Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Eric McKee

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From Luke chapter 2125.

Beginning with verse 4, and we'll read through verse 10 and then Skip on down to the explanation of this parable in uh starting with verse 15.

My version calls it the parable of the sower.

Some have called it the parable of the soils, which may be a little bit more accurate.

Beginning with verse 4, I'll be reading from the ESV.

And when a great crowd was gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.

And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture.

And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.

And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded hundredfold.

As he said these things, he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

We skip down to verse 15.

As for that, in the good soil, I'm sorry, verse 11.

Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God.

The ones along the path are those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy.

But these have no root.

They believe for a while and in time of testing fall away.

And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

As for that in the good soil, there are those who hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

It's interesting that David had referred to this, uh, or that some people refer to this as the parable of the soils, uh, because in fact, I've heard that, uh, many times over the years as well, and I had considered entitling this sermon this morning, the parable of the soils.

That is until my daughter Audrey reminded me that in Matthew chapter 1003 verse 18, uh, Jesus says, therefore, hear the parable of the sower.

And so I've titled this morning's sermon.

The parable of the sower.

Because I can't do better than Jesus.

You know, we can't do better than Jesus, but we can certainly strive to be like Him.

And that's what he wants us to do is to strive to be like Him every day.

In 1 Peter chapter 2, and verse 21, Peter writes that Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps.

And then Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 11 and 1, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ.

And so we ought to every day strive to be more and more like Jesus, and the parable of the sower helps us to do that, um, through the things that Jesus teaches us through that parable.

David read from us or for us from Luke's account, and at this time, I'd like for us to read this together from Mark's account and then throughout the study this morning, we will consider all three accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

So the parable of the sower, Mark chapter 4, beginning in verse 1.

And again, Jesus began to teach by the sea, and a great multitude was gathered to him so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.

Then he taught them many things in parables and said to them in his teaching, Listen, behold, a sower went out to sow, and it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came and devoured it.

Some fell on stony ground where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.

But when the sun was up and, and it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away.

And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop, but other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased, and produced some 53-fold, some 60, and some 100, and he said to them, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And then down in verse 13, Jesus goes on and says, do you not understand this parable?

How then will you understand all the parables?

The sower sows the word.

And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.

When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.

These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and they have no root in themselves and so endure only for a time.

Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.

Now these are the ones sown among thorns.

They are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

But these are the ones sown on good ground.

Those who hear the word accept it and bear fruit, some 30-fold, some 60, and some 100.

The parable of the sower.

It describes 4 different outcomes to the seed that was scattered.

4 different products that were generated by the seed.

The first is that the seed never entered the ground.

And so a plant never grew.

The 2nd is that a plant sprang up but quickly withered away.

The 23rd, the plant grew but was choked out by the weeds and the thorns, and so it never bore fruit.

And the 4th, the plant grew and bore fruit and produced a crop.

The first thing I'd like for us to consider.

Is that the 4 different outcomes of the crop had nothing to do with the sower.

There weren't some areas of the field that were, that had a more skilled sewer than other areas of the field.

It was the same sewer for the entire field.

The 4 different outcomes of the crop had nothing to do with the seed.

There weren't some areas of the field that were sowed with sown with a certain type of seed and other areas was a different type of seed.

There wasn't a better quality seed in some areas than other areas.

It was the same seed across the entire field.

The 4 different outcomes of the crop had nothing to do with the technique.

There weren't some areas in which the sower scattered the seed and then other areas where he dug down and planted the seed and fertilized it.

No, the same technique was used across the entire field.

And the 4 different outcomes of the crop had nothing to do with the weather.

It was the same field and so all the ground was subjected to the same temperatures, to the same rain, to the same sunshine.

They all had the same weather.

And sometimes in life.

Sometimes we are looking for An out.

We're looking for something else to blame, someone else to blame.

Blame the sewer.

I just don't care much for that preacher.

If it was a different preacher, then I'd get more out of the, the message.

Blame the seed.

The word of God is too restrictive.

It's too Demanding, it doesn't fit with what I want to do.

Blame the technique.

The preaching is too dull.

It's too exciting.

It's too long.

It's too short.

Blame the weather.

You just don't understand my circumstances.

If I was in a different set of circumstances, then I would obey the Lord, but not where I am in my life right now.

And I'll tell you, It's true that there are some preachers, some preaching styles that we may relate to more than others.

And there may be circumstances that in your life that aren't in my life.

Everybody has different circumstances, but Jesus understands all these things.

I may not know all those things.

None of us may know, but Jesus knows.

And Jesus is mindful of that.

And what Jesus is saying in this parable.

is that I have the responsibility to choose the condition of my heart.

I have the responsibility to choose my response to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have the responsibility to determine who I am going to be no matter what others may do.

The different outcomes of the crop are a result of the different types of soil, the different types of ground, the different types of heart.

What we have on the inside of us.

It isn't the delivery of the seed.

It is the acceptance of the seed by the ground.

That's what makes the difference in the parable of the sower.

What type of soil do I have?

How do I accept the word of God in my life?

There are 4.

Different types of ground, 4 different types of soil that we read about in the parable of the sower.

In Luke's account, In Luke 8:5 and 213.

It is written, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled down and the birds of the air devoured it.

Those by the wayside are the ones who hear, then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

The wayside is the place on the edge of the field where people walked.

It is the place where the vehicles travel.

Where the carts traveled, it is the place where the animals traveled, and so it was packed down.

It was hardened.

The seed never really penetrated the ground.

He just sat on top of the grounds, the ground, and the birds came and ate it.

And Jesus said that the devil came and took the word out of their hearts before the hearer could believe.

And so those by the wayside are hard-hearted.

The Bible teaches that our heart can become hardened.

So that it's not affected by the word of God.

In the spring, a child may have sensitive, tender feet.

But then if that same child spends all summer outside running around barefoot, then by the end of the summer, they'll be able to run across gravel barefoot.

And the reason for that is because their feet, the bottom of their feet have toughened up.

You know, I think we can probably all relate to yard work, perhaps, you know, where you go out and you're, you're digging a hole, so you're using a post hole digger or a shovel or you're raking leaves and you're using the same tool in the same way and your hands aren't accustomed to doing that.

And so at first, you'll get a blister on your hand and that blister is very, very painful.

It hurts.

But then if you keep irritating that same skin in that same place in that same way with the same tool over and over and over again, eventually what's gonna happen is that skin is gonna become calloused.

And you'll be able to take a straight pin and stick it into that calloused skin, and you'll never feel a thing.

Because a callous cannot feel the touch of good and the pain of bad.

And our heart can become the same way.

In Matthew chapter 13 and verse 15, Jesus describes it this way, for the hearts of these people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes, they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn.

So that I should heal them.

Jesus is saying that people's hearts have grown dull, they have grown calloused, where they don't, do not care anymore about the Word of God.

It does not, it does not touch their heart.

They do not feel the touch of good and the pain of bad.

And this can be the outcome of sin.

Sin can harden us if we're not careful.

You know, the first time we commit a sin.

It really bothers us.

It may keep us up at night.

We feel the weight of the guilt upon us.

But the danger is, is if, if we continue that sin over and over and over again.

Then we could get to the point where it no longer hurts.

We are no longer bothered by the pain of sin and the weight of sin.

And in Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 13, this is why the Hebrews writer warns us and says, exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin can harden us.

In 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 2, Paul writes to Timothy and says that the spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

Our conscience when trained properly, is going to cause us to feel bad when we do bad.

But not when it's been seared.

Back when I was younger, I used to work at a pizza restaurant and my favorite job there was man in the ovens.

And we had a couple of 600 degree ovens where we cooked all the pizzas.

And one particular day, I was getting a pizza out of that top oven and it was a big, heavy, large pizza in the back and I was having a hard time getting it out and as I was getting it out.

The, the, my wrist touched the top of that oven, came in full contact with it.

And it hurts so bad for a long time.

But as it healed, It Got to the point where I couldn't feel it right there in that area of skin.

My wrist had become seared with a hot iron.

And if our heart gets to the place where we cannot feel.

Then we need to change In Psalm 13, verses 3 through 5, David wrote When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my vitality was turned into the drought of summer.

But then in verse 5, I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity, I have not hidden.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

None of us are perfect.

David was not perfect, but David sin bothered him.

And he wanted to be rid of it.

David did not allow his sin to harden.

His spirit.

Those by the wayside are hardhearted.

And a hard-hearted person can't allow the word of God to have an effect on their life like it should.

Instead, we need to remain tender-hearted, soft-hearted.

Because that's the only way that the Word of God is gonna be able to get in there.

Penetrate us And have the effect that it needs to have on our lives.

And just because we've had a hard heart in the past, just because we may have a hard heart today doesn't mean that we have to have a hard heart.

We can have a soft heart.

In Ezekiel 3626.

The Lord says, I will give you a new heart.

And put a new spirit within you.

I will take the heart of stone.

Out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

The Lord can give us a soft heart, a heart that is receptive to his gospel.

In Isaiah chapter 64 and verse 8, we read, But now, oh Lord, you are our Father.

We are the clay, and you are Potter.

And all we are the work of your hand.

You know, the only way that God is going to be able to shape us as clay.

Is that, is if our clay is soft.

And is able to be shaped.

Not if our clay is hardened.

And so we have to be a soft clay that the Lord can mold.

Who we are as a person so that we can be transformed.

Romans 12 and 2, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And the only way we can do that is if we have a soft heart and are not hard-hearted like Those on the wayside.

The second type of ground.

That the parable describes.

Is the rocky ground.

In Matthew's account, they're in Matthew chapter 13, verses 43 through 6, and then also 20 through 21.

Jesus said, some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth.

And they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.

But when the sun was up, they were scorched and because they had no root, they withered away.

But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

In Luke's account, he also adds, in time of temptation, so tribulation, persecution, temptation.

The time when tough things come.

You know, the ground here is thin.

It has topsoil, but it has rock underneath and so when the sun gets hot.

The plants wither because they don't have the moisture that they need.

To survive In front of our yard at the house.

You know in our front yard, in our front yard of the house, we have something called a French drain.

And I won't get into all the details about how this thing works, but we have this thing called a French drain, but basically there is a rocky trench and the water, the groundwater will go down this trench and divert the water around the house so the water doesn't go under the house.

So it's a, it's a water control method.

And what I want you to focus on here in this picture is, look how deep the soil is on the right side of that trend of that French drain, and look how deep the soil is on the left side of that French drain, and then look how shallow the soil is above the French drain.

There's just a small layer of soil, and then down below that layer of soil is rock.

But from the surface, you can't see that that rock is even down there.

In fact, This is a picture of the front yard during a time when everything's great.

There's plenty of rain.

I think the weather is good and you can't tell that any part of the yard is any different than any other part of the yard.

Things are going well.

But if there's a week or two without rain, Then you can tell right there where that French drain is.

Because there is just a small layer of topsoil and there's rock underneath it, and there's not enough moisture there to be able to keep that grass alive.

And we may look at that and say, well, yeah, things are going bad.

That's why that person's looking so bad, right?

It's just, it's, there's dead grass right there.

Hey, on the left and right side of that French drain.

That grass is seeing the exact same weather.

It's seeing the exact same lack of rain.

It's seeing the exact same temperatures.

It's seeing the exact same circumstances.

The difference is the soil, the depth of the soil.

How deep I The soil.

Those With the rocky ground or shallow harbor.

How deep is my faith?

Is my faith only good when times are good?

Or is my faith still there when times get tough?

Jesus was talking about people who would serve him as long as there's no persecution.

They'll serve him as long as there's no tribulation.

They'll serve him as long as there is no temptation.

But as soon as those things come, they wither and they die.

You know, when a person looks at me.

They only see what's on the surface.

And so if everything's going great in my life, I may look like I'm doing great.

But the test is when the tough times come.

Well we continue to stand when, when the tough times come.

In Colossians I'm sorry.

In Colossians chapter 2.

Verses 6 through 7.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as you have been taught abounding in it with thanksgiving.

We have to have a deep spiritual root.

Within us in Psalm.

11 through 6.

The psalmist writes, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.

Nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree that is planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly.

shall perish And so we must have A deep soil So that we can stand when times get tough.

The third type of ground that Jesus talks about in the parable of the sower.

is among thorns.

In Mark's account, Mark chapter 4, verse 23, and then also verses 18 through 19.

Jesus said, And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

Now, these are the ones sown among thorns.

They are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.

And so here the soil seems to be good.

The soil is deep.

The seed germinated and grew within the soil.

The seed became a sprout and then a plant, and then that plant grew into a healthy size.

The plant looked like.

You may be doing well.

But the problem was that the weeds began to grow along with that plant.

Care was not taking, taken for those weeds to be taken out.

And so they got the upper hand and they took over the field.

And because of that, that plant did not bear fruit.

When a good plant grows among the weeds and thorns.

I believe that this is one of the biggest dangers for us in our generation.

And it's because all around us, we have the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the pleasures of life, other things that enter in and choke the word, and it's, it's not just our generation, it's every generation that there's that there's ever been, but it's certainly one of the greatest.

Dangerous for us There are so many things that are competing for our affections in this life.

And some of them are sinful and some of them are not.

In and of themselves.

But there are so many things that are competing for our affections.

And those among the thorns.

are double minded, a double minded.

Hearts In James chapter 1 verse 8, James says that he is a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways.

OK. In describing This type of ground.

Jesus said that the thorns are the cares of this world.

In Matthew chapter 6 and verse 25, Jesus said, I say to you, do not worry about your life.

What you will eat or what you will drink or about your body, what you will put on, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

He goes on to say, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Jesus said the thorns are the deceitfulness of riches.

Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:6-83, and said that godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and clothing with these, we should be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

And Jesus said that the thorns are the pleasures of this life.

Like we said, some of these are sinful pleasures, the lust of the flesh, which of course, those must be avoided, we need to avoid those.

But then there are some pleasures in this life that are innocent.

In and of themselves, sports, entertainment, projects, vacations, but if these things get to the point where they rule our lives, Then they become thorns.

If they if they cause us where we don't aren't bearing fruit like we ought to, then those are thorns.

In our lives Luke chapter 13.

Verses 6 through 9, Jesus spoke another parable, and he said, a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.

Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, Look, for 3 years I've come seeking fruit on this fig tree and found none.

Cut it down.

Why does it use up the ground?

But he answered and said, Sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around and fertilize it.

And if it bears fruit, well, but if not, after that, you can cut it down.

You know, here's a fig tree.

It is recognizable as a fig tree.

But the problem is, it's not bearing any figs.

And Jesus said, if it's not burying figs, it's wasting the ground.

Dig it up Yes, you can have a second chance, but if you, if you don't bear fruit, Dig it up In John chapter 15 verses 1 through 8, Jesus teaches a similar message.

He said, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I'm the vine and you are the branches.

He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me, you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples.

A fig tree is supposed to produce figs.

And if it doesn't, Then it is not doing what it is intended to do.

A grapevine is supposed to produce grapes.

And if it's not doing that, it's not doing what it's intended to do.

And a Christian is supposed to let their light so shine before men that they may see their good works and glorify their Father, which is in heaven.

And if we are not doing that, we are not doing what we are intended to do.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, you will know them by their fruits.

You will know them by their fruits.

Instead of having a double-minded heart, the Lord wants us to have a single-minded heart.

In Mark chapter 123 and verse 30.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all of your strength.

This is the first commandment.

Not allowing the thorns to make me unfruitful.

Not with a double-minded heart, but instead, Having a single-minded devotion.

To the Lord, that's what he desires.

We may read about the wayside and the rocky ground, and the ground among thorns, and come away thinking that one of these seems to be better than the others.

We may think that that rocky ground is better than the wayside.

At least the rocky ground accepted the gospel.

At least the rocky ground was excited about becoming a Christian.

At least the rocky ground cared enough, you know, the wayside didn't even care to even believe.

But the problem is, is that the final result of the rocky ground.

Is that the plant withered away.

And so in the end, the result is exactly the same.

No fruits.

Or we may think that the ground among thorns must be better than the rocky ground and surely better than the wayside.

The ground among thorns, at least that ground produced a full grown plant.

At least that plant looks like it's pretty healthy.

I mean, it certainly looks healthier than the thorns.

It certainly looks healthier than that plant that's withering.

But the problem is that the final result of the ground among thorns.

Is that the master dug up that plant because it was wasting the ground.

And so in the end The result is the exact same, no matter what kind of ground of these three types of ground that we're talking about, the result is the same, and that is that there is no fruit.

God wants You know.

To be good ground.

In Mark's account, in Mark chapter 4, verse 8, and also in verse 22.

Jesus said, but other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced some 221-fold, some 21, and some 24.

These are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word accepted and bear fruit, some 22-fold, some 28, and some 13.

And in Luke's account, he referred to these, these people with a noble and good heart.

The soil is not hardened.

It is not rocky.

It's not full of thorns.

It is good soil.

And good soil belongs to those that are pure hearted.

This is not perfect people.

But it's pure-hearted people Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Pure heart does not mean perfect.

But notice some of the characteristics of this good soil, this, this pure heart.

That Jesus brings out.

Number one, he says, a noble and good heart.

In Psalm 21 verse 221.

We recreate in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Again, this implies that We don't have a clean heart.

We're desiring for God to create a clean heart in us.

This implies that we do not have a steadfast spirit.

We desire for that to be renewed in us.

And that should be a desire that we have a noble and a good heart.

The second characteristic of the good soil is that having heard the word, they accept it.

In 225 Thessalonians 2:13, we read, when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the Word of men, but as it is, in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you to believe.

