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Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP190330A
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07:26 >> All: Amen. 12:15 >> At this time, PMC, let's come together and pray at the foot of 12:21 the steps. Let's come together and enter 12:27 into God's courts together through prayer. 13:51 >> So, how close are we to an economic collapse? 13:55 I hold in my hands a paper from thebalance.com website. 14:02 Opens up, "If an economic collapse occurs, it would happen 14:06 quickly. No one would predict it. 14:08 The surprise factor is, itself, one of the causes of a collapse. 14:12 The signs of imminent failure are difficult for most people to 14:15 see." 14:17 Here are seven potential scenarios for the United States. So, let me read them to you. 14:23 Number one...number one... is here, on the back. Number one -- "If the U.S. 14:33 dollar rapidly loses value, it would create hyperinflation." Now, our inflation rate, right 14:38 now, is between 2% and 3%, okay? Hyperinflation -- Our friends in Venezuela, right now, are 14:43 experiencing that. 121% inflation, possibly going up in 2019 to 10 million 14:50 percent. Yeah, that's trouble. Okay, so, that's number one. 14:53 Number two -- "A bank run could force banks to close or even go out of business." 14:58 Everybody going into the bank at the same time. "I want my money now. 15:01 I'm just not sure." It could go out of business, cutting off lending and even 15:06 cash withdrawals. Number three -- "The Internet could become paralyzed with a 15:10 super-virus, preventing e-mails and online transactions." And we could not live without 15:14 the Internet. Come on. Be honest. Right? Number four -- "Terrorist 15:17 attacks or a massive oil embargo could halt interstate trucking, and grocery stores would soon 15:22 run out of food." Trucks are what take our groceries across America. 15:26 Number five -- "Widespread violence erupts across the nation. 15:29 That could range from inner-city riots to civil war or a foreign military attack. 15:33 It's possible that a combination of these events could overwhelm the government's ability to 15:37 prevent or respond to a collapse." Number six -- some sort of 15:41 conspiracy. It could be the Federal Reserve. It could be something in the 15:44 executive branch, perhaps even a foreign conspiracy brings the country down, because if the 15:49 government -- As it reads here, "The economy is run on confidence that debts will be 15:53 repaid, food and gas will be available when you need it, and that you'll get paid for this 15:58 week's work. But if a large-enough piece of that stops for even several 16:01 days, it creates a chain reaction that leads to a rapid collapse." 16:05 All right, number seven -- This could cause an economic collapse in the U.S. 16:10 "Natural disasters could cause localized collapse. If Hurricane Irma hit Miami not 16:16 on the East Coast, but hit Florida on the West Coast --" It's actually the other way 16:23 around. If it had gone up the east and not, instead, gone up the west, 16:28 Miami would have -- It would have been worse than Katrina. That would be New Orleans. 16:32 Now, listen to this. If the 2019 polar vortex -- Which we all survived, right? 16:36 If the vortex had lasted weeks, instead of days, cities would have shut down. 16:41 Many of these extreme-weather events are getting worse. So, truth is -- whether it's an 16:46 economic collapse or an economic crisis or no crisis at all, it really doesn't matter, because 16:52 if you're going through, personally, a financial crisis right now -- and you know if you 16:57 are -- that's all that counts. If I'm going through a meltdown, financially, right now, who 17:05 cares what's happening to the nation? I had a college student in my 17:08 office here, bawling his eyes out. You know why? 17:14 Because his parents had loaned them their credit card, and he had driven the balance up 17:20 $10,000-plus and had no way to repay it. That's enough to make any grown 17:26 man cry. So, you may be the one today. I may be the one tomorrow. 