You are invited to stop relying on your own strength and instead lean into the grace that empowers you to obey. If you feel the Lord convicting your heart today, take a step of faith by coming forward to confess, repent, or begin a relationship with Jesus. Let this be the moment you choose to live for Him rather than yourself.
*Father* God, I just thank you for who you are. And I can't preach a message that's gonna change anybody's life on my own. *Lord* God, but you can. And I'm thankful that I'm not up here on my own. I'm up here with you.
Co laboring with you. That's what we do as believers. And it's a beautiful thing. And so, Holy Spirit, I ask you to anoint this message. *Lord* God, let it be your words.
Let it pierce hearts. Cuts heart cut hearts with *truth*. Cut away the junk. And Lord, I pray that everybody listening, everybody on the sound of my voice, is leaning in. Is listening for Jesus.
Is excited to hear you speak. And then to treasure that word and stand in that word in such a way that it impacts their lives, all of our lives, for the rest of eternity. Because we know you more. Amen. Amen.
Okay. So we have been in the Corinthians series for like a long time. I think this is like month 4 of the Corinthians series and we're just starting chapter 4. But I'm okay with it because Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians in order to encourage them. And he wrote it about a wide array of things because they were experiencing a wide array of things in their lives with Christ, and we're a church with a bunch of different people that experience a bunch of different things.
Amen? Okay. So we've been, over the last, I don't know, 4 or 5 Sundays, like, hammering on 1 Corinthians-3:18-4 1 and 2. And I just wanna give you a just a brief reminder of what we talked about last week. Last week, we we went back into the wisdom of God.
And and and God is so much wiser than we could ever be. Like, as far as the heavens are above the earth, that's how much wiser than us he is. And the heavens, as we said, are 46,000,000,000 *light* years away. It's what they assume to be the edge of the universe and expanding. And he's so much more wise, and his ways are so much higher than our ways.
And we learned last week that Solomon, what the bible says, the wisest king that ever lived and ever would live. Solomon asked for wisdom. And God granted it to him, and he granted him riches and all kinds of other things as well, because he asked for wisdom. But then we learned also, that that was in second Chronicles, but in in Kings, or in first Chronicles. In Kings, Kings shows a little different picture of what he asked for.
Gives us a little bit more clarity. He actually didn't ask for wisdom in Kings, he asked for an understanding and a discerning heart. And you you guys remember the Hebrew word for that? It was shama. Everybody say shama.
Shama. Yeah. So shama means, a hearing heart, like to hear with the intention of obeying. Which gives a little bit more clarity. Wisdom, the wisdom of God, comes from hearing God.
It's almost like, duh. Like, that's pretty clear. Right? If we hear and obey him, then our lives will display the very wisdom of God. And then we said, wait a second, that's faith.
*Faith* comes by hearing. So living a life of of faith is living a life that demonstrates the very wisdom of our heavenly father. If we hear him, believe it, and obey it, put it into practice, our life will demonstrate the wisdom of our heavenly father. And when other people see it, they may think what we're doing is foolish because they if they don't know him. Because the wisdom of God looks like foolishness to the human mind.
But if we stand in it, eventually, hopefully, it causes them to come to want to know him. Amen? So the only way that we can display the wisdom of God in our daily life and in the different aspects of our life is to do it in relationship with him. AKA, you must be born again. Jesus said, you can't have a relationship.
You can't experience the kingdom of God unless you've been born again. And when you've been born again, he puts his spirit inside of you so that you have the mind of Christ in you, and day in and day out, in every single scenario, every see single situation, we have the capacity to hear the voice of God and reflect the very wisdom, character, and nature of God. Because we're created in his image. If you're created in the image of God, then you're created to be a reflection of his goodness as his children. He loves you that much.
That's why Jesus was sent to die on a cross and rise again. It was to restore your created value. Yes, it was to wash away your sin. Of course, was to do that. So that he could restore your created value.
Restore you to the place of walking hand in hand with the heavenly father in the cool of the day, day in and day out, reflecting his wisdom in your life. Come on, that's good stuff. Right? That's amazing. That's Christianity.
