Works Won't Work

Today we're going to do discipleship and my corny title,

which I'm actually kind of proud of.

I'm not very I'm not often proud of my titles, but work won't

work which as we get into it, you guys will see that and it is

really fun. We get into the study a little

ways. I'll point it out, but Aunt

Sherry and her the 1st 2 songs were definitely for this study.

And lastly, for lifting up Aunt Sherry and just not trying to

take her crown away. But people claim that their

biggest fear is public speaking. I bet you it's not.

Because if I give every one of those guys that say public, you

can either go public speak or you can public stand up and sing

without an instrument. I'll bet you everybody's public

speaking because that is hard to do.

And I appreciate her and her ability to to fill that gap for

us. Anyway, we're going to be we're

going to read in second Timothy chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

We are, we are literally going to be all over the Bible.

But we're going to anchor ourselves here.

But now, Oh, sorry, let me my new Bible.

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come,

for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,

boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents,

unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without

self-control, brooder, despisers of of good traitors, headstrong,

haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having

the form of godliness but denying its power.

Does that sound like anything from such people?

Turn away, for of this sort are those who creep into the

household and make up, make captivities of gullible women,

loading down with loaded down with sin, LED away by various

lusts, always learning, and never able to come to the

knowledge of the truth. Now as James and Jambreeze

resisted, sorry, Janice and Jambreeze resisted Moses, so do

these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds disapproved

concerning the faith, but they will progress no further, for

their folly will be manifest to all of their, all of theirs

also. But you have carefully followed

my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, purpose, faith,

long-suffering, love, perseverance, persecution,

affliction, which happened to me at Antioch and Iconium and

Lystra, what persecutions I endured, and out of them all of

the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live

godly in Christ will suffer persecutions, but evil men and

impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being

deceived. But you must continue in things

which you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you

learn them, and what from childhood you have known the

Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation

through faith, which which is in Jesus Christ.

And then all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for

instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be

complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

And Lord, I just thank you for giving us your word, Lord, thank

you that it is true and profitable, Lord, that it guides

and direct us. And Lord, I just thank you for

everybody here. Thank you for this time.

Thank you even for the weather, Lord that Lord, as it's cold,

that there would just be some blessings in it somewhere the

the sunshine. And Lord, that you would speak

to me, Lord, that you would speak through me, and Lord that

you'd be in our midst in Jesus name, Amen.

So discipleship is just discipling someone to become

more like Christ. That's, that's Christian

discipleship. Christ, Christ discipled many,

but he was there. There's twelve of them that

would have said they were in his discipleship school, right?

And the goal of a disciple is just to become more like the

teacher. And when you look at Peter's

life in Mark 117 and we've all heard the heard this one, I'm

sure. Then Jesus said to them, follow

me and I will make you become fishers of men.

And then Peter later understood his need to follow and learn,

right? And there's a there's a part

where Jesus, a bunch of Jesus, says some hard things.

And then when people question him on his hard things, he

double S down and makes them harder.

And then he looks at Simon, he looks at all the apostles and

said, are you going to leave me too?

And John 668 and 69 it says, but Simon Peter answered him and

said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal

life also we have come to believe and know that you are

the Christ, the Son of the living God.

So as we disciple people, as we are discipled, the goal is, is

to teach someone who was dead to live the new life in Christ,

right, to become more like him every day.

And we don't do that in our flesh.

We do that through submission and and letting our flesh die,

right, and being less and less selfish every day and more, more

and more Christ centered every day.

Second Corinthians 517 And I'm kind of blowing through some of

these here just because they're the ones I use quite often.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become

new and the when we read that the world the new believers come

out of today is backwards, right?

And Jesus has a lot of old thinking to remove and refill

with his own. Our culture, of course, isn't

unusual. Rome.

Rome was as bad, or at least no better.

And I know that there's there are lines out there that people

will say if God doesn't come and judge America owe Sodom and

Gomorrah an apology. But I'll tell you that when you

actually think that that thing, that statement through Sodom and

Gomorrah, we, we still have distance to fall, right?

I, I don't go visit towns and worried about worrying, worrying

about guys dragging me outside to have sex with me.

