ROMANS: Parting Shots

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Lord Jesus, when we sing a great hymn like that, it would just uh is it any wonder that the Bible describes your second coming?

It describes you as coming, and it says that the armies of heaven are coming with you and they're dressed in white.

That's only fitting and appropriate because we are people who have not just been forgiven, but we have been cleansed.

It's the old invitation hymn, just as I am says, you know, uh, to we we're we're we're not waiting to rid our soul of this one dark blot.

There are things in our life that only the blood of Jesus can eradicate, can do away with.

We can try to do all the good we can do, and it still doesn't wash the bad that we by nature brought into this world off of us.

And so we've come today to open up the Bible and to do what we just sang earlier.

When that when that chorus said, Oh church, come stand in the light.

We've come to stand in the light of good biblical doctrine, an unsexy, uh underused word in our day and age, because most of us are ruled by our feelings and our appetites.

As the Bible says, and it's right when it says it, that our God is our stomach, is our what we feel.

And so reality is not found in what we feel today.

Reality is found in the truth.

And so, Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth today, regardless of how good it is, how convicting it may be.

We need the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

So help us, God, to get our heads around the truth.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 16.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

I want to talk to you this morning about parting shots.

About parting shots.

You say, What do you mean?

Uh my mom calls me about four times a week, and the conversation is maybe a minute long.

My mom will call, and the first 50 seconds are predictable.

How are Marcy and how are the girls?

How's the church?

Or her first question is, are you at church or at home?

Every time.

The first question my mom asked, Are you at church or at home?

And I say, What are you doing?

Writing a book?

And she's like, Well, I just want to know.

We'll leave that chapter out.

No, no, don't kid your mother.

Where are you?

I'm like, You're a nosy rosy mom.

I'm always working, okay?

I'm like Big Daddy Cain.

I work.

Who's Big Daddy Cain?

Does he go to your church?

No, he's a 1980s rapper, mom.

I don't keep up with rap.

Tell me where you are.

I'm like, why is that so important?

But anyway, we have a one-minute conversation four times a week.

The first 50 seconds are the same predictable monologue where mom asks me the same five questions.

And then the last 10 seconds, my mom pours more into that than the previous 50 seconds.

And so she'll like, I'll say, All right, mom was because she'll say, Well, I got, I gotta go.

And she'll start to hang up and she'll go, call your father.

Have you talked to your brother lately?

Tell Marsha and the girls I love them.

I'm praying for you.

Come see us.

And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

It's just this barrage, and then click, she hangs up.

And I just kind of hang the phone up, kind of like, that's my mom.

Why do I tell you that?

Because she kind of gets all the content in these parting shots the last 10 seconds.

That's what Paul does here in Romans 16.

Remember last week we read a bunch of funny names where he says, Greet this person, greet that person, greet this person.

He picks up in Romans chapter 16, verse 17, and he says this.

Romans 16:17

It's kind of like he's in the middle of talking, he remembers something, and he kind of just inserts it here in the middle of all these greetings.

We finish with him saying, Hey, all the churches greet you.

Verse 17, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles that are contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught.

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

And by smooth talk and flattery, 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.

Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you.

So does Lucius and Jason and Sosopater, my kinsman, and I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.

Gaius, who is a host to me, and to the whole church, greets you, and Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you.

And he just kind of he was greeting, and then he just kind of had, oh, just kind of a brain cramp.

Oh, I forgot to put this in there.

And he just kind of inserts these parting shots.

And so that's what I want to focus on this morning is verses 17 to 20.

Really, only four verses where Paul says a lot.

Basically, he says three things.

He said, number one, he says, watch out.

Watch out.

That's where verse 17, he kind of, all of a sudden, he says, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those.

He says two things to watch out for: those who cause divisions, and secondly, those who create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

And then he says this.

It's real subtle.

He just says, avoid them.

Avoid them.

He doesn't say burn them at the stake, which, by the way, in the first century, the church, if you were a heretic, that's the way they punished you.

They took you down, tied you to a fence post, and set you on fire.

While everyone in the town watched and kind of looked and said, hey, you don't want to be like that guy, okay?

You don't want to teach things that are contrary to what the Bible says.

But Paul says, watch out, and he doesn't say do any of that.

He doesn't say physically harm them.

He doesn't say try to prove them wrong, try to win an argument with them, get into a Twitter debate with them.

Instead, he just says, have nothing to do with them.

That it's hard for us in America to have nothing to do with people with whom we fundamentally disagree.

You say, how do you know?

Because reality TV continues to be on the TV.

That's how I know.

