Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Brian Rodriguez

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

You can keep your Bibles open to Ephesians chapter 6.

That'll be essentially where we'll be at this morning, uh, what we'll be studying.

Uh, but before we begin, I wanna say check your emails if you're a member here later on, uh, for a big thank you letter from me.

um, I contemplated doing it now, um, but I, I think I'd get caught up in, uh, emotion and distract myself for the rest of the morning, but I have much to be thankful for, so please, if you're a member here and you get those emails, please check that.

As Mr. Allen mentioned this morning, in about 4 days, if everything goes according to plan, my family and I will be moving to New Jersey.

Uh, we'll be preaching.

I'll be preaching at the Biscataway Church of Christ, and, uh, on Sundays at 10 o'clock, I'll be, we'll be studying the Book of Hebrews.

So I've been preparing for that.

And in preparing for that, Uh, the conclusion of Hebrews has been pretty loud to me.

When you think about, uh, all, all the treasure trove of information and, and, and, uh, found in the book of Hebrews, we find in verse 22 of chapter 13 what it was all about.

The author says, I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.

So, the book of Hebrews was written as a word of exhortation for the brethren to encourage them to strongly urge them.

To, to, to stand firm and to hold true.

So knowing this was my last sermon, I, I wanted to do the same thing.

I had a parting, goodbyes on my mind, and I thought, what better way to part than to offer a word of exhortation to you.

And when considering What A Christian is all about, considering what it is that we have to fight against in the world.

I thought a good place to study would be.

The whole armor of God.

The reason for this.

As we read in verse 12, is that as Christians, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Christians are battles not against flesh and blood.

It was, it was mentioned in the prayer earlier this morning, but if you pay attention to what's going on in the world, you know that there's high tensions in this world, in in the country, in other countries, and the world as a whole.

Now Christians, What is our place in in in in these battles?

What is our attitude when it comes to looking at the world?

What is our framework?

What is our lens?

When we look out into the world.

That's an important question.

Because according to the Bible, that battle is not physical.

That battle is not muscle that battle is not who's got the bigger arsenal in regards to caliber and or more numbers in regards to people.

Christians, we are facing a spiritual war that we need to be prepared for.

And thankfully by God's wisdom, And love, he shows us that in the scriptures, he provides us with his armor.

So let's dive into it.

Ephesians chapter 103, we're gonna be studying the whole armor of God.

I want you to know this very early on in verse 13.

That it is the armor of God.

It is not your armor.

I think a lot of times I, I know I have said this, uh, as a matter of fact I'm pretty sure Mr. Allen has had to correct me.

It is not our, our, our armor.

It's not, hey, make sure you put your armor on.

No, brothers and sisters is God's armor.

We must make sure that we understand that the power of the armor.

is in realizing who it's from.

And then just living by it by the principles that are taught in it.

So again, verse 13, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day and having done all, to stand firm.

So how do we combat the spiritual forces of evil?

How do we do this?

By taking up the whole armor of God.

And I want to emphasize that.

Not, brothers.

That the armor must be put on.

Christians, this armor is not automatically placed on you when you become a Christian.

It must be taken up and put on.

I think we, it's a disservice if we, if we don't loudly say, listen, when you become a Christian.

That's the beginning of your, of your battle.

You have enlisted yourself in the kingdom of God, against the kingdom of Satan.

It is not a neutral stance becoming a Christian.

And if we're going to survive, we have to make sure that we are taking on and putting on the armor of God.

Remember that when it comes to armor, every piece is important.

OK, you're not gonna have, you know, an armor without a helmet, or you're missing a a breastplate, or you're missing, you know, the part that covers your neck or vital organs.

The whole armor is important.

Having done all to stand firm that expression having done all I believe is reiterating the need to put on the whole armor of God, not just one piece that's not gonna do it.

We need the whole armor of God to protect ourselves.

If you wanna be able to withstand the evil day.

Whenever evil may be a temptation or danger around us.

We must have all of God's God's armor on.

So let's go ahead and go into the armor piece by piece.

We must have it on or we are defenseless.

So remember this as we go through each one.

Verse 14, we noticed that the first piece mentioned is the belt of truth.

And I find it significant that the first piece of armor mentioned, um, that combats the forces of evil is truth.

Verse 14 stand for stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth.

Truth keeps God's word.

I'm sorry, God keeps Truth keeps God's people.

Wearing the same armor.

Truth is the is the unifier unifier for Christians.

Without truth, the armor would be different for every single one of us, and God's armor would have weak spots.

You have one person wearing that armor or this armor, that's not how God designed his army.

Truth is the great unifier and every Christian.

must make sure that they have the belt of truth on.

And this is particularly important because what does the belt hold up?

The belt supports the sword.

So we'll talk more about the sword representing the word of God shortly, but I want to mention this in regards to truth.

That it's the belt that holds up the sword and it's truth, uh, honestly, to properly wield the word of God.

It must be supported by truth.

Otherwise, you're going to hurt yourself.

You're gonna cut yourself or you're gonna hurt other people.

Truth holds up the sword.

Let's not forget that.

Truth is the great unifier of Christians.

Let's not forget that.

Bible also talks about the breastplate of righteousness.

When it comes to the breastplate, you think about all the vital organs it protects, it protects the heart.

Uh, to name one.

You don't want a weak breastplate in battle.

Spiritually speaking, righteousness protects our heart.

Acts of righteousness protects our heart.

When you get into the practice.

Of being generous, selfless, and being loving.

We see how exercising God's righteousness in the world protects our heart from selfishness, greed, and pride.

Now, let's go to a parallel passage if 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, I wanna, I wanna connect righteousness and love, because when we think about righteousness, again, these images are designed.

To help us think about the organs that go to it and the images connected to it.

This armor protecting the heart.

Let's think about that for a second and righteousness.

And love And 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

We've got some parallel insight when considering the breastplate.

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love.

Having put on the breastplate of faith and love.

Here we see faith and love connected to the breastplate that's called the breastplate of righteousness in Ephesians 133.

And I think that's all important.

I think that's all related because faith and love are are essential in keeping our hearts and minds doing the right thing.

It helps keep our attitude right.

The more we practice these things, the more it, it changes from, I've got to do this to I wanna do this, and I'd love to do this for you, OK?

That doesn't happen overnight and becoming a Christian, that happens with spiritual development.

And putting on God's armor daily.

Faith and love.

Help keep us doing what's right.

And staying in righteousness.

When we love the acts of righteousness that God desires us to do.

We are truly in a special place spiritually.

So how about our general demeanor?

How about, how about the sandals or shoes of peace?

The sandals or shoes of peace, an important part of the armor of God.

Verse 15 of Ephesians chapter 6.

Says The shoes for our feet.

Actually, Yeah, the shoes for our feet are called the readiness given by the gospel in the text.

So let's go ahead and read that.

Verse 15, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

It's an interesting phrase there, the readiness, uh, uh, given by the gospel.

So the readiness that the gospel gives may be the desire that the gospel gives to the individual to be ready in character and ready in the willingness to share it.

OK, the readiness of the gospel, you've got to imagine, you've got to imagine um.

What true like, imagine excitement to the gospel to the fullest.

What would that look like?

I mean, it would look like what you read about in Acts, people running around spreading the gospel, the readiness of the gospel.

When we believe the gospel, there's typically a desire to be ready to share the gospel.

And when we're considering the armor of God, What is being said is like, listen, if you are ready, if you have your feet ready.

To share the gospel.

That in itself again, obviously would be an armor.

It would be defensive.

Because if you're ready to share the gospel, that means you're ready to defend the gospel.

Our feet also must be covered with peace, and we must be ready to walk in the spirit of gentleness in the world.

When it comes to our feet in the scriptures and it talks about uh readiness, you know, there's, there's these two things that are kind of talked about.

You've got a readiness to share the gospel, but then there's when it comes to feet, it's also using the scriptures to to show when someone points their feet in a general direction.

I point my feet towards violence, I point my feet towards peace.

So think of that as you read this passage here and 1 Peter chapter 3.

We see that our feet must be covered with peace and we must be ready to walk in the spirit of gentleness in this world, verses 14 to 16 of 1 Peter 3.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed, have no fear of them nor be troubled.

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

You do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

So yes, Christians, we, we are God's soldiers.

We are enlisted in the Lord's army, but we've got to make sure that when we go out there, And we're delivering the gospel of peace that we're speaking.

Peaceably and gently in the spirit of love.

And in the back of our minds again as a word of encouragement, as a word of exhortation.

Let us remember what God says about the feet that bring good news in Isaiah 13:7.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns.

Jesus is the one that brings that peace.

So then we have the shield of faith.

And I'm sure you've seen the pictures before.

I don't have a PowerPoint presentation, but the shield that typically is thought of typically is, is, is used in in in illustrating this is again a Roman shield that typically covered your your whole body.

It was a good shield.

It wasn't just these, it wasn't a Captain America shield, but you really had to be good, you know, it was, it was a big full shield.

And that is the uh the armor that is used to describe faith, the shield of faith.

The shield is an incredibly powerful defensive weapon.

In verse 16 of Ephesians 6, it says, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

Brothers and sisters, remember that the devil schemes.

OK, we need the shield of faith.

Because the devil schemes, OK, the necessity of the armor.

is relative to the active workings of the devil.

The devil is always Working against God's people.

Ephesians 6:11 says, put on the whole armor of God. Why?

Why was this all introduced?

What's the whole point of the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Stand, not just survive, stand against the schemes of the devil.

This armor is important because the devil doesn't want you to be saved.

Don't forget the devil's schemes.

2 Corinthians, he uses many different methods.

We see one in 2 Corinthians 2:10 to 153.

Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive.

Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs.

Listen, this spiritual battle is very serious.

I mean, no, not something like forgiveness.

You know, something that you don't think, OK, you know, you think to yourself, don't lie, don't hurt people, all these things I can do that.

But no, Satan.

Satan's after your mind.

He's after whether or not you'll forgive somebody.

He's after whether or not you'll lust for somebody after your in your heart.

He's after whether or not you'll play with the truth a little bit just to to to to get an outcome that you desire.

Satan is after our minds.

We must be aware.

That If we allow him to win, if we don't learn.

How to live in Christ, uh, live in the spirit, live in Christ.

Then like the Pharisees were following, uh, our Father, uh, Satan.

We must not do that for Jesus is Lord.

All this to say, we need to take Satan seriously, OK?

The schemes of the devil.

We must have faith at all times.

That's what that passage there says in Ephesians 6, at all times.

Notice that when it comes to faith, it is too dangerous to put it down.

Faith, once estab established in truth, is supposed to continually grow.

You know, I, I, I appreciate what the elders are doing in this self-evaluation, because that, that's the truth of, of reality of nature.

Sometimes you'll see somebody that they'll, they become Christians and they're zealous and then you look 3 years down the line, you're like, well, what happened?

When they weren't putting on their armor daily.

We must put on our armor daily.

It's said in the scriptures.

Otherwise, the devil just it's told the devil's scheming after you.

Believe it or not, but he's scheming after you.

And God says, if you don't want to fall under, you know, his schemes, put on my armor.

Faith at all times.

We must remember that faith is the victory.

1 John 5:45, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.

And this is the victory that over, overcome the world that has overcome the world, our faith.

Who is that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

How strong is your shield?

How strong is your, is your shield?

The good news is that if it's not strong, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

It's in your hands.

You learn God and take up his armor.

How about the helmet of salvation?

How do we connect salvation to a helmet?

You know, the other pieces of armor can also act as attributes to live by, you know, to to exercise truth, faith, peace, righteousness.

But what about salvation acts like a helmet to a Christian?

How is salvation connected?

To a helmet.

I think a parallel passage shed some light on that.

1 Thessalonians 5:8.

I think this shows us that the helmet is the hope.

Of salvation.

And verse 81 Thessalonians 13 says, but since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

What does the helmet protect?

Protect your brain.

We're talking vital organs.

Protect your brain.

Well, spiritually speaking, when we talk about the brain, we're talking about the mind.

Are we not?

So, what is the hope of salvation?

Protecting us from Hope keeps our heads on straight.

Without hope, all is lost.

Hope Romans 8:18 says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

One more time, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Chapter 4 verses 232 to 21 of 210 Thessalonians along the same line, but we do not want you to be uninformed brothers, that those who are asleep that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, though through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

Romans 213:21 says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that the power of the Holy Spirit.

You may abound in hope.

The God of hope fills you with all joy and peace.

I, I can't, I can't overemphasize this.

I can't overemphasize this. Hope.

You know, you look at every cheesy movie, right?

What does the villain wanna, what does the villain wanna destroy?

Oh, hope in the people, you know, oh, they've got a little bit of hope.

That's because it's true in those movies a little bit of secular worldly hope can can change, you know, can create a revolution can do all these things.

But spiritually speaking, again, our battles not of this world.

So what does hope do for us?

It helps us in the here and now.

It helps us when things go wrong in our life.

To say, to process that and then turn our minds to hope, because the hope of salvation.

Is what protects Our minds OK, I've hammered that in.

Um, let's talk about the word of God, the sword.

The weapon of attack.

What is it for?

Well, 215 Timothy chapter 153, what are you supposed to do with the sword?

We see it's it's used for equipping.

215 through 250.

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Do you want to be equipped as a Christian?

You want to wield your sword?

Correctly Adequately to be complete for every good work.

You find what you need in the scriptures.

What else does the sword do?

What else does God's word do?

Well, it exposes hearts in 257 to 13 of Hebrews 4 says, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of the spirit of joint and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom he must give account.

The sword must be wielded correctly.

Remember again that the sword, uh uh is held up by the belt of truth. OK?

So truth and and and and and God's word go hand in hand.

Do your best, 2 Timothy 2:15, to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed.

Listen to this, rightly handling the word of truth.

You know, you could have the word of truth, you could be right, but you could mishandle it.

You could be trying to reach a brother or a sister that you love and you're going with the word of God, but you could be mishandling it.

Remember which spirit we're supposed to be talking in.

When we're correcting, we've got to know the difference, brothers and sisters, between the need to scold, the need to to to be like Paul in front of, you know, when he's scolding Peter in front of people, and we've got to know like in Jude and these other passages in Proverbs, the lessons of speaking gently.

And with and with love.

It should be rare where we need a sharp, uh, bold of you should know better.

Let's, let us, let us be uh aware of how we're doing our corrections, that we don't mishandle.

The word of God.

Let us not forget that the sword, uh, is intended to win souls.

That's what the sword's for.

It's not to, to kill.

The only thing you're killing is, is, is, is lies and Satan's grasp on people.

All right.

There's, there's another piece of armor that I don't know if it can be classified as an armor, but I, I, I grew it together because it's how Paul concludes this section.

And that's prayer.

And and I think you can consider this God's long range weapon, God's uh uh uh the non-physical, uh, part, I'm sorry, the non-proximity part of God's armor.

All the other armor requires a close proximity, doesn't not a sword, a shield, you know, you're, you're, you're close, you're, you're in battle, OK, maybe something that's happening to you that day.

But prayer It's God's long range weapon.

A sword can only go as long as your arm can reach.

But prayer can be to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Verse 18 of Ephesians 503, he concludes again talking about the armor of God by saying, praying at all times in the Spirit.

With all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me, that that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare boldly as I ought to speak.

Prayer is an important part of our fight as Christians.

Paul said in verse 18 about praying at all times, to that end, keep alert with all perseverance.

We need to watch each other's backs.

We are at war.

This whole section has been introduced by reminding us that we are in spiritual war.

That war is not physical.

I'm not saying go and do something crazy.

I'm saying this is a spiritual war.

And it starts with you.

It starts with us having to put on the armor of God.

That's how we make ourselves ready.

But prayer It's something we can do at any time from any place.

We cannot leave prayer out of the armor of God.

I would classify it as God's long range weapon for us to use.

OK. In conclusion, I just want to encourage you again as the exhortation to take up the whole armor of God.

Remember that God's armor doesn't fuse with your soul after becoming a Christian.

That's what Satan would want you to think so he could wait for you to put your guard down.

And deceive you.

God's armor must be put on.

And God's armor is designed to work as a whole.

You cannot rightly handle God's word if it's not in truth.

I mean, you, you think of any combination, you can't have one without the other.

We need the whole armor of God.

Reflect, see where we're weak.

And let's, let's try to grow.

Because Satan is working against us.

2 more 2 more reminders.

Actually, I guess there's 32 more reminders.

Our armor is not from, is not, it's not ours. Right?

When we feel weak, we feel I can't do it.

Remind ourselves our armor is from God.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And because of that, remember God's armor is stronger than Satan's.

The armor in action.

Look at, I think this is a good armor in action situation.

1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13.

We see that no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

OK. God says there is nothing.

There is nothing that my armor can't handle.

There's no temptation.

There's nothing Satan can do, no scheme that he can do.

They can take you away from me.

Unless you allow it.

Unless you allow it, unless you let that temptation.

And you don't take the way of escape that the Lord says he provides for us.

In conclusion, I want to remind uh anyone who's not a Christian that if, if you're in this world, you're, you're defenseless spiritually.

And uh in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

We see, we see Paul talking about our inheritance, you know, um, and just as our battle is, is not physical, neither is our inheritance, neither is our reward, um.

So let's keep that in our mind, and that's connected to our hope of salvation.

Let's not forget, but let's read 1 Corinthians chapter 15 as the last little word of uh passage here of exhortation for you.

Verses 50 through 57.

Let's remember our inheritance.

I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep.

But we shall all be changed.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, the mortal puts on immortality.

Then shall come to pass the saying that is written.

Death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh death, where is your victory?

Oh death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Daniel Weatherford

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Scripture reading will be from 2 Timothy 2.

Saint Timothy 2, I'm reading out of the King James.

Beginning with verse 14, it says, Of these things, put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit.

But to the subverting of the hearers.

Study to show thyself approved unto God.

A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase into more ungodliness, and their word will eat as a canker.

Of whom is Haminaeus and Falius?

Who concerning the truth, have erred, saying that the resurrection is passed already.

And they overthrow the faith of some.

Nevertheless, The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal.

The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Good evening.

We want to welcome everyone here tonight.

Uh, we have several visitors and we want you to feel welcome.

And uh I'll let it be known I'm not the normal speaker, so we would invite you to come back uh when you can hear Alan or a better speaker.

But uh I'll thank you in advance for your patience and listening tonight.

Um, what I want to talk about tonight let's see if we can get this figured out.

Is the topic of do details matter.

And specifically in regard to spiritual things.

A lot of times when we hear the word details, we think of the small or the minutia or the insignificant or the unimportant things that make up maybe a greater whole.

Webster's defines uh details in several ways, but there are a couple of definitions that uh kind of hit where I wanted to go with the lesson tonight.

One of them is uh one of the distinct parts of the whole.

Another is that applies to one of the small component parts of a larger whole, such as a task building, painting, narration, or process.

So as we mentioned, details sometimes call to mind small or micro things, but what I want to talk about tonight are kind of those parts that make up the whole, uh, however small those details may be.

And I wanna relate uh an incident of an encounter that I had with an individual a few months back and it's really what made me think of the idea for this lesson.

Um, it was kind of profound for me, and I'll share it with you.

Uh, in Athens, there's a little auto parts store called Dixie Auto, and I went there a while back to pick up some lawnmower parts.

They specialize in small engine repair.

And I went in there to pick up a part.

It's like any other auto parts store, and this is the actual picture of the store, um, but you go in there, you stand at the counter and sales associates are like, can I help you?

You tell them what you need, uh, and then they usually disappear into the back to, uh, to get whatever you need.

I'm not even sure what I was there for, but I remember there was a guy that walked in, uh, after the sales associate took my order, he disappeared.

A guy walked in the door with a chainsaw, and he plopped it up on the counter and one of the sales associates says, can I help you?

And he said, yes, I need a chain for my chainsaw.

It just, just won't cut.

And the sales associate kind of eyeballed it and said, OK, it looks like it's about an 18-inch bar.

So he said, I'll see if we see what we've got in the back.

So he, he disappears.

So it's just me and this guy standing there and I'm not super big on small talk, but uh I was, I was like, well, looks like you're about to have some fun with that chainsaw uh and uh.

He, uh, he said, yeah, he said he kinda went into, uh, every, that he had had a lot of trees fall down in his yard and he said, I think if every tree in my yard fell down that, uh, my neighbor's trees would probably fall into my yard and he said, I cannot get this so cut he said it's just so dull, he said it just smokes the wood when I put it on there and I was thinking, yeah, you probably got it in some dirt.

Uh, because they do get dull if you hit a rock or you get it in some dirt.

Well, while we were standing there, another employee, an older looked like a wiser man had bifocal zone, was walking by us.

I don't think he even heard our conversation, but as he was walking by, he said, you know, your chains on backwards.

Uh, and that guy looked like he could have crawled under the counter with embarrassment because there were a lot of people in the store and the guy said it pretty loud.

Uh, he turned a little bit red.

I think he was a bit embarrassed.

Uh, I was a bit embarrassed for him because it sounded like something I would do, um, but, and I was a bit embarrassed that I didn't catch that detail.

I mean, I was standing right there, uh, at it, and if I had caught it, well, I would have, you know, made his death, I would have been his hero, um, but he didn't catch it and he had been using this saw.

Uh, and he still didn't catch that small.

What would seem like an insignificant detail, you can't even see it hardly unless you're looking close.

But that little detail.

Was basically whether that saw worked or not, uh, and that was kind of profound for me.

I was sharing that story with Nicole and and some friends and uh kind of had an aha moment and was thinking, can that same thing happen to us spiritually?

You know, we can look the part, we can look like a Christian, but maybe we can, you know, have our chain on backwards.

Maybe we're missing some details.

Well, tonight, what I want, uh, the order of our lesson is I want to look at three Old Testament examples of some individuals who are following God but who are missing some critical details.

And then we'll look at some New Testament scriptures and we'll look at some, I quote, Christians today who can miss some significant details uh in the New Testament.

And then finally we'll, we'll end with some ways that we can avoid maybe missing some of these scriptural details.

One of the first Old Testament examples of is uh an account that I wanna look at is one of Moses and the Rock and all of these examples are gonna be accounts that you're familiar with, you've heard, uh, but they're there in scripture for us to learn by, uh, and to read over.

We know that Moses had a very close relationship with God.

In fact, more than any other person prior to that in history that that we know of, um, in Exodus chapter 33 verse 11, it said, so the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.

You know, Moses had always been careful to do exactly what God commanded.

He is heralded in Hebrews chapter 11 in the New Testament for his faithfulness to God.

Exodus 123, it said, thus Moses did according to all that the Lord had commanded him, so he did.

In chapters 39 and 40, those two chapters alone have this phrase, they did such and such a thing as the Lord had commanded Moses nearly 17 to 18 times that phrase is found, uh, in Numbers 20 and 27, so Moses did just as the Lord commanded.

They went up to the Mount Whore and the sight of all the congregation.

Uh, in Numbers 27:22, so Moses did as the Lord commanded him, he took Joshua and set him before Elizar, the priest, and before the congregation.

I, I say all that to say that Moses was a man who was trying to follow God.

He was not a rebellious person, but the opposite.

And when we look back at the old law and the details that are in it, you know, the ceremonial laws, the instructions for the offerings, for the feast, for the Sabbath, for the tabernacle, for the uh furniture and the articles that are in the tabernacle, we talk about details, but all of these made up the components of the whole law which God expected the people to keep.

He calls for perfection.

And we're told that Moses in Israel did all of these things up until this point.

It was, it's impressive.

But it was tiring and it was exhausting to keep up with and as with any human as uh all men in general, no one is perfect, um, Israel failed to keep these perfectly and even Moses, even Moses can mess up and he did and if he can mess up, we can to.

In Numbers chapter 20, uh, Israel had come to a point in the wilderness where they were at Kadish, uh, and they were in the wilderness of Zen, but they'd come to a town called Kaddish.

Miriam had just passed away when they got there, and I think they were just down and out.

They were hungry, they were thirsty, they were angry.

They didn't want to be there and so they lashed out.

They said a lot of things that they should not have said.

In verse 13, it says that the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord.

Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our animals should die here?

And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place.

It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and nor is there any water to drink.

So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle meeting, and they fell on their faces.

So they took the problem that the people brought to them.

They took it to the Lord, which is what they should have done.

And it said the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the rod, you and your brother Aaron, and gather the congregation together.

And speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water and thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock and give drink to the congregation.

And their animals.

So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him.

And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock as he said to them.

Here now, you rebels, must we bring water for you out of this rock?

And Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.

Well, it sounds as though things went pretty well, right?

They did take the rod that the God commanded.

They did gather the assembly before the rock.

Uh, they did that as God commanded.

Moses struck the rock, water came out.

Sounds like all was well, right?

Well, there was a detail that was missing, and in case you missed it, the Lord tells us in the very next verse what happened.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, sorry, verse 12.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron.

Because you did not believe me to hollow me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.

They made a critical error, uh, Moses and Aaron, they didn't speak to the rock to give God the glory for the water that would come out of it.

Uh, and instead they spoke to the people and they said, must we, and I don't know if he was implying, Moses and Aaron, must we bring water out of this rock for you?

And he struck the rock.

And it's interesting that the Lord says you didn't hallow me before the eyes of the people.

And I don't know if there's a correlation there.

The disobedience meant that they didn't hallow God, they certainly didn't hallow him before the people.

Um, so that's one example where God gave specific instructions, but they were missed in a situation where when God speaks, we need to listen, uh, and this is definitely written for our learning.

The second Old Testament example is another account we're familiar with.

It's when David transported the Ark of the Covenant, uh, again, written for our learning, written for our benefit.

Uh, I think Alan spoke about this, uh, maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Um, we, we hear these accounts over, but I think it's good for us to hear these over and over, to remember them.

But in 1 Samuel chapter 4, the Philistines had just defeated Israel.

Israel and God did not have a good relationship and for Samuel 4, they, Israel was steeped in idolatry.

Uh, the Philistines were oppressing them.

And they were going to battle with them.

Near Ebenezer and Israel was desperate and they thought, well, let's take the ark and we'll take it out to the battlefield and the Lord will fight for us.

Well, as we all know, the battlefield was not the place for the ark.

The ark had a place.

Um, the Philistines did defeat Israel.

God was not with them, um, and the Philistines actually captured the ark, and this is the account where when after the ark was captured, uh, they came back and reported it to Eli Hafna and Phineas had been killed in this battle.

It, uh, Eli fell off the wall, I believe, and died.

It was just a, a bad day, uh, in Israel.

And the Philistines, uh, had been cursed by God because they had the ark in their presence and it wasn't supposed to be there.

So God sent curses upon them.

They drove the ark away with uh two milk cows that had never been yoked and a cart, new cart.

And the cows took it to Bethhemesh.

And the people of Bethhemesh, I believe, it sounds as though they had an exhibition day with the ark.

So they took the ark and handled it in a non-respectful way.

And 50,0075 men perished because they looked in the ark.

Uh, from Shamash.

Obviously, they were not familiar with the religious laws around the ark or disregarded them.

So later the men of uh Cerith Grum came and took the ark.

They brought it to Benidab's house where it stayed for 20 years, and during this 33 years, David had become king.

He captured Jerusalem and decides to bring the ark back to Jerusalem.

So now they're gonna bring the ark up.