Christianity isn't just coming to church, checking it off a box, and then seeing, is that preacher preaching what I like or not what I like? And if it's not what I like, I'm going to the next place. No. Christianity is I'm in relationship with God, and I'm in relationship with his church where he's called me to be. So I'm going, and I'm plugging in and giving my all, laying my life down to follow him and to encourage his body moving forward in Christ Jesus.
Amen? Well, it's an important backdrop. Cause now we're gonna get into 1 Corinthians-4. And in 1 Corinthians-4, Paul begins to talk about himself a little bit. As an example, I believe.
Cause *1 Corinthians-11:1*, Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. In Hebrews, it says that we are to consider our leaders, consider their way of life, and imitate their faith because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I would consider Paul to be a Christian leader, wouldn't you? I mean, he wrote like a third of the new testament. A lot of it.
He led a lot of different churches in a lot of different cities and set up leaders in those in those cities. You know, I've I've gotten to the trap in my life before of reading Paul's letters and thinking, man, that's really great for him. I'm glad he did that. And because of that, I couldn't really understand what he was writing. I couldn't really understand 1 Corinthians-4:3, 4, and 5.
I didn't really know what he was talking about. But then, I realized, wait a second. The bible isn't just written so I could say, wow, look at what these guys did back then. The bible's written the bible says in *James-5:17* that Elijah, the very guy who called down fire from heaven, he prayed it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain. It says, Elijah was a man just like us, which is to encourage us that wait a second, we can have a relationship with the God of the universe and experience the same things in our lives that these guys did by the same power, the same Holy Spirit, walking in relationship with him.
I mean, come on, how amazing is that? That's why Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ Jesus. The way that Paul thought about himself, we need to learn from his perspective and think about ourselves in the same way. The way that Paul thought about the way that others thought about him, we need to learn from his perspective and think about or not let others opinions affect us in the same way. Amen?
Alright. So with that as the backdrop, think about this. Paul, we've already read verse 1. *1 Corinthians-4:1*. And I'm reading today from the NIV.
But I'll reference a little bit how the ESV or other versions say it. Says, this then is how you ought to regard us. As servants of Christ, as those entrusted with the mysteries of God, or the mysteries God has been reveal has revealed. So, he's saying, hey, you know, what we honor, we're able to learn from, man. And and as a preacher of the gospel, lean in so that you can grow in Christ and we can grow together.
Paul's telling the Corinthians this. Now, it's required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court. Indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.
It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, judge nothing before the "appointed time". Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in the darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time, each will receive their praise from God.
If I'm like honest, for a lot of my Christian life, and there's been a lot. I've been following him for a long time. I really didn't know what this was saying. I really didn't understand. Is everything okay over here?
Oh, okay. I was like, did he throw up? Like, what's going on? Oh, no. Okay.
Good. Okay. Good to go. But I'm so thankful for the Corinthians series, because man, it's causing me to dig in here. And I believe if we lean in, we'll all see *Christ* a little bit more clearly through what Paul is saying in these in these scriptures.
Paul's talking about him preaching, being entrusted with the mysteries of God. He says, now it's required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. But then he goes on to say, I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court. Indeed, I do not even judge myself. He's saying, look, I'm I'm to live my life faithful because I've been given a trust, but I'm not I'm not to live my life trying to prove myself to be faithful to you.
I don't care what the court of human opinion thinks. I'm not living my life for you. I'm living my life to worship Jesus with my eyes focused on him as an audience of 1. That word judge in verse 4 and 5, it's the word it's not judge, which like we think Jesus judging us at at the end times. It's the word examine.
So I don't care if you examine my life. You can examine my life all you want. The "court of human approval". That's fine. I don't live for your approval.
God has set me free from me, and he set me free from you so that I can live for him. I'm so captured by him that I I I don't wanna be I'm so captured by him that I don't wanna be and I can't be captured by anything else. It says, don't even examine myself. Man, I I think a lot of Christians don't get this 1. I'm not sin focused, and I'm not self focused.
