SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Worship the Lord through our work.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's loving God with your strength, Church.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are mechanics, and some of you are physical therapists, and some of you are medical doctors, and some of you are surgeons, and some of you are pilots, and some of you are lawyers, and some of you are teachers.
SPEAKER_01: Worship the Lord there.
SPEAKER_01: Let God with your strength there.
SPEAKER_01: Be all in at work.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest man who ever lived gave us the greatest command ever given that we might live fully the greatest life ever offered.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles once again, one of the last times to Mark chapter 12, and let's look at the greatest commandment ever given.
SPEAKER_01: We've been in it for ever.
SPEAKER_01: Ten weeks, I believe, we've been on this passage, but I believe it's the key to revival.
SPEAKER_01: It is the greatest statement ever given in humankind.
SPEAKER_01: You ought to memorize it.
SPEAKER_01: Because it is better than the Gettysburg Address.
SPEAKER_01: It is better than Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream.
SPEAKER_01: It is better than Teddy Roosevelt's in the arena.
SPEAKER_01: It's better than anything C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis ever wrote.
SPEAKER_01: It's better than anything Tolkien ever wrote.
SPEAKER_01: It is the greatest statement ever in the history of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And if we get it and we actually try to live it every day, it will radicalize your life.
SPEAKER_01: It will set you free.
SPEAKER_01: It is a statement that we've heard over and over again, but I see a revival of sorts happening in this church.
SPEAKER_01: I see a revival happening within this body that's very encouraging.
SPEAKER_01: Not sweeping, but on an individual level, dozens and dozens and dozens of you are experiencing a new level of intimacy with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe it's largely because you're making a choice to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, your neighbors yourself at work, in your marriage, in your family, in your parenting, in your handling of finances, and the way you treat others.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is the greatest command and the greatest statement ever given to humankind.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: Then one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, The first of all the commandments is this hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_01: And we talked about that.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about that in eternity past, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit were a family, and they loved each other.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit loved the Son, the Son loved the Father, the Father loved the Son, and that when we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we enter into a family that's already been formed.
SPEAKER_01: We enter into the Trinity.
SPEAKER_01: We enter into this life where the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_01: And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we talked about the heart, we talked about loving God emotionally.
SPEAKER_01: That there's a heart-to-heart connection with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's not emotionalism, but it's an emotional relationship.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we do worship the way we do up here.
SPEAKER_01: We have guitars, we have a piano, we have vocals, we have a drummer, because in this generation, this is how we touch the emotional heartbeat.
SPEAKER_01: If it's done well.
SPEAKER_01: If it's done poorly, you want to run.
SPEAKER_01: But if it's done well, you want to come.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's the language of the people.
SPEAKER_01: That's also one of the issues we'll cover when we look at the Reformation.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys realize before Martin Luther there were no hymns, there were no songs sung by the people.
SPEAKER_01: It was just the priests and Gregorian chants.
SPEAKER_01: And now we have this 500-member choir every week.
SPEAKER_01: You.
SPEAKER_01: You're the choir because of the Reformation.
SPEAKER_01: So loving God with our heart is emotionally touching him in worship.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, he says, love him with your soul.
SPEAKER_01: And what we talked about was our identity.
SPEAKER_01: This is the hardest one, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: In my opinion, this is the hardest of the four key points here is loving God with your soul, because it means we begin to love him with our identity, and so many of us get our identity from our jobs, achievements, and accomplishments.
SPEAKER_01: And most pastors get their identity that way too.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's a struggle for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody struggle with that?
SPEAKER_01: And the rest of you are liars.
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we struggle with that, and the reality is that if we start to grow in the fact that we are successful because we love God with all of our heart, and he loves us with all of his heart, there's an inner security that comes with that that can be a miracle and a revival in your soul.
SPEAKER_01: So heart, soul.
SPEAKER_01: And then for three weeks we covered loving God with your mind.
SPEAKER_01: How important it is that we renew our minds, that Christianity is the only religion in the world that encourages people to think.
SPEAKER_01: And I've said so many times the hardest thing about counseling and the hardest thing about equipping the saints is getting people to think for themselves.
