Mike Bickle emphasizes the Kingdom Paradigm of Finances, explaining that God's ultimate purpose is to unite the heavenly and earthly realms through Jesus. He discusses the importance of understanding our financial decisions in light of our eternal assignments, warning against the spirit of covetousness that can defile our hearts and hinder our spiritual growth. Bickle encourages believers to ask God what they lack in their relationship with Him, highlighting the need for a heart aligned with God's purposes to ensure prosperity in both this life and the next. He uses the story of the rich young ruler to illustrate how wealth can complicate one's spiritual journey and emphasizes the necessity of generosity and a proper perspective on finances.

In the name of Jesus to release the spirit of revelation. Even now, a spirit of inspiration, and give us your heart concerning finance, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I'm gonna start Roman numeral one, which is a point I make all the time here, and if you're local, then you've heard this a dozen times, and if you're new, then it's a necessary foundation. I'll just take a couple, just two or three minutes on this, and because it's critical to understanding kingdom finance. It's the subject of the kingdom of God on the earth. Roman numeral one, the centerpiece of God's purpose. The very center of God, what God wants to do, He wants to bring the heavenly realm and the earthly realm together on the earth. That's what the kingdom of God is about, that Jesus would rule with the two realms coming together. Ephesians chapter one, Paul the Apostle said, having made known to us, God made known to us that the mystery or the hidden plan of His purposes, of His will, and here's His hidden plan. This is the mystery of what God's about. He's gonna bring together, He might gather together into one reality. All things, the heavenly realm, the earthly realm, He wants to bring it together in Jesus as one reality. Paragraph A, the centerpiece of God's purpose is for Jesus to come back to the earth, establish His kingdom on the earth, and join the two realms together. God's purpose has always been for God and His people to live together on the earth. That's always been His plan. This idea of the coming together of the two realms is the interpretive key to understand the end times. If you don't understand that point, the end times, and a whole lot of what's going on in this age right now, we can't make sense of it without this interpretive key. B, the heavenly realm speaks of the supernatural realm where God's power and presence are openly manifest. It's in this realm that the angels live. This is the place where believers go for the last 2,000 years from the cross to the second coming, but this is a temporary holding pattern. Heaven, far away, is a temporary holding pattern from the cross to the second coming. And the reason saints don't have a resurrected body in heaven, we get our resurrected body at the second coming. We don't have one. When believers go to be with the Lord now, their spirit goes, but they don't get a body simply because they don't need a resurrected body to relate to the environment of heaven. It's a spiritual environment. But when we come to the earth and the joining together of the natural realm and the spirit realm, we need a physical body to relate to the natural material environment of the new earth, of the millennial earth, and then the new earth. We can continue in paragraph B. At the end of it, it says that when the new Jerusalem comes to the earth at the second coming, the new Jerusalem comes down. It is referred to as heaven. The scripture talks about our rewards in heaven, and what that means, it's the new Jerusalem which has a heavenly dimension, but it's on the earth in connection with the material realm. So, our rewards are in heaven. Our dwelling place is the new Jerusalem, but the new Jerusalem is descending to the earth from God. Paragraph C. The earth speaks of the material physical realm. It's the place where human process and human emotion and physical sensation reach their fullest expression. The materiality of the millennial earth, the material dimension of the earth when Jesus comes, makes it necessary to need a resurrected body. Paragraph D. As Gentiles, I say this probably every three or four weeks, and so again, if you're around, you've heard this over and over, but we really need to grasp this because the paragraph D can help us in our approach to the end times scriptures. And our approach to the end times is essential to understand the kingdom right now and to understand finances. Without understanding the nature of the kingdom, trying to make sense of many passages about finances is a real challenge. As a matter of fact, it's impossible to do it. Paragraph D. As Gentile believers, and most of us are Gentile believers in this room, we think of worshiping Jesus as God in the supernatural conditions of heaven. We emphasize Jesus's deity as the Son of God. You hear that and say, wow, that sounds perfect. It is. It's right, but it's not the complete message. It is right, but it's not the complete message. The Jewish paradigm is quite different, but it's equally true. The Jewish mindset, they don't think about worshiping Jesus as God in heaven. They think about reigning with the Messianic King as a man in the natural conditions on the earth. They don't emphasize Jesus's deity as the Son of God. They emphasize his humanity as the Son of David. Both of these realms, both categories of truth are necessary for the whole truth. Paragraph E. The millennial kingdom is the thousand-year reign. It's a literal thousand-year reign that begins at the second coming of Christ. Paragraph F. It's one of the major doctrines of the Bible. It's a doctrine that a lot of believers in the last couple decades, or possibly even generations, have kind of not really paid a lot of attention to. Most believers in 2005 don't really think about it. You don't hear much teaching on it. Find references to it in theology books. But it's one of the major doctrines of the whole Bible, Old and New Testament. The reality of the kingdom of God coming on the earth with Jesus as king on the earth. Paragraph G. We have three main assignments in God. Three main assignments in the most general category. You could break this down in a whole lot of more specific sub-departments. But when you think of your life, when I think of my life, I think of three main time frames. And each of these have dynamic continuity with each other. Meaning, the first assignment, what I do in the first assignment, affects dynamically what happens to me in my second assignment. And I can only assume the same is true of what we do in our second assignment will affect our third assignment. That's an assumption. Number one, our first assignment is a 70 year assignment on the earth. I call that our internship. Beloved, it really is an internship. And that's the hardest thing for people to get that across in their mind. At best, we are interns. All of us are interns for 70 years on the earth. 