And I would ask you to please turn in your Bibles to 1st Timothy 6. 1st Timothy 6. And we will read verses 6 through 9. The Word of God says, But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of it. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, and into many senseless harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils." And I will stop the reading there. Let us pray together. Father, even as Pastor Freddy prayed this morning with our group, we come to you in the name of Jesus, desiring to see Jesus and Him only, and beseeching that you may make Him glorious and famous, not only here in our small gathering, but wherever your people meet, and even where they have met already earlier, and where they will meet later. May your kingdom come. May your name be magnified. May Christ be exalted and His word preached. Please be with us. In Jesus' name, Amen. We are continuing our series on thinking biblically through our times. And our series of thinking biblically brings us to the issue of money. having a theology of money, handling money God's way. Somebody has written, his name is Andre Breton. What is wealth? Nothing if not spent. Nothing if wrongly spent. In Spanish, ¿Qué es el dinero? Nada si no se gasta, nada si se malgasta. It even rhymes. My aim is not to teach you how to win with money. I will leave that to Dave Ramsey and company. That's not my area of expertise. My goal is to expose us to a biblical theology of money. How do we treat money? How do we view money? How do we think biblically about money and handle money God's way? Now, I know this is a very difficult subject to deal with, who wants to talk about money in church, especially in our day and age, with all the affluence and pervasiveness of those who even, as our passage reads in context, we didn't read it, but it's part of the context, those who use godliness as a means of gain. We don't want to talk money, but the Bible talks about money perhaps more than any other subject. You would be surprised that the Bible talks more about money than about heaven and hell. Amazing. There are about 2,000 references to money in scripture, about 580 to 600 references about eternity, either condemnation or salvation in the same Bible. Why is that? Perhaps because somebody named Howard Dayton has said that money is the most discussed subject in the Bible because nothing reveals better the condition of our hearts outwardly than how we handle money. Believe it or not, money will say a lot more about our godliness and will say a lot more about our values than a lot of the subjects we like to talk, discuss, and even have arguments on Facebook. Calvinism, sublapsarianism, and all kinds of isms. But money will reveal more about our faith than anything else. Henry Ford said that money doesn't change people. Do you have that childhood friend who used to be poor like you, and now he's wealthy, or she's wealthy, and you say, money changed them. Henry Ford says, no, no, money doesn't change people. Money only reveals what is already in their hearts. If you're petulant, arrogant, boastful, covetous, money shows it up. If you're generous, kind, giving, money shows it up. It's only a conduit to show who we really are. Make no mistakes. And money is not the problem. Money is not sinful in and of itself. We just read it. The problem is not money. It's the love of money. It is the root of all kinds of evils. Not money. Loving it. The rich young ruler's problem was not that he was wealthy. Or do we take that so out of context and are we so lost about it? Oh, look at the rich young ruler. He went to hell. He didn't love Jesus because he was rich. Or the Marxist or the leftist who says that we boomers are the problem of this world. We have hoarded all the money and we have treasured all the money. No, we're not the problem. We just spent 35 years saving and investing. When you are 35 years old, you'll see, you'll be the problem to your children and grandchildren. No, money is not the problem. It is the love of money. Riches are not the problem. It is trusting in riches. The text in Mark 10.24 reads, how difficult for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God. It doesn't say how difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. But for them who trust in riches, yes. The problem with the rich young ruler was that he said, oh, I have kept the law all my life. But he really worshiped money more than God, and he loved money more than his neighbor. That was his problem. But money is necessary for life and ministry. Jesus had women who supported him financially during his ministry. The disciples had a purse, a money bag, a petty cash, if you want. And Judas was the administrator, was the CFO of the group, because they needed money to be around 12 guys. And these women also with him, they needed money to eat, to do things, to travel. Paul was not ashamed of collecting money from churches. More than once, he collected money from the Macedonians, from the Corinthians, to help the poor. And even for his own ministerial needs, he told the Romans, I want to visit you guys. So as I continue my journey to the West, I expect to receive some funding, some financial help for my journeys from you. So there is no problem with money in scripture, even in this letter. He instructed that those pastors or elders who rule well in their churches, Especially those who preach and teach are to be the subjects of receiving double salary. Nothing wrong with that, it's