Who Should We Listen To?
Lessons from Jeremiah & A Look at Pastoral Requirements in 1 Tim & Titus
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and it is my pleasure to serve here at C3 Church as your lead pastor and I think we've heard enough about the storm so let's talk about something else about that right we leave that stuff outside starting with my dad popular topic for me he had a lot of jobs one of them was a contractor he could build a house from the ground up the foundation the shingles do everything and so as a kid I got taken on lots of jobs with him but when you're little you're not old enough to do like masonry and stuff like that right the cinder blocks weighed more than I did a 10 year old with a pack of shingles up a ladder not a great idea so I started as the Gopher okay so you go for things and this is really kind of good for young people to learn the trade because you learn what all the tools are named so it's good so you go for the tools one day they asked me to get the duck way and somebody worked in construction so the Douglas I'm like what okay so I didn't know what it was but I went anyway to look for it right so you have some pride you want to admit it I'm looking through all the tools the first thing I'm figuring is okay I'm going to find something that's labeled Craftsman duck way right and that's what I'm looking for nope apparently they don't make that so process of deduction all the tools I know well good bad thing happens right so I know all the names of the tools okay I gotta go back so I go back and I ask what's a duck way answer two or three pounds So today we're going to talk about like misdirection right being misguided being sent on a mission that you shouldn't be going on right so we find ourselves in the rest of the story you can always catch up and it's going to be on the Recaps I'm going to have to like kind of leave a lot of stuff out otherwise we're just going to be here for three hours right so real quick you can go back online you can watch the rest of the story you can kind of catch up some of you are actually doing that I'll see you in like three years it's going to take you to catch up on those things it's pretty long but we want to honor God's word here it's all important if we're saying this is all God's word it's all important so we're looking at all of it right now we're in the time where the judeans right so the southern Kingdom Falls last is zedekiah right so he gets his eyes ripped out he sees his family die that's the last thing he sees it's absolutely horrible and then he gets taken away to Babylon that's where we're at right now so they're in Exile but we saw that they're still like Jeremiah is still living in Judah so that's what's going on here so now nebus or Aiden the captain of the Guard he's going to be sent there to kind of manage things so no more of these client Kings he's going to install a governor and this is where we're at in the story so Jeremiah 39 8. meanwhile the Babylonians had burned Jerusalem including the Royal Palace and the houses of the people and they tore down the walls of the city then nebusa Rayden the captain of the Guard took as Exiles to Babylon the rest of the people who remain in the city those who are defected to him and everyone else who remain but nebusa radin allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind in the land of Judah and he assigned them to care for their Vineyards in the fields King Nebuchadnezzar had told nebulizerade and the captain of the Guard to find Jeremiah and there's another line there see that he isn't hurt look after him so that's what he's charged with doing so he's in prison so nebby's reading sends messages get Jeremiah out of prison gets him out of prison and he put him under the care of this guy get Alaya and we're going to learn about yet Alaya today uh so Jeremiah stayed there in Judah not in prison any longer that's the backdrop interestingly there's a little note in there while he's still in prison remember ebad Malik the Ethiopian or the cushite he was the guy that got Jeremiah out of the cistern right and so the lord gave a message for this guy like all is going to go well for you so yes it's all going to get destroyed everything around you but essentially because you did that for Jeremiah you're good and so there's a note about that if we turn the page Jeremiah 41. the lord gave a message to Jeremiah after nebius arrayed in the captain of the Guard had released him at Rama he had found Jeremiah abound in Chains among all the other captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being sent to Exile in Babylon the captain of the Guard called for Jeremiah and said the Lord your God has brought this disaster on the land just as he said he would for these people have sinned against the Lord and disobeyed him that is why it happened but I am going to take off your chains and let you go if you want to come with me to Babylon you are welcome I will see that you're well cared for but if you don't want to come you may stay here the whole land is before you go wherever you like if you decide to stay then return to get Alaya son of a hayakim the grandson of Shay fan he has been appointed governor of Judah by the king of Babylon stay there with the people he rules but it's up to you go wherever you like then nephews are raiding the captain of the guard gave Jeremiah some food and money and let him go so Jeremiah returned to get Elia son of high chemit Mitzvah and he lived in Judah with the few who were still left in the land so you're going to see this just a quick note you're going to see actually as we get into Daniel and stuff these Babylonian Millions actually through the course of the seem to be getting nicer and nicer and nicer and this is leading up to actually you'll see that nebu knezer actually worships God at a certain point so interesting to know right so they're they're just being