Bieng a Fanatic part 7: Undistracted Devotion and Unstuck-ness

I'll say you were just a man, but I say you are young, you are mighty.

I will shout your name to all the earth, and I will land your name on high. And the world will glorify your greatness. You are my God and I will shout your name.

I know that you're just a man, but you gave your life for all these years. And I know you're the only way, because you are young, you are mighty.

I will shout your name to all the earth, and I will land your name on high. And the world will know your greatness. You are my God and Jesus.

I will shout your name to all the earth, and I will land your name on high. And I will show the world your goodness.

As I live a life that shouts your name. As I live a life that shouts your name.

Jesus, as I live a life that shouts your name. Jesus, as I live a life that shouts your name.

Jesus, as I live a life that shouts your name. Jesus, as I live a life that shouts your name.

You can be seated this time.

Alright, this is the inspirational moment time. It's the opportunity for you to share how the words are going to work, that you've seen, that you've noticed, that you've heard a text with something that's going on. What do you got?

So, that's how we cover it over here. I've said it before, I always love to share my testimony. I don't know any way to do this because I was a little kid from Republic Ohio who was crippled by spiritually, mentally, emotionally.

I had nobody talking to me and nobody encouraged me in my life.

Anyways, I've said it before and I'll just say it again, it's a testimony. I was a small kid from Republic Ohio and I grew up, I guess you could say spiritually crippled, mentally, emotionally crippled. I didn't have anybody talking to me in my life. No inspiration for anybody. Even today I don't get a phone call to see how things are going.

My best friend was a TV and video game. So, they were the only one that made me feel like welcome, made me feel like I was appreciated by anything or anyone. And I cried a thousand tears. I cried in my room every day wondering why I exist, why do I do anything, what's the point of life, any of that stuff.

And I have a smile on my face every single day until a seven year old man witnessed to me and told me the reason that you're crying is indecidableness. But this is what I pretty much heard. It doesn't matter why you're crying because you never got a chance to cry out to God. You need to cry out to Jesus. You need to meet the true God.

And I was never the same because I was a day I actually found the living and true God. The reason I share that is I tell anybody be on this microphone, anybody that's in the gospel, anybody get back in the work, anybody and everybody. If we talk about the word inspiration, I love this. We talked about before. It's God's breath.

I love that. I love it because I love it so much because this is God's breath. Peter even said when you speak, you will speak the words of God, not as if you're speaking but as God was speaking through you. So when you're in worship or when you talk, you're speaking through God.

People tell me all the time or I hear, I don't always hear everybody, but the claims are I don't see Jesus. I see Jesus all the time. I see Jesus in you. I see Jesus in you. I see Jesus in you. I see Jesus in you and you and you.

All of you guys, because the Holy Spirit lives inside of every born again believer. It's not just the hands and feet and the words. It's whatever you do, you do it for the glory of the Lord. We are the inspiration.

I talk to my daughter all the time and she loves it that her dad doesn't act like any other day. If we start fighting, I'm like, I'm not fighting with you. Until we call this conversation, we're going to talk about this. I don't tell her what to believe. I don't tell her what she needs to believe. I even give her a chance.

I talk to God. You could pray to God and she doesn't. I'm not manipulating or pushing her. I give her the choice to follow Jesus. It's so cool because I don't do that. I'm a very impatient, bitter person that's ready to explode.

Every five seconds of my life, I feel like there's nobody that would even care two seconds for me. But God's love and mercy is what keeps me going. And this is what happened the other day. I was on my phone, but I was driving.

This is where my inspiration came from. I got a poro by the police. You could pretend that God doesn't believe in you and God doesn't care about you. But guess what? When the lights go, I don't believe in that police officer. I'm pulling over. I'm rolling away.

Okay, well, whatever you want to say, I don't care. I'm tough. I can handle it. He comes up to me and says, sir, I really pulled you over. He was loving and kind. He said, it's because you had your phone in your face and you're not allowed to have it. Even though I use it for Google Maps and I was watching a little YouTube. But he was nice to me.

But because I was a law abiding citizen and I said, you know, I'm like, okay, so I won't do it now. And now every time I try to do it, I don't do it anymore. I'm like, you know what? No, you said phone out of face because I'm a law abiding citizen. I just want to encourage you today.

The reason he did ask because I'm a law abiding citizen. If my place said something else, or I wasn't going to pull over, then I'm not a law abiding citizen. He wouldn't be respectful. We are law abiding citizens of God. First and foremost, we are all if you're wrong, tell me, but were we all law abiding citizens to hell, death and despair?

Sure. We were all in hell. It's Paul said in the word that the law broke me to come to Christ. We're not here to follow the law or follow every moment what God said because we can't. It's by the grace of God, Paul could do what he does. It's by the grace of God, we can do what we can. It's by the grace of God, I come up here.

I want to do this. I'm going to watch my videos and stay home and pretend that I'm going to party all day long. I love it. But it's not who I am. And so I encourage you as well as me always is that you're a law abiding citizen because of who you are. You're not a citizen.

You're a citizen of hell. You're not a law abiding citizen because you did a good job. No, it's because God did the job for you. You're not a law abiding citizen because you got it all together. And so like you're going to figure out.

Everybody has a hard time getting the word everybody has a hard time wanting to go to Jesus everyone's to because that's why we know he's got because every time you do come to him. He's always there. And the reason I say all this is because I've always thought about this.

And I think about this every single time. You can prove God every day if he's got it. Every time every second. I get his call his name. And when you call on his name. I don't mean like Jesus. I mean, call out to him.

Follow him. Listen to him grow with him and he will always show you his God. If I can do this. This frail insecure person you think I'm so bold and happily got it all together. No, I don't have it all together.

God has no together. That's just something I want to share. But I will be sharing sooner or later. I hope it inspires you and that's the idea. Oh inspiration you is not just talking to you and then go that sounds pretty cool. But actually doing it as an inspiration is actually to hear it taking in live for I'm telling you everybody today.

Let's get back on the road with Jesus. Let's follow Jesus because we can. We're not law abiding citizens in heaven.

All right. All right. There you go. All right. Barely got it. So I have a there's a new song I heard. I don't know a whole lot about the artist so I don't know a lot of his music because he from what I've seen is relatively new.

But there's a song I heard and I've listened to it quite a few times now and there's a few lines that really like hit home.

Especially for if you're contemplating accepting Christ and you're kind of on the fence trying to figure out what to do.

One of the lines in the songs it says lie to yourself so much that you start to believe. So we begin the habit of or at least I know I did for a long time.

I got the habit of lying and trying to make myself look better. And it got to the point where I started to believe my own lies. I started to believe my own reality.

I guess what you do with the way to put it. And it's because I lied about it so many times that I just I literally started to believe that it was true even though it wasn't.

And then there's another one a little further down a little farther in song and it says pray to God. Sir, please can you pull me out. But God said the test ain't done yet.

So one of the biggest things I really like about that is as long as we're walking with God doing what God says our test is never done.

We're always we're always going to be put in situations where it seems hard or it seems stressful and we pray God get me out of this.

But then God tells you your test isn't done yet. I mean look the first thing I thought of when I heard that is Joe.

It all the stuff that man went through and God was testing him and using him to show his glory.

And that's what God can do to us in our hard times when we're faced with situations where it doesn't seem like it's enough or it seems like we fall into many times.

And God says our test isn't done yet because and James it says that trials trials produce perseverance to help us persevere through those hard times.

And it's cool to me to know that God does test us to make sure that we're still faithful even though he knows our hearts he knows where we are.

I guess two things is one don't lie to yourself because you are the only one besides God you are the only one who really knows who you are.

So if you lie to yourself too many times eventually you're going to start believing that and then you're going to start turning into somebody who you're not meant to be.

