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comes that moment in time in our service where we ask ourselves how has that voice of truth been

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working in our individual lives the whole point of this moment is to bring together what you heard

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from God in the moments of your silence and solitude or when you were alone and it was just

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you and God God was working you saw something heard something when you read your Bible when you

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listened to what God had to say there what the words of Jesus spoke maybe read the red text in

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the New Testament or you went back and looked at what the prophet Elijah had to say or what

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King David said in the Psalms and he felt the Lord speaking to you maybe had an experience with

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another individual could be sharing the gospel or witnessing to someone whatever it might be

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and in that moment you felt God was at work don't experience those things alone bring them into your

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church let's work together to live and grow and reach new heights in Jesus the vision of our church

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is that we realize that we're all on a journey and the next step is available and we work together so

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that each individual can find that next step even though it's not the same step for you as it is for

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anybody else in the room maybe you could all be uniquely going to the next place that you can

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take them but together we can work together and one of the ways that we work together is by sharing

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stories of what God has said to us throughout the week so what happened this week that you want to

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talk about what did you see what did you hear how many things so I was told if I were to do it today

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I want to do next Sunday so I gotta hear from you guys next Sunday I get nothing be quiet but um

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you're just saying some things that made me think one of the great verses is be still and know that

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I am God and I'm thinking that verse I always thought it was like you know be quiet no be still

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I'm God I got this I just told Dan I'm gonna tell you all so cool right he's not cool to you but

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and you're a part of it too not just donation but we do this to the church life station all the

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ministries that we do is that we're all a part of this your prayers your encouragement us being uh

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the glory of God in all of us Christ the month of hope of glory and um I prayed this prayer with

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this little girl who wants her cat for like two days one day I don't know it was really fast and

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the cat came right back on the porch that was the craziest day I ever seen I'm telling you I watched

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it for myself and the cat was walking as if like it was led to the porch and it was like I should

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pray just asking God dude and I was like God's gonna bring the cat I care less about the cat I

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just want to share the gospel pray and the cat came back and um just recently this chris led someone

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to the lord of Jesus I just there's so much good out there and um the reason I share that I don't

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tell you like you gotta talk to pastor Dan but me and Dan talk about things and sort things out but

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we're talking about God and we're praying and and every time we talk about something I hear something

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and it speaks to me in my life and um I'm sharing something at team's church which I'll share

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another day we'll have time for that but it was really cool but I thought this was awesome my kids

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I don't coerce them to Jesus I haven't brought them to Jesus I give them the opportunity

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and my son says this I said can you say it again I'll just record it and to you it might be like

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like what is this but I don't know but it's just so cool because it came out of his mouth and then

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it's funny my younger son Sam he's the stronger one so he gets right to the point but this is what

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this is what we said let me turn it up should be over here because I tried it before we did this

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I we're suffering every day and when we suffer we can't see it but and can't feel it but

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but

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because it's 500

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But all I want you to hear is that every day you're suffering and won't ever stop and you won't stop suffering until you die and accept Jesus into your life. Amen.

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It's Mother Son saying.

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It's true. It's my son Sammy, six years old, Nehemiah nine. I don't care if it was from them, I don't care if it was from you. It was just God speaking through them.

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And I thought it was so cool and we could change it up a little bit, but we all are suffering. That's the first thing to understand is that and sometimes people help us, sometimes people don't.

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But we know one that did help us. That's right. We know one that's with us in suffering and he knows that too, but he wants to share it because he deals with ADHD. He is constantly suffering.

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I have ADHD, but not like that. Like I can do my job. I don't eat, but sometimes he can't control himself because he can't deal with himself. Things bother him like other people do. He suffers and he knows it.

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But he has known doctors and counselors and medicine. He has seen the grace of God. And I just want to close on this. We read John chapter three and I said, what are you getting out of this son?

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I'm going to cry, but I don't care who said it. Your voice can say it. But I said, what are you getting out of this? Because that's what I wanted to hear. I'm so proud of him.

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He goes, for the first time, Dan, when I read it, I could understand it. I know I've been teaching for years and now he can read it and he talked about things and he understood what was being said.

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Now, does that mean he said grow? I don't know, but the cool thing is that God's given him a chance to grow, an opportunity to grow. He wants to get baptized here soon and the church is going to, but he's just so smart.

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And I'm just so thankful that no matter what, we're all smart. I'm just so thankful to see what God is doing in that boy and what God's doing in all of you.

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That's what this is all about, really. It's what God is doing in you. So I encourage you. I'm not saying you have to do what I do or take notes, but I put my life for Jesus every day.

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That's how I learned from Jesus. Because I live it for him. I mess up just like anybody else. And I have messed up. You know my story. I failed miserably.

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But God did it. I got back up and his church helped me get back up. And you're my brothers and sisters anyways, the family of God. I am forever grateful, eternally grateful. Thanks for all you do.

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Anyone else? Last Sunday was Mother's Day and we're called service. So Barbara and I were blessed to go out and deliver flowers to mothers. And the joy and the love we see in people's faces.

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I mean one lady, she opened the door to her job on the fourth. She had no idea. Just that joy in her face right there. I mean it put us over the top. I think we did holy deliveries.

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We just had a blast. I said just the love and the joy in the power of her face.

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Over the past few years I noticed a difference. When I first got saved it was a lot of absorbing, a lot of learning and just taking in what everybody had to share.

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And now I'm a lot more comfortable sharing what I know and what I've learned. And there is still a lot to learn. God is huge. It feels like sometimes you can never fully understand.

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Sometimes I have conversations with my grandparents and they'll come in and I tell them I have a blessed day or I have a week off or whatever. And they just look at me like, wow, it's so great to see young people as Christians.

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And I'm like, it is. It's a beautiful thing to see because nobody in our generation really tries anymore. But one of my older grandparents, we were having a conversation about God and religion.

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And sometimes they just say things to me and it's like God wanted me to hear that because it just stops me from my prayers. And we were talking about why questions that we want answered.

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Like why God does certain things or why God has plans. And we don't need the answers. We have His words to lean on and we know we can follow what the answers do.

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And it's people in today's world trying to compare the creator of everything to humans. And it's an unrealistic comparison. You can't ever expect them to follow the ways of humans.

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It's like trying to ask why ants are doing the things that humans are doing. Why do they build their structures and have this site? It's a completely unfair comparison.

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And you don't need to pray in the spirit because you don't need to pray about everything. And so we talked about that. It was really, we were talking for probably about an hour.

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I'd say about 6 o'clock and we just got caught up in translation. So it was really eye opening.

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Alright, so we're going to pray together this time. A little more worship, a couple songs to release the children and the leaders to the classroom. And then go to the Word.

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And I'm excited. God is working in our midst and I would encourage you to look for what God is doing this week. Don't forget Tuesdays have a great opportunity.

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Great opportunity to just talk to anybody. If anybody comes on our live, you can go on the docks and share with them your faith. Ask them their situation.

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Listen. Listening is probably more than 50% of what we should be doing as we're trying to share the gospel.

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We really only have one thing to tell them and that's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

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But you might have to listen to a lot of what they need or want to hear or want to say.

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It will feel better about the situation sometimes if you get the word out. So let's pray together and then we'll continue on.

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Father in heaven, I do thank you so much for this body. I know there are probably a lot of pastors out there that got it all together.

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They got their seminary degree and I'm grateful that I got to go to seminary.

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But I look at the people and I think they got it all together and they don't need a church that helps them grow.

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And they don't need friendships and brothers in Christ stand alongside them and lift them up.

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And maybe that's what they think and that's how it's sometimes sort of presented. And I'm grateful that that's not my experience.

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Even though sometimes it's hard. When I listen to me and my family suffer and I feel like sometimes I'm suffering.

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I remember going through COVID and even since then I see it in popular social media and everything now.

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I think about the way the world is as far as accepting certain things that truly are evil, that truly are wrong.

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And even a lot of times calling it good. And Father we pray that we will not call evil good.

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That we will just be bold enough and be real enough about your word about who you are and not call it evil good.

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And that means even like when we find ourselves doing things that we think are right or things we want to do or things that make the world a better place or we're blessed by it.

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We realize Lord that was not what you wanted us to do. That's not who you wanted us to be in that moment. That it's nothing but sin. It's nothing but wickedness.

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And we can be anywhere along the road as far as we think we've come as much as we think we know and it could be wickedness.

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And Lord I'm grateful that we have folks on our body who will step up and they'll say hey this is the experience that I had or this is how God touched me.

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And it's been just about everybody in this room at one time or another. Lord and because of that I grow.

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And I hear and I go yeah I want to hear from God the way my 9 year old to 10 year old daughter hears from him.

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And I want to hear from God the way Tony Kate does. But at the same time I know that I might not be able to hear from God the way somebody else does.

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But I can hear from God the way you want me to hear. The way you want me to experience. The way you want me to grow.

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And so Lord we submit ourselves to you as we worship you as we give our tithes and offerings sure as we serve as we practice spiritual disciplines.

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All of them Lord we submit to you that you would be our individual and our corporate leader this year. This our people.

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These are brothers and sisters in Christ. We gather together today for this purpose.

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And that's a funny phrase to be saying because it starts with certain other kind of gathering.

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But we've gathered together for this purpose to reach the heights of Jesus today individually and corporately.

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And we look to you for your power and for your authority for your work.

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We know that sitting in these chairs right now is somebody that's in pain.

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We're praying Lord that you would provide comfort. I remember when I was over on Mott Street corner Mott and 6th Street.

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Yeah 6th Street I think I got that right. And there was that girl she's someone from school.

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She had high fever and they give her medicine and everything that they've done they couldn't give her that fever.

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She put her hand on the inside of the screen door and I put my hand on the outside and we prayed and said God deal with this just now.

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And you dealt with it. You took that fever down and you made her healthy and strong and you saved her soul.

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I pray Lord that that's exactly what happened that you did indeed save her soul. That she is indeed headed to be with you.

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I pray for Mark who gave his life to the Lord through with Chris talking around the phone.

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She talked to him again this week and said he's so excited and even his wife has seen a change in him.

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I pray for anybody that might be in this room who has not experienced the transformation through Jesus.

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Or is not looking to reach the next step. They're here for some other reason.

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We pray that you break through that tough veneer. That you break down the walls that they built.

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And that you'd work. I pray that we would when necessary as you see fit as you lead us to set aside that hour.

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To talk with an older person or a younger person or somebody from another walk of life about Jesus.

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About God. About what it means to be blessed in Christ. And by what it means to your follower of the year.

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We ask you to bless our efforts. Bless our giving. Bless our serving.

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Lord bless our breath. Bless our strength.

