Beyond The Basics: Obeying, Serving & Growing (part 5)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Our Father, we come before you this morning thankful that you are a

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God to whom we can turn, thankful that you are a God who has given us your Word, thankful most of all that you have sent your

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Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life in our place, to die a sacrificial death that we deserve, to be raised that we might have hope.

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And Father, would you bless this time as we look to your Word and what it says about how we ought to live.

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In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Well I heard a, I don't know if this was the

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United States government, but I believe it was, they just conducted a survey and they came across some astonishing results.

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Did you know that cold bothers women more than it bothers men?

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I was stunned to hear that. I just thought, every Sunday morning I come to church, and I could have told them that for free,

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I don't know what they paid for it, but I gladly would have done the survey and taken the $850 ,000 or whatever they paid for it, and that would have been a sweet deal.

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I don't know why they do these things. That's a tough one. Women like it warmer than men.

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Who knew? Okay, we've been talking, yeah, we all knew.

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We've been talking about obedience, growth, and service, talking about the importance of these things in the lives of Christians.

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I thought I might just start this morning with a question. Who can give me an example in Scripture of a selfish

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Christian? Jonah.

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Well, selfish believer, certainly, right? I mean, he didn't want to do what

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God wanted, yeah? Selfish Christian.

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It is an oxymoron. Thank you, Carl, for figuring out the word I was looking for. It's an oxymoron.

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Not only that, it gets your clothes white. But I don't know what that has to do with anything.

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An oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, a selfish Christian. But those two things don't go together.

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We began looking last week at Philippians 2, 1 to 11, and I would invite you to open there.

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This is just a very perplexing idea, I mean, even this idea that there would be a selfish

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Christian. When we understand, let me ask some more questions, why, other than the fact that Christ is building it, why do you suppose the church exists?

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Why does the church, give me some reasons why the church exists. I mean, there are a few that you'll probably never get.

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To encourage your brothers, I agree with that. Why else does the church exist? I'm sorry?

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To feed the people, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, right? We could look at Ephesians 4 and see that.

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What else? To glorify God, absolutely. The church exists to glorify

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God. Why else? Evangelism, good. Anything else?

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I mean, we could get into some of the more esoteric things, because it really shows, in one respect, not only glorifies

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God, it also shows God's wonderful power, in that he has brought two different peoples together, the

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Jews, the Gentiles, separated by the law. In fact, Ephesians would describe it as the enmity that existed between the

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Jews and the Gentiles, but in Christ, he has reconciled these two groups and brought them together into one body.

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That very concept in the ancient world would have been marvelous, too marvelous to think about.

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Now we just kind of take it for granted. But this idea of a selfish

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Christian, why does the church exist? The church exists, one of the reasons it exists is so, someone said, so we might encourage each other.

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It's, how about we expand that a little bit, so that we might serve one another. Let me go ahead and read

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Philippians 2, 1 to 11. Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the

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Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

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Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

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Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

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Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

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Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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For this reason also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now just in the first couple of verses there, why would we want to serve others?

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I like what he says there in verse two, make my joy complete, Paul's joy complete. He's encouraging this church at Philippi to make his joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

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If you serve one another, does that increase the unity of the body? If you have the mindset that I'm going to find someone to serve, does that improve the unity of the body?

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I think it does. I mean, that's a rhetorical question. Let me ask you this, does the unity of a local church body matter?

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Would you like to come to a church on Sunday morning and have some kind of factions going on?

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Janet and I will sit in that corner and we'll say we are of Dave. The whole idea of a church body being divided, of there being a separation, of there being disunity, such things ought not to be.

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Does that mean that we are going to agree on every single thing? No, no.

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But the things that we disagree on are things that we need to disagree about agreeably.

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We need to be at peace with those things. But when we come here, we don't come here...

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I like also what he says here, going on a little bit further, in verse 4, when he says, do not merely look out for your own personal interests.

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Now the word merely is added there, as indicated by the italics, but do not look out for your own personal interests.

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Why do you think the translator added the word merely there? Because we do look out for our own interests.

