Esther’s story is a powerful glimpse of how God used a poor Jewish teenager turned queen to save the Jewish nation. From her life we can learn many things-to whom should we listen, who should we serve and who is controlling us. S-1807 ESTHER God, thank You so much for the story of Esther. Once upon a time, there was a king Xerxes who governed 127 provinces but could not control his own wife Vasthi. READ ESTHER 1:3: In the third year of his reign, King Xerxes hosted a lavish celebration that lasted 180 days. Feast for 6 months feast to show off strength and glory of Persia. End of the 180 day celebration, a 7 day feast to celebrate the end of the 180 day celebration! In a drunken state, show off his queen and her beauty to the entire palace. Well, Queen Vashti, who refused to be flaunted as an object of sexual desire in a room filled with intoxicated men refused to come. Filled with anger, King Xerxes consulted his royal advisors told him that he should banish her and condemn her to a life of misery. Fast forward four years and King Xerxes returns from the battlefield. Misses his queen. Across the four corners of the Persian Empire, beautiful young women, virgins, were brought to the palace, they got the best spa treatments; cosmetics; ointments; clothing; jewelry and perfumes to prepare them for one night with the king. Describe harem in turkey. ☻SLIDE 3: [ E ]Enter Esther. Brought in was a young Jewish orphan by the name of Esther. ☻SLIDE 4: [ M ] Enter Mordecai: She was adopted by her cousin, Mordecai, who was actually a political official in the king’s palace. He raised her as his own. She grew up. One day Mordecai dropped her off at the front door of the Harem. ☻SLIDE 5: [ E ] Back to Esther Hegai gave her the best cosmetics, clothes. Went to Victoria’s Secret. Negligee I went to Victoria’s Secret once. Well, it was Fredericks of Hollywood: “Not much to it, is there?” On the night that it was Esther’s chance for her one night with the king, she was given all of the clothing and the jewelry and the cosmetics in the royal treasury. Her one night with the king must have been pretty good! The king placed the crown on her head and made her his queen. Did I mention that Esther was a Jew? Mordecai told her to keep quiet about her heritage. God’s providence: A Jewish orphan living in exile now serves as the queen of an empire that has subjugated her people. ☻SLIDE 6: [X,M E ] Meanwhile, Mordecai was serving in his post in the palace and overheard a threat against the king’s life and relayed that to his cousin, Esther, who relayed it to the king. The two traitors were then hung on the gallows, which, in that culture, were probably not nooses by which they hung from the neck but poles upon which they were impaled. And Mordecai’s good works were recorded in the chronicles of the king, but he was not promoted or acknowledge. ☻SLIDE 7: [ H ] enter Haman. Haman was big man on campus. Proper for those of lesser rank bow in the presence of the greater. ☻SLIDE 8: [M, H ] Mordecai refused to bow down to an enemy of his people. When Haman heard of that, he was filled with anger and fury and sought vengeance. But taking the life of one man was not enough. Haman required the extermination of an entire people. ☻SLIDE 9: [ XH ] So Haman convinced the king that the Jewish people were parasites in the empire and needed to be eliminated. The king gave his approval. ☻SLIDE 10: [ M ] READ ESTHER 4:1-3: When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. 3 In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes. ☻SLIDE 11: [ ME ] When Esther caught word of it, she sent clothing for him but he refused to wear it. He sent word back to his cousin that their people were to be eliminated within the year and he begged his cousin to go petition the king for deliverance. ] Custom could’ enter king’s presence without being summoned. Esther reminded Mordecai of that if he were not to raise the golden scepter to her, she would die. And she also told Mordecai that the king had not summoned her for 30 days, signaling that perhaps he was displeased with her or had become bored with her. READ ESTHER 4:12-15. Mordecai sent back word and said, “Esther, perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” Esther then said, ‘Then gather the Jewish people and have them pray and fast for three days,’ and for three days all the Jewish people across the empire prayed and fasted for Esther said, ‘I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.’ ☻SLIDE 12: [ XE ] Three days later, Esther approaches the throne of the king. He raises his golden scepter to her and says, ‘Whatever you want, even up to half the kingdom.’ And Esther replied simply, I want to have dinner with you—and bring Haman. ☻SLIDE 13: [ MH ] Haman left that dinner thrilled. He had experienced an intimate moment with the king and the queen, but on the way out of the place, he ran into Mordecai, who once again refused to bow or honor or even acknowledge his presence. Haman angry–went home and he talked to his family and his friends about the insult and they told him to construct a gallows upon which he could hang him. So Haman purposed in his heart the next day to go talk to the king to ask for Mordecai’s life. ☻SLIDE 14: [ X ] the king can’t sleep and he calls for the chronicles to be brought to him so he can read the diaries of his reign. The scroll that recorded Mordecai’s loyalty years before and the king figured it was high time to reward Mordecai for his service to the crown. ☻SLIDE 15: [ XH ] So the next day, Haman lurks around in the outer courts of the palace hoping he can ask for Mordecai’s life, And the king brings him in and says, ‘Haman, what should I do to a man that I want to honor publicly for their services?’ And Haman, thinking that the king is talking about him, says, ‘Bring a royal robe that you have worn and set a crown on his head and put him on one of your horses and parade him around the city and herald for all to hear ‘Thus shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.’ And the king said, ‘That sounds like a good idea. You go do thus for Mordecai the Jew.’ Haman humiliated and he leads Mordecai around the city. But he has one thing to look forward to; he has dinner with the king and queen that night. ☻SLIDE 16: [ EXH] Once again the king says, ‘Esther, whatever you would like to have, be it up to half the kingdom, it is yours.’ Esther simply said, ‘If I have found favor in your sight, “I am under a death threat and all of my people are to be destroyed, killed and annihilated.’ The king has no idea what she is talking about and demands to know who is responsible. Esther says, ‘The wicked Haman.’ The king gets up from the table and storms from the room and Haman hurls himself at Esther’s feet. groveling at the feet of a Jewish woman, asking, begging and pleading for his life. When the king comes back in and sees Haman at Esther’s feet, he believes that he has tried to molest the queen and demands his immediate death. ☻SLIDE 17: [ H ] here is a picture of Haman ruined. Haman hangs on the very gallows that were instructed for Mordecai’s death. Mordecai is given the estate of Haman and the authority and position of Haman. ☻SLIDE 18: [ EM, and jewish people] And Esther and Mordecai are saved but the king forgets that this doesn’t save the entire Jewish people so Esther once again has to go to the king, I still need help for my people,’ because the edict that he had issued for their death could not be revoked. And he says to Mordecai, You have the authority to issue a new edict.’ And the edict was issued that allowed the Jewish people to defend themselves on the day that they were to be exterminated. And defend themselves, they did and the Jewish people were saved. Purim: To this day, the Jewish people remember an orphan girl, an exile, who became queen, who dared to challenge the king, who dared to defy a decree, who dared to defend her people. Esther became a legend in her own time. Reading a sermon on this by Margaret Salyers She drew off several principles from Esther’s experience that were so good that I want to share them with you. The Bible is filled with stories about people who invited God into their story and found themselves playing significant roles in the story that God Himself was writing. If we think about the stories that shape us and mold us, the stories that we long to hear again and again, we think about stories like The awkward nerd girl in the high school who one day discovers she is a princess; The lonely boy on a desert planet who realizes he is the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy; The little hobbit who is given the ring of power to save all of middle earth. We hear these stories and think back to our childhood when we knew that there was more to us than met the eye. And we dared to believe that we were really Jedi’s and athletes and princesses in disguise waiting to be discovered. Those stories resonate with us because it’s the way that God created us. ☻SLIDE 19: READ JOHN 1:12: To all who believed and accepted Him, to them He gave power to become the children of God. He has adopted us into his family. When we put our faith, He brings us into his family, and into the story that He is writing in history and we become part of his story. I know a lot of us are thinking that we don’t live in those fiction stories. I mean Luke Skywalker had a great soundtrack and my only soundtrack is screaming kids. Here’s what I want to encourage you. We all have the opportunity to be a hero in the place where God has put us. We all have the opportunity to step into the story that He is writing. Read the story of Esther and draw out three questions. ☻SLIDE 20: WHO ARE WE LISTENING TO? King Xerxes listened to advisors who told him to put away his queen. It was a decision he regretted greatly later. Haman listened to all the wrong people. It’s interesting to me, if we look at Esther 3, verse 3, it says this: 3Then the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why are you transgressing the king’s command?” 4Now it was when they had spoken daily to him and he would not listen to them, that they told Haman… Haman didn’t even realize that Mordecai was not bowing down to him. He listened to tattle-tales who came and stirred up his ego and his arrogance, and in verse 5, it says then he was filled with fury. He let servants of the court dictate his heart. When he went to his family and friends they stroked his ego and encouraged him to seek revenge instead of encouraging him to become a man of character. Listening to Bruce Thompson; go to garage and met Mrs. Cockrell with gun. Mark Russ tied to tree. Banished to bed for one week. Compare and contrast this with Esther. When Mordecai said, ‘Don’t reveal your ethnicity,’ she listened. When she was brought into the harem, she listened to Hegai and trusted that he was leading her in the right way. When Mordecai came to her and asked her to risk her life, asked her to do the hardest thing imaginable, she listened. Who are we listening to? Are we listening to people who will tell us what we want to hear in the moment but will lead to our destruction and downfall in the future? Or are we listening to people who give us correction and advice and instruction that in the moment is very difficult to hear but in the end will lead to maturity and success. Steve Dowdle: “I need to rebuke you.” “Listen to the people who listen to God” ☻SLIDE 21: Share acknowledgement in GOT GUTS GET GLORY— [pix of BOOK COVER] We need friends in our lives who have the ability to confront what’s wrong and also have the ability to confront what’s right and needs to be drawn out of us even more. If we don’t have those relationships, I encourage you to get involved in small groups, get involved in a ministry, go on a missions trip, find a way to connect with the people around you. ☻SLIDE 22: WHO ARE WE SERVING? When you are given authority, how do you use that? Haman obviously used it to serve himself. When he was given the ring of authority of the king, he used it to write a decree to exterminate an entire people group. Think of what he could have done with that power, the good he could have done with that power. He used his influence to serve himself On the other hand, Mordecai and Esther were serving a much larger cause. Esther risked her life to go before a king. She leveraged her position, her influence, her authority for the sake of other people. At the very end of Esther, the very last verse of Esther talks about how Mordecai used his influence to serve his people. Where has God placed you? Think about the different hats that you wear, the different spheres of influence that you have as a parent, as a friend, as a boss, as a leader, as a student. Thing about the hat your wear and the influence you have, how are you using it to serve other people? Or are you just using it to serve yourself? ☻SLIDE 23: who’s controlling our lives? In Esther we see between something we call God’s sovereignty and man’s free will, showing how those two things work together. Providence is this idea that God works within his created world to bring about his purposes. God’s sovereignty is this theological word that gets to this idea that God is at work even within the choices we make to orchestrate them to bring about his ultimate and final purposes. We say that we believe that God is in control but when we look at the way we actually live our lives, do we live in such a way that communicates that we believe that? Who is in control? When we look at this story, we realize that Mordecai and Esther both realize that God is in control. Here is a really interesting thing. Esther is one of only two books in the Bible that doesn’t mention God anywhere. But when we think about this story, the people of God are on the brink of extermination. There is an edict from the king to destroy the Jews that cannot be revoked. If the Jews were exterminated at this point, God’s whole plan for salvation and redemption would have been thwarted. Without the Jewish people, the Messiah would not have been able to come as promised. If there was ever a time in history when God needed to make Himself known in a very unmistakable and undeniable way, it seems like it would be here. Yet, in the story of Esther, He remains hidden and silent. But it doesn’t mean He wasn’t working. It doesn’t mean He is not sovereign. Mordecai recognizes the sovereignty of God. He actually says to Esther, in Esther 4:13, “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.” Mordecai says to Esther, ‘God is still in control, God will still deliver us, the choice you must make is whether or not you want to participate. It is really a matter of obedience. And we see Esther embracing the sovereignty of God when she calls for fasting and prayer, realizing that she can’t do this on her own. And when she says that if she perishes, she perishes. She recognizes that her role in this is not to try to play the hero or to be a legend or to do something great, it is simply to be obedient. She embraces the sovereignty of God. Throughout the Book of Esther, we see a cycle that we see of feasts and fasting. Feasts to celebrate the king; feasts to celebrate Esther; fasts to pray for the people of God; feasts to honor the king and to ask for lives of people and feasts to celebrate the sovereignty of God. For many of us, we find ourselves, in periods of feasting and some of us in periods of fasting when things don’t seem like they are going anywhere for us. But if we trust that God is in control, it gives us confidence in whatever season we happen to be in. It gives us patience to know God’s timing. ☻SLIDE 24: Who are we listening to? Who are we serving? Who is controlling our lives? I don’t think that the real hero in this story is not Esther or Mordecai. The only hero is God Himself. The story is God Himself and He simply invites us to participate, to play a role. All we must do is be obedient. In our day, stories are still made at the foot of the cross as we come before the King of kings and give our lives over to Him, because 2,000 years ago, we saw something very similar to what happened in the Book of Esther When God hung suspended on a cross and went silent and his body was hidden in a tomb, and now when all seemed lost, the moment when God should have been more at work and more visible in undeniable and unmistakable ways than ever before, He allowed Himself to disappear into a tomb. Yet He was in that moment when He was hidden and seemingly silent that He did the greatest work in history.

