WEBVTT 00:00:25.929 --> 00:00:32.619 Thank you for choosing this podcast. Bye. Bye. 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:27.960 Good morning. How are you? Thank you. Okay, I 00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:32.500 don't have a bulletin. So, um, Miss Jamie. Will 00:03:32.500 --> 00:04:01.490 you remind us of our announcement? If you are 00:04:01.490 --> 00:04:06.449 a volunteer willing to deliver along on day products 00:04:06.449 --> 00:04:10.050 for the pantry before bus bed, please seek your 00:04:10.050 --> 00:04:13.430 job. This would be an on -call opportunity. Let 00:04:13.430 --> 00:04:16.449 me know when you are available. Please make sure 00:04:16.449 --> 00:04:19.209 to fill out your questionnaire if you are a member 00:04:19.209 --> 00:04:23.389 and return to Pastor Van. Please register for 00:04:23.389 --> 00:04:26.329 Bless Every Home to pray for people in your neighborhood. 00:04:27.050 --> 00:04:30.009 and the church. Pastor Dan can send you the registration 00:04:30.009 --> 00:04:32.910 link. There are also paper slips in the back 00:04:32.910 --> 00:04:38.290 of the sanctuary for the instructions. Okay. 00:04:38.470 --> 00:04:40.490 Weren't you able to hear the sermon and listen 00:04:40.490 --> 00:04:44.870 to it on the podcast? Okay, that's good. It's 00:04:44.870 --> 00:04:47.110 all good. There's a link to the podcast. Thank 00:04:47.110 --> 00:04:51.189 you, Dan. All right. And speaking of Bless Every 00:04:51.189 --> 00:04:56.379 Call... Who we will be praying for today includes 00:04:56.379 --> 00:05:00.740 Juanita Henley, Tina Parker, Linda and Jackie 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:05.300 Osborne, Ronnie Lynch, and Jaina Collins. All 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:14.680 of you. On Kelsey Avenue. Almost to the end of 00:05:14.680 --> 00:05:17.720 Kelsey. Get there. We'll get them on there. All 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:20.100 right. And Alicia, as you're welcome back, will 00:05:20.100 --> 00:05:27.209 you open us up in prayer? Yes. Real quick, after 00:05:27.209 --> 00:05:29.310 service today, and I know the pantry will be 00:05:29.310 --> 00:05:31.910 going on, so we'll try to be helpful with that 00:05:31.910 --> 00:05:34.629 also, but I'm having a team meeting to go over 00:05:34.629 --> 00:05:37.970 the missions calendar for the year. I have multiple 00:05:37.970 --> 00:05:40.949 mission ideas. We just need to place them out 00:05:40.949 --> 00:05:42.889 in the calendar so we can start planning for 00:05:42.889 --> 00:05:45.850 those. Anyone, even if you're not on my team, 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:48.069 because my team consists of my sister and my 00:05:48.069 --> 00:05:51.269 husband, please stay if you would like to help 00:05:51.269 --> 00:05:56.480 plan the missions for the year. Okay. Dear Heavenly 00:05:56.480 --> 00:05:58.959 Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:02.019 for bringing us here from our lives. All of us 00:06:02.019 --> 00:06:05.199 have lives at home that we live out to the best 00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:07.220 of our ability, Lord, and I hope we do that for 00:06:07.220 --> 00:06:09.860 you and we come together collectively to worship 00:06:09.860 --> 00:06:13.819 you and to learn from you. I'd like to pray for 00:06:13.819 --> 00:06:16.139 our neighbors today, the ones that are in our 00:06:16.139 --> 00:06:19.500 area close by. We hope that they know you, that 00:06:19.500 --> 00:06:22.300 they have the opportunity to do that. We'd love 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:24.379 to invite them to come and join us if we have 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:28.399 done that. Reach out to them. Lord, fill our 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:31.100 neighbors with the desire to experience your 00:06:31.100 --> 00:06:34.060 goodness as they take refuge in you. Taste and 00:06:34.060 --> 00:06:36.720 see that you are good. Blessed is the man who 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:41.259 takes refuge in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. 00:07:04.779 --> 00:11:18.789 Thank you very much. and inspired in some way 00:11:18.789 --> 00:11:21.470 this week. I had a couple of interesting experiences 00:11:21.470 --> 00:11:25.950 myself, and so I'm always very interested to 00:11:25.950 --> 00:11:27.850 hear how you've heard from the Word, what you've 00:11:27.850 --> 00:11:30.250 seen, what you've done. Where did God say, hey, 00:11:30.289 --> 00:11:32.389 pay attention to that? And that's what this is 00:11:32.389 --> 00:11:34.450 all about. It's not a time that I lead, but a 00:11:34.450 --> 00:11:36.950 time that the Lord leads. And I hope that you've 00:11:36.950 --> 00:11:39.730 looked for His leading this week, and I hope 00:11:39.730 --> 00:11:41.269 that you've been able to find it and see it and 00:11:41.269 --> 00:11:43.009 see some amazing things happen and some things 00:11:43.009 --> 00:11:46.159 that maybe aren't quizzical. Maybe that's something 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:48.299 you saw this week and made you go, hmm. But you 00:11:48.299 --> 00:11:50.220 don't know what the end of that is. And maybe 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:52.019 somebody else here would want to chime in and 00:11:52.019 --> 00:11:53.600 say, I think maybe the Lord would want us to 00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:55.139 hear that kind of thing. Maybe that's the kind 00:11:55.139 --> 00:11:56.519 of thing we need to do. So that's what this time 00:11:56.519 --> 00:11:58.639 is about. So what have you done? What have you 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:01.960 seen? What have you heard? Let's go. Michael 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:13.480 Bershman. Snowboard. The Lord seems to keep me 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:16.679 busy Monday through Friday. That's cool. And 00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:18.879 with that come challenges, which I prayed for 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:21.460 challenges, and then I'd be able to overcome 00:12:21.460 --> 00:12:23.379 them in a way that would be honoring to him. 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:26.399 That being said, I got stuck about three times. 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:31.019 Twice here at the church, and one guy from Lexington, 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:33.740 I got stuck there, and that was probably the 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:37.000 worst part of being stuck. And today we got some 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:39.379 help out there. I prayed, please help me get 00:12:39.379 --> 00:12:43.580 out. And basically, I buried the cloud. The truck 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:45.860 itself wasn't stuck. The cloud was stuck. But 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:49.279 I'm praying. We're working, digging it out and 00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:53.039 whatnot for about 45 minutes or so. And I was 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:54.399 probably able to get some wood up under the front 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:55.919 tire. And I thought we might be able to do something. 00:12:56.019 --> 00:12:58.539 I said, God, please just get me out of here. 00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:03.179 And I didn't do all this time. I think I stuck 00:13:03.179 --> 00:13:06.580 about three times. I didn't pray. I didn't do 00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:10.120 my thing. They said I just worked hard trying 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:11.460 to figure out how to get out. Anyway, I got out. 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:14.100 I was able to finish. And I was able to serve 00:13:14.100 --> 00:13:18.000 another church and do it. So, ask God to help 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.679 you through it. And he sees through it. He'll 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:24.860 see through it. And I'm just thankful. Well, 00:13:24.899 --> 00:13:28.779 I didn't break nothing. And I was able to keep 00:13:28.779 --> 00:13:32.220 serving. And I didn't lose my cool. So, Michael's 00:13:32.220 --> 00:13:35.919 been asking for God to keep him busy serving. 00:13:36.409 --> 00:13:38.090 And that's why we got all the snow. That's what 00:13:38.090 --> 00:13:40.289 I heard you say. That's all your fault, brother. 00:13:40.970 --> 00:13:44.009 But, praise God, you then used that for an opportunity 00:13:44.009 --> 00:13:46.429 to glorify Him. And so that's worth it. What 00:13:46.429 --> 00:13:49.990 I went through, I'm so glad. I would have prayed 00:13:49.990 --> 00:13:52.590 for five days of snow for you if I didn't know 00:13:52.590 --> 00:13:53.769 it was going to be that awesome. Praise God. 00:13:54.029 --> 00:13:56.929 Good stuff. Alright, anybody else? Good stuff. 00:13:57.809 --> 00:14:00.750 Brother Frank. I've been reading this prayer 00:14:00.750 --> 00:14:02.370 book and stuff, and there's a prayer that stuck 00:14:02.370 --> 00:14:04.409 out to me and I just wanted to share it. Absolutely, 00:14:04.529 --> 00:14:07.879 please do. It says, Lord God Almighty, I pray 00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:11.080 to you that nothing is impossible with you. Train 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:14.779 us and lead us into extraordinary prayer. Help 00:14:14.779 --> 00:14:17.700 us throw off any sin, surrendering ourselves 00:14:17.700 --> 00:14:22.580 to you. May we see the needs of our city and 00:14:22.580 --> 00:14:26.200 nation the way you see them. Unite all believers 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:29.480 in my church and community in extraordinary prayer. 00:14:30.179 --> 00:14:34.200 May we walk in love, free in heart, fast in faith. 00:14:34.819 --> 00:14:38.539 Uniting, working, and persisting. Bring revival 00:14:38.539 --> 00:14:41.940 and spiritual awakening to our land. Be glorified 00:14:41.940 --> 00:14:50.399 through us all. Amen. Good stuff. So, I had an 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:52.460 encouraging text this morning. Somebody out of 00:14:52.460 --> 00:14:53.860 the blue, and I didn't know who it was, asked 00:14:53.860 --> 00:14:56.299 me how they could listen to the podcast and watch 00:14:56.299 --> 00:14:59.240 the service. It struck me that there's so much 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:02.559 going on that we're doing. Some of it we've never 00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:04.919 done, had never done before. We've been podcasting 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:12.360 for, we're at 226 episodes, I think it is. 226 00:15:12.360 --> 00:15:14.259 episodes, something like that, on the podcast. 00:15:14.340 --> 00:15:17.320 And it's generally no more than two a week at 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:21.779 most. So you figure that is about four years. 00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:23.740 Coming up, we'll be coming up on four years, 00:15:23.740 --> 00:15:26.250 we'll have been podcasting. That's a lot. And 00:15:26.250 --> 00:15:29.429 that means a lot of worship to God that's out 00:15:29.429 --> 00:15:30.909 there for people to listen to and find. A lot 00:15:30.909 --> 00:15:33.909 of messages. Some with quirky titles. Some with 00:15:33.909 --> 00:15:35.730 stuff that probably no one will ever search for 00:15:35.730 --> 00:15:39.389 on Google. Things like that. But we've had a 00:15:39.389 --> 00:15:41.470 lot of opportunity for God to move and work. 00:15:41.570 --> 00:15:43.769 And that was an encouragement to me. And then 00:15:43.769 --> 00:15:47.490 the night before last, I was cleaning. And I 00:15:47.490 --> 00:15:49.389 re -stumbled. I don't think that's actually a 00:15:49.389 --> 00:15:51.090 word, by the way. I just made that up. But anyway, 00:15:51.230 --> 00:15:54.690 re -stumbled on a song. which is called Burn 00:15:54.690 --> 00:15:56.389 the Ships. I'm not going to play the song for 00:15:56.389 --> 00:15:59.350 you, but I wanted to share with you something 00:15:59.350 --> 00:16:02.210 that happened. It was unique for me, something 00:16:02.210 --> 00:16:06.610 I had never had happen before. And so I was cleaning, 00:16:06.669 --> 00:16:08.210 and I was going through some bins that are in 00:16:08.210 --> 00:16:10.429 our short -term storage shelves and pulling things 00:16:10.429 --> 00:16:11.929 out and just looking to see what was there and 00:16:11.929 --> 00:16:13.950 throwing a bunch of stuff away. I did throw probably 00:16:13.950 --> 00:16:18.429 four or five smaller boxes of stuff away, stuff 00:16:18.429 --> 00:16:21.480 that we don't need anymore or that isn't. It 00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:25.220 wasn't really reputable. It wasn't usable. And 00:16:25.220 --> 00:16:30.120 then I started playing the song, Burn the Ships, 00:16:30.139 --> 00:16:32.759 which is by King & Country, a Christian band, 00:16:32.899 --> 00:16:38.279 a Christian professing. And in the song, there's 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:41.279 a lyric where it says, burn the ships, and then 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:44.100 it goes on to talk about flushing the drugs and 00:16:44.100 --> 00:16:47.019 getting rid of the things in your life so you 00:16:47.019 --> 00:16:50.240 can't go back. And I know historically, burn 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:53.379 the ships is a saying that comes from when a 00:16:53.379 --> 00:16:56.639 king would go and invade another land, and they 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:58.580 would invade by ship, but it would be somewhat 00:16:58.580 --> 00:17:01.019 risky, when the invasion was somewhat risky, 00:17:01.179 --> 00:17:03.519 and they might not succeed, they might take heavy 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:06.259 losses, and people might want to retreat. The 00:17:06.259 --> 00:17:08.940 king would order, burn the ships. And the idea 00:17:08.940 --> 00:17:11.339 is, if you've burnt the ships, there is nowhere 00:17:11.339 --> 00:17:14.799 to retreat to, right? Now we're all in. And it 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:18.539 occurred to me two things. out of that. The first 00:17:18.539 --> 00:17:20.680 one was, it went back to years and years and 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:24.700 years ago. I think we took a work call, but he 00:17:24.700 --> 00:17:27.319 can hear this object lesson later. We were at 00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:29.880 a gaming convention, and at that time it was 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:32.400 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And we were playing 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:35.779 a pirate crew, and we charged onto the boat to 00:17:35.779 --> 00:17:40.259 take this ship, right? And we were maybe a little 00:17:40.259 --> 00:17:42.980 bit outmatched. They had a bigger crew than we 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:46.529 did. And Brother Ron was playing the bosun, which 00:17:46.529 --> 00:17:48.490 is the bosun in the pirate days and sailing days 00:17:48.490 --> 00:17:50.029 was the guy with the biggest mouth, basically. 00:17:50.230 --> 00:17:54.509 And so very loud. And so we're trying to demoralize 00:17:54.509 --> 00:17:58.750 the troops. And Brother Ron yells in character, 00:17:58.789 --> 00:18:02.670 mind you, he yells, take no prisoners, no surrender 00:18:02.670 --> 00:18:07.430 about the enemy troops. And instead of having 00:18:07.430 --> 00:18:09.970 the effect of them wanting to surrender or quitting 00:18:09.970 --> 00:18:12.000 fighting, They immediately went, uh -oh, they're 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:13.279 not going to take any prisoners. So they started 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:16.519 fighting a lot harder. So as I was cleaning and 00:18:16.519 --> 00:18:17.759 I was listening to that song, I was thinking 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:19.880 about that. I was thinking about, you realize, 00:18:20.059 --> 00:18:24.900 as Christians, there is no surrender. So we talk 00:18:24.900 --> 00:18:26.880 about surrendering to God, surrendering something 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:29.000 to God, giving God over control, right? And that's 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:31.539 what being a Christian is. We let God lead us, 00:18:31.660 --> 00:18:35.460 teach us, protect us, provide for us. We surrender 00:18:35.460 --> 00:18:37.279 the things that we can take into our own power, 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:39.140 into his power, because that's so much better. 00:18:39.660 --> 00:18:41.460 But surrender isn't necessarily the right word. 00:18:41.500 --> 00:18:45.240 Surrender is a human way of expressing what we're 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:47.819 doing spiritually, right? It's a mouth way of 00:18:47.819 --> 00:18:49.200 doing what's happening with your heart, like 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:50.859 we've been talking about in our sermons, the 00:18:50.859 --> 00:18:53.740 circumcision of the heart. But the other thing 00:18:53.740 --> 00:18:56.420 that occurred to me at that same time was, when 00:18:56.420 --> 00:18:59.460 it comes to being a Christian, there is now no 00:18:59.460 --> 00:19:02.990 surrender. You're in. You've accepted Jesus Christ 00:19:02.990 --> 00:19:04.470 as your Lord and Savior, if you indeed have, 00:19:04.589 --> 00:19:07.150 and you now will live for Jesus, with Jesus, 00:19:07.349 --> 00:19:09.890 with him in person, his Holy Spirit in you, doing 00:19:09.890 --> 00:19:11.890 things that you've committed to do for the rest 00:19:11.890 --> 00:19:16.609 of your life. Eternal life. Life beyond death, 00:19:16.730 --> 00:19:19.150 even. So that's what it is. There's no going 00:19:19.150 --> 00:19:21.109 back. Jesus said it this way. He said, if a man 00:19:21.109 --> 00:19:23.849 should put his hand in a plow and then look back, 00:19:24.309 --> 00:19:28.210 he is not fit for the kingdom of God, Jesus said. 00:19:28.609 --> 00:19:31.630 There is now no surrender. You don't want to 00:19:31.630 --> 00:19:33.430 look back at the things of your old life and 00:19:33.430 --> 00:19:35.329 yearn for them or whatever. And so I was thinking 00:19:35.329 --> 00:19:38.789 about it as I heard that lyric, burn the ships, 00:19:38.869 --> 00:19:40.650 I was thinking about how that's what I did when 00:19:40.650 --> 00:19:43.410 I got saved. I said, there's all this stuff that 00:19:43.410 --> 00:19:45.730 I want. It's all part of my personality. I don't 00:19:45.730 --> 00:19:47.109 know what if it's good and what if it's bad. 00:19:47.309 --> 00:19:49.650 But I just said, Lord, I'm going to drop it all 00:19:49.650 --> 00:19:53.069 in favor of this one thing, unity with you, that 00:19:53.069 --> 00:19:55.329 I could be yours. And I put it all behind me. 00:19:55.650 --> 00:19:58.410 And then, you know, some of it, God said, no, 00:19:58.410 --> 00:20:01.250 you take this. This is good. Keep that. Use that 00:20:01.250 --> 00:20:03.190 for my glory and things like that. But most of 00:20:03.190 --> 00:20:06.569 it, most of what I was and the way I acted and 00:20:06.569 --> 00:20:09.150 stuff, it all was on the ships. And the ships 00:20:09.150 --> 00:20:12.250 were burnt. I wasn't going back. And here's what's 00:20:12.250 --> 00:20:14.289 interesting. This is what never happened to me 00:20:14.289 --> 00:20:17.490 before. As I was playing Burn the Ships on my 00:20:17.490 --> 00:20:20.130 phone, I selected it and I left it sitting on 00:20:20.130 --> 00:20:23.859 the desk. Before the first song, before the first 00:20:23.859 --> 00:20:25.079 time played through, it's about three minutes 00:20:25.079 --> 00:20:26.660 and 14 seconds or something like that, but the 00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:28.859 first time played through, I had already moved 00:20:28.859 --> 00:20:31.019 stuff off of the shelves between me and my phone. 