you Good evening. Welcome to church, midweek service, Liberty Baptist Church. We're gonna sing that millennial song. I'd like to say this, Isaac White wrote the words to Joy to the World back in the 1700s. The guy that kind of popularized it, a little Mason did in the 1800s, he released it at Christmas time. And evidently that's why it's become such a favorite at Christmas time. So let's all stand and we'll sing that millennial song, Joy to the World. Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy. He repeats the sounding joy. He rules the world in truth and grace. He rules the nations through the glories of his righteousness, wonders of his heart. I don't know about you, I'm praying for Hawaii Christmas, but someone sent me, I'm just joking, I don't, I've been here 37 years, I think it snowed three times in 37 years, so that's not, it's not like it's, you got a good, no, I like snow, so. My brother, when I talked to him yesterday, he said, you guys got the code spell yet? I said, no, it's coming tomorrow. He said, it's zero. It's zero here with a wind shear factor of 20 below. And he's not even up north. He's in Missouri. So he said, it's code. But again, good to see you tonight. Let's go to the Lord with a word of prayer. Lord, love you. I ask tonight, Lord, that you might bless. You might speak through me tonight. I ask, Lord, for your power and your wisdom. I pray, Lord, that you just bless each of our church folks in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, we're going to sing something a little bit different to a tune that you know what a friend, what a friend we have in Jesus, that's the tune. Words are a little different if you put the words up there. They're here. All right, there we go. Always a privilege to have folks visit with us. I didn't see any new faces. Don't want to miss anyone. Anyone here for the first time? Or just want us to recognize you? Just want a little attention? All right. So the prayer request list are on the back pew. I'll read over them pretty quickly. Brother, pray for. StSq3 3.30 (-0.99)" you you StSq2 2.60 StSq2 2.60 StSq2 2.60 StSq2 2.60 And it has the stuff and the verses if you'd like to use that especially if you have kids yes, sir Gotcha. Not a problem. So don't forget to pray for Brother Gary and the missus. Stuff going on this week. Now tomorrow night is supposed to be chilly. We're still going to go sowing. What we'll probably do rather than go door knocking, we'll probably go and visit folks that have either visited the church or we have some shut-ins that we can go by and see. So we will still go out at 645 tomorrow evening. Probably won't go door to door. I don't know if strangers want to open up the door when it's 20 or 30 degrees outside, so we'll go visit somewhere. We've got plenty of shut-ins or folks that visit the church that we can go see, so we'll do that tomorrow night at 645. There is no youth activity because of the Christmas holidays. Saturday, there is bus visitation, 930. It's still supposed to be chilly. It's supposed to be chilly for the next several days, sometimes down into the teens, and so some of you that are not used to cold weather, you might actually have to pull out that big heavy coat, and you can do one of two things. You can do what most of us do. You can shake it out. Or you can throw it in the dryer. Someone told me one time, so I throw sometimes I'll put it in the dryer, let it beat around for a little while. That way if there's a brown recluse or some kind of spider in there, you don't find that out by sticking your arms in the pockets or your arms in the sleeves. So when you've left something hanging for months, that's what the brown recluse is like. That's why they're called recluse. They like something that hasn't been moved or messed with. But again, Saturday morning, 9.30 for a bus visitation, 10.45 still having someone in 1045 so winning then back in your place for Sunday school the church on Sunday morning and Sunday night all right Ken let's all stand again we're gonna sing another song you you you'll be familiar with the tune but the words you'll be a little bit different it's to the tune how great thou art Son of God My soul. We'd send out offerings from this point forward to February area. We'll go to Brother Ross. He's just going to come down, not having an adult banquet like usual, but he will be here on Saturday. And then Sunday morning, we'll be preaching Sunday school. There's morning service and evening service. So that's what the offerings in the next few weeks will go toward. Lord we want to thank you tonight how you've been so good to us and gave us so many blessings bless this offering Lord bless the service and bless the preaching and Lord if there's one loss I pray they get saved tonight Lord and I pray that for brother Ross as he's coming here that you give him traveling mercies and let's take up a good offering for him Lord we love you in Jesus precious holy name amen All right, Ring the Bells. Ring the bells, ring the bells, let the whole world know Christ was born in Bethlehem many years ago. Born to die that man may live, come to Father gave his son, gave his only beloved one, to the wicked sinful earth, to bring mankind his love new birth. Ring the bells, ring the bells, let the whole Christ lives today as he did so long ago. Ring the bells, ring the bells, what a glorious morn. Many angels worship him, Christ is born. Won't you die on Calvary? Won't you set His people free? God Himself in human form Telling Christ is born He has left his royal throne He has come to claim his own Christ the Lord has come to earth Go spread the news of Jesus' birth Ring the bells, ring the bells Let the whole world know They gave one. Is this your child? I asked Brother Block if I could share a quick blessing. Last Wednesday night we were in a rush to leave here because my wife found an entry table on Facebook and luckily they lived pretty close by. They lived over here on 410. Valley High, outside the loop, and it was a married couple and a family, and the lady has, I don't know what stage cancer, but the deadly kind that you're going to die soon. And her surgery was the next day. And so she was selling her furniture to try to raise money to pay for the surgery and all the bills associated with