We’ve seen how dangerous it is to have so much confidence in ourselves that, as James states in his epistle, we begin to boast and say, “I’m going to go to such and such a city and stay there a year and make this much money, and I have all of these great plans.”  Maybe we ought to say, “If the Lord wills.”  We need to begin in this hour, especially with the smoke and mirrors and everything that’s going on in the stock market, we have a lot of people that think they’re geniuses.  If you can’t make money in the stock market today, you’re in Special Ed.  Let me tell you something.  The Bible is very clear on the fact that we’re not to will to be rich.  If you’re chasing money today, you’re chasing the wrong thing.  You need to be chasing the will of God.  Those that will to be rich pierce themselves through, the Scripture says, with all kinds of disasters and tragedies, and will ultimately find themselves out of favor with God.  Money is a dangerous thing, and it is difficult for a rich man to get into heaven.  This is not what I’m teaching on today, so whoever this is for, grab it.  This is the Spirit speaking to you.

We’ve got too many of our young people that are being caught up in all of this.  Let me tell you something.  If you want to be rich, be rich in God’s grace.  Godliness with contentment is great gain.  If you’re content, then God can get you what He wants you to have, and the blessings of the Lord make rich and add no sorrow with it.  No man gets rich by seeking riches.  I’m talking about rich in the Lord.  You can use the world’s system; it’s going down.  We had better have our hope and our trust in God in these last days.  We’re talking about how to stand in these last days.  Many are going to depart from the faith, “…giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”  One of the doctrines of devils is assuming that being rich means you have the favor of God.  That’s a lie of the devil.  In fact, it says people that promote that doctrine among you, don’t even fellowship with them anymore.  It’s a dangerous thing.  As we’re facing all of these different temptations and trials, the one thing we need, beloved, is one another; amen?  We need people that will love us enough to speak into our lives.  That’s one thing that I want to talk about here in these next couple of sessions.

I’ve been in the spirit realm.  I’ve been very concerned for us as a community in a specific area, and Ephesians speaks to it very clearly.  It tells us over in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, verse 11, that we’re “…to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them,” expose them.  “For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret” (Ephesians 5:12).  Now, remember, who this letter is written to.  This is written to the same church that Jesus spoke to in the book of Revelation and talked about how learned they were, how much Bible they knew, how much they could talk Bible, the doctrine that they had, but He said, “I have one problem with you.”  That’s what?  “You’ve lost your—” Now, what does it mean to lose your first love?  To lose your first love means that Jesus’ mandate of the greatest commandment is not working in us, and that’s to love one another.  To lose our first love is to lose that love of His lordship, and we’ll see it in the context here.