LISTEN! To the Lord
What should a Christian Church based in the Word look like?
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good morning welcome if you're new here among us my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor and i want to thank tony johnson for delivering the message last week he did a great job i call him deputy johnson and he is not on duty when he's here so it's okay he's not going to talk to you if you met him at work about anything this is a safe space we want people to know that but he did a great job he's a talented teacher and speaker he was a former pastor so the fact that he was a pastor and then became a cop tells you everything you need to know about being a pastor well he actually confessed some things about being a cop he let you all know that sometimes he speeds he breaks the speed limit now he says sometimes there's a call there's a place he has to be but then there are other times when there is not and so he confessed that he did that on tape it's out there on the interweb forever and ever now so we'll see if that has any effect on his job i don't think so because i think a lot of them do it but here's some other things about being a cop that maybe he couldn't tell you so i'll share some of this stuff with you how do i know this stuff no i was not a cop i was a business person in my previous life i was a musician for some time but i did martial arts business and i taught a lot of police officers a lot of cops i had one of those like credit card things i don't know why you'd have that many credit card things you like the bifold it's like this and it has all the slots in it i don't think they have that anymore anyway i'm old but it was filled three deep with cop cards so i'd get pulled over and they'd be like what do you do and i'm like i teach you all how to beat people up oh have a nice day sir so so i get pulled over quite a bit but but they would teach me what to do and i would listen to them that is my friends that i would teach they'd reciprocate a little bit and they'd say listen when you get pulled over this is what you do now we've talked about this stuff in the past i taught you guys how to pass a field sobriety test yes real church real people but i'm going to teach you again redundancy is good sometimes about what to do or not when you get pulled over give you some tips and tricks so once again deputy johnson told you if it's raining and you make him get out of the car forget everything you're done you're going to get a citation it's over and you people don't know a lot of people don't know that there are like 300 possible things in your car that they can give you tickets for it's a lot more even if it's just like a factory car that gave it to me this way blame the car no they can give you tickets upon tickets so if you just get one don't complain so anyway if it's not raining you still have a fighting chance if it's night time turn on a light because they're scared they don't know what they're going to roll up on you could have a gun don't fumble around the car pretending like you're looking for a gun or anything like that just turn on the light let them see your hands don't put the hands on the windshield because then you know you've done this a lot they know that so just you know you do that they're like yeah get out of the car so just up on the steering wheel is perfectly fine now this is going to be hard for a lot of you very hard shut up wait right so it's your job at this point to listen listen don't dare say anything just be quiet right listen listen and obey that's all you have to do do not say certain things don't volunteer so here's what a lot of people do do not do this do not point out the fact that there was someone doing something worse than you were doing and he missed it that's a bad one that's definitely going to get you in a lot of trouble it says you're negligent you're watching youtube videos instead of watching that guy who was going faster than i was no good don't do that definitely don't remind him that you pay his salary that's a very bad way because the truth is you probably don't you probably don't make that much there are people here in naples that yes maybe their taxes contribute to assad just listen because he's going to ask you a question that's going to sound something like do you know why i pulled you over that's the question now it's kind of like a trick question because it tempts you to do something that you should not and that is say no that is the wrong answer because it signals to him one of three things or all three things one you're stupid i just got in this vehicle and it just takes me places i don't even know how i get there as a radio you know and it just drives me around but it's not an ev it's nothing like that it's a clutch stick and you're just like saying nope i don't even know what i did i don't know what i'm doing two it could mean that you're a liar and nobody likes a liar three it could mean that you're drunk and that's no good he's going to take you to jail and yes that is what you deserve for doing that now a side note on drinking yes yes the bible we see even in the new testament we see alcohol for merriment and medicine jesus's first miracle don't tell this to the cop he doesn't need that information at this point did you know that jesus first miracle was turning water and why you get out of the car right so same as it's raining you're done so yes right so paul tells timothy your stomach hurts the water probably bacteria in it drink some wine for those frequent stomach