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Well, hello Salt Church. How you doing today? Good to have you with us. Yeah, come on. Give God a hand clap of praise.
Hey, let's hear some joy in the house. Let's hear some joy in the house. It's so good to be back with you. I was out last week. Thank you for letting me take a little mini sabbatical.
Went to El Salvador. Got some surf in. Just focused on just relaxing a bit. Didn't think about church a whole lot during that time, but I was praying for you for sure. I'm always praying for you.
Asking God for direction and vision. And super excited about this upcoming season. And just a quick announcement. For those of you online, you're probably not watching right now because we have had some major hiccups with Wi-Fi in the auditorium. Every week it seems to be another thing.
So maybe it's God's way of telling you you need to be in church. I don't know. But no, I'm just being funny. I'm just cutting up, okay? It's okay.
I know sometimes you need a week off. That's fine. But we are going to work on a solid solution next week. So don't feel like we're leaving you behind, all of you. Because we've got people in other states watching every week and supporting us.
And we thank you so much. So when you're watching this, we will have it up online later on. The full recorded service so you can watch it later on. But we thank you that you're with us even online today as you're watching. And those of you who have made it to church today, thank you for being here.
I pray that God has something super special for you. We do have an event coming up, guys. I am excited about this day, October 9th. You need to grab some cards. And this is our family and friends day.
This is a time where you can invite somebody to church, okay? I want everybody in here to think of about five people you're going to invite to church on October 9th. We're going to have a pumpkin patch for the kids. We're going to have an ice cream sundae deal kind of thing. We're going to have extra games and all kinds of things.
It's just a way for us as we launch into October. We launch into the fall, kind of like a fall fest kind of thing. An awesome way. Come on, guys. We are a great commissioned church.
This is your opportunity. I want to see every seat full in here. I want you to make me have to go back to two services again, okay? I'm seeing a lot of new people, people coming to salvation in Christ during this period. And this is an awesome time.
People are looking to come back to church. You're looking for a church. And, man, I love this church. I absolutely love this church. I don't know about you, but I love the people here.
Y'all are such wonderful people. And if you're new with us, we just want to thank you for being with us today. And you can connect with our table if you want to know more. We got lunch with Leon next week. And you can get to know me and some of our leadership here today, or next week, rather.
And we would love to, and I'd love to connect with you after service. I'll be out there. You can connect with me if you're new. Please don't brush by me. I want to meet you.
I want to get to know you if you're new with us today. And thank you for Michael Simone last week who shared a wonderful message with us. I love Michael. He is a great friend of the church, Togo Project. If you want to support him and the missions there, our church supports him.
And he does an amazing job. And you got to listen to a professional counselor talk about being stressed out. So, I'm sure that was really good for you. Pre-frame, reframe. Have you practiced that this week?
Pre-framing and reframing your situation? Good advice there. But we are in a series called Stressed Out. And we are in week three of that series. And this is a message about joy, okay?
It's not a message to beat you up because you're doing wrong. It's a message to kind of put you in an area where you can experience joy. Because God's intention is for you to have joy. God wants you to have joy. God wants you to have joy.
So, he gives you the message. He gives us instructions of how to have joy in this life, and we've got joy waiting for us in eternity, but he wants us to experience joy right now, but Satan wants to rob you with joy. You know how Satan robs you with joy? You know how the enemy robs you with joy? Stressing you out.
Using things in life to stress us, to pull us away from the joy that we could experience. So, Luke 21, 34, if you're with us, you can go to our live, online, Bible.com app. If you have the Bible.com app, there's an event section.
You'll find Salt Church. It should pop up right, because you're in Salt Church, so it should pop up right around you there, and you can follow along there, or if you're just a note taker, you can just write these down, open up your Bibles or whatever, turn to Luke 21, 34, and it says, be careful or your hearts will be weighed down. So, there's this careful kind of description here. You need to be aware. You need to be careful so that your hearts don't weigh down with dissipation, meaning a corrosion, a slow corrosion of your heart, a slow dissipation of joy and drunkenness that the issues of life, we try to fuzz them out or do something to take us away from that pain we're experiencing or the anxieties of life or experiencing anxieties.
