Known and Nourished 1 Tim 3:14-4:6

Thanks for choosing this podcast by New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo.

In this episode, we'll look at how a person both gets a good repute or good reputation

in the Kingdom of God, where God will say, you have served Jesus Christ well, and also,

and maybe more importantly, how a person can be healthy and well-nourished spiritually

in the church.

Just becoming a Christian, known and nourished.

Here we go.

music kaleidoscope

I'm going to see you when you are by my feet

When you are by my street

When you are on the tip of a woman's ring

When everything you say and do

Be founded by the faith in you

A vision fully empty

Like the flowers in a dream

Oh, God, I can't see what I can't see

Oh, God, I can't feel what I can't feel my dreams

Oh, God, I can't do what I can't do about everything

Oh, God, I can't do what I can't do about anything

I'm going to see you when you are by my feet

When you are by my street

When you are on the tip of a woman's ring

When everything you say and do

Be founded by the faith in you

A vision fully empty

Like the flowers in a dream

Like the flowers in a dream

Like the flowers in a dream

Like the flowers in a dream

Like the flowers in a dream

I hope you have been spending time with the Lord already today and throughout the week.

I know that some of you and myself as well have faced some trials and some difficulties this week.

We've had folks who visited the hospital. We've had folks who went through court proceedings.

Folks have dealt with lawyers. Folks have dealt with health concerns, trying to get appointments to deal with health concerns.

Folks that have health concerns that there really isn't anything else they can do about them.

Folks that are in pain every day. We've got quite the variety when it comes to difficulty.

And so we want to lift each other up. And we also, more importantly, want to lift God up.

Because He really is on the top of the heap. He's on the throne in heaven. He is in charge of it all.

And so we can reach the heights of Jesus today because He allows it.

And I'm grateful, I don't know about you, but I'm grateful that He allows it.

I do want to remind you, it seems like it's not just around the corner, but it will be here before you know it.

The crosswalk is coming. That's the day before Easter.

And of course, I think maybe the most important thing is Resurrection Sunday.

The day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We can't do that every Sunday and we can't do that every day.

But we annualize it or set it on a day which is called by the world, if you will, Easter.

Okay? And so that's coming. It's late a little bit this year. It's mid-April.

You see the date up there on the screen.

There is some special activities surrounding the crosswalk.

Here's what I want you to be thinking about and doing as we approach.

Number one, we're going to be doing some promotion for that.

We want our promotion to be geared toward getting folks to come and walk with us.

We're not trying to get them to join the church, but a kingdom of God walks.

If you know somebody who professes to be a Christian, even if they're in another church, that's great.

They can stay in their church. They're not trying to win them out of their church or anything like that.

Who would be willing to come and walk with us.

If you're not physically capable of making that walk, we usually have a little caravan of cars behind.

If you know somebody who's willing to do that, reach out to them and say,

Hey, would you like to come and do that with us?

If their church doesn't already do something like that, it is a great opportunity to honor the Lord.

Okay? And then with that, we will have an open house.

We will have some food type stuff.

What all we said? Food? Lunch? Okay?

So we'll be serving lunch.

And then after the crosswalk, kind of like after lunch, after everything,

we'll have the pantry open in the afternoon for folks that are normally in need of food.

Okay? So they can take groceries home with them if they're in need of food.

So it's a day of service. It's a day of recognizing who and what,

who the Lord is and what He has done for us through the crucifixion.

Jesus came that sins might be done away with.

And then He took those sins, really became those sins upon the cross

so that we might have and become really the righteousness of God through Him.

It's a great blessing to not just us, right?

I think most of you get it. I hope you get it.

But maybe you don't. If you don't, you can listen closely.

This is huge. This is how we got saved.

This is how sins were paid for. How sins were taken out of the way.

How sins were dealt with.

And then we know He rose again on the third day.

And we'll come together on Sunday and celebrate the heck out of it.

And I'll be blasting my voice as loud as I possibly can.

And I hope you will too. And we'll praise Him for what He's done.

Okay? So that's coming up. It's not that far away.

In the meantime, you're talking about, you're praying about,

you're thinking about, you're encouraging folks to come and participate in that.

I hope you will.

Also, after service today, there was a Fatherhood Washington meeting,

which is basically Brother Tony Tate is our team leader for that.

And they're going to meet in the cafeteria.

They're going to be discussing his strategy

and how God has laid on his heart to go forward with that ministry

so we can encourage one another.

It is largely to encourage men.

So if you're a man who's willing to encourage men,

or you're a woman who's willing to encourage men,

it's a great place for you to plug in.

But it's for anybody who needs encouragement.

So he's certainly not stopping there.

And so that's going to go on this afternoon after service.

I encourage you, if you want to be involved in that, to come and do that.

And if nothing else, it would be a great opportunity to find out what his plans are,

what God's leading him to do, and leading us to do through that team,

and pray about it. Pray for each other. Support each other.

Okay? Alright? So that's that.

And then next week is the team leader meeting.

I'm normally supposed to put that agenda out a week in advance,

and I have struggled to do that for years, so I'm not doing that now.

But I do want to remind you we have some key issues that need to be resolved.

So if you are a team leader who is also a key holder,

I'm asking you to bring your keys to that meeting.

Okay? So if you are a team leader, so don't come in and go,

oh, I forgot my keys. I'm reminding you right now.

Normally you should have your keys with you anyway in case you need them.

Alright? So that's where we're at.

So if you do that, and then Brother Mike and I are going to work through the key things,

and then we're going to work through the key thing after that,

and get it sorted so we make sure we know where people are at,

who has what key, and so on. Okay?

That's all I got in the announcements. There could be others.

Don't forget to honor the Lord in all ways today.

Let us pray together, and then we'll jump into worship.

And worship is maybe like the chief example, right?

It's the best way to honor God maybe, but service,

and all the other spiritual distance, all the things we do with the Lord day in, day out,

follow that model. Okay? So let's declare his work this morning.

Yeah, just as I say, the Father Watcher meeting is going to be after all the kids get the course,

so you guys got a little bit of time.

It'll be a short break while the kids get home.

And then if you have pizzas, whoever comes in with a bunch of pizzas.

Okay. Alright. So let's pray. Okay.

I'm going to put a prayer first. My uncle Art is in the hospital.

Okay.

He's got severe pneumonia.

And he is not currently living in his own home.

Timmy may have missed something there because he's back in the house.

I don't know that when you were with Art, he was doing better.

I heard he was in a recovery center for a while.

But when he had the stroke, when he was in a coma,

they think it did bring damage because he wasn't all there.

And also they found a tumor in my Aunt Fetty's head.

Okay. That seems to be going around.

Alright. So continue prayer for Uncle Art.

And apparently he was out of the hospital,

but then had some complications the way he went through.

Alright. Let's pray together.

Father God, we see just, I think, just an inkling

of all the awesome things you're doing.

We get just, I don't want to call it hints,

because I think you're bold and straightforward and outspoken.

I think you send gifts of love and mercy and grace.

Lord, but we only sort of take a sample.

We don't really open ourselves up to experiencing you fully

on a daily basis maybe, or we get distracted away from

reaching the heights in Jesus every day

and every moment that we're awake,

to compartmentalizing and only do certain areas.

Lord, I for one ask you for forgiveness and for strength

and to do the right thing so I can do the right thing.

Lord, I think there are others here who would echo that prayer.

I ask you Father that as we praise you this morning,

we can truly be grateful for the things that we've seen,

for the things that we haven't seen,

because you've definitely been at work.

You've definitely done amazing things that we don't know anything about,

and then many things that we do.

So we ask you Lord to govern us. Absolutely.

That's all day every day.

And accept from us today this praise,

sung to your holy name.

For the one who's in the room who maybe doesn't normally sing,

I pray Lord that you will prompt them in their heart today

that they will realize that the word says over and over and over again

that singing with joy, singing praises to our God,

is one of the things we're told to do.

So free us Lord.

Free us from our foolish notions that we're not able, not good enough,

can't keep up.

Free us Lord from our distractions and our temptations

thinking about other things,

things that were going on before we came in here,

things that we want to make sure and say to somebody before we leave,

or things we want to get taken care of today.

Lord, free us to truly worship the God of heaven.

We pray this prayer,

for the one who can make it so, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen.

Here comes the King.

All around town,

he's a new born man.

He is the King.

All around town,

all around town.

He's a new born man.

He's a new born man.

Jesus is alive, he's a-coding again.

Shout from the sky, he's a-coding again.

Take him around.

Here comes the King.

All around town,

he's a new born man.

He's a new born man.

He's a new born man.

All around town,

all around town.

You are the King.

You are the King.

Here comes the King.

All around town,

he's a new born man.

He is the new born man.

Good that your voice says,

don't you dare,

keep on looking.

All around town,

all around town.

And here comes the King.

All around town,

How can you hear your standing pain?