in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 9.27, he says, God commanded that those who preach the gospel live out of the gospel. Now let me tell you something that perhaps our American, Anglo, black or white brethren may not get, but we who are Latinos get. Most of us were raised in a Roman Catholic system, where the minister takes a vow of celibacy, of service, and of poverty. And most of us were accustomed to hear this expression, the alms for the priest. So in our value system, a pastor should be somebody who lives out of the charity of the church. But that is not the value system of the New Testament. Cornerstone practice is not the paradigm. And cornerstone practice is that we have three elders and three deacons or four? Three, four deacons. Three deacons. And none of them make money. And those who help them in preaching and teaching, they don't make any money out of the church. We serve voluntarily here. So nobody makes a living, we all have our jobs, and we serve for free. But that's not the paradigm. That happens to be the context of Cornerstone Bible Church. But there are large churches that need paid ministers to dedicate themselves full-time to shepherding, preaching, and teaching. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I was talking to a pastor from a very large church, a very sound church, the IBSJ church, you know, Pastors Who Held Michelin. And I was talking to one of their pastors, saying, we need to find an executive pastor here. They handle thousands of people. They have all kinds of ministries. They have all kinds of needs. Our brother Pastor Otto Sanchez, he has an executive pastor too. These guys handle thousands of people also every Sunday and all kinds of things they need to run. Nothing wrong with having paid staff aiding in the ministry, even in music ministry, in administrative help. There's nothing wrong with that. It just depends on the need, the context, the necessity, and of course the possibilities. Having said that, I just want us to consider for three or four weeks this series on handling money God's way, having a right theology of finances, because we need to rewire our thinking about this. Romans 12 reminds us that we must be transformed by the renewing of our understanding. And we renew our understanding exposing our minds to Scripture. We need to have our minds renewed constantly in this view of money. And this morning I just want to consider two principles from 1 Timothy 6, 6 and 7 and 8. And it is that there are two anchors, two huge columns we need in our view of money. And those two huge columns according to our text are godliness and contentment. If you want to combine them into one, godly contentment. But we're going to break them into godliness and contentment. Now let me start with a context. The context in 1st Timothy is Paul writing a letter to Timothy who was at Ephesus and Paul knew that he was not going to arrive on time and he might tarry and he says Timothy because I may be late let me write this letter to you so that you may order things in the church. So 1st Timothy is one of those pastoral epistles where Paul is giving instructions to a man on how to arrange and order things in church and most of our pastoral theology comes from 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. As he does that, he's telling Timothy things he has to be on guard himself against and things he has to teach the church about regarding a proper, practical, godly way of living. And I'm just going to mention too, he says you have to teach the church how to live godly and with contentment. And part of that is you need to teach servants Literally, slaves, how to work, even if their masters are believers. Because that's a way to show practical Christianity. In that context, he says, let's talk about money, Timothy, because that's an important subject. And he brings this issue about godliness with contentment, because he has just told him what to say to slaves. Not people who work eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, with half an hour breaks every two hours. No. And two weeks vacation, minimum. No. And other perks, no. Slaves, who were slaves to masters. And some of those masters were Christians. And Paul even says to them, and be careful, don't take advantage of them because they are believers. And it is in that context of those harsh working conditions, those inhumane conditions, if you will, because there's nothing nice about slavery, that Paul says, There's a great gain in being content and being godly. And those are my two anchors. To handle biblical finances, to handle money right, we need to understand this issue of godly contentment. And let's start with contentment. To me, the best definition of contentment is found in Hebrews chapter 13. What is contentment? Contentment is to live without covetousness, that's what the text says, being satisfied, being content, having sufficient with what we have, but many times we bypass the little last word, the last little word. Now, contentment is not, okay, okay, I'll hold on to it until next evaluation where I will demand my rights. No, no, no, no. Contentment is being satisfied with what you have now. Okay, honey, I'll let you go this time that you didn't buy my gift for our anniversary, but wait until... No, no, no. Contentment is being satisfied, finding it sufficient, what you have now. Because your eyes are set on eternal things. Because your eyes are set way beyond what is