The Sin Under All Others Various Texts

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Last week we wrapped up Genesis after spending about two years in the book.
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And so this Sunday feels a little bit different. And what I mentioned last
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Sunday is that we are going to the Gospel of Matthew next in the New Testament.
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But before we go there, the elders and I want to give us a little breather. Last week we asked you to submit questions that you might have about the
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Bible and the life of faith. And we received some questions from you.
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And as we mentioned, we can't answer all the questions. Some of the questions will, in fact, be answered in the
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Gospel of Matthew. And so we're going to punt that and get to those down the road.
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However, there are a few questions that we are going to address over the next few Sundays.
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We received a couple of questions on parenting. So next Sunday I'm going to preach a sermon on how to raise your children in the
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Lord. We also received a very good question asking, do heinous sins cause us to forfeit our salvation?
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And we can also ask that question another way, and that is, is there an unforgivable sin?
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And so we're going to explore that two Sundays from today.
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But this morning we are going to cover a topic that has been heavy on my heart recently.
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And that is asking the question, how involved is God in our daily lives?
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My prayer is that this sermon will be challenging to each of us, including myself, as I've thought about this a lot and applied this to my own life.
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So my encouragement in my prayer is that this will have an impact on you and change the way you live going forward.
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And so what we're going to do today is we're not going to turn to a specific place in the Bible like we usually do.
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Once we get to Matthew we will be doing that again. But I just want you to listen and write down some of the key passages of Scripture that I mention here today.
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This is a topical sermon. We don't do a lot of topical sermons. There is a place for them. We don't want it to be a steady diet in our church.
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But we do take time to do that every once in a while. So that's what we're doing today. So please listen, write down any important passages.
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And then you can look up these verses later on in your own time. So this sermon this morning is titled,
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The Sin Under All Others. The Sin Under All Others. And what this sermon today is calling you to do, and this is the big idea, aim for God to be continually on your mind.
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Aim for God to be continually on your mind. And we have one reason why. And the reason why is the sin of ungodliness is under all of our sins.
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The sin of ungodliness is under all of our sins. When we think about our sins, what we must understand is there is a root issue as to why we do what we do.
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The essence of sin has been debated by many, but in my own study I have seen sin commonly defined in three different ways.
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Rebellion, spiritual adultery, and idolatry. Any of those definitions are good ones because we are doing each of these when we sin.
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Sin is rebellion since we go against God's authority every time we willfully sin.
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What we are saying to God is, I don't like going your way, but I'm going to go my way.
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Isaiah 53 .6 says, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
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In our rebellion we go against our creator and head in our own direction.
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The other way we describe sin is spiritual adultery. We see this show up in the
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Old Testament book of Hosea. Israel committed spiritual adultery against the Lord.
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What happened is the Lord punished them for going after other gods, for committing adultery against him.
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The third way that is often described as the essence of sin is idolatry. Idolatry is when we worship anything other than God.
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When we elevate good things above him or bad things above him and worship them instead of him.
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Romans 1 .21 -23, I read this earlier, says, For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
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Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
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End quote. The sinful human heart leads people to treasure things above the one who is truly glorious.
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The Lord promises happiness if we worship and follow him, and yet sinful humanity has foolishly gone after other gods.
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Even this morning. Why aren't people in church? It's because they're going after other gods. They're worshipping right now and they should be worshipping the
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Lord. Psalm 16 .4 says, The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.
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And this is sadly the experience of many. Now when you come to faith in Christ, the
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Lord rescues you from rebellion, spiritual adultery, and idolatry against him.
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You go from raising your fist and loving idols above him to submitting yourself and loving him.
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And what you come to realize is that God truly deserves all the glory, honor, and praise.
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Revelation 4 .11 says, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.
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For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.
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When we talk about rebellion, spiritual adultery, and idolatry, we are talking about the essence of sin or what is sin in itself.
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But today, as I already mentioned, we are going to look at a specific sin.
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And that is ungodliness. Ungodliness. This sin is very important to understand because this one helps explain why we commit every sin we commit.
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This is one of those sins that may be involved in every sin we take pardon.
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And the other sin that we commit every time we take pardon is pride.
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Pride is a root sin that is there. And some people try to say that pride is a root sin that is involved in every other sin, and that's true.
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But as I've been wrestling with this recently, the sin of ungodliness may be even deeper than that.
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This is what Jerry Bridges says. He wrote the book called Respectable Sins.
