Well, today is the second Sunday of our annual Missions Month, which is always in the month of November. Last Sunday, we had Larry and Carol Bunyan with us. to report on their ministry among the Blackfeet Indians in Montana. And what a joy to see them again. Having partnered with them in the work of missions for more than 40 years, and to see their persevering faithfulness and how God has used that in their ministry.
in that needy area.
So we come today to the second Sunday and have welcomed Landon and Hannah Jones.
So we've gone from old to young, from veteran to new. From Indians to Spain, we're going to Spain with these. missionaries, and they'll tell us more about that tonight. And the purpose of our Missions Month is, first of all, to emphasize the Call of God upon our lives to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. to remember our responsibility to the Great Commission.
that we are to go into all the world. to all nations. And Make disciples of all nations and baptize those who have become disciples. and to teach them the Word of God and to continue that process. all throughout the world, so that in that day when we Gathered together with the Lord, we shall see people from every group.
That was a great message that Larry Bunyan brought to us That may have been Wednesday night, where he explained. the difference between countries and ethnic groups and how the the Great Commission is referring not to necessarily countries, which is generally uh referred to by the the name kingdom in the Bible. But rather by ethnic groups, every language, every culture, of which in some countries there are many different ethnic groups. And so the gospel must go forth to the ends of the world and continue to go forth until God has called from every ethnic group. His elect people who will gather together With the Lord, and we shall have the joy of having had a part in that.
as we are faithful in obedience to the Great Commission. And so we focus upon that in November. We consider our participation financially in that. To demonstrate our seriousness about the Great Commission, Not just words, but in deeds. to demonstrate our faith in God and in His Word.
and what he has declared to us About the stewardship of our finances. And so we consider these matters, and today my mind was drawn to this text in 2 Chronicles 25. And I read again verse 9. Then Amaziah said to the man of God, What shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the troops of Israel? And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give you much more than this.
There's a real message in that text for us today, I'm confident.
Well, here's our our chart, our plan as we move forward. We will take some time with the background of this text. And then we will move to an examination of the text itself, and then thirdly, we shall. consider appropriate applications from the text. There's a lot of background, and I'm...
Going to take quite a bit of time with this because I think it's difficult to understand what's going on in the reign of Amaziah. unless we go back at least a couple of generations in the line of kings, in the southern nation of Judah. We read, of course, about his enthronement in the first verse. of 2 Chronicles 25. Amaziah, we are told, was 25 years old when he became king.
And he reigned twenty-nine years. in Jerusalem. And it gives his mother's name and goes on with the narrative from that point. If you move back a little bit further into the previous chapters, you'll find out. That the father of Amaziah was a king named Joash.
sometimes called Jehoash, spelled in both those ways in different places. who came to the throne under unusual circumstances when he was only seven years old. How no, I'm uh I'm I'm skipping one here. Yes, I've got to look at it carefully here. Yes, it was his father.
Joash, who came to the throne when he was seven years old, Because his His father had been killed and His his mother had taken over the reins of government. Athaliah, that wicked king, and intended to rule herself, but there was a faithful priest by the name of Jehoiada. Jehoiada feared God more than men. And this one son of the slain King Joash was preserved. And when he was seven years old, Jehoiada arranged with the other priest.
And those who believe the word of God to bring Joash to the throne, to crown him. And when Athaliah heard of it and she protested, she was put to death because of her wickedness and her treachery. And so then the throne was returned to its rightful line from the line of David. As Godhead Ordained. And as must be preserved until the coming of Jesus Christ the Messiah, who must come from the line of David.
And it did look there for a while that that lie might be disrupted, but God, as He always is able to do and faithful to do, brought it back. in the days of the father of Amaziah. But Joash proved to be A disappointment. He ruled faithfully and well as long as Jehoiada was alive, the priest that had brought him to the throne and had been his counselor. And he evidently leaned very heavily upon Jehoiada, but Jehoiada eventually died at the age of 130.
God kept him alive for a long time. But he eventually died, and as soon as he died, Joaish turned in the opposite direction. and started worshiping idols. and started bringing other abominations into the nation of Israel. And so there were actually men of his own government that put him to death.