80 due to strength, Moses said. Number two, our second assignment, and every born-again believer will have a second assignment. It's a thousand year assignment, and it's on the earth as well. And the third assignment is after that, after the Millennial Kingdom, when God the Father is face to face with us on the earth. I mean, the Father himself will be face to face on the earth with his people. And that will be our eternal assignment. And who knows how many, you know, different kind of installments there are in that one, you know. But the point of it is this. Our 70 year assignment right now, what we do with our life, our time, our money, our energy, dynamically affects our assignment, the second one, which is a thousand year assignment in the Millennial Kingdom. And a lot of believers are not connected to that point. And it is a grave, grave error to disconnect that. And you can't understand kingdom finances without understanding that point. Because Jesus talks about finances now and the use of them in a way that is dynamically related to how we will, our position in our next assignment. And beloved, our next assignment isn't in the clouds floating far away. Our next assignment is on the earth, on a material earth. We will have a material body on a material earth. I mean a solid, in the sense of physical body with all the supernatural qualities, but it will be a physical material body on a physical earth. And we will live in heaven, that's the city, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of God to the earth. That will be our dwelling place, but our workplace will be ruling the nations of the earth. Now, not all believers are going to have assignments of leadership in ruling. Matter of fact, I think a small number will, but the Lord offers it to all of his people who want it. But it is based significantly on our choices in this time, in this age, in this assignment. Roman numeral two, top of page two. It's an incident in Matthew chapter 19. It says one came to him. We know from Luke 18, it's the rich young ruler. It's a ruler. It's a young leader with a lot of money. This person comes, it's an unnamed person, or he's not described in Matthew 19, but Luke 18 makes it clear who it is. Came to him and said to Jesus. He's a very devout young businessman. He's got lots of money. He's a ruler. He's over a large sphere of responsibility. And we know that he's young and he's devout. He comes to Jesus and he said, good teacher. He liked Jesus. He liked what he heard. He goes, this is good. I like this. He goes, I got two questions for you. Question number one, what good thing shall I do so I can have eternal life? He was serious. He wanted salvation. He wanted to live forever. Jesus said to him, if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal, etc. Verse 20. The young man said to him, I've kept all these things from my youth. I am committed to this. He has a certain morality, a certain cleanness in his life. I mean, standing right in front of Jesus saying, hey, I've gone after these things. I've sought to walk these out. And Jesus doesn't in any way challenge his confession. Jesus was never shy about challenging something that wasn't true. So verse 20, he asked the second question. The young man, here we know he's a young, he's a rich young ruler, said to Jesus, all these things I've kept from my youth. Now here's the second question. What do I lack? Now that's a giant question to ask God here. I want to challenge you. I mean seriously, to ask Jesus, ask the Holy Spirit that question. It is the wisest question you can ask him. It's a very powerful question. You might be overwhelmed at the answer. This young man was overwhelmed at the answer, but I challenge you to ask this question on a regular basis. Not just young people, everyone. Lord, what do I lack in my relationship with you? What is it that I don't see that is important to you? That's the question. What is it that I don't see? What is unperceived in my character and my mindset? I can't grasp it that it's a deficiency, but it's something I'm lacking that's important to you. And you're going to bring it up when we meet face to face. It's the phrase I've said for years, Lord, don't shock me now. I mean then, shock me, shock me now. Don't shock me then. I don't want to be shocked at the judgment seat of Christ. I want to know what deficiencies, what is it I don't perceive in this right now that I'm missing that will be important to you when I stand before you on that day. I want to challenge you to ask that question. Matter of fact, we're going to take a minute right now. We're going to ask it. I'm just going to just take a moment and pray. Father, I ask right now, right now, all over this room, give one sentence, one phrase. What is it that we don't see in our speech, in our money, in our mindset, in our attitudes? What is it we don't see? It's unperceived that you care about, and you will bring up on the last day when we meet you. Amen. Verse 21, Jesus said, okay, I'll give it to you straight because this is the very thing I will tell you when I meet you later. I am the judge, and this is what I'm going to tell you later. What a gift that he gets to hear it now. But I assure you this is what would be said to him at the end of his life when he stands before the Lord. Jesus said, if you want to be perfect, or you want to be mature, if you want to complete, if you want to have a your heart complete in a way that pleases me, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go sell what you have and give it away. Specifically, give it to the poor. And if you do that, you will have treasure in heaven. Come and follow me. Now, the young man heard the saying, he went away very sorrowful because he had great possessions. He's very wealthy. He was young. He had a large amount of money and in a position of leadership. He was a ruler. Now, Jesus doesn't say directly in this passage, in the most direct way. He makes it clear what's going on in this young man's life. It's clear, it's clear from the passage and from the testimony of scripture, is that this young man, what he is lacking is he has a spirit of covetousness. And he doesn't see it. He says, I don't murder. I don't steal. I'm not involved in immorality. I don't do these other things. But one of the most pervasive, one of the most pervasive areas of darkness in the church of Jesus Christ today is the area of covetousness. And it's, it's like bitterness. Covetousness and bitterness are similar in this regard, that those are, those two areas of darkness are pervasive in the church, but almost nobody thinks they have those two. When somebody is involved in drunkenness, it takes them a while to say, I'm a drunk, but they go, you know, I probably drank a little bit too much. They kind of inch their way to that one, but they have some recognition. The realm of immorality, they're very, very aware of that. The realm of anger, well, they have outbursts and, you know, if they're a blatant liar, they know they're lying. But two areas that are very pervasive, matter of fact, two areas that we have automatically except we attack them, is the subject of bitterness. I don't mean full-scale bitterness, but it's very normal, it's very common for us to all have a residue of bitterness in our spirit we're unaware of. There's been several times over the years, and just recently, just four or five years ago, the Lord made it clear to me that I had a