Jesus said, the good soil is they that understand the word.

In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 17, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

And it's those who bear fruit with patience.

Revelation 14:12, here is the patience of the saints.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

You know, another important thing that we ought to note about this good soil, this good ground.

Is that when the seed fell on the good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up.

Some 213-fold, some 60-fold, and some 100fold.

Not all good soil.

Produces the same amount of fruit.

But it's good soil either way.

The 5 talent man.

was no better than the 2 talent man.

Each did.

What they could with what they were given.

And at the end, each were told the same thing.

Well done, good and faithful servants.

And in fact, in Luke chapter 21, Verses 1 through 4, Jesus looked up and saw the rich.

Putting their gifts in the treasury.

And he also saw a certain poor widow putting in two mites.

So he said, truly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all.

For all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty.

Put in all the livelihood that she had.

Each of us differs differs in ability.

We know that The Lord knows that What we were able to do does not determine what kind of soil we are.

What we do Determines what kind of soil we are.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 12, if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has and not according to what he does not have.

So good soil is good soil, no matter the size of the harvest, but there has to be a harvest.

We have to bear good fruits.

The good soil belongs to those that are pure hearted.

The takeaway for us in the parable of the sower is found at its beginning and at its end.

And that is Jesus says, listen.

Jesus says, behold.

Jesus says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And so what kind of hearer am I?

What kind of listener am I?

In James chapter 1 verses 21 through 25.

James writes, therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness, the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

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

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one is blessed in what he does.

And so what kind of soil do I have?

You know, the good news is, That our soil can change.

Our soil can change.

We don't have to be trampled down on the wayside.

We don't have to be on rocky ground with a thin layer of dirt.

We don't have to be choked out by the forms that are all around us in this world.

We can be good ground and bear good fruit.

If you're here this morning And you never become a member of the body of Christ, if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, if you've never submitted to Him.

You have the opportunity to do that this morning.

If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

If you're willing to confess that.

Before men Repent of the things you've done in the past, turn away from those things, a change of mind that results in a change of behavior, a change of conduct.

If you're willing to do that, you can be baptized into Christ to put on Christ, to rise to walk in newness of life, so your sins can be washed away.

And you can go on and we can all go on rejoicing with you this morning.

Or, or if you are a Christian, And you have struggles with your life.

If you have, if you feel like you've struggled with any of these types of soils in your heart.

Then you can make those things known.

Either privately or if you feel that you need the prayers of your brothers and sisters, you can make it known publicly.

And do these things while together we stand to encourage you and solve.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Neal Grantham

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.)

I'll be reading from the English Standard Version.

Just to remind you of the context, uh, Joe and his friends have been through their starting cycle of speeches and they're continuing in chapter 16.

In verse chapter 15, Eliphaz uh rhetorically asserts that Joe was full of wind in his belly.

And then in verse 4 says that Job is doing away with the fear of God.

So in chapter 16, we begin in verse 83.

Then Job answered and said, I've heard many such things.

Miserable comforters are you all.

Shall Wendy words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

I also could speak as you do.

If you were in my place, I could join words together against you and shake my head at you.

I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

If I speak, my pain is not a sage.

And if I forbear, how much of it leaves me.

Surely now God has worn me out.

He's made me desolate.

All my company And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me.

And my leanness has risen up against me.

It testifies to my face.

He has torn me in his wrath and hated me.

He has gnashed his teeth at me.

My adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

Men have gaped at me with their mouth.

They have struck me insolently on the cheek.

They massed themselves together against me.

God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

I was at ease and he broke me apart.

He seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces.

He set me up as his target.

His archers surround me.

He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare.

He pours out my gall on the ground.

He breaks with me breach upon breach.

He runs upon me like a warrior.

I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and I have laid my strength in the dust.

My face is red with weeping.

And on my eyelids is deep darkness.

I'm thankful for the opportunity again to speak to you about something that I guess for several years of my life has been a reoccurring.

set of thoughts that I've had that focus on Job's story.

Um, not just in the past hour, Craig texted me and he said, thanks, no problem.

I really like the Book of Job.

Sadly, only the final third of my lesson is about the Book of Job.

So I don't know.

Hopefully, there'll be enough of that for Craig to hear.

But The reason that I picked this topic is Even at 38 years old, not that that's very old, I still struggle to understand a lot of things.

I, I struggle to understand people.

I struggle with judgment and, and being very critical.

And I think sometimes I fail to recognize the impact that that has on the way I think about others and the way that I treat others.

I picked this passage because for those of you who are familiar with the Book of Job, Job goes through really what sounds like the most difficult thing you could go through, and it's several of those things all at once.

That's all I'll say about that for now, because I want to save that for the last section of my sermon.

At the very beginning, Of this lesson, what I want us to focus on briefly is that Our understanding of one another is very limited.

The person that probably knows me best in this life.

Other than my parents is my wife.

And so there's several people here that know me on a surface level, and then I have some friends that know me quite a bit better than that.

Beth probably knows me this much more than those friends.

But then God understands me.

I want to say an unlimited amount more than my wife does.

And that's not an insult to Beth, that just helps me understand how much God understands about me.

You'll see a list back here if I made it large enough, OK. These are a few of the many things that God understands about me and you.

The environment that I was raised in, The parents that I grew up with or the lack thereof.

The past that I've that I've experienced the pain, all of my experiences, and all of my inner thoughts.

No matter what I go through, no matter how much I try to put myself in your shoes, I cannot know what it feels like to be you.

There are some things that I can relate to some of the people in here.

There are ways that I can connect, there are ways that I can be patient and compassionate and grow to understand more about you.

But my understanding will always be insignificant in comparison to how much God understands about you.

Which is going to be a reminder to me constantly every day as I meet somebody else or somebody that I know very well, there's still so much I don't understand about them.

In Psalm 139 verses 1 through 6, The passage I want to focus on there, the verses that behold, oh God, you know it all.

He's talking about a lot of times in the Psalms, there is this deep cry to God.

There, there are themes of depression and anguish and loss and pain and shame from sin that people struggle with and God understands all of that, and God is compassionate.

I'm gonna say this once, I have a tendency to say the same thing over and over thinking I, I didn't make my point, but for the sake of time, I don't have a lot of time to make this point.

Throughout the rest of the sermon, as I speak about God's compassion.

There is a way to swing that pendulum too far either way, and I don't mean, oh, there's too much compassion.

I mean there's a way to use it in the wrong way thinking that it's compassion.

Now, my lesson is focused on that compassion that we need to have.

I just want to briefly say it doesn't mean that I'm trying to claim that people shouldn't take responsibility for their actions.

Or that there are people in this life that have made their lives very hard.

There are, there are people that haven't learned their lessons.

And even if they did grow up in a very difficult situation, there are people who have not done very much at all to fix it.

So I'm not saying, no matter what they've done wrong, just keep going.

Oh, it must completely be the environment they were raised in, the parents they had, and poor them.

That's not what I mean.

But I do want to lean on the side of compassion since I know a very limited amount, even about the people that I know very well compared to God.

In 1 Kings chapter 19 verses 1 through 8, Elijah is being pursued and if, and if you'll, if you look at Elijah's life, he's got a difficult one.

He constantly has to tell people about the bad things that they're doing and how they need to repent and change, and that makes Angry people even angrier.

And Jezebel is sending people after him to have him killed, and he is worn down and burnt out and exhausted, and he says to God, just let me die.

I want you to think about Elijah's attitude and what you might say to Elijah.

There's a lot of things that you could say to Elijah in this situation.

Why are you asking to die right now, when God's been so good to you?

Elijah, just look around at all of the beauty, the nature that God created, look up to the stars.

Look at all of the good people that you know in this life.

Don't be like this.

Don't be depressed.

Don't be downtrodden.

Now, at the core of those thoughts, I'm not saying those aren't true thoughts.

There are other things that Elijah could focus on.

But I do want us to look briefly here at the way God responds to him.

In this particular situation, and I don't know all of God's thoughts toward Elijah, that's not really how God responds to Elijah.

God doesn't seem, and I can only speak so much for God here, but he doesn't seem so shocked and amazed that how could you feel this way?

He sends an angel To feed Elijah And eventually he sends Elijah on his way.

But in this particular situation, I don't see a lot of God scolding him for feeling the way that he feels, even though we probably shouldn't have the attitude of just let me die.

But maybe you felt that way before.

Maybe you have felt.

It'd be kind of nice if this would all be over.

God extends compassion to Elijah.

Jesus, and I understand Jesus is God as well.

I said, God is compassionate.

Jesus understands, sympathizes and shows compassion.

Beth picked this one, the woman at the well.

Now, this is a person that I'm, I'm just gonna tell you, I told you at the beginning that I struggle sometimes with judgment.

I try to not treat people with the judgment that I'm feeling in my heart, but I still feel that judgment.

If somebody came in here, and I don't know if anybody relates to, they come, they come in here and they go, this person is in their 5th marriage.

I'm just going to tell you the first thoughts that come to my mind are negative.

I'm sad to say that, but those are the first thoughts that come into Neil's mind.

There's some judgment there.

I feel like probably there's some things that they did to get themselves into that situation.

It doesn't mean that that's not true to an extent.

That's not really my job.

The woman at the well.

Jesus speaks to her, and the woman actually shows a, a bit of knowledge of, of, of God and, and, um, worship of God and, and Jesus.

Lets her know that he knows about you've been married.

And this is your 43th husband, all right?

There's a lot of things Jesus could have said to her about her lifestyle.

The promiscuity The blame There's a lot of things that I could say that I know for sure would not bring that person closer to Christ.

There are some things that I could probably say to this person that are true, that would not, did I go too far on my Yes, sorry.

There are a lot of things I could probably say that are true, that still wouldn't bring her close to Christ because there are true things that you can say in a very wrong way, a very wrong tone.

I'm reminded that Jesus's interaction with her.

is full of compassion.

And I do not mean, and I think, I think the point was made clear when Jesus spoke to her, hey, this is not how your life is supposed to be.

He's not excusing sin.

And my point tonight or in my life as a Christian is not going to be to excuse sin.

But I know that my main goal is to save the person.

So I need to try to remind myself.

Of the way Jesus responds.

And how little I understand in comparison.

A couple of other passages here are just in Matthew 9, when Jesus sees the crowds, he has compassion on them because they're distressed and downtrodden.

Hebrews chapter 4, and we'll kind of keep our mind focused on this throughout the rest of the lesson, is that We have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.

He understands things about us because he's experienced the things that we've experienced.

Also, he created us.

So there's things that he can know about me for his judgment toward me is pure and right and true, that you might not be able to process yourself.

Because of the knowledge and the compassion that he possesses.

Here are a few things I want us to focus on.

This is going to be the purpose of our study here in a minute.

I've got 3 examples that I've picked out, and because I overthink everything, I probably had dozens of examples and I had to fish through those and because they all felt like winners to me.

Now you might find out none of those 3 were winners, but I had to pick something.

And I try to make those go in an order that maybe it's a little more lighthearted at first, and then it gets into more serious matters, because I think that compassion toward people is a serious matter, and since I know I struggle with it so hard, you might not struggle with it as badly as I do.

But I know that if I struggle with it, somebody else must.

We're going to go through some examples.

That I hope will help us to Focus on understanding people a, a little bit more like God does.

And use that to communicate to people in a more patient and a compassionate way.

In each of these examples, I'm going to start out, well, Maybe I don't, I don't want to say this yet.

So, I'm gonna just, uh, I'm gonna move on here.

I'm going to define a couple of things, OK?

There's a couple of topics for me dealing with other than compassion is this idea of callousness or hardened, a hardened heart.

Speaking to somebody in a harsh way.

Now, I get my definitions off Google.

So, I hope these are accurate.

But callous is a hardened, insensitive, and an unsympathetic approach toward the feelings, sufferings, and needs of others.

I think that's fairly accurate, my understanding of the world.

And there's a way, and if you go back and look at the New Testament and read a lot of the ways that the Pharisees would respond to people, you'll see that oftentimes they respond in a callous way.

And guess what?

Now, sometimes they say some things that are very false, and they make up their own laws, but they also can say things that are true.

But the way that they say it to somebody.

There's no intent there to help somebody.

There's no intent to walk in somebody else's shoes to understand, and they're just judgment.

There's just criticism, and it's callous.

Compassion on the other hand, is a sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings and misfortunes of others.

That's what Christ has for others.

And I would just warn us as we go into these examples, when we think that we are very compassionate, we need to remember.

I really just don't understand exactly how compassionate Jesus is and how much he cares and how much concern he has for somebody.

So I probably don't need to be too concerned.

Am I being too compassionate.

Probably not.

Now I want to tell you guys something.

Now you're, there's nobody here is going to know this.

This is brand new.

You, there's no way you would know this.

Malachi Sometimes when I, when I chase him or play something with him, or if other kids play with him, he screams.

All right.

And he yells I don't know why you're laughing.

But you would never see that, right?

Except every Sunday and Wednesday when we're here.

Malacocaines and Yale.

And I'll go ahead and say up front.

We do discipline.

I don't know how good I am at it.

And I'm not bringing this up because somebody talked to me about it.

Nobody's talked to me about it.

If you want to talk to me about it, you can, please just don't do it during the sermon.

Beth seems to be A little bit better than me at raising children.

But I discipline I spank.

I hope I don't go overboard with that.

I try to look at scripture, I try to look at other examples, and I try to go, what do I need to do here?

How would Jesus interact with this child?

And I feel like I fail at that one quite a bit.

But what I'm going to tell you is that Malachi has been told, not 3 times, not 5, not 10, but probably dozens of times.

Hey, buddy, stop screaming and yelling when you're playing with other kids.

It's OK if he screams and yells in the house when I'm chasing him.

I don't care.

That's the kind of reaction I'm trying to get.

It doesn't translate well on a Sunday or a Wednesday in a large auditorium.

He's not getting it.

What is my son's problem.

He's rebellious He should know this by now, because I've told him several times.

And this is the one that I'm afraid of, not.

I, I like to think that a lot of things need balance, and you can go wrong on either end.

Hey, man, he just needs harsher punishment.

Now, there's not, it's not like there's never a situation where more discipline is needed.

I grew up in South Alabama, this might be coming up here too, but I heard the phrases a lot of times, hey, man, you just, and I don't mean about my son when I was little, hey, man, you just need to light him up.

Blister his behind, things like that.

Might kind of sound kind of funny, but the attitude was like, hey, he just needs some more spanking.

And I've got to kind of parse through all those things and figure out where's the truth.

Where's the balance?

How would Jesus interact with this little boy?

And here are my fears, OK?

So, in each of these scenarios, I'm going to give you a callous response, what I believe to be a callous response.

If you think I'm wrong, you talk to me after the lesson, because I don't, I don't, I'm not an expert on raising children.

Then I'm going to talk about what I believe are some of the serious impacts of those callous responses that I'm going to try to offer really in a general sense.

What I think to be a, a more a more compassionate reaction, and I hope that that's helpful.

Here's what I'm afraid of.

If I go too far.

And I disciplined too hard.

And I act that I'm, I'm shocked.

That after dozens, dozens of times that I've said, hey, Malachi.

Hey, buddy, I just need you to calm down a little bit.

That he's still not getting it.

And I keep getting in his face.

And I raised my voice, and, and sometimes I, I think you got to raise your voice.

I, I think that, OK?

I think there's sometimes I, I needed to raise my voice.

But I get in his face and I look intimidating.

And he becomes.

Intimidated, just instinctually when he hears me, and when I walk into the room and my presence intimidates him.

Also, If in that I display a lot of anger, I'm, I'm concerned about Proverbs 22, where I'm warned, I'm warned as an adult, don't be around a man of anger, you'll learn it.

I don't want that to transfer to him, and he deals with problems with anger.

He might also feel lonely and separated from me.

Because the less I'm spending time loving him and all of our interaction just becomes correction, correction, spanking.

If you don't do this, you need to do this right.

Hey, son, are you listening to me?

That he's going to feel separated and lonely.

And, and when I'm out of the picture, it's just Beth and Kaya.

I mean, I'm still there, OK, but I mean, he's just afraid of me.

So, And then finally, I might break his spirit, and you'll see that I put up there, that's how I feel.

He's not a horse.

I'm not trying to break him.

Now there's some habits I'm trying to break, but I'm not trying to break him like a thoroughbred, full grown male stall.

You might have thought this when I first told you that Malachi's not getting it yet.

He's 2 113/2.

Now, I'm gonna give you this, and like I said, nobody said anything to me.

This is not out of some kind of, I'm feeling this way.

I, I genuinely I, I think some of Malachi's wildness is me.

I'm kind of crazy around the house.

Here, I'm composed.

You look at me and you go, man, this guy is very calm.

He's got things together, he's stable.

I know that you think that.

I'm thankful that you think that.

It's very gracious.

But I'm different at home.

Because I run around and I chase them, and when they're screaming like that at home, I kind of, I think it's fun.

But he's 2 1/2.

I'm 38, and it still takes me some time.

Sometimes I have to come back and tell God, hey, I had an outbursts of anger Please forgive me.

I messed up.

Sometimes it's not sin, sometimes it's Beth has said, hey, sweetheart, would you be able to take the trash out?

And Beth will take the trash out.

And I go, sure, and I'm sitting on the couch, and I'm watching, I, you know, a food show is usually what I'm watching.

I'm watching a food show like Diners Drive-ins and Dives, and Beth is in there cooking.

I'm, and I'm just relaxing.

And then 30 minutes later, she says, hey, sweetheart, I know you might have forgot, could you take the trash out?