that. And my wife got to witness to her. She grew up in a Mormon household and her name is Donna Lee, Donna Lee, I don't know. But if you could pray for her, she's still waiting surgery, but my wife did get to witness to her. Her husband was there and he got to hear the gospel preached. proclaimed. And she did bow her head and close her eyes and ask Jesus to save her. So praise the Lord for that. O holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of the dear Savior's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope The weary soul rejoices For yonder breaks A new and glorious morn Fall on your knees Oh, hear The angel voices O night divine O night when Christ was born O night O night, O night divine. Led by the light of faith serenely beaming, with glowing hearts by His cradle we stand. So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, here came the Northmen from Orient land. The King of Kings laid thus in lowly manger, and all our trials born to be our friend. Fall on your knees. The angel voices O night divine O night when Christ was born O night Oh night, oh night divine. Truly he taught to love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace. Change shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all suppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we. Let all within us praise his holy name. Fall on your knees. The angel voice says, O night divine, O night when Christ was born. Oh, night when Christ divine. Luke and your Bibles. Luke chapter 16. Adam, when you get down front, can you take that page on top of my blue notebook and give it to Mrs. Ayala, please? Thank you. I want to finish the lesson I started. Yeah, the verses. Brother Yala fusses at me for not giving him enough time to find the verses, so I print my verses off and give them to him. That way I don't have to worry about it. But he's not even here tonight to fuss at me. I thought about you ahead of time, though, Mrs. Yala. I made them up ahead of time. Luke chapter 16. Sorry, that's not in there. I just gave you the pages where we're going to be tonight. The text verse that we read back a few weeks ago, Luke 16, notice verse 13, No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now, too many folks nowadays think that they can serve the Lord and hold on to the world or that they can be a Christian and at the same time fit into the world. And I can tell you The Christian does not. It's kind of like putting a round peg in a square hole or a square peg in a round hole. We do not fit. If you're expecting to ever fit in with the world, you won't. One of the things that Christians try to do, and I don't know why. Parents, you have to be real wise about this. Many of you are raised up like me where you didn't have a lot. And by the way, you were happy. You didn't realize you didn't have a lot? I mean, you were happy. I don't know why parents nowadays think that they have to buy so many things for their kids. I've been in, my grandkids are like that. They have so many toys and so many, and I remember I went to, my grandson was gonna have a birthday party, so I bought something for him, and then they were buying something else. I said, what are you buying? They said, well, if we don't buy something for his sister, she'll get her feelings hurt. I'm thinking, it's not her stinking birthday. It's his birthday. So I said, when it's her birthday, do you have to buy something for him? And I don't remember what the answer was, but I just thought when someone has a birthday, that's their day. It's not their day and all their brothers. But again, folks nowadays think that they have to supply things and the kids would be happy with things. And I can tell you, kids, so many times you'll give a kid something and he will put the thing aside and play with the box. we'll play with the wrapping or something else, but we'll break that thing that cost you so much money and now you have an attitude because you spent a lot of money on it and they didn't appreciate it or they leave it laying outside or someplace else. But I can tell you, I'm so thankful that I grew up poor because I mean, the truth is, I'm pretty happy with about anything. I don't have to have anything really fancy. One time we went to a restaurant and when the bill came, it was over $100 and I thought, good Lord. And there was folks sitting in that restaurant, because this was a special occasion, there was folks sitting in that restaurant with their kids and I thought, How can anyone afford to bring their kids to a restaurant when the meals are $35 and $40 a piece? But people do. But again, people spend a lot of money on stuff. I am so thankful it doesn't take all that to make me happy. You can give me two tacos from Taco Bell and a bean and cheese burrito and a Dr. Pepper or Pepsi. and I'm a happy man on Sunday. So, but again, with the verse said, again, you can't serve God in mammon. Now to remind you of the stuff we covered, we talked about a person earns his money by spending his life. Cause again, if you put in 40 or 60 hours, that is your life. You're using that, then you have to make the money to, and again, you do need money to pay bills. And the Bible tells us as a husband, if we don't provide for our family, we're worse than the infidel. So the truth is we're supposed to make money and, and buy the things that are needed. I can just tell you that we don't want to get caught up in making all that money and make it our goal. Our goal should be to work because we need to and we have to to pay the bills. And then when you don't have to work, get home and spend time with your wife and kids or your husband and kids. The second thing we talked about is the way a person spends his money is the way he's spending his life. So again, if you've worked hard to earn it and you spend it frivolously, that means you didn't value your time very highly. Then we talked about stealing is somewhat akin to killing because if you take someone's stuff, you took away some of their life. Then we said most financial problems are not money problems but character problems. We mentioned that the most important debt a person pays is their tithe. And by the way, I don't care who you are tonight, you should make sure you always pay your tithe. If you're going to make somebody mad