back to index2019-03-27: Wed Bible Study Lesson 10
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Our God, we want to thank you for your precious word. 00:00:07.320 |
Pray Lord, God, that you would cause your word to affect us deeply. 00:00:12.120 |
Would your spirit convict us of the various sins in our lives? 00:00:17.000 |
Would your spirit convict us of the righteous standard of our Lord and cause us, Lord, to 00:00:22.040 |
be empowered, to put aside the things that are unpleasing to you, to put aside the things 00:00:28.360 |
that are offensive to you, Lord, and desire all the more to reflect Christ in our lives. 00:00:34.160 |
We desire this, Lord, God, in our everyday, whether we're at work, home, school, whatever 00:00:39.800 |
it may be, that God, we would truly be imitators of the Lord in all of his character. 00:00:46.440 |
And I pray, God, that you would continue to guide us to that goal. 00:00:55.680 |
So as you guys know, Pastor Peter and the family are leaving tonight, actually. 00:01:02.640 |
They're going to be visiting China area and then heading out to Korea and then come back 00:01:11.600 |
Before I forget, I do want to mention that because the collegians are on their spring 00:01:15.600 |
break, we again need to wrap things up and reset the sanctuary after the study's over. 00:01:22.120 |
So when your group is done with discussion and all that kind of stuff, and you're headed 00:01:25.640 |
off to get some snacks, please make sure just to stack away your table and your chairs. 00:01:30.660 |
And then around 10, 15-ish, after we've had some snacks, then we'll bring the brown chairs 00:01:38.280 |
Well, because we've been giving several Bible study tips, remember that those are all various 00:01:45.760 |
tips that should be helpful for you in your study. 00:01:50.040 |
Last time we talked about using tools, like using the Strong's numbers to look at a specific 00:01:55.800 |
Previously, we talked about identifying specific things. 00:01:58.400 |
Well, I just want to say for today's just super brief tip, remember that we're never 00:02:07.400 |
You don't clean your teeth in one brush and say, "Done." 00:02:12.600 |
The whole idea is through repeated process of reading and observing, you're going to 00:02:18.200 |
glean lots of different facets of the passage. 00:02:21.640 |
What I recommend typically is that if you're doing not just a broad reading, because sometimes 00:02:27.800 |
it's just good to go through the Bible in its flow, so you just do a long reading. 00:02:32.240 |
But if you're doing a smaller portion and you're reading it methodically, it's good 00:02:38.160 |
And in those times of reading, I recommend definitely reading things in context. 00:02:43.680 |
So for tonight too, let's make sure to read this from verse one down to verse nine. 00:02:52.000 |
It says, "Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. 00:02:59.080 |
Since Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on the things above, not 00:03:06.000 |
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 00:03:09.400 |
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in 00:03:14.720 |
Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, 00:03:21.120 |
evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 00:03:24.480 |
For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. 00:03:29.360 |
And in them you also once walked when you were living in them, but now you also put 00:03:34.720 |
them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 00:03:41.500 |
Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices." 00:03:48.440 |
We take a moment to pause there, but you know that in context, you actually see a good flow 00:03:55.480 |
even from verse one all the way through verse nine. 00:03:59.420 |
Starting with verse one saying, "If you've been raised with Christ," and then with verse 00:04:03.440 |
nine saying, "Since you have already put aside the old self and its evil practices." 00:04:11.900 |
And if you read on, this whole section from verses one down through verse 17, you know 00:04:17.740 |
that the main thrust of it is going to be your transformation. 00:04:22.360 |
This application of portion is going to be your transformation in the death and resurrection 00:04:27.760 |
of Christ, realizing you putting off the old man and putting on things that are resembling 00:04:35.920 |
