The Narrow Way, Part 2: Jesus and Money

Well, good morning.

Now that you're all nice and comfortable, would you stand for one more time?

We need to do something I think it's on all of our minds and that's pray for Israel.

So let's do that.

Lord, your Word tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

They have no peace right now.

They have no peace right now.

So, god, I just ask for your grace, your mercy, your protection to be on that nation.

I am grateful that those we know personally over there our missionaries in Nazareth and Moran and his family in Jerusalem and a daughter of a member that I know of that's in that area too they're all safe for now.

Lord, we know that, by your Word, you love the people firing the missiles as much as the ones on the other side, but we also know that you are a God of justice, and we ask for that.

We ask for a resolution according to your will.

Lord, I ask that, as only you can do, you will somehow be glorified and magnified through what is happening over there, through what is happening over there, so that an entire world will know there is one God and he is still on the throne.

So, lord, do what you need to do.

In Jesus' name.

We pray Amen.

Thank you have a seat.

My name is Randy and I'm so glad you're here today.

Thank you, first-time guests, especially for being with us.

I've met two or three of you coming in and we have a hospitality tent out there.

Love to have you just stop by there long enough to let us get to know you for a second, as Gil mentioned.

Love to get that little contact card from you.

We'll just contact you this week, probably to encourage you about that or answer questions that you may have there.

Feel free to check any of the blocks on there that you see that you might need to make a next step decision, as we call it.

Around here too, we always have a little altar call at the end and that is to give you an opportunity to come down for prayer or to make a decision that the Holy Spirit's laid on your heart.

So just keep that in mind.

Also, just always glad to have you.

We're in Luke 12 today, so thank you for bringing your Bible, or grab Pew Bible or turn on your device or whatever, and out there.

Thank you so much for watching.

We're always glad to have you out there.

We know there's several hundred of you that watch every single week and you may want to grab your Bible or your app or whatnot too, because it's always better to see things.

We started a series called the Narrow Way last Sunday, and that's Jesus' take on different topics that are very relevant in our world today, and this week it's on as you see money.

Next week it will be on Jesus and other religions.

So what do you think?

Is there only one way to heaven?

Is there only one God?

Or is the God of this religion and that religion and this religion all basically the same, and that religion and this religion all basically the same?

We'll see what the law, what the Scripture, has to say, as well as what Jesus said on all of that.

So what's going on in Luke 12?

Give you a little context.

Jesus is teaching.

There's literally we don't know how many, maybe a thousand people.

It just says a big crowd is drawn.

They're all different makes of people and backgrounds of people, and he's teaching them, and it's pretty heavy duty stuff.

He's talking about your true identity as a person, what forms you, what the substance of your life is, and in the middle of his talk, this guy in the audience just yells out and says Jesus, tell my brother to share his inheritance with me, and you know he never misses a beat.

He just turns on a dime and he tells a parable, a story with a point about a man who his crops were so good a farmer that he couldn't store it all in his barn.

And he decides man, I'm doing so good, I'm just going to build a bigger barn and I'll just keep getting bigger and wealthier and richer and all like that.

That night he died.

And Jesus' point was basically he had his priorities in the wrong place.

And then he continues on with his teaching that he intended to do, and as he's winding down, somebody speaks up again.

Guess who that was Peter.

Does that shock you?

Peter says this hey, are you just talking to us or are you talking to everybody now?

And Jesus continues to talk, even though interrupted, and he closes it out and we're going to look atas.

A matter of fact, let's go ahead and look at verses 27 through 29 of Luke 12, and this will be a good intro to what we'll talk about as far as how we're to see our resources.

Verse 27,.

Consider how the lilies grow.

They do not labor or spin.

Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all of his splendor, was dressed like one of these.

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and gone tomorrow and is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, o, you of little faith?

More will he clothe you, o you of little faith?

And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink.

Do not even worry about it.

Jesus recognized in that day the same thing.