SPEAKER_01: People don't want to think.
SPEAKER_01: They want someone to think for them.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody can think for you.
SPEAKER_01: You have to think.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not renewing your mind with God's word, then all you're thinking is your natural thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a bummer because we have the ability to have supernatural thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Supernatural knowledge and wisdom from God through the Spirit, through the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Today I want to talk about loving God with your strength because there's now a shift.
SPEAKER_01: There's a shift here.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 30 at the end.
SPEAKER_01: Love God with all your strength.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first commandment, and the second is like it.
SPEAKER_01: You shall love your neighbors yourself.
SPEAKER_01: In the Ten Commandments, men and women, the first four commandments are about our relationship with God in Exodus 20.
SPEAKER_01: It's all about our relationship with God, it's about idolatry, it's about keeping the Sabbath holy.
SPEAKER_01: But then there's a shift after the fourth commandment, and the last six are all about your relationship with your neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: They're about relationship with people.
SPEAKER_01: It goes from vertical to horizontal, and same here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus goes vertical, heart, soul, mind.
SPEAKER_01: That's about you and your relationship with Christ, but now he's talking about strength.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about the outward side of us, where our strength comes from.
SPEAKER_01: And then as you love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: So the first three, vertical, next two, horizontal, same with the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus is now about to explain to us that what matters externally is what matters internally.
SPEAKER_01: So as we are spending time with the Lord, as we're loving him with our heart, soul, and mind, now there is this, there is this cascading effect, there is this impact horizontal into our neighbors, into our work, and it's our strength.
SPEAKER_01: What does he mean by loving God with all of your strength?
SPEAKER_01: Think of it this way: it's loving God with what makes you strong.
SPEAKER_01: It's loving God with what gives you strength.
SPEAKER_01: And so you've been given strength.
SPEAKER_01: Men, you've been given physical and mental and emotional strength.
SPEAKER_01: Women, you've been given strength mentally, emotionally, and physically also.
SPEAKER_01: It's important that we understand that God wants us to love him with our strength.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's how I describe it.
SPEAKER_01: I would describe our strength from Matthew 25.
SPEAKER_01: So let's go back to Matthew 25, the great parable.
SPEAKER_01: We covered it briefly from a different angle about two months ago, but let's look at it again.
SPEAKER_01: Love Matthew 25.
SPEAKER_01: Constant reminder to all of us of the responsibility we have with what we've been given.
SPEAKER_01: And it starts off as a parable, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's us.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking of us.
SPEAKER_01: It's a parable about us being given goods from Jesus and from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one.
SPEAKER_01: Again, we talked about this before.
SPEAKER_01: We've all been given different types and different levels of talents.
SPEAKER_01: Some are smarter than others, some are more athletic than others, some are more creative than others.
SPEAKER_01: God's given us by his sovereign grace five, two, and one talents, according to his own ability, and then he goes off on a journey.
SPEAKER_01: Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made another five talents.
SPEAKER_01: So he doubled what he had been given.
SPEAKER_01: And likewise he who had received two, gained two more also.
SPEAKER_01: He doubled what he had been given.
SPEAKER_01: But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money.
SPEAKER_01: After a long time the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
SPEAKER_01: So he who received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents.
SPEAKER_01: Look, I have gained five more talents besides them.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: So we see what brings pleasure to the Lord, what he loves.
SPEAKER_01: He loves when we take our talents and we multiply those talents.
SPEAKER_01: We use them for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, He was a good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: You are faithful over a few things.
SPEAKER_01: I will make you ruler over many things.
SPEAKER_01: Enter into the joy of your Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So it seems like God is joyful when you're doing what you're called to do.
SPEAKER_01: He gets joy.
SPEAKER_01: You get to enter into his joy, he gets to enter into your joy.
SPEAKER_01: He also had received two talents.
SPEAKER_01: He said the same thing, Lord, you've delivered to me two talents.
SPEAKER_01: Look, I've gained two more talents besides him.
SPEAKER_01: His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: You have been faithful over a few things.
SPEAKER_01: I'll make you ruler over many things.
SPEAKER_01: Enter into the joy of your Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So, doesn't matter to God, whether it's five or two.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter how much quantitatively that you do.
SPEAKER_01: What matters is the quality in which you do it with what you've been given.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is where it gets negative.
SPEAKER_01: He who would receive two talents came, excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man.
SPEAKER_01: And that word is scarlos, where we get sclerosis, sclerosis of the liver, sclerosis of the mind, hard, hardening.
SPEAKER_01: You're a hardening man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you've not scattered seed.
SPEAKER_01: And I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Look, there you have what is yours.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it seems fair enough.
SPEAKER_01: You gave me one.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, here it is back.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's interesting what Jesus says here.
SPEAKER_01: So you ought to have.
SPEAKER_01: But this Lord said to him, verse 26, you wicked and lazy servant.
SPEAKER_01: That's not very nice.
SPEAKER_01: It's very nice of Jesus to say that.
SPEAKER_01: He should have so much more grace for that guy.
SPEAKER_01: He's obviously got a lot of fears, and he really struggles with a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And he's hurting.
SPEAKER_01: He's had a hard life.
SPEAKER_01: You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed.
SPEAKER_01: So he's now basically hearkening back to what he said about the scarlos is the word there for hard.
SPEAKER_01: He's a hard man.
SPEAKER_01: So you ought to have at least deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents.
SPEAKER_01: For to everyone, and this I've got this boxed in and starred in my Bible, everyone who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, that word abundance means superabound, excess, surplus, excel.
SPEAKER_01: He will have superabundance, he will have excess, he will have surplus.
SPEAKER_01: But from him who does not have, even what he has, will be taken away.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's so many things we can say about this.
SPEAKER_01: But the bottom line is this that in the kingdom of God, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
SPEAKER_01: It's all about what you do with what you've been giving.
SPEAKER_01: Loving God with all of your strength, I want to give you three thoughts on this today.
SPEAKER_01: Three thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it's your talents, it's your time, and it's your treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Loving God with your strength, there's three things that make us strong and give us influence, and that's our talents, that's our time, and that's our treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Let me start with talents, number one.
SPEAKER_01: The talents you've been given.
SPEAKER_01: You do not have a say over how much you get, but you've gotten it from the Lord, and I want to give you, I know this sounds complicated, but I'm gonna give you three categories.
SPEAKER_01: I won't do this on all of them, but there's three categories under talents.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, natural talents.
SPEAKER_01: You were born with natural talents.
SPEAKER_01: Probably your parents noticed it in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe a coach noticed it, maybe a teacher at school noticed it.
SPEAKER_01: You have natural talents.
SPEAKER_01: You had absolutely nothing to do with what you were given in that natural talent category.
SPEAKER_01: Second, spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual gifts are different than natural talents.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual gifts are given to you when you get saved.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not saved in here, then you have no clue what your spiritual gifts are.
SPEAKER_01: But if you get saved and you get baptized, you're gonna start to experience stuff that you never experienced before because the Holy Spirit is now active in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So you have natural talent, spiritual gifts, and then thirdly, acquired skills.
SPEAKER_01: Acquired skills.
SPEAKER_01: That comes from schooling, training, lessons, taking your craft, taking what you're good at, and getting further schooling and training in that.
SPEAKER_01: All of that comes under the category of talent, as I'm using it here.
SPEAKER_01: You have been given talent from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Natural talent, spiritual gifts, acquired skills.
SPEAKER_01: And God wants you to use it for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna put under that category, under that category, this idea of your job.
SPEAKER_01: Your job is not just to make money.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's important that you make money.
SPEAKER_01: It's hugely important that you make money and that you and you make as much as you can.
SPEAKER_01: I like what John Wesley said.
SPEAKER_01: Make as much as you can, save as much as you can, and give as much as you can.
SPEAKER_01: Great way to live.
SPEAKER_01: I've tried to live our, Liz and I have tried to live our life that way.
SPEAKER_01: But but that you are realizing that worship is not just Sunday morning when we come in here and sing songs.
SPEAKER_01: Worship is not the morning fire for all us guys that are starting to jam into that chapel over there to worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
SPEAKER_01: It's wonderful what we do here.