17:34 Given that we're living on this razor-thin edge of potential economic crisis or collapse, 17:41 this seems to be the right time to say, "Are there any proven principles to survive, 17:48 financially?" Listen, we did a survey here on the campus about four weeks ago, 17:53 thanks to the university's permission. 318 students responded. 17:57 We have a little group called the Collegiate Council. Where's William sit? 18:01 Collegiate Council. And I've been meeting with them Tuesdays at 5:00. 18:06 So, we put this little survey together. It went to every student. 18:09 318 sent it back. The number-two-felt need of students at 18:13 Andrews University -- guess what -- financial. Financial. 18:17 This little series is coming out of that. Number one? 18:21 We're gonna get to that the first opening Sabbath of the new school year. 18:25 Collegiate Council putting the entire series together. I want to go to a powerful 18:31 principle embedded in a story that begins like this. Once upon a time, there were two 18:38 brothers. One was named Harley, and the other was named Harry. 18:42 And, by the way, that's not Harley-Davidson, and that's not Prince Harry. 18:46 But they were brothers nonetheless. One day, a man very much admired 18:50 by the brothers was their houseguest. So, Harley, being the more 18:54 culinarily skilled of the two, is whipping up a cyclone of delectable food in the kitchen, 19:01 and Harry, never drawn to kitchens at all, is in the sun-room of their apartment, 19:05 sitting down with the man. And the man has obviously captured the attention and 19:12 enamoring Harry, because Harry's doing less talking, and the man more, until, finally, Harley 19:17 comes exploding out of that kitchen, and he interrupts the conversation. 19:21 And he talks to the guest. "I don't suppose you've noticed that my brother's sitting there 19:26 with you while I'm slaving away in the kitchen. Would it be all right if you put 19:31 a pause on this little chitchat and sent him into the kitchen with me?" 19:37 Now, look, I suppose this story of two brothers, Harley and Harry, could be a story of two 19:43 sisters, Martha and Mary. But I switched it around for a reason, because every time we 19:49 come -- we guys come to the story of Martha and Mary, we say, "Oh, that's a girl's story. 19:54 I'm not even into that." The story has nothing to do with gender. 19:57 It could be boys. It could be brothers. It could be sisters. 20:01 The story has everything to do with generation, and in fact, it has our generation written all 20:05 over it. Now I want to go to that -- I want to go to that story with 20:08 you, so open your Bible up, please, to the Gospel of Luke 10. 20:11 Luke 10. I'm in the NIV today. Whatever translation you have is fine with me. 20:16 Didn't bring a Bible, you got it on the phone, don't have it, then grab the pew Bible in front 20:20 of you. What's the page number there? The page number would be 699. 20:25 Let's go. Luke 10:38. 20:45 Oh, boy. Put that up. Isolate that one, please, on the 20:48 screen. 20:51 She must have been a Third Millennial. I'll tell you what -- you go to 20:54 Google and you type in the word "distractions," man, there are thousands of sites dealing with 20:58 what plagues us today. In fact, I went through blog after blog, and it seems pretty 21:02 clear to me that there are three top distractions. And I want to share those with 21:06 you right now, so grab your study guide. It's in your worship bulletin. 21:10 Pull it out. And those who are watching right now, let me put a website on the 21:13 screen for you. Those of you that are live-streaming are already 21:15 there, of course, but if you're watching on television -- There, you see it, right there. 21:19 Www.newperceptions.tv. So, this is a brand-new series, beginning right now. 21:26 "How to Survive the Coming Economic Crisis." Part 1 is entitled "How to 21:29 Survive Your Own Financial Crisis." You go there, it says "study 21:32 guide." You'll have the identical study guide. 21:34 But let's go. Come on. What's everybody calling distraction out there? 21:38 Jot it down, please. Distraction number one -- And, by the way, these all start with 21:42 "S." Distraction number one would be what I have in my hip pocket. 