SUN 120422

Wingstop's doing what they do best, taking flavor to the next level. So when chicken sandwiches only came in spicy and plain, Wingstop said, nah, make it 12 flavors. Lemon Pepper Chicken Sandwich, OG Hot, Mango Habanero, you get the picture? Every famous Wingstop flavor, now on the new Wingstop Chicken Sandwich.

Try all 12 and find your favorite at Wingstop, where flavor gets its wings. Coming to you live from Independence, Ohio. We change our life for the better in many different ways. Heard around the world every Monday through Friday. Senator Sanders is always years ahead of the rest of the media, telling you exactly what they're covering up.

This is What's Right, What's Left. I tune in every chance I get to hear exactly what's going on with the voice of the Christian resistance. Unabashedly cutting through the rhetoric by exposing the hard topics facing our society and world.

A lot of the other news media don't pick up the news items like he does. And bring into light the enemies of freedom who are out to steal your rights, your children, and enslaving you. You really get the truth out. I can tune into your show and hear the unvarnished truth.

Thank you. This is What's Right, What's Left with Pastor Ernie Sanders. Well, good evening. You are expecting the voice of Pastor Ernie Sanders. Ernie is kind of busy tonight.

He's got some things to do. This is Pastor Joe Larson, his co-host, and I will be filling in for him and bringing the message to you. So, to get right to things, the title of the message tonight, Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl. And that comes, actually, from James 5, verse 1. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon you. We see we're going to have a warning here in James, a warning to those who are rich in this world. James says, Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton. Ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you. We see this is a very powerful, stern warning, and you will notice that the assumption here is that the very rich are corrupt. And from what I've seen of this world, sometimes you can have a rich man who is not corrupt, who is creative, who has invented something wonderful. But very, very often in our world, the rich, in fact, the richer they are, the more corrupt they seem to become.

And we will be going into that in more detail here in a few minutes as to why. But God, through James, is warning these rich people, he said rich men, and of course we know that that means mankind, men and women, he is warning them that they are going to be in for some very bad times. And he's explaining that what they have done on this earth will not last. That's why he said your riches are corrupted, garments moth-eaten. In other words, what they have on this earth, they can't take with them when they die. And their gold, their silver, whatever, will simply be destroyed, will be gone from them. And he uses these examples, you know, that this gold and silver is cankered, it's gone, it's worthless. And then in verse 4, where he's talking about the higher the labors, often the very rich take advantage of the poor working class around the world.

Instead of sharing some of the wealth, they hoard great amounts. And we've seen even, well, remember Amazon workers talking about some of the problems they had, even time to go to the bathroom, different things. I don't want to get into too many details on that, but some of the working conditions were pretty horrible. We saw that back in the early part of this previous century, where the labor unions sprang into effect in this country. Working conditions were terrible. The hours were long, the working places were overly hot, overly cold, overly dangerous. And the idea, well, you cut the cost to a minimum to make your best profit possible. Not to make a decent profit, a fair profit, but, you know, get all the profits you can, regardless of the cost. So, a warning to all those, those who have lived in pleasure and been wanton.

In other words, who have not cared how they got there. And he said, you have condemned and killed the just. People have been killed. Miners died from black lung disease.

Workers in factories died from poor health conditions, lack of sanitary conditions, dangerous equipment. And many people have died because the men or women who ran the business didn't care. And the same we could say for government. We have going on in the world today a great movement. Some call it the great reset, trying to create a new world order, putting together a one world government, a one world religion. But I think in simpler terms it's just a movement to divide people. To divide people into two groups. Instead of the poor, the middle class and the rich, I think it's a movement to divide the world into the rich versus the poor. The very rich elite and the masses that will serve them, serve their needs, provide the goods and services, the transportation. All the things that they want to desire with their wealth. So it's going to be a division between the haves and the have-nots.

And underlying, well, the cause of sin that's causing this transformation. Many men and women are willing to sell out their fellow man, sell out their country, for filthy lucre's sake. And we see some of these perpetrators of this daily in our world. We see Kwas Schwab there in the World Economic Forum. George Soros, who thinks he's God. Bill Gates, whose wealth makes him feel like he's important and knowledgeable in things he knows nothing about. Bill and Hillary Clinton and their politics. The Clinton crime family and their foundation. We've got the Biden crime family making deals around the world to give access to.

