Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I would like for you to just take a moment with me as we bow our heads in reverence and ask the Lord to bless our service today.
[00:00:11] Heavenly Father, it is with reverence that we approach thy throne of grace.
[00:00:17] In the wonderful name of Jesus, our Lord and our Master and Father, we want to thank you for your love, for your goodness, your mercy, your compassion to us.
[00:00:28] We want to thank you, Heavenly Father, that you so loved the world that you gave your son to die on the cross for our sins.
[00:00:36] We know that we are not worthy, Heavenly Father, of anything but, Father, it is because of your long suffering that we are here today.
[00:00:46] We want to thank you, Lord, that we are in your family. We have been adopted into your family, Heavenly Father, and we thank you for that.
[00:00:55] Bless every heart that is here and every home that is represented. Bless those who are not able to come. And Father, bless those who are sick and afflicted, those who are in the hospitals and those who have wandered away. We ask you now to bless this service with your power, with your Holy Spirit.
[00:01:13] May Jesus be our guest of honor. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:19] One of the greatest sin, which I believe was actually the first sin, as I can see it in the Bible, was covetousness. My sermon is entitled Covetousness vs Contentment.
[00:01:38] If you want to write that down, let's go to Genesis chapter three.
[00:01:42] And we read verse six, Genesis chapter three and verse six. We have your Bible.
[00:01:54] Please follow me. I always quote the Scriptures maybe two or three times and also give you time to find the Scriptures. You can write them down so that you can see that what I am preaching is directly from the Bible.
[00:02:11] Genesis 3, verse 6, it says, and when the woman meaning Eve, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, notice that, that it was pleasant to the eyes. And a tree to be desired to make one wise.
[00:02:33] She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat. And gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
[00:02:43] Please notice that here the woman saw the tree that was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree to be desired.
[00:02:54] In other words, as far as I can understand this verse, she coveted, she desired. That tree looked appealing to her, and so she took of it.
[00:03:08] And God had commanded them not to take of that tree, not to eat of that tree. But she did it because she coveted.
[00:03:18] And so this is, I believe, one of the greatest problems that we have in fighting this warfare that we have in the Christian life.
[00:03:28] That covetousness is always something that is there before us.
[00:03:33] Turn to Genesis chapter 13.
[00:03:35] And here we have a wonderful example.
[00:03:39] In Genesis, chapter 13, verses 1 through 13.
[00:03:46] Genesis 13.
[00:03:48] And beginning at verse 1 through verse 13. I would like for you to read with me. Responsive. You have another translation you might follow just along. Because I use the King James Version.
[00:04:06] I'll read verse one. You read verse two through verse 13.
[00:04:11] And Abram went up out of Egypt. He and his wife and all that he had. And Lot with him into the south.
[00:04:25] And he went on his journeys from the south. Even to Bethel.
[00:04:29] Unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning. Between Beth El and Hai.
[00:04:44] And Lot also, which went with Abram. Had flocks and herds and tents.
[00:05:02] And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle. And the herdmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt. Then in.
[00:05:26] Is not the whole land before thee.
[00:05:28] Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me.
[00:05:32] If thou wilt take the left hand, then will I go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
[00:05:59] Then Lot chose him. All the plain of Jordan and Lot journeyed east. And they separated themselves, the one from the other.
[00:06:17] Notice verse 13. But the men of Sodom were wicked. And sinners before the Lord exceedingly.
[00:06:26] What do we find in this reading here?
[00:06:33] We find that Abraham, or Abram as he was called before his name was changed. That he had a lot of cattle. He was a rich man. We would call him very prosperous. It seemed that Lot was also very prosperous being around Abram.
[00:06:50] So there was a strife between the hurt men and there was strive. And so Abram, being a godly man.
[00:06:57] He said, we should not have any strife among ourselves. We are brethren. We are brothers. In other words, why should we strive?
[00:07:07] So Abram said to Lot, let us separate. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. And if you go to the left, he says, I will go to the right. In other words, what Abram did to Lot.
[00:07:21] He said, you choose which way you want to go first.
