One of Many Deuteronomy 29:9-21

Sometimes I think when we're thinking of moments of inspiration

That we're looking for some big grand thing

Like we're waiting for God to speak from a cloud loudly

Or for the ground to shake and rumble

And for the rock to fall off the cliff

There's been hurt there for a hundred years

And all of a sudden it's going to fall

And then we hear something from God

I want you to understand that we're talking about inspirational moments

That's not necessarily what we're talking about

If something like that happens in your life and God says

Charlie, go tell everybody this

We can hear on Sunday morning

Before announcements, before the first song

I want you to say that's God said this to me

You come in here and say this I need to say

If that happens to you

Then you come and say God told me to tell everybody this

Don't wait for the inspirational moment time

The inspirational moment time we're talking about during this time

Like all the time little things that you pick up here and there

You should be listening all the time

I'll give you an example

This morning Arianna and I had kind of a funny thing going on at the house

I was making a batch of cornbread

And some of the cornbread as will happen

When you put it in cupcakes fell off the side above the cupcake wrapper

And sat on the pan

So then when it went through the oven

It came out of the oven

The bit that was on the pan had turned brown

And Arianna was like, oh my gosh

It turned brown and Arianna looked at me and she said

What those chocolate bits there

She didn't know there was chocolate in cornbread

I said, oh there's no chocolate there

That's the cornbread

It just fell off the side when I put it in the cups

And it cooked and looked like that

And she said, I bet it wouldn't taste like chocolate

And I said, you're right

It would taste like chocolate

I said, if there is an inspirational moment

It was actually the second moment that we had this morning

Because sometimes you will look at something

And it can go through a certain process

And it can start to look good to you

It can look like fun or it can look like it tastes good

It can even look like something else

If you've ever accidentally bitten into a wax fruit

Which I imagine nobody here has ever made that mistake

But if you've ever actually bitten

Or you put it in your mouth and just started getting ready to taste it

You realize it can look really good

It can be some of the best looking fruit that you can find

And yet it does not taste good

And it cannot nourish you

And those little bits that fell off the cornbread were not chocolate

And they really don't taste good

You really would have to like burnt cornbread mix

In order for you to taste that gold

Yeah, that's yummy, right?

So somebody might, a rare one in a hundred or something

Might think, yeah, that really tastes good

It tastes really better than the cornbread

But real chocolate does taste real good

And it does produce real endorphins in your body

It makes you feel good

Too much of it isn't good for you

But a little bit here and there

Yeah, that's good stuff

See how the enemy takes good things that God has made for us

And we use those very good things to lure us away from what's really good

By making you think, oh, that looks like chocolate

When in reality it is not

Relationships can be like that

You go after somebody, a boy, a girl, a friend

Could be even a parent or a cousin or family member, whatever

And you pursue that relationship

You try to have a good relationship with that person

And then that person starts leading you in a direction that you're not supposed to go

But you don't want to give up that relationship

That person won't listen to you about God or doesn't believe the same thing

But you don't want to give up that relationship

You keep pouring into that relationship

Because, well, we're supposed to be relational, right?

Bible says love your neighbor, right?

Love others

We're supposed to do all of that

And the enemy will keep you carrying there

Keep you working there in that relationship

Which is not a healthy relationship

By misusing those words of God, right?

God, we were created for a relationship with one being primarily

And that is God through His son Jesus Christ

God's the one we really were created with relationships with

And so you can have all kinds of human relationships

And the truth is, and somebody will maybe disagree with me on this

The truth is that every human relationship you have

Every person, your dad

Your son or daughter

Your mom, your sister

All of them will be flawed

All of them, your pastor

Your relationship with me is flawed

Your relationship with your team there is flawed

Because we're all flawed human beings

Even being recreated into the image of Jesus

We still have issues, right?

And so your issues are always going to come up

And they're going to rub wrong on each other

Because those relationships are always going to be flawed

But your relationship with God doesn't have to be like that

He is the sovereign authority, creator of all

And you can submit to Him

And the two of you together can have an amazing relationship

That is not flawed in any way

And the flaws are taken care of by Jesus

Okay, wait a minute

The flaws are taken care of by Jesus

He covers over those flaws to make that relationship good

And Jesus can do the same thing between two Christians

So if you have a godly person and a godly person

Even though both might make mistakes

The relationship will be flawed

But Jesus can cover over the mistakes

And bring those to people in the proper community

And that's what the church is all about

Okay, so that was an example

Now that didn't look like chocolate moment

Could have just went right on by

But then we got to talking about it

And she and I together saw something

And she said, I'm going to inspire you a lot this morning

But really not Ariana really

But a god, right? Through Ariana

So I encourage you to look for those little

They're called inspirational moments

Right? This is not the inspirational moment

People are saying, well this is an inspirational moment

We're going to have an inspirational moment

This is us talking about the inspirational moment

That we've had all week long

Now the easiest way to be inspired by God

Is to go to God's inspired Word

Which he filled with the Spirit

And he can teach you something you've never seen before

Even if you've read that passage a hundred times before

I'll give you a second, Rachel

Even if you've read that passage a hundred times before

You can get something new out of it

That happens to you all the time

I've had multiple little inspirational moments

That I've seen, and in general terms

It's the strength and power of God

What moves you up

The amount of work and the amount of motivation

That we don't have

That God can then give us to push through

And just coming together here and at the light station

Even with my family, the amount of work and witness

Together that we can have through the pain

Through the strife, through the sickness

And still get a massive amount of work and witnessing

And work done to other people

And then people saying, how do you do it?

Well, I don't, God does

And he used me to do it

And just a little bit like that

Like we talked about the past couple weeks

The words that we can use

People say, how do you do it?

One day at a time with God on my side

That's how I do it

Good word, good word

Alright, anyone else?

So, who knows what this is?

It's a circle

It's a ring

Why do people want it?

So, this is my wedding band

And I very rarely take it off my finger

Because I'm terrified that the one time I take it off

I'm going to lose it

Well, I've worn this thing every single day

Consistently, day in, day out

And even at work, everybody's like

Well, why are you wearing it at work?

