Motivated by Mortality | Part 2

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]When you worry, it says here, what does it add to anything? Has worrying about something ever made, if it did actually happen, made it any better? Really?

[00:00:09]Then why in the world do you do it?

[00:00:12]YOU GUYS WILL BE STRESSING AND WORRYING ABOUT SOMETHING. WELL, THIS THING MIGHT GO WRONG. AND IF IT DOES, this worry isn't going to make it any less.

[00:00:22]>> [music] >> All right. So, today we are in Motivated by Mortality part two. This will be the final part. Somehow, someway, I'm going to finish it today, okay? Because I want to start something new when we get over to the new property, which is in 2 weeks. Next week is the zone meetings, okay? So, we're going to try to finish this today. All right. Motivated by Mortality part two. So, first, some resets. Let's go over the realities that I gave you last time. Reality one, you are going to die.

[00:00:53]>> [laughter] >> Someday, all right?

[00:00:55]It's just This is the whole point of being motivated by the fact that there is that we're mortal, that we don't have forever. We We are right now temporary beings, okay?

[00:01:05]Uh reality two, you don't know when that's going to happen.

[00:01:08]So, please stop acting like you have all the time in the world when you don't know.

[00:01:13]Okay? Please stop acting that way.

[00:01:15]That's why you're not getting stuff done that you need to get done in your life cuz you keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off, and then it's too late, okay? So, let's not do that. Reality three, you were created and placed here to make decisions. I have a whole teaching called Making Decisions the Reason You Exist.

[00:01:32]Okay? So, you're choosing between that which leads to life, eternal life, and that which leads to death, eternal death, okay? That's how I teach it, okay?

[00:01:41]And you get to choose between existing and growing, right? Between the existence and growth. Existence is the path of least resistance.

[00:01:49]It's weary. It's complacent. It's hopeless at times. It's the way of the world, the way of the flesh. That's what it means to be living or in an existence. You're just existing.

[00:01:59]But when you're living in a growth kind of condition, that's the path of challenge, overcoming, it's energized, it's enthusiastic, it's hopeful, the way of the above, the way of the spirit, okay?

[00:02:12]Choosing the quality of your life and the impact you have on the quality of others' lives.

[00:02:17]Okay, these are the things that are your realities, okay?

[00:02:20]All right, reality four, after {quote} life, there is a judgment.

[00:02:26]Okay, there's a judgment and we talked about that quite a little bit last time.

[00:02:30]And reality five, there's a second death.

[00:02:33]And that is a permanent one that can be avoided. It can I didn't say can't, it can be avoided. That's kind of the whole point that we're taught here.

[00:02:42]Is that there's a way to avoid the second death.

[00:02:45]All right, the permanent one.

[00:02:47]Okay, good. Now, today's verses, let's begin in Kohelet, in Ecclesiastes chapter nine.

[00:02:54]Okay?

[00:02:55]Kohelet, Ecclesiastes chapter nine. I'm going to read verse 10.

[00:02:59]All that your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

[00:03:09]All right, so what he's saying basically is, I'm going to paraphrase this for you, make the most of the opportunities that being alive {quote} provides you.

[00:03:21]All right, all that your hand finds to do, do with your might. Because the he's basically saying in the grave, it's too late.

[00:03:29]He's not talking about that we will never have more to do. He's simply saying, the things that you were given to do in this flesh suit, once you're in the grave, then your time is done for that phase of all of this, okay?

[00:03:43]So, make the most of the opportunities that you have while you're in the flesh suit that life provides you with.

[00:03:50]Okay, all your challenges are opportunities. All of the blessings are opportunities. They're all opportunities.

[00:03:56]Okay, when you're challenged, what's it an opportunity for? At least it's for growth, right?

[00:04:02]It's an opportunity to see how far you've grown, and it's a challenge that gets you to grow. What about when you are blessed? What's the opportunities there? To see if you're willing to be a conduit for blessing. How do you receive blessing? And how do you want to share blessing and pass that through? Okay?

[00:04:17]So, I'm just giving some basics here.

[00:04:19]All right.

[00:04:21]So, we just learned that part of being motivated by by mortality is to say that you have things that you will find yourself able to do, right? All that your hands find to do. Things What do the hands talk about? The work that we can do. Things we do. Things we do doesn't always mean your job. It can mean doing something for somebody.

[00:04:39]And it doesn't need to be labor. It could be somebody just needs you to sit and talk to them or listen to them.

[00:04:45]Okay? But, it's opportunities to do something.

[00:04:50]So, all that your hands find to do, do with all your might.

[00:04:54]Do it with it Give it Give it your all.

[00:04:56]Okay?

[00:04:58]All right, let's go to 2 Corinthians.

[00:05:00]We're going to hop through a bunch of things today.

[00:05:04]Cuz I want to finish this today.

[00:05:08]2 Corinthians chapter 4.

[00:05:11]And we're not [snorts] reading whole chapters like usual to get verses and stuff like that, although we have some that are a little bit more verses. Okay, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16.

[00:05:21]We're going to read the last three verses here.

[00:05:24]Do not Therefore, we do not lose heart.

[00:05:27]But, even if our outward man is perishing, right?

[00:05:32]That means the flesh suit is dying.

[00:05:35]Even if our man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day.

[00:05:40]So, I want to use this as especially an encouragement for those of you that are on the physical decline.

[00:05:47]Okay?

[00:05:48]Which is pretty much after teenager.

[00:05:52]>> [laughter] >> It just seems like it starts to rapidly look like, "Wow, I can't do what I used to do." Right? It happens pretty quickly. You know, our physical decline is a signal to lean harder into your spiritual growth.

[00:06:06]Okay? Again, let's read that verse.

[00:06:08]Therefore, we do not lose heart, but even if our outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary pressure is working for us a far more exceeding and everlasting weight of this theme. We are not looking on what is seen, but on what is not seen. For what is seen is passing away, but what is not seen is everlasting. So, we're going to read lots of sections that talk about things like probably your brain goes through.

[00:06:33]Don't lay Don't lay up your treasures down here, but lay up your treasures in heaven. We're going to talk about that, right? These are all things that if you've been reading your book and been trained even in church back in the day, things should just come up to memory.

[00:06:44]The idea of what we lay up for there is more than what we lay up for here. In other words, the there is not that we're going there, but it's the idea of the kingdom when it's coming. Okay?

[00:06:53]The idea of the kingdom.

[00:06:55]So, again, our physical decline is not to be whined about, lamented.

[00:07:03]It should inspire us to lean harder into the things that remain, the things that are everlasting.

[00:07:11]The things that actually have the forever sort of effect. Okay? Lean into the spiritual side. Okay? The spiritual side. Okay. Now, remember, we talk about spiritual and flesh many times. Okay, there's many words that I use for that. So, the the above, okay, that's where Elohim is.

[00:07:32]The things of the above, we call that also heavenly, we call that spiritual.

[00:07:38]Then we have the things of the below, human beings, the flesh. We call that the below, we call it the flesh, we call it the world.

[00:07:46]Okay?

[00:07:47]And so, those are interchangeable ideas.

[00:07:50]Okay, those are just different terms to say the same thing.

[00:07:53]So, when I tell you that your flesh is declining, your physical is declining, means your spiritual or your above should be leaned into. That's where you want to focus.

[00:08:04]There's nothing in your physical decline that affects your ability to grow the other part.

[00:08:10]As long as you're awake and alive, you can grow the other side of this. You don't need physical, you know, prowess and abilities to grow that side of it.

[00:08:19]So, let's focus on making sure we're doing that. Amen?

[00:08:24]Okay.

[00:08:26]Let's go now to Matthew 6, which is exactly what we're just talking about.

[00:08:32]Matthew 6, and we're going to look at verse 19.

[00:08:36]Okay, Matthew 6 and verse 19.

[00:08:39]"Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

[00:08:52]For where your treasure is, there your heart shall be also."

[00:08:57]Okay. Now, again, this is not saying don't create wealth.

[00:09:01]What it's saying is don't just store up a whole bunch of wealth thinking that that makes any difference. You don't get to take it with you, and it's it's going to rust and and be destroyed by the moths or whatever over time.

[00:09:13]However, if you develop wealth to benefit others, you develop wealth cuz there are verses that say things like if you do not take care of your children's children, you're worse than an infidel.

[00:09:22]So, it's not a verse against wealth.

[00:09:24]It's saying if you're treasuring, what do what do people do when they treasure?

[00:09:28]They hoard and store up, and they don't do anything with it. It's just the idea of having.

[00:09:34]You You I'm going to use an analogy that most of you are aware of, not that I'm recommending, you know, fantasy things, but all of us have read stories about dragons and how they like to just hoard their treasure. And all they do is lay on their treasure and and have this for no purpose. They can't spend it anywhere.

[00:09:52]You know, it's just about accumulating treasure that they could just sit around going, "Look at my treasure."

[00:10:00]So, he says, "Don't value and treasure the things below on that in that way.

