[SPEAKER_00]: So my day was knocking on the door from Johova witnesses.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I just said, listen, so I just shared a couple of things and he just smirked at me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because they definitely don't believe what we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then so that was one thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there was another couple.
[SPEAKER_00]: They said over and here, they just started coming out, met with them, fascinating testimony with God's brought them through.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's really awesome to watch these folks that are coming into the church, literally they almost died because the furnace that cracked in carbon dioxide went into the house and I'm not going to tell you the whole story, but he is always at work and he didn't show up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, what's going on?
[SPEAKER_00]: They call nobody answered.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they called his wife's work and she didn't show up.
[SPEAKER_00]: They called to see if the kids went to school and they didn't go to school.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they went right to the house and they were going to pound the door down and the cops said, you can't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the neighbor somehow got into his truck and got the remote for the garage and opened it up and they went in and that saved them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They literally, the family is literally told because there were three in the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be prepared for three funerals because they won't make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said he was in a coma for three days.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she, you know, it was like, they're not going to make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so here they are in the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: They love the Lord and want to serve the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's just like, God's work and folks, you know, we get boohoo and so much, you know, about the world and how stupid the world is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know, you know, I see it a little bit too.
[SPEAKER_00]: on the news.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't watch much anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very much a repeat repeat.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what we focus is on the word and I had one years ago, one of the trustees with all the drama going on, he goes, hey Carl, can I say something to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, sure, he goes, you know when I love, I said what?
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, when we go to church, we go to church.
[SPEAKER_00]: in your preaching, you don't just talk about all the issues that are on the news and everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: You get into the word so that we can get growing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, well, thank you for noticing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I do talk about current events at times when it's something or a prayer for Israel or something along that line.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to me, if we have the belief down, it helps us to interpret what's going on out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't filter it through the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what we're talking about in first John has to do with our lives, but also our lives with the world, with our family, it co-workers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, really bad things can happen at work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really bad things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm counseling somebody yesterday.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're only bad things happened because she's a Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like how do you get through this at work as a Christian because sometimes you're going to be attacked because you're doing the right thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like how do we deal with this and our mind in our heart is like you don't want to be the sons of thunder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, just bring down a lie to fire and burn them up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's one approach, but I don't think that's what God wants it to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there has to be this mercy grace, and then as we're talking about the subject of forgiveness in 1st John, it's important.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're in 1st John, chapter 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to read the verses again, and then we'll make a comment about last week, and then move forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: talk about the walking in the light, as he's in the light, then we have fellowship one with another, highlight that, because I think what we're learning about does have a lot to do with building on fellowship.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have fellowship one with another, and then the blood of Jesus Christ has sung cleanses us from all sin, and he's talking to non-believers here or believers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very good.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's talking about you and I,
[SPEAKER_00]: that the blood still is important to us, not just for salvation, but for cleansing even as Christians.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, past, if we say that we have not sin, I have no sin, excuse me, it present tense.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth isn't us.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all in righteousness, not some.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we as Christians say that we have not sinned, we're not willing to admit we were wrong, then we're saying, God, you're a liar, and his word is not in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is really, really important.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, clarifying something, um, from from last week, we're talking about the beginning and two weeks ago, we talked about, um, creation a lot more, talked about the gap theory and how that's wrong and we talked about some things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I just need to clarify one thing when it, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when when God created in Genesis chapter number one in this text he's dealing with in the beginning talking about creation and so we look back at Genesis one We looked at second Corinthians for remember how we should it showed a comparison between creation
[SPEAKER_00]: and how God saves that light is in the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: So to clarify, God created everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing here that God didn't create.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's time and space and matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have water.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have angels.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I mean, all these things are created, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's the darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so all of these things would have been naturally obviously created by God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He created everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so just clarify, and we're going to get into that more detail on Sunday morning because we're getting into the preeminence of Christ in Colossus chapter number one.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's nothing here that God didn't create just to be clear on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now, after we get in, get through, walking in the light, and that's what God is.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has light, the Christ is the light of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we're to walk in that light, and that gives us fellowship, who are the first two that God says we have fellowship with, anybody remember?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have fellowship with one another, and before that it says we have fellowship with a father and the son.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have fellowship with God, the father and the son.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that creates his doors bringing up the fact that we have fellowship one with another.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what we're seeing here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he connects the blood of Christ with walking in the light and having this fellowship
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is all connected I feel as we go forward with this matter of confessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let me go back to my previous notes and I'll be quick on this because I don't want to rehearse all of last week.
