WEBVTT 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:39.600 Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:40.480 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:44.160 Mahler. And I'm still Woe. 00:00:44.160 --> 00:00:44.400 On 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:48.800 today's Stone Choir, we're going to be discussing talents and gifts and 00:00:48.800 --> 00:00:50.960 our duties and Thanksgiving. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:53.920 As we're recording this the week of Thanksgiving, we thought that it'd 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.240 be a nice way to tie all those things together. 00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:59.120 We had a question about one of 'em and we realized the 00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:04.160 the uh concept of having duties to do things, being thankful for 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:07.680 for our gifts and for the opportunity to to be a benefit 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:08.560 to others. 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:12.240 All kind of ties together nicely and in a timely fashion. 00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:14.640 Today's gonna be hopefully a speedrun episode. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:17.680 Uh if we succeed in what we're hoping to do, this will 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:19.040 only be about an hour long. 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:21.920 Of course, we do this all in one shot, so as you 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:25.440 look at the actual runtime, you will see how wildly wrong we 00:01:25.440 --> 00:01:27.360 were. I think it will be pretty short. 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:30.880 Uh today we want to especially welcome all the new folks from 00:01:30.880 --> 00:01:31.360 the P. 00:01:31.440 --> 00:01:34.480 Kinona show audience who've joined us recently. 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:38.720 Corey and I appeared on that show last week and that was 00:01:38.720 --> 00:01:39.600 a lot of fun. 00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:45.040 It's ironic that the best introductions to Stone Choir have not been 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:46.400 on Stone Choir. 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:48.800 They've been shows that we did with Adam on Myth of the 00:01:48.800 --> 00:01:52.160 Twentieth Century and with Pete on his own show. 00:01:52.160 --> 00:01:55.120 I'm thankful for folks who are discovering us that way because it 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:57.600 kind of gives you the lay of the land. 00:01:57.600 --> 00:02:00.400 Uh we did an episode early on where we talked about why 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:04.800 we're Lutheran and that's kind of part of the explanation for why 00:02:04.800 --> 00:02:05.360 we did the show. 00:02:05.360 --> 00:02:07.440 There's a lot more to that episode than that. 00:02:07.440 --> 00:02:11.760 As I mentioned in the episode last week that we did with 00:02:11.760 --> 00:02:15.280 Pete, if you're a new listener, we really highly recommend that you 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:16.640 go back to the beginning. 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:20.480 The episodes we do are not ripped from the headlines, so they 00:02:20.480 --> 00:02:23.520 will generally almost never age on you. 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:26.400 You can go back years from now and find that these will 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:28.720 still be relevant topics to listen to. 00:02:28.720 --> 00:02:31.440 I mention that in particular because not only is this going to 00:02:31.440 --> 00:02:34.720 be a short episode this week because of Thanksgiving, but we're taking 00:02:34.720 --> 00:02:38.240 next week off because the following week we're going to finally be 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:41.680 tackling Eastern quote unquote orthodoxy. 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:43.600 And that's a really important one to get right. 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:46.960 So we're doing some finishing touches on research and prep so that 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:49.520 we can really nail that one because it's going to be vital 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:53.440 to a lot of folks, particularly as r as reference material. 00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:56.560 So next week when there's no episode, you know, if you want 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:59.360 to go back and listen to some prior episodes, it's worth it. 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:01.200 It's worth listening to episodes more than once. 00:03:01.200 --> 00:03:03.600 That's one of our goals when we we made these shows is 00:03:03.600 --> 00:03:06.400 to try and make them worth revisiting. 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:07.040 Since this 00:03:07.040 --> 00:03:10.640 is Thanksgiving, I do want to highlight a couple episodes that if 00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:14.160 you're gonna go be sitting down with your family and gonna wanna 00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:18.400 be talking about politics and religion and red pilling the old folks 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:19.120 on stuff. 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:23.040 They're two episodes that are vitally important for for you to hopefully 00:03:23.200 --> 00:03:26.080 have in mind before you open that can of worms. 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:27.680 Honestly, just don't do it. 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:29.520 Just love your family. 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:31.280 Forgive them when they're dumb. 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:32.080 They're family. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:34.400 They're yours, for better or worse. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:36.160 They're not yours to fix. 00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:40.720 Uh the two episodes we did fairly recently were titled Persuasiveness Matters 00:03:40.720 --> 00:03:43.120 and Conspiracy theories and truth. 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:45.120 We did those kind of in reverse order. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:48.720 We did the one on conspiracy theories and kind of got people 00:03:48.720 --> 00:03:51.760 psyched about red pilling people on all the weird stuff that you 00:03:51.760 --> 00:03:52.800 discover on the internet. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:55.360 And so we did another episode that kind of should have come 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:58.800 first saying Now that you know this stuff, be careful and don't 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:02.320 just run your mouth and go wild because people aren't ready. 00:04:02.320 --> 00:04:04.000 Let people take things at their own pace. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.560 And that's another part of the reason we lay down these episodes. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.360 You can have a nice peaceful conversation. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:12.960 And if something comes up with family, maybe if it would make 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:16.720 sense, you can say, Hey, I heard this interesting uh episode, talk 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:17.760 about this in depth. 00:04:17.760 --> 00:04:18.480 I thought it was cool. 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:19.760 Let me know what you think. 00:04:19.760 --> 00:04:21.680 And then you can just blame us if they think it's all 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:24.000 terrible. And you don't have to make an enemy of someone in 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:25.840 your own household. 00:04:25.840 --> 00:04:29.280 So to get into it today, the the question we had had 00:04:29.280 --> 00:04:33.680 to do with the blessings that we receive from God and what 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:34.720 we do with them. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:39.840 You know, basically in the church stewardship parlance, it's often talked about 00:04:39.840 --> 00:04:43.200 in terms of time, talents, and treasure. 00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:47.120 And first of all, in terms of thanksgiving, it's important for us 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:50.400 to always remember that all of those things are gifts from God. 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:54.000 Whatever you have, whether it is your time, every breath you take, 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:57.520 every day that you have on this earth, is appointed by God. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:00.720 The day of your death has been appointed already. 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:01.440 He knows. 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:03.200 So you don't need to worry about it. 00:05:03.200 --> 00:05:06.960 And between now and that day, you're spending your days, just as 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:10.480 you're spending your money and you're spending the talents that have been 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:13.280 given to you for one purpose or another. 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:16.240 And you get up every morning and it's completely up to you. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.240 You know, most people listening are adults. 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:21.920 there's nobody looking over your shoulder saying you need to do X, 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:22.960 Y, and Z today. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:25.680 And you have a boss, you have you know husband or wife. 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:29.040 So there are people to whom you answer to some degree, but 00:05:29.280 --> 00:05:31.520 you had input on who your boss was, and you had input 00:05:31.520 --> 00:05:33.120 on who your spouse was. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:37.040 You can opt in and out of those things to some degree. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:40.880 And so that's one of the burdens of adulthood is that when 00:05:40.880 --> 00:05:44.800 we when we have these opportunities to do anything you want, it's 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:48.160 like, you know, you first reach adulthood and maybe you had a 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:51.520 pension for sugary cereal as a kid and your parents would only 00:05:51.520 --> 00:05:53.040 occasionally let you have it. 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:55.120 And the first time you go to the grocery store as an 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:58.560 adult, you're like, oh man, I'm gonna I'm gonna fill my car 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:00.480 with peanut butter cap crunch. 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:03.280 That was my weakness. 00:06:03.280 --> 00:06:04.480 Dumb, bad idea. 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:06.480 You know, make you sick, rye your teeth. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:08.240 But there's nobody telling you no. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:13.120 And so when we have these abilities in this time and you 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:17.600 know, our money and whatever other gifts God has given us. 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:21.600 The key takeaway from scripture is that these are not just for 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:23.520 your own personal amusement. 00:06:23.520 --> 00:06:27.280 They're there to sustain your life and they're also there for you 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:29.520 to help take care of other people. 00:06:29.520 --> 00:06:33.280 And principally those people will be your immediate family, your extended family, 00:06:33.280 --> 00:06:36.400 and then your immediate neighbors, and then your extended neighbors, and your 00:06:36.400 --> 00:06:39.200 extended family, you know, going out to the you know the local 00:06:39.200 --> 00:06:42.240 and you know, the level of your nation in some cases. 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:46.320 But those concentric circles are always present in whatever we do. 00:06:46.320 --> 00:06:48.880 You know, you don't live your life on the internet. 