And then, what if Beth on the 3rd time was like, hey, what's your problem?

I, it's been an hour.

I told you this is the 3rd time.

And I'm sad to say if she responded to me like that, which she doesn't, I might go even further, say you've got two hands and feet, why don't you, and then that's the last thing you hear from me.

He, he needs love and patience.

I know he's a toddler, but he's a baby, and I've got to navigate that.

And I don't want to mess him up.

I'm reminded of Colossians 3:153.

I hope I interpret this right as it says, fathers, do not exasperate your children.

I know there's a passage that says, do not provoke them to wrath, but here, when I think of exasperation, and if Alan knows that this Greek word means something that I am wrong about, he could tell me that as well.

But in English, usually exasperates how you're worn somebody out.

I'm, I'm at my wits end.

I'm just, I'm basically exhausted over this.

I don't want to do that.

So I think scripture bears that.

Matthew chapter 18.

If I, if I lead him to be intimidated and afraid of me, and I push him so far away, and all I do is discipline him, I'm afraid of Matthew 18.

I think many of you know what it says about those who cause a little one to stumble.

And I don't want to be thrown into the sea.

So I want to get that right.

Now I want to deal with something that's a bit more serious than my little boy.

I've, I've used examples here.

These are not based on any examples of people here.

I've just, I gotta pull something out for these examples, and in this case, you've got somebody, be it a Christian or not.

That maybe struggles with alcohol or drug abuse are they used to.

I'll say this in a way that doesn't connect with exactly with an experience that I had some years ago, but somebody was studying with a young man, late teens, early twenties, who I think used to struggle with drug abuse, to the extent that I, I, it affected, it can affect you for a long period of time, it can affect the mind and, and the way it works.

And the person said to me, And they acted in this way when they said, I just, I can't, I just can't imagine why anybody would want to do that.

OK, And that's why I put it up there.

I don't get it.

I don't understand.

Why would they do that to themselves?

Here's the one I'm really concerned about.

I would never have done what they've done.

Which to me brings me back to the original point of, I really only fully know, God knows me more than I know myself.

But of everything I know about myself, what I cannot tell you, no matter what, no matter what choices I've made in this life, I feel strongly about it, and I hope I'm not wrong.

I cannot Look at somebody else's life and go, if I were them, I wouldn't have done that.

I don't know I can't know.

I didn't grow up in their body with their thoughts, with their parents, or lack of parents or divorced parents or whatever they went through to the point that I can make that judgment.

It's OK to go, man, it's hard to comprehend how somebody could want to do that.

That's fine.

But I think if we respond to the person directly in that way, Well, I'll say it here in a minute, but it's, I, I think it has a negative impact.

And I think I can still be understanding towards somebody even if I haven't experienced.

The very thing they've experienced.

The impact may be on this person.

Maybe because of that response, they're sitting in the congregation and they feel to themselves like, I don't think I can ever be as righteous as that person.

And they might think to themselves, man, I, I bet they would have never done this.

And they can end up judging themselves.

Well, Jesus doesn't want them to come in and feel more wicked than everybody else, right?

We should feel ashamed.

And sometimes the consequences are some long term guilt for some of the sins that we've committed.

But other Christians aren't supposed to make it worse.

They might feel outcast or unable to connect with others, because they look at people and they go, man, ain't nobody, all these people are so pure and righteous.

I've been, I've been a member of a congregation, and it, it's not their fault, where I legitimately, because of the world that I came out of, was like, I just didn't even feel like I should be there.

And then I began judging myself because, man, all these people, there's, they wouldn't have done this.

And possibly, and this is not where I pass the blame and say, oh, they're not responsible for their actions, but you can cause somebody to seek something else the wrong way.

If, if I give off the wrong example or I respond to them in a way that casts them further out, then they may go seeking the very thing that they've used in the past to comfort themselves in a very unwise way.

Maybe they're trying to self-comfort and I, I. Uh, this really goes without saying, I don't mean, hey, it's never anybody's fault for using alcohol and drugs.

But I do want to make sure that I don't cause them to stumble back into it.

Maybe they have a family drug abuse history.

Maybe they lack the godly father figure.

There are only 3 examples.

And there are dozens more of questions that I need to ask, as that judgment and that criticism is running through my head.

I've got to interact with this person.

I'm not better than they are.

I didn't grow up in the situation with the background that they had.

I don't know what I would have done.

And I need to act accordingly.

In Luke 24:27 through 28, a lot of, a lot of us probably know this one.

The Pharisee, well, first, let's start with the, the sinner, right?

Because the Pharisee is not a sinner in this story.

The sin is genuinely ashamed to look up.

Into the sky toward God.

And beats his chest and I think I hit that mic, sorry, and, and beats his chest and goes.

Just be merciful to me.

He understands he's not worthy to be in the presence of God.

I think the scriptures say the Pharisee prays to himself.

And he goes, I'm just glad I'm not like that guy.

Well, I'm, I don't want to be like that Pharisee.

That guy had it right.

In this case, that guy had it right, and the Pharisee was in danger of condemnation.

John 28:24, even though there's some other context around it, is the statement to judge with righteous judgment.

So when I judge, and I'm trying to go, am I making a righteous judgment, I've got to try to be as in line with the way God makes judgments, and, and I, and I'm limited.

On making that Judgment.

I'm gonna get through this next one because I'm, I'm at 211 minutes and realized I haven't even got a job yet.

So, I'm gonna get through this last one, OK?

This is just an example.

I know some of these are pretty serious.

Once again, I don't know anybody here, but I, I want you in this situation, but You got somebody in their teens or early twenties.

Maybe they were even raised in the church, and they're in this situation.

This, this pregnant teen or pregnant young woman.

How could she make such a decision?

She was raised by Christian parents.

She's just lustful and promiscuous.

Has she not heard the gospel her whole life?

And if I have those thoughts, one danger is I might say those to her.

Another danger is I might say them to other people in the church.

Another danger Is it just thinking those thoughts and, and, and holding on to them, I might interact with her a lot more, or, or a lot differently.

I may treat her with judgment, not even realize I'm doing that.

And this is another situation where I'm not saying that this person has no responsibility for their sin.

But I would like to consider, since I'm not in that person's shoes, they're probably terrified.

Even if it was 313% their fault, they are probably terrified.

They're probably ashamed.

I hope so.

It is sinful what led them to that.

But then my actions could lead them to be even more confused about how God feels about them.

Because I do know this.

I know God's trying to draw them in.

I know he's trying.

To keep them in a state of salvation or get them back to a state of salvation.

And they might end up in a similar way.

That the person with the drug or alcohol abuse might think.

These people are so much different, better than me, that she might, she might feel that she is, she's filthy.

And sinful Here are some things that Maybe I would remind myself she's, she's going to need some reassurance.

She also needs to know it's not the end of the world, it's gonna feel like it.

It's not the end of the world, and I need to bring out that hope that Christ provides.

I need to remind myself of 231 Corinthians 210:245 where I believe it relates to the young man or young or the man in 1 Corinthians.

Who, who was in a very Confusing relationship he wasn't supposed to be in and repented.

And what Paul reminds them of is, OK, this person's repented.

Reaffirm your love for them.

Let's not add sorrow upon sorrow.

In this case, I would imagine, I would hope she's probably terrified and ashamed.

I don't know what this is like.

I'm not going to say I would have never done this.

But I want to remind us also of 2 Timothy 2:24-26, speaking about the way Christians interact.

Do correct the sin.

With a gentle spirit.

I don't always know how to do that, but I know that when I harbor judgment and I cycle through that judgment in my mind over and over, there seems to be, and Beth will hear this sometimes, and thankfully, Beth is.

She has just benefit of the doubt all the time, and it kind of drives me crazy sometimes, but it's very helpful for me because A lot of times she's right.

I'm spiraling into judgment.

So just consider these things before we get to Job, and I hope I've left enough time for Job, is to compassionately consider the sufferings of my neighbor.

And I, I've got some of the things that people go through, that either you might be able to relate to, or you can remind yourself, hey, I haven't been through that.

I don't know what that's like.

I'm, I'm not going to say all those, you, you can read through them and just see that there are so many ways that we can suffer in this life.

And I can look out at somebody else, and I can think, oh man, I think I could deal with that better.

I'm not that person.

I might not.

They might even be dealing with it better than I would.

But I just don't know And now I want us for the final few, I'm going to try to keep this as brief as I can on this last section.

But it is very important because I think what we're doing here is we use some of these hypothetical examples and when then we look at somebody.

I mean, Job's story is just, it is depressing.

And it is sad, and it, it doesn't even sound real.

Because you read Job chapter one, and a servant comes to Job, Job's got all of these possessions and a big family and, and, and his, his relationship with God.

God tells Satan in this story, Job is a blameless and upright man.

God said that about.

He's not perfect, but he's, he's a righteous man.

In the middle of all this.

A servant comes and says, the sabians killed your oxens and donkeys and young men.

And it says, if I'm not mistaken, while he was still speaking, Job doesn't even have time to grieve this for a moment.

The fire of God killed your sheep and, and more young men.

And then another person comes, the Chaldeans took camels and killed the young men.

And the, the, the way I read Job, I think Job, he's such a righteous man.

He probably had close, close relationships with all these, these people, all these young men that worked.

Among him a great wind.

Brought down the entire house on your 7 sons and your 103 daughters.

What are you talking about?

How can anybody even, that sounds so bad that it would just kill you from the shock.

And after all of that, the 2nd time we see Satan going, here, I've got another challenge for Job.

He then on top of all of that, basically, it's like he's going to die.

He's just covered in painful sores all over his body.

That's enough for me, I, now, I've suffered enough there.

And then on top of that, his wife.

Tells him to curse God and die.

Now I'm not gonna make a lot of judgment at the wife there.

The wife said a terrible thing and Job rebuked her for it.

She did.

I just bear with me, as I say, she did also just lose all of her, they, they're here, her children as well.

I'm not excusing her response.

Job's friends, Job's friends, Job's friends.

Come and sit with him during the beginning of the suffering for, I believe it's 7 days.

If I'm wrong, it's 5 days.

I should have gone back and looked at that.

He sits with them for about a week, and they don't say anything.

Now, my point is not going to be that you can only help somebody if you just keep your mouth closed.

But I want to think about what that communicated.

And I don't know what, it says they came there to comfort.

That's what it says, is they came there to comfort Job, and maybe that communicates, I don't know what you're going through, but I'm going to suffer with you as much as I can.

I'm going to be here to lift you up.

I'm just gonna be with you.

I could be anywhere else.

No, I'm gonna go, does anybody, and you know, when I was young and my mom wanted to visit the nursing home, I did not want to visit the nursing home.

It didn't make sense to me.

It wasn't fun.

What's the point?

And mom would just go sit and talk to people.

Maybe it's something like that.

They're sitting with him, and it's comforting.

And then, sadly, in this situation, they open their mouths, and it, it, they ask Job questions at first.

That's it, they're asking questions.

But then those questions turn into suggestions that, well, something's wrong.

Do the innocent really suffer like you're suffering?

Job 4:7-8, he says the innocent, they don't perish.

He's suggesting that Job, you brought this on yourself.

Job 8:4.

I am surprised that Job, if he had a sword, didn't draw his sword and cut his friend down when his friend said, The children must have sinned to have brought this on themselves.

I liked it when you didn't open your mouth, my friend.

Job 11 Let's just, let's just keep stacking it on.

You really deserve worse.

God went easy on you.

Now I'm paraphrasing this, but go back and that's, that's these passages.

And then it turns into just full blown lies and accusation against Job.

Hey, guess what, Job, this happened because you took your neighbor's security, you took clothing from the naked, you gave no water to the thirsty, and you kept bread from the hungry.

Joe, he just hasn't been beat up enough yet, has he?

Now 15 or more times.

We get to the point that yes, Job is a righteous man.

But his friends wearing down.

And what Craig read for you there is a series of accusations that Job will make against God in his suffering.

Now, Could Joe be surmising like, hey, this is what it feels like is happening?

It sounds like accusations here.

And I can't, I, I can't, I'm not gonna read through all those, but I'm gonna point out a few.

God's got his arrows against Job.

He's made him his target, multiplied his wounds without cause, mocks at his despair, overpowers him like a lion.

And one of the passages, Craig read there, he's got his hands around my neck.

And Job Job, are you supposed to be saying those things about God that blessed you so much before, before all these things happen?

The answer is no.

Job is not saying what he should about God.

We're not supposed to be accusing God of attacking us and being a ruthless and vicious enemy.

But his friends certainly didn't help him, did they?

Now, could somebody have said, Joe, why are you so down?

Look at the beautiful stars in the sky.

Look at all God gave you before you suffered.

OK. Those are true statements.

Personally, I'm not sure that's what Joe needed to hear at the time.

I do want us to when, when God speaks up.

There's a lot of things God says about God's own very being and revealing Himself to Job.

I don't know the tone in which he said it to Job.

I don't know the thoughts running through God's head when he said it.

I just know the words that he said.

I know what he didn't do.

He did not respond like Job's friends.

So Job's friends who went there to comfort Job, who get increasingly prideful and just think that they have got this pinned down, and they are just so wrong.

are so far from how God would speak to Job to help him.

What I don't see is God responding with a callous heart.

God does understand.

God doesn't say, hey, Job, yes, accuse me of all of these things.

God also doesn't say, hey, you said all these things.

I am about to now destroy you.

It is unbelievable that these words came out of your mouth.

And I'm gonna bring the fire of God down on you.

He gives Job an opportunity to repent of the things that he shouldn't have said.

But he doesn't respond callously to Joe.

And his wrath, and this is the focus here, as we, as we get to a close, the focus of rebuke is on Job's friends, the ones who went to comfort him during a time of intense suffering.

But instead, with pride, An arrogance They tear Joe down even more.

They are not bringing Job closer to God.

Finally, God.

Intervenes to bring Job.

But God's the one that has to step in.

To say the right things because the friends, what are they supposed to be doing?

None of us can speak as accurately and as perfectly as Jesus Christ.

There's no way I can say something as comforting in the right way as Jesus can to you.

But it is my job to try.

Whether that's silence and just quality time beside you or whether my response is tailored according to the grace.

That God tells me to speak with.

And the good thoughts that I'm supposed to have toward others.

Jeremiah 31 says, I have drawn you with loving kindness.

Now God will rebuke.

Sometimes in some very scary ways.

If it is necessary.

And maybe you read what Job says and you go, this is unbelievable.

Strike him down too.

He's just like all these other people.

No, he's not.

He's a man that lost all 10 of his children, all of his possessions, and all of his health.

And he fought and he battled to hold on to God.

And God reached out and extended loving kindness to him to draw him in.

I brought those examples up tonight, and our sermons coming to a close.

It's been about almost 45 minutes.

I thank you for your time.

God extends compassion in a way that sometimes is difficult for us.

To relate to and to comprehend.

But his main goal is always to save the soul he's communicating with.

Tonight I don't know if any of that strikes something with you.

But I write it to help me.

And, and I have to remind myself of these things when I see people in different situations in life, but I know that just like we read at the beginning of our sermon, God understands me fully and he understands you fully.

And if you are in sin, God's main intent is not to look down on you and go, You're disgusting I can't believe what you've done.

Get out of my presence.

He does the perfect thing.

That the New Testament says the angels longed.

To look at and understand what God's plan was, was to send Jesus Christ, to sacrifice himself.

To extend loving kindness to people that sometimes it's hard for me, me and you to look at and go, I think God should try to save them.

And he does that, and he, and he makes the beginning of that walk so simple.

I've kind of written it here in steps as we typically do.

When you hear the story of Jesus Christ, He's calling out to you to turn away from that sin.

To believe in his son, that his son loves you, that his son died for you.

To confess it and to make it as simple as going down under the water and rising back up a forgiven Christian.

Who can spend the rest of your life living faithfully for Jesus.

If you need to become a Christian tonight, if you need to turn back to Christ, or whatever your need may be, we ask that you come forward as we stand.

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.)

Psalm chapter 99.

Uh, this morning, the sermon is about reverent worship.

And you might have seen that in the songs that we sang.

Um, and as we read through this chapter, this chapter is, is a great chapter on, on worship.

But pay attention to the response to God, uh, what it says about God, um, and, and just the reverence throughout the palm.

Uh, I am reading from the Legacy Standard Bible, uh, Psalm 99.

Yahweh reigns.

Let the peoples tremble.

He sits enthroned above the cherubim.

Let the earthquake.

Yahweh is great in Zion, and he is exalted above the peoples.

Let them praise your great and awesome name.

Holy is he.

The strength of the King loves justice.

You have established equity.

You have done justice and righteousness in Jacob.

Exalt Yahweh our God, and worship at the footstool of his feet.

Holy is He. Moses and Aaron were among his priests, and Samuel was among those who called on his name.

They would call upon Yahweh, and he would answer them.

He would speak to them in the pillar of cloud.

They kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them.

Oh God, oh Yahweh, our God, you answered them.

You were a forgiving God to them, and yet an avenger of their evil deeds.

Exalt Yahweh our God.

And worship at his holy mountain, for holy is Yahweh, our God.

Hm As has already been said a couple of times, I'm glad that you're here this morning.

We have already this morning come in a metaphorical sense before the throne of God in prayer.

We have lifted our voices in praise.

We have read from the scripture, and we'll continue now to look at God's word as we are assembled in His presence this morning for this worship hour.

The Bible's pretty consistent in the way that it presents.

The behavior of men who come into the presence of God.

Whom God approached in one way or another.