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Lord for those of us who couldn't be here today because of her. I'm thinking specifically of how Adamus Christ goes through it.

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Day in and day out. She never knows what she's going to be able to do and what she's not. It's hard for her to be here.

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And June Brister is the same way. Day in and day out. Not knowing where things are going to be.

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I just pray Lord that you bless them with healing.

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And you call them so profoundly to yourself that they would know with whom they are walking.

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If they're walking with strength. If they're overcoming pain. Overcoming hurt. Overcoming suffering.

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And experiencing your presence in a way that heals and strengthens.

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And anybody whose name I didn't call. And anybody who's suffering in some way that we're not thinking about right this second.

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Lord we pray that you'll move. We pray for my dad who just came to mine to deal with dementia.

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I pray that his mind will become clear and functional again.

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And maybe that's hope beyond hope. But there's hope beyond earthly hope in our God.

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And that's you. We pray that you'll do all these things and so much more.

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Whatever it is that you desire to do, your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

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We pray this thing from Jesus. Amen.

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We pulled this song out this week. Looking at a focus recently of making it simple.

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Of bringing it back to basics. And when I pulled this song out it hasn't been done in a really long time.

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I don't think I've ever done it. And I didn't realize how apt it would be in a moment where I spend the inspirational moment taking a breathing treatment.

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Because it's one of those days. So we're going to get through this.

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But I want you to listen to these words. And if it comes out or it doesn't, it means something to the animal.

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It means something to the animal.

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Your things, when I feel the power of stuff being, is ready to begin.

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And today, when I feel I'm letting go and soaring on the wind,

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Without looking out the roaring rain, how to survive, I get on my knees, I get on my knees.

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I am in fallen love and shadowyness reigns, See I don't know how perfect power will hold my hand.

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I can be in a crowd all by myself, only once and it will.

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When I feel there's a need to talk with God, He is Emmanuel.

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When I close my eyes, know that I can feel there's only one.

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I get on my knees, I get on my knees, Then I am in fallen love that changes me,

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See I don't know how perfect power will hold my hand.

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So the text for the day is Proverbs chapter 26.

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This is God's word and if you allow it, whatever I get right or whatever I get wrong, you will be affected.

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It is a coincidence, an interesting coincidence that Proverbs chapter 26, we're going to begin reading in verse 4.

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So Proverbs chapter 26 verse 4.

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But Proverbs chapter 26 includes one of the verses in the Bible that a long time after I became a Christian

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really provided some freedom to me, really freed me up from a problem that I was having.

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So I am by my nature, before I got saved, a people pleaser.

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Do you know what I mean by that?

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So I very much do not like it even now when people are thinking bad of me, when rumors are flying and so on.

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If you look just briefly before we get into the sermon today at the second half of verse 2,

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the first half says, like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying.

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If you've ever seen a sparrow or a swallow flying, they're pretty graceful but they can be all over the place,

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zipping back and forth, that kind of thing.

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And they don't spend a lot of time on a branch because they're all moving a lot.

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And it says, so a curse without cause does not alight.

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That means when someone says something bad about you, and it's a lie,

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and even if it's a very well presented lie and a lot of people hear it or whatever,

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it makes the internet, thousands of people, whatever, that kind of thing,

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it will not have an effect on you if it does not have some truth to it.

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If it is not fitting, it's not appropriate, then it will not touch you.

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And I thought that really freed me up because I've had a lot of people over the years who thought bad of me.

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And I've never really done anything in many of those cases where people were kind of coming down on me

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or talking about me or that kind of thing. I never really did anything.

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I didn't think I did to deserve it.

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And still, they were really coming down on me or saying bad things about me.

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And that verse reminds me that no matter what somebody says about me, I don't have to worry about it.

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Because if it isn't deserved, it won't affect me at all.

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But that's not the sermon today. I was kind of hoping it was when the Lord led me to Proverbs 26.

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That's kind of an easy thing to preach. I was kind of hoping that was it.

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But nope, God said, nope, you're going to start in verse 4.

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I'm going to take you through verse 4 through verse 12.

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And then we're going to see something in here that's a little different than you might expect.

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26.4 says this, Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him.

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Verse 5 then says, Answer a fool as his folly deserves, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

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So those paired verses are very interesting because the translation is hard.

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Where we get all these words, 10, 12 words per phrase there in the original Hebrew, in the original language, is just a few words.

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So they really have to sort out the meaning.

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In fact, if you read like the King James Version, it'll basically say, Do not answer a fool according to his folly.

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And then in verse 5, it says, Answer a fool according to his folly.

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And you're like, well, wait a minute. It's almost the same thing.

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So what does it exactly mean? But then you understand from the other words in the verse there,

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you understand from the other words that what it means in one case is different from one of these in the other.

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So to answer a fool according to his folly would be to talk back to him the way he's talking to you.

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Or to deal with him the way he's dealing with you.

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So he slices your tires, you go and slice his tires or make a huge deal out of it or blow him up on the internet or something like that.

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Something vindictive, something mean, something outspoken.

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That would be to answer them according to their mistakes, whatever their mistakes are, right? Their folly.

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And then in the second case, it's saying you don't do it that way, but rather it says, Do it according to as his folly deserves.

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So in other words, justice is dealt with.

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And you're going to realize that a lot of times, the human version of justice is not the same thing.

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So if somebody does something bad to you, doing the same bad thing back to them, that's not justice.

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That's vengeance. It's a big difference between justice and vengeance.

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If somebody does something to you and you do something back to them just like they did to you, plus a little bit more,

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which is what we want to do, right? Because we're mad. So we got to do it.

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Now it's revenge. We've got to go a little further.

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Then that is even worse. So now you become the villain, if you will.

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So you're warned here not to be like them. Don't fall into the same trap that they have fallen into.

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If you do unto them the way they have done to you, they're going to start thinking they were right to do it to you in the first place.

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Somebody says something bad about you, you say something bad about them, they're going to go, yes, see, I was right.

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If it was wrong and stupid in the first place, what they did, now you've given them the reason, right?

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After the fact. You did it after the fact, but you gave them the reason to do what it was that they did.

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Now somebody throws something at you. You throw it back at them, then they're going to throw it back at you.

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Now we've got a game of catch going, except we're beaming each other with whatever it is, and nobody can catch it.

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Nobody can catch it, people are getting hurt, whatever. And who started it? How many times in high school do you come up and the teachers are like, well, who started it?

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Well, he punched me first. Yeah, I saw him punch him first. So the one who throws the first punch gets into the most trouble.

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But the one who throws the first punch, as far as everyone else is concerned, yeah, he threw a punch back.

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So it's both people's fault. So if he hadn't punched him first, he probably would have punched him. So there you go.

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So you don't want to do that when dealing with a fool. Talk about what a fool is in a second. Rather, do it as his folly deserves.

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Lest he be wise in his own eyes. So he doesn't start thinking that what he did wrong was right.

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You don't want to get confused. As a people, we don't teach that wrong is right.

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There's a line in the sand. And it follows largely the teachings of scripture and the commands of Jesus.

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That's pretty much where the line is because God is the one who decides what's right and what's wrong.

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And if a person is a fool and they're acting on the wrong side of the line and you start doing things to them that are wrong,

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then the effect of that is going to be they're going to start thinking they're right because you're supposed to be on the right side of the line, right?

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You're the one that's saved or talking about God all the time. But then you do something wrong and people start thinking, well, that must be okay then.

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So we don't want to do that. So before we go any deeper into the text, you gathered by now that most of this is about a fool.

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Most of what we're talking about today is about a fool. Let me say to you by way of opener, if you are in this room,

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you are almost definitely, not completely for sure, but almost definitely not a fool.

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So if you think of yourself as a fool, I'm asking you now to go, no, I'm not a fool. To realize you're not a fool.

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Okay. A fool is one of two things, according to scripture, a fool. One thing a fool is, is a person who does what they do and they cannot ascertain that what they are doing is their folly.

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So they lie, not knowing that lying is bad. Before I got saved, Sherry and I moved in together and we had Alicia, we were not married.

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Okay. No idea. Never crossed my mind. I thought I was doing the right thing because I stayed in her life.

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I said, well, I'm not going to marry you just because you had my baby like they used to be back in the old days. That would be wrong, I said.

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I'm not sure that's true, but that's what I said. Okay. And then I said, but I'm not going to leave you either.

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I'm going to have to take care of this baby because I made this problem. I'm not going to walk out on it.

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All right. And so I thought I was doing right. But God says otherwise. God says there's a lot more there.

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Right. As we shouldn't have been having sex, I was saying, we shouldn't have been living together. We shouldn't have been sleeping together.

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Right. And we should have been devoted to one another before we did any of that kind of thing. You understand?

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So I didn't know. I was ignorant. That made me a fool. I was a fool at that time because I was doing what I should not have been doing, not knowing any better.

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That's one definition of a fool. The other one, and it's built into the word. So the same word in the Hebrew has these two definitions built into it.

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The other one, a fool is somebody who is arrogant about what they know. So they're doing what they perceive to be the right thing.

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Right. You should be doing what you think is right. And they do better. So day by day, they might be doing better.

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But day by day, they're assessing themselves saying, I'm good enough. I'm good. I'm doing better.

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They don't go to sleep at bed, to bed at night thinking, oh, I screwed up today. I'm going to tomorrow. I'm going to do better.

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They go to bed tonight thinking, I did pretty good today. I know I made mistakes, but everybody makes mistakes.

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I didn't get this quite right all the time, but nobody gets it right all the time. Right.

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So they feel pretty vindicated in themselves and they're not challenging their behavior even where it's wrong because they got it together.

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So this is a real danger because as people get older without Christ, talking about outside Christ, as people get older, they get wiser in the ways of the world, the way things work, maybe even the Proverbs. Right.

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These are observances of how things work. So they get wiser. But getting wiser, not going to save you.

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You could be the wisest man who ever lived and be lost as all get out. Right.

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So the wiser you get, the harder it is sometimes, the wiser you think you are anyway, the harder it is for you to recognize your error.

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And so a fool is one of two kinds of people, somebody who's not wise and doesn't know it or somebody who's wise and does know it.

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That's what the Bible is talking about when it says a fool.

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So now we have a fool here and we ought not to answer a fool according to his folly.

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We shouldn't give back or do back to them the way that they did us basically.

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And we should do as they deserve. So what do you do with a fool acting in their folly?

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They're not going to hear you. It's not like you can correct them. Right. You're casting your pearls before swine.

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So what you do is you continue to live right. You continue to be right as an example, to speak right, to stand right, let it bounce off. Why?