00:06:48.880 --> 00:06:52.640 You live your life around the people that you interact with. 00:06:52.640 --> 00:06:57.200 So as we as adults choose to allocate our time and our 00:06:57.200 --> 00:07:00.560 talents and our treasures, it's important to remember that not only did 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:04.240 God give us those things for our benefit, but almost more importantly, 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:07.600 He gave them to us for our neighbors' benefit. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:10.880 And the key point that I hope we can get across today 00:07:10.880 --> 00:07:15.120 is that when you have that in mind, it may trigger small 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:17.840 or perhaps large changes in how you live some part of your 00:07:17.840 --> 00:07:21.920 life, but the important part is actually thinking about it, thinking about 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:26.080 the fact that whatever you have, you didn't just earn, you know, 00:07:26.080 --> 00:07:30.640 you did earn it to some extent, but it was God giving 00:07:30.640 --> 00:07:34.160 you the opportunity to earn it, giving the ability to earn it, 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:36.800 and then giving you whatever it is that you earned. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.320 So even the things that we somewhat kind of want to take 00:07:40.320 --> 00:07:44.000 credit for, ultimately it all comes from God. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:47.440 And once we realize that, it becomes a lot easier when we're 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:50.720 looking at how do we dispense what we've received. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:54.880 Because if God is just pouring these gifts out to you, are 00:07:54.880 --> 00:07:56.080 you the endpoint? 00:07:56.080 --> 00:07:58.800 Or is there the opportunity in your life for them to flow 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:02.960 through you to others to whom you have some sort of duty? 00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:09.680 So recently there's been some discussion of the phrase Christ is king, 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:12.800 and I'm not going to make this episode topical because we don't 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:13.920 try to do that. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:20.000 The point that I'm making is timeless insofar as this era is 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.880 concerned. Christ is king and he is reigning now. 00:08:24.880 --> 00:08:31.120 However, he's not, so to speak, physically reigning now. 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:34.720 Christ isn't holding court somewhere on the earth. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:36.560 He doesn't have a castle. 00:08:36.560 --> 00:08:41.280 You can't go there and serve him by sweeping the floor or 00:08:41.280 --> 00:08:44.640 working in the kitchen or whatever it happens to be. 00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:49.520 Assuming those are talents or callings that you have. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.560 And so you can't serve Christ directly. 00:08:54.560 --> 00:08:59.280 But that's sort of the point of how God has organized things 00:08:59.280 --> 00:09:00.960 in this life. 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:03.440 You don't really serve God directly. 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:03.920 You serve God 00:09:04.800 --> 00:09:06.880 by serving your neighbor. 00:09:06.880 --> 00:09:12.800 As Luther put it, God does not need your good works. 00:09:12.800 --> 00:09:14.720 That should be fairly obvious. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:20.640 God doesn't need anything, but your neighbor does need your good works. 00:09:20.640 --> 00:09:24.320 And so you serve God by serving your neighbor. 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:25.920 That's the point. 00:09:25.920 --> 00:09:29.520 That's why God gave you your talents, your abilities, all of these 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:33.600 gifts that He has given you, these things that He has entrusted 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:37.520 to your care in this life, they are for the purpose of 00:09:37.520 --> 00:09:41.440 serving of benefiting your neighbor, and that's how you serve God. 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:45.840 Your good works flow to your neighbor, but that is worship of 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:46.160 God 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:50.240 in service to your neighbor. 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:53.360 And it's sort of a mirror image of the way that God 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:57.280 also himself works through creation. 00:09:57.280 --> 00:10:01.280 Because yes, there are gifts that God gives you directly. 00:10:01.280 --> 00:10:06.080 Your attributes, for instance, are gifts from God that flow directly from 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:06.960 God to you. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:10.240 Yes, they also flowed in a way through your parents because obviously 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:12.320 much of it is genetic. 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.520 But there are things that are more or less direct from God 00:10:15.520 --> 00:10:16.880 to you. 00:10:16.880 --> 00:10:21.120 But most of the things in your life that are good flow 00:10:21.520 --> 00:10:26.480 approximately through someone or something. 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:32.560 And so when you were young, your mother made your meals, assuming 00:10:32.560 --> 00:10:35.760 you lived in a home with a mother and a father who 00:10:35.760 --> 00:10:39.840 were married or at least one parent was present, your parents prepared 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:41.440 your food for you. 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:47.120 Your parents provided clothing for you, provided the roof over your head. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:53.520 These are all gifts from God, but they are provided proximately through 00:10:53.520 --> 00:10:55.520 others in creation. 00:10:55.520 --> 00:10:59.600 The good that God delivers to us, he delivers to us through 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:05.840 means. And so it's important to keep that sort of framing, that 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:09.920 understanding of the way that things work in both directions in mind, 00:11:09.920 --> 00:11:14.800 because we return thanks to God and service to God by rendering 00:11:15.280 --> 00:11:20.160 good works to our neighbors, and God gives us good gifts primarily 00:11:20.400 --> 00:11:24.480 through others in creation, and not just other people, but other parts 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:25.440 of creation. 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:28.400 The fact that your dog is loyal is a gift from God, 00:11:28.400 --> 00:11:33.440 that is a gift from God through part of creation to you. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:37.200 One of the key texts that often comes up in the context 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:42.240 of church itself is from Romans twelve, which reads For by the 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:44.800 grace given to me I say to every one among you not 00:11:44.800 --> 00:11:48.080 to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:51.360 to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:52.800 a God is assigned. 00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:56.160 For as in one body we have many members, and the members 00:11:56.160 --> 00:11:59.360 do not all have the same functions, so we through many are 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:03.840 one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, having gifts 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:06.880 that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use 00:12:06.880 --> 00:12:10.880 them, if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our 00:12:10.880 --> 00:12:14.640 serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts 00:12:14.640 --> 00:12:18.400 in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who 00:12:18.400 --> 00:12:23.360 leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:26.720 I think one of the importance of highlighting this passage and the 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:30.320 gifts that Paul is discussing here specifically is I think one of 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:34.960 the mistakes that we make in the church as we're talking about 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:40.720 giving to others, serving others, is that because most of the passages 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:46.960 that scripture addresses directly are talking in the context of the congregation. 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:50.080 I think the mistake that we tend to make rhetorically when we're 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:52.240 talking and focusing on this is 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:56.080 we limit it to Sunday morning effectively. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:59.760 We limit it to what we do at church with other church 00:12:59.760 --> 00:13:03.760 people. And that's one aspect of it, but is in no way, 00:13:03.760 --> 00:13:08.320 shape, or form limiting of our duties to neighbor. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:13.680 This Romans 12 passage illustrates clearly God gives these gifts unequally. 00:13:13.680 --> 00:13:17.600 The person who has nothing can't give generously, or you know, if 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:21.360 it's the widow's might, her generosity is all that she has, but 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:25.280 it's only a drop in the bucket for the needs downstream. 00:13:25.280 --> 00:13:25.600 So 00:13:26.800 --> 00:13:30.000 it does not in any way diminish what the poor give. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.320 Frankly, it's often the poor who give more proportionally than the rich 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:37.200 because they're so s so close to the edge that they can 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:40.000 see over and they tend to do a much better job of 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:43.360 taking care of people who are adjacent to them because those who 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:46.400 are adjacent to them are in even more need than them and 00:13:46.400 --> 00:13:49.680 they understand just how dire those needs can be. 00:13:49.680 --> 00:13:52.000 And those are usually not spiritual needs. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:53.840 I mean, spiritual is always part of it. 00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:56.000 Spiritual is part of part of everything. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:01.600 There's never any diminishing of the importance of the spiritual welfare impacting 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:03.680 everything in our lives. 00:14:03.680 --> 00:14:07.920 But when we talk about these gifts from God, I think it's 00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:11.280 crucial that we understand that it's not just a Sunday morning thing. 00:14:11.280 --> 00:14:14.080 It's not, you know, between whenever Sunday school starts and you have 00:14:14.400 --> 00:14:17.600 the service and maybe have a potluck afterwards, you know, three, four 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:19.680 hours if you're super into church. 00:14:19.680 --> 00:14:23.680 And then you go home and you have the other 164 odd 00:14:23.680 --> 00:14:27.280 hours of your week to do whatever you felt like doing. 00:14:27.760 --> 00:14:31.200 And I think that when we focus in the church on limiting 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:35.680 gifts to spiritual things or even indeed even to I'm going to 00:14:35.680 --> 00:14:38.720 use my gifts only for spiritual purposes. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:41.680 You know, so maybe you have money and you can write big 00:14:41.680 --> 00:14:44.960 checks. And so you think, well, I want to write big checks 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:46.560 for evangelism. 00:14:46.560 --> 00:14:49.840 You know, and usually most of the so called evangelism programs end 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:51.680 up shipping that stuff overseas. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:54.560 when you look at a map of your neighbor your area, you'll 00:14:54.560 --> 00:14:57.840 find that the vast majority of your neighbors are going to hell. 00:14:57.840 --> 00:14:59.840 They don't go to church, they don't have any faith. 00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:04.080 That's overwhelmingly the majority of the people all around us. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:06.400 And so today this modern notion of I'm just gonna write a 00:15:06.400 --> 00:15:10.000 check and send it overseas, and then I've checked the box on 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:15.200 doing my duty as one who contributes in generosity, it's kind of 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:18.960 missing the mark because you've neglected your neighbor, you've neglected the people 00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:20.640 right around you. 00:15:20.640 --> 00:15:23.600 You know, we've often neglect even our own family. 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:23.920 And 00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:29.600 to look at our gifts in terms of the benefit that they 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:33.200 do to those who need it, i it just needs to be 00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:34.960 something that we're thinking about all the time. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:38.560 Not thinking about it all the time, but the consideration should be 00:15:38.560 --> 00:15:42.960 an ever present part of the calculus of how we allocate our 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:45.280 our gifts, whatever they are. 00:15:45.280 --> 00:15:50.320 You know, Corey and I are we're gifted in many ways. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:53.200 We tend to be good of virtually everything and we do. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:54.960 So in I'm not saying this to brag. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:58.640 I'm saying it's i in some ways it's a burden to be 00:15:58.640 --> 00:16:01.280 good at stuff to the point that it doesn't make it easy 00:16:01.280 --> 00:16:02.880 to decide what to do. 00:16:02.880 --> 00:16:06.320 You know, from almost the very first episode of Stone Choir, they're 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:08.640 really good, well done, polished episodes. 00:16:08.640 --> 00:16:10.640 I think even the first one was good, but you know, that 00:16:10.800 --> 00:16:13.840 the very first episode of Stone Choir was the very first time 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:15.520 that Corey and I had ever spoken. 00:16:15.520 --> 00:16:18.240 So, you know, we're kind of knocking some of the rust off, 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:20.880 just getting to know each other a little bit verbally, even though 00:16:20.880 --> 00:16:23.360 we've spoken for years online. 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:26.640 When we're able to knock something out of the park the way 00:16:26.640 --> 00:16:31.360 we have with this podcast, that's because you know, we've been given 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:33.040 the gift to do this well. 00:16:33.040 --> 00:16:34.960 And we didn't know when we put it out there, if anyone 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:36.480 would listen, if anyone would care. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:40.320 The feedback has been overwhelming, not only in terms of being positive, 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:44.240 but in terms of people giving thanks to us for the things 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:46.800 that we've shared on many of the past episodes. 00:16:46.800 --> 00:16:50.080 And again, I'm not saying any of this to point to us. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.640 I'm pointing it just as a specific example that we can give 00:16:52.640 --> 00:16:55.680 that you're all familiar with because you're listening. 00:16:55.680 --> 00:16:59.280 We did this because we felt compelled by God to do it. 00:16:59.280 --> 00:17:02.560 We felt the gifts that we had align perfectly with being able 00:17:02.560 --> 00:17:05.840 to explain some of these subjects in ways that people find very 00:17:05.840 --> 00:17:10.240 beneficial. And we're situated our lives in such a way that the 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:13.760 threats and then the delivery of doxing didn't slow us down. 00:17:13.760 --> 00:17:16.880 So we can continue to do what we've done, even in the 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:20.320 face of hatred and death threats and all the other terrible things 00:17:20.320 --> 00:17:22.960 that are happening to so many people today. 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:26.160 We're in a position to do that that frankly most other men 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:30.080 aren't. And so the gifts that we were given to be able 00:17:30.080 --> 00:17:32.000 to do this one specific task. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.640 Yep, I I'm not I don't want to hold this out an 00:17:34.800 --> 00:17:37.680 as an example that more of you should go start podcasts. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:38.400 Please don't. 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:40.960 You know, one of the reasons not to do this is the 00:17:41.040 --> 00:17:43.600 the last thing the world needs is another podcast. 00:17:43.600 --> 00:17:49.120 But what was missing was these specific discussions having taken place in 00:17:49.120 --> 00:17:51.520 a way that was accessible to normal people. 00:17:51.520 --> 00:17:53.760 Like this isn't a big brain podcast. 00:17:53.760 --> 00:17:57.760 It's not weird Weirdos screaming into the void. 00:17:57.760 --> 00:18:00.960 There's actually some good material here that you can share with completely 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:03.360 normal people and it will resonate. 00:18:03.360 --> 00:18:06.720 Agree or disagree, it's gonna trigger thought and probably some really good 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:11.520 conversation. That's not typically the case in most sermons and most episodes, 00:18:11.520 --> 00:18:12.560 anything you find. 00:18:12.560 --> 00:18:16.400 So when we started delivering and people started sending us messages and 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:20.720 saying, thank you so much for that, we're very appreciative of people 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:22.480 letting us know that they appreciate it. 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:26.880 But it's also in a way, very consciously, we receive that as 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:29.760 God saying, Yeah, you got to keep doing more of this because 00:18:30.080 --> 00:18:34.400 what we are doing, God is using to bear good fruit. 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:39.440 Hundreds of people have been in joined churches, baptized, all because of 00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:42.080 a year's worth of episodes. 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:44.960 That's something that Corey and I've been doing online for many years, 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.840 just you know, tweeting and talking to people. 00:18:47.840 --> 00:18:50.240 Much as people think we're bomb throwers, the fact that we were 00:18:50.320 --> 00:18:54.160 able to clearly communicate these things in public has fired something up 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:57.040 in a lot of people and they want to join churches or 00:18:57.040 --> 00:18:59.040 they want to get more serious about it. 00:18:59.040 --> 00:19:04.080 That is something that's tremendously beneficial in all your communities. 00:19:04.080 --> 00:19:07.920 So it's ironic that as we're saying focus on neighbor, this is 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:10.880 one example where none of you are our neighbors. 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:13.760 You're all just you're strangers somewhere in the ether. 00:19:13.760 --> 00:19:18.160 And yet when these ripples spread throughout all of your communities, the 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.400 benefit and the dividends that that pays is to everyone around you. 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:25.840 And that's the true blessing of being able to help someone in 00:19:25.840 --> 00:19:27.440 a big way or a small way. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:32.880 So you know, when you're given a gift to do something, you 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:34.880 can't just keep it for yourself. 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:38.080 It's important to be able to deliver those benefits to others. 00:19:38.080 --> 00:19:42.560 And so podcasts is is a small example, but I think it's 00:19:42.560 --> 00:19:46.240 an important one in this case because we know from many of 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:49.760 your messages that it's had a real positive impact on people's lives 00:19:49.760 --> 00:19:53.520 that are going to change the trajectory of your families for generations. 00:19:53.520 --> 00:19:55.680 That's God's doing to be explicit. 00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.080 That's not Cory or me doing anything. 00:19:58.080 --> 00:20:02.640 That's God working through whatever we've said and not gotten wrong to 00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:04.560 benefit your lives. 00:20:04.560 --> 00:20:06.480 That's the way we interact with each other. 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:09.520 You don't even know whom you're going to help when you do 00:20:09.520 --> 00:20:12.240 these things, but you know that when you're using your good gifts 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:16.400 in a positive way, the God will give the growth where he 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:17.280 sees fit. 00:20:17.280 --> 00:20:20.720 And you will often find that's the case, sometimes in the least 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:22.880 expected places. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:23.120 I 00:20:23.120 --> 00:20:26.480 want to go back for a minute here and focus on those 00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:30.400 numbers because I think people lose sight sight of 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:38.000 the importance relatively speaking of the time we spend doing certain things. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:41.040 And so you have 168 hours in your week. 00:20:41.040 --> 00:20:42.400 Each of us does. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:46.000 We don't get more hours or fewer hours. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.840 We all get one hundred and sixty eight hours, and you're awake 00:20:49.840 --> 00:20:52.960 for one hundred and twelve or so of those, maybe a few 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:56.240 more if you sleep a little less. 00:20:56.240 --> 00:21:01.040 On Sundays, you're in church for two, three, maybe four hours. 00:21:01.040 --> 00:21:03.200 Let's say it's four hours. 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:08.560 That's a little over three and a half percent of your waking 00:21:08.560 --> 00:21:12.240 hours, assume you sleep about an average amount of time. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:16.560 What are you doing with the other ninety-six percent of your week? 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:23.120 That's the time where you have opportunities to serve your neighbor. 00:21:23.120 --> 00:21:27.040 And yes, of course, much of that is going to be absorbed 00:21:27.040 --> 00:21:32.400 by preparing food or traveling to and from work. 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:35.760 Obviously, your working hours, various things like that. 00:21:35.760 --> 00:21:39.920 But just because you have these various tasks that are required for 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:45.520 life, doesn't mean you don't have opportunities within those time periods to 00:21:45.520 --> 00:21:46.560 serve others. 00:21:46.560 --> 00:21:50.720 For For instance, if you're preparing food for your family, that's a 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:51.600 good work. 00:21:51.600 --> 00:21:56.000 You are serving others, and you are giving thanks to God in 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:59.760 that. Perhaps you can say a little prayer and give thanks to 00:21:59.760 --> 00:22:02.800 God for the food that He has provided you, hopefully all of 00:22:02.800 --> 00:22:07.280 you will be praying before your meal on Thanksgiving day this week. 00:22:07.280 --> 00:22:11.520 Assuming you're American if you're Canadian another time during the year, or 00:22:11.520 --> 00:22:14.160 if you're listening somewhere else in the world. 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:17.200 You should pray before every meal, of course, but there is an 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:21.760 opportunity when you come together as a family for a particular holiday 00:22:21.760 --> 00:22:24.880 meal to make a point of giving thanks to God. 00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:28.480 And of course, thanksgiving is a very appropriate holiday on which to 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:28.560 do 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:34.240 that. But the point is that you have all of these opportunities 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:38.080 to serve your neighbor, and you serve your neighbor by doing a 00:22:38.080 --> 00:22:42.560 good job of those things that God has given you to do. 00:22:42.560 --> 00:22:46.320 And I want to go to another passage in Scripture, another one 00:22:46.320 --> 00:22:47.040 from Matthew. 