Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

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.)

I'll be reading from Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 38, and I'll be reading from the ESV which is also on the screen behind me.

Luke 10 beginning in verse 38.

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village.

And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Tell her then to help me.

But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.

Good morning.

COVID-19 pretty much killed the all you can eat buffet.

Uh, people don't want to go and share the germs with everyone else.

Some of us didn't care much for that anyway before COVID-19.

But you probably will identify perhaps with what I'm going to call the smorgasbord syndrome.

It's the idea that you go to a smorgasbord or an all you can eat buffet and there's all kinds of food laid out, the salads and the desserts and the meats and the vegetables and so much.

And of course, the business gives you a little play.

And so you have to decide.

What do I really want to eat because I can't eat everything that's in this buffet.

There's not enough room on my plate, although you can come back.

But even that suggests that there's some limit to what you can fit inside your body and what you can get on your plate.

That's a common problem.

The trick is to decide which foods you like the most, which maybe you don't have the opportunity to eat on other occasions.

The enormous strides in technology in our country have provided us with lots of opportunities in another sense.

We're able to travel so much faster, which means we can do more things, we can go more places in the time that's available to us.

Technology has made it easier for us to complete tasks that in the past, not all that long ago.

Maybe less than a century ago, would have taken days.

We can do them in minutes now.

And what that has done is The less time it seems to take to do things, the busier we get.

The less time we seem to have to do the things that we think really are important.

In addition to the stress that's sometimes caused by overloaded schedules, the opportunities that we have been afforded by this technological advance in our society has caused other problems as well.

I sometimes feel like one of my brethren in Texas who used to say, the faster I hurry, the more behind her I get.

And I think that's probably true of many of us.

I'm going to use an illustration here that you young people are not going to relate to.

You're not gonna have any idea what I'm talking about because you live.

Now, after the time of gas station attendance.

I don't know when exactly it took place that all of a sudden you would drive up and you had to get out and do your own gas, pump your own gas, but there was a time when you would drive your car up to the pump and you just sit in the seat and someone would come to you and say, how much gas do you want?

What kind?

And you tell them.

And attendants would run out and one would check the, the tire pressures, and one would check your oil.

They'd go and they'd wash your windshield while somebody else was pumping gas.

I even actually worked one of those stations just briefly, for a little while when I was a very young person, a teenager.

So, I want to tell you a story about a fellow who pulled up into a station like that.

And as soon as he pulled up, 313 attendants came out and he said, I'd like to buy $10 of gas.

You can tell this is an old story, right?

$10 of gas, they don't even pull it off the pump anymore for that.

That's what, 1 gallon.212?

And so the 29 attendants sprang into action.

One began to change to checking his tire pressure.

Another one was washing his windshield, and the third one checked his oil, and in a few minutes they finished, and away he went, but he came back in just a few minutes and he said, Did any of you put any gas in my car?

And they kind of looked at each other.

They realized nobody had put gas in his car.

They were all taking care of these other things.

And had completely forgotten the real reason that he had come to the station.

Because so many people are hurtling toward eternity while filling their lives with mundane things, things that are essentially unimportant.

We need to, to look at the, the, the scriptures, the Bible, to see what the Bible says about putting things first.

And there are probably a few stories in the scriptures that better illustrate The need for priorities than the story of Mary and Martha.

It was read for you just a few moments ago by Daniel.

Before we actually get into talking about that story, I want to ask you a question.

Have you ever wondered why some stories in the gospel actually are recorded?

I don't have any problem understanding, you know, in the Gospels, and the ministry of Jesus, the story about water turned into wine.

I would have definitely made notes on that myself, or the raising of Lazarus or the, the widow's uh dead son.

But the story of Mary and Martha and Luke 21 seems Kind of mundane in comparison to the wonders and the fantastic miracles that Jesus did during his public ministry.

But I'm gonna suggest to you that it may be one of the most important accounts in any of the gospels.

Because it talks about the need for priorities.

And I want to suggest to you that there will be a great throng.

who will be rejected on the day of final judgment.

Because they didn't have the right kinds of priorities, made bad choices.

And so, this morning, let's talk a little bit about this story of Mary and Martha in Luke chapter 23.

The whole story is recorded for you there and it's been read already.

So, I want to draw your attention just to one word here that is used to describe Martha.

In verse 218, the text says, that Martha was distracted with much serving.

Distracted with much serving.

Distractions suggests that there might be some other focus that would be good.

But she was distracted by what she was doing from that other focus.

Mary, on the other hand, had focused her attention on the Lord and His teaching.

Jesus says, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled over many things.

But one thing is necessary, Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.

Things of lesser importance, not evil things, not bad things.

She was serving people.

She was helping to provide physical needs.

But things of lesser importance were dominating Martha's attention, and they had at least for the moment, pushed out some things that were more important in the long run.

And so Jesus says, Mary has chosen the good part.

Setting priorities always involves choosing.

Setting priorities often does not speak of differentiating between good and bad.

But rather setting priorities is making choices between good and better or best, those things that are more important.

In fact, in the new International version, in Luke chapter 220 verse 163, the text says, she has chosen the better thing.

Mary chose the necessary thing.

It's called the good portion by Jesus, the necessary thing.

And I don't believe that Jesus is saying here that serving food was not necessary.

Obviously, there are things that have to be taken care of in order for us to survive and to thrive.

And I don't think that Jesus was saying that Mary or Martha rather was evil because she was attending to the task of serving others.

She may have been preparing food or giving food to others.

We're not really given much information along those lines.

But Jesus is not saying to Martha, now, Martha, Martha, you need to come over here and you need to sit beside Mary and listen to what I'm saying.

Did it ever occur to you that Jesus didn't say that?

That he didn't rebuke Martha because she was serving, because serving is not a bad thing.

Setting priorities is often, in fact, most of the time, is making choices between good and better or best, not between good and evil.

Have you ever thought about the fact That if Martha had not said anything on this occasion, I rather suspect that Jesus wouldn't have said anything to her, as he did according to Luke's Gospel.

Jesus responds to Martha because Martha I think she's a little bit jealous perhaps, or feeling like she's the only one who's working here and Mary should be doing this.

If she hadn't said that, I suspect Jesus would never have.

Excuse me, like many of you, I'm struggling some with congestion.

In fact, I even wrote Phil last night.

I said, I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to preach tomorrow.

But unfortunately for most of you, I had a really good night's rest, so today, you have to put up with me.

I think Jesus wouldn't have said anything to Martha, because Martha was doing something legitimate.

She was serving others.

But Jesus' comment, And what he says reflects the importance, the relative importance of things.

Mary has chosen the good portion.

Which will not be taken away from her.

The key word in setting priorities is first, and you see that in different passages.

The word first, of course, implies a ranking, which is essentially what priorities is all about.

In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 216 and that record up.

Verse 226, Jesus says, no one can serve two masters.

Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

So I want you to see first of all that Jesus in verse 21 is saying, you don't have to make a choice.

In this case, he's saying you can't serve two masters, you have to choose one or the other.

But I think it's interesting that as you continue in the texture, beginning in verse 25, Jesus says, therefore, Which indicates to us that what he says in verses 25 through the end of the chapter appears to be predicated on what he has said here in verse 24, that there are some choices that you have to make.

But you can't serve two masters.

And so he go on, goes on to say, don't be anxious about what you're going to drink or eat or your clothing.

God's gonna take care of you.

He's aware of your needs, all of this in the verses down verse 33.

Where Jesus uses that key word in setting priorities.

He says, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And all these things will be added to you.

Notice that Jesus does not say, I don't think you need food or clothing or, or something to drink.

Those are all necessary things.

But there's something that's more important than even that.

You can go for a walk for days without food.

You can fast.

Jesus fasted for 40 days, we're told, as did Moses.

But you can only last about 3 days without water.

Water is absolutely necessary for our survival.

Jesus says, there's something more important than water.

And food Even shelter and clothing.

It's your spiritual life.

And you need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

He says some similar, similar things in Luke the 3th chapter.

Where Jesus addresses some individuals who are would-be disciples.

Someone said to him, to Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go.

Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

To another, he said, follow me.

But he said, Lord, let me first.

Go and bury my father.

And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.

Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Jesus is not saying that it's a bad thing to take care of your parents.

I think that's the implication of verse 59.

Let me first go and bury my father.

I don't think his father was lying dead in the hole.

I think what he's saying is, I've got some parental responsibilities to my Father.

Let me take care of that first, then I'll come and follow you.

Jesus said, Let the dead bury the dead.

There's something more important in your life.

I will follow you, Lord, but let me say first say farewell.

I think what he's saying is there's something more important to come, I, I'll follow you, I'll be a disciple, but I've got this other thing that's, at least for the time being, more important.

And Jesus, I think, tells both of these would-be disciples that their priorities are out of the order.

I'm gonna use an illustration that I think is a little trite.

I rather suspect that many of you, because it's a well-worn illustration, you probably heard it, but it's a perfect illustration to the point that I'm making.

The account of this illustration that I have read or seen is that an expert in time management had come to address a body of business students.

And so as they're assembled before him, He says it's time for a quiz.

And he pulls out a wide-mouth gallon mason jar, clear Mason jar.

And then he pulls out a bucket of rocks, each of them about the size of a fist.

He begins putting those rocks in this bottle, this jar rather I should say.

And he fills the jar up with these large rocks until it's at the surface, and he asks the class, is the jar full?

Yes, they say. Really?

So then he pulls out a container of smaller gravel and he begins to pour some of that gravel in the jar and then shake the jar, allowing the gravel to kind of sift down between the big rocks.

When he spilled it up.

To the top With the gravel He asked the class, is it, is the jar full?

Some of them are starting to catch up.

Probably not, one of them says.

Good, he responds.

So then he brings out some sand, container of sand, and begins to pour that.

Into the top of the jar and shake the jar.

Allowing that sand to sit down between the rocks and the gravel.

Is this star full?

he asks.

No, the crowd shouts, and so he says, good.

He brings up a pitcher of water.

He begins to pour water into the jar until it fills up to the brim.

What's the point of this illustration?

he asks them.

One overachiever speaks up and he says, the point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things in it.

And he says, no, that kid failed.

The point of the illustration is If you don't put the big rocks in first, you won't get them in at all.

And the point of the illustration, as I suspect you're already aware, is that the big rocks.

Represent those things that are really more important in life.

The things that are of first priority.

Those are the things that we need to put into our lives, make sure that we're accomplishing them.

Before we introduce all of the other things that are of lesser importance that are more mundane in comparison.

In order to set priorities for ourselves, we really need to decide what's important for us.

And that's the point of the story of Mary and Martha.

Very important story.

Now, your priorities and my priorities may vary some.

Because our circumstances are unique.

And you will have some different priorities maybe than I will, at least as far as we begin to go down the list of things.

You, you see that in, in the athletes.

A professional athlete who Excuse me, who wishes to compete in international competition is going to spend a lot of time.

Working at his activity, bettering himself.

But the person who just wants to have a little fun on the weekend and he plays the same sport or does the same activity is not gonna make that a priority.

So our priorities are going to, I appreciate the sympathetic coughing pretty good.

Shows brotherly affection.

Um, We're gonna have different priorities because we have different goals in life, but many of the priorities of a Christian are going to be the same for you and for me and for all of us, regardless of some of the individual differences that we have in life.

I suggest to you that the Bible certainly.

Helps us to set proper priorities as Christians, as spouses, as parents, For example, the Bible teaches the fleeting value of earthly riches.

Now I know that Paul would write to Timothy that.

The love of money is the root of all evil, that people who are determined to accumulate wealth, uh, as a first priority, that that's actually a sinful thing.

But I'm suggesting to you that sometimes people will take a legitimate need and that is to provide for ourselves, and they turn it into an obsession.

It becomes their first priority over spiritual things.

Jesus in that same chapter in Matthew 6 said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys.

And where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, their heart will be also.

Whether we put.

Excuse me, I apologize for the rude coughing.

Whether we put our priorities on heavenly trails or whether we put our priorities on earthly treasures, we'll make a big difference in a lot of the choices that we make every day with reference to our work, our time and our effort.

The Bible teaches us that as was noted earlier, we have a better hope.

Hebrews of the 11th chapter uses the example of the patriarchs, Abraham in particular, to talk about those who in choosing Their homeland chose the better portion.

These all died in faith, the writer says, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For people who speak thus make it clear that they're seeking the whole land.

They've been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them the city. Choices.

What's better?

What's more important?

That's what the Bible helps us.

Make those choices.

The writer of Ecclesiastes actually experimented in life to see what was the better thing to do with a man's life, his effort, his assets, and when he concludes in the end of Ecclesiastes, he says, the end of the matter is this, Fear God and keep His commandments.

That's the whole duty of men.

That's the number one priority.

Fear God and keep His commandments.

The Bible teaches us that family is more important than career.

It's interesting to me that the church is described as a spiritual family.

And the Bible is replete with Commands and exhortations about how we should treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

That the way we treat one another in honor, preferring one another.

Loving one another genuinely, as Romans 12:9 would say.

Loving not in word and tongue but in deed and in truth, John would write 1 John 3:18.

All of these passages suggest the importance.

Of our relationships, and that includes our physical family.

Family is more important than career.

One of the things that I think we should know is that if you follow the priorities that the scriptures lay out for us, if you order your life by making spiritual things more important than material things, people are gonna look at you funny.

They're gonna think that you're out of touch.

They're gonna think that you're strange, or perhaps just foolish and silly.

When I got out of high school.

In Rantoul, Illinois, I began my secondary education, higher education in Champaign, Urbana at the University of Illinois.

At the time, I thought I'd like to be a doctor, a medical doctor.

And so I went one year to the University of Illinois.

And during that year, I decided that that's not really what I wanted to do.

What I wanted to do is preach the gospel.

Well, I lived at home.

We were only about 20 miles or so away from the, the university, so I didn't get to know a lot of people who I was having classes with at the University of Illinois, big, big school.

But a number of people that I was pretty close to in high school had likewise gone to the University of Illinois, and I would see them occasionally in the student union and that sort of thing.

And uh as, as you normally do in college, you know, how are things going, what classes you're taking, you know, what's your major and all this stuff.

And so I began to tell people what I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to a small liberal arts college next year in Tampa, Florida.

And I'm gonna preach the gospel.

You ever seen a dog that's puzzled about something, how they'll kind of look at something and they'll turn their head?

Like, what is that?

And that's kind of the response I got from some of my friends, not all of them.

One who I think is an atheist, was one of the ones who was the most sympathetic or at least the most understanding.

But most of the others, although it was not specifically or verbally said, I got the distinct impression it was like, so you're going to waste your life?

You, you have some potential, Alan, but you're gonna become a preacher of the gospel.

And that's what I'm saying about setting priorities according to the way the scriptures would have you do.

That people are gonna look at you and say, well, aren't you a little bit strange, the way that you're ordering your life?

Surely you could do something more important, more impressive with your life.

It tells us, the Bible does, that family, people, our spouses, our children, more important than careers.

There's a push in our society.

for women to get out of the hole.

Let somebody else take care of you too.

Or don't have children.

But it's important for women to have careers.

Rather, I'm going to say this slowly and carefully so that I'm not misunderstood.

But I do want to be Direct about this.

In the Bible, the woman who is married, Her primary responsibility is her home.

If she has a husband, if she has children, that is a surviving husband and children at home.

That's her career.

Whatever else she does is of secondary importance.

She may be able to hold another job or do something on the side, but her primary career, read the passages in the New Testament that talk about wives.

Read Proverbs 31.

And see what the priority is for married women.

And that's one of those things where if you say that in our society, people kind of give you that look like, well, isn't that kind of uh not really fulfilling your potential?

Really?

You mean there's something you can do in the business world?

That is more important.

Then forming the lives, the character.

of small children so that they grow up to be responsible adults, disciples of Jesus Christ, Christians, and providing for them a foundation for eternity.

Tell me what job it is that you could have.

That would be more important than that.

Family is more important than career.

Matthew 16:26 is really talking to the individual without respect to relationships.

But it makes the point.

Of what is important in comparison to other things.

What is the profit if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

That's a comparison.

The Bible tells us that children need love, instruction, and discipline more than they need things.

I think there's a natural tendency on the part of us parents to want to give or provide for our children more than maybe what we have.

We want them to have a better life than what we had when we were growing up.

At least that's a common wish.

And so sometimes parents work hard to try to give their children more things to provide them with an easier lifestyle.

When what children have needed, have always needed is the love of their parents, the time that parents invest in their children, the instruction and the discipline.

That you can give to your children.

It's interesting how many.

Big success stories in terms of secular accomplishments.

are people who came out of very modest homes.

They grew up with almost nothing.

In some cases, dysfunctional families.

But my point is that you don't have to give your children lots of things in order for them to be successful in life.

One of the problems we have is that we don't define success really very well sometimes.

Fathers, do not provoke your children in anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Do we need to provide for our children?

Yes. That's part of being a parent.

That's part of being a father is, is, uh, providing for our family.

But what children need even more than toys.

And gifts, they need attention and love.

Our priorities are not just those things that we say are important to us.

They're the things with which we fill our time.

Have you noticed that?

Someone says, well, sometimes I, my life's full of a lot of things that aren't very important.

Well, you've prioritize those things because that's what you're putting into your life.

You put the gravel and the sand in first.

And then you wonder why there's no room for the rocks, the big rocks, the really important things.

Those are the things that we need to put in first.

How do we know That as Jesus said, Mary chose the good part.

Well, she sat at Jesus' feet and listened to his teaching.

Her priority was reflected in her actions.

And so she went and listened to what Jesus had to say.

The world is full of people who claim that God is very important in their lives, but then they demonstrate by their lifestyles that they're liars.

Because they don't give him any time.

They give very little attention except on holidays and special occasions, maybe once a week on Sunday if you're a really devoted religious person.

And so no matter what they're saying, they're not really proving that.

God in His will is first priority in their lives.

We need to periodically assess our use of our time because it's easy to begin filling our lives with sand.

Instead of the big rocks, which we recognize ought to be prioritized.

The principle that we have to set priorities in our lives is illustrated in the story of Mary and Martha.

And I think that's one of the most fundamental lessons we can pull from the gospels.

It will change every one of our lives.

It will pay attention to what Jesus is trying to tell Martha.

On that occasion.

Once we've decided what's truly important, we need to follow through with those choices.

Those priorities by dedicating time and effort to those things that we consider to be high priority.

Those are the true indicators of our priorities.

It's not the list that you make on January 1st of resolutions because we don't often carry those out.

It's not what we say is important to us.

Where do you spend your time?

Where are your energies directed, those are your priorities, regardless of what we say or what others might think about us.

And I would encourage all of us, myself included, to reevaluate our priorities.

Sometimes, we, our lives kind of shift and we begin to allow a lot of things that are not big rocks to get in and fill the space.

more important things ought to be.

If we're not careful, we can allow our lives to be filled with the mundane and relatively unimportant things that distract us from accomplishing what we really need to accomplish, and that's to fear God and keep His commandments, to pay attention to our spiritual life over our material lives.

The sermon is entitled Be a Mary.

In a Martha world.

Because we live in a Martha world.

We live in a world that is obsessed with mundane material things, not necessarily sinful things, just things that can fill up our lives and push out any kind of spirituality.

My question to you is, As we're Nearing the end of this year, this calendar year.

What priorities did you set for this year?

If you set priorities.

Did you follow through with those priorities?

Is that what was reflected in your time, your energy in your life?

What kind of priorities are you going to set for the coming year if, if you reevaluate your life right now?

What will you change?

How will you live differently?

In the coming year Well, as I've already suggested, the most important priority, the first priority as Jesus says, is to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Now does it mean that we're not going to pay attention to other things just like Martha was doing something that was legitimate.

But there are things that are so important that they cannot afford to be neglected.

And our spiritual life, our spiritual condition.

is the most important of those things.

It should receive first priority.

Jesus says, Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.

What if a man gains the whole world?

Can he take any of it with him?

What if you manage to advance in the corporate world and you're kind of at the top of the, the ladder of management?

When you retire, how long will it take them to replace you?

The things that people chase in life.

are so fleeting As the writer of Ecclesiastes says, They're vanity, chasing after the wind.

But there's something that's lasting, something that's permanent.

That's our spiritual life.

And preparing for eternity.

Is the first priority.

And those who on the day of judgment are prepared.

are not going to have their reward taken away.

You need to obey the gospel this morning.

By Expressing your faith in Jesus Christ.

Repenting of your sins, confessing, having confessed that faith, then being baptized for the remission of sins.

Understand there's nothing else in this life that's more important than you seeking forgiveness, the mercy of God.

I appreciated Tim's comments.

I thought they were well said about God's mercy.

And if you need to do that this morning, if that's something that's not been a priority with you, you've been looking at other things and thinking, well, this is more important, please understand that's the most important thing, and you can do something about that this morning.

If you need to talk to somebody further, you're not sure if that's where you are yet, I'm sure any of the members here would be glad to talk to you and myself included.

If we can assist you in obeying the gospel this morning and becoming a Christian.

Then we stand to invite you as we stand and say.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Jim Boyd

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.)

Our reading this morning will be taken from Romans chapter 193, verses 1 through 11.

I'll be reading from the English Standard Version will be displayed above.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that the suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.

But God shows His love for us, and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since therefore we have Now been justified by his blood.

Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we have been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We're glad you're with us this morning.

If you've never been here before, I'm not the regular preacher, preacher, so, uh, if you'd like to hear some professionals speaking, uh, come back and hear Alan.

Uh, he's uh, the gentleman that did the Worce Supper and he's a, an excellent communicator.

But more importantly, we'd like to have you worship with us and as we try to serve our God and have you worship with us as well.

Uh, I was talking to Emily Smith on the way in this morning.

I asked her what it was like, you know, with the pandemonium in the Smith house with everybody around.

She said, we're staying in our own place.

That was, that was probably pretty smart.

We had this, this Thanksgiving, we had, uh, 8 adults, 6 kids, and 7 dogs in our house.

And, and it was, it was kind of neat.

I'm a dog lover, but it was a little bit too neat.

Um, but anyway, we decided that we had to get out of the house, so we went to the The galaxy of lights.

Do you know what that is, the Galaxy lights.

It's at the botanical garden.

Um, it's, it's really neat.

You walk through it, uh, got all these little different displays.

The kids, especially the toddlers, it was neat just to see their faces as they were walking through.

It was a good time.

It was about 1.5 mile walk.

So, if you've been here for a while, you know that early in the summer, I was on crutches for 6 weeks.

I had a surgery on my knee and on my leg.

And just like the dogs were a little bit too neat, this 1.5 mile walk was a little bit too fun.

Um, so, as I, as I was going through it, It, it wasn't, it's mainly pretty flat, if you've ever been out there.

It's not bad.

It, it rolls a little bit, but towards the end, that magenta line kind of shows the path.

And the way we went around it.

As you're looking at, we went counterclockwise and towards the end, a very slight incline.

And I watched as little toddlers increased the distance between me and them.

And my knee was hurting and I just watched them get farther and farther away.

And while we're walking, I started thinking about something.

I started thinking about something from when I was young.

And I talked to Kim about it, and I told her, I'm not, I'm not pining my youth.

I was just thinking about something, and I thought about this place.

It's Dahlonega, Georgia.

I don't know if you've ever been up in Dahlonega, Georgia.

They call it mountains.

If you're from California, it's probably just big hills, uh, but it's pretty rugged terrain.

So I was going through a 72 day course to get a qualification.

And in this course, they fed you about 83/3 of the calories you needed a day.

To, to get through it.

In this first phase, you did some academics, you lived like in a little lean-to hut, um, you weren't eating much, and then you, you headed up into the hills.

I don't know how far we walked.

They wouldn't tell us.

They said, we're going.

We're taking off.

And you will, you will move at our pace.

We had about 100 pounds of gear on us.

We had these rucksacks that weighed between 50 to 60 pounds.

And if you can't reach out and touch the man in front of you, you're dropped from the course.

And so, I don't know how far we walked.

But what I thought about was, I'm just going to put one step in front of the other.

And his guys fell back, and they were, now this was kind of the cynical non-Christian yet side of me.

So take it with a grain of salt.

But as I, as I was watching, and please, this is not politically correct, but I was watching these guys fall back.

I was like, all these weak sisters.

You know, it just kinda, it just kind of bolstered me and, but what I was thinking about was the next step, the next meal.

With an end in sight of a qualification that I was going to get.

So, what was the difference between the galaxy lights in this place?

That I, that I went through.

Well, the obvious difference is I'm, I'm much better looking now than I was in 1989.

Uh, you can, you can ask him about that.

That weight has no longer, it's not on my back anymore.

Why are you laughing?

So, there's been some changes, right?

But it got me to thinking about A lesson Alan had preached on endurance.

But what I was thinking about was resiliency.

And just determination.

And the more I thought about it, I thought there, there's probably a spiritual application in there for me.

And I started thinking about it and I came up with, I needed to have more resilmination.

I need to have more resiliency and determination in my life.

And how, how do I do that as a Christian?

What can I look at?

What are the things I can think about?

How do I get there?

So Alan, when he preached his lesson on endurance, And Alan, I, I actually couldn't find your notes, so, uh, if I'm wrong on this, please forgive me, but um, One of the things he talked about was Hebrews 12.

And after having looked at the heroes of faith, as we call them, he says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings to us so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now, I used, I like chat GPT.

It, it's a great research tool.

So, I use chat GBT and the reason I didn't like ascribe it to there because I kind of tweaked the definition of game.

But I wanted to do this.

I wanted to understand.

What was the difference between resiliency and determination and endurance?

I, I had to get that kind of clear in my head if I was gonna make a spiritual application.

And what I came up with is that endurance is just Carry on over time through the face of hardship, suffering, or significant effort.

It doesn't have to be something bad.

It just has to be something that requires that you keep keeping on.

It involves a sustained faithfulness, patience, and perseverance through trials and service.

Without giving up I think that's the definition of endurance I would like to have in my head.

You recognize this guy?

My dad tried to turn me into this guy, not a clown.