And if you want reality-based TV, which is really not reality, you know that, right?

All those reality shows, those are all scripted scenarios that the producers come up with and they act them out all the way from Duck Dynasty.

Whoopsie.

Down to whatever they're doing this week.

It's always, they're finding some people to put on camera.

When you put people on camera who've never been on camera, you're gonna get what you get, okay?

There's a reason that when I say honey boo-boo, most of you in this room know who I'm talking about.

It's because we can't leave it alone.

We just can't.

You can look at that, and most of us watch something like that just so we can register how much we disagree with that.

They don't care.

As long as you're watching, they're making money.

And guess what?

The more you watch, the more you're gonna get.

Paul says, hey, have nothing to do with these people.

Just don't try to fix them, don't try to win some debate with them.

Just have nothing to do with these people.

And he says, hey, by the way, these are the people you watch out for.

They cause divisions.

I mentioned it a minute ago.

Let me just kind of go into it a little bit deeper.

He says, they cause divisions.

When someone begins to confide in you about someone or something about the church, basically you need to know this.

They're setting you kind of on a trajectory to feel about the church and about individuals the way they do.

I learned that lesson when I was 19 years old.

I've been a Christian a year, started going to church, and there's, you know, it was a great church.

I enjoyed it.

They taught the Bible.

I was like, this is awesome.

But the more the longer I was there, the more I kind of realized there's people that go to this church that they don't share the same passion for the same things that everybody else.

And there was this one guy, he was always on the hunt trying to catch the whole staff doing something wrong.

And so he was talking to me one Sunday night.

Remember when they had Sunday night church?

Anybody?

Yeah.

By the way, we're not going back to that just for the record.

I didn't bring that up and say, hey, and why don't we meet again tonight?

You can meet all you want.

I won't be here.

But anyway, uh this guy was talking to me, and after church on Sunday night, this old man with a cane walked over to me and he said, Come here, young man.

And I was like, uh-oh.

My first thought was, What did I do?

Uh-oh- uh uh.

And he he just said, Come here.

And he smiled and he said, Now be careful.

And he said the guy's name.

And he said, He's a good man, but he's always focusing on what's wrong with the church.

Now, if you listen to a man like that, you'll begin to think like a man, like that man thinks.

And you don't want to think like that like that man thinks.

So you should ask yourself, why are you listening to that man?

And he just turned and walked off with his cane.

And I was like, Could you come back and repeat that so I could hear it again?

But I couldn't forget it.

I was 19 years old.

How long ago was that?

That was 30 years ago.

Yes, I hear you.

Shut up.

You mathematicians in the crowd.

What I'm saying is, is what Paul says.

He says, hey, hey, watch out for those people who cause divisions.

And the old man was right.

He said, you know what?

You you're you listen to that guy.

You you're gonna become like him, basically.

Second thing Paul says is he says, and this is kind of a phrase we don't hear every day, he says, not only that, but he says, uh, watch out for those who create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

Avoid them.

Watch out for those who create obstacles.

What is that uh contrary to the doctrine you have been taught?

What does that mean?

They make it hard for you to understand and believe what the Bible clearly teaches.

They beat people that create obstacles that are contrary uh uh to the doctrine you've been taught, they make it hard for you to believe what the Bible clearly teaches.

For example, we've been going to the book of Romans and he says, hey, they create obstacles that are contrary to the doctrine, then it probably would be good for us to go back and kind of look at just some of the doctrines that the book that the book of Romans teaches.

Because the letter of Romans is probably the clearest and most systematic presentation of Christian doctrine.

And by the word doctrine, I mean kind of what we believe, what the Bible teaches.

But it's the most the book of Romans is the most systematic, I mean, it just kind of goes in order, and the most clear presentation of core biblical beliefs of any book in the New Testament or or old.

So the question becomes so, what are some of these doctrines that the book of Romans teaches?

Let me just list off six of them for you.

Uh and I think they come up on the screen, and and and and I'll I'll just give you a brief explanation of what each one of these is.

The book of Romans started off with the total depravity of man.

Remember that?

Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of mankind.

And Paul just kind of unpacks that.

What do you mean the total depravity of man?

It's most, it this is the most easily observable and recognized doctrine or teaching of the Bible in the world.

It's basically the sinfulness of all humanity.

All have sin, he says in chapter 3, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Man by nature is unrighteous, and he uses his unrighteousness to suppress the truth.

Because of this, because that's what he does, the Bible teaches that man tries to hold the truth down.

Just turn on any talk show and listen to him talk.