David uh has a new cart constructed to bring the ark up and Scripture tells us twice it was a new car.

So they made some special preparations to do this.

But as the oxen were transporting it, they stumbled and Ozo reached out his hand to steady it, and he was struck by God, by God's wrath and was killed.

Again, he was unfamiliar with the law of Exodus 25:14.

Where God spoke, you shall put poles in the rings of the ark, and the ark that the ark may be carried by them.

That was how it was supposed to be carried, and the poles shall be in the rings of the ark, and they shall not be taken from it.

Well, David was quite angry and fearful of the situation, uh, but realized that they had transgressed the law by not following the detail of the law, and I'm sure if you had asked David and Uza and the 50,0075 individuals if the details around the ark were important that they would say yes, they are important.

So what may seem logical sometimes to us.

What may seem like an effort to make a special arrangement.

Um, I make special preparations.

It's a lot of times not enough.

It's uh people in this situation paid for it with their life.

And I thought to think that God was teaching the people a lesson that His word, that he would be honored and His word and His law would be honored.

And that it's important, uh, and that's a lesson for us.

Well, the third Old Testament example is the, is the account of Ussiah.

Uh, in 2 Chronicles chapter 26, we studied about this king and the uh divided kingdom class and a lot of good discussion surrounding this account kind of stuck out to me.

But Uzziah was one of the good kings of Judah.

He was 16 years old when he became king.

Um, he was, he reigned for 52 years in Jerusalem.

And in 2 Chronicles 213 verses 4 through 5, It said that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah had done, and he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God.

And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

And Chronicles goes on to speak of his conquest of the Philistines and the Arabians and the Munites and the Ammonites, and his fame spread all the way to Egypt, uh, and he became exceedingly strong, uh, and that passage even, uh, Mason overheard me talking about this and he said, and you know that he made, uh, some special weapons.

They invented some new special weapons with skill by skillful men we're told in that passage.

It's kind of interesting.

But in his fame and his strength and his prosperity, he became proud and he became presumptuous.

In 2 Chronicles 26:16 to 18, it said that, but when he was strong in his heart and his heart was lifted up to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

So Azariah, the priest went in after him, and with him were 80 priests of the Lord, valiant men, and they withstood King Usiah and said to him, It is not for you, Usiah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who were consecrated to burn incense.

Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed, and you shall have no honor from the Lord God.

And of course he didn't like this.

He grew furious in verse 19, so then Usiah became furious, and he had a censor in his hand to burn incense.

And while he was angry with the priest, the, uh, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests and in the house of the Lord beside the incense altar.

And Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests looked at him, and there on his forehead he was lepros, so they thrust him out of that place.

And indeed he also hurried to get out because the Lord had struck him.

And sadly, he was a leper until the day he died, and he lived in isolation from the rest of Israel until he died.

Uh, he did not regard the law of God, that only the priests, only the sons of Aaron were to be involved in the offerings before the Lord.

He missed the detail, missed that detail, or he refused to acknowledge it.

And when I put myself in his position, I, I kinda think, how did, how would he have justified doing this?

And uh I think to myself, well, the Lord has been with me.

The Lord has lifted me up.

He's made me strong.

I've prospered, uh, and it, but in his spiritual height, uh, he fell and Isiah, his will of, of, uh, offering, wanting to offer sacrifices to God maybe in thinking I'll, I'll, I'll do it personally before the Lord just to show my appreciation.

You know, but that wasn't what God wanted.

He had added to what God wanted, and that's a dangerous road that people can travel today and thinking that they'll improve the worship God has outlined in Scripture by adding to it.

Uh, we'll talk a little bit more about this later, but you know, you can see how it's easily justified because we're worshiping God, right?

We're doing something that is good, right?

Um, but we need to look at the details found in scripture to find out if it's authorized.

Well, let's look at some New Testament passages that we can miss today.

Um, details you would think that are clear, but instead are clearly missed.

There's a popular teaching uh called the, I guess the health and wealth message today it's popular with a lot of televangelists and uh big mainstream preachers, uh, and they promised great prosperity from scripture.

Materally, if you'll just give of your means, uh, it's, it's almost like, you know, if you believe you will receive uh an abundance of all things, material, money, wealth, possessions, fame, power.

Um, Joel Osteen is a popular preacher.

I'm sure you've heard of him from Lakewood Church.

Um, there's a, a website that attributed a quote to a quote that was found on Lakewood's website.

I went there and looked for it.

I couldn't find it.

It's not to say it's not there, but I did find it on another church's website in Philadelphia.

Um, and I apologize, I don't have it on the screen, but it says to be successful in your walk with God, commit to honor God with your finances.

When you commit to give the Lord the 1st 23% of your income, God promises he will pour out blessings you cannot contain, and tithing is the first key to financial prosperity.

And that's interesting.

They plant the seed of you wanna be you wanna be wealthy, right?

You wanna uh prosper financially, right?

Well, to do that you need to give.

And that's kind of backwards from what we read in scripture.

Uh, Jesus said in Uh, Matthew 6:19 to 20 said, don't lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy or thieves do not break in and steal.

In Luke 12:15 to 16, uh, Jesus said, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

And then 1 Timothy 6:6.

Says thou godliness with contentment is great gain.

Uh, verse 23 and having food and clothing with these things, we shall be content.

In verse 9 and 10, it, uh, speaks of against the desires for wealth and the desire to become rich because many fall into the snares that are found in it and that fall into the love of money, which is the roots of all kinds of evil.

And so this, this teaching, uh, teaches the, uh, you know, giving is good but they're missing the detail of the motivation for giving back so it has a scan of truth but inside it's false and kind of like that chainsaw where the chain is on backward.

Well, the second example I want to talk about is of a lady that I'm sure we have all heard of.

She had nationwide influence and audience uh back in the 90s and the 22s, uh back in 212, uh there was a lady, I'm sure you've heard of her, Oprah Winfrey.

She was probably in the heyday of her talk show uh back in that year, uh, and I remember some of this.

I was out of high school in college, um, but about that time there was another lady named Ellen DeGeneres and she had a sitcom and on one of the shows of the sitcom she came out as gay.

They made a whole episode of that that Ellen did this.

And I think Oprah even starred in one of her shows, uh, and later interviewed Ellen invited her to come on that show to talk about that episode and basically just, you know, talk about her, you know, her courage in doing that and how great it was.

Well, Oprah got a lot of uh backlash from that and her support of the homosexual lifestyle.

And a lot of people sent her letters and all this is on her website, um, but a lot of people sent her letters and so she had a follow-up show called Letters to Oprah.

And on one of those episodes, a lady stood up and asked the question.

And she said, how can you, I'm paraphrasing what she said, but she said, how can you claim to be a Christian and yet support and encourage a lifestyle that's clearly condemned in scripture.

And Oprah's response was, well, I have a different view of Christian than you do.

Oprah said the God I serve doesn't care whether you're tall or short or whether you were born black or Asian or gay.

And listen to the first part of her argument.

Uh, it's obvious that she is making God into what she wants God to be and what she, what she feels, this is how God must feel and not looking at scripture.

But even her argument, she's got a point in there that, that starts out even somewhat biblical, I would say, it reminds me of Galatians 21:23.

Uh, where Paul said there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So she's right, it doesn't matter if you're tall or you're if you're short or if you're black or you're Asian.

But the last thing she says, she starts out looking like that chainsaw, but she's got her chain on backwards.

That last statement is plain wrong.

Scripture clearly teaches that sexual relations between men and women, men and men and women and women are evil.

Uh, Romans 221:22 to 153 clearly teaches against this.

For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature, and likewise also men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

Uh, one more passage, uh, First Corinthians 215:216.

Oh First Corinthians 22:9, do you not know that the unrighteous, in fact I think I've got that up, will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Do not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals, nor sodomites.

None of these will enter into the kingdom of God, and he doesn't just single out homosexuality, adultery and fornication are just as wrong.

Sodomy just as wrong.

But it's just as wrong as homosexuality.

So that was a detail that Oprah got wrong.

Well, the 3rd, um, Third detail that we see a lot of people miss today is around salvation.

And Clark McKee did an excellent Wednesday night talk a few, uh, maybe a month or so ago about the Romans road to salvation, and this is a common teaching.

You can find it online, you can find it in Bibles, pamphlets, uh, but it teaches some very scriptural things regarding salvation straight from the book of Romans, but it's missing some key details.

Uh, but it does talk about recognizing our need for, uh, recognizing our guilt and sin and the consequences of it and eternal death and Romans 3:23, uh, our need for Christ who died for us.

Romans 5:8.

If we confess with our mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.

That's Romans 163:9.

Uh, and then they typically ask that you follow or say a prayer that you can pray Jesus into your heart and declare to God that you rely on Christ for your salvation.

So, you know, much of this exact, uh, much of this that they pull from Romans, it's all scriptural, right?

But it's not complete.

They miss messages like baptism, which is also found in Romans, uh, the details which are left out.

Uh, Romans 6:4.

Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death that is like Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father.

Even so, we also should walk in newness of life.

Uh, Colossians 2:12, uh buried with him in baptism whereinto you also arisen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead.

And 1 Peter 3:21, another passage.

And then also, you know, it's not just saying a prayer and then we're on a safe list.

We need to continue to live a life of godliness.

2 Timothy 2:15 and 16, be diligent to present yourself approved, uh, to yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.

You know, so much truth, uh, yet critical details left out.

Well, how can we avoid the pitfall of missing some details?

Well, the first thing is we can, uh, we need to study, and we need to stay in the word.

Uh, our knowledge of what God wants, I think it's proportional to the amount of time that we spend studying His word.

um, and you may read it one day and, and realize it, but then our memories fade and we forget it.

So we constantly have to be renewing our minds, spending time in his word.

Uh, if we don't, we're gonna forget it.

And I have to think that you know when David transported the ark that was going to be moved.

That God wasn't consulted, nor was his law consulted on how the ark should be moved.

Uh, not that I think David would not have done exactly what the Lord wanted him to do, but he just didn't familiarize himself with, uh, what the law said, and so he acted carelessly, and a man died for his transgression.

Well, Uh, number 2, when God speaks we need to listen, and it's not that Moses was a rebellious man.

In fact, when he sinned and striking the rock, uh, instead of speaking to it, uh, it's a bit ironic.

He called the people rebellious, but in that moment he, uh, was, was sinning against God and then his anger, he and his frustration.

The people he was not careful to listen and follow God's word and honor God through His obedience.

And so we shouldn't let our emotions override God's word in doing the things that we want.

And then thirdly, God's silence should not be viewed as permission or authorization.

We need to verify uh our authorization to do things.

Like I said before, I'm not sure that Uzziah would have said this, uh, you know, he didn't say kings couldn't offer sacrifices, but some people today would make that argument, um, and if anything, this account is a great lesson about that argument, uh, that what God does say is permitted and if he leaves it out, it's not, should eliminate all other things like the Levitical priests offering sacrifices.

And example applications regarding our worship.

If God says to make music by singing, speaking to one another in hymns and palms and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart, then that should eliminate all other forms of music in our worship. Well.

When God speaks, those are details that matter.

That's uh pretty much the lesson.

I hope this has been beneficial for you and I hope that as we all do continue to study that we'll show ourselves approved and that that we will make sure that our chain is not on backwards and if you see my chain on backwards, let me know.

Uh, I have to think that that guy in that store.

would realize or uh would have was very grateful for that man telling him that his chain was on was on backwards.

As embarrassing as it was, um, saved him from having to buy a chain, um, and I, I'll tell you another thing, I guarantee you he'll never put his chain on backwards again.

Uh, I don't think I will either, uh, but that, that's a good lesson for us.

I think if somebody finds us an error, you know, if we have the right mind, if somebody comes to us in sincerity and tries to correct us, we should be appreciative of that and I think we'll remember it, um, and we can do that same with others.

Well, if you're not a child.

If you're not a child of God, if you're considering entering into a relationship with Him, uh, we would encourage you.

Uh, we stand ready to help you do that tonight.

If you're a child of his and you've erred or fallen off the path, then we wanna help you get back and you'll find forgiveness here just as you will with God.

We invite you to do that as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Scripture reading will be from James chapter one.

James chapter 1, I'll be reading verses 19 through 25.

James 1:19 253.

Know this, my beloved brothers.

Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word and not hears only deceiving yourselves.

For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no heer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

As Jim mentioned earlier, we have quite a few of our own number who are either traveling this weekend or preparing to travel, uh, in the days to come, but we also are blessed with the presence of many who have come our way to visit with family here, and we are grateful for your presence.

We appreciate the fact that you're worshiping with us this morning.

You're an encouragement to us.

And it is our hope that we are an encouragement to you as well.

In the waning days of the southern kingdom of Judah in the Old Testament.

There were 3 of the major prophets, as we described them in the Old Testament, who preached to God's people.

Daniel, of course, was taken with the first group of exiles to Babylon in 606.

And then Ezekiel was taken with the second group of exiles in 597.

Jeremiah would remain in Jerusalem until after the destruction of the city in 586 BC. The conditions of the nation of the people in the time of Ezekiel and Daniel and Jeremiah.

It was horrific.

The people were involved in all sorts of abominable practices.

It wasn't just that they were indifferent to the law, or disobedient to the law in some sort of indifferent way, but rather they were involved in vile idolatrous worship.

They committed violence against one another.

They were involved in all sorts of lascivious sexual behavior.

And Ezekiel And Jeremiah in particularly, particular would preach to the people both in Jerusalem, Jeremiah until after the destruction of Jerusalem, and Ezekiel as he preached and spoke to those who were already in exile.

I think we need to recognize or remember that the people that Ezekiel was talking to, who were already in exile, weren't really any different from the people who were in Judah.

They had been brought from Judah into exile in Babylonia.

And for the very same sins that were still going on in the city of Jerusalem, and which Jeremiah.

Addressed You might think that with that kind of spiritual condition among the people of Israel, That Ezekiel, in particular, would have had difficulty getting an audience with the people, since Ezekiel would be rebuking them and preaching uh the need for obedience and repentance.

But the fact of the matter is, the people came and listened to Ezekiel.

They were glad to come and hear his preaching.

But I want you to know why they came and listened to Ezekiel.

We're told in Ezekiel 33, the Lord is speaking to Ezekiel.

And he says to the prophet, as for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you, beside the walls and in the doors of the houses, and they speak to one another.

Everyone's saying to his brother, please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.

Ezekiel, they're talking about you, the people in exile, and they're encouraging one another.

Come, let's go hear what the Lord has to say.

But we need to be aware that their motives were not particularly helpful.

The Lord continues in verse 31 of chapter 33, so they come to you as people do.

They sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them.

For with their mouth, they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.

Oh, they come and they listen.

They listened attentively to the things that Ezekiel had to say.

They weren't doing what Ezekiel had encouraged them or was encouraging them to do.

The Lord would continue in verse 33, saying to Ezekiel, indeed, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words, but they do not do them.

And so they like to hear Ezekiel preach.

Well, listen to the good words of Ezekiel.

Listen to how he preaches.

Isn't it impressive the way that he speaks and the message that he presents?

But when all was said and done, They weren't doing anything about what they heard.

They weren't doing what Ezekiel was encouraging them to do.

Their their hearts pursued their own gain.

This morning, I want to talk to you about that very thing, about the matter of doing what the word says.

Not being hearers only, our text is obviously drawn from James chapter one, the passage that Caleb read just a few moments ago.

And I want to talk to you about the importance of applying the things that we hear, that we study, that we understand from God's word.

And I want to talk about some biblical principles that relate, I think, to the application of God's word.

Why is it that sometimes people will hear sermon after sermon after sermon, but they don't act on those sermons?

Why is it that they don't do the things that they hear and that they would perhaps acknowledge are certainly important for their spiritual health?

Well, that was Ezekiel's experience, that the people came and listened, but they didn't do.

But Jeremiah, likewise, had a similar experience with the people who were left after the destruction of Jerusalem.

The king of Babylon had appointed a man by the name of Gilea to be the governor of this new Babylonian province that was formerly known as Judah.

But it wasn't long after he was appointed that Gileia was actually assassinated by a group of rebellious Jews.

And there was some difficulty as to who was going to be in charge, but the people who had assassinated get a lie are made to flee and the remaining people now are afraid of what the reaction of the Babylonians is going to be.

The governor appointed by the Babylonian king has been assassinated, and so were the Babylonian soldiers who had been left.

To guard the governor.

What will he do?

What should we do?

They wanted to know.

And in fact, they come to Jeremiah, and they asked Jeremiah to consult the Lord.

Should we go to Egypt or should we stay here?

You talk to the Lord.

That the Lord your God may show us the way that we should go, and the thing that we should do.

This is in Jeremiah chapter 42, verses 15 and 3, and they go on to tell Jeremiah, whatever the Lord says, that's what we're going to do.

Not only do they want to hear what the Lord has to say, but we're committed to obeying His voice.

May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us.

Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.

Now, if you read in chapter 42 carefully, You will realize that they had already begun moving toward Egypt.

That was one of the possibilities.

Shall we flee to Egypt to get away from the king of Babylon, or should we stay here in the area of Mispah and Jerusalem and just take whatever consequences come from Babylon?

And it becomes obvious when we move into chapter 43 that once Jeremiah has received from the Lord the answer and he speaks to the people, you need to stay here.

Don't go to Egypt.

It becomes obvious they'd already made up their minds what they were going to do.

They say to Jeremiah, you're telling a lie.

The Lord our God did not send you to say, do not go to Egypt to live there.

But Baruch, the son of Norih, has sent you, set you against us to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.

And so they didn't obey the voice of the Lord.

The truth of the matter is, it was all about, well, we want to hear what the Lord has to say.

But we're not going to do it because it doesn't really mesh with what we wanted to do in the first place.

Jeremiah was dealing with the same kind of people that Ezekiel was.

Over in uh Babylonia.

I wonder sometimes if things have really changed in the intervening centuries since the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

I sometimes wonder if preachers are not viewed by some as just a very lovely song.

Oh, I love the stories he tells.

I love the way he puts his sermons together.

I like his charts.

I had to throw that in there in case nobody was thinking that.

I like his charts.

He's a good preacher.

He preaches the truth.

But you can preach a sermon on modesty and it'll be the next Sunday, and there'll be women and men who will come in, women in particular who come in dressed immodestly and sit in the assembly of the saints.

They heard what the truth was.

They're not practicing it.

Or the preacher may preach about how brethren should deal with difficulties between one another.

Passages like Matthew 18:15 to 17.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

So if somebody sins against me, what should I do?

I should go to that brother, between me and him alone, and I should tell him you've sinned against me, you need to repent.

What you did was wrong.

And Matthew 18 continues by telling us what we should do if the response is not repentance on the part of the sinner, to the point where it may actually become a matter of congregational discipline, as you read through verse 17.

Or perhaps in Luke chapter 17, where Jesus says to the disciples, pay attention to yourselves.

If your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him.

How often should I forgive him, Jesus?

Peter would ask later.

73 times, 3 times, I'm sorry, Peter says.

Jesus says, forgive without limits.

If he comes to you 7 times in a day, this text says, you should forgive him as he repents.

But brethren get at odds with one another.

And nobody's applying Matthew 18.

Nobody's applying Luke 22.

We hear it and we agree with it.

But are we practicing what we understand from the scriptures?

When the preacher preaches that wives should submit to their own husbands as to the Lord and that husbands should love their wives.

People say, yeah, that's what the Bible says.

That's how marriage is supposed to work.

Husbands are to love their wives, wives are to submit to their husbands.

But then in the home when there's some sort of problem, all of that gets thrown out of the window.

We know that's what it says, and we agree with it when the preacher says it.

Or when it's taught in Bible classes.

But then when it comes time to apply those verses, In real life situations, in our homes, in practical ways.

Application sometimes just gets thrown out.

We could go on and on and talk about any practically any subject that scripture addresses and you'll see some of that among some of God's people that application isn't made, it's just a matter of we talk about it and we study it, and we talk about what it means, but when push comes to shove, we're not doing what the word says.

Why is that?

Are we any different than the people of Ezekiel's time?

If that's the way we operate?

Are we any different from the people of Jeremiah's time who said, yes, we're going to follow whatever the Lord says.

Well, until he says something we don't like.

And then we just kind of gloss over that and ignore it.

Until it comes up in Bible class again, and then we'll agree once more with what the Lord says.

God's word has to be applied in our lives to do us any good.

Bible study is not an end in and of itself.

Our objective is not simply to become experts in the law.

There were people in Jesus' time who are experts in the law.

They could quote the law.

They could tell you what various rabbis said about the law.

But Jesus was pretty clear about the fact that often they weren't practicing the law.

It's not our job to become experts in the law, just so that we know.

God's word doesn't do us any good if it's not applied in our lives.

The apostle Paul, both at the beginning of Romans and at the end of Romans, uses an expression.

That suggests that the whole point of God revealing His word is so that we would not just understand it, but that we would also obey it.

He ends the epistle in Romans 22 verses 215 and 210.

It's on the screen.

I said that before and I, I should probably check.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith.

Now, this is a typical Pauline sentence.

You'll get lost if you're not careful, because he puts changes several things together, but don't miss the fact that what Paul's saying is God revealed his mystery to bring about the obedience of faith so that we would apply the things that we understand.

By revelation.

And so would become people who would be pleasing to God.

I think we're all familiar with the story that Jesus told at the end of the sermon on the Mount.

He talked about two builders in Matthew the 225th chapter.

And I want you to notice that the only difference between these builders, they're both building a house, and they're both hearers of the word, he says.

But one builder is paralleled to the person who hears.

And does what he hears, obeys the word.

That's the wise builder.

But then there's another builder in verse 227, who is compared to those who just hear the word, but don't do it.

Both hear the difference between the two groups.

Is the question of whether they do anything about what they hear.

And the one who hears but doesn't act on what he hears is called the foolish builder.

He's building a house.

Without a foundation, if you follow the parallel.

In the text for this morning in James chapter one.

James warns us about being hearers only.

But be doers of the word, he says, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

I want to draw your attention to two phrases in these verses.

The first one is in verse 13.

He says, be doers of the word and not yours only deceiving yourselves.

If we We are accustomed to only hearing but not doing, we are deceiving ourselves.

Well, in what way are we deceiving ourselves?

Perhaps it is that we think that that's valuable, just hearing but not doing.

That's deception.

Because being a hearer only.

will only result in condemnation.

And then the other thing I want to look at is that phrase at the end in verse 21, being no here who forgets, but a doer who acts.

There are bad preachers today, present company accepted.

There are some who are uninteresting, there are some who are hypocritical.

There are some who are hypercritical.

There are some who are shallow.

There are some who are overly negative.

And it can be very difficult to listen to or to heed the preaching of someone that you don't respect.

I understand all of that.

But I would say to you that we need to try as much as is possible to separate the message from the messenger.

The important issue in listening to preaching, preaching is not whether the speaker is the most pleasing to listen to.

The issue is whether he preaches the truth.

Because it's the truth that will set us free.

It's the truth that gives us life.

Style of presentation.

While it may make the message more appealing, doesn't count for anything in terms of your spiritual health.

Obviously, not every conclusion preached by preachers is valid.

I understand that.

Some preaching is simply the opinions and the wisdom of men, that should be dismissed and rejected.

But on the other hand, Every admonition.

Every rebuke, every warning that is truly from God's word should be heeded whether you like the preacher or his style or not.

Because the issue is the truth.

And the truth is what will help us in becoming pleasing to God and remaining that way.

So we need to be careful that we're not hearers only.

I think sometimes in secular matters.

We know what we should do.

We're well informed.

But we don't have the proper motivation.

We don't have the necessary motivation to do what we really know we should do.

Diet and exercise.

Do, do I even have to finish that illustration?

Is it that we don't know what to do?

Maybe that's a possibility.

But I suspect, and I'll just say in my case, I know exactly what I'm supposed to eat, not supposed to eat.

I know what kind of exercises I should be doing.

That doesn't mean necessarily that I'm doing all those things.

We often know what we're supposed to do, but we just don't either get around to it, or we just don't feel like it, or for some reason, we're not properly sufficiently motivated to do what we know we should do in secular matters, whether it's work or personal health, hygiene, that sort of thing.

And the same thing is true in spiritual matters, unfortunately.

So we need to develop the proper motivation to do what we understand God wants us to do.

There needs to be this desire to be right, to be pleasing to God.

There is a very big difference between intellectual assent to something.

And a conviction of the heart.

There's a difference between intellectually knowing what the truth is and trusting in that truth to the point that I will act on what I believe is the truth.

You see the difference between those two?

Let me illustrate it this way from John the 225th chapter.

In verses 217 and 43, John writes, Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue, for they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

You understand what John's saying?

He's saying there were people who recognized that Jesus was who he said he was.

What they do about it?

Nothing. They wouldn't confess him. Why?

Because the desire to be praised, to be lauded by men, to stay as a part of the synagogue assembly was more important to them than pleasing God.

And so sometimes even when we know the truth.

We don't value it enough.

It's not enough of a conviction with us that we'll actually act on it.

That was their problem.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

What kind of hunger and thirst do we have to be righteous before God, for God's righteousness?

Well, secondly, there needs to be an understanding, a familiarity with what truth means in application.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

I, if we know what the truth is, how does it apply in my life, in your life?

What's the practical way that I'm going to act on that truth?

Well, in some cases, that's pretty easy.

Flee sexual immorality.

OK, I think, I think we would, could figure that out pretty quickly.

But there are some other areas in which scripture addresses how we should live that maybe the application isn't always as clear or as prominent.

For instance, the practice of brotherly love.

Well, I think we understand the concept of brotherly love, but then putting it into practice means we've got to make the connection between our love, our affection, our desire for the good of others, our brothers.

Into specific behavior, acts, or in some cases, things that we shouldn't say or do.

Evil speaking, Ephesians 4:31.

Evil speaking.

Making application of the truth that we shouldn't be speaking evil of one another.

Well, that, that's, there's lots of applications of that.

Do we recognize those applications?

Well, that's part of the purpose of our study of the scriptures is not just determining the meaning of the scriptures, that's true, but also how they should be applied in our lives.

Paul in writing to Timothy would make that emphasis that Timothy needed to be practicing the things.

That he was preaching, that he was teaching others, that he understood.

Uh, Timothy is told in 1 Timothy 25 by Paul, I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave.

That's application of truth, how we behave.

In the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

In chapter 4 and verse 15 of 1 Timothy, he says, practice these things, immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress.

Timothy, don't just teach it, do it.

Live it.

And of course, a passage we're familiar with in 2 Timothy 2:15, where Paul says, to Timothy, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved.

A worker has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

I think rightly handling the word of truth, while it certainly involves the idea of understanding.

The truth, I believe it also would involve the application of that truth.

I mentioned earlier, some in the time of Jesus who were experts in the law.

But not so good at doing the law, practicing the law.

The story in Luke the 10th chapter is an example of one of those individuals.

There was a lawyer who came to Jesus.

And he asked a good question.

Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

But as verse 25 tells us, the purpose of his question really was just to test Jesus.

And being the master teacher, Jesus just turned the question right back to him.

And said, what is written in the law?

How do you read it?

What does the law say?

How do you understand that?

And the lawyer gives a great answer, verse 27, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbors yourself.

