Transcription
Amen. Praise the Lord. And uh, yeah, I want to extend a warm welcome to everyone that is here. And again, you know, um, we mentioned this a couple of times, you know, we have an hour here, uh, with the Lord, and we want to make sure this one hour is totally, totally given to God. Amen. So, no announcements, no offering collection. We can do that later on, but we really want to give our attention to the Lord.
You know, in the pre-service, uh, prayer, we had there are some, uh, words of knowledge that were given. And I want to just be faithful whenever a word of knowledge is, uh, given, because, you know, I really feel like one of the things that God wants to do is, God wants to see a marring of the word and the spirit. Amen. God wants to see a marring of the word. We want to have solid word that is, um, that is biblically based, that is substantial, but we also want the Holy Spirit's move. Amen.
And I think there are three things that were indicated in the pre-service, uh, prayer, that there are people, that there might be people that here, perhaps with a, a pain in the right shoulder, I think in the knee area, as well as below the toes. Okay? So, now, if that's you, at the end of the service, please don't run off. Come up to the front, and we want to pray for you. Amen. You know, God doesn't just tell us things for fun. God tells us things because he wants to do something in our lives. Amen.
Just as, uh, Pastor Elijah gave that word of knowledge about people who might feel maligned and unjustly treated, you know, it's because God is speaking to us. And here in Life Church, we always want you guys to, you know, encounter God, to discover his wonderful, liberating truth, and also to find your purpose. Amen.
You know, we are on a final week where we're talking about our call, convictions. And I want to just say this again, okay? Our intention is never to want to be distinct from other churches, as though we have some kind of advantage or competitive advantage. You know, you know, we are all in the same camp. Amen. We are all serving Jesus. Our, our desire is to save the lost, right? And so, there is no competition. This is not to bring some kind of a comparison, but these are things that God has spoken to us, and we want to obey the Lord.
So, one of the things the Lord spoke to us from the beginning is that here in Life Church, we're going to talk about money, right? And, and growing up in church, I think that one of the subject matters that we just don't often talk about is money. And I, I've been in church for some 38 years, okay? You know, I've been a Christian 38 years, exactly this year, you know. And, and I just don't hear a lot of messages in church about money. And because somehow, you know, there's some kind of a taboo. If a preacher stands up or a church begins to talk about money too much, then we begin to think, hey, this church is speaking a prosperity gospel. It is about prospering only. It's about taking advantage of the things of God for our own prosperity. Now, that is furthest from the truth as to what we want to do. Amen.
And instead, what we want to do is, we want to talk about money from a biblical perspective. Now, I think also as Asians, we somehow find money to be a very private affair. Amen. It's not something that we, you know, like to talk about over the dinner table. It's not something that we ask or give an account to one another. We treat it as something that we don't talk about publicly. In fact, in most major faiths in the world, somehow religion has created an image for us whereby holiness and spirituality is somehow connected to poverty. Is that right? Right? Somehow, you kind of think this association that, you know, if you're going to serve God and you're going to, you know, be a priest or you're going to be a pastor, you got to be poor. And that's somehow the image, right? The more the poorer you are, the more spiritual. And talk and talking about money becomes something that is worldly.
But I want to say this, that when we talk about money from a biblical perspective, and, you know, it is very, it is something that's very, very spiritual. Amen. And in fact, talking about money extensively, a lot, is actually very biblical. I say this very often to people. I said, did you know that, you know, do you think that prayer is an important subject in the word of God? Yeah, it is. There are over 2,000 verses in the Bible dedicated to teaching us about prayer. Now, do you think faith is an important subject to talk about? Yeah, it is. There are over 2,000 verses in the Bible dedicated to talking about, uh, faith. But did you know that when it comes to the subject matter of money, possessions, and stewardship, the Bible has over 5,000 verses talking about this? So, if as a pastor and as a church, where we want to preach the full gospel in the balance of the word of God, then for every message we preach about prayer, and every message we speak about faith, we need to talk two messages on money. How would you like that, right?
But here's the definitive scripture as to why it's so important to talk about money, because in Matthew chapter 6:21, out of the mouth of our own Lord Jesus, Jesus, he said this: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be." In other words, when we talk about money and possession and stewardship, we are talking directly about the heart. And the Bible also tells us that "out of the heart flows all the issues of life." Amen.
