back to indexBAM Retreat Session 1
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Well, as you guys--since you guys are all here, you guys know all the stuff that transpired 00:00:18.260 |
And you also have been aware that the theme is on drifting. 00:00:24.880 |
We're not talking about like joy or peace or loving each other or like just true fellowship. 00:00:37.400 |
And I think ultimately what I wanted for our group to get out of it really was rest. 00:00:48.960 |
To sort through all of the noisy clutter and all of the distractions to come together, 00:00:55.160 |
to look into His Word, to be challenged by His Word and at the same time uplifted by 00:01:07.760 |
There's no great praise music that can give you rest. 00:01:11.120 |
There's no amount of fellowship that can give you rest. 00:01:14.560 |
The rest really comes from just communing with the Lord. 00:01:22.120 |
I would have preferred to have been in Idyllwild. 00:01:24.400 |
My kids cried because we couldn't go play with the snow. 00:01:27.480 |
And then they kept looking at the street and they're like, "Why did the mountain break?" 00:01:39.680 |
And one thing that I--and I'm used to change. 00:01:43.040 |
You know, I was on 70 flights a year from 2012 to 2018. 00:01:51.320 |
And a lot of times when you take 20, 30 strangers to different countries, a lot of things don't 00:01:58.920 |
And so you just roll with the punches and move. 00:02:01.720 |
But the more obstacles that are in the way of a work of God, usually there are bigger 00:02:09.960 |
And so last night I was actually here up on the stage around 11 o'clock just praying. 00:02:19.480 |
But I was just praying that God would give us a time of rest. 00:02:27.680 |
Tonight's topic is actually one that will cause us to struggle. 00:02:34.360 |
Even the holiest of people will look at it and wrestle. 00:02:38.600 |
And so fortunately the messages don't end tonight. 00:02:43.040 |
But tonight is going to be mostly about drifting. 00:02:48.360 |
So if you guys have your Bibles, turn to Matthew 7 and then we'll pray. 00:02:55.280 |
We'll ask the Lord's blessing and then we'll start our session one. 00:03:06.440 |
Matthew 7, we're going to read verses 13 and onward. 00:03:10.720 |
But before we do that, let's just pray to the Lord for just His guidance at this time. 00:03:18.560 |
The Father, we pray that you would help us to understand your heart for us, your love 00:03:23.320 |
for us, that you, God, gave your only begotten Son, that we would have eternal life. 00:03:30.960 |
And eternal life, we know, Lord, is not about a place, but it is about a person. 00:03:37.680 |
And God, we get so entangled with the things of this world that we lose sight of our purpose. 00:03:46.320 |
So we pray that tonight that you would start just the work of resuscitation for those of 00:03:53.400 |
us who are struggling, that you would start genuine repentance and worship in our hearts 00:04:11.120 |
We pray that you would help us not to be sleepy even, but to be fully engaged in your Word. 00:04:23.400 |
If you don't like the theme, you have your BAM inReach team and core members to thank 00:04:29.800 |
But our theme is drifting, the dangers of drifting. 00:04:33.160 |
And when they first told me that this was a theme, I actually was glad that we're starting 00:04:38.520 |
with this because there are real dangers, and you guys are all very aware that there 00:04:46.840 |
And I don't even have to go into the various things that compete for your heart's affections. 00:04:53.320 |
But the theme comes from Hebrews 2 to 1, or 2 chapter 2, verse 1, about how we need to 00:05:02.820 |
And we're going to be looking at this tonight and tomorrow. 00:05:05.560 |
Coincidentally, you guys know that Pastor Peter started a series on the book of Hebrews, 00:05:13.160 |
And in the last two sermons, he actually brought up the dangers of drifting. 00:05:25.800 |
And for you and me living here in Orange County, drifting is a very real and present danger. 00:05:31.760 |
And so, like I said, we didn't necessarily intend for all of this timing to be put together 00:05:37.560 |
like this, but I am very thankful because it will cause us to kind of focus our attentions 00:05:49.060 |
