Spiritual Leadership (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Our great Father, as we come before you this morning, we think of what this

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Sunday represents, the first Sunday of December, how the world is frantically entering the holiday season, so -called.

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Lord, we gather today in the name of Christ to worship Him, to worship you, to worship the

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Holy Spirit, and to just praise you, three in one, for all that you have done for us. Father, we pray that as we look to your word, as we ponder spiritual leadership, as we look at what it is, what it isn't, we pray that you bless our time, strengthen our homes, our families, and our church, we pray in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Well, we started talking about spiritual leadership last week, and as we left,

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Pastor Bob made the comment, he said, you know, he said something about leading from behind, and I thought about that this week, and I thought, you know what?

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That's a great point. We don't lead from behind, right? Or we do, in a sense, because we're shepherds, and we want to make sure nobody's lost, but we have to out in front of the flock.

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We lead them forward. We're not cowboys driving the sheep. We're shepherds leading the sheep, and I thought, you know, it's a good metaphor for Christianity generally, because Christianity is not a passive religion.

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It's not, and leadership isn't passive either. You can't be passive in your home. Let me give you, you know, kind of a truism.

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You don't have to write it down, because you'll remember it, and if you don't know it already, if you haven't heard me say it a dozen times, then you'll have heard it a couple of times this morning.

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You don't get what you expect. You get what you inspect. Somebody said that once to me, and I thought, this is true, right?

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As I was in middle management, I didn't get what I expected. I expected people to do their job, right?

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Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't, depending on how good they were. I got what I inspected, what

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I checked up on, and you find that to be true with your children, true or false. It's absolutely true, right?

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Clean up your room. I did. Go back in there. Ten minutes later, it's a disaster.

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I thought you cleaned it up. Well, I thought I did. What does that even mean?

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But the same is true in life generally, right? We get what we inspect, not what we expect.

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But getting back to leadership, to the church, I wanted to ask a bigger, a big question, kind of, and it's one that applies to the home as well.

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Why do we want to, most of the time anyway,

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I mean, I think there are exceptions, but why do we want to restrict ourselves to Scripture? Why do we want to restrict ourselves to what the

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Bible says? And I gave some bad examples last week of why we wouldn't want to go beyond the boundaries of Scripture, but can you think of reasons why you don't want to go past what

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Scripture says? Okay, it's not the

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Word of God, right? My opinion can be fallible. I know that's hard to believe, and my wife's not here to refute that, so we'll just go with that.

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Our opinions are fallible. What we think is fallible. We're sinful, and when we go past what

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Scripture says, we wind up in what we call, you know, legalism.

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We wind up with the rules of men, the precepts of men, rather than the precepts of God.

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And as leaders in the church, we don't want to do that because, first of all, the

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Bible says not to, but secondly, if we just think about any time, like if I'm preaching this morning,

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I give you some rules that I've just made up, and I hold you to them as if they're commandments of God.

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Well, that's legalism. It's adding to the gospel. And then what comes to my mind is

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James 3, verse 1, which says, let not...

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I know you guys know it. You don't want to be a teacher. Why? Because you're going to have a stricter judgment, which makes sense.

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And I thought, well, this applies to parenting as well, because guess what? By virtue of the fact that you're a parent, you are a teacher.

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You're going to have a stricter judgment. There's going to be,

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I mean, the exact verse says, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

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Well, there's a responsibility that comes with teaching. There's a responsibility that comes with parenting, a responsibility that comes with,

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I guess, in the bigger umbrella, leadership. And by the way, is there anyone here who has children who doesn't think that being a parent is inherently spiritual leadership?

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And you know, as I thought about it, I think one of the big problems, and it's not just in the world, it's also in the church, if I could put it in two words,

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I'd say this, passive parenting. Passive parenting. What is passive parenting?

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Okay, letting them do whatever they want to do, because guess what? The rationale goes, well, they'll find their way.

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It's like they come into the world, little adults, and you just have to kind of step out of their way and let them go. That's one way of looking at it.