Of course, the big guy, Joe. We see Nancy Pelosi, her husband, Nancy feeding her husband all kinds of insider information so he can make some of the best stock trading deals on Wall Street and get tremendously wealthy. Dr. Fauci, many with the giant pharmaceutical companies, getting filthy rich over, well, a vax that isn't a vax. A poison poke that people were forced into taking, threatened into taking, and making certain people wealthy. All of a sudden, people had cornered the market on masks. Yeah, things were getting very rich. In the meantime, well, people died. The powerful lied, the people died. Most of this was people taking things from others. Taking it by deceit, by lies, by cheating, by insider trading. Some were selling American assets. Hillary Clinton selling much of our uranium, 20% to an enemy. We have the Biden family giving access to power. We see government officials, we've seen ex-military people, we've seen all kinds of diplomats aiding and abetting our enemies.

We've seen the politicians spending money that we don't have, putting our children and grandchildren into financial bondage, into an untenable situation of a debt that's almost too large to ever be repaid. But these people, well, as we look at their lives, some of them, their mansions, their yachts, their standard of living, their elegant parties. They receive pleasure, but they'll receive it only for a short while. James 4.14 says, Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appearest for a little time, then vanishes away. Life is short. These people's wealth will buy them pleasure for a very little time. God goes on to say in Luke 6.24, You've gotten your treasures here on earth. You've gotten your ill-gotten gains.

You have them, enjoy them, because that's all you're going to get. Woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep. There is, well, the expression, hell ain't half full yet, brother.

There is plenty of room for the wicked. Now for the rest of us, God calls us to be patient. There's going to be some suffering. Life comes with suffering. We are physical entities with weaknesses, physical weaknesses, and caused by sin. Adam and Eve had it made, but because of sin, they were thrown out of the garden, and we all suffer because of that sin. But we would have sinned in their place. We're just as guilty, and we are guilty because decisions we make.

We sin by our thoughts, words, deeds, by things we've done, and by things that we have not done, that God wanted us to do. So, we are in the same boat. He tells us in James chapter 5, start in verse 7, Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband man waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

Reward patience brings reward. Sometimes there's a lot of fretting and worry and, well, even suffering and patience. But in the end, he said, Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. And somebody will say, well, Pastor Joe, it's been a long time since Jesus went back to his father and assumed the throne in heaven. How can you say the coming is nigh? Well, because, as I just said a little while ago, our time on this earth is very short.

It's like a vapor that appears for a little time and vanishes. So we, and we're not talking about the rapture, but our life is short, and we will meet our Lord, those of us who are saved. We will meet him soon. In verse 9, Grunge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. We know Jesus is the door, is the gate.

Jesus is the way to the Father. All those are just words that give us a physical meaning, a door that can be opened, a door to our heart, the gate to the sheepfold. The judge of the universe is standing outside the door to our hearts. Those who have been saved, born again, have let him in, and he has given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that will be there forever. But the judge of the universe knows all, sees all, is watching us, is with us every moment of every day of our life.

He is with us and knows what we're doing, what we're thinking, and knows everything that will happen, that is to come. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and patience. Behold, recount them happy, which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, ye have seen the end of the Lord, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea, your nay nay, lest ye fall into condemnation.

God's making it quite clear, we have to be patient, there will be suffering on this earth, there will be trials, there will be tribulations, there will be affliction. And through our faith, we strive, we get through it, because the Lord is full of mercy. But the one thing He reminds us, we don't go swearing oaths or different things, we don't swear by the Lord's name, but we make it clear that we want to be obedient to the Lord, we want to do His will, and if we sin, not if we sin, but when we sin, we can go back to the Lord and confess that sin and we are forgiven. Just because we're saved doesn't mean we are sinless or that we will not sin, but we have that advocate with the Father and we can go right to Jesus personally and say, Oh Lord, I had these thoughts yesterday, I had bad thoughts against my brother, I said something I shouldn't, I realize now what I've done, forgive me Lord, and we are forgiven.

We are sinners saved by grace, sinners that are forgiven by the Lord, by His work on this earth. I'm thinking Matthew chapter 5, verse 43-44, said, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. This is why in Scripture we're taught to pray for our leaders. We are to pray that they see the light. We are to pray that they find the Lord, that they become saved, that they turn from their wicked ways, because we are like the Lord to wish no one to be sent to hell. God doesn't want anyone to have to go there. He doesn't send anyone actually, they keep making his decisions and send themselves by their lack of obedience, their disobedience, their willful actions. But then he makes a statement that I want you all to hear. In verse 45 of Matthew 5, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.