Back then, they were experiencing anxieties, and now we experience them today. There's just so much going on, right? We got all kinds of anxieties, all kinds of things thrown at us, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. So, it just happens. It's like, wow, where did this come from?
In our schedules, in our handling of pain, in our relationships, in our work-related stress. I talked about time management the first week, how we handle our time. Michael talked about, you know, just reframing and pre-framing and doing things that will help you navigate this stressful life. So, this week, I want to talk about something that is the number two cause of divorce and marriages. Outside of infidelity, this is the number one cause for splits in marriages, and that is our finances.
We need to talk about finances. It really is something that we neglect a lot of times, and what the enemy wants to do is something that we are blessed with. He wants to take it and, you know, pervert it so that we don't experience joy. He does not want us. He wants us to be stressed out, and Jesus speaks on possessions, and He speaks on money more than He does heaven and hell.
In fact, 2,500 verses talk about possessions and money, and 16 parables He talks about possessions possessions and money. Why? Because not that He's concerned about money. He knew the Father owns the cattle of a thousand hills. He's experienced the Father.
He was in the presence of the Father. He was with the Father, right? But because we're concerned about money, and He's concerned about our joy, and He wants us to have real joy, true joy. And this isn't, let me just say this, a little thing here just to cover my butt, okay, today. This is not a giving message.
I don't beg for money. We don't beg for money as a church. We know that the Lord provides all that we need. I don't have to beg you. This message is about joy, and if you follow these things, these instructions, these principles, we're calling them the principles of peace, these principles, I don't have to convince you of this.
I don't have to convince you of giving, of generosity, of things like that. So we just want to pull you out of a financial black hole that you may be in. Some of you here today are in so much financial hurt and financial debt, you're stressed out of your mind. I'm stressed out just talking about it. I mean, just being in a place where the money has you.
You don't have money. Money has you. You don't have money. You don't have money. You don't have money.
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You don't have money. You don't have money. You don't have money. You don't have money And it's taken and it's beaten the joy out of you. We don't want that.
We want God's joy in our lives. And many of you have experienced that, but why are we financially stressed? Well, I'm going to take you to a parable, the prodigal son. Many of you know the prodigal son, right? I taught on this a few years ago.
I kind of went through the whole parable and made a whole series out of it. But I'm taking it in a different direction today. There's three lost parables that Jesus talks about. He talks about a lost sheep, talks about a lost coin, and then he talks about a lost son. So we pick up in Luke 15, verse 11.
It says, Jesus continued, there was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, give me, underline that, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Now, this was unheard of in that day. This was absolutely audacious for this son to ask his father for his inheritance early.
The people in the crowd, when they heard Jesus talking about this, they were like, are you kidding me? He had the nerve to ask his father for his inheritance early. That's unheard of. We just don't do that. That's just bad manners.
That's just, I would have kicked him out of the family. He would have no inheritance at all. That's how it was seen in that day. But how does the father respond? The father gives him his inheritance.
The father says, it explains the father. We see a spiritual principle here that the father gives us, sometimes gives us what we want so that we can walk through that journey so that we will learn from it. Sometimes he lets us go our own way, says, okay, listen, God's a gentleman. He's not going to force feed his principles to you. He's going to say, hey, you can go and you can do what you want to, but trust me, you'll be back.
If someone leaves the church, someone's leaving the church and say, you know, I'm just done with the church. I don't, you know, I don't think the church has the answers. What I said, okay, good, just go. It's okay. It's okay.
But you're going to be back because God's way works. It's just how it is. I mean, we'll leave the light on for you. We'll be here with open arms when you come back. But sometimes God just allows us to go our own way.
He allows us to do our own thing. But God speaks life. The word speaks life. And we're speaking life today through his word. I pray that God would just really put his spirit on you as he speaks these principles to you.
So the son wanted his inheritance. And so the first point that I want to make that gets us into financial stress is we are consumed with having more. We are consumed with having more. He says, give me. Give me.
I want more. One's not good enough. We need the best. We need the latest. Right?
We need the iPhone 14 came out. I have an iPhone 13. I want an iPhone 14. So you know what? I'm going to get me that.
If I have the iWatch 7, I want the iWatch 8. Okay. If you have an iWatch 7 and want an iWatch 8, give me your iWatch 7, please. Because I lost mine yesterday. I was pulling off my wetsuit after a surf.