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It's the wrong way of looking at it. We are teachers, whether we want to be or not, especially if you have kids, you are a teacher.

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That's right. Pastor Bob said, the kids are going to follow you no matter what you do.

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So if you just let them do their own thing, their idea is what? Well, I can do my own thing.

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I used to be amazed when I was growing up by what some of my friends were allowed to get away with.

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I just go, you did what? I couldn't even imagine it, because I knew, you know, pretty much, you know, but then again,

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I was an ex -con at the age of like six. So I'm not even kidding.

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You know, we went over to visit some friends, they were gone, and, you know, we just helped ourselves to everything in their house.

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Food, you know, mostly, but that did not go well. I was terrified of my parents.

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You know, I just cannot imagine some of the things I would see these kids doing or saying to their parents.

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What's that? Yes. Yeah, I mean, it's role reversal, right?

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The children are leading, and the parents are like, aye aye,

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Captain. And you just go, what's going on? I mean, I remember one of my friends,

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I was over at his house, and I listened to him talk to his mom, and I'm going, I wouldn't even get halfway through that little speech, and I'd be gone.

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But back to the bigger picture, limiting ourselves to Scripture, understanding what Scripture says, right?

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We need to do that. Scripture is perfect, we are not. Somebody said we're fallible.

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You know, what does the Bible say about itself? Let's look at Psalm 19 for a moment. I'm going to get into some specifics about leadership in a minute, but I just want to finish setting this up.

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Psalm 19, verse 1. And just listen to all the adjectives to describe the

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Word of God. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

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The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the

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Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

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The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the

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Lord are true and righteous altogether. That was verse 9, by the way.

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No, I think that's Psalm 19, sorry, verse 1, and then

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I went to 8 and 9. I just kind of skipped there a little bit. Listen to question 3 of the

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Westminster Shorter Catechism. What do the Scriptures principally teach? Or does anybody have that memorized, question 3 of the

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Westminster? Just, okay. What do the Scriptures principally teach? The Scriptures principally teach, and what

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I enjoy about the Catechism, by the way, is you can at least get the first few words of the answer because it just repeats the question, right?

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What do the Scriptures principally teach? The Scriptures principally teach, see, you already got the first four words, what man is to believe concerning God and what duty

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God requires of man. So why do we want to be bounded by Scripture?

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Because that's what it does. It teaches us what we're to believe about God and what

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God requires of us. So with regard to the church, you know, why do we have deacons and elders?

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We have deacons and elders because the Bible says we should have elders and deacons.

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Specifies what their qualifications should be and says what they're to do in the church.

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Why do we sing in our worship services? Why do we preach? Why do we read Scripture? Why do we give?

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What's the other thing we do? Sing, pray, read

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Scripture, preach. Let me see. I guess that was it.

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Sing, preach, give, read, read Scripture, pray, right? So five things, okay.

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And we call that the regulative principle, but it's because each of those is delineated for us in Scripture. That's why we do what we do and why we don't do other things, why we don't have dance teams, why we don't have drama teams.

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I recently heard a prayer request, not here, but somewhere else where it was for another church, a third church entirely.

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And they want a prayer because like somebody in the drama team was sick or whatever.

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And I go, okay, I mean, I appreciate the fact that somebody in that church is sick. On the other hand, I'm like, drama team.

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What does that even mean? People get up and they put on a play. I mean, we've seen it, we've heard about it, but it's just kind of an unusual thing.

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Where would we find that in Scripture? Put on a play during church services. And we wouldn't.

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Anything the elders set up or the deacons set up or anybody here sets up apart from Scripture is open to discussion.

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But what the Bible prescribes, what it tells us to do is not open for discussion.

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People say, you know what? I don't like that you guys read Scripture. Can we please not have exposition during the service?

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No, because the Bible tells us to do that. We want to be, we want our boundaries to be the word of God.

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We want to stay within those boundaries. Now let's talk about leadership.