[SPEAKER_00]: But remember how we talked about
[SPEAKER_00]: people that have self-deception, they don't see themselves, they don't recognize sin inside of themselves, currently, presently, they're not evaluating my effect on you, Justin, you brought up after service, he came up and said, yeah, God says, you know, the sun just says, search me, oh God, and see if there's anything in me that's wicked, it's like reveal it to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, now you're definitely not going to recognize something that could be wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we got into talking about things that, well, I don't cost drink to go with girls that do.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I don't do this and I don't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we think we're good.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God goes into depth with you and I have Christians with, if we know it's the right thing to do and we don't do it, it's sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a sin of omission.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know the right thing to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that can be wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then we also have that walking in the spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if we're not walking the spirit, well, I didn't look at anything bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but you're not filled with love and joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we don't have self-control.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have all of these other things.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not walking in the spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then we're going to be walking in the flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, we have the pride internally that we have to guard our hearts with.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to guard with gossip, you know, me first mind sets, look at me, because remember some of the rules finish up, talking about the Pharisees.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember how Jesus described the Pharisees as the ones that's like everything I do so notice me come on See me notice me and he's like yeah, you got your reward already So we have to guard on all of these things and so that's the thing So then he talks about in verse 10
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, if I say, past tense, I have not sinned, then again, I don't have a self-awareness of what I have done wrong in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then if a person would confront you or if you're failing to recognize that you did do something wrong in the past, then you're saying, God, you're wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, no, God's not wrong, you are, dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to recognize this is wrong, and it's in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this still needs to be recognized as wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so these are the past and so we have to stop and say, present, OK, I do have something guarantee you, if I looked inside long enough, I'm going to find something that I need to get right with with somebody else, something in my life, something with my family,
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Val.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last week, she shared about a time when she felt she needed to get something right with somebody else, and that's being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have to be careful of the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now going forward, in verse 9, if you haven't memorized this, verse you probably should, but we're going to break it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: if.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's contingent on the fact of confessing it, not just thinking about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, your kid does something wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know you know they did something wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what you're waiting for as a parent?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you waiting for as a parent?
[SPEAKER_00]: them just to come and tell you I didn't do this or I shouldn't have done that I'm sorry I shouldn't what that will be nice if kids just admit it right but that's not the nature and by the way that's our nature with God too or I find this with me I'm generic okay Lord you know what I did I'm really sorry
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows everything, but when we admit it to him, I think there's something with our fellowship then with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we recognize He's right, I'm wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is exactly what I have done.
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't be generic, be specific with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You say, I'm embarrassed to say it to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows it, and God sees everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's not to be anything that you have done that no one else in the world has ever done.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says so, would you say, Pam, there you go, nothing new under the sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, there's no temptation taking you, but such as is what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Commit everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: We always think the certain people in the other day, they are not tempted to gossip or be proud or anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're so humble, they come in, you know, that real humble look and everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen humble looking people being really mean nasty and arrogant.
[SPEAKER_00]: So has nothing to do with this and the way they dress in such, and so it's about the heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, so we have to be specific, so that's the condition that is based on it, so God is waiting for us to confess it.
