0:00:00 - 0:00:28 In the world each, each morning. It's a stifling experience. It's a heartbreaking experience because all I can see is the contrast between the value that I know that God has, which he has shown me and the cheap artificial fleeting worthless things that people fill their lives with instead. And these 0:00:28 - 0:00:54 two opposites are in direct conflict. It's something that bothers me very much and I'd like to share with you in the briefest terms. I can manage just, just a AAA slice of this to hopefully shake people out of this complacency and this, this satiation for lesser things. The path to God is a path of increasing 0:00:53 - 0:01:18 value, but you'll never take the next step. And even if you do, you won't go very far after that. If you continue to have the, the least possible clue about what it's all worth and how worthless everything you fill your life with instead is now, this could be a very long scripture study. I've, I've quoted 0:01:18 - 0:01:40 some passages here, but it just, it's so quickly it gets into the need to read full chapters and tie together these ideas that span all across scripture. And it's a very deep thing and it, it, you know, it, it causes it, it requires us to go outside of the walled city of the five verses you always hear 0:01:40 - 0:02:05 in church and actually read the scriptures together. And uh I, I, I'm just gonna try to do what we need to do to get the idea across and I invite you to go into the scriptures and study these things more for yourself as you look into your own life. Do you, do you think that you're paying any attention 0:02:04 - 0:02:35 at all? Do you really have what you need? Even if you do? And most people are, are quite saturated with their needs through modern affluence. But do you really have what you want? Do you have what you want or are you just distracted? There's a difference, you know, there's a difference. There's a subtle 0:02:35 - 0:03:01 calling, a, a longing within each person. It's a beacon, it's a signal, drawing us up closer to God and with some people, it's quite strong with some people. It's not just as a baseline with every person. It fluctuates through time and circumstance. But what do you do with that signal? Because most people 0:03:00 - 0:03:25 will do whatever they need to, to get rid of it as quickly as they can. That's the distraction. Let's go to Luke 2134 and we're gonna read a scripture that you've probably heard before, but I don't know that you stopped and asked yourself what it means and applied it to your own life. The Lord warns 0:03:24 - 0:03:52 he says, take heed to yourselves lest at any time, your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life. And so that day come upon you unawares your heart is the seat of this beacon of your desire. And most Christians think of desire as a four letter word that it's some bad 0:03:52 - 0:04:21 thing. It's neither good nor bad. It's meant to be used for good. It's a, it's a gift that God has given you to be used for good, but most people use it for evil almost all the time. If your heart is overcharged, you're, you're killing its ability to detect or use or effectively use this signal. And 0:04:21 - 0:04:47 how is that done? How do you completely jack up your, your mechanics through surfeiting drunkenness? Cares of this life? Well, the cares of this life, you know, all about. Look at your calendar. How do you spend your day as a pie chart? How much of your time is spent or energy? That's a different way 0:04:47 - 0:05:07 of looking at it is spent on the things of the greatest worth. It's probably a little sliver. It's probably just what you have left at the end of the day. Well, that's all backwards. If that's the case, then you're certainly over. Your hearts are overcharged with the cares of this life. We read in another 0:05:07 - 0:05:33 place, the cares of this life, they choke the word. They're the thorns that prevent the plants that grow the fruit. What about drunkenness? What, what does it mean to be drunken? Well, it, it means that you've consumed so much alcohol that a certain condition becomes true. But, but this refers to the 0:05:33 - 0:05:58 condition, not so much where it came from, although that's, that's important and we're gonna get back to that. But what, what's the condition? It's, it's that you've caused your ability to accurately perceive and judge the value of what's around you. You've willingly shut that down and you've done it 0:05:58 - 0:06:31 by drinking poison. What about surfeiting? Do you know what the word surfeit means? It means to over consume to the point that hunger turns to sickness. So it's when you're hungry, you go to an all you can eat buffet and you eat so much that you walk out feeling sick. That's not the point of food. We 0:06:30 - 0:06:54 read in another place. The point of food is, is so that we can have joy and gladness and gratitude to God. And when it, when it's not happening that way, we ought not do it. It's a good sign that you're taking it too far. So how do you surfeit yourself on the cares of this life or the circumstances of 0:06:53 - 0:07:16 life? Well, you go after things of lower value and you fill your life with them so that there's no space for the things of greater value. Well, what does that have to do with sickness because the surfeit is to over consume to the point that hunger turns to sickness. If your life is full of things of 0:07:16 - 0:07:42 lesser value so that there's no room for things of greater value. What, what's going to happen when you need those things of greater value when something happens in your life, that that makes a such a significant withdrawal from your source of meaning that you're, you're left in need. This is one way 0:07:42 - 0:08:07 of thinking about the parable of the 10 virgins. The, the virgins, they had oil from somewhere and they needed a certain amount when the bridegroom came and those that didn't have enough, it was too late to get more. So I wanna, I wanna point to a real situation in, in the modern world that's actually 0:08:07 - 0:08:34 sadly common, but many obese and overweight people are actually malnourished. You'd think that they have an overabundance of nutrition because they eat so much. But they don't because they eat junk food. And this is actually a, a kind of a cyclic situation because they eat garbage and stuff themselves 0:08:34 - 0:09:02 on garbage. But then their bodies still crave the nutrients and send signals to eat more. And so they'll say, but I'm still hungry and then they eat more garbage. But if they had eaten high nutrient food in the beginning, they would neither be hungry nor fat because they'd be satiated on good food in 0:09:02 - 0:09:27 life. Almost everyone does the same thing. They go out and they grab what's convenient and what