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Devoted and Disciplined
68 Plays5 months ago
Series: Managing the Ministry of the Local Church
1 Tim. 4:1-16
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Dedication and Discipline
00:00:00
Speaker
Many of you who follow basketball and all the ladies just tuned out right now.
00:00:09
Speaker
If I mentioned a name like Michael Jordan, you would know who I'm talking about. But if I mentioned a name like Mark Price, some of you might not know who I'm talking about. Mark Price, when he was in high school, was an all-star. In Georgia Tech, he was all conference. And when he went pro, he was an all-star guard with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And if you ever watched him play, you would notice two things right off the bat. First, he was really skilled. And second, he was pretty short. Short in NBA terms, because he was just under six foot tall, which to me is a giant.
Spiritual Growth and Discipline
00:00:54
Speaker
A reporter once asked Mark about his size, about playing among the Giants. They said, how how do you fare so well against these really big guys in a big game? And he said, it's very simple. I just followed two things. I was devoted and I was disciplined. He said, well, all my friends during high school went out on dates with girls. And they came back and told me about all the great times they had, I was in the gym. He said, when all my friends were hanging out together on Friday night, I was in the gym. I was in the gym with my dad shooting free throws, shooting three pointers.
00:01:47
Speaker
doing dribbling drills. And my dad, for as much as he loved me, said this over and over, you're simply not doing it right. Start over. And so I did, Mark says. I started over. And I practiced night after night after night, shooting and correcting, shooting incor correcting <unk> and correcting, correcting.
00:02:15
Speaker
Physical strength and excellence regardless of the sport that you're in, requires conditioning and training. It requires dedication and and hard work. It requires devotion and discipline. Spiritual strength is no different. Many of us want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the gym, but we don't want to go to the gym. Or we go to the gym and then we realize
00:02:46
Speaker
just how much discipline it requires to look like that. Same goes for spiritual strength and spiritual growth. Many of us want to look like a powerhouse of prayer, a prayer warrior, somebody who's all in or devoted to Christ, but they're not quite willing to be disciplined and dedicated.
00:03:11
Speaker
Physical training has indeed some benefits, but they're limited. Whereas spiritual training we'll see today is not only great for now, but for all eternity. So how are you doing lifting those spiritual weights? That's what we're gonna look at today in our passage. What does it look like if we wanna grow spiritually, what does it take? You'll see your outline, it takes devotion and discipline. And we're gonna see what that looks like in your life and in my life.
Warnings Against False Teachings
00:03:45
Speaker
If you'll remember last week, we we were continuing our journey through First Timothy. We talked about the leadership in the church, elders and deacons. Everybody remember that? And the qualifications that were required. Just before that, we talked about what men and women should do in the church, what their role was in the church.
00:04:05
Speaker
Before that, we talked about Timothy's responsibility in the church. And before that, as we opened up 1 Timothy, the very core of what Paul wanted Timothy to know, watch out for those false teachers. And friends, we've kind of come full circle because chapter 4 starts with, and your Bible may have this very heading, watch out for those false teachers. Paul's making a point today both to you and I. You must watch out because there's two types of people wanting to influence you, wanting to influence me. And I thought long and hard about this this week. Oh, I hope that's God calling.
00:04:59
Speaker
Here's the best part as I thought about this this week. um had ah had a change of thought, if you will, something that came to mind and I thought, well, I haven't realized this before for as many times as I studied this book. There are two sets of people that are actively trying to influence you, trying to influence me every single day that you wake up. Every day when you wake up, whether you're on summer vacation and you're an educator now and you get to sleep in a little bit, when you wake up, there's somebody trying to influence you.
00:05:33
Speaker
one way or the other. There's gonna be those who are, we'll see today, truth teachers, people who are teaching God's word, and then there's what I would like to call the other guys.
00:05:48
Speaker
Understand that anything that is not of God, that is not of God's word, is anti-God. So there are two influences, if you will, every single day that are influencing you and influencing me. one that is of God and one that is not. I'm gonna read chapter four in its entirety. Please remain seated.
