Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the dangers of greed, covetousness, and the love of money, urging Christians to cultivate humility and meekness to combat these deadly sins. He highlights the importance of being open to correction from others and recognizing learned behavioral patterns that may lead to destructive attitudes. The preacher encourages the congregation to seek God's guidance in understanding their relationship with money and to strive for contentment in their lives. He reminds them that true wealth is not measured by material possessions but by spiritual richness and a heart aligned with God's will.

And hallelujah to God. The Lord is so faithful and so wonderful. I want to give a word of testimony that I personally am physically feeling so much better from the presence of the Lord. David agrees. I know that before we began this morning, physically, I didn't even know if I was going to be able to stay. My knees were shaking. It's the, this bug that's going around, but I feel much better strengthened by the Lord's presence. So I just want to thank him for his faithfulness and encouraging and ministering to us. And I praise the Lord for his incredible ability to conquer human weakness and conquer human frailty. Amen. I'd like to ask this morning, if you came prepared in your heart for the Lord Jesus to minister to you, if not, then let's, let's just spend a second before the Lord quietly. Let's ask him, Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to gather together. We thank you, Lord, that we're not gathering together to a system, that we're not gathering together, Lord, to a program, that we're not here to be entertained, and that we didn't come, Lord, in order to experience some kind of religious emotions, but Lord, we've come together because we've been attracted through the Holy Spirit to the cross and that our hearts have been knit together by love. And that's what has compelled us, Lord. I thank you, Lord, that the labor of love going on in our midst is just that love, that there's no compulsion. That there's no authority being exercised compelling anyone to do anything that is not in their heart to do. I thank you, Lord, that you are putting together a company of believers all over. And here are a little, a little picture, Lord, of what you're doing in many places where we're just simply gathering around the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I'm asking that now you would open up our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And that you would give us ears to hear what your Holy Spirit is saying to us and a heart that will be able to respond, give us humility and meekness as the two qualities that we first mentioned when we began this series on seven deadly sins every Christian should hate. Give us this meekness and this humility. Give us as husbands the capacity to listen to our wives. When they speak to us about things in our life that are not right. Lord, give wives the capacity to listen to their husbands, but not only that, Lord, but give us all the capacity to hear you speak in any way you want, whether it be through children or even if you raise up a sinner. Help us to stop defending ourself. Help us, Lord, to stop always wanting to be right and even fighting and hurting people because we refuse to acknowledge our wrong. Give us grace this morning as we look into a few more of these deadly sins. Thank you, Lord, that the revelation of your word cuts deeply, but not to destroy us or to heap condemnation upon us, but rather to prepare us to be recipients of your wonderful transforming grace. I'm asking that you will keep that in our minds as we move along in these messages because they get, Lord, your word pierces deep and it hurts. Lord, I'm asking you'll preserve us from pride this morning. Pride will not hear your word. Pride will apply your word to someone else. But give us the humility to listen carefully to the still, small voice of your Holy Spirit. And as David said when Nathan. Confronted him or as Nathan said, rather, thou art the man. May we have the response that David did. Yes, Lord, I'm guilty. But I thank you that you love me in spite of my guilt. And that you revealed this to me so that you can change me. We commit this time into your hands and the ministry of your word and to the Holy Spirit's power. We pray in Christ's name. Amen and amen. Don't you love God's word? Yea, how I love thy law, the psalmist said. It is sweeter to me than honey in the honeycomb. The word also says, yea, they that love thy law, nothing shall offend them. Listen carefully for a few moments as the Lord was speaking this to my spirit all throughout our gathering. Have you recently been deeply offended? Has somebody offended you? The word says they that love thy law, nothing shall offend them. Nothing shall cause them. That word offend means to become a stumbling block. If you've been offended at someone, if you're easily offended, some people are so easily offended, aren't they? You're driving down the road and they're walking down the sidewalk and you're thinking about something and they look at you and they think that you saw them and they wave and you didn't respond. And then the next month they have a grudge in their heart because you