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An excellent book to read. And he argues this. He says, when I talk about specific areas of acceptable sins, one comment
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I often hear is that pride is the root cause of all of them. While I agree that pride does play a major role in the development and expression of our subtle sins,
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I believe there is another sin that is even more basic, more widespread, and more apt to be the root cause of our other sins.
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This is the sin of ungodliness, of which we are guilty to some degree.
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You might be asking the question, what in the world is ungodliness? When I say ungodliness, you may think that this is a general way of saying unrighteousness.
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Unrighteousness is wicked acts, such as anger, stealing, sexual sin, greed, coveting, and much more.
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Ungodliness is not the same as unrighteousness. Sometimes we say this person is an ungodly person, and we typically think in the terms of this person is an unrighteous person.
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So let me explain to you the difference between ungodliness and unrighteousness. Romans 1, 18 and 19 gives this indication.
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This passage says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
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For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. So what we see in these two verses are the words ungodliness and unrighteousness used separately, distinct from one another, yet they are very related.
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Paul does not say ungodliness or unrighteousness, as to say two synonyms where he's really getting after the same idea.
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He differentiates them by putting ungodliness and unrighteousness there.
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So there is a little difference between these words in Scripture, and it's important to understand the difference.
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So what is the difference? Well, author Jerry Bridges describes ungodliness as an attitude toward God, while unrighteousness refers to sinful actions in thought, word, and deed.
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So in the Romans 1 passage, the unbelievers ascribed gave thought of God, then rejected their thought of Him, and then they lived in unrighteousness.
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So ungodliness is specifically focused on the absence of God in your thoughts, either willfully or you don't even realize you're doing it because you're so in love with other things.
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And since they are a little bit different, ungodliness and unrighteousness, this means that someone can appear to be morally upright, but in reality very ungodly.
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In other words, God is not in their thoughts. You can be a good citizen of the town, and yet be very ungodly.
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God doesn't even enter your mind. You try to be a good citizen, you try to do good things, but it would be correct to say you are ungodly.
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And let's be honest, how much does the world we live in give thought of God?
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There's a bunch of people all over the country right now, thousands of people are going to stadiums to watch the football game.
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They're not thinking about God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who's giving them breath right now.
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They're thinking about their football team and hoping that their football team wins. And it's okay to a small extent to think about that, but if that's all you're thinking about, we've got a problem.
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So let's be honest, how much of the world gives thought of God? Does a movie director give thought of God when he or she puts a dirty scene in a movie?
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Or an actor or actress when they take part in that scene? Does an athlete give thought of God when he glorifies himself on the field?
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Do musicians give thought of God when they say swear words or vulgar language in their music?
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Do secular scientists give thought of God when they write a textbook about the world we live in, and yet there's no mention of the creator of this world?
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People who do this are not thinking about God and how to honor
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Him. The fact that God is not in their thoughts leads them to unrighteousness. It's inevitable, right?
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If you're not thinking about God, what are you going to do? You're going to do sinful things. You can see how these are intimately connected.
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If God is not in your mind, then you're much more likely to sin. You won't think twice about whether or not to sin.
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And the people I just described above are unbelievers. But believers also struggle with the sin of ungodliness.
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We can go a day or a week with little or no thought of God.
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So the question I ask you, is God regularly in your thoughts? Is He a big part of your day or week for that matter?
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Think about how many plans we make, and we don't even include Him in our plans, even though He's the author of our lives.
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The letter of James in the New Testament addresses this. It's James 4, 13 -15, talking about how we don't include
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God in our lives. He says, Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
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What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
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Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will do this or that.
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I knew a guy in seminary. Pretty much everything he said, he said, Lord willing,
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Lord willing, Lord willing. And he got a little old thinking, You don't have to say it every time.
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But you need to be thinking it. When we're making plans about the future of this church and the future of our lives, we need to be thinking,
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Lord willing. This might be my last Sunday I ever preach here because I might die this week. So when
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I say that I'm preaching on parenting next Sunday, Lord willing, I'm preaching on parenting next
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Sunday. Rob might be preaching on parenting next Sunday. Although he'd probably do a different sermon than that.
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So what James is saying is don't plan your life without God. Your life is short.
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How do you know you'll even be around to live out those plans? We need to trust the
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Lord with the story He is writing, known as His will of decree. We need to trust the story that He is writing and the truth of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, that indeed,
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He will make our paths straight. We are not to rely on our own understanding.