00:06:17
Speaker
New Living Translation. So now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times, some will turn away from the true faith. They will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead or seared. They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods, but God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth. Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it, but receive it with thanks, for we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer.
00:07:03
Speaker
If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Jesus Christ, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed. Therefore, do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives' tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers. Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. Don't let anyone think less of you because you're young.
00:07:54
Speaker
Be an example to all believers in what you say and the way you live, in your love, in your faith, and in your purity. Until I get there, focus on the reading of Scripture to the entire church, encouraging the believers and teaching them. Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid hands on you. Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your task so that everyone will see your progress. Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
00:08:39
Speaker
Two different types of people, Paul tells Timothy here right off the bat, that are going to try to influence you. First, there's a very real effort being formed against you and me. One is of the false teacher, and he says here that they are energized by demonic activity. They are false teachers. The word here is an apostate. This is somebody who is a believer who has fallen away, who is now teaching a false message, who is teaching a false gospel, who is teaching something anti-God.
00:09:22
Speaker
This is the only place where demons are mentioned in the pastoral epistles, by the way, right here. Just as there is a mystery of godliness concerning Christ in chapter 3, this here is the mystery of iniquity that surrounds Satan. And if we look at the actual literal translation that says this is the work of Satan, he is the imitator and his goal is to deceive.
00:09:49
Speaker
Pastor told me many years ago, he said, when you experience somebody who is anti-God, understand there's a force working through them and behind the scenes. You may not like that person and what they have to say, but you understand there's something deeper going on. There's an influence that's going on. There's something that's influencing these false teachers. And friends, it's not just the false teachers understand that. It is this demonic spirit that is behind them that is empowering them, one that they are devoted to. And because the forces of evil are devoted to it, every single day they're trying to influence you and influence me.
00:10:38
Speaker
Satan has his own ministers and his own doctrines and his goal is to take God's people and lead them astray. To seduce them, to draw them away from the faith, apostasy really is a willful turning. So this is somebody who knew the truth and has been now taught a false doctrine and is choosing the false doctrine. This is what Paul is warning Timothy. As you step into the church in Ephesus, understand who you're going to encounter. Some are going to be of God, some of these guys you've got to watch out for. No different today, by the way.
00:11:20
Speaker
Satan is actively in the business of influencing you and I, and he starts with here in Ephesus and with you and I today, and this is why I hope you know I sit in as much as I can on different Bible study classes. It's not just to keep you guys from going in the ditch as teachers, but it's to keep you from going in the ditch as teachers. My job is to, from the pulpit, make sure that we are teaching God's word. And what happens is, friends, what we can unfortunately do is we can get led astray, and Satan loves to use the teacher. Why is that, do you think? Because the teacher has authority over those they teach. And so if he can turn a teacher, he can affect a mass number of people that are under them.
00:12:15
Speaker
vitally crucial as you sit in a class with a Bible teacher that you understand that person is now on Satan's radar. Because they are actively teaching God's Word, Satan will try to derail them. So while I love to hear prayers for me in your Bible study class, and I do need them, make sure you're praying for your Bible teacher as well. They really need your prayers.
Community and Doctrinal Vigilance
00:12:41
Speaker
He says not only are they empowered by demonic spirits, not only is their purpose to lead astray, he says they are hypocrites. Matthew 7 is, Brother Crouch so eloquently said today, you shall know them by their fruits. I contend that you cannot preach a false gospel and somehow get good fruits.
00:13:06
Speaker
Bible says we'll know them. If you sit under a false teacher long enough, you'll see there's some incongruency between what they're saying and what the Bible teaches. How do you know that? Because you yourselves read your Bibles. You don't simply rely on your Bible teacher to do all the work, to do all the digging. to do all the feeding. You yourself must go home and go, you know what, um Brother West did a great job today. Boy, he was very informative. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna take what he said and I'm gonna go compare it to what Acts chapter four said today.
