Jeff Miller

August 17, 2025

Heart Towards the World

Focus On Today

Jeff Miller

August 17, 2025

Heart Towards the World

Introduction:

I Am Worried About: ___________________.

"I Refuse to Worry..." (Matthew 6:25–34):

Because of WHO MY FATHER is. (Matt 6:26-30)

Romans 8:32 – He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Because of my FAITH. (Matt 6:31-33)
Because It DOES NO GOOD. (Matt 6:34)

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

00:39-00:46
Open up those Bibles to Matthew 6, and we're going to be picking up in verse 25.
00:48-00:52
We're in the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount.
00:53-01:03
And in this section that we're in here, Jesus is talking about how His followers should relate to the world.
01:06-01:16
As Pastor Taylor prayed a moment ago, the subject that our Lord covers is worry.
01:19-01:20
Do not be anxious.
01:21-01:28
I've shared this story with you in past time, but I couldn't help but thinking about it all week this week.
01:30-02:07
years ago I was at the doctor and the PA comes in and slaps on the the blood pressure cuff you know and I was taking my blood pressure and I remember the PA she just looked at me and her eyes were huge she goes you you feeling okay and I'm like yeah I feel good she says we need to we need to talk to the doctor I I said, "What's going on?" She said, "Your blood pressure is critically high." And then she left the room.
02:12-02:29
So I sat there for what felt like an eternity, looking back at my life, regrets, And then thinking about the future, you know, am I about to drop over dead?
02:30-02:31
What's gonna happen to my family?
02:33-02:35
What's gonna happen to the ministry?
02:36-02:36
What's gonna?
02:41-03:01
Well, the doctor eventually came in, first words out of his mouth, he says, "Buddy, we gotta talk about this blood pressure." I said, "Yeah, I know your physician's assistant said it wasn't good." He goes, "Oh, it is not good." Then he looked over at the counter behind him.
03:01-03:11
He said, "Is that the cuff that she used to take your blood pressure?" And I said, "Yeah." He says, "Oh, that's for little kids.
03:12-03:18
Guess no wonder your blood pressure's so high." So he got a big boy blood pressure cuff and took it.
03:18-03:20
Then I lived to fight another day.
03:21-03:35
But I gotta tell you, and that time from when the physician's assistant left the room and the doctor came in, I don't know if in my life I've ever felt such worry.
03:38-03:53
And some people, sadly, live in that zone where it's just worry, anxious, That's what we're going to look at today.
03:54-03:55
What is worry?
03:55-03:57
What is anxiety?
03:58-04:05
Well it's defined as an uneasiness about the future.
04:06-04:07
That's an understatement.
04:08-04:11
You know, it's that, well, what might happen?
04:12-04:13
What might not happen?
04:13-04:18
And worry has a way of consuming your thoughts.
04:19-04:55
has a way of keeping you from sleeping. Worry for some of you has you stop eating and for some of you you can't stop eating. So on the top of your outline you'll see a line I am worried about. I just want you to take a minute that write down the thing in your life that makes you anxious, or write down what it is in your life where you are most tempted to worry.
04:56-05:05
And if you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I never worry about anything." Well, come and see me after service because I've never met such a person, and I would love to.
05:05-05:08
What is the thing that you are most tempted to worry about?
05:08-05:09
Write that down.
05:10-05:13
Or maybe for some of you, you are worried right now.
05:13-05:14
Write that down.
05:19-05:24
All right, we're in church right now, so I'm gonna ask a question, you give me the Sunday school answer.
05:24-05:25
Are we supposed to worry?
05:28-05:29
We're not.
05:31-05:33
It's real easy to say in here right now, isn't it?
05:34-05:36
After worship, after prayer.
05:39-05:47
but we're going to leave here and many of you are going to worry and you are going to justify your worry.
05:49-05:53
It's funny how that's a sin that we're all so eager to justify.
05:55-06:00
And we say things like, we just sort of try to make it sound like it's not a thing, right?
06:01-06:04
We're like, oh, I'm just a worrier, right?
06:05-06:09
Oh, you know, just stuff that bothers me because I'm a worry wart.
06:12-06:29
But you know, if you really grab what Jesus has to say in this passage about worry, if you've ever referred to yourself as a worry wart, you're going to be pretty embarrassed that you've ever called yourself that.
06:32-06:36
You might say, well, yeah, yeah, Pastor Jeff, well, I'm not worried about stupid things, right?
06:36-06:38
I'm not worried about trivial things.
06:38-06:42
My worries are over legit needs, okay?
06:43-06:44
Well, let's see what our Lord has to say.
06:45-06:47
Look at verse 25 in Matthew 6.
06:47-07:00
Jesus says, "Therefore, I tell you, "do not be anxious about your life, "what you will eat or what you will drink, "nor about your body, what you will put on.
07:02-07:04
"Is not life more than food?
07:06-07:07
and the body more than clothing?
07:10-07:13
Notice Jesus is talking about legit needs.
07:15-07:15
You see that?
07:16-07:21
Food and water and clothes, legit needs.
07:21-07:27
And keep in mind, the people that Jesus was talking to, in this day, they didn't have the Walmarts.
07:30-07:34
Think of food, right?
07:34-07:35
How did they get their food?
07:36-07:44
they had to grow it, or they had to go to the market and hope that there was still something there to buy.
07:47-07:48
I think about water.
07:49-07:55
They didn't go to the kitchen sink and just flick their wrist and have water appear out of the tap.
07:59-08:04
And they lived in a climate that made having clean drinking water absolutely crucial.
08:05-08:06
and their clothes.
08:08-08:17
Again, they didn't have closets and storage and they usually had to make their clothes.
08:21-08:29
So when you consider their culture, you would note obviously it was much easier for them to be tempted to worry.
08:30-08:32
I was thinking about that this week.
08:32-08:38
You know, if we had a time machine we could bring somebody from Jesus' day to our day.
08:39-08:43
I think they would be absolutely baffled at the things that we worry about.
08:47-08:51
And someone's gonna say, "Well, Pastor Jeff, "how can I not worry?
08:52-08:56
"I mean, look at the environment "that kids are growing up in today.
08:58-08:59
"Look at the economy.
09:00-09:05
"How can I not be worried about money?" Yeah, what about my health?
09:06-09:08
Do you know what's going on health-wise?
09:08-09:10
How can I not be worried about that?
09:14-09:18
You know, they're eliminating positions where I work.
09:19-09:21
I might be next and I might not have an income.
09:21-09:23
How can I not worry about that?
09:26-09:28
You just can't help it, right?
09:29-09:37
And you would say, "Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, I remember you've said in past time, you've said feelings are feelings, right?
09:37-09:41
Feelings you can't help how you feel." That's true.
09:44-09:47
But we talk about worry, this isn't about feelings, this is about a choice.
09:48-09:50
Because your feelings are going to change if your focus changes.
09:52-09:55
And what you focus on is your choice.
09:58-10:25
you focus on affects everything. Three times in this passage, Jesus gives the command, therefore do not be anxious. He says it in verse 25. He says it in verse 31. He says it in verse 34. And each time Jesus says it, he gives a reason why we in turn must say, I refuse to worry.
10:27-10:28
You ready to say that?
10:29-10:31
All right, we're gonna take a run at it.
10:32-10:33
I want you to say that.
10:34-10:35
I refuse to worry.
10:39-10:41
Not much conviction from some of you.
10:44-10:47
I'm hoping that maybe in a few minutes we can change your mind about that.
10:49-10:50
I refuse to worry.
10:51-10:51
Why?
10:51-10:53
Number one, right just done.
10:53-10:55
I refuse to worry because of who my father is.
10:58-11:00
Let's pick up here verses 26 through 30.
11:01-11:07
Jesus says, "Look at the birds of the air.
11:08-11:14
"They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, "and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
11:17-11:20
"Are you not of more value than they?
11:22-11:27
"And which of you by being anxious "can add a single hour to a span of life?
11:28-11:30
"And why are you anxious about clothing?
11:31-11:35
"Consider the lilies of the field, "how they grow, they neither toil nor spin.
11:35-11:41
"Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory "was not arrayed like one of these.
11:43-11:52
"But if God so clothes the grass of the field, "which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, "Will he not much more clothe you?
11:54-12:09
Oh, you of little faith?" This is where Jesus starts, "I refuse to worry because of who my father is." And he gives a couple obvious illustrations, right?
12:09-12:18
He says, "Look at the birds, God feeds them." Oh, by the way, God doesn't drop the food into their nest, right?
12:20-12:28
For those of you who might think, oh, okay, well, I can just go home and sit down and do nothing and God will just, you know, God will just door dash me every day for the rest of my life.
12:29-12:31
No, that's not how it works.
12:32-12:36
Work is the God ordained way that he feeds us, right?
12:36-12:38
That's another serving for another time.
12:38-12:49
But the birds are fed and Jesus says, notice the flowers are dressed despite their very short life.
12:53-12:59
So he talks about the birds, he talks about the lilies, and it's really the same point.
13:00-13:08
God values His people more than anything on this earth.
13:11-13:12
This is Jesus' point.
13:18-13:19
God values you.
13:20-13:22
Listen, God values you.
13:25-13:28
More than anything on this earth, He values you.
13:32-13:33
Not convinced of that.
13:34-13:41
Well, let me ask you, when you look at all of the stuff created on the earth, what is made in the image of God?
13:42-13:53
There's only one thing on this planet that is said to have been made in the image of God, with God's fingerprint, His likeness stamped on, and that is you.
13:55-13:57
Not the dogs, not the goldfish, not the trees.
13:58-14:00
You are made in His image.
14:03-14:08
What is it on this planet right now that God sent His Son to die on the cross for?
14:12-14:13
Jesus didn't die for the cats.
14:16-14:18
Jesus didn't die for the parakeets.
14:24-14:27
God bought you with his son.
14:29-14:37
Oh, and speaking of sons, who is it, what is it on this planet that is said to be adopted by God?
14:41-14:45
God doesn't run down to the humane society and adopt a dog.
14:46-14:52
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to those who believe God adopted you.
14:53-14:55
Are you starting to see your value here?
14:56-15:02
Oh, oh, and what is it on the earth that God says is going to spend eternity in glory with him?
15:04-15:04
There's only one thing.
15:07-15:07
You.
15:10-15:10
You.
15:12-15:22
You see, you do understand now, you have incredible value to God.
15:24-15:28
And by the way, Jesus is obviously addressing believers here.
15:29-15:33
Those who have turned from their sin, those who have received and believed in Jesus Christ.
15:34-15:53
He's talking to believers because He says, "You're heavenly Father." Jesus says, "Believers, if your heavenly dad gave you life, he's gonna take care of it." I refuse to worry because of who my father is.
15:55-16:01
You know, a couple of weeks ago, my son Cade works at Chick-fil-A across the street.
16:03-16:11
A couple of weeks ago, I pulled in to pick him up And it was hot, I had the windows down, I was sitting there waiting.
16:11-16:16
And there was a guy walking around the front sidewalk by the entrance door.
16:16-16:18
And he was on the phone.
16:20-16:21
Now listen, I wasn't eavesdropping.
16:23-16:26
This guy was talking so loud, I could have heard him from Zillian Opal.
16:28-16:28
All right?
16:29-16:34
But this guy's walking around and using some choice words that we don't use while we preach.
16:38-16:46
He was complaining, obviously, about something that happened in his interaction in the restaurant, in the Chick-fil-A.
16:46-16:51
So he's walking around and he's like, "This is, this is," expletive deleted.
16:51-16:59
He goes, "I'm going in there to cuss somebody out." And he heads towards the door.
17:01-17:07
So I'm like, "Here we go." shut off the Jeep and I followed him in.
17:09-17:10
So close that he held the door open for me.
17:13-17:16
He walked into the lobby, there were no customers there, rare time in Chick-fil-A.
17:17-17:22
He walks into the lobby and stands there for a second and turns around and sees me looking at him.
17:25-17:26
And then he just leaves.
17:28-17:33
Well, Kate's standing there and Kate's like, then I leave and Kate's like, what was that all about, right?
17:34-17:46
So, Cade comes out into the car, and he's like, "Why'd you just come into Chick-fil-A?" And I said, "Well, did you see that guy "that came in ahead of me?
17:46-18:00
"He said he was coming in to cuss somebody out." Now, look, I know my son, and I know the last thing he would ever do is intentionally offend a stranger.
18:03-18:13
I said, "That guy said he was gonna come in "and cuss somebody out, "so I was gonna make sure that that wasn't you." Kade's like, "What were you gonna do?
18:15-18:18
"Like, throw him out the window?
18:19-18:38
"He could just roll right onto the hospital." I said, "But I was not going to let him cuss you out." And Kate said, "You would do that for me?" Like, "Would I do that for you?
18:39-18:43
"Yes, yes I would." I'm like, "How could you even ask that question?
18:44-18:49
"I would do anything for you, "including take a beating in Chick-fil-A.
18:49-19:03
"I would do anything for you." Listen, if I thought dude was going in there after somebody else, I never would have got out of the car, not my business.
19:06-19:08
But my son, oh no.
19:10-19:12
That is not going to happen.
19:16-19:20
I would do anything to provide for my son.
19:20-19:22
I would do anything to protect my son.
19:24-19:40
And when Kate's like, "You'd do that for me?" All I could think of was, "Do you have any idea how much your father loves you?" And that's exactly what Jesus is saying here.
19:44-19:46
"Worrier." That's what Jesus is saying.
19:48-19:49
"You're worried?
19:51-19:54
Do you have any idea how much your father loves you?
19:57-20:00
And you're worried that you're not going to be taken care of?
20:03-20:05
You don't know how much you mean to him.
20:06-20:07
Like, "Well, how much?
20:08-20:12
How much?" I think there's one verse more than any in the Bible that tells us how much.
20:12-20:13
It's Romans 8.32.
20:13-20:14
Can we get that on the screen?
20:18-20:32
"God, He who did not spare His own Son, "but gave Him up for us all, "how will He not also with Him graciously "give us all things?" I wouldn't give up my Son for any of you.
20:32-20:40
I wouldn't give up my Son for all of you, but God gave up His Son to death so that you can be saved.
20:42-20:53
And that's what Paul was saying in Romans, and this is the truth that Jesus is saying here, if God gave you his son, it's proof he's going to give you everything else that you need.
20:56-20:59
I refuse to worry because of who my father is.
21:02-21:03
Notice the end of verse 30.
21:05-21:11
Jesus says, "Oh, you of little faith." See, that's the issue.
21:11-21:18
Look, some of you have little faith.
21:20-21:25
Some of you do have faith enough to be saved, but you need to grow up.
21:25-21:26
And you know why you're worried?
21:27-21:34
The reason you're so worried all the time is you haven't really reckoned with the implications of what your salvation means.
21:36-21:40
Your father loves you, and your father has a concern for you.
21:40-21:44
Your father has a personal interest in what happens in your life.
21:47-21:54
In the way a parent does for their kid, but not someone who's not their kid.
21:57-21:58
You know what I mean by that?
22:02-22:31
parents here today whose kid do you make sure eats yours right how many times have you wandered in the past week if my kids have eaten like not at all right Whose kids do you make sure have clothes?
22:34-22:36
Yours, right?
22:37-22:39
Whose kid do you make sure brushes their teeth?
22:43-22:45
So parents, what would you say to your kids?
22:46-22:58
What would you say to your kids, parents, if you're home someday and you could hear your kid in the next room pacing and worrying, saying, What if mom isn't going to feed me tomorrow?
22:59-23:00
What would you say?
23:03-23:09
What would you say if you heard your kid in the next room going, "I'm really growing.
23:09-23:14
What if I grow out of these clothes and dad doesn't buy me new clothes?" What would you say?
23:19-23:21
That's Jesus' point.
23:21-23:28
When you worry, you're acting like you forget who your father is.
23:29-23:35
You're demonstrating, in the words of our Lord, little faith.
23:36-23:44
Oh, speaking of faith, I refuse to worry, number two, because of my faith.
23:47-23:49
I refuse to worry because of my faith.
23:49-23:50
Look at verse 31.
23:52-23:53
Says it again, here we go.
23:54-24:00
"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat or what shall we drink "or what shall we wear?
24:01-24:07
"For the Gentiles seek after all these things "and your heavenly father knows that you need them all.
24:08-24:21
"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness "and all these things will be added to you." The Gentiles seek after all these things.
24:21-24:29
Obviously in this context, Jesus is using the word Gentile as it was commonly used in that day to refer to a heathen.
24:29-24:34
In other words, somebody who doesn't know God, right?
24:34-24:40
So Jesus is saying that when I worry, I act like I don't have faith.
24:44-24:51
See, people who don't have faith, They just go after all the stuff, right?
24:51-24:52
It's all about me.
24:54-24:58
People that don't have faith, honestly, they live no different than an animal.
25:00-25:03
An animal only thinks about getting needs met, right?
25:05-25:08
Hungry, thirsty, tired.
25:08-25:10
Like I live with animals, right?
25:10-25:11
That's all they do.
25:11-25:15
All they're thinking about is getting their next physical need met.
25:18-25:22
And when you don't have faith, that's how you are.
25:22-25:29
Verse 25, Jesus said, as we already read, that isn't life more than the physical?
25:29-25:34
Child of God, isn't your life about more than physically surviving?
25:34-25:35
Isn't it?
25:39-25:41
You know, when Jesus was tempted by the devil, remember what he said?
25:42-26:09
shall not live by bread alone." Isn't that a statement of faith? Again, we talked about this last week, but this is exactly why people store treasure on earth. This life is all there is. I got to make the most out of it. I got to get what I can here now. Child of God, aren't you supposed to be different than them?
26:12-26:14
Aren't you supposed to be salt and light?
26:18-26:19
Do people see that?
26:21-26:28
In the way that you live, in the way that you talk, in the way that you refuse to worry.
26:33-26:35
Look at verse 32 again.
26:39-26:52
Jesus says, "Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all." Your unsaved friends, your unsaved family, do they know that you know that your Father knows and you know that He knows?
26:54-26:55
Yeah.
27:01-27:06
Do you say, "Well, I'm in need of something, but it's okay.
27:09-27:17
My father knows what I need, and he's going to provide it when he knows that I need it." That's faith.
27:18-27:20
That's what faith looks like.
27:22-27:34
And if you're right now, right now at this point in your life, if you're in a place of of need, if you're in a place where God has to show up and provide, you're in a place of want, guess what?
27:34-27:38
As a child of God, that means you have a front row seat to see God at work.
27:41-27:44
Because according to Jesus, He already knows.
27:48-28:22
Look, we've sort of taken the sin of worry minds, that's like a minor league sin, right? Oh, there's the big sins like murder and, you know, adultery and things like that, but worry, that's kind of a minor league sin, right? No, it's not. Worry strikes at the character and the promises of God. Worry makes some assumptions.
28:23-28:26
Worry assumes that God doesn't know.
28:27-28:28
Worry assumes that God doesn't care.
28:29-28:33
Worry assumes that God is completely unable to provide the thing that I need.
28:39-28:44
Worry is just, it's just, worry is just bad theology.
28:46-28:48
It shows a complete lack of faith.
28:49-28:52
And Jesus says it makes you no different than an atheist?
28:57-28:58
Are you on your own?
28:58-28:59
You have to fend for yourself.
28:59-29:00
You have to take care of yourself.
29:01-29:07
Or are you a child of God that is richly provided for by your heavenly father?
29:07-29:08
Which one are you?
29:12-29:13
Like I'm a child of God, right?
29:13-29:15
So why do we worry then?
29:17-29:18
Why do we worry?
29:18-29:24
I'm wrestling with this question, you know, the sort of armchair psychologist, sociologist that I am.
29:25-29:26
Why do we worry?
29:26-29:31
So I went to that very authoritative source, Psychology Today.
29:34-29:35
I looked it up online.
29:35-29:40
I wanted to see from a secular perspective how worry is defined.
29:40-29:41
And I was blown away.
29:41-29:42
You wanna hear that?
29:42-29:43
Listen to this.
29:45-29:46
I looked up, why do we worry?
29:46-30:04
According to Psychology Today, Their website says, "We worry because we have a hard time living with uncertainty." I want you to think about that for a second.
30:05-30:08
You have a hard time living with uncertainty.
30:08-30:13
If you're a Christian, what are you uncertain about?
30:14-30:16
Go ahead and shout it out.
30:16-30:19
If you're a Christian, shout out the things that we are uncertain about.
30:24-30:25
Pastor, is there anything?
30:28-30:29
I rack my brain all week.
30:30-30:33
Like surely there has to be something that we are uncertain about.
30:35-30:38
The only thing I can come up with is the time of the return of our Lord.
30:43-30:45
If you're a Christian, you have no uncertainties.
30:49-30:53
If you're a Christian and you're worrying, what you have is a lack of faith.
30:55-31:01
You're like, "Oh yeah, I know, I know Jeff, but I just, I got this, I got this need.
31:02-31:14
I get this really bad need, I've been praying about it, and look, I just, I just don't know how God's going to provide." You don't need to know.
31:14-31:15
That's his problem.
31:17-31:18
You know what your problem is?
31:18-31:31
Verse 33, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you." What you need to worry about is seeking God.
31:34-31:37
You seek the spiritual, He'll provide the physical.
31:37-31:38
Do you see that?
31:40-31:51
is on your walk with Christ, instead of focusing on the stuff and your needs and what's worrying you, Jesus said you need to focus on being the person that God wants you to be.
31:56-31:58
You draw near to God and he'll draw near to you.
31:59-32:06
And when your heart is so near to the heart of God, you're gonna have a worry-free faith.
32:06-32:07
So do you have that?
32:07-32:08
Do you have a worry-free faith?
32:12-32:13
I'll tell you how you can evaluate it.
32:17-32:19
A worry-free faith shows up in how you pray.
32:22-32:22
How do you pray?
32:26-32:27
If you're like, "Well, I really don't.
32:28-32:30
I really don't pray." Okay, then you have no faith.
32:32-32:33
All right, so we'll knock that one off.
32:34-32:41
But if you pray like this, if you pray, "God, I'm desperate and God, I don't know, I don't know what I'm gonna do, God.
32:41-32:46
And God, I'm so afraid of what's gonna happen tomorrow." That's little faith.
32:48-33:00
But if your prayer sounds like this, "God, I'm seeking you for this, and you already know what I need, and I'm trusting that you're gonna provide it when I need it." That is a prayer of faith.
33:03-33:07
I'm asking, I'm trusting, I'm believing.
33:10-33:12
But I refuse to worry.
33:12-33:13
Why?
33:14-33:14
Because of my faith.
33:17-33:18
And finally, number three.
33:21-33:24
I refuse to worry because of who my father is because of my faith.
33:24-33:27
And number three, I refuse to worry because it does no good.
33:28-33:29
It does no good.
33:30-33:31
Look at verse 34.
33:32-33:37
Jesus says, "Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, "for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
33:38-33:46
"Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." And you're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right there, right there, tomorrow, yes, tomorrow.
33:48-33:49
That's what I'm worried about.
33:49-33:52
That's the day that I'm worried about, and Jesus says, don't.
33:55-33:56
Why not?
33:58-33:59
Jesus says, you got enough trouble today.
34:01-34:02
Can I get an amen?
34:05-34:12
You mean to tell me you got nothing going on today that requires your attention, nothing.
34:13-34:14
And my schedule is clear.
34:14-34:18
There is not a single thing that requires my attention, effort, energy, nothing.
34:21-34:24
You're telling me that tomorrow needs all your attention.
34:26-34:27
Obviously not.
34:29-34:32
Obviously, you would say, "You know what, Jeff?
34:32-34:36
"I really got plenty going on today." And our Lord would say, "Good, go after that.
34:36-34:57
"Just go after that." Jesus said, "Tomorrow will be anxious for itself." Some translate that phrase, "Tomorrow," quote, "brings its own anxieties." In other words, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it because I can't cross it now, right?
35:03-35:09
No, not cross that bridge when we come to it.
35:09-35:14
How about cross that bridge if we come to it?
35:18-35:26
When we worry about the future, what we do is we start imagining all these little scenarios that are surely going to devastate us.
35:27-35:30
What if I get sick?
35:33-35:35
What if I have car trouble?
35:36-35:38
What if I do lose my job?
35:41-35:46
How much time, my friends, have we wasted worrying about something that never happens?
35:50-35:51
That's what our Lord reminds us here in this verse.
35:52-35:55
Worry isn't just sinful, it's pointless.
35:55-35:56
There's no upside.
35:57-36:02
benefits you nothing, it does no good. In fact, Jesus talked about this in verse 27.
36:03-36:09
You can't add to your life by worry, can you? Because nothing good's ever added to the worrier.
36:13-36:23
Nobody in the history of mankind has ever said, "You know what? I am so glad that I I worried about that because I worried so hard that it fixed everything.
36:26-36:27
It's pointless.
36:28-36:32
It's pointless to worry about tomorrow because the reality is not everybody gets a tomorrow.
36:34-36:35
You might not have a tomorrow.
36:37-36:46
But if you do, if you do have a tomorrow, tomorrow has literally one guarantee that you can take to the bank.
36:47-36:52
that is this, tomorrow God will be just as much God then as He is today.
36:56-37:10
And if God's Word is true, and I believe it is, the future is something to be excited about, not worry about, because the Bible says our best days are ahead.
37:13-37:19
All worry does, in addition to dishonor the Lord, is steal your joy today.
37:21-37:28
It steals your peace today, and it ruins your testimony today.
37:31-37:32
Does no good.
37:34-37:35
Our worship team will make their way back up front.
37:37-37:51
Each of us might be feeling really confident right now, but when you leave here, when you walk out those doors, you are going to be tempted to worry about something.
37:55-37:58
Probably not so much here now, but home later, yes.
38:01-38:07
I want you to take this outline and I want you to tuck this away in your Bible for later.
38:08-38:11
Oh, and that little thing you wrote at the top, I'm worried about.
38:12-38:13
No, no, no.
38:14-38:18
Instead, what we're going to say is, I refuse to worry about this.
38:19-38:19
Why?
38:19-38:21
Why am I not worried about this?
38:21-38:23
Because of who my father is, that's why.
38:23-38:28
I'm not worried about this because of my faith in that father.
38:28-38:34
I'm not worried about this because according to Him, honestly, it's not going to do any good anyways.
38:36-38:37
I refuse.
38:38-38:39
I refuse to worry.
38:40-38:40
Let's pray.
38:42-38:56
Father in Heaven, we confess before You that we demonstrate a complete lack of faith when we worry.
38:58-39:13
And we can come into this room We can sing about your power and your love and your goodness, but we deny all of those things with our lives when we choose to worry.
39:15-39:20
So Father, I pray that today is a new day for my brothers and sisters here.
39:20-39:30
The thing that weighs on us, the thing that has kept us up at night, Father, I pray that We would look back at your faithfulness throughout history.
39:30-39:33
We would look back at your faithfulness in our own lives.
39:36-39:46
And that thing that burdens us, Father, I just pray that we would do as your word says, that we would cast it at your feet and we would refuse to worry about it.
39:48-39:50
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 6:25-34