And when it comes to the topic of religion or anything like that or Christianity, just this past week, they had on Good Morning America, uh, they had the producer of the new Noah movie, and and they were there.

And here's the thing people that don't have a relationship with God, that don't believe in God, they cannot uh they cannot agree with the truth.

They suppress the truth by their unrighteousness.

Now that sounds like a phrase like, well, what do you mean by that?

Good morning, America, Robin Roberts, who lives an openly alternative lifestyle that the Bible says is sin.

But anyway, so it's hard for her.

Well, you don't acknowledge the truth in your personal life.

You sure can't go to work and acknowledge it in your public life.

So she's interviewing the producer and she says, uh, of the movie Noah, and she says, Well, basically, this movie's about family, right?

And he says, No, it's not.

This movie is about the fact that God destroyed the earth because men could not stop sinning and basically gave us all a second chance.

You see, they suppressed it, and that's just subtle.

That's subtle.

There's women all over America that sit at home housewives and watch that and kind of go, She's such a positive person.

She's exactly right.

This movie's about family.

No, she's about suppressing the truth.

That's not about family.

Just because you say the word family, everybody doesn't have to nod their head and go, Yes, family, you said the buzzword.

We love that.

Am I mad at her?

Not at all.

But you've got to be discerning.

Otherwise, you find your head going up and down and you're living in the land of nod and you don't have the capacity to be salt and light anymore.

The doctrine of the total depravity of man, that we're all, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, is one of the most easily recognizable doctrines in the world.

One of the other ones we talked about is propitiation.

That's a big word from Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Remember when I preached that, one of our young uh uh one of our young kids came up to me.

He's about five years old, and he said, What was that word you said that started with a P?

I didn't understand that.

And I said, Always ask, my man.

Always ask.

Propitiation basically means this that the wrath of an angry deity has been satisfied.

The wrath of an angry deity has been satisfied.

On the cross, the wrath of God was satisfied.

His payment for my sin was made in full by God with his own son.

Because this is true, I don't have to fear God.

I'm now free to know and enjoy him forever.

Which is why the kind of the mission statement of this church is we're helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

My kids don't fear me.

Even when my kids screw up, they're not afraid of me.

I grew up in a home where if you spilt something, my stepmom would just slap your hand as hard as she could about three times and go, now you sat there and you don't get anything else to drink, the rest of supper.

I was like, Well, thank you.

I was planning on knocking my milk over, and so I'm I'm I'm sad you found me out.

So my kids will knock stuff over, they'll spill stuff, and they'll look at me and go, no big deal.

And I'm like, that's right, it's no big deal.

You didn't plan on doing that baby.

We'll get a towel, we'll clean it up.

Other day I knocked over a glass of water and I looked at them and said, No big deal.

And they were like, Dad, it's tripping through the cracks on the table on the floor.

Still not a big deal.

Looked over at my wife, my one of my kids looked at me and said, It's becoming a big deal.

That's propitiation.

You don't have to be afraid of God.

He's not out to get you.

He's not like, oh, I got a record right here.

No, no, no.

He took away the law that was against us and he nailed it to the cross.

The Bible says he throws your sins into the sea of forgetfulness and he remembers them no more.

As far as the East is from the West, that's how far he's removed our transgressions from us.

The third doctrine that the book of Romans talks about is justification.

Justification by faith.

What does that mean?

It means because I have faith in what Christ has accomplished on the cross on my behalf, I'm made right with God.

And I understand, believe, and proclaim this truth to the glory of God.

In other words, I don't have faith in myself.

I'm justified.

I'm I'm put right with God because of what Christ did on the cross, not because of my good deeds, not because of my good nature, because I'm not good by nature, and I can't do enough good deeds.

The Bible's very clear, Titus chapter 3, verse 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy has he saved us.

Titus 3:5

It is most like God to make the gospel about that which he's rich in, and that's mercy.

It's not about me.

I'm justified because I have faith in somebody besides myself.

I have faith in what Christ has done.

The fourth doctrine we talked about is adoption.

Adoption.

Adoption means I'm not only redeemed and forgiven and made right with God, but I'm brought into the family and I'm accepted by God.

He cannot forget about me, nor will he.

I'm not a slave anymore.

I'm a son.

And Galatians says the son has his place in the family, in the house, forever.

I don't ever, I don't ever get up and kind of think, is God gonna put me out of the family today?

About four times a year, I ask my kids this question.

Hey, what and not I don't sit down and go, family talk.

Dad's gonna ask awkward questions now.

Brace yourself.

We'll just be driving to a movie in the middle of the night.

