Sermon Transcript
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Sun, Jul 14, 2024 10AM• 53:52SUMMARY KEYWORDSJesus, people, god, church, lightning rod, good, James, Philippians, worship, religion, bad, bible, Christians, sin, faith, fruit, produce, saved, religious, works
Good morning,
if you're new here among us. My name is Gene. I serve here at c3 church as your pastor, and I hope that the worship this morning has centered you all on what's really important, and that is Jesus. So just a reminder, we place our hope in Him alone and nothing else. So just regarding yesterday's shooting, we pray for everyone who's affected by it, no matter what you believe, right? As Christians, we pray for even our enemies, right? So we pray for everyone, and we should remember, I think that every weekend, hundreds of people die in senseless shootings, alright, so we should pray in general for those people as well. So if you're new, if you're not, you know this, but if you're new, here at c3 we come in here to worship Jesus on Sunday, unchanged by the world, right? And devoted to the Word of God, Amen. Alright,
that's what we're going to do today.
First, a joke. Okay,
we're good. Joy. We talked about joy last week, right? There's joy in Jesus and so stuff to be worried about, right? Well, so we move here to Florida, and it's over a decade for me that I've been here. But when you move here to Florida, and you're from out of state, and you start worrying about things in Florida, stuff that happens, right? So I've occasioned here a lot, but you know, you know, you don't usually come during, like, really bad weather or anything like that, so you worry about hurricanes, right? And storms, that's what you worry about. So if you're new here, maybe you're worried about it, don't worry so much. Relax, right? So maybe you're like me and I bought, like, a hurricane kit. Now, there's nothing wrong with being prepared, but there is trying to buy, like, three years worth of food, so your power's not going to go out that long. And if you need to, you've got bigger problems than that, right? So it's funny, I went to my neighbor, and he was putting up hurricane shutting before a storm, and I said, Man, you know, was this worth it? He said, it's five grand. I can never get back. So I've never had a window blow out in my house, you know? So there's just stuff we worry about, right? So I heard a story about a lightning rod salesman. So this guy decided, yeah, I'm going to pray on all these new people moving down here and convince them that they need a lightning rod, right? So he finds a woman who just moved into the neighborhood, she's from out of state, approaches their house, knocks on the door and starts selling on a lightning rod. Like, hey, you just move here. Well, you got to worry about the storms. You know, there's thunder. It's not just the wind, it's the lightning. It's super dangerous, right? So you need this lightning rod. I moved down here, and I didn't bother getting this lightning rod. No, if you don't know what a lightning rod is, it's something that channels like the electricity down so it doesn't go through your house and blow everything up. So anyway, that's where he goes. So he starts talking about, he's, like, before I had one lightning hit my house, it blew out all my appliances, there was a dog and, like, right underneath the home theater thing, and flames shot out that actually really happened to us. So she's laughing, my wife's laughing. Anyway, flames shot out. The dog was never the same again. In fact, if a garbage truck goes by the house, well, it's a big mess we have to clean up. That's actually a true story. But then this is not then I heard a story about a lady she was just reaching for her toast. Lightning hit the house, went right through the toaster upper arm and stopped her heart. She just wanted to get a piece of toast, like, but she's dead now, so you really should think about having this lightning rod installed on your house. And that's the other thing. It's easy to install. You can just do it yourself. So now he's got this woman's attention, right? So she starts asking questions, okay, well, you know, since you put it on. Has it ever been put to the desk? Like, how do you know it works? He's like, Well, I don't Okay. Well, the installation, she said it was really easy. What was the process like for you? What?
I didn't install it? Well, you mean, you
didn't install it? What's going on here? I don't want to do the work lady, so she keeps pressing him, and then finally, he admits, okay, I don't have a lightning rod. I never got a lightning rod. Said, What are you talking about? This is important. It can save your life, right? It's easy to install. He says, Listen, lady,
if I go up on that roof, I could fall off and die.
This is a church, right? So again, it's very limited in what I can tell jokes about, clearly. So if you're new to Southwest Florida, the thing you really got to worry about is the sales people. That's what you have to worry about. That's it. Everything else, you're fine paradise. So we continue along in our. Listed scripture series. This is where we've mostly been looking at misused Bible verses. Right? The verse of the day we talked about that kind of problem. It seems like a well intended thing, but not the way it's applied or used to grab that verse and then people just apply it to whatever they want, fortune cookie theology, so to speak, we're looking at phrases too. Some people misuse phrases, or we just kind of start speaking well, if you've been in church for a while, it was strange to me, because I didn't grow up in church, this kind of church my whole life, or a Protestant type of church, I grew up in Catholic church, or the pews and all that other stuff, really traditional. But you know, you notice if you're new to this, it's kind of funny. We try to do this too much here, but people start speaking Christianese, all right? Like, all these Christianese weird phrases that, like, people don't understand, right? You know. So you'll go up to someone be like, you're going to be saved by the blood of the Lamb. And they're like, Does that hurt, you know? Like, so, you know, they try not to do that too much. It's not great, you know. So we got to meet people where they are, right? So I'm going to give you another one today. And actually, if you've been in church for a while. It's probably going to surprise you, but just let me get there before you throw anything at me. So last week, we looked at Philippians, right? We saw there was a theme of joy and contentment in Jesus, like that was a theme, and we're living a life, right, devoted to him. So now we're going to look at how Jesus lived in contrast to the popular phrase, it's not about religion, it's about relationship. So someone gets this already, right? So here's, here's the idea, right? So the general idea where the well intended user of this verse is going is basically, you know, we can't save ourselves, like there's no work that we can do that gets us to heaven. And that is totally true, right? So that's it. That's totally true. But the way it's usually used is to excuse lazy Christianity. That's usually why people are using it. I don't have to do anything, and then maybe they can, you know, kind of push that so, like, it doesn't matter what I do, right? So it kind of goes down that road. So here's the first problem, I'm just going to, like, let's just back up for a second. Think about the words that come out of our mouths, right? So those who say this might not actually know what the word religion means. So let's just start at the beginning. Okay, so do we have that? Do we did? Alright? So we live so the belief in and worship of a superhuman power, or powers, especially a god, or God particular system of faith and worship.
So we see here
that if we're Christians
and we believe in God, and we have faith in Him and worship him. We're religious, and that's not a bad thing, right? So just start right there. If it's Christianity, if it's Jesus, we're worshiping, it's good It means it's a good thing, right? So it isn't a good look when we're talking to smart people, and we use this phrase, right? So now it gets quiet, and I realized I just used that yesterday, right? So don't feel bad. So under this twisted meaning, I just want to make one thing really clear, little disclaimer here, just so to hear me Listen, alright, I want to make it crystal clear, we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus. That's it, alright? So let's look at it. Ephesians, two, eight. God saved you by His grace. When you believe faith, you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done. So none of us can boast about it, correct, right? So we saw this in Philippians as well, right? So Paul was contrasting that with like being saved by the law or something like that, right? So that's the context there, but it's all over the place. Jesus is the only path to salvation. I'm the Way, the Truth and Life. No one goes to the Father except through a mate, right? So John 14, so I want to make that crystal clear, we can't save ourselves now with that knowledge that truth, let's just keep reading. So we're putting just three verses up there. So starting at verse eight, I read that to you, if we go to 10, For we are God's masterpiece. So just the very next verse, He has created us anew in Christ, Jesus,
so we can do the good
works he planned for us long ago. So did you see what happened when I just kept reading one more verse, right? So the works aren't how we're saved, but the works are what we do when we're really saved. Alright? So there you go, another verse of the day problem, right? So that you have those so statements or so that statement, why we say so that we can do the good works God planned for us. Alright? So there's like a reason there. So there are evidence, as they would say, of our salvation. And it's a big theme in the. Testament. We're going to see this today, not always said in those words. So if you remember, we read a bit of James. We were in the book of James, a little bit on the topic, I believe, last week. So we looked at James already. We're going to go there again, and I'm going to kind of paraphrase through some sections and then highlight as it pertains to our topic. But in James, we find out what the Bible actually says about religion.
So
James 126 if you claim to be religious, but don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion, in the sight of God the Father. It means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt. You.
Interesting, alright, so three, yeah.
So if you're new here, I put like the Greek in there, just to show you, you know what it says in Greek, if you can read it, great. So it's important. So we see here, this is what the Bible actually says
about religion.
Now, it doesn't use the word much, alright? It's about four times, two times, right here, so, but this is it. This is where we get it, right? So it says here that religion should be pure and genuine, right? That means it's a good thing for doing those pure and genuine things. It's good. Pure and genuine is not bad. We'll see that more today. So those are the good works that were created for and not letting the world corrupt you, right? That's good religion, right? So it's actually kind of like the opposite way some people are thinking about it, right? We think of it as a worldly thing, but the Bible says it's the opposite. So Christianity is about religion, and a part of that religion is doing some works that God planned for us to do. So let's keep reading, right? So we talked about the rich in the church and partiality, right? So there were wealthy people in the church, and we shouldn't show partiality if we get to James two. So if we keep reading James 214 what good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith, but don't show it by your works or actions, can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say goodbye and have a good day, stay warm and eat well, but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. There's a need. You don't need it. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn't enough unless it produces good deeds. It is dead and useless. Now some may argue, some have faith, others have good deeds. But I say, how can you show me your faith? If you don't have good deeds, I will show you my faith by my good deeds. You say you have faith for you believe that there's one God good for you. Even the demons believe this and they tremble in terror. How foolish Can't you see that faith without good
deeds is useless.
