1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,560 Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located in 2 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:17,320 beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship Ministries with 3 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:22,880 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and 4 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:28,360 church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church and other sermons from 5 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:33,000 throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your host for this podcast. 6 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,840 I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing to you and bring you closer 7 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:51,440 to God. Hello again and welcome back to the podcast for the Potter's House Christian Church 8 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:56,440 and located in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. My name is David Bickford. I'm the pastor of 9 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:02,080 the Potter's House and this podcast we're going to be looking at a message I've entitled, 10 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:09,800 The Choice Before Us. The subheading for this is the Holy Spirit and our conscience. 11 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:15,320 Something I've always been interested in, I'm not a hunter myself. I've always thought about 12 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:20,440 getting into it but the reality is that you only have so many times or so many hobbies. 13 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:28,760 From what everybody tells me, hunting is a time-consuming hobby at best. I've never done it 14 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:34,040 but I've always been interested by it. I have this illustration that I'm going to look at to 15 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:40,920 start us off with. If you're going to grab your Bibles, if you have that at the ready, 16 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:46,600 the text we'll be using this morning as we're jumping off point will be Romans 1 verses 28 17 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:55,000 through 32. The illustration I have is the hunter and the hunted. Mankind has always had the 18 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:00,920 propensity to elevate the opinion of ourselves above God and other men and this can be seen 19 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:06,280 throughout history and the desire of great men and women who consider themselves to be God kings or 20 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:14,360 deities that have God-like powers. So in today's society we see all the tales of God-like heroes 21 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:20,360 waging war against evil villains but today we are also seeing the turning of the villains into 22 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:26,760 anti-heroes for us to sympathize with and adore as they are shown to be heroes. 23 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:36,360 So Reawakening, this is from a recent movie that came out, I guess, I don't know, it's probably been 24 00:02:36,920 --> 00:02:42,280 over a year or so ago now but there was a movie called Black Adam and it says, 25 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:48,520 reawaking after 5,000 years, Black Adam becomes the world's ruthless protector, an anti-villain 26 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:54,600 to take on the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, and now in 21st century Black Adam must face off 27 00:02:54,600 --> 00:03:00,280 against the Justice Society of America and its heroes, Dr. Fate, Hawkman, Adam Smasher, 28 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:05,240 and Cyclone. The fate of the world hangs in the balance. Nearly 5,000 years after he was 29 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:10,600 bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods and imprisoned, just as quickly, Black Adam 30 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:17,080 is free from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world. 31 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:27,080 So here we see the hunters become the hunted in the sense of, you know, what we're seeing in society 32 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:37,960 is this move away from the classical hero to all the villains becoming heroes. So we'll dig into 33 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:43,320 this and like I said, I got a couple illustrations in here regarding hunting more directly but I just 34 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:49,640 kind of want you to think about that. Why is it that all of the things in society now are trying 35 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:58,600 to make the people who were the enemies of the past or the nemesis of the past to make them 36 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:05,400 more nuanced and try to show that they were forced to be that way? But let's look at our 37 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:13,640 text in Romans 1, 28-32. Furthermore, just as you did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge 38 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:21,960 of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what ought not to be done. 39 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:26,440 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, depravity. They are 40 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:33,080 full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, god-haters, insolent, 41 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:38,440 arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They have no 42 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:44,360 understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that 43 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:50,200 those who do these things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also 44 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:57,160 approve of those who practice them. So it's an interesting jumping-off point as we kind of look 45 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:04,040 at where society is taking us in regards to what is right and what is wrong. Well, let's take this 46 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:13,320 little glimpse of a hunting style called persistence hunting. This technique is an old hunting 47 00:05:13,320 --> 00:05:18,360 technique in which hunters use a combination of running, walking, and tracking to pursue their 48 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:25,480 prey to the point of exhaustion. While humans can sweat to reduce their body heat, most of our prey 49 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:34,280 animals or quadrupedal prey would need to slow down from a gallop in order to pant. Today, 50 00:05:34,280 --> 00:05:42,440 persistent hunting is very rarely used, but it's still used today. Only in a few places such as the 51 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:50,040 Kalahari Bushmen or the Tarahumara or the Raraw-Murray people of northern Mexico. 