SPEAKER_00: You're must make it this shit of the road.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you know this, but you know the Nehemiah, if you look up Nehemiah, the name means God has comforted.
SPEAKER_03: Look it up.
SPEAKER_03: That's exactly what the name Nehemiah means.
SPEAKER_03: God has comforted is that over one.
SPEAKER_03: Such a powerful picture of what the Holy Spirit is here to do in our life.
SPEAKER_03: He's here to build up the walls.
SPEAKER_03: He's here to help us filter out the things in our life that are not worthy of the pure power that come out the other end that God intends to use.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_03: This morning I want to start with a verse in Ecclesiastes.
SPEAKER_03: How many of you know Solomon was a I almost said wise guy.
SPEAKER_03: I can't say wise guy if you're Italian.
SPEAKER_03: This has got a different meaning.
SPEAKER_03: But he was the wisest man, right?
SPEAKER_03: And so if a wise man says something, we should listen.
SPEAKER_03: What do you think?
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so we should listen.
SPEAKER_03: So Solomon spends the entire book of Ecclesiastes whining.
SPEAKER_03: I I like to say it's too bad I wasn't around in Solomon's time.
SPEAKER_03: I could have probably taught him how to be a professional whiner.
SPEAKER_03: I'm pretty good.
SPEAKER_03: Any whiners?
SPEAKER_03: A lot of liars.
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, uh, he said uh chasing after wind nine times.
SPEAKER_03: All this vanity is quoted 33 times.
SPEAKER_03: Meaningless, meaningless, 35 times.
SPEAKER_03: But at the end of the book, he summarizes everything that he's saying with this verse.
SPEAKER_03: Ecclesiastes 12, 13.
SPEAKER_03: He says, Now, now all has been heard, here is the conclusion of the matter.
SPEAKER_03: Now that I've said all these things, here is the conclusion of the matter.
SPEAKER_03: Say these words with me.
SPEAKER_03: Fear God.
SPEAKER_03: Sam, fear God, and what?
SPEAKER_03: Obey, keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_03: He goes on to say, For this is the whole duty of man.
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know about you, but to me that's one of the more profound verses in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_03: By the way, it's validated in other places.
SPEAKER_03: Let me read to you Deuteronomy 10, 12 to 13.
SPEAKER_03: In the New King James Version, it says this, and now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I have commanded you today for your good.
SPEAKER_03: All throughout the Bible, this whole idea of obeying God, fearing God.
SPEAKER_03: Now, fear God and obey his commands.
SPEAKER_03: Fear God in this context does not mean be afraid of God or cower in a corner.
SPEAKER_03: The word literally means to revere God, be in awe of God, worship God.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, we're gonna talk more about that component in two weeks when we're appropriating the power of God and his Holy Spirit in our life.
SPEAKER_03: But it also means that the idea of keep his commandments is an idea that we are to obey his rules, obey what he's calling us to do.
SPEAKER_03: The whole duty of man are those two things.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm convinced, by the way, that it's very hard to obey without having the Holy Spirit in you to help you and assist you.
SPEAKER_03: And again, that's why these two messages packaged together are so incredibly important.
SPEAKER_03: And by the way, I'm gonna be sharing a lot of verses with you rapid fire.
SPEAKER_03: There's no way I could share all of them with you.
SPEAKER_03: So in the app, this teaching on obedience is a huge study with verses all throughout the Bible on the need for obedience in our lives.
SPEAKER_03: So if for further study, if you want to get the app, there'll be more verses than what you're gonna hear from me today.
SPEAKER_03: I want to begin by looking at a familiar story.
SPEAKER_03: Uh let's begin by looking at Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 to 11.
SPEAKER_03: It's a familiar story about when Jesus was led by the devil into the desert to be tempted.
SPEAKER_03: Let's follow the story, and I want to make some points along the way.
SPEAKER_03: Beginning in verse 1, it says, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
SPEAKER_03: After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.
SPEAKER_03: The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.
