Cultivating Content in a Consumerist Culture

Let me turn in our Bibles tonight to first Timothy, first

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

Timothy chapter 6 and we're going to get there in just a

second. But I'm going to kind of give

you a little bit of a run into what we started feels like a

long time ago now, but been a lot of Sunday nights between now

when when we started this lesson.

But if you remember the, the whole title of the message, if

you will, is cultivating contentment in a consumerist

culture. And I'm not going to take very

long to to review because you can always go back and watch

that message again. And we got a lot to try to cover

tonight. I don't even know how far I'm

going to get in this tonight, but we may, we may do another

one. These are very, very important

things, not just for those with kids.

It's very important for you to understand these things in your

own life, obviously #1 because we are the examples to our kids.

But #2 you need to get these things straightened out in your

own life. We all need to get these things

straightened out in our own life.

So just just by way of quick review, I gave you 3 myths when

it comes to the philosophy of this consumerist culture.

Myth #1 is that prosperity is a divine right.

It's not you go out and work for it.

You make something out of yourself and then you can be

prosperous, right #2 myth is it's my money.

I worked hard for it. So it's mine, right?

No, it's, it's, we're stewards, we're managers of the money that

God gave us #3 is that money is evil.

And that's not correct either. Money is not evil.

The love of money is the root of all evil, the Bible says.

And so you have to work you and, and you should work and you

should try to make them the, the, the most that you can and

be as successful as you possibly can within the right balance.

But then we said number one, that we should be modeling

contentment in our homes. We should be modeling

contentment in our homes. If we want to raise kids that

are content, we ought to be content.

And that's why I say this is for all of us, right?

It's important that our kids grow up and learn how to be

content, but it's important that we do the same thing too.

The Bible talks about that a lot.

Godliness with contentment is great gain, right?

And so this is not just something that we should be only

teaching our kids. It's something that we should be

doing ourselves. And I said #1 you model

contentment in the home by living below your means and #2

by providing for basic necessities.

And I think this is where we left off, because I don't

remember talking too much about this.

So I'm going to jump in right there.

There's a few things that I wanted to add to this anyway,

and then we'll move on from here.

But the Bible says this in first Timothy chapter 6 and verse #7

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we

can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let

us be there with content. So if you have food and

clothing, you should be content. That's that's, that's a really

low bar, isn't it? It's a really low bar.

So what exactly do we need to be content according to this verse?

Well, the point here is not so much that we need only food and

clothing as much as it is contrasting contentment with

covetousness, the goal of life. The goal of life is not to amass

things, but to be able to meet our family's needs and to give

to others. Proverbs chapter 23.

Proverbs 23 · chapter mention

You can turn to as many of these as you want to.

We're going to be jumping around a little bit, but Proverbs

Proverbs 23 · chapter mention

chapter 23 and verse #4 the Bible says labor not to be rich.

Cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon

that which is not for riches? Certainly make themselves wings.

They fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

By the way, what's the purpose of being rich anyway?

What's the purpose of being rich?

Is it so you can say I'm rich? Is it so you can say I've got a

lot of money? Is it so you can say what I

mean? You can make a lot of money and

still not be rich, right? And I think that's probably the

way that it ought to be. If God is giving you all that

money, you hoarding it and having a bank account that is so

full of money that you can call yourself rich, you're probably

not stewarding what God gave you very well, right, because you're

hoarding it. I was talking to a pastor and he

actually just became a pastor. He's a very successful

businessman. And I won't tell you who it is,

but it's it's somebody that I was talking to and I was talking

to him about some of these different things with Belize.

And he said, he said we make a lot of money, but we don't have

a lot of money because we give a lot of it away.

And he wasn't saying it because he was trying to, you know, he

was trying to say, I don't have a lot of money that I can give

you for this belief thing right now, because we give it all

away. And I and I believe that's

exactly what God does want us to do with it, right?

Why does God give you a ton of money?

Is it so that you can put it all in your bank account so that you

can be very rich, so that you can die with $1,000,000, so that

you can, you know, pass it on down to the next generation?

Well, some of that is true, right?

And if you're just wasting it, if you're just throwing it away

on, on stupid stuff and buying really expensive fancy cars and,

and buying extravagant houses and all of those other things,

then yes, you're wasting the money that God gave you, right?

I do think the Bible does say that, that, that you should make

enough to pass down to the next generation.

There's nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, why do you

want to be rich, right? Why are you trying to amass all

of this money? And I'm just asking that in

general, I'm not, I'm not asking you in particular, right?

But I'm just saying you got to think about those things because

what is the purpose of making money?

