Finding Jesus
Lessons from Matthew & Luke 2
Video can’t be displayed
This video is not available.
Sermon Transcript
Auto-generated by YouTube
good morning welcome it's a little bit more full in here this morning than it was last week and that's a good thing don't worry it's cool all right if you're new here my name is Gene I serve here at C3 Church as your pastor and I have a question that you don't have to answer out loud but I wonder how many other people here have been lost as a kid and I've talked about this in the past it happened to me as a kid when my mom would be shopping we talked about her in the past she finds the clearance rack so she can win Christmas right so she goes to the clearance bin or the clearance rack and forgets everything else in the world right so there's just nothing else including your child going on at the same time I could be under and I don't know like if they call them this anymore The Rounders right they were like a magical hiding place like where you go under the rounder and you'd have a pre-made tent it's great right so as long as you can see your mom's feet you think you're okay or the toy aisle where there are all the things because they're not on sale they're things that I'm not going to be getting I'm not going to be playing with these things so here's what I decide I can have play time right here in the aisle with the toys so that's what I do and right as long as you think you can see your parents leg you're good right so here's what happens you know you do the leg check either you know you got it in the peripheral you touch it it's okay go back to your playing you touch it and then eventually here's what happens you touch a leg and you hear are you lost and panic sets in right so the deep breathing and it goes gradually right Mom mom that changes mommy your eyes are screaming right what's going on so here's the thing if one of your little ones if you have them touches my leg you may have heard or hear something like this I'm not your dad immediately right so law enforcement they know why I'm doing that right because we don't have any time to lose wake up wake up let's go I have some questions here we need to get through them I don't have time for mommy mommy or any deep breathing we gotta go we gotta find your mom also here's what happens you're a child if I've done this to you has immediately found you that's what happens they're like whoa you know what I mean like I'm getting out of there so it works right so we don't have time for any of this stuff it works it's not rude so on the other side here's what you have going on my mom in the clearance bed so she's in there and there's just nothing else in the world and here's what she finds an untagged toy a toy without a tag on it but it's a new one and she knows it right so she's gonna game the system she gets the sales associate come on over here this doesn't have a tag on it you know you need to Market clearance well let me check right so she goes and checks comes back no ma'am it was just in the Clarence bin by accident well now the argument starts right we'll get a manager that doesn't work right it's in it's in clearance it's clearance that's it you're like no that's not the way it works ma'am and this becomes she's not going to win it becomes sobering sobering enough to realize she has a kid then she goes through the cycles right like in my case like Gene Gene it's the same song you think Gene and then it changes too Genie you know it's like my little baby name she starts my son right so then the Good Samaritan hears this and goes ah you see why I did that I got it quiet enough because if you're doing the mommy thing we might not have heard this here this is your mom and then here's the process of the emotions you have the Panic going on and there's this brief stint of gratitude to the Good Samaritan but that goes away really quick right so thank you so much and then it goes to anger and this is all right anger and get real alone so she's yelling at you with her face right so they already know I'm a bad parent they don't have to know him but really really bad parent come with me and so it's been in there picks you up right now got Mom strength and so there I am with the toy and I drop it right in the clearance bin that's how that got there all right there it's your fault it's all your fault so uh anyway so welcome to Southwest Florida if you're new I'll tell you about a little something we don't just lose our little people here we lose our old people here it's a real thing and I'll tell you about something it took me a little while I'll rip this Band-Aid right off you don't even have to have this conversation in the car so I was on the highway and I saw this sign and it's like one of those signs that you can change I don't know where the computers are changing tomorrow but they changed them right and so it's a Silver Alert and then there's a description of a car and so at first I'm thinking wow they're like crime fighting Geniuses here in Florida right if someone steals a car and then we're all on the lookout for a stolen car I'm looking around I'm thinking wait a minute what does this really mean and so I looked it up I'll be honest I looked it up silver alert and I'd be honest about something else all right so we're going to talk about the sinful nature I laughed I laughed I thought it was funny they lose their whole people here like this is so funny Sharon my wife do you know what that is no you know so we're talking about it and I'm like okay but hold on hold on so we lost an old version and it's just a description