SPEAKER_03: The very first word I want you to note, write in your Bible if you want, you'll see it on the screen.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus was tempted in the very natural area of hunger.
SPEAKER_03: Hunger.
SPEAKER_03: It goes on to say this.
SPEAKER_03: Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
SPEAKER_03: If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
SPEAKER_03: The second place of temptation for Jesus was in the area of pride.
SPEAKER_03: Make a note of that.
SPEAKER_03: Hunger and pride.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus answered, It is also written, by the way, do you notice what Jesus does every time he's tempted?
SPEAKER_03: He reminds the devil who he is.
SPEAKER_03: He reminds the devil of the truth of the word of God, and you and I have that same availability, guys.
SPEAKER_03: We can remind the devil of who he is anytime we're tempted as well.
SPEAKER_03: But he goes on to say, okay, again, Jesus answered, It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.
SPEAKER_03: Then he said, Again, the devil took him, probably very frustrated by now, to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
SPEAKER_03: All this I'll give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me.
SPEAKER_03: The third area of temptation for Jesus was greed.
SPEAKER_03: Hunger, pride, and greed.
SPEAKER_03: In verse 10, Jesus said to him, Say these words with me, say them loud.
SPEAKER_03: Away from me, Satan.
SPEAKER_03: Say it again.
SPEAKER_03: Away from me, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.
SPEAKER_03: Then, in verse 11, is I love the word then when it appears in scripture.
SPEAKER_03: Then in this context and in most is a transitional word.
SPEAKER_03: It means as a result of what has just taken place, here is what happened.
SPEAKER_03: As a result of Jesus resisting the devil in the area of hunger, pride, and greed, it says the devil left him and angels came and attended him.
SPEAKER_03: How many of you would like to have angels come and attend you?
SPEAKER_03: Listen, guys, please hear me.
SPEAKER_03: There is a profound relationship between obedience and power.
SPEAKER_03: I believe that.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, Jesus was absolutely sinless, was he not?
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: As a result of him being absolutely sinless, not some, but all of God's power could flow through that man's life that on earth.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, now please hear me.
SPEAKER_03: We can never be sinless.
SPEAKER_03: That's not possible.
SPEAKER_03: But is there a formula at work here?
SPEAKER_03: I believe there is.
SPEAKER_03: To the degree to which we clean out the stuff in our life, more and more of God can flow through our life.
SPEAKER_03: And you'll see here as we close later, that's what God is calling us to do, guys, if we're going to be instrumental in our culture today.
SPEAKER_03: But the enemy is a master at taking us off target and tempting us in the area of hunger, pride, and greed.
SPEAKER_03: What's hunger?
SPEAKER_03: Well, we need to resist temptation in the area of hunger, guys, but I'm not just talking about hunger for food.
SPEAKER_03: Although for some of us we could maybe do a little better job of resisting in that area more, but I'm talking about just food.
SPEAKER_03: What are you allowing into your mind?
SPEAKER_03: What about the drugs and the alcohol and the other stuff that you're consuming?
SPEAKER_03: What kind of crud are you letting into your life that's stopping up God's power from working in you?
SPEAKER_03: And the world, the flesh, and the devil, they're all at cross purposes for what God wants.
SPEAKER_03: The world tells you, hey, this is the way you need to dress.
SPEAKER_03: This is the way you need to look to be cool.
SPEAKER_03: This is what you need to do to be hip, okay?
SPEAKER_03: And they're trying to sell us all these goods and all these things that are distractions, guys.
SPEAKER_03: I remember years ago, I was watching TV and there was this beer commercial, okay?
SPEAKER_03: And then this beer commercial, there were six people on the beach.
SPEAKER_03: There were three women and three men.
SPEAKER_03: And these people were unbelievable.
SPEAKER_03: These men, you know, in these skimpy little bathing suits, muscle-bound, chiseled guys.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, and then there's these three women that they were, they were, they were, they were, they were wearing these little bitty bikinis.
SPEAKER_03: They had absolute perfect bodies, you know.
SPEAKER_03: And they go over in the commercial, they get over, they open up the thing and they're all sweating, you know, because it's hot.