[SPEAKER_00]: and so then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and then he cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, dear Nate, I'm going to bed and all of a sudden I'm sure I heard somebody else say it, but I thought, well I'm going to write this down today and it is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unconfessed sin equals unforgiven sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: if we don't confess it, it's not forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's where we have to make sure we're confessing as first John one says.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to give this commercial though.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's these groups out there that are hyper-dismissationalists and what they believe and they were at my first church and they cut up the word way beyond what, right, they dividing the truth, or it means.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they believe that only the Pauline letters are for you and I, the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Johanna writings are not actually for the church, they're more for the Jews.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're coming in, teaching my people this, trying to divide, trying to get disciples to themselves, want to take the church over basically and trying to get me to change my mind on all of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, Hebrews is in there because they feel Paul wrote it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So therefore, Hebrews is for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so on the last message they were at the church
[SPEAKER_00]: I preached to the Christians, and I said, we need to confess our sin, and of course on the way out, little churches, you know, 78 people there, and then on the way out, you know, I'll of course greet everybody on the way out, you know, the old school, and so he made sure, I highly disagree with what you said today, and I said, good, and I just stared them down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, on the preacher time, I'm just starting out, you know, I'm being attacked like crazy by this guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then I don't know if I called him later, he called me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have to confess our sins anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all covered through the blood of the lamb.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no confession of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's for the Jews.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no water baptism for the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no communion for the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: None of that is only for the Jews.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter's gospel was different than Paul's.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul said that in me first, this message was preached.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to sit down with my deacons, and I had to explain what the Bible actually says.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had, I mean, I'm balling, praying, trying to get insight on these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just starting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just got saved eight years before this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so,
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going through, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peers had this, Paul said this, and then it's like, oh, pears, message was to the gentile, Jews, and Paul was to the gentiles, and so it's different, and it's a different gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, wait, I'm mad at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who led the first gentile to the Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter, and guess who led a whole bunch of Jews to the Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul, the message was this, anyways.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I get into this, I think people will listen to this, but you may come across some of these people, or podcasts or whatever, and just to stop and realize, this is for us, this is for the church, and because of that, we need to be sensitive to this in our own personal lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not your job to micromanage them about making sure other people are right with God and confessing their sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we're saying, he's teaching us is, I have to confess mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a personal thing between me and God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, what does denial, I'm sorry, yeah, really?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you are saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is not based on you having every dot checked in your life as a Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when you did get saved, that did not mean.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we talked about this last week that you'll never sin again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the other thing is, I know Billy is myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I'm learning scripture, I'm realizing, oh, I hurt somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did something wrong to somebody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, no, if it's possible to tell the person him really sorry I did that, we could do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But most of the people
[SPEAKER_00]: I heard, I don't know them, don't know where they're at, don't know their name, so I really know way of getting things reconciled, but if I could, I would, you know, follow me.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's one guy, I wish I could find him, I'd like to talk to him, but, you know, he was, he's an evolutionist, I don't know, he would even care.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, but we, I think it's the sensitivity that you're talking about, you're sensitive to being right with a Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, no, you were saved all the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't ever doubt that, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So what does the self-denial of sin bring?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are the consequences if I don't recognize that I have sin or have sined hurt somebody or whatever it would be?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are the consequences of that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are there consequences?
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, it can affect our rewards in heaven one day, because we never got it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Prior life is going to be affected and we're going to conclude with that tonight, and that's right on the money.
[SPEAKER_00]: What else you got?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, going.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the consequences, I'm going around unforgiven, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_00]: What was the key word I said to stop on and mark for tonight?
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember the word is starts with the letter F. Fellowship.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we don't get things right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our fellowship with God is broken.
[SPEAKER_00]: Prayer agreed, but in the tax, he's saying, we walk in the light, we have fellowship on with another, the blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing us from our sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we say that we don't have any sin, so you can see he's leading right into this, this fellowship with God and one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's broken when we're not confessed up, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just with each other, it is with a father in the sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the next note was, no forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's another consequence.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where we get into the Psalm 668.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we could become a stumbling block to other Christians.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like you're saying, we could interfere with some other person.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: Go to that Psalm 66 with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike brought it up and then Dave brought it up also.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this is the point we actually talk about that briefly.
[SPEAKER_00]: 66, 18 is where we're heading to.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Psalm 66, 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: While you're turning there, when I was at the factory, next last factory worked at, I had done something wrong in front of a guy, but I was trying to witness to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Trying to show the gospel with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a drunk, bad alcoholic.
[SPEAKER_00]: He came in drunk when at nine o'clock, Chuck Bears.
[SPEAKER_00]: and come back to a 12 o'clock, and then from 12 o'clock to 12 o'clock to 12 o'clock, he chugged as many beers as they could, and then we were going to work, he would go right to the bar, and he'd drink all night, and until he'd go home, that's what he did daily, functioning alcoholic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's one day I'm trying to share the gossip with him, you know, and he'd listen, he knew all of these things, but then I did something wrong in front of this man.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after I did that wrong thing, I remember going to his name's Henry, and I walked up to him, and I said, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, I'm fighting God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I remember, I just got saved, not that many years before this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm pretty new believer, and I said, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said that was wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what he did?
[SPEAKER_00]: He looked at me and said, I was wondering, so he said to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's watching me, he's like, why are you doing that?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I apologize.
[SPEAKER_00]: That same man, when I got through Bible College, because I was there over seven years, and then they watched me go from just becoming a believer to finishing up Bible College and get ready to take my first church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was one of the last ones that come up to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes, Carl, let me tell you something, I said what?