52 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:55,240 The technique requires endurance running. We're running long distances over extended period of 53 00:05:55,240 --> 00:06:07,960 time. And among all of God's creation, endurance running is only seen in humans. Persistent hunting 54 00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:13,160 is thought to have been one of the earliest forms of human hunting. But keep that in mind 55 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:20,280 because there's a picture I'm going to be pulling from that. There's this idea of 56 00:06:20,280 --> 00:06:24,600 persistence hunting. But one of the really interesting things about persistent hunting 57 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:30,120 is that by the time you track the animal and you have a group of people that are penning this 58 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:35,560 animal in using running and keeping pressure on the animals, the animal can't get away. 59 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:41,320 As you're actually running the animal almost or all the way to death, you're running them to death. 60 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:48,520 And so when the hunter catches up to the animal, the typical killing blow is one out of mercy 61 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:52,680 because by that point the animal has been run so ragged that their organs are already starting to 62 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:56,680 fail. In 2 Corinthians 2, 10-11, it says, 63 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:03,400 To whom you forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, 64 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:09,800 for your sakes forgave I it in person of Christ. Lest Satan should get an advantage over us, 65 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:14,760 for we are not ignorant of his devices. So let's look again at this picture of 66 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:19,560 persistence hunting and the ways that you can extrapolate this or look at it as a way that a 67 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:27,960 devil tries to attack humanity. There's a simple method here of separation. You have the herd, 68 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:32,760 right, whether it's sheep or whether it's gazelle or whatever it is, it doesn't matter, goats, 69 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:39,000 I don't care. Whatever the herd is, you have the devil that's striving to separate you 70 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:45,160 from the pack because he knows that once he can separate you from the pack, it's a lot easier to 71 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:50,120 chase you down, which is the next stage of this method of hunting is that the chase, that once the 72 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:57,560 chase ensues, now the devil and his minions and all those that are side with him, they can pursue you 73 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:05,640 away from the pack. Once separated, he can chase us relentlessly because he's removed us from the 74 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:10,280 covering of the word of God. He's removed us from the covering of our church or of our brothers and 75 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:16,520 Christ, our brothers and sisters in Christ. And now he's chased us out into the wide, wide world 76 00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:24,920 where we begin to seek refuge in a world that has no protection for us. And when the chase is on, 77 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:32,040 he can keep the pressure on so that you have no rest. And this can drive you to exhaustion 78 00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:39,560 because this is his goal is to drive us to exhaustion. But what the devil doesn't have is 79 00:08:39,560 --> 00:08:48,600 he doesn't have the full capability to take us out because we can always turn to the Lord. 80 00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:57,320 And our rest is in the Lord. Psalm 37 verse seven says, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. 81 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:01,800 And fret not thyself because of him who is prospereth in his ways, 82 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:04,520 because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 83 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:11,640 This brings me to my second point. So the first point was to look at the devil's tactics. 84 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:16,120 The devil, one of his tactics is going to be to separate you from the things of God, 85 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:21,240 separate you from a relationship with God. That way you're out in the world all on your own so 86 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:28,920 that he can chase you down and run you till you're exhausted and you give up. The second point is the 87 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:36,440 church and our reaction. And the third point that I'll touch on will be the choice that comes before 88 00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:43,160 us because we all have a choice to make. But let's first look at the church and our reactions. 89 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:48,440 The church and the book of Revelation all had very different reactions to the gospel of Jesus 90 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:54,280 Christ. At one point they would have all heard the same gospel, but over time their reactions 91 00:09:54,280 --> 00:10:00,760 to the gospel changed. It became very different. And in order to understand the book of Revelation, 92 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:06,280 we must first understand the apostle John. The apostle John was one of the closest people to 93 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:13,320 Jesus on earth. As his best friend and an eyewitness to Jesus's life, death, and resurrection, 94 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:17,960 even after being tortured and then exiled to the island of Patmos, John was faithful 95 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:24,840 and never stopped talking about Jesus. For John, it was always about Jesus and his church. 96 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:31,240 So he had a single-minded focus and that's something we can gain here is an understanding 97 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:37,960 because in our lives we all try to do more than one thing. We all try to do multiple things, 98 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:44,280 but we need to have a central focus and I believe that that central focus has to be on the Lord. 99 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:47,800 But in Revelation 1 verses 1 through 3 it says, 100 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:21,080 Let's look at the churches of Revelation. You have Ephesus, the faithful but unloving church, 101 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:25,160 and you can read that in chapter 2 verses 1 through 7 of Revelation. 102 00:11:26,680 --> 00:11:32,440 Jesus commended the Ephesians for how they served faithfully. They endured hardship, 103 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:38,920 having sound doctrine, hated heretics, but his big criticism is that they're not very loving. 