SPEAKER_03: And they pull out the beer bottle and it comes out, and the ice is dripping off the beer bottle.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, listen, listen.
SPEAKER_03: I I I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_03: I used to drink a lot of beer, you know.
SPEAKER_03: I've never seen anybody drinks a lot of beer.
SPEAKER_03: It looks like that.
SPEAKER_03: They don't look like that.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, they they say with six-pack abs, you know.
SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03: They're barrel abs.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it reminds me of the the guy driving down the street, his wife is sitting next to him, and she sees a billboard, you know, and the billboard has this beautiful woman carrying a six-pack of beer.
SPEAKER_03: And she turns to her husband and she says, Honey, look at this, look at this.
SPEAKER_03: They're trying to tell me that if I drink a six-pack of beer, I could look like that.
SPEAKER_03: He said, No, honey, what they're telling you is if I drink a six-pack of beer, you'd look like that.
SPEAKER_03: Some of these you can't repeat in public, okay?
SPEAKER_03: So, anyway, so hunger, what are you allowing into your into your life?
SPEAKER_03: Pride.
SPEAKER_03: Come on, guys, you all know what pride is.
SPEAKER_03: It's the opposite of humility.
SPEAKER_03: It's all about me.
SPEAKER_03: You guys have heard me say this before.
SPEAKER_03: When I first started my ministry, I it was all about pride.
SPEAKER_03: You know, I I didn't care about ministry that much.
SPEAKER_03: I thought, you know, yeah, I want to communicate God's truth, and I'm sure God's happy with that.
SPEAKER_03: But really, my concern was more about what people thought of me.
SPEAKER_03: You know, and could I platform myself in such a way to where people thought that was cool and it was all about me?
SPEAKER_03: Pride can be hideous, guys.
SPEAKER_03: And it's our position and station in life.
SPEAKER_03: Workaholism, by the way, is a form of pride when you really drill down.
SPEAKER_03: And what about greed?
SPEAKER_03: I don't need to unpack these things.
SPEAKER_03: You guys know what this stuff is.
SPEAKER_03: Materialism, you know, this what are you what are you giving up in order to have more?
SPEAKER_03: You know, that's a that's an important question.
SPEAKER_03: What are the real riches of life?
SPEAKER_03: Colossians 2, 2 to 4 says, My purpose is that they, you and I, may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding.
SPEAKER_03: That's where the riches are, guys.
SPEAKER_03: They're not in the material possessions that we tend to focus on.
SPEAKER_03: So, what is our call?
SPEAKER_03: What does the Bible say?
SPEAKER_03: What are some scriptures that kind of represent the call on our lives when it comes to this area of obedience?
SPEAKER_03: Colossians 3 8 says, But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips.
SPEAKER_03: 1 Peter 1, 13 to 16.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, listen, prepare your minds for action.
SPEAKER_03: Be self-controlled, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
SPEAKER_03: As obedient children, as obedient children, as obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
SPEAKER_03: You know the difference, guys, between ignorance and stupidity?
SPEAKER_03: Ignorance is when you don't know any better.
SPEAKER_03: Stupidity is when you know better and you do it, you don't do it anyway.
SPEAKER_03: And sadly, listen, guys, I'm pee I'm I'm preaching to a bunch of people that we have no excuse when it comes, we're not ignorant.
SPEAKER_03: We know better and we don't do it anyway.
SPEAKER_03: That's not what God is looking for.
SPEAKER_03: We need to be mindful of this.
SPEAKER_03: Colossians 3, 3 to 5 says, You died, were died, and your life is now hidden or secure with Christ in God.
SPEAKER_03: Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
SPEAKER_03: 2 Corinthians 10 5.
SPEAKER_03: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
SPEAKER_03: We take captive every thought.
SPEAKER_03: You've all read that verse.
SPEAKER_03: How many of you would say, I sure would like to do a better job of taking my thoughts captive?
SPEAKER_03: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: I have discovered how to do it.
