The Model Life: Adoration, Part 9

I have had the the wonderful privilege of of being a pastor

now for over over 40 years. 31 of those years I've been here at

Christ Community Church and looking at the church around the

world, I believe there there are three major issues that the

church faces every week, three issues that need to be dealt

with in the church. The first issue is the

unconverted among us. Churches across our country are

filled with unconverted people. We know that because the Bible's

very replete with all kinds of testimony as to how the evil 1

sows the tares among the wheat. Satan is a master at disguising

that which is false in a way that makes it look like it's

true. And so Satan is a master at

deception. He disguises himself as an Angel

of light and he does all he can to disrupt the harmony and unity

of the Church. And Jesus tells us that one of

the ways he does that is that he sows the the tares, the the

unconverted among the converted. And Jesus says that they look so

much like that which is true that you can't distinguish them

until the end of the age, and then all will be revealed.

There will always be Judases among the disciples, there will

always be demises among the church.

People who are deceptive, people are who are good at

masquerading, people are good at pretending.

And so the Bible warns us about that.

That's why the series on on Wednesday night is just so

incredibly crucial to the church.

What really is a true Christian and am I truly genuine?

Am I truly born again? Throughout the the 80s and 90's,

the secret sensitive movements swept the church and

entertainment replaced enlightenment, the theatrical

replaced the theological, and that movement did all it could

to bring in the unbeliever to the church.

The church is not designed for unbelievers, it's only designed

for believers. But the movement would bring all

kinds of unbelievers into the church.

The church became more and more like the world.

The music became like that of the world, the preaching became

like that of the world. More stories than the true story

of of the Christ, more personal illustrations about the pastor

instead of the true illustrations about, about the

Lord. And so all these unconverted

people felt very comfortable coming to church.

The unconverted should never be comfortable in church.

They should be so out of place that they either repent and turn

from their sin, or they just leave.

But the church is not for the unconverted.

The church consists of those who have been called out by God to

worship Him and to honor Him and to glorify His precious name.

And yet that is a major issue facing the church, the

unconverted among us. That the second issue that that

faces the church that I think is also a a major problem.

And that is the undisciplined around us, the unconverted among

us and the undisciplined around us.

That the church has become very flabby, spiritually flabby.

Have you ever noticed that I, I had a grandmother growing up,

like most of you have grandmothers and she was very,

very heavy and she had so much excess weight on her arms that

as children, grandchildren, we will go up and just flap the

flab on the end of her arms. And she would laugh and we would

laugh and just have a grand old time.

She was a master at cooking all kinds of food.

And the more she cooked, the bigger she she became and and

the more flabby she was. And so we would just play with

the fat on her arms. She would laugh, we would laugh,

and that would be funny. But it's not funny when it's in

the church. It's not funny when we become

spiritually flabby. We need to be spiritually strong

in the church. But because we're so

undisciplined and the Bible says we are to discipline ourselves

unto godliness, First Timothy chapter 4 verses 7:00 and 8:00,

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

that that bodily exercise profiteth little.

But godliness profits for all things, because it profits for

not only this life, but the life to come.

Paul tells Timothy and Second Timothy chapter 1 and verse #7

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

God has given us the spirit of discipline and yet we are so

undisciplined. We are out of control.

We're not in control of our faculties, our minds, our

thoughts, our words. The the discipline of Scripture,

the discipline of supplication, the discipline of silence and

solitude, the discipline of surrender and self denial, the

discipline of a steadfast heart and submission are are alien to

most people. And we find ourselves hardly at

all exercising our spiritual faculties that we might somehow

be in tune with with the God we say we serve.

Paul and 2nd Thessalonians 3 verse #11 said these words he

said. For we hear that some among you

are leading an undisciplined life today.

I wonder what Paul would say about the church, because the

church has become more and more undisciplined.

And that's not a good thing. That's a bad thing.

And that needs to be dealt with in each of our own personal

lives. So you, you have the unconverted

among us. You, you have the undisciplined

around us. And here is the the third major

issue facing the church, and that is you have the

undiscerning amidst us, the undiscerning people that are

unable to discern between that which is true and that which is

false, people that are unable to discern God's way from every

other way. That is a a major issue in the

church. Discernment is a word that

describes that which is black and that which is white.

Discerning people don't live in the in the nebulous area of the

Gray, but so much in the church today, we live in that realm of

grayness. We don't want to come up on this

side or that side. We want to tolerate all kinds of

things in the church in our own lives.