didn't wave to them. We're easily offended, aren't we? May I encourage you, if you're easily offended person, pray that God will increase your capacity to love with his love, because they that love thy law, nothing and that word nothing in the Greek. Now, this is the Old Testament, but in the Greek, the word nothing is a very, very good word. It actually means literally the word. Nothing means nothing, not even one thing. It qualifies, it sounds redundant, but I like redundant sometimes because redundance emphasizes. So the idea is nothing, not even one thing, nothing shall offend you. Now, that's a testing word, isn't it? Because we're easily offended. And so that just reveals our need to grow in perfect love. Husbands and wives, listen carefully. We need perfect love or we'll be easily offended. We have begun, as the Lord has been enabling us to share messages from the Lord's heart entitled Seven Deadly Sins That Every Christian Should Hate. Our first message involved the deadly sin of false judgment. Before that message, we dealt with two qualities of heart, of the heart that God had to form in us if we were to receive his word. The first was meekness and the second one was a bowed down humility. That posture must be maintained in our life all day, every day, or else we're going to miss the Holy Spirit's dealing. We're going to resist it. Following that message on wrong judgment, false judgment, we spoke secondly on the sin of bitterness and unforgiveness. I'm trusting that these have found good soil in our hearts and that they're already starting to minister to us. They have in my own life, deeply, deeply challenging my own heart. The Lord never lets me slide from being exempt from any word that I ever speak privately and publicly. And there is a great responsibility with those who are called to teach. And James said it ought not to be something that we quickly desire. Did you know James said that? Because those who teach and affect many are held accountable and will be judged by the Lord. And so I only say that to say that I am regularly, and you could talk to my wife and children, dealt with severely over the things that I publicly share because the Lord is taking great measure to make sure, and I listen carefully because this is very important, the message and the messenger must be the same. And the Lord takes great measure to be sure of that, and the Lord is grieved deeply when there is a discrepancy, when there's a difference between the message and the messenger. The Lord is more interested in making us what we claim to be true than simply allowing us to declare what we claim to be true. But then we grossly fall short of it in real life. And so the Lord takes great measure to do this. So don't be surprised at the severity of the dealing in your life, because everything that you've ever uttered privately or publicly, everything that you've ever declared to be the thing that you're hanging your life upon in reference to the Word of God will have to be wrought in you. Now, we dealt with two sins and we want to look at a few more this morning. Do we have a quick time check? OK, so that's two hours. All right, very good. Every time I am privileged to stand before you, I am always made aware in the presence of the Lord, our need to pray that God will take us as a company of believers beyond the preacher and the sermon. We do not want to perpetuate, I do not want to perpetuate the idea of a preacher and you've come to hear a sermon. We don't want that. I believe that's very displeasing to the Lord when local assemblies simply gather together on a Sunday to hear a sermon and then feel that that if the sermon was pretty good, they feel good. If it wasn't, then they have the preacher for lunch. We've got to grow beyond that mentality of the preacher, the lay, the minister, the congregation. The minister's job is to preach and our job is to listen. And we've got to come beyond that to where we are not gathered together to a preacher this morning, even though I'm standing up, it's convenient to stand. That's why I'm standing. But we need to keep our minds and hearts open to the idea where we are gathered unto the Lord this morning. We're gathered to him. Our hearts are focused to him. And it is not so much a preacher preaching a sermon to a congregation as much as it is all of us as brothers and sisters are gathered around the Lord and we're saying, Lord, what are you trying to say to us? Me first. Me first. What are you speaking to us? Not, is this a good sermon? But Lord, help me when I go to the word. I don't want to read it to get knowledge, although that will come. But I want to read it to hear God speak to me. I need to hear the Lord. I need to hear his voice. I need to hear the word of God that is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. I need light into my life. I need correction. I need rebuke. I need reproof. I need encouragement. We don't need sermons. We need a word from the Lord. And the whole reason why God allows this scenario to occur, where we gather together and whether it be myself or another brother or sister to stand up and speak, it's not because the Lord is impressed with sermons at all, nor does he want his people to come wanting to hear sermons. But the Lord allows this happening in order that we're given an opportunity to hear the Lord speak so that we can all allow him to penetrate our hearts. All of that in order to continue on with this message from the Lord's heart. Our next in the seven deadly sins, our next sin is entitled The Deadly Sin of Greed, Covetousness and the Love of Money. Greed, covetousness and the love of money. And I'd like to turn to 1st Timothy, chapter six, 1st Timothy, chapter six, and begin with verse number three. 