Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
We're continuing in Hebrews. If you could turn to Hebrews chapter 12.
And I'm really stoked about this section, even though, you know, it would seem by the title
that what's so exciting about God's correction, right? Who wants to be corrected by God? But I
think we all really do appreciate his correction because his correction is never to harm us,
but to improve us and to make us more like him corrected, not rejected. God's discipline
proves he loves you. Do you believe that? I mean, I've seen it time and time again. And so we're
explore these four categories of God's correction in this passage of scripture.
And because we have so much to do, and then we have communion together,
let's pray and dive right in. So Father God, we thank you for this church family, Lord,
and how we are putting your word first and foremost in our lives. And we thank your Holy
Spirit for releasing and revealing things in your word that we could never logically
conclude, but it's only your spirit that illuminates your word of God. So Lord,
we ask your Holy Spirit right now to do that in this place here,
Lord, that you would illuminate our thoughts and minds,
that we would be more transformed as Jamie shared last week, more transformed into your image.
So thank you so much for this word of God and the beautiful correction that you put into our
lives to help us follow you. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, so let's dive right into chapter 12. And we're going to be stopping three times in
the middle here, the first time pretty quickly after verses three and four.
So let's read, for consider him who endured much hostility from sinners against himself,
lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
Now, what does God mean by that? You know, you have not yet resisted to bloodshed,
resisting sin. You have not yet come to bloodshed. What does he mean by that?
Well, just to remind you, the letter of Hebrews was written first and foremost
to Jewish Christians. And we've talked about that quite a bit through this series.
And it was written approximately 62 to 63 A.D. And during that time,
there was some persecution. And in fact, we have a map. If you could put that map up there, Pat,
thank you. And so this is a map of the landscape of the Roman Empire, actually in 117 A.D.,
but it was pretty similar to this. At the time, this was written only a little closer to the
ocean around all the sections. But, you know, they basically encompassed the Mediterranean Black
Sea. And so in the beginning, there was a lot of there was a lot of persecution in Jerusalem.
And it was stoked primarily by the Jews, the religious Jews, because they heard these people
saying that Jesus Christ is God. And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
And they thought this was blasphemy. So they stoked a lot of the persecution against their
own brethren who were now Christians. And so as a result, Jerusalem, a lot of the
Jewish Christians fled, and the gospel started to spread. And of course, Paul got saved, and he
started spreading the gospel throughout all this area through all of actually four of his missionary
trips. And so the persecution was primarily at the hands of the Jewish brethren. And they would
go into these cities and cause chaos by saying, hey, they're criticizing your Gods, too.
And they would stoke this type of conspiracy against the Christians. So they were experiencing
some persecution, but not significant, not severe. And we could see this actually in Hebrews,
chapter 10, which we read a few weeks ago, where if you could put that slide up, where
the Lord was saying, but you recall the former days in which after you were illuminated,
you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly why you were made a spectacle,
both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly why you became companions of those
who were so treated. So there was some mild persecution. And of course, not for Paul and
some of his cohorts, it was pretty severe. I mean, stoned to death and coming back to life.
I don't call that mild. But for most Jewish Christians, it wasn't significant,
especially to where this letter was written. If you could show this map again, because this letter
was written primarily to Jewish Christians living in Italy, in Rome. And they really
haven't experienced much of this at all yet, yet. But about one year after this letter was
written, do you know what happened? The great fire of Rome happened. In fact, we have a slide
just to give you a little image of what this could have looked like. This was 64 AD, in July of 64 AD.
And what happened was, some actually blamed the emperor Nero for the fire in Rome,
because they said he was trying to burn some of the older parts of the city to rebuild.
Some say that he was trying to clear out some of the land to build his own palace.
Whatever it might be, this fire started spreading. And in six days, it devoured 10 out of 14 of the
sections of the city. And it would have kept going. And it did keep popping up here and there.
And then finally, they extinguished it. And the empire, well, Rome blamed Nero,
because he didn't have the wherewithal how to put out the fire. Kind of reminds you of LA,
but that's another story. But he couldn't put out the fire. And so as a result,
Nero had to divert attention from himself. So you know what he did? He blamed the Christians.
He said they started the fire in Rome. Suddenly, persecution came on like they've never seen it
before. And Christians were persecuted. They were gathered up. They were boiled in oil.
