WEBVTT 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:08.044 Well, good morning everybody. 00:00:08.044 --> 00:00:09.166 My name is Randy. 00:00:09.166 --> 00:00:17.349 Thank you for watching out there where you are, and thank you, eddie and the choir, for doing such a great job. 00:00:17.349 --> 00:00:20.262 Well, that choir had a little attitude this morning, didn't it? 00:00:20.262 --> 00:00:25.814 As they're coming out, as they come, sit around you. 00:00:25.814 --> 00:00:39.572 If they sit near you, next to you, just reach over and punch them and say man, you had an attitude today which we could probably use more of that. 00:00:40.313 --> 00:00:42.425 So, so glad that you're here. 00:00:42.425 --> 00:00:47.923 If you're new with us and I know some of you are we're especially glad to have you. 00:00:47.923 --> 00:00:55.487 If you've never come into what we call a vital relationship with Jesus, that means you know Him in here. 00:00:55.487 --> 00:01:02.125 You know you have a personal walk with Him, regardless of church background or no background. 00:01:02.125 --> 00:01:04.393 We'd love to celebrate that. 00:01:04.393 --> 00:01:11.033 If that's a recent thing, if you feel like this is your church needs to be your church home as a Christ follower. 00:01:11.033 --> 00:01:21.464 We have an invitation time at the end, and so after my talk, we'll get to worship with song one more time and then that'll be your invitation to come down. 00:01:21.464 --> 00:01:24.780 Whether you're there up in the man, that balcony is almost full today. 00:01:24.780 --> 00:01:31.344 Whether you're in the balcony or whether you're down here, we would love to celebrate whatever decision you have to make. 00:01:31.344 --> 00:01:33.631 I mentioned our online viewer. 00:01:33.631 --> 00:01:41.215 Some of you watch online because you can't be here, some are not in the area, and we're just super glad to have you. 00:01:41.577 --> 00:01:43.061 I do want to give a couple of shout outs. 00:01:43.061 --> 00:01:51.867 Today, my friend, trey Trey is in Texas, so obviously he can't be here, he doesn't live here, but Trey is serving the country. 00:01:51.867 --> 00:01:54.536 He's on a medical I mean a medical. 00:01:54.536 --> 00:01:58.287 He's on a military assignment in Texas. 00:01:58.287 --> 00:02:05.311 He's got just a few more weeks left and he's going to time it perfectly, hopefully, where he'll get back just in time to see his firstborn born. 00:02:05.311 --> 00:02:10.729 So, trey, we are thankful for you and thank you for watching and shout out. 00:02:10.729 --> 00:02:15.103 Number two is to my friend and your friend for a lot of you, beth Renn. 00:02:15.103 --> 00:02:24.284 Beth Renn is in the hospital, so she is watching on a tablet on her lap right now from the hospital locally here. 00:02:24.284 --> 00:02:27.552 So, beth, we love you and we're proud of you. 00:02:28.293 --> 00:02:37.562 One of our core values is courage is essential for faith and, beth, you probably model courage better in anybody in this room, so we're grateful for you. 00:02:37.562 --> 00:02:38.683 Let's pray, shall we? 00:02:38.683 --> 00:03:08.931 Lord, in the absence of answers to all of our dilemmas and our questions and things that puzzle us today. 00:03:08.931 --> 00:03:37.118 We just need to confess that you are Lord and that you reign, and that our job is to accept it, to surrender to it, to do our very best to take our weak selves out of the agenda, out of the formula, and give our weak, frail, simple selves to you. 00:03:37.118 --> 00:03:53.706 The quicker we do that and realize your magnificent grace, the quicker we will get on plan with the path that you have laid out for us, which is a good path, but it's also a straight and a narrow path. 00:03:53.706 --> 00:04:02.945 So, god, today may we walk out more in the center of that path than we came in, and we give it to you. 00:04:02.945 --> 00:04:06.072 So come, holy Spirit, in Jesus' name amen. 00:04:06.914 --> 00:04:08.156 Well, turn to Colossians. 00:04:08.156 --> 00:04:11.508 Colossians, chapter 3, if you will. 00:04:11.508 --> 00:04:48.506 We said about two or three weeks ago that, like chapter 2, verse 9 of Colossians, through 3, 4, is like the core, the middle part, the heart of that apple from theology perspective, and so we'll finish up this segment today, and last week, I think we ended by saying you know how are we expected to live a life of a Christ follower on path, with all the things going on around us and feeding into us, and all the adversity that can come up in the mis-understanding. 00:04:48.506 --> 00:04:50.490 How are we supposed to do that? 00:04:50.490 --> 00:04:55.930 And I think I said well, chapter 3, verses 1 through 4, is a great start on that. 00:04:55.930 --> 00:04:59.800 So I'm excited that you're here today. 