We don't want to be too hard to the right.

We don't want to be too soft to the left.

So we kind of settled in between and we begin to compromise.

Compromise our purity, compromise our doctrine,

compromise our lives simply because we live in the realm of

the undiscerning, Discerning people are those who truly make

a clear distinction in their minds between what is right and

what is wrong. And that's where Paul comes in,

in verses 19 and 20, or, excuse me, verses 20 and 21 of our text

in First Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

When he says these words, examine everything carefully.

Hold fast to that which is good and abstain from every form of

evil. Did that 2 verses describe what

is not happening in the church today?

We need to be discerning people. And so Paul is concerned about

this. In fact, he was so concerned

about it. Listen to what he says to the

church at Corinth in Second Corinthians Chapter 11.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

In fact, if you got your Bible, you can turn there with me if

you would. Second Corinthians Chapter 11.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

This is Paul's attitude toward the church, not just the church

at Corinth, but every church, which should also be the

attitude of every pastor of his church.

He says in verse #2 I am jealous for you with the godly jealousy,

for I betrothed you to one husband, so that the Christ I

might present you as a pure virgin.

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his

craftiness, your minds will be LED astray from the simplicity

and purity of devotion to Christ.

Ever since the fall of man, Satan has been actively involved

in deception, and Paul was concerned about those in Corinth

that they would be deceived as Eve was deceived.

And every false teacher, every false preacher, always masters

Satan's deception. For Satan would portray the

truth as error and then offer error as truth.

And that's what false teachers do.

Satan would say back in Genesis chapter 3 these words, You shall

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

not surely die just because God said that if you eat of this one

tree, you will die. Surely, surely he was mistaken.

Surely God LED you astray. Surely God really didn't mean

what he said, that you would die if you ate of the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil. And so he would take the truth

and make you believe it was error, and then he would take

error and make you believe it was true.

And he would say these words. For your eyes will surely be

open, and you will be like God, the master deceiver.

He takes that which is true and paints it as error, then takes

that which is error and convinces you that it's true.

Who doesn't want to be like God? I mean, come on, if that's the

case, why not eat? And so they did and plunged the

human race, the world and the universe into sin.

That's how Satan operates. He's a master at deception.

His counsel seems to be perfect, but it was so detrimental to

them. So Paul says, I'm afraid that as

a serpent deceived Eve, so you too would fall into that same

category. Now he's writing to the church.

He's not writing to somebody from the Kiwanis Club, somebody

from the YMCA, somebody from your your school.

He's writing to the church. Now listen to what he says next.

This is very, very important, for if one comes and preaches

another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a

different spirit which you have not received, or a different

gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this

beautifully. What an indictment of the

church. Someone comes and they present

to you another gospel. They present to you another

spirit and another Jesus. You know what you do, you

embrace it, you accept it as beautiful.

You say, well, this is this is pretty good.

This is OK. And you fall into this

deception, you, you begin to tolerate evil.

You tolerate another gospel, you tolerate another Jesus.

And it's OK that that is an undiscerning church.

That's the problem. And that is the problem in the

church across America and around the world.

It's filled with people who are undiscerning and they hear

something being preached. They say, well, that's, that's

OK. I, I understand that.

I, I can agree with that. And they begin to accept it for

what it is. And all the while they are being

deceived by the evil. 1 So Paul says, For I consider myself not

in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles, but even

if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge.

In fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all

things, he says, Listen, I might not be the most eloquent guy

around. I might not be the best

communicator around. I might not speak like other

people speak, but I do know this.

I have the knowledge that gave you a firm foundation of what it

is you are to believe. And yet you have set that aside

and you've accepted error for truth.

And that is a problem. And that's the problem facing

every church in America today. The risk of wandering from the

truth is huge. The risk of becoming confused.

Confused is on the rise in the church simply because we don't

examine everything carefully. Everything.

And the word that Paul uses in First Thessalonians 5 is the

word doki matzo. It's a word that means to

analyze. It's the word that means to

scrutinize. It's the word that means to test

and to prove. It's a word of examination.

Prove everything. Analyze every word, scrutinize

every element, everything. Bring every thought.

Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 10. Every thought into captivity to

Christ, to the obedience to Christ, every thought that you

have, bring it under subjection to the obedience of Christ.

Here he says examine everything, analyze, scrutinize, test,

prove, put under the microscope every word, every situation,

everything and do it carefully. Now remember we're looking at

the model life and the model life is 1 of adoration.