[00:07:25] And here is where we find the covetousness that I'm talking about.
[00:07:31] At verse 10, we begin reading.
[00:07:35] And he says in verse 10. And lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan. That it was well watered everywhere. Before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Even as the garden of the Lord. Like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto zor.
[00:07:58] Verse 11 says, Then lot chose him all the plain of Jordan. And Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves, the one from the other.
[00:08:10] You see, Lot looked to the Jordan Valley, and he saw that it was well watered.
[00:08:17] And he said, I'm going to take the green grass.
[00:08:22] It looks so pretty to me. Just like Eve did.
[00:08:26] Looked at the tree, a tree to be desired. She looked at the fruit, and she said, this is wonderful fruit.
[00:08:35] And Lot did the same thing.
[00:08:37] Lot looked at the green grass, and he said, here, my cattle, everything will be so well and well watered. A lot of water here. And so down he went.
[00:08:48] But he traveled east. He kept going and kept going.
[00:08:53] And we find in the final analysis of Lot's journey, that he ended up where in Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:09:04] Abram went the other direction.
[00:09:07] Abram went into the land of Canaan, and there he dwelt. But there he builds an altar to God. If you will read down in the same chapter, chapter 13, that Abram built an altar to God. And there he called upon the name of the Lord. And after the launch, separated from Abram. That God told Abram, look as far as you can see to the east, to the west, north and south.
[00:09:35] God said to Abram, all this land I am going to give you for a possession forever.
[00:09:43] And so here we have the promises made to Abraham because he was a just man, even though he had a lot of cattle, he was a rich man, yet he was not a covetous man.
[00:09:56] He was a man that was humble, a man that I believe was very obedient to God.
[00:10:03] He also wanted for his nephew Lot, to have first choice, the land.
[00:10:12] And here we find what covetousness can do to any one of us.
[00:10:17] Sometimes we think that the grass on the other side of the fence is greener. Or perhaps somewhere over there, on the other side of the city, or perhaps somewhere in another place, it is better than where we're at right now. We might think that. And because of covetousness, we go that direction, letting the flesh to lead us. And I believe this is what happened to Lot. The flesh, his eyes, the desires of the eyes and of the flesh and of the mind, led him down to the green grass, and he ended up in Sodom and Gomorrah. And the final story is that Lot lost everything and he had to run away from Sodom and Gomorrah and. And he ended up in a cave with his two daughters, where his two daughters actually got him drunk. And they conceived both of them by getting the father Drunk. Now that's a terrible story, you might say. Why would God put that in the Bible?
[00:11:19] Why didn't God leave it out of the Bible? I'll tell you why, brethren. Because God shows every human emotion.
[00:11:27] It shows everything that the humans do. God doesn't spare anything from the Bible. He tells us who committed adultery with who, who killed who. And God is very plain about everything.
[00:11:40] God doesn't put just the goody things in the Bible. He also puts the bad things. Why? So that we can learn. We can learn from the Word of God.
[00:11:50] Let's turn to James chapter four.
[00:11:54] James chapter four.
[00:11:57] And we read beginning at verse one, through verse four, James chapter four in the New Testament way, almost close to the Book of Revelation, chapter four. Beginning at verse one, we read through verse four. It says, from whence come wars and fightings among you?
[00:12:19] Come they not hence even of your lust, that war in your members?
[00:12:23] Ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain.
[00:12:30] Ye fight and war yet ye have not because ye ask not ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lust.
[00:12:45] Notice verse 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
[00:13:01] Here the Bible describes to us why we have all the turmoils in the world, why we have the wars and fightings that come even among us, even among Christians, but especially among nations, especially among peoples who become dictators like Hitler and many others, and they lust after the things of this world.
[00:13:28] And the Bible tells us here that if we are friends of the world, in other words, we are committing spiritual adultery, whether a male or female, that if we are friends of the world, we become enemies of God.
[00:13:45] You might say, well, I live in this world.
[00:13:49] I have to make a living in this world. I have to work in this world. That is to be understood. God knows that. He knows you have to make a living. But what God is saying here, that we should not make the world our first priority.