ailments i know but the bible also clearly says you should not drink and drive it says that in there an automobile that's in the greek old testament that's why you probably haven't seen it but no so here's the thing just just as we wrap this little intro up if you absolutely need need to get arrested if that's something like you need to do just ask for deputy johnson it'll be the best arrest experience you've ever had concierge arrest experience it's going to be great he was a pastor they'll be praying and crying because you've been drinking you know so it'll be just fine so if you need to get arrested 9-1-1 what's your emergency hello i need to be arrested right now they don't even ask you why anymore that's how bad the world's gotten and then you can just request him hey can you know you send deputy johnson over they're like yeah we get that a lot so so he's a nice guy great speaker i love poking fun at him he's probably at work today i can't see up on the balcony but no he's not here today okay he works real hard i appreciate what he does not just here but also out there so he talked about being the church last week really tough message actually because as we do hear a lot if you're new here know that we are a bible believing church this is the program guide this is what i base everything on so hey are we doing this right are we not i look there all the answers are right there that's it we don't have anything added to anything taken away we don't subscribe to all these like program church things we're not trying to be like a mega church so if you're new here today that's us we're a bible believing church so as a part of that tony says okay let's go to the church of acts and we'll see what they did what did they do and we saw there were like four pillars there but there was an important thing they didn't just listen they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching right to each other to the fellowship breaking of the bread lords supper and prayer they devoted themselves to that so when you look at the modern church and then you look at that you're like these two things are not alike they're not generosity we looked at that too so very challenging message and so if you're new here today if i don't this doesn't come out of my mouth i'm just going to say it right now as a little disclaimer if you're new to christianity if you're new here today everybody's in a different spot in their walk i am going to read you a lot of scriptures these are god's words not mine that is what i do so if you read your bible a lot it's offensive it's offensive if you're not getting it like if you're not jesus it's going to offend you it does it's mostly correction it's very little like oh you're doing just fine go in peace i don't even know i don't think jesus ever said that right just so just that's how it is and if you're a bible-believing church god's word can be very very offensive so i'm not going to apologize for him i see pastors do that you know i'm sorry no i don't apologize for god so just as a disclaimer but we understand everybody's welcome here come as you are but it's going to be it's going to be hard today so today we find ourselves back in our series the rest of the story that's where we're looking at the rest of it and we're seeing that there's way more of it than ever really gets preached people come up to me they're like i've been a christian my whole life i didn't know it said that like i had no idea that was even there right so as sad as that is it's a good thing we're actually looking at it we're really digging in and looking what it says so we're finding ourselves in second kings second chronicles books of the bible that run in parallel they're accounting for about the same thing they give us different details and woven throughout we see that the prophets those books go back in to second kings and second chronicles most ish go in there so your bible is not in chronological order we're doing that though so we're putting some of the prophets in so we saw hosea right tough tough read we went to joel last week because it was pentecost sunday we don't know when the book of joel was written but peter quotes a big chunk of it on pentecost in the early church so there we go we put that right in there tony johnson preached standalone now we're back in it and we're at second kings 17. now here's where chronicles is going to focus on judah in the south so we're at a divided kingdom they had kind of just think of it like civil war and they're divided now israel in the north or they have been for a while judah in the south so it's confusing but judah in the south israel in the north israel samaria is the capital chronicles is just going to focus on judah and now second kings we're going to see that israel finally falls it is the fall of israel so you can kind of think of it like this meanwhile in israel it keeps doing that meanwhile in judah meanwhile in israel so this is it for israel second kings 17 1 hoshea now that is not hosea it's king hoshea different son of elah began to rule over israel in the 12th year of king a has his reign in judah he reigned in samaria that's the capital there nine years he did what was evil in the lord's sight but not to the same extent as the kings of israel who ruled before him king shalmaneser of assyria attacked king hoshea so hoshea was forced to pay heavy tribute to assyria give him money but hoshea stopped paying the annual tribute and conspired against the king of assyria by asking king so of egypt to help him shake free of assyria's power