00:20:32.500 --> 00:20:35.119 So I had no easy way to get back to my phone. 00:20:35.259 --> 00:20:37.660 And while you might be able to say, okay, whatever 00:20:37.660 --> 00:20:39.140 your phone's name is, and it will talk to you, 00:20:39.160 --> 00:20:40.880 I don't do that. I don't have that set up on 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:42.500 my phone. So I have no easy way to change the 00:20:42.500 --> 00:20:45.539 song. So for the next roughly hour, as I'm cleaning 00:20:45.539 --> 00:20:47.640 and going through bin after bin of stuff, finding 00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:49.980 all this stuff, and I got some cool stuff. Saved 00:20:49.980 --> 00:20:51.799 myself like a hundred bucks one time. It was 00:20:51.799 --> 00:20:53.880 pretty fun. Sometimes going through your storage 00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:56.500 stuff can be very useful. But it's playing over 00:20:56.500 --> 00:20:59.099 and over again. And here's what happened. Every 00:20:59.099 --> 00:21:03.299 time they sang Burn the Ships, which is part 00:21:03.299 --> 00:21:04.839 of the chorus, so it's like two times or three 00:21:04.839 --> 00:21:08.099 times in each song, for an hour, every time they 00:21:08.099 --> 00:21:10.799 said Burn the Ships, the Holy Spirit in me went, 00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:13.420 there it is. Pay attention to that. Now the song 00:21:13.420 --> 00:21:15.460 is playing in the background, like Muzak or something, 00:21:15.559 --> 00:21:17.160 just playing. I wasn't hearing most of the song. 00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:21.279 But every time they said burn the ships, the 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:22.660 Holy Spirit went, there it is, pay attention 00:21:22.660 --> 00:21:26.940 to that, pay attention to that. And why did the 00:21:26.940 --> 00:21:30.799 Holy Spirit do that like a hundred times in an 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:36.220 hour? Because that's part of the message of what 00:21:36.220 --> 00:21:38.579 the Holy Spirit is trying to get us to see and 00:21:38.579 --> 00:21:42.019 do and believe every day. It's not that he was 00:21:42.019 --> 00:21:43.660 saying, hey, there's something you haven't heard 00:21:43.660 --> 00:21:46.339 before. He was saying, hey, that's part of what 00:21:46.339 --> 00:21:50.200 I've been telling you. So if the message is God 00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:52.420 loves you, and you should be saying that all 00:21:52.420 --> 00:21:54.779 the time, by the way, everywhere you go, get 00:21:54.779 --> 00:21:56.900 these words in your mouth, God loves you and 00:21:56.900 --> 00:21:58.660 God bless you, especially that one, because if 00:21:58.660 --> 00:22:01.200 the person is unsaved, when you tell them God 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.460 bless you, what is the blessing they need? Salvation. 00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:05.559 If the person is saved and you tell them God 00:22:05.559 --> 00:22:07.220 bless you, what is the blessing they need? A 00:22:07.220 --> 00:22:09.880 continuing walk with Christ, right? So you should 00:22:09.880 --> 00:22:11.720 be saying God bless you everywhere you go. And 00:22:11.720 --> 00:22:13.119 every chance you get, if somebody texts you, 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:14.940 text them back God bless you. Every time you 00:22:14.940 --> 00:22:17.500 can. Because we need to ask God to bless this 00:22:17.500 --> 00:22:20.099 world because this world is not in a very good 00:22:20.099 --> 00:22:24.059 place. But that being said, if it's part of who 00:22:24.059 --> 00:22:27.559 you are, part of your message, then every time 00:22:27.559 --> 00:22:32.339 it comes up, you go, yep. So when we were kids, 00:22:32.619 --> 00:22:36.140 I'll close with this. When we were kids, there 00:22:36.140 --> 00:22:40.660 were certain sayings, or certain things that 00:22:40.660 --> 00:22:42.700 would come up, somebody would say it, and my 00:22:42.700 --> 00:22:45.119 dad or my mom or our family would always say 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:47.059 the same things over and over again when that 00:22:47.059 --> 00:22:50.119 happened. It was part of who identified us, right? 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:53.660 So, for example, if I said something like, I 00:22:53.660 --> 00:22:55.519 never stubbed my toe going through the living 00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:57.740 room, then I would go through the living room 00:22:57.740 --> 00:23:00.579 and stub my toe, and my dad would say, chickens 00:23:00.579 --> 00:23:04.099 always come home to roost. If he's listening 00:23:04.099 --> 00:23:06.160 to this, he'd probably, yeah, he still says that 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:08.279 to this day, right? So the point is, there were 00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:11.700 things that we would always do that became part 00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:14.559 of who we are. It's time that we realize there 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:16.859 are certain things that are a part of who we 00:23:16.859 --> 00:23:19.500 are. Reaching new heights in Jesus. You understand 00:23:19.500 --> 00:23:21.480 that? That's about growing a little bit every 00:23:21.480 --> 00:23:23.259 day, being more like Jesus every day, hearing 00:23:23.259 --> 00:23:25.140 from God. That's part of who we are. You should 00:23:25.140 --> 00:23:27.940 be using that phrase. Every time you see a text, 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:29.619 every time you see it on Facebook, I was reading 00:23:29.619 --> 00:23:31.119 an article this morning, which I'm going to quote 00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:34.500 in my sermon, and the guy says, I hope that by 00:23:34.500 --> 00:23:36.779 learning... a little bit more about this topic, 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:39.619 you have reached new heights today. And the spirit 00:23:39.619 --> 00:23:43.079 in me went, oh! Because it's reaching new heights, 00:23:43.099 --> 00:23:45.200 right? I was online and I was searching for something 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:47.279 and I bumped into New Heights Gymnastics, which 00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:49.200 is an actual gymnastics place. There's like several 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:51.380 of them all across the country, right? And the 00:23:51.380 --> 00:23:55.099 spirit went, oh! That's it. You should get used 00:23:55.099 --> 00:23:57.720 to the things that are of the kingdom. And I'm 00:23:57.720 --> 00:23:59.099 not saying you've got to learn great big words 00:23:59.099 --> 00:24:01.099 like propitiation, sanctification, justification, 00:24:01.660 --> 00:24:03.839 gratification. Oh, that's not one, is it? That's 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:06.380 a worldly word. But anyway, the point is, you 00:24:06.380 --> 00:24:07.740 don't have to learn what all those words mean, 00:24:07.779 --> 00:24:09.160 but what I'm saying is there are certain things 00:24:09.160 --> 00:24:13.599 about who Jesus is. If someone says go, and they're 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:16.099 trying to tell you to go and do something, you 00:24:16.099 --> 00:24:17.680 should probably know that the word go occurs 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:20.900 a few times in the New Testament. Someone says 00:24:20.900 --> 00:24:23.119 love, they say, well, you don't love me because 00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:25.819 you say this or you do that, or he tells me I 00:24:25.819 --> 00:24:27.980 have to do this because if I love him, I'll do 00:24:27.980 --> 00:24:31.069 it. Now, you should know that that's not the 00:24:31.069 --> 00:24:32.730 kind of love that God is talking about, right? 00:24:32.890 --> 00:24:36.890 What they mean is control, lust, envy, jealousy, 00:24:36.970 --> 00:24:39.269 like that. So we should have certain things that 00:24:39.269 --> 00:24:40.750 we know that's part of what the Holy Spirit is 00:24:40.750 --> 00:24:42.470 teaching us all the time. And every time we come 00:24:42.470 --> 00:24:44.309 up, we should go, hey! You know, and I'm the 00:24:44.309 --> 00:24:46.650 same way. I've started doing that. But don't 00:24:46.650 --> 00:24:48.509 be surprised if I do it a few times because that's 00:24:48.509 --> 00:24:52.009 what I felt like a hundred times at least when 00:24:52.009 --> 00:24:53.529 that song played over and over again. I can't 00:24:53.529 --> 00:24:54.710 tell you most of the rest of the lyrics, but 00:24:54.710 --> 00:24:57.880 I got that words ingrained in my brain. Baby, 00:24:58.099 --> 00:25:02.000 you want to follow Jesus? Burn the ships. Let's 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:07.980 pray. Father in heaven, I'm blessed. Having you 00:25:07.980 --> 00:25:10.039 as my God, not even knowing all of what that 00:25:10.039 --> 00:25:15.160 means. I'm blessed. Having this life that you've 00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:19.279 given me full of people for me to love and people 00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:21.480 that I don't even know that I'm supposed to love. 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:26.170 People whose names I've never learned. whose 00:25:26.170 --> 00:25:30.009 eyes I've never looked in. There's people on 00:25:30.009 --> 00:25:32.049 Facebook, for example, or on social media that 00:25:32.049 --> 00:25:33.470 will post something, and I'm like, I don't even 00:25:33.470 --> 00:25:35.430 remember where I met that person or how I became 00:25:35.430 --> 00:25:37.349 friends with them on Facebook. Some of them are 00:25:37.349 --> 00:25:39.529 all over the country, and they're a difficult 00:25:39.529 --> 00:25:43.210 spot. And in me is the desire, and I'll send 00:25:43.210 --> 00:25:45.269 them a text and say, God loves you, and so do 00:25:45.269 --> 00:25:48.849 we. And I can say that with certainty. It's a 00:25:48.849 --> 00:25:51.779 real thing. Because I know You are God and You 00:25:51.779 --> 00:25:54.039 love us. And You love us when we would be, by 00:25:54.039 --> 00:25:57.700 all human standards, unlovable. You love the 00:25:57.700 --> 00:26:01.460 unborn. You love the not yet dying. And You have 00:26:01.460 --> 00:26:04.579 so loved all those who wept before us that You 00:26:04.579 --> 00:26:08.940 sent Your Son, Jesus, to foster a seed to Abraham 00:26:08.940 --> 00:26:11.440 that will last for eternity and will go to heaven 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:14.539 and live with You. I know that we're living in 00:26:14.539 --> 00:26:16.660 difficult times. I'm asking You, Lord, please 00:26:16.660 --> 00:26:20.660 get the reins of our nation. Not in such a way 00:26:20.660 --> 00:26:23.339 that you would have to destroy or in such a way 00:26:23.339 --> 00:26:26.400 that tons and tons of people need to be punished. 00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:28.599 I'm not praying for punishment. I'm praying for 00:26:28.599 --> 00:26:33.500 grace. Lord, get the reins of our church. That 00:26:33.500 --> 00:26:35.359 there is someone here today who claims that he 00:26:35.359 --> 00:26:37.380 or she is the church and they are not submitting 00:26:37.380 --> 00:26:39.079 to You, Lord, then get the reins of their heart. 00:26:39.539 --> 00:26:41.839 And again, I'm not praying for punishment. I'm 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:43.940 not praying for chastisement. I'm praying for 00:26:43.940 --> 00:26:47.940 grace. And I believe that chastisement and punishment 00:26:47.940 --> 00:26:53.359 by You, is grace. It's part of it. Lord, I thank 00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:56.619 you for the sacrifice that you made. Everything 00:26:56.619 --> 00:27:00.839 we have, every penny, every moment, every word, 00:27:01.059 --> 00:27:03.740 every action, every flexing of every muscle, 00:27:03.859 --> 00:27:07.279 every replication of every cell, every breath 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:11.619 we take in, every moment praying along with some 00:27:11.619 --> 00:27:15.440 guy who's too long -winded, Lord, it's all yours. 00:27:16.360 --> 00:27:18.400 And we ask you to use it to glorify yourself. 00:27:20.359 --> 00:27:22.380 We ask you to help us praise you with these last 00:27:22.380 --> 00:27:25.740 few songs. We ask you to help us praise you with 00:27:25.740 --> 00:27:27.420 our gifts of our tithes and offerings. And we 00:27:27.420 --> 00:27:29.259 know the tithe is not really a gift. It's your 00:27:29.259 --> 00:27:33.819 money anyway. It's all your money, 100%. And 00:27:33.819 --> 00:27:36.640 we just ask you, Lord, to use it as you see fit. 00:27:37.019 --> 00:27:39.240 I thank you that there are people all over the 00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:40.660 world having the opportunity to listen to our 00:27:40.660 --> 00:27:43.799 podcast. stumble on topics about Jesus, about 00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:46.380 the Word, about the Bible, about the Holy Spirit, 00:27:46.579 --> 00:27:48.480 about what it means to reach new heights in Jesus. 00:27:48.700 --> 00:27:51.019 I thank You there are people, strangers, completely 00:27:51.019 --> 00:27:52.839 unknown, that will reach out and say, how do 00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:56.480 I watch? How do I listen? I thank You that there 00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:59.500 are lists, dozens long of people in the Toledo 00:27:59.500 --> 00:28:00.859 area who say that they're looking for a new church 00:28:00.859 --> 00:28:04.140 home. And I see that the fields are white unto 00:28:04.140 --> 00:28:06.680 the harvest. And I pray that You will send Your 00:28:06.680 --> 00:28:08.279 workers, and I know that that probably means 00:28:08.279 --> 00:28:12.980 You'll send us. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful 00:28:12.980 --> 00:28:16.119 because you are my God. Even though I don't always 00:28:16.119 --> 00:28:19.380 know what that means. Bless us as you see fit. 00:28:19.559 --> 00:28:53.919 And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank 00:28:53.919 --> 00:33:54.750 you. and sung this song on a little bus across 00:33:54.750 --> 00:33:58.549 town in UP, Marquette, Michigan. Sang it so loud 00:33:58.549 --> 00:34:02.890 that one of the people on the bus got upset and 00:34:02.890 --> 00:34:04.890 asked us to stop. They got off the bus and right 00:34:04.890 --> 00:34:06.690 afterwards the bus driver asked us to start singing 00:34:06.690 --> 00:38:07.300 again. Amen. Pastor Dan, that has been many, 00:38:07.400 --> 00:38:09.460 many, many, many memories over the years because 00:38:09.460 --> 00:38:13.159 I have been with you in some way or another since 00:38:13.159 --> 00:38:17.719 sixth grade. And this past Thursday was Pastor 00:38:17.719 --> 00:38:22.400 Dan's birthday. And as I was thinking, I was 00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:24.760 like, man, you know what? This guy does lots 00:38:24.760 --> 00:38:27.239 of crazy things. And I have lots of crazy memories 00:38:27.239 --> 00:38:29.059 with him. So I started thinking, what's something 00:38:29.059 --> 00:38:32.639 crazy that the church could give him for his 00:38:32.639 --> 00:38:36.130 birthday? So, Pastor Dan. What? Rapid weasels. 00:38:38.369 --> 00:38:42.010 So, Pastor Dan, I forgot to wrap your present, 00:38:42.070 --> 00:38:47.170 so in the tradition of MacGyvering, as we sometimes 00:38:47.170 --> 00:38:50.630 do, this is a trash bag wrapping gift, and it 00:38:50.630 --> 00:38:52.949 smells really good, so you know if you want to 00:38:52.949 --> 00:38:55.469 save it. So, on behalf of the New Heights Fellowship, 00:38:55.489 --> 00:38:57.650 we have a good present and a card for you. Enjoy. 00:38:58.789 --> 00:39:00.730 Amen. For a minute I thought you were just going 00:39:00.730 --> 00:39:04.289 to rub it in, but now I got a gift. Praise God. 00:39:04.780 --> 00:42:09.170 Thank you. The last thing I need Thank you. Thank 00:42:09.170 --> 00:42:45.159 you. So once again, as I've been studying this 00:42:45.159 --> 00:42:47.500 sermon series, which felt like the Lord laid 00:42:47.500 --> 00:42:52.239 on my heart a few weeks back, I have since realized 00:42:52.239 --> 00:42:55.639 that every single one of these sermons could 00:42:55.639 --> 00:43:02.719 be at length like a book for me. And so it's 00:43:02.719 --> 00:43:04.820 been challenging for me, as you may have seen 00:43:04.820 --> 00:43:08.380 last week, to sort of boil it down into something 00:43:08.380 --> 00:43:10.920 that I could bring to you and try to make sure 00:43:10.920 --> 00:43:14.190 I do a good job with it. That does not change 00:43:14.190 --> 00:43:17.769 today. So I'm asking you to be a part and have 00:43:17.769 --> 00:43:21.690 your thinking caps on as we're going to do a 00:43:21.690 --> 00:43:25.630 quick survey of where we've been. Largely, we've 00:43:25.630 --> 00:43:27.190 been following the circumcision of the heart. 00:43:27.570 --> 00:43:30.590 And we started out with the understanding that 00:43:30.590 --> 00:43:32.889 the circumcision is not of a physical part of 00:43:32.889 --> 00:43:34.750 your body, but rather of your internal being. 00:43:34.869 --> 00:43:36.670 And that is what makes us a Christian. And we 00:43:36.670 --> 00:43:39.070 become alive the moment we're born again. Get 00:43:39.070 --> 00:43:41.369 circumcision of the heart. At that point in time, 00:43:41.409 --> 00:43:44.010 we begin living for the Lord. We followed that 00:43:44.010 --> 00:43:47.010 logic through to the end last week of a key point, 00:43:47.150 --> 00:43:49.909 which was that the Holy Spirit who is now in 00:43:49.909 --> 00:43:52.469 us, if you have been saved, the Holy Spirit is 00:43:52.469 --> 00:43:56.690 in you. He is actively working to kill sin and 00:43:56.690 --> 00:43:58.869 wants you to actually be a part of that fight. 00:43:59.320 --> 00:44:01.800 And as we got to Romans 8 and we read the words 00:44:01.800 --> 00:44:04.139 that says, there is now therefore no more condemnation, 00:44:04.179 --> 00:44:06.699 meaning now since we've become Christians, there 00:44:06.699 --> 00:44:08.860 is no judgment, there is no going back, there 00:44:08.860 --> 00:44:12.239 is really no sin that changes anything about 00:44:12.239 --> 00:44:15.519 your condition between you and God because of 00:44:15.519 --> 00:44:18.360 what we read in Romans 7, which was that you 00:44:18.360 --> 00:44:20.119 are an active part in the fight with the Holy 00:44:20.119 --> 00:44:23.789 Spirit to destroy sin. So because we are in the 00:44:23.789 --> 00:44:26.289 fight, and some days we may win or lose, and 00:44:26.289 --> 00:44:28.530 the battle rages forward and backwards, and some 00:44:28.530 --> 00:44:29.869 days you do really well, and some days you don't 00:44:29.869 --> 00:44:32.289 do as well, and so on. But because of that, there 00:44:32.289 --> 00:44:36.599 is now therefore no more condemnation. All of 00:44:36.599 --> 00:44:38.659 this essentially is coming out of, up until this 00:44:38.659 --> 00:44:40.599 point anyway, I think we've got two left and 00:44:40.599 --> 00:44:42.900 they don't necessarily specifically as clearly 00:44:42.900 --> 00:44:44.940 come out of this verse, but all this has been 00:44:44.940 --> 00:44:47.719 coming out of Romans chapter 2 and in particular 00:44:47.719 --> 00:44:50.039 2 .29 which is our verse for today. So if you 00:44:50.039 --> 00:44:51.900 haven't done so already, maybe take a breath, 00:44:51.940 --> 00:44:54.079 hoot, holler, get excited, stomp your feet as 00:44:54.079 --> 00:45:00.280 we go to Romans 2 .29. Alright. Thank you. I 00:45:00.280 --> 00:45:02.119 heard one more stomper. I wasn't the only stomper. 