-Transcript-
00:36 Amen. Glory to God. Thank you for joining me.
00:40 Welcome to the cafe. Welcome to the program. So good to have you here today.
00:44 We are talking today about wealth. We’re talking about who provides wealth. We’ve been in a series here on wealth and you know I’ve mentioned earlier wealth is kind of like a bad word in the fundamental church, isn’t it?
01:02 Because the idea has been corrupted by prosperity preachers to the point where the fundamental preacher can hardly bring it up because hey you talk about wealth and there are people gonna start rolling their eyes or wonder if the plates gonna be passed around.
01:19 We don’t even, we just have a little mailbox and people can put it in if they have it and and I don’t want to take away the blessing that God gives for people giving but I understand that people have dealt with situations there. They’re difficult sometimes.
01:38 You know what is it about a prosperity preacher? Where are they wrong? Are they wrong to say that God will give wealth? I don’t think they’re wrong to say God will provide wealth.
01:49 Or are they wrong to say that faith, having faith, is key to getting wealth from God? No I mean again that’s that’s okay. Where they’re wrong is the omission of preaching against sin. Where they’re wrong is saying that you can live like you want to live and God will provide wealth and that is totally against any kind of doctrine in the Bible.
02:12 And we see that from prosperity preachers or even from modern church preachers that may not preach like a whole hey you know have faith and you’re gonna have a million dollars. They may preach more like this message is for you and you can do it and everything will be great for you if you just believe. You know it’s a similar message.
02:32 But what the modern church preacher, not all modern churches but many, what the and I’m just thinking of these like contemporary services the guy in skinny jeans and you know boots and and a shirt untucked. He’s talking about how God’s for you and he’s not against you and everything’s gonna be great and that’s it. And just believe the big omission in all of these things is sin.
02:56 And sin is something that is an aberration to God. It is awful to God. It’s a reproach to God.
03:02 A holy God can’t be around it. And sin has been with us since the beginning of time. And it was certainly with the Israelites as God was getting ready to give them wealth in the promised land.
03:14 Deuteronomy 8:18 but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he swear unto thy fathers as it is this day.
03:28 So the context of this verse Deuteronomy 8 it’s right there Deuteronomy 5 Moses gives the Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy 6 many more commandments come up the Lord is one God loving the Lord with all your heart might and soul
03:42 and how you should teach his commandments your children in the morning throughout the day in the evening and the context again is that there Israelites are in the wilderness they’ve been brought out of bondage in Egypt they were literally slaves in Egypt God got himself miraculously through Moses parts the Red Sea Amen
03:58 delivers them on dry ground wipes out Pharaoh in the armies God has just done this miraculous thing for them to deliver them from the bondage that they were in just as when we believe in Christ and and His shedding of blood for the remission of our sins we are delivered from the bondage of sin
04:18 and we are made sons and daughters of God amen we are made children of God everyone’s God’s creation but we’re not all his children Amen we have to be born again Amen
04:27 that’s what Jesus was telling Nicodemus as you go in the promised land as the Israelites are getting ready to go God’s saying I’m the one that’s gonna give you wealth don’t forget me you need to fear me you need to serve me how interesting is it that where we see these great bastions of wealth they’re very wicked and ungodly
04:45 is it not true I mean only God knows you got I guess God knows the heart and the bank account but only God knows and certainly there’s exceptions Joseph of Arimathea is an example Amen
04:57 Nicodemus being another example of people that had wealth that that were of God or serving God in that regard believing in God as I as I believe at least they believed in the Lord hey this is not impossible nothing’s impossible with God
05:12 but we also learn it’s easier for a camel camel to go through the eye of a needle and there was someone rich to to enter into heaven because they don’t believe because money is their God money is what’s solving their problems and so forth
05:25 and money is everything to them I’ve heard a preacher say that money promises all the same things God promises the difference is money is a dumb idol and God is a living God
05:34 and God here in Deuteronomy 8:18 is telling the Israelites remember me I’m the one that gives you power to get wealth now does God change he does not and so what he said then is still applicable here today
05:44 if not it wouldn’t be in His word I believe it is in His word so we can apply it to our lives that we shouldn’t forget him we should fear him because if you forget him you won’t fear Him and if you don’t fear him you won’t serve Him so we shouldn’t forget Him we should fear Him we should serve God we should keep his commands get rid of all the sin in our life you know God told the Israelites to cast out all the enemies cast out all the mixed multitude get them all out
06:09 we are to do that we’re gonna teach the next generations what God did for Israel leading them out of bondage in Egypt that’s what he told them we are to help through our testimonies people understand what God has done for us
06:24 you know sometimes I wonder why on earth I had to be so hard-headed for so long but it makes for a good testimony it also makes for good preaching it also makes for a good moment when I sit down with a young person
06:35 and say oh you’ve done this so have I let me tell you the wages of sin is death and they said well you don’t understand well I understand pretty good Amen I’m not I’m not you know I grew up in in a pretty bad environment for a very long time and I thank God that He saved me
06:52 and I’m forever grateful and the Lord has a plan for you is a plan for me and it’s a good plan he had a good plan for the Israelites even though they were the minority
07:01 He gave them victory over seven different people groups as Deuteronomy 7 tells us he’s telling them look as you go in here don’t be afraid don’t be discouraged remember what I did for you in Egypt right we need to look at yesterday to understand what God will do today and tomorrow
07:18 Israelites would just keep his commandments and believe in fear and him God would bless there be no sickness no barrenness no hunger no enemies to conquer
