Well, ifan you got a Bible, turn to Luke chapter 12.
That's where we're going to be.
Still a whole lot of shaking going on in the world.
Hoping everybody's paying attention.
Hope you're getting up and you're watching.
And kind of watching Israel, watching Iran, Venezuela, Ukraine,
China. I mean, it's all over the world. Cuba, they say, is kind of in a pickle. They may not last much
longer. You know, the Bible says that everything that can be shaken will be shaken. And I don't know
what it would take for people to turn to the Lord, but I would hope that it wouldn't take much more
than what we see going on in the world, realizing that we, I don't know about you, but a lot of times
when you see how overwhelming it is the things going on in the world, how small it makes you feel.
And it can strike fear in people's hearts, and yet the Lord has encouraged us.
When you see these things, don't get all upset, right? Be faithful. Stay close to the Lord.
Be faithful unto death, and he'll give us a crown of life.
and well that's easier said than done sometimes but anyway we're going to get in God's word this
morning and hopefully we'll be encouraged by the things that we read a lot of times Jesus doesn't
pull any punches and the truth is is very painful at times and so there might be some truth
that we see today that might check us simply because we're Americans
anybody proud to be an American?
Amen.
I'm so thankful that I live in this country,
and yet I think it can be a blessing and a curse all at the same time.
But we looked last time at the Holy Spirit,
and we want to, I don't know about you,
but I want to be walking in this spirit,
and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh,
and trying to stay away from hypocrisy.
That's how Jesus started this chapter.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
And so in this passage, we get another beware from Jesus.
When Jesus says, beware, we probably should beware.
Right?
It's very elementary, I realize, but we should take.
it to heart when the Lord says beware. And we finish up in chapter 12, verse 12, where it says,
for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. The God's Spirit
desires to dwell in us and to give us wisdom, to give us His word, and that we might be
able to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. And the Holy Spirit says,
the best way to go there, and he will meet you in that moment when you need him the most.
And so we're going to read, we're just going to read through seven or eight verses here.
I think it's from verse 13 to verse 21.
So read along with me.
It says, then one of the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to defied the inheritance
with me.
But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?
And he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.
Then he spoke a parable to them saying, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentiful.
And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops?
And so he said, I will do this.
I will pull down my barns and build greater.
And there I will store all my crops and my goods.
And I will say to my soul,
soul, you have many goods laid up for many years.
Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said to him, fool.
This night your soul will be required of you.
Then whose will those things be which you have provided?
And so is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you.
Thank you for the truth of these verses, Lord, that Lord encourages us to be careful what we put our trust in.
And so, Lord, may we find ourselves today putting our trust in you.
Lord, that the truth of your word would cut deep into our hearts and just the reality of what and who we are.
are, especially what and who we are apart from you. So Lord, would you teach us this day? Lord,
may we take these things to heart. May we truly realize, Lord, and pursue becoming rich
with our God and that our treasures would truly be in heaven, in Jesus' name. Amen. So we have another
beware here from Jesus in this passage. And so it is beware of covetousness.
and so Jesus seemingly right off the back gets pulled into an inheritance dispute.
You ever seen those?
It's the most brutal.
I think it's second only to murder, which I think it's caused murder in some cases.
And he seemingly gets pulled into this where the then a, then one thing,
from the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
Now, this would be probably uncomfortable to get involved.
You know, the scripture says not to get involved with other people's affairs.
I think it's in the proverbs, well, it says if you start getting involved and sticking your
nose into other people's business, it's like taking a dog by the ears.
You're going to get bit, right?
So don't do that.
But when it comes to inheritance, people get pretty uppity.
And what do I want to say?
Just all they can think about is what you're going to give me.
You know?
And my dad was actually talking to me about this the other day, about my inheritance.
And I'm thinking, I wonder what the others would say about this.
Right?
Would they agree with him?
Would they not agree with him?
And it's like, just let the people who are leaving the inheritance, make a decision,
live with the decision, and go on about your business.
But people don't do that.
No, they get all watered up.
We got invited, my wife and I.
to some extended family.
The gal in her 90s was getting ready to pass,
and they said, we're divvying up all this stuff at the house.
Come over.
Take what you want.
So we get over there, and her adult children are in their 70s.