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes, we've been watching you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We watched your change, and it's almost like he was saying, we approve you being a preacher, and it was like really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: He never got saved that I know of, but we shared the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all you can do is plant a seed, water the seed, and God gives the increase.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's where that sensitivity to admitting when we're wrong, even to the lost world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if we do wrong, we don't get it right with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: We could be a stumbling block to them to say, oh, you Christians, you bunch of hypocrites.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just do whatever you want and get away with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think there's that sensitivity.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Psalm 6618 has to do with when I, when I deny wrongdoing, God says it hinders my prayer to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: Son 6618 says, if I regard emiquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God will not obligate Himself to answer my prayers according to His will, because I am knowledgeable, I am, I am,
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm knowing that this is in my mind, and in my heart, I've done something, but I'm not doing anything with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God says, I'm not gonna obligate myself then to answer the prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I am in self-denial of present or past sin, how do I see myself, righteous or unrighteous?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do I see myself, righteous or unrighteous?
[SPEAKER_00]: I see myself as righteous, but realistically, in God's sight, no, you're not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that makes me, then, if I'm not willing to say I've done wrong, doesn't that make me self-righteous?
[SPEAKER_00]: I see myself as righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does self-righteousness lead to?
[SPEAKER_00]: when I'm observing other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm right, I'm holy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't do anything wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm looking at your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do the self-righteous usually do with others?
[SPEAKER_00]: Pride?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how do I view you then?
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm right, I'm your...
[SPEAKER_00]: You're inferior and off, okay, let's think about the Pharisees, where they self-righteous the Sadducees, law, what did they do with Jesus, his followers, prostitutes that we're believing, drugs that we're believing, how did they view these wicked sinners?
[SPEAKER_00]: As wicked sinners,
[SPEAKER_00]: How can you eat with these people?
[SPEAKER_00]: How can you drink with these people?
[SPEAKER_00]: How can you socialize with these people?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're such a filthy, dirty person, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the condemnation.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what the self-righteous does.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm perfect, that means you're not.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to observe you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to condemn you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to try to find fault.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the key.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, ma'am.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go, exactly right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus taught a lot on this subject, been me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, yeah, we're in this judging business and it's like, oh, look at that little problem that you have in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the same breath though, we're not seeing the great big problem that we have in ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what self-righteousness does.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pride, as Bob said, it leads us to that kind of condemnation of other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we do have to be careful
[SPEAKER_00]: that we, to me, admitting I'm wrong, humbles me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm realizing, I'm dirt, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love that one song, and where he says, God remembers our frame.
[SPEAKER_00]: He remembers what we were made from.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so thankful for God's mercy there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it does lead to condemnation, it leads to criticism.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what I saw.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I see the scriptures with the Pharisees,
[SPEAKER_00]: these who have the degrees, and they are criticizing everybody else, and this is what they did to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is holiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just holy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He literally is holiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no sin in Him at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: and yet they blamed him because he healed a man that had to deformed hand on the Sabbath day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's nowhere in the wall that says, thou shalt not heal on the Sabbath day, but in their own interpretations and their own writings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh no, you're not allowed to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I love how Jesus said, well, if you have an animal that just fell down to ditch, aren't you gonna take care of an animal on the Sabbath?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this is different.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you're saying that an animal is a more important than a human being, the hypocrisy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what self-righteousness always is seen as is hypocrisy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, your, your preacher, you know, is not perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pastor Nathan is not perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are not perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: None of our deacons, or trustees, or Sunday school workers, or a one of workers, and we'll go through every leader in this church, not one of us is perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't mean we don't care.
[SPEAKER_00]: The point is, we realize, they're times my attitude is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's times I have pride.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's times I say things, I'm like, why did I say that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody else say it to do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, why did I react or whatever?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we all have that simple nature to defend ourselves, whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what we do is, is we stop on a cycle, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's look at myself, search me, oh God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he brings it to light, the pride, or whatever I'm dealing with in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what I do is get things right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every church I've been, including this one, we've had the self-righteous people come in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they make no bones about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm here to create a heik to preacher.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am here to critique you, every Sunday school teacher.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to examine you and what I'm doing is trying to find one thing that I think you said wrong and I'm going to make sure I tell everybody that you are wrong and I'm right.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are today's Pharisees.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all they are and I've had them here and a lot of people here and they're so beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just love them and they don't know what they were up to.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had an agenda.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they go to the next church with the exact same agenda.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they go to the next one to critique and tell everybody about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I haven't do it because other people can't say, boy, you gotta see what they're saying about your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because they're righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't bring the holiness into the church or the church did not accept the holiness that they were bringing to this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: or Bible Baptist or my first church because of how they dressed versus how you dress, how you conduct yourself, that you do everything that they do, and if you don't, you're back slidden.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, and where is that in the Bible exactly?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Christ gave us freedom to serve, and I can't wait to get into that in Colossians.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, Dave, you have a thought, you look like you had a thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's where I thought last week with Pam saying, if I know I have heard her, I'm to go to her and gain a sister back.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if she has hurt me, I'm to go to her and say, hey, this hurt, I need to tell you what you did.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because sometimes we don't know that we hurt somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So God's saying, okay, if you know that you've come cause a fence, a stomach block to somebody else or they have done it to you, you are still the one that has to go to that person to get things corrected.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, there's people I've talked to to say, you know, out and about.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're, you know, the same things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, have you gone to your pastor to explain yourself?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, don't talk to me about him then.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go talk to him about it, you know, because he might be losing people, and he doesn't even know why.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't even know what he did wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm saying that he was right.