And apparently it popped off. And I lost it last night. And I haven't found it yet. So I'll be glad to take that off of you. I'll take leftovers.
Okay. But we're that way. And interestingly enough, like anything, the old wears off after a few days, a few weeks, a few months. And you're like, oh, man, why did I buy that? Why did I spend all that money on this new thing?
And there's a new thing. It's just never enough. It never is enough. If you are in love with things, if you are in love with possessions, if you are in love with money, there will never be enough of it. You will always be wanting more.
Always be wanting more. And you will never be content. And then it goes on, my next point is in Luke 15, it says not long after that the younger son got together all he had. He set off for a distant country and there he squandered his wealth in wild living. Underline not long after that.
Not long after that. He didn't waste any time spending his money, okay? Because we want everything now. Point two is we want everything now. Not only do we want more, we got to have it now.
I don't want to wait. I'm young. I want to do all these things while I'm young, so I'm just going to spend and spend. I can promise you this. I get that.
I'm the same way. Hey, I don't want to be, you know, 70 years old or 80 years old or 90 years old and not be able to hike up a mountain or whatever it is and I want to do it now and this and that. But listen, if you put yourself in debt, you will get old quickly, okay? You will be old before you know it. Because you will be in so much stress, you will not be able to enjoy life.
You will not be able to enjoy things. So don't just put it on the credit card that says 0%, right? Yeah, I get 0% financing for 12 months. And you know why credit cards do that? Because they know that a large portion of people are not going to meet that 12-month, that 6-month, or even that 24-month requirement, right?
Like, gotcha. And the interest rate goes way, way, way, way up. I remember back in the 90s, everybody got these interest-bearing home loans, these adjustable home loans. And people who made $20,000 a year were buying the $300,000 homes because they wanted it now. They wanted to live the life now.
And then what happened? The economy went south and people were foreclosing like crazy, man, and they were stressed out of their mind. They were losing themselves. They lost their money. They lost their wealth because they made decisions because they wanted it now.
Look, there's something beautiful about waiting, about saving money. I remember my first job. I saved up every week for my first surfboard. I got that surfboard finally, you know, months of just saving up for that thing. Back then, they were only $300, but I only made $525, you know, $250, $300 for a surfboard is $1,000 now.
But I saved up for that, and it was precious to me, you know, like, wow, took care of it and all that, you know, as opposed to, you know, just throwing the money out there or having the money. You know, waiting, waiting. There's something special about waiting, that first car, that first house or whatever it is. Just wait. It's going to be more precious to you if you do it the right way.
So we want it now. I remember growing up with my mom and dad, you know, we didn't have much money. My dad was a pastor. He still is a pastor. He pastors a church even in North Carolina now.
Now, and we didn't have a whole lot of money growing up because they gave their life to ministry. My mom was in nursing school, and my dad, back then, pastors, preachers didn't make. Nowadays, you know, you know, you got all these megachurch pastors are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, whatever. There's a lot of pastors that aren't making a lot of money, okay? All right, all right.
And back then, it was really bad. Like, you serve for, you know, you serve ministry. You can live off of, you know, $10 a week. That's fine, you know. You know, that's what they thought.
And we lived very poorly there for a while. We didn't have a whole lot. And, I mean, there was times where my mom and dad actually dug change out of the couch so they could go to McDonald's and buy a cheeseburger to split between themselves. That's how they were hurting. But I would, because, you know, we were little kids.
We had to eat, you know. They were going to feed us before they fed themselves. But some of the most amazing times weren't going to luxury hotels and flying across the world to magnificent European monuments. It was the little things of being with my mom and dad around the camera. Campfire for free, you know, or going to the lake for a day, eating ham sandwiches, ham and bread and nothing else after I was now.
Those are the most special. I've been able to do a lot in my life. And those are some of the most special things that I've experienced in my life. Just being with my family, the small things, just just just simple, just being simple with things. So let's not think now.
Let's think about the things that matter most. Amen. That was my first week message. Things that matter most, put those as priorities first. And then it says in verse 13, the second part, it says, there he squandered his wealth in wild living.
He squandered it. So not only do we have to have more and we have to have it now, we spend everything we have. We spend it all. Hey, I've got it. I'm going to spend it.
