The Slow Acting Poison and Its Antidote Deuteronomy 9

This song goes by forever!

And oh, happy day, happy day, wash my tears away

Oh, happy day, happy day, I'll never be the same

Oh, for I am changed

When friends suddenly pass through me, you face your friends like your disturbing background

I'll never be the same

Forever I am the same

Oh, what a glorious day

What a glorious day

That you have saved me and I

What a glorious day

What a glorious day

And oh, happy day, happy day

Watch my sin away

Oh, happy day, happy day

I'll never be the same

Oh, happy day, happy day

Watch my sin away

Oh, happy day, happy day

I'll never be the same

Alright, good morning, good morning, good morning

You have your announcements in your bulletin

I'm happy to say that our faith

Spiritual Gifts Fellowship did go well on Thursday

We made an attempt to make a recording

We'll try to podcast that a little bit later

But it went well

I encourage you, if you do not know your spiritual gifts

Figure out what they are and visit one of those

Because that was really helpful to me

To think about the difference between faith, belief, trust, whatever I'm calling it

And a spiritual gift for the faith

And so I felt very empowered by that

So I encourage you to do that

Also coming up, we're getting ready to start our candy drive for the Fall Fest

Individually wrapped candy, if you're going to participate in that

And then also you can get ahead

It's only September, I know, but you can get ahead and think about games for the Fall Fest and that kind of thing

And then we are actively in visitation and inviting

Visitation and game promotes, so

The folks can come

And then if you are somebody who had an invitation

Or had a visit to make with somebody who invited them, I hope you did do that

And then if they said they would come and they didn't, feel free to follow back up with them

We say hey, I miss you, love to see you

Let's work together and let's learn and grow

On my heart this morning, Reaching New Heights

Is about everybody together, working together to take the next step

So obviously we're not all taking the next step

It would be nice if we could all form a line, link arms and take the next step together

Because you don't have the same next step that somebody else has

But we can nonetheless work together

To, for each person to be able to take that next step

And that's what that's all about

We're all on a journey, all in different places

We'll all take them to the next step

So let's work together

Focus your eyes on the Lord

And let Him lead us forward

And that being said, let's pray together

Tommy, I know I caught you off guard, did you pray for us?

I'm sorry, go

Good praise report

I just want to thank God

Always is always there for praise, always our power

He hears us

But it wasn't the same praying for me last Sunday

It was God's intervention for sure

My body felt better, stronger

Which I'm doing a lot of stuff, I'll tell you later

But because of that

I unfortunately just messed up myself

I could not get back on first shift

My tendons are terrible

But I really believe it

Because it was not happening last week, two weeks ago

There was somebody that needed to switch on shifts

So I got back on first shift starting last week

Which was really important for me

Because that night shift was filled

And so just for the men praying for me

I just want to say there is power in that prayer

And I believe it really wouldn't have happened

Because I messed up

If you knew what I did

And just messed up my intensa stuff

I don't deserve that chance

But the men stepping up and praying for me

I'm back on first shift

And I'm starting to feel a lot better

A lot mentally healthy, strong

So I just want to say thank you guys

I just thank God for prayer

He had known that it really would help me get back on first shift

And He had requested it

And they told him no

It's not available to you

You can't do it

Can't do it on first shift

And then after we prayed

He said, can you go around?

He said, God is the one who does that

And I said, alright

I'll be right there

Dear God, we thank you for the time and place

That we have to worship you

We came for the rain today

And we grow the plants

And sometime we'll come after

We pray for everyone here

That we be able to pray for the sermon

And we pray for the blessing

And we pray for the grace

Bye bye

Loving kindness, loving kindness, better life

The grace of God's sufficient

It's an auspicious grace

Your power and your glory are forever on display

And your loving kindness, loving kindness, better life

Oh, it's better, oh, better than life

Oh, so much better, Jesus

Oh, loving kindness, better life

There is nothing about me

Nothing about you, I pray

And nothing in this world could ever

When you are gone

You have loving kindness, loving kindness, better life

All your ways are just so

You'll just be by your way

And don't let my hand go on

To grab you and pray

For your loving kindness, loving kindness, better life

Oh, it's better, oh, better than life

Oh, so much better, Jesus

Oh, loving kindness, loving kindness, better life

Jesus, your loving kindness

Is better than life itself

Better than life itself

Jesus, your loving kindness

Is better than life itself

Better than life

Oh, it's better, oh, better than life

Oh, so much better, Jesus

Your loving kindness

Is better than life itself

Oh, better than life

Oh, so much better, Jesus

Your loving kindness

Is better than life itself

Better than life itself

Oh, so much better, Jesus

Your loving kindness

Is better than life itself

Better than life itself

Better than life itself

All righty, if I could have you on your feet this morning

You could give yourself some room if I could have some young persons towards the front

We're gonna get moving this morning

Get up here, come on, you can do it

But I don't get your name all night

But I don't want to see your faces

I'm so glad you're in my life

I'm so glad you came to save us

Jesus, you came from heaven to earth

You will show the way from the earth to the stars

By the death of faith from the cross to the grave

From the grave to the sky

But I don't get your name all night

But I don't get your name all night

But I don't want to see your faces

I'm so glad you're in my life

I'm so glad you came to save us

Jesus, you came from heaven to earth

You will show the way from the earth to the cross

By the death of faith from the cross to the grave

From the grave to the sky

But I don't get your name all night

You came from heaven to earth

You will show the way from the earth to the cross

By the death of faith from the cross to the grave

From the grave to the sky

But I don't get your name all night

Okay, so we've come to that inspirational moment

time that we had earlier this week

and today we're going to do something a little bit different

with more light on my heart

So I'm going to ask you to focus

the way your distractions, whatever's distracting you right now

the side you think, that person's on your mind, that's okay

All right, so pay attention

Zadah, pay attention

Thank you

All right, what we're going to do is we're going to pray together

I don't want you to do it in your head

or out loud while you're sitting and praying with me

We're going to ask God to remind us

what He's been showing us for the last seven days

to remind us what we've read in His Word

and to tell us if He chooses to, tell us something new right now

and then that's what we're going to talk about

whenever He brought back the mind, okay?

So join me in prayer, here we go

God in heaven, you are an awesome God

We love your people

We realize your Word says that you have been working

every moment of every day, even up until now

We realize that you have been showing us things, that you speak to your people

and that sometimes we are dense to hear or recognize what you're doing

You do so through your miraculously protected, powerfully inspired by you, Word of God

Then we might see a verse that really speaks to us

or a verse that leads us to a chain of thought where you really speak to us

or we also know that sometimes you just say, hey stop right there

that's wrong, you're crossing the line

Other times you say, hey go forward, go faster, go stronger, go harder

because it is what's right

So while we're looking back on the week since we were here last

we're asking you right now in this moment

point out to us what it was that you've been saying

what it was that we saw that we need to pay attention to

what it was that you were, how you were working on us

Father, I know that even as we sit here now praying

there are people who have thoughts in their head

that are evil spirits, distractions, or thinking about something else

It's hard to have a single minded focus today

because the world has many voices

and our many evil spirits, they outnumber us

but they don't outnumber your angels, and they don't outnumber you

and they do not have strength that you do not have

and the greater is he that is in us and the greater is he that is in the world

So right now we're praying in the name of the Lord Jesus

to review voices that have nothing to do with you

Lord pass them all out and help us today

listen to what you are saying

show us what you've been saying

and if necessary show us something new right now

that we may speak up and show others

what it is that you're saying in our hearts

and what you're saying in Jesus' name

Alright?

What do you got?

What came to mind?

Go ahead, I got one

So in my journey through the Bible

I'm up to the point where

Saul, Israel's first king, he's king

he doesn't like David, he's looking for him to get rid of him

David's already been anointed by Samuel

and here he was to do the next cave

he's on the run, Saul's trying to kill him

so he's hiding up with his men in a cave

in a cave

and this was just after

I'll get a little ahead of myself because I was reminded of when

here being critical of Jesus about his disciples

meaning the leaf of the field of the Sabbath

and we were reminded of that

they gave David a holy bread

that it was not the grace of God that used David's bed

as a part of this

and one thing I didn't remember about the story I didn't pay attention to

was the priest had asked if his men had

men of the lives of men who made themselves ceremonial

on cleaning at the end of the day

and he said no, that when these men are on the job

they're not going to be able to do that

so David's already feeling a value

as to that about serving God

and being in a proper mindset

and now we're in the cave and Saul finally is in that area

and goes in the cave to take care of some business

and didn't know David was there and David snuck up a cup

he's a robot, this man told him

you know what, this is a good opportunity for you to get rid of him

so this is the key point, he could have went in and killed him

and then take us from

but he knew that it would be wrong to raise a hand on that scouts and goyans

which he totally was

so he cut a piece of the robot

and instead when he left the cave he showed up and said hey I could have taken you out

so sometimes

when sucker tips come to life

you think you're getting directed

in a certain direction, you think you should do something

just based on circumstance, take time to think about

what does the Bible say about it

what does God teach us or something

that I think seems to be the right way to go

but after all we're relying on the scripture

and rethink what you're doing because if David would have killed Saul

then once he teaches those men

and what Bob did, maybe when he's king

and some of them don't like to be killed

they'll come after him and start to value it

and so

also if he would have killed King Saul

then he probably would have killed his entire family

and anyone else, Saul's side

and the whole country would have been in trouble

so take your time and think about doing things right

sometimes there's a way that seems quite, you know, it could quite push you away

Robert says there's a way

that looks right at a man but it leads to death

and I guarantee you

if he'd gone against Saul in that cave

that was not a way that he wanted to go

that was a way that he was taken into a place where God would not want him to be

Good work, very good. Ok, who else?

