Ep. 007 The Choice Before Us

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located in

beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship Ministries with

3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and

church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church and other sermons from

throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your host for this podcast.

I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing to you and bring you closer

to God. Hello again and welcome back to the podcast for the Potter's House Christian Church

and located in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. My name is David Bickford. I'm the pastor of

the Potter's House and this podcast we're going to be looking at a message I've entitled,

The Choice Before Us. The subheading for this is the Holy Spirit and our conscience.

Something I've always been interested in, I'm not a hunter myself. I've always thought about

getting into it but the reality is that you only have so many times or so many hobbies.

From what everybody tells me, hunting is a time-consuming hobby at best. I've never done it

but I've always been interested by it. I have this illustration that I'm going to look at to

start us off with. If you're going to grab your Bibles, if you have that at the ready,

the text we'll be using this morning as we're jumping off point will be Romans 1 verses 28

Romans 1:28–32

through 32. The illustration I have is the hunter and the hunted. Mankind has always had the

propensity to elevate the opinion of ourselves above God and other men and this can be seen

throughout history and the desire of great men and women who consider themselves to be God kings or

deities that have God-like powers. So in today's society we see all the tales of God-like heroes

waging war against evil villains but today we are also seeing the turning of the villains into

anti-heroes for us to sympathize with and adore as they are shown to be heroes.

So Reawakening, this is from a recent movie that came out, I guess, I don't know, it's probably been

over a year or so ago now but there was a movie called Black Adam and it says,

reawaking after 5,000 years, Black Adam becomes the world's ruthless protector, an anti-villain

to take on the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, and now in 21st century Black Adam must face off

against the Justice Society of America and its heroes, Dr. Fate, Hawkman, Adam Smasher,

and Cyclone. The fate of the world hangs in the balance. Nearly 5,000 years after he was

bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods and imprisoned, just as quickly, Black Adam

is free from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.

So here we see the hunters become the hunted in the sense of, you know, what we're seeing in society

is this move away from the classical hero to all the villains becoming heroes. So we'll dig into

this and like I said, I got a couple illustrations in here regarding hunting more directly but I just

kind of want you to think about that. Why is it that all of the things in society now are trying

to make the people who were the enemies of the past or the nemesis of the past to make them

more nuanced and try to show that they were forced to be that way? But let's look at our

text in Romans 1, 28-32. Furthermore, just as you did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge

of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what ought not to be done.

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, depravity. They are

full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, god-haters, insolent,

arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They have no

understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that

those who do these things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also

approve of those who practice them. So it's an interesting jumping-off point as we kind of look

at where society is taking us in regards to what is right and what is wrong. Well, let's take this

little glimpse of a hunting style called persistence hunting. This technique is an old hunting

technique in which hunters use a combination of running, walking, and tracking to pursue their

prey to the point of exhaustion. While humans can sweat to reduce their body heat, most of our prey

animals or quadrupedal prey would need to slow down from a gallop in order to pant. Today,

persistent hunting is very rarely used, but it's still used today. Only in a few places such as the

Kalahari Bushmen or the Tarahumara or the Raraw-Murray people of northern Mexico.

The technique requires endurance running. We're running long distances over extended period of

time. And among all of God's creation, endurance running is only seen in humans. Persistent hunting

is thought to have been one of the earliest forms of human hunting. But keep that in mind

because there's a picture I'm going to be pulling from that. There's this idea of

persistence hunting. But one of the really interesting things about persistent hunting

is that by the time you track the animal and you have a group of people that are penning this

animal in using running and keeping pressure on the animals, the animal can't get away.

As you're actually running the animal almost or all the way to death, you're running them to death.