Oh, my dear, for months so long

And even things for you

For me, my heart is sad and crying

Within your presence

I see you leave the shadow of your wings

There is one day in your heart

There is one day in your heart

There is one day in your heart

There is one day in your heart

I'm not afraid of you

I'm singing I ask that that's what I sing

I sing I will sing

I will sing the praise of the Reign of

Oh dear my heart is sad and wide

Within your presence I see you need me

The shadow of your face

Better in the one day in your court

Better in the one day in your house

Better in the one day in your court

And that's not fair

Better in the one day in your court

Better in the one day in your house

Better in the one day in your court

And that's not fair

Why I am much higher

For you living I

For you is what I'm full of

Oh dear my heart is sad and wide

Within your presence I see you need me

The shadow of your face

Better in the one day in your court

Better in the one day in your house

Better in the one day in your house

And that's not fair

Why I am much higher

For you living I

For you is what I'm full of

Oh dear my heart is sad and wide

Within your presence I see you need me

The shadow of your face

Better in the one day in your court

And that's not fair

Better in the one day in your court

Better in the one day in your house

And that's not fair

Better in the one day in your court

Better than what they in your heart

Better than what they in your heart

What can I do?

Better than what they in your heart

Alright, we come to that moment in time where we ask ourselves how has the Lord been speaking?

We are deep into our six months emphasis on study

and so if you have not made some kind of plan

if you have not disciplined yourself in some way

remember it is a spiritual discipline

meaning you've made some kind of plan

or some kind of structure for yourself or whatever

and you study when you spend time with your Bible

write something down, make some notes, underline, circle, whatever that is

underlining or circling something is like the minimum

otherwise it is meditation

if you are just thinking about it a lot asking yourself questions about it

or you can pray through it

there is nothing wrong with praying through scripture

but it is study when you are reading something, thinking about it, digesting it

and writing something down

that is when it becomes study

so we are talking about that

and I am going to read, give myself about a minute here

to read a little excerpt from this essay that we have been reading from

give the credit to Mr. Harry Hahn

who is a professor at the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary

I think that is how you say it

but anyway, he wrote this essay about study

and this is one passage here

this is an attitude about study or that you come to your Bible with

and this is what it says

We should not read the Bible merely to gain information

the ultimate goal of Bible study should be that our lives would be changed

it is the doer of the word who is blessed, not the mere hearer

James 1, 22-25

the tone of Psalm 119 reflects an eagerness to learn God's will

so that he may be obeyed in everything

teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes and I shall observe it to the end

Psalm 119, 33

In John 7, 17, Jesus said a remarkable thing to the Jews who were skeptically mocking his claims

If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know of the teaching

whether it is of God or whether I speak from myself

Jesus said that many of those who rejected Jesus' claims to be the Messiah did so

because they were unwilling to obey God

A person who puts restrictions on what he considers acceptable for God to demand of him

runs the risk of being deceived about God's message

he may not see the meaning of the Biblical passage

because accepting the message would demand that he change his life

When you read the Bible you should come with an open and teachable heart

that is willing to do whatever God may ask of you

If your heart is unwilling to obey God, you may find yourself distorting the message of Scripture

to fit what you consider acceptable

Many non-Christians reject the Gospel and various Biblical teachings

not because they don't find them intellectually compelling

but because they don't want to change their lives to meet the demands of Christ on their lives

Similar, many skeptics know a lot about the Bible

but they are not open to being changed in their thinking and actions

They have become prideful in their knowledge, like the Pharisees of Jesus' day

Their unwillingness to accept the truth of Scripture and to obey it

makes them mere hearers who delude themselves

In extreme cases, they may even try to reinterpret the message of the Bible

to fit their preconceived ideas about what is acceptable

When you read the Bible, give your heart to God with a willingness to follow his will wherever that may lead

So that is willingness to obey as an attitude in Bible study

I hope you've been studying your Bible

If you haven't, I should say, you can make yourself right now to do it this week

so you can bring something to share with us out of your study next week, that would be great

What have we got?

What have you seen this week?

What have you heard this week?

What caught your attention? God said, hey, pay attention to that

Don't take it

So, just kind of going off what you were sharing

First I wanted to say is that I used to have a very strong commitment for the Lord

and I had to say that the Lord strongly committed to me first

not because of my commitment

I always like to stay transparent

but because we were supposed to do spiritual discipline studying

that's what I started to do

and I kind of got off the horse but I could get back on

but because of that

God's been really trying to help me with some things

and you get back in the study

God's also been speaking other ways pretty much to get me back on the study

and that's what it is

It's not to keep on doing it but there was a few things that I came across the other day

One was a...

and I hope it's today

I hope there's some video games out there showing me

I'd love to see an old video game that I played years ago

I just felt like God said, you know, no God can say watch the whole thing

but I was supposed to get something out of this game

and this game, like, this guy's all messed up

his reality's messed up

but throughout the whole plot of the story is that he continues on

no matter what

he doesn't stop no matter how bad it is

how bad it goes

how he thinks

he just can't grasp reality because

he's been messed up mentally, like, chemically and balanced

but at the end of the game

he beats it and then he comes to reality

and he starts to see what's really going on

so what I was just sharing is that

the only way that we can continue this race is just to continue

there is no other way

we have to continue on

and our reality will come clear

our conscience will become clear

but it can get shaky sometimes

so being transparent

that's just what I've been dealing with

you know, I've had a hard time studying

and getting stuff

but it's like, all I do is get back on

and we're to tell my readers, the doers of the word

and I was saying the same thing

I just shared this with my daughter

and it was really cool

I just always say that when I'm speaking to my daughter

I feel like God's speaking to her

I feel like God's speaking to me

like, I'm the father

you know, to her

not that I'm the true father

God's speaking to me through her

and I said

let's say you're on a tightrope

like 20 feet up in the air, alright

and there's a net

and I said even if you pursue the whole thing

with the net, tightrope

if you read all this stuff

and you learned it all

I said it doesn't do anything

if you don't actually walk the tightrope

so knowledge is powerful

without trust in doing it

then we're never going to be able to

actually do it

and the reason I'm saying this

when Peter was walking on water

you know, people thought that Jesus calmed the storm

no, that was at war time

the storm was brewing, the waves were rocking

it wasn't like that

Peter was walking on crazy water

he wasn't just walking on crazy waves

rocking the water

he took his focus off God

and looked at the waves

but the idea is that God never calmed the storm that time

God calmed Peter

to walk in water

and so what I'm sharing with you

sharing with me is that when we do what we're supposed to do

when we do what's right

God will calm our hearts

God will give us the peace to do those things

and you know, when we take our focus off

you know, get back in the boat

we try again

but really the only thing you can do is persevere and continue

so what really kind of encouraged me today

is it's just

always the same thing

continue, don't quit

do what God says

and persevere

and someday you'll see the final story

you know, when we see God again

we see Jesus again

we'll see the true reality of all that we've missed

and we'll be home with Him

Amen, Max, good work

I want you to think for just one second

think for a second about what is the measure

what measure will God use

for a Christian to determine

whether or not they have been a Christian

remained a Christian, whatever, throughout their life

there's a single word that occurs in Scripture

and it happens over and over again

it's one measure

and it literally is just faith

that's it

so in other words, it's not what you went through

not even necessarily a decision you made

or how you adjusted when things happened

or did you adjust to the new normal

or you struggled with it for a year or so before you gave in

and said, okay, this is what God's doing

it's faithfulness

will you walk out your walk with Jesus Christ

He wants to stay with you

there's that old poem, remember the poem

Footprints in the Sand

and He says, Lord, I look back at the worst times in my life

and He said, in those times

I see only one set of footprints

You left me at the worst times of my life

and Jesus says, no, you don't understand

those are the times when I carried you

the Lord wants to walk with you

the question is, do you also want to walk with the Lord

and that's going to be the measure

that's what we'll be called for and to

and when we get there

at the end, He's going to say, were you faithful

and you do what you said you would do

what did you say you would do?

you say you would have in this Lord, means He tells you what to do

and you do it, you would have in this Savior

means you let Him be the only payment for your sin

so if you're busy trying to pay for your sins

you're wasting your time, you have one Savior

if you're busy trying to figure out what to do

go straight to Jesus, the easiest way to do that

is to spend time in the Word, because this is God's Holy Word

Holy Spirit inspired

and by the way, this Bible

all 66 books

totally about Jesus

if you don't know what to do when studying

read something in the Bible that you don't know

at least it's a little obscure

and ask yourself, how is this about Jesus

and every time you'll learn something

about Jesus, because it's all about Jesus

even the stuff in the Old Testament

stories of kings that were slain

and the guy got his hair caught in a tree

got hung up, got honey out of the

carcass of a lion

all those stories are all about Jesus

you just got to look and you can see Jesus there

okay, argue

I was thinking about this yesterday

actually last night, because I

got woke up and I couldn't fall back to sleep

but, what is one of the most

powerful things that happen in nature

that you can't see?

