Jeff Miller

September 29, 2019

Walk Wisely

Walk Wisely - Sin Never Brings Success

Jeff Miller

September 29, 2019

Walk Wisely

Introduction:

Proverbs 28:14 - Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

Hard Hearted? You're Only Hurting Yourself!

Proverbs 28:7 - The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding, but a companion of gluttons shames his father.

John 14:15 - If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Dad Talk (heart to heart), from our Heavenly Father:

John 15:10 - If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.

Work Ethic / Poverty

Prov 10:4 - A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

Neighbors / Co-workers

Prov 11:12 - Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.

Money

Prov 11:24 - One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.

Friends

Prov 13:20 - Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Contentment

Prov 14:30 - A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.

Confession / Repentance

Prov 28:13 - Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:47-00:51
Open your Bibles with me, please, to Proverbs 28.
00:52-01:17
Again, this is our last message in our series called "Walk Wisely." And the title of today's message is "Sin Never Brings Success." Or, "Hard-Hearted, You're Only Hurting Yourself." Proverbs 28, we're going to focus on verse 14.
01:20-01:43
Proverbs 28.14 says, "Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity." Breaking that down, we defined the fear of the Lord in the first message in our series.
01:44-01:51
The fear of the Lord is living with this active awareness of God's constant presence in my life.
01:51-01:52
That's what the fear of the Lord is.
01:53-01:57
I know that God is with me, and He is watching me, and He is guiding me.
01:57-02:03
And I live with this understanding that the Lord is with me.
02:03-02:04
That's the fear of the Lord.
02:07-02:12
We want to close this series with the warning that comes in the second half of this verse.
02:14-02:31
"Whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity." In other words, with everything that we've said the past two months, between myself and Alex Gianetti and Pastor Bob Huber, you can ignore all of it.
02:33-02:34
But you're only hurting yourself.
02:36-02:40
I mean, we've covered just a few of the topics that Proverbs covers.
02:40-02:43
We talked about seduction-destruction.
02:43-02:48
Remember, we talked about the danger of flirting with an inappropriate relationship.
02:48-02:52
We talked about dealing with offenses and overlooking offenses.
02:52-02:53
And we talked about meddling.
02:54-02:56
Remember, stop grabbing random dogs.
02:56-02:59
Stop getting in fights that have nothing to do with you.
02:59-03:01
We talked about laziness.
03:02-03:03
We talked about gluttony.
03:04-03:05
Alex talked about money.
03:06-03:13
And you can ignore all of this, but you're only hurting yourself.
03:15-03:20
You can harden your heart, and you can persist on doing things your way instead of God's way.
03:21-03:39
And according to this verse, when you do that, when you harden your heart, when you look at God's Word, when you hear God's Word and say, "No, I'm still going to do what I want to do," God's promise is you're going to fall into calamity, and you only have yourself to blame.
03:41-03:47
Disregard God's Word, you'll suffer for it, because sin never brings success.
03:50-04:35
But someone, someone will say, "Well, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I don't agree." Like Frank Sinatra, "I do it my way, and I'm doing okay." Or they say, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, I know someone who has a complete disregard for God and God's Word, and they're doing just fine." So what's this nonsense of, "Oh, if I don't live according to God's standards, I'm going to fall into calamity." And I don't believe that, Because I see people, and I've experienced it, they disregard God's Word, they're doing okay for themselves.
04:36-04:41
Well, many years ago, I was at the barbershop.
04:43-04:47
And as often happens when a group of guys are in the barbershop, we were talking about sports.
04:48-04:55
And at the time, this was many years ago, but at the time, I was actively involved in sports.
04:55-04:58
and that kind of came up in the conversation.
04:58-05:08
My barber, who I had a great relationship with, introduced me to this guy who was sitting there, and this guy that was sitting there, he was about the unhealthiest looking person you've ever seen.
05:10-05:19
You know, I'm not trying to say anything shameful or offensive, he was just an extremely unhealthy looking man.
05:20-05:34
As we were talking about sports and my involvement in sports and such, This man said, "Don't do steroids." I was a little offended that that was his assumption was that I did.
05:35-05:39
I would have rather he assumed that I did, but that's not where he went.
05:39-05:44
He was just like, "Well, this guy obviously doesn't do steroids." So I let it pass.
05:44-05:45
I overlooked the offense.
05:45-05:48
But he was serious.
05:48-05:52
He goes, "Don't do steroids." I never have.
05:53-05:54
You all look shocked.
05:56-05:57
Honest, I never have.
05:58-06:00
We know, we know, we know.
06:03-06:22
I told the man, I said, "I've never done steroids." I said, "I know a lot of guys that do, but I've never done that." He goes, "Steroids will ruin you." He goes, "I'm telling you young man, stay away from steroids." I'm like, "Okay. Message received.
06:22-06:24
thank you very much for that.
06:25-06:26
Well, he left.
06:26-06:27
He didn't get his hair cut.
06:27-06:28
Apparently, he was just there to hang out.
06:31-06:33
But when he left, my barber said, do you know who that guy was?
06:35-06:36
And I'm like, pfft.
06:36-06:37
I have no idea who that guy was.
06:37-06:38
I've never seen him before.
06:39-06:44
He was just some older man, very unhealthy looking man.
06:44-06:45
I had no idea who he was.
06:46-06:50
My barber said-- he was an award-winning bodybuilder.
06:51-06:57
She said, "Back in the day, that guy was jacked." I'm like, "That guy?
06:58-07:03
That guy was jacked?" I'm like, "That guy looks like he's never seen the inside of a gym.
07:04-07:07
That guy doesn't even look like he knows a guy named Jim.
07:07-07:11
I mean, that guy looks like the furthest thing from anything Jim related.
07:12-07:17
Like that guy was like Mr. Olympia." And Barbara's like, "Oh yeah, you should have seen him back in the day, man.
07:18-07:36
He was ripped." And I'm like, "Oh, now I understand why he was so adamant about telling me to avoid steroids." Like, "Why are you telling me this story?" Because here's the thing.
07:38-07:40
Sin is like steroids.
07:43-07:47
Because steroids in the moment...
07:47-07:51
"Hey, this is working great! Look at how ripped I am!
07:51-08:00
Look at my performance! I am excelling and I am crushing the ball!" And in the moment, it's great.
08:02-08:05
But as this man testified, it catches up with you eventually.
08:06-08:08
And we've all heard the stories, haven't we?
08:10-08:17
And I want to tell you, if you're sitting here thinking, "Well, I live my own way and it's never hurt me none." "Hey, sin is like steroids.
08:18-08:19
You might think you're doing great now.
08:19-08:30
You might think you're crushing it now, but it is going to catch up to you eventually." Rejecting God's wisdom never lands you in a good place.
08:32-08:34
Sin doesn't bring success.
08:35-08:38
You harden your heart, you're going to fall into calamity.
08:38-08:39
You will ruin your marriage.
08:40-08:42
You will lose your job.
08:42-08:47
And if you refuse to come to Jesus Christ, you will forfeit eternal life.
08:48-08:50
Sin doesn't take you anywhere good.
08:52-09:02
And in this series, we've been ultra-specific, but now we're going to take a giant step back, and I want us to look at Proverbs, and I want us to look at God's Word as a whole.
09:03-09:08
And today we're going to talk about your attitude towards the Word of God.
09:09-09:11
Because this shapes everything.
09:13-09:16
Your attitude concerning God's commands.
09:17-09:28
Proverbs 28.7 says, "The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding, but a companion of gluttons shames his father." We had a whole message on gluttony.
09:28-09:29
We're not going to talk about that today.
09:30-09:31
I want you to see the first part of this verse.
09:31-09:39
It says, "The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding." The one who keeps the law.
09:39-09:48
And right now somebody's like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Pastor Jeff, hang on a second, you know, it's about a relationship with God, it's not about obedience to His Word.
09:48-09:50
Pastor Jeff, do you even New Testament?
09:51-09:53
Because what you're saying right now sounds awfully legalistic.
09:54-10:03
You've got to obey the law, you've got to keep the law." I want you to hear this, because so many people get this so messed up.
10:06-10:13
Obedience to the Word of God is not the opposite of having a relationship with God.
10:13-10:22
In fact, the church, hear me, obedience to the Word of God is the key component to your walk with God.
10:24-10:28
You're like, "Where'd you come up with that?" Jesus said it!
10:31-10:33
Look, John 14, 15.
10:34-10:42
Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." You can say that in the negative.
10:43-10:46
In other words, if you don't love Christ, you're not going to keep His commandments.
10:46-10:48
And you can even switch it.
10:48-10:50
If you don't keep His commandments, do you know what that proves?
10:51-10:52
It proves you don't love Christ.
10:53-11:00
But when you seek to incorporate God's Word into your life, "I want to keep the commandments of God by your spirit.
11:00-11:05
I want to keep your commandments as proof that you love Christ.
11:05-11:07
He said it again, John 15:10.
11:07-11:25
Jesus said, "Look at this. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." You see, I obey the Word of God, not to earn God's love.
11:26-11:28
He's given that. That's grace.
11:29-11:33
But I obey God's commands because I love God.
11:34-11:43
And I recognize, hear this, I recognize that His commandments bless the person who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, walks wisely in them.
11:45-11:54
As we've been going through Proverbs, you see Proverbs was written from the perspective of a dad giving advice to his son.
11:54-11:56
You have to see that in Proverbs.
11:57-11:59
Did your dad ever give you good advice?
12:01-12:16
Did your dad ever sit down with you and say, "Hey, son, I'm going to tell you how to manage your money." Or, "Son, I'm going to tell you how to have a good work ethic," or whatever advice you may have received from your dad.
12:18-12:23
But if your dad gave you good advice on something, and you had this attitude, "You know what?
12:23-12:28
I hear what dad's saying, but I don't have to obey my dad.
12:28-12:31
Like, if I disobey dad, it's not like he's going to kick me out of the family, right?
12:31-12:35
I mean, I'm going to be dad's kid whether I receive his word or not.
12:36-12:41
So I can just completely disregard because my relationship with my dad isn't based on obedience.
12:42-12:44
So I'm just going to do what I want to do.
12:44-12:46
Like, how foolish would that be?
12:49-12:56
The Proverbs is advice, so to speak, from the living God.
12:57-13:09
Proverbs is your heavenly Father, your perfect heavenly Father, sitting down with you, giving you wisdom for your walk through navigating this earth.
13:09-13:13
How foolish would we be to disregard His Word?
13:15-13:18
You have to see that God's commands They're not arbitrary.
13:21-13:22
It comes from a heart of love.
13:23-13:26
As we close this series, church, you have to see God's Word like this.
13:26-13:27
He loves you.
13:28-13:29
And He wants what's best for you.
13:29-13:35
And receiving God's Word is for your benefit.
13:35-13:40
And disregarding His Word will take you to a bad place.
13:40-13:52
And Proverbs 28:7 says, "The one who keeps the law "A son with understanding." In other words, the son of understanding gets this.
13:52-13:54
Like, I get what Dad's saying.
13:55-13:56
And I understand.
13:58-14:00
I want to speak in human terms for a couple of moments.
14:02-14:07
What motivates a son to obey his dad?
14:08-14:09
What's the motivator?
14:11-14:14
And the answer is really, it depends on what age you ask him, right?
14:15-14:17
What motivates a five-year-old son to obey his dad?
14:18-14:19
Fear.
14:20-14:23
I have to obey him because he's way bigger than me.
14:24-14:24
Right?
14:26-14:26
Right?
14:28-14:30
That's what motivates a five-year-old to obey his dad.
14:31-14:39
But take that same five-year-old, fast forward 11 years, what motivates a 16-year-old son to obey his dad?
14:41-14:43
It's not fear, it's reward, right?
14:43-14:51
It's, "I better do what Dad says because I want to borrow the car this weekend." Right? True or false? Come on.
14:51-14:52
True or false?
14:53-14:53
Alright.
14:54-14:56
I see some people looking around, okay.
14:56-14:59
Looking around and smiling tells me that we hit a nerve here.
15:01-15:04
So age 5, I obey Dad because I'm afraid of him.
15:05-15:06
There's fear. There's a healthy fear.
15:07-15:08
Age 16, it's reward.
15:08-15:10
I want something and I benefit.
15:12-15:17
It motivates a son at age 30 to heed his father's advice.
15:18-15:18
You know what it is?
15:20-15:21
It's understanding.
15:23-15:32
It's, "I'm doing what Dad says because I see it now." He was right.
15:34-15:35
I'm 44 now.
15:37-15:43
And every year, I understand my Father a little bit more.
15:44-15:47
Oh, that's why He said that.
15:47-15:49
That's why He did this.
15:49-15:50
That's why He told me this.
15:51-15:52
I'm like, I'm getting it now.
15:53-15:55
Every year, more and more, I understand.
15:57-16:03
And you have to see this progression to maturity from 5 to 16 to 30.
16:05-16:07
It's sort of the same in your spiritual walk, isn't it?
16:09-16:13
You start out as a baby Christian, what motivates you to obey?
16:14-16:18
You're like, "Because He is God, and I am not, right?
16:19-16:25
He's God and I'm not, and He's bigger than me, so I should probably do what He says." And that's a great motivation.
16:26-16:27
But that's like maturity level one.
16:29-16:34
And as we go further in our walks, we realize there is reward in keeping God's Word.
16:35-16:36
It's good for me.
16:37-16:38
I get a benefit.
16:39-16:43
Alex was just talking about, I get a financial benefit by managing God's money, God's way.
16:44-16:45
I benefit from that.
16:46-16:49
I benefit raising my kids the way God said.
16:49-16:52
I benefit loving my wife the way God said to love my wife.
16:52-16:55
I get a personal benefit from all of that.
16:55-16:56
I'm motivated by reward.
16:59-17:01
That's maturity level two.
17:01-17:04
Hey, fear and reward, great motivators, all biblical, yes.
17:04-17:05
But here's the point.
17:07-17:09
Maturity level three is understanding.
17:10-17:11
You say, "You know, I get it now.
17:13-17:20
I understand the whole spiritual foundation of why God would tell me to do this.
17:21-17:22
It's a reflection of His character.
17:23-17:24
It glorifies His name.
17:25-17:26
It blesses other people.
17:26-17:31
It's a protection for me." Do you understand what I mean?
17:32-17:33
Let me give you an example.
17:35-17:36
We open up God's Word.
17:36-17:49
So he said, "Okay, it says here that God says to forgive when I've been wronged." Maturity level one says, "Well, I better forgive people because God says I should forgive and He's God and that's just what He says." Great.
17:50-17:51
Maturity level one.
17:53-17:59
And maturity level two is, you know, I should forgive that person because it's gonna be healthy for me in my walk.
18:00-18:01
Forgive that person.
18:01-18:03
That's gonna be a load off of me.
18:04-18:05
That's the reward.
18:05-18:07
And that's a great motivation.
18:09-18:12
Maturity level 3 says, "You know why I should forgive people?
18:14-18:16
Because it's the right thing to do.
18:17-18:19
Because it reflects God's character.
18:20-18:27
That's why I forgive people." That's how a son is motivated to obey.
18:29-18:40
But on the other hand, just as there's a progression to maturity for the son who wants to obey, You can also see there's a progression into immaturity for the son who is not motivated to obey, right?
18:40-18:44
The son who doesn't want to obey, what motivates him?
18:45-18:47
The answer is it depends on what age you ask him.
18:49-18:53
What motivates a five-year-old to disobey his dad?
18:55-18:57
The answer is foolishness, right?
18:58-19:01
"I don't wanna!" Like, why don't you wanna?
19:01-19:05
"I don't wanna!" and that's as far as he thought it out.
19:07-19:07
Right?
19:09-19:10
Parents of little ones, right?
19:12-19:13
But it's foolishness.
19:14-19:21
And at age 16, what motivates the 16-year-old son, and when I say son, you get the sons and daughters, you get that, right?
19:22-19:25
You guys aren't so politically correct that you're gonna be offended if I don't.
19:27-19:28
All right, I'll start switching it up.
19:30-19:35
At age 16, what motivates that son to disobey?
19:37-19:38
The answer is selfishness, right?
19:39-19:41
I want to do what I want to do.
19:43-19:45
My dad is so out of touch.
19:45-19:47
My dad is so stupid.
19:47-19:48
He has no idea what's going on.
19:51-19:51
Selfishness.
19:53-19:57
What motivates the son to disobey at age 30?
19:57-19:59
Well, at that point, it's just flat out rebellion.
20:01-20:04
It's nobody tells me what to do, I don't care what my old man says.
20:04-20:06
My old man is not the boss of me anymore.
20:06-20:08
I do whatever the heck I want to do.
20:10-20:11
That's just rebellion.
20:12-20:14
You know how the Bible describes that?
20:14-20:15
It's hardening your heart.
20:15-20:17
That's what this proverb is about.
20:18-20:21
Whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
20:23-20:32
You see, Proverbs teaches these principles by contrasting wisdom and foolishness, righteousness and wickedness.
20:34-20:37
The Son of understanding and the Son of rebellion.
20:39-20:43
Proverbs gives the ultimate destination for the roads that each of them are traveling.
20:45-20:48
And that's what you need to see when you read Proverbs.
20:49-20:59
"Talking wisely blesses you, but if you refuse God's Word, you're only hurting yourself." Can you see Proverbs for what it is?
21:01-21:06
Because we're closing this series, but you're still going to be reading Proverbs.
21:07-21:10
And I want you to see Proverbs for what it is.
21:10-21:13
It is a talk from your heavenly Father.
21:15-21:21
It's like your heavenly Father, your heavenly Dad, sitting down and teaching you, for example, about work ethic.
21:21-21:23
Like Proverbs 10.4, right?
21:24-21:41
Proverbs 10.4 says, "A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich." Do you see that? It's the father sitting down and saying to his daughter, "Listen, you need to work hard, and when you do, you'll earn.
21:41-21:42
You'll succeed.
21:43-21:48
But listen, honey, if you refuse to work, You're going to be poor.
21:50-21:52
That's dad advice from a heavenly Father.
21:52-21:56
Walking wisely blesses you, but if you refuse God's Word, you're only hurting yourself.
21:58-22:01
We see dad teaching about how to get along with the neighbors.
22:02-22:16
Another example, Proverbs 11.12 says, "Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent." It's dad sitting down with his son.
22:18-22:26
And he says, "Do you see some character flaws "with your neighbor?" "Well, just keep your mouth shut, okay?
22:27-22:32
"Because if you go after your neighbor about that, "it's just not going to go well for you.
22:32-22:34
"You've got to live next door to these people.
22:34-22:38
"Do you really want to offend them and tick them off?
22:38-22:44
"What good comes from insulting your neighbor?" and dad talk to their heavenly Father.
22:47-22:51
We get a teaching from dad about handling money.
22:51-22:56
Proverbs 11.24, "One gives freely, yet grows all the richer.
22:57-23:02
Another withholds what he should give and only suffers one." You see the two sons in the verse?
23:02-23:03
You see them?
23:04-23:14
It's dad sitting down with his son saying, "Look, let me explain to you how God economics works, because it works different than people think it does, son.
23:15-23:17
God says if you give it away, you're going to get richer.
23:18-23:21
But if you hoard for yourself, you're going to be in want.
23:22-23:23
That's God's economics.
23:25-23:29
In other words, son, walking wisely blesses you, but if you refuse God's Word, you're only hurting yourself.
23:32-23:34
We get a dad talk about friends.
23:35-23:36
Friends.
23:38-23:42
Verse 13.20 says, "Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise.
23:43-23:47
The companion of fools will suffer harm." See the two sons there?
23:48-23:49
The son of understanding, the son of rebellion?
23:50-23:56
Here again we have Heavenly Dad sitting down and saying, "Listen, son.
23:58-23:58
Listen, son.
24:00-24:02
You act like the people that you hang out with.
24:03-24:03
You want to be wise?
24:04-24:06
Well, then you find some wise people and hang out with them.
24:07-24:10
If all your friends are idiots, guess what you are?
24:13-24:15
If all your friends are idiots, guess what you are?
24:16-24:18
Yes, you're an idiot.
24:20-24:23
You see in Proverbs, a dad talks regarding contentment.
24:25-24:30
Proverbs 14.30 says, "A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh.
24:30-24:35
Envy makes the bones rot." You see dad sitting down with his daughter.
24:37-24:40
"Honey, honey, listen to me.
24:40-24:42
It doesn't matter what you have.
24:43-24:47
What matters is your attitude towards what you have.
24:47-24:54
Because if you can be content, if you can have a tranquil heart, you're going to have a happy life.
24:56-25:03
And if you're constantly looking around at what other people have and wishing you had what everybody else, you will rot from the inside out.
25:03-25:10
Honey, I don't want that for you." The last one.
25:13-25:15
What do you do when you really mess up?
25:16-25:19
What do you do when you really mess up?
25:20-25:22
Well, back to Proverbs 28, verse 13.
25:23-25:39
It says, "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." And this proverb applies not only our relationship with God, but it applies to our relationship with other people too.
25:42-25:43
We teach this to our kids, right?
25:43-25:49
If you do wrong, admit it, and we'll deal with it gently.
25:51-25:56
But if you do wrong and you try to hide it, we're going to deal with it not so gently.
25:59-26:01
This is also true with our Heavenly Father.
26:03-26:15
If you're living in sin, and somehow you've deceived yourself into thinking that you're concealing it by avoiding going to God with it, you are not going to prosper.
26:17-26:18
And you're only hurting yourself.
26:20-26:35
But, God as a perfect parent wants you to do what you What do you want your kids to do when they mess up?
26:36-26:38
Parents, what do you want your kids to do when they mess up?
26:39-26:42
Come and tell me about it, and we'll deal with it, right?
26:45-26:46
Church, God says the same thing.
26:47-26:48
Look, when you mess up, don't run from Me.
26:50-26:50
Run to Me.
26:52-26:54
Just bring it to Me. Confess it.
26:54-26:56
The word "confess," that just means you agree with God.
26:56-26:57
Like, yeah, you know what, God?
26:57-26:59
I was wrong to do that.
27:00-27:03
You said it's wrong, and I agree it was wrong, but I'm telling you, I messed up.
27:05-27:06
And forsake.
27:08-27:09
Abandon your sin.
27:10-27:11
Confess and forsake.
27:13-27:14
That's biblical repentance.
27:16-27:26
God says when you do that, when you come to Me, and you have a heart to deal with your sin, God says you're going to receive mercy.
27:28-27:30
Your sin has kept you from coming to God.
27:33-27:35
You need to run to Him today.
27:37-27:39
Say, "Lord, I messed up.
27:40-27:41
I don't want to live like this anymore.
27:42-27:59
And today I am confessing and forsaking my sin and I'm crying out for the mercy that You provided through Jesus Christ." See, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, was to take your sin away.
28:00-28:04
And He's just waiting for you to come and receive Him.
28:06-28:10
If you haven't taken that step, today's the day.
28:12-28:15
Your other option is refusing.
28:17-28:26
Your other option is leaving here saying, "I am so glad that sermon series is over." Because that was like two months of being really uncomfortable.
28:28-28:29
Glad it's done.
28:31-28:33
And in that case, you've hardened your heart.
28:33-28:36
What did He say happens when you harden your heart?
28:37-28:38
You fall into calamity.
28:38-28:40
Nothing good is going to come from that.
28:41-28:42
Sin never brings success.
28:44-28:48
So, disregard it.
28:49-28:50
Keep flirting with that affair.
28:52-28:54
Refuse to overlook personal offenses.
28:55-28:56
Make everything an issue, please.
28:57-29:01
Every little thing anybody says, just get completely, irrationally ticked off by that.
29:02-29:02
Would you?
29:05-29:08
And make sure that you jump into fights that have nothing to do with you.
29:08-29:13
Just look for people that are arguing, and you don't even have to know anything about the subject.
29:13-29:15
Just jump right on in there.
29:17-29:19
Be lazy at work.
29:20-29:22
See if you can have a little contest with yourself.
29:22-29:25
"What's the minimum amount of work I can do every week?
29:25-29:27
Can I lower that every week?" Go ahead.
29:28-29:30
Just gorge yourself with food, right?
29:32-29:34
Nothing shuts this pie hole but pie.
29:34-29:44
Just keep stuffing yourself, and I don't need to eat this much, but I'm not legalistic, so, you know, calorie it up.
29:47-29:48
Spend how you want.
29:49-29:49
You know what?
29:50-29:51
Nobody tells me how to spend my money.
29:52-29:53
I'm going to buy whatever I want.
29:53-29:55
I'm going to put everything on credit cards.
29:58-29:59
You're only hurting yourself.
30:00-30:00
Right?
30:02-30:04
Because blessed is the one who fears the Lord always.
30:07-30:11
But whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
30:13-30:14
Do you understand that?
30:15-30:18
Are you a son with understanding?
30:19-30:22
Are you a daughter with understanding?
30:24-30:28
Do you get why loving Christ means keeping His commandments?
30:31-30:33
Then by the power of His Holy Spirit.
30:34-30:35
Let's walk wisely.
30:36-30:37
Let's pray.
30:38-30:41
Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word.
30:43-30:46
And oh Father, we've all been guilty of disregarding You.
30:48-30:51
I pray that we would see your word with fresh eyes.
30:51-31:00
There's so many people that think, church is about a bunch of rules, and the Bible's about a bunch of rules, and God, give us eyes to see your work for what it is.
31:01-31:09
It's you, our perfect heavenly Father, sitting down with us as your children, and saying, listen, I want you to succeed in life.
31:09-31:12
I don't want you to ruin your life.
31:12-31:14
I don't want to see you go into calamity.
31:14-31:15
So don't harden your heart.
31:17-31:18
God, You have all knowledge.
31:20-31:23
Let us receive Your Word for what it is.
31:25-31:27
Your commands are not burdensome.
31:30-31:34
They're for our good always, as Moses told Israel.
31:37-31:42
We obey, Father, because we love You, as Jesus taught us.
31:45-31:50
Father, give us fresh eyes to see your Word that way.
31:52-31:54
And see you as a dad who loves us.
31:58-31:59
Father, I pray that you grant us repentance.
32:02-32:05
Only your Spirit can soften our heart.
32:07-32:17
Father, for those of us in this room, who are going to be listening to this podcast all over the world, Those of us who have hardened our hearts, Father, we confess that to You.
32:19-32:32
Grant us repentance, Father. Grant us by Your Spirit the ability to forsake that sin, to walk by the power of Your Holy Spirit, to walk in wisdom.
32:34-32:39
We ask You these things, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Proverbs 28:7, 13-14
(If you like, review any other passages on relationships we covered on Sunday!)

