Speaker 1: Praise God.
Speaker 1: Well, we're in our Siri stepping stones, and I want to encourage you to get out your notebook and or note page or whatever you use your, your phone.
Speaker 1: Uh, I used to say that, um, that, you know, I'm just gonna assume you're not playing angry birds.
Speaker 1: And I was told nobody plays angry birds anymore.
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess all the birds are happy now.
Speaker 1: I like that positive.
Speaker 1: We're moving in the right direction.
Speaker 1: So we're in this series, stepping stones.
Speaker 1: And we're talking about stepping stones because stepping stones intentionally lead to an end result when we we've said it from the beginning.
Speaker 1: When we play stepping stones in our yards, we don't walk outside, throw a big stone up in the air and wherever it happens to land, that's where it sits.
Speaker 1: No, we're very intentional.
Speaker 1: We say, here's where I'm going to be.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be on the patio.
Speaker 1: And I want to go specifically to that place over there called the garden or that specific place over there called the deck or that specific place over there called whatever it may be, wherever your destination may be.
Speaker 1: And we take very specific steps.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that where we place our feet, that our path is clear.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that wherever we place our feet, it's stable and secure.
Speaker 1: And that at the end of the day, when, when we get to that last step, we got to someplace on purpose, wherever you're at in your life right now in every area of your life, whether it's in your relational life, your financial life, your career, life, wherever, whatever part of your life it may be in.
Speaker 1: You've taken some, some particular steps.
Speaker 1: You've taken steps where your feet, your foot rested, where your heart rested, where your mind dwelt for awhile and the, in those places, they became stepping stones for you.
Speaker 1: And they set up what was available to you in your next step.
Speaker 1: Well, God's set up some stepping stones for, for his people, for Israel and therefore to us.
Speaker 1: And he said, if you'll take these stepping stones and utilize them the way that I've designed them, then you're going to start in a place where you were slaves to something.
Speaker 1: In the Israelites case, they were slaves to Egypt and our case, we are slaves to sin, and they're going to end up in a particular place.
Speaker 1: You will end up as a, as a free people with your own land, with a great relationship with God, with, with a great relationship with one another.
Speaker 1: And with those around you.
Speaker 1: And in our case, we are going to end up with heaven as our home.
Speaker 1: We're going to have a great relationship with our father and with those around us.
Speaker 1: And he said, here's some stepping stones that will, that will get you intentionally from here to there.
Speaker 1: So our job is to use them to use those stepping stones and week number one, our big idea was the first step to eternal successes worshiping only God stepping stone.
Speaker 1: Number one was, I am the only God worship only me.
Speaker 1: He said, let me just define for you the fact that I'm it, there is no other, and I'm the only one that you can worship stepping.
Speaker 1: So number two was don't create images or idols to represent God's true.
Speaker 1: God's himself or false gods.
Speaker 1: He said, I don't, I don't want you to create parameters in which you think I'm going to live.
Speaker 1: I'm going to define myself week.
Speaker 1: Number two, we said the second step is to guard your relationship with God.
Speaker 1: And so stepping stone, number three was treat my name and reputation with respect.
Speaker 1: Don't take my name in vain.
Speaker 1: In fact, somebody told me this week that they were walking out the door of the church just after the sermon.
Speaker 1: And, and uh, somebody said something to them about, I don't know what, but they, uh, they looked at them and said, oh my God.
Speaker 1: And when I can't say that, good, good.
Speaker 1: I'm glad.
Speaker 1: Just take it seriously.
Speaker 1: Take take.
Speaker 1: When you refer to God and make sure you're serious in that reference, stepping stone, number four, pursue intentional time with me pursue intentional time with me.
Speaker 1: Don't let it be a last minute thing.
Speaker 1: Don't let it be something that you're casual about.
Speaker 1: No pursue intentional time with me.
Speaker 1: And today we're going to talk about the fifth, sixth, and seventh commandments.
Speaker 1: We're going to hit all three.
Speaker 1: And so I got to preach fast.
Speaker 1: You've got to write fast and we got to all listen faster.
Speaker 1: Praise God, Exodus chapter 20 says it this way, verses 12 through 14 honor, your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land, which your God, which your Lord, God is giving you.
Speaker 1: Then verse 13, you shall not murder 14.
Speaker 1: You shall not commit adultery.
Speaker 1: So here are some commandments from God.
Speaker 1: They're very specific.
Speaker 1: They're not vague.
Speaker 1: They're not hard to understand the first one, obey your mother and father is the only commandment that he gives that has a specific promise attached to it.
Speaker 1: The rest of them are just don't do this or do this.
Speaker 1: But notice he's shifting focus until this moment.
Speaker 1: And the first four stepping stones, it's all been about the relationship between God and man.
Speaker 1: But now he's talking about relationship with between humanity and humanity.
Speaker 1: And he said, ah, this this matters.