And I'm watching, I'm going, this feels kind of weird,
going through somebody's stuff.
And they're not even gone yet.
I mean, she's not even cold.
And we're going through the stuff.
And I remember I overheard the oldest boy said,
this is the end of life.
This is what it is.
You accumulate all this fodder, all this stuff.
And then people divvy it up.
And praise the Lord, they weren't fighting over it, right?
But I'm just going, wow.
And so Jesus kind of, he's going,
Now, wait a minute.
You want me involved in this whole inheritance thing?
I don't think the Lord is that interested in our stuff.
Right?
He don't care about our stuff.
Stuff don't do nothing for us.
But make our garages cluttered.
That's what stuff does.
Jesus is concerned with our soul.
He's concerned with your soul.
He could care less about your stuff.
You should care less about.
your stuff because it's just stuff and it's going away so he says he says but he said to him man who made me a judge
or an arbitrator over you or your stuff now it is interesting they considered jesus a rabbi right
and in the Jewish society disputes were often brought to the rabbis to settle.
But it's like Jesus going, I'm not going to do this.
I'm not going to get in here.
Okay, you can have the oak chair and you get the disposable chair, right?
Kind of divvying the stuff up.
And in that culture, the firstborn, so he says, tell my brother.
Because the firstborn, the firstborn, when,
When it came to the inheritance, the firstborn got two-thirds of everything that the family or the father left.
And then the other siblings that were behind him got to divvy up the third that was left.
Right?
So if you're firstborn, you kind of had it made in the shade, so to speak.
Right?
So maybe this kid thought he was getting robbed or whatever, and he wanted Jesus to intervene.
but Jesus goes, I'm not the partitioner.
I'm not going to partition up your stuff or divide it.
Because obviously he's not concerned with this stuff.
And in verse 15, he says, and he said to them, take heed.
So he takes this situation and he uses it as a teaching moment for those who were around him.
And it says, and it says he says to them, the people who are around, take heed and beware of covetousness.
I probably don't say that right.
But for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.
These, these possessions of ours, isn't it funny that sometimes you think that if I just had that,
it would be so much easier.
I remember years ago talking to a rancher friend of mine that I worked for.
He was in his late 70s, and he was telling me that his wife always told him,
their whole married life, his wife always told me,
if I just had another $100 a month,
he said, so I'd give her $100 a month.
And about a year or two later, if I just had another $100 a month,
is that covetousness i i think it is right it's uh the the the word for it here is is obviously the
the thou shall not covet is the tenth commandment you remember that right remember the ten commandments
that that one's always easy to remember and um but in the greek the word covenous is it's
play onyxia.
Pleonicia is the
pronunciation of this word,
and it means
lusting for a greater number
of temporal things
that go beyond what God
determines is eternally best.
I like that. That's a great
definition of covetousness.
I'll say it again.
Lusting for a greater number
of temporal things
that go beyond what God
determines is eternally
best. Granniness. Right? You just, you want more. Years ago, I heard a preacher talking about a bunch of
billionaires that they asked the question. You guys got billions, right? So how much is enough?
Just a little bit more. Just a little more. They're never satisfied. And then when they get all
that, they're kind of like, they become these little hoarders. You know, I used to hear stories about
Howard Hughes and, man, they get all wotted up about, you know, about little penny things.
Just, no, that's only cost a few cents. I worked for a guy like that one time. I wrote some
horses for him. He was a doctor in the Magic Valley. And him and my friend went to the store one day.
And his friend, my friend was, our mutual friend was telling me, he said, that guy is so tight.
I said, really?
He said, yeah.
And he had money coming out of his ears.
And he said, we went.
I was helping him fix some stuff at his house because he was too cheap, right?
He wouldn't hire it done.
So he'd asked me to come do it for free.
And he says, hey, we need a handful of those screws.
And he says, grab a handful of them screws.
And the guy goes, and this guy with money running out his ears, he goes, at three cents a piece?
He looked at him like, really, you're that wotted up about three cents apiece on those screws.
But that's, it's just, it makes you weird.
When you live in this place of thinking, I just got to have more.
I think every person, especially every follower of Christ, you need to determine in your heart very soon in your Christian life, how much is enough?
How much is enough?
