Sermon

Introduction to 1st 2nd & 3rd John - Frank Brancato 4/11/07

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. It certainly is good to be home and to be back with you.

  2. And we have an excellent crowd here this evening, and we're

  3. grateful for that. And we're grateful that you've

  4. come to be with us and worship. God tonight, I stand before you

  5. in this format because I never thought that we would finish the

  6. questions. In fact, before I left, I

  7. thought, I wonder if I ought to get the next chapter completed

  8. and then I thought, well, there's no way they'll finish,

  9. but they did. So I was asked to give Victory

  10. overview of all three of these books and we're not going to go

  11. into a study of the verses, specifically in these three

  12. chapters. But there are some historical

  13. circumstances and there are some things that were going on around

  14. the time of the Apostle, John and that's who we believe to

  15. write these three Epistles. And there were some

  16. circumstances and some things going on that are really

  17. significant, when we understand the writings of the Apostle,

  18. John A long time ago. And so we want to talk about

  19. these things for a little while tonight.

  20. Some things that we can glean from it.

  21. First of all, the general characteristic and I realize

  22. we've already gone through one chapter of the book of First

  23. John. But let me just say this though

  24. with regards to further proof that the Apostle John was the

  25. author divinely-inspired. Obviously by the Holy Spirit but

  26. was the author of this epistle. We find a great similarity.

  27. Clarity that exists between the first Epistle of John and the

  28. gospel that bears, his name. And we find that those

  29. similarities are striking, and those similarities are obvious.

  30. One scholar said, the likeness extends to style vocabulary,

  31. form, and content, and it is of such nature as to convince the

  32. most casual reader, that both writings are from the same hand,

  33. the epistle places great emphasis on love.

  34. In fact, some even called it the Epistle of love and the word

  35. love or its derivatives occur. Some 51 times in this first

  36. epistle also, various forms of the verb to know occur in its

  37. vocabulary as well. In fact, the idea of knowing or

  38. to know seems to be a favorite term of John, possibly in

  39. refuting, various theories of the gnostics who boasted about

  40. their Superior. Knowledge.

  41. You know, there are many things that we can look in here.

  42. There are many assurances that I found in the first Epistle of

  43. John. And, you know, I'll tell you

  44. something, I think it's important for you.

  45. And I to realize that living the Christian life, there are

  46. assurances. We can be sure about things.

  47. We don't have to wonder whether we are saved or not, we don't

  48. have to wonder whether we are walking in the truth or we are

  49. following that which is truth. We can know these things in the

  50. scriptures and so John says in First John 3 and 14 he gives one

  51. assurance and this is it. We know that we have passed out

  52. of death unto life You know, I'll tell you this Galen has a

  53. sermon and I know Terry has heard because I've heard it but

  54. Galen has a sermon on things we can know and it's rather

  55. interesting. The points that we can actually

  56. know when we talk about the idea of passing from Death unto life.

  57. When we talked about the idea of actually being in a safe

  58. condition, I believe, as I've just mentioned a moment ago that

  59. we can know with great Assurance.

  60. Now I'm not saying That by audacity or reverence in any

  61. way. But we can have greater

  62. assurance that if we are following the things that are

  63. outlined in God's word that have us leave death to life than we

  64. can pillow, our heads at night, and we can thank the great God

  65. Of Heaven for the Salvation that would await us.

  66. And if the Lord would come back that night or we would lose our

  67. life in that day, then we can have a greater assurance that we

  68. have passed from Death unto life.

  69. Secondly, in the third chapter in the 19th, verse John gives

  70. another Assurance. He said we know that we are of

  71. the truth. How many times have you heard?

  72. Somebody asked you? How do you know if you have the

  73. truth? I had a Bible study with the

  74. young lady earlier, this week when I got home from Idaho.

  75. And she asked me, she said, no wait a minute.

  76. How do you know for certain that you have the truth?

  77. You know, we don't have to be bashful about the truth and we

  78. don't have to wonder if we have the truth.

  79. John says we can know if we have the truth.

  80. That is an assurance. He said we know that we are

  81. walking or abiding in truth and I'll tell you this to folks,

  82. what's buried Sad is sometimes not only people in the world.