at you, make sure it's not God. And again, I don't like anyone being mad at me. I'm one of those type of people that don't like folks mad at me. But if I'm going to have someone mad at me, I'd rather it was one of you than God. I do not want to make God mad because I can't hide from God. God sees me all the time. I can't get away from God. I might be able to get away from somebody else. I can't get away from God. Pay your tithe. Then we also talk about everyone needs to learn proper priorities. And again, there's some things you should spend your money on and take care of those things. First, pay your bills on time or early in emergencies when a bill must be paid late. Contract contact the creditor. And then we've looked at, again, some ways as far as set up a budget and things like that. Tonight we're going to start at possessing wealth or money isn't sinful. And, again, that's where we left off. So I'm going to pray and we'll get into that this evening. Lord, I ask you for your help and blessing. In Jesus' name, amen. Now notice in your Bible, Deuteronomy chapter 8. Flip over to Deuteronomy chapter 8. We're going to look at a couple of verses there. Now I said possessing wealth or money isn't sinful. Now we'll look at 1 Timothy in a little bit because that immediately will pop up in your mind the verse where it talks about the love of money is the root of all evil. We'll look at that in a moment. But by the way, the Bible doesn't simply say that money is the root of all evil. It mentions that the love of money is the root of all evil. And again, if money was evil, then notice Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 17. Thou say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth. So if you have money, realize where it comes from, that He may establish His covenant which is square unto thy fathers as it is this day." Go to Ruth chapter 1. In Ruth chapter 1, we see a young man that was a kinsman to Ruth. He was a kinsman to Elambilick's family. Notice Ruth chapter 2 verse 1, and Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth. of the family of Elimenek, and his name was Boaz. Now again, if you know anything about the story of Boaz, you know that he was a good guy. So if money itself was evil, then Boaz would be evil. And the Bible doesn't give us any look at all and any thought at all of Boaz being evil. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 1. 2 Chronicles chapter 1, probably the one who's known most for his wisdom. But with his wisdom, by the way, he also had something else. And we'll look at that. Notice 2 Chronicles chapter 1, verse 11 and 12. 2 Chronicles 1, 11 says, And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart, thou hast not asked riches. wealth or honor, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast ask long life, but hast ask wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people over whom I have made thee king. Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee, and I will give thee," he said, I gave you the wisdom and the knowledge that you asked for, and here's what else I'm going to give you. I will give thee riches and wealth and honors, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like." So he said, I'm going to give you, now again, understand this is God giving Solomon wealth. Now, you and I know the Bible well enough to know that God doesn't tempt any man to do evil, so he didn't give Solomon wealth because it was a bad thing. He gave Solomon wealth because in Solomon's case, he actually asked the right question. What he asked for was wisdom to lead his people. God was so impressed with that thought. Because, again, most people would ask for money because then they figured money can buy stuff and money can then, I mean, pay the way and make life easier. But he didn't ask for that. He asked for wisdom to lead his people. Now that verse I mentioned, 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 10, one we often quote, 1 Timothy 6.10 says, For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Now notice what it said they did. They coveted after now again I go to work and you go to work to make money it should not be that we covet money should not be that money is the thing that we have to have that that we I mean that that that that is the big deal in our life I need money to pay my car payment I need money to pay the house payment I need money to pay the electric bill I need money to pay the insurance I need money to buy groceries so I need money but again money is is simply a ends it's a it's a means to an end it is not the end it is used to pay bills and again I don't have, again, I mentioned here that wealth isn't evil. If it was, there are several men in the Bible that would be... Abraham was rich, David was rich, Solomon was rich. We can name several men and women in the Bible that were rich. And by the way, those were godly men and women. So wealth isn't evil. It is the love of money. Now, so my thought I want to ask you before we go on from there is this. Do you have money? Or does money have you? By the way, that is the important thing. It ought to be that you might have some money, but it ought not be that money has you. Money should not control you. In considering this, I want to give you some thoughts. Go to Proverbs chapter 14. Proverbs chapter 14. It's a simple verse. Many of us will never experience it, but we have seen it around us. We've seen other folks experience this. Proverbs 14.20 makes this statement, because again, when we're talking about wealth, I mentioned that wealth is an evil. So my first thought is this, a rich person doesn't always know who his friends are. Notice Proverbs 14.20. The poorest hated even of his own neighbor, but the rich hath many friends." Now, when it says the rich hath many friends, some of those are not real friends. Some of those are friends while he has money. By the way, the prodigal son had some of those. He had some folks that when he was the one hosting the party, they were there. When he was the one living in the pig pen, they couldn't be found. they was more than willing to spend his money but they had no desire to spend time with him when he didn't have money. Now when you're the theme of the party you'll have lots of folks that act like you're