So that isn't we aren't there yet, but it is there is distance

there to fall in our culture, but our culture is still we're

definitely on the we have a lot of darkness in our culture that

is confusing, right? Because it, I mean, we have, we

have made everything, everything is how I feel and what I think

and my need to be validated. And, and Jesus is not that he is

not going to validate your feelings.

He isn't going to bend to your thoughts.

He isn't going to, he isn't going to care about your truth,

right? Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9 says

Isaiah 55:8

for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my

ways, says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the

earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts

higher than your thoughts. So when we come to the Lord,

when we are, when we are teaching somebody or guiding

somebody to the Lord, it is not from a position of what is

culturally acceptable, right? We're, we're going to teach him

what the Lord says and, and he says some hard things.

The world cannot comprehend Christ and the power he has to

bring things to life, right? I mean, and, and when we, when I

say that as Christians, we have to know that the God we serve,

right? We have to know that whoever is

in Washington, DC, we have to know who's in charge.

We have to know that when someone that can't be saved is

saved, that God has the ability to change them from the inside

out, right? We have to know the God we serve

in such a way that we, we understand what he is capable

of, right? He is, He is bigger than we, we

give him credit for. And as a Christian discipleship

is completely different than what the world would, what the

world even thinks it is, right? Because the world would tell you

that it's like self help books is that you're just trying to

make yourself a better person. Yeah, church is good for you

because you know you need that crutch.

No, I need AI need a an EI need an ICUI don't need a crutch

right. I am I am always I'm the worst

part of my discipleship training right.

It is I am the one that is broken and I need Jesus to come

in and train me and teach me and show me every day of my life.

And when we're discipling others, that's what we are.

We are showing them is just we're guiding them to grow in

their personal relationship with Christ.

Right, guys? This isn't a Christianity and I

say it a lot Christianity. I don't want to be a Christian.

I don't want to act like a Christian.

I want to be 1 and to be one that is to what a Christian was

the first time they were called Christians is they were called

there was a mocking term that meant little Christ.

They were acting like these little Jesus is running around

right? That's what I want to be.

And the only way to be that is to spend time with the one that

can make me that. It isn't about anything.

I, I can, I can find a rule book, it's in here.

I can, I can check off all the rules that are in here and that

won't get it done right, That work won't work.

And but what I'm looking for is the living water of Jesus to

fill me up. And then when that fills me up,

I'm able to pour out into other people and it's an exchange of

my wants for his will. John 7 verse 38.

John 7:38

And this one is actually a life first for me.

And the living water line in Uganda is he who believes in me,

as the scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of

living water. And the idea there is, is that

when we, when we are in Christ, when he is filling us up, we

can't help but pour out into the, into the world around us,

into the, the people we work with, the, the people we shop

with. Just, we have a ability to

affect our community because of what Jesus has done in our

lives. Not because I've read my Bible.

I read, I read through my Bible twice a week, right?

Not because I'm, I'm like a speed reader.

I, I fast 14 * a month and I, I, I pray 5 hours a week, right?

None of that is point. The point is I am, I am so close

to Jesus that he that I reflect his light into the world, right?

And that is discipleship. As we get into discipleship,

what it is not is a list of rules you have to follow in

order to follow Jesus, right? It is and and like I call us all

the time dirt, right? We were made from dirt and we're

going to return to dirt. Our bodies are and and we can

get it in our heads. And I imagine the angels sit up,

sit up above us and look down and just chuckle that as we go

through this stuff, they're boxes to be checked, right?

That that we do these things to do these things and we don't

everything that we do, we do to grow closer to Christ period.

And that's and that is well, like I've talked about for the

last three weeks, the get TOS right, which is reading and

meditating, praying, memorizing, fasting, giving, studying,

worshipping and witnessing are all things that and are all

things that can become work right?

They they can become a works mentality of I have to do this

in order for Jesus to love me and guys, there is nothing you

can do to increase Jesus's love for you, right?

He loves you. He loves you as much today as

the day you were born. How much do you love him right.

And as we get into discipleship, sorry if you are if you are

doing them to build your relationship with Jesus, then

you're doing them right. I was just kind of poking at

Faye the other day and I said, you know, it's we get in our

heads that, that it's a works thing.