00:22:47.040 --> 00:22:51.920 There are many passages in Scripture that are related to these issues, 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:54.000 and I will put a number of them in the show notes. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:56.800 We're not going to go through all of them in this episode. 00:22:56.800 --> 00:22:59.120 It's not the point of the episode. 00:22:59.120 --> 00:23:02.560 But I do think that if we're discussing talents, we must certainly 00:23:02.560 --> 00:23:07.200 at least go over the parable of the talents and so from 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:08.800 Matthew twenty five 00:23:09.760 --> 00:23:12.400 for it will be like a man going on a journey who 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:15.520 called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 00:23:15.520 --> 00:23:20.160 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:22.800 to each according to his ability. 00:23:22.800 --> 00:23:24.640 Then he went away. 00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:28.320 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded 00:23:28.320 --> 00:23:31.280 with them, and he made five talents more. 00:23:31.280 --> 00:23:35.120 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 00:23:35.120 --> 00:23:38.400 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in 00:23:38.400 --> 00:23:41.200 the ground and hid his master's money. 00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:44.960 Now after a long time the master of those servants came, and 00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:46.880 settled accounts with them. 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:50.560 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five 00:23:50.560 --> 00:23:55.600 talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents, here I 00:23:55.600 --> 00:23:57.520 have made five talents more. 00:23:57.520 --> 00:24:02.080 His His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, 00:24:02.080 --> 00:24:05.440 you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:08.480 much. Enter into the joy of your master. 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:13.040 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, Master, 00:24:13.040 --> 00:24:16.800 you delivered to me two talents, here I have made two talents 00:24:16.800 --> 00:24:21.920 more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:25.040 you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over 00:24:25.040 --> 00:24:28.400 much. Enter into the joy of your master. 00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:33.040 He also, who had received the one talent, came forward, saying, Master, 00:24:33.040 --> 00:24:35.920 I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:39.920 not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was 00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:43.520 afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. 00:24:43.520 --> 00:24:45.760 Here you have what is yours. 00:24:45.760 --> 00:24:50.480 But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant, you knew 00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:53.760 that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I 00:24:53.760 --> 00:24:55.280 scattered no seed. 00:24:55.280 --> 00:24:58.400 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:01.360 at my coming I should have received what was my own with 00:25:01.360 --> 00:25:04.880 interest. So you So take the talent from him, and give it 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:07.120 to him who has the ten talents. 00:25:07.120 --> 00:25:10.720 For to every one who has will more be given, and he 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:14.400 will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:17.840 what he has will be taken away, and and cast the worthless 00:25:17.840 --> 00:25:21.600 servant into the outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping 00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:24.800 and gnashing of teeth. 00:25:24.800 --> 00:25:29.200 To start off, it is important to note that the issue in 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:32.000 this parable is not money. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:37.520 Yes, a talent was an historical measurement of an amount of money, 00:25:37.520 --> 00:25:42.160 typically gold, a very large amount of money, incidentally, and that is 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:43.440 part of the point. 00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:47.600 But the talents are a stand-in simply for the gifts that God 00:25:47.600 --> 00:25:48.720 has given us. 00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:52.880 And of course we can look at the parable and know this. 00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:55.040 Because very obviously 00:25:56.160 --> 00:25:59.680 what is happening with these servants when they are called to give 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:02.160 account is the last judgment. 00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:04.160 This is the final day. 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:06.640 Well you don't take your money with you when you go to 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:07.920 the last judgment. 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:09.920 This isn't money we're dealing with. 00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:13.600 These are the gifts God has given you, the attributes, the abilities, 00:26:13.600 --> 00:26:18.080 all of the things that flow from God to you, and you 00:26:18.080 --> 00:26:21.680 are being called to account for how you use them in this 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:25.040 life, and how you use them in the service of your neighbor. 00:26:25.040 --> 00:26:29.120 And so if you've been given many talents, it is expected that 00:26:29.120 --> 00:26:32.000 you will have accomplished more with those talents than if you were 00:26:32.560 --> 00:26:33.840 given less. 00:26:33.840 --> 00:26:36.880 The point is not that the servant who was given the one 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:43.520 talent was somehow incapable or lesser, because you can see the servant 00:26:43.520 --> 00:26:47.840 who had the two talents and made two more, is given the 00:26:47.840 --> 00:26:51.360 same praise as the servant who had the five talents and made 00:26:51.360 --> 00:26:52.480 five more. 00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:55.600 And so the same holds, if the servant who had the five 00:26:55.600 --> 00:26:59.200 talents and gone and buried his in the ground, he would have 00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:03.360 received the same rebuke, the same condemnation, as the one in the 00:27:03.360 --> 00:27:06.080 parable who had the one and buried it. 00:27:06.080 --> 00:27:10.080 The point is that you must use what God has given you 00:27:11.120 --> 00:27:13.360 to complete the task before you. 00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:17.840 God has prepared beforehand good works for you, so that you can 00:27:17.840 --> 00:27:19.600 walk in them. 00:27:19.600 --> 00:27:23.120 All of this has been prepared beforehand by God. 00:27:23.120 --> 00:27:26.240 He has prepared the good works for you, He has given you 00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:29.360 the ability to execute those good works. 00:27:29.360 --> 00:27:34.480 Yes, it relies upon you to do these things, because again, sanctification 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:36.160 is synergistic. 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:40.480 You work with the Spirit in the performance of these good works, 00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:43.040 and you do in fact get credit for them, you get praise 00:27:43.040 --> 00:27:46.800 for them, you get rewarded for them at the final judgment. 00:27:46.800 --> 00:27:49.680 Justification again, monergistic. 00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:53.360 You are justified by faith alone. 00:27:53.360 --> 00:27:57.760 But sanctification is a matter of cooperation with the Spirit. 00:27:57.760 --> 00:28:00.560 It is a matter of the good works, and Scripture is very 00:28:00.560 --> 00:28:02.480 clear. You will be rewarded for these. 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:06.160 That is what we see here in the parable of the talents. 00:28:06.800 --> 00:28:10.560 One of the things that strikes me about this parable is that 00:28:10.560 --> 00:28:13.840 it really slaps my own life in the face. 00:28:13.840 --> 00:28:17.520 I've always had incredibly low time preference. 00:28:17.520 --> 00:28:19.200 We were very poor growing up. 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:22.320 You know, I there were years when all of our Christmas presents 00:28:22.320 --> 00:28:25.280 were donated by others or years where a lot of our food 00:28:25.280 --> 00:28:26.960 was donated by strangers. 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:28.240 I didn't know how poor we were. 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:31.120 Like we weren't dirt poor, but we were kind of one wrong 00:28:31.120 --> 00:28:32.640 up from that. 00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:36.880 And so even in that circumstance, I by the time I turned 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:41.920 18, I had saved twenty thousand dollars from mowing lawns and small 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:46.640 gifts I received for Christmas and uh birthdays from friends from family 00:28:46.800 --> 00:28:48.720 and uh paper app that I had. 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:52.800 I saved basically everything and I didn't have anything particular in mind, 00:28:52.800 --> 00:28:55.760 it's just well I'm accumulating and then and then I will have 00:28:55.760 --> 00:28:57.600 something to do with it later. 00:28:57.600 --> 00:29:00.080 That's just kind of my personality. 00:29:00.080 --> 00:29:03.200 And that continued in in my professional life. 00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:06.480 When I worked at Apple for fourteen, fifteen years. 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:08.720 I made a great deal of money. 00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:12.000 And, you know, when you're making that much money, the government takes 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:12.800 over half of it. 00:29:12.800 --> 00:29:16.560 So whatever number you look at, you basically are giving away fifty 00:29:16.560 --> 00:29:20.080 percent and not giving away is taken from you. 00:29:20.080 --> 00:29:22.880 That's one of the reasons I left that world as I was 00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:27.680 disgusted that with the amount that I was receiving, over half of 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:30.480 it was being taken, and it wasn't the taxes that offended me, 00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:33.280 although they really bothered me, especially as a libertarian. 00:29:33.280 --> 00:29:36.560 I was disgusted by what was being done with that money. 00:29:36.560 --> 00:29:38.240 You know, perpetual war. 00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:41.200 I I was making enough money that I was paying, you know, 00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:43.360 bombs and missile money. 00:29:43.360 --> 00:29:47.840 Actual entire missiles that killed people could have been financed with the 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:51.040 money that was taken from me in taxes. 00:29:51.040 --> 00:29:53.440 And I did not want to be part of that system. 00:29:53.440 --> 00:29:55.040 And I'm not going to evade taxes. 00:29:55.040 --> 00:29:58.800 You know, I'd you'd rather deal with the cops than the IRS 00:29:58.960 --> 00:30:00.160 and I don't want to deal with either. 00:30:00.560 --> 00:30:06.880 So if avoiding taxes isn't an option by m not paying, the 00:30:06.880 --> 00:30:09.280 next the best thing you can do is just not make the 00:30:09.280 --> 00:30:10.640 money in the first place. 00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:13.360 And so after a while I decided I'm just I'm done. 00:30:13.360 --> 00:30:17.120 I I I had and it didn't make me any happier and 00:30:17.120 --> 00:30:18.800 I knew it wouldn't. 00:30:18.800 --> 00:30:22.160 And I spent about five years working on the distillery and that 00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:24.320 didn't pan out and so I sold that. 00:30:24.320 --> 00:30:27.360 And then when I got doxed, you know, I'd been paid maybe 00:30:27.360 --> 00:30:30.880 fifteen percent of what I was owed, the rest became uncollectible. 