What Does Godliness Look Like?

0 (0s): So a big welcome to you. We have info center that's that has all the information that you'll need to find out about plugging into harvest church. And just in case, this is your first time here at harvest, and you want to find out more about us. We actually have a four week class starting today. It's called harvest growth track and that's opened the parsonage. So if you feel like I want to find out more about harvest today, you can go jet up there right now, Chris, he's about ready to start. That's that's that's today. A few other things we've got M six gathering tomorrow. That's men gathering at a thousand Hills ranch out in, I don't know where it's at. Actually. I haven't been yet. So a thousand Hills ranch, we have the men's gathering. 0 (43s): There's a free dinner worship and then testimonies. And you're asked to bring a friend. So if you've never been, maybe grab a friend, go out to the M six gathering. There's no RSVP needed to show up. And then lastly got one more announcement. That's the Kings, the kids spring keeps saying Kings. I don't know why. I'm sorry. The kids spring choir. And this is the last week to sign up. So if you have a child from second grade and up and you're, and they're interested in joining the choir performance at the end of may, email Leslie or head for the info center for more information on that in the rehearsals will be on Sundays from 10 20 to 10 50. So we've got those things going on and yeah. 0 (1m 23s): Good to see you guys all here and I'll let Tim take it over from here. 1 (1m 28s): Good morning, please stand. We're going to worship together this morning. I'll just a quick word of prayer, dear God. Thank you so much for the opportunity to have a building, to worship in, to have a sound system that works and all this stuff. God, that just, just, it just helps us facilitate Lord. And I just thank you for, for being our God this morning, first and foremost is asking to meet each and every one of us here in a new way this morning, we just want to get out of the way and just become aware of you guys. Just to make it less about us. More about you this morning. 1 (2m 11s): Jesus name 2 (5m 1s): Say worthy is the key and just seeing and declare how much we love you. 3 (16m 48s): Our hearts and minds and soul is drained. Every part of us, Lord, we love you. And we know that love is reciprocated. In fact, we know that we love you because you first loved us. You started this whole thing and we're so grateful. We're so grateful. Lord, You got to pray that you would touch every person in this room and on this campus whoever's watching online. I pray that every person who would be touched with the reality of your great love, And then that would trigger a response in every person, this kind of response that we've been singing this morning. 3 (17m 31s): God, that we love you. 2 (17m 35s): We love you, Lord. We love you. Lord, 3 (17m 39s): Refresh us in that love Lord, both ways, got to refresh our love for you and refresh God, our understanding of your love for us. Thank you, Lauren. It's good. Just to praise and sing and pray and to just be in your presence. Lord, we bless you God, as we open up your word this morning, and as we avail ourselves to your truth, I just, I know God that you're going to download something of power to us, not to believe that it's just good stuff in store for us today. 3 (18m 20s): That's true. Every time we open up your word and avail ourselves to your truth, Lord, that you've just gotten life, transformational, power change for us and challenge for us. And so I pray that we'd just be anxious and hungry for it. Lord, like, like we're anxious and hungry for a good meal. When we're really hungry, Lord that we would just be anxious and hungry for our time with you today. And then God that you would fill us to overflowing with abundance. So we leave this place filled up with you and, and we can spill it out on everybody else, Lord, and with love and grace and truth and hope kindness. 3 (19m 2s): Thank you Lord. We need you. We love you, Lord. Bless us. Now we pray. Continue to bless us. I should say, Lord, continue to bless us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you. Worship team. Then you worship team. 4 (19m 16s): Oh, it's just good to, yeah, it's good. Just to be in the presence of the Lord. I, since I was a young guy, I've just always appreciated worship and the time just that, that is set apart just to seem to the King and to give our hearts fully to him. And so I'm thankful for the opportunity this morning, thankful for Easter last week. So many people came out and spent days setting everything up. Mike Apadaca was out there with his tractor, grading, everything and our back area and dozens of people helping to set things up beginning like on Thursday and through Friday and Saturday and Sunday. And it was just really, really powerful. 4 (19m 60s): And then the cleanup, you know, happen in a couple hours, thanks to so many people who just, who stuck around and, and helped us out with that. It was just really, really good. After Easter. We had this crazy idea that we'd go backpacking. So we, my son and I, so the youth were planning this backpacking trip and they were planning to leave Tuesday to go back off of figure a mountain off of one 54. And it's about a 6.8 mile hike. And so Jeremy, our youth and family pastor said, Hey, why don't you guys leave a day early and make sure that there's actually camping spots available for another 25 people or so coming back. 4 (20m 40s): So, so Curtis and I got up after the long Easter weekend and we left about seven 38 in the morning and we began to hike and just had a wonderful, wonderful time as I was hiking. I thought there's so many parallels, so many parallels to the Christian life, the Christian walk and this hike we're on this backpacking trip that we're on. In fact, when we finally made it there, we, we didn't, we didn't share this thought with each other until we actually got to the, the, the destination we both said to each other, Curtis said, Hey dad, if you weren't with me, I probably wouldn't have made it all the way. 4 (21m 21s): I probably would have stopped and camped along the way, because there were, it was just a lot of uphill and that sort of thing. I said, Curtis, that's exactly what I was thinking. If you weren't here, I would have stopped like a mile back and just said, that's enough. But we both realized we would have totally