of the car they may or may not be driving what if they ditched the car so it makes sense so of course I'm going to fix the whole system right so here's what I do I'm like okay we need a description of the person and so I started going through it right and I'm like okay male female that would be nice all right gray hair Silver Alert so there we go right uh look comfy shoes you know what I mean that's that's good comfy shoes uh and then we got like something like uh you know because it's cold in Florida so you got a sweat suit or members only jacket oh that's why they didn't do it because they all look the same so anyway back to the car right so here's the funny thing this is like talking about Sin and so he's like oh my gosh you talked about old people he's gonna offend people nope that's not the way it works preaching secret one-on-one the person who's old is always thinking about someone older than them that's the thing so right when sin right you're going to start thinking about someone who does that more than you at least I'm not that bad Heather talked about that last week don't go there right you're old so anyway so here's what we know here's what we know we know the person is old they don't know where they're going they're lost they don't know where they're going but they're getting there really fast welcome to Naples isn't it like that on the roads so here's the thing I don't think all of them are really lost because here's the thing I've experience with this before they called them silver alerts we lost my grandfather one time at least we thought so right so everyone's calling you know you know have you seen a museum they're all worried all day long everybody's calling they're panicking they're looking around for them all stuff he comes home later and now my grandmother right the anger like where are you all this stuff and he's like I was not lost I was at the movies to get away from her right so that so if your old person has lost can't remain calm all right so they may just be they need some time away from you all that's what it is all right so that was my long way of getting to Jesus going missing that's what we're going to talk about today Jesus went missing at one point and that's we're going to look at in these accounts and so here's the other thing everybody who's been here for a long time they're like oh that was a long joke this is going to be a hard message that's so you know how that works it's okay we'll survive I'll get there just don't be too mad at me be mad at God because that's what I'm you know just quoting the scriptures all right so so here we go we are at we talked about well skipped over so a Christmas time message the birth account of Jesus the genealogies and it led to no matter where you've come from you are welcome in the family of Jesus that was the point Heather kind of shared her testimony and elaborated on that point if you know her story definitely right so you're all welcome here no matter where you're at in that whole thing no matter what you've done no matter where you've come from good you found the right place that was the point so we're back in the rest of the story this is our series and we've learned that the Bible is not in chronological order so I kind of put it back together for you with a chart and here we go so we have to hop around a little bit Matthew's the First Gospel but there are parts of Luke that are kind of here and there and so you see this part of Matthew here it goes right in between these two sections of Luke if you're doing it chronologically so what's kind of cool is today is the eighth and right here in the word of God it is eight days later so kind of neat when that works out we'll start right in Luke 2 21. eight days later when the baby was circumcised he was named Jesus the name given him by the angel even before he was conceived then it was time for their purification offering as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord the law of the Lord says if a woman's first child is a boy he must be dedicated to the Lord so they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord either a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons so here's the thing I put that quote up there and if you look before it it actually says the woman must bring a one-year-old lamb or and then if a woman cannot afford to bring a lamb she must bring to turtle doves or two young pigeons so this gives us a little insight and it's just a place where I can show you again really good to know the Old Testament to a third of the New Testament his Old Testament quotation like we see here and then you get a little background what if she can't afford the land so this speaks volumes about our Lord so right there he decides all right I'm going to come in human form God I'm going to come in human form right so what's he going to do I'm gonna set myself up with a rich family in a mansion no poor people they can't afford the sacrifice offering wow talk about humility and so this is how he comes it gives us a better picture of Jesus so now in the account I'll just mention a few people we have Simeon and Anna and so again I was mentioning that you see the Holy Spirit Alive and active right in the beginning of these gospel accounts and so Simeon is actually being led by the spirit even told by God that you won't die before you've seen the Messiah leads him into the temple area and there's Jesus so now basically I can die I've seen the Messiah so he's blessing the baby's blessing Jesus and He blesses the parents he gives Mary some kind of not so good news