  83. Questioning the child of God about this very thing about the

  84. truth but very sadly. What happens sometimes is even

  85. the child of God from time to time will question whether we

  86. have the truth, I'm reminded of a family that had a young that

  87. had a son that was, I guess he's probably close to 30 now but I

  88. remember a number of years ago when I was talking to her

  89. Parents and and they said this to me, they said, you know, he's

  90. really questioning his faith and how great that is.

  91. He's really questioning the things that we believe thinking

  92. that that was a good thing. Well I guarantee you they don't

  93. think that now and he no longer stands among the faithful.

  94. If it says it in the Bible and if it says it is truth, we need

  95. to accept it and never questioned it.

  96. When we find the truth that is found in the word of God.

  97. And we can know that we have the truth and we can know that we're

  98. right if we are following what the word says and thirdly

  99. another assurance and chapter 3 and verse 24, John says we know

  100. that he abideth in us. This first epistle is one of

  101. fellowship. And what we find is we find that

  102. there are two conditions and they are righteousness and love.

  103. I understand that, as you finished the latter part of

  104. chapter 1, You went over this, but I'll just read these

  105. beginning in verse 7 really quickly.

  106. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have

  107. Fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ.

  108. His son cleanseth us from all sin.

  109. If we say that, we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the

  110. truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is

  111. faithful. And just to forgive us, our sins

  112. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

  113. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and

  114. his word is not enough. Is it is an Epistle of

  115. Fellowship based upon two conditions and they are

  116. righteousness and love. And I'll tell you this folks,

  117. sometimes people think that we're being harsh when we say

  118. whether we're in fellowship with someone or we might speak of

  119. someone that is not following the same pattern but we are

  120. following. And we make the statement that

  121. were not in fellowship with them, but it's quite simple.

  122. If I am walking in the light, as he is in the light and terius,

  123. Walking in the light as he is in the light.

  124. Then I have fellowship with the Lord and he has fellowship with

  125. the Lord and because of that, we both have Fellowship one with

  126. the other. But say, for example, that I

  127. decide to digress from that which is right?

  128. And I go off and do anything. That is not right, whatever that

  129. might be. And I do something that's going

  130. to cause myself to stop walking in the light and Terry continues

  131. to walk in the light. He Is in fellowship with the

  132. Lord. I am not.

  133. Therefore, we are not in fellowship with each other.

  134. That's how we know whether we're in fellowship with each other.

  135. Is if we are both in fellowship with the Lord, but in the fourth

  136. chapter, in the fourth verse, we find that this is an Epistle of

  137. Victory. The Bible says, you are, you are

  138. of God little children and have overcome them.

  139. Because greater is he, that is in you that he that is in the

  140. world. In the first chapter, we have

  141. the way to Victory is pointed out in the second chapter.

  142. We find declared victory over the evil one, the third chapter

  143. proclaims victory over righteousness, the fourth

  144. chapter of shows that we have the victory of love.

  145. And finally, in the fifth chapter, we are shown a glorious

  146. demonstration of the victory of Faith.

  147. You know the design of the epistle is like this that we

  148. gather that in a general sense, the Purpose was to supply

  149. incredible fashion. The evidence is essential to

  150. Faith and to encourage, or Inspire readers to Greater

  151. activity in their service of the Lord.

  152. Now, that's really the point, the point wasn't to be

  153. complacent when they were encouraged.

  154. The point was to look at that encouragement and calls us to do

  155. more. Let me ask you this.

  156. If you're working for somebody in a job, And they praise you

  157. and encourage you. And if they give you words of

  158. inspiration, does it? Cause you to be complacent and

  159. sit back or does it cause you to want to do more?

  160. These things were written in a form or a fashion to cause

  161. people, to want to do more for the cause of Christ and to

  162. provide Assurance of God's approval, upon all, those that

  163. are faithful. Now, in doing all of this, we

  164. find John in order to accomplish these objectives found it

  165. necessary to combat in. Vigorous fashion, the various

  166. forms of evil that was prevailing in the world and to

  167. warn Christians of their deadly nature.

  168. For example, there were pernicious teaching regarding a,

  169. the person of Christ, there were those in the church that carried

  170. such Notions and had apostatize from the faith.

  171. In first, John chapter 2 and verse 19, it says they went out

    John 2 chapter mention

  172. from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us, they

  173. would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that

  174. they might be manifest that they were not.