And when I was growing up that was what I did to myself. I lied to myself so many times that I started to believe that I was somebody I really wasn't.

And that was I was a very mean nasty person I was angry at everybody and I just thought you know that's who I was.

And then I got saved and God showed me that that's not who I am. It was all a lie that I made up but I started to believe it because I lied about it so much.

And then the second thing is is don't be worried about your situations because even if God is testing you your test isn't done until you get to heaven.

There's always going to be times in your life where it's hard but it's just a test and like I said in James it tells us that our tests and our trials produce perseverance.

Because we have to be able to persevere we have to be able to push through those things because it goes doing that also in James it says it builds endurance.

Because then when we do face those hard times the more we face the more easier we can get through it and the better we can handle ourselves when we're in those hard times.

Last chance. I watched a Christian content creator and she said it's hard to hear God's voice when you already know what you want him to say and you think there's a lot of choices a lot of decisions we make just on day to day basis that we know what we want God to say and we might misinterpret what he's actually saying to us because we already have our own.

That's a good word. That's a good word. Alright we're going to pray together this time and then we'll jump back into worship. I would encourage you to come either A with something to share with the Lord the Lord is speaking to you or B prepared to hear because these are testimonies of what people have encountered.

God at work sharing God speaking throughout day to day and that's valuable for all of us. You might not be on the same step you may not be that you're reaching new heights of Jesus might be a different height than somebody else and that doesn't matter where you are moving forward and the whole purpose of this church is we work together so each one of us can move to that next step even though it's a different step.

We're going to pray together this time last evening when we do this in prayer and then we're going to take a thousand offerings and worship God a little bit more.

The Father in the name of God. Thank you for another day. Thank you for this place you come to gather fellowship worship and we hear from you and we hope you do best today. We just ask you to work with us in all aspects of our service. We have our pastor who is standing before us. We hope this offering will be as tight as we gather them up.

I ask you to bless them and help them use them in the right way. I just ask you to be with us in this state every day. We need you to do the good that holds everything together.

I just ask you to be with us and our country as we're coming up on this election. We ask you to be with everybody. We know that you have the person to be the president of the United States. We just ask you to hold us all together and hold us accountable for who we vote for.

We would vote for you. Our nation, you and the things that are going on, you and the country of Israel, your chosen people. We pray for peace there, we pray for endurance through this hardship they're going through.

And we just ask you to be with us Lord. Again we thank you for bringing us all together.

I believe it is true that the true measure of worship is a heart condition. It's what you're about. Are you about worshiping the Lord? Because of that and also because God has blessed us mightily, I can tell you with absolute certainty that what you just experienced, you can't buy that for a dollar.

God is good. He loves us. He set this scene. He set it up for us. He has worked in me as I have poured over the Word of God over the last seven days. And I am grateful for that right now because I am emotionally moved and it is hard sometimes to mentally focus when you are emotionally moved.

So I am grateful that God has laid this out for me. So when I was about, I think I was 12 years old, the first time ever, I got a good camera. I had had those little, I'm just going to date me and some people are older who understand, I had those little 110 deals, little black drop in.

You go click, click, click, click, click, click, and you take the picture, no flash, just line up the old plastic ring. But then when I was about 12, I bought a 35 millimeter camera. I learned how to crank the film in there. This is pre-digital camera. They existed at that time. I had never heard of them.

And we went on vacation. And I went on vacation, I took with me about five rolls of film. The five rolls of film, I want to say, I can't remember, does anyone remember how many shots was on a roll of film back then? 24? It sounds right. I think it was 24, something like that.

And so, you know, 70-ish pictures on a five or six day vacation we were on. And I took pictures on the first couple of days and I took pictures on the second day, third day, fourth day, and I took pictures at the end of the trip, right?

And I came back home and I took those rolls, you have to crank the roll back every time before you take it out because light, you know, destroys the pictures, not like digital camera. And then I put it in the envelope and I took it to, probably Kroger's, I think, and it was sealed shut.

I wrote my name and address and everything on there and I shipped it off and then it came back. And when it came back, I got three rolls of films, negatives for three rolls of film. You get these little pictures that are in negative. They're brown.

And you can look in total up to the light and you can kind of see the picture and that's how you get more prints printed. This is all pre-digital age, right?

And the middle set of negatives was all just dark brown. There was nothing on them. There was no pictures. They said they were, you know, taken, the pictures were taken or whatever, but there was nothing on the pictures.

And I thought, that's really weird. I can't imagine how that happened. How did I take these pictures and nothing at all? I mean, like you can imagine if it was like blaring out, the light was too bright, too much light or if it got even if it got exposed when I took the film out, film got exposed to light as I didn't crank it back in time or something.

You can imagine that the pictures would be all screwed up, but to have just black, just dark, nothing there is really odd. Does anybody know, anybody older folks in the room know what I did that I took an entire roll of pictures and they were all brown?

No, it wasn't in my pocket. The cap was on. I left the shutter cap on for the entire time, all 20-ish pictures, 24. It used to be like 24, but then like you get to the end of 24 and you can crank it a little bit more. If it was still go, you could take a 25th picture like that.

I think there's always like one more you could get in. And so what I want to say to you that is it does not matter how focused you are. And that's what we're going to talk about today is about focus.

If you're blocked, if there is a block between you and your target, no matter how much you might grow down on it, no matter how much you desire it, no matter how much you might pursue it, no matter what that is true, if there is a block between you and there, you will not get there.

You will not see it. You will not experience it. Okay. And so that means we've got to just be 100% clear. When I was taking an advanced homiletics class at Great Lakes Christian College in my undergraduate degree, I preached a sermon. It was my final sermon in that class.

It was not my final sermon on campus, my final sermon in that class. And it was a sermon that I was really strongly convicted and the Holy Spirit gave it to me and I knew it was right.

And when I got done and they gave me the review, they said, well, the problem, all I heard you saying was that I'm really going to have to work harder to be saved. That's what I heard you saying.

And so I felt like that maybe kind of missed the point. That was not what I was saying. It was some constructive criticism that they tried to give. And then my professor came back and said, well, the truth is he said exactly what the word says.

If you're thinking, then you might want to think about that in relation to the word that he preached because he said exactly what it says. He didn't say anything it doesn't say. And I was like kind of redeemed. I felt better about that.

But I was really hurt when they gave the feedback that I was telling them that they were not saved and they were going to have to work harder if they wanted to be saved.

What I'm saying to you is the gospel is very simple. We are saved through Jesus Christ. If you have been saved by some other means, if someone has told you how to be saved or if you have been following some other God or earning your way to heaven by certain steps or rules,

you might have picked out of sermons or you might have gotten off the radio or something like that. None of those things equal salvation.

There is a man's sin puts a block between man and God and Jesus tears a hole in that block. He opens the way. He literally became sin for us that we might have access to becoming the righteousness of God.

So it is totally free and there is nothing that you can do to earn it. However, when you say Jesus is Lord, that means now Jesus is in charge. He is the boss.

And so Jesus said it will not only be those who say unto me Lord, Lord who enter the kingdom of heaven, not just those people, but rather those who actually follow the commands of my father in heaven.

So you can say Lord, Lord all you want. You can scream Lord. You can say I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian. But if you are not following Jesus, your words are hollow at best.

The lens cap is still on. Your target is still blocked to following Jesus until you at the very first moment are born again and that barrier is removed.

When the barrier is removed, then the idea is for you to remain for the remainder of your days focused on Jesus. There are other ways that you can screw up that focus.

Quite a few. I'll name a few, but there is probably no limit. You could probably be more specific if you want. If the vision is blurry.

So fast forward my life about 20 years, I bought a really nice digital camera that I wanted for myself. I actually got a digital camera. I had a digital camera and it was kind of unlucky and it broke.