Wow, that guy knew what the law and the prophets were all about.

And if he had stopped right then, we would look at him and say, he's, he's in good shape.

But when Jesus says you've answered correctly, do this and you shall live, desiring to justify himself, he responds to Jesus.

And so who is my neighbor?

Well, who do I have to practice this toward?

This loving my neighbor?

What's the application that I have to follow?

This is an individual who knew.

What the law said But was going to see if he couldn't figure out a way to avoid some of the application of that.

And Jesus, of course, as we know, tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.

And helps the lawyer with the application.

Well, in the third place, there needs to be a weeding out of things that dilute our desire to do right.

Sometimes what's happening is we know what the truth is, we understand what God's word says, but God's word is competing with other desires, with other things that tend to lessen our willingness, our desire to do what is right.

Our basic attitudes in life are formed by what we read, what we listen to, what we see, the people that we spend time with, etc.

All of these influences, some of which we can control, many of which we can control, some, obviously we can't.

Our patterns of thinking determine our behavior.

And the way that we think is determined by the things that we take into our hearts.

Jesus made the connection between the condition of a person's heart and his behavior in passages like Mark the 7th chapter.

Where there was controversy between the Jews and the disciples of Jesus about hand washing.

Some were all concerned about the ritual, the proper ritual of washing hands.

Jesus got to the crux of the matter and said, what defiles a man is not the, the dirt on his hands, it was, it's what comes out of his heart.

He says, for from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these evil things Jesus said, come from within, and they defile a person.

Good man brings out of the good treasure of his heart good things.

Evil man brings out of the evil treasure of his heart evil things.

Our behavior is largely determined by the condition of our heart, what we're putting into our hearts.

And so we need to be constantly aware of those things that are competing with God's word, who are drawing us away from the business of practicing what we know to be right and true.

And then finally, there needs to be a constant awareness of who we are, what kind of people we should be.

The elders have made a practice over time.

To consistently remind us as we're preparing to leave the assembly to dismiss ourselves, as we sometimes say.

To remember who we are.

Not just while we're here, not while we're, just while we're with other Christians, not while we're just singing and praying and, and reading scripture, but to remember who we are every day, all the time, what kind of person I need to be.

I remind you again of James 1:25, the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseverance, being no here who forgets.

Don't forget what the word says.

Don't forget who you are.

But a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Remember who you are.

I don't think preachers are any different than any other kind of worker.

When you accomplish something at work, don't you love it when your boss comes and says, good job.

You really did a good job on that particular project or task or whatever.

And I think preachers like to be appreciated for their labors like anyone else, but those who preach for the right reason.

would prefer to see the fruit of their labors.

In the pure lives of the ones who are listening.

Do you understand what I said?

It's more important to me to see that what I am preaching to you, the truth of God, that it's having an effect in your life than for people to line up in the lobby and say, good sermon preacher, you really nailed it today.

Because if you go out and then you live according to the devil's principles, what good was my effort, other than the fact that the word will be judging us.

And you've now heard it.

But in terms of practical fruit, Complimenting the preacher doesn't really do much good.

It's not what preaching is all about.

Heeding the word of God is the only way to avoid disaster in our lives now and forever.

And so I asked you this morning.

Do you know, do you understand what the word of God says to you about your relationship with God?

If you're a sinner, if you violated God's law, you are outside of a relationship, or outside of fellowship with God.

But the Bible gives us plain instructions about how we can deal with this problem of sin.

Can't do it ourselves.

Nothing you can do, nothing you can give, nothing you can sacrifice that will take away the blemish of sin.

But praise be to God.

That the blood of Jesus Can take away those sins.

And so those who are living with sin.

Need to obey the gospel.

They need to hear what the word says.

That we need to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

We need to repent of our sins.

God commands all men everywhere to repent.

Paul would preach in Acts 17.

We need to confess our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

And operating on that faith, we need to submit to baptism, being buried with Christ and water.

For the remission of our sins, not the water.

The blood That is applied to us when we obey God's commands.

That's what the truth says.

That's what the word of God says.

And if you know that this morning, But you haven't done that, then why are you waiting?

You need to trust God.

And obey God.

If you're a Christian, Who is dealing with sin.

You've got sin in your life that you've not dealt with.

You need to repent, you need to confess to God, pray for forgiveness.

The blood of Jesus Christ will continue to forgive us, but upon the conditions of repentance and confession.

If you know that, Will you do that?

We need to be doers of the word.

If we can assist you in becoming a doer this morning, and we want to invite you as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Brian Rodriguez

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

And the ESV is on the screen there.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed you the eternal life which is with the Father and was made manifest to us.

That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you.

So that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Well, good evening.

It's a pleasure to be with you tonight.

On Sundays, typically, uh we extend what's called the invitation.

To anyone in the audience that may be present, uh, they may want to respond to the call of the gospel.

And uh here for example, we, we meet twice on Sundays and it's extended twice and on Wednesdays, uh we come together and again traditionally at the conclusion of the Wednesday night, um, what we call the invitation, there's a little uh invitation to anyone that may again want to respond to the call of the gospel.

And what I wanna do today.

is to talk about the last invitation.

That's recorded in the Bible.

Have you ever considered the last invitation?

In the Bible And again, that call is found in Revelation chapter 22, and if you want to turn there, we'll read some, some verses there.

This evening, I want to learn from the last invitation of the Bible.

I think we can all leave edified considering it.

Starting at verse 13.

Let's read Revelation chapter 22 verses 13 through 17, and this is the uh the Lexam English Bible.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Again, this is Jesus speaking, if, if you don't know.

Blessed are the ones who wash their robes, so that their authority will be over the tree of life.

And they may enter into the city through the gates.

Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers, and the sexually immoral people, and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and who practices falsehood.

I, Jesus, sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright and morning star, the bright morning star.

Verse 17.

The spirit and the bride say come, and the one who hears, let him say come, and the one who is thirsty, let him come.

The one who wants, let him take the water of life freely.

So this evening I'd like to consider this invitation here.

Uh, we'll be focusing primarily on verse 17, again where it says the spirit and the bride say come, and the one who hears let him say come, and the one who is thirsty, let him come.

What I'd like to do is to consider how the Holy Spirit, how the bride, and how the one who hears call sinners.

And then I'd like to also, I'd like us also to consider what God's word says about the one who is truly seeking Him, for the one who is truly seeking God.

So the first one saying to come here in this passage is the Spirit.

The Spirit says, come.

The Holy Spirit invites humanity every day to learn about God in His word.

We must never forget the Holy Spirit's part.

And right in the writing of the scriptures.

We see Jesus, um, uh, speaking about David in, in Mark 143:36, uh, Psalm 110, he's quoting, he speaks about David, says David himself said, by the Holy Spirit.

It's important for us to remember that when we read the Bible, Yes, we know that uh it was written by man, but it is, they were inspired.

By the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has given humanity everything they need to be children of God.

And we see that in 2 Timothy 24:225 to 229.

All scripture is inspired by God.

God breathes and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, and in order that the person of God may be competent or complete, equipped for every good work.

So the Spirit says, come, the Spirit calls out to humanity.

God cries out from the pages of the Bible and says, know me and be saved.

But that's not all.

The Spirit doesn't only invite the spirit, the spirit helps.

We see how the spirit helps, uh, in, in, in, uh, in John 222:217 through 2142, Jesus speaking says, Uh, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

So we see that the Spirit works to convict people about sin, righteousness, judgments, and Jesus.

And the spirit works in particular in Christians.

We know that we produce that that the spirit working in us, we we help produce the fruit of the spirit.

Which leads me to the 63nd and the 26nd group of people that are, that say come.

The spirit says come.

But then it says the bride says come.

Who's the bride?

Well, the, the church is the bride.

That's that's set in the scriptures.

So the spirit says come and then it says the bride, the church.

Says come, and Christians are to play a part in inviting unbelievers to God's kingdom.

Again, I already spoke about one of the traditions that we do here, uh, at the conclusion of a sermon, to invite anyone who desires to respond to the gospel.

Why do we do it so often?

Why, why do we extend it twice on Sundays, once on Wednesdays, and, and, and always saying and if you have anything, if you have any questions or if there's anything else, please come to us.

This is done out of love.

Because the work of the church is essentially the main work of the church is to spread the good news, spread Christ to the world.

Christians must be individually prepared.

To offer the invitation.

To non-believers.

Peter writes.

And 222 Peter 22:15 to 17.

Says, but in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

You do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame, for, for it is better to suffer for doing good.

If that should be God's will then for doing evil.

So Christians, when it comes to spreading the gospel, we must remember that it is a lifestyle.

It is a lifestyle being a Christian, spreading the gospel is a byproduct.

Of believing in Jesus, because of the framework here, if we look at this passage a little bit.

Uh, Peter records how we should be living as Christians.

The first thing he mentioned, he mentions is is honoring Christ as holy, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.

That is a very powerful step one.

Because honoring Christ as holy is is essentially saying I recognize who Christ is.

And that's very important today because modern, you know, spiritualism or mysticism, you know, they, they're, they're starting to agree a lot with some biblical principles.

But what they're doing is they're saying, oh yes, Jesus, he is like.

Insert whichever master you want, you know, Gandhi, Buddha, you know, um, but no, honor Christ as holy.

Only Christ is holy.

No other of these religious or or or holy men of, of, of, of the world are holy.

It is Christ and as Christians, if we prioritize that, as Paul says here in this passage.

We will have the right framework.

To again Spread the gospel and be a good example to Christians.

There is only one Christ.

He is the Christ, the only anointed holy one of God.

But if, if you're looking over this passage, notice he also tells Christians, uh, did I say Paul, this is Peter, I may have said Paul a minute ago.

Uh, Peter also tells Christians that we need to be able to defend our faith with gentleness and respect.

There is a tact that Christians are supposed to have when defending our faith to unbelievers.

The spirit and the bride say come.

They don't say, hey, get over here and you know, and start chasing people and, and, you know, the spirit and the bride say, there's a tact that Christians are supposed to have.

With respect and gentleness, are we trying to be right when we talk to unbelievers, people who disagree with us?

Or are we trying to allow God to use us, allow the spirit to work in us to save another soul for him?

And the numbers aren't up there, but if you're following your in your Bible verse 16 shows us that living this way gives Christian, uh, it allows Christians to live with a good conscience.

We must allow the word of God to, to affect our consciences.

When we deny our conscience enough.

Shame disappears.

I, I don't know if this has been your experience, but this, this is, it's been my experience and I think it's a reality of life.

That if you deny your conscience enough, whatever it is stops bothering you.

And you're free to sin.

God, it's kind of like God turned you.

He's like fine, you're free to sin without it bothering you anymore.

What a dangerous place to be.

You must always remember why we became Christians in the first place and hold fast.

I wanna talk a little bit more about the tactics.

Um Use that Christians use for inviting unbelievers.

Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 19 through 6.

He, he, he talks about the way that he goes about it.

Starting in verse 19.

Paul says, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them.

To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win Jews.

To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law.

To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law.

To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak.

I had become all things to all people that by all means I might save some.

I do it all for the sake of the gospel.

That I may share with them in its blessing.

Now there's a lot of good things here, but what I wanna draw out of this is, is Paul took the role of a servant to reach people.

He became a servant to all, it says there in the beginning.

Which again, uh, it just, it just goes to show as far as Paul's concerned.

He may not have been a disciple during Jesus' life, but he received the same message that Jesus taught the other apostles when he washed their feet and says, you do the same.

When he told them who, who is the greatest in the kingdom, who they would be.

He says if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.

If we want to be effective in reaching the world, we need to become servants like Jesus and like Paul.

Paul said he made a servant to all.

And he's, he's written the majority of the New Testament and, and we, we study his letters.

He became a servant of all, and I believe, again, the Lord.

Again, made his letters very important for us to, to study and read.

If we are, if we want to be effective again in the world, we must become servants.

Paul became relatable, you see in this in in these passages.

We see in the scriptures in the New Testament after after Christ uh was was resurrected that some Jews that became Christians still followed some of the traditions of of their Jewish heritage.

And this is important for us to understand that if a tradition doesn't interfere or contradict God's word, then that tradition is fine to participate in, to reach a soul for Christ.

You know, there are some things that we don't do that are kind of traditional.

There are things in the world that are considered traditional, uh, things of culture maybe.

But in this passage, again, if it doesn't contradict, if it doesn't conflict with, with, with things of, of the Bible, if it doesn't, if it's not sin.

Paul says, I became all things to all people so that I can reach another soul.

Something for us to think about.

You know, so we say, oh, that's below me, you know, I don't do that, um, oh I don't participate, oh, you go, yeah, I'm gonna say something, oh you go snowboarding, I don't do that, you know, I might want to do that just to get in touch with this person here, you know, that's just a silly example of ways we might go outside our comfort zone.

To to reach people.

Creatures must do their best to be all things for all people so that when the bride says come, those who are seeking might have their hearts softened for Christ and come.

Now, it says the spirit in the Revelation 22:17 says, the spirit and the bride says come.

But then there's another group that says come, if you recall, says the one who hears says come.

That's interesting.

The one who hears says come.

And the one who hears seems to be is anyone new, a new believer, someone who just believed the gospel.

All those who are convicted by the spirit to the gospel are compelled to say come and invite unbelievers to share in the hope of the gospel.

This is very encouraging.

If, if you believe in Jesus and you become a Christian, that's all that's necessary for you to start sharing the gospel, because all you have to do is, is explain why you believe.

I think the Samaritan woman is, is, is a, is a decent example of this.

Um, in, in John chapter 4, verses 25 to 29, you remember, uh, uh, Jesus has this interaction with the Samaritan woman.

And then finally, she says, I know the Messiah is coming.

He who is called Christ, when he comes, he will tell us all, all things.

Jesus said to her, I will speak to you and he.

Just then his disciples came back.

They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, What do you seek?

or Why are you talking with her?

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, Come see a man who told me all that I ever did.

Can this be the Christ?

This woman had her life story revealed to her from by Jesus.

And after this, she's, she says, I, I, I think you're the Messiah, you know, you kind of imagine she's thinking to herself and she says, I hear the Messiah is coming, and he says, I am here.

And I think it's interesting, she drops her water, so she, it's almost like she forgets her water.

She goes back into town and her disciples came.

And all she does.

It's just share what happened, share her experience with Jesus.

And if you recall when um the, the first, you know, non-Jews to receive the gospel with the Samaritans and they were eager.

I wonder if they had a little fire uh started uh about this time from this woman who just met Jesus and believed.

Are apparently believed So who are those that hear the call?

Did the spirit and the bride say come.

Those who hear say come.

Who are those that hear the call?

And that's answered answered in the later part in Revelation 22.

Uh, 17, and that is for those who are thirsty, thirsty for truth, thirsty for righteousness, and thirsty for life.

If you've ever been thirsty, you know, thirst implies a deep urge or drive to fulfill that desire of, of, of, of drinking.

Like like wanting water after a long summer day.

The conviction of the Holy Spirit is tied to the thirst of the seeker.

If one is not thirsty, one will not drink.

If one is genuinely thirsty.

He will find water.

It's a promise in the scriptures.

I love Psalm, Psalm 142 has become one of my favorite passages.

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

OK, who, who's the call for?

For those who are seeking after God.

Are you seeking after God?

To thirst, and to seek, have similar ideas behind them.

It is to desire, it's to truly seek out.

We can always ask for water.

Jesus replying to the Samaritan woman, said, if you knew the gift of God and who, who it is who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

And everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty.

But the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.

Those who are truly seeking Jesus says, ask for water.

And you will get it No one else supplies the water for eternal life.

We have to know that.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6.

Peter, when asked if he wanted to leave after Jesus said something that caused some disciples uh of of his to to leave discouraged because they are like this teaching is too much.

We talked about this earlier today, and he says, uh uh do you want to leave too?

What does Peter say?

Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have words of eternal life.

We have already believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

Eternal life is in Jesus alone.

Coming to Jesus quenches your thirst, your spiritual thirst.

What's the meaning of life?

These existential questions we talked about earlier today.

Eternity is in our hearts and can only be satiated by the eternal life that's promised.

In Christ Jesus.

So I want to Read Revelation 22, um, again, um, starting with verse 13 as the invitation because again, these are the words of Jesus, his call to the world, and the, the, the last book in the Bible, he says, listen, you must understand that I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Blessed are the ones who wash their robes.

You wash your robes in baptism, otherwise your robes are stained.

That's an important.

Uh, insert there.

So that their authority will be over the tree of life, and they may enter into the city through the gates.

Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral people, and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and who practices falsehood.

I, Jesus, sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

And the spirit and the bride say come, and the one who hears, let him say come, and the one who is thirsty, let him come.

The one who wants, let him take the water of life freely. Amen.

If you are thirsty.

And you believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and you understand that your, your robes must be washed in, in, in baptism to, to cleanse you of your sins, to wash your sins away.

That you may live a life sanctifying yourself, uh, uh, the rest of your days in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you are a Christian and you, you would like to request some prayers, uh, now is also a great opportunity to do so as we stand and sing the song that's selected.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Gary Copeland

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

The scripture reading this morning is Colossians chapter 113 verses 13 through 20.

It will appear on the screen behind me in the ESV.

I'll be reading from the New King James version this morning.

Colossians 1:13 through 20.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of His Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation, for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether throngs or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things and in him all things consist, and he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in him all the fulness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself by Him whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

I feel like we ought to go straight to the invitation song.

Really appreciate the songs that Daniel selected, the thoughts that Ed had, thoughts that Travis had.

They basically preached the sermon.

I do have a few other points to to add.

But what great passages and what great thoughts that Jesus is the answer.

I saw a great bumper sticker one time and you can learn a lot from bumper stickers if you pay attention.

So the answer is Jesus.

What's the question?

I thought, boy, that's really nice.

Whatever question we might have.

To some degree, Jesus is the answer.

We all share the same emotions, thoughts, needs, weaknesses.

And so no matter your problem, Your doubt.

Jesus is the answer.

So I want to encourage this on the first pass through these things to look to Jesus.

We'll be talking about Loneliness and loss temptation, fear and worry.

And the first pass through this list, we're gonna look to Jesus.

You know, Jesus was alone at times.

But he said in John 8:29, he who sent me is with me.

He has not left me alone.

John 8:29.

I'll be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible just in case you're Wondering about any differences you might find in your translation.

And I'm gonna go through a lot of passages, you won't have time to turn to them unless you're the flash or something, but uh.

Anyway, if you want the, the list of these passages, I'd be happy to share with share them with you later.

So Jesus, even though he was in some senses alone sometimes, he didn't have the support.

The, the companionship that he wished he had from faithful people.

He knew he was not alone.

He who sent me is with me.

He has not left me alone.

And Jesus promises that same comfort to his followers.

Hebrews 33, starting in verse toward the middle of verse 5, he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we may confidently say the Lord is my helper.

I will not be afraid.

What will man do to me?

And Matthew 28, at the, after giving the great commission as we've come to know it, Jesus said to his apostles, behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Now, in each context of these passages, God's presence is conditioned on our obedience, but that's maybe a lesson for another time.

But I'll leave you with a quote that Stan Dvorak said one time.

Several years ago after Barbara, his wife passed.

He said, Sure, I get lonely.

But I'm not alone.

I just thought that was so insightful.

Well, when we need to cope with loss, we can look to Jesus.

This includes sickness and all kinds of physical trials and even death.

Because we know that God can heal.

And that's when we pray, we know that he can.

What we don't know is whether he will in that particular instance or not.

Sometimes God grants healing.

In Isaiah 38.

He told Hezekiah straight up.

He said you shall die and not live.

But because Hezekiah number one was a faithful man, and then prayed.

Look what God says.

He says, I have heard your prayer.

I have seen your tears.

Behold, I will add 15 years to your life.

And some of us, some of us are sitting here because of those kinds of prayers and tears.

And we are in those 15 years perhaps.

We've seen it in our families, we've seen it in our friends and loved ones.

Sometimes God grants healing.

Sometimes though, he allows us to live with our problems.

2 Corinthians 12:7.

The apostle Paul.

Said there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.

Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord 3 times that it might leave me.

Just a little brief pause here.

We don't ask for pain, OK?

That was the only quibble I would have with the, the things that we sang this morning.

We do not ask for pain, but we know it often comes and when it does, it's because the Lord is allowing it to come because he has the power to take it away.

So if we go through pain, we may be like the apostle Paul, we may plead with the Lord multiple times.

Please take this away.

Well, Continuing the reading in verse 263.

He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you.

For power is perfected in weakness.

Most gladly therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses.

So that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Therefore, I am well content, and on he goes.

So we can learn a lot from having to deal with the pain.

We know that going through a multitude of trials, James chapter one, can develop our faith, can build our character, and so it has blessings.

And so we don't turn away from it or shun it.

We do keep it in perspective and realize that sometimes God allows us to live with these kinds of problems.

And of course, we have those kind of cases even among us too, here in the congregation and in our extended families and friends.

And then sometimes the Lord actually lets his people die.

We know that will eventually happen to us all.

But I want you to think of the time that he allowed Jesus to die on the cross.

Right, it was more than just allowed.

He was present.

The father, we might even say, watched it happen.

God the Father was aware when Jesus said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Matthew 27:46.

And the father was listening when Jesus said from the cross, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

Luke 23:34.

God was listening.

God was receptive when Jesus said from the cross.

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Luke 23:46.

The father was well aware of what was going on.

He was there, he was listening, he was receptive.

And he allowed Jesus to die.

One of the palms 116 verse 15 precious in the sight of Yahweh.

Is the death of his holy ones.

So when we need to deal with loss, we can look to Jesus.

How can I overcome temptation?

You know, Jesus faced the devil personally, and 3 times in this paragraph that's in Matthew 393, the 1st 11 verses, his answer to Satan was, it is written.

The word of God was filling his mind so that every situation he faced, it is written, was the reply.

And so we can face temptation and overcome it by looking to Jesus and being ready with an it is written.

Jesus, because he was tempted in all kinds of temptation like we are, he can sympathize with those of us, which is all of us who are tempted.

And he is actively working on our behalf.

See, it's not just a sympathy from Hebrews 4:15 and 16, Romans 8:33-34.

Say who will bring a charge against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies.

Who is the one who condemns.

Christ Jesus is he who died.

Yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Jesus is not simply someone who set an example for us and then left.

He's not simply sitting in heaven commiserating with us.

Oh, those poor people, I know what it's like to be tempted.

He is actively interceding for us.

When we face, well, before we face temptation, we do, we pray, lead us not into temptation?

And when we are faced with temptation, do we pray?

Jesus will intercede for us when we do.

And 1 Corinthians 33:13 talks about another active role that God plays.

God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape.

Colossians chapter 3 verse 1.

Gives us a shift in our perspective to help us deal with temptation.

If you have been raised up with Christ, and that's through baptism, see the, see that context, chapter 2, verse 12.

Keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, for you died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.

Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.

And in them you also once walked when you were living in them.

But now you also lay them all aside.

We need to remember, we need to remember our baptism.

We died with Christ.

And in that moment, our life was hidden with Christ in God.

It's gonna be manifested someday and it's gonna be glorious.

But in the meantime, we need to think about the temptations that we face and remember who we are, set our minds on those things above.

And lay all those Sends aside.

Now, here's a whole great sermon on this one slide.

I promise I don't have time to go through uh fairly, but, uh.

Fear comes in so many different forms.

I know.

I mean, I'm talking personally and I don't just mean fear of heights.

Oh yeah, I got that.

But I mean fear, fear of people.

Especially fear of people, fear of the enemies, fear of losing our friends.

Fear of what others are gonna think, fear takes so many different facets.

And I just think about one occasion in John chapter 6.

Jesus's teaching was difficult in that chapter.

I mean, it's difficult sometimes for us to process.

We've got the, the benefit of hindsight and all these other passages to explain things.

But when people saw him just for the, the trinkets that he could give, just for the stuff.

He ramped up his teaching.

They didn't like it.

He wasn't just feeding me anymore.

It wasn't just a free party.

And so the enemies, yeah, yeah, never mind, they, they went away.

Some of his disciples also, no, no, not some of his, it says many of his disciples.

Went away and were not walking with him any more.

So Jesus said to the 12, do you also want to go?

I want you to notice that Jesus did not apologize for what he had been teaching.

He didn't run after people go, oh, wait, wait, wait, I'll I'll uh I'll water this down.

I'll, I'll tone it down and, and so we can be buds here, right?

I, I'll make it easy for you to, to, to accept me on your terms.

I'll make it convenient for you to believe in me.

He didn't say any of that.

He even looked at his own apostles and he said, you're gonna go away too?

Jesus knew he was teaching the truth, and he knew that was the only basis for unity.

Any hope of unity has to be based on that, that we know that the scriptures are right and that we are teaching the truth.

So we're gonna have to know what we believe and we're gonna have to make a choice.

Division sometimes comes.

The many disciples of Jesus that went away on that occasion.

Think about Matthew 10, starting in verse 34.

Jesus said, do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth.

I did not come to bring peace, but a sword, for I came to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies.

Will be the members of his household.

He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Oh, I could tell you about situations in Ecuador, and Mexico.

But I was sitting right over there Wednesday night when the adult Bible class in here in the auditorium was studying church discipline.

And I thought about a passage like this.

A man's enemies are those in his own household.

And boy, if you fear anything, you might fear losing your family.

Rather than I sat there and I looked across.

Here sat a family with somebody in their family that's not faithful.

Here sat somebody else, somebody that you had to withdraw from in their family.

Over here with the same kind of situation.

Brethren, it's real and it affects us all.

I pray that it never will.

I'm one of them, my sister in the flesh, there's only 303 of us.

She's not faithful to the Lord.

Does this passage come home to us?

Don't fear division You'll be on the Lord's side.

And everything will sort itself out.

The people that aren't with us, God will judge the people that are with us, we thank God for them, and we keep on together.

And so I could go through all these passages.

What about when we're facing persecution?

Jesus had a lot to say to his disciples on the night that he was betrayed.

He said the world hates you.

They will also persecute you.

That's John 15.

In Luke 6, he said, Blessed are you when men hate you and exclude you and insult you and scorn your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man.

Be glad in that day and leap for joy.

Yeah, leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.

For their fathers were doing the same things to the prophets.

So we just need to keep cool when we're threatened.

In Matthew 27:13-14, or they're hurling all kinds of accusations against Jesus when he's on trial.

Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?

And he did not answer him with regard to even a single charge.

So the governor marveled greatly.

Now that same pilot, the governor.

Later had Jesus scourged.

Well, that's brutal.

I kill some people.

I, I promise I'd die.

I just, I would just die with discouraging.

And Pilate said to Jesus, then, do you not speak to me?

Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you?

Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me.

I want you to imagine the man has just been scourged.

You would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above.

For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.

As a result of this, Pilate kept seeking to release him.

John 19:10 through 12.

Jesus did not revile in return.

He did while suffering, he was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

First Peter 2:23.

Met a man in about 1990.

He'd had an experience a few years ago.

He'd been a street preacher.

Street preacher in Austin, Texas.

One point he came up on a bunch of thugs.

And they just decided they were gonna knife him.

Well, I I'd be uh running scared, right?

He just looked at him and he said, if God has given you the power to cut me, so be it, but I'm here to tell you the good news about Jesus Christ.