You can clearly tell if you look at it closely

It's got scratches and things

Even where I almost wadded it to a car

On accident

It's got a little nub right here now

You get a free mechanic with your car

But when I got asked at work why I never take it off

And I gave them that agrees

And I was like, well, I'm afraid that I'll lose it

It took me forever to get mine off too

I'm trying to see

I don't mind not a ring anymore

It took me forever to get mine off

But one of the guys asked me

He's like, well, why don't you take it off when you're working or anything

And I told him because I'm afraid to lose it

And then not long after that

I heard a guy tell me

The reason you don't take it off is because you know who the other end of that ring belongs to

So we don't

The ring represents the unity between you and your wife

And now if I take it off

If I take it off just for a couple minutes

I feel really awkward

And when I took it off at work

So I can clean my hands better

That's when I heard God say, no, you wear that ring

Because it represents your life as well

And I think you could go

This is why you don't take the Bible off

As you know it's not that long

This is why you don't take the word out of your life

Because you know it's not that long

This is why you don't take the cross off

We don't have to wear a cross or have a tattoo of a cross

But we carry our cross daily

Why? Because he carried his cross for us

That's all connected

This, to follow your illustration

This is my wedding ring

You'll notice that it is no longer around

So, I'll start the wax prop and the light is line dry

Probably it's partly switched to the line dryer

So I almost can't take it off

Except for in the middle of the way when my fingers went down

So, but I'm very blessed to be married

It's not about marriage, but we're very blessed to be married to God

But don't take off the things that God has marked you with

As his own word

Anybody else?

So, those of you that don't know

I'm in college

I'm currently in a chemistry lab

And in this chemistry lab

Last week

Last week we

We did a lab

About separating mixtures

Through different physical and chemical processes

And so she gave us a mixture

Like a couple grams of a mixture of sand, salt, and

Sodium carbonate

It's what seashells are made out of

And we went to the lab

And we put the mixture in water

And that dissolved off the salt

And then we put it in a funnel

And ran acid through it

To get the carbonate out

And then we were left with the sand

And then we dried and waited

And it's sort of the analog to the

We didn't ask the mixture what parts to take out

And God's not asking us what parts of our life we have to get rid of

And some of them are going to go out like water and salt

And some of them are going to feel like hydrochloric acid

Pulling the castor carbonate out of them

It's not always going to be easy

And whether we like it or not

It's going to happen

It might just be better to ask

To get a little help with it

Alright, so we're going to pray together at this time

I had an offering, a little more worship, a couple songs

So it won't be released

I'm going to ask Brother Ron now

We'll pray along with Brother Ron

Here we go

Lord Father in Heaven, we are so blessed to be here today

Lord, your ways are so far above our ways

We're so grateful that we have you

Our Savior, our Creator

To watch over us, to help us walk

To show us your way

When you're here physically with us

Jesus, we can't thank you enough for what you've done for us

And what you continue to do for us in the Spirit

I ask that you bless these tithes and offerings

One of the many, many, many things that you've done for us

Which is provide income and blessings

And Lord, we give that back to you in the form of pious

Which are commanded

And we give it back to you in offerings

Which are above our pious

Thank you

Father, I pray that you'll bless them

Help us use them to see over what we've done

Bless this body as we gather

Continue to help us worship you

I pray it'll be beautiful to your ears

Thank you, bless this day in Jesus' name

Amen

Get it.

The splinter of the king

Gloved in majesty

That all the earth rejoices

All the earth rejoices

Here at sin's help in the light

The darkness tries to arrive

And trumpets at his voice

Trumpets at his voice

How great is our God

Sing to me how great is our God

I will see how great, how great is our God

Let's sing to him how great is our God

Let's sing to him how great is our God

How great is our God

Sing to me how great is our God

How great is our God

I will see how great, how great is our God

How great is our God

I will see how great is our God

How great is our God

Sing to me how great is our God

I will see how great is our God

How great is our God

How great is our God

Sing to me how great is our God

I will see how great, how great is our God

There's no place where mercy reigns

And heaven will arise

There's a place with streams of grace

Where we be back alive

With all the love and heaven we found

It's like a flood, it's flowing down

At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life

I did love you, I did love you

May the love we have reigned in my sin wash white

I owe all to you, I owe all to you Jesus

There's a place where sin and chains are promised

At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life

I will see how great is our God

There's a place with streams of grace

Where we be back alive

With all the love and heaven we found

It's like a flood, it's flowing down

At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life

I owe all to you, I owe all to you

Here I am, on the earth I stand

Here I am, on the holy ground

Here I am, here I am

Here I am, my life is free

Here I am, my life is free

Here I am, my life is free

Here I am, my life is free

At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life

I owe all to you, I owe all to you

At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life

I did love you, I did love you

I said it was fair, I owe all to you

I owe all to you, I owe all to you

I owe all to you, to you, to you, to you

In Christ alone will I be

Though I have to pride myself in that I was wise

For I've been blessed beyond measure

And by His strength alone I overcome

Oh, I could stop an count of cremators

Like diamonds in my hand

But those trophies could not equal

To the grace my wish I'd send

In Christ alone I'll face my chore

And find my glory in the will of the crew

In every victory let it be said of me

My soul must have strength, my soul must have power in Christ alone

In Christ alone will I be

For He holds me by all His grace and grace

And only His hand of mercy

Could reach beyond my weakness to my knees

Now I could seek no greater honor

Than just to love you more

As the count of the games were lasting

To the glory of God

In Christ alone I'll face my chore

And find my glory in the will of the crew

In every victory let it be said of me

My soul must have strength, my soul must have power in Christ alone

I'll face my chore

And find my glory in the will of the crew

In every victory let it be said of me

My soul must have strength, my soul must have power in Christ alone

My soul must have strength, my soul must have power in Christ alone

As I was sitting there I thought well I'm going to open my Bible to the reference before I get up there in the pulpit

And I was thinking to myself Deuteronomy 19, I thought oh yeah I think it's a lot further than that

I thought Deuteronomy 19, it seemed like we were getting close to the end of the book

And then I remembered it's Deuteronomy 29 and I was like oh yeah we are getting close to the end of the book

We are literally nearing the end of the book of Deuteronomy

Which is quite an impressive feat to work our way through the entire book

There are only 33 chapters of the book of Deuteronomy

We've been over a year with it but it's a big book

It is one of the larger books in the Bible and we've made a lot of progress

And I personally I don't know if anybody else has gotten a lot out of it or not

But I've seen a lot of things come out of this that have really affected my life

And I'm grateful to be allowed to do it and I thank you that you allow me to do it

Imagine for a moment that you were growing up a hundred years ago or more

In the United States of America where for most of the middle of America

You were dealing with a lot of small towns and some of the towns that developed to be kind of large

But there was a lot of small towns and some of those small towns faded away

Faded into bigger towns and things like that

But if you were a young person and you guys who are in the room like Jason

You just went into sixth grade, seventh grade thank you sir

So you just went into seventh grade and if you were in seventh grade

You would have kindergarteners in your class with you in school

In fact the small town schoolhouses almost all of them had kindergarten

And really they didn't have kindergarten

They had that age at which they were ready which is kindergarten first grade

Kindergarten is kind of a little bit later development

First grade through senior in high school

So you'd have been going to the same small building

And you'd be there for six or seven hours with kids and teenagers of all ages

And the only textbook that you had generally speaking to read from

Unless your teacher would bring in additional works or things like that was the Bible

So you would be learning as a first grader in the same room with somebody who was in 11th or 12th grade