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Don't forget verse two back up there because an undeserved curse will never alight. It will never fixate on you.

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Whatever they decide to do to you, they really can't touch you.

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If a man should decide to blow my brains out, God forbid, before I'm old enough to die of natural causes, I'll go straight to heaven.

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He'll actually be doing me quite the favor. Not my family or my friends or I hope not you, but he'll be doing me quite the favor.

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Now I'm not asking anybody to do that. I don't want that. There's no desire. We don't want that.

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We want to serve the Lord the fullness of the time that the Lord has given us to do so.

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But understand that no matter how bad somebody does to you, it can't really hurt you if you're walking in Christ and living for the Lord.

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Okay, we're going to go on. We've got a little bit more in the text.

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So we finished five and basically remember it ended with we don't want him to be wise in his own eyes.

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I think that wrong is right. Verse six. He cuts off his own feet and drinks violence who sends a message by the hand of a fool.

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Understand? So basically we got this fool guy again or gal and he cuts off his own feet and drinks violence who sends a message by the hand of a fool.

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So here's the interesting thing about this. I'm not going where you're thinking I'm going.

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This says if you send a message with a fool, we've already clarified what a fool is, one of those two things.

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Then it says if you cut off your own feet and drink violence, that's going to be like, that's dumb.

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You're hurting yourself real bad by sending a message with somebody that you know is a fool.

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Right? That's what it's on the surface. That's what it says.

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But I want you to get this that in Christianity, this is largely what God is doing.

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You follow? God is reaching out to people who in their own existence would be fools.

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They could not save themselves. There's no way.

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And bestowing to us the gospel a message by which people can be saved. That's exactly what God is doing.

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And so God cuts off his own feet and drinks violence in trying to bestow to us a message while we are fools.

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Very clearly displayed there. That's exactly what God has done essentially to himself.

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But God can handle it. In any case, if you have a fool in your life, don't send your messages via him.

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That would be a mess. Verse 7.

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Like the legs which hang down from the lame, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

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So we've got legs of a lame man, somebody who cannot walk. Their legs are what? Well, not useful.

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Maybe cause pain, but that's about it. They really aren't useful.

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And a proverb is like that in the mouth of a fool. So the proverb is what?

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Well, we're reading the proverbs. It's an observation about how the world works.

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How God oriented things. How God set it up. What God is doing. Something about God or something about creation that God created.

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And that proverb is useless in the mouth of a fool.

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A fool again? Somebody who's ignorant and doesn't know it. And somebody who's wise and does know it.

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Which results in arrogance or a form of ignorance.

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Verse 8. Like one who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives honor to a fool.

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Now I forgot I was going to bring a sling today and show you what this looks like.

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But basically here's what a sling looks like.

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There's a long strap of leather. Two long straps of leather. And in the middle is a little pocket.

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And you put the stone in the pocket. You pull it tight.

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And you hold both strings with your fingers in between.

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And you whip it like this. And then you let go one string at just the right time.

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And the string comes out. Or the stone comes out and flies hopefully in the direction.

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I've hit the ground. I've thrown it up in the air. I've hit behind me. All kinds of places.

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But I've also hit things in front of me after a little practice.

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And it flies out and hits the target. And it's dangerous.

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Slings were like the guns of David's day.

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The slingers of Gideon were unbelievably dangerous.

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Like a crowd of 100 men would charge them across the field and not one would make it.

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That's how dangerous they were. Like charging 100 guys with handguns.

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They've all got a handgun. There's 100 of you. And you've all got pocket knives.

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Charge them from 100 yards away and see how well it goes.

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If anybody gets there, it's amazing. That's how slings were in their day.

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But if you put a stone in a sling and then you tie a string around it.

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And then you swing the sling. When you let go of the extra string, what happens?

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Well it just swings around. It makes a kind of whish, whish, whish. Nothing happens.

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You might get a little club. Like you smack somebody upside the head of it.

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Or you could maybe kill a gnat if you were really accurate.

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It's useless. And so what he's saying is like one who binds a stone in a sling,

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so is he who gives honor to a fool.

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So these people who met those standards of what we set, right?

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These people who give honor to fools are like those who bind a stone in a sling.

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You can't do it. You can't take a foolish person.

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Okay now I'm going to share an inside story. I didn't ask her and it's okay.

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Don't pick on her about anything.

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I went to her award ceremony this last week. It was a great experience.

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She's sitting there with no idea what award she was getting.

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They don't tell them in advance.

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But I knew it wasn't all A's because she didn't get all A's.

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I knew it wasn't all A's and B's because she got a C, one C.

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So we knew she wasn't all A's and B's. So we knew it was a character award.

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And she's waiting.

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Well right before the character award that she got was a group of kids got a character award called kindness.

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And they were supposed to be these kids in every grade that were the kindest kids or they were very kind.

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Showed a great deal of kindness in there.

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And Ariana said to me very softly as she was sitting there and she said,

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you know sometimes I debate these awards as they were going up front and I said why?

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And she said because that girl who's from my classroom, she's not kind to me at all.

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She's mean to me. She's one of the kids that bullies me.

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And she's up there standing in front of the entire school, everybody getting awards,

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all their parents, 500 people in the room, whatever, 300 people, whatever it was in the room,

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getting an award for kindness.

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And I said to Ariana, I said well here's what the world does sometimes.

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Just understand, okay, sometimes they'll see somebody doing something kind

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and they'll give that person an award for kindness even though some other time they might see them do something not kind.

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And they do that because they're hoping to foster greater kindness in the future from that individual.

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So honor the person who is not kind at another time, honor them for their kindness,

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hoping that they'll be more kind later and that's what the world does.

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That's why all the kids on the kindergarten soccer team get a medal.

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Because the hope is they'll try really hard every year because they're going to get a medal at the end of the year.

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It's a pretty foolish notion when you think about it.

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And this is what the book of Proverbs tells us about that.

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It's like one who binds a stone in a sling so is he who gives honor to a fool.

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If this person cannot be kind, if they're not smart enough to figure out that being unkind or being a bully

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part of the time is wrong and they think that's acceptable,

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then giving them an award for kindness because they were kind another time is not going to foster kindness.

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Giving your kid 50 bucks because they cleaned their room once after they didn't clean their room 20 times in a row

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is not going to create a kid who wants to clean his room, it's just going to create a kid who wants 50 bucks.

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And if they think they got a shot at getting 50 bucks again, so what do they do?

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Well, here's the key. I got to skip 20 times cleaning my room, then I'll clean it on the 21st time and get the 50 bucks.

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Honor to a fool doesn't do any good.

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And so if you run into somebody who doesn't, don't bother. Don't waste your breath.

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Respect, that's one thing. Love, that's another thing. Be kind, that's another thing.

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Because that's what we're required to be. But to honor them for some small action, hoping that that's going to turn into a character trait,

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it's just not going to happen. Verse 9, like a thorn which falls into the hand of a drunkard,

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this is also translated a variety of ways in different, and I'll give you a why in a second.

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So like a thorn which falls into the hand of a drunkard, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

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So we've got a proverb in the mouth of fools, someone talking about what God says,

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somebody shares a proverb, right? And they're trying to what?

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When you share a proverb, typically you're trying to impart wisdom, trying to move people in the right direction, whatever.

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Trying to give a solution, something like that.

363
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:55,200
The words here, there's only like three words in the Hebrew, and so it might be translated a staff of thorns, right?

364
00:36:55,200 --> 00:37:01,200
There's another way to say that. But basically what we have is if you have thorns in your hands,

365
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:05,200
you have a weapon covered in thorns and you try to hit somebody with it, who gets hurt?

366
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:11,200
You do, right? The person that you hit somebody, if you have a staff full of thorns and you swing it at me,

367
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:15,200
and you've got it gripped with both your hands, and I put my hand up, I'm going to get hurt from there to there.

368
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:19,200
And your hands are going to be crippled, you won't be able to do anything with them for days.

369
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:25,200
And so that's what he's saying. The fool who applies this proverb,

370
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:29,200
it's basically they can only damage themselves.

371
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:35,200
The tool that we've been given to use to understand and act in wisdom in this life becomes damaging.

372
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:41,200
I'm reading an essay, a book right now called Wit and Humor in America.

373
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:45,200
And it's actually a series of ten books, they're published in 1917, and I'm enjoying it very much.

374
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:49,200
And I was reading this book about these people that decided to get in this book,

375
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:53,200
short story about these people that decided to get a little society going in this farmhouse.

376
00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:57,200
And they started out saying, we're going to get back to nature, we're going to get away from all this urban life

377
00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:01,200
and all these rules of society, everything, we're going to get back to nature.

378
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:05,200
And then they get off there and say, well, back to nature means we only eat vegetables.

379
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:09,200
So somebody, one of the wisest young people in the group that ranged between 15 and 25 years old,

380
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:13,200
said, well, back to nature means we must be vegetarians.

381
00:38:13,200 --> 00:38:17,200
So they started talking about what vegetarians are. I mean, no salt. The guy's like, well, I love to eat a good onion,

382
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:21,200
but I can't know salt. So there's some people sneaking salt, right? Because salt is not a vegetable, for sure, it's a mineral.

383
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:25,200
And they're working through it. And then the next day, the same wise guy who led them to vegetarians,

384
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:29,200
said, you know what, I went into town and I was buying the supplies for the kitchen

385
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:33,200
and I discovered beer is a vegetable.

386
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:37,200
And they start talking about it. Beer is a vegetable. Yeah, it's all vegetable matter.

387
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:41,200
Now, the nutritionists in the room, they realize that vegetables really isn't anything.

388
00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:45,200
So you tell your kid they've got to eat their vegetables, you're really just telling them you have to eat certain foods

389
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:49,200
that are full of nutrition. But like strawberries are vegetable matter,

390
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:53,200
but we call those fruits, right? So vegetable is not a real word for a type of food.

391
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:57,200
So, but beer is made from vegetable matter. So he said, so I bought a six pack of beer

392
00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:01,200
and they said, well, I don't think that's right. I don't think it's good for you. I don't think it'll work.

393
00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:05,200
It doesn't really fit. And he said, well, we're going to try it. And he drank a beer and he got kind of tips

394
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:09,200
and he started doing stupid stuff. And he handed another guy a beer and he drank a second one.

395
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:13,200
And the other guy drank half of it and gave another guy half of one. But he's between 15 and 25 years old.

396
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:17,200
So pretty soon, Arcadia is full of drunk idiots doing stupid stuff, right?

397
00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:21,200
Because beer is a vegetable.

398
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:25,200
This is the way Proverbs work. I'll give you an example, a very close to home example.