SPEAKER_03: Would you like me to share it with you?
SPEAKER_03: Okay, the four of you that answered that, I'll meet you in the lobby after the let me do this again.
SPEAKER_03: I have discovered how to take thoughts captive.
SPEAKER_03: Would you like me to teach you?
SPEAKER_03: You do understand that if I teach you this, you can no longer claim ignorance.
SPEAKER_03: Do you still want me to teach you?
SPEAKER_03: Let me demonstrate it.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: I just love the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: You are such a great God.
SPEAKER_03: I love you, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: I honor you, I praise you, I adore you, I am so thankful that you're in my life.
SPEAKER_03: I just I just love you, Lord, so much.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: It's that simple.
SPEAKER_03: You cannot do that and entertain that thought at the same time.
SPEAKER_03: I know, I've tried it.
SPEAKER_03: What does the devil do when you when you say the name of Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: Please.
SPEAKER_03: Come on, guys.
SPEAKER_03: We don't have an excuse.
SPEAKER_03: We can take our thoughts captive.
SPEAKER_03: All we have to do is get serious about it.
SPEAKER_03: And if you're in a place where you can't do it and speak the words, whisper them.
SPEAKER_03: I've been in situations where I've been in a crowd of people and I've been tempted by certain things, and I'll just close my eyes or maybe look away for a moment and just start in my spirit, just start saying the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: It works, guys.
SPEAKER_03: It works.
SPEAKER_03: Romans 12, 2, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_03: There isn't anyone on the sound of my voice that doesn't know what that means.
SPEAKER_03: Be in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_03: Then it says, if you will do this, if you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, there's nobody that I've ever talked to that's a follower of Jesus that doesn't want to know what God's will is in their life.
SPEAKER_03: And if you're struggling to discover God's will in your life, I want to ask you the question: could it be that we're violating this verse?
SPEAKER_03: I want to tell you something, guys.
SPEAKER_03: Most of the problems we experience in our lives is because we're violating what the word of God is telling us to do.
SPEAKER_03: We're willfully violating it.
SPEAKER_03: If we're following the word of God, you're gonna have clarity.
SPEAKER_03: You're gonna have path.
SPEAKER_03: The Bible's the Bible is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
SPEAKER_03: That means he illuminates my daily steps and he sets a light on the pathway that he wants me to go and the purpose of my life.
SPEAKER_03: You're not in the Bible, those promises are not for you.
SPEAKER_03: It's that simple, guys.
SPEAKER_03: We got to get this.
SPEAKER_03: What will happen if I don't resist?
SPEAKER_03: Here's some warnings, okay?
SPEAKER_03: 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 to 6.
SPEAKER_03: Here's what it says.
SPEAKER_03: It is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God, and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, the Lord will punish men for all such sins.
SPEAKER_03: It's a promise, as we've already told you and warned you, he will punish you.
SPEAKER_03: Luke 1134, your eye is a lamp of your body.
SPEAKER_03: When your eye are good, your whole body is full of light.
SPEAKER_03: When your eyes are bad, they're full of darkness.
SPEAKER_03: Ecclesiastes 8.8, no one has the power over the wind to contain it.
SPEAKER_03: No one has the power over the day of his death.
SPEAKER_03: As no one is discharged in time of war, listen, wickedness will not release those who practice it.
SPEAKER_03: You'll be ensnared by it.
SPEAKER_03: It's kind of like there are consequences, guys, to the choices that we make.
SPEAKER_03: How many of you know we live in a world today that doesn't understand consequences, doesn't like consequences, no accountability, I can do whatever I want to do, and I'm okay.
SPEAKER_03: That's the world we're living in today, but that's not God's world.
SPEAKER_03: That's not what God is saying to us.
SPEAKER_03: I I look at Pharaoh in Egypt and I thought I think to myself, that guy's really pretty stupid.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I mean, how many times did Pharaoh get warned?
SPEAKER_03: Hey, if you don't let my people go, what did he say?
SPEAKER_03: Flies in the water, blood flies, blood in the water, uh, frogs, gnats, firstborn has to die.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, Pharaoh just making kept making bad choices.