So we see here that faith is dead
without works, dead doesn't mean anything. I will show you my faith by my works. So here we see that they work together, right? So it's another possible paradox for some people. I've given this illustration before, but it's kind of like this, right? So I believe that a lot of Christians have a self imposed cognitive dissonance, right? So dissonance, you ever go to a piano, if you don't know what you're doing, is go, you just hit like two notes right next to each other, right? So it's a dissonance, right? You can't get it to harmonize. You can't get it to reconcile. So what often people do? I've likened it to this. It'd be like putting a quarter down on a table, right? And it's on heads. And you say, what's that?
It's a quarter, good.
Close your eyes. You flip the quarter over to tails. Open your eyes. Is that the same quarter? No. So they can't reconcile. It's a paradox. You can't get those two things to kind of come together, two seemingly contradictory things or that don't go together, that actually do when you look at it in the context. And that is faith and works. They go together. So if we continue in James, he gives us some examples. Just a note, if you in church, if you read your Bible, this might get you to scratch your head his examples of faith, alright, being made right with God through his works. Sorry, through his works, are Abraham and Rahab, if you know Rahab, the prostitute, Joshua. So they were made right with God through their works. Now, if you read the Bible a lot, you're going to get to Paul, you get to Romans, you get to Galatians, and he's using Abraham in the opposite example. He's saying he was made right before he did anything. You're like, hold on, but you have to think about the context, right? Paul's kind of upset about people saying, if the. Follow the law to be saved. So he's trying to emphasize Grace a whole lot. Now, scholars will say that James comes along just to kind of balance that out, because people are taking what Paul said and running with it, right? So hold on though. You know it's both. So again, it's paradox. You got to keep reading your Bible to get like the whole thing, and then you go, okay, it kind of works together. So just as a note there. So chapter three, turn the page warning, don't you don't want to be a teacher, because you'll get judged more strictly. Never been there, taming the tongue. Right then. James 313, if you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there's selfish ambition in your heart, don't cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly and spiritual and demonic. Forever there's jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. Okay, so the main thing in for our purposes today. Prove it right. See it here. I will show you my faith by my works, just like that. A note on wisdom, it's a good thing. I left the selfish ambition in there. We've seen that in the past. I just want to show you it's kind of redundant. The Bible gets real redundant on these topics. Not a good thing. Chapter Four, we've seen these friendship with the world means you're an enemy with God, judging people, right? So it's in there too, and an arrogance about the future. James, five more warnings to the rich. And so we see that it's a lot about what we do matters. What we do matters over and over and over again, as the Bible calls it, being religious. So we've really thrown out the baby with the bathwater. I think because the modern church we really, really have, alright, it's not about religion.
Said Jesus
never, never. Jesus was actually very, very religious according to the Bible, right? The biblical meaning. So if you don't know a whole lot about the Bible, but if you do, just to help you understand this, like, so you have the law of Moses. Now he's talking about the law of Moses, so maybe you know about, like, the 10 Commandments, right? So you have that initial 10 Commandments, but from there on out. It's a whole lot. So yeah, the rest of Exodus, right? Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, all these books concerning different laws. Yes, there are things that happen, but it's the laws are being added and added and added. So you get 613 different things. Some of these things are about, like the priesthood and stuff that, like an everyday person won't have to worry about, but a lot about its people, and it's really strict, it's really hard to follow. We'll talk about it a little bit next week. Not impossible, but very difficult to follow, right? So you have all these different things. You have dietary restrictions, so there's a lot of fasting, right? So you got to fast for all these different things, right? So, and then, what did Jesus do to initiate his ministry fasted? He passed it for 40 days. That's where he was tempted. That's pretty religious behavior, right? If we're not, Jesus didn't do anything. Yeah, he did, right? And then he followed through his life all of those dietary restrictions, right? So for us, the biggest kind of hard part would be no bacon. You know what? You know, I can't, I can't live like that, but it's more than that, right? So not eating yeast at certain times. I mean, it's just really unbelievably hard. But Jesus did that, and that's very, very religious, right? He kept a Sabbath, right? So that means he shut it down. And I say this to Americans, because that's the only one of those 10 Commandments I mentioned that, like Americans are prideful about breaking. Think about it, right? We work so hard, right? That's the other end of it. But anyway, now here's the thing. He had to he was out sin with without sin. Who knew no sin became sin for us, right? So he was without sin. He would have sinned if he broke any of these laws, and then would not be the perfect, spotless sacrifice for us. He had to follow all of it perfectly.
He was
pure and undefiled in his life. Here,
very religious, right?
So he's really strict, so he kept himself pure. Now you may be thinking like, wait, but he denounced, he denounced fake religion. He denounced fake religion. He denounced traditions, hypocrisy, things added so that they could show off right, so their pride, which is a sin. So that's Woe to you. Pharisees, hypocrites. He doesn't say religious people, not at all. It's not there. It's hypocrisy. It's faking it, right? So that's what you are, an actor. It's like the way you think about it in Greek, so the traditions over God's word, right? That pure and genuine religion hypocrisy is when it's. Not pure, it's not from good motives, it's from sin, right? And you're just showing off. So that's the big deal. But here's the thing. This is a little side note. Do we do that today? Like, isn't it kind of weird that we say it's not about religion, but then we like, show off a bunch of religious things, as I mentioned, traditional church, and I led worship. I led worship in a traditional church for a while, and it's kind of interesting. And so you observe stuff, right? So what we wear, right? You ever go to some churches where, like here, obviously you can wear anything. I'm not thinking of anyone in particular, but anyway, you can wear whatever you want, and that's fine. You want to wear a short sound, I don't care, just put clothes on, right? So remember to do that after the Zoom meeting. So you know, that's fine. You know, we deal with a lot. That's okay, right? But in some churches, you can't go in there unless you're wearing the right stuff, or you get looked at weird. You have to sit over there. But wait, what did we read in James two about the rich people? Right? If you see someone come in with fancy clothes and a gold ring, don't go, I'm up front. And then say to the poor person, sit back there.
Oh, wait, the Bible talks
about that, right? So are there hypocrites dressed up in these fine clothes? And if you want nice clothes today, great. I like nice clothes. It's okay. You see, I put on my shirt. I don't normally dress like this. If you see me, you'd be like, is that Pastor Dean? So anyway, I don't like dressing like this, by the way. So anyway,
do we have like, rituals?
Do we have liturgies and rites, rituals that we need to do for church? Right? Some people like candles. Are we going to have this and whatever it is that we need? Do we have hymns, like we don't have the hymns, what do we do? You know? How do we worship without the hands? Be nice to one another. That's worship. So, you know, it's kind of funny, but it gets really bad. I know from experience, I've told this story before, maybe some people haven't heard it. Like I said, I got yelled at for wearing dungarees before worship. Now, if you don't know what dungarees are good for you, you didn't mine gold in the 1800s right? Because that's why they're invented denim, right? So I wore denim, right? And I thought they were nice, right? So anyway,
but yelled at,
yelled at, yeah, before I'm ready to worship God. Yelled at now before the young people get too excited and criticize the old people like me, it happens in modern church too, right? So you ever so I've experienced leading worship in modern church, not my church, but so went to in one church, and so I went to practice. I got invited to lead worship there. And so I went to practice, and I was wearing what I normally wear, but it wasn't even a tank top. I had, like a, I think, a regular shirt on just a t shirt, shorts and sandals. I get up on the stage in the worship leader it says
you can't wear that on whatever it
was, Sunday or Saturday night. You can't wear that. I'm like,
Sarah's going to wear it, but, like, but you can't. And this is, I'm not making this up, right? You got to wear close to our shoes. Gotta wear pants. I'm like, I get it. My legs are hairy. They're kind of gross. No, but, like, no, no, you got to. And then only grays, whites or blacks,
no colors.
This is not a joke.
What are we doing on Sunday again?
This like a fashion show. What is this? What am I doing? Why is that even important to you? Right? So we have clicks, we have modern liturgy, we have certain songs we got to hang sing, right? You know, like the projector wasn't working. Old me was like freaking out this morning, you know, because people need it right, and they'll choose not to join your church if you don't have the right coffee. Any other programs, because it's about me.
Do we do that too?
Amen? Well, not an amen to doing it, but that he noticed,
right? It's crazy. Are we coming to worship? What is this a party for us? Or is it for Jesus? No, get it? Maybe it's another word we have to look up in the dictionary,
worship service, not you,
Jesus, right? Yet,
people church shop over stuff like this. That's how they make their decisions. Well, you know, hope it has enough programs for me. Oh, my specific needs. I'm not going to start one. Needs to be there already for me, so I don't have to do any work. Okay? We are to be like Jesus, not in the sense that any of us can be God or even come close to doing what he did, but we are to strive to emulate his qualities. And one of the largest ones just practically was just being selfless. Being selfless, right? Think about everything I just talked about, that's all selfish, that's not selfless. There's no sacrifice in that. So these qualities do include that pure and genuine religion doing good things. So remember last week, remember before the common Christian, make your own attitude, that of Christ, Jesus, right? So I went through the Carmen Christi for you guys in Philippians two, Jesus is your example. We've seen that as well. First Peter 221, for God called you to do good, even if it means suffering. Just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow his steps.