[SPEAKER_00]: preacher made some mistakes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, we'll go talk to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, how can he know if you don't talk?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the hardest thing to do is have confrontation with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, it's, I don't like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you like it?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll say, I love confrontation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, I don't like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and that's being sensitive to people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you're not overreeding people, but there are times, you know, it's like, okay, something seems to be off here, and, you know, that's when you just call texts or whatever and say, you're doing okay, you know, they've been going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, sometimes they keep it generic just to see if they're like, oh, you know, this is what's going on, and then you find out, oh, yeah, their car just got totaled and, you know, and all this bad stuff just happened and so, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, brother and sister just balanced each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you didn't know that, yeah, it's true, because sometimes we can go be so feeling touched, everything offends me, you know, it's like my feelings were hurt because you used that word or said, you know, it's like really, I mean, like really that, you know, and that's what we see in our culture is, oh, you hate me because you said that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't hate you because I said that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just said what I believe, that doesn't mean I hate you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, we have that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the other side of that is we have to be careful that we're like, I don't care what you think about me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the countless side that we have to be careful of that, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have that in us that we don't care what other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, that balance needs be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of scriptures we could, I can pull together with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can talk about people.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, whether it's Aaron Miriam against Moses, sibling probably, you know, all this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's one text that I, and I, and I preached on it last year about this long.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all I can clue to with is this, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are times, God says, when you have a full, you gotta go to him, a better talk or
[SPEAKER_00]: and then the next verse says, do not answer a fool, according to their fall, like, I'm like, well, which is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: When do you go, when do you not go?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because there's certain people, I know if I went, all that it would do is cause hatred, mean because they don't get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, they're false.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God says they're false, because they line up with Proverbs right along the line.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, there are certain people, I have not gone to, because it would not do anything, because I know them, I know them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, there's other times, God says, you need to approach them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to let them know what their actions, what they have done.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've offended, you know, you're doing something wrong or whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're in sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's where, you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, in regulations, if any man's overtaking in a little fall, you and I who are spiritual would restore such a one in the spirit of maintenance and you know, consider in our ourselves, you know, because we could fall into the same type of wrongdoing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we are to be building people up the Barnabas that we talked about last year and helping people to grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we just let them to themselves and if I don't say, Pam, you did something wrong to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's not going to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's times you do need to talk to somebody about something that they've done wrong because they could be doing it to everybody else, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even family members, and they're just hurting and cutting off relationships because of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's times where we do need to go and talk and say, this is what you've done.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, biblically, that's you shouldn't be doing that because.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we want to get into the building people up for sure, yes, sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, in certain people, remember how talk about love, how it keeps track of stuff?
[SPEAKER_00]: Love doesn't keep track of stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, that didn't do a thing to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never even thought anything of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now that you said that, I'm like, yeah, that's really offensive, Bob.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now that I think about it, but love just, you know, love covers the multitude of sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: But somebody that's teaching wrong doctrines after the second and third-at-dimension reject, that's a fool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these people I'm talking about, I have talked to them and I said, you did this wrong, you were talking about these people, you were blaming their own people, and not one time did they ever say they were wrong about any of the above that I showed to them that they what they were saying was wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, I'm not gonna deal with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the one I'm in my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I'm done.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't fix stupid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, you can't fix it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a really good question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does these scriptures that we're about to read only apply to Christians or does it apply to that co-worker that I did something against helping you out?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I went and I apologize to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, that same guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sing, I had a lot of relationship with this guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a drunk, and he came and apologized to me once, and I said, you're forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what happened was he cussed me out like a sailor, screaming and yelling at me, and let me have it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That night, he had drunk, went down the steps, almost broke his neck.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he had black and blue marks he was beat to a pulp.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next day he comes to work.