missed the amazing destination that we experienced if we would have given up and so much like the Christian walk, the Christian life. If we don't have people spurring us on holding us accountable and challenging us to continue what we're going to settle for something far less than what God has for us. And so I was super grateful. Curtis was there and then we got there and there was plenty of spots. And so we called back to Jeremy and said, Hey, come on out, man. 4 (22m 4s): There's lots and lots of room. And so he came out and they all 25 of them, it was really, really powerful that the day that they were supposed to come out, it was getting about four o'clock and they had been on the trail for a while. So I was kind of getting anxious for them to be out there and I wanted to see them. And so I just started down the trail and I got about a mile back from the, the main campsite there and there they were, they were all settled there and kind of taken a break before they made the final descent. And it was yeah, really, really good. But one guy had pulled a muscle in his leg and he was really struggling carry his backpack. And so we got a chance to help him carry his backpack. The last mile that isn't, that just like the Christian life. 4 (22m 44s): Sometimes we get injured or we're discouraged. We don't know how we're going to press on. We don't know how we're going to finish and get to the destination, but others come along, come around us and help us to carry the burdens that we have to get us moving. And to our destination, I tell you, what is the best, most beautiful destination? There were two waterfalls. I should've brought a picture, a video right. Or something, but there were two waterfalls coming down and flowing into this big, big, like eight foot deep pool of water that you could swim in and refresh yourself. And it was so amazing, so much better than the campsite that was a mile earlier, or even the ones that were just along the way we would have totally missed it. 4 (23m 29s): I think that's kind of, God's message to us is that we will totally miss out on God's best if we give up and maybe you're here today and you're kind of wondering whether you want to press on in your faith as your, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And you've got this big backpack on and you're just kind of feeling weary and just kind of feeling worn out. I just want to encourage you that God is with you and he will help you get there. He will help you get there, but maybe you got this pack on and, and there's, there's an art to packing a backpack, right? Like you don't want to pack too much. There are things that you need. Like, you need a tent, a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad. You need, you know, cookware and food and that sort of thing. 4 (24m 10s): But there are certain things that you don't need to carry in like big, heavy stuff that just kind of wear you out. So you gotta be careful not to have too much on your pack. Otherwise it's cumbersome and it's difficult to keep going forward. So some of us in our lives, we're carrying all of this extra unnecessary weight, this baggage, this burden burdensome stuff that the Lord just wants to lift off off of us. It's it's really a picture of God's. You know, Jesus said, my yoke is easy, so there's a yoke, but he said, my burden is light. So he wants to lift it off of you. So if you're carrying around just old baggage from past mistakes and failures, sins, whatever it is, just confess that to the Lord. 4 (24m 54s): If we confess our CNC is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So what he'll do is he'll lift that, that bag of that burden off of our bag. And then we'll be able to kind of March on through. I remember when I got to the campsite and took off the backpack, it was just like, Oh man, you feel like you're walking on air because all of that weight is off of you. I think that's kind of the experience that God wants us to have like something of a lighter load in our lives. So confess whatever you need before the Lord today, and just watch his grace and mercy wash over you and watch your, your law, your load kinda lighten up. It was just a powerful deal, but as kind of back, as long as we were walking and I'll just kind of share this story for a little bit and the, can we start the clock? 4 (25m 37s): Thank you. Because now I'm not, I'm not going to know how much time I have and it doesn't really matter cause I'm just going to go till I'm finished anyway, but now there we are, but it's helpful to know that I'm over, right? So it's just helpful to know. So as, as we were hiking, there was a lot of incline and my son would tell me, he kept, he kept telling me, Hey, dad look up. Cause I'm I got, you know, I'm just going, you know, it's just trying to get the job done. And he would tell me, look up Dan, look at, look at what we're hiking in. And, and he would just remind me of all of the beauty, the wonder of what God had created and is sustaining even now. And it was just like this refreshing experience. 4 (26m 18s): We're going to be talking about a biting with God today. We're actually going to be answering the question. What does godliness look like? What does godliness look like? And I, I couldn't help, but make a lot of para a lot of comparisons to that backpacking trip because I was reminded of so many wonderful things as I just chose to look up and abide with God and appreciate his presence 5 (26m 45s): And appreciate his beauty. I think sometimes we can just get busy, right? We've got our head, 4 (26m 49s): It's Dan, we got stuff to do. And we don't look up 5 (26m 53s): And just say, thank you Lord for life and for breath and for 4 (26m 57s): Family and for whatever it is that you want to thank the Lord for, we can get burdened down by maybe illness or disability or whatever it is. And we don't, if we don't look up, we're just kind of stuck with our heads down. And like my son told me, I'm telling you look up, look up, God's doing some really, really amazing things. If we'll just stop and pay attention. So what does godliness look like? We're going to kind of unpack that today. We're going to kind of discover that today because I think God wants us to experience something of newness in our walk with him, our relationship with him. He wants to breathe life into us in such a powerful way that we walk out of this place with new perspective. 