I think that afflicts us more times than not.

It's not a matter of greed so much.

It's a matter of anxiety over having enough.

If I give more to this cause or that cause, will I have enough to finish out and be in retirement or do this or that?

And that scarcity philosophy it's been called.

You know, there's only so much of a pie and after that it's all gone.

That is what stops us from being as generous as God's called us to do.

That's what was stopping them in that day.

Jesus is going to have a lot to say about finances and resources and material things.

What he's not saying is it's wrong to be wealthy.

He's not saying that poor people are just automatically more righteous than everybody else.

He's not saying that wealthy people are automatically evil.

He's just saying have the right perspective on that, don't let anxiety get in the way of what you're called to really do.

And so he's going to move us from anxiety to trust, and that's what Philippians 4, 6 is all about.

Be anxious about what, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your request be known unto God.

So we're going to look in Luke 12 at three ways that this trust is being involved.

We're going to look at the order of things, the perspective on things, and even in the end we'll look at how.

How am I supposed to do this?

So I'm glad you're here today.

The first thing, look at verse 30 and 31.

We're going to talk about trust involves creating priorities for your values.

We all have values.

Some of them are proper and some of them are a little bit misguided.

That's not the question.

The question is the priorities of our values.

Look at 30 and 31.

For the pagan world runs after such things, and your father knows that you need them.

He says pagan world.

Who's he talking about?

He's talking about basically Gentiles, but also anybody who is not of the faith of Jehovah.

God in that context.

And he says your father already knows he needs them.

He's just said hey, imagine grass and flowers.

That is more beautiful than anything man can create, but it dries up and dies and it's gone.

If he spends that much time and effort on just stuff in nature, how much more valuable are you than that is?

And so he's saying let's have the right priorities.

Look at verse 31,.

Seek his kingdom, and all these things will be given to you as well.

We better define kingdom Jesus.

That was his favorite subject.

He always finds a way to turn the conversation to the big picture, which is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.

So what is the kingdom?

One definition is that I like is things not as they are, but things as they should be.

We all see how things should be, but we're in a broken, fallen world.

Right?

That's one way of saying it.

Another is it is the direct presence of God inserted into your life and into your travels today.

It's like what if God came down out of heaven and he got really involved personally in your life this week?

Well, that's what he wants.

That's why Jesus came and that's why we have the gospel.

That's what Jesus is teaching all the time.

The kingdom, the kingdom of the kingdom.

What he's saying is I want substance more than your secondary needs, time out.

He's not saying we shouldn't be careful to make sure we can earn a living, that we need to be foolhardy, that we need to be terrible managers of what we do.

He's not saying any of that.

He knows we need the basics.

What he's saying is your priorities really need to change.

Now, those of you that, in school, remember if you were in social sciences especially or you might be in school now have you been exposed to, or do you remember the teaching of Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

Remember that, oh man, some of you probably your stomach hurts because you had to take quizzes on that and everything.

Well, that's up there on the screen now.

There's nothing wrong with Maslow or his hierarchy of needs.

I'm going to use that, though, to say here's what Jesus would say about that.

I'm telling you to flip that triangle upside down.

I'm telling you to flip that triangle upside down.

I'm telling you the number one place to start is what Maslow calls self-actualization.

What he called it was the treasure of your life.

What are you really after?

Who are you in this world?

Until we can answer those things.

We're always going to spend 90% of our time on the bottom two, the bottom three.

What Jesus is saying is once you figure out who I am, you'll know who you are.

Once you know who you are, you can apply that to the rest of the triangle.

But you'll have the right priorities.

We spend even in this day of affluence, we spend sometimes the majority of our time and energy and anxiety and worry on just taking care of the essentials.

And Jesus is not ignoring that.

He's just saying if you really trust me, I'm good for that.

If you're obedient to me, I'll make sure the other works, and I don't think Maslow would disagree with that.