And so when the hunter catches up to the animal, the typical killing blow is one out of mercy

because by that point the animal has been run so ragged that their organs are already starting to

fail. In 2 Corinthians 2, 10-11, it says,

To whom you forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it,

for your sakes forgave I it in person of Christ. Lest Satan should get an advantage over us,

for we are not ignorant of his devices. So let's look again at this picture of

persistence hunting and the ways that you can extrapolate this or look at it as a way that a

devil tries to attack humanity. There's a simple method here of separation. You have the herd,

right, whether it's sheep or whether it's gazelle or whatever it is, it doesn't matter, goats,

I don't care. Whatever the herd is, you have the devil that's striving to separate you

from the pack because he knows that once he can separate you from the pack, it's a lot easier to

chase you down, which is the next stage of this method of hunting is that the chase, that once the

chase ensues, now the devil and his minions and all those that are side with him, they can pursue you

away from the pack. Once separated, he can chase us relentlessly because he's removed us from the

covering of the word of God. He's removed us from the covering of our church or of our brothers and

Christ, our brothers and sisters in Christ. And now he's chased us out into the wide, wide world

where we begin to seek refuge in a world that has no protection for us. And when the chase is on,

he can keep the pressure on so that you have no rest. And this can drive you to exhaustion

because this is his goal is to drive us to exhaustion. But what the devil doesn't have is

he doesn't have the full capability to take us out because we can always turn to the Lord.

And our rest is in the Lord. Psalm 37 verse seven says, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.

And fret not thyself because of him who is prospereth in his ways,

because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

This brings me to my second point. So the first point was to look at the devil's tactics.

The devil, one of his tactics is going to be to separate you from the things of God,

separate you from a relationship with God. That way you're out in the world all on your own so

that he can chase you down and run you till you're exhausted and you give up. The second point is the

church and our reaction. And the third point that I'll touch on will be the choice that comes before

us because we all have a choice to make. But let's first look at the church and our reactions.

The church and the book of Revelation all had very different reactions to the gospel of Jesus

Christ. At one point they would have all heard the same gospel, but over time their reactions

to the gospel changed. It became very different. And in order to understand the book of Revelation,

we must first understand the apostle John. The apostle John was one of the closest people to

Jesus on earth. As his best friend and an eyewitness to Jesus's life, death, and resurrection,

even after being tortured and then exiled to the island of Patmos, John was faithful

and never stopped talking about Jesus. For John, it was always about Jesus and his church.

So he had a single-minded focus and that's something we can gain here is an understanding

because in our lives we all try to do more than one thing. We all try to do multiple things,

but we need to have a central focus and I believe that that central focus has to be on the Lord.

But in Revelation 1 verses 1 through 3 it says,

Revelation 1:1–3

Let's look at the churches of Revelation. You have Ephesus, the faithful but unloving church,

and you can read that in chapter 2 verses 1 through 7 of Revelation.

Jesus commended the Ephesians for how they served faithfully. They endured hardship,

having sound doctrine, hated heretics, but his big criticism is that they're not very loving.

In 1 Corinthians 13 1 through 3 we see when the apostle Paul talks about a similarly unloving

situation, it says,

This is an important point for us to understand.

Politicians often claim to do things on our behalf, but it is not for love. It is done,

it doesn't measure up to God. If it is not for love, it doesn't measure up to God.

Similarly, if we don't start from a pace of love, then what we are doing can become a drudgery.

It begins to steal our joy and we can resent not only those we serve, but we can look down upon

them and see them as less than human. How many leaders throughout history have looked down on

their subjects? How often do we judge others when they are not measuring up to our standards?

The question is, do we measure up to God's standards? He loved us enough to send his

son Jesus, and Jesus loved us so much that he died that we might be saved. We need to check

ourselves and find our center in God's love so that we can take joy in the process and serve

others with love and compassion. This is something we all struggle with. We all need to strive for.

It is a challenge that is ever-present in our life. Sometimes we can be seen as overbearing if we are

even in love trying to serve God, but we have to remember to temper that so that people know that

they might be overpowering, they might be too excited, but I can tell that he loves me or that

that church loves me. We have to remember that. It is a hard thing sometimes to remember.

Then we can look at the church of Smyrna, the church of the tribulation in chapter 2, 8-11.