00:13:43
Speaker
In doing that, you guard yourself from these wolves in sheep's clothing, these hypocrites. He says, not only are they hypocrites, but they deny God's word. What the Jewish leadership was doing here, these Jewish teachers, I understand Paul plants his church and he leaves and he puts tinnity in place and says, understand your congregation, understand your inephesus, understand there's cults going on, that there's all these foreign practices going on.
00:14:17
Speaker
Be on point. Make sure you're following God's Word. Make sure you teach it. And what's happening is these Jewish teachers are starting to sprinkle in things on top of what Paul had already taught. No longer was it just okay to be saved by Jesus alone. They said, now you have to watch what you eat.
00:14:42
Speaker
Don't eat that pork.
00:14:46
Speaker
By the way, how many people have heard that before? Christians don't eat pork.
00:14:52
Speaker
I'll get back to that. So not only do you have to watch what you eat, but there's something different about being married. You're kind of holier if you're married. That's what these false teachers are saying. As a matter of fact, restrict your diet in such a way, and if you're married, you're going to be holier too. Both things Paul did not teach. Both things were additions to the gospel. Remember we talked about eight times something's added to or subtracted from the true gospel? What does it become? The false gospel.
00:15:35
Speaker
I was reminded today, Sister Loretta just reminded me of a little encounter that we had when Kim and I visited our daughter in Washington. We went on the campus and we had these two LDS Mormon kids come up to us and ready to preach us their gospel right off the bat and they were so excited. My daughter said, oh no, you don't know what you're in for. You ran into the wrong group. My dad's a pastor. And friends, we have to be ready for that to correct those people in a loving manner. I was told after the fact I wasn't the most loving in my approach to them because I had other things I really wanted to do and I wasn't very pastoral. So I just tried to give them the abridged version, the cliff notes version. This is where you're wrong, I said. But I said, oh, that's very confrontational. Friends, we must be confrontational.
00:16:35
Speaker
Eternity is at stake. These kids are devoted, but they are devoted to the wrong gospel. And they're actively on the campus teaching your kids who go there and my kids who go there that this is the way to heaven. Jesus plus something else. And it's not even really the Jesus that we you and I believe in. We gotta be really careful because what they teach is denying God's word. It was happening, the beauty of, if I can just take a small ah aside here, the beauty of Satan is, if I can say it this way, there's no new tricks. He hasn't come up with anything new throughout all of history. His goal is to take God's word and twist it, period. And then he wants you to believe that what he twists.
00:17:30
Speaker
The same thing that was going on here in the church in Ephesus is the same thing that's going on today. It's the same thing that goes on in churches here. It's the same thing that goes on in campuses here. It's this pulling you away from God's word. And the only way we can prevent it is A, preach the truth from the pulpit and learn it in Bible study class and reinforce it in your home by your own personal study.
00:17:54
Speaker
I just put a note to myself and and to let you know Anytime somebody tampers with the institution of marriage or God's creation, those should be red flags. Anytime somebody tampers with God's creation or the institute of marriage that God has put in place, be wary that that person is most likely a false teacher.
00:18:23
Speaker
So the fact that God has called his own creation good seem to be no interest to false teachers. Which, by the way, when you're confronted with false teaching, the best way you can nullify that is you just take them right back to God's Word. Really? I didn't know that. What chapter is that in? What verse is that? I'd love, you know, I got my Bible in my car. Let me just, I'd love to grab that real quick if you can just show me. False teachers don't want you to do that because they're not counting on you knowing your Bible.
00:19:01
Speaker
Whereas, he says, verses six and seven, thus the false teacher, here's the true teacher.
00:19:09
Speaker
I like this, Warren Wiersby just says this. He says, as we travel the streets and highways in life, you're gonna notice two signs. One sign tells you where you're going, which is like Cameron 40 miles ahead. He said the other sign that you're gonna see is signs that warn of possible danger.