SPEAKER_01: But the purpose in our gatherings is so that we will also scatter.
SPEAKER_01: We gather to scatter.
SPEAKER_01: So we come to get equipped, we come to get empowered, we come to experience the Lord's presence with the corporate body, but then worship also is our job.
SPEAKER_01: It's called, I keep, I've been studying so much on the Reformation, it's been called classically the Protestant work ethic.
SPEAKER_01: And the idea behind the Protestant work ethic, which came from the Protestant Reformation, was that you're a priest.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of you men and women is a priest here.
SPEAKER_01: In that, as Luther said, the blacksmith who singing his song as he makes the horseshoes can be more godly than the Pope in Rome.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there was no love loss between his view of the Pope in Rome.
SPEAKER_01: But what he said is important is that at work we worship.
SPEAKER_01: We worship the Lord through our work.
SPEAKER_01: That's loving God with your strength, church.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are mechanics, and some of you are physical therapists, and some of you are medical doctors, and some of you are surgeons, and some of you are pilots, and some of you are lawyers, and some of you are teachers.
SPEAKER_01: Worship the Lord there.
SPEAKER_01: Love God with your strength there.
SPEAKER_01: Be all in at work.
SPEAKER_01: Be all in.
SPEAKER_01: Be the best at what God's called you to do by loving God with your talents, loving Him with your spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Get if you need more schooling, if you need to take that next test, to get to that next level, to be the best at something, get it.
SPEAKER_01: Study, research, work.
SPEAKER_01: We worship when we vote.
SPEAKER_01: We worship when we when we write down that research paper.
SPEAKER_01: We worship when we care about those kids in our classroom.
SPEAKER_01: We worship when we, as a lawyer, just do an excellent job for our client.
SPEAKER_01: We worship when we're a nurse and we're in the emergency room and we're helping someone who's who doesn't have anybody else but you to save their life.
SPEAKER_01: That's worship.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's a great way to start your work.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, today, and what I do, I'm going to love you with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength in my neighbor as myself.
SPEAKER_01: Would you empower me to love you with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength in my neighbors?
SPEAKER_01: And God's invited into your work.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the first thing, talent.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that's one way we love God with all of our strength.
SPEAKER_01: Second, we love God with our strength by loving Him by our use of time.
SPEAKER_01: By our use of time.
SPEAKER_01: I come early.
SPEAKER_01: I usually come about quarter till nine on Sundays, and there's already half of the parking lot is full because you guys are coming to Outlier University.
SPEAKER_01: You're going into those classes with Stu and Ron and Bobby and Jay on Tuesday and all those classes that we're having, that's loving God with your strength.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing that.
SPEAKER_01: And then people are flowing downstairs to go help with NextGen and Next Gen Jr.
SPEAKER_01: That's loving God with your strength because you're volunteering, you're helping, you're ministering.
SPEAKER_01: And the worship team's in here practicing, and then they practiced on Saturday night.
SPEAKER_01: That's loving God with their strength.
SPEAKER_01: Helping your neighbor rake his leaves or mow his lawn or paint a house through the Springs Initiative or go on the Houston trip.
SPEAKER_01: That's loving God with all your strength.
SPEAKER_01: Go work out.
SPEAKER_01: Stay in shape.
SPEAKER_01: That's loving God with your strength.
SPEAKER_01: Getting old like me, no more free weights.
SPEAKER_01: Just machines.
SPEAKER_01: I might pull something.
SPEAKER_01: But the quality of our life is also the quality of our strength.
SPEAKER_01: And the quality of our strength means taking good care of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And learning to take the right supplements.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I'm not a runner, never have been a runner, but over the last three years, I'm a walker.
SPEAKER_01: So I do my prayer walks.
SPEAKER_01: I did a prayer walk this morning with Liz.
SPEAKER_01: Liz and I did our prayer walk together.
SPEAKER_01: And so that the reason I started doing that partly was because that's something I can sustain as I get older.
SPEAKER_01: So find things in your life that physically keep you strong that you can sustain.
SPEAKER_01: And using your time, nobody's going to notice.