The other night, my 16-year-old texted me from her bedroom.

Apparently, because the legs don't work, she can't walk into the living room.

So she texts me from the bedroom.

It's like 9:20.

There's a 10 o'clock showing of Divergent.

Do you want to go?

I looked at my wife, I said, What's divergent?

And she goes, You're asking me?

And I was like, I bet it's a movie.

Oh, of course it's a movie.

I looked at my wife and said, You want to take one for the team?

And she's like, She probably doesn't want to go with me because you're the good cop.

You buy them stuff.

And I'm like, it's just paper with dead presidents on it.

You can't take it with you.

Spend it up.

Like the black-eyed peas, I got my money.

Let's spend it up.

No wonder they want to go to the movie with you.

Because my wife will come back and tell me, you know that bottled water at the movie is$4.25.

Oh my gosh.

And we don't have that, do we?

That's not the point.

Hey, you can't.

Capitalism means they can charge whatever they want.

They got you.

If you don't like that, take a bottle out of the garage refrigerator, put it in your purse, and sneak it in.

I'm not doing that.

All right then, go pay$4.25 because this redneck is going to sneak a bottle of water in.

They're not asking me, do you have water in that thing?

And by the way, I'm going to take in some peanut MMs because they're$6 at the movie.

But my wife comes back just full of protest and rage, and I'm like, hey, hey, don't act like you ain't got that, okay?

But I ask my kids just in one other vibe, hey, what do you have to do for your dad to be proud of you?

Nothing, dad, should be myself.

I tell my kids, you don't have to make good grades.

My daughter's in AP classes across the street right here, and her friends are all like, Your parents don't push you.

They're not like, I tell them, you know, you don't have to take an AP class next year at all.

Some of our friends are taking seven.

Hey, that's that's just craziness, okay?

That's just they're practicing to be driven.

Don't be driven, okay?

Because God doesn't care if you make an A or a B or a C.

If you make a C, your dad ain't gonna change his mind about you.

And she's looking at me like, does not compute, does not compute.

Because the guidance counselor makes them think, boy, if you make a B, you're gonna go to hell on a slipping slide.

You're not gonna get in any college.

And I said, at some point, this is about the sovereignty of God, Madison.

What is your dad thinking right now?

Do your best.

So came in the other day, bombed a quiz in algebra, made like a 30.

And I said, How about you get you some of that, world champion of nonsense?

Did that quiz sneak up on you?

I just, I just I just messed it up.

What am I thinking right now?

You're gonna ask if I did my best.

Was 30 your best?

Because I know you're supposed to jump in and go, Oh, you're capable of more.

I know my kids are capable of more.

You ever bombed a quiz?

Let me see your hand.

Put your hands down.

I bombed many a quiz.

And so I just said, hey, you know what?

What am I thinking right now?

You're thinking, do your best.

Don't sweat it, okay?

Now, I live with somebody who's like, oh, she needs to go to a tutorial.

Like, hey, man, if you fail algebra, it ain't no skin off my nose.

You'll probably be working in Subway the rest of your life.

Hey, here's the thing.

Let me, this is free.

This is not about parenting.

Don't use fear to control your kids.

Give your kids understanding.

Just give them understanding.

Just help them understand.

Hey.

So I was like, hey, you got a plan for this?

I got a plan.

Okay, guess what I'm gonna do?

I did algebra a long time ago.

I ain't never doing any more algebra.

Don't ask me for help.

I don't know how to do it.

Okay, Dad.

I got it.

Why?

Because she's mine.

She's always gonna be a part of my family.

By the same token, God adopted you.

When you become a Christian, God adopts you.

You're not a slave working on the plantation, hoping the master doesn't come and find that you're hiding food down in the barn.

You're sons and daughters of God.

That's why Jesus says in Luke 12, Oh, be of good cheer, little flock.

It's your father's pleasure to give you the kingdom.

It's your father's pleasure.

That's adoption.

Earlier I meant to say this, but I didn't.

Here's the good thing about doctrine.

Doctrine increases your willingness.

That's a weird phrase.

Doctrine increases what you're willing to do.

What do you mean?

This is a great example.

We talked in Romans 9, 10, 11 about the doctrine of election.

And some of y'all blew up my email.

You know, I think, blah, blah, blah.

I think God looked into the future and saw who was going to choose him, and he chose them.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

That makes God's choice of you dependent on your choice of him.

You're not, you don't own salvation.

If you look in the book of Revelation, they're around the throne of God and they're singing to God and saying, salvation belongs to our God.

When did you get it and loan it to God so he could save you?