Also, as the quick tip goes, remember that we want to read again to make sure that we 00:04:45.920 |
This I've mentioned before, so I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time, but whenever 00:04:52.440 |
It's kind of weird saying I love these words, right? 00:04:56.560 |
It says, "Therefore," and then you have, you identify some of these things. 00:05:01.360 |
I'm going to save the command for a little bit later, but later on when it says, "For," 00:05:14.120 |
The "for" tells you the idea of "for it is because," okay? 00:05:18.840 |
These contrasting words of, "But now," those are good flow words to think through. 00:05:33.840 |
If I highlighted those three transitional words, typically I can give you a three-point 00:05:40.240 |
Three points of the thoughts and flow of that paragraph. 00:05:44.080 |
What's more, the tip is make sure you're reading for observation and identification. 00:05:48.800 |
This is where you're making sure that you're highlighting especially key commands. 00:05:55.560 |
If you're reading Old Testament, you want to look at the verbs because the language 00:06:01.920 |
When you're looking at the New Testament, you also want to make sure you're paying special 00:06:07.520 |
So when it tells you to consider dead, when it tells you, let's see, down later on, that 00:06:13.920 |
you need to put them all aside, and then when it tells you, "Do not lie," you see those 00:06:18.480 |
commandments and I can give you another three-point outline, right? 00:06:23.060 |
You can get the main thrust and the themes from identifying those special terms. 00:06:30.760 |
You should read it again to ask those questions. 00:06:55.280 |
And then you wanna make sure you read it again to give it that summary, to make sure you 00:06:59.880 |
understand the thrust of the passage and you are able to actually give a concise understanding 00:07:07.460 |
of what the convicting message of that passage is, right? 00:07:10.880 |
So typically, again, Pastor Peter repeatedly said this, so I'm not gonna spend too much 00:07:16.160 |
more time on this, but the process of that repeated observation is going to lead you 00:07:21.520 |
to identifying certain things that are far above what you can glean from, let's say, 00:07:26.800 |
oh, in a morning's devotional passage from a one-page book that you're reading or something 00:07:37.880 |
Here, starting from the "therefore," we already realized that there were many commandments 00:07:49.640 |
There were commandments that you should keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated, 00:07:57.360 |
The whole mentality is that your mind, your thoughts, your heart, your desire and longing 00:08:04.280 |
So when it comes to here, this command, the one commandment, we have to keep in mind that 00:08:14.720 |
And so we take a look at this first commandment of considering the members of your earthly 00:08:25.320 |
Because if you practice the comparing and contrasting different versions of this passage, 00:08:32.720 |
whether you look at the NASB or, sorry, ESB or the NIV, you would immediately recognize 00:08:38.280 |
like, hey, that command seems a little bit different, right? 00:08:42.600 |
For example, the NIV will say, "Put to death therefore." 00:08:46.120 |
The King James will say, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." 00:08:58.760 |
It seems to me that the NASB tried to keep the contextual flow that your life dead and 00:09:06.520 |
resurrected in Christ should cause you to consider your earthly members than dead, right? 00:09:13.320 |
However, in terms of that passage, it is more in tune with the original Greek to say as 00:09:19.000 |
a more emphatic command, "Put to death therefore." 00:09:23.440 |
In the Greek, the placement of the verbs actually matter as points of emphasis. 00:09:32.160 |
It reads, "Put to death therefore," rather than, "Therefore put to death," right? 00:09:36.860 |
So the whole idea that I'm saying is, there is an emphatic challenge and command for us 00:09:43.120 |
to put to death the sins that are in our lives. 00:09:46.840 |
We take a moment to think about this and later in verse 8, he has this very similar command 00:10:03.280 |
That means for us to cast away and shed like dirty clothing those things that are part 00:10:14.480 |