Jesus tells the church in Smyrna to be encouraged and to endure what he endured, tribulation,

poverty, slander, suffering, and even death, but not to fear. There is clearly a spirit of fear

that is attacking this church. Just like the Marine Corps slogan says, we don't promise you a rose

garden, we are not promised to live a life without trials and tribulations. In reality, we are all

called to persevere throughout the challenges that meet us on the path. Knowing that he will equip us

for the journey, we need to look no farther than the life of King David and the constant ups and

downs that he faced, but in the end, he is the measuring stick for us on how to remain a man or

a woman of God, a man or woman after God's own heart. Here's a man who began like, you know,

he was plucked out of obscurity, anointed king, but then he goes and he wins a battle against a

giant only to then become hated and despised by King Saul. King Saul routinely would try to throw

a spear and pin him to the wall out of just envy and jealousy. So he had to run and he had to flee

living in caves. So here's a man who was anointed by God, he was beloved by God, but yet he

constantly went through battles. And then when he thought he made it, he falls to temptation only to

be judged again by God. So he does the right thing though, he repents. So throughout his entire life,

he had these ups and downs, these constant tumultuous times, but he was able to keep a

right relationship with God. In Pergamum, I hope I say that right, Pergamum, the apostate church,

the apostate church, which is in chapter 212 through 17 of Revelation, Jesus encourages them

for withstanding physical, political, and spiritual persecution in their city. However,

he rebukes them for their apostate beliefs, their false doctrine, and their behavior,

their sexual sin. How can we fall into apostasy? We can see this in society everywhere. Many who

claim to be servants of the Most High still live in a life of sin that can eventually take them away

from their salvation in Christ. This is a very real risk, is that you can only water down

the gospel so far. For we're not told that grace abounds just so we can sin.

We have to make stands to live more Christ-like lives.

The goal is to become more Christ-like, not less Christ-like, claiming grace.

So then we look at Thyatira, the tolerant church, chapter 2, 18 through 19. Jesus' words to this

church include some commendations for their actions, but a lengthy correction of their doctrine.

They were sinfully more tolerant than God, which is still a temptation for us today.

It's a very challenging thing for us today because we see so much sin being accepted

by groups that shouldn't be accepting of the actual act of sin. That doesn't mean we don't

love the person. Remember, you need to show love and compassion in a way back. When King David was

held accountable for his sin of adultery with the Sheba, there was still a chance for him to

be judged on the sin even after he repented in turn. But the fact that he did repent in turn was

why God was able to establish his line, and it became the Messianic line of Jesus Christ.

We can't allow our desire to see people do well in the Lord, take away from

the necessity for them to repent of their sin in order to do well. Otherwise, you're just lying to them.

What should Christian tolerance look like in our culture, community, and our church?

Christianity begins with tolerance and moves to repentance and change. If we repent of our sin,

we will be rewarded. If we do not, there will be justice and judgment. That's something that

we can't allow to be moved away from in the church. We show love and compassion to all.

We bring them face to face with the gospel so that they will recognize their wrongdoing

and turn from it and repent and then move on in the Lord. This is a very scary predicament,

though. The church forgives too much. They do not only preach the acceptance of the sinner

in Christ, but they remove the need for repentance. They refuse to acknowledge the need for it and

allow sins that God has already judged. That brings us to the Sardis church, the apathetic church.

This is in chapter 3, 1 through 6, Revelation. Sardis is at the site of the temple Artemis,

and many people worship false gods and goddesses at that temple. Yet the church in Sardis was

indifferent, hard-hearted, and stiff-necked. In a word, they were dead. Another word for apathy

is cynicism, and they are very similar in what they mean. Apathy means the absence or suppression

of passion, emotion, or excitement, lack of interest in or concerning for the things that

others find moving or exciting. Cynicism means distrusting or disparaging the motives of others,

showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's own actions,

especially by the actions that exploit the scruples of others, contemptuous or pessimistic.

We can see that in today's society. Some people are just apathetic. Do whatever you want. I don't

care. And that's the wrong way to live life. We should always, in love, care and cry out.

That's why we should be crying out for salvation through Jesus Christ, is because we should care

enough to continually preach the gospel, even through trial and persecution. The church of

Philadelphia, the church that stood in chapter 3, 7 through 13, Jesus has only encouragement for

this church. Though Satan hates and hinders the church that did not deny Jesus' name, Jesus loves

this church, and that's enough to empower and encourage them. He opened a door of opportunity

for them that no one could shut, and it's said to be the last church in Turkey to fall to the sword

1,200 years later. The church of Laodicea is called the lukewarm church, and that's in verses 14 to