And you know, if, if being married, if I give you a, you

know, I go, I go to a guy. And I said, you know what, I see

you've been married for 60 years and I'd like to know how'd you

do it? And he looked at me and said,

well, I don't sleep with other women.

Now that is a should not right? You you shouldn't sleep with

other women if you're married, but I'm pretty sure that isn't

how he stayed married for 60 years, right.

It wasn't by the things he wasn't doing.

It's but we get it in our heads, right, that there is something,

you know the the reason all the things that I do with Faye, you

know, all the time I spend with her is to know her better,

right? It's, it's, it's not a

requirement that because I am married now, I have to sit next

to you on the couch. It's hard work, right?

Or I have to take her to dinner, right?

No, I get to take her to dinner. I get to watch movies with her,

right? I mean, I get to do this stuff

and my, my line where where I came up with work won't work.

Matthew 721 through 23. And everybody knows this one,

but it's not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter

the Kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my

Father in heaven, many will say to me in the day, in that day,

Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast

out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name.

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me,

you who practice lawlessness. So this is this is a critical

point when we are asked why we should pass into peace, into the

peace and rest of Jesus, The only answer, the only answer is

by the grace of the King. That's it.

It's if any, and they, and that's where these people went

wrong is they said, Lord, haven't I done this and haven't

I done that and haven't I done this and haven't I done that?

And he said I did him in your name.

He didn't do anything. If it was done, Jesus did it.

You know, I don't have anything to offer him except my reliance

on him and Luke 1811 and this goes to my other one that I was

going to use was I could have used instead of instead of work

won't work. I was thinking I could use shall

nots shall not. But anyway, that's Luke 1811.

It says the Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself.

God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners,

unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

We won't be ready to meet Jesus if we think I am worthier than

other men, if we try to teach as we're doing discipleship, all

the things you shall not do. Now do I think that a good shall

not is I shall not sleep with other women.

That's a good. That's a good thing, right?

But I don't grit my teeth and, and try really hard not to sleep

with other women. I just love my wife and I spend

time with her, right? And so when we get into the, I

mean, I don't struggle with being an extortioner or being an

adulterer or even being a tax collector, right?

I, I don't struggle with those things.

I just, I just want to spend more time with Jesus.

And that really is our thing. And here's the here's the fun.

There is only one way, just one to get into heaven.

And and Sherri sang a song and then she sang another song just

to send it home. And in that song was a chorus

that said, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That's it, guys.

When you're discipling people, when you're, when you're guiding

people on what it is to be with, be a Christian, that's what

you're teaching them, right? You're just sharing Jesus with

them. It's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, right?

And I shared last week. Acts 4413 says Now when they saw

the boldness of Peter and John and perceived they were

uneducated and untrained, they marveled and they realized that

they had been with Jesus. Because that's all I want to be

and that's all you should want to be, right?

And that's all that's all the time.

If you're spending time with younger believers and, and

teaching them anything, what you should be teaching them is how

to how to be closer to Jesus. All right.

So how that how that growth works is as our character is

transformed. By spending time with Jesus,

then he changes the way I see things, right?

It's like, for example, my, my character is not to love my

enemies. It's not right.

My my character is not designed that way.

But the character character of God is to love them.

So as our thoughts and minds are conformed to Christ and the Holy

Spirit living inside of us, loving our enemies takes care of

itself. It isn't something I try to do.

It's just something that happens.

You know, it's I imagine, I imagine there are people here

that have went through where they were going to quit cussing.

I'm going to I'm going to quit cussing and how that work.

Just, you know, I'm just going to quit or did when when you

actually quit, was it something that God just took away?

Right. I can remember I was working a

job and probably probably one of my worst days I've had in

excavation for yeah, I still remember it pretty clearly and

it was like 12 years ago, so it was a pretty bad day.

But at the end of it, I threw my hard hat probably like I got out

of the truck and the water line, it blew up and it was the end of

the day and we got to dig it all back up and I hooked my hard hat

probably to the water. I was, I was not happy and I was

in charge. And what blew up was my fault.

And I mean, this was just one of those days.

And I was, you know, then you're, you're diving in,

getting things running so you can get it open back up and get

everything shut down. And the water purveyor walked

over to me about 10 minutes later after things had calmed

down. And he had my hard hat in his

hand and he handed it back to me.

And he's like, you didn't even cuss.