gives them pleasure right now, present pleasure. Instead of focusing their lives, optimizing their lives of long term joy. They, they maximize present pleasure and no surprise. They are still hungry. They 0:09:27 - 0:09:53 still lack. They look and look because they still need more. And then this chain kicks off until their lives are overflowing with things of low value and there's no room for anything else and they're in big trouble. You do this a little, you know, you go to Thanksgiving dinner, you eat too much. But 0:09:53 - 0:10:20 hey, it's, it's one day out of the year. No big deal. You do this every week, you're gonna gain weight, weight. You do this every day and months later, you're going to have a years long problem. It will take you years to resolve that problem. And spiritually almost everyone has lived their lives in a 0:10:20 - 0:10:50 way. They filled their lives with garbage in all ways in their individual circumstance. I mean, personally with their, their significant others, their romantic relationships, their social relationships at work, their careers and their, their leisure time. It's all filled with garbage, garbage people 0:10:50 - 0:11:28 , garbage activities, garbage thoughts, garbage desires. It's all garbage and there's no room for anything else. They've created a problem that requires a severe solution in our modern world. We find ourselves surrounded with things that people do not deserve. We live in a time of unprecedented wealth 0:11:28 - 0:12:07 where the poorest among us are richer than most kings throughout history. The United States is one of the only places in the history of the world where a homeless person can be obese, whether it's societal or more individual. How does human nature react to unmerited prosperity? The individual will assume 0:12:06 - 0:12:31 that they deserve what they have. When, when times are good individuals assume they deserve what they have, when times are bad, they assume that they don't deserve that they deserve better than what they have. That's human nature. That's human nature. And what's the problem with this? You have no idea 0:12:30 - 0:12:50 how many barriers we put into place that make it so difficult for God to give us good things without causing us harm. It's like putting a little kid in a candy store and they're gonna come out with diabetes. He'd say like, well, if kids love candy, let's give them joy by putting them into a candy store 0:12:50 - 0:13:16 , we'll go all out, we'll spend all the money we need to, we'll put them in a candy store and just say you can have anything you want and they come out with diabetes and that's how we are. That's how human nature is. And we've been blessed with unmerited prosperity, out the ears with opportunity everywhere 0:13:15 - 0:13:45 you look. And it's been there for all of living memory. It's everything. Post world War Two at a minimum has been this way. What have we done with those resources? What have we done with, with the opportunities to help others? The, the, the opportunity to learn you can in, in a, in a less than a second 0:13:45 - 0:14:11 , you can have access to basically everything known about anything through an internet search. What do you use that? Second? For, what do you search for? What are you scrolling through? We have, we have unprecedented access to resources today. Are you using it to become wiser than anyone has ever been 0:14:10 - 0:14:33 ? Are you using it to help people more than anyone's ever done? Are you using it to, to, to obtain it greater happiness than anyone's ever had? Greater meaning? Are you a stronger person than anyone in the past? Because of all these resources and how you're using them? And if not, what are you using 0:14:33 - 0:15:09 them for? We all know the answer to these questions. How do you think God feels about this? I want to share a principle with you. He gives through mercy and justice, but he also takes through justice. He takes through justice, the gifts he has given through mercy that people have not used to generate 0:15:08 - 0:15:47 greater joy because that's his motive to generate greater joy. And if you have received gifts that you have not transformed into greater joy for yourself and others, you are on the ledger ready to have those things removed in his time and it will happen, it will happen. All of us have the ability to 0:15:47 - 0:16:16 be familiar enough. With history to know that this prosperity that we've been swimming in for so long as the wealthy nations of the world, it is a historic apparition. It's not normal and we can compare ourselves to anyone, you know, in a generic time period in history and know that we have done nothing 0:16:15 - 0:16:47 special to receive these blessings. They are gifts, their gifts. So what have you done to merit those gifts? Because God takes away gifts that people do not live up to where much is given much is expected. And Mosiah seven, we read for behold, the Lord hath said, I will not succor my people in the day 0:16:47 - 0:17:06 of their transgression, but I will hedge up their ways that they prosper not. And their doing shall be as a stumbling block before them. And again, he saith. If my people shall sow filthiness, they shall reap the chaff thereof in the whirlwind and the effect thereof is poison. And again, he saith. If 0:17:06 - 0:17:30 my people shall sow filthiness, they shall reap the east wind which bringeth immediate destruction. If you're not using the Lord's gifts to their intended purpose, you become like the chaff, not the wheat. If you're not using the Lord's gifts to the intended purpose, you will suddenly be removed from 0:17:30 - 0:17:59 all of that, you'll be destroyed. In Isaiah two, we have um this passage which talks about the same idea, the sudden shift from what we used to value or what we currently value to what we should have valued in a, in a day when it is too late because people take lightly these gifts that were given, use 0:17:59 - 0:18:21 them for, for things other than what they're for. And then the Lord has to take them away. It says o house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Therefore, thou hast forsaken thy people, the House of Jacob because they be replenished from the east and our soothsayers like the Philistines 0:18:20 - 0:18:45 , they please themselves in the Children of strangers. Now, that's Old Testament Code. What does it mean to walk in the light of the Lord? Go read John chapter three. It means to expose yourself to the Lord so that he can show you everything about you that could be better to walk in a constant attitude 0:18:44 - 0:19:14 of seeking for improvement, for doing what the Lord would do in your place and for learning what that is. But instead of doing that, this passage describes that that Jacob or the Lord's people, they