00:45:03.139 --> 00:45:07.039 Alright. So Romans 2 .29 then was kind of the 00:45:07.039 --> 00:45:09.980 end of the discussion of what we're summarizing, 00:45:09.980 --> 00:45:11.480 everything we've been talking about, the circumcision 00:45:11.480 --> 00:45:13.739 of the heart. And 2 .29 says, but he is a Jew 00:45:13.739 --> 00:45:16.800 who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that 00:45:16.800 --> 00:45:19.019 which is of the heart, and we talked about that, 00:45:19.039 --> 00:45:21.539 by the spirit, and we talked about that, not 00:45:21.539 --> 00:45:22.980 by the letter. Actually, that was last week's 00:45:22.980 --> 00:45:25.460 sermon, right? Spirit over letter. And then it 00:45:25.460 --> 00:45:29.019 says, and his praise is not from men, but from 00:45:29.019 --> 00:45:32.489 God. His praise is not from men, but from God. 00:45:32.550 --> 00:45:36.329 And that brings us to our sermon, if you will, 00:45:36.489 --> 00:45:41.389 for today. And so we're going to talk about how 00:45:41.389 --> 00:45:45.280 we've been freed. All right? Because we've been 00:45:45.280 --> 00:45:48.099 freed through war, we've been freed through the 00:45:48.099 --> 00:45:49.639 ending of a relationship. You may have been in 00:45:49.639 --> 00:45:51.219 a relationship with somebody and they were a 00:45:51.219 --> 00:45:53.719 bad influence on you and then you broke up. You 00:45:53.719 --> 00:45:55.360 might not even have wanted to be broken up from 00:45:55.360 --> 00:45:57.320 them or separated from them, but from the moment 00:45:57.320 --> 00:45:59.539 that you were no longer with them, you were essentially 00:45:59.539 --> 00:46:07.579 freed and so on. You may have had a job that 00:46:07.579 --> 00:46:08.820 you were working at and you thought, man, this 00:46:08.820 --> 00:46:13.139 is the greatest job in the world and I'm... I'm 00:46:13.139 --> 00:46:14.840 glad to be here. I'm making good money and whatever. 00:46:15.139 --> 00:46:16.699 And then all of a sudden the job was taken from 00:46:16.699 --> 00:46:18.719 you and then you got on to looking for a new 00:46:18.719 --> 00:46:20.340 job, found a new job and realized that your old 00:46:20.340 --> 00:46:21.539 job that you thought was the greatest job in 00:46:21.539 --> 00:46:22.719 the world wasn't the greatest job in the world. 00:46:22.780 --> 00:46:24.539 It was really sort of just holding you back from 00:46:24.539 --> 00:46:26.559 the greatest job in the world. So we get freed 00:46:26.559 --> 00:46:30.809 when things in our lives change. And these verses 00:46:30.809 --> 00:46:33.170 are talking about how we get freed. Listen to 00:46:33.170 --> 00:46:36.110 what he says. He says, now his praise is not 00:46:36.110 --> 00:46:38.510 from men, but from God. And so the very first 00:46:38.510 --> 00:46:40.349 thing that you can see, I think clearly in that 00:46:40.349 --> 00:46:43.409 little phrase, is that we now have an audience 00:46:43.409 --> 00:46:48.309 of one. Here's a parable for you. Circle World 00:46:48.309 --> 00:46:52.469 War II, somewhere in Europe. There's a young 00:46:52.469 --> 00:46:56.130 lady and she was becoming an actress. She was... 00:46:56.730 --> 00:47:00.190 had her first role in a major play. She was the 00:47:00.190 --> 00:47:02.590 lead character. It had singing parts. It was 00:47:02.590 --> 00:47:05.250 a musical. And she prepared and prepared and 00:47:05.250 --> 00:47:08.789 practiced and just didn't really feel capable 00:47:08.789 --> 00:47:12.150 of doing the job. But opening night comes nonetheless, 00:47:12.429 --> 00:47:16.769 right? And so on opening night, she goes, she's 00:47:16.769 --> 00:47:18.530 behind stage and she's nervous and she's wringing 00:47:18.530 --> 00:47:20.789 her hands and her hands are sweaty and she's 00:47:20.789 --> 00:47:24.500 walking around. It comes time for the curtain 00:47:24.500 --> 00:47:26.119 to come up on the very first scene. And the first 00:47:26.119 --> 00:47:27.940 scene of the play, the opening scene of the play, 00:47:27.980 --> 00:47:30.699 is her and her alone on stage. And she starts 00:47:30.699 --> 00:47:33.019 talking and then she's got to sing a part which 00:47:33.019 --> 00:47:35.239 basically explains to everybody what her character 00:47:35.239 --> 00:47:39.679 is for the rest of the show, right? And so she 00:47:39.679 --> 00:47:41.820 goes out on stage and they open the curtain and 00:47:41.820 --> 00:47:44.599 guess how many people are in the audience? None. 00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:49.780 Zero. There's nobody there for the play. And 00:47:49.780 --> 00:47:52.420 so she stammers over her first line as she realizes 00:47:52.420 --> 00:47:56.380 that there's nobody there. And the director is 00:47:56.380 --> 00:47:59.440 off backstage and he says, just go. Just do it. 00:47:59.920 --> 00:48:02.760 And he probably knew there was nobody on before 00:48:02.760 --> 00:48:04.059 the curtain went up. I don't know. But anyway, 00:48:04.219 --> 00:48:06.420 he says, just go. So she starts to act, right? 00:48:06.460 --> 00:48:09.380 And she realizes suddenly, what? There's no pressure. 00:48:09.559 --> 00:48:11.179 This is just like another rehearsal. In fact, 00:48:11.179 --> 00:48:13.219 it's actually easier than another rehearsal because 00:48:13.219 --> 00:48:15.480 the people who are training her are not sitting 00:48:15.480 --> 00:48:17.619 in the audience coaching her and correcting her. 00:48:18.280 --> 00:48:21.719 and causing her all kinds of nervousness. And 00:48:21.719 --> 00:48:24.440 so she's acting out the play and she gets all 00:48:24.440 --> 00:48:27.380 of her lines correct. Every line is just right. 00:48:28.280 --> 00:48:31.619 And then she sings the songs and every note is 00:48:31.619 --> 00:48:34.000 not perfect, but it's good. It's at least as 00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:35.500 good as what she practiced or better and she's 00:48:35.500 --> 00:48:38.679 feeling pretty good. And so other characters 00:48:38.679 --> 00:48:40.360 come on the stage, she interacts with them and 00:48:40.360 --> 00:48:41.559 they're all carrying it out and they all deal 00:48:41.559 --> 00:48:43.199 with that momentary realization that they're 00:48:43.199 --> 00:48:46.320 doing a play in front of nobody. And then... 00:48:46.699 --> 00:48:49.539 They get about a third of the way through the 00:48:49.539 --> 00:48:55.699 play and somebody comes in and sits down to watch. 00:48:56.940 --> 00:49:01.179 One person. An older gentleman. Somebody passes 00:49:01.179 --> 00:49:03.360 the word that he's a connoisseur of the arts, 00:49:03.400 --> 00:49:06.059 that he's pretty knowledgeable about plays and 00:49:06.059 --> 00:49:07.780 stuff like that. He's written articles. He's 00:49:07.780 --> 00:49:12.579 done things. And so they want to do a good job 00:49:12.579 --> 00:49:17.119 for him. But it's just one guy. Just one. And 00:49:17.119 --> 00:49:18.639 so they're kind of like, well, he could make 00:49:18.639 --> 00:49:20.840 or break our play depending on what he says outside, 00:49:21.119 --> 00:49:23.360 but at the same time, he's just one guy. And 00:49:23.360 --> 00:49:25.840 so they're in this conundrum, but what are they 00:49:25.840 --> 00:49:26.800 going to do? They're already in the middle of 00:49:26.800 --> 00:49:28.840 the play. They do the best they can. They could 00:49:28.840 --> 00:49:30.639 put on a pretty good performance, sing the songs, 00:49:30.639 --> 00:49:34.820 and so on. The show ends with just him in the 00:49:34.820 --> 00:49:40.340 audience. And when he writes his article in the 00:49:40.340 --> 00:49:43.159 paper the next day, he doesn't say the crowd 00:49:43.159 --> 00:49:45.840 was full. He didn't say the crowd was empty. 00:49:46.039 --> 00:49:47.780 He didn't say that there was nobody there when 00:49:47.780 --> 00:49:52.460 he arrived. He says, this is a good play. He 00:49:52.460 --> 00:49:56.059 did a good job. And the next night when the play 00:49:56.059 --> 00:49:59.309 opens, there's more people in the audience. and 00:49:59.309 --> 00:50:01.769 then they go and tell. But, of course, now, because 00:50:01.769 --> 00:50:03.750 they have been now seen by more people, they're 00:50:03.750 --> 00:50:05.210 a little more nervous or whatever, but they've 00:50:05.210 --> 00:50:06.849 had a whole other night's practice, and they 00:50:06.849 --> 00:50:08.869 got that confirmation from the guy who wrote 00:50:08.869 --> 00:50:10.130 in the newspaper. It's a good play. These guys 00:50:10.130 --> 00:50:11.789 did a good job. So now they have confirmation. 00:50:12.170 --> 00:50:14.409 So now other people come and look at them, and 00:50:14.409 --> 00:50:17.130 then when they do the play, they do an even better 00:50:17.130 --> 00:50:19.949 job, right? It keeps improving. And those people 00:50:19.949 --> 00:50:23.210 go and tell other people, and even more people 00:50:23.210 --> 00:50:25.170 come and see the play. And by the time the audience 00:50:25.170 --> 00:50:31.000 is packed a week later, The play is awesome and 00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:36.739 everybody knows it. When you have an audience 00:50:36.739 --> 00:50:42.960 of one, but it's somebody that you know can make 00:50:42.960 --> 00:50:46.579 a difference, somebody that you know can bring 00:50:46.579 --> 00:50:48.920 you forward, that can take you where you're trying 00:50:48.920 --> 00:50:51.119 to get to and so on, it makes a huge difference. 00:50:52.469 --> 00:50:54.590 When you have an audience of a lot and you're 00:50:54.590 --> 00:50:56.730 not really ready, let's be really truly honest 00:50:56.730 --> 00:50:58.690 for a moment here. How many people in this room 00:50:58.690 --> 00:51:00.449 are comfortable, just flat out comfortable, you 00:51:00.449 --> 00:51:02.789 enjoy doing it, speaking in front of an audience 00:51:02.789 --> 00:51:04.789 of 100 people that you don't know, perfect strangers? 00:51:06.349 --> 00:51:09.269 I mean, it's okay, right? Does anybody really 00:51:09.269 --> 00:51:14.070 feel comfortable? I often find myself when I'm 00:51:14.070 --> 00:51:16.489 talking just in front of you guys that I find 00:51:16.489 --> 00:51:19.780 myself going, I wonder if my fly is zipped. You 00:51:19.780 --> 00:51:22.960 know? Is it? Yeah, it is. Good. That's excellent. 00:51:23.420 --> 00:51:25.460 The point is, is anybody really comfortable on 00:51:25.460 --> 00:51:27.380 this? But if you have an audience of one and 00:51:27.380 --> 00:51:29.500 you know what the expectations are and you can 00:51:29.500 --> 00:51:31.000 do what you're supposed to do in front of that 00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:33.159 person and that person then is able to present 00:51:33.159 --> 00:51:36.199 you as a fine jewel, as a refined performer, 00:51:36.500 --> 00:51:37.739 as somebody who can really do what you're supposed 00:51:37.739 --> 00:51:39.980 to do, you can trust. Preachers learn this. When 00:51:39.980 --> 00:51:41.280 you start a preacher, Arjun, when you start a 00:51:41.280 --> 00:51:43.360 preacher and you sit up here, it's a little nerve 00:51:43.360 --> 00:51:45.059 -wracking, isn't it? It's a huge responsibility. 00:51:45.460 --> 00:51:46.760 But then you go, well, wait a minute. Actually, 00:51:47.759 --> 00:51:49.360 I'm just going to say what God wants me to say 00:51:49.360 --> 00:51:50.360 and I'm going to say it in the way God wants 00:51:50.360 --> 00:51:52.400 me to say it. And then probably, you know, I'm 00:51:52.400 --> 00:51:53.639 going to tick some people off and some other 00:51:53.639 --> 00:51:54.940 people are going to be happy with me and whatever. 00:51:55.099 --> 00:51:56.780 I don't know how it's going to all turn out, 00:51:56.820 --> 00:51:58.699 but this is what I know. It's really about God. 00:51:58.900 --> 00:52:00.619 So I can reasonably say that I'm going to stand 00:52:00.619 --> 00:52:03.179 up and preach even if I was just preaching for 00:52:03.179 --> 00:52:06.300 God. I kid you not, I'm giving you a little inside 00:52:06.300 --> 00:52:08.659 story here, but I preach in my mirror to myself, 00:52:08.820 --> 00:52:10.619 not to you. I don't like practice preaching in 00:52:10.619 --> 00:52:13.679 my mirror, but I preach to myself. I preach to 00:52:13.679 --> 00:52:15.949 myself sometimes when I'm praying. I preach sometimes 00:52:15.949 --> 00:52:17.750 when I'm walking around the yard or whatever, 00:52:17.829 --> 00:52:20.429 just because this is what God has called me to 00:52:20.429 --> 00:52:22.809 do. And if you have an audience of one like that, 00:52:22.969 --> 00:52:26.849 can you not see how powerful that is and can 00:52:26.849 --> 00:52:31.769 be used? Then you have no need to pursue an audience. 00:52:32.380 --> 00:52:34.940 you literally will have for your entire life 00:52:34.940 --> 00:52:37.679 an audience of one. At the same time, God then 00:52:37.679 --> 00:52:39.699 takes Christians and makes them a bit of a spectacle. 00:52:39.780 --> 00:52:42.039 So after you are ready to perform for your audience 00:52:42.039 --> 00:52:44.219 of one, after you've shown God that you actually 00:52:44.219 --> 00:52:45.980 are obedient and faithful, circumcised in the 00:52:45.980 --> 00:52:47.960 heart, fighting sin in yourself, and you really 00:52:47.960 --> 00:52:49.900 actually are living for God, then God is going 00:52:49.900 --> 00:52:51.320 to give you somebody. He's going to walk in, 00:52:51.420 --> 00:52:53.099 like I've had happen a couple times. He's going 00:52:53.099 --> 00:52:55.139 to say, see, you tell me how I can be saved. 00:52:56.639 --> 00:53:00.099 You tell me what I need to do to be saved. And 00:53:00.099 --> 00:53:01.880 if you don't know Acts 16, I suggest you read 00:53:01.880 --> 00:53:03.760 it. Because when that person comes and asks you, 00:53:03.800 --> 00:53:05.360 what do you need to do to be saved? You should 00:53:05.360 --> 00:53:08.500 hear the verses of Acts 16 in your head. Because 00:53:08.500 --> 00:53:10.019 that's the story in which somebody came in and 00:53:10.019 --> 00:53:12.280 said, what must I do to be saved? And they answered 00:53:12.280 --> 00:53:14.659 the question. So you should have that if somebody's 00:53:14.659 --> 00:53:15.840 going to come and ask you that question. But 00:53:15.840 --> 00:53:17.260 even now, you've got a simple understanding. 00:53:17.260 --> 00:53:19.019 You know what you did to be saved. The bottom 00:53:19.019 --> 00:53:21.039 line is, as you present yourself to God, or rather, 00:53:21.099 --> 00:53:24.949 as God presents you to himself, You don't have 00:53:24.949 --> 00:53:27.070 to pursue an audience. You, first of all, already 00:53:27.070 --> 00:53:28.789 have people in your life that you can work with. 00:53:28.869 --> 00:53:30.550 And secondly, God will put you in front of the 00:53:30.550 --> 00:53:31.789 people he wants to put you in front of. He says 00:53:31.789 --> 00:53:33.909 he would send the disciples, and by extension 00:53:33.909 --> 00:53:38.570 the church, in front of kings. And so we have 00:53:38.570 --> 00:53:40.909 an audience of one, according to Romans 2 .29, 00:53:40.969 --> 00:53:45.530 and that is amazingly liberating. You have no 00:53:45.530 --> 00:53:47.610 need to act for an audience. I know this is going 00:53:47.610 --> 00:53:49.289 to be painful for some of you, but the people 00:53:49.289 --> 00:53:50.610 you're sitting with, your friends, your family 00:53:50.610 --> 00:53:52.769 members, or whatever, you don't have to act the 00:53:52.769 --> 00:53:55.780 way they want you to. You have to act the way 00:53:55.780 --> 00:53:59.420 God wants you to. You don't have to say what 00:53:59.420 --> 00:54:02.579 they want you to. You don't have to, wait for 00:54:02.579 --> 00:54:04.079 it now, this will get me in all kinds of trouble 00:54:04.079 --> 00:54:08.539 later, you don't have to obey your parents. You 00:54:08.539 --> 00:54:10.000 do have to honor and obey your parents according 00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:12.739 to Scripture, right? That's what Exodus says. 00:54:12.860 --> 00:54:14.980 But when your parents would tell you to do something 00:54:14.980 --> 00:54:19.480 that's not godly, then you can disobey. I literally 00:54:19.480 --> 00:54:21.440 have taught my kids growing up that if I ever 00:54:21.440 --> 00:54:23.159 ask you to do something that you would say is 00:54:23.159 --> 00:54:25.460 sin against God, I want you to immediately refuse 00:54:25.460 --> 00:54:28.019 me. Now it doesn't mean that I won't punish them. 00:54:28.960 --> 00:54:30.840 I've even warned them of that. If I think it's 00:54:30.840 --> 00:54:32.159 right and they think it's wrong, it's not what 00:54:32.159 --> 00:54:33.260 God would want, then I've given them permission 00:54:33.260 --> 00:54:36.260 to not do what I've told them to do. It doesn't 00:54:36.260 --> 00:54:38.150 mean I won't punish them. Well, what does Scripture 00:54:38.150 --> 00:54:39.610 say about it? You get punished for doing what's 00:54:39.610 --> 00:54:41.210 right, and then God takes care of you and He 00:54:41.210 --> 00:54:42.809 rewards you. When you get punished for doing 00:54:42.809 --> 00:54:44.690 what's wrong, which kids do all the time, and 00:54:44.690 --> 00:54:46.429 so do adults, right? When you get punished for 00:54:46.429 --> 00:54:47.989 doing what's wrong, God is not going to reward 00:54:47.989 --> 00:54:50.809 you for that. You got what you deserved. That's 00:54:50.809 --> 00:54:55.329 just justice. So there's no need for us to act 00:54:55.329 --> 00:54:57.869 for an audience except for if we were going to 00:54:57.869 --> 00:55:00.269 be for God. And if you learn who God is and let 00:55:00.269 --> 00:55:06.130 God work in you, then it is not about... acting 00:55:06.130 --> 00:55:09.289 for God, but in some sense, it's about God acting 00:55:09.289 --> 00:55:13.030 in you, right? And through you. This brings death 00:55:13.030 --> 00:55:20.789 to regret. And properly handled, it brings death 00:55:20.789 --> 00:55:23.389 to fear and worry. Now that's huge for today. 00:55:24.900 --> 00:55:26.800 Do you understand that if you are answering to 00:55:26.800 --> 00:55:30.300 God and God tells you to do, insert whatever, 00:55:30.699 --> 00:55:32.579 even though the rest of the world may hate it, 00:55:32.619 --> 00:55:34.000 even though the rest of the world might be against 00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:35.739 it, and if you're sure, and you should always 00:55:35.739 --> 00:55:37.960 check verses of Scripture, don't get away from 00:55:37.960 --> 00:55:39.099 last week's sermon, right? You should always 00:55:39.099 --> 00:55:40.719 be listening to the Holy Spirit and checking 00:55:40.719 --> 00:55:42.260 verses of Scripture. But if you now have something 00:55:42.260 --> 00:55:45.360 you're supposed to do, like wear odd clothing 00:55:45.360 --> 00:55:48.260 or say something that you normally wouldn't say 00:55:48.260 --> 00:55:51.559 or... intervene in somebody else's life and say, 00:55:51.619 --> 00:55:53.480 hey, I'm here to show up and I'm here to make 00:55:53.480 --> 00:55:54.980 a difference in what situation, tell me what 00:55:54.980 --> 00:55:56.659 situation, let me fix it, let me do what I can. 00:55:57.199 --> 00:56:01.579 If you're supposed to do that, then when you're 00:56:01.579 --> 00:56:03.659 doing that for God, it doesn't really matter 00:56:03.659 --> 00:56:05.539 what other people think. So you don't have to 00:56:05.539 --> 00:56:08.159 fear. If God is for us, who can be against us? 00:56:08.199 --> 00:56:09.780 That's what Scripture says. So you don't have 00:56:09.780 --> 00:56:14.929 to fear doing what seems a little odd. you may 00:56:14.929 --> 00:56:17.130 have to give up certain freedoms or things that 00:56:17.130 --> 00:56:20.190 you think are freedoms in order to be free. In 00:56:20.190 --> 00:56:23.730 other words, sitting home fretting and worrying 00:56:23.730 --> 00:56:25.769 about what tomorrow is going to bring is like 00:56:25.769 --> 00:56:28.309 a human pastime. We're all concerned about what 00:56:28.309 --> 00:56:30.010 our grades are going to be, is the paycheck going 00:56:30.010 --> 00:56:31.369 to be big enough, are the bills going to get 00:56:31.369 --> 00:56:33.510 paid? Sitting and fretting and worrying about 00:56:33.510 --> 00:56:35.530 what the future is going to bring is like a natural... 