Are you progressive or conservative? It seems like a simple enough question, but let me complicate it for you. The terms are both tethered to time. The term progressive looks forward. Progressives believe that the best is yet to come. We are growing, evolving and our policies ought to reflect our progressive enlightenment. Conservatives, on the other hand, preserve that which is good from the past. It is our job to aspire to and embody the charter set forth by our founding fathers. Our politics have forced us to two sides of ring: those looking back and those looking forward. These totalizing lenses have robbed us of a fully orbed biblical ethical vision that directs our eyes forward, and backward, and straight down. And, above all, a biblical ethic casts our vision on a person. Drawing inspiration from the letter to the Hebrews, let’s consider how we are to look: Backward As Christians, we are to look backward. God reminds the Jews again and again to remember. They were to set up cairns (stone monuments) in remembrance, their holidays were moments to recreate their history, and they were to recite their history to their children. In Hebrews 11, the author looks back at the history of faith among God’s people for encouragement and inspiration. He reminds us that by faith, “the people of old received their commendation” (Heb 11:2), and that these remembered faithful ones are those “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb 11:38). CS Lewis famously called our predisposition to disregard the wisdom of those who have come before as “chronological snobbery.” We would do well to heed the encouragement of the author of Hebrews and Lewis and not disregard those who have come before. Forward As Christians, we are to look forward. We are told that Abraham “was looking forward,” (Heb 11:10), and urged to do likewise. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb 12:1). The best is not behind us, it lies ahead. We celebrate that we are those who live after Jesus, the incarnate Son of God has come and shown us the fullness of God in flesh. We rejoice that the Spirit of God has now come and indwells those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. And we look forward to the second coming of Jesus, who will judge “the living and the dead” (2 Tim 4:1). For the Christian, the ultimate “good days,” lie ahead in glory, not in the past. Straight Down The Christian is also to pay attention to the day we live in. Every day is the day we are called to, a day that is lived in light of the past that God has graciously brought us through, and in expectation of the immanent return of Jesus. The author of Hebrews urges us to attend to today. He says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Heb 3:12-14). The sobering echo of today causes a pause for internal reflection. Progressives and conservatives alike fall prey to finding their enemy in the other. Progressives fight those held captive by the past. Conservatives attack those who dump the past. Who do those who follow Christ go after? The evil within. We recognize that our enemy is not “flesh and blood” (Eph 6:12), but “the spiritual forces of evil” (Eph 6:12), and our battle begins not with the other, but with our own “unbelieving heart” (Heb 3:12). That battle is a daily battle. Attend to today. At a Person Whether looking forward, backward, or to today, as Christians are eyes to be trained first and foremost on our Lord and Savior. Let’s return to Hebrews 12, where we find all four perspectives joined. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run [today] with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” We are to look to the saints that have come before, the great cloud of witnesses. We are to battle sin in our flesh today and look forward to the finish line. And who is that finish line? Jesus himself, who has come before us, stands with us today, and stands in front of us. He is our hope. Looking to America As the hymn says, these spiritual eyes ought to make “the things of this world look strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.” This is true. But it goes further. These spiritual eyes retrain our political eyes as well. We ought to be those who politically are able to look backward, forward, to the present, and to Christ. Larry Arnn said, “To present young people with a full and honest account of our nation’s history is to invest them with the spirit of freedom. It is to teach them something more than why our country deserves their love, although that is good in itself. It is to teach them that the people in the past, even the great ones, were human and had to struggle. And by teaching them that, we prepare them to struggle with the problems and evils in and around them. Teaching them instead that the past was simply wicked and that now they are able to see so perfectly the right, we do them a disservice and fit them to be slavish, incapable of developing sympathy for others or undergoing trials on their own.” Christians shouldn’t be afraid of a “full and honest account.” We shouldn’t shy away from the truth, however ugly it is. And we shouldn’t be afraid to find moments to celebrate and inspire. Most of all, we should remember that the Lord is our Savior, and our citizenship is ultimately with his Kingdom, which has come and is coming. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come.   thebeehive.live.

One-on-one time is critical to building any relationship. But what about when the other person avoids you at all costs? In this article, I’ll help parents figure out why their teens don’t want to spend time with them and how to draw teens back into a positive relationship. Figure Out WHY Your Teen Doesn’t Want to Spend Time with You There are relational styles in parenting that are not pleasant to be around. If you’re always telling your teen what he’s doing wrong, controlling his choices, making judgmental comments, complaining, or nagging––can you really blame him for not wanting to spend time with you? If you’re not sure what you are doing wrong, then ask your teen: “Is it me?” Listen to what your teen is telling you, without correcting him or defending yourself. Each of us has responsibility for the alienation that creeps into our relationships. If you want to get closer, find out what’s keeping your teen away. Take an honest look at yourself. Scripture says: “First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Ultimately, there’s only one person you can change, and that’s you! Making Changes … in Yourself Criticizing, complaining, and controlling are common parenting styles that push teens away. If you are constantly criticizing your teen, then stop nagging and let your child face natural consequences. If you find yourself complaining, then start speaking in an encouraging way. If your teen is yearning for more freedom, show him how to earn it. Whatever needs to change, be honest about it. Start by recognizing what’s not working and talk to someone about the changes you want to make. Accountability will help you make the necessary changes. During the teens years, parents need to shift from a teaching model to a training mode. Stop telling your teen what to think and instead ask probing questions and encourage your teens to work through their own thoughts. Allow teens to have opinions, even if they are different from yours. Proverb 18:2 reminds us that fools “delight in airing their own opinions.” Trust me, your teen doesn’t want to hear your opinion, but he does want your perspective. Instead of lecturing, share your stories, your experience, and your wisdom in a new way. Making Changes … in Your Home Does your teen love to be at home with you? Can he relax and be himself? As teens get older, especially when they’re struggling, some parents react by becoming overly strict or focused on their teen’s appearance and behavior, when the priority should be on their relationship and what’s going on in their heart. So, make your home a place your teen can relax, even when they aren’t perfect. Instead of nagging your teen to take out the trash, clean his room, or do homework, offer grace when your teen makes mistakes. Allow for mood swings and bad days, and keep loving your teen through them all. Consider making physical changes to transform your home into a more welcoming place, a place your teen wants to be. Perhaps it’s time to reorganize the family room to create a space for games and activities together, let your teen make dinner in the kitchen, or open up your home to a pet. Yes, it will get messy, but your home should be a place the whole family can enjoy. Once you put your finger on the thing your teen is recoiling from––whatever it is––think about how you might change your approach and the atmosphere of your home. Making Changes … in Your Schedule Do you drop everything when your teen wants to talk? It’s easy to say you want to spend time with your teen, but it can be difficult to step back from work, chores, and other tasks in order to listen to your teen. Now is the time to make your teen a priority in your schedule. Siblings, work, school, and sports can make your teen feel pushed aside. So, consider how you can change your schedule to allow the family to eat more meals together, or take time off to do things your teen likes to do. Be willing to do whatever it takes to prevent your teen from getting lost in the busyness of life. Establish regular, intentional, one-on-one time to be with your teen. Even if your teen acts like he wants nothing to do with you, keep pursuing the relationship. Spend time with them anyway. Conclusion Hey moms and dads … being rejected by someone who lives in your own home is tough. But let me assure you that this is more than likely a temporary phase that will soon pass, if you take advantage of the time and make sure you are not the one causing the alienation. Consider the possibility that you may be the cause of the strain on the relationship. Ask others about the way you engage. Ask your teen what they would love to see change in your family and be honest about any bad habits you recognize in your life. Your teens want to have a relationship with you! They long to be close to you. If you can’t change them, you have to figure out ways to change yourself. Your willingness to make changes will set a positive example for your teen to do the same. www.parentingtodaysteens.org.

People have all sorts of opinions about heaven and hell and what happens when we die. Some children were asked to share their ideas of what happened after we die. “When you die, they bury you in the ground and your soul goes to heaven, but your body can’t go to heaven because it is too crowded up there already.” “Maybe I’ll die someday, but I hope I don’t die on my birthday because it is no fun to celebrate your birthday if you’re dead.” “Only the good people go to heaven. The other people go to where it is hot all the time like in Nevada or Arizona.” The best Bible story to answer your question about unanswered prayers from hell is Jesus’ story about a rich man who went to hell and tried to pray prayers that God would answer. However, Jesus never did. THE STORY OF LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN (LUKE 16:19-31) Luke 16:19-21: There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury. At his gate was a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The rich man is unnamed by Jesus, but named “Dives” by tradition. When the Bible was translated from Greek into Latin the Latin word for “wealthy” is “dives.” So we will call him Dives. Purple dye was very expensive. It was made from a special fish and ranged in color from deep violet to deep scarlet. Fine linen was so delicate that it was called “woven air.” “Beggar” is a Greek word for “utterly destitute.” The Rich Man was covered with fine linens. Lazarus was “covered with sores.” Lazarus longed to eat what fell from the table; but he received not one crumb. The only comfort that he received was the dogs that licked his sores. Luke 16:22: The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. “Abraham’s Side” is a symbolic way to describe heaven. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, and in Hades, Dives saw this dead man outside his door and invariably hired someone to drag the body away. To where? To a place called Gehenna that was a Valley south of Jerusalem. It was utilized in Israel’s days of idolatry for sacrificing idols to fire god Molech. Later, Gehenna became a place for burning dead bodies. By the time of Christ it had become a burning trash heap where the fires never ceased. Jesus used this as a euphemism for the reality of hell. Luke 16:23-24: In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” Luke 16:25-26: “But Abraham replied, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus his bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, not can anyone cross over from there to us.” I believe that God used Abraham as his spokesman to communicate with Dives. Now let me make something clear. “It is appointed men once to die and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Almighty God in His grace gave this rich man every opportunity to be saved. This man woke up in Hell because this is where he chose to go. The first thing God did was to make him RICH. God blessed his investments, and God prospered his farms and God used all of these material things to speak to his heart. In Romans 2, Paul wrote, “Don’t you know that the goodness of God should lead you to repentance?” When God saw that his riches would not bring him to salvation, God put a MISSIONARY on his front porch. Lazarus was the one that Dives wanted to go and tell his brothers about the torments of hell. Dives had often heard Lazarus preach the gospel. The rich man would sit down to breakfast and sit by the front porch he would hear Lazarus singing, “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear…” God used a third method to speak to this man’s heart. LAZARUS DIED FIRST. You would think that if you had somebody die on your front porch that you’d wake up. People go to funerals today and don’t think that death may come to them. It’s always somebody else. God spoke to the rich man through material blessings…He spoke to him through Lazarus…He spoke to him through a man’s death…and Dives in wouldn’t listen. Luke 16:27-28: He answered, I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment. Luke 16:29-31: “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.” “No Father Abraham,” he said, “but it someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. A THEOLOGY OF HELL The Bible Teaches That Life Doesn’t End At Death. At death, the bodies of all believers and unbelievers alike go to the grave. At death, the spirits of believers go to Paradise, in the presence of Christ. At death the spirits of unbelievers go to Hades waiting place of judgment and torment. The term “Rapture,” refers to the return of Jesus to take his children up to heaven’s glory. The bodies of believers who are already in the graves will be resurrected to join with their spirits and souls. Those who are alive on earth when the Rapture occurs will meet Jesus in the air and be translated directly into heaven. This is the First Resurrection. A millennium later, at the Great White Throne Judgment, the bodies and spirits of all unbelievers will be resurrected from the graves and from Hades, respectively. This Is the Second Resurrection. Every unbeliever will be judged as to whether or not their sins are forgiven and they have received Christ as their Savior. Every one of these people will be cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death. Avoid the second death at all costs. WHAT IS HELL LIKE? · Burning fire (Mark 9:43) · Intense thirst (Luke 16: 24-25) · A place of darkness, depression, isolation, weeping and utter anguish (Matthew 25:30) · A place with no joy. No joyous reunions as we so often pictured in the minds of others! · A place of torment (Luke 16:23-24) · A place of sorrow and remorse (Luke 16:25, 27-28) Could the fire be symbolic? Many feel it is and that makes us feel better. I don’t know why. If the fire is a symbol, then the reality is worse. Symbolism is used when conventional language is inadequate to describe something. The reality is always much more than the symbol. There are different levels of Hell Butt only one level in Heaven. The ground at the foot of the cross is level. “Sheol” is the most used Old Testament word hell and used means a place for the wicked dead or simply the grave. “Hades” is the New Testament Greek equivalent of “Sheol.” . “Gehenna” a burning trash heap where the fires were never allowed to go out. Christ chose to use this valley as a literal description of what hell was like. “Gehenna” was Christ’s most often used word for Hell. People say, “I don’t believe in Hell. Jesus surely did.” Fifteen times in the New Testament Jesus described a place called Hell. Only four times did He mention The Lord’s Supper. Ephesians 2:4 and refers to the lowest Hell: “For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether doom to be kept until the judgment, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous sinner under punishment until the day of judgment.” Of course, the ultimate destiny of those who never received Christ as Lord and Savior is the Lake Of Fire at the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:14-15; 21:8) Adolf Hitler certainly resides in lowest hell. A nice person who has not received him as Lord and Savior will certainly be on a much higher level than Adolph. Everyone is on the same footing at the foot of the cross—kneeling in worship and humility at the grace of Christ. God never intended for anyone to go to Hell (Matthew 25:41.) In fact, the Bible teaches that Hell was enlarged to make room for all the humans who were choosing to go there. By the way, the story of Lazarus and Dives gives us insight into what is it like the afterlife. We are still alive. We are conscious of being ourselves. Lazarus is still Lazarus. Dives is still Dives. We remember our former experiences. Lazarus remembered Dives and Dives remembered Lazarus. Dives remembered the life he used to live. GOD DOESN’T ANSWER PRAYERS FROM HELL Let me illustrate. Dives prayed three things to God. Not one was answered. 1. The rich man prayed for mercy. There will be no mercy in Hell. If we want mercy we had best ask for it now before we die. After that, there will be no more mercy. “It is appointed men once to die and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). The Rich Man Prayed For An in EVANGELIST To Warn His Brothers about hell. “Send Lazarus.” No. He couldn’t do that. Do you know why? Lazarus could testify no more. When we leave this life to go to be with the Lord Jesus, our days of witnessing for Christ are over. By the way, God could not answer this prayer because miracles don’t save hard-hearted people. “Surely if someone came back from the dead they would believe.” There was another man named Lazarus who did come forth from the grave in John 11 and in John 12 the Jews tried to kill him to silence his testimony. Almighty God said to that man in torment in Hell, “They have the Bible. They have the Word of God. This is what leads a person to salvation.” 3. The rich man prayed for water. People have the crazy idea that we can satisfy spiritual needs with material things. The sad thing is that this man today is still thirsty…He is still thirsty… and he will always thirst. 4. Finally, the most compelling notion why prayers from Hell are unanswered is because nothing gets out of the DARKNESS of Hell! As we think about Hell we must carefully keep our feelings and emotions in check. Hell is not theoretical. We’re talking about reality. Whenever I preach on hell, or on the people going there, I remember the church that was looking for a new pastor. The first applicant preached on the subject; “The Wicked Shall be Turned into Hell.” The search committee turned thumbs down. By a strange coincidence the next candidate preached from same verse: “The Wicked Shall be Turned into Hell.” The Committee all agreed, “Call him; he’s the one we need.” The church congregation was amazed. Both used the same text!” However, one was so sorry, and the other was glad of it.”