So when they're talking about algebra you're mostly just waiting patiently

And when the first graders are talking about what's the difference between an M and an N in the alphabet

The tenth graders were working on their algebra work or whatever

So in the same room was all this vast range of people

And so there were farmers and then there was the general store owner's son and the smith's son

They come from different walks of life and like that

But they would all come to this schoolhouse because they knew there was knowledge there to be received

And while someone else was receiving the knowledge that they were getting

They might get some little piece of it or pick up some part of it

But if somebody was much older than them they probably couldn't understand it

Like they might be reading poetry for example or reading proverbs out of the Bible

And the first and second graders would just get just an inkling of what they were talking about

Not understanding really at all what they were talking about

And then when they were reading, when they were learning colors and stuff like that

The older kids were just basically ignoring what was being said

Small town schoolhouses between the ages of first grade and senior high school

Are very similar to the incident that we're going to read about in the text today

That's why I make that illustration

So grab your Bible if you would and turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 29

Deuteronomy 29 · chapter mention

Amen

Thank you so much

This is God's word

We stopped last week in verse 8

We ended with verse 8 and we will begin today with verse 9

So 29, 9 says

So keep the words of this covenant to do them that you may prosper in all that you do

You stand today all of you before the Lord your God

Your chiefs, your tribes, your elders, your officers, even all the men of Israel

Your little ones, your wives, the alien who is within your camps

From the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water

So before we go any further there I want you to see that he's making a point that everybody's there

And notice he doesn't have to do that

He doesn't have to say men and women

In other texts we don't even get that

See all of you men are here and women are not even acknowledged but they were there

Or all the families are here and that would take care of all the men, women, and children

But he's breaking them down to make a point

He's saying all these kind of different categories

And he doesn't list all of the categories that were there

So there's something that we can learn from the list that he chooses

Because he doesn't list everybody that was there

But his point is everyone is here

But notice how different some of you are from the others

Chiefs from the men who chop the wood for example is a radical difference

As leaders of families who had 10 sons and their sons had sons

And they had soldiers that had been trained up

And they were all working together as a kind of like an organized family, an organized military unit

That's way different from the guy who just goes out and draws the water

Or maybe the woman who went out and draws the water

So basically he's saying we're all here and I see that you're all different

That was his point

We're going to go on, verse 12

Everyone's here, all the different walks of life

That you may enter into the covenant with the Lord your God and into his oath

Which the Lord your God is making with you today

In order that he may establish you today as his people

And that he may be your God just as he spoke to you

And as he swore to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

So he harkens back to the promises again

Remember this is the promised land that they're talking about

This covenant that they were making with God was based on the promise

Based on the grace, based on the holiness

We talked about all of that over the last month or so

But the bottom line is he was saying you're all here

And you all come from all these different parts of our society

Everybody is different in their own way

And that is so that you may make this covenant

See the connection? He says so that you may make this covenant

That's why everyone's there, that's why everyone's diverse

So that they may make the covenant

Verse 14

Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath

So now wait a minute, not just everybody that's there

But he says now there's someone more

More than you, you all are here and you all are different

But there's someone more that's making this covenant today as well

And verse 15 he says, and he gives us the answers to who that is

But both with those who stand here with us today

In the presence of the Lord our God

And with those who are not with us here today

For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt

And how we came through the midst of the nations from which you passed

So we're down to 17 and basically what he's saying is

All of you are here today, all of you come from different ways of thinking

Different ways of living, different job backgrounds, different social economic status

Whatever, we're diverse but we're all here represented

But this covenant that we're making is not even just with you as a people

And notice that when he said those who chop wood

There's a very good likelihood he was talking about people that they had taken in battle

So not even Israelites

Not blood Israelites, not people could trace their tribe back

So the proselytes are amongst them, people who have come over to be Israelites are there

So all these people from all these diverse backgrounds

He says, but not only am I not only making this covenant with one part of Israel

But all of Israel, but on top of that I'm not only making it with Israel

I'm making it with all those people who will come to be part of it in the future

And he says, you know how we went through all the midst of those nations

We saw so much difference

So many people from so many different walks of life, the way they live, the way they think, all of that

And he's saying, basically he was saying this covenant will in theory be open to everybody

God can use it to bring anybody into relationship with him

Then 17

Moreover, you have seen their abomination

So amongst those people they went through, you saw how the evil things that they did

And their idols of wood, stone, silver and gold

Which they had with them

So they had statues that they worshipped at or statues that they sacrificed their children at

And things like that

And saw how bad it is out there amongst other people

We don't have that here now amongst us

But it's very bad out there

And this covenant will be open to that people is what he was saying

18

Lest there shall be among you a man or a woman or a family or a tribe

Whose heart turns away today from the Lord your God

To go and serve the gods of these nations

Lest there shall be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood

And I'll break these things down in the points

So that's why I'm not breaking them down right this second

19

And it shall be when he hears the words of this curse

That he will boast saying

I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart

In order to destroy the watered land with the dry

In other words, he's saying there's somebody amongst you

There could be somebody amongst you

That would be like that

They will boast saying I have peace

Even though he doesn't have peace

Even though he is subject to the curse

He's not honoring God

He could say I have peace

Verse 20

The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him

But rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will burn against that man

And every curse which is written in this book will rest on him

And the Lord will blot his name from under heaven

Then the Lord will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel

According to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law

That's the text for the day

May God add blessings to the reading of his word

There are three things I want you to see in here

The first two might just jump right out at you

The third one is a combination of those two and might also just jump right out

You might have done this by yourself in your own study I think

But the Lord really laid it on my heart

The first thing is I want you to see that the people that were there was everyone

All walks of life

Woodcutters and water bearers

Those who owned a hundred oxen or whatever

Those who owned fifteen flocks of sheep

Had twenty shepherds working for them

All walks of life

The single, the married

Those who had betrayed God at some point in time and then restored to the community

And those by sacrifice or by whatever it means

Those who had never betrayed God that anyone ever knew about

They were all there

All people, all walks of life

All types of education

Smarter people who know how to construct things from

Take plants and stones and bring them together

Boil this and boil that and distill this and distill that and put it all together

And get a medicine

And people who are like

You know I walk behind a plow and I know you've got to keep the rows straight because

I want to get the maximum yield from the crops

Right?

And people who don't know any of that and all they know is you get up in the morning to go get the water because it's hot in the middle of the day

Every walk of life and every education

Those who could read and those who could not

Reading was not taken for granted at all in that day

Some could and some couldn't

In fact whether or not you could read was not an indicator of whether you were educated or not

Today we want to say that if somebody can't read it's because they're not educated

That's not even true

There are people who do not read well who are way smarter than people who do read well

I know a man who went and got his master's degree and he has a reading level like fifth grade

That's all he can read

And he made it through six years of college

Right?

