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Foreign. [Applause] God Almighty, God, and we call you Father. We thank you today for your boundless love. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Ten thousand times, ten thousand times we praise you. Our words are inadequate. We can't find even the energy to appropriately bless the name of the one who loved us and gave himself for us.
Lord, as I prayed already today, this is a gathering. This is a holy gathering. You knew before the foundation of the world that we would be here today. These people would be sitting where they're sitting. You knew who would be watching from Japan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and many, many other places. I pray today now that the word of the Lord will find deep root in our hearts. And when we leave, may we be different. May we be challenged to be different. In Jesus' name, we pray. And everybody said, amen. Amen. You may be seated.
What do you need, Pastor? Okay, thank you. As I study God's word, I'm, I'm constantly reminded, first of all, I am never to lean on my own understanding. I don't really know. It takes God telling me and teaching me. "Lean not to your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge Him. He will direct your path." I'm also admonished strongly by Jesus. First of all, never to lean on this world, to put any amount of confidence in it. The accoutrements of this world, the securities of this world, are not what the child of God relies on or leans on.
So, I want to stand here first of all and tell all of you who are followers of Jesus, your Heavenly Father knows what you need better than you. Let me say it again. Your Heavenly Father knows what you need right now. He knew it before you were born because He knows everything. But right now, where you are sitting and where you are watching, your Heavenly Father knows the predicament you are in, the problem you are facing, the situation that's taxing you. Your Heavenly Father knows.
Now, in the words of Jesus, "Therefore do not worry." In three places in the same chapter, chapter six of Matthew, Jesus said, "Therefore do not worry." "Therefore I say unto you, do not worry." Third time, "Therefore I say, do not worry." He is not just telling you not to worry about your finances, but about anything in your life or anybody in your life. Whatever you put into God's hand, God takes care of. Whatever you release to Him, He takes charge of. You can't just put it in His hand and continue to hold on to it because it appears that you might want to take it back. When you give it to God, you've got to trust that God will solve it His way, not yours.
So, when you come in that same chapter to the 33rd verse, it's a verse every one of you can quote. When I start it, you'll finish it, I'm sure. But it's one of those verses I don't think we appreciate. There are things in God's word that become pivotal. They become linchpins. They kind of summarize everything. This is one of those verses. It says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Therefore, do not worry. Did you hear that? Things. What things? Well, He said the things that the Gentiles worry about, you are not to worry about. Gentiles are unsaved nations or lost people or sinners. They worry about things: clothes, food, security. He said, but you have a Heavenly Father, and you are not one of them. Therefore, do not worry.
Your only task, no, your only privilege, is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else, all those other things, will be automatically added to you. While you are seeking Him, things are chasing you, but your eyes are never on the things, they're always on Him. And somehow, when your eyes are on Him, things don't seem that important anyway. And yet, God knows that you have need of all these things. So He just says, "I tell you what, you keep your eyes on Me. You go after Me, chase Me, and see what kind of blessings will chase you." But when you start chasing Me, you'll never really catch Me. But the joy of chasing Me is what eternal life is all about. Because I already have you. Now I'm giving you the joy of chasing Me. I've already captured you. Now you're trying to grab hold of Me. It's just one big love tangle. God taking care of His children.
So, how exactly are we supposed to go about this thing anyway? You see, you don't have to be a wealthy person to be greedy. Um, Jesus taught us very plainly those things in Matthew chapter 13. This is the attitude, this is the diligence with which I am to seek the kingdom of God. Are you ready for this? Nobody's exempt from this message today. You may be a pauper, you may not have a dime in the bank, and you may have just lost your house, but you can still be greedy. You can be worth millions, and of course, you too can be greedy. Because the cry of the greedy is "more, more." That's what greed cries out all the time for. More, more.
So Jesus said, if you want this thing called the kingdom, here's how you go about it. "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure," um, "treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." That's it. That's the end of the parable. Now, I know there will be 75 or 80 different interpretations of the application of that parable. I'm not interested in all of that today. I'm looking at the seed in it. And the seed is, when someone discovers something he considers so valuable that he would sell everything else to get it, then he understands what the kingdom of God is all about.