Because if I'm self focused and sin focused, then I'm self conscious and not Christ conscious. I'm so captured by him. It says, my conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. Or the ESV says, I'm not aware of anything against myself, but that does not make me acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
It's the Lord who examines me is the word there. So I'm my focus is Christ, not what other people think about me. And it's I'm not even examining myself for sin or for where I fail. I'm my focus is Christ, and I'm examining him. And I'm allowing him to examine every area of my life at all times, looking at my father and reflecting what I see just like River did today when during worship.
Money. You've you've heard this before, but I'm gonna put it in this context. Like, when people who are trained to find counterfeit currency, They don't study counterfeit currency. They study the real thing. And they're so captured by the real thing that when counterfeit currency does get in front of them, they recognize it easily because they know every aspect of the real thing.
In our life, we must train ourself to just focus on Christ, who he is, and what he says. And when something comes up in our life, the Holy Spirit will make it very Exactly. He'll make it very clear because we're so focused on Christ. *John-3:20* says, everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
I don't want to live my life hidden at all from my heavenly father. Paul said, my conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. I wanna dive in there, and I I just hope that I can explain this in a way that's clear. My conscience is clear, but that doesn't make me innocent. How do you have a clear conscience when you just messed up?
How do you have a clear conscience when you know what happened a week ago? You know how you hurt your friend, or you know how you hurt your family, you said that angry thing. How do you have a clear conscience? So when you were born, God gave you a conscience. And that conscience is like a a moral it's a "moral highway" that helps you to stay on to live a moral life.
But we live a life that's pulled towards sin and pulled towards selfishness. We get better excusing the way that we live. And then we get born again and God washes us clean and puts us in right relationship with him and continues to pull us towards him. So now, when we mess up, our conscience once again says, hey, you did wrong. And we feel like a screw up and we feel like a mess up.
In that moment, we have no confidence before God. We can't because our conscience is condemning us. Does that make sense? The conscience is good. God put it there as a tool in order to help lead you towards him.
So what do we do? 1 John-3. Says, this is how we know that we belong to God or we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence. If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
So listen to that. If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. So when our when our conscience is clear, we can have confidence before God. When our conscience isn't clear, we lack confidence before God. And if we're not careful, we will run from his presence and run from him because we know that we've messed up.
You guys follow me? So, what do we do? Look at it. 1 John-3:20. If our hearts condemn us or if our conscience is unclear, we violated our conscience.
We know that God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. So I messed up. I made a mistake. I take that mistake back to him. And I say, God, look at this.
Look at what I did. And I can know, as I take it back to his presence and remember, wait a second. God's omnipresent. He's everywhere. So he saw me make the mistake anyway.
I shouldn't hide from him. He's omniscient. He's all knowing. I mean, and he's omnipotent. He's all powerful.
And so, when Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago, he knew I was gonna make that mistake beforehand, and he died for me anyway. So my conscience is an "alarm bell" that I walked outside of who he says that I am, and outside of who he is. I should bring that to him, and remember that he died for me. Remember that he already "paid the price" for that. Confess and say, yeah, God, I was wrong in this area.
I'm sorry. And then repent, "turn to him", and not continue in that way, but turn to him and keep following him in that area with a clear conscience now, because his blood washed me clean. It takes faith to allow his blood to wash you clean of a clear and and have a clear conscience. It's so easy to let yourself think that I messed up, so this is who I am. But it takes faith to believe, wait a second, I'm forgiven, and I'm washed, and I can continue moving forward with my calling.
I can continue moving forward in the area that God has called me to with a clear conscience, because that's what he says about me. Does that make sense? Now, does that give me the right to continually violate my conscience? No. Why would you continually violate your conscience?
Because when you violate your conscience, it takes away your confidence before God. *Romans-6 says, hey, do I continue to sin so that grace* may abound, so that I'll have more and more grace? Absolutely not. God's grace empowers me not to sin. So I I go into his presence and I have faith before him, And that faith, we're saved by grace through faith.
So because I hear him and believe what he says about me that I'm forgiven, through that faith, grace comes and empowers me to live like him. Amen? So if I make a mistake and my *conscience* messes with me, I'm I'm to use that as an alarm bell system to point me to him, not to hide from him. To run to him as my heavenly father, not to hide from him as Adam and Eve did in the garden. So then, trying to make that clear.