He wants us to become his children, and you'll see at the end of the message a little clearer what I mean by that. For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. On this earth there are physical conditions of weather, of snow, of rains and floods and hurricanes and tornadoes. There are droughts. There are all kinds of things that happen.

There are traffic accidents caused by, now sometimes a mechanical breakdown in the vehicle, sometimes because some fool was talking on a cell phone, putting makeup on, was trying to get the attention of another person in a car across from them. There are things that affect us all, whether we are righteous or whether we're evil. Yes, the sun rises on the evil and the good, the rain falls on the just and those that deserve it and on those that don't deserve it. What the evil ones have now is all they will ever have. In the meantime, our crowns and treasures, our rewards are eternal.

And by the way, so will the punishment of those who are evil be eternal. Now, God has kind of told us who these people will be to help us spot. He calls them false teachers.

Well, in our world we have more than just teachers. We have false scientists. We have false economists. We have false religious leaders. We have false government leaders. We have false law enforcement officers. People who take a note to perform a certain task and in their heart they know they're lying.

They know they're not going to follow their oath. In Timothy in chapter 6, I'll explain a bit here. Jesus says if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, for the such withdraw thyself. So, we jumped into Timothy here, but basically what he's saying, the words of Jesus Christ, those are the words we are to live by. He tells us what?

Do not lie. We've got the Ten Commandments. And then we have what's called the doctrine, which is the teaching of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. That is the Christian doctrine, his words, his commandments, his judgments, his statutes.

And he tells us follow that. The evil, well, they're proud. They don't know anything. They don't know the word. They don't want to know the word, but they doting about questions and strifes of words.

We've seen in this world political correctness. We know that many things are word games, wokeness, playing with words. You see, to God, words have meanings. God's words have explicit meanings, and the devil, and those that follow him are always trying to twist and turn those words, make them mean something they don't mean, make us believe they mean a little more, a little less. There is never a compromise with evil. Goodness always has to come down.

Evil doesn't come up. Decency always compromises downward. So when the word games, it talks about strife, railing, surmising, strifes of words. It's always to confuse, confound, fool you. And these people, these corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, they are trying to gain something. Stay away from them.

Stay clear from them. God tells us that godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness, if we follow our Lord and we're content, then we have great gain. Maybe not the big yachts, maybe not the Manhattan penthouse apartment with certain luxuries, but we will have contentment, joy, and happiness in life. And God reminds us that we have brought nothing into this world, and it's very certain we're not going to carry anything out. Think about that. We came into this world, we didn't bring anything with us from another world, we're going somewhere, and we can't take anything out with us.

So in verse 8 of 1 Timothy 6, And having food and raiment, let us be therefore therewith content. Be content with what we've been given, what we have in our lot. Some of us were given different gifts, some have a beautiful voice that sings, that people want to hear, willing to pay money to hear the singer. Some people are successful businessmen, other people have the talent and the brains to be a good doctor.

Some people are just good with working with their hands. Everybody has different gifts, the world, and will pay some people a lot higher than others. A soldier may go out and risk his life, many times in fact may die for his country, and his paycheck's not very big, but somebody that has a pretty voice can have adoring fans and make millions of dollars by singing. By risking nothing, the soldier who risks it all makes very little, but there is contentment, pride, honor. It tells us, Be content, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and asnare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. That word perdition, according to Noah Webster, is loss of the soul, eternal damnation. That also means hell, and the third definition is utter ruin.

An utter ruin would be spending an eternity in eternal damnation and hell, yes. 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. Yes, for that love of money and all that goes with it, power, fame, control, high living. For the love of money, not money itself, the love of money that pushes people to lie, steal, cheat, kill, to follow the devil, their father the devil. What they're gaining is ungodly, what they're gaining is temporary, and the rich people seem, from what I've seen in life, some of the most unhappy people that have taken way too many drugs, drink too much alcohol, have too many adulterous affairs, they don't seem very happy people. We look at a lot of the Hollywood famous people we know, look at their lives, they're in and out of rehab, they're at high rates of divorces and other relationships, and they always seem to be searching for more, more, more.