kind of submissive here Jeremiah is doing as he told and they're going to be winning people over they're going to see that that course of action here's where it gets really confusing so I made another chart not as confusing as last week but here we have books of the Bible running in parallel so if this interests you and you want to try to put the Bible back together the way it really goes chronologically ish it's not perfect because we don't exactly know in certain places these will be helpful to you so it's in our app we'll talk about the app later so largely in this section where Jeremiah 52 Second Kings 25 and second chronicles 36 come together they're going to be longer and shorter versions the destruction of the temple so it just goes into all this stuff so certain books will explain it at length or different things at length others will just summarize and that's what we see in Second Kings 25 23. when all the Army commanders and their men learned that the king of Babylon had appointed get Elia as Governor they went to see him at Mitzvah these included Ishmael the son of netanyah johannan the son of Korea Soraya son of tuna math the notificate jasonia son of the makeethite and all their men glad you didn't have to do that right get a lie vowed to them that the Babylonian officials meant them no harm don't be afraid of them live in the land and serve the king of Babylon and all will go well for you he promised but in mid-autumn of that year Ishmael son of nathaniah and Grandson of elishama who is a member of the royal family went to Mitzvah with ten men and killed get Alaya he also killed all the judeans and Babylonians who are with them at Mitzvah then all the people of Judah from the least to the greatest as well as the Army commanders fled and panic to Egypt for they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them so if you're going to hop around a little bit you got to go to Jeremiah 40. and you kind of get the longer version of this where there's in exchange here so ishmael's the bad guy he's been sent by the king of Ammon to kill yetaliah the governor all right so we have this exchange with johannen who becomes kind of an important figure in here and there's like two rounds of him warning him what's going to happen and in this he even says like I'll go kill Ishmael for you Galilei doesn't believe him he says you will do no such thing so here you have like get Eliah and Jeremiah they're kind of the good guys there and what they're saying is don't cause any trouble why the Lord said look you're to be submissive to the Babylonians now do that and so they're obeying and so you get these other guys who are not so first at first it looks like johannan is a good guy here in this story if we turn the page Jeremiah 41 again all this is happening during that little section there in Second Kings 25. sure enough it happens he takes 10 men with him they're eating a meal and they kill him they kill the governor and he also kills all the judeans and Babylonian soldiers who are with them so this is bad they're committing a really bad crime everyone's going to be mad at them Ishmael is a really like not an honest dude because there are 80 people coming from different places to worship yes the Temple's destroyed but you can still offer like grain offerings and other things there they want to worship Ishmael comes out before they get there and he's crying he's saying look what happened to get Eliah come see when they get into the town they kill them they kill 70 of them there's 80 men they kill all but 10. it says real bad they dump their bodies into a cistern and they take a bunch of captives but when johannan and the other military leaders hear about this crime they go out to get them they catch up with them at the large pool near gibeon and now the people were captured taken hostage they're cheering and they're starting to help him do this but Ishmael gets away with eight of his men so he escapes this whole thing well now they're all going to plan to leave for Egypt why well again they killed the Babylonian soldiers they're going to be in trouble so they're going to seek refuge in Egypt and if we turn the page this is what happens essentially these people go to Jeremiah and they say pray to God for us ask him what we should do we're going to do whatever he says essentially all right so we'll do whatever he says all right Jeremiah replied I'll pray to God and I'll hide nothing from you interesting response Jeremiah 42 5. then they said to Jeremiah may the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever he tells us to do whether we like it or not we will obey the Lord Our God to whom we are sending you with our plea for if we obey everything will turn out well for us okay so 10 days and Jeremiah hears from the Lord and he goes back and essentially what's at play here just to overview this is that again they're getting punished so they're like being put in time out in this Exile it's like a 70-year timeout long time out but just to give you like the idea here I am punishing you says the Lord why well they're worshiping other gods and you may think if you're new to this whole thing well what's the big deal I just went to like a different a synagogue or a different Church what's the big deal that's not how they worship they worship other gods by killing their children bring your kid no we're not going to do the kids church today we're going to sacrifice my child here you know this is insanity it's really really really bad so they're being sent off to punishment so that's what Jeremiah goes through right you see so you've got to stay here and take it don't go to Egypt don't do that you're not going to be safe there and so really between here in chapter 44 it's just round after round of that where there's different different things being talked about essentially don't go to Egypt but then Jeremiah adds like why did you even bother