And then I really wanted one. It was at Christmas time. And then Sherry bought me a very nice kind of small digital camera.

But I had my eye on one and I talked to her about it and she said, well, let's just we'll return this one. We'll get that one. And I bought it.

And I was super excited about it. I still have it at home in a camera case. It's not so great now because it's out of date, but it still works.

And I went out and I took some pictures and I posted them on a site where people can buy your pictures and you can make a little bit of money.

It's not a lot. 50 cents, a dollar each time somebody buys it or whatever. But if a lot of people buy it, you can make a lot of money.

And I put up 12 pictures and 11 of the 12 pictures came back and they said the picture is not good enough quality. It's blurry.

At least I didn't take all those pictures with the cap on. Right. I had the cap off. I put them up to my naked eye.

It appeared as if I was on the little screen on the back and whatever I could see. It looked good to me. Right.

But it was a pretty expensive digital camera and it had a lot of pixels. And to the naked eye, it looked clear.

But they said, no, this is too blurry. And then after they said that, I took the computer, the pictures on my computer and I zoomed in on them.

And sure enough, they were blurry. When they were small on the camera, they look great.

But on the computer, when I zoomed in, yep, it got grainy, like not a good picture.

But they took one picture of all the pictures and I zoomed in on that one and every pixel was clear.

So you can mess up focus by having blurry vision. You can mess up focus by having bad sight. I wear glasses every year.

I go to the optometrist right now, taking my glasses off and everybody in this room is slightly more blurry.

It's not a lot. I can see. I'm still easily recognized. Everybody's slightly more blurry.

Now I put them back on. Oh, there you are again. Everything looks normal. You can mess up focus by having bad sight.

Vibration will mess up focus. If you're trying to take a picture with a camera and you're standing on something that's vibrating, a train car, a vehicle or whatever,

most digital cameras have built into them a computer feature that overcomes that vibration.

If you take it without that, then the little pixels that make up the picture will vibrate over top of each other.

And you will not get a clear picture that you could sell for money on the internet.

The target could be moving. When I was a younger kid, and we have no young kids in here right now,

and if you're a teenager in this room, do not follow this example I'm about to give you.

We had a military club and we used BB guns, not paintball guns, BB guns.

And we would divide into teams and go in the back with behind my house and you'd shoot each other.

If you got hit, you'd be out with BB guns. And we'd never use the multi-pump BB gun.

Or if you did, you weren't allowed to pump it more than once because that'll break the skin.

You got hurt pretty bad. Well, you could have got your eye pulled out.

One kid had to get bandaged right because BB hit him right there and split his eyebrow.

Very bad idea. But while I was playing, I learned you got to lead a moving target.

So, Guy, you're running across the field and I'm tracking on him and I'm aiming here as he's running here

because the BB doesn't fly at the speed of light, right?

And so you aim it and you shoot, and you pick him in the leg and now he's out.

You've got to lead a moving target. It's hard to focus on a moving target.

Also, poor lighting makes it difficult. Some cameras are low light and they work pretty well in the dark.

Most do not. Poor lighting makes it difficult to focus.

And then poor quality or cleanliness of your sight.

What I'm going to talk to you about today during part seven of our sermon series on being a fanatic for Christ is obviously focus.

The title of the sermon is actually Focus and Unstickable.

Okay? Two, you're going to get two sermons for the price of one. It is going to go by quickly.

It is not going to be organized exactly like you might expect.

So keep your thinking caps on and help to process.

As we read this next text that I'm about to read, we're going to go through the whole text.

And what I want you to drill down on, because there's a lot.

I could preach four sermons out of the text I'm about to read to you.

Four to ones that I thought about in preparation for today.

But what I want you to ask yourself is what is the purpose?

What is the purpose of the text? What is Paul actually writing about?

So grab your Bibles if you're following along.

Maybe a little hoot, holler, amen, or just a deep breath as we look at 1 Corinthians chapter seven.

This is God's Word. I'm going to begin reading in 7.26.

We're going to read 15 verses.

I will not stop and explain them all because you don't need that in order to get the purpose of what he's talking about, which is the main one point.

26. I think then that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is.

So in other words, your life situation, your life condition does not need to change radically.

Remember, we're looking for the purpose of all of this.

27. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned.

Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.

But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none,

and those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice,

and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it,

for the form of the world is passing away. But I want you to be free from concern.

He's given us two clues already as to what he's talking about, right?

One, he said, and I am trying to spare you, and now he says, but I want you to be free from concern.

One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.

But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.

And his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried and the virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord,

that she may be holy, both in body and spirit.

But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

This I say to your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you,

so now we see he's not trying to restrain us from doing one or the other,

but to promote what is appropriate, and here it is, and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.

But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter,

if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, bless you, let him do what he wishes.

He does not sin, let her marry.

But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own will,

and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.

So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well,

and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

A wife is bound as long as her husband lives, but if her husband is dead,

she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

But in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is,

and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

So this passage of Scripture, even though it talks a lot about relationships, right,

is not actually talking about relationships.

What he is actually doing is using these decisions that people have to make about whether to be married,

whether or not to be married, and so on, using those decisions that people have to make

as an illustration for what he is really getting at.

How will you do well as a Christian?

How will you do well as a man of God or a woman of God?

That is what he is getting at.

He does not say a person should be married or should not be married.

He says, I think in a lot of ways it might be better off.

If you do not need it, do not do it.

But he is only saying that, he says, unrestrained, do whatever you would in the Lord.

If you believe the Lord is leading you, do whatever you would in the Lord.

But at the same time, he is saying that to secure undistracted devotion.

He is calling for undistracted devotion, but more importantly, secured undistracted devotion to the Lord.

That was the phrase that he used.

There is this danger in wanting something in general different for yourself.

If you are a normal human being on a given day, you are deciding, do I want to eat this?

Do I want to wear that? And so on.

That is really not a problem.

If you get out of bed one day and say, I am going to totally change my look.

I am going to dress different, wear different things, wear makeup or get my hair color different.

I am going to look like a completely different person.

That is a little bit different.

That is something a little more drastic.

There is danger in wanting something different for yourself.

You may do something inappropriate if you start thinking that that is all that is left to do to get the thing you want.

An example might be, I would just be happy if my wife would just do what I want her to do.

But she is not doing what I want her to do.

But here is a woman over here who professes that she will do what I want her to do.

And you would say, I would never do that.

But when you get to the moment of thinking that this woman over here might, just being with her might be all it would take.

Just making the decision to move away from this woman to this woman.

And now I have got what I want.

Years ago I was sitting with a woman who had sinned heartily against our family.

And I said to her, you should not have done that. That is ungodly.

You need to repent of that and turn back to the Lord.

She was a professing Christian.

She said, well, this is what I wanted.

This is what I had to do to get what I wanted.

And I was going to do it.

It is very easy for us to say when we start to see something we want.

And he is using the illustrations here of marriage, but it could be anything.

It could be a car, a job, a career, a hobby, something, whatever it is.

When you start thinking that there is only one little barrier, one little step between you and having what you want.

I could be a great, oh, I don't know, podcaster.

If I just quit my job, quit preaching and go into it.

I could be a great professional card game player or a professional football player.

Or I could do that if I just would take this step.

And you are enticed then to take that step thinking it is all that stands between you and what you desire.

If you get that thing, you will then need to take care of that thing.

You will need to take care of it in a godly way.

If you would become a professional card player, a professional podcaster, a professional football player,

you need to take care of that new change in your life in a godly way, which may well be harder than not having it.

You love a woman. I can't live without her.

And you go after her and get married.

You take care of her and love her the same way that you loved her that made you think you had to have her.

You have to love her for your whole life, for all the rest of your life.