Matthew4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13 S-1735 SLIDE # Read Luke 4:1-13 from The Message. OK. There was this overweight man who was so serious about his new diet that he even changed his way to work driving route to avoid his favorite bakery. One morning , however, he arrived at work carrying a big gigantic bag of donuts. As he put them in the lounge for everyone to enjoy he explained that he accidentally drive by his favorite bakery that morning and there in the window was a host of warm donuts. I felt that this must be a sign from God so I prayed that if God wanted me to have some donuts that he would open up a parking space directly in front of the bakery. And sure enough, on my eight time around the block, there it was. SLIDE #: “IF” or “Since?” A lot depends on whether “if” means “if” or “since” or “both.” SLIDE #: έι ύιος ει του θεου “if son you are of the God …” SLIDE #: If Satan meant, “Since (because) you are the son of God”, then he conceded that Jesus is God. Therefore, the focus of the temptations were on the kind of Messiah Jesus would be? All tests are designed to avoid the cross. SLIDE #: “Turning Stones to Bread” is a temptation to avoid the cross and gain a following by providing for the physical needs of people—a Bread Messiah He rejected that invitation. Feeds the 5000 out of deep compassion and the next day the people show up wanting breakfast. He declines and preaches the hardest sermon he ever preached: on full commitment to Him. “Man can’t live by bread alone.” SLIDE #: “Jumping Off the Temple” is the temptation to gain a following by performing Showy Tricks. Seeking to attract a following by showy tricks is always doomed to failure. Today’s sensation is most often tomorrow’s bore. Hr resisted that temptation when Standing before Herod. SLIDE #: Worshipping Satan is the temptation to gain a following by bowing down to Satan. After all, the kingdoms are his to give. Easy way, avoid the pain and suffering of the cross. “The Lord is God. He alone is to be worshipped.” Now, most of us don’t struggle with what kind of Messiah we are going to be. We struggle more with the Doubt side, the “if” side (the child of God side) of Jesus’ struggle. “If you are the child of God …” is designed to place doubt in the mind of Christ (and ours). SLIDE #: “TURNING STONES TO BREAD What Satan said to Jesus SLIDE #: Luke 4:3-4: The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ What was wrong with turning stones to bread? To turn stones to bread was to admit that God His Father was not going to meet his needs in the desert. SLIDE #: “You are really hungry. If you are the Son of God, why is He not taking better care of you? Why don’t you feed yourself by turning this stone to bread? This is self reliance. WHAT SATAN SAYS TO US: SLIDE #: Self Reliance: If You Are The Child Of God, Why Do You Have So Many Problems. God Is Not Taking Good Care Of You. You don’t need Him! Take Matters Into Your Own Hands and fix your problems yourself! Here is the doubt: If you really are a child of God, Why has God allowed all these troubles to come … marriage to fail …job to be lost … children to disappoint … health to fail. “I can’t trust that God will take care of my needs. I had better take of this myself. This is self reliance without God reliance. STORY of how Roger made Brie self reliant when she was shot. Brie’s gun shot in the hospital. Roger was not meeting her needs. She and comfort around her instead of a dad complimenting her on how well she was handling this on her own. Brie’s sick Self reliance says, “I really don’t need anything, and if I do, I will take care of it myself. Let me share with you one of the painful realities of self reliance: Inevitably, Self-reliant people are insensitive and intolerant of other people’s neediness: Self reliant people are all alone. SLIDE #: Luke 4:4: Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” It is possible to eat bread and die on a full stomach. Bread is not the sustainer of life. If you think that your life subsists of bread then you will everything in your power to get bread. If you think that you life consists of popularity then you will do everything in your power to be popular. If you think that the fullness of your live consists in possessions then you will do everything in your power to acquire the bread of things. If you think power…. If you thing manipulating and controlling others… But, if you ever come to the point where you realize that bread is beyond the point, the clothes you wear is beside the point, the car you drive is beyond the point, the house you live in is beyond the point, then you will do everything in your power to submit to the life giving Words of Jesus Christ. SLIDE #: Self Reliance is conquered by reliance on the living Word of Jesus Christ Bouts of depression under stress at church. Only way to survive was to sit in blue chair, read the Bible and cry out for help. Journals filled pain. I never needed to journal when all was well People see journals and think I was always like that. SLIDE #: “WORSHIPPING SATAN What Satan said to Jesus SLIDE #: Luke 4:5-8: The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8: Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'” SLIDE #: If you are the Son of God, then why are you so tired, hungry and weak. Didn’t God say 40 days ago at your baptism that you were his beloved son? You must not be very important to Him. Look at you; you’re not worth receiving the kingdoms of the world. FALL DOWN AND WORSHIP ME and I will give you the kingdoms of the world. This is the temptation to Self Condemnation. The focus is here upon “Self. Nothing wrong with the Self” SLIDE #: The problem is an over concern with myself which is pride. It is universal. We all have trouble with it. Because pride is such a natural thing in all of us. Job 41: 31-34: “Satan is king over all the children of pride.” We are children of pride. We have it in our blood. God gave us “pride” for a last name – Roger Pride. We are like eggs. We’re so full of pride that there’s no room for anything else. The one vitamin we all have too much of is Vitamin I. Pride is the sin that invites Satan to rule. Man was created to glorify God, but ever since the fall of man, man has an overpowering desire that never seems to die, to glorify himself. Self Reliance Self Condemnation Self Centeredness WHAT SATAN SAYS TO US: seen self reliance. Now see self condemnation: SLIDE #: Self Condemnation: “You Are Not Worthy To Be A Child Of God. Why Don’t You Just Give Up And Quit.” Have you ever felt that you were not worthy of God and His love? Have you ever felt so unworthy that you just decided to give up and not even try? I have. Let me get personal. STORY: Discouraged, mostly tired. Feeling like a failure. Feeling God was disappointed with me. Driving across town. Stopped at red light. Had this image of being in Heaven. Standing in line waiting to see Jesus. I pictured myself getting out of line and slinking away because I did not figure Jesus wanted to see me anyway. Julie: “How much does it take to be enough? Church well, people love relocation, site, space, attendance soaring, reaching new people, kids doing well, teach pastors and wives all over the country. How much is enough?” It just did not help. “I’m not good enough for God.” Why would we feel not worthy enough for God? I can think of three reasons. SLIDE #: 1. We were raised to have a poor self image so we never feel worthy to receive anything. Where does a self image come from? Reflections from the people around us. Good mirrors or curved and broken mirrors. Poor self image: incorrect mirrors Julie and I were leading a conference for pastor’s and wives recently. During a testimony time, one woman, with tears in her eyes, shared a childhood experience with her parents. Dad wanted to go somewhere and mom did not want to go. Mom was angry. Daughter was sent to the neighbors to be cared for while mom and dad were away. While at the neighbors, she was attacked by the neighbor’s dog. She said, “I remember awakening with blood all over my face and chest, my heart racing in terror. “When mom came home, she was angry.” Now she began to sob. “She wasn’t angry at the neighbors, she was angry with me. How could I let this happen?” I am so sorry. Children are not well equipped emotionally to handle their parent’s anger. Hard to process anger from the one who is supposed to love and care for you. “But, that’s not all. The dog had not been vaccinated. I remember my parents talking about what to do. Rabies has no symptoms until it is too late. If they took me for shots the neighbors would get upset and they might put down the dog. So they decided not to get me shots. (weeping) I learned that the neighbor’s dog meant more to my mom and dad than I did.” Talk about rejection, betrayal, disappointment, and hurt. Steele Wright: “My prayer is good enough for God but not good enough for mom.” SLIDE #: 2. We feel guilty because we have done some things of which we ought to be ashamed. Bill Starnes: one of best friends, catch up homework assignments; brilliant, never made anything less than A+. Never called me for homework again. Friendship went down hill Moon’s car at Union News Done some other things I will not mention that embarrass me. Appropriate lines of things I’ve done. You have done the same. Ashamed of ….. SLIDE #: 3. We have not yet fully experienced our acceptance in Jesus Christ. SLIDE #: Luke 4:8: Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'” Come to worship in the preacher’s line. It is not about me. SLIDE #: Self Condemnation is overcome by receiving approval from Jesus Christ in worship. Sit in front of Jesus’ mirror Sit at Jesus’ feet and find value. “I Am Accepted in the Beloved. SLIDE #: Ephesians 1:6: to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Receive from Jesus the value He has placed upon you. SLIDE #: “JUMPING OFF THE TOP OF THE TEMPLE” What Satan said to Jesus SLIDE #: Luke 4:9-12: The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ SLIDE #: “Jesus, if you are the Son of God then you are so important to Him as his child that you can do anything you want to and He will rescue you no matter what.” “And, oh, by the way, in case you are wondering whether or not He will save you, it is right here in the Bible.” Satan misquotes the verse. God never promises to protect any one who jumps off the temple. He promises only to protect those who are in His will. The temptation is self centeredness. WHAT SATAN SAYS TO US SLIDE #: Self Centeredness: “If You Are A Child Of God Feel Free To Go Out On A Limb Because God Will Take Care of you because he loves you too much to let anything bad happen to you.” Selfishness is an ugly thing. We can’t live anyway we want to without hurting our selves and the ones around us. Camera in Colorado: wouldn’t let Ron take a picture. Later at Rocky mt lake. Uncle took Ronnie fishing. I wanted to fish. “Could I try that.” “No, you are the most selfish boy I have ever met.” Never felt so isolated and alone in my life. I held on to the camera. I hurt Ronnie, mom and dad, and I was miserable. Selfish Presumption is an even uglier thing to God. SLIDE #: Luke 4:12: Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” Don’t presume on God’s will. You just might jump and he won’t catch you. “Marry a non-Christian and God will still bless my marriage: The marriage will work on two different sets of plans. “Go into business with a nonChristian and God will bless our business.” “Spend everything I make and God will take care of me in retirement.” “Abuse drugs and god will hide the truth when I take the polygraph for my first job.” SLIDE #: Self Centeredness is put to rest by choosing to live Christ’s way instead of ours. Determined decision: plaque on our back door: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. MEDITATION Our Prayer: Oh Lord, deliver me… help me keep my self in proper perspective …. from an over concern with myself…. …help me resist the temptation to live alone and without God or others…. Deliver me … from the desire to be extolled… being honored… preferred to others… Help me overcome my … fear of being humiliated… fear of being despised… fear of being embarrassed… being rebuked… fear of being forgotten… fear of being wrong…. that others may be chosen and I set aside… fear that I may go unnoticed while others are praised. Help me to know when my selfishness is rearing its ugly head. I have no desire to hurt you or the people around me. Help me from expressing my self in a way that isolates me from You and others. I am sorry for those times I am so arrogant as to think that I am so important that I can live however I want and still find your approval. I want to God dependence, God approval and God centeredness in every area of my life. Amen

Jesus teaches how to evaluate where you are in your spiritual walk. Soils testing MATTHEW 13:1-9, 18-23; MARK 4:1-8, 14-20; LUKE 8:4-8, 12-15 S-1739 In Matthew 13 (teaching sections in Matthew) Matthew gathers together the seven teaching parables on the Kingdom of Heaven. Explain Parables of the Kingdom in Matthew 13. Describe what the kingdom will be like on earth until the 2nd coming of Christ. The Kingdom of Heaven is like: Matthew 13:24-25 Matthew 13:31 Matthew 13:33 Matthew 13:47 The Kingdom of God is the one thing in life worth sacrificing everything to obtain. READ Matthew 13:44-45. ☻SLIDE #2: THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS ANYWHERE THE SPHERE OF CHRIST’S INFLUENCE IS SEEN AND FELT. ☻SLIDE #3: LUKE 17:20-21: Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” ☻SLIDE #4: What are the advantages of the Kingdom? ☻Peace with God: The war is over. Sins forgiven from pains and mistakes of the past. Keep account current by grace. ☻“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Relationship of intimacy begins—get to know God’s heart—questions answered—spiritual fulfillment. Because God lives within: ☻A living relationship with the WORD OF GOD for guidance and oneness with God to work through all sorts of situations. Holy Spirit is the teacher. No Holy Spirit, no real understanding. Angry: “I will destroy you.” He failed but I was so angry with him. Parking lot at hospital reading Bible in pain and agony: David’s imprecatory Psalms. OK to be angry and not sin. God spoke to me through His Word. Lonely and in despair. Stressed: month off. Drove to Carlsbad Caverns. Hotel in the middle of no where: Julie and little daughters asleep. Got out of bed, opened to Habakkuk. Asked God all sorts of questions about why life is so unfair and why there is so much pain and suffering. He got his answer: “Though no figs, olives, cattle in the stall, yet will I praise you.” Something stupid: Cut off driver on the way to Seminary: “A soft answer turns away wrath.” “I am sorry, please forgive me.” “Well, all right; just don’t ever do it again.” ☻Jesus’ life and power for victory in every situation He never promised to keep away all the pain. He promised to give us the power to be victorious. Philippians 4:10-13: Learned to be content. I can do all things through Christ. We have to play the cards we are dealt. ☻A family of brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world. Talked to Scott Truett re the Baylor line. Wengen: Before summer season. Still snow on trails. Dinner in hotel restaurant. Derrek shocked: great fellowship. ABF Teacher-Director meeting yesterday. Joy in ABFs. ☻A secure future Ready to die Heart surgery: Heart Lung machine, not cleaned: 19 out of 20 be OK. What happens if the 1. “Wake up here, OK; wake up in Heaven, that’s OK. Rejoice with Dad and Jessie One of the most powerful manifestations of Kingdom of God—Christ’s sphere of influence. STORY OF GEORGE FOX AND KENN PERRY: both in surgery after car wreck. No ID because swim trunks. Read names in paper at parkland. Went to parkland and two sets of parents. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done” is not just a prayer for the future. It is a request for the kingdom to come in our lives. So that we can live under the influence of Christ anywhere. ☻SLIDE #5: The parable of the Sower shows us how the kingdom comes into the human heart—OR NOT! READ MATTHEW 13:1-9: That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop — a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.” ☻SLIDE #6: THE SEED IS THE WORD OF GOD (MATTHEW 13:3; LUKE 8:11). LUKE 8:11: This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. People want to hear God speak. They want a special personal message from God before they will believe. He has already spoken—right here in the Bible. The Bible doesn’t need to be defended—it just needs to be read. Preacher eating fish in restaurant. Running argument—good natured—with a man in the town, “Do you understand everything in the Bible?” “No.” “Well, what do you do with all things you don’t understand?” The same thing I do when I am eating fish. (grinned at his friend) I eat the fish and put the bones over here on the side for any old fool to choke on.” ☻SLIDE #7: Mark Twain: “It is not what I don’t understand about the Bible that bothers me. It is what I do understand.” We don’t need to apologize for it. Don’t need to rationalize it. We just need to plant it. ☻SLIDE #8: THE SOWER IS THE LORD Jesus—OR ANYONE WHO IS SHARING THE WORD (MATTHEW 13:3) The Sower dug his hand into a basket of seed and was scattering it generously around His field! In a lovely and rhythmic, systematic way, we are to present the Word throughout our lives. The responsibility of the one who sows the gospel is not to produce a harvest. His only responsibility is to faithfully spread the seed as far and wide as he is able. Julie leads two friends to Christ when she is in 8th grade. She looked up Marshall Millsap in the internet this week. (I looked Jane and discovered she was a cardiologist in San Francisco. Marshall is VP of Global Chase Bank, a company with an annual sales of 739 billion dollars. Bill Bryan is now the Dean of Perkins Theological Seminary in Dallas. “Did you get all nervous? Was it hard?” “No, I just told them what happened to me.” Just share your story about Jesus. Take the pressure off of yourself and share the Word. ☻SLIDE #9: When God speaks there are four responses (MATTHEW 13:18-23). ☻SLIDE #10: THE PATHWAY SOIL IS THE HEARER WHO IS NOT INTERESTED BECAUSE OF SATANIC DECEPTION. In Palestine the fields were in long narrow strips; and the ground between the strips was always a right of way and therefore it was beaten as hard as a pavement, ☻SLIDE #11: MATTHEW 13:18-19: “Listen then to what the parable of the Sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ☻SLIDE #12: 2 CORINTHIANS 4:4: The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. C.S. Lewis, in his “Screwtape Letters,” describes a man who goes into a library to read and meditate. His mind is suddenly opened to deep thoughts of God. Confronted with his own standing before God, he starts thinking in terms of his eternal welfare. Then, Lewis says, the demons that are assigned to keep him from discovering truth begin to panic—try to talk him into committing adultery. Wormwood: “Call his attention to the siren on the street. Call his attention to his stomach. He gets up and goes to lunch—I can think about this later. And that is all it takes. These people are spiritual warfare prayer projects. ☻SLIDE #13: THE ROCKY SOIL IS THE SHALLOW PROFESSOR WHO WILTS WHEN THE GOING GETS ROUGH. The stony ground was not ground that was filled with stones; it was a thin skin of topsoil of an underlying shelf of limestone rock. When this person hears the gospel it brings a religious experience but it does not bring salvation. All the change is on the surface, rather than in the depths of his heart. ☻SLIDE #14: MATTHEW 13:20-21: The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since (the soil was shallow) he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. Note the response of Joy! In true conversion, the weeping endures for an evening, joy comes in the morning. His feelings were changed but not his soul. There is no repentance, no remorse over sin, no contrition, no brokenness, no recognition of the need for a Savior. People weeping during spotlight series. MAN WEEPING SALVATION STORY in old chapel on old site—near Pharmacy in Walgreens Let’s confess your sins…Bitterness at first wife…Alcohol…drugs…living with woman. Want to give up bitterness…alcohol…drugs…move out. Weeps. Jesus can forgive all that and give you a clean slate. Invite Him into your life and Jesus will begin cleaning up that mess of a life.” Wept as he gave his life to Christ. ☻SLIDE #15: THE THORN-INFESTED SOIL IS HEARER WHO IS DISTRACTED BY TOO MANY OTHER THINGS. When the Sower was sowing the ground looked clean enough—but it was full of grabgrass seeds. The result was that the good seed and the dormant weeds grew together; but the weeds were so strong that they throttled the life out of the seed, and it died, while the weeds flourished. ☻SLIDE #16: MATTHEW 13:21-22: The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. The weeds are the things that ruin the Kingdom of God in our lives. What do weeds look like? ☻SLIDE #17: 1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. The weeds are Distractions: Story Of Young Girl Dropping Comb While Driving And Running Under Vugtaveens Car At 45 Mph And Surviving. Distracted while talking on cell phone while driving. ☻SLIDE #18: THE GOOD SOIL IS THE FRUIT-PRODUCING CHRISTIAN. This is the point of the entire parable: true believers produce fruit. ☻SLIDE #19: MATTHEW 13:23: Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop — a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. What will the kingdom look like in your life? How will you know you are in the kingdom? Three types of fruit are mentioned in the Bible ☻SLIDE #20: The Fruit of the Spirit ☻SLIDE #21: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23) Begin to be filled more and more with the Spirit of Christ. STORY: Ate at Rubios one evening this week. Boy struggling with making order on cash register. “You’re first day, isn’t it.?” Charged me $9.50 for a Pesky plate. Paid, thought it was a little high. He was on next customer. Looked at price list. “Hey, I think you overcharged me. Boss came over and boy sweating. I was going to get $2.53 change. Felt bad, embarrassed boy. “Well, he needed to learn. Ate my dinner and fruit of spirit. Walked to counter and gave him $5 tip. “I can’t take this?” “Sure you can. Put it in your pocket and say ‘thank you.’” He slid it in his pocket, looked at me and said, “Thank you. ☻SLIDE #22: The Fruit of good Behavior Philippians 1:11: filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Life changing—more sensitive to sin and the things that keep us from—lifestyle begins to reflect it. ☻SLIDE #23: The Fruit of New Converts Romans 1:13: I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. Wanted my best friends to go to heaven with me. Billy Gipe Dennis Wall: pastor in San Antonio Jim Tasch: Baptized same night. died in car wreck when he was 21. ☻SLIDE #24: COULD IT BE THAT ONLY ONE OF EVERY THREE PERSONS WHO PROFESSES FAITH IN CHRIST IS REALLY A CHRISTIAN? Jesus said, “By their fruit you shall know them.” ☻SLIDE #25: Explaining OF FOUR SOILS: Pathway; shallow; weeds; fruit Notice that sprouting doesn’t make a Christian. That is important to note. The enthusiasm, the joy, the immediate profession are not salvation. This is what the writer to the Hebrews is referring to the people who only “taste of Jesus” who ultimately “fall away.” ☻SLIDE #26: Hebrews 6:4-6: It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6 if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. We can taste something and spit it out without fully committing ourselves to it. But, when we swallow, we are fully committed. This is what communion is all about. ☻SLIDE #27: remember the advantages of the Kingdom? ☻Peace with God: The war is over. ☻“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” ☻A living relationship with the WORD OF GOD for guidance and oneness with God to work through all sorts of situations. ☻”Jesus’ life and power to be victorious in every situation ☻A fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world. ☻A secure future Meditate

Andy Stanley discusses how our behavior will eventually reflect the condition of our hearts. Hey, growing up in our home, and I bet your home was similar, there were certain words that were off limits in our home. And again, I grew up in a different generation than some of you, but here was one of the big ones. In fact, I, it’s hard for me to even say this out loud in church, okay? Darn. I was like, you know, this was like, not being able to say this word was a fence rule. A fence rule is a rule that keeps you from breaking a worse rule. And so in our home, we didn’t wanna say the word that sounded kind of like darn. Not yarn. Start with D anyway. And so if my parents thought, if we don’t say this word, you know, the kids won’t drift over to another word. Because the ultimate rule was no cursing or we didn’t say cussing. I don’t know if that’s a southern thing or not, but no cursing or cussing, either one. So we had kind of these fence rules around some words. And the threat was, this is really going to show you something. So the threat was if you cuss or curse, if you say one of these words, especially that word, you’re gonna get your mouth washed out with soap. Now I think my parents only said that because their parents said it and their parents said it. Well, I don’t know where that began. Because what is that, you could probably be arrested today for mouth, washing a child’s mouth out. But so, but that was the threat. Now in our family, Sandra and I, we raised our kids a little bit different. She, I used to say we, but let’s just be honest, she homeschooled our kids. And the goal was to put ’em into public high school. To go from home school to this big five, eight, you know, public high school. I don’t know if that’s a good parenting approach, but that was what we were gonna do. And so to prepare them for that, I actually had to teach all of our kids the bad words, okay? Because we didn’t talk like that in home school, you know. Nothing kind of slipped out that I’m aware of. I was at work most of the time. But anyway, so I had to teach them all the, you know, the bad words. And after that I said to ’em, that I’m saying it, but you don’t say it, which is weird. And then later, Sandra circled around and taught ’em all the combinations. But I let her do that. Anyway, back to my story. So sure enough, we lived in Miami at the time, so that meant I was in the fourth grade or younger. We had a little tiny house, a little sidewalk that went out to the the sidewalk that connected all the houses in the row. And I’m standing out there. I still remember this. And my friend had knocked his bicycle over and I’m on my bicycle. We’re just riding up and down the little sidewalk there. And I stopped and I said, “Get that darn bicycle outta my way”. And I looked up and literally my mom, I don’t know how moms do this, she was standing on the front porch. I, no lie, she’s standing on the front porch. I look up and she gave me that, you know, thing, you know. Now, later she confessed to me, she had no idea what it meant to wash a child’s mouth out with soap. This was just a thing people said, you know. Since the bad words come out, we’re gonna wash your mouth out. So she took me in our little tiny bathroom and she took my toothbrush and rubbed it in a bar of soap, and she brushed my teeth with soap. And so and thus began my lesson or continued my lesson with what we call these days, behavior modification. She was modifying my behavior. It was cause and effect, right? I learned to monitor my behavior to avoid certain unpleasant effects. And I continued to do that through my childhood. And we’ve never met in most cases, but you continued to do that through your childhood as well. You’ve modified your behavior. We all have. Why? Well, because we want to get dates and we want to get second dates, and we want to get invitations, and we want to be invited back and we want to do get jobs. So we, you know, modify our behavior for job interviews. And it goes on and on and on and on. As a pastor, just to be personal for a moment, this is really important for me. There are behaviors that I could do that would cause me to lose my job that might get you a promotion where you work, okay? So we all kind of have to figure this out, you know, in terms of our environment. But we’ve all gotten pretty good at monitoring our behavior. But as it turns out, that is not enough. And we’re gonna come right back to that in just a minute. Today we are in part two of our series if you’ve been keeping up or if you haven’t been keeping up. “Living with Yourself, 3 Habits to Safeguard Your Soul“. Three habits to ensure, this is kind of the theme, three habits to ensure that the self you’re living with internally is the self that’s on display to everybody else. These are habits to ensure that what people see is what they’re actually getting. That there’s integrity between who you are on the inside and who you are on the outside. And we set this up last time by saying we’ve all had the experience of hearing about somebody in culture, somebody popular, or maybe someone we know who they’ve been living a double life. And suddenly, you know, they, it comes out that they’ve been living a double life. They got something else going on. They were not the person everyone thought they were. And they get caught and they get caught in a lie. And the family’s devastated. Maybe a career’s devastated. And when that happens, and we hear about, wow, this has been going on for years, and nobody knew, we either think or say, “How could they, how could they live with themselves? How could they carry on for so long with that going on in the background”? And the assumption of course is, hey, if it was me, I couldn’t live with myself. I could not have the double life and keep it a secret or, you know, have such variation on the themes of my life the way that they did that. That my conscience or my integrity would not allow me to do that. We think I couldn’t do that. But the truth is, you could. You could do that. Now, you couldn’t live with your current self. But if left unattended, as we said last time, your current self may not be your future self. And your future self might become, might be someone that you wouldn’t even recognize, that you wouldn’t even respect. In fact, maybe that’s the situation you’re in today. You have slowly over time become someone you never intended to be. And you’re carrying a secret that no one knows you’re carrying and you’re thinking to yourself, how did I get here? Well, the reason nobody thinks this will happen to them is because nobody thinks this will happen to them. And the reason people, this happens to people is because the assumption is, well, it can’t happen. But it does. And it happens all the time. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it could happen to you and it can happen to me. And the best way to as keep it from happening is to, number one, assume that it can. And number two, to take steps to ensure that it doesn’t. And that’s what this series is all about. Three habits to safeguard your soul. And when I say soul, I mean your inner life, your interior life, that part of you that no one sees, but the part of you that you go to bed with every night and wake up to every single morning and that you face every single morning in the mirror. Now the theme or kind of the big overarching principle, and whether you’re a religious person or not, this is just true. So this is something to take into consideration, is simply this, that the health of your soul or the health of your interior life, the health of your soul determines your capacity for duplicity. Now, duplicity is, and you know, the traditional way of thinking about duplicity is somebody, is someone with this group of people and they’re someone entirely different with another group of people. And if those two group of people ever got together to discuss that person, they would think they’re talking about two different people. There’s duplicity. But the other version of duplicity is when someone is something publicly and something entirely different privately, and your, the health of your soul, what’s going on on the inside day in and day out, determines your capacity for duplicity. And here’s what I mean specifically. It determines how wide the gap between who you are and who you pretend to be. It determines how wide the gap between who you are and who you pretend to be grows or can expand before your conscience just can’t take it anymore, before your guilt just can’t take it anymore. Or between, or to the point that you’re eventually found out that the health of your soul determines whether you close the gap immediately. That’s what we’re gonna talk about today. The health of your soul determines whether you close that gap immediately or if you decide to manage that gap indefinitely. And as we manage the gap, it always gets wider and wider and wider and wider. So I’m suggesting these three habits to ensure that that gap gets closed immediately, quickly, and stays closed. Now, the last time we talked about the first habit. First habit was surrender your will, specifically surrender your will to your Heavenly Father, to wake up every single morning and in some formal way to present yourself to God. Your hands, what you’re gonna do. Your feet, where you’re gonna go. Your eyes, what you’re gonna look at. Your ears, what you’re gonna listen to. Your mind, what you’re gonna think about. Surrender your resources. Surrender your opportunities, your hopes and dreams, and say, Heavenly Father, I am 100% you. I’m giving all of me to all of you. I trust you because I know you are for me. Basically, you’re taking, you know a little snapshot of Jesus prayer when he taught us how to pray. We’re saying, “Your will be done through me today”. And Jesus says this needs to be daily because that little prayer and that recentering every single day, do you know what it does? It sensitizes your conscience for the rest of the day. You have just surrendered yourself to your Heavenly Father. And when you begin to think in a way, move in way, look in away, you know, act in a way that creates that division between who you wanna be and who you find yourself becoming, the alarm bells go off because, oh, I’ve already dealt with this and I need to take action and close that gap. So today we’re gonna talk about the second habit. And to set it up, I wanna tell you a little story from the life of Jesus. So one day, Jesus and his disciples, and this is a general term for the general Jesus followers. They’re going along and the Pharisees who are constantly dogging Jesus and sort of in a running conflict, running tension with Jesus everywhere he goes, they issue a complaint and they say, “Jesus, your disciples, the people who are following you, they don’t observe the tradition of the elders. They’re not observing the tradition of the elders”. Now I gotta explain what that is for this to make sense. The tradition of the elders, or the other phrase that you sometimes hear, the Oral Torah, was a list of fence rules that essentially God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and God gave Moses the civil law, all this detailed civil law, for the nation of Israel. And it was written down, but supposedly, supposedly God also gave Moses an oral law that he did not allow to be written down. And Moses passed that on to Joshua and Joshua passed it on to the priest. And this got passed along generation after generation after generation in parallel with the written law. Now nobody knows if this is true or not. There’s no way to prove it or disprove it because, well, it wasn’t written down. But what we do know is that these unwritten laws were generally fence laws to protect the written laws so people didn’t accidentally break the law of God and defile themselves and put themselves at odd odds with God. Here’s an example. For example, the written law said no business on the Sabbath. You can’t conduct business on the Sabbath because for ancient Jews and for modern Jews, it’s a day of rest. We get that. The tradition of the elders or the Oral Torah said you’re not allowed to touch money on the Sabbath because if we don’t allow you to touch money on the Sabbath, you won’t accidentally do business on the Sabbath. Well, you can see over time these, the Oral Torah, which again, you know, they were just kind of making it up as they went along, generation to generation kind of tweaking, as you know, things became more civilized and as civilization advanced. This became so onerous. I mean the law was difficult enough to keep. We know from the testimony of first century Jews. But to add to it this Oral Torah that you never really, you were never really sure if you were doing something wrong until the Pharisees showed up and said, “Oh yeah, that’s in the Oral Torah”. Like, you can’t do that. That’s the tradition of the elders. So that’s the tension that Jesus finds himself in with these, with the Pharisees. And on this particular, in this particular instance, this had to do with how they washed their hands. The written law, as you know, for Jews had a very strict dietary guidelines. We know that. So that was the written law. The Oral Torah, or the tradition of the elder said to ensure that you don’t accidentally put something unclean in your body. There is a specific way to wash your hands. Some say up to your elbow, some say further, but there’s a very specific way you’re supposed to wash their hands. And they had made hand washing in this specific hand washing as much of a law as don’t put certain things in your mouth based on the written dietary restrictions in the Torah that God gave Moses. So this is the tension. So they come to Jesus and they say, “Jesus, your disciples aren’t following the tradition of the elders. They are not washing appropriately”. Now you need to know, and this is helpful. Jesus had nothing good to say about the tradition of the elders. He was not a fan of the Oral Torah. He saw it for what it was. These are fence rules and you’re using these to control people. And you’re using these to keep people in a constant place of guilt. They never know how to get it right. They never are at peace with God. They’re constantly, you know, on the outs with God because you guys basically just tweak these things and make these things up and maybe your motives are good, maybe they’re not. But Jesus was not a fan of the Oral Torah. So when the Pharisees criticize Jesus’ disciples, Jesus decides to use it as a teachable moment. And it’s kind of funny. And so here’s where the text, here’s where we pick up with the story. So Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand”. In other words, I’m about to tell you something and I’m about to explain something that you need to know. And this was for us, this is like a big duh. But for the first century, his first century audience, this was so groundbreaking. He says, “I just wanna be clear. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them”. For first century Judeans and Galilean people who were adhering their lives or you know, defining their lives by the Mosaic law. This was like what? Jesus is like, yes. What you eat does not, this was the important part. What you eat does not put you at odds with God. That’s what it meant to be defiled, to be at odds with God. I’ve done something that’s, you know, I’ve put me at odds with God. Jesus is like, “What you eat doesn’t put you at odds with God”. And he says this, but what comes out of their mouth, talking about the Pharisees specifically, what comes out of their mouths or what comes out of a person’s mouth, that is what puts them at odds with God. And then this is the coolest part. After he kind of drops this bomb, the text tells us, this is in Matthew and Mark, he just walks off. Listen and learn. I’ve just said something that is so offensive and is gonna drive the Pharisees crazy. And he says, “Come on guys”. And he just literally walks off. And the, you know, disciples are following him. One of the apostles says, “Jesus, hey, you really offended the Pharisees”. Jesus is like, this is my concern. Look, okay, I’m, I don’t care because, and here’s why this is so important. If you’re not a Christian or a Jesus follower, this is so important. You see, Jesus understood something that they had missed in the first century, that the law was not given in order to please God. The law was given to protect people. The law was for people. And the Pharisees got it backwards. And he would say to them look, you’re like a couple who buys a little bicycle and says, “Wow, we need to have some children so there will be someone to ride the little bicycle”. He’s like, that’s not how it works. The law, people are not for the law. The law is for people. And when you use the law to hurt people, divide people, and to create enmity between God and people, you are misusing, you are abusing the law of God. Now if you’ve lost faith in the past, you grew up in church and walked away, you know, as I always say, if I heard your story, I bet I’d say, “Woo, me too. I think I would’ve gone with you”. If that, you know, based on your experience with the church, if you had a bad experience and if you grew up in a church or maybe even a family or a religious community of any type where you felt alienated from God because of the way people use the rules, that you got the impression that there’s God and there’s the rules and I am less important than the rules. I’m less important than the law of God. You need to know Jesus would side with you because that’s not what he taught. It’s not how he acted. And that was not the original intent of Torah. It wasn’t the original intent of the Ten Commandments because God is for you. And like a good parent, when God established a law or a rule, it was for the good of the people he established the rule or the law for. So anyway, so Jesus walks off, the disciples are following him, and they’re like, Jesus, you, oh you, you know, you just offended them. And then one of the apostles says, “And by the way, that might have been clear to you, but what, that’s not clear to us either”. So Jesus decides to have another teachable moment. Sits ’em all down. And this is kind of funny. Like this is Jesus humor. We’re afraid to laugh cuz it’s Jesus. But this was meant to be funny. So maybe you’ll get this. He sits him down, he says, “Are you still so dull”? I mean that’s kind of funny, isn’t it? I imagine Jesus saying to you, “You’ve been with me for a couple years, you still don’t get it. Are you still so dull”? Jesus asked them, “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and out of the body”? They’re like, we see that every single day. Okay, what? We’re dull but we’re not that dull. What is your point? And then Jesus goes a little deeper. He says, “What comes out of a person is what defiles them”. Not what goes in. What comes out is what puts them at odds with God to which they’re thinking. So using the bathroom was offensive to God? I mean, what are you talking about, you know. He’s got their undivided attention. Like I have your undivided attention. This has been the most interesting part of any sermon you’ve ever heard or talk, you know. Jesus smiles. Now gets to his point. He says, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come”. It’s not what goes in that defiles you. It’s what comes out of you that defiles you. It’s what comes out of you that sets you, puts you at odds with God. And so then they’re like, “Okay, so we’re not talking about our bowels. We’re talking about, wait, evil thoughts”? Wait, an evil. This was a new idea. An evil thought can put us at odds with God? And Jesus would say yes. Because everything harmful and everything harmful to other people begins as a thought. And then he gives them a list of examples. Here’s the kinds of things that come from within. They’re exhibited in the real world, but they begin from within. They begin with the heart. He says, for example, here’s some of the things that come out of a person’s heart. “Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance”. I mean just listing these things off. And your English text says folly. We don’t even use that word anymore. But essentially it means bad judgment. It’s making bad decisions that impact yourself and impact other people. And here’s what they thought. This is so important. When they hear this list, they think, wait a minute. Those are behaviors directed toward other people, not God. I thought we were talking about being at odds with God. I thought we were talking about what defile a person or puts a person in bad relationship with God. To which Jesus would say, “It’s exactly what we’re talking about”. Because hurting another person, disadvantaging another person, puts you at odds with God. You cannot be right with God and mistreat another person. This isn’t about this kind of vertical thing I have going on and I can treat all my horizontal relationships any way I want to, but boy, me and God we’re cool. God’s going, I don’t know where you got that. That’s not in the Old Covenant. That’s not gonna be in the New Covenant. You just made that up. That’s what the Pharisees think. They think they can be right with God and mistreat people at the same time. But you are defiled. You are at odds with God when you mistreat another person and anything on the inside of you that begins as a thought, that becomes a behavior that undermines the integrity of, or hurts or diminishes the value of another person, you are not right with God. This was a huge, huge shift. But this would characterize or was supposed to characterize the New Kingdom that Jesus had come to establish. All these evils, he says, “All these evils come from inside” and that’s what defiles a person. But eating with unwashed hands does not. Now the implication of this, hopefully is so obvious, I don’t even need to state it, but I’ll state