What is the purpose of being rich?

What is the purpose of going out and working and having all these

things? Well, godliness with contentment

is great gain. So godliness without

contentment, I got to have another dollar, right?

That's not great gain, right? Great gain is when you have

godliness and you are content with what God gave you.

OK, so wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not riches?

Take wings, right? You could have $1,000,000 in

your bank account. Go get sick with cancer and see

how long that lasts, right? Takes wings and flies away,

right? Your house burns down, You got

to go replace the house. I mean, obviously there's

insurance and everything else, but but riches take wings.

There are things that just come up that make those things go

very quickly. So one of the ways that you help

cultivate contentment in the heart of your children is by

ensuring that you're going to provide for their basic needs.

In fact, look at the Bible says in the chapter before that if

you're still there in First Timothy 6, go to First Timothy

1 Timothy 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 verse #8. But if any provide not for his

house and especially those for those of his own house, he hath

denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

That's some pretty strong language.

Deny the faith and worse than an infidel.

If you don't provide for your house, especially the ones that

are in your own house. So let's look at the 55 basic

needs that your children have. Turn over to Proverbs 31 #1 is

shelter. Your kids need to have a roof

over their heads and a place to sleep.

Doesn't have to be a palace, but it should be a place to call

home, right? I grew up doing the bus ministry

and, and going and visiting kids and it was not uncommon at all

for them to come to church on Sunday.

And when you go back to visit them the following Saturday, the

house is completely empty. And you find out that they moved

three blocks over because they got kicked out of their house

because they weren't paying the rent and everything else.

And they moved everything over and they lived there for six

months. And the next thing you know,

they're in a different house and then they're in a different

house and then they're in a different state and then they

come back. It's just the way that a lot of

them lived. And that's not that's not

providing a place that your kids can call home.

And I get it. I understand that, that that

there are difficult circumstances and things like

that. They come up, but if you're

providing for your for your family, then you ought to

provide shelter. You ought to provide food.

Look what Proverbs 31 says about a virtuous woman.

She verse 30, chapter 31, verse 16, she considereth a field and

buyeth it with the fruit of her hands.

She planted the vineyard. Why she planted the vineyard?

Because she's providing for her house.

She's providing food, right? Clothing.

That's another one that's a basic need, shelter, food,

clothing. Now, by the way, having name

brand clothing is not a need, right?

Your kids don't have to look like they just walked out of a

magazine. OK, You can shop at Goodwill.

That's what we did all the way growing up.

I didn't I didn't have anything brand new for a long time, not

until I started buying my own stuff that I have anything brand

new. We got it new.

We got shoes that Payless, right?

I remember. Does anybody remember and, and

this is the dumbest thing, but does anybody remember the brand

Etonic? Man, I used to think those were

the coolest shoes in the world and I wanted a pair all the way

growing up. I mean, nobody's ever even heard

of Etonic, right? But they had thick bottoms and

they looked soft and they looked comfortable.

And mine were plastic. When I, when I smacked my shoes

in the ground, you can hear the plastic on the bottom of my

shoes. And I'm telling you, more than

once, more than once growing up, probably more than five times

growing up, the shoes that I had cracked all the way across the

bottom. That's how plastic they were a,

a crack right across the, the, the, the like the ball of my

feet to the point where I wrapped duct tape around it to

keep him from falling apart and to keep water from getting in.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

And, you know, we'd get a new pair of shoes at the beginning

of the school year. And it was such a big deal to

get a new pair of shoes that every time we came home, we

would ask our mom if we could sleep in those shoes because

they were brand new. I don't know if you ever did

that. We did, right.

We didn't have Nike. We didn't have all of those

things. We got Payless shoes and we got

Goodwill clothes. And you know what?

When I got into 7th grade, my dad said, I'm, I'm going to give

you a place to sleep. Obviously you have your bed and

all that kind of stuff. I'm going to put food on the

table. You want anything else, you're

paying for it. Guess what I learned how to do?

I shopped at Goodwill. I got my, I got my first suit

off of the racket Goodwill for $7.00.

I remember it and I wore that thing for for a couple years,

right? I used to buy all my ties in my

shoes and everything there. I learned how to be a good

steward of the money that I made because I didn't have a lot of

it, right? Education, it's another thing

that you should provide for your children, your kids.

Education is a necessity in the day that we live in now.

Not everybody has to go to college.

I think that's a myth that's been perpetuated over and over

and over and over again that if you don't have a college degree

and you're not $150,000 in debt by the time you graduate, that

you can't go anywhere in life. And what people are finding out

is that piece of paper hanging on the wall is not worth

$150,000, right? You can go and, and get a good

job in a trade somewhere and they'll pay you to, to let them

teach you how to do it and pay you really well to let them

teach you how to do it, right. There's a lot of other things

that you can do now. I think it's important that you

that you go on and get some higher education.