residue of bitterness. It was, it surprised me, but He made it really clear to me, because I just, that's something I don't want in my heart. And the Lord made it clear to me, shined His light on it. He says, you have this, and I go, no! Well, yes. I mean, yes, Lord. I mean, no way! I had it before, because there was another time a few years back, the Lord spoke that to me clearly. I thought, and then, and I don't want to get off on that right now, but my point being, most of us assume we don't have it, and I assume most of you in this room have a residue of bitterness that's unperceived in your heart, that's blocking your heart in God, and it's critical that we answer that to get our heart free. But even more pervasive than bitterness is covetousness. In 30 years of preaching, I have never heard anybody, I mean, not just preaching, I'm talking about in leading, I have never met anybody besides one man. I can only think of one man who, who, I've never met anyone who thought, assumed they had a problem with covetousness, and probably the vast majority of all the believers I've met have had a dimension of this operating in their life, but it's unperceived. They don't know it, but it's still affecting their life in God. It's still, it's what Jesus said in Matthew and Mark 7. I got it later on in the handout here. He says that covetousness will defile your heart. It will shut your heart down. Covetousness, a wrong attitude towards money, will cause our hearts to be defiled. It will cause the spirit of prayer to be quenched. It will cause the tenderness and the word to be gone. It will cause, you know, people say, well, I just, a real dry time in the word, and the reason it's a dry time in the word is our hearts are defiled. Mark 7 verse 13, I mean verse 21, give us a number of four, five, seven or eight things that defile our hearts, so when we read the word, the word is choked in us, and we're reading it. It's not just the word became boring, it's that there's defiling things working in our heart, and it's very common to all of us. It's not a big scandal. It's operating in all of us, but people just have the hardest time connecting their boredom in prayer and boredom in the word with the fact that there's defilement working in their spirit, and beloved, the good news is that is the answer, and we can solve that answer. But covetousness is one of the most prevailing, unperceived defilements in the body of Christ right now. Paragraph A, this devout businessman comes to Jesus saying, what do I lack? That's the question of the hour. Again, that's the question we want to ask a lot. Lord, what is it I don't see now that is important to you that you are going to bring up when I meet you face to face? Shock me now, don't shock me then. And that's not a question you want to ask once. It's a question you want to ask many times, and it is the greatest gift. It's an indescribable gift when God answers that question. That is grace upon grace when he answers you, because I assure you God's not going to change what's important to him. And if it's on his mind now, it will be on his mind then. And I say, Lord, give me grace. Give it to me straight. I'm not going to try to fake you out now and then try to like pull or, you know, pull off some charade at the judgment seat. It's simply not going to happen. Tell me. Jesus answers that what this guy lacked was an appropriate view of how his business assignment, he had an assignment in business. I mean, God gave him this. He didn't know how this assignment in his business affected his next assignment in eternity. He couldn't connect that. And secondly, he didn't perceive, he didn't understand he had a problem with covetousness. That's what he didn't grasp, and he didn't know that that problem is going to affect his next assignment, his thousand-year assignment. And Jesus was acting in kindness. He goes, you really want to settle this? Because you can have treasure forever, because the way you're going, your treasure is going to be minimal, the way that you're living right now. And this guy is moral. This guy is living a somewhat clean life. Clean as compared to what others would call clean. Let's say it that way. And many people who are living nice, moral, Christian lives, they consume their resources on themselves. They don't consider the bigger picture, and they don't know their thousand-year assignment is going to be affected by what they do with the resources. And your resources are more than money. It's our time and our energy. It's the whole thing. It's all that we have as humans. Paragraph B. Our external prosperity, which is the gift of God. Our prosperity in circumstances is God's gift to us. The scripture makes that clear. But our external prosperity is only safe in context to our soul prospering. If our hearts are not growing faster than our circumstances are growing, our hearts are going to get locked and defiled. This is something over the years that I have a lot of energy about, especially with young people. It's very common. I certainly understand it. I had more than my fair share of this mindset. Young people, often they want to get their ministry going now and fast. Bigger, better, faster. Faster and bigger is always better. And they don't understand that for circumstances, whether it's money or honor, those are two of the big arenas of prosperity, money or honor. You know, a bigger ministry, a bigger platform. If that grows faster than their heart grows, their heart gets defiled. And they actually, their blessing and increase ends up setting them back and diminishing their role in their next assignment. And most people, it's normal to just the human, our unrenewed mind, we want bigger and better now. And we'll deal with our heart later. And the Lord says, no, you don't. You don't. Because bigger and better circumstances, without your heart staying in track, tracking along with it, you will get defiled. And you will lose your way. And you will lose some of your place in your next assignment. John the Apostle is the one that said this. I say, I pray that you may prosper in all things. That's, that's money and honor. You know, the favor of God in relationships, the favor of God in your ministry, that's honor. And there's lots of ways you could, you could say that and categorize it. But it's basically money and honor. He says that Paul Johnson, I pray, I want you to prosper. And I want you to be in health. But he puts this, this really significant qualifier that you rarely hear the qualifier emphasized. He goes, I want your ministry and your money to grow, but only as your soul grows. Which means the prayer backwards, if their soul is famished, if their soul, if their heart is small, keep their ministry small, and keep their honor small, so it doesn't injure them in the long term. That prayer in reverse is, Lord, if their soul is diminished, keep their circumstances diminished. Now, don't take it to an illogical conclusion. God calls most people to small ministries. That's his biggest will for them, is for the ministry to be small their whole life. Their influence to be small, and he rewards them in small things. And so, so don't lose perspective on that. But here's what I'm trying to say here, is that in the, in the Word of God, God