Uh, anyway, nobody laughs.

Good, that's good.

I'm gonna tell you a story.

I kind of hesitate to do this because somebody, my dad's passed away but he's alive, so you probably would have called Adult Child Protective Services on my dad.

But I moved from Tennessee to just outside Chicago, Illinois when I was in 5th grade.

Have you ever, do you remember the Tennessee pride commercials for the sausage, it said the pride of Tennessee.

That's what everybody called me.

And I got, I got bullied relentlessly.

So, on, on pitcher day in 5th grade, I literally got pushed in the mud in my pitcher clothes, right?

And then kids sat on me and so I went home crying.

My mom changed me, drove me back to school.

Well, when my dad got home, He took me in the garage.

He got boxing gloves on.

If you remember stories about my dad, he only had, he had a hook on one hand, so luckily he didn't hit him with that.

I didn't realize till years later what his purpose was, and I don't know if he even did it intentionally.

Cause he didn't teach me to fight.

He wasn't telling me to keep my hands up.

He just kind of wailed on me.

And, and every time I kind of got knocked back, he said, get up.

And what he was teaching me was, take a punch, go down like the clown, and get back up.

There, there's a great saying I heard recently, it says that the father's job is not to protect their sons from injury, it's to protect them from scars.

My dad was trying to teach me, don't let this bullying scar you for life.

Get back up.

I think that's what he was teaching me.

We never really talked about it.

As a matter of fact, I was kind of mad, I didn't talk to him for a couple of days.

But It, it helped me, believe it or not.

It helped me be the guy who would bounce back up.

Did, did any of you guys play with this when you were little?

How long did you play with it?

Maybe a minute?

Boop boop boop boop.

Now I'm done.

If you're gonna get up, the people that are bopping you are gonna say, I'm done.

If you're going to lay down, they're gonna sit on you.

While you're in the mud.

So how do we do that?

Well, you've got to be resilient.

You've got to bounce back.

And again, this is my definition.

It's the ability to recover.

Adapt and regain strength after strenuous effort, adversity, failure, or trauma.

It focuses on restoration, being able to rise again after being knocked down.

Again, that's going to be my definition.

So, I would like you to look at somebody in the Bible that I think shows some resiliency and unfortunately, we don't know a whole lot about them.

But I want to turn, I want to look at this guy.

And think of the clown.

Think of the bot while we're going through this.

Because remember we're talking about resiliency, strenuous effort, adversity, trauma, or failure.

Let's talk about somebody who I think had a failure.

Some people may not Characterizes the failure.

But I do.

In the first missionary journey, Uh, Paula Barnes had set out.

And at a certain point, John Mark.

Left them.

He took off and left and says he went back to Jerusalem.

We're not given the reason why.

We don't know why it happened.

He just took off and left.

Yeah, I'm characterizing that in the way I think about it.

So, there may have been a reason.

I, I don't know.

But look what, let's look at what happened and this is not to go into the timeline of the, the, the missionary journeys or or anything like that, but Paul and Barnamis were gonna go on another one.

Some 3 to 53 years later.

In Acts 15:36 to 40, if you want to turn there with me, I'm gonna read this one from the Bible because I don't have my 22 eyes anymore either.

So Acts 24, I'm gonna read 217 to 24.

And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, Let us return and visit the brothers in every city.

We'll reproclaim the word of the Lord and see how they're doing.

Now Barbas wanted to take with him John called Mark, but Paul thought it best not to take them, take with them the one who had drawn from them in Pamphylia and not gone with them to the work.

And there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other.

Barbas took Mark with him and sailed to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been, uh, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

So They're getting ready to go back.

Paul and on this trip.

Barnabas wanted to take John Marcus's cousin with him.

And Paul's like, no, nope.

He left us, uh, he, he left us, he departed didn't continue to work at and a sharp disagreement arose.

I'm gonna tell you what I might have done if I was General Mark.

Paul says, nope.

I'm going that way with Silas Burn, she says, oh, I'm going that way.

Do you want to come with me?

I would have been a crushed human being.

what would have been on my mind was.

The, the two most influential guys in the church just split up because of me.

Paul, who talked directly to Christ, didn't want me with him.

That, that would crush me.

I would probably curl up in a little ball in the corner and not want to get back up.

And maybe the whole time I'm traveling with Barnabas, I'd be like, Well, this is great, but it would be on my mind classroom.

That's the way our minds tend to work, I think.

When we fail, we dwell on our failures.

I feel very confident saying that is not what John Mark did.

We're not told a lot what he, about what he did, but we're told a lot about how Paul, who didn't want him with him, came to view him.

And Ryan and Timothy, I'm sorry, I don't have the, the reference on there.

And Ryan to Timothy.

He said, do your best to come to me soon.

For Dami in love, is in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

So, again, again, we're not told that that was John Marks.

Motivation, right?

But Paul's been deserted again.

And this time for somebody who, who loves the world.

He's the part, he deserted, deserted him and has gone to Thessalonica.

Crushins has gone to Glacier, ts to the nation.

Luke alone is with me.

Get Mark.

Well, most people believe this is John Mark.

Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me in the ministry.

Paul knew something about him.

Paul knew something had changed.

John Mark bounced back.

You didn't take that failure.

He didn't take that decision not to continue the work and let it just crush him.

And let it kill a spirit and let, let him never feel he was gonna be useful again.

Have you ever let somebody down?

I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand, but I, I've let people down pretty severely in my life.

And it kind of like, I wanted to gain the good graces back, but it kind of always just felt.

Strain Not by then.

by me.

And maybe they viewed me as not very useful.

But John Mark bounced back.

There's a, there's a reference.

So As we think about being resilient and bouncing back.

Look at your life and ask yourself, how, how do I develop that?

Now I'm gonna, I'm gonna, this is gonna sound.

Too simple But I'm just going to say this.

You just got to get back up.

That, that's really all there is to it.

You have to get back up.

Now we're gonna talk a little bit more about things that will enable you to get back up.

But you, you just got to keep going.

Now, remember I talked about that school as in, I had an end goal in sight.

When, when I was walking the galaxy of lights, I just wanted it to be over.

I didn't care where we ended up.

I didn't care what we're doing after that.

I wanted hugs for my grandbabies.

I just wanted it to end.

But In that school, I had a goal in mind.

I, I was determined to make it to the end.

You guys remember this story, The Little Engine That Could.

So this is from the 219 cover, and I'm gonna point out something I think is kind of interesting.

This is from the original 28 cover of The Little Engine That Could.

So, we all know, well, I shouldn't say we all know the story, but let me, let me continue on and show you something.

This is from the 63 code.

It's kind of interesting.

Now, there's clowns in this one too.

Don't, I don't know, I'm not on a clown thing, but you know there's a clown on this one too.

But 26 is going downhill.

In 26 or 210, I'm sorry, it's going up.

I Psychologists can figure out if there's anything behind that.

I just thought it was interesting.

But then they did a 90th edition anniversary cover and it looked like this.

All happy and bright.

So it's all kind of the same thing, right?

But if we know the story, Of the Little Engine That Could, there, there's some themes in it.

And the thing everybody thinks of is that.

Keep going.

Believe in yourself.

When things are hard, keep pushing on.

Keep saying, I think I can, I think I can, a positive mental attitude.

And, and you just keep pushing through, right?

And I think there's even a deeper thing that's there when you look at it it's about helping others.

And trying to get other people to their goal and all those kind of things.

In, in this story, he just kept on going.

And so, I don't know why this popped in my head when I was thinking about determination, but it did.

Maybe children's supposed to work, parents.

Maybe there's a story there.

Maybe this is better than beating them in the face, um, if you're gonna teach them how to keep going.

But Let's look at a definition of determination.

It's a firm resolve and in commitment to pursue a goal or calling despite obstacles, discouragement, or opposition.

When I, when I talked about John Mark.

And him becoming useful in the service.

Was that external factors or do you think that was internal?

I, I think it had to be in.

I think it had to be some kind of new determination that was in John Mark.

It is the decisiveness and will to continue moving forward, to just, keep saying I think I can.

Or maybe better yet, I know I can.

I can do this.

I can keep pushing forward.

So we, when we talk about the strenuous effort, the adversity, the failure, what comes to my mind right away is somebody who had extreme adversity and trauma in their life, which would be Jesus.

And if you look at his life, he had, he had hostility that just grew and grew and grew from the Jewish leaders.

He was accused of breaking the Sabbath.

The, the only man who ever kept the law perfectly was accused of breaking the Sabbath and blasphemy.

There's plots to kill him.

He was rejected by his own people.

In Nazareth, when he read in the synagogue, they decided because of what he said and what he implied, they were going to kill him.

A lot of his disciples abandoned, abandoned them when the teaching got too hard.

When he said things that were hard to hear, they left.

He was misunderstood by his own disciples.

They, they couldn't really grasp what his mission was.

They didn't understand what was going on.

And when he predicts suffering, surely some, he means something else.

He doesn't mean actual physical suffering or death.

It's got to mean something else because he's gonna save us all and restore the kingdom.

Even Peter, when he's talking about his own death, rebuked him.

Jesus, don't talk like that.

This would wear you down over the years, having to deal with this.

Physical hardships and rela he traveled constantly.

He had to find places to rest.

He depended on others.

For how to sustain it.

And he had spiritual conflict from the very beginning, the devil was out to get him.

And it didn't stop.

The whole, his whole ministry never stopped.

It just kept on So, uh, I say in that adversity and trauma, we actually need to add strenuous effort.

Jesus gave his all.

Every second, every day, every breath.

He was focused on giving his best.

And this is a verse that I, I've read over and over.

It's a simple verse.

But when you look at the book of Luke, It says when the days drew near for him to be taken up, and some people think this is about 6 months prior to his death.

He set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Now, somebody had told me at the top of those mountains I was walking to, that when I got there, It was going to be 10 times worse.

Now, believe it or not.

At the, at the end when I got to the top of those mountains when I was young, the next day was worse.

And the next day it was worse than that.

And they have a saying, the only easy day was yesterday.

When I was walking the galaxy of lights.

I just wanted it over.

As a matter of fact, we had been there a few months prior when I was still on crutches.

One of my sons-in-law pushed me in a wheelchair around the garden.

My, my grandkids thought that was fun for maybe 20 ft, and then they're like, oh, I'm done.

And then like And so I was like, man, give me a wheelchair.

I, I don't want to do this anymore.

I, I kind of wanted to give up.

But I had to get back around to where I started, so I could give up and not do it anymore.

Have you ever felt that way spiritually?

I just want to give up.

What whatever I'm going through, just let it be over.

I don't want to put any more effort into it.

I just want it to be over.

I don't, I don't care how it resolves itself.

I really don't care how I come out of it.

I just want it to be over.

I felt that way Jesus didn't.

He knew what was coming and he set his face towards Jerusalem.

And this is why I think he did it in John 10:17:63.

For, for this reason, the Father loves me because I laid down my life that I may take it up again.

He knew there's a resurrection coming.

Now, let me ask you this.

I had a friend one time, he said, do you think that Jesus Knowing he's gonna be resurrected, doesn't that kind of take away from the suffering?

And I said, well, hang on a second, and I went and got a baseball bat.

I said, I'm going to swing this bat hard enough.

To shatter your cheekbone.

And you'll have a surgery and in about 4 months you're going to feel fine.

I said, how do you think it's gonna feel when that bat impacts your face?

Don't ever take away from his suffering.

Because he knew he was going to be raised.

I can't admit, don't, just don't.

Don't let people say that.

Don't let people imply it.

He, he had a mission.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down.

I have authority to take it up again.

This charge I have received from my father.

He was on a mission.

He was doing what his father had told him to do.

And he was not going to let anything stand in the way.

So now that we've looked at this, this concept very shortly of endurance, we've looked at resilience and determination.

I want to share some things with you.

This was written to me.

I asked several different people.

This is a woman who's now at this congregation that at 19, married the love of her life.

He was a preacher.

All she ever wanted out of her life was to be a mother.

And she was a very devout person.

And the fact that she's marrying a preacher, she thought, man, this is the greatest thing ever.

And I'm not gonna go into details, but where she lived.

A miserable marriage for 45 years. Miserable.

A marriage that like John Mark, I would have crumbled up.

Most of us would have just crumbled up and given up.

But she never did.

And this is, I asked her, I said, I asked several people these things.

I said, I want you to tell me what keeps you going, what kept you going.

And I said, leave out the, the, the people at church.

All the encouragement you may or may not have from family, I want to know what was in you.

And she said she always trusted God's promises, whether I see him on earth or not.

Her life was miserable She said she kept an intimate prayer life.

And, and I've mentioned this before, it's some of my most troubling times, I quit praying.

I don't know why.

She said she turned to God's word for guidance.

She pledged for patience, and she told me in that same note, it finally paid off.

She now has the marriage she wished she'd always had a supportive husband, a wonderful family.

In the bottom, what really struck me, she said she thrived on serving others.

Uh, Kim and I kind of joke about this woman that if there was a line to get in heaven, and you had to line up, you know, and talk, get to an interview and all that, when they got done talking to her, they just shut the doors.

Say, nobody, that's it, we've met the standard and nobody else is coming in.

So you don't want to be behind.

That was our joke, right?

We know we don't get into heaven that way.

She knew she wasn't getting into heaven by serving others.

It was the grace of Christ, the mercy that we heard about this morning.

This was written to me.

Um, By someone who's going through things again that we just couldn't imagine.

And he said, as big as my trials felt and feel, God tells me they are light things, they are little things.

And then, he gave 2 Corinthians 4:17, for the slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal web of glory beyond all comparison, he said, God has and will continue to supply all my needs.

He referenced Philippians 4:19.

He says, I focus on gratitude for this promise.

He's not through the trials.

He's still in the midst of it That he's focusing on the promises.

This is probably one of my favorites.

Uh, this was written by, told to me by an older gentleman, if the doors are open, he's there.

It's difficult.

He's, he's, he's aged.

He's feeble.

He's not who he used to be, and he knows it.

He said, I get up with a purpose every day.

If you just get up and sit.

Physically, have you ever known anybody who's done that in the old days, just got up and sat, and they're just waiting to die.

They deteriorate very quickly.

If you do that spiritually, you're going to deteriorate very quickly.

If you just get up and exist until the end is over, you're going to whittle away.

Have a purpose in your life every day.

This was written by a woman that When I read her early life, Before I got to kind of the conclusion of what she's saying, I was like, What?

It was, and I don't want to go into great details, but it's like.

It's almost like a movie, the things she went through.

And then she, she wrote this, my life has been charmed with very few hardships and difficulties.

I was like, remember, let me read that again.

So I went back and I read, but what she was saying was everything she had been through established a foundation to help her get through, and she wasn't saying her life was, was trouble-free.

She lost her husband.

But what she's saying is, she realized whatever she faced in life would either make her stronger or break her.

It was really the choices.

You allow it, you allow it to bob you to the ground and stay down, or you come back up.

It says we must be determined whatever we face, no matter how difficult, it must not break us.

We must decide that it will make us stronger.

She talked at one point, she said, God knows what is best.

So, these are astounding people.

Who in this audience doesn't have hardship in your life?

I don't care how old you are.

Is anybody here hardship free?

You have, I'll guarantee you, and I'm not painting a bad picture because I think my life is filled with way more good than bad.

Way more.

But I know people whose lives are filled with way more bad than good, and they're some of the happiest people I've ever been around.

Because of their focus.

So, what, what allows them to have that focus?

Well, I think they're setting their mind on what's above, at the top of the mountain.

Not on the slight incline that is bringing them down.

They're looking for something that is beyond this life.

If you focus on this life, You're never gonna get that.

If you focus on your failures, you're never going to get back up.

If you focus on all things are so hard, you're never going to get back up.

If you focus on Christ, he'll pick you back up.

And he'll make you stronger for it.

So, are you getting weary of doing good?

You feel like nobody ever reciprocates, I do, and I do, and I give, and I give, and people just take and take and take, and I give, and all they do is take it.

What about me?

When do I get some?

Don't let that get in your mind.

Are you getting worn down?

Physically?

If you are, will that wear you down spiritually?

It will But just keep in mind that even though this body is decaying, you've got a new body.

It's being renewed day by day that we're going to be changed and live in heaven.

Even if it is a threat of your life, no, I've never faced that.

And standing for Christ And we're supposed to pray for a piece of life and hopefully we never will.

But there are people that are.

But they look at this life as of no value because of what is to come.

And it keeps them talking about the gospel of Christ.

Romans 8:5-6.

For those who live according to the flesh, set their mind on things of the flesh.

But those who live according to spirit set their minds on things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

If you focus on this world, you'll, you'll die spiritually.

If you focus on what's to come.

You'll have a peaceful mind And you'll have eternal life.

So, what is the big difference again between When I could look at a little incline, my family, the distance increasing.

And the guy that just kept going.

Well, the difference is Here I knew what I wanted.

I was gonna get it, and I actually, looking back, I didn't do it by myself.

There's a lot of guys that were in it together.

And the interesting thing is that some of the most miserable points.

We would look at each other and smile.

It, it was, it was really odd.

That in some of the most miserable times, we just look at each other and smile because we both knew we were in it and we're doing something.

Over here, Tim was walking with me and I watched my family get farther and farther away.

Sometimes I feel like that's spiritual.

I'm watching my spiritual family get farther and farther away because I'm not walking with them.

I've I've given up.

I'm not walking with Christ.

I'm not walking with my family.

Don't do that.

Because You don't, it's not about knees.

It's not about backs.

It's not about whether you're in a wheelchair or not.

It's about what's in here.

It's about what God means to you and about what you want to do with your life.

So either get back down and get back up.

Or, or be the little engine that kept on going saying I can do it.

And just keep driving on.

You can do it.

I'm telling you, you can't do it.

God promises you can do it.

I'm gonna say it again, you can.

Let's pray.

Father, we're so thankful for the examples that you give us of a young man who had a singing failure but he was able to become useful in the service, become very useful in the service.

We pray that you give us that kind of strength that through our failures, we would understand that one thing doesn't define us.

But that you define us.

We pray that you'd help us to look to Jesus, the determination he had.

The, the realization that what he was doing was for you.

Help us understand that what we are doing is also for you.

That our goal is to get to heaven.

That our goal is to take others to heaven with us.

And when we feel down, Lord, we know you can get us through it.

We've seen so many who have been through it.

But in the moment, Lord, it's, it's difficult.

In the moment when we're we're suffering, it's hard to look at others and say they've made it.

I can make it to you.

Help us to always turn to you and say, Lord, help me through it.

Look to your word, pray, have a closer relationship with you and understand that you know best.

It's in your son's name we pray.

Hang on.

Now, as the perfect end to this, you're gonna watch me hobble down the steps.

Cause I gotta kind of take them one at a time.

Wait, wait.

Everything we've talked about.

Depends on your relationship with Christ.

First Corinthians gives us the explanation what the gospel is that Jesus came.

He died for our sins.

He was buried and he was raised again.

Romans 6 gives us the exact representation of that in our lives.

That we can crucify our old selves, be buried in the water of baptism, and rise to a newness of life.

In, in Romans 10, we're told that if we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised from the dead, we'll be saved.

And the, the Ethiopian eunuch gave that perfect example.

He said, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

So if you're willing to be repent and be baptized, if you're willing to do this picture, You can become the kind of person that gets knocked down and gets, just gets back up.

That, that spiritually, nothing will keep you down, because God will keep you up.

If you're not a Christian though, You don't, you don't even have the ability to get back up.

You're a deflated clown.

You're, you're just laying on the ground.

You don't even have the ability to bop back up spiritually.

You can't even say I think I can because you can't.

Because you're not a Christian.

If, if, if you are a Christian and you, you got halfway up the hill and you're sliding back down because you're injured, you just couldn't keep going.

Where you got knocked down and you're, you're in the mud.

God can pull you out of it.

And, and we can pray with you.

A lot of you may not even be sin in your life.

It may just be you need encouragement.

Things are hard in your life.

And you want some encouragement, we can, we can pray for that as well.

But whatever your needs are, if you, when we stand, if you'll let us know, we'll do our best to help you.

Let's stand

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Josh Hartsell

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

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

And so regularly, we have to challenge ourselves and think about the pressures that culture is putting on us, and think about ways that we can renew our mind to be more like Christ.

And so tonight, that is my goal with this lesson.

Now, I must admit, uh, the lesson title is a little bit clickbaity, a little bit, uh, wanting you to, to think about it.

Um, And my goal with this lesson is to handle this topic completely scripturally.

Um, and I know, like a title like this might give you some red flags.

You might say, OK, we haven't heard it.

Where is he going to pull this from?

The goal is to do a deep dive into scripture tonight.

But I'm 28.

In the last 163 years, let's say, let's say from the time I was 8 until now, I have never heard a lesson preached on gluttony.

I've never heard, I can't think of a time that I've heard it in a Bible class.

Maybe I missed out on the Philippians Bible class.

Uh, and it would be very funny if this was preached in the last couple of months, and I was out that Sunday.

Uh, and again, small sample size, right?

28 years old, not that old.

But kind of surprised that I've never heard this be preached at all.

My goal is, again, to look deep into scripture.

I want to give you an outline of where we're going, because we're going to be fairly kind of nose down into our Bibles tonight.

Um, I'm going to share a lot of passages, and we're going to be moving fairly quickly.

If you'd like, I would be happy to send you this slide deck, uh, as well as any of my notes on all of this.

So the first thing we are going to need to address is, is food, something that is in the scope of scripture?

We're talking about something as mundane as this.

First question is, does the Bible have any purview over such a simple topic, like food?

And then going to go into looking at sort of a spectrum of places that we could, or ways that we could think about food in our lives, a couple of extreme positions.

Uh, and then hopefully, we'll arrive at a middle ground that I think scripture speaks to as well.

And then very briefly, we'll mention another secret uh topic that isn't preached on very much that I'd like to share with you as well.

So is food in the scope of the Bible?

Well, I would say absolutely.

So. Uh, there are a lot of direct laws that are given to God's people throughout the Bible, uh, regarding the food that they are allowed to eat or their mindset, uh, how their mindset should be toward food.

What probably hopefully pops into your mind whenever I talk about food laws is the law of Moses, right?

If you look at Leviticus chapter 11, Deuteronomy chapter 14, there is extensive rules that God's people, the Jews in the Old Testament, time had to follow regarding things that they could and could not eat, even the ways that it was prepared, the times that it was prepared.

There's a lot of litigation in the old law about food.

So that seems to be a topic that is of interest to God.

Outside of the law of Moses.

We see a law that was given to, um, I almost said Moses, Noah, uh, in Genesis chapter 9, right after he gets off of the ark, and that is not to eat meat with the blood in it.

And that law is reiterated in Acts chapter 15, if you remember, uh, with the conference where they were dealing with circumcision and whether or not Gentiles had to be circumcised to become Christians.

And if you remember, that was one of the very few things that was communicated out to the churches from that meeting was, hey, don't eat meat with the blood still in it.

There's a lot of food-related sins or issues throughout the Bible.

Uh, here's a couple that I was thinking of whenever I was coming up with this lesson.

Uh, Israel complaining in the wilderness.

There are, you know, multiple, multiple instances where they were bemoaning the fact that they didn't have bread or they didn't have meat.

And oh boy, we had it so much better back in Egypt.

Um, we see other instances, like the sons of Eli, uh, who were priests who stole food from the offerings that were meant to go to God, uh, and gorging themselves on that.

Um, there's discussions in the New Testament of meat sacrifice to idols, right?

So that was an issue in the New Testament time of whether or not that is something that is OK for a Christian to eat, if it was used in some sort of ritual before being sold.

And then another here, selfish eating of the Lord's Supper, even the Lord's Supper, which, which Christ established can be twisted and has been twisted.

But hopefully, a lot of you are thinking about this.

There's one really big one that I forgot.

And that is the very first thing.

The first sin that man ever committed was eating.

Isn't that kind of something that that's not something I think about.

So there is a very core aspect of all of this, um, that the Bible speaks to throughout the Bible.

We're going to look at several passages.

But just remember that in Genesis 3, verse 6, it says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit, right?

So she saw it as something that was going to be good to eat.

So let's look at Philippians chapter 3.

This is really going to be our key verse tonight.

So I'd invite you to turn there.

and stick a marker there because we we're going to address it here briefly, but then we're going to come back to this.

So in Philippians 223, Please read with me starting in verse 17.

It says, brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern.

For many walk, of whom I've told you often and now tell you even weeping, they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.

I want you to note, I've highlighted a few uh phrases in this.

Look at the way that this concept of one whose God is their belly is handled.

Note that they're described as enemies of the cross of Christ, people whose God is their belly, uh, they're in this destruction.

They are ones who have shame.

They've set their minds on earthly things, and notice that there's a contrast between Paul and the Philippians saying that our citizenship is in heaven.

So, let's put this all together.

Is gluttony a real sin?

And what I, what I mean when I say real sin, I mean, is gluttony a sin that will keep you from going to heaven, if you do not repent of it, and if it is a characteristic of your life?

What do you think?

Because this passage, I think clearly says that if you make your God your belly, You are Christ's enemy.

And your end is destruction.

So now we, we have some real stakes about this topic.

This is not a topic that we can afford to plug our ears and close our eyes and pretend like this is sort of a fake sin, or a sin that we can sort of laugh at and move on.

This is something that each of us personally have to search ourselves for.

So let's think about this from another perspective, right?

So that's a very strong scriptural motivation.

We, we have just been told that, hey, there is a sin that will keep you from going to heaven and having citizenship in heaven.

OK, hopefully, we're all listening close.

But let's appreciate, again, the culture that we live in.

We live in, I would say the most food-rich nation that has ever existed.

Uh, food is more plentiful than ever before.

Food is also more palatable than ever before.

And what I mean by palatable is delicious, tasty, right?

Designed to make you want more of it.

It's not just that we have an abundance.

What we have is much, much more addictive, if I can use that word, than the foods that existed in the past.

Um, I, it, it cracks me up thinking back in history, wars that were fought over spices, right?