asking me basically you're not going to do anything I say anyway so he knows their character and sure enough that's what they say if we're in Jeremiah 43 you lie and then they throw Barrack or Baruch his secretary under the bus right he just wants us all to die here we're going to go to Egypt okay and so that's what they do they take everybody to Egypt so Jeremiah is with them too and they end up at this place called Tampines in the Egypt ish it's like ruling Northern Egypt if you're looking at a map a couple of rounds of this happens again but with different kind of illustrations that Jeremiah is using there are stones and he because the Lord tells them to put some Stones Under good translation like the pavement of the entrance of the palace for pharaoh and that is where uh Nebuchadnezzar's Throne will be placed so what is he telling him Nebuchadnezzar is going to get you here too right you're supposed to stay be subservient and what's interesting is he's letting them stay in Judah too he's not even saying you got to go to Exile he's making it even easier you can stay in Judah just be subject to Nebuchadnezzar and take your time out nope so he gives this kind of judgment against some of this prophecy Nebuchadnezzar is going to find you there there's kind of a weird thing and don't get stuck there we'll stay on application there's this Queen of Heaven that they keep talking about that these people are worshiping people get all stuck there and speculate it's just another one of these foreign gods that they're worshiping but these people are nuts they're making the claim like you know when we were worshiping the Queen of Heaven everything was great for us but that's exactly what got them in the problem in the first place so you're looking at these kind of people that you're dealing with here not normal like they're just totally out of control so again that theme you're not going to be safe in Egypt but here you have this guy johannan he thought he was going to be good right nope he's not listening either he misguides everyone and takes them there even though Jeremiah they acknowledge him as a prophet right they asked him what do we do so they know he's a prophet they listen they just don't listen to it and if we're being honest we see this as well today we see this a lot today we have a clear message from the Lord right we know it's the right thing maybe we've even checked it out right but the people don't want the right answer all right they want the wrong answer they'll seek another one I feel you Jeremiah right you didn't want the right answer in the first place so they don't get it and they just keep going down the line until they get it from another person and there's always a false teacher or a false leader who is totally willing to give him that wrong answer always to appeal to the immediate tell them exactly what they want to hear we saw it last week in hananiah right the yolk now he's got a yoke of iron the false prophet you just keep seeing this over and over and over again Ishmael misdirected Zeal you know you just over johannen seems to be getting it but every time it seems like the people just reject those who are being faithful they don't want to listen that's difficult don't tell me that from Jeremiah to get Alaya all the way to today people as we saw last week will be more than happy to listen to false teachings and one of the most common techniques is to appeal to our zeal for control what's Faith it's in God's hands we have a Zeal for control and all boils down to it playing God but the word of God says this Proverbs 19 21 you can make many plans but the Lord's purpose will prevail 14 12 there's a path before each person that seems right but it ends in death and it's redundant 1625 too you may think it's right but it's a God's plan when it's repetitive too it's probably important the irony that under the illusion of control those people are being controlled that's the horrible irony so we saw people like the false Prosperity Prophet hananiah they aren't in line with God's Will and God's word and that's the problem a lot of people today they think they may be doing something that is right or following someone who's right but is it God's will so we see example after example of this and the question's been raised recently so we're going to do something that I don't know if we've ever done in this church and you just don't see it a lot in church and you'll find out why in a minute so know that I love you so as I say these things so the question who do we listen to right so there bless you there are a lot of teachers out there today a lot of options right but who's right and I've been asked this who do we listen to and so I'm going to give you that answer from here today all right we're going to get that answer today so we look at the biblical steps so first of all we have to be in the word don't be like jehoiakim right tearing up the scroll Jeremiah sent to him and burning it you know like it's here it's all right here I'm going to give you some other tools too to get into this a little bit more the answers are here it has to line up with this but here's the thing in context in context you have to know a good teacher is always going to teach you context do you see what I did today and I was saying like I'm a great teacher but you get my point right I'm telling you what is happening in the backdrop in context we saw the problem with using like Jeremiah 29 11. I know the plans I have for you you know if you read just the line before and after that you will never use that line for short-term shallow Prosperity ever again it's ignorant and it's insulting if you have a love for God's word in God's people know what's surrounding that verse horrible when you use a shallow verse for short-term Prosperity when these people are in the midst of a horrible circumstance and that verse is not about what's happening now that versus what's