your friends. By the way if I don't play the lottery don't intend to. I've had people say Brother Block if you play the lottery and won I mean would you think that'd be a good thing? And I said well first off I don't play the lottery so that'd be like saying Brother Block if you owned a jet would you fly? I mean I don't have a jet and I don't play the lottery so if I don't play the lottery it's almost impossible for me to win okay but They said, and then if you got rich, think what you could do with all that money. You could build this. And by the way, if you have money, there are a lot of things you could use that money for in the ministry and for, I mean, for God's purpose and God's use. But the truth is, If someone wins the lottery, you hear tomorrow that someone won a million dollars, listen to me. Some of the relatives that haven't spoken to him or her, some of the relatives that haven't seen them for months or years will show up at their house and be like, hey, how you doing? Been missing you lately. What are you going to do with that money? I mean, you know what? You know, I could use a little bit of that. I mean, the wife and I, we're really struggling. What happens? They end up with some friends. Why are those friends there? They're there so they got their hand out. They're wanting something from them. That's why you find so many of these singers or sports players, their parents or one of their relatives will be the one handling their money. And usually when it's all said and done, a whole bunch of them handle their money incorrectly and they find out that their family member was using them. So again, the rich have many friends. Not the right kind of friends many times, but they have a lot of friends. The second truth, notice in Psalm chapter 118, Psalm 118, we'll look at a couple of verses there. My second thought is this, having money in the bank often means a person loses his dependence or her dependence upon God. Notice Psalm chapter 118. Notice verse 8 and 9. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." Now, what he's saying is, it is better to trust in the Lord than put your confidence in other things. And I can tell you, it is better to put your trust in the Lord than to put your confidence in money. Now, I don't even remember the guy's name, but there's a fellow recently that was in the, I mean, he was apparently a millionaire, a billionaire, gave a bunch of money to one of the political parties, and then, I mean, lost like 90% of it in a day. Listen to me, there's folks that have this, I mean, when the stock market took its last big dump, there's folks that their retirement was cut in half in one day. I mean, one minute they've got the money to buy these nice things, the next minute they're wondering, I mean, how they're gonna, what they're gonna do this week or next week. Now again, be careful you don't put your confidence in money. Always make, now if God gives you money, that's not a problem. just make sure that money's not something you count on, depend on. Because by the way, money comes and money goes, and God will always be there. He never leaves you, nor forsakes you. Notice also in Psalm chapter 91, verse 2 says, I will say to the Lord, here's my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust. And by the way, you want to make sure you trust in the Lord. Some of you have seen signs at a business. It'll say, in God I trust. And it'll say something like, I mean, you've got to pay cash. I mean, what they're saying is, I don't trust you, but I trust God. And again, there are folks that, by the way, are not very trustworthy. Years ago, they made deals by handshake. They made deals on a man or woman's word. I can tell you today, if you made deals on that, you're probably going to get hurt a few times because a lot of people do not keep their word. Back then, if a person was known to be a liar, I mean, that was, I mean, it became known if they was known to be a coward or a liar, those things, they were stuck with that person. And again, people wanted nothing to do with him. Make sure you trust not in your money, but in God. If God allows you to have money, make sure your trust is still in Him. You still depend upon Him. The third thing is a rich person can allow money to become their God. Notice Luke chapter 18 in your Bibles. Luke chapter 18, and we're going to look at Luke 12 as well, but notice Luke chapter 18, verse 23. Luke 18, 23 makes this statement, and when he heard this, he was very sorrowful for he was very rich. Now listen to me, what Jesus told him to do is just get rid of your wealth and come follow me. Now he wanted to follow Jesus. You say, how badly did he want to follow Jesus? Not bad enough. Jesus wasn't his number one priority. What he wanted to do was he wanted to be able to have his money and then serve the Lord a little bit on the side. It would make him feel pretty good. But listen to his money was a problem. Notice Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. Notice verse 16. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. Verse 17. And he thought with himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my goods. Verse 18. And he said, this will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. I will say to my soul, soul that has much goods laid up for many years. What he said is, I mean, your future is bright. I mean, you don't have to worry about your future. He said, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Verse 20 came along right after that. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? He said, you know what? You've worked so hard for all that stuff. You thought you were going to live in luxury after that. You're going to die. And by the way, your money doesn't do you any good after you die. can't take it with you. And by the way, there are folks that are more than willing to spend your money after you die. There's a lot of folks standing in line. If you've got money, there'll be folks standing in line that'll be more than glad to take your money after you're gone. Again, be careful that you don't make money, that you don't allow money to become your God. Keep in mind you can't take any of it with you when you go to heaven. And so the thought was this, invest heavily in God's work. When you invest heavily in God, now, we don't, we've never, Brother Nichols never promoted this, neither have I. There are a lot of ministries. I remember when I was growing up, I was a member of a certain ministry, and that ministry, there was lots of times that they would try to get people, and a lot of people did it in the past. Some of our parents or grandparents, whatever. They gave their inheritance, they gave their wealth to a ministry. They gave their wealth or their inheritance to a church. They gave it to some non-profit group. I mean, they gave it... Brother Roloff used to have folks that would do that. I used to be involved in his tape ministry and stuff. And Brother Roloff, I mean, he had people. They would give him a little plaque or something, but they'd have folks... Now, I guarantee you the kids weren't very happy about that. The family members weren't very happy about that, but a lot of folks simply said, hey, it's mine, I can do with it whatever I want to, and I want to give it, I want to put it into something that's going to win souls and get people saved. By the way, there's a lot of ministries that are a good investment. The bus ministry, good investment. I mean, to bring lost people, to bring young folks. Usually, probably 75% of the people that get saved from the pews at Liberty Baptist Church rode a bus. Either that yellow one out there, and the other one's what, red? Red one, I mean, we're on one of those buses. Now we do have, we do bring some lost folks in, but most of the lost folks that arrive at Liberty Baptist Church got on a church bus. That's a good ministry to invest your money. If you got some money, you say, Brother Block, I got some money, I'd like to invest in something. The bus ministry would be a good thing. Those chick tracts that we pass out, some church member bought those, invested in that. Liberty Baptist Church, I don't think, bought those. Some church member bought those. We have Bibles. I give out Bibles to the bus kids that come to church for a week or two. I give out Bibles. I mean good Bibles, brand new Bibles. Not the little dollar Bibles that we get at the dollar store. Some good Bibles. Church folks buy those because they want kids and people to get saved, or people that come to church for a week or two to have the Word of God in their hand. By the way, a good investment of your money. The next thing is this. A person's expenses will expand to his income. So I mentioned earlier again that having money is not a sin, not a problem. I mean, it's not evil. If it was, there wouldn't be rich people in the Bible. But a person's expenses will expand to his income. Now, here's what I mean by that. You make more money, you'll spend more money. Now, if you could make more money and still spend the same amount, then you'd have some money to put aside. But most people that make more money spend more money. So sometimes they'll say, you know what, I used to make $40,000, I'm making $100,000 now, and I still don't have any more money than I did back then. That's because you bought a nicer car, and you got to buy the bigger house, and you started buying some nicer stuff at the grocery store. You don't go and compare like you used to and say, this is 14 ounces, and this is 24 ounces, and this is so much per ounce. You don't do that anymore. You don't have to. You can buy the name brand stuff. You don't even have to go. buy the generic stuff. You can buy the name brand stuff. Again, be careful that your expenses don't expand when your income expands. If you can keep your expenses the same, you can still live thriftily, then you'll be able to put some money aside. And by the way, have something. If you've ever listened to those guys that teach you to pay off all your debt. What's his name on the radio? Ramsey, Dave Ramsey, what he, again, if you listen to him, what he'll tell you is, listen to me, if you'll get your stuff paid off, then you have money to invest in the church. And I'm glad he says that. And you have money to give to other, you have a way to be a blessing to other people. What he's saying is, listen to me, don't just spend it, don't spend it on yourself. I mean, you paid off your bills. Don't, don't lavish stuff on yourself. Use it for the Lord. Use it to be a blessing. The next thing is satisfaction or happiness will not be found in money or things. I don't know a lot of rich folks. I don't run in rich people circles, but I've worked for some and I've known some rich folks. And listen to me, their money did not make them happy. The truth is, some of the rich folks that I knew were far more miserable than people that had nothing. So if you're wondering if I make more money, will it make you happy? I can tell you, it won't. By the way, if making more money is what your goal is, when you make that, you'll want to make some more. They asked a millionaire, I've been there one time, I mean, you got this much money, how much more do you need? You know what he told him? a little more. I mean, he never could have spent it in his lifetime. But what he wanted was some more, so he was still out there working himself to the bone trying to make some more money. By the way, money won't bring happiness, nor will it bring satisfaction. Thomas A. Kempis said, when you have Christ, we are rich and have enough. By the way, that is a true statement. The next truth I want to give you is this, and this has to do with parents and your children. Parents should teach children about finances. Now I can tell you I wish I'd had this back then. I didn't do as well as my parents did to me. My parents gave me an allowance when I was a child, taught me to tithe, then I gave to missions. I mean, I started my first missions giving was a dime. I mean, that's what I gave. I gave a dime. Now, again, I was a kid. I had allowance. I tithe, and then I gave a dime to missions. Now I'm so thankful God has blessed me and I can give a lot more than a dime today but I started with a dime. By the way, teach your kids not just only to tithe but teach them to give to missions to help others. Again, train your child to be successful in their personal finances. By the way, whether you are or not, again, you can teach them. By the way, don't spoil your children. teach them to tithe, teach a child to save, teach a child