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What is it that you are most tempted to worry about? Why have you struggled to let go of this? How should you view this in light of Jesus’ teaching here?
What is Jesus illustrating with the birds and the lilies?
What are some practical steps you can take to actively “refuse to worry”?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

August 10, 2025

Heart Towards the World

Where to Put Your Treasure

Jeff Miller

August 10, 2025

Heart Towards the World

Introduction:

3 Self-Serving Reasons to Give to God (Matthew 6:19–24):

So I Have TREASURE FOREVER . (Matt 6:19–21)
So I Am ABLE to SEE . (Matt 6:22–23)
So I Serve the RIGHT MASTER . (Matt 6:24)

1 Timothy 6:10 – For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

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

00:40-00:43
Open up your Bibles with me please to Matthew chapter six.
00:47-00:50
Some time ago I was at the funeral home for a visitation.
00:52-00:59
And as I was leaving, there was a woman standing kind of in the lobby by the exit door.
01:03-01:07
And she asked what my connection was to the deceased.
01:07-01:11
And I said, well, I'm a pastor and I've known the family for quite a while.
01:12-01:27
And she says, "Oh, you're a pastor." She said, "What do you think about what Joel Osteen makes?" You know, that's not really the time or the place to engage in a heated debate.
01:28-02:04
I said, "What Joel Osteen makes "is really none of my business." She goes, "Well, of course it is." I said, "Why?" I said, "What he makes and what he does with his money, it's not my business." And she goes, "Well, it absolutely is." And I said, "Well, man, with all due respect, if you don't appreciate his ministry, then don't give him money." But I walked out of there just sort of confused again.
02:06-02:10
as to why we are so concerned with what other people do with their money.
02:13-02:18
When biblically, who should I be concerned about?
02:19-02:21
Point to the person that you should be concerned about.
02:22-02:23
Right here.
02:25-02:25
Right?
02:26-02:44
And you know, we're going through the Sermon on the Mount and the last section we looked at, Jesus talked about giving and praying and fasting and those are all the elements of our private spiritual life, but you know, you got to deal with the world sometime, right?
02:45-02:46
You got to get out there.
02:47-02:52
And this next section of the Sermon on the Mount is about that.
02:53-02:55
How do we deal with the world?
02:55-02:59
What is the heart towards the world?
03:01-03:03
And today we're going to talk about money.
03:05-03:09
And oh, I think we knew it had to come up in the Sermon on the Mount eventually.
03:10-03:14
Like, well, if it's such a big deal, why didn't it come up sooner?
03:17-03:20
Because Jesus has been going after our hearts.
03:21-03:32
And when your heart is right, and only when your heart is right, will your view and use of money also be right.
03:34-03:38
Look at, I just want to start, look at verse 20, just the first part here.
03:40-03:42
This is absolutely astounding.
03:45-03:51
Jesus says, "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Just stop there for a second.
03:54-03:58
That is absolutely astounding what he said.
04:00-04:01
Right there, two things.
04:03-04:06
Two things just blow me away about that little part of the verse.
04:06-04:07
It just blows me away.
04:07-04:12
The first thing that blows me away is the fact that I can even put treasure in heaven.
04:15-04:15
Astounding.
04:16-04:19
That I have the ability to put stuff in heaven.
04:22-04:27
But I've got to tell you, this past week there's another little phrase in there that really jumped out at me.
04:29-04:45
And it was the phrase, "For yourselves." So this treasure in heaven, who's it for?
04:49-04:50
It's for me.
04:52-04:54
This is going to benefit me.
04:58-05:09
And you might be shocked to find out this morning that when you look in this section about what Jesus says about money, there is a self-serving motive.
05:11-05:14
Actually there are three self-serving motives at play.
05:19-05:23
You know, we talked about money last fall.
05:24-05:24
We had a whole series.
05:24-05:26
What was that, Pastor, in October?
05:27-05:28
It was called Right on the Money.
05:29-05:36
And in that series, we talked about how to lay up treasure in heaven.
05:38-05:43
review, we said you've got to give to God intentionally, willingly, and cheerfully.
05:43-06:07
That's what the Bible says. That's how you lay up treasure in heaven. But here, in this passage we're looking at today, Jesus doesn't talk about how. Very clearly here, you're going to see that Jesus talks about why we should lay up treasure in heaven. And the Why is for us?
06:13-06:20
You know, after that sermon series last fall, "Oh, I preached my little heart out.
06:22-06:27
What does God say about giving?" Do you know what happened after that series?
06:29-06:31
Giving went down in the church.
06:36-06:36
I don't get it.
06:38-06:50
I don't understand how we can see clear teaching from God's word about money, and we just thumb our nose at God, say, "Pfft, I'll show you, I'll give less." I don't understand that.
06:52-06:59
You know, my wife, Erin, has a friend out of state that works in finance in her church.
07:00-07:10
And she was sharing with Erin that every time my pastor preaches about tithing, giving goes down.
07:13-07:15
I don't get it.
07:16-07:18
I just don't understand it.
07:19-07:20
I just don't understand.
07:20-07:25
You know, God says, God says, "Everything is mine.
07:25-07:28
I'm going to give some to you because I love you.
07:29-07:33
And as an act of love and worship, I want you to give back to me.
07:33-07:56
And if you do, I will give you even more." And we listen to that and we go, "Nah, that's not for me." Well, I want to encourage you and the Lord to really change your mind about that.
07:58-08:03
Because here in this passage, Jesus gives us why.
08:04-08:12
And if you believe, you will be the beneficiary of giving.
08:14-08:14
All right?
08:16-08:18
So on your outline, I want you to write some things down.
08:18-08:22
Here's three self-serving reasons to give to God.
08:24-08:28
Very clear in the passage, self-serving reasons to give to God.
08:30-08:33
Number one, write this down, so I have treasure forever.
08:36-08:37
So I have treasure forever.
08:40-08:43
Look at the first part of 19, again, first part of 20.
08:43-08:55
Jesus says, "Do not lay up for yourselves "treasures on earth, but," verse 20, "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Do you see there's a twofold command there, right?
08:56-09:00
Not hard, it's negative and it's positive.
09:01-09:07
And then Jesus goes on to give the reason behind each of these commands.
09:08-09:09
So let's take a look at them.
09:09-09:10
First, we have a negative.
09:11-09:13
All right, look at verse 19, the negative.
09:13-09:24
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth "where moth and rust destroy "and where thieves break in and steal." Like, what's treasure on earth?
09:24-09:25
You know what treasure on earth is, right?
09:25-09:30
money, houses, cars, stuff, all of the above.
09:30-09:40
Jesus is just simply saying, "Do not live your life accumulating for here." Like, why not?
09:41-09:49
Jesus says, "How about common sense?" Because you know it all goes away eventually.
09:52-09:53
It all goes away.
09:54-09:59
Notice Jesus talks about moth and rust and thieves.
10:01-10:05
Those weren't three arbitrary things our Lord just pulled out of the air.
10:06-10:11
The reason he said those three things is because in those days, you measured wealth by three things.
10:13-10:15
You measured wealth, first of all, by how many clothes you had.
10:16-10:20
I know that sounds strange to us, but go to some other parts of the world.
10:22-10:24
They measured wealth by how many clothes they had.
10:25-10:28
They also measured wealth by how much food they had stored.
10:30-10:41
Again, that's kind of lost on us in our culture, but in that culture, especially in that day, you were extremely wealthy if you had food in storage.
10:45-10:49
And obviously, wealth was measured by gold, right?
10:50-10:56
So now we understand maybe a little more why Jesus selects those three images, right?
10:56-11:00
Moths, moths speaks to clothes.
11:04-11:11
You know something interesting about moths, them dusty little butterflies, they only eat what's stored.
11:12-11:12
Did you notice that?
11:14-11:16
Moths typically don't eat what you're wearing.
11:19-11:20
They eat what's stored.
11:21-11:23
Oh, and it's kind of the same thing with food, right?
11:23-11:28
When Jesus says rust, that's not a great translation of the word.
11:28-11:30
The word literally in the Greek means eating.
11:33-11:35
What happens to stored food over time?
11:37-11:39
The varmints find it, don't they?
11:40-11:45
The mice, the bugs, they find their way to it when you store it.
11:46-11:50
And then obviously thieves, gold breaking into houses.
11:50-11:53
In those days, people would often bury their treasure in the ground.
11:53-12:01
It was nothing for a thief to watch to see where somebody buried something and then go back later and dig it up, right?
12:03-12:18
So despite mothballs, mousetraps, motion lights, Jesus here is saying very simply, the stuff that you stockpile can and will be gone in a second, right?
12:19-12:20
It's like a flower.
12:21-12:36
If I pick you a beautiful flower, it's beautiful when I pick it, but you realize over time, a very short amount of time, that flower is going to wither away and turn to dust.
12:37-12:42
And here Jesus is saying, oh, that's everything on earth that you try to hold onto.
12:46-12:49
Now look, it's not sinful to have stuff.
12:53-12:59
If we've learned anything from the Sermon on the Mount, what we've learned is it's all about the motive of your heart.
13:02-13:17
And if your motive is to accumulate for yourself, you're greedy and you're foolish, because what you store you lose eventually.
13:20-13:24
Unless you store it in heaven, because look at verse 20.
13:24-13:40
Jesus says, "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys "Thieves do not break in and steal." Like, well, what is treasure in heaven?
13:40-13:42
We talked about this in our series last fall.
13:42-13:43
I'm gonna give you a quick review.
13:44-13:45
Here's what we said, still true.
13:46-13:47
What is treasure in heaven?
13:51-13:57
I don't think God's word is very specific on what that is because I think it's something that we wouldn't understand fully.
13:59-14:00
But there's a lot that we know about it.
14:01-14:07
We do know that it's eternal and it's better than stuff on earth.
14:07-14:08
We know that.
14:09-14:18
We do know that believers will have treasure based on what we've done with our resources here on the earth.
14:20-14:22
Now to be clear, Pastor Taylor talked about this.
14:22-14:27
Salvation, salvation is entirely based on the work of Jesus Christ.
14:27-14:29
Let's be clear about that.
14:30-14:38
Jesus Christ, through his death and his resurrection, provided salvation to those who will turn from their sin and receive him.
14:39-14:42
It's all based on his work, all right?
14:43-14:50
But treasure or rewards are based on our works, and in heaven, there will be different levels of rewards.
14:52-14:58
Another thing we do know is there's no second chance for believers to earn rewards after we die.
14:59-15:05
Biblically, this life on the earth right now is your chance to earn rewards.
15:08-15:15
We're talking so much about the heart through this series on the Sermon on the Mount.
15:15-15:19
So when we get to this section, the question is, where is your heart?
15:24-15:28
Well, Jesus tells us objectively, in case you're still wondering where your heart really is.
15:29-15:30
Do you wanna know where your heart really is?
15:31-15:33
You might think you know where it is.
15:34-15:35
Jesus tells us exactly where it actually is.
15:35-15:36
Look at verse 21.
15:37-15:48
Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, "there your heart will be also." Your heart is wherever you put your treasure.
15:51-15:55
In other words, look at how you spend your money.
15:57-15:58
and that'll tell you where your heart is.
16:01-16:06
So if you come to me and you say, oh, you know what, Pastor Jeff, my heart's with the church.
16:07-16:10
Oh, I just have a heart for this church.
16:10-16:11
I just love this church so much.
16:11-16:13
My heart is with the church.
16:16-16:17
How much money do you give to the church?
16:18-16:21
And you're like, well, I don't really give that much to the church.
16:21-16:25
Well, then your heart's not with the church, according to Jesus.
16:26-16:36
According to Jesus, you've deceived yourself into thinking your heart's with the church, but if your money isn't invested in the church, then your heart's not in the church, all right?
16:37-16:41
Or if you're like, oh, Pastor Jeff, you know where my heart is, my heart of hearts.
16:42-16:43
You know where my heart is?
16:43-16:44
My heart's for missions.
16:45-16:49
Oh, I see these pictures of Barnabas, and I hear about these people going on these mission trips.
16:49-16:52
I just have, Pastor Jeff, I have such a heart for missions.
16:54-17:11
"Well, do you give to missions?" "Well, no, I don't really give to missions." "Well, then your heart's not in missions, according to Jesus, that is." Like, well, maybe I'm not sure where my heart is.
17:12-17:14
If you're struggling with that, I'll be glad to help you.
17:14-17:20
What I need you to do is print out your bank statement, make an appointment, and we'll sit down and go through it.
17:21-17:29
And I will show you very clearly where your heart is because according to Jesus, where you put your treasure is where your heart ends up.
17:31-17:34
Your heart follows your investments.
17:34-17:40
You're either investing in the kingdom of God or you're investing in stuff that you're eventually going to lose.
17:43-17:45
And if you're sitting here like, man, you know what?
17:45-17:47
I really want my heart to be on the things of God.
17:49-17:51
Well, then invest in the things of God.
17:52-17:57
Give to the things of God, and you will find that your heart will follow your investments.
17:59-18:00
Your heart will be in heaven.
18:01-18:06
And according to Jesus, you're gonna have treasure that you'll enjoy for eternity.
18:08-18:11
It's a pretty good self-serving motive for giving to God.
18:12-18:17
Second one, write this down, self-serving reason to give to God.
18:18-18:19
So I'm able to see.
18:22-18:23
So I'm able to see.
18:25-18:26
Like, wait, wait, what?
18:27-18:28
That's what he says.
18:29-18:31
Look at verses 22 and 23.
18:31-18:33
Jesus says the eye is the lamp of the body.
18:34-18:38
So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
18:39-18:43
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
18:43-18:47
If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?
18:52-18:55
You're like, "Well, that's an unrelated tangent.
18:55-19:00
We're talking about money and all of a sudden we're talking about eyesight.
19:00-19:02
It's not an unrelated tangent at all.
19:03-19:09
Jesus here is giving us another self-centered reason to give to God.
19:10-19:12
And this is, I'm going to tell you what it is and I'm going to explain it.
19:13-19:24
only people who truly understand and obey what God says about money are able to see things as they really are.
19:29-19:31
Like, well, what do you mean?
19:32-19:34
Jesus here is giving an illustration.
19:34-19:37
The eye here illustrates the heart.
19:38-19:42
And Jesus says the eye is like a lamp.
19:42-19:50
And everything that we see, what we perceive and fill ourselves with is light.
19:52-19:54
Okay, so look at verse 22 again.
19:54-19:56
Jesus says, "The eye is the lamp of the body.
19:56-20:07
"So if your eye is healthy, "your whole body will be full of light." Now that word healthy in the Greek literally is the word generous.
20:09-20:10
Literally that's what the word means.
20:10-20:12
if your eye is generous.
20:14-20:22
So Jesus is saying that if your heart is generous, your whole life is going to be filled with light.
20:22-20:27
In other words, your whole life is going to be filled with spiritual understanding.
20:29-20:35
In other words, Jesus is saying that only generous people see things as they really are.
20:38-20:42
It's only generous people who say, "Everything is God's.
20:44-20:54
"I'm just a steward of God's stuff." You know, in my office on the conference table, there's a big glass bowl and it's full of lollipops.
20:54-20:56
This happens all the time.
20:57-21:07
It literally just happened this morning, where a little kid will come in, "Pastor Jeff, can I have a lollipop?" Absolutely you can, and they'll take a lollipop and they'll leave.
21:07-21:08
This happens all the time.
21:08-21:12
And about 10 or 15 seconds later, they come back in.
21:12-21:15
And they say, "I need to get one for Joey.
21:15-21:17
"And I gotta get one for Mikey.
21:17-21:23
"And I gotta get one for Stacy." And they start, and then they walk out with these handfuls of lollipops.
21:23-21:28
Doesn't bother me at all because they're illustrating a very important biblical point, and that's this.
21:29-21:29
I say it all the time.
21:30-21:35
I'm like, "You're awfully generous "with something that's not yours." That's biblical.
21:38-21:40
You wanna learn how to be generous?
21:40-21:42
It's not yours.
21:43-21:46
Everything on this earth is a bowl of lollipops.
21:47-21:48
It's all God's.
21:49-21:54
So it's a lot easier to be generous with it when I realize it's not mine.
21:54-21:56
I don't need to hold on to it.
21:57-21:58
So I'm getting one for Mikey.
22:05-22:07
Generous people see things as they really are.
22:08-22:22
Generous people say things like, "Giving is worship." So I'm joyfully giving God first and best, right?
22:23-22:33
I'm not going to see how much money I have left after I buy all my toys, and I'll give God a 10th of that and pat myself on the back for tithing.
22:33-22:36
That isn't tithing and that's certainly not worship.
22:38-22:46
Giving worshipfully is when you receive, you say, okay, God gets first and God gets best.
22:47-22:48
That's worship.
22:51-22:55
You're like, some of you are like, yeah, I'm on board with that.
22:55-22:56
Why doesn't everyone get that?
22:58-22:59
Because of verse 23.
23:00-23:03
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
23:04-23:08
If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?
23:10-23:14
Some people don't get it because they're in the dark.
23:19-23:25
Some people are just clueless because they can't see it, because they can't see anything.
23:30-23:46
Listen, when your heart is focused on the treasures of the earth, accumulating for yourself, the blinds come down on spiritual perception.
23:46-23:49
You are unable to see things spiritually.
23:57-24:02
You know, some people go to church for years.
24:03-24:07
Some people have been coming to this church for years and they do not change.
24:09-24:16
They're still struggling with the same sin that they were struggling with two years ago, five years ago, why?
24:19-24:19
Because they can't see.
24:22-24:23
How great is the darkness?
24:25-24:29
Some people have been coming to church for years, and they don't grow.
24:29-24:30
They're spiritually dull.
24:31-24:35
At this point, they should be back teaching the kids.
24:35-24:37
They should be leading a small group at this point.
24:37-24:40
They should be in the preaching class, but they can't.
24:40-24:41
They're spiritually dull.
24:41-24:41
Why?
24:45-24:45
They can't see.
24:48-24:49
How great is the darkness?
24:53-24:58
Some people never witness, never share Christ with anybody.
24:59-25:02
You even talk about witnessing, like, "Well, that's not for me." Why?
25:05-25:06
They can't see.
25:10-25:11
How great is the darkness?
25:13-25:16
And they come to church and they're like, "Well, worship is boring.
25:16-25:18
"The sermon wasn't for me.
25:18-25:24
"The prayer was too long." How great is the darkness?
25:27-25:41
When your heart is purely focused on earth's treasures, when you live your life only thinking and focused and spending on here and now, you will have no spiritual perception.
25:46-25:58
you get your view of money right, you're never going to be able to deal with other spiritual matters. So here's a self-serving reason to give.
26:01-26:06
Maybe this church stuff will start to make some sense because the lights will come on.
26:08-26:18
All right? Three self-serving reasons to give. Number one, so I have treasure forever. Number Number three, so I serve the right master.
26:20-26:21
So I serve the right master.
26:25-26:28
Look at verse 24, Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters.
26:30-26:37
"For either he will hate the one and love the other, "or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." You cannot serve God and money.
26:41-26:46
Jesus here very clearly tells us that God and money are both masters.
26:50-26:52
You are a servant to one of them.
26:54-26:55
There's no third option.
26:56-27:20
And in this context, you see, you look at stuff and you say, okay, all this stuff that I have, And it's either God's, for God's purposes, or it's mine, for what I want.
27:23-27:23
Those are your choices.
27:28-27:31
Jesus said, you know, you shouldn't try to...
27:31-27:33
You shouldn't try to...
27:34-27:35
No.
27:36-27:38
He didn't say you shouldn't try to serve two masters.
27:40-27:40
What did he say?
27:42-27:44
At the last sentence, he says you cannot.
27:46-27:47
You cannot.
27:49-27:52
It's impossible to serve two masters.
27:53-27:54
Why is that?
27:57-27:59
The same reason a man can't have two wives.
28:04-28:11
"We have two masters here, "and both of them demand total allegiance." Both of these masters, there's no compromise.
28:12-28:14
There's no 50/50 here.
28:14-28:18
You're gonna be totally sold out to one of them.
28:20-28:24
And right now, I'm sure somebody's saying, "Well, I'm not a slave to worldly things.
28:24-28:30
"I'm not a slave to accumulating." Some of you are, way more than you realize.
28:34-28:46
Because when you prioritize stuff over God, then money becomes your master.
28:50-28:53
And Martin Lloyd Jones told this story.
28:54-28:55
I can't stop thinking about it.
28:56-29:04
He told this story about this farmer that had two cows gave birth at the same time.
29:04-29:05
So now we have two baby cows.
29:05-29:06
What are those called?
29:08-29:09
Just seeing who's still listening.
29:09-29:13
And okay, so he had two baby cows.
29:14-29:18
So the farmer excitedly goes to his wife and he says, "Okay, here's what we're gonna do.
29:20-29:33
"I'm gonna raise both of these cows "and I'm gonna sell one and all the money's going to God." And then I'm gonna sell the other and all the money we're gonna use for our family.
29:34-29:38
And his wife says, "Well, which cow is which?
29:39-29:41
"The white one or the brown one?
29:41-29:45
"Which one's God's and which one's ours?" And the man said, "Ah, you know what?
29:45-29:47
"We'll worry about that later.
29:47-29:57
"We'll take care of that down the road somewhere." A couple days later, the wife walks into the house and the farmer was weeping.
29:59-30:17
And the wife says, "Honey, what's the matter?" And the farmer goes, "God's cow died." That's funny, isn't it?
30:20-30:24
It's really not, because it's always God's cow that dies.
30:28-30:30
It's always God's cow that dies.
30:34-30:37
You know, you've got a sports tournament and church at the same time.
30:40-30:41
Gotta go with the sports.
30:44-30:46
It's always God's cow that dies.
30:47-30:50
I'm not saying you're anathema if you miss church.
30:52-31:00
I'm saying it's a huge red flag as to the way you're discipling your children when you teach them that anything else takes priority over church.
31:00-31:03
When does worship ever have the priority?
31:04-31:06
Are you discipling your kids to that?
31:08-31:09
It's always God's cow that dies.
31:11-31:15
It's like, well, we have youth group tonight, but we also have a dance recital.
31:16-31:20
We can skip youth group because it's always God's cow that dies.
31:24-31:30
You know, I really wanted to join a small group, Pastor Taylor, but you know what, I got this hobby that takes up most of my nights.
31:30-31:32
So it's always God's cow that dies.
31:34-31:36
And oh yeah, we're talking about money.
31:38-31:45
When money becomes tight, giving to God is the first thing to go.
31:49-31:50
Because it's always God's cow that dies.
32:00-32:00
Who's your master?
32:04-32:05
I'll give you a real easy test.
32:07-32:10
I'll give you a real easy test that will tell you where your heart is.
32:13-32:14
Has this sermon really bothered you?
32:21-32:34
If this sermon is really grating on you, so long as I have accurately represented what our Lord has said, if this sermon is really grating on you, according to Him, that means you love money and you hate God.
32:41-33:02
If you're sitting here and if you're going to be totally honest and you resent the truth that God has a total claim on your life, then that means, in the words of our Lord, you're devoted to money and you despise God.
33:09-33:12
But you know, if you're generous, it sort of works the other way.
33:13-33:21
If you're generous towards God, you hate that the world is constantly trying to take more of your money.
33:23-33:26
You hate when gas prices go up.
33:26-33:28
You hate when grocery prices go up.
33:28-33:38
You hate when your taxes go up because you sincerely respond to that by saying, "Oh, I wanted to give more and that's keeping me from that.
33:38-33:44
And you hate that because you love God so much.
33:48-33:49
You've got to master.
33:54-34:00
The stuff I have, the money I make, is it to serve God or is it to serve me?
34:02-34:07
Because if it's to serve you, ultimately, you're serving it.
34:12-34:17
Look, at the end of the day, money's just a tool.
34:17-34:18
Money's not evil.
34:19-34:21
Money's not inherently good.
34:21-34:22
Money is just a tool.
34:23-34:27
But money is the most dangerous tool that you possess.
34:29-34:47
Because Jesus said, "That is the tool that you will use to replace God." You know, there's so many self-serving, personal benefits to giving to God.
34:47-34:53
Oh yes, the opposite is true too.
34:55-35:01
to God blesses you, but when money is your master, you hurt yourself.
35:02-35:03
Literally, hurt yourself.
35:04-35:05
Look at 1 Timothy 6.10.
35:08-35:15
God says through the Apostle Paul, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.
35:17-35:48
It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith," look at this, and pierced themselves with many pangs, the person who worships money by the way they live end up repeatedly stabbing themselves." So if you're sitting here at this point in the sermon and under your breath, in your head, in your heart, you're sitting here digging your heels in saying, "No one tells me how to spend my money.
35:49-35:55
"Look, I earned this. It belongs to me." Okay.
35:59-36:02
But I have an obligation to tell you that you're just stabbing yourself.
36:06-36:08
So if God isn't your Master, who are you hurting?
36:12-36:17
On the other hand, Giving it to God so I can keep it forever.
36:20-36:23
Letting the light shine in that only comes to a generous heart.
36:24-36:30
And serving a master who loves me and only wants good for me.
36:33-36:37
I got plenty of self-serving reasons to give to God.
36:38-36:38
Let's pray.
36:41-37:05
Our Father in heaven, I'm sure this was a very uncomfortable several minutes for some people.
37:08-37:08
That's okay.
37:09-37:11
God, we didn't come here today for comfort.
37:12-37:14
We came here to hear from you.
37:14-37:17
And yes, sometimes God, you do comfort us with the truth.
37:17-37:26
And Father, there are generous people sitting in this room that are comforted by all of the benefits that you have promised those who are generous.
37:29-37:36
Father, I pray for those who are still holding on so tightly to stuff.
37:40-37:45
I pray, Father, that this would be a time of some serious self-examination.
37:51-37:55
And that they would not take the words of Jesus Christ lightly.
37:57-38:06
But, Father, I pray that you would give them no rest until they seek to get this money issue right before you.
38:08-38:09
It's worship, Father.
38:11-38:11
It's worship.
38:12-38:17
Let us worship You with the stuff that You've given us.
38:18-38:20
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 6:19-24

