Blessings We Receive Now

Thank you, everyone, for that special music. My folder is ripping apart.

I didn't bring up my coffee mug, and I'm only referring to that because whenever I was teaching in university, I would always carry around a coffee mug and walk back and forth. And I want to switch just briefly into history teacher mode to mention something that I think will make a good illustration to lead into the topic, because American historians who study the pre-Civil War period, or those who study just slavery in general and its development, have noted that an interesting change of opinion occurred about religion among slave owners during the period that the slavery system was being developed.

And I want to emphasize the time that was being developed, because most of us are familiar with the period right before the Civil War. And if you've seen the miniseries Roots or a lot of other things, you know that there was sort of a set system. But we tend to forget that from about the mid-1600s up into the early 1700s, that was developing and changing until it solidified into what it was. And interestingly, early on in that period, slave owners discouraged their slaves from learning anything about Christianity. They didn't want their slaves to understand or know about Christianity and certainly didn't want them to convert, because they feared if the slaves understood about this religion of love, and if they shared the same religion with their slave owners, they thought, well, it's going to be hard to keep them in slavery.

But over time, the slave owners took a different attitude towards it and began encouraging conversion. They wanted their slaves to accept Christianity. And the reason for this was they realized that they could use the teaching about an immortal soul and the idea of going to heaven as your ultimate reward to placate the slaves regarding their current situation. The brand of religion they were emphasizing taught them that the harder and more miserable life was now, the better it would be when they went to heaven.

I keep emphasizing heaven. Of course, we don't believe that, but that's what they were teaching. So they said the rewards for your piety come almost entirely in the next life. You shouldn't expect good things now. Matter of fact, you don't want good things now. You want it to be miserable. So it will be better then. And interestingly, that wasn't a new idea. Since I studied American history and also European, I realized, and a lot of historians have pointed out, that the aristocrats in medieval Europe had used that same teaching for hundreds of years to keep the peasants satisfied. The dirt farmers who had next to nothing that went to mass every Sunday in the big cathedrals were taught, okay, you're poor and miserable now, but it will be great when you get to heaven.

We could call this teaching the value of delayed gratification taken to its extreme. Now, we know that teaching was not all wrong because we believe that our ultimate reward is not now as well. We believe that our reward will be in God's kingdom. When Jesus Christ returns to this earth, Satan is put away and the world is made right.

However, we do not believe that God wants us to be miserable now, you know, for all of our physical lives, so that we'll look forward so much to his kingdom. Now, I want to make a disclaimer, and I'll mention this again during the sermon because I want to be clear. I'm not saying that we won't have trials and tests. I'm not going to ignore the many prophecies that show trial and tribulation and even persecution for Christians, because we know that's a fact, and so we should expect it. But it's good for us to remember that the life of a Christian was not intended by God to be one of unremitting trials, tests, and persecutions.

I look down there because I don't often use the word unremitting, but it was exactly the word I wanted. We don't want unremitting, meaning nonstop trials and tests. Matter of fact, ideally, the bad trials will be unusual enough that we'll recognize them and say, oh, I'm building character now. You know, normally life is pretty good, now I'm having it tough.

Okay, God's helping me learn something. We should recognize God wants us to be blessed and happy, to quote a song you might have heard somewhere. And I would even go so far as to say, it's okay to prefer the blessings rather than the trials. Now, a person who lives by the true teachings of the Bible, I think, will be better off now in this life than if he does not. And he can also look forward to the phenomenal blessings of eternity in God's kingdom. I'll even go a step further. I believe that not only does God's way bring blessings now and happiness, I think it does so so much that it would be worthwhile to live by the true teachings of the Bible, even if you didn't have any hope of life in God's kingdom.

Now, does that sound kind of far-fetched? I know a lot of the criminal element, you know, drug dealers who are driving fancy cars or whatever might not agree with that, but I think I can make the case. And in Christ's Day, there was a major religious group that did believe that. That included the priests. If you'll turn with me to Acts 5, Acts 5 and verse 17, let's see the group that I'm thinking of. Acts 5, 17 says, Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees.

I'll just stop there because I wanted to read this to quote the fact that the high priests belong to this particular sect of religion. And we often hear, we had the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And it's funny, we think the Pharisees were pretty ultra-conservative with all these rules and regulations, but the Sadducees were even more so. The Sadducees believed that the only parts of the Bible that were true were the first five books.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and that everything else you couldn't believe in. Thus, as we'll see if you turn to Acts 23, they didn't believe some important doctrines that are based on later Scripture. Acts 23 and verse 7. Acts 23 and verse 7. This is when Paul is on trial and seeking to kill him, and he realizes that there's both groups present and he pits them against each other. Acts 23, 7. When he had seen this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection and no angels or spirit, and the Pharisees confess both. The Sadducees believe that there is no reward in an afterlife. I should say they believed. I don't think there are any Sadducees around today. But they still lived by what was called the law of Moses. They were very diligent to obey all that was in those first five books.

They didn't obey because they thought they'd have a reward and a resurrection, but because they would have a better life right then. And I think that's true for us. Jesus didn't agree with the Sadducees' theology, but on that point he did see some agreement. If you'll turn to Mark 10, and beginning in verse 28. Actually, I believe all three of the synoptic Gospels include this account. Mark 10, 28. I like the wording in this one. Peter would often approach Jesus to say what all of the twelve disciples were thinking, but were afraid to say.

And I think that's probably the case here. Peter began to say to him, that is Jesus, See? We've left all and followed you. Jesus answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, There is no one who's left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the Gospels, who shall not receive a hundredfold more now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life.

That strikes me. That's something about Christianity that the slave owners back in the 1600s didn't want to talk to their slaves about. All that receiving a hundredfold more now in this life. They wanted them to think only about, you know, in the age to come. But I think it's worth it for us to think about it. Now, I don't bring this up because we should be Christians just for the blessings. Or, you know, I like the phrase, Are you in it just for the loot?