and then there's Anna the prophetess too so she's prophesying during this time really interesting so now if we go back to the Chart I want to point some things out I've already ruined Christmas for you guys so we're not going to talk too much about the Magi but uh there's a reason why we don't sing We Three Kings right because they're not Kings only two kings in this account King Jesus and evil King Herod so basically what happens is these Magi and Greek if you are looking at Greek and you do a translator it'll say magicians so like astronomers magicians something like that and so they end up in Jerusalem and they're like where's the Messiah at and people start freaking out especially King Herod right he doesn't need another king right to take over so they're searching the scriptures ah Micah 5 2 that's where it is he'll be born in Bethlehem Aaron's like go there when you find them come back and tell me because I want to worship him too you know so he doesn't want to do that he wants to kill him so they get there they find them again it's different now so why do they put it at a different timeline well we got a couple clues here so we're dealing with the Shepherds and the angels he's in a Manger right no room in the and and the manger here you should immediately pick up on something if you're a careful reader they arrive at the house it's a house and if you read it in the Greek house it's exactly that a house but if you're also reading the Greek some things aren't so obvious in the English depending on your translation Shepherds and Angels it's the word for a newborn baby it's not even child or it's like brand new born like it just got born that's the word that's used there here it's calling him a child so it changes there so the other thing is Herod so they take off they escape the Magi they don't go back to Herod they're warned and so now Herod gets really upset he's been duped and so he has all the kids in that area two years old and younger killed why two years old and that's why some people say this is up to two years later could be maybe he's just hedging his bets but we know it's not that same day right so it's just later on this whole thing happens so we see they escape to Egypt they're worried about this then they come back it fulfills some prophecy here I think Hosea 11 1 they come back to Nazareth so I called my son out of Egypt so it's like this fulfillment of Moses going on here so now about 10 years later in the chart we can go to Luke 2 41. so all that happened right there in between these two accounts in that chapter Luke every year Jesus's parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival when Jesus was 12 years old they attended the festival as usual after the celebration was over they started home to Nazareth but Jesus stayed behind under the toy rack right under the the clothing his parents didn't miss him at first because they assumed he was among the other Travelers but when he didn't show up that evening they started looking for him among their relatives and friends when they couldn't find him they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there three days later they finally discovered him in the temple sitting among the religious teachers listening to them and asking questions all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers his parents didn't know what to think son his mother said to him so maybe she was like that why have you done this to us your father and I have been frantic searching for you everywhere but why did you need to search he asked didn't you know that I must be in my father's house or if you're doing it more literally involved with my father's Affairs but they didn't understand what he meant then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them and his mother stored all these things in her heart Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all his people so this gets noted a couple times right at the beginning here if you're reading the whole thing Jesus grew in wisdom wisdom's a really big thing here and if you remember John the Baptist like the Messiahs Harold we're going to talk about him later so he's going to make people obedient to the wisdom of the righteous it says about him so it's all kind of connects there Jesus is wise we are supposed to be wise as Christians so here we see that Jesus went missing as a boy what we also see in today's accounts are cycles of people finding Jesus so he can draw right from the Shepherds Found Jesus Magi Found Jesus and so we have Simeon expectantly he finds Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit right Anna finds Jesus Jesus's parents find Jesus common denominator here huh so the natural question is have we Found Jesus what does that mean have you found Jesus now we're going to kind of examine this a little bit today and we're going to kind of ask some questions here how do we know how do we know if someone has found Jesus well luckily Jesus tells us so let's look Luke 6 43 if we jump ahead and Luke we're gonna take a look real quick Jesus is speaking a good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't produce good fruit the tree is identified by its fruit pigs are never gathered from Thorn bushes and grapes are not picked from Bramble bushes a good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart what you say flows from what is in your heart so here I'm going to just kind of hop over to Matthew could be the same and it's recorded a little bit differently maybe two different sermons so preachers would go in a circuit Jesus is kind of like on a preaching