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:33.598 If you are familiar with history or somewhat like it, especially history common in this area, you'll know that in the Revolutionary War what was going on behind the scenes off the battlefield was there was this tremendous struggle of loyalties and some writers have actually said in the South the Revolutionary War became more of a civil war than it did, a war just for independence, because there were a lot of Americans taking both sides. 00:05:33.598 --> 00:05:42.064 There were the Tories who were the loyalists to Britain, there were the Patriots who sought independence from Great Britain. 00:05:42.064 --> 00:05:52.297 And as the war drug on and it got more personal and it got more costly, there was a lot of actually sideswapping back and forth, both directions. 00:05:52.297 --> 00:06:09.240 There really was and it became a tremendous problem for generals and military leaders One of the most famous sideswapper if you'll put his name, his picture, up there, I'm sorry his portrait is none other than Benedict Arnold. 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:27.040 He's famous for all the wrong reasons and he inflicted a tremendous amount of damage on the Patriots' war cause effort as someone who pretended to be a patriot but who was a spy for Great Britain. 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:45.408 And finally, late in the war, when he finally was sniffed out and smoked out, it was, of course, a spy ring of Patriots pretending to be loyalists in New York City that flushed him out, and so we know that that was a huge thing. 00:06:45.870 --> 00:06:50.439 You know, today we do a lot of sideswapping, sideswitching. 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:54.410 We do it without meaning too many times. 00:06:54.410 --> 00:06:58.698 In the spiritual front, weit's just so easy. 00:06:58.698 --> 00:07:06.125 It's so easy to proclaim Jesus with our lips, but for our hearts to be far from Him, as Isaiah said. 00:07:06.125 --> 00:07:35.271 Jesus said it's also very easy to lean in on your traditions and your history and the routines of faith and let that somehow carry the day for you, because you have at some point walked away from the personal engagement with God and therefore you have walked away from the path and you're no longer following, but you think you are cause. 00:07:35.271 --> 00:07:38.617 It's easy to be deceived when we switch sides. 00:07:38.985 --> 00:07:40.288 So let me propose a question. 00:07:40.288 --> 00:07:42.454 I'm not going to try to answer this one today. 00:07:42.454 --> 00:07:56.131 If you're a side switcher, if you do have a tendency to jump sides and go over to the other side, does that not make you prime target to be a spy for the enemy? 00:07:56.131 --> 00:07:58.995 Jesus said it does. 00:07:58.995 --> 00:08:02.966 If you're not for me, you're what Against me. 00:08:02.966 --> 00:08:12.593 He draws a clear line, just like the Old Testament leaders, joshua and Elijah and some of them drew that clear line and they say it's decision time. 00:08:12.593 --> 00:08:15.557 What side are you going to get on? 00:08:15.557 --> 00:08:23.441 Stop jumping, stop flipping, because choose you this day who you will serve. 00:08:24.322 --> 00:08:37.817 Paul comes along later, who wrote Colossians and says you know, if you're not with Jesus, with your heart, soul, mind and actions, it's not like you're neutral and you just took a time out. 00:08:37.817 --> 00:08:41.365 Oh no, you're working for the enemy. 00:08:41.365 --> 00:08:52.712 And if you do not know him yet and you've been exposed to the gospel of Jesus and his love for you, but you've said no, thank you, it's the same thing. 00:08:52.712 --> 00:08:53.754 Oh, you're not neutral. 00:08:53.754 --> 00:08:55.273 There are no neutral people. 00:08:55.273 --> 00:09:03.329 You're working for the enemy, and so that's why this discussion and others like it are so important, I think. 00:09:03.329 --> 00:09:04.652 So what fights it? 00:09:04.652 --> 00:09:06.404 We all like to bandwagon, don't we? 00:09:06.404 --> 00:09:15.204 Long time ago, my kids were younger I walked in the room there's football game on and it had just kicked off and I said all right. 00:09:15.204 --> 00:09:18.889 And so I made them all declare in the room who you far, who you far, who you far. 00:09:18.889 --> 00:09:23.469 Got around to my youngest son and he said I'll tell you at halftime who I'm far. 00:09:23.469 --> 00:09:32.803 So there's a tendency for all of us to want to know which direction the parade is going and get in with it, right. 00:09:32.803 --> 00:09:40.379 So because it's hard to be singled out, it's hard to be seen as different in, maybe a bad way. 00:09:40.379 --> 00:09:42.983 So Paul's going to address that. 00:09:42.983 --> 00:09:51.028 Actually, because you only have room for one master, that's our one statement today you only have room for one. 00:09:51.419 --> 00:10:05.951 Paul also says in Galatians, chapter 6, this on the screen he helps to find the whole thing today, I think when he says well, I'm on brag, I'm on brag, but I'm only going to brag on one thing and that's Jesus Christ and him crucified. 