For instance, you may recall that when Moses was in those 40 years where he was learning to be a shepherd, that God appeared to him at Sinai at the burning, in a burning bush.

And Exodus 43:6 tells us that God said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

A little bit later on in the book of Judges, we have in the chapters 13 through 16, the story of the Judge Samson.

Chapter 13 talks about Samson's birth.

His mother was barren, and an angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord appeared to her and informed her that she would have a child.

Samson's father Manoah.

Wanted to know what Samson's mission would be, this child that was to be born.

And so the angel of the Lord appears to Manoah and the woman.

In verse 20 of Judges 13.

It says, and when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, they had offered some food on an altar.

The angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar.

Now, Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.

The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife.

Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord, and Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die.

We have seen God.

The last example I want to suggest to you.

In a brief way, is the prophet Isaiah, chapter 6 of Isaiah records the commission of Isaiah as a prophet of God.

And in the text, in the very beginning of that chapter, Isaiah writes that he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

And Isaiah, as he sees the grandeur of the Lord's throne and those creatures that were surrounding him, he said in verse 5, and I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of uncleanclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Isaiah says, I'm lost.

What's common to all of these stories is that people are afraid to be in the presence of God as sinful human beings.

They recognize the distance, if you please, between themselves and the God who has appeared to them or approached them.

I want you to remember with me.

The reaction of the people at Mount Sinai when the Lord came to them and delivered to the people of Israel the Decalogue.

The Lord prepared the people in Exodus chapter 19, beginning in verse 113, by telling Moses, behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you, and they also believe you forever.

When Moses told the words of the Lord, of the people to the Lord, The Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today.

Consecrate them, sanctify them.

Today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the 3rd day.

For on the 3rd day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

That's in chapter 19, verses 9 to 11, dropping down in the same chapter to verses 16 through 20.

We read about what happens on the 3rd day when the Lord comes down on the mount.

On the morning of the 3rd day, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.

Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended upon it in fire.

The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.

The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up.

So in chapter 33 then, God speaks to the people, the Decalogue, the 10 Commandments, and verse 18 tells us about the response of the people to hearing the, the voice of God.

Verse 18 of Exodus 20.

Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountains smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and stood far off and said to Moses, you speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.

Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be up before you, that you may not sin.

The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

And so once again, you see the entire nation showing the same reaction to the voice of God, to the appearance of God on the Mount Sinai.

Don't talk to us.

Don't let God talk to us.

Let him talk to you.

Because we're afraid we'll die.

The response to people when they came into the presence of God was always fear and trembling.

The Hebrews author.

Also gives us a description of what happened at Mount.

Sinai, but he adds another detail that's not in Exodus as near as I know.

In Hebrews 12, the writer is comparing the first covenant with the second covenant.

I understand that's the context.

But listen to his description of the giving of the Decalogue, verse 18 of Hebrews 12, for you have not come to what may be touched a blazing fire and darkness and gloom in a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

He's talking about what happened at Mount Sinai.

For they could not endure the order that was given.

If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.

Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear.

Even Moses was afraid when he came into the grandeur, the glory, witnessed the glory of the Lord.

And so in verse 28 of that same chapter, Hebrews 12, the writer 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 awe.

We have come in this morning into the presence of the same God.

Who made people afraid because they were in His presence, that they witnessed to some extent his glory.

Are we prepared for that event?

Will we offer to God this morning acceptable worship?

Have we, with reverence and awe?

What I would like to do for a few moments this morning is to Work our way through some passages and psalms.

The psalmists speak of the glory, the majesty, and the power of God.

They talk about God in many ways, but those things are emphasized again and again in the Psalms.

As the writers describe the greatness of God, they also encourage the worship to Him.

What Alex said about the focus of Psalm 163.

is exactly right.

The psalmist is extolling the greatness of God and then suggesting that the proper response to that is worship.

And so what I'd like to do this morning.

is just to read some passages through the Psalms.

If you're following along in the bulletin where there's a sermon page for notes, there are about 11 lines there where you can take down the references.

I'll try to repeat them so that you can do that.

But what I would really like for you to do is as much as possible, listen to the words that are used by the psalmists to describe God.

I'm going to begin in Psalm 111.

Psalm 111 verses 1 through 3.

Psalm 111:1 begins, praise the Lord.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the company of the upright in the congregation.

Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them, full of splendor and majesty is his work, and His righteousness endures forever.

Moving to Psalm 33.

Beginning in verse 6, Psalm 33, beginning in verse 6 and reading through verse 9.

Verse 6 begins by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth, all their host.

He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap.

He puts the deeps in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord.

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him, for he spoke and it came to be.

He commanded and it stood firm.

Moving to Psalm 104.

Psalm 104, beginning in verse 24, just reading two verses, 24 and 25.

Psalm 10,163 24 begins, O Lord, how manifold are your works?

In wisdom have you made them all.

The earth is full of your creatures.

Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures, innumerable living things, both small and great.

Think about that if you will.

The immense Area that's covered by water in our world and all of the creatures that exist in those waters, all of that is the creation of God.

In the beginning, he made the heavens and the earth and he divided the land from the water.

He created all of the creatures that we see so abundantly in our world.

And so the psalmist says, how manifold are your words.

Often in the Psalms, when the writer talks about the works of God in the context of that phrase, that word, he often is talking about God's work toward Israel, what God has done to bless Israel.

But the psalmists also talk about creation.

And they talk about the greatness of God as seen in the creation, the natural world.

Psalm 19, the Psalm that we are pretty familiar with, Psalm 19, beginning in verse 1, just gonna read the 1st 4 verses of that Psalm.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.

Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.

There's no speech, nor language where their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone throughout all the earth, gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

God's glory can be seen in the natural creation, in the heavens.

And that witness to God's greatness can be seen everywhere.

It doesn't make any difference what language you speak or where you live.

That witness is available to all.

It's interesting that If you look at a map or a picture of the Earth, I should say, at night, you'll see that some countries have lots of lights.

There's brightness there, and then there are other countries that are almost completely dark.

One of the things I have enjoyed about going to Zimbabwe.

Is that when we go out into the rural area where electricity is in many cases non-existent, when you look up at the sky at night, you see stars like you'll never see around this part of the world.

You see like a, a web up there, like a mist.

It's just stars upon stars.

It helps us to remember how immense the universe is that we live in.

And was created by God.

The next reading is Psalm 106, the first two verses 1 and 2, Psalm 53 verses 1 and 2.

Praise the Lord, the psalmist writes.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord or declare all his praise?

Who can, who can adequately praise the one who made us, who made the world that we live in?

In Psalm 113 46, Psalm 113 466, the Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens.

Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?

God is transcendent, and he is so much greater than us and everything that we know in this world.

Psalm 77:13-14.

Psalm 1393-14.

Your way, oh God, is holy.

What God is great like our God, the psalmist writes, You are the God who works wonders.

You have made known your might among the peoples.

Psalm 95, 6 verses, Psalm 95 1 through 60, come, let us sing to the Lord.

Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving.

Let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise.

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

In His hand are the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh, come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.

And so the psalmist connects the greatness of God with the call to worship that God.

Psalm 29:1-2.

Psalm 53:1-2.

Ascribe to the Lord, oh heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory to His name.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

The last two readings are both from Psalm 8.

Psalm 23.

Some of you are beginning to wonder, I know there's 216 Psalms, how long is he going to read?

These are the last two readings, Psalm 23 and verse 216.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

You have set your glory above the heavens.

That Psalm ends with that same verse, that same sentence.

But I want to read also for you as the final reading, verses 25 and 2139 of Psalm 93, Psalm 29, verses 210 and 25.

When I look at your heavens, the psalmist writes, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man, that you care for him?

When the Hebrews author in chapter 11 of that book was reciting examples of faith, he finally comes to the point where he says, and what more shall I say?

For time would fail me to tell, to, to talk about Gideon, and he mentions a few others just quickly in passing.

And we could say the same thing about the Psalms.

We could talk about Psalm 139, which extols the omniscience and omnipotence of God.

There's nowhere that we can go where he cannot be aware of what we are doing and knowing what we are saying, and, and Psalm 148 and Psalm 145, and we can go on and on.

With these readings, but those 11 readings hopefully have suggested to you or reminded you of the greatness of God, of his, uh, His majesty and His glory and His power as seen in the creation and then in His righteous works.

I think we are at a disadvantage.

From some people who lived in millennia past.

And the reason I say that is we have become more and more divorced from the natural world around us.

How many of us spend most of our time encased in buildings made by men, sitting on furniture made by men, working on computers made by men, watching screens made by men.

With artificial light produced by The efforts of men.

David The psalmist would write about the glory and the majesty of God.

Because he spent time in the fields.

Herding sheep, shepherding animals.

He spent time in the natural world where God's power is so evident.

By both the immensity of our world.

And its complexity.

Romans 1:103 says, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.

The less time that we spend in the natural world speaking, talking about out in, in the country, in the forest, or to view God's creation.

The more we remove ourselves from perhaps one of the strongest evidences of God's power.

And that's the creation around us.

And so it's not surprising that the psalms written by individuals perhaps more than 3000 years ago, that they reference repeatedly God's creative power.

Well, I said all that because I want to talk to you about reverend worship.

You've probably noticed maybe on television, in real life occurrences, or perhaps you've seen this represented in movies by actors where the behavior of people when they come into the presence of somebody who is in authority or power or has influence, that their behavior changes.

That there's a reverence or respect there, a carefulness of how they behave in the presence of such people.

If you go to court, There'll be someone who would say, please rise when the judge comes in.

And he will, she will say the same thing when the judge exits the court.

Please rise, and the reason for that is a show of respect for the judge who represents the law of our country.

For those of you who have never read from the Etiquette, Etiquette School of New York website, today is your lucky day.

Because I'm going to give you a list of some things that you need to know if you are invited to go and be in the presence of the Queen of England.

Maybe not likely, but you never know, and you need to be prepared.

So let me tell you some things.

There's there's a complete set of etiquette rules for what you should do and shouldn't do when you come into the presence of royalty, particularly English royalty.

You address the Queen as Your Majesty when you first see her or address her, and then after that, none.

Do not under any circumstances touch the queen.

Do not offer to shake the queen's hand unless she extends her hand first, and when you do that shake, you don't give them a Gary Copeland shake.

You shake lightly.

You don't pump it like we do here.

Yeah, yeah, it's good to see you, Alex.

And if she gives you the royal push off, that means she's done shaking your hand.

Pay attention.

Never Ever wear gloves when you shake the Queen's hand.

In fact, you should never wear gloves in the presence of royalty, period, they say.

It is OK to make light contact with royalty as you shake hands, and as you do, say, how do you do?

Not, mind you, not pleased to meet you, or it's nice to meet you, which is probably what I would have said.

How do you do?

Write that down.

Only British people are to curtsey and bow to the Queen.

Americans are not required to do so.

So if you're going to bow, don't do that.

It's not required.

Always stand when the queen enters the room and never turn your back on her or walk in front of her.

That's disrespectful as far as they're concerned.

There's a certain behavior that you have to follow to show proper respect, reverence for this, this human ruler, the Queen of England.

When meeting any member of the royal family.

Do not touch or invade their personal space without a clear invitation.

Hugs, kisses on the cheek, and other forms of physical contact are strictly off limits.

And I guarantee you when presidents go to England and they're gonna be in the presence of the Queen, there's somebody who has said there's some things you need to know.

Let me remind you, don't touch the Queen unless she extends her hand to you, and so on.

And all I'm saying is that there's a certain behavior that is typical when we come into the presence of people who have a lot of influence or or power position that demands respect.

Well, that's what our worship is intended to show.

Our worship is intended to show our reverence and our respect for God.

That's why you're here this morning.

That's at least one of the purposes of our worship.

I understand we encourage one another.

But we come together primarily to show our reverence and our respect for God.

Our English word worship is an interesting one.

Etymologically, it literally means worth ship, W O R T H ship.

We are worshiping, we're showing their worthiness by our behavior.

I could give you lots of definitions for the English word worship.

Uh, the honored in pictorial Bible and dictionary says the honor, reverence, and homage paid superior beings or powers.

But I think we all understand that the concept of worship, the core concept is the paying of reverence or respect for another.

There are several Greek words that can be translated worship.

Or religious service, something of that nature.

Perhaps the most common word is the Greek word prosko.

Which literally means to kiss towards.

It's a word that harkens back to the practice, even much before the New Testament period of bowing and kissing the hand or the hem of the garment or the ground before an esteemed ruler.

The Greeks considered some of their kings to be deified.

Later on, the Romans would also.

And so when you came into their presence, you bowed before them.

That's what this word talks about in its literal meaning.

It's rendered worship in the New Testament, and it means to show reverence, to honor, to make obeisance before a person who deserves that respect and honor.

We worship God because He is worthy of our worship and because of what He has done for us.

In Revelation, the 4th chapter in verse 11, John wrote, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by your will, they existed and were created.

As Daniel told the foolish Babylonian ruler.

He said, God holds your breath in his hand.

We are not only the creation of God, but we depend on Him for everything that we need to survive.

He sends the rain on the just and the unjust.

In Colossians 3:16.

In Colossians 3:16, Paul wrote, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

You know, sometimes I think we forget about that last phrase that talks about worship.

But with thankfulness in our hearts, that's a strong motivation.

For the respect and reverence that we show to God in our worship.

I suspect that we tend to think of worship in terms of acts.

We talk about praying and singing, observing the Lord's supper, giving of our means, and our studying of the Bible together.

We, we, we talked about the five acts of worship that we do when we come together on the first day of the week.

But I want you to understand something, and this is important.

The word that's translated worship, the one that I talked about, uh, already, rascuneo, it does not specify any particular act.

Now etymologically, it talks about kissing the hand toward, but in terms of our worship, it doesn't specify any act.

It talks about showing reverence and respect for God.

We learn how God wants that to be done by the instruction of the apostles and prophets in the New Testament and by seeing the examples of New Testament Christians.

None of the definitions for the various words that are translated worship, so that Omai is another one that talks about showing, uh, devotion to one.

None of the definitions for these worship words mentioned the Lord's Supper.

These acts are worshiped only as they constitute expressions of reverence, devotion, awe, and respect.

And they convey those things only because God has said that's what he wants.

And so when we worship according to the will of God, it's possible for us then to show reverence to Him.

And that's the real point of worship, is it not?

The expression of reverence for our Creator and sustainer.

I guess it should probably also be obvious, but I think it needs mentioning.

From the meaning of worship, if it is an act of reverence and awe.

Worship doesn't necessarily take place just because we participated in these acts.

You, you understand what I'm saying?

I'm saying you can sing without any real thought about giving reverence to God or respect to God.

It's just, oh, I like the beat.

I like the melody.

Oh, everybody's singing.

The singing sounds so nice, or I'm singing while I'm thinking about other things besides the words that I'm speaking in song.

Well, I participated in the act, but I didn't worship.

And so that's the point I'm trying to make that just because we participate in 5 acts doesn't necessarily mean that we have worshiped because worship is the showing of respect and reverence, and that's not guaranteed simply by our bodies being present here and our our our words and our thoughts are running in other directions.

Is it possible for us to engage in acts of worship without actually manifesting reverence for God?

Absolutely. Absolutely And so worship has to involve the heart.

It has to involve the mind.

It's not just ritual that we perform with our bodies while our minds are a million miles away.

Thinking about other things.

And so I say our understanding of and our attitude toward God will greatly affect our worship.

When we come here, when you come into the building.

And as you're coming in and you're greeting people, and then eventually you, you take a seat and you're, you're waiting for the worship service to begin.

Why are we coming together?

Do we think about that?

Are we beginning to focus on the fact that we're coming into the presence of God?

At least in terms of offering worship to Him, I, I, I kind of don't like that expression coming into the presence of God because Psalm 139 says, you really never leave the presence of God.

That is, he knows everything that you do no matter where you are.

And so it's not like when you go to your home, if you shut the front door, God can't see what's going on.

He's outside, you're inside.

That's, I think, a very narrow view of the God of the Bible.

That there's a special sense in which we approach God directly.

When we come together in worship.

If we view God as some impotent, weak being far removed from our lives, we'll tend to become careless, maybe even irreverent in our worship, and probably sporadic.

After all, the connection, our thinking about God is that he doesn't really matter that much to us.

But on the other hand, If we view ourselves as we come into this building, or as we begin our worship in our homes, uh, as we worship as individuals or as families, if we view ourselves as having come before the throne of God into his presence, Moses trembled.

People fell on their faces.

They were afraid to be in the presence of God.

Are we just blase about that?

Casual About being in the presence of God.

If we view ourselves as coming before the throne of God in His presence to worship, and we understand the holiness and the power of God, the greatness of God, the glory of God, we will be careful.

We'll be diligent in our worship, we'll be serious in our worship of God.

I think in general, the more we understand the connection between our lives and the God we worship.

The more meaningful our worship will be to us.

I think it can be easy to forget the need for proper reverence and worship because we don't see God in our assembly.

Moses and the people of Israel.

could see Mount Sinai.

They could see the outward signs of the presence of God.

Isaiah sees the Lord, at least in some sense, sitting on the throne.

Ezekiel the same thing.

Ezekiel says, I fell on my face when he saw God on his throne.

But we We see a screen.

It has the songs on it.

And they de sermon slides.

Well, we see the person in front and behind the podium, whether it's the song leader who's reading, whoever's reading the scripture or the preacher.

And it's easy for us to forget.

That we're in the presence of God.

If you were invited into the presence of the President of the United States, and I don't care which president you want to imagine for yourself, if you don't like Donald Trump, think some other president.