399
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:29,200
If you raise your child in a way that they should go, when they are old,

400
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:33,200
they will not depart from it. That's a proverb, right? And so this is what Christian

401
00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:37,200
adults do. Well, I raised my kid in the Lord, so I

402
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:41,200
can guarantee that the end of their story, they will be found faithful

403
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:45,200
in God. That's a misuse of that proverb.

404
00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:49,200
First of all, it's not even what it said in the first place. Secondly,

405
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:53,200
a proverb is not a promise from God about anything. A proverb is an observation

406
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:57,200
of the way things work. So what the proverb actually says is if you raise your child

407
00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:01,200
in the Lord, and they live to be old enough,

408
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:05,200
and they get to be old, they're going to look back on the way they were raised when they were

409
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:09,200
young, and they're going to think, oh, well if I do these things,

410
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:13,200
I'll be better off. Because it worked for me when I was young. It's how

411
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:17,200
my parents wanted me to do it. They honored their parents, maybe you die. And so I'm going to honor my mom

412
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:21,200
or my dad because they died, and they're not around anymore. That kind of thing.

413
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:25,200
That's what that proverb is saying. So typically a young person who gets the teachings of the Lord

414
00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:29,200
remembers them if they get to be old enough. Guess what the problem is?

415
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:33,200
Many of them don't get to be old enough because if they ignore the Lord in the middle of their life,

416
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:37,200
a lot of times they don't make it to be old. So they never get around to it. So you can't claim

417
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:41,200
that as a promise. So that's what he's saying. People misuse proverbs,

418
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:45,200
misuse the wisdom of the Lord. And so like a thorn, or a staff

419
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:49,200
of thorns, which falls into the hand of a drunkard, so is a

420
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:53,200
proverb in the mouth of fools. Verse 10. Like an

421
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:57,200
archer who wounds everyone, so is he who hires a fool,

422
00:40:57,200 --> 00:41:01,200
or who hires those who pass by. And so if you hire a fool,

423
00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:05,200
we give the definition twice of what a fool is. Or if you

424
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:09,200
hire just anybody, somebody that happens to be going by, anybody that will do the job,

425
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:13,200
then it says like an archer who wounds everyone. So it's a

426
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:17,200
known fact that you can't shoot people who are fighting the enemy like they're

427
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:21,200
fighting face to face because you're just as likely to shoot your friends as you are to shoot your enemy.

428
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:25,200
It's called friendly fire. You don't fire into a mob.

429
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:29,200
This is friendly fire all over.

430
00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:33,200
So in other words, if I hire somebody who is a fool, or I hire those who are just

431
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:37,200
passersby, then I could be doing damage to everybody. So does anybody

432
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:41,200
get the irony of this? Because exactly what kind of people is God

433
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:45,200
taking into the kingdom of God? Well, passersby would

434
00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:49,200
be a pretty darn good description, wouldn't it? Go into the highways and byways

435
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:53,200
and search out anyone you possibly can and invite them to my feast because those who were supposed to come to my

436
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:57,200
feast wouldn't come when they were called because they all made excuses. So let's get

437
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:01,200
some people who don't make excuses. Guess what? You and I were fools

438
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:05,200
and passersby, and now you're not a fool or a passersby unless you

439
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:09,200
are in the small minority in this room that is still a fool.

440
00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:13,200
Verse 11, like a dog that returns

441
00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:17,200
to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. So the

442
00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:21,200
fool continues to do what is wrong even after he

443
00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:25,200
starts to get an inclination that maybe it isn't quite right.

444
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:29,200
When we were younger, my mom and dad let my brother and I get a little

445
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:33,200
black lab. A little puppy started out about like this big. It was so

446
00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:37,200
cute. And then it got to be about like this big and it was still so

447
00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:41,200
cute. But as it got to be about like that big, I started to notice it had really big feet.

448
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:45,200
And I asked my dad, why is his feet so big? He's always falling down

449
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:49,200
tripping on himself, bumping his nose on stuff all the time. Why is his feet so big?

450
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:53,200
My dad said, well the feet's a pretty good indicator. It's going to be a pretty big dog. Now my mom

451
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:57,200
wasn't in the room when my dad said that, but little did I know, my mom did hear

452
00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:01,200
that. And one day the dog ran away and wasn't there anymore.

453
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:05,200
Whenever we were in school, so we couldn't search for it, we searched but we never found it.

454
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:09,200
It was because my mom got rid of it. She came clean later and said she got rid of it. We don't know big dog.

455
00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:13,200
But the point is, this dog was a fool.

456
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:17,200
It chewed on everything. It ate everything. It got into everything.

457
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:21,200
If it could, it would have ate the cockroach killer. It ate everything.

458
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:25,200
It tore up the yard, tore up the fence, dug out on the fence, ran around, ran out in front of cars.

459
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:29,200
Like some dogs will chase cars. This dog would chase cars

460
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:33,200
from the front. It was that bad.

461
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:37,200
I thought this dog is really dumb. It's really a fool. And we started

462
00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:41,200
trying to teach it. And you beat it when it would do things wrong or you give it treats and it would

463
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:45,200
do things right and back and forth and back and forth. One day it was in the backyard

464
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:49,200
and it went out by the grapevine and it threw up at the bottom of the grapevine.

465
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:53,200
Big old chunks of stuff that it had eaten partially digested was all nasty

466
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:57,200
and stuff. And then a few seconds later it went over and started eating it. And I'm like, oh no!

467
00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:01,200
Don't do that! I don't know what I'm chewing it away. My mom said, yeah dogs

468
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:05,200
just do that. I'm like, oh that's disgusting! And then later we were in the house and it was licking

469
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:09,200
my brother's face and I was thinking, that's funny! Because it was eating the vomit

470
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:13,200
and I was licking your face and my brother was like, oh! And he ran to the bathroom.

471
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:17,200
This is what the Bible says.

472
00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:21,200
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

473
00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:25,200
Now obviously a fool repeats his folly because he's too ignorant

474
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:29,200
to know. So what is it really talking about? It's talking about a fool that's breaking free.

475
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:33,200
It's getting out. He's starting to figure it out. He's figuring something out and he goes, yeah, I really

476
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:37,200
should wear my underwear on the inside of my clothes. I wanted to be like Superman while I was growing up, but once I

477
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:41,200
reached teenage years and after so many people picking on me and comments were made and social media

478
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:45,200
about me and everything, I started wearing my underwear on the inside of my clothes. But then one day he gets out of bed and he says, well, you know,

479
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:49,200
I did think the better of it, but I guess I will wear my underwear on the outside of my clothes.

480
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:53,200
Just one more day. Just for old time's sake. That's what it's talking about. It's talking about a

481
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:57,200
fool that goes back to his folly after he's left it behind or after he's

482
00:44:57,200 --> 00:45:01,200
figured it out. Well, guess what? A fool who's figured

483
00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:05,200
it out based on our definition. Is he still a fool?

484
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:09,200
He's breaking out of being a fool. He's leaving it behind.

485
00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:13,200
He was a fool and couldn't know better. And now he knows better at least in that one area and he goes

486
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:17,200
back to it. So he's like a fool, but kind of like not a

487
00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:21,200
fool? Well, that's dumb. That's a whole

488
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:25,200
new dumb, isn't it? And that's

489
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:29,200
what he's saying. Last verse. Do you see a man wise

490
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:33,200
in his own eyes? Oh yeah, there's a fool. Oh wait.

491
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:37,200
Look at the second half of the verse. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is

492
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:41,200
more hope for a fool than for him.

493
00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:45,200
You get it? You see a man wise in his own eyes?

494
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:49,200
There is more hope for a fool than for him.

495
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:53,200
So in other words, we're not talking about a fool.

496
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:57,200
A fool is a man who's wise and he just keeps going, oh, you know,

497
00:45:57,200 --> 00:46:01,200
no big deal. I'm good. I'm like anybody else. I'm making mistakes, but I'm like anybody

498
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:05,200
else. He keeps giving himself excuses for why it's not quite working. But now we have a man

499
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:09,200
who's wise in his own eyes. And so he thinks that he's got it

500
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:13,200
together. So he's not looking at his mistakes and saying, well yeah, I made a mistake.

501
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:17,200
But you know, everybody does that. He's looking at his mistakes and saying they're not

502
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:21,200
mistakes. That's different.

503
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:25,200
A whole other different. That's worse than a fool, if you will.

504
00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:29,200
Alright, so there are a few things that I really want you to see in here that I felt the Lord

505
00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:33,200
was really laying on my heart. And they go like this.

506
00:46:37,200 --> 00:46:41,200
If you are here today, I'm going to assume for a moment, let's just assume

507
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:45,200
for a moment, that no one here is a fool.

508
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:49,200
That would only be true. You would only be a fool if you refuse to consider

509
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:53,200
the possibilities or if you were somehow unable to

510
00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:57,200
consider the possibilities. And since you're here, I'm going to assume that you're

511
00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:01,200
considering the possibilities. So let's talk briefly about, and these are just summary teachings.

512
00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:05,200
I could preach a 20 sermon series on foolishness, fools,

513
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:09,200
wisdom, senselessness, all that kind of thing. Because a lot of it is in the New Testament.

514
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:13,200
But summary, New Testament may call us to appear

515
00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:17,200
foolish. In fact, the Bible says, 1 Corinthians 1, 18, that the

516
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:21,200
preaching of the cross appears foolishness.

517
00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:25,200
And so, are we supposed to preach the cross? Are we supposed to realize that we need

518
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:29,200
our sins paid for? That Jesus did that? Yes, we are.

519
00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:33,200
And so, the Bible calls us to preach the cross. And so, we may be

520
00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:37,200
called by God to appear foolish.

521
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:41,200
At the same time, the New Testament clearly calls on us not to be foolish.

522
00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:45,200
Remember, so we've got what fools are. We know what those are. And foolish

523
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:49,200
means to look like a fool, or to act like a fool. And so, the New Testament calls

524
00:47:49,200 --> 00:47:53,200
us not to be foolish. There's a parable about ten virgins.

525
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:57,200
Five of them brought extra oil.

526
00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:01,200
All ten of them trimmed their lamps. The five that brought extra oil, they know

527
00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:05,200
they've got enough until the bridegroom comes. But the ones that didn't bring extra oil, they asked the ones

528
00:48:05,200 --> 00:48:09,200
that did bring extra oil. And they say, can we get a little of that extra oil you brought? Because

529
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:13,200
we're afraid our lamps won't last until the bridegroom comes. And the wise

530
00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:17,200
in the situation, those are the foolish ones. They ask for more oil.