They were lit up on fire. I mean, they're fed to the lines. You know,
we've seen the movies and everything else. But severe persecution, that would happen
less than a year from when this letter was written. How prophetic. He said,
you haven't experienced this yet. In this country, and I got to admit, I'm glad we don't
suffer much severe persecution, do we? I mean, we really don't, thank God, right? And
I remember one time, I was always kind of in music. And after my kids were getting older,
they were in their teens and so forth. And I finally said, you know, I'd like to get back
into writing music and playing and coffee houses and so forth. So I dialed up my friend,
Pete Rising, and I said, hey, you want to get the band back together? So we basically had him
and me. We drummed up a drummer. We managed to secure a drummer, but we needed a bass player.
So back then, Craigslist was kind of a thing. I hear it kind of fizzled,
but Craigslist was the then Facebook marketplace. And so I put an ad in there for a bassist,
and I put right in there clearly, looking for a bassist who is willing to play Christian music
in Christian venues or whatever venues and share the gospel, okay? So I made it real clear. So we
got someone who was probably going to be a believer, right? So I get this phone call from a blocked
caller, and I pick up and the voice says, take that ad out of Craigslist. And I'm like,
who's this? Like, I thought it was a joke. Like, come on, who is this? You know,
take it out. And then the profanities that came out of this person's mouth made me realize this
ain't no joke, okay? And he's saying, if you don't, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like,
are you serious? Like, you think I'm going to take it out because you're telling me to?
If you don't take it out, all these threats, and I will constantly nag you and not let up. And I
said, well, I'm not taking it down, but can we talk? You know, like, let's meet for coffee or
something, you know? And because I really wanted to learn what is going on with this guy. The anger
and hatred was like so far beyond logic. Do you know what I mean? And so I said, do you want to
meet up? Why? And I'm like, just to talk, you know, and then he hangs up. And then he calls
right back. And I said, Listen, can I pray for you? He hangs up. He calls back. Father God,
I pray for, what's your name, by the way? It doesn't matter. I'll call you Joe. Lord,
I pray for Joe. He hangs up. He calls back. That Joe would learn your love. He hangs up.
He calls back. And basically, every time he called back, I just continued the prayer.
I kind of thought it was sort of funny, you know? But I don't think he did. And so he didn't lie.
He was relentless. I mean, at nighttime, I would have to turn off my ringer and leave the
phone downstairs so it wouldn't, you know, even vibrate or anything. And he did keep it up for
some time. And eventually, he stopped. I had a few little conversations with him
through all of his profanities. But I'm thinking, this is so crazy. But it's spiritual.
Like, who would be this angry at someone who would put an ad in Craigslist for
a Christian basis, basically? And I'm sure you've seen many of the YouTube shorts and so forth
of like these street evangelists and their sharing and so forth. And people just like
get venomous. You know, they grab the signs out of their hands. They grab their equipment
and try to break it. And they hit the person and all this stuff. And you're like,
all this venom and anger, what happened to tolerance, right? But which all this brings
me to the first kind of correction. And it's through adversity. Correction through adversity.
The Lord permits us to have adversaries, which are also his adversaries, okay? So that we could be
strengthened in our conviction for him. In fact, James said this, consider it pure joy,
my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing
of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature
and complete, not lacking anything. This kind of adversarial attack on us. And it makes sense
because Jesus said, in this world, you will have troubles, but take heart for I have overcome
the world, right? He says the Lord will hate you. Why? Because the world hates him, okay?
The world hates him, so it's gonna hate us. You've heard it said, the enemy of my enemy
is my friend. Well, a little different than that, the enemy of my friend is my enemy,
right? And really, we have an enemy. And it's, as you know, you know, Ephesians chapter six,
it's not flesh and blood, but the enemy wears flesh and blood, doesn't it? The enemy hijacks
flesh and blood to bring adverse adversity to us, you know? But our spiritual warfare is against
principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness
in heavenly places. So we can't see these enemies, but we can see the manifestation of them, you
know, because we have an enemy and it's the Lord's enemy. It's the anti-Christ, right? And
so the Lord permits this, why? To strengthen our conviction for him and strengthen our faith.