circuit here and they'll often preach like the same variation on a sermon something like that so here we have this is in The Sermon on the Mount that was in the sermon on the plane it's called so Matthew 7 17. a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit a good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't produce good fruit so every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire yes just as you can identify a tree by its fruit so you can identify people by their actions if we go back to Luke right now here's the people like oh you know I heard it it's okay just stay with me so Jesus says so why do you keep calling me Lord Lord when you don't do what I say he's saying if you know me why aren't you bearing good fruit that's the question when you put all this together here we are to judge a tree by its roots so it's like that thing earlier in Matthew remember Matthew 7 1 don't judge and then people go they just scribble everything up right but but judge so it's a little bit of both so quick quickly quickly on this right so in a church context you're supposed to discern right you're supposed to know like who the people may be you know careful around you know but the pastor's job that's the one who's who's to judge right in that sense and then have the talk with that person or whatever if they sin directly against you you go talk it out that's okay don't gossip or tattletail so that's that's kind of the thing here so it's a little of both don't be judgy Judy judgy right but there's a time and place to judge read First Corinthians 5. he says we do judge those inside the church important so here we see again that point being made by Jesus you judge a tree by its fruit yes you judge so here's the thing though we're going to be judged by our fruit and I said here's what we're going to do today we're going to like holster the fingers some say we're gonna turn around unless we're going to put a mirror up and we're going to look into that mirror today because here's what Jesus says right before that Luke 6 41 and why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own eye how can you think of saying friend let me help you get rid of that Speck in your eye when you can't see past the log in your own eye hypocrite first get rid of the log in your own eye then you'll see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye you see what he's doing here hmm examine yourself and this is what the Bible says and here's what happens a lot in Christianity if you're new here you're going to learn a lot about the attitude of this church right so Jesus hands us a mirror right so like this is kind of the picture of what we're getting here Jesus goes here you go here's a mirror right and so what do you think we're supposed to do with a mirror we're supposed to look into it right why to get like the logs out of our eyes right well just look just concentrate you focus on you you just do that right get that straight now what do a lot of Christians do if I was up here on the stage with a mirror I should have done it it would have been a good illustration right turned they turned it around they start shining the light in other people's eyes correct yeah a lot of it so quick I just can't resist right so when I was a kid I had like a watch and I was really bad in math really bad in school so I was in math class and I had the watch on I noticed that it reflected the light into my teacher's eye and I did it until he lost his mind and kicked me out of the class anyway don't do that but so don't be me before Jesus uh antagonist so but this is what we do right I had to break that up because it was getting really serious there for a minute so this is what they do no we need to use our mirrors to reflect not deflect reflect not deflect no deflection today we're not going to do that we're going to keep it on us right stay in the lane so the Bible calls us to examine ourselves one such place second Corinthians 13 5 examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine test yourselves surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you if not you have failed the test of genuine faith this is what is being said here test yourselves to see if you found Jesus why do you keep calling me Lord Lord but you don't do what I say so this is it so the test and there's another question I've been asked so I'm glad to answer it how well we saw a judge a tree by its fruit but we can do so with scriptures and so that's what I'm going to do today we're going to kind of do an interesting Galatians spirituality test I'm going to use scriptures to make this point I'm going to show you both sides of it here and then we'll all get through this together right so first let's look at the flesh this is concept you have to understand the flesh versus the spirit important so scriptures Galatians 5 16. so I say let the holy spirit guide your lives then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves two different things the sinful nature wants to do evil which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants and the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires these two forces are constantly fighting each other so you're not free to carry out your good intentions so you see the concept here we have a sinful nature it's in all of us we're just born with it right so the Holy Spirit helps clean it out like that's kind of the key so this is what's going on here so it's letting the holy spirit guide our lives this is key like Simeon right guided him to Jesus so we're provided with some evidence here