I mean, we, we laugh at that, right?

Go down to Publix just down the road, get as many spices as you want, no problem.

People bled and died over salt and sugar, and, and, you know, there's your whole list.

Um, can you imagine what kings would do if one of the kingdoms suddenly had a Taco Bell?

Like if one of the kings advertised that they had a cheesy Gordita Crunch, how many people would bleed and die over that 500 years ago?

We are playing by completely different rules in terms of the food that we have before us, and the food that existed before.

Now, I'm not saying that sin has changed and mankind's nature has changed.

But I'm just saying, man, let's think about this, right?

If we live in this culture, Why do we not talk about gluttony?

And I don't just mean from a podium like this.

I mean amongst each other.

I mean, I have never had a friend talk to me about gluttony, seriously.

Seems like something we should be talking about.

There's a lot of obvious reasons why we might not be talking about gluttony in our relationships and even from a podium like this.

It's really difficult to recognize.

And it makes a lot of sense why, right?

People are all built pretty differently, right?

We all have different metabolisms.

We all need to eat, right?

That separates gluttony from other substances that can be abused, right?

You have a drug addiction of some kind.

Well, there's a world where you really can just go cold turkey, and you can back away from it.

And, you know, you'll you'll have withdrawal and adverse effects, but you can get past that.

You can't go cold turkey.

I guess, no pun intended, from food, right?

You, you gotta eat.

And so this becomes very difficult to recognize in ourselves and with other people.

This is something that goes against our culture, right?

I looked up one thing that said online that in 2024, there's an estimated $14 billion with a B that is spent just on advertising for the food industry.

$14 billion.

So companies want not only to make their food as palatable as possible to get you craving it and wanting to go back, but they're going to, on every street that you go down, there needs to be 5 to 10 restaurants, right?

There's signs everywhere.

There's ads on your phone, there's ads on TV. There's ads everywhere, trying to get you to eat more and more and more and more and more.

So there's cultural pressure here.

And speaking out against this is something that is not OK. Um, We are so wealthy.

There's so much availability.

Portion sizes in America are absurd compared to other places around the world.

I mean, think about what our brothers and sisters eat on the other side of the world, uh, and then you go to Texas Roadhouse and get any combo and the plates this big, right?

This is an emotional topic too.

It feels impolite to discuss this.

Now, I'm not, I don't think it has to be.

But I think that that's sometimes how we feel.

And so because it can be emotional for us, and for the person that we might be talking to, we refuse to talk about it.

Let me ask you this.

If you saw me.

Passed out drunk somewhere.

And You knew that you had seen me drinking and drinking and drinking multiple occasions.

Would you come and say something to me?

I mean, as your brother, would you come and say, hey, this, this can't go on.

This is not healthy.

This is not good for you.

And what I mean by healthy is spiritually healthy.

Because The way that we're going to be talking about gluttony tonight, this is a spiritual issue, right?

Sure, there are other things that we can talk about with health and things like that.

That's not really where the scriptures posture this.

This is a spiritual issue.

So I, I would hope that you would reach out to me if you saw that I was an alcoholic.

Would we go to a brother or a sister who we could clearly see struggle with gluttony?

Again, remember, we, we said that this is something that could send someone to hell, if they let it run rampant in their lives.

Let me add a layer.

Would we exercise church discipline over glutton?

If we had a brother or a sister who this characterized their life and took over their life.

Something to think about.

It's hard to talk about because we don't want to be the first to throw a stone.

I think all of us, especially living in America and the culture that we live in, we feel pretty hypocritical about going to somebody and saying, hey, you know, This situation makes me feel uncomfortable.

I, I, I'm worried about you.

Because then they could fire right back and say, well, you know, you, yada, yada, yada.

And we emotionally, we, we might struggle with even just talking about this in general.

And a very valid reason.

And what I'm hoping this, this lesson will, will help us with.

is that scriptures actually pose a pretty nuanced take of our relationship with food.

This is not a clear black and white issue.

And this is not an issue where it is very clear that, you know, you eat one more potato chip, and it's over.

But you've crossed this line.

So we need to look through the scriptures, which is my goal for tonight.

Now, I stole this idea from John Hood, who, if you remember, gave us a great lesson, uh, a few months ago on middle knowledge of God.

He used the illustration of a pendulum.

All right, everybody hang in here.

Let's see.

Oh yeah.

You see that it moves.

Wait, can I get back?

This spent me, this took me a long time.

Uh, I have a bachelor degree, everybody.

Um, so there are two extreme positions that we could take.

And the way that I want to frame our study tonight is Scripture speaks against both extremes that we could find ourselves in.

And really where I hope that we end up is in middle ground, where things make sense.

OK, so On one hand, Scripture says in Proverbs 24:13, my son, eat honey because it is good, and the honeycomb, which is sweet to your taste. Sweet.

I love that.

All right.

So, Flip the page, it is not good to eat much honey.

So, so to seek one's own glory is not glory.

Uh, whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls.

So which is it?

I was just told it's good to eat honey, but now it's not, not good to eat honey.

What, what's going on here?

So, Let's think about it this way.

There's two extreme positions that Scripture speaks against.

The first of which is compelled abstinence.

Now the word compelled there is very important.

I don't think there's anywhere in the scripture that says that if you determine for yourself that you're going to eat a certain way, and again, this is in Christ, right, this side of the cross, not under the old law, but as Christians, But to compel that on someone goes against what the scriptures say.

So what this position might be sort of characterized as is that enjoying your food, or eating certain types of food is morally wrong.

So what about the other extreme?

The other extreme would be gluttony, right?

Still a fleshly mindset, by the way, You don't need any limits.

You don't need self-control.

You don't even have to think about it, right?

Just eat whatever you want.

This is not a spiritual topic.

So, let's start with compelled abstinence.

Again, my plan is we're going to look through both of these, and then hopefully end up in the middle.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a whole lot of discussion about what life looks like under the sun.

Uh, if you'd like to turn there, I know some of the scripture might be a little bit hard to see on the overhead.

Uh, but Solomon has a pretty pessimistic view, I would say overall about life under the sun.

But he does have a few very sort of optimistic, glowing things to say about life.

And a lot of them relate to food.

So in Ecclesiastes 43:24, it says, nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor.

This also I saw was from the hand of God.

So, uh, we see that there's a direct tie between enjoying food, and that being from the hand of God or being a gift from God.

In Ecclesiastes 5, and verse 18, It says, Here is what I've seen.

It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun, all the days of his life which God gives him, for it is his heritage.

As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, is given, has given him the power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God.

So again, The position is from, from, from Solomon and and all of his life, his wealth, he acknowledges that food is something that is a blessing from God.

Ecclesiastes 9:7, go eat your bread with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your works.

So again, a through line of scripture, which says, it's good to enjoy your food.

So saying that you must abstain entirely from from delicious food, that is just not what Scripture says.

God, as a matter of fact, institutes feasting in the Old Testament, right?

If you look in Exodus 23, uh Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 16, you will see that there are uh several different feasts that are commanded and are to be upheld, things like feast of Unleavened bread, feast of harvest, in gathering, weeks, trumpets, tabernacles, right?

A lot of feasts that were established by God.

As a time of memorial and as a time of joy.

Jesus attended feasts.

If you remember, the first uh miracle that we see Jesus perform in the book of John is at a wedding feast.

So it's at a feast.

Um, and actually is associated with drinking, right, with wine that is at that feast.

So that is food and drink in the context of a feast.

Jesus, ironically, is accused of gluttony by his opponents.

If you remember that with the scribes and Pharisees were trying to, to sort of reach at straws, because he would go and eat with tax collectors and sinners.

And so, We see that Jesus has a nuanced discussion of feasting.

Now, that looked a lot bigger on my computer screen.

If you turn to Mark chapter 2.

I want to point out something important here, that Jesus says, With regard to feasts.

So in Mark 23, this question gets posed that we'll start reading in verse 18.

It says, the disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting.

Then they came and said to him, Why did the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?

And Jesus said to them, can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them.

And then they will fast in those days.

So what it sounds like to me is that there's a time and a place for feasting, right?

There is a time to feast and to enjoy food and to, you know, have a special occasion.

But then there's a time in your life where that shouldn't characterize every moment of your life.

Life is not one giant unbroken feast.

There's times for feasting, and there's times for fasting.

And then there's a couple of times where the New Testament authors directly oppose asceticism, again, compelled asceticism.

So in 1 Timothy 4, is a good example of this.

First Timothy 4 and verse 1 says, now the Spirit expressly says that in later 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, forbidding.

To Mary and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.

Notice very strong language here, right?

Uh, doctrines of demons is the way it's described.

And what that's tied to is commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received from with Thanksgiving.

So this position cannot be.

We, we, the scriptures do not support that we can go and tell someone else you cannot eat X, Y, Z. Because um there.

Those foods are meant to be appreciated and enjoyed.

Now With limit, right?

We'll, we'll see the other end of the pendulum.

OK. Colossians chapter 2, you'll probably want to turn there, uh, because it's fairly tiny.

Uh, in Colossians chapter 2, again, the last, the first Timothy 4 passage was spoken of with regard to false teaching that was going to come.

Um, Colossians 2 seems to be with respect to current false teaching that's going on by the Judaizing teachers.

In Colossians 23:16, it says, So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, introducing into those things which he has not seen vainly.

puffed up by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head, from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God.

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself again to regulations?

Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with using according to the commandments and doctrines of men.

These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

So there is no value to be had spiritually, from compelling that somebody not eat certain types of food.

And we see that historically, right?

There are a lot of religious organizations that pop up throughout the pages of history, who do this very thing.

And what Paul is saying here is, that is not right.

Do not listen to those people.

And certainly when it comes to judging your brother, because they don't observe some food regulation that perhaps the Jews would have.

Notice again, Having Abstinence in this context is described as having a fleshly mindset.

Isn't that interesting?

I would think to describe gluttony as a fleshly mindset.

But putting too much stock in being abstinent for the sake of this false humility is also wrong, according to Paul.

All right, so we've pretty well established that this is not the extreme position we need to take.

So let's look at the other side.

Just as a bit of background.

Um, there are bunches of definitions of gluttony.

Uh, my goal here, I'm going to give you a little bit to chew on here from just an English perspective.

And then we're going to go through the scriptures and look at usage.

All right.

So, good old Merriam-Webster says that gluttony is an excess in eating or drinking, greedy or excessive indulgence.

Uh, our friends at vocabulary.

com say gluttony is characterized by a limitless appetite for food and drink and overindulgence to the point where one is no longer eating just to live, but rather living to eat.

I think that is a good summation.

So let's look at some scriptures here.

In Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 18 through 21, Read a portion of the old law here.

And again, we're going to rapid fire through this, right?

So we're going to look at a passage, pull a couple of points from it.

And all the while, I want you to be thinking about your personal definition of what it looks like to be a glutton. Right.

My goal is to spark conversation with with yourself and your families.

We need to think about this topic.

So let's look through these passages, see if we can come up with some ideas of a definition for ourselves.

OK, so if a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them.

Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of the city to the gate of the city.

And they shall say to the elders of the city, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious.

He will not obey our voice.

He is a glutton and a drunkard.

Then all the men of that city shall stone him to death with stones.

So you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.

Now, notice stubborn and rebellious is the key phrase in this passage.

But gluttony is tied up in that picture, right?

Associated with stubborn, rebellious, being a drunkard, and ultimately evil.

That is the description of what gluttony is.

And in the old law, that would be punished by death.

Proverbs 28:7 says, Whoever keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons shames his father.

Notice that gluttony is contrasted with obedience and discernment.

And also notice that what the scripture doesn't say is, son, don't be a glutton.

This says, don't associate, don't, don't be a companion of gluttons, right?

So that's an extra layer of emphasis of how this should not be characteristic of us.

Titus 1 verse 12 and 13.

It kind of looks like one verse, maybe this is too.

Uh, one of them, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

So this is a Gentile speaking here that Paul is quoting to Titus.

Um, even the pagan world associates gluttony with laziness.

So this is not just a perspective of God's people.

Proverbs 23:19 through, I believe, 21 through 2.

Hear my son and be wise and guide your heart in the way.

Do not mix with wine bibbers or with gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

Notice again, the association with drunkenness, right?

With this overindulgent lifestyle.

Here, there's also the same association with laziness.

And this brings in the concept of financial ruin that can come from this lifestyle.

Um, and that might be in tandem with laziness, which there are other proverbs which speak to.

But also just think about spending too much, right?

You're, you're spending so much of your income on the best that there is to offer.

And I think that's really the idea of gluttonous eaters of meat.

Is it wrong to eat meat?

Everybody shake your head big, right?

Because we see God set up feasts that involve eating meat.

Think about the Passover, right?

He fed the people quail.

Would he do that if it was a sin?

Clearly not.

What I think this is saying is, if you are gluttonous to eat the best all the time, I think that is what's being talked about as wisdom says, do not do that.

Do not associate and mix with those types of people.

In Proverbs chapter 23, You'll turn there Proverbs 23, uh Verse 19.

OK, that's definitely not right.

Uh, one sec.

23, 1 through 3.

Here we are.

Proverbs 33:1 says, when you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you and put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.

Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.

Do not overwork to be rich because of your own understanding, ease.

So, talk about evocative wording.

Put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.

What this passage is saying is you need to bring your brain to the table whenever you go to eat, right?

You need to think about the way that your heart is interacting whenever you are eating food, and specifically really fancy food, right?

Really, uh, delectable, you know, the, the high-end things, because unchecked enjoyment of that type of lifestyle can lead us to greed, lead us to, uh, lavishness and deception.

So We've worked our way through the Old Testament.

Let's look back at Philippians 3.

So in Philippians 3, there was a mention of Our God being Our or whose God is their belly.

So what does that look like?

I think that is what gluttony is.

I think those two terms, those two ideas are the same.

So what might it look like?

Well, maybe it looks like turning to food in places where we should be turning to God.

People talk a lot about eating your feelings, you know, you, you're depressed, you're down.

And so you eat, and you eat and you eat.

Maybe in those opportunities, we should put down the tub of ice cream.

And pray.

And study and meditate.

And to put our minds on spiritual things.

Maybe believing that food can truly satisfy us. There.

Maybe patterning our lives around our next meal.

That's, that's the, as soon as we finish one meal, we're thinking about the next one.

216 Timothy 222:24 uses the phrase lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

Maybe food can become our primary source of pleasure.

I have been here In college Looking back, especially studying all of this, I definitely had issues with gluttony.

By junior year, senior year, things were getting tough.

And A lot of times I would think, OK, Chick fil A for lunch.

I just gotta get through it.

And then I would go to Chick fil A and I would order some outlandish, you know, whatever the largest thing is on the menu.

And like sweet, you get through to dinner, already looking forward to Guthrie's.

And That became a pattern.

That I'm still working out of.

I nearly compulsively ordered the large combo, whatever I, whatever restaurant that I go to.

It is so easy.

To turn our belly into our God.

And not have any pushback or have any support structure around us to call to mind.

That that we're doing this.

Let me share some questions that I ask myself whenever I think about this.

This isn't on the slides.

Um, And this might not even necessarily be the way to think about this.

But maybe it'll be helpful.

Am I only governed by my physical limitations when it comes to food?

What I mean is Do I ever stop eating before I physically cannot eat anymore?

When is the last time that I exercised self-control when it came to food?

When is a time where I stopped, when I could have kept eating?

Does eating a boring meal put a damper on my whole day?

Fight something that's bland or unappetizing is my afternoon ruins.

Do I get irrationally upset if my food is wrong at a restaurant?

I ordered one thing Still got tomatoes on it.

Am I angry when that happens?

Am I constantly spending much more money than I have to on tastier and better food, when I really could be satisfied with something that's cheaper, something that's simpler.

is the only thing that guides my decisions about food taste.

Is that the only part of the decision?

And am I trying to feast every day of my life?

Maybe that's helpful for you too.

But in looking at those passages, Those are things that I think about.

So we've talked about both extremes, both of compelled abstinence, which the proverbs writer would say, hey, eat, eat honey, it's good.

And complete abandon, like gluttony, where he says, it's not good to eat much honey.

The middle position is, if you found honey, eat only enough for you.

Tests or less, if you had your fill of it, and vomitted.

So the middle position is only eat enough for you.

It's self-control.

This is such a fundamental concept.

But it's what the scriptures say.

Our mindset should be controlling ourselves.

And so that makes this deeply personal, right?

We have these two extreme points.

And you and I need to understand how to glorify God with our bodies.

A couple of passages that are near impossible to read.

Uh, 22 Corinthians 22.

Um, 22 Corinthians 703:270 says, all things are lawful to me, but all things are not helpful.

All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Food is for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them.

Now, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

If you skip down, look in verse 26, it says, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own.

For you were, you were bought at a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

So the concept here is that in Christ, we have liberty, right?

It is food, we do, we're not under the food regulations that the Jews had.

But Just because it's lawful doesn't mean that we can let it control our lives.

There is an instance where food can bring us under its power.

And so what Paul says is, in any context where liberty allows us to do something, we need to be careful not to let that thing dominate us.

And that's thinking about ourselves, thinking about our brothers and sisters in 29 Corinthians 10, if you'll flip over there, very similar phrasing, but notice that the emphasis is on our brother or our sister.

In verse 23, so this is 11 Corinthians 10:23.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.

Let no one seek his own, but each one another's well-being.

And if you skip down, In verse 31, it says, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.

Give no offense, either to the Jew or the Greeks or to the Church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved.

So the position of Scripture is, in cases where we have liberty, Our goal should be to glorify God with how we are using our body.

And again, 63 Corinthians 10, we didn't read it, but the context is eating meat sacrificed to idols.

So both of these passages have to do with eating.

And in both cases, We are to glorify God, even at the expense of going the full gambit of the liberty that we have and overindulging.

Couple more passages here.

Galatians 5.

should hopefully be a passage that maybe popped in your mind whenever I talked about self-control.

Uh, Galatians 5:16 says, I say then walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

For the flesh, lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another.

So you do not do the things that you wish.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law.

Look down in verse 22, it says, but the fruit of Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.

Against such there is no law, and those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

For if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

So the key to all of this is self control and spiritual mindedness, right?

Walking in the spirit, not walking according to the flesh.

So even in something as simple as the food that we eat, we need to have our hearts and our minds engaged on spiritual perspective, and not just on our flesh.

In Deuteronomy, God taught the lesson that man shall not live by bread alone.

And Jesus uh reemphasizes that in Matthew chapter 4.

And the punchline is, But by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.

Food brings us to a place of humility, where it can, whenever we realize that we are fully reliant on God to provide it to us.

And in the same way, and even more so, we have to realize that we're reliant on God spiritually.

And that's where our focus should be.

All right, time for a jump scare.

Uh, you ready for topic number 2.

We have 2 minutes left in the hour.

Um, Fun fact, uh, my wife actually, uh, begged me to not talk a lot about this for the sake of time.

Uh, I, I went through all the slides, and I was like, all right, sweet.

So I have like 2 to 3 pages on fasting, and she was like, OK, like that needs to be a separate topic.

So, I promise, just be a single slide.

And ironically, I don't know that I've ever heard a lesson on fasting.

Have you?

I know maybe some of you have, uh, just like some of you've probably heard lessons on gluttony in the past.

But I don't, I don't think I've ever heard this encouraged.

Real fast like Fasting is mentioned over 70 times in the scriptures.

Um, we see that fasting is described as humbling us, being an opportunity to focus our minds spiritually, and de-emphasizing the physical, um, de-emphasizing our, our fleshly mindedness.

Um, there's tons of examples in the Old and New Testament.

I threw a few of those up there, David, Esther, Josh Fat, Paul, Cornelius, Anna, there's a bunch more.

Um, we see the way that Jesus describes fasting, very interesting.

Right after Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray, he immediately teaches them how to fast.

And notice that the wording in Matthew 6 is when you fast.

So to me, the understanding there is that his disciples are going to fast, his followers will fast.

Um, and notice in Matthew 9, which we read just a little bit ago, There's a time for feasting.

And there is a time for Fascinating And we have examples of the church getting together and fasting, both whenever they send out Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey.

And while Paul and Barnabas are on the first missionary journey, and they're establishing elders in all those churches, they fast before those big decisions.

So again, I guess we'll pose the question.

Why are we not talking about fasting?

Well, that's all homework.

All right.

You guys study it.

The proof is given to the, the student or is left to the student.

All right, I appreciate y'all's great attention.

I know I'm doing fairly long.

So what have we talked about?

Gluttony is a real sin.

There are real stakes.

If we let this characterize our life, we are not being transformed into the image of Christ.

We are being conformed to worldliness.

And man, we have so much pressure living in the US and living in the South in the US. We have to be aware of our hearts.

We need to develop our self-control.

In every part of our life, including something as mundane as eating, the scriptures encourage us to develop our self-control.

We need to renew our spiritual focus and renew our spiritual mindedness and deemphasize our physical concerns, our fleshly mindset.

And last, we need to make use of the tools that God has given us to deemphasize the flesh and focus on the spirit.

And I propose fasting is one of those things that talked about a whole lot in the Bible, that I think we could emphasize more.

That's all I've got tonight.

I really appreciate your attention.

I hope that this is helpful to you.

And I hope that we all think about this, and we study this, and that this can be an encouragement.

Um If you are struggling with something like this.

If you notice in your life, That you are letting your pleasures and passions dominate.

And you notice that tonight in yourself and want to change, we would love to encourage you and Uh, celebrate with you as you repent of that.

We all struggle.

But God is gracious And he is long suffering toward us.

So if you need to repent of this, or any sin, um, that you are struggling with, then in a minute, we're going to sing a song.

I'd invite you to come to the front at that point.

And if you're here and you're visiting, And you are not a Christian.

And you want to give your life to Christ and be saved of your sins.

Now is the time to do that.

Now is the time to give your life to Christ and be transformed into the image of the sun, and not let your life be dominated by vapid vain things like your appetite.

If there's any help that we can give you in spiritual nature, then please come to the front as we stand and as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ian Boike

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

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

Reading this morning will be Acts 26, starting in verse 9.

I'll be reading from the New American Standard Version.

So then I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and this is just what I did in Jerusalem.

Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them.

And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme.

And being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.

While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun shining all around me and those who were journeying with me.

And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goats.

And I said, Who are you, Lord?

And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

But get up and stand on your feet.

For this purpose, I've appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness, not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you.

Rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me.

Good morning.

It's wonderful to see you all out this morning and I, I know that I'm a young guy.

I know that I haven't been around all that long compared to some of you, but I remember in the days bef I do remember faintly the days before we had GPS.

In And I remember we were uh traveling to Florida, Panama City with my grandparents, and I remember seeing this giant book in the back of the, uh, the little sleeve on the back of the driver's seat, and it said United States Atlas, and I was thinking, what is this?

And so I opened it up and it's all these different roads and everything and you know, I. I thought, you know, how did anybody get along without GPS?

How did anybody get along without Siri telling me in 300 ft, turn right.

But Some of you did manage somehow.

But In the days before GPS, people did use paper maps.

People were able to find their way from one end of the country to the other without any electronic assistance.

But I want you to imagine for a moment that you're on a ship.

In the middle of the ocean.

In in the pitch black of night.

And you're trying to find your way home.

What are you going to do?

Well, If you were in this situation, GPS is not an option for you, but You would do, what you would do is you would look up to the stars and search for Polaris or the North Star.

And this star always seems to be in the same spot as it never moves compared to the other stars.

In other words, the North Star is one of the most consistent stars in the sky.

And in 1847, the famous anti-slavery abolitionist known as Frederick Douglass, well, he founded the newspaper, The North Star, in New York.

And this was a rather fitting name for this newspaper, as many enslaved people during this time, including Harriet Tubman, would use Polaris to find their way to the northern states where slavery had been abolished.

And in fact, the Underground Railroad would actually teach slaves that they were able to come across to search the stars, as it would lead them to their freedom.

And after hearing some of the history and practical uses behind Polaris, it, it made me think of how Christ is our North Star, or at least he should be.

And this morning, I want to discuss the ways that Jesus and Polaris or the North Star are similar, and how that following Christ is the only way to find our way home.

And this morning, I want to start, I think the most logical question is to start by asking, well, who needs a North Star?

Well, maybe the most easiest answer to start with would be those who are lost, because everyone on this earth is a journey per se, but unfortunately, many don't even realize that they're lost until it's too late.

The apostle Paul, excuse me, formerly known as Saul, was actually once the leading persecutor of Christians, but thankfully, due to the intervention of Christ, while on the road to Damascus, Paul's mind was changed.

Leading him to change his North Star from the Mosaic law to Christ.

In in Acts chapter 26, which was our scripture reading this morning, We do see where Paul is preaching and he's teaching directly to King Agrippa, and during his teaching, Paul is pleading and he is, and he's seeking to communicate with Agrippa to get this point across that like he is, he was once lost and didn't even know it.

Yet God turned his life around.

In Acts 163 chapter.

Verses 9 through 16, Paul says, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and I did so in Jerusalem.

I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and I punished them often in the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme.

And in raging fury against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus and with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goats.

And I said, Who are you, Lord?

And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, but rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose to appoint you as a servant and witness to things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.

So we can clearly see that Paul needed Christ to be his Polaris because although he was unaware, he was completely and utterly lost.

And in fact, he thought he was going in the right direction.

And secondly, I would say the second kind of person would be, you know, people who have lost their weight but originally started on the right path.

Because I think it's quite an achievement to say that, you know, I've been a Christian for the majority of my life.

Not everyone can say that.

But unfortunately, due to temptations of the flesh.

You know, people are sometimes going to choose to walk a different path.

They're going to choose to walk in darkness rather than in light.

And when trying to think of an example for this, I thought of Solomon, the 3rd king of Israel.

And in 1 Kings chapter 3 and in Nehemiah 13, we find that Solomon started out as someone who God found favoring.

Who found favor in the eyes of the Lord, excuse me, reverse that.

In 1 Kings chapter 3, in verse 10 to 243, we're told, it pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this, that being wisdom.