And these guys are like, what kind of person is this?

We sang that Jesus is the Son, he is the king.

He's the Christ.

Be not afraid.

It's so easy to fear that.

Peter feared it.

Goodness, Peter feared it when he was there at the fire.

The fire of the enemies, he was warming himself.

Be not afraid.

Oh, here's another whole sermon on worry.

I've got kind of, I've got quotes.

Here's one from a from a Buddhist sage in the 700s.

If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying?

If you can't solve it, then what is the need of worrying?

That's great.

Worrying doesn't help, does it?

That's what Travis read to us from Matthew 6.

So what do we do?

We get a little perspective that the father knows what we need.

And from that same passage in Matthew 6, that was verse 8, verse 34 that Travis read for us, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

You don't have to worry about today.

You don't have to worry about what you're gonna eat, what you're gonna wear, you don't have to worry about your life.

Because God knows.

And he does hear our prayers and he does see our tears.

I want to give you an example of one thing that I've worried about.

And that was raising children.

Right, feeling inadequate as a parent.

We've got a lot of young parents here.

We got some young grandparents here too.

We feel inadequate raising our children and we worry, we, we worry about what's gonna happen to them because this is a messed up world.

It's an evil and adulterous generation here 2000 years after the evil and adulterous generation which Jesus lived, and that was about 2000 years after the evil and adulterous generation in which Abraham and Lot lived.

The world's always been a messed up place because Satan is the king of this world for the moment.

He is the power for now.

But instead of worrying about it, Pray First Peter 5:0003 casting all your anxiety on him, for he cares for you.

Philippians 4 in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And when it comes to parenting.

If you appoint your child to God, the heavenly Father, You don't have to pretend that you're perfect because they already know better.

But if you'll point your child to God and say, look, look, honey, I'm trying to raise you because God gave me the responsibility to do that.

I'm not perfect doing it.

You need to follow your heavenly Father at all times.

And if you will show them the love of God, if you will teach that to them, if you will train them in the scriptures, if you will make application daily in their lives so that they know that the word of God is their foundation, and that God the Father is watching over them and their ultimate responsibility is to him.

You know what happens with me as a parent?

I don't become irrelevant, right?

But I become very secondary as it should be.

Because they're gonna have the same care from God the Father that I've had.

God's gonna be with them.

He's gonna bless them.

He's gonna protect them.

And it's not all on me.

So let's leave off the worry.

Do more praying for and with our children.

OK, now in the 17 seconds that I have left.

Just kidding.

Uh, I wanna go back through the list.

And I want you to learn to lean on the church.

I probably won't read all these passages for time's sake, but we think about looking to Jesus and that's as it should be.

A shift in our perspective and our thinking can solve a lot of our problems.

Right, but here we are struggling in this flesh on this earth.

And thankfully God.

Also provides us help here.

There's a passage in 2 Corinthians 7 when Paul says he was comforted by the coming of Titus.

Sometimes God gives us people.

And if you're a member of this congregation, and you know very well what I'm talking about, we have people.

What a blessing So if you're dealing with loneliness, You have people lean on them.

Choose the right people.

1 Corinthians 15:33 says, do not be deceived.

Bad company corrupts good morals.

Become righteously sober minded and stop sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.

And we're gonna pick those people as our friends.

Better not.

2 Timothy 2:2.33, flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

We need to get over this backtalk that sometimes we hear teenagers make.

Uh, you can't tell me who my friends should be.

Well, honey, God has told you who your friends should be.

We need to look out amongst ourselves.

We need to find other righteous people.

We need friends on earth, make friends of those people.

When we're dealing with loss.

2 Corinthians 1 is a wonderful chapter.

It's got a little subheading in my Bible, the God of Comfort.

Blessed be the God of all comfort.

2 Corinthians 226:239, who comforts us in all our affliction.

So that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Brethren, here in this congregation, you are so compassionate.

I don't need to preach this one to you because you're already doing it. Right?

You rushed to the side of the people who are suffering.

In the case of loss, This congregation rises to the challenge, and they rise to aid and to comfort and to be with the people who suffer laws.

So if you're one of those suffering laws, lean on the church, let them know about your problems, lean on them in temptation the same way.

James 23:230, confess your sins to one another.

Pray for one another so that you may be healed.

This congregation is blessed.

Do you know how much time our elders spend in private counseling sessions trying to help people or trying to overcome all kinds of temptations?

They're there for you.

A bunch of other people are too.

We need to lean on each other.

It's not just look to Jesus, it's also lean on the church.

What about in time of fear?

You've got people that will support you.

I just put a couple of examples or lots, several few more.

But Acts chapter 22 verse 2000 and 123, I think refers to the same thing as in 212 Corinthians 26:269-33, where Paul was in Damascus.

I mean, he's preaching the word.

And the Jews want to kill him.

That's their response, right?

When you run out of arguments, best thing that the carnal people know to do is try to shut up the messenger.

And so they're seeking to kill him.

The brethren let him down over the wall in a basket.

The brethren helped him, uh, in Acts chapter 17, escaped from Thessalonica, and they escorted him all the way.

Or was that Bea?

Sorry. And so Paul got away from a bad situation through the help of the brethren.

So if you're talking about loneliness or loss or temptation or fear or worry, lean on the church.

When Peter was in prison, prayer for him was being made fervently by the church.

Acts 12:5.

You know, back to that example of uh Parenting Titus chapter 2 is really neat.

It addresses in verses 3 through 63, the older women.

And it wants them to be teaching what is good.

And you know what list comes?

Everything home-based, right?

How to love your husband, how to love your children, how to be a good worker at home, how to be sensible.

We've got older people here that can teach the younger people.

We need to lean on each other.

Worried about how to raise children and look at some of the people that have done it well.

Get some pointers.

You got resources.

Use them.

OK. Now where am I?

A note about limitations.

Talking about limitations of leaning on people.

I remember that Jesus took his disciples.

He took 11 disciples with him to Gethsemane, the night that he was betrayed.

The 11 went with him and then he took 3 even farther.

But even they did not go all the way.

Jesus went a little beyond Matthew 26:39.

And even they, even the 3.

Slept And even they all ran away.

So I've made the point that support from our spiritual family is hugely important, but people can only go so far with you.

And people will let you down.

I know because people disappointed me.

But more to the point, I know because I have been a disappointment to others.

And so as important as it is, To draw strength from others, we must never rely on them to keep us going.

We've got to develop a strong and grounded faith ourselves.

If I am a member of the Lord's church, I need to grow in maturity.

I need to become stronger.

There will be times when I should be the one doing the helping.

And so now for the next 30 minutes.

We'll go back through the list again.

And I want to encourage each one of us to lead in being part of the answer to these problems.

What about loneliness?

Am I unfriendly?

I've met some unfriendly Christians, and there should be this disconnect going wow, that's not even a nice person.

Well, they need to, they need to become more Christ-like.

But there are lonely people out here.

And I can be part of the solution.

Well, I got to change my personality a little bit.

I got to let Jesus dwell in me, and I've got to become friendly.

To be able to help others.

I've been guilty of this.

There's somebody in the congregation going through loss, and I'm so caught up in my own little problems.

That I'm not there for them.

What about temptation?

Sometimes we get so So feeling guilty and feeling sorry for ourselves because of our own failures, we become consumed with guilt because we don't address it properly.

We don't repent and pour our hearts and tears out to God and then move on.

We stay stuck in that guilt.

Do you know that you can use your own experience?

You can use your own failures to help somebody else.

You can go up and say, hey brother, hey, sister, you know, I've been in that situation.

And guess what happened to me?

I learned to do better.

You can too.

I can be part of the answer.

In spite of my problems and my failures.

What about fear?

Do I show fear?

Like the apostle Peter did when warming himself by that fire of the enemies.

Or do I show confidence and trust in God?

If you like uh funny words, what do I exude?

Right?

What comes from me?

Is it fair?

Or is it confidence in the Lord?

What about worry?

You know, to use the modern vernacular.

Fretful people.

And some people, I've heard people, I've heard more than one person defend them.

Well, that's just the way I am.

You're just a fretful person?

God help you repent.

Because Christians aren't to be fretful people.

Fretful people are toxic.

They're negative.

They're not helpful.

They don't help me overcome worry, they feed worry.

So I need to bring optimism and hope to those around me.

Got a slogan that I've seen in the school where I work.

Only good vibes, right?

And if we are based in Jesus Christ, that's what we're going to give off is only good vibes.

Had somebody I don't even know her at all.

She's one of the 2,000+ students milling around there at Sparkman High School, and she just walked by me.

She said some one time she's at the vending machine, she's like, you seem like a really happy person or whatever.

Well, what am I gonna say to that?

Oh yeah, well, that's just the way I am.

I'm one of the most negative and cynical people you'll find.

That's, that's not natural for me, OK?

And so what I tried to tell her is You know, I got 2.3 seconds to interact with her.

I said, that's Jesus in me.

That's what we need to be, if possible, and it is possible.

OK, here's the invitation.

Really tried to make the point in case you haven't been paying attention.

Jesus is the answer to every problem.

He is the answer to every religious question.

These are whole other sermons, and Allan has preached some of these not too.

Distant in time.

Every religious question you've got, we sang it in the songs, right?

I'm the way, the truth, the life.

What about every existential question you have?

Right?

Who am I?

Where did I come from?

What am I doing here?

What's my purpose in life?

What's gonna happen to me when I die?

These are big questions.

Jesus is the answer.

He's the creator of us all.

He's gonna be the judge of us all.

And for those who passed the test of this life.

He's the savior of us all.

And he'll be our friend forever.

Well, now he wants an answer from you.

And so this is the moment in the service.

Where we extend his invitation.

Who do you say that he is, a prophet, a priest, a king?

A teacher Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus is God's anointed?

To be those things.

That he is God's son.

You know that time when everybody was going away, the many disciples went away, and Jesus challenged his own 12, he said, you're gonna go away also?

One of the things Peter says is, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

John 6:69.

We know that Pilate asked the crowd, what shall I do with, OK, let's review.

He's, he's asking the crowd who's already being stirred up by the, the chief priests, the, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.

OK, he's asking the wrong people because he's not thinking rightly himself.

We know that he's an enemy.

But he, when he asked the crowd, what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ.

Pilate labeled Jesus the king of the Jews.

And crucified him.

What about you?

Will you make him your king, and will you submit to him?

If you turn from your sins and you seek forgiveness from him, you can be buried with him through baptism so that you can rise to walk in newness of life.

So we encourage you to make Jesus the answer to all your problems and all your questions by coming to the front while we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Good evening.

I'll be reading from 23 Samuel chapter 6.

Beginning in verse one.

And I'll be reading from the ESV, which is also on the screen above me.

In 2 Samuel chapter 5, David had just been anointed king over Israel by the elders of Israel.

2 Samuel 6, beginning in verse 1.

David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000.

And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baal Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim.

And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill.

And Aza and Ahhio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God, and Ahhio went before the ark.

And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and cassetts and cymbals, and when they came to the threshing floor of Naon, Aza put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Aza, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God.

And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uza, and that place is called Pere Uza to this day.

And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?

So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David, but David took it aside to the house of Obed Edom, the Gittite.

And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed Edom the Gittite 3 months, and the Lord blessed Obed Edom and all his household.

The story of 93 Samuel 6 is kind of puzzling.

It seems not a character for David.

I understand the problem that or his sin with Bathsheba and that obviously seemed also to be out of character.

But 2 Samuel 6 is puzzling.

Why did David try to move the ark in a way other than what the Lord had prescribed, was to be the means of transporting this piece of furniture from one place to another.

The arch had staged on the side, rings.

And yet David In deference to the ark of the Covenant, put on it, put it on a new ox cart, and he attempts to move it into Jerusalem.

The ark was moved with great pomp and celebration, lots of music going on.

But as Daniel read, Uza, one of the two sons of the man.

In whose house the ark had been stored for quite some time.

Reached out and touched the ark apparently to steady it.

Which I think was a a good intention.

His motive was not suspect.

And yet he died there beside the ark.

You talk about deflating the celebration.

When Uza fell to the ground dead.

I rather imagine everything got pretty somber.

I wonder if the reason that David tried to move the ark that way.

was that the ark had been in one place in the house of Abinadab.

With his son's Uza and I pronounce it Ohio.

Cause if it was O in front, it would be Ohio.

I'm sure the Hebrew goes the same way.

But his two sons have been around this ark for a number of years.

It hasn't been moved, apparently, it stayed in that same place.

And David, instead of consulting God's law about the right way to move the ark, he comes up with a different matter or a different way method that he thought would uh give honor to the ark, a new ox cart.

Well, on that occasion, that day, the ark was not taken into Jerusalem.

It was taken aside and put in the house of Obed Edom.

The getite stayed there for about 3 months.

David was both angry and afraid.

He was angry about what had happened to Uza.

Although, to be frank, it was David's fault that this has even happened if the ark had been carried the way it was supposed to be carried.

As it wouldn't have been in that situation at all.

But he was also afraid because he came to understand.

How much importance God places or places on following His will, even in some details that might have seemed insignificant to many.

In the first half of the 19th century, in the early 1800s, in this country, there were several men who left different denominations in order to In their quest to serve God, to follow the New Testament teaching.

They saw that the groups that they were with were not teaching the truth, according to the scriptures, and so they left those groups and trying to go back to the New Testament order of things.

Now, they weren't the first ones to set aside a man-made creed, but it took a good deal of courage to be different, to take a different path than the majority.

By the last quarter of that same century, the late 1800s, Local congregations of the Lord's people were dividing over the question of instrumental music, whether or not it should be used in worship to God.

Missionary societies also played a part in that division, but instrumental music was a big issue in those years, so that there came a division that is at least recognized in the census uh information of 1906.

When people who are not acquainted with the Church of Christ visit our assemblies, they uh find that our worship is somewhat different from what they are accustomed to.

They sometimes wonder why we don't use a piano or other kinds of instruments.

We just sing.

Some have even suggested or wondered whether or not it, the problem was we just couldn't afford instruments.

You know, we, if, if we could just get a piano, if we could just pay one off, then we would have a piano is kind of the way they think about that.

Um, we even occasionally get calls from people who want to offer their musical skills.

I used to have those calls occasionally when I was still worshiping with and working with the Gucch Lane congregation.

People would offer to help us with our musical, uh, part of our service, uh, in their, uh.

Instrumental music talents.

Most people just don't understand why instrumental music is such a big deal.

So tonight, I want to talk to you about instrumental music.

Who really cares?

And that is the attitude of a lot of people in the religious world and increasingly, the attitude of individuals who are baptized believers, members of the Lord's Church.

In fact, some members of the Lord's Church have begun to ask not just if instrumental music is a big deal, but why shouldn't we go ahead and appeal to those who really are interested in worshiping that way.

And so some churches of Christ, have begun, and this is actually something that's begun a number of years ago.

They've begun to use instrumental music in their assemblies.

Now, what often happens is they will have two services.

One will be a cappella singing only, the other one will incorporate instrumental music.

And so as a member of that congregation, you can come to either service, whichever you prefer.

That change in practice is usually preceded by a gradual change in one's attitude toward God's word.

So this evening, I want to talk about some of the reasons that some churches are using instrumental music in their public worship.

And I want to remind us of why it is we don't.

You've probably already guessed, it's not because we can't afford a piano.

But there are scriptural reasons for that.

You know, when you think about members of the Church of Christ saying, well, we, let's go ahead and worship God with, with instruments of music uh in our collective worship.

The, the first thing that maybe comes to your mind is, well, surely they know.

That the scriptures would forbid that.

And I'm gonna suggest to you that arguments in favor of instrumental music kind of fall into two different categories.

One category is uh logical arguments, and we're gonna look at those first.

I'm just gonna suggest three arguments.

They are sometimes made with deference to scripture as to why we can go ahead and incorporate instrumental music in our worship, why we should use it.

The first one is, well, you know, they used it in Old Testament times.

And so that's an appeal to the Old Testament, uh, covenant, a covenant that we are no longer under.

And I, I'm gonna apologize to you this evening.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time answering these arguments from scripture.

I think most members of the church know the answers to these.

I think we're quite familiar with the teaching of Ephesians and Colossians and Hebrews about the fact that that first covenant has been taken out of the way.

That we are now living under a different will or covenant as the Hebrew writer would suggest in chapter 7 and 73.

And that covenant does not command instrumental music.

So the argument it was used in worship in Old Testament times certainly is a true statement, but it doesn't authorize anything for us.

We're also hasten to point out that the Old Testament law was given to the nation of Israel and not to people in general and certainly not uh Gentiles.

Well, then some people say, well, you know, it's in the Greek.

Uh, they go to Ephesians 5:19, and in that passage, there's the Greek word sallow.

And at one time in ancient Greek, it did include or have the connotation, the meaning of playing an instrument, plucking the string of an instrument.

If you look at the lexicons, you'll find that that definition, that meaning of that word changed, so that by New Testament times, the lexicons essentially uh will all have the same uh definition, and that is that it meant to sing.

I would also hasten to point out that Ephesians 5:19 is not optional.

If playing an instrument is inherent in the words solo, which in the ESB and other translations is translated making melody, making melody, if that's what it means, it's not optional.

That's a command in Ephesians 5:19.

Now, for some of you who are musically inclined, maybe you could do that, but then there's the rest of us.

What would we do?

Now I'm Saying this in somewhat of a humorous way, but don't miss the point.

We would be required to do that.

It's not an option for us because Ephesians 5:19 was written to you just like it was written to me.

And if that word salo means that you need to play with an instrument, then we all need to do that.

And then third, and this is one of my favorites, there is instrumental music in heaven.

That's a reference, of course, to uh the language, the figurative language in the book of Revelation.

There are harps there that are held by the, the, the elders that are mentioned there in chapters 5 and 503.

But that doesn't authorize instrumental music here on Earth in the collective worship of the church.

They're also holding bowls of incense.

Should we also burn incense as we're playing with our harps and that, again, uh, is it just harps that are Authorized or can we play any instrument?

You see the problem that comes into that kind of an argument, and we need to recognize, of course, that the book of Revelation is apocalyptic language.

It employs figurative language, and in the same passage, it mentions the elders having harps, it also notes that those bowls of prayer are the prayers of the saints.

And so that's obviously a symbol, that bowl of incense, uh, and I think even as the harp was.

So, the biblical responses to these arguments, I'm convinced are probably well-known by members of the Lord's Church.

But it seems to me that the arguments that are more commonly cited by members of the Lord's Church are arguments that are emotional in their nature.

And to be honest with you, those are the harder ones to Deal with because you're dealing as uh the term would suggest with the emotions of people, then those emotional arguments are principally motivated by a couple of different desires.

The first one that I will try to demonstrate this evening and some uh illustrative sources is the desire for unity with religious organizations.

We are kinda on the outside, looking at the rest of the religious world, and they're using instrumental music.

We're the strange kid on the block, so to speak.

And there are people who would really love to have unity.

It's technically just union, not unity with those that are using instrumental music in their worship.

But another motivation is this perceived need to compete with the denominations.

How can we keep our people they sometimes Say, how can we keep our people from leaving the congregations where we just sing when they want to go over here where they have instrumental music because they like that kind of worship style as it's sometimes uh described.

And so, I'm gonna talk about 3 different emotional arguments that I think are motivated by these, uh these two principles or these two desires.

The first emotional argument is that instrumental music is not a matter of doctrine importance.

So, we, we, we're gonna say that it's not really important, uh, this business of whether we use instrumental music or don't use instrumental music.

Differences over instrumental music and worship.

It is sometimes a, uh, uh, inferred should be handled according to the principles of Romans 14.

Romans 14, Paul talks about the fact that brethren shouldn't be judging one another in the matters that are under consideration in Romans 14.

It's very important for us to note that Romans 14 is talking about matters of religious indifference and matters of individual application.

And when we bring a piano in here, and it's used in our worship, you may not agree with it, but if you're here and you're participating in the worship, you're part and parcel of that.

That's not Romans 14.

And I would suggest in the second place, this business of instrumental music is not a matter of religious indifference or doctrinal indifference because the Lord has spoken on the matter of music in our worship.

Members of the Lord's Church are often viewed by other denominational groups as legalists because of their refusal to worship God with instrumental music.

We're, we're all wrapped up in the details, uh, and that's, that's legalism.

And so some members of the church have come to treat the issue of instrumental music and worship as really simply being a matter of no consequence.

Now, I'm gonna give you an example.

Uh, I read quite a bit from a, an article, uh, this morning, a couple of articles, and, uh, since nobody threw Rotten Tomatoes or anything, I'm gonna do it again.

I'm gonna do it this evening.

I'm going to read about a church, uh, the Quil Springs Church of Christ.

Uh, this article written by Carla Hinton appeared in the Oklahoman back in 2008.

That's dated.

I just want you to see how far back this goes.

The article is basically an interview, and there's a Mark Henderson who's being interviewed.

I'm assuming he was the preacher with this group.

The Quil Springs Church of Christ will add service with musical instruments was the title of the article.

And I'm gonna share with you a couple of questions and the responses uh in this interview.

The first one was, what do you hope to accomplish with this worship service?

And here's Mr. Henderson's Response.

He says there are two things that we really hope will come from this.

One is we want to keep more of our people that were leaving to go to instrumental churches.

One of the ways I would describe it is the way we handled it doctrinally.

So they were losing people.

The congregation's members were going to other churches that use instruments of music.

And so in order to stop the exodus, they decided to introduce instrumental music in their worship.

Well, it sounds kind of logical, I guess.

He says, we essentially said, you are free to worship with instruments and you're free to worship without them.

From just a doctrinal biblical standpoint, we for a number of years have treated this as a non-issue.

And that says a lot.

I said that this, this movement toward introducing instrumental music and worship is usually preceded by a gradual change in one's attitude toward the word of the Lord.

And that's what has happened with these people.

For some time, they had come to the conclusion that this really wasn't important.

And so to me, it seems like we were giving our people freedom to leave.

He means by insisting on vocal music, a cappella music, we were basically saying, OK, you guys can leave, uh go other places if you want to worship with instrumental music.

He continues, we were saying, you're free to worship with instruments, but not here.

Now, what he means is we didn't consider it an important issue.

We didn't consider it a doctrinal matter.

So we were just shooting ourselves in the foot by not having instrumental music in our worship.

We were telling people, well, you're OK if you go over there and worship the instruments of music.

And then the obvious question is, well, why should we let you go there?

We'll just have the instrumental music here.

And that way we can stop the exodus.

So one of the things we're trying to do is for those people who really connect more with instrumental music.

Understand that phrase.

They like it.

It appeals to them.

Even of our own people, we're trying to give them a greater opportunity to stay and to worship and to serve and be a part of the church here.

It continues.

The other thing we're trying to do is to reach some people that we've been missing.

We don't do polls or And surveys or exit interviews with people who are guests here.

So all I can share is anecdotal evidence from some of our members, and he gives two references here.

He says it's interesting.

One member will say, I brought a guest, they didn't have any concerns about our worship style.

They said the singing was beautiful and they couldn't believe how impressed they were with the a cappella worship.

And another member would say, I brought a guest and they really like the church and everything, but they're asking us, what's the deal with the musical instruments?

And I really can't get over this worship style.

So we're missing some people who come and visit and they really like the church.

It's just that instrumental music thing.

And so they would end up maybe going someplace else.

Here's another question in that interview.

Is there anything else you'd like to add that's gonna say whatever you want to say.

And here's the answer that Mr. Henderson gave.

One thing I would say about this is that it was really a personal decision, not just for me, but for our congregation and our leadership.

Do you understand what he's saying?

He's saying it's just a matter of opinion.

It's a personal decision.

It's not a doctrinal matter.

I think in churches of Christ, every congregation is going to have to chart their own course on this.

One of the good things we have in churches of Christ is congregational autonomy.

We don't have a denominational headquarters.

We don't have anyone to tell us what we can and can't do.

He was on a real good tear there.

When he was saying that we have congregational autonomy.

We don't have a denominational headquarters.

We're not a denomination.

And then he went and ruined it all by saying, we don't have anyone to tell us what we can and can't do.

Yes, we do.

His name is Jesus.

And he's the king.

And as we studied this morning, as King, he has absolute authority to tell us what we should do and what we can't do.

Now, I understand Mr. Henderson's talking about people.

People, human beings on, on the earth now.

But I think tongue in cheek, he basically identified the problem.

We're not listening to the Lord.

We're deciding what we want to do.

Each congregation has to decide on their own.

He finishes up by saying, we went through a painful process to make this decision.

You know, when we started this process, our average attendance was in the 900 to 950 range.

And by the time we finished, we were in the 93 to 650 range.

Those numbers represent people and friends and family members, so we don't take it lightly and others shouldn't either.

That just infuriates me, that comment.

Um, After he says that it's not really a big issue.

And we're trying to accommodate people who like instrumental music.

They went ahead and made a change that had eliminated a third of the congregation who said, we don't believe in that, we're leaving.

And then he tries to suggest, well, what it's an important thing to us that all these people left.

But not important enough to worship in a way that everybody could worship.

That's, that's aside from the question of authority.

That's just the question of, of Not being a stumbling block to your brother.

Which I think is also addressed in scripture.

I think 1 Corinthians 8 or something.

And so that, that comment just, I don't know, seems kind of strange.

Well, here's another emotional argument.

The insistence upon vocal, only vocal music has been a cause of division.

If you're gonna insist on vocal music, you're gonna divide uh religious people.

Well, some brethren are willing to sacrifice truth upon the altar of religious union.

Even the issue of acceptable worship is set aside so that we're able to worship with those who will not give up the instrument, uh, an instrument of music in their worship.

We want unity so badly.

That we'll ignore what the Lord says about our worship.

You probably don't recognize this name, but this was a writer, uh, in the Reformer magazine, Buff Scott Junior, and here's what he said.

He said, in any case, instrumental music should not be made a test of brotherhood.

I say this because God has not made it a condition of salvation.

Well, I wonder about that.

You mean it's not part of the plan by which a person becomes a Christian?

Are those the only important things?

Actually, there were people similar to Buff Scott who would have said this that very thing.

What about the Lord's supper?

Do we need to take the Lord's supper?

That's not a matter of salvation.

It, it's not part of the plan of here, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized.

So he says, God has not made it a condition of salvation.

I do not, nor cannot consider the practice a hideous evil.

Perhaps an infraction, yes, but not an abominable sin.

So now we're in the process of deciding which sins are hideous evils, and which things are just infractions.

Those things that are abominable sins and those that really don't make that much difference because the grace of God will cover them.

So that in that light, I will welcome my instrumental brothers as fellow saints in need of God's grace.

God's grace is gonna take care of that.

And so the argument.

This business of instrumental music, it just divides folks, and it's really not important.

We shouldn't insist on it.

Well, I'm gonna share with you another article.

This one's much more recent.

This is in 214 and it deals with the church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

So it's much closer to home, uh, written in April 23, 22.

Um And here's the beginning of the article.

Traditionally, the Church of Christ denomination.

Not a denomination, you can understand where the writer's coming from, is known for the lack of instrumental music in worship.

Some allow musical instruments for non-worship functions or fellowship activities while others ban the practice in the church building altogether.

But on Palm Sunday, Stones River Church of Christ made a radical move, at least by denominational standards, to allow instrumental worship to take place on Sunday morning.