So here an application of the priority business, the order of it.

Here's a good application question this week.

Try to discipline yourself, think about it a couple of times and just ask the question what would Jesus care about here?

Would Jesus be caring about what I'm caring about right now?

Every meeting you walk into, every class you go into, everything at work you're doing and everything.

Would Jesus be caring about this?

Like I am, that would affect the banners that hang up here that say bless the rest.

Hey, I'm task-driven, I love to get things done, I get focused on things, and I'm the world's worst at not wanting to get sidetracked, and I'm going to give you an example at the end of when I blew it one time.

But if I walk into a meeting tomorrow, not with my agenda so much as his agenda, what the Word says is you'll get done what you need to do, but you'll do it my way.

That's the priorities, because you'll be listening to and responding to what I care about and not just what you care about, and that will overcome your anxiety about having enough or not.

So let's move on.

How about verse 32 and 33?

We got to keep proper perspectives on it.

That's the big picture, 32 and 33.

So do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

It's kind of odd to me that he says little flock.

He's talking to a big crowd.

Why does he call them little flock?

Remember, his audience is varied.

There are people in the audience that are religious leaders.

They run the church of their day.

They're there not for the motive to become wiser and stronger in their faith.

They're there to hang him and they're looking for something to get him on.

And so he, I think deliberately, and this is the genius of Jesus.

He's saying, hey, little flock.

Well, what's that suggest?

In their world, right on the first century, a flock was a bunch of animals, right, who was like the biggest group of animals that they dealt with, that needed a shepherd Sheep.

And so when he says flock, he's basically calling them sheep.

John 10, verse 11, jesus is talking to another group and he says hey, let me just remind you, I am the good.

John 10:11

What Shepherd?

Good shepherd, not mediocre, not average, not bad.

I'm the good one.

He doesn't have to say.

But in that setting of those hundreds, maybe thousands of people, he's saying make sure who the good one?

He doesn't have to say, but in that setting of those hundreds, maybe thousands of people, he's saying make sure who the good shepherd is, without saying it, because there's plenty in the crowd today who are what?

Not good shepherds, little flock.

In other words, you will be as good as your dependence on Jesus Christ is.

That's the translation of today.

If you're abandoned for Jesus, if you surrender to Jesus, you will be a generous person.

Oh, by the way, I didn't give you some script.

A lot of you like to have some extra scripture to read during the week for devotion.

So, if you want to write these down, this dovetails with this.

2 Corinthians, chapter 8 and chapter 9.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

2 Corinthians, chapter 8 and chapter 9.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

All of Luke, 12, and then Matthew 5 and 6.

Matthew 5 and 6 is Sermon on the Mount, and that's some of what is being quoted here too.

So just do that.

Now.

There's some wealthy people and there's some average income people who are generous, who are not Christ followers.

I'm not saying you can't be generous, but I am saying this If you are truly, legitimately, a Christ follower, you will be generous with your energy, with your intellect, with your time and, yes, with your material resources.

I read about these three guys that were working out in a gym like the YMCA or one of the other places.

You just pay dues and you go to it.

They're working out together and you know, you've been in those.

Those places tend to be a little bit loud and all you got the weights clanking to the floor or whatnot.

You got music being piped in, you got the people talking and all like that.

So in the middle of these three guys working out, cell phone rings.

Guy picks it up Hello.

The voice on the other end said hi, hon, I can't hear you very well, but can I ask you a quick question?

He said sure, go ahead.

She says I'm at the store and there's this beautiful, beautiful coat and, man, it looks good on me.

I must say it's only about 500 and something dollars.

So could I like, if you don't mind very much, could I get this coat?

And he says get it and buy a purse to go with it.

Just, you know, make sure you accessorize with it.

She's oh, man, you're so good.

She said while I got you, can I ask you another question?

When I was driving by here, I drove by the BMW lot and they've got one of those 2024 BMWs in my favorite color sitting right there.