00:56:36.109 --> 00:56:38.590 fleshly human pastime. And yet, if you have an 00:56:38.590 --> 00:56:40.289 audience of one, what if the bill doesn't get 00:56:40.289 --> 00:56:42.670 paid? What if the money isn't enough? What if 00:56:42.670 --> 00:56:44.369 the thing you're supposed to do tomorrow you 00:56:44.369 --> 00:56:47.929 didn't properly prepare yourself for? Etc. If 00:56:47.929 --> 00:56:49.610 you have an audience of one, you really only 00:56:49.610 --> 00:56:52.110 have to answer to God. And if God wants to take 00:56:52.110 --> 00:56:53.730 you down a different road because you didn't 00:56:53.730 --> 00:56:55.909 do what you were supposed to do, then that's 00:56:55.909 --> 00:56:58.269 up to God. Now, if you know what you're supposed 00:56:58.269 --> 00:57:02.590 to do, of course, then do it. Right? In fact, 00:57:02.590 --> 00:57:04.329 it says in the book of James, if you know what 00:57:04.329 --> 00:57:06.630 to... What's good to do and don't do it? That 00:57:06.630 --> 00:57:08.469 is sin, which is contrary to God. And by the 00:57:08.469 --> 00:57:09.929 way, what is the Holy Spirit trying to kill in 00:57:09.929 --> 00:57:12.929 us again? Bottom line is you need to figure out 00:57:12.929 --> 00:57:15.170 who is your audience. Who are you playing to? 00:57:15.309 --> 00:57:17.909 Who do you care what they think? And you need 00:57:17.909 --> 00:57:20.389 to stop letting that be other human beings for 00:57:20.389 --> 00:57:23.030 the most part. And I'll give you an exception 00:57:23.030 --> 00:57:25.170 to that later. But for the most part, you need 00:57:25.170 --> 00:57:27.070 to stop letting that be other human beings and 00:57:27.070 --> 00:57:33.260 make it totally and completely about God. I'm 00:57:33.260 --> 00:57:34.460 going to stop right there with that thought and 00:57:34.460 --> 00:57:37.340 we'll come back to it. But you know, I hope, 00:57:37.340 --> 00:57:39.719 and if you don't, I'm about to basically tell 00:57:39.719 --> 00:57:42.500 you about it, that Jesus had a bunch of folks 00:57:42.500 --> 00:57:44.260 who were following him. And some of them began 00:57:44.260 --> 00:57:47.079 to believe in him. In fact, there were a number 00:57:47.079 --> 00:57:49.440 of Jews. And there are today, by the way, one 00:57:49.440 --> 00:57:53.639 of the largest growing... of Christianity is 00:57:53.639 --> 00:57:56.119 Jews who are coming to realize that Jesus really 00:57:56.119 --> 00:57:58.280 was the Messiah. It's worldwide. It's one of 00:57:58.280 --> 00:58:00.880 the largest growing areas of Christianity because 00:58:00.880 --> 00:58:02.719 he was really the Messiah. That's why they've 00:58:02.719 --> 00:58:04.599 been taught for so long they're not supposed 00:58:04.599 --> 00:58:06.300 to look at the New Testament but with information 00:58:06.300 --> 00:58:08.400 flow becoming more available and it's kind of 00:58:08.400 --> 00:58:10.099 hard to even Google the internet without bumping 00:58:10.099 --> 00:58:11.699 into the Bible unless you're Googling something 00:58:11.699 --> 00:58:12.920 you probably shouldn't have anything to do with 00:58:12.920 --> 00:58:15.599 and that kind of thing. And so lots and lots 00:58:15.599 --> 00:58:17.239 of Jewish people are now coming to the realization 00:58:17.239 --> 00:58:19.340 but there was then that day people who had come 00:58:19.340 --> 00:58:20.789 to the realization coming out of Judaism And 00:58:20.789 --> 00:58:22.210 they thought, well, we think this guy is a Messiah. 00:58:22.570 --> 00:58:25.250 He's got miracles and incredible things. And 00:58:25.250 --> 00:58:26.710 his teachings are phenomenal. And he comes from 00:58:26.710 --> 00:58:28.389 kind of a mediocre background. So how did he 00:58:28.389 --> 00:58:30.150 get all this? And they started thinking he was. 00:58:30.250 --> 00:58:32.010 And so they believed in Jesus. And Jesus looked 00:58:32.010 --> 00:58:34.409 at those who believed in him. And he says, now 00:58:34.409 --> 00:58:38.349 that you believe in me, come follow me. And then 00:58:38.349 --> 00:58:41.590 you will know the truth. And the truth will set 00:58:41.590 --> 00:58:45.349 you free. Now I understand that you and I might 00:58:45.349 --> 00:58:48.150 want to dumb that down, John 14, 6, and say that 00:58:48.150 --> 00:58:49.710 Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And 00:58:49.710 --> 00:58:51.909 say, come follow me, and then you will know me, 00:58:52.090 --> 00:58:54.309 and then I, being the truth, will set you free. 00:58:54.389 --> 00:58:55.829 You could do that if you really want to do that. 00:58:55.849 --> 00:58:58.349 It's not even a bad extrapolation, but it is 00:58:58.349 --> 00:59:00.210 by no means the whole of what he's talking about, 00:59:00.329 --> 00:59:01.789 right? He's talking about something considerably 00:59:01.789 --> 00:59:04.110 more than that. Because they had already believed 00:59:04.110 --> 00:59:07.389 in him in what he had said. They didn't really 00:59:07.389 --> 00:59:10.489 know him necessarily, personally. but they knew 00:59:10.489 --> 00:59:11.909 him enough to know that what he was saying was 00:59:11.909 --> 00:59:13.510 true. So they had already believed him. It says 00:59:13.510 --> 00:59:15.510 those Jews who had believed in him, to them he 00:59:15.510 --> 00:59:17.869 said that. So when you come follow Jesus, there 00:59:17.869 --> 00:59:21.230 is a process in which God interjects more and 00:59:21.230 --> 00:59:25.469 more, and you eventually will be free. Come, 00:59:25.550 --> 00:59:28.010 then you will know the truth, and the truth will 00:59:28.010 --> 00:59:30.849 set you free. And I submit to you that this is 00:59:30.849 --> 00:59:34.820 a large part of that truth. You live, I live, 00:59:34.940 --> 00:59:37.920 we live, corporately and individually, family, 00:59:38.039 --> 00:59:40.980 familially, oh boy, that's a big word, or on 00:59:40.980 --> 00:59:45.860 your own, you live for an audience of one. And 00:59:45.860 --> 00:59:50.079 that one is not you. Because of what we learned 00:59:50.079 --> 00:59:52.179 last week, Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence 00:59:52.179 --> 00:59:55.019 in us. Our flesh, which had previously, through 00:59:55.019 --> 00:59:57.500 our fleshly desires, used the word to kill us, 00:59:57.760 --> 01:00:00.340 we've now been resurrected, and the us that's 01:00:00.340 --> 01:00:03.440 in us that has been resurrected now lives for 01:00:03.440 --> 01:00:05.840 an audience of one that is not us. Because if 01:00:05.840 --> 01:00:08.300 it was me, then I would be constantly getting 01:00:08.300 --> 01:00:10.219 pushed by my desires and having to do what I 01:00:10.219 --> 01:00:12.340 want to do, right? My flesh wants to do what 01:00:12.340 --> 01:00:16.130 my... My carnal mind wants to do. But no, that's 01:00:16.130 --> 01:00:19.269 not who I live for. I live now for God. And of 01:00:19.269 --> 01:00:21.269 course, Paul wrote it this way. He said, we now 01:00:21.269 --> 01:00:23.690 live not for ourselves, but for He who died for 01:00:23.690 --> 01:00:26.070 us. Talking about Jesus, who was God in the flesh. 01:00:27.289 --> 01:00:30.329 You can be free. You have been freed if you've 01:00:30.329 --> 01:00:32.989 become a follower of God. If God says I'm free, 01:00:33.210 --> 01:00:38.230 I'm free indeed. Whom the Son frees, He is free 01:00:38.230 --> 01:00:44.289 indeed. If you have an audience of one, you have 01:00:44.289 --> 01:00:48.090 been freed. Stop worrying about what other people 01:00:48.090 --> 01:00:51.889 think of your little idiosyncrasies, etc. Now, 01:00:51.929 --> 01:00:54.670 there is a place to pay attention to other people's 01:00:54.670 --> 01:00:57.670 opinions, and we'll get there. Bottom line is, 01:00:57.690 --> 01:00:59.670 first thing out of these, just a short phrase 01:00:59.670 --> 01:01:01.769 that I want you to see there, is that we are 01:01:01.769 --> 01:01:07.190 now freed by having an audience of one. The second 01:01:07.190 --> 01:01:10.960 thing, there must be a humble realization that 01:01:10.960 --> 01:01:14.980 even you don't really know you. Let's get realistic, 01:01:15.300 --> 01:01:17.579 okay? So a number of times I've been posed with 01:01:17.579 --> 01:01:21.000 some hypothetical question like, if you and your 01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:22.599 wife were walking down the street and a guy jumped 01:01:22.599 --> 01:01:26.079 out with a gun, what would you do? Now I have 01:01:26.079 --> 01:01:28.159 some class answers that I might use, things I 01:01:28.159 --> 01:01:30.320 might want to do, things like that. But really 01:01:30.320 --> 01:01:32.940 what they're asking you is, would you interpose 01:01:32.940 --> 01:01:36.920 your life in front of somebody else's life? Would 01:01:36.920 --> 01:01:40.690 you take the bullet? Would you jump out? Would 01:01:40.690 --> 01:01:43.250 you dive on the grenade? Would you take the knife 01:01:43.250 --> 01:01:45.969 slash in order to protect the people that you 01:01:45.969 --> 01:01:49.510 love? And I hope that every man in the room is 01:01:49.510 --> 01:01:51.650 going, boy, yes, I would. Because that's the 01:01:51.650 --> 01:01:52.869 kind of people we're supposed to be. Not only 01:01:52.869 --> 01:01:55.690 for our wives, which is nice, or our daughters, 01:01:55.809 --> 01:01:57.670 or whatever, but really for people in general. 01:01:58.130 --> 01:01:59.949 RJ, if you and I are walking down the street 01:01:59.949 --> 01:02:01.250 and a guy jumps out with a knife, I'm hoping 01:02:01.250 --> 01:02:06.449 you're jumping in way, okay? I mean, I'm hoping 01:02:06.449 --> 01:02:09.820 I'm jumping in the way. Well, whatever. I'm hoping 01:02:09.820 --> 01:02:12.480 RJ and I will be like the little chipmunks. You 01:02:12.480 --> 01:02:13.719 jump on the knife. No, I'll jump on the knife. 01:02:13.760 --> 01:02:17.360 Yes, I'll do it. No, I'll do it. The bottom line 01:02:17.360 --> 01:02:20.460 is there has to be a humble realization that 01:02:20.460 --> 01:02:22.380 in that moment you don't really know what you're 01:02:22.380 --> 01:02:24.300 going to do. Now there are people in this room 01:02:24.300 --> 01:02:26.639 who have been put to the test in the most drastic 01:02:26.639 --> 01:02:30.280 of circumstances that you or I, most of us, have 01:02:30.280 --> 01:02:32.460 not seen. There are military people in the room 01:02:32.460 --> 01:02:34.739 who have been in a fight to the death. There 01:02:34.739 --> 01:02:36.320 have been people in a room who have rescued a 01:02:36.320 --> 01:02:38.219 child from a moving car or who have held the 01:02:38.219 --> 01:02:40.860 hand of a dying loved one while their heart was 01:02:40.860 --> 01:02:45.619 literally breaking for hours or even days. There 01:02:45.619 --> 01:02:47.400 have been people who have sat in a room with 01:02:47.400 --> 01:02:48.739 one of their loved ones and tried to explain 01:02:48.739 --> 01:02:51.320 to them, look, what you're doing is damaging 01:02:51.320 --> 01:02:53.460 to you. You have to put the drugs away or you 01:02:53.460 --> 01:02:56.360 have to give up this illicit sexual relationship. 01:02:57.880 --> 01:03:01.500 Whatever. And they plead and beg and no way of 01:03:01.500 --> 01:03:03.960 getting them to accept the truth and how damaging 01:03:03.960 --> 01:03:05.880 and how bad it is for them. And their heart is 01:03:05.880 --> 01:03:08.239 breaking the whole time and some of us have never 01:03:08.239 --> 01:03:11.659 been there. You have to come to a humble realization 01:03:11.659 --> 01:03:14.659 and understand that you don't even know what 01:03:14.659 --> 01:03:16.920 you would do in those hypothetical situations. 01:03:17.099 --> 01:03:18.780 And I understand they're radical situations. 01:03:19.079 --> 01:03:22.400 You might say, everybody in this room has probably 01:03:22.400 --> 01:03:26.820 been... the caregiver or the person in charge 01:03:26.820 --> 01:03:28.699 making sure that a small child doesn't walk out 01:03:28.699 --> 01:03:30.760 into traffic at some point in time. You probably 01:03:30.760 --> 01:03:32.420 have a brother, a sibling, a friend, you did 01:03:32.420 --> 01:03:34.059 it for church ministry, something. Almost everybody 01:03:34.059 --> 01:03:36.780 has been there. But if they ran out into traffic 01:03:36.780 --> 01:03:39.940 and you're 10 feet away and they're clearly about 01:03:39.940 --> 01:03:43.780 to get hit, do you know, I mean, with absolute 01:03:43.780 --> 01:03:46.059 certainty that you're running out there to try 01:03:46.059 --> 01:03:47.699 to dive and take them to the other side of the 01:03:47.699 --> 01:03:49.199 road or grab them and throw them out of the way 01:03:49.199 --> 01:03:52.900 so you could be hit or whatever? It's hard to 01:03:52.900 --> 01:03:55.099 know what we would do in those situations. I 01:03:55.099 --> 01:03:57.460 get it. They're radical situations. They're nth 01:03:57.460 --> 01:03:59.940 situations. They're the bottom of the barrel. 01:04:00.059 --> 01:04:02.099 You hope you'll never be there. I've been in 01:04:02.099 --> 01:04:04.480 a couple of situations and I still cannot explain 01:04:04.480 --> 01:04:08.719 to you how I found the character or fortitude 01:04:08.719 --> 01:04:10.579 or whatever because I'm here to stand before 01:04:10.579 --> 01:04:12.699 you today. I don't have it. As a human being, 01:04:12.760 --> 01:04:16.619 I do not have it. Before I got saved, I was intimidated 01:04:16.619 --> 01:04:19.840 by everybody. I didn't talk with strangers unless 01:04:19.840 --> 01:04:22.539 I had to. And if I did, it was always in a business 01:04:22.539 --> 01:04:26.460 relationship. And if I wasn't the person in charge, 01:04:26.500 --> 01:04:27.860 like a manager or something like that in a business 01:04:27.860 --> 01:04:29.500 relationship, then I would avoid those conversations. 01:04:29.860 --> 01:04:32.760 I never, ever, ever complained when my food was 01:04:32.760 --> 01:04:37.880 wrong. I wouldn't go to a restaurant. They're 01:04:37.880 --> 01:04:39.519 all listening to my ringtone online right now 01:04:39.519 --> 01:04:40.840 because apparently I forgot to turn it off. That's 01:04:40.840 --> 01:04:44.340 all right. Just ignore it. Anyway, I'll push 01:04:44.340 --> 01:04:51.920 the button. Okay, anyway, so I wouldn't even 01:04:51.920 --> 01:04:54.460 go and order a sandwich plain because I was afraid 01:04:54.460 --> 01:04:56.380 of the minimum wage worker working behind the 01:04:56.380 --> 01:04:58.860 counter thinking badly about me because I don't 01:04:58.860 --> 01:05:03.300 like condiments. And now I have been in situations 01:05:03.300 --> 01:05:05.599 where I've been extremely, I've faced violent 01:05:05.599 --> 01:05:08.019 people, people with weapons, people who are getting 01:05:08.019 --> 01:05:10.039 loud up in my face, people who could have broke 01:05:10.039 --> 01:05:13.139 my neck at an instant, people who could have 01:05:13.139 --> 01:05:17.000 cost me my job like that and found somewhere, 01:05:17.599 --> 01:05:18.940 And I'm going to submit to you it's from God, 01:05:19.039 --> 01:05:20.679 but found somewhere the courage to do the right 01:05:20.679 --> 01:05:22.360 thing under those circumstances and then afterwards 01:05:22.360 --> 01:05:24.019 for God to go, yeah, that was the right thing. 01:05:24.199 --> 01:05:26.079 And I'm going, I'm glad you knew because I totally 01:05:26.079 --> 01:05:29.659 didn't. And some of you have been in much more 01:05:29.659 --> 01:05:31.280 difficult situations than I have and I'm by no 01:05:31.280 --> 01:05:32.719 means trying to set myself out as an example. 01:05:32.719 --> 01:05:34.579 What I'm saying is that we all have to humbly 01:05:34.579 --> 01:05:37.619 realize that even we don't know exactly what 01:05:37.619 --> 01:05:39.679 we would do in a lot of circumstances that we've 01:05:39.679 --> 01:05:43.000 never been in. But this having an audience of 01:05:43.000 --> 01:05:45.880 one and recognizing humbly that you might not 01:05:45.880 --> 01:05:48.119 know yourself all that much comes with a freedom 01:05:48.119 --> 01:05:51.400 so that when the chips are down, when I have 01:05:51.400 --> 01:05:53.960 nothing left, when I don't know what I would 01:05:53.960 --> 01:05:58.199 do, God is with me, will not abandon me, and 01:05:58.199 --> 01:06:05.579 will act through me. If you don't know God, then 01:06:05.579 --> 01:06:07.099 you don't know that He's that kind of a God. 01:06:07.619 --> 01:06:09.280 You don't know that he has that character, that 01:06:09.280 --> 01:06:10.860 he loves you, that he'll go beyond, that he'll 01:06:10.860 --> 01:06:13.789 be there. And if you don't know that... then 01:06:13.789 --> 01:06:16.530 I suggest you retreat back to point A and realize 01:06:16.530 --> 01:06:19.050 that you were born with a fleshly desire to sin. 01:06:19.130 --> 01:06:21.989 You sinned. You need a Savior. Jesus died for 01:06:21.989 --> 01:06:24.550 you. Believe in Him. Accept Him as Lord of your 01:06:24.550 --> 01:06:26.389 life and that God raised Him from the dead. Confess 01:06:26.389 --> 01:06:29.170 that out loud with your mouth and begin today 01:06:29.170 --> 01:06:31.210 to live as a saved Christian with a circumcised 01:06:31.210 --> 01:06:34.510 heart, the Holy Spirit in you, killing sin daily, 01:06:34.590 --> 01:06:37.710 and you and I together, hopefully, but if not, 01:06:37.769 --> 01:06:41.889 then severally, learning. More of what it means 01:06:41.889 --> 01:06:43.849 to belong to Him each day. And one of the things 01:06:43.849 --> 01:06:46.170 that it means is not knowing exactly what I would 01:06:46.170 --> 01:06:48.710 do in the worst of circumstances. This much I 01:06:48.710 --> 01:06:51.829 do know. What God will do. And that is God will 01:06:51.829 --> 01:06:54.429 always show up. He will always be with me. He 01:06:54.429 --> 01:06:57.489 will not abandon me. And He will empower me. 01:06:58.010 --> 01:07:04.210 God will do. Will I? I hope so. But this much 01:07:04.210 --> 01:07:12.900 I know for sure. God will. Some see James chapter 01:07:12.900 --> 01:07:14.739 4, which we're going to go there and look at 01:07:14.739 --> 01:07:16.940 briefly. I thought you were going to get away 01:07:16.940 --> 01:07:19.039 from not turning too many pages today, but not 01:07:19.039 --> 01:07:24.320 so lucky. Some see James chapter 4 as a sort 01:07:24.320 --> 01:07:27.880 of a, oh, what's the word, like a restriction 01:07:27.880 --> 01:07:32.760 or a burden, right? They think of it as a ball 01:07:32.760 --> 01:07:34.659 and chain. And you're going like, what is he 01:07:34.659 --> 01:07:36.280 talking about in James chapter 4? Well, let's 01:07:36.280 --> 01:07:38.960 go look at it. James 4, beginning in verse 12. 01:07:40.039 --> 01:07:42.880 It says this, James 4, beginning in verse 12. 