07:27 or take them away isn’t that God’s ability to do that if we would believe that if we would if we would take his chastening as a father that loves His son Amen
07:40 I love my son and when mom says CJ’s talking back it’s time for me to talk to him because I love him and I want him to be a good citizen and a good respectful person and not to be entitled so it’s my job to deal with it Amen
07:56 that’s a good father it’s my job to be present and be around to see what’s going on in the lives of my children is God present is He not omnipresent is He not around does He not see and so that discipline we receive from the father we should consider understanding that it is from one that loves us that desires us
08:15 look if you’re lost in this world the best thing anyone could ever do from you is bring you for you is to bring you so low that you get saved amen to break you in half so you get saved before it’s eternally too late that is the greatest love a heavenly father could give Amen
08:30 and let’s say you’re far off from Him the best thing He could do is chasing you to get you back in line Amen you don’t want to be given over to reprobate mind you don’t want to be given over to the bondage of sin you want to live for the Lord don’t forget God when all this goodness comes upon you
08:46 that’s what God was telling the Israelites here in Deuteronomy is don’t forget him because oftentimes in these rich areas in these areas where people come into the land of great resource it’s easy to forget God because it is such a sinful place
09:02 and it just seems like those things go hand in hand sin and material wealth and God will test and bring you low to build character the Israelites were tested in the wilderness and
09:14 and many of them frankly failed Amen they they didn’t believe God was going to do what he said he was going to do and they kept desiring to go back to Egypt where God had just delivered them from
09:27 and many saved or unsaved don’t believe God’s promises in his word and continue to turn to the sinful world I think of when Lot left Canaan or excuse me when Lot left Sodom
09:42 and he was told by the angels don’t turn around and his wife turned around maybe to lament maybe to maybe desired to go back and she turned to a pillar of salt that’s the picture of what we do when we go back to the world
09:55 we go back to the ways of sin after God saves us that must make him utterly frustrated and furious the godly response to testing as we go through hard times is to repent to seek understanding of how we’ve sinned against God and to turn from that sin Amen
10:11 to identify it and turn from it and do we do that on our own no we pray and by the work of the Holy Spirit we’re given discernment over the sin in our lives
10:22 and then we go to God we said Lord please help me understand this okay I understand it now Lord you put on my heart I am doing this I’m coveting okay I’m coveting I need to stop I realized when I covet I’m desiring something that you do not want to give me
10:38 and I’m saying that my needs are greater than what you understand and I’m saying that I should be in power and on and on and I hate that and I just want to be wanting nothing as the Bible says and not covet
10:50 and we so we we repent for our sin we get right with God and the Holy Spirit is not grieved amen and the Holy Spirit’s are dwelling in you and you’re doing good amen and you’re trusting God and he’s the one that provides wealth and that’s how it works great humility great obedience God rewards your faithfulness in him as I summarized in Deuteronomy 5:8
11:09 what’s the common theme believe so you don’t drift and and you’ll be rewarded for your obedience through faith what stopped the Israelites from believing it stops many today from believing in God and having faithfulness in God it’s sin is it not it’s sin it’s sin it’s the gossip and the murmuring and yes that’s a sin Amen
11:33 again the coveting the desiring of things that God doesn’t want you to have because God knows what’s best for you or maybe God wants you to have it later on or whatever it is it’s sin it’s the devil what does the devil do he’ll distract
11:43 and he’ll rear pride up you know the Bible talks about the devil being fallen out of heaven because he was proud he desired to have that praise like God had he wanted to be above God and that pride still is in us today in the sinful flesh we still deal with pride where we don’t want to turn to God
12:03 and certainly there were Israelites there that older generation that didn’t want to turn to God in the wilderness and so they died in the wilderness Amen they didn’t believe unbelief is the worst sin in the world so if we just would believe and be obedient remember God wasn’t saying you go in and fight everybody let’s see what happens
12:23 God’s saying I’m gonna deliver you to this place I’m God it’s not too hard for me I’m gonna deliver you to it amen nothing is too hard for God and the Israelites were essentially saying through their actions we don’t believe if you believe the Bible is true and live the commands in it what will happen in your life
12:42 think about that if you believe the Bible is true and you live the commands in it what happens in your life well your life won’t be perfect of course we’re still in this broken fallen world you won’t be perfect Amen
12:58 we still all fall short but if you believe the Bible is true and you live the commands in it you will have so much more peace in your life you’ll have direction for your life you’ll have wealth in the sense that you’ll know where true wisdom comes from and it’s only from fearing the Lord Amen
13:20 it’s only in His word you’ll have understanding and discernment over what’s happening in the world today much more than you would if you didn’t and you will have God’s ear the Bible says God hears the prayers of the righteous wouldn’t you like that Amen
13:32 and because you have faith in God you’ll please God because the Bible says without faith it’s impossible to please God well what’s the inverse if we have faith then we must be pleasing him Amen so you’d be pleasing God you’ll have wisdom you’ll have peace you’ll have his ear when you pray there’s so many other things if you believe the Bible is true
13:49 and live the commands in it right it’s not that hard the devil just wants you to not believe part of it if the devil could just get you stuck up on evolution or whatever else
14:03 then he’ll get you unbelieving at all but you stay true to believe in the Bible believe in God’s word turn to God and he will bless you and that is true wealth he will give you peace surpassing all understanding
14:14 I thank you for listening tune in next time as we get more into this word take care God bless Amen