody who thinks that god's way and not our way is the right way. Amen, somebody?21:48 Amen. You know, you need to do that but I'm just I'm just trying to say, we we we've got a a a country now that is almost beholden to the presidency so badly that we we22:00 absolutely think that the guy is gonna solve all our problems and he never does. What we do is we exchange 1 flawed failed sinner for another flawed failed sinner. It's just a d or an r. It's the same result every time.22:11 We need to turn our eyes not to them but to Jesus Christ who knows what he's doing with us. We're his people. So get yourself to the polls and vote for the most humble, most godly candidate that you could22:23 find. And I know you're gonna have to do some research to figure that 1 out. But there's a what happens in what happens in Egypt to make all this happen? A famine. Write this down so I know you're getting this. Famines22:34 happen. Crises happen. Just because your financial time is good now doesn't mean it's gonna be good in 2 years. Just because the22:46 financial time, the beginning of the pandemic was good doesn't mean it's gonna be good afterwards. I have discussed this ad nauseam on my channel on YouTube, and I have talked about this22:57 repeatedly for your good that you cannot pump all this money into the economic system that is not real money and then not pay for it in due season.23:11 You can't do it. So we're paying the price now. And I believe that we can thrive and survive if we understand that God is in charge and not government, and then apply our hearts to23:23 money the way God wants us to apply our hearts. But here's the deal, famines happen. I'm not here to bemoan anymore how it I'm not here to paint you a better a picture that's not23:35 gonna happen of, I'm not gonna promise you that nothing's gonna ever go wrong in life in the future. I'm not gonna promise you that this will never happen again. Fam is up. By the way, we've been through financial23:45 downturns before. We've been through recessions before. They happen about every 8 years. There's nothing you can do to stop them. And here's the deal about the famine. There were 2 famines in Egypt even before in23:57 the land, even before this moment. The first 1 happens with Abraham. And it says in Genesis chapter 12 verse 10, there was a famine in the land and what did Abraham do? Abraham at this time. Abraham went down to where?24:08 Egypt. To Egypt. He went down. He said, look, there's a famine in the land. I'm gonna go where the going is good. And something terrible happens. He gets on the way to Egypt and he says to Sarah, his wife, he says, look,24:18 you're very beautiful. And if they see you, they're gonna kill me and take you. So he says, why don't you pose as my sister and that way they'll treat me good because of you. And what a godly man Abram was.24:31 What I'm trying to say is he does not handle the famine well. He's ready to abandon his marriage over the famine. I wonder who needed to hear that. It was24:43 a wrong decision. By the way, he escapes because god's hand of protection is upon him and and god doesn't even let Abraham's stupid decisions destroy him. How many are glad about that? God didn't let our stupid decisions24:53 destroy So God saves him from pharaoh's hand there. But but then in the next generation, in Isaac's generation, look at Genesis chapter 26, there was a famine in the land. This is the second famine in the25:05 land. Besides the former famine in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And look what it says, and the Lord now now this is good because the Lord knew what his daddy25:17 did and wasn't gonna let him do the same thing. So he steps up and the Lord says this, the Lord appeared to him and said, don't go down to Egypt. I know that's what your dad did. I know that's what you're thinking, but25:28 it's a stupid idea. He said, you stay and dwell in the land and I tell you, verse 3, sojourn in this land and look at this promise and I will be with you and will bless you. So25:41 Abraham experiences the famine and fails and it almost cost him his marriage. Isaac experiences a famine and god steps up and says, no, no, no, no, no, trust me. Don't do what your dad did. Let me be with you and sustain25:52 you. And by the way, Isaac is abundantly blessed as he trusts god. Here's what I want you to write down because I wanna paint a picture for you. When famine happens, our trust is being tested.26:05 Right now, you know, you don't you don't get tested when you can pay all your bills and you've got plenty of money left over. Amen. I just wanna let you know that is not a testing26:17 season. You're tested when you're in dire straits. When things happen against your, that are outside of your control and you don't know how you're gonna make ends meet and you don't know what26:29 you're gonna do and everything looks like it's collapsing around you. This is a test. This is only a test. Alright? It's a26:40 test of your emergency trusting system. Where where where are you going to go right now? Who who are you going to look to in the famine? And26:52 what we have here is a picture in the third famine of what the people of Egypt did when the famine hit. They don't turn to god. They don't turn to prayer. They turn to27:04 pharaoh. And after 7 years, by the way, 7 years of abundance and and and they had plenty. And they knew that27:15 7 years of famine were coming. You you understand this, right? Let's get the context that that that Joseph said, here's what's gonna happen. 