really cares about this rich young ruler. His, his, his bank is, his bank numbers are way bigger than his heart is. And he has a spirit of covetousness he can't see. And he has another assignment coming after the second coming of Jesus he can't see. He can't see a second assignment, and he can't see how small his heart is because of covetousness. And he's just elated about his money. And Jesus says, you're in a more perilous situation than you really understand right now. Paragraph C. Scripture is clear. It's against the spirit of poverty. The Bible is against the spirit of poverty, and the Bible is against the spirit of covetousness. But what the Bible is into is the spirit of giving. I've, I've sought for many years now to be an extravagant giver with whatever resources God has given me. And I've had over the years guys come to me because I've been very happy, very content in the grace of God to have a simple and a minimal lifestyle. Though I've had, you know, significant amounts of money come through my hands in various ways and forms through the years. And it's not a sacrifice. I want to live in a simple lifestyle. And I've had lots of guys over the years and they go, well, spirit of poverty. God's not into that. I go, I am as at war against the spirit of poverty as I am the spirit of covetousness. I'm not into poverty. Well, your house is a little bit small. I go, no, I'm radically into giving because I'm, I'm connecting my actions in this age to the age to come. I am radically into having a lot of money just in the next assignment. I'm not into poverty. I'm into giving because I have a revelation somewhat, not as much as I need. I have a revelation of the connection between the two realms. And so, uh, it's, it's in more times than not, I'm just, I'm passing judgment here, but I think it's a spirit of discernment more times than not. It wasn't compassion on my spirit of poverty. It was conviction on their spirit of covetousness. And they would run into it and they'd go, you know, I don't really, this is uncomfortable because it seems like you're telling me I should live this way. I don't even have an opinion what you do. And I've ran into that for many years. But beloved, if God has called you to a spirit of giving, don't let somebody steal it out of your heart by religious jargon of telling you it's a spirit of poverty. I've, I've withstood that for many, many years and I'm, and I'm happy to withstand it. To me, it's a small thing to withstand it. But in my early years, it threw me off. And then I started figuring out they were under conviction more times than not, not always because of the spirit of covetousness in their own life. And they thought, you know, as long as all the preachers operate in covetousness, we can get in the old boys club, pat each other on the back and tell each other how got much God's blessing us and never deal with the issue ever in our heart. But beloved, like the rich young ruler, it's not going to go away on its own. It's only going to go away by acting in the opposite spirit. Now, Jesus was looking at this guy and he saw his, his, uh, large bank account. There's nothing wrong with the large bank account, but Jesus, by word of knowledge, this is particular to this rich young ruler, by word of knowledge, he looks at him and he says, no, you have a bigger problem than you know, and you can only, you can only overcome it by acting in the opposite spirit. In your case, not everybody has to give all, should give all their money away, but he goes, in your case, you've got an extreme high toxic level of covetousness. You know nothing about, and you have to get radical if you want to get free from this thing. And I, I, I, uh, challenge you to go after it right now with zeal, start attacking this in the opposite spirit. And if you do in your next assignment in heaven, again, it's a new Jerusalem that comes down upon the earth. It's on the earth. You will be delighted. You will be delighted as to what the exchange rate is. By sowing now beloved for 70 years, we so, and for a thousand years, we reap a hundred fold of what we sold that the exchange rate will never be higher than it is right now. This is for real. That's, that's a cute little statement, but it's really real. What a dollar and an hour will get you in eternity by investing it into God's purposes right now is amazing. If the higher return rate than anything, a dollar or an hour of service or an hour, pour yourself in, we'll get you in this age. It's very, very important. It's, it's not a strange thing at all for a young man, young woman, you know, to go to medical school. You know, they get out of high school and they go the four years of the university, four years of med school, then a couple of years of this and a couple of years of that, depending on their specialty. It's not at all strange for them to put 10 or 12 years, a couple of hundred thousand dollars, 80 hour weeks, a couple of hundred thousand dollars in 10 years, 80 hour weeks. And they're going to have a 50 year medical practice and be a specialist and make an impact and, and have a certain amount of economic blessing and Liberty. And that's just good math to work hard for 10 years in order to have 50 years of skill and empowerment and data, whatever. And if we could do it for 10 years, people do that in all kinds of professions, they pour 10 years, they get their PhD costs couple hundred thousand dollars, but 50 years in their occupation as a professional, you know, more things happen. If you, if somebody would do that for 10 years for a 50 year return, why wouldn't we do it 70 years for a thousand year return? It's the exact logic of going to med school. Beloved we're in our internship right now and the Lord's giving us money or withholding money to see what happens in our heart. That will determine the kind of money he will set us over in the, in our next assignment. The Lord's looking at me right now. I'll just make a personal saying, Hey, little peewee. I'm sure he doesn't use those terms, but I am checking you out because I am sorting out right now. What kind of finance I want to put you over in your next assignment. So just keep responding to me. And when I meet you face to face, I'll let you know what I'm going to do with you in finances. And an authority related to your use of them or your abuse of them for your 70 years. Paragraph D this rich young ruler, Jesus loved him. Look at the bottom of the page there in Mark 10 verse 21. I have to go to Mark, you know, cause we're in Matthew right now, but I'm giving you Mark's a version of this. He adds the word, Jesus looked at this young man and he loved him. Jesus wasn't rebuking him. Jesus said like, I really like you. I am giving you the answer of a lifetime. I am giving you an opportunity to get free from a spirit of anxiety and bondage related to money. Cause for a rich man to have a spirit of anxiety and bondage related to money, which is really, really common, it makes life on earth really hard. People without money, look at the folks that have a lot of money. They think, Oh, it must be awesome. I've had the opportunity of the years to know some guys with lots of millions. And most of them are really weighed down by their money. They're way down. You know, you'd step