00:10:05.951 --> 00:10:06.211 Why? 00:10:06.211 --> 00:10:13.353 Because I have been crucified to the world and the world has been crucified to me. 00:10:13.353 --> 00:10:19.471 In other words, I have stepped away from the line of flip-flopping. 00:10:19.471 --> 00:10:28.342 I have declared and I'm walking that path and I'm not really interested in swaying off that the world still comes at me. 00:10:28.342 --> 00:10:38.350 But at best can I say I am indifferent to the world Because I have found true love and I have found truth, period. 00:10:38.350 --> 00:10:41.007 So that's where we strive to be today. 00:10:41.267 --> 00:10:42.029 What's going on here? 00:10:42.029 --> 00:10:54.551 Last week we ended with verses 20 through 23 of chapter 2, which basically makes this claim of it's not about the externals, it's about the internals. 00:10:54.551 --> 00:10:58.788 It's not about the keeping all the laws, keeping the rules. 00:10:58.788 --> 00:11:00.884 Those are important, they have a place. 00:11:00.884 --> 00:11:06.642 The Torah, the Old Testament books were what were honored and revered and they should have been. 00:11:06.642 --> 00:11:07.325 To that point. 00:11:07.325 --> 00:11:15.188 He just said hey, I'm with you on those, I'm not fighting you, I'm not nullifying those, I'm just telling you that's not where life comes from. 00:11:15.188 --> 00:11:20.591 You add to those the personal walk with Jesus and now you got it. 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:23.986 And that's what he's going to continue by doing here. 00:11:23.986 --> 00:11:29.971 He's trying to make the shift, say it's not about the externals, it's about the internals. 00:11:29.971 --> 00:11:42.782 And you know that's still true today you saw in the pre-roll we call it before we got kicked off today, a Bible journaling class that is just blowing up with participants, y'all. 00:11:42.782 --> 00:11:54.513 That's a good thing, because that is just another way, creative way, to engage with Jesus Christ on a daily basis, which is called spiritual formations, and that's what we cannot ignore. 00:11:54.513 --> 00:11:56.779 So Paul's going to make three appeals. 00:11:56.779 --> 00:12:04.225 We're just going to read verse by verse here, talk about the appeal a little bit and that'll help our knowledge, but what we're really after is the application. 00:12:04.225 --> 00:12:05.688 What am I going to do about this right? 00:12:05.688 --> 00:12:07.504 How's this going to change my life? 00:12:07.580 --> 00:12:17.907 So look at verse 1, chapter 3, verse 1, the first appeal is set your morals on God's Son, not the laws only, but God's Son, capital S. 00:12:17.907 --> 00:12:24.442 Look at verse 1, since then, you have been raised with Christ. 00:12:24.442 --> 00:12:31.313 Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 00:12:31.313 --> 00:12:32.805 You've been raised with Christ. 00:12:32.805 --> 00:12:43.711 Romans 6, 6 through 11, if I didn't mention it last week, that's one of the best definitions of not just the act of baptism but the reason behind baptism and what baptism symbolizes. 00:12:43.711 --> 00:12:48.610 The old's got to die so that we've got to die with Jesus, so we can be raised with Jesus. 00:12:48.610 --> 00:12:51.544 And that's really what he's saying here. 00:12:51.544 --> 00:12:55.993 Since you've been raised with Christ, set your hearts. 00:12:56.419 --> 00:13:08.413 When they say hearts in the Greek language, that meant the center of all of your emotions and your desires and your lust and, many times, your ambitions and things like that. 00:13:08.413 --> 00:13:16.385 How you feel, what you're drawn to, what's attractive or not attractive to you, it's an internal thing. 00:13:16.385 --> 00:13:19.087 Jesus in Mark 7 said the same thing. 00:13:19.087 --> 00:13:24.951 He said what you're drawn to is what is evidenced by what comes out of you, not what comes into you. 00:13:24.951 --> 00:13:30.292 Therefore, again back to the eating kosher foods and doing things like that. 00:13:30.292 --> 00:13:32.066 He said that's good, but that's not. 00:13:32.066 --> 00:13:38.889 What makes you righteous is what comes out, that reveals the heart, and that's what Paul knows here. 00:13:38.889 --> 00:13:48.649 So, as we look on down, he makes a big point, a big deal, out of saying things above, but where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 00:13:48.649 --> 00:13:51.609 He says the same thing in Ephesians 1.20. 00:13:51.609 --> 00:13:54.027 Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 00:13:54.027 --> 00:13:57.447 He says that several times in just this short letter. 