01:07:43.199 --> 01:07:46.559 There is only one lawgiver and judge. Notice 01:07:46.559 --> 01:07:49.039 the emphasis on one. There is one who is able 01:07:49.039 --> 01:07:51.539 to save and destroy. That ain't you. That ain't 01:07:51.539 --> 01:07:54.920 me. That ain't a collected body of us or a president 01:07:54.920 --> 01:07:57.619 or a governor, an officer, a lawyer. There is, 01:07:57.679 --> 01:08:00.019 let me say it again, one lawgiver and judge and 01:08:00.019 --> 01:08:02.860 one who is able to save and destroy. But who 01:08:02.860 --> 01:08:07.070 are you who judge your neighbor? Hear that? And 01:08:07.070 --> 01:08:09.050 in the context of that statement, he goes on 01:08:09.050 --> 01:08:12.889 to say, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow 01:08:12.889 --> 01:08:15.050 we shall go to such and such a city and spend 01:08:15.050 --> 01:08:17.789 a year there and engage in business and make 01:08:17.789 --> 01:08:21.050 a profit. Yet you do not know what your life 01:08:21.050 --> 01:08:23.789 will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that 01:08:23.789 --> 01:08:25.770 appears for a little while and then vanishes 01:08:25.770 --> 01:08:28.869 away. Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord 01:08:28.869 --> 01:08:32.750 wills, we shall live and also do this or that. 01:08:33.470 --> 01:08:38.470 But as it is, You boast in your arrogance. All 01:08:38.470 --> 01:08:42.909 such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who 01:08:42.909 --> 01:08:45.149 knows the right thing to do and does not do it, 01:08:45.170 --> 01:08:49.409 to him it is sin. So the first statement, if 01:08:49.409 --> 01:08:51.270 you will, was there is only one lawgiver and 01:08:51.270 --> 01:08:53.510 judge. There is one God. He is the one. He is 01:08:53.510 --> 01:08:56.470 our audience of one. And then he says, Come now 01:08:56.470 --> 01:08:58.989 you who say, today or tomorrow, and he goes into 01:08:58.989 --> 01:09:01.609 this idea of planning, controlling, you being 01:09:01.609 --> 01:09:04.149 in charge. You realize that the last time you 01:09:04.149 --> 01:09:06.430 really got down on somebody because they lied, 01:09:06.590 --> 01:09:08.829 you were basically saying that you'll never lie 01:09:08.829 --> 01:09:10.949 again, ever in your life, for any circumstances. 01:09:11.350 --> 01:09:14.270 I'll not lie. I am not a liar. I'll never lie. 01:09:14.789 --> 01:09:16.970 And so now I can be really down on people who 01:09:16.970 --> 01:09:18.789 lie. The last time you really got down, somebody 01:09:18.789 --> 01:09:21.569 stole from you, you basically said, wait for 01:09:21.569 --> 01:09:24.829 it, that you'll never talk on your cell phone 01:09:24.829 --> 01:09:27.720 around a corner. While you're on the clock again. 01:09:30.859 --> 01:09:33.760 Or, you'll never clock out five minutes early 01:09:33.760 --> 01:09:40.039 and get paid for the whole hour. Or, you'll never 01:09:40.039 --> 01:09:42.420 not return the change when you get a little bit 01:09:42.420 --> 01:09:45.140 of extra change. Or, you'll never not find a 01:09:45.140 --> 01:09:47.380 dollar on the ground and look around for who 01:09:47.380 --> 01:09:52.140 it belongs to. Etc. So we judge people and we 01:09:52.140 --> 01:09:54.869 say what they're doing is wrong. Well, we really 01:09:54.869 --> 01:09:56.689 ought to be majoring in figuring out how to do 01:09:56.689 --> 01:10:00.810 right. That's really what our job is. It's so 01:10:00.810 --> 01:10:02.130 much, I'm just going to go aside for one second, 01:10:02.189 --> 01:10:03.829 it's so much true that if you see somebody do 01:10:03.829 --> 01:10:07.310 something wrong, and you can't fix it, you saw 01:10:07.310 --> 01:10:09.590 somebody lie or whatever, then you ought to do 01:10:09.590 --> 01:10:11.670 everything in your power to make reparations 01:10:11.670 --> 01:10:15.329 for what they did. Not make them do what's right. 01:10:16.010 --> 01:10:18.329 That's not your job. You don't control them, 01:10:18.350 --> 01:10:20.289 you control you. Now I'm aware that here we have 01:10:20.289 --> 01:10:22.109 a victim. Here we have somebody who stole from, 01:10:22.369 --> 01:10:24.250 lied to, hurt in some way, doesn't have what 01:10:24.250 --> 01:10:26.729 they want. So now, how can I spend my time, my 01:10:26.729 --> 01:10:29.649 money, whatever, to help that person to overcome 01:10:29.649 --> 01:10:31.689 what that person did to them? That person has 01:10:31.689 --> 01:10:33.829 nothing to do with you. The person who did wrong, 01:10:34.050 --> 01:10:36.850 they have nothing to do with you. And we'll come 01:10:36.850 --> 01:10:38.609 back and talk about what that could look like, 01:10:38.670 --> 01:10:40.050 but the bottom line is you don't have to worry 01:10:40.050 --> 01:10:42.689 about fixing them. They live for an audience 01:10:42.689 --> 01:10:46.899 of one, just like you or I do. But this person 01:10:46.899 --> 01:10:48.340 over here has been hurt. Why aren't you doing 01:10:48.340 --> 01:10:51.060 something about it? Why aren't you stepping in 01:10:51.060 --> 01:10:54.239 and trying to make it better? Unless, of course, 01:10:54.260 --> 01:10:56.300 you've lost your humble realization and you say, 01:10:56.380 --> 01:11:00.100 well, you know, I would never do that. I could 01:11:00.100 --> 01:11:04.359 never even accidentally victimize anyone. If 01:11:04.359 --> 01:11:08.479 that's true, you are arrogant, probably not walking 01:11:08.479 --> 01:11:11.000 in the Lord. Because you know that intentionally 01:11:11.000 --> 01:11:14.619 or by accident, you will eventually hurt someone. 01:11:15.369 --> 01:11:18.329 And I say this to you, I think a humble realization 01:11:18.329 --> 01:11:21.590 that I don't even know what I would do adds this 01:11:21.590 --> 01:11:24.869 to my character. If I screw up and I hurt somebody, 01:11:25.090 --> 01:11:28.029 and I don't know about it, or if I do it on purpose, 01:11:28.189 --> 01:11:31.649 I want somebody, if it's not going to be me, 01:11:31.829 --> 01:11:35.369 I want somebody to come behind me and fix it. 01:11:36.210 --> 01:11:39.489 Do what they can to make it better. I make mistakes. 01:11:40.109 --> 01:11:42.050 I don't even make the right decisions sometimes. 01:11:42.550 --> 01:11:45.029 And you don't either. And we have to realize 01:11:45.029 --> 01:11:47.750 that as we're living for God, a humble realization 01:11:47.750 --> 01:11:51.329 that even we don't know what we'll do frees us 01:11:51.329 --> 01:11:54.109 from judging anyone else, frees us from needing 01:11:54.109 --> 01:11:55.810 to make plans about what the future is going 01:11:55.810 --> 01:11:57.449 to be like, and I'm going to control this. You 01:11:57.449 --> 01:12:00.250 realize that for all of us, and I'm not speaking 01:12:00.250 --> 01:12:02.329 against financial management, I think we all 01:12:02.329 --> 01:12:04.649 should be, for example, planning for our retirement 01:12:04.649 --> 01:12:07.659 or... maybe saving for your vacation. If you 01:12:07.659 --> 01:12:08.779 think you're going to take a vacation next year, 01:12:08.800 --> 01:12:10.420 then you should be putting money aside for that. 01:12:10.720 --> 01:12:12.119 If you think you're going to buy a new car in 01:12:12.119 --> 01:12:13.420 three to five years, you should have that in 01:12:13.420 --> 01:12:15.479 your spending plan, planning to put aside that 01:12:15.479 --> 01:12:17.220 money. You know your car is going to break down 01:12:17.220 --> 01:12:18.819 sometime, so there should be money set aside 01:12:18.819 --> 01:12:21.680 for that. And I'm not against that in any way, 01:12:21.739 --> 01:12:23.680 shape, or form, but this is the truth. The money 01:12:23.680 --> 01:12:25.140 that you're putting aside to fix your car next 01:12:25.140 --> 01:12:28.560 year, you could be dead before then. So if you've 01:12:28.560 --> 01:12:30.199 got it in your head, next year I'll have two 01:12:30.199 --> 01:12:31.960 grand, or if I need a car, I'll just go buy one 01:12:31.960 --> 01:12:34.220 in cash, you realize you may die before you ever 01:12:34.220 --> 01:12:37.390 spend that two grand. And that's a realism. That's 01:12:37.390 --> 01:12:39.829 just understanding the way the world works. Now, 01:12:39.850 --> 01:12:41.789 because we're working for God, odds are, if the 01:12:41.789 --> 01:12:43.750 world's still here until the rapture, until Jesus 01:12:43.750 --> 01:12:45.729 takes us away, we're still going to be here because 01:12:45.729 --> 01:12:47.609 we can still spread the gospel. So probably you're 01:12:47.609 --> 01:12:49.670 not dying anytime soon if you're faithfully walking 01:12:49.670 --> 01:12:52.600 with the Lord as your audience of one. But have 01:12:52.600 --> 01:12:54.880 a humble realization that not only might you 01:12:54.880 --> 01:12:56.460 screw up and hurt somebody, and somebody else 01:12:56.460 --> 01:12:58.479 might have to fix it, therefore I can do the 01:12:58.479 --> 01:13:00.579 same thing. Instead of me judging, they screwed 01:13:00.579 --> 01:13:03.100 that person over, and so now I'm mad at the person 01:13:03.100 --> 01:13:05.300 who did the bad thing. I should be fixing the 01:13:05.300 --> 01:13:08.420 problem and doing the best I can. Because it 01:13:08.420 --> 01:13:11.260 might be me. I might be the next person to screw 01:13:11.260 --> 01:13:12.880 somebody over and hurt somebody, and I might 01:13:12.880 --> 01:13:17.060 need somebody else to fix my mess. But if you'd 01:13:17.060 --> 01:13:18.699 never do it, then you don't have to worry about 01:13:18.699 --> 01:13:24.810 it. But if you think you'd never do it, you're 01:13:24.810 --> 01:13:26.409 probably already doing it on a fairly regular 01:13:26.409 --> 01:13:35.529 basis. Some see this equation here as a kind 01:13:35.529 --> 01:13:37.710 of a ball and chain. Like, well, I can't plan 01:13:37.710 --> 01:13:39.949 to do anything. I have to say, get God's permission 01:13:39.949 --> 01:13:41.649 first. Yes, you have to get God's permission 01:13:41.649 --> 01:13:44.270 first. Totally made the world, created you, created 01:13:44.270 --> 01:13:46.829 atoms. You know, set everything up. He's in charge 01:13:46.829 --> 01:13:48.250 of it all. He owns it all. Yes, you have to get 01:13:48.250 --> 01:13:50.289 God's permission first before you do what you're 01:13:50.289 --> 01:13:52.229 about to do. Just like if you're living in your 01:13:52.229 --> 01:13:53.449 parents' house and you're going to stay out too 01:13:53.449 --> 01:13:55.449 late or you're going to go make a huge purchase 01:13:55.449 --> 01:13:57.550 or you're going to break something in the kitchen 01:13:57.550 --> 01:13:59.689 or you're going to make dad's steak instead of 01:13:59.689 --> 01:14:01.550 leaving it for him to eat. You have to get permission 01:14:01.550 --> 01:14:04.050 first, right? So get permission from God. Walk 01:14:04.050 --> 01:14:06.289 with God. Follow God's leadership. The Holy Spirit 01:14:06.289 --> 01:14:08.170 in you. Circumcised heart. He's about killing 01:14:08.170 --> 01:14:09.689 sin. You're doing what you're supposed to be 01:14:09.689 --> 01:14:12.050 doing anyway. And then if you make a mistake, 01:14:12.170 --> 01:14:16.250 God will be there with you. The third thing to 01:14:16.250 --> 01:14:20.590 see in this text then is that following God or 01:14:20.590 --> 01:14:23.529 having God as an audience of one, humble realization 01:14:23.529 --> 01:14:26.109 that even you don't know what you would do under 01:14:26.109 --> 01:14:28.189 certain circumstances, is that we're also freed 01:14:28.189 --> 01:14:33.800 by not having a set of rules. Coming from a gamer 01:14:33.800 --> 01:14:35.359 from way back, I've been playing board games, 01:14:35.479 --> 01:14:37.579 card games, role -playing games, every kind of 01:14:37.579 --> 01:14:40.720 game that ever was invented. I've never really 01:14:40.720 --> 01:14:42.180 been good at video games, but I've played quite 01:14:42.180 --> 01:14:44.079 a few over the years and things like that. One 01:14:44.079 --> 01:14:45.939 of the things I first learned, if you sit down 01:14:45.939 --> 01:14:47.560 to play a game, somebody's got to know the rules 01:14:47.560 --> 01:14:49.600 to the game. Otherwise, you're just going to 01:14:49.600 --> 01:14:51.079 fiddle around for a couple hours and never get 01:14:51.079 --> 01:14:52.619 around to playing while everybody learns how 01:14:52.619 --> 01:14:55.630 to play, but nobody actually plays. As long as 01:14:55.630 --> 01:14:57.329 somebody knows the rules, then what's the next 01:14:57.329 --> 01:14:59.470 thing that has to happen? Whoever knows the rules 01:14:59.470 --> 01:15:01.689 has to help those who don't know the rules basically 01:15:01.689 --> 01:15:06.109 understand how to play. And here is what's really 01:15:06.109 --> 01:15:09.590 frustrating. This has driven me nuts every single 01:15:09.590 --> 01:15:11.970 time it has ever happened to me to the point 01:15:11.970 --> 01:15:15.090 that I've always been ready to just go, I'm never 01:15:15.090 --> 01:15:16.869 going to play this game again. Just totally blew 01:15:16.869 --> 01:15:18.890 up. When you sit down with somebody that you've 01:15:18.890 --> 01:15:20.840 never played before, and they're explaining you 01:15:20.840 --> 01:15:22.739 how to play, and then halfway through the game, 01:15:22.819 --> 01:15:24.359 they say, oh, you know, there is this little 01:15:24.359 --> 01:15:27.340 known rule here, this extra phase to the turn, 01:15:27.359 --> 01:15:29.659 or this thing that your whatever can do, or whatever, 01:15:29.720 --> 01:15:32.460 and it causes me to be able to do this now, so 01:15:32.460 --> 01:15:34.840 now they have this massive advantage in the game. 01:15:35.279 --> 01:15:37.119 They never told you about the rule, but they 01:15:37.119 --> 01:15:39.039 used the rule halfway through the game to make 01:15:39.039 --> 01:15:40.479 it so that they have an advantage. Now they're 01:15:40.479 --> 01:15:43.300 going to win the game, and it's a foreseen outcome 01:15:43.300 --> 01:15:45.260 because you didn't know you could do that. You 01:15:45.260 --> 01:15:46.659 go, look, I could have done that five turns ago, 01:15:46.720 --> 01:15:48.000 and I could have done that ten turns ago, and 01:15:48.000 --> 01:15:49.039 I could have done that at the beginning of the 01:15:49.039 --> 01:15:50.579 game, but I didn't know about that. But now I 01:15:50.579 --> 01:15:52.640 know about it because you wanted to do it, and 01:15:52.640 --> 01:15:54.899 you taught me. This is the funny thing about 01:15:54.899 --> 01:15:58.500 a set of rules. It's all in perception. Does 01:15:58.500 --> 01:16:01.199 the Ten Commandments say thou shalt not lie? 01:16:01.689 --> 01:16:03.050 Should we take a poll? Let's do that real quick. 01:16:03.149 --> 01:16:04.869 How many of you think the Ten Commandments say 01:16:04.869 --> 01:16:07.569 thou shalt not lie? Raise your hand. I got one 01:16:07.569 --> 01:16:09.829 hand. Anybody else? Come on. It's okay. I'm not 01:16:09.829 --> 01:16:11.649 going to scold you when you're wrong or anything. 01:16:11.909 --> 01:16:16.609 All right. It says thou shalt not bear false 01:16:16.609 --> 01:16:19.909 witness, right? And written in a legal document. 01:16:19.930 --> 01:16:21.750 So what does it mean to not bear false witness? 01:16:23.350 --> 01:16:29.350 In what context? No, it doesn't mean don't talk 01:16:29.350 --> 01:16:31.520 about others. That would be broadening the context 01:16:31.520 --> 01:16:33.300 too much. Elsewhere in scripture it says that, 01:16:33.319 --> 01:16:34.460 but it doesn't say that in the Ten Commandments. 01:16:34.539 --> 01:16:38.359 What's that? Don't give false testimony against 01:16:38.359 --> 01:16:41.279 someone else. If a brother is in sin, this is 01:16:41.279 --> 01:16:42.800 going back to the old days, if a brother were 01:16:42.800 --> 01:16:45.079 in sin and they did something wrong, and three 01:16:45.079 --> 01:16:49.239 people came against him and accused him in a 01:16:49.239 --> 01:16:54.439 public way, essentially a court has begun. Right? 01:16:54.699 --> 01:16:58.149 And if... What he did wrong. So if he was caught 01:16:58.149 --> 01:17:00.630 in adultery and three men came and accused him 01:17:00.630 --> 01:17:01.970 of caught in adultery, is he hauled off to a 01:17:01.970 --> 01:17:05.130 judge? Is that what they did? Now what do they 01:17:05.130 --> 01:17:08.409 do? Take him outside the town or outside the 01:17:08.409 --> 01:17:10.430 camp in their case, right? And stoned him, right? 01:17:11.149 --> 01:17:13.210 So they threw stones on him. The first thing 01:17:13.210 --> 01:17:14.869 they did was put a big boulder on his chest so 01:17:14.869 --> 01:17:17.149 he couldn't get up. The first stone was this 01:17:17.149 --> 01:17:18.590 huge stone. Put it on his chest. And then they 01:17:18.590 --> 01:17:21.470 throw stones at him until he's dead. No court. 01:17:22.909 --> 01:17:27.909 Right? So the point is, If you would bear false 01:17:27.909 --> 01:17:32.390 testimony against this guy, he could be stoned 01:17:32.390 --> 01:17:36.409 to death. So you're lying about him in a legal 01:17:36.409 --> 01:17:38.890 situation that can have ramifications. That's 01:17:38.890 --> 01:17:41.050 what the Ten Commandments are about. But when 01:17:41.050 --> 01:17:43.109 you interpret the Ten Commandments and say, now, 01:17:43.149 --> 01:17:45.430 let me be very clear. Lying is a sin. You shouldn't 01:17:45.430 --> 01:17:47.130 do it. That's in the New Testament, not the Old 01:17:47.130 --> 01:17:50.069 Testament. It's also in the Old Testament. But 01:17:50.069 --> 01:17:52.050 it's clearly laid out in the New Testament. Lying 01:17:52.050 --> 01:17:53.710 is a sin. You have to give that up as a Christian. 01:17:54.130 --> 01:17:58.000 But that being said, When you go to anybody you 01:17:58.000 --> 01:17:59.840 know and you tell them that the Ten Commandments 01:17:59.840 --> 01:18:03.800 says thou shalt not lie, and there is one translation 01:18:03.800 --> 01:18:05.800 that has it, maybe more than one, that has it 01:18:05.800 --> 01:18:10.880 that way, you aren't wrong per se, but you're 01:18:10.880 --> 01:18:13.859 not exactly right either, are you? See what I'm 01:18:13.859 --> 01:18:16.520 saying? That's the problem with a set of rules. 01:18:17.880 --> 01:18:20.079 That's the problem with beating people up with 01:18:20.079 --> 01:18:22.560 your Bible. It says right here you can't do that, 01:18:22.659 --> 01:18:27.220 smack. Right? You can't just do that. Because 01:18:27.220 --> 01:18:29.840 a set of rules, are we living by a set of rules? 01:18:29.880 --> 01:18:32.659 No. A set of rules will at best build you a cage 01:18:32.659 --> 01:18:35.960 to keep you away from a burning fire or falling 01:18:35.960 --> 01:18:38.380 off a cliff or running into a guy with a knife. 01:18:38.460 --> 01:18:41.619 It will at best give you some protections. It 01:18:41.619 --> 01:18:44.020 will not. So the Pharisees and the Sadducees 01:18:44.020 --> 01:18:46.119 in Jesus' day, this is what they had done. They 01:18:46.119 --> 01:18:47.640 looked at the rules of the Old Testament, the 01:18:47.640 --> 01:18:49.279 laws that God had given them. We can't break 01:18:49.279 --> 01:18:51.500 those. Gosh, we can't break those. We could die 01:18:51.500 --> 01:18:53.060 if we break those. This is a horrible thing to 01:18:53.060 --> 01:18:55.260 break those. So let's be super careful we don't 01:18:55.260 --> 01:18:57.979 break those. Let's make a bunch more rules that 01:18:57.979 --> 01:19:00.359 make it so that we never get close. So, for example, 01:19:00.359 --> 01:19:02.079 keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't work on the 01:19:02.079 --> 01:19:04.100 Sabbath was their command. So then they made 01:19:04.100 --> 01:19:05.640 a rule to say, well, we need to know exactly 01:19:05.640 --> 01:19:08.819 what constitutes work on the Sabbath. So they 01:19:08.819 --> 01:19:10.640 made a rule that says if at the end of the day, 01:19:11.460 --> 01:19:13.659 after walking only a certain number of steps 01:19:13.659 --> 01:19:15.619 that you're allowed to walk, after that, at the 01:19:15.619 --> 01:19:18.239 end of the day, if you find a pin in the hem 01:19:18.239 --> 01:19:22.260 of your garment, you have worked on the Sabbath, 01:19:22.500 --> 01:19:25.420 you have profaned the Sabbath, and you must undergo 01:19:25.420 --> 01:19:28.640 a ritual cleansing. Now you show me where that's 01:19:28.640 --> 01:19:31.720 at in Scripture. That's the problem with a set 01:19:31.720 --> 01:19:35.140 of rules. At best it will bind you. At best it 01:19:35.140 --> 01:19:37.619 will manipulate you. At best it will propel you 01:19:37.619 --> 01:19:39.920 in a certain direction, like a bank of a river. 