00:19:30
Speaker
bridge out, watch out,
Education and Doctrine
00:19:33
Speaker
right? He says, the pastor's job is to balance both of those. I can't every single week preach a message of danger, watch out, because that will wear you out and that will wear me out. But part of my job and your job as believers who evangelize as somebody who can balance both, hey look this is what we believe and why we believe and therefore this is where we're going as a community of believers. But as we travel you might want to watch out for that pothole. Watch out for those Latter-day Saint kids. Watch you out for this who this group who says Jesus is fully man but he's not fully God. Taking God's word and subtly twisting it.
00:20:22
Speaker
My job as pastor from up here is to teach you the true gospel, to stay on course, to stay on path. And I'm reminded this week as I prepared what we have ahead of us starting in August, every Wednesday. I'm gonna teach a class here at 6 p.m. It's gonna be one of balanced approach between doctrine and evangelism. Doctrine meaning what we believe and why we believe it and to how that helps us evangelize Because I'll guarantee you and and the only reason I can guarantee you this is because I was in your seat at one point While you may think you know what you know when you're put on the spot you may not know what you know Or why you know it
00:21:09
Speaker
And the only way we get better as a congregation is to be taught and to practice that. So we will be doing that Wednesday nights, I hope to have record turnout, so that when you get an opportunity to have, and I do call it an opportunity, to witness to somebody like a these Latter-day Saint kids, right? Or you get somebody that says they're Christian but doesn't necessarily believe what we believe that you're confident. And you can say, oh, this is why we believe what we believe and this is why what you believe is wrong. And I don't really think there's anything wrong with saying somebody else's practices or beliefs are wrong because I base it upon what the Bible says. Does that make sense?
00:21:56
Speaker
Teachers are to be teachers who teach the truth. I'm obligated, your Bible teacher is obligated to teach the full counsel of God, both what to watch out for and what's to come. We can't ignore one or the other. Not only must they teach the truth, they themselves must be nourished. He says, verse six, nourish themselves in the Word. They must feed daily on the Word.
00:22:26
Speaker
Anybody fasted here before? Don't raise your hand. Calm down.
00:22:33
Speaker
Anybody try to lose weight before? There gets to a point when your devotion starts talking back to you, at least it does for me. It starts with the stomach growling. Oh, I'm kind of, ooh, what is that? It's kind of some growling. Then the longer you sit and you go, man, I really am hungry. I can't even focus on reading. I'm just going to put the TV on." And you put the TV on and what comes on? It's the food channel.
00:23:05
Speaker
Why is that, do you think? It's that nourishment is a core of who we are. We must eat. We must eat to be sustained. And the Word of God is no different, friends. You can't simply come in on Sundays and think, wow, I'm full. I'm so stuffed.
00:23:24
Speaker
in our class with Mr. West or with Loretta or Billy. For as great as the teaching is, you can't get full on that hour feeding. It takes a daily nourishing, a daily eating, if you will, studying, if you will. And in in and I just put a note here, um I'm gonna equate this to some athletics because Paul's doing that here. If you're ever one to, and I really wish um Mr. Wimmer would have been here today, right? You seen that guy? He looks like a before and after of me. He's like. And I asked him, I said, just a couple Sundays ago, I said, hey, have you but do you go to the gym all the time? Are you devoted? He said, oh no, not really, just Monday through Friday.
00:24:13
Speaker
I said this pretty much every day during of the week as far as I'm concerned. And what happens is we all want to be like that. We all want to get to the gym and we get there and it can be overwhelming with all the equipment and you don't know what buttons to push. You don't know what routine to follow. And then what do we do? We get so overwhelmed we go, I'm just not going to go.
00:24:36
Speaker
Friends, the same is true for our study in God's word.
Personal Discipline and Spiritual Growth
00:24:40
Speaker
Sometimes we can get into it and go, it's just so overwhelming, I don't know where to start. Jane, oh, she's so great, she's devout every day, she knows what to read, she knows what she's doing. I wish I was just like her. I get distracted so easy. The kids are making noise. The husband's asking me to do something.