But if you were invited into the presence of the President of the United States, I guarantee you'd stay off your phone.

I guarantee you your focus would be on the president and on what you need to do or don't need to do.

Because of the office that that individual occupies.

There's a certain respect, and the Bible, I think, supports this, that's deserved by the office.

If we come into the physical presence of God, would we be focused on the one we're worshiping?

Or would we be easily distracted by cares of this world, other activities, etc.

I think if God appeared.

In this building as he did.

In the holy of holies, in the tabernacle and later the temple.

The Shekinah, the glory of God appearing between the cherubim.

So that the high priest would actually cloud that chamber, so that when he comes in there the first time as a sinner with the blood of the calf, that he wouldn't see God and die.

Would we approach our worship services differently?

I think we would I think we would.

We've read from the Psalms this morning to remind us of the greatness of God.

When we come here to worship or when we worship at home or other places, it's like coming into the court of the king.

The king, the king of kings.

And there's an attitude of heart that ought to be associated with that kind of an occasion.

How should we approach that worship?

And I hope that maybe just by talking about some pretty simple things this morning.

That you and I will be encouraged to focus ourselves on the worship that we assemble.

To give to God They will not be easily distracted.

That we'll be serious and careful about the way that we worship.

Because God is watching.

In Revelation chapter 5 and verses 9 and 10, here's what John wrote there.

The lamb in chapter 5.

has taken the scroll out of the right hand of the one who sits on the throne.

That scroll essentially represents the plan of God for avenging his, his faithful people from those who have persecuted them.

The land has taken the scroll, and it says, and they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood, you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

You're worthy to take the scroll in the beginning.

John wept because it seemed there was nobody worthy to take the scroll out of the hand of the one sitting on the throne.

But the lamb The land could And in these verses we're told why?

Because he gave his life on the cross.

He bought, he redeemed.

People from sin, from the bondage of sin.

My question for you this morning is, have you been bought by the blood of the Lamb?

Has that blood washed your sins away?

As you respond to the gospel commands.

To be buried with Christ in baptism, buried into his death where the blood was shed, so that you can be purchased.

Redeemed by the blood, cleansed from your sins.

Have you done that?

If you haven't, then we want to encourage you this morning to take the opportunity to do that so that you can join with us and others of the redeemed to worship the God who redeems us from our sins and promises us eternal life.

If you need to respond to the gospel invitation this morning, then please come to the front and we'll assist you as we stand to sing and encourage 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.)

Scripture reading tonight is coming from the book of Joshua.

We'll read the 1st 9 verses of the first chapter.

Joshua 1:19.

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant is dead.

Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all these people into the land that I'm giving them, to the people of Israel.

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.

From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

I will not leave you or forsake you.

Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.

Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous.

Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

All right.

For a minute I thought sermon was over.

I am gonna talk about hope tonight.

So, uh, that was just a trailer.

The reading that Josh did just a few moments ago.

Brings us to the east side of the Jordan River.

The nation of Israel has wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and they are now on the cusp.

of entering into the land.

Moses was not allowed to go into the land.

He saw from Mount Pisah, the land from the south to the north, but he has been replaced by a young man by the name of Joshua.

Joshua is being prepared by God in this text for the great task of bringing the people of Israel into Canaan.

I want, however, to go back in time.

To the first time that Israel was poised to enter the land of Canaan.

They came up from the south in the wilderness of Pan to Kate Ash Barnea.

And the Lord instructed Moses to send 12 men, 103 man from each tribe, into the land to spy out the land.

You may recall perhaps that the instructions to these spies is that they were supposed to go in and see the land, to see what kind of land it was, and to see the people who live there, the strength of those people, and they are told in Numbers 13, that's where all of this occurs, in verse 20, to be a good courage.

They were gone for 40 days.

And when they came back, they brought a cluster of grapes that was so large that the text says two men carried it.

You can see the artistic representation of that on the screen.

It was a good land, they said, a land that flows with milk and honey.

But, 10 of the spies said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.

And in fact, they discouraged the people to the extent that they were unwilling to go up into the land, they rebelled against the Lord, and the Lord sentenced that nation, that generation.

To wander in the wilderness for 40 years until all those of a certain age and above had perished, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua.

As Israel came up the east side of the Jordan River back in the time of Joshua now.

Moses is still the leader of the people, and they have had battles on the east side of the Jordan River.

They haven't crossed over to the west side yet to conquer the land of Canaan.

But there were a couple of tribes, Gad and Ruben, who wanted to have a land on the east side of the Jordan River.

And so they asked for that land, and Moses is a little sharp with them.

In Numbers 32nd chapter, beginning in verse 6, the text says, but Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here?

Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going, going over into the land that the Lord has given them?

Your fathers did this when I sent them from Kate Ash Barnea to see the land.

For when they went up to the valley of Eshkol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the Lord had given them.

And so, Moses speaks to Gad and Reuben, those tribes, and said, Do you remember how your fathers behaved at Kadesh Barnea when the spies came back and they discouraged the people, they disheartened those people.

Now in Joshua chapter one, the people are on the eastern side of the Jordan River and they're preparing to cross that river to conquer the land.

The Lord in this text, encouraged Joshua 3 times to be strong and courageous.

You probably noticed that I liked, appreciated the way Josh read.

He emphasized the idea of be strong and courageous, be strong and very courageous.

God knew that the people were on the cusp of a great task.

Their forefathers, their fathers, the generation before them had rebelled against the Lord.

But now, God encourages Joshua to be courageous, strong and courageous, and in verse 9, to not be frightened, not be dismayed.

When people become discouraged, We sometimes say that they have lost heart.

The word discouraged is an interesting word.

It gives us a hint about the meaning of losing heart.

When someone is discouraged, Webster says, what's happened is their courage has been lessened.

They've been disheartened to complicate the matter.

But the Oxford Dictionary says that to be disheartened means to have lost determination or confidence, to be dispirited.

Let not your heart be troubled.

I'm not going to define dispirited.

But I think you see that discouraged is the idea of losing courage to be disheartened, to lose determination and confidence.

A person becomes discouraged when they lack courage, when they are afraid of the task that lies before them.

This evening, I want to talk to you about not losing heart.

You know, there are a lot of things that can Cause us to stumble, a lot of things that can cause us to be lost eternally.

But maybe we don't talk enough about the fact that sometimes people just get discouraged.

And they give up.

And so this evening, I want to talk about some of the reasons that Christians sometimes lose heart.

But more importantly, I want to talk about some passages that encourage us to persevere and what they suggest as strategy to deal with the problem of discouragement.

I'm just so discouraged and is, has anybody ever said that to you, maybe a brother or sister, things are happening in their life or in the life of a congregation.

I'm just so discouraged, and people lose heart for a variety of reasons.

I'm gonna Suggest 73 to you this evening.

I'm going to develop them in any detail or depth.

I think they're obvious.

I think you've probably encountered some of these things in your life.

Hopefully you are not discouraged to the point where you sinned.

But the first one I want to talk about is just difficulties in life.

I know that's a rather broad category, but I'm specifically talking about those things in life that just happened to us.

No blame.

It's not something that we did that was wrong.

It. Might be a natural calamity.

Our home was flooded or perhaps a windstorm came through and destroyed property, or maybe it's financial or job setbacks that have very little to do with us particularly.

The company is cutting back.

I'm an esteemed employee, but they're going to make cuts and I lose my job.

And so those kinds of things can be very discouraging to people and we can't often do much about them.

Obviously natural calamities happen and there's not a whole lot that we can do about it.

Back in 2011, there was a tornado that came through Alabama, actually several tornadoes.

I think the last one that came through.

Came within a quarter, 1/8 of a mile of my house.

It took off part of the roof of the house, not a large piece, but enough that rain could come in.

It took off the back of the garage roof.

It just overturned so many trees.

I counted there were 55 of them that fell on the fence that encircled our property.

I can remember going out the next day to kind of assess the damage that had been done, and it was just so discouraging to me that we had worked hard to try to improve the property.

We bought it with, it was just trees, and so we had carved out a place, we built a house, put up the fence around there.

We were doing various things to improve the and a lot of that was now gone.

Very discouraging, and that's the kind of thing I'm talking about when I talk about difficulties in life.

There wasn't a right or wrong.

This wasn't a matter of moral quantity, but instead it was just something that happens to us that we can't really avoid.

Personal problems.

By that I mean things like physical problems or even spiritual problems.

It might be a serious illness that we have been to contend with or ongoing physical ailments.

We have several in this congregation who are in that situation where they have been diagnosed with sickness or some sort of ailments, and it's an ongoing thing.

It might be that we're struggling unsuccessfully with temptation.

I know sometimes brethren and sisters that they are struggling to leave to avoid some sin, and it just seems like they can't seem to successfully do it and that can be very discouraging as we struggle against the tempter.

Relationship problems.

Whether you're talking about the stress that sometimes occurs in a marriage, as husband and wife do not see eye to eye on things, and so there's uh fusses or stress in that relationship, or it may be the parent-child relationship where there's poor parenting in some cases, or sometimes you've got children who Who are rebellious and parents I've known parents to say I don't know what to do anymore they're discouraged they've tried all the things that they can think of to try to deal with the rebellion or the disobedience of their children and they just, they're at their wits end can be very discouraging because it's not something that you can walk away from stress between friends.

Sometimes discourages us.

People do things that we would never have thought they would do to us.

Those that we prize as close friends sometimes do things that seem disloyal and unloving, and that can be very discouraging as well.

Societal problems our country is going through a time of chaos and violence and a lot of controversy over what the government's doing, what states are doing, what individuals are doing, and that could be very discouraging to us as it seems sometimes that evil is strong and it's not really being confronted effectively by either individuals or the government, civil injustice.

You don't have to spend much time on the internet before you'll run across stories of people who frankly have been taken advantage of by the justice system or by government.

Or even other individual citizens.

And the widespread immorality in society.

I, I know every generation thinks it's terrible in their generation.

It's never been like this before.

We need to go back and read Genesis 6 in the time of Noah, uh, we might think differently, but when we see what's going on.

On in society we hear some of the silliness in terms of morality that's going on, it could be very discouraging.

It seems almost as though we are a very small minority, those of us who are trying to stand up for biblical convictions.

And it's not just the world.

Sometimes it's in the local church.

People get discouraged because local churches are being divided by any number of things.

Sometimes it's a doctrinal issue, sometimes it's uh tension between members or groups of members or even families, and that's discouraging, not just to the new Christians, certainly to that individual, but even the older Christians who, uh.

have friends on both sides of the division.

Sometimes people are discouraged by apathy in the local congregation.

Uh, I give thanks for this congregation, for your zeal, for your, uh, determination to serve one another and to serve the Lord.

But I've been in congregations and I know of congregations.

Where it just seems that things are just not being done.

There's a lack of zeal among the members of the congregation.

I remember one congregation I was invited to.

Preach a meeting and I preached a meeting on evangelism, uh, during the, during the week, and there was a, a sister in the front on, I think it was the last day of the meeting.

She said, well, he's told us we're dead all week, I guess tonight he'll bury us.

I didn't bury them.

But they did have a problem with apathy, and that's discouraging to people who do want to try to accomplish the Lord's work in the community.

Specific instances of immorality.

Here's a brother or a sister that has been a faithful member of a congregation for a long time and then all of a sudden it becomes known that there's immorality in that person's life and that's very discouraging to us or the.

Apostasy of members who just leave the church, very discouraging, particularly if you've studied with that individual or you've been close to that individual, you've worked in spiritual service with that individual, and now that person has left the Lord and that can be very discouraging to us, even difficulties in evangelism.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could baptize in a gospel meeting 40, 50 people like they used to do in days past?

Of course, those gospel meetings sometimes were weeks long also.

Or to go over to places where Ed Bryan is going and he's preaching the gospel there and they'll baptize 1215, 20 people in a day.

And then we look and we have difficulty sometimes baptizing one person a month.

And that can be discouraging to individuals.

I know Jeremiah was discouraged by the lack of positive response to his preaching to the work that he was doing.

The rejection of the truth by people.

You, you talk to someone and you're trying to help them by showing them the truth.

They don't want anything to do with that.

Oh, I've got a church, I belong to a church, or I don't care about religion.

I don't believe in God.

All of these things can create discouragement in our lives, and I want to tell you that discouragement is dangerous.

The danger of discouragement, I think, lies primarily in our response to it.

Some folks will run away from their problems.

They literally run away, leave their location, or sometimes they escape through the use of drugs.

Do you remember the story of Elijah?

In First Kings 93.

He has had this contest with the prophets of Baal at the top of Mount Carmel.

And it's been a complete and utter victory for the Lord.

It's been evident to the people of Israel that God, Jehovah God, is the true God.

And I really expect or suspect that Elijah thought that that was going to overthrow maybe the wicked king Ahab and his wife Jezebel, proponents of Baal worship.

But what Elijah finds out is that Jezebel's on a mission to kill him.

And so he flees all the way down to the southern part of Canaan.

And twice, God asks Elijah, what are you doing here?

And I think the clear implication is that Elijah was not where he was supposed to be, nor doing what he was supposed to be doing.

You know, if we try to run from our problems, usually we cannot leave them behind.

Regardless of how far and how fast we run, our problems usually are still there when we stop running.

Others allow their discouragement to turn into pessimism.

They have been beaten down by some of the things that we've talked about that caused discouragement, and it's been one thing after another.

And at some point, they just become distrustful of everyone and everything, and they adopt a gloomy view of life in general.

They seem to assume that past problems are a guarantee of future problems.

Well, look what I've had to endure back here.

It's not going to be any different in the future.

You ever know someone like that?

Unfortunately, that kind of attitude is contagious.

It's depressing to the people around such folks who are constantly pessimistic.

And I'll tell you, pessimism.

Has the ability to bring work to a grinding halt.

There's always a reason why it won't work.

There's always a reason why we shouldn't do that.

It's, it's not going to work because it didn't work in the past or something else didn't work in the past.

So there's always a reason why we shouldn't do what the Lord wants us to do.

Pessimism is like built-in discouragement.

And then finally, some people just give up.

You ever know a brother or sister in Christ who just got so discouraged?

That at some point they said, I'm forgetting all this.

I don't need this.

I'm going to leave the Lord.

Well, what I want to do this evening, in the rest of our hour and a half, is I'd like to talk a little bit about keep on keeping on.

I want to talk to you about 3 scriptures.

There are lots of other scriptures that we can talk about, but I like these 3 because they suggest some reasons why you shouldn't give up, some reasons why we should not be discouraged or allow discouragement to cause us to give up or to run away.

And the first one, of course, as you suggest, would, would guess is Joshua, the 1st chapter, verses 1 through 9.

I want to go back to that passage, and I want to look at some of the things that God told Joshua.

In Joshua 1 there, in verse 5, the Lord says, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

I will not leave you or forsake you.

Have you ever noticed that people who get discouraged are often people who are loners or they're not making good use of the support of other people they're trying to do it on their own they're not using the strength of others to help them deal with difficulties.

God tells Joshua, I was with Moses, I will be with you the same way.

I will not leave you or forsake you.

And then verse 9 and the latter part of the verse says, do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

I don't know how David did this.

He probably hacked my computer and saw the outline, but the song that he led us in the very first song, perfect for what I'm talking about tonight.

Let me read the second verse.

Uh, if you're like me, you probably don't remember what the verse said.

So, let me just read it.

It says, many times, Satan whispered, there's no need to cry, for there's no end of sorrow.

There's no hope by and by.

But I know thou art with me, and tomorrow, I'll rise where the storm never darkens the skies.

The verse says that Satan wants you to believe you're all by yourself.

There's nothing else.

It's just the difficulty that you're struggling with right now.

But that song, I think, echoes the message that the Lord gave to Joshua, and that is, I'm with you.

And so, whatever kinds of difficulties are going on in our lives from time to time, we need to understand that the Lord's promise is that he will be with his people.

Furthermore, in the same text, if you look at verse 3, as God is commissioning Joshua to lead the people into the land, he says, every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, uh, tread upon, I have given to you just as I promised to Moses.

No man shall be able to stand before you, verse 103, all the days of your life, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

I will not leave you or forsake you.

Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause these people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.

What God does is he reminds Joshua that there was a promise that had been made, even as far back as Abraham, that the land on which they would walk, that that land had been given to the descendants of Abraham.

I'm going to give you this land just like I promised you.

I think that's an important thing for us to remember when we're struggling with difficulties, that God has made a number of promises of spiritual blessings, of guidance, of forgiveness of sins, of strength for us.

I believe those kinds of things can help us deal with difficulties in life.

I, I think sometimes when things are not going exactly the way we want them to, to go, we begin to feel like, well, I'm all alone.

Where's God?

God's with you.

We'll say more about that in just a few moments as we talk about the 2nd passage, and that's 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and I'm specifically interested.

At this point, with the beginning of the chapter and the end of the chapter, I want you to see something interesting.

Chapter 4, verse 1 begins, therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

So Paul is saying what he says in verse one based on what has already been said, but there's an inclusio here, because the chapter ends uh somewhat the same way, verse 16.

So that's a conclusion word.

So we do not lose heart though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Paul mentions here in verse 17, an eternal weight of glory.

And that I believe is a connection back to chapter 3.

Even the word therefore in verse 1 directs us back into the previous chapter so that we understand what he is talking about, why it is that he did not lose heart.

And so what I'd like to do is I'd like to look at this.

Uh, if I can find my Bible here.

I want to look at, uh, 23 Corinthians 3, and we're going to read through the chapter.