That's referred to in the passage that I read in your hearing a moment ago. What an ignominious death, a promising beginning. Serving the Lord. Causing much blessing, restoring the temple that had fallen into disrepair. Doing many good things that were honoring to the Lord, but as soon as his trusted counselor that obviously he was looking to For for direction more than he was looking to God and to his word.
And as soon as that trusted counselor was gone, he evidently started looking to others who were not trustworthy. He apparently was a weak man. And he leaned too much upon what this person's opinion was, and then what that person's opinion was. I warn you about that danger. You need to be anchored in the Word of God.
And when the trusted, godly counselor was gone, Joash proved to be a total disappointment and was murdered by his own Servants. Syad But then Amaziah. His son. came to the throne. And we are pleased, and in some ways, I think, surprised.
to read that he was a good king, A faithful king. He served God. How do you explain that? With a father. who proved to be totally untrustworthy and ungodly.
When he's true. Hard Inclinations and desires were unfettered, as it were, from the man who had. Who had uh been at his side as a godly counselor all of these years. And when his ungodliness was revealed, And ungodliness had preceded him in other generations with Athaliah and kings. Uh before Joash.
How was it that Amaziah proved to be a good servant of the Lord. And there's only one short answer to that. It's a one-word answer, and the word is grace. God's grace intervened. What an encouragement.
Sometimes we look too much to Circumstances and environment. We can't expect much from this person. Why, look at the background he or she comes from. Oh, we expect a lot from this person. Look at the wonderful background they came from.
But how many times do we have to observe that sometimes those who come from the best advantages fall miserably? And sinfully and shamefully, and those who come from the most unlikely backgrounds rise to become faithful, godly servants of the Lord. It's not circumstances, though these influences do have some bearing, but it's a small part. A small part. Because there's a great God who's greater than circumstances in heaven, and he can raise up people from unlikely places, and he can put people down in what seems to be favorable circumstances.
That's our hope. That's my hope in the United States of America today. We don't see much good going on, but there's a great God in heaven who is gracious, and he is able to raise up a host. of faithful Bible-believing preachers. I've been asked recently why is it that so many.
Pulpits, even evangelical pulpits in America, seem to not be tied to the Bible. And I don't really have an answer to that question. That's just... Evidence of apostasy, isn't it? Evidence of decline.
But That doesn't mean that God is not able. God is able. He can raise up great men from unlikely places and use them to To proclaim his word when God is determined to do that. And may God graciously be determined to do that. And we shall pray to that end.
Well, back to Amaziah. He came to the throne. He did right in the sight of God, a good beginning. But we are also told, and this is the caution flag that flies over his good beginning. We are told in verse 2, He did what was right in the sight of the Lord.
But not With A loyal Heart. Most of the other translations say something like, not wholeheartedly. He was He was partially committed. to God and to His Word. But there was something within his heart that was not fully yielded to the Lord and to his word.
And so he started out, well, But he ended in disappointment as we read a moment ago. But the early years were good. His righteousness is manifested. He did it right. in the sight of the Lord.
He executed those who had murdered his father Joash. You say, well, that might have just been vengeful. Anger on his part. No, I don't think so, because he did it exactly according to the word of God. Those men deserved the death penalty.
They had murdered someone, had murdered the king. But it really doesn't matter who they'd murdered. They had murdered Someone And God has told us that whoso sheds man's blood by man's By man shall his blood, or should his blood be shed. And so Josiah acted justly and righteously in putting them to death, but he did not kill their sons as was customary. in that day.
But he obeyed the word of God in Deuteronomy 24, 16, that says that sons shall not be put to death for the sins of their fathers. And so he's starting out well. He's walking in obedience to the Word of God. He evidently knows the Word of God, he's following the Word of God. We are clapping in in appreciation and support in the background as this is going on.
And then he raised an army. To go against Edom.