[00:14:06] And Brother Doug Hill was explaining during the Sabbath school commencement or opening of our Sabbath school about how that our priorities should be first or number one in God in the church and doing those things that are pleasing to God.
[00:14:23] What James 4 is telling us about the priorities of the flesh.
[00:14:28] And this is exactly what is wrong with a lot of people. The priorities that they have is to lust after the things of the world, to make friends with the world, to get all you can out of the world and live as the world. And the Bible says that if you live as the world, you become an enemy of God.
[00:14:47] Let's turn to another verse that is very. Or verses that are very similar and that is first John, chapter two, First John, chapter two, First Epistle of John, chapter two.
[00:15:05] Beginning at verse 15, we read through verse 17, first John chapter 2, beginning at verse 15.
[00:15:14] John says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
[00:15:21] If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
[00:15:27] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. Notice verse 17.
[00:15:39] And the world passes away and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
[00:15:51] It tells us very plain about the love of this world.
[00:15:58] And I tell you what brethren, that a lot of the so called Christian people are just as bad as those that are not Christians in that they love this world more than they love God.
[00:16:12] They put the things of this world first. In our Sabbath school we were talking about family altar, how that there is no time for family altar. There is no time to get together with our children to study the Bible, to kneel together and to pray. There is no time because the father rushes to work and the mother has to go to work and the children are all scattered. And you allow your kids to be taught by over there in the school, from grammar school, high school and college, they're being taught by other teachers. They come home and they want to play, they want to see their television program. And you allow for them to see all the programs they want, especially cartoons or something that entertain your kids sometimes. Perhaps some X rated movies. I don't know which you are or not. I don't know about that. I don't go around checking homes and see what you watch and what you don't watch.
[00:17:11] But I know that a lot of children spend a lot of time behind television. They never have a moment of prayer with their family, only when they get around the table to say a little grace for the food. And that's all the prayer there is. There is no time for prayer. They do not kneel. Why? Because of the love of this world, that's why. And here the Bible tells us love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
[00:17:39] And then in verse 15 says, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That is very plain, very plain.
[00:17:52] Let's go to Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 8.
[00:17:59] In the book of Proverbs, chapter 16, we read verse 8 and notice what this verse says.
[00:18:11] Did you find it? Proverbs 16 and verse 8.
[00:18:15] Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
[00:18:28] So brethren, it boils down to this, that it is better to have a little, even if you have a little in this life. But it is with righteousness you have a little, and you are living right with God, than to have great revenues, to have great riches and great possessions without right. In other words, without serving God, without doing the things that are right.
[00:18:57] A lot of our people do not attend church because simply they are too tired.
[00:19:03] They have been working out there in the world, perhaps making money, and they're striving to make a lot of money, and they don't have time for the Lord.
[00:19:14] If you do that, that thing over there, which could be your job, whatever it is that is keeping you from church, that thing is your God, it becomes your idol.
[00:19:29] And then instead of serving God, you are serving the world and the revenues of the world.
[00:19:37] Remember this verse.
[00:19:39] Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right. Another verse is found in Ecclesiastes, which is the next book, next book to the right, Ecclesiastes chapter four.
[00:19:54] And we read verse six, Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and verse 6.
[00:20:04] It says like this. Better is an handful with quietness than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
[00:20:18] So better is to have just a handful with quietness.
[00:20:23] And you know, when you get in business, when you get involved in the world, you get involved with people, you find that your hands are full.
[00:20:33] I know because I have worked out there in the world, I have worked in business.
[00:20:39] And when you have a business, you work with the world, you become a slave to the world, you become a slave to business.
[00:20:47] And so then the Bible tells us here that it is better to just have a handful with quietness, meaning that you are right with God, you are quiet with God. In other words, you don't have the commotion going on and in your mind like a bunch of bees just rolling through your mind. And you wonder, what am I going to do with this? What am I going to do with that? You can even sleep at night thinking about all the things that you have to do in the world. The Bible says that this is vexation of the spirit. In other words, you are travailing, you're in pain like a woman all the time. You become a slave let's turn to Psalms 37 and verse 16.