And God said to him, because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life, or riches, or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right.

Behold, I now do according to your word.

Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind so that none like you has been before you, and none like you shall arise after you.

So we see the scene where he asks for wisdom and God gives it to him.

He commends him on asking for this.

But unfortunately, even with all the wisdom in the world that God had given him, he still fell because of his fleshly desires.

In Nehemiah the 13th chapter.

We see where it, where um Solomon is mentioned again, he is referenced in Nehemiah the 13th chapter verses 23 to 27, we're told by Nehemiah in those days, also, I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Amnon, and Moab, and half their children spoke the language of Ashdod.

And they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people.

And I confronted them, and I cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair.

And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, you shall not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, or for or for yourselves.

Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin on account of such women?

Among the nations, there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God.

And God made him king over all Israel.

Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin.

Shall we then listen to you and do all of this great evil and act treacherously, treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?

So we can see that Solomon is a very sad example of someone who started out on the right path, but he lost his way.

He initially followed all of his father's statutes and the Lord's commands, but he had every opportunity and every good example in his life.

To make sure that he could do the right thing.

It's very, very easy for him.

Yet he still chose to do what was evil.

He chose to follow his fleshly desires rather than following the Lord.

And even though Solomon had tremendous wisdom, More than anyone else.

He still needed the Lord as his north star as his guide.

But what makes Christ qualified to be our North Star?

What, what allows him to have the ability to say, well, I'm, I'm your North Star, you should follow me.

Well, Christ, he, well, he claimed all authority in heaven and on earth and on earth.

In other words, he is our guide.

And after Christ's resurrection from the dead, he appears to his disciples on the mountain in Galilee, and he claims all authority in Matthew chapter 28, and verse 18 and 18 through 19.

And Jesus said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And if Jesus is the only one to hold all authority in both heaven and earth, then he's the only qualified person to be our North Star.

John, the 14th chapter, verses 163 and 7 tells us, Jesus said to him, I'm the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you had known me, you would have known my Father also from now on, you do know Him and have seen him.

And just as the North Star is the only star that always will point you north, we talked about that consistency earlier.

Jesus is our only guide to heaven, our only consistent guide to heaven.

Secondly, I would suggest this morning that Christ lived a perfect life free from the slavery of sin.

In other words, Jesus is our example.

And the scriptures tell us that Christ lived a sinless life here on earth.

It's something that no other man has ever done or will ever be able to achieve.

In Hebrews the 4th chapter, verse 15, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

First Peter 1:19 says something very similar.

But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of the lamb without blemish or spot.

And Paul says something very similar in Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 9.

Paul tells us it starting in verse 9 of chapter 18003 in Philippians, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Who, though he was in the form of God.

He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him.

And bestowed upon him the name that is above every name.

And I would say that like we've, we've already spoken about just a little bit, Jesus' perfection is shown in his in his consistency.

In Hebrews the 13th chapter and in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 219.

We're told that Jesus is the same yesterday.

And today and forever.

And if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

So just as the North Star never moves, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and he offers that reliability in a constantly changing world.

Let's say that again.

He offers reliability in a constantly changing world.

In his divine power and love and saving grace, it remains the same throughout the throughout the ages.

And finally, in the 210nd Psalm, King David even wrote of the Lord's everlasting existence and consistency.

David writes, Of old you laid the foundation of the earth.

In the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish But you will remain.

They will all wear out like a garment, and you will change them like a robe, and they will pass away.

But you are the same, and your years have no end.

So since Christ is an example of perfect and consistent obedience to the Lord.

He is the only one who has the ability to claim the title of our North Star.

And as our North Star, how does Christ lead us back when we veer off the path, because it will happen.

Because unlike other denominations and religions who will make the claim that, well, we're all born sinful.

Calvinists believe this doctrine that we are born with Adam's sin on our, on our souls.

The scriptures teach otherwise.

They teach that we are born innocent, we are born into this world innocent, but at some point, we will sin, and in doing so, that will veer us off the path that the Lord has set before us, that leads to heaven.

And sometimes people who take their eye off the North Star will lose their way, and Christ is what will put us back on track, and I'm referring to those who are slaves to sin.

Because Christ has become our sanctification in Romans chapter 221, verse 216 and in verse 224, starting in verse 216 of Romans 123, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

Skipping down to verse 212, for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness.

So now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

And John writes in in in John's gospel account in chapter 21, we're also told.

Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever.

The sun remains forever.

So if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed.

And at the very end of this passage, Christ proves that he is the only one worthy of being our North Stars.

He's the only one who can set us free from our sin.

And likewise, Christ's blood holds the key to our salvation.

And this applies to both the unbeliever who is walking in darkness and the one who walks in the light, but sins occasionally.

In 23 John chapter 1 in verses 6 to 7.

We're told by John, if we say that we have fellowship with Him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

And as many of you know, there was a misconception in the first century amongst the Jewish people, and that was that animal sacrifices carried the ability.

To remove sin from people.

The Hebrews writer has to deal with this immediately.

In Hebrews chapter 10, and verse 4, starting in verse 4, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, skipping down to verse 13.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for that time until his enemy should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time.

Those who are being sanctified.

And Christ's sacrifice enables us over 2000 years later to be able to hop back on the right course, when we have done it ourselves to take ourselves off of that perfect path.

But as we've just read, Christ will help us get it right on, get right on the, sorry, excuse me, get back on the right path.

But he's not going to force you.

He, he is standing there.

With his arms open, he's ready to receive you, but he's not going to force you.

You have to make that decision for yourself.

And so I think the, I think the most logical question to ask next is what's going to happen to those who reject Christ as their North Star.

Well, this morning I would suggest to you that people who reject Christ as the North Star, where they're going to lose all hope.

Because heaven is promised to those who are among God's family and his children.

And unfortunately, fam people who reject Christ as their North Star, they're not going to have this hope because they're not a child of God.

And in Mark chapter 10, Jesus is asked one of the most important questions that anyone can ever ask.

And that is, what must I do to attain eternal life?

That's one of the most important questions that anyone can ever ask in their entire life.

Well, Jesus responds in Mark chapter 10.

In verse 19 by saying, you know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud and honor your father and mother.

And after hearing this, this young man, after hearing this young man tell him that he had kept all of these commandments since his youth, Jesus emphasizes the one commandment that he still lacked because he knew that this man, this young man had trouble with his possessions.

In Mark chapter 10, verse 21.

And Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, you lack one thing.

Go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

And after hearing this from the Lord, this young man decides that he couldn't depart.

With his physical possessions, so in an essence, he rejected Christ as his North Star.

And I think like this young man, I would secondly suggest this morning is that people who reject Christ as their North Star, they're going to remain in a slavery of their own creation.

And I think we've, we, we have already discussed that those who live their lives are in sin are slaves to their sin.

And that Christ is the only one who can set us free from that slavery of sin.

But I think it's important for us to understand that there is a point when people who reject Christ will remain in slavery forever.

In Luke the 16th chapter, Jesus is, he's telling a story that we most commonly know as the story of the rich man in Lazarus.

And in this story, Jesus tells of a rich man who overlooked a poor man named Lazarus, who would sit at his gates, he was covered in sores, begging for food.

Eventually this man, this poor man, he dies.

And he is taken by angels to be comforted by Abraham.

And then Jesus tells the fate of the rich man who eventually dies.

And is taken to the Haitian realm where he is suffering and being tormented because of the way he lived his life on Earth.

And when the rich man sees Lazarus at the side of Abraham being comforted, he cries out to Abraham, saying in verse 24 of Luke 16, he says, and he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.

And send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger.

In water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.

And Abraham replies to the rich man by essentially saying, Well, you received the good in life.

And Lazarus received the bad.

So now the tables have turned.

You're receiving the bad and Lazarus is receiving good.

And unfortunately, just as the rich man was a slave for his, to his fleshly desires and his sin on earth, he would remain a slave in hell for eternity.

And he even begged and pleaded with Abraham.

This is probably one of the saddest parts of this story.

As he pleads and he begs Abraham, let me go back to Earth.

Let me, let me warn my five brothers.

Who are gonna be joining me if they don't change their way.

And Abraham responds.

By saying it's not gonna happen.

Because they wouldn't believe Moses and the prophets, they wouldn't believe someone who had been resurrected from the dead.

We hear that sometimes today too, right?

Jesus would just appear, show himself in the sky, I would believe. Yeah.

No, they wouldn't.

And the young rich ruler lost all hope.

And because of his attachment to his physical things, just as the rich man stayed in the slavery of his own creation.

And those who reject Christ as their North Star will likewise stay lost for eternity.

Now, while that's a very sad thing to hear, it's a very sad thing to think about those who will stay in the slavery of the stay in the slavery of their own creation.

It's important to remember that Christ with Christ is our North Star, we're never going to be led astray.

We're never going to be spiritually lost.

And I think we can take that to the bank.

That is a guarantee that we are given because just like the slaves in the 1800s who use the North Star as their way to find physical freedom from slavery, even in the dark.

We need to use Christ as our North Star, because just as the North Star never moves, and it never changes position, Christ will never change his position on truth.

And even though we live in a dark world that's filled with sin, And constant temptation thrown at us from every direction.

Christ is the bright light that will lead us away from that, and will guide us home.

And I've got nothing against GPS.

I use it pretty much everywhere that I go unless I know exactly where I'm going, but I wanna, I want you to think of it this way for a moment.

If GPS suddenly disappeared and became unavailable, I know this is a scary image, you know, some of the kids are, you know, trembling, you know, like loss of internet connection, but You know, if, how would you find your way to your journey's end if you had no service, if you, if you couldn't rely on your own means, would you simply give up and become lost?

And unable to find your way, because sometimes in this dark world that we live in, it can feel like we're driving blind.

It can feel like it, you know, I don't know where I'm going, it's so much temptation.

And distraction in this life.

But we need to be asking ourselves this morning.

Is Christ Our North Star.

Is Christ your North Star this morning?

And if not, it's very normal to feel lost, because the only people who are going to feel spiritually lost in this world is ones who don't have a relationship with Christ.

Because only Christ can give you purpose in your life.

And only Christ can set you free from your slavery of sin.

And if you're not a Christian this morning, Christ doesn't want you to remain this way.

Christ doesn't wish for anyone to wander aimlessly.

Hebrews the 12th chapter, verses 1 through 3, we're told by the Hebrews writer, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.

And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured for sinners.

Such hostility against himself.

So that you may not grow weary or faint hearted.

We have everything here ready this morning to assist you in becoming a Christian if, again, that is what you desire, you have to want it.

And if you're already a Christian, maybe you're, maybe you have a sin in your life that has separated you from the Father, and it's caused you to walk in darkness veering off of that perfect path that Christ has put before you.

Because just like the non-Christian, you have the opportunity this morning to gain forgiveness.

For your sins, as he is, as he is able and he is willing to forgive you of your transgressions, if you will but ask.

If you're subject to the invitation this morning, and you're ready to stop walking in darkness and begin walking with purpose, please come to the front as we stand and as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

Good evening.

Scripture reading will be from the Book of Hebrews, the 10th chapter.

Hebrews chapter 10.

Verses 19 through 31, I'll be reading from the New King James Version.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as in the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood out of the covenant which which he sanctified.

By which he was sanctified, a common thing.

And insulted the spirit of grace.

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord.

And again, the Lord will judge His people.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.

I grew up in central Illinois, the land of corn and beans, flat fields for as far as you could see, you couldn't find a hill to save your life.

But when Debbie and I got married in 1980, the first place we moved to work with the congregation was Southern Illinois, which is a different economy, a different kind of terrain.

In fact, it was coal mining country.

And what we learned over the next couple of years is that getting a job in the coal mines was golden.

And the reason you might not think that working in a coal mine is such a great thing, but the reason was the unions of the coal miners were so strong that if you could get a job, Working in the coal mine, it was almost impossible for them to fire you.

I Sometimes found some of the stories that I heard almost unbelievable of what people would do and without fear of reprimand from the union or from the company bosses.

Now, The epilogue to that story is they ran the coal mines out of business.

They shut those mines down and all those guys lost their jobs eventually.

But to get that job meant security, economic security.

We moved from there to Cincinnati, and in Cincinnati, I knew a man who had a management job with a large company, but as some of you have experienced, the company was bought out by an English firm and the new owners began to cut jobs.

And so when I would talk to this individual, he would say, well, I'm not sure if I'm going to have a job next week.

He was never certain about his employment because everything was kind of up in the air.

And those two stories, I think, illustrate the two extremes of job security.

Not unlike what we're going to talk about this evening, where there are two extremes with regard to our eternal spiritual security.

On the one hand, like the guy who gets the job in the coal mine and thinks he can't lose his job under any circumstances, there are some people who believe that they can't lose their salvation no matter what.

I'm going to share with you this evening some quotations from individuals who hold that view, and it will surprise you what they believe that an individual, a supposed Christian, can get away with and not lose his salvation.

But now the other side of that spectrum, the other extreme.

It is like the guy in Cincinnati who never was sure whether he was going to be employed the next week.

And it talks about Christians who seem to always have doubt about whether they're saved or not.

Those are two extremes, and I'm going to try to address both of them at least to some extent, but we're going to focus primarily.

On the one that's on your left, the idea that you can't lose your salvation no matter what.

We're this evening going to be talking about one of the major tenets of the theology known as Calvinism.

It's called the perseverance of the saints, but it goes by other names as well.

It's known as Once Sad, Always saved, the title of the sermon, or unconditional Security, or maybe you've heard this more frequently, the Impossibility of apostasy.

We've been looking at Calvinism.

This year, kind of from time to time looking at one of the doctrines after another.

And the reason for that is that most of the Protestant world actually embraces Calvinism to some extent.

Sometimes people will describe themselves as a five-point Calvinism, meaning that they subscribe to all of the five points that we will have spoken about after this evening.

And there are others who will call themselves three-point Calvinists.

They're not.

Willing to accept all of the points of Calvinism, but I will say to you that I believe that these five points are locked together.

It's very difficult for you not to accept all of them if you accept at least one or two.

We've talked about total inherited depravity, the idea that man, every person is born guilty of Adam's sin, and for that matter, also has inherited a corrupted nature, meaning that we are unable in and of ourselves to uh accept God's offer to salvation.

There has to be divine operation on our nature in order for us to be able to respond to the gospel.

Unconditional election speaks of the idea that before the foundation of the world, God decided who was going to be saved, not in general, but specific individuals.

This person is going to be saved.

That person's not going to be saved.

And not on the basis of what those people will do once they're born.

It's an unconditional election or choosing.

If God decided before the foundation of the world to choose certain people for salvation, and he didn't choose others, then there's really no point for Jesus to die for those who are not going to be saved, who have no hope of being saved, because if God says you're not going to be.

Saved, then that's it.

There's nothing you can do about that.

That's the idea of limited atonement, that the death of Jesus on the cross was not for all men.

It was only for the elect, those whom God had decided before the foundation of the world to save.

Well, how do people get to be saved if we're all born with this corrupted nature, so that we can't respond in and of ourselves to the gospel invitation?

Well, that's where God then exerts his influence on us through the Holy Spirit, the irresistible grace.

That's the idea of the Holy Spirit, regenerating our nature, so that we can respond to.

The gospel and be saved according to God's plan.

But tonight, we're going to talk about the last thing, and that's the perseverance of the saints.

And the perseverance of the saints is a doctrine that is probably held by most Calvinists because it's a very comforting doctrine as they themselves will describe it.

I want to do tonight what I've done in the past with some of these tenants rather than me tell you what they believe or what these tenants are, what the doctrine is.

I want to share with you what Calvinists say or how They describe, for instance, this idea of the perseverance of the saints.

And so what we're going to do is look at a few quotations.

Uh, we'll be hopefully not tedious about this, and I want you to understand what they're saying when they talk about once saved, always saved.

The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Calvinistic document.

It expresses Calvinistic ideas, and it says with regard to perseverance of the saints, they whom God has accepted in his beloved Jesus Christ, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved.

If God chose you.

Then God makes it possible for you to respond to the gospel, and God will not let you be lost, no matter what.

This next quotation is by a Baptist preacher in a tract that's entitled, A Discussion which involves a Subject pertinent to all men.

He needs a shorter title.

But here's, here's what he says.

He says, we take the position.

That a Christian's sins do not damn his soul.

The way a Christian lives, what he says, his character, his conduct, or his attitude toward other people have nothing whatever to do with the salvation, salvation of his soul.

I need you to read it the way it's written.

All the prayers a man may pray, all the Bibles he may read, all the churches he may belong to, all the services he may attend, all the sermons he may practice, all the debts he may pay, all the ordinances he may observe.

I try not to be tedious.

It's not my fault.

All the laws he may keep, all the benevolent acts he may perform will not make his soul one whit safer.

There's nothing he can do really to guarantee his salvation.

And all the sins he may commit from idolatry to murder will not make his soul in any more danger.

The way that a man lives has nothing whatever to do with the salvation of his soul. Wow.

That's just kind of hard to believe that people would accept that if they're reading the New Testament.

But they're saying that there's really no way for you to be lost if you are, in fact, chosen by God to be saved.

I want to suggest to you so that we can prepare ourselves to look at some passages this evening that I think refute this false doctrine, that perseverance of the saints, this doctrine basically stems from two facts.

The first one is that God has chosen the saints for salvation.

Again, that's unconditional election.

He made that choice independently of anything that man or woman would do during this life.

God just said, yes, yes, no, no, etc.

That technically, the doctrine says God chose the ones who would be saved.

But by implication, if he didn't choose you to be saved.

Then essentially, the implication is you're going to be lost.

So he does choose you in that sense to be lost if you're not among the elect.

So that's the first fact, uh, as the doctrine goes.

But the second fact is that the sovereign purpose of God will not be thwarted.

If God decides he's going to do something, it's going to happen.

And so here's God choosing certain individuals to be saved, and if he chooses them to be saved, then if they're lost, then God is not really sovereign, is he?

He's not all powerful.

He's not in control of this world and the people in it.

Now, that's the thinking.

And so the elect, the conclusion then is those whom God has chosen, they cannot be lost, because if they were lost, then God is no longer a sovereign God.

Now, When we first started talking about Calvinism, Uh, much earlier this year, one of the things I said is that unconditional, excuse me, total inherited depravity is at the foundation of these doctrines and essentially they flow from that, but even greater is the concept of the sovereignty of God.

And I would suggest to you that the Calvinist misunderstands what the Bible says about God's sovereignty.

Don't deny the sovereignty of God.

The scriptures affirm that God is sovereign.

But what are the implications of that?

What does that mean?

And the Calvinist has used a different idea from the scriptures to define sovereignty.

Well, the mechanism for this unconditional security, perseverance of the saints is what's called the imputed righteousness of Christ.

Well, I hesitate to even bring this up because I don't want to ruin a song for you.

But we sang a song this evening talking about being dressed in Christ's righteousness alone.

Calvinists will sing that song because they believe that's exactly the way that God saves us.

Now, I understand there's another way to understand that phrase.

But the idea of the imputed righteousness of Christ is that God doesn't really worry about whether you're sinning or not sinning because once you are, once you become saved, he imputes the perfect righteousness of Christ to you, and that's all God sees.

Uh, I've heard it described as like an umbrella that covers the, the elect.

And so God, when he looks down from heaven on the elect, all he sees is the righteousness of Christ.

Now, under that umbrella, Here we are imperfect individuals.

Even Calvinists believe that the saved will sin and, and they'll fall prey to temptation from time to time, but God doesn't see any of that.

That's why the Baptist preacher would say, it doesn't make any difference what you do because God's not looking at that.

What he sees is Jesus' perfect life, one who is tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin.

So the mechanism for this is the imputed righteousness of Christ.

Now, it's outside of the scope of our study this evening, unless, of course, I do the two-hour sermon that I threatened earlier.

It's outside the scope of our study this evening to deal with the concept of the imputed righteousness of Christ.

So let me just say, find that in the scriptures if you can.

I'll save you the trouble.

It's not there.

The righteousness that God bestows on individuals is a righteousness by faith, by grace through faith, and it's a righteousness that he bestows upon us because of our response to the gospel.

And I won't say any more about that at this point.

But I do want to share with you, uh, maybe a quote or two that might answer a question that has already occurred to you, and that is, What about people who claim to be Christians and yet they seem to fall away?

Doesn't that cause a problem for the Calvinist who says that once you're saved, then you're saved.

From that point on, there's nothing that you could do to be lost.

So Calvinists argue that point, and Spencer, I've quoted him in the past, 5 points of Calvinism.

He is a Calvinist, so he's stating his understanding of this very point.

He says the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints does not maintain that all who profess the Christian faith are certain of heaven.

It is saints, those who are set apart by the Spirit.

You understand, of course, that the word saint is an adjective in the New Testament.

It's literally a holy one.

A person who is saint, sanctified is a saint.

He has been made holy by the blood of Christ.

It is saints, those who are set apart by the Spirit, who persevere to the end.

It is believers, those who are given true living faith in Christ, who are secure and safe in Him.

Many who profess to believe fall away, but they do not fall from grace, for they were never in grace.

See the argument A Christian can't be lost.

Well, what, what about this Christian over here?

He wasn't really a Christian.

He was just a professor of faith, but he didn't, he wasn't a true believer.

He wasn't really a saint.

Because if he was, He couldn't fall away.

Now, some of you are kind of looking like that calf who sees a new gate, trying to figure out how that works.

It doesn't circular reasoning.

But I want you to understand the way they're thinking because it's going to determine the way that we look at the scriptures, what scriptures we might offer to individuals to show that this is not a true doctrine.

This is contrary to the New Testament.

Many who profess to believe fall away, but they do not fall from grace, for they're never in grace.

True believers do fall into temptations and they do commit grievous sins, but these sins do not cause them to lose their salvation or separate them from Christ.

Well, there's uh one quotation.

The second quotation is from the Broadman Church manual, again, a Calvinistic viewpoint.

All true believers, notice how that terminology is used.

Professors, they're not real believers, they're not really saints and true believer.

Believers are distinguished, uh, distinguished from one another.

All true believers endure to the end.

Those whom God has accepted in Christ and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.

And so a superficial professor is a person who really wasn't saved in the first place.

And that's why it appears they fall away, but they were never in grace to begin with.

Well, that explanation.

Suggests That any passage that we might use to try to convince people that this is not a biblical doctrine.

is going to have to meet two criteria.

And the first criteria is that the scripture has to be directed to or concern one of the elect.

Something in the passage needs to indicate that we are dealing with a real saved person here, not a professor, not someone who, you know, uh never was a Christian, but somebody who has been forgiven of their sins, sanctified.

Defined by the blood of Jesus Christ.

That's the first criteria for any passage.

If a passage doesn't make that clear, then the escape route is clear.

Oh, well, you're talking about falling away, but you know, true Christians never fall away.

They just fall back on that argument.

Here's the second criteria.

If we have a passage that clearly is talking about someone who is saved, that passage must indicate the possibility of apostasy, that that person who is saved, was saved, can in fact fall away.

If we can meet those two criteria.

Then we can show that this doctrine is not true.

Now, I will tell you that there are any number of passages that we could look at in the New Testament.

The Book of Hebrews is a treasure trove of passages that relate to this topic.

But what I want to do is look at two passages tonight and then I'll just reference a few more that you can look at on your own, because I want to walk us through those two passages and note that these two passages that I'm going to cite meet both of those criteria.

The first one, is in 2 Peter chapter 2.

Now, Because I didn't have room to, to put the whole chapter on one slide.

I've chosen some specific verses in this chapter, and we'll look at some of the things that are said in those verses.

We're looking at verses 223 through 3 in the top there.

We're looking at verse 15 in the middle, and then finally, toward the end of the chapter 20 to 22.

2 Peter 2 is about false teachers.

Peter, the apostle is warning.

His readers about the coming apostasy about false teachers.

And so he says in verse one, if you'll permit me, I'm going to read the entire passage.

But false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed.

And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words.

Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.

I said the entire passage.

I meant everything on the screen.

Verse 15, forsaking the right way, same context, they have gone astray.

They followed the way of Balaam, the son of Bor, who loved gain from wrongdoing.

Now, dropping down to verse 20 in the same chapter, for if, after they have escaped the defilements, excuse me, of the world, To the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome.

The last day has become worse for them than the first, for it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after having no Knowing it after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

What the true proverb says has happened to them.

The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.

Now, the first criteria is this a passage that's talking about actual Christians, people who are not just superficial professors, but people who can be identified as part of the elect.

And the answer is absolutely.

And so I'm gonna point out some phrases here that I think are important.

He says in verse one, just as there will be false teachers among you.

Now, that's not definitive.

They could have been people who came in who were not true believers, but Peter's not talking about necessarily the world in general.

He's talking about false teachers within the saints, the number of the saints.

But then he says in the latter part of that verse, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them?

We can stop right here.

We really could Because nobody is bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, except the elect.

Even Calvinists agree with that.

They believe limited atonement, that nobody, that Jesus didn't die for anybody except the elect.

Nobody's washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, except the elect.

And Peter says, these are individuals that he's discussing here in chapter 2.

These are individuals who are denying the master who bought them.

These are true Christians.

These aren't superficial professors.

Are they faithful Christians?

Well, obviously not.

But they were at one time bought by the Lord.

Forsaking the right way, they've gone astray.

Do you remember total inherited depravity?

It says that all of us, when we are born, we are already guilty of sin.

We're not on the right way.

We're lost.

God then can bring us to the right way.

He can regenerate our nature, cause us to be saved.

But that's not how we start.

We start on the wrong path.

But these people are people who have forsaken the right way.

Implication is that they had been in the right way.

And then in verse 73 for after they had escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who does that describe?

Does that describe the individual who with his corrupt nature, God has never changed him?

He can't accept the gospel.

He can't a will to do right.

Is that the description?

No, we're talking about individuals who had escaped the defilements of the world.

That's only the elect.

Now here's the point.

Those statements show that this passage meets the first criteria.

This is definitely talking about Christians.