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And how often do we think about living out what God says in His Word? What I mentioned above is that we often don't think about the reality that God is over the details of our lives, all the details of our lives, and we need to trust
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Him and seek wisdom in His will of direction. But another question we need to ask is how often do we think about how
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God wants us to live our lives? This is known as His revealed will.
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Another way to say this is living out the moral commands of Scripture. How carefully do we think about following Him closely day by day?
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Do we pray for this and live this way? The Apostle Paul prayed for the holiness of the church in Colossae, in Colossians.
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And you know what he prayed for? Listen to this. This is what he said. This is a good prayer. He says, We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the
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Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
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Do we pray for ourselves that way? Or do we pray for others? Others in this church or people outside of the church?
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Do we pray for them in this way? This sermon should be convicted to us. And I'm challenging myself along with you as I'm challenging you as we think about involving
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God in our journey through life. How we pray says so much about us.
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When we offer prayer requests on Sunday mornings as we already did today, how often do we pray for holiness as a church?
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God loves to answer prayers that are close to His heart. And what is close to His heart is
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He wants His people to reflect Him. 1 Thessalonians 4 says this is the will of God for your lives.
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Your sanctification. Which means your growth in holiness. Or another way to say it is your growth in reflecting
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God more and more. And to be honest, we don't often pray for holiness.
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And that's because we're not thinking about God and what He wants for our lives. Sometimes we can turn
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God into a genie who gives us what we need as if He is up in heaven just trying to put band -aids on people as they get through life.
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And typically we just pray for physical needs. Now, I need to put this qualifier here, right?
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We should pray for physical needs. It's appropriate to do that. We should do that.
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But, if we only go to Him with our physical needs that inevitably come up in our lives, then this shows that ungodliness is rampant in our lives.
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And we may be completely unaware. So are you ungodly? This sermon is a good time to examine how much is
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God a part of your daily life? If we are not thinking about God and thinking about Him rightly, then our lives will show it.
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We'll be much more likely to sin. A theologian, A .W. Tozer, once said, what comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
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And that's true. People who think about God rightly live rightly.
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People who don't think about God rightly don't live rightly. So we need to think about Him in the right manner.
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Not as a genie, or as one author said, a cosmic bellhop who helps us in times of trouble, but as one who desires to have intimacy with us and calls us to follow
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Him in His righteousness. So let me explain to you how this may work in your life.
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How our thoughts about God influence our actions. If God is not in your thoughts, you're more likely to get angry with your loved ones.
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If God is not in your thoughts, you're more likely to gossip behind people's backs.
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If God is not in your thoughts, you're more likely to watch a raunchy TV show or movie or have a lustful thought.
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If God is not in your thoughts, you're more likely to become jealous of another.
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If God is not in your thoughts, you're more likely to have your priorities way out of order.
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You will prioritize the lesser and sacrifice the greater in the process.
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If God is not in your thoughts, your conversations will be full of trivial matters to the neglect of more important spiritual matters.
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If God is not in your thoughts, you will treasure other things more than God. Think about the sins in your life as I think of mine.
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We can trace our sins back to the fact that God is not on our mind in those moments.
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And if we sin continually, He's rarely on our minds. And this should concern us. And we need to repent for the sin of ungodliness.
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We should start our days and say, Lord, would You guide me through this day? Would You help me to please
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You this day? And we should be praying to Him. 1 Thessalonians 5 .17 says pray without ceasing.
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We should be praying to Him continually as we go through our day. The Lord desires for us to have sorrow over this and to turn from it.
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You may have never thought of it this way. And this will be a sin we will fight to the end of our lives.
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But for everyone here who has a sincere relationship with Jesus Christ, you can have your mind set on Him that leads to more righteousness in your life.
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Colossians 3 .2 says set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
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And when it means they're on earth, it means sinful things. The sinful things of this fallen world. 1
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Corinthians 10 .31 says whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, do all to the glory of God.
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So when you go to work, do it for the glory of God. When you spend time with your family, do it for the glory of God.
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In your speech, is your speech your language to the glory of God?
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Everything we should do in our life should be aimed at that where He is on our minds.
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And you're going to see a difference in your life if you live this way. So every area of our life should be aimed at glorifying
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Him. And if we're not thinking about God as we go through our day, then we won't glorify Him in the manner we live.
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We should be saying, Lord, would You help me glorify Your name today?
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Help me to live for You. So as I wrap this up here, to grow in godliness will take work.