happening 70 years from now so not you not you it's about like your grandkids are going to see Prosperity but right now you're going to be eating your children and starving to death all right so here's what happens scripture validates scripture so the person should be using a lot of scripture and that scripture so like we just saw should validate scripture one-liners and you can't find it anywhere else that's a problem so you want to use you want to hear more from who me or God I've had people thank you great answer God not me I've had people come out to me and say this is too much scripture like do you know what you're really saying when you say that like I don't like to hear from God and maybe that's the problem right and so that's a warning sign when you see like just a little scripture and then the person goes on like a half hour 40 minute rant no right so the less scripture someone uses the greater the chances they're going to get it wrong that that's just the first thing or insert too much opinion or take it out of context so knowing the word we have to test everything against the word now let's look at the spiritual test so this is interesting first John 4 1. dear friends do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the spirit you must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God for there are many false prophets in the world same today we were warned about that first Thessalonians 5 20 do not scoff at prophecies but test everything that is said hold on to what is good stay away from every kind of evil so I showed you you can test it against the word right if you know it well but there's a more practical application here how do we test it well a good indicator of someone's spiritual well-being is the spiritual fruit they're producing all right so Jesus tells us this like essentially if it quacks like a duck it's a duck way right so it's a duck so I want to show you something teachers teachers should be judged a lot of pastors don't say that but James 3 1 dear brothers and sisters not many of you should become teachers in the church why for we who teach will be judged more strictly you're handling God's word and so people oh what's the big deal people are coming to Christ who cares about the false teachers and this and that well the Bible cares a lot about it I mean whole books of the Bible are written about it talks about it a lot it's really important because they can misdirect you right that's why they talk about it so much so teachers should be judged more strictly that's important so I'm going to show you how so first thing Jesus we judge a tree by its fruit he says that so here's the thing larger sections of scripture just put this in your mind Matthew 5 through 7. right it's just one continuous Continuous Flow the sermon on the mountain one thing Jesus doesn't stop talking in there and says oh you know what come back next week no and he makes certain points in the beginning that he then clarifies I've showed you this in the past the problem when you stop reading oh we're just going to do chapter five and then forget about it no you keep going so what people do they get to Matthew 7 right the first verse there and it's kind of like showing up to church about like 30 minutes into my sermon sitting down right because you're in line for coffee you're sitting down and hearing don't judge and like that sounds great I got to go to the bathroom I had too much coffee and then you leave and the sermon's over right so but this Jesus continues right good thing Matthew 7 15 beware of false prophets who come and disguise this harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves you can identify or judge them by their fruit that is by the way they act can you pick grapes from Thorn bushes or figs from thistles a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit a good tree can't produce bad fruit had dyslexia there for a moment sorry and a bad tree can't produce good fruit so every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire what do you think he's insinuating there yes just as you can identify a tree by its fruit so you can identify people by their actions you can identify people by their actions okay Galatians the book of the Bible really what Galatians is all about false teachers what are they spreading you have to be under the law of Moses you have to be Jewish in order to become a Christian this is heresy and Paul is straightening that out and so the whole letter is really about that within this context of these false teachers he says this Galatians 5 19. the idea here is that you are under the spirit not the law of Moses so when he says law that's why he's doing that he's mutually exclusive Galatians 5 19. when you follow the desires of your sinful nature the results are very clear sexual immorality impurity lustful Pleasures idolatry sorcery hostility quarreling geralty outbursts of anger selfish ambition dissension division Envy drunkenness wild parties and other sins like these let me tell you again as I have before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control there is no law against these things those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there since we are living by the spirit let us follow the spirits leading in every part of our lives and just keep that up so I've done something interesting Alexia let's move to the truck I've done something interesting because and this is the suggestion of my wife who's on the slides today so just marital advice not advisable like okay so that's not good she's on this live working the slides today anything could happen but she suggested she was a school teacher for many years you know why don't you in the sentence it gets jumbled up people get confused why don't you just make more charts like let them see it so if you don't like this you can blame it on her um again not great for my so so this is how so you can see it and we'll