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Re-read Matt 6:22-23. Explain this in your own words. What does this have to do with money, and how does generosity affect spiritual perception?
Is it wrong to be motivated by self-serving reasons to give to God? Why or why not?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Taylor Brown

August 3, 2025

Questions and Answers

Questions from the Congregation - Part 19B

Taylor Brown

August 3, 2025

Questions and Answers

Note: The time signatures [00:00] below indicate the approximate start of a question if you'd like to skip to a particular one of interest in the audio file.

Family / Kids:

[02:15] - Q: How can Christians help transgender family members fit into a family structure without alienating them?

Creation / End Times:
[07:28] - Q: Why did Adam live so long on the earth when we can’t now?
[10:30] - Q: Buckle up, this is a doosey! :) How are scientists using Carbon Dating to find rocks that are millions of years old? Carbon Dating works by using the Half-Life of Carbon (the amount of time for half of the carbon in something to decay (5,730 Years in Carbon-14, which is used for Carbon Dating)). If the Earth is only 6,000ish years old (which I believe it is), then I should be able to get my own doohickey that tells me how much carbon is decayed, and find that only about half-of the carbon is decayed. This would mean that the scientists were lying, but all the carbon dating says the Earth is millions of years old. Are the scientists lying? Or when God created the Earth did he create it with a lot of the carbon decayed? And if so, why would he do so? Wouldn’t he want it to show that the Earth is only 6000ish years old? Is this whole Carbon Dating thing false and is a lie? Or does it have something to have to do with the fall, or something else entirely? Okay, that’s your homework assignment for the next few weeks! Enjoy, and thank you!
[13:53] - Q: During the Millennium, where Christians reign with Jesus, people will sin, but I’m confused about who. 1. Will the Christians who have already died on the earth and received their glorified bodies sin? 2. Will the Christians who were raptured and did not receive their glorified bodies sin? 3. Will the children that the Christians in the millennium have sin? Thank you!
[15:43] - Q: Why aren’t Christians talking about the Bible prophecies from thousands of years ago that are happening in our day and age? How is this not fascinating to every Christian? SOOO many Scriptures point to what is happening right now. How is it that Christians don’t know or care? I actually do want an answer to this question.

Miscellaneous / Potluck:
[21:16] - Q: How long does somebody have to be dead before it’s considered “archeology” instead of “grave robbing”? ***How is this Bible related? I’m not sure, but grave-robbing is definitely a sin!***
[23:20] - Q: In 2 Sam 16:5-14 Shimei cursed David and David said, “it may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day”. What is going on here? Why did David accept this cursing?
[26:02] - Q: What does the Bible say about cremation?

Reprise (from Part 1):
[31:01] - Q: What does the “gift of tongues” accurately look like in today’s church? Since I’ve only seen the “crazy” – there must be a legit use for it since Paul spent so much time on it in 1 Corinthians 14. And if it is no longer valid, how do you determine what gifts are valid or not?
[36:40] - Q: Do the leaders of this church like each other? If so, how do you show it to each other?