I can't see anything

I can't see at all?

yeah

see anything?

yeah, wind

so, last night we had a storm come through

and it got really really windy

yeah

for like a half a second I thought my

ceiling fan was going to fall off because it was shaking so bad

it was really windy

but, I got thinking about it

as I was laying there awake

and I'm like, you know

if something so powerful

can happen

but we can't see it, then imagine what God

needs to do

God, we can't see God

we can't see him face to face, at least not

in heaven

but, God has

that kind of power

to where he can just

make things go away, or make things

appear, I mean

with wind, if you think of it this way, with wind

if you have a tornado

or a hurricane for example, it causes

major destruction

and

you can't see the one

you can't see it coming, all you can see is the effects

it has

and as a Christian, that's how we have to be

we have to be able to

go through our day

and our life

letting people see the effects God has on us

because

we can't see God, we can't

be in his presence

and if anything, I

don't really know if I want to be

because if you look back in the Old Testament, people who did that

died

so, I don't

like, I was like I said, I was

laying there thinking about it, I'm like, you know, that's how

we should be as a Christian, we need to be

I guess, the wind

of the world

to show people

God, because we can't

physically see him, but we can see

the effects that he has

that's a good word, very poetic

we could make a book out of that

alright, anybody else?

Jason

this morning, I need

this picture of the car

God spoke a message to me

when I wrote this picture

ok

he cannot do

he is always there with you

in the name of God

the word of God

ok, so we're going to pray

at this time, and we'll

just have a little more worship

and we have tithes and offerings coming up here in a second

so

make sure that's turned down our offers

ok, so we have tithes and offerings coming up here in a second

and then

a little more worship, kids go to lessons

and we go to the word, I'm excited about today's message

it really spoke to my heart, so I hope you all get some

out of it too, so

we're going to pray at this time, with no warning whatsoever

I'm going to ask Brother Perry Graves, would you pray for us as we transition?

remember the tithes and offerings, you do that?

alright guys, it's coming right now

you know the issues of this church

everyone in, Jason

all the crazy people

you all need to be people, and there you go

teach us to walk by faith

not by our flesh

walk around

and try to get our appetites

and ready to be distracted by the

little lures

that's pretty

a lot of water coming out of your body in Christ

straight into one another

sharp in one another

it will come in your personal face

every one of these days

you must tie this in all things

and

somebody to be appreciative of everything

you do in my life

I love you all, this congregation

you're conscious at all times

just how powerful you are

you have no limits

done

and you know what's going on in the world

I pray that you address those issues

or do the best you can

you're in charge, but it doesn't matter

I just want to say

I love you a lot

I'm going to keep my prayer here

thank you very much

Even though I walk through the belly of the shadow of death

Girl perfect love is passing out freely

Even when I'm lost in the middle of the storms of this life

I won't turn back, I know you are near

And I will fear no evil for our God is with me

And if our God is with me

No man shall I fear

No man shall I fear

Oh no, never let go

Through the storms and through the storm

Oh no, never let go

In every high and every low

Oh no, never let go

Oh Lord, never let go of me

I'm going to be alive next to me for all that goes on

I'm going to slice beyond all compare

And though we can get into trouble

But until that day comes

I'm still dancing for you here on the earth

And I will fear no evil for our God is with me

And if our God is with me

No man shall I fear

No man shall I fear

Oh no, never let go

Through the storms and through the storm

Oh no, never let go

In every high and every low

Oh no, never let go

Oh Lord, never let go of me

And if our God is with me

No man shall I fear

No man shall I fear

Oh Lord, never let go

Until I will fear you

Until I will fear you

Oh Lord, never let go

Through the storms and through the storm

I'm going to be alive next to me for all that goes on

But until that day comes

I'm still dancing for you here on the earth

Oh no, never let go

Through the storms and through the storm

Oh no, never let go

In every high and every low

Oh no, never let go

Oh Lord, never let go

Oh no, never let go

Through the storms and through the storm

Oh no, never let go

In every high and every low

Oh no, never let go

Oh Lord, never let go

The Ten of Touch is the very great, good God's huge universe

We are nothing without him

He has no need for us

He is the good God that we're here or not

whether we love him or not

If he would go to such lengths to reach to us

I'm on the other side of the hill

We can't ignore my name

We can't feel my hurt

Oh my, let the brightest morning star

But show to light the way

For my ever-wondering heart

Not because of who I am

But because of what you've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who you are

I am a flower, three trees fading

With a garden, a house, a farm

A wave, talks in the ocean

A paper, you know it

Tell you I'll catch you when I'm falling

But you catch me when I'm falling

And you talk to know I am

I am you

Who am I?

Let the eyes that see me pretend

To love my meaning in love

And watch me rise again

Who am I?

Let the voice that calls the sea

Call out through the rain

Call the storm in me

Not because of who I am

But because of what you've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who you are

I am a flower, three trees fading

With a garden, a house, a farm

A wave, talks in the ocean

A paper, you know it

Tell you I'll catch you when I'm falling

But you catch me when I'm falling

And you talk to know I am

I am you

I am a flower, three trees fading

With a garden, a house, a farm

A wave, talks in the ocean

A paper, you know it

Tell you I'll catch you when I'm falling

But you catch me when I'm falling

And you talk to know I am

I am you

Amazing Grace

How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost

But now I'm found

Once loved, but now I see

Just grace that taught my heart to fear

Embrace my fears to release

The precious thing that graced the year

The hour I first believed

My chains were gone, everything set free

My God, my Savior, the rest of me

And I am gone, in the blue sea waves

My dancing girl, Amazing Grace

The Lord has promised sure to me

In His word my heart's secure

He will my shield and watch on me

And as long as time can go

My chains are gone, I've been set free

My God, my Savior, the rest of me

And I am gone, in the blue sea waves

My dancing girl, Amazing Grace

My chains are gone, I've been set free

My God, my Savior, the rest of me

And I am gone, in the blue sea waves

My dancing girl, Amazing Grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow

The sun for better to shine

The God who caught me here below

Will be forever mine

Will be forever mine

You are forever mine

Alright, alright, alright.

I really loved that song, Amazing Grace.

When I first heard that remake, and I'm not good at singing songs the first time I hear them

I listen to it like five, six times in a row

Trying to be able to sing along with those little patches in the middle, you know what I'm saying?

That is awesome, and he did such a good job of sort of remaking

What is a classic of our faith and really brought it home to me.

Anyway, I hope you're blessed by it too. I can't find the book in my Bible.

Alright, so a number of times I have been touched by a truth that we are dealing with

And you may not like it, I don't like it, but we deal with it all the time in this world

And that is that as people are walking around, and you know, it's a shameful thing that we didn't talk more about this like during COVID and so on

Not that that's not still going on, but people are walking around suffering for a lack of what are called micronutrients or water literally all the time

Here's a statistic, a few statistics for you

First of all, water, which is the obvious one, 75% of people are dehydrated every day

Now there's a statistic that says that you should drink eight cups of water every day

And a lot of people actually do that, they drink eight cups of water every day, it's really not that hard

But the reality is whenever you drink a caffeine beverage, you actually go behind on your hydration

Because it takes more of your hydration to digest a caffeinated beverage than it does the water content that you get out of it

So let's say you drink eight ounces of coffee or eight ounces of cola

You need like 10 ounces of water in your system to digest the eight ounces of coffee or cola

Because it's caffeinated or carbonated beverages are the same way

And then, so then when you're done, you get less than eight ounces of water out of the coffee

Because it's eight ounces including the water and caffeine and everything that's in it

So you get less than eight ounces out, plus you spent 10 ounces to digest it

So you're actually down four ounces or something like that

So you drink eight ounces of coffee, you're down four ounces

Plus everything caffeinated is what's called a diuretic, which means it takes water out of your system

So if you're a coffee drinker, you're supposed to drink eight ounces of water a day plus one for every cup of coffee you drink

Which really drives the number up

So does the same way, monster drinks all the same way, right?

Anything that's really heavy on sugar, that's just dehydration

The ones that will kind of make it really tough, do you know that it's believed that between 98 and 100 percent

That means all of us, everybody in this room, 98 and 100 percent of the people in the United States of America

And this statistic actually holds true worldwide, are actually low on potassium

They do not get enough potassium in their diet

So last year, the FDA increased the number

Previously it was like 800 milligrams of potassium you're supposed to get in a day

Last year they increased it to 32 to 3500 milligrams of potassium you're supposed to get in a day

So to give you an example, you can get from a banana, if you eat a whole medium sized banana

You can get like three to four hundred milligrams of potassium

So we're talking about, they're saying you're supposed to eat eight, the equivalent of eight bananas a day to make that number

That's a lot, right?

Most people get most of their potassium from potatoes

Potatoes are a huge source, if you eat potatoes, if you can, then you eat potatoes

And by the way, french fries are barely potatoes anymore, so don't really count that

But because most of the potassium in good things, in french fries, get fried out and deep fried in the oil

But if you eat potatoes, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, raw potatoes, I don't know who would do that

But if you eat potatoes, you get a lot of potassium out of them, and that's where most people get it from, right?