If you just get out of high school or don't even finish high

school and you drop out, that's that's not helping anything

either. But think beyond high school.

And in some cases, you know, you ought to be saving your money up

to be able to help your children a little bit with college.

Now, I don't think it's a great idea for you to pay for all of

college for them. They don't take it seriously,

right? I had to pay for my entire

college. Guess how many classes I failed

in college? 0 because I was paying for it,

right? Guess what I did during college?

I took it seriously. I studied, I worked hard because

I was paying for it. And if I failed a class, Oh

well, that'll pay for it. No, I was paying for it, right?

So I'm not saying that you can't help your children with college,

but I think they need to learn the value of their education,

right? It is something that you, this

is just true across the board. If you don't pay for it, you're

not going to value at the same way, right?

If you have to pay something for it, you're going to have you

have some skin in the game and you're going to value it.

Even if you only had to pay a little bit for it, you're going

to value it because you paid for some of it, right?

And so it's, it's important that that you budget, if you will,

for your kids education, but also teach them the value of

that by letting them pay for some of it or most of it, or in

my case, all of it, right? I mean, hey, I, I lived, I

survived, I, I paid for four years of college and by the time

I graduated, I had my entire bill paid off.

You know how much student debt I had when I got out of college?

0 right? Because I learned how to work

through College in order to pay for it.

And I, I was able to do it And, and I, and anybody can, you just

have to put your mind to it. But here's another one that I

think a lot of times we don't look at as a basic need, but it

is a basic need for our families.

Shelter, food, clothing, education.

But recreation, Recreation is a basic need for your family.

And you can do recreation. You can have family time very

inexpensively, especially when your kids are young and

especially if you're enthusiastic about what you're

doing. You don't have to.

You don't have to go to Disney World.

I've never been to Disney World in my life.

And honestly, I'll be honest with you, don't somebody go buy

me a ticket. I have no desire to go to Disney

World, all right. I've never been there in my

life. And if, if I if if somebody

throws me over the gate and I land in there, then fine, I'll

walk around in there for a few minutes.

But that's the only way that I'm going.

All right. But you don't have to spend

$1000 or $10,000 to go on some fancy vacation in order for your

kids to enjoy recreation. Go up to the mountains and hike

cost you 100 bucks for no cost. You it cost you a 50 bucks for

the entire year to get a pass. And you can go up there and hike

as much as you want on the Appalachian Trail and you can

you can make it as fun as you go.

Go bring your lunches up there. Go camp.

I doesn't cost anything to do those kind of things.

I'm not saying that you have to spend a lot of money, but it's a

great idea to plan a family budget that includes saving for

some of those extra special times as a family, right?

And I do think it's helpful to go on vacation.

Sometimes that does cost a little bit of money.

But you know, we've started doing that with our kids for for

Christmas instead of buying them all kinds of stuff that's going

to break that they're not even going to remember.

We do a trip, we do an activity and some of it's only been one

overnight or two nights somewhere or doing something

like that. You can make it as inexpensive

as possible, but but give them the experience rather than than

just throwing things at them, right?

And that's not just a gift for Christmas or whatever else.

Investing in recreation as a family tells your children that

that family time is important to you and that you want to make

some of the best memories together.

You know what I've learned? My kids are, they're growing up.

Jackson, 16, is not going to, he's not going to be in the home

very much longer. Alex and Riley are right behind

him. You know what I've learned?

You can't make memories with them when they're gone.

You can't make memories with them when they're gone.

You can only make memories while they're at home, right?

And some of the memories that that we made growing up, we're

all in, in the house, right, playing foosball and darts and,

and, you know, throwing the football and all those kind of

things. Those are, those are things that

my dad did with us that because we had 10 kids, we didn't go on

vacation very much, right? We didn't go out to eat very

much. But I but, but I look back on my

time growing up and my dad spent time with us and I realized now

it didn't really cost a lot of money.

But at the same time, those were, those were things that we

enjoyed. And I remember them like they

were yesterday, 2530 years later, because my dad spent time

with us and put the effort into making it fun growing up.

You can't make memories when they're gone.

You have to make the memories now.

So well, I'll wait until I have a little bit more money and

then, and then when I have grandkids, then we'll take them

all. Probably not going to happen.

Their lives are going to get busy.

You don't know what, what, what happens if they end up in the

Philippines as missionaries and you can't take them somewhere?