away. You look at him and go, wow, it must be awesome. You get close to smile. Hey, get with it. Cheer up. God's with you. I love God. God gave me the money, but boy, it sure is hard. Jesus was wanting to free this man, not only free him for now, Jesus wanted to get him in a setup where he would have his next assignment with prosperity on it. See what the Lord wants in your life. He wants you to prosper in economics, but he wants you to prosper in your heart. He doesn't want you to only prosper with money. He wants you to prosper with your heart, but he doesn't only want you to prosper your first assignment. He wants that prosperity to last into your second assignment. And my guess is many guys in the kingdom that have more, more, uh, you know, a fair share of money. Now, my guess is most of them will not have that prosperity in the next stage. Some of them tithe, uh, you know, the do a little bit of this and that, and the Lord would have them at a whole different level, significantly pouring themselves into this. And he'll sort that out with him. I'm not the judge over any of them. I don't really have opinions on any individuals, but what I'm saying is, is that the Lord loved this guy. And he's saying, young man, don't you know, I'm trying to free you now to make your life a whole lot. You're spirit free now, but I'm trying to get you into a setup to where this prosperity lasts, because where you're going, none of this money is going to follow you. None of it will be with you where you're going. None of it's going to have a return of reward. If you sow it now, if you use it right, which is really what Jesus is saying, you challenge head on the spirit of covetousness, you get free from the spirit of covetous. You can keep your money. If you deal with the spirit of covetousness, because you don't care about the money, a person might have millions and get free with the spirit of covetousness. That would be a fantastic miracle. And those things are happening today. That kind of man or woman has such Liberty. There's such a tool in the hand of God to have wealth, but without having a spirit of covetous, but beloved a spirit of covetousness, isn't something goes away on its own. It goes away because we have faced it head on and we've intentionally sought God in this area. And we've sown, we've operated in a, in a, in an opposite spirit. We've given money when it hurts in obedience and in generosity and our heart grows and our bank account in our next assignment grows. Both of them, our heart grows in this age, but beloved our assignment grows in the age to come. I tell people, I don't care if you got a, a poor person can be equally as covetous as a rich person. It's a very, very wrong idea that only the rich are covetous. The poor are equally as covetous as the rich are. The poor love money as much as the rich do. And if the poor come into money, they will act the same way that the adversary that is rich is acting more times than not. There's obviously exceptions. Covetousness is a cancer and Jesus wanted this man free from it. Cancer, you know, it's like going to a doctor. This is what I think is going on. I'm trying to encourage you as a, as teachers and preachers. I'm not trying to affirm me in this next statement right now, but we need to be bold. I'm talking about you need to be bold on this subject. The body of Christ in the Western world is so utterly in deception and darkness and compromise on this subject. I mean, utterly in darkness and in deception on this, on this, on this issue of covetousness, not utterly in the sense of a hundred percent, but the high, I mean, clearly 90% plus. It's a blinding thing. The passage we'll look at in a minute, Jesus called it, it's on the handout here. He called it the deceitfulness of riches. And, uh, it's really not cool to address this, that there will nothing that will get you, uh, more in the, you know, on the, the left foot of fellowship, you're going to have a fun, a few funny doctrines, and you could even put your name and your picture on a bunch of things. And guys will kind of look the other way. You get heavy about the issue of money, their money, and you'll get the left foot of fellowship instantaneously. The Pharisees were more angry about Jesus touching their money than he was them, him, him touching, uh, the other areas that affected their life. And over the years I've watched this. This is absolutely the live wire that sets the bomb off. And I've, uh, a time or two through the years touched it a little heavier than I anticipated and, uh, found out that I really hit the hornet's nest. And sometimes I don't touch it with the, with the humility and the, uh, wisdom and the gentleness. And sometimes I compromise and I don't, and I don't always know which is which, but I can tell you this. We need an army of bold. I don't mean angry or arrogant. I'm not talking about angry and arrogant. I'm talking about bold, clear, clear eyes, bright spirit, bright understanding. We need preachers that will address the subject of covetousness in the church, in the Western world. And, uh, just if you do that, if you sign up and say it, pledge your head to heaven, because your head will probably be handed to you. Uh, I'm not even joking about this. More martyrs will come out of this subject. It's, it's, uh, I'm not actually being funny about that. We need bold, clear witnesses to this subject. And again, I'm not trying to affirm what I'm doing right now. I'm trying to bolster you in your proclamation of the gospel as a man or woman of God, whether you're a preacher on a platform or not, it's not the point. I'm talking about a clear standard of righteousness that discerns the darkness that is prevailing over the church in America. It is really darkness and it is deception and the Lord is going to expose it. And I want to be a part of the answer. I want to be on the Lord's team in it. I don't want to be part of the problem. I don't want to be like patting all the guys on the back, telling them how awesome everything is while they're living in deception and kind of flattering them on their way in their darkness, even though they love Jesus. I don't want to participate in that. It's not like every time I have to address it. I don't want to address it without a, without an unction of the Holy spirit, but I go in lots of settings and I'm saying, Lord, I'm willing to bring the subject up. I don't want to, I really don't want to. And if you don't make it really clear, I'm definitely not, but I'm willing to, I'm willing to talk at this subject at various levels. And I have a number of times and, and it's not always gone so well, but I feel like the Lord's pleased with it. And, and I know he'll have me do it more. It's really easy here. You guys, we, you know, we're all on the same team. That's cool. Great message. That's easy here. This doesn't count doing it here. And I teach on the end times here, be a great message. And I get with the other guys and go, uh, well, you know, there's, well, I'll get back. I'll email you that answer, you know, meaning it's easy to be bold in the house. Roman numeral three, the revelation of the dilemma. Jesus said his disciples. Now we're back to the Matthew 19, uh, story here. He talks to his disciples, you know, after