21:45 What's that? That's my smartphone. Of course, it's a smartphone. 21:48 Yep, that is a source of distraction for the entire human race, and everybody's agreed. 21:53 Distraction number two -- it starts with an "S" -- social media. 21:56 Social media. Hey, jot this number down, will you? 22:00 Amazing. The average adult in this country spends 5.9 hours online 22:05 per day. We're talking about adults. 5.9. 22:08 Whoa-ho! How about the average teen? Jot it down. 22:12 9 hours online every day. Oh-ho! 9 hours. Where do you get 9 hours? 22:18 I don't know. You just get them. All right, talking about 22:22 distractions, both adults and teens, a UC Irvine study found out -- jot this down, will 22:28 you? -- discovered that it takes us 23 minutes and 15 seconds -- jot that down -- 23 minutes, 22:35 15 seconds to get back on track after we've been distracted. Whether we're in a class or 22:41 whether we're at work or whether we're in our dorm room, it doesn't matter. 22:44 When that "ding!" goes, our mind goes immediately to that notification, right? 22:49 Of course. 23 minutes to get back into gear. 22:52 How great. So, there they are. "But Martha was distracted." 22:57 We just read that. No wonder. But there's a huge distraction that has almost become a ball 23:02 and chain for you and me, and this is distraction number -- Distraction number one is 23:07 smartphone. Number two is social media. This one starts with an "S." 23:10 What is it? Put it on the screen, please. Distraction number three -- 23:14 stuff. Stuff. Come on. Isn't that the truth? Stuff. 23:18 We're distracted by stuff. Jot down these wow numbers. USA Today, this month -- wow 23:23 numbers. You're gonna have to keep your hand moving here. 23:26 Here comes stat number one. 430 million credit cards are now in circulation in the 23:33 U.S. of "A." 430 million. Do you understand that there are 23:37 under 330 million of us, from babies to the aged. That means every human being in 23:42 the United States could have a credit card. We'd have 100 million more left 23:46 over in case we wanted to do more shopping. You can't believe it. 23:49 430 million. Keep going. Number two -- consumer debt, last year -- What are you 23:54 talking about, Dwight? Well, this would be out of loans, student loans. 23:57 Oh, we got one coming up on student loans, 'cause that's huge. 24:00 Auto debt, student loans, personal loans, and credit cards -- no mortgages, no house 24:05 mortgages, none of that kind of stuff, okay? What's the -- We hit a new high 24:09 this last year. Jot it down. Just over $4 trillion. 24:14 That's a 4 with 12 zeroes. You get a little writer's cramp driving those zeroes onto that 24:19 line, but go ahead and jot them down. $4 trillion. Not billion. 24:24 $4 trillion in consumer debt. Anybody here -- Oh, come on. Time-out. Time-out. 24:30 Lookit -- we're so used to hearing "trilling," we don't even know what to do with it. 24:33 Anybody here know how much a trillion dollars is? Here it is. 24:39 A trillion dollars would be if you spent $1 a second -- I just 24:43 wish you'd try me -- do an experiment with me. 24:45 Just let me do that. Give me the dollars, please. 24:48 If you spent $1 a second, you would have, in a day, 24:52 86,400 bucks, all right? If you did that for a year, you 24:57 would have $31.5 million. At the rate of spending, that 25:01 rate, it would take you for -- $1 trillion -- write it down -- 25:05 32,000 years to pay it off. 25:09 32,000 doing this -- a dollar a second. You can't believe it. 25:14 To spend -- And, now, this is not -- This is $4 trillion, so four times that would take you 25:20 128,000 years. That's longer than most of us here are gonna live. 25:25 [ Laughter ] No, I'm serious. Can you believe that? 25:31 $4 trillion, consumer debt. But now here's another one. Thank you, USA Today. 25:36 Here's another one. Let's ask, "What is consumer spending like?" 25:40 So we're talking about food. We're talking about gas. We're talking clothing. 