What was your big take-away from this passage / message? What was your biggest take-away from this SERIES?
Tell of a time you saw someone ruin their life because they refused to heed God’s Word. (NO NAMES!)
How should we approach someone who is “falling into calamity” due to their sin? What do you say to such a person…?:
- If the person is a believer?
- If the person is an unbeliever?

BREAKOUT
Pray for one another to WALK WISELY as children with understanding (Prov 28:7).

Jeff Miller

September 23, 2019

Walk Wisely

Tearing Down the Wall of Offense (Guest Speaker)

Jeff Miller

September 23, 2019

Walk Wisely

Introduction:

Proverbs 18:19 - A brother offended is harder to win than a strong (walled) city, And contentions are like the bars of a castle.

Helping YOU to overcome the debilitating effect of accumulated offense.

The nature of offense

Luke 17:1 - And he said to his disciples, "Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

To not be offended is impossible!

The author of offense

John 10:10 - The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Satan - ministry of death, theft and destruction

The path of offense

Hebrews 12:14,15 - Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled

ROOT OF BITTERNESS - GOTCHA!

The remedy for offense

Matthew 5:23-25 - So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.

Matthew 18:15-17 - If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Corinthians 10:4,5 - and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Are you ready to be set free?

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:01
Good morning. Good to see all of you.
00:01-00:08
And it certainly is a privilege and an honor always to preach the Word of God, but a special one to be invited back to Harvest.
00:08-00:21
And I did want to say that Kathy and I and the North Street Church think so highly of Jeff and Aaron and their family and their dedication to the ministry and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:22-00:26
And I just admire them so much.
00:26-00:34
And in addition to that, I think it's just a wonderful thing that Jeff has been able to take four fellas, or three with him, to Thailand.
00:34-00:40
He's been there a couple of times, and I know what they're experiencing, and their lives are being changed.
00:41-00:44
How about anybody who sent one of their family members?
00:45-00:49
Everybody that sent somebody over there, your family, would you stand at this time?
00:49-00:50
Let those men go.
00:50-00:52
Let's give them a big round of applause.
00:53-00:56
Now I want to tell you when they come home, they will be different.
00:56-01:03
It might be as simple as, "I never want to eat rice again." Or, "I just want cheeseburgers and french fries for a month.
01:03-01:10
Let's not talk about that Asian food." But beyond that, they're going to have kingdom eyes that they didn't have before they left.
01:10-01:13
And when they start to tell you the stories, oblige them.
01:14-01:17
Listen to them. Try to get a taste of what they've tasted.
01:18-01:22
Because God has done a work and will continue to do a work in their lives this week.
01:22-01:26
And through them, He'll continue to do a work through this church.
01:26-01:28
And just a word of encouragement to all of you.
01:29-01:38
I just want to say thank you to all who are here to harvest for striving to be a faithful church unto our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
01:39-01:46
I honor you for putting forth the Word of God in preaching and teaching and prayer as enabled by the Holy Spirit.
01:46-01:55
We live in a day where churches like this one continue to make a clear example of what a church needs to be.
01:55-02:05
And just a word from the Hebrew writer who said, "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
02:05-02:21
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as some are in the manner of doing, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching.
02:21-02:23
Thank you for being faithful.
02:23-02:26
Today I've come with a very express purpose.
02:26-02:39
As led by the Lord through the inner working of the Holy Spirit, I come today to teach you and exhort you concerning the subject of tearing down the wall of offense in your life.
02:40-02:42
I want to make it clear I'm not here to give a nice talk.
02:43-02:46
I'm not here simply to be a fill-in while Jeff is away.
02:46-02:51
I'm not here to make some suggestions of some things you ought to do someday.
02:51-03:01
I have come to open the door for you so that you can do some much needed business with God and begin doing that today.
03:01-03:10
There's no doubt, many people in this room are primarily defined by their past offenses, by their hurts, and by their failures.
03:11-03:14
Each day is weighed down by the heaviness of the past.
03:14-03:17
Life becomes burdensome and incarcerating.
03:18-03:21
And when that happens, the joy is not visible.
03:21-03:28
And see, when that happens, you become handicapped in reaching the full potential which God has in mind for you.
03:29-03:33
So let me remind you here at the beginning, the world defines you by your past.
03:34-03:36
God does not.
03:36-03:41
Today's message, "Tearing Down the Wall of Offense," to teach you how to escape from your self-made prison.
03:42-03:45
Teach you to live freely by God's amazing grace.
03:45-03:47
Now where did I get that idea?
03:47-03:50
It comes from one verse in the book of Proverbs.
03:51-03:54
Proverbs 18:19.
03:54-04:08
And it says this, "A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle." It says once a person is offended, it's hard to get them back.
04:08-04:10
It's hard to become a friend again.
04:10-04:12
It's hard to make amends.
04:12-04:16
Because when we're offended, we do what strong cities do.
04:16-04:19
Back in the times of the Bible, cities would build walls.
04:20-04:21
And they would have gates.
04:21-04:24
So only those that they permitted to come in and out can come in and out.
04:25-04:27
And when we carry a fence in our life, we're like that.
04:27-04:29
We build a wall around ourself.
04:29-04:32
It starts out, we think, we're just protecting ourselves.
04:33-04:46
But we pick up one brick of a fence and another brick of a fence and another brick of a fence, We start to lay the groundwork for that wall, and instead of protecting ourselves, we seal ourselves in rather than simply keeping those out of our lives.
04:46-04:52
And it takes over our life, and our whole life is defined by our reaction to offense.
04:53-05:08
The Proverb goes on and it says, "And the contentions are like the bars of a castle." It means the more you talk about it, the more you strive to fix it, the more you argue about it, that person just steps from behind the wall they've built, moves into the castle, and starts putting bars on the windows of the castle.
05:09-05:14
And once again, they think they're finding a safe zone, but they're actually destroying their own life.
05:15-05:24
So I see my job today as this, helping you to overcome the debilitating effect of accumulated offense.
05:24-05:25
Now think about that.
05:25-05:30
If you allow offense to accumulate in your life, it will debilitate you.
05:30-05:32
It will turn you into somebody you're not.
05:32-05:46
You won't even really like yourself, but you'll be so busy defending because you're so justified because of what happened to you, you're more willing to live that way than be free in Jesus Christ.
05:47-05:48
So look up here for a moment.
05:49-05:51
Let's say I'm a regular part of this fellowship.
05:51-06:00
And as some get together, I notice as the event goes on, your behavior changes and you're acting differently at the end than you were at the beginning.
06:01-06:02
You just aren't laughing as much.
06:02-06:05
There seems to be a heaviness about your life.
06:06-06:11
And if I came up to you and said, "Are you offended?" What's the normal answer to that question?
06:11-06:16
"No, I'm not offended. No, no, no, I'm not offended.
06:16-06:23
I just..." We have all kinds of ways of unexplaining offense.
06:24-06:31
See, one of the greatest lies in the church is, "I'm not offended." And I think we need to reckon with that. We need to deal with that.
06:31-06:56
Now, if you didn't like me asking, "Are you offended?" And I said, "Well, are you mad?" "No, I'm not mad. I'm just hurt." "So are you hurt?" "Well, not really. We just don't want to admit it, but I want you to understand that I think perfect synonyms for offense are'mad' and 'hurt.'" So who's not been hurt? Who's not been upset? Who's not been mad?
06:57-06:58
Who's not been offended?
06:59-07:00
Now, see these bricks?
07:00-07:04
I want each one of these bricks to represent a fence in our lives.
07:05-07:05
And this bag?
07:07-07:08
This is my hurt bag.
07:08-07:14
See, every time I allow an offense to remain in my life, I take it everywhere I go.
07:14-07:16
This is what my dad did to me.
07:17-07:18
This is what that coach said.
07:19-07:22
This is what that idiot guy at church did last Sunday.
07:22-07:25
And see, everywhere we go, we have to take it.
07:26-07:32
So I want you to be thinking about in your life, you know, how many hurts are in your hurt bag?
07:32-07:34
Now see, at night, we get the bricks out.
07:34-07:36
When we're resting, we get the bricks out.
07:36-07:40
When we're in our safe zone, we get the bricks out, and we start building our wall.
07:40-07:41
And we just add to it.
07:41-07:43
And then when we leave in the morning, see?
07:44-07:56
We get out there and we put them all back in the hurt bag and they go everywhere with us because if people just understood what happened to us, they would understand why I have to filter my life through every offense.
07:57-07:59
Now, we rehearse those offenses.
08:00-08:04
That's how we remain justified in our attitude and our behavior.
08:04-08:10
But just like the Proverbs says, the offended one is hard to win back.
08:11-08:14
And that's because he or she is just trying to protect themself.
08:14-08:16
That's all they meant to do.
08:16-08:18
But he actually is hemming himself in.
08:19-08:25
And the more you contend with him, he adds bars to the windows of that self-made prison.
08:25-08:28
So, let me ask you, who hurt you?
08:28-08:29
I mean, dads do it.
08:30-08:40
And brothers do it and sisters do it and uncles do it and wives do it and husbands do it and teachers do it and lovers do it and ex-lovers do it and bosses do it and preachers do it and enemies do it.
08:41-08:42
Uncles and cousins do it.
08:42-08:43
Neighbors do it.
08:44-08:44
Exes do it.
08:45-08:46
Kids do it. Parents do it.
08:47-08:52
And sometimes we have a big brick in our bag for God because He offended us.
08:52-08:53
didn't come through.
08:53-09:00
And sometimes there's a brick named self in that bag because you can't get past the offense of your own life.
09:00-09:07
So I'm asking that as I speak to you today, that you would consider to begin unstacking the wall.
09:08-09:11
That you would consider emptying the bag.
09:11-09:12
Now here's some motivation.
09:13-09:22
Whose offense in your life is stronger than your ability to agree with God to do the right thing today.
09:23-09:25
Don't you think the Lord wants you to be free?
09:25-09:29
Don't you think the Lord doesn't want you to carry the offense any longer?
09:30-09:40
And if you allow what happened to you as a child or in your dating life or in your career, or however it was, if you allow that to define you, then you're not allowing God to define you.
09:41-09:50
And you know, it's interesting, the person who offended you, it might have been 40 years ago, but they control your thoughts and your attitudes every day.
09:50-09:52
Do you ever think about that?
09:52-09:56
They might already be dead, but they have the ability to control you.
09:56-10:10
Someone once said to me, "You know, you will become just like the person who's offended you most if you don't let God change your life, deal with the offense." And it's so true.
10:11-10:17
The one for whom we have the most resentment has the ability to control and we become just like them.
10:18-10:31
John Bevere, who wrote a book called "Debate of Satan," says this, "Do not be afraid to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal any unforgiveness or bitterness in your life.
10:31-10:38
The longer you hide it, the stronger it will become, and the harder your heart will grow.
10:38-10:40
Stay tender-hearted.
10:40-11:07
How? Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God and Christ forgave you." Now I want you to do something. I want you to take your notes right now, and I'd like you to put the top three offenders, write them down.
11:07-11:10
If you don't want to put their names, put their initials.
11:10-11:13
Who has offended you? Who has hurt you?
11:13-11:17
And you have a brick in your hurt bag because of them.
11:17-11:34
If you don't want to write a name or their initial, put down a circumstance that has been life-altering, that says, "You know what? I never meant for that to define me, but it does define me." So take just a moment and list your top three offenses or offenders.
11:35-11:50
Almighty Father, just now I, Father, prepare to bring this congregation before You, that You, Lord, might begin to do surgery in one or two lives here, or maybe more than that, who knows.
11:51-11:52
But Father, some will not hear.
11:53-11:55
We just know that's the nature of the Word.
11:55-11:58
Others will be penetrated to the heart.
11:59-12:01
Some will be quickened from the dead.
12:02-12:12
I pray that you would give people the courage to hear what you say, so that they might find freedom, no longer being controlled by the hurt and offense in their life.
12:13-12:17
So let's talk today, first of all, about the nature of offense.
12:17-12:28
In the book of Luke chapter 17, Jesus said this, this is in the King James Version, "It is impossible but that offenses will come, but woe to him through whom they come.
12:28-12:36
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck and he cast into the sea that he should offend one of these little ones.
12:37-12:38
Take heed for yourselves.
12:38-13:02
If your brother trespasses against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him; and if he trespasses against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, 'I repent,' thou shalt forgive him." I just want you to see that Jesus said this, "To not be offended is impossible." So understand, if you say, "I carry no offense.
13:02-13:05
I've never been hurt, I've never been offended." It's not true.
13:05-13:11
Because Jesus said it is impossible for you not to be offended.
13:11-13:13
So let's get honest for a moment.
13:13-13:15
Raise your hand if you've ever been offended.
13:15-13:18
Okay, that would be everybody here I would suppose.
13:19-13:23
I won't ask you to raise your hand, but whose life has been defined by the offense?
13:23-13:27
Who continues to allow the offense to shape your life?
13:27-13:35
See, the Bible says that when offense happens, we should deal with it, and deal with it quickly, and deal with it over and over again.
13:35-13:36
That's what Jesus said.
13:37-13:51
And so we think, "Yeah, I tried that once, but it didn't work." But He said, "Even if it happens seven times in a day, and the person says, 'Forgive me,' He says, 'Forgive them.'" So how many of you ladies have had to forgive your husband more than seven times in one day?
13:52-13:53
You don't need to raise your hand.
13:53-13:56
Or forgive your kids more than seven times in one day.
13:57-14:01
See, the point is you don't want to let the offense build.
14:01-14:03
It will poison your life.
14:03-14:16
And you let it in once and think, "I can handle that." And then twice and think, "I can handle that." And then three times and think, "It's okay. It's only three offenses that I'm carrying." Pretty soon it seems normal.
14:16-14:19
But the offenses are robbing you of the freedom.
14:19-14:24
And they're changing you from the person you're meant to be into somebody you don't really want to be.
14:24-14:27
Early on, we all learned this lesson.
14:28-14:34
"If I don't look out for me, nobody else will." And that's how it all starts.
14:34-14:38
Now see, sometimes the offenses in our lives are totally unjustified.
14:38-14:40
There wasn't even a rhyme or a reason.
14:40-14:46
Somebody actually came upon you in such a way, you had nothing to do with what they did to you.
14:46-14:49
And that's a big offense to let go of, I understand that.
14:49-14:54
But there's no freedom if you let your life be shaped by somebody that came against you in that fashion.
14:54-14:59
Sometimes people's offenses are somewhat justified, because you acted one way and they acted another.
15:00-15:05
But instead of making reconciliation, you see, you just each go your own way, and that's how you handle.
15:05-15:07
But that's not what the Bible would say.
15:08-15:11
So I look at offense like this. I have a few comparisons.
15:11-15:14
First of all, offense is like a pyramid business.
15:15-15:21
See, you buy in, and then you recruit someone to help you carry the burden of your offense.
15:21-15:24
Now, moms and daughters are the best at that, in my opinion.
15:24-15:26
See, a daughter gets offended and her mom takes her side.
15:27-15:30
Or mom gets offended and she raises her daughter to take her side.
15:30-15:35
And then they both have the same view and attitude, all shaped by the offense of another person.
15:35-15:51
But when you get in this pyramid business, you get offended, you recruit somebody to carry your offense with you, and they go out and recruit two more, and they recruit two more, and they recruit two more, and pretty soon we have a whole generation of people in one family who are really defined by their offense.
15:52-15:56
And so there can be a line of angry men, a line of controlling women.
15:56-16:03
But if you could trace it back, it all came through the hurt, the offense of one person.
16:03-16:08
See, we just start building the wall to protect ourselves, but the protection turns into control.
16:08-16:12
And the control turns from self-control to control everybody around me.
16:13-16:19
And what appears to be security is actually a great big loud signal of insecurity.
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Did you ever notice that?
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Sometimes the people that want to run everything down deep, they're very insecure.
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And it's because they've not dealt with all that's happened.
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So a fence can be like a pyramid scheme.
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A fence is like the compound interest of a debtor.
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I don't know if you've ever done a payday loan.
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I never have.
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But I would never do one, I don't think.
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But it seems like with a compound interest of a payday loan, you continue to pay even after you pay.
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And you pay again and again and again.
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And as soon as you pay it, it's due again.
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And that's how it is with a fence.
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if you only partially deal with it, it comes back over and over and over and over again, and it will drive you into spiritual bankruptcy.
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Just like that accumulated compound interest of a debtor.
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And then I say, "A fence is like a ghost of yesterday, reminding you every day that you're in bondage." It's haunting.
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See, you say, "Why me?
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Why do things like this keep happening?" It's because we continue to add bricks to our bag or building our wall.
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When a fence grows, we have a tendency to project an old situation into a new one.
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It seems that nothing ever changes. Everything works like it did in the past, but it's because we built our own prison by a lack of forgiveness.
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You see, when your husband reminds you of your dad, and you transfer what happened to you at home by your dad to your husband, he doesn't get a second chance.
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And man, you know, if something your wife does reminds you of the hurt of a past relationship, suddenly she becomes somebody And I find oftentimes with men, it's their own hurt, their own offense that they're really angry at, but they take it out on those closest to them.
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So here's a little story for you.
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There were two men on their way to work, separate cars, both passed the same driveway of the same house.
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At the end of that driveway, there was a fishing boat for sale.
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And the fishing boat had a sign.
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I mean, the boat was there, the trailer, the motor, the vest, the fishing poles, all the gear, everything you needed.
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And the sign said, "Take it all for $3,000." So both of those men drove past that boat, got to work, sat down at their desk, and they began to dream about how great it would be to have that boat for $3,000.
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Now, one of the men was zero in debt.
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The other man was already $25,000 in debt.
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So I have a question to ask you. Which one of those men would be the most likely to go out and borrow the money to buy that boat?
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The fellow that's already in debt. Why?
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Because if I'm 25,000 in debt, what's 28?
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And if I can consolidate, I get a free boat.
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I got to make payments anyhow. So what's the difference?
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But the guy that has zero debt, he says, "No way.
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I worked so hard to get out of debt, there's no way.
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As much as I want that boat, I will not borrow the money to buy it." Now translate that from finances to the debt of offense.
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See, if you're already ticked off at 25 people, what's 26?
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I mean, if you already have sealed off this person, and this person, and this person, and you've built that brick wall, and this is that person, that person, what's one more brick?
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But if you get out of this offense debt, the first offense really hurts.
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And you want to deal with it, and you want to deal with it now, so it doesn't accumulate.
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So it is with our debt offense. We have to handle those offenses one by one.
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So there's a word about the nature of offense.
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Let's say something now about the author of offense.
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God is not the author of offense. Satan is.
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When Jesus was speaking about He being the Good Shepherd, He says this in John 10.10.
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He says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
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I came that they may have life and life abundantly." Now, if you're living under the weight of offense, you're not living the abundant life.
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God's not in control, the devil has you snowed under.
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See, Jesus said the ministry of Satan is this, death, theft, and destruction.
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Everything God is for, Satan is against.
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Unity, peace, joy, love, kindness, Satan's against it.
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Great marriage, the devil wants to destroy your marriage.
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A godly self-image, the devil wants you to take your own life, not live for God.
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Churches that function in unity, he wants to cause confusion and destruction and turn people against one another.
20:58-21:03
And so you see, He's a roaring lion waiting to devour.
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He masquerades as an angel of light.
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He's a master deceiver and the father of all lies.
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Now I say this, sometimes in the church, we don't give the devil enough credit.
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And by that I mean, we want to blame ourselves.
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We want to blame each other.
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We want to blame the circumstances.
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We want to blame the preacher.
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We ought to be blaming the devil.
21:30-21:33
The Apostle Paul says this in Ephesians 6.
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He says, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Do you believe that?
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I think oftentimes we left the theology of the devil at our children's bedside.
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We kneel down and we pray with them and say, "God, I want to be a good boy. I don't want the devil to have way in my life.
