Virtue, Teamwork, and Humility - The Pathfinder Way?

Let's have a word of prayer, Father God, we ask

to live for Jesus period in our generation.

Amen, how many.

Of you since we're living at the end of the world,

you can feel it. Evil abounds in our culture. You

can see hatred, you can see divisiveness, you can see.

The love of many growing cold. You can see it

in the church.

But how many of you want to be a vibrant, loving, caring,

bold Christian ready for the coming of Christ? And I'm

in that club.

We're going to have.

God's having it already. We're going to have an evangelistic

meeting for the month of October, four nights a week, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday,

and Wednesday seven o'clock right here, and God's going to

bring And we have over fifty registrations right now from

the brochure. It's been sent out to the meeting Monday.

The AVA is going to carry a fifteen minute interview

for the meeting we're going to have and Wednesday as well,

and they'll air through this entire area.

But here's what I've learned over the years.

It's not about being big, It's about being faithful. Some

people say, well, Pastor Mike, and I have pastored churches

when there were three thousand people present and I was

the senior pastor of that. I've pastored a church of

ten people. And I'll tell you here's how I think.

Give me faithful people.

I don't care how few they are anytime over a

multitude that's choosing to be unfaithful. Now, pathfinders, you are

called to be faithful in your generation. When you're at

school and you have associations who want to drag you

into doing things that isn't right, you're called to stand

for Jesus.

Let it be known that you're a Christian. Now.

Samuel has gone to college, and we just got that

text that he's sharing the Bible right now at college,

he's doing Bible State. He's learned what he learned here

and he's sharing it there. God be praised for Samuel.

It's better to be faithful and a few, to be

many and go astray where two or three are gathered.

My name, God's name, Christ's name, which means his law,

his character, his virtues. To the title of our message

is virtue, teamwork, humility. The path under way. Let's move

to the first slide. I went through the second Epistle

of Peter first and second Epistles, And I looked for

the word precious, and I want to read to you

some of the statements that Peter makes about precious Simon

Peter at bond Servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ to

those who have obtained Like, what does it say in

bold letters there precious faith? Now, when we have faith

in Christ and we are faithful, what is it to God?

What's that word that's underlying there?

Precious with us by the righteousness of our God and

saving Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you

in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, to

our Lord. So when we grow, when we start with

faith and we grow with knowledge, our faith is precious

to God. Oh, let's go to the next slide. Second

Peter one seven, that the genuineness of your faith being

much more and what's the keyword there?

Precious than gold? How many of you like to have

a lot of gold in your bank account? Home on

you can you can maybe a head up and down. Well,

if you have precious faith, you are rich more than gold.

More than precious gold that perishes, though it is tested

by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory

at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So our faith is tested.

By what.

By by fire.

Now that there have been times in my life when

I have let Jesus down. Is anybody here in that

club where I just failed him or I did the

wrong thing? And there have been times when I have

been tested and when I stood right and tall for Christ.

I feel good about the good times in which I

was faithful, and I realized when I didn't pass the test,

God would work with me so I could pass the

test again. See, even when we fail, he is faithful.

You see, the mustard seed of our faith that is

small must lay hold of the mountain of His faithfulness.

And so when we have Jesus. In the Book of Galatians,

Jesus is called the faith. The faith came, It was revealed.

The faith we need is Jesus. So the reason why

our faith is precious is because we have a real

relationship with Christ, who never ever failed. So if we

hold the hand of the one who is faithful, like

in the Book of Relation, we hold the hand of

the one who holds the keys, We're going to unlock

every door for the future and make it even through death,

because Jesus is faithful.

And if Jesus is faithful and you're with Christ, what

can you be?

That's my revelation fourteen twelve is here are those who

keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

So our faith is more precious than gold. Let's go

the next verse one Peter one, eighteen nineteen. Knowing that

you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or

gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.

But what were we redeemed by? What does it say,

but with the precious blood of Christ. If I were

to ask you path finders next week, by what were

you redeemed?

What would be your answer? Based on this verse?

Would it be the blood of Christ or the precious

blood of Christ? Say aloud, the precious blood of Christ.

When Christ shed his blood for us, it was so valuable.

God unlocked all of Heaven, He opened up Heaven's treasury,

and he gave all of God to save us. Now

here's the thing that Satan had accused God of being

a being whose chief attribute is stern justice. He pictured

God as a being who cannot give, which is love

because he has everything, he's all powerful.