But then Jesus added another one, just right under it. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." Into the parable, two short parables. Some of Jesus' parables are rather lengthy and in-depth, but these two just simply say, if you want the kingdom of God, you've got to consider it treasure. You've got to think of it as the pearl of great price, the most valuable thing you've ever seen in your life, and that you want it more than anything else in this life. So to have it, to to gain that treasure and to hold that pearl, you count it nothing to sell everything just so you can have that. It's an aggressive approach. It's avid. It's, it's energetic. It's desperation that I may know Him at the cost of suffering, at the cost of loss. I just want to know Jesus. I'll give up everything to know Jesus. There's no material thing, there's not even a person more important to me than Jesus. The treasure of Jesus, the beauty, the inestimable value of this beautiful pearl. I want it. I'll do whatever it takes to have it. I want a closer walk with Him, deeper knowledge of Him. I want His presence to surround me. I want Him to be above me. I want Him to fill me up. I want my heart to cry out all day, "Give me Jesus. Just give me Jesus." I want to wake up saying, "Thank you, Jesus." I want to eat lunch with a "thank you" on my mind. And as I go through the day and do the sometimes pitiful, uh, stuff you got to do to be a human being in this pitiful world, you just do it. But you've got Jesus. And while you're doing it, thank Him that He found you. And now He lets you run after Him. Thank you, Jesus. Whatever you do, when you sit down to eat, when you, whatever you do, you have this knowledge that the Lord found you and saved you. And now you get to dig deeper for more treasure and shine that beautiful pearl in your soul every day. What a blessing it is to wake up, even in the middle of the night, just wake up, and the first thing, I'm getting emotional that I, and what you're thinking about is Jesus. Have you ever awakened? Have you ever awakened yourself saying, "Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus"? It happens to me all the time. Now, I don't know what I was dreaming, but I woke myself up saying, "Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus." And with a scripture in my heart. Hasn't always been that way. But now that I've served Him all these years and I've filled my life with this book, I am just coming to realize what a treasure Jesus, Jesus is. And there is no feeling, no high, no car, no home, no amount of money, nothing that can compare to feeling the breath of Jesus in your face as you approach Him.
Now, the Lord was pretty strong about some things, too. I turn over to chapter 12 of Luke. He spoke a parable. Another parable. You don't know how blessed you are, sir, ma'am, to be able to understand what I'm preaching right now. "Blessed are your ears," Jesus said, "for they hear. And blessed are your eyes, for they see." Blessed are those that can hear and understand. Don't you ever take the fact that you know who Jesus is for granted. Because most of this world does not know, and they do not care. But here we sit. I'm off my subject now. I don't care. Here we sit in this gathering today in the presence of the holy God of creation, and we know who He is.
Another parable. "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully." Beginning with 16, chapter 12, Luke. Now, I need to just take my time here. "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully." And he thought within himself. This is what he's thinking in his heart. You see, you can say one thing with your mouth, but think another thing in your heart. He thought within himself, saying, "What shall I do? I have no room to store my crops. I've got so much stuff, I don't even know what to do with it. I've got packages I haven't opened. I've got clothes that still have the tags on them, and yet, yet I just want some more clothes. You know, I've got this car, but I've always really wanted that car. But I don't want to get rid of that one because I want both of those. But I've also seen that one. So, wow, what shall I do? I've got plenty of money in the bank. I don't really have any financial worries. What shall I do?" So he said, to whom did he say it? Himself. He's talking to himself. "I will do this. I'll pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. I'll just do more. I'll get more." You see, that's the cry of the greedy: "more, more."
"And I will say to my soul." This is incredible to me. This man is talking to himself. "I'll pull down what I got, I'll build bigger, and then I'll say to my soul, 'So you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.'" So he's in his heart, he's saying, "I feel pretty good. If the economy crashes, I still got stuff. I got so many different investments and so much stuff laid up in so many different places. I know it can't all be affected. I'll be all right. So, soul, take it easy. You don't have anything to worry about. It doesn't matter what the economy does or Wall Street. You've, you're pretty safe. You've done well. You've planned wisely. You got a lot. Take it easy."