4 (27m 42s): I remember just sitting around the campfire when we were there just before the kids got there. And even after the kids got there, just sitting around the campfire, just being so filled with gratitude for what the Lord has done. I mean, I just, I looked around at his creation and then that caused me to ponder about my, my own life and my family and the way that God has just blessed our church and taking care of us. And I just, I just was filled with this refreshing gratitude. It was so important and so necessary for, for my life as I just sat there and just thought about the Lord. There's something about abiding with him and allowing him to buy it to abide in us. That is just life-giving and powerful. And we get busy and distracted and we miss out on those things. 4 (28m 26s): So let's take a look at what Paul wrote to Timothy in first Timothy chapter four. And we'll get to that answer. What does godliness look like with that? Let's say as you guys turn to first Timothy four, I just want to pray, 5 (28m 37s): Lord Jesus. We just pray. And we thank you for your presence here. 4 (28m 42s): We were able to sing that last song and just talk about how much we love you with all of our hearts and minds and soul and strength or got God. I know you're blessed by that Lord. And I just want to declare that as a church, we love you Lord, and we want you to have your way with us today. 5 (28m 59s): We want you to speak to us where we need. 4 (29m 2s): I need you to speak to us, to challenge us where you need, where we need to be challenged, Lord God, that we would be 5 (29m 10s): Encouraged today and put back on the right path. Maybe it's been a tough journey and some of us are feeling the burden, the weight of it all. Lord, I just pray that you would bless us as we trust you in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord. Amen. 4 (29m 28s): The 41. Now the Holy spirit tells us clearly that in the last times, in the last days, some will turn away from the true faith and they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings come from demons. There's a temptation as the return of Christ draws near. And this has been going on for the last couple thousand years since its Ascension, there's this, there's this temptation to walk away from it. So walk away from the Lord and to pursue other things. But God has got us on this path and he doesn't want us to give up. Although there challenges and difficulties along the way, coming back out of the hike while going into the hike, I had been wearing these boots and they weren't, I guess they weren't broken in very well. 4 (30m 16s): So I was getting these hotspots and these blisters. And so I decided just to put on my sandals, he saw these, you know, strap on sandals and I hiked the rest of the way. And then I was hiking out and I realized I'm getting gnarly blisters on my feet. As I'm hiking out with these sandals, I would've wore socks with the sandals, but then I would've been, looked like an old guy. So I, I didn't want to look like an old guy. Although I do typically wear socks with sandals, but I decided I would just, just go for it. I thought, what choice do I have? Like I gotta get outta here. Like I five miles from the trail head. I gotta just keep going. I can't stop and wait here for three days until my blisters heal up. Right? Cause then I'm going to walk another mile and get some more blitzers I got to stop again. 4 (30m 59s): I think the challenge for us is that we've got to just continue to move forward two hours or destination. Although we do deal with troubling things, temptation and sickness and all kinds of challenges in our life. But what I noticed is that God gave me the grace just get to continue to walk out. I literally have silver dollar size blisters in between my toes, but I was like, I know they're there, but I'm not going to look at them. I'm just going to keep marching forward because I don't have a choice, right? I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to stand out there until, till they get cleared up. So what I noticed is that God gave me the grace and then I get home. I get to my destination. 4 (31m 39s): Wife makes this hot water with Epson salt, you know, Epsom salt. I don't know what it's called, but you put your feet in there and it just creates this nice soothing experience. I wouldn't have had that soothing experience if I were to quit on the trail, right? God's got such blessing for us. If we just don't give up, if we refuse to give up, but continue to March forward. Now the Holy spirit tells us clearly that, that in the last time, as the time of Christ return draws near some will turn away from the true faith and they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. Listen, there's only one true faith that leads to heaven. 4 (32m 19s): There are many faiths in the world, many counterfeit faith, but only one faith leads to the God who created and sustains the universe. There's one God that offers salvation by grace, through faith. And some are tempted to turn away. Some will turn away from faith in Jesus alone, and they 6 (32m 40s): Will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. So anything that is contrary to the scripture and what the scripture says about Jesus and who he is and what the scripture says about God and who he is is, is a contrary gospel. It's a counterfeit gospel perpetuated by demons by the fallen angels. That the enemies 5 (33m 3s): Of God, there's one God that offers salvation through grace, by grace, through faith. And the Holy spirit has revealed this 6 (33m 12s): Truth, that in the as time wears on, 5 (33m 15s): And this has been going on for the last couple thousand years, people will be tempted to walk away from the faith. 