 Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Unfiltered, Pastor. Again, always good having you here. Oh, thank you, John. Today, Pastor, I wanted to talk about it seems like everybody around and even people in our church going through financial difficulties due to inflation, gas prices. I wouldn't put gas at my car the other day and I couldn't believe it's so expensive. Is this your way of asking for a raise or what? Oh, that was my angle. In front of everybody? That was my in. Not good, John. And you know, with rent and mortgages, people can't even move or it's just difficult all the way around, Pastor. And the economy is plummeted and unemployment is high. And you know, this is not a podcast on economics, but this is by dynamics in its finest form. And you know, and for us people in the church or the person that's sitting in the pew every Sunday or on Wednesdays, as a pastor, how would you talk about getting through these financial difficulties? You know, we've always had financial situations. The church has never been without them. I mean, from the very beginning, when we look at the Book of Acts, it speaks concerning the fact that there were members of the body of Christ who had nothing or very little. And so the church, because these were members of the church, these are people who were fully involved, servants and all. They weren't people who would just drop in and say, can you help me? These are people who actually were recognized people in the fellowship who would go through needs. And so what happened at that time is the fellowship would work together to help those. There was nobody in need. The scripture says in the Book of Acts, right? And so from the very beginning, there's been difficult financial times, especially under persecution when people were being driven out of their cities that they dwelt in and losing their occupations and all. This is something that the Book of Acts chronicles in many places and points out that there were those within the confines of the church who would be like a barn of a soothed property, donated it, and gave it for the well-being of those in need. And Paul has given us various scriptures related to meeting urgent needs and things of that nature. So how do we deal with that? We've always had to deal with that. When Paul was writing to Corinthians, he said, there are not many noble amongst you. There are not many wealthy. There are not many mighty. There are not many people who are of the higher financial streams in your fellowship. So what do you do? Well, you learn to live with what you have, by and large. That's something that I, as a boy, growing into a man had to learn from my father and his example. You don't spend money. You don't have. You don't go places. You can't afford. You learn to do with what you have and you do the best that you can. You do something that many of us do. You budget. You put away this for that, and you live the best that you can. And if it means you don't live in the way that you'd like, having a nicer home or a better car, which is, there's nothing wrong with the desire for either of those. It's just living within your means and doing what you can and seeking the Lord as you're faithful to him as you serve him. And I had to learn that myself, and I still practice that, John. When our church first was birthed, we didn't have, the old saying is two nickels to rub together. We didn't. We had a house payment. We had a vehicle payment, insurance, upkeep, gasoline. You name it. We had all that. We still do. We have different payments we make. And I learned very early to live on what I had, not on what I wish I had. And so I don't know that we can ever really look to man to provide for us. I certainly don't believe that we should be those who go to the world to say, support us. We need to go first and foremost to the Lord and seek him. We need to check our hearts to see where we really stand with him. Those are things that are prerogatives. And we need to do with what we do have. And I don't look to the government as being the one who's supplying my needs. My God shall supply all my need according to His riches and mercy in Christ. So I rely on the goodness of the Lord and the faithfulness of God's people. People don't understand that pastors, if they're full-time servants of the Lord, they actually rely on the generous support or the faithful giving of those whom they serve. For some reason, this stereotype of every pastor apparently being a thief or somebody who's living better than the average person and all of that, that there are some who do. There's no doubt about that. But not all do. Overwhelming majority of pastors understand what financial need is. And we have to rely on the Lord. We have to trust in him. When COVID hit, the bills didn't stop. And people don't realize that churches like ours, while we have a number of upkeep needs, we have a number of people who rely on finances that are donated to live on. They gave up their secular work to serve here. And so we paid these people with salary. And just because COVID came didn't mean that our mortgages didn't have to be paid or food wasn't having to be put on a table. So what did we do? We did what we do. We trusted the Lord and God has always been faithful and he supplies. And so I don't rely on Bidenomics because that's just a catchphrase that when looked upon with closely, looked at closely, you can see this is a charade. The prices have gone up. By poor decisions that this man in his cabinet, I don't even think he makes the decisions. I believe he has progressives who tell him what to do. I mean, just the other day was on TV saying, this is what I've been told to do. And he's standing in front of the world saying that. So he gives it away all the time. This is a man who's not in control of anything, including himself. As a result of that, I can't look to him to strategize something to help me because he's moving us to socialism. And so no socialist who's at the top ever is hungry or ever needs a ride. They always make the money off the people who have to suffer. So I don't look to man. I look to God. Amen. Well, thank you, pastor, for sharing that. Because I know there's people in our pews that are even wondering where we're going to get our next meal from. And they're turning to the Lord. And the amazing thing about the Lord is he's undefeated. He always supplies our need according to his riches. We need to understand that. We learn to walk by faith and not by sight. And if you see someone with an urgent need, the body of Christ will meet that. Amen. Well, thank you guys for tuning in. We do want to invite you to our Sunday morning services at 8.30 and 10.45. And pastor, you're going through the book of Acts chapter 10. Yeah, I'm going to do my best. It's been a rich study. So I'll invite you, your friends and family to come join us. We look forward to having you guys. God bless you. Pastor David, again, thank you for your time. We'll see you guys soon.