[00:21:32] Psalms 37 and we read verse 16.
[00:21:44] This verse is very similar to the other ones that I have quoted. And it says, like a little, that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.
[00:22:01] You see, the Bible doesn't promise us at this present time. That is, as long as you believe in this flesh, in this life, the Bible doesn't promise us the riches of this world.
[00:22:15] The Bible doesn't say that if you will accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior, that you're going to have all the money that you want, that you're going to have a mansion of a home, that you're going to have a new Cadillac every year parked in your garage, that you're going to have all the things of this world. The Bible doesn't say that at all. In fact, the Bible tells you the contrary to that. And I'll show you in just a minute. But here, the Bible tells us in this Psalm, Psalm 37 and verse 16, that a little that our righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.
[00:22:52] So it is better to have perhaps a little.
[00:22:55] But it is with righteousness.
[00:22:59] It is doing the will of God. This is what God wants. Now, I'm not saying by quoting the Scriptures that you should not strive to have a home. This is not what the Bible is talking about, that you should not have a job?
[00:23:14] That you should not work for a living? No, the Bible doesn't say that at all. That you should not work, you should not have a house, that you should not have a car. If you can afford to have a new car, that's fine and dandy. But the main thing is your priority.
[00:23:30] Where is it?
[00:23:32] What are you striving to do with your life? Are you serving God first in your life? Is God number one in your life? Is he above all the things in this world?
[00:23:44] Is God ruling your heart, your home?
[00:23:49] Or is it your job? Is it your money? Is it your business?
[00:23:53] Is it something else that is ruling your life?
[00:23:57] If it is, then that other thing, as I said a while ago, becomes your idol. It becomes your God.
[00:24:05] Let's turn now to read a little bit about contentment.
[00:24:10] And I believe that this is one of the hardest thing for every one of us to do, and that is to be content.
[00:24:20] Hardly anyone is content, especially if we live in the world to get. We are there to get all we can get.
[00:24:31] And so we struggle and we're never contented. We want more and we want more and more.
[00:24:38] Let's turn to first Timothy Chapter six, First epistle to Timothy chapter 6, beginning at verse 6 and we read through verse 12, First Timothy 6. Beginning at verse 6 I read.
[00:25:03] But godliness with contentment is great gain.
[00:25:09] For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
[00:25:17] And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.
[00:25:24] But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition for notice. Verse 10 for the love of Money now it's not the money, but underlying love, for it is the love of money. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
[00:26:00] But thou, O man of God, flee these things. Notice what Paul is recommending. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Verse 12 says, Fight the good fight of faith.
[00:26:21] Lay hold on what Lay hold on eternal life. Where unto thou art also called, and has professed a good profession before many witnesses.
[00:26:36] And how true it is, brethren, that all the things of this world the love of money that is one of the greatest wicked things that has ever come to our world. People have killed, they have murdered, they have done just about everything under the sun because of riches and because of money.
[00:26:58] People will cheat, they will lie, they will do whatever they they want to do because of the money.
[00:27:06] And some of us brethren in the church that are Christians, I say some of us because I don't know your life, I don't know, not pointing to an individual, that we love the money so much that we would rather have that money being spent here and there and every place else except give the money that belongs to the Lord.
[00:27:31] In all my years in the ministry this past year, and if I had known, I would have done something about it. But I couldn't do anymore because it was getting close to income tax to turn in your income tax papers.
[00:27:48] But my wife and I had to give $300 of income tax.
[00:27:53] And that hurt me a lot because, brethren, I could have put those $300 in somewhere in the Lord's work and I would have not had to give it to the government.
[00:28:03] Do you know where your income tax dollars go to?
[00:28:08] You know what income tax is actually used for?
[00:28:13] It is used for all the war armaments. It is used for all the soldiers in the wars. That money is used also for the space Shuttles that are going up into space and paying billions and billions of dollars. Your income tax money is going there for war.
[00:28:33] Now, I don't mind giving taxes, and I don't mind paying taxes when I have to pay taxes, you know, because of schools, because of gasoline for roads. I don't mind paying taxes for a lot of things that we have.