It's for our good that he permits this adversity. Does that make sense? And like I said, for some
reason, I'm very dry, but can I have a sip of my coffee anyway? Or a little water? Thank you.
Sorry about that. I went for a long jog this morning and I'm...
Hey, she's got something in that too. That's pretty good.
But anyway, I can't wait for that little cup of communion juice. It's not enough. But
it's not enough to protect individuals, but also he occupies governments, you know?
In fact, Canada has been working hard to pass this bill, C-367, which is...
It takes the protection of religion out of hate speech. So now you can read something in the
pass it yet, you know? But they're trying, but this would be something if you read something
and it is offensive to a group of people, suddenly it's hate speech. So countries,
even that you think of as very civilized are doing this. In China, do you know,
in China, it's illegal for a Chinese citizen to go to any church they want to?
You can't have church in homes, okay? There's no church house churches. It's not permitted.
They're going on though, of course. And if you go to a church as a Chinese resident,
it has to be state approved church and the pastor has to be licensed through the state
and the sermons have to be surveilled, if that's the right word, basically reviewed, okay? And they are,
and they are, what's the word? Somebody give me the word. Well, surveilled. That's good enough.
You know what I'm talking about. They're monitored, monitored. There's a good word.
So they're monitored, right? So that's not freedom, right? That's not freedom at all.
But this is even in what would be considered civilized countries.
The enemy also uses organizations, right? Remember two weeks ago, we prayed for Pastor Bill Devlin
and we prayed also for the Nigerian church, Northwest Nigeria, because ISIS was planning,
there was either a prophetic or information that was found out that ISIS was planning attacks
on the Christians on Christmas day. Isn't it interesting that you know what happened on
Christmas day in Northern Nigeria, you know? Yes, we attacked the ISIS camps and maybe that
was a diversion for now, but I talked to PB just a couple of days ago and he's very concerned
about the reprisal since US bombed those ISIS camps. So, you know, we have an enemy,
but the enemy is the Lord's enemy. So this type of correction doesn't mean we're doing something
wrong. It could be very well that we're doing something right and he's telling us keep going.
You see all these enemies, you know, they're coming at you because they're coming at me
and you're doing something positive for me. You ever notice like all the demons came out
when Jesus walked into the synagogue? Like where were they all the other times?
You know, he brought them out because he's the one they hate, right? So the Lord corrects us
in a positive way through adversity. Amen. So let's move on from there
and we will speed it up here. Verse five, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to
you as to sons. My son do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when
you are rebuked by him, for whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. And what son is there whom a father
does not chasten. But if you are without chastening of which all of you have become partakers,
then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us
and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of
spirits and live? Verse 10, for they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them,
but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening seems to be
joyful for the present, but painful nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So this next type of correction is correction
with affection because the Lord loves us. As we just read in Hebrews 12, 6, the Lord disciplines
the one he loves. You know, I always as a kid, I was pretty envious of friends who had parents
that just didn't pay attention. Oh, thanks Dan. That was great. Thank you. Let's give Dan around.
What an elder. Thank you, brother.
Jill, do you want yours back yet? Okay. Just speak amongst yourselves. There we go. But
the Lord, you know, he loves us. That's why he disciplines us. And I was always envious of
friends who had parents that just were like, let them do anything. I mean, I had friends,
literally one friend of mine, I don't know why I'm bringing it up now because I wasn't planning to,
but he, his dad let him have like pot parties in his garage. Just people would be smoking dope
in his house. And his dad is upstairs. Probably sometimes he came down to smoke pot with him,
you know, like what in the world? But I wish, why can't my parents be like that?
How stupid, right? But you know, we don't have a father that allows us to do stuff like that
and ruin our lives because he loves us. When David, King David, Satan had inspired him to sin against
God. And you'll remember this, I'm sure in Chronicles, but he, he was trying to set
the stage in a minimum, minimalistic way, but he had wanted to count all the fighting men in
Israel. Okay. And probably there was some pride going on there, right? So Satan was inspiring him
to just count to see how great his kingdom was almost as if it was because of his,
his armies that he was winning all these battles. When we all know it was God winning the battles,
right? And so he tells Joab, Hey, go count all the fighting men throughout the land.