Now, we're not that. But I do think sometimes we tend to swing so far, maybe instead of we, I should say I, because this tends to be my mode of thinking. We tend to think, okay, we've got to go through trials and tests. We've got to have it tough, you know. I'm looking forward to the resurrection, but I don't want to be blessed now. Well, I do want to be blessed now.

Let's look forward to that. You know, God's way brings peace and happiness and health and prosperity. Now, last week I spoke on our obligations or our responsibilities as Christians. So I thought I'd like to turn it around today and focus on many of the blessings that we can enjoy right here and now in this life when we do meet those responsibilities. As I said, or hinted at earlier, I think that even an atheist, if he really understood what the Bible teaches and he was honest with himself, he would find that he wanted to live by those principles.

Not because he was expecting something, you know, in a resurrection because he wouldn't believe in it, but he'd have to say, boy, there's blessings right now. So let's consider... I broke it down into some major areas, and I'll look at some of those blessings. Blessings we get now in this life. The first and one of the most important is good health. After all, the saying goes, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything.

I'm not sure where that saying came from, but let's turn to Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3, and we'll begin in verse 5. I'm going to read a number of scriptures from Proverbs today. Proverbs 3, beginning in verse 5. Trust in the eternal with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. Don't think you know better. Always acknowledge him, and he'll direct your path. So in other words, study this word and do what it says.

Don't be wise in your own eyes. Fear the eternal. Depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, strength to your bones. I don't know how many times I've read this and automatically started thinking, oh, that's a metaphor, you know, health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

But there's no reason to think that it doesn't mean just what it says. It doesn't say, trust in the eternal, and when you're resurrected, you'll have a healthy spirit body. It says, trust in the way, flee evil, and it'll be health to your bones. Now, I should mention, I'm going to look at a lot of ways that living by God's law can bring health, but God's word never promises that we'll always be healthy. And it certainly doesn't say that we'll live forever in the flesh.

We do know that these bodies age and they start breaking down, and we do suffer as those things happen. But God's way of life does bring good health, largely through cause and effect. There are a lot of principles that aren't a matter of God deciding, okay, I'll give you this or I'll take this away. A lot of it's just as natural as if you throw a ball in the air, it comes back down because the law of gravity causes it to happen.

One of the first things that cause and effect will work out if we follow God's way is because God's way shows us how to have a healthy diet. I'm not going to turn there and read it, but many of you have studied Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, and we see in there that God reveals He made some animals to be food for human beings, and some He did not. And I always thought it was interesting that He listed that for the animals, but not for the plants. And my guess is that He presumed we'd figure out the one about the plants.

And you go out there and grab a branch of a tree and start chewing on it, you think, well, this isn't very good food. You don't have to have God tell you that. But if you roast up a bit of pork loin just right, people say it tastes really good. And maybe humankind doesn't figure out that that's not really good food. Anyways, God also specifically forbids the eating of animal fat and drinking the blood.

And medical science, many, many years after God said, don't do that, has discovered many health detriments for eating fat. Now, I don't want to get in technical. I've been studying into it recently and saw that in the Hebrew there's a differentiation. It makes a difference between the fat that's in the abdominal cavity and fat that's in the muscles and the outer parts of the body. And I don't want to get into that, but in general, science says, don't eat fat. Cut that out of your diet, and God's word says that. And as I said, God gave these instructions because some animals are good for food, some are not.

And then science started confirming that. For example, we've learned that pigs have a different digestive system than cows. A pig's digestive system allows a lot of parasites and bacteria to pass through and toxins to build up in their muscles. Our booklet on clean and unclean animals makes the point—I wrote this one down because it struck me as really interesting— three of the six most common food-borne parasitic diseases in humans—that's a mouthful— three of the six most common are associated with eating pork.

That's interesting. Just cut pork out of your diet. That one thing shields you from half of the most common parasitic diseases. Scientists have also learned that shellfish are more likely to be unhealthy for people than fish with fins and scales. Largely because the shellfish filter seawater through their bodies, and in the process they take out a lot of the bacteria and a lot of the toxic substances.

They take it out of the water, but it ends up being in them. God created some animals to be scavengers, to help clean up the planet, to keep a balance. And when we obey His commands to not eat those animals, it helps us get the blessing of good health.

Of course, God's word also includes instruction to practice moderation and balance in some of the things that we do eat. If you'll turn over to Proverbs 25—we'll see an example of that—Proverbs 25 verse 16. There are a couple of scriptures I'm going to read that always make me chuckle. Maybe it's just because I like to see the humor in things, but I found this one kind of interesting. Proverbs 25, 16 says, Have you found honey? And this is back in the day when there weren't professional beekeepers. They might find a hive out in the woods or in the carcass of a lion, as Samson did.

Oh, we found honey. Now we've got some. It says, Have you found honey? We'll only eat as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit. You can get too much of a good thing. Now, I say, you know, they didn't have refined white sugar back then. I wonder if they did, if Solomon might have written a proverb that said, Do you have Twinkies in the cupboard? Don't eat too many of them. You'll gain too much weight, or you might get type 2 diabetes. You know, similar—he doesn't say don't have it, but not too much.

Moderation, balance. Similar thing we see regarding alcohol. Back a few pages in Chapter 20. Proverbs 20 and verse 1, he said, Wine is a mocker. Strong drink a brawler. You get too much of those things, it can make you into a different person. It says, Whoever is led astray by it is not wise. That's not a condemnation of ever having any, but he says, Don't let it lead you astray. Don't let alcohol lead you, you lead it. That's moderation, control.

Similarly to moderation in food or drink that we bring in, the Bible shows that we need to work in moderation and rest in moderation. I'm not going to turn there today—I'm not going to turn to the many scriptures where it warns against excess and resting. Maybe I didn't phrase that well. And Proverbs Solomon wrote a lot of things saying, Don't be lazy.