Did you know there's about two hundred and forty billion dollars in gambling debt alone in the US? People spend so much money on just anything. If they have it, they just spend it. Uber Eats, people spend twice, three times the amount it costs for a burger just to have it delivered to your house because they have the money. You know, they just do it.
And we stress ourselves because we live at or above our limits. We live at our limits. We just spend everything we have. And even in time, you need this. Let me just say this to you people who can't keep time and always late for everything.
Margins are important, okay? You need about 10, 15 minutes when you leave your home so that you have margins. It really does keep the stress down. Margins are important. So living at our means, spending everything that we have.
Average American household has $14,241 in credit card debt because they want to spend at their limit or past their limit. We've got to have it now and we've got to spend it all. College debt has quadrupled in the last 10 years. So there's a lot of debt. People are just living paycheck to paycheck even if they make a lot.
We live that way and it creates stress in our life. And then the fourth point is found in verse 14. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine. And in that whole country and he began to be in need. Number four, we are unprepared for life's storms.
Because storms are going to happen regardless. The just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous, the rain pours down, right? Things will happen. If you live this life at some point, no matter where you are financially, you're going to experience storms in your life. And we are unprepared for the storms in our life because we do everything now and we spend it all.
And we don't leave anything. We don't leave any cushion. And let me just say this. Some circumstances are practical, but some are out of our control. And many of those are spiritual because the enemy knows if he could put you in a bind and he brings a storm to your life, like he brought Job a storm in his life, that he can take you, he could put you in being stressed, stressed and take the joy out of your life.
He wants that for you. He doesn't love you. He doesn't care for you. And there's demons working in the background. Okay?
I'm getting ready to do a series on spiritual things in the next series coming up a few weeks away. And that's going to be a real exciting series. You've got to be here for all of those. Okay? We're going to talk about angels, demons, all that kind of stuff.
But what I will say is, demons are real. Well, I don't believe in demons. Well, that's fine. You don't have to believe in them. They're still there.
They're working. Okay? You know, it's clear in Scripture that they're there. They're working behind the scenes, and they're very smart. And there's spiritual warfare going on.
So we need to be prepared for a life's storm. And then there's a transition in this Scripture. It says, when he came to his senses. He came to his senses. Oh my goodness, what am I doing?
I spent all this money. I've grabbed my inheritance. I've done all this stuff. When he came to his senses, he says, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare? And here I am starving to death.
I mean, he was literally eating with the pigs, and he had a father who had plenty. He could have gone right home and been okay, but he was there. And for many of us, it's the same way. We're like, what am I doing? We're just losing our lives.
We're spending everything. We've got a father who has everything available for us. He has principles of peace available for us. And we choose our own way, and we need to come to our senses. Come to our senses and see that we have a Savior and a Lord.
And he wants to richly bless us, not just financially. He wants to bless us with love. He wants to bless us with hope. He wants to bless us with prosperity so that we can pour out to others. We richly bless us so that we can be a blessing to everyone.
He wants to do that for us. He wants to bring. He doesn't want, because all those out there are starving to death. The reason we're here is because, the reason our church is here is because people are starving to death for hope, for love, for purpose, for identity, all those things. They're starving to death, and we're here.
So why not look to our Father and ask Him to give us these principles and follow these principles to give us what we need. Isaiah 9-6. You've heard this as a Christmas verse over and over again. If you grew up in church or you're a Christer, you show up at Christmas and Easter. You've heard this at some point.
Unto us a child is born. To us a son is given. And the government will rest on His shoulders, and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. And the last part of this is what I want to focus on. Prince of Peace.
He is a Prince of Peace. Sar Shalom is the language used here, and it literally means Lord of Peace. He is Lord of Peace. The word Lord is used 7,800 times in Scripture. You know how many times Savior is used?
36 times. 36 times. See, we all want a Savior. We love a Savior, but we don't want a Lord. We don't want God to Lord over our lives.
But our Lord, under the umbrella of His authority, is freedom and hope and prosperity. And we can have all of that. But many of us, I need you, Lord. I need you, Lord. I need you for this.