Ok, I'll tell you mine real quick

So it's interesting how mine relates to yours

because it's Bob Rowe

We were talking about the woman who had the 12 year issue

she had an issue of blood for 12 years

and this came out of the spiritual gift fellowship

we talked about faith as a personal gift on Thursday night

and we talked about the woman who had faith that she could be healed by Jesus

She was looking at Jesus

and she was thinking, I've had this issue for 12 years

and I've literally tried everything else

I've tried every doctor, every medicine, she basically ran herself broke

tried everything she could

and she thought about Jesus and she thought

she didn't think, man I need to go beg him for healing

or I need to go see him

she didn't even feel worthy to go to his presence and ask him to heal her

but she thought if I could just sneak up and touch his robe

if I could just sneak up and touch his robe

then I would be healed

I've had people who believe

they have a conscious knowledge

that there is a God

but not only do they not come to God through Christ

which is the only way somebody can come to God

but they don't feel worthy to do so

I remember when I was a young person before I got saved I was 25

but between the time I was about 11 and 25

I believed there was a God

and I had some incredible

what I almost call holy thoughts about God

I told a story about

my organizational system in my bedroom

some of you young people might relate to this

I had a horizontal organization system

everything I owned was spread out on the floor

there was very little room

you had to nudge something to sit

I had to build the shelves

and then I went back to organizing everything horizontally on the floor

I did not have piles, that's different

I didn't make piles of things

I wanted everything out flat so I could see it

I was leaving with my parents

I was crossing the room and there was a Bible in the middle of the floor

I went to put my foot down and if my foot had come down

it would have stepped on the Bible

it was already a little beat up

it was just a book to me, but it was God's book

I believed in God, but I didn't trust God

I didn't know about Jesus at all

I went to put my foot down and my foot would have landed on that Bible

I said I can't put my foot there

I swung my foot out to try to put it somewhere else

I put it down on a toy and it hurt

I went up collapsing down into my pile of horizontal organization

I got all scraped up and bruised and everything

all because I didn't want to step on that Bible

I wasn't saved, I didn't know God

but I had a sense of His holiness

and I submit to you that in the world right now

amongst lost people there are a lot of people who have been called

to God who kind of get an understanding of that holiness

but they feel unworthy to come to God

or they feel like they can't or they feel like they don't know how

and that's what the Great Commission is all about

that's what Christians are all about, that's what the Church is all about

telling people everywhere, so we should be living for God in a way

that they'll look at us and know that person is something a little bit different

and that has to be perfect, but there's something a little bit odd about them

and then you get in a conversation and tell them

and one of the first things I encourage you to tell them is

it was never the road

or whatever it was, but it's not about coming into close proximity with Jesus

it's not about touching Jesus or touching something that was touched by Jesus

or even coming to church or singing worship songs

or acting like the Church, it's not about anything like that

it's about coming into a right relationship with God

through Jesus' Son

you can try to sneak up on Jesus and be healed

try to sneak up on Jesus and have the plan of your life unfold in a positive way

but it doesn't actually work

the only way to do it is to truly come to Him humbly

let's say confessing our sin, admitting that we have sin, admitting that we're not saved

believing in Jesus Christ as Lord

believing in Him as Savior, that means He paid the price for your sins

knowing that God raised Him from the dead

and receiving salvation, and that's it

and then after that there's no work other than those three things

that can essentially be done and belief is not really a work that we can do

but I submit to you that there are a lot of people in the world that are like that

and our job is to find them and show them what they're already looking for

and I'll end on this illustration

I went to Tony Pacos with a youth pastor and two teenagers

who were looking about bringing the mission team up

there was a young lady there and I got to witnessing with her

and I offered to pray for her and she said okay

and then she came back later and I asked her if she'd stop back at the table

she had a little bit of time, she was working the bar, she came over

she crossed the table and I asked her about her faith

she told me she'd been in a car accident, almost died

died actually right after the accident for like 13 seconds or something

and then almost died after that and wasn't able to walk

and all these things and she had to remake her life

and she said she felt like God was bringing her through that for a purpose

but she didn't know God or who God was

she's openly saying this, I don't know who God was, I don't know how to know God

I don't know anything about God but I felt like God was doing that

and I said well this is what the Bible says and I explained it to her

I did this in the middle of Tony Pacos

and these guys were looking at me like you're a little bit

weird for doing this, especially when we're trying to have a meeting

and then she wound up standing there, tears streaming down her face

and praying to accept she's Christ the Lord and Savior

but the point is she already knew

that God was real and was working in her life

Acts 17 says that God

oriented all of the parameters and boundaries of our lives

so that we might grope around for Him and by some chance find Him

and then realize He was never very far away in the first place

this is the problem, those people that are out there in the world are acting

like fools, they're acting like lost people

this is what they're doing, they're acting like lost people

and they're lost because they have not come into a relationship with God

and I'm going to be a little bit raw about this for a second

sometimes that's because we in the church have not gone as far

and shown them how to do that

sometimes it's because they're too fond of their sin

or sometimes because they're caught up in addiction

or they've got real problems, whatever it might be, there are lots of reasons

and some of them, then there are people that even think that they're saved

and I may be critical when I say this but I think people who think that they're saved in art

are usually worse people, worse, have more sin

more wicked, more problems to their nature and like that

there are people who are not saved

so I say not saved people, they might have a little fear about God and wonder

they might fall down rather than stepping on the Bible

but the people who think they're saved in art, they think they're ok

let's step on that Bible in a minute, I'm not going to hurt myself

and keep from disrespecting God because God loves me

He sent His sons to darkness, so whatever, I can do whatever I want

and they become pretty darn wicked, you know

and then there are people that say, well I know who God is

and I know that's pretty bad too, but I'm not trying to judge people

I'm just saying, that rub was never the issue

and it was when she came and said Jesus and your faith has healed you

and then He basically declared her as saved

and sent her away

don't sneak up on Jesus, come right out of the open

right out of the open and say, look I've got my issues

the Lord Jesus, I'll submit myself to you

alright, 28 and Arjun

real quick, your name just popped in my head, but I was just thinking

it was a book about Jonah, everybody loves Jonah

trying to flee because if you're supposed to come to Nineveh

you can have a whale and spit back out so you can go to Nineveh

but at first you just thought you could flee from God because you never could

and the book just shows him fleeing from God, and he's on a boat

and in the boat, he's in the bottom of the deck

and there's a hole, a little hole where the light can shine in

and it's really funny, so he went to them

across the other side of the earth, literally as far away from Israel as you could

as far away from him as you could

and he's hiding under this boat

and he's like, God can't see him, and there's a light

where the window is peering right through

and it's just missing Jonah, if you would just step up

the light would shine on him, and he's just right here

so it's just like, it's not like anything

but the picture is Jonah thinks he's completely

did it, I got away from God, I got away from my mission

and the light is really shining through this door

like a little doggy door on a boat

and Jonah's this close literally to letting the light shine on him

so God is not, even if you go to the farthest

ends of the earth, no matter where you go, even if you go to the bottom

you're there with me, and I fly in the highest eagle

in the heavens, you're there as well, but God is always there

so just something to think about, no matter what, you can't escape God

and God's not trying to get you to escape, he loves us

he's holy, he's right, he's true, and he's just waiting

for you to just look up and see the light shine

what's interesting about that is he couldn't get up

without getting touched by the light

okay, perfect, got a video blocking the light?

what about that?

so I've actually seen this guy's

talk to me this morning, and it's really, really amazing

but the message in this song is so incredible

because all of us

all of us have problems, and the problem is

we hold on to those problems inside, we don't like to

express them, we don't like to show them, we don't like to share them

but we all have them, and

it gets to the point to where it's so much that

holding onto you that you can't let go of anymore

you're afraid that people will find out the real you

and they might not like the real you

and you have to understand that

you might think that, well God knows who you are

God knows the real you

He knows who you are supposed to be, He knows who you

He wants you to be

so don't hold everything in

and always remember that God knows your pain

your suffering, but there's also His love

which is like no love you'll ever find anywhere else

no husband, no wife, no boyfriend

no girlfriend, no child, can show you the same love

that God can show you, it is not physically possible

for a human being to share the kind of love that God has for us

and that in itself

is an amazing thing because

we don't deserve that kind of love

because of the stuff that we do, the evil things that we've done

or have done or will do in the future

we don't deserve that kind of love

and yet God gives it to us freely and gives it to us daily

so when you ever feel like you're down

and out, just remember that

God knows that, He knows that pain, He knows that hurt

but He also has that

unattainable love that you can get

through His Son, Jesus Christ

the worst thing about the fact that we

that a lot of kids know that we early on memorized

the poor God so loved the world that He saved

or the copy that's on the God's side through several parishes

John 3.16 verse is the fact that we skim right over the force

of God's soul love of the world, that soul is huge

that soul means

in a way that we can't understand it

so much more, so much more intricate

so much more intense, so much more complete

so much more whole, it is a love that

that betters what it loves

and then of course in the Gospel Road, He is love

He is that love

I just wanted to talk about God's love

God's also put love in us, it may not be ultimate love

but it's like when you read out to that woman that she knew

it looked like they both strayed away in that video

but they were actually coming to find her, the other two weren't looking for her

but when they found her they consoled her

and so even though we are going through our roughest time

there are people just going through stuff just as worse

and if we are just caught up in our mess and deal with our own selves

we couldn't be a blessing to others as well

so we are not the only ones that are suffering

Sometimes we have to reach out, you know, even while we're suffering to help those and the same token

That woman that saw she was on her own

Her best friend found her because it looked like you know that she was struggling that no she found her

So I would say because God still loves his work

He's put loving people and we do need to sometimes be sincere to others to reach out

So that people can reach out to you. It's hard because we can't always love

You can't always be there, but there's still love inside of humanity

It's not to put your trust back in humanity

It's but it's to put your love and trust back in the God that he's given us humanity

Anybody else?