1st Timothy, chapter six, verse number three. If any man teach otherwise, the sentence before that is, these things teach and exert. Now, these things that the apostle is speaking of are the teachings and the admonishments that he had just given Timothy in relation to the spiritual qualifications for leaders in the church. And he dealt with how to deal with widows and he dealt with how servants were to act with their masters. He basically just talked about how people should be living and how they should be functioning in the church. And then he says, if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine, which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting or harping on questions and strides of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thyself. Now, I want to introduce this with those words, this point, point number three, the sin of greed, covetousness and love of money, want to introduce it with verse number five, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thyself. We are to withdraw ourself from every and any influence that comes into our life. I'll be it a preacher, a teacher, a book, a television program, whatever it is. We are to withdraw ourself from any influence that do us into thinking that gain is equal to godliness. We are living in a day, beloved, when the pursuit for gain and money has taken over the population. And the Lord's concern is that this spirit of greed, covetousness and love of money would not seduce those who are called to seek the Lord with all of their heart. Verse number seven, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Now, before I go on, I want to say this, please listen carefully. Don't ask yourself this question because inevitably this happens and it's happened over and over and over again. Someone will come to me afterwards and say, Phil, what were you really saying? What are you saying? Don't ask the question, what am I saying? Ask the question, what is God saying to you? What is God saying to you? What are you trying to say? Because it's going to get stickier as we go on. It's going to get sticky. But don't get angry at me. I'm not putting any laws on anybody now. I'm not telling anybody what to do. I'm reading the scriptures and making statements based on the scriptures. This is an issue that you have to come to grips with as a child of God before God. I'm not going to sit as your judge. I'm not going to tell you what's right and wrong. Your brother and sister can't do that. You've got to come to God and ask him to give you a revelation on this truth. And until you do that, you might not stay clearly on this topic. So I wanted to say that. Don't ask, what am I trying to say? Are you saying, brother, that? No, I'm not saying anything. I'm just reading what the Bible says. Now, listen carefully. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. Now, brothers and sisters, there is a scripture in Hebrews chapter 13 verses 5 and 6 that correspond with the statement in verse 8 of 1 Timothy chapter 6. Now, it is difficult for me not to preach on contentment because contentment is the solution to greed and covetousness. And the reason why it's difficult is because I really don't want to touch on that. Because that's going to be the counterpart to this deadly sin that we hope to be teaching on in the future. Remember, each one of these sins have a positive counterpart. False judgment, true judgment, unforgiveness and bitterness, forgiveness and love, covetousness, greed and the love of money, contentment. So I don't want to get off on contentment. But I will say this. Having food and raiment, let us be there with content. A good sign to use, a good indicator to use. Are you sure you're ready for this? A good indicator to use to find out whether or not the powers of covetousness and greed and love of money are working in your life is this. Do you find in your life a contentment with simply food and raiment? Or do you have food and raiment, but there is a desire for more? I told you it would get sticky. Now, listen carefully. Verse number nine, but they that will be rich. All the translations agree that what this basically says is this, but they that desire, they that want to be rich. But I thought that was the American dream. I thought that was the reason why we were born in America. I thought that was one of the great things that America offers its citizens. The freedom to be rich, the freedom to have anything that we would desire. But they that will. Now, listen, the actual grammatical way that this is spoken in the Greek is like this. But they that are always desiring wealth. There is a sense of a continuous action, always, always, always wanting to be rich. Listen to what happens to this person. This person who is always wanting to be rich will fall into temptation and