00:13:57.447 --> 00:13:57.749 Why? 00:13:57.749 --> 00:14:20.889 Because, remember, there's Gnostics, this group of super spiritual people they claim to be, who know more than other people do, and they're going to shed their revelation that he only told them and they're actually false teachers and they, in doing that, were lowering Jesus to a notch or two below God. 00:14:20.889 --> 00:14:28.264 And Paul is doing his best to say, uh-uh-uh, they're right here, here's God, here's Jesus. 00:14:28.264 --> 00:14:30.269 They're on the same level. 00:14:30.269 --> 00:14:30.529 Why? 00:14:30.529 --> 00:14:38.250 Because they're the same person, and so you're going to see him describe him like that at the right hand of the Father. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:44.339 Have you ever, those of you who are Christ followers, have you ever felt like man? 00:14:44.339 --> 00:14:47.408 This old world is getting stranger and stranger. 00:14:47.408 --> 00:14:53.532 Well, you probably don't have to be a Christ follower to say the same thing, isn't it? 00:14:53.532 --> 00:14:55.484 Do you ever feel like good night? 00:14:55.484 --> 00:14:55.884 I don't. 00:14:55.884 --> 00:14:59.451 I'm just like do I even belong here anymore? 00:14:59.451 --> 00:15:12.610 You know, that's normal, because Paul again says we're aliens, this ain't our home, we're not supposed to stay here forever. 00:15:12.610 --> 00:15:17.822 We are passing through, so this should be. 00:15:17.822 --> 00:15:25.967 Hopefully, this is a little bit of a strange place to us, because we've seen Jesus and we have Jesus. 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:28.605 So what are you saying, randy? 00:15:28.605 --> 00:15:40.167 I'm saying and this is reality 101, if you're devoted, if you're a devoted Christ follower, you will spend segments of time lonely. 00:15:40.167 --> 00:15:46.527 One of the loneliest places in the country is a college campus. 00:15:46.527 --> 00:16:02.893 If you're a Christ follower Because while your roommates and others are out doing who knows what, on Friday, saturday nights, you're not and if everybody's evacuated the campus and you're left as a Christ follower, what are you going to do? 00:16:02.893 --> 00:16:09.132 Well, you're going to spend a lot of time alone, and that's just the way it is. 00:16:09.132 --> 00:16:16.735 We happen to believe the payoff is much richer and the advantages are much better. 00:16:18.524 --> 00:16:21.233 So how does the Son S-O-N, capital S-O-N. 00:16:21.233 --> 00:16:22.176 Reveal Himself? 00:16:22.176 --> 00:16:30.233 Two ways, primarily the Word of God, which he is quoted in the much of it and the Holy Spirit. 00:16:30.233 --> 00:16:35.556 The Holy Spirit is supposed to be the manifest presence of Jesus in me and you. 00:16:35.556 --> 00:16:42.757 That means the evidence of the reality of Jesus in us. 00:16:42.757 --> 00:16:55.495 That's His job, and so the better in tune with the Holy Spirit we get and the better knowledge we get toward the Word and how to use His Word, the better we are. 00:16:55.764 --> 00:16:56.567 John 10.30,. 00:16:56.567 --> 00:16:58.815 Jesus was pretty plain, pretty clear. 00:16:58.815 --> 00:17:04.357 He said if you want to know how all this works, I and the Father are one. 00:17:04.357 --> 00:17:06.992 If you've seen me, you've seen Him. 00:17:06.992 --> 00:17:09.190 You've heard me, you've heard Him. 00:17:09.190 --> 00:17:12.430 Let's just get that clear right now. 00:17:12.430 --> 00:17:15.492 He says so do you really believe God is sovereign? 00:17:15.492 --> 00:17:18.294 That's key to this part of following His Son. 00:17:18.294 --> 00:17:19.770 Is God really sovereign? 00:17:19.770 --> 00:17:22.333 That means, is he really in control? 00:17:22.333 --> 00:17:32.455 Because it sure looks like things are out of control many days and he's not really around, and some of the writers in the Old Testament especially actually questioned God on that. 00:17:32.455 --> 00:17:33.769 David was one. 00:17:34.184 --> 00:17:40.731 If you want to write down some stuff to meditate or think about it this week, scripture-wise, psalm 57 is a good read. 00:17:40.731 --> 00:17:44.914 Psalm 57, verse 2, let me just read that one too. 00:17:44.914 --> 00:17:48.194 You saw Psalm 57, 2, guess who's right. 00:17:48.194 --> 00:17:56.817 Guess who's speaking here, david, I cry out to God most high to God, who fulfills His purposes to me. 00:17:56.817 --> 00:17:58.891 That's the definition of sovereignty. 00:17:58.891 --> 00:18:23.337 He will fulfill His purposes to me, even if it's going the wrong direction right now, even if there's nothing happening right now, even if my grown children are as far away from God as they can be right now, even if the doctor's report came back worst case scenario God will do His purposes in me. 00:18:23.337 --> 00:18:30.870 What makes this even more dramatic and more gripping is the fact that we know the background of Psalm 57. 