  175. All of us. Notice what he says that some of

  176. these erroneous teachings that were to talk about in just a

  177. moment. Had entered in and infiltrated

  178. inside the body of Christ and some of the The members of the

  179. body of Christ carried out, such erroneous teachings, that were

  180. false. And because of that, John says

  181. they have left the faith. But very interesting.

  182. He says they left us but they really weren't of us for.

  183. If they were of us, they would still be with us now.

  184. What is he talking about? Folks, have you ever heard

  185. somebody say, you never lost what you didn't have?

  186. You know, I think that happens from time to time.

  187. I think there are times when people are really do believe the

  188. rice to believe that every time somebody obeys the gospel and

  189. then quickly Falls it's because they weren't converted.

  190. I'm not convinced about anymore. That is true.

  191. That can happen. Absolutely.

  192. Can happen. And we find that in the

  193. teachings, in The Parables of Jesus.

  194. But I also think sometimes the devil just come He's in and

  195. temps them and they might have been converted the day that they

  196. obeyed, the gospel and they had a heart change and they had a

  197. life change and they had a relationship change with the

  198. Lord, but then they fell away because of the Temptations of

  199. the devil and that can happen. But I also know this too.

  200. Sometimes people get carried away with their own emotions and

  201. make decisions, and it appears like they're standing with us

  202. and pretty soon, they no longer are.

  203. Sometimes those folks, we never had and those folks that go

  204. after into fast teachings and so on with regards to this one

  205. example, John says they came from us but they really weren't

  206. with us because if they were with us, it would still be here

  207. and they were Departed, interesting point of

  208. perspective. Now, what they were talking

  209. about is this some denied? The deity of the Lord While

  210. others denied, his Humanity, for example, the former said that

  211. Jesus was not the Christ, the latter said that Christ was not

  212. Jesus. In other words, the unbelieving

  213. Jews were among those who recognize that there was a man,

  214. and his name was Jesus. He was the car, Commander son,

  215. he was Jesus of Nazareth, and he walked on this Earth.

  216. And probably was a very good man.

  217. Many Jews regard. Jesus as that, but they don't

  218. recognize his deity. They don't recognize that he is

  219. deity, and that he was in heaven, and that he is the

  220. Messiah, and that he came down to this low ground of sin,

  221. sickness and sorrow, to be the Lamb of God.

  222. But on the other, Hand. There were the gnostics and the

  223. gnostics questioned his Humanity you know the word Gnostic is

  224. derived from the Greek word no Seas Or Nah seas and it's where

  225. we get the word knowledge and they were so designated because

  226. of their claims to Superior knowledge.

  227. The gnostics or gnosticism was an admixture of paganism and

  228. corrupt Christianity, basically the theories this, the theory

  229. regarding Guarded evil as an ever-present characteristic of

  230. matter and its Advocates were therefore unable to accept that.

  231. Jesus Christ was actually in the flesh.

  232. There for denying that deity ever lived in the flesh.

  233. In this life, it goes further. Their belief was also based on

  234. the fact that they believe that it was absolutely impossible for

  235. sinless deity to occupy. Material body.

  236. And because of that, they argued that the body of Jesus was not

  237. real, but simply an illusion. And that the sufferings on the

  238. cross were apparent and not actual.

  239. But this Theory and its practical aspects, LED its

  240. devotees in the course of conduct.

  241. That was essentially Wicked and vile.

  242. And in this much as they regarded their bodies as evil,

  243. They concluded that their It's were independent of them and

  244. thus undefiled by them. Stay with me.

  245. We're going to wrap this up and you're going to see how

  246. convenient it is to follow such teachings.

  247. They contended that warrants regenerated, they were pure in

  248. spirit and so it didn't matter what the body did since it's

  249. inherently evil anyway, they live lives as a result of

  250. unrestrained indulgence on the ground and on the King and on

  251. the basis that a jewel can come from a manure pile and be just

  252. as much of a gym as if it was in the most costly box case that

  253. money could buy, they believed that it was inevitable that

  254. their bodies would sin and therefore they argued that that

  255. a thorough understanding of all of these matters.

  256. Left them free to indulge in any course of action, which they

  257. preferred now. Other words, they could live any

  258. way that they wanted to. Oh how convenient that is.

  259. First of all, that was based on this erroneous teaching that

  260. there's no possible way that Jesus Christ, the anointed ruler

  261. deity in heaven, could have possibly come down in a fleshly

  262. body. And why is that?