Would you mind very much if I possibly look into buying one of those?

My car's getting a little bit old.

He says if you do that, just get all the accessories on it, because you're going to have it a while, don't want you to be unsafe, you know, just go ahead and do it.

She said you're like unbelievable.

She said I got one more thing to ask you and then I won't ask you anymore.

My mom's getting a little bit older.

Would it be possible if she kind of came and stayed with us.

Could she come live with that?

We'll just try it for six months and if it doesn't work out, of course we'll talk about that.

Just you know your mother-in-law.

He said, okay, just do it, but don't ask me for anything else.

She said, oh, don't worry, I won't.

You're like the greatest husband ever.

And she hangs up With that.

He holds the phone up and says anybody know who this belongs to.

We all tend to be pretty generous with other people's stuff, don't we?

But when it's ours we get a little worried and we get a little bit anxious.

Jesus just says make sure that you keep the right perspective, jesus.

Another thing that I loved about Jesus was he had this way of walking up to people and just in a matter of a few seconds he could get right into their heart.

He knew what was going on with their motive base, their affections, their treasure, as he called it.

He knew all of that stuff.

We can't do it.

The Bible says we judge the outside.

God knows the heart right, and we have examples that he gave us about this very subject.

And then that helps us to get his take on money or our resources, for instance, rich Young Ruler.

You know that story.

Rich Young Ruler was a searcher he was seeking.

He wasn't trying to trap him, he really wanted to know.

He saw something in Jesus that he couldn't figure out.

He was puzzled by it't trying to trap him, he really wanted to know.

He saw something in Jesus that he couldn't figure out.

He was puzzled by it.

This guy's got some depth to him and some substance.

So he goes up and he says I'm missing something.

You have something I don't have.

What do I need to do?

And he says Jesus knew already what was hard and he tested me.

Says keep the 10 commandments.

And he says, oh man, keep the Ten Commandments.

And he says, oh man, I've done that.

And he says okay, sell all your possessions and follow me Now.

It's the only person he ever asked to do that.

And he wasn't saying that was the way to make him holy.

He knew the guy's heart and he knew he would stub his toe over that one the guy's heart, and he knew he would stub his toe over that one.

And it says the man walked away depressed because he had a lot of stuff.

If our anxiety level is higher than our ability to trust Jesus for his word, we will always stay stuck in that element and we will never see the world from the perspective that he has us to see that from.

And that's why he says in verse 33, sell your possessions and give to the poor.

Provide purses that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes and no moth destroys.

He says the same thing in Matthew 6, sell your possessions and give to the poor.

Why is he challenging them to do that?

For two reasons.

One is there were a lot of poor people around there and he needed them to be taken care of.

But also, that's the test, like with the rich young ruler how much?

What means more to you, following me or hanging on to your stuff?

Are you willing to believe that if you follow me and trust me, I will take care of your needs, for your stuff?

And then that's why he says treasure in heaven will be coming.

Those of you who are Christ followers, you know what the deal is.

You know that the real riches about you is not going to be even in this world.

It's going to be waiting on you in heaven, right, what we do that lasts forever is being stored up.

What we're doing other than that for me or for you, whether it's not bad stuff or not, that will end the minute we stop breathing.

Every material thing of wealth will end here, but the most valuable stuff, the eternal stuff, as he called it, is what's still waiting on us there.

He gave another, we have another indication of his heart for us, and that was he was in church just a few days before his own crucifixion, and he's out there at the outer courtyard.

So the way the church was, you had a place like this where only the Gentile men could go.

Then you had the outer courtyard, or the court of women or the court of Gentiles, and that's where pretty much anybody could go, and that's where they put their offering plates.

Only they were these big old, like, like big vases.

Only they were made out of metal and they clunked around.

I think that's interesting, though, is not everybody could come in here, so they didn't put the offering plates in here.

That'd be dumb, wouldn't it?