00:18:31.144 --> 00:18:39.854 It is written by David, but it's not when he's sitting fat and happy on the throne, it's when he's in the backside of a cave running from King Saul. 00:18:39.854 --> 00:18:42.228 That's when he writes this. 00:18:42.228 --> 00:18:55.470 In other words, I know you are a promise keeping God, and I'm just going to trust you to keep yours, because it sure doesn't look like you are, and we've been there, haven't we? 00:18:55.470 --> 00:19:05.056 God, I'm going to have to trust you, but, boy, there is a storm going on, but you said the storm will be over and I'm going to believe it. 00:19:05.204 --> 00:19:08.992 So how do we live out our morals focused on God's Son? 00:19:08.992 --> 00:19:14.495 Here's what you need to do you need to go home and you get a copy of our Constitution and bylaws. 00:19:14.495 --> 00:19:17.050 You need to memorize them from front to back. 00:19:17.050 --> 00:19:23.575 No, no, that'swe need those documents. 00:19:23.575 --> 00:19:26.649 Those are good, but they do not give life. 00:19:26.649 --> 00:19:37.229 What we need to do is make sure that we are in connection with what the loving thing to do day by day is. 00:19:37.229 --> 00:19:44.035 You have, and I have, things that, if we let it, boy, that could push our button, couldn't it? 00:19:44.035 --> 00:19:55.055 And we all have our way of demonstrating what happens next when we get our buttons pushed Our depressuses, our frustrations, our discourages, whatever that adjective is. 00:19:55.055 --> 00:19:59.333 What is the loving thing to do here? 00:19:59.333 --> 00:20:01.847 Can't change that. 00:20:01.847 --> 00:20:06.717 But Jesus, what would be the loving thing to do here? 00:20:06.717 --> 00:20:10.731 That means you're following the Son and not the culture. 00:20:10.731 --> 00:20:18.197 You're marching to His drumbeat as an alien, passing through a great place that he's given us. 00:20:18.197 --> 00:20:24.037 But, youthis, is not your home, because you only got room for one master. 00:20:24.484 --> 00:20:25.627 Number two is verse two. 00:20:25.627 --> 00:20:28.894 Set your mind on God's standards. 00:20:28.894 --> 00:20:31.407 Verse two set your mind there. 00:20:31.407 --> 00:20:34.616 We go on things above, not on earthly things. 00:20:34.616 --> 00:20:35.970 He's going to beat that again. 00:20:35.970 --> 00:20:47.072 Thinkthinkthink into eternity, into the spiritual and not into the material, the here and now, only what you can see. 00:20:48.045 --> 00:20:50.634 This is chapter six is all about that. 00:20:50.634 --> 00:20:53.614 I just quoted verse 14 to you also. 00:20:53.614 --> 00:20:56.491 This is the mental part, this is the mind. 00:20:56.491 --> 00:20:57.555 Well, why is that? 00:20:57.555 --> 00:21:00.493 I thought this was a spiritual discussion, absolutely. 00:21:00.493 --> 00:21:03.613 But you know, everything starts with the mind right. 00:21:03.613 --> 00:21:06.050 Everything starts with the intellect. 00:21:06.050 --> 00:21:13.998 Deuteronomy 30.17 even says that the worst sin starts with the concept. 00:21:13.998 --> 00:21:17.851 In here, ever, they ever danced around that golden calf. 00:21:17.851 --> 00:21:20.236 Somebody had to think up the idea right. 00:21:21.365 --> 00:21:26.017 And then there's a process which you emotionally then go there. 00:21:26.017 --> 00:21:29.714 Well, you know, hey, that's actually doable, I think, and all like that. 00:21:29.714 --> 00:21:33.934 Then your affections kick in, turns to a desire, lust, whatever. 00:21:33.934 --> 00:21:35.067 Now you're on your own. 00:21:35.067 --> 00:21:44.213 Now you're likeyou've turned your back on God and you're actively walking away from Him because you're in the sin here. 00:21:44.213 --> 00:21:45.689 So how do we fight it? 00:21:45.689 --> 00:21:50.733 There is tremendous power in believing what you know. 00:21:50.733 --> 00:21:54.329 You know in the Scripture about Christ and your life with Christ. 00:21:54.329 --> 00:21:56.051 It's called the power of belief. 00:21:56.051 --> 00:22:01.577 I know a lot of you are there already, because I've heard your unwavering testimonies. 00:22:01.577 --> 00:22:06.757 I've heard how you dealt with some stuff that was like crippling in its day. 00:22:06.757 --> 00:22:16.716 I've watched you overcome, I've watched you accept challenges and there is just tremendous power, like David demonstrated in Psalm 57. 00:22:17.565 --> 00:22:19.692 Romans 12-2 is another one you might want to write down. 00:22:19.692 --> 00:22:27.032 Romans 12-1 through 3 is actually awesome, but Romans 12-2 says basically my paraphrase. 00:22:27.032 --> 00:22:29.526 The harling translation says get your mind right. 00:22:29.526 --> 00:22:33.111 Get your mind right why? 00:22:33.111 --> 00:22:35.008 Because that's the only way. 00:22:35.008 --> 00:22:41.170 You will not conform to the world, but you'll be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 00:22:41.170 --> 00:23:04.990 Here again we're back to the difficulty of the temptation of waltzing into church or watching it online, checking it off, and then you get on with your agenda, your life, your ways, no matter what that's being conformed to the world. 