00:25:04
Speaker
Where's the day gone? Now it's five o'clock and dinner's around. um but i can't I'm so exhausted, how can I possibly read God's word now?
00:25:14
Speaker
And you're saying, that's what goes on in the pastor's house? Friends, there's a reason why it's difficult to get into God's word sometimes, because the enemy is constantly trying to influence you another way. Because he knows if you sit down and you study and you nourish your stuff that you will be built up just like you do in the gym. Just like if you go in the gym and you lift weights you will be built up. I'll put a nice little joke that I heard in here but and I hope it goes off well because I practiced this over and over.
00:25:53
Speaker
So the lady talked to her nutritionist and she said, hey, um something is not right with your advice. I've been following it for five days straight. I go to the gym every single day and I haven't seen one change. The nutritionist said, well, walk me through your routine. She says, well, it's very simple. I'm just following your instructions. I drive to the gym. I get out of the car. I go inside. I sign in. I get a drink. I sign back out. I go back in my car, and I head back home. There's nothing happening.
00:26:27
Speaker
Why is there nothing happening? Because you're not disciplining yourself. You're not lifting the weights. You're not doing the exercise. You're not putting in the work. If we want to build ourselves in our spiritual maturity, we must put in the work. We must be disciplined. We see that Paul tells Timothy there's two types of discipline here. We're gonna have the false teachers, they are disciplined, but they are disciplined in very unscriptural, ungodly ways.
00:27:03
Speaker
ah like I like my translation. He says, don't be thrown off by old wives' tales.
00:27:09
Speaker
What is Paul meaning here? right There's some old wives' tales, some old myths that are being circulated in the church in Ephesus, and they're detracting or distracting people from God's real message. He says, don't bother with that stuff. but I had ah ah a lady friend of ours, I'll say a lady acquaintance at our last church, I had been teaching four or five years there in a Bible study class and she came up to me and she said, boy, I have a biblical question for you. And I said, oh, great. I was like, I'm ready for this. I'm in practice. um She said, do you know the book of Enoch talks about giants and aliens? I said, excuse me.
00:27:56
Speaker
Oh yeah, ah you know, i can't fight you the book of Enoch, have you read that? Because it talks about these huge giants and aliens. I said, oh, sister in Christ. I said, I have a hard enough time with just the basic 66 books. I don't have any time to go into any other books, extracurricular, Bible books, whatever you want to call them, that talks about old wives' tales. That's unfruitful. But do you realize how many people who don't spend time in God's word, they love to get wrapped up in these things, these old wives' tales. You know there's dinosaurs in the Bible? I had somebody ask me that one time. Really? What about submission in your family? Let's talk about that. I'm more equipped to talk about what the Bible talks about. All that extra stuff.
00:28:51
Speaker
While it may be entertaining, it doesn't transform my life one bit. I love to read other novels. Don't get me wrong, I love to read other extra-biblical stuff, but those are not inspired. There's no power, as Brother West was so eloquent today, saying that the very word of God, when it's preached in the name of Jesus, has power, it has authority. Moby Dick is a great book, but it doesn't change my life. Only God's Word transforms us. He says, don't follow wives' tales. There's no new doctrines.
00:29:36
Speaker
He had a professor in DTS. He started off right off the bat. He said, how many of you all think this class is going to be illuminating? And everybody raised their hands. He goes, how many think that there might still be something we can discover in the Bible that hasn't been discovered yet? And some kids would raise their hands. He said, put down your hands. There's nothing new to learn.
00:29:56
Speaker
And I think he's making a point that there's been through 2,000 some odd years of theologians studying the Bible that we have orthodoxy. We have doctrine that we believe in and it's set this way. And friends, if there's something else that comes along that's, and I'll just say it, new. new age, new something, be wary of that. There's nothing new. There's plenty in here that we haven't learned that will transform us. But there's nothing new outside of this book, which our loving little kids at LDS wanted to tell me. Have you read the Book of Mormon? I could care a less about the Book of Mormon. It has no authority over me. It carries no authority. It was written by a regular man.