I need you for that. But I don't want to make you fully Lord. So I want to give you some principles, six quick principles here that I believe that go hand in hand. In fact, kind of backing up for a few minutes. Let me just give you a few scriptures that says Lord and peace go hand in hand.
A connection. Psalm 4, 8. In peace, I will lie down and sleep for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe. Peace, Lord. Psalm 29, 11.
The Lord gives strength to His people. The Lord blesses His people with what? Peace. The Lord blesses His people. The Lord of all blesses His people with peace.
Old Testament. Let's go to New Testament. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. Acts 10, 36. Romans 5, 1.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our what? Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ. We've got a, boy, there's a quiet crowd in this Methodist church today. My goodness.
We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Maybe. She said hard message, but it's a good message. It's a message of joy.
The principles of peace. So, I don't have to convince you. This is just, if you practice these things, it will help you. The number one thing is obedience. I'm going to get the hardest one out of the way first, okay?
Because people hate this verse in the Bible because it really gets their goat. It really gets in them. Their goat is their money. And God gives Israel a warning. And let me give you some context here about Malachi.
Malachi. See, the people had stopped giving to the storehouse. The priests were not fed. They could not minister the duties of the Lord. They could not honor the law of the Lord.
Therefore, the land, the prosperity of the land began to fail. It began to fall. The crops were dying. Everything was dying. Because nobody was being blessed because the priests couldn't even perform their duty.
And God became very concerned. Yes, He was angry, but He was angry in a way that the people, He saw the people suffering. These were His people, Israel. And He says this in Scripture. He says, Ever since the time of your ancestors, you have turned away from the decrees and have not kept them.
Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. But you ask, how will we to return? How do we even return? Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet, you rob Me.
God says, you rob Me, guys. You rob Me, guys. But you say, how are we robbing you? He says, in our tithes and our offerings. You're not giving the tithes and offerings as I've prescribed to you.
Now, let me just stop there. Some of you are already like, well, that's Old Testament, Pastor. That's Old Testament. Let me just remind you, I'm not going to get into all that. We can talk about that later on.
You can go back and look at one of my past series about this. But it predates the law. Tithing predates the law. Melchizedek, Abraham tithed. There was no law yet.
It was way before the law. And then it postdates the law because Jesus in the New Testament actually does confirm that the tithe is good. He just said they were doing it with the wrong heart. So, let's just get off our bandwagon about, you're just mad because you don't want to let go of your money. Okay?
You don't trust God with your money. Hey, I'm just going to say like it is. If you don't want to come back to my church, that's okay. That's okay. I don't care.
I'm just going to teach the Word of the Lord. Okay? So, that's what he says. So, it's not a law. It's a principle.
It's been around forever. God prescribed it from the beginning of time, ending of time. I can't tell you why and how and what's the purpose of it necessarily. Like, why is it just 10%? I don't know, guys, all the details of it.
I just know God says it. Okay? So, he says, don't rob me. But you ask, how are we robbing you in tithes and offerings? And then he says, you are under a curse, your whole nation, because you have been robbing me.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and there may be food in your house. And then he says this, and this is the only time in Scripture, and this is like the most powerful part. Test me at this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour so much blessing on you. He's just telling you, I'll pour so much blessing on you. There will not be room for you to store it.
Come on, give me some clapping in here. Do you want blessing in your life? This is a good thing. This isn't a bad thing. He's telling you how to do it.
He's telling you what to do. And I'm not even telling you to tithe our church. I'm telling you to tithe, I mean, if you're a part of another church, it says storehouse. Storehouse means the local church. So we believe the first 10% goes to the local church.
If you're visiting, tithe your church. If this is not your church, go to a church and tithe that church, please. Please. In fact, I will even say this. Do you realize that there were tons of churches that had to close during the pandemic?
Tons of churches that had to close. Why? Because people didn't give. They became fearful. They didn't know what to expect.
Where's my money going to go? So, how is all this going to pan out after all this is done? No pun intended. Pan out. Pan out.
All right, corny preacher joke. Okay, why did they why did they close? Because people weren't giving and a lot of those churches aren't in those communities anymore. For generations, they blessed those communities. Up till the pandemic, they blessed those communities.
And now the blessing has left. Because people became fearful. And now they're not being blessed. They're not being ministered to. The Lord cannot work in an area where the church isn't.