And those who are in this room, man or woman who have been married for more than a day,

realize that's not easy.

People are complex.

You can get a dog and love it like that and thankfully,

and I know this sounds a little bit cruel, but thankfully a dog does not live as long as a human.

So eventually you get another try.

You can get another dog and you can be like, well, I loved my dog the whole time, right?

But the truth is, did you really give your dog everything that your dog would have,

that your dog would be able to have it?

Did he get to go out every time he wanted or did sometimes he have to wait?

Did he get every treat he ever wanted or did sometimes he not allow it?

You were making decisions for him saying what's best for him.

And did he really get everything he wanted every time he wanted?

Was he always as healthy as he could?

Could he go to the vet immediately when he needed to or did it take a couple days for you to figure out he needed to go and so on?

And when you get that thing that you think you need to make you happy,

that you need to make you successful, to make you blessed, to make you have a good life,

you have to take care of it in a godly way, which might be harder than not having that thing.

Furthermore, you need to be cautious on this topic.

There is danger in wanting something different for yourself because you may spend time plotting how to get it and or how to care for it once you get it.

Well, if I had a, I would, if this was the only thing standing in my way, I would take care of that.

I would say to myself, well, I can do that if I, and you start plotting steps to how to get to where you want to go.

And then what you'll do once you get there.

Has anyone ever done that?

If I get this promotion and I get extra $2 an hour, I'm going to buy myself a motorcycle, right?

Because that's, or I'm going to eat out one more time a month or I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to eat out or buy a motorcycle because that would be, that would be frivolous.

Instead, I'm going to put my money in the bank and earn some money on it so I'll be ready for retirement or so I can help pay my kids way or something like that.

You make plans about what you'll get if you, what you'll do if you get it, how you're going to take care of it once you get it.

And a lot of times those are driven by the same mentality of I've got to have it.

I can't live without it.

The solution then as presented here is to leave it up to God no matter how much it seems you need it to survive.

Listen to me.

You do not need to eat to survive if God says otherwise.

You do not need to breathe to survive if God says otherwise.

If God says you are eternal, you will live forever.

You will live forever if you never sucked in another bit of air.

If God says you are eternal, you will live forever.

You will live forever if a steamroller ran over you and broke every single bone in your body.

And God said you will live forever.

You will live forever.

That's how life after death works.

But even on earth there are people who have gone through things so horrific that you and I have never experienced them even by hearing about them.

And yet survived and continue to do what it is that God gave them to do.

They stoned Paul while he was living in undistracted devotion to the Lord.

They checked him.

Oh yeah, he's dead.

They went back into town.

A moment later he got up and walked back into town and began preaching about Jesus again.

God is the one who decides what's necessary for us to survive.

And we have to leave it up to God no matter how much we think we need it to survive.

Feelings are not reality.

And survival with God is not a reality that you want anything to do with.

Because the people in hell can't die either.

They don't breathe.

They don't eat.

They don't watch TV.

They don't play sports.

They don't do anything that such life offers that is good ever.

And yet they'll never die.

Feelings will literally lie to you making you think you absolutely have to have something so that you start thinking about how you can get it.

What you would do if you had it.

How you're going to get there.

Even leading you to take one inappropriate step.

Most men who have been blackmailed.

Most spies who have been turned.

Most, it just goes on and on and on.

Right?

Most people who got wrapped up in pornography.

Right?

They just, I'm edgy.

I just need this.

It makes me feel this.

I think that.

And a little bit closer.

A little bit closer.

And then you're there.

And then you're stuck.

I had a conversation when I was a youth director at East Little Baptist Church.

I had a young man in my youth group.

He's 17 years old.

And this is kind of before the modern era.

And I don't know what would have happened now.

But he was 17 years old and he began to have feelings as if he was gay.

He began to think that he was in love with another young man.

And he was a professing Christian.

And he came to me and he said, I can't live without him.

I can't live dealing with these feelings.

Right?

He had come to the conclusion that there was no possible way.

So I showed him in scripture and we prayed together.

And we committed together to meet a couple more times and pray.

And every time we prayed and we asked God for wisdom.

We asked God for healing and so on.

On the third time he said, I realized this was a phase in my life that I was going through this.

That man, two, three years later, got married.

Now has three or four kids.

They've been married for 20 years.

Again, showing how old I am.

There was a young woman who thought she couldn't live without her boyfriend.

She ran away from her parents.

And she was called back.

It was a Christian home.

She was counseled.

And she realized that what she had done was a fool's errand.

She was chasing after something that she thought she had to have.

There was a man who thought he could not control his temper.

And this is just who I am.

And people are going to have to accept me for who I am.

But the reality is that not being able to control his temper almost ruined everything about his life.

Everything that he loved, all that God had blessed him with.

And he had to say, no, I will not go there.

I will not be that man.

Instead, God will be first in everything.

There was a 20-something who thought he had to have his own place.

I can't live with my parents anymore.

It's just not the way you do it.

You go out and pay $900 a month for an apartment.

And after one year went, what on earth was I thinking?

It's crazy.

There was a young baseball player who thought he couldn't miss a game in order to get to be starting and to play well and whatever.

He thought he couldn't miss a game even if he had to miss the game for worship or Bible study or witnessing or whatever.

He couldn't do it.

He couldn't do it as a Christian.

He just couldn't do it.

He couldn't live if he missed a game.

But these things are not reality.

All that I described, every single one of these things, not reality.

You feel like they're reality, but they're not.

So in other words, you remember the story of Job.

It was mentioned in an inspirational moment today.

Remember the story of Job?

Well, Job lost everything, his entire family, all of his property, everything.

He lost it all.

And then how does the story end in Chapter 42?

He's blessed beyond measure.

But I mean, he lost it all.

You think he didn't wake up one morning and go, I miss my son who died and the house collapsed?

Sure he did.

I'm going to hit that again.

I think it didn't come all the way back on.

There we go.

Okay, and so now you could say about him, he had a really rough life and whatever,

but his undistracted devotion to the Lord led him to a place where everything that he thought,

that he would have thought he couldn't live without was replaced tenfold over.

If your husband or wife can't be faithful to the Lord,

God will give you everything you need to replace that once that husband or wife is gone.

He said, well, I'm the husband or wife that's not that faithful.

I'm the boyfriend or girlfriend that's not that faithful.

I don't want to be replaced.

I don't care what you want.

I don't think God does either.

God wants your undistracted devotion.

And if you're not going to give it, he's going to find somebody who will.

While you're living your life and you're thinking about, I think I want something different.

I think there's something I need or I'm missing.

Realize that the scripture teaches us about physical well-being and godliness.

In 1st Timothy 4, we talked about on Tuesday night at our potluck,

godliness on top of physical well-being is good for this life and the next life.

And we ought to have that perspective.

Also realizing that that is attractive to your wife, to your spouse, to your children,

to people who might come to Christ to be have integrity, to be whole and undistracted devotion to the Lord.

And then to spend your time in spiritual discipline so that you're growing yourself.

If you never have a husband, never have a wife, never have a boyfriend, never have a girlfriend, never have children,

what a man or a woman you will be if you spend your life following the Lord.

And if you had a husband or a wife and you lost them, God forbid, and you never remarried,

what a man or a woman you will be if you spend 10, 20, 50 years in undistracted devotion to the Lord.

I know nobody's going to be perfect, but you can see growth.

You can see godliness growing in you.

A man who had a wife, they were married for 40 years,

came out to our golf outing that we did for the live station a few years right before COVID.

And he came and he was a Christian, kind of like a part-time preacher and whatever.

He had had a wife for like 40 years and then he had since lived on his own with no wife for 15, 20 years.

And there was a man who came there that day who was not a professing Christian and he was okay with it.

He was like he understood Christianity, but he was not a professing Christian.

