Financial Security and Peace

Did you hear the financial news this week? Associated Press out of New York City said, As the fortunes of many Americans go, so goes Walmart. And as Walmart goes, so goes the economy. The world's largest retailer offered a weaker forecast for the coming months. The problem? Customers are struggling with rising prices and taxes.

Walmart's results signal that matters may be getting worse for their customers. Did you hear the violence news this week? There were shootings and killings and bombings and nuclear tests. There were rockets and drones and wars.

Throughout the world, humanity is moving towards a lawless mindset quickly. Beyond Today program this week, called 72 Hours to Chaos, showed how thin civilization's polite veneer is. It's just 72 hours away from breaking down into lawless, sort of, going after food and needs. And this has been documented in several cases, that people will resort to violence to get what they need within about 72 hours. Even though society seems so enlightened and so modern and so nice.

In the UCG booklet Making Life Work, it says, Many nations are becoming dangerous places, mired in serious financial trouble, carrying enormous deficits. Personal bankruptcies are soaring upward, and many families owe so much money that they have little hope of ever getting out of debt.

It's ironic that our materialistic world, which prizes the acquisition of wealth over almost everything else, is so heavily burdened by wealth.

It's not hard to see that something is fundamentally wrong and out of balance. Instead of being a blessing and a source of stability and security, money has come to be a curse that often produces great stress and anxiety.

Today, I've titled this sermon, Financial Security and Peace.

And you're probably asking, what's he smoking?

What planet is he from? You've got to be kidding, right?

Well, the economy is tanking, problems are increasing. The sermon title is Financial Security and Peace. Now, you might be thinking, well, all right, this is going to be a nice program. You'll clip a few scriptures out of the Bible, and you kind of use some analogies and stuff, and we can all leave and go back to our chaotic world, with worries and strife and sort of an unknown future. That's not the case at all. In one sense, I'm speaking today from personal experience of where I am now, financial security and peace. I'm living it. I want to share that with you as proof. Now, you might say, well, I'm insulated.

There's every reason in the world you can say, well, this can't work for me. Well, I can show you from business that I've been in and run, from a church member, from working without pay for the church, working half pay for the church, getting pulled up and moved around.

Financial security and peace is not only possible, it's my reality. And I'm thrilled to share this topic with you. And hopefully, if it's not your reality, as this world is careening out of control, that you can make it your reality, too.

And I take no credit. This is not my brains.

It's going to bring out some special principles that I've learned. They're biblical principles that I've finally submitted to over the course of my life in the church. And in submitting to them, the results actually are astonishing. So we're going to see that the only way to achieve financial security and godliness, if you want the short version of this, I'm sorry, financial security and peace, is through the pursuit of godliness. There is a direct link between the pursuit of godliness and financial security and peace.

God is in charge. God owns everything. God directs everything. And if He, for some reason, does not want you to have financial security, you won't.

It doesn't matter what the economy is doing. If He wants you to have financial security, you will. It, once again, has no relationship whatsoever to the economy because God is God. And the economy is the devil's economy. So let's take a look at this particular topic, and let's look at God in application to our situation, to our needs, to our trials, to our wants, and let's find how you and I can actually experience financial security and true peace.

Again, let me preface this by saying this isn't just going to be Bible speak. This isn't, well, if you do this, you'll do that, and close it up and leave. No. This is reality. This is reality. Since Y2K, remember Y2K, we all kind of moved up to that line, didn't know if our computers were going to crash or not. It was right at that time that I stepped into a change of mind and decision that's changed my life. And I've proved this now for 12 years. A dozen years. It's not a fluke. It's reality.

It actually begins and ends with pursuit of God. Pursuing God with diligence. Being a diligent person, but pursuing God with diligence and making that a priority. Trusting God. For whatever it is, God wants to give you. It's kind of like a parent and a little child. We call ourselves children of God, but how often do you actually think of yourself as a child of God? Often we say, yes, I'm God's child, but I'm actually driving my life. I'm in charge. And once in a while I call up God for a loan. Can you bail me out? Here. Help! This course that I've chosen for myself and this path that I'm directing myself on needs some help. So I'm doing what it says in the Bible. I'm fasting, I'm praying, I'm appealing. I'll do anything. I need your help. For me and my course to work out, to go forward. I did that in my life. Found out it was wrong. So first of all, I've got about five things I want to share with you. And the first thing is to understand God's potential role in your life. I think we all come into the church and we think, oh yeah, this is the church. This is the truth. These are the laws. These are the rules. I'll keep them. And we can call that Saturday John or whatever your name is. That's the Sabbath person.