25:43 We're talking about going to Colorado to go snow-skiing. We're talking about technology, 25:47 electronics. And we're talking about gadgets, gadgets, gadgets, gadgets, 25:51 because that's where we spend most of our money, right? All-time high last year. 25:56 Jot it down. $13,032,300,000,000 spent by Americans last year. 26:06 That's just consumer spending in America. [ Laughs ] 26:10 At $1 per second, that would take you 416,000 years to spend. Go figure. 26:17 Turns out that we have a lot of wants, we have a lot of needs, and we've got a lot of stuff. 26:23 Joshua Becker, who considers himself a minimalist -- he has a blog called 26:27 "Becoming Minimalist." And he's run by a whole set of stats, and I'm gonna run by 26:31 you -- There's a website in the study guide. You can go, 'cause there are 21 26:35 of these. I've just cherry-picked a bunch of them. 26:38 Let me run them by you real quick here. According to the L.A. Times, 26:42 there are 300,000 items in the average American home. That's a spoon, a fork. 26:46 You know, 300,000, okay? British research, according to The Telegraph, found that the 26:52 average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily. 26:56 Those would be my two granddaughters. So, I'm telling you what -- they 27:00 got hundreds of toys but play with 12 a day. Moreover -- this is UCLA -- 3.1% 27:08 of the world's children live in America, but they own 40% of the world's toys. 27:15 Go figure. Here's a fourth one. Oh, Psychology Today. 27:20 Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches -- $100 billion -- than on higher 27:25 education. Here's another one. Number five -- shopping malls 27:30 outnumber high schools in America. Yeah, you already knew that one. 27:35 93% of teenage girls rank shopping as their favorite pastime, according to 27:39 "Affluenza." My. What's this one? Number six -- Americans spend 27:44 $1.2 trillion -- remember how much a trillion is -- annually, according to 27:48 The Wall Street Journal, on non-essential goods, in other words, items they do not need. 27:53 $1.2 trillion. You didn't need that. You didn't need that. 27:56 That's why you got a two-car garage, 'cause you don't need it. 27:59 The cars are outside, by the way. That's America. 28:06 My. One more. 28:08 The $800 billion home-organization industry has 28:10 more than doubled in size since the early 2000s, growing at a 28:14 staggering rate of 10% every year, leading Joshua Becker to 28:19 conclude -- His words on the screen. 28:33 Oh, I love this. 28:39 [ Laughter ] 28:41 We got Neighbor to Neighbor here in town. You got Goodwill all over this 28:44 county. Just get rid of it. You don't have to have all of 28:48 that. Not in Lodi or in Berrien Springs. 28:55 Give it away. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his classic commentary on the 28:58 Sermon on the Mount -- Boy, did he nail -- This is back in the 1930s when he wrote that book. 29:03 Did he nail it on the head or what? Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 29:06 Take a look at this. Jot it down. "Earthly gifts," he writes, "are 29:10 given to be used, not to be collected." You use them. 29:14 You don't collect them. Keep reading. "The disciple --" that would be 29:17 you and me -- "must receive his, her portion from God every day." 29:21 If she stores it up as a permanent possession, she 29:23 spoils not only the gift, but --" write it down -- 29:25 "herself, himself, as well, for we set our hearts on our 29:29 accumulated wealth, and that makes it a barrier between us 29:34 and God." Last line. Oh, this is good. 29:36 "Where our treasure is --" Whatever your treasure is. 29:40 "Where our treasure is, there is our trust, there is our 29:43 security, there is our consolation, and our God." 29:47 Final line. "Hoarding is idolatry." 29:52 And that was before we hoarded. Can you believe it? 29:57 300,000 items. But Martha was distracted. 30:02 Martha, Martha, you are distracted. 30:05 Yep. She must be just like us or we must be just like her. 30:10 Let's read it again. We stopped it in Verse 40, so 30:13 let's pick it up at Verse 40. 30:26 "Please." And Jesus replies... He only says -- He only doubles 30:33 the name when he loves you. Simon Peter -- "Simon, Simon." 