SPEAKER_03: And that's what happens with up sometimes.
SPEAKER_03: When your children sinned against them, it says in Job 8.4, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
SPEAKER_03: He gave them over to it.
SPEAKER_03: In Ezekiel 23, 49, you will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry.
SPEAKER_03: Then you will know.
SPEAKER_03: I'm the sovereign Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Romans 1.27.
SPEAKER_03: In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.
SPEAKER_03: Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
SPEAKER_03: What does the word due mean?
SPEAKER_03: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_03: You deserve it.
SPEAKER_03: Now listen, it's not politically correct to associate that verse with homosexuality, but I'm sorry and don't give a rip what politically correct people think.
SPEAKER_03: That's exactly what that verse is talking about, but I'm not here to elevate that to any place it doesn't belong.
SPEAKER_03: There's no difference between that and somebody, listen, somebody living together and is not married.
SPEAKER_03: There could be maybe some of you here are in that boat.
SPEAKER_03: God doesn't care where you are on some perceived list of what is really bad and what is not so bad.
SPEAKER_03: What God is saying is it's all bad.
SPEAKER_03: He's saying don't do those things.
SPEAKER_03: And if you're doing that, if you're doing you're doing smaller things and you're maybe even living together out of wedlock, and you're wondering why God's power isn't flowing through your life, don't wonder, guys, it's not gonna flow through your life.
SPEAKER_03: You gotta get serious.
SPEAKER_03: You're perfectly welcome to do that, and you're perfectly welcome to violate this verse.
SPEAKER_03: That's your choice.
SPEAKER_03: But if it's not your choice, if you really want to be a child of God and make a difference in our world.
SPEAKER_03: Does this make sense?
SPEAKER_03: Say amen if it makes sense.
SPEAKER_03: All right, okay.
SPEAKER_03: So, anyway, uh you'll uh in uh in 1 Corinthians 15, 33, it says, bad company corrupts good character.
SPEAKER_03: You hang you become like the people you hang with, guys.
SPEAKER_03: And that's just these are some of the you know some of the things that are gonna happen and the consequences that are gonna happen if we don't do these things.
SPEAKER_03: In order to demonstrate this, I wanna I want to use this filter.
SPEAKER_03: This is a uh a water filter for a filtration system, and I like to use a water filter because the Bible says out of us out of us should flow rivers of living water.
SPEAKER_03: I want you to think about this as being your choice chamber.
SPEAKER_03: Every day there are four forces flowing through your life.
SPEAKER_03: In a water filter, there's water flowing through that has a lot of impurities in it.
SPEAKER_03: The power or purity of what comes out the end of this filter is determined by how good a job the filter does of taking out the impurities.
SPEAKER_03: You're tracking with me.
SPEAKER_03: So in your life, there are four forces that are going through your life every single day.
SPEAKER_03: There's the world, the flesh, the devil, and the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: All four of those forces are competing for you every single day.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, on Sunday morning there's a lot of the Lord going through there.
SPEAKER_03: But what's happening on Monday?
SPEAKER_03: Mondays, sometimes I say Christians struggle from what I call moral schizophrenia.
SPEAKER_03: It's a truth learned on Sunday that's not applied on Monday.
SPEAKER_03: How are you filtering out?
SPEAKER_03: Because ultimately that's going to determine what comes out the other end.
SPEAKER_03: We are in the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know whether you know this, but in the Old Testament, Nehemiah is a powerful type or picture of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: And what Nehemiah is, he's coming as the Holy Spirit type to restore the walls of the city, which you can compare the walls to our soul.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, he's restoring the soul.
SPEAKER_03: And you've been hearing teaching from Steve that kind of move in that direction.
SPEAKER_03: But in today's world, we have the Holy Spirit who is here to help us restore and build up our walls, our soul.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you know this, but you know the Nehemiah, if you look up Nehemiah, the name means God has comforted.
SPEAKER_03: Look it up.