You can rest too much. So he says, Don't do that. And we see that a lot. But God knew that we also needed moderation in how much we work. And the fourth of the ten commandments tells us exactly one way to do that. One day out of the week, you make that day holy, or God made it holy, and you keep it holy. And how do you do that? There's a lot of discussion on the finer points, but the one way for sure that he says right up front, don't work. This day is holy. Don't work on it. You need to rest.

Interestingly, for human beings, the need to sleep every day is pretty self-evident. And if you've been like me and tried to see how much you could go without in the past, you've learned you need to sleep so much every day. Some of us need more than others, but there's that rhythm that God built in. But it's not so self-evident right away that there's a weekly need for rest. But in recent years, scientific study has begun focusing on this and learned some interesting things. And they've shown that the idea of taking one day off out of every seven, and in fact, that the idea of a seven-day week itself, does not just come from religion or culture, but they've shown that the need is built in to living creatures. I've got a couple excerpts from books I want to read. The first one is from a book called The Secrets of Our Body Clock Revealed by Susan Perry and Jim Dawson. Let me read this paragraph. It says, Weekly rhythms known in chronobiology, don't you love that? That's chronobiology, study of time and biology. Weekly rhythms known in chronobiology as circoceptin rhythms are one of the most puzzling and fascinating findings of chronobiology. Circoceptin literally means about seven. So about seven. At first glance, it might seem that weekly rhythms developed in response to the seven-day week imposed by human... Oh, wait, I missed something. At first glance, it might seem that weekly rhythms developed in response to the seven-day week imposed by human culture thousands of years ago. However, this theory doesn't hold once you realize that plants, insects, and animals other than humans also have weekly cycles. And they emphasize this. Biology, therefore, not culture, is probably the source of our seven-day week. Now, that's not entirely correct. Biology is not the source. The creator God is the source, but he built it into biology.

Let me read from another quote. This is one from a doctor, Neil Medley, M.D., from his book, Proof Positive. This is a little longer, so bear with me. It says, In America, it is not uncommon for people to put in a seven-day work week. Many do this repetitively and do not seem to suffer for it. However, the medical evidence suggests that there may be both long-term and short-term consequences to such a practice.

Just as the body has a natural daily clock, the circadian rhythm, it also has a weekly clock, circoceptin rhythm. Circoceptin rhythms are just that, body rhythms that run about seven days in length. Next paragraph. Medical research has demonstrated such rhythms in connection with a variety of physiological functions. Some that have been identified included heart rates, suicides, natural hormones in human breast milk, swelling after surgery, and rejection of transplanted organs. To understand the significance of these rhythms, consider the latter two items in the list. That was transplanted organs and swelling after surgery. It says a person will tend to have an increase in swelling on the seventh and then on the fourteenth day after a surgery. Similarly, a person with a kidney transplant is more likely to reject the organ seven days or then fourteen days after the surgery. Research on circoceptin rhythms continue and new relationships are continually being discovered. To me, that's amazing that it's woven into our bodies and into the bodies of other living creatures in so many ways, and scientists are still discovering them. But of course, we know God created the seven-day week. He designed all of this. There are seven-day rhythms that have been observed in both human and animal cancers and their response to treatment. Fibrinogen, a blood clotting compound that has been demonstrated to increase the risk of heart attack, has now also been observed to have a seven-day rhythm. Further work has shown that in addition to inflammatory responses operating on a circoceptin rhythm, so do the drugs that we often use to treat them. I wanted to emphasize the last thing he says here. An understanding of circoceptin rhythms, that is the weekly cycle, has led me to more fully appreciate the fact that I need to pay attention to weekly rhythms, to protect my own health and the health of my patients. Interesting. Here's a medical doctor saying you need to pay attention to a weekly cycle. And if he understood what this book says, he would have said, you need to pay attention to when the Sabbath is for the sake of your own health. God didn't call him and open his mind to that, but science is opening his mind to the fact that taking a rest once a week is a necessity.

And of course, Christians have all along been able to enjoy the blessing of better health by obeying the command to keep the Sabbath.

Another thing that's very important to good health that's now known to medical doctors but was not known when the Bible was written, is that there are microorganisms that make us sick. I could have said that there are microorganisms. When Moses went up on Mount Sinai and got the Ten Commandments, God didn't say, you know, he couldn't have told him, stay away from bacteria. Moses would have been saying, well, what's a bacteria? But God did give him rules to help control the spread of bacteria. In other words, there's principles in the Bible that help us to prevent the spreading of germs. You know, principles, especially in Leviticus, that promote good hygiene and quarantine.

Now, I have other blessings to talk about besides health, so I'm not going to go to the several passages in Leviticus that explain, you know, quarantine, but basically, using often the term leprosy to describe a number of sicknesses, I've often wondered if, you know, what some of those things describe what modern names might be on them, but basically, the principle is, if you're sick, don't spread it around to other people. Set people aside. And dispose properly of contaminated goods. It took human beings millennia to figure that out, but God gave that instruction early on. And, of course, well, let's turn to Deuteronomy 23. This is one I do want to read without going through Leviticus. This is another one of those scriptures that I always chuckle a little bit when I read it. But it's an excellent demonstration of how to use proper hygiene to keep down the spread of disease.

Deuteronomy 23, verse 13, says, And you shall have an implement among your equipment. The original King James says, have a paddle on your weapon. In other words, something you can dig with. And when you sit down outside, it doesn't mean sitting down to take a rest, it means squatting down to take care of a certain business. When you do that, you shall dig with it and cover your refuse. That's a good principle. Cover up stuff that comes out of you.