They're not content. Psalm 58 kind of goes on to give, it's a prayer against the unjust, it's a denunciation of the wicked in that sense, and it would be against these unjust judges, political leaders, law enforcement people, you can just go on and add that category that I went in through before. Psalm 58, to the chief musician, Altasheth Mitztam of David, Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? O do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness, Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

The wicked are estranged from the womb, They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, And they are like the death adder that stoppeth her ear, Which will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, Charming never so wisely. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth, Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord, Let them melt away as waters which run continually, When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, Let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away, Like the untimely birth of a woman, That they may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, Both living and in his wrath. The righteous, though, shall rejoice when he seeth a vengeance, He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous, Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. We see this prayer, in a way, a prayer, a poem, They're using different analogies of the serpent and different things To just make the points how these people, Their destruction is going to come. Let them melt away as waters, when he talked about a snail, The snail which melteth.

A snail likes cool, shady places, they're slimy, they have to have moisture, But out in the sun they just literally melt and draw away. So everything he's saying here is that they're going to pass, Nothing's going to stay with them, nothing's going to last, lasting effect. Now, as I hear that, we think of the fact that we are going to rejoice, Because we know the evil will be punished, but God says, Vengeance is mine, he is the one, he is the judge, he is the jury, He is the one who will execute the judgment, it is not for us, God will see that these people are punished, we don't need to fret, And get angry and hateful, they are going to suffer for their actions, Far more than they can ever imagine, far worse than any of the pains That we will have on this earth. We end up in the arms of Jesus for everlasting life. Well, that brings, who shall, what about us? In Psalm 51, it's kind of, who shall dwell on your holy hill? The Psalm of David. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Yes, he that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour, And whose eyes a vile person is contempt, But he honoureth them that fear the Lord, He sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

He that putteth not out his own money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent, He that doeth these things shall never be moved, Never be moved, they shall be steadfast in the eyes of God. They are the ones who, David is saying, will dwell on his holy hill. They are the ones who will abide in thy tabernacle. And we know now, in the New Testament, we have become that tabernacle. The tabernacle was the Holy Word, contained the Holy of Holies, remember, in the Old Testament? We're God's presence on this earth, but now, we become that tabernacle, for when we become saved, when we become born again, we are given the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who resides in us. Yes, God in us. We are now our own tabernacle, we are our own priest, we have direct connection to Jesus. We can go directly to our Lord Jesus, and he is our advocate with God himself, with the Father. Yes, those of us that are born again, all these, he tells us, walk rightly, do righteousness, speak truth, be above thy neighbor, all the commandments that he's given us.

Now, Pastor Ernie put in a section where it was kind of interesting, for a while I thought of this section, and I wondered why it was there. Menahem reigns in Israel in 2 Kings 15, and we read these verses in this book. In the ninth and thirteenth year of Azariah, king of Judah began Menahem, the son of Gadi, to reign over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.

He departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. And Pol the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pol a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, shekels of silver to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back and stayed not there in the land.

Well, we see what basically Menahem was doing evil in the sight of the Lord, didn't believe in the Lord, rejected him. He paid ransom to the king of Assyria. But to do that he had to go and take, extracted as the word the scripture uses, extracted the money of the citizens of Israel to pay their ransom. Because the king didn't believe in the power of God to save, God had told them, the people of Israel, that if they did as they were told, he would protect them. He would keep them safe.

They had nothing to fear. So we see an example of a leader of government, in a way, making deals with the enemy, which, by the way, was only temporary, right? It wasn't a permanent peace treaty that lasted forever and ever and ever. No, it didn't happen that way, just the opposite.

Israel would go into bondage. But the people were paying the price of the decisions of a leader who did not believe, who didn't trust in the Lord. And, of course, if you follow a leader like that, well, then you suffer the decisions they make in your name.

And it's a perfect example of this country. We have crooked leaders who are making decisions around the world that affect our future, our security, our safety, our money, our health, our varied lives, the future of our children and grandchildren. We have put ungodly men and women in positions of leadership.

And like the children of Israel, we're going to suffer for having a leader who did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now, I'm thinking we come a little close here. Contentment.

We talked a little while ago about being content. So I want to go back to 1 Timothy, chapter 6. We had gone through verses 3 through 10 and taken a look at... Oh, I'm going to be lost for words for a moment.