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Our first thought, although we might try to couch things, our first thought is always what we want and we almost have to, well we do, we have to suppress that.

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We have to suppress that. We're looking at our sheet here, does anybody not have notes?

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These are notes that have been around for some time. We're going to wrap this up this morning and then we'll get on. But I just have some notes that are...

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I'm just handing out the last page of the notes. Page 4, yes, of Lesson 11, yes.

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The remaining pages will be sold at auction. When we think about, and I put there motivation, our motivation towards serving one another, fellowship with Paul's attitude, to have that same mindset that he had.

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And our purpose and outcome, the desired outcome would be increased unity.

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We serve one another because it's the right thing to do, because we want to glorify

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God, and because it builds unity within the church.

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And again, is that important? Well, I say this from time to time, but I think this is something that bears repeating.

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If Jesus Christ is building his church, should we be concerned about the unity of that church?

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Should we be concerned about holding it together, about maintaining joy and love within the body of Christ?

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I think so. I think so. And again, at verse 3, where he says,

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Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.

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This is not something that we do naturally. It's not something that we do without being commanded to do it.

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We are to look out for the interests of others. We are to put them first, because our tendency is always going to be to look out for ourselves.

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Why is that? Because we think more of ourselves than we should.

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Does the Bible say things like, exalt yourselves, work on your self -esteem, think more highly of yourself than your neighbor.

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I mean, all the things that the world says this is how you should think of yourself.

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You're a good person. The Bible says exactly the opposite. The Bible says your heart is deceitful and wicked.

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The Bible says you need to look out for the interests of others. The Bible says you need to, verse 5, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.

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Have a Christ -like attitude. Put the interests of others in front of yourself, in front of your own interests.

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Follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Follow his example. All right.

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Problems that will stop you from doing this. Problems that will stop you from doing this.

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Pride. Let's look at James 4 .6. If it's the right thing to do, if serving one another, if putting the interests of others first is the right thing to do, what are the things that will hinder you, that will hold you back from doing this?

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Who has James 4 .6? Brian, take pride in yourself.

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Take pride in your achievements. Pride in your high standing so that God will oppose you.

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That's not what I want. Do you want to be known as the opponent of God or the friend of God?

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I think that's pretty easy. That's not a coin toss. Yes. And that's exactly right.

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Daniel said, you know, sometimes even as ambassadors of Christ, we can be seen as prideful.

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We try to put the best face forward, but sometimes people see that and they'll say, you know, he's arrogant.

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Is it arrogance or humility to tell someone the truth?

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And the answer is yes. It can be either one. What separates arrogance and humility when if I come to somebody and I tell them the truth,

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I want to be an ambassador, I want to shepherd perhaps an unbeliever, what divides arrogance and humility in my approach to them?

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Brian. That's exactly right.

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Brian says it depends on our motivation. It depends on how we view ourselves. It depends on how we view the other person.

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It depends on approaching them with love. The truth motivated by love is humility.

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The truth motivated by what else? Showing off by just wanting to be right.

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I was going to say I've never done that, but I just don't even want to say that. That's just wrong.

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Have you ever done that? Have you ever approached someone and given them the truth and you've known that your motivation wasn't right?

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I certainly have done that. And that's exactly the opposite. You know, did

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Jesus ever say anything harsh? Did he ever say anything? You know, if you were just listening to him, could you have thought, that guy's pretty arrogant.

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Look at how he talks to those Pharisees. Who does he think he is?

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Yes. The wrong way.

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Yeah, this way. Well, I mean, there are a lot of examples I could give. This is probably the most extreme example

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I can think of. Are you familiar with a group that says

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God hates homosexuals, only they use an epithet for homosexuals?

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And it is a church from, I think, Kansas. You know, three generations of some family that are now a church.

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And they go around the country and they tell people the truth, which is

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God doesn't like homosexuality. But they're not motivated by love in any way, shape, or form.

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They're not calling for repentance. In fact, they're showing up at the funerals of dead soldiers.

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And that certainly is not motivated by any kind of love. You know, on a personal basis.