they've, they've heard this thing about the rich young ruler. And, uh, Jesus says, let me tell you the dilemma that this guy does not grasp here. He says it in one sentence. It is hard. It is hard for a rich man to progress, to enter the kingdom of heaven, not enter the kingdom of heaven. Doesn't mean to be born again, although it certainly, it does. I mean, it does mean that, but it doesn't only mean that's what I meant to say. It's not that it's hard for the rich to get born again. And once the rich become born again, while they made it, no, Jesus is saying more than their entry into salvation to do birth. He's saying it is hard for a rich person to, to progress, to grow in the kingdom. It's hard for them. And if they know it's hard, half the battle is already won. If they know it's hard, verse 24, he said, let me repeat it again. Case. You did not understand me. He's telling the disciples, I say to you again, it's easier. He says it the other way. Now it goes, it's hard, but now he goes the other way and says the same thing, but from the other angle, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle that a rich man to progress, to grow in the, in the things of the kingdom verse 25. Now, when the disciples heard this, they were astonished. They go, really? Well, who can be saved? Not just born again. Who can enter into the purposes of God? Who can enter into the deliverance of God? When it talks about saved, it's more than just, you know, uh, your name's in the book of life who can enter into the kingdom lifestyle of deliverance and salvation and enter into this thing. If, if it, this is so hard paragraph eight, okay. Jesus makes a very important statement. He said, it's hard for a rich person. Now take the word rich and don't limit it to money. It's rich in money and rich in honor, because one person has a lot of money, but not so much honor. Another person has a lot of honor. They have a big platform, a big ministry or whatever, a big network of influence, but they don't have that much money. And one person has both of them. And he's telling them the rich don't limit it to money because it might be that you never have lots of money, but the Lord may give you a voice to the nations. You have a large, you have honor in the body of Christ. And he's telling you the same thing. It is hard for you. It's hard for you to progress in the kingdom. If you get blessed circumstances, I know that sounds contrary to the scripture, but my safety net is I'm quoting Jesus. So that's why I feel really safe right now. It's contrary to the Western culture and the Western mindset and Western logic. It's not contrary to the Bible. He says, it's hard. I'm going on to the next statement in paragraph a riches in this age, whether honor or money make it difficult to fully surrender to God. That's one thing that makes it a difficult surrender, but riches. The second thing take a lot of time to manage. And that's the part that people who want riches don't think about. It's hard to obey God with the greater platform and the greater wealth, but it takes a lot more time to manage it. When I had $10 and 10 people in my Bible study, it was easy to obey God with my money and with my ministry and the demands of how to invest my $10 and the demands of these 10 people who wanted me to done it, you know, whatever were the demands were very small. And when my money went up and my platform on my honor went up time-wise became way harder to stay steady with God. I went, this is like heavy. Lord says, it's not impossible. I'm just telling you it's hard. And by the grace of God, I'm not certainly they haven't done it perfect, but I'm saying this for the sake of the 20 year olds, the 20 somethings, this phrase, it is hard touched my heart in my twenties, meaning I'm not a full revelation, but it struck me. And it was the one of the great, most gracious things God gave me by revelation. Mike, you're praying, you're fasting. If I give you a breakthrough, you will have great honor and you will have great wealth in your hands within the context of your ministry. That will make your life hard. That struck me like an arrow in my twenties. I said, you mean if I, and my prayers get answer, my life will get hard and there's a chance my life in God will be diminished. And the answer is mostly that's what happens in church history, man or woman of God press in and their twenties, they get the breakthrough in the thirties and forties or whatever, put whatever age you want to put on that. They get either the money or the honor or both. And they're fifties large platform, large profile to manage, but a very, uh, cold heart spirit of prayer is not there. Uh, a tender rising of their heart in the word of God is not there. They're the movements of their heart. They had in their twenties are not there. And what they did not grasp is that when they get the increase, it's not impossible. It's hard. And by the grace of God early on, I wish I had got it earlier, but early on the revelation of the dilemma of prosperity of honor and money, it's not like we don't want it, but we know it has, it has trouble with it. And the trouble isn't just the devil attacks. The trouble is our heart gets diminished and we lose out in our next assignment. I said, Lord, I'm not happy with that. And the Lord might've said something like, keep talking to me. I like it. You're going in the right direction. No, I am not going to give over my thousand year assignment. I'm not going to be like in the 10 years of med school and throw away my medical practice. I'm not going to be in my 70 year assignment and throw away my thousand year assignment. My next one, because of money and honor, I am not going to do that. Lord just keep talking. You're moving in the right direction. And I certainly, uh, haven't, uh, walked it out in the, in the fullest way that I would, that I would have walked out, but I'm telling you, 20 year olds, I'm giving you a revelation straight from Jesus's heart. If you get money and you get honor, and a number of you in this room are going to get one or the other, or both your life will be hard in God. And if you know it, you're halfway there. But most people with big ministries don't even know their life in God's heart. You talk to him. Well, I don't have time to pray like he used to. And now I'm really busy. A little run out. I go, do you realize you are diminishing and canceling out your assignment in the next age by these very nice kind words, you're describing yourself. Well, I'm a little burnout, a little tired, which means you're canceling yourself out for the next stage. Not that you won't be saved. I go, brother, rise up and attack this. So what are you talking about? This is your life in God. You've got another assignment coming and it's, and it's in the balance by what you do here. This rich young man that Jesus loved. He loved this kid. And he said, guy, I want your heart free now. And I want your assignment big in the age to come. And neither of them are going to happen the way you're living right now. And this guy was very sorrowful instead of being grateful and saying, you know what, you just saved me a car wreck. I mean, a train wreck in my life. Jesus could have said, yes, I am saving you a disaster in your life, but you