 Amen. So keep your place there in Acts chapter 9. So last week we went through the first part of Acts chapter 9. We looked at the conversion of Saul. So we looked at how Saul was met by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus. We looked at how Jesus Christ intervened with such a great miraculous intervention to get Saul on the right team, so to speak. And I'll kind of talk to you about that towards the end of the sermon and kind of how that fits the story towards the end of Acts chapter 9. But then at the end of Acts chapter 9, after we get through Saul's conversion, his teaching by Jesus, as we cross reference Galatians chapter 1, for three years he was taught by Jesus as he preached in Damascus to the point where he became so powerful and so strong and doctrine that the Jews tried to kill him. They came after him. They thought that he was such a big threat. But towards the end of Acts chapter 9, we see a different story now. We see a story of Peter traveling and Peter is traveling to this city, it would be northwest, I guess, of Jerusalem. So he goes to this city, Lyda, and then he goes on to Joppa. So Lyda is maybe 20 miles to the northwest of Jerusalem towards the coast. And then if you continue to the coast, keep going west and you will get to Joppa. So Peter is traveling and some things happened to Peter. He's traveling, he's doing some miracles. It says the church has rest. So the church is growing and they're multiplying, the gospel is being preached. Let's start out in verse number 31 and see what we can find out from this story this evening. In Acts chapter 9 verse 31, the Bible says, then the church has had rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied. So that's interesting. It says they were edified but they were actually, they were edified, they were comforted and they were multiplied but they were actually doing something else. So it says that they were edified, meaning they were learning, they were hearing the gospel, they were having the gospel preached to them. But it says they were walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost they were multiplied. So that walking is a key step there. Look at verse 32. And it came to pass as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lida. And there he found a certain man, Anais, which had kept his bed eight years and was sick of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, Anais, Jesus Christ make it the whole arise and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. And all the dwelt at Lida and Saran saw him and turned to the Lord. So these miracles in the name of Jesus Christ are causing many people to notice, notice how it was important that he was, he was sick of the palsy for several years, eight years it said. So everyone knew that this man was sick. You'll see that as a kind of a common thing throughout the miracles, just like the man that was behind that Jesus healed. Everybody knew that he was blind. Everybody knew that he was always blind. Everybody knew that this guy was sick. Everybody knew that he was lame. And then Peter heals him so it makes such a great testimony for Peter and for Jesus Christ, the Gospel. Look at verse 36. So it says all then the dwelt at Lida and Saran saw him and turned to the Lord. Now there was at Joppa. Now we're further to the coast, another 20, 30 miles. A certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcus. I bet she liked to go by Tabitha. Talk about, talk about an interpretation bad, like bad draw the straw right there, right? I mean they're like, this is my friend Dorcus. She's like, no, no, no, please it's Tabitha. Can you about imagine? Anyway, the woman, the woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did. So notice it says about this woman right away. What does it say? It talks about her good works in verse 36. The focus is on the things that she did in her life and then look at verse 37. And it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died, whom when they had washed they laid her in an upper chamber. So right away in verse 36 we see that this woman Tabitha, as I will call her, Tabitha was full of good works and alms deeds which she did. Now notice it doesn't even say like if she was saved or not. It doesn't say if she had believed the gospel or not. It just says that she was full of good works and alms deeds. Alms deeds means she's doing things for other people. She's doing things for people that have less than herself. So she's doing good deeds for others. That's all we know about her. And then in verse 37 the Bible says that she died. Okay, look at verse 38. And for as much as Lidah was nigh to Joppa and the disciples had heard that Peter was there they sent him two men, desiring that he would not delay to come to them. So Lidah where Peter was was close to Joppa where Tabitha was. So people heard about this and they sent, they heard that Peter was close and they sent for him. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come they brought him into the upper chamber where her body is now because she's dead. And all the widows stood by him weeping and doing what? What did they show Peter? So Peter doesn't know this person. Okay, this is really what the point I want to get at. This evening Peter doesn't know who Tabitha is or was. All he knows is that he's been brought to this upper chamber where this dead lady is laying. And look at what the first thing that they say to Peter is. It says and showing what? Showing the coats and the garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. What do they do? They show Peter, they show Peter the works of this woman. They take Peter to her body and they show her. They're saying, they're referencing verse 36. They're saying look at all the good works that this woman did in her life. So in verse 39 and verse 36 you see and look it was works that you know was not for herself. It was not for herself. It was Alms deeds. It was works that she was doing for other people. So here this woman was making coats. She was making garments. She was doing all these different things with her hands to help other people. Okay and that's what they focus on right away when Peter walks in. It's the first thing. Look at verse 40. But Peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed. And turning into the body said, Tabitha arise and she opened her eyes and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up and we had called the saints and widows presented her alive. And it was known throughout all Joppa and many believed in the Lord. And it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa with Simon a tanner. So all that to say this. Peter comes and he meets this. He doesn't meet the woman. He sees this woman who has died and he has told how good of a you know you have to ask yourself. I mean obviously the miracles that the disciples were doing were to glorify Jesus Christ and bring people to the gospel. We get that. But the question is, yes this woman was dead but why her? People die all the time. I mean why her? Why was Peter, why didn't people go and run 20 literal miles to get Peter, bring him to this woman and then in verse 36 and verse 39 all they focus on is just this woman's good works. Her works towards others. The question is why do works matter? Why do works matter? The question is why did everyone focus on their works? Notice, notice how Lydia, notice how Lydia's sins or I'm sorry Tabitha, I'll just stick with Dorcas. Notice how Tabitha's sins were not brought up. I mean Tabitha obviously she was not sinless. Obviously she made mistakes in her life, she committed sin in her life. Notice how none of that was brought up. What was brought up when it came to just you know advocating for this woman that Peter who had the power of Jesus Christ to heal, to even raise from the dead that he would he would raise this woman from the dead. Notice what it was. What was it? It was her works in her life and here's what I'm trying to get you to understand. Tabitha, the reason that Peter, the reason that the Lord chose to bless Tabitha in this case and the case that was made for her was because of how profitable she was and I mean that, I mean profitable by just like she was profitable to other people around her. That's why, that's why really that, I mean do we know anything else about Tabitha from this story? We know nothing about her. I mean she could have been, she could have been someone that wasn't that nice to talk to. She could have been someone who just maybe she didn't talk at all. Maybe she wasn't a good conversationalist, maybe she was kind of rude to people, maybe she had problems in certain parts of her life but all we hear about is how profitable she was. That's the only thing that was told to Peter and what does he do? Through Jesus Christ he raises her from the dead. He blesses this woman. So that's the whole point I want to make to you tonight is this idea of why we should be profitable and seek to be profitable in our Christian lives. Now today, here's a problem today. All right, today we're being taught today, kids are being taught today, adults are being taught today, that profit. Let's just look at the word profit. Just the idea of profit, of taking something and making more of it, of taking something and producing with it, producing more than what you began with. That's the idea of profit without getting into economics about it but just look at the idea of profit. We are being taught today, kids are taught in school today that profit is bad. From the time kids are this tall, all you hear is, oh, profit is bad and all people care about is profit and all they want to do is profit. And this profit becomes like an evil thing today. Why are gas prices high? The president will say because the oil companies want to just profit too much. I mean it's not the case but the point is like profit is looked at profit is looked at as a bad thing today. We're being told, I mean people go into jobs today, people take a job. We're just looking at the idea of profit, just the secular idea of profit. People go into a job today and they say I need to be paid more. I'm not paid enough. This is the idea. I'm not paid enough because the evil owner of the business or the corporation or whatever, he's too into just keeping all the profit for himself. So I'm not paid enough. This is the idea of minimum wage. They need to at least pay me this much and forget their profits. They need to at least pay me this much and there should be a law that says they have to pay me this much. This is people that think that they deserve their job. This is the idea that profit is bad. That profit is bad. They're