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I want to follow Jesus, not the devil." And that's as far as our theology about Satan goes.
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You believe in God, you believe in angels, then you necessarily need to believe in Satan and you need to believe in demons.
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They are just as real.
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I consider that while I'm preaching today, there's an army of angels and an army of demons warring against what you're able to hear or not hear today.
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This present darkness is a reality.
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And so the author of the offense comes from the devil himself.
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To be controlled by offense plays right into the hand of killing and stealing and destroying.
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Jesus said, "I came to bring abundant life." Satan has come to take it away.
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And so we've learned a little bit about the nature of offense, and then the author of offense.
22:56-22:59
Let me now talk about the path of offense.
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If you have lived your life carrying around that hurt bag, building that wall and trying to be justified, I want you to understand the accumulation of offense always takes everyone down the same path.
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It's not unique.
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You don't end up somewhere someone else doesn't.
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See, in trying to prove a point, believing they're getting even, convincing themselves they have full control, they are only getting bitter as the months and the years pass.
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That's where accumulated offense will take you every time to bitterness.
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Hebrews 12 verses 14 and 15 say this, "Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
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Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, (listen) lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by it many have become defiled." And so, you would see that you're a person who has a special case.
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That not forgiving, not being able to let go, by owning the offense which begins to own you.
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You think somehow you'll be able to handle it, and the Bible would say, "No, you're going to become bitter." See, the root of bitterness is the "gotcha." That's where the devil says, "Aha! I finally got you." Satan wins when you become bitter.
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Your life is dedicated to bitterness and becomes defiled.
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You started out with the best intentions.
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You were a lovely person, but now you find yourself unfulfilled, resentful, full of jealousy and anger, and you're the last one to notice, but everyone else does.
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You're somewhat of a bitter person, and people tend to avoid you and work around you because they don't want the poison to spread.
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And by the way, it is contagious.
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John Bevere says this, "Bitterness is a root.
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If roots are nursed, watered, protected, fed, and given attention, They increase in depth and strength.
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If not dealt with quickly, roots are hard to pull up.
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The strength of the offense will continue to grow.
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We are therefore exhorted not to let the sun go down on our hurt, on our anger, on our wrath, on our offense.
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Now instead, the fruit of righteousness being produced, we will see a harvest of anger and resentment and jealousy and hatred and strife and discord.
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And Jesus said, "These are the works of the flesh." These are the evil fruits of the works.
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Now pride keeps you from dealing with truth.
25:54-25:55
And see, that's where we're headed.
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Why wouldn't you unpack your bag?
25:58-26:00
Why wouldn't you unstack your wall today?
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It's because of pride.
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No matter how you add it up.
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No matter if you say, "But my situation was different." No matter if you say, "Well, if you just understood." Pride will keep you from dealing with this hurt.
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It distorts your vision.
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You never change when you convince yourself that everything is fine.
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Everything is not fine.
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Many people, and some people here, for decades, you have owned this offense, and now it owns you, and life would seem abnormal if you didn't have that hurt bag with you everywhere you go.
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Pride hardens your heart.
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It dims the eyes of your understanding.
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It keeps you from having a change.
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Repentance will set you free.
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But see, when we're full of that hurt, that offense, we would believe we have no need to repent.
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The world needs to repent.
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The offender - the one who hurt me - needs to repent, but not me.
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Pride causes you to view yourself as a victim.
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And your attitude becomes, "I was mistreated and misjudged, therefore, I'm justified in my behavior." Because you believe you're innocent and falsely accused, you hold back forgiveness, though your true heart condition is hidden from you.
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And finally this morning, let's talk about the remedy.
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Here's what the Bible says in Matthew 5.
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Jesus said this, "If you're offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift in front of the altar, go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.
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Settle matters quickly with your adversary." So you know what that says?
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It says, "If you've offended someone else and God brings it to mind, go reconcile with your brother." If you've been the offender, go make it right with the one you hurt.
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If you come to church and God says, "You need to go make it right." It says, "Leave church and go make it right, then come back to church." And in Matthew 18, Jesus said, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault." just between the two of you.
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If he listens to you, you've won your brother back.
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If he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." So that first verse said, "If you've offended someone, go make it right." The second verse says that if someone has offended you, go to him and make it right.
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I always found that interesting.
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It says, "You've been hurt? Go." You hurt somebody? Go.
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Who's the first one to go? You, every time.
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That's what the Bible says, if we're going to be the obedient Christians.
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Now there in Matthew 18 it says, "Now if someone sinned against you, go make it right between you two." That should work. That's not very often practiced.
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But if that doesn't work, get a few friends together.
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Get some family, have a family meeting and say, "Let's work this thing out." And if that doesn't work, just tell it to the church.
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It doesn't mean come up in front of the church and say, "Do you know what my wife did to me?" It means get the church together, let's pray about these things, let's work through these things together.
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And so it's always your responsibility to go.
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Now I realize that not every hurt can be dealt with.
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Not every offense can be handled, because that might have been so long ago you've lost contact.
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That person may be deceased, as I already said.
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There are some hurts we have to deal with on an impersonal basis.
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We have to yield it back to God.
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We have to make our heart right with the Lord, and let Him make the difference.
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In fact, the Bible says, "Never strive to avenge yourself." Because God, you see, is the one who makes it right in the end.
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We never have to go and get revenge. It's never our role.
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But listen to what Paul said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10.
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He said, "For though we walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh." It says, "Though we're human like everybody else, we don't fight like everybody else, because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds." Do you understand what that says?
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The offense in your life becomes a stronghold.
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It becomes the wall around the city of your life.
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You think you're in control, but you're in jail.
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And it says, "You don't fight these battles like the world fights these battles.
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We don't call names. We don't sue one another.
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We don't go after one another's reputation.
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It says we deal with these things on a spiritual basis.
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Listen, "casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." Here's the key, "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience to Christ." Every thought.
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So when you're laying in bed at night and you start to think, "You know what? You know what I really think?" You bring that thought into captivity.
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When you're fired up and angry, you bring every thought into captivity.
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When you wish you could go back that 20 or 30 years and fight it out, you bring every thought into captivity.
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That's what the Bible says, "Take every thought captive." And I'm so often reminded of the Apostle Paul having his thorn in the flesh.
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We don't know exactly what that was.
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Some say it was a physical malady.
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Some say it was blindness to his eyes.
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Why some say it was a person or group of people followed Him everywhere and tried to discredit Him.
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But I'm saying that in your life, the thorn in your flesh could be the hurt.
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It just never goes away.
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You've prayed to God like He did. Take it away.
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And when Paul said, "I prayed and I prayed and I prayed, three times I prayed, God take it away." God said, "No." He said, "My grace is sufficient for you." And that's where we have to get.
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See, it may never be made right in the eyes of everybody who knows, or who doesn't know.
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It's like this movie camera's rolling in our lives and at the end we're going to get in front of everybody and God's going to bring justification to our life.
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That will happen at the time of judgment.
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He will make everything right in His time and in His way.
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But for now, what God told Paul is what we need to hear - grace.
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Give it up.
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Put it in the bucket of grace.
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And God will get you through one day at a time.
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You can be free.
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You don't have to be burdened.
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You don't have to be defined by all this hurt and offense in your life.
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And you know what Paul went on to say?
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He said, "So, I'll be all the more glad to boast about my weakness, because Christ's power rests upon me." for Christ's sake, I delight in my weakness." He said, "I welcome my need for God.
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I delight in my weakness.
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I delight in the insults.
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I delight in the hardships.
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I delight in the persecutions.
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I delight in the difficulties, because when I'm weak, then I'm strong." Isn't that amazing?
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Paul said, "Here I am, just as I am.
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I don't have to prove anything to anybody.
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I just need to walk with God.
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If it comes against me, I just give it up.
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Give it over to God.
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And I can be a free man.
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On Monday nights at North Street, I have a men's Bible study and I have two men in there right now who both come from addictive backgrounds and both spent time in prison.
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And one night before the study began, they were just conversing.
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And the one said, "You know, before I went to jail, I had no freedom.
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But after I got to jail, where I had my freedom." And the other looked at him and said, "You know, that's right for me too." And it's so true until we get, you see, quiet, and we have to think about it, and we have to work through it, we'll never find our peace.
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When we're out there on the run, it's just go, go, go.
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And we think we're free, but we're in prison.
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And when we get settled down and go be free before the Lord, that's when we get free.
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So here are some things we've learned without offense today.
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We learned that offense will happen.
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It's a reality. It does happen.
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It's impossible that it won't happen.
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You and I have been offended.
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We've learned that we ought to deal with it quickly.
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In fact, before the sun goes down.
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The longest we should be hurt or angry is 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds.
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If you got hurt right when the sun went down, Don't let it last any longer than the next day.
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Deal with it quickly.
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A zero balance is the goal.
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Don't get into the offense debt.
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It says reconcile with your brother.
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Take every thought into captivity and turn it over.
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Now I just want to ask you, are you ready to be set free?
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I have to tell you, freedom comes more than once.
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Now the initial freedom that we find, the freedom from sin, comes when we're born again.
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When Christ comes into our hearts and makes us brand new people.
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But we still have a tendency to pick up a fence and get burdened and burdened and burdened.
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And we need reminded to be set free.
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So I want to remind you that the weight you're carrying is unnecessary.
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Because Jesus carried all of the weight of all of our offenses on the cross.
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The past offense, the present offense, the future offense has already been paid for, already been bore by Jesus Christ.
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1 Peter 2:21-25 says this, now listen, "Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps." He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.
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When they hurled insults at Him, He did not retaliate.
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When He suffered, He made no threats.
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Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.
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He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.
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By His wounds, you have been healed.
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I just want to ask you, do you believe that?
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Let me read that again.
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Christ suffered for you.
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Do you believe that?
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Leaving you example that you should follow in His steps.
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Do you believe that?
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He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth.
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Do you believe that?
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When they hurled insults at Him, He did not retaliate.
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When He suffered, He made no threats.
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Do you believe that?
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Instead, he entrusted himself to the One who judges justly.
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Even God in the flesh did not take it upon Himself to set things right.
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He gave it up to His heavenly Father.
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He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.
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By His wounds, you have been healed.
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Do you believe that?
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So let's make it clear.
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You do not need to carry worry or failure or sin or guilt or offense.
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Jesus paid it all.
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And for sure, you don't need to carry someone else's guilt or sin or failure or offense.
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Jesus did it for them.
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And so I just want to ask, was his life sufficient for the hurts and offenses in your life?
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Yes or no?
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If they were, you can leave here as a free man or a free woman today, unburdened.
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You don't even need to take the empty hurt bag with you.
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You don't need it anymore.
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Jesus said to this in Matthew 11, And I want you to take it personally.
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He said, "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
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Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls.
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For My yoke is easy and my burden is light." Do you believe that?
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Would you let Him or would you let Him again begin to carry the load that weighs you down so heavily?
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So I'm asking you today, will you take your hurt bag and will you take those bricks and put them in the blood-red bucket God's grace.
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Say, I don't need that anymore.
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I don't need that anymore.
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I'm not taking that with me.
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And all those offenses you rehearse every night to justify, it's okay for me to be hurt.
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Nobody else should be.
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I don't need that.
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I don't want the wall.
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I'm done.
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I've given it all to the Lord because His grace is sufficient, and Jesus paid it all.
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Let's pray.
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Almighty Father, we come before You this day, and I pray, Lord, that each one of us would be able to take inventory and to be real honest with ourselves.
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In a time like this, if we've paid attention and the Spirit's spoken to our hearts, we begin to analyze and consider what needs to change.
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But very quickly, Lord, we get our eyes off of self You know, my husband really needs to do that.
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Or my wife really needs to do that.
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Or my mother really needs to do that.
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But Lord, today is not about someone's husband and not about someone's wife and not about someone's mother or any other relationship.
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It's about each one here taking that deeper inner look.
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I thank You, Father, that Jesus paid it all.
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I thank You that we realize that a fence can have each one of us to build a wall around our lives just for protection.
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But soon it becomes a prison, and potentially we become bitter.
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I ask today, Father, that either right now or as we leave from this place, some people will be set free from the offense that has hemmed them in and weighs them down.
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It's all in the name of Jesus, the One who bore it all, that we pray, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Proverbs 18:19
(If you like, review any other passages on relationships we covered on Sunday!)