I'll not, uh, talk about all the things in the chapter, but I want you to see the connection of glory in chapter 3 with what Paul says, uh, in the end of chapter 4.

So here's the beginning of chapter 3.

He says, are we beginning to commend ourselves again?

Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all, and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts, it appears that there were some teachers who had come into the Corinthian congregation and they had their letters.

Their letters that suggested their authority and their background, their understanding, their learning.

Paul says we don't need those kind of letters.

You are the proof of our work, such is the confidence, he says in verse 4 that we have through Christ to God, not that we are sufficient in our.

Ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

Now what Paul's going to do in chapter 3 here.

In the middle of the chapter is he's gonna contrast two covenants.

He's gonna talk about one that is of the letter or uh as he says here, uh, of the letter, but then another covenant that is of the spirit, and he's gonna contrast them in terms of what they produced, but also about the glory that was associated with each covenant.

So let's follow the argument here verse 7.

Now, if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, he's talking about the law of Moses now, a law system that was, as Paul says in Galatians 5, a yoke of slavery.

If the ministry of death came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end.

Will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?

You may remember that when Moses was in the presence of God, receiving the law, being up at the top of Mount Sinai, that his face when he came down from the mount shone so that people couldn't look at it.

He had to veil his face.

And that's what Paul's mentioning here in verse 7, verse 33, for if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, that's the old law.

Because what the old law did was it just condemned people.

It couldn't bring them to salvation in and of itself.

All it had was animal sacrifices.

If there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

So now he's comparing these two covenants in terms of the glory that was associated with each covenant.

So if the first covenant, the law of Moses, had glory associated with it, and that's indicated by the, the shining of Moses' face, wouldn't a superior covenant have more glory associated with it?

That's Paul's argument.

Let's continue to read.

Along with him indeed verse 10, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it.

We know, of course, that the law of Moses was taken out of the way, as he says earlier in the chapter.

Uh, which was being brought to an end.

This is at the end of verse 7.

So the law of Moses is ending.

Now you've got this other covenant, a superior covenant, and its glory is so much superior to the glory of the first covenant that in all essence, the first covenant has no glory at all, for if what was being brought to an end.

Came with glory.

Much more will what is permanent have glory.

Now we're talking about one of the areas of superiority of the new covenant.

It's permanent.

La Moses never intended to be permanent.

It was taken out of the way.

Verse 12, since we have such a hope.

We are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.

Do you understand what Paul's saying?

He's saying that the veil there.

It was not just to protect the people from the shining of Moses' face, but as time went on, that shining diminished, and he put a veil over his face so the people couldn't see that the glory of the first covenant was going to come to an end.

That's what he's saying.

For to this, excuse me, but then, verse 27, but their minds were hardened, for to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted.

In other words, they don't understand that the glory has departed from that law.

Because only through Christ is it taken away.

Yes, to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.

And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

So, Paul is talking about these two covenants, and the glory associated with each.

He said, the glory of that first covenant, that came to an end.

The glory of the 210nd covenant, a permanent covenant, it is far superior to that.

We need to keep reading though.

Paul says in chapter 27, verse 29, therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

Therefore, having this ministry, what ministry?

The preaching of the gospel, this new covenant that has so much greater glory than that first law.

And Paul, of course, like the rest of the apostles and others who preach the gospel, they were entrusted with this ministry.

But we have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways.

We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

For God who said, Let light shine out of the darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Now, pay attention to verse 210.

Because in verse 22, he is going to talk about another contrast.

He says, but we have this treasure.

What's this treasure?

It's the gospel.

It's this message of salvation.

We have this treasure, he says, in jars of clay.

Paul didn't haul around a Bible in a clay jar.

What he's saying is that we are mere jars of clay, these individuals who are preaching the gospel.

The power is not in the messenger.

The treasure is in the message.

To show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

I want you to see something.

He says, um, well, and I've, I've gotten behind in my, uh, Slides here, but look at this slide, verse 133.

He says, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.

And then he talks about always carrying in the body the death of Jesus.

Paul is not saying that he didn't ever have any difficulties.

Paul suffered greatly.

In fact, if you were to go a little bit further in the same epistle over in chapter 213, he'll give you a list of some things that not even Luke records in the Book of Acts.

But Paul says, even though we're afflicted, we're not crushed.

Why not, Paul?

We're perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.

How is it that you can endure these things, Paul, and not lose heart?

And that brings us back to the end of the chapter.

So I can get my Technology to work here.

And We looked at verses 22 through 24, a little bit earlier, but I want you to see now some other comparisons.

He says, so we do not lose heart.

Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light momentary affliction, that's an incredible phrase.

When you consider what Paul endured in the preaching the gospel, his persecutors chased him from city to city.

They drug him out of the city at Lyster and stoned him.

He was beaten with rods.

Shipwreck, suffered shipwreck in the course of preaching the gospel, traveling to preach the gospel.

And then he describes all of that as light momentary affliction.

It's preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

The affliction, oh, that's light compared to what?

Compared to the weight of glory that awaits us in the next life.

The like momentary affliction.

is contrasted with the eternal weight of glory.

You know, when you're enduring difficulties in this life and you, you, you're getting discouraged maybe by things that are happening that are making your life difficult.

It is hard for us sometimes to remember.

That eternity has no end.

I'm headed tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock to the dentist.

I chipped a tooth last week.

And I'm going to have a crown put on.

On Monday morning at 8 o'clock, that's a great way to start your week.

I don't know how many of you love to hear the sound of a drill.

Echoing through your mouth as it, as it, you know, takes out pieces of filling and tooth and whatnot.

But the way I get through that is, it's just a temporary thing.

It doesn't last very long, and I have a pretty good dentist too.

And that's the way we need to look at these afflictions, these difficulties in life, things that cause discouragement.

This is only temporary.

If it afflicts you or me for the rest of our lives, it is still temporary compared to eternity.

Light, momentary affliction.

Contrasted against an eternal weight of glory.

I don't know what that's gonna be like.

I know we'll be with God.

I know that we're going to be with God and we're gonna behold His glory, His majesty, His power.

Can you imagine what that's gonna be like?

Paul says, What's going on here?

It's just preparing us for this greater glory as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal, so we contrast those things that can be seen that's the stuff around us, it's all transient, it's temporary.

Against those things that are unseen.

People live all their lives paying only attention to the things that they can see, the things of this world.

But that's all temporary.

Paul says, we look to the things that are unseen.

Because those things are eternal.

In Colossians 1:27, Paul wrote this, to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Why is it that Paul was not discouraged by these things that were going, Why is it that he didn't just give up?

It's because of hope.

The hope of glory.

Unimaginable or as Paul says, beyond all comparison.

Colossians 3:1-23.

Later on, he writes to the Colossians, if then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, the things that are not transient or temporal, but things that are eternal.

Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth, you've died and your life is hidden with Christ and God.

You and I can't ignore life on this world.

We would sadly have big problems very quickly.

But our focus, our perspective.

Needs to be on the eternal things.

I don't know if you agree with Brother Bowman's comment.

He said one time, dealing with discouragement is not a matter of taking the proper action, but instead assuming the proper perspective.

And I think that's what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 4, and that's good information for dealing with discouragement.

What is your, what is my perspective in this world?

Well, the final passage that I want to talk about, and I'll be very brief about this, is Galatians the 6th chapter verses 7 to 10.

In that passage in verse 7, Paul introduces the law of agriculture for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

And then he makes the spiritual application of that.

What you plant is going to determine what you harvest.

And he says, for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap, reap eternal life.

So two different harvests.

And depending on what you're sowing in life, You'll harvest one or the other, but God's not mocked.

You can't sow one and get a different harvest, uh.

Other than what you saw.

And so he says in verse 9, and let us not grow weary of doing good.

That's the same concept as losing heart or becoming discouraged, for he says, and there are two things here.

First of all, he says, for in due season, we will reap.

The reward, the ultimate reward is not here.

As much as I love to be with you, and we do things that are spiritual, we do things that are encouraging to one another.

The ultimate reward is in due season.

Just like the farmer who plants his seed, he doesn't plant it one day and expect to harvest the next day.

For in due season, we will reap if we do not give up.

And that's the problem, isn't it, with discouragement that sometimes people just give up.

So what's the conclusion, verse 10.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are the household of faith.

Now, my point primarily in this passage is that Paul is saying, you need to look at the big picture.

That's what a farmer does when he plants.

He plants in hope of a harvest.

He's looking down the road.

He's dealing with work and labor and expense in the current time, in the present.

He's looking for the harvest, and that's what we need to be doing.

I would suggest to you also that as we take the opportunity to do good to others, it will take our focus off of those things that so often perhaps would cause us to be discouraged.

2 Thessalonians 3:13.

As for you brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.

Discouragement is dangerous.

I really believe that it's one of Satan's most valuable tools.

Discouragement will cause us to weaken in the struggle against sin.

To give in to fleshly desires.

Discouragement can result in apathy.

We just kind of Coast along.

We don't have any zeal.

We don't have any determination.

We don't have any confidence.

Thomas Edison said, our greatest weakness lies in giving up.

The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

And I'm going to take that quote and say that what we need to do is every time something happens that discourages us, we need to pick ourselves up.

We need to remember what our focus is, what our goal is, what our hope is.

And then take another step toward heaven.

I think maintaining the correct perspective, focusing on the eternal rather than the temporal is an important defense against discouragement.

I, I will tell you from personal experience that when I focus on the bad things that can happen to me in life or some of the difficulties in life, it's very easy to get discouraged.

But when I think about that eternal weight of glory.

It makes some of the stuff that we have to deal with here on this earth to be small stuff.

Being a Christian means seeing the big picture, taking the long view of life.

And unfortunately, there are a lot of people who don't have that kind of focus.

They don't have that kind of perspective.

Is that your perspective this evening?

Are you Journey on toward that reward.

So that the things, the tribulations of this life seem as nothing.

You're not a Christian.

I will tell you, you're not seeing the big picture.

If all you're doing is going through this life and taking care of your physical needs, your perspective is wrong.

All this is temporal.

It's all going to pass away.

What we need to do is focus on that which is eternal, as Paul indicated in 2 Corinthians 4.

If we can assist you this evening in obeying the gospel, setting your focus on those things that are above, and we want to encourage you to express your faith in Jesus Christ this evening.

You can be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins, and you start a new life with a different focus, with hope.

If we can assist you, come to the front as we stand.

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.)

Today's scripture reading will be coming from 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 11 through 16.

1 Peter chapter 2, verses 11 through 16.

Now I'll be reading from the New American Standard Bible.

Beloved, I urge you as aliens as as strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so as to the living in which they slander you as evildoers that that may because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God on the day of visitation.

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority or to the governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.

For such is the will of God that by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

Act as free men and do not use your freedom as the covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God.

Appreciate the good reading there.

Is it just me, or do you feel like you've been to a triple wedding of sorts?

That was kind of neat.

So. We are thankful for now all 13 men who served this congregation as deacons.

My thoughts this morning center around.

Authority And the fact is that almost nobody likes to be told what to do.

And nobody likes to be told what they can't do.

Right, and some people really push back hard.

You can't tell me what to do, right?

Rear their backs, and no, no, you're not gonna control me.

Well, this attitude of independence manifests a couple of ways.

One is self-justification.

The old uh Illustration of somebody shooting and wherever the bullet or the arrow lands, then they go and draw the, the bull's eye target around it.

So, oh look, bull's-eye, right?

That's self-justification happens all the time religiously.

It also manifests in asking the wrong questions.

And so I want us to be very careful what we ask.

And sorry about the blurry text, but uh do not ask, would it be wrong to do such and such.

Right, we're trying to make a decision path forward.

Would it be wrong to do that?

That's the wrong question.

The right question is, would it be right to do such and such?

Don't ask, would I be condemned if Right?

Ask, would it be wise to.

I'm gonna diverge a little bit.

This may run us until 203, 11:30.

In Kentucky one time, they were trying to appoint a new man as an elder.

And it was real apparent that he was in no possible way qualified according to the scriptures.

And I asked one of the men who was in vocal and public support of him, I said, Jack, I said, do you think that Willard is really qualified?

To serve as an elder.

And he said, Well, that already answered my question, right?

He said, I don't think the Lord would hold it against me if I said yes.

I'm like, what?

He's asking, would I be condemned if?

Well, I don't think the Lord would hold it against me if.

I'm asking, I said, look, Jack, we need to, we need to appoint solid men.

Would it be wise to, don't ask, where does it say I can't.

Well, that just crawls all over me.

I want you to find me a Bible verse that specifically says that this specific action that I'm doing is wrong.

Well, there's no way to do that.

Almost any time.

The right question is, where does it say that I can?

Show me the basis on which I know it'll be pleasing to God.

I know it'll be wise and right.

So let's ask the right questions.

But this idea of you can't tell me, you know, what gives you the right.

To tell me what to do.

Well, we need to consider that.

Because those questions on the left, you know, would it be wrong?

Would I be condemned?

Where does it say I can't?

Those are challenging authority.

That's an attitude of rebellion, right?

The, the questions on the, the other side about would it be right and wise and where does it say I can, those are looking to submit to authority, to show an attitude of humility.

But when someone is trying to instruct or direct us or advise us, it's, it's fair to ask what gives you the right.

It didn't necessarily come from a, a challenging or a rebellious attitude.

So let's get first things 1st.

1st of all, I'm gonna quote the sage Kiki Millstead, and all the Millsteads, whoa, yes, they all get credit for this.

Um, this is great, she says, you make the universe, you make the rules.

I mean, isn't that nice?

I mean, God gets to tell us what to do, because he made us.

So we go back here to the Garden of Eden or to the creation.

God created Everything.

He created us, He created man in His image, in his own image.

Verse 28 says, God blessed them and said to them, And so then God outlines their relationship with each other and their relationship with creation and their responsibilities, their activities, and what they could eat and what they couldn't eat.

God gets to do that because he's the Creator.

So he made the universe.

He gets to make the rules.

Whenever God communicates with people, he has a purpose in mind.

And he expects people to follow his instructions.

And the beautiful thing is that he has written down his will.

We don't have to go to an oracle, or find a prophet and hear it passed through them.

God has written it down.

For us, for people of all time.

He could have written more information than we could read in 1000 lifetimes, right?

He could write things that we would never be able to understand, like some of the textbooks that some of our studied people have, have understood and, and looked at in their studies in, in school.

He's not doing that to us.

He's given us one book, and he's put it within our reach, so that we can understand.

He's put it on a level where everybody can understand, and he's just given us one book.

Have you read it?

Let's read it, brethren, let's read it daily.

And let's not worry about the things that he hasn't written.

I love what he said to the, to the Jewish nation of all the secret things, the things we're never gonna know, we can never find those.

The secret things belong to Yahweh, our God, but the things revealed.

The things revealed belong to us and our sons forever that we may do, all the words of this law.

Right, we've got enough to worry about, we will just focus on the things that God has revealed that we can know, and let's put those into practice and not worry about these other things and questions that we can't answer.

As for us, living under the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham and After the cross and the events there.

2 Peter 1:3 says that God's divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

And like I say, he's written it down.

213 Timothy 3:16, all scripture.

That's the holy writing, all scripture is God breathed, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteous, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I mean, we are prepared, we are equipped.

We are thoroughly equipped.

for every good work because of what God wrote down.

Everything he wrote is for our learning.

The entire Bible is for our learning.

We need to determine then what examples and instructions are binding for us, that's a, a deep study can be, but, and the detailed study should be made of how to establish authority for what we do, so that we can answer those questions on the right-hand side.

Where does it say that I can?

Right?

Where would it be wise?

How does it, how do I know this is right?

There's some obvious exceptions.

We got context where Paul says to Timothy, hey, bring my cloak.

We know that didn't apply to us. Right?

And there are some parts of examples that have no spiritual significance.

Sometimes they met in an upper room, not always, but sometimes they did, has no spiritual significance.

But I'm just saying that God has written His will down.

We can understand it.

He's written it so that we can.

So in all things, this is the line of authority now in all things, God, the Father has the right to tell us what to do.

What gives him the right is that he created us, as Genesis one, we just studied.

And after that, he has given all authority, right?

Jesus said all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

And he will eventually return, turn over the kingdom to the father.

But in the meantime, Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth.

And then he established a line of authority himself.

He gave the apostles authority.

And without quoting all the relevant verses from John 14:15, 16.

Jesus' apostles.

2 Peter 3:2 is great.

It says, remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets.

And the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

And also it's written down.

Ephesians 3:173.

As Paul saying, when you read these things that I'm writing to you, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.

And so that's the basic line of authority from the Father to the Son Jesus Christ, to his apostles and prophets, and the things that they wrote down, which for us is the New Testament.

But then there is an established line of authority on this earth.

Right, in society.

Your government has the right to tell you what to do.

It's Romans 13.

I put verse 11 there.

I should have put verse 1.

As many times as I read this thing, uh, typos are fun.

Romans 13:1 says, every person is to be in subjection.

To the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God.

And those which exist have been appointed by God.

Verse 3 says the ordinance of God, verse 4 says their minister of God says it twice, verse 6 says they're servants of God.

And John 19.

Verse 183 there is mentioned on the screen, starting back in verse 10.

Pilate, he was a governor, right?

He had authority in a civil way over the Jews and over Jesus himself, when Jesus was living there in Palestine.

Pilate said to Jesus, You don't speak to me?

Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you?

Verse 11, Jesus answered, You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above.

Well, Ephesians 6:5, if we apply slaves and masters to the modern, uh, more of a contractual relationship in business affairs, your boss has the right to tell you what to do.