And Joab was no spiritual giant, but even he said, David, King David, is this a good idea? You know,
why bring sin into the camp with this type of action? But King David overruled him. And so
Joab went throughout the land and numbered all the fighting soldiers, except with Levi and Benjamin,
because he didn't want that curse being upon them because, you know, he just didn't want that to
be a stain on their record. And then he came back and he said, 1.1 million fighting men in Israel,
470,000 in Judah. And just as he told him, a plague broke out in the land. And King David's seer,
a prophet named Gad comes to him and he says, you know, King, King David, you know, the Lord has
spoke to me and he gives me, he's given me a word that you're going to be punished and you
could choose which of the three types of punishment you want. One, three years of famine,
three months of your enemies, foreign nations coming in and winning all the battles. In other
words, you know, occupying and destroying and taking over the land were three days of God's wrath.
And you know what he said? In fact, we have this in 1 Chronicles, if you could put that up.
And David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord for his
mercies are very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man. Like even David realized
I really screwed up. First it was the Bathsheba thing. Then it was the Tamar thing. Now it's
the counting the fighting man in Israel, like, but I still would rather fall under the mercies of
God than this world. Amen. Because he realized God will give him mercy. And so that's what he did.
You know, when Paul wrote to the church of Corinth, jumping around a little, but he was
writing them and he said, you know, you have sin in the camp. There's a guy who's actually
sleeping with his father's wife and they go to church together. They come into your community
and everybody's like, ah, and everyone's treating it like it's normal.
You know, now either it was his mother, which is really sick, or it was the father's second wife,
because the first wife died, or it was a second concubine. No matter how you add it up,
it's a sicko situation, right? And so God, and so Paul is like saying, are you really permitting
this in the camp, right? And so he rebuked them. And then in his second letter, he's writing to
them and they must have dealt with it and cast the evil ones out of the church and they discipline
them. And so Paul was writing to them and he was crediting them for listening to Godly words.
And we read this in second Corinthians seven verses nine to 10. Now I rejoice, not that you
were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a
Godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For Godly sorrow produces,
I'm sorry, Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation. Not to be regretted,
but the sorrow of the world produces death. You know, what do people in this world do
with sadness and regret for the things they've done? There's nowhere to bring it.
You know, Jesus is the only one who can reconcile our sins. You know, maybe you just continue to
justify it or make excuses for it or say sorry a lot, you know, but until you come to Jesus,
you're still stained with all of those sins. But Godly sorrow says, Lord, here it is. I know I
screwed up. Thank God you have already paid for all of those screw ups, you know, and the Lord
forgives all of our sins because his mercies are new every morning. And I think we need his mercy
new every morning, don't we? And so that's the Godly sorrow leads to repentance and salvation.
I remember when I was a kid, and probably under 10, right? And, and there was this kid
from another neighborhood, I grew up in Philly, and there was this kid in a different neighborhood.
And I'd see him every now and then, and I'd be standing at the bus stop with my friends,
and his bus would drive by, he went to a different school. And as he drove by, okay,
he would be always in the same window. And I don't know how a delicate way to say this,
but he'd make a gesture at me that was offensive.
Is flipping a bird okay to say in church or you know what I'm talking about. And, and I'm like,
at first, I'm like, what is that about? I don't even know this kid. And every day,
and so on and so on, I can't look, I can't look because he's, but it's getting me madder
and madder, right? And then one time, I was just finished my baseball game. And,
and all of a sudden, I see a car drive by, and it's him in the backseat, and he does it to me again.
Like, what is going on? I don't even know this kid, right? So anyway, so one day,
he's riding through our neighborhood on a bicycle, okay? And I'm like, I said, let's get him.
So me and my friend, we grab him, and we're like, well, what are we going to do with him?
You know? And so I don't know. I must have just seen some sort of gang movie or something. I'm like,
let's scare him. So I run into my kitchen, and I'm looking around for something, and I grab a
butter knife, okay? I probably shouldn't have told this story. And you're already judging
the heck out of me. I could tell. I could see your eyes. They have daggers. But anyway,
so I grabbed the butter knife. I don't know what I'm going to do with a butter knife,
and I run out. And I like, I think I'm scared of me actually started crying. I'm like, yes,
success, you know? So we're threatening him. If you ever do this again, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
you know, with my butter knife in my hand, right? And then he rides away real fast. So then,
not too much longer. I'm in the back in our, we had an alleyway behind our house. And my dad
pulls up in his car, and he gets out. And my oldest brother gets out. And he was just at,
I think it was a baseball game. And he got out, and he was holding a trophy. They won the
championship. And I'm like, yeah, we're like, you know, all happy for him and everything. My dad was
gloating, just so prideful. He usually helped out in different coaching and so forth. So he's just
loving it. And all of a sudden, this other car pulls up, and it pulls in. Okay. And so my dad's
looking over and like, he thought it was somebody pulling over to like congratulate them. Okay.