00:23:04.990 --> 00:23:19.297 And in case you've not noticed, I probably don't need to tell you how persuasive, how magnetizing, how attractive the ways of the present culture can actually be. 00:23:19.297 --> 00:23:31.947 And even if you don't cave into those, the pull of what we used to call peer pressure, which is now the cancel culture that will get you too, If you're not ready for it. 00:23:31.947 --> 00:23:36.957 There's power and belief that your path is the best path. 00:23:36.957 --> 00:23:40.769 And here's some goodthis is meant to be encouragement. 00:23:42.392 --> 00:23:47.622 And 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18, paul's writing to another church. 00:23:47.622 --> 00:23:48.851 He starts out. 00:23:48.851 --> 00:23:53.300 That whole chapter is really great, but he starts out saying we're jars of clay. 00:23:53.300 --> 00:23:54.021 Remember that one. 00:23:54.021 --> 00:23:59.569 He said a clay jar is pretty hard, but it's brittle right. 00:23:59.569 --> 00:24:07.576 Have you ever bought one at the landscaping place or at Lowe's or somewhere, and you get halfway across the parking lot and you drop it. 00:24:07.576 --> 00:24:13.178 And well, I just paid $29 for a bunch of trash. 00:24:13.178 --> 00:24:15.142 Now it's brittle. 00:24:15.142 --> 00:24:16.284 And he says that's us. 00:24:16.284 --> 00:24:20.894 We got cracks, we've got holes in us, we've got brokenness. 00:24:20.894 --> 00:24:28.681 You know, we can't stand too much, we have hard exteriors which won't allow the Holy Spirit into it. 00:24:28.681 --> 00:24:31.659 But then what I'm after is verse 16 through 18. 00:24:32.269 --> 00:24:41.979 Verse 16 through 18 is that golden passage where he says even though we're getting older every single day, the inward spirit is being renewed day by day. 00:24:41.979 --> 00:24:46.137 Let me read verse 18 to you. 00:24:46.137 --> 00:24:53.457 We fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen, for what is seen as temporary and what is unseen as eternal. 00:24:53.457 --> 00:24:55.714 What are you saying? 00:24:55.714 --> 00:24:59.959 You stay on the path and you're legit. 00:24:59.959 --> 00:25:02.376 You're genuinely chasing after God. 00:25:02.376 --> 00:25:08.257 You will at times not every day you will at times will see the unseen. 00:25:08.257 --> 00:25:22.323 God will move through His Spirit and He'll challenge, encourage you, comfort you, whatever you need, with something that you don't see necessarily in your life. 00:25:22.323 --> 00:25:30.893 You don't see it necessarily on print, literally in the Bible, but he just showed it to you Y'all. 00:25:30.893 --> 00:25:40.394 That's a good day, because the first statement he's making is boy, I really love you because I'm showing you something that's unseen. 00:25:42.309 --> 00:25:45.479 The second good thing, y'all is it's always personal to you. 00:25:45.479 --> 00:25:53.586 Sometimes it'll be about somebody else, but 90% of the time he says if I want to tell them, I'll go tell them. 00:25:53.586 --> 00:25:58.720 This is for you and bam, it's what you need at that day. 00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:04.481 What is evidence that you're on the right track or beginning the right track? 00:26:04.481 --> 00:26:05.910 It's like compounding interest. 00:26:05.910 --> 00:26:07.173 Y'all know what that is right. 00:26:07.173 --> 00:26:10.734 Compounding interest is like in the bank. 00:26:10.734 --> 00:26:19.882 You give a little bit to the bank when you're 29 and when you're 69, you barely got enough to buy your meals. 00:26:19.882 --> 00:26:24.135 Used to be, you're really comfortable, but I'm not sure. 00:26:24.135 --> 00:26:25.980 Now that's the case. 00:26:25.980 --> 00:26:27.913 It's above the poverty level. 00:26:27.913 --> 00:26:30.180 Maybe, hopefully, at that point. 00:26:30.180 --> 00:26:32.515 But a little bit here adds up. 00:26:34.109 --> 00:26:38.020 Long, long time ago, heavyweight boxing was a big deal sport. 00:26:38.020 --> 00:26:41.138 Everybody in the world knew who the heavyweight champion of the world was. 00:26:41.138 --> 00:26:46.201 He was Muhammad Ali in the day, and everybody in the world knew who Muhammad Ali was. 00:26:46.201 --> 00:26:47.653 He had this big fight. 00:26:47.653 --> 00:26:50.201 He didn't think it was big. 00:26:50.201 --> 00:26:53.133 He had this fight one time One of the rare occurrences. 00:26:53.133 --> 00:26:55.739 Saturday Wide World of Sports. 00:26:55.739 --> 00:26:57.089 Some of you remember that show. 00:26:57.089 --> 00:26:57.611 Saturday. 00:26:57.611 --> 00:27:11.242 Wide World of Sports carried it live on a Saturday afternoon because it just wasn't a big betting thing because he was such a big, heavy favorite. 00:27:11.829 --> 00:27:23.837 So an unknown by the name of Ken Norton was lined up and everybody said, yeah, there's another one of those guys, they're just going to prop him up and he'll beat him up and knock him out in the second round and move on toward the real good fighters. 