Speaker 1: And some people may say, well, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: I am just really all about God and God alone.
Speaker 1: I'm not really worried about the relationship that I have with other people.
Speaker 1: I mean, they, that just has to be what it is.
Speaker 1: I'm really, I'm just all about God ever heard about the ever heard the phrase all so heavenly minded, there are no earthly.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 1: Well, what it's saying is that they're so focused on God that can't do anything good on the earth.
Speaker 1: I'm so focused on God.
Speaker 1: And here's the, here's the issue with that?
Speaker 1: It sounds good.
Speaker 1: It sounds very spiritual.
Speaker 1: It sounds very high minded, but the reality is that God placed us here on this earth to reach other people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And if your relationship with other people don't matter, then how can you reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Speaker 1: If how you treat other people around you, isn't important, then why would you be sent?
Speaker 1: Why would I be sent to reach them with the gospel of Christ?
Speaker 1: Focusing on God alone is beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's high-minded, but it doesn't result in a great nation.
Speaker 1: It doesn't result in a great state.
Speaker 1: It doesn't result in a great city.
Speaker 1: It doesn't result in a great neighborhood, great street or a great home.
Speaker 1: It does not result in a great family.
Speaker 1: If you don't pay attention to the people that are around you, none of those things will be positive in your life.
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, your relationship with other people matter to God, because you're called to reach others with the gospel.
Speaker 1: You can't positively impact those.
Speaker 1: You're fighting against you.
Speaker 1: Can't positively impact those.
Speaker 1: You're fighting against.
Speaker 1: So whenever if your relationship with other people is not positive, then you can't influence them for Christ.
Speaker 1: They may know exactly what you think about everything that you think, and you might feel pretty good about that.
Speaker 1: But after you share all that, you think, can you share the gospel with them after you share everything that's on your heart and your mind, are you able to win them to Christ after you've declared your faults on every issue that's going on our world today.
Speaker 1: And there are many issues that we all feel deeply about.
Speaker 1: Are you able then to turn around and tell them about the love of Jesus and would they respond if you did, based upon your relationship with them.
Speaker 1: So God's calling us to pay attention to our relationships with people around us.
Speaker 1: It's so important that we don't, that we understand rather that we don't fight against flesh and blood in whatever the situation may be.
Speaker 1: It's not the flesh and blood people in front of us that we're fighting against.
Speaker 1: It's the principalities and empowers.
Speaker 1: So I can come against the principalities and powers every day, all day with absolute confidence.
Speaker 1: But with the people around us, let's be slow to anger, slow to speak, slow to the scripture consistently tells us to be slow, careful, methodical in our faults and in our approaches to things because our relationships with others matter.
Speaker 1: So he says properly earthly relationship begins with how you treat those in authority and moves outward.
Speaker 1: From there.
Speaker 1: Here's our big idea today, engage with God's design for life.
Speaker 1: As he designed, defines them, engage with God's designs for life.
Speaker 1: As he defines them.
Speaker 1: Now in the first four commandments, he's defining our relationship with him.
Speaker 1: He's saying, this is who I am.
Speaker 1: I'll define myself.
Speaker 1: He saying, treat my name with respect.
Speaker 1: He's saying pursue intentional time with me.
Speaker 1: It's all about how he defines himself and how we should relate to him.
Speaker 1: But now he say, I want to define how you treat others.
Speaker 1: They are mine.
Speaker 1: You are mine.
Speaker 1: I'm going to define how these relationship should work because he designed it.
Speaker 1: It's sacred to him.
Speaker 1: It's holy to him.
Speaker 1: It's set apart to him.
Speaker 1: It means, and it matters something to him and what God does designs.
Speaker 1: He defines, he says, I've designed it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to define how it works.
Speaker 1: If you design it, you get to define it.
Speaker 1: But because God designed it, he said, I get to define how this works.
Speaker 1: I'll define myself and I'll define what I create.
Speaker 1: And so I have three thoughts for you today.
Speaker 1: And thought, number one is this honor, God given authority, honor God given authority.
Speaker 1: He starts with honor your mother, your father, and your mother.
Speaker 1: This is the first level of God given authority in your life from the day you're born, that your mother and your father, your father, and your mother are your primary, immediate authority figures in your world.
Speaker 1: And you might say, well, that is just so simple.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just easy to understand.
Speaker 1: And I would say that everything is simple and easy to understand until it's not.
Speaker 1: We went hiking one day and everything was really easy until it wasn't every this, everything just seemed to be going along smooth.
Speaker 1: And then it wasn't.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's easy to honor your mother and your father, and then something shifts.
Speaker 1: Something changes.
Speaker 1: There's a rumor out there that every day we're getting a little bit older, just a rumor.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I believe it, but it's there.
Speaker 1: And so as people get older things change, we get into different seasons of life, different things matter to us at different parts of life and, and seasons.