and so if we keep reading here's what goes on Galatians 5 19. when you follow the desires of your sinful nature the results are very clear sexual immorality impurity lustful Pleasures idolatry sorcery hostility quarreling jealousy out of anger selfish ambition dissension division Envy drunkenness wild parties and other sins like these let me tell you again as I've said before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God the other side but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives love joy patience peace sorry kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control there is no law against these things why says that context is about following the law he's trying to get them to stop doing that you don't need to do that we're in Christ now so that's why that's there but you get the point so here's what I did and I want to kind of listen we're going to do kind of a self examination we're going to start the year with the self-examination we're going to examine ourselves and here's a couple things do not worry remain calm because every living human being has done one of the bad things in the first part or maybe all of them that's our sinful what does it say nature right so more literal like the sins of the flesh well why does it say that why does it get translated nature flesh right it's a part of your human makeup like that's not that but who you are right it's a part of just who human beings are so the first thing that I want to do walking into this is to say to all of you that I guess the bad column which way is it for you on the right I've done all that all right I've done all that and I can struggle at times with some of that all right so it's not it's not like I hate this like like he's talking about me you know it's like listen I was not thinking of you as I prepared this sermon don't do that I sit with God and He tells me what we should be working on but I thought about you after I prepared the sermon so just saying but anyway uh so done all that struggle with some of that right as I walk more and more with the Lord less and less of that right so this is the point it's not to say you know you're done like you check that stuff up that's not the point so let's just Identify some of these things in identifying them you you know if you're like some kind of English major you might be looking at it and going that's not the exact definition of that word you know that's not the point that's why people don't understand things because of people like you so I'm trying to make it easy to understand do we understand this like so it's just really easy to understand so I'm going to make this as uncomplicated as possible for you so love here's the thing and also it's also your your your cross referencing it with like the biblical meaning of it as well right so it's not just Merriam-Webster or whatever it is you got to look at the Bible and how to understand these things as Christians so when we look at love love is living yes affection yes right but what comes with that living sacrificially for others right so it could be little things let someone in front of you in the line right whatever it is especially if they have crazy kids right go ahead right so you know showing love sacrificial it could be big things and Jesus says right no greater love than this that someone would die for somebody else big things so the main thing within all that because it's unconditional relational love not transactional so the world everything's transactional according to the word it's not right so the world and the worldly person will use terms like that's not fair right Jesus getting crucified not fair so we begin there right so you've got to flip the thinking it's not transact this means you do this much to me I do that much back to you Jesus talks about that and The Sermon on the Mount right no no no you just take it all right love even your enemies even those persecuting you love unconditional not trans that's the thinking right we need to get our thinking not transactional it's not about that unconditional that's the way Jesus loves so the first thing you got to do is you think about that right so and this is a good exercise think put this in the front of your mind Jesus God right remember he came into that poor family and then he got crucified for you God died a horrible death for you nothing Equitable about that not nothing Fair there's nothing fair about that okay there's no that's it okay start there all right so bring yourself to that's base like stay there all right keep that thought in your head as I go through these joy happiness like a sense of well-being but here's the thing for a Christian it's different it's in all situations you got to read the rest of these letters right have joy always some of these people are in prison they're suffering persecution their families are dying like it's not a good situation in the New Testament for these people but I consider it all joy Hebrews 10. read that when you had everything taken away from you you considered it all joy because you know there are better things waiting for you in heaven if you don't believe me Hebrews 10 write it down joy peace same kind of thing are you at peace with that contentment that's a that's a word contentment you don't you don't hear that right in the world a lot you just need to be content like for all these kind of like Prosperity teachers you know motivational speeches you need to get more very little of like wow especially in Naples come on let's be real here you know this is amazing that I have all this stuff I really don't