2020 Maryland Men of Faith Conference: True and Honest

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Maryland Men of Faith

Marcos Bomfim

Integrity in Finances in the Time of the End


This media has been presented to you by the Maryland Men of Faith, where men are challenged and encouraged to form the character of Christ. For more information, please visit www.mmof.org. Well, the title of my presentation today is Integrity and Finances in the Time of the End. I would like to ask you permission to focus a little bit more in a subject that for me is very, very much interesting, which is finances in the time of the end. Even more than integrity.

We know that integrity we not get by just deciding to exert integrity. Integrity is something that we get while we walk with God, when we are filled by the Holy Spirit, when we develop the ability to search our own hearts and to allow God to search our own hearts, and it's easy to do that when we read the Bible, when we read Spirit of Prophecy, and we are confronted with our own sinfulness, when we see ourselves as sinners, and we have that ability to say like David, Lord, forgive me, I am sinner, I am wrong, I know that your word says that and that and this and that, but I am not following it. But Lord, please forgive me. Please help me and change my heart, creating me a new heart, like David prayed in Psalm 51. And I believe that these will give us integrity.

Integrity is the ability to look to ourselves and to know that we are not right. That's interesting. This is what God calls perfection. Perfection is to know that we are not perfect, And then we go to God and we say Lord forgive me and the Bible says that we are justified by faith Just by confessing our sins if we confess our sins John 1st John chapter 1 verse 9 He's able not only to forgive our sins but to cleanse us, to purify us, and then we are perfect. Well, you see, when we recognize we are not perfect, then we confess our sins, then we are perfect.

We are considered perfect because of Jesus' sacrifice, because he died for us, and this is integrity. This is the biblical integrity. So that biblical integrity, the desire to do, to sacrifice, the desire to commit our lives to God, to surrender everything to God and to look to the other world. It's fundamental if we would like to know how to manage our finances in the time of the end because we are going to face tremendous challenges. Something very great is about to happen.

It's already started. Those things already started to happen and we are seeing them with our own eyes. And but this those things that we are able to see now are just the beginning, and we will see the development. But I have good news to bring to you, and It will not be a sermon, not even a presentation. It will be a talk.

So the first Bible verse I would like to invite you to read with me, we find in the book of Daniel. Daniel speaks quite a lot about the time of the end, right? So Daniel chapter 7, I will start on verse, where is chapter 7 here? Okay, I will start on verse 21 and then verse 22 I was watching and the same horn was making war against the saints and prevailing against him. So that little horn was making war against the saints and prevailing.

They were losing. When you lose, you lose. They were losing everything. And in the history of God's people, they lost all their belongings and their finances and their possessions many, many times. And it will happen again at the time of the end because that little horn was making war and the Bible is a reticent that we will lose and And by the way, let me add some information that may be important for us in this study.

It is impossible to go to heaven without losing everything here. We will lose everything, even this body. I am right now in Brazil. I am in my father's house. That's why light is not the ideal, the environment and even the sound is not the ideal, are not the ideal, but I am here for a special purpose.

I am with my father. He is mourning my mother. She died like 3 weeks ago at the time I am speaking here now. And yeah, I am facing the time of the end because our hopes are far beyond this time and the situation we are living on. And I am so grateful that my Father is able to see that and to believe and to trust and to see Jesus coming.

And if our hearts, our eyes are not placed in heaven where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God as Paul says in Colossians chapter 3 we are not able to manage our finances in the time of the end because we will our our focus will be here and it will not be there So something we must be sure about is that, yes, we will lose. We don't know when and how, but we know by sure that we will lose everything and even our bodies, because Paul says that flesh and blood are not able to inherit eternal life. So before Jesus comes, if we do not die, when he comes, I mean, if we are not dead, we will be changed and we will lose that body, but that will be a very good thing, because we will get a different body, and Paul speaks about that in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. But let's keep reading here in Daniel chapter 7, verse 22. He says, until, so the little horn was prevailing, until the ancient of days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the sense of the most high and the time came for the sense to possess the kingdom." So this is to me, those are very, very good news because Lord is saying, okay, you know, you already know I am telling you you will lose everything So we will we need to manage things Knowing that we will lose everything But we will lose at the right time not because we made a mistake because we need to lose in order to get possession later.

And we will get possession not because we are wise, we are very intelligent people, we know how to manage. No 1 knows how to deal with those different situations that will come in the near future. But God is giving us a very accurate perspective of what we can expect here in the near future. So, Daniel says here, until the ancient of the days came and a judgment was made in favor of the sense of the most high and the time came for the sense to possess the kingdom. I am very happy to know that.