don't have enough understanding to know you have a problem. Blessed is the young person, the 20 year old that grass, this, the grass, this, get it, get it before I did. I didn't have it at that age, get it and get more than I had and begin to get sober and clear eyed and clear minded about this on the front end. Paragraph D a B B. I mean, the rich man and the apostles were really surprised. You know, rich man was sad. The apostles were amazed. They go, what, what new doctrine is this? And here's the unspoken issue. The unspoken issue is how can God's covenant blessings related to money and honor Deuteronomy 28, the famous chapter, how could they diminish my place in God in the age to come? And I want to say this. My guess is my, my discernment is mostly, usually that's what happens. Usually an increased honor and increased economics leads to a person in a diminished role in their next assignment. And that's why the Lord is so kind about saying, you know, I know you're kicking and screaming. You really don't want what you're asking for because you want the bigger and the longer thing. But some of you are getting a spirit of wisdom along before your years and a spirit of understanding. You have a sober mind and you're saying, you know what? I'm going to live for the age to come right now. I'm going to be sober about this. I'm going to know how to say no to opportunities. And I'm going to know, have the ability to say yes to wisdom. And I'm going to ask the Lord, what do I lack? And I'm going to deal, I mean, radically with these hidden, unperceived issues in my heart. Paragraph C, the answer that Jesus is giving in essence is that the old covenant, and I don't mean old covenant, like bah humbug, old Testament. No, old Testament's awesome. Promises of the old Testament are yes and amen. Absolutely. They're good. Most, not all, but most of the old Testament blessings focused on the external, the new covenant blessings, not all of them during this age, focus on the internal. And the two together is the whole package of third John verse two, that you would prosper and be in health as your soul prospers. I'm going to say that again, that your old Testament is mostly, not only focusing on the external blessings, and we need them, the new covenant, the spirit comes on the inside, not only, but mostly focuses on the internal blessing, the ability for our heart to be alive in God, have intimacy with God, have our heart flowing like a river on the inside, moving with power on the inside. And the Lord wants to bring the two together. The new doesn't cancel out the old. The two sets of promises go together. But what's important to know that is that the external promises are only good for you if the internal heart grows. Because if you're growing the outside more than you grow on the inside, you lose some of your place in the age to come. It's an absolute fact of scripture. I mean, that's such a clear principle of scripture. I wish I could take you through a 20 different examples. I'm not going to do that. Let's go down to F. Go down to F. Jesus taught that our hearts are choked and our hearts are defiled by the deceitfulness of riches. Look what he says in Mark four. He goes, these are the ones that are. This is the seed. The seed of the word of God is sewn among thorns. He's talking about a heart response or thorns. These are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and desire for other things, choke the word of God and their hearts are unfruitful in the word. Look at those three things. Those are all like those are all related to each other. These are three subjects that almost nobody thinks they have cares of the world. Well, my aunt Susie's like that. I don't know. I don't, I don't care about the world. The seedfulness of riches. Oh, my uncle Bill, he's into that. You know, he's a preacher and well, I'm not desires for other things. All I only want is God. And most people just live in perpetual deception because they got toxic levels of all three of these working in their heart. And the, and the proof is the word is choked in them. When they read it, it's boring. It's dead. It doesn't move. There's beloved. We got God on the inside. We are his bride, his beloved. We got the word of God. Our heart should be moving. And my point is it to be condemning. My point is to say something is choking the word of God. Ask the Lord what it is. Don't just say it's a bad season and the devil's attacking me. It's not the devil. Mostly it's your hardest choked by the cares of life. And you can dance around it any way you want. You'll never, I decided this a long time ago. You will never fake out the Holy Spirit to where you get him moving on the inside. When you're living contrary to what he says to do Holy Spirit, I am really yours. I want nothing, but you Holy Spirit goes, I love you, but not, that's not true. Just move on me. Holy Spirit. All I want is you. Well, you want me, but I'm about eighth on your list and I'm working my way up. I'm going to get at the top before you're going to have a couple ouchies between now and then, but I'm going to be number one for those things over. He's state champion wrestler. He wins every wrestling match at the end for the people that love him. Beloved. I want to say this again, the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, desire. They choke the word. I'm going to ask you, it's very normal. Most of you are in your twenties or younger in this, in this room. When I was in my twenties, I had such a hard time for my heart connecting with the word of God. It started in my twenties, in my mid twenties somewhere. It's not like I have a date. Uh, but it started happening. I started feeling the power of the word of the inside. And I remember laboring. It was so boring. So this, that I just thought the Bible was boring. What was happening is my spirit was choked and I didn't know that it takes a while to get your mind renewed and to get clear on the issues. Same thing in Mark seven, the next passage down says out of the heart, defile, evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, fornications, covetousness. These defile a man's spirit or man's heart. Beloved these defile me, defile me. I mean, they quench my heart of the word. They quench the brightness of my spirit. They quench my ability to feel God. A quenched spirit is a defiled spirit and it comes from covetousness. Not only, not only. And again, I'm not trying to be heavy in the sense of, Oh, my God, just quit. I got such a quenched heart. Now it's very normal. It's very common, but let's address the disease as though it's a disease. I, Jesus is talking to this rich, young ruler as a compassionate, uh, uh, physician. He's looking at the guy going, you got cancer. Do you want me to give you good news? Or do you want me to tell you the reality? This thing is going to spread and get to kill you. You want me to help you get rid of it? Or do you want me to pat you on the back and give you some, some medicine? That's not going to help. And a lot of people just give each other medicine with sugar in it. And that cancer is not going to go away. It's not going to go away. And I want to be clear because I care. And I want you to be clear with people because you care. And we have to be bold