  263. Because the fleshly body is inherently evil and corrupt.

  264. So how convenient was it for them?

  265. They extended such teaching into their personal life.

  266. He said this the spirit is going to be inherently good anyway and

  267. the French is going to be inherently back anyway, so

  268. here's the point. I'll just live anywhere that I

  269. want to do. I will indulge myself in every

  270. way. I will live an immoral in Pure

  271. Life. I will be Wicked and cruel to

  272. others. I'll do whatever I wrecked

  273. because it's really not going to matter when the spirit is

  274. separated from the body, the spirit.

  275. It's still going to be pure, it's still going to be, holy is

  276. still going to be clean. That was the doctrine that was

  277. pushed and pursued by the gnostics.

  278. And these gnostics were those that considered themselves as

  279. those that had greater knowledge and therefore members of the

  280. Lord's Church, some not all John said, the ones that really went

  281. with us, they followed some of these pernicious ways and they

  282. followed Some of these doctrines and teachings in their life as

  283. well. Therefore, it was alleged that

  284. the gnostics had Superior knowledge which prompted them to

  285. styled himself as the gnostics. But you know what, further proof

  286. of the reality of the Lord's fleshly body.

  287. John offers a testimony involving three of his five

  288. senses. First of all, when we go back to

  289. the Gospel of John, we all know, in the very beginning, part of

  290. the Gospel of John, he establishes, that there was

  291. deity in the beginning, and he establishes that Jesus Christ

  292. was the deity, and he was in the beginning.

  293. And the one that came here was the very same Rarity.

  294. That was being Patty in the beginning in heaven, when he

  295. said this, in the beginning was the word and the Word was with

  296. God. And the Word was God, the same

  297. was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and

  298. without him was not anything made, that was made dropping

  299. down to verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us

  300. and we beheld, his glory, the glory, as of the only begotten

  301. of the father full of grace, And Truth, what'd the Gospel of John

  302. planned out, but tool. That's a separate riding than

  303. this. The DP just in the beginning and

  304. that was Jesus Christ called the word that he became flesh and he

  305. dwelt Among Us. So he did live in a fleshly body

  306. here on Earth saying I love that notice what he says.

  307. Now, in the first epistle he uses or proves the testimony

  308. that Jesus Christ. I was in the flesh by three of

  309. the five senses. He says, he heard he had seen

  310. and His Hands had handled the Word of Life.

  311. Jesus Christ, the lord 1st John, 1 and verses 1 through 3.

  312. And in further refutation of these Wicked theories of the

  313. gnostics, John pointed out that the in this epistle that only

  314. those who do righteousness are going to be righteous.

  315. Only those that are pure are going to have hope only those

  316. and those that habitually sin their of the devil First John 3

  317. 1 through 9 time will not permit us to go into that.

  318. Any further that's the first epistle and I like spend the

  319. rest of my time on the second and the third and I'm going to

  320. look at those basically together the Third writings of John are

  321. so closely associated so similar in structure and form so much

  322. alike and purpose and design that they may be best considered

  323. together in both letters. The same general outline is

  324. followed and much of the same phraseology occurs the purpose

  325. for, which they were written. Seems to be something that we do

  326. today. In our teaching number one to

  327. strengthen Faith. Number two to give encouragement

  328. under trials. And number 3, 2 1 Warn against

  329. false teachers second. And third, John Doe brief are a

  330. much value to us today because they give they give us intimate

  331. glimpses into the Affairs of the early church.

  332. And also revealed that that was not that there was a not always

  333. harmonious times even in Apostolic age and that human

  334. nature in its dark reforms carried over into the church and

  335. influenced at the actions of men, even As they do now, they

  336. contain warning sorely needed in our time, which should not be

  337. ignored or disregarded. We see in these writings, the

  338. danger of denying Christ, we see the danger of failing in

  339. genuine, love of the brethren. We see the danger of not keeping

  340. the Commandments that are given in God's word.

  341. These Whiting Supply us with the demonstration of the Christian

  342. Spirit. One scholar said that the

  343. writings our brief If they're to the point, they're courteous

  344. sympathetic and they're true. And we certainly would do well

  345. as our letter writing to mimic the writing of the Apostle.