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This is in the church and at home. Leadership requires knowledge.

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If you work in the business world or even if you work in the government like I did, the job has a description.

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There are things that have to get done. Where I was, you know, there are specific design to the building.

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We had procedures and all that. And if I didn't know what those things were, then how can I, A, teach new employees what to do?

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B, expect the people who work for me to do them because I don't know how to do it. I have to know what's going on.

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And in your home, to be more specific and hands -on about it, there's a lot of hubbub, furor, there's a lot of foo -for -all about things like, should a woman be teaching and preaching from the pulpit?

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Should she be teaching men? It's pretty clear if we understand what the

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Bible says, right? The answer is no. First Timothy chapter two tells us that.

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First Timothy chapter three tells us that, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. How do you say first Timothy chapter three says that?

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Because to be an elder, one must be the husband of one wife. And in spite of what the law, the changes in the law, male and female doesn't mean anything else.

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And you can't decide that you're a man and, you know, preach. None of that stuff applies.

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But here's the point. In order to lead, you have to know something.

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In order to teach, you have to know something. Harry Truman said that this, he says, not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.

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What happens the moment we stop? You know, it's like for some of us, like the minute we stopped high school, college, grad school, we stopped learning.

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In that same way, it's kind of like as a parent, we think we no longer have to learn what we constantly have to learn.

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I'm amazed. I would not, I have to confess, I would not want to have little ones at home these days.

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Um, because I'm just like in the, in the world of Facebook and texting and all these other things,

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I'm like, how do you just kind of keep a lid on all that? It's more complicated,

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I think, than ever. And yet, if you don't keep up with some of what's going on, and if you're not inspecting what's going on in your house, you're going to find out, you're going to be surprised unpleasantly at some of the things that are going on behind your back.

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And when it comes to teaching, you have to know, I mean, I mean, it's really not that hard.

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I used to tell the guys in the early morning thing that I had several years ago that when

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I first got saved, I was like, and you know, it's no big secret. I went to Mike's Bible study and I used to meet with him.

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If you can imagine that we used to meet privately, uh, back in the day. Um, and I'd say, listen,

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I have basically frittered away the first 35 years of my life.

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My kids are this old and this old and this old. And, you know, my wife's a new believer and what do

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I do? Right? Well, the answer is you read. I mean,

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I would read Lorraine Bettner or whatever, you know, bigger things. But like before I sat down for dinner,

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I just take out concise theology by J .I. Packer. I, or now that's a good question by R .C.

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Sproul. And I just read it for like 10 minutes. And then we'd go to the table and we'd talk about whatever wasn't, whatever

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I just read. And then I would try to explain it to each of them, you know, at their own level. And, you know, poor

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Megan would get the focus of my questions. Why? Because if she understood what

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I was talking about, then I can understand, you know, she was the youngest. Then I presume that the rest of them knew as well.

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Teaching takes place. And like pastor Bob was saying, if we don't teach, I mean, this is an implication of what he was saying.

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If we don't teach, then we are teaching. If I say the most important thing about my life is

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Jesus Christ. And then from Sunday to Sunday, the only time

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Jesus Christ is mentioned in my home is when? When we pray before dinner.

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If we pray before dinner, because, hey, we can't even get everybody to the table at the same time.

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Then what am I teaching my kids? That maybe Jesus Christ isn't the most important thing in my life.

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Now, you know, when I say leaders are readers, does that mean that I have to read, you know,

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John Calvin? No. Does it mean that I have to read John MacArthur? No.

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But is there something wrong if all I'm ever reading is romance novels? You're like,

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Steve, you read romance? No, I'm not saying I read romance novels. If all

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I read is the sports page, if all I read is biographies of my favorite sports stars or generals or whatever,

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I need to be thinking and learning because, you know, true or false, a disciple can or will exceed his teacher.

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A pupil will be greater than his teacher. What's that? He's supposed to, but how if I'm not learning anything that I can teach him, right?