And then the ministers quoted, he said, there's an a cappella worship and an instrumental worship time.

We honor our, and I'm, I'm not sure if she's the one who put the denominations heritage in there or whether he said that, hope he didn't, but who knows, we honor, we, we honor.

We honor our denomination's heritage and still have an a cappella worship at Stones River, but we want to honor equally worshiping with instruments.

For decades, the churches of Christ have faced the controversy as more contemporary worship services have appealed to younger churchgoers.

That's Woodall's comment.

The adamant rejection of instrumental music has alienated the denomination from the faith community as a whole, he said.

So it's a cause of division.

We're being divided from the rest of the religious world, all those other denominations, because we won't worship with the instrument of music.

So, some would say it's not authorized, so you can't do it, would all said.

But I say, if it's so important, would God have said whatever you do, don't play instruments and worship.

So now, he's telling God how God should have written the scriptures to make it clear.

That you shouldn't use instrumental music and worship.

The third emotional argument.

Love is more important than doctrine.

You members of the Church of Christ, you're all wrapped up in doctrine.

The important thing is love.

Well, now I'm not going to.

argue against the idea that love is very important and that love ought to characterize us both as individuals and as a congregation of people that we ought to express love to others.

But I'm gonna share with you a comment by Mr. Wilbur Fields.

Now, he is actually a member of the Christian church, but I'm citing him because he's saying the same thing that members of the church are sometimes saying.

Jesus did not say, quote, By this shall men know that you are my disciples, because you oppose instrumental music and missionary societies, and because you have people sign tithing pledges, but rather because You have love one to another, John 29 and 27.

Jesus did not say, by this shall men know that you are my disciples because you oppose.

Mr. Fields, this is what Jesus did say.

Why you call me Lord, Lord and do not do the things that I tell you, or do what I tell you.

And that impinges on this whole question of instrumental music.

Tony Woodall, who was the minister that we were just quoting a few moments ago in that article, he says, whether we're an a cappella or instrumental really doesn't matter.

Knowing grace and love of God, so you can worship however you feel like God is leading you to worship.

That matters.

So what's really important?

Well, it's not what the book says, it's how you feel about it.

What do you connect with?

How do you feel God is leading you?

Bro, that's denominational talk.

When you study with, I'm getting amens from, I don't know who, but I appreciate it.

Um, when you talk to people and study the Bible with them, a lot of times they'll, they'll say things like, well, I think what God is leading me to, to understand is, and so they'll reject the clear teaching of scripture so that they can instead embrace whatever it is that they feel they need to do or want to do in trying to serve God.

I want to talk to you a little bit about acceptable worship because I want to respond just briefly to each of these three emotional arguments.

The Lord commands us, we know, to sing in our worship of God.

Colossians 250:23 and Ephesians 22:22 or passages that we're very familiar with.

We are authorized clearly to sing palms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord.

Our worship, if we understand the nature of worship is expressed, is an expression of our respect for God.

And the question, of course, we need to answer is, are we really respecting God if we are ignoring what God has said that he wants for us to do in our service, our worship to Him?

I think we disrespect him when we disregard his instructions.

We would see that clearly in any other relationship.

And I think it's true of Christians with their heavenly Father.

Not a matter of doctrinal importance.

That's why we read from 246 Samuel 6 in the very beginning of our study this evening.

If you read in that passage, we just read through the 1st 11 verses, but if you go all the way down to verse 15, What you'll see is that David, after about 3 months, he moves the ark into Jerusalem.

But it's evident from the way that he does it, that the problem, the first time was the ox cart, because the second time, he's got the Levites carrying the ark.

And of course, successfully, they carry it into Jerusalem.

Not a matter of doctrine importance.

What about Cain in Genesis 4?

Was it important, whether it was an animal sacrifice or a sacrifice of an inanimate uh material?

Uh, evidently from the story.

What about Moses in the tabernacle?

Was it important for him to follow the commands of the Lord in every detail?

Hebrews 23:5 says that's exactly what he did.

Moses followed the pattern that God had given him.

And of course, in the matter of us and we see the importance even in what some people continue uh would consider small details.

God thought it was significant.

Our practice causes division, some say.

In James the 3rd chapter, in verse 17, James said that the wisdom of God is first, pure, then peaceable.

James said, the most important thing is the purity of the word, not peace.

Now, obviously, all of us in following the Prince of Peace would love to have peace with others, but that peace is not accomplished by setting aside the word of God.

Vision is sometimes necessary if the purity of God's word is going to be observed.

I, I put it on the screen there.

We see so much unity in the religious world because they're all using instrumental music and worship.

This argument is suggesting that if we would just go ahead and use instrumental music and worship, that, that would kind of eliminate the division between us and all these other groups who use instrumental music.

But I'm looking out over the religious world and what I see is divasion among all these people who use instrumental music together.

That is not together, but they're all doing the same thing in instrumental music.

Did that result in religious unity?

And the answer is no, it doesn't, does it?

The only way that you can have religious unity is when everybody's following the same standard.

And so then the only question becomes what did the king say?

About how we should worship him.

In our collective worship in our individual worship.

Well, and the third one was love is more important than doctrine.

You know, it's interesting, the New Testament, while speaking of the importance of love, Jesus said, you know, the, the most important commandment, love the Lord your God with all that you are.

And the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself.

On those two commands hang all the law and the prophets.

So, you know, love is very important, but the New Testament doesn't divorce love from doctrine or obedience to that doctrine.

Notice three statements that Jesus made in John 14.

I find it incredible.

That these statements seem to be dismissed or overlooked, even though they are rapid fire saying basically the same thing 3 times in Jesus' conversation with his disciples.

If you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

Well, the most important thing is to love Jesus.

Well, how do you show that love?

What do you keep his commandments?

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.

So if we're not keeping his word, what's the conclusion?

We're not really loving him.

We can say, Lord, Lord, we can claim to have a relationship with him.

We can talk about how much we love the Lord, but if we're not listening to the king, Jesus says, the ones who love me are the ones who keep my word.

So this business of well love is more important than doctrine, I think falls to pieces.

2 John 9, John wrote, Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.

Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

This evening, time won't permit us to do an historical study of the use of instrumental music and worship.

And so that's the reason that that article appeared in the bulletin today, so that you have that information.

And maybe you've already read that and so you know that the first century church did not use instruments of music in their worship, no indication in the New Testament that they did.

And in fact, for several centuries, Instrumental music wasn't used.

By churches, it wasn't until the 7th century that it was gradually began to be introduced in the Catholic Church.

And then when the Reformation, I said I wasn't gonna say all this.

Then in the Reformation period, those groups that came out of the Roman Catholic Church resisting their brand of religion, all of those groups didn't use instrumental music in the beginning.

Baptist, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans.

They were all against instrumental music and worship.

But what do you see in those churches today?

They all use instrumental music.

The question is why?

I think the answer is.

Like we talked about this morning.

Gradually those churches decided to change their doctrine in many cases probably by voting.

Their synos, their associations, their conferences decided that this would be a good thing.

And so instrumental music began to be introduced in these.

Protestant denominations.

And now, in recent times, relatively recent times, it's happening in churches of Christ.

Where they're saying, you know what, we need to get with the program.

We're divided from everybody else cause we're not doing what they're doing.

We need to get with the majority opinion or we're gonna lose our people.

We talked about that this morning.

Anytime you decide that the standard is majority opinion, truth is up for grabs.

You won't know what truth is gonna be 50 years from now.

It'll change depending on majority opinion because majority opinion changes often over time.

Well, let me tell you the argument that's never made.

And that is a direct statement showing where the church was to use instrumental music, just not in the New Testament.

Uh, an approved example of the church using instrumental music.

A passage where the inescapable conclusion is that the church did use instrumental music.

Someone says, oh yeah, but they worshiped in the temple.

Acts 9 and verse 2, even back as far as Acts 2 and verse 46.

Instrumental music was used in the temple.

So therefore, the Christians who met in Solomon's portico in the, in the area around the outside of the sanctuary, that they must have used instrumental music too.

Let me suggest to you, that's a pretty weak argument.

They also offered animal sacrifices in the temple.

With the church members doing that as well, because they met in the temple?

See how illogical, or maybe I should say flimsy that argument is.

The key to worshiping God acceptably lies in the desire to please God rather than men, to walk in unity with God rather than in union with men.

It would be wonderful, wouldn't it, if in the religious world, we, we could, we could consider all the other believers, uh, in, in Jesus, those who acknowledge him as the Son of God, that we could be in fellowship all together.

That really would be a wonderful thing.

I think it'd be a great testimony to those who are unbelievers.

But I'm not willing to sacrifice truth.

For even that kind of wonderful blessing.

What does the king say?

That's the question we need to be asking.

I think the fundamental principle of the issue of instrumental music is not.

All the many things that people talk about, it is basically the respect for divine authority.

And brothers and sisters, that is the reason for all division is a lack of respect for divine authority.

And that, frankly, is the same thing that keeps people from following the gospel plan of salvation.

They're not listening to the king.

They're not respecting his authority.

We need to respect God's expressed will, Christ's will, even in the manner simply of becoming a Christian in the first place.

Then in our lives of service to Christ, we need to continue to respect his authority and follow His will.

If you have a question about instrumental music, I would be glad to talk with you.

If there are some things about instrumental music that you're a little unsure of, you, you've got some, some questions, some niggling doubts in your mind.

I and the other elders and many brethren in this congregation would be glad to talk to you about it.

But I'll tell you the ultimate bottom line foundational principle.

is whether we're going to listen to what God has said.

That's where we start in that topic and any other topic.

If you need to obey the gospel this evening, expressing your faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, listening to his instructions to be baptized for the remission of your sins, and we want to encourage you to do that this very Evening.

Take a, take a step, a step out from the world.

Don't worry about what the rest of the world believes or is doing.

My responsibility, your responsibility is to listen to Jesus and to follow him.

And we encourage you to do that tonight as we stand and sing, we offer you that opportunity.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Reading from Revelation chapter 19 verses 11 through 16.

Then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse.

The one setting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God.

And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen white and pure were following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written King of kings and Lord of Lords. 176. 163.

That's the number of days.

Not counting today.

Until election day.

When we have our federal Local elections.

And I'm not sure I'm going to make it.

At least not with my sanity intact.

I'm drowning.

I'm drowning in emails, emails and texts.

I'm receiving emails from people who are running for office, from dog catcher to president, from Maine to California.

And so every day, I'm having to weed through all of these emails to make sure that I don't miss something important uh from some, somebody that I want to hear from, from you.

If I could vote this Tuesday, Tuesday of this week.

I would probably support a resolution to ban all politicians.

I'd check that or color in the little circle with a good deal of glee.

Of course, all of these people who are sending me messages, they're all patriots, you know.

And they're all wanting to fight for me if they are elected.

And they are all trying to save the country from certain destruction.

And they're not like their worthless opponents.

Oh, and by the way, they all want me to send the money.

That seems to be a, a recurring theme.

Well, the person you're looking at on the screen, I hope.

Hey Very soon there will appear on this screen.

A picture of David Lipscomb.

You may not be familiar with his life, although you probably recognize his last name.

He was a co-founder of the Nashville Bible School, which is now called Lipscomb University.

They're in Nashville.

Uh, it wasn't, the name wasn't changed until after he died.

He lived from 1831.

To 1917.

He came to the view that Christians shouldn't actively participate in the political process, that they shouldn't vote.

If you look at, or think about it, you can't look at it, but if you think about those dates, 1831 to 1917, you know that he lived through the time period of the Civil War, the American Civil War.

And it is apparent from some of his writing that he uh was greatly affected by the Civil War and particularly the parts that governments played in that.

Thank you.

He was a restoration preacher who taught that.

Christians shouldn't participate in the political process.

And although I am somewhat skeptical about skeptical about our political process as you may have already guessed, I don't believe that it's wrong for a Christian to vote or for that matter to hold political office.

The sermon today is entitled Christians and Voting.

But I'm not really interested in talking this morning about uh the political process in the United States.

I'm not interested in talking about uh the upcoming presidential election.

Not really interested in talking about Christians voting in secular elections in general.

What I want to talk about, what I want you to think about is Christians voting on religious doctrine.

And so that's how we'll be looking this morning to objectives I want to accomplish this morning.

I want us to recognize, and I assume we already do, but just to emphasize further, the importance of recognizing that we are citizens of a spiritual kingdom, not a spiritual democracy.

And then secondly, I want us to think about the authority of a king.

Something that I'm not sure that we as Americans can relate to very well.

When Jesus appeared before Pilate, On the civil side of his trial.

He had been charged by the Jews with being a king.

The whole idea was to suggest that somehow Jesus was a competitor of the emperor, and Pilate would pay attention to that charge.

He wasn't probably all that interested in blasphemy, which was the charge that the Sanhedrin had actually condemned him for.

And so he asked Jesus, are you a king?

And Jesus' response indicated the nature of his kingdom.

He said, my kingdom's not of this world.

If it was, my servants would have fought so that I wouldn't be delivered.

Jesus basically says to Pilate, I have a spiritual kingdom.

It's not of this world.

Pilate didn't understand that at first.

I'm not sure he really understood it even after Jesus said it.

But I'm pretty sure that his disciples didn't understand that fact until after Acts chapter 2.

It seems that they viewed Christ's kingdom as being an earthly physical king, that Jesus was gonna come into Jerusalem at some point.

He was gonna overthrow the power of the Romans.

He was gonna set up an administration.

And they desperately wanted to have positions of authority in that new administration.

On more than one occasion, they were fussing among themselves, and I use the word fuss on purpose.

They were fussing among themselves about who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom.

In Mark the 9th chapter verses 33 to 35, there's, there's an interesting story there.

The disciples and Jesus have been walking from one place to another, and while they're walking, the disciples are in this conversation about who's going to be the greatest.

In the kingdom Their concept was, I want to be in a position of authority and power in this new kingdom, this administration of Jesus.

And it's interesting that I don't know if Jesus was walking before them or behind them, but he must have heard some of what they said, and I'm convinced he knew what they were talking about.

But he asked them about that so that he can make a point to them.

That his kingdom is not like other kingdoms, not like earthly kingdoms.

If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all, really appreciated what Eric had to say.

Uh, prior to the Lord's supper, he was very, very good.

This is earlier during the Galilean ministry.

But even on the very night that Jesus was betrayed as he's there with his disciples and they've eaten the Passover.

On that very night at the end of Jesus' life, the disciples are still not getting it.

They still don't seem to understand.

And so, a dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

You would think Jesus had sorted that out already, but the disciples persisted in this misunderstanding of the nature of the kingdom.

And so Jesus says, for who is, uh, excuse me, verse 26, he says, rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader is one who serves.

Once again, he says, greatness in the kingdom.

is predicated upon service.

Not position.

Well, by now, certainly they've gotten it, right?

They, they understand now.

But then just before Jesus's ascension, this is after the death on the cross, the resurrection, just before he ascends, they asked him a question.

So when they had come together, Acts chapter 33 verse 6, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

I don't know.

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus didn't go.

You're not getting it.

This isn't going to be a physical.

Israel's not gonna rise again and, and have its former glory and strength as in the days of Solomon and David.

But I think after Acts 2, with the revelation of the Holy Spirit, The Spirit's guidance, I think they understood.

Finally, the nature of the kingdom, it's not of this world, it's a spiritual kingdom.

Hopefully, we have a better understanding of the kingdom.

We're, we're in a different position.

We, we have the opportunity to look back on all the revelation of the New Testament and to understand the teaching of the apostles as they fleshed out.

Details about this spiritual kingdom.

While the disciples didn't seem to understand the nature of the kingdom, on the other hand, They were much more familiar with a king, the rule of a king, than we are.

From the beginning of this country, there has been an extreme antipathy toward kings, as you're well aware, if you're Cognizant of American history.

And so maybe it's good for us to think about a king and what that implies for our service.

As Christians Jesus, of course, is the perfect king.

When the people of Israel in the Old Testament requested a king, we want to be like the other nations, they told Samuel.

And the Lord said, Fine, give them a king.

He told Samuel who to announce that to annoying rather.

But he also told Samuel, I want you to tell these people what kings will do, how they'll behave.

And as you read through the Old Testament, even in the case of a king like Solomon, who had requested great wisdom from the Lord and was given it, kings were often not very benevolent.

They were often poor rulers.

And not good spiritual guides.

But Jesus Jesus is the perfect king.

Prophesized in the Old Testament, the Messiah, the anointed one of God.

And as he comes down off of the mount of olives, riding on a donkey, Matthew says, that's the fulfillment.

Of the Old Testament.

Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your King is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the fall of a beast of burden.

He is the king who rules in righteousness and justice.

He is a benevolent king.

But there's something we need to understand about kings, and this is key to our discussion this morning, and that is that the authority of a king is absolute.

In Revelation, the 17th chapter.

And verse 14.

It says they will make war on the lamb, and the Lord will, Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of Lords and king of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.

In the scripture reading of Revelation 19, the Kevin read for us, Jesus is again identified as being king of kings.

And Jesus himself before ascending to heaven, reminded his apostles or perhaps announced to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Jesus doesn't share his authority.

With any human being on Earth.

He doesn't share his authority with the church, all of the redeemed.

And he certainly doesn't share his authority with human governments.

As I said before, in this country, we may have a hard time relating to the idea of being ruled by a king.

We prize our democracy.

As much power as the president of the United States possesses, and he is considered the leader of the executive branch of government.

He's described often as the leader of the free world.

But as much power as he possesses, our government is structured so that there are checks and balances between the three branches of government.

So that his authority doesn't become absolute.

That he can't do just whatever he wants.

That's the theory.

I'm not sure sometimes we do a good job of following that theory, that constitutional setup structure.

But that's the way our government was set up in the Constitution.

And furthermore, the president, at least in an indirect way, is elected by the citizens.

I understand about the Electoral College, but the Electoral College is also a reflection primarily of the votes that you and I make when we go into the ballot box.

Congresspersons are elected also by the citizens of their jurisdiction.

Congress has some power to make law.

But they are elected by the people.

They're responsible to the people.

And at some point, if their behavior becomes so egregious.

That people decide to vote against them, they can be removed from power.

Unfortunately, I think it is easy for religious people to begin to think of the church as more like a democracy than a kingdom.

Now, I hasten to point out, I don't believe that you'll find people, at least members of the church necessarily, who will say.

Yeah, we, we belong to a spiritual democracy.

I, I don't think we would say that.

We would say, yeah, we, we, we're part of the Lord's kingdom, but I wonder sometimes if we don't carry over into this spiritual kingdom, the thinking.

that pertains to a democracy.

I'm gonna do something this morning that I really don't like to do.

I think it's tedious.

Can be tedious, not today.

But it can be tedious and so I'm gonna beg your indulgence this morning because I'm going to read portions of two recent articles posted online.

That has to do with what's happened in the United Methodist Church, just very recently.

Now, I want to start out by saying I don't take any joy.

In what's happened in the United Methodist Church, it has divided and anytime there's a division between people who have been in some sort of a close relationship, spiritual or other, that there's always hurt.

And so there's no joy in this, but I do want to use what has happened to that denomination as a way of talking about the danger of voting.

In religious matters.

And so with your patience, I want to begin by reading some excerpts from the first article.

It's entitled, We can bring our True Selves into Ministry.

Colorado Bishop reflects on historic vote by United Methodist Church, written by Anthony Cotton.

Notice the date May 1st of this year.

These are things that have just happened.

In the United Methodist Church, although as the articles will bring out, there's some history here that you should pay attention to.

The woman that you see in the picture there, her name is Karen Olivetto.

She was called, I should basically, first of all say that this first article is written from the perspective of being supportive of the changes that are happening in the United Methodist Church.

With that in mind.

Karen Olivetto was called to the ministry at the age of 11, and yet, instead of feeling she'd made a life-affirming decision, for more than 40 years, Olivetto says a sense of dread has lurked just beyond the stools she wears at the pulpit.

Every single morning, I've woken up and worried, is this the day the church will strip me of my ordination?

Olivetto told Colorado Matters senior host Ryan Warner.

All right, I'm gonna stop and say there is a plethora.

Of things that are wrong about all this situation.

But I'm really only focused on one this morning and so if you'll bear with me, you'll see some text in red font or font in red, uh, and those words, those sentences, those sections, that's what I want you to particularly pay attention to.

The article goes on to say this morning, however, Oliveto says she arose without that burden, the result of a seismic change in her United Methodist Church.

After more than 40 years of banning gay clergy members, on Wednesday, the UMC voted to end the practice, meaning Olivetto, the openly gay bishop of the church's mountain sky region, which includes Colorado, has at last been accepted.

The change comes at a time of declining membership in the UMC.

From 23 to 2021, membership went down from around 8.8 million.

United Methodist Church was the largest, I believe the largest denomination in the United States.

From 8.8 million to 5.7 million.

In addition, the number of congregations that chose to disaffiliate went from 1800 in 2022 to about 5000 in 2023.

So people are fleeing the United Methodist Church in huge numbers.

Olivetto said 38 churches in the mountain sky region disaffiliated during that period.

And she goes on to say, that was the pathway that was open to them.

If they could not in conscience, live with that kind of diversity around sexuality, there was a pathway out for them to choose, Olivetto said.

Here's what's funny, she goes, she says, God is going to keep creating queer kids.

I'm gonna have to address that.

God doesn't create people as homosexuals.

That is a choice, that kind of behavior is a choice that people make.

But you can see from her statement that she makes that argument, she is what she is because God created her that way.

If God did that, then he is unjust.

He is not fair.

Because he says he's going to judge those who engage in that practice, and yet he created them with no choice but to engage in that kind of behavior.

That's not a just God.

Well, Moving along In the conversation with Warner, this is the individual writing uh interviewing her.

Olivetto also discussed other pending changes in the church, including the decision to replace the denomination's official social principles with a new document that no longer calls the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching and that now defines marriage as between two people of faith rather than between a man and a woman.

So they voted in their general conference.

They voted to allow gay clergy.

To uh serve in the United Methodist Church.

Now my understanding is that their language about homosexual members was that basically they weren't going to push them out of the church or anything.

But gay clergy, that's another matter.

But in addition to allowing gay clergy, they also decided to change their church discipline in their social principles.

It used to read that the practice of homosexual homosexuality was incompatible with Christian teaching.

They struck that, and they changed their definition of marriage to accommodate same-sex relationships.

OK. Well, the second article that I'm gonna share with you is from the opposite perspective.

It is also written, in fact, it was written just a few days ago.

But it's written from the standpoint of someone who does not agree with the actions that the United Methodist Church, the governing body, the general conference that they have done.

It's written by Jack Jackson.

He's a professor in uh one of their seminaries, and it's entitled United Methodism, How Conservatives won the Debate but Lost the Denomination.

Now, I'm gonna share this article with you and, and we're gonna look at several excerpts, excerpts, not the whole article.

But I'm sharing it with you because I want you to see what he's talking about, how this came about.

So, beginning, he says the United in United Methodist Church has always been aspirational.

The United Methodist Church was founded in 43 when the Methodists, the Evangelical United Brethren Churches joined forces marking the apex of denominational mergers in the 20th century.

But ever since, the UMC has been in numerical decline and in turmoil over human sexuality.

And last week, it finally came apart.

At the UMC's general conference, the meeting of the denomination's highest legislative body every 4 years, legislative should have been in red.

I missed that.

The denomination officially voted to end its 50 year ban on same-sex weddings and on the ordination of LGBTQ clergy.

All prohibitions regarding LGBTQ ordination and marriage were removed.

Now he's going to refer back to the same woman that we were just reading about.

He says in 23, Karen Olivetto, a married lesbian, was a lesbian, was elected bishop by clergy in the western region of the UMC in clear defiance of the church's democratically determined rules determined rules of order.

She was elected as bishop.

But not in accordance with the democratically determined rules of order.

So the general conference, the United Methodist Church had determined, these are the rules that we're going to go by.

I'm sure they voted on those things.

And she was ordained in violation of those rules.

The plot thickens.

The denominations Supreme Court, the judicial council ruled her election was a violation of church law and ordered a review.

To the dismay of Methodist conservatives who rightly view church law as the true bind of their denomination, that review never took place, and Olivetto remains a bishop to this day.

A special meeting of the GC was called in 24 to deal with the controversy.

I should mention they meet every four years typically.

216 was the last regular meeting, but because of what happened in 216 with this woman, they had to have a special meeting in 23 to deal with this controversy.

Progressives hoped finally to persuade conservative delegates.

Delegates, especially from Africa, to give up their convictions regarding human sexuality.

But when it came to a vote, conservatives took the majority.

Progressives were now irate with one bishop calling on the African delegates to grow up and embrace progressive wisdom.

With conservatives in firm control, the GC created a process whereby progressive congregations could leave the United Methodist Church if they so desired with their assets and property.

Everything was then ready for the regularly scheduled GC of 22 when it was assumed progressives would leave and form their own new Methodist denomination.

Does anybody remember anything significant happening in 13?

Let's see Oh yeah, COVID.

And so, At this point, conservatives threw up their hands in disgust, and they used the very rule they created for progressives to depart from the denomination themselves.

Now there's a paragraph missing there that would explain what's said there, and that is that the general conference didn't meet in 21.

Even though other denominations had their conferences and synods, etc.

the UMC said we're gonna push that off.

In fact, they delayed it three times.

And didn't finally meet until 240.

This year So conservatives are upset because this isn't being dealt with, um, and so they used the very rule they created for progressives to depart, to depart themselves.

Over the past 250 years, 25% of UMC congregations in the US have left for either a new denomination called the Global Methodist Church, joined other Methodist denominations like the Free Methodist or Wesleyan Church, formed smaller groupings of churches or become Independent With all these departures, as well as a larger than usual number of African delegates unable to attend the GC this year, 2024, some due to a failure to apply for passports on time, some due to mismanagement by those in charge of GC, it is unsurprising that the UMC was finally able to vote to change its position last week.

So the conservatives started leaving the, the church, the denomination.

And this year, as fate would have it, the African bishops who have long been against recognizing homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle, they were not able to come in great enough numbers to cast their votes so that the conservatives could continue to determine what was going to happen in this denomination.

And so it flipped.

Now the progressives were in control.

To finish.

Going forward, a few things are noteworthy.

First, the UMC is fast lurching to the left.

Second, progressives didn't take over the denomination by presenting a compelling vision so much as by simply ignoring the denomination's democratic form of church law.

The UMC is a democracy.

But the Lord's kingdom is a kingdom.

Not a democracy.

To such a degree that the denomination itself become ungovernable, leading to a mass exit of conservatives.

It's not just the UMC that's having this problem.

The Church of England also is facing division because of a synod vote to bless same-sex marriages.

And so in churches where they vote to determine what the truth is that they're going to follow.

Culture Cultural trends are Changing their votes.

And now they're changing their positions, the truth that they are going to follow.

Now, Mr. Jackson says there are a few things that are noteworthy, and I believe he's right.

There are some noteworthy things in all of this.

First of all, there was not one citation of scripture in either article about the UNC.

Nobody was arguing in these articles about the truthfulness or the falseness of the positions that people were espousing.

It's all about who's in control.

It's all about who has the votes to make things go their way.