How has offense affected your life?
Who suffers most when our lives are governed by offense?
When offense is allowed to accumulate, what are the results:
- Spiritually?
- Emotionally?
- Relationally?
- Physically?
Read Genesis 50:20. How do Joseph’s words apply to the accumulated offense in your life?
Read 2 Corinthians 10:3-6. How will taking every thought captive aid in your path to victory in overcoming the accumulated offense in your life?

BREAKOUT
Are you struggling with a particular relationship in your life? Pray for one another to forgive and restore those hurt relationships.

Jeff Miller

September 15, 2019

Walk Wisely

Money: Lessons from Folly (Guest Speaker)

Jeff Miller

September 15, 2019

Walk Wisely

Introduction:

1 Kings 3:5,9 - At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you."...9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

Lessons from Folly (Prov 6:1):

Always be a Giver .

Proverbs 11:24-25 - One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Malachi 3:8-10 - "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."

Live the life that God is calling you to live.
Proverbs 12:9 - Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food

Proverbs 11:28 - Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
Debt is Dumb .
Proverbs 17:18 - One who has no sense shakes hands in pledge and puts up security for a neighbor.

Proverbs 22:7 - The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Ephesians 6:6 - Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money

Proverbs 21:30 - In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:47-00:51
Pastor Jeff has been speaking through Proverbs on a variety of topics, right?
00:52-00:59
On adultery, on wisdom, on gluttony, on being lazy, or a Biblical word for lazy is being a sluggard, right?
01:00-01:03
And so, today I'm going to continue on that journey.
01:04-01:09
And Proverbs is primarily written by King Solomon.
01:09-01:12
I think that that's a fairly well-known fact.
01:12-01:18
And it was written to instruct young men so that they can remain true to God.
01:18-01:25
And one thing that I think is really cool is the actual prologue to Proverbs, verses 1 through 7.
01:26-02:05
And it reads like this, "The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, for gaining wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair, for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young, let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance, for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
02:06-02:27
and my favorite, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." And so, what's really interesting about this, if you know and you've studied the Old Testament and you've read Kings and you know about Solomon, we know from the Scripture that all of his wisdom came directly from God.
02:28-02:40
So 1 Kings 3.5 - I'm not sure if we have that up this morning, but "At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." How cool is that?
02:40-02:43
That's the ultimate genie in a bottle thing that we all wish for, right?
02:44-03:08
That God would appear to us and say, "Hey, ask me for whatever you want, "and I'll give it to you." Solomon, who must have already been wise, says, "Give your servant a discerning heart "to govern your people and distinguish "between right and wrong, for who is able "to govern this great people of yours?" Man, Solomon was in his early 20's when he became king.
03:09-03:16
I don't know about you when you were in your early 20's, but there's no way in heck that that's what I'm asking God for.
03:17-03:17
There's just no way.
03:18-03:28
So how amazing, right, is that already, that he had that mindset, that attitude, that his heart was already in the right place to make such a request to God.
03:29-03:32
And Proverbs covers every subject imaginable.
03:33-03:34
You've heard a lot of them.
03:34-03:40
They're very simple and very powerful short statements of truth.
03:41-03:43
It's today's equivalent of Twitter.
03:44-03:45
Right?
03:45-03:48
It's these little tweets that Solomon was putting out there.
03:49-03:50
Solomon's just tweeting his thoughts.
03:51-03:56
He had 3,000 proverbs that at least are attributed to him.
03:57-04:03
And could you imagine being like one of Solomon's scribes, probably constantly rolling their eyes.
04:03-04:13
Solomon has a shower thought and he goes, "Hey, here's a good one, write this down." They're just, "Okay. All right, Solomon, I got you, I got you." But he's coming out with this wisdom stuff.
04:16-04:18
Twitter gets people in trouble, am I right?
04:19-04:20
So, we see this every day.
04:20-04:26
We see it with our own leader in our nation, that oftentimes he gets in trouble for Twitter.
04:27-04:29
Famous people use Twitter all the time.
04:29-04:37
they think that their fame allows them to make sure that all of us want to hear what they think about something, right?
04:38-04:40
And usually it just causes an uproar.
04:40-04:46
I'm sure there's probably a new, it's probably an actual word or term now in Webster's Twitter Wars, right?
04:47-04:49
We see that all the time.
04:49-04:55
So what would happen today to King Solomon if he tweeted 21 .9?
04:56-04:58
You familiar with verse 21.9 in Proverbs?
04:59-05:07
"Better to live on the corner of a roof "than share a house with a quarrelsome wife." Ouch, right?
05:07-05:09
Could you imagine if he tweets that today?
05:11-05:12
He would be in so much trouble.
05:12-05:14
He'd be called a misogynist, right?
05:14-05:17
Immediately there would be all kinds of uproar.
05:18-05:19
PETA would be upset.
05:19-05:19
Why?
05:19-05:21
Just 'cause PETA's always upset.
05:22-05:26
You know, AOC would make her own video now complaining.
05:27-05:35
The roofer union would just absolutely go after King Solomon and ask for his impeachment.
05:36-05:36
Right?
05:38-05:41
Probably better that Twitter wasn't around back then.
05:42-05:48
So this morning I'm going to be talking about what King Solomon had to say about being in debt.
05:48-05:51
I know it's not a sexy topic.
05:53-05:56
Honestly, it's one that, in my opinion, churches don't talk enough about.
05:57-06:12
One thing I love about Pastor Jeff and what I love about Harvest Bible Chapel is just the expository preaching, verse by verse through the scripture, 'cause when you do that, it is impossible to avoid the stuff that is really, really, really important in our lives.
06:12-06:21
It's easy to go out and create a sermon series that's flowery and nice and fills the seats, but at the end of the day, we need to preach the word of God.
06:21-06:23
And so I'm blessed to bring this to you this morning.
06:23-06:26
And so you may be thinking, well, what the heck are you doing up here?
06:26-06:27
Why are you here?
06:27-06:29
And that's a great, great question.
06:29-06:33
And I'll answer that question because I've been just about as stupid with money as you can be.
06:35-06:40
And the title of this is Lessons from Folly.
06:41-06:43
And I got that from Proverbs 6.1.
06:43-06:45
It's warnings against folly.
06:45-06:46
Don't be foolish.
06:48-06:49
Don't be foolish.
06:49-06:53
If you have the message version of the Bible, it's a little different, it's a little stronger.
06:55-06:58
But I was very foolish with my finances.
06:59-07:16
So, way back, my wife and I are fairly newly married, and we've got two little boys in the house, and we decided, we decided, I decided that we were going to be real estate moguls, and pulled equity out of my house, and started buying out-of-state rental properties.
07:16-07:19
We lived in Southern California at the time, sight unseen.
07:21-07:23
I'm going to go more into that a little bit later.
07:24-07:29
But what ended up happening is we accumulated a lot of property.
07:29-07:35
We accumulated 11 properties at 11 mortgages I was paying, one that I was living in and 10 rental.
07:37-07:42
I started that in 2004, we purchased our last home in June of 2006.
07:44-07:59
If you were around in 2006, maybe not in Pittsburgh, but the rest of the country and definitely in Southern California, there was this thing called the mortgage meltdown, and the real estate market absolutely imploded.
08:01-08:04
So I had quit my job to get into real estate full-time.
08:05-08:10
Stacy was homeschooling our boys, and we're at home staring at each other with 11 mortgages to pay and no money coming in.
08:12-08:13
It was brutal.
08:14-08:15
It was absolutely brutal.
08:18-08:22
So God blessed me with an amazing wife, and she stuck around.
08:25-08:25
Thank goodness for that.
08:27-08:28
We fought our way through.
08:29-08:55
I'm going to share some of that with you as we go on, but being through that and understanding what it is to be in debt, understanding what it is to feel absolutely hopeless, understanding that everything that you could possibly feel in that situation, and the struggles that you go through, and how it interferes with your relationships, I absolutely know what that feels like.
08:55-08:58
So I want to be able to come in and speak to you about that today.
09:00-09:02
We learn when we do stupid stuff.
09:02-09:04
I definitely learned when I do stupid stuff.
09:04-09:12
The thing that came to me just the other day was my mom when I was young, we'd have dinner at the table every day.
09:12-09:18
My mom would put down some pot, bowl, casserole or something and she'd say, "Careful, it's hot." What did I do?
09:19-09:21
Always touch it, right?
09:21-09:21
Pow!
09:22-09:22
Burn myself.
09:24-09:26
So I thought, that's dumb.
09:26-09:28
You learn not to touch hot things.
09:29-09:43
But then I was laughing because when we go out to eat, to this day, and usually if it's at a Mexican restaurant, the server will come and they'll be holding my plate with a four inch pad and they say, "Hey, careful, this is hot." And they put it down.
09:43-09:44
I always touch the plate.
09:45-09:46
I always touch the plate.
09:46-09:47
So I still haven't learned to this point.
09:47-09:51
So some lessons we learn quickly, some lessons maybe not so quickly.
09:52-10:02
But the first lesson that I learned during this whole part going through this is that you need to always be a giver.
10:03-10:04
Always be a giver.
10:05-10:10
Proverbs 11, 24 says, "One person gives freely, yet gains even more.
10:12-10:15
Another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.
10:16-10:18
A generous person will prosper.
10:19-10:22
Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
10:24-10:30
So during the time when things were going well, and when I say things are going well, we were going well.
10:31-10:38
Technically, you could say if you were to add up all of our assets, we were a millionaire in Southern California, living the dream.
10:38-10:44
We had worked our way up to a gated community with an awesome swimming pool.
10:44-10:48
And we would open it up to everyone to come hang out at our house any time we wanted, even if we weren't home.
10:48-10:50
We just said, just let yourself in, enjoy the pool.
10:51-10:52
And we were just kind of living the dream.
10:53-10:54
But we never gave.
10:54-10:55
We weren't tithers.
10:56-10:57
We weren't tithers.
10:58-11:08
We would do whatever was minimally required of us at church, or whatever we thought that the church was kind of spending on us, we would kind of give that back.
11:09-11:12
Kind of like, OK, we're going to make sure that we're whole with the church.
11:14-11:14
But we weren't givers.
11:15-11:23
So we deliberately withheld from God, and just as these verses foretell, we ended up in a financial mess.
11:24-11:31
And so, no matter where you are today financially, no matter where you are, you need to be a giver.
11:32-11:39
See, in the middle of our mess, when everything imploded, we walked up to our house one day, and there's a note on it that said we didn't live there anymore.
11:40-11:46
We were in the middle of a disaster, but we had already started our journey back, and we had started tithing.
11:48-11:51
And from the moment we started giving, everything changed in our life.
11:54-11:55
We started working our way out of the mess.
11:55-11:57
For the first time, we had a plan.
11:57-12:00
For the first time, we felt like we could see the blessings of God.
12:02-12:04
And it didn't make any sense.
12:04-12:05
It doesn't make sense.
12:06-12:17
Right? If I don't have anything, yet I'm giving fully my tithe the Lord and to my church every Sunday, how is it that I can end up with more?
12:18-12:24
Then I think that what we ended up understanding very clearly is that we're not the provider.
12:26-12:28
Stacy went back to work, got a full-time job.
12:28-12:33
I stayed home and homeschooled the boys and continued to work from home.
12:34-12:38
But she was the main breadwinner of the household, still is today.
12:39-12:44
And what we learn in that whole process is that Stacy's not the provider.
12:46-12:48
Chevron Corporation is not the provider.
12:50-12:55
The economy, up or down, isn't the provider or the blame.
12:57-12:59
What the minimum wage is, is not going to provide.
13:01-13:02
Overtime is not the provider.
13:03-13:04
The government is not the provider.
13:05-13:07
God is the provider.
13:08-13:10
Absolutely. 100%.
13:11-13:21
And when you come to understand this, and when you come to realize that 90% - mathematically, I get this doesn't make sense - 90% is greater than 100%.
13:23-13:26
God challenges us with this very thing.
13:27-13:34
Malachi 3.10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.
13:34-13:53
Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it." You know, there's no promise here that the blessings you receive from giving, from tithing, are going to be financial.
13:53-13:55
For me, yes, some of them were.
13:55-13:56
Absolutely.
13:56-13:58
We had money show up that we couldn't explain.
13:59-14:01
You know, things just started happening.
14:01-14:09
And I always tell the story that I felt like God was saying, "Hey, listen, I'm kind of being a fool right now.
14:10-14:12
I have all these blessings for you, but I can't give it to you.
14:12-14:13
You're just going to waste them.
14:14-14:17
So you get your act together, and I'll give these to you.
14:17-14:23
And as soon as we started behaving, as soon as we started trusting in God, then these blessings started showing up in our lives.
14:24-14:27
So yes, there was some financial blessing that we received, absolutely.
14:28-14:30
But the majority of those blessings were not financial.
14:31-14:36
Man, the majority of those blessings or things that are priceless.
14:37-14:42
That Stacey and I, you know, when you get in a situation like that, it's so easy to fight.
14:43-14:44
But we fought.
14:45-14:46
It wasn't against each other.
14:47-14:50
We fought with each other to get out.
14:51-14:53
We fought together to get out.
14:53-14:55
We had an incredible bond.
14:55-14:56
It strengthened our marriage.
14:56-14:58
It didn't divide our marriage.
14:58-15:08
Our family, you know, you get a household full of kids and you show them a certain lifestyle, and then all of a sudden it goes away and you start having new rules.
15:09-15:13
It's hard. Honestly, it's not fair for the kids and most kids rebel.
15:13-15:16
If you have teenagers and you're in that situation, that's a tough place to be.
15:16-15:20
I get it. Kids get upset and honestly, they probably have every right to.
15:20-15:23
That's uncool of us to do that to them.
15:23-15:26
But man, our kids were awesome throughout the whole process.
15:28-15:31
Then just the piece that we had amidst our storm.
15:32-15:59
walking up to a house and realizing that it's been foreclosed, you don't live here anymore, and we were like, "Eh, that stinks." "All right, let's move on." "God has a plan." And that's how we handled that. And then the diligence, the diligence to fight and claw and do everything possible to make sure that not only were we going to get out of this, but there's no way in heck I'm allowing my family to suffer anymore from this day forward. We're going to work our way out.
16:00-16:01
And that's what we did.
16:04-16:24
So, another thing is, as important as the offering is, as important as tithing is, I think the church as a whole doesn't do a good enough job at making sure we understand that giving is an act of worship.
16:25-16:27
And let me explain to you exactly what I mean.
16:29-16:33
How many times, or how easy is it to just pretend that that offering isn't coming around?
16:34-16:38
And the reason that it's easy to pretend it's not coming around is because it's halftime at the church.
16:41-16:43
What do we do at halftime, right?
16:43-16:54
If you're at Heinz Field today and it's halftime, you're gonna go to a concession stand, you're gonna get a beverage of choice, you're gonna go to Primanti Brothers, you're gonna work your way back to your seat.
16:56-17:02
But halftime at church, we get up, we worship, we sing and praise to the Lord, and then here comes halftime.
17:02-17:27
Halftime is we're gonna have announcements, we're gonna show a video, oh by the way, that thing's coming around, and it's easy just to mentally in our mind go to the concession stand and conveniently forget that that's the time that we are supposed to really, really do some introspective, be so grateful for what God has given to us, and trust Him then with what He has given us and say thank you.
17:29-17:31
You know, it's hard and we don't get it.
17:32-17:39
And I think that part of the reason we don't get it is we don't put the right emphasis on what a tithe is, what the offering is.
17:40-17:42
God doesn't need our money.
17:43-17:45
God created everything from nothing.
17:46-17:48
And if He needed money, He could print it.
17:48-17:50
It's not an issue, right?
17:51-17:53
The church doesn't need our money.
17:54-17:56
I know Jeff is freaking out right now.
17:57-17:59
The church doesn't need our money.
17:59-18:00
You see statements every month.
18:00-18:01
We've got a lot of money coming through here.
18:03-18:04
You need to give.
18:04-18:05
I need to give.
18:06-18:09
Because we need to make that offering.
18:11-18:12
It's about us.
18:14-18:16
It's about us trusting in God.
18:16-18:20
It is in order for us to be Christ-like, You have to be givers.
18:21-18:32
And the act of worship, the act of trusting in the Lord and saying, "Okay, Lord, I believe that 90 is greater than 100, and I am giving this to You." That is what grows us.
18:33-18:39
And as a result, what happens in this church when we become givers is unbelievably phenomenal.
18:40-18:42
And that's how the church is blessed.
18:44-18:51
The second lesson that I learned back when I went through this mess is to live the life that God is calling you to live.
18:53-18:54
We see it all day, right?
18:55-19:02
Facebook, Instagram, and you see everybody's living this amazing online, look-at-me life.
19:03-19:07
And we really like to kind of boast and brag about all the cool things that we do.
19:08-19:10
And we live in that social media world today.
19:10-19:10
I get it.
19:12-19:26
But I've seen so many people, and I was one of them, live their life in an outwardly fashion to please others at the expense of your own family.
19:29-19:44
Wow, that's rough. Why do we do that? Why do we do that? Contentment has to be the absolute first and foremost for us. We need to be content with where we are with who we are and most importantly with whose we are.
19:46-20:26
Proverbs 12.9 reads, "Better to be nobody and to have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food." So I was thinking about that and just this morning I made an adjustment and I thought, you know that's great and a lot of these, you know, Proverbs and parables and we hear them all the time, they're, you know, it was written at a time when and everyone could understand what they said because the culture was very, you know, it was all about agriculture and people understood these things and people understood really what it was like to have a servant back in these times and they certainly understood what it was like to be a servant.
20:27-20:34
And it's not the kind of slavery that you and I think of when we think of slavery and the horrific things that happened here in the United States.
20:34-20:39
There was servanthood that had to happen where you just had to go work for somebody.
20:40-20:42
Right, we're all servants to our job in a sense.
20:42-20:45
You show up and you have to keep working in order to pay things off.
20:46-20:57
And so sometimes you had to do that for a farmer or a land owner, et cetera, so that you could earn something, so that you could pay something, so that you could, you know, able to court their daughter.
20:57-21:03
I mean, there's all kinds of things in the Scripture where people became servants to do these kinds of things.
21:03-21:05
And I thought, what would this look like today?
21:06-21:10
If I could tweet out a Solomon proverb today, what would that tweet look like?
21:12-21:14
Here's what I came up with, I had a couple of them.
21:15-21:23
Better to drive a used pay for a car and put money away for retirement than to drive a payment and retire broke.
21:26-21:33