Was that is that clear? Okay. So 1 Corinthians-4:5. Verse 4, it's the Lord who examines me. That word is examines.
But then it switches here. It says, therefore judge nothing before the appointed time. So that's actually the word that we usually think of as judge. Judge nothing before the appointed time. Wait until the Lord comes.
He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness, and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time, each will receive their praise from God. So that sounds like the end times. A lot of times when I read that verse, was thinking, man, all of a sudden it just shifted to Jesus returning and Jesus judges the motives of everybody's heart. And that's what some commentary say.
And then praise the Lord. That could be the case. I just don't believe that that's the case in this verse. I don't believe that's what it's talking about. Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time or the appropriate season.
Wait until the Lord comes and just follow me here. That word comes. When we think about Jesus returning and coming back, it usually uses the word parousia. It's not using the word parousia there. It's using the word for like when he comes, Ecclesiastes in in normal daily life.
When he comes in normal daily life, he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and expose the motives of the heart. At that time, each will receive their praise from God. Now remember, and just follow me for a second. John-3:20. Everyone who does what is evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. I wanna live by the truth daily and live in the light. And as I'm growing in relationship with him, I want to invite him to come and judge whatever works, examine my life, and judge whatever works of mine are not of him, and bring it to the surface, and expose the darkness, dark areas of my heart so that I can confess them, so that I can repent, and continue to be conformed to to be more like him, to continue to be made to be more like him so the world sees Jesus more clearly. Does that make sense? Okay.
Let me make all this practical. Let me let me give you some stories so that you can see what I'm talking about and how this works out in your relationship with God. I used to help, and a lot of you know this, I used to help out in counseling, a bunch of drug addicts that would would come in. My dad started. Best Friend runs the largest faith based drug rehab in the state of Louisiana, or 1 of the largest.
And, you know, these addicts would come in, and they'd give their life to Jesus, be born again. But man, they'd still be cussing up a storm, like, you know, every other word out their mouth cussing like a sailor. And I know, because I was a sailor in the Navy. Not saying I said that, I'm just, you know, I was around it a lot. And we wouldn't focus on trying to change the way that they spoke first.
That's the Holy Spirit's role. When they gave their life to Jesus, the first thing for a lot of them, the Holy Spirit would want them to understand that he's a loving father. Because a lot of them grew up without a father. And they have dad wounds. And maybe and just to be graphic, their uncle raped them from the age of 6 to 12, and they started using drugs at 12 to cope with the fact that that's what they went through for 6 years.
And so man, if I went through what some of them went through, man, I'd probably would have been on drugs too. I'm not being funny. I mean, seriously. And so Jesus didn't do that, but he wants to heal them and reconcile and restore their lives. So the first thing he he goes to heal is not what most church people think are unholy.
The first thing he goes to heal is showing them that he's a loving father and he cares about them so that they can trust him. So they're born again and they receive him as "loving father". And then they learn to forgive themselves because he forgave them. And then he begins to heal those dark deep wounds and they begin to forgive those that hurt them so bad and realize that they can trust again. Those are the first things that God begins to work on usually.
And then after that, as they're beginning to grow 6 months into their relationship for some. 2 months in, maybe a year, their relationship with Jesus. Then the Holy Spirit comes and Jesus comes at their appointed time when they're ready. And he judges the next area of their heart that they're ready to give to him. And he says, hey, *Ephesians-5:4*, they're reading in the word and it says, obscene talk and crude joking that has nothing to do with the believer.
And all of a sudden, they're judged by his word. Boom. It hits their heart. And they realize, man, I've never seen that before. Those jokes that I've been making.
Those things that I've been saying. Those words that I've been using. It's not like Jesus and he's my Lord. He didn't even point that out a year before. But now he's doing it in relationship.
Because it's the appointed season and the appointed time. And he's judging it by his word in order to make them look more like Jesus. So what do they do? Well, they confess. You're right God.
This isn't like you. So I don't wanna do it anymore. I like it. It's fun. I like it when everybody laughs, but I like you more.