Now, I'm sure that in some of the conversations that took place over the last, uh, what, 8 years since 2016, I'm sure there's been some arguments made from scripture.

But I want you to see that in the articles, both from both viewpoints in favor of this change, against this change.

The issue is not Scripture, not primarily.

They're focused on who voted.

Which way?

For people who vote on doctrinal matters, truth is not static.

One single vote, that is one ballot.

can change what the church is going to practice.

By the way, did I mention That the elders in our last meeting, we voted that as of next Sunday, we're only going to observe the Lord's supper once a month instead of every week.

It's going to cut down on the time that's necessary for our services.

It'll give you more time to spend with your families on Sunday afternoon because we can kind of cut services shorter if we can get the preacher to shut up.

Now, I hope you understand I'm being facetious.

We didn't make any such vote.

In fact, the elders don't vote.

Not even on things of personal opinion.

We try to build consensus before we act in any way.

But I want you to see that that would be no different than what's happened to the UMC.

What's really happening in a number of other churches and what is happening in some churches of Christ.

More on that this evening.

We're gonna talk about something that is related to our subject this morning.

And then third, majority voting is about majority rule.

You, you understand that.

Voting is just a formalized process of determining what the majority of people think.

If you're talking about a presidential election.

The person who gets the most votes, he's got the support of the most people theoretically.

And so he's elected president.

That's what voting is.

It's about majority rule.

And I want you to understand if majority opinion is the guiding principle in our surface to God, then baptism for the remission of sins is out.

Because the majority of religious people see that as foolishness.

We're saved by grace through faith.

Baptism is a work.

You couldn't be baptized for your salvation.

That'd be And most people believe that, of course, they conveniently set aside Acts 2:38, 403 Peter 3:21, Romans 6 verses 3 and 4.

Shall I go on?

Mark 16:16, all those passages just kind of get ignored.

But the majority opinion is baptism is not necessary for salvation.

If majority opinion is going to be the standard by which we serve God, then that's out.

But instrumental music in worship is in.

Because most religious people favor instrumental music in the worship, the collective worship of the church.

Most religious people want it.

Here's the bottom line.

Jesus is king.

And as such he has absolute authority.

And he has expressed his will in the holy scriptures.

What do most people think?

That's the wrong question.

The correct question is what does the king say?

What did Jesus say through his apostles and prophets about what he wants the church to do and to be?

And as a result, at KSR you're not gonna be asked your opinion on the question of homosexuality or any other cultural topic that has religious implications.

For our service to God.

And that's not because the elders don't care about you.

It's because we don't determine truth by votes.

The king determines the truth, and he has absolute authority.

You can't vote him out of power.

You can leave.

His reign in the sense that you can refuse to obey him.

But there are consequences to that, of course, as you're well aware.

We don't vote as a congregation on doctrine and as I said earlier, the elders don't vote at all.

Even in matters of opinion, we try to make sure that all that we do conforms to the principles expressed in scripture.

And sometimes we're not on the same page, at least not initially, and we discuss it and we work at it, we talk about it, we think about it.

Sometimes those decisions take longer.

But it's never a 3 against 2 or a 4 against 1.

Because we don't vote to determine.

The correct way.

That the church should behave or teach or even in matters of opinion.

And that's frankly the way that the plan of salvation is.

God's plan is not open to vote.

You know, churches will they'll have the same.

Truth for 40, 50 years, and then there's a vote and it all flips.

But in the first century, The apostles and prophets taught that people who are in sin need to believe in Jesus as the Son of God.

Sin came into the world through a lie that Satan told that Eve believed.

And salvation comes by believing in the truth.

Truth about Jesus, who he is.

That he's the risen savior.

And they taught that repentance of sins is necessary.

For those who believe in Jesus Christ and who are seeking forgiveness of their sins, that they need to confess with their mouth, their faith, the faith of their heart.

And then they need to be baptized for the remission of their sins.

And that plan is the same plan.

That we do teach and should teach today.

You won't hear a different plan from this pulpit, because the king.

has set the plan.

And he has absolute authority.

This morning, if you need to become a Christian by following that plan.

We, we won't vote you into the church like they do in some, some churches, some denominations.

You'll have to follow this same plan that's on the screen.

Oh it's on the screen.

It's on the screen this morning.

And the Lord will add you to his church.

You'll become a part of his kingdom in the sense that you'll enjoy the blessings of a kingdom citizen.

If we can assist you in doing that this morning, don't wait.

Come to the front while we stand and sing and we'll assist you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

The scripture reading today will be from James chapter 2 verses 1 through 13.

James 2 chapter 1 through 13, and I'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible.

My brothers and sisters, do not show fav do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, sit here in a good place, and yet you say to the poor person, stand over there or sit here on the floor by my footstool.

Haven't you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters, didn't God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

Yet you have dishonored the poor.

Don't the rich oppress you and drag you into court?

Don't they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?

Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed by the scriptures, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.

If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors, for whoever keeps the entire law and yet stumbles at one point is guilty of breaking it all.

For he who said do not commit adultery also said do not. Murder.

So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker.

Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom, for judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

I was asked to inform you this evening.

To be sure to inform you that I'm not using slides lest Jim Anderson be blamed for not showing my slides.

Um. I think he's taking it rather hard.

But I'm not going to use slides this evening.

I want to tell you a story.

I want to begin our study this evening by telling you a story that was written by Hans Christian Andersen.

And it was entitled The Emperor's New Clothes.

Uh, many of you are familiar with that story.

I'm gonna try to tell it accurately, but Here we go.

The story indicates that there was an emperor who was in love with fancy new clothes, even to the point of neglecting matters of state, he was interested in his clothing finery.

One day into the capital come two con men.

And they want to make the emperor some new clothes.

But not just any clothes, special clothes, clothes that had a unique effect on others who viewed the clothing.

The conmen told the emperor that the clothes that they would weave for him.

It would be such that anyone who was incompetent or foolish would not be able to see the clothes.

And so the emperor hires them and they set up their their looms and they begin to work, or at least try to work.

They're playing at it.

And various officials of the emperor come to see the new clothes.

Only none of them can see the clothes.

But of course, since not seeing the clothes means you are incompetent and foolish and or foolish, nobody will admit that they can't see anything on the looms.

And of course, the weavers, they're working like they're busy, you know, making these clothes.

Even the emperor comes.

And he can't see the clothes either.

But of course, he's not gonna say anything.

He doesn't want to appear incompetent or foolish either.

And then the day comes when these two weavers announced that the clothes are ready.

And so here comes the emperor, and they are miming the dressing of the emperor in these new clothes, his new finery.

Of course, there's no clothes.

But the emperor can admit that.

Or he would appear incompetent.

None of his officials can omit that, can admit, admit it because they would appear incompetent.

And so the parade begins for him to show off his new clothes.

And nobody wants to say that they can't see the clothes, the obvious truth.

That the emperor He is naked.

Until a child.

An innocent child sees the parade, and here comes the emperor, and the child.

Blurts out, the emperor doesn't have any clothes on.

And of course now, The truth has been admitted.

The emperors in a fix, so he just continues the parade.

I told you that story because I think it is a good illustration of something that's going on in our country right now.

No, we don't have an emperor.

And occasionally we do have people practically naked running through the streets, but.

The idea that people will not admit an obvious truth.

Which is the point of the story.

I think it's being illustrated rather well in our culture as we talk about or look at transgenderism.

I received a question uh uh some time back and uh my intention originally was to deal with this question like I do occasionally in the question and answer sermon along with some other questions, but I've decided to talk about this question by itself.

I think it's a valid and interesting question.

I think it's relevant and I'm gonna read to you the question as it was given to me, and I think it's understandable.

The question read, is it wrong or sinful to call someone who wants to or has come out and is changing gender to call him or her by their new pronoun?

A girl changing.

To a guy and she changes her name.

Is it OK to go ahead and call this individual by the name that they prefer or the pronoun?

A different gender pronoun that they prefer.

That question I think illuminates an issue that is now very common in our society and our culture.

The treatment of transgender individuals is becoming an issue that really cuts across various institutions including businesses.

Some of you perhaps work in a business where the issue of how a transgender person should be addressed, what pronoun to use, or what name to use as the change takes place.

It's an issue that's affecting our public schools.

It's an issue that is now part of, uh, or I should say affecting government agencies.

So it's a relevant question.

How do we deal with this issue of transgenderism?

I've entitled a sermon this evening, dealing with wokeism.

And what I would like to do is to first talk a little bit about wokeism.

But my intention is to try to answer this question.

How should a Christian respond or treat a transgender individual?

I have to admit that I'm not well versed in the terminology that surrounds wokeism or just the term woke.

And so I'm gonna share with you some things that I have discovered in research.

The term wokeism, according to Collin's dictionary, online dictionary, talks about the behavior.

And attitudes of people who are sensitive to social and political injustice.

That's the definition of the word wokeism.

Let me repeat that.

This is a very concise definition, the behavior and attitudes of people who are sensitive to social and political injustice.

You may not be aware of the fact that the term woke actually originated in the slang of the African American community, and originally, those who were woke were those who had become alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.

Woke being woke meant that you were aware, you were sensitive to the fact that there are circumstances, situations in our culture where there is racial injustice, where there's racial discrimination, despite the fact that we are 60 years past the civil rights movement of the last century.

Woke is an adjective derived from African American vernacular English.

There's even a uh acronym for that.

Originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination.

But what has happened is the term woke has now been expanded to include or encompass a broader awareness of social inequities such as racial injustice, but also sexism, and this is important, denial of LGBT rights.

Well, I think probably everybody is aware, probably most of us are aware that LGBT is an abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, although that four-letter acronym is essentially an umbrella term that's used to talk about the transgender or uh that community as a whole.

What's meant by the expression denial of LGBT rights?

They're talking about the right to have same-sex marriages legally recognized.

And we're aware of some of the things that have happened in the last uh couple decades where there's been a movement toward the legitimization and the legalization for property rights, survivors' rights, those sort of things of same-sex marriages, men with men, women with women.

L LGBT rights would include protection from discrimination in employment, housing, access to public accommodations.

These are protections based on Sexual behavior.

Because that's what LGBT talks about.

It talks about sexual choices, sexual behavior.

The LGBT community has done a very shrewd thing in our country.

They have attached themselves, their agenda.

They have attached their agenda to the civil rights movement, which pushed for racial equality or equity.

I think I used an illustration not too long ago to talk about this similar, a similar thing.

It's often done in politics where there's a politician who wants to see a particular agenda item passed, but the support is weak or maybe not really there for that law, that agenda item to be passed.

And so what the politician does is he hooks that agenda item to something else that has strong support.

And then it goes up for a vote.

Well, let's just suppose I'm a politician who doesn't really favor that agenda item.

But I do favor the other item, and now I'm in a quandary because they're both together in the same bill.

If I vote against that bill, then the tactic of the one who's introduced the weak issue is, well, you know, so and so, uh, he hates old people or he's trying to starve grandmothers or, you know, he hates school children because the bill was going to build school playgrounds.

And so sometimes what happens is politicians who really are not in favor of this other issue.

The weak issue, they vote for the bill because they're in favor of this, and they don't want to be seen as being against something that has broad public support.

Now that's an illustration of what the LGBT movement has done in the United States.

There is broad support for the civil rights.

Of minority groups.

Those who are uh racially discriminated against sometimes or ethnically discriminated against.

And so, because there's broad support for that, then this other idea is likened, hooked together.

So that people who might not support the LGBT agenda will support it if it's together with something else that they cannot afford to oppose.

Now, like it or not, that's shrewd.

And it has been very successful for them.

The EEOC, I'm not sure I could get all that correct, but it's a government agency that deals with uh equal opportunity for employment.

This is from their website.

They say the law forbids sexual orientation.

And gender identity discrimination.

When it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment.

The law forbids sexual orientation and gender, gender identity discrimination.

So if I'm working for a business, And I decide that I'm going to change my gender.

I really want to identify with the female gender instead of the male gender.

That company has to be very careful.

If they fire me or if they fire me for whatever reason, the possibility is that they may be sued.

For gender identity discrimination.

Hopefully, you see already that that's a leg up.

For this LGBT movement.

That's a huge protection.

And so this tactic of grouping two disparate social issues together in order to provide the legal or social protection of one group to the other group, which would not otherwise enjoy that protection is a very shrewd and successful strategy that has been employed.

Merriam-Webster says about woke, that that word is now defined in this dictionary, online dictionary as quote, aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice.

It's identified as US slang.

We, we've already suggested that.

Wokeism Goes hand in hand with diversity, equity and inclusion, the EI, uh, if you've been in the business world or in the world of education, you know exactly what that is.

An organization called TG. In an article entitled The goal of DEI, what is it that they're trying to accomplish with this program?

Equity, this is a quote, equity means to guarantee fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all while striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some groups.

Listen to this sentence carefully.

Inclusion means that all individuals feel a sense of belonging and know they are valued.

That's a dangerous statement.

How do they assess that feeling?

How do they come to the conclusion that they are a valued person?

If they feel like they are different in their sexual practices or their gender orientation, etc.

from the rest of the people that either they work with or associate with in some organization.

In practice, In practice, inclusion is often synonymous with approval.

It's not just that you've included them, you must approve of them.

You must support their behavior, which LGBT behavior is identified by scripture as immoral behavior.

But inclusion is often interpreted as you have to support these people so that they feel valuable and that they are included.

Well, you can understand right away.

That that could put a Christian who wants to follow the scriptures.

In a very difficult position.

You're in the management of a company or you have some position of some importance.

And under you is this individual who is LGBT, whichever, you know, initial applies.

If you do not approve of their behavior, And it's very easy for you to be accused of not being inclusive.

of discriminating against that individual.

Well, at the risk of, of stating the obvious, I think all of us probably are pretty familiar with the concept of transgenderism.

But dictionary.

com says that transgenderism is the possession of a gender identity that is not congruent with the sex assigned at birth.

I've seen that phrase, the sex assigned at birth, a number of times in various websites and documents, and I always am amused by it.

There are actually two different ways that that could be understood.

My birth certificate.

Back in 33, right?

Says that I am a male.

And so somebody at some point marked M instead of F, and that's my assigned gender.

Not because whoever marked it said, let's see.

Male But rather, I was identified as a male because biologically, that that's how I qualified.

But please understand that that phrase now sometimes is used with a different meaning, sex that's assigned at birth.

In other words, if, if you're looking at a birth certificate, it may be that the gender of that person, the gender that they identify with is not the same as what's on the birth certificate.

And so what happened was some nurse, some doctor, some parent assigned that person a gender, but it's not the gender they identify with.

And so the concept is, is that somebody imposed on me this gender identification.

And it may be wrong.

I may not identify with that gender.

A distinction is often made between sex and gender.

Sex may correspond to body parts, but gender doesn't always match sex, according to many.

So they've really made a Distinction without a difference as they talk about gender and sex.

Sex is what you are biologically.

Gender is how you identify.

And those may be two different things according to the thinking of the transgender movement.

You're also aware there's been a lot of controversy over the fact that transgenderism uh may involve medical procedures to match anatomy to gender identity, sometimes done on very young children.

Uh, children who are practically preschool and certainly in elementary school are now being transgendered and in some cases, through medical procedures, not necessarily.

But it is happening In some places and among some people.

Now I'm gonna apologize for what I'm gonna say next.

Let that sink in.

Because I, I, I'm just amazed that we even have to talk about this.

But some of you have heard of furries.

Transgenderism is when someone of a particular gender decides, I, I'm not really, I don't identify with that gender.

I'm gonna go to a different gender.

Furries are people who identify as animals.

Well, I know that technically in the.

Biological world, we're all considered animals.

We're not plants.

But they identify as woodland creatures or other animals. Sometimes.

Uh, those people who consider themselves furries are just people who like to, uh, dress up in costumes as anthropomorphic or cartoon animals.

Bugs Bunny, Jacky Duck, or something like that.

And it's really not any kind of psychosis or anything like that.

But a website by the name of Grindr.

com, in answer to the question, what a furry says in addition to the sizable transgender contingent, many furries identify as non-binary.

That means they don't identify as male or female.

Gender queer, gender fluid, or a gender?

But is Furry a gender identity in and of itself?

Here's their comment.

We're in no position to police gender identities here.

And in parentheses, frankly no one is, so we can't rule on this definitively.

We can't say that the emperor has no clothes, even though it's obvious what the truth is.

Because as soon as we say, well, there's just two genders, you're one or the other.

And that's essentially determined by your genetic material.

Now you have ceased to be woke.

And you've opened yourself up to criticism by those who think wokeism is absolutely the most important thing.

Well, as I've already noted, wokeism originally was concerned with racial justice, the elimination of racial discrimination.

And that was a process.

That Began in the 1960s, at least in a large scale, and frankly still continues in some places.

The scriptures are very clear.

About partiality on the basis of gender, male or female, on the basis of race, on the basis of ethnicity.

I want to read with your consideration, a couple of passages.

The first one is in James the 2nd chapter.

This is part of the reading uh that was made earlier.

In James chapter 12, beginning in verse 1.

James writes, my brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, And a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in.

And if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet.

Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

You're showing partiality.

On the basis of economic status.

An unjust thing.

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him, but you have dishonored the poor man.

Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court?

Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You are doing well, but if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

And the implication there is that partiality is a violation of the royal law.

Showing partiality on a basis.

That is unjust.

The other passage I want to look at at least briefly.

is found in Romans the 2nd chapter.

Romans chapter 2, and I'm going to begin reading in verse 6, although the context here probably begins uh in the beginning of the chapter verse 1, but for the sake of time, let's begin in verse 6.

This passage is actually talking about God's behavior.

And with reference to judgment.

And he says in verse 13, Paul does, he will render to each one, God will according to his works.

To those who by patience in well-doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil.

The Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality.

Hopefully, you noticed in this passage that the Passage explicitly says that God is gonna treat some people one way and he's going to treat other people a different way, and the same passage says that God's not partial.

Doesn't that not sound like partiality to you?

That he didn't treat everybody the same way.

The answer to that question is no, it's not partiality.

It's not discrimination, unjust.

It is the giving of individuals or the treating of individuals according to their behavior.

They have a choice about how they're going to respond to God's word, to his law.

Showing partiality on the basis of an individual characteristic that's not controlled by the individual is wrong.

I didn't choose.

To be white in my skin color any more than an individual who has black skin has chosen that.

That's outside of my control.

He was also born a Yankee.

I didn't control that either.

That wasn't my choice.

See that man right there?

If you have a problem with that.

There are things that we don't control, and I think as a general principle, it's unjust for us to show partiality on the basis of those kinds of characteristics.

We don't control those.

But that's not what Romans 2 is talking about.

Romans 2 says God is going to show a difference in his treatment from this group to that group, and it is all based on Their works for 6.

One more passage along this line.

And then I'll explain why we're spending this time on these points.

If you're in Galatians now in chapter 219, I'm going to just read three verses at the end of the chapter.

Galatians 220:219 to 220.

Galatians 212:23 says, for as many of you as were baptized into the Christ have put on Christ.

There's neither Jew nor Greek.

There's neither slave nor free.

There's no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Listen to me.

The church of the first century had Jews and Greeks.

It had slaves and free men.

It had male and female.

So what is Paul saying here?

When he says there's neither male nor female, Jew or Greek, slaver free.

He's saying those distinctions don't matter.

They're inconsequential.

In terms of our relationship.

To Christ, you are all one in Christ Jesus.

But the reason I'm reading from James 183 and Romans 218 and Galatians 18.

is because the term woke.

has been co-opted.

By the LGBT movement to include behavior, sexual behavior as opposed to its original meaning, where it talked about people who were sensitive to racial injustice.

And so I want to be very clear.

that there is no Should be no partiality.

In the Lord's church.

If there's any place where people ought to be considered equal, Before the Lord, it ought to be in the Lord's church.

Not just on the basis of race.

Or skin color, not on the basis of ethnicity.

Not on the basis of gender, male or female.

And may I suggest to you that there are a number of other differences that sometimes occur when you get some people together.

And sometimes, unfortunately, Christians will discriminate against those who are different than they are.

And when I say different, I mean by no choice of their own.

And the Lord's church ought to be the last place.

That you would find that.

I mentioned earlier, the idea of combining two.

Disparate social issues.

In this case, the civil rights uh for racial equality.

And the LGBT movement.

And they put those two.

Different kinds of social issues, and I'll explain what I mean by that in just a moment.

They put them together so that the LGBT movement.

can receive the legal protection.

that the civil rights movement was trying to accomplish.

For people of different races.

And so the LGBT movement.

is interested in providing legal protection for behavioral behavioral choices, whereas the civil rights movement was interested in providing protection, legal protection for people who had no choice about what race they were from.

Those are two very different social issues.

That's important.

To understand Racial discrimination is based on something a person doesn't choose.

But whether or not a person practices homosexuality is a choice.

And I want to remind you Of the question, some of you are beginning to wonder if I have forgotten the question.

But just so that you don't forget the question, may I repeat it?

The question was, is it wrong or sinful to call someone who wants to or has come out as the expression sometimes used, and is changing gender?

Is it wrong to call him or her by their new pronoun?

And I want to answer that question at least as much as I can.

Circumstances obviously are going to be different.

Depending on the circumstance, the situation.

But in our present social climate, Where wokeism is now the thing.

Those who come out, that is, they decide that they're going to change their gender identity.

They are heralded as courageous and they're given lots of attention.

How wonderful that you have the courage to step out and refuse to be pigeonholed by people who don't understand your gender, your gender identification.

And I will tell you that's pretty heady stuff.

For young people in elementary school and even in high school.

When I think all of us at that age, we craved.

The attention of our peers, the approval of our peers.

In some cases, even the approval of authority figures.

And I'm just saying that sometimes I wonder if that's not the reason that that decision is made to come out is because of what it provides in terms of attention, adulation.

In the eyes of the woke community.

It is a terrible sin to tell someone that there are only 214 genders, and that an individual's gender is determined by his genetic or her genetic profile, not his or her feelings on a particular day.

And you may be aware that in the transgender movement, or at least in the LGBT community, there is the idea among some that you could change your gender in the same day from one to the other and back again.

It's not a long process.

It's just today I feel like I'm a female.

Tomorrow I'm gonna feel like I'm a male.

But the worst sin that you can commit is to tell people that you are either male or female, and that you didn't decide that.

Then in fact, it's determined by your genetic material.

I don't know about you, but I've always been amused.

That when people are talking about the origin of the world and life on this planet, everybody's squalling about science.

Creation isn't real science.

Follow the science, follow the science until we get to a social issue like this transgenderism and then science.

Goes right out the window.

The emperor's new clothes.

Nobody wants to state the obvious truth that you and I in many cases.

Learned when we were freshmen or sophomores in high school.

High school biology.

We learned about the genetic distinction between male and female.

I've been out of high school for a couple of years now.

OK, more than that.

Has that changed?

Has the biology gotten different in the, in the time since I graduated from high school?

Or is it the case that people just don't want to admit that they don't see any clothes?

They don't want to admit the obvious truth because it's not the popular trend in our society.

I want to say a little bit more about that in just a few moments.

About the challenge of being a Christian.

In a secular, even pagan culture.

We're actually studying that in the adult class in the auditorium as we work our way through First Corinthians.

A church That was situated smack dab in Greek culture, in a culture where prostitution was considered a neutral thing, even a beneficial thing, worship, uh, the, the love goddess by going into a prostitute.

And those Christians had to decide whether they were going to elevate the moral standard of the Lord, follow that or whether they were going to subscribe to common Greek culture.

Brothers and sisters, we're there.

That's where we are.

We're having to decide whether we're going to stand for what's right, whether we're going to follow the Lord's standard of morality, or whether we're gonna float along with the current culture in the United States.

I want you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew the 19th chapter.

I want to show you something that maybe we have not always talked about or noted.

Matthew the 19th chapter, in the beginning of that chapter, there's a couple of groups who come to Jesus and they have a question for him.

It's a question about divorce.

The Pharisees come and they test him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife?

For any calls.

Now, a lot of times what we do is we jump down to verse 9 and we talk about the exception.

Jesus will give an exception to the basic marriage law, but he doesn't do that right away.

In fact, what he does first is he goes all the way back and cites creation.

He says in verse 4, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, therefore, man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So they're no longer two but one flesh.

What therefore, God has joined together, let not man separate.

Verse 6 is the law.

That's the general principle.

When you marry, it's for life, man and woman for life.

Now, they're not satisfied as questioners and so they uh proceed to ask why then did Moses command one to give uh a certificate of divorce and to send her away.

And Jesus, of course, answers that and, and in verse 9, he will give the exception of sexual immorality as the only scriptural reason for a divorce.

And I want you to back up to verse 1.

And I want you to notice something about the way Jesus talks about creation.

We know, of course, that the first two people created were Adam and Eve.

They're named in Genesis.

Adam and Eve.

Jesus did not say, have you read that he who created them from the beginning.

Created Adam and Eve.

He didn't say in the beginning, God created two gender non-gender specific individuals.

He said in the beginning, God created, he made them male and female.

God made them male and female.

They didn't choose their gender.

God made them male and female by Providing them with genetic material that's different, that's distinctive one from the other.

It's just interesting to me that this text says God made them male and female, and he continues to do that.

Now, I understand that in a very special way, in a very direct way, God formed Adam out of the dust of the earth.

And he took a rib from Adam and he made Eve.

And so there's a sense in which God created them in a very direct way, but he also set up a biological system whereby he would continue to have male and female.

That's in Matthew 194.

God made them male.

God made them female.

And as you read through the Old Testament, what you understand is that God intended for the two genders to be distinct.

In Genesis, excuse me, Genesis, in Deuteronomy 22 and verse 5.

The text there says that women were not to wear the garments of men.

Men were not to wear the garments of women.

I think the point of that passage is that they are to be separate.

This whole LGBT movement is designed to break down these barriers, these, these, these differences, distinctions between male and female.

Doesn't make any difference whether you're male or female, you can marry whoever you want now.

That's the accomplishment of the LGBT movement.

Yeah, that, those clothes that you have now, Mr. Emperor, they're fantastic.

I love the colors.

Biology doesn't lie.

But unfortunately we're living in a country where everybody has put I say everybody, a large number of people including companies, businesses, schools, government agencies and authorities who have put their hands over their eyes and refused to admit what is obvious to the sophomore in high school in a biology class.

The Emperor's new clothes.

There is a story in the book of Judges in what's really kind of an appendix uh at the end of the book.

It's in chapters 19 and 20, then there's another story.

There's actually two stories there and each story has another story embedded in those stories.

But in chapters 19 and 20, there's a story of a Levite.

Who had taken a wife, and she'd run away from him.

She'd gone down south in Judah, and he went to retrieve her and as he's on his way back up into the mountain area of Ephraim, He has some servants with him, and they recommend let's go into the city of the Jebusites at that time that would have been Jerusalem.

No, no, no, the Levite says, let's not go into a foreign city.

Let's go into the city of Benjamin here, Gibea.

And perhaps you remember the rest of the story.

He's offered hospitality by an individual in that city so that he doesn't have to stay out in the open courtyard of the city.

And the men of the city come.

At night, and they say, bring this man out so that we can know him.

They want to assault him sexually.

They're homosexuals.

And the Levite ends up providing his concubine, and they assault her to the extent that she dies.