it anyway. Here’s what he was saying. Here’s what he was saying to you and to me. He’s saying pay attention. Pay attention to what’s within. Pay attention to what’s going on inside of you because it doesn’t stay there. We leak. You leak. I leak. And most of the time, we don’t even know that other people know what’s inside of us because we leak in such a way that we’re not aware of it. We think we’ve covered it. But they people walk away and go, “Wow, what’s up with her? What’s up with him”? And the reason I know that is because you do that all the time about people. It’s like he or she thinks that we think they’re fine, but they are not fine. And it is obvious to us because we all leak. Our behavior will eventually reflect. Here’s a Jesus’ point. Our behavior will eventually reflect the condition of our hearts or our souls. So just for an uncomfortable minute, I want us to look at that list again. I kind of spread it out. Look at it a little different. Immorality, adultery, theft. Just look at that list a second. I’m gonna ask you a question. Do you know anyone or know of anyone and certainly you’ve read of someone who lost their family, lost a job, lost a career, lost a reputation, maybe over time, lost their mind over any of these things? The answer is yes. And in some instances, not all. In some instances, remember how shocked you were? Like not them. I mean they were so kind and they were so nice and this whole time, and I mean, how did that come out of them? I mean, they were just like the nicest people, who’s the nicest guy, nicest woman. I grew up with him. I grew up with her. Went to school with them, you know. Went to grad school with them. Used to work with them. What happened and how did they live with themselves? And the answer is simple. They just did not tend to their soul. They ignored what was going on in their heart because whatever it was that embarrassed them and wrecked their home and caused such damage, it came from within. These were people or that’s a person who was managing the gap instead of determining to close it. And they became a different self. A self they never intended to have to live with. Now if I can just, you know, make you a little bit more uncomfortable, some of you. For some of you, you look at this list, that’s not somebody you read about or know or a neighbor or someone you used to work with or go to school with. This is you right now. And you, I mean, you always prided yourself on your integrity and telling the truth and you know, you were that man, you were that woman you could always trust. Yes is yes and no is no. And you have created a web of deceit and lies that you’re living with right now. And it is, you are spending expending so much energy to keep that gap going. You’re managing that gap. And every once in a while, there’s a break. In fact, today may be a break for you. Every once in a while there’s a break and you’re honest with yourself and you ask, “How in the world did I get to this”? This is not what I envisioned. Or you remember when you, when you said I do, you meant I do and I will forever and really until death do us apart and you’re the only one for me. And when you would hear people who were running around their husband or wife, you thought, what losers, and I could never live with myself. I would never do that. And now you find yourself in an emotional affair, actually a physical affair. And here I am talking about it in church and you feel like everybody’s looking at you. They’re not. Everybody’s looking at me. You’re fine. But you just feel that. And here’s the thing. I don’t know your story, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt. That was not your intention. You meant it when you made that decision. You meant it when you entered in that covenant with her or or with him. You were so sincere. And now there’s something on the outside and Jesus who’s, you know, compassion personified, is saying to you, “Yeah, but let’s be honest if we’re gonna fix this”. It started on the inside. You, there was a gap and you didn’t close it. You managed it and it got wider and wider and wider. So this is a big deal, right? This is a big deal for our future. This is a big deal for some of us right now. So the second habit, again, I don’t even need to say it. Now you know what it is. It’s to monitor your heart. It’s to monitor your heart. Pay attention to what’s going on inside. I don’t have to tell you to pay attention to what’s going on on the outside. We’re really good at that. We modify our behavior. I mean, again, you’re sitting here in rows staring at me. I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but you’re so well behaved. I actually think you’re listening to me. I mean, you are so good at this and your mind might be a million miles away, but it’s not like you’re sitting around talking to each other, right? I mean we’ve, we’re good at that. Jesus says, look, hey, congratulations on your modified behavior. Everybody’s behaving. But come on, I love you. I want you to pay attention to that part of you that has the potential to divide you from yourself and the people you love the most and the people who love you the most. Pay attention to what’s going on inside. And specifically, I wanna give you four things to look at when it comes to monitoring your heart. We talked about these several years ago. I don’t mind coming back to ’em every once in a while. Guilt, anger, greed, and jealousy. Guilt, anger, greet, and jealousy. These four because you know exactly what they are and they have the potential as much or more than anything to rot your soul. They will, to use a Jesus word, they will ultimately defile you. They will ultimately put you at odds with God. And if you don’t close the gap, these four things have the potential to ultimately define you as well. Because you leak. Because they leak. They hurt the people around you. Guilt says, you know what guilt says? Guilt says I owe you. I owe you. I got a secret. And I owe you the truth. I owe you an apology. I owe you restitution for what I took. And you may or may not know I took it, or you may know I did, but I’ve argued and made excuses. But the truth is, I’m living with guilt because I owe you. I owe you an apology for what I’ve done. I owe you an apology for what I’ve said. And the solution? You won’t even need to write this down. To confess. And when you confess, you’ll make a mess. We talked about that last time. And you don’t wanna make a mess. Let me just say something to you real quick. You’ve already made a mess. There’s no getting around the mess. The question is, are you gonna put a period on the end of that mess and move forward? Are you gonna keep making a bigger mess? And as long as you manage the gap, you’re just making a bigger mess and somebody already knows. I mean, you’re good. You’re just not that good. The people closest to you, they know something’s off. Something’s wrong. They just don’t know what it is. Or maybe they do know what it is, but eventually they’re gonna find out what it is. So it’s either gonna leak and you’re gonna have to make excuses and eventually fess up. Or you can stand up straight, invite your Heavenly Father into this area of your life and hold him by the hand and say, “I’m going in. I’m gonna confess. I’m gonna get this out. I’m gonna deal with a mess. I want this to end. This is not who I wanna be. This is not where I intended to be in my relationships, in my marriage, at work, with my reputation, whatever it is”. You confess. And when you do, you begin safeguarding your soul. Anger. The driver behind anger is you owe me. You owe me. Your anger. Whenever you’re angry, it’s cuz you’re not getting your way. Whenever you’re angry, it’s because something’s been taken from you. You’re not getting what you deserve. You’re not getting what you want. But in the big anger, the anger that seeps, that free flowing anger that follows people throughout their lives. Somebody took something big. Took a marriage. They took your first marriage and you can get remarried. But you took my first one. You were unfaithful to me or the way you treated me. And I, and now I can’t go back. I can’t be 27 again. They took your first marriage. They took your childhood. You are still your thirties, forties years old and you’re still, you’re dealing with stuff from your childhood because somebody, the way they treated you, did to you, mom or dad, you’re, they stole your childhood, your self-respect, maybe your reputation. And they owe you and they really owe you. This isn’t imaginary. They owe you cuz they took it. But here’s what you know. This isn’t helpful. They can’t give back to you what they took even if they wanted to. Even if they apologized. We can’t go back in time. We can’t rewind time. You can’t be 18 again. You can’t have a first marriage again. You can’t, you know, bring that first baby home from the hospital again. You, it’s gone. So you’re stuck and you’re angry and you leak. And the solution, I, we all know the solution. It’s to forgive. And yes, I’ll just own this. It’s easy for me to stand up here and say ’cause I don’t know your story. Now look, most of you, the only version of me you know is the stage version where I’m smart and I know everything and I’m so dogmatic and Andy knows what nobody else knows. But he knows, you know? Well, you know, because of that. Yeah, thank you. Completely wrong, but thank you. I appreciate it, okay. So let me just, if the people who know me would tell you, okay, if it was just the two of us we’re sitting across the table and you told me you’re story, my inclination would be to give you a pass. So you know what. Everybody else has to forgive, but not you. You get over here. You get a pass, okay? God understands. I’ve heard your story. Now I’m angry at him. I’m angry at them. I’m not sure I can forgive him. They don’t even do anything to me. But based on what you’ve been through, I might give you a pass and say, you don’t need to forgive. Forgiving them is giving them a gift they don’t deserve. But your savior who loves you more than I ever could is not gonna give you a pass because he knows what that resentment is doing to your soul. And he says come on, you gotta cancel that debt. You gotta forgive. It’s rotting your soul and you leak. And people know something’s up and they, there’s just an edge. You gotta forgive. Greed. This is something no one’s ever admitted out loud. Can’t even see it in the mirror. We have so many excuses. We have so many other names for this. And it’s, greed is fueled by the consumption assumption. That, we talk about that. The consumption assumption is this. If it comes to me, it’s for me. If it’s placed in my hands, it’s to stay in my hands. If I earned it, if I inherited it, if it was given to me, if it comes to me, it’s for me. Greed says, I owe me. I owe me everything that comes to me. And it forces people to compete with your stuff. And we have so many ways around this. We say, “I’m not greedy, I’m just careful. I’m not greedy, I’m just responsible. I’m not greedy. I just like nice stuff. I’m not greedy, you know, I’m just preparing for the future. I’m again, I’m responsible”. And what greed does is it actually empowers you to excuse a lack of generosity. And by generosity I don’t mean, you know, you roll the window down four inches and slip a $20 bill out the window to the guy and go, man, you feel good. I gave $20. I’m not talking about that. That’s not generosity. That’s something else. A generosity is when you realize everything that comes to me isn’t necessarily for me. And I gotta figure out how to get it to the people God wants me to give it to, percentage wise, systematically, organized. I mean just generosity. We’ve talked about that. And greed. Greed will rot your soul and it trickles out and it triangulates with other people and other things in your life and impacts people. And it puts you at odds with God. You know what the solution is? It’s like ripping off a bandaid. The solution is to give extravagantly, consistently with a plan to something that’s making a difference in the world. It’s your way of saying to your stuff, stuff, you don’t own me. I own you. I’m gonna give till it hurts. I’m gonna give until it becomes easy to give. Greed, you are not the boss of me. You’re not the king of me. My stuff doesn’t own me. Yes, I like nice stuff and yes I want to be, yeah, but you know what, those are excuses. Greed is not gonna reside in my heart. It’s not gonna reside from within because eventually it’s gonna come out and it’s gonna come out on the people closest to you. It always is. Jealousy. This is the ugliest one of all. Ugh. You celebrate when other people fail. I mean, not out loud, just like inside. You feel like you’ve made, I mean not you. We, I, all of us. We feel like we’re making progress sometimes because somebody else fails. That is ridiculous. That is so ugly. When you see it in your kids or grandkids, it’s like it bothers you. This will rot your soul, celebrating other people’s failure. And you know what we do? We compete with other people in our head and they don’t even know there’s a competition. They’re just living a happy life and we’re just mad. And the more happy they are, the more angry we get. We’re like, yeah, but you know, and do you know what drives this? It’s this assumption that you need to root out. It’s a lie. Life owes me. Life owes me. Life owes me. And then when you scratch beneath the surface, do you know what you unearth? God owes me. Cuz he could have made you prettier, taller. He could have made, give you opportunities to be richer. He could’ve had you born into a different kind of family to give you more opportunities. He could’ve made you smarter. He could’ve made you smarter than your older brother or your younger sister who you finally find yourself just competing with constantly. He could’ve done that and he didn’t. So admit it. I think God owes me and I don’t wanna live that way anymore because God has done enough for me. And you know what the antidote or the solution is or the process that eventually gets us to where we need to be? It’s to celebrate. Celebrate what God has given you and celebrate what God has given others. And sometimes you gotta be super overt. You gotta be the first person to the front of the room to tell her or to tell him what a great job they did even though it’s something you should have been able to do. You just gotta be intentional. I am not gonna allow jealousy to reside in me. I’m gonna celebrate their successes and I’m gonna celebrate mine. There’s this old song that was, you know, it’s kind of corny but it’s true, the sentiment is true, is count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your blessings. See what God has done. You ever heard that song? It’s kind of corny but you know it’s true. It’s waking up every day saying, you know what, I’m not worried about them right now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So bringing guilt, anger, greed and jealousy into the light. It diminishes their power over you. So monitor your heart and root these things out. Be on the lookout for these four villains. And as soon as you identify ’em, you don’t manage that tension. You say nope. You talk to ’em, right? You say, “Hey, there is no room for you inside of me. I already have a boss. I already have a king. I have a king who is for me. The only thing you four guys do is take