just greedy, profits are too high, but the problem is that's not biblical. That's not biblical. That business owner, whoever hired you, whoever is paying you whatever wage, they risked everything to start that business. They risked everything. They maybe took their life savings, maybe whatever, but the point is that business is there and the purpose of that business is to make a profit. Did you know that? The purpose of any business and the reason, the only reason any secular business owner would stop working for somebody else, take his life savings, take all the equity in his house and dump it into starting his own business. The only reason that he would do that is because he thinks he can make a profit doing it. He thinks he can take what he has and make more of it through that business. And guess what? You know what he needs? You know what that business owner needs in order to make more from what he invested into it? He needs profitable people. He needs people that have the ability to be profitable, to make a profit. So, I mean, here's the thing, like we're in a recession right now. Here's the thing and here's what you'll see. Maybe you won't see this in California because the economy here is just insane and it just can't be killed for whatever reason that is. There's so many people here, there's just always economic activity here, but in a recession, a lot of times I've seen this in my career, there's layoffs. You know, there's a company maybe that has 200 people and in a recession maybe sales are down, prices are up and costs are up and they're having a hard time keeping the business going, so what do they have to do? They have to cut people. They have to cut people. They have to lay people off. I've seen friends of mine go through layoffs. It's a very difficult thing for a person to go through in their life, but here's the thing. Most of the time the most profitable people stay. The most, that business, that business owner, even if he has to cut people, you know what he's going to do? He's going to cut the least profitable people and you better believe he knows who they are. So the whole point is this, I mean the other side, see we need to think about this. If you want to be successful in your work life, especially the men here, if you want to be successful out in your career, you have to think, quit thinking about this idea that profit is bad and that they need to raise the minimum wage. You need to get your head out of that gopher hole and the other end of that spectrum is, if you want to make more money, be more profitable. If you want someone to pay you more, make more money for the business. Be more profitable because the other end of that spectrum is where you are so profitable, where you get to choose how much you make. That end of the spectrum exists. That end of the spectrum exists where you have someone who is so talented, who is such a hard worker, who has such good ideas, who has such ability to make profit. The business owner is chasing him down going, what must I pay you to get you to work for me? That is where you want to be. You want to be on that profitable side of things. You say, what does this have to do with the Bible? Because that was Tabitha. That's why. We don't want to be this minimum wage, I want to make more money so the government needs to tell this business owner, force him by putting a gun to his head to pay me another dollar an hour. No, we need to be so profitable that that business owner chases us down and says, what must I pay you to get you to work for me? Because I know what you can do for me. That was Tabitha. Tabitha was so profitable and that's why they brought it up in verse 36 and verse 39. This is why they brought it up. They're like, she's worth keeping around. She's like, God, this woman is worth keeping around. And it doesn't even matter in this story and for the point that I'm trying to make whether she was saved or she got saved after because the same applies to Saul. Because the reason God knocked Saul off his ride and because he knew he would be profitable to him. And they're making this case to Peter, like look at a profitable, look, she's not even saved. She's not even saved. Look what she does with her time. She's not even saved. Look what she spent her life doing. She doesn't even care about herself. All she's doing is making all these things for other people. Just being profitable, profitable, profitable. So the point I'm trying to get you to understand is just like that business owner, God wants profit. God wants profit from us. You say, I don't believe you. Turn to Matthew 25. This is my favorite parable in the Bible. 