Recovering Your Spiritual Sensitivity

The character of heaven informs the ethic of earth.

The character of heaven, if heaven is a holy place, then the ethic of earth therefore has to be holy.

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandPartway.org.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we praise you forever because you're eternal.

You've always been, you always will be.

And so we've come, when we come to open up the Bible, we're building our lives on that which is eternal because the Bible is just the breathed out, inspired word of God.

It's not a book written by men, it's not a history book, it's not a rule book.

It is a love letter to the people that you created for your glory.

And so, Holy Spirit, illuminate today.

Cause the light to come on in our head and in our heart so that the truth finds expression in our hands today, Lord.

And so lead us into the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

It's what we were created for, it's what we live by.

It's not a club, it's not a weapon, it's an invitation.

It is a story that tells a message, and it's a message that tells a story.

And so, Lord, let us get a big picture understanding of the story today.

Uh, awaken our sensitivity to the spirit, we ask in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Do me a favor before you sit down.

If there's empty seats around you, would you just kind of scoot in?

We have some folks that are just kind of arriving late.

They had to beat their kids on the way to church this morning, but they're here.

Amen.

Amen.

If you've got a Bible, I want to invite you to take it and open up to Romans chapter 16.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 16, and I want to talk to you today about recovering your spiritual sensitivity.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

Recovering your spiritual sensitivity.

You say, what do you mean by that?

Uh, I think most of you got word or whatever.

I think I even wrote an email.

I had the flu.

Uh, it started uh really on Christmas Eve, and so at our Christmas Eve service, I could feel something was going on.

So if I shook your hand and you got sick, I'm sorry.

But I was just praying, God, get me through this second Christmas Eve service so I can go home and collapse.

And so, because God's faithful, he did, and I did, and then I woke up in the middle of the night sweating.

Uh, I was burning up, and then I went to the doctor and they said, Yeah, you got the flu.

And so my 85-year-old father-in-law was in town, and my wife, who's a psychologist and a nurse, uh, she said, You cannot give my dad the flu.

If you give my dad the flu, it will kill him.

Oh, on that happy note, and so she said, You have to live in our bedroom.

So, like Elvis, I lived in my bedroom for six days.

I didn't eat for four of those days, and so uh I lost seven pounds, uh, which I'm slowly gaining back.

Amen.

Uh and and and and so, but after four days of not eating, what was struck by was how salty everything was.

My wife would bring me anything, and I was like, oh my gosh, why are you trying to poison me with salt?

She's like, I didn't put any salt in there.

Oh, I can't even eat that, it's so salty.

And so finally we realized that after not eating, after being exposed to nothing, even the little bit of the slightest amount of salt was repugnant to me.

I was like, I can't even eat this.

Uh, hot sauce, which I love, I couldn't eat.

I was just like, this is a curse.

I can't go without hot sauce the rest of my life.

Uh and so with six days to do nothing but lay in bed and read and study, I got to thinking, what what would it be possible?

How can we recapture this same sense of sensitivity when it comes to our spiritual lives?

Because the easiest thing for us to do is to lose our sense of spiritual sensitivity.

And so I want to talk to you today.

I want to give you three questions.

We'll read three different passages in the Bible, three questions just to put before you, just to think about in the name of recovering your spiritual sensitivity, okay?

And uh the first one is gonna come from Romans chapter 16.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

I'll start reading verse 17.

This is the very, it's just kind of considered the closing remarks of the book of Romans.

And Paul writes to the Romans these words where we find this first question.

He says in verse 17, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

Avoid them.

For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattering they deceive the hearts of the naive.

For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Now the first question comes from verse 18 there, when he says, For your obedience is known to all.

So I just want to ask you the question: Is your obedience known to all?

Is your obedience known to all?

And that doesn't mean does everybody know every random act of kindness and obedience you've ever done.

What it does mean is are you known as a person, as a man or a woman or a student who, regardless of circumstance or situation, that person is going to obey.

When the chips are down, this person shows up.

There's two words I want to draw your attention to in this passage.

The first one's in verse 17, where he says, He says, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles.

Hear this phrase, contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

And so the assumption is Paul says to the church at Rome and to the Christians in Rome, hey, you guys have been taught good biblical sound doctrine.

He says, Avoid them, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.

And he goes on by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive.

And so there's two uh realities that are present in the text: there's doctrine and then there's appetites.