Now, it's impossible for us to cover everything about money just on one weekend, okay? But I just want to bring something of a flavor about what, how money is mentioned in the Bible, by talking about three comparative mindsets in, uh, uh, in the Bible concerning money. And the first is a poverty mentality versus a greed mentality. Now, these two mentalities sit on the opposite ends of a spectrum in Christendom when it comes to money. On the one hand, there is much of a, the history of the church where Christians have really embraced a poverty mentality, in which we associate poverty with spirituality and riches with evil, right? And there's some kind of a grounds for that, because Jesus himself said this, that "it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," right? I didn't say that. Jesus said that, right? And somewhere in, uh, in the letters that Paul wrote to Timothy, in one Timothy chapter 6:10, it's so famous, this verse says, "The love of money is the root of all evil," right? And we know this. And so we embrace these beliefs that it is. And, and it is not uncommon for the clergy in the church, church, for long parts of the history of the church, to take a vow of poverty, right? To be part of the clergy, you have to renounce, you know, all earthly possessions. And praise God that we've moved on from that, okay? And, and, and so it has become associated with an expression of deep spirituality and consecration. And all these time, we fail to see that wealth is present in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. And it is not just connected with the wicked. In fact, it's often times connected with those who are devout.
Think about this: the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they were all wealthy, amen. Israel, as they came out of captivity, was blessed with great wealth, because they went to their neighbors, according to the instructions of God, and asked for their wealth, and their wealth was was given to them. People, men like David, Job, one of the most righteous men in the Bible, Daniel, they were all wealthy beyond measure. How about the New Testament? You had people like Joseph of Arimathea, who was incredibly wealthy, and who gave his exclusive, you know, tomb to the Lord for his burial. Think about the first Gentile, officially, to be turned into the kingdom of God, Cornelius. He was a rich man as well. God chose someone who is wealthy.
In fact, I want to draw a scriptural comparison between two men that Jesus encountered in the Gospels. In fact, in the Gospel of Luke, it's very interesting because they are placed pretty much side by side, one in Luke chapter 18, and the other in Luke chapter 19. In Luke chapter 18, we are introduced to a Rich Young Ruler, amen. And then in Luke chapter 19, we are introduced to a tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus. I want us to see the parallels between these two men, because I believe when you line them up side by side, it is almost as though you cannot read one's account without reading the other account. It is almost as though the Bible choreographed and curated this for us, that when we read the Rich Young Ruler, we must also read Zacchaeus, that the story of the, the account of the two are not complete without each other.
Now, take a look at this. On the one hand is the Rich Young Ruler. On the other hand is Zacchaeus. And both were wealthy, and both were powerful. Both were wealthy, and both were powerful. Somehow, both men were drawn to Jesus and were attracted to the Lord, and they both desired, you know, to, uh, to come to the Lord. For the Rich Young Ruler, he appeared righteous. When asked about the commandments, he said, "I've kept all the commandments from the fifth to the 10th commandment," right? But for Zacchaeus, it's a little bit of the opposite. Here is a man who knows himself to be a sinner, labeled as an outcast, known as a sinner and a tax collector amongst his own people. But there's something again similar about these two. They were both empty on the inside, was seeking for something more. When they encountered Jesus, both of them felt the love of the Lord, and both of them received the undivided attention of our Lord Jesus Christ, right?
One was told, both of them had had questions in their hearts, and they both received an answer from the Lord. One's answer was, "Sell all and give to the poor." Oh, would you like to receive an answer from the Lord like that? The other was much simpler, "Open your home for me so that I can sup with you." Right? On the one hand, one did not obey the Lord. On the other, he welcomed and opened his doors and obeyed the Lord. The Rich Young Ruler retained his wealth. The, uh, Zacchaeus, you know, voluntarily gave away half of his wealth, and then he promised to restore anyone whom he had cheated four times. The Rich Young Ruler walked away, said, but Zacchaeus repented of his ways. The Rich Young Ruler came looking for eternal, eternal life, but didn't find it. Zacchaeus, the Lord said to him, "Today, salvation has come to your house." The Rich Young Ruler, we do not know his name, but Zacchaeus, his name is recorded for all times for us.