Now, the details of why he did this are not given to us, but the history of Israel and Judah. reveal to us that there was constant friction between Edom and And Israel, virtually all of the days that there wasn't Edom and there wasn't Israel. And of course at this point The nation, the large nation of Israel, had been divided into two kingdoms. And so at this point in time, the term Israel applied to the northern ten tribes, the northern kingdom. And the southern kingdom was designated Judah, but at one time it had all been Israel and.
And sometimes all of it is referred to Israel still, but there'd been this conflict going all the way back to when? Jacob and Esau. Esau is the father of the Edomites. Back to that conflict. That rascal Jacob, this is a good example of what I said a moment ago.
That rascal Jacob, he didn't look very promising. But God God's grace intervened. in his life. And brought that rascal into submission to God and made him a trophy of God's grace. But his twin brother Esau, both reared in the same home, his twin brother Esau went in a different direction, became the father of a mighty nation, the Edomites.
And the Edomites and the Israelites were at war back and forth with one another.
Sometimes Edom prevailed and even seemed to exercise dominance over Israel. Other times Israel prevailed and exercised dominance over Edom. And in the course of what took place a couple of generations before Amaziah. Edom had become strong and had thrown off. the dominance of Israel.
And Amaziah considered it appropriate to restore that. form a relationship. to make it Israel dominate over Edom once again. But Edom is a strong nation.
So Amaziah raised a large army. He was able to muster 300,000 men out of Judah, a large tribe, and Benjamin, the smaller tribe that remained identified. with Judah after the kingdom split. And the Benjamites, though smaller in number, were known for their fierce Military Abilities. They were great soldiers.
So out of those two tribes, he He raised an army of 300,000 able men, but apparently he was. afraid that that might not be enough. And so he appealed to The king in the north, who turned out to have the same name as his father, Joash. That makes it difficult when you're studying the history of the Old Testament.
Well, I read about Joash, but he was the king of Judah, and I'm reading about Joashagang, and now he's the king of Israel. Yeah, you have to pay close attention. But he appealed to him and sent him a hundred talents of silver to hire a hundred thousand soldiers, mercenaries, to come down and fight with him against Edom. A hundred talents of silver. That doesn't mean a lot to us.
We don't know how much a talent of silver is. I spent a lot of time researching this and calculating it, calculating it every which way I could, up and down and back and forth, and with all the different elements I could put together. And it's clear to me that that represents something more than $4.5 million in today's money. That's a bunch. I think we'd all agree.
Anyone here that is so wealthy that you don't consider $4.5 million a large amount? Raise your hand. I want to talk to you. That's a lot.
So he spent a large sum in order to hire These 100,000 soldiers. And he was getting ready to take them into battle. And a man of God shows up. A prophet of God. The term man of God in the Bible almost always refers to a prophet, a spokesman for God.
A man of God shows up. Unnamed. Not all of the prophets are named. Many of them are, but not all of them are named. This one was not.
He just shows up and he says basically, Don't Take the soldiers from Israel into battle with you because if you do, you'll lose. Why not? Why not take them into battle? because they are from apostate Israel, idolatrous Israel, and God doesn't like to see, God is not pleased with, God does not bless the joining together of. false worship with true worship, apostate worship with with uh God honoring worship and to put those things together to accomplish anything is not pleasing to God.
And so the prophet came and told him that, don't take the hundred thousand men because if you do, you'll lose. If you Go You will not. Prevail.
Well, what about The hundred Talents of silver. I've already spent four and a half million dollars to pay these guys, and they don't give refunds. What am I going to do about that? And that's our text. Then Amaziah, verse 9, said, to the men of God.
What shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the troops of Israel? And the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give you much. More than this. Yes, that's a lot of money. To you, that's a lot of money.
To me, that's a lot of money. To anybody, that's nothing for God. The Lord is able to give you much more. than this. Amaziah to his credit and again to our Encouragement and maybe amazement obeys.
Once again, he obeys a very difficult command of God, but he says, Okay, if that's what the man of God tells me, then I will dismiss 100,000 mercenaries. You go on back to Israel. You've got your money, you've got your pay, you're not losing anything in this. And you uh you go on back. And I'll obey the Lord, and I'll go against Edom with just the 300,000 out of Judah and Benjamin.