531
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:21,200
And the wise say, no, we can't give you of our oil

532
00:48:21,200 --> 00:48:25,200
because we need to make sure we have enough oil until the bridegroom comes. Because the most

533
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:29,200
important thing is that we're ready when the bridegroom comes.

534
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:33,200
So the Bible is calling us not to be foolish like the fools

535
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:37,200
who didn't get ready for the bridegroom coming. And I submit to you, they did get ready. They just didn't do

536
00:48:37,200 --> 00:48:41,200
enough to get ready. They did have lamps. They did trim lamps.

537
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:45,200
They just didn't bring any extra oil for the lamps. So they didn't do enough to get ready. They didn't know how long

538
00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:49,200
it was going to be. And they weren't sure. And they weren't careful. They weren't diligent. They weren't hard working.

539
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:53,200
So they were foolish. Not fools. Because fools don't have lamps

540
00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:57,200
because they don't need lamps. They don't think they need lamps. Or the other kind of fool

541
00:48:57,200 --> 00:49:01,200
says, well, yeah, we have three things of oil.

542
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:05,200
And we'll sell it to you. And they come and try to make money on the situation.

543
00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:09,200
They're all distracted from what actually happened, the bridegroom coming. That's all in Matthew

544
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:13,200
25. You're welcome to read it. But the bottom line is we are called to not be like the foolish

545
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:17,200
but be like the wise. And there is some discipline in that because we're also

546
00:49:17,200 --> 00:49:21,200
called not to give of the resources that God has given us. You cannot surrender His

547
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:25,200
Holy Spirit. You cannot surrender His Holy gifts. The gifts of the Spirit.

548
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:29,200
What God has given you, you can't give those things up so that somebody else

549
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:33,200
can go to heaven. When I was a young Christian and I didn't know what was

550
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:37,200
going to happen with my kids, I begged God. In fact, there was one particular moment I begged God that God

551
00:49:37,200 --> 00:49:41,200
would save Alicia. She was about five at the time. And we were at a party. She was dancing.

552
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:45,200
And I said, Lord, just like this, I'm standing on a balcony overlooking

553
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:49,200
them dancing down with the kids down there. And I don't dance. I really, I mean, I kind of do. But mostly

554
00:49:49,200 --> 00:49:53,200
just when it's me and the Lord. But not much. And slow dance maybe.

555
00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:57,200
And that kind of thing. And I'm looking down there and she's dancing. And I

556
00:49:57,200 --> 00:50:01,200
said, Lord, if it means me not being saved,

557
00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:05,200
if I have to give up my salvation so that she can be saved,

558
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:09,200
then do that. Save her.

559
00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:13,200
It's so important. And God said back to me, he says, you can't do that.

560
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:17,200
But don't worry about it. I got that one.

561
00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:21,200
Now I want you to know that gave me great peace when she was 17 years old and walked away from the Lord.

562
00:50:21,200 --> 00:50:25,200
Because God had told me

563
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:29,200
already, I got that one. And I looked back 12 years earlier

564
00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:33,200
and I remembered that moment. But God said, you can't. You cannot give up what

565
00:50:33,200 --> 00:50:37,200
God has given you. All you can do is use it to lead people

566
00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:41,200
in the right direction. And sometimes you will look foolish using it. You're given of your money when

567
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:45,200
you don't necessarily have enough money. You're given of your time when you don't necessarily feel like you have enough time.

568
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:49,200
Et cetera. Sometimes you will look foolish doing it. But we're called to sometimes look foolish just not

569
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:53,200
to be foolish. 1 Corinthians 3 19 says,

570
00:50:53,200 --> 00:50:57,200
for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So everything that

571
00:50:57,200 --> 00:51:01,200
they think they're getting right, as wise as they think they're getting, they're growing up and figuring it all out.

572
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:05,200
They're just fools. It's all foolishness. God's wisdom

573
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:09,200
is so much better. For it is written, he taketh the wise

574
00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:13,200
in their own craftiness. So these people have figured it all out. There are people

575
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:17,200
out there in the world that have figured out after much experimentation, much thought and

576
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:21,200
reasoning that there is no God. They're sure of it. They can even present some good evidences.

577
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:25,200
They're just flat out wrong. They're sure. There are people out there that are sure

578
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:29,200
Jesus is not the way. They've got evidences beyond evidences.

579
00:51:29,200 --> 00:51:33,200
There are books and philosophers and even historical things that they can quote and they can argue it

580
00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:37,200
really well. Convince any old fool that they're absolutely right and they're

581
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:41,200
absolutely wrong. And it plays out

582
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:45,200
with things like abortion and LGBTQIA

583
00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:49,200
question mark agenda and progressive politics and all of these

584
00:51:49,200 --> 00:51:53,200
things that are happening across the world because these people are very convinced and

585
00:51:53,200 --> 00:51:57,200
very sure but they're just very wrong. And you

586
00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:01,200
can go fight with them if you want. You can go to a fist fight. It won't take much. Just go say a few

587
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:05,200
things and you get it started. You can get them to come to your house and beat your windows

588
00:52:05,200 --> 00:52:09,200
out or break your car up or riot in your city. You can get it started. You really can.

589
00:52:09,200 --> 00:52:13,200
It really won't take much.

590
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:17,200
But you'd be wasting your effort because what you're really supposed to be doing

591
00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:21,200
is living for the Lord because the wisdom of the Lord is not like the wisdom

592
00:52:21,200 --> 00:52:25,200
of the world which we'll see in a moment. So these summary teachings

593
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:29,200
from the New Testament take away this. If indeed we are not fools then the Lord

594
00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:33,200
can and will save us and we will recognize, remember

595
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:37,200
the one kind of fool, we will recognize and we will desire that salvation

596
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:41,200
and we will allow that salvation and this being so

597
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:45,200
we will live to learn and grow and be transformed into the likeness of the

598
00:52:45,200 --> 00:52:49,200
Lord, wash, rinse, repeat.

599
00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:53,200
That's what Christianity is. That's what reaching new heights in Jesus is.

600
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:57,200
And if you ever come to a moment in time where you've gone far enough, figured out enough, got to

601
00:52:57,200 --> 00:53:01,200
the place where you've got it together and you can make a decision without, as the Bible says,

602
00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:05,200
consulting many counselors, without spending time in prayer, without using His Word

603
00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:09,200
to confirm your actions, then you can know this for sure. You will fall into

604
00:53:09,200 --> 00:53:13,200
folly. Both sides of the road of the highway of holiness are

605
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:17,200
covered with pits and demons and snakes and vipers and you will fall off the

606
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:21,200
road if you do not do it the way the Lord has shown you to do it because the wisdom

607
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:25,200
of the world is foolishness with God. Sometimes

608
00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:29,200
we will be called to act foolish and if we're called to act foolish

609
00:53:29,200 --> 00:53:33,200
and we just can't, we refuse, there's no way, then

610
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:37,200
guess what you are. If God says I want you to act the part of a fool in this moment

611
00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:41,200
and you just cannot do it, you're not able to be obedient to the Lord

612
00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:45,200
because you're too inhibited, too concerned about what you think, what might happen, what the results

613
00:53:45,200 --> 00:53:49,200
will be, how much it will cost you, whatever, then you my friend, at least in that

614
00:53:49,200 --> 00:53:53,200
moment are foolish because the one who can give you every

615
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:57,200
cost calls you to cost you something, then you pay the cost.

616
00:53:57,200 --> 00:54:01,200
The one who can heal your every hurt calls you to be hurt, then

617
00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:05,200
you be hurt. It's God we're talking about.

618
00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:09,200
If we are not fools, then the Lord can and will save us

619
00:54:09,200 --> 00:54:13,200
and we will recognize, desire and allow it and this being so, we will live to

620
00:54:13,200 --> 00:54:17,200
learn and grow and be transformed into the likeness of the Lord, wash, rinse, repeat.

621
00:54:17,200 --> 00:54:21,200
Would you like me to say all that one more time? The bottom line is a fool

622
00:54:21,200 --> 00:54:25,200
is a person who doesn't think they need anything, they're all good, it's all fine

623
00:54:25,200 --> 00:54:29,200
and maybe they're not looking over here saying ignorance is bliss, it truly is.

624
00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:33,200
Not knowing what you don't know is the safest thing for you.

625
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:37,200
As soon as you know something you don't know, you may have to react or do

626
00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:41,200
something about it. Ignorance is bliss.

627
00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:45,200
And the fool lives there. The other kind of fool is somebody who's come some

628
00:54:45,200 --> 00:54:49,200
distance and they think they've got wisdom, they've got it figured out and they don't

629
00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:53,200
need somebody else to tell them.

630
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:57,200
They have much humility in that last kind, but quite a bit of arrogance.

631
00:54:57,200 --> 00:55:01,200
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1 beginning

632
00:55:01,200 --> 00:55:05,200
in verse 18, we are in the conclusion now.

633
00:55:05,200 --> 00:55:09,200
1 Corinthians 1 beginning in verse 18.

634
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:13,200
Yep, 1 Corinthians 1, 18.

635
00:55:13,200 --> 00:55:17,200
I'll break it down

636
00:55:17,200 --> 00:55:21,200
a little bit, but we're just going to go through it. It says this, for the word of the cross is to those

637
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:25,200
who are perishing foolishness. But to us

638
00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:29,200
who are being saved, it is the power of God.

639
00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:33,200
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever

640
00:55:33,200 --> 00:55:37,200
I will set aside.

641
00:55:37,200 --> 00:55:41,200
What's God doing? God's kicking out wisdom.

642
00:55:41,200 --> 00:55:45,200
He's kicking it. You don't get saved by getting wise,

643
00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:49,200
you get saved by getting Jesus.

644
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:53,200
Hang on to that for a moment. Verse 20, where is the wise man?

645
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:57,200
Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish

646
00:55:57,200 --> 00:56:01,200
the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world

647
00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:05,200
through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the

648
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:09,200
foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

649
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:13,200
For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom.

650
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:17,200
But we preach Christ crucified

651
00:56:17,200 --> 00:56:21,200
to Jews the stumbling block, to Gentiles foolishness,

652
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:25,200
but to those who are called, listen closely we're going, this is going to get hot,

653
00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:29,200
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ

654
00:56:29,200 --> 00:56:33,200
the power of God and what? The wisdom of God!

655
00:56:33,200 --> 00:56:37,200
24, but those who are

656
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:41,200
the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God

657
00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:45,200
and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God

658
00:56:45,200 --> 00:56:49,200
is wiser than men and the weakness of God

659
00:56:49,200 --> 00:56:53,200
is stronger than men. Jesus

660
00:56:53,200 --> 00:56:57,200
is our wisdom!