00:30:45
Speaker
who himself was led astray. Why would I possibly want to read a book from a false teacher about false teaching? We cannot rediscover anything new. What we do have, however, is God's Word here. He says, while bodily exercise is important, that is only temporary. It does have a benefit, but it's only temporary. He's saying those who truly want to benefit will sink their devotion and their discipline into those things that are spiritual, because those things, brothers and sisters, will benefit you today in your life, but more importantly, for all eternity. It's those things that we should be spending our time, if you want to get
00:31:28
Speaker
beefed or buff. Is that the term that the kids use these days? You want to get buff, spend some time here, dedicated time here.
00:31:40
Speaker
He says here, Paul to Timothy,
00:31:46
Speaker
that we are to be disciplined for godliness, both in word, in verse 12, in conduct, in love, which points to the motivation of the love. Why we obey God is not because we're applauded by men or we think it's going to do something good. We obey God because we love him and we love his people.
00:32:09
Speaker
We do it in faith, we do it in purity. He's he's telling, and I have this this verse, by the way, this 1 Timothy 4 verse on my website, my personal website, because it says, watch your conduct that it may lead out to good living.
00:32:29
Speaker
He's saying, Timothy, understand you're single and you're in Ephesus and it is a very sexual community. be Be wary of that, he's telling them. Be wary of that. Mind yourself in the congregation among other women. Be somebody who's in good conduct, acting in love and in faith, in purity, so that when people, it doesn't matter how old or how young you are, that the look at your life, both the inside of your cup, like we said last week, and the outside of your cup, and those two match.
00:33:04
Speaker
He's saying that's that important. Watch watch your life, watch your doctrine closely and persevere. Doing so, you'll save not only yourself, but also those that hear you. The threat is real. The enemy is out there. We must be spiritually in shape. So what does that mean for you and I today? This is where we're going to land today.
00:33:30
Speaker
What does it mean to practice spiritual exercises or spiritual discipline?
00:33:37
Speaker
We were clicking through the TV the other night. By the way, high school football in Texas, it's just a whole other creature, right? These poor kids, it's like 100 degrees out and they're they're doing all these drills and the water is pouring off of them and I know don't get don't let it get back to the Cameron football coaches. I'm not talking about them. I'm just saying these poor kids were drenched and they're just I saw them throwing buckets of water and on them to keep them going. And I thought these kids are doing this because they love this sport and they're obviously dedicated. And I thought to myself, what should I be doing right now instead of watching this football show? What spiritual discipline should I be involved in right now that I'm willing to be drenched
00:34:25
Speaker
that I need refreshing. I'm i'm so entrenched. I'm so immersed." He says here, what do we do? What do we strive for?
00:34:38
Speaker
Paul tells Timothy, we need to be striving for something. It's this word of agonizing.
00:34:46
Speaker
You must put yourself under stress and under strain because you want to work out that spiritual muscle. He's saying, be diligent in these things. Practice them with serious intent. It's not a once a week thing on Sunday. It's not a once a week thing on Wednesday. Although I want you here on Wednesday and I want you here on Sunday. It's an everyday thing. Thomas Carlisle says this, he says, no one ever became a saint in their sleep. Meaning, you gotta get in the game if you wanna use that reference. Get in the game, get plugged in. How do we do it? Well, just like I said before, if you go to the gym and you're overwhelmed, start small. If you go to the gym and they're like, hey, I want you to do chest here and arms here and legs there,
00:35:35
Speaker
And then let me know how that goes after the first day. You would be exhausted. The best trainer says, you're going to just work your arms one day. And you're going to do it for a little bit. Then you're going to go home and recover. The next day, you're going to work a different muscle group. So in that vein, what can we possibly do? What spiritual discipline can we possibly do starting in a very small way that will have a big impact?