Better to live in a humble home and have money for your kids college than in a castle with kids who have student loan debt.
21:35-21:36
That's what that's saying to us.
21:38-21:56
You know, I think about my personal testimony and I realized, at the time that all this stuff was going on, Stacy and I were part of a church plant, a young church, and we were, you know, just like we started here at Harvest, we were meeting in elementary school, set up, tear down each and every Sunday, and I was an elder at that church.
21:57-22:05
We were so involved and 100% in on our faith, on everything that we were doing.
22:06-22:14
Christ was the absolute center of our marriage, of our parenting, our prayer life, with the exception of one area.
22:15-22:17
And when it came to finances, I was like, "Hey God, I got this.
22:18-22:23
"I don't need you here, I'm good." And that's exactly where I dropped the ball.
22:26-22:29
And so, who was I trying to please?
22:31-22:33
I had everything in the wrong place.
22:34-22:40
There's a picture up here that was taken back in 2005.
22:41-22:47
Stacy and I bought this house for $227,000 in Chino Hills, California back in 1999.
22:47-22:52
We sold it for $589,000 in 2005.
22:54-22:59
Why? Because that's what appreciation and real estate was doing in California right before it imploded on.
23:00-23:02
Look at those two little boys.
23:03-23:06
The smallest one is sitting here today, the bigger one is in college.
23:08-23:12
So that was the beginning of the end for us.
23:13-23:15
That was the beginning of our downward spiral.
23:17-23:20
I haven't done the math on the difference between those numbers because it makes me sick.
23:22-23:27
But instead of trusting in God, we decided to trust in our wealth.
23:28-23:35
It was right about this time, maybe a little before that, I would say maybe a year or so before that.
23:35-23:40
Christian, who's the oldest in that photo, was about three years old.
23:41-23:47
I remember he had found three pennies, and he was so excited.
23:47-23:54
If you have little kids or have had little kids, and you just remember you give a kid like a couple of coins, and they just think it's the coolest thing in the world.
23:55-23:59
He had found three pennies, and he was so excited and he put them in his pocket.
24:00-24:16
And so we get to worship and I get to church and I'm getting ready to grab him out of the car seat and lift him up and put him down so he could walk and unload the family and all the stuff that you guys do today, but our stuff wasn't nearly as cool as the stuff you parents have today.
24:16-24:21
So I'm grabbing him and he's not grabbing onto me because he's quickly reaching into his pocket.
24:22-24:28
And I'm like, "Christian, what are you doing?" And so I put him down and then he digs I'm just waiting for him to take my hand so I can get going.
24:28-24:29
We got to go.
24:29-24:30
We're always rushing a little bit late.
24:32-24:35
And he hands me this, and he says, Daddy, will you hold my monies?
24:36-24:37
Three pennies.
24:38-24:40
And I thought, oh, that's so sweet.
24:41-24:41
How cool is that?
24:42-24:47
You know, he didn't trust in his ability to not lose his money.
24:48-24:53
And he wanted his father to hold his money for him.
24:54-24:55
And we need to do the same.
24:56-25:05
And today when I think about that story, and as I was preparing, that accounting of that entered my mind, and it did two things.
25:05-25:07
It made me smile immediately, because I just thought how cute.
25:08-25:09
My little son, I remember that.
25:10-25:14
And then it absolutely pierced my soul at the same time.
25:15-25:23
Because he trusted me with his pennies, and yet I was there at the same time, where I literally had the thought when he handed it to me, I thought, wow, that preacher's right there.
25:24-25:24
That's awesome.
25:26-25:27
I didn't get it.
25:28-25:32
He's trusting me with pennies and I'm not trusting God with my dollars.
25:34-25:35
Proverbs 11, 28.
25:36-25:43
"Those who trust in their riches will fall, "but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf." And we fell.
25:46-25:47
Debt is dumb.
25:48-25:51
Flat out, debt is dumb.
25:53-26:12
Proverbs 17, 18, "One who has no sense shakes hands in pledge and puts up security for a neighbor." If you're familiar with the Message version of the Bible, the Message version of the Bible is in absolute plain language, plain English, and it literally translates that to being stupid.
26:13-26:14
It says that this is stupid.
26:16-26:17
And we don't use that word.
26:17-26:18
That used to be the S word in our house.
26:18-26:19
We don't do that.
26:19-26:21
no thank you word in the Gennetti house.
26:24-26:27
You may be thinking, "Well, really, everyone has debt, right?
26:27-26:30
I mean, why does God really care if we have debt?
26:31-26:39
What's the big deal? I mean, do we even know someone who doesn't have debt?" If you do, they're probably a little weird. Am I right?
26:40-26:44
Like in the world we live in, when we finance everything, everyone's owing on everything.
26:46-26:55
But God cares because there's such a spiritual truth that's found in Proverbs 22.7.
26:56-27:02
The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.
27:04-27:11
If you think about it, we all understand how this feels.
27:13-27:22
If you have to make a payment to anyone for anything, absolutely know what this feels like.
27:24-27:28
You know what it's like to be enslaved to whoever that is that you're making payments to.
27:30-27:34
Financial stress destroys every relationship we have.
27:36-27:39
It's the number one cause of divorce.
27:40-27:42
You know what's the worst part about that?
27:42-27:53
A couple who cannot get together financially and they struggle and they fight and they argue and they split up and now all we do is multiply because guess what?
27:53-28:00
Now I've got two broke households that are miserable and that perpetuates.
28:00-28:04
Kids get caught up in that mess and we all learn from our parents.
28:04-28:11
I learned how to handle money from my broke parents and I decided that I was going to change my family tree and stop that immediately.
28:14-28:25
Number one reason that students drop out of college isn't because it's hard or they can't make it or because of the workload or grades, it's because of student loan debt and the stress that that puts on them.
28:27-28:29
Here's the worst part about that.
28:29-28:32
The day you drop out, guess what starts coming?
28:33-28:39
Your payments. It's the absolute worst time to have to start paying things back.
28:39-28:42
If you graduate, you get a bit of a grace period.
28:42-28:46
But when you stop and quit, come right after you.
28:48-28:56
So I'm going to double down and I'm going to say that to dance with debt is dancing with disaster.
28:57-29:00
It's not the server telling you your plate is hot.
29:01-29:09
It's God telling you, "This plate is hot, don't touch it." That's no way for any of us to live.
29:10-29:12
Chris Hogan is a personal finance expert.
29:13-29:19
My wife showed me a Prager University video that he was on and it was amazing.
29:20-29:22
There were so many things on there that I would love to share with you this morning.
29:22-29:33
There's just not enough time, but the one thing that caught my eye was one in three people in America today could not cover a $2,000 emergency if they had to pay it in cash.
29:36-29:38
We live in the greatest country in the world.
29:40-29:48
We could go out right now, each and every one of us, if we were willing to go work our tails off and make $2,000 today somehow, someway.
29:49-29:54
Whether it's selling stuff that we're not using and stuck in our closet, we could figure out a way to do it.
29:55-30:00
Yet, one in three, 33 percent can't cover $2,000?
30:03-30:05
Something's wrong. That's sad.
30:07-30:09
I want to give you some encouragement this morning.
30:09-30:15
If you're losing sleep at night because you're worried about finances, I've been there, I get it.
30:17-30:30
If there's too much month at the end of your money and it's keeping you up, it's stressing you out, maybe you're living in a way that you're not even fully insured.
30:30-30:32
you're driving your car and hoping that nothing happens.
30:33-30:36
You're hoping nothing happens to your house because you're not insured properly.
30:37-30:44
Or worse yet, maybe you don't have life insurance, and your family is just literally hanging out there on the edge.
30:45-30:54
You know what makes me more sad than anything is when there's a tragedy that happens, someone's house burns down, someone passes away, and then there's a GoFundMe account for whoever was left behind.
30:56-30:57
No reason for that.
30:58-30:59
There's none.
31:01-31:07
For so many years, Stacy and I stuck our head in the sand when it came to the things that we weren't doing right.
31:08-31:10
I promise you that's the wrong way to go.
31:11-31:14
Because eventually the light switch comes on, you can't hide anymore.
31:17-31:19
Maybe you have no idea how your kid's going to go to college.
31:19-31:22
Maybe you don't have a penny in savings or anything in your retirement account.
31:24-31:33
I hear commercials where people quote that, Forget what the number is, but there's so many people today who think they're going to die with debt.
31:34-31:39
They're going to have to work until the day they die to pay off the debt or they just don't have money to retire.
31:39-31:41
I thought every bit of that too.
31:41-31:45
In a few weeks, Stacy and I are going to be teaching another round of Financial Peace University.
31:45-31:49
So if that's you, I want you to think about whether that might be the right class for you to attend.
31:51-31:52
It's easy to tune out.
31:53-31:58
Every time that we talk about this kind of thing and we talk about debt, and I know that it's uncomfortable and I get it.
32:00-32:05
There might be some people in this room actually who are really good with their finances, and so it's easy to tune that out.
32:06-32:11
But here's one thing that really came to me and it was powerful.
32:12-32:23
Because Stacy and I have done a complete 180, and we definitely have been honoring God in our finances long enough to the point where we have been very blessed.
32:24-32:55
And so for me to come up here and tell you that we went from a place that was absolutely horrific To a place where we feel honored and blessed To come through it and I told you that I wanted to change our family tree and we've done that Both my boys know if they ever borrow money from anyone. I'm gonna kill them So it's easy to tune out about financial stuff and I get it But I want you to think about this for a second.
32:58-32:59
Rich rule over the poor, I get that.
33:00-33:05
That clearly was written with a financial mindset.
33:06-33:20
But I want you to focus on the second part of that verse and it says, "The borrower is slave to the lender." You know that's true no matter what type of debt you owe.
33:22-33:24
Have you ever owed someone an apology?
33:26-33:32
How did that feel, knowing that you weren't willing to pay that back?
33:32-33:34
How did that make you feel?
33:36-33:38
Have you ever owed someone a favor?
33:40-33:46
Have you ever owed someone an explanation or a response?
33:47-33:50
Email, text, phone call.
33:51-33:53
There's some calls that I get we don't want to make.
33:53-33:54
I understand that.
33:56-33:58
Maybe you owe someone a thank you.
33:59-34:00
A debt of gratitude.
34:03-34:13
Have you ever borrowed something from someone and you just feel really uneasy until you can get it back in their hands either because it has value or if you ever borrowed someone's car.
34:13-34:14
How terrifying is that?
34:16-34:17
Why do we feel that way?
34:18-34:31
Regardless of what it is that you owe somebody else, money, some kind of emotion, or something else of value, it changes the relationship.
34:32-34:35
You are no longer neighbors or friends or even family.
34:35-34:37
You are master and servant.
34:38-34:42
At that very moment, we'll drive a wedge between the two of you.
34:43-34:45
You can't stop it.
34:45-34:46
It's unavoidable.
34:47-34:48
It's in the Scripture.
34:48-34:50
It is a spiritual truth.
34:52-34:59
And you're not going to be able to interact in a normal way until you are able to make whole with that individual.
35:01-35:11
And even then, sometimes, depending how that went, if it took too long, if it was awkward, The relationship is never the same.
35:11-35:15
And when that's family, that's really, really sad.
35:17-35:23
And that's why so many times we just avoid contact with people that we owe something to.
35:25-35:28
You have grandkids who don't talk to their grandparents for years.
35:31-35:34
All of us have some kind of personal or relational debt.
35:36-35:44
Even if you're a kid in this room today, teenager in this room today, you know that you have debt, emotional debt.
35:45-35:49
If you're a young adult in this room today, you have emotional debt.
35:49-35:52
If you're a parent of young ones, you have emotional debt. Let me tell you what I'm talking about.
35:53-36:00
If you, yesterday, Stacy and I were at an event and someone referred to us as post midlife.
36:01-36:34
Yeah, I thought, "Oh, it's a bit rough." If there's anyone else post-midlife in here like me, you have kids, or you, you know, maybe you come to the realization, if you're a teenager here today, what happens is you get into your early 20s and you start adulting for real, maybe get out on your own, and then you realize, "Wow, you know what? My parents had to put up with a lot of stuff for me." And you pick up the phone and you make that call, and you say, "You know what? Mom and Dad, I know that wasn't easy.
36:36-36:42
And then what happens is you find your spouse and you get married and you have kids, and then you think, "This is a disaster.
36:43-36:49
This is insane. I'm not sleeping. It's a nightmare." If you're the Howells, you're definitely not sleeping. They've got like nine kids over there.
36:50-36:54
I mean, get a hobby. So it's just one of those things, you know.
36:54-37:05
And so you call your parents and you say, "Mom, Dad, how did you do this without iPads?" iPads, right? How did you do this without YouTube? There's no internet. I don't understand.
37:05-39:19
This is hard. Thank you. Thank you for what you've done. Sometimes you don't even know, we don't even know what we owe to others. But when you have that and you owe something, a servant. And it's crazy. And if you're not a believer today and you're here, man I am so impressed by your faith. Because to believe that there is no God, to believe that what we see and read in the Scriptures isn't true, takes a lot more faith than I have. Proverbs 22 7 is so powerfully true in any sense. No matter what you owe to someone it absolutely cuts you to the core and that's why we cannot enter into that relationship of servant and master. And why is this so troubling to us? Why does this cut us no matter what? I don't care if you have the hardcore believer, someone who's sold out for Jesus Christ, or someone who's has no Someone who's an atheist, I promise you they feel the same things we feel when it comes to this. And why is that true? Because it conflicts with our true calling. We're all called to be servants, but we're supposed to be servants for Christ. Ephesians 6.6 Paul writes, and he's writing to slaves and he's talking to them about being obedient to their master and he says, "Obey them not only to win favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Over and over Romans 1.1, Colossians 3.24, 1 Peter 2.16, it's very clear Paul's telling us we are supposed to be servants for Christ Jesus. And the second that we substitute Jesus for MasterCard, or Ford Motor Company, or Sally Mae, or your neighbor, or a family member, we stop focusing on who God created us to be.
39:21-39:24
And we start serving a new master.
39:26-39:30
That's exactly what Jesus was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6.24.
39:30-39:32
No one can serve two masters.
39:32-39:38
Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will "You will be devoted to one and despise the other.
39:38-39:44
"You cannot serve both God and money." And this verse gets so turned around.
39:44-39:47
You can take anything in scripture and make it the way you want.
39:49-39:52
This verse is often used to argue that it's evil to have wealth.
39:54-39:56
And I want to tell you, there's nothing further from the truth.
39:59-40:01
Ironically, I think God wants us to have wealth.
40:04-40:06
Is it a stumbling block for us?
40:06-40:08
Absolutely, for the reasons I just outlined.
40:09-40:10
Because our heart's not in the right place.
40:11-40:19
But for His people, for the people who are sold out believers in Jesus Christ, who are servants for Jesus Christ, absolutely God wants you to have wealth.
40:21-40:25
Because it's an amazing tool, and it will further the Kingdom of God.
40:26-40:29
Proverbs 21.30, I'm wrapping up with this this morning.
40:30-40:36
"In the house of the wise are stores "of choice food and oil, The foolish man devours all he has.
40:38-40:39
Man was I foolish.
40:41-40:42
Man was I foolish.
40:43-40:44
Money came in, money came out.
40:45-40:46
We live paycheck to paycheck.
40:46-40:52
My wife read something today that cracked us up this morning and it said, "Oh, I no longer live paycheck to paycheck.
40:52-40:53
I'm sophisticated.
40:53-41:38
Now I live direct deposit to direct deposit." Whether you have money or don't have money has nothing to do with your relationship Jesus. Having your heart in the right place has everything to do with your relationship with Jesus. So let's think about this for a minute. Even though we're a smaller group today, in this room right here right now, if every single one of us in this room were a hundred percent debt-free, you owe nothing to anyone? How many of God's people from this room alone could we feed? How many of God's people could we clothe?
41:41-42:21
How many of God's people could we send? Think of all the, you know, we got four guys in Thailand right now. How many people could we send all over the globe to do God's work? What do you think God could do with the loaves and fishes that come out of this room alone and multiply them and multiply them and multiply them all for the glory of God. You know many of us have heard over time and over the years I've heard this a thousand times well there's good debt and there's bad debt and I'm here to say that's absolutely false. I think we just confirmed that there is no good debt.
42:23-42:37
In all the debt that we have, whether it's emotional, whether it's personal, whether it's financial, we made a choice and we entered into that debt knowingly and willingly.
42:40-42:41
But there are two types of debt.
42:43-42:45
There's one debt that we can't repay.
42:47-42:53
No matter what we do, no matter how hard you work, There's no way to repay it, and that's the debt of our sin.
42:56-42:58
Jesus canceled that debt for us.
42:59-43:03
On the cross, he took our sin, past, present, and future.
43:03-43:05
And we just sang about that in the last song that we sang.
43:07-43:11
And that cuts me every time to think about, my debt put Jesus on the cross.
43:11-43:13
My sin put Jesus on the cross.
43:15-43:17
And yet, he canceled that debt for us.
43:19-43:21
and it is absolutely mind-blowing.
43:21-43:22
There's nothing we can do to pay it back.
43:24-43:29
We can, however, live our lives as servants to Christ Jesus.
43:31-43:33
Working for Him in everything that we do.
43:34-43:41
Living for Him in a way that brings glory to God the Father, so that at the end of the day, we'll be servants.
43:41-43:43
We're going to be servants one way or another.
43:44-43:47
Let it be servants to Christ Jesus.
43:49-43:52
to have no one and put no thing before Him.
43:53-43:54
Please pray with me.
43:55-44:00
Father God, thank You for the opportunity to come and share this morning.
44:01-44:11
I just pray, Lord, for everyone in this room today that Your Word would take root.
44:12-44:20
I pray, Father God, that we all examine ourselves as it relates to the death that we owe.
44:21-44:24
If there are relationships that need to be mended, let us mend those relationships.
44:26-44:35
If there are ways that we can improve the way that we honor You with what You have entrusted us, Father God, I ask that we would seek help and do that.
44:37-44:42
But first and foremost, Lord, I pray for each and every one of us that we would live out our servanthood to You.
44:43-44:49
That we would honor You in all that we do, our words and our actions and our deeds would bring glory to You.
44:51-44:57
So often, we hear the word "small church." Oh, we're a small church.
44:57-44:59
There is no small church.
45:00-45:03
We serve an awesome, amazing God.
45:04-45:09
And with a small group of believers, we can do incredible things through You.
45:10-45:12
Thank You, Father God, for Your provision.
45:12-45:14
Thank You, Father God, for Your wisdom.
45:15-45:17
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Proverbs 6:1
(If you like, review any other Proverbs on money we covered on Sunday!)