Ephesians 6:5, slaves be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh.

With fear and trembling in the integrity of your heart as to Christ, which is mentioned 4 times in 4 verses.

And so I know our bosses and our master, I'm not a slave to that.

So how much more should we be?

Right?

If we agree, we go in and knowingly to this relationship.

We need to submit to them they have authority over us.

And then I'll put down here for.

Those students among the crowd, your teacher has the right to tell you what to do. Right?

That's just because society gives them that position.

And so we don't even have to cite a passage to understand that.

The teacher can tell the student what to do.

We, we arrange it that way, we set it up.

And in the church, the elders have an amount of authority.

Obviously, they're like in all these other situations, they're supposed to be serving under the Father and the Son and the apostles.

But Ephesians, but Hebrews 13:103, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, right?

That says that they are not the ultimate, the supreme authority, they will give an account themselves.

So that they will do this with joy and not with groaning.

In other words, obey and submit to them so that they will give an account with joy and not with groaning, for this would be unprofitable for you.

And then in the home, God has established it so that the husband is the head of the wife.

1 Corinthians 11:3.

I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man.

And the man is the head of the woman.

And God is the head of Christ.

There's a line of authority, and that extends down to the home.

And then in Ephesians 6:1, we find out that the wife also has some authority over the children, because both parents have the right to tell the kids what to do.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Right, it was that way under the old law too, and that's why he says the first commandment with a promise.

And so in the home, there's an established line of authority.

And we always told our children.

Look, you have to obey me because God gave me this authority over you.

But we would remind them that ultimately, you have to give account to God.

And so what happens if in this line of authority, and we've got Divine beings and the apostles, and then we've got the man and the woman, other, the government, everybody else.

What if some of these human people get out of line?

And they tell us stuff that we don't agree with.

In other words, what if you think you know better?

And you know what, you will, you will know better from time to time.

There will be situations in which you know better than the person who's in authority over you.

Boy, that's when it really chafes, right?

To have to submit and obey.

But that happens all the way from the children, to the wife, to the employee, to the citizen. Right?

In every situation of authority, the person in authority may get out of line. Right?

Leaders very often have wrong ideas.

The elders may do things in areas of a judgment, which, which you don't, with which you don't agree.

Well, people abuse their authority, leaders, people in authority abuse their authority sometimes, and they act ungodly.

Teachers act unfairly, the government creates rules that may frustrate us, they adopt ungodly practices even.

Many wives have better ideas than their husbands.

And so that's when the test kicks in.

Will we submit and obey.

What if we think we know better?

If we can obey both God and human authority, whatever that authority is over us, we must.

We must submit So when we ask that question, what gives you the right?

We just need to be sure we know who you is.

And if that you is on the list, the government, the boss, the teacher, the elders, the parents, the husband, whomever.

We must submit and obey.

Remember Jesus was having this conversation with Pilate.

And Jesus very specifically said, yes, you have authority over me, but that's only because God gave you that authority.

Now it's on you to use it in a godly way or not.

And Pilate did not.

And so he goes down in the history books and in the scriptures, As the enemy of the Christ.

Psalm 2, he's fulfilling Psalm 2 in a bad way.

He's fulfilling the enemy's portion of the Psalm 2 as quoted in Acts chapter 4.

But Jesus submitted to him.

And I'm wondering how did knowing better work out for Eve in the Garden of Eden?

And she thought she knew better than God.

Right when Satan said, ah, you surely will not die.

God said, you will surely die, you will surely not die.

Because, and then he makes something up and then Eve starts thinking, oh, now Eve thinks she knows better than God.

And the scripture says she fell into trespass.

183 Timothy 2:14, transgression, sin, depending on your translation.

Eve did not know better than God.

But even if we do, we have to obey.

We're talking about areas of judgment, right?

We're not talking about those fringe cases where obeying the law or obeying the parent would directly cause us to violate God's commands.

We can almost always obey both.

All right, well.

Having established that God has the ultimate authority.

Let's ask a related question.

Let's ask it a little differently.

Let's ask, what gives me the right?

Well, to do what?

To do whatever.

And when I mean whatever, I mean whatever.

Colossians 3:17 says, whatever you do, in word or in deed.

Oops, I'm quoting, I think that extra end is from another translation.

Legacy Standard Bible, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

That means by his authority, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

And so we need to Figure out, is it right?

Is it OK?

Is this wise?

How do I know that I may do this?

I remember one time I had a conversation with somebody that took this.

You know, to a place that I never expected.

He, he didn't want to go out in the yard and play frisbee or whatever we were doing out in the yard with us, because he didn't think God had given him authority.

To engage in recreation.

Uh, took me back and I thought, uh oh wow, um, that seems a little bit my, you know, my human reason completely extreme.

That's ridiculous.

Well, of course.

But how not, how bad is it to be asking that question?

Where do I know that I can?

Well, it turns out there is a passage about that, that God has given us everything, both Old Testament and New Testament.

He's given us things in life to enjoy.

And so it's OK to have a nice time, to have a wholesome good time.

I'm just saying that was an example, boy, I mean, he wanted a passage for everything, and I applaud him for that.

Yeah, I wasn't prepared at the moment to give him a scripture, found it later, but I'm just saying that's a good attitude.

That's the right kind of attitude.

Because in everything, whatever we do, we need to do it all by the authority of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God.

So we could apply this in a whole lot of ways.

Um, I'm going to apply it just in one way.

Um, for the sake of time, but this could be multiple lessons, right?

It could be a whole series.

Uh, so this is one example that I'm about to give you, you're gonna enjoy it, and it will lead us into our last point.

What gives me the right to talk the way I do?

It's a big question, right?

And so here's an example from my life.

Um, this may be, yeah, yeah, welcome to my life for a few minutes.

Close friend all through high school used to call me Mickey.

He used to call me Mickey.

Can you imagine why?

It's not because I acted like a cartoon character or used cartoon voices or whatever.

I didn't back then.

Why did he call me Mickey?

Well, if you look at this class, let's see, what I was about 5th grade, so I was 10 years old.

Root Elementary, Fayetteville, Arkansas, the building is still there.

So this is the class that I was in.

And uh I'll see if I can get technology to work with me.

Uh, oh yeah, how do I do this?

There we go.

You can look at all these characters here, right?

And I want you to notice their hairstyles.

Look at that, that's a little boy.

So is that.

So that.

And so is that, and so is that.

There's a girl and a boy.

Yeah, that guy, His name is Jeff.

Anyway, yeah, so you look at all these kids and look at their hairstyles.

And out of 18 boys.

18 of them, I'm telling you.

There I am.

I'm the only one who doesn't have his hair done over his ears.

Right, this is 1970s.

Yeah, so I was the only one with the ears showing.

That's why he called me Mickey, cause my ears showed.

Well, it wasn't just this.

I mean, I was, I figured because he calls me Mickey, I figured I've got big ears like Mickey Mouse.

Right, that's what I'm thinking.

I thought that for years.

I'll tell you another reason I had to think that, not only because my ears showed and I knew it, and I didn't want to grow my hair down over my ears.

Here's some of my relatives.

I got both car doors open, right?

So I knew that the man on your left is my great grandfather, and the other man is my grandfather.

And so I figure boy with ears like that, I've probably got big ears, I've probably got prominent ears.

I later realized, and I'm talking about many years later.

I realized that, wait.

In the first place, I don't have the big old floppy earlobes like my aunt Evelyn had, right?

She had, I mean, you could play with those things, they were, they were serious.

I don't have that kind of earlobe.

And so I'm thinking, wait, wait, maybe my ears aren't what all they, what Mickey would imply.

So one strange evening, some college buddies and I actually, we had these little, these little measuring sticks that we use in the optician where we work.

We got horsing around, we started measuring, measuring noses and I don't know, I, we measured ears.

What a revelation to me.

I had average sized ears. What?

How is this possible?

And what does this have to do with the sermon?

Well, it has to do with the sermon.

Is that your speech can cause big problems.

What you say has an impact.

And I don't care if you mean it or don't mean it.

I don't care in what way you don't mean it.

Your speech can cause big problems.

Look at Proverbs 223, encourage you on your own time to read that whole paragraph, like a madman who shoots firebrands, arrows, and death.

So is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, am I not joking?

Right, oh, just kidding, ha ha, just kidding, ha ha.

As if that makes it OK, brethren, it does not make it OK to say things.

That passage talks about yummy morsels.

It talks about contention, strife, fiery lips, an evil heart, hatred, lying, and flattering.

These are all sins of the tongue.

Don't know if you ever, I, I'm sure you know what pro wrestling is and what it pretends to be.

As fake and as staged as some of that is.

I'll tell you what's not faked and or what, regardless of it being faked or staged, the emotions in that are real. Right?

That anger, the animosity, the hatred, the vengeance.

The I'm better than you, those emotions are real.

So they're doing things that may be just complete for stage, but the emotions will stick.

Right when he called me Mickey, something stuck in my brain.

It was wrong.

Was it hurtful?

Could have been I had plenty of other reasons to get my feelings hurt about how I looked, so that wasn't, that wasn't the biggest problem.

I'm just saying you can scar people and do emotional damage with your words.

And so I'm here to tell you that a Christian has no freedom of speech.

Let that sink in.

A Christian has no freedom of speech.

In the same way that we have no freedom to look at whatever we want to look at, or think whatever we want to think, we have no freedom to say just whatever we want to say.

Colossians 4:6, let your words always be seasons, always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that it may give grace to the hearer.

Right, actually, so that you will know how you should answer each person.

Ephesians 4:220.

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth.

But only such a word as is good for building up what is needed.

So that it will give grace to those who hear.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, verse 221, then skipping to verse 217, which is on the screen, let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander be put away from you along with all malice.

Our speech is to build up and not to tear down.

It's supposed to help.

Heard a good rule of thumb says your positive comments to someone should outnumber your negative comments 218 to 210.

You need to use constructive criticism very sparingly, small doses and only when needed.

I'm here to tell you that God regulates both what we say and how we say it.

So we need to be very careful with our speech.

Ephesians 218:53, any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among saints, nor filthiness and foolish talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting.

Right, we do not have freedom of speech to say whatever we want, however we want.

Let me talk to you about freedom in Christ, because Christ did come for us to have freedom.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free.

Galatians 25:23, 22st part of the verse.

Then in verse 13, he says, don't turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. Right?

He's specifically talking in that context about the old law, we're freed from the yoke of bondage that was the Old Testament law for the Jews.

We do not have absolute freedom.

Don't turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.

And as was read by Elliot in our scripture reading, don't use your freedom as a covering for evil.

But use it as slaves of God.

1 Corinthians 6:19, do you not know that your body, Is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you.

Whom you are, whom you have from God.

And that you are not your own.

For you were bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body.

Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I. who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

So if we consider ourselves dead to ourselves, and letting Christ live in us, Then we will start Understanding how we should talk and think and look, etc.

Going to Romans chapter 33 here to close this out.

Paul asks a similar question twice.

One verse 1, are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

And again, in verse 15, he says, shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace?

And twice he answers, may it never be.

Let's focus on verse 16.

Do you not know that when you go on presenting yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, You are slaves of the one whom you obey.

Either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness.

And so then in the next few verses, He summarizes this little chart.

Look at verse 20 when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Put a little pause in there.

People who don't know Christ, they are free to speed on by me. Right?

Double yellow, Nick Davis, there's a hill, it doesn't matter to them.

They are free in regard to righteousness, nothing holding them back.

I mean, righteousness is not holding them back, right?

They can do whatever they want in this life.

Right, they were free in regard to righteousness.

Continuing verse 21.

tells us about the end of that.

He said, therefore, what benefit were you then having from the things of which you are now ashamed?

For the end of those things is death.

So if you're a slave to sin, or as the context says, impurity or lawlessness, you're free from God.

Well, it may feel nice for a minute, but it leads to shame and it leads to death.

If we go back to verse 17, But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin.

You obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were given over.

Put a pause there before we go on to verse 18.

He's talking about the earlier part of the chapter when he talks about you were buried with Christ in baptism into his death.

That just like Christ was raised to by the glory of the Father, so we too might rise and walk in newness of life.

That's what he's talking about the pattern of teaching.

So thanks be to God that you obeyed from the heart, because you repented of your sins, that whole chapter is about repentance, and you, you confessed with the mouth that Jesus is the Lord and Savior.

That's really getting into Romans chapter 10, but same context.

And then you were buried with him through baptism and his death.

So you could rise to walk in newness of life.

That's when your forgiveness happens and your new spiritual life starts.

Verse 18, having been freed from sin, You became slaves of righteousness.

Right now you're slaves to God, slaves of righteous.

Now you're free from sin.

Skipping to verse 22, now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit.

Leading to sanctification and the end eternal life.

So one takeaway from this passage is that no one is truly, absolutely free.

Mr. or Miss Independent, imagines being absolutely free, free from God, free from righteousness, free from rules.

Nobody can tell me what to do.

But in reality, he or she.

has made himself or herself a slave.

To sin You choose your master, you're gonna have a master.

If you think it's you, well, you might as well just understand that Satan is behind that and you are serving sin and serving Satan by serving no one but yourself.

So you choose your master.

You choose whom you obey.

We encourage you this morning to choose to become a slave of God.

You'll have no absolute freedom in Christ, and that's a good thing.

First John 5:3, 2nd part of it says, his commandments are not burdensome. Right?

God sets out rules for us for our good, for our benefit.

Obeying sin does not end well.

Shame and death.

But if you will repent of all your resistance to authority and obey Christ, That obedience will end an eternal life.

And so if we can help you with that obedience and that submission, then we'd encourage you to come 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.)

Tonight, the scripture will be from 23 Timothy chapter 4, verses 6 through 16.

1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 6 to 16.

If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ, being trained in the words of the faith of the good doctrine that you have followed.

Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths.

Rather train yourself for godliness.

But while the body, bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way.

It holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

For this end, we toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially for those who believe.

Command and teach these things.

Let no one despise your youth.

But set the believers in example in speech and conduct, and love and faith and purity.

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scriptures, to exhortation, to teaching.

Do not neglect the gift you have which was given to you by prophecy.

When the council elders laid their hands on you.

Practice these things, immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress.

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.

Persist in this, for by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Mm Some of you may remember something like this when you were in elementary school.

I remember Mrs.

Raver's uh class that they had the black border with the white letters on it.

They were in cursive.

Some of you young people don't know what that is, but it's a form of script, uh, that's designed to be stylish and more rapid in writing.

There's a passage in the New Testament that actually is related to this same idea of having something that you can copy, that you can use as a guide for your conduct.

It's found in 1 Peter 2 and verse 1303, where the apostle Peter wrote, for to this you have been called.

Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

The word that's translated example here is the word hupogramas, and you can maybe see already that it's actually a compound word, uh, hupo meaning under and gramas a writing.

In fact, Vines says that literally this word meant an underwriting.

It's from a related verb that means to write under trace letters for copying by scholars, hence, a writing copy.

An example.

And that's what that border was in our classrooms.

It was an example so that we could copy and imitate the letters as they appeared on the board.

BDA says literally this word means a model or a pattern to be copied in writing or drawing.

Peter says that.

Jesus left us an example to follow.

We're to imitate the conduct that he set before us.

We're to be influenced by the way that he lived his life.

I want to talk to you about influence this evening.

Uh, there are a number of passages in the New Testament.

We'll be looking primarily.

Those that talk to us about influence, our influence upon others.

The word influence, Oxford Dictionary says means the capacity to have an effect on the character development or behavior of someone or something or the effect itself.

It can be used to talk about that, uh that effect.

So, our influence is when we are affecting the character development or behavior of other people.

Influence is kind of a paradoxical subject for the Christian.

And the reason for that is that at the same time that we are told to influence others, we're also told not to be influenced.

So, it's kind of like, uh, what is it, the Heisman, where, you know, you're re screeching forward and, and back like this, you're trying to push some influence away and you're trying to encourage others to follow your example.

Does that seem hypocritical?

I want to influence others, but I don't want to be influenced.

Is that inconsistent on our part?

And the answer is absolutely not, because we're talking about two different kinds of influence.

The influence of the world, the world exerts is an evil influence.

We're trying to influence to affect people so that they will follow godliness, so that they'll become more righteous in their behavior.

In our study this evening, what I want to focus on is the influence that we have on others, not so much the need for us to be careful about the influence that others have on us.

Well, as you can probably guess from the uh title slide here, I wanna talk about the passage in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew the 5th chapter, verses 13 through 16, where Jesus speaks to his disciples and says that they are salt and light, both things.

are influencers.

They have influence on others or effect on something.

In verse 13, Jesus said, you are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

So there needs to be a saltiness, a difference in taste in order to have that influence that salt lends.

It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet when it loses its saltiness.

He continues in verse 14, you are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Why would you light a lamp?

And then put a basket over it.

That defeats the whole purpose of lighting the light.

It doesn't illuminate as a light is intended to do.

Why would we, to follow the figurative language here, why would we put a basket over our light?

Well, if we are light and not darkness, we won't hide our conduct.

You don't light a lamp and then put it under a basket.

Our conduct, Jesus says, should be such that others will glorify God by the good works that they see in our lives.

Well, another passage that I want you to consider with me is 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 11 and 12.

Peter writes, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which war wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

If you look at the very beginning of this epistle in 23 Peter verse 1 of chapter 1, you'll notice that Peter in his salutation, he addresses those who are elect exiles of the dispersion, and then he lists 5 different Roman provinces there where his readers are scattered.