00:27:23.837 --> 00:27:31.676 And Muhammad Ali was kind of unfocused in his training and he was, you know, just kind of all over the place because he knew that too. 00:27:31.676 --> 00:27:36.660 So the bell rings and ooh, this guy's a little tougher than I thought he was. 00:27:36.660 --> 00:27:47.198 And, what's more, he spent most of the entire fight hitting Muhammad Ali right here in the abdomen, in the stomach and the ribs. 00:27:47.198 --> 00:27:50.315 You don't knock people out doing that. 00:27:50.315 --> 00:27:53.355 Those are not headshots. 00:27:53.355 --> 00:27:55.194 But what Norton thought? 00:27:55.194 --> 00:28:01.997 If I'm going to have a chance of winning, I'm going to take his wind away, I'm going to take his strength away. 00:28:01.997 --> 00:28:06.232 His hands will have to drop to protect his sore ribs. 00:28:06.232 --> 00:28:09.270 And then guess what, pow. 00:28:09.270 --> 00:28:20.697 And so by the end of that match, ken Norton had actually broken Ali's jaw and he got the decision over the champ. 00:28:20.697 --> 00:28:28.174 He beat Muhammad Ali Compound and interest said in the first round. 00:28:28.856 --> 00:28:29.759 I'm just going to batter. 00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:32.617 I'm just going to pound away his body and wear him down. 00:28:32.617 --> 00:28:40.753 I'll be stronger in the last round and maybe I can land a good punch and the game plan worked to a tee. 00:28:40.753 --> 00:28:45.315 Compounding interest here is a good thing. 00:28:45.315 --> 00:28:48.413 Work on it a little bit every day. 00:28:48.413 --> 00:29:11.761 Get your mind right every single day and take that into the marketplace, take that into your ministry area, take that into your family, take that into your relationship with your spouse, because y'all we only got room for one master and the world is not him. 00:29:11.761 --> 00:29:12.471 Last one. 00:29:12.471 --> 00:29:14.576 Surrender your present to his future. 00:29:16.410 --> 00:29:17.051 Verse 3 and 4,. 00:29:17.051 --> 00:29:24.414 I dearly love verse 3, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 00:29:24.414 --> 00:29:28.096 Let me remind you, you died a while back. 00:29:28.096 --> 00:29:29.480 You gave up your life, right. 00:29:29.480 --> 00:29:30.593 Why do you keep taking it back? 00:29:30.593 --> 00:29:38.543 Your life is hidden with Christ in God, almost insulated, cocooned, if you will. 00:29:38.543 --> 00:29:50.599 What he means by hidden is your life now has been stripped of all of you and your wiles and intellect now to the point where you are dependent on him. 00:29:50.599 --> 00:30:01.401 You are dependent on him and not yourself, and that's scary at first, but it's the only way to go, because here's the deal. 00:30:01.401 --> 00:30:05.779 Your past always informs the present. 00:30:05.779 --> 00:30:10.420 If we don't change the patterns of the past, guess what? 00:30:10.420 --> 00:30:13.336 We'll repeat the past in the future. 00:30:13.336 --> 00:30:15.054 That's just the way it always works. 00:30:15.054 --> 00:30:26.641 But if we live our present informed by the past but wanting to be better than in the past, then Jesus will come into our future. 00:30:26.641 --> 00:30:37.097 And our surrender to him for the future because he's the only one who knows the future, that's the best insurance policy, that's the best compounded interest we can ever do. 00:30:37.470 --> 00:30:39.496 False teachers, y'all, today or back then. 00:30:39.496 --> 00:30:41.059 False teachers can't do that. 00:30:41.059 --> 00:30:45.299 They are so concerned with the present because they have no past. 00:30:45.299 --> 00:30:50.579 If they do, it's false and they can't predict the future like Jesus. 00:30:50.579 --> 00:30:51.701 So what do they have? 00:30:51.701 --> 00:30:52.772 They only got the present. 00:30:52.772 --> 00:30:55.213 It's very short-sighted. 00:30:56.150 --> 00:30:57.255 This brings in perspective. 00:30:57.255 --> 00:30:58.596 What do you mean by perspective? 00:30:58.596 --> 00:31:02.238 I mean, like Isaiah, 55, 8, 9,. 00:31:02.238 --> 00:31:10.498 Some of you know this one, god speaking, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. 00:31:10.498 --> 00:31:17.736 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. 00:31:17.736 --> 00:31:26.072 So the best plan in the world is to surrender our present, because we can't influence the future. 00:31:26.072 --> 00:31:27.375 Only God can. 00:31:27.836 --> 00:31:35.178 But let our present be aligned with Jesus well enough that when he moves into the future, guess what? 00:31:35.178 --> 00:31:36.873 You're going to walk with Him. 00:31:36.873 --> 00:31:42.698 Right, I don't have to be a prophet, I don't have to know how to predict the future. 00:31:42.698 --> 00:31:57.480 All I got to do is be prepared to follow somebody into the future, and I choose to trust Him with my future not perfectly, but when I do that, I'm in much better shape. 