What about the second criteria?

Do you remember what it was?

Can an individual, can these individuals described in this passage, can they fall away?

Well, let's look at some other phrases in this text.

He says in verse one, that these same individuals who were bought by the Master Jesus Christ are bringing on themselves swift destruction.

That's contrary to perseverance of the saints.

There's nothing they can do that will bring destruction to them, according to the doctrine.

Their destruction is not asleep, verse 3.

Down in verse 20, they are again entangled in the defilements of the world and overcome.

So we've got people who actually had escaped the defilements of the world, and now they have gone back to and are entangled again, a key word here and overcome.

The proverb that is cited in verse 22 by the apostle, the dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.

Calvinism says, we're all in the mire when we're born, we're guilty of sin.

There's nothing we can do about it.

God has to act upon us.

But once we're out of the mire, We're never back in the mire.

At least not as far as God's concerned.

What does he see?

He doesn't see our sin.

He doesn't see us in the mire.

He sees the imputed righteousness of Christ.

This passage talks about somebody who's been cleansed.

Who goes back to the mire.

And so 2 Peter 2 meets both of those criteria.

And so this passage is a strong passage to deny the doctrine of perseverance of the saints.

One other passage just as an example.

And it's part of the reading that Quinn did for us this evening in Hebrews the 10th chapter.

If you'll permit me, I'd like to go ahead and read it again.

Verse 26, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled Foot, the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace, for we know Him who said, vengeance is mine.

I will repay.

And again, the Lord will judge His people.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands, into the hands of the living God.

Well, does this passage meet the two criteria?

Well, the first criteria is this passage talking about true believers or superficial professors.

Well, take a look at some of these phrases.

He describes them in verse 29.

He says, these are people who have profane, that is to treat as common, to treat as common, not to treat as sacred, as special, but just common, has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified.

Even Calvinists agreed.

But the only people who are sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ are the elect.

Are we talking about the elect here?

Obviously, so.

And again, the Lord will judge His people.

That would be a strange quotation from the Old Testament to use here if in fact the Hebrews author was not talking about Christians, not talking about God's people.

Why would he bring up the fact that God will judge His people?

The implication, I think.

Is that the individuals that the Hebrews writers talking about are in fact Christians.

They belong to Jesus Christ.

They've been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Well, that's the first criteria, isn't it?

We could have stopped there with verse 29.

What about the second criteria?

Does this passage indicate that those people could in fact be lost?

He says There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins for these people who just deliberately, they've rejected Jesus.

They've trampled underfoot the Son of God.

And they're sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth.

What remains for them?

A fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Do we need to go back and read what the Baptist preacher said about how sin doesn't have anything to do with your salvation, whether you'll be lost or saved?

Verse 223, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified?

What do you mean deserved?

The Calvinist argues that those who are the elect are going to be preserved from punishment.

There's no way in the world they're going to be lost.

You, you've heard the quotations.

This passage says these are people who deserved.

Worse punishment than even those who rejected the law of Moses in the Old Testament.

Well, those are the two passages, and I want you to see that both passages meet the two criteria so that you can take a passage like this.

You can say, all right, you, you're saying that if a person falls away, he couldn't have been a true believer.

Are these passages about true believers?

Yes, they are.

Do these passages indicate that the people being mentioned in the passages can be saved?

Yes, they do.

These passages.

Show the error of the perseverance of the saints doctrine.

There are other passages, we could look at Hebrews the 6th chapter verses 4 to 6.

Kevin, I got to share this.

Kevin came to me before uh services began and said that he had a colleague that he, he was trying to talk with the Bible and apparently, uh, uh, a Calvinist, and his colleague came up to him one day and said, yeah, but Hebrews 218 says it's impossible.

Meaning it's impossible for a Christian to be fallen to fall away.

You remember what Hebrews 220 has to say?

Well, let me read it very quickly.

We're not going to spend time with it, but just enough so that you can see uh the fallacy in that statement.

Here's verse 25 of Hebrews 27, for it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away.

To restore them again to repentance.

It's impossible to restore them.

And incidentally, that passage is not saying it's impossible for a person who's fallen away to be restored.

It says it's impossible for a third party to restore them.

What are you going to offer them when they've rejected the Son of God?

What's Plan B?

As far as God's concerned and salvation, there is no Plan B. You reject Jesus Christ, and there's nothing else to be offered.

Since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt, that passage does not support the perseverance of the saints.

It talks about people who are falling away.

Another passage, 222 Corinthians 27th chapter, verses 103 through 210, the example of the Israelites, God's chosen people of the Old Testament.

And yet they are held up by Paul in 29 Corinthians 210 as an example of people who fell away, who violated God's covenant, and were punished for it.

Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall, verse 12.

Sounds like apostasy is possible.

Acts the 8th chapter verses 9 through 23, the case of Simon the sorcerer, an individual who did exactly as the other Samaritans had done.

He heard the gospel, he believed it, he was baptized, and then sinned afterwards.

And Peter's comments to him in Acts 8:22 indicate very clearly that he could be lost if he didn't pray for forgiveness of his sins.

Galatians 93 and 4.

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace.

How do you fall away from grace if you're never in grace in the first place?

And that, of course, is the condition of the non-elect as far as the Calvinists are concerned.

If God didn't choose you, you're not in God's grace, you never will be.

And so here are people who are falling away from grace.

I'm gonna add one more passage.

It's not so much a warning as it is just simply an example.

Paul writes about two individuals.

He calls them Hymeneus and Alexander there in 1 Timothy 1 verses 18 to 20, and he says, That they made shipwreck of their faith.

Does that sound like people who were Christians but have fallen away, Paul says he delivered them to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

Well, what does the Calvinists say about this?

I mean, they have Bibles.

How, how do they respond to the idea that there are warnings in the scriptures?

There are 5 major warnings just in the book of Hebrews alone.

These warnings that people can be lost, how do they respond to that?

Their response is that these warnings are the very means by which the saints are preserved from falling.

I've talked to Calvinists and that's exactly the argument that they make.

Oh, that's, that's the purpose of these warnings is to make sure that people don't fall away.

Now, I'm gonna play a mind game with you just for a moment, OK?

To be consistent, the Calvinist needs to admit that the saints, the elect would persevere without the warnings.

In fact, he has to say that.

Because the salvation of the elect does not depend on them at all.

It's God's work.

And anything that a person can do doesn't affect his salvation.

So why do we have these warnings then?

That's nonsensical, isn't it?

Do you understand the argument?

If the Calvinist says, I'm going to repeat it, you got, you got to follow the thinking here.

The, the Calvinist says that salvation is entirely Accomplished by God.

And then when he sees these passages that talk about falling away, he says, well, those are the ways that God keeps people from, from, from being lost.

But you see that they only work if the Christian pays attention to the warning.

Uh, you, you mean that our salvation is actually dependent on our efforts?

Oh, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

You got to go one way or the other.

And what they're doing is they're arguing out of both sides of their mouth about who's responsible for our salvation.

If those warnings that we've looked at, and I've cited some here are unnecessary, then we have a lot of scriptures that are basically nonsensical.

It'd be like, it'd be like the, uh, uh, the Madison County uh.

The government here saying, well, the, the plan is that we're going to put up signs all the way through Madison on all the major thoroughfares warning people about the danger of sharks.

Wouldn't that be silly.

When was the last time you were driving down any of the main thoroughfares of Madison and there was a shark right there on the side of the road?

Good thing the sign was there or you could have been bitten in half.

Isn't that crazy?

Why would you give a warning for something that represents no danger whatsoever?

Why would you warn Christians about the possibility of apostasy if it is absolutely impossible to happen?

Doesn't make sense to me.

One of my goals this evening in our study.

was to show that the doctrine, the Calvinistic doctrine of perseverance of the saints.

is erroneous.

The Bible doesn't teach that.

The Bible teaches us that it is possible for us, even after we have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, after we have been cleansed of our sins by that, that blood, that we can still end up leaving the Lord.

What's the difference Practically speaking, between the Calvinist who has to admit that the Bible's warnings concerning apostasy are unnecessary.

And the Christian who ignores those warnings, what's the practical difference?

See, see that the Calvinist doesn't believe that there's any possibility of being lost.

Why should he worry about it?

And Christians who ignore the many warnings in the scriptures of the possibility of apostasy have the same attitude as the Calvinists.

I don't have to worry about it.

As the title slide said, I got my ticket punched.

I'm on my way to heaven.

Can't be denied my destination.

I'm just afraid That many Christians are going to find themselves in the situation of Matthew 7:22.

Lord, Lord, We, we went to all kinds of worship services.

We listened to Alan's sermons ad nauseam.

We did this, and we did that.

We did the things that Christians are supposed to do.

And yet they didn't really do the will of the Father.

And Jesus will say, depart from me, I never knew you.

Matthew 7:22 strikes me as talking about people who are surprised on the Day of Judgment.

They think they're saved, they think they're OK, and they're not.

This is not a business of can we win a religious argument.

This is trying to help people see the danger.

That they're in.

Because when the Calvinist says, well, it doesn't make any difference whether it's adultery to murder, no matter what sins I do, it doesn't make any difference.

I'm guaranteed entrance into heaven.

That person is going to be lost.

Where's the motivation to live holy lives?

To seek To be like The Son of God to be conformed to His image.

Unfortunately, some Christians act as though there's no way that they could be lost.

They're complacent in their service to Christ, even as maybe Some or many Calvinists are as well.

Now what I don't want to accomplish this evening, and I hope I've not done this.

I don't want to put us in fear of our salvation.

Because while the Calvinists will argue that your salvation doesn't depend on how you live, the Bible says that it does.

But the Bible also says, If you remember the sermon from last Sunday in John the 10th chapter, that Jesus is the good shepherd.

And no one can take his sheep away from him.

Now, that passage is not saying that a Christian can't fall.

It's saying that if you fall, it's because you left the Lord.

It's not because he's powerless and Satan pulled you away, snatched you away.

At the same time, That I don't want us to adopt the attitude of, well, I'm saved no matter what.

I also don't want us to go to the other extreme and say, boy, I just don't know if I'm saved or not.

Because 9 times out of 10.

That attitude comes from people who are thinking that their salvation is something they can merit.

They they're just good enough, if they just do enough.

That God will save them.

It's the denial of what the New Testament teaches about the basis of our salvation.

We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ through grace, by the grace of God.

And that's the only way.

That we can be saved.

And so at the same time that God's grace provides the opportunity for salvation, you and I have to make the decision to respond to that invitation.

Sometimes dreams are so real.

Have you ever dreamed something and it's, it's a, it's a bad situation.

You're in trouble.

Maybe somebody's attacking you or, or you, you feel like you've done something that was wrong, and now you're, you're trying to avoid the consequences, whatever.

Dreams can be seen so real.

And it's just neat when you can wake up and realize, who, that's a dream.

I'm in my own bed, and I'm not guilty of that sin.

It didn't happen to me, whatever.

Did you ever dream that you were falling?

Maybe falling into a deep pit or falling from a building.

And someone reached out a hand.

In your dream, would you take the hand?

Yeah, I suspect we would.

Dreams are funny about things.

They're not reality.

But in our dreams, I think we would, we would grasp at any opportunity to be saved.

Suppose someone was there.

With an outstretched hand.

Trying to catch you.

Would you take it?

Jesus Christ, of course, in the gospel offers a saving hand to all those who are toppling into the abyss of eternal damnation.

And let the gospel invites is for us to take his hand.

And allow him to save us.

If that's where you are this evening, you're outside of the grace of God.

You've not been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

You've not been bought by the blood that was shed on the cross, because you've never obeyed the gospel.

Then you need to do what those believers on the day of Pentecost were instructed to do, and that is to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins.

And that's what we want to encourage you to do this evening if you're not a Christian.

Those of us who are Christians, I hope this evening that I've not instilled doubt into your heart about your salvation.

That's not the point at all.

I think we can have great confidence in our salvation, but we have to understand what the basis of that confidence is, of that hope.

If we can assist you this evening in any way.

If you'll come to the front as we stand and sing to encourage you, we'll help you as we can.

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.)

You're reading from Ecclesiastes chapter one.

Ecclesiastes 1:1 to 11.

I'll be reading from the ESV.

Ecclesiastes 1:433 to 11.

The words of the preacher, the Son of David, King in Jerusalem.

Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities.

All is vanity.

What does man gain by the toil at which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north.

Around and round goes the wind.

And on its circuits, the wind returns.

All streams run into the sea, but the sea is not full.

To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

All things are full of weariness.

Man cannot utter it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing.

What has been is what will be And what has been done is what will be done.

And there's nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said, see, this is new.

It has been already in the ages before us.

There is no remembrance of the former things, and there will be no remembrance of the latter things yet to be among those who come after.

Good morning.

When you decide to go on vacation, what's one of the first things you do?

Well, you decide where you're going to go or what you're going to do on this vacation.

When Debbie and I lived in Corpus Christi several years ago in Texas, For a minute I thought Gary had broken it.

We knew a family that had kind of a unique vacation process.

Uh, they would announce, well, we're gonna be on vacation.

Well, where are you going?

West. Well, where west?

We don't know.

So what they would do is if they had, for instance, 2 weeks of vacation, they would either go west or maybe they travel east, and they just start driving.

And I guess as they would travel, they might see some things that they think, well, that's interesting, let's look at that or whatever.

And at the end of 1 week, if you had 2 weeks of vacation, they turn around and drive back.

And so their vacation plans were just random.

Just drive one way and drive the, the way back.

I remember thinking in talking to them that I couldn't do that.

I need to know where I'm going.

And fortunately I'm married to a woman who will tell me where I'm going.

And she's got the schedule lined out, so I don't have to worry about it.

I just get into the car.

And she tells me where we're headed and when we're going to get there.

Now that family's vacation style may seem a little odd to us.

But the fact of the matter is, it is characteristic of a lot of people's lives.

They're just adrift, it seems in life.

No real uh direction, no real purpose, no ultimate goal for why they're here, what they're doing in this world.

At the risk of sounding kind of silly, how can you know if you've arrived?

If you don't know where you're going, what the goal is, one of the things I think which produces joy in the life of the Christian is that he or she lives with purpose.

That we're not like so many people who seem to be going through life blindfolded, really unaware of where their goal is or their destination is.

The Christian, on the other hand, is living With a definite purpose, and we're going to talk about that purpose this morning.

I think everybody, of course, is driven by some kind of purpose in their lives.

But many have yet to realize what their true purpose for being here in this world is.

Instead, they're living for the very things that Solomon would conclude in the book of Ecclesiastes were just emptiness, vanity.

And so this morning I want to suggest our purpose in our study is that I want to talk about some of the purpose statements that are common in the lives of people in the world.

What are people doing with their lives?

What are they seeking?

What kind of purposes do they have?

And secondly, I want to talk about what the Bible says is your purpose and my purpose, why we were created, and what we need to be doing with our lives.

The book of Ecclesiastes reveals that Solomon engaged apparently in somewhat of an experiment.

To find out what is good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.

We see that in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes in verses 12 and 13, and then in chapter 2 and verse 3, where Solomon, I believe, the author of Ecclesiastes, said, I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

Solomon, I think, was in a unique position to conduct such an experiment.

His wealth is described in the scriptures as being such that gold was considered nothing in his time.

It was so plentiful in the kingdom there.

His power, the Kingdom of Solomon had expanded uh all the way up to the river Euphrates and all the way down to the river of Egypt in the south.

And Solomon was given wisdom by the Lord such that he stood out above all men in that wisdom.

Solomon was thoroughly equipped to conduct the kind of experiment, the trials that he would engage in.

Now, it's interesting also that in the book of Ecclesiastes, a lot of what you read seems to be somewhat negative or even pessimistic at times.

And I believe that that is an indication of what Solomon believed to be our true purpose in life, because Solomon's experiment is going to deal with life under the sun, things that are peculiar to this world, and as we'll see a little bit later on, he concludes that all of that is vanity.

Well, things have changed, haven't they?

I mean, Solomon lived in the Old Testament, uh, in the 10th century BC. We're modern people and we live in a different world with technology that is different and a standard of living that is much higher.

And I believe that's perhaps why the book of Ecclesiastes begins by suggesting to us that we are no different than those people who lived back then, at least in terms of the things that Solomon was concerned with.

In the scripture reading that Jim read for us just a few moments ago, You probably observed that in verse 63, it says there's nothing new under the sun.

In fact, in that reading, beginning in verse 3 or 4 there and going down to verse 11, what you see is that there's a cyclical nature.

To nature, to this world, in particular, verses 56, and 7, the sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north, and around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits, the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea.

But the sea is not full to the place where the streams flow.

There they flow again.

We know the water cycle and we know that all of these things are cyclical in their nature.

And what Solomon is saying is that there's a regularity in this world and not just with the natural processes of life.

But in fact, you and I are not any different than people who lived 2000, 3000 years ago.

Solomon is going to investigate several things, try several things in order to determine what's valuable in life.

What should men be doing with their life?

And he first applies himself to entertainment.

He calls it folly and laughter.

In verse 1 and 2 of chapter 73, he says, I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure.

Enjoy yourself.

But behold, this also is vanity.

I said, of laughter, it's mad and of pleasure.

What use is it?

He also dealt with physical pleasures in general.

He speaks specifically about wine, as we'll note in just a few moments.

But in verse 3, he says, I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine.

My heart still guiding me with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly.

And then he says in verse 10 of chapter 2, and whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

And so Solomon didn't deny himself pleasures according to his wisdom, he says.

And yet what Solomon will find is even that is vanity.

He applied himself to, to work, to accomplishments.

He said, I made great works, and he talks about building houses and vineyards and gardens and parks and planting trees, making pools from which to water those trees.

All of this is vanity.

In the fourth place, he talks about possessions and wealth.

I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house.

I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces.

I accumulated all kinds of wealth, he says.

What was his conclusion after this experiment in seeing what men should do with their lives, their few days?

He says it's all vanity.

In verse 14 of chapter 1, he said, I've seen everything that's done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

Now, please understand that Solomon is talking about life under the sun.

He's only considering what this world can do for you.

And when it comes to such things as entertainment and pleasures, physical pleasures and, and accomplishments in work.

And the possession of wealth, he says that's all striving after the wind.

There's no satisfaction there.

Instead of laughter, it's madness of pleasure.

What use is it?

And then he concludes in verse 11, I consider all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

He is not at this point.

Discussing what comes after this life.

He's talking about life under the sun, just looking at life here on this earth.

And his conclusion is that when men follow after these things that he followed as well, he says they're not satisfied.

It's a grasping for the wind.

Well, the sad thing is, Solomon laid out this experiment, the results of his experiment for us, and yet we live in a nation where people continue to follow after the very same things.

They're following the same kinds of pursuits, the same kinds of goals.

So many people are chasing the very things that Solomon says leave people empty.

David would write in the Psalm, the shepherd's Psalm, that his cup overflows, but so many people in the world have an empty cup.

Their lives are empty.

They are not satisfied with the things.

Oh, they're still running after these things, but it's never enough.

It never.

Makes them feel fulfilled.

We are trained to think that if we're not having fun, if we're not being entertained every moment that somehow we're being cheated.

I, I should be having fun.

Physical pleasure is temporary at best.

Hebrews chapter 11 says Moses understood that.

And didn't chase the the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Work and accomplishments.

How many times have individuals engaged in huge construction projects and built mansions and monuments, etc.

Where's the satisfaction in all of that?

You have to leave it behind.

As you do possessions and wealth.

Jesus would say in Luke chapter 12 and verse 15, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

That's not what our life is all about.

Unfortunately, we have the statistics to show that a lot of people are living empty lives.

I don't want to suggest that the only reason that people might take their own lives is emptiness, but I think it is often a cause.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some statistics concerning suicide from 33.

That's fairly recent.

And what they say is that suicide is the 11th leading cause of death over the population in general.

But listen to the next couple of statistics.

It is the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 10 to 30. 4.

Think about that.

10 to 34.

That's when people are reaching the peak of their physical strength and mental, mental prowess, and suicide is the second leading cause of death among that group.

What that says to me is that there are a lot of people who have gotten through their education perhaps, and they're in the very High point of their lives in terms of youth and, and they're taking their lives. Why?

Because they're empty.

Because they're chasing after things.

They don't really bring fulfillment.

The 4th leading cause of death for ages 35 to 123.

We sometimes Bemoan the fact that there's a lot of violence in our society.

We read about this one being killed or there's someone got shot over here.

Are you aware of the fact that every year, at least on the average, more than twice as many people die by suicide than die by homicide?

The figures are there for 2023.

People are taking their lives because their lives are empty.

They're meaningless in terms of purpose.

I think many people go through the same search as Solomon.

Sometimes we call it a midlife crisis.

You ever heard that expression?

The midlife crisis is exactly that.

It's a crisis.

It's a situation where people begin to doubt whether their lives have been successful, whether their lives, which are passing swiftly, have any real meaning.

I've hit 40, 45 maybe, and I'm beginning to wonder, what have I accomplished in my life?

Where am I going with my life?

And they realize that everything they've expended their effort and their energies on.

Don't really fulfill.

And so it's not surprising the number of people who decide simply to take their lives.

In midlife crises, sometimes people do very strange and or foolish things.

They're driven by the fear that they're headed in the wrong direction.

They haven't accomplished as much as they had hoped to do by that time in their lives.

And the midlife crisis, I think is prompted by the recognition that a good portion of maybe half of their expected lifespan, expected lifespan has already passed and that worries them.

It's not so much that people don't have purpose in their lives.

I said early on, I believe most people have some purpose in their life, but rather that they don't recognize their God-intended purpose.

They're following after the very things that Solomon said don't really bring any kind of fulfillment or real joy.

There's a movie entitled Quigley Down Under.

Tom Selleck is one of the actors in that movie.

He plays the main character, Matthew Quigley.

And he's lost in the Australian outback with a woman who uh has been put out there to die along with him, and they are, uh, they managed to escape death.

And she asks him, where are we going?

He says, I don't know.

Where are we going?

I don't know.

And finally, he says, don't know where we're headed, but there's no point in being late.

And I think that probably accurately describes the way many people live in this world.

They really don't know.

Where they're going, but they're in a lot of hurry to get there.

A lot of activity that replaces any real purpose or direction.

I'm not a big fan of Rick Warren.

But in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, he talks about the value of having purpose in life and I, I think his comments along these lines are useful.

He suggests that knowing your purpose in life gives meaning to your life.

It simplifies your life.

You're not distracted by things that really, as Solomon says, are vanity or striving for the wind.

It allows us to be focused in life.

It motivates us once we understand where the goal is.

And then finally, he says it prepares us for eternity.

And I think those points are legitimate.

I think purpose does perform those values for us.

Well, Solomon doesn't leave us.

Just wondering what the answer to his question is.

What, what should man do?

He ends the book in Ecclesiastes in chapter 26 by saying, my son, beware of anything beyond these verse 219, of making many books, there's no end and much study is the weariness of the flesh.

The end of the matter, all has been heard.

Here's the conclusion, Fear God and keep His commandments.

That's the whole duty of man.

Does it strike you that what Solomon is saying is that's our purpose in life?

That's what we ought to be dedicating our life to, fearing God, keeping his commandments.

And I think the perfect example of that, of course, is Jesus.

Jesus He was a man with a mission.

He came to this earth with a clear understanding apparently of what the Father wanted from him and he expresses it a number of times in the Gospels as they record his words.

Jesus said in John 243:26, we must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day.

Night is coming when no one can work.

There's a sense of urgency in Jesus' public ministry.

He came to do the will of the Father.

That was his mission.

And that mission involved, he says, uh, in John 27:23, he says, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish his work, to identify What his mission is, he says, that's what sustains me.

Is that what sustain sustains us?

This dedication to fearing God and keeping his commandments.

In John 133:213, Jesus says, uh, that the Father has given me to accomplish those very works that I am doing bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

The Father sent me for a specific purpose.

For works that he was doing in chapter 212, verse 12, for I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

That's in John 6:38, but that's the prayer of Garden of Gethsemane.

Not my will, but your will be done.

Jesus followed that same principle all the way through his public ministry and even to the point of death.

Doing the will of the Father involved preaching the kingdom of God.

I'm not going to go over each of these passages or read them, but basically, Jesus says in Mark 1:38 and Luke 4:33:123 that he came for the purpose of preaching.

The gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God, Luke records.

He was calling men to repentance.

Jesus said on one occasion, it's not the Those who are well who need a physician, it's those who are sick.

Jesus came as the great physician.

And then finally, having given, come to seek and save the lost, he gave his life as a ransom for sin, for sinful men.

Mark 10:45.

Well, I understand that Jesus' mission is in some ways more specific and not necessarily our mission, at least in particulars.

For instance, we don't give our lives as a ransom for sin.

But Jesus also said in a different context.

That the disciple is not.

Unlike his master or above his master, that he is like the master.

And so, we need to imitate Jesus as his disciples in the sense that he was focused On this urgent mission, and you and I need to be focused.

We need to have the right purpose in life.

The scriptures talk about why we were created.

I studied sometimes with an individual.

who really questions why God put us in this world.

Why did he put us here to suffer and to have problems and just a big test.

Well, the scriptures, I think, give us some hints about why we were created.

For instance, Paul would write to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 6, in the context of fleeing fornication.

He says in verse 19, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own?

For you were bought at a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's, the New King James Version translation.

In Isaiah 43 verses 6 and 7.

I will say to the North, give up and to the south, do not withhold.

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.

Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.

whom I formed and made.

And then finally in Ephesians 3.

In a prayer of Paul, he says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him, be glory in the church.

And may I suggest to you that that is a statement.

Of our purpose That we are to glorify God.

Someone says, I thought it was Ephesians Ecclesiastes 12:13.

That's what Ephesians, OK. Solomon did not write Ephesians, OK?

Are we clear about that?

I, I know you are, I'm not.

When Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 13, he said the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments.

And when we do that, we glorify God with our bodies and our spirits.

Well, did we accomplish what we wanted to accomplish?

