Sometimes what happens is we, what would happen if we were to look at the mirror and we were to say, that's not true. That's, you know, I'm fine. I'm beautiful. Morning breath, no problem.That would be a problem, right?That's what the Bible is for us, we're told. And so when we look in it and we do what it tells us, see, there's a principle at work. Whenever we hear the Bible, sometimes we become self -deceived because we mistake presentation of the truth as transformation by the truth. That's a problem. So we go to a Bible study and we go, oh, I've heard that before. I've heard that before. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if the truth has been presented to you if you haven't allowed yourself to be transformed by the truth.
[00:25:03]
Sometimes it's hard for us to accept challenging truths. But when we come to the word, God always promises to give us the truth, but also the remedy for what ails us. This past week, after the baptism, I got, you know, I got a cold. And so I've been going through, like, bottles of medicine and over -the -counter stuff. I'm like, ah, not better yet, not better yet. But as each day goes by, as I've taken the medicine, I felt a little better and a little better. You know, I took a little medicine before. I'm almost out of it, you know, out of the woods, so to speak. And that's what the Bible is for us. God knows what ails us, and he also gives us the remedy for it. And that's why it's not a bad thing for us to be able to be presented with the truth, the things that need to change what he wants to do.
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Big doors can swing on small hinges. In other words, for us, to Jesus, those things that might not seem like a big deal to us are of great concern to God. And he doesn't want you and I to walk away from an encounter with him with anything unnoticed without, you know, it's like somebody going to dinner and afterwards they have something in their teeth. You know, he wants you to understand, hey, you've got something you have to take care of right now.
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If there's things in our lives that we've been ignoring because it seems small, then maybe it seems to keep coming up over and over. Well, if that's the case, you can be sure God is bringing that to your attention because he loves you and he wants you, he wants to address that with you. So I would yield to him.
[00:32:43]
When it comes to our relationship with God, he sees everything in our lives for our growth and for his glory. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 4 .13, there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. God holds us accountable. He says, hey, you know what? This is something I want you to know about. We need to talk about this.
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He is absolutely passionately in love with each and every one of you. God loves you this morning. And I don't know what kind of upbringing you had when you were growing up, but my mom, because she loved me, there were times where she would spank me.I could not make the connection between loving me and spanking me at that time. It made no sense. If you love me, why are you spanking me? You know, and that was hard for me to receive, but God does the same thing for us. And so he wants them to understand chastising or discipline is necessary.
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Do you ever feel like you're misunderstood?You ever feel like, man, I'm trying my best. It's that old phrase, when I do good, no one remembers. When I do bad, no one forgets, right? Jesus here is saying, look, I know both of them. I know when you were trying to do good. I know when it was like you were trying to do good, but it was misunderstood. And I know when you were, you know, trying to do bad, but we're trying to make it look like good. I saw that too, okay? I know your works. That's what he's saying about each and every one of us.
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How we respond to that should immediately tell us. It should alert us to our relationship with God right now. So however you responded when I asked you, how does that hit you? That should tell you, hey, if I'm not sure, then be sure. God wants us to be able to say, hey, these things are taken care of. And even though I might be still a little unsettled after I've surrendered them to God, we are still on good terms. I don't want any of us, I don't want myself to walk out of this church, out of these doors with things between me and God being unsettled. That's the most important thing.
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One of the traits of those who are in the world is that they're self -absorbed, self -centered. It's all about me. They only look out for their own needs or their interests. But the church is made of people who seek to love others and serve others. That's the trait of growing in your relationship with the Lord.
[00:43:22]
No matter how great a church, no matter how many great things are going on inside that fellowship, there's no excuse just to cruise. And if we're honest, you know, I saw there's this guy who's a part of a group of four men. It's called the Behavior Panel. And what they do is they study human body language. So they're like human lie detectors. They can tell when somebody is, you know, conning them or telling the truth. Many of them have been used by the military to find out when, you know, a bad guy or an enemy combatant has been captured, and they're trying to interrogate them. They're finding out, okay, if you press this issue a little more, they weren't being truthful. So ask about this, that, and the other thing because they're not being honest with you. And so what this one person says, this one guy, he says, for somebody, if you ask them if they are transparent and genuine, if they're an authentic person, he says, a person who's not authentic will say, oh, absolutely, I'm totally authentic. He says, but a truly authentic person will say, well, I mean, for the most part, I try to be so, you know. I have some flaws, I'm not perfect, but I try to be as authentic. He goes, that's the authentic person right there. They'll be upfront about, you know, their shortcomings. And if you have a church that comes along and says, oh, we're perfect, we are the church that Jesus loves, you know, Jesus is like, no, that's not really being authentic. There's a few things that need to be taken care of.
[00:46:10]
The good doesn't outweigh the bad in God's economy. The Bible tells us that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Leaven in the Bible is yeast. It's a symbol for sin. It's just like when you get a starter batch, a starter dough, and you put it in other dough when you're going to make bread, it permeates. It, what's the word?I don't know, you bakers are out there, you probably know what I'm looking for. But it permeates the whole loaf so that it ferments, that's the word, the rest of the loaf. And that's what sin does for us. We think just a little bit of sin, I'll be okay.
[00:47:37]
Tolerance is great when it comes to respecting, showing mutual respect with other people, but not when it comes to allowing something, you know, to take place personally in your life. You don't want to tolerate something that is harmful to you. You don't want to go, oh, it's just a little bit of arsenic. It shouldn't be bad. Let's try it. No, that's bad for us. And that's the way doctrine that is unhealthy, that is immoral, that is sinful, affects the body of Christ. It spreads.