even need to bother striving for more because look at all those poor people in other countries or right down the road living in the woods patience and the ability to accept all this suffering without getting angry or upset if you really are suffering that's the funny thing I see so many people who identify as Christians you know they like Place themselves as if they're being persecuted somehow I talk to missionaries and they're like really that's persecution but it might happen it hasn't come down patience don't get angry kindness again it's just an extension Paul is kind of like this linear thinking here kindness being kind to people considerate like that word right consider it generous here you first goodness all goes in there virtuous faithfulness remaining loyal and steadfast I would add especially when no one is looking faithfulness gentleness mild-mannered and tender mild mannered calm self-control that's a tough one nobody likes that over everything you're doing in your life self-control I won't elaborate I've done that in the past three less emails okay you know what I mean so let's go to the other bad column here like I thought it was already bad right so sexual immoral now here's here's what I'm going to say about this and this is so this is the mirror thing like big time just get your mirror and keep looking at it don't peek over the mirror nothing don't turn it around just look at your own self in this mirror because this is what happens is what we do not do here and say none it would just be very clear about something none of the sexual sin is okay the way the Bible defines it all right so this is what we believe here at C3 Church marriage between a man and a woman that's what we believe that is what the Bible says that's it okay but when you read lists like First Corinthians 6 and there's like this list all this stuff among like different specific sexual sins there's like a whole bunch of other ones in there too right and so usually the people going about a specific sexual sin are guilty of some of those other ones keep looking into the mirror keep looking into the mirror stop it that's what the church needs to hear all Christians need to hear stop it stop it Jesus said it hypocrite hypocrite stop it all right because here's I've seen this happen a pastor is clearly guilty of not having some of those other things in the other column one specific sexual sin and they go home and they look at porn uh-huh what does Jesus say if you so much as look at a woman with lust you've committed adultery in your heart keep the mirror up so that's why I don't because people approach me about that right like are you too liberal like stop it right because I can start talking about yours right so that's why I do that because no ever again everyone is welcome here I do care but you understand my heart when it says I don't care what the exact space I'm not going to pick on your exact specific sin all right we are all guilty we all need to get better so everybody's welcome here that's what everybody needs here so don't pick your favorites idolatry sorcery trusting in people are things and we're like that's not the little just this is the idea right so if we did sorcery right we're trying to cast a spell or maybe you've got a Ouija board maybe you do you know actually modern day the uh astrology the astrology stuff right so what are you trusting in why are you doing that the root of it is you don't trust God go to the word of God you have everything right there and just trust right so that's it why are you doing that and it could be people or things or institutions that's idolatry it could be a pastor don't trust in me I'm just a humble servant who will die that's it I am nobody so Pastor worship that's another thing people do politicians different things no no no no no no all of our trust must be in God alone it's funny it's not our money right but we don't even realize that so that's idolatry hostility now so I'm going to kind of couple these two the quarreling and the hostility I'm going to get over that so belligerence if you don't know what belligerence it's being warlike wanting a fight you are looking for a fight and you'll find some way to get there right so passive aggressiveness is a big way we get a fight when we want and so we're going to post something that we know like you know whatever your mom isn't going to like right I wasn't doing that with a toy she doesn't talk to me right so anyway so you're right but you know you're going to slip something in there and you're going to ignite the internet right so that's what you're looking to do this hostility but unfriendliness opposition quarreling leads to these things the quarreling the disagreements constantly instead of going back to the other column and going fine you know what I mean like that's great you believe that I'll believe this I told you the truth as the Bible says the blood is not on my hands that's it I'm out I'm going to argue with you about it I'll let the Holy Spirit right so we're better we're better lawyers than the Holy Spirit wouldn't it be better to use some of the other stuff in the other column to get them to Jesus right make that introduction and like let him do the work that all right jealousy Envy this is why a lot of those things happen if we're being real is the enemy you're jealous we call it a hater right you're just a hater that's all you're just there you want to cry you're a hater stop it is that still like modern language I'm going back like 20 years people use that all right cool it's like my daughter's like so old okay so