to be thrifty, teach a child not to waste, and by the way, teach a child to be kind and generous. I appreciated, my kids were very good about this. I remember how many times we was mowing yards and when they went to McDonald's they could get stuff off the dollar menu. I don't know if you remember the dollar menu. It's not a dollar now, it's like the five dollar menu, but it used to be a dollar menu. and Taco Bell had tacos for 69 cents, or burritos for 69, I think for 79 cents. And I can tell you they're a lot more than that now as well. But when we went to McDonald's, they could get two things. They would get usually, and by the way, the two things on the dollar menu back then was the spicy chicken or the McChicken sandwich, and I think it was the cheeseburger or the double cheeseburger, I can't remember which, but they could each get two things. So some of them would get two chickens, some would get one of each, but they ordered the food. And I don't know how many times we got the food without working with mowing yards, doing the work, we'd pull up to a stop sign at the Marabok, and there was people then, just like there is now, wanting stuff. And I don't know how many times my kids, one of my kids would say, Dad, ask them if they're hungry. And I'd say, are you hungry? And they'd go, yeah, I haven't eaten all day. And one of my kids would give up one of their burgers, one of their hamburgers, or one of their chickens to that person. Now listen to me. It wasn't that my child couldn't eat both of them, because they could. They could eat three or four of them. But the fact is, I appreciate the fact that they gave up one to someone else. And again, that was always a blessing to me to see that. And I would sometimes have my kids would say, Dad, do we have any money that we can give them any money? Now, I can tell you that some of those folks are cons. I don't know which ones are cons. But I can tell you this, when I give to the poor, the Bible mentions it quite often. When I give to them, God knows the intent of my heart. I don't know whether they're taking me for a ride or not, but my intention is to be a blessing to them. So again, I appreciate the fact that my kids did. The next thing I want to cover is this. And again, I don't have a problem with credit cards. I have some. I can tell you at one time a credit card was a lot. bigger nuisance or problem in my life than it is today. There was a time the credit card was not my friend. So let me give you a couple things about some good advice about credit cards. Pay your balance every month. That's what I typically do now. I pay my balance every month. I have one credit card that gives me miles. And as as the years went by it gives me less and less miles So, I mean I can fly from here to Austin and back after a year of spending but I have another that gives me cash back the Costco card I got recently at because you had to get a card to get into Costco and I like their chicken wings some of you had chicken wings from Costco who elected chicken wings I don't like all the spices on I just cook them and throw the spite the Stuff that you dip them in in the freezer so I can give them to someone else but I like their chicken wings and so I go to Costco and get my vitamins and get my chicken wings and a couple other things but Again, the first year they give you back so much. And so each time my statement comes in, it shows me how much money they're going to give me back at the end of the year. But again, be careful that you pay your balance off every month. Get a card with no annual fee. Now, you might not be able to do that if you're young and you just got started. I don't know what fees there are nowadays, because I have some without fees. None of mine I pay a fee for and probably wouldn't have a credit card if I did, because I've got good enough credit I don't have to pay a fee, but used to. $69 a year, $79 a year, $129 a year. That's a lot of money. So again, have good enough credit, get one without a fee. Use cards with the lowest interest rates. Now, I don't know what the interest rate is now, because again, I pay mine off. I haven't paid interest on a credit card in two, three, or four years. And by the way, that is a blessing. I hated paying interest because, again, I wasn't paying the credit card off. I was just giving them a bunch of money every month for them allowing me to use their money. So, again, try to get one with a low interest rate. And, again, sometimes it'll be just one that they have that interest rate for six months or a year. But, again, get one with a low interest rate. Don't use the card for stuff not in the budget. So what I do with my card, I buy the normal stuff. I buy my groceries, I pay my electric bill on the credit card, I do the things, and then I pay the credit card off every month, just like I would have if I went to the grocery store and paid with cash, or went to the electric place and paid with cash. So again, use it for stuff that's in the budget. By the way, when you get a late fee and you have to start paying late fees, that might be the time to stop using the credit card. Because when they tack those late fees on, you're not only paying interest, now you're paying another 35 or 45, I don't have any idea what it is nowadays, but a chunk. And again, your payment will be $29. Your late fee will be $35. So you went in the hole, and that's not even counting the interest. So again, be careful about credit cards. Let me give you the next thing, and that's this thought. When in deep debt, you've got to find a way to get out of the debt. So let me give you some things you can do when you're in deep debt. The first thing you should do if you're wise is pray daily and ask God for help and wisdom. So ask God, God, I'm in debt. I don't like being in debt. It is it is hurtful. I mean, it's heavy on my shoulders. I need to get out of debt. What can I do? So after you pray and ask God for wisdom and ask him for help, here's some things that you can do. Have a goal to be debt-free now. I can tell you it took me a while to get debt-free miss block now But we've been working for several years. I don't have a car payment. I don't have a house payment I don't have a land payment all I pay is I mean I have the regular stuff like like insurance