Well, let's put the offering plates out there where everybody can give, and Jesus is sitting that day right across from one of them, and the rich people had some of them developed this way of kind of showing off, and they figured out, you know, in those days their currency was all in coins and so the heavier the coins and the more of them, the more money you gave, obviously.

So the heavier the coins and the more of them, the more money you gave, obviously.

And the rich guys would walk up with a handful of coins or something and they would throw it up against the sides of that container and it would go blah, blah, blah, blah and it would rattle all the way down to the bottom and it's like the other people would go ooh, ah, that's pretty impressive.

That guy gave a lot of money, didn't he?

And Jesus is just watching.

And then a lady walks up, she's very modestly dressed, she's got that look like.

I wish I could be invisible right now, but I can't and she goes up and she slips two coins, the equivalent of about two cents, and it makes no sound.

And at that point Jesus said did you all see that she gave more than anybody?

Now, it wasn't that he was terrible in math.

The deal was he knew her heart and he knew that that day that's all she had to her name.

It would be like me or you emptying our bank account and giving it to the church, to God.

That day Her reward was in eternity.

The other guy's reward was here on this earth.

Her anxiety definitely was not so high that she couldn't bet the farm, if you will, on the graciousness and the goodness of God and my Bible, at least that I've read tells me he's never let us down on a promise, has he?

There's one more, and y'all learned this probably when you were four years old.

Jesus is walking through a town.

There's a big crowd, of course, wanting to see him and everything, and he comes up.

He walks up under this tree I believe it was a sycamore tree, remember and he calls the guy.

This guy's sitting in the tree and he calls him out of the crowd.

He says get out of that tree.

I'm going to your house for lunch today, and that was none other than who Zacchaeus.

So what do we really know about Zacchaeus?

Well, we know he's a wee little man.

We also know that everybody in town despised him because he had cheated everybody in town.

That's what he did for a living chief tax collector, he legally could extort money from anybody and everybody he wanted to.

And I love that story because at the end of lunch that day, jesus has so penetrated his heart that Zacchaeus tells Jesus look, if I have cheated anybody, I'm going to pay them all back double.

And I think here's another time when we don't have it recorded.

But I think Jesus sat back and grinned because he's like what do you mean if You've cheated everybody?

Everybody in town has been cheated by you and we know that.

How in the world does a person change from the blackest heart, the most miserly in his case it was greed, the most greedy person in town, to the most generous person In the space of an hour and a half lunch?

There is only one answer he met his Savior, the Lord, and transformation was a natural byproduct.

The anxiety leaves because you learn to trust him more than your concerns.

Third thing is Jesus wants to establish principles for our affections.

Jesus wants to establish principles for our affections.

It's the priority of how we do it, of course, but it's also the big picture, the perspective.

Can I trust him with this?

But the principles is how do I do this?

Well, let's look at verse 34.

For where your treasure is, there, your heart is.

What you attach the most value to is where your heart.

And when they said heart, that meant the emotional center of your being, that meant your focus, your intensity, your love, your passions.

It meant all of those things.

Your concern, what you are the most fond of, the most concerned about, the most focused on, will be your treasure.

You can say all the other things, but that will become your treasure.

So how do we get to?

What are the principles?

How do we do this?

Honor God with our stuff.

He spells it out again in Scripture.

And here's a couple more places that you can read this week Malachi, chapter 3, and about the middle of the book of Leviticus.

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

Both of these things are dealt with.

It's called the principle of the tithe.

The tithe literally meant in Hebrew 10%.

That's where the conversation begins.

Conversation begins Of your income and my income.

God says I want 10% of it, I own all of it, I gave you all of it.

All I'm asking for is 10%.

That's at the point that we're not disobeying God anymore.

Now, anything over that is a gift.

And that's where he comes in and says hey, try me out on this, I'll not be unfaithful to you there too.

So and that's the first priority, malachi calls it the first fruits.