And that wasn't because I was trying, guys, right?

That wasn't, I was, I was as mad as I could be.

And I didn't cuss because it wasn't in there to do right?

Because he had taken that away, not because, oh, in this moment,

I need to not cuss. Trust me, that was not going

through my mind. I was mad.

But that leads us now we're finally to the discipleship.

And what is that? What, how do you disciple

somebody? What's a what's a road map for

that? Second Timothy 316 and 17.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for

instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be

complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So the purpose here is to equip but equipping sounds like once

again we're back into that works thing and the goal here is never

it's why are we doing it right? You know, when pre marriage

counseling, why do you why? Why do I, why would I tell you,

you should get pre marriage counseling?

Why did why before I got married did we have pre marriage

counseling? Why do why do you do that?

Right? Because I want to know my wife.

I want to, I want to care for her the way she wants to be

cared for. I want to love her the way she

wants to be loved. I want to know her better.

And that pre marriage counseling helps with that, right, But

that's this kind of equipping is knowing Jesus better in what he

wrote down is beneficial to our relationship with him.

So Paul starts off with that. The word is first of all, it's

it's from it's inspired by God and it's in profitable for

doctrine and doctrine is just teaching, right?

Whatever is taught a principle or position in any subject

whatever is laid down as true by the instructor or the master.

And so that is once again we're in the word of God.

And John 716 through 18 Jesus answered and said to them, My

doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me.

If anyone wills to do his will, He shall now concern, He will

sorry, He shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from

God or whether I speak on my own authority.

He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks

the glory of the one who sent him is true, and no

righteousness is in him or no unrighteousness is in him.

So when we're teaching doctrine, not my opinion, but God's word,

that's that is your you do not want to create.

I do not want to create a bunch of little Nicks running around,

right? Not at all.

That is a horrible idea. And the number one principle

that we are not guiding them into into me, but teaching them

to be like Christ, right and reflecting his teaching and his

doctrine. And that can only happen when we

are in his word and praying right?

We, I don't have, you know, the I don't have the skill set to do

what God asks me to do outside of God, right?

If I'm, if, if I'm ever up here teaching and I'm doing it on my

own merits and my own ability, you guys are all going to leave,

right? It's, it is.

I am not capable of sharing Jesus with people outside of

Jesus. And when we are teaching

principles and truths taught by the word, be sure that I'm not

in it right? And that is, that is something I

struggle with you as I went through this study.

And that's one of the reasons I don't like doing topical

studies. As I went through this study, I,

I, I, I was done with this study on Wednesday.

Done put a fork in it. I now I can do, I can do some

other stuff. And, and then Thursday I

reworked it and then Friday we actually, I didn't do it because

we ended up in Spokane at a they had some stuff she needed to

take care of. And then Saturday I spent was

here till I was here late last night and I had pretty much

crumpled it up, threw it in the garbage and started over.

And the reason for that is that I felt like I was in it, which

is not where I want to be, right.

I want to tell you what what he says.

And so one of the ways we do that, one of the ways that we

and that the church has done it for centuries is teaching

doctrine is by by the use of creeds, right.

And a creed is just a summary of what the word already teaches.

So it isn't the creed doesn't make up new things.

It goes to the Bible and says, what does the Bible teach?

And now we're going to put that in a summary.

So what does the Bible teach about being a Christian?

So, and I'm sure everybody has, not everybody, but many of you

have heard the Apostles Creed. And if you're a Christian here

today, this is what you believe. It's, it's concise.

It's, there's a lot more that you believe, but this is what

you believe. If you don't know what you

believe, I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of

heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his

only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of

the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and

was buried. He descended into He descended

to the dead, and on the third day he rose again.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the

Father. He will come again to judge the

living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the body of Christ, the Church, the communion of the Saints, the

forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and

the life everlasting. So if you're a Christian, that's

what you believe. Now, if I'm, if I'm discipling

you, how I'm going to use that creed isn't by saying you're a

Christian and you believe that I'm going to start breaking it

down and showing you in the Word where it says that right.

You can. And it and it, it's just works

as an outline. It's it's a way to to go back.

And so you can teach each one of those bullets.

And then you can come back to the creed as often as as needed

to, to figure out what, what other questions they have,

because they're there are questions in there.