The model life adores their God. So they are joyful, prayerful

and thankful. And what they don't do is they

don't quench the Spirit and they do not despise, disregard or dis

esteem any prophetic utterance, anything that comes from the

revelation of God. And on the other hand, they

examine everything that comes from the revelation of God.

They examine it carefully, they scrutinize it, they make sure

that what is being preached, what is being said, what is

being lived is in accordance with truth, because truth is

that which matters. So in other words, Paul says

this, I want you to live a model life.

And in order to live a model life, you must be judging

everything. Now I know in today's.

Vernacular. That's a bad word.

Judge who? Who are we to judge?

Anything or anyone in fact, someone will say, and you've got

on your mind right now the Bible says we are not to judge, lest

you 2 be judged. I love it when people say that

because that tells you that they are undiscerning and not

discerning. That tells you that they are in

error and not in truth. How do we know that?

We'll turn back to Matthew 7 because that's where the the

verse is, right? Jesus talks about it and the

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7 verse #1 Do not judge so that

you will not be judged. See, I'm not going to judge

somebody. I'm not going to judge what was

said. I'm not going to judge what they

do lest I2 be judged. That's not what Jesus is saying.

Jesus isn't throwing out all biblical judgment.

I'll show you that in a moment. That's the way He says, for the

way you judge, you will be judged and by your standard of

measure, it will be measured to you.

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye

but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck

out of your eye and behold, the log is in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and

then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your

brother's eye. So in the very last verse, Jesus

affirms judgment in the same way.

He says do not judge, but yet he says you need to judge.

And you're going to do that first of all by taking the log

out of your own eye so that you can discern the speck in someone

else's eye. So in the same context, he tells

you not to judge. He tells you to judge, to

examine, to scrutinize, to analyze.

Remember, he's talking about the religious establishment, the

Pharisees, who are judging people by a standard that they

themselves did not and would not keep.

That's hypocritical judgement. That's hypocritical scrutiny.

That's what he he condemns, but he does affirm judgement based

on what is said, if first of all, you are willing to take

that which is in your own eye out so you can see clearly, to

actually help the other person who has a speck in his eye.

Very, very important note this. We cannot judge people's

attitudes and motives. We cannot examine people's

attitudes and motives. God does that.

Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4 verse #5 or First Corinthians 4

verse #5 that He will expose one day every man's motives.

God sees the heart. He judges the heart.

He does all of that. But listen to what Jesus says in

John 724. Judge with righteous judgement.

You are to judge with righteous judgment.

There is a standard, a statement by which everyone is called to

live by. And that standard is God's

standard. It's a righteous standard.

And so you, you examine everything according to the

righteous standard of God, Not your standard, but God's

standard, the word of God that is truthful, the word of God

that is unalterable, the word of God that always stands supreme

and sufficient. Judge with righteous judgement.

1st Corinthians 1015 Paul says like every preacher should say,

judge what I say, judge what I say, put what I say under the

microscope. Like the Bereans in Acts 1711,

they wanted to test and prove everything, to see whether or

not what was said was true or not.

They'd examined everything, and that's the way it should be.

Those who truly live a life of integrity are always open to be

examined. Those who do not live a life of

integrity do not want to be examined.

They don't want to be held into account.

But those who live a life of an honesty and integrity and

purity, they want to be held under the microscope because

there's a standard by which they are to live their lives and they

want to be held to that standard.

So Paul says, judge what I say. The Bible also says that you are

to judge acts of sin. Did you know that Paul says this

over in First Corinthians 5 verse #12 He says for what have

I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are

within the church, but those who are outside?

God judges. So remove the wicked man from

among yourselves. He was talking about a man who

had committed sex sins with his mother.

He says we don't judge those on the outside, but we do judge

those on the inside, those who commit acts of sin, those who

live disobediently to the Word of God.

Those people need to be scrutinized.

They need to be held to the biblical standard of purity and

holiness because we are a holy body, we are a holy church.

We serve a holy God. And if we are to represent a

holy God to a unholy world, we can't do it living unholy lives.

We must live holy lives. And so if there's someone among

you who's living in sin, that needs to be confronted, that

needs to be dealt with. That's what Matthew 18 is all

about. Matthew 18, the first

instruction given to the church is all about judging sin.

In the church. Your brother sins.

You go to your brother, he repents you on him.

If he doesn't repent, you take two or three witnesses with you.

Why? To win your brother.

You wouldn't have went into a place of repentance.

If that doesn't work, you tell it to the church.