look to the east to be replenished their, their source of well being. They're looking to the wrong place 0:19:14 - 0:19:36 , not to the Lord, not to the light of the Lord, but the ways of the world and their soothsayers like the Philistines. They're looking for magic magic tricks to make you feel good while not actually being good, trying to pretend that you can warp reality through your sheer will. Instead of trying to 0:19:36 - 0:19:58 discover it because it is what it is. You don't get to set the rules of the game. You get to choose how to play it. But what do we do? Well, like the Philistines of old, we're looking for another way, a way that we can just morph reality to fit what we wish it was and pretending like there's no such 0:19:58 - 0:20:22 thing as objective reality and they please themselves and the Children of strangers, we, we adopt all these worldly ideas, these terrible ideas. You know, the United States was not founded by a bunch of angels, but there were some exceptional people and even when the people themselves were not fully 0:20:21 - 0:20:45 , uh you know, they weren't perfect in every way, the body of ideas that emerged from that the principles that they came up with, they were far superior to anything that anyone else had. We don't live true to that. We've degraded down to the, the, the, the global average. We're just, we reverted to the 0:20:45 - 0:21:08 mean, there's no difference here anymore. The only difference is in the unmerited prosperity that we've retained. That's based on better principles, lived by better people before us. And we're just riding their coat tails as the fumes run out of the tank, the car has already been built so it's easy enough 0:21:08 - 0:21:29 to keep driving it. And we're pretending like the gas tank isn't going empty, but it is. And it's very obvious. Verse seven, their land also is full of silver and gold. Neither is there any end of their treasures? Their land is also full of horses. Neither is there any end of their chariots? Their land 0:21:28 - 0:21:54 also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands that which their own fingers have made. Is this true? Have you ever gone on a road trip? Do you have any idea what things are like in other parts of the world? I've been in parts of the world that were formerly productive towns, say established 0:21:53 - 0:22:23 by colonials back in the day that have long since left. Guess what? Every building you see is from that period of time it's broken apart. Decaying. The whole place is just like a ghost town and people live there but they live in the shells of old buildings in the shadow of former prosperity. I went to 0:22:23 - 0:22:47 uh Zimbabwe which isn't the place I was, I was thinking of Chile some places in Chile that I've been to. I went to Zimbabwe. I flew into the airport there in the capital and it was like the airport had been frozen in time in 1982 and I'm positive it's still like that today. This is a few years ago. Why 0:22:46 - 0:23:16 ? Because they abandon much more productive ideas. I'm not talking about apartheid just to make that clear. They chased people out of their country who had way better ideas about prosperity and successful ways of living and now they just have what's left and we still have the active maintenance of what 0:23:16 - 0:23:35 in all these places is just a shell of former glory. So our, our way of life is decaying in real time. But, but the buildings haven't been hollowed out yet. But you go on a road trip through the United States and you compare it with some of those places I've mentioned or other places that you've may 0:23:34 - 0:23:58 have been. And what you see is, is that, that the normal human condition is poverty. It's insecurity and I'm not talking about these new fangled, made up ideas about insecurity like food insecurity. I mean, like some, a bunch of guys with AK-47s in a truck are gonna raid your farm and take your kids 0:23:57 - 0:24:22 . But you drive across the United States or Canada or Europe and what you see, especially in the United States, you see miles and miles and miles and miles. The entire everything east of the Mississippi is covered in houses and buildings. The land is full of silver and gold and treasures. It's also full 0:24:21 - 0:24:53 of cars, horses and chariots, cars, tractors, machines. And what do we use all these machines for? Well, you get into the car to go, take your kids to volleyball, you drive two hours to go to a museum or something. That's those two aren't the same caliber, but you use the riches for entertainment for 0:24:53 - 0:25:17 immediate pleasure not to become better people not to serve your fellow men but to serve the flesh. You've turned all these gifts, the silver, the gold, the treasures, the horses, the chariots, holy people had these things in the past and they'll use them in the future. We read that the horses will have 0:25:16 - 0:25:54 holiness to the Lord. Red Nanda, silver and gold were used to build the temples of old to honor the Lord glorify him. But we've turned all these things into idols. We've poisoned ourselves with the gifts that God has given. We worship the work of our own hands. Verse nine and the mean man bowle down 0:25:54 - 0:26:35 and the great man bleth himself, therefore, forgive them not, you know, people who are needy, they have to bow down, beggars don't stand proudly, they hold out their hands sometimes on their knees. It's what the mean man is bowing to that is the problem. It's the idols that he's bowing to. And so few 0:26:34 - 0:27:01 people are poor in terms of money today. Although that is changing and it will get a lot worse. But compared to historic norms, so few people are poor today in the wealthy nations, in terms of money, but they're exceedingly poor in terms of character, in terms of meaning terms of joy and where are they 0:27:01 - 0:27:29 seeking it from, to whom are they bowing? They bow to the idols, they bow to the works of men to what their own fingers have made. They don't bow to the Lord. What about these great men, these great men? They humble themselves. Well, that should be a good thing, right? No leaders are put on this earth 0:27:29 - 0:28:06 to lead. And Jesus was quite plain about what their role is. Their role is to serve mankind, to reach towards God and to bring down whatever they can, to everyone else through giving their lives for that purpose. They meant to be humble to God. Jesus said, I am meek and lowly of heart. If you knew him 0:28:06 - 0:28:30 during his life, you'd describe him as anything. But almost every one would write Jesus off as the most arrogant person they had ever met. Far exceeding anything they could imagine. You don't need to take my word for that. You just need to read the New Testament and take off the rose colored