And so he's like, you know, what? So all of a sudden, I look in the backseat.
And yet I say more, it was him. And the guy gets out, starts talking to my dad. I don't remember
all the, all I remember is my dad says, get in the house, right? So I go in the house, and he
goes in. And, and I was probably nine years old. So it's kind of old to get spanked. But like,
what do you do with somebody that just did that? Held up a kid with a butter knife. I don't know,
but, you know, and my dad was not abusive, you know, but sure enough, he took off the belt anyway,
and, you know, gave me a few lashes. And, you know, I pretended it hurt. Ouch! Ouch! You know,
because, you know, it's just kind of weird, you know, you start to get older, and you're still
getting hit with a belt. But, but, but all that to say, it sounds kind of funny and weird.
But I remember my dad saying, like, you know, talking to me. I don't remember any of the
words. I just remember suddenly capturing his heart, because there he was only moments ago,
so proud and happy, because of a great award given to his son, and just the joy of that.
Now he's dealing with this. And I just remember, you know, I didn't remember one of the lashes.
I didn't remember any of that. I just remembered feeling sad for him, and disappointed, you know.
And it was like, I had that, like, I would say, like, a Godly sorrow. But for him, and I'm like,
you know, I wasn't a believer then, but I, you know, I just felt sad that I let him down,
and I ruined his day, in a sense, you know. Like, just right there, he comes home,
he's happy, and boom. And, you know, and I wish I could say it was the last time I
disappointed him, because I wasn't. Many other times, I'm like, oh, dad, how do you put up with me,
you know. But at the same time, you know, the Lord loves us, regardless of anything we do.
And it's not about him wanting to hurt us, and damage us, or whipping us, or it's,
he doesn't want to do that at all. He wants our heart to be aligned with his.
He wants us to care about what he cares for, you know. He wants us to love what he loves,
and he wants us to be happy when he's happy, and joy-filled. Does that make sense?
You know, it's, he wants us to be in love with him. That's what he wants, amen.
He does these things because he loves us. Proverbs 15.10, if you have that, Pat, thank you.
It says, harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, and he who hates correction will die,
you know. If we really don't want the Lord chastening us, then it's to our own detriment.
Do you realize that? Like, people, I feel sad for people who, you know, who wander, you know,
they fall into different things that are offended by the church, and this and that,
and they leave, and they aren't connected any longer. I'm thinking, man, the enemy is going
to have a field day with you, because we need to be connected, you know. Because our spiritual
life does die, you know. But he wants to, he wants to chasten us because he loves us.
Do you remember what Jesus said to the church of Laodicea, who was an apathetic, lukewarm church?
You know, they just lost their way, and he said, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Therefore, be zealous and repent. You know, he wants us to be zealous for him, amen.
You know, the good news is, if God's chastening you, it means he's chasing you.
It means he wants you back. You know, he's not letting you just wander away,
he's calling you back. If he's chastening you, it means he's chasing you, amen.
There was this guy, Chuck Colson, you guys never hear of him. Somebody around my age would have.
But he used to speak on the radio and everything. Well, he was the chief legal
counsel for Richard Nixon. So, between 69 and 73, he was instrumental in a lot of the
things going on. And it's funny because it's such a dark stain on our history.
But when you compare it to probably what's going on all the time in government,
it's probably nothing. But, you know, we just don't know most of what's happening, right?
But, nevertheless, back then, it was a real conspiracy and horrific. And it is, you know.
And so, he was instrumental in that. And he was known as the hatchet man, Chuck Colson,
because he just wheeled and dealed and he dealt in dark places, you know.
So, when it started coming out, you know, he was talking to a friend of his who was
a believer and he started rebuking him and coming at him and all of a sudden,
Chuck Colson just had a meltdown. He just surrendered his life to the Lord.