Now let's take a moment to think about this then. 00:10:18.440 |
We could sit and ask questions about, "Well, what does it mean our earthly body? 00:10:24.080 |
No it doesn't mean the members you don't like in the church. 00:10:27.120 |
And no, it doesn't mean just your hand because your hand makes you to sin. 00:10:31.680 |
It is very, very clear throughout the rest of the passage, the various things you need 00:10:37.760 |
But let's take a moment to feel the conviction of that command when we think about this idea 00:10:45.680 |
We have to remember that this command in order for us to own it and receive it, we have to 00:10:56.600 |
We have to feel the burden of responsibility that the death of the old habits, the death 00:11:02.280 |
and then you start thinking about the long, I call it the laundry list because man it's 00:11:05.720 |
just boom, boom, boom, boom of convicting points. 00:11:08.280 |
Are there immoralities, impurities, the passions, the evil desires, the greed, the anger, the 00:11:16.280 |
It's your responsibility to put to death and you have to bear that responsibility. 00:11:22.520 |
What I'm saying is, I find that as I'm doing lots of counseling, as I find that as I hear 00:11:28.760 |
people complaining about sometimes where their sanctification is, I find that there are lots 00:11:34.720 |
of individuals who use euthemisms for where they are. 00:11:40.240 |
If let's say they find that they're in the midst of struggling with immoral, sexually 00:11:45.040 |
explicit material on the internet, whatever it may be. 00:11:48.320 |
Let's say maybe they're being tempted and they find that their eyes are wandering. 00:11:52.480 |
And then rather than talking about that like, "Wow, I've got these evil, wicked desires 00:11:57.640 |
They talk about it like, "Oh goodness, there's a struggle." 00:12:01.160 |
And sometimes I feel like there isn't that intense passion for Jesus anymore. 00:12:10.960 |
You guys know what I'm talking about now, right? 00:12:13.840 |
Certain times we find ourselves in moments of compromise and sin and we use really euphemistic 00:12:23.800 |
When you do that, you diminish that ownership. 00:12:28.240 |
You diminish that sense of responsibility that I have to purposely, intentionally identify 00:12:35.440 |
the various things that I need to put to death. 00:12:41.800 |
It doesn't happen because you complain God's not doing it for you. 00:12:47.640 |
But rather the command for us is, "You need to be doing this." 00:12:51.560 |
If you please turn your Bibles over to Romans chapter 8, there's an important cross-reference 00:12:56.460 |
that we need to understand to feel that kind of exhortation, "You have to be active in 00:13:03.960 |
You have to be the one diligent to put to death these various things we're gonna learn 00:13:11.040 |
And the passage is Romans chapter 8, verses 12 through 14. 00:13:15.040 |
And the passage says, "So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to 00:13:21.400 |
For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. 00:13:26.360 |
But if by the Spirit you're putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 00:13:30.820 |
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." 00:13:38.120 |
There's an expectation that actively, with a sense of urgency, you are by the Spirit 00:13:50.680 |
Not because you place yourself in the right context. 00:13:53.860 |
Not because you've placed yourself around certain people and influences, but because 00:13:59.100 |
you're actively identifying and killing those sins. 00:14:03.920 |
So, we'll stop there and move to the next section. 00:14:07.480 |
He says, "Put to death, or consider the members of the earthly body as dead." 00:14:13.840 |
And so, if these were the commands of this is the put to death, these would be the targets. 00:14:19.600 |
The sample targets of what you need to put away. 00:14:25.680 |
And he describes here that you need to consider dead or put to death, immorality, impurity, 00:14:33.200 |
passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 00:14:39.360 |
When you look at this passage, you definitely have to carefully take a look and say, "Hmm. 00:14:44.840 |
Are there relationships between the words in this list?" 00:14:56.440 |
This seems really important because, man, I don't know if I categorized or identified... 00:15:06.000 |