30:38 Saul, the persecutor -- "Saul, Saul. Little boy Samuel -- "Samuel, 30:46 Samuel." He doubles your name when he loves you. 30:49 Apparently, you can be a hoarder and be distracted by the Lord knows what, but he still loves 30:54 us. 31:11 Wow. There it is. Ladies and gentlemen, jot it down. 31:15 The number-one life principle. No, don't jot it down yet. The number-one life principle, 31:23 embedded in Jesus' words to Martha, embedded in Mary's response to Jesus. 31:27 And you know what? Jesus takes that principle that he just had spoken to us and he 31:32 makes it the peak, the summit of the Sermon on the Mount. Incredible. 31:36 Look at this. You've learned this since you were a kid. 31:39 Let's read it out loud together. Can you see it on the screen up here, band? 31:42 Let's read Matthew 6:33, right in the heart of the Sermon on the Mount. 31:46 Let's read it out loud together. "But seek first his..." >> All: ...kingdom... 31:49 >> ...and his... >> All: ...righteousness... >> ...and all these things will 31:55 be given to you, as well." Now you jot it down. The number-one life principle 32:01 that Jesus taught is "make God first." That's why Jesus pointed to 32:08 Mary, by the way. 32:10 He's not scolding Martha. But God is a loving provider of 32:16 everything that we need, even of everything that we want. 32:20 It's all from Him. So seek Him. 32:22 Make God numero uno in your life is what Jesus is trying to say 32:27 to Martha. And everything else -- Lookit, 32:29 the distractions -- God will take care of it. 32:33 Oh, come on. Let's do that one more time. 32:35 Matthew 6:33. The number-one life principle, 32:38 on the screen. Out loud together. 32:52 All what things? Jesus has just outlined the basic human needs of shelter, 32:56 clothing, and food. He says, "You'll have it." He doesn't say, "All you want. 33:00 Hey, yo, Dwight, everything you want I'll give you." No, He says, "I'll give you all 33:04 that you need. I'll take care of you." That's what it is. 33:09 "I promise. I put my kingdom on the line. I will never leave you or 33:13 forsake you. I will provide -- My God will provide all your needs, 33:18 according to his riches and glory --" Philippians 4:19. So, what -- "Yo, yo, yo, Dwight, 33:23 please, I mean, what does this have to do with how to survive your own financial crisis?" 33:29 Good question. Everything in the world to do with it. 33:33 You know why? Because if we could cast this story into a financial strategy, 33:38 what Mary is doing here, out of great love and devotion for Jesus, is putting all her money 33:44 at the feet of Jesus. It would be just like Mary took all her possessions, she took 33:49 all of herself, and she took all of her little monies and she put them in a little bag, tied a 33:53 ribbon around the neck and she puts it down and she sits down at the feet of Jesus. 33:58 That's what's happening here. Make God first. And Jesus looks at Martha. 34:05 He says, "Yo, girl, you are distracted by a lot. Mary has chosen what will never 34:13 be taken away from her." Make God -- Nobody can take God away from you ever. 34:20 What did Bonhoeffer say just a moment ago? On the screen one more time. 34:29 Whatever you treasure is your God. No, I'm serious. 34:32 Whatever you treasure is your God. Mary made Him first, and then 34:38 she put it all at Jesus' feet. In fact, do you know what? In order to operationalize this 34:43 great life principle, "make God first," God actually invented something. 34:48 This is really cool. It's as old as the hills. I don't know if you've heard 34:52 this word before. And, sometimes, it's better to spell it just so that you can 34:55 get it, because you're not quite sure how to pronounce it. So let me just spell the word 34:59 out for you. The first letter of the word is "T." 35:02 The second letter of the word is "I." The third letter of the word is 35:06 "T." The fourth letter is "H." And the fifth letter is "E." 35:11 Now, some are saying, "How do you pronounce that? "Tith-ay? Tith-ay?" 35:15 No, that's not pronounced tith-ay. That's tithe. 