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:32.960 So that's kind of a write off. 00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:36.400 As that trajectory was winding towards where I am today really kind 00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:40.320 of last three, four, maybe five years, as I was paying less 00:30:40.320 --> 00:30:45.120 attention to the material world of kind of you know, material wealth, 00:30:45.120 --> 00:30:50.480 not creation, and paying more attention to spiritual matters as they intersect 00:30:50.480 --> 00:30:54.800 with you know created life, I started to focus more and more 00:30:54.800 --> 00:30:58.560 on these things, on on, you know, talking to people about what 00:30:58.560 --> 00:31:00.240 God wants from us. 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:03.120 And in the last couple of years, as you know, before we 00:31:03.120 --> 00:31:06.480 started the podcast, Corey and I and some others would be brainstorming. 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:07.760 Here's all this stuff that we could do. 00:31:08.080 --> 00:31:11.520 Wouldn't it be nice to be able to publish some books that 00:31:11.520 --> 00:31:15.440 should really be back in print or you know help people go 00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:17.440 to seminary or whatever? 00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:21.040 And as I started having all these big ideas about things that 00:31:21.120 --> 00:31:25.680 re needed not really a whole lot of money, I started thinking 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:28.400 about, well, when I had that money before, what I could have 00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:29.920 done if I had had it. 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:33.840 And for about a week I was kinda not moping, but like 00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:35.120 I was just sort of 00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:40.240 fantasizing about the life that I would have led differently if I 00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:44.240 had used those resources when I had them on godly things instead 00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:46.320 of things that I'd spent them on. 00:31:46.320 --> 00:31:50.160 And towards the end of that little period I realized you're full 00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:51.120 of crap. 00:31:51.120 --> 00:31:54.880 I realized that I was just it was completely dishonest. 00:31:54.880 --> 00:31:58.480 Because when I had those things, when I had these blessings that 00:31:58.480 --> 00:32:01.680 God had poured out, I didn't none of that occurred to me. 00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:04.400 Yeah, I gave far more to the Mises Institute than I gave 00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:05.520 to my own church. 00:32:05.520 --> 00:32:07.920 And it wasn't that my church was hard up as a very 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:12.320 successful church in in Cupertino, they were not lacking for funds, but 00:32:12.320 --> 00:32:13.840 that's no excuse as a Christian. 00:32:13.840 --> 00:32:17.040 There's other stuff I could have been doing, but I was putting 00:32:17.040 --> 00:32:20.160 my money, my treasure where my heart was. 00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:22.960 And that was in Austrian economics. 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:26.480 And so as I look back, I realized that no, I having 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:29.840 that stuff, I don't know if it was part of the problem, 00:32:29.840 --> 00:32:33.360 but I know that for me personally, if I still had what 00:32:33.360 --> 00:32:37.680 I had then, I'm convinced that I would continue not to care 00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:38.880 about these things. 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:43.360 And for me personally, I had to lose that stuff before I 00:32:43.360 --> 00:32:48.080 began to realize what is supposed to be done with it. 00:32:48.080 --> 00:32:50.640 So it would be hypocritical if I still had that and I 00:32:50.640 --> 00:32:53.040 was saying, Oh, we should do this, but I don't and that's 00:32:53.040 --> 00:32:54.400 fine. I'm thankful for it. 00:32:54.400 --> 00:32:57.360 I'm thankful to be back to the point that I hardly spend 00:32:57.360 --> 00:32:59.680 anything and I'm content. 00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:03.840 You know, I was I was never discontent, but I realized that 00:33:03.840 --> 00:33:08.000 having more materially didn't change that in the slightest. 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:08.320 And 00:33:09.280 --> 00:33:12.960 I think that's important for us that different people are different, you 00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:18.160 know. For me personally, my flaw is that when I had things, 00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:20.880 I was not focused on God's stuff. 00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:22.400 That's not the case with some people. 00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:23.840 There's some of you who are listening. 00:33:23.840 --> 00:33:26.320 When you have an extra doll in your pocket, you start looking 00:33:26.320 --> 00:33:28.160 around for someone to give it to. 00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:28.960 That's not me. 00:33:29.120 --> 00:33:30.560 And I can't pretend it is. 00:33:30.560 --> 00:33:33.760 It should be, but it simply isn't. 00:33:33.760 --> 00:33:37.040 So I think one of the things when we're considering 00:33:37.920 --> 00:33:40.960 how to be a blessing to others is the the gifts that 00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:45.120 you have, when you have them, maybe you have to change something 00:33:45.120 --> 00:33:46.800 about what you're doing with them. 00:33:46.800 --> 00:33:50.480 You know, Corey was talking about vocation, like preparing meals for people 00:33:50.480 --> 00:33:51.200 in your home. 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:54.640 And like there's service that we do just naturally. 00:33:54.640 --> 00:33:58.720 And I think that one of the useful things about viewing our 00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:02.960 gifts from God as a 24-7 thing and not a Sunday morning 00:34:02.960 --> 00:34:06.000 thing is that you're all good for something to somebody. 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:09.920 There's something that you do in your life that is already benefiting 00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:11.120 some people. 00:34:11.120 --> 00:34:14.640 Maybe there's a way to extend that in some small way to 00:34:14.640 --> 00:34:16.880 help more people and have a bigger impact. 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:20.800 You know, one example would be maybe someone's an electrician or a 00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:23.040 plumber or you know mason. 00:34:23.040 --> 00:34:24.880 That's something that you do professionally. 00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:27.600 You go out, you do it every day, you make money from 00:34:27.600 --> 00:34:30.240 it. You know, maybe if you happen to own a business that's 00:34:30.240 --> 00:34:35.120 doing that stuff, consider possibly and as we're as we're talking about 00:34:35.120 --> 00:34:38.240 these things, I want to make it very explicit, these are matters 00:34:38.240 --> 00:34:40.080 of wisdom and consideration. 00:34:40.080 --> 00:34:42.160 This is not laying down the law. 00:34:42.160 --> 00:34:44.880 This is not that if you have turned a profit, you must 00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:46.320 then do X with it. 00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:50.160 If God has given you more than you need, the what then 00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:53.200 of the Christian life should be different than it was in my 00:34:53.200 --> 00:34:56.080 life. When I had more than I needed, I just continued to 00:34:56.080 --> 00:34:56.480 save it. 00:34:56.480 --> 00:34:58.240 I just continued to accumulate. 00:34:58.400 --> 00:34:59.680 Like it happened when I was a little kid. 00:34:59.680 --> 00:35:00.880 Like I just didn't do with it. 00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:03.280 I wasn't really profligate with my spending. 00:35:03.280 --> 00:35:05.280 I just saved and saved and saved. 00:35:05.280 --> 00:35:10.720 But that's exactly what the the faithless steward was in that parable. 00:35:10.720 --> 00:35:12.240 He'd basically just buried it in the ground. 00:35:12.240 --> 00:35:14.960 You know, I buried it in the bank, saving it for I 00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:15.920 don't know when. 00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:18.960 And it wasn't a lack of trust in God per se, but 00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:23.680 I think functionally it kind of sort of manifested that way. 00:35:23.680 --> 00:35:29.200 If you have a business where you're already doing something professionally, maybe, 00:35:29.200 --> 00:35:31.600 you know, I know that in the last couple of years, pretty 00:35:31.600 --> 00:35:37.120 much all professional services and you know, blue-collar work is tends to 00:35:37.120 --> 00:35:39.120 be very heavily oversubscribed. 00:35:39.120 --> 00:35:41.520 Yeah, there's stuff that you need to get something done in your 00:35:41.520 --> 00:35:43.760 house. It might take four or six months to be able to 00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:47.520 get somebody out to do it because there's been so much activity. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:49.040 One of the things that you could 00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:52.720 possibly consider this is not laying down the loss, just it's something 00:35:52.720 --> 00:35:53.920 to think about. 00:35:53.920 --> 00:35:58.880 Maybe if you're in a position where you're turning a profit and 00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:02.960 you're oversubscribed, you have more customers than you can possibly service service, 00:36:02.960 --> 00:36:05.920 you know, in a timely fashion. 00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:11.600 Consider possibly doing what you know even the bar association recommends that 00:36:11.600 --> 00:36:16.400 attorneys do, where they're expected to try to have at least 50 00:36:16.400 --> 00:36:20.240 hours a year of pro bono work where they expect little or 00:36:20.240 --> 00:36:23.360 no compensation in return for the work that they do. 00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:27.120 And the premise of that within their guild is to try to 00:36:27.120 --> 00:36:31.120 benefit those who don't have the resources who could really use the 00:36:31.120 --> 00:36:34.800 help. If you own a business that's doing some sort of service 00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:39.040 or you know providing something in the home or in whatever it 00:36:39.040 --> 00:36:43.680 is that you're doing, maybe there's someone in your community that could 00:36:43.680 --> 00:36:47.920 really, really use the work that you already are doing, but they 00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:48.880 can't pay for it. 00:36:48.880 --> 00:36:50.480 And so they would never ask for it. 00:36:50.480 --> 00:36:54.800 Maybe it's a retiree, they're living from social security to social security 00:36:54.800 --> 00:36:58.160 check. If they don't have the means to get stuff fixed or 00:36:58.160 --> 00:37:03.520 repaired, if it you become aware that they exist, maybe one thing 00:37:03.520 --> 00:37:06.640 that your business could do would be to start doing some pro 00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:11.520 bono work, just a little bit, where you willingly set aside a 00:37:11.520 --> 00:37:14.960 few hours of paying customers once in a while and go do 00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:17.040 work for someone who can't pay you. 00:37:17.040 --> 00:37:20.160 And you know, you can coordinate this with your accountant so that 00:37:20.160 --> 00:37:22.880 you can you can use that as a write-off because you're you 00:37:22.880 --> 00:37:26.640 know, if it's billable at X dollars and you are delivering it 00:37:26.640 --> 00:37:30.560 for as charity basically, you know, talk to your account, but typically 00:37:30.640 --> 00:37:33.200 that's something that can be written down as you know to to 00:37:33.200 --> 00:37:34.800 reduce your overall profit. 00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:36.400 So you have less taxable. 00:37:36.400 --> 00:37:41.040 So even the amount of income that you would forego would have 00:37:41.040 --> 00:37:44.800 a positive benefit on the relative amount of tax you'd pay. 00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:48.000 Like you're still going to come out behind, but the nice thing 00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:50.640 about that is that it's something you're already doing. 