So did the did, did Mary really have to be a virgin?

Yes, she did right. Is is the Father, Son and the

Holy Spirit all God? Yes, they are.

Is there only one God? Yes there is right.

It's all there and I can show it to you in the word.

I mean, the creed isn't the word of God, but the creed gives you

a a position, gives you a tool to use to go back and show

people. So if we believe Jesus is God,

then we believe John 1 verses one through 3 which is in the

beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word

was God. He was in the beginning with God

and all things were made through him and without him nothing was

made that was made. So if we come at the Word from

that direction, right, the Word was in the beginning and Jesus

is the Word, right? Then suddenly the Bible is not a

book to be debated, but a book to be believed and applied to my

life. And the word was given by

inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So when we are reading,

meditating and thinking about it or studying it, we should be

asking God what he would like to show us, right?

There's, there's nothing I can stand up here and teach you that

you can't learn from the Holy Spirit by reading his word and

asking, right? That's, that is the, that is

what's a lot of fun. I've done mission trips for

years and years. And the funnest thing about a

Bible believing church and it's any Bible believing church is

that you can, you can go and you can listen to him because they

all have the same book, right? They're they're they're reading

out of the same book. Now, do I think that there are

people that take take some liberties with it?

Yes, right. There is.

And, and I have a buddy that that says God Forgives me for

all of my sins, including my bad doctrine.

And that's a fact, right, because none of it, nobody got

it right. And when we get to heaven,

there's going to be things that I know that I know that I know

I'm right on, that I'm wrong. J Vernon McGee is my perfect

picture of that because anybody heard him on the Bible bus.

I don't even know if it's still on the radio anywhere.

But yeah, it's, it's five years. And he takes you from Genesis to

Revelation. And he's a really simple, crazy

smart, but very simple teaching through the Bible.

And when he gets to spiritual gifts, this man who can divide

the word with just perfection, like he, he can illuminate

Isaiah. I mean, he's great.

He gets the spiritual gifts and gifts and starts doing backflips

with his own rules, right? Because he doesn't want to

believe in spiritual gifts now, because God has because God has

a a great sense of humor. But so Bible bust was done and

then Jay Vernon got sick, I believe it was cancer, and then

he was healed miraculously. And he will say he would, he

would have said while he was still here that he was healed

miraculously, right? And so he went backwards on his

view on spiritual gifts by the end of his life.

But my point with all that is because he got spiritual gifts

wrong, do I crumple up the Bible bus and throw the whole thing

out? No, I read my Bible and I know

what it says, right? And and I learn, right.

You have to have your, you have to be Bereans.

You have to dig in and know what it says.

And that's what when you're, when you're discipling somebody,

that's what you should be teaching them to do, is to be

digging into their own Bible and reading it for themselves, not

listening to do what I say. That is not discipleship, right?

Discipleship is guiding somebody into that relationship, like

more like a mentoring than a than a bossing, right.

So another way to know that you're and when I guess how do I

know that I'm teaching what the Bible says?

You've got you've got multiple ways of doing that inductive

Bible study and that, but you also just have is it read that

whole paragraph does as you're as you're looking at that verse,

whatever it is, read that whole paragraph.

Make sure it's in context, context of what's being said.

Read the book. Make sure that the way you're

interpreting that paragraph makes sense in that chapter and

in that book, and then make sure it all makes sense in the in the

whole counsel of God. So that's once again, that's

kind of like Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

It's context, context, context, right?

Who was about who was it written to?

All of those things matter. One of my favorite ways to

interpret the Bible is using the Bible, which is is there

anything else that says the same thing right.

Second, Peter 120 through 21. And this would teach the same

thing as Matt as a second Timothy knowing this first, that

no prophecy or scripture is of any private interpretation.

For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God

as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, right.

So that that backs up that that the words of God were were

inspired by God to be put there. So doctrine or teaching the

Bible is the word of God and should be used to build a

foundation in Christ, right? And that is just build that help

them to build a relationship and let them know what know that

they know, right? I mean, that's when there are

many, many other religions out there.

The, the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses are the two

that I will poke at today. There's, there's people in those

churches that have no idea what they believe, right?