Saturday John. We're all here on the Sabbath. We all got our Saturday mindsets on. Sabbath mindset, don't you? We're all about love and serve. We're all about God first. All this stuff. And that's good. But when the sun sets and tomorrow comes up, what's on our mind then? Wow. I got some things I need to do. I got some aspirations. I got some plans. I got some money to make. I've got some things to buy. I've got some careers to deal. I got some romance to work on. I've got my plan. And by the time next Friday night, sundown comes along, you may find yourself so busy still trying to work out those plans in what seems like a very short week. Where did all six days go? I didn't accomplish my plan. And here I'm running into sunset. And it's kind of chaos at the end of the week. Well, let's stop and understand God's potential role in your life. It's kind of the environmental situation for true Christians. God did not create you so that He could support you and your plan. He didn't create you so you could have a nice life, good health, all those cool things to see and do, and be there to assist and support you as you sort of rub the lamp three times a day. Genie, I need you. I could use some more money. We pray, but it's kind of like the old genie in the lamp, you know? Pops up, what can I do for you now? Oh, I'm not feeling too good. How about a healing? Okay, back in the bottle.

And as the week goes on, oh, this is a problem. Oh, Genie, yes, how can I help your plan? That's too often how we look at God. We have the plan, we have the idea, we have this thing lined out in life, and we need God. In fact, we'll pray about it. God, I'm looking for Your will in my plan. I want to know what You want me to do, which job You want me to take.

Obviously, I have this plan, and You're going to support me in it. What car I'm going to buy, who I'm going to marry. And so we look to God to sort of help us with our plan. Now, it kind of turns it on the ear if we go to the model prayer outline, and Jesus said, when you pray, pray like this, our Father in heaven, how it is Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Hmm, sounds like we're supposed to be doing God's plan. Sounds like He's got a plan. Now, if the Father of the house has a plan, and we're the children, what should be our priority? What should be our focus? Shouldn't it be supporting His plan? Shouldn't we be getting up and saying, oh, you know what? In the model prayer outline, there's nothing about me. It's about God, about doing His kingdom coming and helping people get there. His will be done. Our daily bread, eating Jesus Christ to get His mindset in us so we can be lights and examples and take care of the responsibilities that we've been given through marriage and family, other responsibilities.

And to be overcoming and repenting and being forgiven and forgiving others and not being led about by temptations that would feed me and certainly not be linked to the devil that released from Him and giving God all the glory. His is the kingdom, the power, and the glory is His forever. It's about God, you see. We need to understand God's potential role in your life. If you haven't understood the potential role of God in your life, you might be running on your own power. Your plan might not be doing too well. I know mine wasn't. The carnal support my will mindset is where I started as a kid. Oh, I was in the church.

I learned how to pray in the church. God, help me with this and help me with that and help me with this and help me with that. I began to find, as I'll tell you in a little bit, what God's answer was to all those prayers, every last one of them, or lack of an answer. I prayed to win some races when I was running. I always prayed. I sweat out the race. I did some preparation for it, but I didn't. But I prayed to win the race. Any time I prayed to win a race, I didn't win the race.

So I was thinking, well, what about that prayer? What does God think about that? As a young teenager, I'm thinking, okay. So then I go hunting, deer hunting. My brother shot a big old deer, so I went out deer hunting. I didn't see a deer. In fact, I went out hunting a lot of times and didn't see any deer. In fact, I never saw a deer. And I always prayed about seeing a deer. And that taught me something. It taught me a lot, actually. And I prayed to God that He helped me win over the girl.

Oh God, that's the one. Yeah, that's the one. From a young boy, girl after girl, God, help her fall in love with me. You know? Never happened. Help that be the one I'll marry. Uh-uh. So, you know, all this stuff adds up to either there isn't a God or I'm not asking for the right things. Now, those were big lessons. And I've seen down through time, even in my early ministry, a continuation of that type of prayer. Oh, help this happen and that happen and this house and that thing.

And, you know, sometimes I could make it happen, but it didn't always mean it was good and would work out well. But I prayed for me. And God, thankfully, didn't answer those prayers. He was teaching me something. Teaching me something very important. And I finally quit asking for God to support my will in anything unless it was to serve and unless it was for His glory. Something to do with the brethren or like standing here.

I would always pray and beg God for the topic and always do. And before I would ever get up here, I'll ask God, please let it be your words, not mine. Okay? That kind of prayer. But I quit asking for anything else. Now that's, you might think, that's terrible. And I know it's a bit overboard, but it's been 12 years. Okay? You might think, well, wow, if I couldn't ask God for the stuff that I really want in life or the stuff for me, that's kind of extreme. And I agree with you. You know, we could have a little chat about that. I'd pat you on the back and say, you are absolutely right.

But there's a little more to the story that you might want to hear.