So you need it

Also pork, which of course a lot of people don't eat pork, but pork, or can't because of their health

But pork is a great source of potassium

Comes with a lot of fruits and vegetables, give a little bit of potassium and so on

There are others, I'm not going to read them all, but I just want to give you an example

So 98 to 100 percent of people are behind in their potassium

And it's to the point that everyone will eventually suffer health effects from it

You may have health effects that are from not having enough potassium

Magnesium is like that as well, magnesium over 50 percent of all Americans, 52.2 percent of all Americans

Are too low on their magnesium

The problem is with magnesium, there's no telling who's too low and who's not

The first you'll know that you're too low on magnesium is heart problems

Your body actually digests your food and produces magnesium out of it

When they test your blood, it will always read that your magnesium is okay

Because your body will actually suck out of itself, out of your bones, out of your heart muscle, out of wherever it can get it

The magnesium, to keep the level in your blood where it needs to be

Eventually you'll get to the point where you've drained so much of that mineral out of your body

Your body will begin to die in various ways

And people are like, oh, I have this condition

So they go get a medication for the condition, but the condition is really caused by the fact that they don't have enough magnesium

So these are real things, right? Choline is another one

That way you can imagine you hear the coal at the beginning

It has to do a lot with digestion, it also has to do with your heart muscle, it has to do with a lot of things in your body

And 91.7 percent of Americans lack the choline they need to function every day

Is that not crazy?

The reason this is true is because in modern day society we're eating foods that are higher in caloric intake

They have more energy in them, but less nutrients

We're talking just 50 to 60 years ago, Americans were consuming in their diet 10,000 milligrams of potassium a day

10,000

And two years ago, the recommended daily allowance of potassium per day was like 800

And they just raised it to 32 to 3500

You can't even go by the recommended daily allowances of what the Food and Drug Administration is saying you need

Because even those numbers, actually what those recommend, those are like minimums

They're saying the minimum amount that you need to function in this area is this number

Now 32 to 3500 milligrams of potassium in a day

But actually 50, 60 years ago we were eating 10,000 milligrams a day

And people didn't have some of the health concerns they have now

They did have some, don't get me wrong, they still had health concerns, but some did not exist

Once you develop those health concerns because you've lived for 20 to 30 years without that product in your system sufficiently

You can't get rid of them

You can't just start taking magnesium one day and heal your heart problems

But what you can do is you can get the sufficient amount of magnesium to stop further development

New things and problems that are going wrong

So I would encourage you, this is outside the faith, this is not the sermon, I'm not preaching this at you

But I would encourage you to take a look at your diet and so on

And think about are you getting enough of the various things that you need to survive

Water being a huge one, water and potassium

So water governs every fluid system in your body

It affects your blood pressure, affects your muscles, regenerating after you're working out, everything

And potassium governs every water system in your body

Which includes then blood pressure, clearing your lactose, lactic acid in your muscles after work and things like that

So you need water and you need potassium, at least look at those things

Now back on preaching for a second

Because of this illustration we know that it is entirely possible for people to live their lives lacking proper nourishment

Understand? We can live our whole lives, we'll be shorter probably because people develop health concerns

Or maybe with medicine they'll still have the same length as somebody else

But they'll be on 30 medicines for the last 30 years of their life, right?

Point is we're covering it up, we can live without nourishment

However, that is not the design for Christians in the Kingdom of God

Not only should you have proper diet and water and so on

But on top of that there is a spiritual diet that is told of in the Bible that you should have

And if you have it you will be properly nourished

In fact, anybody here ever hope that at the end of their days that they would stand before God and God would say

Well done good and faithful servant?

I'm going to give you the recipe for that statement today in the scripture

And I'll support it biblically

This scripture is called known and nourished

And Paul is writing to Timothy and he is explaining to Timothy how to be known and nourished

Now when I say known, I mean known in the right way, right?

Because God also knows people who are in wickedness and he's chastising them or whatever

Not like that, known in the right way and nourished throughout your Christian journey

So this is not a self-help sermon, it's a God-help sermon

Here we go

So grab your Bibles if you would, maybe hoot, holler, at least the young people, come on, Kishon, you with me, right brother?

You got something in there today?

What do you got?

Alright, here we go, it's 1 Timothy chapter 3

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Thank you, praise God, it is his word

My goal would be that we would do that to the point that we would peek the microphone

Because it is God's word, this marks the moment

Now the truth is we could read this word and God would speak to your heart

But I've done some work and some praying over it and some digesting of certain words

I'm going to make it a little easier, that's my job, just to make it a little easier

And I hope you will get out of it whatever God wants you to get out of it

I've got some things I think God wants you to get out of it

But I could be completely wrong, I'm just a guy, okay?

I'm going to ask today that you put your thinking caps on and go with me into this awesome text of God

Here we go, verse 16, alright?

So 1 Timothy chapter 3 beginning in verse, I'm sorry, verse 14

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

We'll start in verse 14 so we get the whole thought

I am writing these things to you hoping to come to you before long

But in case I am delayed I write so that you may know

How one ought to conduct himself in the household of God

Which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth

That's verses 14 and 15 in one complete sentence

So what he's saying is I want to come, I'm going to come teach you

I'm going to come encourage you, maybe do some laying on our hands

You know, witness some baptisms, whatever, I want to come and do that

But in case I don't do that, now what I'm writing to you is going to show you how you should behave

What your conduct should be like in the household of God

So in the church, what Christians should be like

And don't miss there that phrase, he says that the church of the living God, it is God's church

The church of the living God is the pillar and support of the truth

This is the mission, this is the vision of God for the church

That we would be the pillar and support of the truth

Don't just stand by silently while someone teaches a lie

You are the pillar and support of the truth

And now he's going to tell us in these teachings how we should conduct ourselves in the church

Which God has given the vision and mission of being the pillar and support of the truth

Verse 16, he says, and by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness

And you can stop right there, you could put a period, right

We could all agree, great is the mystery of godliness

Man, there is work to be done, there is learning, there is studying, there is praying

There is walking it out, there is service, there is a lot in becoming godly

As God is growing us, there is a lot in that mystery

However, I want to say to you that in our day, the largest part of the mystery of godliness has been revealed

Which is why it doesn't end with a period

We accept as a whole, as a body, I hope, if not, I'm asking you to get on board with me

That we can accept that the learning of the mystery of godliness is a life long journey

It's progressive, we take step after step, we grow from place to place

Sometimes we have setbacks, sometimes we wander and we're redirected and corrected and chastised by God

Back onto learning the full impact and capabilities of the mystery of godliness

That being said, the majority, the vast majority, 95% of the mystery of godliness has been revealed

So when you sit back and you go, I just don't know God, I just don't know

What you're saying is one of two things, either one, you have not partaken and received the mystery of godliness that has been revealed

You're saying, I don't want it, I can't get it, God, it's just too much for me, it's too hard

You're asking me to perceive and understand something that my mind just, I'm having a hard time

Either that is true or you're actually talking about, when you say I just don't know

You're talking about the 5% that God has not revealed

And that is where we spend the majority of our lives living and growing, in the 5%, I get that

But all the while, if you're saying, I just don't know

For example, if you would say, I don't know what I'm supposed to do in the kingdom of God

I don't know what I'm supposed to do as a church

If right now you say, I don't know what I'm supposed to do

Then I submit to you that you have not absorbed the 95% of the mystery of godliness that God has revealed

Which, here's the beauty of it

He then gives it, it's not a period, it's a colon

He's going to give us the list

I submit to you that my Bible puts it literally as a list

It goes boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, down the list, right?

And then chapter 4 starts

Now if you've been sitting under my teaching for any length of time, you understand

I understand that the chapter divisions are not inspired of God

They did not exist in the original text

There are no chapters in the Greek

There's no punctuation in the Greek

Not like we have

So that wasn't there

So I know that the thought continues right on in chapter 4

And if you didn't get that, notice that the first word in chapter 4 is but

And if I say something and then I say but

For example, if I say to my wife, I know I screwed up, I'm really sorry

But it either disallows everything that came before it

Or it qualifies everything that came before it

And in this case, it qualifies everything that came before it

So it continues into chapter 4 for a little bit, the list does

Even though the rest of it's not in list form

So here we go

We're going to break it down as we go

And then in the conclusion we'll come back and we'll see what we're supposed to do with it

So first of all it says

Great is the mystery of godliness

Here it is

He who was revealed in the flesh

So John was careful to say that if a spirit does not acknowledge that Jesus was revealed in the flesh

Then it is not the spirit of God

That's one of the first testing methods

Jesus was revealed in the flesh

Notice the word revealed

You do know that Jesus was alive in heaven and literally wherever he wanted to be

Before he was born as a baby, right?

He was revealed

John explains in chapter 1 that he was present in creation

And literally nothing was created except that which was created through him

And then later he says that the word of God, the power of God, the spoken word to create of God became flesh

Jesus Christ came and was revealed

He was alive in heaven before he came on earth

He was revealed in the flesh

Next he says he was vindicated in the spirit

Now while Jesus was alive, Jesus was challenged by a lot of folks

There were folks that asked him, argued him aside, the one that we've been waiting for

There were the folks that challenged him and said that he wasn't

There were those who said that the works that he did, he did by Beelzebub

Which is just another name for Satan

So there were those who challenged him

Jesus one day said this, he said, I testify of myself

But if I alone testify of myself, I understand my testimony is not valid

See they had a ruling in court, you had to have at least two people in a degree

And the details had to be exact or otherwise the testimony was not valid

I testify of myself, but I get that you're not going to accept me testifying of myself

I'm a Jewish born man, I know that takes two people

He said, but there is someone else who also testifies of me

And when he testifies of me, I know that his testimony of me is true

And you know who he was talking about, right?