There it is again, we're to do good.
First, Vader, right?
He calls us to do something right. Now, what Jesus did? Well, think like him. It started that way, right? Make your own attitude that of Christ, Jesus, think like him. Think selflessly, think sacrificially. That's what he did, right? Look out, not only for your own interest, if we back up a little in Philippians, but for the interest of others. It's about other people. This is worship. Go to Romans 12 and read it. It'll define worship for you. We'll talk about that maybe later. But we saw also in Philippians examples of people being some member of Epaphroditus almost died, getting Paul the gift, and then bringing back the letter. Timothy was an example. Paul makes himself an example, and he says to follow those examples. Remember how he started the letter that humility. We're slaves. Go back and watch a message. I helped define this one time today, we're slaves of Jesus. We're low, we're humble, right? And totally committed to Him, even if it means, what did Paul say about dying? That's better good. I get to go be with Jesus. Then, because I really actually believe this, that Heaven's better than this. And then what did he call the people saints, holy? That means all of you set apart. That means you are set apart for God. You're not staying by the world. You are set apart. You are holy.
That's the toilet letter.
So we also saw good, bad examples, as I call them, in the false teachers, right? So there you get again another. It reiterates it. We're not saved by the law. These teachers are saying, you might be that's false, right? Then, Philippians, three, dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine and learn from those who follow our example. There it is, if we turn the page Philippians, 48 and now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing, fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure. There's that word pure again, and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard and saw me doing, then the God of peace will be with you. So there's that pure
religion again.
It's a lot about what we're doing. People miss this. So there was a theme of contentment. Remember, I said that, but don't confuse contentment with what you have with laziness. There's no excuse for that, right? So Philippians 110 for I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure look at that word again, and blameless lives until the day of Christ return, may you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation. What is that? The righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ, for this will bring much glory and praise to God. Philippians, 127, above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. Philippians, 212 we saw this verse, dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you, and now that I'm away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with his fear and trembling in the Greek or terror. So there's that pure religious behavior, again, the fruit of your salvation. Work hard to show the results of your salvation. So I like what many says, Many people say, right? It's about what you're doing, right? It's important. And people really have had a hard time reconciling this because, right? It can be difficult. I get it, but because of what people are saying. And so you might have heard of Martin Luther. He had a really hard time with this, a really hard time with this, right? And I just want you to remember one thing, Martin Luther lived and died a Catholic priest. Just remember that didn't stop being Catholic, right? But Martin Luther wanted to throw out the book of James. He's quoted as saying that would. Teach it in his school or throughout the book of James. Didn't like revelation or Hebrews either because it says similar stuff, didn't like em. Imagine me getting up here this morning, alright, and saying, Yeah, you know, this is the word of God, except, like three books, they kind of stick. It's a different word, right? Imagine
that
heresy. That's what that's called, by the way, speaking out against the word of God, saying it's not the word of God.
So I get it right. And so Martin Luther, well, maybe didn't
get it either. He couldn't reconcile that faith and works paradox. That's really what it was all about. When you boil it down, I get it. It could be difficult, and I get it's also a lot easier, isn't it, to not have any accountability for your actions. Do whatever I want saved, okay, but what does the Bible say? Show me you're saved. Prove it. I will show you my faith, my words, and so did you notice? But Martin Luther Philippians says the same thing. Why didn't you want to throw that out? Think about it. It's really redundant throughout the entire New Testament. And I'll give you another book. We'll get a window in the next week. You're going to love it. We're going to talk about sin. Next week, it's going to be great, right? Bring tissues. So first, First John is right in line with that says it again, right? So just a little dip in First John, 319, our actions will show that we belong to the truth. So be confident when we stand before God. That's a powerful sentence, right there. Our actions will give us the confidence to stand before God. Whoa. Let that soak in no greasy Grace there. If we go to Third John, Third John 111 dear friend, don't let this bad because he's talking about Diotrephes. He's not supporting these teachers and stuff influence you follow only what is good. Now remember that those who do good prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.
Still think actions don't matter.
I hope not right, so we'll see next week, there are bad things we can do that disprove that we know God, right? So here again in our again, right? The word of God, the truth tells us that doing good really matters. It proves that we really know him.
That sounds exactly what like
what we saw in James, right? So let's look at it again. James three. James 313, if you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. Prove it. It's not the only place you get that sentiment, right? So you might heard of John the Baptist, if we keep reading this. So John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus. He's the Messiah's Herald, right? So he's preparing the way, fulfilling the scriptures there in Isaiah, 43 Malachi 31 preparing the way. And as he does so, he denounces the hypocrites, not just religious people. He's doing very religious stuff. And he's telling Repent and be baptized. So he's baptizing people, but He's insulting the Pharisees, because they're hypocrites. Right? Then he says this, Matthew three eight, prove by the way you live, that you've repented of your sins and turn to God. So we'll talk about that a little more next week. It's also like Paul will say it. Paul says it at the end of Acts and his speech, right? So he's giving his defense speech, and he says, acts 2620 I first preached to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and all throughout Judea and also to the Gentiles, that all must repent of their sins and turn to God and prove they have changed by the good things they do. So we see that there are two sides to baptism, and you don't usually get that other side right. You usually get the one side, like repenting. Some people do say repent. You're going to turn to God, and they'll say some other things, you're dunked and you're done. But we see the Bible says there's more to it than that. The Bible be like you get dunked. Okay? Prove it. Maybe I'll have that right. Come up. I was like, yeah. I'm like, not yet. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This person needs to prove it. We're not celebrating anything because only they know they're probably liars. So it's kind of not a joke, when you think about it, right, the Bible just keeps saying over and over and over again, what we in modern Christianity don't, and that's a problem. So we see that genuine relationship leads to genuine religion. It's. Faith that works, what you do says more about what you believe than anything that you can possibly say a lot of lip service.
So if you go back to James,
taming the tongue, right? So he's talking about in James three, like blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth, right? So basically, you're saying, Look, you know what you're saying. You're double minded what it says. You know also that you know, again, what you're saying doesn't match what you believe or what you're doing doesn't match what you're saying. And he says this, James 312 does a fig tree produce olives? Or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can't draw fresh water from a salty spring. So again, James is not in contrast to the rest of the New Testament. So you see, like pictures of Jesus's teaching in James, and so he's drawing from what did we see in Matthew when we looked at the Sermon on the Mount Matthew seven, same type of thing. Does it fig produce thistles or so? Can you get good fruit from a bad tree, right? You know what I mean, or bad fruit from a good tree? So it gives both examples. There, you judge a tree by its fruit, right? And then Jesus expands. If we go to John 15. John 15 five, yes, I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. So as extensions of Jesus, we can't help but produce good fruit. If we are grafted into him, you're just going to do it. If you're really a part of that good tree, are you grafted into this vine? Yeah, okay, then you're going to produce good fruit.
So it's all over the place.
Now,
did you notice something, though, apart from me, you can do nothing. Remember Ephesians, so that no one can boast. It's not from you. It's not you. So where do they come from? Well, we talked about it, and if you're a Christian, you know, because you're baptized the name of the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so we don't boast God gets the glory for that, because once we're baptized, we have him in us, and he produces that fruit. So really important. We've been in the series I talked about a lot, because it's very, very important. Contrast, Galatians five, the sin of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit. So we engage when we're saved in a war right inside us, not really we but the Holy Spirit versus our flesh, the things that we want to do right before we're saved, but the Holy Spirit comes in and No, no, no, right? So progressive sanctification, we start getting a little bit better and better. We'll talk about that next week. How to do that. It's a process, but it's good if you got a war going on in you and there's a struggle, good if there's no war, that's the scary part, right? Because it means your flesh is doing whatever it wants to do. The Holy Spirit gets in there and it gets uncomfortable, cuz finally, God's like saying, hey, whoa, whoa, don't do that. Convicts you. So the flesh, right? It's all these selfish things, right? Anger, outbursts of anger, division, jealousy, all these bad things, right? That's your flesh in there, right? For the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self control.
People, leave that one out.
So all the good stuff, it's selfless stuff. Genuine faith produces genuine fruit. We
talked about consumerism last week.