Now, on earth, if we're here to do God's will, it doesn't mean that you can't enjoy physical things. It doesn't mean you can't have aspirations and everything else. But they've got to fit within the will of God. And the will of God pretty well comes down to the fact that He wants you in His family. Not someday, now. He calls you a son, now. He wants you to look to Him as a Father, now. To submit to Him, now. You may not be able to even guess what the commission of Jesus Christ to His own church is. Because sometimes we don't understand the point of that commission, the goal of that commission. But it is that all of the church would obey Christ.

You can take every part of the commission in Matthew 16, 15, and... I'm sorry, Mark 16, 15, and Matthew 28, 19, 20, 21. Take every part of it. It all comes down to one thing. That they would obey those things I command. That's what He wants. He wants you and me and those He calls, and as many as the Father is drawing, to end up as obedient children doing the things He's command.

To love God with our heart, soul, and might, and love our neighbor as ourself. And everything else God has commanded us. That's what He wants. So that is God's will, and that's what you need to have as your will in your life. We need to submit to God's will. We need to submit our will. Say, you know what? I need to put aside all of this other stuff and this desire for all this junk and all these things I want to do and places I want to go and things I want to be.

And I need to submit to God's will and start serving my employer, and serving and loving my God, and serving and loving my fellow man, and sacrificing for any and everybody I possibly can, whether I have the means, the ability to do so, and trust that God will help me. And let the rest be what it will be. Now, if you can do that, you're pursuing the will of God. You are actually putting His will in heaven to work here on earth. In Matthew 7, we find that this becomes an incredible partnership, and that's what I was missing all those years.

Matthew 7, verse 11.

You see, if God makes you His son or daughter, and comes and lives in you with the Holy Spirit, and you then are part of the God family, and He's partnering with you, and mentoring you, and leading you, you now have a team that involves your very God and Creator in heaven. It's powerful, and you will go places and do things as He wants done. Now, if you want to separate that team and do it on your own with some sort of obedience along the way, your life's going to be very different, very, very limited. Matthew 7, verse 11.

I'm in Mark. If you, then, being evil, or being human, carnal, sinful, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? Okay? Your Father and children, He is able to give gifts. Now, which do you want? Your gifts or His gifts? Think of all the gifts God can give, starting with faith, repentance, baptism, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, eternal life, inspiration, spiritual gifts, which will be the topic of the GCE this year, developing spiritual gifts within the ministry, recognizing them, utilizing them. Those are just gifts to start with. And if we're really focused in on God, and He says right here, you know, you being evil know how to give good gifts to your kids. I mean, what can the one who created the universe give you?

I'll tell you, I am amazed what God can do, can bring to these eyes and senses when partnered with Him and having no expectations.

It is phenomenal. Things I have never thought of, dreamed of in my life get experienced and seen and done. It's an incredible partnership. That's about all I can tell you. An incredible partnership. And I don't ask for any of it, okay? Nothing. It's just what He does. I take care of my side. I try to obey and love and serve and pray daily for more of His mind and that I can fulfill His will, that I can serve and be a light and help out in any way possible. I concentrate on that. Same with my marriage. I don't get up and say, now let me think. Let me make a list of things I want from Mary today.

I pray in the morning and I ask God, help me love my wife and make her day meaningful and happy. Help me do that. I don't ask for anything else and I don't ask her for anything else. And the day is what it is.

The rest is a gift, isn't it? And if you trust God on this verse that he can give good gifts, then why would I ask him for something? In verse 12, notice that it's only for those that are doing certain things. You just can't accept, oh, I'm going to get good gifts now. Okay, God. Where are you? Bring them on.

Well, verse 12, therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. You be loving your neighbor as yourself. Now, that's fulfilling the law and the prophets. You be doing God's commands as a real child of the family, a real representative of the family. And then the family will team up and they'll take you places and you'll see and do things that you won't believe. I don't mean ethereal things, by the way. I don't take some trip or see anything.

I'm just talking about the events of life that are just amazing, what God in this physical life can't let you experience. It's an incredible partnership, but it's also the focus of very few because this receiving gifts from above, it is also linked to verse 13. It's for those who enter by the narrow gate. This all goes together. We've got to walk the difficult path. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it.

Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it. So if you decide, alright, I'm going to trust God and I'm really going to do his will and I'm going to get on this difficult path, no matter where it takes me and wherever it goes, then God now is going to interact with you. He's going to link with you. They are going to come and make their abode with you. He is going to be your light and take you in a path that is just amazing. Not just in the physical, but in the spiritual. It's amazing.

You're going to become a person that you didn't expect to be. Respected, honorable, able, capable. On your own, you would have never been unless you make this connection with God. God controls all wealth. Deuteronomy 8, verse 17 and 18, people read that. God has got all wealth and he'll give it to those he wants. I want wealth, right? Still me and my path and my bucket list. All I've got to do is somehow get it out of God.