What are the things that are scary about drifting? 00:05:53.420 |
And I'm sure for every single one of you, you absolutely do not want to drift too far 00:05:59.300 |
If you didn't care, you wouldn't be here, but you don't want to drift too far away. 00:06:04.160 |
And I'm sure there are some of you in here, you're putting your, you know, your church 00:06:08.700 |
face on and you're saying the right stuff, but in your hearts, you feel like you're already 00:06:13.780 |
drifting and you're so discouraged you don't know how to swim back. 00:06:19.500 |
So I want, if that's you, I want this retreat really to be one that is filled with hope, 00:06:28.260 |
How many of you guys would prefer to pick someone up at John Wayne over LAX? 00:06:36.060 |
If you have a friend coming in, if you have a family member coming in. 00:06:48.440 |
So I would much rather, so when the India team was leaving for John Wayne, I'm like, 00:06:52.140 |
no problem, I don't mind waking up at like 4 or something. 00:06:54.540 |
I have no problem going to John Wayne airport because it is close. 00:06:58.620 |
But if you were to pick up someone who just left JFK, you guys know where JFK is? 00:07:06.460 |
If they leave JFK on a flight toward John Wayne, but they're just one degree off, they 00:07:16.620 |
So I would hate to be waiting at John Wayne and get a phone call from one of you, let's 00:07:26.020 |
I would say sure, but in my heart I would wrestle with hatred, right? 00:07:30.740 |
Because it would take a couple hours to get there, because the freeway usually is not 00:07:35.980 |
that bad, it's just when you get off the ramp, sometimes leading up to the airport takes 00:07:44.560 |
But coincidentally, from John Wayne to LAX is 42 miles. 00:07:49.420 |
So if you're leaving from JFK, coming toward John Wayne, and you're off one degree, you 00:07:56.900 |
If you are leaving from Long Beach Harbor, and you want to go to Maui, I don't know why 00:08:02.900 |
you would want to do this on a boat, but let's say for adventure's sake, you leave Long Beach 00:08:07.980 |
to go to Maui, and you're one degree off, you end up in a very hostile territory of 00:08:18.980 |
So one degree off course from JFK to John Wayne, no biggie, a couple hours lost. 00:08:30.620 |
But one degree off course, Long Beach to Maui, you can end up with your life endangered. 00:08:39.380 |
So even one degree, given enough time, can radically take you away from where you're 00:08:53.660 |
But one degree is not a big drift, but if you give it enough time, you end up very far 00:09:05.340 |
And you know that when we usually drift, we're not just drifting one degree. 00:09:12.180 |
If there's like a swell or a storm in our life, oftentimes it ends up changing our entire 00:09:18.740 |
trajectory, and this you guys are all well aware of. 00:09:24.920 |
If you drop your compass and you have to just figure stuff out by sight, you're screwed. 00:09:34.060 |
So we're going to start out today in the first of our three sermons by looking at how frightening 00:09:44.160 |
And imagine right now where you're sitting, I'm hoping that you are hoping to get to heaven 00:09:54.260 |
I am hoping that you have assurance of your salvation that at the great white throne judgment, 00:10:06.020 |
But what if you're convinced that you're headed there and then you end up in a place where 00:10:18.540 |
So we need to think through seriously how not to drift. 00:10:32.700 |
So Matthew 7, 13, you guys are probably familiar with this. 00:10:41.540 |
So if you're taking notes, you can just kind of follow along. 00:10:45.140 |
The first point is don't follow the crowds, Matthew 7, 13 to 14. 00:11:00.260 |
Second, don't follow blindly and don't follow the blind, verses 15 to 20. 00:11:09.580 |
Don't follow blindly and don't follow the blind, 15 to 20. 00:11:14.620 |
Third, don't follow false fruits, chapter 7, verse 21 to 23. 00:11:25.420 |
Two, don't follow blindly, don't follow the blind, verses 15 to 20. 00:11:35.180 |
If you are having a hard time keeping up, just email me. 00:11:45.420 |
Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to 00:11:52.660 |