One of the things that we started out was talking about the proper or ill-defined purpose in life that people often follow.

They're chasing after things that ultimately don't satisfy.

Solomon teaches us that in the book of Ecclesiastes or Ephesians as you choose.

But then secondly, we talked about what man's true purpose is.

The Christian.

needs to understand that we were created for a high and noble purpose, and that in fulfilling that purpose, there is promise to us this eternal reward that is beyond our comprehension even.

My question for you this morning is, what's your purpose in life?

The scriptures tell us why we're here.

The question is, have we lost our way?

Have we become distracted by some of the bubbles, by some of the shiny things that life has to offer in this world?

Lots of people are chasing those things.

And Solomon would tell us that's vanity.

That's striving after the wind.

You ever tried to clutch the wind?

And really satisfying.

Do you feel the joy of knowing exactly why you are here on Earth?

And where you are headed.

The premise of this study this morning is that that should bring joy to us.

That our lives had meaning.

In fulfilling this purpose for which we were created.

If you're not a Christian, You haven't dedicated your life yet.

To the purpose for which you were created.

And that is to glorify God by keeping his commandments, fearing Him and keeping his commandments.

If you're a Christian, And you've been chasing things.

You got distracted, got off the path.

You've lost the focus of your life.

You've become.

Focused on all of the things of this world so that you've forgotten what the big purpose is, and that is to glorify God.

Then the invitation is for you.

If you need to obey the gospel, get your life on the right course.

Or if you need to rededicate your life.

So that you have a better focus on why you were created, and what this life is all about for a Christian.

And we want to extend the Lord's invitation to you, and we ask you, we encourage you to respond.

Come to the front as we stand and sing, and we'll assist you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

The reading this morning is taking from the Gospel of John chapter 103 if you'd like to turn and follow along with me.

John chapter 10, I'll be reading verses 1 through 11 from the ESV, and that's what appears on the screen behind me.

John chapter 10, beginning in verse 1.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the sheepfold by the or does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way.

That man is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him, the gatekeeper opens.

The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him.

For they do not know the voice of strangers.

This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the door.

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Before we begin our study this morning, I want to reiterate what Jim said in the announcements, and that is that we're glad to see all who are here this morning have a good number present, and we also have a good number of visitors.

It's that time of the year when families tend to gather together and it's always a pleasure to see family members uh that we have known in the past who have moved away and and taken up lives in other places to come back and visit.

Uh with family here.

We're glad that you're here.

And I hope that all of us will be encouraged by the things, the time that we spend here.

Uh, you are an encouragement to the people, the other people who have come here, even as you are an encouragement to them.

The Bible is full of rich illustrations and allusions to oriental life, life in Bible times.

And yet sometimes I think the vividness of some of those illustrations are lost on us because we are unfamiliar with some of the features of oriental life, agricultural life, the life of the common people in the time of Jesus.

I think that one of the reasons that Jesus was such a popular teacher, one of the reasons was that Jesus was frequently uh prone to use parables and illustrations from common daily life, things that the people who heard him could relate to in their experience.

Jesus talked about the parable of the sower.

He illustrate the importance of the condition of the heart.

Of the one who hears the word, the seed, as it's uh distributed among men.

Jesus, in order to emphasize the need to help our neighbor, to love our neighbor, told the parable of the Good Samaritan.

And uh the common people could relate to these uh ideas, the marriage supper, uh, the parable of the tears, the parable of the fishing net, all of the things that Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven and about uh relationships with him, those things were vivid to those people because they saw those, uh, events in common daily life.

We have to work a little bit harder because we are not so familiar, perhaps with oriental life.

In Palestine.

Sheep still are very common, even as they were common in biblical times.

Job had 14,000 sheep.

Solomon offered 120,000 sheep at the dedication of the temple.

And so because of the abundance of sheep in Palestine, references to shepherds and to sheep are numerous in the scriptures.

And you'll see them in the prophets in the Old Testament.

You see them in some of the, the, the language, even of the New Testament epistles.

Psalm 103, the shepherd's palm.

As David extols his shepherd and describes how the Lord provides and cares for him.

Jesus used such an illustration of sheep and shepherd.

To teach about one characteristic that all of God's people have in common.

If you were asked to name one characteristic that is common to all of God's people regardless of where they live or even for that matter since the cross when they lived.

What would you describe or what characteristic would you choose?

You couldn't choose any kind of an ethnic characteristic because we vary from country to country and continent to continent.

Age is irrelevant, gender, of course, is not crucial.

So what characteristic would we suggest is what binds or is common among all of God's people?

Certainly not any physical characteristic.

We're all different kind of people.

Well, I believe that Jesus identified that characteristic in John the 10th chapter in what is sometimes called the Good Shepherd text.

This morning, while we'll say some things about the shepherd, I believe that's the primary thrust of the passage.

I want to focus on the sheep as well.

Because as I said, I believe that Jesus identified that which is common to all of his people whom he describes as sheep in this passage.

Jesus draws three contrasts in the passage.

The first one has to do with his sheep versus sheep of other shepherds.

But then Jesus passes to the shepherd versus the thief, who doesn't come in through the door of the sheepfold or sheep coat, but rather climbs over the wall or through some other uh entrance.

And then, of course, Jesus contrasted the shepherd with the hireling.

When people look at John 10, A lot of times they will immediately interpret the passage as talking about Jesus as the good shepherd and Christians as sheep.

And while I believe the implication of the passage is that that's the case.

I think identifying the sheep as Christians is to miss what I believe to be a major point of emphasis in this illustration.

Jesus, in the extended analogy here or parable, Jesus tells us how to tell certain sheep from other sheep.

The, the simplest way to say this is the Lord's sheep are simply those who hear his voice and follow him.

And so as you look at the passage in John 10, I've only got the 1st 4 verses here for emphasis.

Uh, the text says that the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd.

They hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before him, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

If you were to read books or commentaries that talk about shepherd life and the way that shepherds would interact with their sheep in biblical times and even today.

You would read about the fact that shepherds, because they spend so much time with their sheep as they're caring for them and protecting them and, and providing for them.

That they come to know the sheep so well that they can put names to the various sheep, sheep flocks of 50 or less commonly are named by the shepherd.

He has spent so much time with the sheep that he knows the various little details that distinguish that sheep from another sheep.

And so as Jesus says, he calls his own sheep by name.

Blackie, three-legged or whatever the name of that sheep is.

But I want you to notice something.

It says the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

My understanding is that in a sheep fold where there may be more than one flock combined, multiple shepherds with different flocks.

That when the sheep shepherd comes to the sheepfold in the morning, if he's not already there, and he wants to call his sheep out of the sheepfold, he simply calls out, he doesn't call necessarily their names at first.

He calls out and they know the sound of his voice.

Before he even begins to call them by name, they recognize his voice.

That's what Jesus is saying, they know his voice.

They don't listen, Jesus says, to the voice of a stranger.

But they have spent enough time with this shepherd that when the shepherd says Tahotaho, they know his voice.

And so they begin to gather around and he leads them out of the sheep fold.

The eastern custom is for the shepherd to lead his sheep, not to drive them.

They willingly follow him out of the sheepfold.

They recognize his voice, he calls them by name, and they follow him.

There are accounts of shepherds who could take a flock of sheep of 50 to 100 in number.

And have them follow him along a path between two fields.

With grain, where sheep are not allowed to get into the grain and eat, the shepherd ends up having to pay for the damages.

And so the shepherd leads them through this path between two fields, and the sheep follow him without wandering off into the fields.

That's the nature of the intimacy of the relationship between sheep and shepherd.

In our culture, the expression follow like dumb sheep is not a compliment.

I don't know who coined the, the term sheeple, but it is a word that means uh or is comparing sheep or people rather to sheep in the idea of being docile, foolish, easily led.

When you call people sheeple, that's not a compliment.

And yet, in the text that we're talking about, following like sheep is intended to be admirable.

Two consequences.

Of uh This business of hearing the voice of the shepherd is that we'll be listening to the Son of God.

In the transfiguration text to Matthew 17, The voice that came from the cloud and Peter James and John heard it said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him.

Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and that's God's intention that we listen to the shepherd, that we hear his voice.

Whoever doesn't listen to the shepherd's voice, not his sheep.

And that's why I said early on, I believe that when people look at John 103 and said, well, the sheep are Christians, they're missing a major point because Jesus doesn't identify them as Christians.

That might not have made much sense to people at that time anyway, were prior to the beginning of the church.

But instead, what he says is my sheep hear my voice.

Those are the ones who belong to me, who are part of my flock.

Hebrews chapter one, the Hebrews writer just jumps into his argument by talking about the superiority of Jesus over other prophets, the Old Testament prophets.

He says long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our prophets, our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed for the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Anyone who hears the voice of the good shepherd.

And follows his voice, will end up being a Christian.

When Peter writes in his first epistle to the Christians that had been scattered throughout the Roman Empire, he says in chapter 2 and verse 25, you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

And so just like sheep, we were straying, but those who hear the voice of the shepherd, then they come and they become part of his flock.

There are lots of sheep.

In this world I mean religious people who are following some shepherd.

Despite all those sheep, however, one can easily recognize the Lord's sheep.

Who's listening to the Lord when he, through his apostles lays out the plan of salvation.

That individuals must not only believe, but respond to the Lord's commands to repent and confess and be baptized for the remission of sins.

Who's listening to the shepherd?

Well, many people are not.

Who's listening to the shepherd in terms of how the sheep are to worship?

God Well, many people are not.

They bring all kinds of inventions and additions into the worship of God, assuming that God will be pleased with them as long as it's directed to God.

Who's listening to the voice of the shepherd?

What did the shepherd say is acceptable to God.

Love of our brethren.

That characterizes she, Jesus emphasizes that that's how the world will know that we are His disciples, if we have love for one another.

Who's listening to the shepherd?

If we're not loving our brethren, We can't possibly be the Lord's sheep because that was his command.

Spiritual emphasis in the mission of the local congregation, benevolence toward the needy.

These are things that the shepherd has said that you and I need to participate in.

The common element.

This is what the shepherd commands who's listening to the shepherd.

Unfortunately, even among those who have been baptized, who have followed the plan of salvation laid out in the scriptures, there are some sheep, individuals who were listening to the Lord in the past who have stopped listening to the shepherd.

As I said, in the east, shepherds lead their flocks.

They don't drive them while they may follow the sheep if the sheep are headed for the sheepfold, but they don't have to compel the sheep by force, and yet some members of the Lord's Church, those who would claim to be sheep, have to be constantly driven to fulfill their obligation as followers of Christ.

Those are not sheep.

They're not acting like the Lord's sheep if they're not listening.

To his commands, some sheep won't eat.

Bible classes and assemblies and the scriptures as they're preserved for us by the Holy Spirit.

That's all available for the feeding of the Lord's sheep.

That's how the shepherd speaks to us.

And yet some members can't find time to listen to the shepherd.

Through those venues.

Some sheep are constantly straying from the path set by the shepherd.

There is a difference, there can be a difference between hearing sermons and listening to the shepherd's voice.

Did you hear what I said?

No pun intended.

There can be a difference between hearing sermons and listening to the voice of the shepherd.

People teach, preachers teach, elders teach, Bible class teachers teach what the scriptures say and people hear it, but they're not really listening.

Let him who has years to hear, let him hear Jesus was accustomed to say.

That means that sometimes people don't pay attention.

To what they're actually hearing.

They're not really listening.

It's interesting that One of the words in the Greek words in the New Testament that's translated obey is a word that means essentially to hear.

Kukuo is a word that means, talks about hearing people who are willing to hear what the command of that one who has authority to command is saying.

When we don't listen to the shepherd, are we really part of his sheep, his flock, or do we belong to some other flock?

Now, the reason I said that we missed the point of this passage when we say, well, the good shepherd is Jesus, and the sheep are Christians, is that a lot of people claim to be Christians.

But they're not the Lord's sheep.

Because they're not listening to the shepherd.

And some of them are those who are members of local congregations who, although they have been baptized into the in Christ, and they've listened to the shepherd, at least for some period in their life, they've strayed away.

They're not acting like sheep who belong to the good shepherd any longer.

As I said, there are 3 contrasts.

In this chapter, we've just talked about the first one, the contrast between the Lord's flock and other sheep.

But Jesus also contrasts himself with others.

For instance, he contrasts himself with the thief, or in some passages, it'll say robber in verses 1 and 8 specifically.

I wonder if that's not a reference to the Pharisees and the scribes.

Others who were leaders of God's people, Israel in the whole, in the first century period of time.

But he may have also been thinking about the leaders of Old Testament, Israel, those kings, uh, who were the leaders of the nations, those who were chastised in Ezekiel 34 and The beginning verses of Jeremiah 23, where God said woe to the shepherds of Israel.

They were shepherds who were selfish.

They were using the flocks for their own benefit.

They weren't really caring for the people, and they certainly weren't leading them in paths of righteousness.

Jesus says they're thieves, robbers.

But who wouldn't follow Jesus?

I mean, that just seems odd to us, doesn't it?

That, that anybody would decide to follow a different shepherd or who would try to usurp the role of the good shepherd as leader of the entire flock.

Back in 1978, There was an individual by the name of Jim Jones.

Who had begun a church, called it the People's Temple.

And because of some of the controversy surrounding his group, he moved that group to Guyana.

And eventually, there were rumors that some of the people who were in this community, it was a very large group, almost 1000 people.

were actually being held there against their will.

They weren't willing participants in this church.

And so a US representative by the name of Ryan went with some others to investigate this, and as they were preparing to leave, Ryan was killed along with the others of his party by members of this group.

Jim Jones instructed his followers.

To commit mass suicide, murder suicide.

Many of the people drank some sort of flavored drink that was laced with cyanide.

143 people died.

Following the instructions of their shepherd, their leader.

Some of those people didn't want to die and so they were murdered.

They were injected with cyanide.

Who would want to Usurp the role of the good shepherd.

Well, lots of people actually.

Jim Jonas is just one example.

In 1993.

There was a fellow by the name of David Koresh.

Who established a compound, a religious group.

In Waco, Texas.

And again, there were rumors of some things that were ungodly going on in this group from a civil standpoint.

Civil law standpoint.

And so, in April of that year, there were, uh, that, that compound was raided by the ATF.

It didn't go well.

4 ATF agents were killed and 6 of the branch Davidians, as they were called, were killed.

And so then There was a fire that Consumed the compound in April of that same year, 25, 21 more branch Davidians died.

210 of them were children.

Well, who would want to usurp?

The role of the good shepherd.

Well, David Koresh was the one who told Branch Davidians that they needed to give their wives to him so he would have multiple wives.

That was the kind of shepherd they had.

The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church claims by documents and in person to be the earthly head of the church.

And his authority over that church is not to be disputed according to church doctrine.

A couple of weeks ago, there was an article in the bulletin.

That talked about the change of doctrine regarding Mary.

And the relationship of Catholics to Mary from this pope to this pope.

The church doctrine is you don't question the Pope.

He's God's representative on earth for the church.

Who would want to usurp the role of the good shepherd?

Well, lots of people.

I would like to It is easy actually.

For Christians to elevate an elder or a preacher or some other brother in Christ to the point where his Word means more than that of Jesus.

And I'll tell you what that's like.

It's like seeing a piece of elaborate furniture or wood carving, like what you see on the screen.

And you come in where it's being displayed, and there, there's a, there's a saw right there on the table, as you see on the screen, and you begin to wax eloquence about the, the beauty of the soul.

What a wonderful Saul, what a, what a terrific tool this was.

While you ignore the beauty of the furniture or the carving that the saw has helped produce.

Does that make much sense?

Of course not.

It makes just as about, about as much sense as elevating a preacher or an elder or some other uh preach uh uh speaker of God's word over Jesus Christ.

Paul said, we're just servants.

210 Corinthians 210 and 210.

We're just servants and stewards.

10 Corinthians 227 and 210.

Jesus is the good shepherd.

Jesus is the one who owns the flock.

And elders, and preachers, and Bible class teachers, deacons, they are simply servants.

To the good shepherd.

The thief brings destruction.

He comes to steal and kill and destroy, Jesus says.

The good shepherd, on the other hand, provides life, verse 214 says.

The religious leaders in Jesus' day preyed on the people, and that's clear from the comments of Jesus in Matthew 23, where he says to the scribes and the Pharisees, woe to you, you bind heavy burdens on the people that they're not able to bear.

You won't lift them a bit.

They had concocted so many religious regulations, a hedge around the law, if you will.

That it was difficult for people to even follow God acceptably.

They tie up heavy burdens, Jesus said, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

In contrast, To the good shepherd, the hireling doesn't care about the sheep.

He's been employed, he's being paid to care for the sheep, but he doesn't care about the sheep.

And so Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, verse 11.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, but he, who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scats.

He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd.

I know my own and my own know me just as the Father knows me and I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

Verse 11 gives us the main thought of this particular pericippe of scripture, and then it closes in verse 15 with the same thing.

I lay down my life for the sheep.

That's the difference between the good shepherd and the hireling.

And I believe Jesus mentions the hireling for the specific purpose of contrasting him with the good shepherd who does care for the sheep.

And who does protect those who belong to him.

He knows his sheep by name, verse 14 says, and so does verse 27.

He cares for the sheep because they are his own.

In Psalm 103 that was up on the screen a little bit earlier.

David praises and is, uh, speaks his trust in God as his shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

In other words, he's gonna provide for me.

I'm not gonna be needy.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

That's what a shepherd does.

He finds pasture for his sheep.

That may involve leading them some distances in Palestine, where there are places where it's dry and there's not a lot of vegetation.

So the shepherd has to seek the pasture for his flock.

He leads me beside the still waters.

I don't keep sheep So I'm gonna tell you what I've read, and that is that sheep don't like turbulent waters.

When they go to drink, they need water that is still.

Otherwise, they're easily frightened.

And so the shepherd, he doesn't just lead them to any water, he finds a place where there's still water, where they will drink without being afraid.

He restores my soul.

If the shepherd sees a sheep that has been scratched by thorns, has a wound, and he'll apply olive oil that he carries in his flask, or if it's a lamb that is weak or another sheep grown sheep that is weak, he picks it up and he carries it in his bosom as Isaiah 40 and 11 says.

He restores my soul, David wrote.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

We already talked about the fact that shepherds lead their flocks and that the flock will follow that shepherd, even in places of temptation, like grain fields.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

We sang uh some good songs in preparation for our study this morning talking about the Lord is our shepherd.

The idea of the, of this whole shepherd, uh analogy is that there's a relationship that is close between the shepherd and the sheep, and the sheep trust the shepherd.

They follow him willingly.

They follow him.

They won't follow a stranger.

I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Thinking about Jesus as the good shepherd.

should help us understand what Peter is saying and 1 Peter 5, when he talks about elders as shepherds.

So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd, the flock of God.

That is among you exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, you're not taking advantage of the flock, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock, going before them, showing them the path.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

And so Peter talks about how shepherds, elders ought to care for the sheep, even as the good shepherd does described in 1 John 10.

That's a picture of a sheep fold or a sheep coat.

That's a modern day picture.

This is not a picture from Peter or one of the other apostles.

They didn't have color photos back then.

And so this is a picture of a sheet coat in Palestine and you see there's a cave there, caves are pretty common in Palestine.

And then there's been a rock wall that's been built around to enclose an area there.

And if you notice, there's a, a pretty narrow entrance there.

Twice in John 10, Jesus says, I am the door of the sheep.

I am the door, he says.

And my understanding is that sometimes, uh, a shepherd will actually sleep in that entrance so that a predator A robber has to go past the shepherd to get into the sheep coat.

He is the door in the sense that the sheep can only go out past him.

Nobody else can come in to get the sheep.

Jesus says no one snatches my sheep.

From me.

The Lord's sheep are those who hear his voice and follow him.

If we don't get anything else out of John 10, that is the primary thrust from the standpoint or the perspective of describing the sheep.

We need to continue to hear his voice and follow him.

Are you listening to the shepherd?

No one can take the Lord's sheep away from him, as long as they continue to hear and follow him.

A lot of times people look at that expression a little later on in the chapter, and they say, well, this means that a person can never fall, Christian can never fall.

No, that's not what it's saying.

It's saying that as long as you hear the shepherd's voice and follow him, nobody can take you away from the Lord.

But see, that's, that's the point.

You're listening to the voice.

Satan doesn't have the power to snatch you away.

But you can leave, you can stop listening to the shepherd.

And if you do, You become part of another flock.

John 10 says the good shepherd cares for his sheep, gives them eternal life.

The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.

He brings destruction, but the good shepherd gives eternal life.

That they may have life, his sheep may have life abundantly.

He laid down his life for them.

We sang a song this morning.

I thought it was very appropriate in light of what I'm going to say now that described Jesus in many different ways, uh, that illustrate the different functions or roles that Jesus plays in our lives.

He's our Savior, he's our king, he's our high priest, he's the head of the church.

He's our mediator.

And he's our shepherd.

Each of those descriptions emphasizes some aspect of our relationship with Christ.

What's the emphasis?

In the description of Jesus as a shepherd.

Well, If you, if you can't answer that question now, I can re-preach the sermon if you'd like.

But I'm gonna assume that you've got the point.

He cares for the sheep.

He's the provider.

He's the protector.

And he's the giver of eternal life.

There are of course many flocks.

But the good shepherd only has one.

And you are either in that flock, because you're listening to the shepherd, and you're following, you're hearing his voice and following him, or you belong to some other flock.

There's nothing in between.

So, so, so how can I know if I'm in the Lord's flock?

Are you listening to the shepherd?

That's the test.

Look at verses 14 and 27 of John 10.

The teaching of Jesus in this chapter is simplicity itself.

Either we listen to the Lord or we don't.

Sometimes when people are Being rebuked for sin or uh it's being brought up that there's a problem in their lives.

There's all kinds of excuses, but the bottom line is simple.

Are you listening to the shepherd?

Are you following the scriptures or not?

That's a pretty easy question.

Jesus is the door to the sheepfold.

I'm reminded of the comment that Jesus made in John 14 when he said, no one comes to the Father except through me.

He's the door And he's the way that we can come and enjoy eternal life.

Are you listening to the Good Shepherd?

Are you a part of his flock because you followed his instructions through his inspired apostles and prophets, that you need to believe in him as the resurrected savior, as the Son of God, you need to confess that faith and repent of your sins, and you need to be baptized for the remission of your sins.

That's on the screen, the path.

Are you listening to the shepherd?

If you need to respond to the shepherd's invitation to life, eternal life this morning, then we want to encourage you to come to the front and we'll assist you uh in that very thing.

Please come as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ian Boike

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.)

Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts.

Do not forsake my teaching.

When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast my words.

Keep my commandments and live.

Get wisdom, get in sight.

Do not forget and do not turn away from the words in my mouth.

Do not forsake her, and she will keep you.

Love her and she will guard you.

The beginning of wisdom is this get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.

Prize her highly, and she will exalt you.

She will honor you if you embrace her.

She will place on your head a graceful garland.

She will bestow on you a beautiful crown.

Hear, my son, and accept my words that the years of your life may be many. Evening.

It's wonderful to see you all out this evening, including our visitors.

We're so excited to have you here as our honored guests.

And the sermon this evening is part of a sermon series that I'm building on the home and the responsibilities of both parents and children.

And if you didn't, if you weren't here last week, last Sunday evening, we spent some time talking about the responsibilities of parents towards their children and some of the lessons that sometimes parents forget.

And just a quick overview of the three lessons that we talked about.

is that parents need to be able to admit the mistakes that they've made in the past, in the present.

Parents need to seek ways to talk to their children about the Lord always.

And finally, parents needed to teach their children the value of the scriptures.

But like I said a moment ago, in this particular sermon, I want to switch our focus now to the side of the children so that we can discuss their responsibilities that they have towards us as parents.

Because while parents have a significant amount of influence on their children's decisions and actions while living under in under their roof in the home, there are commands that are given specifically and directly to children.

And just some objectives for this evening.

This evening, I want to start by, I want to showcase 4 essential responsibilities that are given to children by the Lord.

I then want to explain what the reason why the Lord commands this of children, especially our children.

And finally, I want us to understand for each of these reasons, what will happen to children who decide not to heed the commands of the Lord.

And so this evening out of the 4, I started with the first one, and I believe that children need to respect authority.

But why is submitting authority so important for our children to learn?

Well, as I said a moment ago, I wanna, I wanna place our primary focus on children.

But I don't want to exclude parents in this sermon because without good parents, good Christian parents teaching their children these lessons, it'd be very difficult for anyone to pick them up and learn them.

But above all, the primary reason that this is so important for our children to understand is because the Lord said so in Ephesians 6:1, where he says simply, children.

Obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right.

And unfortunately one particular problem that I tend to see in our society, especially today, is where many children will only obey the commands of their parents or the instructions of their parents whenever they're given a quote unquote good enough reason for why it needs to be done.

And the Lord didn't say in Ephesians 6:1, Children obey your parents and the Lord when they offer you a good enough reason to do it.

That comes from the children's translation.

I wouldn't recommend that for your average daily Bible study.

But you know what is, what, what's going to happen to children who don't respect authority in this world?

And as we already discussed, children who need an explanation for absolutely everything that is explained to them or told of them to do, they're gonna struggle in this world.

And maybe an illustration that would make more sense to maybe some of my young adults in the, in the room.

Those who are just starting to drive, maybe gain a little bit more responsibility.

You know, what do you think is going to happen when you disobey a police officer's commands?

If a police officer were to pull me over and tell me to step out of the vehicle, put my hands in the air, and face away from him and walk back slowly, the last thing I'm gonna do is walk towards him with my hands in my pockets or my hands near my pockets, saying, Why, officer, what did I do?

That's not going to end very well for me.

Disobeying a lawful command from a police officer can often end in jail time, or as the example I just gave, a much worse scenario.

But maybe maybe tailored to more of the younger audience, the younger kids.

You know, what do you think is going to happen when you disobey your teachers in school?