SPEAKER_01: I don't notice.
SPEAKER_01: There's so many of you serving in this church.
SPEAKER_01: I don't notice.
SPEAKER_01: God does, though.
SPEAKER_01: God notices.
SPEAKER_01: So see it as worship.
SPEAKER_01: When Tina and her team come and they make this beautiful spread here for all of us every week, 52 weeks out of the year, so we can take communion with such beauty.
SPEAKER_01: That's worship, Tina, wherever you are, and your team.
SPEAKER_01: You guys do that.
SPEAKER_01: And donuts.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what you say about donuts, but donuts are cool once a week.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to have them every day.
SPEAKER_01: But how many like donuts?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, that's the reason you came.
SPEAKER_01: I knew you're not here.
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, are there any more donuts left at the end of the service?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are in Bible studies and C groups, and a lot of you are in D groups and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: That's loving God with your strength.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is the most, it's the most valuable commodity we have in our life is the use of our time.
SPEAKER_01: It really is.
SPEAKER_01: It's how we use our time.
SPEAKER_01: And so keep a schedule.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I have my calendar is on my phone, and I work hard and put in a lot of hours.
SPEAKER_01: But when I hope, not always, I didn't do it this week, but usually when I take a day off, I really try to take that day off.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and so you need days off, guys.
SPEAKER_01: You need Sabbath, but you also need to work hard.
SPEAKER_01: You work hard and then you Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: That's loving God with your strength.
SPEAKER_01: So first, loving God with your talent.
SPEAKER_01: Second, loving God with your time.
SPEAKER_01: And then thirdly, loving God with our strength is loving God with our treasure, our money, our resources, our possessions.
SPEAKER_01: Someone has said you can place people into two categories.
SPEAKER_01: Either their possessions possess them, or they possess their possessions.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: You can place people into two categories.
SPEAKER_01: Either their possessions possess them, or they possess their possessions.
SPEAKER_01: What that means is that our possessions and our treasure should give us freedom, not bondage.
SPEAKER_01: Our possessions should give us freedom, not bondage.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've said this before, and many of you have heard me say that the FBI has said for years that they don't need anything else on you.
SPEAKER_01: If they can just get one month set of checks, they can know within 90 percentile what your vision and values are by how you use your money.
SPEAKER_01: They can predict within 90%.
SPEAKER_01: If they could see your checkbook one month, they don't even need two, just need one month, they can know within 90 percentile what you really care about.
SPEAKER_01: Not what you say you care about, not where you go on Sundays, but what you actually care about by how your treasures are guided.
SPEAKER_01: That's loving God with your strength, loving God with your treasure.
SPEAKER_01: So you know the story in Matthew 19 of the rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_01: He's done everything that the law requires, and then Jesus says to him, That's great.
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like you're just a really ethical, moral guy.
SPEAKER_01: That is really amazing.
SPEAKER_01: So sell everything you have and come follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And he went away sad.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus had put his finger on the idol in that guy's life.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the biggest idols in America.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in this room have an idol for money, an idol for possessions.
SPEAKER_01: They possess you.
SPEAKER_01: And it's really sad because you could be so set free.
SPEAKER_01: I'm set free.
SPEAKER_01: I've been set free since I was 22.
SPEAKER_01: And man, I've been poor.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we've been poor.
SPEAKER_01: And we've been wealthy.
SPEAKER_01: And we are wealthy.
SPEAKER_01: Because we never changed our philosophy through it all.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the passage that always spoke to me.
SPEAKER_01: This is Matthew 6.19.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 6.19.
SPEAKER_01: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
SPEAKER_01: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_01: So the FBI understands this.
SPEAKER_01: No one can serve two masters, he says later.
SPEAKER_01: For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot serve God and mammon.
SPEAKER_01: So here's a good litmus test.
SPEAKER_01: If you sort of hate what I'm reading right now, if you kind of kind of bothers you that I'm talking about this right now, you got a problem.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you've been set free, you love this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, yeah, preach it, brother.
SPEAKER_01: Preach it, brother Steve.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're kind of like, I wonder when he was gonna get to this part.