Now, somebody else is going to talk. But God said, "But God said to him, 'Fool! Fool! This night, that soul you've been talking to will be required of you. I'm calling it home. It's over. You're going to die. All this planning you've done was done without Me. You, you may have told people how good God's been to you, but you've been talking to yourself about how blessed you are and how secure you feel, and your security was not in Me. Fool! You don't own your soul. You may talk to it, but when I am ready for it, I will call your soul home. Then look at it, whose will those things be which you have provided?'" Somebody's going to pick it up when you drop it. Somebody else is going to carry on your greedy legacy. Somebody else is going to be viciously infected with the poison of greed, just like you are, and they'll talk to their souls, and they won't talk to Me.
And Jesus said, "So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." Oh, my. And is not rich toward God. You know what? My long tenure, I've met a lot of people. You know, I have met the poorest of the poor, and I've met some really mega-rich rich people too. And the cry of the greedy is always the same: "more, more." I've had a number of people, you know, have me look at their things, their assets, and say, "It's all the Lord's." Is it? What does He need with it? God doesn't care what you accumulate. He wants to know what you did for My name's sake with it. That wasn't comfortable, was it? You can say that with your mouth, but when you talk to your soul and says, "Soul, look what you've got. Look, look what you did. Look what you've built. You sold this. You are the master of this. You crafted this success journey." You're talking to your soul, and God says, "But all I've got to do is look at your soul, and I'll call it home. And then, then where will all this stuff go?"
So was the man who is not rich toward God. Did you notice the wording there? "Rich toward God." He didn't say the man that knows God or believes in God. He said, "You've got an opportunity to be as rich in God as you are in this world. Which one will you choose?" And I tell you, brothers and sisters, and ladies and gentlemen, one half second after you die, if you have not lived your life for the glory of Jesus, you would give everything you ever made or owned or sold or bought for that half second to say, "Jesus, forgive me."
So I come today to comfort people who are struggling right now, but I've also come to warn people who have put their trust in the things of this world. God is looking for somebody to be rich toward Him, to get to that place of abandoned, total abandonment, where you say, and I know this is a different context than a different book, "If I perish, I perish." I am not going to live a protected, defensive lifestyle. I'm going to be adventurous with the word of God. And in my faith, God has blessed me to be a blessing, not to accumulate it so I can feel secure in this present world. I know this doesn't go over well with lots of business people. And you say, "What do you know? You're a preacher." See, you may know money and business, but I know this. So that's why you need to listen to me. Don't get upset with me. Listen to me. If you are listening to me, it's a gift from God that someone gets to stand here and remind you that a man's life does not consist of the things which he possesses. It doesn't matter how fat your wallet is, or how big your barns are, or how full they are. If you're not getting rich toward God, the Lord says that's foolish. You're just a fool.
So when Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," what does He mean by that? Well, one man sought and found the treasure, and another man sought and found the pearl. You've got to go after it. But I do need to tell you that you can't do two things first. Only one thing can be done first. You can't be best at more than one thing. You can't give one thing to everything. First means, first, seek the kingdom of God. First. Don't seek the world and then use God as an excuse and a crutch. Don't have a short little devotion in the morning and then rush out to do what you really want to do. And that's yet more people live for the next accomplishment, the next project. But unless we are living for Him and to know Him, God calls that whole thing fully.
You know, when you read the Apostle Paul in that very personal letter of Philippians, he kind of summed it up too. He said, "I used to be a man of means, and I used to be an important man, and a well-known man, and I am an accomplished man. And if you look in my world," he said, "you will see that nobody excelled me in anything. But what things were gained to me," now I see that it is nothing but manure, dung, rubbish. Do you hear me? What things were gained to me? Now that I've seen Him, now that I've tasted Him, all that stuff seems so very stupid, unnecessary, even offensive to me. Now, this one thing I do." One thing. The man that took the gospel around the world said, "I only have one mission." Forgetting what's behind, because no matter what I did, it doesn't matter. And pressing forward, going after it, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. "One thing I do, forgetting what's behind, pressing forward to what's in front of me. I'm headed toward the mark of the high call of God in Christ Jesus." This one thing I do.
I wonder how many of us today could could get near that. I've got one thing on my mind. No, we have way too many things on our mind. Wasn't it David that said, "One thing have I desired. One thing have I desired." David had it all, you know. But when it came down to that place and that part in his life where he realized where he came from, who brought him there, how good God had been, he said, "That's all I want from now on. One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." I don't know if you understand the the import of what he just said. Let me say it again. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that is what I'm seeking, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." Meaning His presence. I want His presence. "That I may behold the beauty of the Lord." I just want to see Him. And that I may inquire in His temple, that I may get all of my answers from Him. Lord, you know, this is so rich right here. I want to be in His presence. I want to see His beauty. I want to get everything from Him. He is my life.