What happens if they end up in Africa or Australia or someplace

where it's not very easy to go back and forth?

You can't just, you'll wish that you can spend money on them and

you're not going to be able to, right?

Or what happens if, God forbid, they die and you don't have the

opportunity to do anything with them, right?

It happens. It happens.

Make the memories while you have the opportunity to make the

memories. That's a necessity that your

children need. You want them to grow up in a

happy home. You want to you want them to

grow up remembering all of the good times that you had and all

the all the things that you did that were enjoyable.

And you want them to forget all the times that you got mad and

blew up, right? So you just go buy them a

vacation and they'll forget everything.

No, I'm just kidding. But at the same time, that's it.

That's something that's that's necessary.

So when it comes to providing for your family's needs,

remember that your children want you more than they want stuff.

They don't know it yet. Maybe they may not know it yet,

but they want you more than they want stuff.

And I look back and I don't hardly remember many of the

things that my dad bought us or my mom bought us.

I remember the stuff that we did together.

And I remember the time and I, and I've told you this before,

but one of the things that I remember the most is my dad had

his own business and he was busy.

He was, he was, he was constantly, you know, working

during the day. Now we were in school and

everything else. It wasn't like he was never

home. He was.

But, you know, we had a soccer game at 3 o'clock 3:30 in the

afternoon. And, you know, we're all warming

up on the field. That time goes down to 0.

We're ready to start. And there comes my dad walking

up the track from the parking lot.

And he, he was there. And I remember that.

I, I mean, I remember him being there for almost all of our

wrestling tournaments. I remember him being there for a

basketball game, you know, and I didn't realize it then, but

looking back on it now, that's what I value more than anything

else, is not the stuff that he gave me, but the time that he

spent with me, right? That's what your kids want.

Even even when they're asking for stuff, they need your time

more. So while you do need to do what

it takes to provide for their needs, you have to be cautious

about taking that extra, you know, overtime or the added jobs

just for discretionary money. Well, it's so nice to have this

extra money, right? But for what?

For what? For you to miss the time of your

kids growing up. Now, if you have to take it

because you absolutely have to have that money, then, you know,

don't let them go hungry. Just say, well, kids, sorry, but

we'll sit here around the table. There's nothing to eat tonight,

but we'll enjoy the time anyway, right?

We went through the White House of the Confederacy with, with

the pastors that were here and what do they call it a

starvation, starvation party or something like that.

During the war there was, I mean, they were, they were

struggling. There was no food.

There was no, there was nothing. There was everything was being

blockaded into the South. And so they had starvation

parties. You know what a starvation party

was at the White House? Everybody was there.

They had only, they called it a starvation dinner.

That's what they called it a starvation dinner.

No food, only drinks. And all the drinks were water

and the water was from the river.

Can you imagine that? Come to my party at the White

House. We've got water for you.

It's not clean, but it's from the river, you know, I mean, but

that's what they were doing. And that's that's what I'm

saying. That's not if you have to work

to be able to provide food for your family, then provide food

for your family. But what I am saying is that you

need to figure out the balance and make sure that you're taking

the time to spend that with your kids instead of, well, it sure

would be nice to have that extra, you know, 500 bucks this

month to go, you know, do whatever and you're gone and

you're not there for them. Careful budgeting, frugal living

can buy you quality time with your children, right?

You don't have to have that overtime.

Work the overtime when the kids are gone.

If you really need the money, if you really want the money, work,

work the overtime when the kids are gone.

If you want to teach contentment to your children, you have to

model it yourself in your home for your children to see.

But if they're going to learn to be content, they need to

understand the importance of working for something rather

than having it just given to them.

So that's number two. Then mentor workers in the home.

Turn over to Proverbs chapter 13.

Proverbs 13 · chapter mention

Proverbs chapter 13 see the the entitlement mentality and that's

Proverbs 13 · chapter mention

one of the myths is that you are entitled to all of this because

you live in America the entitlement mentality of a lot

of Americans runs absolutely contrary to contentment.

The attitudes start to take shape in in, in hearts, kids

hearts when they're very young, as they develop the expectations

that that everything in life is just handed to them.

And there's a balance because. I feel like pretty much

everybody wants their kids to have it better than they had it,

right? Ah, life without was rough

growing up. I want my kids to have more than

what I had or, you know, I had to.

I had to quit school at 15 and go to work because this and that

and I want my kids to have it better than I have it.

So you just give them everything that doesn't teach them.

Contentment doesn't help them. Now they don't have to quit

school and go to work at 15. If you have the opportunity to

let them stay in school and finish and everything else,

right, Give them some of those advantages, but don't spoil them

to the point where they just expect that everything's going

to land in their lap on a silver platter.