SPEAKER_01: We've been coming to this church for like months, and they have those those cans or those little boxes on sticks out there in the lobby, and they don't talk much about money, but I knew it was coming.
SPEAKER_01: I knew they were gonna start pressing in on that.
SPEAKER_01: Then you got a problem.
SPEAKER_01: You got idle in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And you're not set free because your possessions possess you instead of you possessing your possessions.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that's how you love God with your strength.
SPEAKER_01: One of the greatest things you got.
SPEAKER_01: Man, it's exciting to be generous with your money.
SPEAKER_01: It really is.
SPEAKER_01: John Piper says, money is the currency of Christian happiness and joy.
SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: John Piper says, money is the currency of Christian happiness and joy.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, in writing to Timothy, said this.
SPEAKER_01: But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and in and into many foolish and harmful lust.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times we don't think of lust as actually being financial, but he does here, which drown men in destruction and perition.
SPEAKER_01: 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 pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
SPEAKER_01: But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.
SPEAKER_01: Command those who are rich in this present age.
SPEAKER_01: So this is Paul, the senior pastor, writing to his under-shepherd, Pastor Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: This is how you should preach it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, this command those who are rich, and that's all of you, you live in America, you are in the richest four percentile of the entire world's population, right here.
SPEAKER_01: Colorado Springs, a pretty wealthy city.
SPEAKER_01: Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: So he wants you to enjoy your money.
SPEAKER_01: He does.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay, it's great.
SPEAKER_01: Let them do good, that they may 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.
SPEAKER_01: So, what's he saying here?
SPEAKER_01: I think he's saying that in the midst of what I believe is the abundance of the beauty of the revival of God in this country giving us so much, be rich in good works.
SPEAKER_01: Be rich in loving others, be rich in the actually the amount of time it gives you to give to the kingdom because we are so blessed in our jobs.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: So Liz and I, let me see.
SPEAKER_01: Let me think about this for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't think about the time frame.
SPEAKER_01: So for for me, a little different for Liz because she's younger than me, but for 38 years, I've tested this.
SPEAKER_01: And I call it tithing plus.
SPEAKER_01: Tithing plus.
SPEAKER_01: So for 38 years, probably not the first five years, but so maybe 33 years out of 38 years, 38 years I've tithed.
SPEAKER_01: That means I've given 10% of my income to the church and the ministries and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Then about five years into it, I started figuring out I wanted to give more, so that's the plus part.
SPEAKER_01: So for the last 35, 34 years, I've given my 10% to the church, and I've given others to ministries like compassion and missionaries and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: You know what's interesting?
SPEAKER_01: I don't see a lot of squirming.
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of you already doing stuff like this.
SPEAKER_01: I already know a lot of you.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a freedom that comes with that.
SPEAKER_01: And part of the thing that's been exciting in that is that it's been verified in so many ways in our life.
SPEAKER_01: A number of years ago, I read a book called The Ten Golden Rules to Financial Success.
SPEAKER_01: I'd encourage all of you to read it.
SPEAKER_01: The Ten Golden Rules to Financial Success by Gary Moore.
SPEAKER_01: Ten Golden Rules to Financial Success by Gary Moore, who was, I think, the CEO for Sir John Templeton, which was the number one mutual fund and one of the richest men in the world, the Templeton funds.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Sir John Templeton says in the book.
SPEAKER_01: The first step to financial success is to give away the first 10% of what you've been blessed with, including your time and talent.
SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01: That is so counterintuitive.
SPEAKER_01: The giving is an indication of true faith that God will provide for your needs and evidence that you're willing to leave that fruit with God and have your priorities straight.
SPEAKER_01: That makes it the surest initial wealth in all of its forms.
SPEAKER_01: In all of my 52 years before I retired as an investment counselor, we were helping people, literally hundreds of thousands of people, with their wealth.
SPEAKER_01: In all of those years, there was only one investment that never proved faulty, and that was tithing.
SPEAKER_01: Giving at least 10% of your income to church and charities.
SPEAKER_01: In all of my history, I've never, this is crazy, this last sentence.
SPEAKER_01: In all of my history, I've never seen a family who tithe for as long as at least 10 years that didn't become prosperous and happy.