And I don't know if this happens anymore, but whenever I, whenever I was in 5th grade, In our homeroom classroom, we had a yardstick that would hang right beside the clipboard by the door.

And at the very top of the stick, you had the color green, and at the very bottom of the stick, you had red.

And if you were misbehaving, you would have to, I think the term was, flip your clip down to the bad colors.

Of course, that crushed me as a kid.

I was like, oh no, gotta move it down to yellow.

That's one step closer to red.

But And if you were in the green, of course you were doing good that day and the teacher was happy with you.

And I don't know if that happens anymore.

But children who follow the teachings of God.

will generally be the most law abiding citizens and well behaved students.

Now, this isn't always gonna be the case because human authorities are gonna sometimes make rules that Christians can't follow in good conscience as it would lead us to disobeying God's commands as he carries higher authority.

But children, I think it's a general lesson that children who don't learn to respect authority.

And submit to that authority.

Well, they're always going to be in trouble as our society is based on a hierarchy of authority.

Romans 83:1-2, Paul tells us, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

But now that we understand maybe some ideas and some illustrations on how the children will suffer in the world, the physical world, I think more importantly, we need to discuss how our children gonna suffer spiritually.

And children who refuse to respect the authority of the Lord, not just the government or the police, but the Lord, well, they're never gonna be able to have fellowship with the Lord or his followers.

And just with the raise of hands from the young people and the children, who has been told by their parents that they should love Jesus, love God?

Just a show of hands.

OK, good.

Thank you parents for teaching that to your children because that's vitally important.

It's the first step.

But we can't stop here because as parents, we need to make sure that our children understand that submitting to spiritual authority and love are come as a single package.

They can't be separated.

And in John 14th chapter, Starting in verse 15, Jesus said, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Skipping down to verse 21, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

And Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with Him.

Whoever does not love me, does not keep my words.

And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.

So Jesus is trying to make the point and of course in applying it to what we're talking about this evening.

is that we read that one of the commandments that we're given is, if we love God, we're gonna obey His commandments.

And as we read earlier in Ephesians 6:1, where commanded children are commanded to love their parents.

So when children obey their parents, that's how they show their love for the Lord.

Because it's one thing to say, well, I love Jesus, I love God, it's another thing to show it.

And the second lesson and responsibility that I think children carry, is that children need to be patient with their parents.

Well, you know, why do children need to be patient with their parents?

Why is that a responsibility of children?

Well, as we established last week, because ch because parents are fallible.

Parents can make mistakes.

We're not perfect people.

And during Jesus' sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a very easy rule for all of us, children and adults to follow.

Matthew chapter 7 and verse 12 says, Jesus said, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.

For this is the law and the prophets.

And children need to learn patience because in the same way that they want their parents to be patient with them whenever they fall, whenever they make mistakes, and when they sin.

They need to be, they need to be just as patient with their parents, who are just as imperfect as they are.

And I think along this line of thinking is that children must also realize that their Christian parents are doing the best that they can to make good godly decisions for their families.

Because while parents aren't perfect, we've already established that.

Children still need to honor their parents and their decisions, especially when it comes to discipline.

In Hebrews chapter 13 and verses 7 to 11, the Hebrews writer tells us, it is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us.

And we respected them Shall we shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits?

And live For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness, for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.

But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

In other words, The parent who disciplines his son and the parent who disciplines his daughters, the parent who loves his children.

or their children.

We're even told this directly in Proverbs 13th chapter in verse 24.

says very directly, whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

But what's going to happen to children who aren't patient?

What's going to happen to them?

Well, I would first like to suggest that children who struggle with patience, well, they're also gonna struggle to forgive others.

As they often want to be forgiven.

In Matthew the 18th chapter.

We see a scene where Peter comes to Jesus and says, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me?

And I forgive him.

As many as 7 times.

And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you 7 times, but 77 times.

The type of forgiveness that I think we can see here is that Jesus is referring to a forgiveness that is without ceasing.

Which some of the more experienced parents in the room are gonna are can attest to it.

It takes a lot of patience.

To be able to forgive without ceasing.

And if we were to continue reading in verses 23 to 83 of Matthew 18, Jesus tells Peter a parable of two men who have debts.

And the first man, the first servant, well, He owes money and he's confronted by his master.

And we come to find out that the amount that he owed was several lifetimes' worth.

In other words, he couldn't pay it back.

And the master then said to the servant, because he couldn't pay his debt, he was gonna take him, he's gonna take his wife, and he was gonna take his children and all of his belongings and sell them into slavery so that he could get some of the pros so he could get the money from the proceeds of that sale to help pay off the servant's debt.

And then in verses 26 and 27, If you'll notice, the man pleads and he begs for what?

He begs and pleads for patience with the master.

He doesn't directly say, forgive me of my debt, please, just take it away.

He begs for patience.

And the master allows his debt to be forgiven.

And after the servant was completely forgiven of his debt, he goes out and finds another servant just as himself, takes a hold of him by the throat and says, pay me what you owe me.

Showing him no mercy whatsoever.

Of course, this upset the other servants.

The servants go to the master and tell them, tell him what just occurred, and the master was not very happy.

And so he decides, because he didn't show mercy or forgiveness to this other servant as he was.

He would put him in jail until he could pay his debt that had been previously forgiven.

And if we're able to recognize that patience and forgiveness are so closely tied together, only then will we be able to understand that children who struggle with patience are likely gonna suffer their entire lives.

And that children who struggle with patience may struggle to maintain fellowship and relationships with like-minded brothers and sisters in the church.

Because Paul told the saints in Ephesus that patience was one of the most important attributes that a Christian could have.

In Ephesians chapter 2100 and verses 21 and 21.

Paul told the Paul told the saints in Ephesus, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility, gentleness, with patience, and bearing love and with one with bearing with one another in love.

And I know that there are a lot of overlaps in this sermon.

There's a lot of stuff that gets repeated because it applies to multiple different areas.

But children who struggle to find the ability to have patience with others.

They're going to find it very difficult when they're older to be able to walk in the light, as all Christians are commanded to do.

The next lesson and responsibility that I think children have to their parents is that children need to honor their parents.

And according to a simple Google AI overview of what you know what is the definition.

Of honoring your parents.

I kind of like the way that they phrased it.

They said to honor your parents means to show them respect, gratitude, and high regard in your words and actions.

But then it goes a step further and it says this involves an inward attitude of valuing them, being thankful for their sacrifices, speaking of them with dignity, and acting in a way that reflects well on them.

So this is not just an outward showing of, you know, I, I go, you know, I call my mom on the phone a couple of times a week and, you know, I make sure that they're doing OK. This is an inward attitude that we all must adopt as children.

In 28 Timothy chapter 28 and verses 21 and 23.

Paul told Timothy, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

Younger men as brothers, and older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity.

Which kind of leads me into the subpoint is that we need to ensure as children that our parents don't feel like burdens.

Now this is going to apply more to maybe young adults or maybe a child who has moved out and they're living on their own.

And your parents may be a little bit older.

Well, sometimes whenever our parents become older, they're gonna need a little bit more support, either physically or mentally, maybe financially.

There's gonna be things that they need from us.

And in 22 John chapter 21 verses 28 through 3.

Sometimes parents may feel or may even say to us directly, You know, I don't want to be a burden on you.

You know, I don't wanna, I don't wanna slow you down in this life.

You know, I move a little bit slower these days.

I don't want to burden you.

In the scriptures speak against this attitude.

And 1 John chapter 5 verses 1 through 3.

John tells us, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him.

By this, we know that we love the children of God.

And when we love God and obey His commandments, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

If we're truly obeying the Lord's commands, We will honor our parents in the way that the Lord wants us to, and unfortunately, The instruction that we find in 1 John chapter 13.

Well, our society doesn't believe this.

They don't think this way.

In fact, the thinking of many in our culture is a person's value is based on their usefulness.

How much are they contributing to the economy?

You know what are they doing outside of the home?

Because to our society that's that's how you attain value.

And this couldn't be farther from the truth.

Leads me into my next point, in my final part of this of this evening's sermon is that children need to respect their parents' wisdom.

Because our parents' wisdom is a true reflection of their value to us.

But why do children need to respect their parents' wisdom?

Well, because wisdom is a product of life experience, and for some of us, we don't have that much of it compared to others.

And in 2024, um, Luke Combs, a country, a country song artist, he uh he wrote a list of about 10 or 15 songs, and he titled the album Fathers and Sons.

And of course, when this album came out, Hudson hadn't been born yet, so I enjoyed this album quite, quite extensively.

But one of his last songs in this album was titled My Old Man Was Right.

And this song is about a son, and I think he's referring to himself.

is that he, he is, he's learning life lessons from his father, who's desperately trying to teach him things about life.

Unfortunately, the son only realizes his father's wisdom after experiencing the consequences of the way he wants to do things.

But I want to read the last verse in this song, and It resonates with me, and I think it'll resonate with a lot of you as well.

He says in the last verse, now it's his turn that being his father, to watch me be the old man.

With my baby boy lying by my side.

In every lesson that he taught me, I hope I teach him.

Because I'm old enough to know that my old man was right.

Because every child at one point in their life.

is gonna have the thought, and I had this thought.

My parents are in the audience this evening, gotta be careful, um.

You know, I had the thought of, you know, what do my parents know.

I know more than them.

They don't understand me, they don't understand my life.

They just, they don't get it, you know, cause they've never lived through what I've been through.

And I said, you know, even saying that out loud just it just sounds ridiculous.

But, you know, children need to understand that life experience comes with mistakes.

But it also comes with the knowledge of how not to repeat those exact same mistakes.

And I want to make this clear to all the young people, just you could hear all the knowledge in the world.

You could have every older person in this congregation line up and they could tell you a 100 things.

About what not to do.

It doesn't mean you're immune to making mistakes.

But just like they were, just like they were able to gain life experience, you're now better equipped to handle those, maybe those temptations that hit your parents or your grandparents.

That way you're better equipped to handle them.

But like I said earlier, I think I find myself relating to that last verse a whole lot more now that I have my own child.

Because I hope that the lessons that my parents tried to teach me to love the Lord, have my own faith.

And to help others amongst other great wonderful life lessons, I hope.

That I get to teach Hudson those lessons, and I hope I do.

I plan on doing that.

But what's going to happen to children who don't listen to the wisdom of their parents?

Well, in Proverbs chapter 1, Proverbs chapters 1 through 8.

Solomon pleads with his son.

To heed the advice of his words and the wisdom from his wife.

And so that his son wouldn't make bad choices and who he hangs around and And the woman that he would choose to spend the rest of his life with, woman folly and woman wisdom.

But these, um, I've just put a couple of them up on the screen.

There's many more, I'm sure.

But this is the way that the father introduces his sentence, and often the way he ends it.

He starts by saying, you know, here, my son, your father's instruction.

And then he'll end by saying, do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

Because the Lord granted King Solomon tremendous wisdom, as that was, that was one of his greatest treasures, so that we know that these proverbs are as if the Lord said themself.

But I think in these 8 chapters, these 1st 8 chapters of Proverbs, there's 2 lessons that we need to take away from it.

The first is the responsibility of the parents, because I think after reading, if you were to ever take, if you take the time to read Proverbs chapters 1 through 8, you'll find that parents are implicitly commanded to have the diligence of King Solomon in teaching our children today.

About the fear and the wisdom of the Lord.

Then on the flip side, children are directly commanded.

They are explicitly commanded to listen to the wisdom of our parents, just as Solomon's son did.

So that like Solomon's son, We can understand the true fear and wisdom of the Lord.

And I hope that this lesson was as encouraging to you as it was for me.

And if you take nothing else away from this lesson this evening, we need to remember.

That children, excuse me, children are responsible to respect their parents' authority.

Children have the responsibility to be patient with their parents.

And children are responsible to honor their parents.

And honor their wisdom.

To the young people here this evening, there's the world is often going to look down upon you because of your age, your inexperience.

How little life experience you have.

But Paul told Timothy not to ever give anyone a reason to look down on you.

And if you're following these rules, and if you're adhering to your responsibilities and you're taking it seriously, you're never gonna give anyone a reason to look down on you.

Especially other adults.

And only by doing these things that we've discussed today can we The children, true children of God.

And I know this evening that we've spent, we spent a lot of time.

Talking about the roles and responsibilities of children and young people.

And I know that this doesn't apply to everyone here age wise.

But thankfully, we never stop being children.

And even in the spiritual sense, it doesn't matter what age you are.

It doesn't matter at all.

Because if you're a Christian, if you're not a Christian, excuse me, you need to understand that you're not his child, but you are still created in the image of God, and you are still his creation.

But because of the sin that you have in your life, there's no way for you to have fellowship with Him.

And the Lord doesn't want you to remain this way.

Because every time we meet, we like to offer those who are not Christians an invitation to become a child of God.

And we have everything here ready to assist you in becoming his child.

And if you're already one of his children, if you've already obeyed the gospel, do you still continually love the Lord?

Are you following in his commandments still?

Are you walking in the way that he would readily recognize you as one of his children?

If you continue in your sin, If you do have sin, it will destroy the relationship that you have with the Lord.

But thankfully, just as God sent his son for the unbeliever, so that they would have an opportunity to become his child, he also sent his son so that you could obtain forgiveness of your transgressions.

And come back to him.

The Lord is able and he is willing to forgive you of your transgressions if you will ask for His forgiveness.

And if you're subject to the invitation this evening, please come to the front as we stand and as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their heart.

I want to begin this morning by asking you to think about how many things you do in your life daily without actually thinking about those things.

Things that you do essentially automatically.

For instance, when you brush your teeth.

You wet your toothbrush, take the cap off of the toothpaste tube.

I'm assuming this is the way most people do it.

Uh, you put some on there and you rinse your mouth after you're done brushing, you rinse the brush and you do whatever else, but you look at that little girl on the screen and she is, she's focused on that.

You focus on brushing your teeth like that if you do it in the morning or in the evening before you go to bed.

No, we don't do that.

It's automatic.

You don't look around your bathroom and say, well, what is this little stick with the little bristles on the end?

I wonder what that's for and and you pick it up, oh, this is a toothbrush.

This must be for cleaning something or other.

I'll bet it's my teeth, and then you look around and you think, I wonder what I'm supposed to put on anybody do that?

I don't think so.

We do, we do those things automatically.

I don't know how many of you still tie your shoes.

I've moved to the slip on varieties.

Uh, it's just faster and easier, but uh if you have shoes in the morning, you look down and you've got your shoes, you're feeding your shoes and the laces are unlaced.

Do you have to think about how to tie those shoes or do you just reach down and it's done automatically?

Have you ever tried to teach somebody something and you realized you couldn't explain it, you just do it automatically, so you had to do it yourself in order to remember how to tell somebody else how to do it.

Or am I the only one?

When you get up in the morning, what's the first thing you do?

Is it something that you really don't think about it's kind of automatic when you get out of bed or if you go to work in an office, what's the first thing that you do when you arrive?

Do you always do pretty much the same thing just kind of automatic check my email, make sure I don't have something due today that I've got to present or write up or whatever.

In the book The Power of Habit written by Charles Duhig.

He writes all our lives so far as it has definite form is but a mass of habits.

He's quoting William James who wrote that in 1892, and he continues, uh, Doig does most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well considered decision making, but they're not.

They're habits.

One paper published by a Duke University researcher in 2006.

Found that more than 40% of the actions people performed each day weren't actual decisions.

But habits.

Now I'm not going to push the 40%.

I don't know if that's really accurate.

Maybe it's less than that, and I'm sure it varies from person to person, but the point of that quotation is to suggest that a lot of the things we do, we don't make decisions about, we see a cue and we just do whatever it is that that cue suggests we fall into these habitual behaviors.

Without even thinking about it.

Probably all of us.

have struggled to change certain behaviors in our lives.

Maybe unhealthy habits, that is, things that would damage our physical health.

All the way to spiritually destructive behaviors.

And we've tried to change those things.

We've tried to break habits or establish new habits that are good for us spiritually, and yet we struggle with those things.

Sometimes those behaviors seem to be impossible to change or eliminate.

Habits can be excellent servants, but they also can be cruel masters.

And the fact of the matter is habits can be changed, but we need to understand how they work.

That's really my interest this morning is to talk about the fact that we need to make changes as Christians.

In fact, we'll continually make Chris uh changes during our entire journey as a Christian.

And we need to understand how to make those changes.

And we need to believe that it's possible to change.

To make the changes that we need to make in order to be approved of God.

There are a number of momentous changes that occur when an individual obeys the gospel.

Changes that uh affect our spiritual condition and our relationship to God and other people.

For instance, we know that the blood of Jesus cleanses us of our sins as we obey the gospel.

In Acts 13 and verse 38, Peter commanded those who were listening to him on that day to repent and be baptized.

Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

That is a very basic principle that when we are baptized, it is for the purpose of the forgiveness of our sins.

And we are told in other passages like Ephesians 1:7 that it is through the blood of Christ that we have this redemption, this freedom from the slavery of sin.

The passage that was read this morning in Romans 5, we have now been justified by His blood.

We've been made just.

The guilt of our sins has been removed, and we stand just in the sight of God before Him.

That's a momentous change.

That's a complete reversal of our spiritual condition.

But another change that takes place is we become the spiritual sons of God.

Paul would write to the Galatians in chapter 3 and verse 26, You're all sons of God through faith, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

And so at the same time that my sins are forgiven, God, as Paul would write to the Ephesians, adopts me as a son.

I become a spiritual child of God.

And as A child of God, I have an inheritance that is reserved for me, Peter says in 1 Peter 1:34.

These are passages I think that we're familiar with and we are familiar with the concepts that are contained in them.

When we obey the gospel, we become part of the Lord's church.

That word simply refers to the people who are called out of the world by the gospel, as Paul writes, uh, to the Thessalonians.

There are those who have been added by the Lord to the number of the saved.

Acts 103 and 47 says that the new King James version.

Uses the word church although the ESV does not.

Believers were added to the Lord as we work our way through Acts we see that people who were converted are added to this body, and it is that body, the church that Jesus is going to save.

He is the savior of the body.

Paul says in Ephesians 5:23.

Now an interesting thing about all of those changes that they're invisible.

We don't see those things with the naked eye.

We believe that they happen because of the promises that God has made.

The scriptures say if you do such and such and such, then this is what God promises that he will do and we believe that God is faithful.

We believe these things happen because of the promises of God.

But as Christians, we are also responsible for making changes in our lives, changes that frankly will be visible.

For instance, In the book of Romans, when Paul has finished his discourse concerning the method of God's justification of men, He then suggests That those who have been justified by faith need to not be conformed to the world, but rather to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.

If you notice in Romans 12 verses 1 and 2, we're not to be shaped like the world, become like the world, but rather we're to leave the world and become transformed people, changed people.

The apostle Paul talks about putting off the old self and putting on the new self.

Some versions say the old man and the new man.

In Ephesians 4, the passage that was read just a few moments ago by Elijah.

Paul says, That we should no longer walk as the Gentiles do.

The intimation is that there needs to be a change in our lives, and he says there in verse 22 and 24 that we put off the old self and we put on the new self.

And he even tells us the mechanism by which that change is accomplished.

It is by the renewing of the spirit of our minds.

We change the way that we think.

In Colossians the 133rd chapter in verses 1 and 2, I think Paul references that again.

Colossians 3 and Ephesians 23 are essentially sister passages, if you will, or parallel passages.

In both passages, Paul talks about the way that the old man lived and he contrasts the way the new man should live.

And so not only are we told to put on the new self, but we're told what that new man looks like and the way that we do that, Paul says, is if we've been raised with Christ, we seek the things that are above we set our mind on things that are above, not on the things on this earth.

I want you to pay attention to the fact.

that the passages I've mentioned Romans in Ephesians and Colossians, where Paul gives the command to not be conformed but to be transformed, to put off the old man, put on the new man.

Those are all passages written.

For Christians So the changes that we make when we are converted when we repent and and we change the way we're going to live that's not the end of the change process but in fact for the rest of our lives as Christians as we continue on this spiritual journey we're going to continue to make changes.

We're going to continue to put on the new man.

We're gonna constantly be putting to death, as Paul says in Colossians 22:212, the things that are earthly in our lives.

It's not just in our conversion that we need to make changes.

The amplitude of the changes that we will make hopefully will decrease over time.

We're fine tuning our lives.

But the fact of the matter is we have to continue to grow and mature and fight against the pressure to be conformed to the world around us.

Appreciated the words of Douglas this morning.

I think he intimated some things that I want to reemphasize.

And that is that there's a common pattern sometimes among some Christians when people are converted most of the time there's there's excitement and zeal.

If they were truly converted then they recognize that things have changed for them, that that their life is very different, and they're going to make changes and in many cases they are successful in making some of those changes with determined effort.

But over time, Some Christians just seem to be unable to drop some sinful behaviors.

And there's a frustration.

At the failure to be able to just eliminate from our lives those things that we know need to be changed, know that we need to let go.

And we try Sometimes we fail again.

And then maybe again.

And I've talked to many Christians who, to some extent have reached frustration or despair because they can't seem to make the changes that they know they need to make.

Unfortunately, the pattern sometimes continues to the point where Christians just kind of give up.

They resign themselves that the sinful behaviors are going to be in their lives and they're just going to live with it.

They just accept.

That behavior, those sins, as though they are unchangeable.

And I'll tell you what happens with that.

It causes people to doubt whether they're saved.

It causes them to doubt their spiritual condition before God.

I think Douglas was talking at least to some degree or at least some aspect of that very same feeling of, I just don't know if God will save me because I've got certain things in my life that I'm fighting with.

I can't seem to get rid of them.

But our journey as Christians doesn't have to be that way.

I think that's a common pattern.

But I don't think it's inevitable.

But sometimes there are stubborn behaviors in our lives.

Anger, the way that we express anger, if it's a sinful way, sinful behavior, is one of those behaviors that's very difficult sometimes for people to change.

But what we've seen this morning in just a few scriptures that I've cited is that the scriptures call for change and they even identify the kinds of changes that God desires in our life.

Look at the way the old man lived in Ephesians 213 and Colossians 21.

Look at the way the new man should live in those same passages, and God identifies what he desires in our lives.

But the question is, How, how do we make those changes?

We understand that repentance is essentially the decision to change.

But we also know that just deciding that I'm going to do something different or I'm going to live differently is not enough, that there needs to be fruit that is commensurate with or worthy as the text in Matthew 210 says, worthy of repentance.

And so how do we manage to make those changes that need to accompany The decision to change repentance.

It's interesting that in recent decades, neurosciences has made great strides in understanding the formation and the importance of habits in the lives, daily lives of people and for that matter, businesses, corporations, etc.

I want to share with you some interesting facts about habits because I believe they kind of give us a window into how we can change those habits in our lives that need to be changed, you know, it's interesting that so often the things that we can't seem to change their habitual behaviors.

By the very definition of habitual.

So just a few facts about Habits Habits essentially it has been determined are a three step loop.

There's a cue or a trigger.

And that trigger then results in a routine or an action, a behavior.

That anticipates a reward.

Let me give you an illustration.

You look down at your shoe and the shoelace is untied.

What's the first thing that comes to your mind?

Tie that shoe.

Seeing the untied shoelace is the cue.

That's the trigger, and the answer to that is the routine that we go through when we tie that shoe.

Why do we do that?

Well, for one thing, it looks bad if you're just flopping your shoelaces around, but the other possibility is you step on that shoelace trip and you fall and you get injured or whatever.

And that's just an example, a quick example of the three-step loop that basically describes nearly any habit.

Habits allow our brains to disengage, to move toward autopilot.

Let me share with you a quotation here from uh the same book, The Power of Habit.

Doig writes, but the reason the discovery of the habit loop is so important is that it reveals a basic truth.

When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making.

It stops.

Working so hard or diverts focus to other tasks.

So he says, unless you deliberately fight a habit, unless you find new routines, the pattern will unfold automatically.

It's interesting they did studies with rats in mazes.

And when a rat comes into the maze, the door would open, and there he's got a tunnel there or a hallway, and the rat will check out everything in his brain.

They've monitor the activity in his brain and it's just firing.

He's just going crazy.

All the data he's picking up as he goes into this maze.

And eventually he finds the reward, a piece of chocolate or whatever, and his brain sees the stimulation from the reward.

But when the rats learn.

That the way to the cheese or the chocolate or whatever is down this little hallway and it's a turn to the left and there it is.

What happens is when the door opens, the rat rat's brain immediately has activity and then the activity drops way down low.

Because a different part of the brain then.

They call it chunking, but a different part of the brain just guides him.

He, it's a habit.

He doesn't have to think about it.

He knows exactly where to go and which way to turn, and the brain doesn't re-engage with lots of activity until he gets to the, to the reward.

And studies have suggested that we're the same way.

That what happens with habits is the cue initiates the routine, and we do things without thinking about them.

In anticipation of the reward that's been identified in the past.

Someone says, well, I'm not a rat.

I don't think that's describing me.

Well, let me ask you a question.

You ever got in your car and you're ready to turn the key and you think to yourself, I can't remember if I locked the house or not.

Anybody ever do that?

Don't be, don't be afraid.

I won't call you a rat. Yeah.

Have you ever, have you ever done something?

And then 13 minutes later, you don't know if you did it or not?

Debbie and I sometimes say, well, did you?

I can't remember.

We got to get out of the car, go back, check the door to see if it's locked.

Here's the reason why because it's a habit to lock that door when you're leaving the house, you do this, you do that, you close the door.

You don't even think about it.

You don't have to.

It's a habit.

Your brain disengages.

We're focused on.

Other things Debbie and I are talking.

I'm thinking about where I'm gonna go and how I'm gonna get there, whatever, and so I complete that routine without actually making a decision.

Let's see what do I do first?

First thing I gotta do is open the door.

I also need to turn the lock here need to set the alarm.

We don't think that way.

Because we know the routine and your brain will direct you through the routine routine without you having to think about it or make any kind of decision.

The problem with that is that habits can be really cruel masters.

And you end up doing things over and over and over again because there's a routine that you've fallen into a sinful routine.