[SPEAKER_00]: He comes right to me because Carl, God did this to me because of how I treated you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I am really sorry that I said that to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He apologized to me and I said, you were forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that there needs to be that.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we're going to be believable, there needs to be the concept of forgive, because of the world knows God's about forgiveness that we believe in, and the Jesus died, and it's about forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I do believe there needs to be that same thing with our children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever had to tell your children you were wrong?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's humbling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, I was wrong, and so, you know, so I think it's for our children, for anybody I would apologize to my parents, even after we were married, I
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, said something or did something wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, I think it's to the loss where I think it's to in general.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the question.
[SPEAKER_00]: My wife and I have had answer with parents, with her kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, how do I treat my child who was raised in church, Christian school, the whole nine yards, and now they're waving a gay flag in front of churches saying, I hate the church and I hate God and God's horrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do I treat my child that now hates everything that we taught her and we stand on?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we treat her?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we interact?
[SPEAKER_00]: they're getting married.
[SPEAKER_00]: We go to the wedding.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we have all the things in this culture that we're in and we got the drug use of, I mean, laying down in this little church.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have had female strippers from South Bend.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have had drug dealers.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a man who was a murderer, and it was one of the most brutal, horrible murders, and he would write in this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: My first church, the murderer killed his wife and all of his children except for one, and their in church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are some really bad things that people do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what is our mind towards somebody that has done really horrific?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we've had child molesters through the churches that I've mastered, rape, I mean a lot of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know it, these are real people.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they're looking for forgiveness or to feel better about their conscience or because that guy killed his wife and kids he came to the church and he walked the aisle and talked to him, you know, and he's like, I didn't do it, you know, and all of this, I was like, okay, it was going to try on.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did it, he's doing well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, what do we, how, how do we deal with that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe this will help.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe maybe you don't, but I believe when Jesus Christ died on the cross, his blood was shed for the sins of the whole world, that's in chapter 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that gives that everybody in the world, the capability of being forgiven for being a murderer or whatever they did wrong, that that would be expunged from the record they would be forgiven and given eternal life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God is in the forgiving business.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when he went to the woman, who was taken in adultery, and obviously she did something wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's thrown down in front of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: You remember how he'd ruined a sand and kind of probably showed the sins of all the accusers and they were ready to stone her to death and what are you going to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, then she's like, where are your accusers?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, I don't condemn you there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what's the last thing he said to her?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're wanting our kids or grandkids or co-worker or somebody to change for God, to change them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think there's a difference between saying to them, you know as a Christian, I don't condone this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe, Biblically, it is wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you're ever ready to get back with the Lord, you let me know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're not putting your blessing on their sin that God just made you that way, everything is fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that it's, we have to be very Christ-like.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've also seen some that look at them and say, you're not my child anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate you, get out of my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've embarrassed us as a family.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they cut them off.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they will look at that person as the Christian and say, so you're not a Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that you just put concrete on what I was saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's just like they just solidified it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, but is there fellowship with a person?
[SPEAKER_00]: See the difference between fellowship and loving them?
[SPEAKER_00]: You following me on this?
[SPEAKER_00]: So a fellowship is, we're in the Word together, we're breaking bread together, we're communion together, we're seeing and we're shaping.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what, remember, we looked at that text, is what fellowship is light with darkness, the temple of veil, with the temple of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no fellowship, they're opposites.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so,
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1 Corinthians 5, there was an individual, there was doing bad immorality in the church, in the church knew it, and they were tolerating it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were bragging about tolerating it, matter of fact, it's like, you know, we'll care.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul sends this letter to review them to say, this and me and me called out in a carpet.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's in your assembly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're not doing anything about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he talked about the discipline that needed to happen to this person, which included saying, yeah, you're not going to come to church and everything is just fine, we're going to have communion together and have this fellowship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there was this excommunication, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the purpose of saying, that's wrong, we're not having fellowship with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: of restoration.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not for, I'll never talk to you again, you're lost, you know, go to hell, you're out of here.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what it's about, you need to say, how do you know that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when you go to second Corinthians in chapter two, Paul talks about the forgiveness for that one that was disciplined, we believe it was the same one.
[SPEAKER_00]: We believe he got his heart right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you know what Paul had to tell him now?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, the guy he got right with the Lord, he quit his sin, he's back in church and nobody
[SPEAKER_00]: You're treating them like dirt now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says, you need to do two things.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to confirm, you're loved for them, for him, and that you forgive him.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, get the fellowship back again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so any time there is a separation, it's always for the purpose of restoration.