100% hands down right here. Turn to Matthew 25. Because guess what? Just like that business owner. It's even a bad analogy because God encompasses so much more. But just like that business owner, actually that business owner is more just like God. But God, guess what? He risked everything. He risked everything. He brought his own son to this earth to literally give everything. And you know what he wants from us? And he gave us salvation. You know what he did? He hired us. He hired us. And you know what he wants from us? He wants profit from us. That's what he wants. And that's what this parable is about. Look at Matthew 25 in verse number 14. Look what the Bible says. It says, for the kingdom of heaven, you know, just underline that rate. You know, write that in your Bible. It says the kingdom of heaven. Underline those words. You know what the kingdom of heaven needs? That's the business right there. That's the business. That's God's business is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven needs profits. The kingdom of heaven needs profitable people. The kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country. This is how we know it's a parable right here. When you see things like this, like, is as a, he's saying we're about to make an analogy here. God is saying, Jesus here is saying, I'm going to compare here. I'm going to make an analogy. The kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants, that's you by the way, and delivered unto them his goods. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 2 in chapter 4. So what are the goods? So the kingdom of heaven is the business that we work for. That we're supposed to be, the kingdom of heaven, this business, it needs profits like no business has ever needed profits. And we work for this. We're the servants, but it says that this man, he traveled and he delivered to his servants his goods. What are the goods? What am I hanging on to here? You know, what am I responsible for? Look at 1 Thessalonians 2 in verse number 4. The Bible says, but as we were allowed of God, this is a direct reference. This is a direct, it's not a reference. It's a direct match to what this parable in Matthew 25 is talking about. It says, as we were allowed of God, meaning it's only by God's grace that we're allowed to do this. We're allowed to do this because of God. He gives us this charge. We're allowed of God to be put in trust with what? With the gospel. Even so we do nothing, buried in the ground. Even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts. So the Bible says, we are trusted. Just like these servants were trusted with the master's goods, we are trusted with the gospel. We're not only trusted with just the gospel, but we speak as God tells us to speak. That's what we're trusted with. So you can just replace the goods in Matthew 25 with the gospel that we carry. I mean that's why we're called ambassadors because we carry this message. Look at verse 15. And unto one he gave five talents. Now he compares the goods now. Now the goods are talents which is money in this case. And one he gave five talents to another two and to another one. To every man. Now this is interesting. We're going to talk about this Sunday morning. To every man according to his several ability. And straightway took his journey. So this business owner right here, he already knows who's the most profitable. He already knows. Look, I don't care where you work. They know who the best is. They know who the best is and they know who the worst is. And guess who makes the least? The worst. So you should focus on trying to be the best. Look, just take the same attitude you should have in the Christian life and apply it to everywhere else in your life. And like things are just going to go, they're just going to go for you. They're just going to go well for you. So look, it says every man according to his several ability, meaning he knew, he knew who the best was. And the best he gave five. The middle he gave two. And the, you know, the least, the person he had the least trust in, he gave one. But look, he still gave him one. I mean, think about it. He still gave him one. I'll get to that towards the end. So are you with me so far? I mean, this is such a great analogy, this parable. So him that received the five talents went. So first of all, this business owner, as you'll see, as you'll see here with these talents, he must have gone through something to, to get these talents. He liked these talents. He was, he was protective of these talents and he wanted, he really wanted to get more. Now you can say, oh, he's greedy. He just wants more profit. Well, this is an analogy, first of all. Okay. But look, he gave him to their several ability, that he that received the five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents. So the guy that gets five, he goes and he pulls a hundred percent profit. He gets five more. Now he's got ten. He's got literally ten times than the guy that just got one. And likewise, he that received two, he also gained other two. So that guy went and got hundred percent profit too. So these guys were both hundred percent profitable, but one started with five, so he was, he was better off. Why did he start with five, by the way? You say they're both hundred percent profitable. I mean, that's not fair that one has four and one has ten. Why did he start with five? Because the boss trusted him more. Because the boss knew that he was better. Because the boss knew that he had higher ability than the guy with just two. Okay. So look, I mean, I bet you the guy that gets two the next time this happens, I bet you he gets three. I bet you he gets four. Because this is how it works, folks. Look at verse number eighteen. But he received one, went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. Now I still remember like the first time I read through this, maybe even the second time I read through this. Now I thought this was really mean. I thought this was really harsh, like to this guy. I'm this