when the king of assyria discovered this treachery he seized hershey and put him in prison so it says finally in the ninth year of his reign it falls samaria the capital city finally falls now it'll go through this kind of pattern of just telling you why it falls because they worship other gods and it's going to remind you that they didn't think about the exodus account right so when when they were redeemed from egypt and in fact you guys keep going back to egypt what's wrong with you that comes up a bunch in the prophets two they forgot they worshipped idols regardless of his specific warnings not to they were not listening they were not obeying second kings 17 13 again and again the lord sent his prophets and seers to warn both israel and judah lumping them both together turn from all your evil ways obey my commands and decrees the entire law that i commanded your ancestors to obey and that i gave you through my servants and prophets but the israelites would not listen they were as stubborn as their ancestors who had refused to believe in the lord their god they rejected all of god's commands if you remember israel's first king jeroboam he makes not one gold calf like aaron did he makes two and bethel and they're hanging out there so they double down on the sin of aaron they even sacrificed their children in the fire so if you start feeling sorry for some of the israelites at this time remember they're killing their children that says it makes them pass through the fire that's what they're burning them alive so interesting imagery you'll get as you're reading along there you'll see that they're swept away it says this twice in this chapter they're swept away and so if you're in the word a lot this should make you think of noah where all the people are swept away by the flood and so this is what is happening so they're they're exiled what the king of assyria does he takes them and he exiles them so he brings them away and then he's going to replace them with his people that's what's going on here second kings 17 24 the king of assyria transported groups of people from babylon kutha ava hameth suffered him and resettled them in the towns of samaria replacing the people of israel they took possession of samaria and lived in its towns but since these foreign settlers did not worship the lord when they first arrived the lord sent lions among them which killed some of them lions can do that so he's punishing them so what happens here to summarize is they let the king of assyria know and so he says okay let's send some priests to teach them how to worship right they do seems like the lions go away but it says again they're mixing in with the pagan customs and again it says that they're burning their children in the fire so these people it's not a picture in our minds like wow why would the lord do this out of just a little disobedience it's like no it's not like us you know in traffic or something cutting someone off and flipping them off this is not like a minor infraction they are burning their children in the fire it's horrible so the lord repays them for this second king 17 35 for the lord had made a covenant with the descendants of jacob and commanded them do not worship any other gods or bow down before them or serve them or offer sacrifices to them like your children so it's not just like simple oh you know i went to whatever a different place and i worship some other god by singing some songs no i worshiped another god by burning my child in the fire think of it like that but worship only the lord who brought you out of egypt with great strength and a powerful arm bow down to him alone and offer sacrifices only to him be careful at all times by the decrees regulations instructions and commands that he wrote for you you must not worship other gods don't forget the covenant i made with you and do not worship other gods you must worship only the lord your god he is the one who will rescue you from your enemies but the people would not listen and continue to follow their former practices so while these new residents worship the lord they also worshiped their idols and to this day their descendants do the same they were not listening so that's a theme here in this chapter again and again and again three or four times it'll make that statement they were not listening they were not obeying so big thing listen now if we're weaving in some of the prophets i would put micah about here so if you know the bible micah between jonah and nahum used to be kind of one book together and now micah is like in the middle there he's a prophet that prophesies during this time probably a little before-ish this but he'll continue to do so all the way to hezekiah who's next we're going to talk about him next in judah so that's where i had put him so micah11 the lord gave this message to micah of maurizio during the years when jotham a has we've talked about him before and hezekiah were kings of judah hezekiah not yet the visions he saw concerned both samaria and jerusalem attention let all the people of the world listen let the earth and everything in it hear the sovereign lord is making accusations against you the lord speaks from his holy temple listen listen so in micah if you're taking notes micah has three listen cycles that's what happens in micah so and they all start with listen so in one it starts three another cycle six another cycle seven chapter book so there's a trial it's like the prophets i described this last time they put the people on trial they set up like a courtroom scene sometimes and