Now he had to work harder than the other guy and in my opinion I think he's smarter than a lot of those guys that went through and could read really well

Even though he because he had to work harder even though they made it through and got the same degree he did maybe got better grades

He worked harder and learned more in that six years than they did

But he has a fifth grade reading level

Bottom line is this

All walks of life

All education levels

All work types

Wait for it

All backstories

People who came from all different places

They might be successful businessmen now

And a lot of times we look at people right where they are right now and we think that's how they've been their whole life

But that isn't so

People come from all different backgrounds

There are people who were in one career and switched to a completely different career

Right?

Completely different major in school whatever all different backstories

Notice there were people there who were witnesses

They were alive to see what God did to the Egyptians some of them

But there were people there who were converts

They didn't see any of it

They didn't see what God did the Egyptians

They didn't see God part the Red Sea

They didn't see any of it

But they understood that it had happened or believed that it had happened

But they hadn't seen it

Some of them weren't even Israelite blood

They believed that it had happened that God had converted them

They've been taken in battle and now they've become Israelites or Jews if you will as converts

What they were witnessing to was what God was doing today

What God had done in their lives

That's a lot like we are

So all walks of life, all education, all work types, all backstories, witnesses and converts

Who was gathered there? Everyone!

But it goes further than that because in verse 15 who was lumped in?

Everyone who was yet to come

Look at 15 again real quick

He says, but both, these are those who, he says, not just making the covenant and this oath with you

But both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God

And with those who are not with us here today

Every convert, every person who would come to be a believer

This covenant was for everybody

Everyone was lumped in

I submit to you this is a problem for me

Because there are people who just don't know

There are people that maybe will have a hard time ever knowing

They're ignorant

They don't have access to the gospel, they don't have a Bible, they don't have somebody to teach them

They don't know and the possibility of their knowing seems minimal

And then there are people that, you know, I'm just keeping my head down

I'm just keeping my nose to the grindstone

I'm just doing what I gotta do, right?

I'm being me, doing what I gotta do, day to day, in and out

And it seems like they have less chance because they're keeping their head down

Because they're not focused on these other things

And it seems to me that Psalm 131 supports, at least initially, that lifestyle

It says, and I'll read it to you real quick

Oh Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty

Nor do I involve myself in great matters or in things too difficult for me

So I have great sympathy for the one who says, I don't really have to worry about that covenant

I really don't have to worry about the extensions of the law, the choices that I have to make

Because that's a little beyond me, right?

Or those who look at the pashel and say, well, he knows more of the Word than I do

So that's why he's kind of goofy like that

I don't have to be kind of goofy like that

Or they look at Deacon Tony and say, well, he'll grin and bear it, he'll get it done

He was able to just set everything aside and make it happen or whatever

And he can do that because he's ordained as a deacon

He's somehow special or whatever

That's just not the case

That's just not the way it works

Everyone was subject to the same standards

And then if you go a little further in Psalm 131

He says in verse 2, surely I have composed and quieted my soul

Like a weaned child rests against his mother

My soul is like a weaned child within me

A weaned child is a child that still yearns for the breast but is now off the breast, right?

And so he wants, he needs, everything is not taken care of for him

And then in verse 3 he says, oh Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore

So the psalmist understood that no matter what walk of life you come from

No matter how educated you think you are or think you aren't

How capable to take on a task you think you are or how incapable you think you are

It doesn't matter

You're subject to the same standards

You're subject to the same covenant

The same call of God

The same bizarre faith that makes lost people look at us and go, that person is just weird

I don't know why they're so unfaithful to the Lord

Why does he always say he's blessed?

Why is he always praying for me?

Why does he stop and pray for me in the middle of his busy day?

Why does he witness?

Why does he talk to me about Jesus?

Why is he wearing that Jesus shirt?

Or why does he serve without any recompense?

Doesn't get paid?

And people look at people and think, that's strange

And that's the kind of people we're supposed to be because we are dependent upon God

No matter what walk of life we came from to understand

Now when I graduated high school, I'll go back

When I was in sixth grade, they took those standardized testings, right?

And my reading level was a 12th grade reading level in sixth grade

Now my boys did better than that

And that's not always the way it is, right?

So when I was 25 years old, and I found out that my name Daniel came from the book of Daniel in the Bible

The hero of the faith, if you will

I asked my dad, and he said, yeah, we named you after Daniel in the Bible

I said, well, I want to read the book of Daniel

And I want to understand what it says

Because I think that some of this church stuff makes sense to me

I wasn't saved at the time, but it was making sense

I said, I want to read it and understand it, and I can do that

Because I can read and understand the craziest of things

I can read and understand college textbooks

I can read and understand the dictionary

I could have probably learned another language

I didn't, but I probably could have

So I thought I'd read it

So I read the first chapters, the first seven chapters

And guess how much of it I understood

Next to none of it

I'm going, I don't understand this

I'm reading, it's prose, it's paragraph after paragraph

It's just word after word like any other book

But I don't understand what it is that God is trying to say through this

I couldn't understand it

It doesn't matter how educated you are

Or what your reading level is

You're subject to the same problems

And also the same blessings as anyone else

Everyone was there

And everyone was lumped in

And to say, that's above my pay grade

Or that's outside my reach

Or I don't quite understand it

And think that that's an excuse

That's just not true

In Colossians chapter 1

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

Paul is writing to the church at Colossi

That's why it's called Colossians

And verses 19 through 23

It says as follows

Colossians chapter 1 verses 19 through 23

Colossians 1:19–23

For it was the Father's good pleasure

For all the fullness to dwell in Him

That's talking about Jesus

So it was God the Father's good pleasure

For all the fullness

Of everything

To dwell in Jesus

And through Him, that's Jesus

To reconcile all things to Himself

Having made peace through the blood of His cross

Through Him

I say, whether things on earth

Or things in heaven

And although you were formerly alienated

That means you were apart from God

You didn't have a good relationship with God

You were formerly alienated

And hostile in mind

Engaged in evil deeds

That's who we were

If you're not saved, that's who you are

22, yet He has now reconciled you

In His fleshly body

Through death

So He died to bring

Peace between you and God

In order to present you before Him

Holy and blameless and beyond reproach

If indeed you continue in the faith

Firmly established and steadfast

And not moved away from the hope of the gospel

That you have heard

Which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven

And of which I, Paul, was made a minister

So basically, if you become a Christian

That is to say, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ

A child of God through Jesus

And stay the course as a Christian

By the way, if you don't stay the course

You know what that's called, right?