You know, I, I don't have time to go through all the details of this, but I think that if you would go back and take a look at this, that the parallel is so incredible. But there are some significant differences between the two. And the difference was that within Zacchaeus, there's an inherent willingness to give away his wealth. Somehow, wealth had a much stronger hold on the Rich Young Ruler than it did on Zacchaeus. The hold of money on both, uh, rich men was quite different. There is nothing in the scriptures that leads us to believe that Zacchaeus became a poor man after his encounter with Jesus. He probably remained wealthy. And what we do know, though, is the difference is that, hey, Zacchaeus repented. He turned aside. Something was different. He followed the Lord. In fact, you know, um, Bible history records for us that Zacchaeus continued to follow the Lord and was part of the New Testament Church in the book of Acts.
Now, these two accounts, when we read it together, I think brings a balance that is much needed. Our understanding is this: wealth itself is not evil, okay? So, if you are wealthy, it's okay. It is not evil, okay? Instead, the heart that runs after and is held by wealth is the problem. And this is what a greed mentality is. God desires for us to have, to have neither a poverty mentality, nor does he want us to have a greed mentality. None of this is from God. God wants to prosper us. It does not honor God when you are not able to provide for your family, amen. It does not bring God any honor when we are constantly poor and in need, right? But at the same time, we don't want to have a greed mentality. We want to understand that all the wealth that we have belongs to the Lord, and the Lord is our Lord. Jesus is our Lord, not the wealth.
Now, the second thing I want to bring to us of a comparative is a good eye versus an evil eye. In Matthew chapter 6, verse 22 to verse 23, the Bible tells us this: "The lamp of the body is the eye." The lamp of the body is the eye. I don't know if you've ever read this passage and ever wondered, what on earth is Jesus saying here? He goes on and says, "If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?"
The first question to be answered is simply this: What is a good eye and what is an evil eye? Now, don't check Oxford dictionary, don't check your, you know, Webster dictionary. The best dictionary for the Bible is the Bible itself. So, what does the Bible say and defines a good eye and an evil eye? In Proverbs 28:22, it says this: "A man with an evil eye hastens after riches and does not consider that poverty will come upon him." That's what an evil eye is. Is someone who rushes and hastens and chases after riches. And then in Proverbs 22:9, it says, "He who has a good eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor." In other words, a good eye is an eye that is generous, an eye that sees the poor and gives to them. But an evil eye is an eye that is stingy, that's searching and seeking after wealth for himself.
Again, in Deuteronomy chapter 15:9, is an interesting ordination where it says this: "Beware, lest there be any wicked thought in your heart, saying, 'The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,' and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cries out to God against you, and it becomes sin amongst you.'" You know, in, in Israel, in the Old Testament, the seventh year is a year of release. Debts are cancelled. Now, if you have a friend, a poor brother, who comes to you on the sixth year and borrows money from you, you know, after one year of repayment, you have to forgive the debt, right? And people will think, "Whoa, like that, first year I can lend, because I got, you got seven years to pay me back, right? After seven installments, I get. But sixth year I lend you, you pay one installment, the rest of the six I have to let go." You know? And, and the Bible says that if you think like that, it is an evil eye. It is to close your eyes to the needs of those who are poor.
You see, generosity and stinginess is deeply connected with how we see things. You see, when God talks about generosity and stinginess, he doesn't attach it to your hands. He doesn't attach it to your feet. He doesn't attach it to your heart. He attaches it to your eyes, because something about generosity affects how we see things. Do you, you know, you don't, can I say this? You don't need to look at how much someone gives to know if they're generous or not. When you listen to them talk about things, you can tell if they're generous or not, because generosity extends beyond just giving of money. Are we generous in how we treat people? Are you generous in how you assess people? When you meet someone, do you immediately pick faults at the person? "Ah, this person is like that, that person is." Or when you meet someone, do you immediately see the good in people, and you begin to see the potential in people?
Now, I want to encourage you to watch this closely. If you are a boss and you are employing people, ask them, observe this, because you want generous people on your team. And how generous they are in their comments about other people. When you find someone who always speaks good of others, who's able to see the people around them and immediately pick good out of them, who sees the situation that's going on and is able to speak good about the situation, I tell you what, you've found a generous person. That person has a good eye. And Jesus said, "If your eyes are good, the whole body is going to be full of light." When you meet someone and you begin to talk about other people, and it's all critical, you know what you're going to be thinking? "Well, I don't know what this person is going to talk about me when they, when I'm not around, right? Because if they can talk bad about somebody else, they can talk bad about you as well, right?" And if the eye is bad, then the whole body is full of darkness.