And he went and had a victory. God gave him victory. He killed 10,000 Edomites in battle and captured another 10,000 that he executed. And he completely dominated them in this situation. But the dismissed mercenaries were not happy because There was more.
More gain for them expected than the hundred talents. I don't know. I didn't try to figure out if you'd take that $4.5 million and divide it among 100,000 men.
Some of you who are quick with numbers could tell me right off the bat how much that would be per man. Would that be $450 or $4,500? What would it be? I didn't think to calculate that, but it comes to my mind now. Anybody got the number?
I know some of you are there with calculators. I know you are. Boop, bum, bump, bump.
Well, anyway, they would have each gotten something, but it wouldn't have been much. They were expecting. To get spoil in the battle. That's the way things worked. You conquer somebody, you take the spoil.
And so they were expecting to get their. pay plus the spoils of victory. And that was denied to them, and they were so angry.
Somebody got the number for me now. $450. That really isn't a whole lot, is it? They were counting on some spoil, weren't they? And since they didn't get it, they got so mad they just came back from Samaria to the.
cities of Judah that were on the border between Samaria, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom. And they attacked some of those, and they killed 3,000 people, and they took spoil from those. And they said, Now, that's what you get for your wishy-washiness. And they marched back to Samaria, at least with something more than their paltry $450 worth. worth of pay.
And what do we learn from that?
Well, I think we learned this. All obedience is good. And in this case, Amaziah did obey what the prophet of God told him. But prompt obedience is better, and delayed obedience. is risky.
What do I mean by that?
Well, Amaziah, who obviously did study the word of God and did know how God operated, Amaziah should have known on his own without being told by a prophet that it was not God-honoring to hire these men. But he did it anyway because he was calculating things from a human standpoint instead of on a divine standpoint. And Therefore, his obedience was real because when the man of God confronted him He surrendered, he changed gears, he put it in reverse, he went the other way, he did the right thing, he obeyed, but that. Delay in full obedience now cost him three thousand lives of his own countrymen and the spoil from those cities.
Now, God blessed his delayed obedience, and we'll see more about that eventually. Delayed obedience is better than no obedience. But prompt obedience is better, the best of all. That's the point. Remember that parable that Jesus told?
He said, Which of you having Two sons. And uh Say you say to both of them, go work in my vineyard today. And one of them says, yes, sir, I'll go, but he doesn't. He says he will, but he goes off and goes fishing. And the other son says, Nope, ain't gonna do it.
She has a change of mind. He repents and he goes and works in the vineyard. all day.
Now which of those obeyed the word of their father, said Jesus. The Pharisees, I guess it was, who heard the parable answered correctly.
Well, the one who. who repented and worked. He's the one who obeyed the Father, that's right. But it wasn't delayed obedience. It was obedience, and God honored it.
But there should have been, to have the best illustration, there should have been sun number three. The father said, go work, and he said, yes, sir, and went and worked. Prompt obedience is best. Delayed obedience is better than Disobedience. And disobedience, whether hypocritical, like the son who said he'd go and didn't.
or rebellious like the one who says I won't and never did. Disobedience is always dishonoring to God. But God is so gracious, He even honors delayed obedience. Whew, thank God, because all of us have been there at times, haven't we? All of us have.
God is gracious. But at any rate... He goes off to battle, he wins the battle. He subjugates Edom. And then.
And then. He comes home. With Idols From The Edomites that he conquered. That's part of the spoils he brought back. He comes back with their idols, and he's sitting around looking at these probably gold and silver idols, these beautiful and expensive.
objects and he says, I think I'll start Praying to them, I think I'll start worshiping them. What? What? Yeah, and God sends another. Profit.
Unnamed, presumably a different one. He didn't say sent Sent the prophet back. He says he sent another prophet. And he came and he said, Why? In the name of heaven Have you chosen To worship The gods that were defeated.
They couldn't even deliver victory to the people that worshiped them. And you have decided that you're going to worship them? What kind of idiocy is that? And Amaziah and his counselors say, Who made you a counselor? Who told you to give us advice?