That's called a liar

You said you were a Christian following the Lord

Doing what it was that God wanted you to do

But things got ahold of you

Things got you distracted

Things got you challenged, whatever

You went after the cares and riches of this world

And you thought, well, I want more social media

I want more phone games

Or I want more sports

Or I want more hobbies

Or I want more sex

Or I want more pleasure

Or whatever, as you pursue after those things

And eventually you get wrapped up in that

So you're not producing any fruit

And if you are a Christian

You are a liar because you said

He was Lord and you're not living for Him as Lord

But the truth is, you're probably not

A Christian, you were just lying

When you said you were

Let's be factual, shall you? Everyone was there

Everyone from every walk of life

Everyone from every education level

No one was able to say that's above my pay grade

When the pastor preaches it or the word says it

If the pastor preaches it and it lines up with the word

Or the word says it in your own

Private reading time, you have a responsibility

To respond to what it is

That God says

There is no teaching of Christianity

That is above your pay grade

It is for everyone

All of it

Second thing to be seen in here

Is that God is calling

For faithfulness

Ruling out the adultery

With idols that they had seen

Amongst so many other people

The fact is

Systems, all systems everywhere

Must learn to excrete

You know what I mean by that, right?

Your body's got to poop

Right? I was watching

A cute movie last night with Sherry

On what was left of date night

And they were talking about their favorite animals

And she said, what's your favorite animal?

And he said, birds

And she said, birds?

And he said, why, what's yours?

She said, birds are nasty

And he said, why, what's yours?

And she said, dogs

And he said, why are birds nasty?

And she said, birds are pooping all the time

Everywhere, they poop all the time everywhere

And he said, yeah

So are dogs

And the point is

People excrete, systems excrete

You've got to learn to put out that

Which cannot be beneficial

You've got to learn to proficiently

That is to say, sort out what's good for you

Or good for the system

And whatever is not good for you or good for the system

Has to efficiently, indefinitely

And regularly be put out of the system

Here's how the system

Actually works in your body

You eat food, right?

When you eat food, and because of the day that we live in

Pretty much all food that you eat

You can almost get there with organic food

But even, and only certain organic foods

Like fruits and vegetables

All food has stuff in it

That's not good for you

Even if it's stuff that normally might be good for you

Or might be good for somebody else

It could not be good for you today

Right? Water soluble vitamins

For example, once you get enough of them

You excrete them

So your body measures, oh I need more vitamin C

Oh I don't need more vitamin C

When you cap and get too much

And don't need it, you excrete that

So that would be good for somebody else

Which means, as disgusting as this sounds

If somebody else ate your poop

That had the vitamin C in it, they could be healthier

What?

All systems have to

Learn to excrete

And they excrete what they don't need

They excrete what's not good for them

If you drink alcohol, your body has to process that alcohol

Takes the energy out of it, and then you have to

Urinate it all out

Which is why you wind up with liver poisoning

It's why you wind up with kidney failure

Because your body has to process that

And it's not good for you

By and large, however

If you have a problem where you have high blood pressure

And your blood is thick, a little bit of alcohol

Will thin your blood and keep you from having a heart attack

Wait a minute

Is it bad for you or isn't it?

The truth is, everything that's in the world

Is good

And you're gonna take it in, people are gonna say things

To you, do things to you, give things to you

Call you to things

Try to teach you to promise things, promise you things

And you have to be willing

And able to absorb

What comes at you

And excrete what isn't good for you

So when you eat that food, and it's got some bad stuff in it

You gotta excrete it

You gotta get rid of it

Get rid of the bad stuff, and the good stuff stays and builds your body

That's how it works

So if you eat 5,000 calories tomorrow

Burn 2,000 calories tomorrow

And excrete 1,000 calories tomorrow

You took in 2,000 calories too much

And you will weigh 2 thirds of a pound more the next day

That's exactly how it works

It's just that simple

All this, you need a fad diet

You need a bunch of exercise

It's just this simple

You take in the calories, you burn the calories

If you don't burn it, you store it

Or you excrete it

Right?

That's it

The building is the same way

We bring stuff in

If we keep bringing stuff in

And don't get rid of some stuff that we don't need

If we fill up, there will be no room for people

Sylvia Cynthia Stout

Who would not take the garbage out

The poem in Where the Sidewalk Ends

About a girl who wouldn't take the garbage out

Eventually, the garbage blew up out of her whole house

And out of her whole state

We laugh about that

Said, no, that could never happen

But the truth is, if our state, the state of Ohio

Doesn't figure out how to deal with the garbage that people are producing

Yeah, it will be thousands of years

But eventually, there won't be anywhere for people to be

That's just the reality

And that's telling us for faithfulness

In ruling out or excreting

Getting rid of the adulterous behavior

That is attached to idols

The bottom line is

We have to learn to proficiently

Efficiently

Indefinite

That means as long as you're going to live and continue to walk in the faith

And regularly deal with the stuff

That's coming at us

And decide what's good and what goes

And God would say your worship

Goes in one place and one place alone

And that is to Him

But let's be realistic

Can somebody own a small action figure

Idol, doll, made of gold

Silver, wood, plastic

Doesn't matter, and not worship it

Absolutely

Can someone be involved with

Sports and not worship sports stars

Absolutely

Can someone be involved with music

And not worship music idols

Absolutely

That's possible

So these are all things that are in the world

That God has made it possible

To partake of and even to use for His glory

But you're going to learn

You have to learn to process them

And God says you cannot process them

This way

You cannot let them become idols of worship

This processing that has to be done

Is done to maintain

But more to benefit

The purposes of the system

So the believer

Needs to process everything

That happens to them in a way

That it makes them more able to follow God

Not less able to follow God

And God was calling them

To do that

Also making them aware

Of the fact that those other people

Those other nations who were already into idol worshiping

Could potentially

Turn from idol worshiping, put God first

And be lumped into the covenant

That is what you and I have done

For the believers in the room

We have said there are these things in my life

They're good things but they're not as good as God

So God will be first

Through Jesus His son and everything else

Will be processed according to that one

Standard

That's what it means to be a Christian

That's why you said that you would be His God

That you would be His people and that He would be

Your God, right? That's what that means

A couple of quick illustrations

From the New Testament before we go on to the third point

You've heard maybe the parable of the four soils

Basically guys going out to

Lay seed and some goes on the road

Some goes on the thorns, some goes on the field

Or some goes on the thin soil

Some goes on the thorns, some goes on the field

And what goes on the field produces a lot

Of fruit and it's good

What goes in the thorns gets choked out

By the thorns which is the cares and

The riches of this world

And so what we say is we never want our growth

As a Christian to be choked out by the cares and the riches of this world

Because we have to learn to process the things that are happening

So we have to go, okay, look, I like food

I do, but if I eat too much food

In about five to ten years

I'm not going to be able to be functional

Doing what it is I want to do for the Lord

And therefore I can't do that anymore

I don't like push-ups, sit-ups, crab walking, lifting weights

I don't like doing that

But if I don't do that on a semi-regular basis

Then by the time I'm 55

Or 65 or 75

I may not be functional to do some of the things

That I want to do for the Lord

I don't like blocking time out of my day

To study my Bible, just plain study it

And write things down like the pastor is always trying to get me to do

That's hard work

Academically, physically, it's time-challenging, etc.