Now, he doesn't say because there are bacteria that could contaminate the water supply, because they didn't understand bacteria, so he gives them a very vivid picture that they could understand. Cover up what comes out of you, for the eternal your God walks in the midst of your camp. I can understand that. He's walking around and saying, maybe he's not wearing shoes.

So carry that shovel with you. And he walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give your enemies over to you. Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may see no unclean thing among you and turn away from you. So don't leave that yucky stuff for him to see. Now, as I said, I get a chuckle of this, but it's common sense, and mankind finally figured it out. A military man finally discerned that if they're going to have their soldiers build a latrine, they'd better do it downriver from the drinking water supply.

So you don't have the bacteria going where it shouldn't go. I think it's sad. In the Middle Ages, most Europeans called themselves Christians, but a lot of them couldn't read the Bible. It was only available in Latin, and they couldn't read anyway. So they didn't know the techniques of quarantine and good hygiene that are described in the Bible.

But there would be Jewish communities sometimes near them. And a disease plague might come through and start getting people sick and killing many of them, and they would look at their Jewish neighbors and say, hey, they're not getting sick! Instead of saying, what are they doing? We should do that. They would say, they must be practicing black magic, and they're making us sick.

Let's go kill them. It's sad, you know, for many of the Jews in the Middle Ages, following the principles of the Bible protected them from disease, but it didn't protect them from persecution. I don't think we have to worry about persecution for that reason. We can enjoy God's benefits of protection from disease. Much of it's built into our society today. But it is unfortunate that in our modern period, many people have suffered more from breaking one of God's laws regarding that than they had in the past.

And that is, when people obey God's law that forbids fornication and adultery. In other words, when people realize that sex is to be practiced only within marriage, they will usually enjoy the blessing of not contracting many diseases that are spread that way.

I'll make a reference, and if anybody is interested in this, you could find a recording of this talk several years ago. I believe it was Mr. Antion invited a woman who travels the nation giving talks on the dangers of extramarital sex. Her name is Pam Stenzel. I heard it the year she gave it, and I learned last year, when I was substituting for Mr. Antion at ABC, that he plays that recording, I believe, every year for the students. And Mrs. Stenzel gives the talk. It's called, Sex Has a Price Tag. She emphasizes that, and before she started doing this, she worked at, I think, a teen pregnancy center, and she said they would come in and say, oh, am I pregnant?

I'm so worried. And she'd say, no, you're not pregnant. They'd think, oh, I'm off the hook. And then she'd say, oh, no, no, no, no. That's the least of your worries. You've got to worry about, and then she would list off, I don't know, how many diseases. She says that in the United States, an average of 50,000 people each day contract a sexually transmissible disease. That's astounding to me.

Many of those diseases have no cure. Many of them cause sterility. Some of them cause death. And the whole purpose of her talk is to say, you can avoid that. All those diseases are 100% preventable simply by following God's laws regarding sex and marriage. Amazingly. That's all you have to do. Obey God's Word. And that's not telling teenagers, save it for marriage so you can go to Heaven. As I said, I'm not focusing on the blessings that come in the resurrection. We could tell teenagers and anyone else, save it for marriage so that you can be healthy and happy now.

And enjoy the good mental benefits. I'll come back to that later. But before I leave the tremendous blessings of good health that come in this life through living God's way, I'd be negligent if I didn't mention, of course, the opportunity to ask for divine healing. We'll turn to James 5. I'll read this, although I know many of you have read it so many times, you might know it by heart. But James 5 and verse 14 shows that we have the ability to specifically ask God to intervene and work a miracle for us. He gave us a specific format so that it's not a casual, everybody-do-it-whatever-way-you-want. And of course, that's not to say that you can't always pray for God's intervention. But he says here, is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick. Now, it's not the elder that does it. I know that for a fact. And of course, not the hands laid on or even the oil. It's that procedure and it's God's power that can save the sick. And the Lord will raise him up. And if he's committed sins, he'll be forgiven. I'm so glad James made sure to put that if in there. Sometimes disease can be caused by sin. Many times it's not. Many times you didn't do anything wrong, but you got sick or you got injured. God can and will heal those things, too. I like to stress this because I think I've confessed this to all of you before. I tend to be one of those that focuses on the idea that sometimes God doesn't heal us. Or sometimes he defers the healing for the resurrection. Because we believe he'll answer his promise. He will heal. But I tend to be the one saying, oh, of course he's not going to heal me now because he wants me to build character. I've got to beat myself on the head and say, no, God wants to heal now. He's got every reason we should expect that more often than not. It happens a lot of times. And I've been privileged, serving in the ministry, to see it much more often than I used to. God intends his people to enjoy life now, as well as look forward to the world tomorrow. So let's consider another way. I've talked about health quite a bit. And there's another way that we can and should expect to enjoy blessings that derive from living God's way of life that'll be manifested now. One of those is physical prosperity. Now, it's common for us to equate piety with poverty. And those go together sometimes. It's easy to think of Catholic monks who take a vow of poverty and give away all their worldly possessions. They have to wear one of those brown robes that they tie up with a rope instead of a belt. You know, poverty and piety can go together, but they don't have to. Let's remind ourselves of a scripture that we've sung many times. Let's turn to Psalm 1, or the first psalm. As I said, we sing the lyrics to this that Dwight Armstrong wrote and put to a nice tune so often that, for me, they tend to run through my head or I sing them, and I think I appreciate the melody without focusing on the words as much. Psalm 1, verse 1 says, And whatever he does, shall prosper. Or, of course, the psalm goes, All he does prospers well. As I said, all he does prospers well, to me, is a line of a psalm, but when it says, Whatever he does will prosper. God wants us to prosper. That shouldn't be a big surprise, but, you know, it's good to know that if we're living God's way of life, we can expect prosperity.