You know why America's in the condition that it's in?

Because kids graduate from high school at 18 and they've been

given everything up to that point.

Then they go to college and their parents pay the entire

college debt offer them for those four years.

And then they graduate and they're saying, well, look, mom

and dad have a really nice house and they they both drive really

nice cars and they have a lot of money.

So that's what I should have too.

So they go out and they buy a really nice house and they go

out and they buy really nice cars.

And then there's so deep in debt they can't ever get out of it

for the rest of their lives. But what they don't realize, it

took their parents 30 years to get to that point where they

have a really nice house and they drive really nice cars.

What they didn't see is that their parents were in a little

one bedroom, 600 square foot apartment for the first five

years and they drove a little beater that barely started and

barely got them from point A to point B.

And they worked to get to the point that they're in now.

But we've taught our children that this is what you can

expect. So when you graduate at 18,

we're going to pay for all of your college.

And when you graduate from college, everything's going to

be handed to you on a silver platter because this is what you

deserve. You're entitled to this.

You're an American, right? No, you're not entitled to it.

Start small like everybody did and work your way up there.

And you're doing your kids a disservice if you don't let them

start small. If you give them everything, OK,

you might have the money to be able to do it.

Even if you have the money to do it, it's not it's not helping

them to just give them everything on a silver platter,

Right. You know what, Shaq?

Shaquille O'Neal, one of his kids said something one day to

him and he was talking and he said, yeah, because we're rich.

And Shaq said, hang on a second, we're not rich.

I'm rich. Not we're, I'm rich.

You're going to work for what you have.

And, and you know what? Shaq is done with his kids.

He gives his kids a loan for a business.

He said I will loan you the money.

You're going to pay that money back.

If you make something out of yourself, then you'll have the

money to pay back. If you don't, then you're going

to be paying for it. And I'm not just going to hand

it to you on a silver platter, right?

I think it was one of these actors, Chinese guy that did all

the martial arts stuff, Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan.

He said, when I die, I'm not leaving my kids any of my money.

He said if they have learned to make something out of themselves

and they can make their money for themselves and they'll be

just fine, if they're not worth it, then I would have just

wasted my money by giving it to them and handed it to them on a

silver platter anyway. I mean, maybe I'd give my kid

some money, but at the same time, I think it's a great

philosophy. Go work for it, right?

Go earn it. So, because here's what the

Bible says in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse #4 The soul of the

Proverbs 13 · chapter mention

sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the

diligent shall be made fact. See, a wise parent is going to

teach their son or their daughter the value of hard work

and help their child understand the correlation between labor

and reward. You work, you get paid for it.

You work hard, you get paid more for it, right?

That's the that's the that's the benefit of it.

So couple things underneath this number one work is a means for

our provision turn over to keep your finger there in Proverbs

13, because I'm coming back to that in a second.

But first, second Timothy a second Thessalonians chapter 3,

2 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

2nd Thessalonians, chapter 3. I wanted to get farther than

this tonight. I don't think I'm going to I'll

finish up with this and then we'll I want to focus on the the

next part for a longer than just mentioning it and being done

with it. But we'll move it to next week.

Maybe work number 1 is a means for our provision.

You have to help your under your child understand that work, not

handouts, is the means for our provision.

Second Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse #10 For even when we were

2 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

with you this week, commanded you that if any would not work,

neither should he eat. If America followed this

principle, there would be no welfare system.

There would be no welfare system.

Now there are people who get down on their luck, so to speak.

There are people who struggle because things that are outside

of their control happened. They lost their job, their

whatever. Different things like that come

up, right? But that's where the church

comes in and is willing to help somebody out.

The problem is the welfare mentality has created so many

empty positions in workplaces, right?

Why should I work? Why should I work if I can just

sit at home and you're going to pay me to not work?

Where's the motivation in that? There's zero motivation, right?

But I can go buy drugs, I can go drink, I can smoke, I can do

whatever I want to, and I don't have to work.

Man, that sounded better all along, all the time, right?

I mean, that's the way they look at it.

So, so the welfare system creates the that you get

rewarded with no labor. So why would you, right?

But here's the thing, you may not be, you may not have your

kids on welfare, but you give them that same mentality when

you don't teach them that labor reward correlation, right?

Second Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 10 For even when we were

2 Thessalonians 3:10

with you this, we commanded you that if we would not work,

neither should he eat. If any would not work, neither

should he eat. For we hear that there are some

which walk among you disorderly, working not at all.