stuff from me”. So as we close, I want to take you in a little brief exercise that I used to do with my kids, Sandra and I would do with our kids when we put ’em to bed at night. ‘Cause I want you to know there’s a ancient proverbs that says, “Watch over your soul for from it flows all the issues of life”. That you know, the the heart or the soul is you gotta watch over it. And we would talk about how do you teach kids to monitor their heart? I mean we’re teaching ’em behavior modification constantly, right? How do you teach ’em to monitor their heart? So we just made this up. When we put ’em in bed at night and I’d say, “Andrew Garrett Alley, is everything okay? Is everything okay in your heart”? Just ask them. Then go through a list of questions. You know, you mad at anybody? You celebrating anybody’s failure? Does anybody owe you an apology? Just go through these questions. So let me ask you do, do you owe anybody an apology? You got 20 reasons why you don’t need to, but do you owe anybody apology? Are you mad at anybody? Are you secretly celebrating somebody’s failure? Or maybe you didn’t so secretly celebrate someone’s failure with a group of people and maybe you’re a Christian, you did it like this. We need to pray for Frank. They’re having a tough time. Isn’t that sick? Yeah, I don’t know who would do that, yeah. Is there somebody whose success you need to celebrate publicly just to prove to jealousy you don’t control me, you’re not the boss of me. Do you need to write an uncomfortable check or some uncomfortable checks. Maybe get rid of some stuff. Maybe you got some really nice stuff and you’re like, “Really nice stuff, you don’t control me anymore. I’m selling all of you and I’m giving all the money away. Take that”. There are some people in your family, they would be like, “Huh. Thank you cuz we’re afraid to come to your house. We’re afraid we’re gonna break something, you know. We don’t ever ask you to borrow anything. You just give us money cuz you don’t want us to touch your”. Come on. You wanna live that way? You don’t wanna live that way. Say to your stuff, “I own you. You do not own me”. Is everything okay in your heart? And here’s the thing. If you want, and I know you want this, whether you’re a Christian or a religious person or a different person, a different faith, you want this. If you want the self you live with to be the self you present the folks around you with, you gotta get this right. You gotta monitor your heart. And parents, you gotta help your kids get this right. Let me, parents, kids who are healthy on the inside, children who are healthy on the inside, are best equipped to resist pressure from the outside. Kids who are healthy on the inside are set up to be able to resist pressure from the outside. So monitor your heart and surrender your will. And don’t miss part three where we talk about habit three of “Living with Yourself, 3 Habits to Safeguard Your Soul“.

“The biggest problem in our marriage is our communication.” It’s perhaps the most frequent issue that is brought to the table when Angel (my wife and counselor) and I meet with couples. At the core of many marriage seminars and conferences is the issue of how to improve the communication in your marriage. I don’t buy it. Your marriage doesn’t need better communication. Alright, alright. I’m overstating that for dramatic effect. Communication is important and often needs work. There are some helpful things you can do to improve communication in your marriage. But the fact remains: I’ve yet to encounter a marriage that the fundamental issue is communication. More serious issues always lurk beneath the surface. The reason that communication is often fore-fronted is that it is a neutral issue. Being a poor communicator isn’t a sin. And communication feels fixable. We think if we can just learn new techniques, we will experience renewal in our marriage. Communication isn’t your issue. Sin is your issue. Or, to put it in James’s language, your desires are your issue. When James writes to the church, he is crystal clear about what is at the heart of their communication issues. He asks, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” (James 4:1a). Note what James doesn’t say, “Your poor communication skills.” Nope. Here is James’s answer, “Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1b-2). James tells us that at the core of our communication issues is our sin. Our proud and judgmental hearts produce murderous words. Jealous and envious hearts use words to claw and grasp for what they want. Narcissistic hearts spill out words that project themselves on the world. You might struggle with articulating yourself well. You might be an introvert. You might have had parents who were horrible role models at navigating conflict. Those are all real things that need to be overcome. You can become a better communicator. But don’t confuse this skill with the heart of the matter. We have a sin problem, not a communication problem. What is the answer to that sin problem? Turning away from how our hearts have been formed by the world and being formed by God. The answer is found in humble repentance. James concludes, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purity your hearts, you double minded” (James 4:7-8). Do you want to experience a renewed marriage? This is where the answer begins. Humble repentance. Transformed desires. When our desires move from a longing to satisfy ourselves to yearning to honor God, then our conversations begin to change. When our hearts are oriented in submission to God, more than just our conversations: our relationships change. James 4 holds the key to rescuing your marriage. I’m still waiting to see a marriage rescued through improved communication skills. God can save your marriage through the cleansing of your heart. I’ve seen that dozens of times. You May Also Appreciate: It’s (Not) Too Late to Apologize : marraige, James, communication, sin, transformed desires, repentance, counseling

Learning to renew your spiritual life and relax are critical to the emotional and physical health of ministers everywhere.

God might exist. And He might not. There might be a Judgment Day. And there might not. Oh well. If that sums up your creed, you just might be part of one of the nation’s fastest growing religions. In Atlantic Monthly, correspondent Jonathan Rauch notes that he finally stopped calling himself an atheist, when he realized that he just doesn’t care about God-one way or the other. He is an “apatheist.” And Rauch discovered that he is not alone. In fact, he argues, apatheism represents the silent majority of American religion-a movement of those bored by the whole question of God. After all, Rauch argues, few people are more militant in their dogmas than the snarling atheists of American secularism. These angry God-haters aren’t his tribe. Neither are those whose worldviews are shaped by a commitment to a belief about God and the universe-conservative Christians, for example. Instead, Rauch finds his “church” among the overwhelming majority of Americans who tell pollsters they believe in God, and yet they rarely attend church. It doesn’t matter what they say they believe, Rauch notes, they don’t care. Rauch even believes that American churches are buying his new religion. “There are a lot of reasons to attend religious services: to connect with a culture or a community, to socialize, to expose children to religion, to find the warming comfort of familiar religion,” he writes. “The softer denominations are packed with apatheists.” For Rauch, this is a very good sign, since-as September 11th demonstrates-religion is “the most divisive and volatile of social forces.” Conservative evangelicals might chuckle at Rauch’s tongue-in-cheek “religion.” It is nothing new. It is what we have called “civil religion” and “unregenerate church membership”-and it has been around at least since Cain. But what we might be less prepared for is the fact that Rauch says we’ve joined his “church” too. Some of the most committed Christians are closest apatheists. “I have Christian friends who organize their lives around an intense and personal relationship with God, but who betray no sign of caring that I am an unrepentantly atheistic Jewish homosexual,” he notes. His evangelical friends might believe in Christ, he concludes, but they don’t really care whether he comes to Christ or not. These words from an unbeliever ought to bring a cold sweat to the brow of a follower of the Jesus who promised to “draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). If our churches really believe that the Kingdom has dawned in Christ-that a new age of the Spirit has come-how can we continue to yawn in the face of the billions of unregenerate humans, many of them seated on the pews next to us every Sunday? This unbelieving journalist may have hit on something most of us have missed. Apatheists have always been with us. They were the ones who hoped this first-century Galilean might be the Messiah. But, he was executed, and who has time to listen to fishermen ranting about raised corpses? We have to earn a living and raise our families. But there were another crowd. They believed the Resurrection of Christ was so significant that it turned the entire world upside down (Acts 17:6). They believed the revelation of God must reshape their priorities, their families, their political commitments, and their cultural values. These people were called “Christians.” Let us pray for the Spirit to break the hearts of our churches-where no unbeliever in the world can brag that Christians are apathetic about eternal matters. Let us recapture the urgency of the New Testament church-an urgency built on the expectation of the coming day when every eye will see the unveiling of Jesus of Nazareth, the rightful sovereign of the cosmos. And no one will be apathetic then. www.russellmoore.com.

One does not have to do an exhaustive search to become aware of the spirit of strife that is rampant in our world. Our world is just as Jesus forewarned, “nation [has risen] against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matt. 24:7). Yet we need not be familiar with world events to be personally affected by this invasion of strife. The church itself has had so much conflict that many now identify the ability to create division as a courageous and honorable virtue. Even the home is not safe, as we see divorce rates in the Western World have skyrocketed over the past 60 years. And who is unfamiliar with the phenomenal breakdown of families and the recent turmoil in our world? Strife has had a way of touching us all. Beloved, we must recognize that there is a war raging against relationships. It is hitting us on all levels, and the sooner we deal with this fact, the quicker we can win our war against it. Origin of Strife There are many sources that contribute to strife: personal ambitions, jealousies and fear, to name a few. In fact, James tells us that, “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing” (James 3:16). To look with jealousy upon a role that belongs to someone else creates a world of “disorder and every evil thing.” David, though anointed as king twice by Samuel, never sought the place of King Saul; John the Baptist, though greatest of the prophets, never was jealous for the ministry of Jesus. James tells us that the strife engendered by jealousy and selfish ambition is “earthly, natural, and demonic” (Jam 3:15). To overcome strife, we must therefore recognize the two primary fronts upon which strife advances: our flesh nature and the demonic realm, and the demonic will manipulate the flesh in every way it can. To repel this attack, it is vital we seek humility. We are all vulnerable to deception. The ability of the enemy to deceive, frankly, is astonishing. Remember that Lucifer deceived one third of the angels, convincing them they could win a war against their Creator! These very angels had seen galaxies roll out from the mouth of God, yet they were seduced into deep deception. To assume we cannot be deceived is itself deception. So we must learn to be “quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger” (James 1:19). Indeed, to maintain a humble heart before the Lord is the best weapon we can have before our enemy. Job 41:15 reveals that the “scales” that protect Satan (called Leviathan in this chapter) are made of pride. Pride is what “protects” Lucifer and keeps him from repenting, and it is pride in us that protects us from repenting as well. What if Adam had just admitted he was wrong instead of blaming Eve? What if Eve simply said, “I’m sorry,” instead of blaming the devil? So much of the separation of relationships in our world comes because we simply are too proud to admit we were wrong. To be able to say, “I was wrong, please forgive me,” is to eliminate much strife. Additionally, many quarrels occur because we misunderstand each other or falsely judge based on insufficient information. Pride paralyzes our wrong perceptions. Instead of the peace of Christ guiding and protecting us, we react in the flesh to our environment. A quarrel is often nothing more than a misunderstanding manipulated by the devil until two reactions harden into walls around our hearts. “The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so abandon the quarrel before it breaks out” (Prov. 17:14). Strife is like the “letting out of water.” Once water pours onto the soil, it is impossible to retrieve or undo. Thus Solomon warns, “abandon the quarrel.” There may be another time when things are calm, when you can sit down in peace and discuss what happened, but nothing positive is accomplished in a heated argument. Yet, there is still another component to deception and strife. Isaiah 27:1 speaks of the serpent, again calling him “Leviathan.” But here he is identified as “the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent” (English Standard Version). Isaiah calls the devil the “twisting serpent.” I have personally been amazed how words spoken can somehow get twisted between my mouth and someone’s ears. Sometimes people are certain of something I’ve said and I am just as positive something totally different left my mouth. Has that ever happened to you? Satan is a “twisting serpent.” We should be aware that both the speaker and hearer may be accurately representing what was said and heard, but that a twisting spirit has stood between two (or more) people to divide them. If this is the case, stay calm and simply repeat what you just said. Pray with your companions and take authority over the enemies’ involvement. Whatever you do, do not react wrongly to one another. Leonard Ravenhill once said, “If your enemy has a social security number, you have the wrong enemy.” We often think that the fruit of the Spirit, “self-control,” refers to not eating two gallons of chocolate ice cream, but it is more than that. The Spirit can control our mind and emotions, our reactions and insecurities. The Holy Spirit’s fruit is called “self-control.” Indeed, the Bible tells us the “God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20). Therefore, let us pray against strife on all levels, especially as tensions mount. Remember also, Satan rages when he knows his time is short (Rev. 12). If we can keep ourselves from reacting wrongly to the increase of conflict, we will find greater breakthroughs awaiting us on all levels.