Speaker 1: And so, and so here we are, things are shifting.
Speaker 1: And so maybe, maybe you have a father and a mother that you're able to honor all through life.
Speaker 1: And then, and it's just seems simple and easy and a no brainer.
Speaker 1: Then suddenly things shift.
Speaker 1: And now it's hard to honor them.
Speaker 1: It's difficult.
Speaker 1: But the fact that as he always calls us to honor our father and our mother in simple terms, this means to make things heavy with them.
Speaker 1: It means that what they say, when they speak, what they do should matter to us.
Speaker 1: It has a level of weight to it and importance to it.
Speaker 1: It's God given God given authority because you and I don't get to choose who were born to God.
Speaker 1: Didn't give me a handbook and or a flip book and say, all right, flip through these people and decide which couple you want to be born to.
Speaker 1: He didn't give me the flip book about who I wanted to be born to me either.
Speaker 1: I would have chosen exactly what I have no doubt, but, but I didn't get a choice.
Speaker 1: And neither did you.
Speaker 1: God said this who you're born to, this is who I'm going to give to you to be born to your, into your life.
Speaker 1: Now you might say, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: My mom and dad, they had me.
Speaker 1: And then they, they couldn't keep me, or they didn't want me or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: So I was given up by my parents and now I have adopted parents.
Speaker 1: Then could I say that you were maybe even doubly blessed in this life where you had somebody who bore you out of natural consequences, natural course that God said, here you are.
Speaker 1: And then he gave your life.
Speaker 1: He gave you other people in your life that said, I choose you.
Speaker 1: I choose to raise you and care for you.
Speaker 1: And to bless you and to cover you and give you all that you need through life.
Speaker 1: And to help you become the adult that God's called you to be.
Speaker 1: If you're an adopted person today, man, or woman, I would just say, you may be doubly blessed of all of us.
Speaker 1: I praise God for what he does and how he does it.
Speaker 1: But Ephesians six, if you're saying, well, wait a minute, that's a great old Testament concept.
Speaker 1: Let's bring it into new Testament.
Speaker 1: Paul writes children obey your parents because you belong to the Lord for this is the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: He says children, obey your parents, heed them, conform to them, conform to their words.
Speaker 1: When they say something, make your life, look like that.
Speaker 1: If they say, brush your teeth, make your teeth look like they are brushed by brushing them.
Speaker 1: I know how devious children's minds think the ha I will do something other than brush my teeth, but they'll look like their brush.
Speaker 1: Clean your room.
Speaker 1: It means conform, go make your room clean.
Speaker 1: They say, get up, get up, go to bed, go to bed, conform children.
Speaker 1: That's what he's saying.
Speaker 1: Children obey, who fits the definition of a child.
Speaker 1: I know that we use that term kind of loosely today.
Speaker 1: And we say, I say to my kids, you are my children.
Speaker 1: So I want you to get, I want you to understand that I don't care how old you are or where you are.
Speaker 1: If I'm with you and I'm going to leave you or I'm greeting you, I'm going to give you a hug and I'm going to give you a kiss and you're going to make it more awkward for yourself.
Speaker 1: If you try to fight that or you can just accept it.
Speaker 1: And they've been really good about it.
Speaker 1: And when they're 63, they're still going to be my children, but they are not by definition children.
Speaker 1: They are no longer kids or children by age.
Speaker 1: And so who fits the defin definition of a child and should obey.
Speaker 1: Here you go.
Speaker 1: If you depend on parents for your finances, for your phone, yes.
Speaker 1: That's a thing for your house, for your insurance, for your clothes.
Speaker 1: If you are dependent on your parents, then you remain in some ways a child.
Speaker 1: And there are some really good reasons for doing that.
Speaker 1: Do not misunderstand me.
Speaker 1: You might be 35 and still qualify in some of those areas.
Speaker 1: And you say, well, by age, I'm not a child, but knowing the areas that you remain dependent, you remain dependent and you remain a child in those areas and thereby obey in those areas.
Speaker 1: If you're using your parents' insurance and they are charging you, they say you pay your own deductibles.
Speaker 1: Well, then if you throw a fit about that, you need to obey your parent and pay your own deductibles because you're a dependent in that area.
Speaker 1: You don't, that's good preaching right there.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you, I don't even have to turn around and act like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's real.
Speaker 1: It's just true.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: Paul says, it's the right thing to do obey because God says, so that's pretty heavy, but that's what Paul says, new Testament.
Speaker 1: So look, let's, let's continue on with what Paul's writing.
Speaker 1: He says, honor, your father and mother.
Speaker 1: This is the first commandment with a promise.
Speaker 1: If your honor, if you honor your father and mother things will go well for you and you will have long life on the earth.
Speaker 1: And so he's telling us very clearly when you honor God given authority things go well and you end up with a long life on earth.