6 (33m 21s): Mark 1322 says for false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders. So as to deceive, if possible, even God's chosen ones, watch out. I have warned you about this ahead of time. So there's a warning of, for the church, for the believers of Christ that says, Hey, be careful not to get distracted or to be hindered from your faith in the Lord. Jesus Christ in acts 2029. Luke wrote, I know that false teachers like vicious wolves will come in among you. After I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and 5 (34m 1s): Start the truth. In order, in order to draw a following, 6 (34m 6s): What kind of people would do this? Like what kind of people would intentionally draw others away from the truth? Well, Paul tells us in first Timothy four, two, these people are hypocrites 5 (34m 16s): And liars and their conscience is, are dead. 6 (34m 21s): So these people are not who they claim to be. They are deceivers like their father, the devil himself, who is the father of lies. And they, they are without a functioning conscience. So their conscience and sear, they're dead, they're liars and deceivers. So these are the people. These are the entities that are trying to draw us away from our faith. And so don't, don't be surprised when you feel like giving up. It's it's an age old ploy of the enemy to get us distracted and hindered, getting us to refuse, to believe the truth of who Jesus is and what he wants to do 5 (34m 59s): In our lives. These people are not who they claim to be. 6 (35m 2s): They're deceivers without a functioning conscience, they will do what counterfeit religious leaders have always done. Counterfeit religious leaders have always heaped, heavy burdens and restrictions and expectations on 5 (35m 15s): Their followers. That's what we see throughout the throughout history and in the scripture of religious leaders, 6 (35m 23s): This is what verse three says. They will say it is wrong. These these religious leaders, they will say it's wrong to be married and wrong D certain foods, but God created those foods to be eaten with. Thanks by faithful people who, the truth, the Bible knowledge commentary States, the false teachers plaguing the Ephesians church were the forerunners of the Gnostics of the second century. The Gnostics believed that spirit is good and matter is evil. So anything that is got matter to it is evil, but spirit is good. So they believed all appetites relating to the body are therefore evil and should be rooted out, including normal desire for sex and food. 6 (36m 9s): And so they're saying don't get married, don't eat certain foods. It's all of these heavy duty restrictions that these religious leaders want to keep on us trying to get us to conform to their, their plan and purpose. So it's wrong to be married. Ron, what does God say about that? This is, this is what needs to be our response to anything that we hear that is sideways or seems different than the, than the word of the Lord. What does God think? Genesis two 18 in the new living translation, it says, then the Lord, God said it. It's not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him. And so God has created marriage to be a blessing to humanity. 6 (36m 49s): Now there are single people in the world who are called to it, or just in their circumstances. They're single right now. And God's blessing is upon them, but God has created marriage as a good thing for the world. The early deceivers also said that it's wrong to eat certain foods. What a bummer. I got a quick, quick joke. So this Catholic nun in this Catholic school was in the cafeteria with all of the Catholic kids. And there was this big bowl of apples in the line of the food. And so the Catholic nuns brought a little note that said only take one, Apple, God is watching. 6 (37m 31s): So, but at the other end of the line and the cafeteria was that big old platter of chocolate chip cookies. And so one of the students said, take all you want because Dodd is watching the app 7 (37m 44s): Bulls. 6 (37m 48s): I would prefer a chocolate chip cookie over an Apple any day. In fact, the only reason I eat healthy food like apples is so that I can have a chocolate chip cookie and enjoy the food that God has had called, called us to enjoy. But the early deceivers would say, it's wrong to eat certain foods. What does God say that? What does God think about that? And acts chapter 10, the apostle Peter fell into a trance and had a vision from the Lord acts 10, 11 through 16, says this. He saw the sky open and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners in the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, get up Peter kill and eat them. 6 (38m 33s): And what does Peter say? No, no Lord was his response. Listen, it's never a good idea to say, no Lord, it's a contradictory term. Like it's an oxymoron. You can't have Jesus as Lord and leader and King of your life and say no to him. Because by saying no to him, it declares that he's no longer your King and Lord and leader. And so for Peter to say, no Lord, he was showing a bit of his old nature. Have you ever had that creep up in your life where your old nature pops up and you're like, no Lord. Like I was arguing with the Lord the other day about meeting with some guy for prayer. 6 (39m 13s): It's like, Lord, I don't have time. I don't want to meet with this guy. Although I felt like I was supposed to meet with the guy. As soon as I'm having this argument with the Lord, I get a text from the guy that I'm supposed to. Hey, are we still praying together? I'm like, of course we're still praying together. Get over here. So, but we have this tendency to resist the good stuff Lord wants to do in our lives. No Lord Peter declared. I've never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean, but the voice spoke again, do not call something unclean. If God has made it clean, the same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven. 6 (39m 55s): Verse four says since everything God created is good. This is back to first Timothy four. Since everything God created is good. We should not reject any of it, but receive it with things where we know it has made acceptable by the, by the word of God and prayer made acceptable by the word of God and prayer. So now we have, I have to think, okay, God has created all of these wonderful things in the world and they're all good. Can we just indulge in anything and everything that God this created. And so we think about this, you know, this, the, the, we have this idea when it comes to food and when it comes to this new legalized thing called marijuana, and we think, well, if it's legal, then it must be okay, but it's clear that we're not to take anything that altered our mind. 6 (40m 49s): The scripture's very clear about this. So these are the guidelines for how we're to enjoy what God has created. We follow the word of God and we enjoy what God has provided for us with prayer. And thanks giving. So can I have anything I desire without measure? Well, let's look at a couple of verses here. You Zeke, you'll see. 1649 says Sodom sins were pride, gluttony and laziness. Well, the poor and needy suffered outside the door. So we know that we're allowed to enjoy everything, everything that God has given to us in the area of food, as long as we're not doing it in excess gluttony, we have to exercise some self control. 