Just sort of stuck on the video and it reminded me of a theory and I'm listening to remember the names of it

But basically this theory that came into my head that I must have read about somewhere when I was watching that

Basically is about the versions of self

self image that should be said but basically the idea is that there are three

You's as you could say you that only you know

You that only your close friends and family, you know, your circle of people knows who there's a you that the world sees

And it just kind of got me thinking in that video. There's a whole nother you there's a you that God only knows and

You don't know that you

At least not all of it

There are pieces of yourself that are that are that you don't

You don't even see on your own

It's like you don't know the problem

Amen, that is hard

Especially considering how much we lose focus

When we start to go out of problems

Well, I'm the only person that has this problem with my situation or whatever

And you're just seeing how I'm the you that God only knows

That's all good stuff

Okay, we're gonna pray together. We'll be tied off a little more worship and then go to the word

Jason, would you pray for us as and remember the tithes and offerings and then as we go forward is do

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As I was sitting there we were singing those last two songs I

Became even a little bit more intimidated by this word that the Lord has been sharing with me this last week

That's unusual actually because usually by the time I get up here. I have dealt with it

I have repented and committed myself to the Lord in the way that I'm best understanding it and now I stand before you

Even further convicted of what we've been studying what I've been God and I have been doing

I guess you could say this last seven days and so here we go

First of all, you see the act. There's a couple of four matters. We got to deal with before you see the title

It is a slow-acting poison and its antidote

We've been talking about and Moses has been preparing the Israelites to go into the promised land

We've been talking about what he was giving them like teachings that he was giving them to help them to understand

What they would face while they're in there and how they would eventually stray from God

That's what we've largely been talking about and he's been giving them some proactive

Suggestions and either there, you know, that's not really a strong enough word

But commands almost about how to be prepared and how to handle what would happen to them and through them and in them

And what God was going to be doing and what the enemy was going to be doing

Once they got into the promised land because he's not going with them as you may recall

So now in this in chapter 9

Moses talks to them about a slow-acting poison now

We've already talked about idolatry and we've talked about the being tempted or being distracted aside by the wealth that they would receive

Those were two things that he radically warned them about and we talked about those in the last two or three weeks

But now we see in this passage scripture that there is a slow-acting poison that is built into being God's people

That will eventually kill your forward progress if not your soul in the kingdom of God

And it so it's a pretty big deal

All right, so two more things so first second thing is

You may have heard and it's been it's been kind of tossed around and comments that people have made

About how sometime and it happened I can almost tell you what decade it happened in it happened around 2000 between

1995 to 2005 where there became this impetus to give everybody who participates in

Kids sports youth sports, whatever a medal

Okay, and so no longer was it you know

Most valuable player and so they just give everybody a medal everybody gets a medal

even the guy who only showed up to one or two practices and maybe only you know sat the bench and just played like a minute

Each game because he really wasn't practiced really wasn't there but they had to play him so they did so everybody gets the same medal

And then there's a lot of like backlash against that amongst and I'm going to be honest with you amongst people like me

Who feel like excellence deserves its own reward. That's justice, right? If someone does well, they should be rewarded

So if they are the they perform well are the most valuable player they should get it and if they only you know show up to

A few practices here or there and don't do what they are supposed to do

Then they shouldn't get the same medal as somebody else who shows up and performs and so that that fits with my sense of justice

But I'm going to show you today

the problem with the metal system and

even though the world got there to the place of

sharing the

Giving the medal to everyone the wrong way they got there the wrong way not in a biblical way not in a godly way

I'm going to show you how

Everyone getting a medal does have some merit and we should be a little careful

To to blow off that system. Okay. All right, then there's a third thing. I want to talk to you briefly about the underdog

Okay, so I wrote this there is an underdog

He fights for what he believes in he has continued to stand up against the system. He sees as unfair

He will never change

Resisting to the very end against what he sees as an oppressive overlord

Even until he is finally caught and will spend the remainder of his life in torment

But will never yield before then despite the obvious fact that he cannot win

a

Little paragraph about the underdog

Sounds good, right?

Almost kind of seems like how we sort of picture Christians a little bit

It sounds like the kind of tenacity that humans value the one who doesn't quit because they know they what they think they know

What the right is and the justice is and they just won't quit

In fact in some lesser way many would choose to emulate that person that's described there wouldn't they?

They might be inspired to rebel against perceived injustice

They might be inspired to stand for their beliefs and to do so against all odds based on this count this account alone

Is he not courageous?

according to this account

I'll read it again briefly. It says there is an underdog

He fights for what he believes in he has continued to stand up against a system. He sees as unfair

He will never change

Resisting to the very end against what he sees as an oppressive overlord

Even until he is finally caught and will spend the remainder of his life in torment

But will never yield before then despite the obvious fact that he cannot win

Almost sounds good

Is he not courageous according to this account?

Now what if I told you that that paragraph is about the devil and I said it this way the devil is an underdog

He fights for what he believes in which is his right to kill steal and destroy his rights to rule and the tainted

Wicked worship of the human race toward the false gods that he ordains

He has continued to stand up against the system

He sees as unfair human beings being allowed access to God and the good things of life a system

That places him below God's human creation man

He will never change

He will be evil always and the father of lies

He will be resisting to the very end against what he sees as an oppressive overlord

God who is love even until Satan is finally once and for all put down

And will spend the remainder of his life in torment

But will never yield before then devouring as many as he can luring humans into his traps

And all this despite the obvious fact that he cannot win

I am an underdog

Amongst the human race and faced with opposition like demons in the world systems

I stand up for my belief and I stand up against the system warped by Satan's hatred of God and people's confused emulation of him

I will never change

I have been regenerated by the God of heaven and his Holy Spirit and if I change it all it will be to be more like Jesus

I will resist even unto my death the tactics of Satan and my true enemies

This I will do knowing that if Jesus does not come again before my time I will die for my Lord

But I will not spend eternity in torment rather I will spend it with God in the place that he is preparing for me

This I will do knowing despite any losses I may take I cannot lose

I submit to you that the rebels of the world emulate Satan because they do not have Christians to emulate

They emulate Satan because the people who are in the Kingdom of God who are receiving the promised Kingdom of God

Who are receiving the destination the eternal destination that lasts forever and bliss

Those people are not standing up as examples as rebels against the world system

So that people who are in the world who feel inside themselves and need to rebel

Rather than rebelling against Satan and the world system which is what they should be doing

They rebel against God following the only example that they are given on a daily basis

Which is the devil and the evil system that he has so aptly put in place

Oh yes I know all creation glorifies God I get that

But a simple message of how good God is and that we should go to him

Compared to that every moment every day of their family friends TV social media everywhere that they go

Being pushed on them that God is not good that he is an oppressive overlord

And they should stand against him and their need to rebel which is created in them

So that they will rebel against the world system and turn to God

Their need to rebel is then harnessed to be that underdog more like the first chapter the one that they think is awesome

But they're rebelling for the wrong reason

Grab your Bibles if you would and turn with me then maybe a hoot a holler amen as we go to Deuteronomy chapter 9

Deuteronomy 9 · chapter mention

This is God's word it is an effective word you can know that for sure whether we are affected by it or not

Will really be up to us in our willingness

I'm going to read the chapter here we go it's chapter 9

Here oh Israel you are crossing over the Jordan today to go into dispossessed nations greater and mightier than you

Great cities fortified to heaven a people great and tall the sons of Anakim

Whom you know and of whom you have heard it said who can stand before the sons of Anak

Okay so through this point he's basically telling them what's about to happen

I want you to notice a couple things first of all see the word today now it wasn't literally today right

In fact they would not go in that day it means in this era at this time it means this is what's happening

This is the era in which you live it has always been given to God's people to know the era in which they live

You should be realistic about the era in which you live and I think we could say certain things

It is the era in which many things buy for our attention

There era as in which we from childhood on are taught to not focus on one thing

But rather to live a balanced rhythmic existence absorbing and appreciating many things and that that by that means you will be blessed

And all of that is wrong by the way there is one place that our focus belongs and I think you know what it is

At least you should

Second thing in there it says a people great and tall the sons of Anakim this is a great enemy

And when faced with a great enemy and considering yourself an underdog

When you've heard the things like who can stand before the sons of Anak when you realize that the opposition that is before you

I'll just be plain with you in my flesh as a normal human being if Satan came in this room and said hey shut up I would be scared

He's an eternal being with power granted him by God I know he's only been granted that power only so much power

And he can't just kill me unless God says it's okay he can't actually make me shut up unless God says that he is allowed to and so on

But he's an eternal being and he might come as whatever he might look like whatever or whoever and I can admit I think I would be scared

At the same time I understand courage is when something inside you powerful motivating pushes you past your fear

And I hope I would know that he was in me is greater than he is in the world but our enemies are large or obtrusive

They stick out they make a big impact

Verse 3 says this know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire

I preached a sermon about a month ago now which was from Deuteronomy earlier on about how God is a consuming fire

And the phrase is in there God is a consuming fire and of course then it's been re-quoted in the New Testament

But the fact is that God has a trait that he is a consuming fire

And when I preached that sermon I took some heat and it was basically no pun intended there although that is kind of funny

But I took some heat because people were telling me that I was preaching a message that that nobody wants to hear

That nobody wants to hear that God is a consuming fire

Well if that's true that God is a consuming fire that I submit to you that if no one wants to hear it

It's because they think they're about to be burned up right they're about to be affected by that

But God is whether you like to hear it or not I'm here to say if you're one of those people in this room I apologize

For stepping on your toes but the bottom line is that God is a consuming fire and here it says that he would go before him

I want to use an illustration at this point kind of a little puzzle riddle that goes back a ways

And that illustration is if you were on an abandoned island there's no one else on the island right

And there's grass it's about waist high on the island if you were on that island and a fire broke out on one end of the island

It broke out on the west end of the island and the wind is blowing from the west to the east pretty quickly

And it's pushing the fire along so that where you're standing on the island will eventually be consumed in fire

Everything on the island has these weeds and you can cut down some and make a hole for yourself

But the bottom line is there will be fire all around you and even unless you got it all the way down to the dirt

You don't have a shovel whatever so the riddle goes like this what do you do?

How do you survive in that circumstance where you can't leave the island let's say the water is

Sharconfested or it's a deep cliff or whatever you can't leave the island but how do you survive when that fire is being pushed along the island

At you know seven mile per hour or whatever because whatever the wind pushes it that's pretty much how fast a fire goes generally speaking

It's running along the island you're going to be burned alive how do you survive it and some of us know the answer what's the answer?

Nope I mean you could pray for a miracle, somebody else got it? Say it again?