They there, they don't know, they don't know how dark their

beliefs are because they just, well, well, Jesus, I'm a

Christian. But the problem is they don't

know what they're being discipled in because they

haven't read their own books, right?

So how do you know what it is to be a believer?

And do you know who Jesus is? And when I say that I don't, I

don't mean like some special secret knock.

I'm saying, have you? Do you spend time on a regular

basis with your Lord? Because that's discipleship and

we all need it, right? Whether whether I am discipling

someone else or I am being discipled, right?

We we need to be about the Lord's business and then back to

second Timothy. The next thing Paul says it's

good for is rebuking and rebuking is showing strong

disapproval of someone because of how they are acting for the

purpose of restraint or reforming them.

The Proverbs 27 five says an open rebuke is better than love

carefully concealed. So a rebuke is simply being able

and willing to call your brother or sister out when they are in

sin and making justifications for it.

And that's the that's the one when you're rebuking somebody,

it's because they are doing something and they are good with

it, right? And the example of that is First

Corinthians 5, one through 5. And this is Paul rebuking an

entire church who thought they were being loving.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among

you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the

Gentiles. That a man has his father's wife

and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned.

That he who has done this deed might be taken away from among

you, or indeed indeed as absent in the body, but present in the

Spirit, I have already judged as though I was present Him who has

so done this deed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you are gathered together along with my spirit, with the

power of the Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for

destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the

day of the Lord. So he was rebuking them for not

rebuking someone, right? So that tells you that you need

to be willing and able to call sin sin, right?

You need to be. It is our responsibility, our

duty. It's our obligation that we're

not supposed to be sin sniffers and telling people all the

things they're doing wrong. But if you see somebody that is,

I mean, this is a great example that is in sin and thinks they

are perfectly OK, you need to confront them in love.

And I mean, this isn't Paul throwing these people out of the

church. He's telling them to get their

act together, right? And and then telling them to

rebuke this guy. And then in the second letter,

if you guys haven't read it, but the second letter, the

Corinthians, he has to rebuke them again because the guy,

they, they tossed him out of the church.

And then he repented and wanted to come back and they wouldn't

let him come back. So we had to rebuke him again

because Paul. Paul had patience, right?

But our responsibility is Ezekiel 366 and seven says, But

if the watchman sees a sword coming and does not blow the

trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and

takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his

iniquity. But his blood I will require at

the watchman's hand. So you, son of man, I have made

you a watchman for the House of Israel.

Therefore you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them for

me. So our responsibility, our

obligation is to confront sin, to do it lovingly, caringly.

But there is a standard, right? And in that we're supposed to

bring people back. What God says here is if we

don't do that, those people, those people, sin will find them

out there in it. Their blood, his blood will be

required, but it will be at the it'll be on my hands, right?

It'll be on your hands. If I wasn't willing to stand in

right places, you know, and I would say in the, in the culture

we live in right now, there are hundreds, hundreds upon hundreds

of of churches that would call themselves Christian in America

that are going. The amount of blood they have on

their hands for not standing in right places and being willing

to say that is wrong and that is right and not in a not.

We should never be judging somebody and saying I'm good and

you're bad, right? I'm supposed to shine light.

I'm supposed to shine Jesus into people's license and share with

them what what his standard is. You know, when I, when I think

of, of my, my line of work as a supervisor, if I show up and

nobody is, is, if everybody is with everybody is using the

standard correctly. And let's say we're talking

about PPE and everybody's got their hard hats on, their safety

glasses on, their gloves on, their steel toed boots.

And then there's one guy, his name's Matt.

No kidding. Sorry.

That that's standing there without a hard hat.

He doesn't have, he's wearing flip flops and he, he, he has

one glove on. And I woke up and I talk to

everybody and I say, hey, how you doing?

And then I go, what if I just told the other five guys on that

crew that you don't need to wear your hard hat, that flip flops

are OK and gloves are optional. I didn't say a word, right?

All I, I just, I didn't confront someone who was not at the

standard and I wouldn't do that. I mean, my goal in in

confronting someone in that is that they wear their hard hat,

their safety glasses, their gloves and their steel toed

boots. And the reason for that for me,

the reason is I don't want them to get hurt, right?

And and that should be our heart when we're rebuking somebody.

I don't for you, you know, I'm not rebuking you.