That's why Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters." If you want this, you can't serve two masters. So early this morning, I looked at this again. This statement that just kind of, "No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other. You can't like both. You can't love both. You can't even hate both. No man can serve two masters. Either you really love one, and you'll hate the other one, or else," He said, "you will be loyal to one and despise the other." See, I don't know if we really see what Jesus is saying here. He said, "You can't hold My arm and the world's arm and walk through life." He said, "You either love Me or you hate Me. Um, and if you hate Me, you love the world. But if you love Me, you will hate the world. If you're loyal to Me, you will despise the world. But if you're loyal to the world, you despise Me." There is no in-between.
Brothers and sisters, we're trying to make it that way. We are trying to make this thing compatible. The kingdom of this world and the kingdom of our Lord will never mix. Light has nothing to do with darkness, and vice versa. God expects me to want Him, all of Him, at the expense of this entire thing called the world. And He says to me, "If you have any love for this world whatsoever, you actually despise Me." "He that is a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Now, that's what the Bible says. Or is anybody still with me? I'm just giving you what the Bible says.
See, I'm desperate now. I've told you that many times about heaven, about dying. Let me clear my throat again. About leaving this world. I'm desperate because once I take my last breath, it's over, friend, for here and now. So I'm trying to get my act together, and I'm trying to realize there is no way that a man of God can stand up and preach the Bible and make friends with worldly people or carnal Christians. I cannot be an MC of a religious gallery. I am not a cruise ship entertainment director. I am a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. [Applause]
And Jesus said, "If you love money, you hate Me." Jesus said, "If you like money, you don't like Me." Jesus said, "If you don't trust Me, but trust in this world, you are a fool, and you offend Me, and you are not loyal to Me." Then Jesus turns around after He had thrown those hand grenades in the crowd. He looked at those precious followers and said, "Fear not, little flock. It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Little flock. They didn't have the riches or the wickedness of the rich religious leaders. They were just common folk. And He turned and said, "Don't you be afraid, little flock. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Hallelujah.
So if I want that kingdom, I can have it all. All I've got to do is love the Lord my God with all of my heart, mind, soul, body, strength. Love my neighbor as myself. Have a prayer life. I walk through life on my knees. I eat from the word of God. I get my satisfaction and my direction from the Holy Scriptures. And if that's what I do, the Father is giving me the kingdom because Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you."
So when this whole world goes to hell, and it's about to break loose now, and when you look at our government, our government that's the most pitiful, disenchanting, disappointing, scary thing I've ever seen right now. The leadership of this country. Oh, my wonderful Jesus. We are indeed in trouble, and it is only going to get deeper. But my mind is not on that. My mind is on the fact that at any moment, when this thing comes unraveled before Sodom sees the fire, there's going to be an invitation blown by a trumpeter to come up here and be with the Lord forevermore. [Applause]
So the kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom of God is never the stuff around you. Look at all my blessings. Look what God gave me. That is not the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within you. Paul further explains, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink." Have you read that? What that means is, you people in church are arguing about who's wearing this and who's eating that and what day to worship on and all that religious garbage. Y'all are acting like church people arguing about personal convictions. He said, "That ain't the kingdom of God." Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, rules and regulations. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. [Applause]
What does that mean? The kingdom of God is righteousness. It means there's nothing between me and my Savior. I don't have any secret sins. I don't have any unconfessed sins. I'm not living a double lifestyle. I'm not operating one way at church and another way at business. I'm faithful to my wife. I tell the truth. I have confessed all of my sins. There is nothing unconfessed in my living. I've been washed in the blood. I've been justified by faith. And the Lord looks at me as He looks at His own Son, Jesus. He loves me just as much as He loves Jesus. The Father does. Righteousness. It means I want to do the right thing. Righteousness means I don't care if I ever make another dime, but I've got to make some disciples. Uh oh. The Lord, are you taking me here? I need to tell the preachers that are watching. I've said it many times, but here we go. You gotta, if you call yourself a preacher, you better make up your mind. Do you want to make money or make disciples? Because you can't do both. And brother, I've met him. I grew up with those guys, didn't we? Preachers that would preach on the weekend, but they had jobs, side jobs. They collected coins and sold cars. They were investing in this, that, and the other. They would preach on the weekend, do that all week long, then get a message together right quick and go back and preach to the people. They made more money than they ever made disciples. And I'm telling you, you can't do that. If a man of God doesn't have time for a second job, I'm not talking about men who can't afford a salary in a church and they have to work another job. I'm not talking about bivocational pastors who would love to give everything they have to the church, but they've got to feed their family. I'm not talking about that, sir. A man of God does not have time to do anything else but seek God and know His word. Period.