35:18 [ Laughs ] That's tithe. We don't like that word. 35:23 Come on. Level with me. We don't like that word. It feels like, "Eh, somebody's 35:29 trying to control me." We don't like tith-ay. Someone just ought to call it 35:33 tith-ay, and it wouldn't bother us. Tithe. It's as old as the hills. 35:36 "Father Abraham" -- You remember that song? ♪ Father Abraham had many sons 35:42 ♪ Many sons had Father Abraham Do they sing that down at Southern, too? 35:46 Probably not. We're still singing it up here. [ Laughs ] 35:50 Not. Not. Okay. "Father Abraham" on the screen. Genesis -- What is this? 35:55 Genesis 14. What does it say about Father Abraham. 36:01 And it's called a tithe. Okay, along comes his grandson, who was great, Jacob. 36:06 And Jacob's talking to God right here. "All of that You give me, I 36:10 will -- Of all of it, I will give You," what? What does it say? 36:13 I will give You what? A tenth. Jesus calls it the tithe. 36:16 In fact, the Lord Jesus even spoke about it. Put the Lord Jesus on the screen 36:20 for us, please. "This ought you to have done" -- he's talking about tithing -- 36:23 "without leaving the other undone." He's talking about loving. 36:26 Matthew 23:23. Trust me, folks -- it is a very big deal with God. 36:32 I mean, Jesus ought to have known. He's God in the flesh. 36:36 He got it right. Of course, 'cause he invented it. 36:41 Take a look at this spectacular promise. I'm telling you. 36:45 It's on the last page of the Old Testament, but you got to see this. 36:49 If you've never seen it, you're seeing it today with wide-open eyes. 36:53 Go to the last page of the Old Testament. So that would be the last page 36:57 of Malachi. Yeah, go to Malachi 3. Take a look at this, will you? 37:01 Amazing. Unbelievable promise. Malachi 3:10. God speaking. 37:15 Okay, check it out. Prove me -- You make me prove it 37:19 to You. 37:30 You can't believe it. Who would not want to be standing right here, wherever 37:34 you are, and the floodgates of heaven suddenly open over your meager little cash collection -- 37:43 They open over your, tiny little dorm room or house. They open over your 37:48 little-old-you life. Who wouldn't want the floodgates of heaven to open straight on 37:56 top of you? Wouldn't you want that? But of course. 37:59 That's what he's saying. "I will take care of you. I am going to deliver you from 38:04 financial crisis." You're saying to me, "Dwight, it doesn't say a word about being 38:07 delivered from financial crisis." That's because we always have 38:10 stopped reading -- And I'm guilty of this. We've always stopped with Verse 38:14 10. We say, "No, don't go to Verse 11." 38:16 No, we're going to Verse 11. Look at Verse 11. God's still speaking. 38:19 He said, "I'm gonna open the windows of heaven for you, the floodgates." 38:23 And, by the way, in Verse 11, He says, "I will prevent pests from 38:26 devouring your crops." Do you know what those crops 38:28 were? This was written to an agrarian 38:30 society. Those crops were cash. 38:32 Got a farmer right here. Those crops were cash. 38:34 Called a cash crop. They live off of that. 38:37 If the crop goes away, I'm dead meat. 38:40 So, God says, "Listen, don't you worry about a financial crisis." 38:44 "'I will prevent pests from devouring your cash crops, and 38:47 the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it 38:51 is ripe,' says the Lord Almighty." 38:53 Keep Reading. Then he says... 39:01 "I'm gonna take care of you. You're not in a crisis now, but I see a crisis coming your way, 39:06 financial, and I'm gonna get you ready. I will prevent a crisis. 39:10 I will deliver you in the midst of a crisis. I'm putting myself on the line. 39:14 You test me." See, we always stop at Verse 10. Why don't we read about the cash 39:19 crops? "I'll take care of your finances." 39:23 My. You serious? Yeah. When we tithe, it's our way of 39:32 saying to God -- Here, here, here. It's our way of saying to God, 39:36 "Okay, God, I make You my C-suite." You ever heard of a C-suite? 39:41 Some of you are shaking your heads, 'cause you say, "Well, what is this? 39:44 Some kind of sweet candy or something?" No. Put it on the screen here. 39:48 Here's the word C-suite right there. C-suite. 