Uh about 25, 30 years ago, there's this trend in preaching, and it was towards what was called felt needs preaching, which is really someone talking to you out of their appetites about your appetites.

Now, the problem with that is that it doesn't nourish your soul over the long haul, and it doesn't nourish your soul for the long haul.

The only thing that does that is doctrine, which is why Paul says, hey, this is contrary to the doctrine that you've been you've been taught.

So the kind of the bulkhead, the beach head, the thing, the cement wall that's going to prevent the sea from kind of slowly eroding at your faith is that you understand and you apply good biblical doctrine.

It rescues you from the tyranny of your appetites, what you know to be biblical and true and right and sound.

It's never at the mercy of what you think or what anybody else thinks and or feels.

And so I've said the word doctrine a few times.

Let me give you a real simple uh practical definition of doctrine from a guy named Bobby Jameson.

He says this doctrine is a summary of the Bible's teaching that is both faithful to the Bible and useful for life.

Doctrine is a summary of the Bible's teaching that is both faithful to the Bible and useful for life.

He goes on and he talks about the benefits of doctrine.

Let me just list three or four of them for you here.

Number one, doctrine frames and explains the big picture.

Doctrine frames and explains the big picture.

Allow me to demonstrate.

If I said to you, hey, there's a geographical, about a mile or two, one or two square mile geographical graphical plot of land in our city where vicious predatory wild animals roam about.

And I don't know if anybody's aware of that, but these vicious predatory wild animals, they roam about in this area, and it's a very densely populated metropolitan area.

There's a lot of stuff going on around it.

And the the other part where these vicious predatory wild animals kind of roam about, children are allowed to just walk freely among them.

Now, if you're a thinking person, you're like, what?

That doesn't make any sense.

What are you talking about?

This is where like doctrine, what the Bible teaches about things, kind of explains the big picture and goes, oh, okay, I get it now.

Because of that, that's okay.

Here's what makes that okay.

That vicious, predatory, wild animals, exotic animals roam around free, and little kids move among them.

Here's what makes that okay.

It's called the Houston Zoo.

And I remember taking our kids to the zoo, and this actually happened.

We're in this little reptile pavilion, which I hate.

Uh, there'll be a room in hell where you have to hold snakes for a thousand years.

My kids know that.

Like, oh, let's go to the reptile pavilion.

And I'm like, all right, well, we'll go.

And I'm letting my wife and kids walk up there.

My kids are about this tall and about this tall, however old that is, and acts about like that.

And we walk in, and there's a man walking, he's got a stick with a ball taped on the end of it, and he is pet walking a white albino alligator.

And he's just tapping the floor, and this thing is following this ball.

And I'm like thinking, do I have my concealed handgun with me?

Am I gonna have to bust a few rounds in this thing right here?

Am I gonna just say, shoot him, Lee?

Shoot him.

Uh and I'm like looking, and everyone's like, oh, and they're moving towards this white albino, red-eyed alligator.

And I'm just thinking, I am in like preparation mode, like protection mode.

I'm gonna have to shoot this thing and go to jail.

And my kids are like, oh, daddy, look at the alligator.

And I'm like in my mind, and this guy's just, oh yeah, this is Frankie, and blah-da-da-da-da-da-da.

And I'm like, Frankie's gonna be a pair of boots if he makes a wrong move towards my kid.

And everybody's just like a parade route.

This is afloat, and we're all following a white, six-foot white albino alligator.

That J has red eyes, like the devil.

And I'm just like, everybody is enamored, and I'm just like, what makes this okay?

Here's what makes it okay.

It's the zoo.

You do this at the zoo.

If you saw somebody walking an alligator in your neighborhood, you would be like, honey, call the HOA.

But because it's the zoo, no one says a thing.

See, this is what I mean when I say that doctrine frames and explains the big picture.

Look at me.

There are things in this life you're going to face and experience unless you have a biblical worldview, they'll never make sense to you.

They will never make sense to you.

Here's the second benefit of good doctrine.

It acts like a mind sweeper, kind of exposes and diffuses the unbiblical thoughts and attitudes that otherwise go undetected.

It's the person that said to me the other day in counsel, well, you know, like the Bible says, God helps those that help themselves.

And I was just like, my hand just shot up.

And this person said, Yeah.

And I said, You know, that's not in the Bible, right?

Well, I don't know exactly where it is, but it's in there somewhere.