SPEAKER_03: That's exactly what the name Nehemiah means.
SPEAKER_03: God has comforted.
SPEAKER_03: Is that cool or what?
SPEAKER_03: It's such a powerful picture of what the Holy Spirit is here to do in our lives.
SPEAKER_03: He's here to build up the walls, he's here to help us filter out the things in our life that are not worthy so that the pure power can come out the other end that God intends to use.
SPEAKER_03: How do I overcome?
SPEAKER_03: How do I resist?
SPEAKER_03: How do I do this?
SPEAKER_03: There are two ways.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna close here in a minute with the one that I talked about earlier.
SPEAKER_03: The first way we're going to talk about in two weeks, and it's simply this focus on Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: In two weeks we're going to talk about that.
SPEAKER_03: Colossians 3 2 says, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
SPEAKER_03: But for this session, the second thing is get mentally tough.
SPEAKER_03: Subject the flesh.
SPEAKER_03: Here's some examples.
SPEAKER_03: Daniel 1.8.
SPEAKER_03: It says, but Daniel, he was offered royal food and wine.
SPEAKER_03: You remember the story, and it was looked really tasty and really good, but he had a greater purpose.
SPEAKER_03: He had a goal in mind and a vision that allowed him to make a commitment and say, no, here's what happened.
SPEAKER_03: He resolved, it says here, not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.
SPEAKER_03: And he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
SPEAKER_03: The word resolved in the New King James says he purposed in his heart.
SPEAKER_03: Daniel had moral courage.
SPEAKER_03: He stepped up and said, No, I am not going to do this.
SPEAKER_03: And guys, that's what God's calling for in us.
SPEAKER_03: We've got to have that kind of moral courage.
SPEAKER_03: In 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 27, it'll be in your notes, not on the screen.
SPEAKER_03: It's where Paul talks about beating his body in order to make it his slave.
SPEAKER_03: I love that.
SPEAKER_03: I beat my body.
SPEAKER_03: I say, no, you're my slave.
SPEAKER_03: Psalm 101.4.
SPEAKER_03: Men of perverse heart shall be far from me.
SPEAKER_03: I will have nothing to do with evil.
SPEAKER_03: Man, that's that's the kind of people we need to be, guys.
SPEAKER_03: Romans 13, 12 to 14 says, the night is nearly over and the day is almost here.
SPEAKER_03: So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
SPEAKER_03: Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness and sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
SPEAKER_03: Rather, listen, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: That has to do with what we'll talk about in a couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_03: Focus on Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And then it says this, and do not think.
SPEAKER_03: In other words, put out of your mind about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
SPEAKER_03: Get mentally tough.
SPEAKER_03: There's a story about a famous football coach, George Hallis.
SPEAKER_03: He's a coach of the Chicago Bears.
SPEAKER_03: Some of you may remember that name.
SPEAKER_03: He was a legend, actually in his own time.
SPEAKER_03: But George had a custom that he would do it every year.
SPEAKER_03: He'd be up in his office at Soldier Field looking over the field, and the rookies would come into camp to scrimmage with the veterans.
SPEAKER_03: The rookies didn't know this, but George would be up there watching them with binoculars because he wants to know what's going on.
SPEAKER_03: And he doesn't want them to know he's watching.
SPEAKER_03: But every year he would do the same thing.
SPEAKER_03: After he was done, or they were done, they would, the rookies would come up into the locker room.
SPEAKER_03: They wouldn't even shower, they're just sitting there, and they knew George was going to come talk to them.
SPEAKER_03: And they're thinking, boy, George Alice is going to come talk to us, you know.
SPEAKER_03: And so here comes George.
SPEAKER_03: He comes walking in, and they're all going, wow, George Alice, you know.
SPEAKER_03: And uh, and uh George would say, Hey, you guys want to make the Chicago Bear football team do you?
SPEAKER_03: And they all go, Yeah, we want to make the Chicago Bear football team, you know.
SPEAKER_03: And uh and he would say, I gotta tell you something, I've got to be honest with you guys.