Nope because it's the whole I mean you could try that but the fire is covering the whole island

You wouldn't be able there's nowhere you could run that wouldn't be on fire

Say it again?

No predetermined can't go in the water whether sharks or cliffs you take your pick

Okay maybe we haven't heard this one before good that's fine you'll like it okay so what you do is you set what's called a backfire

You take some of the fire where it's burning you take it over to the other side of the island the last like third or whatever and you set it on fire

As that happens the fire that's pushing this way will burn up the middle space the fire that's there will be pushed that way will burn everything down that's in that remaining space

Then when the fire comes to you you walk into the space that's now been burned down to nothing and the fire comes to you and you're not burned

Because you're in the space that's already been burned down to nothing it's on the backfire okay

So God is a consuming fire is a very scary message I totally get that okay and as I said I took some heat from some people because that's a message nobody wants to hear

But I submit to you the very same messages that we sometimes don't want to hear are the very same messages that we desperately need to hear

And more than that employ them in our lives because here we see the consuming fire of God going before them into the land of Israel

I get it sometimes you're under wrath because you sinned against God in fact the truth is we probably all have sins all the time

And just God could just send us all to hell and be completely justified but because of grace he has saved us okay

So then you do things that you should do and God resists your course because it's not good for you and you feel the consuming fire of God

And you're like oh man I don't want to hear about that anymore because I keep screwing up and I keep feeling the wrath of God

And I get that it's an unpleasant message but here's the reality when you are doing what it is that you are supposed to be doing

Or at least advancing along the course that God has for you it is that very same consuming fire that is going before you to clear the path

Notice here in Deuteronomy what he says is

It is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire when God destroys the people in the promised land

It was God as a consuming fire that caused that to happen it says he will destroy them and he will subdue them before you

So that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly just as the Lord has spoken to you

We know in chapter 8 it said not too quickly so we don't want the wild animals of the land to become overpowering

But he said quickly he will destroy them just as the Lord has spoken to you

Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land

But it is because of the wickedness of those nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you

In other words God was not going in as a consuming fire because Israel was awesome

Or because they had matching uniforms or whatever right

He was going in as a consuming fire because the people that he was consuming the people was wiping out to make room for his nation

Deserved what they were about to get they deserved it

He held Egypt he held Israel in Egypt for over 400 years possibly 430 years

Waiting for these people to come to full measure in their sin now they have and God is going to send his people in

Notice the phrase also dispossessing you remember even though we always get kind of cracked on in the apologetic circle

Because God ordained the wiping out of everybody that lived in the promised land to make room for his people actually people were allowed to flee

They could run away if they wanted but there was the people that stayed and fought that died right

God wiped out everybody that stayed and fought including the man woman and child anybody that stayed and fought because basically they were hopeless

Because they didn't realize that God was doing what God was doing there's no stopping that so if they stayed then they were destroyed

But if they ran they were allowed to run the Lord is dispossessing them before you

I submit to you that all of your dreams will be built out of the shatters and the tatters of someone else's dreams

This is not a new earth it may be a new earth overall compared to what people think is an older

But the bottom line is your money if you pull out the paper money that's in your pocket it was not printed today

When you get new money from the bank and it looks like it was just printed it wasn't printed today

It was printed a long time ago may have been in storage for a while

But the bottom line is multiple people have had it since before you had it is not just money either your car

Right was in the hands of someone else unless you bought it like mint stock new from the factory

It was in the hands of multiple people before it ever got to you in fact people more people profited by it

In the process of getting it from where it was created to you, then you'll ever know

Untold people the bottom line is we're building all that we are building out of the tatters of all that went before us

And the creation is working against some people but the bottom but really God is dispossessing those who went before us

To give us something awesome if you have something awesome that God gave you

He gave it to you over top of the ruined hopes and dreams of others that went before you

Verse five says it is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land

But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you in order to confirm the oath

Which the Lord spoke to your fathers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob

So we've got really essentially two factors it's the not righteousness of the people in the land and the righteousness of God

And notice how when the righteousness of God meets the not righteous in the people of the land what happens

The not righteous get eliminated or dispossessed right but God's righteousness remains always that way

God's righteousness always remains and so if you run up against God's righteousness well what's going to happen to you the same thing

God is a consuming fire but if you will ride the wave of God's righteousness essentially then God will go before you

And do what it is that God wants to do and he will make for you incredible things rewarding you even in this lifetime

And I'm not I'm not preaching a health and wealth gospel with the bottom line is Jesus said they will whoever gives whoever leaves behind

Wife and home and blah blah blah for me will have that much more and more in this lifetime and he added the phrase in this lifetime

And so the bottom line is as you walk the path of holiness toward heaven God will pave the way before you

But what happens you start to get some good stuff this is a couple chapters back and you start thinking well now I've got some good stuff

And I got to protect it and you stop along the way in a rest area and start protecting your stuff

And you're not walking the path a consuming fire goes on before you and pretty soon it circles back and it destroys you too

Because you're more about the stuff that God gave you than the path that God had you on or you get into idolatry

You go a little ways along and things are going pretty well and over here is people want you to do this and you can just have sex

A few more times a week if you do it with these temple prostitutes and so on or you can feel that serotonin in that

Endorphins in your brain if you watch some more sports or if you if you go to more concerts or if you eat better food

Or go out and let people serve you and pay 50 bucks a meal to let people serve you and you'll feel better than if you made it yourself

And you believe all this idolatry essentially and then you're off the course again and the consuming fire will circle back and it'll deal with you

But that's the reality of what we're facing here

But if we continue on the road of holiness that God has put us on that consuming fire goes before the believers

And it does not go before the believers because of the righteousness of the believers but rather because of the righteousness of God

Second factor then is the oath that the Lord made God will always keep his promises

Jesus said if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and I will take you there to be with me period end of story

That's a promise you could take it to the eternal bank. That's what's going to happen

He's actively preparing a place for you believer right now in heaven. He's taking you there

If he's taking you there, why are you so concerned about what's going on here?

Unless you're trying to make it about God and take everything that's under your control in the direction of the kingdom of God

Then why are you so concerned and that is exactly what?

Moses is calling us to to make everything that we have control over about the kingdom of God verse 6

No, then it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess

For you are a stubborn people a stubborn people

Remember do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness

From the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place

They were always doing it you have been rebellious against the Lord even at Horeb

You provoked the Lord to wrath and the Lord was so angry with you that he would have destroyed you

When I went up to the mountain received the tablets of stone the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you

Then I remained on the mountain for 40 days and nights and either ate bread or drank water

That's a long time to not eat or drink 40 days and nights verse 10

And the Lord gave me the two tablets of the stone written by the finger of God

And on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly

So he put all that stuff on there God did God put it on there and gave it over to Moses

And verse 11 says and it came about at the end of 40 days and nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone

The tablets of the covenant then the Lord said to me arise go down from here quickly for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly

They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them they have made a molten image for themselves

The Lord spoke further to me saying I have seen this people and indeed it is a stubborn people

Let me alone God said let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven

And I will make of you he said to Moses I'll make of you a nation mightier and greater than they

15 says so I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire

And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands and I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God

You had made for yourselves a molten calf you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you

And I told and I'm sorry and I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes

I fell down before the Lord as at the first 40 days and nights I neither ate bread nor drank water

Because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger

I think it's interesting that's 40 days plus 40 days and even if you got a little break in the middle

He had 40 days plus 40 days that's that's something else and you could make a lot of theology out of that

And say well it was 40 days learning the will the Lord then the will the Lord was broken

And then it was another 40 days repenting of the fact that he that the will the Lord had been broken

That follow for I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you

But the Lord listened to me that time also and the Lord was angry also enough with Aaron to destroy him

So I also prayed for Aaron at the same time and I took your sinful thing the calf which you had made

And burned it with fire and crushed it grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust

And I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain verse 22 again at Taberah and at Massa

And at Kibroth-Hatava you provoked the Lord to wrath

Now I submit to you if we stop there for a second and we try to list our own list

My list of when I have provoked the Lord to wrath would probably be pretty long it's more than I know

And it would probably take me to a pretty dark place if I thought about it long enough

Verse 23 and when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea saying that's where they stopped before they were going to go into the promised land

He said go up and possess the land which I have given you then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God

You neither believed him nor listened to his voice

You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you

I'm going to ask you have you been rebellious against the Lord from the day God invited you into the kingdom?

Verse 25 so I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights which I did because the Lord had said he would destroy you

And I prayed to the Lord and said oh Lord God do not destroy thy people even thine inheritance

Whom thou hast redeemed through thy greatness Whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand

Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin

And so there's a whole sermon in there that we would beg God not to look at our stubbornness or our wickedness or our sin

And the difference between the three

Stubbornness is when you keep not doing what you're supposed to do

Wickedness is when you keep intentionally doing what you're not supposed to do

And sin is when you either don't do what you're supposed to do or do what you're not supposed to do

Generically speaking

And you could have a whole sermon right there

Verse 28 otherwise the land from which thou didst bring us may say

So now you're talking about Egypt right

Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he had promised them

And because he hated them he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness

So Moses made this argument to God

If you destroy them now then people are going to think about you that you were not able to do what you said you were going to do

And so you brought them out here and destroyed them rather than doing what you said you were going to do

It's an argument from God's righteousness an argument from God's power

Verse 29 we're almost done

Yet they are thy people even thine inheritance

Whom thou hast brought out by thy great power and thine outstretched arm

Alright so in this section of scripture we see several things

The first thing is the poison the slow acting poison that I warned you about

Has anybody figured out what it is?

The slow acting poison

The slow acting poison what he's warning us about what he's warning the Israelites about what I'm now here I think to warn us about

Is comparing oneself to others

See they were thinking that they took the promised land

That they were taking the promised land

That they were being led into the promised land

Because they were better than the people who lived in the promised land

They could say well we never sacrificed our children in the fire to the false god Molech

However while Moses was up on the mountain and the fire was still there receiving the command of God

They did take the gold and silver jewelry and make it into a calf sat down to eat and got up to play

Which means have an orgy basically

Have sex all over the place in honor of the false god that they have created for themselves

So are they really better?