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This is something we should aim to do little by little and day by day. 1
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Timothy 4 -7 teaches us to train ourselves for godliness. What the
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Apostle Paul is doing here is he's giving us the image of athletes in training. Every good athlete trains for their competition.
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No marathoner just shows up to the starting line. I'm running a half marathon here in a couple weeks and I have to run or the half marathon is not going to go well.
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I have to train. Thousands of miles go into preparing for races.
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And all that training enables a runner to run a good race. The same goes for godliness.
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You need to train yourself. And I mentioned this last week. We train ourselves by first recognizing that we need to grow in this area.
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Ask yourself the honest question, is God a big part of my daily life? Do I talk to Him through prayer regularly?
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Do I spend time in His Word as a pattern? We spend time in the Bible on Sundays.
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Do you spend time in the Bible during the week? We should be spending time with Him, in His Word.
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Do I meet with the fellowship of believers frequently? Because if God is on your thoughts, you're going to want to meet with the fellowship of believers.
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Doing something else on a Sunday morning just won't be even in your thought process because you're going to be thinking, I need to be with the people of God.
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I need to hear the preaching of the Word. I need to sing songs of praise. I need to have that fellowship because that's going to be what fills up my tank to live my life this week for Him.
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This is my prayer for our church, that we would be a church that has God on our minds. So ask yourself these questions.
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And even from an outside perspective, would someone tell you, this is someone who has God on their thoughts all the time, continually?
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Ask yourselves these honest questions. So the goal of this sermon is to deepen our intimacy with the
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Lord in order that we would reflect Him and fulfill the purpose He has for our lives.
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The reason we exist is to know and love God. And we don't want to miss the reason why we are here.
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And what a tragedy it is and would be to go through days and miss the whole point of life.
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Living in ungodliness and unrighteousness. You don't want to get to the end of your life and think, you know what,
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I hardly ever thought about God. I just lived my life for myself. My own selfish desires.
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And everyone paid the price for it. When we sin, everybody pays the price for it. Your family pays the price for it.
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Your friends pay the price for it. Your church pays the price for it. How sad it would be to stand before the judgment and have
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God say, the little time I gave you on earth, you just blew it on yourself.
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You squandered it. You don't want to be in that position. And so sermons like these are meant to warn us to say, live for the
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Lord. That's the joyful path. The sorrows of those who run after other gods shall multiply.
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And the Lord says in Psalm 1611, I think I quote this verse more than any other from this pulpit. Psalm 1611,
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You make known to me the path of life. In Your presence there is fullness of joy. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
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That's what we need to live for. That's what we need to offer people when we share Christ to them.
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And what you'll notice is that if God is on your thoughts, then your sinful patterns will be weakened.
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They'll be deadened as you put those to death. And I'm going through this with you.
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So don't think I'm in a completely different category here. I'm going through this fight along with you.
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And so we need to do this together. And may it be truly said that we are living for His glory and living godly and righteous lives.
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While we will never live in perfection, this side of glory, may it be said that Eureka Baptist Church is a church known full of godly people who walk through their days joyfully pleasing the
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Lord, bringing glory to His name. So that wraps up our sermon here today.
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And next Sunday, as I already mentioned, we're going to be looking at the topic of parenting. And you might say, well,
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I'm not a parent. You might be in that position. And you should still come and listen because one thing we always mention is you don't need to be a biological parent to be a parent.
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Discipleship is parenting, right? You're taking someone along and teaching them to follow the Lord. Grandparents have a big influence not only on your children but on your grandchildren as well in raising them in the
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Lord. So I look forward to showing you this from the Word next Sunday. Let's pray together.
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Father in Heaven, I thank You for showing me this recently and putting it on my heart.
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Lord, what You're telling me is You need to do this in Your own life.
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I need to be on Your thoughts. And You need to tell the people in this church that God needs to be on their thoughts in each of us,
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Lord. He needs to live each day with You. And Lord, if there's anyone here who does not know
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Jesus Christ as their Lord, Savior, and Treasure, I pray that even now, Lord, that You would save them and that You would be on their thoughts.
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And that Christians here, Lord, who don't have You on their thoughts as much as they need to, that that would change.
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That You would be ever on the minds of the people of this church.
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And that it would show in a righteous life, a life where we are careful in what we say, in what we think, in what we do, realizing,
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Lord, that You are watching us. And if our aim is to please You above all, it will show in the way that we live.
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And so, help us, Lord, to fight this root sin of ungodliness and to win that victory.