Ladies and gentlemen, we have made it. It's day 25, scripture number 25, and we begin our journey through today's scripture starting now. so you Good morning, everyone! It is Thursday, July the 7th, 2022. It is currently 1110 a.m. Central Time, and this is another episode in our series, 30 Scriptures in 30 Days, and today we arrive at scripture number 25, Day number 25 and I hope that this will prove to be somewhat beneficial. I can only hope because to be honest, every time we do one of these episodes, if you've been listening, you know, I really don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to occur because the whole goal is to do this in real time with no prep before, which is probably an unwise decision, but some people I think have, have, I've heard from a few people I think who understand what I'm trying to do. And I think they kind of appreciate trying to see the kind of the hermeneutical principles happening in real time, not just the result of someone taking hermeneutical principles and using them in their study and then bringing you the completed study, but listening to someone trying to use every hermeneutical concept they know in real time, trying to figure out, what do we do with this passage of Scripture? So, I think some people get that. I don't, I don't, some people, either they didn't get it, or they don't, they don't care to get it, or they don't appreciate it. But either way, this is the decision I made, and so I have made it all the way here to Day 25. But before we start, I have to ask a question. How are you doing today? How are you doing spiritually today? That's becoming a question that I am asking more and more in different podcast episodes, and I think it's something I'm going to continue to do. Because I think every day we just have to stop and ask ourselves, how are we doing spiritually today? And so I'm going to be very transparent. Is that okay if I'm very transparent, if I'm just very, just upfront? I mean, I know it doesn't benefit me any, but I'm just going to be upfront. Today, at least in one aspect, I don't feel like I'm doing very good today spiritually. I don't think I am. And here's the reason why. I woke up, got ready, had breakfast, and then I kind of just wandered around going, okay, I know what I need to do, right? I know I need to, I need to, well, do some recordings. I need to do my morning devotional. I need, maybe I need to listen to a sermon. I started thinking of the things that I need to do because you know, or most of you know, that I try. I don't always succeed, but this is my goal is to try to have a morning devotional time, an afternoon, early evening, and late night. Now, when I say devotional time, I'm not talking about extensive Bible study, but at least four times a day to get some kind of spiritual food, something. just for whatever amount of time that I have just to do something. And I basically do that like I consider physical food, right? I eat at least three times a day, right? Sometimes, I mean, but I mean, most people eat at least three times a day, correct? You usually have a snack in there. So about four times a day, you probably are bringing in some kind of physical food for physical nourishment. Well, I think then we need the same amount of spiritual nourishment. But just as there are times in your life that you just don't, you know, hey, are you gonna have lunch today? Oh, I'm not very hungry, right? Have you ever done that physically? I'm just, I'm not very hungry. Oh, I'm not gonna eat right now. Whatever the reason, you just don't. And while sometimes spiritually, I find myself just, I'm not in the mood to eat spiritually. I'm like, I just, I don't really, I don't feel that, desire. Now, typically in my life, and I'm thankful to God, that I usually have a desire to open up the Bible, to read, to do something. But there are times I just don't feel like it. And when I don't feel like it, it always bothers me. And what I've tried to learn over my life as a Christian is when I don't feel like it, it's probably a good indicator that I need to make myself make myself sit down with a Bible and do something spiritually. Do something. Now, I know what someone is going to say, well, that's just kind of legalistic. Well, I'm not trying to look at it from a legalistic perspective. What I'm trying to do is like, okay, I don't feel like it, but I know I need it. So I may not get the most out of it, but it just maintains that discipline. And I'm not doing it like, oh, my salvation depends upon it because my salvation is based, it depends on the imputed righteousness of Christ. But I know that I have to maintain constant time in God's word. This is the spiritual food. This is what sustains me. This is what helps me grow. I need it. And sometimes I don't feel like it, but I need to do so. So I'm gonna be honest with you. I did not want to come up here and spend any time in front of a microphone trying to do, well, quote-unquote, a devotional time, a devotional study, and spend some time in God's Word. I didn't really feel like it. So what I did is I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna, I'm gonna make myself go upstairs to where I have all of my Bibles, books, notebooks, I have everything here, and I'm just gonna sit. Even if I don't do it, I'm just going to sit right there. And then I started sitting here and then I started like, you know what? Okay. Okay. Okay. You know, all right. I'm good. I'm going to, you know what? I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. So I hope that my attempt, and I'm just going to be honest, this episode is really not about you. It's about me. This is about forcing myself to sit down and spend some time in God's Word. Now, I don't know what benefit I'm going to gain from this because, again, I don't know what's getting ready to happen because we never know in these episodes, but I do know this, that whether I feel that it was beneficial or whether I feel like it wasn't beneficial, I know that I'm about to spend at least 30 minutes, maybe 40 minutes, maybe even an hour talking about the Word of God, reading the Word of God, and considering the Word of God. So whatever I may feel in regards to its benefit, at least I am spending time in God's word, which is always beneficial, whether I feel it or not. Right. Someone out there has to relate someone out there. I hope when they hear this, you're like, you know what? I can relate. There's times I don't feel like it. I'm like, I think we're all, we're all there. So I hope that you can relate to that and maybe you'll find some, some benefit from it, but are you ready? All