Have you ever bought something
on certain claims, like a claim was made, you bought it, you bought in that claim, and then it didn't work, alright? So maybe it was a lightning rod. Maybe I did this once, like I'll Okay, I'll confess my sin. Alright? So I bought a headlight defogger kit. He did it. So it's not just me, right? Cuz I was thinking about that. I brought my sports guard on the Florida No, the lights are foggy heaven for a bed, you know, like first world problems. So I saw it on TV. And you can say, I guess other people are thinking about it. If you buy this, wipe it on your head like it's so easy, and then they'll be like, no, and no, they were not. So I could be using it wrong. But I was disappointed, right? Didn't work. So, you know, it's all over the place, right? So there's a pill for everything. Like, just take these pills. I take one a day, and I'm 90, and you wouldn't know it. I'm like, Well, I would guess that you look about 90 years old anyway, and I could still do the things that I did 30 years ago. I'm like, prove it right? No. So we don't want to see that anyway, right? You pill everything, you know. But we expect results, but then we get it, and we're like, I still feel the same, right? I'm still 90. It didn't change that, you know, so, whatever. But then we have diets, right? And then we have this thing and we have that thing, and if you just eat this, you can eat whatever you want, or then you can do that. But maybe you should just fast, like Jesus did, and that would solve the problem. But anyway, we don't want religion. We want stuff, right? It's because there's a pill for everything,
right? The holy whatever
pill, I got to buy a pill because, but what do we want to see? The results. So fitness things, right? We get in a program. Why I want to see results? Otherwise, I was sold something, right? It was not as advertised. Maybe you bought into something, right? Some people do that, right? So what's, what's a huge lie, being from the business world, right, right, get rich quick, right? Wrong. That's
really rare, right? So
it's not like that, right? But everyone's got a scheme, a network marketing scheme, some kind of scheme. Maybe you did that, right? You sold something, you got involved in this club or whatever, and they told you, you're going to get this, that, and the other thing. And it didn't work. It wasn't as advertised. It didn't produce results. And there's someone in the audience with a pink Mary Kay car going, I can be wrong. And you got that I can be wrong about that, right? Not about this.
Anyway, it's maybe just, yeah, okay,
I'll stop right?
Not as advertised, generally, not like you're probably not that lotto ticket person, right? So there we go, because nobody comes into church with the winning lotto ticket. There was no risk of that happening, so we're good, alright, no results. But here's the thing. Now, let's apply it to what we do, right? What are we selling? What are we supposed to be selling if we're Christians, right? And I did the quotes on purpose, right? Jesus, right? So unfortunately, there are many self proclaimed Christians, right, who make false advertising claims. So those are the false teachers, and that's why it's a really big deal, right? If you go out there and you start telling people what, you know, we talked about in the series, like, you're always going to be healthy and wealthy, you know, everything is great if you just have faith, you know, and we learn what faith was. That was worrying about heavenly things, not earthly things. If you're worried about earthly things all the time, you're on spiritual and demonic, right? So anyway, but they go and they it should be obvious that they're fakes, but they make all these crazy claims, right? Jesus died so you can do whatever you want, but it doesn't work. That kind of faith doesn't save anyone. It doesn't work.
And what happens?
Not as advertised, people fall away from the faith. I mean, as a pastor, it's really embarrassing. I meet a lot of people like that. Well, it didn't work. Yeah, I tried that Christianity stuff. I went to church, whatever. I was still sick. My mom still died. You know all this, like, that's who promised you this nonsense. Like, that's not at all what the Bible says, right? So false claims. It's bad for the brand, as they would say in business, very bad for the brand. And even if they're not doing that, even evangelical Christians who kind of have somewhat biblical, good beliefs, right? They'll make themselves these self proclaimed, self righteous brand ambassadors for Christianity. And you see them come through church, but they don't stay here long. They come to church like, Nope, you know? But, like, my life's perfect. I'm doing this. Everything's great, right? And behind the scenes, there are mess like a total and complete mess, but on Sunday, they are perfect, and they're happy to tell you how to live your life, right? They're happy to tell you that you're in sin. Did you know that you're in sin? Because, of course, I'm not right. They're happy to tell you're in sin. Then, unlike what we've studied in the Word of God first, Corinthians, five, they go out and they tell the whole world that's in sin and convict them. And instead of holding up a mirror like Jesus said, they rushed to the picket sign. Pick it yourself. Hypocrite. You it's not done in love, as Jesus commanded, and the people trying to sell it. Think about what I just said. The fruit of the Spirit is what love,
joy like this is
great. I get to go to heaven. Yes.
Peace, whatever, whatever, whatever happens here, happens here? Right, faithfulness, kindness, kindness. That's the
fruit of his spirit. Right, kindness,
gentleness, first,
Peter, always be ready to make a defense. What you
believe. Get ready. It's a gentleness, because it's a fruit of the Spirit. With self control. I got to work on that. But anyway, so what's the flesh? The bad stuff, the sin, sin of the flesh, outbursts of anger. You. Divisions, dissension, jealousy, selfish, ambition. Even non Christians know that Christians are not supposed to be acting like that because Jesus didn't.
It's bad, right? So
we shouldn't expect the world to take our word for it,
if that's the way we're behaving.
Why is that expectation? There turns more people away. People expect to see the results of our salvation, and it's not unreasonable, because you expect it for everything else you bought on TV. There's nothing more convincing. Now, here's the thing. You may be sitting there this morning thinking, right? Like, I'm not a missionary, I'm not a that's good for you. Pastor, Jean, you keep working on that, right? I'm not a pastor. I'm not I don't know whatever it is an evangelist. It's not my role and responsibility. Well, we saw, if you were paying attention, those calling themselves Christians are all called to do good works and proven,
not excluded.
We've also seen, we may not all be missionaries, but we're all ambassadors for Christ. So we saw Second Corinthians four, quoted a little bit. You saw Second Corinthians four in the series, and Paul's talking about, like the temporary light tribulations we may experience are nothing compared to the eternal glory in heaven. We turn the page. Paul talks about dying, right? Talks about that a lot. That's better for me. All right, so great. Got to pack up the tent. I get to go to heaven. Then he writes this second Corinthians, 520 so we are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead come back to God, for God made Christ you never sinned, to be the offering for our sins so that we could be made right with God through Christ. So Jesus was without sin. Remember that system of law, he was very religious, so that we could be made right with God through Him, be his holy ambassadors. We speak for Christ.
I'm a Christian, right?
Okay, baby, Christ is what that means. So now you may be just realizing you are an ambassador for Christ. So it's a lot to think about. I get it, but many don't even realize it, that they may be shouting Jesus from the rooftops without even knowing it. They don't realize it, because we could be representing him in other ways.
Maybe you forgot about the Jesus fish on your car.
And so what do Christians do? Told the G as I gave a joke a while back. So if you've been here for a while, you've been threatened, right? So about the way you act, right? So I see you behaving badly. I'm going to go out in that parking lot, start scraping Jesus fishes off of cars, right? Don't embarrass me. So, you know, we don't we own a gym, so if you don't know me, like the martial arts school, so you know, it was like a joke all the time. But people would be like, bad at what they do, or in bad shape, or whatever. I'd be like, Oh, can I have a bumper sticker? No, no, you cannot. Don't. And I would coach fighters. This really happened, like, even big venues, like UFC stuff like that, they go up like, okay, here. You ready? Good? You ready? You've been training. Don't embarrass me. You know, literally, have said that to fighters. I'm like, don't, don't. It's bad for the brand, right? I want people to join this gym, right? But Christians, but Christians, you got that Jesus fish, and I've seen some of you Christians drive, right, man, you are all about off, cutting people off, flipping people off, it's crazy, and then turning people off from Jesus, right? So you're tailgating them almost. Use another term for that camp church,
honk your horn, speed around them, and then they see the Jesus fish
and maybe your church bumper sticker, and they say, That's exactly where I will not be going. Because if that's what that church produces, I don't want any part of it, and I don't blame them.
I didn't either before I got involved in this hurt. We need
to do more than simply like say something on our vehicle. We need to be the vehicle.
That's the important thing.
You're only believable if you produce results, and those results are the fruit of the Spirit. Only believable if you're loving. You're only believable if you're gentle and kind, humble, you lack that selfish envy. Let them go in front of you, that what's the. Big Deal, comp, patience, self control,
it's all in there.
So the truly repentance in this church, they're going to call an Uber. That's wasn't in my notes. Sometimes I just, you know, it works. It doesn't just, it's a risk. You know, we take big risk. So look action steps, right? So you are who you surround yourself with, right? So certain things rub off, right? So be among that fertile soil, right? So you can be nourished, nurtured. This is a good place to start being around people who are like minded or participate in what the church is doing, right? That's good stuff. Are we done with what the world is trying to sell us?
Are we? Are you done? Just personally, don't
answer aloud.
Are you done being agitated all the time? I have been right so, but I'm generally, I'm happier. But are you done? That's you today.
Are you just done being agitated and angry?
It's not productive. I mean, I've gotten a lot of things done when I'm angry, but anyway, it's just not it's not good for your health. It's not good for the people, right? If you're just being selfish. Okay, we'll start there. Makes you crazy. The world will just make you nuts. Are you done? This just hamster wheel of insanity. So if you are welcome home, right? It's okay. And so there are a lot of ways, if you are dissatisfied with what the world has advertised for you, if you are not seeing results, good results, welcome home where you can experience that joy that only comes from Jesus. He's unchangeable, unmovable. He's that solid rock that we build our foundation on? So just some encouragement to connect with us. You'll be told how you can do that. Let me pray for you, Lord. I thank you for everyone that took the time to come in here and honor your words. Honor you, to worship you. Truly worship you. I just thank you for that step, and Lord, I just pray that you will present more opportunities for everyone in the sound of my voice, so that they can show that love, they can share with others the fruit of their salvation, so that we bring more into your kingdom. I ask these things In Jesus's Name, Amen.