[00:28:47] But, brethren, when it comes to give some of my money to go out there for war and to kill and to condemn somebody else, that's when I really scream. I don't like it.
[00:29:02] And so we find here that the Bible tells us that the love of money is a root of all evil.
[00:29:08] I hope you can read this chapter very carefully when you get at home and notice what it tells us about contentment. Let's go to Hebrews, chapter 13.
[00:29:20] Hebrews, chapter 13, verses 5 and 6.
[00:29:27] Hebrews, chapter 13, Verses 5 and 6.
[00:29:31] Let your conversation be without.
[00:29:36] Without what?
[00:29:38] Without covetousness.
[00:29:41] Let your conversation be without covetousness. And be content with such things as ye have. For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
[00:29:55] So that we may boldly say, but the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
[00:30:05] You see what this is saying here?
[00:30:08] That our conversation, our talk, should not be about coveting the things of the world, but that we should be content with the things that we have.
[00:30:19] That we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. That we can say, the Lord, help me.
[00:30:26] I pray to the Lord for this need, and the Lord helped me. The Lord bless me.
[00:30:33] Instead of saying, I work for it.
[00:30:37] I got the furniture, I got the home, and I got the car, and I got everything because I worked for it.
[00:30:44] I sweat for my money. You might say, I worked hard.
[00:30:50] Well, let me say here, brethren, that if the Lord would not allow you to live, let's say that the Lord will not give you health. If you do not have good health.
[00:31:01] You will not be able to work and you will not be able to have the money that you have.
[00:31:06] Another thing, too. Let me say that the money that you have doesn't even belong to you.
[00:31:11] Because we brought nothing into this world. And sure enough, we can take nothing with us.
[00:31:16] All we can take with us is the love that we had for God, the things that we work for in this Christian life so that we can have life eternal. That's the only thing we will take with us.
[00:31:30] Let's turn to the book of Colossians, chapter three.
[00:31:38] Colossians, chapter three. Beginning at verse one, Colossians, chapter three, beginning at verse one through verse four.
[00:31:51] And here the Apostle Paul is speaking about a spiritual resurrection, meaning that those that are Christians have received a spiritual resurrection and that they are seeking things that are better than what this life has to offer, than what this world has to offer.
[00:32:11] Notice what it says as we read beginning at verse one.
[00:32:14] If ye then be risen with Christ, you see, if ye then be risen with Christ, in other words, resurrected with Christ.
[00:32:24] Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
[00:32:30] Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.
[00:32:42] When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
[00:32:53] So the Bible tells us very plain right here. And I don't think I have to explain and explain these verses because I believe that you understand plain English, because this is plain English.
[00:33:05] I understand it. And I'm not English, I'm not Anglo Saxon.
[00:33:09] I understand what the Bible is saying here.
[00:33:12] That if I am risen with Christ, if I have been born again, if I am a child of God, if I have been converted, if I am truly sanctified by the word of God, that I am seeking those things which are above, not on things of the world. The Bible says here in verse two, set your affection, in other words, your love, your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
[00:33:39] And the greatest problem that we have, brethren, is that we want just about what the world has to offer us. The world has to offer us.
[00:33:49] And many times the devil makes that this world looks very glittery, very pretty. He paints a beautiful picture to us. And we look at this world and we say, my, look at this beautiful thing, look at that beautiful thing over there.
[00:34:06] Even if we can't afford it, even if we don't have the money, we will cheat, we will do whatever we think we can do to get that thing.
[00:34:15] I'm saying what a lot of so called Christian people do.
[00:34:20] I'm not pointing the finger to anyone here because I don't know your life, I don't know what you do and I don't know. And I'm not, I'm not going to go to your homes and question any one of you. I don't know, only saying what the Bible says.
[00:34:35] I'm only pointing out to you the things that some of the people in the world, apparently the Apostle Paul was inspired to write because a lot of these so called Christians were doing exactly that.
[00:34:48] They were Striving to have the things of this world.
[00:34:51] And the more you have of this world, the more you want.