He recalls in his testimony, he was in the car and he could not stop crying,
being confronted with his own sins. And so, he confessed to everything he did and went to jail.
He was supposed to go to jail for three years, but God's merciful. And while he was in jail,
he started a ministry in jail, okay? And he started ministering to the prisoners.
And he had such a compassionate heart for his fellow inmates. And while he was in there,
the Lord let him get out after seven months. But guess what? When he got out, you know what he did?
He started the prison fellowship, a humongous ministry to prisoners. The Lord used all of
that to do something great. The Lord was after him. He was chastening him. He was chasing him.
And when he finally got him where he wanted him, he was redefining his future right there
in prison, Chuck Colson. And I remember I used to listen to him, so inspiring, so amazing. And his
heart for the loss, his heart for those who are in prison through all kinds of reasons,
through their upbringing, through whatever the sin was that led them there, he had such a
compassion for them. But because the Lord chastened him, he was able to transform his life. Amen.
So let's move on, almost done here. In verse 12, therefore strengthen the hands which hang down
and the feeble knees, isn't that cool? And make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame
may not be dislocated, but rather healed, but rather healed. My brother Brian is 16 months older
and he's always been better at everything than I asked. He was just great. And he was an amazing
skier and snowboarder. I was okay. He was great, but he kept it up. He still skis. Every single
winner, he goes to three or four extreme ski boarding trips to Wyoming, to Utah, to Colorado,
with all of his friends. And he just really goes for it. And he wears his knee braces while he's
going, whatever he has to do to keep it going. But one thing he does every time in the late fall,
he starts massive amounts of squats. I mean, he does heavy squats. He does high rep, low
weight reps. And he just squats and squats. Why? Because he's building up his legs
so that when he hits the moguls, he can go over them like they're nothing. He strengthens himself.
And really, the Lord wants us to be strengthened so that we can endure whatever this world deals
with us. This ties in a little bit with Jamie's message last week about training for transformation.
You know, when he said, being the best you, now I know that sounds very flowery and so forth, but
what we mean is the best Jesus in it. Like Jesus does everything good in our lives, right?
But we want to be the best version that I can be for Jesus, you know? And so if there's areas
that I need to strengthen in my life, I need to do it, which brings me to the next type of
correction, and that is self-correction. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees,
make level paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Be strengthened. You know, there's areas that all of us can be strengthened, you know?
And I don't want to be satisfied with who I am right now. I just don't, you know what I mean?
And God bless you if you are, but I want to be better. Next year, I want to be more like him.
I just do, you know? And I don't think that, and I'm not in competition with anyone else.
I'm in a race with myself, like Jesse shared a week before that. It's like, I'm in a race against my
own demise. That's the race we're in. Do you realize that? The only race you're in is against
the day you breathe your last breath. That's the race you're in. That's the race I'm in.
And I want to run that best race that I can run. Amen. There's areas that we can all improve.
I remember when I was saved for maybe about a year and a half or so, and my cousin called me.
I was heading home from this business convention thing. It's like 9.30 at night. He calls me.
At the time I lived in Newtown, and he lived in Toconi, and he calls me and says,
hey, you know, he says, listen, can you come down here and talk? I'm like, well, what's wrong?
Well, I'm afraid to die. And I'm like, okay. He says, yeah. So my cousin had dealt with alcoholism
since he was a teenager, lost his family and so forth, lost many jobs, but he was so gifted
that he just kept getting new ones, because he was always in the union and just did great work.
But he would go on these tirades for like two weeks of drinking, and then he just couldn't hold
it down anymore. And then he would just be recovering. And so he was on one of them.
At the end of it, he's like, I think I'm going to die. I don't want to die. And I'm like, well,
why are you calling me? I really didn't understand why you'd be calling me.
He says, well, yeah, I know you have faith. And I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah, I'll come down.
Believe it or not, I didn't know like what to do. Like, what am I supposed to do when I get there?
I can't believe it looking back, but it's true. So I call my pastor, you know,
I think he wants to get saved. What do I do? Well, lead him to the Lord, like,
pray with him to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. What scripture should I use?
I was so like illiterate. I didn't know what to do. I was a fish out of water.