And that man who lost his wife after 40 years of marriage was the only person there that day who witnessed to that man who didn't know Christ.

Undistracted devotion comes in a lot of forms, but it always comes with caring about this thing that God has given you called your body,

submitting it to the Lord, and then caring about this thing called your spirit,

and practicing the spiritual disciplines to grow in godliness.

Those things are good for this lifetime and also the next.

Here the relationships between men and women are used as an example because we must focus on God,

which requires us to be willing to set aside things that make perfect sense in every other context.

In other words, should you be on time? Yes, you should always be on time.

But if Jesus says you're going to be late, should you be late? Absolutely.

Should you be honest? Yes, you should always be honest.

But if Jesus says, and you're certain it's him, that you don't have to be honest in this one instance,

I'm not saying you should lie, but you don't have to be honest, you don't have to be open about it, then that's Jesus.

He gets to decide that because he gets to decide whether you're a stumbling block or a problem for others.

You're submitting your life to the Lord.

Notice, we must focus on God, which requires us to be willing to set aside things that make perfect sense in every other context.

Things that call to us enticingly.

Oh, that would be good. Oh, it would be great if it went that way. Oh, I really want one of those.

Things that seem to be all beneficial.

There's nothing wrong with this. There's nothing at all. No reason I can't have this.

But they do inhibit our ability to be secure in our undistracted devotion to the Lord.

The guy who came to Jesus who was rich, God made him rich. God gave him his wealth.

And then Jesus said, go and take all that you have and sell it and give the money to the poor and come back and follow me.

And he went away sad. Is there anything wrong with being wealthy?

Is there anything wrong with having personal means? No, there's nothing wrong with that at all.

Did the man sin by being born into a family which yielded a lot of wealth or being successful in his job so he got paid a lot?

No, there's no sin in that. If anything, there is godliness in that, right?

He wasn't like the son who said to his dad, well, give me my inheritance and then ran off and squandered it all.

Or the son who said, yeah, dad, I'll go work in your fields today, but then didn't go.

Or the son who took whatever was invested in him and then went off and didn't learn or grow or work hard.

No, he was the son who worked hard and somehow or other wound up the rich man.

And Jesus said, now go sell all that you have and come follow me. Why?

Because his money was a threat to his undistracted devotion to the Lord.

Even though he was right in front of Jesus asking Jesus what he needed to do,

which means at that moment at least was he devoted to the Lord? Was he focused on Jesus?

Yes, his attention was on Jesus. He was looking at Jesus asking the Son of God, God the Son, what does he do next?

What's the next step? Is anybody any better off than that stepping into the presence of Jesus and asking him what should I do?

No, nobody's better off than that. But the wealth was a sticky wicket. It was a tar baby. It was a trap.

It had enticed him to the point that now when Jesus told him exactly what he needed to do now,

what the next step was, instead of doing that, he went away sad.

Are you of one mind? I mean, let's be realistic. Are you of one mind?

Or do you debate about a lot of things? Most of us debate about a lot of things.

Will I have chicken or beef today? What sounds good on the menu? I've narrowed it down to two choices.

All over the place. But when it comes to your Christianity, when it comes to your following the God of the Universe,

you must be of one mind. Integrity of a person is centeredness.

When the target shakes, targeting is shaky. Jesus does not shake. His people do not shake either.

It seems like most Christians are comfortable talking about committing their lives to Christ

as long as they can still have all the things of the world, the things they like to eat, the things they like to do,

places they like to go. But if God came to you tomorrow and said,

no more steak for you, no more sweets for you, no more bars for you, no more TV for you,

no more sports for you, no more recreation for you, I want you to come and serve me undistracted devotion to the Lord,

would you too go away like the rich man? Sad. Or would you say, okay, Jesus said no more sports, so no more sports.

Jesus said no more food of this particular variety, so I've got to eat fruits and vegetables only.

What if Jesus knows that on your 101st birthday, you're going to lead a future evangelist to Christ

by accident or by the leading providence of the Lord?

And the only way you're going to make it to be 101, to have your 101st birthday,

and win that guy to Christ, is if you stop eating certain foods and live in certain ways now, and he knows that.

And so he says to you, okay, you're done with that. And you say to him, oh, really?

And you spend all your time, instead of in the Word and practicing spiritual disciplines

and growing and drawing closer to Christ, you spend all your time moaning the loss of whatever it was he told you,

you can't have anymore. It seems like most Christians are comfortable thinking about committing their lives to Christ

as long as they can still have the things of the world. And you can! You're unrestrained.

That's essentially it. You're unrestrained. That's what Paul was talking about. You can do it.

You can participate in those things. But don't kid yourself.

While you participate in those things, they are a threat to your secured, undistracted devotion.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 9, beginning in verse 7, it says as follows, you can read along if you want,

2 Chronicles 9 · chapter mention

I have printed this out for expediency.

He, it says, appointed the judges in the land in all the fortified cities of Judah city by city.

He said to the judges, consider what you are doing, for you do not judge for man,

but for the Lord who is with you when you render judgment.

Now let me stop right there for one second and say, do you live for you? Do you live for men?

Or do you live for the Lord? Verse 7 says, now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you.

Be very careful what you do, for the Lord our God will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality

or the taking of a bribe. And Jerusalem also, Jehoshaphat, that's who the he is in this story,

appointed some of the Levites and priests and some of the heads of the fathers' households of Israel

for the judgment of the Lord and to judge disputes among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Then he charged them saying, thus you shall do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully and wholeheartedly.

Those are two big words, aren't they? Faithfully and wholeheartedly.

Whenever any dispute comes to you from your brethren who live in their cities between blood and blood,

between law and commandment, statutes and ordinances, you shall warn them so that they may not be guilty

before the Lord. And wrath may not come on you and your brethren. Thus you shall do and you will not be guilty.

That's what they were supposed to do. And how were they supposed to do it?

In the fear of the Lord, faithfully and wholeheartedly.

Behold, Amoriah the chief priest will be over you in all that pertains to the Lord,

and Zebediah the son of Ishmael the ruler of the house of Judah, in all that pertains to the king.

And also the Levites shall be officers before you, and then this command,

act resolutely and the Lord be with the upright.

How do we act resolutely? Well, there's no meh half-heartedness.

I like it, but not enough to do anything about it. I'm kind of in.

No, there's no waffling. I'm in today, I'm out tomorrow.

I'm trying really hard, but now I'm tired. Things didn't go quite right.

I'm going to back off and think about this. And there's no doubt.

If you are following the Lord acting resolutely, none of those things fit in.

Has God not given us a reason to resolutely follow?

Did He not save your soul, which no one else could?

Did He not give you your family, your church, your Bible?

Did He not give grace when we deserved judgment?

God has given us everything. In fact, God was so resolute about His course

that He Himself became a man and died for it. That's pretty resolute.

We must then recognize and repel enticement.

Hold on to things, situations, and even your greatest life treasures in a manner subject to His will.

Think about what you've got, as good as it is, and realize two things.

One, it doesn't belong to you in the first place, it's really His.

And secondly, He could still give you something better if you wanted to.

I watched a show over the weekend, actually over Saturday.

It was kind of a neat mystery show and we enjoyed it.

There was a guy teaching a woman how to play chess.

I said to her, I said, every time you see a move, always think twice and see if there's a better move.

Now you have a limited amount of time, how long you can do that for,

but you always think and see whether there's a better move.

Let me tell you what the better move is.

Whatever you've got, put it on the table so that God can use it and watch what He does.

That's always the better move.

Cherishing what you have, using what you have well, all of those things are good moves.

But the best move of all is putting it on the table and letting God do with it what He pleases.

Ask yourself, how will these additions be submitted to the Lord?

If something is going to be added to my life, how will it be submitted to the Lord?