But our busy bodies. Now them that are such we

command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with

quietness they work and eat their own bread.

This this is teaching us some pretty valuable principles about

work, right? Verse 10 makes it very clear

that work comes before provision.

You work and then you eat, right?

You work, you get, you get you can have you work, you get you

get food. Verse 11.

This is what teaches teaches us what happens when we don't work,

right? We become busy bodies.

We put we put our interest in other people's affairs.

That's what he says, right? There are some among you which

are walk among you disorderly working not at all, but are busy

bodies. They're not busy.

So they're busy and everybody else's business, right?

Teach your children to avoid that.

They need to be diligently working back over.

In Proverbs chapter 13, we read verse 4.

Proverbs 13 · chapter mention

The soul of the slug or desireth and hath nothing, but the soul

of the diligence shall be made fat.

But look at verse #11 Wealth gotten by vanity shall be

diminished, but he that gathereth by labor shall

increase. So you got to teach your kids

that money just doesn't just appear via Dad's checkbook or

dad's credit card, right? Go out and spend whatever you

want. Just just, you know, whatever.

It's the result of somebody spending time and somebody

investing their their strength into earning it, right?

When you just hand it to your kids, they don't understand the

value of it. You worked for that money,

right? You had to earn it.

You went out there and spent your time and your effort and

your labor and your life to earn that money just to hand it to

them so they can go blow it on nothing, right?

That's a vital lesson for your children, not just because work

is a means for a provision, but because #2 work is ordained of

God. We tend to dread work and, and,

and what happens is by our example, we teach our kids to

dread work, right? But work is ordained by God.

It's a gift. And I don't, I don't, you don't

have to turn all the way back to Genesis chapter 2 unless you

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

want to. But one of the first

instructions that God gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden.

What's the work? Right?

Look, this was Genesis 2 verse 15.

Genesis 2:15

This was before the fall. The Lord God took the man and

put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

That was the instruction to Adam before sin.

All right, I know you know. In other words, work is not the

result of sin, right? Work is not the result of sin.

Now we think about it that way. Oh, childbirth, you got to work

for your stuff. Well, no work.

Work was given us as something that was ordained by God, that

was supposed to be something that was a gift to us, the

ability to work and to do things right.

Some of the added difficulties to work are a result of the

fall, but work itself is a gift and and that's what leads to

success. In fact, diligence is the best

vehicle to success. Proverbs chapter 22 and verse

Proverbs 22 · chapter mention

29. Seest thou a man diligent in his

business? He shall stand before kings.

He shall not, he shall not stand before mean men.

Let me give you 3 examples real quick.

Turn over to Genesis 37. I'm going to end with this.

There's some of the some of the young men in Scriptures who rose

to the top of their field by hard work.

God used it. Genesis chapter 37 and verse #13

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock

in Shechem, come, and I will send thee unto them.

And he said to him, here am I Joseph, Joseph in Genesis

Genesis 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13. He was, he was working in the

fields, right? We get this idea many times that

Joseph would just handed everything on a silver platter

because he had the coat of many colors and he was the baby of

the family and all these other things.

But he was working. He was working and, and, and,

and Joseph was a dependable messenger for his father as

well. Turn over to First Samuel

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, First Samuel chapter 3, because not only do you have

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

Joseph, you have Samuel. Samuel worked in the Tabernacle

as a young child right from from a very early age he was working

the child Samuel verse number one, first Samuel 3 one and the

child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli and the word of

the Lord was precious in those days.

There was no open vision. He was working.

He worked in the in the in the service of God, right?

And there was a lot of work that was to be done.

But at five years old around there, he was brought to the to

the Tabernacle by his mother and he worked turn over to the first

Samuel 16. You're not too far from there.

Here's another one that I know that you're very familiar with.

This is the story of David. And I don't, I'm not going to

take time to read all of it. We're just going to read one

verse here in verse #11 Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all

thy children? And he said, there remains yet

the youngest. And behold, he keepeth the

sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, send

and fetch him, for we will not sit down until he come thither.

See, David cared for his father's sheep as a teenager.

And it's no wonder. It's no wonder that each of

these young men grew up to be men who were put into positions

of responsibility later in life. Joseph as the Prime Minister of

Egypt, Samuel as the spiritual leader of Israel, David as the

king of Israel, Right? All of those were young men who

had learned the value of work and they were not just thrown

into those positions because they were given a life of

privilege, right? They were, they were, God put

them into those positions because they had learned how to

work. They learned the value of of

their labor. You don't need, you don't begin

teaching your children diligence and the value of work when they

turn 18. If you wait until they're 18,

you've missed, you've missed out.