[00:10:05]Store up for yourself the valuable treasure of the above." How do you do that? By doing what's well pleasing in his sight, by focusing on the things that are pleasing to the master.

[00:10:16]Doing the things that get you the the accolade of well done, you good and trustworthy servant. You get to hear that said over you, okay?

[00:10:25]He says, "Don't don't lay up for yourself, store up for yourself treasures that are just the world's idea of wealth."

[00:10:34]By the way, that could also be people's opinions of you.

[00:10:39]I got a whole lot of people to think I'm amazing.

[00:10:42]But does he think you're amazing?

[00:10:45]There's a lot of people out there that people in the world think are amazing.

[00:10:49]You know, they quote-unquote, these are their idols.

[00:10:52]Whether they're movie stars or singers or athletes or business people or whatever, but they're all impressed with them and they get their accolades is sometimes how they're storing up their treasures. Look at how many people think I'm great.

[00:11:04]Okay?

[00:11:06]He's saying, "Let's not do that." He says, "Let's go ahead and focus on the treasures above." Why? Because where your treasure is, what's the treasure? The thing you value.

[00:11:16]Okay, treasure is what you value.

[00:11:20]You're protective of.

[00:11:22]You accumulate just for the sake of accumulating.

[00:11:26]All right?

[00:11:28]I'm all for accumulating financial wealth if you're going to use it to do something beneficial instead of just to say look at how big my number is in my bank account.

[00:11:38]Or look at how big my house is and look at how many cars I own and looks like a lot of the world does, right? Look at how many houses I have and look at how many cars I have and look at all this other stuff.

[00:11:46]What are you doing with the wealth?

[00:11:49]Okay?

[00:11:51]He says cuz where your treasure is, that's where your heart shall also be.

[00:11:55]Now really, you can reverse that. Okay?

[00:11:58]You treasure what is already in your heart.

[00:12:02]Okay? So you start to where your heart is accumulate the things that your heart treasures.

[00:12:08]And we tend to put our heart on the wrong things. We focus our hearts on the wrong things. Go back to the heart of the matter teaching, okay?

[00:12:15]We focus our hearts, our emotions on the wrong things.

[00:12:20]So that would be the things that you treasure, you value. Okay?

[00:12:26]Like for example, I remember to hearing this a long long time ago when I heard stuff like this from people. Actually, I probably heard it in a personal development thing. You know, this is a kind of a a reality check cuz there was a bunch of men were talking to a bunch of men saying, you know, guys, how many of you take as good a care of your wife or your family as your car?

[00:12:46]Cuz there are some guys out there, by the way, there's some guys out there don't even ever think to take care of their car. You know, like, do you ever clean this thing? But back when I was growing up, there were people that babied their car, washed it every week, you know, were really careful to polish it and buff it up and everything.

[00:13:04]It's something they were treasuring.

[00:13:08]But did they treasure the more valuable thing like their family members?

[00:13:14]Okay? Where do you, you know, cuz if your spouse or your children feel like you value something above them, you're treasuring the wrong things.

[00:13:23]If your creator thinks you're valuing anything above him, certainly he thinks your values are in the wrong place.

[00:13:31]And so, let's be really aware of how we do that, okay? Cuz we communicate that to everybody around us.

[00:13:38]Based on what they observe, right? People are watching you. How they observe where you're treasuring, where your heart is.

[00:13:48]Is your joy in something physical, or is your joy in the spiritual, which includes loving each other? Like he says, love to him is half the commandment, the other half is loving each other. If it's more clear that you love things more than him or people, you're treasuring the wrong stuff.

[00:14:09]I mean, this is like the young man that came to Messiah and said, you know, what do I need to do to have eternal life?

[00:14:14]And the whole thing went on and on until the point where I found out he loved his stuff.

[00:14:20]He was told, you know what? Sell all your stuff and follow me. Which by the way was not an instruction that we should be doing this in poverty.

[00:14:28]It was an instruction for a person who was treasuring the wrong things.

[00:14:35]Okay? No problem having wealth.

[00:14:37]I mean, Yeshua had enough wealth that even though Judas was stealing out of the purse on a regular basis, there was so much in there nobody noticed.

[00:14:45]Okay? Nobody noticed.

[00:14:48]There was plenty in there.

[00:14:49]So, it's not about having wealth. What do you What are you having it for? How do you feel about it?

[00:14:56]What is your focus in regards to it?

[00:14:59]Where's your heart in regard to it?

[00:15:02]Okay?

[00:15:04]It's like the love of money is not the root of all evil.

[00:15:07]It's It can be the root of all kinds of evil.

[00:15:11]Loving the treasuring up as opposed to loving what it can do.

[00:15:16]If you love what it can do, like maybe you what you developed enough wealth to take care of a parent in their older age.

[00:15:25]What a blessing.

[00:15:27]You know what? I remember wanting to have enough wealth that I could be the one that says, "That's okay, I'll take that check." when you go out to eat.

[00:15:33]Just to Not because I wanted to show off or anything, just to be able to say, instead of being the one hoping somebody else will take it.

[00:15:40]Anybody ever been Don't have to raise your hand, but you have been to a meal where you're just kind of hoping somebody will offer to take that check.

[00:15:45]Okay?

[00:15:48]But wanting the wealth to be a blessing.

[00:15:52]To be able to say, "You know what? I'll take care of that. Don't worry about it."

[00:15:57]I'll get you something to you know, if you need food. I'll help you pay that bill.

[00:16:02]Now again, be careful we don't just throw money into somebody who's turned themselves into a financial black hole because they're not doing what they're supposed to do. Probably good to get counsel about that. What I'm just saying is if you want to do things with the wealth to benefit others.

[00:16:17]As opposed to loving the money itself.

[00:16:21]Just loving money.

[00:16:23]Okay?

[00:16:25]I mean, you should be focused and I said this a lot lately, if you're younger especially, on creating enough wealth so that when you get to the older age, you're not financially challenged.

[00:16:37]So it's not a love of money, it's a love of not wanting to be challenged when you're 60 and 65 and 70.

[00:16:43]And you should all be aware that there are people like that, like 99%.

[00:16:47]Okay?

[00:16:50]There are people I talk to on a regular basis that can't come up with $50 if they needed it today.

[00:16:58]Most Americans cannot come up with $1,000 period.

[00:17:01]If they needed a thousand bucks for something. That's why Dave Ramsey and others out there say, you should have a thousand dollar emergency fund because that should cover most emergencies.

[00:17:09]Mostly today, I think you might want to increase it to 1,500 or 2,000. Things have gotten more expensive.

[00:17:15]But the average person can't come up with that.

[00:17:18]They just can't.

[00:17:20]Because they're not focused enough. So, it's not about loving the money, it's about loving life enough to make sure you don't have a challenge with the wealth, right?

[00:17:30]Okay, then that's just something that when you're young enough, you're not focusing enough on.

[00:17:35]You All you guys out there, especially if you're say 30 to 40, 25 to 40, you ought to be thinking, especially even if you're closer to 25 than 40, this thing that I'm doing for work, where is it going to be in terms of my lifestyle 10, 15 years from now? It may be paying okay for this age. Maybe 25 and single works whatever you're doing, but with married with kids and the same pay work?

[00:18:02]Well, this job doesn't pay more than that. Then why are you there? Why you're not choosing a path that gets you to an income that makes it work?

[00:18:10]Okay, that's not because you love money, it's because you don't want the stress of not being able to take care of things. You know?

[00:18:18]Cuz I hear people all the time saying, "Well, all these people, you know, they have these kind of jobs and it's not a living wage and that's not fair." Nobody said they had to stay in those jobs.

[00:18:26]Other better paying jobs are available.

[00:18:29]I'm not saying it's not a problem that there isn't a living wage or whatever.

[00:18:32]That's a whole different politics thing, whatever.

[00:18:35]You are living, most of you who watching, in a free place, a relatively free place where you can choose careers and change them at will.

[00:18:50]But you're not thinking about the future. Again, motivated by mortality. I want you also be motivated by, when we talked about this earlier, the idea that you're going to be in a physical decline at some point.

[00:19:01]Wouldn't you like life to be easier and not harder when you get in your physical decline?

[00:19:05]Wouldn't it be nice not to have to worry about financial things when you are struggling now to be able to physically do the things to create the wealth.

[00:19:15]Plan for what you know is coming.

[00:19:19]Okay?

[00:19:20]Motivated by mortality is cuz you know death is coming. I'm trying to be morbid here. I'm not trying to scare you. Not trying to trigger anybody who's got a fear of dying or whatever. I'm simply saying it's coming.

[00:19:32]At some point.

[00:19:33]So, why wouldn't you want to enjoy life more now knowing that it's coming instead of being miserable and fighting with people and all stressing over everything?

[00:19:42]And then also knowing that if death doesn't come very soon, then old age is coming.

[00:19:49]Okay?

[00:19:51]And you don't want to get to old age wishing it was death.

[00:19:54]>> [laughter] >> You should enjoy your older age.

[00:19:59]I know physically it's going to be tougher at times for some people cuz some of the things start to fall apart that are painful or this or that and it it's harder to do.