00:00-00:35
Sermon we're going to be doing a Q&A many of you have submitted questions over the past few weeks that relate to the Bible Theology and Christian living and we're gonna answer as many of those as possible this morning We answered about half of them in the first service So we'll see if we can answer the other half in this service and to help pastor Jeff and myself We have Matt Cole who's gonna moderate the questions for us So Folsey we were talking in the first service it's been a while since we've had a Q&A Yeah, I think I said that in the first service that it was definitely before we went to two services because I would have definitely Remembered doing this back-to-back.
00:36-00:51
So we are long overdue and we got some really good questions The first service questions will be up on the Where's that record on the YouTube's or whatever you can find the first service on the YouTube's?
00:52-00:59
Yes on our YouTube channel, you can go on our church website should be up by today or tomorrow tomorrow, so you can check out those first questions we answered in the first service.
01:00-01:06
So we'll pick up with the questions we didn't get to in the first service then and just kind of take it from there.
01:06-01:13
Yeah, we had a lot of, we had 17 total questions, so we got through 9 of them in the first service, so we have to pretty much.
01:14-01:26
And I have to say, one of these questions literally made me laugh out loud for an extended period of time, and I sure hope that we get to that question.
01:26-01:28
I can testify because I saw your reaction.
01:29-01:30
Yeah, yeah.
01:30-01:38
Pastor Taylor, he goes, "Hey, here's the questions we got for Q&A day." He watched me, I laughed like an idiot in the lobby by the offices.
01:38-01:42
And I don't know who submitted most of these questions.
01:42-01:45
I don't know who submitted the funny one, but I would love to find out.
01:45-01:49
If you would fess up, you have to know how much you made my day.
01:49-01:51
I think I know who it was, but I won't say it.
01:51-01:51
>> I can't speculate.
01:52-01:52
>> Yeah.
01:53-01:53
All right.
01:53-01:54
So anyways, we going to set a timer?
01:55-01:55
>> Oh, yeah.
01:56-01:58
I guess that was me last time, huh?
01:58-02:00
>> Yeah, I don't have my phone.
02:00-02:03
>> I know, yours was a lot cooler in the past, because you had a Pac-Man theme song or something.
02:03-02:04
>> Yeah, the Pac-Man theme.
02:04-02:06
I forgot my phone again.
02:06-02:08
>> Mine's just a little ringer.
02:08-02:09
All right, 35 again?
02:10-02:11
>> You want to do 35?
02:12-02:14
Yeah, that was good for the first-- don't you think?
02:14-02:17
>> We preach longer than that, so it will seem to work.
02:17-02:18
>> So this is going to spoil people, right?
02:19-02:19
>> All right.
02:20-02:21
Ready, set.
02:21-02:21
Go.
02:23-02:33
All right, a lot of the questions in the first service were related to prayer and the church and family and kids, so we do have one leftover family question that we'll start with.
02:33-02:34
All right, fire away.
02:34-02:35
All right.
02:36-02:42
How can Christians help transgender family members fit into a family structure without alienating them?
02:43-02:52
This is, I know for some families, this can become a very emotionally charged question.
02:52-02:57
I wanna take a step back for a second and remind us what the Bible says.
02:58-03:02
The Bible says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
03:04-03:13
You know, we saw generations of people denying that truth, fueled by Satan, that Satan's oldest gimmick, right?
03:14-03:15
Did God really say?
03:15-03:19
So we had generations of Satan fueling that debate.
03:19-03:22
Did God really save, did God really create?
03:22-03:26
No, we're the product of evolution, millions and billions of years and all that.
03:27-03:38
But we've seen, especially in the past, what, 15 years or so, especially, this is really getting ratcheted up, where the Bible says God created the male and female.
03:40-03:44
And now we have a whole generation of, no, that's not, no.
03:45-03:46
I can be whatever gender I wanna be.
03:49-03:53
The Bible says marriage is to be between a man and a woman.
03:54-03:57
No, marriage can be whoever I want.
03:57-04:03
And we just see this erosion of everything that God established in Genesis.
04:03-04:07
We're seeing Satan attacking the very foundation of our faith.
04:09-04:29
So I wanna say regarding the transgender issue, It is a horribly, to me, it's a horribly tragic situation when you have people buying into Satan's lie that you're not who God created you to be.
04:30-04:37
And we are denying the fact that God created us who he wanted us to be.
04:38-04:46
So there's that tragedy that you have people that are, and you know, transgender, not the enemy, they're the victim of the enemy.
04:47-04:50
And then it's tragedy on top of tragedy when it comes to church world.
04:51-04:55
Because in church world, you go to either extreme and either extreme is horrible.
04:56-04:57
One extreme is hatred.
05:00-05:03
Because their sin might be different than my sin, I hate them.
05:04-05:07
Or we laugh and make fun, which also is inappropriate.
05:08-05:10
So that's one horrible response.
05:12-05:14
Another horrible response by the church is acceptance.
05:15-05:19
And we have churches tripping over each other now to be at the front of that line to say, hey, look at us.
05:19-05:25
We're affirming people who are denying what God created them to be.
05:26-05:28
Both of those are wrong, right?
05:28-05:35
I think the proper response is, I love you, but this is wrong, right?
05:35-05:40
I think John Piper kind of coined that maybe 10 years or so ago, it always stuck with me.
05:41-05:42
I love you, but this is wrong.
05:43-05:44
I think that needs to be our approach.
05:45-05:56
And regarding this question in particular, I would say if you're in this situation, you need to call the church and talk to one of the pastors because I can't give an answer that's gonna cover every context.
05:56-05:58
You know, how old is this person?
05:58-06:00
What kind of, what do you mean by family structure?
06:00-06:03
I don't know what exactly you mean by that.
06:04-06:08
So there's some things we'd have to unpack about your particular context.
06:09-06:12
But I would encourage you to call the church office and meet with one of our pastors.
06:15-06:16
Anything else, Taylor, on your end?
06:17-06:21
After the first service, someone asked me, what does the verse mean, that I am fearfully and wonderfully made?
06:22-06:25
And what I said was, you weren't made by accident.
06:26-06:31
You weren't a slapdash put together by God, like this one has to get out, okay, well, few mistakes there, whoops.
06:31-06:33
No, everything about you is intentional.
06:34-06:39
How you look, what gender you are, what personality that you have, God didn't make a mistake with you.
06:40-06:44
And many of us, even beyond this issue, we feel like God made a mistake with us in some way.
06:44-06:47
I wish I looked this way, I wish I had this personality trait.
06:47-06:54
That's actually offensive to God because you are fearfully and wonderfully made and God made you and designed you on purpose.
06:54-06:59
Yes, sin messes up with all those things, but God's intention for you was how he made you.
06:59-07:14
And in Acts 17, further tells us not only did God fearfully and wonderfully make us, Acts 17 tells us, He put us where geographically He wanted us to be, and He put us when in history He wanted us to be.
07:14-07:20
So God created you to be this person in this time, in this place, not by accident.
07:21-07:23
You're right, Taylor, the Bible is crystal clear.
07:23-07:27
That is an act of God's sovereignty, who you are and where He puts you.
07:28-07:31
Yeah, we're stamped with the image of God.
07:31-07:34
You know, brands tell you something about the product.
07:34-08:07
There's some brands like I don't trust that product, but there's some you trust the quality Right and we are branded by God himself with his own image. No one else nothing else. All creation has that brand Yeah, that was good stuff All right. Let's go to more creation and end times related questions here for just a few the first is This is something I've wondered myself. Why did Adam live so long on the earth when we can't now and not just Adam There were plenty of other people that did that as well.
08:08-08:26
Okay, first of all, first of all When you look at these people in the Old Testament that lived like 300 400 500 years Would you want to live that long? No, the answer is no No, it's a wonder for me, but not a I'm jealous of that.
08:26-08:54
No, I I'm like done. I've been done for a while What would back in my day of me when you live that long right, right, but um, okay, so I Believe personally that the reason you see those people living for those long periods of time You see that before the flood This is just my personal thing.
08:54-08:56
You can check the science on this.
08:57-08:59
But if you've ever studied-- we have a hyperbaric machine in our home.
09:00-09:03
I've done a lot of studies on hyperbaric therapy.
09:04-09:05
It's Henry's law.
09:06-09:13
Gas under pressure dissolves into liquid in a pressurized environment. Oxygen saturates all your cells, and it makes you healthy.
09:14-09:19
That's why all the professional athletes use hyperbaric chambers to accelerate injury healing.
09:21-09:34
I believe that there was some mechanism in place-- you love that word-- there's some mechanism in place before the flood that created a greater atmospheric pressure that would have resulted in greater health and longer life.
09:35-09:37
So they were all in the hyperbaric chamber.
09:37-09:43
I believe that somehow the Earth would have been under greater pressure, yeah, that it would have been one big hyperbaric chamber.
09:44-09:50
And the flood obviously changed that, because you see shorter lifespans after the flood.
09:51-09:52
That's my take on that.
09:53-09:54
Interesting.
09:54-09:55
Agree with that theory?
09:56-09:57
I don't know about that theory.
09:57-09:58
That's a good theory.
09:58-10:03
I just think something happened, whether it's that or something else, because Adam lived 930.
10:03-10:05
I think Methuselah was 969.
10:06-10:09
And then after the flood, Shem lived 600 years.
10:10-10:12
And then you see Abraham lived 175 years.
10:12-10:13
Obviously, something is happening.
10:13-10:14
There's a decline.
10:14-10:15
There's a progression there.
10:16-10:17
We don't know exactly what it was.
10:17-10:19
It could have been what Jeff was talking about.
10:19-10:23
But obviously, the rate of decay increased because of something involving the flood.
10:23-10:30
And now we live 70 to 80 years, maybe we're blessed by God, live into the early hundreds, I suppose, but our rate of living is way down.
10:31-10:38
Could it be that God just was not done using them yet on the earth and just wanted them to hang around for that long?
10:38-10:39
And it gets back to our first question, right?
10:39-10:40
God had a purpose in that.
10:41-10:42
He had a purpose in that.
10:42-10:47
And just as he had a purpose in allowing lifespans to be shorter after the flood.
10:48-10:49
So, yeah.
10:49-10:49
Interesting.
10:50-10:55
All right, this one literally says, "Buckle up, this is a doozy." So here we go.
10:55-10:56
Look at this thing.
10:57-10:59
I was wondering how we were going to fit this on the screen.
10:59-11:01
It's like size six fonts.
11:01-11:03
This takes up like my whole page.
11:03-11:05
That's how we finished reading the question.
11:05-11:05
We'll be done.
11:05-11:06
I know.
11:07-11:07
All right, here we go.
11:08-11:10
I'm sure a lot of you have already started, so I'm going to try to catch up.
11:11-11:15
How are scientists using carbon dating to find rocks that are millions of years old?
11:15-11:18
Carbon dating works by-- I'm not even going to read all that, actually.
11:19-11:21
If the Earth, I'm sorry if you submitted that question.
11:22-11:23
It's on the screen.
11:23-11:24
Yeah.
11:24-11:32
If the Earth is only 6,000-ish years old, which I believe it is, then I should be able to get my own doohickey, which is great.
11:33-11:35
I never thought I would say doohickey at church.
11:36-11:45
That tells me how much carbon is decayed and find that only about half of the carbon is decayed, which would mean that the scientists were lying.
11:46-11:49
But all the carbon dating says the earth is millions of years old.
11:49-11:51
Are the scientists lying?
11:51-11:51
Yes.
11:53-11:57
Or when God created the earth, did he create it with a lot of carbon decayed?
11:57-11:57
No.
11:58-12:00
If so, why would he do so?
12:00-12:01
He didn't.
12:03-12:07
Wouldn't he want to show that the earth is only 6,000-ish years old?
12:07-12:07
He did.
12:08-12:11
Is this whole carbon dating thing false and a lie?
12:11-12:12
Yes.
12:13-12:17
Or does it have something to do with the fall or something else entirely?
12:17-12:18
Something else entirely.
12:19-12:22
OK, that's your homework assignment for the next few weeks.
12:22-12:23
Enjoy and thank you.
12:23-12:24
Here's the thing.
12:25-12:26
They've proven carbon dating.
12:27-12:28
They've proven it's false.
12:28-12:32
I read years ago, they did a test on a live mollusk.
12:33-12:38
And the results from the carbon-14 dating was it had been dead for 2 million years.
12:38-12:39
It doesn't work.
12:39-12:41
It's been proven faulty.
12:41-12:43
So why are they still using it?
12:43-12:48
Because they're looking for something to give them some reading of millions of years.
12:48-12:48
Why?
12:50-13:12
Because if the Earth is really only 6,000 to 10,000 years old, which I believe it is, and I believe all the science really backs up when you consider Noah's flood fossil record, rock layers, all of that, you have to try to account for this molecules to man evolution somehow.
13:13-13:14
So they just said, well, time.
13:15-13:17
That happened through time, which is impossible, right?
13:18-13:19
Time and mutations.
13:19-13:22
Mutations take away genetic information.
13:22-13:23
They don't add to.
13:24-13:25
So that doesn't even work.
13:26-13:31
But they have to have some way of justifying this millions and billions of years.
13:32-13:39
So if they can get some kind of result from carbon dating like that, they're going to latch onto that.
13:39-13:41
But it's been proven false.
13:42-13:43
It's unreliable.
13:43-13:44
it doesn't work.
13:45-13:46
Yeah, the science isn't even done in good faith.
13:47-13:51
The carbon 14 is supposed to be decaying after several thousand years and not even be existent anymore.
13:52-13:57
But they're saying, "Oh, we can track back millions of years." So the science isn't even done accurately according to their own specifications.
13:57-13:59
Right, yeah.
14:00-14:01
It was a bad test.
14:03-14:03
So, no.
14:04-14:04
No. - All of it.
14:05-14:06
Just a flat no.
14:06-14:07
Jeff had many answers.
14:07-14:07
Yeah.
14:08-14:11
Well, I didn't want anybody to think we were dodging any of these.
14:11-14:13
No, that was clear, I think.
14:14-14:15
All right, let's go to the next one then.
14:16-14:21
During the millennium where Christians reign with Jesus, people will sin, but I'm confused about who.
14:23-14:27
Number one, will the Christians who have already died on the earth and received their glorified bodies sin?
14:28-14:28
No.
14:29-14:34
Number two, will the Christians who were raptured and did not receive their glorified bodies sin?
14:34-14:44
That question is, When you are raptured, you receive your glorified body at that moment.
14:44-14:50
So that question just need to clarify.
14:51-14:56
And number three, will the children that the Christians in the millennium have sin?
14:56-14:56
Yes.
14:58-14:59
Number three is the option there.
14:59-15:03
The Bible says that during the millennial reign of Christ, you have people will be having kids.
15:03-15:17
Not all of those kids will believe in King Jesus because at the end of the millennium, The Bible tells us, was it Revelation 20, Satan rounds them up for a last hurrah, Jesus vaporizes them.
15:18-15:20
So like, where did the sinners come from?
15:20-15:35
They had to be, they had to be children that were born in the millennium 'cause nobody raptured and no believers entering into the millennium from the tribulation period will be able to sin.
15:35-15:37
You can't sin in your glorified body.
15:39-15:40
It has to be them.
15:42-15:44
I thought he did a good job.
15:45-15:45
Yeah.
15:45-15:46
All right, let's go to the next one then.
15:47-15:50
That is a really good question, by the way.
15:50-15:52
Whoever asked that one, that is a really good question.
15:52-15:53
Three-parter too.
15:54-15:54
Yeah.
15:54-15:56
And the thank you at the end, how generous.
15:56-15:59
Well, yeah, that was really nice.
15:59-16:00
Whoever voted that.
16:00-16:00
Very kind and polite.
16:00-16:01
Good manners.
16:01-16:02
Yes.
16:02-16:03
Good manners.
16:04-16:04
All right.
16:05-16:11
Aren't Christians talking about the Bible prophecies from thousands of years ago that are happening in our day and age?
16:12-16:14
How is this not fascinating to every Christian?
16:14-16:18
So many scriptures point out or point to what is happening right now.
16:18-16:20
How is it that Christians don't know or care?
16:21-16:24
I actually do want an answer to this question, they say.
16:24-16:27
Just in case you were trying to skirt it, I want an answer.
16:29-16:31
You weren't going to answer it until you saw that.
16:31-16:31
Right.
16:32-16:38
Yeah, when I first saw this, I'm like, "I ain't answering that." Then I saw that last statement, I'm like, "Oh, you know what?
16:38-16:42
They actually do want an answer to the question." So Pastor Taylor, what do you think?
16:44-16:46
Well, I think it really depends on what Christian you're talking about.
16:47-16:52
I think every Christian has particular emphases, particular things they really focus on.
16:52-16:52
Right.
16:52-16:55
There's some people in this church who love creation science.
16:55-16:56
That's a great thing to focus on.
16:56-16:59
Some people love eschatology stuff, which is also great.
17:00-17:03
Everyone has something in the Bible that they're particularly fascinated by.
17:03-17:04
Yeah.
17:04-17:06
And we don't always take that to the extreme.
17:06-17:08
Well, if you don't talk about creation in the sermon, you aren't faithful.
17:09-17:11
If you don't talk about end times in the sermon, you aren't faithful.
17:11-17:13
We just go where the word of God takes us.
17:13-17:15
We've done a lot of different end time series.
17:15-17:18
We did Micah a year and a half ago.
17:18-17:19
We've done Revelation.
17:19-17:21
We're doing Revelation with the students right now.
17:21-17:31
And our big concern with the students and youth group was, we want you to study Revelation, not to be like, oh, what a lot of interesting facts I can put in my brain, which I think a lot of Christians struggle with.
17:32-17:36
I just wanna learn a lot of interesting things about the interesting things in the future that won't affect me right now.
17:38-17:43
Where actually, these things should change how you live right now if you're studying them correctly.
17:44-17:48
Because you should be so heavenly minded that you're of earthly good now.
17:49-18:04
So it is important to think about the end times, it is important to focus on what scripture says about it, but also be aware that not everybody's gonna have the same exact fascination that you might with it, 'cause everyone has different things in scripture that they really treasure and really focus on and others.
18:04-18:07
This is stuff that I personally love to talk about.
18:07-18:12
I love eschatology, I love studying Israel and all of that.
18:12-18:16
So yeah, I think it depends on which Christians you're talking to.
18:16-18:28
But if it's a matter of like preaching from the pulpit kind of thing, my response to that would be, yeah, we've done 1 Corinthians 15, we did a whole series on that.
18:28-18:30
We've done 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, Revelation.
18:31-18:34
We're doing, like Pastor Taylor said, we're doing Revelation with the kids now.
18:34-18:35
We've done Micah.
18:36-18:50
And that's a good question when it comes to like philosophy of preaching, because some churches will say, well, let's just come up with a topic to talk about and maybe do a, build a series around a topic.
18:51-18:55
And we do little topical series here.
18:55-19:01
And like we did the one on money, we've done it on depression, we've done it on parenting or whatever.
19:01-19:17
So occasionally we'll do a short mini series that's topical, but our philosophy of preaching here at Harvest is to go straight through a book verse by verse and let the word of God speak for itself.
19:18-19:25
Right, it's not like what do I want to say, but what did God say in his word?
19:25-19:27
And let's just communicate that.
19:27-19:37
So, that keeps us from avoiding any subjects because we just take the subjects as they naturally come up in the text.
19:37-19:54
And that allows us to go after what God wants to communicate, preaching the Bible straightforwardly, but that also allows us to do what, like the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20, he said to the Ephesian elders that he preached the whole counsel of God.
19:54-19:59
And when you preach straight through the text, that allows us to preach the whole counsel of God.
20:00-20:03
Believe you me, we've done sermons on hell and judgment.
20:04-20:05
I didn't prefer doing those.
20:06-20:09
I wasn't like, oh boy, can't wait to unleash this.
20:09-20:18