6 (41m 30s): So I, I stand up here and I, my gut constantly sucked in because if I don't suck it in, then it shows my Ponch, right. But my Ponch is there because I refuse to exercise. Self-control regarding sweets in my life. And so yesterday my wife said, Hey, would you like a cinnamon roll? And I said, no, I'm not going to eat the cinnamon roll because I just had a snack. I'm not having another snack. So an hour later, she's outside in the garden and I decide it's time for another snack. So I had a cinnamon roll that she made for my birthday because my birthday was just last week. And she made these amazing homemade cinnamon rolls with all of this icing on top. 6 (42m 10s): And then my daughter had, had bought me some, this, these donuts that I enjoyed as well. And then Jolene also had made this Apple pie that was just calling me. So I had donuts and I had Apple pie and I as cinnamon roll. And there was no, no wonder why I wasn't hungry for dinner, but I found a way to get dinner in me as well. It was just this incredible experience. And so that's called the sin of gluttony and I did lose 10 pounds, but I need to lose about 10 more. I, I, I, I think if I lost 10 more, I'd get rid of that gut. I wouldn't have to suck it in everywhere. It's uncomfortable to have to suck in your stuff 4 (42m 48s): Like everywhere. But that's what I gotta do. Cause I'm bill gluttonous. One of the, 6 (42m 56s): The fruit of the spirit of self-control. And I've realized that when I'm like, self-control in one area of my life that tends to spill over into other areas of my life. And so we have to be careful, 4 (43m 5s): Well that we're exercising. Self-control in all areas of our life. Now I know some of you is like, shut up Henry about your gut, right? You're like, I can barely hear 6 (43m 14s): You. See it. Listen. If I took my shirt off, you'd really see it right. Took it off bare chesty to be like, whoop, all of a sudden, there it is. Right. I've never had a gun. So now that I got one, I'm like, 4 (43m 26s): I'm trying to, I'm trying to hide it. That's why I wore these flowery shirts. They kind of nevermind, whatever. 6 (43m 33s): What else does the Bible say about our appetite? Galatians five 19 through 21 says when you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality in purity, less skull pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I had before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom 4 (44m 5s): Of God. So there's 6 (44m 7s): A word in verse 20 that mentioned, it's mentioned it's the word is sorcery. That word is also witchcraft. The Greek word. There is farming KPI, a pharma Kia, depending on how you pronounce it. And it means which 4 (44m 21s): I think what happens is, is when we avail ourselves to the, the unhealthy 6 (44m 33s): Use of drugs in our life, whether we're smoking dope, listen, 5 (44m 36s): The kid smoking dope is my favorite thing to do in the whole world. Why? Because it's a great escape, right? I would smoke. I would get high. I would go to sleep and I'd be out for a few hours. He was great. 6 (44m 48s): But then I realized that God has called us to live a life that we're not meant 5 (44m 54s): To escape from. And 6 (44m 56s): When I realized that over the course of my life, I realized I don't need to run 5 (44m 60s): Toward farming, farm 6 (45m 2s): Makiah. I don't need to run toward drugs. I can run to Jesus and find this stuff that I need. Often we're running to the wrong stuff, whether it be food 5 (45m 12s): Or drugs, 6 (45m 13s): And especially with legalized marijuana. Now I just got back from Colorado about a month or so ago. And 5 (45m 19s): There's, there's dispensaries 6 (45m 21s): All over. Like you can walk in anywhere and get marijuana. It's just a 5 (45m 26s): Early thing. It will wreck your life. I'm just going to tell you it will wreck your life. And just because it's legal in California, doesn't mean that you should be taking it. Anything that is going to alter your mind, whether it be drunkenness or any really any kind of addiction, some are addicted to sex or pornography. Some are addicted to wine. Alcohol, some are addicted to drugs. I know a guy who was addicted to drugs, painkillers for a year, 6 (45m 55s): And I've known this guy for years. And I, I I'm on the phone with him one day. I'm like, dude, are you loaded? Seriously? You sound like you're loaded. And I didn't know that he was loaded, but he was loaded. Right? And it was a wake up call 5 (46m 7s): To him. And he realized 6 (46m 10s): That he was hooked and he needed to get clean from his drugs. And so he's been clean for about the last year, 18 months or so. And you know, what's improved in his life, 5 (46m 19s): Everything right? His, his financial problems got cleared up. Why? Because he stopped spending so much money on drugs because it's black market drugs that he had to get because he couldn't get his doctor to prescribe anymore. His marriage got fixed. His family got fixed because he wasn't jacked up on drugs anymore. His spiritual life got squared away because he wasn't jacked up on drugs anymore. Listen, drugs, 6 (46m 43s): Addictions, all of these things will Jack 5 (46m 46s): You up. 6 (46m 48s): I didn't even realize how jacked up he was until he got off the drugs. When he got off the drugs and he realized, man, my, this is the life Jesus said, I've come that you might have life abundantly. This is you can't enjoy that. If you've 5 (47m 1s): Got an addiction in your life, you just 6 (47m 3s): Can't. You got to get all of the addictions out of your life and trust Jesus in every arena of your life. Addiction is just an escape, right? 5 (47m 14s): It's a way to get some, some help, kind of a counterfeit help and escape. When we're in trouble. God doesn't want that for you. He wants you to be free in Jesus name. And he just want you to be free. He makes the way to freedom possible because he's good. And he's faithful. Somebody told me this morning, I've turned that 12 step program into a two-step program. She said, I decided to quit drinking. And then I quit drinking. 6 (47m 46s): I said, what a great story? You know, we, we run to the wrong stuff. This is the wine capital of like, I mean, there's wine everywhere, right? So we have this temptation to run to all this alcohol and that 5 (47m 58s): Sort of thing. And listen, I'll say wine 6 (48m 0s): In the scripture tends to be spoken of in a positive light. It's a blessing, but drunk. 