[00:34:57] Remember that one of the temptations, the devil, when he tempted Jesus Christ for 40 days and 40 nights, that the devil showed Jesus Christ all the kingdoms of this world and all the riches.
[00:35:14] And the devil said to Jesus Christ, if you will worship me, he said, if you will worship me, you bow and worship me.
[00:35:22] I will give you all these things.
[00:35:26] The devil says, I can give it to whomsoever I want.
[00:35:31] And so we find that he tried.
[00:35:34] Imagine the devil tried to give Jesus Christ all the riches of this world.
[00:35:41] Imagine that.
[00:35:42] And the devil, he tried that because Jesus was in the flesh. And he thought that Jesus would just see the glittery things of the world and all the kingdoms, and that Jesus would just say, oh, yes, this is what I want.
[00:36:01] But, brethren, the Lord had something else in mind.
[00:36:05] The Lord had you and me in mind.
[00:36:08] The Lord knew that he had to die to rescue us from this world and what this world has to offer. And from sin and from death.
[00:36:19] The Lord became sin for us, brethren, meaning that all the sins of the world were placed upon him. He became sin for us. So that you and I will be liberated from sin.
[00:36:32] This is why Jesus came.
[00:36:36] In closing, I want to turn to Philippians chapter 4, Philippians, chapter 4, verses 11 and 12.
[00:36:52] Philippians 4, verses 11 and 12.
[00:36:56] It says like this, not that I speak in respect of want.
[00:37:00] And then Paul speaks about himself when he says, for I have learned in whatsoever state, I am therewith to be content.
[00:37:11] I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound.
[00:37:16] Everywhere and in all things. I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
[00:37:28] Then, reading verse 19, notice what Paul says. Philippians 4, 19.
[00:37:34] He says, but my God.
[00:37:37] But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
[00:37:47] Now, Paul did not say, God is going to supply everything that you want, and God is going to give you everything that you want. He doesn't say that.
[00:37:58] He says, God is going to supply your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
[00:38:08] God will supply our needs only, brethren, not everything that we want.
[00:38:14] You know, if God was to answer every one of our prayers, that if God was to answer especially one prayer that we would pray.
[00:38:26] If God was to say yes to one prayer, you know what that would be?
[00:38:32] That we all would want to be millionaires.
[00:38:36] That all of us would want to be millionaires.
[00:38:39] We all would want all the money that this world has to offer. And what for?
[00:38:47] You know, I've talked to millionaires, and sometimes those millionaires are miserable.
[00:38:54] Because millions and dollars doesn't buy happiness.
[00:38:58] It doesn't buy the true love of God.
[00:39:00] Dollars doesn't buy the things that you really need. Sometimes it buys the things of this world. Yes, but I am sure that if God was to answer every one of our prayers, that all of us would kneel and we say, God, I want a million dollars.
[00:39:17] And so constantly they're offering on television a million dollars.
[00:39:22] You know, they offer a million dollars for this. And everybody rides in to get all the magazines and everybody, everything else. Because you want to get that million dollars.
[00:39:32] But I tell you what, brethren, that sometime is just a glittery of the devil.
[00:39:40] Contentment versus covetousness. Or the other way around.
[00:39:45] What is it with you?
[00:39:47] Are you content?
[00:39:49] Are you seeking more for the things of this world?
[00:39:53] As it was mentioned to us, some of you were not here for Sabbath school.
[00:39:59] That during the prayer meeting.
[00:40:02] We had more people present at the prayer meeting that were not here a year ago than those that have been here for many years.
[00:40:13] Now, some of you, I realized, cannot come at night. You live far. We realize all those things, and God does, too.
[00:40:20] But what about those that can come? Those that could be here, those that should be here and are not here to pray? You think that we can just excuse ourselves and say, lord, I worked so hard today, Lord, and I'm so tired, Lord, and I just don't have the time to go to prayer meeting. I can just pray at home.
[00:40:42] That might be your excuse, brethren. Believe me, as this little poem closes by saying, this world will soon be past and only what's done for Christ will last.
[00:41:02] Thank you.