No, it's not in the Bible.

Well, it doesn't say it exactly like that, but it's kind of what the no, the Bible doesn't say that at all.

That's heretical.

You should never say that and attribute it to the Bible.

Well, Mr.

Particular, no, Mr.

Right, which means you're Mr.

Wrong.

Now, if you're visiting today, I'm not a jerk.

I don't try to win arguments.

It's just that the mind sweeper of good biblical doctrine, when you hear nonsense, you go, eh, no.

It's like playing the game operation, and somebody touches the side, the nose lights up.

You're like, eh, no, your turn's over.

No, you bump the table, your turn's over.

Here's the third benefit of doctrine.

Doctrine corrects our imbalances because love to ourselves, we're prone to emphasize certain aspects of the Bible and neglect others.

It sounds like this My God's a God of love.

My God's a God of favor.

My God's a God of abundance.

Okay?

All those things are true statements.

But in and of themselves, none of those can fully or accurately represent who God is.

Good doctrine corrects our imbalances.

Here's the fourth benefit of good doctrine.

Sound doctrine is a guard against false teaching.

Sound doctrine is a guard against false teaching.

I'm laid up in bed when I was sick.

I would sleep all day.

I got on Christmas Day, got out of bed, watched my kids' open presents, went, got back in bed.

My wife woke me up for supper.

I got out of bed, ate supper, went back to my bed, woke up next day.

I mean, like 10 o'clock in the morning, so my sleep schedule was all off.

I would sleep all day, up all night.

I was up Sunday morning last Sunday morning.

I got up about 3.15 in the morning, wide awake.

Of course I'd been asleep for 12 hours.

And I was just like, what?

And so there's nothing on at 3.15 in the morning but preachers, okay?

Preachers and people selling stuff on TV.

And so I tried to avoid all the preachers, and finally I just stopped and said, I'm going to watch a preacher.

If I would have had a gun, I'd have shot my TV.

It just went crazy.

We have a DVR.

You can pause it, you can back it up, which is not good.

I am sweating profusely in my bed.

I rolled out on the floor and crawled on my hands and knees all the way through my house like a white albino alligator, all the way back to my office, got a legal pad and a pen and crawled back on my hand because I couldn't stand up and walk, because the world would just spin.

And so I get back up in bed, crawl up in bed, and I'm like, unpause the TV because I wanted to write down what this person said.

And the person said this.

He was talking about the death of Jesus.

And here's one of here's one of the things that concerns me.

We make it sound like everything in the Bible is about us.

And it's not.

Because if you believe everything in the Bible is about you, then you read the Bible like your high school yearbook.

You open it up and you go, What page is my picture on?

And so here's what the preacher said.

Now I'm not saying everybody on TV is bad.

I'm just saying there's a lot of bad preaching on TV.

That's why it's so popular.

But anyway, he said this.

He said, quoted Jesus about the resurrection, because I live, you shall live also.

And then he went on to say this.

He wasn't talking about just breathing, he was talking about living an abundant life, not a barely get-by life, not a life of bad habits and addictions, lack and mediocrity.

No, because of the price he paid, we have the right to live in total victory.

Now, some of you may be thinking, what's wrong with that?

Here's what's wrong with that.

That makes the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus all about your success and not about your sin.

We have the right to live in total victory.

And then he went on to talk about hey, living in total victory means you don't have any lack.

Let me just confess to you, I have lack.

I have lack.

I don't have everything I want.

No, no.

The credit card is for Christmas, it's coming due here in a couple weeks, it will show up in my mailbox, and I'll be like, my kid, my wife bought them kids.

What?

I got a scarf for Christmas.

Thank you.

And they left the price tag on it.

It was$6.99.

I'm not bitter or anything, but I know that all that money didn't go on me.

And I'm not bitter about that at all.

I'm just saying for you and I to be told, hey, Jesus died for the we have to live in lack is not the gospel.

And if you think it is, then your life will be all about your success, and you won't understand the sufficiency of what Christ has done on the cross for your sin.

And so you can be successful and dabble in sin your whole life.

And so I couldn't, I didn't have a voice, and so I was like, talking to the TV like that.

You're a heretic.

If this was the first century, we would burn you.

And I just thought, this is, and the room was full of people nodding their head.

Amen.

See, this is why you need to understand what the Bible says.

Sound doctrine is this guard against false teaching.