Speaker 1: There's a, there's prosperity within the context of life.
Speaker 1: If you learn to honor.
Speaker 1: And that makes sense.
Speaker 1: It makes sense because parents deserve honor from their children.
Speaker 1: Uh, you think about the honor, the reverence, the obedience that parents receive from kids.
Speaker 1: They, they, they deserve it because they are your parents.
Speaker 1: The position that they hold in your life means that they get that.
Speaker 1: They, they get to expect that from us as their, as their children, as their kids in a, in a sense that the authors of your being now, I know God is always the author of all things.
Speaker 1: But if you take my kids DNA sequencing, you can figure out that I'm their daddy.
Speaker 1: If you have mine and have theirs, you can figure out that Christy is their mother.
Speaker 1: If you have theirs and hers, you're going to find out these things.
Speaker 1: Because, uh, when she and I came together, there was something unique and beautiful that was created by in those two boys.
Speaker 1: And now we have a right to their honor.
Speaker 1: They should honor us.
Speaker 1: W parents, shelter, nourish children.
Speaker 1: They protect them, educate them.
Speaker 1: They provide the foundation of all that.
Speaker 1: They know their moral training.
Speaker 1: The first elements of all of their knowledge comes from their parents.
Speaker 1: And frankly, it's a wise thing to obey your parents to honor your parents at whatever age.
Speaker 1: Because when you think about it, parents gain absolutely nothing from their children's unhappiness, but I've heard many young people tell me, my parents just don't want me to be happy.
Speaker 1: You're so right.
Speaker 1: They brought you into this world.
Speaker 1: They fed you nourished.
Speaker 1: You cared for you clothed.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 1: They've put you in homes.
Speaker 1: They've they?
Speaker 1: Everything that you need it and have needed to this point has been provided without your ability to demand it or even requested at some points in your life.
Speaker 1: They did all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: And then yesterday, they decided now it's our time to make them miserable.
Speaker 1: We've done all that to get to this point.
Speaker 1: No, that's, that's a foolish way of thinking.
Speaker 1: That's not a wise way of thinking a wise way of thinking.
Speaker 1: You say, I may not like what my parents have said.
Speaker 1: I may not like what they're asking me to do.
Speaker 1: I may not like their opinion on the subject matter, but because I know they have my best interest at heart, I will obey it.
Speaker 1: I will do it.
Speaker 1: It's wise.
Speaker 1: It's also practical because as young people, we must learn to honor and obey somebody.
Speaker 1: Sometime parents, let me give you just a heads up in this.
Speaker 1: If you won't teach your child to obey and to submit their will to someone in authority, somebody is going to teach them that, or they're going to have a miserable life.
Speaker 1: They will learn it from someone.
Speaker 1: It may not be you, but it will be somebody young people.
Speaker 1: You will learn it from somebody.
Speaker 1: If you do not learn to obey your parents, you're going to learn to obey somebody when you get a job, do you think, do you think your employer is going to put up with you throwing a fit and refusing to do the work they've ascribed to you?
Speaker 1: They're going to fire you.
Speaker 1: Well, that will be different because well, I'm getting paid to do it.
Speaker 1: So that's all different for a minute.
Speaker 1: And about three days in, you're going to come home and say, you know, what's wrong with that company?
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what's wrong with that company.
Speaker 1: They ought to be doing it this way, and they're doing it that way and what they really should do it.
Speaker 1: And about three days in most young people have every company figured out what's right with them.
Speaker 1: What's wrong with them and what needs to be fixed with them?
Speaker 2: [inaudible]
Speaker 1: Young people.
Speaker 1: We don't know what we don't know.
Speaker 1: And we, and we have to learn how to submit our will.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Teachers will expel you until you learn it.
Speaker 1: Drill instructors will push it into you.
Speaker 1: And maybe more, if you don't learn it, bosses will fire you until you learn it.
Speaker 1: And until you learn how to submit your will to someone else's, you will live a miserable life.
Speaker 1: You won't even be able to have a great relationship with anybody else you romantically or otherwise, because you will not have learned to submit your will to another persons will or to God's will.
Speaker 1: And so we miss this step when we disrespect people in public or private, when we're rude and dismissive of them, we, we w we missed this step.
Speaker 1: And, and I I'm intentionally saying in public or private, because this is something God is looking at, not something he's telling us to look at.
Speaker 1: And judge, he's saying, I'm looking at this, obey your parents, respect your parents, honor your father and your mother.
Speaker 1: So if you do it in private, God sees it.
Speaker 1: If you do it in public, God sees it.
Speaker 1: We miss it.
Speaker 1: When we disrespect were rude or were dismissive, we hit it.
Speaker 1: We hit the step.
Speaker 1: When we listen, when they speak, when we treat them with respect and with deference, when we're willing to explain ourselves, when we're willing to make ourselves accountable.
Speaker 1: Now not everybody has a father or a mother.