So I feel better because I will tell you that if you've ever had

the joy of having to have that conversation with somebody, it

is not what you want to do if your heart's in the right place.

It is an argument you and the Lord have been having for a

little while going, Lord, please don't make me do this right.

It's it's the ones that I really want to say this.

I'm going to go tell them when I think about this and I'm going

to you should probably be quiet, but it's the ones that when it's

really hard, right, and how we know how we know when we're

supposed to be rebuking somebody is we need to be in our word.

We need to be listening to the Lord and we need to be learning

from him, right? It's it's his wisdom that I want

to share with people and it the thing with his wisdom.

When I do it with His wisdom and His knowledge and the words He

wants me to use, suddenly it has power that I don't have.

Hebrews 5412 says For the word of God is living and powerful

and sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing even to the

division of the soul and the spirit and the joints in the

marrow, and it is a discerner of thoughts and intents of the

heart. So when we are, when we are

rebuking somebody, make sure we're in the word right?

We're not rebuking our feelings. I don't feel like I like how you

acted right at that. That has nothing to do with it.

Make sure that that rebukes come from the word.

If it's if it's time to rebuke somebody.

Correction is the act of bringing somebody back from air

deviation to adjust standard. It's an adjustment or a fine

tuning, right? When we correct somebody who God

has put in our care, we use God's Word to adjust their

thoughts. Very often believers, solid well

meaning believers have have unbiblical thoughts like like

God helps those that help themselves.

You ever heard that one right? Hey, you're going to struggle to

try and find that in the Bible. It's it's not there.

But what I love is Paul groups all of the worldly wisdom, all

of the self help books, all of the all the body hacks, all the

things. He groups them all together.

He wads them up and he throws them out.

Colossians 220 and 23. It says, therefore, if you died

with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as

the living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations,

do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern

things which perish with the using according to the

commandments and doctrines of men.

These things indeed have the appearance of wisdom in

self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the

body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the

flesh. So it just kind of takes all

those one liners that very many people use and throws them out

right. What when we're correcting

somebody, it's bringing them back into pointing them at Jesus

right And and saying we're to walk in the spirit.

And I know that I'm going to I'm as I go through this, there is a

point where we'll actually talk about the training of it.

But it's important for us to understand that as a Christian,

what you are agreeing to the day you gave your life to Jesus is

submitting and relying on him and his power to do his work in

your life right now. You get to know him more and he

gets to fill you more, but not because he isn't all there at

the beginning, but because you're holding things back and

as as a discipling somebody or even as being a disciple.

Our job is just to guide them in that submission to Christ,

submission to his will. Galatians 516 and 18 says or

through 18 says, I say then walk in the Spirit and you shall not

fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lust against the

spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

And these are contrary to one another so that you do not do

the things you wish. But if you are led by the

spirit, you are not under the law.

So corrections are just guiding or adjusting through the word.

Corrections only work when you're in a relationship, right?

I can't walk up to a stranger on the street and, and really give

them a valid correction. I have to know where they're at.

I have to know them. I have to, I have to have that

right and I have to have, I have to be in prayer through all of

this. Paul, I would tell you knew more

about the Bible than I ever will, right?

He, he knew more about the word and the scriptures and how, how

they are to be translated and, and interpreted.

He is, he's better at it. And you know what he spent huge

amounts of his time doing praying, right?

He prayed for the churches that were under his care.

And that's where that the ability to give correction comes

from is you should be in prayer and and asking the Lord for

wisdom in all the situations. And whenever you see someone

that's in your care that that you have that relationship with

that you can reach into their lives and you see them drifting

away. You know, correcting them is a

thing that we do more Galatians 1/6 says I marvel and this is

Paul speaking. I marvel that you are turning

away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a

different gospel. And this is Paul's intro to the

church and it's a correction. And his heart was was to set

them free from bad doctrine. If you read all of Galatians,

you will see a perfect example of a written out correction,

right? And so that's us correcting

people. But it's when we're doing it,

it's, it's correcting them into Christ, right?

It's still never, never pointing at myself.

Then there's training, which is just the act of teaching or

informing, right, which is coaching, right?