Shut up or we'll kill you. Disrespectful to the man of God. This is verse 16.
So it was as he talked with him that the king said to him, Have we made you the king's counsel? Why should you be killed? Then the prophet ceased and said, I know that God has determined to destroy you. Because you have done this and have not Heeded my advice.
Now that's an intriguing text. I don't know if I'll take time for it.
now or not. But at any rate, we get the main point. The prophet said, all right. I'll say no more after I say this. I will be quiet after I make one more statement.
Now I know that God has determined to destroy you. How do I know? Because of the way you have responded to God's word. The last prophet who came and gave you God's word, you. Heard, you listened to, you obeyed.
This time You've done the opposite. You have Rejected, you have rebelled, you have disrespected the prophet of God, you've disrespected God Himself. It's evident that God is going to destroy. You.
Okay. I guess I will. comment on the intriguing part of that in my mind. Was the prophet saying, Because you have done this, God is going to destroy you. Because you've said this, responded in this way, God is going to destroy you.
Or is he saying, because God had already determined to destroy you, he has. Enabled you, directed you to respond in this way so that it will be clear why. He's destroying you. But then that's a deep question, and having raised it, I really don't have time to get into it, so we move on. Just think about that.
Well, it does go on from there. I'll just quickly try to summarize the rest of the chapter. Amaziah is so stuck on himself, he's so proud, that now he decides. He's going to challenge The northern kingdom to battle. He sends a message to King Joash and says, Come and let us face one another in battle.
And King Joash in the north, sometimes it's called Israel, sometimes it's called Ephraim, but that's all reference to the northern kingdom. And he's got a much larger army, much bigger kingdom. And basically he says, dumbhead, don't do that. You're filled up with pride because you beat Edom, and Edom's smaller than we are, and now you think you can beat anybody. And don't do this, it won't go well for you.
But Amaziah would not listen, so away he goes to fight the northern kingdom, and he gets. He gets slaughtered. He gets Beaten badly.
so badly that he is captured.
so badly that Joash comes to Jerusalem and tears down part of the wall. And I don't know why. Again, it's God's direction in doing this. But Joash decided to turn him loose and let him return to Jerusalem to his throne, but very humiliated because he's been beaten in battle, and he's even now looking at destroyed walls in the city of his capital. And that really punctured his balloon.
He's not feeling so full of himself now, is he? And eventually. He dies.
Well, we have to move on. By the way, he too is killed by his own people, like his father was. But back to verse 9. Our text. The two parts of the text.
The first part is a question and the second part is the answer. What's the question? Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the troops of Israel? That's the question. The answer is, the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give you much more than this.
The question reveals a materialistic focus. You're telling me to send home these hundred thousand mercenaries, but What about the money I spent, the four and a half million dollars, the hundred talents of silver? I can't afford that loss. What shall I do, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear? I can't afford to lose that.
And you can almost hear the man of God saying, Have you forgotten who this? hundred talents of silver belongs to? It belongs to God, not to you. Have you forgotten who it was that gave you a hundred talents of silver? What blessing did you have that you were able to even pay that kind of money for this army?
Where did that come from? That came from God. It's God's to begin with. God gave it to you. God allowed you to use it.
Have you forgotten all that? And so the answer that the man of God gives him in the last part of verse 9: the Lord is able to give you much more than this. is basically saying these four things. Number one, Remind yourself of God's involvement. Don't look at this strictly on a materialistic level.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, I can't afford to lose it. Don't Forget The God of heaven who rules over all and who is responsible for this money in the first place.
So remind yourself of God's involvement. The Lord is the way he begins his answer. It all centers on God. Number two, remind yourself of God's power. The Lord is able.
Don't forget that. You do believe that, don't you? God is able to do whatever he determines to do. Number three, remind yourself of God's plenty. God is able to give you Not just more, much more.
I don't know how much more is. When you've got four and a half million dollars, that's a lot. Anything more, if God said, okay, I'll give you 5 million to replace the 4.5 million, that would be more. but evidently much more. Maybe double, maybe triple, I don't know.