And that wasn't their response.

They didn't say my my.

They're like, oh, I think you're teaching Calvinism.

I'm not a Calvinist, I'm a Biblicist.

I just believe the Bible.

That's a penalty flag you throw on people that maybe just agree.

See, you're you're creat you're you're teaching things that are contrary to the biblical doctrine.

Well, I've never been taught this before.

Don't get mad at me.

Go get mad at all the preachers who didn't tell you before.

Why is it my fault that you were told that God created people because he was lonely and wanted friends?

That's a quote.

Folks, that is sentimental nonsense.

God has never been lonely.

God's never looked down and said, Oh, if I had a BFF, this would all be better.

No.

See, here's what I mean by the doctrine of election, by doctrine, kind of increasing your willingness.

Here's what I mean by the doctrine of election.

I can fearlessly proclaim, share, and testify to the truths of the gospel, knowing that my Father is at work to draw people to himself.

Therefore, I don't have to cheapen the gospel or try and close the deal.

I can rest in the sufficiency of the truth and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit to do what only God can do.

Because I believe in the doctrine of election.

I share Christ all the time.

I sat down at BJ's brew house up here on Highway 6, not long ago.

Sit down with a friend of mine for lunch, and she goes, What you guys?

Doing today?

I said, Oh, we're just working at the religion factory, making more religion.

She said, I think most people got all that they want.

And the guy looked at me and said, I want to see how you handle this.

I mean, she looks angry.

And I and I didn't jump, I didn't pull track out and go, hey, I gotta get her, I gotta get her.

Towards the end of our meal, I just kind of said, Hey, can I ask you a question?

You don't have to answer it.

She goes, sure.

And I said, Do you have a bad experience with religion and religious people?

Yep.

And I said, I just want to say they're not all that way.

Well, all the ones I know, you're talking loud.

It's all hurdy in my ears.

And why do I say this?

I didn't say, Have you come to the point in your life, you know, for sure, if you died tonight, you'd go to heaven.

And if you did die, you stood before God, and God said, Why should I let you in?

Because He doesn't know on what basis you should get in.

That's an offense to the biblical doctrine of election, by the way.

That's like you, your kids coming home from school and you're saying, What are you doing here?

I live here.

This is my house.

Why should I let you in?

Dad, stop drinking and get out of the door.

It's just goofy.

And so I just said to her, I said, she goes, all the ones I've met are, and I said, I just want to say, as one of those people, I'm not religious, I have a relationship with Christ.

I'm a Christian, also pastor of church.

I said, I'm just sorry.

It sounds like you had a bad experience.

That was that was a validly bad experience, but it's not all that way.

And so just keep hope alive, okay?

That maybe it could be different.

And she said, You may be right.

And I said, I believe I am.

You don't have to.

But just let me just ring this little bell here and just say, ding.

Just keep yourself open to the possibility.

The guy looked at me and said, That's it.

And I said, She's very hard.

She had a bad experience.

But I believe God's gonna draw her.

I'm asking the Holy Spirit to draw her.

Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men into myself.

So I overtipped her and she came over and said, You guys have anything else?

I said, Can I get the T to go?

And I said, By the way, remember this.

You got room in you for one more thing?

She goes, Yep, just one.

And I said, Jesus is better than church.

And she said, Excuse me.

I said, Jesus is better than church.

She goes, I love me some Jesus, but I hate church people.

And I said, Can I ask you another question?

She goes, You said just one.

I said, shut up.

She goes, All right, go ahead.

And my buddy's like, like he's watching a tennis match.

I tried I said, Jesus is better in church, and she's like, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh oh, okay.

And I said, this is not religion.

He's not trying to make you follow some rules or whatever.

It's about a relationship.

It's like when you get married.

I ain't never getting married.

Marriage is for people just just uh mm mm-mm.

How many men have cheated on you?

We're not going there.

Okay, okay.

I just think a lot of bad experience have shaped how you think about most things.

And God has come to give you a good experience.

I hope that's true.

See, not why do I why do I tell you that?

Because for me, that's the doctrine of election working itself out.

It makes me more willing to engage in spiritual conversations without thinking, I got a spear and I got to get me a fish here.

The doctrine of election allows you to fish with a net, not a spear.

See, that's he says, hey, people, you avoid people that teach the that teach you things that put up obstacles between that are contrary to the doctrine you've been taught.

The last one is just glorification.

What my father's begun, that what's that mean?

That means that what my father's begun in this world will culminate in the next.

Therefore, I'm free to enjoy this world, but not get too attached to it because I'm created for what is to come.