7 years of abundance and then 7 years of famine are going to27:27 happen. They were given a heads up. How many of you would like a heads up as to when the stock market is gonna crash? Right? They were given a heads up 7 years and so they had 7 years to27:39 store up and to and to save and to prepare and they couldn't manage. And they ended up worse off. My point is sometimes27:50 nothing can stop the famine from coming. Nothing can stop the financial hardship from coming. But when it happens, your faith, your trust28:02 is being tested. And God wants to teach you some things about money. So let's take a look closer at this verse 13. It says, there was no food in the land. And by the way, I told you this earlier that when the28:14 Lord directed me to Genesis 47 to start a series on money, said, Lord, this passage isn't about money. And he said to me, oh yeah, read it. And so I read it look at28:26 this in verse 14 and Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in exchange for the grain they bought and Joseph brought the money into pharaoh's house and when the money was all spent in28:37 the land of Egypt in the land of Canaan, the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, give us food for why should we die? Because our money is gone. And I said, I'm sorry for questioning you Lord. This is about money. It28:48 really is. I've never preached on this passage before. I've never even heard a preacher preach on this passage before, but it is about money. And the first thing that we have to see about money in this passage is this.28:58 Point number 1, write this down. Money fails. And there's nothing you can do to stop it. It always ends up failing.29:10 It passes through your hand like grains of sand on the beach. And the tighter you squeeze, the faster it gets out.29:22 Money fails. I love the King James version of Genesis 47 15. This is where I got 0.1. When money failed. When? Jesus is talking about money29:34 in Luke chapter 16 and he talks about a man with a lot of money and before he knew it, he had no money. And then Jesus teaches about this man and he says, listen to me, I tell you, make friends for yourselves29:46 here with your money because when your money fails, then you'll have friends in heaven. And the verse and the phrase is when your money fail. He doesn't say, if your money29:58 fails. He says, when your money. So, there's no such thing as having permanent funds. It's gonna get scotched up some way, somehow, inflation, taxation, or recession or30:10 depression. There's a there's just no there's no stopping it and we've gotta know this if we're going to approach money from a biblical mindset and and in this passage here, we see here that30:22 that Egypt, the leading superpower of the world with a heads up about a 7 year recession or depression still could not manage the money from the 7 years of30:33 abundance. And it's just kind of crazy to think about that. We we're all susceptible to this temptation but but but listen, it is if the money failed there,30:45 the money is gonna fail here. And my bills gonna money's gonna fail in your life. Eventually, by the way, at the end of the age and this is not in your nose but at the end of the age, right before Jesus comes,30:57 the Bible talks about that there's gonna be 1 world leader, there's gonna be 1 world economy, and then there's gonna be a mark that you gotta take Some31:09 people might call it some sort of passport to go buy and sell. Look at it. Revelation chapter 13, it says, it's about the dictator peace. He causes both small and great and rich and poor both free31:21 and slave to be marked on the right hand of the forehead so that what? No 1 can what? Buy or sell unless he has the mark. How is the end times31:32 antichrist world leader going to control the world? Money. You gotta get your heart right about this now.31:46 Because I know I'm talking to some people you are absolutely convinced that there's a pre trib rapture and you're not gonna have to deal with this stuff. But what if you're wrong? What if we're here when mister31:57 Antichrist comes? He's going to do it and I saw it and you should have seen it too that COVID was the test case for it. They call for passports32:09 on the vaccine in a hot second.32:25 Shadowy right now, eventually in reality, and hardly anybody said anything to protect God's people. Not in his church, my friend. We'll call them out and we'll tell you the truth in Jesus' name.32:37 But that's where it's going. That's where it's as clear as day. It's kind of exciting though to think about this, isn't it? Like these passages we used to read in our in my Sunday school32:49 class, we said that never happened. Now, we're like, oh my goodness, it is happening. Jesus is around the corner friends. Get your heart right about money. This33:01 is not a time to put your faith in money. We'll talk about how do we do that in the next 4 weeks. I'm laying the groundwork. Luke chapter 16 verse33:13 13, Jesus says, no servant can serve 2 masters. He will either hate the 1 and love the other or he will be devoted to the 1 and despise the other. And then notice a phrase just to make sure we're getting it. He says33:24 this, you cannot serve God and money. If you got your notes out, underline serve. Because serve is a worship word. It's a worship word. You're either gonna33:36 worship god or you're gonna worship money. And when you worship money, just remember I told you, it fails. The good33:47 news is, god never fails. Right? Look at this next passage, Proverbs 23 verse 5. Cast but a glance33:59 at riches and they are they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like the eagle. In this34:11 series, we're gonna talk about how you tell your money where you where to go so that you're not wondering where it went. Because that's what money does, it just kinda goes away before you know it. And you wonder what34:22 happened? Money happened. Point number 2, when money fails, I'll be tempted to find assurance anywhere. When money fails,34:36 I'll look to almost anybody or anything to give me what money promises me. And I almost wanted to call point to this, when money fails, watch out. So34:48 maybe just in the margins of your notes, write that down, would you? Watch out. Because when the money's low, that's again, that's where the test comes from. That's where the test happens.35:00 And and you're gonna be tempted to do things that are against God's word for your life. All in pursuit of money. And you'll be tempted35:12 to find assurance anywhere. That's what happens with the people of Egypt. This is how the system this is how the system of slavery in the Bible gets started. It's just kind of35:23 amazing to me. And this slavery will come back to haunt the Israelites in the next in the in the future generation. But this is how it starts. So, look what it says here in verse 16 and Joseph answered, give your35:34 livestock and I'll give you food in exchange for your livestock if your money is gone. So, they bought brought their livestock to Joseph and Joseph gave them food. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their35:44 livestock that year. I gave up all their livestock. They gave up all their cows, all their horses. It's it's listed there. They gave up their flocks, the horses, the herds, the35:56 donkeys. They gave them all up. Now, I was looking at that list and I was just doing a little bit of digging in my own mind and I thought to myself, they coulda eaten the cows.36:10 Am I talking to anybody who's ever tasted rib eye? And on the eighth day, god created filet mignon. Come on somebody.36:23 You wanna know what happened? You want a little contextual insight into here? In Egypt they worshiped the cow.36:34 They worshiped it as a god, did you know that? That's why when Moses comes in with the 10 plagues, 1 of the 10 plagues was a plague on the cattle. In fact, every 1 of36:46 the 10 plagues to break Israel free from Egypt was a direct frontal assault on all the things that the Egyptians worshiped as God. They worshiped the sun so God gave36:58 them days of darkness. They worshiped the ground so God made locusts come out from the dust. They worshiped the Nile so God turned it into blood. They worshiped frogs so God flooded all their homes with frogs. Did you37:10 know that? They worshiped the cow. They were so messed up in their theology that they made37:22 something in their life that they could've used as sacred and they ended up starving. That's the high cost by the way of idolatry and bad theology. When you make37:34 something god to you, when you make something that's not god god, you are setting yourself up for slavery and this can be applied to anything including money. If you make money your god, you will be a slave to37:46 your job and your time at the job and the promotions that you could get in job and you'll never see your kids and you'll never be at home and your marriage will fall apart but you've got what you want, the god of success37:57 or if you make someone else your god, a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a wife or a husband and you'll serve them and you'll never come to church because they don't wanna go to church and you'll serve them instead of god.38:07 Watch out for the things that you set up as god. They they make terrible gods. There's only 1 god who's good at being god.38:20 This is the but this is what they did. They gave up everything and by the way, they gave up their horses. That's their industry. That's their small business. That's their mom and pop shop. Here, take it all. Just give us38:31 what we need to sustain us. Be careful when money fails, you'll look for assurances anywhere. And look at verse 18, it gets worse. And38:43 when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, we will not hide that our money spent or hers are yours. There's nothing left in the sight of my Lord but our bodies and our land. Look atShow more
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