right, let's review quick. Let's just remind everyone of what we are doing. Many years ago, Charles Stanley wrote a book called 30 Life Principles. That book became a Bible. The Life Principles Bible. It became a study guide. I came across the books, not the Bible, I came across the books in the study guide many years ago, and from the very beginning I've always been conflicted and confused. Charles Stanley gives us 30 principles. He gives us 30 passages of scripture in which these principles supposedly were taken from. Time and time again, when I would read the book and try to figure it out, to me, the scriptures didn't really support the principles. And in some cases, the scriptures actually contradicted the principles that Charles Stanley was claiming supported the principles or the scripture that supposedly gave the principle contradicted the principle that was given by Charles Stanley. It was always confusing. It always felt like the books were like opening a new puzzle. You open the box and after about an hour, you were like, none of these pieces fit together. They don't fit. Well, I've always felt the same way, but I'm always bothered when I'm like, okay, I bought a book. I've got to get something out of the book. To me, if I buy a book, and I'm not one of those people who just buy books and put them on a shelf and they've only read half of it. I've got to read all of it and I've got to get something from it, right? I either have to have a notebook full of notes. I've done some teaching from it. I've got to get something from the book because I see that book as an investment of money and I want a return in my investment. So I'm like, okay, I've got to get something from these books. It's been years. So that's how this principle, that's how this podcast series kind of started is my attempt to get something out of these books and try to benefit other people. So what we're doing is we're taking the principle. I'm giving you the principle that Charles Stanley gave. and then kind of setting it aside and say, let's just look at the scripture and see what principle we can find in the scripture by using whatever hermeneutical concepts that we can come up with to properly interpret it and find a principle from within it. If we don't find a principle, then we just leave it alone. So far, again, today is day 25, we've come up with 40 principles. Day 25, 40 principles. So we've come up with a lot. It's been at times fun. Some of these have gone really, been very difficult. Some people have found it very fun and entertaining to listen to me look at the scripture and go, oh, what? Because it's real time and I'm sitting there going, I don't know what to do. So are you ready? All right, here we go. Day 25, scripture number 25. According to the book, 30 Life Principles by Charles Stanley, the principle for today is, God blesses us so that we might bless others. God blesses us so that we might bless others. Now, before we do anything else, I need you to hear what I'm about to say, because I think this is not a principle I'm going to write down because it doesn't come from Scripture, but this is just a very important principle when listening to sermons or reading Christian books. All right? I want you to hear me out here. Sometimes you're a pastor. Sometimes you're a pastor. Sometimes a Christian book will give you a great spiritually sounding principle. It may actually even be a good principle. And then they will give you a scripture from which that principle supposedly has taken from or is derived from. But if you ever notice that the scripture does not actually support the principle, I don't care how good the principle sounds. I don't care how amazing you think it is. At least, you know, you need to, you need to say timeout and you need to step back. And even in what you may want to do is go, okay. The principle is good, but it doesn't come from that scripture in any way, shape, or form. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take this principle and I'm going to spend 30 minutes an hour meditating on it and trying to find other scripture that may actually support it. Just because your pastor gives you a great principle, if he connects it to a verse that doesn't actually give you that principle, that's not a good thing. That's a mishandling. That's not a right. That's a wrong dividing of God's word. That is a misinterpretation of God's word. Now it may, it won't be considered scandalous and nobody's going to get upset about it because we're like, well, the principle was good. Yeah. I don't care how good the principle was. Our job is to ensure that we handle scriptures correctly. Right? So, now, you may be asking, so what do I do? I don't think you make the biggest deal and throw a fit, obviously, and obviously you don't say anything to anyone else because that's just disrespectful. You just may want to call your pastor and say, hey pastor, I really appreciate that principle you gave this morning, but I just don't see it in that scripture. So can you help me see it? Can you help me?" Now, maybe he'll explain it and you'll still disagree and you'll just have to be, okay, well, thank you for your time. And sometimes that's all you can do and just move on. But at least, even after the phone call, you may say, okay, I still don't think that scripture supports that principle. So then you may spend some time doing some serious Bible searching to see if you can come up with a scripture that you think better gives that principle. Now, the reason I'm talking about this right now is because of this, all right? Here's the reason I'm bringing it up. That sounds good, this principle, doesn't it? God blesses us so that we might bless others. That sounds really good. God blesses us so that we might bless others. That sounds great. That sounds awesome, right? I mean, who can really disagree with that? God blesses you so that you can bless other people. That sounds great. Right? Now, we could raise some questions and we could do a lot there, but I'm just saying it may sound good. Now, the question is, it's not how good the principle sounds. The question isn't even how true the principle is. The question is, can that principle be found in the passage that he gives us for today? Scripture number 25 is Ephesians chapter four, verse 28. Ephesians chapter four, verse 28. Here we go. Ephesians 420, I'm trying not to laugh, but I'm just, I'm looking at this, and as soon as I saw that it was Ephesians 428, my mind immediately, I mean, this is one of those passages I know pretty well, so I didn't even have to look this one up. I was like, okay, is this going to