I say this and emphasize people because this is so true, right? And I love the way God shows us who he is. Like the Bible tells us that God is good. He's altogether good. There's nothing in him that is bad. And one of the best examples I feel I, you know, I, I, I like from the Bible is when God deals with one of his judges by the name of Gideon, you know. And this is found in Judges chapter 6. This is the early stage of Gideon's life. He was a young man, you know, the nation was being oppressed by the Midianites. And then God wants to raise Gideon up. He comes to Gideon, and this is the greeting that was given to Gideon. He says, "Gideon, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. You're mighty man of valor." Now, this is, if you read the text, okay, this is like, "Lord, your angel is telling lies, okay?" Because at this very moment, Gideon, the Bible tells us, he's threshing wheat in the wine press. Now, we're not farmers, so you may not understand this, okay? When you are threshing wheat, you need to be outdoors, and the wind needs to be blowing so that when you thresh the wheat, right, the wind blows the, the, the, the shell, the shaft gets blown away because there's no grain in it, and then the grain drops to the ground, right? So, and you need wind, you need to be outdoors. But when you are pressing wine, it's different. You're indoors. There's this big tub, you put the grapes in, and you are pressing it. So, you don't thresh wheat in the wine press because it doesn't work. And the reason Gideon is doing that is because he's terrified of being spotted by the Midianites. He was at that moment acting in cowardice. And yet, the angel of the Lord says, "Gideon, thou mighty man of valor, brave, you know, courageous." There was nothing that Gideon was doing that was exhibiting those characteristics. And yet, God saw past the present moment of Gideon's state, and he saw who Gideon could become. And that's how God speaks to every one of us. He calls those things that are not as though they are. Jesus went up to the mountains, prayed a whole night, he came down, called 12 men to himself, and appointed them apostles. No Bible school, no board of approval, no ordination board, you know, no extra, you know, training, testing. He just called them and appointed them apostles. I think that's very risky, but that's what the Lord does.
And the way God works is through generosity. And he wants to put that generosity in us. And if I can reverse the process, the way that God works generosity and a good eye out of us is by teaching us to give. That's why the world looks at the church and is often offended by why we talk about tithing and giving. And this is because money really constitutes the ultimate sense of our own ownership. We look at our money and this is ours. It's with my blood, sweat, and toil that I've earned this money, and it is mine. The eye is connected to money more than anything else, because we all paid a price for that. We all labored for it. We studied years, you know, we made sacrifices for it. And yet, God comes and says, "Surrender this very thing to me." By giving, by learning generosity, we're dealing ultimately with the selfishness that is in all of us. Amen.
Finally, I want to talk about an end-time fear versus a revival faith. You see, Christians, somehow, I've discovered over the years, love to talk about the end times. If we ever do a subject and we publicize it and talk about end times, promise you, people will come. If I say to the, you know, next sermon, I'm going to reveal to you the identity of the Antichrist, you'll fill this place up. I've said this before, I want to say again, the Antichrist is Bill Gates, because the Bible says, "The gates of hell shall not prevail." I'm just kidding, okay?
But when you think about the end days, we often are gripped by fear. I remember the first time reading the book of Revelation, I was terrified. After it, it's like a book of nightmares, right? Wow, the famine that's coming, a third of the world's going to die, and another third is going to die, the economic deprivation, the judgments, and all these things that are coming. And then, you know, in Revelation 13, it tells us the Antichrist is also coming, and then he's going to require everybody to receive a mark on their right hands, on their forehead, without which you cannot buy or sell. All economic transaction is going to come upon that. And then it tells us the mark is going to be calculated to be 666. And so, from young, I've always thought to myself, "Woo, whatever it is, nobody's going to put a chip on me, because it's got to be a chip on the forehead and on the hands." You know, we start thinking how this is going to be like. And I start thinking to myself, "How am I going to survive in those days, you know, if I don't have a chip?" You know, today when we go, you know, we have all our Apple watches. If you wear on the right hand, you know, and you tap it through, hey, why it's like the mark? You know, that's why I always wear my watch on my left hand. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.