22 of chapter 3. In this church, Jesus has no encouragement for them. They are lukewarm

and worship comfort, not Christ. Though materially wealthy, they are spiritually poor, blind, and

naked. Jesus tells them and us to accept discipline, to be zealous and repent. If you stop repenting,

you'll start growing lukewarm. They had basically locked Jesus out of their church. Now, this is not

meaning that your salvation just flips away because you didn't repent one day because you

were speeding on the highway. That's not what that's about, but it's the revelation that we need to

continually move towards Christ and not allow ourselves to go away from him without feeling

the conviction of the Lord. Because if you continually go away from him and you allow that

conviction to get watered down, watered down, watered down, what you'll do is you'll walk away

on your own as your lukewarm. In Hebrews 10, 26 through 27, it says, if we deliberately keep on

sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sin is left, but only a

fearful expectation of judgment and of the raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

This brings me to my last point, which is the choice before us. In the end, we all have a choice to make.

In our own lives, we have a choice to make. What church will we emulate? What people will we choose to be?

We know that the devil goes around like a roaring lion. 1 Peter 5, verse 8,

1 Peter 5:8

be alert and sober-minded. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion,

looking for someone to devour. But if we also know that the devil has been defeated,

and as we reside in Christ, we are given the strength to overcome temptation and avoid the traps

and snares of the devil. Do not be fooled by this world attempts to trick you, to blind you,

to the things of God, and to fill you with their own foolish stories about the bad being good

and the good being bad. These are nothing but ploys to drive you to apathy like the church of Sardis.

Many of the attacks of the enemy are to steal your joy, to steal your faith, to wear you down,

to make you wary, too tired to fight for the things of God. But you do not have to fall for these traps.

We are called to take our joy from the Lord and his purpose for our lives. In Jeremiah 29, 11-14,

it says, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you,

Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and

find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord,

and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where

I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place for which I carried

you into exile. This was written at the very beginning of their time of exile in Babylon.

It's a very good picture of how we can live today in the world, a fallen world that we have right now.

In Proverbs 6-5, it says, free yourselves like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,

like a bird from the snare of the fowler. Pick the wisely and stay with the herd, hunting analogy.

Right? If we stay with the church,

if we stay with the brothers in Christ that are serving God, we're going to have that hedge of

protection. So as I come to the close, I just want to kind of share this piece that I found from

a speech that Abraham Lincoln made in 1863. We have been the recipients of the choices,

bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and in prosperity.

We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, and no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten

God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched

and strengthened us. And we have vainly imagined in deceitfulness of our hearts that all these

blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken

success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving

grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. We need to rely on our Lord.

On our Lord. We need to rely on others who are serving the Lord. And that's why we need to focus

in our lives and pray and read and stay in fellowship. Pray to God. Read our word, the

Bible and fellowship. So again, as long as you're not driving, if I could have every eye closed,

just for this moment, because I always end with the invitation. If this message has spoken to you

at all, if this has convicted you at all, and you've recognized that you are a Christian,

you've recognized that you are out there in the field on your own, running as the devil pursues

you and you're tired, you don't have to be tired. You can reside in the Lord. You can become one of

his children. You can be placed into his flock. It's a very simple thing. It's a very simple prayer.

If that's you, you can signify that wherever you are with an uplift of the day. And because God sees,

as a podcast played three years from now, a hundred years from now, God sees your heart.

And if he did raise your hand, you can repeat a simple prayer. It's just a simple invitation.

It just simply says, Dear Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I've messed up.

But I know that you sent your son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sin. I repent of my sin. I turn away

from it. And I accept you as my Lord and my savior. I give you all the praise and glory. And I thank

you for the grace and the salvation that comes from it. In Jesus name. Amen. That's a simple prayer,

but that literally takes you out of the world and puts you into the book of life through Jesus

Christ. And so the next step is find a Bible believe in church. If you're in Sammon arm,

come to come come to our church. If not, you know, reach out. We have 3000 churches globally.

I'd be happy to push point you in the direction of one, but find a Bible believing church,

get a Bible, read your Bible, pray and fellowship with those brothers and sisters in Christ.

I thank you for listening today. I hope this message has impacted you. If it has, please let

me know. You know, I really hope that this is just going to get out there so that more people are

touched by by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and what it can do in your life. So thank

you again and you have a great day. Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's house

salmon arm podcast. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Potter's house underscore salmon

arm to keep up to date on what we're doing. Join the conversation and discover how Jesus Christ can

revolutionize your life.