00:37:50.640 --> 00:37:54.080 You know, you're already doing it forty, fifty, sixty, seventy hours a 00:37:54.080 --> 00:37:57.760 week. If instead of you know, one of the hard things, if 00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:01.280 if someone has a professional vocation, you know, if you're an electrician 00:38:01.360 --> 00:38:03.680 and you do that all day, every day. 00:38:03.680 --> 00:38:06.320 The last thing you want to do on your day off is 00:38:06.320 --> 00:38:07.920 do more work like that. 00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:10.800 I don't think that anyone should be expected to do that. 00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:12.880 If you just love it so much that you can't get enough 00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:14.480 of it, great, whatever it is. 00:38:14.480 --> 00:38:17.200 Yeah, I'm talking about the trays in particular, but it can apply 00:38:17.200 --> 00:38:18.400 to anything. 00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:21.440 However, if in the context of a business, particularly if you're a 00:38:21.440 --> 00:38:25.760 small Christian business owner, maybe you make a conscious shift to do 00:38:25.760 --> 00:38:28.800 a small amount of pro bono work, knowing that it will cost 00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:31.680 you a little bit of money, but the upside to someone in 00:38:31.680 --> 00:38:34.400 your community, and it necessarily has to be in your community because 00:38:34.480 --> 00:38:35.840 you know they gotta be your neighbor. 00:38:35.840 --> 00:38:39.680 You're not gonna go six thousand miles away to install a toilet. 00:38:39.680 --> 00:38:42.720 You're gonna do that someplace within driving distance. 00:38:42.720 --> 00:38:45.760 There may be some little old lady who really needs that and 00:38:45.760 --> 00:38:48.160 to whom that would be a tremendous blessing. 00:38:48.160 --> 00:38:51.040 It's just an idea, you know, the matchmaking for that is a 00:38:51.040 --> 00:38:51.680 difficult thing. 00:38:51.680 --> 00:38:53.440 It's not, it would be some more work. 00:38:53.440 --> 00:38:56.000 And it would be it would mean less money to do it. 00:38:56.000 --> 00:38:59.680 But I think if your gift, if your vocation and the abilities 00:38:59.680 --> 00:39:02.800 of God is given you are such that you can do things 00:39:02.800 --> 00:39:05.520 with your hands or with your brain and make it easier for 00:39:05.520 --> 00:39:08.320 something, like maybe you build websites or something. 00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:12.400 If the thing that you're already doing pretty much automatically, whether or 00:39:12.400 --> 00:39:16.160 not you're getting paid for it, if you could consider making slightly 00:39:16.160 --> 00:39:19.280 less and doing it for somebody who really needs it, that I 00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:21.360 think would be very much in the spirit of kind of what 00:39:21.360 --> 00:39:22.560 we're talking about here. 00:39:22.560 --> 00:39:25.520 Again, this is not to bind conscious like we're not saying you 00:39:25.520 --> 00:39:28.240 must do pro bono work or you're sinning. 00:39:28.240 --> 00:39:32.000 We're pointing out that this is an opportunity to make a small 00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:35.040 change in the way that you're already doing what you already do 00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:38.880 that could have a profound benefit to the very people that God 00:39:38.880 --> 00:39:42.400 is putting us around us to try to help. 00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:45.440 So you know if if the trades and the other professions want 00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:48.080 to let the lawyers continue to have the moral high ground with 00:39:48.080 --> 00:39:51.440 their pro bono work, I yeah, I I know there's certainly some 00:39:51.440 --> 00:39:54.720 businesses that do that, but I think that model is a it's 00:39:54.720 --> 00:39:57.040 at least an important one for consideration. 00:39:57.200 --> 00:39:58.560 It should always be in our minds. 00:39:58.560 --> 00:40:00.560 What can I do with what I already have? 00:40:00.560 --> 00:40:04.160 You know, in my case, my skills weren't really transferable to neighbor, 00:40:04.160 --> 00:40:06.400 but the money was, and yet I didn't spend the money on 00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:10.160 neighbor. If you have those resources and you can allocate them in 00:40:10.160 --> 00:40:14.400 a way to help someone, someone nearby, that can have a tremendous 00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:16.800 benefit. And you would find it very rewarding too. 00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:20.240 Like the thanks and the gratitude from someone who could never possibly 00:40:20.240 --> 00:40:24.080 pay you for a professional job that they badly need. 00:40:24.080 --> 00:40:26.960 That would be something you can never understand how much that person 00:40:26.960 --> 00:40:28.000 would appreciate it. 00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:30.880 It would it would probably make their year in some cases. 00:40:30.880 --> 00:40:34.800 So these sort of opportunities are all around us, but they're invisible. 00:40:34.800 --> 00:40:37.600 And because we never think about them, we either never go looking 00:40:37.680 --> 00:40:39.920 or we never even see them when they're right there in front 00:40:39.920 --> 00:40:40.560 of us. 00:40:41.040 --> 00:40:45.520 A vitally important point here is really a point that I already 00:40:45.520 --> 00:40:48.160 made when I mentioned that the parable of the talents is not 00:40:48.160 --> 00:40:50.160 primarily about money. 00:40:50.160 --> 00:40:55.600 Although it's not not about money, it can also be about money. 00:40:55.600 --> 00:40:57.680 We all have different talents. 00:40:57.680 --> 00:41:03.920 There are many thousands, millions of different talents, attributes, abilities that God 00:41:03.920 --> 00:41:06.080 has distributed unequally. 00:41:06.080 --> 00:41:08.240 That is part of his good design. 00:41:08.240 --> 00:41:11.440 And so it may be that you are good at making shoes 00:41:11.600 --> 00:41:16.160 or you're good at gardening gardening or you're good at accounting, whatever 00:41:16.160 --> 00:41:20.560 it happens to be, whatever gifts God has given you, you can 00:41:20.560 --> 00:41:22.560 use those in service of neighbor. 00:41:22.560 --> 00:41:25.600 And it may be that you have a handful of different gifts. 00:41:25.600 --> 00:41:29.280 You may work as an accountant, but happen to be particularly good 00:41:29.280 --> 00:41:32.400 at gardening, and so you go and work on the garden of 00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:34.800 a retiree d on the weekend. 00:41:34.800 --> 00:41:39.120 That can be how you contribute to neighbor in some way. 00:41:39.120 --> 00:41:40.880 The purpose and the point 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:45.200 is that you should do what you can with what you have 00:41:45.200 --> 00:41:49.760 been given, because that is the whole point of the parable of 00:41:49.760 --> 00:41:52.560 the talents and many other passages in scripture. 00:41:52.560 --> 00:41:55.840 God God has given you certain gifts. 00:41:55.840 --> 00:41:59.200 He has given them to you for the purpose of serving your 00:41:59.200 --> 00:42:03.760 neighbor, because in serving your neighbor through those good works, you are 00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:06.240 praising God, you are worshiping God. 00:42:06.240 --> 00:42:10.800 That is how we actually render unto God service and thanks for 00:42:10.800 --> 00:42:12.800 what He has given us. 00:42:12.800 --> 00:42:16.000 Because again, God does not need our good works. 00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:18.000 God does not need anything. 00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:20.400 In the words of the Psalm he owns the cattle on a 00:42:20.400 --> 00:42:24.560 thousand hills, meaning, of course, all things in creation, not just a 00:42:24.560 --> 00:42:26.640 thousand hills. 00:42:26.640 --> 00:42:33.680 Your neighbor needs your good works, because every single person needs something. 00:42:33.680 --> 00:42:37.600 Even the wealthiest individuals need something. 00:42:37.600 --> 00:42:40.160 They're going to have something in their house that needs fixed. 00:42:40.160 --> 00:42:42.320 And yes, of course they can pay for it, and I'm not 00:42:42.320 --> 00:42:45.680 saying you have to do pro bono work for your particularly wealthy 00:42:45.680 --> 00:42:50.080 neighbor. But just because your neighbor is wealthy doesn't mean that you 00:42:50.080 --> 00:42:53.680 shouldn't want to render good works to that neighbor, of course that 00:42:53.680 --> 00:42:57.760 person in return, not as a quid pro quo, but 00:42:58.720 --> 00:43:02.560 in light of the fact that God has given him this material 00:43:02.560 --> 00:43:06.480 resource, this wealth, he should use that for the good of his 00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:10.000 neighbor, this case you and others. 00:43:10.640 --> 00:43:14.240 But the point is that if we're going to have a Christian 00:43:14.240 --> 00:43:18.480 society, is that we all have to view each other as neighbors 00:43:18.640 --> 00:43:22.400 because God has put us in a particular place at a particular 00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:25.600 time surrounded by particular people. 00:43:25.600 --> 00:43:28.720 And that's what neighbor means, as we went over in previous episodes. 00:43:28.720 --> 00:43:30.000 It is the person next door. 00:43:30.080 --> 00:43:31.680 It is the person nearby. 00:43:31.680 --> 00:43:34.960 Neighbor and nearby are basically the same word. 00:43:34.960 --> 00:43:40.320 It's the nearby farmer if we're going back to the old English. 00:43:40.320 --> 00:43:43.440 But you are to serve your neighbor because it's we're going back 00:43:43.440 --> 00:43:46.320 to that issue of the concentric circles. 00:43:46.320 --> 00:43:49.280 And so when you look at your resources and you look at 00:43:49.600 --> 00:43:52.400 the needs around you and you look at what you can do 00:43:52.400 --> 00:43:57.600 with your resources to serve those needs, you start with the inner 00:43:57.600 --> 00:43:59.200 circle and you move outward. 00:43:59.200 --> 00:44:02.080 The inner circle is of course your immediate family. 00:44:02.080 --> 00:44:06.400 Then it is your extended family, the family that are still closely 00:44:06.400 --> 00:44:09.200 related and incidentally nearby. 00:44:09.200 --> 00:44:13.360 And then it's your neighbors, and then your slightly more distant neighbors, 00:44:13.360 --> 00:44:19.920 and then it's your city, your town, your state, moving outward concentrically 00:44:20.160 --> 00:44:27.040 to those who are less closely related, less close physically to you, 00:44:27.040 --> 00:44:32.400 but still someone to whom you owe a certain duty. 00:44:32.400 --> 00:44:36.880 And as we've mentioned, these are not hard and fast rules because 00:44:36.880 --> 00:44:38.880 this is not a matter of math. 00:44:38.880 --> 00:44:41.760 We are not going to give you a bunch of formulae and 00:44:41.840 --> 00:44:46.880 say that if you make x, then you must do y with 00:44:46.880 --> 00:44:48.720 z percentage of x. 00:44:48.720 --> 00:44:50.240 That's not how any of this works. 00:44:50.240 --> 00:44:51.120 This is not math. 00:44:51.120 --> 00:44:52.800 This is a matter of wisdom. 00:44:52.800 --> 00:44:56.160 This is a matter again of looking at what you have been 00:44:56.160 --> 00:45:00.880 given, looking at the needs around you, and looking at your duties 00:45:00.880 --> 00:45:05.120 with respect to those who have those needs, and then acting appropriately. 00:45:05.120 --> 00:45:07.440 Now that sounds complicated, but it's not. 00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:11.680 If you see that your elderly neighbor's yard is overgrown, and you 00:45:11.680 --> 00:45:15.200 have a working mower, you can help. 00:45:15.200 --> 00:45:19.440 If you see that your neighbor's animals are escaping because there's a 00:45:19.440 --> 00:45:21.840 problem with his fence. 00:45:21.840 --> 00:45:25.200 And you happen to know how to fix a fence because not 00:45:25.200 --> 00:45:28.560 everyone knows, but most of us could perhaps manage. 00:45:28.560 --> 00:45:29.920 You can help. 00:45:29.920 --> 00:45:33.360 It is a matter of looking around you and seeing what needs 00:45:33.360 --> 00:45:37.280 to be done, and then doing what you can with the abilities 00:45:37.280 --> 00:45:39.280 that you have. 00:45:39.280 --> 00:45:43.520 Now, it is important to note that part of this is knowing 00:45:43.520 --> 00:45:49.120 your neighbors, which is a very real obstacle in modern society. 00:45:49.120 --> 00:45:53.360 Most people, even in suburbs where we practically live on top of 00:45:53.360 --> 00:45:55.680 each other, at least I used to live in a suburb, I 00:45:55.680 --> 00:45:59.760 no longer do, but very few people really know their neighbors. 00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.240 Some don't even know their neighbors' names. 00:46:04.240 --> 00:46:06.160 Go knock on the door. 00:46:06.160 --> 00:46:08.320 Introduce yourself to your neighbor. 