But that's not really the point is it?

The point is that there is a disease that human beings have

Not on the list of diseases

There is a psychological problem that human beings have

It's the natural outflow of the selfish nature

It's not on the list of insanities

Although it's getting close when you think about this what they call social media

Dysphoria basically you watch social media and you think that's real life

And you start feeling all depressed inside yourself

And you think that might actually be an insanity that people are creating

That's new relatively new

In our selfish nature we have a tendency to exercise our senses and perceive

When we see the image of God walking around in flesh

And we look at that other person and just as we are warned not to covet

Or to love our neighbor as ourselves

Just as we were warned in the Ten Commandments on how to relate to one another

At the same time we look at them and we think

Just as God was so gracious to us to share in the inspirational moment when we prayed and asked him to do so

We think oh man they've got it all together

They've got what they need

How often I have heard someone say to me and I'm not chastising anybody

I'm hurting or I'm going I'm in a dark place or I'm sad today or I'm depressed or I'm broken

Or I'm really struggling or this has been really hard or I'm mourning the loss of my loved one

And they are literally being crushed under the weight of a burden of internal stress

And their core is about to crumble

And they've become aware of it in their present circumstances

That my core is about to crumble

Alright here is the reality of life, are you ready? I'm going to tell you the reality of life right now

Everyone's core is about to crumble

That's it

Under death the wages of sin is death means that you will be crushed away from having a proper relationship with God

And the wages of sin is death doesn't end when somebody gets saved

It literally says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life, bless you

So it doesn't end, so you are in sin, you sin against God

And the wages of that sin is a separation between you and the person you were created to have a relationship with

And the power source, I read an article, don't know if it's true or not, I'm not trying to preach the news

But an article said that California was telling people who own electric cars not to charge their electric cars

Which is super ironic because they were the first state to pass laws saying that eventually everyone has to have electric cars

So it was kind of ironic but I didn't read the article so I don't know the truth of it so don't hold me on that

But when I thought about that I thought this is what we do

We go to the ends of the earth to try to make somebody better, teach, preach, tell them what they need to do

While all the while we ourselves are just about to crumble

And what we do is then make that person, if they should even put in a serious effort, twice as much a son of hell as we are

There is only one way to be saved and that is to come into a proper relationship with God through Jesus Christ

And that's what it means when Jesus said you can do nothing except that which you go through me

Unless you completely depend on Jesus, again today you are on the verge of crumbling

You say no, no that's not true, I feel okay, I'm good

What if later today somebody that you love or yourself or whatever suffers a terrible tragedy

What if our church, God forbid, loses somebody integral to who we are today

Anybody that's in this room, anybody in this room, I'm being transparent right now

If somebody before me, and probably most people that are joining us online right now, dies today, I'm going to be hit

It's going to hurt me, it's going to strike through to my heart in a way that I cannot describe to you

And you've probably been there, because you've been hit at some point in time and felt like oh I can't take this

And I'm submitting that probably if you're here today and hearing this gospel we preach

Then you now realize that it was God who shored up your infrastructure, who gave you the strength and the power to continue under the worst of things

So many times in my life I've faced what I would never want to face and then God from the inside

It wasn't like somebody called me on the phone and said hey you're going to be okay

Because frankly I wouldn't have believed him, somebody calls me and says I'm going to be okay when I'm really hurting

I don't believe them, do you? Really? Who would it be? Would it be me?

Would you believe me if I called you when you were in the worst moment of your life and said hey you're going to be okay?

Now it takes something more than that, doesn't it? It takes a spiritual, emotional lifting up

Now sometimes God uses somebody to do that, don't get me wrong, there is a spiritual gift of encouragement

But even the spiritual gift of encouragement taps into the strength that is God, otherwise it's nothing

You get a phone call from somebody you haven't heard from in 10 years and says hey you're going to be okay

And you're like yeah I know you, I trust you, I'm going to believe what you say

If you do that, it is sorcery at best and idolatry probably, it's nothing to do with God

The bottom line is we are all at all times on the verge of collapsing down

We may get to heaven and find out that when you look into outer space and see those black holes

Where there are no stars and no light and you know the gravity there must be huge

And they occasionally see like a star or a planet or something that might be consumed, sucked in and just gone

Whether it goes to another galaxy or whatever, whatever you believe is true

Bottom line is that that black hole is probably the purest representation of the human soul in all creation

We are vacuous and when the Bible says the Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence in us

He is the only one who can fill that space and shore up its walls and make it solid and to last

And so when we look at others, we go oh they got a new car, they got new shoes, they got new pants, they got a new storyline

There's something cool going on, oh look how cute she is doing the fancy dance

Right, well watch that 17 times and we're watching this crap or we're watching TV right

That's my favorite actor, every movie he's ever been in, I've always loved every movie he's ever been in

Oh this one's not that great, but I love him and so I must love this movie

Or look at my new car that I've got, now I'm going to be okay and I'm not going to have to worry about my transportation

While all of that is going on, it's not affecting your soul in any positive way

We're all on the verge of crash, there was a girl that was at Pizza Hut that I was witnessing too

I say a girl, but she was like in her mid-20s and she was the Pizza Hut store manager, just got promoted

And I had witnessed her at a management meeting about like a month before the incident I'm about to describe

I told her about Jesus, I told her about God and I asked her to be saved and she had declined

And I was terrified the whole time, I was terrified the whole time I was talking to her

And she's like, no, I'll think about it, I'll pray about it, whatever, and she let it go

And about a month later, her promotion came through officially, she got her salary increased and everything

And the day she got her salary increased, she went out and bought a motorcycle

And I heard she bought a motorcycle on the phone, she said she bought a nice new motorcycle

This is like 2000 or something, it's about like a 2000 or a 1999 motorcycle, like 8 grand, whatever she financed it

And I heard about it like almost immediately, because you know, I'm a motorcycle driver, in my core I enjoy driving motorcycles

But I don't worship motorcycles or idolize them, but God makes me like think and I'm not tempted to get on my phone

I have, I will admit, read the Ten Commandments while driving my motorcycle, I put them on the inside of my windshield

And read them over and over as I was driving down the road, and the books of the Bible, memorizing the books of the Bible

Put that on the inside of my windshield whenever I was, nothing going on, I was doing

So I have read while I was driving my motorcycle and while I'm driving my car, but the bottom line is, while I'm on my motorcycle

I feel like I can focus, I can think about God, I don't have a motorcycle currently because motorcycles are expensive

And I didn't, at that time, I did have a motorcycle, but it was broke down, it was like a 1200 dollar repair

And I didn't have the money to replace it, so when I heard that she bought a motorcycle, I'm like, holy crud, she has the life I want

I'm a follower of Jesus trying to tell her to get saved, and she, and that's what I thought as a young Christian, I thought

Oh man, she has the life I want, she just got a new motorcycle

Two hours later, I got the phone call that she drove the motorcycle off the lot on her test permit

Never having driven a motorcycle before, lost control of it, two blocks away from the lot, hit the curb, flipped the bike, totaled the bike, 8 grand bike

And was in the hospital

Took her three months to learn to walk again, she lost her job at Pizza Hut because she didn't tell them anything of what was going on

Or she didn't keep them in the loop after that, so she was no longer store manager, no longer had a motorcycle

And went through terrible agony and pain, and when I heard that she had, it didn't even strike me that I had said she has the life that I want

Didn't even strike me that I had done that

I just immediately went to prayer for her, prayed that God would miraculously heal her

And then later it came back to me and I was shamed by the fact that that initial report that she had the motorcycle that I wished I had

Had somehow affected me, listen to me, your soul is going to remain your soul

And there's only one person that can deal with your soul and your heart and regenerate it

And that is God the Father through his son Jesus Christ

Comparing yourself to others in whatever condition

They're cuter than me, they're fatter than me, they're thinner than me, they're smarter than me, they're faster than me, they're stronger than me, they're weaker than me

Listen, most people are physically stronger than I am

It's a fact, yet I do more physical labor than 80% of the people I know

I literally moved last year, wait for it, 100,000 pounds of groceries, myself

And Jamie moved almost that much

And by the time Tommy's done this year he will have moved that much

Now Tommy's pretty strong so he's not the best illustration

But Jamie and I are physically weaker than most people we know

And yet we move tens of thousands of pounds of groceries every year

While most people clickety clackety the keyboard or talk on the phone or drive their car for a living or whatever

Your physical strength is literally irrelevant

What you look like is irrelevant

You will die, go to heaven

The bottom line is we're all suffering under the effects of creation

Our bodies are all messed up

Now if you are willingly not taking care of your body and taking it to a place that it should not go

Then you have missed that command where the Lord says

This is a physical temple in which the Holy Spirit and your spirit dwell

And you have a responsibility to take care of it

I am not weaker than most people for lack of trying

I have literally done curls with weights to the tune of like 50,000 curls

Now I can show you my bicep and it looks pretty good

But compared to Michael's it's nothing

It's literally like a twig

Or to Tony or Ron

We got a couch out of a truck last night out of a van last night

I could barely lift it like an inch and Arjun just grabbed the end and hauled it out

Because he's twice as strong as I am I get that

Am I yearning for his strength?

No

Here's what I know

Physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually

There is absolutely no better person to be in the place that you are in

To have a relationship with God the Father

He has orchestrated your life and the boundaries of your life

Stop pitting yourself over your condition or your health concerns

Or say well somebody else is God

And just do what it is that God would have you to do

I run on ahead of myself but the bottom line is

Comparing yourself to others is going to lead you to either

A lack of repentance

Because you say I'm already better, I'm already doing a good job

What is this little problem that I have? It's okay, I'm doing that

At least I'm not doing that anymore, whatever

Comparing yourself to others, right?

Or maybe you say priestly I'm angry because I'm doing the best I can

And yeah they may be doing better than me

But why is God giving them so much more stuff than he's giving me?

Or so much more emotional?