And there are many who enter through it, for the gate is small and the way is narrow that 00:11:57.300 |
leads to life, and there are few who find it. 00:12:02.340 |
So what Jesus is saying here is the wide and the broad lead to what? 00:12:10.620 |
And then the small and the narrow lead to life, but only a few find the small and the 00:12:19.380 |
So a question that I have for you that you don't have to answer out loud, please do not 00:12:23.320 |
answer out loud, just think through your head. 00:12:26.940 |
Is this person sitting on my right or my left? 00:12:34.220 |
On the wide and the broad or the small and the narrow? 00:12:39.900 |
Is this person on my right and on my left, is he on the broad and the wide or is he in 00:12:47.660 |
It's kind of uncomfortable to think about, but what would you gauge that with? 00:12:59.660 |
Are the pastors at our church on the wide and the broad or the small and the narrow? 00:13:06.900 |
I know what you're hoping for, okay, but are we, the four of us, indeed on the wide and 00:13:17.540 |
And a more personal question, are you on the wide and the broad or the small and the narrow? 00:13:30.420 |
What gate am I entering through and what road am I on? 00:13:37.460 |
And you don't want to get this one wrong, okay? 00:13:40.780 |
Is there a way to know for sure where you're headed? 00:13:44.940 |
Is there a way to know for sure you have the right answer and you're headed in the right 00:13:50.420 |
Because the person on your right and the left can't answer that for you. 00:13:55.820 |
That is something that you have to discern, okay? 00:14:03.540 |
Jesus is saying, "Many are headed toward destruction. 00:14:08.260 |
So for you and me, it's absolutely imperative every now and then to look around to see where 00:14:18.500 |
Matthew 7, 13 to 14 is a very strongly worded passage. 00:14:25.180 |
"Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are 00:14:33.100 |
Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 00:14:36.980 |
So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 00:14:40.380 |
A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 00:14:44.940 |
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 00:14:50.220 |
So then you will know these false prophets by their fruits." 00:14:57.820 |
Do you guys know how to pick out a false prophet from a true one? 00:15:04.180 |
If you're a false prophet and it's very obvious to everyone that you're a false prophet, you're 00:15:10.340 |
So the ones that are really like obviously heretical and false, you don't need to worry 00:15:21.560 |
But can you recognize a false prophet when you see one? 00:15:25.820 |
And this question, this is maybe a little bit tough, okay? 00:15:29.180 |
You know what about something about false prophets? 00:15:35.500 |
It may not be obvious right away that they're false prophets. 00:15:41.580 |
And another thing that's scary about false prophets is they don't realize that they're 00:15:45.540 |
You know 2 Timothy 3.13 says, "But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, 00:15:55.420 |
So I actually often ask myself this question, "Am I a false prophet?" 00:16:00.420 |
I stop and I ask myself this to align myself to make sure I am really seeking to speak 00:16:07.980 |
on behalf of the Lord and not on behalf of myself. 00:16:15.620 |
Many of the false prophets that are around you are ear ticklers. 00:16:19.340 |
If you look at 2 Timothy 4.3, they will say what the masses want to hear. 00:16:24.500 |
In Southern California, in Orange County, in the United States of America, and I guess 00:16:30.140 |
globally, nod your heads if you would think that there are a lot of false prophets saying 00:16:34.580 |
all kinds of things, guaranteeing all kinds of bad things, good things that are bad. 00:16:43.420 |
Matthew 7.15-20 says that you and I need to beware, okay? 00:16:48.160 |
That you will be able to pick out a false prophet by his fruits. 00:16:51.820 |
Grapes grow on grapevines, figs grow on fig trees. 00:16:56.300 |
True God-word genuine and real fruits come from true servants of God. 00:17:01.260 |
Bad fruit comes from the likes of these false prophets. 00:17:11.300 |