work? Maybe it's going to work. You tell me, here we go, Ephesians 4, 28. Let him that stole still no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the things which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth. Okay, this actually works, okay. I thought it wasn't going to work, but I was a little bit worried, because I knew this was the verse that tells you not to steal, and so I was like, this is not going to work. Okay, this actually works much better than I thought. This may actually be a situation where, in this case, The principle sounds good and the scripture offered actually supports it. That's pretty awesome. At this point, by the time we've gotten to day 25, I've become very skeptical. So as soon as I saw Ephesians 4, 28, I was like, no, that's the don't steal passage. What is that? But obviously I'd forgotten the rest of it. So here we go. Ephesians 4.28. See? Doing this in real time. It has its disadvantages. Here we go. So let's look at this again. I like this, so I think we can do something with this. Let him that stole still no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the things which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. You work so you can obtain so that you can give. You work so you can obtain so that you can give. Hmm. wonder how prevalent that concept really is. Now, he places it in the concept that God blesses us so that we might bless others. He uses that kind of language. To me, the text just says, you work so that you can obtain, so that you can give. Work, obtain, give. Do you feel that? Do you sense that? Or do you, do you see that as not being a correct? Well, I mean, the passages, I mean, I don't think there can be any argument about the passage. I mean, it's, I mean, it's, it's very simple. It's very straightforward. There's nothing before it or after it. That's going to destroy the concept here. Let him that stole still no more. So don't still work. I think, I think we can break it down this way. Don't still work, obtain and give. It's pretty straightforward. Let him that stole still no more, so don't steal. Rather let him labor, working with his hands, there's work, that which is good, that you may give to him that needeth. So you don't, you stop stealing, you work, you obtain, and you give. I don't know. Is it just me or do you feel any conviction at all? Do you feel any conviction at all? I do. I have worked. a lot in my life. I started my first jobs way early, way early in life because in the little small town in Texas, they didn't really care how old you were or if you were allowed to work. If they couldn't officially hire you in an official capacity, they basically just paid you under the table in a sense. In other words, they just didn't put it on the record. They just paid you cash and you can make some money. So I did all kinds of things starting young. I used to, I had a bicycle with a rope and I tied my lawnmower to the back of the bicycle and drove around town saying, whose yard can I mow? And I would cut grass and try to earn money that way. I did that a lot when I was little. I worked cleaning the barbecue barn in Buffalo Gap, Texas at about 5.30 in the morning before school to earn money. Again, I was really little. I was young and I would just walk there in the morning and mop the floors, take out the trash, do all that. It was kind of like, again, that's kind of paid me cash. I did all, I washed dishes at Deutschlander Garden in Buffalo Gap. I did, you name it. I was working very early on in life to earn money. But I obviously did not perceive it as earn money so that I can give. I earned money so that I could spend on me. It was a very self-centered approach. Now at that time, obviously I wasn't even a believer, but it was very self-centered. And then when I became a believer, I can't say that my view of work dramatically changed. I think at first, it didn't really change too much. Over time, my view of work really became more about, okay, My job is to glorify God in how I do my work, so I'm going to make sure that I do my work right, try to do it the best of my ability, and then, of course, when basically my lifelong career was working in the medical world, what can I do to assist patients? What can I do to help patients? I'm going to work, and I'm going to judge my success and how did the patient get what they needed? Were they taken care of? where they treated with respect. It was more about, you know, patient care. Taking care of the patient was my focus. I tried to look at work more as my, it was my job to be glorifying God. I don't think I ever really perceived it. Well, okay, yes, I work to glorify God so that I can obtain, so that I can give. I think it was more like I work to glorify God, I get, and then I use that money for me. The focus is on me, my family. Now, I'm not saying that we should not obviously be concerned about our family and our needs. Obviously, you've got to pay the bills. Obviously, you've got to take care of your family. That's very biblical as well. But this throws in a whole new dimension. Don't steal, work, obtain, give. Don't steal, work, obtain, give. I'm going to write this down as a principle here for us. I'm going to write this down as a principle. I think I'm still going to take this maybe in a different direction. He sees this more in line of God blessing the text. Again, the principle sounds good. God blesses us so that we might bless others. There's a good principle in this, but just remember, we have to look at this. The verse that he is using to support the concept doesn't mention anything about God's blessing. And you say, well, when you get something from work, it is God's blessing. I'm not saying it's not. I'm just saying the verse doesn't mention God's blessing in any way, shape, or form. The verse seems to be focusing on contrasting stealing with working and obtaining with giving. That seems to be the focus here. Don't steal work. Get to give. And it seems to be, I think if you turn it into a complete circle, don't steal. You work and obtain so that you can give others that they're not, so they don't steal. Would that be a complete circle? Would that be the complete circle? Don't steal, work, get to obtain, or work, get, work to obtain, give, and then do we draw it right back so they don't steal? Now, this concept, I think, would be very foreign to the minds of many people because many people feel like, no, no, no, no. It's my hard-earned money. I work. You go work and get your own money. That's very much a part of many minds of conservative Christians is, no, no, no. It's my hard-earned money. You go work. You