despair and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. Now, I trust that you are marking down these incredible adjectives. Wanting to be rich, wanting to be wealthy. Number one, you will fall into temptation. You say, well, everyone is tempted. That is true. But there is a specific test, temptation, trial that will come upon the individual who wants to be wealthy. Number two, a snare will fall upon you. Number three, many foolish. That word foolish means mindless. You lose your mind. Now, see, I can almost hear people saying, well, what are you trying to say, Phil? Remember, I'm not trying to say anything, am I? I just read it. Are you saying that God doesn't want us to? I'm not saying anything. Let's let the word speak to us. Let's not be afraid. Let's say, Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that it is so stirring and so challenging. Lord, what are you speaking to my heart? What are you showing me about my life today through the word that I hear coming into my spirit now? That's what we need to do. Don't despair. Don't get all alarmed. Just come to Father and say, Father, what are you saying? All right. Which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil or all evil. Which while some coveted after. So here the connection is made, loving money will result in coveting after it. You know what it means to covet after money? To want it. It's perfectly normal to want money, isn't it, brother Phil? There you go again. We're not dealing with what's normal. We're dealing with what the Scripture says. Coveting after money means we love money. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, while some coveted after. They have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Listen closely. OK, I'm going to read to you a definition if I can find it. I believe I'll be able to find it. Yes, I want to read to you a definition, the definition of covetousness. OK, here's the definition of covetousness. So when the when the Holy Spirit led the apostles and Jesus himself speaks about covetousness, too, when he's led them to speak about covetousness and led them to write the word covetous, he intended the meaning of that word to have meaning. He doesn't just choose words and then, well, I didn't really mean that. Here's what covetousness means. To covet is to desire for having more or for what one does not have. Very simple. To desire more or what one does not have. Ephesians chapter five, verse number three. Listen, the apostle speaking about things that ought not to be in the believer's life, but fornication, which, by the way, is any form of sexual indiscretion, any form, or uncleanness or covetousness. Let it not be once named among you as become its saints. Now, we have been very accustomed to hearing from preachers and teachers the need for Christians to forsake lying and stealing and adultery. Oh, we're hard on adulterers. But covetousness is just as dreadful. Seven deadly sins that every Christian should hate. The absence of contentment breeds greed and covetousness. In Matthew chapter six, we're going to move on in just a few moments because I do not want to go beyond what the Lord has given me. And I won't. I will simply share what he gave me and then encourage everyone to take these before the Lord and say, as the psalmist did, search me, oh God, and try my heart. Know my heart. See if there be any greedy, covetous way in me and deliver me, Lord, by your marvelous grace. That's all I'm asking. That's all the Lord is asking of us this morning. But I will read this in verse Matthew chapter six. Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, beginning in verse number 19, all the way down to verse number 34, Jesus said five times, take no thought. Now, he was referring to the bare necessities of life. Jesus was referring when he said, take no thought to the absolute necessities of what we have need of, which is what? Food, clothing and shelter. So let me just say this. If Jesus was telling us not to take any thought for the bare necessities, how much more would Jesus tell us not to take thought for those things that exceed our necessities? Greed and covetousness and the love of money inclines us when we are under the power of these dreadful works of the flesh, inclines us to taking thought for the things that Jesus said not to take thought for. Now, it doesn't mean that we don't mention it to God in prayer. It doesn't mean that we don't come to the Lord and thank him for his provision. But the idea is the continuous preoccupation with I'm going to save much here for the latter time when we talk on the opposite of greed and covetousness, it's contentment. And it's a beautiful revelation that's in the scriptures. But we just want to stick to this now. And I'm going to bring this section to a to a close after I give you a few more scriptures, Proverbs chapter 21, write these scriptures down. Proverbs chapter 21, verse number 26. He coveted greedily all the day long. But the righteous giveth and spareth not. Verse 25 and verse 24 go together, proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath. The desire of the slothful killeth him for his hands refused to labor. He covets greedily all the day long, but the righteous giveth and spare not. There is a great contrast between