5 (48m 5s): And this has never spoken of in a POS in a positive light. It's Ephesians five says don't be drunk with wine. They will ruin your life instead. Be filled with the Holy spirit. So if you're drinking to excess, getting yourself drunk, you just need to stop. If you're running into pornography, trying to find fulfillment there by God's grace, she just need to stop. If you're running to drugs, trying to find something to numb your life, God, God, hasn't called us to live a life that we're trying to numb. 6 (48m 39s): He's trained. He's called us to live a life that 5 (48m 41s): We're trying to enjoy by his grace. We can do that. So run from all of those things that are deceptive and destroying your life. Drugs 6 (48m 50s): Bugs that alter our mind or alcohol that alters our minds is not for God's people. So there are some parameters 5 (48m 58s): For the stuff that God has created in 6 (49m 1s): World. Paul told Timothy, if you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ. Jesus. So Timothy's responsibility was to explain this truth to his people. He would be a worthy servant of Christ. Jesus, who, if he did this, who one, who would be one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teachings you have followed. So pastors and Bible teachers actually do. 5 (49m 31s): I don't have a choice, but to teach the whole counsel of 6 (49m 35s): God's word, it would be easier to talk about rainbows and butterflies, but that's not what you want to hear. And that's not what I want to talk about. I don't think you want to talk about rainbows and butterflies. I think we need to hear the word of God, that truth and allow that truth to be, to challenge our lives so that we properly align ourselves with him so that we can abide in him and have him abide in us. James three one says there's actually a stricter judgment for pastors and teachers for teachers of the word of God. We're actually going to stand before the Lord and give them 5 (50m 10s): Account for what we taught. I don't want to be in trouble. 6 (50m 16s): I don't want to be in trouble with God and I don't want to be in trouble with you. So I'm just going to teach God's word to the best of my ability, 5 (50m 23s): Where we need to get challenged and move forward. Amen. Verse 4 (50m 28s): Seven says do not waste time. Arguing over godless ideas and old wives tales. Instead, train yourself have to be godly. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. So what does godliness look like? Number one, God, Salinas is abiding in God, John 15. Jean says that if we abide in him and he abides in us that we will, we will produce spiritual fruit. Spiritual fruit is eternal. It doesn't have a shelf life. It's always credited to our account. So spiritual fruit is anything that, that impacts the kingdom of God for eternity. 4 (51m 10s): So when people get saved, when we're do a good deed for someone, when we pray for someone, when we love the unlovely, all of those things. When we're allowing the spirit of God and the word of God to come out of us and to bless those around us, we can, you can't actually accomplish anything of spiritual value. Apart from that abiding relationship with Christ, we can do a lot of busy stuff. We can volunteer for Sunday school for 10 hours a week. We can serve in all kinds of small groups. We can greet at the front door. We can write large checks to the church, but none of that stuff actually matters if we're not biting in Christ, right? 4 (51m 52s): Sometimes people write a big check to the church and that substitute that's kind of a substitute for their abiding and their service to Christ. But God has called us to serve him and love him wholeheartedly with all of our time, talent and treasure so that we honor him. And the way that we live our lives abiding in Christ gives us the grace to do all the things that he's called us to do. I was talking with this young couple and we're doing some counseling with them. They're about ready to get married. And, and they used to come to church here, but now they live in Nashville. And so I was doing stuff over zoom and doing some counseling and it got to, you know, we started talking about finances and I went on this rampage about tithing. 4 (52m 38s): I said, Hey, I'm going to talk to you was about tithing because it's really just gonna be foundational to your walk with Jesus. And so I did this whole teaching on tithing and I said, what do you guys think? And they said, Oh yeah, we already give 20%. It was like a total waste of my time and to talk to them about diving. But they're there something about, there's something about trusting God. And we're going to look at that in the next portion, but there's something about trusting God and believing him that comes out of that abiding relationship with him. What does godliness look like abiding with God, number one, number two. What has godliness like obedience to God abiding and obedience? 4 (53m 23s): Obedience is defined the general concept 6 (53m 28s): Of obedience, both in the old and the new Testament relates to hearing or hearkening to a higher authority. So hearing it or hearkening is not just 4 (53m 38s): Hearing, but it's actually hearing and doing it's obeying 6 (53m 42s): One of the Greek terms for obedience in the Bible conveys the idea of positioning oneself, 4 (53m 48s): There, someone by submitting to their authority and, 6 (53m 52s): And another Greek word for obey in the new Testament means to, this'll be surprising to us to trust another word in the new Testament for obey is actually it means to trust. We will never fully obey God. If we don't fully try. 4 (54m 10s): I asked him with our lives, our time talent and our treasure 6 (54m 15s): Measure, according to Holman's illustrated Bible dictionary, a succinct definition of biblical obedience is to hear God's word and act accordingly, to hear and act, to hear and respond, to listen and obey IRD men's Bible dictionary States, shew hearing, or obedience involves the physical hearing that inspires the hearer and a belief or trust that in turn motivates the hearer to act in accordance with the speaker's desire. Thus biblical obedience to God means to hear trust, submit, and surrender 4 (54m 53s): To God and his word. So 6 (54m 56s): Part of godliness has everything to do with obedience. Eight reasons why OBD 4 (55m 2s): Hands to God is important. Let's take a look at these really quick eight reasons. I don't know if they're up on the screen or not, but let's just go for it. 6 (55m 8s): Jesus calls us to obey is number one. What a great reason to obey simply because Jesus has called us to obey. I was talking to pastor Dave earlier. We were talking about baptism and he was having a conversation with the person where the guy about baptism. And he asked the guy, why should you get baptized? And he kept trying to come up with all these theological reasons why you should get baptized. And Dave said, Hey, why can't the answer be? Because Jesus told us to be baptized. I mean, if Jesus asks us to do something, we don't need to jump through all kinds of theological hoops to make our point. We just say, yeah, Jesus told me 4 (55m 42s): To do it. God told me to do it. So I'm going to do it. 6 (55m 44s): Jesus calls us to obey Jesus. John 14, 15 says, if you love 4 (55m 48s): Me, obey my commandments. 