go get. And if you don't have, there's no excuse for stealing. You can, I'm not saying there's any excuse for stealing because it's condemned, but I'm saying this verse, it's just weird. It starts with don't steal. Then it moves to work. Clearly the implication is you're going to get something. And then you're called to give it to those who need, which would seem to then break the cycle of needing to steal. Now you can say, well, some people are just lazy. The text doesn't talk about whether the person is lazy or not lazy. It says you give to those who need. All right. I'm going to put number 41 here. This would be principle number 41. I'm just going to write it this way. Don't steal. Don't steal. Work. Work. Obtain. Give. Don't steal, work, obtain, give. Now, if you want to flesh that principle out and probably write it in a way that actually makes more sense, I just like breaking it down to its most simplistic elements. Don't steal, work, obtain, give. Now, Stanley wants to connect this to blessing, but I just, I'm gonna, if I look here, where is the, I'm gonna start in chapter four, okay? I'm gonna go to verse one, all right? I just have to do this. I'm gonna look at verse one. The word blessing does not appear in verse one. Verse two, the word blessing doesn't appear in verse two, doesn't appear in verse three, verse four, verse five, verse six. Verse 7, verse 8, verse 9, verse 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. I don't think it appears anywhere in this chapter. So the word blessing does not even appear in the entire chapter. Now I understand, he's presupposing the idea that work is a blessing, to get is a blessing. I understand that. I just, I'm very, very, very particular about trying to be very specific with the text. So I think life principle number 25 really is more, according to him, if I was writing it, would be more just about this, I think there's something going on here that's interesting. If you look at, it's kind of interesting, verse 27 is you don't give place to the devil, you don't steal, you work, you obtain, and you give. And you're giving to someone who's needy, who could be tempted to steal. When it comes to your work, let's state it this way. When it comes to your work and when it comes to what you obtain, do you truly see what you obtain as simply that which you are called to give? Or do you see that as what you are to keep to provide financial security or to do all the things you want to do? That is, that is interesting. I'm looking here. Yeah, that he. I'm trying to see which way they're trying to go here. We could go through all this. I'm actually not gonna go through everything they have to say here. We may bring it, we may come back to it in a separate podcast. I'm just really struggling with this concept of, or at least I'm convicted by this idea of changing my mentality that what I get is really designed for me to give. How much am I motivated? I will ask this question, or I'm gonna ask two questions, and this comes from the study guide for 30 Life Principles. Does your love for God motivate you to serve others, and does your relationship with him inspire you to comfort other people just as he has done for you? Does your love for God motivate you to serve others? Does your obtaining motivate you to give, or does your obtaining motivate you to become, I mean, the more you obtain, do you become more self-serving, or do you become more other-serving? Based on what you obtain on a regular, consistent basis, Do you feel like, and I don't want to break this down into a very legalistic way, but I want you to at least consider this. If you take the, if you take a percentage or I mean, let's think, yeah, let's do that. If you take how much you obtain, how much you bring in, what percentage of that do you give to others? And does that reflect an attitude that you see work as an opportunity to get so that you can give, or what's the greatest percentage, what you give or what you keep? Now, of course, we have to, by no means, I'm gonna say what you give until you can't take care of yourself, because then that would just lead to someone have to take care of you. Obviously, we understand, and we know that most of the percentage is always gonna be spent on us because it requires a lot to live, right? insurance, you know, electricity, water, you know, car, car insurance, gasoline, food. Okay, we understand most of our money is always going to go to us. It's just no way around that. Or we're going to be the one in need and then someone would have to try to give to us. So clearly we understand that. But what do you think should be a percentage of giving What do you think that percentage should be? And I'm not trying to, I'm not even getting into tithing or any of those controversies. I'm just thinking like, what can we do? How can we demonstrate that we see work differently than the world? The world sees work as an opportunity to get so that they can have, so that they can spend, so that they, we should see work as an opportunity to get so that we can give. Here's a question. What is the percentage that your church gives And I've been asking this question a lot. If you consider the average church and all the money that comes in, look at how much money goes to maintaining the building, paying salaries, maybe for all of its events, how much of that money actually goes to, and I think giving to others would include ministry, how much of the money that comes into a church goes to giving ministry to other people? How much ministry is produced by the money that comes in, what percentage of the money that comes in actually goes to meaningful ministry, teaching, discipleship, actual teaching, and how much goes to actually helping people in need? I don't have a good answer there either. Don't steal. work, obtain, give. Now, the principle here is about blessing and that we can bless others. Okay. The text here doesn't, that's not the direction I'm gonna go. I'm just gonna read this again. Let him that stole still no more. Rather let him labor, working with his hands the things which is good that he may have, there's the have, there's the obtaining part, to give to him that needeth. This is not one of those that requires great hermeneutical skill. This is the kind of passage that requires great honesty with ourselves. So I'm just gonna leave you with this today. This one we're gonna end shortly, in a short way, but that's okay. Sometimes it's better to know when to stop than to keep going. I can't worry about, well, it's too short. No, it doesn't matter how short it is, it matters right there. But I'm still going