That's why we do what we do. That's why we send churches out to be planted. That's why we send out missionaries all around the world that everyone would know the gospel of Christ and be saved. That none should perish but all know who Jesus is. And this is a part of that from a very practical standpoint.
We can't bless. We can't have blessings poured out into us. And from a spiritual standpoint, he said, He says, test me at this. Say that, Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw up the flow that they haven't poured out so much on you, we will not have any room. And then he says this, I will prevent pests from devouring your crops.
It goes back to your, that place where that church used to be. No longer are there a church to pray for rain when the crops go dry in these rural communities, right? And to support people who are going through things, right? And the vines in the fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe. Says the Lord Almighty, says the Lord Almighty, then all the nations will call you blessed.
And yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty. That is a promise from God. He says, test me at this. And I will give an opportunity for people to actually test the Lord at this later on this year, closer to the end of the year. In fact, we do a tithing challenge.
And we will give you back every cent of your tithing. If you don't see blessing come in your life. And we've done this for a number of years. And I will tell you this, we've never had anybody ask for the money back because we've heard story after story of blessing that God provided and God provided more. And just share it with you.
One story a few years ago, our church was kind of falling in giving. And I didn't attack it by going up to the church and say, why aren't y'all giving? Or why aren't y'all doing this? Or whatever. I just began to pray.
And the Lord put it on my heart to talk to our leadership. I don't check, we don't check tithing records, okay? We don't know who's giving, who's not, unless there's some specific case where somebody needs a report or something like that, get that. We send out everything electronically for the most part so that we don't, I don't have any business in it. I have other people that handle, you know, putting in the money and stuff like that.
But God put it on my heart to talk to my leadership. And I know I'm spending a lot of time on this first point. The next points will be quicker so you can go to dinner, okay? Or lunch. But I know some of you are like, Leon, you're spending a lot of time on this.
But I just want to say this. So we're, we're, we're, I'm at, so I feel led to, and I don't even know who, my leadership tithing. And they signed statements saying they're going to tithe, you know, when they, when they come into leadership, that they're going to believe God for that. That's how we're going to do it. And I just fell in my heart.
I said, is everybody tithing? And it got real quiet in that room because there were a few people that weren't tithing. And it actually got a little bit, people got a little bit angry there. I said, did you know that's the reason why our church isn't being blessed? It's because our leadership won't even do it.
How can we expect God to give us, we want to do more for our community. We want to do more for our city. We're talking about all these things we want to do. And we want God to bless us to be able to do it, to change the city, to change this environment, to change this culture, to reach more people for Christ, to give more to church plants, to give more to missions and do all this stuff. And we don't even trust God with what we have for him to be able to do that for us.
Because we all have the same heart. We want God to just pour his blessings across the whole earth. And, and, and that was a heated thing, but I can tell you that one of those individuals, and Will, both, there was two of them that, that weren't doing, I'm not going to call out names, but one of those individuals, and they, both of them wouldn't care if I shared their names, but I'm going to just be respectful. But one of them, wouldn't you believe it, they tithed, and then they got, I want to say, a five-fold blessing the very next week. I mean, just unbelievable.
It was just, she came back to me and she could not believe it. She says, you were right, Leon. I said, wow, God really showed you right away. I was expecting to be a little longer, but it was the very next week, and it was a very, very powerful thing. And she said, I will never not tithe again.
This is amazing. This is, God is so real and so powerful, and His promises are true. And I just want to tell you, I'm going to test you at that. Test you at that. The second thing is contentment, gratitude.
Gratitude, contentment. I'm happy with what I have. I'm really happy with what I have. I don't have to have more. Now, it's okay to pursue more.
I would encourage you to pursue more. Advancing your jobs, advancing your finances, do things like that. Pursue more. But be happy where you are. Be content with what you have.
1 Timothy 6 says it like this, but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it. I brought you into this world. I'll take you out, as your mom said. But God says, you're not going to take anything with you through Paul.
He says this. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. We're going to be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation. That means that's their only drive, is to get rich and trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruins and destruction.
That's what it does. People who love money, who pursue money, who are fearful that they don't have enough and keep wanting more and more, and there's never, never enough, end up being destructive to the people around them and being destructive to themselves. Because they're all about money. They don't care about people. They don't care about the things around them.