What are these good fruits that Christians must look for, not just in their spiritual 00:17:41.480 |
And that is the question that I want to ask you today. 00:17:49.400 |
Matthew 7.15-20, don't blindly follow, don't follow the blind. 00:17:55.000 |
So make sure if you really want to find yourself on the small and the narrow, that you're paying 00:18:04.440 |
And you get to this last section in Matthew 7, and this is where I'll be spending most 00:18:14.880 |
Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who 00:18:18.640 |
does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. 00:18:23.000 |
Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your 00:18:26.920 |
name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?" 00:18:31.680 |
And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you. 00:18:35.960 |
Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." 00:18:40.560 |
This is one of the scariest passages in all the Bible. 00:18:46.840 |
This section here used to keep me awake at night. 00:18:58.200 |
What we may think of fruits and what Scriptures define as good fruits actually may be very 00:19:09.880 |
And so what do these many, what kind of fruit do these many have that doesn't quite fit 00:19:19.880 |
First they called Jesus by the right title, okay? 00:19:27.440 |
So these false people believe that Jesus was God. 00:19:35.480 |
And you guys know that just believing God is not enough, right? 00:19:44.840 |
Even the demons believe and they, you guys are, the 69 of you who are memorizing James, 00:19:57.280 |
So these guys also prophesied in Jesus' name. 00:20:02.800 |
And prophesying is not necessarily teaching about or predicting the future. 00:20:09.080 |
When the Bible talks about prophesying, it means handling the Word of God in Jesus' name. 00:20:18.240 |
So these many, these fellows who are on the wide and the broad, they are calling God correctly 00:20:30.980 |
They are accurately in Jesus' name teaching the Scriptures, handling His Word, perhaps 00:20:51.920 |
If you saw someone casting out a demon legitimately, you would assume that that person is on the 00:21:07.320 |
If someone was like flailing, clearly demon possessed, and a pastor of the church walked 00:21:13.560 |
up to that person, laid his hand, and just prayed, and all of a sudden the person calms 00:21:29.400 |
You would literally be a little uneasy when you're around someone with this kind of power. 00:21:35.600 |
So this guy, Lord, Lord, handles prophesying in the name of Jesus, casting out demons in 00:21:44.200 |
the name of Jesus, and they are performing a miracle, miracles. 00:21:51.240 |
If you saw me, Peter Chung, perform one miracle, if you saw me perform just one miracle, you 00:22:03.280 |
would be amazed, especially if it wasn't like an illusion. 00:22:06.720 |
If it literally was a legit miracle, you'd probably be amazed. 00:22:13.160 |
And you may be tempted to think without a doubt, "Oh, that PPC guy has divine power." 00:22:30.440 |
What if someone had cancer, and I put my hands on that person's shoulder, prayed for that 00:22:36.080 |
person, and next thing you know, the following week, that person is healed of cancer? 00:22:40.880 |
You would think that I am on the right side of God for not just one miracle, but many. 00:22:53.760 |
In verse 23, Jesus says to these guys who have called him the right name, prophesied 00:23:03.760 |
in his name, cast out demons in his name, and performed many miracles in his name, Jesus 00:23:09.160 |
does not say, "No, you didn't do these things." 00:23:25.320 |
Acknowledging rightly who the Lord is, accurately handling and spouting off teachings and correct 00:23:31.080 |
doctrine, casting out demonic influences and performing supernatural miracles are not the 00:23:40.640 |
These are not the distinguishing marks of a God-approved spiritual leader or a God-approved 00:23:53.320 |
So in other words, I'm going to personalize this a little bit for you. 00:23:58.120 |
Don't automatically assume that every pastor or elder at Berean are ourselves on the small 00:24:10.360 |
Don't ever blindly trust me as the BAM pastor. 00:24:14.800 |
I may be a charlatan or a fraud, and I might not even be aware of that. 00:24:26.600 |