[00:20:06]But still, you should be able to have minimal stress other than physical health.

[00:20:12]That should be your only challenge in old age is physical health. Okay?

[00:20:17]Or even maybe some mental health challenges that can happen too to some people. I mean, you know, we have a lot of people getting Alzheimer's and other things like that. But other than those things, which really for the most part, you know, you can't control. Although you could be moving your body more and eating better and and watching what you're getting in your body. But the thing is preparing for these things.

[00:20:38]The whole idea of motivate Motivated by mortality is being motivated by something that is coming.

[00:20:45]Old age is coming.

[00:20:47]Or death, one of the two.

[00:20:51]And what You know what I've always thought? We taught this in terms of Messiah. People talking about, "Well, you know, he's coming this year." No, he's not.

[00:21:00]Okay?

[00:21:01]But you should be living like he's coming this week, this year.

[00:21:08]But you should be planning like he's not even in your lifetime.

[00:21:12]Cuz we don't know.

[00:21:14]It's been a lot of people's lifetimes since he left that thought it was going to be in their lifetimes and it wasn't.

[00:21:19]Could be us, too.

[00:21:21]I know everybody wants to look at world events all the time and think, >> [gasps] >> "See, it's the end times."

[00:21:26]I don't know.

[00:21:28]Everybody's been wrong so far.

[00:21:31]Okay? It will be someday.

[00:21:33]Doesn't mean difficult times aren't coming. There's been lots of difficult times since Messiah and before Messiah.

[00:21:39]Okay? So certainly we could be facing some difficult times.

[00:21:43]But don't get all wrapped up in, "See, see, time is short." Well, even scripture says time is shorter than we than when we first believed. And that was written 2,000 years ago. Okay? So if if that person thought time is we're nearer to the end than when we first believe, well certainly we are nearer than they were.

[00:22:02]It's 2,000 years later.

[00:22:05]But yet, you should be living your life, same thing with this motivated by mortality. See, I said it right for the first time.

[00:22:13]Um It's like a tongue twister, but you should be motivated to do everything in the now. Enjoy the now. Do it be productive in the now. Grow in the now.

[00:22:24]Live life in the in the now. Live. Don't just exist.

[00:22:29]The same thing with knowing that you're aging. Plan for that.

[00:22:35]Plan for that. Cuz I remember, and you're all probably in the same boat to some degree. I remember being, I don't know, teenager, late teens, early 20s, something like that, and finding about finding out about this idea called retirement when I first was finding out about this thing called work.

[00:22:52]Kind of find out about them both at the same time, you know. You got to get a job, and then one day you're going to retire.

[00:22:58]And then we were sold how retirement is like you go to Hawaii and just kick out on the beach.

[00:23:03]How many people do you know actually are not working? They're retired, but they're working still.

[00:23:09]Or they're struggling cuz they can't work, but they're on social security or something like that, government benefit, and it's not enough to really live on very well.

[00:23:16]And so, they lied to us.

[00:23:21]But really, did they lie to us? No. We thought it would happen automatically.

[00:23:26]They didn't really lie to us. It just wasn't full disclosure.

[00:23:30]They didn't say, "You need to work your butt off to prepare for this so that it gets easy at the end."

[00:23:38]There was a little bit of the information was left out.

[00:23:41]Okay?

[00:23:44]Plus, and I'm going to say this. This came in the one of the first multi-level marketing things I went to in my 30s or 20s, whatever, many, many years ago. Somebody got up there said this was one of the most brilliant things I've ever heard, okay?

[00:23:57]It was just a motivational person that came in to speak in general to all these people that were trying to make a side hustle, trying to make some money, and said, "Look, the number one reason why you don't have what you really want in life is because you're too busy getting what you want now."

[00:24:12]Did you hear that?

[00:24:14]I'm busy getting what I want right now, which makes it almost impossible, if I'm always doing that, to prepare, save up for, invest in later.

[00:24:27]And that's what happens. We don't have any ability to delay gratification.

[00:24:32]And so, I'm busy with now. One of the worst things ever invented was the credit card.

[00:24:37]Because the credit card made you not have to wait.

[00:24:42]So, you you've never learned to wait.

[00:24:45]We're generations of people that never thought that there's any reason to ever wait.

[00:24:50]You know, buy now, pay later.

[00:24:52]>> [snorts] >> Okay?

[00:24:56]But that totally derails a lot of other things, doesn't it?

[00:25:00]Okay?

[00:25:01]And so, let's not be living our lives that way. We have to be making sure that we are laying up our treasures in the heavenlies. What does it mean to lay up your treasures in the heavenlies?

[00:25:11]Doing the things that he's going to look at you and say, "That was good. I'm proud of you. Well done."

[00:25:17]Those are the treasures.

[00:25:19]Not treasures meaning you're building like a house up there that you're going to go to. You're not going anything up there.

[00:25:25]Okay?

[00:25:27]Let's just be really clear about this.

[00:25:28]Revelation 21.

[00:25:30]And I saw a renewed heaven and a renewed earth, and the former heaven and former earth passed away. And I, John, saw the new the city, excuse me, the set-apart city, Jerusalem, coming down from heaven.

[00:25:42]It's coming here.

[00:25:45]All right?

[00:25:46]So, I don't know why you're all excited to go there.

[00:25:49]It's coming here.

[00:25:51]But what you're treasuring up is you're scoring all these points. I know you don't like to hear this idea of earning or being worthy, but that's all verses that are in scripture.

[00:26:04]It says to walk worthily of the master.

[00:26:08]Okay?

[00:26:09]Paul says run the race to to to win, to receive the crown.

[00:26:15]You know, he says you're going to reap what you sowed. You're going to be judged according to what you do. Romans 2. So, let's just keep that all in mind, though, okay?

[00:26:24]That you're you're treasuring up so that when you die, he goes, "Good job.

[00:26:33]I'm proud of you.

[00:26:35]Enter into the joy of your master."

[00:26:37]Okay? That's what you're treasuring up, not stuff.

[00:26:42]You're treasuring up his opinion of you.

[00:26:46]Ooh.

[00:26:48]Okay? You're treasuring up how he sees you.

[00:26:55]You're storing all of these things into his memory of Look at this that Wow, she did this, he did that. Good job. That was great. That was so hard and and you overcame it. You were You were in this challenging spot, but you didn't quit. I mean, these are the THINGS WE'RE TREASURING UP.

[00:27:14]Kind of keep that in mind.

[00:27:16]Okay?

[00:27:17]Cuz I want you to be motivated by all of this stuff.

[00:27:20]Okay, let's stay here in Matthew. Okay, so now I want you to see how this flows.

[00:27:24]We're going to jump from what we just read here. Okay, we ended in verse 21.

[00:27:30]All right? Where your Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.

[00:27:33]The next couple of verses explain some of the things that are going on. So we're going to skip them and then come back to them. Okay?

[00:27:39]We're going to skip them and then come back to them.

[00:27:41]So then he starts in verse 25 and he says, "Because of this, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you're going to eat or drink, or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than the food and body more than the clothing?

[00:27:55]So what he's saying is focus first, and he's going to say that literally, seek first the kingdom. Focus first on the above stuff. That doesn't mean to the neglect of the below stuff.

[00:28:06]We still got to live here.

[00:28:08]We He put us on this planet. We still got to exist here and function here.

[00:28:13]But you got to do it with the primary focus on him.

[00:28:18]Okay? Primary focus.

[00:28:21]What's going to please him? Well, if I'm if I do everything with all my might and strength, that's going to please him.

[00:28:26]We just read that in Ecclesiastes, right? Whatever you have your hand to do, do with all your might.

[00:28:31]Well, if he says that, inspires Solomon to write that, and that's something we're supposed to read and then put into action, when we do it, it's pleasing to him.

[00:28:40]Okay?

[00:28:41]He says, "But I don't want you to do this. I want you to be motivated. I don't want you to worry.

[00:28:50]Don't worry.

[00:28:51]Be happy now. Okay. Look.

[00:28:54]Okay. So, some Bobby McFerrin fans.

[00:28:57]Okay.

[00:28:58]Um look, you guys need to understand this whole journey from Genesis to Revelation, from your birth to your death is a battle between faith, trust, worry, doubt. It's a battle.

[00:29:12]Okay?

[00:29:14]When you worry, you're not showing any trust and faith.

[00:29:18]That's what he's simply trying to say.

[00:29:19]He's like, you guys worry about everything. Stop worrying. That doesn't mean lay back and think he's just going to do it all for you.

[00:29:28]Put in the effort, learn from your mistakes, grow and develop.

[00:29:33]He says, but don't worry. He says, I say all of this to you and we're going to go back to understanding why he's saying this in verse 22 to 25, but uh to 24.

[00:29:41]But he says, look, I tell you, don't worry. Don't worry about Yeah, yeah, I don't have any clothing. I don't have food. I don't know where I'm going to get this all. Don't worry about it. Do with the best you can, as hard as you can. He's going to take care of you as long as you are making the effort.

