Money, The Law, and Heaven (Video)

Luke chapter 16, Luke chapter 16 and I'm going to read 10 through 18. Luke chapter 16 reading 10 through 18. And this is the application following the parable of the unjust steward and we are sort of connecting to that again this morning and moving on as the Lord Jesus moves on in his teaching. So Luke 16 verse 10, he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's who will give to you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money also heard all these things and they derided him and he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John since that time the kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is pressing into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery. And so Jesus is giving the application. Remember we said that this parable is very difficult. It's also very difficult to understand which of these verses that we're dealing with this morning are attached to the parable and which are just separate teachings. But it seems that most of them are either directly connected or indirectly connected. And so remember that last week we ended—let's hope we turn things on—indirectly connected. So last week we ended with verse 11. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you your trust, the true riches? And so the application, of course, is that if we are not able to handle money, how will God give to us the true riches, which are spiritual things? And in verse 12, the application is similar to verse 11, but slightly different. If you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give to you your own? So you can see the connection between those two verses. Verse 11 says, if you have not been faithful in money, who will give you true riches? Now he says, if you're not faithful in what is someone else's, how will someone give you your own? And I think that he is—I'm not sure that there is a spiritual application to this verse. Remember that everything that Jesus teaches is not necessarily spiritual. Some of the things have a very real practical application. And remember the context is the parable of the steward, the steward who was unfaithful, and then he gets fired, and he then makes a plan to secure his future. That's the background of the story. And then he says that the children of the world are wiser than the children of light, or of the kingdom. So what does this verse mean? Well, I think it's just exactly what it says. Many people aspire to have their own business. They don't like their job, or they don't like their boss, they don't like the idea of working for a boss, and they say, well, you know, I need to be in my own business. And I'm not discouraging anyone from being in your own business. I had my own business for many, many years. But if you have not been able to be faithful working for a boss, you won't make it working for yourself. That's what Jesus is saying. If you have not been able to be faithful in another man's affairs, another man's business, working under a boss, then who will give you your own? And the answer is no one's going to give it to you, and you're not going to get it for yourself, because you couldn't get it for him. How are you going to get it for yourself? So if you failed at being a servant or an employee, you will fail at being your own employee. If you can't work for a boss who is outside of yourself, you won't work for yourself as the boss. That's just the reality. Remember the background. If you're faithful in little things, you'll be faithful in much. If you're unfaithful in little, you'll be unfaithful in much. If you're unfaithful in working for a boss in another man's business, then you will be unfaithful in your own business. That's just the practical reality. And I think that preachers put a spiritual spin on this and say, well, you know, if you've not been a good member, then who's going to give you your own church if you want to have a church? I'm not sure that we can go there. I think that that's true, you know. If you're not able to be a good deacon, then, you know, how are you going to be an elder? If you're not able to be a good member, how will you ever lead another church? Obviously, those things are true, but I'm not sure that you can extract that from this verse. All right, now we get to another angle on this whole issue, and that is no man can serve two masters. Either he will hate one or love the other, else he will be loyal to one, despise the other. And here's the application, you cannot serve God and mammon or money. You can't serve both of these things. Well, I'm not so sure, because 95% of American Christians seem to be doing this, and they seem to be doing it pretty successfully. But there's a catch, because a little bit further, Jesus says, what men think is great, God doesn't think is so great. So when we think that we're being successful at doing these two things at the same time, God says, no, I'm not pleased. You're not doing so well at it. But here's the problem. It's a plain, straightforward statement. You can't serve two masters. You cannot serve money and God at the same time. And yet, as I've said, the vast majority of American Christians, not just American, but Western Christians, think they can do this. African Christians, South American Christian, they all think that they can juggle these two things. I can chase money, or worship money, or serve money, and I can serve God at the same time. You cannot do it. Yes, we can serve God with our money. That's part of what Jesus is saying in his parable, in this parable. Remember, he's saying, what are you building for eternity? That's the question. What are you building