this one's kind of outburst of anger this is a funny one I'm just going to go over a couple quick things people here's the thing if you have not read the Bible cover to cover and you don't do that constantly please do not pluck out of scripture and try to argue with me about it like just don't do that it's not good so here's the thing here's what they do you know I'm angry I'm allowed to do it because Jesus got angry and cleared the temple okay making me angry right so no no no no no no that's it now move on no so anyway it's wrong right so here's a couple things and when a person it's so uh what's the word like revealing you've revealed yourself if you've done that you've revealed a couple things about you two main things you don't know the word of God at all and you are not God but you think you are because Jesus was fulfilling scripture that's not you that is not you and Jesus has something we don't really righteous indignation there's no righteous because if you kept reading beyond that you'd read James 1 20. which said the anger literally wrath in the Greek of man does not produce the righteousness of God Ephesians 4 26 I can keep going all day long what does that said be angry with your own sin ah if you keep being angry it is sin don't let the sun go down on your anger verse 27 why because you're going to give the devil a foothold you've opened the door I'm here that's what it does you get angry you're just giving the devil an opportunity now so that's that anger right here Outburst of anger it's a sin it's in the Sin column period that's what the word of God says what translation is that all of them right all of them they all said spring all right now here's an interesting one I want to connect two together because it's a kind of a it could be a house like selfish ambition a lot of people struggle with this what is that should I get a promotion at work and that's not what it's really talking about like go ahead get a promotion at church tithe okay that's fine there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with making money we need our benefactors it's fine that's okay selfish ambition is a different thing selfish ambition is like literally when you're stepping over other people right so when you're thinking to yourself so much that you're you're it's hurting other people so this happens all the time not just like work family it's having my family you know my dad had some selfish ambition but nobody else in the family wanted to go where he was going and do what he did but he did it anyway so that happens that's the thing but here's something kind of funny this happens and it's not funny actually it happens in church and so I'm going to give you a red flag selfish ambition it's really funny if you hear somebody going around saying my Ministry my Ministry run or help help me kick him out of the church my Ministry my and those who have been here for a while you know why you know that's really dangerous my mission listen there you don't it's the church's Ministry it's Jesus's Ministry belongs to him again I will die my only objective here I want to teach you guys get you more knowledgeable about the word of God right Shepherd you when you need me and train someone else to be here who can hopefully do it better than me that's it I'm praying for my Timothy I am dust this is not my Ministry so here's what happens someone will come in and they'll ask me a question like this wrong question how long does it take to become a pastor and I'm like it's like a martial arts background right did it for a long time when someone would come and say how long does it take to get a black belt it took me 10 years how long does it take I'd be like you're never going to get it because you just failed the first test how long does it take to become you just failed the first test it's not a job anybody in their right mind should want it's not a job it's a calling and so if you have not been called you're not it you don't reply it's a calling a calling God anoints you and ordains you to do it it's not to me or anybody else what I'm going to do is say all right let me pray no because you asked the wrong question short prayer but then what that person does and I've seen it some of you guys have seen it they'll turn around and start their Ministry all right they'll start their Ministry a way of making them somebody they'll listen to me and then their ministry will start occurring more and more apart from what the church wants to do well that's interesting and then they start creating the next one dissension and Division that's how divide happens I'm going to say something it's going to be kind of unusual to a lot of people and again don't look at like one example look at the full context of God's word in the New Testament after the formation of the church in Acts right so go acts through you do not see you do not see missions or any Ministries outside of the authority and blessing of the church think about that because I know a lot of ministry organizations that are not attached or blessed are on the authority of any particular church are just going through all the churches right trying to parasite off them that's what they do but they're under no Authority at all and that's how that happens so be very careful be very careful everything is through the Lord through his Godly leadership who have passed that test it's really important to understand that so that happens here and it's worth noting watch out for the people that say my Ministry oh we are slaves of Christ that's what it says in the Greek slave we are bound to him