glasses 0:28:30 - 0:28:55 that your church gave you and read it for what it says. And think about, honestly think about how you would react to such a person if you saw them today. And yet he said he was meek and lowly of heart that in and of itself, you'd have a big problem with anyone calling themselves meek, let alone someone 0:28:55 - 0:29:36 you thought was the most arrogant person you've ever met. But to whom was he meek and humble while we read somewhere else, he is meek to the meek, but he is also meek towards the father. He bows down to the father. But when he turned toward the people. He stood, he stood and he stood up against what 0:29:35 - 0:30:05 was wrong. He stood up for those who could not defend themselves. He stood up against the false traditions that poisoned the people, particularly the people that didn't have the wisdom to see how false they were and particularly against those who did and who openly preached and practiced what he knew 0:30:05 - 0:30:43 that they knew was a lie. And so where are the great men today? Where are the men who stand for Jesus who bowed to him and then stand up and turn to the people and support what is right, no matter the cost that fight, what is wrong, no matter the cost that support the main men who've bowed down. These 0:30:42 - 0:31:11 needy people who have knees that are too feeble to stand on their own. The leaders do not lead and therefore the Lord says, forgive them not. There are some choice words throughout the Old Testament that describe what happens, both what has happened in the past and how this pattern will once again be 0:31:11 - 0:31:40 implemented in the future against the great men who do not do great things. Verse 10, enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust for the fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty, the lofty looks of man shall be humbled and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and the Lord alone shall 0:31:40 - 0:32:13 be exalted in that day. In other words, all the all the facets of the, the modern trappings of glory and greatness and comfort and strength and well being, all of these things are going to be ripped to shred shreds, ground down to powder. And the only thing that will be left to stand in that day is what 0:32:13 - 0:32:43 is truly valuable. What is in and through the Lord verse 12 for the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty and upon everyone that is lifted up and he shall be brought low. And I'll skip over the next few verses. But it, it's a old Testament language describing specific 0:32:42 - 0:33:09 aspects of our modern haughtiness. Well, any kind of human haughtiness in terms of our society and I'll pick up in 17 and the loftiness, loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be made low and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, the idols, he shall utterly abolish 0:33:09 - 0:33:42 . How do you abolish idols? You give incontrovertible proof that they are not what they seem. You either take them away or you make them worthless in abundantly obvious ways. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for the fear of the Lord and for the glory of his 0:33:42 - 0:34:05 majesty when he arise to shake terribly the earth. And I'd love to elaborate on that verse, but I'm going to skip it in that day, a man shall cast his idols of s silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats to go into the clefts of the rocks 0:34:05 - 0:34:35 and into the tops of the ragged rocks for the fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty when he arise to shake terribly, the earth, that is not just referring to geographic land features, the cracks in the rocks in the tops of these cliffs. Those are also symbolic things and these changes will 0:34:35 - 0:35:04 drive people there because they will see greater value than they did before. They'll see less value in the things that they valued and more value in the things they did not value. Mm And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. See see from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to 0:35:04 - 0:35:34 be accounted of God takes away what is not merited. We have another passage from Isaiah illustrating this idea. It's in the next chapter, the Lord standeth up to plead and standeth to judge the people. Now, what does it mean to judge the people if you look in the Old Testament, what do judges do? Modern 0:35:34 - 0:35:59 judges? They just exact penal penalties for breaking the law. But ancient judges did more than that. They also they also distributed positive consequences for keeping the law and the law wasn't even the point the point was God's will and God's character, the point was they had the role, the duty, they 0:35:59 - 0:36:24 had the duty to make things on earth more like they would be if God himself was ruling the earth in person, if they were in the person of the judge, if God had possessed the judge, what would he do? Not just with, with his judgment, his wisdom and his righteousness, his sense of what's fair and what's 0:36:24 - 0:00:00 deserved, but also with his power to make it. So what does it mean for the Lord to stand to judge the people? It means that more of the consequences of people's actions will be applied in the present verse 14, the Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof. 0:00:00 - 0:37:13 These are the great men that we talked about before for you have eaten up the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. That's, that's not why great people are sent to the earth to collect up all the goodies from all the people who are not so great. They're sent to bless those people to help 0:37:13 - 0:37:34 them obtain outcomes that are beyond their own means. Verse 15, what mean ye that you beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor. Saith, the Lord God of hosts moreover, the Lord saith because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking 0:37:34 - 0:37:54 and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet. Now we, the last chapter, the earlier chapter, prior chapter to this talks all about the haughtiness of men. And now we read about the haughtiness of women turns out that there's such thing as human nature, which is evil. And there's a such 0:37:54 - 0:38:18 thing as male, human nature specifically, which is evil and there's a such thing as female human nature, which is evil. And this describes the hardiness of the women. It's similar to the haughtiness of the men. All of these things will be taken away because God takes away what is not merited. He gives 0:38:17 - 0:38:43 gifts so that we can rise up to the point where we deserve them or even if we don't deserve them to use them to obtain good things to do good things. Remember the parable of the talents, what do you