covetousness and benevolence, giving a heart that has been freed from covetousness is a heart that is always giving. Proverbs 28, 16, the prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor, but he that hated covetousness shall prolong his days. And one more scripture, Ezekiel 33, Ezekiel 33, verse number 31. And they come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear my words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth they show much love. But their heart goeth after their covetousness. May the Lord. Minister grace and light to us regarding this dreadful sin of greed, covetousness and the love of money, and may the Holy Spirit give us honest hearts to pray as families together, husband and wives together and ask the Lord in humility and let him show you the way to be free from this sin. Next, I'd like you to turn your Bible to Proverbs chapter 11. I don't plan on spending too much time on this particular one, but don't let that be. A false indication that it's less important. This perhaps requires great, listen, great humility on our part, because most of the time, if not all the time, I won't say all, I'll say most of the time, in order for God to deal with this sin, he has to use other people. Because this sin is usually very blinded to us personally. So this is where we need great humility to listen to the people that God brings into our life and not resent the Lord's words that he speaks to us. Proverbs chapter 11, verse five, the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. Next, Proverbs 23, verse seven, for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 22, 24, listen closely, make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go. Listen, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul. Now, let's focus in on those words right here. Do not learn the ways of an angry or furious man, lest thou get a snare to his soul. Now, listen, every single one of us have snares in our life that we have learned. The name of the fourth destructive sin is called the sin of destructive behavior patterns that we have learned from our mother, our father, older or younger brothers or sisters, role models, and lastly, from cultural, secular mindsets. Now, I know that's a lot, but I do want to emphasize the need for us to pray that God will give us grace. I want to say something that oftentimes when it is said, it is said in a wrong spirit, but it doesn't mean that there's not truth to it. Did you ever watch these coms on TV? When I was a kid, I used to watch quite a bit of it. It's just the way it was in my home. And I would often hear a mother or a daughter look at, or a wife look at her husband and say, you're just like your father, or a husband would look at his wife and say, you're just like your mother. Now, oftentimes it's not being said in a loving, redemptive way, but it's being laughed at because they're angry. And then generally because of that, a fight starts and everyone gets defensive. But unfortunately, many times it's true, it's true. The greatest, one of the greatest struggles that you will experience when the Holy Spirit begins to deal severely with you are those things that are in your life that are part of you, because make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways. The way the Holy Spirit gave this to me was very simple. And I believe if we follow this, the Lord could get much work in us. Listen carefully. Here's what the Lord, here's how the Lord gave it to me. Simply what we must do is come to the Lord with that, with those two elements, neatness and humility, and to those that we love, to those that are close to us. Don't ever be afraid to come to someone that you know loves you. Now, don't go to anybody, you'll set yourself up to be hurt. Wait until God brings people into your life. But don't ever be afraid to go to someone and say, listen, could you help me see some of the blind spots in my life? Do you do that? Could you help me see some of the blind spots in my life? You know, the Bible says the wounds of what? Of a friend are sweet. They're also faithful. Listen, if you're wounded by an enemy, that can hurt because a lot of times wounds from an enemy are not grounded with truth. But the wounds of someone that loves you, you should thank God for those wounds. Don't get defensive when someone who loves you is trying to talk to you. Don't get angry. Don't get defensive. They're not against you, they're for you. It's for your good, not your bad. Here's the question that you need to ask before a holy God and in the presence of those that love you. Beware of this attitude. Well, I'll take care of this myself, thank you. I'll take care of this myself, thank you. I don't need your input. I don't know, the older I get, the less I find that attitude working in my life. I admit when I was younger. I was going to take care of everything through a 30 day fast before the Lord. But I realize the older I get and the more the longer I walk with the Lord, not that there's not a place to have dealings with God. We need that, but we are in great need of one another and God chooses more often than we want to admit. Not to speak to us after our 30 day fast and give us a wonderful revelation so that we can tell everybody how we've heard from God, but