SPEAKER_03: I've been I've been doing this for a lot of years, and I've been watching you guys from up here in the office.
SPEAKER_03: I've been watching your entire workout.
SPEAKER_03: And this crop of rookies this year, I gotta be honest with you guys, this year's crop of rookies, you guys are the most lily-livered, whining, pathetic wimps I have ever seen in my whole life.
SPEAKER_03: And of course, they're all sitting there going, Oh man, yeah, I hope he wasn't watching me, you know.
SPEAKER_03: So, so here's what he would do.
SPEAKER_03: Now, I want you, let's just pretend you guys are in the locker room.
SPEAKER_03: So I want you to answer the questions.
SPEAKER_03: I'm George Hallison, you're ready, you want to make the football team.
SPEAKER_03: So you gotta answer really loud.
SPEAKER_03: So he says to them, I saw one of you guys.
SPEAKER_03: You went across the line and some big linebacker hits you and you and you hurt your shoulder and you go winding off the field.
SPEAKER_03: Do you think that's the kind of guy I want on this football team?
SPEAKER_03: Oh, what about the guy who gets hit?
SPEAKER_03: I saw one guy that got hit, got hit a second time, and he got a little blood coming out of his nose, and he goes winding off the field.
SPEAKER_03: Is that the kind of guy we want?
SPEAKER_03: What about the guy gets hit, gets up again, gets hit, gets up again?
SPEAKER_03: All of a sudden he breaks his little pinky filler finger, or maybe he pulls a hamstring and he goes winding off the field.
SPEAKER_03: Is that the kind of guy I'm looking for?
SPEAKER_03: What about the guy who gets hit and he's up?
SPEAKER_03: He gets hit, breaks his finger, doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_03: He's up again.
SPEAKER_03: He gets hit, he's down, bloody nose, he's up again.
SPEAKER_03: He gets hit, pulls a hamstring, doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_03: He's limping.
SPEAKER_03: He's up, he's down, he's up, he's hit, he's up.
SPEAKER_03: He never, never quits, never comes off the field.
SPEAKER_03: Is that the kind of guy I want?
SPEAKER_03: No.
SPEAKER_03: I want the guy who's hitting these guys.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are getting hit and you're getting knocked on.
SPEAKER_02: And it's time to you to get back up on your feet and start hitting.
unknown: Back.
SPEAKER_02: Quit to being a victim.
SPEAKER_02: That's what God's looking for.
SPEAKER_02: He's looking for people that are gonna get up no matter what happens, and they're gonna move forward.
SPEAKER_03: And he'll be there for you if you're willing to do that.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: All right.
SPEAKER_03: Oswald Chambers, great quote.
SPEAKER_03: He says this God will sometimes not reveal more truth about himself, says God will never reveal more truth about himself until you've obeyed what you already know.
SPEAKER_03: So God's not looking for perfection, he's looking for you to just move forward.
SPEAKER_03: Obey where you are now.
SPEAKER_03: You're wondering why I can't know more about God?
SPEAKER_03: I can't get more revelation about what he wants.
SPEAKER_03: Obey, obey, obey.
SPEAKER_03: That's what the Bible keeps telling us.
SPEAKER_03: 1 Peter 1:22.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, now that you have purified yourselves by obeying.
SPEAKER_03: God's promises, he says in Matthew 5, 8, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
SPEAKER_03: 1 Peter 3, 11 and 12, he must turn from evil and do good.
SPEAKER_03: Seek peace and pursue it.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, for the eyes of the Lord are on the what?
SPEAKER_03: Righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayer.
SPEAKER_03: I remember asking Coach McCartney one day, Coach, what if you send a million men to Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_03: to pray for our nation and none of them are righteous?
SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's a rhetorical question, obviously, but I don't think God's impressed with our political statements or our numbers.
SPEAKER_03: God's impressed with what's in here.
SPEAKER_03: He's impressed with purity, his power.
SPEAKER_03: I'd rather have five people that are pure and righteous in the steps of Washington praying for my nation than a million who aren't.