to go back, so I'm going to circle back to my beginning questions, because I think this is important. Not my first questions, but kind of the point that I was trying to make at the beginning. Always remember, when you hear a great-sounding principle in church or in a book, you got to look at the scripture and you go, does it really support that principle? There's a connection here between this principle and this passage. The problem is it's worded in a way that it's not using the scriptural language. I like to, when I make a point in my sermon or even when I do outlines, I like to use the language of the scripture. I like to stay with that. This passage doesn't seem to be emphasizing blessing as much as it's emphasizing Don't steal, work, get, and give. That's literally the verbiage there. So this one is far more connected than others. I can see it. I would just stick with the language here. But here's what I really want to leave us with. This is very important. When it comes to working and obtaining, Do you truly see it as a responsibility to give? I'm not gonna say as an opportunity. Do you see your work and what you obtain as a responsibility to give? That you are called to work, obtain so that you can give. Do you truly see that? And I will say this. We can give... Now listen to what I'm about to say here. I think this is important. We can give... to help people's spiritual needs. Everyone is needy spiritually, but when we see needy, I think we need to understand that there's two kinds of need or two kinds of neediness. When you look at the world, there is the spiritual neediness of people. They need to hear the Word of God, they need to be taught the Word of God, and they need discipleship. That is a need, right? The church is called to go preach evangelism, baptize, and then discipleship. Now, I'm not saying lost people are going to understand that need, but that is a need. So money given to support that need I think is acceptable and is important. The world will not see that. They'll be like, you spend all of this money and there's people hungry. They don't understand money spent for ministry. They see it as a waste. And I understand that. But as a Christian, we see things from a spiritual perspective. The greatest need anyone has is the gospel and discipleship and to grow as a Christian. That is the greatest need. Your spiritual need is the greatest need, but there are physical needs. that need to be met and cannot be ignored. No one should ignore those. But giving to help with the spiritual need and giving to help with a physical need, both are important. It's sad though, I think for many in the church, and I think sometimes the more conservative the church, the more we have a kind of a mentality that we like, well, you know, I'm not giving to that lazy person. That person can work themselves. It's almost we have a very unbiblical approach to the neediness of people. But at the same time, I think there is a lot of being kind of skeptical and jaded towards it. I'll give you an example. Right? See, if I leave my, if I get in my, back out of my driveway and I leave the housing development that I live in, I go down what's almost two blocks to get out of the housing development. I think it's about two blocks. I get to the stop sign. I turn a left. Soon as I turn left, or I could go right, but if I turn left, I'll, I go just, just a few feet and there's an intersection there, right? There's a traffic light. Okay. And there's an overpass like right there. There was an overpass highway 83 and 84 goes right right over the street that I'm on. I can turn right at the light and get up on Highway 83 and 84, that takes me to the church. I can go under the underpass and take a left, get on the on-ramp, that'll get me on Highway 83 and 84 to go into Abilene, Texas. Or I can go under the underpass and there's a convenience store or there's a coffee shop, but right there next to the overpass, I bet you right now, there's a person sitting in a wheelchair right there. Supposedly homeless. He used to hold up a sign saying he was homeless. Well, the news investigated found that that's a lie. He's not homeless. He's not homeless in any way, shape, or form. He lives in a house, all right? But he's always there, probably 14 to 16 hours a day, asking for money. Now, there's, at first, there was, When the news kind of exposed, hey, you're not really homeless and it kind of got ugly here in the local area. And I was very frustrated by it and very upset because there's nothing that bothers me worse than someone doing that because then people who really have a need are viewed as with skepticism and you're not wanting to help, because I have a tendency when I see that, I'm just going to be honest with you, I have a tendency when I see that, is to go, no, you know, look, I work, okay, you go get a job, right, you, and there's a part of me that doesn't, and I know it's not biblical, but I'm just being honest with you, there's a part of me that says, no, Because there's too many of these stories that you hear of people ripping people off. So it just makes you immediately skeptical of everyone you see. Everyone you see who has a need, you're like, whatever. Okay, look, I'm going to work. How about you go to work, right? And I know that's the wrong way of thinking, but it's true. But in this particular case, the guy is not homeless. So that already ticked everyone off. But here's what happens. If you watch in the morning, because I paid attention because I wanted to see exactly how this whole thing was going down, someone pulls up in a pickup truck. The wheelchair is in the back. The guy is sitting in the passenger seat. He gets out, they grab the wheelchair, he sits down in the wheelchair, and the person drives off. The person comes back in the evening, about eight o'clock at night, in the summer, nine o'clock, I mean, about eight o'clock at night. So he's there all day, well over 12 hours, in 104, 105 degree heat. Then they pick him up, they grab the wheelchair, put in the back of the truck, and he leaves. Clearly, he's, and the news media has determined that he lives in a house. He lives with this person who picks him up. Now, there was – now I view it – I try to view it a little bit different. I feel now that the person is – I think he's – there's something not correct there. There's some kind of handicap going on. I think the people he lives with are taking advantage of him and he's being put out there on the street corner to bring in who knows how much money. To help support whoever is putting him out there. I think something really not good is going on. It's