If you can't be 100% sure that they will be submitted to the Lord, then don't add them in.

If you have added them in already and it's not working out that they're submitted to the Lord, deduct them now.

Right now. Doesn't matter how good it is or how bad you want it or how bad you think it fits.

If it's not submitted to the Lord, cut it out. Because it has become an enticement to you that will make it impossible for you to have undistracted devotion to God.

You will go away sad. That's what Paul is saying.

Did that man not believe in Jesus? Did he not believe that Jesus could do what he said?

No, he probably did believe it, but he was enticed to hold on to that which in his life had not been submitted fully to the Lord.

In Psalm 119, beginning of verse 161, it says as follows,

Princess, persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words.

I rejoice at your word as one who finds great spoil.

I hate and despise falsehood, but I love your law.

Seven times a day I praise you because of your righteous ordinances.

Those who love your law have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble.

I hope for your salvation, O Lord, and do your commandments.

My soul keeps your testimonies and I love them exceedingly.

I keep your precepts and your testimonies for all my ways are before you.

The psalmist is writing knowing that the games that we play, the diversions that we tarry with just for a moment,

all of those things, they are quite out. God knows. He sees them very clearly.

And so when you are devoted to God, but maintaining your distractions, God knows your heart.

He knows why you're keeping that sin in your back pocket.

He knows why you're not going forward with the next step of what you're supposed to be doing that He's already showed you.

He knows. It's no game because it is all laid out in front of the God of the universe.

Do you love God? Do you love His word? Do you love His leadership? Do you love His lordship?

You have a new King in Christ. He is the one who created everything, including He wove us together in our mother's womb.

Jesus is not here to polish the world.

He does not even care, at least as high as priority anyway, to make your life a better place to live.

Jesus is looking at the eternity that you will spend and He's preparing the place that you will go.

If He was going to make your life a better place, if that's what it was all about, then He would physically come

and He would carry your groceries for you and He would fix your car when it broke down and He would pay your bills when they come due

and He would take care of all of the physical things of this life physically in His presence.

Don't you think He can't do that? He's the God of the universe.

There are enough angels for every human being. An angel could come and manifest physically and take care of all the things of your life.

But what He is doing is preparing you for the eternity that you will spend with Him.

Jesus is not here to polish your world.

This world is ending. It is dying. It is subject to wrath and it will go away and then be renewed.

Jesus is not looking for fans like a rock star.

If you came here today to make yourself feel good about worshipping Jesus, Jesus is not looking for fans like a rock star.

He's not looking to get a portion of your income or your lip service.

He's building you a better place and preparing you to live there eternally.

Jesus wants you. Nothing less than you and nothing more than you.

Wait, is there something more?

I submit to you that you can't give less because to give less is to give no real percent of yourself

and to pretend that you are giving Him more than zero.

To only want to give is to know that He's worth it and yet remain aloof.

You can't give more because there is nothing more than you, although arrogance or ignorance might make you think so.

For example, if you have given your full self, the tithe doesn't seem so bad, you might go,

I want to give even more.

And you might think that God is somehow more pleased with you because you give even more.

I want to sacrifice even more time and God will somehow be more pleased with me because I sacrifice even more time.

The pursuit of giving more money or more time or whatever is all about securing undistracted devotion to the Lord.

It is not about God loving you more, liking you more, or blessing you more.

Even though I think, many think that something else is of value, which is why we sometimes have to break it down like this.

We serve, we give, we tithe, we worship, and we have the spiritual discipline so we know,

because some people think that giving God a car would be better than giving God a prayer.

Some people think that giving God food would be better than giving God service.

Some people think that giving God righteousness, I'm going to yell at you to get you to do what you're supposed to do,

will somehow be better than them submitting to God in compassion and mercy and kindness.

People have their priorities screwed up. They think that one thing is worth more than another.

But if your heart, if your person, if yourself is submitted to God and you've given him you,

then after that the things that you do, they are for you to secure undistracted devotion, not to win God's love.

But if you're totally in and actually have surrendered to God,

then you will not fail to give your all in all of these areas that I have mentioned and more,

because you belong to him and you know it.

Be a fanatic. Give your secured undistracted devotion to the Lord.

Faithfully and wholeheartedly recognize that he has indeed given us all reason to live like that.

And that brings us to part two, Unstickable.

Jesus lived his life and he knows, lived this life and he knows just exactly how sticky it can be.

And so do you and so do I.

I jokingly said this morning with Brother Chris over here,

he was talking about he went to the store last night and helped carry groceries and whatever.

And I said, yep, and no good deed goes unpunished, because that's the way this life is.

Most things in life are a sticky wicket or a tar baby.

You know what I mean by that?

I know that both of those things are lost in equity and then re-framed in modern culture

to mean something that they never meant in the first place, right?

But a sticky wicket is when the lawn is wet from mud and it's a term from cricket.

And you try to hit in cricket and the ball will just stick in the mud.

And so now you get nothing. You can't run, you can't score.

It's hard because it's a sticky wicket.

The wicket is the course that you play cricket on.

And a tar baby comes from a certain story where a bear rabbit comes, a bear fox is trying to catch him.

A bear rabbit comes up on the tar baby.

The tar baby doesn't talk back and he winds up punching him and his hand gets stuck.

And he punches him and he kicks him and his foot and all four are stuck.

And then he tries to, and his head's stuck.

And then the fox comes, right? And the rest of the story unfolds.

But the point is the things of this life are exactly like that.

And we know how sticky they can be.

Worship me, says Satan, and I will give you the world.

Jesus experienced that first hand.

Throw yourself down from here, Satan says, and God's angels will surely land you in safety.

Make yourself some bread. You've got the power.

Don't suffer any longer. Don't go without.

What you can do and what you should do are two different things.

Be watchful of should because any should that doesn't come from the God of the universe is a sticky wicket at best.

You start thinking, well, I should dress a certain way.

I should talk a certain way.

And if it didn't come from God, it's just a mess.

You're going to get wrapped up in that and then there'll be somebody right after that telling you you should do this and somebody right after that telling you you should do that.

So be careful of that.

But also be watchful because any should that is from the Lord is a stepping stone on the road to ultimate freedom not meant to become a subject of worship in itself.

So we have churches out there that say that ladies can only come to church in a skirt.

That's not of the Lord.

It's a sticky wicket though because if they can only come to church in a skirt, then what?

What's next?

Well, the women can't sit with the men and so on and so on.

And so we have rules, rules upon rules upon rules.

Right.

But then we have churches out there that say that Jesus is not the only way to heaven.

You don't have to submit your life to the Lord.

You don't have to have a Lord and a Savior.

And they call themselves the church.

I said I debate that's even a church and they're not doing the one thing that you should do.

You must do in order to get into heaven for eternity, which is submit to Christ.

Any should from the Lord is a stepping stone on the road to your ultimate freedom, but also is not meant to become a subject of worship in itself.

First Corinthians chapter 6 beginning in verse 12.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

I think this is our last text for the day.

No, we got one other small one.

First Corinthians chapter 6 actually begin in verse 9.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived.

Neither fornicators.

That's those who misuse sex.

Idolaters.

That means those who worship things other than God.

You think that things other than God are important.

Nor adulterers.

Those who misuse the marriage relationship.

Nor effeminate.

Those that mess around with their gender.

Nor homosexuals.

Nor thieves.

Nor covetous.

That means those who want what others have.

Nor drunkards.

Those who take too much of a substance to feel better.

Or whatever for whatever reason because they're addicted to it.

Whatever.

Nor revilers.

Those who think negative thoughts about others.

Nor swindlers.

Those are tricky.

Will inherit the kingdom of God.

Such were some of you, but you were washed.

You were sanctified.

You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of God.