And he realizes that next morning.

He takes her body, and he cuts it up into 12 pieces, and he sends a piece to the different tribes of Israel.

And here's the interesting thing.

The people who were responsible for this are the people in Gibea.

But when the rest of the tribes want to see justice done for what has happened.

The rest of Benjamin defends Gibia.

They support this sin.

That had resulted in the death of the concubine.

The rest of the story is that there's intertribal warfare and the tribe of Benjamin is just nearly eliminated.

Benjamin Most of the tribe apparently was not guilty of the specific sin.

That caused this Levite to send the pieces of his concubine out to the different tribes.

But they supported those who were guilty of that sin.

And I believe God punished them.

In the book of Romans in the first chapter, Paul talks about uh the Gentiles and how, because they refused to acknowledge God, they didn't want to have God in their thinking that God gave them up 3 times, it says in Genesis, excuse me, in, in, in Romans 1, that God gave.

them up.

He handed them over.

Hardimi is the word, handed them over to their passions, to their desires.

God said, I've given you evidence of my existence in the created world, that's verse 18, and they didn't want to listen, so God said, fine.

But he ends the chapter this way.

Paul does.

He says, Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things, he's listed.

The various sins to which Gentile society had stooped.

He says though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

My point is that in the scriptures, It is also sinful for you to support the sin of another, even if you yourself are not, are not guilty of that sin.

Jeremiah chapter 23 and verse 14, Jeremiah said, but in the prophets of Jerusalem, I have seen a horrible thing.

They commit adultery and walk in lies.

They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil.

All of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

Back to the question.

But let me rephrase it.

Do you think we should support?

This transgender movement.

Is that what God wants?

Of us as his creation.

He made us male or female.

And now people are saying, well, I, I don't, I don't identify with the way God made me.

And so I'm gonna be something else.

Should we support that?

Movement by accommodating those who wish to change their gender.

Calling them by a different name.

I think there are some things that for instance, teachers and maybe some and other type situations can do to avoid the confrontation, but the confrontation is coming.

If things continue the way they do the way they are now, that confrontation is coming.

And it may be that in the future some of us are going to have to lose our jobs because we will not bow to this cultural trend.

going to have to decide What's important to you Just as an aside, if I was a teacher.

And little Johnny comes in and announces that he wants to be known as Betty now.

I'm going to go to the administrator's office and I'm going to say I want to know how that child is registered.

Because I'm going to refer to that child the way that child is registered.

Regardless of whether the child says, well, I feel like Betty today.

I know when I was in school, a lot of times teachers didn't even hardly know our first name.

They call us by our last names.

Anybody else have that same Experience Just as an aside, Many of you have heard me refer to my family as the Dovacians.

That's because in high school, the football coach could never say David's last name.

He called him Dova.

And so I referred to Jay, David, and Jonathan as those dreaded Dova boys.

We're the Dovakians now.

Sorry, Dad.

I want to say one more thing, and I appreciate your patience.

I've spoken too long.

But I want to say one more thing.

I do not believe that it is right for us to disrespect people as individuals.

But we do not have to approve of sinful behavior in order to give the respect to people that they deserve.

Does that make sense?

I think we need to be gracious.

I think we need to be compassionate.

I think we need to try to help people who are confused about these kinds of issues, whether they realize it or not, they don't think they are, but they are.

But I think we need to refuse to participate.

In this movement where gender becomes a fluid thing, we just decide what we're, what we're going to be.

Well, I appreciate your attention this evening.

I don't know if that was particularly clear.

Uh, hopefully, the answer was of some value to you.

I chose this question because I think this is an issue that's not going away.

I think we're gonna face it and more and more of us are going to face it.

And we need to be prepared.

We need to give some thought as to how we will address this problem.

As it comes more and more to the places where we work in the schools in which we teach or where our children go.

This has not been a service, uh, a sermon that particularly has dwelt on responding to the gospel.

One thing that we have talked about, and that is, we're gonna have to decide who we're gonna follow.

Whether we're gonna follow the Lord.

The path that leads to life, eternal life, or whether we're just going to follow the, the culture and do what everybody else is doing.

So that we don't have to suffer any consequences for standing for what is right.

And I hope that each of us will make that choice carefully.

If you've not made the choice to follow the Lord, to put him on in baptism, to become one of God's special children.

Then tonight is an opportunity for you, and we want to encourage you to express your faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

To be baptized into him for the remission of your sins, and we stand ready and willing, waiting to assist you in that, even as we stand and sing to encourage you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Take the reading this morning from Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 through 63.

I'll be reading on the ESV or from the ESB, and I, I think you can follow along in your, in your Bibles or on the screen behind me.

Colossians 3:1 through 15, starting in verse 1.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God.

When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming.

In these you two once walked when you were living in them.

But now you must put them all away.

Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Here there is not Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave free, but Christ is all and in all.

Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

And above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

To which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

Yeah King Solomon was uniquely positioned for the task that he set himself to.

In the beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes.

Solomon decided to Pursue the question of what a man should do with his life all the days of his.

Life on this earth.

What should we do with our lives?

He says in chapter 2 and in verse 3 of Ecclesiastes, I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, and then the, the purpose, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

And Solomon, as I suggested, was uniquely positioned to pursue this kind of a task.

Extremely wealthy, a very wise individual.

And Solomon talks in chapter two about some of the things that he pursued with the intent of seeing if these were the kinds of things that men should apply themselves to in this life.

He talked about in chapter 2, we'll not read through the passage.

But he talks about pursuing pleasure, and he even notes later on that he didn't withhold from himself anything that his heart desired.

He talks about his accomplishments, the many works that he did, the gardens and the pools and those kinds of things in chapter 2 verses 4 through 13.

And he also talks about the accumulation of wealth.

Not only was he wealthy, but he became even more wealthy as he collected gold and silver from various places.

But Solomon concluded that none of this really was the purpose for which man was put on this earth.

He says in chapter 2 and verse 10, And whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it.

And behold, all was vanity and is striving after wind.

And there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

We have to understand the perspective uh through which Solomon is looking at life under the sun.

But what Solomon really does more than anything else, is he tells us how not to live.

Don't devote your life to pleasure.

That's Of no use and folly, laughter, it's madness, and all those things that you can do or that you can collect that you could uh accumulate, you'll leave them to somebody else as he notes a little bit later on in chapter two.

And so Solomon essentially tells us how not to live.

When we move to the New Testament, there are a number of figures that are used to describe both the Christian and the life of a Christian.

For instance, the Hebrews author describes the life of a Christian by the figure of a foot race.

That's our life that we are, we have a course that's set before us and we're encouraged to pursue and persist in that foot race, laying aside all of those things that might encumber us or weigh us down as we live our lives as Christians.

But the apostle Paul also likened the life of the Christian to an athlete.

In 1 Corinthians the 9th chapter, he actually says, uh uses two figures.

He talks about the runner, but he also talks about the boxer who uses self-control as he both trains and fights.

And so, the life of a Christian was likened to that of uh of an athlete's efforts.

In addition to the athlete, Paul will actually uh add several other figures.

He talks about Christians as being soldiers and of course, as a soldier, you are to be loyal to the one who has, uh, is your commander.

Uh, he talks about farm uh Christians as farmers, those who partake of the benefit of their labors.

But Paul also gave some rather general guidelines for how Christians should live.

In the passage just read for you by Josh in Colossians 3, he begins that passage, Paul does, by giving the general guideline.

If you've been raised with Christ, then seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth.

And as the reading continued, as you followed along with Josh, you noted that Paul will then talk about some of the things on earth that we need to put aside.

He explains, at least to some extent, what it means to seek those things that are above.

To the Romans, he would say in chapter 12 and verses 1 and 2, he says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, Holly and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

And that's a general guideline.

There are a lot of Things that would uh be entailed in presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, but Paul goes on in verse 2 to say that we don't, uh, we shouldn't be conformed to this world, but rather we need to be transformed, he says, by the renewals of our minds.

And so these are general guidelines for how you and I should live.

But what I'd like to do this morning is Go a little bit different direction.

Many of you, I'm sure, and maybe all of us have seen some of these wooden wall plaques that typically have a number of two-word phrases.

My dentist's hygienist's office or her room where she works, she's got one of those that's at the foot of the chair there.

So while you're in agony, you can also learn about life.

And so it'll say uh some little pithy statements about how you should live life.

My wife got me one of those uh from my office.

And this is a picture of it.

Uh, you can see the, the phrases there, live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly and trust in the Lord with all your heart.

And what I want to do this morning is borrow that particular style of pithy phrases to talk about how we ought to live as Christians.

I actually thought about trying to put it in the form of one of those plaques.

But creativity of that sort is not my forte.

So we're gonna have a rather bland chart that will at least list these various things, if not twisting the words in different shapes and, and the directions.

But the very first thing I would suggest to you in living the life of a Christian is that we need to believe, believe in Christ, believe in God, believe in His word, completely.

In the book of Acts in chapter 33, there is the story in the latter part of that chapter of the evangelist Philip, who is instructed by the Lord to go and to meet an individual who had gone to Jerusalem to worship.

He's an Ethiopian, he's a man of some stature in the Ethiopian.

government and he's now on his way back home uh in the southwest part of Palestine of Israel.

And so Philip is directed to go and to meet this individual, and he does, and he finds this Ethiopian reading from Isaiah 53.

But he doesn't understand that the passage is messianic, who it's talking about.

And so Philip begins right there where the Ethiopian was reading, and he begins talking to him about Jesus, preaches Jesus to him.

As they went along.

Apparently in this chariot and as Philip is teaching.

The Ethiopian eunuch is going to ask a question.

See, here's water.

They'd come to some water.

Here's water.

What hinders me from being baptized?

And so Philip apparently had said some things about baptism in the context of preaching Jesus.

That's not the message of the sermon this morning, but I want you to see that connection.

It is a reasonable and logical connection based on what Paul says in Romans 6 about baptism.

But I digress.

In chapter 8 and verse 37, the new King James version records that in answer to the eunuch's question, Philip's response is, if you believe with all your heart, you may, you may be baptized.

And so he suggests that baptism should be preceded by a complete and full faith, a strong faith.

And of course, the eunuch expresses that faith in verse 37, saying, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Now some of you have noticed that I'm quoting from the New King James version here and not the ESV because the ESV doesn't include verse 37, and I think that's a mistake.

I think verse 37 fits rather nicely with the context there, where the Ethiopian unit asks a question, and in verse 37, Philip answers that question.

And in his answer, he talks about the importance of believing completely.

Paul will also come in on that in 2 Corinthians, the 43th chapter, and I apologize that we're going to kind of jump in the midst of a rather extended uh context.

But if you'll read along with me in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 beginning in verse 6, Paul says, as he's talked about the The idea of of leaving this world and uh receiving a superior body, he says, so we are always of good courage.

We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord that is here on earth, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

How do we know that, Paul?

Well, we know it by faith, that is, we believe that's the case, that if we leave this world, we'll be with the Lord.

And Paul says, we walk by faith, not by sight.

The word walk here, I'm convinced, refers to one's general uh conduct in life.

And Paul says that's characterized or should be characterized by faith.

In living the life of a Christian, we need to believe completely with all of our hearts.

The Hebrews writer would also talk about the critical nature of faith.

In verse 6 of Hebrews 11, when he says without faith, it's impossible to please God.

We need to believe that he exists and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Why is complete faith so important?

Is it not enough that I'm convinced to some degree that there is a God and that the Bible is His word, that he answers prayer?

James James answers that question for us in James chapter 1, beginning in verse 5.

In the context of prayer, he says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him.

But now look at the caveat in verse 6, but let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James answers the question of why it's so important for us to believe completely, because if we harbor doubt, then the result is that we become like the waves that are just tossed this direction by the wind now and as the wind changes, we're tossed in a different direction.

We lose our focus, we lose our direction because of our doubts.

We need to believe completely, not being double-minded.

Today, I'm confident that God answers my prayer, but tomorrow I have this niggling doubt about whether there really is a God and whether the word of God, the Bible is His word.

So we need to believe completely, but we also need to worship reverently.

If we understand the nature of acceptable worship as defined by the scriptures, we understand also that it is possible for us to be in the midst of an assembly of Christians and at least participating in some way, some ritualistic way, and yet not be worshiping ourselves.

Did you hear what I said?

It's possible for you to sing with the rest of the saints and not be worshiping.

It's possible for you to bow your head in prayer as somebody else is praying and not worship.

It's possible for you to take the Lord's supper, you eat the bread, you drink the cup, just like everybody else is, but you're not worshiping.

And the reason is Worship has to involve the heart.

It's not just an exterior ritual that we're going through, but worship is the expression of reverence and all respect for God.

And the fact of the matter is, sometimes people, Christians, they involve themselves in the same actions, the same ritual that others are involved in, but they're thinking about other things.

Their focus is not on reverence for God, respect for God, their relationship with God as a result, uh, resulting in worship, but instead they, as Jesus said, their heart is far from him.

The Lord doesn't desire mere ritual.

Acts that don't involve the heart.

When we talk about reverence, we are talking about a deep respect for someone or something.

And that's what worship is intended to express.

A deep respect for God.

Uh, I'm gonna give just a couple of passages just as exemplars in Ephesians 5:33 passage we're quite familiar with that speaks of the Music that we use in our worship.

Paul says that uh the Ephesians were to address one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

We can sing.

And our heart is way off in another dimension.

We're not thinking about the things that we're singing.

We're part of the group, and there's this feeling of participation.

But we're not really worshiping.

If our heart isn't involved in the act that we're participating in.

Cassians 3:16 says a very similar thing.

The sister epistles, as you know, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another and all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Worship has to involve the heart.

The Hebrews writer again in chapter 12 and verse 28 says, therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and all.

The reason I bring out this point is that it's just far too easy for us to slip into the spectator mode.

Everybody else is doing it, so I'm doing it too.

Or I'm doing it, but I'm not really thinking about it.

I'm not engaged as far as my intellect is concerned.

I can sing some of the songs that I've sung all my life practically without thinking about the lyrics.

If I choose to do that, I'm familiar with the, the refrains, the verses.

It's easy for us to slip into that spectator mode.

But what I want you to think about.

is even when the entire congregation is singing.

You As an individual, you are singing to God.

God is listening to you, even as he listens to me and everybody else who's singing.

He's God, he's capable of that.

I think we need to think about worship from an individual perspective.

Even though we're engaged in a collective activity, worship is an intensely individual thing and involves me and my heart.

I think we need to worship reverently.

It's not just the church singing praise to God, it's me.

It's not just the man in the pulpit who's praying.

It's me praying.

Even as I hear what that man says.

Well, in the 3rd place, we need to study fervently.

To do something fervently means to do it with a passionate intensity. Fervently.

With passionate intensity.

I'm going to illustrate it this way.

Since some of you are already in final exams, some of you probably have already taken final exams.

I saw David Renfro here, so either uh he's already finished his exams or he's fleeing.

Probably finish the exams.

But I remember those days, and I remember that sometimes studying for a final exam, it was like the long march, especially if it was in a class that you didn't particularly enjoy a subject that you didn't really relate to very much.

But then there were other classes.

As I was finishing my bachelor's degree, I needed an elective and I took uh a history of uh Germany, of Nazi Germany.

And the professor in this particular class, he actually had participated in the post-World War 2 trials of Nazi criminals.

He knew the people that he was talking about.

No problem studying for that class.

I like history in the first place.

And he brought it alive.

That's the difference between something that is obligatory, something you have to do because it's just one of the hoops you just have to jump through, and the The idea of doing something fervently with passionate intensity.

And that's the way we ought to approach God's word with a passionate intensity, with the determination to understand as much.

As we possibly can.

And applying that in our lives.

So, what I would like to do to illustrate this point is I'd like to go through Psalm 119, verse by verse.

Some of you have betrayed your Bible knowledge by snickering.

You know that that's the longest, longest passage in the Bible that qualifies as kind of a chapter, it's a psalm.

And so I'll desist.

And instead, I'm just going to make the observation that the example passages that we're gonna look at, and they're only 3 or 4 of them.

That they are repeated again and again in Psalm 43.

The psalmist writes about how much he enjoys, how much he loves God's word.

For instance, Psalm 119 verse 14.

In the way of your testimonies, I delight as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statues, statues.

I will not forget your word.

A little bit later on in verse 97.

0 how I love your law.

It is my meditation all the day.

Passionate intensity.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.

Just can't get enough.

Just enjoy so much learning and seeing from the scriptures what God is like and what he expects from me.

The blessings, the love that he's shown for us.

We need to study fervently.

And the objective of that, of course, is that we can rightly handle the word of truth, as Paul encourages Timothy and 2 Timothy 2:15.

In the fourth place, we need to love broadly.

You may not understand what I mean by that, but I had to have a two-word phrase and it, it did, couldn't, you know, get in the way of other phrases.

So, let me explain what I mean.

Maybe I should say, Ethan explained in his sermon last Sunday night, exactly what I mean.

He talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan, used it as kind of a foundation for his comments about the necessity of love and the broad way in which we ought to express love.

You remember the story?

There was a lawyer who came to Jesus and he's testing Jesus.

And uh he correctly answers.

The question about, you know, the, the greatest commandments, that sort of thing.

But then he asks the question, well, who is my neighbor?

Jesus has told him, yeah, go love your neighbor.

Well, who is my neighbor?

And Ethan pointed out, and I think correctly so that it appears the lawyer was trying to narrow the scope of the people or or the love that he had to express.

You know, help me understand who it is that I have to love so that I can push all the others that are not in that particular category off to the side.

And Jesus illustrates for him in the parable of the Good Samaritan, that he was asking the wrong question.

Because the question that Jesus asked is, who proved to be neighbor to the man who had been robbed and injured?

And the point of course is We need to be proving ourselves to be neighbors to others.

I think Ethan did a good job of bringing that out.

But I also want to suggest to you that Jesus in the Sermon on the Mountain in Matthew 5, said it's just, it's not just the people that we like or that we feel some affinity for.

But even those who do not like us, even those who might wish to harm us, he says in verse 43 of chapter 563 of Matthew, you've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor.

And hates your enemy, but I say do you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Pay attention to verse 46.

For if you love those who love you.

What reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

You can't really appreciate the question there unless you understand the antipathy that the Jewish mind usually had for tax collectors.

Well, maybe we can understand that.

I don't know how many of us love the IRS.

But the Jews were particularly antagonistic to tax collectors.

They were considered the lowest in society.

Some rabbis said that they were even it was impossible for them to be saved.

That was the estimation of tax collectors.

And Jesus says, if you only love the people who love you, You've managed to get to the level of the tax collectors.

Not a very high level, but that's where you are.

And if you greet only your brothers, what more do you are you doing than others?

Do not even the Gentiles do the same.

You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

He blesses even those who are unrighteous, even those who are unjust, the rain falls on both of them, the just and the unjust, and the sun shines on both.

Be like your father.

And so, the way that a Christian should live is to love broadly.

Uh, Ethan said, love everybody.

That's, that's kind of the bottom line of those, those passages in Luke 10 and Matthew 5.

And then fifthly, give freely, give freely.

We read in the book of Acts in the early chapters about the liberality of the earliest Christians, the early church in Jerusalem.

Acts 2 and verse 45 says, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

A little bit later on, a couple of chapters later, in chapter 4, we're told in general, uh, a similar statement and then given a specific example.

There was not a needy person among them, verse 34, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostle's feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

And then immediately we're told about Joseph, Barnabas, because he was doing very much the same thing.

Selling possession, a possession so that he could help the poor.

Later on in 2 Corinthians, the 8th chapter, as Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to give, to participate in this effort to help the needy saints in uh Judah in Jerusalem.

He writes about the Macedonians in chapter 83 verses 1 through 4.

He says, we want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.

For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

For they gave according to their means as I can testify, and beyond their means.

You ever thought about that expression?

And beyond their means.

I've always been amused by coaches, uh, who are telling their players, I want you to give 110%.

If 21% reflects your complete potential, where do you get that extra 23%?

That kind of almost sounds like pulpit math.

I'm just saying.

Give 24% more than you even possibly can, I guess, or maybe they've got some other meaning to that.

And Paul says about the Macedonians, they gave beyond the, according to their means and beyond their means.

I think he's talking about people like the widow who gave the two coins.

In value, not very much, but she gave everything she had.

Beyond her means in that sense of their own accord.

Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.

How do we give?

And I would hasten to point out, I'm not being critical of this congregation.

This congregation has done a lot of good and, and I know that there are generous gifts that are given every Sunday.

But what's our motivation?

Do we give reluctantly?

Or we give, well, but we really would prefer not to.

Do we do it by compulsion?

In 23 Corinthians 24th chapter verse 256, a passage, we often read, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Do you feel compelled to give?

Maybe more than you would rather give.

Or is it like the Macedonians?

Who begged to be able to participate in helping those who were in some cases not much worse off than the Macedonians, I suspect.

He talks about their severe test of affliction, their extreme poverty.

But Paul gives an example from another class of people.

He talks in 373 Timothy 237 about the rich.

As for the rich in this present age, he writes to Timothy, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share the storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

You think Paul's trying to say something here about The contrast between the treasure in heaven, and what these rich people had here on earth.

Oh, I think that's exactly what he said.

Well, you're looking at the chart and you're saying he's gonna run out of room if he keeps putting phrases up there.

But I got another one.

And that is that we need to hope deeply.

I'm going to be brief about this, but I find it interesting.

The Prominence of hope.

In 22 Peter 238, we'll look at two passages.

Look at verse 3.

In this benediction.

Uh, here in verse 3, Peter writes, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living whole.

Well, we understand being born again is the concept of those who are spiritually dead in sin to rise from the water of baptism alive, to walk in newness of life.

But Peter says more than that.

He says they are born again to a living hope.

That's the objective of this birth.

I don't know how many of us when we're born.

Uh, have some idea of what our objective is in life at that point.

Maybe our parents have high hopes for us that we're gonna do great things or we're gonna do some special thing in life.

We'll have some special niche in this world.

What Peter is saying is when you are born again.

There's an objective there.

There's a purpose already.

And that is this living hope.

We drop down in the same chapter to verse 13.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, New King James Version says, girding your loins and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I don't believe Peter is saying that at the revelation of Jesus Christ, when Jesus returns and time ends, that there'll be the opportunity then for the forgiveness of sins, for grace to be extended.

I believe he's talking about those who have already been forgiven, who are already God's children, and Jesus, the Lord is going to bestow upon them the salvation.

That frankly, is achieved only by grace.

They're going to receive that final salvation, that full salvation.

That grace at that point.

Set your hope fully on the grace.

Christians need to hope deeply.

One more passage along this line, and it's in Colossians chapter one.

Verse 3, We thank God, always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that you have for all the saints.

You know, Paul does that a lot.

He, he'll begin an epistle saying, we're so thankful.

I, I thank God always in my pray.

I remember you always in my prayers, and he'll sometimes talk about uh some sort of uh good quality in those to whom he's writing.

Don't pass over this because look at the connection with verse 5.

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

I think Paul is trying to say here that this hope is part of what was motivating them.

To this faith that he commends them for and the love that they had for other saints.

Hope is a powerful motivator.

Hope helps us form an attachment to the future in things that we cannot see.

In hope of eternal life, that living hope.

Now some of you are thinking his chart is unbalanced.

He only has 6, and everybody knows that 23 is the right number.

So there you go.

And unfortunately, Jim Anderson, about 2 or 3 weeks ago on a Wednesday night invitation, stole them my thunder.

Um. I'm going to tell you that Debbie had already written this sermon.

So it wasn't that we copied Jim.

But he had some really good things to say in that invitation about the fact that we need to live deliberately.

That we need to make choices, conscious choices.

And I want to suggest to you that this final point, live deliberately, is in a sense, really a summary of the previous 6.

That worshiping reverently needs to be a deliberate choice, not something that happens accidentally.

That giving freely and loving broadly, broadly, those are choices that we make.

We deliberately live that way.

I believe Jim made that point in his uh invitation on that Wednesday night.

We are not victims of circumstances.

I, I'll confess to you something with respect to secular life.

And that is, I'm not sure that as a young person, and I mean when I say young person, I mean high school, even in the beginning of, of university training, I'm not sure that I was directed, that I was living in a deliberate way.

I think sometimes I was kind of going with the flow.

But we're not victims of circumstances.

We're not like some piece of wood carried along in the river current and just carried wherever the current takes us.

So we live in this world, if you would like to imagine it as the current, and our lives just kind of are determined by whatever's happening around us instead of us living deliberately.

Where we make our choices, and we decide what kind of life we're going to live.

As opposed to being, as I said, victims of circumstances.

We can choose how we will live.

Well, actually, I want to, as we conclude our thoughts this morning, I want to go back to hope deeply.

Because we read in that context from First Peter 1, but I only read verse 3.

I want you to go back to that passage.

It's not gonna appear on the screen.

If you got your Bibles open, go back to that passage.

Let's continue the reading.

Let's go into verse 4, because what Peter does is he talks about this living hope, and then he describes that.

He tells us what that living hope is.

Beginning in verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Verse 4 begins to.

We're born again to a living hope.

What's the hope?

To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

That's our hope.

Life Life and eternity.

With God, communion with God.

Do you have that hope?

There's no hope for those who are outside of Christ.

They're on their own and The Bible tells us that There's no salvation there, there's no justification there on our own merits.

And so if you want that hope, that hope is in Christ Jesus.

It's in a relationship with Christ as a spiritual child of God.

Do you have that hope?

How are you living your life?

Are you following the example of Solomon as he tested the various things this world has to offer?

Have you come to the conclusion that all of that is vanity and it's striving after the wind?

Because it doesn't satisfy and anything you do here will be undone and whatever you accumulate will be lost, left to others.

I hope that is abiding.

As Peter says, it is imperishable.

Undefied, pure.

Unfading Everything in this life fades.

You buy a new car and You run over a deer.

And it tears out the front of the car.

Or you're following a truck and a nice big stone comes up and dings your hood or your, your front of your car.

And so now that this brand new car is scratched.

You buy a house and it's beautiful, it's fresh, everything is, and what happens after 56 years.

There's wood rot Sometimes foundations crack.

Everything fades.

Not our hope.

Peter says it is unfading.

Do you have that hope?

If you don't, then this morning, we want to encourage you to believe completely in Jesus, as he who was raised from the dead, the Son of God, make the confession that the Ethiopian eunuch made in Acts 8:37.

And having repented of sins.

As Peter encouraged those on the day of Pentecost to do.

And you need to be baptized, buried with Christ and baptism for the remission of your sins, according to Acts 2 and verse 38, and then that hope is yours.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ethan Adams

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

It's good to see everybody this evening.

And I thank you for the opportunity to, uh, to speak to you and have a little bit of time, uh, together for us to study God's word.

So I think people from the 60s on uh can recognize uh this fella, probably uh he's on your TV, you know, regularly in the afternoons if your household is like mine.

But I think uh for those today, uh The Daniel Tiger, animated version of it might be more your speed for the younger folks in the audience, so.

But Mr. Rogers always opens up the same way.

That uh He comes back home to his house, looks like after a day of work, uh.

He slips on his cardigan, he and his Converse, and he sings the opening theme where he invites everyone watching, all the viewers, all the people around the world to be his neighbor.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor.