apparent. Godliness is being godlike. Actually, in Spanish, you don't get it, piedad. When you think about piedad in Spanish, you think about Michelangelo, Virgin Mary with a baby in the Vatican. That's not. Godliness is being like God. appearing to be like Him. Godliness is the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, goodness, self-control. People who are godly are not huffing and puffing and are not complaining, are not giving room to the deeds of the flesh. People who are godly and content are resting on God's sufficiency. Psalm 73, 25. Asaph said, But whom have I in heaven but you? And outside of you I desire nothing. My heart and my flesh may be failing, but you, O God, are my portion forever. That's contentment. Contentment is Philippians 4.13. The most out of context verse used in mankind, in the history of humanity. Oh, I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me. So I'm going to get this super contract for Major League Baseball. I'm going to ride it in my tennis shoes now that I have... No! Paul is saying, I know how to go hungry. I know how to have scarcity. I know how to be well-fed. I know how to be in prison. I know how to be in a palace. Through Christ, I can do all things. I am satisfied in Him. The spirit of Psalm 16, 2, I have the Lord before me. I have no greater good than God. That's what Paul is saying. That fruit of the Spirit, that being satisfied with what I have now, because I have God, because I have Christ, Paul says, those are the two anchors you need for a proper theology of money. Now he gives an encouragement, and it is the profit of that godly contentment. And if you notice in your text, Paul says, godliness accompanied by or with contentment is of great gain. and that thing got me stuck during the week like why didn't he say gain? why the great gain? the Holy Spirit wants us to understand that this issue of godly contentment is a great mega gain and the word gain is fascinating because it means a finding Like if you find a treasure. I confess to you that one day I was walking around the building where Komatsu was stated and I saw a rainbow and there was a lake and for the first time in my life I could go to the beginning of a rainbow and believe it or not I was a man nearing my 50s but I went to the beginning of the rainbow and I really looked closely to see if there was some kind of treasure box there but I found none. That's the word. A finding. A treasure. And Paul says, godliness with contentment, it is a great gain. And the implied meaning is pecuniary profit. It's profitability, increase. I was at one of those town hall meetings in Komatsu this week, and everything fine and dandy, the numbers are going well. But we were reminded by the division president, remember we're here to make money. Not church, not benevolence, not charity. Yes, we're an engineering company. We try to make the best products. We try to engineer them the best. We're automating them. We're going into the AI world, but we're here to make money. So we need to sell, and we need to sell at a profit. Well, that's the point here. Godliness with contentment is a great gain. Now, don't we have these financial regrets or fantasies? And you tell me if I am the only crazy here who thinks, boy, I wish 15 years ago I would have bought some Bitcoin. Could you imagine? Some people lost their words, those seven words you have to store, and they lost them, and they're trying to crack everything they can to find them, because they took it lightly, and now they want to find their words to claim their Bitcoin. Could you imagine if you would have bought Amazon in the late 90s? Or if you would have bought Apple? even in the early 2000s. Don't we have those fantasies or those regrets? And then, of course, comes the scammer that says that he's an expert and he has the next penny stock and he's going to make you rich. And guess who fell for it? A friend of mine came, hey, here's a great investor. A friend of mine from childhood who's a great guy says, I'm getting into this company and I bought my $2,000 of that and my release immediately came here. I want half of that. Yes, you sure you have it. We don't have a penny. So you have a 50% of zero, right? Because yeah, we have the fantasy. We're going to hit the jackpot. No, godliness with great, with contentment is that jackpot. Godliness with contentment is that ROI, highest return on investment that you can make ever. Why? 1 Timothy 4, 7, 8, a couple of chapters before, Paul wrote this to Timothy. Timothy, train yourself for godliness. He says, bodily exercise, and we kind of despise that. Oh, bodily exercise. No, no, it's good. It's good. Walk, do your weights, whatever you need to do. Keep your body in shape because you only have this body to serve God. So, yeah, it's okay. Do something. He says, but it's profitable for very little. Now, godliness, Paul says, is of value in every way. Because it holds promise for this life and for the life to come. And beloved, this is not pulpit rhetoric. I know you're an old dude. The young guys look at me and say, you don't know anything about life. No, I don't. I've only been alive 62. You've been alive about 18 or 20. I know you know more than me. But please trust me. This is not pulpit rhetoric. It is true, the richest man on earth, Solomon, the Elon Musk of his day. And people talk about Elon Musk. Go to the United Arab Emirates. That's where the real rich people are. But they don't report what they have. But anyways, let's take Elon Musk. The Elon Musk of his day wrote this about riches in Ecclesiastes 5.10. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money. He who loves riches will not be satisfied with their increase. I remember when I was offered $30,000 a year in 1990. I thought I was the next super millionaire with $30,000 a year. My wife asked me, what did you do? I don't know, I went to a vending machine and bought a Twix. I needed to do something with my excitement, and I just ate a Twix. I didn't know what to do. And then 35 years passed, and no, that's nothing. And even what I have today, which may be a multiplier of that, is nothing, and it's never enough. Oh, when my 401k balance hits this, and it hits it, nothing. Oh, when it moves to this, and it moves to that, nothing, nothing, nothing. It is not satisfying, I promise you, it is not! And you're not getting this from a super wealthy person because I am not, but I am a poor person who understands this passage. It doesn't satisfy. The high return of the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones or whatever it is, it doesn't satisfy. The bigger house, the nicer car, the new clothes, the new furnishing, the new whatever, doesn't. It's in the Bible. The profit of godliness, Paul says, is for this life. but also for the life to come. Do you know why it is a great gain? Because we live 70, 80 years. If you make it up to 90, believe me that at 90 you're in bad shape. The longest portion of your life is not this one. From here you go to this life that is called eternity in scripture. If you like physics and you like general relativity, it's a timeless period of existence where time doesn't go by. And that's where you're going to be forever. Forever and ever and ever. Time does not even go by. But it's not only eternal, it's the most plentiful life. In the resurrection, we will be given new bodies in the likeness of Christ's body. And we will live to be what God made us to be. And no, you're not going to get bored because boredom will not exist in that place. And Paul says, godliness is profitable then. It's good now, but it's a great gain because it works for the most plentiful life and time you will ever have. Jesus said, I came to give you life and that you have it in abundance. Here, yes, but also forevermore in his house. Second anchor. Godly contentment, realism. Verse 7, Paul writes, For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. Beloved, we own nothing. So here's, if godly contentment is not enough, we own nothing. Realism. You were born naked. My mother keeps some of my being a toddler naked picture, and I remember how embarrassed I was of them. Now my wife has them in a computer thing, digital. We were born naked. We're not going to be buried naked, but for sure we will not have shoes, probably not even socks, and they'll find the worst suit we have to put it on. In my case, no worries, because I told my wife, no viewing with an open casket. So you just close it if there's a viewing. If not, forget about it. We're not carrying anything with us. We will not make it alive. Have you ever gone into an airplane with your carry-on, and they first call concierge, and then they call executive platinum, and then they call group one, and you're group nine. You're saying, oh my, all these people going into the airplane, and I have my little carry-on, what's going to happen? And you're worried and nervous, you're not going to have space, and you see people kind of squeezing and pushing, because you're... Now imagine the same scenario, but you know that that airplane is going to crash, and you know it. The airplane will crash in the middle of the ocean. Who cares what group am I called? I know it's dramatic. Guys, we're riding an airplane that's going to crash. We're not going to make it out of this world alive. Oh, but what if the rapture comes? Well, if the rapture after the tribulation at the coming of Christ comes, and I'm already giving you a lot of where I stand and our pastors stand, well, then we will be transformed. But it's going to be at the end anyways. We're not going to make it alive. So, realism. Naked. I came from my mother's womb. Tony read that. Naked I will return. The Lord gave and the Lord take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Solomon repeats that as he came from his mother's womb. So he will return naked without anything. When your university professor, the expert says, Judaism, this Old Testament, that was a copy of Egyptian culture. No, it's not. Egyptians built this huge pyramid and filled them with toys and with goods and things so that you would carry into eternity with all your goodies. Solomon says, you don't know goodies to eternity. You're going without anything. This is nothing to do with Egyptian or Babylonian culture. This is God saying, you're not carrying anything with you. Or the great Denzel Washington, right? That great philosopher. I love him as an actor, by the way. You've never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse, have you? Never. There's another Dominican philosopher that composed a merengue, and in the merengue, people are dancing, and he says, Remember, as you're dancing, that coffins do not have pockets. And they don't. That's realism. So what should I have? Food and clothing, Paul says. It's a reminder of the folly, of the stupidity of trusting riches. Psalm 49. Oh, people give even their names to their lands. This is my farm, and the