661
00:56:57,200 --> 00:57:01,200
You don't have to figure it out, you just have to get saved.

662
00:57:01,200 --> 00:57:05,200
And then let Jesus figure it in.

663
00:57:05,200 --> 00:57:09,200
Boast in the Lord, he says, and in the Lord alone.

664
00:57:09,200 --> 00:57:13,200
26, for consider your calling, brethren,

665
00:57:13,200 --> 00:57:17,200
that there were not many wise according to the flesh. Is there anybody in this room

666
00:57:17,200 --> 00:57:21,200
that came to Jesus after becoming truly wise

667
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:25,200
according to the world? We don't even have a PhD in the room.

668
00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:29,200
Not one. We don't have any psychotic

669
00:57:29,200 --> 00:57:33,200
knowledge of the world. We don't have any

670
00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:37,200
medicine. We don't have any psychiatrists.

671
00:57:37,200 --> 00:57:41,200
Is there anybody in the room who came to Jesus after becoming truly

672
00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:45,200
wise in the world standards? You really saw

673
00:57:45,200 --> 00:57:49,200
a lot, saw it all, really figured it all out. If you did

674
00:57:49,200 --> 00:57:53,200
I guarantee I could tell that part of your story. You figured

675
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:57,200
it all out, you got it wise, reasoned it, and realized that none of that was

676
00:57:57,200 --> 00:58:01,200
getting the job done and turned to Jesus instead. That's how it goes.

677
00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:05,200
That's why when you're witnessing to somebody who's like that, got it all figured out, you don't

678
00:58:05,200 --> 00:58:09,200
go there. It's not about reasoning and figuring it out and telling them how the

679
00:58:09,200 --> 00:58:13,200
stars connect and how, you know, Lamassil looks like a cross that holds your cells together

680
00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:17,200
and it can't possibly be evolution because they're creatures that are literally one

681
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:21,200
cell organisms that have more parts and they're too complex to have evolved up from anything and there's

682
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:25,200
only one cell. Right? You don't have to make those

683
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:29,200
arguments with somebody who's like that. You just need to say, I get it.

684
00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:33,200
You're wise. You have a ton of reason, you have a ton of knowledge, you got it all figured out. But let's

685
00:58:33,200 --> 00:58:37,200
just ask this basic question. Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, what are you going to do about that?

686
00:58:37,200 --> 00:58:41,200
And if they say, well I just flat out don't believe that

687
00:58:41,200 --> 00:58:45,200
reason and wisdom dictates me otherwise, you can stop wasting your time.

688
00:58:45,200 --> 00:58:49,200
And just say, well when you get tired of clinging heartily

689
00:58:49,200 --> 00:58:53,200
in what I'm going to call, you can disagree with me, in what

690
00:58:53,200 --> 00:58:57,200
I'm going to call your arrogance to all of your learning and you realize that beyond

691
00:58:57,200 --> 00:59:01,200
learning must be something else that can actually save,

692
00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:05,200
remember this. Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners.

693
00:59:05,200 --> 00:59:09,200
And you can be saved by calling out to Him.

694
00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:13,200
You'll have to turn from this wicked way of believing wisdom will do everything for you

695
00:59:13,200 --> 00:59:17,200
and accept Jesus instead.

696
00:59:17,200 --> 00:59:21,200
Because they ain't going to get it done ever. And when you figure out you ain't going to get it done, then you come back to

697
00:59:21,200 --> 00:59:25,200
Jesus and then you walk away. And you can

698
00:59:25,200 --> 00:59:29,200
actually be done. As Ezekiel 33 says, you will have sounded the horn,

699
00:59:29,200 --> 00:59:33,200
you will have made it clear, and if they still die, they will die in their sin

700
00:59:33,200 --> 00:59:37,200
by their choice. That's what it says.

701
00:59:37,200 --> 00:59:41,200
But if they don't, you'll have saved them from themselves

702
00:59:41,200 --> 00:59:45,200
and from sin. Verse 27 says, but God has chosen the foolish things of the

703
00:59:45,200 --> 00:59:49,200
world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the

704
00:59:49,200 --> 00:59:53,200
things which are strong, and the base things of the world, and the despised God

705
00:59:53,200 --> 00:59:57,200
has chosen the things that are not, that He might nullify the things

706
00:59:57,200 --> 01:00:01,200
that are, that no man should boast before God.

707
01:00:01,200 --> 01:00:05,200
But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us,

708
01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:09,200
listen for it, who became to us wisdom from God. And

709
01:00:09,200 --> 01:00:13,200
righteousness and sanctification, righteousness is when you're right by

710
01:00:13,200 --> 01:00:17,200
God, you get it from Jesus. Sanctification is when you're made holy, you're set apart by God,

711
01:00:17,200 --> 01:00:21,200
you get that from God. And redemption, you're brought back from your own sins,

712
01:00:21,200 --> 01:00:25,200
your own lostness, and your own, as Sam was so clear

713
01:00:25,200 --> 01:00:29,200
to say, your own destiny in hell. 31, that just as it is

714
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:33,200
written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

715
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:37,200
This wisdom of God is available. But let's be very

716
01:00:37,200 --> 01:00:41,200
realistic. God is taking anyone from the passersby. That's what the parable of the

717
01:00:41,200 --> 01:00:45,200
soils is all about. Proximity to the gospel is what is the only

718
01:00:45,200 --> 01:00:49,200
qualifying factor. Proximity to the gospel, the truth of Jesus Christ,

719
01:00:49,200 --> 01:00:53,200
and accepting it. That's it. That's all that's necessary.

720
01:00:53,200 --> 01:00:57,200
That's what the parable of the poor soils is all about. All of those people get saved.

721
01:00:57,200 --> 01:01:01,200
All types of soil. Just be a passerby. God will take you.

722
01:01:01,200 --> 01:01:05,200
But if you're a passerby who refuses, that makes you a fool.

723
01:01:05,200 --> 01:01:09,200
Because you're being offered eternity. You're being offered salvation in Christ.

724
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:13,200
You're being offered an abundant life in Christ. You're being offered a Holy Spirit residence.

725
01:01:13,200 --> 01:01:17,200
Including Holy Spirit gifting that you can't buy or get it or coerce anybody

726
01:01:17,200 --> 01:01:21,200
into giving it to you. All you do is call on the name of the Lord and receive it.

727
01:01:21,200 --> 01:01:25,200
And he becomes, by Paul's own words,

728
01:01:25,200 --> 01:01:29,200
he becomes the wisdom of God to us.

729
01:01:29,200 --> 01:01:33,200
And then we boast, sure.

730
01:01:33,200 --> 01:01:37,200
But we boast only in the Lord. If indeed we are not

731
01:01:37,200 --> 01:01:41,200
fools, then the Lord can and will save us. And we will

732
01:01:41,200 --> 01:01:45,200
recognize and desire it and allow it. And this being so, we will live,

733
01:01:45,200 --> 01:01:49,200
to learn and grow and be transformed into the likeness of the Lord. Wash, rinse,

734
01:01:49,200 --> 01:01:53,200
and repeat. And my friend, my brother, my sister, that is the only wisdom

735
01:01:53,200 --> 01:01:57,200
you need. Now all of it comes.

736
01:01:57,200 --> 01:02:01,200
Here's much more to learn from the Lord. Much more leadership to receive from God.

737
01:02:01,200 --> 01:02:05,200
As Caitlin so aptly put it in the inspirational moment, it seems like it never ends.

738
01:02:05,200 --> 01:02:09,200
2 Peter chapter 2 says,

739
01:02:09,200 --> 01:02:13,200
For if after they have escaped the defilements of the

740
01:02:13,200 --> 01:02:17,200
world, by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled

741
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:21,200
in them and are overcome, the last state has become far worse

742
01:02:21,200 --> 01:02:25,200
for them than the first.

743
01:02:25,200 --> 01:02:29,200
The last state has become far worse for them than the first. For it would be better for

744
01:02:29,200 --> 01:02:33,200
them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it

745
01:02:33,200 --> 01:02:37,200
to turn away from the holy command it handed to them. And it has happened to them

746
01:02:37,200 --> 01:02:41,200
according to the true proverb, a dog returns to its own vomit and a

747
01:02:41,200 --> 01:02:45,200
sow after washing returns to wallowing in the mire. If you are

748
01:02:45,200 --> 01:02:49,200
in Christ then you are no fool. But if you are supposedly

749
01:02:49,200 --> 01:02:53,200
in Christ then you are missing opportunities to grow. You're not spending time with the Lord.

750
01:02:53,200 --> 01:02:57,200
You're not reading your Bible or praying or listening to what God has to say. You're not applying the

751
01:02:57,200 --> 01:03:01,200
teachings of Jesus to your life. You're not in church and in Bible study and whatever you possibly

752
01:03:01,200 --> 01:03:05,200
can sucking up anything that has to do with the Kingdom of God

753
01:03:05,200 --> 01:03:09,200
and disposing of anything that is the teachings of the world. If you're not doing that

754
01:03:09,200 --> 01:03:13,200
then there is more hope for a fool than you because a

755
01:03:13,200 --> 01:03:17,200
fool could at any time turn to the Lord and never look back.

756
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:21,200
This is why Jesus was able to say that the tax collectors

757
01:03:21,200 --> 01:03:25,200
and the whoremongers would come and sit down in the Kingdom of God before the wise men

758
01:03:25,200 --> 01:03:29,200
who were fasting two days a week memorizing whole books of the Bible teaching their version

759
01:03:29,200 --> 01:03:33,200
of the truth and the good news across all of Judea

760
01:03:33,200 --> 01:03:37,200
and he would say to them, a whore can come in here right now and sit down in the Kingdom of God

761
01:03:37,200 --> 01:03:41,200
before you and I say to you that if you are that kind of follower of Jesus

762
01:03:41,200 --> 01:03:45,200
if you can dismiss an opportunity to grow, if you can dismiss an opportunity

763
01:03:45,200 --> 01:03:49,200
to spend time alone with Jesus, if you can dismiss an opportunity to serve

764
01:03:49,200 --> 01:03:53,200
and give in the name of Jesus, if you can do that then a whore could

765
01:03:53,200 --> 01:03:57,200
come in here right now. That's a woman selling her body to make her rent.