Yeah, and the funny thing is that the Christians respond to these things in the most remarkable way, right? I've heard of Christians who have begun to buy land in far away places, believing that these places will be safe havens, so that when tribulation comes, take a plane, fly off, live on your own. I've heard of Christians who are buying farmland because the Bible says that, you know, prophecies, you know, in the book of Revelation, that food is going to be so expensive. Oh, let's grow our own food, you know. Others have, uh, proposed the Bitcoin as a solution, you know, to the, you know, to the currency, uh, system that we're in now.
I, I don't intend to be dismissive about these approaches, I don't, because I, I do believe, you know, there are people that God does speak these things about, right? I, I do believe so, okay? Not me, but maybe other people. So, I don't want to be dismissive. I never want to come to a place where I begin to define that God can never do this, you know. God is God. He can do whatever he wants to do, right? And maybe he might speak to some people that they to do this or do that, and that, you know, I'm not their Lord. God is their God, and God will speak to his people.
But then again, I believe that there is a solution that has, that is much more fundamental. Okay? If you don't have this fundamental decision, it doesn't matter how much land you buy, how much gold you buy, it'll make no difference. And, and to understand this fundamental solution, you need to go back again to find the answers in scripture. And I believe scripture already paints for us the solutions and the answer to prophecy. Then in scripture, you already see a typology of how some of these prophetic things are going to be fulfilled, right? You don't have to use too much of your imagination. Go back to the word of God.
And I believe Acts chapter 2 contains an important answer for us. In Acts chapter, uh, in Acts chapter 2:44 to 45, it says, "Now all who believed were together and had all things in common." I think is it Acts chapter 3 or two? I think it's two. And sold their possessions and goods and divided among all as anyone had need. Okay? Is it, can someone just verify that? Is it Acts chapter 2 or Acts chapter 3? You have a, and then just make sure that we did get the correct verse reference, okay? But nonetheless, you're familiar with this verse: "Those who believed were together, had all things in common, sold their possessions and goods, divided amongst all and any as anyone had need."
Now, I'm not proposing here in Life Church that we're going to sell all we have, hold everything in common. That's not. I know, I don't. Chapter two. I'm so sorry for the typo there. Yeah. And, uh, and that's not what we're considering to do here. But I want to, I want for us to see this. The, the early church had such an encounter with God. It was so real, it was so dramatic, that it literally was life-changing. It was so life-changing. The most fundamental thing in people's life, how people view money and possession, was completely turned upside down. Literally, what we're witnessing here, put aside the selling of everything. We, what we're witnessing is that the people were completely set free from the need to own something and to possess something. Money and possession had zero hold on the people. They were completely set free. It was as though God could speak to anyone and says, "Okay, I want you to give all this away," and they could just obey the Lord.
Now, that's pretty hard to come by for one person, but think about this: 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost, and then another 5,000 in Acts chapter 4:4 converted, 8,000 people. And this thing sweeps across the body of Christ in that moment, and God set free everyone from the hold of money in our lives. You see, money isn't just an object that you have ownership of, right? Money is a, uh, system that governs everything that we do, right? Though many of you are in finance and you understand this, and even if you're not in finance, our interaction with the monetary system, we understand this. Money is used to incentivize behavior, you know, and it's to penalize certain other behaviors. Money is controlled by central banks and by complex systems of economy, and it is what binds us as well to a location, because you own property in a certain place, you have business in a certain place. It determines our lifestyle. It even tells us what we want. Help. It leads us in our decision about what we want to study and what we pursue. You realize how much of your life is governed by money and the system of money that is around us?
But guess what happens when money loses its hold in us? Can you imagine a company of people or a whole body of Christians whereby suddenly money has no more hold on them? What will do, what they'll do is, they'll turn the whole economic system upside down. Now, just think, for example, 8,000 people got saved by the time you hit Acts chapter 4:4. If 10% of 8,000 people sold their properties in Jerusalem, roughly say 400 houses, a couple hundred houses are sold. Now, in ancient Jerusalem, this is not Singapore where you have a few million people staying, maybe a couple hundred thousand people, I don't know. It's much smaller. But if suddenly 400 properties is sold and dumped into the market, you know what that does to the property market? Have you ever thought that when this thing happened in revival, it was the people weren't just persecuting the Christians because of a different faith that they had. They were persecuting the Christians because the Christians were disrupting the economic status quo of their day. They were messing up the economy. This is what happens when money loses its hold on Christians. It disrupts everything. Amen.