So when Paul says, hey, by the way, watch out for those who cause divisions, create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught, avoid them.

Just avoid them.

Why?

Because such persons do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites.

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

A guy asked me one time, he said, I teach a Sunday school class in my church, and I'm kind of controversial.

And he said, Can you help me understand why I'm controversial?

I don't know the guy from Adam.

I'm just like, Really?

You're asking me this question?

Why don't you just ask me for the winning Powerball numbers?

He goes, No, seriously, a friend of mine said you're very discerning.

And I thought about this passage and I said, Let me ask you a question.

You you just walk away after I ask this, okay?

Because I can't help you process this.

I don't know you.

I don't know your class, but look at your class the next time it meets.

And if everyone in your class is dysfunction, spiritually dysfunctional and dependent on you and your next teaching to help them understand the Bible, you're a false teacher.

And he looked at me and said, Wow.

And I said, if your Sunday school class looks like the land of misfit toys, you're a false teacher.

You got the caboose with square wheels in there?

He's like, What are you talking about?

You didn't see Rudolph?

He's like, I don't know where this conversation just went.

I think you do.

Because I think something tells him by the far-off look in your eye, you got a Sunday school class full of spiritually dysfunctional people who've hopped from church to church to church, and now you're their savior.

Well, uh, I appreciate your opinion.

See how subtle that was?

I appreciate your opinion.

I said, All right, I appreciate your asking the question and giving me an opportunity to share my opinion that you don't value.

Second thing Paul says is, be this way.

Be this way.

What do you mean, be this way?

He says, hey, watch out for these people.

And then he says, be this way.

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.

Now hear that again.

He says, For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you.

In other words, you're doing great.

Everybody knows that you guys are walking with God and you're ob your you live in obedience to the gospel.

But Paul says, that's not enough.

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

What's he talking about?

What he's talking about is, hey, when it comes to that which is good, don't just know what is good, be wise to it.

There's a deeper level of knowledge.

There's this intimate uh acquaintance with what is good.

Spend all your time not just thinking about what is good, not just memorizing what is good so you can get the answers right on the test, but be infinitely familiar, become wise.

Don't just be content to have surface level knowledge about what is good.

Be wise towards what is good, and be innocent towards what is evil.

In other words, don't know anything about it.

Here's the thing, and if you're a student, let me talk to you just for a minute, because I know many of you come to this service.

What Paul is saying is it's okay to be naive about some things in this world.

And sometimes the biggest sin you can commit in middle school, in high school, is to not know what all your friends are joking about.

You need to kind of reclaim that territory and just smile and just say, that doesn't even interest me.

You know what we're talking about?

No, but it doesn't really interest me.

And not because I'm better than you or I'm some kind of holy roller or whatever phrase you got for me this week, it just doesn't interest me.

Because deep inside you understand it's okay for me to be innocent towards what is evil.

There's some movies that your friends come out and want to see that you're just gonna have to say, you know what?

I'm good.

I'm gonna I'm gonna take a zero.

I'm just gonna pass.

Why?

Because the Bible commands you to be wise towards what is good and be innocent.

The problem is that you most of us have we've we've got not caught, we've not gotten past this curiosity about evil.

And my friend, that'll get you.

When I was in college, four girls from our campus went over to the town not far from us, and they said, we want to go to this psychic fortune teller.

It only costs five bucks.

And some things happened when they were coming out of there.

Oh no, as they pulled up in front of our dorm, all of them sobbing.

And it's a wise old guy, we called him Pops because he was older than us.

And he just said, You gotta be innocent towards what is evil, ladies.

Because when they walked out, one of them tried to throw herself in the traffic on Highway 80.

She said, I just something came over me and said, jump in front of that car.

It's okay just to just be innocent towards what is evil, just to say, you know what, that didn't interest me.

I got no interest in that.

I don't care if it's funny.

I don't care if, oh, we're just gonna be, we're just curious.

I'm not curious.

Curiosity will lead you in some places that you don't want to be.

And that's what Paul is saying.

He's saying, hey, watch out for this.

Then he says, hey, hey, hey, not only watch out for that, but but but but do this.

Be this way.

Then thirdly and finally, he says, remember this.

Remember this.

Verse 20.

He says, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all.

My wife said to me a while back, she goes, You're the most random conversationalist I've ever known.

We'll be talking.

It's like somebody, it's like a skeet pull.

Someone says, pull and you go off on something else.

Like we'll be talking about something, and every once in a while I'm done talking about it.

My wife is not done talking about it.