[00:29:56]Make the effort.

[00:29:58]Okay?

[00:30:00]He says, is more is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the heaven, for neither they neither sow nor reap nor gather in storehouses, yet your heavenly Father does feed them. Now, do they sit there in their bird cages and the Father shows up and puts out bird seed for them?

[00:30:20]Or do they fly where there's food?

[00:30:23]And they move in the winter south and they move back in the in the summer north and they do all these other things.

[00:30:32]So, what did he provide them with?

[00:30:34]The knowledge and information that they can do these things.

[00:30:38]Okay?

[00:30:40]Cuz sometimes you read these verses thinking he's just going to do a bunch of stuff. He I don't see him We put out bird feeders.

[00:30:49]He didn't put out any bird feeders. He put out the stuff that they need all over the world and they just fly and find it where it is.

[00:30:55]And they know what to look for to get the food they need.

[00:30:59]Okay? He doesn't have any bird feeders anywhere. We made those.

[00:31:04]>> [snorts] >> Which isn't necessarily helping the birds.

[00:31:07]Okay?

[00:31:08]Cuz now they're learning to just get fed by you and they forget how to do what they need to do.

[00:31:13]Okay?

[00:31:14]He says, So when he says, "They neither sow nor reap nor gather into storehouses." He's saying they're not just going and doing like we do. They don't have like jobs where they gather a bunch of stuff up and store it somewhere. Okay?

[00:31:28]They go and eat when they're hungry.

[00:31:30]And they get food.

[00:31:31]Okay? Now, we do have other animals like squirrels or whatever that may store stuff up knowing that winter's coming.

[00:31:37]But it's just for that season. They're going to go out and get more stuff. And even if the weather breaks a little bit, they go out and get more stuff.

[00:31:44]All right?

[00:31:46]He goes, Uh yet your heavenly Father does feed them. Are you not worth more than they?

[00:31:53]So he provided them with two things. One is the opportunity. In their In their case, he programmed them with the information they needed. In your case, you come as a blank slate to be trained and programmed by the people around you.

[00:32:09]But you have the skills to do everything.

[00:32:12]Okay? You may not have the skills to be a doctor or a lawyer or this or that or an artist that's that's on the level of Michelangelo, but you have skill sets that can provide your needs.

[00:32:22]Okay?

[00:32:24]Everybody has enough skill sets to go out there and do something.

[00:32:28]And then he provides you a place where you can do it. AND BY THE WAY, this is something that really can get frustrating for me.

[00:32:38]The birds, do they all stay in one place all the time?

[00:32:42]No.

[00:32:44]They go other places.

[00:32:46]Why?

[00:32:48]Why do they go other places? Do you ever watch the the herds go around in Africa or even in any country, how they get moved around? We even know about the flocks that even in the Bible, they had the flocks and they moved them from place to place. Why?

[00:33:00]Because there's certain places that are more abundant for food at different times, so you move to where the abundance is.

[00:33:07]Some of you are too stubborn to get out of your house and go move somewhere where there's work.

[00:33:13]Oh, well, you know, but my cousin lives here and my mother this and that and all that. But you're not able to take care of yourself there.

[00:33:21]Stop making excuses and justifications for you're not willing to go out there and take care of yourself.

[00:33:27]You can still take care of them at a distance.

[00:33:30]My mother lives in New York.

[00:33:33]It's a good 12-plus hour drive from here.

[00:33:37]She's 80, I forget now. Let's see.

[00:33:41]89 years 80-something years old. Okay, 86 years old.

[00:33:44]All right?

[00:33:45]So, she will actually be 87 next month.

[00:33:50]But the thing is, I I I could use the excuse, I need to live in New York cuz she's 87.

[00:33:56]I can I still take care of her and help her from here.

[00:33:59]She needs me, I can get on a plane and get there or drive.

[00:34:02]Stop making excuses.

[00:34:06]Okay? I had a person tell me how they lived in one place and all the work was five or six hours away and how they had to drive over to there, stay there over overnight during the week and then come back to their family. Why not move your family where the work is?

[00:34:20]Well, but we like the house we live in.

[00:34:22]Well, even the birds go where the food is.

[00:34:28]Okay?

[00:34:31]We we just make excuses. Why? Because I want what I want now.

[00:34:36]And I'm not willing to give that up to get what I need.

[00:34:39]Think about that, okay? I want what I want now, which distracts me from getting up to go get what I need ultimately.

[00:34:47]Is it convenient? No. Some of you need to retool. Maybe you need to go to school. Maybe you need to go get a a skill set and and a vocation. Whatever it is, you know, we got a couple of factories in town.

[00:35:00]Those factories aren't like a path to wealth.

[00:35:05]They pay bills.

[00:35:06]At a young age, they actually make probably a decent amount of money even at a young age.

[00:35:11]They also shut down whenever they want and don't pay you for that.

[00:35:15]I mean, hey, business is slow, we're letting everybody off for the week.

[00:35:20]Business is slow, we just shut down second shift.

[00:35:24]How many people were on second shift? A lot of people. Now there's just But you know what? They can't do that to you if you tooled up to something better.

[00:35:36]Okay?

[00:35:37]The lower you are on the skill set scale, the less anybody really cares to take care of you.

[00:35:45]Okay?

[00:35:47]So some of you need to just tool up.

[00:35:50]Skill up, level up your skills and everything else.

[00:35:54]Cuz the only one who's really going to take care of you is you. And by the way, you're thinking, well, God will He's watching you take care of you.

[00:36:03]I I want to say something with the strongest way I can say it. I said this so many times. Please stop praying, waiting on, and whining about him not doing what you need to do.

[00:36:17]He will not do what you need to do and can do.

[00:36:21]Okay?

[00:36:22]It is not happening.

[00:36:25]Go You want to go to a different congregation if that's what you're hearing being said from the microphone.

[00:36:29]Oh, we'll just pray and No. If it's something you can and should do yourself, he will not do it.

[00:36:35]WHY? BECAUSE IT'S COUNTERPRODUCTIVE. IT DOESN'T HELP HIS plan if he does it for you.

[00:36:44]He needs you to grow if you can do it.

[00:36:47]He'll do a lot of things, unbelievable things that you can't do.

[00:36:53]I promise you he's not going to do a single thing you won't do because you don't want to do it.

[00:36:57]But you could do it, but you don't want to.

[00:37:00]He doesn't He doesn't intervene in wants.

[00:37:04]He makes occasional interve- intervention on can'ts.

[00:37:08]Do you understand the difference?

[00:37:11]Let that sink in so that you live life in a more appropriate way.

[00:37:18]You know.

[00:37:21]You know, I had and this goes back to the teaching we just finished, the Hasatan teaching.

[00:37:26]I had some people write some comments in the thing that Rebbetzin was telling me about that they still want, because they need to be able to point a finger that Hasatan is the problem.

[00:37:37]They don't want to receive the reality of what I said in the teaching.

[00:37:41]Because they need somebody other than themselves to blame for everything that doesn't go right.

[00:37:47]And so they want to argue with me in the comments, which I just leave it there, that's fine, doesn't matter. All the haters are just helping our metrics with YouTube. So, who cares?

[00:37:56]But you you you got to be careful on both sides of this equation. Stop believing and relying on that if it's bad, somebody outside of you caused it. Or It could be time and chance, or it could be you.

[00:38:11]Don't blame some outside thing.

[00:38:14]And if it's good, stop sitting back thinking the good is just going to be handed to you just because.

[00:38:20]Cuz you're a believer, quote unquote.

[00:38:23]Or whatever. But I love him so much. He would certainly not want me Listen, he wants you to take your thumb out of your mouth and get up and do it.

[00:38:34]Cuz most of these things that you guys will come and ask in counsel about, I'm like, "Why aren't you doing it?"

[00:38:41]"Oh, I'm afraid and I'm this and I'm that." That That's what he wants you to grow out of.

[00:38:46]He allowed this to happen in your life so that you can face this.

[00:38:50]Look, a lot of people don't like listening to me for these reasons. I'm only going to sit here and tell you what I really believe that he put you here to do.

[00:39:00]And I'm also going to tell you what he is not going to do, even though you've been told for 2,000 years by the church that he would do it.

[00:39:11]He's here to help you grow and transform into him.

[00:39:16]And that isn't happening if he's going to do it for you.

[00:39:21]Okay? My children will tell you they've come to me at times when they were in high school and said, "La la la la la" about whatever it was. And I said, "You know what? I already graduated high school."

[00:39:32]I already did that math or that science or that thing. And they look at me like I said, "Go figure it out."

[00:39:38]"La la la la" No, I've already done all that. Nobody helped me.

[00:39:44]Okay?

[00:39:45]Your teacher did not give you the schoolwork to have AI or a parent do it for you.

[00:39:52]Your teacher gave it to you so you could figure it out.

[00:39:56]It's part of your growth.

[00:39:58]The most important skill you will get, children who are in school or whatever, and adults when you go and try different things. The most important skill you're going to develop in your life is to be able to handle the challenge of I don't know how to do this.