So why? The church can go after him,

plead and beg with him to repent.

If they don't repent, you treat him as what?

A tax gatherer and a Gentile. You treat him as if he's an

unbeliever because he hasn't repented.

See that's that's examining everything carefully.

So important. But the church today doesn't

want to do that. We don't want to be involved in

those kinds of things. The Bible says you're to judge

yourself. We're going to partake at the

Lord's table here in a minute. First Corinthians 11 says let a

man examine himself before he eats and drinks of the of the

Lord's table so that he doesn't eat and drink in an unworthy

manner. But because we are an

undiscerning people, we tend not to look at our lives and examine

them under the microscope of the authority of God's holy Word.

So we refrain from any kind of examination in context of First

Thessalonians 5. We're not to despise or look

down upon prophetic utterances, but we are to examine everything

that's said. Everything is spoken under the

guise of God's holy Word and you hold fast to that which is good.

You, You grip that which is good.

You, you, you cling to that which is good.

But you, you abstain from every form of evil.

Same word used in First Thessalonians 4 where you are to

abstain from sexual immorality. You don't abstain every once in

a while, you abstain completely. Same is true here.

You don't abstain every once in a while from that which is

wrong, you abstain completely from it.

You shun evil, not just evil behavior, but evil beliefs,

because belief always determines behavior, right?

What I believe to be true is how I live my life.

And so when you are examining evil behavior, you're really

examining people's evil beliefs because it goes contrary to the

authority of God's holy Word. So Paul comes along and says,

look, you want to live a model life.

You want to live the life that that that exemplifies Christ.

Then you need to make sure you examine everything carefully.

Every word that's spoken, every conversation that you have,

every thought that goes across your mind, everything.

Then say examine some things every once in awhile or it's

good that when you come to church you live a life of

examination. He says examine everything

carefully and if it's evil, abstain.

If it's wrong, abstain. If it's good, hold on to it,

cling to it, never let it go, embrace it because if it's good,

it comes from a God who is good. There was so much to say about

this. I, I don't have the time to do

it, but, but just let me give you 7 words, OK, 7 words.

I like to say 7 words in 7 minutes, but that's a little far

reaching. But 7 words that will help you

in the arena of discernment. Number one is caution.

Caution. We, we have thrown caution to

the wind at church. We just accept everything.

I mean, after all, it's church. Why wouldn't we believe what the

preacher says? Why would we think that

someone's unconverted? Why would we think that someone

among us is undisciplined? We just accept the fact that

we're all going to church. We all love Jesus and

everything's good. But there's, there's, there's

caution that must always take place.

We assume because our children are good that whatever they,

they, they watch on television or watch on their phone is good.

We, we assume that, that our children's social media is above

board. We, we just assume instead of

examining our child's social media, instead of examining what

our children are doing, we just assume that's going to be OK.

We're very undiscerning. Most parents are asleep at the

wheel. Most parents are not in tune

with what's happening with their children.

And as they get older, we just assume that they're going to be

walking with Jesus. They're going to love Jesus.

Things are going to be good. I mean, after all, they're going

to church. Yeah, but what church are they

going to see? Do you examine that?

Do you scrutinize that? Do you analyze that?

If you examine everything, you got to scrutinize the church

your kids go to. But you see, as parents, we just

tend, well, at least they're in church.

See that that's just that's just so wrong.

At least they're in church. What church?

Where are they going? What are they hearing?

Are they growing? What's happening?

You see what we just so caution to the wind and therefore we're

we're not a tune with with what's happening not only in our

families, but in our churches as well.

We just live lives so indiscriminately.

We let so many things just fly under the radar and we just let

things go. Told you before, as as parents,

we are not helicopters, we are fighter jets.

And if you're not a fighter jet as a parent, you're just a

helicopter hovering around doing absolutely no good to anybody.

You need to fight for your children's purity, fight for

your children's marriages, fight for your children's personal

lifestyle and help them understand the truth.

That's that's God's truth and they live need to live by in

order to be discerning. The first word is caution.

You need to live a cautious lifestyle.

You need to be aware of what's happening around you, what's

happening in your family, what's happening with your children,

because if you're not, then you're going to live an

undiscerning life. You won't be able to decipher

between that which is good and that which is which is wrong,

that which is truth, and that which is error.

And you need to know these things.

First word is caution. The second word is compulsion.

There's this compelling drive for discernment.

Listen to what Solomon says. He says if you cry for

discernment, lift your voice for understanding.