and precise about what the word of God says. I'm going to go to one more verse top of page four. It's a paragraph. I It's right at the last page. I'll end with this. We must take comfort and assurance, you know, as to where we are in covetousness and all the areas only by the testimony of scripture. I am not excited that you think I am free from covetousness or doing well, that means absolutely nothing to my heart moving in God. I mean, I appreciate it. You're, you know, nice person. That was nice, but it doesn't move God. And it doesn't change my evaluation on the last day. I mean, I like it in the human sense. It's kind of fun. You know, hey, you're doing good, whether I am or not. And you know what a lot of people do, they just buy it. Beloved, if I tell you you're doing good, it means nothing. If the spirit in the in the word doesn't bear witness to it in your heart. And what I mean by that, I don't mean, you know, you go, you go hug your brother, your brother. Hey, bro, I really like you, man. You got a good heart. Probably not. You hypocrite. You're just trying to lull me to sleep. You will lay over to see, and I'm not going to be like you. Bah humbug. Don't get heavy like that. That's not what I'm getting into. But I, you know, I've had over the years, anybody's been in ministry for a few years had been alive for a few years, you know, a fair amount of affirmations. But one thing I've learned, those affirmations don't cause the spirit to move in me. Either the spirit believes them, or if he believes them, then he moves. If he doesn't, they do nothing. And they don't change my destiny at the turn on the judgment seat. And those are the biggies. So only take comfort and assurance in what the scripture tells you, not what the preacher tells you or your friend tells you. So I can't quite tell if I'm doing right. Well, good. You can't quite tell you're doing right. Get fanatical about getting in the word and figuring it out. Don't get comforted. A lot of guys, you know, pat them on the back. They're about to repent. We pat them on the back and tell them they're doing great. And we talk them right out of the repentance. I tell the story. My, my wife has given me permission to tell the story. I've told her for years. It was years ago. She was, uh, uh, saying, oh man, she goes, I just feel like I'm backslidden. And what she meant by that. She goes, I'm reading the word. It's boring. I don't have the time in it. I don't have this done. I got to get serious with God. And I kicked into the, uh, the nice carnal husband mode. And I said, oh, you don't lie, lie, lie. You're doing good. Lie, lie, lie, quencher spirit keeper and deception. And you're doing good. And right when I was doing that, I mean, it was alarm. It was alerting. I said, I was going to give my, just my automatic response. Oh, no, you're doing good. And I said, oh, you are backslidden. You are backslidden. That's a fact. She didn't even catch it that I had changed in midstream. And she said, I know, I know, and I hate it. And then I said, that's the gift of God operating in you. And I'm going to get on God's team and help this thing bring deliverance to you. And not only are you backslidden, the Lord turned the arrow on me, the sword, you are too backslidden. Whoa, you know, this thing is getting serious. No, I mean, we were in our twenties. I remember this and backslidden what I mean by backslidden and I'm using it in the real sense of the word that our spirit was fresh, but we lost a sense of its freshness in the word and in prayer. Some of the things that we were delighting into a year earlier ago, we didn't have the same feel and the zip and the go for it. And I said, you are backslidden and it's God's gift to you. It was like, I was prophesying to a right in flight. And I, and I, right before the prophecy was over, I turned it on me. I mean, it was the Lord. And I said, and I am too backslidden and I'm going to repent. And I'm going after this thing too. We had like a little revival there, just kind of a suddenly of God, you know, I was going to give her a nice little, Oh honey, you're doing great. Which means your hair looks cute today that, you know, something like that. And what God wanted, God wanted her heart. He says, you leave her alone. She she's a, she's moving to me. Don't give her some carnal comfort, cause her to move to me. This is her, her whole future is in the balance on whether she moves to me in, in incremental ways like this. And here's the passage I wanted to leave you with in second Corinthians 10 verse 12, just the one Paul says, we dare not class ourselves or, or, you know, get or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. So he goes, there's these guys, they commend themselves, you know, apostle Tom tells apostle bill, boy, you sure are an anointed apostle. And then a bill says, well, Tom, you're an anointed apostle too. Well, bill, I'll tell you what I'll write a little forward for your brochure in your book and say, you are the most anointed apostle. Well, bill, I'll write one for yours too. So he said, Paul said, I'm not going to get into that spirit where they're commending each other in some carnal falsehood. They measure themselves by themselves. They compare themselves with themselves and they get peace that they're on fire and there's no wisdom in it at all. They need to compare themselves to the word of God. And, uh, there's a lot of that going on in our nation today is that the vast majority of the body of Christ in America, I'm talking about the public image of it. I'm talking about every believer. I'm just talking about the image of it is that we're, we flatter one another in our godliness. When most of the body of Christ is living in covetousness, a touch of immorality, a little drunkenness here, there a good dose of bitterness without a spirit of prayer, without loving the word of God, oversaturated, overindulgent in food, in their entertainment, the recreation, God doesn't own their money to know their schedule. And we flatter one another about how godly we are. Paul said, what are you doing comparing yourself by yourself? So everybody gets an a on the test. You're all failing, but you grade each other's test. They give each other an a and you publish it and you feel good about it. And what I'm saying is this, you need to get the testimony from the word yourself. Where are you in this? Don't take my word. Hey bro, you're doing good. Say, Mike, I appreciate you. Just shut up and leave me alone. I got to know from God, if this thing is right, because your vote doesn't count at the judgment seat where I'm going and your vote doesn't count. If the spirit moves on the inside of me, only God's does. So it's just a little dose of reality. And we're in a good community of people because, you know, none of us have arrived, but we're all aiming in this direction. And that's a good thing. We are a gift to one another. Meaning there's a lot of us trying hard. We're not growing. I'm not growing as fast as I want to. You're not growing as fast as you want to, but we're all aiming. And that together, we become a gift of God to spur one another on. But let's spur one another on by truth and in the word and not into some false comfort and some false standard. Amen. Let's stand.