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You know, if you throw something out, someone does something, and you say, well, here's a good example.

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Jesus said in Matthew 7, talking about how you should approach someone in sin.

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He said what? Hey, I don't care what your motivation is, you just go confront them.

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He said no, check your own eye out, right? You see the splinter in your brother's eye?

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Take the log out of your own eye? That's exactly the idea. I don't want to do things pridefully.

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I want to do them in humility. I want to check my own motivation. I want to check my own life before I proceed, Pastor Dave.

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That's exactly right. I mean, we need to be always mindful of who we are. So if we're sharing the gospel with someone and they reject us, you know, then you just don't go, well, so I hear that, no.

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Let me just shake the dust off my feet over here, you know. And I'll move on to someone else.

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Go ahead. And we know the

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Holy Spirit doesn't wear skirts, so there we go. But you bring up an excellent point because when

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Jesus says, you know, when he's talking about confrontation, you know, do we go and confront unbelievers and their sin?

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Well, to some extent, but it's not an individual sin. It's a general nature of sin, okay?

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Now, if I see an unbeliever sinning, like you said, I mean, that's an everyday occurrence.

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That's where they live. And, you know, what would be the point of me going, okay, now? I need to check my own eye, make sure that I'm innocent of this sin, and then confront.

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Well, confronting them over sin doesn't mean anything. He said, Jesus said, if your brother sins, if another believer sins, if you see another believer in sin, whether, you know, it's against you or maybe it's against someone else and they don't perceive their own, they don't grasp their own sin, you know, you see me say something to Pastor Dave I shouldn't have said.

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I'm just using that as an example. Then you can come to me and you can say, well, Steve, you know, I don't know how

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Dave felt about this, but I was offended by what you said. You know, that would be, you know, because I don't think it was

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God pleasing what you said, something of that nature. I think that's more in line with, you know, whereas let's say you see two unbelievers and they're, you know, knocking each other down kind of thing.

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You just go, well, this is just another day at the park for them. This is where they live. This is what, how would you expect unbelievers to live?

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So, yes, Carolyn. Sure. Well, because love covers a multitude of sins.

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So the ultimate, you know, the dividing line is, you know, is it more loving to overlook this sin?

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Is it impacting someone else, a third party? Is it something that is going to cause this person who is in sin additional problems down the road?

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Is this a pattern in their lives? There are all manner of, you know, considerations here before you confront someone.

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You know, did they not park properly between the lines? You know, that's just kind of something.

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I mean, in other words, there are gradations in there. There are just some times where you just go, you know what? If this is how that person treats everyone, then it's in their own, in other words, it's that humility of mind that Paul is talking about.

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Would I be providing this brother or sister in Christ a service by bringing this to their attention, something that they may not even be aware of themselves?

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So, good question. Yes. That's right.

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And so what I… I'm sorry? No, we're not.

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That's right. And, you know, the reason I cited Jesus is because if we were to look at some of the things he said outside of context, as an unbeliever, if we were sitting there at the time and we heard some of the things he said to the

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Pharisees, we'd go, hey, that guy, he's pretty judgmental. Listen to all that woe stuff, you know.

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Although we probably would say it in Aramaic or something, so it wouldn't be quite the same. But that's the basic idea.

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But pride, we're talking about pride hindering us in terms of our service, is the exact opposite of Christlikeness when we consider that.

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And so, you know, is it prideful to confront someone who's in sin? It can be, but it can also be very humbling if you take the time to examine your own life, if you take the time to weigh whether or not you're actually… your motivation is to help that person, or whether it's because of some other reason, whatever that other reason is.

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If your objective isn't to serve that other person, then you're not approaching the confrontation the right way, and maybe it's something that doesn't need to be done.

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Other thoughts on that? Yeah, Daniel brings up the example of, you know, he's observing a believer and an unbeliever in a fairly heated conversation, and gradually the believer kind of lowers the course of his conversation down to that of the unbeliever.

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And it's like, you know, like Pastor Lewis used to say, you know, you never want to wrestle a pig in the mud because you'll get dirty and the pig will like it.