I've always had enough my whole life.
There were times when we were kids, we didn't know what we were going to eat, but we always had enough.
I mean, I mean people showing up on our step, giving us, and leaving bags of groceries and knocking and running.
We always had enough.
God saw to it.
You know, the Psalmist says that I've never seen the righteous or the offspring of people who love God begging for bread.
We never had to beg for bread.
Now, we didn't have the best clothes or any, but we always had enough.
And everyone needs to determine in their own heart, how much is enough, especially us here in the West, that we're so fat and so blessed.
We take so much for granted.
And we still think we have to have a little bit more.
Are you serious?
It was very convicting for me going through this.
And so the last part of verse 15,
for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.
And so often we think it does.
We think that if I just have a little bit more, my life would be better.
So you're putting trust in these things to give you life.
When the only one who can give you life is the author.
of life. That's the only one who can give you life. Things can't give you life. Money can't give you life.
They won't, these things won't hold your life together, if anything, that probably tear your
life apart. And I think Jesus is pointing us to, in a direction that many people struggle.
going to.
But he's the one who gives us life.
Not things.
John 1028.
And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.
Is that an incredible promise or what?
You find that life in him?
Because it's there.
And he told us in another place, the words that I speak to you,
they're spirit and their life.
Have you noticed that if you'll consistently read God's word,
there is a, there's life that comes to you?
Encouragement?
Just reading through the book of Job.
I'm just thinking, man, I'm so glad I'm not Job yet.
Right?
I ain't out of the woods yet.
But notice what the 10th commandant entails here.
It's not just stuff.
It's other things too.
Exodus chapter 20, verse 17, it says,
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
Oh, there's a lusty one.
nor his male servants, nor his female servants, nor his ox,
nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbors.
And how often I see and I've been guilty of it myself,
oh, I want one of those, right?
It's never crossed your mind, but as soon as your neighbor gets it,
I want one of those.
And it can be anything, right?
it could be a wife or a car or a house
and I'm going to go ahead and just
read through 16 through the 21 again and he spoke a parable to them
so Jesus goes okay you guys need to get this
so he speaks this parable to them saying
the ground of a certain man yielded plentiful, and he thought within himself saying,
what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops?
I'm at a loss.
I've been so blessed.
I have no place to put everything that I have.
But he doesn't say that, does he?
He doesn't recognize that the fruit of the ground that yielded plentiful would come from somebody else.
So he said, I will do this.
I will pull down my barns and build greater.
And there I will store my crops and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years.
Take your ease.
Eat, drink and be merry.
But God said to him, fool this night, your soul will be required of you.
Then who will those things be which you have provided?
And so is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not.
not rich towards God. It's like, that's all you get. It's all you get. I mean, that bumper sticker
that people try to convince themselves is true that says, he who dies with the most toys wins,
right? No, he who dies with the most toys wins, nothing. That's how it should read. He wins. He wins.
So three things about this guy before we leave today.
First of all, he's greedy.
This guy's greedy.
Just give me, give me, give me.
Got to have more.
And greed has no allowance to recognize God's goodness or blessing in God's grace.
Right?
It doesn't allow that to happen.
It's just no.
Look what I've got.
Look what I've done.
You remember Mabikinezer.
That was his ploy.
when he's standing over there over his kingdom.
This is after Daniel interprets his dream about the statue,
and he's going, look at this great, great empire I've built.
Kaboom, that very day.
Finito, it's over.
You're going to be like an ox.
Burr.
And he ate grass like a cow for the next seven years.
God put him in the pasture, put him out to pasture.
Because why?
He didn't recognize God.
He didn't humble himself.
He didn't realize what God had given him.
That's what greed does.
Makes you totally blind to how blessed you are.
Totally blind.
And this guy, he's blinded by his greed.
I've got it made in the shade.
I will never be in want.
Oh, really?
Really.
See, you know what's going to happen tomorrow.
You know what's going to happen tomorrow?
I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
I'm probably going to take my last breath tomorrow.
Good chance of that, right?
Because I am a terrible driver.
Paul talks in 1st Timothy about this.
He says,
Godliness, it says, now godliness with contentment is great gain.
But those who are full of greed,
they have no content.
They're not content.
for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we carry nothing out.