Or he can preach like I wish I could preach

Or he can talk like I wish I could talk

Or he's bold like I wish I would be bold

Or whatever

Or it leads you to a lack of trusting God

The truth is that we are clay in the hands of the potter

If you would just be faithful and follow God

Then you are a clay in the hands of the potter

And if you're messed up, God will fix you

He'll take you back, start you over, and recreate you

Stop with the excuses and say I can't do what somebody else does

You can literally do anything that God sets before you to do

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me

And yes I understand that's in a certain context

But the bottom line is if God sets it before you and empowers you to do it

You can do it

The trouble is that as clay in the hands of the potter

We look at the pots already made and say I'll never be that good of a pot

Or maybe God's making us out to be like a bedpan pot

And somebody else is a beautiful whole flowers pot

And we're like well the beautiful whole flowers pot is so awesome

I'll never be able to be like that pot

I'm really angry that I'm a whole poop pot

Right? I don't want to be a whole poop pot

I want to be a whole flowers pot

Who are you to tell the potter how he should make the clay?

Who are you to tell what God wants to do through you?

He literally cannot, wait for it

What God wants to do through you he cannot do through anyone else

Everyone is unique, a unique creation with unique gifts

Stop trying to follow somebody else's path

All our paths converge together in honoring God

And walking the kingdom of God and following his commands

I get that, but the bottom line is you have to get real with yourself

And say am I willing to be the clay so the potter can make me into whatever he wants me to be

What if he makes me into a bedpan?

What if he makes me into a door stop?

Am I cool with that?

Well better is one day in his courts than a thousands elsewhere

And we can and will be walking the way of holiness

Living our lives for God

We'll be thinking about his word

We'll be meditating on his word

And along will come someone else

And they will say something or do something that will get your attention

And while you're supposed to think about it in a godly way

You're supposed to ask God what do I think of that

You're supposed to let what you experience, everything in your five senses experience

Affect you internally only in that it is filtered through your God filter

That's how it's supposed to be done

Instead you will think about yourself compared to someone else

2 Corinthians chapter 10

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

If you want to flip there in your Bibles you're welcome to do so

I'm going kind of fast because I still have two points even though they're shorter

2 Corinthians chapter 10

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

2 Corinthians chapter 10 I'm going to read verses 2, 7, 12 and 18

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

And by that you will get the gist of the entire chapter almost

Chapter 10 verse 2, 2 Corinthians says

I ask that when I am present I may be bold with the confidence

With which I propose to be courageous against some

Some that is who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh

There were people that looked at Paul and his companions

And said they're not walking after Jesus they're walking according to the flesh

There were people that were comparing themselves saying

Well we're followers of Jesus but that Paul over there

He's not quite doing the right things

Down to verse 7

If you are looking at things as they, I'm sorry

You are looking at things as they are outwardly

If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's

Let him consider this again within himself

That just as he is Christ's so also are we

Be careful when you look at others and judge their actions

Or judge them or think well they've got it all together or they're falling apart

Either one because it's not your place to do that

It's your place to be working between you and God

To be fixing you and letting God do the work in you that he wants to do

Verse 12 then says

For we are not bold

To class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves

But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves

They are without understanding

What you're essentially doing is when you look at somebody else

And compare yourself to them you're measuring yourself

Just the same as you're measuring yourself in comparison to them

You're measuring them in comparison to you and sometimes you'll say they're better in that thing

And sometimes you'll say you're better in that thing

You really need to not be doing that at all

Paul who preached the gospel was the first one to even go to Corinth with the gospel of Jesus Christ

Would not even dare to compare himself though

At one point in time somebody might be miraculously healed

He brought a guy back to life who fell asleep while he was preaching

All these crazy things that Paul did

And he would not compare himself with the young Christians in Corinth

I'm not comparing myself with you

I yearn that you would strive forward and try to be what God would want you to be

But I'm not comparing myself with you at any point in time

If I see something in you that I don't think is godly

I hope I'll have the courage to bring it to you

But when I think about having the courage to bring it to you

I understand it's my own weakness that would keep me from doing so

Not you, not yours, nothing about you

Paul said I don't even compare myself with those who commend themselves

But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves

They are without understanding

Stop it!

God loves you and is trying to make you into something awesome that will glorify him

And if you're busy looking at what others are and what others are doing

You're just messing all that up

Verse 18, last one in the chapter

He says this, because not he who commends himself is approved

But whom the Lord commends

It doesn't matter, go ahead, put it on Facebook that you're proud of yourself

Or proud of your kid or proud of your school or proud of whatever

Go ahead, tell everybody about what's going on in your life

You can do all that, but make sure that you do more telling everybody about

Who's the source of all your contentment?

Who's the source of all your power?

Who's the source of all your holiness?

Who's the source of all your righteousness?

Who it is that will take you through to eternity?

Who it is that is preparing a place for you?

Maybe if you get around to talking about God the way you're supposed to

You won't have quite as much time to talk about everything else

For it's not he who commends himself who is approved

But whom the Lord commends

The second thing I want you to see in this passage of Scripture then

That it is not because of our righteousness that we are being given the promised destination

Indeed it is because of his righteousness

Now it's interesting because the Israelites were being given a picture

Of what it's like for us knowing Jesus first hand

You know that it is not your righteousness, right?

I mean you should

You're not going to go to heaven because of your righteousness

Jesus does not make you righteous when you get saved

That's not how it works

If you think that's how it works you're confused

That's a process of sanctification

It happens long term over your whole life

What he actually does is he imposes his righteousness on you

So now when God looks at you he sees Jesus' righteousness

That is if you're saved

So if you've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior

And believe that God raised him from the dead

Called out to him to save you

Then God at that moment in time allowed Jesus to superimpose his righteousness upon you

And continues to this day every time you mar it, mess it up

Go somewhere you shouldn't go

Do something you shouldn't do

He continues to stand at the right hand of the Father

And to impress God with his own righteousness

The righteousness of Jesus

Not your righteousness but the righteousness of Jesus

And say God please forgive him, overlook it

We can just hear the words of Moses

As Moses is pleading with God not to destroy them

Jesus is doing the same thing for you and for me

That is if you're saved

He's doing the same thing for you and for me every day

So the next time you sin

Understand that immediately Jesus has to turn to God

Or God to Jesus and look at each other

Or they just talk without looking at each other

Whatever and Jesus says it's okay God

It's covered by the blood I shed on the cross

By the crushing sacrifice that was made

It's covered

So we've still got him

We've still got him

If ever they had you

They'll still have you because Jesus will eternally be standing there

Imposing his righteousness over top of yours

Now it is ultimately the goal that your righteousness will become

A little bit more like Jesus' righteousness all the time

Never fully arriving until that moment

Which come into God's presence

But always getting a little bit more

We're not sinless but as we grow we sin a little less

And that's it

It is not because of our righteousness

That we are being given the promised destination

We receive because of his righteousness

Because he is keeping his promise

But then you want to go on to say don't you

And because of his consuming fire toward others

That's what we want to say

But that has nothing to do with salvation

That has nothing to do with why we'll get to heaven

What happens to other people literally has nothing to do with when we get to heaven

Where did God's consuming fire play out?

Where did that happen at?

Where did God's consuming fire destroy or crush someone

So that we could have the course that we have into eternity?

On the cross

God's consuming fire crushed Jesus on the cross

So that we could have this course into eternity

That we could go to heaven

That's the math of it

He doesn't have to crush your neighbor to do that anymore

He doesn't have to crush the mayor

The crooked politicians or the child molesters

He doesn't have to crush any of them

For you to be able to have the eternal path

Between where you currently are and heaven

He doesn't have to do that

Because he crushed Jesus to pay the price for my sin

To pay the price for your sin

His consuming fire consumed his son

So it's not based on our righteousness that we're entering in

But based on his righteousness opposed upon us

And wait for it

His love for other people

You're like, well how do we see that in Deuteronomy 9?

Well we may see it elsewhere in Scripture

How do we see it in Deuteronomy 9?

Why?

What standard did Moses use?

Or what argument did he make with God

That God would not wipe out the Israelites?

Because if the Israelites don't arrive in the promised land

That God is taking them to

Who does that reflect upon?

Who was not able by an outside standard

To do what they said they were going to do?

Well it's not people

Because people are always under one circumstance or another

Not able to do what they said they would do

They make a plan

They commit themselves

They try really hard maybe even

They go out of the way

Block out the time

Everything like that

But still fail because it was outside their control

So it wasn't going to be the Israelites

That they were all going to be laughing at and mocking

It was going to be God

You see the Israelites were God's plan to bring every man in the world to heaven

And wait for it

You are God's now plan to bring every man in the world to heaven

Every man and woman in the world can go to heaven

Through the church of Jesus Christ that lives in our day

If they would accept Christ

If they would believe in him as Lord and Savior

And that God raised him from the dead and call out to be saved

They would receive salvation

And I submit to you many of them are looking for it

And not finding it because they are wrapped up in this

Long lasting poison of comparing to others

They look at the church and say

Well I'm more honest than that church is anyway

They are just a bunch of hypocrites

That's the poison

And it's killing them

It's a particular brand of sin that persists

But God is guaranteeing our walk on the highway of holiness

Even when we sin against him

Because of his righteousness imposed upon us through his son Jesus Christ

And because of his love for other people

And because of his love for other people

That we might take Jesus' righteousness into the world

And that people might be saved

And then the third thing to see in the text

Which is blaringly obvious but I think just sometimes needs to be said

And that is he is able

Remember that from the moment they left Egypt

God could have snapped his God fingers

And they could have been in the promised land

Remember that from the moment they left Egypt

He could have snapped his fingers

And all the people that lived in the promised land

Could have been wiped out

And the animals not gotten out of control by eating them

Because he could have made them gone

God has the power because God created everything

So if God had the power to teleport them out of Egypt

Into the promised land

And wipe everybody out that was in their way instantaneously

What was the journey all about?