If it was up to me, I'd preach on grace and love like every week, but that's not preaching the whole counsel of God.
20:19-20:28
So in letting the word of God speak for itself, we exposit a text by going straight through from the first verse to the last verse.
20:28-20:31
That's the lion's share of our preaching calendar.
20:32-20:42
So for the Christians that may not know or care, in this case, related to this question, what are the Bible prophecies from thousands of years ago that are happening in our day and age?
20:44-20:49
We wouldn't have enough time this month to go through all of them.
20:49-20:50
There are so many.
20:52-20:53
We also went through the Olivet Discourse.
20:53-20:56
We talked about some of that, Matthew 24, 25.
20:56-20:58
I will say this, here's the short version.
20:59-21:04
Always keep your eye on Israel because the Bible says Israel is God's nation.
21:06-21:13
Romans chapter 11, yes, Israel was temporarily set aside as the Gentiles grafted in.
21:14-21:20
The church has not replaced Israel, but Israel is front and center in the end time events.
21:20-21:21
You read the book of Revelation.
21:21-21:23
That is crystal clear.
21:23-21:31
So, so many prophecies about the nation of Israel we're seeing fulfilled in this generation right now.
21:31-21:34
And it's like I said, it is a mammoth list.
21:37-21:40
All right, let's do some miscellaneous questions.
21:42-21:43
So I think-- - Miscellaneous, that's my favorite. - Yeah, right?
21:44-21:46
I think this might be the one that-- - Oh, this is it.
21:47-21:48
I wanna know who asked this question.
21:48-21:50
I think, I think it is.
21:50-21:50
Is it?
21:51-21:52
How long does somebody have?
21:52-21:53
Yes, yes.
21:54-21:55
Go ahead, Fulsi.
21:56-22:02
How long does somebody have to be dead before it's considered archeology instead of grave robbing?
22:05-22:06
How is this Bible related?
22:06-22:09
I'm not sure, but grave robbing is definitely a sin.
22:12-22:13
All right, who asked it?
22:15-22:15
Not here, huh?
22:17-22:21
>> Okay, that is a really good question.
22:22-22:24
The answer is 100 years.
22:26-22:28
>> Definitive, put it in the book.
22:28-22:29
>> I have no idea.
22:30-22:31
I have no idea.
22:32-22:35
>> So Pastor Rich's grave will be free game in 100 years?
22:36-22:38
>> I have no idea.
22:38-22:44
I mean, maybe we have to ask Pastor Rich, is there a legal, what's that?
22:44-22:46
I'm not gonna find my grave.
22:48-22:50
No, I meant, is there a legal answer to this?
22:50-22:51
Like, is there a...
22:54-22:54
Okay.
22:56-23:00
Then listen, if Pastor Rich doesn't know, then that means no answer exists.
23:00-23:00
Yeah, right.
23:02-23:06
But I will agree, grave robbing is a sin.
23:08-23:10
And this isn't for everybody here, but this is for somebody.
23:11-23:14
If you're robbing graves, you better knock that off.
23:16-23:16
(congregation laughing)
23:17-23:18
I'm glad they established that.
23:18-23:20
They at least established that in the question.
23:21-23:22
It definitely is a sin.
23:22-23:38
Look, I don't know who asked this and I sure hope to find out, but I just have this theory in mind that somebody was watching "Indiana Jones." And they were watching that movie like "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and I think that's when they thought of this question.
23:38-23:40
Yeah, good possibility.
23:41-23:44
All right, let's go to this one here.
23:44-23:48
It's in 2 Samuel 16, five through 14.
23:49-23:49
Is it Shammai?
23:50-24:00
'Cause David and David said, cursed David, excuse me, and David said, it may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day.
24:01-24:02
What is going on here?
24:03-24:05
Why did David accept this cursing?
24:06-24:11
That is a really good question, and that is a deep dive here.
24:11-24:13
So what is going on here, Pastor Taylor?
24:15-24:15
(laughing)
24:17-24:17
What a move.
24:17-24:18
See how I did that?
24:19-24:25
So Shammai, Shammi, whatever you wanna say, is a distant relative of Saul, and he curses David.
24:26-24:34
And it seems like he's accusing David of stealing the throne from Saul, committing bloodshed against him, which we all know he didn't if you actually read the story.
24:35-24:39
And Abishai, one of David's mighty men, says, "Let's kill this guy.
24:40-24:46
"Let's just separate his head from his shoulders "and be done with him." And David says, "No, no, no." And he entrusts himself to the providence of God.
24:46-24:48
And why he does that is up for debate.
24:48-24:59
People wonder, is David knowing that, "Hey, I am guilty of murder with Uriah, "so I am guilty anyway." Is he accepting that or is he not?
24:59-25:04
We're not 100% sure, but we do know that he's entrusting himself to God to deal with this person.
25:04-25:21
And he's like, "Maybe God will even bless me "in the process." Yeah, and I heard one preacher had said, really good point, I didn't even think about this, but one preacher had said that this account shows how time and circumstance sort of tempered David.
25:23-25:31
This would have happened a few years back, David might have responded in a violent way, but he didn't here.
25:32-25:44
So whether it was just maturing or he was just worn out, but it shows David was handling his problems much differently than he was as a younger man.
25:45-25:48
Yeah, I think a good modern day application for us is don't fight fire with fire.
25:49-25:50
When people hit you, don't hit back.
25:51-25:57
We get the ultimate example in Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 2.23, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
25:57-26:03
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
26:04-26:09
Ultimately, God knew the reason why David was cursed by Shammi, and David's like, I trust God.
26:11-26:16
By the way, I love how casually intense the Bible can be sometimes, where it's just like, let's separate his head from his shoulders.
26:17-26:18
Oh, okay.
26:19-26:20
Well, that escalated quickly.
26:20-26:21
Wow. - Right on.
26:22-26:25
All right, last miscellaneous question.
26:25-26:28
What does the Bible say about cremation?
26:30-26:33
What does the Bible say about cremation?
26:36-26:39
Oh, I thought it said creation.
26:41-26:42
Cremation, that's different, right?
26:43-26:44
That's different.
26:45-26:46
Definitely different.
26:47-26:57
You know, when I was a kid, there were two major brands of coffee creamer at the time when I was a kid.
26:58-27:00
I don't think you're understanding the cremation.
27:02-27:03
He'll make, he'll get there, don't worry.
27:03-27:03
I'm getting there.
27:04-27:04
Thank you, pastor.
27:05-27:14
There were two major kinds, and my dad drank coffee, and I made it for him, but there was Cremora and Coffee Mate.
27:16-27:20
And my dad, like a lot of dads, sometimes got the wires crossed there.
27:20-27:22
Do you know what he called his coffee?
27:22-27:23
He called it Cremate.
27:24-27:33
So dad would always like, "Could you put a little cremate in my coffee?" I was like, "Ew, ew." So-- - Okay, maybe he didn't get there the way I expected.
27:34-27:34
(laughing)
27:35-27:37
That wasn't where you thought we were going?
27:37-27:38
Still not sure if he understands the question.
27:38-27:40
I thought there'd be an illustration that you could choose whichever one you want.
27:41-27:41
Oh.
27:41-27:42
Whichever type of creme you want, I don't know.
27:43-27:44
Yeah, that works too.
27:44-27:45
All right, all right.
27:46-27:48
You got me, enough stalling.
27:48-27:50
Taylor, what does the Bible say about cremation?
27:51-27:51
(laughing)
27:52-27:58
Well, you don't see any examples of believers Old Testament being cremated or New Testament believers being cremated.
27:58-28:02
It actually has pagan roots. Greeks and Romans would do that.
28:03-28:11
Believers throughout biblical history have always buried their dead in anticipation of the resurrection of the dead. So you see that with Stephen.
28:11-28:16
He was stoned. He was buried. And Isis is a fire. When they died, they were buried. Lazarus was buried. Jesus was buried.
28:17-28:21
And Jesus rose again from the grave. And that's us being buried now.
28:21-28:27
And it's pointing forward that we trust that one day we will be raised as new creations and new glorified bodies.
28:28-28:32
And I don't want to say that you have to get buried, that cremation is a sin.
28:32-28:36
I'm not saying that at all. I'm just laying out the biblical pattern that we see in Scripture.
28:36-28:40
Yeah, and that is the question, what does the Bible say about cremation?
28:40-28:45
The Bible doesn't say, "Thou shalt not cremate," that I could see.
28:45-28:58
But yeah, every time somebody was, you know, when they passed away, their body was buried and the biblical picture there, 1 Corinthians 15, we're resurrected.
28:58-29:08
It's like a seed going into the ground, which will someday when we get our glorified body, we're going to come up out of the ground at the resurrection, right?
29:14-29:21
I guess, technically, you really don't have any say over what happens to your body when you die, right?
29:21-29:28
I mean, you can make your arrangements beforehand, but then once you're gone, it's carried out by the people left behind.
29:32-29:42
But one of the issues that people have with this, people are like, well, if you're cremated, is that somehow gonna affect you at the resurrection?
29:43-29:46
Almost like God's not gonna be able to find your body or whatever, right?
29:47-29:48
But I've had people ask me that.
29:48-30:01
And my response is like, what about people that die in a horrible explosion or eaten by a shark or something horrible like that where there's not an actual cemetery burial?
30:01-30:05
Do you think God's gonna have a hard time finding the pieces?
30:06-30:07
I don't think so.
30:11-30:12
Well, pastor.
30:14-30:16
Not sure how to respond to that one.
30:16-30:19
Well, you smell like a campfire was the question, by the way.
30:20-30:21
I'll tell you what, Rich.
30:22-30:28
If you're cremated, I will dig you up when it's no longer considered grave robbing.
30:30-30:31
Because that's definitely a sin.
30:32-30:37
Because that's definitely a sin, and I'll let you know if you smell like a campfire.
30:38-30:39
It's certainly not a major moral issue.
30:39-30:42
you shouldn't be tossing and turning at night over the decision.
30:42-30:44
Or feel bad if you cremated someone in the past.
30:44-30:44
No, not at all.
30:45-30:50
Because again, God can remake that body and recreate a new one.
30:50-30:53
But we're just laying out, this is the biblical pattern we see in scripture.
30:54-31:00
But you know my father was cremated and it just now hit me how ironic that is.
31:01-31:02
(laughing)
31:05-31:07
He finally became-- - He was asking for it all those years.
31:07-31:09
He's asking for it his whole life.
31:10-31:11
Oh man.
31:11-31:16
I know, if you're like, ooh, he's having a really good day right now, okay?
31:16-31:18
So trust me, he's not offended.
31:19-31:21
He'd be laughing with us.
31:21-31:21
Yeah.
31:22-31:26
All right, that was all for the questions from the leftovers from the first service.
31:26-31:32
So I'm gonna circle back to one that I think we had a good discussion about in the first service.
31:32-31:33
Great idea.
31:34-31:40
And that is, what does the gift of tongues accurately look like in today's church?
31:41-31:41
Terrible idea.
31:42-31:45
Since they've only seen the crazy, there must be a legit use.
31:46-31:52
Since Paul spent so much time on it in 1 Corinthians 14, if it's no longer valid, how do we determine what gifts are valid and which are not?
31:54-31:58
I thought it was a good idea to circle back until you went back to this question.
32:00-32:03
Now, here's the thing.
32:05-32:07
It's another emotionally charged issue.
32:07-32:12
It's like a lot of these Q&A questions, they're emotionally charged.
32:12-32:16
And there's a lot of different opinions and understanding on the gift of tongues.
32:17-32:18
All I can tell you is what the Bible says.
32:20-32:23
What does the gift of tongues accurately look like in today's church?
32:23-32:27
I don't believe the tongues is normative for today.
32:28-32:29
Let me take a step back here.
32:30-32:32
Where do you see tongues in the Bible?
32:33-32:34
You see in the book of Acts, right?
32:35-32:41
And the only epistle where it's mentioned is one of the earliest epistles written and that's 1 Corinthians.
32:42-32:52
Why, if tongues is such a major thing that's supposed to be happening in churches, why isn't it addressed in every single epistle?
32:53-33:00
The reason being is the purpose God had for tongues.
33:00-33:02
What was the purpose?
33:02-33:09
Well, in the book of Acts, what you have is this major turning point in history.
33:10-33:13
We're going from the old covenant to the new covenant.
33:14-33:21
And part of that shift is actually a message of judgment.
33:21-33:30
God prophesied this back in the book of Isaiah, that tongues was a sign of judgment against Israel.
33:30-33:36
Because Israel had rejected the Messiah, God says, all right, then I'm going to be moving on to other people.
33:37-33:40
And so tongues is actually, these are known languages.
33:41-33:43
The gift of tongues, it wasn't gibberish.
33:43-33:49
It would be like people speaking Chinese or Japanese or Spanish.
33:49-33:59
They were actual languages that were, And also, they were supernaturally spoken and supernaturally interpreted.
34:01-34:17
But that was the purpose of tongues, was to show Israel that God was, Romans 11, they were temporarily setting them aside and grafting in the wild branches, the Gentiles, the other nations, that's us.
34:17-34:20
So that's the purpose of tongues.
34:21-34:29
I just find it so interesting that it's spoken really so little in the Bible, but people make so much of it.
34:30-34:33
I do not believe the tongues is normative for today.
34:33-34:36
Do I believe that it still happens?
34:36-34:37
I do.
34:39-34:45
I've heard stories, I wasn't there, but I've heard stories from reliable sources of people on the mission field.
34:46-34:48
They were asked to get up and say a few words.
34:48-35:20
They're like, "Well, I don't speak your language." and say something. They get up and speak what they think is their own language, people were hearing it in their native tongue. That's sort of like Pentecost tongues, right? Acts chapter 2. Do I believe that happened? I do. I've heard that story from reliable sources. I believe that's the manifestation of the gift of tongues in our day, but speaking an ecstatic gibberish language as part of the worship service in church, I don't see that biblically at all.
35:21-35:25
Yeah, I have friends who have a different conviction than me on this matter, and they're great Christians, they love the Lord.
35:27-35:34
The biggest concern I do have is churches that say, to be a Christian, to be saved, you must speak in tongues.
35:34-35:37
You don't see that claim anywhere in the New Testament at all.
35:38-35:42
It lays a guilty burden on people that they cannot bear and they should not bear.
35:42-35:46
And I've met a lot of people who've said, yeah, I was in that kind of church, and I just faked it.
35:46-35:50
I just pretended, I wanted to fit in, I didn't want anyone to question my salvation.
35:51-35:51
Right.
35:52-35:54
That's a really difficult atmosphere to be in.
35:55-35:57
It's not correct and it's not biblical.
35:59-36:18
I had a friend who was part of a charismatic church and that's exactly the story he told me, I'm just gonna call him Joe, but he was at a church service and the pastor said, "Nobody's leaving tonight until Joe speaks in tongues." I said, "So what'd you do?" "What could I do? I faked it.
36:19-36:29
I don't want to be there all night." He goes, "So I just started making stuff up because I wanted to get out of there." But he was like mortified to be put on the spot like that.
36:29-36:30
But that's what they did.
36:31-36:34
I don't believe that tongues is the sign of salvation.
36:35-36:35
You're right.
36:39-36:52
We're gonna be, Lord willing, I have a whole series planned on this very subject for next year, we're gonna be doing a deep dive on what the Bible actually says on the subject.
36:53-36:59
So as long as the elders approve the preaching calendar, that's the direction I wanna head.
36:59-36:59
Okay.
37:00-37:08
We're almost out of time, but I do understand that we have a guest question asker who wants to step up.
37:08-37:14
He dressed so well for this occasion that I have to give him this opportunity, and that's one Cade Miller.
37:14-37:15
Come on up, Cade.
37:15-37:16
Hey, could you come up?
37:23-37:25
I'm gonna make you sit in the chair, too, officially.
37:27-37:28
What question is he asking?
37:30-37:32
Maybe we should have figured that out first.
37:32-37:33
Thank you, Matt.
37:38-37:40
You might not wanna do that.
37:43-37:48
All right, so the final question asks, do the leaders of this church like each other?
37:48-37:51
If so, how do you show it to each other?
37:54-37:54
Good question, Cade.
37:55-37:57
That's a really good question, Cade.
37:58-37:58
Taylor?
38:00-38:00
(congregation laughing)
38:01-38:03
I'll do what I did in the last service.
38:04-38:05
Here, Jeff, here's how much I care about you.
38:05-38:06
Taylor, do you like me?
38:06-38:08
Yes, I like you so much I gave you my wallet.
38:08-38:10
In the first service, he gave me his wallet.
38:11-38:13
And I'm like, that was really kind of him.
38:15-38:16
There's nothing in it.
38:18-38:24
If that doesn't answer the question as to how much he likes me, there's your answer right there.
38:26-38:28
I would say the serious answer is yes.
38:28-38:37
And I think the biggest evidence of that is after staff meetings, after elder meetings, or team leader meetings, people still want to stick around and talk and have fun and joke around.
38:38-38:42
I think that really speaks to people wanting to be with each other to be around each other?
38:43-38:45
And I think, Jeff, you probably have a couple other things you wanna share about that.
38:46-38:46
Yeah.
38:50-38:54
I would like to think that the leaders of the church like me.
38:56-38:57
I like them.
39:01-39:09
But the question came up, I think Fulsi asked this one, so what do you do if you have a disagreement about something?
39:11-39:13
how are you not like, (mimics gun firing) well, talk to any of our elders.
39:14-39:18
What do we usually spend the front end of the elders meeting doing?
39:19-39:19
Prayer.
39:20-39:33
We have an extended prayer time at the beginning of our elders meeting because I hate the whole, okay, let's get together for three hours and talk about money, and then we throw up some quick traveling mercies prayer on the way out.
39:33-39:36
Like, no, prayer should be the priority.
39:36-39:40
So at our elders meeting, We have extended prayer time at the beginning.
39:41-39:43
I think that sets the tone for the elders meeting.
39:43-39:53
How can you not when we're all like, God, your glory, your purposes, God, use us and unite us and show us God.
39:53-40:00
Like, when you front load a meeting, crying out to the Lord for that kind of unity, that really sets the stage.
40:01-40:06
So, you know, so no, do the elders always agree perfectly on everything?
40:06-40:16
No, but I'll tell you, I've never seen where there's been like knock down, drag out, name calling, cussing out kind of stuff that I've heard happen in other churches.
40:16-40:17
I've never seen that here.
40:18-40:26
Yeah, I can't help but wonder if this question was asked from someone who went through a really difficult church situation, 'cause church hurts is one of the worst hurts.
40:26-40:26
Yeah.
40:27-40:35
Unbiblical, ungodly leadership is a painful thing to experience, and in coming to a new church, it can be hard to trust the leadership.
40:36-40:39
And I would just encourage you, just examine what we teach, examine our lives.
40:40-40:44
The fruit of what we believe comes out in how we live.
40:46-40:49
That's the biggest test of if leadership is biblical or not.
40:49-40:50
Are we living out what we preach?
40:50-40:52
Are we living out what we say we believe?
40:52-40:53
Yeah, absolutely.
40:54-40:56
And you see even some of the relational aspects of this.
40:57-41:00
Like Pastor Taylor said, after a meeting, nobody's in a rush to get out of there.
41:00-41:05
Look at some of our text threads, our staff text thread, our elders text thread.
41:05-41:08
You can't believe the puns that Rich Sprung comes up with.
41:09-41:16
I mean, it's like puns meeting dad jokes on steroids, right?
41:17-41:19
But the real question is, Kade, do you like the leaders of this church?
41:20-41:20
I do.
41:20-41:22
Which one would you say is your favorite?
41:23-41:24
(audience laughing)
41:25-41:27
I don't think I should mention names.
41:27-41:28
Well, I think you...
41:28-41:29
(audience laughing)
41:33-41:34
Maybe this guy in the middle.
41:34-41:35
(audience laughing)
41:35-41:36
What'd he say?
41:37-41:38
Maybe this guy in the middle.
41:41-41:42
Him.
41:43-41:45
Well, I have known him for 13 years.
41:52-41:53
All right, I think we're done here.
41:54-41:55
(audience laughing)
41:58-41:58
Thank you, Kate.
41:58-41:59
Hey, it's not what you think, Dad.
42:00-42:01
(audience laughing)
42:03-42:04
I love you, buddy.
42:04-42:06
All right, give her a pinch hitter.
42:06-42:09
(congregation applauding) Bolzi, come on up.
42:10-42:11
Go ahead, Kate, good job, buddy.
42:13-42:15
Good job, Kate, you can go back to the seat, buddy.
42:16-42:16
Well done.
42:19-42:20
Yeah, that was worth it.
42:21-42:22
(congregation laughing)
42:26-42:28
We're like, do the leaders of the church like each other?
42:28-42:31
We're like, the people in my house don't even like each other.
42:31-42:32
(audience laughing)