I'll do a few things for him, so he'll do a few things for me. Wrong mindset. God rewards the godly who are diligent in their responsibilities. Now, again, human nature sometimes just wants things for free, for nothing, for no investment. Some people just give me the gift. You can look through. I was reading a word for the word gift, where it says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

So it's a gift. Now, if you look up that word, you can go to various individuals who'll translate that. A more clear translation talks about it one way. But you get into a more religious translator, and it'll be, you can't do anything. I mean, you cannot do anything. It is just totally a gift. You can't do anything. The human nature likes that.

We like to say, look, I just want the gift. Except in that passage, it says, the wages of sin is death. Oh, so there is a qualification to get the gift. What would that be? Well, it's not sinning, is it? You know, in the next verse, in the previous verse, you get the context.

It dropped down a little bit. It talks about God's Holy Spirit leads the righteous, or leads us to righteousness, which leads to eternal life. But the works of the flesh lead to sin, which ends in death. We have got to be involved in God's way of life, don't we? So watch your little mind there, because you're going to look for an out. Oh, we heard today about getting stuff from God, or a better life, or something. It's one or the other. It's your will, or God's will.

It's your direction, or Christ's direction. It's Him as the bread of life, and the light of the path, or you, going after the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and directing your own path. You've got to make a real decision, and guess what? We're going to find out. You've got to make it every day. It's not a one-time deal. So God controls these things, and it's not going to happen unless it comes from Him.

You know, it shouldn't be surprising that Abraham, the father of the faithful, the Bible says, was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. Wow! How about that? Very rich! If you look at other individuals that were led by God, that really turned their lives over to God, David, you know, in the 23rd Psalm, said, you know what? I've taken this approach. I am now going to quit leading my life, and I'm going to be a sheep. I'm just a sheep, a dumb sheep, and I don't know how to go.

I don't know where to go. The Lord is my shepherd. And you know, when the Lord is my shepherd, He says, I shall not want, or I will not have need. I shall not need. Wow! You know, when David was running his own life, he had a lot of needs, didn't he?

He was trying to get away from Saul, and not get killed, and all kinds of stuff. And he did a few things that, at times, put him out of sorts with God. And he had to pray and ask, and his prayers weren't answered. He wanted his way to continue with Bathsheba, and the kid, and all this.

He had to repent and say, give me a new heart, give me a new focus. I'm going to follow you. You know, none of these individuals sought wealth as a priority, and they became fine, including the disciples, the apostles. You never see them having any need. Jesus, even when he sent them out, he said, don't even take your wallet or purse. We'll take care of you. You're doing my work. You're doing my will. So the first part here is to understand God's potential role in your life, and see. See, if you would rather have him at the helm than you at the helm. The second part is learning to trust God, really trusting God.

Learning to trust God begins with faith. You know, the key component of faith is trust. And Jesus said, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth? It wasn't that he wouldn't find belief in God. Belief isn't faith, right?

A trust that Abraham had when he took the knife and put it to the throat of Isaac is trust. Okay, that's trust. Trusting God with all your might is a big step. It's a big step. I don't mean just a one-time step. Oh, I've committed my life to God. No, no, no. I'm talking about trusting your life to God when the policeman's having you roll down your window and you're thinking about, you know, lying. When your employer's asking you to not go to the Feast of Tabernacles or you get fired.

You know, on and on and on. Trusting God is a big, big step to take. To trust God to repent of this sort of Oscar image that you've polished, and I've polished our lives to where we look good and, you know, we present ourselves and want people to like us and honor us and respect us or whatever it is, to change that into something humble that's clothed in sackcloth that one day will be all dressed up in fine linen and dressed for a wedding by Christ.

That's hard to do. To devote your life to deconstruct yourself and instead grow up into Christ, into the fullness and stature and the humility and the serving and the sacrifice and the love for God and fellow man, to put yourself aside, put it on hold, actually, bury it. That trust is huge. And again, it's not just at baptism. It's a daily thing or many times a day because the old man wants to get up and keep living.

It boils down to, who do I trust and for what do I trust him? Well, I'll trust him for some things, but I'll trust me for others. Can you really set aside your trust and do you really trust for the right things?

Are we trusting God for my health and my wealth? Are we trusting God to develop in us His nature through a process that can take us anywhere that He wants us to go and really be clay in His hand? If you trust in the US dollar or the stock market or certain investments and currencies and bonds, all those things are circling the bowl. It says in Ezekiel 7 that time is coming when they'll throw their silver in the streets and the gold will let them down. Those things aren't security, are they? They're not going to help you have financial security and an inner peace and bonds with God and your fellow man.