[00:48:44]
When we put other things on the heart of our throne, throne of our heart, that's when that becomes idolatry. See, that's what idolatry is. And we don't have wooden idols like they did then. The idols that we have today are called, you know, Mercedes or Tesla or Broncos or whatever, you know. And you see their worshipers, you know, sometimes on Sunday morning at Mile High because they're the ones who have their bodies painted in the freezing weather, you know, shout, go Broncos, you know. I don't know. I don't know if they're idolatry or not. But some people can, you know what I'm saying? And where it's always only about this.And that's where God is saying, that's where I'm not on your heart's throne. I just want to be number one in your life.
[00:51:13]
So we have to be aware of that. And that's all said in the name of tolerance. We don't tolerate the things that God hates because he hates them for a reason. That's why we tell our children, don't run with scissors. You're going to hurt yourself. God says that because when we tolerate things that will hurt us and harden our hearts against him, then that's a problem. And then it spreads to all the rest of our lives.
[00:53:52]
Church, we need to be biblically literate. So knowing these things helps us to navigate life so that we're not ripped off and brought down by some of the people who have an agenda.
[00:58:34]
See, Jesus wasn't looking forward to confronting, but he wanted the church to be pure, not punished. Jezebel, however, wanted to stay right where she was. She wanted to continue, you know, that old saying, Oh, what a twisted web we weave when first we seek to deceive. She's still, she had a good gig going in the church and she wanted that to continue by, uh, deceiving the church members. And so Jesus is saying, Hey, he sent people after her to speak to her, to talk to her. Hey, things need to change. He confronted her with the word so that she would repent and she wasn't having any of it. That's where church discipline needs to happen.
[00:58:55]
Do you realize that God many times he's reaching out to us? The Bible tells us in, um, that God is not angry with us. He, in his love, he's being gentle and he's trying to reach us in a gentle way. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us in Romans chapter two, um, verse the two he's, uh, yes, it's two four. Do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? It's God being so good to you and I, where we're like, ah, I broke his heart. I did something that, that, that, you know, separates me from the Lord and he's being so gracious and so loving, man, I want to go back to him.
[01:01:26]
I've been walking with the Lord for 36 years and serving him for most of that time.And over those 36 years, I've had time to see people who have served him and have played the game when it came to their relationship with the Lord. I've seen pastors fall because of sexual immorality as well, because they wanted to pursue their own thing. And God said, no, that, that can't happen. So you hear about a divorce, you hear about, you know, um, adultery or whatever. And, and my wife and I will talk about it afterwards. I'm like, man, how are we doing? When something happens with somebody else, God does, it gets your attention to where you say, oh Lord, am I good? Are we doing okay? That's a healthy thing because it causes us to do like a little spiritual inventory to make sure that we're healthy with the Lord.
[01:05:52]
If you don't know where you are spiritually with God, or maybe you feel far from God, he is saying, you know, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. If you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ this morning, the Bible says the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
[01:06:55]
There are people, okay, this is, there was a doctrine that came through the church that was known as Gnosticism. And basically what it said is man was an immaterial being and a material being. The physical body is the material part. And the spirit in man is the immaterial part. The, the spiritual part of man was all good. And the physical part was all evil. And so there's, however, what they taught was that there's a division between the two and whatever you did spiritually had no impact on the rest of that person's life.So by, by being involved in this idolatry and the sexual immorality, what they were saying was it wouldn't have any impact on the rest of that person.And so Jesus is basically saying, man, you guys have gone deep into your practice of sin. That is the depths of Satan that he was referring to. This is having an impact on you that you are completely oblivious to.
[01:08:46]
One man's sin had an impact over two and a half million people. That's a big deal. I don't want that to be me. You shouldn't want that to be you. And so that's what the depths of Satan was. That sin was impacting other people. But Jesus is saying, for those of you who are not a part of that, um, as they say, I will put on you no other burden, but verse 25, hold fast what you have until I come. Hey, persevere where you are in your relationship with me until I return.
[01:10:31]
Listen, the Bible tells us in the world, you're going to have tribulation. But Jesus says, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Now, are you tired? Kind of, as you're living this life, maybe you're having obstacles thrown at you. You're having challenges that are presented your way. Jesus says, if you walk with me, I'm going to give you the strength to persevere this morning.
[01:12:26]
Remember, he loves us and he only wants the best for us. So let's, um, worship the Lord, sing these songs to him. If you don't have a relationship with communion or with the Lord, then as we pass out communion, then that's, that's not for you. That's for the family of God. Just be able to say, no, thank you. And let it pass along. And that'll be fine. There's no judgment or anything like that, but recognize where we do it because we recognize what Jesus did for us on the cross.
[01:18:43]
When we look back and we remember What Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross It is a one time act That is effective for all eternity Christ died once For us Once and for all Is what we would say And when we look back and we remember It's a mixture of pain It's a mixture of sorrow But at that same moment It's also Gratitude And joy And appreciation For Jesus doing something for us For us That we could never do on our own And that Is why we remember Because only Jesus There is no other name Given among men Under heaven By which we must be saved Jesus said I am the way And the truth And the life And no one comes to the Father Except through me Why? Why? Because he was fully God And fully man He was the bridge Between a holy God And a sinful man And by his death on the cross He bridged that gap
[01:32:07]
We may not feel cleansed But please Base your relationship With Jesus Upon your faith In what he has done And your belief in that Regardless of how you feel Let your feelings Come from your faith And not your faith From your feelings Because if you do Then you'll go forward In your relationship With the Lord And you will experience That forgiveness And that joy Of the Lord
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