He's talking about the Holy Spirit

And here it says that Jesus was vindicated in the spirit

He was justified, shown to be true and real

He was the one, and that was shown by the Spirit of God

Next it says he was beheld by angels

You know that on the day of Jesus' birth, the shepherds were out in the field

You've heard this story, right? Out in the field

Suddenly there was an angel in the sky, a bright clad individual

Testifying about the birth of Jesus

But as soon as he got their attention, then there was the heavenly host that appeared in the sky

And they began, as we like to think of it, to sing a great song of the birth of Jesus Christ

Who would be the Messiah, the Savior of all mankind

The angels testified of him at his birth, but as his death, right?

When they came looking for Jesus, and there was a white clad individual sitting there

And they said, do you know where my master's body went? Someone must have stolen it

And he says, the one you look for, he's not here

And that angel testifying of Jesus, possibly or probably

Then at the ascension of Jesus, when he went up into the sky, they watched him raise up into the sky

It says a cloud eventually hid him from their sight

And then there were two, it says dazzling clad men

Dazzling, dressed men, dazzling, it means hard to look at

We talked about that a little bit last week when the light is hard to look at

They were there, and they said, why are you looking up into the sky?

He will come again just as he is gone

The angels beheld him, but also understand that there is this truth about Jesus

It is the mystery of godliness that angels longed to look into

Peter says it this way, they longed to look into this for all time and all eternity

Until Jesus came and was revealed, and now he has been beheld by angels

Angels now understand how it is that God is going to forgive people

And let them go to heaven one day despite the fact that they have essentially murdered one another

In their minds, if not actually

So we are so bad to one another as people

How can God be just and allow someone to go to heaven?

That was the question of the angels for all that time

Until Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected and went back and showed it so clearly

And I submit to you maybe explained it very clearly

He was beheld by angels

He was proclaimed among the nations

Paul says it this way, he says that in the day of Jesus' coming

When great joy is visited upon mankind and also great judgment

There will be those who believed our testimony

He has been proclaimed among the nations

That's what we are doing here today to a degree

And that's what we need to be doing every day, seven days a week

Proclaiming the truth about Jesus among the nations

He was believed on in the world

You believed and you received, you are here today and you are a Christian

It's because you believed on Jesus

You accepted the truth about who Jesus was

That he lived a sinless life

Born of a virgin, lived a sinless life

Died a sinner's death to pay for sin, to become sin for us

Then rose again on the third day just as the scriptures had predicted

Not one scripture mind you predicted the truth about Jesus

But hundreds, it's said that if just 40 of the scriptures

That could possibly be fulfilled in one man

That the odds are 1 in 10 to the 23rd power

Whatever that number is

It's the same odds as if you flew a plane over the desert

Dropped a needle or a long grain piece of rice into the desert

Flew home, got a good sleep in your own bed

The next day, flew that plane back to the desert

And found that long grain piece of rice in the desert

It's the same odds, it's impossible

No person could fulfill the prophecies about Jesus

There are reasons to believe that Jesus is who he says he was

And there are reasons to believe and receive and act according to the truth about Jesus

And some have done so

I submit to you that I have done so

There have been days when I failed to do so

It's true even after I did so

But I have believed on Jesus

And I would ask you to do that today if you have not already

And if you have, understand that you're not the only one

He was believed on in the world

And then finally it says he was taken up in glory

They saw him leave

There were witnesses that saw him go up into heaven once forever

And we now know as the Bible teaches that he stands at the right hand of the Father

Where he took his seat in success, if you will

In his proper position, back where he belongs

Now making intercession between us and God

Where that right hand of the cup of wrath is there for us to be poured out for us

He is there to make intercession

He was taken up in glory

Then now we're in chapter 4

Most people would stop there

But chapter 4 actually kind of lumps it together in a beautiful way

It says, but the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit of God

Explicitly, you know what explicitly means?

It means very clearly

So I'm going to say to you

It is time to listen to God now

God, Father in heaven, His Holy Spirit

Wants to speak to your heart

He wants to change you and transform you

And if I explain every one of those words to you

And I say it very boldly and clearly

I will have said it explicitly

The Spirit explicitly says

And by the way, that means if you're listening to God you can't possibly miss it

The Spirit explicitly says

That in later times some will fall away from the faith

Uh oh, that's the other shoe just dropped

All that awesome stuff we just talked about, Jesus

There will be those who fall away from the faith

Those who claim the name of Jesus

But aren't truly for Jesus

They will fall away from the faith

It says they will do so paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons

Boy, that phrase there, doctrines of demons, hits me like a sledgehammer in my chest

Do you not understand that there is a deep teaching

That is embraced by the enemies of God

And they intend to win us over to it

Let me say that again

They intend to win us over to the doctrine of demons

And there will be those who fall away

Those who profess the name of Christ

And they will listen, pay attention to deceitful spirits

Spirits that trick

A spirit that says to you, well somebody really needed

John really needed to hear that sermon today

Are you listening dear?

Are you listening?

Will you change according to what God's word says or will you not?

All the while thinking that other person

Deceitful spirits, they trick and they connive and they're simple

Deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons

And all they did was pay attention

They just paid attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons

The spirit says that there will be those at later times

Who will fall away from the faith

Paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons

By means of hypocrisy

Hypocrisy of liars

Liars that are seared in their own conscience

As with a branding iron

So your conscience is that part of you that sort of tells you what's good to do and what's not

That's true even when you're not saved

It's true when you're saved, it doesn't matter

It's that part of you that says what you should do and what you shouldn't

It's that part of you that says right now you should be focused on what God is saying

It's my conscience, I think this is right

I think I should be doing what God wants me to do

I should be listening to Pastor Dan right now

But more importantly listening to God through the word right now

That's your conscience

The spirit also may say that when your conscience and the spirit come together and agree

It's strong, it's powerful, right?

But here are men who by paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons

They did so by means of hypocrisy of liars

They've seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron

So if you have, if you take a branding iron and you hold it in your hands

What does it do?

Well it burns your hands

If it's hot, right, it'll burn your hand

After you do that, the next time you touch something hot, what does it feel like?

Well if you burn real bad, you may not have much feeling left in your hands anymore

You can lose, you can be desensitized, right?

But if you just kind of burn, actually the next time you touch something hot it might feel hotter

Because your skin is already, the nerve endings are already raw, right?

You touch a searing hot branding iron about 5-10 times, after that you won't feel a thing

My wife can take a hot pan, not literally like cooking hot

But a hot pan off the stove and set it over to the side without burning herself

You're like, nah, that doesn't make any sense

You know why she can do that?

Because she was a kitchen manager and then a general manager at TGI Fridays

And she burnt her hands mildly every day for years

When your conscience is so seared, you no longer really know what's right from wrong

How does it happen?

Well it happens through this equation of hypocrisy

You say, I'm living for the Lord, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing

But right there at the same time you're not noticing the things that you're doing that you're not supposed to be doing

You're intentionally not noticing them

Pretty soon you get so good at not noticing them because your conscience is seared

You've lost your right and wrong, your compass is gone

That hypocrisy of, I'm living for the Lord, but here I'm just kind of paying attention or listening to these other things

I've got these other notions

I know the Bible doesn't say that, but I still think it's true

If you ever have to say the Bible doesn't say that, but I still think it's true

You need to be aware that you could be, it's possible, check yourself, paying attention to a deceitful spirit

I think it's right, the Bible doesn't say it's right, but I think it's right

I've judged to be right

You could be paying attention to a deceitful spirit

Because the deceitful spirit wants in all ways to make you think things are right that are not clearly taught in Scripture

So that later on down the road that will be part of the searing of your conscience

Be very careful under those circumstances

We've got some factors here

We've got you'll fall away by paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons

By means of hypocrisy, this is how they pay attention

By means of hypocrisy, liars seared in their own conscience as with the branding, we're almost done with the text

There's a comma there actually, it says

These are men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods

So they were setting up rules or laws that were not in God's Word

Which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth

So basically they were telling us you can't partake in certain things

The Bible doesn't say you can't, I'm saying you can't

This is not what God would want you to do

You can't partake in certain things that the Bible doesn't say you can't partake in

And actually you can, in fact it goes on to say

Everything created by God is good

And nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude

For it is sanctified or made holy by means of the Word of God and prayer

So if you are walking in the Word doing the things that God wants you to do

You're studying the Word, you're praying to the Lord

It's kind of like a 2 Thessalonians 5, 17 prayer, right?

Where you're praying all the time, praying without ceasing, talking to God all the time

I've heard some people say I'm talking to God all the time

But even some of those people say I'm talking to God all the time

If you really dig in, you see the hypocrisy

They're talking to God all the time

But while they're talking to God, they're doing things they shouldn't be doing

Hypocrisy, because their conscience has been seared

And the danger is that they may fall away from God

Falling into that category

They may forbid certain things and say you can't do that, right?