You
Good morning,
if you're new here among us. My name is Gene. I serve here at c3 church as your pastor, and I hope that the worship this morning has centered you all on what's really important, and that is Jesus. So just a reminder, we place our hope in Him alone and nothing else. So just regarding yesterday's shooting, we pray for everyone who's affected by it, no matter what you believe, right? As Christians, we pray for even our enemies, right? So we pray for everyone, and we should remember, I think that every weekend, hundreds of people die in senseless shootings, alright, so we should pray in general for those people as well. So if you're new, if you're not, you know this, but if you're new, here at c3 we come in here to worship Jesus on Sunday, unchanged by the world, right? And devoted to the Word of God, Amen. Alright,
that's what we're going to do today.
First, a joke. Okay,
we're good. Joy. We talked about joy last week, right? There's joy in Jesus and so stuff to be worried about, right? Well, so we move here to Florida, and it's over a decade for me that I've been here. But when you move here to Florida, and you're from out of state, and you start worrying about things in Florida, stuff that happens, right? So I've occasioned here a lot, but you know, you know, you don't usually come during, like, really bad weather or anything like that, so you worry about hurricanes, right? And storms, that's what you worry about. So if you're new here, maybe you're worried about it, don't worry so much. Relax, right? So maybe you're like me and I bought, like, a hurricane kit. Now, there's nothing wrong with being prepared, but there is trying to buy, like, three years worth of food, so your power's not going to go out that long. And if you need to, you've got bigger problems than that, right? So it's funny, I went to my neighbor, and he was putting up hurricane shutting before a storm, and I said, Man, you know, was this worth it? He said, it's five grand. I can never get back. So I've never had a window blow out in my house, you know? So there's just stuff we worry about, right? So I heard a story about a lightning rod salesman. So this guy decided, yeah, I'm going to pray on all these new people moving down here and convince them that they need a lightning rod, right? So he finds a woman who just moved into the neighborhood, she's from out of state, approaches their house, knocks on the door and starts selling on a lightning rod. Like, hey, you just move here. Well, you got to worry about the storms. You know, there's thunder. It's not just the wind, it's the lightning. It's super dangerous, right? So you need this lightning rod. I moved down here, and I didn't bother getting this lightning rod. No, if you don't know what a lightning rod is, it's something that channels like the electricity down so it doesn't go through your house and blow everything up. So anyway, that's where he goes. So he starts talking about, he's, like, before I had one lightning hit my house, it blew out all my appliances, there was a dog and, like, right underneath the home theater thing, and flames shot out that actually really happened to us. So she's laughing, my wife's laughing. Anyway, flames shot out. The dog was never the same again. In fact, if a garbage truck goes by the house, well, it's a big mess we have to clean up. That's actually a true story. But then this is not then I heard a story about a lady she was just reaching for her toast. Lightning hit the house, went right through the toaster upper arm and stopped her heart. She just wanted to get a piece of toast, like, but she's dead now, so you really should think about having this lightning rod installed on your house. And that's the other thing. It's easy to install. You can just do it yourself. So now he's got this woman's attention, right? So she starts asking questions, okay, well, you know, since you put it on. Has it ever been put to the desk? Like, how do you know it works? He's like, Well, I don't Okay. Well, the installation, she said it was really easy. What was the process like for you? What?
I didn't install it? Well, you mean, you
didn't install it? What's going on here? I don't want to do the work lady, so she keeps pressing him, and then finally, he admits, okay, I don't have a lightning rod. I never got a lightning rod. Said, What are you talking about? This is important. It can save your life, right? It's easy to install. He says, Listen, lady,
if I go up on that roof, I could fall off and die.
This is a church, right? So again, it's very limited in what I can tell jokes about, clearly. So if you're new to Southwest Florida, the thing you really got to worry about is the sales people. That's what you have to worry about. That's it. Everything else, you're fine paradise. So we continue along in our. Listed scripture series. This is where we've mostly been looking at misused Bible verses. Right? The verse of the day we talked about that kind of problem. It seems like a well intended thing, but not the way it's applied or used to grab that verse and then people just apply it to whatever they want, fortune cookie theology, so to speak, we're looking at phrases too. Some people misuse phrases, or we just kind of start speaking well, if you've been in church for a while, it was strange to me, because I didn't grow up in church, this kind of church my whole life, or a Protestant type of church, I grew up in Catholic church, or the pews and all that other stuff, really traditional. But you know, you notice if you're new to this, it's kind of funny. We try to do this too much here, but people start speaking Christianese, all right? Like, all these Christianese weird phrases that, like, people don't understand, right? You know. So you'll go up to someone be like, you're going to be saved by the blood of the Lamb. And they're like, Does that hurt, you know? Like, so, you know, they try not to do that too much. It's not great, you know. So we got to meet people where they are, right? So I'm going to give you another one today. And actually, if you've been in church for a while. It's probably going to surprise you, but just let me get there before you throw anything at me. So last week, we looked at Philippians, right? We saw there was a theme of joy and contentment in Jesus, like that was a theme, and we're living a life, right, devoted to him. So now we're going to look at how Jesus lived in contrast to the popular phrase, it's not about religion, it's about relationship. So someone gets this already, right? So here's, here's the idea, right? So the general idea where the well intended user of this verse is going is basically, you know, we can't save ourselves, like there's no work that we can do that gets us to heaven. And that is totally true, right? So that's it. That's totally true. But the way it's usually used is to excuse lazy Christianity. That's usually why people are using it. I don't have to do anything, and then maybe they can, you know, kind of push that so, like, it doesn't matter what I do, right? So it kind of goes down that road. So here's the first problem, I'm just going to, like, let's just back up for a second. Think about the words that come out of our mouths, right? So those who say this might not actually know what the word religion means. So let's just start at the beginning. Okay, so do we have that? Do we did? Alright? So we live so the belief in and worship of a superhuman power, or powers, especially a god, or God particular system of faith and worship.
So we see here
that if we're Christians
and we believe in God, and we have faith in Him and worship him. We're religious, and that's not a bad thing, right? So just start right there. If it's Christianity, if it's Jesus, we're worshiping, it's good It means it's a good thing, right? So it isn't a good look when we're talking to smart people, and we use this phrase, right? So now it gets quiet, and I realized I just used that yesterday, right? So don't feel bad. So under this twisted meaning, I just want to make one thing really clear, little disclaimer here, just so to hear me Listen, alright, I want to make it crystal clear, we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus. That's it, alright? So let's look at it. Ephesians, two, eight. God saved you by His grace. When you believe faith, you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done. So none of us can boast about it, correct, right? So we saw this in Philippians as well, right? So Paul was contrasting that with like being saved by the law or something like that, right? So that's the context there, but it's all over the place. Jesus is the only path to salvation. I'm the Way, the Truth and Life. No one goes to the Father except through a mate, right? So John 14, so I want to make that crystal clear, we can't save ourselves now with that knowledge that truth, let's just keep reading. So we're putting just three verses up there. So starting at verse eight, I read that to you, if we go to 10, For we are God's masterpiece. So just the very next verse, He has created us anew in Christ, Jesus,
so we can do the good
works he planned for us long ago. So did you see what happened when I just kept reading one more verse, right? So the works aren't how we're saved, but the works are what we do when we're really saved. Alright? So there you go, another verse of the day problem, right? So that you have those so statements or so that statement, why we say so that we can do the good works God planned for us. Alright? So there's like a reason there. So there are evidence, as they would say, of our salvation. And it's a big theme in the. Testament. We're going to see this today, not always said in those words. So if you remember, we read a bit of James. We were in the book of James, a little bit on the topic, I believe, last week. So we looked at James already. We're going to go there again, and I'm going to kind of paraphrase through some sections and then highlight as it pertains to our topic. But in James, we find out what the Bible actually says about religion.
So
James 126 if you claim to be religious, but don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion, in the sight of God the Father. It means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt. You.
Interesting, alright, so three, yeah.
So if you're new here, I put like the Greek in there, just to show you, you know what it says in Greek, if you can read it, great. So it's important. So we see here, this is what the Bible actually says
about religion.
Now, it doesn't use the word much, alright? It's about four times, two times, right here, so, but this is it. This is where we get it, right? So it says here that religion should be pure and genuine, right? That means it's a good thing for doing those pure and genuine things. It's good. Pure and genuine is not bad. We'll see that more today. So those are the good works that were created for and not letting the world corrupt you, right? That's good religion, right? So it's actually kind of like the opposite way some people are thinking about it, right? We think of it as a worldly thing, but the Bible says it's the opposite. So Christianity is about religion, and a part of that religion is doing some works that God planned for us to do. So let's keep reading, right? So we talked about the rich in the church and partiality, right? So there were wealthy people in the church, and we shouldn't show partiality if we get to James two. So if we keep reading James 214 what good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith, but don't show it by your works or actions, can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say goodbye and have a good day, stay warm and eat well, but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. There's a need. You don't need it. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn't enough unless it produces good deeds. It is dead and useless. Now some may argue, some have faith, others have good deeds. But I say, how can you show me your faith? If you don't have good deeds, I will show you my faith by my good deeds. You say you have faith for you believe that there's one God good for you. Even the demons believe this and they tremble in terror. How foolish Can't you see that faith without good
deeds is useless.