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I have to be instructing so that one day he will exceed me. But I mean, if we sit down, you know, if I have an eight -year -old child and we sit down at the table and the eight -year -old knows more than I do, what am

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I doing? I've either got a genius child or I'm really slacking. Let's look at some verses.

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Titus 1 .9. And you say, well, this has to do with elders. This isn't me.

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I think it is. And I'll explain why. I mean, elders to a greater degree have to be able to do this, but I think everybody,

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I would just say Christianity is a contact sport. And what do I mean by that?

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I mean by that, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I mean, Satan and the demonic powers of this world are constantly bringing up new theories to explain away the

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Bible or new competing theories to take us away from the gospel if that's possible, right?

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So Titus 1 .9. He, now this is talking about an elder, but just think about this, whether it's true or not.

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I think it is true for all of us. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught.

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Do you not want to hold fast to the Bible? The answer is, of course you do. So that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

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Now you may not feel the weight of that if you're not an elder, nevertheless, you know, you just, you have to be the gatekeeper of your home, especially as a father.

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But if you're a single mom too, or a mom, who's just like concerned about her kids, you have to know what they're maybe you go to your husband and say, do you know what the kids are saying?

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Have you heard what they're learning at school, all these kinds of things you have to be able to set things right.

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It is amazing. There's a political candidate who wants to basically have dawn to dusk school, right?

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So that your kids are at school because that way you don't have to pay for childcare, which

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I think is very, very kind of the government to offer that.

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And what are they going to be doing all day long? Teaching your kids how not to love the

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Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, yeah, they're going to learn math and all that eventually, but they're also going to be learning all manner of depravity and how not to love

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God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. That would be the purpose of all day school. Ultimately, they want the kids to rely on the state and not on you.

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But I think it's important that we just think, how do I learn? What is sound doctrine? How do

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I learn how to kind of shield my kids, my family, the people under my supervision, as it were, how do

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I do that? It starts by learning. You can't teach what you don't know.

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I'd also suggest turning over to first Timothy chapter one, verses nine to 11, that today's evangelical world demands discernment and to be discerning.

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In other words, to sort out what is true and what is false. Again, you have to read, you have to study, you have to listen to sound teaching.

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First Timothy chapter one, verses nine to 11, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel, the glory of the blessed

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God, with which I have been entrusted. And you say, well, what does that do with my home?

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I think it's pretty simple. We see people today who are absolutely disqualified in every sense from teaching, and yet what are they doing?

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Teaching. They're writing books. We see people, you know, we see whole denominations now ordaining homosexuals, coming up with this idea that you can be attracted to somebody of the same sex, and that's not a sin as long as you don't act on it.

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What do you think of that? It's not what Jesus says. How can you say that,

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Joni? Okay. Because he says, if you sin in your mind, then you've sinned.

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And I'm like, you know, it's like they want a little asterisk. Well, yeah, Jesus said it's wrong.

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If a man looks at a woman with less than his heart, but if he looks on another man with less than his heart, asterisk.

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What? Like somehow having this idea of homosexual activity in your mind would be okay, as long as you don't act on it.

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It's wrong. Homosexual orientation in and of itself is sin.

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This whole idea that somehow we can, you know, divide the activities of the mind from the activities of the body is wrong, because what happens?

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How does sin come about? James one tells us, right? How does sin come about?

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Okay. It starts in our minds. We think about it. We let it germinate. We put fertilizer and water on it.

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Fertilizer being an apt illustration. And then guess what? We acted out.

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We in effect harvest what we have planted. And today we see over and over again, you know, so -called even

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I put evangelicals in quotes because evangelical, that very word, what does it mean? What's that?

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Not much. I mean, it's a moving target, right? It just kind of keeps shifting and shifting and shifting and shifting and shifting.

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Eventually it's going to mean this liberal, you know, we'll have to come up with a new word for people who actually hold the gospel.

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It should be in those who hold the gospel, but it doesn't. I think we also need discernment today because false teachers abound.