That there will be possessions but in order to before possessing all the kingdom, which also means sometimes we spiritualize too much what we read. To possess the kingdom also mean to possess material things and the other kingdom. I will speak about that a little bit later. Now we will jump to verse 25. There are a little bit more details here.

Verse 25, Daniel says, he shall, the little horn of course, shall speak proposed words against the most high shall persecute the sense and of the most high okay we will be persecuted we already know that we need to flee and Ellen White says we need to flee from the infuriated mobs and we will need to leave everything behind or by staying we will compromise our faith our decision so for that's why now just now our eyes must be placed in a different location. And we must pray for that. I am praying that every day. Lord, I love material things. This is my reality.

I am ashamed to confess that I was not supposed to say that as a pastor, as a stewardship director, you know, but this is the truth and I am saying Lord, please place my eyes in a different location. I would like to be awaiting not for my retirement for a good time here I am not sure I will be able to retire I know I am not even sure I will be alive when I retire So I must be preparing for something else And this is the Lord's call for us to place our eyes in a different location where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. And then Daniel keeps saying, and that little horn shall intend to change times and law and you have heard about that I am sure then the sand shall be given into his hand yeah it will happen it has happened in the past and this is the same power as Babylon you will find that in if you compare with the book of Revelation, and for a time and times and half a time, this is the 1260 days, but verse 26 of Daniel 7, the court shall be seated and they shall take away his dominion, thanks God, to consume and destroy it forever.

And then verse 27, again that marvelous promise, then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people the sense of the Most High. His kingdom is a neverlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve him and obey him." That's very much good news. We will never be owners. We will never be owners. Even today we are not owners.

But we will have the possession. We will have, we will be able to use and the dominion that God already gave us dominion on the genesis in genesis in the creation account we have received the dominion we lost the dominion when we seen we lose the dominion even over material possessions and there is the great controversy going on here sometimes God's people are acquiring possessions and and have back there the domino over material things but but the biblical prophecy saying we will lose everything before Jesus comes, because we will be persecuted. We will be, a lot of bad things will happen to us. And we find something, an example of life. I love that example.

In the account of Noah, Jesus says something interesting about Noah. We find that in Matthew 24 verse 36, Jesus said, But of that day and hour no 1 knows, not even angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. So the days of Noah are a type for, or an example, better saying, an example for us that are living in this time of the end. We should look to that account, and we should study it, and we should, we are supposed to learn from that account to apply into our lives.

We find in another 2 places the story of Noah, at least in the Bible, in the book of Genesis, and we see how he did everything, the preparation. But I would like to focus now on Hebrews chapter 11, when the author of Hebrews speaks about Noah. I will start, I will ask you to start on verse 1 of chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews when the writer says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Better saying, sorry, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Wow.

We are invited to look, to pay attention on what is not seen. Materialistic approach will require that I look to what is seen and I pay my attention, I place my heart, my emotions, my desires on what is seen. But the Lord is saying here, the Bible is saying here, that faith is the evidence of things not seen which means God is expecting us to look for what cannot be seen and he's calling this faith the name for that is faith and then he is saying by faith verse 3 by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible So the invisible things are the basis for what is visible. This is what the Bible is saying here on verse 3, because he said that the word of God says that things which are seen were not made of, things which are visible. So what we can see, what's made of what we cannot see.

So imagine how powerful are the unseen things. He's referring to God and to that world that is behind the curtain that separates the visible from the invisible. And we, when we do not have a spiritual heart, when our heart is not renewed by the Holy Spirit, we tend to fix our eyes just on what is seen and to forget was what is unseen what is not visible and then he is describing and he's depicted some of the characters here in in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 but I would like to focus on verses 6 and 7. Verse 6 says, But without faith it is impossible to please him, to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, not only that he is, but also that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. I am encouraged to not just seek him but to diligently seek him.

This is the idea that goes behind that word that was used here, that Greek word that was used here. And then before that it says that God is a rewarder. So if I place my eyes on what is not seen, what is unseen, which was the basis of what is seen, because what is seen was made by what is not seen, things which are not visible. So then we have faith and the Bible says that we are justified by faith. So if we develop faith, this kind of faith, which is to look for what is not visible.