So then you repent. Turn from saying those things in that area of your life. Turn to Jesus and begin taking steps. And as they're taking steps, what happens? All of a sudden, they get around those same friends again and they make the same jokes.
And then their conscience says, their conscience begins to condemn them. Now they have a choice. They can let their conscience condemn them and stay there, not have confidence before God, hide in that area of their life for a while, and next thing you know they're repeating the same thing and getting worse in that area than they were before? Because they're not in his presence in that area, instead they're hiding and secluding God? Or their conscience condemns him and they remember, wait, I have a loving father.
I don't have to hide anymore. So I can step in the light, so he can see clearly what's been done. And I can present it to him, give it to him, and keep taking steps, and let my conscience be cleared because his blood has already forgiven me. And so I can continue to walk with a repented heart and grow. And the next time my friends come around that I would normally talk like that with, I'm less likely because I'm focused on his presence instead of what they think.
Does that make sense? Does that bring all of that, those verses together? Let me give you an example from a personal life that's in the same vein. And this is this is in any area of your life that Jesus is conforming you in relationship to look more like him. This is for the rest of your life.
He's going to be honing your life, honing in on different areas of your life. And when his word judges it and conforms you to be more like him and you see it, your conscience gets a little more clear and a little more straight. And your life looks a little bit more holy because of it, a little bit more set apart. For instance, I gave my life to Jesus as a young kid, man. I really did.
But then, that doesn't mean that I didn't, in junior high and high school and college, get around people and be influenced in those areas. When I got to college, man, and Family Guy was the rage. Man, it's funny. Hilarious. So, man, I love Family Guy.
We got married first couple years of my marriage. I'm watching Family Guy. I don't know if you've ever watched Family Guy, but the joke's on it. They're not in the dad joke book. Yeah.
Galatians, Ephesians, *Ephesians-5:4*. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. I'll just say, those 3 things, that's all in Family Guy. There's not much Thanksgiving, but there's a lot of affinity, foolish talk, course joking. And if if that's the way if we're not supposed to live that way, then why would we watch it?
Because if we watch it, it's just gonna reproduce that same thing in us because we repeat what we see. Right? We reflect what we're focused on. Right? Okay.
So I'm 23, 24 years old, man, laughing up a storm and enjoying Family Guy and telling Family Guy jokes. It's a it's a friend group thing. No big deal. It's just normal. But then all of a sudden, in my daily bible study, because I like to spend time with the Lord, and he had been working on me in other areas of my life.
And yeah, deep down, I knew that it wasn't okay, but I ignored it for quite some time. Saying, hey, you know, this is normal. It's just, know, it's just it's not that big of a deal. If you ever hear that, it's not that big of a deal in talking about being holy, it's probably a bigger deal than you're saying. Hey?
So then in my quiet time, meaning in my time when I'm spending, reading the word, reading a chapter of the book, praying, I read Ephesians-5:4 verse 4, nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. And I think back, not to family guy, I think back to the the friends that I have, and the the the way that I talk and joke, And the Holy Spirit at the appointed season, which it was time for me to learn that lesson, *Christ* came and judged that area of my life as not looking like him. Just like it said in Ephesians-4 verse I mean, sorry, 1 Corinthians-4:5. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time. Wait until the Lord comes.
He will bring to light what's hidden in the darkness and expose the motives of the heart. That's what Jesus did. So like, woah. Now I can excuse it away and not have confidence before God in that that area of my life. And then probably because I did that, get a little bit worse.
And in any area of your life where you're living in sin outside of his will, sin will cut you up. Sin will there will be consequences in relationships, consequences in your own life, and the the the sad thing and the the hard thing is if I continue in an area that's outside of the way that God's leading me, my conscience will get a little seared, so I'll think it's more and more right and it's okay until either sin cuts me up so much that I hit some sort of rock bottom and have to reach out, God save me, or I keep going down and it proves that I never knew him anyway. That I only followed him for a while because it was beneficial for me. It wasn't really denying myself to follow him. So I read it in my personal time.
*Lord*, judge my heart that that wasn't like him. I confess, oh Lord, you're right. It's not like you. I came into the light as he is in the light. Forgive me.