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False teachers abound. Let's look at first Timothy chapter six. And I would, you know,

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I'm reading a lot from the pastoral epistles, Paul writing Timothy and Titus and instructing them on how to run a church.

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But I think it's also, there's a lot of wisdom here for us today, even in our own homes, how to guard them, how to teach our kids.

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Paul writes in first Timothy chapter one, he says, understanding this, oh,

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I had that already. First Timothy chapter six, sorry, verses three to five. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

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He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil, suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

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Imagining that godliness is a means of gain. We could call it the, what would you say that imagining that godliness is a means of gain?

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Sounds like the prosperity gospel, right? But backing up a little bit, does not agree with the sound words of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness. There are people today who say, well, you know what, this whole homosexuality thing is, it's kind of overblown.

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People are making too much out of it. And part of their rationale is what? Jesus said what about homosexuality?

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Nothing explicit. And it's Paul who makes such a big deal out of it.

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So we need to be red letter Christians, not black letter Christians. The red letters give life, the black letters condemn.

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Yes. It's a false dichotomy, right?

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This whole idea that Jesus somehow, when he says something, there's more import than when

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Paul says something. But why is that false? Men were inspired by the spirit.

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Paul's inspired by the Holy Spirit. There's the Holy Spirit. I mean, think about this. Ultimately, we're going to set up this battle between the

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Holy Spirit and who? Jesus. I mean, when you put it that way, it sounds pretty insane.

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So what they'll say is, well, Paul said this, Paul said this on his own, right?

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No. Moved by the Holy Spirit. There is no diversion between the two.

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The reason Jesus didn't address it. I mean, I, I mean, he did indirectly address it, right?

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He didn't say homosexuality is an abomination but he described what marriage is to be like.

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He, you know, and I dare say, and I've said this before, I don't think Jerusalem had a burgeoning homosexuality problem.

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The Old Testament really didn't go for that. Yes. True or false? The apostle

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Paul spent three years learning from the Lord Jesus. True.

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So he says, this isn't from the Lord, right? This is from me. What is he saying?

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What's that? It is, but it's not, it's not, he's just basically saying this.

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And I mean, you know, I'll look it up. I'll be corrected by Pastor Bob later. He's saying,

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I didn't hear this from Jesus out in the wilderness. He goes, but that doesn't mean it's not inspired, right?

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This is just me. But we have it in scripture. Therefore it is what?

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Inspired by the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn't tell me this. Holy Spirit told me this.

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I think it's okay. You know, so that would be my answer. I think we can go with that.

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Okay, good. Dodge that bullet. Again, just think about how important it is to learn, be learning, studying, longing for the pure milk of the word, just growing in Christ, being matured, being sanctified.

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In Titus one, the end of Titus chapter one,

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Paul writes this in verse 15, says to the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

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They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

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And listen to verse one of chapter two, but as for you teach what accords with sound doctrine, don't teach false doctrine.

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Don't teach the doctrines of the world. Don't teach your kids, your wife, whomever, and don't be passive about it, but instead teach what accords with sound doctrine.

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And to kind of paraphrase Pastor Mike and his Nebraska upbringing, nobody learns by osmosis, right?

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They don't just learn by virtue. Well, they do learn something by being in that atmosphere.

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And I guess when I was first being discipled, I can remember this friend of ours,

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Edwin, coming over and my son would be up in his room and we'd be talking and every once in a while there'd be a question from the choir loft.

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You know, so I mean, in that sense, they can learn by osmosis.

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Aren't you supposed to be doing homework? And here comes the question. And that was okay. Now let's talk about wisdom.

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You know, wisdom comes in part from what? Somebody's going to give the right answer, then

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I'm going to give the wrong answer and explain. Wisdom comes by, what's that?

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Fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom, right? That's the right answer. How else do we get wisdom?

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Spiritual gift. See, these are the good answers. I'm about to give the bad one. Okay, there we go.

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That's the one I was looking for. It's a bad answer in this sense. It's true, right? As we get older, most of us get wiser, although I've known some 70 -year -old heroin addicts and I can't really explain that one.