But if you turn your trust to God, He cares for you. He really does. You're the apple of His eye if you really, really are doing His will and committed to Him. He is not only caring for you, He is the source of life. He is the sustainer of life. He can and perform miracles to keep you alive as long as needed until you are qualified to receive eternal life in His eyes. He is also able to provide you with a certain amount of wealth or physical blessings as a Father knows how to give good gifts, and you don't always know what those are. You might think you do.

I used to think I did. Add some ideas. Let's go over to 1 Timothy 6, verses 17-19. 1 Timothy 6, verse 17. It says, Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches. We really can't trust in the things that we have any more than the people up the East Coast can trust in having a house after a hurricane blows through, or the same on the Gulf Coast, or the same on the West Coast, or that you can trust that your house will have value, or that your money will have value, or that you'll even have money.

But rather, don't trust in uncertain riches, but rather trust in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. You know, when you transfer it over to God, He can richly give you as a physical human being liberally all things to enjoy, and things that go far beyond what you and I even know to enjoy. Let them do good that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share. See, the God that partners with you to do verse 18, doing good for others, is able, verse 17, to give richly all things to enjoy and to share, because that's your mindset.

Storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

Now, there's financial security, there's peace of mind, there's confidence for the future. It's all locked up in a relationship with God that's right. It says in Nahum, chapter 1 and verse 7, The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him. Now, if you want peace in a time of destruction and war and chaos, there it is. God is good, and he's good to you, and he's a stronghold for those that he knows who trust in him.

My wife and I eventually grew to the point of confidence where we trust God with anything that the church asks of us. Now, believe me, we're in a position to argue and maybe work compromises. But we came to the point long ago when the phone rings, and please, if anybody else is listening, plug your ears. We just trust that they are fasting and praying before the requests come in. But if anybody calls Superior and says, would you be willing to or would you consider, or we've been thinking about this and wanted to run it by you, the answer is yes.

Now, that doesn't always come easy, because many times that has meant suddenly, in the middle of whatever it is your life has going, turning off all the relationships, you and your children and your family, turning off all the things connected to your house and your life, shutting them down, selling off everything you don't need, including your house and any extras, and packing it all up and heading off to some place you've never heard of before.

And you certainly can't imagine it being a good place to go. You just can't. Now, there's trust in that. And that's because we are dedicated to doing what we're asked by God. We trust Him. We trust that He would not have anyone ask of us something that was not His will. And if it's His will, then Father knows best, knows better than I do. And that's always been the case.

It's always been the case. We've served in many very good-for-you areas. When I say good for you, they'll help you grow, they'll temper you, they'll help your family, they'll make you a better person and able to help others better than you can now. I'll tell you a story that happened back in 1972. As a teenager, I had trusted God up to a point. I was baptized, and I had gone through three and a half years of college over in England and transferred back to Ambassador Pasadena. And I was just confident that God was doing things.

And I was just blown away by the things I'd experienced so far and didn't know what was next. And a minister in Pasadena told me, he said, John, I think you should go in the field for a year between your junior and senior year. I thought, well, but I have a career I'm working on in television productions. I like television and TV production and editing and things like that. He said, no, I think it's God's will for you to go in the field for a year.

And there were certain individuals there in the administration that heard about that, that didn't feel that interrupting my college and sending me into the field was a good thing. They thought, no, he needs to focus on college and finishing that and get on with his career. But this minister, they then had a meeting. And they all came out of the meeting believing that it was God's will that I went in the field for a year. So I said, okay, I mean, sure, yes, I will go in the field for a year.

Where do you go? So I sit in the field for a year. One little thing came up, and that was the income of the church drop-down. So that minister called me up and said, oh, by the way, there's been a change. The church can't afford to send you out for a year. So it's off. And I said, I thought it was God's will. And he said, well, it is, but there's no money. I said, well, if it's God's will, what does money have to do with it?

So I became the only person ever sent out in the field for a year without any money or being paid, and I arrived without a penny in my name. But he was convinced, and I was convinced it was God's will, that I show up there. So I spent a year in the field, and of course I had to get a job, and there was an opening. One of our church members sold tombstones. I don't know who he sold them to. I think it was always a little late, if you know what I mean. So the pastor said, well, this guy is kind of looking for a sidekick. We could go over and see him. And then on the way, he said, you know, there's another man who runs a pretty good-sized company who's looking for a gardener. Do you know anything about gardening? I said, yeah, I know gardening. New planning, old planning, the whole thing. So we stopped there, and I had an interview with him, and I came out as his assistant national sales. Sales rep to the manager. I came out in short time as the plant quality control officer, and I was sent around the country managing their various, I don't know what you'd call them, displays that they had at conventions. I just barely got out there, and I ended up going to Hawaii for the Feast of Tabernacles. And I'm writing this really cute girl in England who's my new girlfriend who's sitting in the audience today. This is a very, very good year. At the end of the year of serving daytime at the company, nighttime with the church, I was asked to start a plant in the West Coast manufacturing this company's products.