Speaker 1: That's easy to honor.
Speaker 1: Some people are raised with families that you're like, I mean, it's like mom and dad are like the, I mean, they're the ultimate mothers and fathers.
Speaker 1: And, and, and just everybody around could say it would be so easy to honor if my parents were like those parents, but the truth is we don't get to choose that.
Speaker 1: In fact, I have a friend of mine whose dad kind of removed himself from his life years ago when he was young.
Speaker 1: Not many years later, his dad is coming back into his life.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing that's beautiful about it.
Speaker 1: When his dad wasn't a part of his life, my friend would say, I wish my dad was part of my life, but he didn't speak badly about his father.
Speaker 1: And now that his father is trying to come back into his life, he doesn't speak badly about his father.
Speaker 1: Are there hurts?
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: There hurts.
Speaker 1: Are there things he's having to work through and deal with emotionally to try to reconnect?
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: There are, but he's not condemning his father.
Speaker 1: He's trying to open up for opportunity for the relationship to be, uh, strengthened and tightened and see what God can do in this relationship.
Speaker 1: He's hitting the step.
Speaker 1: But as we grow up, it also does not always mean that we obey every word or take the advice that they've given.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to tell you the, the, the reason I'm saying that is because it says children obey your parents.
Speaker 1: But once you're no longer a dependent on your parents honor, your parents remains an absolute step that we are to take.
Speaker 1: But obeying our parents is no longer part when you're not.
Speaker 1: When you're not a dependent on your parents.
Speaker 1: Now you get to choose your own path.
Speaker 1: You can outgrow obedience.
Speaker 1: You cannot outgrow honor.
Speaker 1: You can't outgrow honor.
Speaker 1: So while you're a dependent obey, and when independent honor, but choose your own path, listen to what they say.
Speaker 1: My mom will call me sometimes and say, Hey son, I tried to call you that today.
Speaker 1: Why didn't you pick up the phone?
Speaker 1: I could tell her mama, I'm a busy man.
Speaker 1: I'm a full grown busy man.
Speaker 1: Why don't you just mind your I'm not even going to say it.
Speaker 1: Cause you go watch this and I'm going to be in trouble.
Speaker 1: Now I'll honor my mother and say, here's what was going on, mom.
Speaker 1: And sometimes I can't remember exactly what was going on.
Speaker 1: So I don't remember, but, but be, but honor, your mother and father, no matter how old you get.
Speaker 1: And that brings us the thought.
Speaker 1: Number two, respect God designed states of existence, respect God designed states of existence.
Speaker 1: Life is God designed existence.
Speaker 1: God brought us into this life.
Speaker 1: He's designed the life and, and we are living out his design murder, artificially cuts.
Speaker 1: God's designed life in short.
Speaker 1: It says, I'm not going to let this continue.
Speaker 1: I stop it.
Speaker 1: I choose to stop it now murder in the sense of how it's written here goes further than killing by violence or strategic strikes.
Speaker 1: So it's not just sitting in an alleyway, waiting for somebody to come by, but it's saying any killing that goes on that that's taking a human life based on carelessness, based on unprovoked violence, based on hatred, based on anger or revenge.
Speaker 1: All of those things, according to the step that God gives us here is off limits.
Speaker 1: We, we, we don't do those things.
Speaker 1: We don't take a human life out of revenge, right?
Speaker 1: Of anger.
Speaker 1: It's sacred to God.
Speaker 1: He decides when it comes into the world, he'll decide when it comes out of the world, but it's not because this life is the highest state of human existence.
Speaker 1: We know that if we're, if we're children of God, we're going to leave this life and move into eternal life with God.
Speaker 1: That is the hope.
Speaker 1: But it is the existence that we have here.
Speaker 1: It is the existence in which we, we engage with our father and we live out his plan for this existence at, before we move into our eternal life with him in this life, God saves in the next life, God rewards.
Speaker 1: And so he chooses when that natural life begins and ends.
Speaker 1: And he determines, we like to say that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 1: That's what the Bible says, but he also determines how many steps we take on this earth.
Speaker 1: And we don't get to artificially shorten that in the life of another or in my own life.
Speaker 1: Somebody has asked me in many times, actually I've been asked if suicide is automatically hell and I do not believe that it is.
Speaker 1: There's one passage in the scripture that talks about an unpardonable sin, a sin from which we cannot be pardoned.
Speaker 1: And that is blasphemy against the holy spirit.
Speaker 1: It does not talk about suicide.
Speaker 1: So it seems easy enough in a sense to say, well, you know what, good thing.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I'm here today.
Speaker 1: Because you know, when I looked at my to-do list that Betty talked about earlier, murder was not on the list.
Speaker 1: I don't anticipate murdering anybody this afternoon.
Speaker 1: So I feel like I'm really hitting this step.
Speaker 1: Pastor Jesus took it to another level.