I've had over the years a number of people try to convince me, for example

To preach that smoking cigarettes is a sin

I've had a number of people try to convince me to preach that smoking cigarettes is a sin

And they said that it would provide strength for those Christians who want to quit smoking

Because they'll think of it as a sin, so they'll be strong and they'll be able to do it

Does the Bible say smoking cigarettes is a sin?

So you'll never hear me preaching smoking cigarettes is a sin

Now, can it be? Absolutely, it can be

At the moment at which God says you have to stop doing something

Or at the moment at which something you're doing interferes with your ability to do what God has called you to do

Either way, when it comes to a stumble, a hurdle, a block, then it becomes sin

And you have to cut it out

It's a problem because it's addictive

Physically, psychologically, and emotionally

And we shouldn't have other masters in our life

But you have to decide in Christ whether that thing has become a master or not

So don't implore me to preach that smoking is a sin

I've had people implore me to preach that drinking is a sin

I'm going to probably step on somebody's toes and hear them go like, I hate drinking

I don't drink

As an early Christian, as I felt called to serve the Lord, I said, I won't do it

In fact, Sherry and I went on a wedding anniversary trip

We stayed in bed and breakfast while we were there

We both sat in the bathtub, don't picture that in your minds

But we're sitting in the bathtub and we're having champagne

And I said to Sherry, I was convicted of my spirit by the Lord

And I said to her, this is the last champagne I'll drink

And she said, why?

And I said, I think as a man of God, this has no place in my life

So it's not that it's a sin, it's not

Not that the Bible says you can't do it, it doesn't say that

I'll never preach that and I've stayed true to that

However, I also have never drunk

And I think you'd be better off if you didn't

But also, there might be a time in your life when you're better off if you did

Grandpa Stewart, Sherry's great grandfather, when he had high blood pressure, high hypertension for a really long time

His doctor prescribed, he said, you can do this

You can take two pills a day, one morning, one at night

You can drink one beer every night before you go to bed, which one do you want to do?

He chuckled and said, I'll take the beer

And he did, for 20 years

And never went on high blood pressure medicine

Now I'm not suggesting you use that, by the way, you need a doctor to prescribe that to you

If you're going to do that

But what I'm saying is, I will never preach that that's a sin

This is what these folks will do

You know why? Because they're looking for a false righteousness

They want to appear good, so they want to say, well I do it this way

Or I'll never do it that way because they want to appear better than somebody else

And then they want to make that thing out to be a command of God and it's sin

So I'm better than you because you're in sin and I'm not

Because of a false righteousness

And the demons love it

It's included in the doctrine of demons

False righteousness

Satan did not rebel against God because he thought he was evil

And wicked and nasty and all that

He rebelled against God because he thought God was wrong

And how can you be God of everything and all creation and be wrong at the same time?

That's why he rebelled against God

Now Satan was wrong, right?

So he wants to lead you to be wrong too

He wants to lead me to be wrong too

It's the doctrine of demons to start to make our own rules

Or to forgive ourselves or to behave hypocritically toward

Let's say it this way

In hypocrisy toward the commands of God

God says do this, I know God says do this and I'm not quitting

But over here I think I'm all that and a big Christian guy too

But I'm not doing what God tells me to do

Here he says everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected

If it is received with gratitude

By the way, no one who's doing that first part will do that

You won't receive it with gratitude

You may pretend to be grateful but you're not really grateful

Otherwise you'd be doing what God called you to do

For it is sanctified, made holy by the means of the word of God and prayer

And our last verse says this

In pointing out these things to the brethren

In other words, this is what we're doing

We're pointing out these things to the brethren

And in doing that you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus

Now that's written in the word of God

Inspired by the Holy Spirit by the Apostle Paul

To the young Christian leader Timothy

If you will share these things with other believers

All that we've been talking about and I'll recap it for you eventually

We're getting there

You will be a good servant of Christ Jesus

Remember I told you before we're through

We'll find out how to get to heaven and hear well done good and faithful servant

There it is

And you will be constantly nourished on the words of faith

And of the sound doctrine which you have been following

Nourished

We were meant to diet on this

Alright, you've heard the text

I've got three kind of key things that I felt like the Lord really wanted me to bring home

And you could probably, you might even do it better

I don't know but these are the things that the Spirit laid heavily on my heart to share

First one is conduct becoming a child of God

The reality is our conduct has been bad

Before we got saved for sure

Even after, our conduct has been bad

Conduct becoming a child of God in the household of God, His church

The church is supposed to be a pillar and a support of the truth in the community

Huh, anybody notice what's happening with the truth in our world right now?

How it's being redefined or faded out or moved to the shadows?

I hear you, I know righteousness, I know honor, I know honesty, all that

But that's all old school man

I'm going to do what I want to do

I'm going to do what I've got to do to survive

Yes, I'm victimizing other people but that's just their truth

They just think it's wrong that I'm doing what I'm doing

It's happening in the world today

Truth is being cannibalized

It's being devoured by falsehood

The deceitful evil spirits have gotten the ear of so many Christians

You thought I was going to say non-Christians

Didn't you?

The deceitful evil spirits have gotten the ear of so many Christians

And they're still following the Lord

I'm a follower of Jesus, I'm going to heaven when I die

Jesus paid for all my sins, this one too

Right?

But they're paying attention

They're just listening

It's just slipping in

With their TV, with their entertainment of all kinds

It's just slipping in

I was talking to my boys yesterday about a podcast

And not a confidential conversation or anything but it was in my living room

So I'm just going to share what we said

We were talking about that and I said, what about this podcast?

I said, is it full of wickedness?

It's got bad stuff in it?

And they said, no

If it had that in it, we wouldn't be listening

And Aaron said to me

I'm going to quote you son, if I get it wrong, correct me, it's okay

He said to me, well, they might cuss one or two times per episode

And I said, well that's not bad

I think that's tolerable, I think you can deal with that

See what happened there?

I have a very high standard

So if I say one to two cuss words might be tolerable in a four hour long or three hour or two hour or whatever long podcast

Then what do you think most Christians' standards are?

What are you watching?

What are you listening to?

Do you pay attention?

In our household we watch movies that are rated PG-13 and below

I watched a movie that was rated PG from 1988 and it literally had full frontal nudity in it

So ratings aren't everything that they're cracked up to be

And I had to not watch

But we only watch movies that are PG-13 and below, that's it

Because we don't want to have to deal with it

You shouldn't be paying attention to those things

So now in PG-13 movies or below you know that regularly sex scenes occur

That show nudity, that would be rated R if they did

But they'll be under the covers together

We don't watch those scenes

In fact, when a scene is developing and it looks like they're headed toward the bedroom

We're groping for the remote, where's that remote?

And we're past it and don't watch it

Why do you watch it?

Do you watch it?

Why do you watch it?

I'll tell you why, because the ministry of deceitful evil spirits is very attractive

It will make you feel like you're okay

It is like sugar or high caloric intake on our physical side

It's good, it's energizing, it makes us feel okay

The next time you're hungry and reach for a ho-ho

You're going to know exactly what I'm talking about

You're going to be like, I'm hungry, I need a snack

Ho-ho, you literally ate nothing of any value for yourself whatsoever

Nothing of any value, but now you're not hungry

It's exactly what's happening

And people, Christians all across the world have begun to say

I don't agree, but it's okay

It's just the way the world is

I'm accepting it

No, we are a pillar of truth

We are the fortitude of the message of God

We are supposed to be delivering it into every context and every situation

Remember the Old Testament?

The tabernacle, huge tent, worship of God, sacrifice in there

The bowl, the bowl, that kind of stuff

I hope you remember a little bit about that

They broke it down to travel as they were wandering in the wilderness

They had it with them, they had God's presence

As they failed to do what they were supposed to do, wandering in the wilderness for 40 years

Boy, we could learn from that

And we don't want that

You know that when the tabernacle moved, there was a marching pattern around the tabernacle

Alright, biblical scholars

Who marched next to the tabernacle as it moved?

Anybody?

Does anybody know?

Okay, challenge you to read it later, but I'll tell you for now

Okay, the Levites

Which side did the Levites march on?

All sides

The Levites marched all around the tabernacle

Between the tabernacle and all the rest of the tribes

Because if they didn't, there was a very real danger that the wrath of God would pour out from the tabernacle

And destroy Israel for their insolence

But God had claimed the Levites as his own, that this is my people

Can I use this language?

These will be my pillar of truth

These will be the people that will stand up between my wrath and the world

That's the church! This is what we're supposed to be doing!

Conduct becoming a child of God and the household of God is standing up as a pillar in support of the truth everywhere we are

Listen, if you don't want to have to talk about Jesus and the truth of God at work, don't go to work

I gotta go to work, I gotta pay my bills

Okay, you gotta go to work and pay your bills, I'm with you, go to work and pay your bills

Now, talk about Jesus while you're there

But I don't feel comfortable doing that

Why? Because you've been listening to deceitful spirits

That are talking to you about how the grace of God will cover the fact that you don't care about the message of God

That's a lie!