Now you may be thinking, hey, isn't the question about obedience?

Why are you talking all about doctrine?

Yes, uh, here's the point I want to make that obedience is the byproduct of sound biblical doctrine being taught consistently and applied consistently to your life and to my life.

Because it's the byproduct.

Because Paul says here in Romans 16, hey, these people cause divisions and create obstacles that are contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

Avoid these people who speak to you out of their appetites and appeal to your appetites.

This felt needs kind of preaching that kind of drives much of what happens in church today.

Here's the the last benefit of biblical doctrine.

It attaches your life to the bigger themes of scripture.

It attaches our lives to the bigger themes of scripture instead of the little things like, is it wrong to go here?

Is this too far?

What about that?

And what does the Bible say about that?

The Bible doesn't say anything about baseball, does it?

Oh, well, yeah, well, uh instead of getting down in the minutiae, just doctrine attaches our lives to the bigger themes.

Uh, let me give you an example from the Old Testament.

Uh, Micah chapter 6, verse 8.

Micah 6:8

He says, He has told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

To do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

A lot of times there's a big controversy right now because out in uh out in white settlement, Texas, outside of Fort Worth, a guy last week showed up with a gun and pulled a gun and shot somebody.

And there were people in the church that had concealed hand gun license, and one of them pulled his out and shot the guy.

And I'm dying in my bedroom, and some of you are texting me, going, What do you think about that?

And I wrote to one person and said, Do justice.

Yes.

Don't worry about little things, connect your life to bigger things.

What do you think about this guy shooting somebody in the church?

I think the first guy that shot, it was a sin.

The second guy that shot that put down the shooter, that was a just act.

And by the way, we have people saying among you right now that have a concealed handgun license.

In case you're considering anything, we will bust a cap in your foolish self and pray for your soul.

Yes, yes.

And so, and the person's like, oh my gosh, you're approving murder in the Lord's house.

No, the first guy was murder, the second guy that shot was justice.

That's just what it is.

He says, Hey, but to do justice, what do you think I said?

What do you think God means when he says, hey, what does he require of you?

What is good and what does the Lord require of you to do justice?

Do justice.

What would the world be like if you did justice?

And stop just tolerating goofiness.

Love kindness, walk humbly with your God.

Here's an example from the New Testament.

Again, not about little things, but bigger themes.

Here's the New Testament, Matthew 22, verse 37.

Matthew 22:37

And he said to them, You shall love.

They'd ask Jesus, this is Jesus talking.

They'd say, What's the greatest commandment?

And he said to them, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the great and first commandment.

And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the law and prophets.

The law and the prophets is a reference to the Old Testament.

Look at me, Jesus says, the entire, talk about bigger themes.

He says, On these two commands, love God, love people, hinge the entire.

You want to fulfill all the requirements of the Old Testament?

Love God, love people.

Again, the Bible points us to bigger themes, not these little things that we get so focused on.

Again, why talk so much about doctrine when the point is about obedience?

Look at verse 19.

He says, For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.

Here's why I talk about doctrine in the context of obedience.

Paul says to these people in Rome, I want you to be wise to what is good, innocent.

In the Greek, that word means unmixed, untainted by what is evil.

Be wise to what is good, be innocent as to what is evil.

Here's why I talk about doctrine in the context of obedience, because we live in a day and age where we have reversed those two.

We have done the exact opposite of what the Bible says.

And so instead of saying, he says, hey, being wise to what is good, innocent is evil, we are wise, especially our students nowadays, we are wise to what is evil and we are unmixed.

We are innocent of what is good.

It is not cool to be good.

It's not cool or hip to be moral anymore.

We boast about what is evil.

And the person that sets at the lunch table and says, No, I've never done that.

Is ostracized and put outside the camp of the popular.

Why?

Because we've just reversed what the Bible says.

He says, I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent what is evil.

We are well versed in evil and we are unaffected by what is good.

This is why you have to put this obedience in the context of something bigger than you and your appetites and the circumstance and the situation.

And what puts us in that bigger context is good, solid biblical doctrine.

So the first question I want to just put before you in the new year to awaken and restore our spiritual sensitivity is simply this.

Is just a simple question.

Is your obedience known to all?

Because what Paul says about these people.

Hey, your obedience is known to everybody.

Here's the second question.

Is your heaven a holy place?

Is your heaven a holy place?