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):

Review the questions submitted above. Discuss any of these that stuck out to you, or that maybe your group finds particularly interesting.

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!

Taylor Brown

August 3, 2025

Questions and Answers

Questions from the Congregation - Part 19A

Taylor Brown

August 3, 2025

Questions and Answers

Note: The time signatures [00:00] below indicate the approximate start time of a question if you'd like to skip to a particular one of interest in the audio file.

Prayer:

[02:25] - Q: Prayers of believers vs. unbelievers – when a person that has belief but doesn’t have a daily walk says, “I’ll pray for you,” “Sending prayers,” are they heard the same? How should I respond to them?
[07:10] - Q: What is the biblical response to proclamation prayer or prayer where people pray with the authority to command things? How should we respond to believers who pray or want to pray for us in this way?
[11:45] - Q: How should we view or even practice the “listening prayer”, in which we listen for God’s speaking or answer to us? Is that charismatic Christianity?

The Church:
[16:45] - Q: Do the leaders of this church like each other? If so, how do you show it to each other?
[20:40] - Q: What is this church’s strategy concerning choosing worship songs that overuse the repeat button? I am unable to see the benefit of singing the same words over and over?
[22:18] - Q: What does the “gift of tongues” accurately look like in today’s church? Since I’ve only seen the “crazy” – there must be a legit use for it since Paul spent so much time on it in 1 Corinthians 14. And if it is no longer valid, how do you determine what gifts are valid or not?
[27:48] - Q: Can Christian women baptize new believers?

Family/Kids:
[29:27] - Q: Do babies go to heaven if they die? Similar Question: “The age of accountability” being made up – or not found in the Bible, what biblical basis is there for understanding what will happen to young children or the disabled when they die unexpectedly or if Jesus returns?
[34:36] - Q: Is it okay for a Christian couple to decide that they do not want to have children or to prevent conception? Also, is it okay for a Christian couple to decide what size of a family they would prefer, or should we let those decisions up to God?