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You know, I mean, you're just… you're getting down… you're getting into their level.

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You know, this is where they want you. So… All right.

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Another problem. Side effects that hinder servants.

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Side effects of our previous life, or the flesh. Let's look at Matthew 6, 24. What some call the sin hangover.

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You know, when you become a Christian, does your… You know, this is what we'd like. Have you ever thought,

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Lord, I would like you to wipe my hard drive of all the sinful thoughts I've ever had? I would like that.

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Can't you just, you know, give me a system reboot and reformat some sectors of my brain?

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It doesn't work like that. Matthew 6, 24, who has that? Go ahead,

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Casey. You cannot serve

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God and wealth. It's this idea of being double -minded. I could have gotten a James too. But this idea of being motivated by two things, of having two ideas in your head.

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And the problem with our previous life is we have these thoughts in our head that we know are not right.

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We don't always defeat them. We have these desires, these leftover memories.

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What do we do with them? How do they hinder us? Because they can tweak our motivations, make us not think rightly about situations.

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Let's just say that they're… I'll take the example maybe of a single guy. He may want to serve in some place at the church, and he may just want to do it for…

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It could be for the wrong reason. It could be for the right reason. It could be for the wrong reason. Maybe he just wants to…

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There's some woman he sort of likes. Well, that could be good. It might not be good.

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I'm trying to think of a really good example. There are… Anyway, we'll just move on.

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There are issues in our life before Christ that can make it difficult for us to serve as we ought to.

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We need to be constantly putting off the flesh, putting off the desires and the ways of life that we used to live, and putting on Christ.

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It's a constant transformation and something that we need to constantly work on.

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And let's talk about untrustworthiness. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 4 .2. I mean, this seems like a duh.

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If you can't trust someone, can they be a good servant?

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1 Corinthians 4 .2. And in fact, we'll read 1 and 2.

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Who has that? Verses 1 and 2? Go ahead. Why would that matter?

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Why would it matter that you'd be called or that you'd be found trustworthy? Why did it matter in Paul's case?

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If you can discount… Go ahead. Okay. Certainly false teachers are untrustworthy and distort things.

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Let's put it this way. If you can't trust the messenger, can you trust the message?

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Will you trust the message? I hear what Paul says, but, you know, that guy sold me a used car and it was a piece of junk.

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There's a problem. There needs to be a consistency between the character of someone and the message they bring.

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Listen. You know, just to bring it down to where we all live. If, you know, you go to work, and after work you, you know, go to the bar with the guys, and then, you know, you go to the casino with the guys, and, you know, the next day it's the same thing, and the next day it's the same thing, and then on Friday you go, hey, you want to go to church?

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Here's your message and here's your life, and they're going to kind of go, I don't see what the difference between you and me is.

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You haven't established anything. There's no reason why I would trust anything that, you know, you have to say, because you don't seem to live any differently than I do.

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Consistency. Trustworthiness. Problems which hinder a servant.

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What prevents you from serving rightly? You need to be trustworthy. Also, I have no idea what this means.

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Let's find out. Solutions to problems. 1 Peter 5 -6. Just always, when

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I'm flipping through books of the Bible, I mean, I don't know why I do this. I mean, when it comes to some things,

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I just learn them by rote memorization. You know, multiplication tables. I mean,

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I can tell you what things are, and I don't have to figure them out just because I just memorized them, and they're just emblazoned in my brain.

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When it comes to the books of the Bible, I have all these things, like I'll see 1 John, and I'll go, oh, well,

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I have to go this way because Peter comes before John because Peter was the first pope.

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I just have all these things in my head that I've just learned to...

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Yeah, just scary things. No, Peter wasn't the first pope. It's just things that I use to remind myself of where I am.

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So I don't know. 1 Peter 5 -6. And who has that?

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Okay. We need to be... I mean, this gets back to the humble thing.

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As a servant of God, what do we do? We humble ourselves because we trust

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Him to raise us at the proper time. We don't always know what's going on.

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Oh, and I think I know where I was going with the application for this. Sometimes we want to be able to solve problems.