It was all about the fact that

It's not about us

And they needed to learn that

And we actually read that in chapter 8 of last week

He said I brought you through all of that

And all that stubbornness and all that foolishness

To test your heart and see if you were willing and able

And up on Mount Horeb or the base of Mount Horeb

He said again that they were not willing and able

And yet Moses said but please don't destroy them

Because the people will say

You are not willing and able

And this is the reality

We are living in a day where if we as a church do not step up

If we as a church do not shine

If we don't give more than we've ever given

If we don't serve more than we've ever served

If we don't be outspoken more than we've ever been outspoken

The church will be dying

And they're saying it's already happening

It's happening in parts of the world

In some parts of the world the church is growing like crazy

But by and large the church will be dying

And it won't be the church that people will be mocking

It'll be God

He'll say yes, see they claim in the name of Jesus

But God wasn't able to do what it was

When churches doors close

It is not because God is weak or not able

When buildings stop being meeting places for churches

Pastors stop preaching the word

Or church staff or deacons get into an affair with the church secretary

Or children's teacher

When all of that evil happens

Or a pastor who preached the truth of God stands up after 10 years

And declares himself to be a practicing homosexual

When all of that stuff happens

It is not because God is not able

God is able

But along the journey of people discovering just exactly how able God is

They encountered his wrath by perhaps consuming this long lasting poison

That pastor who stood up for 10 years and preached the gospel

And said I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ

And you need to be too

And his church was growing

People were getting saved

People were like man our pastor is all that

Our pastor is so awesome

We love our pastor

Look how he grew our church from 100 people to 3000 people or whatever

And then one day he gets up and all that while he's saying

I'm better than all these 3000 people

I'm preaching the word

All these 3000 people are looking to me

And then he gets up and he said

And I'm practicing homosexual and I am not going to repent

And I'm going to keep coming up here every Sunday

And I'm going to keep preaching and teaching

Because this is the way I think it is

Even though for 10 years he taught what the word said

That day he said

And you know what happened

The next week guess how many people come to church

1300 not 3000

The next week 300

The next week 150

Because they knew that they had bought into something that was a lie

I am no better than anybody

Josh you are no better than anybody

Tony you are no better than anybody

Lynn no better than anybody

Right

We are not

Saved or not it doesn't matter

At best we become a servant of the servant king

Delivering the truth

And when we do that he is able

And when we don't do that watch out

Because he is able

And somebody else later on down the road will come

And they will build their life out of the remnants of your crushed dreams

Because you didn't do what it was that God called you to

He is able

Trust him

Stop thinking it's going to take this or that or whatever

And commend your whole life and all your variables into his hands

He is able

If a bullet should enter your brain and you should die

He is able to take you to heaven

And in that moment you will sure be hoping that's so won't you

But right now you are like I am not worried about that because there is no bullet

He is able

Get out of bed in the morning and remind yourself that he is able

And stop comparing yourself to others

And if you look at yourself in light of Jesus

That's what 1 Corinthians 3 18 says

That we are focused on the image of God in him

And by focusing on the image of God in him being transformed daily

A little bit into the image of God that we see in him

So focus on Jesus

And if you are not satisfied with who you are compared to Jesus

Repent and turn to the Lord

And by the way you should not be satisfied with who you are compared to Jesus

Because compared to Jesus you are just a piece of dirt

With a little bit of inspiration

And then when you are saved it's his righteousness written on that tablet of God's creation

Not your righteousness

The gospel is the unveiling of the meeting point of God's power and his righteousness and his love

I want you to think about 3 lines

Very bold bright glowing lines in the sky

And they are running all over the place

And finally they all meet the power of God

The power of God the love of God

And the righteousness of God

And they all meet in one place

And now you tell me what you see there

When the power of God and the righteousness of God and the love of God all meet in one place

What do you see there?

Do you see Jesus on the cross?

Because when those 3 lines met that was the only way

To satisfy the power and the righteousness and the love of God

That was the only way

Or if you are saved

Do you see the empty tomb?

Jesus risen

Or do you see the gates of heaven?

And that sick man Lazarus for his whole life sat at the gates begging

Sickly usually not having enough to eat

But there in eternity forever comforted

Never yearning for anything ever again

Do you see that?

His power his righteousness and his love

The gospel is the unveiling of the meeting point of all of those things

And that brings us to our conclusion because there is an antidote

The antidote for this sickly poison

Slow acting gouge

God's greatness out of your life over the longest possible period of time

Is the kingdom of God at work in you

The kingdom of God on earth is that place at which God's motivations and his power connect

Do you love God?

Do you believe in God?

Have you met God through his son Jesus Christ?

And believe he is able

And do what he would have you to do

And thereby be in the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God has its own antibodies

Because I can't know whether you're saved and you can't know whether I'm saved

So I can't look at Tommy even though realistically I might say that Tommy is more handsome than I am

He's stronger than I am, he's surely faster than I am

He's more intelligent in certain things like electronics

He can solder circuit boards which I can't do

He's great with little children

I might look at all of those things and I might say that he is better than me all of a sudden

But here's what I can't do

I can't look at Tommy and say for sure he's going to heaven

Nor can I look at anyone else in this room, doesn't matter what you've told me

I cannot look at you and say for sure I know that you're going to heaven

I cannot judge your salvation

And because of that it rules out my appreciating anything that you have

Or coveting anything that you have that makes you better than me

And I could go around the room and say this makes you better than me, this makes you better than me, this makes you better than me

This makes you worse than me, this makes you worse than me, this makes you worse than me

And I could balance it out and ultimately say well I think Ron is better off than Dan is

RJ is worse off than Dan is

Sierra is better off than Dan is

I could go around the room and I could do that

But because I can't know whether you're saved or not

The kingdom of God at work in me

The Holy Spirit of God testifying with my spirit

That I know where I'm going when I die

That I'm living as best I can on the road of holiness for as long as I can while I live here on this earth

I'm walking that path because I know that that's what I'm trying to do

There is no comparing me with anybody else

Because for all I know

Very realistically speaking for all I know

I might be the only person in this room that's actually saved

And for all you know you might be the only person in this room that's actually saved

You say no I'm sure Pastor Dan's saved

I submit to you that you need to repent and turn to God because the Bible says judge not lest ye be judged

And that means whether you judge me well or judge me poorly

Either way you're doing what God says you must not do

And it will not be he who cries out Lord Lord necessarily

Who will enter into the kingdom of heaven when the time comes

But he who follows God

He who is saved through Jesus Christ God's own son

And receives a righteousness that is not his own

Be careful that you don't automatically set up something that will cause others to compare themselves to you

When you say sometime for example

And I'm not saying you can't talk talk and say what God wants you to say

When you say sometime that I am so well off

You know that there are going to be others who are going to go well yeah I'm not that well off

You say to others I am so poorly off things are so bad

There are going to be others when you say that that are going to say

Well I must be doing much better

And if they lost and think that if they're lost and think they're doing much better

They're not because they're going to hell

And if they're saved and think they're doing much worse

Then that leads to a lack of trust in God they need to repent

The kingdom of God has a built-in inoculation against comparing ourselves with others

And that we can truly only know if the Holy Spirit is in us testifying that we're saved

And as soon as you go well I'm pretty sure he's saved and look at how awesome he is

Or look at how pretty she is

As soon as you do that you're crossing into that zone of consuming little bits of that poison on a daily basis

There is a practice in fact one of my favorite lines of all time from a movie

And I'm closing here in a second is from Princess Bride

Some of you will go I know that movie

There are lots of good lines for that movie

And there's a movie where he's in an intelligence battle with a duel essentially with Vincini

The Dread Pirate Robert says and they're supposed to guess whether the poison is in which cup

And he does this thing and he sets it down and he goes hahaha very funny

Ultimately he says he wins and then Vincini drank from his cup and he dies

And the Dread Pirate Robert says well I've spent the last few years building up an immunity to Iocaine powder

And so the poison was in both cups

And not that Vincini couldn't have essentially figured that out and refused to drink

But the bottom line is that's a fictitious thing

Building up immunity, poison to immunity, immunity to poisons in your body is almost impossible

There are lots of different kinds of poisons, all the metal based poisons

They actually build up a little bit, a little bit right

And so if you would consume the tiniest microgram of that poison today

And then again in a month and again in a month hoping to eventually build up immunity

What will actually happen is once you build up enough of it you'll die

Your body starts to shut down

So when you get to a thousand grains for example

Your liver croaks out and you start having organ failure and you die

So you can't do it on those kinds of poisons

You know about snake poison right

And so there have been a lot of people that over the years believe that you could actually

Get immunity to certain snake poisons by taking a little bit, little bit over a long period of time

And they figured out how it works, the liver produces this chemical that allows you to metabolize the poison

And you don't die from it if you only have it in very small doses

And these are animals that have natural immunities and they could replicate it

And there's this guy who goes and gets his blood drawn in Greenland every year

Because he's done this for like 30 years, injected himself with little bits of snake poison

And so far what they've determined is that he's not immune to snake poison at all

So you really can't do that either

Plant based poisons pretty much produce a certain chemical in your liver

And over a period of time if you produce too much of the cow

If you need to produce too much of the chemical, you don't have it

Then your body metabolizes the poisons into your fat cells or stores

And wherever it possibly can to try to keep you alive

But when there's too much of it or one day you're walking down the street

And you worked out a little bit and your body starts to burn off some of the fat

It goes to your liver, your liver's not prepared, you croak

There's really no becoming immune to poisons

There's some very limited success that people have had

But you can't take a little bit, little bit, little bit of a poison

And I submit to you, why am I talking about this?

Because that's exactly what people are doing today

They're taking a little bit of comparing themselves

A little bit here, a little bit there

They're like, well, no big deal, you know

I compare myself to that person but I'm not really letting it affect me and so on

I've got a little bit of comparing myself, a little bit more, a little bit more

And in doing all that, they think that they're building up an immunity

Because they're realizing that that person's trying to make them feel small

But they're not going to let that happen

They're realizing that that person's trying to make them big

But they're not going to let that happen

They're going to give glory to God

I submit to you that giving glory to God might be a good way to go

But here's what's not a good way to go

Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever

Let's go on until God, until Jesus comes again

Compare yourself with someone else

It's a poison

You'll never become immune to it

You will eventually destroy your walk with God

Maybe yourself

And if that is so, and I believe it is

Then it's a sin against God

Which means it will also destroy your relationship with God

Because the wages of sin is death

I mentioned to you at the beginning three things

And I've covered one of them

The next one was the medals that are given to children

So here's the thing

I learned a long time ago when I was a kid

We used to get desserts for if we did well in school

My mom would give us desserts

She'd take us out for ice cream and things like that

That ever happen to you?