The grace of God will not cover the fact that you don't care about the message of God

Because if you don't care about the message of God, you never received the message of God

Conduct of a Christian in the church is taking the gospel to the world

The people that are in your life that you have not talked to about Jesus are going to hell because they don't know Jesus

And you are doing nothing about it

Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father weeping as we watch the story of the church fading away from the world

While the world changes truth

I might lose my job, I might be threatened or persecuted, somebody might get mad at me, they might say something nasty to me

Perhaps it's time we read the story of the crucifixion again

Maybe we need to look again at the verses where it says, when they hate you, don't be surprised, they hated me first

Oh no, but that's our excuse, that's our reason, we don't want them to hate us

Well the servant is not greater than the master

If you cannot deliver the message of Jesus Christ, argue his servant

This is the conduct becoming a child of God in the household of God

That we would stand up for the truth that we would become a barrier between the world and the wrath of God

As long as the church is here and we'll talk about Jesus and we'll deliver the gospel

I was talking to Ariana the other day, she was home from school the one day

She was congested overnight and didn't sleep well

And she says to me, daddy, I want Jesus to come again

I'm tired, I'm ready, when's he coming?

I said well honey, I said, the Bible says he's not slow as some men count slowness

But he is patient with us that all men might come to repentance

People are still getting saved

So probably as long as people are still believing and receiving Christ and getting saved and they're going to go to heaven for eternity

Probably as long as that's true, he's probably not going to come

I don't know that for a fact I can't predict when he's going to come and no one can predict when the last person might hear

But I guarantee you that when the church is gone, if the church is ever gone, when the church is gone

There won't be anybody preaching the gospel, no reason not to start the rest of the process

Now the word says that God will claim for himself a witness after the rapture if you've got the order of events that way

There will be witnesses that come out of the Jewish nation and they will be winning people to Christ

So it's not going to be over even at that point if you believe in the order of events that way

But the bottom line is the church has a job to do today and as long as God is being patient, he is being patient not with lost people

God's not really patient with lost people, I mean he knows the outcome, right?

He's not being patient with lost people, he's being patient with us because we are the pillar of truth in society

Secondly, it says that paying attention to the wrong side will burn your conscience

It's pretty clear about how that happens, we just pay attention

We just pay attention to the deceitful spirits and the doctrine of demons, paying attention

We're going to read one text to make this very clear to us and it is the last text that we will read today

So that does not mean you can put your Bible away because God might lead you to something else

So it's in the book of James and it's in chapter 3, so if you are a follow alonger, and I hope you are

Or a note taker, write that down, James chapter 3, 13 to 18, and this is what it says

James 3 · chapter mention

It says, Who among you is wise and understanding?

Let him show by his good behavior his deeds and the gentleness of wisdom

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth

This wisdom is not that which comes down from above but is earthly, natural, wait for it, demonic

This wisdom is not what comes down from above but is earthly, natural, demonic

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing

That's why you need to announce the humility, that's why you need to recognize that God is all that and you frankly are not

Because if you have jealous feelings, you don't like the way somebody else has something, I don't have it

I don't like what they said, it makes me feel a certain way

If selfish ambition, I want to get ahead, I want to be successful, I want to be recognized or I want to be praised

Or any kind of, I want to benefit me at any time whatsoever, that's selfish ambition

If you want to benefit the kingdom of God, you want to benefit Jesus, you want to benefit other people, that's one thing

But when it's about you and getting ahead for you in any way, shape or form, that's selfish ambition

And according to what he wrote there, James, the brother of Jesus wrote there, that's the doctrine of demons

It's deceitful spirits, has anyone ever said to you, you deserve to be happy?

And when they did, did you pay attention?

If you did, that was a deceitful evil spirit

If you deserve anything good in this life at all, it is by the grace of God delivered unto you that you deserve it

You were a sinner going to hell, that's who you were

You deserved an eternity separated from God, that's what you deserved

That's what every lost person deserves because they are a sinner who will in eternity be separated from God

I'm not going out telling people they're going to hell, that's not my job

That was not on the list, right?

There is a message that we are supposed to be delivering, we already covered it, we'll recap it briefly

But we already covered it, that's not on the list

So we don't go out and tell them, you deserve hell

In fact, if your gospel presentation says that you're a sinner and you deserve hell, your gospel presentation is flawed

You're just trying to scare them into making an emotional decision to escape what is true

Paying attention to the wrong side will burn your conscience

Next to my house I have garbage cans and recycling bins

Even though they don't curbside recycling anymore, but we have a company that's supposed to do it

And they have us put it in blue bags and then they've missed the last couple of weeks

And we still put it in the recycling bins while it's on the side of the house, blah blah blah

Anyway, on the ground from where my recycling bins and garbage cans are

All the way back to the creek is a trail worn in the dirt and in the grass

You can literally see where something small, probably four legged, has been walking for decades

It walks basically the same path that people that mow my lawn, they know it's there

People come to my house, you see it, you're going to see it right now, if you want to go see it

Go after church, don't miss this

The rodent that comes to my garbage has worn a trail

So much so that the trail is still there in the spring after it snows

That's what deceitful evil spirits do

They wear a trail into you

You give a foothold and they just keep coming back again and again

And then you accepted it, you paid attention to it, and so they do it again

And you accepted it, you paid attention to it, you do it again

I'll never do what they tell me to do, I'm not listening, I don't agree

I sit and rail against them in my living room

In fact, I will talk about how cuss words in movies is a sin

In my living room, I'm like, that's sinful

Wait a minute, back up a second

Check yourself, are cuss words in movies a sin?

Show it to me in the Bible

The closest you'll get is that we should focus on the pure, right?

James talks about foul language, foul language is that which offends the listener

Cuss words are not in the Bible, now taking the Lord's name in vain, that's a sin

So if they use that, then you shouldn't be listening, right?

But those cuss words, when you start railing, you're railing against them because they're a sin

Except they're not a sin, what are you doing?

You've bought into the doctrine of demons, right?

What I'm saying to you is, paying attention to the other side opens a pathway into you

and will burn your conscience

There are just two strategies and they're very simple

Number one, you can go to war

I went to a men's conference when I was a young Christian up in Michigan

We had just found our church there, we hadn't joined yet

And they called me up on a Friday and they said, hey, any chance you'd want to go to a conference over

I'm sorry, it was Thursday, tomorrow and Saturday

Sure, I guess, we've got an extra ticket, you can go for free, food's free, transportation's free

You can just ride with us, whatever

And I said, well, I'll call my wife and we worked it out and sure enough I went

And on the way to the conference, my brother Terry Hill was his name, he was in my life group

He was the apprentice shepherd of my life group

He said, you know, I got rid of all my rated-R movies because I don't think that's focusing on the pure

And I don't think it's what God would really want me to do, I'm trying to grow in the Lord

And I was thinking about how I had like 23 rated-R movies in my living room

And the Spirit convicted me and said, you know, if you want to be focusing on the pure, you need to do the same thing

So once he did that, now if I had kept them and continued to watch, that would have been a sin, right?

It wasn't previously, but it would have been, it would have become that because the Spirit convicted me

So I went home and I said to my wife, I said, dear, I know it's going to be hard

But I think we need to get rid of all our rated-R movies

And she went to legalism, she's like, now that sounds like legalism to me

It sounds like you're making rules out of something

I'm not saying it's a sin, I'm just telling you that I was convicted of my spirit that I think we need to do this

And I'm asking you, are you willing?

I said, if not, if you disagree with me, then we'll continue to talk about it, hash it out, we'll figure out

She said, no, what do I care?

But then when we went to go throw away the rated-R movies, like her third favorite and fourth favorite movie of all time

Were in there and there was a little bit more hesitation, but we did

And then in the end we did keep one movie which has a great biblical message to it, which is The Patriot

Which is rated-R, it's a war movie

And, it's a good movie, yep

And so the point is, you can go to war

Go in your house when you're done with church today, walk in there and find everything, root it out, search for it

Find everything that speaks these deceitful, evil spirit messages

Find everything that's demon doctrine and get rid of it all, root it out, get rid of it

You can do that, that is one strategy

The other strategy is to dismiss it out of hand in favor of the truth

And say, yep, it's pretty much always going to be realized that to really get rid of it, you'd have to get rid of commercials

And if you watch streaming now, some streaming has commercials

You'd probably have to get rid of most movies because it's in there, it's all in there

And so you can, every time you detect it, you can dismiss it out of hand in favor of the truth

And say, we're watching a movie and we see something and I'll say, that's not the truth

Ariana likes the new Disney movie Encanto a lot and it's a good movie, it is

It's got a great message to it, not expressly a biblical message but a very good message about how everybody is valuable

And definitely not a Christian message but nothing that's expressly anti-Christian

And so I'm watching it and there was something where they said something and I said, that's not the truth

And she goes, oh, I know it's not the truth, I just ignore that part

That's a strategy you can use

Now, if someone else is watching it with somebody else and it pops up and you just ignore it

And they absorb it, you are not behaving as a pillar of truth, right?