If I had greed, if I identified that as idolatry, right? 00:15:11.820 |
If I have the image right now, if I can give you that image of a bunch of individuals just 00:15:15.880 |
bowing down to a gold piece of cow-looking, goat-looking, whatever it may be, that kind 00:15:23.240 |
of imagery is exactly what Apostle Paul is saying that this greed, evil desire, passion, 00:15:29.980 |
And you've gotta ask, "Let's make sense of that. 00:15:34.380 |
How are these maybe desires and immoralities, how do they sum up to be idolatry?" 00:15:44.440 |
What seems to me really clear, I'm gonna draw a little line here, and here in these sins, 00:15:50.320 |
immorality, impurity, and passion, they're talking about sexual lust. 00:15:55.960 |
If you guys did the thing that Pastor Peter talked about, looking up the words, I'm not 00:16:00.160 |
gonna go through every single one now for the sake of time. 00:16:02.760 |
If you didn't get a chance to do it, go do it. 00:16:07.380 |
I really like the website blueletterbible.com, 'cause you can do it just right down the line. 00:16:14.660 |
Somebody posted on our church website that Logos in terms of the base passage is available, 00:16:18.940 |
and you can just use that program to click it. 00:16:21.140 |
But these terms are like pornea and pathos and things like that, is talking about things 00:16:27.180 |
that are sexual perversions, lewd acts, lustfulness. 00:16:32.340 |
So these three terms, they are expressions of sexual sin. 00:16:43.020 |
And what seems to be pretty clear, however, is that these right here are pointing to the 00:16:53.160 |
That the evil desires and the greed in your heart lead and ultimately express itself to 00:17:08.700 |
I definitely believe that there is a progression, a progression of the sins that are produced. 00:17:17.620 |
And what I'm gonna say is, a worldview or an individual's idolatrous or covetous begins 00:17:24.580 |
to have great passions and evil desires, and that produces actions of immorality and impurity. 00:17:32.740 |
And the reason why I say this is because I'm gonna take a moment to think about the covetousness. 00:17:47.060 |
I am owed by this country, by these people, by this God, more than what I have now. 00:17:55.000 |
That mentality is the worldview that produces evil desire in you. 00:18:08.660 |
Next thing I wanna show you is those desires set upon an individual, people, is going to 00:18:17.740 |
When you believe that you are deserving of more, and when you believe that you are actually 00:18:23.500 |
in place of the Lord, deserving to be served, glorified, honored, and whatever it may be, 00:18:31.220 |
pleased by all these various different elements, you're gonna have all these kinds of expressions 00:18:37.020 |
And one that has particularly plagued all of mankind for as long as they've sinned is 00:18:50.100 |
Generally speaking, typically speaking, whether it's a young man or an individual who is falling 00:18:56.420 |
to sexual immorality, they are arrogant individuals who believe they're kings. 00:19:02.440 |
They have a King Solomon syndrome where they wish at some point or another that they could 00:19:06.560 |
have a harem of thousands of women to serve them. 00:19:10.660 |
They're not thinking of themselves as lowly individuals, "Oh, woe is me." 00:19:14.140 |
No, they're thinking of themselves as kings on a throne to have women serve them. 00:19:19.380 |
And that's why typically when I counsel individuals, it's when they come back from work and their 00:19:24.500 |
boss treats them unfairly, they come home and it's like, "I deserve better than that. 00:19:29.340 |
And then they run to using sexual immorality to feed their ego, to feed their arrogance. 00:19:38.640 |
And so I wanted to show you this little chart that I drew up here. 00:19:42.560 |
The way it should be is you and all of creation should be pleasing, serving, and loyal to 00:19:49.580 |
The reason why all of that stuff amounts to idolatry when it comes to all those sexual 00:19:52.980 |
immoralities, your greed and your evil desires is because you turn around. 00:19:57.260 |
God and all of creation should serve, worship, empower, and glorify you. 00:20:06.780 |
And therefore, you set yourself up as opposition to God's design. 00:20:14.340 |
I hope that kind of helped answer those two questions. 00:20:26.660 |