How could he give anything? And it mean anything? But

when God.

Gave Jesus, Jesus passed the God test. God gave God.

Paul says, God was in Christ. It was the blood

of the son of God, who is God, that was

shed for us, the precious blood of Christ. So we

weren't saved by something ordinary in common, not some created

being that God brought into existence so he could killing

to save us. God gave God to save us. So

what kind of blood is Jesus blood? Again, what's the

key word precious? Let's go the next verse, coming to

him as to a living stone. Now, what kind of

stone is Jesus? Dead stone or living stone? Living stone?

Not a rolling stone. Stay away from those guys. They're

old and ugly and they haven't figured out they're old,

you know, coming to him as a living stone. Rejected

indeed by men, but chosen by God. Okay, what is Christ?

Decrant that word? What's the key word precious? You also

as living stones? Now, if Christ is a living stone,

he's precious.

And I belong to Jesus.

According to Peter in verse five, when am I I

am a living stone?

That makes me precious. That makes you precious.

Don't you let anyone can convince you that you're not

valuable to God and to the heavenly universe. You are

of immense value to God. God would have ended his

own eternal life forever to save you, just you.

That's how important you are.

Pathfinders is a place where you can grow into a

relationship with Jesus that locks you in to the precious

living stone.

And you are precious too.

You also, as living stones, are being built up in

a spiritual house.

Now is the Lord knocking us down or building us up?

That's right, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable

to God through Jesus Christ. See, nothing we do, even

the good we try to do, is not good enough

unless it's through Jesus. So Jesus is in the Pathfinder club.

The Holy Spirit brings Jesus to the club. So you grow,

You know Christ, you make a difference. Next verse tewod

Peter two seven. Therefore to you who believe, all right?

Does it say to you who do not believe? What

does it say there to you who believe? Okay, that's

the condition. He is precious. Now, what if you don't

believe Christ is not precious to you. So how important

is faith? It's hugely important because your faith is precious

because your faith lays hold of the one who is precious.

Jesus is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the

stone which the builders rejected has become the chief of

the cornerstone. Next slide second Peter three to three. Now

let's apply it to our life practically. Peter then talks

about things that can get in the way. Is it

possible to try and look so important and overcompensate in

our life where we try look precious because we feel

like we aren't precious?

Is that possible?

Like overdress? You know, I knew someone who came to

church once. Man, they look like a Christmas tree. I mean,

I'm not trying to be harsh. They look like a

Christmas tree. They had, you know, probably ten necklaces, rings

on every finger, stuff in their ears, they had their

hair looking glorious, and their dress. When they walked through,

I felt like I was looking at the constellation and

the sky or maybe the M forty two networ ryan

Nebula or something.

It was amazing and all you could do is look

at them.

Does God want us to dwell on ourselves or the

beauty of Jesus? Now look what this Peter says here,

do not let your adornment be Do you see that

word merely in your translation? See the word merely. That

is not the Greek language. It was added by the

translator because he wanted to soften this verse and the Greek.

It's a very strong negative of prohibition. Do not let

your adornment be outward, arranging the hair, wearing.

Gold, or putting on fine apparel. In the Roman world, they.

Would weave these gold fibers into the hair, and they

would make their hair look like it was Fort Knock's

bank account, alright, And they thought that if they had

lots of gold in their hair.

Now if you put that, if you put.

Real gold in your hair, as they did in the

Roman world, you're likely to get mugged, because that gold

is worth money. So Peter said, wait a second here

verse four. Rather, let it be the what does he

call it?

Here?

The hidden person of the heart, with what kind of beauty?

Incorruptible beauty? And here is humility, a gentle and quiet spirit,

which is very precious. So when we come to Christ.

Is Christ arrogant? Or is Christ humble? Does Christ draw

attention to himself? Or does Christ point us to God?

The Bible says in Isaiah fifty three that he had

no form or comeliness that we should desire him. Jesus

Christ came to this world looking ordinary, even though he

was the most beautiful being in the universe. He humbled

himself so that we could be saved.

And in that.

Quiet spirit, that very precious person of Jesus, he then

humbled himself to death on a cross so we could

be exalted as children of God. So who is our

focus in life? Us or Jesus Jesus? Okay, next light,

how many of you like gemstones?

Kids? I like you to come up here.

I got something for you to look, but you want

to touch it?

It's worth touching. Whant it? Come up?

Come on, can get out of your seats of your

pathfire and I'll put you back. Don't dock them for this.