And here are some things that you guys now have known me for about a year, for most of 00:24:34.360 |
But here are some things you may be tempted to trust in me. 00:24:42.960 |
There are many people who would love to be a pastor at Berean. 00:24:56.480 |
So I could have purchased my ordination in Korea, but I waited five for here. 00:25:05.540 |
Second, I've spent nearly a decade doing Great Commission work. 00:25:10.040 |
In fact, you can say I've even risked my life. 00:25:15.480 |
I've gone into North Korea twice after having a will written to scope out orphanages all 00:25:29.200 |
And I've seen, people say, to have a decent handle on the Bible, Pastor Peter Kim trusts 00:25:36.600 |
And when I preach, occasionally, not all the time, I may even cry. 00:25:43.000 |
So these are things that might cause you to want to put your trust in what I say and listen 00:25:58.200 |
If I objectively assess myself and if I could raise someone from the dead or heal someone 00:26:09.440 |
from cancer, that really would help my case, would it not? 00:26:13.480 |
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your 00:26:21.120 |
I want to draw your attention to someone who did these things in even the context of the 00:26:28.680 |
There was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the name of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 00:26:41.520 |
He was with Jesus just like the other apostles for most of the three years Jesus did his 00:26:53.840 |
Usually the people who are in charge of finances or accounts, you just assume that they're 00:27:04.120 |
So we have some people in charge of our money, our BAM account, right? 00:27:12.360 |
Whoever is handling money, we naturally assume that they're a little bit more trustworthy 00:27:17.280 |
than the others and that they're good at math, hopefully, right? 00:27:22.640 |
In Matthew 10, you also see that Judas was given authority to heal the sick, raise the 00:27:34.440 |
Freely you've been given, freely you've received, freely give, it says in Matthew 10. 00:27:43.600 |
He knew how to even perform miracles that at that time would have astounded people. 00:27:55.800 |
Judas actually usually gives the right answer too and he's fast. 00:28:02.160 |
If you actually look at Matthew 25, it ends with this whole thing on why we need to serve 00:28:10.240 |
Matthew 25, when I was hungry, you gave me something to eat. 00:28:13.200 |
When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. 00:28:14.940 |
When I was a wanderer, a soldier, you took me in. 00:28:25.800 |
And this whole section about how God is judging depending on how they handle the poor is immediately 00:28:39.000 |
A woman breaks an alabaster jar of fine perfume and one of the disciples in Matthew 26 says, 00:28:51.820 |
This could have been sold in the money given to the poor." 00:28:59.560 |
And you look at John's account, that was Judas who said that. 00:29:04.280 |
Judas can hear a good sermon and verbally give the right answer where the other disciples 00:29:19.580 |
Keep your finger here on Matthew 7 and I'm going to do a little bit of Bible study with 00:29:28.240 |
In John 13, people know better as the love chapter, okay? 00:29:33.200 |
I want to show you, I think of it as the Judas chapter. 00:29:45.760 |
So verse 2, we see that the devil has put into Judas' heart to portray Jesus. 00:29:55.240 |
On a side note, Jesus washes his feet with tender love. 00:30:04.120 |
He knows that Judas set up this betrayal already and he's washing Judas' feet like he would 00:30:08.840 |
the other 11 with the same compassion and love. 00:30:14.520 |
But anyway, in verse 2, Judas is put, the devil puts in his heart to portray him. 00:30:21.560 |
Verse 10, Jesus is starting to get a little bit spiritually agitated and he says in verse 00:30:32.880 |
That's the first time Jesus is pointing to a betrayer. 00:30:43.640 |
Second time Jesus is talking about a betrayer. 00:30:47.080 |
Verse 21, "One of you will betray me," he says more explicitly. 00:30:55.720 |
Verse 22, "The disciples began looking at one another at a loss to know of which one 00:31:15.380 |
If you don't pick up on that there, we're going to keep reading. 00:31:22.640 |