farm has the last name of your family, or your grandmother's name, or even your own name. But Psalm 49 says, but they don't know they're going to die, and their farm will disappear. And whatever they have and they own, it's not going to be theirs. Somebody else will take it. I was in my 45th high school year anniversary. And 14 of us were missing, already dead in my line. And I grew up with them together since I was six years old. So we are friends from childhood. In my line, everybody behind me is gone. And when the last one was gone, which was my close friend, I said to the Lord, would you mind starting from the beginning now, from the front row? Because, hey, I'm the one, you're coming from the back, please change. Or take another line. That's life, 14 of us missing. Who knows who's going to be missing at the next reunion? That's life, that's realism. And Paul says in verse 8, therefore if we have food and clothing, with that it's sufficient. Is that a call to not have aspirations? No, it's a call to be realistic. You can have all the aspirations you want. But Paul says food and clothing. Now, somebody has said Paul is setting the floor, not the ceiling. It doesn't mean don't have a lot. He's just saying what we need, because the Bible is realistic, is food and clothing. And what is food and clothing? Well, it depends on the context. If you live in South Florida, you need an air conditioning unit. If you live in the North, you need a heater unit. So it varies. Here, you need light clothing. There, you need thick clothing. It depends. But at the end of the day, food and clothing for this life, reasonable comfort, somebody has said, Necessities, Calvin said, versus superfluities. Some things you need. You need to eat. You need to clothe. You need a shelter. And God knows that. That's a point of Matthew 6. Your father knows what you have need of. He knows it. Worry about his kingdom and his glory and his righteousness. Because the Gentiles huff and puff for all these other things. When you go tomorrow to the office, people will be huffing and puffing for these things. You have something greater and better and eternal, which is of great gain, the glory of God and His kingdom. Huff and puff about those. Because He knows what you need of, what you have need of for this life. But Calvin said, when those extras, which are not forbidden, But if they dominate the heart, they enslave you. God does not forbid enjoying creation. But beware of making comfort an idol. I've said to you before, of this fantasizing I have, what a super nice home. And as long as we sell everything, and cash everything, We could buy it. And then I said to myself, you idiot, for who? For what? Just two old dudes living together with Sarah, why do we need that? But it's fantasizing. Comfort becomes an idol. Showing off becomes an idol. Competing becomes an idol, but I don't want to run ahead of the next sermon, which is the temptation of riches. That's for another topic. Sustenance. Well, we need sustenance. In fact, this letter speaks about it. You have widows in the church. If those widows have children, those children have to provide for their widows. It is the fifth commandment compliance. They have to do that. Parents, 2 Corinthians 12, have to save and store for their children. It is godly for a man, and I am choosing my words intentionally. It is godly for a man to be the breadwinner. It is godly for a man to go out and kill himself to put bread and butter on his table. It is godly for a man to work diligently, arduously, copiously to provide comfort and sustenance for his family. And I chose the word man on purpose. It is godly for a woman to be an administrator and to be the carer and the co-regent at home, raising children, caring for her family, caring for the husband and for the children. If they have the ability to work and make money, awesome. But not at the expense of being the co-regent at home. I'm not making that up, that's Titus chapter two, still in the Bible. Now, at the end of the day, safety. Yes, you have to provide safety for your children. I used to have these friends, when we were singles, they said, I'm not going to buy a fridge. All we'll do is just buy some mints, and then we drink water. When you put mint in your mouth and drink water, it tastes cool. Well, no, that's not biblical. You have to provide safety, comfort. Disciples were arguing, Lord, we have two swords here. Keep them. You'll need them. I'm not going to be with you anymore. Keep your swords. Be protected. Be safe. Yes, as a father, as a parent, you have to provide that for your family too. Legacy. Yes, provide a legacy. Where's Pablo? Oh, there he is, by Victor. There's the Argentinian saying. I'm going to say it in Spanish, but I'll translate it. Si te sobra guita, calculate mal. If you have money left over, you calculate it bad. No! Leave money left over for your children and for your grandchildren because Proverbs 13.22 says, the righteous man leaves an inheritance for his children and even for his children's children. Nothing wrong with that. Now as a conclusion, We have to bring the gospel into our view of finances. Where does the gospel fit into this issue of finances? Well, here's where it fits. The purpose of earthly wealth is, in scripture, always redemptive. Wealth and means God gives them to his own with redemptive purposes. Joseph's ascension to power in Egypt had a purpose that he said to his brothers. God brought me here, put me in this