Come on, come on up. I got two things I'll

let you hold in your hand here, all righty, get

some kids up here. Yeah, come on, you want to

see these? Yeah, come on up, I'm gonna let you

hold them now. This big one here was giving me

by Andy Harold because of the blue stone study we

have at Reaching Hearts.

This is a sapphire that's not clear, so it's not what.

They call valuable. But that's very heavy. And imagine that

being crystal cleared. And I want you to all to

get right here and come on up here on this

stage with me. Come on up, yeah, come on up.

I want you to hold this and just for a second,

hold that and tell me if that's heavy.

You got it? Yeah, hold it that.

If that was a sapphire that was clear, it'd be

worth millions of dollars.

You want to hold it? Okay, I'm gonna let them

see it. See that?

How big that thing is. It feels like a piece

of lead. It's corundum in nature. Now, ruby and sapphire

made the same material, with slagh different problems to it.

You want to see that. Hold that? See that? See that?

All righty, let me show you another one. Now, this

one's pretty, isn't it. It's not that pretty. It's not glass.

To a little story behind this, someone flew halfway around

the world because he thought he had the most valuable

ruby in Burma or wherever he came from and he said,

because of how big this is, it's heavy, and they

wanted the pasture to test it. Now, why would they

come to me to test it? So I actually took

it and got it tested. And when I got it tested,

it's a real gemstone, but it's man made and it's

you know, you want to want to hold that real gemstone.

Look at how beautiful that is? See that? Yeah? What

do you think of that? You're not sure? Not sure?

That's all right, you don't have to comment on I

put you on the spot. Now look at that one there,

Go ahead and pass that around. Feel it is that pretty?

Wow? Is it a butch? Is a crystal? Yeah?

And it's heavy too, like lead. This is probably an

artificial ruby or spinel, but it's so large that it

has value as a synthetic gemstone. But nothing this. If

this was a gemstone found in nature, it would be

worth multiple millions of dollars. But it's probably worth I'm

not going to say it's worth, but it is worth

some money. Now you know how these things are made.

It takes pressure and heat to make a gemstone.

Deep in the earth.

Pressure and heat. Now, if we're going to be a

gemstone for Jesus. What does it take to create a

gemstone for Jesus? Pressure and heat? Our faith is try.

You may go back to your seats.

Thank you. There you go.

All right, my favorite thank you, young people, my favorite gemstones.

I'm going to show you what they are.

Ruby, I mean even like ruby's now, ruby is intrinsically chemically,

as I said, the same thing as a sapphire, but

except for the impurities that change the color corundum beautiful.

Now what does ruby red color remind you of in

the Bible? What's precious that's red in our Bible? The

precious what did Peter say? The precious blood of Jesus.

Let's go to the next slide.

How maybe you like.

Emeralds, Oh, I love emeralds, Burrel, emeralds, aquamarine and that

same family, but emeralds beautiful. You can find burl gemstones

right where we go fishing at mckelden State Park. So

when you're walking through the creek beds, look for gemstones.

In fact, Emmanuel found the state gemstone when we went

fishing right there at mckilden, and we didn't know what

it was, so he broke it open. We threw it

into water. You know, we'll go back and look for

it one day. Let's look at the next one, all right,

God says, what is over God's throne an emerald rainbow

and Ezekiel one.

It represents faithfulness.

Sister White had a vision which was a green cord

that got us from here to heaven. It's faithfulness, hanging

on to Jesus with faith.

What is your faith?

In the Bible, it is precious keyword next to slide

the great emerald rainbow that surrounds God's throne. We're told

in the spirit of prophecy that Christ will come through

that open space in Orion.

The very best photographs we have of Orion.

It is an emerald rainbow in space four clusters of

stars called the Trapezium, the middle forty two binary star

systems that incidentally, one of them is sending radio signals out,

which has got SETI all focused in it. The Bible

also indicates, and I can't prove it to you right

now as we say it, but that is the place

where God's throne is located, Orion, and all the ancient

world religions were enamored with it. An emerald rainbow in space.

Let's go the next spot here. How many you like diamonds?

Diamonds are not as rare, but it takes a tremendous

amount of pressure to turn carbon, which is what you

would have if you burn coal in your stove, into

a diamond. And you can dissolve a diamond just like

you can dissolve carbon through chemical means. So don't go

taking a diamond to your chemistry class and dissolving it.