Now when we go back to our passage then, let's go to the next section right here. 00:20:35.420 |
If the command was put to death, this is the why. 00:20:44.660 |
Because what Apostle Paul does is he says, "For it is because of these things that the 00:20:48.940 |
wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience." 00:20:53.220 |
What's really clear here is when you ask the question, "What is the rationale?" 00:20:59.060 |
The why that Apostle gives in this particular section, and I'm going to cut it off right 00:21:11.140 |
What is the motivation that Apostle Paul gives for us to actively put to death those things 00:21:20.340 |
One is the wrath of God, and two, it's your inconsistency. 00:21:26.660 |
Or you can say this, because this was your former life, right? 00:21:37.380 |
So there were the two things that I see here, one and two. 00:21:41.980 |
And so let's take a moment to talk about that a little bit. 00:21:44.900 |
The first of the why should I, and he says it's because God righteously judges by his 00:21:57.660 |
But here, one thing is very true, is that we very much get accustomed. 00:22:05.340 |
I'm not sure if you guys have ever been in a class where your professor is a little bit 00:22:11.420 |
And so each Friday, he's like, "Ah, you know what, you guys, this Friday we're just not 00:22:16.980 |
Next week rolls around, he says, "Ah, you guys, this week we're not going to have a 00:22:20.580 |
And the next thing you know, the third week, he's like, "You know what, guys, we're going 00:22:26.740 |
I mean, typically we just get naturally accustomed to grace. 00:22:32.180 |
But the fact of the matter is that we have to keep in mind, it's not so much like, "You 00:22:37.060 |
guys need to fear God's wrath is coming, like, right now." 00:22:41.660 |
The way I like to say it is this, God has always been the same. 00:22:50.000 |
God has always been fearsome, and God has always been merciful. 00:22:55.420 |
It's just our common, fallen, weird, twisted thing we do in our head where we assume he's 00:23:03.420 |
As a matter of fact, scripture says, like, "God is not mocked. 00:23:08.460 |
You're going to reap what you sow, and God is going to give a just recompense for the 00:23:15.980 |
The fact of the matter is, God is not partial. 00:23:23.180 |
It's that we have been given the unique, unique mercy to hear the message of grace. 00:23:31.220 |
But God is exactly the same as he was in the Old Testament as he is today. 00:23:40.740 |
But what's more, I think this is super important if you take a moment to think about this. 00:23:52.180 |
So here you have certain terms that you start thinking, like, "For, because, since," and 00:23:59.300 |
earlier, oh, it was verse five, uh, verse one, right? 00:24:04.420 |
When you start thinking about that, I love it because Apostle Paul is, like, so reasonable, 00:24:16.780 |
But the thing he's talking about right here in verse seven, it says, "Look, in them you 00:24:20.580 |
once walked when you were living in them," and then this whole command to put them all 00:24:24.660 |
aside, he says, "Since you already laid aside the old self with evil practices," right? 00:24:33.020 |
And this command for us to put aside and put to death is exactly what already took place 00:24:41.900 |
When we received Jesus Christ, we already said, "I am willing to put aside my ambition, 00:24:47.340 |
I'm willing to put aside my desires, I'm willing to put aside my self-esteem, whatever it is 00:24:52.700 |
in my inclination to preserve me, I've already surrendered it to you." 00:25:00.060 |
And the reason why this is so important is because we're going back to the base of the 00:25:04.100 |
Gospel, saying, "God, I've already surrendered everything, and I've died in Christ." 00:25:11.680 |
And so now, when somebody starts saying, "Man, I hear that challenging command to go put 00:25:17.980 |
to death my sin, my lust," this thing that, you know, for some people, they've been struggling 00:25:24.060 |
for years and years, and if there's anything that someone has said, like, "I just don't 00:25:28.700 |
think I can overcome this," a lot of times, it's lust. 00:25:37.580 |
Not so much like, "Oh, have you ever reconciled with Jesus?" 00:25:40.500 |
But, man, is it really, really something where you just can't and you have no power? 00:25:47.380 |
Or is it more on the lines of, "You've forgotten," right? 00:25:51.180 |