I don't know what that much represents, but we know that God's resources are unlimited. Remind yourself of God's plenty. And number four, remind yourself of God's purposes. God is able to give you.
Now, what's implied in that? What's understood? If you believe and obey what I, God's spokesman, am telling you: if you believe and obey the Word of God, God will reward you richly. Your seeming loss will become greater gain. That's what He's saying.
God's able to do it. But at this point, we don't know if Amazigh is going to believe and obey or not. But keep this in mind, Amaziah. God is able to give you much, much more than this. Will you believe it?
Will you obey him? Because if you do, you will reap that reward. It is in effect a promise, but it hinges upon his believing obedience, doesn't it? And as we know, Amaziah in this case did believe and obey. And even though the record is not given to us here, we must understand that God fulfilled what he said and gave him more in return.
Probably in the abundance of the spoil that he took out of Edom in battle. It probably amounted to way, way, way, way more than the hundred talents that he had spent. That's the text. Let's apply it. There are actually several applications, and I will touch on a couple lightly.
And the first one is the power of godly influence, which we see Yeah his father Joash and Jehoiada the priest who whose influence kept Joash serving God In a way that was a great blessing to the people of God, even though we learn later it wasn't from. A believing and surrendered heart, but nevertheless. The godly influence did cause that to occur, and the nation was blessed as a result of it. God used Jehoiada to influence Joash, and thereby to influence the whole nation of Israel for good. Who has God used in your life?
Who influenced you? To truth. to Christ. to the gospel. to salvation.
To walk. in the ways of God. Who did God use in your life? to do that. Who are you now influencing in the same way?
Who are you influencing for truth, for good, for Christ, for salvation, for walking in obedience to God? It's hard to overestimate the power of godly influence. But number two is the dangers of superficial godliness. Whether it's hypocritical godliness or half-hearted godliness, there's dangers in both. It seems to me that the Godliness of Joash was actually hypocritical.
Once Jehoiada was gone, he showed no interest in the things of God. And therefore, in hindsight, we can see, because of what happened at that point, we can see probably all the other obedience wasn't really his obedience after all. It was Jehoiada's obedience. having strong influence upon him. But once that was gone, The godliness was gone.
His supposed godliness was actually hypocritical. He was doing the right things, and that was... beneficial to the nation. but not from a heart, Of faith and surrender to God. Hypocritical.
Godliness. But there can also be half-hearted godliness, and that's Amaziah. Amaziah's godliness was not hypocritical, but it was not wholehearted. When he started down in godliness, that was his heart responding to the things of God. But when he got all this wealth from Edom, sometimes riches.
Mm-hmm. Puff up.
Sometimes riches turn our hearts toward material things and s and away from God. And when he got all these riches, he went the other way because his heart. had only been half-hearted. Or if you take the word in the New King James Version, have been only partly loyal. To God.
partly loyal. He appeared to be loyal. He appeared to be wholehearted. But it proved to be half-hearted. partly loyal.
In other words, He had a degree and a pretty significant degree of loyalty to God, but he still reserved a piece of his life, you might say. Where he was more loyal to himself than to God, more interested in self-promotion. than being an obedient to God no matter what. And there's dangers in that. But notice, thirdly, the rewards of godly obedience.
God's blessing was upon Josiah even in his hypocritical godliness. When he was doing the right thing, when he was obeying the word of God, even though it turns out that was Jehoiada actually doing it, but God rewarded him for that. God rewards obedience, even Hypocritical obedience. And God's blessing upon Amaziah's half-hearted obedience, even though God knew it wasn't whole-hearted, God sees the heart. He nevertheless Bless him with victory in battle, and with an increase in wealth, God is gracious, isn't he?
In other words, In reality, when we really know our hearts. as God enables us to know them. I think we'd all have to admit None of us ever actually achieves what could be honestly called 100%. Surrender. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our souls and all of our mind and all of our strength, and you haven't done it, and neither have I.
and none of us will until we get to heaven.
So in a sense, all of us. are not wholehearted, but The Bible speaks about these things in relative terms, and it seems to me that God is saying, all right, I know this, I know the Adamic. Sinfulness that you're still dragging around with you in this world. Like Paul, who shall free me from the body of this death? I thank God in Jesus Christ my Lord.