[SPEAKER_00]: But many of these cases that I talked about, they're saying, I did no wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bring about.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm accused, and they would never have met, and they separated from everybody else, and that's sometimes what kids do.
[SPEAKER_00]: They move to California because they don't want to be around their parents because they just want to have their own life, their freedom.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm away from everything I can do my own thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to go San Francisco.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can live my lifestyle and everybody loves it and accepts it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so sometimes people will literally leave, like the prodigal.
[SPEAKER_00]: and everybody knew what the product was up to.
[SPEAKER_00]: The brother knew, dad knew, mom knew, everybody knew what the product was up to, but when the product came back, the forgiveness was there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's a thing where,
[SPEAKER_00]: We're ready to forgive, we're ready to restore, but they need to get their heart rate with us like the prodigal did.
[SPEAKER_00]: They need to admit, yep, that was wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been fighting God or whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like you did with your mom, like mom, you were right, I was wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm getting right with God and I won't get right with you and now we have harmony with fellowship again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, that's probably one of the deepest, most difficult things to talk about that's going on in our culture right now because there's some real difficult things that are happening and we know that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some say, I hate them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want them to go to hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not biblical either.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had an abortion.
[SPEAKER_00]: She killed somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never talked to her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's not biblical because they did something wrong because I think sin is sin is sin and I'm glad God didn't kick me out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad I didn't live in the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't kill me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, I'm going through the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, yep, I've been dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, there's another one there.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're still me.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were drug me out, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, yeah, I would have been a goner.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, man, I'm glad I'm in the New Testament, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I hope that helped.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a little long, but let me finalize the subject with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in this verse nine, what is our responsibility?
[SPEAKER_00]: What else is in this verse that we are to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: what are God's responsibilities, then?
[SPEAKER_00]: To forgive and cleanse, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are God's qualifications to forgive and cleanse?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's God, but what are the two words in the text?
[SPEAKER_00]: He is faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is qualified.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is just to do the forgiving.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's holy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God is saying about himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the faithful one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be there religiously.
[SPEAKER_00]: I almost said that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be there consistently to do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's going to be there every time, just like a dad would be, just like Mama, always there, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he's qualified, he's just, he's just a fire, and then he doesn't just forgive, but he cleanses us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there is a difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I love to tell the story this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the little kid getting ready for church, he said, Mommy, can I go out and play?
[SPEAKER_00]: She goes, yes, you can go out to play, you got your church clothes on, stay away from the mud puddle.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you know where the kids are going to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, then on my puddle.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he comes to the door, he's crying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mom, I fell in the mud puddle.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told you not to go to the mud puddle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mom, no!
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I shouldn't have done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK.
[SPEAKER_00]: I forgive you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's only one problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, the muddy is going to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: So she got to take them in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get them in the tub, clean them up, so that all of the evidence of the sin is gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what God does to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just forgive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wipes it away.
[SPEAKER_00]: He cleanses us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what does he cleanse us through?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the thing that God constantly says?
[SPEAKER_00]: He forgives us by the washing of the blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where it's the cleansing redeemed we talked about Sunday morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: are we quick and ready to forgive?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are we faithful to it?
[SPEAKER_00]: We should be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Ephesians 4 2, 4 32, be kind one to another, tender-hearted.
[SPEAKER_00]: for giving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Matthew six is, and this is why I wanna close with, in the subject of prayer again, this brought up a couple of times.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the disciples, like Teaches of the pray, so he gives them the model prayer, our Father, which art in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after that is all done, there's one thing that Jesus parks on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says a lot in this prayer, the Holy and the God, pray for daily bread and everything, but Jesus parks on one of all the things that he taught on prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you know, for give us our, that's as we forgive others, they're dead, you know, they're dead, she's like, yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he goes on and says, oh, by the way, let me park one after a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't forgive, neither will your father and heaven forgive.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's connected with prayer again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if we are not ready to forgive, God says, yeah, when you do wrong, don't bother asking for forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: You gotta go to that person and forgive them first, and then you come to me to ask for forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is hard, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, but, you know, why I'm afraid that my life, maybe others, is that we've lived in the wilderness for 40 years, the majority of our Christian life with an unforgiving spirit, and we're, and we're acting just like the, the,
[SPEAKER_00]: Israelites in the wilderness, grumbling and complaining and bitter and wanting the world, I mean, and I've seen people in church that have that mindset.