do with what you've been given? Remember the prodigal son. He receives his inheritance from his father 0:38:43 - 0:39:08 and he goes and he wastes it. And this is a hallmark of how you know you're using it. Well, what the prodigal son does, the benefits come to an end. He gets to the point where he's out of money and he's got nothing to show for it. Society is going to hit the point where it's out of money and has nothing 0:39:08 - 0:39:33 to show for it where the abundance of the land has ceased, where the security in the land has ceased where there's no peace and there's no plenty. And all of the prosperity of the past will be a shadow and a memory. And as a society, there will be nothing to show for it. But as an individual, what will 0:39:33 - 0:39:56 you have to show for it? Will you be able to say I'm closer to the Lord because I used all these gifts while they were here to grow closer to him. We read here in this chapter about all these gifts that modern women have. What do they use them for? We could read through and it's always fun to talk about 0:39:55 - 0:40:22 uh crisping pins and what are some other funny words? That's not the one I was looking for. There's calls. Um But all these modern makeup and hair and, and all these crazy tricks that modern women have to make themselves look more beautiful and their, and their exercise equipment and time to exercise 0:40:21 - 0:40:50 and their stretchy pants and whatever else they might wear, right? All of these things, what are they for? How would you, how would you transform that into what endures because physical looks don't endure? But also the societal access to all these tricks cannot continue when there's no peace and there's 0:40:50 - 0:41:24 no money and there's no time things will revert back to the way they were before and before that happens, they'll get a heck of a lot worse than they were before because when you have invading armies and desolating diseases and famines and all of these things going on. Civil unrest. It's kind of hard 0:41:23 - 0:00:00 to spend an hour a day putting on expensive makeup. It's kind of hard to do laundry to shower every day. Just like the, in the previous chapter we were reading about the horses and chariots and the silver and the gold, it all goes away. And what are you gonna have to show for it? We've got one more, 0:00:00 - 0:42:24 I think just one more. Just one more. But there are many of these passages. They're all over the place in the Old Testament. This one's from Hosea two. And it's a, it's a, it's a parable. It's a parable of two sisters who, uh actually, it's a parable of a, of a man who has married both of these sisters 0:42:23 - 0:42:48 that should rub plenty of people the wrong way. The Lord using a parable of a polygamist to describe himself as the polygamist husband. But I digress and so these women had been very bad wives, they had been unfaithful to their husband. And what he describes is how all the good they have in their lives 0:42:47 - 0:43:12 came from him because when he married them, they had nothing and that because they're unfaithful, he's going to take everything from them and leave them as he found them. And this should cause sh shivers down the spines of all people who have not repented of their sins because God does not change He 0:43:12 - 0:43:41 always operates by the same principles. And so if this is how he works, this is how he's going to work with you as an individual. And in society, you want God to take care of you. You want God to take care of your family. Well, have you been living dedicated to Him? Is your family aligned with Him? What 0:43:41 - 0:44:03 makes you different than everyone else? Are you just burning through these unmerited gifts in the worst possible way? Do you have nothing to show for it? Do you actually appreciate what it means to have things like climate control? Have you ever, have you ever thought about how much more productive the 0:44:03 - 0:44:28 Lord expects you to be because you can set a thermostat to 70 degrees. Have you ever tried to work on an intellectual endeavor when it's 32 in the room you're in? Yeah. Have you ever tried to work doing anything physical without eight hours of sleep? Have you ever slept on the, on the ground? What about 0:44:28 - 0:44:53 without a sleeping uh bag or a sleeping mat? Do you know how difficult it is to be productive in what are actually normal situations when you strip away all the unp prospered? Uh I'm sorry, unmerited prosperity of modern times. Have you ever done that? If, if anything going camping without all the frills 0:44:52 - 0:45:17 , not camper camping or even what, you know, car camping, but hiking into a place with just what you can carry even that with modern technology is quite comfortable, but just walk out into the woods one day and hang out there for a day or two and see how that goes. What do you think the Lord expects 0:45:16 - 0:45:46 from you with all the good stuff that he's given you? Why has he given it to you? Are you living any differently than you would if, if you had none of it? So this is Jose at two and I haven't actually read it, but for the sake of time, maybe I'll just point you to it. He's, he's going to take it all 0:45:46 - 0:46:29 away. What will remain when every support is removed. When every consequence is exposed. When pure justice reigns, what will stand well, whatever is deserved, whatever is merited according to what according to your ideas of justice, according to what some academic says, justice means. No, not society 0:46:28 - 0:47:01 , not you, not some random person. It's according to God's law of cause and effect. It's according to his idea of justice and anything that doesn't fit that will be, will be changed into what does, whether that requires taking good things away or whether it requires giving good things to those who deserve 0:47:00 - 0:47:37 it and don't have it. Justice will be fulfilled. Justice is the law of the terrestrial kingdom and that's what's coming here in the United States. Now, I want to show you a series of pictures to help illustrate why we should hunger and thirst after righteousness and why we don't, I should say why we 0:47:37 - 0:48:07 should and why you don't because I do this picture of mountains. I use it in other presentations. It's a useful symbol, but I don't mean it in the same way as I do there. So I want to start by orienting you to my analogy here in, in this case, these mountains are needs or desires or problems or questions 0:48:06 - 0:48:40 . They're things that you might seek and the higher they are, the more important they are, the bigger they are. OK. So hopefully, that's not too hard to think about as a symbol. And I'm going to use this purple liquid. These are water waves and that's wine. These are delusions or false beliefs