I will be freed. But Paul hadn't been freed completely yet when he wrote Romans chapter 7. And God says, I am such a gracious God, and I know so much about fallen human nature. That I am pleased with 80%. I'm pleased with 90% if you're working on the rest.
Do you have a desire? To be 100%? God does that. He rewards. But the final application is the blessing of God honoring financial stewardship, and that's what I want to end with from this passage.
Everything belongs to God. That's what stewardship means. We're not owners, we're stewards. Everything belongs to God. We manage it.
for his glory. God promises to supply our needs. What does that mean? He promises to supply all the resources we need for all the requirements that he gives us. and not everybody's the same in that regard.
God requires husbands to supply husbands and fathers to supply for their families. And godly. Fathers are going to work as hard as they can to do that, but they're going to trust upon God to make it happen because God has promised that He will supply what is needed to take care of our food and our shelter and our transportation and the things that we need.
Now, our problem is it's so easy for us to reach out beyond what we actually need and say, This. I want this, that's a need too. I want this, that's a need too. And God doesn't promise to supply all those things, but he does promise to supply. What is needed for the requirements that he gives us.
I hear people sometimes complaining about. High taxes. I'm sure I've done that myself at times. I read a chart not too long ago. that gave the rankless states from one to fifty In terms of median Um property tax.
You know what the highest state was?
Some of you will know. New Jersey. Because some of you have moved from there recently. And the median the median. Property tax in New Jersey was almost $10,000.
Can you imagine? That means Some people are paying a whole lot more than that.
Okay. One of the lowest, I noticed, I don't think this was the very lowest, but one of the lowest was the state to the south of us, South Carolina, the median. property tax there was under $1,000.
So all you people moving to North Carolina, keep going, keep going, keep going. You haven't got there yet. Keep going. We're about full. Yeah.
Yeah. But North Carolina is a very attractive state, and it's not anywhere near the top. In uh median property tax. But it's easy to To chafe at the taxes, to complain about the taxes, to talk about the extortion of the government. I talk that way myself sometimes.
I do, I shouldn't. But I do. But folks, it boils down to this. If God puts you in North Carolina, he's going to. He's going to supply what's necessary for you to pay the taxes that are due here.
If God puts you in New Jersey, God's going to supply what's needed for you to pay the taxes that are due there. I don't suppose the taxes are very low in Illinois, knowing what kind of governments you have there. And if God puts you in Illinois, He's going to supply the taxes, the money that you need to take care of the taxes there. Promises to supply What we need for the requirements that he Sovereignly. by his wisdom and direction, places upon us.
Do you believe that? Two of you do. I think more of you do. But God expects us to live by faith, and what do we mean by that? Believing that he will supply as he has promised.
And then carefully managing what he has supplied to make sure that we are using it in the ways that he has commanded, in the ways that he directs. And that includes a lot of things, including Giving generously. To God. Giving generously to the support of the gospel. That's something that God expects of us.
If God expects that of us, He will supply that. And what I'm getting to, and I'm going to have to bring this to a close, is. No. Bible-believing Christian, when it comes to tithing and giving generously to the work of God, no Bible-believing Christian should say, but I can't afford that. Like Amaziah.
Dead. Folks, God's able to give you much more than that. If you'll trust him. and obey him. You'll find out.
He rewards that. Let's not hear that nonsense. I can't afford that. You can afford, but if you're a child of God, according to the promises of God, you can afford everything that God requires of you. And God requires generous giving of you along with the other things.
And God will supply that. And don't say you can't afford it, because what you're saying is God is not able to supply it, or God. Won't supply it. Either way, that's an unbelieving response, isn't it? And I go back.
to the man of God in 2 Chronicles 259 God is able to give you Much More than that. Trust him. Obey him. Prove him. Shall we pray?
Thank you, Father. For your word. It informs us, it directs us, it convicts us. And it enlivens us. Apply it to our lives, we pray, in Jesus' name.
Email.
Okay, just like.