So we see here that faith is dead
without works, dead doesn't mean anything. I will show you my faith by my works. So here we see that they work together, right? So it's another possible paradox for some people. I've given this illustration before, but it's kind of like this, right? So I believe that a lot of Christians have a self imposed cognitive dissonance, right? So dissonance, you ever go to a piano, if you don't know what you're doing, is go, you just hit like two notes right next to each other, right? So it's a dissonance, right? You can't get it to harmonize. You can't get it to reconcile. So what often people do? I've likened it to this. It'd be like putting a quarter down on a table, right? And it's on heads. And you say, what's that?
It's a quarter, good.
Close your eyes. You flip the quarter over to tails. Open your eyes. Is that the same quarter? No. So they can't reconcile. It's a paradox. You can't get those two things to kind of come together, two seemingly contradictory things or that don't go together, that actually do when you look at it in the context. And that is faith and works. They go together. So if we continue in James, he gives us some examples. Just a note, if you in church, if you read your Bible, this might get you to scratch your head his examples of faith, alright, being made right with God through his works. Sorry, through his works, are Abraham and Rahab, if you know Rahab, the prostitute, Joshua. So they were made right with God through their works. Now, if you read the Bible a lot, you're going to get to Paul, you get to Romans, you get to Galatians, and he's using Abraham in the opposite example. He's saying he was made right before he did anything. You're like, hold on, but you have to think about the context, right? Paul's kind of upset about people saying, if the. Follow the law to be saved. So he's trying to emphasize Grace a whole lot. Now, scholars will say that James comes along just to kind of balance that out, because people are taking what Paul said and running with it, right? So hold on though. You know it's both. So again, it's paradox. You got to keep reading your Bible to get like the whole thing, and then you go, okay, it kind of works together. So just as a note there. So chapter three, turn the page warning, don't you don't want to be a teacher, because you'll get judged more strictly. Never been there, taming the tongue. Right then. James 313, if you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there's selfish ambition in your heart, don't cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly and spiritual and demonic. Forever there's jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. Okay, so the main thing in for our purposes today. Prove it right. See it here. I will show you my faith by my works, just like that. A note on wisdom, it's a good thing. I left the selfish ambition in there. We've seen that in the past. I just want to show you it's kind of redundant. The Bible gets real redundant on these topics. Not a good thing. Chapter Four, we've seen these friendship with the world means you're an enemy with God, judging people, right? So it's in there too, and an arrogance about the future. James, five more warnings to the rich. And so we see that it's a lot about what we do matters. What we do matters over and over and over again, as the Bible calls it, being religious. So we've really thrown out the baby with the bathwater. I think because the modern church we really, really have, alright, it's not about religion.
Said Jesus
never, never. Jesus was actually very, very religious according to the Bible, right? The biblical meaning. So if you don't know a whole lot about the Bible, but if you do, just to help you understand this, like, so you have the law of Moses. Now he's talking about the law of Moses, so maybe you know about, like, the 10 Commandments, right? So you have that initial 10 Commandments, but from there on out. It's a whole lot. So yeah, the rest of Exodus, right? Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, all these books concerning different laws. Yes, there are things that happen, but it's the laws are being added and added and added. So you get 613 different things. Some of these things are about, like the priesthood and stuff that, like an everyday person won't have to worry about, but a lot about its people, and it's really strict, it's really hard to follow. We'll talk about it a little bit next week. Not impossible, but very difficult to follow, right? So you have all these different things. You have dietary restrictions, so there's a lot of fasting, right? So you got to fast for all these different things, right? So, and then, what did Jesus do to initiate his ministry fasted? He passed it for 40 days. That's where he was tempted. That's pretty religious behavior, right? If we're not, Jesus didn't do anything. Yeah, he did, right? And then he followed through his life all of those dietary restrictions, right? So for us, the biggest kind of hard part would be no bacon. You know what? You know, I can't, I can't live like that, but it's more than that, right? So not eating yeast at certain times. I mean, it's just really unbelievably hard. But Jesus did that, and that's very, very religious, right? He kept a Sabbath, right? So that means he shut it down. And I say this to Americans, because that's the only one of those 10 Commandments I mentioned that, like Americans are prideful about breaking. Think about it, right? We work so hard, right? That's the other end of it. But anyway, now here's the thing. He had to he was out sin with without sin. Who knew no sin became sin for us, right? So he was without sin. He would have sinned if he broke any of these laws, and then would not be the perfect, spotless sacrifice for us. He had to follow all of it perfectly.
He was
pure and undefiled in his life. Here,
very religious, right?
So he's really strict, so he kept himself pure. Now you may be thinking like, wait, but he denounced, he denounced fake religion. He denounced fake religion. He denounced traditions, hypocrisy, things added so that they could show off right, so their pride, which is a sin. So that's Woe to you. Pharisees, hypocrites. He doesn't say religious people, not at all. It's not there. It's hypocrisy. It's faking it, right? So that's what you are, an actor. It's like the way you think about it in Greek, so the traditions over God's word, right? That pure and genuine religion hypocrisy is when it's. Not pure, it's not from good motives, it's from sin, right? And you're just showing off. So that's the big deal. But here's the thing. This is a little side note. Do we do that today? Like, isn't it kind of weird that we say it's not about religion, but then we like, show off a bunch of religious things, as I mentioned, traditional church, and I led worship. I led worship in a traditional church for a while, and it's kind of interesting. And so you observe stuff, right? So what we wear, right? You ever go to some churches where, like here, obviously you can wear anything. I'm not thinking of anyone in particular, but anyway, you can wear whatever you want, and that's fine. You want to wear a short sound, I don't care, just put clothes on, right? So remember to do that after the Zoom meeting. So you know, that's fine. You know, we deal with a lot. That's okay, right? But in some churches, you can't go in there unless you're wearing the right stuff, or you get looked at weird. You have to sit over there. But wait, what did we read in James two about the rich people? Right? If you see someone come in with fancy clothes and a gold ring, don't go, I'm up front. And then say to the poor person, sit back there.
Oh, wait, the Bible talks
about that, right? So are there hypocrites dressed up in these fine clothes? And if you want nice clothes today, great. I like nice clothes. It's okay. You see, I put on my shirt. I don't normally dress like this. If you see me, you'd be like, is that Pastor Dean? So anyway, I don't like dressing like this, by the way. So anyway,
do we have like, rituals?
Do we have liturgies and rites, rituals that we need to do for church? Right? Some people like candles. Are we going to have this and whatever it is that we need? Do we have hymns, like we don't have the hymns, what do we do? You know? How do we worship without the hands? Be nice to one another. That's worship. So, you know, it's kind of funny, but it gets really bad. I know from experience, I've told this story before, maybe some people haven't heard it. Like I said, I got yelled at for wearing dungarees before worship. Now, if you don't know what dungarees are good for you, you didn't mine gold in the 1800s right? Because that's why they're invented denim, right? So I wore denim, right? And I thought they were nice, right? So anyway,
but yelled at,
yelled at, yeah, before I'm ready to worship God. Yelled at now before the young people get too excited and criticize the old people like me, it happens in modern church too, right? So you ever so I've experienced leading worship in modern church, not my church, but so went to in one church, and so I went to practice. I got invited to lead worship there. And so I went to practice, and I was wearing what I normally wear, but it wasn't even a tank top. I had, like a, I think, a regular shirt on just a t shirt, shorts and sandals. I get up on the stage in the worship leader it says
you can't wear that on whatever it
was, Sunday or Saturday night. You can't wear that. I'm like,
Sarah's going to wear it, but, like, but you can't. And this is, I'm not making this up, right? You got to wear close to our shoes. Gotta wear pants. I'm like, I get it. My legs are hairy. They're kind of gross. No, but, like, no, no, you got to. And then only grays, whites or blacks,
no colors.
This is not a joke.
What are we doing on Sunday again?
This like a fashion show. What is this? What am I doing? Why is that even important to you? Right? So we have clicks, we have modern liturgy, we have certain songs we got to hang sing, right? You know, like the projector wasn't working. Old me was like freaking out this morning, you know, because people need it right, and they'll choose not to join your church if you don't have the right coffee. Any other programs, because it's about me.
Do we do that too?
Amen? Well, not an amen to doing it, but that he noticed,
right? It's crazy. Are we coming to worship? What is this a party for us? Or is it for Jesus? No, get it? Maybe it's another word we have to look up in the dictionary,
worship service, not you,
Jesus, right? Yet,
people church shop over stuff like this. That's how they make their decisions. Well, you know, hope it has enough programs for me. Oh, my specific needs. I'm not going to start one. Needs to be there already for me, so I don't have to do any work. Okay? We are to be like Jesus, not in the sense that any of us can be God or even come close to doing what he did, but we are to strive to emulate his qualities. And one of the largest ones just practically was just being selfless. Being selfless, right? Think about everything I just talked about, that's all selfish, that's not selfless. There's no sacrifice in that. So these qualities do include that pure and genuine religion doing good things. So remember last week, remember before the common Christian, make your own attitude, that of Christ, Jesus, right? So I went through the Carmen Christi for you guys in Philippians two, Jesus is your example. We've seen that as well. First Peter 221, for God called you to do good, even if it means suffering. Just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow his steps.