poor guy. You got these guys going into town and they're wheeling and dealing and they're doing whatever and they're maybe doing some carpentry jobs and just increasing the money. You got this guy and he's all like just buries it in the ground and just sits on it. Probably sits there Indian style. Probably takes a nap. Maybe plays some video games. Maybe, I don't know, what else you do? Probably maybe does smoke some marijuana or something. I don't know what he's doing. He's doing nothing is the point. Okay. He's doing nothing. You know, what did he do here? Absolutely nothing. The other guys were in town making things happen. Look at verse 19. And after a long time, the Lord comes back, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoned with them. And so he that received the five talents came and brought other five talents saying, Lord, thou deliverst unto me five talents. Behold, I've gained beside them five talents more. He just delivers 10 talents to this guy. Good day for this man. And his Lord said in him, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make the ruler over many things. You see how you see how the Lord works here? He's like, I tested you with these five things and you were faithful. He's like, now I'm going to make you ruler over many things. So it's not going to be the next time this guy's trusted with something, he's going to be trusted with more things. You see what I'm saying? This is really what you need to understand. Like this is where profitability will get you in your life. And not only with your boss at work, this is where profitability will get you with the Lord in your life. Look at the second guy. Then he that received the two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverst unto me two talents. Behold, I've gained other two talents beside them. His Lord said on him, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make the ruler over many things. This guy is getting more next time, too. You see, maybe these guys, you ever wonder, maybe the five talent guy, he probably started out as the one talent guy. At some point in his life, then he got to be the two talent guy. Then he got to be the three talent guy. Then he got to be the four talent guy. Then he got to be the five talent guy. You see how this is working? And this is how these people moved up the chain. And then you're just like, I'm just going to make you ruler over many things. Very happy with this man, as well. Look at verse 24. Then he that received the one talent came and said, Lord, I think thou art a hard man. So first of all, who is the, who is the, just, this is a side note here. Okay? This is a side note. But who is the analogy referring to, we're talking about the kingdom of heaven here. Who's the boss of the kingdom of heaven? God? Jesus Christ? So is Jesus Christ a sissy? Is Jesus Christ this, oh, is Jesus Christ the Jesus Christ that is portrayed today? In paintings, in cartoons, in Sunday school, or wherever? No. Thou art a hard man. The Bible says, the Bible says that this Lord is a hard man. And this is an analogy of the Lord over the kingdom of heaven. Think about that. I mean, I mean, for those that don't want to read the whole Bible, just read Matthew 25, 24. God is a hard man. God is a hard God. People need to get that across today. Look, if you read the Bible, you know that that's true. But if you don't want to read the Bible, just read Matthew 25, 24. God is hard. God is hard. He's not messing around. You will get that if you read the Bible. I mean, if you have read the Bible, you know that. But I just want to point that out, that the analogy here is the Lord over the kingdom of heaven. We're talking about Jesus Christ here. He says, I knew that Thou art a hard man. Now he's still explaining. What is he doing? He's making excuses. This is what people who are not profitable will always do, is make excuses. Because they're not going to just go up and just be like, you know what? I'm a loser. And I was smoking marijuana the whole time. And I'm lazy. And I'm slothful. And I just don't like to work. I don't like to work. So I've never learned how to work. And I'm stuck. I don't like it. I've never learned how. I don't know how to do anything. Thus I'm not profitable. So what I do, I buried it. I don't know. What else was I supposed to do? Reaping where thou hast not sown and gathered where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid. He's lazy and he's a coward. And I went and I hid thy talent in the earth low, there haste that is thine. And he hands it to him. And his Lord answered and said unto him, so I mean, I always thought this was a little harsh. Like, I don't always think this. I mean, I thought the first time I read through this, the second time I read through this, I was like, man, at least he didn't go gamble it away. Look, there's a spectrum where you could be worse than this guy. You know, he could go and he could gamble it away. He could have went and borrowed the five talents that the other guy made and gambled all that away too. Because look, there's people like that too. There's people that are not only not profitable, but they just drain everything out of everyone that they come in contact with. Every resource, they'll borrow everything. They will squander everything. They will waste everything. Slothful