She just wants to just talk it and talk it and talk it and talk it.

And I'll just turn to her and say, I was done talking about this 10 minutes ago, so I'm finding it hard to listen to you as you still talk about it.

And she goes, Can you feel how hurtful that is?

I'm not trying to be hurtful, I'm just trying to be a good listener, and I can't listen anymore to this.

And then I'll just say something random because I want to change the subject.

I'll say, Do you think we should go to Disney World on vacation this year?

And my wife is like, You make me crazy.

I don't want to go over here.

I want to stay right here.

Now I have biblical evidence that that's okay.

Because Paul's talking and he says, hey, be innocent, be wise towards what is good, and be innocent towards what is evil.

And it's like in his mind he said, evil.

Speaking of evil, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

What's that got to do with what he's talking about?

He's in the middle of saying hello to all these people, and then he just kind of inserts this thing.

But the God of peace will soon crush Satan under.

He says, basically what he's saying is, hey, remember this.

Don't look around this world and just kind of think, hey man, can anything go right?

You got mudslides up there and they're still digging people out of that, and you got an earthquake yesterday in California, and we're just, I mean, can anything just go right?

If God's in charge of the world and God's good, why is the world so bad?

Paul just kind of inserts this and just says, Hey, by the way, the God of peace, and I won't have time to go into just a juxtaposition of the God of peace crushing something.

Some of y'all, you love that God's a God of peace.

You don't love that the way he makes peace is by crushing his enemies.

That's what the Bible says.

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

Sometimes life can get on top of you, and everything that can go wrong seems to go wrong at the same time.

My wife were out for a walk yesterday.

Uh, and uh, we usually go for a walk after dinner, but yesterday afternoon I said, hey, let's go for a walk.

It's a beautiful day.

And by the way, it's gonna be a beautiful day today, too.

You should take your wife for a walk sometime before you go to bed tonight.

Uh that's your application for the sermon.

Uh and so we're out walking around the neighborhood and we walk around, we're talking, and blah, blah, blah.

And by the way, don't, you don't need to go to my wife and kind of go, Oh, he was talking about you.

She can dish it out just like she can take it, okay?

She ain't a victim by far.

Because I think some of y'all are kind of like, Oh, I feel sorry for your wife.

No, feel sorry for me.

Because every day she wakes up and she's got some new stuff to talk about.

I'm like, we talked for two hours yesterday.

We shouldn't talk for a week.

I mean, come on, we've been together 21 years.

Let's just kind of be together.

You know, we ain't gonna talk.

No, we got new stuff to talk about every day.

And that's not a complaint, that's just my wonderment.

I'm just kind of like, is there like a page on Facebook where you women get on and kind of the today we will talk about this?

And you go, oh yeah, I'm I'm I'm clicking drag that in mumba.

Just like, wow.

Okay, well, there we go.

But yesterday we were out for a walk and we were just chatting, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We were walking through our neighborhood, walk down, turned around, come back down the road, and there's a guy, we saw him about a week ago for a walk.

He had gloves on and he was mowing his grass, and his daughter was pushing a little lawnmower behind him.

And I thought, oh, that's kind of cute.

We walked by, and he had his gloves on again, and apparently he's got soft hands, and he was working on his car, doing brakes on a car.

And I just stopped and I said, Hey, every time I see you, you're working on something.

He got, hey, and he took his gloves off.

He got, I remember y'all.

Yeah, we uh this is my mother-in-law's car, and and and we're trying to sell it, and the brakes are bad on it, and I gotta get it sold and everything.

And and I said, Oh, I said, Have y'all lived here long?

No, just about a year.

We had to move from where we were because we got broken into twice, and I just finally realized, hey, move somewhere where your neighbors have nicer stuff than you.

And I was like, that's a good word.

I'm gonna write that down.

Uh and he said, Yeah, and it really traumatized our daughter.

She's seven, and we got to get her counseling and stuff.

And I'm like, oh, and and and and here's the weird part, because he just went on from there.

He goes, Yeah, my mother-in-law lives with me, and I'm like, oh.

And he said, Then we're and and and and and and he's just on this litany of things that have gone.

And and and I I'm just kind of smiling, and I'm like, Lord, why am I smiling?

This is bad.

And the guy's kind of looking at my wife, and she's like, I don't know what he's thinking.

There's no telling.

And here's what I'm thinking.

The more that guy talks, and he's kind of narrating what all's going wrong with it.

And by the way, he's not complaining, he's smiling.

Something in me is just kind of, we're about to set the kingdom down right here in the midst of this.

And I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah, here we go.