Sometimes I have one of those senior moments. Those who were proud and evil and some of the problems they had. And now we see those that would be content, those who would be obedient. Starting in verse 11, But thou, O man of God, flee these things, these things that the evil ones were after, the power, the riches, the pride. Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. As I read that line, I thought, boy, there's a whole sermon right there. Man of God. Follow righteousness.

That's hard. Doing the right thing. Well, we have guidance by the Holy Spirit to do the right thing. Godliness. Again, if we're righteousness, we're going to try and live godly lives.

To do that, we must have one absolute faith in God that God will direct us, guide us, forgive us. We must love. Oh, Jesus, that is, he loves us. We are to what?

Love our neighbors as ourselves. God is a God of love. Our God is patience. He tells us we have to be patient. He's patience with us. Therefore, we have to go out there and be patient with our brothers and sisters. And he tells us to have meekness.

Not weakness. Not meek in the fact of being submissive, but meekness is in having a servant's heart, serving the Lord. And how do we do that? Well, by serving our fellow man. Jesus made it quite clear. He said, as you do to the least of these, my brethren, my brothers and sisters. He calls us brothers and sisters, as you do to the least of these, my brethren, you do unto me. So if we do evil to our fellow man, we do evil to the Lord. And we condemn ourselves that if we're meek and loving and do justice and service to our fellow man, we do it unto Jesus himself. That one verse, 1 Timothy 6.11, the entire sermon could be done with that one simple verse.

But he goes on and gets a little more in depth. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. For unto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I'm going to stop there because, again, another one of those verses.

Wow. We end the program, what's left of radio ministry, with what? Keep fighting the fight. What fight? The good fight of faith. We are called to fight it. We have to fight evil. We have to fight the lust of our eyes, the lust of our flesh. We have to fight those desires to go our own way, to make our own decisions, not be obedient to God. We have to go out and also do as he has asked us.

I remember when I don't have the list in front of me, I made a large list, and all the words that Jesus said are active verbs. He tells us to run to the battle, fight the fight. We are to rebuke, we are to reprove, we are to witness, we are to testify, stand in the gap. We are to visit the sick and those in prison, and the list goes on and on and on. Every word that he has asked us to do in that sense, commanded us to do, are words of action, go and do.

Be a doer of the word, be a doer of the work, be a doer of the law. We are to go out there and lay hold on eternal life. That is the greatest reward of all, eternal life.

A life with Jesus, a life with our brothers and sisters, an eternal life in heaven that's filled with joy and happiness beyond our wildest imagination. But we've been called. He called us from before the world began. And he tells us to what? Make a good profession of our faith and to do it before many witnesses.

First Timothy 6 13, he goes on and God tells us, I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebucable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.

I want to stop there because there again is way more than a mouthful. Yes, we have to give a good profession. This is what we've been told to do. Jesus made a good confession of faith. We are to keep this commandment, go and do likewise. And then it's interesting to talk about the Lord is the only potentate. That's the only time that this word is used and it's only used for God himself, for the King of kings, the Lord of lords. And then because I was talking about, of course, Jesus said, I am in the Father, the Father and me, and I am in you through the indwelling of the Spirit. But God the Father, dwelling in the light, Jesus can dwell in the light which no man can approach. No man can approach right now in the flesh to the Father, cannot do it in these physical bodies. These sinful bodies cannot be in the presence of God, in the presence of the light, whom no man has seen. No man has seen God, nor can see, nor could we see in these bodies, but to whom all honor and power everlasting be.

Amen. Timothy tells us, charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God. Put their trust in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. God has given everybody different talents, some people will have more money, but those that are rich should never be high minded about it, because whatever gifts or talents they have, it was a gift from God.

They're going to be judged on what they do with that gift and talent, we all will be judged on what we do with what God has given us. When I was doing the morning show years ago on the Sunshine Radio Network, there was a group of elderly women, there were I think all widows, I think, I'm not sure now, but they were homebound, not in very good health, but they formed a prayer group. And they asked me to give them the names and the situations of all the people that asked for prayer, and they would get together I think on a daily basis and pray for all those people on the prayer list. It's what they could do with the situation, with what God had given them, and they were powerful prayer warriors, and I know, I am absolutely certain that God smiled down on them every day they got together on a phone, what do you call it, a group of several people on the line at one time and prayed.