That means the first priority we have.

Our first want should be I'm going to give him his 10 plus percent.

Number two is what some financial analysts who are in our church, who are Christ followers and others know far better than me, and that is you pay God first.

But number two, you pay yourself, and that's your savings, your 401k, your rainy day, your tomorrow money, whatever.

That's what you're going to prepare for the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, with there nothing wrong with that.

We should plan for the future.

He's not saying we shouldn't.

They say at least 10% of that too.

So if you can pay God 10%, you can pay yourself 10%.

At least.

That leaves you 80% for number three.

We're going to pay God, we're going to pay ourselves.

The last is pay your bills.

Now most of us start where Well, I got the rent due and I got that BMW payment that you know I got.

We're going to start there.

And then, well, is there anything left over?

Yeah, let's slide a little bit in savings.

And then, if there's ever, there's usually not for number three in savings.

And then, if there's ever, there's usually not for number three Again, let's flip the triangle.

Jesus says, hey, how about pay my father and he'll take care of number two and number three.

But we are supposed to be people of integrity who are good for whatever our obligations are there.

The wrap-up of this little thing is Jesus would say let me give you my take on your money.

Just do the multiplication principle.

Go into all the world and baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

You are part of a church that I think, understands, and thank you for understanding that our job is not just to sit here fat and happy every week.

Our job is to see more people come to Christ.

That's why we have a separate account called Kingdom Come that many of you made pledges to and thank you Right now.

Now we've got almost $3 million in there at the one-year mark out of the three.

We'll exceed our pledges, but we will not exceed what's going to be required, because the renovations here and the place and the building of Pinewood to get them a permanent place is going to far exceed what was pledged, which was like $3.6, $3.7 million.

But thank you for giving and at the same time, thank you so much for giving to the general budget, because at this point, after a quarter of this year, your giving has exceeded budget, which says you're not so anxious that you're choosing one or the other to give to.

It's a both and You're giving your tithes and you're giving extra to God and that is why I say you get it.

You understand that His principles have to be in effect there.

But what's the multiplication principle?

You might want to look at it.

It's Luke 6, verse 38.

Luke 6:38

Luke 6, verse 38.

Luke 6:38

Give and it will be given to you.

Jesus says A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap.

For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

What in the world use?

It will be measured to you.

What in the world?

With the measure used, it will be pressed down, shaken together, running over and dumped in your lap.

In their economy they didn't have prepackaged stuff in the supermarket and all they would have a barrel of salt.

They would have a big old thing of sugar or wheat and grain and many times they would dip a measure instrument down into that and they would deal it out into whatever the person brought.

And he says if this is the measure of what you give to the Lord, whatever you measure out, he'll be good for it, he'll take care of you.

And he says, matter of fact, you'll get a little bit more.

That's the multiplication.

I'm not saying he'll make you monetarily rich and more prosperous.

If he chooses to, that's great.

The point is he will reward you in the more important eternal things.

Did y'all hear that he's going to give you the stuff that is more valuable than money or possessions to the degree that you measure out of your life?

This will be running over and He'll dump it back in your lap.

So this is a pretty important thing is how much we measure out right.

If you decide to use granddaddy measure the same principle, the multiplication principle works.

If 10 people in this church decide I'm going to live by the kingdom principles and I'm going to.

I want to see more people come to know Jesus and get baptized and come to be disciples and everything.

But you know, I'm just going to do it like on a very, very sporadic part-time basis.

Good Praise the Lord, I'm glad you're who you are, but if I'm created to do it and you all are, by the way, same thing multiplication, press down, shaken together, running over and poured into your lap.

Now I know a lot of you.

I know maybe even most of you, and I know you are people who don't want to sell yourself short.

You are people that if I'm going to serve the Lord, I want to do it and make it last.

I want to see the kingdom come and His will be done.