place for one reason, to save many. And he did save his family from a famine. The reason why Daniel was promoted in Babylon, read the book, he trained the Babylonians in the wisdom of the Hebrews. When you read your Matthew chapter 2 and see the Magi coming from the east, you may very well be reading about the disciples of Daniel whom he trained in Babylon about the coming of Messiah in a far, far land. And Daniel was raised in Babylon to preserve God's people. And you can say the same about Esther, becoming queen, the wife of Darius the Great, whom we study in high school. Well, the wife of Darius the Great was Esther. Why was she promoted to that place? To preserve and protect God's godly seed. Prosperity in scripture has redemptive purposes. The fatal flaw of the prosperity gospel is precisely that it teaches people to look for and to aim at and to long for that which is the very reason for their damnation, the love of riches. If you come to church, if you come to Christ because He's going to fix your marriage, He's going to fix your finances, He's going to fix your debt, He's going to fix your life. That's exactly the source of damnation. Those who love riches will not enter the kingdom of God. It's exactly the opposite. Jesus said, what does it profit a person to earn the whole world? I was once idle, and I asked Google or ChatGPT, I don't know who I asked, what's the wealth of the world, the known wealth of the world? In one year, about $100 trillion. We don't even know how to count that. The US are 25% of that. A hundred trillion dollars. You live 80 years, so you make 80 quadrillion dollars. Jesus says if you win all of that and you lose your soul, you lost it all. That's the flaw, the fatal hell damning flaw of the prosperity gospel. Nothing to do with a view of finances according to scripture. And then, finally, leave a legacy for the gospel too. And I'm going to say it because I think I also have the Spirit of God. When you die, you have something to leave. Count for the kingdom. Let your money continue to be used for the purposes of God. If I didn't have children and grandchildren, I'd rather leave money for the cause of the gospel than for some far and estranged cousin or blood relative or whatever that I don't even know and have not dealings with. Rather leave it for the spreading of the cause of Christ. So leave a legacy for God's purposes. Why? Because generosity is part and parcel of the gospel message. What is Matthew 25 about? That in the last day, Jesus will split people right and left. And to some he will say, blessed are you, blessed are my father, because you helped me. You fed me when I was hungry. You gave me a drink when I was thirsty. You covered me when I was naked. You visited me in prison. You visited me in the hospital. And they will say, Lord, when did we see you? First time I see you, what are you talking about? Oh, you did it to one of those little ones who believe in me. And the other side will exactly have the same statement. You did not feed me. You did not visit me. You did not cover me. You did not provide for me. But when did we do it? You didn't do it for any of those who believe in me either. You lived for yourself. Your wallet and your money and your resources and your assets were for you to spend it in your pleasures. You didn't know me. That's the gospel. Sharing is the law of Christ in our hearts. Ephesians 4 says, you used to be a thief, no longer be a thief. Okay, awesome. No, but wait. Now work with your own hands diligently. Oh yes, to have money legitimately. No, that you may have to share with those in need. That's the gospel. Sharing with the poor. Paul was told, do not forget the poor. And Paul said, I made sure that I didn't forget them. Contentment liberates us, somebody has written, from the slavery of accumulation, because it is never enough. Do you know what is the measure, according to J.P. Morton or to Schwab, of richness? If you have 2.5 million dollars in assets or net worth, then you feel rich. Really, 2.5 million dollars. That's a boku load of money. Huge load of money. And that's when you start being rich. Really, to be rich, you have to be in the 50, 100 million dollars. Oh, really? Well, contentment liberates us from that slavery. And it frees us for service, mercy, and witness. That's one thing that is not paradigmatic, but I love about Cornerstone. The money is supposed to be used for the kingdom, for the poor, for helping others, for missions. It's not for storing it. It's for sharing it for the cause of Christ. Are we doomed to be little but wealthy as a church? Well, let's make sure we are wealthy in good works, in spreading the gospel, in promoting the cause of Christ. Why? Because Jesus is the pattern. 2 Corinthians 8, 9. How do we give? How much do we give? Paul says, oh, that's easy. You give like Jesus. Oh, he gave 10%? No. Being rich. He made himself to be poor. that in his poverty we might become rich. Being in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to hold on to, but emptied himself, divested himself of his honor, of his attributes, even of his visible glory, not of his deity. And He did it that we may be saved. May God help us to have a biblical view of money. May we handle money God's way. Father, bless Your Word. Help us, Father, in this key area to show the Gospel, to sample the Gospel, to live the Gospel, May we do it for your glory and for the cause of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.