[00:40:13]Okay?

[00:40:15]That is your greatest skill set is I don't know what to do, but I'll figure it out.

[00:40:22]You know I developed that skill?

[00:40:24]I learned to just say yes to everything.

[00:40:26]Even if I had no idea what I was going to do.

[00:40:29]Hey, can you help me with this or can you do that? Not that helped me like do Can I Can I give you this project to do?

[00:40:34]Sure.

[00:40:35]Did I know what to do? Not necessarily.

[00:40:37]I had confidence I would figure it out.

[00:40:41]Okay?

[00:40:43]Instead of always being like this is not fair and this and this and this.

[00:40:50]You know, and I told my children I said look I already graduated eighth grade, ninth grade, whatever grade it was, 11th grade. And you know I I've been there. I did all that.

[00:40:59]Nobody helped me.

[00:41:02]Okay? And that's not because my parents were bad parents. My mother's a fifth grade teacher. She's very well educated.

[00:41:07]She's still very well educated. My father was very well educated. I mean they could have helped me.

[00:41:12]But then I would have missed out on the part of the main point of being in school.

[00:41:16]Is to learn how TO FIGURE STUFF OUT.

[00:41:19]OKAY?

[00:41:22]And that's part of this motivational thing with mortality. You're here for a finite period of time to demonstrate that you can figure stuff out. You can handle adversity. Oh.

[00:41:33]You know?

[00:41:36]Watched the video the other day.

[00:41:39]It was great. It was a little clip from somebody's something or other that that they were doing some sort of a training and the guy said you know when little children are faced with hard things and they don't want to hear hard things, they basically cry and whine and get upset and then somebody coddles them or whatever. And then they get to be adults and you know what? They still can't handle a a hard conversation and they do the same type of thing and people will coddle them. But then if the person doesn't, they're the jerk.

[00:42:04]Now the guy didn't use the word jerk. He used some more colorful languages.

[00:42:08]Okay?

[00:42:10]Okay, but the thing is I can relate to that that's how people will look at me when I say you got to be able to handle this hard conversation.

[00:42:19]What's a hard conversation? The one that makes you look at you.

[00:42:23]The one that makes you own something.

[00:42:26]But you know, you don't want to do that when you're a kid.

[00:42:29]And then people will coddle you.

[00:42:32]Look, praise God that my boomer parents or I [snorts] would before that, whatever generation that I was boomer basically at the end of it. My parents are not coddling anything.

[00:42:41]Okay?

[00:42:42]If you were a kid in that generation that was throwing a fit, the parents just walked away and said have a fit.

[00:42:48]Or go do it in your room.

[00:42:51]They did They did They They did not look like Now remember, listen to words here. They made no appearance that what I was going through mattered to them.

[00:43:02]Okay? That doesn't mean it didn't matter to them. It mattered so much that they knew it was best to not coddle.

[00:43:11]Fine, you want to throw a fit? Throw a fit.

[00:43:14]Just go do it somewhere else.

[00:43:16]I'm not giving in.

[00:43:18]Scream all you want.

[00:43:20]I mean, I watch as soon as a kid makes any noise, everybody wants to go coddle and and appease them. Nobody appeased any of us back in the '60s.

[00:43:26]Okay? If anything, you got smacked.

[00:43:29]Oh, you don't do that to kids anymore.

[00:43:32]>> [laughter] >> Okay?

[00:43:35]We all heard this sentence. Everybody old enough? You Oh, yeah, you want to cry about something? I'll give you a reason to cry. Anybody heard that sentence?

[00:43:47]Cuz they would always think, well, you're crying over nothing. You want a reason to cry? Come here.

[00:43:51]>> [laughter] >> I'll give you a reason to cry.

[00:43:55]Bang. Okay?

[00:43:57]If you were lucky. If you're unlucky, it was a belt or something or switch.

[00:44:01]Okay?

[00:44:02]But usually you were smart enough to go, I'm good.

[00:44:05]You learn that after one time.

[00:44:08]Just one time you learned. You're like, "And you Oh, you Oh, no, no. I'm I'm good.

[00:44:14]I'm good.

[00:44:15]>> [snorts] >> You know, it doesn't just shut OFF ALL THE WAY, BUT YOU'RE YOU'RE KIND OF >> [laughter] >> UH UH NO, I'M I'M GOOD.

[00:44:25]>> [laughter] >> "DO we need to keep going?" They would say to you. No. No, good.

[00:44:35]I'm good.

[00:44:36]Never mind. I'll go figure it out.

[00:44:38]I'm Look, you were put here You were born a baby.

[00:44:46]So, you're put here to grow the bleep up.

[00:44:52]I don't know what else to say.

[00:44:54]Okay?

[00:44:56]I mean, that's what's between birth and death, you have one job.

[00:45:02]To grow up.

[00:45:04]I mean, [laughter] you know, okay?

[00:45:06]That's it.

[00:45:08]To What does it grow up mean? To the point where you can take care of yourself first and then additional people other than yourself.

[00:45:18]That's what growing up means. I've taught you guys this over and over again. Being a grown-up means that you are now fully responsible for all of your life. Okay? That's what a grown-up is. A grown-up is responsible for all aspects of their life.

[00:45:32]Oh, but you want to be a Christian. You want to grow up in that system where Well, all the good things are the God's responsibility and all the bad things Satan did or whatever. So, I just get to just say I believe and I'm good.

[00:45:42]Oh, does that make Why does that make any sense to anybody?

[00:45:46]Please, start using this thing and say, "Let's be logical and rational and say, THIS MAKES NO SENSE what you're being told."

[00:45:55]And you know what? The reason it doesn't really work for you cuz you know it.

[00:45:59]Deep down, you know this is stupid.

[00:46:03]It's dumb to believe that.

[00:46:05]That you would be put here, that all you got to do is believe he exists, and that does what?

[00:46:12]It's the beginning.

[00:46:13]Because knowing he exists, I now might want to figure out what he put me here to do.

[00:46:18]Then I might find out I'm here to grow up in transforming and conforming into the image of the of the Messiah, right?

[00:46:24]I might have a reason for what I'm supposed to Well, not a reason. I may have an understanding of what my reason is for being here.

[00:46:30]So, not knowing he exists, I don't have that question. I'm just muddling along like everybody else.

[00:46:37]But knowing he exists accomplishes nothing else. It's the starting point.

[00:46:42]That's all it is. No, I don't want to diminish it to say that's nothing. It's It's huge. There's a lot of people out there don't realize he exists.

[00:46:49]But just knowing he exists doesn't accomplish anything unless you do something with that information.

[00:46:54]It's got to be transformative.

[00:46:56]Just like this idea that knowing you're going to die needs to be transformative.

[00:47:01]It needs to change you.

[00:47:03]Right?

[00:47:05]All right. So, then he goes on.

[00:47:07]So, he talked about the birds.

[00:47:09]And then he says, "And which one of you by worrying is able to add one cubit to his lifespan?"

[00:47:14]So, why do you worry about clothing?

[00:47:15]Know how well the lilies are, etc., etc. Look, when you worry, it says here, what does it add to anything?

[00:47:23]Okay?

[00:47:24]Has worrying about something ever made if it did actually happen, made it any better?

[00:47:30]Really?

[00:47:31]Then why in the world do you do it?

[00:47:35]YOU GUYS WILL BE STRESSING AND WORRYING ABOUT SOMETHING. WELL, THIS THING MIGHT GO WRONG, AND IF IT DOES, this worrying isn't going to make it any less.

[00:47:43]It just means that you had the event Let's say the event doesn't have is is not happening for 4 or 5 days. It means that you had an extra 4 or 5 days of upset instead of waiting to see if it actually happened and being upset then.

[00:47:54]Cuz if it happens, you're going to BE UPSET THEN. WHY ruin another 4 days?

[00:48:00]If there's nothing you can do about it, now of course being aware that something bad may happen and figuring out there's something you can do about it is one thing. But what are you worrying about?

[00:48:09]It's either going to happen or not.

[00:48:11]And if it's going to happen, why not spend your energy worrying about not worrying focusing on what you're going to do if it happens as opposed to being all upset that it might happen.

[00:48:21]Especially when most of the things you worry about, can we all admit most of the things you worry about don't end up happening?

[00:48:27]Okay? I read somewhere the statistics on it. It's like 90% of the stuff we worry about doesn't happen and of the 10% that does, like nine out of 10 of those things, okay, 90% of that ends up not being as bad as we thought. It's like 1% actually happens and is as bad or worse than we thought.

[00:48:48]It's like it just doesn't play out percentage-wise all that much to be that worried about things.

[00:48:55]So I what are you worried about? Okay?

[00:48:59]So dumb. Look, I do this as a practice on a regular basis cuz lately I I just started trading some stuff in the stock market and guess what? The market doesn't always go the way you want.

[00:49:09]Do I worry about which way it's going or do I say, "Okay, this is what it's doing. What can I do to deal with what it's doing?

[00:49:17]Do I just need to sit on my hands and be patient? Probably a good answer most of the time.