Now, let me state the obvious.

It's not your heaven and my heaven, and you have a heaven and I have a heaven.

No, but the way you think of heaven, is it a holy place?

Or is it a catch-all for those who did their best and God is just going to understand?

Or is it a holy place for those who conquer and overcome in this life?

Let me read Revelation 21, verse 7 and 8.

Revelation 21:7

The one who conquers or overcomes will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

But here verse 8 As for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, and as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Now you say, What do you mean?

Look at the beginning of verse 7.

The one who conquers.

Some translations say overcome, but the idea is the same, and it's this you're having a place of holiness such that men and women and young people have to overcome fear and faithlessness, detestable things.

Sexual immorality, idolatry, and lying in order to get into it.

Is your heaven so holy that you have to overcome?

Or can you just say some words when you're 15 and then live a totally unaffected life the rest of your life?

And then be like, well, because I prayed a prayer when I was 15, I know I'm getting in.

Because here's my concern.

My concern is we've so lost our grasp on the necessity of holiness that our heaven is full of men who the Bible says go to hell.

You just look right there in verse 8.

But as for the cowardly.

Hello.

That's another thing I texted my friend who said, Man, can you believe this?

Can you believe this?

Oh, yeah, I can believe that.

I'm glad that man wasn't cowardly.

I'm glad he acted with decisive action.

Are you advocating violence?

No, I'm advocating justice.

Bigger thing.

You're down here on small things, political talking points, and nonsense blather for Sunday morning talk shows.

I'm up here where God says, hey, this is what I require of you.

The cowardly, the faithless, the detestable.

That's for murderers.

Every dad and go, oh, I ain't murdered anybody.

I think I'm doing good.

The sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars.

Their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Now, the Bible doesn't say if you've ever done that.

The Bible says people that live this way, people that live this unrepentant life, that this is their life, it's important that we think deeply about this because what we believe heaven to actually be like informs how we pursue it.

I'll say it like this: the character of heaven informs the ethic of earth.

The character of heaven, if heaven is a holy place, then the ethic of earth therefore has to be holy.

It's important, again, that we think about this because if not, heaven erodes into a place where it's just people that did their best and God lets them in anyway.

Kind of a celestial catch-all for those with good intentions but consistently bad outcomes.

However, if you read the Bible, nothing can be further from that.

The biblical text is a holy God.

We prepared a holy place for those who've been made holy, and therefore they practice holiness.

Perhaps this quote from J.C.

Ryle will help us to think rightly about it.

He writes in his book, Holiness, he says this, the Lord of heaven is a holy God.

The angels are holy creatures, the inhabitants are holy saints.

Holiness is written on everything in heaven, and nothing unholy can enter into this heaven.

Even if you could enter heaven without holiness, what would you do?

What joy would you feel there?

What holy man or woman of God would you sit down with for fellowship?

Their pleasures are not your pleasures.

Their character is not your character.

What they love, you do not love.

If you dislike a holy God now, why would you want to be with Him forever?

If worship does not capture your attention at present, what makes you think it will thrill you in some heavenly future?

If ungodliness is your delight here on earth, what will please you in heaven where all is clean and pure?

You would not be happy there if you were not holy here.

Can you feel how sober that is now?

Now, now, by the way, that that that shouldn't be something one of my young friends said to me after the first service, man, you kind of got after us today.

And I said, No, I ain't getting after you.

I just, that's why we read from Hebrews earlier during our prayer time.

He said, Remember, he what Jesus has done, he has made perfect forever, those who are being made holy.

So when you hear me talk about holiness, don't think, oh man, I better stop going to Ray to movies and cussing and da-da-da.

No, no.

You should embrace your identity or confess that that's not your identity at all.

And this is really hard.

Because it's not hard.

I said to this 20-something-year-old, I said, Yeah, being holy for the believer, it's not hard.

That's our identity.

It's like me saying, hey, tomorrow I'm gonna get up and try to be a bald, middle-aged white guy.

That's easy.

Why is that easy?

Because that's who I am.

The Bible says, if you if you're a believer, that this is who you are.

Now, uh, again, uh all through the Bible, the consistent theme that holds true from the beginning to the end is that the unrepentant.

Look at uh Revelation chapter 22, verse 14.

Revelation 22:14

This one chapter over it, Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and they may enter the city by the gates.