do something a little bit different here and I want to go through some of these things so essentially right if someone is doing the bad things they are not to be listened to that's the thing good things listen to so what are they let's just go through them sexual immorality pretty obvious of any kind impurity goes along with this big word here licentiousness right so disregard for strict rules or correctness all right so you're very disobedient person idolatry sorcery so worshiping other gods enmity being actively opposed or hostile to something or someone so I'm gonna admit something I thought it was enmity I've been saying it wrong for years and no one I have no friends no one corrected me at all and midi like because I use that word a lot right strife and angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues conflict someone who likes conflict right not good jealousy outbursts of anger now I've talked about this before so we're not going to spend a lot of time on it but I want to show you really quick James 1 20. for human anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God doing that really fast you're not God so we have to line that up with the fruits of the spirit right so Let Jesus clear the temple let him do that stuff not for us so be angry but don't sin don't let the sun go down on your anger Ephesians 4. chart again more examples selfish ambition dissension that's more disagreement that leads to Discord factions Envy drunkenness and carousing go together so basically you like these wild parties where you're being really loud and boisterous with your friends that is not from the spirit not good so all the above are marks of someone who is not walking like a Christian the word of God not Pastor James saying this right so also one thing I did is uh we I went back to the Greeks so when I prepare for these messages so NLT just good translation give you the idea and sometimes I put the brackets in where I'm like no I don't know about that I read it in the Greek right so I know the best translation is the original one and so I read it and then I kind of put maybe the more accurate words there so NLT didn't get anything wrong but you're going to see a little bit of this the fruit of the holy spirit is love Joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control bless you so these are fairly Broad and ultimately every Christian should be striving for these things right sanctification Progressive sanctification so as we come along we should be getting better and better and better not worse and worse and worse work on it now there are very specific New Testament requirements for pastors what we call pastors it's really a gift really this is Elder overseer position that's my office the gifting is pastoring also we'll see teaching is another gift but in this culture we call it Pastor so we're just going to call them pastoral requirements but really elders so here in America it's kind of the same thing so here's the thing and I want to lay out a disclaimer for you fruits of the spirit you guys you all should be striving for that good just work on it right you're not going to get kicked out of the church or anything not getting it exactly right no no no it's always you know pastors want to just keep encouraging keep encouraging but there's a different set of stuff that are for teachers it's different and most knowing people in church won't really read it or pay a whole lot of attention to it because you know how does this apply to me I'll skip that part right fine so they're really important and I want to just disclaimers I want you to hear this everybody tune in wake up listen all right so if you're sleeping get up so the neck all the next stuff I say all that next stuff that I say it's for me it's for me and anyone who wants to like stand here for a long period I guess speaker is one thing that's not what this is talking about just talking about someone who runs a church right someone who teaches all the time and any other church this applies to them so remember that okay I'm not putting this on any of you so you're going to see requirements in here you're like you know how do I do that no this is for people leading a church but hear this too come on right so it's also like I'm trying to lead you into this stuff a little better or maybe at least you'll get the fruit of the spirit right so it's a little bit of both but this I'm not doing this to anyone today just every time I say these things I'm doing this I'm doing this right and it's our false teachers yeah they should quit so basically what can you strive for in other words if I'm not doing these things how can you strive for anything I have to be leading by example so keep the question in your mind who should we listen to or not the people that are fulfilling this so uh two books mainly that you want to go to to find these are and you can put the scriptures up first Timothy and Titus so basically it's like the kind of pastoral handbook essentially that's what these are Titus is the short manual and Timothy the long Field Manual right so but especially First Timothy what he's doing is he's writing to Timothy and Ephesus and Titus and Crete Paul sorry is writing to them all right they're there to now they're going to start building the church so they want to appoint Elders that's their job not vote them in appoint elders and that's what they're supposed to do so he's going to give like this is what you look for in these elders so first Timothy 3 1. this is a trustworthy saying if someone aspires to be a church leader literally it says overseer there he desires an honorable position so a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach he must be faithful to his wife one woman man in the Greek there he must exercise self-control live wisely and have a good reputation he must enjoy having guests in his home hospitable when you look at the word in Greek it's like