really messed up. But just because there was initial investigation because this guy had been seen all over town at different places until now. This is basically where he stays all the time because I guess he's found this place to be able to make the most money. It's just really. Once that initial thing happened, once again, people were like, see, someone asked for money, they don't deserve anything. And I understand that. And our church, and even though we're located in the middle of nowhere, we are literally, I mean, you can't get much more in the middle of nowhere than where our church is located. It is absolutely astonishing to me how many times over the years someone walks in and you're like, if your first thought is, oh, a visitor, but you can almost just look at the situation and know, I know what's about to happen. I know what's about to happen. And almost sometimes before church even starts, they come up to you and go, hey, are you the pastor? I need to talk to you. Hey, I need, and then they start, I need this bill paid. I need this bill paid. I need this bill paid. I need this. I need that. And they always have some elaborate story. Now, most of the time, We'll put it this way. I think there was one time it got ugly and the cops got called because we were like, well, so what do you need paid? No, I need cash. And I'm sitting there going, there is no cash here, okay? Do you see this little church? I don't even get a salary. There's no cash, okay? I have no cash. Look, go back, look in the offering plate. And the cops got called and it was just a, it was all big ordeal. Whole thing was just bad. But in most cases, what we attempt to do is we grab their name, We grab a phone number and an address. We ask what bill they need to be paid. And then we contact like the electric company and then we pay the bill. That's what we do. We won't, we don't, we don't, not gonna hand them cash. So in that case, we try to be careful, but we try to help, right? We've paid, see, we've paid rent. We paid rent, we paid cash. We are, I'm sorry, we paid rent, we paid electric bill. We've done, we've done a number of things. Now, there are some cases where We discovered we're being completely ripped off. This person kept coming to our church, and every time they came in, they acted like they'd never been there before. Like, they didn't—like, it was really weird. And they're like, I need this. And we're like, well, wait, last time you said your name was this. And, well, they were giving different names because what they were doing is having us pay bills for different people. Now, the first couple of times, you almost wanted to look at the person going, you were here before. But we let it slip a couple of times. And then finally, we had to call him out and say, you've been here four times and you've given us four different names. So once they realized how we did it, they just show up with a different name, a different address, and we were paying different bills. And at some point we realized we can't pay all the bills for all your friends. Do you not see our building? Do you not? But so we would get ripped off. So once again, you get very frustrated and go, you know what? I'm tired of this. You work, you earn your own money. That's how you start feeling. That's bad when that happens to us. All right? It's bad when they try to rip you off, but it's bad when the people of God start thinking, you know what? I work, my money, you go figure it out. When we've got a passage right here in Ephesians that seems to indicate that my attitude should be, I don't steal, so I work, so I can obtain, so that I give. So I guess what I'm trying to say is our first giving needs to give in a way that supports ministry so that people's spiritual needs can be met. and our second giving needs to give to the needy but we should at least be we should never a lot become so jaded that we don't want to but at the same time we clearly have to think of ways where we're not being ripped off and when we because and i will never forget i think uh I can't remember how it worked, but I think one of the bills we paid when we contacted the electric company, they were like, you know, hey, you guys know you're just getting ripped off here, that this is the go-to gimmick for these people. And you're like, don't tell me that. So, you know, we went ahead and paid the bill, but it's just sad when you're kind of being told, you know, you're being played. Like, I don't want to be played. I want to help people. So, and it, which makes you jaded where then if you're not careful, you will not, then you'll be not compassionate to someone who has a real need. It is such a weird world to try to, I never, they don't prepare you for that in Bible college or seminary. Hey, here's what's going to happen. You're going to be getting ready to preach and someone's going to walk in and say, I need $50. I need a hundred dollars. and you need $500. That wouldn't make sense if my church was in an actual town, but we're literally in the middle of nowhere. I'm like, what happened? It was crazy. I'll just give you one more example of this. How, I don't know, it was, I think it was last summer. It may have been last summer. Someone comes walking in like at almost the end of the sermon. And a lot of times they'll do that too. They don't want to be there for the whole sermon, so they'll come in like at the end of the sermon, which is just crazy. Okay, but. They come in and the guy just sits there and then, you know, you're like, okay, what's going on? You know, something's up, something just doesn't make sense. So you walk over and he's like, hey, you know, uh, I'm so-and-so. I'm like, okay, well, my, you know, I'm pastor so-and-so. Okay. And you, you get the introductions out of the way. And then he pulls up like a bank bag, pulls up a bank, like he pulls out a bank bag and it's filled with bills, all these different bills. And he's like, I need someone to, and literally how he said, I need someone to pay this bill. So I look at it, I'm like, okay, well, obviously I can't pay it right now. So I took a picture of the bill and I'm like, okay, well, we'll see what we can do. And he, and he just got up and walked out and like, didn't even say thank you. And I'm like, what in the world? So I went home and I looked at the bill and I'm like, wait a minute, that's not the name of the person who said anything. And this is, this is like paying some kind of rent for a place in San Antonio, Texas, how in the world, why is the person in Ovalo, Texas, who wanted me to pay bills for someone in San Antonio, Texas, which is like four hours