104 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:44,680 In 1 Corinthians 13 1 through 3 we see when the apostle Paul talks about a similarly unloving 105 00:11:44,680 --> 00:12:09,960 situation, it says, 106 00:12:14,680 --> 00:12:16,840 This is an important point for us to understand. 107 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:22,600 Politicians often claim to do things on our behalf, but it is not for love. It is done, 108 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:27,720 it doesn't measure up to God. If it is not for love, it doesn't measure up to God. 109 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:33,880 Similarly, if we don't start from a pace of love, then what we are doing can become a drudgery. 110 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:40,440 It begins to steal our joy and we can resent not only those we serve, but we can look down upon 111 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:45,480 them and see them as less than human. How many leaders throughout history have looked down on 112 00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:50,760 their subjects? How often do we judge others when they are not measuring up to our standards? 113 00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:58,440 The question is, do we measure up to God's standards? He loved us enough to send his 114 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:04,680 son Jesus, and Jesus loved us so much that he died that we might be saved. We need to check 115 00:13:04,680 --> 00:13:09,800 ourselves and find our center in God's love so that we can take joy in the process and serve 116 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:14,840 others with love and compassion. This is something we all struggle with. We all need to strive for. 117 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:22,600 It is a challenge that is ever-present in our life. Sometimes we can be seen as overbearing if we are 118 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:30,840 even in love trying to serve God, but we have to remember to temper that so that people know that 119 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:39,080 they might be overpowering, they might be too excited, but I can tell that he loves me or that 120 00:13:39,080 --> 00:13:45,320 that church loves me. We have to remember that. It is a hard thing sometimes to remember. 121 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:51,480 Then we can look at the church of Smyrna, the church of the tribulation in chapter 2, 8-11. 122 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:59,960 Jesus tells the church in Smyrna to be encouraged and to endure what he endured, tribulation, 123 00:13:59,960 --> 00:14:07,960 poverty, slander, suffering, and even death, but not to fear. There is clearly a spirit of fear 124 00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:13,320 that is attacking this church. Just like the Marine Corps slogan says, we don't promise you a rose 125 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:18,440 garden, we are not promised to live a life without trials and tribulations. In reality, we are all 126 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:24,600 called to persevere throughout the challenges that meet us on the path. Knowing that he will equip us 127 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:30,360 for the journey, we need to look no farther than the life of King David and the constant ups and 128 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:35,640 downs that he faced, but in the end, he is the measuring stick for us on how to remain a man or 129 00:14:35,640 --> 00:14:43,240 a woman of God, a man or woman after God's own heart. Here's a man who began like, you know, 130 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:48,200 he was plucked out of obscurity, anointed king, but then he goes and he wins a battle against a 131 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:55,160 giant only to then become hated and despised by King Saul. King Saul routinely would try to throw 132 00:14:55,160 --> 00:15:01,480 a spear and pin him to the wall out of just envy and jealousy. So he had to run and he had to flee 133 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:09,240 living in caves. So here's a man who was anointed by God, he was beloved by God, but yet he 134 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:13,800 constantly went through battles. And then when he thought he made it, he falls to temptation only to 135 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:21,000 be judged again by God. So he does the right thing though, he repents. So throughout his entire life, 136 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:29,800 he had these ups and downs, these constant tumultuous times, but he was able to keep a 137 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:36,760 right relationship with God. In Pergamum, I hope I say that right, Pergamum, the apostate church, 138 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:43,800 the apostate church, which is in chapter 212 through 17 of Revelation, Jesus encourages them 139 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:48,840 for withstanding physical, political, and spiritual persecution in their city. However, 140 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:54,360 he rebukes them for their apostate beliefs, their false doctrine, and their behavior, 141 00:15:54,360 --> 00:16:02,680 their sexual sin. How can we fall into apostasy? We can see this in society everywhere. Many who 142 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:08,520 claim to be servants of the Most High still live in a life of sin that can eventually take them away 143 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:15,720 from their salvation in Christ. This is a very real risk, is that you can only water down 144 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:23,800 the gospel so far. For we're not told that grace abounds just so we can sin. 145 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,080 We have to make stands to live more Christ-like lives. 146 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:32,600 The goal is to become more Christ-like, not less Christ-like, claiming grace. 147 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:39,320 So then we look at Thyatira, the tolerant church, chapter 2, 18 through 19. Jesus' words to this 148 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:45,560 church include some commendations for their actions, but a lengthy correction of their doctrine. 149 00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:52,040 They were sinfully more tolerant than God, which is still a temptation for us today. 150 00:16:52,040 --> 00:17:00,120 It's a very challenging thing for us today because we see so much sin being accepted 151 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:05,160 by groups that shouldn't be accepting of the actual act of sin. That doesn't mean we don't 152 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:12,360 love the person. Remember, you need to show love and compassion in a way back. When King David was 153 00:17:12,360 --> 00:17:18,920 held accountable for his sin of adultery with the Sheba, there was still a chance for him to 154 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:28,760 be judged on the sin even after he repented in turn. But the fact that he did repent in turn was 155 00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:34,440 why God was able to establish his line, and it became the Messianic line of Jesus Christ. 