Have you ever known of a relationship strained or destroyed due to unpaid financial or emotional debt? If so what happened and how could it have been prevented?
Have you ever found yourself trying to keep up with the Jones'? What were you doing and how did you stop?
1 in 3 Americans cannot cover a $2,000 emergency in cash. When you read that, how does that make you feel?
Read Proverbs 21:30 then respond with how that Scripture speaks to you.
The world says that there is 'good' debt and bad debt. the Bible says all debt is to be avoided. Who is right? Why do we continually try to justify the world's view?

BREAKOUT
Pray for one another. Are you struggling with money? Get an accountability partner - now - from your group on your spending. Pray about and dedicate to joining the upcoming Financial Peace University class.

Jeff Miller

September 8, 2019

Walk Wisely

Gluttony: The Forgotten Sin

Jeff Miller

September 8, 2019

Walk Wisely

Introduction:

Proverbs 23:20-21 - Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.

Gluttony is Not Wise (Prov 23:20-21):

Gluttony shows lack of Self-Control .
Proverbs 23:20 - Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat...

Gluttony leads to Bondage .
1 Cor 6:12 - "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything.
Gluttony is a Destructive lifestyle.
Proverbs 23:21 - for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags

How Do I Conquer Gluttony?

Repent .
Refuse .
Replace .
Rely .
1 Cor 10:31 - So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:43-00:45
Open up your Bibles to Proverbs 23.
00:46-00:50
This past year we went through the book of Revelation, verse by verse.
00:51-00:56
And I've got to tell you, the series was really good for me.
00:56-01:03
Spending that time just looking at the hope that God has in store for His people.
01:03-01:11
The series was good for me because when I look outside of the Bible and just look at what's happening in the world today, there's very little that gives me hope.
01:12-01:24
For example, last week, maybe you heard this, last week a woman named Michelle Lesko from Arizona set a world record for eating mayonnaise.
01:25-01:35
She ate 86.35 ounces, or the equivalent of three and a half jars in three minutes.
01:36-01:55
And maybe it's the pastor in me, maybe it's the armchair psychologist, sociologist, I I see that video and I just have a lot of questions like for that woman that Michelle I Think how did that become her life's goal? You know, was that something in high school?
01:55-02:01
Like she shows up at career day and she's like, yeah Can somebody tell me who I need to talk to about?
02:02-02:09
How did that become her goal? And then I thought well, maybe it was suggested by a friend. Okay, Michelle You know what you're really good at?
02:10-02:12
Eating condiments in gross quantities.
02:12-02:14
You should go for the mayonnaise record.
02:14-02:18
You know, church, we love to eat.
02:19-02:25
Hopefully not that, but we are a food-obsessed culture.
02:25-02:28
We don't eat to live.
02:29-02:30
We, what?
02:31-02:31
We live to eat.
02:32-02:33
Just turn on your TV.
02:33-02:36
Do you know how many shows there are about food?
02:36-02:42
Chopped, Cake Boss, Top Chef, Iron Chef, Bizarre Foods, Man vs. Food.
02:42-02:47
I stopped typing at that point. There was just list after list after list after list after list.
02:47-02:52
There's a food network. Who is watching that?
02:53-03:06
Now, listen, I understand if you're like a culinary student/expert, if you're like a Jessica Wolsky or Kristen Ord, where you're like, "That's like my jam, and I went to school for this, and this is a hobby of mine.
03:06-03:07
I get that.
03:08-03:13
But who's the average person just sitting down like, you know what I feel like doing for the next hour?
03:14-03:15
I'm going to watch somebody build a cake.
03:18-03:19
We're so food obsessed.
03:20-03:28
And in our culture, this obsession with food sort of makes us oblivious to even the concept of gluttony.
03:28-03:30
What is gluttony?
03:30-03:31
Look at Proverbs 23.
03:32-03:34
We're just going to look at two verses today.
03:34-03:35
Our main focus.
03:35-03:37
Proverbs 23. Verse 20.
03:37-03:42
It says, "Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat.
03:43-03:54
For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags." In the church, we don't usually need sold on the sin of drunkenness.
03:55-04:00
I don't usually have to convince people that drunkenness is a bad idea.
04:01-04:08
But you have to see in these verses, excessive drinking has a food counterpart.
04:08-04:16
And that's why in your Bible, the times that drunkenness and gluttony are mentioned, they are mentioned together.
04:17-04:19
Too much drink or too much food.
04:19-04:21
Both sides of the same coin.
04:21-04:24
Today we're going to talk about gluttony.
04:24-04:25
I'm going to give you a generic definition.
04:26-04:29
It's the inordinate desire to consume more food than we require.
04:30-04:32
Why is the deeper issue?
04:32-04:34
Why would we do that?
04:34-04:35
Why do we do that?
04:35-04:43
The truth is, church, overeating, gluttony is by far the easiest sin for us to justify.
04:43-04:46
I'm going to talk with you briefly about my struggle.
04:47-04:50
And talking about my struggle, maybe you can relate.
04:51-04:55
I looked up my body mass index.
04:57-04:58
Do you know what the results were for me?
04:59-05:01
I'm considered morbidly obese.
05:01-05:06
It's like, "Jeff, you're not only fat, you're like fat to death." Morbidly obese.
05:07-05:13
And the truth is, I can make an excuse to overeat in just about any situation.
05:13-05:15
Now when I say that, I'm not proud of that.
05:15-05:16
Like, "Hey, guess what I can do?
05:17-05:24
Guess what my spiritual gift is?" I'm not proud of that, but I'm saying I can make an excuse when I'm celebrating, right?
05:25-05:27
When I'm celebrating, you know, birthday.
05:27-05:35
What do we celebrate with our birthday? We use cake. Wedding, cake, Columbus Day.
05:36-05:40
I should have a cake. I mean I wouldn't want somebody to think I'm unpatriotic.
05:41-05:55
But when I'm celebrating it's just, you know, I can justify, "Oh, we're having a good day, so I better stuff as much food in my head as I can." Anybody else? When I'm stressed, I overeat. When I'm nervous, I overeat.
05:55-05:58
Worst for me is when I'm depressed.
05:58-05:59
It happens a lot.
05:59-06:01
But when I'm depressed, I justify it.
06:02-06:04
"This will make me feel good." I overeat.
06:04-06:11
And we make these excuses, but again, part of the justification in our minds, I think it helps us to give it a cute nickname, right?
06:12-06:19
Like, I don't just sit out and say, "You know what? I'm really depressed, so I'm going to be a glutton today!" We don't call it that, do we?
06:19-06:20
We have the cute little nickname.
06:21-06:21
It's comfort food.
06:22-06:22
It's comfort food.
06:23-06:57
"Oh, my little counselor in the ice cream carton to comfort me. You know, I need encouragement on my walk and no one encourages me like that sleeve of Oreos. It's comfort food. Or the Doritos. When I'm depressed, the little bag you get at Sheetz isn't going to do it. I need the family-sized bag of Doritos because I'm like, "Family-sized? Well, I have a family. That must be the size for me." And it's always I've never heard that.
06:57-06:59
Never heard that, like, "Dev, I've hit rock bottom, man.
06:59-07:02
I ate like three pounds of Brussels sprouts today.
07:03-07:07
I'm thinking about seeing a counselor." Well, we want to walk wisely, right?
07:07-07:09
You with me on the walking wisely thing?
07:10-07:12
I appreciate you laughing at my expense there.
07:12-07:16
Not a very comfortable thing to talk about, but it's something we have to talk about.
07:16-07:23
Proverbs 23, verse 20, "Don't be among them." Don't be among the drunkards and the gluttons.
07:23-07:31
That doesn't mean don't be in proximity of them, as much as he's talking about participation with them.
07:32-07:32
Why?
07:32-07:40
Verse 21, he says, "For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags." That lifestyle leads nowhere good.
07:40-07:46
Before we talk about this, listen, I need to clarify what I am not saying, and you gotta hear this.
07:46-07:52
And if the person sitting beside you has kind of checked out and not paying attention, you elbow them hard, okay?
07:52-07:55
Like in the armory, not like in the face, but like elbow them.
07:56-07:57
You need to hear this.
07:58-08:02
I am not saying today that enjoying food is sinful.
08:03-08:04
I am not saying that.
08:05-08:19
1 Corinthians 8.8 says, "Food will not commend us to God." Romans 14.17, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." I'm not saying enjoying food is sinful.
08:19-08:21
God gave it to us to enjoy.
08:22-08:29
But also, you've got to hear this, this message is not about fat shaming at all.
08:29-08:32
Because gluttony is not about body size.
08:32-08:38
There are many factors that go into body size, like genetics and hormones and a lot of things.
08:38-08:40
You can be a skinny glutton.
08:40-08:42
We're talking about the heart issue, okay?
08:42-08:45
This isn't about body size issue, this is about heart issue.
08:45-08:46
So that's what I'm not saying.
08:47-08:52
And you're like, "Well, I didn't come here today to hear what you're not saying." So what are you saying about gluttony, Pastor Jeff?
08:52-08:53
Well, let's look at what the Bible says.
08:54-08:56
On your outline, if you're taking notes, jot these things down.
08:56-09:02
First of all, our outline is, "Gluttony is not wise." Gluttony is not wise. Why?
09:02-09:05
Number one, gluttony shows lack of self-control.
09:05-09:07
Gluttony shows lack of self-control.
09:07-09:26
"Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat." Again, Proverbs is sort of from the perspective of Dad talking to his son, saying, "Son, these are people you don't hang out with." And it's not about the food and the drink, it's about you can't hang out with people that have no control over themselves.
09:26-09:28
Don't hang out with people like that.
09:28-09:32
Gluttony, specifically today, it shows lack of self-control.
09:32-09:38
Like its liquid counterpart, drunkenness, gluttony is just showing no restraint.
09:39-09:39
No restraint.
09:40-09:56
You know, if a guy sits down at a bar and drinks himself drunk several times a week, we would go to that guy and say, "Man, you got a problem." But if a guy eats way more than he needs to several times a week, we sort of applaud that.
09:57-10:07
Like, "Wow, wow, you're really good at eating." And my question is, why does no self-control get a pass when it comes to eating?
10:07-10:08
Why does it get a pass?
10:10-10:12
Why do we sort of celebrate that?
10:12-10:22
"Hey, guess how many pierogies I ate? I don't care. But why do we celebrate that?" You're like, "Oh, come on. Overeating doesn't hurt anyone, Pastor Jeff.
10:22-10:23
You see, that's the difference here.
10:24-10:32
Drunkenness, that can hurt people, but gluttony can't hurt people." Okay, number two on your outline. Gluttony leads to bondage.
10:33-10:35
I want to jump to 1 Corinthians 6.12.
10:36-10:38
Paul says, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.
10:39-10:41
All things are lawful for me." Look at this last phrase.
10:42-10:46
Paul says, "I will not be dominated by anything." Do you know what the context is of that passage?
10:46-10:47
Food and drink.
10:48-10:57
"I am not going to let anything enslave me, dominate me." And gluttony ultimately is a craving that conquers you.
10:57-11:09
And this week as I was studying this topic, I read so many stories online, blogs and articles, and so many stories online of people who were honest with this struggle.
11:09-11:14
I read so many stories of people who said, "I swear, I'm going to stop gorging myself.
11:14-11:16
I'm going to stop eating like this.
11:16-11:19
I'm done. I'm done stuffing my face.
11:19-11:26
I swear, I'm not going to eat like this anymore." And they all said, "But you know what? I just quit the dog." And a lot of it felt very familiar.
11:27-11:28
It's bondage. It's bondage.
11:29-11:34
You know, the church traditionally has been so hard on smoking and drinking.
11:35-11:37
Like, why are you so hard on smoking and drinking?
11:37-11:41
Well, two reasons. It's unhealthy and it's addictive. And that's true.
11:42-11:46
But can't the same be said for gluttony? It's unhealthy and it's addictive.
11:46-11:50
So for the person that says, "Well, gluttony doesn't hurt anyone, Pastor Jeff," it absolutely does.
11:50-11:59
I looked up some stats. You know, at least 30 million people in the United States, people of all ages, genders, suffer from some sort of eating disorder.
11:59-12:03
30 million people in the United States suffer from an eating disorder.
12:03-12:08
And every 62 minutes at least one person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder.
12:09-12:11
And this last one really caught my attention.
12:11-12:15
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
12:15-12:15
Think about that.
12:15-12:17
Well, it's not hurting anybody, Pastor Jeff.
12:18-12:19
Well, that's not what the statistics say.
12:20-12:21
Bondage. It's bondage.
12:21-12:26
I can't stop. I'm literally eating myself to death.
12:26-12:28
And do you know what gluttony ultimately is?
12:28-12:33
It's like committing suicide in very slow motion.
12:33-12:37
Instead of all at once, we sort of stretch the suicide out over years.
12:37-12:42
We're slowly killing ourselves by the way that we're eating.
12:42-12:45
So, gluttony shows lack of self-control. Gluttony leads to bondage.
12:46-12:52
And thirdly, I'm sure you saw this, it's pretty obvious in the text, gluttony is a destructive lifestyle.
12:52-12:55
Look at Proverbs 23, again, 21.
12:55-13:03
It says, "For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags." I'm not even talking about the whole physical health ramifications.
13:04-13:06
You can talk to a doctor about that.
13:06-13:10
Proverbs addresses the spiritual ruin that leads to financial ruin.
13:10-13:13
And the key focus here is lifestyle.
13:13-13:24
Just as we saw last week that laziness leads to ruin, living a life of constant overindulging - drunkenness, gluttony - that lifestyle will ultimately lead to ruin.
13:24-13:26
It's a lifestyle issue that we're talking about here.
13:27-13:38
It's a lifestyle of no moderation, no balance, no thought of when is it appropriate to eat or drink, no thought of how much is appropriate to eat or drink.
13:38-13:42
It's just unrestrained consumption.
13:42-13:48
You see, a life lived without self-control in any area is ultimately going to be destructive.
13:49-13:51
A life lived without self-control in any area.
13:51-13:55
Sexually? You live sexually, out of control, no restraint?
13:56-13:57
How's that going to work out for you?
13:58-14:03
Financially? You live financially, unrestrained, out of control, I spend what I want?
14:03-14:05
How does that typically work out for people, Stacey?
14:05-14:06
Not good.
14:06-14:08
The same is said about drinking and eating here.
14:08-14:14
Living an unrestrained lifestyle, it's not wise because it's destructive.
14:14-14:18
The question is, "How do I conquer gluttony?" How do I conquer it?
14:19-14:31
"Alright, Pastor Jeff, I'm a little convicted right now." "Maybe I do have some issues here. How do I conquer it?" I love the simplicity of Proverbs here.
14:32-14:40
He doesn't give you the "12 steps in breaking the cycle of gluttony." Again, this is told like a dad talking to his son.
14:40-14:45
This is actually ultimately our heavenly Father giving us advice, and His advice is pretty simple.
14:46-14:53
He's like, "Hey, hey, you see people that live completely unrestrained, uncontrolled lifestyles, just don't hang out with those people." Why?
14:53-14:57
Because you act like the people that you hang out with.
14:57-14:59
That's just the universal truth.
14:59-15:03
I want you right now in your head, I want you to think of your closest circle of friends.
15:03-15:10
If they're a bunch of pursuing Christ, wanting to know God deeper, wanting to understand His Word, that tells me a lot about you.
15:10-15:15
If your closest circle of friends are a bunch of knuckleheads, you're probably a knucklehead.
15:15-15:19
I say that with all the love I can muster. You're a knucklehead and you're loved.
15:19-15:40
And you might say, "Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, I see what you're saying and I certainly agree with this. Absolutely this is true, but Pastor Jeff, my gluttony is not really caused by being with a group of friends who live an unrestrained lifestyle. That's not really the root cause in my situation, at least at this stage in my life. So how do I conquer gluttony?
15:40-15:42
I'm going to give you four words.
15:42-15:43
I'll begin with R.E.
15:44-15:44
Alright?
15:45-15:46
How do I conquer gluttony?
15:46-15:47
The first one, letter A, repent.
15:48-15:48
Repent.
15:49-15:52
We've talked about this so many times in the past, and I need to remind you, what is repentance?
15:52-15:55
Repentance literally means to change your mind.
15:55-15:57
You need to start agreeing with God.
15:57-15:59
You need to renew your mind.
15:59-16:02
In other words, you need to see your sin for what it is.
16:03-16:08
Instead of gluttony being something to be proud of, you need to say, "God, here's what you say about it.
16:08-16:17
You say, "I shouldn't hang around somebody that's like that, so how can I be participating in it myself?" Gluttony is ultimately a form of idolatry.
16:17-16:23
You're seeking delight and satisfaction in food that you should seek in Christ.
16:24-16:32
And before you go, "Wow, I think you really overreached there, Pastor Jeff." I think that was a pretty obnoxious statement.
16:32-16:35
I want you to think about this. Just think about this.
16:35-16:38
I want you to imagine a rough day that you've had.
16:38-16:43
Maybe a rough day at home with the kids, rough day at work, whatever you end up doing with your time.
16:43-16:59
You've had this horrible day, you've had so much stress, there's been so much pressure put on you, and you've just been under so much anxiety, and you finally get home, and you still feel like you didn't leave work at work, you just still feel this tension.
17:00-17:06
And let me ask you, in that moment, are you more likely to pray for an hour or to eat for an hour?
17:07-17:12
To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, he says, "We're not talking simply about too much food.
17:12-17:14
We're talking about too much attention to food.
17:15-17:21
We're allowing food to be something it was never intended to be." Jesus said the Holy Spirit is a comforter. The Holy Spirit is a counselor.
17:21-17:25
But nothing else can happen until you humble yourself and agree with God on this.
17:25-17:28
So you know what? You're right. I've made it into something it's not.
17:28-17:30
You need to repent. Secondly, you need to refuse.
17:31-17:33
Refuse what? Refuse food for a while.
17:33-17:38
In other words, I would encourage you to fast as a response to your gluttony.
17:38-17:45
If you're hearing this and the Spirit's convicting you right now, and you're like, "Man, I do have a serious problem. What do I do?" I encourage you to fast.
17:46-17:53
Physical appetites have a way of displaying my ability to control myself, or my inability to control myself.
17:53-17:55
And while gluttony... Hear this.
17:56-18:03
Gluttony is using food in a way that distracts us from spiritual appetites.
18:03-18:10
Fasting is refusing food so that it doesn't distract us from spiritual appetites.
18:10-18:14
Fasting is a way of saying, "Hey, hey, hey, I control my appetites, not vice versa.
18:14-18:20
I'm not a dog. I don't live dictated by my appetites.
18:20-18:27
My focus is on my hunger for Christ, and I'm not going to fill that hunger with lesser things.
18:27-18:30
If you want to know more about fasting, we had a whole sermon on that this year.
18:30-18:32
April 28th, it's on the website.
18:33-18:35
It's easy to find, just search for it, HarvestPittsburghNorth.org.
18:35-18:39
Fasting is your number one weapon if this is an area in which you are struggling.
18:39-18:44
So repent, refuse food for a season, and I would say replace.
18:44-18:47
And this goes right with fasting, replace.
18:47-18:55
You know, the Bible doesn't simply say, "Just say no to sin." That's not really the way the Bible presents repentance.
18:55-18:58
It's not saying no to sin, it's saying yes to something else.
18:58-19:03
The Bible talks about putting off sin, but at the same time, you're putting on something that glorifies God.
19:03-19:10
You know, the Bible has so many analogies regarding the Lord, and our relationship with the Lord, and our delight in the Lord.
19:10-19:18
So many analogies the Bible uses that has that food, taste, flavor terminology.
19:19-19:32
such as Psalm 34, 8, that says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." 1 Peter 2, 2 tells us to "desire the sincere spiritual milk of the word." John 6, 35, Jesus says, "He's the bread of life.
19:32-19:36
If we come to Him, we will not hunger." And there are so many others.
19:36-19:50
John Piper said, "The implication is that if we give ourselves to being satisfied with spiritual bread, wine, milk, then the physical hunger will lose its supreme power." As I shared with you, that's my own struggle.
19:50-19:51
Blotting is often an escape.
19:51-19:53
It just is.
19:53-19:54
That's just for me, for a lot of people.
19:54-19:54
It's an escape.
19:55-19:56
Life is disappointing.
19:56-19:58
My relationships aren't in a good place.
19:59-20:00
I'm kind of bored at work lately.
20:01-20:02
But you know who never lets me down?
20:03-20:03
Food.
20:04-20:06
It always tastes good, available.
20:07-20:28
We need to discipline ourselves to find satisfaction in other things, such as the Word of God, or pouring into your family, or small group fellowship, as Dr. Rupp talked about earlier, or involved in work in the church, or projects in the home, or whatever, but to find satisfaction in something other than gorging yourself.
20:29-20:32
Replace. No to gluttony, but yes to better things.
20:33-20:35
And then finally, rely.
20:35-20:37
Rely. Rely on the Holy Spirit.
20:37-20:41
Because if you've heard every word I've said to this point, check out now, then the whole sermon is a fail.
20:41-20:43
Because this is most important.
20:43-20:51
You can't leave here like Aya the tiger, like, "That's right! From now on, I control it!" Like, you're going to fail.
20:51-20:54
You can't muster up self-control.
20:54-20:58
Because the Bible says self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, right?
20:58-20:58
Galatians 5.
20:59-21:05
Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
21:05-21:07
That's something that the Lord gives you.
21:07-21:08
Understand that.
21:08-21:15
Self-control is something that by faith, God gives you the ability to control yourself.
21:16-21:19
God has to enable you. He has to.
21:19-21:29
He gives you self-control, so cry out to Him for self-control to be manifest supernaturally by the power of the Holy Spirit in your daily living.
21:29-21:36
Hey look, we live in America, and you can't control all of the incredible food options that are out there.
21:36-21:39
But you can control every bite that goes in your mouth.
21:39-21:48
1 Corinthians 10.31 says, So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
21:49-21:51
So does your eating glorify God?
21:51-21:52
Let's pray.
21:52-21:54
Father in heaven, we thank You for Your grace.
21:55-21:58
We thank You for Your Word, even when it's uncomfortable.
21:59-22:04
Father, this is a very uncomfortable thing for me to share because of my own struggles in this area.
22:04-22:07
We thank You, God, that You're God of healing, You're God of grace.
22:08-22:14
And these admonitions from your Word aren't because you want to stifle our joy, it's because you want to maximize.
22:15-22:21
Father, you know that that hamburger and that pizza, that's not going to satisfy us the way that you do.
22:22-22:25
Father, I pray that you would, by your Spirit, give us self-control.
22:26-22:28
Alert us and make us mindful.
22:28-22:35
Everything we do is to be a reflection of our relationship with you, empowered by your Spirit working powerfully within us.
22:35-22:43
everything that we do is about being citizens of Your kingdom, including when we sit down to eat. Father, I pray today's a new day for some people.
22:44-22:54
Self-control by Your Spirit. We cry out for it, Father. We thank You ahead of time for the victories that You're going to win in this area for people. Glorify Your name, Father, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Proverbs 23:20-21
(If you like, review any other Proverbs on gluttony we covered on Sunday!)