All things are lawful to me.

That means now I can do anything basically by the law.

But not all things are profitable.

Not all things will help me to secure my undistracted devotion as we were talking about before.

All things are lawful for me.

But I will not be mastered by anything.

Oh wait, now there are sticky things.

Things that we can do that are sticky.

That can get control of us.

Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food.

But God will do away with both of them.

Yet the body is not for immorality.

But for the Lord.

And the Lord is for the body.

Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through his power.

We were created to care.

We care about things.

What were Adam and Eve supposed to be doing?

Taking care of the garden.

Humans were created to care, so we care.

But the cares and the riches of this world loom large in our minds eye.

Because we were created to care.

But we were warned that those very same cares and riches of this world could choke out our growth.

So you've got grades.

Care about grades?

You should care about grades.

But if you care about grades and you're working so hard to the extent that you're not following the Lord,

if you're spending time in your history book and not spending any time in your Bible book,

his story book, then you've got a problem.

Do you care about family?

Well you should care about family, absolutely.

But if you spend time caring about your family more than you do caring about the Lord,

that's the cares and the riches of this world choking out your growth.

Proverbs 27, 20-24 brings this to the table.

Sheol and Abaddon, basically those are Satan and hell, are never satisfied.

Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.

See, we'll never be done.

We'll never be done wanting, never be done needing, never be done thinking,

having feelings that something better could be coming.

The crucible, it's a pot of melting, is for silver.

And the furnace, a furnace for melting, is for gold.

And each is tested by the praise according to him.

And if we are crucible, our furnace is about praise according to us.

Though you pound a fool in a mortar, this is a mortar, and a pestle,

along with crushed grain, even if you would do that, pound a fool like that,

yet his foolishness will not depart from him.

Know well the condition of your flocks, so it says care,

care about the condition of your flocks.

And pay attention to your herd, so it says care about the resources that God has invested in you.

For riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations.

This brings us to our conclusions for the day.

You are a rebel.

You might think, oh my dad raised me good, I'm not a rebel.

You're a rebel.

You're a rebel.

And you ought to have renewed rebellious nature.

Your renewed rebellious nature has a distinct purpose in Christ.

It is to avoid being stuck after getting free.

Remember, first the lens cap comes off, then we focus.

If you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, now you keep your eyes on him.

One of the greatest analogies of this ever is that when the sheep take their eyes off the shepherd,

they turn their eyes to the other sheep, or to the grass beneath their feet.

You are a rebel, and your rebellious nature has a distinct purpose in Christ.

It is to avoid being stuck after getting free.

Remember the tar baby?

You touch it, you get stuck.

Brayer rabbit, briar fox, sticky and stuck.

Should we not learn to rebirth all our seemingly negative traits into ones that can do the work of the Kingdom of God?

So you say, well I get angry.

Somebody says, I get mad.

So how do you use your anger for God?

The anger of man never brings about the righteousness of God.

You can't do that.

But there is something that you can do.

The emotive energy drives you to work harder to share the Gospel,

to encourage people to work in the Kingdom of God, to advance the Kingdom.

And saved people will make you angry less often.

They'll still probably make you angry, but they'll make you angry less often.

You are limited in your understanding.

And so you have to learn to rely on His superior wisdom.

God can see your heart.

He knows that it was wicked and decrepit before it was made new.

He knows your mind and the things that you're getting distracted by and focusing on.

And He knows all the circumstances of the world that you can't possibly know.

He knows when someone will get hit by a truck.

And He can bring you there to share the Gospel with them an hour before that happens so they can go to Heaven.

He knows all the variables of this world.

But you are limited in your understanding.

And if you will not rely on His superior wisdom by securing undistracted devotion

and rebelling against the sticky things of this world,

if you will not do that, then not only is that not pleasing to Him,

but your Christian walk becomes that much more difficult.

It doesn't make you unsaved, but it can make it really hard to walk out the life that God has laid for you.

And that's what Paul was talking about in the first passage that we read.

Then when you recognize a sticky wicked or a tar baby or a trap or whatever, an enticement, whatever you want to call it,

you will turn to God instead.

Modern TV, movies, books, none of those are bad things.

But if you read fiction more than you read God's Word, if you watch TV more than you serve, give, pray,

if you play sports and you've got to be the first one on the field and the last one off and you're trying your full heart,

that's all fine. To wholeheartedly, faithfully do that is fine.

But you've got to give God at least that level of service or call yourself what you are.

You're an idolater.

If your job says, hey, if you work really hard, you can get a promotion,

and you begin to think, well, if I could just get a promotion, a little bit more pay, I could pay my bills,

I'll get where I need to be and so on.

And your job says that and you think, well, I've got to do that.

That's an enticement.

And when you start following that course of action, you need to realize that you've got to put at least that level of effort,

if not, I would say tenfold, right, into following the Lord faithfully or you are an idolater.

When someone in the world or the enemy's teaching comes to you and tells you too much is being asked of you

or points out some capability that you have that you are not realizing by submitting to God fully,

you will remember that he is the enemy king.

Truly a thief come to kill, steal and destroy, and you will throw yourself on God's mercy again.

In these ways, you will be a fanatic.

Realize this one fact, Satan is old and he can wait for you to get stuck because until God casts him into the fiery pit of eternity forever,

he's still out there still thinking, well, I can still get Dan.

I've still got my schemes. I've still got my ways.

He would love to see your unsubmitted human nature get you into trouble.

Rather, believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, Lord, Lord.

He is Lord. That means he tells you what to do when you do it.

That means he teaches you how to walk and you walk that way. You walk as he walked. He is Lord.

And confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead.

You ever stop and wonder why we have to confess that God raised him from the dead?

Is that really necessary? I've known a lot of people that have been saved and they say,

yeah, I believe in Jesus. I accepted the pre-gift of salvation.

And he's my Lord and I follow him.

I'll tell you why. Among other reasons, among other possible reasons why we must admit that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead are these things.

Because that proves that ultimate victory is secured.

You will go to heaven one day, at which point in time you will not have to worry about undistracted devotion anymore.

Because you will be with the God of heaven in heaven at that time.

But in the meantime, until you do that, you have to be aware of the distractions, enticements, temptations, pathways of this lifetime.

Our ultimate victory is secured. But this life is not our home.

Also, it is a reminder that this life is not our home. Jesus died and rose again and now is waiting for us to come there.

God secures victory even when life attempts to prove that we can't live without something else.

Remember, that's where we started. If you think you can't live without it, you need to realize if you die, you can actually finally live.

So you can say to whatever is making you feel like you can't live without it, that you can actually.

I can. God puts a gun to your head. You say, I can live. Shoot me. I can still live.

If you blow my head off right now, I'll still live. I'll be in heaven in seven seconds.

And you'll still be living the hell that is earth and going to hell unless you accept Jesus Christ your Lord.

You can witness about Christ with a gun to your head because Jesus died and rose again.

And if you've accepted a Lord who tells you what to do, but not accepted him as the Lord who rose from the dead after he died on the cross,

then you might have trouble in that moment going, well, God secures the victory, but I might not be able to live without this.

I may have to just, you know, just pretend to not be a Christian so I can survive this circumstance.

We can put even our very life on the line because it has been entrusted to him.

And as our life, then anything worth clinging to, if all it does is hold us here, and there is so much better.

Jesus was a fanatic. We are called to be fanatics. The enemy wants anything but for you to be a fanatic.

He is actively enticing Christians and his whole army is mobilized to entice Christians away from undistracted, faithful, and wholehearted following of the Lord.

Start fresh today and commit yourself to this kind of relationship with God.

And you will be born again if that has not already happened, and if it has already happened, you will be forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness.

So let it be. If the enemy can pull you away by money, he will always dangle the money.