  346. John so said when Skyler. Now, The Second Epistle the

  347. purpose and design was written as a result of information,

  348. which had come to the Apostle, John regarding the children of a

  349. faithful sister. That are addressed in it.

  350. You know, I know there are a lot of parents here tonight.

  351. Most of the time. You don't hear about your

  352. children until they do something bad.

  353. Until they do something wrong or until they're struggling a

  354. little bit. That's usually when we find,

  355. when we speak of children, and when we talk to parents about

  356. their children, but I think there's a great example here

  357. that he points out. He's going to recognize to this,

  358. dear sister, he's going to recognize that the children, but

  359. our workers are faithful, and he's going to complement her and

  360. commend her and commend them. And praise them for living a

  361. faithful life for Walking In Truth, as John puts it.

  362. And he wrote to Rejoice with her in this and admonish her to

  363. persist in the same manner of life and avoid the seductions of

  364. false teachers regularly coming her way.

  365. You don't take some folks, the church The church has the

  366. responsibility of encouraging each other.

  367. To not ever give up. Oh, that's not the duty or the

  368. responsibility of any agent, a organized group outside of the

  369. body of Christ, but encouraging, one another, to keep the fight

  370. and encouraging those that are kind of falling down from time

  371. to time. And helping those that stumbled

  372. here and there that is the responsibility that we have as

  373. members of the body of Christ. Now, what about teachers?

  374. Teachers need to do many things there's more to teaching than

  375. just being and happiness. Be Christian, but as a fact, but

  376. that's part of it teaching people and instructing people

  377. encouraging people to never give up and praising them.

  378. When Praise is due is very important what if the only thing

  379. you ever heard as a child growing up in your house was how

  380. long you were all the things you did, that were bad, how you come

  381. short here and there and so lat it will be discouraging as you

  382. lived in that existence. But folks we do need correction.

  383. Absolutely, and we need the word of God to correct us when we

  384. derail our self from the path of that which is right, but we also

  385. need the other out. So we need a balance in our

  386. teaching and that is to encourage those that are a

  387. little bit weak and to praise those that are doing that which

  388. is right and do. So in such a way, like John did

  389. to encourage them and Inspire them to do even move, I want to

  390. ask Ryan and a couple of guys that work for me, I asked a

  391. little talking about various ways of coaching, and I know

  392. there are various ways and I know the old ways of coaching

  393. was just a blister him and that's just the way that it was

  394. and, and back, that's where I was coached.

  395. But I asked them, I said Fellas on.

  396. So let me ask you this, what's going to make you work harder

  397. for me? When I turn my back and leave if

  398. I come in and scream at you or if I come in and thank you for

  399. what you've done, appreciate what you've done and ask you to

  400. do more, and I think it's pretty obvious, but most people will do

  401. more when they're treated like that.

  402. Now, there's a difference between correcting and there are

  403. times when we need to correct, we need to correct those that

  404. are subordinate to us. We need to Correct our children.

  405. We need to correct members of the body of Christ that needed

  406. to, but we need both and we need to encourage others that are

  407. members of the body of Christ to never give up and keep the faith

  408. and do even more with their life.

  409. Third John was addressed to Gaius.

  410. This is a name that was a frequent mentioned in the New

  411. Testament and therefore, not possible, really to identify

  412. with certainty. We find that that name is found

  413. in Acts, 19 and 29. Acts 20, and verse 4, Romans,

  414. 16, and 23. And First Corinthians, 1 and

  415. verse 14. Whether one of these men named

  416. Gaius or a man, by this name, not mentioned over 42, in the

  417. New Testament. We have no means of knowing for

  418. sure he appears to have neither been an elder nor Deacon in the

  419. congregation where he worshipped.

  420. But a man obviously of benevolence Financial standing

  421. and greatly devoted to the the truth.

  422. Third John was written for three purposes.

  423. Number one, for the purpose of commending Gaius for his

  424. faithfulness Fidelity and Hospitality shown to

  425. missionaries, which had come his way and to encourage him to

  426. continue in this grace and not be deterred by the opposition.

  427. Which had risen second purpose to rebuke diotrephes for his

  428. arrogance for his love of preeminence and for his

  429. perverseness And thirdly to commend Demetrius.

  430. A faithful disciple, who Gaius is admonished to imitate imitate

  431. in summary, three persons are dealt with.