for eternity? What are you using your money for? Are you using it to make an investment in eternity, or are you using it to build yourself a kingdom here and now? Now, I know immediately we excuse ourselves and we say, well, I'm not rich, so I'm not serving money. But folks, the problem is that rich and poor serve money. The rich have it, and the poor want it. But they both love it. And it's not about how much you've got, it's about your heart and your attitude. Remember, Jesus has a lot to say about rich people and how hard it is for them to get in the kingdom. But it's not impossible for a rich man to get in the kingdom. The riches is not what holds him back. It's his attitude to those things. It's the love of money that is the root of evil, not money itself. And unfortunately, poor people love money just as much as rich people love money. And the question simply is, who am I serving? In other words, what you think about most. I think it's hard for us to do a self-examination and say, well, how much of my time do I spend thinking about God and the things of God and God's Word? And how much time do I spend thinking about money and stuff and what I'm going to buy next? And should I buy a red one or a blue one? And folks, the reality is that at the end of the day, we tend to spend more time on stuff, whether it's buying it or using it or dreaming about the next one, than we spend about the things of God. And Jesus says, you can't do both at the same time. You see, the Pharisees were very good at this thing that we've spoken about many times, about compartmentalizing. They had their compartment in which they served God, and they had their compartment in which they did business. And they were, most of these Pharisees were businessmen. They were not full-time priests, or some of them were rabbis, but most of them were businessmen in some shape or form. Remember, Paul was a Pharisee, and he was a tentmaker. That was his trade. And so they would do a trade, but they were also very involved in the things of God, as they understood it. But when it came to business, we have a saying in South Africa, business is business. And what we mean by that is that there's no ethics in business. It's business. I'm a Christian, but when it comes to business, business is business. It's got nothing to do with my Christian ethics. And remember, we don't have these compartments, and that was the point that Jesus was making. They had one compartment in which they served money, and they said, well, that's got nothing to do with my relationship with God, and I have another compartment in which I serve God. And so when I'm doing God things, when I'm going to the synagogue, when I'm reading the scriptures, when I'm debating with my fellow Pharisees, well, that is my God part of my life. And when I'm doing business, that's my business part, and the two have nothing to do with each other. So I can chase money, and I can be unethical even in my pursuit of money here, because that doesn't infringe on the rest of my faith. And this is just not true as far as Jesus is concerned, because there is no compartment for your money and a compartment for your faith. The two are one and the same thing. And the way that I exercise my faith is revealed in my attitude towards money and other areas. Remember, Paul speaks about the way that you do your job. Your faith is expressed in those things. And so you can't separate these things and say, well, it's okay for me to have this problem in my life. And it's not just money, there are all sorts of other problems. Our immorality, sex, anger, hatred, the list goes on and on. And we separate that out, and we say, well, that's my political life, or that's my moral life, and it has nothing to do with my faith. No, your faith extends to every area of your life, and your faith is expressed in every area of your life. There is no corner in your life where you can say, my faith does not extend to it. There are no dark corners. There are no closed rooms where God has no access. God needs to have access to every area, and my love for him must permeate every detail, every aspect of my life, the way I do my job, the way I treat money, my attitude towards money. Now, while we're on this, there are really two things I want to highlight, and there are many, many, we can spend hours speaking about the problems of money, the problems in how Christians deal with money. But there are two things that seem to be the main issues today. The one is the pursuit of money, the chasing after money. And I don't know that it is revealed any clearer than in the lotto, the millions of dollars that are poured into the scratch cards and the lotto and the numbers games, whatever you call them. You say, well, that's, you know, it's great. I don't remember the numbers, 200 million, 300 million to be one. But if there's 200 million to be one, there's 200 fools that have put their two bucks or five bucks or whatever it costs to buy a card, they've thrown it into. Now, for gambling is one thing. Of course, it's wrong. Playing the lotto is wrong. Why? Because it shows a greed, and the whole thing runs on greed. And the problem with that is my attitude towards God. Christians say, well, it's no problem for me to buy a scratch card here and there. Well, here's the problem. How much does a card cost? Five bucks? Let's say five bucks. So you give the 7-Eleven guy five bucks for a card. What are you doing when you do that? Who gave you the five bucks? God gave you the five dollars. And what are you saying? You're saying, no, thanks God, I don't want the five dollars you gave me. I want the hundred dollars the devil may