39:50 Our son, Kirk, just moved about four weeks ago, along with his lovely wife, Chelsea, and our 39:57 two precious granddaughters, Ella and Isabelle. They just moved from Salem, 40:02 Oregon, to Kettering, Ohio. Kirk just got hired by the Kettering Health system. 40:09 He's gonna be the director of physician recruiting for nine hospitals and 140 clinics. 40:14 And he has a team that he's now leading. Oh, I'm gonna tell you 40:18 something -- the big deal for us, of course, is that now -- We were just there helping him move 40:23 last Sunday. Now he's only 4 hours and 15 minutes away, instead of 40:30 2,100 miles away. And that's a huge difference. So, Kirk works for this health 40:35 system. This is the way health systems work. 40:37 They have C-suites. Universities -- some of them -- have C-suites. 40:41 Mm-hmm. Fortune 500 companies -- they have C-suites. 40:44 What's that? Let's run them by. Let's just see if you know what the C-suite is composed of. 40:49 What is a C.O.O.? By the way, every office in a C-suite begins with the word 40:55 "chief." You can only sit in that suite if you're chief something. 40:59 Okay, so, what's a C.O.O.? Come on. What's a C.O.O.? Huh? 41:03 Yeah, chief operating officer. Good. What's a C.I.O.? Chief information officer. 41:09 What's a C.F.O. Chief financial -- Yeah, we got that one. 41:13 What's a C.E.O.? Chief executive. All right? The C-suite gives us an 41:23 opportunity. When we return our little 1/10 of our income to God, it gives 41:27 us the opportunity to invite God to become our C-suite God. "God, I want you to be my chief 41:32 operating officer. I want you to be the chief information officer. 41:36 I want you to be the chief financial officer. I need you to be my chief 41:40 executive officer. God, I'm making you the entire C-suite. 41:44 Everything I have is yours now." Isn't that something? He's our C-suite God, and that's 41:50 pretty sweet, isn't it? Yeah. When we tithe, we place all our 41:55 meager resources into His nail-scarred hands and we declare to the one who died for 42:00 us, "I entrust all that I am. I entrust to you all that I have into Your keeping." 42:09 Yeah. But truth in advertising. I have to do this. It would not be right for me to 42:17 skip two more verses. I owe it to you. They're the two verses that 42:23 precede this beautiful Verse 10 promise. Verse 8. Look at Verse 8. 42:28 God is speaking. "'Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.'" 42:32 But you ask, "Come on, God. How are we robbing you?" God replies, "In tithes and 42:37 offerings." 42:46 Hey, listen, ladies and gentlemen, God is not a genie in a bottle. 42:49 He's not a Santa Claus with a sleigh. He's the almighty king, the Lord 42:52 of angel armies. That's what Lord of hosts means. He's the Lord of angel armies. 42:57 And guess what. He loves you. He's crazy about you. 43:00 That's why he calls you by your name twice. "Martha, Martha." 43:05 What's your name? He calls you by that name twice. He's crazy about you. 43:14 He emptied his kingdom to win your heart one day. He's just praying, "I hope it's 43:20 soon. I hope it's soon." But you know what? 43:28 We have to love Him back. "Oh, I don't like that. I don't like to have to love Him 43:32 back." Well, don't ever get married then, please. 43:34 Don't ever get married, 'cause you have to love Him back. It's just the way love works. 43:40 It's two-way. So, He invented this little operationalized "make God first" 43:45 strategy so that he could say, "Hey, show me. I hear your lips. 43:49 You sing these wonderful praise songs on the screens and you got the symphony playing with you." 43:55 And "oh, how I love God." He said, "I've heard you sing these words a long time. 44:02 Show me. Show me. This is the most concrete and simple way he has. 44:09 Just show me." Does he need your quarters and nickels and dimes? 44:13 Are you crazy? He owns the whole universe. This has nothing to do with him 44:18 and everything to do with you. And if you say "no" to him -- I don't need C-suite. 44:23 Thank you. No C.F.O., no C.E.O.. You just go ahead. 