6 (55m 51s): Number one, Jesus calls us to obey. Number two. Obedience is an act of worship. Romans 12 tells us to give our whole lives. All of our bodies, everything is an act of worship to the Lord. Obedience is an act of worship, more so than singing and lifting up our hands along the same lines as worshiping. And when we come, come together gathered because what we do when we obey God is we declare that he is God and that he is worthy of our adoration. He is worthy our obedience. And so when we walk out obedience before the game of games were declaring worship before him and say, because you are God and I am not because you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, I will be obedient to you. 6 (56m 37s): OBT obedience is an act of worship. Number three, God rewards obedience in Genesis 22. God told Abraham, listen, your descendants in the whole world will be blessed because of your obedience. To me, 5 (56m 54s): Obedience is rewarded by God. You'll see it in your life. As you decide, 6 (57m 0s): I'm going to be a person of obedience. Every time the Lord asks me to do something, I'm just going to do it and watch the blessings that the rewards that come your way as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ it's and it's so much, so much fun. It's more fun than just kind of wrestling with God all the time about everything that he asked you to do. If you just say yes, Lord, not, not Peter, no Lord, no Lord doesn't work. As, as a kingdom follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Yes, Lord works every time. Number four obedience to God proves our love. All you have to do is read first and second, John, and you see that there's a direct correlation, a connection between obedience and the love that we say. We have the book of first and second, John clearly explains that obedience to God demonstrates love for God, loving God implies following his command. 6 (57m 48s): So we can't say we love God. If we don't walk obediently in his presence. Number five obedience to God demonstrate 5 (57m 55s): Space. Interesting. Huh? When we open 6 (57m 59s): Bega, we show our trust and faith in 5 (58m 2s): God. It's an, it's a demonstration 6 (58m 6s): Of our faith. We're saying, Lord, I believe you. And so if you're asking me to do this, 5 (58m 11s): I'm going to trust you. I believe it. Lord. 6 (58m 13s): I'm going to, I'm going to demonstrate my faith by saying yes to you. And first John, two, three through six, it says we can be sure that we know him. If we obey his commandments, if someone claims, I know God, but doesn't obey. God's commandments. That person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 (58m 33s): But those who obey 6 (58m 35s): God's word surely show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives. As Jesus did obedience to God demonstrates faith. Number five, number six, obedience is better than sacrifice in the old system. The old covenant old Testament. If somebody said that they would offer a sin, offering an animal sacrifice, but that's not what God was after. That was God's grace extended in that time so that people might be forgiven. 5 (59m 15s): But the scripture 6 (59m 17s): Says obedience is, 5 (59m 19s): Is better than sacrifice. 6 (59m 25s): Obedience is better than the sacrifices 5 (59m 27s): That we offer. New Testament. We, we sin and we say, Lord, forgive me. And then that's a great model. Obviously. That's what God wants us to do. But how about if we just decide we're going to be obedient. Obedience is better than sacrifice. I mean, I don't want it 6 (59m 41s): Offer. I don't want to have to offer. I don't want to have to say forgive me 5 (59m 44s): Lord and said, I just want to walk purely before the King of Kings. Thank God for his mercy 6 (59m 50s): Sanctification means I I'm asking for forgiveness less and less in a sense I'm still sending, but it's not the same old gnarly sins that I used to sin in. Maybe it's sins that are representative of my, my growth in Jesus. We still have to guard against a moral failure. We still have to guard against the pride or the flesh and pride and all of those things. But, but sanctification, meaning that the longer we're walking with Jesus means that we're not doing those same gnarly sins that we used to do, but there's an obedience connected to our 5 (1h 0m 29s): Lives and obedience that honors the Lord and requires us less of us grovelling before the Lord and saying, God, I'm sorry, I've done this a thousand time. There's victory available for us in Jesus. Number seven, disobedience leads to sin and death. The disobedience of Adam brought sin and death into the world. This is the basis of the term original sin, but Christ perfect obedience restores fellowship with God, for everyone who believes in him, Romans five 19 says for as by the one man's disobedience, Adam, the many were made sinners. 