If you seek her as silver and search for her As for a hidden

treasure, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and

discover the knowledge of the of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and

understanding that there is this compelling drive to learn

discernment. Lord, I want to be a discerning

person. I want to know truth from error,

right from wrong, good from best.

I want to know those things. I don't want to be asleep at the

wheel. So you cry out to God for

discernment, and from God comes wisdom and knowledge.

From the Word of God comes everything you need to make wise

choices. But there's got to be this

compelling Dr. this compulsion to learn it, because if not,

then you won't. It comes back to the

undisciplined life, doesn't it? It's a discipline.

Requires work. Requires Dr. Requires intensity.

Requires tenacity, requires passion.

There's this compulsion that drives me to learn discernment

so that I can help my family. I can lead my family.

I can tell my children this is wrong.

You got to be able to tell your children, no, you cannot date

the unbeliever. You cannot do that because the

Bible says you cannot be unequally yoked together and you

got to be careful that your emotions fall into this thing.

Once you start dating the unbeliever and you become or you

fall in love with that unbeliever and you marry that

unbeliever, it goes against God's command.

You cannot do that. So you cut it off before it ever

begins. That's a discerning parent.

That's a, that's a fighter jet parent.

A helicopter parent says, well, you know, if that, you know,

whatever makes you feel good, if it feels good, that's OK.

You know, we want you to be happy.

No, no, no, no. You want them to be holy.

We're so concerned about their happiness.

Oh, but they're getting up in here at the 333435.

We don't want them to be single forever, so it's OK.

Better be single forever then marry the wrong one because then

you'd be miserable forever. That's always a heartache.

So there's this caution, there's this compulsion that takes place

that drives me to the Scriptures to learn discernment #3 and that

is that is, oh, by the way, this was Solomon's cry.

Remember, God said, ask me what you wish and I will give it to

you. You imagine God coming to you

and saying, ask me whatever you want, I'll give it to you.

What would you say? Solomon says I need discernment

so I can I can, I need wisdom so I can discern between that which

is right and wrong among the people of God.

And God was so pleased that Solomon asked that that he gave

him so much more other things, that Solomon became the wisest

man whoever lived, and God used him mightily.

James says if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask.

That's a compulsive desire like Solomon had.

But. But here's the caveat to this.

Once there's a caution, once there's a compulsion, there must

#3 be a capitulation. That is, that you must submit

and obey everything that God says.

Because we come to a place where we cry for discernment and God

gives wisdom and knowledge and we begin to read and study and

understand the word of God. And then it comes across

something that we just don't necessarily like or agree with,

and we think that somehow God is wrong.

So there must be a capitulation, a complete undying submission to

everything that God says. Why?

Because the wisest man, whoever lived, didn't do that.

Listen to what the Bible says in First Kings 11.

First Kings 3, Solomon cries for discernment.

God gives it to him. But the First Kings 11 it says

this. Now King Solomon loved many

foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite,

Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite, women from the nations

concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel.

You should not associate with them, nor shall they associate

with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their

gods. Solomon held fast to these in

love. He had 700 wives, princesses and

300 concubines. And his wives turned his heart

away, for when Stalin was old, his wives turned his heart away

after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the

Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

Solomon did what was evil inside the Lord, and did not follow the

Lord fully as David his father had done.

Then Solomon built a high place for chemist, the detestable idol

of Moab on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, which by the

way is Mount of Olives, and for Moab the detestable idol of the

sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his

four wives, who bird, incense and sacrifice to their idols.

Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had

turned, turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had

appeared to him twice, and it commanded him concerning his

this thing. They should not go after other

gods. But he did not observe what the

Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon,

Because you have done this and you have not kept my covenant

and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely

tear the Kingdom from you and give it to your servants.

What a devastation. You see, he valued something

more than God. He wasn't willing to submit and

capitulate to the commandments of God because because he, his

heart was turned, he found something more appealing to him,

foreign wives. And the more he married, the

more, the more he felt good about it.

And yet it was a it was an abomination to God and, and he

had turned his back on God and didn't fully follow God.

He was wrong. That's because he wanted to be

cautious. And so he had this compulsion to

be discerning but would not capitulate to the commandments

of God. Happens all the time.

You know why it happens in your family.

You know why you can't be discerning with your children is

because you value their relationship more than you value

the truth of God. You want to preserve a

relationship that you think you have, but you do not.

You think you have a relationship with them, but you

can't have a relationship outside of truth.

You can't. And So what do you do?