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?

So this invitation for everyone to be our neighbor, you know, when Mr. Rogers says it, it seems so simple.

That, you know, nice and straightforward as you're watching the TV show.

Uh, you know, that anyone can be your neighbor, you can be a neighbor to anybody, just like Mr. Rogers, uh, was trying to teach everybody.

He's got a good sound, you know, biblical principle to that and teaching.

People to be neighbors to one another, and we talk about it in Bible class and even then, you know, it can seem simple and straightforward.

It's not a hard thing.

When we, uh, you know, read that verse, to love your neighbor as yourself.

But then we get out in the real world.

And suddenly when we're encountering other people, and we're dealing with people in our day to day.

Command doesn't seem so easy.

The song just doesn't roll off the tongue the way it does when we're watching Mr. Rogers, when we're dealing with people out in the world, people who can frustrate us, people who we can't see eye to eye with, then it gets hard to invite people to be our neighbor.

So tonight, I want to look at this, the question of who is my neighbor, of how we follow this command, how we can live following this biblical principle.

So we'll start at the beginning of looking at what Jesus teaches.

This is something that Jesus taught throughout his earthly ministry, that it starts very early in the beginning in the Sermon on the Mount or uh in Jesus' sermon on the plain in Luke chapter 43.

That he preaches.

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

Then we go to, er, sorry, we can hear that he summarized this, I think this is the key force for this is the law and the prophets.

He's hanging all of the Old Testament.

On this commandment, on the golden rule.

Then we get to the last week of Jesus' life, and when he's receiving questions from the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

That he answers this question again, in much the same way.

We read in Mark chapter 12.

Starting in verse 28, going on to verse 34, says in one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, which commandment is the most important of all.

Jesus answered, the most important is hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these, and the scribe said to him, You are right, teacher.

You have said, or truly said that he is one and there is no other beside him.

And to love him with all the heart and with all this understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far off from the kingdom of God.

And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

So we see here, again, at the end of Jesus' life when he's questioned, what is the most important command of the law?

If I had to boil the whole Old Testament down into a single commandment, what is it?

And Jesus comes down to these two.

And so looking back to these verses, uh, in Deuteronomy chapter 26, and in Leviticus chapter 210, like Quinn had read for us in the, the scripture reading, he tells us that the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

So Jesus, when he's been teaching this throughout his ministry, he's not pulling something out of thin air.

He's not bringing up something new.

He's telling the people of Israel what God has been telling them since the beginning, since they made their covenant on Mount Sinai.

That this is the summation of the law, both the old and the new.

I think it's interesting, uh, as we see in Mark's account of, uh, of this interaction that he goes on further than Matthew and has the scribe's response.

That the, the scribe understood this and he agreed with them and we, as you look to secular sources, the rabbis had been discussing this.

They've been debating this question of what the most important command was, and many of them had settled on this as the most important of uh God's commands.

In fact, we have the possibly apocryphal story of one Rabbi Hillel, who essentially said this, uh, when he was asked if he could explain, uh, To a proselyte, the new law to his satisfaction, or sorry, the old law to his satisfaction while he stood on one leg.

And that this was an area that he'd responded that it is to love your neighbor, and then the rest of it is to learn how to do that, essentially.

And we see again Jesus emphasizing the importance of this, says there is no other commandment greater than these.

This is the most important commandment.

And in his account, and it's reported in Matthew says on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

So coming back, it's both the summation of the law and the foundation of the law.

Everything's built on top of it.

Everything depends on these two commandments.

So from beginning to end, this is what Jesus had taught throughout his earthly ministry, and we look at one account.

In Luke chapter 23, where he's asked a very similar question, but uh he's given some interesting pushback and we see Jesus' response there in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

So as we look at Luke chapter 218.

Sorry, get this starting first here.

Starting in verse 223, if you want to read along in your Bibles.

So, and behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He said to him, what is written in the law?

How do you read it?

And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

And he said to him, you've answered correctly, do this and you will live.

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.

Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

The next day he took out 23 denari and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him.

Whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.

Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

he said.

The one who showed him mercy.

And Jesus answered to him, You go and do likewise.

Here's some important things to note, so here.

We see a scribe coming with uh a very similar question for Jesus, asking what the most important commandment of the law is.

But also here gives a bit of his reasoning behind that says first it was to test him.

And Jesus turns the question back on him, you're indicating that this was something the rabbis had debated.

This is something that Jesus had been teaching.

This man should be familiar with the answer.

And he is rightly able to give the answer of the two most important commandments, the greatest commandments as Jesus had been teaching them, as they could understand from the old law.

But then we hear that this man wants to justify himself.

He, his trick question didn't work.

He's putting Jesus to the test didn't get him to backpedal Jesus.

Instead, turn the question right back around on him as Jesus was often want to do.

So he asked, who is my neighbor?

I think like uh many people have surmised when they're reading through this passage, he's asking not just to justify himself, but he's asking to see if he can kind of narrow the scope of this commandment that Jesus has given him.

Is there anyone who isn't my neighbor, essentially?

Is there somebody I can leave out of this command?

Like we said, it's easy to read, hard to do, hard to live by when we get out into the real world.

Who's asking, you know, how far does this go?

Who exactly do I have to treat like my neighbor?

So Jesus gives uh the parable of the Good Samaritan.

There's a few important things we should note in this.

First, the lack of detail given about the man robbed.

We don't really need to know where he comes from, you know, what his job is, what he looks like, any of that, because who he is, isn't important.

What's happened to him is what's important.

The issue that he's encountered, that he's been robbed and stripped and beaten and left for dead on the road.

Second, I think it's important to note the details given about those who passed by.

Jesus had been teaching for a while and he's had a lot to say about the religious leaders of his day.

So I think it's no coincidence that two people he identifies passing by doesn't just say, you know, Other folks had seen him and they didn't stop.

He specifically says that it's a priest and a Levite, people who should know the law, people who should have clearly understood this command to love their neighbors their self, but they're not living it.

As you used to point out many times in his lessons, he's criticized the hypocrisy of the ruling leaders of his day.

Of the religious people who put on this front, who would definitely teach these commands, rabbis and priests and scribes, who would hold up this as the greatest command, but weren't living it in their day to day life.

People who are very concerned about ritual cleanness.

People who are very concerned about the smallest aspects of the law, not to do anything that would make them unclean.

Or break the Sabbath, or many of these other, uh, traditions that they had set for themselves, any of these rituals they built in their own life.

But they missed the point.

They missed the foundation of the law and the prophets because they didn't love their neighbor as they loved their self.

Third, we should note who did prove to be a neighbor.

That's a Samaritan, and that's no accident.

It's hard for us today outside of first century Israel.

To understand the animosity that a Jew would have had towards a Samaritan, that they did not interact with Samaritans.

We have accounts of people talking about shaking the dust off of their feet if they did go into inner Samaria, or like is described, uh, with Jesus and the woman at the well, that people would go around Samaria altogether to avoid having to interact.

With the people of that region.

And that it's, you know, a prejudice that we maybe don't read into it that we can't understand on the same level because it's not a prejudice that we hold, so it seems, you know, kind of silly to us.

It's not our prejudice.

I think that says something more about prejudices in general that if you're not inside of it, it seems totally ridiculous.

But it is this Samaritan that Jesus identifies.

As the man who stops and helps him.

We're told he's on a journey.

He's got somewhere to be.

He's got places to go.

But he stops, stops in the middle of his journey, stops at possibly a risk to himself.

It would have been easy for him to say, you know, oh, that's bait.

That guy's laying by the side of the road.

The robbers who got him will get me too.

It would have been easy to say not my problem.

It would have been easy to say.

And you got what was coming to him.

You know, fair enough.

See how it is on the other foot when I pass by you.

But the Samaritan stops.

He gives his own time, his own money, his own care to take care of this person who's a complete stranger to him, someone he doesn't know at all.

And to get this man to safety and to provide for his recovery and for his well-being.

Essentially writes a blank check for the man at the end that he leaves him with, saying that whatever it costs to help this man recover and to get well and to get back home, I'll pay it the next time I come through.

And we see at the end how Jesus reframes the lawyer's question, bring it back to the real heart of the matter, that he doesn't answer or return the question, well, who is my neighbor?

He asked who proved to be a neighbor.

Who lived out this command instead of narrowing the scope, instead of looking externally.

of saying, which of these people around me do I have to treat like my neighbor?

Which of these people around me qualify for this command?

Jesus says, no, you look inside yourself and you ask, how can I be a neighbor?

That we turn it back and we Or N word for introspection.

And we broaden the scope of saying, who can I treat like my neighbor?

How can I be a better neighbor to other people?

So we have this command as we've looked at this passage, you shall love your neighbor.

As yourself.

We should dig in a little deeper so that we can understand the depth of this command.

Like we've said, read this plenty of times, heard it in plenty of Bible classes.

Simple enough to read, simple enough to say, OK, you know, I've got that, I agree with it.

But then have trouble living it out in our day to day life.

And I know, you know, if I'm preaching to anybody here, I'm preaching to myself.

It is a hard command.

It is simple but profound and what it calls for us to do and how it calls for us to transform ourselves.

So we're going to dig in a little deeper and ask some questions about this commandment.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

So first, we'll ask, what is love?

You might be saying to yourself, oh, what is love, a soft, fragile thing.

It's hard to say words that make the heart sing.

But, you know, that's a lesson for another day.

So as we get into love, First of all, it's the essence of God's nature.

God defines himself as that in First John in two separate verses.

He says, God is love.

And that in the scripture reading that Quinn had done for us in Leviticus 63:26, When God is defining the reason for this command, when he's telling them why they should love their neighbors their self.

It's based on his nature.

He says, I am the Lord.

We see that again throughout the Old Testament.

There's so many of the laws of the Old Testament.

that are framed in terms of how we deal with our neighbor, what we do if we've mistreated our neighbor, what we do if we've wronged our neighbor, if we've deprived our neighbor of something, if we've hurt our neighbor.

That's how God discusses the law.

And again, all this is framed in terms of his nature.

You do this because I am the Lord your God, and because God is love.

In fact, we see when God describes Himself to Moses, he says, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the 23rd and the 216th generation.

Josh had shared with us last week, uh, In his thoughts before the Lord's Supper.

This is how God describes himself.

See again, how many words God uses to say what he says again in First John, that God is love, He's merciful, he's gracious.

He's slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

That to understand God, we need to understand love.

And then that love becomes the foundation of the gospel, that God expresses his essence, his nature.

In his plan for us, in the relationship he seeks to have with us.

He says in a well-known Bible verse, John 3:16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Again, as we look in Romans chapter 5, verses 6 to 11, as Paul summarizes the gospel.

He says, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love, love for us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled by God, or to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

So that's at the heart of the gospel, that love is expressed out towards us.

And then when we receive that love, it's supposed to become part of our natures we take Advantage of that gospel, and we gain newness of life, we seek to become like God and to demonstrate that love.

So we're told in First John, we love because he first loved us.

And Jesus in the last night of his life before he was betrayed, before he was crucified, He gives this command to his disciples.

He says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

Then Paul, when he's uh sharing uh this message to the Ephesians, he says, therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

So again, as we turn this around as part of our, our response to God's love as we imbibe this, as we seek to become imitators and to have the same nature as God.

But again, as John shares in his epistle, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.

And whoever loves is born, then born of God and knows God.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

And finally, that love is active.

It's sometimes it's easy to think of that love as, you know, again, that soft, fragile thing, you know, it's that vague, fuzzy feeling in your chest, and I feel good about that person.

I like that person, so I'm, I love them.

That, but that's not necessarily the kind of love that God is talking about, nor is it that, uh, you know, I have a vague sort of feeling of goodwill towards others.

But I don't really, you know, interact with them.

I don't do anything for them.

I have nothing to say to them, good or bad.

I just, you know, kind of have this general feeling of goodwill.

But love is active.

They were told in Hebrews by the author of that epistle, Let brotherly love continue.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

We see their applications of how our love should become active, by letting brotherly love continue by showing hospitality, by being concerned for those who are mistreated, by those who've been imprisoned for their faith.

We see again in Romans when Paul is giving instructions about how the gospel is supposed to transform us.

He says, let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Then when we're transformed by that love, we must actively express that love in a genuine manner, and that involves giving of ourselves, giving of our time, giving of our money.

Doing what we can to serve and to uplift one another.

Again, going back to First John, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

We don't love in word or talk.

It's not that vague notion, it's not that we can express, oh, I have this, you know, general feeling of goodwill towards men.

But we show it in our actions, we show it by the truth of our lives, that we have the same kind of love as Christ demonstrated for us by laying down His life for us.

And finally, as Mr. Allen highlighted this morning, And when Jesus speaks of the final judgment, one of the ways he speaks of when he's dividing the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the unrighteous.

That the measuring stick he uses, the standard of judgment.

It isn't, you know, how many times did you go to church services?

Did you do all your daily Bible readings?

Yeah, did you?

You, you're always in the church building every time the door was open.

He says, truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these of my brothers, you did it to me.

The Jesus standard for judgment, at least in the parable here of the judgment.

is about how we treated others, how we looked to the least of these, the way we demonstrated our love in word and deed, and in truth.

So we go on, we ask ourselves, as we understand love now, what love is, well, who's my neighbor?

And in short, the answer is everyone.

We could leave it there, but as we see, uh, laid out in the epistles by Paul, it says in Galatians 6:33, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Then again in 1 Thessalonians 5:15, see that no one repays one evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

And that's pretty all-inclusive, that's, you know, cut and dry.

Everyone, there's nobody outside of everyone.

Sometimes, you know, I've heard people try to narrow this command, especially Galatians 6:10, that all this is talking about the brotherhood.

This is what we owe to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Here he makes it plain, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith, who say, yes, above and beyond, we should show that to our brothers and sisters.

But he's also really clear here that everyone is our neighbor.

We're supposed to do good to everyone.

This commandment.

is applicable to every single person on earth.

Nobody excluded.

We might say to ourselves, you know, maybe not consciously, wait.

But what if there and you fill in the blank?

But what if there's someone I don't like?

And I think, you know, that, as we said at the beginning, that's where rubber meets the road.

It's easy to sing, Won't You Be My Neighbor until your neighbor's a bit of an obnoxious kind of guy.

Until, uh, your neighbor, their kid, you know, plows through your fence with a four-wheeler, and he won't fix it.

And it's awful hard to, you know, be somebody's neighbor.

As we look to that, you know, and we say, well, do I have to be their neighbor if, you know, they're really hard to get along with?

They're just somebody I don't like.

But Jesus makes it plain here, uh, through the scriptures, speaking through the apostle John says, if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.

For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother.

First John is full of these good bright line rules about who's a child of God, who's walking in righteousness with God.

And here's one of them very plain, says, if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.

That we can't get out of this command just because there's someone who's hard to deal with, because there's someone who doesn't treat us right, because they're someone that we have some kind of prejudice towards.

As Peter had laid out when he went and spoke to Cornelius and when Gentiles were first brought in to the new covenant.

He says, truly, I understand that God shows no partiality, that God, you know, it took him a while hammering it home for Peter, you know, took showing him that vision 3 times and giving him a day on the road to think about it.

But he realized that God shows no partiality.

There's nobody that God doesn't love.

There's no one that God has said, you know, it's outside of his love because they're just somebody he doesn't like.

That he shows no partiality expects us to do the same.

You say, but what if they're evil?

Yeah, it's an easy thing for us.

It gets our hackles raised.

See somebody living in sin, and you know, sin, we don't understand, a sin that's especially heinous, that we can look at and we say, how am I supposed to love them?

How am I supposed to treat them like my neighbor?

But again, we got to turn that back around on ourselves like Jesus did for the scribe when he was teaching the parable of the Good Samaritan.

But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We've seen the love he demonstrated for us.

It's at the heart of the gospel.

That God loved us and died for us while we were still sinners.

It goes on to say there, you know, perhaps somebody would do that in human understanding, say, well, if I really like that person, if they were some really good guy, you know, maybe if it was Mr. Rogers and somebody was gunning for him, you know, I'd jump in front of the bullet.

But we wouldn't do that for our enemy.

We wouldn't do that for someone who's evil, at least by normal human wisdom.

But God did that for all of us while we were still sinners.

He took the punishment that was due to each and every one of us for our sins.

And we see how God expresses his thoughts on On sin.

He wants to be patient with us.

He wants to give us the opportunity to come back and to be forgiven, said in Ezekiel 18:23.

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live.

It's a very similar thing in First Peter.

So I got that the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promises as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

That God wants to give us the chance to come back around and we should be willing to offer that chance to others that while they're still life, they're not beyond saving, but they have a chance to hear the word and to turn their life around.

And we have the opportunity to help them with that, to plant those seeds, to be the example they need to see by showing them that love and forbearance by treating them like our neighbor.

You say, well, what if they're my enemy?

And again, we can go back to Jesus' sermon on the Mount.

He says, you heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good and sends reign on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?

Do not even the Gentiles do the same.

You therefore must be perfect as your Heavenly Father was perfect.

So if they're our enemy, Jesus makes it pretty plain, we're still supposed to love them.

That command doesn't just extend.

To the neighbors we like, to the people who treat us well.

It extends to our enemies, extends to the people who mistreat us.

who hate us, you know, even for following the cause of Christ.

For those who are opposed to the gospel, it extends even to them.

That we see again, that Jesus shows how we're supposed to forgive the debts of others.

Going back to that idea of looking at the mercy that God has shown us, lays that out in two parables of the, both the parable of the unforgiving servant and the parable of two debtors.

That same idea of people being forgiven a great debt, a debt that they had no way to pay.

And their response to that, that he shows that, you know, the person who's forgiven.

A great debt, a debt that they're unable to pay, that they're grateful to the one who's forgiven it.

And then it's demonstrated in the parable of the unforgiving servant, you're supposed to show that kind of love in return.

that servant, he didn't that.

He turned around after a debt that he had no way of paying back to his master was forgiven.

He goes and chases down the guy who owes him money.

And you know, it shakes him down, telling him pay what you owe, but he doesn't take that lesson to heart of applying that he should have that same kind of heart of mercy.

And that's the kind of heart that God expects of us to turn around and to show the mercy that's been shown to us, to our enemies, to those who owe debts to us.

So looking at that, who is my neighbor, we have to ask, how do I love my neighbor as I love myself.

And we can understand this in a few ways.

But first, it's a negative command, telling people what they shouldn't do.

That you shouldn't treat somebody in the way that you don't want to be treated.

That if it would hurt your feelings to be treated this way, if it would harm you to be treated this way, you don't treat somebody else that way.

When Solomon is trying to teach his son wisdom in Proverbs chapter 3, he says, do not plan evil against your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you.

Do not contend with a man for no reason when he has done you no harm.

That if we wouldn't want it done to us, we don't do it to somebody else.

We don't plan evil against our neighbor.

We don't wrong our neighbor.

That's part of how we love our neighbor as ourselves.

But it's more than that.

We can't just leave it there and say, well, you know, I haven't murdered my neighbor today.

I haven't robbed my neighbor blind, so I'm loving my neighbor as I love myself.

But there's more to it than just this negative command that we don't treat people in the way we don't want to be treated.

We have to treat them in the way we do want to be treated.

It's an affirmative command as well.

Again, earlier in Proverbs.

Solomon tells his son, do not withhold good from those whom it is due when it is in your power to do it.

That the good we want others to show to us, the kind of mercy, the kind of patience, the kind of forbearance.

kind of care that we would like for others to show to us, we need to actively show to them.

And again, whether they show it to us or not in return.

A similar thought is expressed in James chapter 4 at the end of the chapter.

He says, who so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him, it is sin.

And most of the time, we talk about this in terms of conscience, that you shouldn't violate your conscience.

If you feel like this is the right thing to do in your heart, but you don't have a command, you know, from God one way or the other, You shouldn't violate your conscience, but I think as we take into the scope of that chapter at large, it's about more than just that.

It's about God has given us this affirmative command.

God expects us to choose him.

As our master and to not be divided, to not try to serve two masters, and that involves positively doing good for others.

It's not just enough to say that we haven't done wrong to them, we must do good.

And again, it's this idea of a reciprocal command, so we don't treat people the way we wouldn't want to be treated.

We treat them the way that we would like to be treated.

We look in at ourselves.

We examine ourselves inward.

And you know, With that introspection, we ask ourselves, well, what would I like done for me in this situation?

If I were in their shoes, how would I like to be treated?

If I was in this situation, what would I want to be done for me?

As Jesus expressed in the sermon on the plain in Luke chapter 6, as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

So it's this reciprocal command as we look inwards at ourselves and we see how we'd like to be treated, we treat other people the same way.

Soon we bring this golden rule into action.

As we understand what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves, how do we live that out in our day to day life?

Like I said at the beginning, you know, it's a hard thing to do.

We can read this.

You know, in our daily Bible reading, we can hear this in a Bible class, you say, yay, verily, amen.

But then when rubber meets the road, when we leave church or the church building on Sunday, and we go back to work on Monday or back to school on Monday, how do we live this out?

How do we apply it?

How do we make sure we're living the golden rule, that it's truly transforming us?

And first, you go back to that uh the command, that idea that we love others in the way we want to be loved.

You know, all of us, you know, we want.

The basic needs to provide for our life and for our well-being, you know, we want food, we want water, we want shelter.

We should want that for other people.

Yeah, we want to be loved and respected.

We want other people to be kind to us, to be patient with us, to be forbearing to us.

We got to do that to other people.

We have to love in the way that we want to be loved.

We have to be that good, those that imitator of Christ.

Second, we need to examine ourselves for any that we treat like Samaritans.

But again, we go back to the idea or the question of the scribe that he said, who is my neighbor?

Really want to narrow the scope of that command, hoping there's somebody who's exempted from that, hoping there's somebody he doesn't have to love like he loves himself.

But as we've seen, it's very clear that God has given us these bright line rules.

You got to love everybody.

There's nobody who's outside of that command to love our neighbors.

We love ourselves.

And it's a hard thing, you know, we don't do this a lot of times consciously, but as we slip into those situations as.

You know, somebody, you know, pokes us in the eye, we're, we're willing to slip into that mindset, you know, eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.

If somebody mistreats us, we want to mistreat them right back.

Is there somebody who, you know, it's just hard to deal with?

That rubs us the wrong way, that, you know, it's an abrasive kind of person, a hard personality to deal with, a group of people, you know, a person that we don't see eye to eye with.

It gets hard to start applying that command.

It gets hard to love our neighbors.

We love ourselves, and maybe we start treating them like the Jews treated the Samaritans.

So it takes that introspection as we look inside ourselves and ask if there's anybody that we're not loving in the way that we should be loving.

And then to make that conscious effort to go out of our way to go above and beyond, especially for them.

To get to know people in that, that group, to get to know that person better, to see their perspective, to try and empathize with them.

And to do good for them, because again, it's one of those.

Weird quirk, interesting quirks of human nature that God has put into us.

That it's easier to love somebody after we've done a good thing for them.

It's easier to have that goodwill towards somebody else after we've put in that initial investment of our time and our energy and our love into them.

It becomes harder to treat them like a Samaritan.

It becomes harder to exclude them from that command, to not think of them as our neighbor.

Then that we need to take opportunities to do good.

First, those opportunities show up.

There's so many opportunities around us every day to treat our neighbor.

You know, with love and with respect, to treat them the way that we want to be treated, to apply the golden rule.

That we just have to be on the lookout for them as a teacher.

I had an engineering, my engineering economics teacher, he said that if the one thing he wanted us to get out of that class was to realize that there is a choice to begin with.

So many times, That we have those opportunities to do good and they slip right out of our perception.

They slip right out of our field of vision.

We don't even realize that, oh, there is a decision point.

I have the opportunity to do good here or to not do good here, and I need to make the active choice to do good.

So it's to meditate on this and to examine ourselves.

When are these opportunities showing up and when they do show up, am I taking them?

And then beyond just taking the, the opportunities that naturally show up around us, we should make opportunities to do good.

I know so many folks here who, you know, participate in a variety of good works of benevolence, of taking care of the needs of others, uh, needs here in our community of brethren all across the globe, and that's a good thing for us to do.

And as we look at that, we can ask, so, is there something that I can start doing?

Is there a cause that I can take up?

To show this love and action, to demonstrate the love of God, to treat somebody like my neighbor, and to start actively taking and making these opportunities.

And finally, to speak the truth and love.

Again, this is kind of one of those but wait situations we can get into where we see sin and you know, it's a sin that gets our hackles raised.

It's a sin that we look at and we just don't understand that it's abominable to us.

It's disgusting.

It makes us angry seeing someone committing this kind of sin.

And it's easy then to say, well, I'm just telling it like it is.

I'm just speaking the truth.

But again, we got to speak the truth and love.

That certainly don't forget the truth, but don't forget the love either.

That is we're taking these opportunities to preach and to teach to others that again, we got to love others in the way that we want to be loved.

That if we're dealing with a sin and somebody comes to us to correct us and to reprove us, do we want them to put us on blast?

You know, do we want them, you know, coming in fire and brimstone?

Do we want them to You know, heatedly rebuke us and tell us everything that's wrong about how we're living.

And you know, really just, you know, put the screws into us.

Is that something we respond well to when it's done to us?

I know I don't.

They want to be able to speak the truth and love, to speak the truth in a way that somebody is going to be willing and able to receive so that we can bring them in.

To the gospel so that they can better understand the love that God has for us.

We've spoken a lot tonight about the transformative power of love.

That we've seen that love is the essence of who God is.

It's his very nature that God is love, and that he's offered that love to the whole world.

Again, looking back to John 3:16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

He's made that love available to each and every one of us.

That we can take advantage of that transformative love and be made new, that we don't have to deal with the burden of sin.

That burden, that debt that we had no way of repaying.

And instead we can.

Receive this love, we can confess our sins and be transformed, given newness of life, brought into a new relationship with God.

And to experience this love for ourselves, to see the love that he offers each and every one of us.

Perhaps we've already been in this relationship and you've fallen short in some way, you've gotten off track.

That God has told us again that we have an advocate through His Son, that we have a mediator that we can turn back to him again, that we can repent of our sins.

And be renewed in that relationship that we have the chance to start over.

And to have a new life with him again.

So that opportunities is available to each and every one of us, uh.

Tonight, if you haven't yet come into a relationship with God, if you have sins that are weighing you down, sins that are keeping you from being right with God, from being in relationship with Him, We have the opportunity to confess those, to repent of them and to be baptized, or if you've already been baptized to Confess those sins publicly, to repent and to be restored in relationship with him.

And again, maybe you're not ready to do that in a public setting.

Maybe you're not ready to do that right now, that you have some more questions that we'd, I'd love to study with you.

I'd love to talk more with you.

About the gospel, about God's plan of salvation, about the kind of relationship God wants to have with each and every one of us.

Or to, to listen.

If there's things that, you know, you're going through, if there's struggles that you're having, if there's doubts that you're dealing with, Again, there are people here, plenty of folks in this auditorium who would love to speak with you, sit with you, to listen to you, to help you with whatever you're going through, and to be there for you, to stand beside you and help you, to show you the kind of love that God wants to show to each and every one of us.

So again, that opportunity is available to each of us tonight as we sing the invitation song, if you will come forward as we stand and sing.