Now, you see, we do not, what I want to say is this: we do not need to approach end times with fear. We don't, we don't need to approach it with uncertainty. And I want to say this, that you don't have to start searching for a solution of how to inoculate yourself from the end times, okay? But instead, the inoculation has already been given to us. The inoculation is when we come free from the hold of money, just like in Acts chapter 2, when we have an encounter with God that runs so deep, so deep, that money has no more hold on us, and our decisions are not based upon the money that we have or how much we need. Then suddenly, God sets us free from the hold of all these things. And you know what? When we are set free from these things, then God's wealth suddenly becomes accessible to us.
Because of time, I don't want to share any of my own personal testimonies of how God has done, to a small measure, these things in our lives. But I do want to mention this: if you study a little bit of Christian history, not too far back, just to the Great Depression in the 1920s, there literally books have been written, there are accounts that have been given about how Christians, you know, would pray and God would provide food for them. In the 1920s, of course, there were no refrigerators because there's no running power everywhere. But instead, in homes, they would have these, uh, things called ladders, okay? For those of you who are very, very young, you've never, ever in your whole life ever seen a ladder before, okay? But that's where they keep food. That's where they keep it dry and all. And literally, there'll be countless accounts where people, families would pray for food, and they'll open the ladder, and the ladder will never run out of food, just like the, you know, the widow with the oil that never runs out, right? With flour that is replenishes itself. God has already shown that he can multiply and produce. The account of George Muller, you can get his book and you can read about it. And this man lived in Bristol in the UK, and he would take in orphans by the scores, and they would have no money to feed his children. But they will pray, and as they prayed, food will show up at their doorsteps, money would show up. God will multiply the soup, and God will multiply the bread. Miracle after miracle after miracle. And by the end of this man's life, he had provided for over 10,000 orphans. 10,000 orphans with no money. And these are real testimonies of people that lived not too long ago from this.
The thing I want to drive home for us is this, that it's so important for us to talk about money. And we will talk about money. One of the first things the Lord said to me is, "Li, I want you to appoint a mentor in Life Church who will talk about money to the church." Right? And I'm, you know, we are working with, uh, Jerry and Sue to come in September this year and to talk about money. It's not just about giving away money and all these. It's talking about how can you prosper God's way, because God wants to use us. God wants to bless us. God wants the church to be a solution to the problems that's in the world. And trust me, you're going to need money to provide some of those solutions, right? And God wants to us to understand what is generational wealth. You know, it's not just wealth for this generation, it's wealth for the next generation. How do we understand that? There's some mentality that needs to be shifted, because all of us grew up in an Asian mentality. And I tell you this, you know, we tell these stories, you know, about our grandmother and how they have a little tin can under their beds, and they put all the savings there. And by the end of their life, they literally have so much money, tucked, cash tucked under their beds. You know, that may be something funny, we laugh at, but it really reflects an Asian mentality of how we deal with money. And it's all about collecting money, it's all about building bigger buns, it's all about hoarding the money that we have, instead of seeing money as something to be used. And I believe God wants to speak to us, and God wants to train us in these areas. Amen.
I want to, I want to just bring this to a close. And I want to just say a few things. If you're in this place today and you're struggling with money, right? And I want to say to you that God is our provider. The righteous will never go hungry, right? And if you are in the place of need, you can ask God, and God will provide. God may not make money appear out of nowhere, but I want to say this, in my own life, it has happened before where money has appeared in my wallet that was not there before. And so, God can make money appear, okay? I'm not saying he can, but it may not happen that way. Sometimes he provides for us by giving us an opportunity, a door, or a job. And sometimes he speaks to us because something in our lives is leaking, right? But if you open your ears to hear from the Lord, God will speak. Amen.
But the other thing I want to bring to our, our attention is, if you are anxious about many things, and I feel like that's where this is going, because sometimes you can have, you can have a lot of money in the bank, and you can still be anxious. You know, in Matthew chapter 6, the Lord gave, spoke five things about money, and each of these five things, he related to one part of the human anatomy. We read one where it talks about the eyes, right? But later on, Jesus goes on and talks about, you know, our, our anxiety about money and provision. And he tells us about the lilies in the field, they neither weave nor spin, and yet God clothed them more beautifully than Solomon in all his, his beauty. He talks about how he provides for the birds of the air, the beasts of the field. And then he reminds us that you are worth more to him than all these things.