So now be careful about dismissing the untruths or dismissing the deceitful evil spirits

So that you don't get so used to it that you forget to stand up when you're supposed to

But either one of those tactics work

Paying attention to the wrong side will burn your conscience

And then there's the third thing

There's a good verdict and nourishment in pointing out these things

It does not say in believing these things

It does not say living these things

It does not say accepting them as true and allowing them to affect your other thought processes

It doesn't say accepting them as true and praying the sinner's prayer

It says there is a good verdict

You will be a good servant of Jesus Christ, that's a good verdict

And it says there will be nourishment

You will be nourished by the words of the faith and the sound doctrine which you have been following

You will be nourished, that means built up from the inside, you will have what you need

By pointing out these things to the brethren

First of all, this verse says if you're a Christian and you don't have a church

You will never be properly nourished

Because you have to be pointing out these things to the brethren in order to be nourished by the words of faith

That's what it says

Secondly, it says every time you point it out to somebody else

You're going to get a meal out of it

It's going to be a blessing to you, it's going to heal you

It's going to provide the nourishment that you need to grow as a Christian and so on

Malnourishment is not really hunger, but it's the lack of the right thing

So could it be that the church is spiritually malnourished because instead of feeding on

Telling these things, proclaiming these things to the brethren

We're feeding on enjoying the encouragement, the positive feeling we get out of worship

The fact that we have brothers and sisters of fellowship because we want others to encourage us

Because we gave and we know we did the right thing, because we served and we know we did the right things

We exercise our Holy Spirit, gift, whatever that might be, and God gives us that little pat on the back

So we're living all of those things, but we're malnourished

They're good things

If for the next month all you eat is apples, you'll probably be in the hospital in less than 30 days

Because while an apple is a wonderful thing and they say it keeps the doctor away

It does not have everything in it that you need to survive on

If all you do is eat vitamins and water

You could get enough vitamins to cover all of those deficiencies that I listed

And enough water to cover your water intake and you still will not be healthy

Because you need protein to build muscle, and that's not a vitamin

The point is, there is a good verdict and nourishment in the pointing out of these things

The verdict would be enough

We all want to stand before Jesus and receive that well done, good, and faithful servant

That's what I want

That would be enough for me

I would live my life malnourished in order to arrive in front of Jesus and have Him hug on me and say you did a good job

Heck yeah!

But it doesn't only promise the good verdict, it also promises the nourishment, the building up of our spirits

The cleansing of our hearts, the strengthening of our faith, the growth of us as people as we are nourished by the words of faith

That brings us to the conclusion

Great is the mystery of godliness

There is much to be learned

But that statement is the start of a summary

And the points of the summary are this

Jesus was revealed in the flesh

When is the last time you told somebody that Jesus came in the flesh?

They say, well all the people I hang out with, they already know that

It said tell it to the brethren, theoretically all the brethren know that

So you can tell it to the people who already know that and be nourished

We should be saying that

Jesus was revealed in the flesh

Talk about His life, His death, His burial

He was vindicated by the Holy Spirit, God's Holy Spirit testified about Him while He was alive

He was seen by angels

Every Christmas we do the story of the proclamation of His birth

And every Easter we do the story of the proclamation of His resurrection

But it's our job to be sharing that with each other all year round

Or otherwise we'll be malnourished

He was proclaimed among the nations

Many different people groups heard the story and on Pentecost many of them heard it in their own language

Spoken from people who didn't speak their language

Clearly God's goal to proclaim the truth of Jesus to the nations

And while we should be proclaiming it, we should be reminding each other to proclaim it

He was believed on in the world, we should be explaining to people that people have believed

There are people in our church that have believed

There are people outside of our church that have believed, there are people in other churches that have believed

That's a message that we deliver to one another

Taken up in glory, Jesus went to be in heaven

We know where He is now in some sort of physical way

But He's also in our hearts in a very spiritual way

He was taken up in glory

But it doesn't stop there, the Spirit says we should be proclaiming to the brethren that in later times some will fall away

Seared in their consciences

Their hypocrisy made it possible

They were just paying attention and listening to the deceitful evil spirits and the demonic doctrines

We should explain to the brethren that false righteousness is real

When someone comes to you and tries to say I know what's right

And they can't support it by specific scripture that says the same thing they're saying

Then you should be saying, okay I get you, but we have to be careful

Because it's really easy to get into false righteousness where we say that we know that we're right

The Holy Spirit told you you shouldn't drink, doesn't mean that you can tell everybody else they shouldn't drink

The Holy Spirit told you something's true, doesn't mean you can tell everybody else that it's true

Unless the Holy Spirit told you to go and tell everybody else it's true, in which case you have to do so

But they still have to come to it themselves

Two left, every food created by God is good if received with gratitude

Things can be sanctified by means of the word and prayer

If you're not sure, I had this happen Thursday morning

In fact it happened two weeks in a row, that's what made me pay attention to it

I finished my Bible study and I had some notifications on my phone

And one of the notifications was from email and I'm waiting for an email that's of a personal nature

And not of a business nature, and I'm not supposed to do business on Thursday

Because that's my Sabbath so I wasn't going to do business

So this is what I said, I went to open the email notification

And I said, Lord, guard my heart, protect me right now

Don't let me be tempted to get into anything that might be in my email that has to do with ministry

Or has to do with my job, or something like that

Unless you really want me to pay attention to it because it's an ox in a ditch

I'm not supposed to do that, so Lord, guard my heart

And I went in there and I saw something that was of work nature and I didn't open it

Following Thursday the same thing happened and that's why I paid attention to it

And you can say to God, God, I need you to protect me in this situation

I need you to help me say the right thing

I need you to help me be a clean servant here and now

I know I'm not worthy of it

If you think you've gotten to the point where you're worthy and you're always a clean servant of God

You've got a pride arrogance problem

So you say, now I'm not worthy of it Lord, but I'm asking you to right now work in me

Help me say the right thing, help me only hear what I'm supposed to hear

Help me only be what I'm supposed to be

Things can be sanctified by means of the word and prayer

And we should be telling each other that and other Christians

That's the message, it's part of the message

That when we proclaim it, we will be nourished and have a good report before God

Last one, we can be justified and constantly nourished on the words of the faith

By pointing out these things to one another

You see, it's full circle

We should be telling each other that we can be justified before God

And constantly nourished by proclaiming these things

Including that we can be justified before God and nourished by proclaiming these things

This is the song that never ends

Somebody started singing it not knowing what it was

But this is the song that never ends

And somebody started singing it not knowing what it was

If we would just proclaim these truths including the fact that we need to proclaim these truths to one another

In order to be nourished, in order to be justified before God

If we would proclaim the truth that we need to proclaim the truth

That we need to proclaim the truth

We probably wouldn't have time to be talking about all that much else, would we?

So if you've spent quite a bit of time lately talking about something else other than these things

Maybe you're dealing with hypocrisy or maybe you're dealing with deceitful evil spirits

And you're not following them but you're just paying attention or letting them be there

Or maybe you're dealing with the doctrine of demons

And it's time to say, I've got things I'm supposed to be saying

I've got a message I'm supposed to be delivering

And until I am delivering that message on a regular basis

I'm always going to be malnourished

Even if you take the Word of God another way

You're always going to be malnourished because this is the way that we will be nourished

This is the way that we will have a good report before the Lord

Will you commit yourself?

You have the reference now, if you need to memorize it, memorize it

What is the message? It's really not hard

Great is the mystery of godliness, Jesus was revealed in the flesh, he was vindicated by the Spirit

He was seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the earth, taken up in glory

But there will be those who fall away, especially through false righteousness

Everything created by God is good and things can be cleansed by Word and prayer

And we can be justified before God and constantly nourished by the words of faith if we will just proclaim these things

I didn't write it, but I'm calling us to believe it

I want to believe it

I would challenge you to make this commitment, and it's a biggie, it's really biggie

I would challenge you to make this commitment

That you will never have an at-length conversation with a Christian again

Without sharing a minimum of one of those points

You wouldn't say I'm going to go a day without eating, unless you were fasting of course, right?

So why would you go a day malnourished in your spirit when you now know the recipe for nourishment?

I ask the praise team to come forward at this time, we're going to have a closing hymn

Song of invitation, I ask you to respond as the Lord might lead in your heart

If you're here today, you've not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior in earnest

You need to do that now and be saved

If you're here today and you have, if you realize you have literally been paying attention to evil spirits

Allowing that doctrine of demon where you think you make up things that are wrong

And that's what you say is sin, but there's other sins that you're allowing to like, that's hypocrisy

Repent, repent and turn to God and say this will be the message of the church, this will be the message of my life

This is what I will take with me everywhere I go

And I'm doing it, I'm the first person

I hope I will always have some aspect of what we just talked about in every conversation

Would you stand with me and sing this song as the Lord's writing something on your heart and you respond

Song of invitation, I ask you to respond as the Lord might lead in your heart

You've been listening to New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo

And we hope that you're reaching New Heights in Jesus with us today