You want to preserve something you think you have but you

don't, in hopes that one day it'll be great.

But it won't, because it'll ever be based on truth.

You cannot have a relationship based on anything other than the

truth of the living God. You'll have a semblance of of

togetherness. You'll have some fun things that

happen, but the trueness of a deep intimate relationship does

not happen outside of truth. But because we value

relationship over the truth, we will always compromise truth for

the sake of relationship. That's always wrong.

That's what Solomon did. God says you've lost it all.

You've lost the Kingdom. God kept it peaceful until the

end, but once he died, the Kingdom divided has never been

the same sense. Why?

Because he would not submit and capitulate to the truth of the

wisdom and knowledge of God when it was spoken His word.

I know my time is gone, but I got to finish because I because

I want to finish. How's that?

Nick's word is connection. Connect yourself to someone

who's discerning. Latch yourself on to somebody

who has a discerning spirit and learn from them.

That's what Paul said. Insectivity 3.

We said follow my pattern, Timothy.

Follow my lifestyle, Timothy. Follow my doctrine, Timothy,

connect with me. Follow the pattern of the

Saints. Follow someone who truly has a

deserting spirit, that knows what is right and what is wrong.

Hook yourself onto them and just watch, look and listen.

Good advice that Paul gave you Timothy, because it's sound

advice. So so many times we find

ourselves connected to people that are that are unruly,

undisciplined. You ever noticed that?

Remember what Paul says in in Second Thessalonians, he says

this. Listen to this.

He says verse 6 chapter 3 Second Thessalonians.

Now we command you brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus

Christ that you keep away from every brother who leads an

unruly life and not according to the tradition which you have

received from us. If there is any brother who does

not follow the commands of Scripture, do not associate with

them. But you know what we do?

We associate with them. We we cry for wisdom, we cry for

discernment. And yet the Bible's very good.

Do not associate with the unruly, the undisciplined

person, because they'll turn you away from the Lord.

They don't follow the the Scriptures, the authority of

God's word. You can't associate with them

even if they're in the church. They says this for you

yourselves know how you want to follow our example because we

did not act in an undisciplined manner among you.

Connect yourselves to us, follow us.

We were not disciplined. But yet you want to attach

yourself to the unruly. You want to attach yourself to

the undisciplined, You want to attach yourself to the

unconverted, You want to attach yourself to the undiscerning.

Why? Why do you do that?

Paul says. Because we value a relationship

over the value of the truth. That's why he goes on and says

this verse 14. If anyone does not obey our

instruction in this letter, take special note of that person.

Examine everything carefully, carefully and do not associate

with him so that he will be put to shame.

You want you want to know why the unrepentant don't repent in

the church is because we want to be friendly, unrepentant, and

act as if nothing's really wrong.

It's OK And they're not put to shame and they don't repent.

We hinder their repentance by befriending them in their sinful

state without confronting them in their sinful state.

And Paul says this as he goes on.

Yeah. Do not regard him as an enemy

because he's not. He's your brother.

But you would admonish him as a brother, rebuke him as a

brother, confront him as a brother.

That's what you do. Because you see, when you do

that, he either or she either repents or they want nothing to

do with you. See, if they repent because you

admonish them, praise the Lord and you've won your brother.

That's the right thing, so that there's this connection that you

have with those who truly are discerning.

And then there's this, there's mixed word word #5 is, is, is

concentration. Concentrate all your efforts on

on the truth of God's word. Concentrate all your energies

and knowing what God says, His word, study to show yourself

approved under God, a workwind that needeth not to be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth, a great intense

concentration on the truth, and then the next word falls right

after that and that is continuation.

That is, you need to continue growing your walk with the Lord.

Why? Because you never stop growing.

There's this continuing aspect where I grow day after day after

day. We continue to grow in the grace

and knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord.

And so therefore we exercise discipline and discernment.

And lastly, last word is contention.

Always contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all

delivered to the Saints. We're in a war, my friends.

It's a war for the truth. It's a war that we stand on

truth, live for live truth, honor truth.

So we're to protect the gospel. We're to guard the gospel.

We are to persevere in the gospel.

We're to preach the gospel. We are to contend earnestly for

the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints.

Fight for truth because truth is what matters.

Let me pray with you, Lord, thank you for today and the

opportunity to be together and pray that you'd use your word in

our lives that we might be not undiscerning but completely

discerning of that is all happening around us.

To know what is right versus what is wrong, what is true

versus that which is false. We pray this in Jesus name,

Amen.