give me. It's serious. Folk, when we gamble with our money, we're saying the money that we're putting on the table, whether you're playing the slot machine or whether you're playing the lotto, you're saying, I'm not grateful for what God has given me. I'm discontent. I want a million. But God gave you five. And if you're not faithful with the five, remember the context. If you're not faithful with the five, how will God give you a million? Because easy come is easy go. And if you can't look after the five dollars God has given you, he's not going to give you 50. That's just the point. That's the point Jesus is making. Now, folk, my intention is not to speak about gambling, but what it reveals when you see those lines of people, and many of them are Christians, and many of them will make Christian symbols. Many of them will pray and say, God, please, I need to win this. What it is showing is greed. What it is showing is discontent. What it is showing is our wanting more and more and more. This is the problem. You know, I've just been watching some of the images on the screen in Afghanistan, and just looking at people fleeing for their lives. Everything they had built up, their house, their furniture, their heirlooms, their car, it's all gone. They're just hoping to get out of there with their lives. And yet, a year ago, those same people, their house, their cars, if they have cars, some of them do, their furniture, their possessions was everything to them. That was their whole life. And now suddenly it's nothing when faced with the reality of the brevity of life. And folk, I believe as Christians, as I was watching the news, you know, I said, Lord, please, may the Christians come to that same position. And I'm not asking that we lose everything, but we come to the same understanding of saying, those things matter nothing. If I can just get into heaven, that's the important thing. And yet we want to hold on to these things. And then the other aspect that I want to, as I said, there are many, many things we can talk about here, but the other thing I want to just highlight is the consumerism of our society. Many people don't have money because they spend it all. Now while hoarding money is not a good thing, at the same time, blowing every penny you have is also not a good thing. Because it shows greed in a different sense. Some people are greedy because they want to see money in the bank, and they'll turn every penny over ten times just to make sure that they can increase their bank balance. Other people's greed has a different form. They will max out every credit card they have, and you've seen them at the cash out. Well, let's try this card. No, it's declined. Try this one. No, it's declined. Try this one. No, it's declined. And then you look at the stuff they're buying, and it's rubbish. It's not essentials. It's not even good stuff. It's just junk. But they've got to buy. And there's a sickness in our society that we have to buy, buy, buy, buy. And we get some kind of high out of buying stuff. When Ina and I first came to America, we would go to yard sales to buy essentials to furnish our house and to buy some stuff. And I was amazed by the number of things that were still in their boxes. Dresses and clothes with the labels on. They've never been worn. So why did they buy them? Because they needed them? No, because they just love buying. Folk, it is a God and an evil taskmaster that people serve. And folk, unfortunately, Christians are in the same boat. Ina has a whole wardrobe someone gave her, not in this church. Every single one with a label on. Not because this person went out and bought her these things, but because this person bought these things and years later discovered, I don't have closet space. Gave them away, finally. Not out of the goodness of her heart. No, so she can go and buy more. Folk, you cannot serve God and money or things. And yet that is what every, not every, God help us, but almost every Christian tries to do. You can't do it. Decide. Remember, God calls Israel from the very beginning and over and over in the history of Israel. Choose today who you're going to serve. And I pray that today may be a crisis point for somebody. Will you say, I'm done with serving this world. I'm going to serve God. And I'm not asking you to give up your job. I'm not asking you to give up your house or whatever, whatever it is. But I'm asking you to change your attitude. That these things become your servants, not your master. That your money is a servant and a tool to serve God. And not a master that you have to serve as a slave. Because at the end of the day, when the chips are down, you can only serve one or the other. And when you have to make a decision between stuff and God, you will serve, you'll choose the one who is your true master. All right, let's move on. Verse 14. The Pharisees who were lovers of money also heard all these things and they derided him. They scoffed at him. They thought he was nuts. Maybe you've listened to me for the last 15 minutes and you say, well, he's nuts. Because that's the problem. When we talk about these things, when Jesus talked about these things, when I talk about these things, folks, the problem is that the vast majority of Christians say, why does he have to get onto that? Can't he speak about theology? Folks, this is theology. This is how we live our lives. This is how we express our worship of the Lord. And I'm pretty sure there are some who are watching, maybe some who are here this morning, who are saying, well, he's lost it. That's what they said of Jesus. Because you see, it's easy when we talk about worship, when we talk