00:46:08.320 --> 00:46:11.600 If you don't even know your neighbor, you're not going to know 00:46:11.600 --> 00:46:13.600 the needs your neighbor has. 00:46:13.600 --> 00:46:16.960 You're not going to know if you have the ability to serve 00:46:16.960 --> 00:46:20.400 your neighbor, if you have the ability to render good works to 00:46:20.400 --> 00:46:21.520 your neighbor. 00:46:21.520 --> 00:46:24.720 And so part of it is just building that relationship, being aware 00:46:24.720 --> 00:46:30.240 of the people around you, and again, building a relationship with those 00:46:30.240 --> 00:46:33.280 people, building up a Christian community. 00:46:33.280 --> 00:46:37.120 Now it may be that some of your neighbors are not Christian, 00:46:37.120 --> 00:46:41.680 but if you have this relationship with them and they see that 00:46:41.680 --> 00:46:46.320 you are willing and even eager to help others, that may open 00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:50.080 up a door, it may open an opportunity to discuss the faith 00:46:50.080 --> 00:46:52.160 with that person at some point. 00:46:52.400 --> 00:46:56.800 I'm not saying do the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormon thing, and 00:46:56.800 --> 00:46:59.760 go and knock on your neighbor's door and immediately say, Have you 00:46:59.760 --> 00:47:01.440 heard about Jesus? 00:47:01.440 --> 00:47:04.080 That's not usually the best approach. 00:47:04.080 --> 00:47:06.880 Develop a relationship with your neighbor. 00:47:06.880 --> 00:47:08.880 You have to build that rapport. 00:47:08.880 --> 00:47:12.080 You have to be someone your neighbor can trust. 00:47:12.080 --> 00:47:16.960 And then, eventually, there will be an opportunity to broach that subject. 00:47:16.960 --> 00:47:21.040 That is going to be more effective than if you do the 00:47:21.040 --> 00:47:26.080 if well, the equivalent of a cold call. 00:47:26.080 --> 00:47:30.240 And all of this again, you must absolutely bear in mind when 00:47:30.240 --> 00:47:33.680 it comes to these issues, it's in God's timing, and so you 00:47:33.680 --> 00:47:35.680 don't have to worry about it. 00:47:35.680 --> 00:47:36.800 Don't be anxious. 00:47:36.800 --> 00:47:39.120 Scripture's very clear about that. 00:47:39.120 --> 00:47:42.880 God is going to use you as he sees fit. 00:47:43.200 --> 00:47:48.480 He has prepared the good works beforehand, and that includes introducing your 00:47:48.480 --> 00:47:52.320 neighbor to the Christian faith, if that is going to be your 00:47:52.320 --> 00:47:55.440 role. And so you don't need to worry about it. 00:47:55.440 --> 00:47:58.800 But do lay the groundwork. 00:47:58.800 --> 00:48:05.040 Do the actual necessary prerequisite work in order to develop that soil 00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:10.800 so that when the opportunity arises, there's an opportunity, there's a chance 00:48:10.800 --> 00:48:14.480 to sow that seed and have it actually yield some sort of 00:48:14.480 --> 00:48:15.200 result. 00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:19.520 The greatest Christian witness that you will ever give is the life 00:48:19.520 --> 00:48:23.520 that you lead when you assume no one is watching because they 00:48:23.520 --> 00:48:27.840 are. We're always watching each other and we always are continuously evaluating 00:48:27.840 --> 00:48:32.080 other people relative to ourselves and relative to whatever ideals we may 00:48:32.080 --> 00:48:36.640 have. And so it may very well be that the most important 00:48:36.640 --> 00:48:39.760 message that you give to someone is to stand out from the 00:48:39.760 --> 00:48:40.800 crowd somehow. 00:48:40.800 --> 00:48:44.160 If you are always the kindest or the most generous or most 00:48:44.160 --> 00:48:46.400 patient, or if you're just always there. 00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:50.240 If you show up when others won't show up, if you will 00:48:50.240 --> 00:48:53.760 deliver when others fail to, that stands out. 00:48:53.760 --> 00:48:55.200 And maybe they don't know why. 00:48:55.200 --> 00:48:57.680 Maybe they don't know, but you know, at some point it will 00:48:57.680 --> 00:48:58.880 probably come up in conversation. 00:48:58.880 --> 00:49:01.360 You know, you seem different than other people. 00:49:01.360 --> 00:49:02.320 What is it? 00:49:02.320 --> 00:49:03.600 That's your opening. 00:49:03.600 --> 00:49:05.680 That is God saying, here you go. 00:49:05.680 --> 00:49:11.040 You have spent months or years cultivating trust and rapport and in 00:49:11.040 --> 00:49:14.480 being a good neighbor, being a genuine Christian in your community, being 00:49:14.480 --> 00:49:19.280 the salt and light of the earth, now is the opportunity that 00:49:19.280 --> 00:49:22.880 God is giving you to explain to them why you are the 00:49:22.880 --> 00:49:23.600 way you are. 00:49:23.600 --> 00:49:26.560 And you know, it's it's important for us as Christians to re 00:49:26.720 --> 00:49:29.920 recognize that a lot of pagans live the same way. 00:49:29.920 --> 00:49:34.000 You know, in fact, that is very much a part of you 00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:38.320 know some groups like Freemasonry and some others, because they see it 00:49:38.320 --> 00:49:43.280 as works righteousness, it's urgent for them to do those works because 00:49:43.280 --> 00:49:49.040 the insinuation into the community and the the delivery is the it's 00:49:49.120 --> 00:49:50.240 the tikan alam. 00:49:50.400 --> 00:49:54.800 it's the it's the making this world world a paradise for its 00:49:54.800 --> 00:49:55.680 own sake. 00:49:55.680 --> 00:49:58.480 And that's not, it's the opposite of the Christian impetus. 00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:00.960 Ours is to glorify God. 00:50:00.960 --> 00:50:04.480 But to glorify God, not in some high fluid and spiritual way. 00:50:04.720 --> 00:50:06.000 It's right here. 00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:10.400 When your conduct and your behavior and your way you deliver to 00:50:10.400 --> 00:50:14.640 your neighbor is a credit to yourself, and you can point to 00:50:14.640 --> 00:50:18.720 God, that may be the thing that opens someone's eyes. 00:50:19.040 --> 00:50:21.920 if you know maybe they don't they don't know anything about Jesus 00:50:21.920 --> 00:50:25.760 or anything about faith or sacraments or whatever is important in your 00:50:25.760 --> 00:50:30.000 Christian life, if they know that there's something in Christianity has changed 00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.160 you and they see it as a positive, that's that's the door 00:50:34.160 --> 00:50:38.400 open. And I think it's important for us as we're looking at 00:50:38.400 --> 00:50:42.560 all these things to be thankful when others are a blessing to 00:50:42.560 --> 00:50:46.320 us and when we're given the opportunity to be a blessing to 00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:49.760 others. You mentioned earlier, and I mentioned several times that we frequently 00:50:49.760 --> 00:50:53.440 get messages from people thanking us for Stone Choir. 00:50:53.440 --> 00:50:59.440 And I say that again only to acknowledge that that is God's 00:50:59.440 --> 00:51:00.880 work through us. 00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:03.920 I don't get those messages and think, wow, yeah, you're a really 00:51:03.920 --> 00:51:04.720 great guy. 00:51:04.720 --> 00:51:06.480 You really nailed it. 00:51:06.480 --> 00:51:10.720 I am humbled and I don't want to say terrified, but it's 00:51:10.800 --> 00:51:12.800 we're we're chained to this thing now. 00:51:12.800 --> 00:51:14.000 We can't go anywhere. 00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:17.440 We don't have any choice but to continue doing this because of 00:51:17.440 --> 00:51:22.400 the fruit that God is growing through our words here. 00:51:22.400 --> 00:51:25.200 And so when you say thanks to us, it is a kindness 00:51:25.280 --> 00:51:28.560 and then we receive it in humility and grace. 00:51:28.560 --> 00:51:32.800 But it's also a price signal, like we talked about last week 00:51:32.800 --> 00:51:35.120 in the market episode. 00:51:35.120 --> 00:51:39.120 When you say yeah, more like this to something that's just a 00:51:39.120 --> 00:51:42.880 good work, to something that's beneficial, that has no the purpose is 00:51:42.880 --> 00:51:45.200 not to do something for ourselves. 00:51:45.200 --> 00:51:47.200 The purpose is to do what God wants. 00:51:47.200 --> 00:51:50.960 And when God bears good fruit through that. 00:51:50.960 --> 00:51:52.640 We're thankful to hear it. 00:51:52.640 --> 00:51:55.680 So we're we're we're at least as thankful to you when you 00:51:55.680 --> 00:51:59.680 tell us as you are to us for having received what God 00:51:59.680 --> 00:52:03.920 is delivering through these episodes because you know, if no one listened, 00:52:03.920 --> 00:52:05.040 if nobody cared, we wouldn't do it. 00:52:05.040 --> 00:52:06.400 It'd be a waste of time. 00:52:06.400 --> 00:52:10.880 The fact that it's actually bearing fruit means that it's it's a 00:52:10.880 --> 00:52:11.520 good thing. 00:52:11.520 --> 00:52:15.600 That's we judge our own tree by the quality of its fruit. 00:52:15.600 --> 00:52:17.840 And if the fruit were not good, we would need to change 00:52:17.840 --> 00:52:19.760 something or we'd have to chop the tree down. 00:52:19.760 --> 00:52:23.120 But in this case, all we can do is continue to you 00:52:23.120 --> 00:52:27.120 know fertilize and and water this tree and continue to grow as 00:52:27.120 --> 00:52:29.680 long as God is bearing good fruit through it. 00:52:29.680 --> 00:52:31.520 Keep both of those in mind. 00:52:31.520 --> 00:52:32.880 I've said this before. 00:52:32.880 --> 00:52:36.880 If you are able to do something for someone and they say 00:52:37.040 --> 00:52:41.600 thank you, you know, or if someone if you someone apologizes to 00:52:41.600 --> 00:52:45.120 you and there's a there's this sort of I'll call it false 00:52:45.120 --> 00:52:46.640 humility, but it's 00:52:47.600 --> 00:52:52.560 there's a modern, especially American notion that nothing can ever be serious. 00:52:52.560 --> 00:52:58.480 So when someone says, I'm sorry I did something, the natural response 00:52:58.480 --> 00:53:00.880 is don't worry about it, forget about it. 00:53:00.880 --> 00:53:04.320 You should say as a Christian, I forgive you. 00:53:04.320 --> 00:53:07.360 I'm sorry should always elicit I forgive you. 00:53:07.760 --> 00:53:12.240 You should immediately announce God's forgiveness to them, because that is the 00:53:12.240 --> 00:53:16.640 same forgiveness that God announces to you when you confess. 00:53:16.640 --> 00:53:18.480 And the same is true with thanksgiving. 00:53:18.480 --> 00:53:21.760 If someone is thankful to you for something, don't just say, oh, 00:53:21.760 --> 00:53:23.440 don't worry about it, it's nothing. 00:53:23.440 --> 00:53:24.960 Say you're very welcome. 00:53:24.960 --> 00:53:27.920 And you know, maybe it's an opportunity again to point to why 00:53:27.920 --> 00:53:30.800 you're doing it or you know, how you came to be doing 00:53:30.800 --> 00:53:33.920 that thing for them so that you're not taking credit and you're 00:53:33.920 --> 00:53:35.840 not making it about yourself. 00:53:35.840 --> 00:53:39.680 On the flip side of that, if your pastor is typically doesn't 00:53:39.600 --> 00:53:44.080 deliver whatever kind of sermon you think maybe your congregation needs is 00:53:44.080 --> 00:53:47.440 a kick in the butt, and one Sunday he really nails it 00:53:47.520 --> 00:53:50.800 and you're kind of surprised and maybe he's outside his comfort zone 00:53:50.960 --> 00:53:53.360 and I think the best thing you can do is just after 00:53:53.360 --> 00:53:56.400 the service and you're walking out, say, Thank you, Pastor, that was 00:53:56.400 --> 00:53:57.680 a really great sermon. 00:53:57.680 --> 00:53:59.920 I really needed to hear that and I hope that it bears 00:54:00.320 --> 00:54:02.320 fruit for everyone. 00:54:02.320 --> 00:54:06.240 Giving thanks for when someone is doing their job is a key 00:54:06.240 --> 00:54:07.360 part of all of this. 00:54:07.360 --> 00:54:10.720 It's you know again, it's it's a price signal, not with uh 00:54:10.720 --> 00:54:15.760 money, but simply with the affirmation that yeah, that that right there, 00:54:15.760 --> 00:54:17.200 do more like that. 00:54:17.200 --> 00:54:20.880 Yeah, me personally, if someone blows something, I'm almost always just gonna 00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:21.920 keep my mouth shut. 00:54:21.920 --> 00:54:23.360 I don't wanna start anything. 00:54:23.360 --> 00:54:25.600 If someone does really well, I try to go out of my 00:54:25.600 --> 00:54:29.760 way to give thanks to them to say that was really good. 00:54:29.760 --> 00:54:30.640 More like that. 00:54:30.640 --> 00:54:32.480 You're really good at that. 00:54:32.480 --> 00:54:34.720 Because sometimes that's all people need. 00:54:34.720 --> 00:54:35.840 Because you never know. 00:54:35.840 --> 00:54:37.840 You know, when you're doing something, you know if if you're a 00:54:37.840 --> 00:54:40.720 professional, you know whether you're doing a good job of something, but 00:54:41.360 --> 00:54:44.240 when it's a little more subjective and you're not quite sure if 00:54:44.240 --> 00:54:47.280 it lands for somebody to actually go out of their way to 00:54:47.280 --> 00:54:51.440 give positive feedback instead of complaining, which is our natural nature. 