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We want to be able to fix them. We want to be able to change them. Sometimes that's not the issue.

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The issue is our willingness to submit to whatever God has for us. And when we don't do that, when we're not willing to do that, that can hold us back.

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That can make us less effective as a servant. Certainly, we know

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Paul was a great example of a servant. All the things that he did and others.

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We have the entire chapter of Hebrews 11. People given for our own instruction, our own example.

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Men and women who are great heroes of the faith. I always like the part where they say, you know, sawn in half.

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Boy, is that what you have to do to be a hero of the faith? Be sawn in half? I don't want to do that.

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But serving one another, having the right mindset, putting off obstacles that would stop us from doing that.

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Whether it be sin, thinking about our past sin, things that would even make us feel, look, here's a good example of a side effect of a previous life where it might make you kind of edgy about serving someone else.

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You used to struggle with a sin. You see someone else struggling with that same sin.

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You think, who am I to judge? I can't really go to that brother or sister.

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Look at what my life was like. But that's exactly the point.

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We need to be able to push off our concerns about ourself, think of others more highly, even when it's difficult.

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I mean, I go back to the example of confrontation and sin. There are a number of ways that we can serve one another, and I'm not saying this is the most important way.

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It is a way. But I think it's one of the most difficult ways because it's something that is very uncomfortable.

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I don't know. Raise your hand if you like to confront people and sin. Okay, I'm the only one.

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Nobody likes that. Nobody likes that. It's never fun or comfortable.

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It is difficult, and it takes humility. Let's move on to Roman numeral five, how to know

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God's will for your life. We'll cover this quickly. One of my favorite verses in the

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Bible. Again, there are so many things that you just learn in seminary that just get kind of imprinted on your mind, and I'll never forget

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Ephesians 5 .18 because that was my very first assignment. But Ephesians 5 .17

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comes before that, but that's the reason why I know Ephesians 5 .17 is because Ephesians 5 .18 is right after it.

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So there you go. Ephesians 5 .17, Paul writes,

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So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the

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Lord is. Well, there are several implications there. You can know what the will of God is for your life.

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Don't be foolish. Don't be dumb. Don't be stupid. But instead, know what the will of...

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Don't be ignorant. Know what the will of God is. How do you know? Well, by studying

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Scripture. We'll go through these quickly. Being studious.

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Don't be foolish. Don't be ignorant. Instead, be, number one, studious and wise.

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1 Timothy 2, verses 3 and 4. Paul writing to Timothy, and he says,

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This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our

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Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. Well, how do you come to the knowledge of the truth unless you study it?

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You cannot do it. I've yet to meet anyone who said, You know, I have learned so much doctrine.

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I've learned so much about God. I've learned so much about Christ. I've learned so much about salvation. And you know what

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I did? I just stuck my Bible under my pillow, and I never read it. I don't study it.

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I don't ever hear it taught. But it's just kind of like seeping into my mind through my pillow.

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It doesn't happen. You can only learn by studying. You can only learn by actively learning.

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It has to be part of your life. Secondly, you need to be spirit -filled.

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We were just in Ephesians 5 .17. Ephesians 5 .18 says,

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Do not be drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the

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Spirit. Again, a command, which indicates for believers that it's something that we are to do, therefore implying that we can do it.

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You know, people say, Well, you know, all the time you say that God commands things that people can't do. Yeah, He commands things that unbelievers can't do.

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He doesn't command us to do things that we're not able to, by the Spirit's power, do.

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What does it mean to be spirit -filled? If anybody starts, you know...

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What does it mean to be spirit -filled? Brian. Okay, the

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Spirit leads our life. That's exactly right. That He ought to be preeminent. That we ought to be yielded to the

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Spirit. Yes. I certainly think being satisfied with the

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Spirit is right. Yep, everything is... Yep. Spirit -filled, you know,

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I think it's more... It is that, and I think it's more than that to just be...

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really have a yieldedness to the Spirit of God as we pray, as we study, as we fill our minds with the thoughts of God.