about singing, when we talk about Hebrews chapter 1, the wonderful greatness of the Lord Jesus, that's great. But don't touch my money. Certainly don't touch my attitude to money. Jesus says in verse 15, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. You see, again, it's easy to take these verses in isolation, to take this verse and say, well, let's understand what is this verse saying. But it's in the context of what Jesus has just been speaking about. And he's just been speaking about their attitude to money, to material things. And he says, you justify yourselves before men. In other words, you make yourself look good, all religious and spiritual, but God knows your hearts. I remember this is the essence of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is putting on a mask. Hypocrisy is trying to appear all spiritual when in fact you're not. And folks, sometimes we can fool some people, but we can't fool God. God knows your heart. You can appear to be religious. You can appear to be all holy and all spiritual, but God knows the truth and the reality. And here's the problem. What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Notice that he's using two extremes. What is highly esteemed by men, God sees as an abomination. And here's the problem, is that we can fool people because people have the wrong values. I guess one of the things that I spend some time wondering about from time to time is what makes certain preachers popular and famous. And so please understand, I'm not saying this in any sense of jealousy, I'm trying in an objective way to understand. Why do some preachers get thousands and thousands of hits or views on their videos? And I listen to them, and I know a good preacher when I hear one, but many of these guys are not good preachers. They mishandle the Word of God. Many of them don't even know anything about the Word of God, and yet people flock to them. I listened to the first few minutes of a preacher a couple of weeks ago, and the title of his message, I don't remember the exact title, but it had to do with pride. Pride was in the title, that was he was preaching about pride. And in the first two or three minutes, and that's as far as my patience went, he says, we all have a problem with pride. And then the very next sentence, he talks about his international ministry, and how many thousands of people watch his videos, and how many thousands of emails he gets from all over the world. Folks, please understand, I'm not jealous. I'm not envious of that kind of thing at all. I have one concern, and that is that my father is pleased with me, that's all that matters to me. But he's preaching against pride, and yet he is the most prideful man that I've ever heard in my life. Look at my ministry, look what I've done, but don't be prideful. And yet thousands of people watch those videos, and they say this is great, and they can't understand that the very thing he's preaching against is the very thing he's demonstrating. You see, because what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination before God. Our values are just not God's values. I wish they were, and I'm sure Jesus was praying, God, I just want Israel to see things the way you see things. Because if they saw things the way God saw things, they would have rejected the Pharisees, and they would not have crucified Jesus. But they didn't have a clue. And so I'm praying, God, help us. God, give us people in this country, people in this world, who will see things the way you see them, who will value what you value, who will love what God loves, and who will hate what God hates. But we need a conversion in the church at large, so that God's values may become our values. And we stop trying to impose our values on God, and saying, well, God, surely this must be good, because I think it's good. God says, no, it's not good. Just at the beginning of the verse, he says, you're those who justify yourselves before men. It doesn't matter what men think. There's only one who declares whether we're just or not just, and that is the Father, or the Lord Jesus, on the day of judgment. It's his judgment that matters. And yeah, you can get people to follow you, you can get people to think you're the greatest Christian out, or the greatest parent out, or the greatest whatever it is. That's not what matters. It's God's judgment that matters, and it's only God who justifies. You can be justifying yourself before man. And of course, that little word, yourself, you can't justify yourself. There's only one who can justify us, and that's the Lord Jesus through his work on the cross of Calvary. That's the only justification there is. Now, verse 16. And now there's a change. He says, the law and the prophets were until John. This is another difficult verse, by the way. John 16 has a bunch of difficult verses. The law and the prophets were until John. The law and the prophets, the Old Testament. Remember, the law, the first five books, the rest of it, basically the prophets. Of course, there's in between, there are the poetic books, but that's all regarded by them as the prophets. Were until John. Which John? John the Baptist, obviously. So, the law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. There are two difficult issues here. The first part of the verse, first three lines on the screen, is the basis of an enormous amount of heresy in Christianity today. They preach this as Jesus saying, the law and the prophets were till John, and then that was the end of the law and the prophets. We're no longer under law, we're under grace. How many times have you heard that? Is that what Jesus is saying? Well, I'm going to move forward and then I'm going to come back to verse 16. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. When will the law fail? When will the law cease? When will the law stop? Never. Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus said elsewhere, but my words will endure forever. The law continues. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle. Remember, the tittle is the little squiggle on the top of the Hebrew letter that changes one letter from to the other. The same, almost the same, it's not exactly the same, but the same as the dot on the eye. And if we, if Jesus was writing English or speaking English, he would have said, it's easier for the dot on the eye. Because it's just a little dot, but it makes the difference between a one and an eye. Between an L and an I. Not exactly, but in some typefaces it does. And in Hebrew, there are three letters where there's a little squiggle on the letter, and it changes the letter. And Jesus says those little squiggles won't fail. So is Jesus saying, when he says in verse 16, the law and the prophets were until John, so the law and prophets is gone. No, he says it continues. Then verse 18, whoever divorces his wife, marries another, commits adultery. So what's he doing here? He's taking the law, and he is reinforcing it. He is restating it, and he's only taking one out of the ten. And in Matthew, he takes, I think, three out of the ten. He could have taken all ten. So is Jesus saying the law and the prophets is until John, and the law and the prophets are no more? No, he's just restated it. So the law and the prophets is not done away. And obviously we understand that we are not saved by keeping the law. We understand the book of Galatians. I'm not going to go into that in great detail, or at all, but for the sake of those who are watching and saying, well this guy's a heretic, because he is a legalist. He's saying we've got to go back to the law. No, we don't go back to the law. But there's a, the principles of the law stand forever. And Jesus makes the point here, and he says adultery is adultery. It doesn't change from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It doesn't change before John, to after John, and it doesn't change after the cross, because Paul says the same thing. And that's just one example. All right, now let's go back. Verse 16 again. The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached. So look at what Jesus is saying. He's not saying the law and the prophets is until John, and now that's gone. He's simply saying that was what was the message. The message until the New Testament was the law and the prophets. There was no gospel in the Old Testament. It was just the law and the prophets. Now he says we're preaching the kingdom. It doesn't do away with the law and the prophets. It's just that our message is a different message now. And it's not a different message, but it's—remember we've spoken about progressive revelation on Thursdays. It's an extension of the Old Testament. But that's our emphasis. There are Christian churches where every Sunday when the church comes together, they'll read the Ten Commandments. No, we don't read the Ten Commandments. It doesn't mean the Ten Commandments is done away with. But our message is the cross. Our message is the kingdom. That's what we're preaching. Jesus doesn't preach against the law, but he preaches the kingdom. There's a different emphasis. And our emphasis today is not the law, it is grace. But it doesn't mean that grace does away with the law. Jesus does not do away with the law, he fulfills the law. And again, we misunderstand that statement. We say, well, that means if he fulfilled it, then we can put it away. No, it simply means that Jesus perfectly kept the law. That doesn't mean he does away with it. That's a whole other story. All right, now the other difficult part of this verse, and I think I'm out of time, but I want to finish this section because we want to get to the rich man and Lazarus next week. So the kingdom has been preached and everyone is pressing into it. Matthew says, and the violent take it by force. Very difficult verse to interpret, and I've not found a good interpretation in the commentaries, so I'm going to give you mine, and you can take it for what it's worth. The kingdom is the message. Everyone is trying to get into it. Is that true? Yeah. Everybody wants to go to heaven, except the few that don't believe that there's anything beyond death. But I'm pretty sure that you stopped people on the street outside here and you asked, you want to go to heaven? Probably eight or nine out of ten will say, yeah, I want to go to heaven. And it doesn't matter how bad you lived your life. You get angels wings, and you're up there looking down, and of course we don't, we know that's not the truth. But that's the problem. Everyone wants to get there, but everyone doesn't get there. Everyone wants to get into the kingdom. Everyone is pressing to get into the kingdom. Remember at this point, there are thousands of people following Jesus, and they all want to be part of the kingdom. But did they all get to be part of the kingdom? No. Only 120 in the upper room and 500 in Galilee, and I'm, you know, those are just rough numbers. But less than a thousand maybe? I don't know. Of the thousands who were following Jesus, who'd stopped their businesses, who'd left their fishing, had left their farms, and they were just following Jesus, wanting to get into the kingdom. But when the cross came, they all disappeared. And so my understanding of this verse simply is that Jesus is saying, I'm preaching the kingdom