SPEAKER_03: It's not about that, guys.
SPEAKER_03: It's important for us to get this.
SPEAKER_03: Turn from evil and do good.
SPEAKER_03: First Peter.
SPEAKER_03: Seek peace and pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.
SPEAKER_03: James 4, 7, summary verse.
SPEAKER_03: Submit yourselves then to God.
SPEAKER_03: Submit to God.
SPEAKER_03: That's the focus on Jesus, which we'll cover in two weeks.
SPEAKER_03: And then it says this resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
SPEAKER_03: Get mentally tough.
SPEAKER_03: I just want to conclude with a final illustration.
SPEAKER_03: This is a true story about my days of attending church at Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California.
SPEAKER_03: Many of you know that, of course, is the ministry of Pastor Jack Hayford.
SPEAKER_03: It was back in the 70s.
SPEAKER_03: I was a uh pretty new believer back then.
SPEAKER_03: And I uh some of you have heard my story.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, if you haven't heard my story, you can go on to our website here or go on to my website at otm.co, and it's there called I forget, Amazed by the Grace of God or something like that.
SPEAKER_03: It was anyway, it's I'm just amazed that God could turn a life like mine around.
SPEAKER_03: I was pretty bad.
SPEAKER_03: And some of you have heard that, and I've we've taught it here.
SPEAKER_03: So I've got, I'm sitting there, and I'm pretty new believer, and Pastor Jack is coming out for the sermon.
SPEAKER_03: And I've got a list a mile long of the crud in my life that I gotta get rid of.
SPEAKER_03: So that's the context of what's about to happen.
SPEAKER_03: So Pastor Jack comes out and he says, you know, today um I am not going to be sharing with you.
SPEAKER_03: I have a confession to make as your pastor.
SPEAKER_03: By the way, this is a big church, a lot of people, okay?
SPEAKER_03: I I've got a confession to make.
SPEAKER_03: It's something I need to confess publicly that I am not proud of.
SPEAKER_03: I am not proud of that I have to confess this, but I am at a point where I need to get control of this in my life, and I need to confess it to you, the people.
SPEAKER_03: Now, I don't know how much you know about Pastor Jack, but somebody once said that Pastor Jack is kind of like the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_03: He could write an entire book and it would be like one paragraph.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, he just goes on and on and on.
SPEAKER_03: So it took him 15 minutes to get to what he had to confess.
SPEAKER_03: And along the way, I mean, I everybody's on the edge of their seat.
SPEAKER_03: What did he do?
SPEAKER_03: I mean, come on, Pastor Jack, just tell us what you did.
SPEAKER_03: You know, oh, I've been trying to deal with this my whole life.
SPEAKER_03: Today's the day I want to put a stake in the ground and get over this.
SPEAKER_03: He's just going on and on and on.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm thinking, I mean, real seriously, I am really frustrated.
SPEAKER_03: Just tell us what it is, Pastor Jack.
SPEAKER_03: And he just goes on and on.
SPEAKER_03: He finally says, okay, so today's the day.
SPEAKER_03: I've made up my mind.
SPEAKER_03: I need your prayers.
SPEAKER_03: Today's the day I'm gonna put a stake in the ground, and I'm finally giving up Diet Coke.
SPEAKER_01: Diet Coke?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: I got a list a mile long.
SPEAKER_01: How long is it gonna take for me to get down here to Diet Coke?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, give me a break.
SPEAKER_02: So here's my here's my takeaway from that.
SPEAKER_02: Here's my takeaway.
SPEAKER_03: God is not concerned.
SPEAKER_03: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_03: About where you are on your list.
SPEAKER_03: For some of you, it may be Diet Coke.
SPEAKER_03: That's good.
SPEAKER_03: For others of you, it could be something really bad.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: God's not concerned about where you are right now.
SPEAKER_02: What he's concerned about is whether you're willing to stay there or whether you're willing to make a commitment today.
SPEAKER_02: Get rid of that and move on.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road.
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SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
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SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning in today.
SPEAKER_00: Be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road.