Outside, outside the gates of heaven are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

That's the part that I do good on my other stuff.

It's that part where I'm I'm warned.

I'm like, wait a minute, I don't want to love or practice falsehood.

You say, what do you mean?

Students, if you have apps, hidden apps on your phone right now that your parents know nothing about, you are loving and practicing falsehood.

If you have burner social media accounts or you go post pictures of yourself and content that you don't want your parents to see about, you are loving and practicing falsehood.

And here's my concern.

I'm not mad at you.

My concern is that you get so good at loving and practicing falsehood that it just becomes second nature.

As you sit in this room right now, you're like, my parents have no idea what I'm really like.

If that's the case, then you love and practice falsehood.

And the same goes to for the same goes for you and I, mom and dad.

If nobody has a real sense of who you really are and what you're really all about, you've loved and practiced falsehood for so long.

And again, why is this such an important question?

This question, is your heaven a holy place?

Because once you grasp that heaven is a holy place, and only those that overcome are allowed inside, then it informs the ethic of earth.

Again, the character of heaven determines the ethic of earth.

If heaven is a holy place, then I better be holy.

Here's the third question I want to give you to think about to start the new year.

Just again, to just kind of awaken and kind of reclaim the sense of spiritual sensitivity.

I ate a boat of a bowl of oatmeal.

I got three bites in.

I couldn't eat it because it was so salty.

My wife's like, You, you, you, this isn't, this isn't salty.

Yes, it is.

You're trying to poison me.

What are you doing?

She's like, babe, you are overly sensitive to anything right now because you haven't eaten anything.

And I said, Okay, well, bring me some chips.

That won't be salty.

I almost had a stroke.

I was like, get and again, I couldn't help but just lay there and think.

And I said to God in a prayer, God, I want to I want to be spiritually sensitive, as sensitive as I am to food right now.

Here's the last question I want to give you.

Is your Bible authoritative?

Is your Bible authoritative?

Let me just read from 2 Timothy chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Uh, is your Bible authoritative?

Because this time of year, why why this question?

Because at this time of year, uh a lot of people email me and said, Hey, I want to read through the Bible in a year.

Where should I start?

On page one?

I'm like, Yeah, good luck.

Uh uh, you'll you'll get to about Leviticus, then you'll spit the bit.

Uh uh, so here's the thing, and I always say to people, they say, Hey, I want to read through the Bible in a year, and I say, Well, tell me how you think about the Bible.

They go, What do you mean?

What do you think about the Bible?

Is the because here's the question I'm really asking.

Is the Bible in your in your mind, is the Bible authoritative?

Is it authoritative?

Does it have the authority to tell you no, to shape your appetites, your intellect, to establish your morals, to inform your sense of oughtness and change your experiences?

Because if it doesn't, why read it at all?

Because all you're doing, you will read it until you find something you disagree with.

So you so before you think about reading the Bible, you have to ask, is it even authoritative?

Because here's what the Bible says about itself.

2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16

Now hear that last part that the man of God, that the that the man or woman, that the believer would be complete, equipped for every good work.

Have you ever been in a conversation with somebody and it would turn to spiritual things and you wish you knew what to say and you didn't know what to say, and you walked away a little bit frustrated?

Like, oh man! And some of you even think this thought, I wish so-and-so was here, she would know what to say, I wish so-and-so was here, he would know what to say.

If you expose yourself to the authoritative word of God, guess what happens?

You know what to say.

And all of a sudden the truth starts coming out of you.

But but just start at the beginning of verse 16 in 2 Timothy 3 uh to frame our thoughts about the Bible going into the new year.

All scripture, just stop right there.

All scripture, every part of it, every piece, even the parts you understand, the parts you don't understand, the parts that you're like, I don't know if I agree with that.

It doesn't matter, it doesn't change the nature of it.

Here's why.

All scripture is breathed out by God, is breathed out by God.

In other words, it's the breath of God.

God, people, people say, well, you know, the the Bible, you can't trust the Bible, it's just written by men.

No, it's recorded by men, but it is breathed out, inspired by God.

And why is that a big deal?

Because then you have to ask the question, where does the Bible get its authority?

Does the Bible get its authority because a bunch of people, your grandma said, well, the Bible's really true and you should read it?

No.

No.

The Bible gets its authority from God because it's breathed out by God, it is inspired by God, it is the breath of God, it is the life of God, it is the nature of God recorded for humanity.