When you trust God, you just...it's amazing, I'll tell you. It's just amazing. We've had 39 years of transfers. We've started there in Northern Ohio, we went to Canada, Arkansas, South Dakota, California, Southern Ohio, now Arizona, and now East Africa, serving eight countries over in East Africa.

All of these were surprises to us. Every one, the phone rang, you know? And we said yes.

I'll tell you another story. This was in 1998. The phone rang. You've got two weeks, and in two weeks, you're cut to half salary, permanently. You will not be getting full salary again from the church. So consider doing something permanent. You're pastoring there in Cincinnati. So that whale...OK. Pray about this. Look at abilities, talents. You know, there's computing, there's flying. I thought about maybe selling airplanes, talked to a vendor, but it kept coming back to my original love and passion, which was video production and radio, which I'd worked in, and things like that.

So I do it all. Full service advertising agency. So I started this company. And the reason I started it was so that I could have spare time to go visit and do funerals during weekdays and anoint whenever. I didn't want to be tied down to something. But of course, you know how it is with businesses. You've got to invest a couple of years before you ever become solvent, usually, if you can survive.

It was an incredible ride. I was asked to do that. And ended up in television commercials, print commercials, radio commercials, national commercials, regional, local commercials. Really helped me see and make contacts. And subcontractors were hired.

I was able to get a lot done in starting the company, a full service ad agency, by participating in the industry. Rolled around and produced television, radio, started in it, managed it, had TV stations do it. There were all manner of type videos, prints, publications, mailing, tape duplications.

It was just a very, very busy time. Somewhere along the way, I never got to draw that other half of the salary I was missing. I had to pay employees and staff, but I never got to draw any money the whole time I was in the business for a little over two years.

My wife was able to come on board, eventually as the office manager. But at some point, I was still asking God, bring me some clients here, some more bigger paying clients here. And they weren't coming. You had the little ones and occupy your time.

But that was in the year 2000, and I finally decided and read the scripture, I'm not going to ask God anymore. I'm going to trust God from now on. I'm going to be the minister, I'm going to do this job, and just see what happens. I'm not ever going to ask for another thing. Well, not ever, I didn't say ever. But now, I'm going to try this out. I'm not going to ask for anything. And it was then that we got our most prestigious client, which was Xerox, and our most paying client, which was a county, one of the county governments in Ohio hired us to do their fulfillment for them. It was the most lucrative that we ever had. And it just taught me, all right, well, I'm not going to start going back to that old way. I'm going to just start doing and serving and trusting, and see what happens. That's what I'm still doing today. You know, one of the important things is that you have to understand that if you're God's child and He's your father, the relationship is family. And God takes certain obligations, obviously, for family, and has certain responsibilities for family. And, you know, that business, I think it grossed $122,000 in two years. Its expenses were $134,000. So when we finished, I had a $12,500 thing to pay off, which took a little while. After a couple years of only half salary, now I've got that kind of bill. But when you go from there to here, I mean, God has just worked miracles. I'm in the profession where people who hear sometimes what we make feel sorry for us.

God, when He partners with us, does things that would confuse society.

If you're God's child, then you're different than the people in the world who have a different God and are fed and influenced by that God. We're influenced by another God, and this God wants you, primarily, to be in His family. But along the way, He'll do wonderful things as well. I don't care what I make as a salary. I don't count it. It's irrelevant. It always has been. You know, God can make things happen that just don't make sense, that make no sense whatsoever.

I would be afraid to go back through my check-in account and count up where everything came from and where everything went. I just don't want to know, because I think there's some secrets in there. And I know that's not the advice I usually give people.

The third point is to understand what brings about peace and what peace is.

In John 14 and verse 23, this concept of peace that Jesus gives is different than just sort of a feeling of peace, or, oh, I feel so comfortable now, I'm all taken care of, I can just relax and not worry.