00:54:51.440 --> 00:54:56.000 You know, the I think on websites like Yelp or whatever, uh, 00:54:56.000 --> 00:54:59.840 if if I remember correctly, it's like four or five times out 00:54:59.840 --> 00:55:02.880 of, you know, four times out of five, the feedback is going 00:55:02.880 --> 00:55:07.200 to tend to be negative versus a positive view of something because 00:55:07.200 --> 00:55:09.040 that's just kind of how we're wired. 00:55:09.040 --> 00:55:12.320 It's you want to complain when something is done wrong. 00:55:12.320 --> 00:55:15.200 You don't want to say thank you when something goes well because 00:55:15.200 --> 00:55:16.640 of a sense of entitlement. 00:55:16.640 --> 00:55:18.560 Like if you go to a restaurant and have a good meal, 00:55:18.560 --> 00:55:19.600 well they did their job. 00:55:19.600 --> 00:55:21.360 Of course they had a good meal, that's what you're paying them 00:55:21.520 --> 00:55:26.080 for. The thoughtfulness of just going a little bit extra and extending 00:55:26.080 --> 00:55:30.320 thanks to someone when maybe they're not expecting it, is is a 00:55:30.320 --> 00:55:33.440 part of also, you know, us paying dividends in the world as 00:55:33.440 --> 00:55:33.520 just 00:55:34.480 --> 00:55:37.120 good members of the community, as good neighbors. 00:55:37.120 --> 00:55:41.120 Because when you stop taking those things for granted, it's again a 00:55:41.120 --> 00:55:42.800 chance to point to God. 00:55:42.800 --> 00:55:45.040 Yeah, I think that one of the worst things about our world 00:55:45.040 --> 00:55:48.400 today, as I've said before, is that we have grocery stores and 00:55:48.400 --> 00:55:52.000 we have specialists for all these things and we have online purchasing 00:55:52.160 --> 00:55:56.080 and you can have anything you need virtually anytime. 00:55:56.080 --> 00:55:58.000 Certainly in the week or the month. 00:55:58.000 --> 00:56:00.480 There's no need to wait almost ever. 00:56:00.720 --> 00:56:03.840 You can get vegetables year round, even if you don't know anything 00:56:03.840 --> 00:56:05.120 about growing vegetables. 00:56:05.120 --> 00:56:08.800 You can get meat if you don't know anything about slaughtering animals, 00:56:08.800 --> 00:56:12.480 because of the specialization of labor and the fact that there are 00:56:12.480 --> 00:56:14.880 other people who are good at that and they do it for 00:56:14.880 --> 00:56:21.920 you. That intermediate step that has removed us from God's providence 00:56:21.920 --> 00:56:27.440 at the front end, where the cow was conceived and the seed 00:56:27.440 --> 00:56:28.720 was germinated. 00:56:28.720 --> 00:56:32.080 All those things are miracles, even as they're also a natural part 00:56:32.080 --> 00:56:33.120 of creation. 00:56:33.120 --> 00:56:36.720 And so when they happen and then they move through all the 00:56:36.720 --> 00:56:40.720 process of the system, the market, and get onto your shelves at 00:56:40.720 --> 00:56:45.760 home, when we forget how miraculous it was that it began and 00:56:45.760 --> 00:56:47.920 indeed that it came through all those steps to finally come to 00:56:48.400 --> 00:56:50.800 us in a relatively affordable fashion. 00:56:50.800 --> 00:56:53.840 It's easy to forget to give thanks to you know the butcher 00:56:54.080 --> 00:56:58.080 or certainly to God for having delivered that food to you. 00:56:58.080 --> 00:57:01.840 You know, we say give us this day our daily bread, it 00:57:01.840 --> 00:57:06.720 should be in cognizant recognition. 00:57:06.720 --> 00:57:10.080 It should be cognizant of the fact that that's actually happening. 00:57:10.240 --> 00:57:13.280 Whatever you ate today, God gave to you. 00:57:13.280 --> 00:57:15.680 Yes, you may have earned the money, or maybe it was given 00:57:15.680 --> 00:57:17.200 to you as a gift. 00:57:17.200 --> 00:57:20.080 Whatever it was, it came to you by God's providence. 00:57:20.080 --> 00:57:24.000 No matter what, the food would not exist if God didn't turn 00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:27.120 the sun on, if God didn't send the winds and the rain, 00:57:27.120 --> 00:57:30.800 all the natural elements that make those things possible are 00:57:31.680 --> 00:57:32.480 they it. 00:57:32.480 --> 00:57:34.320 They're why we have anything. 00:57:34.320 --> 00:57:38.560 And so the world of plenty that we have makes it really 00:57:38.560 --> 00:57:39.600 easy to forget to give thanks. 00:57:40.480 --> 00:57:43.280 And so as you know, we're we're observing Thanksgiving this week in 00:57:43.280 --> 00:57:44.480 the United States. 00:57:44.480 --> 00:57:47.840 I think it's important to remember just how easy it is for 00:57:47.840 --> 00:57:49.200 all those things to go away. 00:57:49.200 --> 00:57:51.760 We talked about the normalcy bias episode. 00:57:52.000 --> 00:57:54.720 the state that we have today is not a natural one. 00:57:54.720 --> 00:57:57.200 The stuff can all very easily just vanish. 00:57:57.280 --> 00:58:00.880 think we should be thankful for every day that we have it. 00:58:00.880 --> 00:58:04.320 Before we close out this episode and sort of tie up these 00:58:04.480 --> 00:58:09.280 three issues, duty, talents, and thanks into a sort of neat little 00:58:09.280 --> 00:58:12.720 package. Perhaps an early Christmas present. 00:58:12.720 --> 00:58:15.760 Although don't worry we won't change the outro music, it's not even 00:58:15.760 --> 00:58:16.960 advent yet. 00:58:16.960 --> 00:58:20.480 But before we do that, I want to make a point that 00:58:20.480 --> 00:58:23.360 may seem a little esoteric or arcane, but I don't think that 00:58:23.360 --> 00:58:26.080 it is, and I want you to think about it a little 00:58:26.080 --> 00:58:30.960 bit. For a number of years now I have come to 00:58:32.960 --> 00:58:38.880 Almost hate the term human being for a very specific reason. 00:58:38.880 --> 00:58:41.680 I think that it implies the wrong sort of thing. 00:58:41.760 --> 00:58:44.720 It gives the wrong idea. 00:58:44.880 --> 00:58:51.120 Because a human being implies that humans are just existing. 00:58:51.120 --> 00:58:55.440 Yes, I recognize that being is used in partly a different sense 00:58:55.520 --> 00:58:58.080 in this term. 00:58:58.080 --> 00:59:02.240 But my point is that humans are never being. 00:59:02.240 --> 00:59:04.400 Humans are becoming. 00:59:04.400 --> 00:59:06.160 Humans are doing. 00:59:06.160 --> 00:59:08.800 We exist in the act. 00:59:08.800 --> 00:59:14.240 And we've mentioned before in previous episodes that you are always moving 00:59:14.240 --> 00:59:16.160 Godward or hellward. 00:59:16.160 --> 00:59:20.640 And so the whole point of this topic and of this episode 00:59:20.960 --> 00:59:26.800 is that when you use your talents to serve your neighbor, that's 00:59:26.720 --> 00:59:33.040 moving Godward, that is sanctification, that is your faith working out through 00:59:33.040 --> 00:59:37.200 works, that is working out your faith in fear and trembling, that 00:59:37.200 --> 00:59:42.880 is showing your faith by your works, and yes that is scriptural. 00:59:42.880 --> 00:59:48.800 Again, you aren't justified by these works, but a living faith produces 00:59:49.040 --> 00:59:53.360 works. And so this is how you move Godward. 00:59:53.360 --> 00:59:55.680 That is how you are a human becoming. 00:59:55.680 --> 00:59:58.480 You are becoming what God wants you to be. 00:59:58.480 --> 01:00:00.400 That is what sanctification is. 01:00:00.560 --> 01:00:05.040 It is the making righteous of one who was once a sinner, 01:00:05.040 --> 01:00:08.880 and has now been justified by the blood of the Lamb. 01:00:08.880 --> 01:00:13.840 And so the whole point is that you have duties. 01:00:13.840 --> 01:00:18.960 Just as a Christian you have duties, but just as a person, 01:00:18.960 --> 01:00:23.200 as a man or a woman, you have duties. 01:00:23.200 --> 01:00:26.240 And those duties radiate outward. 01:00:26.240 --> 01:00:30.480 You have the highest duty to your immediate family. 01:00:30.480 --> 01:00:34.720 And then you have the extended family, your town, your city, your 01:00:34.880 --> 01:00:35.360 nation. 01:00:37.040 --> 01:00:40.640 These duties radiate outward. 01:00:40.640 --> 01:00:44.400 And so yes, the ones that are more immediate trump the ones 01:00:44.400 --> 01:00:46.880 that are further out. 01:00:46.880 --> 01:00:52.080 But how you execute, how you fulfill these duties, is through the 01:00:52.080 --> 01:00:56.160 use of your talents, those things that God has given you, your 01:00:56.160 --> 01:01:01.120 attributes, the gifts, abilities, whatever they happen to be, all of these 01:01:01.120 --> 01:01:03.600 things that flow down from God. 01:01:03.600 --> 01:01:07.120 You use those to fulfill your duties. 01:01:07.120 --> 01:01:10.000 And then you give thanks. 01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.800 You give thanks both for the fact that others have rendered good 01:01:14.800 --> 01:01:19.200 things to you because those gifts ultimately come from God, He uses 01:01:19.200 --> 01:01:21.360 others to deliver them to you. 01:01:21.920 --> 01:01:25.280 But then you also give thanks for the fact that God has 01:01:25.280 --> 01:01:31.600 created all of these opportunities for you to use your gifts to 01:01:31.600 --> 01:01:32.240 do good 01:01:33.360 --> 01:01:40.400 because that is your opportunity as a human becoming to move 01:01:40.400 --> 01:01:44.880 Godward. That is your opportunity to work out your faith in fear 01:01:44.880 --> 01:01:46.000 and trembling. 01:01:46.000 --> 01:01:50.640 That is your opportunity to demonstrate that you have a living faith. 01:01:50.640 --> 01:01:53.600 And that is a great thing, that is a great gift from 01:01:53.600 --> 01:01:55.680 God. That is God 01:01:56.640 --> 01:01:58.240 choosing you 01:01:59.200 --> 01:02:03.360 and making you into one of his sons, and I mean that 01:02:03.360 --> 01:02:06.080 to apply both to men and women, because sons are the ones 01:02:06.080 --> 01:02:10.320 who inherit, that is the point of the scripture passage. 01:02:10.320 --> 01:02:13.520 And so when you have these opportunities from God to use your 01:02:14.080 --> 01:02:18.320 talents to fulfill your duties, give thanks for that. 01:02:18.320 --> 01:02:24.240 He is giving you the opportunity to demonstrate your Christian faith, because 01:02:24.240 --> 01:02:27.360 ultimately that is the heart of the Christian faith. 01:02:27.360 --> 01:02:30.160 Yes it is belief in Christ, it is the belief in Christ 01:02:30.160 --> 01:02:31.840 that justifies us. 01:02:31.840 --> 01:02:33.520 But is the good works 01:02:34.480 --> 01:02:39.520 rendered unto our neighbors, that our true worship of God, that demonstrate 01:02:39.600 --> 01:02:42.560 that we have a living faith, and that we are true sons 01:02:42.560 --> 01:02:45.200 of the Father. 01:02:45.200 --> 01:02:48.240 And so we will close out this episode with a passage that 01:02:48.240 --> 01:02:53.360 we have used a number of times before, but as with all 01:02:53.360 --> 01:02:57.920 of Scripture, it is worth revisiting, and this one is particularly worth 01:02:57.920 --> 01:03:02.800 revisiting here at the end of this episode, and that is part 01:03:02.800 --> 01:03:03.440 of Matthew 01:03:04.320 --> 01:03:08.080 6 about not being anxious. 01:03:08.080 --> 01:03:12.240 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what 01:03:12.240 --> 01:03:15.280 you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, 01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:19.520 what you will put on, is not life more than food, and 01:03:19.520 --> 01:03:21.440 the body more than clothing? 01:03:21.440 --> 01:03:24.800 Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, 01:03:24.800 --> 01:03:29.600 nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them, are 01:03:29.600 --> 01:03:31.920 you not of more value than they? 01:03:31.920 --> 01:03:34.960 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour 01:03:34.960 --> 01:03:36.720 to his span of life? 01:03:36.720 --> 01:03:39.280 And why are you anxious about clothing? 01:03:39.280 --> 01:03:43.440 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil 01:03:43.440 --> 01:03:47.680 nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory 01:03:47.680 --> 01:03:49.920 was not arrayed like one of these. 01:03:49.920 --> 01:03:53.040 But if God so close the grass of the field, which today 01:03:53.120 --> 01:03:56.880 is alive, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not 01:03:56.880 --> 01:04:00.160 much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 01:04:00.160 --> 01:04:03.920 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what 01:04:04.080 --> 01:04:06.640 shall we drink, or what shall we wear? 01:04:06.640 --> 01:04:11.120 For the heathens seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father 01:04:11.120 --> 01:04:12.960 knows that you need them all. 01:04:12.960 --> 01:04:16.640 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all 01:04:16.640 --> 01:04:18.640 these things will be added to you. 01:04:18.640 --> 01:04:22.720 Therefore do not be anxious about to-morrow, for tomorrow will be anxious 01:04:22.720 --> 01:04:23.920 for itself. 01:04:23.920 --> 01:04:27.280 Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.