and waster, they go together, remember? But look what the Lord says. The Lord answered and said to him, thou wicked and slothful servant. You know what? It's wicked to be slothful too. There's something that you won't hear today either. It's wicked to be lazy. So you see, you see a 30 year old man with two arms and two legs standing on a street corner, begging for money. You know what? I don't feel sorry for him because he's wicked. Because it's wicked to be slothful. Go talk to him. Go talk to those young men. I've talked to, I mean, I've talked to dozens and dozens of them. Most of them are very, very wicked people. But the Bible says they're wicked. Because being slothful in itself, it's a wicked person that would just be slothful. That's what the Bible says. Sorry to, you know, hurt people's feelings, but that's, that's what, that's what needs to be told to people today. Thou newest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oddest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, then at my coming I should have had received my own with, or use, usury. He's like, you weren't even, you weren't, you were, you were, you were too lazy to even put it in the bank. He says to him, he's like, you couldn't even walk to the bank and put it in the bank. He just sat down and buried it right where he was at. He was just lazy. But you know what you say? Why so harsh though? He still had the one. It's not like he, it's not like he spent it. He didn't go buy a bunch of bubblegum or whatever. He, he still had it. Here's what you need to understand. This is the whole point of the sermon tonight. The reason that he was wicked and slothful is because there was no, and I mean zero, profit. That's the point of this parable. Is the kingdom of heaven the Christian life should produce profit? We're entrusted with these goods. The goods that we're entrusted with were paid with the most precious price, the blood of Jesus Christ. We are, we are entrusted with those goods. And I'm telling you, God expects profit from us. He expects profit from us. Or he's going to say to us, you wicked and slothful servant. You did nothing. Look, that's going to be a lot of Christians. He's not going to take away anybody's salvation, but I'm telling you there's going to be a lot of people standing before Jesus Christ at the judgment seat of Christ and Jesus is going to say that you're wicked and slothful servant. You did nothing. You got saved. Somebody knocked on your door and gave you the goods and entrusted you with that one talent and you buried it in the earth and you did nothing. But God wants profit. The kingdom of heaven wants profit. Now, here's what's really interesting. Look at verse 28. Look at verse 28. And this is, this goes against everything that they teach today because here you got a guy. Think about the situation now. Think about public school, eighth grade, freshman year of high school, economics teacher right now. You got a guy that's got 10 talents. You got a guy that's got four talents and you got a guy that's got one. That economics teacher is going to say, you know what, this guy that's got 10 talents, he needs to give some down to the, he needs to give some, he needs to give a couple down to the guy with one. The guy, you know, maybe he probably needs to give three to the guy with one. We'll leave him with seven. He can have a little bit more than everybody else because he did get five more, but then we'll have, we'll have four and four and that's much more, that's much even. That's much better. That's much more fair. Is that how God works? Look at, look at what he does here. What would he does? He says, take the four of the talent from him and give it to him that had 10. You're like the professor of macroeconomics at, you know, whatever university system today his head just exploded. He's like, take the one from the guy, from the bum and give it to the guy who's super profitable. Hey, if you're a business owner, that makes sense. Right? Why waste resources down here on this guy who's doing nothing. You take everything that you possibly can. Look, you got the guy in the middle, still 100% profitable. He's growing. Now I know I can trust him more. He gets more next time. This guy gets nothing. We give it to the most profitable, then he will just go further with it. This is what God does. Look at verse 29, for unto everyone that half shall be given. That's kind of like the opposite of socialism right there. He says, everyone that is, is profitable, you know what? And that makes, that matches exactly with verse 21 where he says, you were faithful over a few things. I'll make you ruler over many things. And look at verse 23. He says, that was been faithful over a few things. I'll make you ruler over many things. That matches exactly what verse 29 says, where he says unto everyone that half shall be given. And he shall have abundance. The Bible is saying here that from him that half not shall be taken away, even that he half. Look, if you're not profitable, you're going to have things taken away from you. If you're profitable, you're going to have things put on top of you. Guess what? The more profitable you are, the more things that are going to be given to you. How do I know Tabitha was profitable? How do I know she was probably really profitable? Because she was given