so you have the trial of the capitals the trial of the leaders and the trial of the people those are the three listen so they're all supposed to listen really important now the interesting thing is each one of these cycles it's israel and judah each one of these cycles is addressed to israel or samaria in the north so he's predicting this fall so it's just like like i said right before us this so we can do that with this in mind micah 1 6. so i the lord will make the city of samaria that's the capital in the north a heap of ruins her streets will be plowed up for planting vineyards i will roll the stones of her walls into the valley below exposing her foundations so i want to jump over to the new testament for a moment and then i'm going to connect it all for you so it might not make sense right away but if we go to mark 4 3 we're going to see something parable of the sower i've talked about this for different reasons there's a lot you can glean out of that pun intended but listen a farmer went out to plant some seed listen so for today's purpose i'm just going to kind of review it really quick so jesus gives the parable first without any explanation at all a farmer's out scattering seed some of it lands on rocks basically concrete to us or just rocks yeah you can't get down in there right so the birds come and scoop it up some of the seed falls on rocky soil it's not great so it can't get good root comes up a little bit gets scorched by the sun some of the seed falls among thorns and thistles so weeds falls among that it can't really grow up so it doesn't produce any fruit but some falls on really fertile soil ah now it can get down in there and then produce a crop 30 60 100 times then jesus says anyone with ears to hear should listen and it's that again so the word listen end caps the parable a lot of people don't notice that then the disciples are like what were you talking about jesus and then he explains it to them later right so the seed is the word of god and those soil types are us does it get down in there or not that's the point that is how we produce fruit good disciples now i'll point something out to you that many of you probably have not seen i only have a couple friends who can see this but when you look at these texts and you you're looking at it in the original languages now it's a lot like if you've been a church for a long time you may or may not know that the apostles they're writing in greek right the writers of new testament and greek they're also reading in greek they're reading the greek old testament that's very important because the hebrew of that time it doesn't give us some of the prophecies we need so it's an inspired version it's very important and that's why a lot of times when you read the new testament and you look at the old testament quote it doesn't match and a lot of good bibles will say greek they're quoting the greek they're quoting the greek and it's important but if you can read it and greek old testament is very difficult i'm a little better at the new testament but i know certain key words like listen and when you're looking at it second king 17 i have it all out there and i'm looking at micah and i'm looking at mark i'm looking at jesus same greek word ako or eti i butchered it but it doesn't matter i can read it i don't need to say it all my greek friends make fun of me and you know what's a funny thing she's watching i thought about this it's really interesting because they say oh you don't pronounce it right i'm like you you're greek you don't pronounce english right you know and you've been speaking to people all the time i don't talk to anyone so it's kind of a key point right so you have an accent but anyway it's i think it's ako eti something like that right it's just it's listen but that e.t.e at the end that means you listen and that's the word there you it's just a that just means listen but this is you listen so that's why in your bible maybe it's translated with an exclamation point so it's supposed to be very forceful in talking about this to my greek friends they're like it's like when a parent like with force you're supposed to be listening you don't have a choice you need to obey what i'm about to tell you right now listen up that that's how i would translate it in my vernacular my daughter just went right listen up you don't have you need to listen so that's the kind of so when you read it there if it doesn't have an exclamation point put it there that's what jesus is doing listen up farmer scattering seed so he goes it's like that it has force and volume he wants you to pay attention so what does it really mean to listen what does that mean listen you see a lot of people like maybe listening but is that enough to just hear it i heard you and that's it can we just pretend to listen is that enough it's interesting tony kind of went there last week i talked about kind of basically what i would say checking off boxes you know oh yeah i went to church today you know so we fought all the way there we left we fought some more then we went to the restaurant and we tipped the waitress really bad you know we didn't even ask her what's wrong not involved in anybody's life you know like what you know are we just coming check that's it it's a civic check box going to look good in my obituary right is that what this is all about we showed up sang some songs we heard the pastor that's it but did we really listen what does listen connotate what does it mean but isn't it enough well let's go and see what it says in micah micah 6 8 no no o