And having food and clothing with these we shall be content.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts
which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil,
for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierce themselves through with many sorrows.
Godliness with contentment.
Loving God.
Contentment.
That means you might live in a tent,
but you can be content living in a tent.
If you have God in your life,
no, nope, got to have more.
It's got to be bigger.
The writer of Hebrews encourages us in Hebrews 13-5,
it says, let your conduct be without covetishnessness.
Be content with such things as you have,
for he himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.
Isn't that good enough?
Is that good enough?
No, I got to have Jesus and.
I got to have Jesus and a 5,000 square foot home and a Lamborghini.
No, you don't.
There's such a big difference between needs and wants.
What you want?
I used to love that song. It's called More of You.
That's what I need. I need more of him.
And less of me.
For Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 16, verse 26,
for what prophet is it to a man?
if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul
and what will a man give an exchange for his soul?
You thought about that?
What are you going to give?
An exchange for your soul?
Nothing.
So the guy is greedy.
Secondly, the guy is selfish.
In verses 17 and 19,
and he thought within himself,
Watch this. And he thought within himself, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops?
And he said, I will go down. I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build greater.
And I will store my crops and my goods. And I, I, I, I, I. He's got an eye disease.
In these three verses, 11 times he mentioned himself, my, and I.
eye. That's all they can see. All he can see is himself. He's become so selfish. He's actually
talking to himself because he has no one else to talk to. He's so selfish.
It reminds me, it reminds me of the story in Luke chapter.
chapter 16 when Abraham is talking to the rich man who had died.
You guys? Yeah, the rich man, he's, he's alive. He's in this place of torment.
And he and Abraham are having this conversation. And he says, hey, tell that beggar dude, that
Lazarus, tell him to dip his finger in some water and come and wet my tongue. Man, I am torment. It's hot in here.
And Abraham says, he says, remember,
remember in your lifetime.
You had good things.
And you didn't give
not even a drop of water
to Lazarus, who was outside your gate,
a poor beggar.
You didn't give nothing to him.
And now,
he's comforted and you're tormented.
If that doesn't strike fear in your heart,
it should.
Paul tells us,
In 2 Timothy, chapter 3, 1 through 4, it says,
But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves,
lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors,
headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
that's selfishness right there in a nutshell but the Lord calls us to be selfless
not self-ish but self-less in fact it was a prerequisite to be a disciple
Jesus said, he who would come after me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross, his instrument of death, and follow me.
I don't, we don't understand this stuff, right? It was in our staff meeting the other day.
One of the guys said, well, I'm in the top, right, I'm in the top 93% of the richest people in the world.
And I said, I was thinking, well, maybe you should be building our church.
But he was basically saying, no, I'm an American.
And Americans, Americans, in comparison to the.
the world population are the richest in the world.
We are the richest people in the world.
All Americans.
Not just, you know, they said if you have two televisions in one car, you're in the top
5% of the richest people in the world.
Seriously.
It's all relative, right, to how you grew up.
Like I said, we never wanted.
I would never say that my family was wealthy.
You know, we were fractured and scattered and divorce and all these things, ex-convicts and, you know,
drugs and alcohol and all the poverty that that brings.
But we were still up there in the type of.
top 5% of the richest people in the world, even in our struggles.
So Paul talks about it again.
I think the Bible talks about money more than any single subject.
Jesus definitely talked about it more than any one single subject.
he talked about money.
I hate talking about money.
Except for maybe to bring some conviction.
But First Timothy,
Paul tells Timothy in chapter 6, verse 17 and 19,
command those who are rich in this present age
not to be haughty, not to be haughty,
nor to trust in uncertain riches,
but the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
Everything you have, you've been given.
What do you have that you didn't receive?
Well, I worked tired for my retirement investment portfolio.
Right?
I deserve that pension I'm going to get.
Do you really?
Who gave you the ability to work?
To be strong, to be wise.
who gave you all that? What do you have that you did not receive? And see, greedy and selfish people,
they don't see it that way. They see, oh, that's me. I gave myself that. No, you didn't.
You can't even create one breath of your own. It's a gift from God. One beat of your heart.
That's the God of heaven who gives you life. Paul says,
we move and live and have our being in him.
Without him, none of us would survive.