The dispersion was a term that was used to talk about Jews who had been dispersed through the Mediterranean world as a result of the captivities of the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom in the Old Testament.

And so that language speaks to God's people.

He calls them elect exiles.

And he will again in chapter 2 and verse 11, as we just read, refer to them as sojourners and exiles.

They are exiles of the dispersion, and I think in line with that same idea, he will talk about keeping our conduct among the Gentiles honorable.

That's a generic word there.

It's just the word coloss.

It just means good.

BA says, however, and he lists, uh, they list this passage under this definition.

You're aware that in lexicons, just like in English dictionaries, you'll sometimes have multiple definitions, and they don't all fit the way that a word's being used in a particular context.

So a lot of times the lexicons, although not always correctly, but a lot of times they'll list under a particular definition a passage indicating that that's the way the word is probably used in that passage.

So I'm citing for you the second definition.

They're in BDG, dyslexicon, and they say that the word is used here of moral quality, and then they define it as meaning good, noble, praiseworthy, and even contributing to salvation.

And so, in this passage, Peter says, keep your conduct among the Gentiles.

Well, he described Christians to whom he is writing as elect exiles of the dispersion.

And so it seems likely that again, Gentiles is being used in verse 12 here in a figurative way to talk about unbelievers.

You recall that in the old Old Testament, the Israelites were Jews, were God's chosen people, and all the other nations, that's what Gentile is literally translated, the nations, that was everybody else.

And so, Peter is saying here to these Christians, you need to keep your conduct honorable, praiseworthy, noble, good among the Gentiles, the unbelievers among whom you live.

There's something interesting about this passage because if you go back to the first chapter, you find that in chapter 1 and verses 14 through 16, Peter has already encouraged his readers to be holy.

To be holy in conduct.

In fact, he marshals a passage from the Old Testament to make that point.

In verse 243, he says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

And so he cites a passage from Leviticus.

So in verses 15 and 16, Peter has already said to his readers, you need to be holy in conduct.

But then in chapter 2, in verses 11 and 12, at the top of the screen, now the focus is keeping your conduct honorable, good among the Gentiles, among unbelievers.

So the emphasis in chapter 2, verses 11 and 12 is not just the idea of what our character is, that it needs to be holy, but that it needs to be the kind of character that will cause Gentiles, he means unbelievers, I think, At some point, to glorify God, as he says, on the day of visitation, perhaps a reference to the final judgment.

By keeping our conduct honorable before unbelievers, we are a good influence upon them.

But it's not just unbelievers that are affected by our conduct, by our behavior.

We need to be good examples before other Christians.

In 1 Timothy 173, in that passage that was read by Steve for the scripture reading, verse 12 says, let no one despise you for your youth.

Paul writes to Timothy, but set the believers an example.

And then he lists some areas in which Timothy needs to be concerned about his example.

He says, in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Now, I suppose some might argue that that passage is uh, is addressed by Paul to Timothy and doesn't necessarily apply to us, but I don't believe that's the case.

I believe Paul intends for us to do the same thing, that we are to present an example that is something that others can follow, just like those letters that they can follow our example in these areas.

The way that we talk, our general conduct, the way that we treat others in love, in faith, in purity, in moral purity.

This is not just a responsibility for young Timothy, that's a responsibility for all of us.

And in this passage, Paul is writing about the example that we set for one another.

And so, I need to be careful when I'm doing the things that I do, the way that I live, that I am not influencing you in a negative way, and you have the same responsibility toward me.

We need to be careful of our influence even in matters that are not sinful in themselves.

I want to talk to you a little bit about Paul's comments in 1 Corinthians about eating meat sacrificed idols.

He begins that discussion in chapter 8, and he'll conclude it basically in chapter 10.

In chapter 8, what I want you to see is that Paul says, it is not inherently sinful to eat meat that at some point had been offered to idols.

And there are a couple of statements here in the very beginning of chapter 8, verses 4 through 9 that make that point.

Paul begins by acknowledging that there's no God behind the idols to whom this meat or the sacrifice.

were being offered.

We know, he says, that an idol has no real existence and that there is no god but one.

DSV puts quotation marks around those two phrases, I think indicating that there were some at Corinth who were defending some of their actions by this fact.

I think Paul's agreeing with them that this is certainly the case, as he goes on to say in verses 5 through 23.

But then down in verse 8, he said, food will not commend us to God.

We're no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

So, Paul says, this business of eating meat is really irrelevant.

There's no moral implication to it, uh, in and of itself.

And he says in verse 9, but take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

That's really the theme of chapter 8.

He's telling the Corinthians that they need to be cautious about things that maybe those who are weaker, who have less knowledge, might end up sinning against their conscience by being influenced to do things that they think are wrong.

But it's clear from chapter 8 that Paul is saying that it's not wrong in and of itself to eat this food that had been sacrificed to idols.

Now, He's going to in chapter 9.

illustrate the fact that he himself had given up his right, a different right, the right to be supportive of the gospel while he was working with the Corinthians there at Corinth.

And so, that's chapter 9 where Paul just basically says, I'm asking you not to place a stumbling block before others, to give up, perhaps a right on some occasions, and I did that.

I'm not asking you to do anything that I hadn't already done.

That's chapter 9.

Then when he gets into chapter 10, he begins to talk.

About some specific circumstances.

For instance, in the latter part of chapter 10, he will say, listen, you don't need to be eating meat sacrificed to an idol in the idol's temple.

When you do that, you are now participating in idolatry.

That's different.

Then eating meat that had been bought in a meat market after it had been offered at some point in the past, there's no connection there with idolatry.

And that leads me to the point that I want you to see here in the last part of chapter 133.

Beginning in verse 25, he says, as he gives some regulations about when they could eat meat and when they couldn't, he said, eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

Excuse me.

Perhaps a little bit of background would be helpful.

Sometimes, like in the Jewish economy in the Old Testament, there would be so many animals being sacrificed that the priests had more meat than they would use, and so they would take that meat and they'd sell it in the meat market.

So, you go to the meat market, you don't have anything to do with idolatry, but you want to buy some meat.

You don't know perhaps what meat has been sacrificed to idols and what meat hasn't been.

And so Paul says, go to the meat market, eat whatever you buy in the meat market without raising any questions.

Don't ask about it.

It's just meat, and you're not commended by eating it, you're not hurt by not eating it.

That was chapter 8.

So, it goes on to say, however, if one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

So here's a second situation.

Now, you're being invited to eat in somebody's home, that of an unbeliever, and they set meat before you.

Eat it, Paul says.

Don't ask questions.

Don't, don't worry about where it came from.

But he says in verse 28, but if someone says to you, this, speaking of the food, has been offered in sacrifice, then do not eat it. Why?

Because now, somebody has linked that food with idolatry.

And by you eating, continuing to eat that meat, you may give the impression that you are absolutely fine with idolatry.

And so, here's, here's an interesting situation.

You can eat meat and there's nothing wrong with it.

Buy it in the meat market, no problem.

You go to somebody's house, they put food in front of you, you eat it, no problem, until there's a connection between that meat and idolatry in the mind of somebody else.

It's not being offered at this point.

It's already been offered.

That's what he says.

This has been offered in sacrifice.

And Paul says, don't eat that meat. Why?

It's right.

It's acceptable to eat meat, right?

Sacrifice to idols even.

It's not right here because now it's connected to idolatry.

Then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you.

There's still nothing wrong with that meat.

But you do not want to influence the person who's making the connection between the meat and idolatry.

You don't want to influence them by them thinking, oh well, Alan sits down and he eats meat sacrifice items.

I told him to sacrifice items, and it didn't bother him at all.

So he must not have a problem with idolatry.

Then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience.

He says, I don't mean your conscience.

Because there's nothing wrong with that, me.

I'm talking about his conscience, the one who pointed it out and made that connection.

So, there are sometimes areas where we may be dealing with something that is not sinful in itself.

But under certain circumstances, we would not participate in that.

We would avoid it. Why?

Well, chapter 22 tells us, for the sake of influence, for the sake of the conscience of the one who makes a connection that we do not want to support.

Another thing that Paul writes, and this time with reference to the collection that he had encouraged the Corinthians and the Macedonians and the Galatians to do.

A collection that was being put together by various congregations and then carried to needy saints in Judea.

Paul makes an interesting comment about this.

You recognize 2130 Corinthians 22, verses, uh chapters 224 and 217 are dealing with that collection.

And so, he says in verse 22 of 23 Corinthians 22, but thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus, the same earnest care I have for you, the Corinthians.

For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he is going to you of his own accord.

With him we are sending the brother.

Who is famous among all the churches for his preaching the gospel.

Paul doesn't indicate who that is, he just describes him.

Verse 222, and not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord Himself and to show our goodwill.

Now, listen to verse 224.

We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us.

For we aim at what is honorable, not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of man.

Paul says, this idea of having other messengers, rather than just say, for instance, Paul himself carrying these funds, it was for the purpose of making sure that nobody could make the charge that Paul had dipped his hand into the till and had used some of the funds.

So that this whole process would appear honorable, not just to the Lord who sees everything.

But also in the sight of man.

who sometimes don't see things but jump to conclusions and make unwarranted charges.

And so Paul says, not just in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of man, I have to be concerned about the impression that I leave with others.

I may not be doing anything that is sinful or uh inappropriate.

But I need to be careful that I don't leave that impression that I am involving myself in something that is wrong.

I don't leave that impression with others.

I have to be concerned about the influence that I have upon others.

Well, some of you are thinking, now he talked about scriptures in the New Testament, so he must be done.

But I'm not.

I want to talk to you about two men in the Old Testament.

I'll be brief about this.

I think most of us or many of us anyway, are familiar with these stories, but I'm going to review them briefly.

The first man that I want to talk about is actually one who lived in the time of David and was related to David.

He was David, King David's nephew.

His name was Jonadab.

And we read about Jonadab in 2 Samuel 13.

Now in 2 Samuel 13, the focus It seems primarily it's really on David's eldest son, whose name was Amnon.

Amnon would be the next in line, so to speak, for the kingdom, uh, at least at that point.

Amnon has developed a, uh, a fascination with his half-sister, Tamar.

In fact, he has impure desires for his half-sister, Tamar.

And he became so obsessed with her, the Bible says in 2 Samuel 13, that he actually makes himself ill.

And his cousin, Jonadabab.

Realizes that he's having some sort of problem and asks him about it, and Amnon explains that he's infatuated with Tamar and Janadab suggests a plan to Amnon that would allow him to be alone with Tamar.

The Bible there describes Jonadab as a very crafty man.

And the plan that he suggests to Amnon involves deceit.

Its entire, its intention is to get Amnon and Tamar by themselves so that Amnon can fulfill his impure desires regarding Tamar, and that's exactly what happens.

Amnon pretends to be sick and asks that Tamar.

Make bread for him to eat.

In fact, King David comes and visits uh Amnon, and Amnon makes the request.

He involves his father in this plot, and David falls for it.

David uh contacts Tamar, has her come to Amnon's house, and she makes the cakes, and Amnon clears out everybody else, and then he violates Tamar.

He Uh, sexually assaults her and then sends her away.

What I want you to see here is that Jonah Dabb.

is a bad influence.

John Adab influenced or encouraged, I should say, moral impurity in the life of Amnon.

Now, Amnon was already involved in lust, but John Adab didn't say, now, Adnon, it's not proper for you to do this.

You need to get past this.

Instead, he facilitates Amnon's desires, his goal by crafting this plan so that Amnon and Tamar can be alone.

So John Aab is an example of bad influence.

But I want to talk about another individual on the other side of the spectrum, and his name is Jehoiada.

Because the genealogies here are a little bit complicated, uh, if you haven't reviewed this or read it recently, I'm going to give you the playbook, uh, the player, uh, the player program here, and it starts with Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat, at least in the main, was a good king of the southern kingdom.

And his son, Jehoram, will come to the throne after him.

But Jehoram is a wicked man, and Jehoram dies, but before he does, he marries. Athaliah.

Athaliah is the daughter of Ahab, as she's described, I think the daughter probably of Ahab and Jezebel.

But he marries Athaliah, and so now the house of David and the house of Ahab are connected.

They're intertwined.

And Jehoram dies, his son, Ahhaziah comes to the throne, but Ahhaziah has the unfortunate uh luck to meet Jehu up in the northern kingdom.

Jehu will kill both Ahhaziah, king of the southern kingdom, and the king of the northern kingdom as well.

When Athaliahh, now the grandmother of Ahhaziah's sons, when she learns of the death of her son, she does something that we probably wouldn't guess grandparents would do.

She murders all the rest of the sons of Ahaziah with the exception of one.

And his name was Joe Ash.

You'll find his name slightly different in some texts because there were variations of his name.

Joe Ash is an infant practically, and his nurse and the sister of Ahaziah, her name is Jehoshabeth or Jehoshaba in some text, she hides Joash and saves his life.

Jehoshabi is married to the high priest.

Uh, and his name is Jehoya.

OK, how many people have I lost so far?

I, I thought maybe the chart would help because I wasn't sure I could keep it straight.

So I thought, well, it'd be good for me to have this, so I didn't end up putting Jehoshabith married Athaliah or something.

Anyway, so, Jehoiada, the high priest, and his wife, Jehoshabi, the sister of Ahazia, they had taken his son, Joash, and they've hidden him, and they hide him for six years.

They're hiding in the temple.

And then eventually, Jehoiada, while Joash is still a child, he brings Joash out as the, the, the true heir to the throne, and Joash is established as the next king and Athaliah is executed.

Well, Joash, in the beginning, is a pretty good king.

The reason is, he's being influenced by Jehoiada, the high priest.

Jehoiada was an exceptional person for a couple of different reasons, I guess several.

Obviously, the risk that he has taken along with his wife in concealing Joe Ash and then bringing him out and uh essentially facilitating a coup over Athalia who had been the queen for 2 years.

But Jehoia is going to live a long, full life.

He's going to live 130 years.

And he was a good influence in the life of Joash.

2 Chronicles 24:2 says, and Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

Listen, all the days of Jehoiada the priest, he tore down the house of Baal, uh, killed the prophet of Baal, a false prophet.

Joe Asher was responsible during this time for making repairs to the temple.

Uh, even more, uh, zealous about that than Jehoiada, the high priest.

Uh, he was unhappy with the progress of Jehoiada at one point.

So Jehoiadah lives 130 years and 2 Chronicles 24:17 says, after, now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king.

Then the king listened to them.

So what's happening now is that there's a shift in influence.

Jehoia to the good influence, he's died.

He's been buried with the kings.

That's the estimation that they had of Jehoiada the high priest.

But now Joash listens to the princes, and they, you know, they show him some attention and respect, and they counsel him.

So that he ends up being influenced to do wickedness, to engage in idolatry.

That's not the rest of the story.

The story doesn't end there because Jehoiada had a son.

His son was named Zechariah.

Zechariah, as a prophet of the Lord, preached against the sins of Joash.

And you might think that Joe Ash would be grateful to Jehoiada for saving his life, putting him on the throne, influencing him all those years, and he would show that respect, that gratitude towards Zechariah, but that wasn't the case.

Joe Ash has Zechariah murdered in the very temple courtyard.

It's a terrible story of ingratitude on the part of Joe Ash, but what I want you to see is the influence of Jehoiada.

Jehoiada Uh, I, I guess I should tell you the rest of the story.

Joash was eventually assassinated by a couple of his servants.

Jehoiada had been buried among the kings because he had done good toward God.

Joash, when he's assassinated, when they bury him, they don't even bury him in the tombs of the kings.

And so, you've got two men, you've got Jehanadab, they're in 2 Samuel 13, and you've got Jehoiada, essentially, uh, the story is about him in this study in 2 Chronicles 22 to 24.

Evil influence, bad counsel.

Good influence, even to the point of influencing the king.

And you and I, all of us have the choice about what kind of influence we're going to be.

The scriptures, as we pointed out, indicate that we need to be careful about our influence on others.

We need to be salt and light.

We need to be the example that others can follow so that they themselves can please God.

And certainly, we need to avoid sin.

That would be, I think, uh, obvious from that comment.

But we also need to abstain from even innocent behavior if it would have a deleterious influence on others.

That's the business of the eating of meat sacrificed idols.

There might be something that we would have to give up, not do, so that we don't influence others in a bad way.

People will jump to unwarranted conclusions, but I shouldn't by my conduct, help them to jump to that conclusion.

We're to be lights in a dark world.

We're to be like Jehoiada, not John and dad.

And my question is, is your light shining?

What kind of example are you showing people when you go to work, in your family, in your home, as parents, even as siblings with other children, what kind of example are you putting forth?

How, what kind of influence do you have on others?

You know, it's wonderful, we come together and I love getting together with this congregation, the friendliness, the love, the concern that uh members show for one another is just wonderful.

It's a high point of the week.

But then we leave this place and we go out into the world we're among unbelievers, Gentiles.

What kind of example are we giving them, showing them?

What's our influence like?

Well, I want to finish this evening by saying that the Book of Acts.

Has a pattern.

A model, an example of what people did in the first century when they heard the gospel, the message of the cross, and they believed it.

What did they do?

And this particular slide will tell you that when they believed in Jesus, they repented of sin, they confessed their faith like the Ethiopian treasurer did.

They were baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

That's the pattern.

That's the course that we're supposed to follow if we've not ever obeyed the gospel.

If you're in the situation this evening that you're not a Christian, you don't belong to Christ yet because you haven't been purchased by His blood, then we want to encourage you to take the opportunity tonight as you have the opportunity to obey the gospel, and we want to stand, to sing, and encourage you.