the word Philo is in there like friend or brother so you should be friendly so you don't it doesn't say anything about the home in the Greek but I get what they're trying to do hospitable and he must be able to teach he must not be a heavy drinker it mentions wine in the Greek or be violent he must be gentle not quarrelsome and not love money and so that's very important he must manage his own family well having children who respect and Obey him where's my daughter give her that look you know obey him for if a man cannot manage his own household how can he take care of God's Church a leader must not be a new believer because he might become proud and the devil would cause him to fall also people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil's trap Titus going to sound similar so he's in Crete tell the elders there an elder must live a blameless life sound familiar right he must be faithful to his wife and his children must be believers who don't have your reputation for being wild or rebellious a church leader is a manager of God's household so he must live live in a blameless he must live a blameless life he must not be arrogant or quick tempered he must not be a heavy drinker violent or dishonest with money rather he must enjoy having guests in his home again hospitable he must love what is good he must live wisely and be just he must live a devout and disciplined life he must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong I've added First Corinthians 9 there it's very interesting Paul is in the midst of the context eating meat sacrifice Idols kind of complicated but I've explained this to you in the past it is about food he digresses a little bit about pastoral pay there's a whole situation in there that's going on no time for that but he makes an interesting statement again hear it this way okay First Corinthians 9 27 I discipline my body like an athlete training it to do what it should otherwise I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified say not too many pastors on a Sunday so let's look at the chart so you heard some similar things right from the fruit of the spirit it's very reflective very repetitive so I just want to give a shout out to my Greek teacher Theodora she helped me with this because as I can read much of it in Greek there are some like weird rare words that I just don't know a lot of rare words that I don't know so I go to her and I say hey you know can you help me with this chart and she did now the reason there's some repeat here is because what she was doing I understand she's looking at all three and then she's kind of like putting it all in there I tried to take out some of the repetition but I missed a bunch of stuff so let's go through these irreproachable Beyond reproach anyone can accuse someone of something but really what you're looking for is blameless right so go ahead you know someone accuses me of something but if you look under my bed there's nothing under there no skeletons in the closet I'm clean I'm good that's big can't can't actually fall into the blame husband of one wife one woman man is probably the best in my opinion but husband and one wife because he's talking about a familial context and in Greek a lot of people don't know this husband and man same word wife and woman same word so the translator has to decide what that is by looking at the context and this is why she has husband and one wife because the context is what manage his own family well agreed temperate showing moderation and self-restraint self-control big respectable again hospitable so that's what I see there even in the church I can be hospitable right it doesn't have to be in my home so skillful in teaching this comes up again and again and again and Paul will continue in first Timothy First Timothy 4 he talks about in five you need to be a really good teacher you need to be in the scriptures all the time that is the primary function of an elder primary function is teaching that's what you need not playing golf your primary function is teaching you need to be in the word constantly all the time important again gentle Without Anger right so I things make me angry yep but you need to pray that away that's not a good characteristic I'm certainly not going to act out on it Peaceable all right so peacemakers so if you go back to The Sermon on the Mount right there'll be children of God we're supposed to be peacemakers blessed right are the peacemakers I'm always trying to find peace when I see conflict I was trying to resolve that peace we don't have to agree on everything but we shouldn't be fighting about anything Peaceable managing his own household again those children right well liked by Outsiders okay so go to Nunzio's Pizza ask them what they think of me loving what is good the pizzeria go to all the local pizzerias right you'll find out if I'm well liked by an outsider loving what is good I thought you'd laugh harder at that prudent just not showing partiality like James 2. devout here's what I'm going to pause on this one right here this is kind of something that we got to think about devout religious and so we go through a lot of this right so there are a lot of mainstream American churchy phrases that people say without really thinking about it or testing it with that because when you get to the Book of James if you keep reading past James 1 20 and you get to 26 and 27 you're going to see that he says religion's a good thing that's what he says so if I had to summarize it for you I would say because you hear the people say this right it's not about religion it's about relationship what are they really saying I want to do whatever I want that's what I hear when I hear that right no no no right relationship leads to right religion that's what the word of God says it's different so I'm not saying just what Pastor Gene thinks or what you know mainstream Christianity just bouts off without reading the Bible I'm saying exactly what the Bible says read James test my work read it tell me if I'm right I'm right okay so clear-minded and orderly what does this person sound like right it sounds like like he's like the nicest Army soldier ever right that doesn't fight like all right so you know but a very like disciplined right person someone's really got it together they're orderly they're clear-minded right their self-control they're watching what well it goes into their mouth and what comes out of it both they're watching it so as a pastor when you don't check off these boxes that's it think of it like a degree you know you gotta do all the courses to get a degree if you haven't done them you're not getting it but unfortunately unfortunately in the church today then we called them in martial arts paper black belts they're just they're just handing them out they are judge a tree by its fruit right so here's the thing a pastor must not be addicted to Wine it says literally right so a drunkard so from Jesus to Timothy we see Jesus drinks wine Timothy's told to drink wine for his ailments alcohol and it kills the bacteria nothing wrong with wine getting drunk that's another thing so if you're that guy you know you show up at a life group with a bottle of wine you think it's for the group you drink it yourself not a pastor right so a violent person that kind of thing happens a lover of money first Timothy 6. the love of money is the root of all evil that's what the Greek says did you did you think all kinds of evil yeah you can cross that out it's not there in the Greek love of money is the root of all evil is it Paul's really trying to drive home a point when he writes that but it doesn't say all kinds again mainstream just because it's mainstream doesn't mean it's good but someone probably told you that all kinds of evil yeah so bibles are published by publishing companies who want to do what yeah that's a real thing shouldn't be a new guy shouldn't be self-willed quick tempered violent greedy right so Pastor Gene does not need a private jet so somebody starts saying that no your wife needs to get another job right that's what we got to do shouldn't be greedy again our contentious argumentative shouldn't be a beginner it came up again novice morally blinded insubordinate defiant of authority disobedient to orders wrong shouldn't be no again very disciplined kind of without the violence military type person is what you're looking at here again self-controlled and disciplined I cannot tell you how much that comes up from the Proverbs to Paul but certainly for church leaders self-controlled and disciplined who comes out of your mouth and what goes in it the Bible talks so much about that and what's so funny and I just I have to say this and you know who you are I got a text back if you want I'll text you my daily devotional Monday through Friday I'll give you my number I love texting it out so I send it out right and so it's whatever proverb that day is so on the 23rd on Friday when I send it out it was Proverbs 23 but 12 Proverbs 23 talks about gluttony and drinking too much and so the person's like oh you stepped on my toes and I was like yeah I know it's tough right then I started preparing the message and I'm like oh no this person is going to think like man he's going on a tear about this is he talking about me no it's just what the Bible says but here's the thing even if I went on a tear about it I'd simply be talking about what repeats over and over and over again in the Bible it's not like I'm one-offing this first Corinthians 9 verse and saying you know Paul would have been disqualified you know if he was eating too much that's not a one-off it's all over the place it's all over the place Philippians is probably one of the worst ones I'm just going to go through it with you but just look at it Philippians 3. again I'm happy to warn you about these false teachers it comes up even in Philippians like one of the nicest of Paul's letters it comes up these people are dogs these false teachers are dogs they're enemies of the Cross of Christ can you think of anything worse their God is their belly that's what it says gilia in Greek the God is their belly you will know them so it's a disqualifying feature like Pinocchio's nose it exposes a false teacher again me all right remember that so Proverbs 23 if if you're thinking wow this really comes it comes up a lot it just does so we don't shy away from that if you're new and you're like oh you know this wasn't written to make you feel good about bad choices it wasn't written for that so here's the thing back to me right one of the reasons for these is that me I and people like me in this job is calling need to be examples in every single way every single way all of those boxes must be checked off important if the leaders aren't living it out who will the problem the mainstream American Church has turned those into suggestions think about that mainstream actor they have turned those commands not optional commands from the word of God into suggestions and now we have problems that's why it starts with the leadership if I if I'm not checking off a few of those boxes well how can I without being a hypocrite tell you to get better to get right and so we all just start sliding and so now everything's okay we can do whatever we want you know when did it say it says the opposite says we should never change it never add to it never take away from it okay so there's a lot of greasy grease and very poor examples out there it is and just to share with you look wherever you're at I've been there wherever you're at you could be thinking no way yes way yes way I've been there wherever you're at I've done it I've done it but when I came to Jesus with all like honesty and humility he changed me he changed me I didn't want to do any of that stuff anymore he changed me so just trust me it's possible you