And I repent. I turn in that area. And so then, around my friends, I kept my mouth shut a little bit more. And when I'd mess up, I'd go back and let my conscience would would ting me. I'd go back into his presence and remember that God's greater than my conscience.
And so I'm all I'm forgiven. I repent. I keep walking forward. Even when I fall here, fall there, I fall forward. Keep getting I keep getting back up and following him.
So I'm growing to look more like him in in the way that I joke. But then all of a sudden, I sit down at home with my wife, turn on family guy, and the very thing that Jesus judged in my life is before my face. And my conscience goes, conscience goes. I love Family Guy, but I love the jokes. And now I'm faced with a choice.
Is Jesus my Lord or this entertainment? Am I willing to cut out this out of my life or do I keep excusing it and cut out his presence from this area of my life? See, Jesus, he wants to be the only Lord. And for the rest of your life, he's going to be calling you forward towards holiness. And he's relentless.
Just like the rich young ruler put his finger on the 1 thing that he was holding on and said, give that to me. And I don't want to be the rich young ruler that walks away saying sad because I had great wealth, and I love my wealth more than I love Jesus. I don't want to be the foolish David John Phillips that walks away sad because I had lots of laughter, and I love my laughter more than I love Jesus. Not realizing that I can laugh just as much or more in his presence in different ways. So praise the Lord, I don't watch Family Guy anymore.
That was when I was 24, 23, 25. Don't you know that he's pruned what I watch and what I listen to a whole lot more since then? Amen. There's a lot of movies I just had to get up and walk out on. Not just me.
Man, I got a wife that's encouraging me and pushing me forward in holiness too. Sometimes she'll get up before I do, sometimes I get up before she does. Right, baby? But we're encouraging 1 another for it. That's what the church is for.
Spurring 1 another on towards righteousness. Because there's areas of our lives that don't look like Christ. And when we see the way a brother acts that we would have never thought of, God may use that person to speak to us. See, when Paul said in 1 Corinthians-4, I care very little if I'm judged or examined by any human court. Indeed, I do not even examine myself.
See, my my focus is on Christ, and I let him bring everything to the surface. But that doesn't mean I'm not willing to hear God through other people. Says the Lord it's the Lord who examines me, but sometimes God uses the church. Sometimes God uses my friends. Sometimes God uses my brothers and sisters in Christ to push me forward.
And I gotta be humble enough to, like he said in *1 Corinthians-4:1*, to know that the mysteries of God can come from you, another believer that can encourage me. I gotta be humble enough to hear him through you and allow that to challenge me and sharpen me to grow forward in my relationship with Jesus. Man, he's calling us forward towards church to holiness. In every area of our life, so our lives reflect his goodness. And I'm not just talking about joking.
That's just an example. What area, what season is it for your life that he's calling you forward to to let go of something, repent, and turn in that area, and be more disciplined? A disciplined disciple of Christ. Because here's the thing. *1 Corinthians-9*.
I'm gonna read for a little bit, but I want you to listen. Verse 24 says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only 1 gets the prize? Run-in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games is goes into "strict training". They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a "crown that will last" forever.
Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly. I do not fight like a boxer beating the air, nor I strike blow to my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself am not disqualified for the prize. For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea. That's talking about the Israelites as they were coming out of Egypt. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that accompany accompanied them and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now, these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry. We should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in 1 day, 23000 died. We should not test Christ as some of them did and were killed by snakes. *Idolatry* is putting anything before Jesus.
Anything put before Jesus is idolatry. If I would have put family guy before my relationship with Jesus, family guy would have been an idol in my life. Just real simple. Right? Sexual immorality is pretty cut and dry there.
We should not test *Christ* in that instance. What it's referring to, them testing Christ is they became impatient. The promise wasn't coming fast enough, so they became impatient. It was called testing Christ. I'd rather go back to what was easy rather than wait in the wilderness for the promise.
And they were killed by snakes. And do not grumble as some of them did. Grumbling complaining is not of God. It's not the kingdom of heaven. If you find yourself grumbling and complaining, stop and start thanking Jesus for what he's given you and who he is in you.