Fasten your seat belts.

Please hold on to the bar.

The ride is about to depart.

And I'm sitting there, and he's sitting right there talking, and it clears the bell.

The Holy Spirit said, Look over his head and looked in his garage, and there were boxes stacked to the ceiling.

And I said, Hey, by the way, y'all just moved, or what's all those boxes?

He goes, Oh, oh, those are cabinets.

I said, Oh, you're redoing your kitchen or something?

He goes, Well, uh, and I said, I see you got a dishwasher.

Yeah, we had a dishwasher.

Someone gave us, I installed it, and the gasket leaked on it, and it didn't leak out when the and into the it leaked under the cabinets until all our cabinets sucked up this water, so they all got to be replaced.

And I said, Wow.

So just he goes, No, not just that.

And I said, So what do the floor?

He said, We had to take up all the flooring.

I said, What you got now?

He said, concrete.

And I'm just, at this point, I'm just like, awesome.

And he's like, Hello, creepy man.

I'm sitting there telling you about my life.

And you're and I said, Hey, uh, can I ask you a question?

He goes, sure.

And I said, What would bless you?

Excuse me.

And I said, What would bless you?

I said, because I got some rednecks in my church that don't like to pray, don't like to read the Bible, but they got like pneumatic tools.

And he's like, and I said, if about five of them come over here one Sunday and just descended on this like a herd of drunken monkeys, help you hang them cabinets, and we got wet saws, we can cut some tile, put your tile down.

Would that bless you?

You gotta be kidding me.

I'm not kidding you.

And he said, Well, uh, well, see, uh, we don't have all our cabinet.

There's still one cabinet we need to order at Home Depot and is money an issue.

Well, yeah, and we gotta order a countertop.

And uh, how about we order that?

How about we pay for that cabinet you need in that countertop, and we'll come over and help you install it.

Oh my gosh, this is unbelievable.

Are you kidding me?

I mean, I mean, man, I'm a seminary student, and we're trying to just and I'm like, okay, okay.

I said you go here, it's it's Southwestern?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I said, you know, Aaron Cotton, he goes there.

Oh, that guy always cuts class?

Yeah, I don't want.

Give me some thank you note writing music.

And I said, What about Clyde Copeland?

He smiled and he said, Clyde Copeland, I know him.

We had a class last semester.

I baptized him.

We practiced baptizing each other.

I don't want to know anymore.

And he said, So, so so you're you're like serious.

And I'm like, Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna set it down right here, right here.

And I said, So just talk to your wife and and just pick a Sunday, that'll work for you any Sunday.

I said, Well, I gotta give my redneck some some advanced warning, so because we got a fence we got to work on.

And he said, Oh man, yeah.

I I I don't know what to say.

And I said, Well, just say the kingdom has come and his will got done.

And I said, We shook hands, I got his phone number, and I got his name, walked off, and of course, you know, I'm walking, and my wife's just staring at me.

I'm like, what are you staring at?

Uh-oh, what was that?

I just sense the Lord want to set the kingdom down right there.

I mean, you you've you've been in places in life where it's just on top of you.

Everything that can go wrong is wrong, and you're like, please, Calgon, take me away.

By the way, sometimes when you're reading a book, you ever read a book and it starts off all of a sudden the plot starts turning in a way you don't want it to go.

Somebody's getting killed that you don't want to get killed, and the bad person's winning, and you're like, to decide whether or not I want to keep reading this book, you turn to the last chapter.

And you read the last chapter just to decide if you want to keep reading the book.

Sometimes life can be that way.

So I want to close this morning by just kind of turning.

See, Paul says, remember this.

Remember this that the God of peace is going to crush Satan.

By the way, you're you've already won, but you're gonna win as well.

And so every once in a while it does good to turn to the last chapter and just kind of read.

So you don't have to turn there.

Let me just read to you from Revelation chapter 21.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

This is the first eight verses.

John the Revelator says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more.

For the former things have passed away.

And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.

So if it the next time you start getting overwhelmed, then it starts feeling kind of like, oh man, can anything else happen?

Just turn to the back of the book and remind yourself.

Because Paul says, remember this the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The God of peace achieves peace by triumphing over all of his enemies.

And all of your enemies are gonna be put in their proper place at the proper time.

Stand to your feet and let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

You were born slaves.

Not for twelve years.

You were born slaves.

And your father bought you all so you could go free.

And he's brought you in the house.

You're now sons and daughters.

Your father loves you, but you don't have to earn his approval.

You have his approval.

Depart now and live as accepted and approved people.

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

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.