  432. In third, John Gaius Dependable, a disciple of Our Lord liberal,

  433. and giving hospitable and devoted diotrephes.

  434. He was a church boss, dominating boastful and proud, and

  435. Demetrius commended by us Humber kindly and Worthy. you know,

  436. these were three actual men Much like the writings of the seven

  437. churches of Asia. Terry caught those here, those

  438. were actual places, but they are also representative types of

  439. various states that the church can be in today.

  440. These three men were specific real individuals.

  441. These were real cases that he's referring to.

  442. They also represent though representative types of various

  443. people in the body of Christ. Now, To talk about one thing

  444. here about what he says about imitating.

  445. Sometimes we think that imitating someone else is

  446. unoriginal and imitating. Somebody else is not a good

  447. thing. That is not true.

  448. Imitating in itself, is not wrong, imitating someone that is

  449. good is right. And let me just say this, I

  450. believe that Satan Works in a couple of ways in the body of

  451. Christ. Let me just do this.

  452. This is as good as it gets when it comes to Art when with me

  453. just bear with me. And I'll try to illustrate

  454. something here. Let's just say that this circle

  455. represented a Congregation of the body of Christ.

  456. And let's just say, for sake of a better way of putting it, but

  457. the centering here represented, the leadership of the

  458. congregation leadership is important.

  459. Leadership is imperative, in fact, if we don't have good and

  460. proper leadership, Then the convert, the congregation can

  461. not be strong, that is a fact. But notice how the devil Works

  462. notice how he worked on this man named biographies.

  463. This church boss, but love to have the preeminence.

  464. He was Vain and proud and boastful.

  465. He was arrogant and conceited. Little notice what happens.

  466. The devil got to him in the leadership and that sometimes

  467. happens and I am grateful. Here comes the becomes the

  468. positive. I'm grateful Don't have it here.

  469. I'm going to say some folks, we're not perfect.

  470. We are not. We are all human beings and we

  471. all make mistakes. But I've been out a little bit.

  472. I'ma tell you something. The congregation here is strong.

  473. The congregation here. Has strong leaders.

  474. And we perfect. No, but we stumble.

  475. Yes. Do we make mistakes?

  476. Yes, we do. Do we sometimes?

  477. Do and say things, we wish we could take back.

  478. Yes, myself included, I love us. We found into that category.

  479. I'll tell you something, folks, we genuinely have men, but lead

  480. here, that have the proper heart, the proper desire for

  481. that, which is good, and that which is right.

  482. And I'll tell you something, if Satan can't get to the

  483. leadership of a congregation, he cannot tear us down, but there's

  484. another place and you know, why he tells Gaius to imitate

  485. something good by this man named Demetrius because there are

  486. other people in a congregation to isn't there?

  487. And let's just say for sake of a better way to put it on the

  488. outer Fringe of the congregation.

  489. I'm only saying that because I'm talking about those that are

  490. weaker. I'm talking about though.

  491. That are barely hanging on. What is something that happens?

  492. When somebody's barely hanging on?

  493. What are we do? Sometimes work is a, what is up?

  494. Seems like a regular occurrence with those that are barely

  495. hanging on. What they do, is they migrate

  496. toward others that are barely hanging on?

  497. Let me get a straight up this way.

  498. If you're hanging on the side of the cliffs like this, and right

  499. next to you is your brother and he's hanging to your in exactly

  500. the same position or he A slightly worse off than you and

  501. you're sitting there hanging there and you know, you have to

  502. do something. You have to let go of what

  503. you're holding onto and you got to grab something else or you

  504. are going to fire and if you serve you're going to die.

  505. What are you going to do? Why Frank that's obvious.

  506. That's obvious when we find that there's a strong one standing

  507. over the cliff like this and he's braced, and he reaches down

  508. and gives you the opportunity to grab his hand.

  509. He standing on firm, ground on Solid Ground.

  510. Who you going to grab? You're going to grab his hand,

  511. or you going to grab the other one.

  512. That's barely hanging on. in the cliff, you're going to grab the

  513. solid hand but what we do spiritually is we grab on to the

  514. weaker one and you both fall and that's the problem.

  515. Find somebody in the congregation.

  516. That is stronger than you are, but has more knowledge than you

  517. do and imitate them. Maybe you have a lot of

  518. knowledge. Maybe you have a lot of strength

  519. and maybe there's nothing in this world that would be real.