They're not going to be hard workers if you wait until

they're 18 years old, right? You hand them everything on a

silver platter. And then on their 18th birthday,

you sit them down, you say now you're 18 so you're going to

have to go work. They're going to say no, keep

handing it to me on a silver platter.

You've been doing that my whole life.

And that's what they're going to expect, right?

Which is why some 22 year old kid can walk into a his first

position in a job and he sits down and he demands all of his

pay and he demands the benefits and he demands this and he

demands that, right? Most of us when we were 22 years

old and sat down to try to get a job, we're like, please, Sir, I

don't care what it looks like. If you pay me $8 an hour, I'll

take it. Just give me a job, right?

But, but that's the way that it is.

We've trained our young people in America especially, right?

This is why they're out there demanding now I should get

$15.00 an hour to make a hamburger, right?

$15.00 an hour minimum wage. I mean, I know things have gone

up and, and things are more expensive, but the, the reason

why things are more expensive is because you got all these kids

that want a 15 dollar, $15.00 an hour minimum wage to flip

hamburgers, right? It would cost you $15.00 to, to

buy a hamburger because that's what they're paying them an

hour. Everything else has to go up

too, right? And, and, and you wonder why,

Oh, it's a great, it, it sounds great on paper.

Let's pay everybody $15. In fact, why don't we make the

minimum wage $30.00 an hour, right?

Fact. Let's just make it 50.

Why not? Then everybody can have all the

money they want and doesn't work that way.

Everything else goes up because you're paying $40.00 for a

hamburger at McDonald's because he wants $50.00 an hour to work,

right? And that's what's happened.

That's how you, you wonder why. I mean, obviously there's

economic things, but that's a lot of what it is, right?

You got all these justice warriors out there, there that

are, that are championing the cause of the underdog and want

everybody to have, you know, you know, all this, all this money

for, for doing a nothing job, right?

If you want to, if you want money, go make something out of

yourself. I'm not saying that you can't

work at McDonald's, right? But if that's your ambition is

to stay there for the rest of your life, then you should be

making $10.00 an hour for the rest of your life, right?

Go make something out of yourself.

We live in America. You have the opportunity to do

those things if you're willing to work, right?

But all that to say that you start teaching your kids when

they're 345 years old, when you let them help you clean out the

garage, right? Come help me.

I'm come help me, right? You're not helping me because

I'm doing all the work and you're actually more in the way

than you realize you are. But you need to learn how to

work, right? They ought to be assigned jobs

at home, right? They're the ones making the

messes anyway, right? They ought to know how to do

their laundry when they're 678 years old, and you can help them

do that, but they ought to learn how to do it, right?

Guess what they're not going to do?

I don't feel like putting that away.

I'm throwing in the hamper. Guess what happens when they're

the ones doing laundry? And maybe that's not so dirty

after all. Right, Let me put it away,

right? That's what that's what happens,

right? Oh, he dropped something on the

floor. Oh, well, Mom's going to sweep

the floor later. She'll pick it up.

No, if you're the one sweeping the floor, guess what you're

going to do? Hey, you drop some on the floor,

pick that up, right? They're going to be the one

saying that because they know that they're responsible for it,

right? That the, the trash is full.

They're the ones filling the trash can out.

Let them be the ones that empty it, right?

They're the ones making all the messages.

Let them clean the toilet in the bathroom that they use, right?

Let them be the ones that that that do all that kind of stuff.

Oh, I'm not saying that that you as parents turn them into

slaves, but they need to learn how to work.

They ought to make their beds. Their bedrooms ought to be

clean, right? Those that that's how you teach

them to work at a very young age and the way that a 5 year old

makes a bed is going to be very different than the way that you

make the bed. But if they're doing a 5 year

old's what what a 5 year old can do.

You praise him for it, right? You're doing what you can do

that looks really nice And then if it really looks bad, you just

go straighten it out, right? But show them, hey, this little

spot down here, right? Pull it down a little bit

further. You want to cover this up.

You want to tuck this in, whatever it happens to be,

right? Teach them how to work.

That's your job as a parent. And if you're going to make them

work, then you follow up and make sure that it's done right.

If they have the job of washing the clothes and they they're not

getting it done, you can't just go, oh, here he is again.

I told him to do it. Oh, well, let me do it.

No, let it build up until the point where they're like, I need

socks. Well, you should have washed

your clothes, right? You can either put on a dirty

pair or you don't wear socks today.

That's, that's on you, right? If you bail them out every time

that, that they, they didn't keep their responsibilities the

way that they should be and now they don't have what they need.