Speaker 1: Matthew 5 21.
Speaker 1: He says, you have heard it, that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder and whatever.
Speaker 1: And whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.
Speaker 1: He's talking about the commandments that we're talking about today.
Speaker 1: He said, but I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.
Speaker 1: Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause.
Speaker 1: And whoever says to his brother, Rocco, that's an insult shall be in danger of the council.
Speaker 1: But whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hell fire.
Speaker 1: So Jesus is saying to be angry with a brother without a cause.
Speaker 1: Now I know none of us in this place or online have ever been angry with somebody without being completely and totally within the right to be angry.
Speaker 1: He said, with total sarcasm, no he's saying, Hey, if you're angry without a cause you're calling names.
Speaker 1: You're in being insulting.
Speaker 1: It leads to judgment.
Speaker 1: And that judgment may be a court ordered judgment.
Speaker 1: The counsel in may be a spiritually ordered judgment where the world doesn't say it's wrong, but God does.
Speaker 1: Or it could even lead the, a judgment of hell fire, which is the ultimate judgment.
Speaker 1: So he's telling us, be careful how we treat the other people.
Speaker 1: We get angry with others and we insult them.
Speaker 1: We kill reputations through slander or gossip.
Speaker 1: We killed careers through deceit and lies.
Speaker 1: We kill opportunities through trickery and treachery.
Speaker 1: When somebody does something we don't like, we'll say all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've had a situation where somebody has been your friend and then some, at some point they weren't your friend anymore.
Speaker 1: They were your coworker.
Speaker 1: But at some point they weren't your coworker anymore.
Speaker 1: They're your employee, but suddenly they weren't your employee anymore.
Speaker 1: They were your employer, but suddenly they weren't your employer anymore.
Speaker 1: And all of the beautiful things that you had shared with one another through the course of your relationship were suddenly spewed out into the world and an completely inaccurate way because they're mad and they're working out their anger at your expense.
Speaker 1: No one in this service has ever experienced that, but I've heard it's happened to others.
Speaker 1: And it's a hurtful thing.
Speaker 1: Jesus raises the bar, good murder.
Speaker 1: Isn't on our to-do list for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1: But he says, I'm raising the bar.
Speaker 1: It's far higher than just, just murder, killing somebody in cold blood.
Speaker 1: But the gospel of Jesus Christ gives us the strength and the ability to hit the bar.
Speaker 1: We champion life at five lakes, church we're, we're great partners with the pregnancy center, helping men and women walk through pregnancies.
Speaker 1: That may be a surprise to them.
Speaker 1: It may be a difficult situation and yet helping them preserve life in the womb.
Speaker 1: And I praise God for that.
Speaker 1: But we believe in supporting life after the womb as well.
Speaker 1: Can we say amen?
Speaker 1: Just this week, we have people in our building.
Speaker 1: There's a, there is a program called the program program, Inc, that we support financially and with space about 20, 25 young men were in this building this week, all who have lost their fathers in one way or another.
Speaker 1: And these are men who have stepped up and said, I'm willing to serve and spend some time helping these young men become young men.
Speaker 1: So this week they talked about finances and then they played Dodge ball, a huge range of ages.
Speaker 1: We have people in this congregation that are consistently serving in our prisons.
Speaker 1: We believe in life and we pray for life.
Speaker 1: We treat it with respect.
Speaker 1: What about war?
Speaker 1: Self-defense scripture's clear, killing and self-defense or in defense of those.
Speaker 1: You love.
Speaker 1: If you're being attacked is not murder.
Speaker 1: If it's in due process of courts, it's not murder.
Speaker 1: I could go into that.
Speaker 1: And if you're, if you're saying I have concerns about that, I'd be happy to talk it through with you.
Speaker 1: But I believe scripture is clear on that, but he says human life is sacred.
Speaker 1: It belongs to God in the womb, out of the womb don't murder.
Speaker 1: And that brings the thought number three, guard, God designed relationships, God designed relationships.
Speaker 1: Marriage is a God designed relationship.
Speaker 1: So when the Bible says, don't commit adultery, it's saying don't mess with the God designed relationship.
Speaker 1: Now what's adultery.
Speaker 1: Not a word that we use a lot today.
Speaker 1: Adultery is when a married person has a sexual relationship with someone that is not his or her spouse.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter which party you are in the situation.
Speaker 1: A sexual relationship with somebody who is married is adultery.
Speaker 1: And here's the interesting thing that definition has not trained changed from the time it was pinned by God and delivered through to today.
Speaker 1: That definition remains the same.
Speaker 1: And it's an invasion of a household is the destruction of the bond, uniting a family.
Speaker 1: And it's the dissolution of the contract forming the main basis of social order.
Speaker 1: So when adultery is engaged in it's tearing things apart, modern culture makes the issue different.