It's very often we talk about discipleship and this is the

step we jump to, and it is an important step, but but the

outward action of a Christian without giving that solid

foundation of of doctrine, what we believe and and of rebuke,

where a Christian stands on sin and correction, willing to

adjust our thinking to his if we don't give that first

instructions can puff up. It can get the actions in front

of the Spirit right. I mean, I'm sure anybody that's

grown up in church or has been going to a church for any like

time, you know, you should have a quiet time every morning.

We should, we should read probably pray 5 or 6 hours a

day. Sorry, dwelling, which we talked

about, you know, just meditating and and spending time with him,

fasting and giving and worship and witness.

And these are all things that are, that are crucial to A, to a

vibrant Christian life, right? But not at the expense of not

knowing Jesus, right? You do these things because you

know him and you want to know him more.

I do things with Faye because I know her and I want to know her

more. That's why we do these things,

right? It isn't.

I have to do this so that I get a God's got this whole board up.

It's a big board because it's got us all on it and there's

little stars by every day and you know, and you need a star by

your name today for doing, you know, check you check the boxes

as that isn't it. They they unfortunately does

have that box and it's you'll see it and it's got stars.

My name misses a lot of stars, so I'm going to run through the

things that we teach when you're when you're when you're teaching

somebody, right? That first and foremost because

of what he has already done, We submit to his will and plan for

us. We teach.

We are dead and live only in Christ as our center and that's

Galatians 220. I've been crucified with Christ

is no longer I live the Christ who lives in me this life that I

now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of

God who loved me and gave himself for me.

And that's critical, right? That we we teach that that this

is not a this is not a works mentality.

I am dead and the only thing I bring is, is faith that he can

somehow get life out of this dead body.

We talked about Joshua 18 last week or two weeks ago.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but that

you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to

do according that all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will

have good success. You don't.

You don't make your way prosperous and have good success

because you got a Gold Star for reading the Bible.

You make your way prosperous and have good success because you

know what the Bible says and apply it to your life.

And when you know the word better, you know the guy that

wrote the word better, right? And that's that's that point we

teach that we get to pray to Jesus, right.

I did a whole study on the get to's, but that he wants to hear

from us. It isn't a it, believe it or

not, Faye answers my phone calls.

I know, shocking. I wouldn't answer my phone

calls, but she answers my phone calls and usually, maybe not

every day, but usually she's happy to hear from me.

But he wants us to talk to him. Be anxious for nothing.

This is Philippians 46 and 7. Be anxious for nothing.

But in everything through by prayer and supplication make you

read, and with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to

God. And the peace of God, which

surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds

through Christ Jesus. Right.

And we pray because we love Jesus and want to share our life

with Him by hanging out with Him and dwelling in His presence.

And then we do this. We come to church on Sunday.

And this is something. One day my daughter's will all

gang up on me and smack me for bringing them into my Bible

studies. But for a long time, I had one

that moved, moved away and they were looking for they weren't

going to church. And then they have me every

every week or so. You find a church, you find a

church, you find a church, you find a church.

And she, she would get exhausted of me saying it.

And so then she'd go find a church.

And they go for a little while and they, they bow out of it and

back and forth. And then they finally got

plugged into a church and and their life has improved

immensely, but not because they're going to church, but

because they're getting poured into and they're growing.

Her entire family is growing in their relationship with Jesus.

And that's don't that this is important guys, that we come

together on Sunday and then soon we'll come together on another

day of the week. But that we do this, this is a

gift. This is not a requirement.

This is a gift that he gave us that we get to come together and

build each other up and you guys got to listen to me.

But but before, before we get, we have to sing.

We get to visit with each other. We get to build each other up

and find out what he's doing in our lives.

And lastly, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny

himself and take up his cross and follow me which is we follow

the Lord and it is a joy to do. He is, He is.

I wouldn't trade my life for anything compared to my life

before Christ. When I went through the suck of

of my life, at no point did I think that it was time to bail

on Christ because the one thing I knew is He is all I had.

Everything without Him isn't enough.

Nothing with him is more than you can imagine.

That's what we disciple. So Lord, I just thank you for

everybody here. I thank you for this time.

And Lord that you'd be with Aunt Sherry as she's coming up.

And Lord, that we would just dwell with you and just lift our

voices and our hearts to you. And I pray all this in Jesus

name, Amen.