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But as we get older, we should get more wisdom.

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But it also comes by knowledge, by fear of the Lord, all these kinds of things. But wisdom ultimately is this.

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It's applying what we know to be true to given situations, right? And how do we know them to be true?

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Well, or how do we know anything to be true? Well, first of all, we ought to go by scripture, somebody said, which is absolutely right.

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You know, what would be pleasing to the Lord? I guess we could call that the fear of the Lord. But also by experience, there are things that you learn just by virtue of getting older with time.

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When do you suppose, or what kind of drives your worst decisions? When do you find yourself, you know, like a cartoon character running out, you know, over the edge of the cliff and then looking down and going, uh -oh, when does that happen?

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What's that? Okay, when you act in fear. That's more specific, but that's kind of, okay.

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When you don't give it thought, Charlie. Okay. All right.

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And that's ultimately what I was looking for. When you don't give a thought, right? But ultimately it's when you just respond to the moment, when you respond emotionally, when you don't take a minute.

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I mean, I've been counseling somebody kind of long distance here for a while.

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And I get a little frustrated because the consistent theme is, you know, get upset and respond.

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And I'm like, you know, if you don't take a minute to just kind of think, okay, what's going to happen when I respond in this way, then things are going to keep getting worse for you.

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You have to take that moment and just sort of filter it through what you know, what you know would please the

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Lord. And what does the Bible say? You have to think through all these things and then respond. Not just that's wisdom as opposed to just responding.

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Your worst decisions are made based on emotion, which is why I would suggest to you that the worst decisions probably most people make are when?

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I mean, in their lives, during their course of their lives. Okay. When they're young.

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Right. And, you know, I think probably the worst, when are you the most emotional? I mean, you could say two years old, three years old or whatever, but I think, you know, the worst of it is probably in your teen years.

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You know, those are the times when, you know, and here's my point. I think a lot of parents have this idea that you parent, you shepherd your child maybe through the age of 10, 11, or 12.

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And then it's just kind of Jesus take the wheel, you know, because my hands are off.

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I'm done with them. They're grown. Well, no, they're not. They're about to enter potentially the most dangerous years of their lives.

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And you just said, well, I'm done. My work is over. And I'm going to suggest to you that your work really is probably needing to be raised up.

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Thoughts? Questions? Okay. Yes.

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It's kind of like, yeah, I mean, if you, if you just let the child determine what is best for them, you know, early on, then when they get to be older, you know, 14, 15, 16, 17, it's going to be like, they're literally going to be bossing you around.

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It kind of reminds me of, and I don't even know if I've ever actually seen this movie, but you know, the old fifties movie, the blob, because you've got this, you got this little blob in your house and you start feeding it and it keeps growing and growing and growing.

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And pretty soon you've got this monster you can't control anymore. You don't want to do that.

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I think, no, you don't. I mean, you know, is it possible that some young people will turn out okay, even though you haven't disciplined them, even though you haven't done the right things?

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Yes, it is. I mean, you know, were Janet and I perfect parents?

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She was, I wasn't, right? And somehow the kids turned out basically okay in the end, right?

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By the grace of God. But you can't just, you know, bank on that.

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You know, in other words, you can't just say, well, I'm done now, Lord, you have to do it because that's just not leadership, first of all.

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And secondly, you're going to be accountable for that. And thirdly, you ought to love your child more than that.

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Okay. Now in terms of leadership, especially in the home, true or false, and I kind of talked about this a little bit before, what we do says something about our priorities.

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What we spend our time on says something about our priorities. Of course that's true.

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And when, you know, if I see a father, a husband, and his priority when he gets home each and every day is to do what?

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Turn on the TV and wait for dinner. What's wrong with that?

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I mean, it is pretty selfish. I mean, you get home and I can remember these days way back when, you know, coming home and my wife would be home with, you know, the little ones who didn't even, you know, speak

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English. And it wasn't really clear to me what they were speaking. Palmdaleese, I think.