00:00-00:02
So we get to lay some ground rules first, right?
00:03-00:03
>> Absolutely.
00:04-00:04
>> OK.
00:06-00:08
It's been a while since we've had Q&A day, isn't it?
00:08-00:09
When was the last one we had?
00:09-00:11
>> It was definitely before we went to two services.
00:11-00:11
>> Yeah.
00:11-00:13
>> Because I don't remember doing this twice in a row.
00:13-00:14
>> You're right.
00:14-00:14
Yeah.
00:16-00:18
And you would have remembered something like that.
00:18-00:20
>> Who knows what's going to happen in the second service?
00:20-00:21
>> Yeah, we'll find out.
00:21-00:23
>> It's not recorded, so we can say whatever we want.
00:23-00:23
>> Right.
00:24-00:25
It's going to get spicy, right?
00:25-00:25
>> It will get spicy.
00:26-00:33
The ground rules, number one, we can only answer the question that we think is being asked.
00:34-00:44
So if you submitted a question and we answered it in a way where you're like, that's not at all what I was thinking, we can only assume what is being asked.
00:44-00:45
And we're going to try our best to that.
00:45-00:47
And we're also going to try to give the short answer.
00:47-00:49
Every one of these questions were fantastic.
00:50-00:53
And we could probably spend an hour on each of them.
00:54-00:56
But I don't think anybody really has time for that.
00:56-00:59
So we're gonna give you the short answer on these.
01:00-01:10
I love Q&A Day because it tells me as a pastor like what people are thinking about and the kind of questions they have.
01:10-01:12
So it's an opportunity to dive into some of those.
01:14-01:25
Yeah, and we have 17 questions that have been submitted and we have, and by we, I mean you guys 'cause I'm just a guy standing here, sitting here with a microphone.
01:26-01:28
have split into sections.
01:28-01:39
So we have prayer, we have the church, we have family and kids, we have creation and the end times, and then just a couple of miscellaneous.
01:39-01:40
Is this like Jeopardy?
01:41-01:41
Yes.
01:41-01:42
We're gonna pick a category.
01:42-01:45
All right, I'll take the church for 200, Matt.
01:46-01:47
Make sure you answer with what is.
01:48-01:48
(laughing)
01:50-01:54
So let's get right to it here, so we can get through as many as we can.
01:54-01:56
Do you wanna set your, Do you have a pack?
01:57-01:59
Was it Pac-Man or was it Mario Kart?
01:59-02:00
Yeah, but I don't have my phone on me.
02:00-02:01
Okay, I'll tell you.
02:01-02:02
I don't know where is my phone?
02:02-02:03
I'll set my boring timer.
02:03-02:05
Yeah, we better set a timer, huh?
02:05-02:06
Yeah, you wanna set a timer?
02:06-02:07
Yeah, I will.
02:07-02:08
Do we wanna do 30?
02:09-02:10
You wanna do 30?
02:11-02:13
Let's do 35.
02:14-02:16
35, oh boy, okay.
02:18-02:18
And it has started.
02:19-02:19
All right.
02:19-02:21
We preach longer than 35, so it'll seem short.
02:22-02:22
Yeah.
02:22-02:23
Yeah, it'll seem, yeah.
02:24-02:25
All right, first question.
02:25-02:26
We're going to go right to prayer.
02:27-02:30
Prayers of believers versus unbelievers.
02:31-02:39
So when a person that has belief but doesn't have a daily walk says, I'll pray for you, or sending prayers, are they heard the same?
02:40-02:42
And how should I respond to them when they say that?
02:43-02:47
Well, prayer is a very relational thing.
02:47-02:55
And when you look at what Scripture teaches about prayer, We come to God in prayer through Jesus Christ, right?
02:55-02:59
An unbeliever doesn't have that access.
02:59-03:03
And apart from Christ, what access would we have?
03:03-03:14
You know, it's funny, looking through these questions, I saw a reel with John MacArthur that I sent to Pastor Taylor, where he said, he was answering this very question.
03:14-03:18
I'm like, well, just write down his answer, 'cause it's gonna be way smarter than anything I come up with.
03:18-03:21
But he had a line in there that just really hit me.
03:22-03:36
He said, "God does not obligate himself "to answer the prayers of unbelievers." When you look at what his word says, he has obligated himself to answer the prayers of believers, but he does not for unbelievers.
03:37-03:37
Pastor Taylor?
03:39-03:41
As I thought of this question, I thought of an example.
03:41-03:54
Just imagine you take your whole family to go get ice cream, and while you're waiting in line, Some bratty, super rude kid comes over, kicks you in the shin and says, "Hey, get me ice cream." How likely are you to get that kid ice cream?
03:56-04:03
Imagine then your child says, "Hey, Dad, can I please have some ice cream?" You have a different heart disposition towards that question.
04:04-04:12
'Cause you're more tuned in to your kid's needs and wants than some random, rude, bratty kid who doesn't really want anything to do with you, right?
04:13-04:18
And so there's many verses in the Old Testament to talk about God not listening to the prayers of the wicked.
04:18-04:24
Doesn't mean he doesn't hear them, but he views them much differently than the prayers of his children.
04:24-04:30
I would say the one prayer that God always answers from an unbeliever is the prayer of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
04:32-04:34
And that last question, or how should I respond to them?
04:37-04:39
It depends on the situation.
04:39-04:42
I think the safe thing to do is to just say thanks.
04:43-04:49
But I think even better is to ask, hey, I really appreciate your prayers.
04:49-04:50
Do you have a church home?
04:51-04:54
And if they don't, invite them to harvest.
04:55-04:56
There you go.
04:56-05:05
I thought of 1 Peter 3, 7, and I believe that Justin Cady preached about this at the men's conference.
05:06-05:21
And the verse is, "Likewise, husbands live with their wives "in an understanding way, "showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered." What do you think that means?
05:21-05:27
And is that talking about, you know, if you're not doing those things, even if you are a Christian, that your prayers aren't going to be heard?
05:28-05:30
What do you think hindered means in that sense?
05:30-05:39
And that verse in particular, you know, a lot of times you had a situation where there was, one spouse was saved and the other was not saved.
05:40-06:12
And I think in that verse in particular, what he's talking about is, husbands, you're praying for your wife to get saved, and if you're acting like a jerk, you're hindering your own prayers. That's what I think is meant in the context of that verse. Like, you are, you're getting in your own way. You want your wife to come to Christ. You say you're a Christian, and you're acting like a jerk. She's like, "Why would I come to Christ? My husband says he's a Christian, and he acts like a, you know, just an idiot. So, I think that's what's being talked about in that verse.
06:13-06:13
Yeah.
06:13-06:29
I think in general though that if you have a hidden sin life, it does affect your fellowship with God. Not on His end, but on your end. And even in the Psalms it talks about, "If I cherish iniquity in my heart, you would not have heard me." It really does affect your prayer life, even if that specific verse doesn't speak to that concept.
06:30-06:45
Right, yeah, it absolutely does. I mean, we have access to God through Jesus Christ, and we have fellowship with God in our prayer life through spending time in His Word.
06:46-06:54
And I think we can really hinder our fellowship, you know, like the Christians in sin, you know, backslidden. We can hinder our fellowship.
06:56-07:05
But, you know, for the purposes of this question, I don't think God hears prayers for a non-believer the way He hears them for a believer.
07:07-07:10
Okay, let's go to another prayer question then off of that.
07:11-07:19
What is the biblical response to proclamation prayer or prayer where people pray with the authority to command things?
07:20-07:24
And how should we respond to believers who pray or want to pray for us in this way?
07:24-07:30
So I'm sure you guys have run into people or have heard this before, these proclamation prayers.
07:31-07:32
How do we respond?
07:32-07:32
Right.
07:32-07:33
You speak it, right?
07:33-07:34
You have the authority.
07:34-07:37
You speak it and it comes into being.
07:38-07:42
And I have a real problem with that biblically.
07:44-07:48
And you know, it's fresh on my mind because we just covered the Lord's Prayer recently going through the Sermon on the Mount.
07:49-07:52
What are the first two words in the Lord's prayer?
07:54-07:55
Anybody remember?
07:56-07:57
Oh, it wasn't that long ago.
07:59-08:00
Yeah, our father, right.
08:02-08:05
So how should we address God in prayer?
08:08-08:10
Like a child addressing his father.
08:11-08:16
Okay, parents, how does it fly in your house when your kids start making demands?
08:17-08:22
when your kids start walking around going, "I have the authority to get what I want." Does that fly in your house?
08:23-08:26
That doesn't fly in our house, right?
08:26-08:32
So I have a real problem with that, praying to command things.
08:32-08:38
We don't see anywhere in scripture where we have that kind of authority.
08:38-08:40
Where does that come from, do you know?
08:41-08:45
I think scripture does call us to pray confidently and boldly.
08:45-08:54
Like in Hebrews, we're told to come confidently before the throne of grace to ask for help in time of need on the basis of Jesus Christ, not my own authority, but on his authority.
08:55-09:00
So we're called to pray with boldness, expectation, but also with submission.
09:01-09:01
Right.
09:01-09:08
We ask God for things, but also trust that he knows better and he may answer our prayers the way that we want him to.
09:08-09:13
Right, and I had that verse open right up here that you referenced, you know, Hebrews 4.16.
09:14-09:25
"Let us then with confidence "draw near to the throne of grace." Right, so yeah, we do come confidently because of Jesus, but what are we doing when we come to the throne of grace?
09:25-09:27
Commanding things?
09:27-09:34
No, he tells us that we may receive grace and find mercy to help in time of need.
09:35-09:38
Receive mercy and find grace, excuse me, I just switched those words.
09:38-09:43
Same point, receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
09:43-09:46
So yeah, we have confidence, but not to command things.
09:47-10:02
We have confidence to have access to God, but everything I see in scripture is to come praying as a dependent child on the Lord, trusting in His sovereignty and asking, you know, also in the Lord's prayer for His will to be done.
10:02-10:16
I just, I really, I'm not big on the, on the commanding things, but this question, How should we respond to believers who pray or wanna pray for us in this way?
10:19-10:20
I just can't.
10:21-10:29
I look for opportunity to lovingly say, well, you know, I appreciate your prayers and I'm trusting in God's sovereignty.
10:29-10:32
You know, I know what I want, but I'm more concerned with what God wants.
10:32-10:40
And I try to steer the conversation more towards submitting to the will of God versus demanding that God cash in what I want.
10:40-10:42
Pastor, what do you think about that?
10:42-10:46
I think instead of lecturing someone and critiquing their prayers, ask them questions.
10:46-10:48
Like, hey, when you were praying, you said so-and-so.
10:48-10:49
Could you explain what that means to me?
10:50-10:52
Or even ask, hey, I'm really fascinated by people's church backgrounds.
10:52-10:54
What church background did you come from?
10:55-10:59
Questions tend to open up conversations, not shut them down.
10:59-11:01
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
11:03-11:18
All right, we'll do one more on prayer, And I guess we should say, too, before we go too much further, that if and when we most likely don't get through all of these, right, all 17, you guys are going to answer them on the blog, Harvest Pizza-- Or maybe in the next service.
11:18-11:18
Maybe.
11:20-11:21
Just stick around.
11:23-11:24
Skip lunch, whatever you need to do.
11:25-11:26
Maybe we should just do that.
11:26-11:27
Just do them in the next service.
11:29-11:29
We'll see.
11:30-11:30
We'll see how we feel.
11:31-11:33
We've got time to think about it.
11:33-11:35
Clearly we pre-planned this.
11:35-11:41
If people throw rocks at us for any of the ways we answered these questions, then we'll definitely do different questions in the next service.
11:41-11:43
We'll see how the rest of this one goes.
11:44-11:53
All right, how should we view or even practice the listening prayer in which we listen for God speaking or answer to us?
11:53-11:55
And is that charismatic Christianity?
11:56-11:59
Pastor Taylor, what do you think about that listening prayer?
12:00-12:15
I certainly don't want to nullify subjective experience, inclinations, promptings, 'cause I felt an internal call to ministry years ago, but it was then validated by other people who saw something within me as well.
12:15-12:20
And so you can have subjective feelings from the Lord, but you always check it by scripture.
12:21-12:24
Objective truth always wins out over subjective feelings.
12:25-12:32
I think so much in our society, people are looking for an experience, whereas we're called to submit ourselves to the word.
12:32-12:33
Right, right.
12:34-12:39
We encourage, and we've been teaching the youth group this, right, to pray God's word back to him.
12:40-12:49
And I absolutely think that we should quiet our hearts before the Lord and take time to be silent before the Lord.
12:51-13:00
But I guess this is one of those questions where I'd like to talk to the person who submitted it to see how far are you taking that?
13:00-13:00
You know what I mean?
13:00-13:03
Like, yes, you should quiet yourself before the Lord.
13:03-13:06
Right, you should pray God's word back to him.
13:06-13:11
And if you have something in particular that you're wrestling with, yeah, I think you should be silent.
13:11-13:19
But you know, I do believe God still speaks to us in that still small voice, right?
13:19-13:24
But it's always through his Holy Spirit working through his word.
13:24-13:34
So again, I'd like to hear how far this is going, what exactly is meant by that before I just slap a charismatic label on it?
13:34-13:38
Because I think there is a lot of validity to being quiet before the Lord.
13:38-13:41
You mentioned the phrase, God speaks to us.
13:43-13:49
How have you seen, in what ways I guess, does God mostly speak to you guys in your lives?
13:50-13:52
How do you see that show up most?
13:52-14:20
I've seen it so many times in my life when I've been praying for something and he's revealed, well, it's always through the word, but like through the word, there have been times, and I don't even have time to get into it all this morning, but there have been times I've been seeking the Lord in something in particular, and I've heard like somebody preaching a sermon, you know, where that very thing is being addressed, and I was like, wow, that sort of answers the question that I've been bringing before the Lord.
14:21-14:25
A lot of times the Lord will work through other believers, right?
14:25-14:32
That's part of the beautiful thing about being a part of the body of Christ, is God speaking through other believers.
14:33-14:40
So, yeah, God absolutely does still speak to us, but He doesn't write it in the clouds in the sky.
14:40-14:42
He doesn't scream it from heaven.
14:43-14:52
He does still use that still small voice, but the Word of God absolutely has to be the final authority and standard on that.
14:53-14:54
Yeah, prayer is a two-way conversation.
14:55-14:59
You talk to God in your prayer, and He speaks back to you in His Word.
14:59-15:05
And that's why last week in my sermon, I really encouraged everyone to pray through Scripture, especially the Psalms.
15:05-15:07
That gives you a vocabulary for how to pray to God.
15:08-15:15
And I can't tell you how many times God has blessed me and really spoken in a specific situation in my life through His Word.
15:15-15:16
Right.
15:16-15:17
Right.
15:17-15:22
And praying Scripture is like the greatest and easiest thing in the world to do.
15:22-15:26
You just read a passage and pray those concepts back to God.
15:26-15:29
And you just, I like to read it out loud.
15:29-15:35
I'll read a verse and then I'll say, "God, you said this, therefore I wanna thank you.
15:35-15:37
"Therefore I'm crying out for help.
15:37-15:42
"Therefore I praise you." But you just read a verse and pray it back to God.
15:42-15:50
And if you take some time to do that, you'll find yourself praying in ways that you've never prayed before.
15:50-15:51
We've talked about this so many times, right?
15:52-15:56
We get bored with prayer because we pray in the most boring way possible.
15:57-16:07
God bless grandma, God heal grandma's gout and traveling mercies and hedge of protection and boring.
16:07-16:14
But when you pray God's word, now we're using God's language back to him.
16:14-16:17
God, you said this, therefore, I'm praying this.
16:18-16:19
This is why I'm praying what I'm praying.
16:20-16:22
And you'll see your prayer life take off if you commit to doing that.
16:23-16:30
Yeah, I feel like the times when I've done that is when I almost, I don't know what or how to pray.
16:31-16:44
And like, I just have a couple of different things going on that I can't, I don't know, there's times where I just can't even put it into words exactly what I'm even praying about, or you know, how I want God to, you know, to hear me or to help me.
16:45-16:51
So it's just kind of like, all right, this is, this is a time where I can just pray your word back to you. 100 % Yeah.
16:52-17:12
All right, that'll wrap up the prayer questions, at least for now. So we'll move on to the church. And this question made me literally lol whenever I saw it earlier this week. And I would love to know why this question was asked.
17:12-17:15
I would. I would too. Yeah, lay it Stay honest, Fulsey.
17:17-17:19
Do the leaders of this church like each other?
17:22-17:24
If so, how do you show it to each other?
17:25-17:26
Private hugs?
17:27-17:28
Hang out?
17:28-17:31
I was going to say on the weekends, but you already hang out on the weekends.
17:34-17:34
Not by choice.
17:37-17:38
Here, Jeff, take my wallet.
17:39-17:40
I love you, I care about you.
17:41-17:43
I really appreciate that, Taylor, thank you.
17:43-17:45
He actually is gonna take it too, look at that.
17:46-17:47
Times are tough.
17:49-17:51
See, he likes me, he really likes me.
17:52-17:53
So Taylor, what do you think?
17:53-17:55
Do leaders of this church like each other?
17:57-18:01
Well it's funny 'cause even if I say yes, everyone's gonna, of course I'd say yes.
18:01-18:03
But I do believe that answer, I'm not just saying it.
18:03-18:10
You know, every time we have a meeting, it always goes longer than we thought because people wanna stay, chat, joke around, have fun.
18:10-18:14
I think that's a great sign of the leaders loving each other and caring for each other.
18:14-18:17
Typically you don't wanna hang out with people you're not big fans of.
18:17-18:20
And when a meeting's over, you wanna get out as quick as possible.
18:20-18:23
But our meetings tend to spill over a little bit and people wanna hang out and have fun.
18:24-18:26
I really do love the leaders of this church.
18:27-18:29
But I think it would be so funny if I didn't.
18:29-18:31
We had to answer that now.
18:31-18:32
That's what I was gonna say.
18:32-18:34
Like it would have been really interesting if you would have said no. - That would be.
18:35-18:36
Like I genuinely do.
18:36-18:38
I genuinely love the leaders in this church.
18:38-18:40
But I was just sitting here thinking how funny it would be if I didn't.
18:41-18:41
Like no.
18:42-18:47
I like some of them, like, yeah.
18:47-18:49
I would say I like most of them.
18:50-18:53
Or just to watch you kind of squirm and dance around that question.
18:53-18:55
Right, right.
18:55-18:56
Speaking generalities.
18:56-19:03
Yeah, I don't know the reason why that question was asked, but maybe a reason could be that there's so many churches where the leaders don't like each other.
19:04-19:07
There's fallouts and there's frustration, there's church splits.
19:07-19:14
You know, most people in this room have experienced a church hurt of some kind, And church hurt is one of the worst hurts to have.
19:14-19:22
And so it can be hard when you see leadership that's unhealthy, to see pastors that are fighting, to see elders that can't stand each other.
19:23-19:25
So there could be a big reason for that question is why I don't know.
19:26-19:36
Yeah, and I guess a follow up question to that is, yeah, how do you balance loving each other well and also dealing with some potentially hard things, some business things?
19:36-19:42
You know, we've got the campaign right now for a new building, and I'm sure there's a ton of conversations around that.
19:43-19:44
Yeah, there absolutely is.
19:46-19:55
Speaking for the elders, usually the first part of the elder meeting, it's front loaded with an extended prayer time.
19:56-20:01
And I think that sets the tone because we're not all coming in like, this is what I want and here's what I think.
20:02-20:09
But we're coming in saying, God, this is your church and we're here to glorify you and we just want what you want.
20:10-20:20
And I'll tell you what, when you spend like a half hour or whatever praying that and concepts around that, that sure shapes the tone of the meeting, wouldn't you say?
20:20-20:22
Yeah, and studying God's word as well.
20:22-20:35
We always do that in the staff meetings, the elder meetings, ministry team leader meetings, always studying the word together because that also shapes our discussion that we're not just coming to share our opinions, we're coming to submit ourselves to God's authoritative word in all that we do.
20:36-20:39
All right, we've gotten through four questions in like 20 minutes or so.
20:39-20:40
We're on a good clip.
20:40-20:41
Let's kick it into gear here.
20:41-20:42
All right, speed round.
20:42-20:43
All right, here we go.
20:43-20:48
What is the church's strategy concerning choosing worship songs that overuse the repeat button?
20:49-20:53
Am I unable to see the benefit of singing the same words over and over?
20:54-21:02
So it's my understanding this is not about like picking the same songs, but using songs that just repeat and repeat and repeat.
21:03-21:06
Worship is such an emotionally charged issue.
21:06-21:15
And I mean, you get five Christians in a room, you'll get six different opinions about worship, right?
21:16-21:20
Taylor, you had a good word about this when we were talking about this earlier.
21:21-21:27
Well, Psalm 136 repeats the phrase, "His steadfast love endures forever" 26 times.
21:27-21:29
The Psalms are very repetitive.
21:30-21:32
I think it's all just a matter of what are you repeating.
21:33-21:34
Is it worth repeating?
21:34-21:35
Is it glorifying to God?
21:35-21:36
Is it biblical?
21:36-21:37
Is it edifying?
21:38-21:39
That's the biggest question.
21:40-21:41
Right.
21:41-21:42
Yeah.
21:42-21:49
You see a lot of that repetition in the Psalms, like Pastor Taylor said.
21:50-21:54
It's not vain repetition, but it's purposeful repetition.
21:55-21:57
I think the Bible uses that too, right?
21:57-21:58
Outside of the Psalms.
21:58-21:59
Yeah, even outside of the Psalms.
21:59-22:00
I wrote down a verse.
22:01-22:02
Look up...
22:03-22:03
Where is that?
22:04-22:04
Oh, yeah.
22:05-22:37
Galatians 2.16. Just jot that down and look it up later. But in one verse Paul says the exact same thing three times. So there you go. All right next one. What does the gift of tongues accurately look like in today's church? Since I've only seen the crazy, there must be a legit use for it since Paul spent so much time on it in in 1 Corinthians 14, and if it is no longer valid, how do you determine what gifts are valid and which are not?
22:37-22:38
This'll be quick.
22:38-22:42
Yeah, this is a great question, Taylor, let them know.
22:43-22:44
(audience laughing)
22:46-22:48
I thought you were excited to answer this one.
22:51-22:53
Oh dear, this is a big question.
22:57-22:58
Should've saved it for next service.
23:00-23:01
It's too late, we'll do it.
23:01-23:03
All right, here's the thing.
23:05-23:09
The gift of tongues is so misunderstood.
23:11-23:17
So let me, the first thing I wanna say is, speaking in tongues is not normative.
23:18-23:19
It's just not.
23:20-23:27
The other thing is, when the Bible talks about speaking in tongues, those were actually known languages.
23:28-23:29
It wasn't gibberish.
23:29-23:31
They were actually known languages.
23:31-23:32
And what was the purpose?
23:33-23:38
Why did God have the early church speak in tongues?
23:39-23:49
Well, you only see it in the book of Acts and it's only mentioned in one epistle and that's 1 Corinthians because it's one of the earliest epistles.
23:50-24:01
And the reason you only see it there is because in that time, there was a transition happening from the old covenant to the new covenant, right?
24:02-24:21
And part of that was, and this was prophesied in Isaiah actually, because Israel by and large, not totally, but by and large, because Israel rejected her Messiah, God said, "I'm going to move on to other people," represented by other languages.
24:21-24:26
So tongues was actually a sign of judgment against Israel.
24:26-24:29
God says, "You don't want my Messiah?
24:29-24:37
"All right, I'm gonna move on to other people." And they were known languages.
24:37-24:57
I think it's so interesting that Paul writes what he wrote in 1 Corinthians to correct how misused and abused it was, and people sort of use that as a proof text to use it in the way that is inappropriate in the church today.
24:58-25:04
So, Lord willing, I do have a draft of the preaching calendar for next year.
25:05-25:13
It does not have elder approval yet, but spoiler alert, this is a big part of that, is I want to address this issue in depth.
25:13-25:16
But do I believe tongues happens today?
25:17-25:18
Yes, but it's not normative.
25:19-25:25
I've heard stories of missionaries, you know, in places where they don't speak the language, they were asked to share.
25:25-25:29
They spoke what they thought was their own language and people heard it in their language.
25:29-25:32
And like Taylor said earlier, I can't discount somebody's experience.
25:33-25:35
I wasn't there, but I've heard that story a few times.
25:36-25:37
I believe that's this.
25:38-25:47
But I personally do not believe in the gibberish, ecstatic, babbling language.
25:47-25:49
I don't believe biblically that's a thing.
25:49-25:58
When the Bible talks about tongues, They were actual, real languages that people were speaking that they didn't know but had to be interpreted.
25:59-26:04
Or, like we saw in Pentecost, people heard in their own language.
26:04-26:07
So, we could spend a lot more on that.
26:07-26:08
Is there anything else we should?
26:09-26:10
I think you answered that really well.
26:10-26:16
The alarming issue for me is there's so many churches that make it an essential of your salvation to speak in tongues.
26:16-26:19
If you're a Christian, you will speak in tongues.
26:20-26:22
And the New Testament makes no such claim at all.
26:23-26:28
And so a guilty burden is laid upon people that they are not expected to carry.
26:28-26:34
And I've known many people who've said, yeah, I just pretended like I could because I wanted to fit in and not be thought of as a non-Christian.
26:35-26:39
So it's very unbiblically carried out in a lot of ways.
26:39-26:39
Oh, it is.
26:40-26:44
I knew a guy who was part of a charismatic church.
26:45-26:46
I'm just gonna call him Joe.
26:46-26:51
But they were having a service and the pastor said, We're not leaving until Joe speaks in tongues.
26:52-26:53
And I said, what'd you do?
26:53-26:55
He goes, I faked it.
26:56-26:58
He wasn't gonna let anybody leave until I did it.
26:58-27:02
He said, so I just spouted off a bunch of sounds and stuff.
27:02-27:03
And he goes, I faked it.
27:03-27:07
And they're like, all right, we can go now because he's been anointed by the Holy Spirit.
27:07-27:10
I just, I don't see that biblically.
27:10-27:17
I do think tongues was a real thing as a sign of judgment against Israel.
27:17-27:22
1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14 dives into that.
27:22-27:28
And like I said, Lord willing, I'd like to spend more time really diving deep on that subject, but that's the short version.
27:28-27:30
Yeah, and you mentioned interpretation too.
27:31-27:33
That's a big part of it, right?
27:34-27:36
Right, yeah, that was an essential.
27:37-27:41
And that's something a lot of churches that practice this don't have interpretation.
27:44-27:46
All right, I think we can move on past that one.
27:46-27:46
That was a good one.
27:47-27:49
Last one on the church.
27:50-27:53
Can Christian women baptize new believers?
27:57-28:02
You know there had to be a gender role in the church questions submitted, right?
28:03-28:08
So, can Christian women baptize new believers?
28:10-28:31
Again, when the Bible's your authority, what does the Bible say about baptism and who baptizes, the only examples that we have biblically are men in spiritually authoritative roles, like pastors, elders, baptizing people.
28:31-28:35
I don't see any example biblically of a woman baptizing.
28:35-28:36
I mean, have you seen anything?
28:36-28:37
I haven't, no.
28:37-28:42
So I wouldn't say the Bible explicitly condemns that or encourages it.
28:42-28:43
Right.
28:43-28:53
Yeah, the Bible doesn't say, you know, a woman is forbidden to baptize, but we see zero examples of that.
28:53-28:56
And it seems to me to be a pastoral function.
28:56-28:57
You spoke on that a few days ago.
28:58-29:04
Yeah, I believe that baptism and the Lord's Supper are essential elements of church membership.
29:04-29:07
That baptism is an entrance into the church.
29:08-29:09
And the Lord's Supper is for believers.
29:10-29:17
And pastors and elders are called to shepherd over the souls of their congregation, and baptism and Lord's Supper are essential for that.
29:18-29:22
So I think it is safest for pastors and elders to be responsible for those two things.
29:23-29:23
Amen.
29:25-29:37
All right, let's go to the family and kids section here of our questions and see how many we can get through of these, we've got less than 10 minutes here, so let's try to not fly through them, but let's see how many we can get through.
29:38-29:42
First one is, do babies go to heaven if they die?
29:42-29:43
Yes.
29:44-29:46
Next. - Similar question.
29:47-29:47
(congregation laughing)
29:48-30:01
The age of accountability being made up or not found in the Bible, what biblical basis is there for understanding what will happen to young children or the disabled when they die unexpectedly or if Jesus returns?
30:03-30:17
The whole age of accountability thing, There's not a hard age like for us today to know when a child developing, growing, maturing is able to accept or reject Jesus Christ.
30:17-30:19
There's no magic age for that.
30:20-30:32
The principle does come from, I write this down, numbers 1429, you know, God had told Moses that those who were 20 and up were not allowed to enter the promised land.
30:32-30:32
Why?
30:33-30:37
Because the younger people didn't know better, but 20 and up, they did no better.
30:37-30:41
They were held accountable for the rebellion and the sin.
30:43-30:44
That's a guideline there.
30:44-30:47
That was, Moses is dealing with how many people here, right?
30:48-30:52
Some scholars guess over a million people were involved in the Exodus.
30:53-30:57
That, you know, that was a guideline that the Lord established.
30:58-31:03
So I think there's a principle there, but we don't know because people mature at different rates.
31:03-31:10
We don't know when somebody gets to the point in their life that they are able to accept or reject Jesus Christ.
31:11-31:14
So is there a hard age of accountability?
31:14-31:15
I don't think there is.
31:17-31:20
I think the biggest scriptural evidence for this comes from the life of David.
31:20-31:22
We talked about this a couple of weeks ago, Psalm 51.
31:23-31:27
As a result of his affair and the murder of Uriah, his son died.
31:27-31:29
It was a result of the affair with Bathsheba.
31:30-31:31
And we see David weeping.
31:32-31:41
He's mourning, and then he says in 2 Samuel 12, I was 12, 23, "But now he is dead, why should I fast?
31:41-31:42
"Can I bring him back again?
31:42-31:54
"I shall go to him, but he will not return to me." So he knows the baby's not gonna come back to life in the present, but he has a confidence that he will see his son again someday.
31:55-32:00
And later on, he goes to comfort Bathsheba, I think he comforts her with that truth.
32:00-32:03
Is that part of the reason why you were so confident with the first question?
32:03-32:03
Yeah.
32:04-32:18
Oh, for sure. Yeah. David knew emphatically. He goes, you know, that, that child's not going to come to me, but I'll go to him. He knew that child was in heaven and David knew he was going to heaven because of, you know, the Lord's promise. So yeah, a hundred percent.
32:19-32:27
I think another example is from Numbers and Deuteronomy, the ones who, all the adults who decided not to go in the promised land and not listen, they died in the wilderness.
32:28-32:49
got to go into the promised land? Their children. So I think infants, unborn babies, young children, those with severe mental disabilities, they are not able to make a decision for Christ or against Christ. So I think it's very clear that they are covered by the grace of Jesus Christ and they're bound for heaven, the ultimate promised land.
32:49-32:53
Right. Here's a personal question off of that.
32:54-32:55
What will they look like in heaven?
32:56-32:57
Thirty.
32:58-32:58
You think?
33:00-33:02
I believe everybody looks thirty in heaven.
33:04-33:06
There's biblical reason for that.
33:06-33:06
Was that your peak?
33:07-33:09
Was that your peak in this life? Thirty?
33:10-33:10
Thirty.
33:13-33:13
That's...
33:15-33:17
If that's what I peak, boy, I'm in trouble.
33:20-33:21
No, that's a whole other study.
33:22-33:26
But yeah, I personally believe everybody in heaven looks 30.
33:27-33:30
When did the Levitical priests start their job function?
33:31-33:32
30.
33:32-33:34
When did Jesus start his ministry?
33:35-33:35
30.
33:35-33:37
There's a whole, you can trace this out.
33:37-33:44
Do a little Bible study on all the people that God used at that exact age and how he ordained that.
33:44-33:45
It's a fascinating study.
33:45-33:54
So that's, like I said, I'm not, that's not a, "Thou sayeth the Lord." I'm just saying when I studied the Bible, It's like, huh, seems like there's something about that age.
33:54-33:57
So when people say, how old will my resurrected body look?
33:57-33:58
30.
34:00-34:02
I looked better five years ago, so I'm good with that.
34:02-34:04
Yeah, I know, I'm a year off.
34:04-34:05
Is there anybody here exactly 30?
34:08-34:08
JT.
34:09-34:14
JT, there is what-- - There he is, that's the picture of heaven right there, JT.
34:14-34:17
There is a peak physical body right there.
34:18-34:20
JT will never get better than this.
34:21-34:28
And I promise you, I promise you someday when I receive my glorified body and I look like JT Dean, I will be happy.
34:30-34:33
He is one step off from glorification right there.
34:35-34:37
All right, let's do another one here.
34:39-34:46
Is it okay for a Christian couple to decide that they do not want to have children or to prevent contraception?
34:46-34:54
Also, is it okay for a Christian couple to decide what size of a family they would prefer, or should we let those decisions be up to God?
34:56-35:00
Well, that is a really, really good question.
35:01-35:10
And obviously it's hard to answer this one without an emotional element behind it in saying it and in hearing it.
35:12-35:14
But at Harvest Bible Chapel, Bible is our middle name.
35:15-35:16
And what does the Bible say?
35:18-35:20
The Bible says be fruitful and multiply.
35:21-35:28
So I encourage married couples, if you can have kids, I think you should have kids.
35:28-35:36
Because I don't see any prohibition in the Bible, I don't see any language telling married couples not to have kids.
35:36-35:38
All I see is you should have kids.
35:38-35:42
So I would say, yeah, have as many as you can.
35:43-35:52
Right, but Taylor, you had a really, we talked about this before, you had a really good piece there about motives that I wanted you to lay out.
35:53-35:55
I think as with everything, the motive really matters.
35:56-35:59
Is the motive self-centered or is it actually selfless?
36:00-36:04
For example, is it self-centered in the way, look, I don't really want my life to be impinged by a child.
36:05-36:07
I wanna be able to travel, go do what I want.
36:07-36:09
I don't want, I wanna be able to get-- - Kids are expensive.
36:09-36:12
Right, I think those are self-centered reasons that don't hold water biblically.
36:13-36:19
But for example, let's say a couple's a missionary, they wanna go travel to a dangerous part of the world and share the gospel.
36:19-36:22
Like we don't wanna worry about our children's safety.
36:22-36:24
I think that's a godly good rationale.
36:25-36:30
But I think again, in our culture, in our society, more and more people are having less and less kids.
36:31-36:40
Some people are having no kids, but it's because of that self-centered piece of I just want to enjoy my life and live unimpinged from children.
36:40-36:41
So that's a self-centered motivation.
36:41-36:46
And I think another one, too, is if there's a serious health issue, right?
36:46-36:52
Because I've known couples that they have said the woman can't carry a child and be healthy.
36:52-36:57
Like, it would risk-- it would severely risk the mother's life if she were to carry a child.
36:57-36:59
So the couple couldn't have kids.
37:00-37:05
I think-- yeah, I don't think you should put the Lord to the test if that's an issue.
37:05-37:08
But that's going to boil down to a matter of conviction.
37:08-37:11
But the bottom line is God wants your heart.
37:12-37:15
And like Pastor Taylor said, it boils down to motive.
37:16-37:23
If you're saying, "I don't want kids," then I would have to say, "I can't say it." Yeah, I can't.
37:24-37:26
I would have to say, "Why?
37:27-37:34
"What's the motive behind it?" I think that's a good word, because biblically we're called to be fruitful and multiply.
37:35-37:35
Thank you.
37:37-37:38
(applause)