that have 0:48:40 - 0:49:12 been adequately refuted illusions or things that seem different than what they are unmerited prosperity, which I think we've adequately covered temporary pleasure short term, but it won't endure. Maybe it's something that has a, a net benefit short term, but a a net loss long term and so on. What happens 0:49:12 - 0:49:40 in the end times in which we live is that the wine Cup of Babylon, these um delusions illusions, the unmerited prosperity, the temporary pleasure of the world. It turns into the cup of the fury of God, his judgment, his justice. In Deuteronomy 31 we read and the Lord said unto Moses, behold, thou shalt 0:49:40 - 0:50:00 sleep with thy fathers and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land whither they go to be among them and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. And we, we didn't get to it. But in the old Testament, the Lord uses this figure of 0:49:59 - 0:50:24 a wife who is married when she had nothing to a successful man who did everything for her, loved her, gave her great, great gifts. And she used that to turn herself into a prostitute. And not only did she sell herself to other men, which she didn't need to do. Because all of her well being was already 0:50:24 - 0:50:47 amply taken care of by her righteous husband. She actually paid her customers to come to her, which is the opposite of what a prostitute would do. And it describes just how bad this woman is. And so he says, I'm taking everything from you and he says your customers are going to come and they're going 0:50:47 - 0:51:11 to destroy you, they're going to hate you and tear you apart and mixing a few devices from the Old Testament. But that's how he describes what happens to people that ought to be his people that he has loved, who has, who have returned his love, who have returned hate in place of his love. So let me start 0:51:10 - 0:51:30 this again from Deuteronomy 31. And the Lord said unto Moses, behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of strangers of the land. Again, they've been given everything and what are they using it for to become worse people whither they go to 0:51:30 - 0:51:50 be among them and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and I will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evils and troubles shall befall them. So that they will say in that 0:51:50 - 0:52:18 day are not, these evils come upon us because our God is not among us. And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought in that they are turned unto other gods. And God accurately predicts that people use His blessings to turn into even worse folks. And they 0:52:18 - 0:52:44 take themselves to such a distance from Him that the most helpful loving thing he can do is withdraw and allow the consequences of their stupidity to fall upon them because that's the only hope of them coming to their senses and saying all of this is so bad because we turned from God. And now we need 0:52:43 - 0:53:14 to turn back. It's the only way for Him to get that message across. Have we reached that point as a society as you look out across the allegedly Christian world here in the United States, how many people hunger and thirst for Jesus. What ratio of those who are excited to talk about him and sing about 0:53:13 - 0:53:37 him and wave their hands in the air like idiots. What percentage of those people actually do what he says? How excited are they to learn more about what he would do in their place? How excited are they about Jesus compared to what they would describe as their temporal lives? What are they willing to 0:53:37 - 0:54:04 do for an extra dollar or family vacation or to get their kids to shut up for the next 10 minutes? Versus what are they willing to do to learn more about Jesus to more fully live according to how he does. How do you think he feels about all of this when we as a nation have been blessed so far beyond 0:54:03 - 0:54:40 ancient Israel in so many ways now? And all of that, I didn't touch on the, the so called atheists, the agnostics. I'm talking about professed Christians. How much of the gift that God gives us, do you use to draw nearer to him to do his will more fully on earth, to do His will just more fully in your 0:54:40 - 0:55:17 family, to do his will more fully in your own dang life. When no one else is around, how do you use the gift he has given you here is the world as it stands today. Roughly speaking, those who are honest, see in their lives unfulfilled needs, they remember needs desires problems, questions. They have 0:55:17 - 0:55:42 questions about God and about life that they don't know the answer to. They have needs that they know God can fulfill, but they don't have them fulfilled. They have things that they long for that they don't have in their lives and they have the ability to see all of this, all of us do. But what are you 0:55:42 - 0:56:06 doing about it? Because maybe to you, you're looking at the level of the, the wine that's covering all everything else in your life and you say, well, it's not that bad. Or maybe even you're sort of splashing the wine up from this and saying, well, if I just go on enough vacations and trips or if I just 0:56:06 - 0:56:30 go off to college, if I'm a young person, or if I just, if I go on a church mission or if I just join a youth group or if I just go to church every Sunday or if I take my kids to sports and do the suburban thing and if I just get another promotion at work, then maybe this will go away and a dozen. But 0:56:30 - 0:56:56 you ignoring it makes you less capable of seeing it because that's what happens when we're dishonest, we lose the ability to see what we previously saw. It doesn't solve the problem. It just sweeps it under the rug so it can foment and get worse. So, because you're not responding to what God has given 0:56:56 - 0:57:25 you so that you can have all of his, his gifts of unmerited prosperity and continue to grow, enjoying gratitude and righteousness. He's taking it away and he takes it away in, in some ways, it looks like it's little by little and in some ways it's more complete and all at once and sometimes it's gradual 0:57:25 - 0:57:52 , sometimes it's all of a sudden. And each time he does this, he exposes more needs, greater desire. So this thing just the peak was sticking out and look how big it is now. And this has a dual effect. On the one hand, your it will be, it will be easier to recognize these things. Your desire for them 0:57:52 - 0:58:17 will increase and your willingness to do what it takes to get them will also increase. But what's the other effect? It will be that much harder when the water is this high. It's quite easy to swim over here and grab this peak as it gets lower. You have to climb a lot higher. Not only that, but