away, like what's going on? Then I tried to call the number, and when I called the number on the supposed bill, it didn't like, it wasn't answered by like a business, it was answered just by a person. Well, I wasn't gonna give them the debit card information, the whole thing was just like so, so suspicious. It wasn't, I mean, you don't even know how crazy the whole thing was. And I'm like, and once again, then I start getting jaded. Like, you know what? I'm tired of you people ripping us off. We're, we're in the middle of nowhere. We're a small church. Can't you look around and see that we probably need money? Can't you look and see? And sometimes you get frustrated and you're like, and then I get mad and then I feel justified and then I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. And then I read a text today that says, no, no, no, no, you don't steal, you work, you obtain so that you can give to those that need. It's so frustrating. To me, this is just, and I know this is kind of going beyond, well, I'm just bringing up every issue that comes to mind here, because that's the goal here, right? To just work through these concepts. This is my own theory, and you may agree or disagree, right? But this is the way I think it works. When the people of the church give to the church, then you have the combined resources. And then if the people of the church are sensitive and looking out for people who have a need, like people they work with, neighbors they have, they know someone, they know the specific situation. So now the people give to the church, now you have combined resources. Now, if you want those people to be trained to be like almost, you know, spider senses, you know, you want them looking out there going, oh, oh, oh, oh, they hear about someone who this has happened, or they can't pay their bill, they can't, this, their water heater just exploded, whatever the case may be, and you're like, didn't they come to you and say, hey, so and so needs this, and then the church, with the combined resources, say, okay, well, here's what we'll give this to you, or you give us the information, we'll do whatever needs to be done. And you can do so in a way where you know it's going directly to a need for something that is real. That, to me, is the best course of action. Now, every individual Christian could try to give, but then that You can do more with the combined resources of a church. I think that's one of the reasons the church works so good, is because you have combined resources. So then everyone's out there going, okay, there's a need here. Or not only that, you can help the need of the people in your church always be willing to do that. But then the people of the church can be sensitive to the needs around them and say, hey, so-and-so, this just happened. Okay, you know the situation. It's legitimate, hopefully you can trust your church members, and then you help the person out. That, to me, works better. But I think it becomes so easy that we work to get so that we can get, but we're to work to get so that we can give. but we become jaded in our giving because there's so much dishonesty and scams and people trying to rip you off. Am I the only one who feels this way? I don't know. Maybe I'm it. Maybe I'm the only one, okay? But I think that this is a real thing because I know, you know, I have my wallet right here. I have some money in it. I have a little bit of money. I know that I want the money for things I want or things that I need. If I know right now there's someone, again, I'll give the examples of how I've struggled with this even when I was in the work world. I'd be at work and I'd be like, man, can't wait for lunch, man, I'm starving. And it's one of those days where I'm going to have to eat out somewhere. And then I'd hear someone, man, I don't have any money for lunch today. Okay, here you go, and just give them my money. I'm not saying that because I was spiritual, because in many cases I wasn't spiritual, I just felt like that I needed to do that. But that's sacrifice, right? Because now I'm giving what I wanted for myself. We work to obtain so that we can give to those who need. I'm not saying that means you have to starve yourself. I'm just saying that there are situations where that's the way it works. There's a real need, I know it's legitimate need, so I can help that person out. That has to be more of a mentality. And I wonder if the church has lost that, that we've lost it in some way, that we now see work as an opportunity to obtain, not as a responsibility to give. Do you see work as an opportunity to get, or do you see work as an, a responsibility to give? I'm going to write that one down. I'm going to write that one down. I'm going to write this. I'm going to write this down in a different way though. All right. Number 42. So if I keep talking these through like more ideas come to my mind, we must see work as a responsibility to give of that which we obtain and not see work as just an opportunity to get. I think that's pretty good. We must see work as a responsibility to give of that which we obtain and not see work as just an opportunity to get. We must see work as a responsibility to give of that which we obtain and not see work as just an opportunity to get. I don't know if I, oh, I've always seen it that way. Like I said, my first changes about my attitude about work as a Christian was more just, okay, I do so to glorify God. and do so to glorify God, right? Trying to have a, what I would call, I tried to understand the concept of a biblical work ethic, of trying to work and do my job right to earn the money that I received. I don't think I always did that very well, but I tried to have that. I don't think I ever really developed a sense of, I work to get so that I can give. I think I always felt that I worked to get so that I can have. so that I can get, so that I can spend. Now, I definitely understood my responsibility to take care of my family. But I think, and I think we do need to develop an attitude about, though, when we give for needs, there are spiritual needs and there are physical needs, and that there's, that we give to whatever we think will meet the most spiritual needs, and then we give, I think we need to be smart in how we give to meet physical needs so that physical needs are actually met and we're not simply, well, being ripped off. But I think we always have to side I'm going to say we shouldn't side. We shouldn't be, we shouldn't make caution. The thing we saw, we come down on the side of caution. I don't think we should focus on, on siding on the side of caution. I think we should