people the lord has told you what is good and this is what he requires of you to do what is right to love mercy and to walk humbly with our god to live it out we're going to talk about walking in there's like a greek thought there it's hard for some people to understand but just to live rightly so to walk in something no it's not enough it means nothing if we do nothing remember the church of acts they think about it it doesn't say oh they showed up they listened to the apostles for a while and they went home no it says they devoted themselves to the teaching that was the first thing they devoted themselves the apostles were devoted to the word of god right so that's why the deacons came about they're like you know we need to be in this all the time you got to go serve the food that's good we need to do this and they knew that they respected that they're like wow okay let me listen this guy's been in the word all week time for me to like soak some of that in but then go do it right so then they had the breaking of the bread the fellowship the prayer the extreme generosity people are selling everything wow that's amazing so let's hop over to james speaking of acts james the book of james written by jesus brother james the head of the early church so he's like the bishop or the overseer in jerusalem which at the time is the mother church so james writes this james 1 19. understand this my dear brothers and sisters you must all be quick too listen slow to speak and slow to get angry human anger does not produce the righteousness god desires so get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives and humbly accept the word god has planted like the parable the sower in your hearts for it has the power to save your souls but don't just listen to god's word you must do what it says otherwise you're only fooling yourselves for if you listen to the word and don't obey it's like glancing at your face in a mirror you see yourself walk away and forget what you look like but if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard same greek word there then god will bless you for doing it quick note on anger in these times in this political climate a lot of christians have kind of like taken a whole bunch of stuff out of context because jesus flipped tables but you're not jesus and they're like i get to be angry right that means i and they ignore all of the other scriptures about angry like this one human there's a difference there's god's wrath and then there's human anger human anger does not produce the righteousness of god so ephesians 4. like yeah be angry but don't sin don't let the sun go down on your anger that's bad right so the fruits of the spirit galatians 5. we see all those good fruits of the spirit love joy peace patience kindness gentleness self-control but then we see the sin of the flesh right the evil fleshly desires just before it just before it's right there do you know what one of those is outbursts of anger that's not from god that's from your flesh so keep reading we're gonna talk about that a lot we talk about that a lot at this church like people just grab one verse here and then they forget about the rest of it that helps define what you just read note on anger calm down listening implies doing so think about like three everyday life scenarios maybe you don't play sports i don't know i wasn't too great at it but anyway maybe a coach says to the team listen up listen up and then he gives everybody instructions right and what did i do when i was a nerdy kid like i didn't even hear him and so imagine that you go out to play whatever it is support your play you're out there on the field just doing this the ball hits you in the head you know what's he going to say weren't you listening that's what he's going to say because listening implies that if you were listening you would do it you would do it do what i said your parent gives you some chores listen up i need you to do okay three hours later nothing's done weren't you listening to me that's the question you're going to get weren't you listening to me what's going on teacher in school right hey we're going to do this assignment and then if you're me in school right like you know for the period weren't you listening to me that's what they're gonna say listening implies doing really listening means we're doing but god gives us kind of another definition here he extends it a little bit what does it mean if you're not listening doing two james let's go back there 4 17. remember it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it let that sink in it is sin to know what you ought to do and not do it like some people think like well i didn't do anything wrong well you can also sin by not doing anything at all a lot of people don't think about that it's not enough to just sit there and do nothing that sin when you know you should be doing something right interesting now there are two verses or little sections of micah and i always show you guys this it's fun that are quoted in the new testament so they quote the new testament and validate it or the old testament a lot in the new testament validate certain things or hey these are prophecies that's what they were talking about one is in micah 7. we're not going to go there today we're not on the topic jesus is basically saying that he's going to cause division among families and so in this jewish context that's who he's talking to you there that's one of them the other one is about his birth it's super cool a lot of people never ever go there but i encourage you