"You've forgotten the power that God has given you." 00:25:54.180 |
Is it more just simply, "Man, I really think that my flesh is so powerful, and I can't," 00:26:00.100 |
or is it more so in your heart, you don't want to? 00:26:03.460 |
We gotta start asking some really deep, sometimes excruciating questions. 00:26:09.620 |
If someone is starting to say, "I think I can't. 00:26:13.940 |
From my experience, from my failures, from my track record, I can't. 00:26:28.540 |
Go back to the time when you surrendered to Christ and you laid down your personal ambitions, 00:26:36.700 |
Go back to the moments when you clearly saw the beauty of Jesus and you recognized, "This 00:26:49.460 |
So here, in verse six through seven, again, I wanted to give that challenge. 00:26:54.540 |
It is an attention to the rationale and to why of the putting to death of our earthly 00:27:04.900 |
So now what we're gonna do is this last section here, and then we'll start wrapping things 00:27:11.700 |
In this last section here, I'm gonna say this. 00:27:17.420 |
If all of this, the target was actually idolatry... 00:27:23.220 |
Oops, I didn't mean to put it into green because it's sin. 00:27:31.380 |
Over here, if it was idolatry, over here, this is what I'm gonna say. 00:27:41.220 |
So my titles, I take some time to think about and stuff. 00:27:45.180 |
To me, sometimes when I look back, it's a little cheesy. 00:27:47.300 |
But what I like to call this is stubborn idolatry. 00:27:59.100 |
Anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech from your mouth. 00:28:08.620 |
So let's take a moment to think about these things. 00:28:11.620 |
Again, you have to ask the question, what is the rationale between separating these 00:28:22.820 |
Also, is there a reason why this list is placed here, but this portion of it is placed here? 00:28:36.100 |
Sometimes you're gonna find the answer, sometimes you're not. 00:28:41.060 |
But amongst this column of various sins that you see here, do you see any relationship? 00:28:48.100 |
And this is what I'm gonna say, is earlier, what we noticed with the previous section 00:28:52.460 |
was that there were expressions of sin, immorality, impurity, passion, and it started pointing 00:28:57.220 |
into your heart, evil desires, greed, which is the attitude that's in you producing the 00:29:04.780 |
And then it told you, in summary, all of that at the core nucleus of why you're sinning 00:29:10.500 |
is because you placed yourself at the throne. 00:29:16.820 |
Well, I think what he's doing is he's doing that kind of come to the heart and now work 00:29:22.500 |
'Cause if you think about it, anger, wrath, and malice is attitudes of the heart. 00:29:28.320 |
So if I were to draw a line, I'd put it right here. 00:29:31.220 |
In your heart, when you're angry, and anger kind of talks about that brooding. 00:29:36.700 |
I really, really love looking at the Hebrew words for angry and stuff like that, it's 00:29:42.260 |
It talks about the blowing of the nostrils like a raging bull. 00:29:45.900 |
In the Greek, it also talks about this brooding. 00:29:48.820 |
There's this wrath where, let's say if you go home, you start punching stuff in your 00:29:54.700 |
If there's malice in your heart, that means you're intent on hurting somebody. 00:29:59.620 |
But then, that overflows to slander and abusive speech. 00:30:11.220 |
Now you use a weapon, and that weapon is your mouth. 00:30:14.680 |
You start slandering individuals, you start using abusive words, harsh words, and then 00:30:23.780 |
I don't know if I put it on your piece of paper, but this is the way I would draw it 00:30:28.940 |
That there is idolatry in your heart and there's still covetousness. 00:30:34.540 |
And then there's these evil desires, and it breeds wrath, anger, malice, slander, abusive 00:30:42.740 |
Now why in the world, though, did I call it stubborn idolatry? 00:30:52.620 |
When I want this so bad, and I'm not willing to surrender to this, do you know what happens? 00:31:01.300 |
When people are not serving me like they should, when God... 00:31:06.820 |
When God is not giving me the expectations that I had, that if he joined my life, that 00:31:11.220 |
he would all of a sudden make it more peaceful, more lovely, and good. 00:31:15.800 |
If my image is not what I all hoped it to be, you know what I'm getting at, right? 00:31:20.100 |