side on the side of being compassionate and giving like, like is your first thought caution here could be ripped off or is your first thought, Oh, how can I help? How can I help? Is your first thought, I'm going to be cautious here, or is your first thought, how can I help? How can I help? How can I help? I love that concept when I worked in the medical world. My first thought should be, how can I help? How can I help? If I'm walking around the hospital and I see someone who doesn't know where they're going, Not only should I stop and say, how can I help? No matter what I need to do, I should stop what I'm doing and then take them to the clinic, to the lab, to whatever they're looking for, whatever clinic they're looking for, whatever specialty clinic, take them there. How can I help? If I see a patient, how can I help? As soon as they walk up, my job at that moment is to help them. That's my job, is to help them. whatever they may need. I like that mentality, and I think that needs to be in the mentality within a Christian. How can I assist? How can I help? What can I do? What can we give? Now, I'm not saying we never are cautious. I just think we should always side on the side of compassion and understanding that we work so that we can give. Now, will that always work out? Will that always turn out great? No, sometimes it will be messy and sometimes we'll be taken advantage of. I guess I would rather be taken advantage of than fail to help when we should have. Now, I say that now. Let me make this very clear. I say that now sitting here in my house on a, Thursday, July day, you know, a July Thursday, Thursday, July day here in Texas. It's easy saying that here in my house, but whenever I'm placed in a different situation, I may be like, Oh yeah, come on. I'm getting, yeah, whatever, whatever, you know, whatever. Okay. And you get, and you get, you just immediately call it into question. All right, we'll stop there. I'm going to check the iPad. I'm a little nervous because I got no comments. I think there's a lot of disagreement coming on this one. I think there's a lot of disagreement that's going to be happening on this one, a lot, but that's okay. All right. All right. Okay, someone said, that's very sad if you're right about that. Don't know which thing I was talking about at the time. Previous comment referring to the man being taken advantage of. Oh, yes, yes, it is very sad. The person in the wheelchair, every time we drive by now, I'm always like, man, I think that person is being... I think that person is being basically used as a slave. That's what I feel like is happening. When the news – like I said, the news media did some initial investigating only because it became such a big story because this guy was everywhere in town and people started – I think people started seeing he was being picked up. by the truck. They're more open about it now. What he used to do, what he used to do is he would take his wheelchair and he would, they would go over kind of like behind because I caught it one night. I was coming home from church and I pulled over. Whenever I park anywhere, I park as far away from the door as humanly possible. I don't know why. If I'm pulling into a shopping center, I'm nine miles away. I would rather just walk. I don't like trying to drive in and get as close to the door. It drives me crazy. I just hate that. I'm gonna pull in where there's like no cars, it's completely empty, and I'm 200 miles away. I would rather walk, okay? So when I come to the convenience store, I always park way over to the side of the building, right? Again, away from everything. Well, then I noticed, wait a minute, that's the guy in the wheelchair. And then all of a sudden I saw the truck, and so they would pick him up way over there behind the convenience store where nobody could see. And then that's where they were dropping off. Now they just come right over to where he sits and they just, because the news media kind of went away. The controversy went away there. But so every time I see it, I'm like, man, you're so that guy's getting dropped off. to work 15, 16 hours and a hundred, today is going to be 106 here in Texas. He's going to be sitting out there in that wheelchair. It's insane. So I feel horrible about the situation, but I don't, yeah, I think someone needs to check the person to see that they can truly give consent and understand what they're doing. I really feel like more needs to be done. I may have to, I do, I think I know someone who knows someone who works for one of the news channels. Maybe I can, now that I see, maybe I have a responsibility to see what I can do to try to help that person. Not so much in giving him money, because I think it's a whole scam, but maybe to get the guy help, and maybe he's being taken advantage of. So yeah, so thank you for the comment, because it now makes me think about what possibly I can do. Now after talking about what can I do, I now realize, you know, what can I do there? All right, I wasn't thinking it was gonna go an hour, because I remember at around the 30 minute mark, I said, I'm just gonna stop right there. But I started thinking about this, and there's just so many issues pertaining to work to get to give. And there's a lot that gets in the way of that in 2022. Because I think a lot of us have become jaded. I'll never forget, I'll end with this. I was with a Christian man, A Christian man, we had left the military base to go out to get something to eat for lunch, and we – I can't remember where we ate at. I don't remember. Taco Bell, wherever. We're driving back, and there's an underpass there. It's on – it's like South First. Winter's Freeway goes above it, and there's a homeless guy there, and this Christian man rolled down the window, right, when he pulled up next to the homeless man, rolled down the window, and the homeless man kind of stood up and started walking towards the truck, and he said, get a job! And then he drove off, and he laughed. And I was like, wow. That's not very Christian. The problem is I would never do that, but I would think that. So am I any better thinking it versus the person doing it? I'm not any better. Do I get things? Understanding my responsibility to give. to people's spiritual needs and to people's physical needs. You can email me, newsifatyahoo.com, newsifatyahoo.com, newsifatyahoo.com. This concludes a very weird and kind of rambling discussion about Scripture No. 25, For day 25, I apologize I took over an hour of your time, but I'm hoping something in this proves to be beneficial. Thanks for listening. Everyone have a great day. God bless. you