I don't want to do that hard work

But if I don't do it

Then in a few years

I will be missing some key piece of my faith

That God is calling me to

And whatever you are replacing that time with

That you're not spending alone with the Lord

That's your idol

Whatever you're replacing

The time you're meant to be worshipping God

Or loving others with

That's your idol

Check it out, figure out what it is

And realize that

The cares and the riches of this world

Are what's choking out your growth

But let's be really simple about this

There's another parable called the wheat and the tares

That Jesus tells

Another farming parable

The farmer goes out to sow, his servants actually sow

And then when the crop comes up

They see wheat and tares

The funny thing about wheat and tares

Is they look very similar

But one produces fruit and one does not

Then they say, well, should we tear out the tares?

And he says, don't do that

Because if you do that, the roots of the tares

Will tear out the roots of the wheat

So leave them there, and then I will come and harvest

And everybody's like, well that means

And it does, that when Jesus comes

He's going to harvest it

There will be people who said they loved the Lord

They loved the fathers, they were lying, they weren't really following Jesus

And those people will be

Harvested and thrown into hell for eternity

People like to use it that way, and I'm not

Disagreeing with that use of that

Parable, right?

But I submit to you that the soil

In the parable of wheat and tares

Is good soil

Right?

They went out to farm and all the seed made it

To the field, but then the weeds came up

And they asked, how's that, how'd that happen?

How'd you get tares in there? And he said because

The enemy has sown in bad seed

In with the good seed

Right?

So this is the issue

You've got to be able to process

What the enemy does

In you

The things the world does, the things your family does

Listen, you may have a great

Christian family

They may love the Lord, they may be trying to serve the Lord

But the reality is they're all human

And they will make mistakes

And when they do, they may bring something to you

That if you absorb it

You're in a good field

Supposed to be producing fruit and now all of a sudden you have a

Tare right next to you sucking the

Juice out of the soil so you can't grow big

And produce fruit, right?

You still have to be wheat

You still have to be wheat when the harvest comes

And I submit to you

That the harvest comes according to the text that we just read

More frequently

Than only at the end of the world

Now I'm not trying to blaspheme against

The holy scripture, clearly Jesus was using

That parable to teach about

His second coming, right?

I'm not saying he wasn't doing that

But I submit to you based on the text that we read today

Deuteronomy 29, the harvest

Comes more often than

Only at the end when Jesus comes again

Everybody's thinking, I'm safe

And then that brings us into our third point

When, here's the

Question, when is a person

Singled out by God for punishment?

When I was in sixth grade

I had a teacher, he was my social studies teacher

And there were about 25 boys

No girls in my social studies class

Now I don't know if they did that on purpose

Or what not, but we were

Going through a rotation and it turned out

That we had 25 boys, no girls

In the class

And there was a young man who'd been

Pretty much a trouble maker, the whole time I'd known him in school

He would do things to get other kids to laugh

You know what that's like, right?

Is the kid that does something to try to get everybody laughing

And everybody starts laughing and they don't realize

That they're actually leading the kid to continue to do bad stuff

Well he was that kid

So this teacher

Of the second week of class

I think it was maybe third week, but it was in the very beginning

Of the second or third week of class

Came around and we were all sitting in our

Seats working on paper and he walked up

Behind that student

And took two of his fingers and put it in this hole

Right here, between your shoulder

And your neck, and he pushed down

Real hard until the student

Was slipping down in his seat

But then, because he had a big hand

And we were still pretty small at that time

He had his thumb under his shoulder blade

Or something on his back, or maybe it was his shirt

And he was holding him so he couldn't shrink completely

With it, and they called it the claw

Right?

And so then whenever

This kid would be acting up, he'd say, I just want you to know

I've heard stories about who you are

And anytime we have trouble

You're gonna get the claw

Now he pretty well behaved

Most of the semester

But three, four times, he'd come

And got the claw, because he'd be goofing off

He'd throw something, the teacher would know it was him

And he'd go and he'd give him the claw

And there was a few other boys that got the claw

There was a few boys that got the claw

Just because they wanted to know what the claw was like

They did something wrong, just like they never did it again

But the first time they said, I'm gonna do this

Just to see what that's like, and they got the claw

So what I'm asking you is, when is a

Person singled out by God

For the claw, because it sounds wrong

He hadn't actually done anything wrong

When the fingers went down in his shoulder the first time

That was just to show him what was gonna happen

When he did do something wrong

Right?

Then he did do something wrong and he got it

And then a couple weeks later he did it again and he got it

When does God

Bring the claw

On somebody who is amongst his people

On somebody who claims to be

His followers

So in this text, and what we just read

There are three notable

Failings

That bring a person to the point

Of God's claw

The first one is false teaching

If you'll look

And it says

At the end of

Verse 18, so we'll read 18

Lest there shall be among you a man or a woman

A family or a tribe, whose heart

Turns away today from the Lord our God

To go and serve the gods of those nations

Lest there shall be among you a

Root bearing poisonous fruit

And wormwood

So the first thing here is poisonous fruit

Right? Now he's not just talking about

A tribe here, because in the very next thing

It'll say, and it shall be when he hears the words

He hears the words of this curse

Right? Talking about an individual

An individual who brings

Poisonous fruit

Poisonous fruit is when you produce something

That sends somebody else

In a bad way

Right? So you're producing fruit

Maybe instead of love, joy, peace, patience

And so on

You're producing

Anger, wrath, malice

Disappointment

Frustration, whatever

You produce this fruit that becomes

A stumbling block for somebody else

And then they do it too

And now we have

A notable failing

On the road to becoming somebody

Who gets God's claw, according to what it says

The first one is poisonous fruit

The second one is wormwood

Now every single time you find wormwood in the bible

It always means bitterness

It's gall, it's that

That people get, bitterness

Alright? And so

If the individual becomes

Bitter

So we've got one possibility, false teaching

Another possibility is bitterness

And then the next one starts in 19, it shall be when he hears

The words of this curse, that he will boast

Saying, I have peace, though I walk

In the stubbornness of my heart

And so it's false peace

So the three things

That put somebody in line for the claw

Of God are

False teaching

Bitterness, false peace

So I'm going to give you

Everything you need to know right now

To have those things and avoid

The trouble, except there's

A problem with each one and we'll do it

Together, alright? So first of all

If you don't want to be a person

That bears false teachings, but also you're

Not truly following the Lord, what do you do?

If you don't want to be a person

That's bringing false teachings and therefore

In line for the claw, so if you went in his class

And you know he's going to get a claw

Whenever you act up, and if you bring a

False teaching, you're going to get the claw

What do you do?

And you believe the false teachings

So what do you do?

Anybody want to take a stab at it?

If I believe the false teachings

But I know if I teach the false teachings

And give the poisonous fruit

I'm going to get the claw, what do I do?