God speaks to us through people and many times people who in our eyes are a lot less perfect than we are. See, God doesn't cater to what we think or how we think he needs to be speaking to us. You remember, you remember Naaman the leper? And how he was told to go to this great prophet, because if he went to this prophet, the prophet had a reputation of praying for people and they were healed. So he was a man of esteem. He was the captain of an army, wasn't he? A great leader. So he went and knocked on the door and who answered it? A lowly servant. He wanted the prophet to come and lay hands on him, but the prophet didn't come, but rather the prophet went and told his servant to go tell Naaman to go dunk himself in the filthy, rotten, dirty Jordan seven times and then he'd be healed. Do you know what Naaman's initial reaction was? How dare he tell me to do that? And let me tell you, there is a whole message in that right there that addresses us. First of all, God's not going to cater to your wants. He's not going to cater to the way you want things done. Except right now, God's going to frustrate the way you want things done. Secondly, if you have your heart set on God, you got to do it this way. And when God doesn't do it that way, you know what? You're going to end up having to deal with anger. Matter of fact, many years ago, I wrote a message on that very scripture and the name of the message is when God makes you mad. We hopefully are going to have that published sometime soon in a book that we'll have available. We've been saying that for two years, but that's all right, because I always remember Jesus said, behold, I come quickly. And that's been two thousand years. So I won't go there. Hallelujah to God. I tell you, isn't this exciting? Now, it's not that bad, is it? It's hurt a little bit, but there's oil, isn't there? There's healing. There's blessing. We need it's good to have a little sense of humor. Now, all that to get back to where we were initially heading, are you prepared to let people speak into your life as a Christian? Am I prepared to let people speak into my life as a Christian? Am I prepared to let my wife speak into my life? Am I prepared to let my children speak into my life when they see areas of hypocrisy or inconsistency in my life? Am I prepared to let brothers and sisters? How about am I prepared to let someone who I don't think is very spiritual speak into my life? Who do you have the right to speak it? Is that the right attitude, brothers and sisters? Does God have the right to use who he wants to speak to you? Did God use a jackass to speak? He did. Here's the prayer. You pray, Lord, what ways have I learned? Whether intentional or unintentional from mom, dad, brothers, sisters, role models or cultural mindsets, the way the world does it. You know, when I was a police officer in Gulfport, it was a typical thing for guys to make risque comments about the girls. It was a typical thing. I often times, not so much recently as several years ago, enjoyed listening to a few talk show hosts, but some of them had certain ways about them that were very rude, very obnoxious, very impatient. And if I'm not careful, I will. And I'm going to go into two words in a moment here, and then we're going to go to the next one, if we have time, I'm going to go into what learn means and what ways mean in the Hebrew and show you how this all fits together so perfectly. But there were certain ways he said things in certain ways he commented that were right along the line of learning the way of an angry and a furious man, lest thou learn his way and you get a snare to your soul. So the prayer we need to pray, and I think we need to pray it, listen, I'm going to I'm going to step out now and say this because I really believe it. I think we need to take our prayers out of our prayer closets and put them on the family altar. A little bit of accountability is what we need. I think we need accountability. I think we need to put this stuff out on the altar and look at someone that we love very much, someone that's very close to us and say, listen, I'm putting this out, help me see this. What ways have I learned, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that have become a snare to my soul? Now, listen, because here's the part that really is sad, that if you don't deal with what I'm going to pass on to my children, you wonder how the sins are passed on from generation to generation. That's how. Well, every time something didn't go right at home, my dad put his fist through the wall. I'm not saying that about my dad, I'm just using that as an illustration. And so if you see that, guess what's going to happen? When you become an adult, yes, even a Christian and filled with the spirit, because these things go deep, you're going to find the temptation. If you're not careful, if you're not close to the Lord and if you're not letting God really deal with you, you're going to find the temptation to react the same way that dad did. How about how mom and dad dealt with the teenagers? You're going to deal with your kids the same way. Now, don't think this, I'm not dabbling in psychology now, I'm not going to condemn it. Christian counselors, what is God? Let it go. I don't want to pretend to be a counselor. I'm