They only care about themselves. Because they're pursuing and they're pursuing. And caring about yourself, it will ruin you. And it will be destructive. So, we need to live with a heart of gratitude for what we have.
Be content with what you have. Be content that you have health. Be content that you have a family that loves you. Be content that you have everything that you need in this life to live it. You don't really need more if you really think about it.
In fact, you'd probably be living a lot more prosperous if you pulled back on a few things. Amen? Living contentment. Number three, margin. We need to create margin in our lives.
We live, we spend everything, right? We don't have any margin. We don't have any room to save for a rainy day. We don't have any room to actually live because we don't have margin. Margin is the space between yourself and your limits.
It's the same thing with time, right? The space between when you leave to go to a job or go to work or whatever. And when you get there, and if you don't leave yourself any margin, you get in a traffic jam, you're going to be late every week. And then your boss is going to get mad at you and fire you, right? And then you lose your job and everything because you didn't create margin in your life.
Same thing with a project. Wait till the last minute. Procrastinate. Don't get it done. Extend deadlines extended and all that because we didn't leave any margin in our lives.
And now we're in trouble with our boss. We're in trouble with whatever, our family, because we didn't get it done. It does that. Same thing with money. And let me just use this ugly word that nobody likes.
It's called budget. Budget. You need to have a budget and live on that budget. Don't just make the budget. Live under that budget.
Actually, live out that budget. We're all guilty of it. We live over the budget. Oh, I have a little money this month. I'll just spend a little more, right?
No, stay in your budget. And that counts, you know, that 10% that you give to God and then the 90%, that whole full 90%, you know, paying bills, this and that, insurance, whatever it might be. And then, you know, you can have some fun. You can have a fun budget. That's fine.
That's fine. Just stay within those budgets. Just make those budgets and create margin in your life. You have to have savings. You have to put something away.
If it's just a little bit, put a little bit away a month. I realize that people kind of live, you know, paycheck to paycheck. A lot of people do. But create some type of margin. If it's not thousands of dollars, at least it's $100 or $50 or whatever it might be.
Put something away and live in margin because you will have those rainy days. Because if you procrastinate and you do that, you're gonna be stressed. If you live outside of margin, you're gonna be stressed. And that's exactly what the devil wants you to be. Because you can't be all that God wants you to be.
So live in a budget. It says the wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down. Right? We don't want to be fools. We don't want to gulp all of our money down.
We want... To store up food and olive oil for those rainy days. Simplify our lives. Be content. Live within margins so that we can be, number four, generous.
Generosity is so important in our world today. Amen? We want to be a generous people. And if we live within our margins and we don't spend everything and make it all about us and pursue money with everything we have just so that we can live, you know, have a bigger house or whatever, we can be generous. God will...
Our good will come who will come who is generous and lends freely. It says good will come to those. I want to be able to be generous with my money and my life. I don't want to be so stretched I can't help somebody. I don't want to be so stretched I can't buy somebody a coffee.
I don't want to be so stressed I can't leave a really good tip for a waitress that does a really good job, like a $100 tip on the table. I don't want to be so stressed with money that I can't loan money to somebody. And let me say this. If you loan money to somebody, my dad always told me this, don't expect that money back. They may give it back to you.
You can call it a loan all you want to, but a lot of people, you know, will not... You may not get that back. So, consider it a gift. And I want to be able to, if I feel in my heart, to give a chunk of money to somebody and maybe not expect it back, even if it's a loan, I want to be able to do that. So, that's why we do what we do.
We want to be generous. It really is a blessing to others. Another verse, a generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others is also refreshed. If you're not refreshed, maybe you're not refreshing others with your generosity.
And if you're strapped in your money, you can't. So, get those things right so that we can think of others more. Amen? The fifth thing is integrity. Integrity is a big deal.
Integrity is really just what you do when nobody's looking. What you do in front of people, that might look good, but are you consistent? How you treat others, how you manage your money is a part of integrity. What are you doing with that money? How are you getting that money?
You know, if you're in love with money, you'll do anything to get more money. But integrity is a really, really important thing to me. And so many Christians, they lack integrity. They think they're doing, well, I can get by with, I can do this. It doesn't really, it's not hurting anybody.