[00:49:22]Okay? In life, things that go sideways or look like you're they might go badly, sitting on your hands and being patient, be still, let God do whatever he's doing, but figure out if if there is anything you could do.

[00:49:35]What can you do? Nothing. Okay? So if the answer is nothing, then have peace with that.

[00:49:43]It's either going to happen or it's not.

[00:49:47]But but I I'm I'm all stressed and I can't eat and I can't sleep. Why? Well, because this thing might just go horrible. Well, what if it doesn't? And you get all upset for nothing.

[00:49:56]And if it does, this isn't going to make it any better when it does.

[00:50:00]So, what's the point?

[00:50:02]Okay? He says, "Which you by worrying is able to do anything of benefit?" is what he says.

[00:50:08]Worrying doesn't fix the problem.

[00:50:13]So, why do you worry about clothing?

[00:50:14]Note the lilies, how they neither toil nor spin, and yet even Solomon was not dressed like them and etc. etc., right? Look.

[00:50:23]So, he says, "Do not worry then," verse 31, saying, "What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?" For all these the Gentiles seek for, but and your heavenly Father knows that you need all these. So, what he's saying is, "Look, the things you need, don't worry about them."

[00:50:36]He didn't say don't work. He didn't say don't make the effort. He didn't say any of that stuff. He said, "Stop worrying about it."

[00:50:44]He says, "That's what people not covenant to do." When he says Gentiles, he's saying, "There's the covenant of people, and then Gentiles simply means everybody else."

[00:50:53]Okay? It's not some negative thing. It's just the nations. In In the Hebrew it would be it's nations. There's this nation, the covenant of nation, and then there's everybody else.

[00:51:03]He says, "Everybody else worries about these things. You're supposed to be different."

[00:51:08]He didn't say sit back and do nothing.

[00:51:10]He said, "But don't worry." What's the point of worrying? Nothing, he says here.

[00:51:15]All right? He says, "Your heavenly Father knows what you need."

[00:51:19]And let's face it, don't you generally have what you need?

[00:51:22]Oh, you don't always get what you want, but you have what you need.

[00:51:25]All right?

[00:51:27]Very tempted to go into a Rolling Stones there for a second.

[00:51:29]Um okay.

[00:51:33]But By the way, it says it, but if you try sometimes you get what you need. But you got to try.

[00:51:40]Got to make an effort. Thank you, Mick Jagger. Okay. Um but let's see how it's after that. He says, "But verse 33, he says, but you the Gentiles worry about these things, but you you seek first the kingdom and his righteousness." In other words, doing things that are pleasing in his sight.

[00:52:00]And all these shall be added to you.

[00:52:03]Focus properly. It doesn't say give up your job and just study all day.

[00:52:09]Cuz scripture does not require you to just study all day.

[00:52:14]Scripture requires that whatever you're doing all day, you do it in a vertical context.

[00:52:20]In a Torah-observing context. So, when something comes up, you know that, "Oh, scripture would require me to handle this thing this way that I'm experiencing right now."

[00:52:30]All right?

[00:52:33]Simple enough.

[00:52:35]It doesn't mean that you just stop doing. It means how you do it is done in a certain context.

[00:52:40]In a certain approach.

[00:52:43]He says, "Do not worry then about tomorrow, for tomorrow shall have its own worries."

[00:52:48]Ah. So, why worry now? What are you worrying now for? There'll be something new to worry about tomorrow anyway.

[00:52:53]Okay? Each day has enough evil for itself. And we talked about that in the what is evil teaching. Things that will be considered harmful, causing pain and suffering and misery. That's plenty of that's coming. Don't worry about it.

[00:53:05]So, even if I tell people all the time, I said, "This is not meant to discourage you, but when you finally overcome this, whatever it is that you're trying to overcome, he's going to give you a new toy to play with."

[00:53:15]Okay? Cuz you'll have something new to overcome. But, he's not going to give you three or four or five of these things. Focus on this one, fix it. Good.

[00:53:22]Now, let you focus on the next one.

[00:53:25]All right?

[00:53:26]That's all part of your changing and growing and transforming into his image.

[00:53:31]I need to hurry up.

[00:53:32]Okay. So, now, what I was telling you about, let's go back to verse 22. Okay?

[00:53:38]This isn't going to address a a not the cause, but a cause of the issue of why we treasure the wrong things and why we worry, okay? Look at what it starts in 22. Okay, it says, "The lamp of the body is the eye, and if therefore your eye is good, all your body shall be enlightened. But if your eye is evil, all your body shall be darkened. If then the light that is within your you is darkness, how great is that darkness?"

[00:54:03]"No one is able to serve two masters, for either he shall hate the one and love the other, or else he'll cleave to the one and despise the other. You're not able to serve God and mammon." What in the world is that doing in the middle? You could have taken those three verses out and this thing would have made a lot more sense. Not really.

[00:54:16]But as you're just reading it, it seems like it would have made more sense. What Why is that in there?

[00:54:20]I mean, cuz it just went from don't lay up your treasures in heaven, but lay up your treasure I mean on the earth, but lay your treasure up in heaven. He says He says where your treasure is your heart is. Then he could have gone right into this whole thing about worry.

[00:54:31]What is all of THIS ABOUT THE EYE and evil and light and darkness?

[00:54:35]Let's look at it.

[00:54:37]Okay?

[00:54:38]If your eye, quote unquote, focuses on good, your behavior will be enlightened or good.

[00:54:47]Okay?

[00:54:48]If your eye, it's quote unquote, right?

[00:54:51]Cuz we we see things. We look for things.

[00:54:55]Okay?

[00:54:57]Cuz look what it says here. It says, "The lamp of the body is the eye, if the therefore your eye is good, all your body shall be enlightened." So what's he saying? He's saying, "Look, if you focus on looking for what is good, then your behavior also will be enlightened and good.

[00:55:11]If your eye focuses on evil, then your behavior will be darkness or evil. And if you really want to understand darkness and light, go listen to the teaching called darkness and light. Okay?

[00:55:22]As a matter of fact, that is a really important teaching to listen to, okay?

[00:55:26]But I'm trying to help you understand. So what he's saying is you treasure things up in a wrong way, and now he's going to explain this is why, because your eye, what you focus on is wrong.

[00:55:38]So, you treasure wrong. You value things wrong.

[00:55:44]He says, "A person with a good eye serves Elohim.

[00:55:49]Desires the things of Elohim. Does what's pleasing to Elohim. Trusts in Elohim."

[00:55:56]You expect that the treasuring would be different with that person than the person with an evil eye who serves mammon.

[00:56:03]Okay, mammon is used to describe money, material wealth, possessions, often personified as a false god or corrupting spiritual influence. It signifies a dishonest or unrighteous force that tempts individuals to trust in riches for security rather than Elohim.

[00:56:20]Okay, mammon is just an It's just a placeholder for an idea.

[00:56:24]Okay, don't think it's anything more than that. It's saying, "You're either trusting in yourself, material things, etc. instead of trusting in him."

[00:56:32]So, a person with an evil eye serves mammon, desires the things of self.

[00:56:37]The good eye desires the things of Elohim.

[00:56:40]The evil eye desires, excuse me, does what's pleasing to self.

[00:56:45]The good eye does what's pleasing to Elohim.

[00:56:47]Person with the evil eye trusts in stuff, the world. So, all of YOU GET ALL EXCITED about politics, you're doing this cuz you think whoever's the next president or the next some things that's going on in the land of Israel or whatever somehow is going to fix everything.

[00:57:05]You're trusting in the wrong stuff.

[00:57:09]I'm told in here that that ultimately doesn't fix anything.

[00:57:13]Temporarily it might make things better.

[00:57:15]Not going to fix anything.

[00:57:17]Okay?

[00:57:20]Again, a person with a good eye desires the things of Elohim, does what's pleasing to Elohim, trusts in Elohim.

[00:57:26]The person with the evil eye does the things of self. I'm focused on what pleases me.

[00:57:31]Does what pleases self, right? And trust in mammon, which is means I'm trusting in my ability to take care of my problem or the world's going to take care of the problems. I'm not trusting in Elohim.

[00:57:43]Now, can you see that with that, he then goes into this it's how it fits between treasuring wrong and worrying.

[00:57:52]Okay?

[00:57:54]Because it's kind of a little strange kind of very picture language thing to be shoved right in the middle of that, okay?

[00:58:01]But I think it really explains that really beautifully, all right? I think it's Does that make more sense now?

[00:58:07]Why that's in there, okay?

[00:58:10]So when he says, where your treasure is there is your heart, he says and that's because your eye is looking at the wrong thing, seeking after the wrong things. Your desires are after the wrong things. That's why you're treasuring things incorrectly.

[00:58:23]You're treasuring the wrong things.

[00:58:26]Okay? And part of it is that we worry.

[00:58:28]We don't trust. So it kind of flows this thing into eventually verse 31, where he says, I mean verse 33, he says, seek first the kingdom.

[00:58:37]And it's righteousness, his righteousness. Like what the things that get you kingdom.