01:19:40.730 --> 01:19:45.329 But we are not subject to a set of rules. Truth 01:19:45.329 --> 01:19:46.909 is, some people think being subject to a set 01:19:46.909 --> 01:19:48.409 of rules would actually be easier. If we had, 01:19:48.470 --> 01:19:49.869 say, a three -point plan, that's how you get 01:19:49.869 --> 01:19:51.630 to heaven, you just got to do this, then we follow 01:19:51.630 --> 01:19:53.250 those three points very literally and we would 01:19:53.250 --> 01:19:56.670 get there, right? But actually, what we're called 01:19:56.670 --> 01:19:58.510 to is a, you're going to need to get this because 01:19:58.510 --> 01:20:01.630 it's a lot of Ps here, a permanent personal pursuit 01:20:01.630 --> 01:20:04.270 of His presence. That's what we're called to. 01:20:04.489 --> 01:20:08.069 A permanent personal pursuit of His presence. 01:20:08.590 --> 01:20:12.069 We want God at work in us, which amazingly is 01:20:12.069 --> 01:20:15.949 what God wants. Also, as we are called to a permanent 01:20:15.949 --> 01:20:19.449 personal pursuit of His presence, we are called 01:20:19.449 --> 01:20:25.829 to prefer His promised perfect end and His present 01:20:25.829 --> 01:20:32.069 peace over a wasteful worldly wickedness that 01:20:32.069 --> 01:20:34.789 amounts to little more than wishful wantings. 01:20:35.270 --> 01:20:37.350 How many people do you think want to go to heaven? 01:20:39.819 --> 01:20:41.939 For those that believe what heaven is, everybody. 01:20:42.220 --> 01:20:45.340 Mike's right. Everybody. For those who want to... 01:20:45.630 --> 01:20:47.829 that have an idea. Some people will deny that 01:20:47.829 --> 01:20:48.970 there is heaven because they don't want to admit 01:20:48.970 --> 01:20:50.369 that they're not going there, right? But let's 01:20:50.369 --> 01:20:52.750 be realistic. If somebody says, I know what heaven 01:20:52.750 --> 01:20:54.170 is, I know what it's like, do I want to get there? 01:20:54.229 --> 01:20:56.789 Yes. Even if you go in false religions across 01:20:56.789 --> 01:20:59.329 the world, they all have different ways to get 01:20:59.329 --> 01:21:02.029 into the eternal life that God talks about. They 01:21:02.029 --> 01:21:03.689 talk about them in different words or whatever. 01:21:03.810 --> 01:21:05.869 Like if you die in a holy war, you get 13 virgins 01:21:05.869 --> 01:21:07.750 in heaven for eternity, right? Things like that. 01:21:07.949 --> 01:21:10.810 They all have different ways to arrive somewhere. 01:21:11.710 --> 01:21:13.810 That's an image of what they understand heaven 01:21:13.810 --> 01:21:17.750 to be. We all want to go to heaven. But God says, 01:21:17.810 --> 01:21:21.949 actually what he wants for us is a permanent 01:21:21.949 --> 01:21:27.430 presence with us. A lasting, permanent relationship 01:21:27.430 --> 01:21:30.229 with God. That's what he wants. And that's what 01:21:30.229 --> 01:21:33.170 you'll have in heaven. And because you have it, 01:21:33.189 --> 01:21:35.590 you'll get to heaven. And then he'll be there. 01:21:36.430 --> 01:21:39.250 in a more physical way perhaps, even though He's 01:21:39.250 --> 01:21:41.649 spiritual and we'll be spiritual too. And yes, 01:21:41.750 --> 01:21:43.250 there are hard things to understand. And so, 01:21:43.270 --> 01:21:45.130 because we don't know all the rules, and you 01:21:45.130 --> 01:21:46.710 couldn't know all the rules, and if you did know 01:21:46.710 --> 01:21:48.130 all the rules, you could be pretty sure you'd 01:21:48.130 --> 01:21:51.569 break them anyway. What God has called us to 01:21:51.569 --> 01:21:54.989 is a permanent personal pursuit of His presence. 01:21:55.510 --> 01:21:59.189 And being satisfied, preferring His promised 01:21:59.189 --> 01:22:01.729 perfect end, where we're going to go, what He's 01:22:01.729 --> 01:22:03.649 going to eventually do in us, preferring that. 01:22:04.440 --> 01:22:06.600 and His present peace, in other words, He's already 01:22:06.600 --> 01:22:08.340 at work in us. Jesus says, my peace I give you, 01:22:08.399 --> 01:22:10.159 my peace I leave with you, not as the world gives 01:22:10.159 --> 01:22:14.300 you peace. And all that over a wasteful worldly 01:22:14.300 --> 01:22:17.119 wickedness that amounts to little more than wishful 01:22:17.119 --> 01:22:23.960 wantings. That's freedom. That's being freed 01:22:23.960 --> 01:22:27.689 from a set of rules. Now, are the things that 01:22:27.689 --> 01:22:29.569 are in the law good? We talked about that last 01:22:29.569 --> 01:22:32.369 week. Yes, they are. Is the law meant for life 01:22:32.369 --> 01:22:34.250 and light and to bring people to a good place? 01:22:34.369 --> 01:22:37.890 Yes. Ideally, the law was supposed to make people 01:22:37.890 --> 01:22:42.989 go, oh gosh, I'm a sinner. I need a savior. God, 01:22:43.069 --> 01:22:45.409 please give me a savior. They wouldn't know his 01:22:45.409 --> 01:22:48.210 name was Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ of Nazareth, 01:22:48.350 --> 01:22:50.770 but they would know that God was going to prepare 01:22:50.770 --> 01:22:53.130 a way. How do you think Abraham got saved? He 01:22:53.130 --> 01:22:54.569 trusted in the way that God was eventually going 01:22:54.569 --> 01:22:57.899 to make. By recognizing in some, it was before 01:22:57.899 --> 01:22:59.680 the law was written, but recognizing in some 01:22:59.680 --> 01:23:02.319 little way that he could not live in this permanent 01:23:02.319 --> 01:23:06.100 personal presence with God except that God did 01:23:06.100 --> 01:23:09.800 something for him and gave him grace. Well, that 01:23:09.800 --> 01:23:13.140 brings us to our conclusion already. But it's 01:23:13.140 --> 01:23:14.520 kind of a lengthy conclusion because I'm going 01:23:14.520 --> 01:23:16.600 to try to give you some application of what it 01:23:16.600 --> 01:23:19.479 is that we need to do. Okay? And the conclusion 01:23:19.479 --> 01:23:23.850 is called naked and unashamed. Now we're all 01:23:23.850 --> 01:23:26.710 going to take our clothes off. No, we're not. 01:23:27.270 --> 01:23:29.510 Because I would not be unashamed, and nor would 01:23:29.510 --> 01:23:32.470 you. Right? We're not going to take our clothes 01:23:32.470 --> 01:23:34.829 off. And I don't mean literal physical clothing 01:23:34.829 --> 01:23:38.609 anyway, right? Who am I referring to? Does anyone 01:23:38.609 --> 01:23:40.149 know when I say naked and unashamed, what am 01:23:40.149 --> 01:23:42.489 I referring to? What does that bring to mind? 01:23:42.949 --> 01:23:46.909 Naked and unashamed. Yeah. Today we'd be bearing 01:23:46.909 --> 01:23:50.069 your soul away. Adam and Eve, right? Adam and 01:23:50.069 --> 01:23:52.090 Eve were in the Garden of Eden, naked and unashamed. 01:23:52.800 --> 01:23:55.239 How many people were in the garden with Adam 01:23:55.239 --> 01:23:58.520 when he was naked and unashamed? One. Who was 01:23:58.520 --> 01:24:01.539 it? Eve. How many people were with Eve in the 01:24:01.539 --> 01:24:04.220 garden when she was naked and unashamed? Okay, 01:24:04.300 --> 01:24:05.699 I'm going to tell you a little something. I'm 01:24:05.699 --> 01:24:06.720 going to be a little transparent for a moment 01:24:06.720 --> 01:24:09.100 right now, okay? I don't mean to embarrass any 01:24:09.100 --> 01:24:11.500 young people in the room. When I first married 01:24:11.500 --> 01:24:15.479 my wife, before we were married, we had Elisha 01:24:15.479 --> 01:24:18.960 because we were not saved. We had an adulterous 01:24:18.960 --> 01:24:20.560 fornication, whatever you want to call it, affair, 01:24:20.640 --> 01:24:23.470 and created a beautiful... baby, and God later 01:24:23.470 --> 01:24:28.470 saved our souls. I did not want to be naked in 01:24:28.470 --> 01:24:32.329 front of my lover. I did not want to be naked 01:24:32.329 --> 01:24:37.289 in front of my wife. Now, I'm not so sure I would 01:24:37.289 --> 01:24:40.770 quite say I was ashamed, but I felt extremely 01:24:40.770 --> 01:24:44.550 uncomfortable. I've gone to a number of cookouts 01:24:44.550 --> 01:24:45.989 and things, and it's really common in East Toledo, 01:24:46.069 --> 01:24:49.029 and guys run around with their shirts off. They 01:24:49.029 --> 01:24:50.890 wear pants or shorts, whatever, no shirts on. 01:24:51.460 --> 01:24:53.060 And they've got maybe tattoos, or maybe they 01:24:53.060 --> 01:24:54.539 don't. They've got chest hair, or maybe they 01:24:54.539 --> 01:24:56.399 don't. They've got boobies that they probably 01:24:56.399 --> 01:24:58.319 shouldn't have, or maybe they don't. They've 01:24:58.319 --> 01:25:00.939 got bellies hanging out, most of them, right? 01:25:01.060 --> 01:25:02.880 Because they're mostly drinking a beer, and I've 01:25:02.880 --> 01:25:07.859 been there. RJ? Right? And they all hang around. 01:25:08.079 --> 01:25:11.380 I'm here to tell you, and I'm not bothered by 01:25:11.380 --> 01:25:13.000 it. It does not bother me one bit, but I don't 01:25:13.000 --> 01:25:18.260 need to see it. And they're unashamed. And these 01:25:18.260 --> 01:25:20.439 are guys that have got 50 extra pounds on their 01:25:20.439 --> 01:25:23.439 gut, walking around, unashamed, slightly tanned, 01:25:23.579 --> 01:25:26.020 whatever. Now, when they start taking their pants 01:25:26.020 --> 01:25:28.560 off, I much more than don't need to see it. You 01:25:28.560 --> 01:25:31.039 see what I'm saying? I'm gone. I'm out of there. 01:25:31.880 --> 01:25:33.800 If they take their pants off in front of my wife, 01:25:34.619 --> 01:25:36.380 I may not be out. She'll be out of there, but 01:25:36.380 --> 01:25:39.159 I may not be leaving. Except when a squad car 01:25:39.159 --> 01:25:41.939 comes to get me. It's going to be ugly. What 01:25:41.939 --> 01:25:46.279 I'm saying to you is, Adam and Eve, so how many 01:25:46.279 --> 01:25:48.720 days? Let's be really realistic. How many days 01:25:48.720 --> 01:25:51.819 did Adam know Eve before he walked naked in front 01:25:51.819 --> 01:25:58.100 of her? Zero. He met her the day she was created. 01:25:58.680 --> 01:26:01.539 Right? No days. So he literally did not know 01:26:01.539 --> 01:26:03.939 her at all. Never had met her. And there he is, 01:26:03.960 --> 01:26:05.840 just buck naked, walking around with this junk 01:26:05.840 --> 01:26:08.359 hanging out in front of this beautiful woman. 01:26:09.800 --> 01:26:13.279 And not ashamed. Not bothered by it at all. Also, 01:26:13.319 --> 01:26:17.189 not lusting. Nothing unhealthy going on here. 01:26:18.350 --> 01:26:21.390 How many days did Eve know Adam before that happened? 01:26:22.550 --> 01:26:25.810 None. Yeah, 30 seconds. She woke up, she went, 01:26:25.869 --> 01:26:28.569 oh, I exist. Oh, there's a naked man. I mean, 01:26:28.569 --> 01:26:30.649 that would freak almost anybody out, right? But 01:26:30.649 --> 01:26:32.649 there's Eve, and she's like, no, I'm not freaked 01:26:32.649 --> 01:26:34.229 out at all. This doesn't bother me. This is what 01:26:34.229 --> 01:26:38.090 we do. Right? And so now here we are, not at 01:26:38.090 --> 01:26:42.550 all naked and unashamed, and not free. I'm not 01:26:42.550 --> 01:26:44.090 saying we should be free to be naked. I don't 01:26:44.090 --> 01:26:46.390 want to be naked. with people. That's not my 01:26:46.390 --> 01:26:49.050 thing. Alright? And I understand we have to deal 01:26:49.050 --> 01:26:50.369 with some of that because of the lust and the 01:26:50.369 --> 01:26:51.789 issues that go along with it. You need to dress 01:26:51.789 --> 01:26:53.510 appropriately and everybody needs to dress appropriately 01:26:53.510 --> 01:26:55.149 and probably men should not be hanging around 01:26:55.149 --> 01:26:57.090 drinking beer with no shirts off around other 01:26:57.090 --> 01:27:00.289 people's women. Maybe. I don't know. That's between 01:27:00.289 --> 01:27:05.350 them and God I suppose. The bottom line is we 01:27:05.350 --> 01:27:08.550 are freed by we have an audience of one. So let's 01:27:08.550 --> 01:27:10.930 be I'm just going to be again very candid. Does 01:27:10.930 --> 01:27:14.979 God say when it's you and God alone Do you need 01:27:14.979 --> 01:27:20.260 clothes? No. You get in the shower, God's there. 01:27:20.560 --> 01:27:23.260 He sees you naked all the time. Are you ashamed 01:27:23.260 --> 01:27:26.239 of that? Right? So when it's you and God alone, 01:27:26.319 --> 01:27:28.220 you don't need clothes. But you bring in other 01:27:28.220 --> 01:27:30.619 people, interpersonal relationships, and now 01:27:30.619 --> 01:27:34.239 you need clothes. And it all goes back to Adam 01:27:34.239 --> 01:27:35.640 and Eve in the Garden of Eden and ever since 01:27:35.640 --> 01:27:38.060 then and lost in fleshly nature. And the other 01:27:38.060 --> 01:27:40.380 person that's there is trying through the power, 01:27:40.439 --> 01:27:41.739 if they're a Christian, trying through the power 01:27:41.739 --> 01:27:43.579 of the Holy Spirit to kill sins. They shouldn't 01:27:43.579 --> 01:27:45.199 lust. You don't want to see. So, by the way, 01:27:45.220 --> 01:27:47.199 if you're a man or a woman and you're not married, 01:27:47.279 --> 01:27:49.359 don't ever see anyone naked ever until you're 01:27:49.359 --> 01:27:51.840 married. Just avoid that. And if you're, except 01:27:51.840 --> 01:27:54.260 maybe like in a gym if it's other guys and, you 01:27:54.260 --> 01:27:55.260 know, or something like that. But otherwise, 01:27:55.319 --> 01:27:58.739 just avoid it. And if you're... A young person, 01:27:58.800 --> 01:28:00.079 you're dating somebody and you're engaged, you 01:28:00.079 --> 01:28:02.100 don't see them naked until your wedding night, 01:28:02.260 --> 01:28:04.539 right? Because you're exposing yourselves to 01:28:04.539 --> 01:28:06.779 lust. But we're really talking about, as Ron 01:28:06.779 --> 01:28:13.619 said, nakedness of the soul. If you can trust, 01:28:13.619 --> 01:28:16.340 as we talked about under a humble realization 01:28:16.340 --> 01:28:18.600 that even you don't really know, that God will 01:28:18.600 --> 01:28:21.880 always act, then you really don't have anything 01:28:21.880 --> 01:28:27.520 to worry about. You can be you. You can be essentially 01:28:27.520 --> 01:28:29.840 naked and unashamed. Now, I'm not saying take 01:28:29.840 --> 01:28:32.100 your clothes off. I'm saying you can basically 01:28:32.100 --> 01:28:35.340 be you. You can act the way you think God wants 01:28:35.340 --> 01:28:38.279 you to act. You can stop holding yourself back 01:28:38.279 --> 01:28:40.680 because you're so concerned about what the world 01:28:40.680 --> 01:28:44.300 will think. You can be okay being you. You can 01:28:44.300 --> 01:28:46.420 get your spiritual beer and take your shirt off 01:28:46.420 --> 01:28:49.039 at your own cookout because it's your cookout, 01:28:49.079 --> 01:28:51.180 but really it's God's cookout. You're going to 01:28:51.180 --> 01:28:58.189 be okay. You can be you. But there's a couple 01:28:58.189 --> 01:29:01.489 of practical things. Based on all this then, 01:29:01.649 --> 01:29:05.149 so I had a few questions that I had to ask and 01:29:05.149 --> 01:29:06.449 maybe you would ask these same questions too. 01:29:06.510 --> 01:29:09.689 So what happens with all of this? Like if I'm 01:29:09.689 --> 01:29:11.869 living for God and I just really let it all hang 01:29:11.869 --> 01:29:14.510 out, not in a nasty way, but I really live for 01:29:14.510 --> 01:29:16.470 God and I don't hold anything back, what happens 01:29:16.470 --> 01:29:19.050 when I have nothing left? If I take all my money 01:29:19.050 --> 01:29:20.930 and I spend it for the poor, as Jesus told the 01:29:20.930 --> 01:29:23.890 rich man to do, or if I, because money's a problem 01:29:23.890 --> 01:29:26.729 for you, maybe you need to do that. If I do all 01:29:26.729 --> 01:29:28.189 these things, I take huge risks. If I wind up 01:29:28.189 --> 01:29:31.229 on a cross and I'm about to be being crucified, 01:29:31.310 --> 01:29:33.090 or if I wind up on a stake and I'm being burnt, 01:29:33.229 --> 01:29:36.329 or if I wind up persecuted in a back alley near 01:29:36.329 --> 01:29:39.369 to death, what do I do? What happens when there 01:29:39.369 --> 01:29:44.829 is nothing left? To which I would say, taking, 01:29:44.989 --> 01:29:47.189 no pun intended, the devil's advocate position, 01:29:47.369 --> 01:29:49.090 maybe it would be easier without the blessings 01:29:49.090 --> 01:29:52.739 of God. When we're talking about being freed 01:29:52.739 --> 01:29:55.239 by these things, maybe it would be easier if 01:29:55.239 --> 01:29:56.739 we didn't have the blessings. You realize that 01:29:56.739 --> 01:29:58.460 most of the things that you're afraid of losing, 01:29:58.560 --> 01:30:00.260 they are the blessings that God has given you. 01:30:03.899 --> 01:30:06.399 Remember Lazarus and the rich man? The rich man 01:30:06.399 --> 01:30:08.439 got his stuff during life. Lazarus didn't. Lazarus 01:30:08.439 --> 01:30:11.859 goes to heaven. The rich man goes to hell. Jesus 01:30:11.859 --> 01:30:14.520 used it. That was talking about the rich man 01:30:14.520 --> 01:30:17.279 got his blessings. That's what he said. It's 01:30:17.279 --> 01:30:19.359 not really the topic of this, but it's notable 01:30:19.359 --> 01:30:23.140 that the rich man went to hell and Lazarus went 01:30:23.140 --> 01:30:27.119 to heaven. Remember the parable that Jesus told 01:30:27.119 --> 01:30:28.960 about the man who would build many barns? If 01:30:28.960 --> 01:30:30.619 you don't, it's okay, but I'm going to tell you 01:30:30.619 --> 01:30:32.680 the gist of it. Basically, there's a guy and 01:30:32.680 --> 01:30:34.060 he gets kind of nearing to the end of his life 01:30:34.060 --> 01:30:37.020 and he says, I've done really well and now I'm 01:30:37.020 --> 01:30:38.319 going to tear down my barns and I'm going to 01:30:38.319 --> 01:30:39.819 build new ones and store lots more stuff and 01:30:39.819 --> 01:30:42.739 then I'm going to live out my days in ease. And 01:30:42.739 --> 01:30:44.199 God says to him, no, actually you're going to 01:30:44.199 --> 01:30:45.840 die today, so then who's going to have all your 01:30:45.840 --> 01:30:51.569 barns? Or all your stuff. And Jesus, God of that, 01:30:51.609 --> 01:30:53.729 says store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 01:30:53.810 --> 01:30:56.590 not on earth where moth and rust and thief and 01:30:56.590 --> 01:31:00.350 so on. Maybe you're familiar with the parable 01:31:00.350 --> 01:31:02.270 of the four soils. It's about a farmer who goes 01:31:02.270 --> 01:31:05.090 out sowing. Taking his bag of seed, he's going 01:31:05.090 --> 01:31:07.270 to go sow the crops. And some falls along the 01:31:07.270 --> 01:31:09.270 trail. Some falls in the thorny soil and so on. 01:31:09.270 --> 01:31:10.729 Different soils. You've probably heard this parable. 01:31:10.750 --> 01:31:12.130 If you haven't, you can read it in Mark chapter 01:31:12.130 --> 01:31:15.109 4 or Matthew chapter 13 or Luke chapter 8. And 01:31:15.109 --> 01:31:17.170 those lists are now on the podcast. And maybe 01:31:17.170 --> 01:31:19.310 somebody on Facebook will type them in. Mark 01:31:19.310 --> 01:31:23.029 4, Matthew 13, Luke 8. But the bottom line is, 01:31:23.170 --> 01:31:31.970 there's one set of soil where the seed starts 01:31:31.970 --> 01:31:35.899 to take good root and produce. But the cares 01:31:35.899 --> 01:31:39.439 and the what of this world then choke it out. 01:31:39.920 --> 01:31:43.399 The riches. The cares and the riches of this 01:31:43.399 --> 01:31:49.359 world. The problem with us being freed by having 01:31:49.359 --> 01:31:53.319 an audience of one, by realizing that we might 01:31:53.319 --> 01:31:55.159 not even know ourselves all that well what we 01:31:55.159 --> 01:31:56.899 would do in certain circumstances, and by not 01:31:56.899 --> 01:31:59.340 living by a set of rules, is that we have all 01:31:59.340 --> 01:32:01.460 these things that we want to keep for ourselves. 