There it is again, we're to do good.
First, Vader, right?
He calls us to do something right. Now, what Jesus did? Well, think like him. It started that way, right? Make your own attitude that of Christ, Jesus, think like him. Think selflessly, think sacrificially. That's what he did, right? Look out, not only for your own interest, if we back up a little in Philippians, but for the interest of others. It's about other people. This is worship. Go to Romans 12 and read it. It'll define worship for you. We'll talk about that maybe later. But we saw also in Philippians examples of people being some member of Epaphroditus almost died, getting Paul the gift, and then bringing back the letter. Timothy was an example. Paul makes himself an example, and he says to follow those examples. Remember how he started the letter that humility. We're slaves. Go back and watch a message. I helped define this one time today, we're slaves of Jesus. We're low, we're humble, right? And totally committed to Him, even if it means, what did Paul say about dying? That's better good. I get to go be with Jesus. Then, because I really actually believe this, that Heaven's better than this. And then what did he call the people saints, holy? That means all of you set apart. That means you are set apart for God. You're not staying by the world. You are set apart. You are holy.
That's the toilet letter.
So we also saw good, bad examples, as I call them, in the false teachers, right? So there you get again another. It reiterates it. We're not saved by the law. These teachers are saying, you might be that's false, right? Then, Philippians, three, dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine and learn from those who follow our example. There it is, if we turn the page Philippians, 48 and now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing, fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure. There's that word pure again, and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard and saw me doing, then the God of peace will be with you. So there's that pure
religion again.
It's a lot about what we're doing. People miss this. So there was a theme of contentment. Remember, I said that, but don't confuse contentment with what you have with laziness. There's no excuse for that, right? So Philippians 110 for I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure look at that word again, and blameless lives until the day of Christ return, may you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation. What is that? The righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ, for this will bring much glory and praise to God. Philippians, 127, above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. Philippians, 212 we saw this verse, dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you, and now that I'm away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with his fear and trembling in the Greek or terror. So there's that pure religious behavior, again, the fruit of your salvation. Work hard to show the results of your salvation. So I like what many says, Many people say, right? It's about what you're doing, right? It's important. And people really have had a hard time reconciling this because, right? It can be difficult. I get it, but because of what people are saying. And so you might have heard of Martin Luther. He had a really hard time with this, a really hard time with this, right? And I just want you to remember one thing, Martin Luther lived and died a Catholic priest. Just remember that didn't stop being Catholic, right? But Martin Luther wanted to throw out the book of James. He's quoted as saying that would. Teach it in his school or throughout the book of James. Didn't like revelation or Hebrews either because it says similar stuff, didn't like em. Imagine me getting up here this morning, alright, and saying, Yeah, you know, this is the word of God, except, like three books, they kind of stick. It's a different word, right? Imagine
that
heresy. That's what that's called, by the way, speaking out against the word of God, saying it's not the word of God.
So I get it right. And so Martin Luther, well, maybe didn't
get it either. He couldn't reconcile that faith and works paradox. That's really what it was all about. When you boil it down, I get it. It could be difficult, and I get it's also a lot easier, isn't it, to not have any accountability for your actions. Do whatever I want saved, okay, but what does the Bible say? Show me you're saved. Prove it. I will show you my faith, my words, and so did you notice? But Martin Luther Philippians says the same thing. Why didn't you want to throw that out? Think about it. It's really redundant throughout the entire New Testament. And I'll give you another book. We'll get a window in the next week. You're going to love it. We're going to talk about sin. Next week, it's going to be great, right? Bring tissues. So first, First John is right in line with that says it again, right? So just a little dip in First John, 319, our actions will show that we belong to the truth. So be confident when we stand before God. That's a powerful sentence, right there. Our actions will give us the confidence to stand before God. Whoa. Let that soak in no greasy Grace there. If we go to Third John, Third John 111 dear friend, don't let this bad because he's talking about Diotrephes. He's not supporting these teachers and stuff influence you follow only what is good. Now remember that those who do good prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.
Still think actions don't matter.
I hope not right, so we'll see next week, there are bad things we can do that disprove that we know God, right? So here again in our again, right? The word of God, the truth tells us that doing good really matters. It proves that we really know him.
That sounds exactly what like
what we saw in James, right? So let's look at it again. James three. James 313, if you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. Prove it. It's not the only place you get that sentiment, right? So you might heard of John the Baptist, if we keep reading this. So John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus. He's the Messiah's Herald, right? So he's preparing the way, fulfilling the scriptures there in Isaiah, 43 Malachi 31 preparing the way. And as he does so, he denounces the hypocrites, not just religious people. He's doing very religious stuff. And he's telling Repent and be baptized. So he's baptizing people, but He's insulting the Pharisees, because they're hypocrites. Right? Then he says this, Matthew three eight, prove by the way you live, that you've repented of your sins and turn to God. So we'll talk about that a little more next week. It's also like Paul will say it. Paul says it at the end of Acts and his speech, right? So he's giving his defense speech, and he says, acts 2620 I first preached to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and all throughout Judea and also to the Gentiles, that all must repent of their sins and turn to God and prove they have changed by the good things they do. So we see that there are two sides to baptism, and you don't usually get that other side right. You usually get the one side, like repenting. Some people do say repent. You're going to turn to God, and they'll say some other things, you're dunked and you're done. But we see the Bible says there's more to it than that. The Bible be like you get dunked. Okay? Prove it. Maybe I'll have that right. Come up. I was like, yeah. I'm like, not yet. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This person needs to prove it. We're not celebrating anything because only they know they're probably liars. So it's kind of not a joke, when you think about it, right, the Bible just keeps saying over and over and over again, what we in modern Christianity don't, and that's a problem. So we see that genuine relationship leads to genuine religion. It's. Faith that works, what you do says more about what you believe than anything that you can possibly say a lot of lip service.
So if you go back to James,
taming the tongue, right? So he's talking about in James three, like blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth, right? So basically, you're saying, Look, you know what you're saying. You're double minded what it says. You know also that you know, again, what you're saying doesn't match what you believe or what you're doing doesn't match what you're saying. And he says this, James 312 does a fig tree produce olives? Or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can't draw fresh water from a salty spring. So again, James is not in contrast to the rest of the New Testament. So you see, like pictures of Jesus's teaching in James, and so he's drawing from what did we see in Matthew when we looked at the Sermon on the Mount Matthew seven, same type of thing. Does it fig produce thistles or so? Can you get good fruit from a bad tree, right? You know what I mean, or bad fruit from a good tree? So it gives both examples. There, you judge a tree by its fruit, right? And then Jesus expands. If we go to John 15. John 15 five, yes, I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. So as extensions of Jesus, we can't help but produce good fruit. If we are grafted into him, you're just going to do it. If you're really a part of that good tree, are you grafted into this vine? Yeah, okay, then you're going to produce good fruit.
So it's all over the place.
Now,
did you notice something, though, apart from me, you can do nothing. Remember Ephesians, so that no one can boast. It's not from you. It's not you. So where do they come from? Well, we talked about it, and if you're a Christian, you know, because you're baptized the name of the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so we don't boast God gets the glory for that, because once we're baptized, we have him in us, and he produces that fruit. So really important. We've been in the series I talked about a lot, because it's very, very important. Contrast, Galatians five, the sin of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit. So we engage when we're saved in a war right inside us, not really we but the Holy Spirit versus our flesh, the things that we want to do right before we're saved, but the Holy Spirit comes in and No, no, no, right? So progressive sanctification, we start getting a little bit better and better. We'll talk about that next week. How to do that. It's a process, but it's good if you got a war going on in you and there's a struggle, good if there's no war, that's the scary part, right? Because it means your flesh is doing whatever it wants to do. The Holy Spirit gets in there and it gets uncomfortable, cuz finally, God's like saying, hey, whoa, whoa, don't do that. Convicts you. So the flesh, right? It's all these selfish things, right? Anger, outbursts of anger, division, jealousy, all these bad things, right? That's your flesh in there, right? For the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self control.
People, leave that one out.
So all the good stuff, it's selfless stuff. Genuine faith produces genuine fruit. We
talked about consumerism last week.