Your brain doesn't even have to think about it anymore.

You're not making the decision.

Well, I think I'm going to sit on this occasion.

You fall into the routine because there's a cure or a trigger that's taken place and you're off to the races without any decision making on your part.

say more about that because sin is a decision.

But your brain decides to make the decision for you in this routine.

Here's another fact.

The habit loop is powered by a craving for the reward.

That's part of the reason that so many people know that they should exercise.

That's the reward.

The reward would be that they'd feel better, they'd have better health, etc. etc.

But they don't want to do the routine.

They don't want to exercise because there's not a craving, a strong craving for the reward.

There are other things that are more important or that they crave more.

I'd really rather sleep longer.

Or I'd rather sit on the couch and watch TV or whatever.

The habit loop is powered by a craving for the reward.

Now think about that.

We'll make the application to changing our behaviors a little bit later.

There's another thing that's known as a keystone habit.

It's been demonstrated that a Keystone habit is a habit that if you change that one habit, it tends to produce a domino effect in your, in other ways in your life, changes other behaviors as well.

Here's the quotation from Doig.

He says some habits, in other words, matter more than others in remaking businesses and lives.

These are keystone habits, and they can influence how people work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate.

Keystone habits start a process that over time transforms everything.

Keystone habits say that success doesn't depend on getting every single thing right.

But instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and fashioning them into powerful levers.

However, where should a would-be habit master start?

Understanding Keystone habits holds the answer to that question.

The habits that matter most are the ones that when they start to shift, dislodge and remake other patterns.

You understand the concept.

Here's a habit.

It's just a single habit.

It may even be a small habit.

In other words, it's not a huge change in my life.

But by changing that one thing, it snowballs.

It domino effects other behaviors and habits.

And then finally Habits are easier to change when we have the support of others.

He says, and we know that habits are most malleable, changeable when the golden rule of habit change is applied.

If we keep the same cue and the same reward, a new routine can be inserted, but that's not enough for a hat.

Listen to this for a habit to stay changed, people must believe change is possible.

The evidence is clear.

If you want to change a habit, you must find an alternative routine, and your odds of success go up dramatically when you commit to changing as a part of a group.

What does that sound like?

That's the principle that AA is founded on.

That's why AA has been successful in turning people away from alcoholism.

They have a group.

And that group is assisting them in making changes that need to be made in their lives.

Belief is essential and it grows out of a communal experience even if that community is only as large as 21 people.

Have you ever had an exercise partner?

Just one other person.

You know, by yourself, I, I need to exercise more.

Well, today I'm not gonna exercise, but on the other hand, if you've got a partner who's going to meet you at the gym at such and such a time, you don't want to let that person, so you go because that person's going to be there and supports you, helps you in making this, this decision, this change to exercise more.

That's just a quick example of how that might work.

Now listen to me carefully.

I don't think Charles Duhig or any of these other neuroscientists, I don't think they've discovered something particularly new.

I believe God anticipated much of this.

We're just catching up with what God has already told us.

Let me suggest an example of that.

It was God who said through the Hebrews writer in chapter 210 verse 10, and let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

God said it's important for you to meet together to stir one another up, to support one another in the kinds of things that are good for you to do.

And that's why it's so very important that we assemble ourselves with the saints as often as we can.

In 2 Timothy 2, Paul wrote to Timothy in verse 22, so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Timothy There are others who are doing the same thing.

You participate together with them in this change in this behavior.

So what does all this habit stuff have to do with us, uh, with living as a Christian?

Well, the sinful behaviors that are the hardest to put away are those that are habitual.

We want to break those habits.

We need to understand how.

Well, one of the things that becomes very obvious is that changing habitual behaviors is gonna have to be intentional.

It's gonna have to be purposeful because it involves.

Engaging the mind again, renewing our minds, thinking differently.

We can't go on autopilot and allow our habits to just run and carry us.

As the scripture says, we're going to have to renew our minds the way that we think.

Our minds have to be engaged.

We need to look for the triggers.

Here's an individual as an example.

Here's an individual.

Who gets angry easily.

But if he listens, pays attention to when he gets angry, He may end up seeing that there's a pattern there.

There are certain things that seem to trigger his anger.

Maybe it's the time of day, maybe it's certain circumstances or situations, and he needs to recognize that's the trigger.

I need to break the routine.

I've got to develop a different routine.

When I see the trigger, I've got to mentally, purposefully pursue a different behavior.

Here's an individual who's having a problem with lust, pornography, and there are certain triggers, certain cues that send this individual.

Into sinful behavior.

He needs or she needs to recognize the cues.

What's the trigger?

Is it being alone at night?

Is it being away from your spouse?

Is it being on the computer at certain times of the day?

Recognize the triggers so that you can create alternate routines to the sinful behavior.

Uh, I'm being triggered to, to lust after, uh, individuals I have no right to, to desire them.

All right, what's the alternate behavior?

Well, I think Douglas's talk this morning would be a good one.

Think about the love of Christ and what he endured for us, what God did in His love to provide for our forgiveness.

We need to create a stronger craving for the promised reward.

In fact, in one of the passages that was read this morning in Titus, talked about in hope of eternal life.

That's the reward, the ultimate reward that is at the end of our journey as Christians.

And the strong craving that Doig talks about is essentially our hope.

Hope involves an object.

But it also involves expectation.

Very difficult to break a sinful habit if you don't believe that change is possible because what it does is it removes the viability of the reward.

I think we need to talk more about hope.

I think as individuals, we need to think more about hope.

Not just the concept of hope, but what we expect.

What will heaven be like?

What is it that we're gonna leave behind in this world?

I think that would create a stronger craving for the reward that's at the end of so many habits.

A Keystone habit.

would be to read and meditate on God's word daily.

The thinking is focus on Keystone habits.

You don't have to get, you don't have to change everything.

What happens with people, uh, at the end of the years they make New Year's resolutions.

I'm gonna lose weight, I'm gonna exercise more, I'm gonna spend less.

I'm gonna clean the house more.

In other words, they're gonna change everything in their life.

It's all gonna be better.

What happens?

Most of those resolutions are going to fall by the wayside how long after the first of the year.

Well, probably won't make 2 weeks, OK. So a Keystone habit, what is it that will start the dominoes going?

What is it that will change enough that it'll change other habits?

Uh, sometimes people will suggest that the Keystone habit is exercise.

I'm not particularly concerned about that.

I'm talking about spiritual Keystone habits and reading God's word daily is a keystone habit.

Tell you why.

God's word will remind us of the kind of behavior that God wants from us.

It'll keep the new man behavior in front of our eyes.

God's word is going to encourage us in our efforts to change.

I'm gonna show you three passages a little bit later on here as we conclude our study.

Uh, in another hour or so.

I'm gonna show you three passages that will encourage us that God will be with us and help us to make these changes.

God's word reminds us of the reward, creates that craving.

That sustains the habit loop, and God's word can create in us a stronger hope.

Both the object and the expectation.

Running God's word through our minds is how we renew our minds.

That's the mechanism.

That's what Paul said in Romans 12.

That's what Paul said in Ephesians 4 and Colossians 103.

Another keystone habit would be to be regular in prayer.

And you can, I think, clearly understand how that would be a habit that would tend to affect other behaviors as well.

And then finally remember the value of the support of others.

That's why God wants us to get together because it's easier for me to sustain a change in my behavior if I know that you are trying to do the same thing, that you're trying to uh change your behavior or to follow the same behavior that I'm trying to follow.

God's plan is for us to be conformed to the image of God's Son.

Before the foundation of the world, God decided that he wanted to save people who would become like Jesus, who would become like His Son, and that involves putting off the old man and putting on the new man.

That ongoing change is made easier if we understand how habits work.

And how to create or change habits.

We can change.

If you find yourself in that situation where you've struggled to try to beat some sort of sinful behavior and you just don't seem to be able to.

I hope that by talking about some of these things, maybe you've got some ideas now of how you can purposefully attack bad habits and make those changes.

And God will help.

That's what he says in 2 Thessalonians 1:11.

To this end, Paul says, we always pray for you as he writes to the Thessalonians, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.

The resolve for good is our resolve that God will fulfill our resolve for good.

And every work of faith by his power, the one who can do more than we can ask or think.

Ephesians chapter 3.

Philippians 2 verses 12-13.

Paul says to the Philippians, therefore my beloved, as you've always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Is that not our goal to work for his good pleasure?

To do what he wants us to do.

Paul says to the Philippians, God's working in you to do that.

I believe he does that through the word that's been delivered to us.

One of the most important verses in the New Testament is 1 Corinthians 10:13.

If you're struggling with some sin and you feel like you just can't beat it, understand.

There is a way No temptation is overtaking you.

That is not common to man.

God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

God's not gonna allow me to be tempted beyond my ability.

How do I know that God is faithful, God keeps His promises.

But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

Some sin that I'm struggling with and I can't seem to overcome it.

I can't seem to lose this habitual behavior.

There's a way of escape.

That's what we've been talking about this morning.

It's there.

We need to recognize it and pursue it.

Being conformed to the image of God's Son begins with obedience to the gospel.

That's where sinners are made clean by the blood of Jesus.

In their response to the invitation of God.

They are baptized into Christ for the remission of their sins, and they're made holy again, innocent.

So God washes us clean from sin with this sacrificial blood of Jesus, the unblemished Lamb of God, and we become members of the Lord's body, part of a group of people who are headed on the journey toward heaven.

may be that you're not on that journey.

You haven't started that journey by obedience to the gospel.

You're still outside of Christ.

You're not part of God's spiritual family because you haven't responded to his invitation.

This morning we want to encourage you to begin that journey by obeying the gospel so that you can be conformed to the image of God's Son, that you can be holy and unblemished before Him in love, as Paul describes Christians in Ephesians one.

If you're a Christian, With the Lord's help, we can be transformed people.

Don't say, well, I just can't.

Because 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, yes, you can.

You need to know how you need help, perhaps.

But God's working in you, and He has promised you that there is a way that you can beat that sin.

If you need to respond to the gospel this morning in either case, then we want to invite you as we stand and sing to encourage you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ian Boike

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

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

Good evening.

I can't begin to tell you all how many times that I've heard one of our elders, Mike Ison, say the phrase, Children are like sponges.

I'm sure many of you have heard him say this before, but before I heard him say this phrase, I'd never quite thought about the mind of a child being quite like a sponge.

But now that I'm a parent, I can definitely see what he's talking about.

Hudson just turned 7 months old and he's beginning to imitate noises that Kayley and I make.

He's beginning to make connections and being able to find his voice.

And even in the Bible drill class that Alan and I teach on Sunday afternoons that we just got done with, even when the kids get a question wrong, we still see the light bulbs go off in their heads when they go, ah, that's right, that's the right answer.

We can see it and it's such a beautiful thing to see when a child makes a connection.

With the scriptures And with godly instruction, our children will learn many lessons over the course of their youth.

Some of them might be, you know, how to choose your friends wisely, especially in school or in other social groups.

Maybe why having self control is so important.

Definitely how to follow instructions.

And why honesty is always the best policy.

So why is it that simple lessons like this can be taught to children, but when they become adults, And often when they become parents, they sometimes forget these lessons that are rooted in scripture.

And that's what I want to talk about this evening.

I'd like to discuss some of the lessons that parents sometimes and often overlook.

And also I'd like to discuss some of the responsibilities that parents have towards their children.

And just some purposes for our study this evening, a little bit more in depth, as I want to showcase some ways that parents and other influential individuals can, can encourage the youth in their lives to make godly choices later on.

I'd also like to suggest ways that parents can spend time teaching their children.

And also I think that we need to understand as parents that children will eventually be responsible for their own actions.

And so this evening I'd like to start by talking about parents need to encourage their children.

And part of training our children is being a good example to our children.

And I've used this poem, it's called The Little Chap who Follows me.

I've used it once in a lesson here before.

But I think it's important to revisit it as it's such a vivid image as what we have responsibilities as we have as parents.

First verse starts, a careful man I ought to be, a little fellow follows me.

I do not dare go astray, for fear he'll go the self same way.

I cannot once escape his eyes.

Whatever he sees me do, he tries.

Like me, he says he's going to be the little chap who follows me.

He thinks that I'm good and fine, believes in every word of mine.

The base in me, he must not see that little chap who follows me.

I must remember as I go through summer sun and winter snow, I am building for the years to be in that little chap who follows me.

And I know this poem uses the pronouns for a man or a husband, but I don't want anyone for a moment this evening to get the impression that this is only this is only put towards men.

This refers to everyone, man, woman, young and old alike.

And we all have a responsibility to show that our primary interest in this life isn't to own the newest cars, it's not to have the biggest houses, but rather our children need to see that our primary focus in this life is serving and worshiping God.

In Proverbs 22 chapter.

In verse 6, we're told, train up a child in the way that he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it.

And if we are successful as parents in being good examples to our children, We will accomplish what the Proverbs writer told us.

I also believe that parents need to lead their children by example by involving them in their activities because when our children see us performing tasks with a good attitude, they will be encouraged to join us in Deuteronomy, the 6th chapter reading verses 43 through 9.

We're told you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlesss between your eyes.

You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.

So just as the children of Israel were commanded.

And encouraged by the Lord to take every single opportunity that they had to teach their children, we need to do the same.

And I'm not particularly fond of, you know, promoting Ivy League education doctrine, but I found that this Harvard study on um child development quite interesting.

In the research from the Society for Research in Child Development found that children's persistence was highest whenever they saw adults exert effort and complete tasks.

And just a little AI overview of this article of this study.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development, it's a 75 year old study found that children who participated in household chores were more likely to have better mental health and professional success in adulthood, suggesting that children are motivated in what is happening around them, and a key part of their development is doing meaningful work alongside adults.

Now while this study is primarily focusing on, you know, let's do household chores with our children, I think that we can also apply it to spiritual matters.

An example of this is, you know, in a couple of years whenever Hudson is older, I want him to walk into my office and I want him to see me studying the Bible.

I want him to see me reading commentaries, preparing material.

And I want Hudson to see the drive and excitement that I have.

I want him to see that that way he'll be encouraged to be involved in what I'm doing.

But if I show time after time that preparing lessons and doing class material, making questions is a I have to do it, you know, I have to do this.

Rather than I am blessed to do this, I get to do this.

This is a beautiful opportunity for me.

Hudson will treat it the same way that I do.

doesn't matter how much I tell him, love the scriptures.

My actions will speak louder than my words.

And it's not only essential to involve our children because it will encourage them, but it will also provide them a catalyst in which to form their own faith, which leads me to my next point is that our children need to see us have our own faith so they will be encouraged to have their own whenever they're adults.

And when I thought about, you know, an example in the scriptures.

Of a of a young man who was given an example.

Of faith.

I couldn't help but think of uh young Timothy.

In the 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verses 3 through 5, Paul writes to young Timothy, telling him, you know, I sincerely miss you and I, I can't wait to see you again.

And then Paul commends young Timothy on his faith and level of devotion to the Lord, but then he attributes that faith.

Not to Timothy, but Timothy's mother and his grandmother.

Who had raised him and Paul makes a clear a clear um distinction in 2 Timothy that because of Lois and Eunice making making their faith a priority in their lives, Timothy made his faith a priority in his adult years.

Remembering that our children are always watching and listening to us, just as the poem said earlier, it should encourage us as parents.

To lead by example.

So that they will be and want to, so that they will want to be involved in our spiritual activities and so that they will have their own faith.

Now in recognizing that our example has a significant influence over our children.

How should we as parents handle situations where we fail?

Or where we make mistakes.

And in asking that question, I don't want this sermon to come across as if I know everything.

As many of you know, I've only been a parent 7 months.

There's a lot of things I don't know and there's a lot of things that I haven't gotten to experience yet.

But I do believe that it is essential that we take the lessons that are taught in the scriptures.

And we look at them for what they are, especially when the scriptures command us as parents, not to provoke our children to anger as we're told in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 203.

And I think that 11 of the many ways that parents can provoke their children's anger is by being hypocritical in both their practical and their spiritual teachings.

And I remember enough about being a child, having different adults in school, teachers.

Who weren't Christians and they were filled with hypocrisy.

You could just see it.

And even today, children can smell hypocrisy from a mile away.

The old do as I say, not as I do method of teaching.

And parents may not say this to their children.

But they definitely live by it.

And one of the many ways that parents can remedy this attitude is by admitting their mistakes, both past and present.

Now, I'm not saying that we need to sit our children down on the couch and say, all right, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna start at age 15.

I'm gonna tell you every single sin and mistake that I've ever made.

Be an endless list.

That's not what I'm saying, but our children do need to feel and know that as parents we are able and we have the capacity to admit when we are wrong.

And that parents need to be able to admit their mistakes.

Because children sometimes are often more willing to admit mistakes than adults because sometimes adults forget just how important this is.

And James 5:22, we're told, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Now I think I can speak for every parent in this room, both fresh and experienced, that we want our children to look up to us.

We want our children to love us and yes, we do want our children to be like us when it comes to our faith in the Lord.

But sometimes I think parents feel that they have to present or come across as perfect to their children in order to seem like a good parent in order to gain their child's respect, when in fact it's better that your child knows that you messed up and that you asked God for forgiveness anyway.

And First John chapter 224 verses 222 through 222, John tells us if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

It's important for parents to understand that admitting mistakes is the first step in correcting them.

Because just as parents should be willing to correct mistakes, I think all parents want their kids to be able to admit, be willing to to correct their mistakes.

And I think it's essential for parents to also understand that while every sin has the potential to be a mistake, not every mistake is a sin.

And I think the more experienced parents in the room can probably attest to this personally, because there will come a time whenever I misread a situation.

Where I come in the room and I think I know what's happened and say I put Hudson in the corner or I spank him or however I punish him.

And he he did nothing wrong.

He did nothing to deserve the punishment that he got.

Did I sin as a parent in punishing my child?

No, I don't believe so, and I think most here would say that I didn't.

But at the same time, it's not going to take any skin off my nose.

To look down at my child and say, son, I'm sorry.

I misread the situation and I made a mistake.

But I will say that there also will come a time.

Where I will sin in front of my child.

Where I will sin against God in front of my child.

And I have a choice to make in that moment.

I can either fold my arms and say, you know what, I did nothing wrong.

Who are you to question me as the parent?

Which will lead my child to be angry and probably discouraged.

Or I can get down on his level and say, son, what I just did is unacceptable.

Not because the preacher at church says so, but because God says so in the scriptures.

And I'm going to ask God for forgiveness for my sin.

And I hope that you'll forgive me for doing this in front of you as well, not being the example that I should be.

And I'll tell you something else as well.

If I've done my job as a parent, someday when Hudson's older, if I sin, Hudson's going to know it before I even have to tell him.

He'll be able to recognize whenever I've sinned, but he may not say anything, but he's waiting for how I'm going to respond to him.

Am I going to be like this first father who shuts down and won't admit that he has done something wrong, or am I going to be like the second parent?

I hope I'm like the second parent who is willing to admit his faults.

And it's also really easy to find sin out in the world and point it out to our children and say, you shouldn't do this.

And some common sayings that we might say to our children is you should never do that.

Ever or doing this will keep you out of heaven.

Or God would be very disappointed in you if you ever did this.

There's nothing wrong with any of these sounds.

They're all scripturally true.

I'll pose this question to every parent here tonight.

Are you gonna be willing to say these things or things like this?

Not when it's some random person at the supermarket.

But rather it's you who has sinned in front of your children.

Are you going to be able to humble yourself before your children?

And I think letting our children see that we're not perfect as parents.

It'll help them to understand that perfectionism is not what God requires from us, nor from them.

Next, I think parents sometimes forget just how much time is needed for effective teaching.

Because children need more than 290 minutes of Bible teaching a week.

Because there are some parents who neglect to teach their child at home because in their mind they get plenty of time during Sunday morning for 24 minutes and Wednesday evening for 43 minutes.

But we can't expect our children to be successful Christians on just 24 minutes a week in opening their Bibles.

They'd be like you know, excuse me, they'd be like expecting a child.

Who studies mathematics once a week.

I, I know we have some teachers, especially in early education here, that'd be like expecting them to have 24 minutes one day and 27 minutes the next and then ask them to recite everything that was in that lesson.

He's probably not going to be able to.

Maybe some will.

But not everybody, not the majority.

The scriptures teach that our households must be what produces the environment.

That that is filled with the presence of the Lord.

And I'm not just saying hang Bible verses on the walls or buy pillows or buy blankets with scripture on them.

There's nothing wrong with that, and I think those are great ways to remind our children constantly of what the Bible teaches.

But they can't be the extent of our children's understanding of Christ being the foundation of our home.

It needs to be in how we treat our spouses.

What we train our children and how often we train our children is what should be the evidence that Christ is the foundation of our homes.

And I know we already read this, but it applies here as well, Deuteronomy 67 through 9.

And what the Lord commands us in this passage is that we take every opportunity to train our children.

Parents need to seize every opportunity to discuss all the good that the Lord has done in the world for us.

And we need to remind our children of the importance of prayer and all the good that the Lord has his response, sorry, that is done when done consistently.

It has great power.

And I think ultimately we as parents, we need to understand that the profound influence that we have.

can alter the way our child grows up.

Parents need to teach their children the value of the scriptures.

Because just as our children need a place of authority in the scriptures, they also need to place the scriptures as the treasure of their hearts, just as Christ told the multitudes during his sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 21.

Christ said, for where your treasure is, your heart will be also.

And I think David, King David.

expresses this beautifully.

In the 19th Psalm verses 9 to 43, he writes just how much he values the scriptures.

David writes, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold.

Sweeter also than the honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

The vivid language that is used throughout the scriptures.

It's something that our children can easily identify with and understand.

As something to be valued.

Now with Hudson not being even a year old yet, we haven't been able to introduce honey yet.

As their bodies have a hard time processing it before a year old.

But I'm sure that whenever Kayley and I read this passage to him or song leader gets up and sings the 19th song.

I'm sure when he is older he'll hear this passage for himself and go.

I know what honey tastes like.

Uh, Mom said something to me yesterday.

I know exactly what he's talking about.

And I hope I'm there for that.

I hope I see that connection link in his brain.

To where just as much as I understand the beauty and the value of the scriptures, I hope he does too.

And I think every parent.

Can't wait for that day.

And in this lesson so far we've discussed the responsibilities of parents quite extensively.

And the most important of which is building a strong foundation for the obedience to Christ.

But parents also need to understand that there are limits to their influence and control over their children, especially grown children.

Because I think it's also essential to understand and recognize that once our children leave our care and become independent adults, we as parents are no longer necessarily directly responsible for their actions, whether righteous or wicked.

And this can be taken two different ways.

In Ezekiel 18:20, we're told that parents do not bear the guilt of their children's sin.

The soul who sins shall die.

The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the Father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the Son.

The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

And also second way is that parents no longer have the same influence that they did when their children were young.

Therefore, they're not directly responsible for their children's actions.

Genesis 2 verse 24, which was actually referenced in the uh in the hymn that we read and that we sang earlier.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.

And they shall become one flesh.

So in Genesis, we do see a clear break in formation of a new family unit, indicating that parents of the original family unit no longer have the same amount of control.

If there's still control, that child never never left his father and mother.

And that's why it's so important that we as parents We are building a foundation that will last a lifetime.

Because while the while the tech 22 Proverbs, the 22nd chapter.

It's not, it's not always going to come true.

If we build a foundation that will last a lifetime.

There's a good chance that it will happen, but eventually children will have to choose whether or not they accept the good foundation that their parents had given them.

And like I said earlier, I know that I'm a fresh parent, I'm a new parent, and there's a lot of other fresh parents here in the audience this evening, and I hope that this lesson has been encouraging for you as it was for me to study.

And I hope that some of the experienced parents as well have gotten something from this as well.

But the minds of children are like sponges and their hearts are like clay.

Parents have one of the most essential responsibilities given by the Lord, and that is to watch over, raise, and teach future generations of His creation.

I've always understood that concept.

But until I became a parent.

That never really sank in with me, just the gravity of the responsibility that parents have.

In the level of trust that the Lord has placed in us as parents.

And if we throw away this opportunity like so many in the world do, they squander it.

If we become like them and we squander this opportunity, we will have to answer for it on the day of judgment.

Why we weren't a good example to our children, why we weren't involving them in our spiritual activities.

And why we didn't have our own faith so that they would as well.

And I think that all parents need to adopt these scriptural principles.

Parents need to be able to admit mistakes that they made in the past and present.

Our children need to see that we are not perfect people.

So that they understand that the Lord does not expect them to be perfect.

And that parents need to seek every opportunity to talk to their children.

Every opportunity Rather than expecting A Bible class teacher to carry the entire load for 90 minutes a week.

And lastly, parents need to teach their children the value of the scriptures.

After spending some time with Alan in the Bible drill class that starts at 4:20 on Sunday, on Sunday afternoons.

I just want to take a moment to thank all of the parents who bring their children.

Because as a fresh parent myself, it is such an encouraging thing to see these parents bring their kids early so that they can get extra teaching.

Because that is an encouragement to me and my wife, Kaylee to bring my child whenever he is old enough.

So that he can get extra teaching as well.

It's wonderful to see how many parents are so involved in the extracurriculars, extracurricular spiritual teaching of their children.

If you're here this evening, you need to know that the Lord wants to be your your spiritual father.

Because we're not perfect parents.

We didn't have perfect parents.

But the Lord is the perfect parent, and he is the perfect father, and he wants to adopt us as his spiritual children.

Galatians chapter 4 and verses 4 through 7, Paul tells us when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

We have everything here ready this evening.

If you have not obeyed the gospel, to become an adopted son or daughter of Christ this evening if that is what you so desire.

And if you're already a Christian, You've already obeyed the gospel, but you've become a wayward son, like the prodigal son, that Jesus taught about.

Know that the Father wants you to return home.

He's waiting with open arms to receive you.

And if you're subject to the invitation this evening.

And you're ready To start your journey or to or to be received back from the Lord.

Please come to the front as we stand and as we sing.