And he started giving me a couple of passages. I'm like, okay. And all of a sudden,
the fear started going away. I'm like, I can do this. God will give me the words, right?
He wants people saved, right? Like, do I have to worry about this? No. So I went down
and I just listened to him. He prayed, accepted Christ. And we met together for
about two years after that, him and another friend he brought in doing Bible studies.
You know, unfortunately he's home with the Lord now, but I know he saved, you know,
and yet I was not prepared for that kind of phone call. Another time I got a phone call about it,
you know, this, this woman who I knew through work and she was terminal and she was going to
die soon. And I'm like, yeah, that's, that's out above me. I can't do anything about that,
you know? But the Lord kept saying, go see her, go see her. And I'm like,
but I'm not a clergyman. I don't know what to do. You know, I can't do anything.
And so she died. And I remember this regret and this deep regret. I said, Lord,
I don't want this. So to get rid of this, I got to do that. If you ever give me another
opportunity to do that again, I won't let you down. And all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom,
my friend's dad, my friend's mom, this one, that one, it was within like two months,
I had four people who were passing away that I got a chance to share Jesus with because I
knew I was ill prepared, but I didn't want to be, I didn't want to be ill prepared for opportunities.
You know, he wants us to be in a sense. Now, when I say self-correction, it's not us,
it's Christ in us. Okay. Needless to say, but still, it's okay to want to improve
to be more prepared. You know, I love what Peter says in first Peter 3 15. He said,
but in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone
who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and respect.
You know, it's like we need to be prepared, you know, and he wants us to be self-correcting
ourselves. Like if we see we're off, we see we're apathetic, we see we're weak in a certain area.
Well, let's get strengthened. You know, if you know someone who's really strong in an area,
get to know them. Say, can I just, can I just observe a little bit? Now, I'm not saying any
of us have to be the same because there's one person like I'm never going to be good at lots
of stuff. Okay. You know, and that's just not me, but there's areas I can maybe even improve
in those things that I'm not good at. If it's needed to build the kingdom, you know,
there's nothing wrong with wanting to better ourselves.
And so let's finish up with the last couple of verses.
Verse 14, pursue peace with all people in holiness, without which no one will see the Lord,
looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness
springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defile, lest there be any fornicator or profane
person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward,
when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance,
though he sought it diligently with tears. You know, when Cain murdered Abel and buried him,
and the Lord came out and said to Cain, where's your brother Abel? And you remember what his
response was? Am I my brother's keeper? I'm surprised Lord didn't say no, but you're your
brother's keeper. You know, in a sense, yes, the scriptures tell us again and again,
we just read, don't let anyone fall out of grace. Don't let anyone, like in a sense,
we are to care about what each other is doing. I'm not saying be busy bodies and nosy and like,
hey, I noticed you on that, you know, social media. Was that beer in your glass?
You know, I'm not, I'm not saying like be scrutinizing everybody, not like that,
but I'm just saying caring with love, caring. If someone is wandering away, caring about what's
happening in their life. You know, in this society, we're so individualistic, we don't want to offend
anyone, right? And we always think, yeah, but I got a board hanging out of my eye. You know,
how can I try to squeeze that splinter out of theirs? You know, we always see our own sin
more magnified than the Lord sees it. Well, if we're going to be always analyzing ourselves,
we're never going to be good to each other, right? Sometimes we just feel inadequate to help someone
else. I think it's important to love and help each other, don't you? And sometimes we just need
to get out of our own heads and be willing to do that. It's interesting how, and this is the
next one, by the way, correction through the church, correction through the church. As we just
read, see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to
cause trouble and defile many. Well, he's saying that that's the church's job, you know, to like,
how can I do that? How can we do that? Well, we're called to do it because we love one another,
you know? In fact, we're told, don't stop gathering together so that we can inspire one
another in acts of love and good works, you know? So we're called to come together,
but also to help one another to stay purified, washing one another's feet like Jesus did at the
Last Supper, demonstrating this is what I want you guys to do for each other. Wash each other's
feet, right? Keep one another pure. And if you see things, be willing in love to share them. You know,
at times people have come to us and come to me and share with me, hey, you know, this person
is doing this thing, okay? And by the way, they're not in this church family anymore,
so don't worry, it's not you. But they'll be sharing, they'll say, hey, you know, this person,
you know, they're doing this thing or whatever. And I say, well, why don't you talk to them about it?