and everybody wants it. And that's true, but it doesn't mean everybody gets it. All right, let's move on. Verse 17, it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than one tittle of the law to fail. The whole of the Bible is true, and the whole of the Bible is relevant. And while I spent most of my ministry preaching the New Testament, I have preached from the Old Testament, but the preaching from the New Testament is based on the preaching of the Old Testament, as you'll see as we go through the book of Hebrews. If you don't understand the Old Testament, particularly the law, you will not understand the book of Hebrews. Verse 18, whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. Whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery. Jesus is stating this obviously to prove that the law is not done away. But that's not the end of the story, because it's easy to say, well, yeah, that's the technical thing. That's why Jesus is saying this. No, he's making a point about divorce and adultery. And thankfully for you, we've run out of time, because this is where I need another three sessions to speak about divorce. But you've heard me on that subject before. But folks, let me just sum it up by saying that we live in a time when Christianity and when the church has minimized divorce as being acceptable. Preachers are divorcing not just once, but twice, three times, four times, getting remarried over and over and over, and it's fine, and they continue preaching, and the churches continue to accept them as legitimate men of God. Jesus says, no, divorce is wrong. End of the story. End of the story. There are two exceptions. Again, just to make this clear, the one exception is adultery. If the other partner commits adultery, and again, there's a whole teaching that goes with that, it doesn't mean it's an excuse to get divorced. But if you really have to, that's one reason, and the other is in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, desertion. If the unbeliever leaves, then Paul says, let them go. You're not bound. Those are the only exceptions. There are no other exceptions. I know there are preachers and there are friends of mine who will differ with me on that, but that's my understanding. Oh, what about this situation? What about that? I don't know what about those situations. All I know is what Jesus told me, and all I know is what Paul said, and that divorce for any reason other than adultery and desertion is sin. Now, you may be in a remarried situation. It doesn't mean that you now need to divorce again and commit yet another sin to go back to your first wife, as some people are preaching. Yeah, it's a very popular teaching in some circles. I've dealt with three marriages in that regard already. But folks, if you are married, and I'm not addressing those who are in second marriages or third or fourth marriages, that's not the point I'm trying to get to at this point, because I have one minute left. But if you're in a marriage, there is no excuse for you to leave your husband or your wife, because many of us are just looking for an excuse. And Jesus is addressing people who had two different views, and the view that Paul's school, that Paul came from, the school of Hillel, that basically if she burnt the food, you could divorce her. Jesus says, no way. And yet we will divorce for burning the food today. As we used to say in the old days, for squeezing the toothpaste tube the wrong way. But there is no excuse. You make it work. You get God's help and God's grace, and you stick it out, and you make it work, and God will bless you, and God will bless the marriage. And it may not happen today or tomorrow. It may take many years. In our own marriage, it took decades. But God came through for us. God came through for us. If you honor God in your marriage, God will honor you. But you live in disobedience, don't expect God's blessing on your life, because Jesus says you're in sin. Father, we pray that you'd help us. Lord, I wish I had more time, but Lord, these things are real. This is what life is made up of, money and marriage and adultery and hypocrisy. Lord, we pray that you'd help us. Lord, help us to be the people you want us to be. Lord, help us to have the right attitude to our masters, our bosses, our employers. Lord, help us to have the right attitude towards money and possessions. Lord, help us to have the right attitude towards your Word. Help us, Lord, to have the right attitude towards our spouses. Lord, we live in a time when all of these values are being undermined, when all of these things are being changed, when churches at the very highest levels are changing your Word, and yet you said that heaven and earth, it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of your law to change. And so, Lord, pray that you'd help us understand. Lord, I don't think our problem this morning is understanding. I think our problem, Lord, is putting it into practice. And Lord, as we go from this place, as we go into our lives, we pray that you'd help us to take you into our finances, to take you into our places of employment, to take you into our marriages. Lord, that we might be the people who exhibit your praises to the world around us. Folk may take note of us that we've been with Jesus. Folk may take note of us that we are different because we've been changed by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to understand. Help us, Lord, to live. Help us to be. We pray in Jesus' name. Pray that you'd go with us now, Lord, keep us, protect us, and bring us together again safely on Thursday, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.