So Simon Peter gestured to him and said to him, "Jesus, tell us who it is of whom he 00:31:32.720 |
We have no idea one of us is going to betray you." 00:31:38.840 |
Verse 28 to 29, Jesus in front of everybody says, "Whatever you're going to do, go and 00:31:50.640 |
Jesus said, "Whoever I give this to is going to betray me." 00:31:53.240 |
He gives it to Judas and Judas hears, "Whatever you're going to do, go and do quickly." 00:31:58.320 |
In verse 29, 28, 29, "Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose 00:32:06.640 |
For some were supposing because Judas had the money box that Jesus was saying to him, 00:32:11.080 |
'Buy the things we have need of for the feast,' or else that he should give something to the 00:32:23.080 |
That's fourth time that Jesus says, "One of you is going to betray me." 00:32:29.560 |
He actually points to Judas as the betrayer and the disciples have no clue. 00:32:40.100 |
I remember as a child, I've had lots of children's Bibles, but I remember there's a one coloring 00:32:45.960 |
book, like a Jesus and his disciples coloring book that I had, and in every page, you could 00:32:57.000 |
He always has like a ... He's always like, "Every page, you knew right away who Judas 00:33:08.180 |
If you look at paintings of the disciples, you know who Judas is. 00:33:20.080 |
Judas was probably the last person they assumed would betray Jesus. 00:33:33.240 |
Judas probably had no idea that he would do this when he signed up to be a disciple. 00:33:47.920 |
Why does God tell the likes of Samuel, and in a sense, to all of us, not to appearances? 00:33:57.160 |
Because your spiritual vision and my spiritual vision are horrible. 00:34:05.040 |
We do not know how to judge people rightly in the flesh. 00:34:13.060 |
So Matthew 7, 21 to 23, I want to turn our attention back there. 00:34:24.800 |
Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord, we'll enter the kingdom of heaven, but he 00:34:27.400 |
who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter." 00:34:30.440 |
Many will say to me, like Judas, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? 00:34:34.400 |
In your name cast out demons, and in your name perform merry miracles, and then I will 00:34:40.440 |
Apart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'" 00:34:43.060 |
Matthew 27, verse 3, it says, "When Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned, he felt 00:34:51.220 |
remorse and he returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders." 00:35:01.540 |
And I like to think through sometimes what was going through Judas' mind. 00:35:09.260 |
It doesn't say he wept, but I would assume he did. 00:35:17.060 |
And I heard initially when people commit suicide or attempt to commit suicide, there's a lot 00:35:24.940 |
of weeping and a lot of snot and a lot of tears the first time around because there's 00:35:32.980 |
Judas felt remorse, sadness, regret, remorse. 00:35:41.340 |
That's important to remember that the worldly sorrow does not lead to life. 00:35:47.740 |
So you and I feeling badly about not being perfect, you and I feeling badly about a sin 00:35:58.780 |
That could just be worldly sorrow, aka remorse. 00:36:18.940 |
The Greek word is homologuesoi, so, so, homologueso. 00:36:28.860 |
This is the only time he uses this word in all the Gospel of Matthew. 00:36:32.740 |
Jesus says, "Then I will declare homologueso to them. 00:36:48.220 |
If you read John 5:22, you'll read that God the Father gives God the Son all judgment. 00:36:57.500 |
And here you actually get a little preview of Revelation 20, the great white throne judgment. 00:37:04.420 |
And you see in verse 23 the shock of many who say, "Did we not?" 00:37:12.580 |
And the judge says, "I never," he declares it. 00:37:16.460 |
A declaration is a pronouncement that cannot be reversed. 00:37:20.660 |
"I never knew you, depart from me you who practice lawlessness." 00:37:26.180 |
So can you imagine with me, let's say you've given tons of money to the church. 00:37:33.100 |
Let's say you ended up serving the Lord as a pastor or a long-term missionary. 00:37:37.600 |