766
01:03:57,200 --> 01:04:01,200
She could come in here right now and accept Jesus Christ by Facebook or on the podcast

767
01:04:01,200 --> 01:04:05,200
and she could be better off than you because when she's saved in her sin

768
01:04:05,200 --> 01:04:09,200
she lives from that day forward for her Lord Jesus Christ and she prays

769
01:04:09,200 --> 01:04:13,200
and she reads and she searches and she gives and she may be poor

770
01:04:13,200 --> 01:04:17,200
her whole life because every excess she ever gets she'll give for Jesus

771
01:04:17,200 --> 01:04:21,200
because she knows from which she was saved. Jesus said which man

772
01:04:21,200 --> 01:04:25,200
the man who has a small debt or the man who has a big debt when his debt is forgiven

773
01:04:25,200 --> 01:04:29,200
loves the man who forgave his debt more

774
01:04:29,200 --> 01:04:33,200
and the disciple says will it be the man who had the big debt? Of course he's going to love more

775
01:04:33,200 --> 01:04:37,200
that's wrong. I mean it's right but it's wrong. That is the way

776
01:04:37,200 --> 01:04:41,200
it happens but it's not the way it should be. If you think you were pretty much

777
01:04:41,200 --> 01:04:45,200
okay but just had a few small sins before you got to Jesus, you don't love

778
01:04:45,200 --> 01:04:49,200
God about how much he forgave you or what he did

779
01:04:49,200 --> 01:04:53,200
you love God contrasting the two possible destinations

780
01:04:53,200 --> 01:04:57,200
you love God according to the fact that you were going to hell and now you're going to heaven

781
01:04:57,200 --> 01:05:01,200
and you can never know how bad hell is and you can never know how good heaven is

782
01:05:01,200 --> 01:05:05,200
but you can know this for sure that the two are so polar opposite that you don't

783
01:05:05,200 --> 01:05:09,200
want that one and you desperately want that one and you've got to love God

784
01:05:09,200 --> 01:05:13,200
that way. But I see so many Christians

785
01:05:13,200 --> 01:05:17,200
I see so many Christians who are like yep I'm saved now

786
01:05:17,200 --> 01:05:21,200
I'm good. I read my Bible fairly often. Do you realize

787
01:05:21,200 --> 01:05:25,200
you realize that if you spent

788
01:05:25,200 --> 01:05:29,200
just five minutes a day, five minutes a day intentionally

789
01:05:29,200 --> 01:05:33,200
reading your Bible or reading this Bible, five minutes a day

790
01:05:33,200 --> 01:05:37,200
that in five years you would be an expert in the

791
01:05:37,200 --> 01:05:41,200
things of God without college, without seminary

792
01:05:41,200 --> 01:05:45,200
but most people just never get around to it. They never make the effort to do it

793
01:05:45,200 --> 01:05:49,200
they're missing the opportunity. If you spent one minute, could you do something

794
01:05:49,200 --> 01:05:53,200
for one minute out of the hour? What if you had to do something for one minute out of the hour every day?

795
01:05:53,200 --> 01:05:57,200
You know there's people that do that. There's people that have to give themselves

796
01:05:57,200 --> 01:06:01,200
shots or take medicines and they have to do it every hour of the day that they're awake for example

797
01:06:01,200 --> 01:06:05,200
or things like that to survive. And they do it. They don't like it

798
01:06:05,200 --> 01:06:09,200
but they do it because they have a medical condition and they would die without it. What if I

799
01:06:09,200 --> 01:06:13,200
said to you that you would literally die, be separated from God

800
01:06:13,200 --> 01:06:17,200
if you did not intake some portion of God and what God is trying to do, his Holy Spirit

801
01:06:17,200 --> 01:06:21,200
is trying to do in you every hour. What if I asked for sixty

802
01:06:21,200 --> 01:06:25,200
seconds out of every hour. Now I know you can't give me sixty seconds out of every hour

803
01:06:25,200 --> 01:06:29,200
because sixty seconds out of the hours that you're sleeping would be tough. So I'm going to ask you for an extra eight minutes

804
01:06:29,200 --> 01:06:33,200
somewhere in the day. You know what that looks like?

805
01:06:33,200 --> 01:06:37,200
That looks like sixteen

806
01:06:37,200 --> 01:06:41,200
it looks like twenty four minutes total. Sixteen minutes

807
01:06:41,200 --> 01:06:45,200
for the sixteen hours that you're awake and eight for while you're sleeping. Twenty four minutes a day.

808
01:06:45,200 --> 01:06:49,200
Could you do twenty four minutes a day and more on Sunday?

809
01:06:49,200 --> 01:06:53,200
Maybe more on Tuesday? FOR GOD?

810
01:06:53,200 --> 01:06:57,200
I watched a

811
01:06:57,200 --> 01:07:01,200
panel of pastors sitting up on the stage and it profoundly affected me. And one of the guys

812
01:07:01,200 --> 01:07:05,200
one of the questions that came from the audience he said, he said can you tell me why God was so

813
01:07:05,200 --> 01:07:09,200
harsh? Why is the curse so harsh?

814
01:07:09,200 --> 01:07:13,200
I mean all they did was eat of the tree that God told them not to. It's all they did.

815
01:07:13,200 --> 01:07:17,200
And the curse is so harsh. Pain in childbirth, work all your lives

816
01:07:17,200 --> 01:07:21,200
gotta be kicked out of the garden and eaten. Gotta have the blood of Jesus to forgive

817
01:07:21,200 --> 01:07:25,200
sins or otherwise wind up in hell. That is a horrible harsh curse. Why is

818
01:07:25,200 --> 01:07:29,200
it so bad? And the pastor who was answering the question said, you got it

819
01:07:29,200 --> 01:07:33,200
all wrong. You don't understand it all.

820
01:07:33,200 --> 01:07:37,200
It has almost nothing to do with the fruit. It has everything to do with

821
01:07:37,200 --> 01:07:41,200
your creator God who gave you literally everything including life.

822
01:07:41,200 --> 01:07:45,200
His breath in you literally brought you to life with his own breath. And you

823
01:07:45,200 --> 01:07:49,200
look him in the face and say I don't care what you say I'm going to do it my way.

824
01:07:49,200 --> 01:07:53,200
Now you tell me, is that not a fool?

825
01:07:53,200 --> 01:07:57,200
And I ask you again, I say I know for a fact

826
01:07:57,200 --> 01:08:01,200
I know the people in this room. I see hearts as I'm sitting I see people going like

827
01:08:01,200 --> 01:08:05,200
I love God. I see people who have literally in this room there are people who have bled

828
01:08:05,200 --> 01:08:09,200
and sweat. I have personally seen them bleed and sweat.

829
01:08:09,200 --> 01:08:13,200
Sometimes the exact same moment for the Lord.

830
01:08:13,200 --> 01:08:17,200
Because they were serving God. I'll never forget

831
01:08:17,200 --> 01:08:21,200
some of those instances. I can relate a few of them to you now. And I'm just going like God is

832
01:08:21,200 --> 01:08:25,200
God is showing me something in this moment. I'll never forget when Michael and I were in

833
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:29,200
the back of a block party wagon over here. And it's like what was it like a hundred and ten degrees

834
01:08:29,200 --> 01:08:33,200
in the back of this block party wagon. Everything is put in there except we couldn't get the cargo strap to work.

835
01:08:33,200 --> 01:08:37,200
And he's busting his knuckles up, blood coming out. And we're trying to get this cargo strap open

836
01:08:37,200 --> 01:08:41,200
so we can buckle the stuff down so we can be done after we already both

837
01:08:41,200 --> 01:08:45,200
had been going for fifteen hours. In a hundred and ten degree block party

838
01:08:45,200 --> 01:08:49,200
wagon bent over the moon bounce, busting our knuckles up trying to get the cargo strap to work.

839
01:08:49,200 --> 01:08:53,200
Blood and sweat and tears have been spent to serve God and the people in this

840
01:08:53,200 --> 01:08:57,200
room. I'm asking you, if we're not fools, why are we

841
01:08:57,200 --> 01:09:01,200
acting like fools? We are called by the Lord and

842
01:09:01,200 --> 01:09:05,200
Jesus Christ is our wisdom. And there is not a moment in

843
01:09:05,200 --> 01:09:09,200
the day to be spent on worldly wisdom. It all must be

844
01:09:09,200 --> 01:09:13,200
on Jesus. Are you doing your part

845
01:09:13,200 --> 01:09:17,200
in the relationship with Jesus? Are you receptive? Are you open? Are you searching?

846
01:09:17,200 --> 01:09:21,200
Are you listening? Are you studying? Are you praying? Are you

847
01:09:21,200 --> 01:09:25,200
teaching? Are you preaching? Are you spreading the good news?

848
01:09:25,200 --> 01:09:29,200
If not, you are dismissing the commands and the disciplines that he's

849
01:09:29,200 --> 01:09:33,200
laid out for us. Are you staying clean from the stains of the

850
01:09:33,200 --> 01:09:37,200
world? Or do you watch those rated R movies with the mostly naked women? And do you

851
01:09:37,200 --> 01:09:41,200
watch the violence with the mostly guts spewing? Do you listen to the shows with all the foul

852
01:09:41,200 --> 01:09:45,200
language? Philippians 4, focus on the pure. Are we the kind of

853
01:09:45,200 --> 01:09:49,200
people that Jesus would be proud of? Because if you're a follower of Jesus, that's the

854
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:53,200
only way. Jesus said, that one's mine. I own that one. Yeah, he's

855
01:09:53,200 --> 01:09:57,200
kind of a screw up. I took him from nothing. I made him something. He's kind of a screw up. And wow!

856
01:09:57,200 --> 01:10:01,200
That one's mine. Or is Jesus going, yeah, I got that one. I do

857
01:10:01,200 --> 01:10:05,200
have that one. I really don't know what's going on right now in this moment. But

858
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:09,200
this is Jesus.

859
01:10:09,200 --> 01:10:13,200
Present, when the phrase, let there be light,

860
01:10:13,200 --> 01:10:17,200
was uttered, and nothing has ever, ever, ever been seen.

861
01:10:17,200 --> 01:10:21,200
No breath has ever been taken.

862
01:10:21,200 --> 01:10:25,200
No effort ever made.

863
01:10:25,200 --> 01:10:29,200
Except he willed it.

864
01:10:29,200 --> 01:10:33,200
And he's willing to take the passersby, and he's willing to take the fools, even though it

865
01:10:33,200 --> 01:10:37,200
hurts him desperately to do so. And I'm so glad for that, because I am

866
01:10:37,200 --> 01:10:41,200
one. I was a fool. I know it

867
01:10:41,200 --> 01:10:45,200
with certainty. People pick on me, kind of sometimes, because they'll say, well,

868
01:10:45,200 --> 01:10:49,200
I'll say, you know, this is what I believe to be true. This is what the Bible says.

869
01:10:49,200 --> 01:10:53,200
And they'll say, you don't sound very certain. I'm like, no, I'm certain.