there 0:58:17 - 0:58:43 might be barriers to getting there, right? And you might have a whole lot of needs you you have to worry about and the unevenness of the delusion, the illusion, the the present pleasure is depicted here because this water level is still really high here. And so these things are the last things on your 0:58:43 - 0:59:07 mind. You can't even see them, but they're coming too. And as time goes by more and more of this becomes evident and this is where it's going to end up because everything in your life that's attached to modern prosperity is going to come to an end. And depending on how old you are and depending on how 0:59:06 - 0:59:34 long you live through the receding water, you may very well live to see this day and you'll see that all of these things that I'm telling you are true and that God warned you about them early and you would not listen and you wouldn't listen even though there was enough writing on the wall to show that 0:59:33 - 1:00:08 what I was saying was true. Whether it's just by common sense and looking around and being honest and looking inside or through reading the scriptures where it's abundantly illustrated. My counsel to you is do not be satisfied with what does not satisfy, do not be satiated. Second E 528 is one of the 1:00:08 - 1:00:30 richest chapters in scripture. There's so many elements woven through that chapter. But, but I want to read through a passage here and just highlight one idea woe unto them that turn aside the just for a thing of not and revile against that, which is good and say that it is of no worth. And maybe you've 1:00:30 - 1:01:03 thought about that in the strict sense of maybe uh gospel teaching or a gospel idea or maybe a gospel preacher. Sure. Yep, it applies to all those things, but it also applies generically to the big picture of what is good. What does it mean to turn aside the, just for a thing of not, it's to completely 1:01:02 - 1:01:26 ignore what has much greater benefit than cost to revile against that, which is good and say it is of no worth. It's the same thing we're talking about. That benefit and the magnitude of net benefit for the day shall come that the Lord God will speedily visit the inhabitants of the earth. And in that 1:01:26 - 1:01:48 day that they are fully ripe in iniquity, they shall perish. Why? Because they're not prepared for any of this. And as the wine drains down to nothing, they're going to be stuck. It will be too late because you need the gifts of God to prepare for this day. And so if they're taken away, it's too late 1:01:48 - 1:02:10 , you can't get the oil for your lamp. People talk about that parable and they're like, oh, it's the spirit. Yeah. Yeah, it is. But you have no clue what the spirit is. But what you, what you think that just is it some kind of odometer that clocks the time that you spend in spiritual activities or something 1:02:10 - 1:02:34 ? Is it, is it just a feeling like? Oh, well, I trust God because He makes me feel good. The spirit is all of your understanding. It's your character. It's all these things that, that go far beyond how you think about it that take time to develop time and sacrifice over time and when the day comes, when 1:02:34 - 1:02:55 you need that oil, you're not going to have enough. You're looking at this and you're saying, well, worst case scenario, this is how much I'm gonna need. I kinda know that, uh, one day my car is gonna break down. I kinda know that one day my wife's gonna die but, you know, it's a long time from now and 1:02:55 - 1:03:29 whatever, no, everything is going to be gone. And in that day all you're going to have is what's inside of you, is that enough? And others will he pacify and lull them away into carnal security that they will say all is well in Zion, yz Prosperi all is well and thus the devil cheated their souls and 1:03:29 - 1:03:57 leadeth them away carefully down to hell. Let's do the same thing for this. What do you think this is talking about a city, a society in ideology? Now? You're getting closer. Let's focus on that one for a second. What would it mean if Zion, if we're thinking about Zion here in terms of an ideology, which 1:03:57 - 1:04:19 isn't a bad way to think about it. What does it mean if you believe all is well in Zion, Zion prosperous means, you think you've got it all figured out. You think you're already living the best that you can live, or at least however you're living, it's good enough. Why is it not good enough? Because 1:04:19 - 1:04:38 you don't see the challenges that are coming. You have no idea what it's going to be like and how hard it's going to be like, how hard it's going to be. Now, let's take this a step further and think about Zion as your own relationship with the Lord. What does it mean that all is well, and Zion and Zion 1:04:37 - 1:05:02 prosperous means your life. You're good enough as a person, you're already good. You don't need anything more. You're as close to God as you're gonna get in this life. You need to understand how that is the same as the devil, cheating your soul and leading you carefully down to hell. Why? Because you 1:05:02 - 1:05:28 might be good enough for now, but things are going to change and you're not good enough for later, not even close. And as God sends you what you need to be ready for what's coming later, you're going to ignore it. You're going to turn it aside for a thing, if not, and you're going to revile it, you're 1:05:27 - 1:06:00 going to say it's of no worth. And then when that day comes, you will not be prepared. I'm going to skip over 22 for the sake of time. Verse 23. Yeah, they are grasped with death and hell and death and hell and the devil and all that have been seized therewithal of God and be judged according to their 1:06:00 - 1:06:19 works from whence, they must go into the place prepared for them. Even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment. If you've made it this far in this video, few people do. They just sort of click and click away where they click around. I'm going to reward you now with a mystery which is what 1:06:19 - 1:06:44 death and hell means. You'll find this describing one of the seals in the Book of Revelation. And it's absolutely the same as what I've been telling you. Its exposure to the consequences of our choices. It's, it's the mortal exposure to those consequences here on earth. It's God withdrawing his gifts 1:06:43 - 1:07:16 and exposing us to what we've chosen so that we can wake up. And when you stand before the throne of God to be judged according to your works, he is going to calculate in that expectation, the gifts that He sent to you, the voices he sent to you to call you to something higher. And this is why Nephi 1:07:16 - 1:07:43 says, woe be unto him that saith we have received and we need no