and gas and food and and Taxes and all those things, but I don't have I have zero payments. It is a nice place to live and I didn't always live there. It is nice, I mean, when you get things. And again, young people, if you start working hard to get to that point, you probably won't have to be 60 years old to be out of debt. You can do that a lot younger than that if you work at it sooner. But again, have a go to be debt free. The second thing is, by the way, if you need to sell some stuff, if you're in deep debt, you might have to sell some stuff. You might have to sell the nice car you have and get a not so nice car. as you turn the key and over it goes vroom, vroom, vroom, don't worry about what it looks like on the outside. You say, people drive by and laugh at me. Well, when you get out of debt, then you can drive, then you can get them out of the car and you can drive by and laugh at them. But again, you don't want to, you might have to sell some stuff. You might have to have a yard sale. You might have to sell some of your belongings. Again, you might have to sell, if you're in deep debt, by the way, don't spend money unnecessarily. Next thing, learn to practice self-service. Now, what I mean by that is, if you can repair it yourself, and it's not, we didn't have, years ago, we couldn't pull up the phone and go on the internet and show you how to change the flapper in your toilet, or how to change the handle in your toilet. By the way, all those things are very, very easy. They take less than five minutes. Now, if you have a plumber come to your house, he's gonna charge you 35 to 65. What's a service charge cost by the prairie for a plumber? How much? $80. And they haven't done anything. They just came to your house and said, hello, I'm the plumber. And then they walk in. And if you have a flapper, by the way, that cost you about $2.99 or $3.99 at Home Depot or someplace, they'll change that flapper for you. They'll charge you for parts and labor. And you'll end up with a $100 bill for the flapper for a $3 or $4 item. And the handle's easy to put on. Now, you have to be careful. There's one handle that goes one direction. There's one handle that goes the other direction. If you buy the wrong handle, it will not work in your toilet, OK? But the truth is, you can do self-service. Don't pay someone to do something that you can do for yourself. Again, unless you've got plenty of money and you can do that, but again, if you're struggling financially, self-service. Another thing is this, you may need to pick up an additional job, part-time job. You may have to bring in some more money. The next thing, always go to work. Now, what I mean by that is work sick. Now, if you don't have to have 40 hours a week when you're sick, you can stay home. But by the way, when you need that money, you're just going to have to go in and work sick. You say, I don't feel good. You're not going to feel good at home if you stay home. You're also not going to feel good at work. So just go to work and don't feel good at work, OK? And still work and get paid for it, because you need that 40-hour paycheck. And by the way, most places are not going to pay you. Now, I'm amazed today, some of you have jobs where they pay you sick days. I can tell you back when I grew up, you didn't show up, they didn't pay you, all right? If you worked 32 hours, that's how much they paid you. Today, I don't know what the average in a year, how many sick days they give you, but quite a few. Some of you can, and by the way, they even let you when you're not sick, you can call in and go, I mean, I'm not feeling too good today, and then you can go deer hunting. But I mean, you can't do that. You couldn't do that in my day, all right? You weren't allowed to. But again, if you may have to work sick. Next. You've got to know your total indebtedness. By the way, sometimes it might scare you when you start adding it all up. You might think, wow, if I worked for the next 20 years, I couldn't pay this off. By the way, that means you need to quit buying stuff. You can't afford all that stuff. Next, you might have to eliminate the credit card. never carry extra cash. Now I don't pay a lot of stuff by cash because I use that credit card for the miles and I use the other one for the money back. But again, if you have money in your bill phone, now if you open up your bill phone and there's no money, guess what? And you don't have a credit card to charge it on, it's like, well, guess we can't. Because you want to eat out. You want the Sonic Burger so bad. You want the Whataburger so bad. But you open up your billfold. You don't have a credit card. You look in your billfold. And there's nothing there. I mean, they're not going to, your Blockbuster card's not going to, and I don't think there's any Blockbuster around anymore, but your Blockbuster card doesn't buy you a hamburger at Sonic or Whataburger. So again, don't carry extra cash. If you have problems spending, if you have a problem, I mean, shelling it out, don't have any in your billfold or your purse. Never procrastinate paying your bills. Now what I mean by that is, when your bill comes in and you got the money in the bank, pay the bill. Because if you're not careful, you'll spend some of that money and then the bills do and you don't have that money. You have to wait until the next paycheck. And then, by the way, you're taking some money from the next bill that you're supposed to pay and that gets you in debt. That just piles up on you. Next, don't bounce checks or pay late fees. I can tell you in all the years Mrs. Locke and I had the bank account, there was one time she said, you always pay all the bills, I don't know how to do it, can you teach me how to balance a checkbook? And most of you have never balanced, some of you young folks have never balanced a checkbook, you don't even know what we're talking about. But we used to balance our checkbook down to the penny. And if we were off a few pennies, we went back and, because we figured someone's wrong, either the bank's wrong, And we know if the bank's wrong, we want our money back. Or we're wrong. And so we sit down until we've figured it up and figured out who was wrong. But again, most folks nowadays don't. And by the way, if you just go to the ATM