870
01:10:53,200 --> 01:10:57,200
I believe it to be true, and it's what the Bible says. Well, can't you just, why you just tell me it's

871
01:10:57,200 --> 01:11:01,200
right? I said, well, because I'm not judging by my standards.

872
01:11:01,200 --> 01:11:05,200
It's Jesus' standards. And Jesus' standards are what's in the Word,

873
01:11:05,200 --> 01:11:09,200
and what God says. That's the standard.

874
01:11:09,200 --> 01:11:13,200
Two quick illustrations about how this can go,

875
01:11:13,200 --> 01:11:17,200
and we'll be through. First one is a game, a child's game called, shoots and ladders.

876
01:11:17,200 --> 01:11:21,200
Shoots and ladders. You've probably seen it at some point in your life.

877
01:11:21,200 --> 01:11:25,200
You roll the dice, you move along the board. If you hit a ladder, you kind of climb up the ladder to a

878
01:11:25,200 --> 01:11:29,200
higher row. If you hit a shoot, you slide down to a lower row.

879
01:11:29,200 --> 01:11:33,200
I submit to you that shoots and ladders are a picture of what life's like, right? Sometimes, you know, you're

880
01:11:33,200 --> 01:11:37,200
going strong, and then all of a sudden, you get a diagnosis. Sometimes, you're going strong, and all of a sudden, your company's

881
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:41,200
closing, bought out. Sometimes, you're going strong, and all of a sudden, your wife says something you didn't expect

882
01:11:41,200 --> 01:11:45,200
was coming. Sometimes, you just get out of bed in the morning, you got set a bad headache,

883
01:11:45,200 --> 01:11:49,200
can't do nothing. You're trying to figure out, what? How did I get here?

884
01:11:49,200 --> 01:11:53,200
So, sometimes, it shoots. Other times, it's ladders. And by the way,

885
01:11:53,200 --> 01:11:57,200
you don't actually have to count off the space, and it's kind of fun to do that, the rungs on the ladder, but it's just like,

886
01:11:57,200 --> 01:12:01,200
all of a sudden, up the ladder, up I go. Right? Life is like that. Sometimes, it's way up, and sometimes,

887
01:12:01,200 --> 01:12:05,200
it's way down. You start playing the game of life, because

888
01:12:05,200 --> 01:12:09,200
only the people who play the game of life can win the game of life, right? So, we all started playing the game of life.

889
01:12:09,200 --> 01:12:13,200
You win at the end when you go with Jesus. That's when you win.

890
01:12:13,200 --> 01:12:17,200
If you go the other way, you don't win. That's the bottom line. But here's what happens.

891
01:12:17,200 --> 01:12:21,200
People start playing the game of life, go about halfway through it, the game of shoots and ladders, you go about halfway

892
01:12:21,200 --> 01:12:25,200
through it, and they say, you know what, from now on, I'm not going to go up any more ladders.

893
01:12:25,200 --> 01:12:29,200
It's too much work to go up a ladder, so if I land on a ladder, I just won't go up.

894
01:12:29,200 --> 01:12:33,200
I'll just keep counting off normally. Right?

895
01:12:33,200 --> 01:12:37,200
And then God sends you a ladder, and you're like, now, I ain't got time for that today, God.

896
01:12:37,200 --> 01:12:41,200
I ain't got time to be sharing Jesus. I ain't got time for the Word. I know you want to tell me something special, maybe,

897
01:12:41,200 --> 01:12:45,200
but because it happens almost every time I open my Bible, but I ain't got time for that today.

898
01:12:45,200 --> 01:12:49,200
Too busy fixing these problems. You gave me all this stuff, and made me this way. You made me this way.

899
01:12:49,200 --> 01:12:53,200
So, it must be I got to deal with what's right before me. But that's reason, and it's logic, and it's wisdom,

900
01:12:53,200 --> 01:12:57,200
and when you do that, you're worse off than a fool.

901
01:12:57,200 --> 01:13:01,200
But if you'll say, okay, whatever you say, God,

902
01:13:01,200 --> 01:13:05,200
I go up when I go up, I go down when I go up, and you put it truly in the hands of the Lord,

903
01:13:05,200 --> 01:13:09,200
and you do your part in a relationship, and you pour your life into the Lord, and you listen,

904
01:13:09,200 --> 01:13:13,200
you don't miss an opportunity to be in His Word, you don't miss a preaching opportunity. Certainly,

905
01:13:13,200 --> 01:13:17,200
in our church, you shouldn't miss that, because this is what God has called you to.

906
01:13:17,200 --> 01:13:21,200
If you're in New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church, if I'm up here preaching, or somebody else is scheduled,

907
01:13:21,200 --> 01:13:25,200
you should be hearing it. And there's a way.

908
01:13:25,200 --> 01:13:29,200
You can listen to it at 2 a.m. if you want.

909
01:13:29,200 --> 01:13:33,200
That ain't true everywhere, but you should be getting it, because this is our feeding. We're sitting at the table.

910
01:13:33,200 --> 01:13:37,200
Bible study, same way. Your personal Bible study time,

911
01:13:37,200 --> 01:13:41,200
same way. I'm very encouraged by how much our church

912
01:13:41,200 --> 01:13:45,200
talks about what God said of them, and things like that, but I'm also sometimes discouraged

913
01:13:45,200 --> 01:13:49,200
by how few people can tell me what they learned in their Bible this week,

914
01:13:49,200 --> 01:13:53,200
about how God did a miracle. How is it that

915
01:13:53,200 --> 01:13:57,200
I feel reluctant sometimes, and I know there are others who share

916
01:13:57,200 --> 01:14:01,200
that do, because how is it that I don't go seven days

917
01:14:01,200 --> 01:14:05,200
without God doing a miracle, without me seeing a miracle,

918
01:14:05,200 --> 01:14:09,200
and that people sit in this room all the time and say, I've never seen a miracle in my whole life.

919
01:14:09,200 --> 01:14:13,200
God never did anything, but I see Him all the time.

920
01:14:13,200 --> 01:14:17,200
That makes me feel ashamed, like I'm not worthy,

921
01:14:17,200 --> 01:14:21,200
like that shouldn't be happening. And I'm nothing special. I was a fool

922
01:14:21,200 --> 01:14:25,200
in the darkness, and didn't even know it.

923
01:14:25,200 --> 01:14:29,200
And I'm not wise.

924
01:14:29,200 --> 01:14:33,200
I'm not life-wise. I'm not. I know some things that I just figured out

925
01:14:33,200 --> 01:14:37,200
this week that I'm pretty sure that taking allergy medicine is what's causing my migraines

926
01:14:37,200 --> 01:14:41,200
during allergy season, instead of the allergies causing it, it's allergy medicine. How many times

927
01:14:41,200 --> 01:14:45,200
has it taken me to get there? When the doctor said you have migraines, that's what's going on.

928
01:14:45,200 --> 01:14:49,200
I didn't even know I was having migraines. I'm not wise.

929
01:14:49,200 --> 01:14:53,200
But I got Jesus, and Jesus is the wisdom of God given to me.

930
01:14:53,200 --> 01:14:57,200
It's the same for you. So let's do it.

931
01:14:57,200 --> 01:15:01,200
Let's stop playing at this thing we call Christianity, and start

932
01:15:01,200 --> 01:15:05,200
making it our highest priority. And if you're in this room, and the

933
01:15:05,200 --> 01:15:09,200
teaching of the gospel is presented to you, and you've not accepted Jesus as your Lord

934
01:15:09,200 --> 01:15:13,200
and Savior, I'm here to tell you today, you're a fool.

935
01:15:13,200 --> 01:15:17,200
And the Proverbs of God in your hands, like listening to the wisdom of God, the things that God teaches,

936
01:15:17,200 --> 01:15:21,200
it's only going to mess you up. Because you're going to make up rules.

937
01:15:21,200 --> 01:15:25,200
You're going to figure out things, go like, oh I should do this. Yeah.

938
01:15:25,200 --> 01:15:29,200
Bible says, you know how hard it is to not lie when you're not saved?

939
01:15:29,200 --> 01:15:33,200
You'll beat the crap out of yourself trying to not lie. If you're not saved, just stop

940
01:15:33,200 --> 01:15:37,200
trying. You're just killing yourself.

941
01:15:37,200 --> 01:15:41,200
But when you're saved, the Lord can do mightily

942
01:15:41,200 --> 01:15:45,200
in you, and you can walk away from things like that.

943
01:15:45,200 --> 01:15:49,200
As we have our invitation today, this is our final song

944
01:15:49,200 --> 01:15:53,200
that we're going to sing. I'm going to ask you to think about where you stand.

945
01:15:53,200 --> 01:15:57,200
Did you draw a line in the sand, and when you got

946
01:15:57,200 --> 01:16:01,200
saved you stepped across it, and I'll never be the same, and I'm serving Jesus, and I'm loving Jesus, and Jesus

947
01:16:01,200 --> 01:16:05,200
is living in me. Jesus is living through me. If he didn't

948
01:16:05,200 --> 01:16:09,200
die for you, you didn't die, and you got a death coming yet. But if he died for you, as he

949
01:16:09,200 --> 01:16:13,200
died for all men, and you know it, then you've already died. The old you is gone, the new

950
01:16:13,200 --> 01:16:17,200
you has come, and the new you is all about Jesus.

951
01:16:17,200 --> 01:16:21,200
All about Jesus, all the time.

952
01:16:21,200 --> 01:16:25,200
I know you're smart, I know you're creative, I know you're capable,

953
01:16:25,200 --> 01:16:29,200
you can fix it, and you can break it. Because that's who God made you.

954
01:16:29,200 --> 01:16:33,200
You may not feel that way, but it's true. You can do all

955
01:16:33,200 --> 01:16:37,200
things. And being in Christ really makes

956
01:16:37,200 --> 01:16:41,200
it obvious for us that we can do all things in Christ.

957
01:16:41,200 --> 01:16:45,200
And we're following Jesus, and we're stopping with the

958
01:16:45,200 --> 01:16:49,200
excuses, and we're making time, and we're blocking out

959
01:16:49,200 --> 01:16:53,200
the things of the world, for he who is a friend of the world is an enemy to God.

960
01:16:53,200 --> 01:16:57,200
And it's all about him.

961
01:16:57,200 --> 01:17:01,200
And knowing it will take you to the next step, and that's reaching the

962
01:17:01,200 --> 01:17:05,200
rights of Jesus. God's kicking out wisdom. I'm kicking out wisdom.

963
01:17:05,200 --> 01:17:09,200
And I'm claiming Jesus. And I ask you to do the same with me.

964
01:17:09,200 --> 01:17:13,200
Amen.