read micah and when you get to chapter 5 think about what's being prophesied here right so they're saying that he's going to come from bethlehem it's really wonderful and that's quoted in matthew 2. so micah 5 2 but you o bethlehem ephrathah are only a small village among all the people of judah yet a ruler whose origins are in the distant past will come from you on my behalf really interesting it says he's going to go on to save them so in the prophets what's going on there's like a lot of bad judgment happening here but at the same time hey you're going to get restored in the future i'm going to bring everything back around and you'll get it you won't need these earthly kings anymore you're going to get a messiah so that's what's going on so he comes at this time in matthew for our salvation he comes to save us from this sin that's what he's doing the first time i want to go through something with you i've done this a little bit with the book of john so i'll do that really fast but i think it just it bears repeating because a lot of people forget this there's a dangerous teaching in mainstream there's a lot of them in mainstream christianity that that teaches people or allows them to think that they're never going to be judged never hear that i'm not going to be judged that's it jesus died for me i'm not going to be judged that's very bad thinking that's not what the word of god says at all it does not say that and so here's what people do and i'll tell you why a lot of christians believe this because they're verse of the day christians they don't read the whole bible they don't just keep reading it they stop on the verse of the day that's it it's dangerous there's some truth in there john 3 16 that's nice but they might actually go ooh let me read another verse and wait a minute it says look jesus didn't come to judge the world okay and i had someone do this to me one time and i'm like keep reading pointing out the fact that well in john 5 john 9 john 12 jesus says i'm going to judge the world it talks about the two resurrections he's very specific so what's going on here he came then that time in the flesh to save the world i came to die for all of you for your sins when i come back if you read to the end i'm going to come back to judge it that's what he's saying whoever does not appreciate and accept what i'm doing here the first time they're in a lot of trouble when i come the second time but what a lot of people don't know when we read all of the instructions i'm going to put three up here for you three all the instructions we see the truth we need to keep reading that's not in order it would be roman second corinthians and first peter if we did it in order but i want you to see this the right way think about what's being said here first peter 4 17 for the time has come for judgment they all think jesus is coming back sooner than he is he addresses that too and it must begin with god's household and if judgment begins with us says peter the lead apostle us if judgment begins with us what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed god's good news the gospel and also if the righteous are barely saved what will happen to godless sinners i want to point out that's the greek old testament he's quoting there if we pete think for a moment the apostle peter if i am barely saying what's gonna happen judgment begins with me don't believe this one oh maybe he's plucking out of context not romans 14 10. so why do you condemn another believer the context there is stop arguing over things in this case like meet sacrifice to idols stop arguing about all these things and judging one another it's going to be a time for that why do you look down on another believer remember we will all stand before the judgment seat of god that's paul we we that's paul second corinthians paul again 5 10 for we must all stand before christ to be judged just in case you're gonna mince words there before stand before christ to be judged we all christians we must each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body so here's the thing just to be clear crystal clear we are saved by grace through our faith in jesus christ not by our works so that we cannot boast and that's where people stop reading ephesians 2 8 keep going all the way to 10. for we are god's craftsmanship created in christ jesus for good works so here's the right way to think about it yes we are saved by grace so that we can do good works that's what it says and then if we're not well it begs a question we're going to look at that in a minute why it's evidence of our salvation so i've done this kind of teaching a lot it's kind of it's called a paradox right so seemingly absurd statements that don't make sense they seem to be contradicting one another when you like read one over here and one over there they don't make sense cognitive dissonance they they don't reconcile you need to read but when you read the whole thing oh i totally get it that's what that is and that's what's happening to a lot of christians so i give this teaching it's kind of like this a coin i put it down on a table i've done this 100 times in the last few months put it down on a table you look at it what is that it's a quarter good close your eyes flip the coin over open your eyes again is that the same coin someone who knows the quarter is going to say yeah someone who doesn't no both sides of a coin so that's what we get scripturally so i know who's in the word because i'll say one thing and they'll go huh but i know who is in the word because they go ah i