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And we are more driven toward doing

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God -pleasing things. And that's the point. Sanctified.

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Yes, Dave. Excellent. To be spirit -controlled, to be spirit -influenced, absolutely.

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The exact opposite of being drunk with wine. And no... The exact opposite of being drunk with wine is not being drunk with the

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Holy Spirit. It's being controlled by the Spirit. The Spirit is not...

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Fruit of the Spirit is what? One of the fruits of the Spirit is self -control. Not being out of control.

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So that whole drunk -with -wine business or drunk -with -the -Spirit business is rubbish.

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Yeah. I mean, I think that is true too. I think you are easily identified. Okay.

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You also need to be sanctified. 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 -7. 1

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Thessalonians 4, verses 3 -7. This is the will of God. Your sanctification.

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And I won't read all the rest of it for the sake of time. You can read it on your own. But sanctification, what does that mean?

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What does it mean to be sanctified? God wants us to be sanctified. Set apart.

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We are to be conformed to the image of Christ. We are being made more holy, more set apart.

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Yes. Also, submissive. These are all things the will of God for your life.

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I'm going to move really quickly. Submissive. Again, 1

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Peter written to Christians being persecuted. And Peter writes,

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Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise of those who do right.

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Submission in all things. For to submit to a wicked government.

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Why? Because it glorifies God. We are to submit to elders. Why? Even though they're sinful because this glorifies

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God. Wives are to submit to their husbands. Husbands submit to Christ. The Christian life is about being submitted to the word of God.

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It is one of following Christ. And when we follow Christ, we do what he says.

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We obey him. So all these things fall under that category of submission.

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Fifthly, suffering. We have to be willing to suffer. We have to know that we are going to suffer.

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That is God's will for your life. You say, well, I thought this was going to be easy. Nope. The whole book of 1 Peter says it's not going to be easy.

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1 Peter 4 .19. Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God, it is the will of God that they suffer, shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right.

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It is the will of God sometimes for us to suffer. Why? Because he delights in it?

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No, because he uses those sufferings to conform us into the image of his son and for his own glory, for his own purposes.

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Sometimes our suffering impacts others. You know, on a broad scale, the church of Jesus Christ, the early church, grew.

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Why? In large measure because of the suffering he underwent and then the suffering of the church, the persecution of the church, the testimony of the saints.

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Number six, satisfied. We are to be satisfied. You know, there's another picture, a problematic picture, the dissatisfied

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Christian. We talked about the oxymoron of the selfish Christian. How about the dissatisfied one?

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How's your life? It stinks. It's horrible. Such things ought not to be.

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1 Thessalonians 5 .18, In everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

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In everything give thanks. I am thankful for fill in the blank. All the things in my life, not just the good things.

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Seeking wise counsel. Don't be foolish.

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Seek wise counsel. Well, what does that mean? You know, I'm just going to summarize this in a nutshell. If you are about to make a life -changing decision, whether that be marriage, career, moving, buying a house, it is good to get godly counsel.

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It doesn't necessarily have to be from Pastor Mike. There are other godly men and women whom you can seek. But to have those, to bring counselors around you who know the word, who've got some life experience and can apply the word to your situation and give you some insights.

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How to know God's will for your life.

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Do those things. And these are wise things to do.

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They are commanded things to do. Be studious, spirit -filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, satisfied, seeking.

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And can I tell you something? If you know God's will for your life, if you're doing these things, these seven things here, and then you want to know, well, should

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I buy this? Should I marry that person? If you are doing these things and every single one of them lines up and seems okay, you've got good counsel, you've studied the scriptures, you're living a godly life, you're doing all these things, then the answer is, like the book out in the lobby says, do something.

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You know, people sit around going, I'm not sure what I should, just do something. If you are in line with God's will for your life, he will give you the desires of your heart because your heart is aligned with him.

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Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for what it says about the practical, daily, things that we can glean from it and apply to our lives.

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And Lord, I just pray that we would be a people who are indeed led by your spirit, filled with your word, who desire to please you by serving one another, by seeking your will in all things.