WHEN FEARS COME TRUE S-1729 ROGER ·SLIDE #: Turn in your Bibles to the Book of Job—right before Psalms. We continue our discussion this month on God’s teachings on how we handle fears. JULIE Psychologists have identified over 750 fears. Just for fun, I am going to say the name of a fear. You guess what the fear really is. ·SLIDE #: #1-Alecktrophobia- a. Fear of electricity b. Fear of voting for a democrat c. Fear of chickens* ·SLIDE #: #2-Francophobia a. Fear of hot dogs b. Fear of French people* c. Fear of Blunt people ·SLIDE #: #3-Scolionaphobia a. Fear of back injuries b. Fear of school* c. Fear of bald men (Everyone under 18 would say yes to b although c can be pretty creepy) ·SLIDE #: #4-Novercaphobia a. Fear of chocolate b. Fear of novacaine c. Fear of mother-in-laws* (How many of you guys deal with this one on a regular basis?) ROGER Julie, Do you have any phobias? JULIE I have Latte Phobia—afraid of not having enough coffee mate. Here is the bottle of shampoo I took to Mongolia. Here is the bottle of Coffeemate. ROGER SLIDE #: Thank your for Fear responses from Casas—about 400 responses of your fears. I’m afraid I will never fall in love That my (Christian) husband will someday leave me for another woman especially as I grow older, and I will end up living under a bridge I’m afraid the cancer will return and I won’t see it. Today our assignment in our fear series is: WHAT DO WE DO WHEN OUT OF CONTROL FEARS COME TRUE? SLIDE #: JOB 1:1: In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Unbeknownst to Job, behind the scenes, God and Satan are locked in a battle over whether or not Satan can get Job to curse God. In a quick and brutal sweep of calamities, allowed by God, but engineered by Satan, Job is left penniless, homeless, helpless, childless—and healthless. JULIE (read in rapid succession) ▓SLIDE #: JOB 1:13-15: One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” ▓SLIDE #: JOB 1:16: While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” ▓SLIDE #: JOB 1:17: While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” ▓SLIDE #: JOB 1:18-19: While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” ROGER Standing beside ten fresh graves on a windy hill, his wife heaving in sobs beside him, having lost everything Job says in faith, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” On Day One Job lost his family and his possessions. But on Day Two, it got personal. JULIE ▓SLIDE #: JOB 2:4-8 “Then Satan answered ‘Skin for skin? All that a man has will he give for his life. (which is a lie, by the way). But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.’ SLIDE: And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your hand, only spare his life.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. SLIDE: And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.” ROGER ·SLIDE #: Job 3:25: “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.” For Job, like for many of us, there was no date, there was no warning, there was no understanding why it happened. All he knew was that one day things were fine and the next day they were horrible. One day he was healthy and moments later he was sick unto death. His worst, out of control came true. JULIE SLIDE: His wife bitterly whispered, “Just curse God and die.” Mrs. Job is often criticized for encouraging Mr. Job to curse God and die. Let’s not be so hard on her. Like Job, she, too, had awakened into her worst nightmares. Mrs. Job had great wealth, too—and she also lost everything:…her children, her wealth and security, her reputation, and her husband’s health. The same thing has happened to some of you. Maybe you’re afraid your girlfriend will break up with you for a football player. Maybe you’re afraid a coyote will eat your Chihuahua. Perhaps your fears are deeper. That you’ll lose your job and not be able to support your family. That Dad will come home drunk again and beat up your mom. ROGER Let’s consider some of the nightmarish fears that actually came true for Job. ▓SLIDE #: Job tells us that he feared PHYSICAL PAIN. We do not know the disease he suffered, but we know it was so painful, he couldn’t even sleep at night. It was gory. It was tormenting. Scraping off dead skin with potsherds. ▓SLIDE #: Rochelle Terry is in our midst today. She would much rather be home with her family and her high school friends in Ulan Bator, Outer Mongolia. But, alas, she is not. Several months ago one of her legs began experiencing excruciating pain—so much so that she cannot walk, put any weight on it, or even touch it. The nerves are malfunctioning and sending continual agonizing pain signals to her brain. Now in PT—begins with touching it with a wash cloth—and she cries out in agony—trying to build up endurance so she can stand the pain and begin using her leg before it is completely atrophied and useless. RSD is incurable, but it can be managed, if proper PT is administered in time. We all fear to some level or other a failing body or long-time experience with pain. She never saw it coming. But, it did. JULIE ▓SLIDE #: Job tells us that he experienced tremendous EMOTIONAL PAIN. Sometimes the emotional pain is so great we can’t even begin to process it. ROGER Some of you have suffered emotional pain in unspeakable ways. I am sorry for the hurt you have experienced. ▓SLIDE #: Job admits that he dreaded the thought of long-term MENTAL ANGUISH. He couldn’t comprehend how he and his wife would survive. He was wondering what terrible calamity would come next. JULIE When I was five, I awoke to footsteps in the hall of our small home. I was frightened so I crawled back into bed and pretended to be asleep. The next morning, my mother’s wedding rings were gone. For many nights I would get up in the middle of the night and go check the front door. At thirteen, I rode my bike home from the swimming pool My parents both worked. As I unlocked the front door, two men were carrying our television out the back door. I dropped my keys and ran to my neighbors. Noo ne was home. So, every time I put the key in the lock, I held my breath. When I was in college, I was stalked, and my apartment was broken into. I was afraid to walk home at night. We moved 1,000 miles away from Texas to Tucson. Roger would do conferences out of town, and I would get prank calls when he would leave. I never really processed any of my fears. I just kept going on with life. But I started to have nightmares and feel on edge when I was alone. When I discovered that I had done nothing to heal those fears, I realized something had to change. Some of you have suffered mental anguish in unspeakable ways-so much greater than my own experience. I am sorry for the pain you have gone through. ROGER ▓SLIDE #: SPIRITUAL PAIN was probably Job’s deepest fear come true. He felt that the God he knew and loved and served and worshiped had forsaken him. His wife, his beloved partner, told him to curse God and die. He wondered over and over again why God would let this happen to him. I knew a pastor having sexual affair in his office while wife served as his volunteer secretary just outside his office door. He probably never saw it coming. But, one day he fell—and one day he was discovered. “How can God ever forgive me? What I have done is so despicable that there is no way God could ever forgive me. He surely has left me forever.” Some of you have suffered spiritual pain in unspeakable ways. Perhaps you feel that God deserted you in your most desperate moment. Perhaps you feel that He has led or left you in some difficulty that was all His doing—and you are struggling to find solutions on your own. I am sorry for what you have gone through. ▓SLIDE #: NOW, LET’S MOVE TO THE PRACTICAL SIDE. “WHAT SHALL WE DO WHEN THE THINGS WE FEARED THE MOST RUMBLE TO THE CORE OF OUR SOULS?” ROGER ▓SLIDE #: 1. WE CAN EXPERIENCE THE LOVING HEART OF GOD THE FATHER THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. God the Father understands and has experienced fears and the horror of those fears coming true. Even Jesus struggled with fear and dread. Matthew 26:38: Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane facing death. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 27:46: About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”-which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? His worst fear was finally realized? He was separated from His Father. He took the sin of the world. Look at the Father’s heart. When your worst fears come true, God not only understands, He feels for you. JULIE It reminds me of the little fawn being chased by hunting dogs. The hunter saw the terrified little deer running toward him. As the dogs got closer, he jumped into the hunter’s arms. Touched by the fawn’s trust=he dropped his rifle, and fought off the angry dogs. That is the image of God as my father that I have in my soul whenever my worst fears are being realized. God’s “perfect love” is able to cast out fear. SLIDE: 1 John 4:18-19; “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear… 19 We love because he first loved us.” Recently, as we’ve spent more time over seas, we have met a lot of missionaries. Many have opened up and become very vulnerable with us about their fears. Will their kids turn out all right? Will the secret police come after them? Will they be able to raise enough support? “The love of Christ constrains us…” They have experienced the heart of the Father in their own lives. They risk their lives so others may experience the Father’s love as well. After the Watts riots in Los Angeles, God opened some wonderful doors for us to minister to the homeless. I took sixty teenagers and some very gutsy sponsors to sing, paint shelters, and feed the homeless. Before we left, we had the opportunity to sing at a large African American church on Figueroa Blvd. Right on the same neighborhood where people had fought and killed their neighbors, those kids sang danced and praised God on a Friday night service. A group of church leaders came up to our team, weeping as our concert concluded and said,”You are the first white people to ever come to our church. We see the love of Christ in these children. A great healing took place that day. It would have never happened if we had been to afraid to go. We were called-the love of Christ constrained us. ROGER through the Bible, prayer and meditation and personal experiences with God. ▓SLIDE #: 2. WE CAN EXPERIENCE PEACE BECAUSE OUR SUFFERING IS FOR SOMETHING—AND SOMEONE. SLIDE: Job 23:10: 10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. Scientists are now able to measure the intensity of the pain we feel. They can measure that a migraine hurts more than a skinned knee. And they have determined that two of the most painful things human beings can experience are giving birth and passing a kidney stone. But the two are so different. The pain of passing a kidney stone is simply pointless suffering, the result of a natural malfunction in our bodies. But the pain of birth is creative pain. It is pain that has meaning, life giving pain that leads to something special. That is why the person who passes a kidney stone will usually say, “I’d give anything not to have to go through that again.” But the woman who has given birth to a child can transcend her pain and contemplate repeating the experience. “Honey, I think I am ready to have another one. No one wants to suffer for nothing (kidney stone). We handle it better if we are suffering for something (having a baby). We handle it best if we understand that even our fears come true have a purpose in the plan of God. SLIDE: Hebrews 12:10-11: Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. ▓SLIDE #: 3. WE CAN EXPERIENCE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE GOD PROMISES TO POUR IN THE POWER WHEN WE NEED IT. SLIDE: Philippians 4:11-12: I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. SLIDE: Philippians 4:13: I can do everything through him who gives me strength. JULIE ▓SLIDE #: I do want to share—with Rochelle’s permission—an email she wrote to her dad in Mongolia last week. I hope it blesses you as much as it does teme. I really didn’t know that God could turn this no walking and no friends thing into something so big in my life. I sit down and read my Bible and pray and I’m really seeking Christ. I’m learning things and I’m forming my beliefs and its alive in me. I know I don’t know very much, and things I think are right might be twisted, but I know I’m not alone. I think its kinda like this therapy thing. I have to learn how to do all this stuff but I can’t do it on my own yet…. Its like God took my weakness and He said, “Hey, watch this! Want to see what I can do with this?” It’s like He came and said “Rochele, I can do something great here—I just want to know if you want to come for the ride.” I could have stayed bitter, but I’ve done that before. I needed to make this real this time. Daddy, I got this joy. It’s like I can feel Him working in me—its amazing. I think I know what RSD really stands for now: Resting Soundly in Dad. He is my Heavenly Father, and He gave me rest in Him. ROGER Notice how she is handling a worst fear. What did she just say. ▓SLIDE #: 1. She is experiencing the loving heart of God the Father through Jesus Christ. ▓SLIDE #: 2. She is experiencing peace because our suffering is for something. ▓SLIDE #: 3. She is experiencing contentment because God promises to pour in the power.