Well, it hurts God, because he sees it, right? 2 Corinthians says, for we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men. We want to do what's right, because people are seeing us, they're looking at us, and we want to be a testimony to others. If we're going to practice integrity. There's so much lack of integrity in this world at every level.
I want to be a person, I'm sure you want to be a person that practices integrity and is a testimony of our Lord. Finally, dependence. We need to depend on God. This is a good point right here, that God is so rich, that we have a father, that the son says, you know what? I can depend on my father.
Why am I here eating like I am? I can depend on my father. In fact, over 20 times in scripture, it actually tells us to ask God. We can ask God for more. If we have the right heart, obviously, but we can ask God for more.
John 16, 24 says, until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be, what's that joy? Joy will be complete. Complete. So six principles of peace we find in this scripture.
Six principles of peace. And again, if you practice these principles, nobody has to convince you. It will just work because God is that good. Amen? He's that good.
He's just telling us how to do it, right? He's giving us instruction. We have a road map. We don't have to wonder if it works. And the last part of this scripture is just beautiful.
It's just beautiful. It says, and I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, against you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like your hired servant. For so many of us, we're like, wow, I've really done it wrong. I've really done it wrong.
I just want to be a high. Maybe he'll go back. Maybe he'll take me. Maybe God will take me back. I don't know.
I've been so bad. I've done the wrong things. I haven't done this. Whether you're a believer or not, you feel like you're just so far from God. But it says this, so he got up and he went to his father.
And this is so beautiful. But while he was still a long way off, while our father is still a long way off, guess what he does? His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. And he ran to his son and threw his arms around him and kissed him. Our father is willing to meet us.
He's willing to go out. He says, get the calf out. Get the nice robe out. My son is coming home. He's done a lot of bad things, but you are not too far from God.
You can be a thousand steps from God, but one turn back to God, you're back in his loving arms. You're back in his loving arms. You can have a God. Our father will always be there for us. You are never too far from God.
And maybe for some of you, you feel like you're far from God today. Can I offer you an opportunity to just say, you know what? I've come to my senses today. And coming to your senses is really just the Holy Spirit just prompting you. Maybe he's speaking to your heart today.
Maybe you're coming to your senses. You're like, you know what? I've done it my way for a long time. It really hasn't worked. And this joy that the pastor talks about, I don't really know what that is because I've never experienced that.
And there have been times in my life I've had everything, but I still have this lack of joy in my heart. The father is there to receive you. And he's not just waiting for you to come. He's running out to meet you as you turn around and kiss you and hug you and hold you. So with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, I just want to, I want to pray maybe for someone here today that is ready to run to the father's arms.
Maybe you're ready today. Is that, is that you? You pray this with me. Father, I believe that you are a good father, that you have everything I need. So today I surrender my life.
I don't just, I ask you to be my savior, but I also ask you to be my Lord. God, come into my life, come into my heart today. Make me like you, God. Make me like you, Lord. Come in and rescue me and, and, and, and bring me to.
This thing called joy and this life and life abundant. I believe that you died on the cross for my sin, that you gave your life for me, and it's not religion, it's a relationship, and I ask you to be my Father. I ask you to be my best friend. I ask you to walk with me from this day forth, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Can y'all give God a hand clap of praise? If you gave your life to Christ today, be sure to fill out a card, let us know, or go to the table, drop something off. We would love to connect with you. We've got some information there for you as well.
So thank you for being with us today. Join us next week for part four of our series, Stressed Out. Thank you, everybody. We don't necessarily... Where's Hunter?
Okay, that's alrighty. Oh, there it is. We had some technical things going on with this microphone early this morning, but look at that. We figured it out. Thank you, Hunter.
So, we don't pass around buckets or anything, but if you would like to give and support Salt Church in our ministries, you can. There are various ways you can give. You can put something in the box as you leave. You can text the amount you want to give to 84321. You can give online securely via Planning Center, or you can even mail something into our PO box.
But if you are a visitor, as usual, we do not expect you to give anything, and we would love for you just to see this service as a gift to you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, everybody, for being here and giving of your time, your prayers, your worship, your finances. We know that the Lord is going to bless you a hundredfold. In his name we pray.
Amen and amen. Have a good week. Amen.