This would be a room full of corpses in a second if God removed himself.
I lost my place.
Verse 18, let them do good.
They be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,
storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal
life. Get outside of yourself, right? That wasn't in the scriptures. That was a Scotty add-on, right?
But get outside of yourself. Find somebody to go help. What do you do with the life that God's
given you? Just go help somebody. There's all kinds of needs out there. You can show up at the church and sweep
floor over at the new building you could you could bake some cookies and take it to your neighbor some
some of us are so worried about ourselves and our future we forget about the needs that are
around us go to a rest home and bless the people by reading a book or singing a song i used to take
the kids to the rest home at the school and we would sing and and and
Pray with them.
Go see someone in the hospital.
We hear people all the time in the hospital.
You don't have to know them.
If you know of them, go and say, hey, I love showing up at the hospital.
And you walk through the door and people are looking at you like,
I don't think I know you.
Well, I'm just, I heard you were in here.
So I just, I was going to come pray for you.
Can I do that?
Usually people are pretty agreeable.
I've had a few people tell me, go bother somebody else, would you?
I wonder if they've seen the studies on prayer.
Prayer works.
Right?
They've done hospital studies about people being prayed for in the hospital,
not knowing that they would pray for,
the study shows that they recover quicker than people who are not being prayed for.
because doing these things, you guys, that are outside of maybe even our comfort zone,
that's where you find life.
That's why Jesus said, right?
He would come in after me, let him lay down his life, pick up his cross, and follow me.
By laying down your life and your selfishness, right, you find life.
That's just how God works.
lastly first of all this man was he was greedy then he was foolish and lastly or excuse me then he was
he was selfish and then lastly he was foolish
he's foolish because he says i will say to my soul
the only one talking to this guy's soul is himself i don't know about you but i need the lord to speak to
my soul.
Because I don't have very good advice.
I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years.
Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said to him, fool.
You fool.
You've lost sight of the end of your life.
you haven't taken that into consideration.
I'm convinced as a believer, you guys,
we need to take that into consideration every day.
You haven't taken this into consideration that,
what's he say?
This night, your soul will be required of you.
Then whose will these things be what you have provided?
He was foolish.
His mindset was eat, drink, and be merry.
Eat drink and be merry?
That's the, that's called hedonism.
Not heathenism, which it runs a close second, right?
But hedonism, H-E-D-O-N-I-S-M, hedon-I-S-M.
And this is hedonism.
Heedonism says that the,
good is found in the avoidance of pain and the attainment of pleasure. That's hedonism.
The Sereniac's seed, or excuse me, creed was get as much pleasure as you possibly can,
get drunk to excess, right, get intoxicated, eat to the point of gluttony, enjoy. And,
join sex until you're satisfied by it.
That is the good life.
It is found in eating and drinking and being married.
Let's have a party.
Let's be happy.
Let's eat and drink.
Now, I like to eat as much as the next guy.
But not to the point of abuse.
It's like self-abuse.
Then the Epicureans, they come along, and their philosophy was not,
not that, you know, not that crass, hedonism, but was because that could always end in frustration.
So you're either bored or frustrated when you're into hedonism, one or the other.
If you get too much pleasure, you're bored, not enough pleasure, then you're frustrated.
The Epicureans thought, we must refine this.
We want just enough to drink and just the finest cuisine.
We want just enough to fund that we will be epicureans with fine taste and keep the level of pleasure at the optimum place.
That sounds like Americans to me.
Right?
That sounds like us.
That's what we want.
R.C. Sproles says this.
He says,
The creed of American culture is not the Apostles' creed.
I would say amen to that.
It is the hedonist creed.
Let's get it now while we can.
You only go around once.
Let's have a party.
Eat, drink, and be merry.
Is the creed of the fool.
The stupidest thing you could do with your life
is to spend it seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.
And that's exactly what we want to do.
So it is interesting.
This phrase, eat, drink, and be merry, it's an old one.
It's really old.
Thousands of years old.
But he forgets part of it.
Right?
Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.
Oh, that's the part he doesn't want to talk about.
Right?
That's the part most people don't want to talk about.
They like the pleasure part, right, and the fun part,
and the going, you know, great guns in that direction.
But what about dying?
And that's where the problem lies.