Let's imagine that you've shared verbally the Gospel with people. 00:37:42.340 |
Let's say you've done lots of, lots of Christian-y things. 00:37:45.480 |
You've been a member at a Bible teaching church for a few decades. 00:37:50.300 |
And you get to the throne of God and you hear this irreversible pronouncement, "I never 00:38:15.300 |
I think I would do more than weeping and gnashing of teeth. 00:38:26.820 |
The point of this first sermon that we're talking about tonight, here's what it's not. 00:38:33.140 |
First, I'm not encouraging you to start judging people and wondering whether or not they're 00:38:51.580 |
You know, that guy lost his temper on the basketball court. 00:38:58.740 |
Elder Philip occasionally falls asleep during service. 00:39:07.680 |
For you to go around and say, "Ooh, bad fruit. 00:39:12.660 |
Oh, you had a good sermon, but that doesn't mean you're a Christian." 00:39:20.020 |
Second, I'm not telling you to never trust or submit to the leadership at Berean. 00:39:27.100 |
Just don't fully give all of your trust to us. 00:39:32.220 |
Is submitting to the leadership of the church, is that biblical? 00:39:39.700 |
Third, I'm not telling you to spiritually freak out and start doubting your salvation, 00:39:45.340 |
although that might be what you feel like doing right now. 00:39:55.900 |
You might right now be wondering, "How do I then know? 00:40:05.740 |
Because right now, I am scared that verse 23 is going to be said to me at the end of 00:40:23.860 |
This is what I am doing to start off our retreat. 00:40:30.100 |
First one, 2 Corinthians 13.5, there's an encouragement for you and me to examine ourselves. 00:40:39.740 |
It says, "Examine yourself to see whether you are of the faith. 00:40:49.480 |
Don't you realize that Christ Jesus is in you?" 00:41:00.060 |
It is a healthy thing for you, occasionally, to check the location of your spiritual feet 00:41:07.740 |
and wonder, "Am I on the small, gated, narrow road?" 00:41:16.260 |
It is a healthy thing for you, occasionally, to examine your location with the help of 00:41:30.260 |
And you will discover, if Christ is in you, you will be sure. 00:41:43.220 |
If the Holy Spirit of God is residing in your heart, you will know for certain. 00:41:54.620 |
You can't not know this if Christ is in your heart. 00:42:05.100 |
If you look into your heart, if you check your spiritual feet and you're thinking through, 00:42:13.540 |
If the Word of God, by the empowering of the Holy Spirit, starts judging the thoughts and 00:42:18.620 |
attitudes of your heart, He will make clear whether or not you really have His Spirit 00:42:36.500 |
This is not a call to trick yourself into thinking, "I am saved," when you're not. 00:42:41.620 |
But if Jesus Christ is powerfully residing in your heart, you will know for sure. 00:42:48.340 |
If you don't, keep examining yourself, is my encouragement. 00:42:54.020 |
And also, the second thing I want to do is just kind of set up the parameters for our 00:43:01.260 |
Recognize that you and I are naturally religious creatures, okay? 00:43:10.180 |
And we judge others and ourselves by what we see on the outside, right? 00:43:22.740 |
But here's what a relationship with Christ is not, and this is what I tell our Sunday 00:43:32.580 |
If you are trying to be more moral, you may succeed in improving your morality, but that 00:43:39.500 |
doesn't necessarily change your standing with Christ. 00:43:45.740 |
Two, conformity to the church's expectations is also not genuine faith. 00:44:07.020 |
All of these things that you feel conforming to the church's standards is not genuine salvation. 00:44:20.020 |
Second one is conforming to the church's standards. 00:44:28.300 |
Now, if the spirit of Christ is dwelling in your hearts, will you be more moral? 00:44:42.180 |
If the spirit of Christ is dwelling within you, will you conform and fight for the church's 00:44:50.180 |
You won't feel judged by the church's expectations or that bar, but you will set it. 00:45:05.360 |
So the application to this sermon is not to try to cuss less, to watch less, to do more, 00:45:17.100 |
The application is, "Is Christ in my heart?" and to examine that. 00:45:27.420 |