have to surrender yourself in true and honest humility and the rewards are amazing guys I wake up in the morning and I don't have to deal with that guilt the shame all that other stuff you know pick your difficult so here's the thing a protection for you guys tune your ear to God we're gonna do something so basically what happens put it on the screen Gene I'm like oh really you want it on the screen so this is going to be really funny so we're going to do an exercise I've I've done it before in the past but I'll re-encourage you into it and there's a lot of new people here so here's what I want you to do tune your ear to God even if you're not a musician think about your favorite song right and if someone butchers it you know you don't need to be a musician do that right you can hear a bad note you'll know it just does something not right about that the same thing happens with the word of God and if you read it carefully a lot of people are hearing it they're not always reading it so look at Thessalonians Colossians read this aloud to the church they're probably hearing it more time more of the time than they're actually reading it and we get into the literacy rate and all those other things but just they're hearing it a lot and I listen to the word of God a lot like a lot a lot all the time and it does the same thing like music does when someone preaches out like a bad note I'm like nope that doesn't sound like what I know it doesn't sound like what I heard and so there are books of the Bible that are really good for this training and so I'm going to bring you into this what we're going to do if you're following me is James first Peter second Peter and first John you're going to listen through those seven times and you can take a week a month but before you listen to and if you're tuning in from somewhere else before you listen to anything but your local pastor's sermon because that guy is praying for you if he's doing his job and so he knows what you need to hear right so the people I'm preaching to unless you're new I know most of you right so I'm preaching to you you know that I love you and that's why I can do difficult messages you know where it's coming from it's like a dad it's coming from there regardless of your age so don't stop listening to that but all the people on YouTube all the other stuff go to these books of the Bible listen to them then go back and listen to some of these people I said this to you guys last week no someone else once I did that a few times it made most modern preaching completely intolerable intolerable it's nothing like this nothing try it right because who do you want to listen to God or just somebody's opinions if you can run you down the wrong path God every single time so here's a funny thing so how pray tell do I listen to the Bible I made a video I used to work in the media Department I made a video for you it's special so bear with me so check it out this is my phone this is actually my smart I screen recorded it can we get it there we go music and everything so we have to have some fun right so those are my Bible apps C3 app you're gonna be told about that later you get in there you go down to Media not obvious everything's pictures there was Bible but you're gonna have to scroll up if you want to get to it then hit right there read the Bible down there you're gonna click the Bible again not before you get rid of the ads you version wants you to go to them I don't want you to go to them I want you to stay in the C3 app hit Bible yes he's really doing this I was on Jeremiah why because we're gonna do Jeremiah right so you can scroll down you see the little sound things you gotta find one that has audio like New Living Translation so you're gonna pick the book leaders in the church this is a trustworthy saying if someone aspires batteries are dying he desires because I'm from New York so Builder must be a man whose life is above the problems he must exercise self-control live wisely have a good reputation he must enjoy having guests not quarrelsome and not love money he must manage his own family well instead having children who respect and Obey him for if a man can abandon his own household how can he take care of God's Church look in this line of work you've got to be able to entertain yourself right so so here's the thing tune your ear to God you don't have to listen on all the different speeds I'm just trying to be funny I had to break it up like we should have put that like in the middle right where I was getting really depressing but anyway tune your ear to God right so listen to the following seven times right James all the way through five chapters there first and second Peter and first John now you ask yourself if that sounds anything like modern preaching and here's the thing about those letters they're like open letters to the church they're not like First Corinthians where they're like these very specific people and specific things going on that are particularly wrong you know it's not that we don't listen to it this is just for everybody so you can just replace all the different places with now like it's what the church should be doing now as well it never changed the word of God does not change I'm going to pray for you from the scriptures from second Timothy with some encouragement as I close second Timothy 3. you have been taught the holy scriptures from childhood and they have given you the wisdom to receive the Salvation that comes by trusting in Jesus Christ all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives it corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work and that is my prayer for everyone in the sound of my voice Lord humble us fill us with your holy spirit so that we can go out and do good works we can be vehicles for Your Love Peace patience kindness goodness gentleness and self-control I ask these things in Jesus name amen thank you foreign foreign