If you'll turn over to Proverbs 13, some more scriptures and Proverbs I want to look at, Proverbs 13, 11, because I do want to make the point that God's Word leaves absolutely no doubt that it's much better to be poor than to gain your wealth immorally. God wants you to gain it the right way, following His law, not by any moral means. Proverbs 13, 11, Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished. So, yeah, if you're selling crack on the street corner, or cheating on your taxes, or whatever, that's going to be diminished. But He who gathers by labor will increase. The book of Proverbs addresses the subject of gaining prosperity by doing the right way so much. You know, we could probably fill the whole sermon time just reading those scriptures, and I'm not going to do that.

But we just read that dishonesty is counterproductive, but God blesses good old-fashioned work, and hard work at that. God is looking for us to do that. That's a godly principle. Many of us memorized Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 10, where it says, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. In other words, you're working at something, work hard. I'll go past that to Ecclesiastes 11.

Because I want to focus on a couple of other godly principles we can find in Scripture that lead to prosperity.

Ecclesiastes 11 and verse 6.

In the morning, sow your seed. Now, this is addressing people who live primarily in an agricultural society. So they went out in the morning and they worked their fields, sometimes sowing, sometimes weeding, then later harvesting. But if we translated this in the modern day, it'd be, In the morning, go to work, get up and go to your job. And in the evening, do not withhold your hand. Now that could sound... What do you mean, do not withhold your hand? Well, once again, look back at Solomon's time, where most people worked in the fields during the day, and in the evening, they didn't flip on the boob tube and flip channels because they didn't have that. So they would engage in some type of handiwork, oftentimes. You'd say, don't withhold your hand, work a craft or a skill. And he says, you don't know which will prosper, either this or that, or both alike. You might be making something, you don't go out to your wood shop in the evening, that's your hobby. But he was saying, use a diversity of things you might do. Here we go. Solomon was saying financially, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Or, a modern equivalent would be to say, diversify your investments or diversify your assets. I think that's sort of what this is saying. Try these different things, that's sound financial advice. It almost slipped by without you guys noticing, didn't it? Slow down a little faster and then you can hear what I'm saying or see what I'm saying. Did I say slow down a little faster? I almost slipped that one by you, too. Even me. As I said, so far the Bible is teaching what we might call some common sense principles. So let's add one more, if you go back to Proverbs 6. Proverbs 6 and verse 6. This is another one that... It's funny, I think I've had memorized without remembering the Scripture. The word picture is so vivid it's easy to remember. Proverbs 6 and verse 6 says, Go to the ant, you sluggard, in other words, you lazy person. Consider her ways and be wise. Which is saying, look at what she's doing and see that as a model. Without having a captain, overseer, or ruler, she provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. In other words, when times are good, set something aside and save it.

And if times continue to be good, you can save more. But you'll have some for when things aren't so good. Now this might seem to be saying what we would call no-brainers. You want to get ahead, work hard. Try different enterprises. Save during good times. Well, I would say for something to be part of God's way of life doesn't necessarily make it hidden to non-Christians. A lot of smart people have figured out these principles. But they're in the Bible and will prosper if we follow them.

There is a further element that is hidden from most people, at least hidden from human reasoning. And we need to take it on faith. Although if we do exercise it on faith, we'll see that it does work. And that's the principle of giving. Giving. It might seem counterintuitive to think that you can prosper by giving stuff away.

But that's what God's word says. Look over in Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13 and verse 7. There is one who makes himself rich, yet he has nothing. That's something that focuses so much on getting, getting, and keeping for himself, and yet it seems like he has nothing. And one who makes himself poor. This isn't to say that he's lazy and never works, but someone makes himself poor by sharing with others and giving away, and yet has great riches.

You know, I will mention this could refer to the spiritual riches. And I think there's a good point to be made there. You can be poor physically, but have treasure in heaven, and then you're truly rich. But we can also look at the physical aspect.

When you give to others, God will make sure he gives to you. Matter of fact, we can see that if we turn to Luke chapter 6. And because it's worth considering, God puts these laws of cause and effect into work in the universe, but he also takes a direct hand to watch what we're doing and bless us. Luke 6 and verse 38. Jesus Christ was teaching, and he says, Give, give, not necessarily to the church, just give.

Give to someone, and it'll be given to you. Good measure. Press down and shake it together and running over. It'll be put into your bosom. For with the same measure you use, it'll be measured back. And that's something I have to read to myself and say, Okay, the same measure you use, Frank, it'll be used back to you, because I'm one that's naturally frugal. And if you don't believe me, ask Sue.

She knows. You know, I'm one that, you know, okay, I know it says, give, and it'll be given to you, and I have to make myself do it, because it's my tendency, okay, I'm going to squirrel it away and keep it all for, you know, a rainy day.

And if it never rains, that's great. The pile will be bigger. But Jesus says, give away, share, and it'll be given to you. God will make sure, you know, that it comes back. Solomon's the one that says, cast your bread on the waters, and in many days it'll come back. That's a real poetic way of saying. Don't worry, you know, now, do plan for your future. We already saw that you have to save.

You have to work hard, you know, diversify your investments, but also give to others. And it'll come back to you. Jesus Christ said, remember in John 10 and verse 10, this is one, another memory scripture, He said, I've come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. God wants us to enjoy an abundant life. And I read the scripture earlier, I won't repeat it, but remember when Peter walked up and said, we've given up all this stuff. What are we going to have? It's sort of like, hey, we're, you know, remember Christ said, those who follow Me, He said, I don't even have a place to lay My head.

The foxes have holes. The birds have their nests. I don't have any place to lay My head. You're going to go without if you follow Me. So probably Peter and the others are saying, yeah, we are going without. When are we going to get something? Christ said, no. Anyone who's given up lands, houses, mother, father, sister, brother, you're going to receive a hundredfold more now in this life and in the life to come, you know, eternal life, or in the resurrection, we could say. Now, some ways we've seen that. Many people have had to separate from their families when they come to God's way of life, because their family doesn't want to be associated with those weird people that don't celebrate Christmas anymore.