And I know God blessed them for being obedient. Verse 17, verse 18, that they do good, we are to charge the rich that they be good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may hold on eternal life. The rich, although it's difficult, can't enter the kingdom of heaven.

But to be rich, they should be rich in what good works, ready to do good works, to distribute their wealth according and be willing to share with others, doing things that benefit other people. That way they lay up a real store, not a store of wheat or oats or cattle or money, but a store, a good foundation of works, that they may hold on to eternal life. O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust. Avoid profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science, falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the face, grace be with thee, amen. Avoid profane and vain babblings.

And boy, if you go out there on the internet, you go on fake book and Twitter and TikTok, you see a lot of profanity, you see a lot of things that are not pleasing to the Lord, you see a lot of vain babblings. And science falsely called. I remember Dr. Anthony Fauci, I am the science, I represent the science, follow the science.

Biden, Obama, we follow the science. What they should have been saying is we follow the word of God. We follow the word of God is what they should have been saying. It's what would have brought them to what?

To everlasting life. It's what would have benefited the people that they had had rule over, the people that were entrusted to their care. No, they followed the false teachings of men, science falsely called. They were too busy following the narrative, the narrative, not the truth of God, not the will of God.

No, they were following a false truth, a false message. If you remember back, a man named Pontius Pilate long ago, you can find him in John chapter 18, in verse 37, Pilate was talking to Jesus and he said, Therefore said unto him, unto Jesus, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world. Yes, I am a king.

You said it. I was born for that, and I came to the world to be king, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

No fault at all. Jesus is the truth. The truth is standing there face to face with Pilate, yet Pilate could not see the truth, as many in the world cannot see the truth. We know in John 14, 6, Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. I am the way. I am the only way to heaven, to salvation. I am the only way to God. I am the only truth in this world, everlasting truth, and no man can come to the Father unless he comes through me. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

The followers of Jesus are the ones who hear the truth. Like those earlier in James 5, do you trust in yourself? Do you trust in your government? Do you put your trust in your money? Or do you trust your possessions?

Do you trust in your own power? Or do you trust in the truth? Do you trust in the truth? What is truth? What is truth?

I think you now know. Truth is God's word. Truth is what the word, the gospel of Jesus Christ is, the truth. It is the unvarnished truth. It is the truth that laid you to salvation.

I found something that ties in. There was a great historian, most of you probably have never read him. His name was Arnold Joseph Twinbee. He died back in 1975. He was a brilliant man, educated in the classics in Greek and Latin, but he was in the war and negotiated peace. He taught at the King's College of London and the School of Economics and the Royal Institute of Affairs. But he wrote a 12-volume study of history. He described the rising and flowering and decline of 26 cultures from Egypt, Greece and Rome to Polynesia and Peru. He said civilizations die from suicide, not by murder. He realized that religion was the prime motivation in history. He said, when I started my studies, religion was not a prominent feature. In writing my study, I had been constantly surprised to find religion, and what he meant was God, coming back to fill a greater place. He said, so what does the universe look like?

It looks as if everything were on the move, either toward its creator or away from him. The course of human history consists of a series of encounters in which each man or woman or child is challenged by God to make the free choice between doing God's will and refusing to do so. When man refuses, he is free to make his refusal.

He is also free to take the consequences of that refusal. I don't have a religion myself. I have a relationship. I am a Christian. I have taken the name of Christ. I am a Christian, a child of the kingdom. I am a joint heir with Jesus in everlasting life. I am a son of the living God with whom I have a very personal relationship.

Do you have a religion or do you have a personal relationship with God himself? To do that, you must be a born-again believer. How do you become a born-again believer? Well, it's simple, but in a way it's very hard because you first must repent. Repent of your sins, the sins that put Jesus Christ on that cross of Calvary.

He took your place. He took my place on that cross. He died and paid the price with his shed blood for my sins and yours if you accept his offer. But we have to call upon the Father and with a truly repentant, sorrowful heart ask forgiveness that our sins caused him to place his son on that cruel cross to save our lousy, measly souls.

And when you do that, with true repentance God will forgive you. And then you call upon Jesus to become what? Well, to become Lord. Lord of your life. To become Lord all of your life, not just a part of it, but all of it. He becomes the most important person. That's the hard part. You have to give yourself to him. And then he will send you the Holy Spirit. The preceding program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content.