John 14, 23, Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, agape loves. You know what all that means? It's a whole Bible here. He will keep my word. Remember what our commission is about? People keeping His commandments. Now, if you keep His word, notice what happens. My Father will love Him. If you don't keep His word, what do you think is going to happen? Well, it doesn't say, but don't count on the same type of results. Let's just say that. If He keeps my words and if He loves me, my Father will love Him and we will come to Him and make our home with Him. Now, guess who you got? God the Father and Jesus Christ living in you through the Spirit, what do you think is going to happen? Well, I don't know, actually, but hang on for the ride, because it's going to be a ride. It's going to take you places you never thought of going, you're going to turn into somebody you never thought you would be, you're going to think, do, and see and experience things that, believe me, have never entered the thoughts or minds of men, now and eventually in the Kingdom of God. Verse 26, how does this happen? Well, the Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one thing to have the Holy Spirit and just treasure it. It's another thing to be led by it. Trust God. Be led by the Holy Spirit and have the fruits of the Holy Spirit. You know what the fruits of the Holy Spirit are? Agape, Joy, Peace. Ah, so where is the source of peace going to come from? It's not going to just drop out of the air and hit you on the head. You're going to develop this by God living in you and living what was said up there in verse 23, keeping his words and doing his commandments. Verse 27, Peace, I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have God living in you. You are loving and doing what Christ said and therefore they're going to lead you. You don't have any worries. Now that is the only source of peace I know of. The rest is all very temporary and cannot be relied on. So stay focused and on point. What is your focus? Two great commandments. Love God with all your heart, soul and might. Love your neighbor as yourself. Sacrifice everything to do those things and all that goes along with that. And don't worry about the rest.

The rest is not your problem. You're a child, remember? It's your parents' responsibility to tell you what to do and to take you where you need to go. And they are wonderful parents, as it were. God the Father and Jesus Christ. Now, the fourth point is to establish the right priority every day because it's easy to get away from what we just read. It can happen in a heartbeat.

Oh yeah, Saturday John's going to do this. Oh, this is a very inspiring message today. But what happens on Monday and Tuesday and Thursday? Well, it's easy to switch back and we have the wrong priority. You have to choose your daily priority when you get up. Will it be spiritual or physical? Will I go right to my... or will I go get on my knees and pray?

Well, I just say, well, just one check of my... or do I say, no, I'm going to get down. I'm going to go right to the third heaven and talk to my Father and see if He has anything that I can help with, anyone I can serve today, any way I can obey, any way I haven't been obeying right, get forgiven for that, and zero in and get my priorities straight. And if you don't have the rest of it, that's just going to be sufficient for the day as the evil thereof. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 6. You've got to establish the right priority. Matthew 6, 19, don't lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, but lay up yourselves treasure in heaven. That's how you do that. In other words, develop a relationship and a bond with God, and not just a relationship, but a mentoring partnership where God is teaching you, He's in you, He's moving you, He's taking you. And you're going to grow through that. Make the first commandment your greatest treasure, as it were, and treasure that with your heart and your soul and your mind. You know, the consequences of that daily choice makes or breaks the title of this sermon, which is Financial Security and Peace. That's what it is. That's where it comes from. Now, I can't tell you what it'll be for you, or how God will work that out, and that's part of the beauty of it. It's just phenomenal, though. It can be. It can be phenomenal. And it's not always, oh, just lots of money and lots of fun. Sometimes it's through the valley of the shadow of death, but you know what? That's pretty cool, too. You know, it's kind of scary and exciting. And David said, I will fear no evil, because you are with me. It doesn't matter where you go. It doesn't matter where you get sent. It doesn't matter what happens, because some of that's good for you. And you have to realize, all things work together for good, then this thing that looks really negative, this is going to be really good, because God's letting it happen. Or God's even making it happen. Now, one consequence, you know, you have choice and consequence. Sometimes the choice is a good choice, and so it has a consequence, too, and it's a good consequence. One of the consequences for trusting God is that God knows what you want more than you know what you want. I didn't know that. Dumb me, I spent too many years of my life pursuing what I thought I wanted. But when I trust God, it's amazing what comes along that I didn't even know about, let alone want. Sometimes there's too much of it, and I'm overwhelmed and sometimes embarrassed by it, because there's so much of it. When he talks about opening the windows of heaven and blessings falling on you, I tell you what, we've experienced that, to the point where you just finally have to start limiting how many blessings you're able to receive and try to divert some of them and give them away. I know that probably sounds weird. I'm not going to go into details here, but I can sure give you some details. Trusting God, knowing what you like more than what you like, is how Mary and I got here. I didn't think I liked Phoenix. I'd been through the airport a time or two, the old airport, and I didn't like sand and heat so much.

That's all there is in Arizona, and kind of in and out.

But when the phone call came, we had very strong, compelling reasons to say, but, or please reconsider.

The things that were presented to us were, we would like you to transfer to Phoenix, Arizona. Left column, right column. All three of your daughters will be staying in Ohio, and you won't see them again.

Your grandchildren, same thing.

Your friends. Remember that financial pickle you're in? Your ability to live where you are and keep working on those things, in an established infrastructure and dwellings and things like that. All goes away.