[00:58:42]Okay?

[00:58:44]All right.

[00:58:45]Now, what should you do now in my last 11 minutes?

[00:58:51]See if I can get that done. First of all, walk wisely, not foolishly.

[00:58:56]Okay? Colossians 4:5 says, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.

[00:59:03]So how do you redeem the time?

[00:59:06]Well, you can't. Time's already gone.

[00:59:08]But it's saying is choosing to make better use of the time going forward.

[00:59:13]You can't buy back the time. It's gone.

[00:59:16]Okay?

[00:59:17]But you could say I'm not wasting it anymore.

[00:59:19]I'm not squandering it anymore. I'm going to make better use of it. But he said but to do so you have to walk in wisdom, okay? Wisdom. I'm going to probably do a teaching at one point on wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, okay?

[00:59:35]Okay?

[00:59:36]All right.

[00:59:39]Um the Chabad uses that as the acronym, but I think that they've got their acronym backwards. So, I call it Dabach as opposed to Chabad because it's really more like um knowledge than understanding than wisdom, okay? So, I kind of I I I put it in a better order.

[00:59:59]It doesn't sound as nice as Chabad, but you know.

[01:00:01]Okay? But, Chabad starts with a Hochma, which is wisdom first.

[01:00:05]Okay? Then, Bina, then Da'at. Okay? It's an acronym.

[01:00:09]And so, I think it goes backwards.

[01:00:12]Okay? So, Chabad is not a word. It's it's it's an acronym acronym for Hochma, Bina, and Da'at, okay? Or Dat.

[01:00:20]Okay? Depending on if you're Ashkenazi or whatever. All right.

[01:00:24]So, walk wisely. We're not going to get into so much on that.

[01:00:28]We'll do more on walking wisely at some point. Walk with intentionality.

[01:00:33]And the reason I keep saying walking cuz that's the word scripturally for living life is is your walk, okay? Yahweh says things like, "Walk before me."

[01:00:42]Okay? So, this is what it's talking about.

[01:00:46]So, walk with intentionality means live deliberately and skillfully considering potential consequences of what you're doing rather than just drifting aimlessly.

[01:00:58]Okay?

[01:01:00]Some of you arrive somewhere in life and you're like, "I don't know how I ended up here."

[01:01:09]Cuz you weren't thinking about where you were potentially going to be.

[01:01:15]Look, I know some people say to me, "Well, I'm not good at goal setting."

[01:01:19]Um you're still aiming at something and you're going to arrive there, whether you chose it or not, consciously or it just you're drifting aimlessly, but you're still going to arrive somewhere.

[01:01:30]Okay?

[01:01:31]All right. I can put a a a vehicle or a boat or some wood or whatever in water that's moving and it will go along with that drift, right? Or I can take paddles or put a motor in it and I can choose to go in whatever direction I want and take that water and go somewhere.

[01:01:47]Okay? You guys who are drifting along without thinking about the consequences, then all of a sudden you arrive at 65 broke and whatever in your life and you're like, "How did I get here?"

[01:01:58]Okay?

[01:01:59]Letting the days go by, letting the Never mind.

[01:02:04]Talking Heads, sorry. All right.

[01:02:08]But there's a part that's always like, "HOW DID I END UP HERE?" RIGHT?

[01:02:13]It's like, "I don't KNOW HOW I GOT HERE."

[01:02:15]OKAY?

[01:02:17]Walk with intentionality. Live deliberately.

[01:02:22]I don't want to be like the Purpose Driven Life guy cuz he's all wrong about so much stuff. I'm just saying, be deliberate, purposeful, have a plan, have a reason for what you're doing, have a destination in mind in the seven areas of your life. What do you want your spiritual life to look like, your health to look like, your relationships to look like, your financial situation to look like, your mental health to look like, your your community life to look like.

[01:02:49]What What do you have in mind? Where Where are you aiming at?

[01:02:53]Cuz I got people telling me all the time, "Well, I don't know how to set goals." Like, you're already going somewhere.

[01:02:58]Problem is, you're not paying any attention that you're already headed off a cliff somewhere.

[01:03:03]Or you're heading up against a dead end and you're like, "There's a wall."

[01:03:07]And I can't go any further. Well, did you not see the sign that said dead end as you were walking in?

[01:03:13]There are lots of signs that told you it was a dead end.

[01:03:16]Even though the words dead end weren't there, but when you took the job that never was going to pay you more than $25 an hour, dead end.

[01:03:24]Okay?

[01:03:25]And then you'll get like, I can't really pay my bills. Well, I got to have to change jobs. I've been here at this job for 15 years.

[01:03:31]Well, didn't you know you were never going to make enough?

[01:03:33]Because we're not thinking and living deliberately.

[01:03:37]Okay? You're not living deliberately.

[01:03:41]All right. Have a sense of urgency.

[01:03:43]That's kind of the whole point of being motivated by mortality.

[01:03:46]Have a sense of urgency. Not worry, not panic, but urgency to start doing what you need to be doing.

[01:03:55]Okay?

[01:03:56]Be about your father's business, so to speak. Do the things he's expecting you to do between the birth and death. Okay?

[01:04:04]The growing up stuff.

[01:04:06]Set priorities.

[01:04:09]You can't really do the deliberate thing, living deliberately, if you don't have the right priorities. You got to set priorities.

[01:04:14]What do priorities mean?

[01:04:16]It means like if I took a list of things that I wanted to do and listed them from 1 to 10, and that's a ranking, one being the most important, 10 being the least important, let's say.

[01:04:26]It means if something comes up where I have a choice to do number two or number seven, I'm doing number two.

[01:04:32]If choice comes between number five and number eight, I'm doing number eight five. You understand what I'm saying?

[01:04:36]That's simply what priorities is.

[01:04:39]Is that when there's a choice, you do the higher priority thing.

[01:04:45]What is more important? Well, you have to choose for yourself.

[01:04:49]You have to set your own priorities. So that when you have free time, quote unquote, people say, "I never have any free time." You're full of it. Sorry.

[01:04:57]You have free You have plenty of free time.

[01:04:59]You waste so much time. I don't care how busy you are, you waste time. Everybody does. Okay?

[01:05:07]So in during that time when you could choose to do this, that, or the other thing, use your priorities to set what you're going to choose to do during that free time.

[01:05:15]Well, I don't have enough time to work out. Well, you would if it was a higher priority over some of the things you're doing.

[01:05:21]If you put working out higher or eating right higher or getting good sleep higher or working on your marriage higher or whatever it is higher, it would get the priority and get the the effort in there.

[01:05:34]All right?

[01:05:36]Set your priorities.

[01:05:38]Repent, forgive, and teshuvah.

[01:05:43]Very basic.

[01:05:45]Own whatever needs to be owned.

[01:05:47]Go listen to the repentance teaching.

[01:05:49]Forgive. Mostly I'm wanting you to forgive you.

[01:05:52]I want you to let go with everything that everybody else did you to, but a lot of you really struggle forgiving yourselves, okay?

[01:05:58]You know what? Just cuz we're right here, I can read it to you cuz we're in Matthew, okay? I want you to hear this.

[01:06:03]It's so important. The same chapter, all right? He says in verse 14, chapter 6, "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father shall forgive you, but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither shall he FORGIVE YOU." THAT INCLUDES YOU.

[01:06:20]I DON'T FEEL LIKE HE'S FORGIVEN ME.

[01:06:21]BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T done it.

[01:06:24]It's not that he won't and can't. He's already told you, "This is the rules.

[01:06:28]This is how the process works. You forgive first.

[01:06:32]I forgive second."

[01:06:34]Okay?

[01:06:37]So, why do you expect him to do something you wouldn't do?

[01:06:40]He sitting there going, "I'm ready to forgive you, but you're being stubborn."

[01:06:43]You're the one sitting there like this, "I can't forgive myself. I did something so terrible and I did Well, then, you know, that's where you decide it was so horrible he can't forgive you. What is so horrible that he can't forgive you?

[01:06:57]I mean, I Whatever it is, I can find people in scripture that did something at least as horrible or worse that he forgave.

[01:07:02]Okay? I'm just saying.

[01:07:04]Why do you think you have David in there? David's a man after his own heart. David had a guy murdered, slept with HIS WIFE, DID ALL THAT.

[01:07:10]NOT THE GREATEST HERO OF ALL TIME.

[01:07:15]But he repented, he owned it, he made teshuvah, he let go of what was going on, and the Father forgave him.

[01:07:24]Okay?

[01:07:26]Cuz remember how he mourned and how he fasted and everything until the finally the whole thing played out, and then he was like, "That's it. It's played out.

[01:07:33]Time to move on." But see, a lot of you won't move on. You won't let it go. You won't move on.

[01:07:38]All right. Repent, forgive, teshuvah.

[01:07:41]Teshuvah is what?

[01:07:42]Turn around and get back on the path.

[01:07:45]Brush yourself off and say, "Okay.

[01:07:47]Back to work. Okay? You got to move on."

[01:07:50]All right?