SPEAKER_01: That is the best investment anyone can select.
SPEAKER_01: End of quote.
SPEAKER_01: Sir John Templeton.
SPEAKER_01: So, if you don't believe it, you gotta try it for 10 years.
SPEAKER_01: For 10 years, give 10% and then come back and say it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_01: But if you try it for two and you quit, don't you don't count.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to do it for 10 years.
SPEAKER_01: I've done it for 38.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm here to tell you, it works.
SPEAKER_01: It works.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have time to tell you all the stories of what God's done.
SPEAKER_01: The doors that God opens when He realizes that you're a conduit of His kingdom wealth is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are so stuck in the jobs you're in and the situations you're in, is because you're not trustworthy yet.
SPEAKER_01: God can't bless you with that, with that next step in his journey of blessing you because you're not being faithful to what you already know to be true.
SPEAKER_01: So grow up.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to grow up.
SPEAKER_01: And it's really freeing.
SPEAKER_01: It really does work.
SPEAKER_01: It's really exciting.
SPEAKER_01: So that's loving God with your strength.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what's fun.
SPEAKER_01: I could talk about this forever.
SPEAKER_01: But how am I doing on time?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I got a little bit of time.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you how many times I've quoted this verse in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasures are your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why that's important.
SPEAKER_01: Because I look at it this way it's a 401k in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: So, how many of you have, I mean, I you know you're not supposed to do this, but how many of you have dipped in to some of your savings that you're going to be for retirement?
SPEAKER_01: All right, a lot of us.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I have too.
SPEAKER_01: So I've done the work.
SPEAKER_01: I did the investing.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I did the investing.
SPEAKER_01: So I can, in a, in a, in a dire straits, I can say, God, I want some back.
SPEAKER_01: I need some back right now, like a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And he's gonna look at Steve's account and he goes, Whoa, he's given a lot.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's upwards around 2 million that I've given to the Lord when I was adding it all up.
SPEAKER_01: That's not even counting interest.
SPEAKER_01: Wish we don't count that now, we'll count it in the 70s.
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't that 19% interest?
SPEAKER_01: So one time, listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: I I was I was a senior, I had a full right scholarship college.
SPEAKER_01: Why did I get a full?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I took talent, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So got it.
SPEAKER_01: Totally from God.
SPEAKER_01: Full right scholarship, University of Georgia, but mom and dad had saved$7,500 for my college.
SPEAKER_01: So I wasn't gonna need it.
SPEAKER_01: So we started investing in.
SPEAKER_01: Jimmy Carter became president.
SPEAKER_01: Best thing that ever happened to interest rates, unless you're trying to buy a house.
SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't trying to buy a house.
SPEAKER_01: So I they anybody know what a CD is?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, remember when CDs were around?
SPEAKER_01: So I locked in five CDs at 21% interest and then went on the mission field.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what it was worth when I got back?
SPEAKER_01: $92,000.
SPEAKER_01: I took$7,000 and became$92,000 thanks to Jimmy Carter and the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: So, so the reality is that I can call on God and He can look at my account and go, Spirit, Jesus, we need to help that guy.
SPEAKER_01: He's really investing a lot in our coffers up here.
SPEAKER_01: We need to do some miracles for him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for some of you, you call out to God and He's go, Well, you got He gives five bucks every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: He gets$25.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody look at me.
SPEAKER_01: If you discover the freedom of loving God with all your strength, then you have also the freedom to call on Him to do miracles in your life financially.
SPEAKER_01: Because you've stored up.
SPEAKER_01: I think it was Corey Timboom who said, you know, he he owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I need you to sell a few.
SPEAKER_01: So if your investment in your account is big, there's big miracles.
SPEAKER_01: And this is not according to works, it's all according to grace, because some of us don't deserve any of it.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is that's what he's saying here.
SPEAKER_01: So let's love God with our strength.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Let's love him with our talent, and that means natural talent, spiritual gifts, acquired skills.
SPEAKER_01: Let's love him with our time.
SPEAKER_01: Let's love him with our treasure.
SPEAKER_01: And that will be revival and the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the Ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.