*Confess, repent*, and move forward in him. And, we're killed by destroying angels. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. I memorized that verse because if I ever think, man, I really got this right now.
Woah. Hold on. That's pride. Pride comes before destruction. Haughty spirit before a fall.
I don't want that to happen. I wanna stay like a "little child". I need Jesus. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful.
He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you're tempted, he will also provide a "way out" so that you can endure it. Every way that you're tempted, you're making excuses that you can't do, is a lie. It's a lie. Jesus has given you the grace to overcome.
And, we overcome by grace through faith. Faith. Hear his word, believe his word, and then obey his word. As we do that, the grace comes and empowers us to do what we could never do on our own. I can't be like Jesus by my own strength.
I can't be like Jesus by focusing on myself, examining myself, and trying to get rid of all the sin. But I can, by examining him, listening to what he says, and taking a step of faith. Because in that faith, by grace through faith, in that step of faith, his grace comes and empowers me to stand and continue moving forward. That's how I wanna live my life. So church, what steps of faith is God telling you to do in your life, To look more like Jesus.
There's 2 ways that the Holy Spirit leads us. He either leads us to take steps forward in obedience and good things. Or to stop taking steps in disobedience in bad things. Grieving the Holy Spirit is ignoring his leading to continue doing bad things. Quenching the Holy Spirit is ignoring his leading to do good things.
I don't wanna do either. I wanna obey him to stop as he's leading me forward and conforming to his image. And I wanna obey him to do as he's leading me forward to reflect Jesus. Amen? Yep.
That's all I got. So here's what we're gonna do. Heidi, you got some announcements for us? Okay. Heidi's going to come up and close.
As she's closing, please don't walk out. Listen. The things that she's saying is important. After she's done closing, she dismisses. If you need to go, don't have any business to do, go.
Praise the Lord. You're blessed. Go have a great Sunday. But if you do have business to do, if the Lord's been hitting your heart, I'm gonna turn on some music after she closes. If you need to stay in your seat and sit and confess and repent before the Lord, do it As long as you need.
Except we gotta be out here at least by 1. That's all that's we rent the place until then. No. We're gonna have the elders and deacons and staff come up to the front again. As she's closing, you guys can come on up.
If you need to do business with God, and you need prayer in a certain area because it's a stronghold of your life, maybe maybe it's an area of your life where it's been consistent, and you've tried over and over and over to stop, but you just can't for some reason. The bible says, confess your faults 1 to another and pray for each other so you may be healed. He wants to heal your diseases and he wants to heal your habits. And that may be a place where you need to not just reveal it here, but you need help. You need to reveal it to a brother or sister, so they can pray for you to be healed and delivered.
Because here's what hap what happens in those areas. In those areas, it's a the bible calls it a stronghold. So, the enemy it's an area where you believe a lie or you believe you're not forgiven or whatever the root of that bad habit is. It's an area where the enemy has victory in your life. It's like they took over a castle in that piece of thought in your brain.
When an area takes over a stronghold, just like in Europe back in the day, they wouldn't just stay there, they would attack other areas of the country from the stronghold. Where where you have an issue, it's it's not just staying there. That issue is attacking other areas of your life from that place. So you need to be healed of that too. And and maybe you've never been born again.
Maybe you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Man, this is an opportunity to come. All of these people up here can lead you into a relationship with Jesus. You say, man, I've I've been to church a lot. I've experienced a lot of great things, you know, I've I've But have you ever confessed Jesus as your Lord?
Have you ever said, I'm not gonna live for me anymore. I'm gonna live for him. It takes believing Jesus died for you, and rose again, and then confessing him as your Lord. That's what it means to be born again. In that moment, he puts his spirit in you, and washes you clean and restores your value.
So you're like a "brand new little baby" that can grow in relationship with Jesus. Some of you need to be born again. If that's you. If I'm talking to you and your your heart's burning and you know you need to be born again. As a step of faith, would you raise your hand high?
I see you. Praise the Lord. I see you. The next step of faith is to come forward and talk with with 1 of these, I think it was 2 women. Talk with 1 of these young women up here to lead you to Jesus.
Don't leave without doing that. Praise the Lord.