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):

Review the questions submitted above. Discuss any of these that stuck out to you, or that maybe your group finds particularly interesting.

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!

Taylor Brown

July 27, 2025

Heart Problems

Guard Your Heart

Taylor Brown

July 27, 2025

Heart Problems

Introduction:

Guard Your Heart… (Proverbs 4:20–27)

With the WORD OF GOD (Proverbs 4:20–22)

Psalm 119:9–11 (ESV) – How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
1. Because it BRINGS TRUE LIFE (Prov 4:22a)
2. Because it BRINGS LASTING HEALING (Prov 4:22b)
With UNWAVERING VIGILANCE (Proverbs 4:23–27)

Luke 6:45 (ESV) – The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
1. By Watching WHAT YOU SAY (Prov 4:24)
  
  Proverbs 13:3 (ESV) – Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
2. By Controlling WHAT YOU FOCUS ON (Prov 4:25)
3. By Directing WHERE YOU GO (Prov 4:26–27)
  
  1 Kings 11:2–4 – ...for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love... For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods...

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

00:45-00:52
The Lord saved me at a young age, but my relationship with him wasn't really deep until I was a senior in high school.
00:53-00:59
At that time, I became a serious student of God's word, and I bought myself a nice new Bible.
01:00-01:04
Do you wanna see that nice and new Bible 16 years later?
01:05-01:05
All right, thanks.
01:06-01:07
I'll show Jay, Jay wants to see it.
01:08-01:09
Here's how it looks now.
01:10-01:10
How's it look?
01:13-01:17
Some of you get it, yeah, it does look good, in some ways, doesn't look great in other ways, though, does it?
01:17-01:21
You may be wondering, did you get run over by a lawnmower or something while you were reading it?
01:21-01:25
Well, nothing as dramatic as that, but for years, this Bible went everywhere with me.
01:26-01:31
I took it to Haiti, twice to Kenya, all the missions trips I led as a youth pastor.
01:31-01:35
I preached a lot of sermons and taught a lot of lessons from this Bible.
01:36-01:44
When I first bought it, I protected it, I guarded it, I kept it in the box it came in whenever I put it into my backpack or went on a trip.
01:46-01:51
But as years went by, I stopped protecting it with the box and I just hoped for the best.
01:52-01:55
And I kept getting more worn out, kept getting more beat up.
01:56-02:01
With each passing year, I kept looking worse and worse and worse and worse.
02:02-02:05
It really bummed me out to look at this Bible and what it had become.
02:07-02:11
Other people would comment on it as well, like, "Dude, you need to buy a new Bible "or get it rebalanced.
02:11-02:13
It's gonna fall apart any minute.
02:14-02:19
So I eventually took people up on that and I bought a nice leather-bound Bible.
02:20-02:29
And I learned my lesson with my old Bible because I still have the box for the new one and I still keep it in there all the time whenever I travel or put it into my backpack.
02:30-02:36
I am resolved to guard this copy of God's word moving forward.
02:37-02:39
It has immense value to me.
02:40-02:57
"It is precious to me, so I want to take care of it "by any means necessary." According to God's word, there is something of immense value within you that you often fail to consider and guard properly.
02:58-02:59
Your heart.
03:00-03:07
Your heart should be precious to you, and you should want to take care of it by any means necessary.
03:08-03:15
Over this past year, we have focused on one major theme from scripture, God wants your heart.
03:17-03:24
God wants your heart, but what if you don't want God like you used to?
03:27-03:30
What if you don't wanna give God your heart like you used to?
03:32-03:37
This is the final week of our latest series, Heart Problems, What to Do When You Don't Want God.
03:38-03:43
Every single person in this room has a heart problem of some kind.
03:44-03:54
It could be apathy in prayer, spiritual laziness and gratitude, an unrepentant sin in your life.
03:55-04:00
Thankfully, God has solutions to every single heart problem you can experience.
04:00-04:06
And over the past few weeks, we've discovered three of God's solutions to these heart problems.
04:06-04:12
evaluating your heart, confessing sin from your heart, and giving thanks with your heart.
04:14-04:28
Maybe at this point you're thinking, well Taylor, I'm good to go, I've done all those things, I've evaluated my heart, I've confessed sin from my heart, I've given thanks with my heart, time to move on from this series and go back to the Sermon on the Mount, thanks so much, I'm done with this.
04:29-04:37
Well not so fast, you are missing one important piece of the puzzle, and that is guarding your heart.
04:38-04:49
'Cause if you fail to guard your heart, you will lose all the progress that you've made over the past few weeks, and all the old heart problems that you had will return and intensify.
04:50-04:54
New heart problems will pop up and spiral out of control.
04:55-04:58
You must protect yourself from this danger.
04:58-05:08
You must do your best to resolve these heart problems when they first pop up, instead of ignoring them and leaving them undealt with.
05:09-05:16
We'll spend the rest of this message talking about what it looks like to guard your heart in action.
05:17-05:30
I want you to walk out of this series with a confidence that you can resolve heart problems right when they appear through God's power and with God's methods.
05:31-05:33
So before we continue, let's go to the Lord in prayer.
05:34-05:37
Please pray for me and I will pray for you.
05:42-05:51
Father, we come to you with a sense of weightiness, but we all have a heart problem of some kind right now.
05:52-05:53
None of us can say that we don't.
05:55-05:56
I pray that we can be honest about it this morning.
05:57-06:04
to bring those things to you so that you can change us, so that you can convict us, so that you can build us up.
06:04-06:06
Lord, I can do none of those things.
06:06-06:15
All I can do is share your word, but you are the only one who can use your word to change lives, and I ask that you would do that this morning.
06:16-06:19
I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
06:21-06:25
So over the past two Sundays, we spent a lot of time with King David in the Psalms.
06:26-06:33
This morning we're gonna spend some time with King David's son, Solomon, in Proverbs chapter four, verses 20 through 27.
06:34-06:39
So if you have a Bible with you, please turn to Proverbs chapter four, verses 20 through 27.
06:41-06:45
And as you turn there, let me give you a quick crash course on King Solomon.
06:46-06:51
At a young age, this man was given a blank check by God himself.
06:52-06:54
Name what you want, and I'll give it to you.
06:56-06:57
You ever think about how awesome that is?
06:57-06:58
Just imagine that.
06:59-07:03
What do you think you would ask for if God gave you that blank check?
07:05-07:07
Well, Solomon didn't ask for what was expected.
07:09-07:13
He didn't ask for riches, for honor, or the ability to fly.
07:13-07:14
That would've been really cool, though.
07:15-07:17
No, what does he ask for instead?
07:18-07:19
Wisdom.
07:20-07:28
Wisdom, which is the ability to apply God's word to every situation you experience and every decision that you make.
07:29-07:32
Wisdom is knowledge in action.
07:33-07:41
And God was so pleased with this answer that he still gave Solomon all the stuff he didn't ask for, minus the superpower of flight, he didn't get that.
07:42-07:50
But Solomon was blessed with so much material stuff, most importantly, with wisdom from God.
07:51-08:01
And he used this wisdom to accomplish a lot of great things like building the first temple, but later in life, he squandered that wisdom, which we'll talk about at the end of this message.
08:03-08:09
But the first nine chapters of Proverbs are written from the perspective of a father speaking to his son.
08:10-08:18
Solomon is addressing his own son, but he's also acting like a fatherly figure to anyone who listens to what he has to say.
08:20-08:21
His wise words should not be ignored.
08:22-08:23
They should not be forgotten.
08:24-08:26
They should be treasured.
08:27-08:33
And in these chapters, Solomon tells his son that wisdom is the most valuable thing.
08:33-08:36
It's better than silver, gold, or precious jewels.
08:38-08:41
He needs to seek after wisdom and get it.
08:41-08:45
He also warns his son against many things that he should not do.
08:46-08:52
But our main focus this morning is Solomon's words of wisdom about his son's heart.
08:53-09:02
That is the thing that Solomon is most concerned about because if your heart is wrong, it doesn't really matter what else you get right.
09:03-09:12
Solomon gives his son and everyone who reads Proverbs 4, 20 through 27, the same command, guard your heart.
09:13-09:17
So on your outline, guard your heart with the word of God.
09:18-09:21
Guard your heart with the word of God.
09:24-09:26
Let's read verses 20 through 21.
09:27-09:38
My son, be attentive to my words, incline your ear to my sayings, let them not escape from your sight, keep them within your heart.
09:40-09:50
These verses remind me a lot of conversations with my dad when I was younger, when he made it very clear that I should listen to what he had to say and not tune him out.
09:50-09:56
And I have very similar conversations with my own son that vary in their level of effectiveness and success.
09:57-10:06
In those moments, I want my son Sam to close his mouth, open his ears, and heed my warnings to listen to what I have to say.
10:07-10:15
But you have to remember that this instruction from an earthly father isn't the only thing happening in this passage.
10:16-10:20
Remember, this is the authoritative word of God.
10:22-10:28
It's not just the end of the Andy Griffith Show when Sheriff Andy sits down with Opie to give the major moral lesson.
10:29-10:34
No, your heavenly father is sitting you down to give you commands and instructions.
10:35-10:46
God himself is calling you to be attentive to his words, to incline your ears to his sayings, to not let them escape your sight, and to keep them within your heart.
10:48-10:51
That sounds very similar to Psalm 119, nine through 11.
10:52-10:55
How can a young man keep his way pure?
10:55-10:57
By guarding it according to your word.
10:58-11:00
With my whole heart I seek you.
11:00-11:02
Let me not wander from your commandments.
11:02-11:07
I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
11:08-11:15
You cannot guard your heart, fight sin, and lead a pure life apart from significant time in the Bible.
11:15-11:16
It's just not possible.
11:17-11:23
It's like trying to build a deck on the back of your house without any tools or any supplies of any kind.
11:24-11:28
You can have the best of intentions, but you will get nowhere fast.
11:30-11:33
It's not enough just to read the Bible.
11:34-11:37
You need to keep it, store it up in your heart.
11:38-11:39
How do you do that?
11:40-11:43
You push out other things to make room for it.
11:44-11:46
You kill the bad habits in your life.
11:46-11:52
You let go of those hobbies that hold you back and that vie for your attention.
11:52-11:56
You make room for God's word by memorizing it.
11:58-12:02
I know what some of you are thinking, Taylor, I can't memorize stuff, I have a horrible memory.
12:03-12:05
Let me share a universal truth with you.
12:06-12:07
you memorize what you care about.
12:09-12:11
You memorize what you care about.
12:13-12:20
If you love sports, you have a ton of information about players, games, teams, right at your fingertips at all times.
12:21-12:32
If you love golf in this room, you have a lot of information downloaded into your brain about the perfect golf swing, all the courses you want to play at in the world.
12:33-12:38
If you're a movie freak, you have film knowledge, directors, actors right in your brain.
12:38-12:41
What is the focus of your memorization?
12:42-12:46
What do you make the most room for in your heart?
12:48-12:55
John Bunyan, the man who wrote one of the best-selling books of all time, The Pilgrim's Progress, hundreds of years ago, was described in this way.
12:55-12:57
"This man is a living Bible.
12:57-13:00
"Prick him anywhere and he will bleed the Bible.
13:00-13:02
"The very essence of the Bible flows from him.
13:02-13:12
"He cannot speak without quoting a text, "for his very soul is full of the word of God." Is that description true of you?
13:14-13:17
I wish I fit this description far more than I do.
13:19-13:24
But this can describe you, it can describe me, if we grab a hold of the right motivations.
13:26-13:32
And let me tell you this morning, I have no desire to guilt you into spending more time in the Bible.
13:33-13:34
Do you want to know why?
13:36-13:39
Because that motivation won't last beyond the end of this week.
13:40-13:45
You may be diligent in studying, reading, praying this week, but it won't last any longer.
13:46-14:07
You need the motivation only God can provide. You need to believe that this book is far more important than anything else you can set your mind to or fill your time with. You must truly be convinced from your heart that that reading this book, studying it, living it, applying it, blesses and benefits you in every way and in every area of life.
14:09-14:17
My yelling, my nagging, my pestering may make you feel like a shamed dog who got bopped on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.
14:18-14:25
But those tactics will not make you love the instructions of your heavenly master even one bit more.
14:28-14:35
So let's talk about two motivations that will inspire you to guard your heart with the word of God.
14:36-14:41
So on your outline, guard your heart with the word of God because it brings true life.
14:42-14:44
Because it brings true life.
14:47-14:50
Let's check out the first half of verse 22.
14:51-14:55
For they are life to those who find them.
14:57-15:01
You are only as healthy as what you consume.
15:02-15:06
As the old saying goes, you are what you eat.
15:06-15:10
That is true both physically and spiritually.
15:10-15:15
Your physical well-being cannot rise above what you put into your body.
15:16-15:20
Your spiritual well-being cannot rise above what you put into your heart.
15:22-15:39
When he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8.3, "Man shall not live by bread alone, "but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Maybe you are spiritually starving this morning because you have never feasted on the word of God.
15:39-15:44
You have never tasted the goodness of Jesus Christ in the gospel.
15:45-15:53
Listen, nothing and no one can satisfy your longings or cravings apart from Jesus Christ.
15:55-15:58
Stop poisoning yourself with the junk food of this world.
15:59-16:05
That diet will do nothing but make you sick, hurt your heart, and kill your eternal soul.
16:06-16:11
Life is offered to you today in the word of God.
16:12-16:24
Let go of the junk food of this world and grab a hold of Jesus Christ, who suffered, died, and rose again, so that you can have eternal life it starts now and lasts forever.
16:25-16:29
Grab ahold of Christ by faith and you will have that life.
16:32-16:40
Guard your heart with the word of God because it brings true life and because it brings true healing.
16:41-16:43
Because it brings true healing.
16:48-16:49
Let's read all of 22.
16:50-16:55
For they are life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh.
16:57-17:01
The word of God provides a remedy for every ailment.
17:01-17:04
It provides a solution to every heart problem.
17:04-17:07
This book is like the ultimate Swiss army knife.
17:08-17:12
It is multifaceted, multipurpose, and useful for every situation.
17:12-17:15
It is a genuine lifesaver.
17:16-17:26
I can't guarantee you much, But I guarantee you there is no trial, there is no discouragement, there is no relational issue that you cannot come to the word of God and find wisdom for.
17:27-17:36
There is no issue you'll come across and be like, ah, well, the Bible can't help me with this, time to buy a self-help book or watch that Lifetime movie, maybe that'll help me.
17:37-17:37
No.
17:38-17:47
The healing help you are looking for is in the word of God, it's right at your fingertips, you can have access to it every single second of every single day.
17:48-17:56
And the Lord has brought me so much healing personally by praying through scripture, especially through the Psalms.
17:57-18:10
The Psalms provide you a vocabulary for how to pray to God as you experience every emotion, anger, fear, frustration, confusion, sadness, excitement, joy.
18:13-18:14
Do you pray through scripture?
18:16-18:17
If you don't, let me teach you how to do it.
18:18-18:19
This is very complex.
18:20-18:21
Are you all ready for this?
18:21-18:22
All right, really pay attention.
18:24-18:26
Read a verse and then pray about it.
18:27-18:30
Read the next verse and then pray about it.
18:31-18:33
Read the next verse and then pray some more about it.
18:34-18:35
Rinse, wash, and repeat.
18:36-18:37
Can you do that?
18:38-18:39
You can do that.
18:40-18:41
Pray through God's word.
18:41-18:43
Pray through the Psalms.
18:45-18:46
Are you overwhelmed right now?
18:50-18:53
Are you at the lowest point that you've been in a long time?
18:54-18:57
Are you in need of healing?
18:58-19:05
Push out what the world has to say about you and your issues, make room for what God has to say about you and your issues.
19:05-19:12
Guard your heart with the word of God and you will experience the healing and the life that you are so desperate for.
19:15-19:20
Guard your heart, secondly, with unwavering vigilance.
19:21-19:23
With unwavering vigilance.
19:27-19:30
Verse 23 is the centerpiece of this entire passage.
19:30-19:35
It is one of the go-to verses when it comes to the importance of your heart.
19:35-19:36
Solomon writes this.
19:37-19:42
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
19:44-19:48
After a year of repetition, you may be tired of hearing it, but I'm going to say it again.
19:48-19:52
Your heart is who you really are on the inside.
19:54-19:56
Your heart is like a spring or a fountain.
19:56-19:59
Everything that you think, say, and do flows from it.
20:01-20:04
Most fountains only pour out what they are filled with.
20:05-20:11
If a decorative fountain is filled with contaminated water, it will only pour out unclean water that you shouldn't drink.
20:12-20:19
If a fondue fountain is filled with cheese and chocolate, you shouldn't be surprised when it only pours out cheese and chocolate.
20:21-20:25
Your heart is a fountain that will only pour out what it is filled with.
20:27-20:33
Have you ever come across a person who is rude in every situation and constantly rags on everyone?
20:34-20:36
And then someone comes along to defend this person.
20:37-20:43
Oh, well, you know, they might be rough around the edges, but deep down, he or she really is a nice and kind person.
20:45-20:46
What do we think about that?
20:46-20:47
Is that true?
20:48-20:48
Incorrect.
20:49-20:52
What is in that person's heart spews out of their mouth.
20:53-20:58
Their heart is full of resentment and disrespect, so it comes out in how they talk to everyone.
21:00-21:15
I can't put it any better than our Lord, when he said, "The good person out of the good treasure "of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
21:16-21:20
You show who you really are by what you say and by what you do.
21:22-21:30
And with that essential truth in mind, Solomon says, "Keep your heart with all vigilance." Vigilance.
21:31-21:34
Do you know who I think of when I hear that word?
21:35-21:36
McGruff the Crime Dog.
21:37-21:38
Does anyone remember McGruff?
21:38-21:45
He was a character in the '80s who was created to increase personal safety and awareness of crime.
21:46-21:51
He was a bloodhound in a trench coat who had a really deep and intimidating voice.
21:52-21:54
Does anyone know what his tagline was?
21:55-21:55
Anyone remember?
21:57-22:04
"Take a bite out of crime." McGruff set his sights on important issues like bullying, drug use, home invasion.
22:07-22:14
And he would just be so emphatic that you have to defend yourself, you have to have alarm systems, you have to have a deadbolt on your door.
22:14-22:23
McGruff wants you to be constantly aware and unwaveringly vigilant in order to guard your loved ones and yourself from the crime that wants to take a bite out of you.
22:26-22:36
Well, God himself wants you to be constantly aware and unwaveringly vigilant in order to guard your heart from the sin that wants to take a bite out of you.
22:37-22:42
You cannot take breaks or vacations from this vigilance.
22:43-22:47
Heart security is infinitely more important than home security.
22:48-22:52
Spiritually, your head needs to be on a swivel at all times.
22:52-22:56
You must be circumspect, not careless, cautious, not casual.
22:59-23:02
So what should you be on the lookout for?
23:03-23:07
How should you guard your heart with unwavering vigilance?
23:08-23:18
Well, next on your outline, guard your heart with unwavering vigilance by watching what you say, by watching what you say.
23:20-23:21
Let's read verse 24.
23:22-23:27
Put away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you.
23:29-23:31
Crooked speech and devious talk, what does that mean?
23:32-23:37
Well Solomon is saying don't mess around with lying and deception.
23:38-23:41
Do not bend the truth to fit your narrative.
23:41-23:45
Do not fudge the facts to get out of trouble with your spouse or your boss.
23:45-23:50
Don't stretch the truth to make yourself look more impressive than you actually are.
23:51-23:59
It's really tempting to believe that lying isn't a big deal as long as you only do it sometimes and don't make a habit out of it.
24:01-24:05
That is a stupid thought that you and I both fall for.
24:06-24:13
We've already established that you show who you are on the inside by what you say on the outside.
24:15-24:16
So let's run that through.
24:17-24:21
If you lie to others on the outside, who does that make you on the inside?
24:23-24:24
That makes you a what?
24:25-24:25
A liar.
24:27-24:27
It's that simple.
24:30-24:37
You cannot call yourself a lover of the truth if you constantly indulge in one of the activities that God hates the most.
24:39-24:48
Elsewhere in Proverbs it says, "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." So should you mess around with something that is described so harshly?
24:49-24:50
No, we really shouldn't.
24:50-24:54
The pathway of Christian speech is straight, not crooked.
24:55-25:03
You need to walk the straight highway of God's truth instead of stumbling down those side roads of deception.
25:05-25:10
Put away crooked speech and devious talk by fessing up to how you've been deceitful.
25:12-25:17
Sit that person, sit those people down to unravel every single lie that you've told.
25:18-25:23
Those conversations sure won't be fun, but they sure will set your heart free.
25:24-25:41
Put away crooked speech and devious talk by entering into tough conversations, by praying to God, God, I know I'm gonna be tempted to be dishonest, I know I'm gonna be tempted to stretch the truth, guard my heart, help me to only say what is true, even if it costs me.
25:42-25:47
Put away crooked speech and devious talk by diving into Proverbs that talk about how you speak.
25:48-25:58
Proverbs like the one we're studying this morning, or Proverbs 13.3, whoever guards his mouth, preserves his life, he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
25:59-26:03
Be vigilant in guarding your heart by guarding your mouth.
26:04-26:08
Be vigilant in what you say and what you don't say.
26:10-26:18
Guard your heart with unwavering vigilance by controlling what you focus on, by controlling what you focus on.
26:19-26:25
So Solomon moves from what you say to where you look in verse 25.
26:26-26:36
"Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you." Where you look is where you'll end up.
26:38-26:41
Where you look is where you'll end up.
26:42-26:46
Imagine that after church, I take a nice long scenic drive.
26:46-26:51
I find myself on a row with a really steep embankment.
26:51-26:58
And for some reason, I stop looking directly ahead and my eyes start to wander to the embankment.
26:59-27:01
Keep looking at it, keep looking at it, keep looking at it.
27:02-27:05
If I keep doing that, where am I going to end up?
27:06-27:11
Smashing into the guardrail or through the guardrail and rolling down the embankment.
27:11-27:14
I will most likely get in a very serious accident.
27:16-27:22
I could have avoided that if I had kept my eyes looking directly forward where I should have been looking.
27:23-27:25
Where are you looking right now?
27:27-27:29
Are you looking where God wants you to look?
27:30-27:36
Or are you looking where the enemy wants you to look? Where the world wants you to look?
27:37-27:44
If you keep up with watching those corrupting movies and shows, you'll end up with those movies and shows rewriting your thinking.
27:44-28:02
If you keep up with mindlessly, endlessly scrolling on social media all hours of the day, you'll end up as a spiritual zombie, as an undisciplined slacker who doesn't give his or her family the time and attention that they deserve.
28:04-28:12
If you keep up with that pornography addiction, you will end up feeling very alone and ruining the good connection that you have with your spouse.
28:13-28:15
You become what you behold.
28:17-28:22
Be vigilant in guarding your heart by controlling where you look and what you focus on.
28:24-28:34
Finally, guard your heart with unwavering vigilance by directing where you go, by directing where you go.
28:36-28:39
Let's wrap up with verses 26 through 27.
28:40-28:44
Ponder the path of your feet, then all your ways will be sure.
28:44-28:46
Do not swerve to the right or to the left.
28:46-28:49
Turn your foot away from evil.
28:52-28:54
Staple this truth to your brain and never forget it.
28:55-29:00
You are one decision away from life-shattering disaster.
29:01-29:06
You can destroy all the trust that you've worked so hard to build up in an instant.
29:07-29:11
You can tear your reputation to shreds with one choice.
29:13-29:17
You can do serious damage if you're not careful of where you go.
29:19-29:21
Don't do what feels good.
29:21-29:23
Don't do what feels right.
29:23-29:24
Do what is good.
29:24-29:26
Do what is right.
29:26-29:28
Ponder the path of your feet.
29:29-29:32
Direct yourself to where you should go.
29:34-29:35
But here's the thing.
29:36-29:39
You can't ponder the path of your feet on your own.
29:40-29:44
You will go to the right or to the left if you isolate yourself.
29:44-29:49
You will not turn your foot away from evil if you try to go this way alone.
29:50-29:54
Direct yourself towards worshiping with God's people every single week.
29:55-29:59
Direct yourself towards intentional Christian community in small groups.
30:00-30:06
Direct yourself to honest and accountable relationships in the body of Christ.
30:08-30:17
If you have been on the outskirts of this church for weeks, months, or even years, I want to encourage you to dive in.
30:18-30:21
Take a risk, be vulnerable.
30:22-30:28
Listen, you may have been hurt in the past by a church, and I in no way want to nullify that or minimize that pain.
30:29-30:32
But that pain will not go away if you don't get involved in this church.
30:33-30:36
it will only get worse and worse and worse.
30:37-30:44
To truly be in community, to be truly known, to truly know others, it's always a risk.
30:45-30:47
It always requires you being vulnerable.
30:48-30:51
Take that step in faith and trust the Lord.
30:52-31:00
Trust that He will direct you to where you should go, that He will direct you towards greater maturity and connectedness in the body of Christ.
31:01-31:05
Please know that we love you and we want you here.
31:07-31:10
Be vigilant and guard in your heart by directing where you go.
31:12-31:18
At the end of this message, you may be thinking, well, Taylor, all this stuff that Solomon is saying is very obvious.
31:18-31:20
I already know all this stuff.
31:20-31:21
It's not complex.
31:23-31:23
You're right.
31:24-31:29
Keeping your heart, guarding your heart is not complex, except when it comes to actually doing it.
31:30-31:39
when theory becomes reality, when rubber meets the road, when your worldly desires experience a head-on collision with your godly affections.
31:43-31:49
Before we close a curtain on this series, I want to give you a word of warning from Solomon himself.
31:51-31:56
It's actually a warning from his own life because Solomon didn't listen to his own words.
31:58-32:02
As time went on, he didn't guard his heart with the word of God.
32:03-32:06
He didn't guard his heart with unwavering vigilance.
32:07-32:13
He was told time and time again, don't marry foreign wives from pagan nations who worship other gods.
32:14-32:18
If you do that, they will cause you to not be faithful to the Lord.
32:18-32:21
Solomon knew that, but he didn't listen.
32:22-32:26
Which leads to one of the saddest passages in the entire Old Testament.
32:27-32:29
Solomon clung to these in love.
32:29-32:35
He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines.
32:36-32:39
And his wives turned away his heart.
32:41-32:45
For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods.
32:46-32:52
And his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
32:54-32:57
What a heartbreaking end for Solomon.
32:58-33:01
What a serious warning for you and for me.
33:02-33:03
Solomon knew it all.
33:04-33:07
He knew what the right thing to do was, but he didn't do it.
33:08-33:10
He didn't guard his heart.
33:13-33:16
It's tempting to think, well, my heart seems like it's fine right now.
33:18-33:22
But then you fail to think, well, I'm gonna have heart problems moving forward.
33:24-33:29
You may not think that you have heart problems right now, and that you're free from them, but what about tomorrow?
33:31-33:32
What about next week?
33:33-33:34
What about next month?
33:34-33:35
What about next year?
33:36-33:36
Are you ready?
33:38-33:44
Evaluating your heart is not a once in a lifetime appointment it is a daily appointment with the Lord.
33:45-33:49
Confessing sin from your heart isn't something you just do once at your conversion, no.
33:49-33:52
It is a daily acknowledging and repenting of your sin.
33:53-33:58
Giving thanks with your heart isn't something that you just do in November when you're eating turkey with your family.
34:00-34:06
It is a daily discipline that shapes how you view God and how you view your own life.
34:07-34:11
Guarding your heart isn't just something you do when you have the time.
34:11-34:16
No, it's something you do 24/7, 365 days a year.
34:18-34:25
Guard your heart with the word of God because it is the only source of help, encouragement and strength that you can find.
34:26-34:32
Guard your heart with unwavering vigilance for from it flow the springs of life.
34:33-34:38
Your heart problems can only be solved by God's solutions.
34:39-34:39
Let's pray.
34:42-34:43
Father, we come to you.
34:46-34:50
And we acknowledge that there is something going on within all of us.
34:52-35:02
doubt, severe anxiety, constant complaining, a sin that we don't think anyone knows about, but you do.
35:04-35:06
Would help us to lay all those things at your feet.
35:07-35:13
Help us to seek after you for help, for encouragement, for strength.
35:13-35:16
Lord, we don't have the energy in ourselves to guard our hearts.
35:17-35:21
We don't have the passion that's needed within ourselves, but you do.
35:21-35:31
Give us your strength, give us your encouragement, give us your passion, so that we can guard our hearts, not just today, but every day moving forward.
35:32-35:35
We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Proverbs 4:20-27

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How do you guard your heart with the Word of God? How would you describe your devotional life and the ways it needs to improve?
What does it look like to be vigilant in guarding your heart? How have you been lazy in guarding your heart in the past?
What actions steps do you need to take moving forward?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Focus On Today

Introduction:

"I Refuse to Worry..." (Matthew 6:25–34):

Where to Put Your Treasure

Introduction:

3 Self-Serving Reasons to Give to God (Matthew 6:19–24):

Questions from the Congregation - Part 19B

Questions from the Congregation - Part 19A

Guard Your Heart

Introduction:

Guard Your Heart… (Proverbs 4:20–27)

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

"I Refuse to Worry..." (Matthew 6:25–34):

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

3 Self-Serving Reasons to Give to God (Matthew 6:19–24):

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Audio Transcript

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Guard Your Heart… (Proverbs 4:20–27)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT