Well, good morning, Lighthouse. Are you ready? For the word of God this morning. We're going to talk about getting it right for 2025. We had a good start. Keep it going the right way. See yourself as a servant and understanding that the Lord holds us accountable as such is going to be essential to your success this year. Understanding that it is the Lord that we serve, it's He who we're really serving when we go out in the world to do that job out there, whatever it is that you're required to do during the week. And it's even understanding that it's God himself who chooses the pay rate. Also looking at what the attitude of a servant really looks like, this one we're gonna start out with is Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse 18. Solomon writes, behold, that which I have seen is good and comely for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor, under the sun all the days of his life which God giveth him, it is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God. We as Americans ought to be more aware of that than anybody on the planet. We're going to look today on what it takes to get it right for the new year. And I want to take note of how very important it is that we actually be a genuine servant of the Lord, the real thing. What kind of testimony for the Lord do we have when we praise Jesus and brag on what a great God we serve while we barely survive? Our credit scores are in the tank and we're not properly providing for ourselves and our families. That's not a good testimony. Some people have the idea that being poor is a blessing and it's something to brag on. Well, I disagree. One night about 45, about 50 years ago, an unbeliever that I was trying to witness to He said, if this Jesus of yours is so great, how come you can't even quit smoking? The truth is that some people that we try to witness to today actually said what they were thinking. You'd likely hear, if this Jesus of yours is so great, how come you're always broke? How come your car's never running? I know that Jesus did say in Mark 14, 7, he said, for the poor have you with you always. And the Bible does say in Proverbs 28, 6, better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. There are certainly many worse things than being poor. However, there's not a verse or a passage or anywhere in the Bible, and I've read it lots of times, that commends Christians for being poor or that teaches that God's children should be or stay that way. Just the opposite is true. God wants you well provided for, and he has made complete provision for it in his word. It affects a lot more than your credit score. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 9 16. He said wisdom is better than strength Nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard Just for the record that same night about 50 years ago was Last time I ever smoked a cigarette Because my Jesus really is that great Today's message is not about how to become financially independent. As a matter of fact, Christians need to get used to the idea of being very financially dependent. Very much so. Today's message is a challenge for you to get serious about reading and studying and learning and particularly applying what the Bible says about money. There are about 500 verses in the Bible on prayer. The Men's Home Team's on that subject now, and I take it we're gonna get to learn a lot about prayer this year. There are fewer than 500 verses on faith, but there are more than 2,000 verses of scripture about money in the Bible. That's a lot of scripture. In fact, 15% of everything Jesus ever taught was on the topic of money and possessions, more than his teachings on heaven and hell combined. None of this is gonna do you an ounce of good unless you both learn it and then you actually apply it to your life. You must act upon it. James 1 and 22 says, but be you doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Every time you discover a principle of wisdom that you lack, you need to make that principle part of your life that very day. What I have for you today is a general plan that's going to help you get it right for 2025. There is no quick fix. There are situations, there are exceptions, there are certain things that God may be doing or teaching you. that may cause finances to be withheld for a time, even if you're doing all the right things. I know that God hath withheld financial blessing from Lisa and I on occasion so that I couldn't help my children avoid some of the hard financial lessons that God was trying to teach them. Today's message is not about tithing or giving. Although without exception, I teach every believer in the sound of my voice to tithe faithfully and to give generously just like the Bible teaches us. And Lisa and I also ourselves do. For you to be richly blessed and highly favored of God and then be unwilling to honor him with a part of that which God blesses you speaks volumes about the condition of your heart. It's a hard issue. It's not money issues. It's about honor. It's about your heart's condition. Today's message is about having something substantial to honor the Lord with and is to minister to others with. The universe operates according to laws. The law of gravity is not Isaac Newton's law. It's God's law. He invented it. It's his. The financial universe operates according to laws as well. As we start out today, I want to give you three areas that you gotta place in the right proper priorities in order to get it right for 2025. First thing you do is get your priorities right. You must get your priorities right. Especially about riches. Like giving, it's not about the money. Proverbs 23.4 says, labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. Ecclesiastes 5 and 10 says, he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. He that loveth abundance with increase, nor he that loveth abundance with increase, this is also vanity. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them, and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, But he, whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. Proverbs 30 verse eight says, remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poured in steel and take the name of my God in vain. It means quit buying those stupid lottery tickets. really does. If God did let you win, they would destroy you. There is a giant that lies right there between the middle of poverty and riches. There's also a need and a place for certain rare and special very rich believers chosen of God who can and will use what they have for the glory of God. It was one of those Believers that provided the tomb for our Lord Jesus Christ when he died in our place Your financial priorities cannot be about the money Money is the least part of the equation matter of fact we learn in Luke That he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon or money, who will commit to your trust the true riches? Who would do that? Secondly, you must understand who you're really working for. You may work in a plant or a small business or at a desk in front of a computer or even a car wash, any number of places. but you Christians are really serving the Lord. We're not just serving the boss at work, whoever that is. Ephesians 6, 5 says, servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of heart as unto Christ. Verse 6 says, as the servants of Christ doing the will of God. Verse 7 says, as unto the Lord and not to men. Some of you say you don't like your boss. No, you better fix that because God's Word says that Jesus is our boss. He's the real boss. It's the Lord that we serve. And what most do not understand, it's also the Lord who sets our pay rate. Verse eight says, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. The check may come through the boss or the company, but it comes from the Lord. He's the provider. Luke 638 is one of the most life-changing passages of scripture I ever found. I found it early on as a Christian many years ago. It says, give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet with all, it shall be measured to you again. I've come to understand that the measure with which God releases his blessings to us is determined primarily by our attitude as a servant. Someone once said wisely that it's your attitude that determines your altitude. That's kind of catchy, but I believe it's right. Number three, you need to look at some of these attitude characteristics of one with a servant's heart. See if you have them. Verse five says that he serves in singleness of heart. This means that when you go to work, you actually focus on your job. What is it you're being paid to do? That's your responsibility. Now, I know it's wonderful to leave your Bible on your desk at work and to witness at work. It's good. But don't let that keep you from concentrating on what you're being paid to do. I don't want a guy handling a nail gun that can drive a nail clean through your heart. I don't want him thinking about what he did last night or what he plans to do next weekend. I don't want him thinking about where he's placing those nails. One, because I'm paying for the nails and the material, and two, because I want him to go home at the end of the day in one piece. Your job is to do your job well, it gives your full and undivided attention. Verse six says, not with eye service as men pleasers. You ever wonder what that word means? I'm going to try to pronounce it. I probably won't get it right. Althalmodulia. Althalmodulia. That's a big $2.50 word if you ask me. It means sight labor. What is sight labor? It's talking about not needing to be watched. He's talking about doing the same job whether somebody's looking over your shoulder or not. Your job, your service should be the same whether your boss is watching or whether he's gone. You need to remember that your real boss is always watching. Don't be a men pleaser. You might call him an apple polisher or some other derogatory term that I'm not gonna use here in the pulpit. Verse seven says that with goodwill doing service, this is your job kindly and gladly with the best interest of your employer or your customer at heart. I, as you, have often been in the presence of various workers who did not want to be where they were. They didn't think that they saw themselves as probably too good to be in the particular service industry job they were in. You've seen those whose attitude was so they thought themselves somehow to be above the job that they were having to do. There are a lot of people out there on various jobs who are thinking, I deserve better than this. You might be one of them. I don't know. If you think you deserve better, you have basically two choices. You could pray and ask God to give you what you really deserve. I'm not recommending that, by the way. Or you could just go about being worth far more than you're getting paid and see what your real boss does with that. Perhaps the most important aspect of your attitude is the attitude of gratitude. Colossians 3, 7 says, whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. And verse 15 says, and be you thankful. Does your attitude reflect genuine gratitude? Or does this aspect of your attitude need an attitude adjustment? Have you ever had an attitude adjustment? Sometimes they're not pleasant. In the outset of today's message, I ask if you consider yourself equal to your boss. There are ways in which we are equal, but not in that for which you're getting paid. One of those ways you are equal is that you're both senators and both Deserved to be cast into a devil's hell and forgotten about for all eternity If you're a Christian, it means that Jesus not only loved you enough to die in your place It means that he bought you and sought you and found you and brought you back from your sin He owns you he owns me I'm bought and paid for He is my master And I am his servant Sometimes I see a truck going down the road and it'll say, owned and operated by such and such. Well, Jesus is my owner, but we need him also to be the operator. And I'm totally okay with that. Are you okay with that? You sure? If you're not now being rewarded the way you would like to be, it's just possible that the reason you don't get rewarded for or promoted or recognized like you want is that you actually do serve your employer like you serve Christ. That would be pretty sad to think that's the reason. I hope it's not for you. Let you think about that one for a moment. But I read a question one time, it said, what would your church be like if everyone, every member served the Lord to the exact same level that you, With the exact same commitment that you have, with the same loyalty, every member was just like you. What would our church be like if every member was just like you? Does your desire to serve Jesus rise to the level of one who's truly grateful that he's saved from your sins? I think the scriptures teach that those who are not thankful that they're saved from their sins might not be saved from their sins. Your family needs you to get it right in 2025, in all areas of life. You need to be willing to become what the Lord's gonna refer to as a good and faithful servant when you meet him someday. Let me say this in closing. We keep financial records of your giving. You'll need this for your taxes, but it's good for other things as well. You can multiply it times 10 and see how well you're doing in the category of honoring the Lord with what he gave you. Sometimes a little reflection tells us a lot. A true servant of the Lord involves the things you do here at church, but it involves also the things you do everywhere else in your life. On the job, with your customers, you're serving the Lord, whether you know it or not, whether you think it or not. I guess my challenge today would be, to those who know Jesus, would be to ask the Lord to give you a servant's heart. To give you that kind of an attitude of a servant. There's a lot of attitude out there in the world. There needs to be some more of the attitude of real servants out there. You may be the only Jesus, everyone sees, anyone sees. We were listening to a song at Young at Heart yesterday. They were singing about how God's gonna wipe away all the tears in heaven. Well, it occurs to me that nobody ever sings about that or talks about that with the realization it's at the end of the thousand years reign of Christ. that God's gonna wipe away the tears. A thousand years is a long time to cry. It's a long time to be sorry. Would you today ask the Lord to give you a true servant's heart? Make me a real servant, Lord. Being a servant of the Lord is not just for deacons and it's not just for people to stand in front of the church. It's for every believer. God didn't leave you out.