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And, you know, so I'd come home and, you know, I mean, I was really bad, but I'd spent, you know, an hour plus driving each direction.

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I don't know, probably nine hours, you know, working. And then, you know,

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I'd get home and she'd want to talk. What?

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You know, I just want a little peace and quiet, right? Which was ultimately selfish.

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This is before I was saved, by the way. I became less selfish after that.

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But if there's that vacuum of leadership, things are happening. The world doesn't stop just because you want it to.

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And what you do, how you spend your time makes a difference, makes a lot of difference.

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Even unbelievers recognize this. Also, what makes the difference is how you spend your money, how you spend your money.

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Matthew chapter six, these are red letters, so you can take them to the bank here.

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Matthew chapter six, verses 19 to 21. Jesus says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.

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Now, just think about that for a moment. Treasures on earth. And I'm, you know,

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I'm guilty. We buy things because we like them. We buy things because they bring us joy.

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But a lot of times that joy is ephemeral, it's temporary. And he notes that.

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He says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

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But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

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For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. How we spend our money reflects something about what our value system is, what we really put our delight in.

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I'm not going to give a sermon about giving, but I think, you know, when we talk about giving at this church, we say two things about it.

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You should give sacrificially, which means that it should reflect the fact that there is some sense in which, you know, a worldly person will look at it and go, do you know what you could do with that money?

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And the answer is, yes, I know what I could do with that money, but that's not why I do it. Right. I'm making a sacrifice to the

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Lord. But the second thing is, you know, I can't be grudging. I need to be joyful about it.

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Right. And if my focus is on the things that I have and the things that I get and everything else, and then, you know, after I'm done pleasing myself, then

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I give what I have leftover to the Lord. I'm sort of missing the whole point. And again, our kids notice, our kids know what's going on.

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They don't know what you put in the offering envelope, right? But they notice what your priorities are with your money.

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We are always teaching. It's amazing how many things we overlook, you know, and then our kids can, you know, whatever you said in the car, you know, you didn't think too much about it, but later on, if it can be used against you, it will be, right?

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I mean, like when you enter the car, your kids should read your Miranda rights. Dad, what you say can and will be used against you later when you, you know, when your hypocrisy is evident because they pick up on things you don't think they're going to pick up on because they're a lot smarter than you think they are.

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They're a lot more wicked than they, than you think they are too. And they use those things against you.

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It matters what you do with your time, with your money. And I need to close because I've got to preach in just a minute, but any questions before we stop here this morning comments,

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I just want us to think through, you know, whether you're in ministry here, you know, as a volunteer, whether you have kids, whatever the situation is at some point, you're going to be in charge of something or someone.

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These leadership principles basically are things that you should deploy all the time.

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Consistency is, you know, it should be part of our lives, right? We don't want to be

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Sunday only Christians, Sunday morning only Christians. We want to have that sense.

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I don't know about you, but I think the times when I'm most at peace, I don't want to say, you know, here, here's a dangerous thing to say.

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The times when I'm most satisfied with myself, I don't care about that. The times when

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I have this sense in which I have the greatest communion with the Lord, are those times when

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I'm actually obeying him. Why? Because then I'm not like spending all my time repenting and rehearsing what a stupid idiot

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I am and how sinful I am and everything else. I'm just talking to the Lord, whether I'm out walking, whatever

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I'm doing, I'm just like, I have that kind of sense of fellowship with him.

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And that's what we want. And it's that consistency of life that gets us that. Anyway, we need a closing prayer.

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Father, we thank you for your word and for really the boundaries that it puts around our lives, the boundaries that puts around our thinking.

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Father, help us to just either by direct instruction or by implication from the text, think through how we, uh, lead our ministries, how we lead our families, how we spend our time, how we spend our money, how we really prioritize our lives.

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Help us to put you first and to think through how we might better develop our relationship with you.

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And that the overflow of that would be our ministry and our ministry to our families.