What was your biggest take-away from this passage / message?
How would you define gluttony? Why is it often ignored in the church? Do you think it should be addressed? Why or why not?
When are YOU most tempted / prone to overeat?
Why is gluttony / overeating addictive? How can fasting help someone overcome gluttony?

BREAKOUT
Pray for one another. Are you struggling with this sin? Get an accountability partner - now - from your group and keep after each other.

Jeff Miller

September 1, 2019

Walk Wisely

Laziness: Destroying Yourself By Doing Nothing

Jeff Miller

September 1, 2019

Walk Wisely

Introduction:

Proverbs 26:13 - The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road! There is a lion on the streets!"

The Tragedy of Laziness (Prov 6:6-11):

Laziness is Self-Deceptive .
Proverbs 26:16 - The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.

Proverbs 20:4 - The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

Laziness is Self-Destructive .
Proverbs 21:25-26 - The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor. All day long he craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back.

Proverbs 19:24 - The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.
Laziness must be Rebuked .
Proverbs 6:6 - Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and mbe wise.

Lessons from an Ant:

Hard work doesn't require constant Supervision . (Prov 6:7)
Hard work doesn't Pocrastinate . (Prov 6:8a)
Hard work is the means to Provide . (Prov 6:8b)
1 Timothy 5:8 - But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

How do I stop being lazy?