00:31:57.480 --> 00:31:58.231 So what's that? 00:31:58.231 --> 00:31:59.075 Look like Randy. 00:31:59.075 --> 00:32:01.939 You'll start to care about what he cares about. 00:32:01.939 --> 00:32:08.741 You'll start to love what and who he loves, and you'll start to hate what he hates. 00:32:08.741 --> 00:32:11.031 God really hates. 00:32:11.031 --> 00:32:12.316 Oh yeah, oh yeah. 00:32:12.316 --> 00:32:23.781 He hates a lot of immorality and a lot of simple things, but you'll get it right pretty much because you're informed by Him. 00:32:23.781 --> 00:32:25.453 This is where your faith comes. 00:32:26.156 --> 00:32:27.039 I love Isaiah. 00:32:27.039 --> 00:32:33.323 Again, isaiah, I think it's like chapter 46, he says my prayer phrase again. 00:32:33.323 --> 00:32:43.096 Let me remind you, I was there when you were born and I you're an adult now I have been carrying you the whole time. 00:32:43.096 --> 00:32:43.673 Isn't that great? 00:32:43.673 --> 00:32:47.236 You might not know it, but let me remind you. 00:32:47.236 --> 00:32:52.038 I created you, I brought you into this world, I've been carrying you up to the present moment. 00:32:52.038 --> 00:32:55.940 So what is intimidating you about the future at this point. 00:32:55.940 --> 00:33:00.519 Nope, you know, that kind of takes the fire away from that. 00:33:00.519 --> 00:33:06.592 So we're going to set our morals not on a book of list and all that, although we need them. 00:33:06.592 --> 00:33:08.557 We're going to set our morals on the Son of God. 00:33:08.557 --> 00:33:10.855 Right, he shows us how to perfectly do that. 00:33:10.855 --> 00:33:15.999 His standards are what we need to put our minds to. 00:33:15.999 --> 00:33:31.613 And lastly, every day we are living not so much for the present but for the future, and if we can live today like we know what the future is going to look like, then we'll be okay. 00:33:32.019 --> 00:33:35.789 Can you put that last picture up there for me, mr Skinner-Kinn? 00:33:35.789 --> 00:33:41.612 This fine-looking gentleman is one of our ex-presidents, martin Van Buren. 00:33:41.612 --> 00:33:56.886 When he was not the president, he wrote a letter to the president, who was Andrew Jackson at that time, and it was a protest letter and, believe it or not, he was protesting the new railroad system and he thought it was just going to be the end of the country. 00:33:56.886 --> 00:34:00.609 I'm not sure why, but it was an impassioned plea. 00:34:00.609 --> 00:34:06.593 He said we have a problem, and it's a national problem, with this new railroad system. 00:34:06.593 --> 00:34:07.823 Why is that? 00:34:07.823 --> 00:34:14.692 Because it is going operating at the breakneck speed of 15 miles per hour. 00:34:14.692 --> 00:34:18.467 No one can stand that long term. 00:34:18.467 --> 00:34:27.212 It's scaring the cattle, it's sparking fires that burn our barns down. 00:34:27.212 --> 00:34:34.630 You know, I'm like where to get all of his information, because it's like this is the biggest destructive power in our country right now. 00:34:34.630 --> 00:34:38.167 Please, mr President, put an end to this. 00:34:38.167 --> 00:34:41.488 Man was not created to go at this speed. 00:34:41.488 --> 00:34:53.009 That's how he ends and, of course, a few years later he becomes the president and he's like the biggest cheerleader for the railroad system that there ever was, because he sees the benefit of it by now. 00:34:54.500 --> 00:35:02.302 Don't live so short-sighted as to miss the life of Jesus and trying to live your life out. 00:35:02.302 --> 00:35:05.346 That's what the path is all about. 00:35:05.346 --> 00:35:06.943 So, what are you hearing today? 00:35:06.943 --> 00:35:16.348 From what are you seeing which may be seen but, as we're seeing, it may be unseen? 00:35:16.348 --> 00:35:22.643 What have you seen recently that you've never seen before and that's made a difference? 00:35:22.643 --> 00:35:28.067 What do you need to do as your next step of faith, eddie, can you come up and lead us? 00:35:28.919 --> 00:35:30.164 That's why we have these invitations. 00:35:30.164 --> 00:35:40.588 If you would, can you either leave during this quick prayer I do or head out during the announcements, so that we don't disturb those who need to make a decision. 00:35:40.588 --> 00:35:51.649 Why don't you stand and let me pray for you, lord, I'm grateful that what we can't see, you already see. 00:35:51.649 --> 00:35:55.726 What we do not know, your perspective is always perfect. 00:35:55.726 --> 00:36:10.330 What we don't necessarily like you remind us, is temporal and temporary, in light of eternity, and where we're just clueless, all we have to do is follow you. 00:36:10.330 --> 00:36:20.751 So, god, for those in the room or those online who are at a decision point of being able to celebrate their next step, give them the ability and freedom to do it. 00:36:20.751 --> 00:36:22.170 In Jesus' name, we pray amen.