156 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:48,840 We can't allow our desire to see people do well in the Lord, take away from 157 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:57,640 the necessity for them to repent of their sin in order to do well. Otherwise, you're just lying to them. 158 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:03,960 What should Christian tolerance look like in our culture, community, and our church? 159 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:09,640 Christianity begins with tolerance and moves to repentance and change. If we repent of our sin, 160 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:15,000 we will be rewarded. If we do not, there will be justice and judgment. That's something that 161 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:22,600 we can't allow to be moved away from in the church. We show love and compassion to all. 162 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:31,640 We bring them face to face with the gospel so that they will recognize their wrongdoing 163 00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:37,560 and turn from it and repent and then move on in the Lord. This is a very scary predicament, 164 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:44,840 though. The church forgives too much. They do not only preach the acceptance of the sinner 165 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:51,000 in Christ, but they remove the need for repentance. They refuse to acknowledge the need for it and 166 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:57,640 allow sins that God has already judged. That brings us to the Sardis church, the apathetic church. 167 00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:03,640 This is in chapter 3, 1 through 6, Revelation. Sardis is at the site of the temple Artemis, 168 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:08,520 and many people worship false gods and goddesses at that temple. Yet the church in Sardis was 169 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:14,520 indifferent, hard-hearted, and stiff-necked. In a word, they were dead. Another word for apathy 170 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:20,200 is cynicism, and they are very similar in what they mean. Apathy means the absence or suppression 171 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:25,960 of passion, emotion, or excitement, lack of interest in or concerning for the things that 172 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:31,960 others find moving or exciting. Cynicism means distrusting or disparaging the motives of others, 173 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:37,480 showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's own actions, 174 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:43,080 especially by the actions that exploit the scruples of others, contemptuous or pessimistic. 175 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:48,200 We can see that in today's society. Some people are just apathetic. Do whatever you want. I don't 176 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:57,160 care. And that's the wrong way to live life. We should always, in love, care and cry out. 177 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:01,640 That's why we should be crying out for salvation through Jesus Christ, is because we should care 178 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:09,080 enough to continually preach the gospel, even through trial and persecution. The church of 179 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:15,400 Philadelphia, the church that stood in chapter 3, 7 through 13, Jesus has only encouragement for 180 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:21,960 this church. Though Satan hates and hinders the church that did not deny Jesus' name, Jesus loves 181 00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:27,080 this church, and that's enough to empower and encourage them. He opened a door of opportunity 182 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:32,920 for them that no one could shut, and it's said to be the last church in Turkey to fall to the sword 183 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:40,680 1,200 years later. The church of Laodicea is called the lukewarm church, and that's in verses 14 to 184 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:46,520 22 of chapter 3. In this church, Jesus has no encouragement for them. They are lukewarm 185 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:54,200 and worship comfort, not Christ. Though materially wealthy, they are spiritually poor, blind, and 186 00:20:54,200 --> 00:21:01,960 naked. Jesus tells them and us to accept discipline, to be zealous and repent. If you stop repenting, 187 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:07,240 you'll start growing lukewarm. They had basically locked Jesus out of their church. Now, this is not 188 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:12,440 meaning that your salvation just flips away because you didn't repent one day because you 189 00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:18,840 were speeding on the highway. That's not what that's about, but it's the revelation that we need to 190 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:24,840 continually move towards Christ and not allow ourselves to go away from him without feeling 191 00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:29,880 the conviction of the Lord. Because if you continually go away from him and you allow that 192 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:34,200 conviction to get watered down, watered down, watered down, what you'll do is you'll walk away 193 00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:42,360 on your own as your lukewarm. In Hebrews 10, 26 through 27, it says, if we deliberately keep on 194 00:21:42,360 --> 00:21:48,120 sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sin is left, but only a 195 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:53,960 fearful expectation of judgment and of the raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 196 00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:59,720 This brings me to my last point, which is the choice before us. In the end, we all have a choice to make. 197 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:05,720 In our own lives, we have a choice to make. What church will we emulate? What people will we choose to be? 198 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:12,440 We know that the devil goes around like a roaring lion. 1 Peter 5, verse 8, 199 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:18,200 be alert and sober-minded. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, 200 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:22,760 looking for someone to devour. But if we also know that the devil has been defeated, 201 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:28,920 and as we reside in Christ, we are given the strength to overcome temptation and avoid the traps 202 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:34,040 and snares of the devil. Do not be fooled by this world attempts to trick you, to blind you, 203 00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:39,720 to the things of God, and to fill you with their own foolish stories about the bad being good 204 00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:47,720 and the good being bad. These are nothing but ploys to drive you to apathy like the church of Sardis. 