getting psychological. No way. It is simply the scripture. You learn things. They become part of the way you think. And then you reproduce them. The Bible says, make no friends with an angry man and with a furious man, lest you learn his way and get a scare to yourself. We have all been in the environment of a time in our life where we've learned things from these major areas that are a scare and we must pray God deliver us from. OK, listen carefully, the Hebrew word for learn this challenging. Believe you me, beloved, I'm not sitting here preaching a sermon now, I'm here talking and I'm hearing God at the same time. Do you ever do that? You ever speak in here at the same time? Oh, have mercy. I'm going to have to tell my wife I'm sorry about something before this is over. I guarantee it. And then my daughters and then probably my mother back there, I don't know, have to apologize to somebody after this because it's penetrating my soul. But you know what I say, Lord, do it. I have nothing to hide. If I do, I'm a fool and I don't want to be a fool. I want to be a wise man. Glory to God. All right. The word learn. First of all, Jeremiah chapter 10, this is where the prophet speaks. And basically, this is a parallel scripture that supports Proverbs 22. Jeremiah 10, check this out. Now, I tell you, these scriptures that I'm sharing, these messages really came from the Lord. So I'm hoping that it will really impact your spirit. Listen, hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen. Any way, listen, any way that is heathen, that you have learned, you need to unlearn or else you're going to pass it on to the next generation. It's as simple as that. Any way that you have learned, albeit through the sources I mentioned or another source that is indicative of a heathen, it's not Christlike, it's a snare to your soul, it's there. And you're going to pass it on unless the Lord comes in mercy and grace and deals with you and you find that through his work you could be stripped from it and you can find through the life of Jesus the power to overcome. Learn not the way of the heathen. OK, listen closely, the word learn means. To study. How many of us have studied the actions of our family and our parents to study, to equate oneself with. To be, oh, this is good, to be taught by example. Listen, to be an environment where one is being discipled, that's what it means to learn. So that definition entails growing up in a home because every one of those facets are in operation when we're in a home. We're studying, we're equating ourself with, we're being taught by example, we're being in an environment where we're being discipled. All right. The second word is the Bible says, learn not the way, the way, the word way means a particular going, a walk, a pathway, a journey, a mode, a manner or course of life. Again, a particular going. A walk. A pathway or journey, a mode, manner or course of life. Wow. We want to focus in particular to those sinful practices, actions, responses that we currently struggle with, that we learned from the four major areas that we previously mentioned. Family, role model, music. Didn't mention that one. Cultural, secular mindsets. I'm going to leave it there. I will not go into specifics, details, but I'm trusting the Holy Spirit will take this and let it become a means by which you can see and be minister to. It's quarter after 11 or 12, 20 after 12. Shall we stop now or go to one more? The trick question, isn't it? I'll be honest with you. Most of me wants to go on, but I think wisdom says let's stop for now. Although I'm going to tell you what the next one is. To wet your appetite. I don't know if it'll wet your appetite or quench it. This is very piercing. Proverbs, I think we're going to get a new light on the book of Proverbs, huh? Proverbs chapter, I want to get the right one. Just give me a second here. Ah, yes. OK, Proverbs 25, 16. The name of this, this is the fifth sin. The sin of too much honey. 25, 16. Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith and vomited. And might I add, this is not in the scripture, but might I add. Lest thou be filled therewith and vomited and make others sick, too. Now, the interpretation to that scripture is found right in the scripture. Verse 27. Listen carefully. I don't know if your translation has it like this, but I want you to listen to this translation because this is the application that we want to make as we close this message this morning. It is not good to eat much honey, so for men to search their own glory is not good. The sin of too much hungry honey is the great snare that is falling upon the church in this last hour of seeking one's own glory, being enamored with one's name, one's beauty, one's life, being self-absorbed in one's own self-importance. The whole world revolves around me. Such is the condition of eating too much honey. And if one continues in that state, you will vomit and make everyone else around you sick. That's the introduction. We will go into this more thoroughly next time there is liberty to share. And I believe it will be a very challenging but edifying message. We do want to make everyone remember that we have these messages available on tape and that we will have the complete series available when it's done.