know what's coming same kind of thing know the coin know the word and you won't be so confused so first john it's kind of like that so a lot of people i've had people throw this at me big mistake so first john 1 right if we say we have no sin we're a liar done cool i can go do whatever i want really so let's read the rest of it a little bit first john let's go to the end here 1 8 if we claim we have no sin we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth but if we confess our sins to him he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness if we claim we have not sinned we are calling god a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts turn the page first john 2 1 my dear children i am writing this to you so that you will not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate who pleads our case before the father he is jesus christ the one who is truly righteous he himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins and not only our sins but the sins of all the world those who are in him but keep reading first john 2 3 and we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments if someone claims i know god but doesn't obey god's commandments that person is a liar and is not living in the truth but those who obey god's word truly show how completely they love him that is how we know we are living in him those who say say they live in god should live their lives as jesus did your version might say walking with him which is that concept them so this is a good translation simply because their hymn is jesus and that's what they're saying as i said before those who say they live in god and god lives in you we'll live like jesus did jesus sin no we need to keep reading now here's the thing god's words not mine so it sounds a little hard but i'm just reading you the bible that's all i'm doing first john 3 4 everyone who sins is breaking god's law for all sin is contrary to the law of god and you know that jesus came to take away our sins and there is no sin in him anyone who continues to live in him will not sin but anyone who keeps sinning does not know him or understand who he is dear children don't let anyone deceive you about this when people do what is right it shows that they are righteous even as christ is righteous but when people keep on sinning it shows that they belong to the devil who has been sinning since the beginning but the son of god came to destroy the works of the devil those who have been born into god's family do not make a practice of sinning because god's life is in them so they can't keep on sinning because they are children of god so now we can tell who are children of god and who are children of the devil anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to god sadly there are many christians who have never heard these verses see what he said here don't let anyone deceive you you know what that means there are people going around deceiving them they're saying no no no no don't read that part that's dangerous you're gonna find yourself before a judge someday and you're going to say i am a christian and maybe he'll say no you're not the story of lazarus abraham's bosom right jesus says warn my brothers i didn't know right if you wouldn't listen to moses or the prophets you won't listen if someone raises from the dead it says it's over that's it you don't get another chance and so these are very important verses to hear they are life-saving verses that is eternal life-saving verses god presents the question are you really listening are you really listening and why aren't you doing anything about it just as i close today there are way too many older people in church who are like yeah tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow if you know a part of my story like i was only in my mid-30s i thought i was going to die die and i wasn't listening i was not listening and i knew it let me save you from some terrifying moments terrifying i'm about to meet the author of life and i don't even know what my favorite chapter is terror not fun well he healed me and i said okay i'm not doing that again i'll save you from that read the word check my work read the word listen and obey you are saved by grace through faith in jesus christ but if it doesn't compel you to do anything you have to do some serious soul searching if we are truly a new creation in christ the context there is not sinning that's the context we should have ears to hear we should be listening we should have hearts that obey christ should compel us to be that new creation in christ pray that for yourself and so as we close today i want to pray from the scriptures i'm going to let god's word do more of the talking i think it's very pertinent here so let me pray this for you ephesians 3 14 when i think of all this i fall to my knees and pray to the father the creator of everything in heaven and earth i pray that from his glorious unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit then christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him your roots will grow down into god's love and keep you strong and may you have the power to understand as all god's people should how wide how long how high and how deep his love is maybe experience the love of christ though it is too great to understand fully then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from god now all glory to god who is able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think glory to him in the church and in christ jesus through all generations forever and ever amen you