And so, because this is true and it gets its authority from God, then what it means is if I disagree with or I disobey the scripture, then I am disagreeing with and I am disobeying God.

It has that authority.

And so before you go very far into the new year and your resolutions, and I want to get back in church, and I want everybody to get back in church.

And it is to your blessing and to your benefit that the Bible is authoritative.

But I can't make it authoritative for you.

I remember having conversations with my children, and I still do.

And every once in a while, they'll say something that doesn't line up with scripture.

And I'll say to them, you might want to think further about that.

They'll say, Well, that's just where I am.

You know, I'm 19.

That's how 19-year-olds think.

Well, you and every other 19-year-old that thinks that is wrong.

And they go crazy.

I mean, it's like when you when you rope a calf in a rodeo, they're just jumping and going crazy.

And I'm just wrapping that rope around the horn of my saddle.

Because they're not getting anywhere.

I love my children.

And they're like, whoa, well, I mean, Dad, I mean, you just gotta know this is the 21st century.

I don't care if it's 23rd century, 44th century, the Bible's true today, it'll be true then, it'll be true forever.

The Bible, matter of fact, it says this about itself: heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of God will stand forever.

Tell me how you, as a 19-year-old, can pass judgment on something that's already passed judgment on you.

He goes, What do you mean?

And I said, You're putting yourself up here in the Bible down here.

The Bible submits itself to nobody in their intellect.

This is not about your intellect, this is about your appetites.

Here's the reason the Bible's not authoritative for some of you.

Because you want to do what you want to do.

It's not that the Bible's flawed or you got on the internet and read some article.

I'm sure you did.

But all you want is permission to live the life that you want to live, especially when it comes to our morality.

You have to attack the Bible.

Because if the Bible's true and authoritative, how on God's earth do you explain your sexual morality?

You can't.

Let me tell you something.

In a sexual revolution that we're in right now, where it's just my gender is up to me and I just decide and everything, the first casualty is anything that's authoritative.

Let me say that again.

In a culture where we are in a sexual revolution, quote unquote, where everyone just I'm deciding if I'm a boy or I'm a girl, I'm gay, I'm straight, but by the way, if you're in the room right now, I'm not mad at you.

I want you to come to this church.

I want to be your pastor.

I want to have conversations with you.

So don't walk out and go, that guy's just a narrow-minded bigot.

No, not at all.

Not at all.

But I will love you enough to tell you this in this sexual revolution that we're in right now, where everything's up in the air and we get to decide, the first casualty is anything, get ready, mom and dad, or anybody that's authoritative.

And parents are taking their cues from that.

And they try to parent their kids with no authority.

And so while I had both my kids home over the holidays and they're still here, they'll both be in the next service.

Mine was singing over here on the worship team.

I told my oldest when she went off to college, hey, you go off to college and you get crazy and you find some guy and y'all are gonna save money and move in together, I will cut you off.

I will not support your immorality or your foolishness.

And she's like, Dad, that offends me.

I ain't trying to offend you.

And so while she was home, I told her 16-year-old sister the same thing.

Now, by the way, you you you you go off to college and get liberated, become some progressive feminist, you better get a job.

Now, I know what some of y'all are thinking.

Oh, you're just trying to control your kids with your money.

I don't have that much money.

My kids' depravity is way beyond my resources, okay?

But I love my kids enough to say, hey, look at me.

Hear this.

I love my kids enough to say, I don't read the Bible through the lens of you.

Everything's wrong until your kids do it.

Have you noticed that?

And again, authoritative.

We're in a culture where everything authoritative and everybody authoritative.

The law?

That's why they're shooting so many cops nowadays.

How dare you pull me over?

How dare you tell me what I'm doing's wrong?

You gotta ask yourself, do you really want to live in a world where there is no authority?

You don't.

You don't.

And it starts with with cops, it starts with teachers.

If you want to see what I'm talking about, go be a substitute teacher for one day in a high school.

I call them every week.

Y'all need a sub?

Uh no, Mr.

McClellan, we don't need you.

I'm available.

And by the way, I that apparently don't like this.

I'm like, hey, does this concealed handgun license I have, is it, is it valid at school as well?

Oh my gosh, they go crazy.

That's not funny, Neil.

I'm not kidding.

Again, is your Bible authoritative?

Because here's the thing.

Because to separate the word of God from the being of God is to strip the Bible of its authority.