Speaker 1: It tries to change the subject and says, no, that's not the issue at all.
Speaker 1: It's really about age.
Speaker 1: And it's really about consent.
Speaker 1: If you have two consenting adults, then it can't be wrong.
Speaker 1: But God says, no, I'm actually not worried about the age.
Speaker 1: And I'm not worried about the consent.
Speaker 1: Although he would be worried about the age, but the age is immaterial.
Speaker 1: When you deal with the contract side of it, he said, I'm, I'm concerned with the contract.
Speaker 1: The contract is one that I've put into place.
Speaker 1: And he says, guard this relationship.
Speaker 1: Somebody might say, well, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: It's not my marriage.
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 1: I mean, they're the one that's married.
Speaker 1: I'm not married.
Speaker 1: So it's not a problem for me.
Speaker 1: But God says, no, no.
Speaker 1: If there's marriage involved, it's a problem.
Speaker 1: In fact, he, he, we even have the example of Joseph and Joseph in scripture, where Potiphar's wife comes to him and says, Hey, what about?
Speaker 1: And Joseph is like, no, I will not sin against God or against your husband.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to send against any party in this situation.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do it because it's God's design.
Speaker 1: And we miss this step.
Speaker 1: When we engage in inappropriate conversations, which ultimately can lead to inappropriate relationships, which result in adultery and somebody telling me one time, I'm not worried about it because I'm just flirting.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing anything.
Speaker 1: Flirtation goes somewhere.
Speaker 1: Y'all even if it doesn't go somewhere, physically, it's going somewhere spiritually.
Speaker 1: It's going somewhere emotionally.
Speaker 1: It's going somewhere mentally.
Speaker 1: Now, listen, very clearly.
Speaker 1: If you've committed adultery and you're hearing my words and you're feeling condemned, I'm not here to condemn you.
Speaker 1: We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: I'm laying out a stepping stone that says, this is what God says is right.
Speaker 1: And this is what God says is wrong.
Speaker 1: God can and will forgive all sin.
Speaker 1: Can we say Amanda that, but it's easier to handle the issue before it gets physical.
Speaker 1: Then after it gets physical at a situation years ago in our, in my life where I was talking to a lady, we were practicing music at a particular moment.
Speaker 1: And, and uh, she caught my eye, caught her eye.
Speaker 1: Nothing was said nothing was done, but something triggered in my brain and I shut the practice stuff down early.
Speaker 1: I went home and I told my wife, baby, I a thought about that lady over there.
Speaker 1: And I don't need that nonsense in my head.
Speaker 1: So I'm telling you fastest way to get that nonsense out of your head is go tell your spouse about it.
Speaker 1: Well, I couldn't possibly be better if you did open it up, don't let it be a secret and let God clean it out.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while she look at me, she said, how you doing with that?
Speaker 1: I'd say, I'm doing great with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we, we, our culture, and even in the church, we say, women, be careful, cover yourself up, make sure you're covered.
Speaker 1: Don't cause thoughts and men and there's truth to that.
Speaker 1: But that's not the whole story.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what Jesus does because some guys say, well, I'm just looking.
Speaker 1: You've heard the commandment that says this is red letters.
Speaker 1: By the way, you must not commit adultery.
Speaker 1: But I say anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Speaker 1: So if your eye, even your good eye.
Speaker 1: So he's like, if you got one bad eye and you can only see out of one good eye, even if it's the one good eye that's causing problems in your life, pluck it out, God gouge it out and throw it away.
Speaker 1: It's better for you to lose one part of your body.
Speaker 1: And then for your whole body be thrown into hell.
Speaker 1: This is not vague evil.
Speaker 1: So sometimes today people say there's nothing wrong with the pornography.
Speaker 1: Porn's okay.
Speaker 1: Jesus just said, if you look upon a woman and let's broaden that out just a minute.
Speaker 1: The number one growing area of the demographic that's using porno growing demographic, using pornography is in women right now, according to the studies that are recent.
Speaker 1: And so we cannot, you cannot, I cannot go look at pornography without the intent to lust in my heart.
Speaker 1: You can't, I can't.
Speaker 1: That's why you go to look at pornography.
Speaker 1: It's not the artistic value or the articles, whatever anybody's telling you.
Speaker 1: Am I being too crude here?
Speaker 1: I hope I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm hope I'm being very direct.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, looking with the intent to lust is an issue.
Speaker 1: Do whatever you need to do to guard the relationship.
Speaker 1: We hit the step when we run from anything that even hints at disrespecting the relationship that God designed, Joseph ran.
Speaker 1: In fact, lustful sin is the only area which God says runaway from it.
Speaker 1: He doesn't say negotiate it.
Speaker 1: He doesn't say resistant.
Speaker 1: He says, runaway, get out of there, manage your thought life, manage your word, life, manage your I life.
Speaker 1: And in closing today, humanity has been working to change.