And it is crucial in the time of the end, because more and more we are approaching the time that everything will switch. We will lose everything that is material, and which is seen, and then we will acquire what we are still not able to see. But at that time we will be able to see. And then there will no longer be faith. Because faith exists when we are placing our eyes on what is is invisible but when we get what is invisible and they become visible there is no faith there is no longer faith because this is the definition of faith okay and then on on verse and the following verse verse 7 the bible says by faith noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear.

He was about to face a tremendous crisis the biggest crisis the world will face so far and how to move how to decide how to make good decisions in an environment of an unknown environment. You don't know what to expect, what will happen. So his only assurance was to place his eyes on God's revelation. And here you are able to see a very interesting spiritual equation and that equation is that you receive God's revelation and today we receive God's revelation through the Bible and through the spirit of prophecy and and but a revelation by itself cannot do anything good for us unless it is received by faith so when we exert faith in the revelation God gives us revelation and we have a lot of information about what we are expected to do in the time of the end. When we receive that information and we exert faith, we believe it will lead us to obedience.

And when it leads us to obedience, it will protect us. We will be protected. So protection comes. Protection is the result even in time of crisis, even at the time of the end. Protection comes when We have contact with revelation, with what is revealed.

I am not meaning the book of revelation in the Bible, but the whole concept of revelation. God revealing truths that we were not able to know unless he will reveal them to us. So when we receive that revelation, we exert faith, then it leads us to obedience and today I heard an amazing phrase, you don't need to understand to obey you just need to trust you don't need to understand Joshua did not understand why to circle 7 times Jericho he was not trying to understand He just accepted and he just trusted and he obeyed and it was for his protection And he and they acquired possessions after that and they could possess the land by faith You don't need to understand you just accept and then and you move forward based not on your feelings, not on what your eyes may see, what your heart may understand, but what by what God is saying you should do. And then what did what did Noah do by faith, faith in revelation, because God revealed to him what would happen to the earth, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, he moved with godly fear and prepared an ark for the saving of his household.

Ellen White commented that on the book Patriarchs of Prophets. She says that when he received that revelation, he invested everything he would own in the building of the ark he lost everything and some 1 would say Oh Noah are he's this man is crazy he is ridiculously radical so why to be that radical but he decided to close his eyes for what was visible and to look for what was invisible, what could not be seen, and then he moved with godly fear. Godly fear means obedience. So you have revelation and then you have you exert faith it will lead you to obedience and then you you get protection you get success you you you you move forward in godly fear so and and look what happened later so he invested everything he would own in the building of that ark and then the flute came and he lost everything everyone lost everything he will lose anyway you see we will lose everything anyway God is saying that We will lose if we invest in God's kingdom or not. We will lose everything anyway But by investing in God's kingdom, he was able to preserve his family He saved his household And sometimes but by not doing that some of us may be saved but maybe we may lose our family members.

Sometimes my father, my mother came from a very wealthy family. My father was poor guy that decided to be a pastor and went to the seminary married my mother and then my my grandpa from my mother's side died and they end up losing everything. My grandpa was a very wealthy man. He was a doctor. He owned a hospital, a small hospital, and he will have many properties.

And they lost everything. And sometimes my father, my father is 87 now, he says, oh, we should have looked a little bit more careful for those things. And I am sure that I would not be a pastor today if my father would run after those material things. And as we were very poor as pastor's kids, our pastoral family, ministerial family, we were very poor. And so we were like forced to look to different things.

And now, the 3 of us, my brother and myself, are pastors and my sister is a pastor's wife. And we are working for God and we are advancing God's kingdom and fighting the good fight and fighting the good and the great controversy. What I mean is that our eyes must be placed in a different location. This is time. I do not have time today to share with you some important texts from the book Council on Stewardship.

They are amazing. They are amazing. I will just read 1, page 40. Ellen White says, In the last extremity, before this workshop close, thousands will be cheerfully laid upon the altar. Men and women will feel it a blessed privilege to share in the work of preparing souls to stand in the great day of God, and they will give hundreds as readily as dollars are given now and why they are doing that not because they are just willing to help the church no they they are looking for things that are not visible now they are looking forward they are moving with like a like Noah with godly fear They know that we will lose anyway.

I will lose everything anyway. You will lose everything anyway. Even my body, I will lose anyway. How should we proceed? How should we move?

How should we decide in the business environment? How should we decide about our finances? Let's not lose perspective of the time of the end, of biblical prophecy, and move in godly fear as did Noah. May the Lord bless you. I will be praying for you to have wisdom to do to know what to do with your finances in this time of end.

Amen. We hope this presentation from the Maryland Men of Faith has been a blessing to you. Your feedback is welcomed. Please visit us at www.mmof.org.

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