5 (1h 1m 12s): So by the one man's obedience Christ, the many will be made righteous in first Corinthians five 22. It says for as Adam, for, as in Adam, all die. So also in Christ shall all be made alive. First Corinthians five 22, number eight through obedience. We experienced the blessing of Holy living. And that's what I'm talking about. There's a blessing connected to Holy living. That is the decision to be obedient. And listen, if you're, if you're jacked up with addiction, you're going to miss out on this blessing. You're going to miss out on his blessing. I don't want you to feel picked on today. I want you to feel like there's hope today. I want you to feel like man, there's hope on the other side of this addiction, whatever it may be. 5 (1h 1m 54s): There's hope maybe you're here today and you're struggling with porn online porn, pretty, pretty pervasive sin in our culture for men and for women. There's a there's art there's software that you can load onto your computer called covenant eyes. That will hold you accountable for what you're watching online. You get an accountability partner and you say, Hey, I want you. And that accountability partner will actually get a report of everything that you read. I looked at online and, and they'll flag things that are inappropriate so that you have one more opportunity to say no to that sin. 5 (1h 2m 43s): So maybe yeah, this online porn or some other kind of sex addiction, maybe it's just an addiction to wine, alcohol drugs. There are paths forward. We have a, an AA program that meets here on Thursday nights for people who are trying to overcome their addiction to drugs. There are Christian based recovery programs that are available in the community for people who want to get free from drugs and alcohol and other types of addiction. So there's steps that can be taken if we will just decide to take it by God's grace and move forward in freedom through obedience, we experienced the blood sings of a Holy life. 5 (1h 3m 26s): What does godliness look like? Number three, discipline disciplined under God, disciplined unto God. Godliness speaks of a disciplined life in word thought and deed, listen, we're all in this journey, carrying our backpacks, moving toward a destination, just to be on the journey requires discipline. You've got to pack your bag and take the stuff that you need to take. You need to put on the armor of God and do what God has called you to do so that you survive the experience and thrive in the experience. It's it's the, the root of the word disciple is discipline. And God has called us to go make disciples of all nations. 5 (1h 4m 8s): He's called us to be disciples and to go make disciples of all nations. And so that means that we must activate discipline in our lives and be disciplined unto God as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And with that activation of discipline in our lives comes victory comes the ability to be obedience comes just joy and speakable and full of glory. Some of us don't even realize what we're missing out on because we keep falling short of the destination. We keep missing what God has for us and we fall short. And so we keep, keep missing out on God's best discipline is what God has for us. If we will move forward in that we will experience godliness like never before. 5 (1h 4m 53s): Let me just wrap up these last few verses and then we'll call, call the worship team back in just a few minutes and we'll stand and worship here. It says, this is a trustworthy saying verse nine and everyone should expect apt 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 6 (1h 5m 18s): These things and insist that everyone learned them. Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say in the way you live in your love, your faith and in your purity. I think we have way too low of expectations for young people. That's why I love it. When we've got young people here on the worship team, people, young people greeting young people involved in leadership because obviously Paul had an expectation of this young leader named Timothy. He said, don't let anyone despise you because you're young. Sometimes we, we think, wow, I'm young. It's my time to mess around. 6 (1h 5m 59s): And then I'll get serious with the Lord later on. Don't waste your time falling into that trap. Sometimes though, we, we, when we get old, we fall into that same trap. We say, ah, I'm too old to be doing anything helpful for the kingdom. I'm just going to play golf or do whatever I do and don't get me wrong. I love golf, but not at the expense of the kingdom work that God has called us to do. There's kingdom work that God has called us to do so, whatever your hobbies are, make sure they're in alignment with God's plan for your life. And if you're young or old, make sure God is on the throne of your life. And if you're middle-aged and you're raising kids, you've got all this stuff going on. Make sure Jesus is at the throne is on the throne of your life. He'll make you a better parent and make you a better husband, make you be a better spouse wife to make you a better person in Jesus' name. 6 (1h 6m 44s): Don't let anyone think less of you because you're young. Be an example to all believers in what you say and the way you live and your love, your faith and your purity. Until I get there, focus on reading the scriptures to the church, encouraging to believers and teaching them do not neglect the spiritual gifts you received through the prophecy, spoken over you. When the elders of the church laid their hands on, you gave you your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks 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, Timothy and the salvation of those who hear you. 6 (1h 7m 24s): What does godliness look like? It looks like a biting obedience and discipline. How's your backpacking trip. How's your journey with that? Let's go ahead and stand up and we're going to invite the worship team forward and we're going to worship some more and just see what the Lord will do as we honor him with our time. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for this time. Be glorified. As we sing, be glorified. As we think about ponder and decide what we're going to do with this information, help us to decide to abide and to be obedient and to be disciplined in you in Jesus name 2 (1h 8m 52s): . 2 (1h 13m 27s): Jesus died for me. I see his wounds, his hands, his feet, him down to the edge by heavy stone. 2 (1h 14m 16s): robes, Y blazing shop yeah, blazing C sharp. 2 (1h 16m 28s): And 1 (1h 17m 56s): Just ask you to help us each one of us be obedient in that next step. Like what are you calling us to God? What are you calling us to to give that's that we're trying, maybe we're trying to escape from, from the life that you count on us to leak out. And I just, we should just convict each one of us. If something there's always something we can do to get closer to you. God, just ask really? If I just ask you for that Jesus name. Amen. If you guys, if of you guys want prayer, we always have staff and volunteers up here are willing to pray for you. So come on out, but otherwise, thanks for coming. We'll see you next week.