So years ago I'm pastoring a church somewhere else, a great church, and we were two days from taking a team mission team to Honduras.

So I'm flying around all over town I'm trying to get details done, last-minute things done, and then I have this appointment back at my office and I'm on the other side of town and I didn't allow enough time and I'm irritated at myself and I'm trying to get there because I don't like to be late.

And on my way I see up ahead this guy, this man walking with the traffic and he's got two big old grocery sacks on both hands and he's walking like this.

I knew him because the walk betrayed.

I knew him by his walk.

He was a part of my church.

I knew him well.

I knew that since birth he had had this physical condition that allowed him not to drive, not to really keep up with his own stuff.

He had relatives in another state that managed his affairs.

He lived in a mobile home on the outskirts of town, but he was super, super faithful in our church.

It's 92 degrees, it's the middle of July and he's walking.

I'm late, I didn't have time and I got over in the other lane and I sped up, thinking if I go by him fast he won't recognize me.

I did and I went zooming by and as soon as I went past him guess who?

Spoke?

The Holy Spirit.

And he wasn't nice that day and I turned around.

I did the quickest three-point turn in the history of that street probably, and I go flying back there to get him.

I go past him, I do another like record three-point turn and I go roaring up beside him.

I throw the door open as I'm even stopping.

Now let me remind you, my heart had not changed.

I'm doing it out of duty.

I threw that door open and said hey, man, steve, jump in, I'll give you a ride the rest of the way home.

And he gets in.

Now I'm not so thrilled about that, but Steve was really glad to see me because here's a ride.

He throws his bags in there.

Well, the first thing that happens, one of them tips over and there's onions and there's stuff going everywhere in the floorboard and I'm like, well, there's three more minutes to clean that up.

So he closed it.

Boom off, we go.

I wheel up to his place, his home.

He's in the middle of a story and I'm like, oh, I'm picking up his groceries while he's talking, you know.

And I get him.

I said, ok, steve, thank you, man, I got to get back to the office.

I appreciate this and all that.

And so he gets out and he says thank you for the ride.

But he says hey, randy, I got, I forgot, I got something in my house I want to give you.

Can you wait?

I went, went, man.

So he goes ambling up into that and as that door's closing true confession.

I'm thinking you know, if I pull off, he can't do anything about that.

Maybe he'll forget, but I sat there.

He finally comes out, big old grin on his face.

He finally comes out, big old grin on his face, he walks out there, he hands me a check.

Wasn't very much money, because he didn't have any money.

But he said you know, randy, I can't go to Honduras.

I'll never go to Honduras, but there's people in Honduras that need Jesus and I want to make sure that you have enough money to see that happen.

And so take this with you on your trip.

He goes back inside.

And now that appointment didn't really matter, because I sat in his yard for another several minutes taking my beating from the Lord.

Because then he spoke again and the Holy Spirit said who are you to pretend to be a leader who is going to take some people to another country and convert them to Christianity, and you don't even love the people in your own church enough to stop on the side of the road for them?

So I made a vow that day that's not going to happen again.

And I got to tell you.

From then on, steve, he had a way of showing up at our office, you know, unexpected.

Every time he showed up I had plenty of time for Steve.

I kicked my own mom out of my office.

One day he said Steve, tell me about it, don't follow my example, follow the teachings of the Lord.

We get the awesome opportunity to worship one more time.

So why don't you stand with me and love to pray with you, love to celebrate a next step decision that you've made for baptism, for membership, for coming back to Christ in a serious way, or whatever you need to do there?

Let's pray together.

Lord, I thank you for your word, your truth, your conviction.

It comes out of love.

You're not promising us the Holy Grail.

You're not promising us a bed of roses.

You're promising us a narrow path that most people never figure out.

We have the awesome opportunity to not only know the path to take, but to take it, not under our own power, but as totally dependent on you.

We are only as good as how you provide for us, and that is the safest place to be.

In Jesus' name, amen.