machine and push the little button and it comes out and says you have this much money in the bank, that may be how much money you have at the moment. But if your husband or wife has spent some other money and it hasn't came in yet, you really don't have that much money in the bank. Okay, or the fact that it will give you money out of the ATM machine I mean doesn't necessarily mean you should take money out of the ATM machine be careful about that now late fees I remember and I told you this a while back when I first talked about this one time one of my children was struggling financially and he called me one day and said can you can you front me this much money and It was it was a hundred and five dollars. It was for three late fees thirty five dollars times three and And I said, what in the world did you spend? He said, well, I thought I had money in the bank. I went to the gas station for lunch and spent like $3.25. They charged me $35. Then he said, I didn't know I was out of money. I went that evening and I got like a soda and a candy bar. So he spent like $3 and paid another $35. I said, so you spent about $12 and you owed them $105. I said, you don't have to be good at math to figure out that's not a good deal. Now if any of you wanna trade, if you wanna come tonight, I'll give you $12.50 and you can give me $105, I'll do business all night long. I mean, I'll sit down front, I'll just bring a bunch of small chains, and if you wanna pay me $105 for every $12.50, I mean, it won't be long. Not only will I have all my bills paid, I can take a cruise. I mean, so the truth is, you don't wanna pay late fees. Late fees pile up, and it means what you're doing is when your next paycheck comes in, you've already lost a bunch of it. Well, there's already, the bank's gonna take, because they take their money out first, trust me. They're gonna get their $105. So be careful about late fees. Next, and I must hurry on, not all debt is a result of poor financial practices. Sometimes a car breaks down. Sometimes you have medical issues. If you've had to go to the hospital lately, you'll realize there's no such thing as a cheap doctor's visit or a hospital visit. I remember when Mrs. Block had the surgery that time and they sent me at the end of the year how much Medicare and insurance all paid. They was billed for over $500,000. Now, insurance works a lot with them, and they pay a lot less than that. But 500, now listen to me, $500,000 to a guy like me, that's a lot of money. I could work the rest of my life and never have $500,000, which is why it's a good thing to have insurance, because they don't make you pay that much. You only have to pay, you know, your deductible and then your, some of the other stuff. But the truth is, you might have, if you get sick, You don't have insurance, and you go to a hospital, and you get a bill. Now, let me say this to you. If you get a bill, just put it on payments. Most of those places, from what I understand, I did that recently. When I hurt my back that time on the boat, I went to the hospital. I thought it was a $500 payment, because that's what my card said. I got my bill, and it was almost $2,000. And I called insurance, and insurance said, we paid our part. I said, you didn't pay nothing. Well, that was their part. But we've worked it out with the hospital, where they only charge you this much. And so for a $55 x-ray and a $6.85 Ibuprofen, three hours in the room sitting outside, an hour sitting in the recliner waiting on the x-rays, I end up with an $1,875 bill. then I got another one today from, apparently all the doctors are not on the same plan as the hospital so I get to pay the doctor too. So you say, what do you do? You make payments, alright? Now if you make a payment to them faithfully, they can't fuss at you. So you have to, but again, don't think they're going to go away because they're not. They want their money. You don't want to be turned over, it'll ruin your credit. So again, if you have a catastrophe, so what I said is not all indebtedness. Now some indebtedness is because we just like to buy stuff, we want stuff. Some indebtedness comes because you have You have issues or problems in your life and you just have to deal with it. The last couple of things and I'll be done. Beg God for help and guidance. By the way, then praise God for his provision. God's good to you and I every day. You and I are never going to be able to look to God and say, you owe me. We owe God forever. We can never pay God back. God is good. By the way, there'll be times that you have to go to God. You'll say, God, I don't have any idea how I'm going to get through this. I don't have any idea how this is going to work out. By the way, that will teach you to pray because at those times you get pretty serious with God. and get on your knees. By the way, we have a God that can provide. I can tell you one time, you would think this is silly, but we had a car accident. We got paid more money than it took to fix the car. I called insurance up, because I'm a simple guy. Back then, I called insurance up and said, I got the car fixed for less money than you paid me. Where did I send the money? He laughed first. And then he said, just keep it, sir. We give money out. We don't take money back. So fact is, I caught up on my bills from a car accident. Now, that doesn't mean you ought to go around and get in a car accident, OK? Don't go hitting a deer on purpose and then call me and ask if I can clean the deer for you, because you want to collect insurance. But God used a car accident. That's crazy. A car accident helped us pay our bills. Now, understand, God is in your corner. I mean, your God and my God is a great God. Money means nothing to Him. I mean, we often joke He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the potatoes under those hills. God is good. God will provide for you. You and I need to stay close to Him, put Him first. When we seek Him first, guess what? All these other things will be added unto you. Father, love you. Thank you for your goodness. I pray, Lord, you'd help us to be wise when it comes to our money. Lord, I pray that you'd help every Christian here tonight to make sure the first thing they do when they get their paycheck is they tie it. They give you your money.