But when you look around you, you've got family. You gain brothers and sisters in Christ, and children, grandchildren, parents. But God also makes a way for us to be blessed physically. I'll bet a number of you here have known what it's like to interview for a job, and then you say, well, by the way, you know, I have to be off on Saturdays, and they say, well, we'll get back to you. And they hire someone else. Or when you were called into the church, you know, you go to your boss and say, hey, I need to start having Saturdays off.

And they say, well, you know, we're going to have to let you go. But I'll bet you I could find almost as many stories or more stories of other jobs opening up, of blessings coming in. And I have to say, actually, I've never experienced, I've never lost a job because of the Sabbath. But I've talked to a lot of people who have. You know, that principle is true. God will provide for us. And that's a good thing. Now, again, just like with health, my purpose isn't to give a whole sermon on money management.

But I do need to not overlook one of the chief principles, you know, forgetting and keeping wealth that isn't evident to people in the world. Even the best money managers and financial advisors don't pick up on the principle of tithing. And that's in God's Word as well. There are various places where the command to tithe is listed.

And I'm not going to focus on those. I'll mention Leviticus 27, verse 30, Deuteronomy 14, 22. And pretty much most of the seventh chapter of Hebrews discusses how God transferred the law of tithing because we don't have a Levitical priesthood to support. But we do have a church that is doing God's work. And he shows that the tithe goes there now. Let's turn to Malachi chapter 3. This is another well-known scripture. But I want to focus on the fact that God wants us to be blessed now for obeying all of his laws, including tithing. And he challenges us.

Malachi 3, beginning in verse 8. This is presented in a conversational style. Will a man rob God? And it sort of implied that people said, well, no! Yet you have robbed me. And you say, well, in what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings? You're cursed with a curse, for you've robbed me. Even this whole nation. Basically, earlier, he says, you know, you went out and you planned a lot and you bring nothing in, and when it grows, I blew on it, you know, because you're not honoring me.

And then God issues the challenge. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and try me in this. You just test me if I will not pour out for you or if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there won't even be enough room to receive it. That's something. That's talking about blessings now. And of course, I can't read this without thinking, you know, a lot of us are probably looking at it and going, wait, I'm tithing.

I don't have more blessings than I can receive. I think that's partly because of our context. Look at where we live. We tend to forget how rich we are compared to most people in the world now and most who have ever lived. Even our poorest, those who are living on charity or welfare or whatever in the United States, live better than most people that have ever lived, even the wealthy. And actually, all I have to do is go out into my garage, you know. Ever since we moved into that house, we've been having garage sales and organizing because I've got more stuff than I've got room for. That does seem to equate to blessings so big you won't be able to receive it.

So we have this more than we realize, I think. Of course, a lot of people who aren't tithing have that, but we have the chance to claim God's promise. And it doesn't hurt to remind Him if we have a need. You know, Father, I'm doing this. You know, I need those blessings. But I will mention tithing is a spiritual law that has brought good results for people who aren't in God's true church.

And we're not tithing to His church because I think it's one of those spiritual principles of cause and effect. As I said, like gravity, you throw the ball up, it's going to come down without God specifically pushing it down. Tithing can work that way. And let me give you some examples. One is from the founder of the J.C. Penney Company. I bought some clothes there. James Cash Penney was a scrupulously religious man. And before he made his money, when he was poor and in debt, he became convinced that he should give a tithe to God. And he did. He often gave his church as much as 30% of his income. And then his department store chain grew and prospered. I understand they're not doing so well now, but I'll bet you they don't have tithing on their books anymore either. John D. Rockefeller. At one point, the richest man in the world, actually the richest man who had ever been, was a strict Baptist and believed in tithing. I found an interesting quote of his. He said, I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 a week. And that's if you don't know John Rockefeller's story. He came from a poor family in Cleveland, and he got some education and pounded knock doors in Cleveland until he got a job as a bookkeeper, getting that salary for $1.50 a week. Now, I've learned since then that he started tithing on it, and he used all these principles to become a multi-millionaire. J. L. Kraft of the Kraft Cheese Company gave approximately 25% of his income to Christian charities, not any one church. But he said, The only investment I ever made which has paid consistently increasing dividends is the money that I've given to the Lord. Now, I should note that not every billionaire in history has been a tither. And I think we all know not every tither becomes a millionaire. But I also believe if we take God at his word and test him in this, if we follow the teaching of his word, given that tenth of our physical increase, he will pour out blessings on us. As I said, I think God made it one of these spiritual laws so that even Rockefeller or Kraft or Penny could benefit by obeying them. And we can benefit from following the spiritual principle, too. And I'm talking about now in this life, well in advance of the resurrection, we can have prosperity because God's way works. You could say God's way pays, but we're not in it because it pays. That's the important thing. But if you consider the old saying, crime does not pay, well, God's way then does pay. Now, it doesn't always pay in a cash check, but it pays in those benefits. Let's wrap up this section by turning to Psalm 112. I want to turn to a couple other areas where God gives us blessings, but I did want to read Psalm 112.

It's interesting. This time of year, as the sun starts going down the horizon, I always start thinking, I need to talk fast and teach the sermon before the Sabbath's over. I know the Sabbath isn't going to be over until after 5 o'clock, but that psychological thing starts happening. Let's read Psalm 112. Praise the Eternal. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in his commandments.

I want to skip to verse 3. It says, I'd like to have wealth and riches in my house. Tomorrow, today, not just in the resurrection. But let's move on, though, because we can have some blessings that a lot of the world's richest people don't have. We can have some blessings that money can't buy, but that obeying God's law will.

Near the top of that list is having good relationships. Money can't buy happiness. Money really can't make people like or respect you. They might respect your money, and they might like that. But money can't give you those things. I remember hearing this a bunch of times when I was younger, about the oil millionaire, J. Paul Getty. He's reputed to have said, I'd give up all my millions for one happy marriage.