[01:07:52]Remember what I said, the three things.

[01:07:53]Own it, fix it, let it go.

[01:07:57]All right?

[01:07:58]All right?

[01:07:59]Repent, forgive, teshuvah. Same thing.

[01:08:02]All right. Focus on what matters. What matters? Doing what is well pleasing in the sight of the Master. Okay?

[01:08:10]I want you to focus on what matters.

[01:08:12]Romans 12.

[01:08:14]It's a good thing I wrote an optional shortening of this up so I don't have to all read as much.

[01:08:19]I knew I was going to run out of time.

[01:08:20]Verse 1, I call upon you therefore, brothers, through the compassion of Elohim to present your bodies a living offering, set apart, well pleasing to Elohim, your reasonable worship. This is This is not like over the top. This is just reasonable.

[01:08:34]Okay?

[01:08:35]And I do not And he says, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

[01:08:41]Renewing of it to what? Philippians 2, "Let this mind be in you." Right?

[01:08:47]Philippians 2:5. So that you prove Listen, you have to prove what is that good and well pleasing and perfect desire of Elohim. Not that we by prove it meaning like you come up with it. Go seek it out. Walk it out and see that it is.

[01:09:02]Okay?

[01:09:04]For I say through the favor which has been given to me to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think, but to think soberly as Elohim has given to each a measure of belief. For as many uh for we as we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function. So we the many are one body in the Messiah, members each one of another.

[01:09:25]Now having different gifts according to the favor which is given to us, let us use them accordingly. If prophecy according to the portion of belief, if serving in serving, and he was teaching and teaching, he who encourages in encouragement, he who in sharing in in sincerity, he was leading in diligence.

[01:09:42]He who shows compassion joyously.

[01:09:45]Let love be without hypocrisy. Look, there's no ranking of these things.

[01:09:53]I do this, right?

[01:09:56]This is not, please hear this, any more valuable than one of you who needed one of you to sit and listen and that person sat and listened.

[01:10:06]Okay? As a matter of fact, what you did for that person that moment was way more valuable than what I'm doing right now.

[01:10:11]Okay?

[01:10:13]So do the things he's given you to do.

[01:10:15]Some of you are much better at some things than at other things. All of us are better at some things than other things. Okay?

[01:10:22]I'm not probably the most shepherd-like where I'm going to sit and make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

[01:10:29]I can do it to some degree, but my but some of you naturally just are there as great comforters and you're encouragers.

[01:10:36]And he's So he's simply saying this here, okay?

[01:10:41]>> [clears throat] >> Okay? And so this this is kind of the point though.

[01:10:46]He says, "Look, just recognize that this is the things that we're enjoying or or or encouraged to do in terms of finding out what's well pleasing to him."

[01:10:54]Part of it is figuring out what do you do and being okay with that. Don't feel like you have to be this other person.

[01:10:59]You don't have to be doing something specific.

[01:11:03]You already given talents to do.

[01:11:06]Okay?

[01:11:07]Some of you Everybody needs a good friend.

[01:11:11]Some of you are terrible friends.

[01:11:13]You just are. You know it.

[01:11:15]Okay?

[01:11:17]But those of you that are good at that, what a gift.

[01:11:21]Everybody needs a good friend. Cuz some of you are like, well, I don't know what I do.

[01:11:25]A loyal good friend is already a great thing.

[01:11:28]Maybe you're a good encourager. Maybe you're a good listener.

[01:11:32]The world is filled with terrible listeners.

[01:11:35]Okay?

[01:11:37]Most people are just waiting to hear to when you pause so they can start talking.

[01:11:41]All right?

[01:11:43]So, I mean, just run with that, right?

[01:11:46]And then in Philippians 2, and this is our last verse, so we're going to wrap this up just a little bit over.

[01:11:52]Let's go to Philippians 2.

[01:11:55]It's already quoted, but I'm going to read a little bit of it. All right?

[01:11:58]Verse 1, if then there is any encouragement in Messiah, if any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love one of one in being in a purpose. Do none at all through selfishness or self-conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each one should look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. For let this mind be in you, which is in also in Messiah Yeshua, who being in the form of Elohim did not regard equality with Elohim a matter to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and came to be in the likeness of men.

[01:12:36]And having been found in a fashion as man, he humbled himself and became obedient onto death, death even of a stake.

[01:12:43]So, what am I saying here? If you're motivated by mortality, this is a mindset. He already knew he was going to die, but he was obedient and trustworthy even onto death of a stake.

[01:12:54]But notice how that was thrown in there after saying, "Here's some encouragement."

[01:12:58]He says, "Make my joy complete. Have the same mind. Be in the same love. Be of the same one being in the same purpose."

[01:13:07]We should all be rowing together in the same direction.

[01:13:11]Okay?

[01:13:12]But yet we don't seem to do that.

[01:13:17]Part of it is or mostly it is that fleshly part of us. Is that pride ego stuff. We're going to deal with that in the next teaching. But all I'm just saying is understand that this is where we struggle. This is where we struggle.

[01:13:28]Okay?

[01:13:29]Conclusion. Mortality when viewed through a biblical lens isn't meant to cause despair. It's meant to create clarity and urgency.

[01:13:39]It strips away the trivial and forces us to focus on what actually lasts. Okay?

[01:13:46]Final thing to think about as we close.

[01:13:49]If you knew you had only 1 year left, what would you stop doing immediately?

[01:13:53]And what would you start doing right now?

[01:13:56]Okay? If you knew cuz you don't know.

[01:14:01]You might have less.

[01:14:02]You may have 30, 50, you may have Who knows how much you're going to have? I tell you I'm going to live to be 150.

[01:14:07]Actually, I think I even raised it to 200 the other day.

[01:14:13]What difference does it make?

[01:14:15]It's just It's just makes me feel better.

[01:14:18]Okay?

[01:14:19]But it has my focus on that I'm still going to be doing things to try to get things I mean, look, I'm 62. Why Why wouldn't I just be thinking of stopping? No, I have things to do that I think I could use another 80 years to get done.

[01:14:31]Okay?

[01:14:33]And so that's my mindset.

[01:14:36]All right? Whatever time he gives me, but that's my mindset, right?

[01:14:40]Okay? But I want you to look at mortality as it's meant to bring clarity to the now.

[01:14:48]Be more clear on who you are in the now and who you're supposed to be becoming.

[01:14:53]What you're supposed to be becoming.

[01:14:54]What are you supposed to do with now?

[01:14:57]Okay? Cuz you don't know how long this goes for you.

[01:15:02]Okay?

[01:15:03]My wife just saw something on Facebook.

[01:15:06]Somebody she went to school with, good couple years younger than her, just passed away.

[01:15:12]Okay?

[01:15:14]I'll tell you what, one thing that does normally shake all of us is when somebody younger than you dies.

[01:15:19]Not that we are okay with people older than us, but we're not as you know, surprised and disturbed somebody was 85, 90, whatever it is. We think, "Okay, that's kind of what happens, right?"

[01:15:29]But when somebody's in their 50s, 40s, and things like this go on, you're like, "Wow."

[01:15:35]I'm sure they didn't see it coming.

[01:15:37]Okay?

[01:15:39]So, you certainly don't either. So, I'm not saying that you should be concerned that you you know, just cuz something could happen to you next month, but why not live to the maximum?

[01:15:49]Don't just exist, live to the maximum.

[01:15:51]All right?

[01:15:53]Okay. So, I'm glad that this worked out where I had to get in here and do this this quick two-part teaching. Hopefully, it was a blessing to all of you. Let's go before the Father. Yeah.

[01:16:01]>> [applause] >> Father, we come before you and Father, we are actually appreciative of this thing that we have called life and also the somewhat scariness of the of the death that comes at the end of it. But Father, we have your word to give us encouragement to have something to look forward to.

[01:16:19]And we have your word to give us something to have purpose in while we're walking this out during this time between birth and death.

[01:16:27]And so Father, I encourage I ask you to help encourage all of us to be motivated by mortality.

[01:16:33]To find that clarity, not to be afraid, not to have despair, not to have any of those concerns, but to make the most out of every moment that we have now.

[01:16:44]To maximize all that time, stop wait We just got to stop wasting time. Okay? By wasting time, I'm not saying that you have to run out there and work so hard.

[01:16:51]I'm saying love on everybody that you need to love on. Apologize to you have to apologize to. Reconcile with those you need to reconcile with. Okay? Stop thinking that I'll do that next month or next week or next And then something happens and you don't get to do it.

[01:17:05]Okay?

[01:17:06]Why wouldn't you want more time in a good relationship instead of just being stubborn?

[01:17:11]Okay, when you when something's fixable.

[01:17:13]So, Father, we come to you and we so appreciate the encouragements of the word that you inspired to be written for us so that we can use it to glean and to have the encouragements that we need for today.

[01:17:23]So, Father, we thank you, praise you, and give you all glory and honor in the name above all names, Yeshua our Messiah, for all things. Amen.

[01:17:32]Amen. Amen.

[01:17:34]>> [applause] [music]