When you are so bent on having this, guess what happens to your heart? 00:31:30.420 |
Now you will use various tools to get at what you desire. 00:31:38.180 |
When you want this so bad that you're willing to slander, that's what you're gonna see. 00:31:45.140 |
Then a little while ago, I was actually studying Colossians for another study. 00:31:50.580 |
A while back, I taught Colossians for a youth group, and then I posted on the internet a 00:32:05.100 |
Martha was not invited to a birthday party that a bunch of the friends were invited, 00:32:08.780 |
and all of a sudden, she got really angry, right? 00:32:12.340 |
And I posed on there, what if she got so angry, she got so mad, she started to fall away from 00:32:17.100 |
the fellowship, and then she decided, "I'm leaving. 00:32:33.460 |
It's a desire to get you thinking about this stuff, because it's a highly plausible scenario. 00:32:40.820 |
You don't wanna get invited, all of a sudden, it's just like, "What do they think about 00:32:48.300 |
You know how many times I've thrown birthday parties for them? 00:32:53.740 |
And then maybe they'll go home and they'll get really upset. 00:32:55.660 |
And then, yeah, they'll come home, they'll throw their bag. 00:32:57.860 |
And all of a sudden, when no one's watching, their wrath comes out. 00:33:08.740 |
And sometimes, we don't even know it, but subconsciously, we might say stuff like that. 00:33:12.700 |
Like, "I'm gonna make them feel the burn of what they did to me." 00:33:15.500 |
Next thing you know, they come talk to you, and you're like, "What do you want?" 00:33:18.940 |
Your attitude comes out and your words are sharp. 00:33:24.460 |
"Oh, oh, that person, you can invest all your life into them, and they don't care." 00:33:31.980 |
Now you raised it to that person will never care about you? 00:33:37.500 |
But I do think, I do think that when we come back to this idea of why lying is separated, 00:33:48.460 |
is because that is at the heart of a lot of anger, wrath, malice, slander. 00:33:56.140 |
In order for you to retain your stubborn ideology, guess what you have to do? 00:34:01.540 |
You have to hunker down, double down into your lie. 00:34:06.020 |
You are the biggest fraud when you set yourself up as an idol. 00:34:10.060 |
You're living the biggest lie when you think you have every right to be angry and mad at 00:34:14.580 |
the world, at God, and how horrible everybody else is. 00:34:19.660 |
If you've ever dealt with an incredibly angry, malicious individual, they have many lies 00:34:28.500 |
But that's because that stubborn, stubborn, idolatrous living of, "You should serve me, 00:34:33.420 |
and you should serve me," you have to live in lies. 00:34:40.500 |
And so Apostle Paul says, "Stop defrauding each other. 00:34:49.420 |
When we have that kind of mentality, we are literally robbing, robbing what other people 00:34:57.220 |
The people around you are created with all rest of creation, including you, to worship 00:35:10.540 |
I spent some time on this, so I wanted to make sure I showed it. 00:35:19.180 |
To place yourself as just one of the many creation of God intended to serve the Lord. 00:35:27.180 |
When you operate in that reality, much of the rest of the expressions and much of the 00:35:32.100 |
rest of the things that enter into your life are going to actually be in peace. 00:35:39.340 |
And as a way of conclusion, I again wanna say, the initial challenge for us was to seek 00:35:50.540 |
That absolutely necessitates we put away the things that are incompatible with Christ, 00:36:00.860 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your grace. 00:36:09.880 |
As God Almighty, to see little creatures set themselves up as having little invisible thrones, 00:36:19.420 |
And God, we recognize it must be sometimes so irritating. 00:36:24.380 |
And we understand why your word says that you stand opposed to the proud. 00:36:29.320 |
I pray, Father God, that you would instill in our hearts humility to recognize, God, 00:36:36.640 |
And that if there's anything in our flesh, in our heart, and in our mind that desires 00:36:41.340 |
so much to be more important than we really are, I pray, Father God, that you would give 00:36:48.300 |
Lord, we wanna thank you again so much for the word that you have for us today.