more. You do need more. I thank God that you have no clue how much more you need more because it'd be very difficult to convince you to continue in your daily duties, which it is God's will that you continue for now, you would abandon your 1:07:43 - 1:08:14 job. You would, some of you would abandon your family, which is certainly not His will. You have no idea how much you need more than you have. So as you go along being a lot more honest about what your needs are right now, which incidentally is the best way to come to see the ones you don't see for now 1:08:13 - 1:08:44 . Yet, as you are more honest about those needs that you can see, I invite you to seek what is best, not just what seems like enough for right now. What's good enough for right now? That's like saying there is no hell, there is no devil. There's no best. Everything's good. Anything good is good enough 1:08:44 - 1:09:17 . That's another version of this lie. What is good is what is best? Anything else is evil? Your life is full of evil. God has blessed you with unprecedented gifts and you have filled your life with evil Isaiah 55 2 from the Gileadi translation. Why do you spend money on what is not bread, your labor 1:09:17 - 1:09:46 on what does not satisfy? Hear me well, eat what is good and your souls shall enjoy abundance. Second efi 2631. But the labor in Zion shall labor for Zion for if they labor for money, they shall perish. Do you have any clue what that means? It's, it's all over the book of Mormon that those in Zion should 1:09:46 - 1:10:11 labor for Zion. Do you have any idea what that means? The opposite is to get gain or to labor for money to get gain? One implication of what this means is that people who labor for money reach a point. This is typically not how we talk about this. They reach a point where they have enough, they have 1:10:11 - 1:10:36 enough and you say, wait a second, what, what wealthy person says? Hey, I have enough. I've got to stop. Yeah, it is a rare thing. It is a rare thing but let's think about not who you think of as wealthy but everyone who do, you know that does what is better as long as there's something better to do 1:10:35 - 1:11:07 . Do you know even one person who will continue to improve as long as they see improvement opportunity? Do, do you see where I'm going with this? Do you know what it means to labor for Zion? It means to labor for the benefit of the world. You're not done until you're doing everything you can and, and 1:11:07 - 1:11:32 you're obviously you're not done that it's a process. There's no, there's no done. There's no enough. You just keep going. If you have a stopping point, that's anything other than your death. You are laboring for money. That's, that's the, the application of what this is talking about is that saying 1:11:32 - 1:11:54 when you work, does someone hand you money, it's a good thing because you'd all be guilty of that too. Saying is your motive to get the gain that you seek or is your motive the benefit of the world. If your motive is the benefit of the world, that can't be your motive every once in a while. Like, hey 1:11:54 - 1:12:16 , it's Christmas. Let's do something nice for someone that's not the benefit of the world that's actually to get gain too because you're only doing it to feel good about yourself. It's all the time all in forever till you kick over dead. If you're anything less than that in your motives, then you are 1:12:16 - 1:12:44 in the section of this verse that says labor for money. And what does it say as a consequence for that? You'll perish the perish and there's a reason for that, but I won't go into it right now. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Matthew 56. And you 1:12:44 - 1:13:11 say, but didn't you just say there's no quitting point when you labor for Zion. Yes. And I said, it's a process not an event. Jesus said he has the waters of life and that it flows. He said that those who believe in him, it will bubble up in them like a spring to eternal life. Eternal life is not an 1:13:10 - 1:13:37 outcome. It's a state. It's a flow to be blessed is a flowing relationship. It's not being given something one time, John 414, whosoever drink the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. Why is it? Because you get a giant bucket of water and drink it once and it's magic water and you're done 1:13:37 - 1:14:03 . No, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water. Springing up into eternal life. It actually says a spring in the Greek. Those are two different things. But in both cases, what you take out is replenished. It never stops filling anything you take out will be refilled. And that 1:14:03 - 1:14:33 is eternal life. The love of God stipulates that any time you love anyone the way that God loves you, he will backfill that in his love for you. And that's the strength to go out and do it. Because if you do it even a little bit, you'll learn very quickly that you can't. If, if you know anything about 1:14:33 - 1:14:54 the love of God and you try to show that in, in any reasonable way to other people, the one thing you can bank on is not getting it back, you'll, you'll get other things back, but it won't be good, won't be nearly as good. And a lot of times it'll be evil what they give back to you. And so if you walk 1:14:54 - 1:15:26 that path just a little, you're, you'll come up with all sorts of reasons not to keep doing it, but you have to look up, not straight ahead and not down but up. And Jesus says, you love others as I have loved you. And don't worry about whether they love you back because I will, if He loved you while 1:15:25 - 1:16:09 you are still a sinner, how much more will he love you as people hate you for being like him? And that is how He fills you. And that's what He filled you with, seek, what is best, do not be satisfied on anything that's less. And that is the best way to prepare for things to come. And it's not about surviving 1:16:08 - 1:16:51 . It's not even about thriving. It's about becoming who God knows. You can be. So that in the eternities, you can see and feel more of his love because that is the ultimate source of enduring joy. And so I implore you to make greater use of the gifts that God has given you. The time is short. And as 1:16:51 - 1:17:17 soon as, as sure as the sun rises, you're going to see everything I've told you in this presentation fulfilled. And as you see the, the wine of Babylon drained down to nothing, I hope that you're in a state where you begin to draw from the justice that you have merited because you listen to what I'm 1:17:17 - 1:17:34 saying and I hope it's not that you're looking back and remembering what you were told before it happened and wishing that you had listened when, when it would have rendered much greater blessing to you for doing. So.