[SPEAKER_00]: All they do is grumble and complain, everything is negative, negative, negative, negative.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you could just tell there's not this ever, I'm wrong, I'm wrong with that attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, if we, and the thing is that whole time period is what Israel was not fruitful.
[SPEAKER_00]: What was produced in the wilderness by the Israelites?
[SPEAKER_00]: Bunch of grumbling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got 10 up again.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we've got the offerings going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man is coming down or we're still getting fed and watered, but it's just like they weren't witnessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I don't want us as Christians to be like that because we don't have a attitude of forgiveness or recognition of the sin in my own life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, closing questions or comments?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Aiken's sin affected Israel going into war.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm repeating this because people listen online and they need to know what we're talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the result is a lot of people died in war because of Aiken's sin that he hid and then God's revealed to Joshua Hayes.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're sinning to camp, go take care of it, and he did victory all as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the question is this, what if one of the members in our church has sinned?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it going to contaminate the entire body that it is all going to be a church is going to be a failure because one Christian in the assembly has done something wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now nobody is going to say everything is going to be horrible, nothing spiritual is going to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Terry, help me out.
[SPEAKER_00]: God compares the church to a body, and when one part of the body is hurting, it affects the rest of the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: If my body and I don't know right now, let's say I have lung cancer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I may not know it, but it's growing and it's doing something and it's going to cause weakness in the body, so hopefully they will be able to take it out or give me something to fix it, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that when there is sin in the body, I think it's going to affect the body to say, well, nothing is going to happen, just do whatever, it's like, no, I think there are consequences, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think that because I gossiped about Nathan to Chris in the office that that's going to keep somebody from getting saved Sunday morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll explain this to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a lady she lives up on County Route 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's come here some.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her husband came faithfully.
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually let him to Lord Baptize him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He died of cancer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was hard for her to go to church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, I got saved under such a such pastor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was there for a long time, and then I found out that the pastor was sleeping with a lot of women in the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was sleeping with a women in the church when I got saved under his preaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: That seems contradictory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, she literally, for 30 years or more, doubted as she was saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: How could I get saved because the preacher was in sin?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, well, is your salvation contingent on the pastor or the word of God?
[SPEAKER_00]: You got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: No preachers say, I don't want to say, nobody saves.
[SPEAKER_00]: God does the saving and it's His Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's His Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I explained to her, even though he was in sin, the truth of the Word and the gospel of the death-brown, the resurrection of your need of Christ, the sin and everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, this is what I believe in.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said to think, you're not saved because of that is wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: God saved you.
[SPEAKER_00]: and spite of him, you know, God saved you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's like, I never thought I would say because of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how we feel sometimes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we had an aching, so nothing else can happen, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so,
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it can affect the church case, but I don't think it's going to squelch and stop the Spirit of God, the Word of God, that God won't work as a result.
[SPEAKER_00]: The seven churches and the Revelation, God revealed their sin that they were tolerating and engaging in, and He says on a snuffer laid out, and He did, it was because they were, like Bob was saying, it was known sin,
[SPEAKER_00]: and they're taking the doctrine of the lay to see us.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're taking all these doctrines in and the bail worship and because of that God took them out is result.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's my two cents in a short amount of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, we're going to be here all night, aren't we?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is an important topic, though.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do, good or bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't just, it's me as a little monk all by myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it does work that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are definitely influencing people around us.
[UNKNOWN]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I'd like asking this question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you glad you came to church tonight?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like, sometimes this is like, man, if in this, I needed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody needed it, besides me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all need this, and it's that constant reminders, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's go ahead and close and let you folks go home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, thank you for this time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your words are amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for everybody sharing bots versus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We sharpen each other and this is how we learn.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the sweetest fellowship that we can have and we thank you for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your word and we don't have all the answers.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are situations, these situation ethics that we get into.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people will thank good Christians to do it this way and other good Christians do it a different way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think there are certain things Lord we do for conscience sake.
[SPEAKER_00]: We sometimes don't do things because of our own conscience sake.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Lord, I pray that you'll help us to know how to act, react, confess the ask for forgiveness, to be quick, to forgive, that that love we have for you, the love we have for them will cover just a whole multitude of sins you tell us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help us Lord to remember to keep that short account with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Lord, I want the people that have answered prayers, and I don't want sin to block it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So use this message for us all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Myself included Lord that will have a sweeter fellowship with you and a sweeter fellowship with each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll thank you for Jesus, I could pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.