44:26 I'll call you when I need you." And that's usually when we call. He's saying, "I want you to love 44:34 me. Come on. Love on me. I love you." 44:37 That's what it is, folks. Of course he used a strong word -- "curse." 44:40 He got our attention immediately, didn't he? "I'll curse you." 44:44 You know what it means to curse? It's nothing like we're thinking. 44:49 He says, "Okay, you don't want me, huh? You're waving me off, girl? 44:52 You're waving me off? Okay. I'm gonna take about 10 steps back. 44:56 You won't even see me. You won't even know I'm here. I'm gonna get right back here so 45:00 that I'm not in your way." And guess what. The moment there is a vacuum and 45:08 the C-suite leaves, trust me -- slithering in comes the enemy of us all, who says, "Okay, 45:16 financial bondage, here we go. Ball and chain. Got ya." 45:23 And He's 10 paces back. "You told me. 45:26 You waved me off. You told me you didn't want me." 45:30 I honor you. I honor you." What a God. 45:35 This is nothing about cursing. This is about you getting the 45:39 curse of having the other guy your C-suite, because you can 45:44 only have one C-suite. You can't have two C-suites. 45:48 The other guy has a whole horde of demons that he uses with him. 45:53 You get one or the other, so make up your mind. 45:57 Quit playing this dillydally, back-and-forth stuff. 46:01 You're killing yourself and you're breaking God's heart. 46:05 My. That's all it is. So, friend, I know who you are. 46:12 I love your face. But I'm telling you -- don't 46:16 wave Him off. Do not, for the sake of you and 46:19 the sake of God, don't wave Him off. 46:23 We're talking about a meager 1/10. Do you know how much that is in 46:27 your income? It's nothing. But that's okay. I'm saying, "C-suite, all I have 46:36 and all I am is yours." Make God first. That's what Mary did. 46:40 Martha was distracted. She finally learned. She got it. Oh, why wouldn't I, in humble 46:46 gratitude, return to God what is already His? I'd be a fool not to have Him my 46:53 C-suite God, wouldn't I? Yeah. I want to end with this. It's my favorite quotation. 46:58 "The Desire of Ages" is my favorite book in the world on the life of Jesus. 47:01 I end with this. 47:02 Put it on the screen. 47:20 "He will spare --" How much? Nothing, nada, zero. 47:33 And now write it down. "The --" The what? 47:35 >> Whole. >> Say it again. Come on. 47:37 The what? "The whole treasury of heaven is 47:43 open to those He seeks to save." Yeah, wow. Wow. 48:06 Is there a financial crisis coming? 48:08 [ Chuckles ] It's not for me to say, because 48:10 you may be in it right now. And I may be in it tomorrow. 48:15 But this much I know. When you return God's tithe, you 48:21 make him first. And when you make him first, you 48:26 have made the wisest financial decision you will ever make in 48:30 your life, forever. Amen. 48:33 >> All: Amen. 48:37 ♪♪ 56:40 [ Applause ] 56:59 >> Before you go, let me take an extra moment to share with you 57:01 an opportunity to get into the Bible in a fresh, new way. 57:04 All across the world, more and more people are hearing the call 57:07 to examine Scriptures for themselves. 57:09 If you felt drawn to learn more about God's Word, but you don't 57:12 know where to start or you're just looking for a more in-depth 57:15 examination of Bible truths, then I have something right here 57:18 that I believe you're going to enjoy. 57:20 I want to send a series of guides to get you started. 57:23 This one's entitled "Why Does God Allow Suffering?" 57:25 Each guide begins with a story, an introduction of the subject. 57:28 Then, through a series of focus questions, 57:30 you'll be learning portions of the Bible you may never 57:33 have known before, and when you're through, you'll be able 57:35 to share with others some of these inspiring Bible truths. 57:38 So just call our toll-free number. 57:39 It's on the screen -- 877 -- the two words -- 57:42 HIS-WILL. Our friendly operators 57:44 are standing by to send these study guides to you. 57:46 Once again, that's 877-HIS-WILL. 57:50 Call that number, and then, again, join me next week 57:54 right here at this same time. "New Perceptions." 57:59 ♪♪ |
Revised 2019-04-08