Kingdom of God is within you. It is going on right now. It is righteousness. And have you discovered that when you know everything is all right between you and God, there's peace? You're not agitated and worried and all convicted and guilty. Righteousness, peace, and have you noticed that when you have peace, you just automatically feel joy? And do you know that it all comes from the Holy Spirit? Brother, the kingdom of God is the most wonderful kingdom. It's not really visible right now. It's in us. One of these days, it's going to be visible, and He's going to reign from Jerusalem, and the whole world is going to live according to His dictates, His laws, and His holiness. But right now, that kingdom is inside of me. And right now, I'm supposed to rejoice because I've been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I have the joy of the Lord that strengthens my soul. And I have peace that passes all understanding. This comes from being in the kingdom of God. Say amen, somebody.
I think I preached long enough. I don't want to quit, but I am. Stand with me, please. Oh, I just had a good thought from the good Lord. Kind of go on another moment. They say, I can, you ever wonder why it's so hard to give to the Lord sometimes? You know, I can't, I can't tithe. You would see tithing is the least amount you're supposed to give. You ever wonder why it's so hard? I'll tell you why. Paul explained it in Second Corinthians chapter 8. That church there was so poor, they had already been persecuted, their goods were stripped from them, and they were, they were in poverty. And yet they heard that the saints in Jerusalem were starving to death under their persecution. And they got together and said, "Let's take up an offering." And they notified Paul, "When you get here, we got a big offering for you to take to the saints in Jerusalem." Paul said, "They gave out of their need." But here's, here's what makes it make sense. He said, "But first they gave themselves to the Lord." They didn't give their money first. They first, first, hello, first gave themselves to the Lord. May I tell you, when you give yourself to the Lord first, everything else is easy. All giving, all work, all sacrifice, all worship, everything is easy when you have first given yourself to the Lord. How about the nodding of the heads? Can I see some? So if you're struggling with your generosity, you're struggling because you haven't yet given yourself to the Lord. You've not yet said, "If I perish, I perish." You're still saying, "In case something happens, I got some stuff laid up." No, the Lord says, "I don't want you to have anything laid up. I want you to trust Me." Like Israel did. They ate manna every morning, and God made sure it was there, and nobody went without. Trust Me. And if you perish, you perish. But you won't, because David said, "I have been young, now I am old, and I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." Who would raise your hands and bless God with me right now? Would you do that? Bless Him. [Music] Hallelujah. Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
Let me say one more thing. Listen to me carefully. If your goal was not to get out of debt, but to know Jesus, you'd get out of debt. If your goal was to seek the kingdom of God first in His righteousness, God handles debt. God can handle it. He handled your eternal debt when Jesus paid it with His blood. He can handle any other debt there is. All right. You know, I can't sing very well. I've told you that 10 times in the last three months. I don't care anymore. I'm going to take this old, raspy preacher's voice and give it the best I got this morning. "In the morning when I rise, in the morning when I die, that's what I want."
Now, may the Lord richly bless you. May the God of our salvation surround you. May He smile upon you, and may you smile back at Him. May you be free from the shackles of worldly security and dreams and hopes. May they be snapped as you now look upward and say, "My God shall supply all my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." I have an assignment for you. I would like for you to take those chapters that I referred to today, Matthew 6, 13, Luke 12, and I would like for you to study those chapters this week. But I'm already, in addition to that, can you, can you study too much? Come on now. So there it is. Matthew 6, Matthew 13, Luke 12. Write it. Write stuff down as God speaks to you. Get in a quiet, lonely, holy place and just read it over and over, and as God speaks to you, you'll be amazed at what He says to you. Amen.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen. God bless you, church. I love you. [Music] Thank you.