Have you ever bought something
on certain claims, like a claim was made, you bought it, you bought in that claim, and then it didn't work, alright? So maybe it was a lightning rod. Maybe I did this once, like I'll Okay, I'll confess my sin. Alright? So I bought a headlight defogger kit. He did it. So it's not just me, right? Cuz I was thinking about that. I brought my sports guard on the Florida No, the lights are foggy heaven for a bed, you know, like first world problems. So I saw it on TV. And you can say, I guess other people are thinking about it. If you buy this, wipe it on your head like it's so easy, and then they'll be like, no, and no, they were not. So I could be using it wrong. But I was disappointed, right? Didn't work. So, you know, it's all over the place, right? So there's a pill for everything. Like, just take these pills. I take one a day, and I'm 90, and you wouldn't know it. I'm like, Well, I would guess that you look about 90 years old anyway, and I could still do the things that I did 30 years ago. I'm like, prove it right? No. So we don't want to see that anyway, right? You pill everything, you know. But we expect results, but then we get it, and we're like, I still feel the same, right? I'm still 90. It didn't change that, you know, so, whatever. But then we have diets, right? And then we have this thing and we have that thing, and if you just eat this, you can eat whatever you want, or then you can do that. But maybe you should just fast, like Jesus did, and that would solve the problem. But anyway, we don't want religion. We want stuff, right? It's because there's a pill for everything,
right? The holy whatever
pill, I got to buy a pill because, but what do we want to see? The results. So fitness things, right? We get in a program. Why I want to see results? Otherwise, I was sold something, right? It was not as advertised. Maybe you bought into something, right? Some people do that, right? So what's, what's a huge lie, being from the business world, right, right, get rich quick, right? Wrong. That's
really rare, right? So
it's not like that, right? But everyone's got a scheme, a network marketing scheme, some kind of scheme. Maybe you did that, right? You sold something, you got involved in this club or whatever, and they told you, you're going to get this, that, and the other thing. And it didn't work. It wasn't as advertised. It didn't produce results. And there's someone in the audience with a pink Mary Kay car going, I can be wrong. And you got that I can be wrong about that, right? Not about this.
Anyway, it's maybe just, yeah, okay,
I'll stop right?
Not as advertised, generally, not like you're probably not that lotto ticket person, right? So there we go, because nobody comes into church with the winning lotto ticket. There was no risk of that happening, so we're good, alright, no results. But here's the thing. Now, let's apply it to what we do, right? What are we selling? What are we supposed to be selling if we're Christians, right? And I did the quotes on purpose, right? Jesus, right? So unfortunately, there are many self proclaimed Christians, right, who make false advertising claims. So those are the false teachers, and that's why it's a really big deal, right? If you go out there and you start telling people what, you know, we talked about in the series, like, you're always going to be healthy and wealthy, you know, everything is great if you just have faith, you know, and we learn what faith was. That was worrying about heavenly things, not earthly things. If you're worried about earthly things all the time, you're on spiritual and demonic, right? So anyway, but they go and they it should be obvious that they're fakes, but they make all these crazy claims, right? Jesus died so you can do whatever you want, but it doesn't work. That kind of faith doesn't save anyone. It doesn't work.
And what happens?
Not as advertised, people fall away from the faith. I mean, as a pastor, it's really embarrassing. I meet a lot of people like that. Well, it didn't work. Yeah, I tried that Christianity stuff. I went to church, whatever. I was still sick. My mom still died. You know all this, like, that's who promised you this nonsense. Like, that's not at all what the Bible says, right? So false claims. It's bad for the brand, as they would say in business, very bad for the brand. And even if they're not doing that, even evangelical Christians who kind of have somewhat biblical, good beliefs, right? They'll make themselves these self proclaimed, self righteous brand ambassadors for Christianity. And you see them come through church, but they don't stay here long. They come to church like, Nope, you know? But, like, my life's perfect. I'm doing this. Everything's great, right? And behind the scenes, there are mess like a total and complete mess, but on Sunday, they are perfect, and they're happy to tell you how to live your life, right? They're happy to tell you that you're in sin. Did you know that you're in sin? Because, of course, I'm not right. They're happy to tell you're in sin. Then, unlike what we've studied in the Word of God first, Corinthians, five, they go out and they tell the whole world that's in sin and convict them. And instead of holding up a mirror like Jesus said, they rushed to the picket sign. Pick it yourself. Hypocrite. You it's not done in love, as Jesus commanded, and the people trying to sell it. Think about what I just said. The fruit of the Spirit is what love,
joy like this is
great. I get to go to heaven. Yes.
Peace, whatever, whatever, whatever happens here, happens here? Right, faithfulness, kindness, kindness. That's the
fruit of his spirit. Right, kindness,
gentleness, first,
Peter, always be ready to make a defense. What you
believe. Get ready. It's a gentleness, because it's a fruit of the Spirit. With self control. I got to work on that. But anyway, so what's the flesh? The bad stuff, the sin, sin of the flesh, outbursts of anger. You. Divisions, dissension, jealousy, selfish, ambition. Even non Christians know that Christians are not supposed to be acting like that because Jesus didn't.
It's bad, right? So
we shouldn't expect the world to take our word for it,
if that's the way we're behaving.
Why is that expectation? There turns more people away. People expect to see the results of our salvation, and it's not unreasonable, because you expect it for everything else you bought on TV. There's nothing more convincing. Now, here's the thing. You may be sitting there this morning thinking, right? Like, I'm not a missionary, I'm not a that's good for you. Pastor, Jean, you keep working on that, right? I'm not a pastor. I'm not I don't know whatever it is an evangelist. It's not my role and responsibility. Well, we saw, if you were paying attention, those calling themselves Christians are all called to do good works and proven,
not excluded.
We've also seen, we may not all be missionaries, but we're all ambassadors for Christ. So we saw Second Corinthians four, quoted a little bit. You saw Second Corinthians four in the series, and Paul's talking about, like the temporary light tribulations we may experience are nothing compared to the eternal glory in heaven. We turn the page. Paul talks about dying, right? Talks about that a lot. That's better for me. All right, so great. Got to pack up the tent. I get to go to heaven. Then he writes this second Corinthians, 520 so we are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead come back to God, for God made Christ you never sinned, to be the offering for our sins so that we could be made right with God through Christ. So Jesus was without sin. Remember that system of law, he was very religious, so that we could be made right with God through Him, be his holy ambassadors. We speak for Christ.
I'm a Christian, right?
Okay, baby, Christ is what that means. So now you may be just realizing you are an ambassador for Christ. So it's a lot to think about. I get it, but many don't even realize it, that they may be shouting Jesus from the rooftops without even knowing it. They don't realize it, because we could be representing him in other ways.
Maybe you forgot about the Jesus fish on your car.
And so what do Christians do? Told the G as I gave a joke a while back. So if you've been here for a while, you've been threatened, right? So about the way you act, right? So I see you behaving badly. I'm going to go out in that parking lot, start scraping Jesus fishes off of cars, right? Don't embarrass me. So, you know, we don't we own a gym, so if you don't know me, like the martial arts school, so you know, it was like a joke all the time. But people would be like, bad at what they do, or in bad shape, or whatever. I'd be like, Oh, can I have a bumper sticker? No, no, you cannot. Don't. And I would coach fighters. This really happened, like, even big venues, like UFC stuff like that, they go up like, okay, here. You ready? Good? You ready? You've been training. Don't embarrass me. You know, literally, have said that to fighters. I'm like, don't, don't. It's bad for the brand, right? I want people to join this gym, right? But Christians, but Christians, you got that Jesus fish, and I've seen some of you Christians drive, right, man, you are all about off, cutting people off, flipping people off, it's crazy, and then turning people off from Jesus, right? So you're tailgating them almost. Use another term for that camp church,
honk your horn, speed around them, and then they see the Jesus fish
and maybe your church bumper sticker, and they say, That's exactly where I will not be going. Because if that's what that church produces, I don't want any part of it, and I don't blame them.
I didn't either before I got involved in this hurt. We need
to do more than simply like say something on our vehicle. We need to be the vehicle.
That's the important thing.
You're only believable if you produce results, and those results are the fruit of the Spirit. Only believable if you're loving. You're only believable if you're gentle and kind, humble, you lack that selfish envy. Let them go in front of you, that what's the. Big Deal, comp, patience, self control,
it's all in there.
So the truly repentance in this church, they're going to call an Uber. That's wasn't in my notes. Sometimes I just, you know, it works. It doesn't just, it's a risk. You know, we take big risk. So look action steps, right? So you are who you surround yourself with, right? So certain things rub off, right? So be among that fertile soil, right? So you can be nourished, nurtured. This is a good place to start being around people who are like minded or participate in what the church is doing, right? That's good stuff. Are we done with what the world is trying to sell us?
Are we? Are you done? Just personally, don't
answer aloud.
Are you done being agitated all the time? I have been right so, but I'm generally, I'm happier. But are you done? That's you today.
Are you just done being agitated and angry?
It's not productive. I mean, I've gotten a lot of things done when I'm angry, but anyway, it's just not it's not good for your health. It's not good for the people, right? If you're just being selfish. Okay, we'll start there. Makes you crazy. The world will just make you nuts. Are you done? This just hamster wheel of insanity. So if you are welcome home, right? It's okay. And so there are a lot of ways, if you are dissatisfied with what the world has advertised for you, if you are not seeing results, good results, welcome home where you can experience that joy that only comes from Jesus. He's unchangeable, unmovable. He's that solid rock that we build our foundation on? So just some encouragement to connect with us. You'll be told how you can do that. Let me pray for you, Lord. I thank you for everyone that took the time to come in here and honor your words. Honor you, to worship you. Truly worship you. I just thank you for that step, and Lord, I just pray that you will present more opportunities for everyone in the sound of my voice, so that they can show that love, they can share with others the fruit of their salvation, so that we bring more into your kingdom. I ask these things In Jesus's Name, Amen.
You