And I learned from my psychology classes and so on

That that is the way to make your children have difficulty

Dealing with, when they grow up, eating habits

Because you say to your child, also by the way

Forcing your child to eat everything on their plate

Also screw up their eating habits

Forcing or allowing your child not to try new foods that they don't like

Also screw up their eating habits

Lots of ways you can screw up your child's eating habits

So now you think every time I'm down, I'm hurting, I'm sad

I'm going to go get some ice cream because I'll feel better

So you screwed up your psychology that way

Now, obviously it's all in the hands of the Lord

And you can say, well I'm not going to worry about that

God's going to take care of it

Rewarding children for their good behavior is dangerous in a sense that

They will think later if they do good behavior, they deserve a reward

And if they don't get a reward, then they'll be irritated about the reward

They didn't get a reward, right?

So if you try really hard on your sports team, really really hard on your sports team

And you do really really well

And at the end of the year you don't get a medal for MVP or Most Improved or anything like that

You get upset

If you get the same medal that everybody else got

That's no better because everybody got a medal, right?

The bottom line is, should we give medals to sports teams?

Probably because we should encourage good behavior

But we as parents have a responsibility to teach our children

It's not relative to what others did

When we say most valuable player, for example

We're saying you were the most valuable player over top of the other nine kids on the team

We're teaching them to value themselves

Responding to what they see in others

We're literally teaching them to compare themselves to others

Sporting events

My baseball team goes out, plays against another baseball team that my kids are on

At the end, the score tells which team was better

Team sporting events are awesome

They teach teamwork, they're actually perfect for this

Because does the 11-10 score at the end of a baseball game say that one pitcher was better than the other?

It does not

Does it say that one right fielder was better than the other team's right fielder?

It does not

However, if every member of that team gives their extreme best effort and does what they're supposed to do

Yet they lose to this other team who did the same thing

Then you can reasonably say that the team that won is better than the team that didn't

But maybe it was simply in their teamwork or in their coaching or in their planning or in their playbook

Or pure luck

Time and chance happens to all men

It is the responsibility of every person to be the best that they possibly can be

And we are being crushed under that burden if we're trying to do it outside Jesus Christ

So sporting events are a great place to help people remember

It is not about how well you did it in response to how well somebody else did it

It's about who you're becoming

What are you doing?

Are you following, in our case, are you following Jesus and becoming the person that God would have you to be?

Or not?

If you're playing sports or if you're playing games or if you're watching TV

And it is not about you following the highway of holiness or going to heaven when you die

You following Jesus and letting His righteousness be imputed to you and so on

If it's not about that, then you shouldn't be doing it

So if you have a kid who's playing sports or you have a kid who's watching or playing video games

Or you have a kid who's watching something on their phone

And you realize that it is causing them to compare themselves to somebody else

It's time to step up mom or dad or aunt or uncle or friend or brother or sister in Christ

And say, look, this is not so that you compare yourself to somebody else

Because it's really about who are you in Christ?

Let's not train our children

As I said, the world got there the complete wrong way by giving everybody a medal

Saying nobody is better than anybody else

It's a complete wrong way, it's a PC maneuver, politically correct maneuver

But better that, then we go to one kid and say, well, you're better than this other kid

And we go to this other kid over here and say, well, you're not as good as this kid, he did more for the team

If there's no, did everybody do their best? Are you doing your best?

Try your hardest, do what you can, do what it is that you're supposed to do

And the last illustration was of the underdog

And I wrote this at the end, I am an underdog

Amongst the human race and faced with oppositions like demons in the world system

I stand up for my beliefs and I stand up against a system

Warped by Satan's hatred of God and people's confused emulation of him

I will never change

I have been regenerated by the God of heaven and his Holy Spirit

And if I change at all, it will be to be more like Jesus

I will resist even unto my death the tactics of Satan and my true enemies

This I will do knowing that if Jesus does not come again before my time

I will die for my Lord, but I will not spend eternity in torment

Rather I will spend it with God in the place that he is preparing for me

This I will do knowing despite any losses I may take

I cannot lose

I want you to say to yourself right now this moment, Christian

I cannot lose

We're going to have the praise team come forward and lead us in closing him at this point in time

And I'm asking you

To think about you and about your relationship with God

You say well God is holy, Jesus is just and loving and kind and I'm not like them

Yeah, kind of the point, we're not

We're trying to be, but we're not

But if you've been comparing yourself to other human beings, even other human beings

That profess to be saved or other human beings that preach the word

Or whatever, you've been comparing yourself to others, I would ask you to repent and turn to God

And let God inform you about you because apparently you don't know you

There's a you that you don't know and only God knows

Let God inform you about you

I'm trying to tell God, God I'm not as strong, God I'm overweight

God I'm too young, I'm too old, I'm too poor, I'm too rich

I'm too, my health concerns get in the way

Don't do that

Just say to God, God here I am

Take this me and make of it

What it can be

God give you the medal

For first place in your life

After Jesus

You stand with me and sing this song and if the Lord has spoken to your heart with you

Respond and just make whatever decision

That God's all in our new faith, just say okay God I get it

I'm hearing you, I'm surrendering to you

I'm following you

And if anybody in this room needs me to say

If anybody in this room needs me to say something

Jesus, sit around with me

Have you decided?

Follow Jesus

Why would your eyes be open if you've decided to follow Jesus

I have decided

To follow Jesus

No turning back

No turning back

Don't go with me

I still will follow

What if they won't come because they're not following him?

Will you still follow?

I still will follow

What if their sufferings are weighing them down? Will you still follow?

Don't go with me

I still will follow

No turning back

No turning back

My cross I'll carry

Till I see Jesus

My cross I'll carry

Till I see Jesus

My cross I'll carry

Till I see Jesus

My cross I'll carry

Till I see Jesus

No turning back

No turning back

No world behind me

No cross before me

No world behind me

No cross before me

No world behind me

No world before me

No world behind me

No world before me

No turning back

No turning back

As I was just singing that last verse

I felt like the Spirit impressed upon me this image

I want to share it with you, you can vet it in the scripture and all that

This is what I was feeling like I was standing in a crowd

Of just an infinite number of people

And just outside the crowd on the other side was a line, right?

Like there was a barrier but there was no barrier, there was nobody

Everybody was just standing there all looking, they were all looking

And there's Jesus and he says, come

And I'm standing in a crowd, maybe like the seventh rank or whatever, there's people in front of me

But I peek between heads and I see Jesus and he says come

And I edge forward to make sure, he's not saying to me come

He's saying to everybody come, everybody come

And nobody's coming, they're all standing there all thinking about it

They've got their issues, they're wondering, they've got questions, whatever

Some of them are looking at each other, lots of them are looking at each other

Some are looking at aisles or things they think are important or whatever

They're looking everywhere else, Jesus just come

I'm looking at Jesus, he says come, and I edge forward, I'm like in the third row now

And he says come, and people are milling about in front of me

It looks like they're thinking about going but they're not coming

And he's going, he says come, let's go

And so I reach my hand between two people and I go like this like I'm swimming

And I push the people away and then suddenly now I'm in the very front

And I don't see anybody, all those infinite number of people that were there

I don't see any of them, all I see is Jesus

That's the Israelites coming out of Egypt

It's Peter running to the cave, to the tomb

It's me when I was sitting in the queue week after week after week thinking, thinking, thinking

And they were like, Jesus is saying come

And then finally it was like I think he's saying come to me, you know

And I'm like, so I'm going to go, but nobody else is going

Nobody else is walking forward, nobody else is making a decision

Nobody else is saying anything

I just go like this, and put everyone else

I'm not saying forget everybody, I'm saying dismiss your family

I mean if it takes you dismissing your family to get saved you better do it

Because in eternity you're going to regret it, you don't

Jesus doesn't want us to dismiss our families

We're called to be, and better called to be a dad

Called to be a husband before anything else

But before we're called to be a dad and a husband, we're called to be saved

To have an eternity, to have a relationship with God

And then in that God calls us to be a dad and a husband

And women to be a wife and a mother when that's how he ordains it

But you've got to swim your way forward out of the crowd

And say me and Jesus

And if your eyes are on Jesus

When Stephen was being stoned

You read the story for yourself

But I believe he did not see his attackers

He did not see the stones

He did not know that he felt the pain leading up to his death

But he was looking at the throne of God and could see Jesus

The word says he was looking there and could see Jesus

And the glory of God showed on his face

As he was looking there and all the more they wanted to kill him

If you will put the world behind you and focus on Jesus

Yeah, it's going to cause some problems with some folks

Some people aren't going to like what you have to say or what you're doing

I commit this to you that here in this place amongst us

If we can figure out that that's what's going on

If we can figure out that we're doing what it is that God wants us to do

We'll never have a problem with it, will we?

If we can have a problem with somebody in this room deciding to do what God wants to do

Even though you don't quite think it's the way it should be done

Assuming you know they're doing what God wants them to do

What problem would you possibly have?

And should you maybe even be noticing

Considering your eyes are supposed to be on Jesus in the first place?

God help us

The world wants you to compare yourself to everyone else

And Jesus just wants you

I don't know if I was in the room with you

I may have shared this a little before

But when we were at Cayman

Jason came up to me and he was sat in the middle of the room

He wanted to go up in the front and he danced

The rest of the kids were up there dancing

But he was too afraid

And I told him why are you afraid?

Because I'm afraid I'm going to punish him

Jason, it doesn't matter what people think about you

What matters is what you think

And what God thinks

I was like if you want to do it, just go ahead and do it

And I was like the problem is you're thinking about it too much

And I think that's what we get a lot

We start thinking about it too much

Instead of just jumping in and doing it

We think about it, think about it some more

And it never actually happens

So if you're around the fence of like

Okay, well is this really what God wants from me?