A diamond is not as rare as other things. Rubies

and sapphires are more rare than a diamond. But what

makes a diamond special?

What does it do? When you hold a diamond?

It takes the light, It captures it, and it glorifies light.

In the Bible, god is it says, he's Jasper the Father.

But the word jack whisper in Greek, the aspis is

almost certainly the ancient word for diamond. Moved to it

says the new Jerusalem is like.

A glorious jewel. Well, Jasper's not glorious a diamond is.

It's diamond? Next light?

So the diamond captures light because God is light. It's

God precious yes or no?

All right?

Next light, here's my favorite gemstone. What color is a sapphire?

It's blue.

Does anybody know what color of gemstone represents Jesus in

the Bible. I give you a hint. I always give

the answers out easy. It's sapphire. Sapphire. God's ten Commandments

were taken from the blue sapphire Throne.

Of Glory, according to scripture and.

Bible says that the lamb who is in the middle

of the throne will be their shepherd. The word of

God came from the living Word of God, so blue

represents Christ the law, the living word of God. Go

to the next slide here, and so the ten Commandments

were taken out of that. I have a friend who

has just made a presentation. He made a life size

copy of the Ten Commandments out of material that looks

blue sapphire. And I'm going to invite him to reaching

Hearts to have a presentation and show you those blue

sapphire stone tablets. The devil tried to kill him years

ago with a stroke, but he has recovered and his

life ministry is to share the blue stone truth of

Jesus and God's law to the world. Humble man, he

works here locally. He's a member of our sister church

here in Laurel. Let's go to the next slide. This

is the rarest gemstone.

They tell me.

It's the same color as a ruby, and then when

they first found it, they thought it was a ruby.

It's called paynite. Can you hear the word pain? Okay, paynite?

What makes it unique?

Is it?

Boron and zircom zirconium, which almost are never together in nature,

They never form a crystal bond.

Somehow they did.

And because two things that are so different got together

to make something so beautiful, you have Painite. Now, how

many of us are different in the church? Are we

the same color?

No? Do we come from the same places in the world. No.

But when different people get together in their love for Jesus,

it's the rarest jewel in the world. It's a beautiful thing.

It's unity and harmony. It's teamwork. Pathfinders. You are called

to work with others for the cause of Jesus. Let's

move to the next slide. And His divine power has

given to us all things that pertain to life godless,

through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory.

And what word do I have here? Virtue? What is virtue?

Definition of it?

Here? It is? Next light? Actually there it is? Help

me with that? What's virtue?

Behavior showing high moral standards? So do we honor Christ

when we choose to be disobedient and to break our

own conscience?

Is that an honorable thing? Dishonorable?

If we have virtue, if our faith is precious, what

will we choose to do with our spare time?

Give glory to God with it? I had a friend

in college. We had a Bible group going.

There was a revival at Southern Avedist University was Southern College.

Way back then they used to call it Southern Matrimony

College because you find your wife there. I married Diana.

I found her there, but I never will forget in

this Bible study group was happening in my room on

our hall.

We were praying.

There was one young man who came up and he said,

you know, I'm a Christian. I'm so excited about being

a Christian. I'm sharing my faith. I said, well, how

you doing it?

He says, why? I go to the bar.

And I sit down and I get a drink, and

they get a drink and I tell them about Jesus.

That does that sound right to you.

Can you really share Jesus if you're not acting like Jesus,

if you don't value what Jesus values. So it's in

these little things of life. The Bible says, the springs

inside is where the soul is found. If they're clean,

we have a relationship with God. Behavior showing high moral standards.

Next light.

All right, humility and virtue are necessary for what's the

word that I have at the bottom. Teamwork when we

are different, but we shine for Christ in our differences.

We are faithful as we are different, and we come

together not to draw attention to ourselves, but to focus

on Christ, who is precious. We have team work. The

Church is a team God. Next slide. God himself is

a team. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit is

God a team. God did not create the universe out

of need. God created the universe because he's a team

full of love. It's out of the fullness of love

he created the universe. Next slide. God would say this

with me, Read this with me altogether. God would rather

have a team than a hero. He would rather work

with us all than just have one person looking good.

Go next.

So we're called as Christians to team work right, And

you know that's kind of fun because when we stick together,

we have friends for the rest of our lives. The

friendships you have in Pathfinders, you will carry them into

the future. The friendships you have in church, end of

the future. So how many Let's end by asking this

simple question. How many of you are very grateful for

Jesus Christ. Is he precious to you