Confess it to God.
Take it one Shift at a time.
Colossians 3:23-24 - Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:47-00:49
All right, let's turn to God's Word together now.
00:50-00:52
Let's go to Proverbs 6.
00:55-00:56
Proverbs 6.
00:58-01:03
If you don't have a Bible, you can use one in the back of the chairs.
01:06-01:11
And if you don't have a Bible, you can totally keep that one, and you can consider that a gift from this church.
01:14-01:16
Proverbs 6.
01:18-01:25
This sermon, I've got to tell you, this sermon I've never in 23 years or whatever, I've never preached a sermon like this.
01:26-01:28
This was the sermon that was picked by the people.
01:29-01:34
On our private Facebook page, I gave three choices of sermons from Proverbs.
01:34-01:41
And by the way, if you're not on our private Facebook page, just send a request for a link to it, and we can get you there.
01:41-01:44
But it's not a public thing, it's just in-house.
01:44-01:49
but I put a survey up there for you to pick the sermon, and this is the one that you picked.
01:50-01:51
It's called laziness.
01:53-01:57
Destroying yourself by doing nothing.
01:58-02:09
So, what is the craziest excuse you've ever heard from someone trying to get out of work?
02:11-02:15
Well, if you're into this kind of thing, There's lists online, and I read through several of these lists.
02:16-02:17
And I have a few of them I wanted to share.
02:18-02:21
These were actual excuses that were offered by people.
02:22-02:23
Like, here's why I can't work.
02:23-02:24
Here's why I can't come into work.
02:25-02:25
Ready?
02:25-02:32
The first one is, my 12-year-old daughter stole my car, and I had no other way to get to work.
02:32-02:37
I didn't want to report the theft to police for fear my daughter would get a criminal record.
02:38-02:41
That was an actual excuse somebody gave for not going to work.
02:42-02:47
Secondly, my sobriety device wouldn't allow me to start my car.
02:50-02:54
That device also indicates when you shouldn't go to work, probably.
02:55-02:56
I love this next one.
02:57-02:59
I forgot I was hired for the job.
03:00-03:02
Now look, I have memory problems.
03:03-03:08
But I don't think it can get any worse than saying, I just completely forgot that I was hired for the job.
03:09-03:20
Next, how about, "A deer bit me during hunting season." Now, I've never hunted, so I can't speak from firsthand experience, but don't you take a gun into the woods with you?
03:21-03:24
Like, how did the deer get that close to bite you?
03:25-03:28
But somebody actually offered that as an excuse.
03:28-03:29
Boy, I can't go to work.
03:31-03:40
Next one is, "I ate too much at a party I needed a day off to digest, like a python swallowing a deer.
03:42-03:44
Like, I just need to go digest somewhere.
03:47-03:48
This next one.
03:49-03:51
I forgot I was getting married today.
03:52-03:53
So I stand corrected.
03:53-03:58
Memory problems can get worse than forgetting that you got the job.
03:59-04:00
I forgot I was getting married today.
04:01-04:02
That guy was on his way to work.
04:02-04:32
I'm sure, I was like, "Am I forgetting something?" And then the last one here, that I'm going to share, says, "An escaped buffalo from a game reserve kept charging at me every time I tried to go to my car from my house." Now that one, I chose that one last because that's actually the closest to the one that's actually in the Bible.
04:32-04:35
And that's in Proverbs 26.13.
04:37-04:42
The sluggard - that's a lazy person - says, "There's a lion in the road!
04:42-04:48
There's a lion on the streets!" And the point of that proverb is just like all of these other excuses.
04:48-04:50
"I can't go to work, man!
04:50-04:51
I can't go to work!
04:51-04:52
Do you know what's happening out in the street?
04:53-04:55
There's like a lion running around eating people!
04:55-05:12
I can't go to work today, man!" And the point with the proverb with all these excuses, is we get so creative when it comes to making up excuses why we can't work.
05:13-05:14
That's the whole point.
05:15-05:19
So creative and absurd.
05:20-05:24
But today, we are going to talk about laziness.
05:26-05:32
My wife, by education and experience, Erin has been a social worker.
05:33-05:37
And Erin has done a lot of in-home counseling for people.
05:38-05:44
And she told me one time about a mother of three little ones, three babies, who was just really, really struggling.
05:44-05:49
And Erin would go in and just counsel, help people get their lives on track, right?
05:49-05:51
So Erin worked with this lady.
05:51-05:52
Erin got her a job.
05:52-05:54
Erin got her a really good job.
05:54-05:58
And she also had it taken care of so that the lady had childcare.
05:58-05:59
Not an issue.
05:59-06:01
We'll take the kids to child care here.
06:02-06:03
It's gonna be covered.
06:03-06:04
You're gonna go to work.
06:04-06:05
You're gonna get a job.
06:06-06:08
And we're gonna get your life on track.
06:10-06:15
And Aaron said, when this particular woman got her first paycheck from her job, she immediately quit.
06:17-06:19
She said, I'm quitting that job.
06:19-06:21
And Aaron says, why are you quitting that job?
06:22-06:25
And the lady said, because I make more from government handouts just sitting at home.
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And you see, it's not uncommon.
06:31-06:34
Our government rewards laziness.
06:36-06:37
Now, please hear me.
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I am not talking about people who are unable to work.
06:42-06:43
I'm not talking about that.
06:44-06:47
We should be helping people who are unable to work.
06:47-06:49
I'm not talking about that.
06:50-07:03
I'm talking about people who can work, but refuse to work, and make up some ridiculous, lion-in-the-street excuse so that the government sends them your tax dollars.
07:04-07:05
That's what I'm talking about.
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People who can work but won't work.
07:10-07:10
Man, it's epidemic.
07:12-07:17
Talk to anyone who is in a position to hire people to work, right?
07:18-07:25
It is getting harder and harder to employ people who will actually work, right, Ryan Stroop?
07:25-07:26
I see you shaking your head.
07:26-07:29
He employs people to work for him, and we've had this conversation.
07:29-07:38
But Ryan said it's harder and harder to hire people who actually get this, show up, and do the job they were hired to do.
07:39-07:46
Somebody who will put down the phone, get off the internet, and actually invest themselves in their job.
07:48-07:56
By the way, I'm going to remind you at this point that God ordained work before the fall.
07:57-08:06
Because there's always a couple people sitting here listening to this like, "Oh, you know what, Pastor Jeff? Work is a part of the curse." You know, like back in Genesis 3, like, "Work is a part of the curse.
08:06-08:09
That's why I don't work." And that is so not true.
08:10-08:11
Work is actually a blessing.
08:12-08:17
Now, God said work would be harder after the fall, yes.
08:17-08:23
But man was always meant to work in the very beginning.
08:25-08:27
And there is nothing new under the sun.
08:29-08:32
Proverbs says so much about our tendency to be late.
08:33-08:38
I'll be honest with you, I knew going into this when you voted for the sermon, and this one won by a landslide.
08:38-08:43
I knew before I was going to the Scripture to study, like Proverbs says a lot.
08:44-08:58
I've got to tell you, I way underestimated Proverbs actually says about laziness. I was like, "Wow!" So we're not going to be exhaustive today, but we're going to cover what Proverbs says about the...
08:59-09:15
sometimes it's called the sluggard, or the slothful, or the lazy. What do we call All these people today, slacker, freeloader, whatever.
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Let's talk about, on your outline, if you're taking notes, and I always encourage that, let's talk about the tragedy of laziness.
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Number one, laziness is self-deception.
09:25-09:26
Jot this down.
09:26-09:29
Laziness, you absolutely have to start here.
09:30-09:32
Laziness is self-deception.
09:36-09:37
We absolutely have to start here.
09:37-09:39
Let's go to Proverbs 26.16.
09:39-09:46
Like I said, instead of flipping around, you can just mark these passages and look them up later, but we're going to spend time in Proverbs 6 here in just a few minutes, I promise.
09:47-09:50
But just to sort of set the table for us, laziness is self-deceptive.
09:51-09:52
It's self-deceptive.
09:52-10:07
"The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly." Now, church, the tragedy of any sin, Any sin, the tragedy of any sin is self-deception.
10:08-10:16
It is so hard to convince someone that they have a problem when they believe that they're smarter than everyone else.
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And it seems that that is especially true about lazy people, right?
10:23-10:26
It's like, "This guy thinks he's so smart.
10:26-10:29
He's like, 'You line up seven other guys.
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I'm smarter than all of them.'" I was thinking about that this week.
10:35-10:35
Why is that?
10:36-10:42
Why is the lazy person in particular, why is he like extra self-deceived?
10:44-10:49
I think, I think it's this, I think it's because learning requires learning.
10:51-10:56
So it's easier to just say, "I know enough, I don't need to learn anything.
10:58-11:04
"I am quite clever on my own." and that is some serious, tragic self-deception.
11:06-11:07
Talk about self-deception, here's another one.
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Look at Proverbs 24. Self-deception.
11:10-11:18
"The sluggard does not plow in the autumn." Look at this. "He will seek and harvest and have nothing." Do you see how self-deceived that is?
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Look at the second part of that.
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"He will seek and harvest and have nothing." Do you see the picture?
11:22-11:30
He's like walking through his garden, and he's like, "Why don't I have anything to harvest?" It just doesn't make any sense.
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I thought I was going to come out here in Harvard.
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Why doesn't he have anything?
11:34-11:36
Because he didn't plow in the autumn.
11:36-11:38
Do you see how self-deceived that is?
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I mean, that's how it is with lazy people.
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Everyone else can see his problem.
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But for a lazy person, they're just completely unable to connect the dots.
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That's true of every lazy person.
11:56-12:00
They're just like, I just don't understand why I'm struggling so much, Pastor Jeff.
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I don't understand why my life is so hard.
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Why is everything so much harder for me?
12:04-12:05
Why am I struggling so much?
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It's because you're lazy.
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And before we start pointing fingers, as always when we encounter God's Word, the first person we need to evaluate is who.
12:19-12:21
Right? True or false?
12:22-12:31
Before we start pointing fingers, you need to look at yourself, and I need to look at myself Am I lazy?
12:33-12:33
Am I lazy?
12:35-12:43
And right now, somebody's still self-deceived, is holding their arms and sitting back in their seat, going, "Not me.
12:44-12:46
Not me because I have a job.
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I'm just going to sit back and listen to Pastor Jeff light up all them lazy people.
12:51-13:03
But I know he's not talking to me because I have a job." Well, having a job doesn't mean automatically off the hook because I would ask you, are you lazy at work?
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How much time at work, when you're at work, when you're at your place of employment, how much time do you spend on social media, or shopping online, or texting, or watching TV, or movies?
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How much time? When you're at work, What would you say is the percentage of time that you're there, that is actually given to the job that you were hired?
13:35-13:36
What would you say is the percentage?
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Just imagine that somebody is hired to go with you to work and they just stand there with a stopwatch, and when you're doing your job, they're timing that, and when you're not doing your job, they're timing that.
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What percentage do you think would come out from that?
13:55-14:06
Right now I can see by the looks on some faces here, you're like, "Oh, he is talking to me." Because we all have that tendency.
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So don't think just because you have a job, you're off the hook.
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And I would ask this church, can we just stop and acknowledge this truth from God's Word that laziness is self-deceptive?
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Because as soon as you think it's not, and self-deceived.
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Can we just bow our heads for a second?
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And here's all I want us to do.
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I just want us to acknowledge this truth before the Lord.
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Bow our heads, and I just want to pray for all of us to say, "God, You say that a sluggard is wise in his own eyes, so God, we ask You as a church to please reveal any laziness in me.
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Father, it's so easy for us to be self-deceived.
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We become like Pharisees.
14:55-15:02
We point our fingers at everybody else, and everybody else has a problem, and everybody else is lazy, and everybody else is...
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God, let us not be self-deceived.
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I pray, Father, that Your truth would enlighten us today.
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If you agree with this prayer, would you just say, "Amen"?
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Amen.
15:15-15:17
Laziness is self-deceptive.
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Secondly, laziness is self-destructive.
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Laziness is self-destructive.
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Look at Proverbs 21, verses 25 and 26.
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It says, "The desire of the sluggard..." Do you see this? "Kills him.
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For his hands refuse to labor.
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All day long he craves and craves, "The righteous gives and does not hold back." Something I like to do with proverbs like this, with the parallelism in some of the wording, I like to read them backwards.
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And I was doing that with this one.
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The righteous gives and does not hold back.
15:58-15:59
That's like a whole nother sermon.
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We're talking about the lazy guy today.
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It says, first of all, he craves and craves, he covets.
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This lazy person, he covets, he's always wanting.
16:09-16:10
Why doesn't he have it?
16:12-16:16
And it's because - back up a step - it's because he refuses to work.
16:19-16:21
And what's that doing to him?
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Back up one more step.
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It's killing.
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He's being killed by his own desire not to work.
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It's tragic.
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To sum this up, the question is, when you're lazy, when you're lazy, who are you hurting?
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Answer me. Who are you hurting when you're lazy?
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Say it again. Who are you hurting when you're lazy?
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Yes, you're hurting yourself.
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When I'm lazy, I'm not hurting anybody else.
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And you can say, yeah, you're hurting the people that you work with, your drag and them down.
16:55-17:00
That's true, but first and foremost, God's Word points out that my laziness, it kills me.
17:02-17:19
Being in ministry, I've seen it hundreds of times over the last couple of decades People investing more energy running around the churches for a handout than the energy that they would invest actually working a job.
17:19-17:20
I've seen it over and over.
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Some people just make the circuit.
17:23-17:24
They have a list of churches.
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I'm just going to go and ask the church for help.
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And look, I am all for helping people get to a better place.
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You can talk to my wife, Erin.
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How many times over the past couple of decades have we helped people who have come to us?
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"Look, we're going to help you get to a better place." I am all for that, and we still do that.
17:44-17:47
This church still does that to this day, helping people get to a better place.
17:47-17:52
All that said, a handout to a lazy person does not help.
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It only enables it.
17:56-18:00
The hard part is, their stories always sound so tragic.
18:01-18:03
"They're going to turn off my gas.
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They're going to turn off my electricity.
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They're going to evict me.
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I have no food for my kids.
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These people are literally watching their lives crumble around them because they refuse to work.
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So the self-destruction of laziness, it's worse than the financial stuff.
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It's self-destruction of self.
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Now hear this, because this is so...
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If the lights are coming on here, you've got to hear this.
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Laziness is self-destructive, but the worst part is it's self-destruction of self.
18:48-18:55
In other words, yes, laziness ruins you externally, but even worse, it ruins you internally.
18:56-19:04
In other words, the lazier you are, the lazier you will become.
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Like, well, how bad can it get?
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Look at Proverbs 19.24.
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"As the sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth." This is how bad laziness can get.
19:18-19:23
My laziness so dominates my life, I've hit such a point of apathy.
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I can't even be motivated to meet my own needs.
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Have you seen that in a lazy person?
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Just completely apathetic.
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Like, dude, you realize you're killing yourself.
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You realize your laziness is destroying everything.
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It's just like, yeah, well, I'm gonna...
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And there's always some lame excuse or some line in the street or some job that's going to be coming in a month or two or whatever, whatever.
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But the destruction is more than financial.
19:58-20:06
It's self-destruction of self because there's a sense of accomplishment and contentment and a job well done that is never gained by laziness.
20:08-20:26
If you've ever worked a long day, if you've ever worked a hard day, if you've ever done a project where you're like, "I'm working at this and I'm gonna finish it "no matter how long it takes," you know what it's like to lay your head on the pillow at the end of the night and say, "Oh, what a long day, but I'm so glad I got that done." You know what I'm talking about.
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A lazy person never gets that.
20:32-20:41
So laziness is self-deceptive, and laziness is self-destructive, and that all leads us to laziness must be rebuked.
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It must be rebuked.
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Proverbs 6, verse 6, is where we're going to look.
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See, at this point in Proverbs, all these Proverbs we looked at, honestly, these Proverbs are just FYI.
20:57-21:03
This is the writer of Scripture looking at people and situations going, "Yeah, that's how it is. That's how it is. FYI.
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Here's what I've seen. Here's what it looks like. Here's what laziness is." But this passage we're going to look at goes from observations about laziness to instruction.
21:13-21:16
This is instruction for a lazy person here.
21:16-21:18
That's why I want to spend time here. Make sense?
21:18-21:23
The slugger needs to be rebuked.
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"I'm struggling with laziness, Pastor Jeff.
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Will you sort of coddle me into a work ethic?" No.
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Because the Bible's so clear on that.
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1 Thessalonians 5.14 says, "Admonish the idle." And that's what we see here.
21:42-21:49
Look at Proverbs 6.6. It says, "Go to the aunt, O sluggard.
21:50-21:57
"Consider her ways and be wise." This is humorous.
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God's greatest creation, which is man, needs to take a lesson from a bug.
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That's a pretty hard rebuke, you see?
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That's what's happening in this passage.
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He's pointing at an ant, and he's like, "Hey, hey, aren't you supposed to be smarter than this?" acting like it, aren't you supposed to be more rightly motivated than this?
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You need to get out your notebook and take notes on what this thing is doing because it can teach you something.
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We're just calling this part lessons from an ant.
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Lessons from an ant, here they are.
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You're like, "Man, some of this laziness talk is stinging." Well, let us all take a lesson from an ant.
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And the first one, letter A, is "Hard work doesn't require constant supervision." The first lesson we learn from an ant, look at verse 7.
22:55-23:03
It says, "Without having any chief, officer, or ruler..." Stop right there.
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And there are some people that criticize the Bible.
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I call them knuckleheads.
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They're like, "Well, you know, there's really hierarchies of different kinds of ants, huh?" Like, congratulations, you completely missed the point of this entire passage.
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Here's the point of this passage.
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The point is, hard work doesn't require constant supervision.
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In other words, what he's saying is, the ant works hard without the foreman ant breathing down his little ant neck all the time.
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"Why aren't you working? Why aren't you working?
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Come on! What do I pay you for?" The ant doesn't have that happening.
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He's smart enough and he works hard enough that he doesn't need that.
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That's the point of this.
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Hard work doesn't require constant supervision.
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He doesn't need motivated by some external force.
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He doesn't need constant direction.
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He doesn't need constant accountability.
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He says you can learn a lot from an aunt that way.
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You know, I asked you earlier, are you a hard worker?
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Are you a hard worker? Are you lazy?
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What about when the boss is gone?
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That's the point.
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Do you only work hard when you know that you're being watched?
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When the boss is in, "Yeah, I'm a machine." But when the boss is gone, it's like, "Woohoo! We're partying at work because the boss is gone!" Is that what they told you when they hired you?
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You're allowed to party when the boss is in.
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Probably not.
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Are you a hard worker?
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Or do you only work hard when you're being watched?
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First lesson we can examine for ourselves from the end.
24:52-25:00
I have this deadline that requires me to present something, but when that's not the case, I spend half my day on YouTube.
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He says, you can learn something from the end.
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They don't require constant supervision.
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Secondly, letter B, hard work doesn't procrastinate.
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Hard work doesn't procrastinate.
25:14-25:21
The first part of verse 8, it says, "She prepares her bread in summer." She prepares her bread in summer.
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She's not procrastinating.
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She's not like, "It's summer, and summer's about our little aunt vacations and our little aunt graduation parties and all the other aunts are getting married, and it's too nice out, and I'm a young aunt, I should enjoy this time in the summer as a young aunt.
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She's not like that.
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She goes, hey, if I'm gonna have food for the fall, when do I need to be working on it?
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I need to be working on it in the summer.
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That's not the most convenient time to work.
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She's like, it doesn't matter if it's convenient or not.
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I can't just keep putting it off.
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I can't keep procrastinating.
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When it's time to work, the aunt works.
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Same for you.
26:05-26:08
When you're at work, you should work.
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And if your job is not going to an office, if your job is a homemaker, when you are at your job, you should be working hard at your job too.
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Not procrastinating.
26:24-26:28
Letter C, hard work is the means to provide.
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Look at the second part of verse 8.
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It says, not only she prepares her bread in summer, it says, "and gathers her food in harvest." Meaning hard work is the means to provide.
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Yes, it's true, God is a provider. Yes.
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But He doesn't just magically fill your cupboard with oreos.
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The way God normally provides for His people is work.
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That's how God has chosen to provide for you.
27:00-27:08
Work is not just to occupy your time, to keep you out of trouble, to give you a place to wear your new shoes.
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The reason God ordained work is because work is the means of provision.
27:14-27:15
That's the way God designed it.
27:17-27:30
1 Timothy 5:8 says, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
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I want to talk to husbands for a second.
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If you're a husband and you have a wife, and/or children, husbands, it is your God-given responsibility to provide for your wife and for kids if you have kids.
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That is your responsibility.
27:49-28:02
Husbands, if you're in a financial train wreck, if you're not paying your bills, that your wife or your kids don't have the things that they need - husbands - that's on you.
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And every couple that I've married and done premarital counseling with, well, I'll tell you, I've said this to them.
28:08-28:18
If I find out that you're in a tight place financially, I said I'm not going after the wife, I'm going after the husband, because the Bible says it is your job to provide for the people in your household.
28:20-28:21
Failure to provide.
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"Oh, you're going to provide for the people in your own household." Look at this last phrase here.
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In God's opinion, it says you've denied the faith.
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You call yourself a follower of Christ and you can't even provide for the people in your house?
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This last phrase, I'm sorry, it just cracks me up.
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God says you're worse than an unbeliever.
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God's like, "Here's my hierarchy.
28:47-29:02
There's like pagans, and worse than pagans, I guess, are the heathens, and then somewhere down here are the people who say they're Christians and even go to church, but they refuse to provide for their own household.
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He says you're worse than an unbeliever, in my opinion.
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That's serious business.
29:09-29:19
So if you're a man and you're having a hard time making ends meet financially, I would say get a job.
29:20-29:24
"Well, I have a job." Do you have any other advice? Yeah, get another job.
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Go to Financial Peace University that's coming up and get some real counseling.
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Whatever it takes.
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You do whatever it takes to provide for your family.
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Look at verse 10 back here in Proverbs 6.
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I'm sorry, verse 9.
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We have the lesson from the ant.
29:46-29:50
He says, "How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
29:52-30:06
When will you arise from your sleep?" And then verse 10, "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little holding of the hands to rest." Stop right there for a second.
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What are lazy people known to do?
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They're known to sleep, right?
30:12-30:15
It's just sort of like the dominant characteristic.
30:15-30:18
Have you ever wondered why lazy people are always wanting to sleep?
30:19-30:21
Lazy people are always wanting to rest?
30:21-30:29
It's like, "Dude, you didn't even do anything. Why are you so tired?" Because of what we saw earlier.
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The lazier you are, the more lazy you become.
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And somehow you just get more and more and more and more tired, even though you're doing less and less and less.
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And here's the deception, verse 10.
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"Just a little more sleep. I just need a little more sleep." Snooze, right?
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"I take my naps nine minutes at a time." Snooze, snooze, snooze, snooze.
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"Dude, you've been sleeping for 13 hours.
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Just a little more rest.
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Just a little, just a little, just a little." Did you see that? Like three times.
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"Just a little, just a little, just a little." That's the self-deception.
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"It's just a little." Why are you in my case, man? I just need a little rest." The danger is not little.
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Verse 11 says, "Poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man." Suddenly, you're in big trouble, and that's how it goes.
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See, for the lazy person, it's not like they're going about their lazy person business, And one day they're like, "Uh-oh, things are starting to look shaky.
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Better turn this ship around before trouble comes." He says, "That's not how it happens." And I've seen this over and over.
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It's a sudden, inescapable danger.
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Like, all of a sudden, it's like, "What the heck just happened to me?" He says it's like all of a sudden, an armed man sticks a gun in your face and says, "Give me everything you have." It's this sudden, inescapable danger.
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You're like, "Well, how does that happen?" It can happen a lot of ways.
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Like for example, I'll give you a couple of examples here.
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You can get fired from your job for being lazy.
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You're just busted.
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Your boss is like, "Hey, I've seen you've done nothing over the last three weeks and we're not paying you for that." You're fired for being lazy.
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Or maybe cuts have to be made at work.
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And since you aren't contributing enough to merit keeping you-- your name is first on the chopping block.
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But the point is suddenly, instantly, there's no paycheck, there's no income, there's no job, and the lazy person is utterly astounded.
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How could this have happened to me?
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If you're lazy, because you can work, but you won't work.
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You don't have a job to be fired from.
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You're like, yeah, I don't have a job, but I've been kind of coasting by along well enough so far.
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Write this down.
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This will catch up to you.
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Well, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it is going to catch up to you.
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and suddenly you're going to find yourself in a horrible position.
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And you got there by doing nothing.
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Laziness is one of the hardest sins to do.
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It's self-deceptive.
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It gets worse the more you give into it.
33:50-33:54
And it ultimately leads to apathy, as we've seen.
33:55-34:02
This is a frustrating sermon for me because, you know, it's such a hard sin to overcome.
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I can teach, and you can teach somebody skill, you can teach somebody technique, you can teach somebody how to carry out a job detail, but something you cannot teach someone is drive.
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You can't teach somebody drive.
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And this was my struggle this week.
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This is why, I'm just going to be honest with you, I was hoping you weren't going to pick this sermon on that online poll.
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I was hoping you were gonna pick one of the other two.
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And here's why.
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I'm like, I'm gonna have to stand in front of those people and say, okay, here's how you overcome laziness.
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And I'm like, wow, how do you?
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Because a lazy person doesn't feel like overcoming.
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So how do I stop being lazy?
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I have two pieces of advice for you that I am sure of.
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The first one is this. How do I stop being lazy?
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The first thing you have to do without question, nothing else happens until this happens, confess it to God.
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You have to get past your own stinking self-deception and say, "Yes, I'm lazy. I have been as sluggard as the Bible would define me." But you have to confess this to God.
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And church, remember, you can't save yourself.
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You can't do enough good to earn your way into heaven.
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That's through the blood of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus provided salvation and your way into heaven through His work.
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You can't earn your way into heaven.
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You can't save yourself, and at the same time, you can't change yourself.
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You need to ask God to change you.
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And you need to confess this to God.
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And biblically the word "confess" it literally means "say the same." You're just agreeing with God.
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You're saying, "You know what, God?
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Here's what you said about sluggards, and I realize now that I am one.
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Here's what you've said about laziness, and yeah, I see it. I see it." It's agreeing with God.
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Be honest with God and tell Him that you need Him to change you.
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You've got to get there.
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You're going to say, "God, I can't fix this!" And God, if I'm being completely honest with you, I don't want to fix it, because I'm lazy!
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But God, You can change me. God, You can fix me.
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It's a hard issue. Laziness is a hard issue.
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You put your comfort over everything else.
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Only God can change your heart. So confess it to God.
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Letter B, little letter B, how do I stop being lazy?
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This is absolutely true.
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I would say take it one shift at a time.
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Meaning, obviously, after you do the first part, don't like skip to letter B.
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I'm gonna skip that part.
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I'm not gonna get it.
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I'm not gonna get a second.
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You can't, all right?
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Or it's not gonna work.
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'Cause this is a God thing.
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But after you've done the business with God, I would say, letter B, take it one shift at a time.
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don't leave here saying, "Oh, you know what?
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From now on, I'm going to stop being lazy." It doesn't work that way.
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You need to get specific.
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You need to say, "At work today, at work today, just today, I'm just thinking about today, I have to accomplish these things today.
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And today, God help me, by your strength, by your grace, I'm going to go after just the things today that you want me to get accomplished today at work." One shift at a time.
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Because that's how habits happen, right?
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Making changes one step at a time.
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But it has to be empowered by God.
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Colossians 3, verses 23 and 24 says, "Whatever you do, work heartily, ask for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward." "Whoever your boss is..." "Pastor Jim, I hear what you're saying, but my boss is a jerk." Well, if you're a born-again believer in Christ, ultimately, your boss is Jesus Christ.
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Whatever your human boss is like is irrelevant.
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Because you're doing your job as if Jesus Christ were your immediate supervisor.
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So born-again believer in Christ, more than anyone, you should be known for being a hard worker.
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Your boss should consider himself blessed to have you working for him.
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Your co-workers should all know you as the person who shows up, works hard, and keeps a great attitude, and makes work a better place just by you being.
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The alternative.
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The alternative is destroying yourself.
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How can you do that?
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By doing nothing.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I feel like we've barely scratched the surface on everything Your Word says about laziness, but God, I pray that as Your Spirit is at work with Your Word, I pray this is enough that You would give a spiritual kick in the pants to those of us who need to repent of some laziness.
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This is a serious thing to you.
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Because you've created us to represent you.
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A God who is productive.
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A God who takes initiative.
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A God who...
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Your Word says you finish what you begin.
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Father, you've called us to reflect Your character.
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So I pray, God, for Your Holy Spirit and Your Word to take root in any person here, especially the self-deceived.
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Father, might You grant us repentance.
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We see work for what it is, and we glorify You with the way that we carry it out.
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Father, we thank You for Your grace.
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We thank You for Your wisdom, and we thank You for the power of the Holy Spirit who makes all of these things possible.
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And I thank You ahead of time all of the workplaces that are going to be radically changed by you this week as a result of what your Word has to say here.
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We praise you in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Proverbs 6:6-11
(If you like, review any other Proverbs on laziness we covered on Sunday!)

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
On a scale of 1-10 (1 = “comatose lazy”, 10 = “workhorse of the year”): How would your boss rate your work habits? How would you rate yourself?
What advice would you give someone who confesses to you that they struggle with laziness?
Why do you think laziness results in MORE and WORSE laziness?
How specifically can a sluggard come to poverty (Prov 6:11)?

BREAKOUT
Confession time: in what area of your life are you most lazy? Pray for one another that the Lord would change your heart.

Walk Wisely - Sin Never Brings Success

Introduction:

Hard Hearted? You're Only Hurting Yourself!

Dad Talk (heart to heart), from our Heavenly Father:

Tearing Down the Wall of Offense (Guest Speaker)

Introduction:

Helping YOU to overcome the debilitating effect of accumulated offense.

Money: Lessons from Folly (Guest Speaker)

Introduction:

Lessons from Folly (Prov 6:1):

Gluttony: The Forgotten Sin

Introduction:

Gluttony is Not Wise (Prov 23:20-21):

How Do I Conquer Gluttony?

Laziness: Destroying Yourself By Doing Nothing

Introduction:

The Tragedy of Laziness (Prov 6:6-11):

Lessons from an Ant:

How do I stop being lazy?

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

Hard Hearted? You're Only Hurting Yourself!

Dad Talk (heart to heart), from our Heavenly Father:

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Helping YOU to overcome the debilitating effect of accumulated offense.

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Lessons from Folly (Prov 6:1):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Gluttony is Not Wise (Prov 23:20-21):

How Do I Conquer Gluttony?

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

The Tragedy of Laziness (Prov 6:6-11):

Lessons from an Ant:

How do I stop being lazy?

Audio Transcript