And once you strip the Bible of its authority, then what you allow that to happen.

Then the Bible is just another book that teaches just another way to just another God.

And why sacrifice for that?

Why sacrifice?

It's not worth it.

It's not.

So just three questions.

Just to kind of awaken our spiritual sensibilities, okay?

Number one, is your obedience known to all?

Secondly, is your heaven a holy place?

And as such, people have to overcome things.

Have to say no to some things.

Have to be flipping channels late at night and go, oh no, keep going.

Have to even say, hey honey, I don't even want this on our cable package.

Why?

Because I gotta overcome.

And lastly, is your Bible authoritative?

Does it have the capacity to shape my morals?

Affect what I do with my money, my intellect.

Does it have that kind of authority in my life?

And if not, let me just say to you, it's not worth your time reading it.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, just uh we like to teach the Bible, and then we like to give you some space to think about it.

And so I voice a prayer and Lindsay will come, she may sing something over, she may just play.

But some questions come up on the screen.

Uh, don't try to write them down.

You can just get your phone out and just take a picture.

Uh we believe that the Bible is true.

It's not a weapon, we don't beat people up with it.

We do say what it says.

Uh we try to say it in a language that you can understand.

But we we respect you as thinking men and women.

And so we give you space to think about what the Bible has said.

And so uh these questions will come up.

You can take a picture of them, you can just read them and think about them.

Let me voice a prayer.

God, we uh we love you and we love the truth.

And uh we live in a day and age where anybody and anything that claims authority is under siege, is under attack.

And that doesn't bother us because the Bible can stand up to it, it's durable.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of God will stand forever.

And so that means as parents, we have to be okay being people of authority.

That doesn't mean volume, that means presence.

That doesn't make us yell at our kids.

It makes us look our kids in the eye and say, I love you.

And here's the truth.

And so, Holy Spirit, I pray that the truth will set people free today.

And so, Holy Spirit, just brood over us while we think and pray and listen.

Father, thanks for the truth of your word, and it establishes, clarifies the big picture.

It infuses us with an authority that we don't we can't find in ourselves or by ourselves.

And that authority is not to be lorded over people.

Uh give us broken hearts for our friends that are that are stuck.

Many of them stuck in sin.

Uh we're not better than them, we're not mad at them.

Uh we long for them to be set free by the truth.

And so we want to speak the truth to them in love.

I want to speak the truth to my kids in love.

And and they want to hear it, and so that's a blessing.

So, Holy Spirit, uh, cause us to kind of think about our spiritual sensitivity today and to be awakened to it in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest, let me say thanks.

Uh, we want you to find the right church for you and your family.

Obviously, we'd love for that to be this church, but if it's not this church, we bless you in whatever church you end up with.

Uh we're we don't want to compete with all the other churches in our city.

There's good churches in our city.

We hope you find one that's a that's a fit for you.

Again, we'd love for it to be this place.

Uh, myself and some of our uh our our staff, our pastors and elders will be available down front.

If you have after the services, you have any questions about anything you heard today, or if you're just going through something, you say, Man, I want someone to pray with me.

I got a lot on me these days.

We would love to pray with you.

We don't want to just preach to you.

We want to be your pastors, which means when it's not going well, you don't have to be alone.

You can pick up the phone and call us, and we're gonna show up, okay?

Uh, that's what it means to be a pastor.

It doesn't mean I stand up here and talk to you out of the Bible.

It's that, but it's also walking with you through the valley in the shadow of death, okay?

Uh there's some things going on in the life of our church, we want you to be aware about.

But before we show you the announcement video, let me just say this.

If you're a guest, uh, look around.

If you haven't already, look on your on your row.

There's some seat pocket holders, have a guest card.

If you haven't filled one of those out already, would you pull one and fill it out in the next minute?

And then when you leave, just drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors on your way out, okay?

That's all we ask of you.

We think you matter to God, and because of that, you matter to us.

All right?

Uh there's a couple things going on in life or church we want you to make you aware of, so give your attention to our video screens.

We'd like to conclude our services with a spoken blessing, so let me ask you if you would to stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out if you would.

You are holy because of Christ's accomplishment.

You're sanctified because of your own effort.

The Bible is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.

Because it's a gift, and it's yours for free.

Though it costs Jesus everything, you can have it for free.

Depart now and live in this reality.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.