Jesus Christ wants your soul, but you know who wants to kill your soul? 00:45:55.380 |
And He will do everything in His power to kill you and everyone around you who loves 00:46:07.420 |
First Timothy 6.12, it says, "Fight the good fight of the faith." 00:46:19.740 |
And back then, when you say, "Agonize the agony," you're looking at two boxers who have 00:46:24.260 |
leather-like sashes wrapped around their hands, and inside those sashes are woven in glass, 00:46:32.060 |
bone, sand, rock, so that when you fight, what happens? 00:46:37.280 |
If you hit someone in the face with that on you, what happens to their face? 00:46:45.520 |
Usually when two boxers in those times, usually slaves, are pitted against each other, one 00:46:58.320 |
So the loser died, the victor ended up crippled. 00:47:04.840 |
So the rest of his life, he's walking around laying. 00:47:08.760 |
But that is the kind of picture that we see when Paul says, "Fight the good fight of the 00:47:13.800 |
You need to fight like your life and soul depends on it. 00:47:40.960 |
He hates you with a passion and a fiery hatred. 00:47:52.320 |
He doesn't just go for your head and chop off your head, figuratively speaking. 00:47:58.760 |
He would prefer to infect you with some kind of disease so that you take it back and infect 00:48:24.680 |
If you see a cockroach, you can do one of two things. 00:48:29.920 |
Or you could set a trap, and a lot of those traps have what? 00:48:36.000 |
So this cockroach is going to town on this little, like, the trap, medicine ball. 00:48:40.480 |
Long time ago when I was growing up in like the '80s, they had actually the sticky traps 00:48:46.960 |
But now they got creative and had these poisons so the roach goes into their nest and kills 00:48:57.540 |
The way he wants to kill you is not outright just chop off your spiritual, like, neck. 00:49:09.640 |
He wants you to drift so that everyone who's looking at you as the Christian standard in 00:49:15.480 |
their life will also think it's okay to drift until you have a whole army of people on this 00:49:24.960 |
At the end, we've done the Bible church stuff. 00:49:54.920 |
Is it important to regularly check to see where your spiritual feet are? 00:50:08.660 |
Application for tonight is not dread because in my skewed opinion, it's tainted, okay? 00:50:28.800 |
Otherwise, you wouldn't want to be here listening to the Word of God. 00:50:33.640 |
But examine yourself so that you can know for a little bit more of a certain standard 00:50:47.680 |
Because even if an apostle of Jesus Christ can drift and end up where he had no idea 00:51:02.280 |
My hope is that it sobers us so that tomorrow when we're thinking about what then do we 00:51:17.640 |
Assume that you may not be on the small and narrow and then work backward. 00:51:29.720 |
You know, Scripture says, "Well, you know, believe and don't doubt." 00:51:39.280 |
Here it says, "Examine your life really to see if you are of the faith." 00:51:47.960 |
If the fruits of the Spirit, if that spiritual DNA is evident in you, examine that. 00:51:55.480 |
If it's not, repent because it's not too late. 00:52:00.880 |
These are things that we want to talk about in our small groups. 00:52:04.280 |
This is a great way to start the retreat, huh? 00:52:06.960 |
You might not be going to heaven, but again, remember my purpose in sharing this is to 00:52:14.640 |
show you how a slight drift can cause you to become a Judas Iscariot, which is the last 00:52:27.120 |
Though you spent three years by my side, though you had authority, I never knew you." 00:52:35.960 |
In the book of Acts 1, it says, "It would have been better if he wasn't born." 00:52:42.400 |
And tomorrow, we're going to start seeing as we examine and conclude that Christ is 00:52:49.160 |
in us, what do we do to protect ourselves from drifting? 00:53:02.680 |
And I pray that you commit to me that I don't drift. 00:53:08.080 |
And I need to commit to you that you don't drift. 00:53:10.280 |
And we're going to learn about that tomorrow too. 00:53:13.560 |
So that together, we really can serve the Lord faithfully so that the end of our lives 00:53:32.000 |
So we're going to break up into our small groups.