And you just, well, you spend all your money on bubble gum and

now you need 5 bucks for something.

All here is 5 bucks go, you know, whatever.

No, teach them the value of those things.

We'll talk about that a little bit more because that's what

we're going to talk about #3 and I'm not going to get into it

tonight, but managing stewardship habits in the home

teach them how to handle their money.

And it's important that you know how to handle your money if

you're going to teach your kids how to do it, too.

But mentor your children as workers, and they'll reap the

benefits of that the rest of their lives.

My uncle said this at the funeral.

My, my dad, my mom's, one of my mom's brothers, we were talking

and I don't even remember what he said.

He might have even said it actually in the funeral, but I

know he said it the night before.

And he said one of the things, one of the things that that all

of you guys, all 10 of you said, if there's anything about you,

you guys all know how to work. Your dad taught you guys how to

work. And he did because you know what

happened more than once? We hated our house with wood and

snow came covered the whole pile and we bring some wood.

We bring in three or four pieces for the night.

My dad would wake up at 2O clock in the morning to go put some

wood into the fireplace to keep the heat going.

And there was no wood in the house.

And guess what happened at 2O clock in the morning more than

once. Hey, get down here, no wood in

the house. Get out there and get wood. 2:30

in the morning, we're down there trudging through the snow,

hacking in with a shovel, trying to RIP up pieces that are buried

under under ice and bring them into the house.

But you know what? It didn't happen too many times

before. We were like, all right, you

know what? I'm getting wood in the house

before I go to bed. So I don't get woke up at 2:30

in the morning to go down there and find wood that's not there,

right? But my dad taught us how to work

and we worked hard and he taught us how to work hard.

And it's and it's, it's, it's a benefit that we've had for the

rest of our lives, right? You don't know how to work hard.

You you had a huge, huge, huge disadvantage in life.

You're going to expect that you can just do this and stuff's

going to land in it. And when the real world sees you

do that, they're going to take that hand and they're going to

slap you in the face with it, right?

Because that's not how the real world works.

Go work for it if you want it, right?

And if we could get back to that with our entire country and

completely get rid of the welfare system and everything

else, our country would be a whole lot more prosperous than

it is now. But that's what's happened is

we've trained people that you can just stick your hand out and

something will land in it, right?

I need a few more slaps in the face and a few more, few less,

you know, $20 bills in their hand when they stick it out.

And people will learn very quickly to go work, right?

It's important. And, and it's up to you as the

parents to teach that to your children in the home.

But how do you teach that to your kids in the home?

Got to model it yourself, right? You have to learn the balance of

work. What you don't want is for your

kids to think that work is everything either, right?

Dad was never home because he always worked.

That's not healthy either. It's not giving your kids what

they need. That's taking the time away from

them, spending it with you so you can go work.

So you got to find the balance. Everything is about finding the

right balance. Right, There's a ditch on both

sides of the road. Here's the guy that that's a

lazy bum and won't get out there and do anything.

Here's the guy that is worked so hard, he's a workaholic and he's

never home, right? It's not good to be in a ditch

on either side of the road, right?

You need to be in the middle of the road.

So work hard and provide for your family, but find that

balance to where you're actually home with your family and, and,

and enjoying the things that you're able to provide with your

work, right? So anyway, it's our

responsibility to mentor those young, the young kids in our

home, mainly by example, but also just by teaching them,

right? You can't just stick your hand

out and expect that something's going to land in it.

Go work for it, you want it, go work for it, you want it.

Save up your money, you want it, you can have it, go work for it,

right? I'll give you a little bit of

money toward it, but you're going to earn it too, right?

That's how we teach it to them. So what we'll talk about

managing stewardship in the home next week.

Actually, next week we have our fifth Sunday and Jackson's going

to preach for us. Next week will be the week after

that. All right, but let's pray.

Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.

Thank you for the opportunity that you've given us to be here

tonight. I pray that you'd help us have

strong families. God, I pray that you'd help us

to be parents. But but, but even more than

parents, it'd just be Christians that have a proper perspective

on work and that we would be hard workers for the cause of

Christ. And that that obviously

translates into being hard workers with getting the gospel

out translates into hard workers in the church and in the

ministries and everything else. And when we don't, it translates

that way as well. Lazy, lazy workers are going to

be lazy and ministries are going to be lazy and everything else

in their life as well. So I pray that you'd help us

all. Pray that you help us all the

work, work for the night is coming.

I pray that you'd help us to be laborers in our Christian lives,

be laborers in our physical lives, and that we we'd help our

children grow up to be profitable servants for you.

And again, we thank you for all that you do for us.

In Jesus name, Amen.