Don't do it

Keep your mouth shut

Alright, shut up

So if you have a false teaching

Brewing in you, or a thing

About you that could easily become

A stumbling block for others

Then you could prevent the claw from

God by bearing no fruit

Whatsoever, except

What's the problem with that?

John 15

1 and 2 makes it very clear

He says, I am the true vine and my father

Is the vine dresser, every branch in me

That does not bear fruit, he takes away

And every branch that bears fruit

He prunes it, that it may bear

More fruit

So if you say, I'm not

Going to bear fruit

God says, that branch

If that person legitimately is

Even saved, they're going to be taken

Away, and if they're not

They're headed for hell and it's going to be bad

Right?

So there is, what I'm saying to you is

There is no escape

If you are a person who is bringing

False teaching, poison fruit

If you will, then

There is no escaping the claw

Of God, according to this text and what the Bible

Teaches. Next is bitterness

So what do I do if I have

Bitterness or gall within me?

In other words, I feel

Yucky about other people

And what they do are about situations

What do I do?

When

Whatever is going on in the world makes me

Want to gag

But if I act out

In that

Then I will pay the price

Of the claw

So what do I do?

Don't do it

Larry's got the

Cheat sheet today apparently, alright?

So I don't act out of my bitterness

I don't let anyone know that I'm bitter

That's not like a good plan

It's the best chance you got of avoiding the claw

Based on what we're reading

Except

John 13, 34

A new commandment I give to you

That you love one another, even as I have loved you

And that you also love one another

By this all men will know that you are my disciples

If you have love for one another

Guess what I'm saying

It ain't gonna work

If you have bitterness in you

And therefore you just clam up

And don't let that bitterness out

Because you don't want anyone to think bitterness

Is gonna come down on you

Guess what's gonna happen

You're gonna fail in the commands of God

And therefore pay the price

Last one is false peace

So

I wanna be okay

Right?

I wanna be

Even though I know I'm doing wrong things

I wanna say

God will take care of it

I've sat in the living room with a number of people

At different times that made that very argument to me

They say, well, I believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior

So now, whatever I do, God is going to take care of it

So what you do

In order to feel that way

And not have to claw

Is you have to have a healthy fear

You have to recognize that God is who God is

And He can crush you completely like a bug

Right?

So I've pieced God's grace is covering it

I'm still gonna do it

But I know God might crush me

Right? And humility, like, oh, I'm worthless

I'm no good

Right?

I'm not a good Christian, I'm not good at being a Christian

I don't ask anybody to follow me

I don't ask anybody to listen to my teachings

Because I know I'm no good as a Christian

Fear and humility

And

If God wants to punish me for what I'm doing

That would be perfect justice and I'm okay with that

I don't think He's going to because of grace of Jesus

But if He wants to punish me, I'm okay with it

I'm prepared to take my licks

That's what you gotta do

To avoid the claw of God, except what?

Why doesn't that work?

Because

According to the Bible

Luke 13, 34

Says this

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that

Kills the prophets and stones those who send her

How often I have

Longed to gather

Your children together just as a hen

Gathers her brood under her wings

And you would not have it

Behold your house has left you desolate

And I say to you, you shall see me

Until the time, you shall not see me

Until the time comes when you say

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord

You will not have God

You will not have

Faith

You will not escape by saying

Yes, I'm willing to take my punishment

Oh I fear God

By having a false humility

You will not have

God in your life

And therefore

When the time comes

You will spend eternity away from him

False peace does not work

And there's no way to avoid the claw

That brings us then

To our conclusion

Real quick

Recapping what we've talked about

Number one, everyone was there

Every Israelite and lumped in by

Moses was everybody who would keep coming

Everybody who would ever hear the gospel

Everybody who would ever hear the word

Everybody who could become a convert

Those who would be taken as slaves

Against their will

Everybody

Everybody in every season of life

From every walk of life

In all education, all work types

All backstories, all witnesses

And all converts, everybody

Was lumped in

And from that group, God was calling

For faithfulness, ruling out

Any kind of adultery with idols

Nothing else

Could be worshipped except God

God claimed them as his people alone

Those who were there

And those who would become converts

He claimed them as his people alone

And they were to claim him alone as their God

And a person would be

Singled out for punishment and wrath

Notably for three primary reasons

Number one

False teaching

Number two, bitterness of soul

Number three, a false peace thinking they were going to be okay

And that brings us to our conclusion

You are safe

Amongst the called

If you trust God

In Christ and remain faithful

But you could be singled out

For destruction

If you adopt false teachings

Become bitter

Or conceive false peace

The truth is, if you are

A person who is

A person who is

A person who is

A person who is

For the sake of Jesus

Then you are going to hell

You are going to hell

For an eternity

And worse maybe than that

Right now in this moment while something could potentially

Be done about it

They are suffering bitter

Endless

Loneliness

Subjecting their worship, which could be of the highest

subjecting their worship to things of this earth because they cannot find God.

And all their life has been orchestrated.

All the places in which they live and will ever go has been set up.

All the difficulty that they have ever faced, all the education that they have ever or never received,

all the troubles and all the successes were orchestrated so that that person, the person in question,

instead of adopting false teachings or having a bitterness amongst them or having a false peace,

might believe in the one whom God has sent, his son Jesus Christ, and be saved.

And having been saved then, realize they are subject to all the teachings of the scripture,

all the covenant, old and new, all the callings on their life by God.

And there's no, that's too high for me to understand.

There's no, that's too low or menial for me to deal with.

There's no, that's too expensive, it will cost me too much.

There's no, well, I like this teaching over that teaching,

I'm going to go with this one because it doesn't make me feel uncomfortable.

None of that.

There's no, I go here because it's prettier.

I go here because it's louder or quieter.

I ran into a man this last week who has visited New Heights.

Now, ironically, he's visited in two separate seasons of our existence and he doesn't know it.

He visited us on Main Street in 2009 or something, 2008.

We were in the 613 building, the small building, and we were meeting in two services

and he visited one of our services.

And after that service, I visited him at his home and he told me that he would not be back

to New Heights and the reason is because it's too loud.

The music was too loud, the people were too loud, the kids were too loud,

everything was too loud and he's very deathly afraid that he will be deaf

when he gets older, that he will lose his hearing.

And the doctors have told him because of his time early on in his life,

whatever he was doing, demolitions, something, blowing something up, whatever,

and he would mess with his head, his ears, and he would lose his hearing as he got older

and he should be very protective of his hearing.

He said, I will never be back to New Heights because it's too loud.

That's what he told me.

Now fast forward about 12 years, maybe 13, 2020, 2021, something like that,

he visited New Heights here.

Now when he visited New Heights during the inspirational moment time, somebody,

one of the kids, I think it was Jason actually played a song on the back

and it was from a Disney movie.