Speaker 1: God's design for generations.
Speaker 1: Humanity keeps saying, well, I'll tell you what, we're just going to change what this means.
Speaker 1: We're going to change what that means.
Speaker 1: We're going to say that none of this really matters.
Speaker 1: Well, if none of it really mattered.
Speaker 1: Let's just say, if the covenant of marriage didn't really matter, why would people who could not legally be married, fight for the right to be married if it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: And then at the end of the day, what we've discovered is without it being in alignment with God's laws, with his stepping stones, that the divorce rates among any kind of married, couple isn't much different than a heterosexual married couple, because unless we are operating according to God's will God's law God's steps.
Speaker 1: Then we find ourselves in difficulty over and over again.
Speaker 1: Humanity does not have the ability to fix itself.
Speaker 1: And for all of our advancements in life and in this world, our families are not tighter than they've ever been.
Speaker 1: They're just not for all of the advancements that we've made the destruction of human life.
Speaker 1: Isn't an antiquated issue.
Speaker 1: We're still talking about it and we're still dealing with it.
Speaker 1: We haven't fixed it in the womb, out of the womb, we haven't fixed it.
Speaker 1: Marriages and the relationship within households is not stronger than it's ever been.
Speaker 1: And God says, use the stepping stones.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you the further from God's plan.
Speaker 1: We go, the less successful we become as a society, the more highly we think of ourselves.
Speaker 1: And then the reality is the less, the more, well, the more destructive we become, the word that's in my head is discombobulated, but I don't know that that's a phrase.
Speaker 1: We use a word we use in Northwest Delilah.
Speaker 1: We use it.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: The more we think of ourself, the more jacked up we get.
Speaker 1: I think everybody can understand that.
Speaker 1: God says you'll do better.
Speaker 1: You'll be stronger.
Speaker 1: You'll become more successful.
Speaker 1: If you'll engage my designs for life, like I designed them and how I define them.
Speaker 1: So check your life today.
Speaker 1: If you're saying, wow, I really not honored my mom and dad.
Speaker 1: I really not obeyed them, but maybe I made them as a kid, but I've totally dishonored them or later on in life.
Speaker 1: And you're feeling the conviction of the spirit about that right now.
Speaker 1: Don't chalk that up to Mike is making me feel bad.
Speaker 1: Understand the holy Spirit's working in your life right now.
Speaker 1: And he's not here to continue nor am I it's God saying, Hey, just bring this to me willingly and let me willingly forgive you for it.
Speaker 1: And then walk on, change your behavior.
Speaker 1: If you're someone who maybe you haven't killed anybody physically, but you've done some of the other things that's related to that, that I've talked about, then let God forgive you for that today and go and do something different.
Speaker 1: Don't keep going the same direction.
Speaker 1: If you're someone who's committed adultery, don't live in condemnation.
Speaker 1: Willingly submitted to God, surrender to God, but surrender it to God and walk on and do something different.
Speaker 1: God says, I'm not here to condemn you.
Speaker 1: I'm here to save you.
Speaker 1: That's what I want to do.
Speaker 1: Let me do it.
Speaker 1: And here's the stepping stones to get from here to there.
Speaker 1: Why don't you buy your heads with me right now?
Speaker 1: I'm going to pray a prayer of repentance.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to ask you if you know that you need to get your life right before God in this specific area, just call on him for repentance in repentance right now, you don't have to pray out loud.
Speaker 1: You don't have to pray my prayer.
Speaker 1: I'm just giving you an example of this.
Speaker 1: I pray repentant prayers every day.
Speaker 1: Not because I think I lose my salvation every day, but because I want to be open and right and pure before him every day.
Speaker 1: So Lord Jesus, I love you.
Speaker 1: And I thank you that you've, you're a God of forgiveness today.
Speaker 1: We've seen people declare their lives to you in baptisms.
Speaker 1: You've lost them.
Speaker 1: And I pray the renewing of your word in our life would wash us today.
Speaker 1: Wash us purest smell.
Speaker 1: I surrender all of my sin to you.
Speaker 1: I repent of it.
Speaker 1: And I turn away.
Speaker 1: I'm asking you to forgive me, but I'm also dedicating my tomorrows to you.
Speaker 1: The next moments of my life to you.
Speaker 1: And, and I promise Lord, I with everything within me, I, as you convict me of something in my life, I will do everything I can to change it.
Speaker 1: And I trust your grapes will be sufficient until the day.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for your grace.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for your forgiveness that we accept in our lives right now.
Speaker 1: We do not stand condemned before you, we stand justified within you.
Speaker 1: Jesus, for that, we are grateful.
Speaker 1: And if you'd agree with that prayer, would you just say, amen, praise God.
Speaker 1: Let's stand to our feet.
Speaker 1: Prayer partners come forward.
Speaker 1: We're going to close this service in worship in Jesus name.