205 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:52,440 Many of the attacks of the enemy are to steal your joy, to steal your faith, to wear you down, 206 00:22:52,440 --> 00:23:00,680 to make you wary, too tired to fight for the things of God. But you do not have to fall for these traps. 207 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:09,960 We are called to take our joy from the Lord and his purpose for our lives. In Jeremiah 29, 11-14, 208 00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:15,640 it says, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, 209 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:20,840 Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 210 00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:26,360 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and 211 00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:31,960 find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, 212 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:37,080 and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where 213 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:42,040 I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place for which I carried 214 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:48,120 you into exile. This was written at the very beginning of their time of exile in Babylon. 215 00:23:48,120 --> 00:23:55,080 It's a very good picture of how we can live today in the world, a fallen world that we have right now. 216 00:23:55,800 --> 00:24:00,840 In Proverbs 6-5, it says, free yourselves like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, 217 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:09,000 like a bird from the snare of the fowler. Pick the wisely and stay with the herd, hunting analogy. 218 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:14,120 Right? If we stay with the church, 219 00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:23,400 if we stay with the brothers in Christ that are serving God, we're going to have that hedge of 220 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:31,880 protection. So as I come to the close, I just want to kind of share this piece that I found from 221 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:39,800 a speech that Abraham Lincoln made in 1863. We have been the recipients of the choices, 222 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:46,440 bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and in prosperity. 223 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:52,520 We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, and no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten 224 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:58,680 God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched 225 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:03,640 and strengthened us. And we have vainly imagined in deceitfulness of our hearts that all these 226 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:10,840 blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken 227 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:16,680 success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving 228 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:25,880 grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. We need to rely on our Lord. 229 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:32,680 On our Lord. We need to rely on others who are serving the Lord. And that's why we need to focus 230 00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:38,760 in our lives and pray and read and stay in fellowship. Pray to God. Read our word, the 231 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:44,680 Bible and fellowship. So again, as long as you're not driving, if I could have every eye closed, 232 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:50,680 just for this moment, because I always end with the invitation. If this message has spoken to you 233 00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:55,240 at all, if this has convicted you at all, and you've recognized that you are a Christian, 234 00:25:55,240 --> 00:26:01,080 you've recognized that you are out there in the field on your own, running as the devil pursues 235 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:09,160 you and you're tired, you don't have to be tired. You can reside in the Lord. You can become one of 236 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:17,720 his children. You can be placed into his flock. It's a very simple thing. It's a very simple prayer. 237 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:22,600 If that's you, you can signify that wherever you are with an uplift of the day. And because God sees, 238 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:28,200 as a podcast played three years from now, a hundred years from now, God sees your heart. 239 00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:33,960 And if he did raise your hand, you can repeat a simple prayer. It's just a simple invitation. 240 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:40,200 It just simply says, Dear Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I've messed up. 241 00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:48,760 But I know that you sent your son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sin. I repent of my sin. I turn away 242 00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:54,360 from it. And I accept you as my Lord and my savior. I give you all the praise and glory. And I thank 243 00:26:54,360 --> 00:27:00,280 you for the grace and the salvation that comes from it. In Jesus name. Amen. That's a simple prayer, 244 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:06,920 but that literally takes you out of the world and puts you into the book of life through Jesus 245 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:13,800 Christ. And so the next step is find a Bible believe in church. If you're in Sammon arm, 246 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:19,480 come to come come to our church. If not, you know, reach out. We have 3000 churches globally. 247 00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:24,840 I'd be happy to push point you in the direction of one, but find a Bible believing church, 248 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:31,400 get a Bible, read your Bible, pray and fellowship with those brothers and sisters in Christ. 249 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:37,640 I thank you for listening today. I hope this message has impacted you. If it has, please let 250 00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:44,920 me know. You know, I really hope that this is just going to get out there so that more people are 251 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:50,280 touched by by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and what it can do in your life. So thank 252 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:57,800 you again and you have a great day. Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's house 253 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:02,520 salmon arm podcast. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Potter's house underscore salmon 254 00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:07,800 arm to keep up to date on what we're doing. Join the conversation and discover how Jesus Christ can 255 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:35,800 revolutionize your life.