And you're going to a place way out there that, let's see, the last time I flew in, it was hot and sandy or something.

There are a lot of things that a person could bring up.

Could have pressed God even to support my physical priorities.

But you know what he said? With a deep swallow and no thought, yes.

Now, you make the right choice daily, and God's going to bless you.

Interesting thing about coming to Phoenix is, it's our very favorite assignment of any we've had.

It is the most beautiful place to live, Arizona. I mean, it's all here. We've even got the beach. We just don't have the ocean yet.

But I hear it's coming.

And wonderful brethren that are very comfortable, very comfortable together, and that are harmonized and humble and appreciative and just family.

And our three daughters all came.

The point is that personal focus on our needs, our wealth, our materials, and that's not of God. It's not supported of God, and it can't be something God supports.

Commitment to agape, now that's something God can support. He can assist you with that. He can help you with that.

And He can bless children who are becoming like Him. We can expect testing, we can expect correction, and that should be actually welcomed.

One thing I hope you're able to do is get on your knees and say, God, correct me! Don't even use the, not in your displeasure part, because if He's displeased with you and corrects you, it really gets through.

Just like a knife through hot butter. No, a hot knife through butter.

Just trust Him. You don't have to put all the conditions down. God, I'm kind of thinking about correction here. Now, you can have this much. Don't make it hurt.

Do you trust Him or don't you trust Him? Just ask Him for correction. It's going to be good for you. So, put your highest priority on the things of God, seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness.

Matthew 6. Let's spend just a little bit of time there real quickly, and then we'll conclude. Matthew 6, verse 20.

This chapter is filled with a lot of important things for us to focus on and our priority on.

Matthew 6, verse 20. Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in steel.

For or because where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Your heart is supposed to be on loving God with your heart, soul, and might.

So that's where our treasure should be. Establish the right priority every day of having that treasure.

Verse 33. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

And He's talking about physical stuff. So if you even just want a bunch of materialism, the best you can do is seek God and His righteousness and let Him fill your toy box.

Because He's really good at that, and He knows what you want more than what you think you want.

You know, in one command, tithing command, math, Malachi 3, 8 through 10, God Himself says, you know, look, bring the tithes into my storehouse, and some offerings maybe on top of that. You can't outgive God, I found out. It doesn't matter how much you don't have. If you really sincerely are in this type of relationship with God and are giving to Him and giving to others, then what Paul said over in Romans kicks in.

Where, may He who gives seed to the sower... Now, you're throwing out seed, right? You're going to run out of seed here.

May He who gives seed to the sower essentially refill your basket so that you'll have plenty more to give. He says, go out, and God loves a generous giver. Be a generous giver.

So, when it comes to God, you want to be generous. Bring all the tithes in the storehouse that there may be food in my house, and test me now. Try me now in this, God says.

If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there won't be room enough to receive it.

You can't just obey that one thing. It's a package. It's a covenant. You've got to do it all. You can't be in it to get something, a kickback.

Obey God, keep His commandments, do His will, not to get something. No, He's got gifts and wonderful rewards and prizes and all kinds of things.

Just stay focused on the goal of becoming like God and look at the ultimate result of all of this.

1 Peter 1, verses 3-9. 1 Peter 1 and verse 3. 2 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ through the dead.

2 An inheritance, incorruptible, an undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That's security. That's peace of mind. That is incredible inheritance of almost everything.

Verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. Those are good for you too, if need be.

So in conclusion, if you want to have peace, integrity, financial security, even riches beyond your own imagination, pursue righteousness with diligence and trust God.

It says in Hebrews 1 and 2, God has appointed His Son to be heir of all things. So get this. Jesus is the heir of everything that there is.

In Romans 8 and verse 17, we are children of God. If you really are a child of God, in that relationship with Him, verse 17 says, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

Remember, He is the guy who owns everything and you are a joint heir with Him of everything. Now what was the physical thing that we wanted? Nothing. Nothing compares with receiving part of everything. And that's what's in the future. And then in Revelation 21 and verse 7 it says, He who overcomes shall inherit all things. That's everything. You're going to inherit everything.

And I will be His God and He will be my Son.

You know, it is all about everything and getting everything. And the one with the most toys will be the ones who are in the kingdom of God. They inherit everything.

And God wants that for them. And He wants to bless us now as we develop as children. So if you want to have peace, you want to have financial security now and forever, then partner with God in Christ-like diligence, pursuing righteousness.

Trust. Let Him mentor you. Let Him teach you. Let Him take you where He wants to go. In His hands, you can find the financial security and spiritual peace needed to finish your race, after which you get to inherit everything that there is.

If you'd like more information on this topic, the United Church of God has a booklet called Managing Your Finances that I think you will find very helpful.