like the most you could possibly give someone on this earth. Her life. She was given her life back. She was so profitable that God says, you know what? She's so profitable, I'm just going to give her more. I'm going to give her her life. She's going to get saved. And then just as Paul, as Saul, she's going to take that profitable mindset and she's going to be working for the kingdom of God. This is the whole point. God wants profit. And guess what? God looks out for the profitable. Now don't think about the negative part of it. Get your head off the guy with one talent that now has zero talents. And let's think about the guy with 11 talents now. Look, God looks out for the profitable. You know what that means? You know what that means? Maximizing profit in your life will maximize God's blessings in your life. This is the real prosperity gospel right here. This is the real, I shouldn't even say prosperity gospel. This is the real prosperity message of the Bible right here. Look, Joel Osteen's church, whatever, they're not even saved. They don't even have the right gospel. So it's ridiculous to even preach a prosperity gospel there. But the real prosperity message of the Bible is the more profit you are, the more profitable you are, the more you will maximize God's blessings on top of your life. Matthew 25. It's great. It's great. Who doesn't want God? Look, we're not saying you're not going to have tribulation in this world. We're not saying that people aren't going to be against you for being a Christian. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, if you want God just pouring blessings upon you, be profitable. You're like, I want more blessings. Be more profitable. Ask yourself, how profitable are you to your family? How profitable are you to your church? How profitable are you with the gospel? How profitable are you with these goods that you have been entrusted with? How profitable are you? The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3 it says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, in righteousness. The Bible says that God gave us his Word. He gave us his Word to be profitable to us, showing again that he expects us to be profitable with these things that he gives us. We've been entrusted with his Word. We've been entrusted with this gospel. We should go out and be profitable with it. We shouldn't waste time doing this. The Bible says in Psalm 90 it says, teach us to number our days. You know what I'm saying? Help us to use our days wisely. If you ever meet somebody in your life that is super efficient and can just get many different things done and you look at that person, I'll tell you the number one thing. It's Psalm 90. Go ahead and turn there. Go ahead and turn to Psalm 90. If you ever meet somebody and you look at that person, I'm talking about just in the world, outside of church, in church, whatever, I've met most of these types of people I've met in the church. I look at them, they're running a business, they're soul winning, they're raising children, and you're looking at these people, they're homeschooling, I don't know how many different kids and they're good at it and you're just like, how are these people so profitable? I can guarantee you one thing is number one. They don't waste time. They don't waste time. You know, they don't waste. It says teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, unto smart things, unto the gospel of the Bible, unto profitable things for the kingdom of heaven. So look, I'm trying to get you to understand this evening is that Tabitha, I keep wanting to say Lydia. It's because the town of Lida, but she was productive. She was profitable and God bent over backwards for her. He literally rose her from the dead and the only thing that was mentioned to Peter and mentioned about her was not her sins. It was not her past. It was not how good of a mom she was. It was not, you know, it was not like, you know, I'm sorry, it was not like the mess ups as a mom that she made. It was not these things. It was just about her profit. That's it. Focus on your profit in your life and you will, you will just, God will just pour out his blessings upon you. It's a super exciting thing in the Christian life. It's super simple, but just think about the things that you do. Think about the things that you do with your time. Think about the things that you do in your life and just say to yourself, how can I be more profitable to those around me? Because profit is not about yourself. The stuff that they brought up about Tabitha, it was not what she was doing for herself. It was what she was doing for other people. And that's what we do. That's why our church and churches like ours, what is our main number one focus? Our number one focus is, I mean, you just hear it all the time, soul winning, soul winning, soul winning. But why is that? Because we're trying to be profitable. That's why. We're trying to be profitable to others. We're trying to be profitable. And that's, that's the most profitable we could be to someone is to go and show them, you know, their condition and show them how they can go to heaven. That's the most profitable you'll ever be able to be in your Christian life. Maximize God's blessings on your life. That's exactly what Tabitha did. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.