  520. You and living the Christian life but the fact but say you

  521. didn't have all the patients that you probably should have

  522. find somebody that's got that and imitate it seek after the

  523. people that are stronger and more knowledgeable than you are.

  524. Don't just find somebody that has the same weaknesses you do

  525. or is weaker than you are. Because Like our illustration on

  526. as I pointed out, you're both going to fall and imitate that

  527. which is good. You know, sometimes we say well,

  528. you know, I'm My Own man. I'm not an imitator now.

  529. I'm just talking about the world in general.

  530. Oh, yes, you are. And it all starts when you're

  531. born and you start imitating those that are in authority over

  532. you and that your parents are the greatest influence that you

  533. ever have. But isn't it kind of strange,

  534. how all of a sudden parents after a certain amount of time,

  535. they stopped having the same clout with children that they

  536. once had, and All of a sudden there's somebody else in the

  537. world that has more clout than your parents.

  538. There are more alluring and it seems as though they have more

  539. wisdom and more knowledge than your parents have.

  540. And that's your friends. You will imitate your friends.

  541. You will imitate Role Models athletes.

  542. And so on, we do that, that's what we do.

  543. We are imitators. Nothing wrong with that.

  544. Just imitate the good. Remember when the Bible talks

  545. about Satan as a, Terry preaches on this, from time to time when

  546. Satan is walking about like a roaring lion seeking those that

  547. he may devour. No, I was talking to a fellow

  548. this last week about this very thing.

  549. He pointed this out, I'll share it with you.

  550. And as I've said before, I will stand on the shoulders of

  551. successful, man, and use whatever it is that I learn from

  552. them. And I will share it with others.

  553. Absolutely. And I don't mind when others do

  554. it from me. But he thought something he made

  555. a point that was rather interesting.

  556. He said you ever seen a nature show you ever seen like a lion,

  557. a pack of lions and when they left him in their habitat and

  558. when they whacked him out there running around.

  559. And and when they go after prey, he said, you ever notice who

  560. they go after they go after the little crippled sick animal,

  561. that's in the pack. They don't go after the big one.

  562. In fact, I was watching one of the other day.

  563. When these cats, these leopards were following different.

  564. They were starving to death. In fact, they wouldn't go after

  565. the big one until there were so starving that they had.

  566. No other choice interesting, isn't it?

  567. And the Bible speaks of Satan as a lion that is going to devour

  568. or seeking those that he may devour, you know what he's doing

  569. folks? He's working not only in the in

  570. here and he can't get us if we won't let him.

  571. But he's also working out here, The little crippled.

  572. The week one, the sickly one. The Devils doing exactly what

  573. Lions do. So if you're out here look to

  574. someone that stronger than you are and imitate them.

  575. You know, living the Christian Life is something we can do.

  576. We truly can live the Christian Life and be successful doing it.

  577. God has not given me something that is not possible for me to

  578. do, he is giving me everything that I need in order to do it.

  579. But the question is, we have to follow his plan and get this

  580. surround ourselves with people that are going to help me be

  581. successful in doing it. That's what we got to do.

  582. And just about the time when we compare ourselves, I remember,

  583. I'm almost through, but I remember in high school, I

  584. remember my dad was saying, I went to a small high school, and

  585. I remember that when I was about in about going into the 10th

  586. grade, I remember that without a little high school of 900,

  587. students, little tiny High School.

  588. I remember that I was comparing myself athletically against

  589. those that were are in that school.

  590. And you look, Most people have done pretty good, I'm stronger

  591. than they are. I'm faster than they are and I

  592. remember that my dad used to say no way.

  593. Do you see? What do you see when you compare

  594. yourself with real athletes? Well, that just insulted me

  595. completely Then all of a sudden I got exposed to it, I got

  596. exposed to real athletes, athletes that went to five and

  597. six, a schools. I made some real guys.

  598. And man, I was a little tiny fish in a very big pond.

  599. You know, what happened though? You start raising the bar, you

  600. raise the standard you quit. Looking at the little fella that

  601. each twinkies and doesn't work out.

  602. And then you start looking to the guy that's really training

  603. and you look at the real athlete and you follow him and you get

  604. better than you ever would have been.

  605. That's the point. You get better than you ever

  606. would have. Been, we thank you for listening

  607. to our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

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