drunkenness intoxication I'll leave you alone we did that last week so Galatians 5 24 those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there since we are living by the spirit let us follow the spirits leading in every part of our lives again the spirit will lead us to Jesus this is how we know we've found him and so two things I kind of covered this a little bit so it'll be super really quick personal right so this is a self evaluation by the way it's in the apps you can see through Naples wherever you get your apps you'll see the blue logo our logo there and then you can go I think it is a like its own thing spiritual evaluation and if it's not it's in the Bible study questions media not so obvious like a picture of a camera everything's pictures a bigger camera than Bible study questions and it's in there I think I put the chart in there at the bottom that's how you look at it anyway so first thing self developed spouses don't look at your spouses friends don't look at your friends it's not for you to be better or worse than anybody else this is yours don't say what did you get you know like no just you you focus on like I said I'm still learning this it's been 20 years right so I'm still learning this like none of my business none of my business like it's just you can be like yes none of my business there's my business none of my business my business just mind your own business fix yourself and men men husbands you lead by example that's how you do it not like this it's just I'm telling you 20 years it doesn't work it doesn't work just do just do just do just do that's it right so don't get in each other's tests I don't want to hear about any of that again it's fun excuse what I'm going to get pastor we need a meeting you know it's no you don't you looked at each other's tests and I said another thing stop looking in your spouse's phone anyway so uh the other thing here don't panic remain calm because I know some of you all are going to look at and be like I'm not a Christian you know right so like no it's not what that means remain calm like you may like I said like I've been guilty of all the ones in the bad column like just you may have some in there right it's okay like but here's the thing here's what I want to say we're going to close soon I was gonna say even if you've checked off most of boxes right so you know no I'm going to change that change it I'm going to say this especially hear this especially I spit when I say that I know sorry I only got my wife so especially if you have checked off all of the ones in the Sin column you hear what I'm saying especially if you have checked off all the ones on the sin column you are welcome here because you are right where you need to be you are welcome here so this is not hearing my heart is not a fact you know like I'm not taking this and no no no all right we cannot recognize it right until we acknowledge it that's all where am I having problems and what we're going to do we're going to lead into how to start working on those things I'm not just going to leave you with this I just just do this go do this in your own time not here go do it think about it pray about it and next part of this series I'm going to start work we're gonna start working on it it's a thing fancy word words Progressive sanctification the idea is that you know you're saved you know Jesus then as you go along the Holy Spirit works on you and cleans some of this stuff out as you realize it but here's the thing you have to realize it you have to acknowledge it like that there's no problem well then you're never going to fix that problem all right so we can't go around like that there's no problem there's a problem so what is the problem like what's going on let's identify it a little score there and just just keep it for don't even share with your spouse none of your none of your business right so Focus there so has someone found Jesus look the thing is if they're saying so Maybe but we got to look at the fruit and this fruit gives us the indicator and so we may we have found them we may have met him but do we know him do we know him is he your lord yet so you've been introduced to Jesus right you may have matches hi nice to meet you Jesus and then we'll walk away if you're saying you are in a relationship a committed relationship with Jesus then it's different so here are the differences all right so we're all in different places in this walk that's fine and if we as Christians who consider ourselves mature what are we supposed to have love joy peace patience kindness self-control right so we're supposed to have patience right help we're here to help no judgy judgy we're here to help so this is what we want to work on it's all about relationship but we must first examine ourselves faith comes through hearing Romans 10 faith comes through hearing but now once it's here we want to try to get it to make the journey here and that's what it's all about from hearing to Hearts Let's examine ourselves this week as we're told to do then we'll take a closer look at that relationship with the one we have found let me pray for you Lord pray for everyone I'm hearing my voice I thank all these people for coming on in here for using this time times valuable coming in here to hear the word of God to commit themselves to you Lord I pray that they continue this process not just in this time but they take it with them furthermore that they act as vessels of your grace your mercy your peace Your Love so that you may be made known magnified and glorified Lord I ask these things in Jesus name amen