But you know what will bring you good relationships? Living by God's law. When you treat people with love, you tend to get along well with them. People will love you back. People will have successful and satisfying relationships. We often say, about half of the Ten Commandments describe how to love people. I'm saying about half, because we know the first four describe obeying God. Always point out that the tenth one is really for yourself. If you learn to not covet, you'll just be happy. But you coveting doesn't hurt someone else unless you act on it. But those other commands really directly affect people.

One good reason to not lie to people, or not steal from them, is to have peaceful and happy relationships with them. Regardless of the benefits that are going to come later in God's kingdom, you want those good relationships now. When my next door neighbor isn't worried that I'm going to steal from him, we'll get along a lot better. That seems so obvious. You might say, Well, yeah, I didn't have to come to church to hear you tell me that.

But it's good for us to be reminded what a blessing it is to have that kind of relationship. Before we moved down to Waverly, Sue and I had that with our next door neighbors on one side. I still remember once the fella coming over and basically with a key to his house, because we developed a good relationship, he trusted us, and said, We're going on vacation here.

Will you take this key and let our dogs out? Let him out in the back, or let it, her, out in the backyard. He knew I wouldn't steal him. He was willing to give me a key to his house. And we reciprocated, so great! I'm glad to have you do this, because we're going on vacation later, too. Here's a key to my house. Now, I will add, we had neighbors on the other side that I didn't want to turn my back on.

But, you know, I guess you need some of obeying God's law on both sides for that to really work. But I could add, you know, not killing people tends to be another good way to have a good relationship with them. That's pretty self-evident. But, of course, you know, that treating people not killing or hating someone, which is the spirit of the law, helps you not only get along with the person that you restrained from killing, but all the people attached to them, their friends and family.

And as I said, this is one of those areas where the immediate benefits of living God's way might just seem too obvious to be discussing it in a sermon. Yet, much of it is so obvious that people who don't believe in God's existence still believe in many of these laws. That's what I find fascinating. And we go back in history, back to the period that I specialize in. About the 1700s is an area that's often called the Age of Enlightenment, because people were starting to discover basic scientific principles, and they were examining all kinds of things, thinking, we can understand how the universe works.

And philosophers started trying to figure out where these rules and laws in society came from, if there really wasn't a God, as they were beginning to think there wasn't. John Locke came up with an interesting explanation. John Locke is a philosopher who influenced most of our founding fathers. And he theorized that in the distant past, way a long time ago, you know, I don't know if he thought of cavemen, but long before recorded history, he said, there was no government, and every person was at war with every other person. There were no rules, no government, everything was anarchy, so every person was at war with every other person, and it was miserable.

What kind of existence is that? And so people, you know, these early people got together and started working out laws for society and rules to follow so that they could have a happier life.

And they realized that, hey, you know, men and women go together, we need marriage, and we need husbands and wives to be loyal to each other, and children need to listen to their parents and do what they say. We would need to have a government and set rules that everybody has to follow.

We would have to have respect of ownership of private property, which fits saying, thou shalt not steal. We need to respect the sanctity of human life. Thou shalt not kill. You need to trust that people will tell the truth. Thou shalt not bear false witness, and so on and so on. And as I said, they would believe, even if there was no God, we need these rules so that we can have a happy life now.

You know, philosophers weren't thinking about going to heaven because they figured out heaven wasn't there. But they believed that people needed to live by these laws, which, of course, they do. That's why God gave them to us.

You know, if we live by these laws now in this life, we can enjoy good relationships.

Now, as I said, some of that depends on the people that we're hoping to have good relationships with. If they're violating those laws, that could make the relationships tough, but that's another subject for a different time.

Now, I will mention, as I said, they theorized that people way back then figured these things out on their own. It's sad. In modern times, some people have decided that this is not the case when it comes to marriage. You know, and they've experimented with these different ideas. I like to use the earlier terms. So, in the 1800s, they came up with the term free love, meaning, you know, consensual sex with anybody who is okay as long as both people agree. You know, nobody's getting hurt.

Well, in reality, that's not true that nobody gets hurt. I talked about the health hazards earlier, but it goes well beyond that. This free love, free sex, doesn't make people happy or satisfied. And where experiments have been done on it, it's proven that. You know, free love leads to jealousy, loneliness, to fatherless children who grew up angry and upset. If you remember some time ago, I'm trying to think, I think it might have been Trumpets. I discussed the Oneida colony, where they practiced what was called complex marriage. Every man was married to every woman, and it was a disaster. People were jealous of each other. They learned that they hated it. They couldn't wait to get back to a man and a woman married and devoted to each other. Solomon figured that out a long time earlier. We'll look at Proverbs 6. Of course, I don't think he figured it out on his own. God revealed this truth. Proverbs 6 and verse 27. Can a man take fire into his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Of course not. Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared? No. So is he who goes into his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her shall not be innocent. People don't despise a thief if he steals to satisfying himself when he's starving. Yet when he's found, he must restore sevenfold. He may have to give up all the substance of his house. People aren't going to despise you if you're hungry and you steal something, but you will have to pay the penalty. But it goes on to say whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding. It goes beyond even that. He who does so destroys his own soul. There's a penalty you can't pay. Wounds in dishonor he'll get, and his reproach will not be wiped away.

For jealousy is a husband's fury. Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He'll accept no recompense, nor will he be appeased, though you give many gifts. In other words, it doesn't work. Don't try it. It's going to make you miserable now in this life. Don't worry about whether or not you get to heaven or come up in the resurrection. Now in this life is a good reason to follow God's rules of marriage. That's what leads to happiness and good relationships.

We know Jesus Christ said as much when he said the law is summed up, Love your neighbor as yourself. And the translation that comes from that is, Do unto others as you would have them do to you. If we live by that, we'll get along with people. And that makes for a pretty satisfying, blessed life.