If he can pull you away by health concerns, he will always mess with your health.

If he can pull you away by relationship concerns, he will always mess with your relationship.

But when whatever he touches cannot get you distracted from the Lord, then he has got no business, he is not going to mess with it.

Why should he bother? It is effort. He is lazy. He does not want to mess with the things that will not touch you.

He wants to mess with the things that will. So when you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, unless you have a fever, vomiting, or diarrhea that you will be sitting in these chairs on a Sunday morning, he will stop messing with your schedule so you cannot be here.

When you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you will be in your Word every single day, he will stop giving you reasons and things to do otherwise.

Because he will know, it is already settled, it is already done, I am going to go mess with this guy over here that I can distract.

And then he will be patient. And he will find another way to get to you if he can.

If he can pull you away by any offensive person who says something and it gets under your skin.

So somebody in the church says or does something you do not like, then he will again and again and again.

I had somebody come to me about the church that they were in and they said, well something happened there and we are not discontented with that.

I said, well you have got to deal with that first because if you do not deal with that, when you go to the next church, something is going to happen to you there.

And the next church, something is going to happen to you there. It is just going to keep on keeping on.

Because until the enemy knows that his efforts to draw you away from undistracted devotion to the Lord in the church that he has put you in,

until the enemy knows that that is not going to work, he is going to keep coming in the same way that he came before.

Many a football game has been played and in the final quarter, the team that was on offense figured out the play that could get past the defense.

And they just ran that same play over and over and over again.

And the enemy is that way. If he knows the play that will get past your defenses, he is just going to keep running it over and over and over again.

Three yards on first down, three yards on second down, three yards on third down, three yards on fourth down, first down, three yards on first down, three yards.

If that is the way the enemy can get to you, then that is what he is going to get to you.

And all the while you say, but I am a Christian and I love the Lord and I cannot figure out why my wife, why my life, why my money, why my job, why my whatever,

is just flowing up and becoming such a problem so I cannot be devoted to the Lord.

It is because you did not get out of bed this morning and say I will not be messed with by enticements and I will not be overcome by my own lack of devotion.

Rather, I will stand firm in the Lord. I will focus on Christ alone.

If you have become this kind of a fanatic for Christ, the enemy and his efforts will be forced to retreat until a later and possibly advantageous time.

But if you remain an undistracted, faithful, wholehearted, armed against enticements Christian fanatic, he will probably never come.

And that is what Paul wanted for the Church of Corinthians, of the book of Corinthians, and that is what he wants for us.

And that, my friends, is freedom. And Jesus could say to those Jews who believed in him, believed in him, that means salvation, right?

Those Jews who believed in him could say, you come and follow me and then you will know the truth.

And the truth will set you free. Or you could keep on living over there, not really following me in undistracted, wholehearted devotion.

And one day you will be flying high with Jesus, isn't this great, I am learning, I am growing, I am doing all this.

And one week later, oh, if only I could have that, if only that would work out, why didn't that happen?

Oh, I am so messed up, oh, they are so messed up, oh, I am so mad at them, oh, I have got to be there so I can't be where I am supposed to be.

And then maybe about a month later it will be like, oh, yeah, I am flying high with Jesus.

And the roller coaster ride continues. If you are here today and you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, do that right now.

A Lord is a person who tells you what to do when you do it. A Savior is a person who pays the price for your sins.

Admit, believe in your heart, admit openly with your mouth that you know that that is who he is and that God raised him from the dead.

And this life then becomes grist for the mill. It is a tool that you can use.

It is a preparation period for the time that we have in eternity.

And you think about the things in your life that are enticements, they lead me away.

Even if they don't take away your undistracted devotion and all they do is unsecure it.

Last illustration. In medieval times, which I am pretty, I like that period of history,

there are two periods of history that I really like to study and know about one of the most medieval times.

A knight in heavy armor lowers this lance and charges along the list with another knight coming in the opposite direction.

Those lances are going to hit, they are going to hit hard. It is a 1500 pound or maybe 2000 pound war horse,

250 pound guy that can bench 400 in his sleep. And he is holding that lance and he is thundered toward the other guy.

And it smacks and nine times out of ten it hits the shield. Sometimes it slips past the shield and hits into the armor.

Sometimes it hits on the helmet. And when that hits, the first thing that happens, and they are braced,

they are tight in the saddle, their thighs are clenching up through the armor against the horse,

they are waiting for that impact and it hits. And the first thing that happens is not the knight falls off the horse.

The worst impact he can possibly get, that is not the first thing. The first thing that happens is he becomes loose in the saddle.

Now he doesn't get hit again. So as the horse is galloping along at near full speed,

as long as he gets back solid in the saddle he won't fall off. When he takes that impact and he starts bouncing around

and that horse is moving along at 30 mile an hour, it ain't easy. It probably wouldn't be easy for most of us to stay on the horse at all,

let alone to stay on the horse in heavy armor clenching himself on. He has got to get back seated in the saddle after he took that impact,

if he got loose in the saddle before he falls off.

Most Christians today are living loose in the saddle. And God is asking you not to do that.

He is asking me not to do that. He is asking us to be undistracted, whole hearted, faithfully following him.

And there are good things. What you really ought to do is get out of bed and say, I will not do that. I will not do anything.

I will not eat, I will not drink, I will not play, I will not train myself, I will not literally do anything, unless it is in Christ.

And then you are seated firmly in the saddle. And then you can start and go, okay, well now I can have this.

Now I have this skill, I have this education, I have this hobby, I have these things that I can do.

And as long as they do not become enticing, so I get wrapped up in them, or they do not become something that subverts

and makes my undistracted, whole hearted faithfulness to God, unsecure, then they can stay.

But as soon as I recognize the threat, as soon as I realize it is actually an enticement that can stick me, it is gone.

And then you will be saved, in Christ, and free.

What do you think he was teaching the disciples?

Oh, and how did they all end again?

All martyred for their faith to a one, except for one. None of them back down.

None of them cried out, oh, it was a mistake, I did not want to be a Christian after all.

Even though it was drawn and ordered, even though it was crucified, even though it was burnt to the stake.

No, because they were living as a fanatic in Jesus, and they were actually free.

And they could give you their life.

And by the way, if we could see where they are at now, what they are doing now, we could do the same thing.

But that is not the way it works. We see what God did, we claim God's promises, and we live this way for the Lord,

and we will wind up where they are.

That is a crazy thing to come forward.

We are finding out today, we are closed on our services, but if you have not actually embraced Christ and the Lord and the Savior,

please do that now, and recognize that it includes that admission that God raised him from the dead,

which means this life is gross for the middle.

It is a tool that he can use to get from where you are now, that he can use it for you,

to get you from where you are now, to heaven for eternity.

And if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,

but you realize that you had unsecured, undistracted devotion to the Lord,

so you allow yourself to be distracted, then you repent and turn to God and say, I will not do it.

I will not allow anything that I am experiencing to distract me.

Or maybe there has been some things that have come in your life that have been staking, have been clinging to you.

You just touched it at first, and you are like, I don't want to go like that, and now it is staking.

And you say, well, as long as it is an enticement to me, as long as I can't stop turning from Jesus,

I repent of that thing, and I will have nothing to do with it, and I will only be about Jesus.

Or maybe the God in heaven has spoken to you in some way that has nothing to do with anything I have said,

you may have heard me say something today that nobody else heard.

And that's okay, if you respond to whatever God is saying to you, and publicly.

Would you stand with me and sing this song with me, and then as the Lord will be here to respond, if you respond.

I will be close to you, never let me go, and lay it all down again.

You say that I'm a friend, you are my desire,

no one else will do. Stop me, I'll soon change your place.

In the warmth of your embrace, help me find the way, bring me back to you.

You are all I want.