00:36:01
Speaker
This is a book. I don't really ever promote a ton of books here. And I'm not going to overly promote this one. But this is a year-long devotional. This one just happens to be by Alistair Begg. 365 daily devotions. The best part is, if I open it up here just to where I'm at with my bookmark here, July 1 is coming up. If I hold it up here, July 1 is just this one side. It's three paragraphs. and a verse, James 4, 4 through 10. Here's what I suggest you do if we want to practice, if we want to work it out and we want to build our spiritual strength. you You get a book like this or this one. If you want to come up afterwards, come up and see it. I'll be happy to show it to you. You find a spot in your house and you sit there.
00:36:55
Speaker
I do it in the morning, because i I like to get going early in the morning. I get my cup of coffee. I sit in the same chair. I open up the book. And i actually, I get to my phone. And I go, what's today's date? Because that's the only way somehow I know what today's date is. Don't laugh. You guys do it too. And then I flip to that page. Oh, today is the 24th. Oh, today is the 27th. And then I just read it. And then you can close it and go on with your day. That's how you start. Or you read it and you go, oh, that brings up something to my mind. I'm gonna meditate on it. And if you have a problem with the word meditate, okay, think about it. Pray on it. God, what is this particular passage today, this one page thing, what does this mean for me today? Show me. Give me an opportunity to demonstrate this today. Friends, this is the way we work through spiritual disciplines. Every single day, conforming, working out that muscle,
00:37:57
Speaker
It's a challenge to you. Kim and I did a workout plan. She's putting her head down going, no, no, don't mention it. I'm ashamed to say now because I don't look like we did at one point. Kim is very devout and very disciplined. We did something called the P90X workout, intense workout. The ab routine was only 15 minutes. And I thought to myself, if I can't even spend 15 minutes, I don't deserve to be in shape. Sometimes I think about that when it comes to the Bible. I can't even sit for 15 minutes in the morning and open up the devotional. And I would say this is in lieu of this. They kind of go hand in hand. It's not like I'm not going to read God's Word, but if this is very intimidating, start here.
00:38:46
Speaker
I'll just put here as we close, it reinforces, it reinforces what God's word is in your life and my life. And and if we don't have this foundation here, friends of the false teachers are gonna come in and they're just gonna swoop us up. But here's what i here's what I can tell you with all sincerity. It's not gonna happen on my watch. I'm not gonna allow it to happen while I'm here. There won't be false teachers that come here among us. um I'm very stringent. I've told some of you who've asked, can we do this Bible or can we read this book? And I'll say, you know what? I'm going to look at that, and if I agree with it, then we will we will go that route. But otherwise, I'm just not going to let everybody teach whatever they want to, because friends, that's when all types of chaos comes. My job is to keep us from going in the ditches, as Brother Wes says. My job is to encourage, to teach,
00:39:44
Speaker
so that the teachers can then teach and so that you can go home and you can verify what we teach is God's word. We must devote ourselves to orthodox beliefs, one that is promoted by the Holy Spirit, one that's empowered by the Holy Spirit, one that points us to the true gospel and who Jesus is.
00:40:10
Speaker
And I just put, may we resist any new fads or new teachings that come along? Because they do all the time. They just get rebranded. Satan, like I said, is not very original. He has one playbook. He just likes to rebrand it and give it out to new bunch of people who don't know anything about the Bible so that they'll pick it up and run with it. That won't be us. That won't be us here. Because you guys have shown me as your pastor that this is super important to you and I know that not by your church attendance here on Sunday which by the way I love seeing you here on Sunday. Sunday is for worshiping and hearing the exposition of God's word but I can tell that you're becoming spiritually mature because you're in Bible studies Tuesday night Wednesday Sunday in the morning and you prioritize it so
00:41:09
Speaker
I'm commending you. Keep up the good work. It must be that important. And if it's not to you, let's start there. Get a devotional. Let's keep those false teachers at bay. Amen.