01:32:03.180 --> 01:32:04.439 I can't tell you the number of times I've seen 01:32:04.439 --> 01:32:06.680 a child or a grandchild say, I can't wait until 01:32:06.680 --> 01:32:09.140 my friends come over and play with me with my 01:32:09.140 --> 01:32:13.640 toys. And how does that always go? I want that 01:32:13.640 --> 01:32:16.899 toy he's playing with. I wanted them to come 01:32:16.899 --> 01:32:18.699 and play with me, but now that they've come, 01:32:18.779 --> 01:32:21.779 I want what they're playing with, right? The 01:32:21.779 --> 01:32:24.159 hardest thing to living this way that I'm talking 01:32:24.159 --> 01:32:26.539 about is the stuff that we get attached to and 01:32:26.539 --> 01:32:28.460 the ideas and stuff that we get attached to. 01:32:29.560 --> 01:32:31.840 Wren Financial Management, there's many of them, 01:32:31.899 --> 01:32:33.699 but Wren Financial Management says it this way. 01:32:34.260 --> 01:32:36.720 The purpose of wealth is basically broken down 01:32:36.720 --> 01:32:40.340 into three things. One, protect capital. That 01:32:40.340 --> 01:32:43.720 is, stay rich. Two, grow capital. That is, get 01:32:43.720 --> 01:32:49.180 richer. Three, enjoy capital. That's it. And 01:32:49.180 --> 01:32:50.539 so everybody in the world who's got a little 01:32:50.539 --> 01:32:52.560 something is going to their financial advisors 01:32:52.560 --> 01:32:54.979 and learning how to keep what they've got, get 01:32:54.979 --> 01:32:57.949 more, and enjoy what they've got. That is not 01:32:57.949 --> 01:33:02.890 what life was for. And so if you get wrapped 01:33:02.890 --> 01:33:05.250 up or tied up in the trappings of this life, 01:33:05.430 --> 01:33:08.869 another financial manager, Care Financial, adds 01:33:08.869 --> 01:33:12.029 this. They say, also it's true, equally important 01:33:12.029 --> 01:33:14.649 is what your wealth can help you do in a larger 01:33:14.649 --> 01:33:18.609 sense for your community, etc. That's almost 01:33:18.609 --> 01:33:21.569 getting close, isn't it? What if the only thing 01:33:21.569 --> 01:33:23.569 that's actually important about your wealth is 01:33:23.569 --> 01:33:26.520 what you can actually do with it? to bless other 01:33:26.520 --> 01:33:29.960 people, to show love, to spread God's word, etc. 01:33:31.260 --> 01:33:34.899 According to the Bible, pretty sure that's basically 01:33:34.899 --> 01:33:38.840 it. So it isn't about getting richer. It isn't 01:33:38.840 --> 01:33:41.760 about keeping your riches or about enjoying your 01:33:41.760 --> 01:33:43.640 capital. It isn't about any of those things. 01:33:45.359 --> 01:33:47.779 Rather, Jesus said, store up treasures for yourself 01:33:47.779 --> 01:33:51.939 in heaven. So what happens when you run out? 01:33:52.619 --> 01:33:54.300 God wants you to have more. He'll give you more. 01:33:57.000 --> 01:33:58.399 You know how many people there are in the history 01:33:58.399 --> 01:34:00.159 of the United States of America? Big names. Guys 01:34:00.159 --> 01:34:02.420 that you'd recognize who filed bankruptcy three 01:34:02.420 --> 01:34:05.199 or four or sometimes seven times before they 01:34:05.199 --> 01:34:06.819 finally made their big name that you're familiar 01:34:06.819 --> 01:34:11.800 with. Newspaper men. Satirists. Mark Twain did 01:34:11.800 --> 01:34:14.060 it. Mark Twain filed bankruptcy and then went 01:34:14.060 --> 01:34:15.819 back and intentionally paid off all of his debts 01:34:15.819 --> 01:34:16.960 because he thought it was the right thing to 01:34:16.960 --> 01:34:22.920 do. You don't need half of what you have. You 01:34:22.920 --> 01:34:25.550 have it as a blessing from God. And you can use 01:34:25.550 --> 01:34:29.109 it as a blessing for God. And if you run out 01:34:29.109 --> 01:34:32.869 of it, then that was just meant to be. Second 01:34:32.869 --> 01:34:35.069 thing is, where does the church fit in all this? 01:34:35.130 --> 01:34:36.449 Because we've been talking an awful lot about 01:34:36.449 --> 01:34:39.689 living as an audience of one. So God is our only 01:34:39.689 --> 01:34:43.850 audience. And so I'm going to show you two things, 01:34:43.930 --> 01:34:46.350 two short videos that Josh has queued up for 01:34:46.350 --> 01:34:50.109 me. The first one is a flock of geese. It's very 01:34:50.109 --> 01:34:53.960 short. Tommy, we'll get that light. It's on the 01:34:53.960 --> 01:34:58.819 other side. This is a flock of geese. I hope 01:34:58.819 --> 01:35:02.920 you can see it. See them there? Flying across 01:35:02.920 --> 01:35:05.779 the screen. It's a little closer. They're flying 01:35:05.779 --> 01:35:12.680 in a V formation. Geese do that. While we're 01:35:12.680 --> 01:35:14.079 watching this for a few more seconds, I want 01:35:14.079 --> 01:35:16.239 you to think about how far away the front geese 01:35:16.239 --> 01:35:19.539 in the V is from the furthest back geese. There's 01:35:19.539 --> 01:35:23.149 some distance there, right? There's a still shot 01:35:23.149 --> 01:35:28.970 to end on. I think it actually paused. So 23 01:35:28.970 --> 01:35:33.329 seconds left. 22 seconds left. Okay, there we 01:35:33.329 --> 01:35:36.550 go. There's the geese flying. It's still going. 01:35:37.430 --> 01:35:44.050 27 seconds. Press the play button again. There 01:35:44.050 --> 01:35:53.630 we go. Gotta love the internet sometimes. Okay, 01:35:53.630 --> 01:35:55.909 so there's a little more there, but you've seen 01:35:55.909 --> 01:35:58.010 enough to know what I'm talking about. Where 01:35:58.010 --> 01:36:01.310 does the church fit in? So when a V of geese 01:36:01.310 --> 01:36:04.109 flies, I'm going to ask you a couple questions 01:36:04.109 --> 01:36:05.609 to make you think, and I think you'll get the 01:36:05.609 --> 01:36:08.869 picture. Is the front geese in the V together 01:36:08.869 --> 01:36:12.170 with the back, front goose together with the 01:36:12.170 --> 01:36:17.510 back goose? Are they together? Yes, they are 01:36:17.510 --> 01:36:19.489 together. In fact, they are so much together 01:36:19.489 --> 01:36:23.029 that when that front goose gets tired, He'll 01:36:23.029 --> 01:36:25.489 go to the back and fly and they'll rotate and 01:36:25.489 --> 01:36:28.050 somebody else will fly in the front. So that 01:36:28.050 --> 01:36:30.489 eventually that V will fly hundreds of miles 01:36:30.489 --> 01:36:35.409 and everyone will get a turn in the front. That's 01:36:35.409 --> 01:36:38.869 a picture of what the church is. We're all going 01:36:38.869 --> 01:36:41.630 the same way. We all have a circumcised heart. 01:36:41.770 --> 01:36:44.449 The Holy Spirit is at work in destroying sin 01:36:44.449 --> 01:36:46.869 in us and we're partnering with him to do so. 01:36:48.840 --> 01:36:51.079 and we're going the way God wants us to go. Now, 01:36:51.100 --> 01:36:53.300 I understand some will leave the V. Some will 01:36:53.300 --> 01:36:55.199 fall off. Some will not actually do what they 01:36:55.199 --> 01:36:57.359 said they would do, and so on. Where does the 01:36:57.359 --> 01:36:59.279 church fit in? The church is all one master, 01:36:59.340 --> 01:37:01.960 all one purpose, all together going, watching 01:37:01.960 --> 01:37:04.600 over one another, sacrificing for one another. 01:37:05.159 --> 01:37:08.020 Your concern for each other person's concerns, 01:37:08.319 --> 01:37:12.079 your concerns for other people, keep you on track 01:37:12.079 --> 01:37:17.810 in the pack. This is important. How much you 01:37:17.810 --> 01:37:20.670 care about the rest of the church and doing things 01:37:20.670 --> 01:37:22.529 for the rest of the church, that's what will 01:37:22.529 --> 01:37:24.829 keep you going the right way. It's not how much 01:37:24.829 --> 01:37:26.810 you care about yourself because you can go out 01:37:26.810 --> 01:37:29.069 then and be a Lone Ranger Christian. You can 01:37:29.069 --> 01:37:31.310 go out then and meet your own needs. You can 01:37:31.310 --> 01:37:33.149 go out then and find a way to get a second or 01:37:33.149 --> 01:37:36.869 a third job or steal or whatever to get the money 01:37:36.869 --> 01:37:39.029 that you need to make sure you have enough, right? 01:37:40.109 --> 01:37:44.199 If instead... you care about the other people 01:37:44.199 --> 01:37:46.340 in your church, that will actually guide you. 01:37:46.340 --> 01:37:47.979 I'm going to show you a second short video, if 01:37:47.979 --> 01:37:52.899 it works. Josh? Okay. These are called starlings. 01:37:54.720 --> 01:37:56.819 They're flying in what's called a murmuration. 01:37:58.640 --> 01:38:12.609 See them? Those are birds. Small birds. That's 01:38:12.609 --> 01:38:15.949 called a murmuration. It's probably about 2 ,000, 01:38:15.989 --> 01:38:22.869 3 ,000 birds in there. A murmuration will get 01:38:22.869 --> 01:38:25.489 together and starlings and other small birds, 01:38:25.609 --> 01:38:27.369 mostly starlings, but other small birds do it 01:38:27.369 --> 01:38:29.529 too, they'll get together and they'll swoop around 01:38:29.529 --> 01:38:31.350 like that in a mob. Tommy, you can turn the light 01:38:31.350 --> 01:38:35.470 back on now. And never once does one bird collide 01:38:35.470 --> 01:38:40.029 with another bird. They don't have radar or sonar. 01:38:40.670 --> 01:38:42.449 A lot of times they don't even make a noise. 01:38:42.590 --> 01:38:44.010 I mean, sometimes they'll chirp and things like 01:38:44.010 --> 01:38:45.449 that. But even if they don't make noise, they 01:38:45.449 --> 01:38:47.109 will never collide with another bird. No bird 01:38:47.109 --> 01:38:49.449 falls out. They foop all around like that. And 01:38:49.449 --> 01:38:51.029 eventually they pick a direction and they go. 01:38:51.189 --> 01:38:53.170 And they'll fly off essentially in a V formation 01:38:53.170 --> 01:38:56.430 or whatever. And off they go. Occasionally parks 01:38:56.430 --> 01:38:59.289 will break off and settle and then later come 01:38:59.289 --> 01:39:01.449 back to the pack and things. Now, a couple of 01:39:01.449 --> 01:39:03.229 things about starlings that are important. Number 01:39:03.229 --> 01:39:05.250 one, starlings were not native to North America. 01:39:05.760 --> 01:39:08.699 They were introduced to Central Park in New York 01:39:08.699 --> 01:39:10.699 by some Shakespeare lovers who wanted all the 01:39:10.699 --> 01:39:12.180 birds that were in Shakespeare to be present 01:39:12.180 --> 01:39:14.000 in North America. I know that sounds really weird. 01:39:14.220 --> 01:39:16.439 But since then, they've become almost like a 01:39:16.439 --> 01:39:18.140 plague across the entire country. There are millions, 01:39:18.319 --> 01:39:19.800 tens of millions, hundreds of millions of these 01:39:19.800 --> 01:39:22.220 birds across the entire country. In fact, some 01:39:22.220 --> 01:39:24.199 people lobby to get rid of them. There's so many 01:39:24.199 --> 01:39:26.560 of them. They don't really hurt anything. They're 01:39:26.560 --> 01:39:29.000 just like other small birds. Unless, of course, 01:39:29.060 --> 01:39:30.800 I suppose if you flew a plane into their murmuration, 01:39:31.039 --> 01:39:33.020 that'd probably be the end of your plane, I suppose. 01:39:33.239 --> 01:39:38.420 But the point is, These birds manage to function 01:39:38.420 --> 01:39:40.640 together. Scientists watch them. Here's what 01:39:40.640 --> 01:39:45.199 they found out. Each bird, each starling, watches 01:39:45.199 --> 01:39:49.260 seven other starlings that are near them. They 01:39:49.260 --> 01:39:51.060 keep track of those seven starlings that are 01:39:51.060 --> 01:39:54.840 near them. One of those is keeping track of seven 01:39:54.840 --> 01:39:56.479 others, which might include the original or it 01:39:56.479 --> 01:40:00.140 might not. It creates this vast web of starlings 01:40:00.140 --> 01:40:03.939 caring about the other starlings in the murmuration. 01:40:04.489 --> 01:40:07.449 And whatever way one goes, they all go. And they 01:40:07.449 --> 01:40:09.229 flit around. And they literally, you saw them 01:40:09.229 --> 01:40:12.170 take hairpin turns at 30 mile an hour in the 01:40:12.170 --> 01:40:14.569 air and don't bump into each other. Because they 01:40:14.569 --> 01:40:17.569 care about the others in the flock. This is what 01:40:17.569 --> 01:40:19.250 the church is supposed to look like. As you are 01:40:19.250 --> 01:40:22.130 concerned for each other, that keeps you on track 01:40:22.130 --> 01:40:24.789 in the path. Here's what happens sometimes. People 01:40:24.789 --> 01:40:27.850 go, well, so -and -so is not doing for me. So 01:40:27.850 --> 01:40:29.590 -and -so didn't show up and visit me enough. 01:40:29.949 --> 01:40:32.409 So -and -so didn't send me enough cards or gifts 01:40:32.409 --> 01:40:34.250 or so -and -so said something I didn't like. 01:40:34.430 --> 01:40:36.850 As soon as you do that, you divorce yourself 01:40:36.850 --> 01:40:40.210 from what God meant the church to be. And when 01:40:40.210 --> 01:40:46.010 you do that, we get crashes and we lose people. 01:40:46.229 --> 01:40:52.130 We lose love. We lose faith. Rather, what we 01:40:52.130 --> 01:40:54.909 should do is taking turns and let people lead 01:40:54.909 --> 01:40:56.670 as their spiritual gifts become appropriate. 01:40:58.630 --> 01:41:01.609 Care about other members of the group. And as 01:41:01.609 --> 01:41:05.250 you care, that will keep you on track. The entire 01:41:05.250 --> 01:41:07.869 New Testament was written to the church collected. 01:41:09.329 --> 01:41:13.189 Was sealed by the church collected. Some people 01:41:13.189 --> 01:41:15.090 say, I don't know about the church where I can 01:41:15.090 --> 01:41:16.569 just go off and be a follower of God. I've lived 01:41:16.569 --> 01:41:18.449 for an audience of one, right? If you're living 01:41:18.449 --> 01:41:20.590 for an audience of one, you cannot do that without 01:41:20.590 --> 01:41:22.550 the church because the church is the place and 01:41:22.550 --> 01:41:24.729 the people in which someone lives for an audience 01:41:24.729 --> 01:41:30.140 of one. And you will keep on track by caring 01:41:30.140 --> 01:41:32.600 more about the people around you, not just your 01:41:32.600 --> 01:41:35.619 family members, but by caring more about the 01:41:35.619 --> 01:41:40.899 people around you than about yourself. Why not 01:41:40.899 --> 01:41:43.600 a Lone Ranger Christian? Well, of course, there's 01:41:43.600 --> 01:41:45.520 the command to evangelism, to make other Christians, 01:41:45.680 --> 01:41:47.199 or tell them about Jesus so they can become other 01:41:47.199 --> 01:41:48.739 Christians. And then there's the command to love 01:41:48.739 --> 01:41:51.840 your brother. 1 John 4 .20 says, By this everyone 01:41:51.840 --> 01:41:54.880 will know you are my disciples if you love one 01:41:54.880 --> 01:41:58.300 another. That's not 1 John 4 .20. That's Jesus 01:41:58.300 --> 01:42:02.300 speaking. 1 John 4 .20 is where it says, if you 01:42:02.300 --> 01:42:04.180 cannot love your brother or sister that you have 01:42:04.180 --> 01:42:07.760 seen, then you cannot love God whom you have 01:42:07.760 --> 01:42:10.460 not seen. Don't you understand that these people 01:42:10.460 --> 01:42:12.939 here, and yes, we're all flawed and have issues 01:42:12.939 --> 01:42:14.899 and whatever, but these people here were created 01:42:14.899 --> 01:42:17.079 in the image of God. They represent God. If you 01:42:17.079 --> 01:42:20.880 don't love Tommy, you don't love God. That's 01:42:20.880 --> 01:42:24.260 all there is to it. I didn't say it. John wrote 01:42:24.260 --> 01:42:26.220 it. If you don't love Arden, you don't love God. 01:42:26.319 --> 01:42:27.659 If you don't love Rayleigh, you don't love God. 01:42:28.720 --> 01:42:30.460 If you don't love Rosie, you don't love God. 01:42:30.619 --> 01:42:33.279 And by love, I don't mean, oh, I love them. Yes, 01:42:33.300 --> 01:42:34.880 I do love them. They're kind of cute and I would 01:42:34.880 --> 01:42:38.819 like to pet them. No. That's not love. Love is 01:42:38.819 --> 01:42:41.520 when you go, they have a practical need of some 01:42:41.520 --> 01:42:44.140 kind. I'm going to meet it. I am going to get 01:42:44.140 --> 01:42:46.510 an extra part -time job. To pay to get their 01:42:46.510 --> 01:42:48.609 car fixed. Or I'm going to take from my savings. 01:42:48.810 --> 01:42:51.029 Or I'm going to give them my key. Or I'm going 01:42:51.029 --> 01:42:52.590 to step up and encourage them. Or I'm going to 01:42:52.590 --> 01:42:54.550 call them when they're hurting. That's love. 01:42:54.670 --> 01:42:57.609 It's practical, intentional action on their behalf. 01:42:58.449 --> 01:43:00.649 And I have a problem with that. Because I don't 01:43:00.649 --> 01:43:02.529 see it present in the church the way it should 01:43:02.529 --> 01:43:05.010 be. Which makes me wonder whether the church 01:43:05.010 --> 01:43:07.789 even is the church. Except that I know our church 01:43:07.789 --> 01:43:10.250 is the church. So then I'm asking you to repent 01:43:10.250 --> 01:43:12.369 of that. And to begin to love each other in that 01:43:12.369 --> 01:43:14.590 way. And to work for each other. You say, well 01:43:14.590 --> 01:43:16.029 I don't even know if they're... Christian. Not 01:43:16.029 --> 01:43:19.909 your job. So I see them messing up and I don't 01:43:19.909 --> 01:43:24.350 like it. Not your job. Your job is to love them 01:43:24.350 --> 01:43:26.649 and as you love them, that will keep you on track. 01:43:26.829 --> 01:43:28.569 You cannot be a lone ranger Christian because 01:43:28.569 --> 01:43:30.470 if you are a lone ranger Christian, you do not 01:43:30.470 --> 01:43:37.090 love God. John wrote it. Seeing how people have 01:43:37.090 --> 01:43:40.149 messed up, here is the actual place for Matthew 01:43:40.149 --> 01:43:42.510 7. Don't judge salvation by what your eyes see. 01:43:43.670 --> 01:43:45.890 You don't save people and your standards don't 01:43:45.890 --> 01:43:47.430 save people and the rules you think are right 01:43:47.430 --> 01:43:50.010 don't save people. God saves people. And if they 01:43:50.010 --> 01:43:51.430 say they're saved and they're living for the 01:43:51.430 --> 01:43:53.270 Lord, then you don't judge them and say they're 01:43:53.270 --> 01:43:59.989 not. We do practice accountability. We're required 01:43:59.989 --> 01:44:02.210 essentially by this very thing. You say you're 01:44:02.210 --> 01:44:03.250 living for an audience of one. You understand 01:44:03.250 --> 01:44:05.609 what that means, right? If I'm living for an 01:44:05.609 --> 01:44:07.909 audience of one, I no longer, and this is going 01:44:07.909 --> 01:44:09.550 to hurt a little bit here when I say this, I 01:44:09.550 --> 01:44:11.670 no longer have to care, at least not for the 01:44:11.670 --> 01:44:16.850 direction of my life, What my wife thinks. Man, 01:44:16.890 --> 01:44:22.750 that's hard. I no longer have to care, at least 01:44:22.750 --> 01:44:26.069 for the direction of my life, what my boss thinks. 01:44:26.229 --> 01:44:29.729 I only have to care what my God thinks. So, it 01:44:29.729 --> 01:44:34.739 can require leaving behind those you love. Jesus 01:44:34.739 --> 01:44:37.340 said it this way, If anyone comes to Me and doesn't 01:44:37.340 --> 01:44:39.840 hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers 01:44:39.840 --> 01:44:43.760 and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a 01:44:43.760 --> 01:44:48.880 person cannot be My disciple. And a little follow 01:44:48.880 --> 01:44:51.260 -up, and whoever does not carry their cross and 01:44:51.260 --> 01:44:55.479 follow Me cannot be My disciple. Understand? 