Even if there were no reward or blessing from God in the resurrection, we would want to live by the golden rule now, so we'd have good relationships with people now. Let's turn over to Proverbs 14. Proverbs 14 and verse 7. Proverbs 14, verse 17. Still 14, but put a little 1 in front of that 7. A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a man of wicked intentions is hated.

Who wants to be hated? We want good relationships with people. Let's skip over to verse 21. He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has mercy on the poor, happy as he. Don't we want to be happy? Well, you can be happy by not despising people, by being merciful. And of course, these things will tend to happen even if God does not intervene to give his direct blessings, but he does. There are ways where he'll step in to cause good things to happen. Let's skip over ahead a page or two to chapter 16. Proverbs 16 and verse 7. As I said, we'll get the blessings for this now, not... or now, in addition to being in his kingdom.

Proverbs 16, 7 says, When a man's ways please the Eternal, and living by his law will please him, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Wouldn't you like to just not have enemies, but those who might think of you so as so to be at peace with you? Please God, and he'll make that happen. Just one more, if you'll go back to Proverbs 11 and verse 27. I did have a lot of scriptures in Proverbs, but it makes them easy to find.

Proverbs 11 and verse 27. There's a sharp contrast here. He who earnestly seeks good finds favor. But trouble will come to him who seeks evil. So we see two alternatives. You can have seeking good and have favor with other people, or you can seek evil and have trouble. Well, why would anyone choose trouble instead of favor?

In the long run, we know we want eternal life in God's kingdom, not eternal death. But what he's offering us in the short run, I think, looks pretty good, too.

You know, we can have favor rather than trouble. And God's way can help us to get along with other people and have good relationships. Now, again, I'll have to say, that's not to say we won't ever have trials and tests. We will, and then we'll have people that don't want to get along with us, want to persecute us. But in general, we can expect living God's way of life makes us likeable people.

I heard a story on the radio talking about being a nice guy driving up. Or, no, the good guy. I'm the one that always says nice guy. I used to do that when I was meeting girls. Long before I was married, I said, I'm such a nice guy. Just ask me. I'll tell you. But it's true, if you live God's way, you know, you'll be a nice guy. People will get along with you. But I want to turn to one last area of benefit that we can enjoy now in this life that comes from living God's way.

And that's peace of mind. I want to emphasize this one because it might sound like a contradiction. But I believe that the peace of mind that we have from knowing God's plan, from understanding all the things that He's working out, that's a benefit and a blessing that we can, and we should, be enjoying in our lives right now. It's funny. It's a focus on the future. But it's something we can enjoy now. I often quote Psalm 119. 165, so I'll just quote it, where it says, Great peace of those who love your law.

Nothing will offend them. That's in the King James Version. There's something to that. When you know that you're doing the right thing, no matter what other people might be doing, you have a certain peace of mind, even if things don't seem to be going right. But if inside you know you're not doing the right thing, living with guilt and self-doubt can just make your life unhappy. Most of us at some time or another have that, and hopefully a lot of times that just pushes you to say, Okay, I've got to make this right.

I can't live with myself. I want the peace of mind from knowing that I've done the right thing. Even if I were not looking forward to a resurrection, I'd want to live a life knowing that in my mind, I was the one at peace with my Maker and at peace with my fellow man.

But the fact that we do look forward to a resurrection, that we do look forward to eternal life in God's kingdom, makes life better now. We all know the phrase, the light at the end of the tunnel. I think that's a good analogy, because you kind of know when you're in the tunnel, if you see the light at the end, you know eventually you're going to be in that light. And it makes you feel better, even when you're still in the tunnel. Now, I'm in the tunnel, but I see the light and I feel better, because I know that there's an end.

And I said, that might sound like a contradiction, but I'm talking about the benefit that we enjoy now in this life. Because think about our ultimate end, eternal life in God's kingdom. We're focusing on that. But we believe in what we often call a second resurrection, a general resurrection. All those people who don't understand God's way of life now will rise. They'll be in that great white throne judgment. And we're pretty sure most of them are going to say, Oh, Satan's put away, they're not deceived, God's spirit is available.

Of course I want to embrace this way of life. I want to accept Jesus Christ's sacrifice to cover my sins, and the Father in His mercy will cover their sins, teach them His way. Hopefully, eventually, most of them will be born into His family and enjoy that same eternal life in His kingdom that we're going to enjoy.

Fame is us, but they don't understand that now. The people in all these houses around us, they might have that same future, but they don't understand it now. And you know what? A lot of them are miserable now because of that. They don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. Many of them don't have peace of mind. But you and I do. We're enjoying that fabulous benefit every day of our lives of knowing what lies ahead.

I think this is one of the best benefits of all because it's never deferred. As I said, we know all the health benefits that we can enjoy, but we say, well, God doesn't always heal us. Sometimes He wants us to build character for whatever reason. He doesn't always give us prosperity. We have to enter the kingdom through many trials and tribulations. But this benefit is never deferred. We can always have that peace of mind of knowing where it works out. That's why we often quote Romans 8.28, All things work together for good to those that love God. We know that applies to us no matter how bad things seem right now. We can always know that the best is ahead. So we have that peace of mind. Now, to some degree, then, I've come in kind of a big circle by my logic. I'm back to saying you can put up with a lot of suffering now if you believe things will be better later on, and that's what the slave owners were convincing their slaves of. So it's not untrue, but we don't need to only take that to get by on. We don't have to only focus on God's kingdom later and think we have to be miserable now, because we know that living by God's word, obeying His law, brings a lot of benefits to us now, not just when His kingdom comes. If we live God's way, we should enjoy better health because of it. We should have more prosperity. We should have better relationships with people. And yes, we should have the peace of mind that surpasses everything, looking forward to being in God's kingdom.