And that's why God says, you fool.
You fool.
You don't realize.
that tonight, today, your life will, your soul will be required of you.
That's what so many people are blind to when they live their life just in a selfish manner,
just focused on self.
They become fools.
It says that about the educated in Romans, professing to be wise, they become fools.
Proverbs 11 4 says
Riches do not profit in the day of wrath
but righteousness delivers from death.
I like what the good news version says it this way.
Riches will do you no good on the day you face death,
but honesty can save your life.
Right?
Just be honest.
Be honest with yourself and be honest with God.
I was just talking to a brother and sister for service started.
She says she works with people who say, well, I'm good.
She goes, no one's good.
God says that.
Right?
That's a lie right there that people believe, oh, I'm a good person.
There's no such thing.
You need Jesus.
If you were a good person, you wouldn't need Jesus.
You could just be good and God would accept you.
But the Bible says whoever doesn't have the son is condemned already.
I love this last verse and I'm going to close with this.
But it says, oh, excuse me, it's the last part of verse 20 that really gets me.
It says, this night your soul will be required of you.
Then, whose will those things be which you have provided?
Right.
Here we are.
Back rummaging through the people's stuff at the end of their life.
This is it.
Solomon talks about this in Ecclesiastes chapter two.
Check it out.
In Ecclesiastes chapter two, if you have a Bible, you can turn there.
Verse 18.
And it says, then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun,
because I must leave it to the men who will come after me.
And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool.
Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I took.
toiled in which I have shown myself wise under the sun.
This also is vanity.
Verse 20.
Therefore, I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun to a man who is not labored for it.
This also is vanity and a great evil.
Think about it.
You work your whole life.
You can build up, you know, your stuff pile.
in your garage,
and then you leave,
and you leave it to these people
who haven't worked a day for it.
Not, if it's nice stuff,
there might be a good fight over it.
But listen, they don't appreciate that.
You just take it for granted.
If my dad passes and leaves me something,
which it probably was not going to be much,
I won't appreciate it.
That's how hard my heart is.
I won't appreciate it as much as if I would have worked for it.
That's for sure.
We live in an entitlement age that is, it's putrid.
It's nauseating.
and it's selfish.
I'm wondering if we could be that brother or sister
that when it comes to something,
getting something or not,
we're willing to yield and said,
no, you just take it.
I want to be able to have Thanksgiving dinner with you.
Not going to fight you over it.
that's the character of Christ Jesus
and that's the character that few of us have
as sad as it is to say
Psalm 107 verse 9 it says
for he satisfies he satisfies the longing soul
you want your soul to be in a good place
have the Lord satisfied and fills the hungry soul with goodness.
Again, the good news translation says,
I wait patiently for God to save me.
I depend on him alone.
He alone protects and saves me.
He is my defender and I shall never be defeated.
He who lays up treasure.
for himself and is not rich towards God is like this rich fool, greedy, selfish, and foolish.
I pray that the Lord would grant that no one in this room will ever be called greedy, selfish, and foolish by God.
Take heed, Jesus said, lest you succumb to covetousness.
Let's all stand, shall we?
Father, we
We praise you
that you truly can satisfy
every longing in our soul.
Lord, I pray that you would teach us a simple truth.
Lord, just the simple truth between wants and needs
and Lord, that we know we would know that our greatest need is to be close to you,
is to have experienced the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, that you have washed us.
You have made us new, Lord, as we put our faith and trust in you.
And your great sacrifice on the cross that wasn't just for my sin,
but it was for the sin of the whole world.
Lord, and that you offer to us a life that is abundant apart from the stuff.
So Lord Jesus, I just pray that by your goodness, you would put that goodness in us.
Lord, that we would share it with one another.
And Lord, that the whole world would see that we are your disciples for our love for one another,
our willingness to yield to each other.
and to be Christ-like in all of our ways, Lord, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds.
Help us to do that, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Hey, if you need prayer, if you're one that you're kind of given to some of this,
I'm probably going to join you over here too, but the prayer team's going to be over here
while these guys do this last song. Please feel free to come down.
Be prayed for. Maybe you just need to stand in from somebody.
Maybe you need a healing.
come and be prayed for.
God bless.
Has a great week in Jesus.