01:44:55.939 --> 01:44:57.600 Now, Jesus did not mean that you should hate 01:44:57.600 --> 01:45:00.979 people. But He's saying, if in the moment, if 01:45:00.979 --> 01:45:03.720 it comes right down to it, And I have authorized 01:45:03.720 --> 01:45:08.539 Sherry, if Jesus comes again, and in that moment 01:45:08.539 --> 01:45:10.840 she has some kind of doubt that I'm not going, 01:45:10.979 --> 01:45:13.800 she's supposed to go anywhere. Go anyway. Go 01:45:13.800 --> 01:45:18.260 without me. Leave me. Go. And if we're in a situation 01:45:18.260 --> 01:45:21.659 where following God has us do something, and 01:45:21.659 --> 01:45:24.300 she knows it. It's happened a couple of times. 01:45:24.420 --> 01:45:26.739 She knows this is what God wants us to do. And 01:45:26.739 --> 01:45:27.920 she'll come to me afterwards and she'll say, 01:45:27.960 --> 01:45:29.760 okay, well I did this. I felt like it was what 01:45:29.760 --> 01:45:32.060 God wanted us to do. And whether I agree or not, 01:45:32.100 --> 01:45:34.739 it doesn't matter. She's got to live for an audience 01:45:34.739 --> 01:45:37.239 of one. Now, as a married couple, collectively, 01:45:37.279 --> 01:45:39.439 we live for an audience of one. So we're supposed 01:45:39.439 --> 01:45:40.800 to be working together. She lives for an audience 01:45:40.800 --> 01:45:42.220 of one. I live for an audience of one. Together, 01:45:42.439 --> 01:45:45.220 we live for an audience of one. God. And that's 01:45:45.220 --> 01:45:47.000 when we become one. And it's the only time you 01:45:47.000 --> 01:45:49.699 ever actually really are married. It's when God 01:45:49.699 --> 01:45:53.180 does that. You will have to leave behind those 01:45:53.180 --> 01:45:57.390 you love to live this way. Freed. At the same 01:45:57.390 --> 01:45:59.789 time, it's not really about that, is it? What 01:45:59.789 --> 01:46:02.529 is it really about? It's actually really about 01:46:02.529 --> 01:46:06.729 bringing along those you love. So if your wife 01:46:06.729 --> 01:46:09.569 or your children or whatever are not understanding, 01:46:09.810 --> 01:46:12.029 your job is to bring them to an understanding. 01:46:12.329 --> 01:46:14.149 If they're not going the direction, you have 01:46:14.149 --> 01:46:16.109 to bring them to the direction. If somebody's 01:46:16.109 --> 01:46:18.390 struggling in sin, you're to bring them in the 01:46:18.390 --> 01:46:20.529 right direction. Remember we saw the geese flying? 01:46:21.260 --> 01:46:22.899 And there's a leader, and they take turns being 01:46:22.899 --> 01:46:24.319 a leader, and I think that's the way the church 01:46:24.319 --> 01:46:25.760 is supposed to work in that regard. But guess 01:46:25.760 --> 01:46:28.319 what? You know what happens when a goose becomes 01:46:28.319 --> 01:46:32.760 wounded or injured? Does anybody know? And what? 01:46:33.060 --> 01:46:35.020 It does. It gets left behind. But what else? 01:46:35.619 --> 01:46:39.800 This is the most important part. Nope. Two other 01:46:39.800 --> 01:46:44.300 geese. Always two. Never more than two. Two other 01:46:44.300 --> 01:46:48.100 geese leave the V and stay with the wounded or 01:46:48.100 --> 01:46:51.569 injured goose until either it dies, or is healed. 01:46:51.970 --> 01:46:55.569 At which point, the three of them fly with all 01:46:55.569 --> 01:46:57.609 their might, switching leaders, flying in a V, 01:46:57.729 --> 01:47:02.289 to catch back up to the original V. The gospel, 01:47:02.430 --> 01:47:05.130 the church, the power of God, living for an audience 01:47:05.130 --> 01:47:07.770 of one, realizing you don't really know what 01:47:07.770 --> 01:47:09.930 you would do under all circumstances, and that 01:47:09.930 --> 01:47:12.729 it's not a set of rules, is all about bringing 01:47:12.729 --> 01:47:16.310 everyone along who will come. And of course you 01:47:16.310 --> 01:47:18.189 love your wife, and of course you love your children, 01:47:18.289 --> 01:47:19.890 and you love the people you went to school with, 01:47:19.970 --> 01:47:21.630 or at least you darn well better, because if 01:47:21.630 --> 01:47:23.989 you can't love Christians that you've met, you 01:47:23.989 --> 01:47:26.210 don't love God. You say, but they sin. Yes, they 01:47:26.210 --> 01:47:29.689 do, and so do you. You say, but they've messed 01:47:29.689 --> 01:47:34.380 it up. Yes, they have, and so have you. Now the 01:47:34.380 --> 01:47:36.500 church has certain practices in which we can 01:47:36.500 --> 01:47:38.859 finally recognize that we are no longer indebted 01:47:38.859 --> 01:47:40.460 to take care of a certain person who has essentially 01:47:40.460 --> 01:47:42.760 left our number. They've gone off in sin. They 01:47:42.760 --> 01:47:45.939 don't want anybody around them or whatever. And 01:47:45.939 --> 01:47:47.819 we can deal with that another time. But the bottom 01:47:47.819 --> 01:47:49.939 line is the goal is we're all moving in the same 01:47:49.939 --> 01:47:51.960 direction like a murmuration headed for heaven. 01:47:53.399 --> 01:47:56.319 And it may take a lot of twists and turns. Five 01:47:56.319 --> 01:47:58.159 years from now, we may not be able to meet publicly 01:47:58.159 --> 01:47:59.979 in a building. We have to meet in houses or in 01:47:59.979 --> 01:48:01.880 somebody's house because the law may not allow 01:48:01.880 --> 01:48:05.039 it. We don't know. We may have a bomb threat 01:48:05.039 --> 01:48:06.560 against the building because we're living for 01:48:06.560 --> 01:48:09.300 Jesus. It can happen. You don't know. We've already 01:48:09.300 --> 01:48:12.340 had a pandemic that said that we shouldn't and 01:48:12.340 --> 01:48:14.739 probably couldn't meet together in public. You 01:48:14.739 --> 01:48:16.460 don't know if that won't happen again. I don't 01:48:16.460 --> 01:48:18.439 mind to believe that that was the first of a 01:48:18.439 --> 01:48:20.340 series of, and we're not even done with the first 01:48:20.340 --> 01:48:22.100 one yet, but it's the first of a series of pandemics. 01:48:22.100 --> 01:48:25.420 I don't think it's over. And people were so afraid 01:48:25.420 --> 01:48:27.180 to worship God and to gather together with other 01:48:27.180 --> 01:48:29.840 believers. You realize that if you can pull back 01:48:29.840 --> 01:48:32.239 from the body and not love the rest of the body, 01:48:32.300 --> 01:48:35.479 you have a real problem. And so if you can pull 01:48:35.479 --> 01:48:37.479 back because you think you're avoiding fellowship 01:48:37.479 --> 01:48:40.039 because of COVID, I'm not saying there's anything 01:48:40.039 --> 01:48:41.439 wrong with that. You have an audience of one. 01:48:41.579 --> 01:48:43.520 Do what God would have you to do. If God is saying 01:48:43.520 --> 01:48:45.079 to you, you don't go to church because you could 01:48:45.079 --> 01:48:48.060 be risking getting COVID, fine. But God has not 01:48:48.060 --> 01:48:51.340 stopped saying to you that you must love. The 01:48:51.340 --> 01:48:53.479 body. So you should be going, the people that 01:48:53.479 --> 01:48:55.340 can't go and the people that do go and the people 01:48:55.340 --> 01:48:56.760 that sit there and the people that I sit near 01:48:56.760 --> 01:48:58.539 and the people that are in trouble, how can I 01:48:58.539 --> 01:49:00.119 help them? The people that are online right now 01:49:00.119 --> 01:49:02.119 should be thinking about how can I help the people 01:49:02.119 --> 01:49:03.239 that are in the room and the people that are 01:49:03.239 --> 01:49:04.300 in the room should be thinking about how can 01:49:04.300 --> 01:49:07.220 I help the people that are online? We have got 01:49:07.220 --> 01:49:13.119 to be the church. No church. No audience of one. 01:49:14.180 --> 01:49:18.420 No freedom. No humble realization that even you 01:49:18.420 --> 01:49:22.409 don't really know. And then I guess we're back 01:49:22.409 --> 01:49:26.510 to a set of rules, which, after all, would be 01:49:26.510 --> 01:49:32.210 easier, wouldn't it? It'd be easier, but it just 01:49:32.210 --> 01:49:37.369 won't get us where we're going. It's time we 01:49:37.369 --> 01:49:41.270 started caring about the people around us and 01:49:41.270 --> 01:49:48.489 live for God in love and kindness. Even the people 01:49:48.489 --> 01:49:50.569 who are... out there in the world who don't claim 01:49:50.569 --> 01:49:52.189 to be Christians, who are doing terrible evil, 01:49:52.350 --> 01:49:57.029 we should love them and wish that they would 01:49:57.029 --> 01:50:03.949 get saved and turn from their wicked ways. And 01:50:03.949 --> 01:50:07.270 God can do it. Because when you have nothing 01:50:07.270 --> 01:50:13.270 left, He'll be there and He will do. I pray for 01:50:13.270 --> 01:50:16.119 you briefly. This has been... our expose, if 01:50:16.119 --> 01:50:18.220 you will. We are freed by living as an audience 01:50:18.220 --> 01:50:21.260 of one, realizing that even we might not know 01:50:21.260 --> 01:50:24.619 ourselves and what we're capable of. Not living 01:50:24.619 --> 01:50:29.340 by a set of rules. We're freed in Christ. To 01:50:29.340 --> 01:50:31.619 be freed in Christ is to function as part of 01:50:31.619 --> 01:50:33.279 the church and to love the people around you 01:50:33.279 --> 01:50:36.460 more than you love yourself. Stop thinking about 01:50:36.460 --> 01:50:38.300 how you can get ahead or what you can get or 01:50:38.300 --> 01:50:40.460 preserving your riches or spending your riches, 01:50:40.479 --> 01:50:44.859 enjoying your riches or making more riches. Start 01:50:44.859 --> 01:50:48.260 thinking about people that are hurting and showing 01:50:48.260 --> 01:50:53.819 up to make a difference in their situation. Father 01:50:53.819 --> 01:50:57.319 in heaven, help us in a day when so many people 01:50:57.319 --> 01:51:00.399 are so alone. And some of them are our people. 01:51:00.880 --> 01:51:05.739 There are people maybe in this room who feel 01:51:05.739 --> 01:51:08.199 alone, who feel separated, feel distanced, they're 01:51:08.199 --> 01:51:14.520 injured, fallen away. And we have a tendency 01:51:14.520 --> 01:51:16.819 when we see that somebody's injured or fallen 01:51:16.819 --> 01:51:20.539 away to let them kind of go away and heal and 01:51:20.539 --> 01:51:23.420 come back when they're strong. And that's not 01:51:23.420 --> 01:51:28.520 what you've called us to. Lord, help us lift 01:51:28.520 --> 01:51:31.359 up one another. Lord, help us be the church that 01:51:31.359 --> 01:51:34.300 we're supposed to be. For those who feel restrained 01:51:34.300 --> 01:51:37.659 that they cannot participate in person, kindle 01:51:37.659 --> 01:51:40.659 the love and the fire in their heart and they 01:51:40.659 --> 01:51:42.260 can think about what a difference they could 01:51:42.260 --> 01:51:46.020 make. can make, will make, should make, and how 01:51:46.020 --> 01:51:48.359 to make that difference in the lives of others 01:51:48.359 --> 01:51:51.199 who are the church. And for those who are here 01:51:51.199 --> 01:51:55.020 in person, let them care about one another and 01:51:55.020 --> 01:51:57.899 those who are joining online and those who are 01:51:57.899 --> 01:52:01.960 hurting. Let it truly be said of your people 01:52:01.960 --> 01:52:05.520 that they know who we are because they see the 01:52:05.520 --> 01:52:10.159 love we have for one another. You loved us so 01:52:10.159 --> 01:52:14.619 much. You demonstrated it so clearly. And we 01:52:14.619 --> 01:52:17.819 ought not spit on that memory. We ought not squander 01:52:17.819 --> 01:52:20.880 that memory. We ought not keep for ourselves 01:52:20.880 --> 01:52:23.159 certain blessings that You intend for us to share. 01:52:25.199 --> 01:52:28.739 Lord, help us in the midst of this trouble. Your 01:52:28.739 --> 01:52:32.399 will be done. Your kingdom come. Your name be 01:52:32.399 --> 01:52:36.479 holy on the earth. Lead us not into temptation. 01:52:37.520 --> 01:52:40.260 Give us Your Holy Spirit strength and power to 01:52:40.260 --> 01:52:43.819 destroy sin in our lives. Deliver us from evil. 01:52:47.500 --> 01:52:49.579 We want to come to be with You for an eternity 01:52:49.579 --> 01:52:52.079 and to be found faithful doing what we're supposed 01:52:52.079 --> 01:52:55.140 to do now until that time comes. There may be 01:52:55.140 --> 01:52:57.600 somebody in the room who has not said, okay, 01:52:57.680 --> 01:53:00.520 I do believe there is a God. I do believe that 01:53:00.520 --> 01:53:02.779 Jesus came and died on the cross for sins and 01:53:02.779 --> 01:53:04.779 that He has a right to be my Lord and Savior 01:53:04.779 --> 01:53:07.420 and I want to give my life. into His control. 01:53:09.119 --> 01:53:12.220 I want to let Him be in charge of me. And I pray 01:53:12.220 --> 01:53:16.500 that you would speak into their voice, or speak 01:53:16.500 --> 01:53:19.420 into their heart, that they would hear your voice, 01:53:19.619 --> 01:53:21.939 and that they would say, during this song we're 01:53:21.939 --> 01:53:23.420 about to sing, yes, that's me, I want to live 01:53:23.420 --> 01:53:28.560 for Jesus. There might be somebody in this room 01:53:28.560 --> 01:53:30.800 that knows that they are a follower of Jesus, 01:53:30.880 --> 01:53:33.659 and they know that they have been more often 01:53:33.659 --> 01:53:36.439 than not living as a Lone Ranger Christian. Working 01:53:36.439 --> 01:53:38.319 it out themselves. Yes, trying to live as an 01:53:38.319 --> 01:53:40.079 audience of one, but realizing that they've been 01:53:40.079 --> 01:53:43.739 dismissing your commands to truly love others. 01:53:45.680 --> 01:53:49.060 And so they've been offending you. I ask you, 01:53:49.100 --> 01:53:54.140 Lord, to give them an understanding and an ability 01:53:54.140 --> 01:54:00.220 to repent and turn to you. Peace. A plan to love 01:54:00.220 --> 01:54:04.699 others. Father, there may be somebody in this 01:54:04.699 --> 01:54:05.920 room that thinks that they're going to get to 01:54:05.920 --> 01:54:08.880 heaven by a set of rules before or after they've 01:54:08.880 --> 01:54:11.100 been saved. And they know now from your word 01:54:11.100 --> 01:54:15.439 that it's not about the rules. It's about permanently 01:54:15.439 --> 01:54:21.479 pursuing a personal presence of our God. And 01:54:21.479 --> 01:54:24.039 we want to be part of whatever you want to be 01:54:24.039 --> 01:54:27.100 part of. And we want nothing to do with that 01:54:27.100 --> 01:54:30.140 which you say is wrong or that you say we should 01:54:30.140 --> 01:54:33.520 keep away from you. Keep away from ourselves. 01:54:34.699 --> 01:54:37.539 Lord, help us as we sing in Jesus' name. Amen. 01:54:38.439 --> 01:54:39.819 That's the praise team to come forward and lead 01:54:39.819 --> 01:54:42.239 us at this time. If you're making some kind of 01:54:42.239 --> 01:54:43.979 a decision today, maybe you've accepted Jesus 01:54:43.979 --> 01:54:45.560 Christ as your Lord and Savior while you've been 01:54:45.560 --> 01:54:49.119 here or recently, then you come forward at the 01:54:49.119 --> 01:54:51.479 invitation time. And if you want to social distance, 01:54:51.600 --> 01:54:52.979 that's fine. You can come here and stand here. 01:54:53.520 --> 01:54:55.119 If you want me to pray with you, I'll do that 01:54:55.119 --> 01:54:59.159 too. Thank you for joining us for this podcast 01:54:59.159 --> 01:55:00.840 from New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of 01:55:00.840 --> 01:55:03.300 East Toledo. I hope you've given some serious 01:55:03.300 --> 01:55:06.140 thought to what we're freed by and how freeing 01:55:06.140 --> 01:55:08.199 it is to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. 01:55:08.840 --> 01:55:11.260 I would ask you to consider what our obligations 01:55:11.260 --> 01:55:13.699 are, as we talked about last week, but to realize 01:55:13.699 --> 01:55:17.220 that we are indeed free. And so then, perhaps 01:55:17.220 --> 01:55:19.119 you'd want to reach New Heights in Jesus with 01:55:19.119 --> 01:55:21.079 us. New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church is 01:55:21.079 --> 01:55:24.600 in East Toledo at 255 Hefner, and we meet every 01:55:24.600 --> 01:55:27.699 Sunday morning, 1130 a .m., and usually Tuesday 01:55:27.699 --> 01:55:32.479 evenings at 630 p .m. for Bible study. 7 o 'clock 01:55:32.479 --> 01:55:35.600 for adults, 6 .30 for 18 and under, and 7 to 01:55:35.600 --> 01:55:40.140 8 for adults. And so then the kids will sometimes 01:55:40.140 --> 01:55:42.079 come in and sit in with the adults at the end 01:55:42.079 --> 01:55:45.279 to finish up the Bible study. And so that's us 01:55:45.279 --> 01:55:47.359 reaching new heights in Jesus. Perhaps you'd 01:55:47.359 --> 01:55:49.340 like to be part of us reaching new heights in 01:55:49.340 --> 01:55:51.539 Jesus. If, on the other hand, you're listening 01:55:51.539 --> 01:55:53.340 to this podcast and it blessed you in some way, 01:55:53.399 --> 01:55:55.560 in order to keep this podcast on the air, please, 01:55:55.640 --> 01:55:59.829 number one, like it, follow it, share it. and 01:55:59.829 --> 01:56:02.529 tell everybody about it. And this is the teachings 01:56:02.529 --> 01:56:05.090 of the Lord Jesus Christ as they come to New 01:56:05.090 --> 01:56:06.750 Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo. 01:56:07.189 --> 01:56:09.649 And I know you're only getting a part of it because 01:56:09.649 --> 01:56:11.989 you're getting the Sunday services, but praise 01:56:11.989 --> 01:56:14.189 God, he is at work in us, and I hope in you. 01:56:14.390 --> 01:56:16.789 If you would like to give financially, then you 01:56:16.789 --> 01:56:21.289 may give by texting G -I -V -E to 419 -419 -0095. 01:56:22.189 --> 01:56:26.609 That's the word give. G -I -V -E to 419 -419 01:56:26.609 --> 01:56:30.619 -0095. Set up your credit or debit card and you'll 01:56:30.619 --> 01:56:32.859 be able to give directly to the church's general 01:56:32.859 --> 01:56:36.079 offering. Then, if you'd like to give another 01:56:36.079 --> 01:56:38.520 way, you can go online on our website at churchdeledo 01:56:38.520 --> 01:56:40.439 .com. That's also where you can find a lot more 01:56:40.439 --> 01:56:41.760 information about the ministry and other ways 01:56:41.760 --> 01:56:44.399 you can get plugged in. Let's say, for example, 01:56:44.420 --> 01:56:46.539 you're a person in need of encouragement. On 01:56:46.539 --> 01:56:48.279 our website, there's a link where you can sign 01:56:48.279 --> 01:56:50.420 up to receive encouraging calls and messages 01:56:50.420 --> 01:56:53.920 anywhere from one to three times a week. They're 01:56:53.920 --> 01:56:56.640 delivered by automated call on the OneCallNow 01:56:56.640 --> 01:56:59.760 system. And so that's a great opportunity. If 01:56:59.760 --> 01:57:01.340 you're in the Toledo area and need groceries, 01:57:01.640 --> 01:57:03.500 there's a way that you can sign up for our pantry 01:57:03.500 --> 01:57:06.199 at New Heights online. Or if you need the groceries 01:57:06.199 --> 01:57:07.960 delivered to you, you can sign up for the Life 01:57:07.960 --> 01:57:10.800 Station delivery service of free groceries, free 01:57:10.800 --> 01:57:13.460 emergency groceries to anyone in need in Toledo, 01:57:13.479 --> 01:57:16.960 parts of Oregon, and parts of Northwood. So those 01:57:16.960 --> 01:57:18.939 are just an example, and there's a lot more there. 01:57:19.079 --> 01:57:22.539 We do need your help. I wouldn't say God needs 01:57:22.539 --> 01:57:24.800 our money or even our time or our talents or 01:57:24.800 --> 01:57:28.489 our service. But we are together on mission for 01:57:28.489 --> 01:57:30.449 God, reaching new heights in Jesus, overcoming 01:57:30.449 --> 01:57:33.390 evil with good. And if you want to be together 01:57:33.390 --> 01:57:35.409 on mission with us, you decide how God wants 01:57:35.409 --> 01:57:38.109 that to happen for you. And then let's get her 01:57:38.109 --> 01:57:41.250 done. God bless you today as you reach new heights 01:57:41.250 --> 01:57:41.729 in Jesus.