It wasn't a particularly loud song or whatever like that, but he said,

he asked me when I saw him this week, he said, do you still allow young people

in your church to potentially choose a song to play?

Now we don't do that as much as we used to because we're going live right now

to Facebook and we don't necessarily have copyrights on all those things.

So it's tricky.

So we haven't been doing that as much.

We've been doing more reading the lyrics and talking about the songs.

But legally, we are within our rights to show a song and talk about efforts.

That's allowed.

You're allowed to do that legally because you're talking about the song.

But that being said, we do still do it.

And so once I figured out that's what he was talking about, I asked him,

we was talking about inspirational moment time, he said, no, no, I'm talking about.

And I said, you mean when?

He said, no, no, not then.

I'm talking about, he kept telling me I was wrong.

But ultimately we decided that's what he was talking about.

And he said, that's why I'll never be back to your church.

He said, I have to protect my hearing.

I have to know what's coming, what it's going to be like, blah, blah, blah.

And he said, so he'll, and I said, so what church are you going to?

And he said, well, I'm not going anywhere.

And I said, well, has God told you to go to church somewhere?

You know, I mean, you know, as a believer, you're professing Christ, right?

Yes, I am.

He said, then you really should be in church, right?

And he said, well, but everywhere I go, I run into a problem.

Now, as he said that, he was storming away from me.

I was standing in a Maccabah Conception Outreach Center,

and I was getting groceries from them that they had left over.

You know, I'm going to take them back this Wednesday, take them back to the life station.

And he stormed out past the old ladies, you know, and he said, well,

everywhere I go, I find a problem.

I said, I'm out of here.

He threw up his hand.

I'm out of here.

Yelling, mind you, with old ladies right in front of him.

So I'm sure that wasn't really protecting their hearing.

But anyway, he's, and I said, I'm out of here.

Everywhere I go, I find a problem.

And I did what I didn't get to say to him, but what the Lord said in my heart at that time,

and I almost followed him out, but it would have been hard, and I didn't,

was it's not about whether it's loud.

It's not about whether or not he finds some other problem or some other reason.

It's about his faithfulness.

Hear me now.

In the small schoolhouses of old, there were first graders and there were 12th graders.

And when it comes to what the Bible says, you may be in this room right now,

and you may be a third grader, but you're responsible for all of it.

You're answerable to God for everything that God says in His covenant, in His grace,

and everything that Jesus ever taught.

You're responsible for all of it.

So you need to make sure you get every bit of it that you possibly can.

And you'll get whatever.

So if it's something that's, you're just not dealing with it yet, you're not there,

and you don't understand it's even an issue, you may only get 40% of it.

And you're responsible to get that 40% of it.

Or if it's something that you've dealt with before and it's totally taken care of in your life,

and you've totally put it behind you, you may get 100% of that,

and you're responsible for 100% of that.

And before you say, why do I got to hear it again, something I already heard,

you got to understand that I have seen people who have heard something 20 times.

I have a person that I'm ministering to now that has bitterness of soul.

They have allowed themselves to become bitter.

And I am trying to work with them and help them, but I cannot bend over backwards,

and I cannot resolve that, only God can.

Okay?

So I'm hoping that we'll get there.

But the problems that person has had, that problem did not give them bitterness of soul.

They have a responsibility to excrete.

They have a responsibility to take in whatever the will throws at them,

and to go, this is not for me, I'm going to let it go.

This is for me, I'm going to take it in, I'm going to use it, I'm going to build myself.

This is for me, but it's a little bit too much, so I'm going to let it go over the top.

Whatever I can't handle, I'm going to let that go, and I'm going to take what I'm supposed to take in.

This is for me, and this is not.

I take some of this which is not, I decide not to take some of this which is.

You're responsible.

That's poison fruit, it's bitterness, it's false peace.

You're saying to God, God, I am your child, I will do whatever you tell me to do,

then He tells you what to do, and you don't do it.

Either you're a liar or He is.

That's the bottom line.

And if you have poison fruit, or bitterness, or false peace, you're in line for the claw.

Because the end of that text that we read says that God will single that person out for destruction.

It says that He will bring the curses of this book down on their life.

Not when they die and go to hell.

When He does, when He realizes they have false peace, when He realizes they have poison fruit,

when He realizes they have bitterness of soul.

That's when He'll bring it.

And He'll single me or single you out from our families.

You think God is not able to deliver a nuclear explosion and contain it to one body size?

He absolutely can.

With the cells in our own bodies, He can.

He doesn't need anything else.

He is able to do it.

And He can single us out.

So what do you do?

Well, if you're a producer of poison fruit, you need to repent.

You need to stop.

You need to say, I'm not going to do this anymore.

I will not teach something or I will not fail to teach that which is in God's Word.

I will not teach anything contrary to God's Word and I will not fail to teach what's in God's Word.

If you're a person filled with bitterness, you need to repent.

You need to repent.

It doesn't matter who did it to you.

You need to repent of your bitterness.

They are not at fault.

If you still have it, they are not at fault.

You are.

Repent.

And turn to God and say, I will not have bitterness of soul.

Not me, God's Word.

In false peace, you say, I'm OK.

Jesus died for me.

He covers all my sins, whatever I do.

And then you go and do something that you should not do and you know you should not do it.

You talk away you shouldn't.

You don't do what you should do.

That's false peace.

You have false peace.

You need to repent and turn to God and get real peace.

Real peace is when you say, I will not intentionally do anything that God doesn't want me to do.

I will not intentionally fail to do anything that God wants me to do.

Not for anything this world has to offer.

When the cares and the riches of this world come, they're going to come because the tares

are still growing in the good soil.

So they're going to come.

And when they come, I will be wheat.

I will be producing.

If they hate me, if they kill me, if they persecute me, if they chase me out,

if they take my money, my job, my home, my family, if they kill my wife and my kids,

I will be wheat because I know who God is.

Maybe you're just a convert, but I hope not.

I hope you've witnessed something amazing that God has done.

And if you have, then I hope you'll bring real teaching and real love and real peace

into your day and the problems that you face and the family that you're living in

to the strangers that you meet on the street.

And when we do that, not only will we not be in line for singling out for the claw,

but on top of that, we have the opportunity that the people that we see wrapped up in

idol worship and doing abominations in the world, will win.

Next time you run into somebody who's doing something really, really stupid,

I mean something that gets your goat, I cannot believe that they would do that,

you go up to them and say, can I talk to you about Jesus?

Let them say no.

What happens if they do?

What's it going to hurt?

You'll be found doing what it is that God called you to do.

Instead of going, ah, stupid, ah, I can't believe it.

Walk up to them and say, can I talk to you about Jesus?

Well, you might be persecuted.

If you're persecuted for the faith, God will reward you.

If you're unwilling to be persecuted for the faith, then you have a false peace.

And God will reward your false peace with the destruction that you are not interested in.

Let us repent and turn to the Lord God.