Well, you know, I don't know, I'd rather not, you know, I'm like, well, you're in the perfect spot
to do it. Like, you know about it. I don't know about it. I only know about it because you told
me. And then that becomes a he said, she said, you know, you're in the perfect spot to do something
and to just speak to them in love. But a lot of times we don't feel qualified. There was a great
book called Instruments in a Redeemer's Hand by Paul Tripp. And he wrote about all of us are
counselors. All of us are capable because we have the Holy Spirit to wash one another and to
minister to one another. And so if that person is in a perfect position to say or do something,
it should start there. In fact, the word even says that go to them, talk to them,
bring someone else who also witnessed it and minister to them. And then if it gets out of hand,
then, you know, bring the the big guns, bring Dan, he's the big gun back there by the way,
he's the elder and Doug, Doug Miller, Doug McPherson. No, but because you know what the
thing is, like, if someone like me who didn't have any firsthand knowledge of something, go to
someone and say, Hey, I, I hear you're doing this. Well, how'd you hear that? I'm not supposed to say,
what is it? Is that love? Or is that kind of gossip, whisper down the line? But when you
can deal with it directly, it's so much more loving, right? When we're in each other's sphere
of influence, it's perfect. So I just say we're supposed to do that to love one another and to
minister to one another. I know it's not comfortable. It really is. I hate it. I really do. I don't like
telling anything that anyone is doing wrong. And I do always see the log hanging out of my own eye
and say, Who are you? Yeah, but like, we're called to do it. We got to get over ourselves
and be ministers for Jesus to each other, right? Because the word tells us to do that. Now,
it can get out of control. We can do and say things that are, you know, maybe we don't know
the full story, ask questions. Hey, I noticed this, I noticed that, like, like, tell me what's going
on there. If you don't mind, you know, I'd love to know, you know, because this way we're informed
and we can love each other the right way. Maybe someone comes to you and says, you know,
I noticed something, you know, you know, I, I notice Eric, what you're doing there,
you know, and it's like, well, and I think what you're doing is wrong.
You know, I remember Charles Stanley had a great comeback for that.
Charles Stanley says, Okay, you know what you say to them? If whether you agree or don't agree,
you just say, well, thank you for sharing that I'll pray about it. And that's it.
That's all you got to say. I know it's hard because we get defensive immediately and say,
I didn't do that. And you don't even know what you're talking about. You know, we want to
argue it out. Right. And, but a simple like, well, thanks for sharing that because a lot of times
there's some truth. And then right away we look at the messenger. Well, who are you to be sharing
with me that when I look at you? Well, a lot of times the Lord does use strange messengers.
He really does. Like, you know, he uses some memory, you know, a donkey, right? You know,
I mean, he uses some strange messenger sometimes. And, you know, we can't throw out the message
because of the messenger. Maybe it is something, you know, and I've know I've received messages
from people that like, it would be unlikely, but I'm like, okay, you know, if that's,
if that's, I'll pray about that. And a lot of times I found, yeah, there was some truth in that.
My pride didn't want to receive that. But there was some truth in it. Amen.
We're supposed to love each other. And I just want to leave you if the worship team can come up.
James 5.20 and 1 Peter 4.8.
And this is really an encouragement to all of us because we don't know
at what point we're, we have the ability to really minister to someone. Someone might really
be hurting and they might be able to cover it up in a lot of ways. But because you're in their
friendship, you are in their sphere of influence and they're in yours and you notice things,
you might actually be able to like change the course of their lives.
Remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death
and cover over a multitude of sins. And again, Peter, similar language, above all love each other
deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. You know, if we don't deal with it,
how much more sin is coming after it, right? And so we need to love each other, you know?
So as the, you guys can bring the elements forward.
So I don't know what part of this message might have struck home with you.
So with me, you know, I don't like God's correction when it's inconvenient, when it's not the timing
or the place that I want it, but the Lord has definitely used correction through adversity
for me. Not just that Craigslist phone call, a lot of times, you know, a lot of resistance.
And yet the Lord is strengthening your faith through it all.
We're going to have an adversary in this world until we breathe our last breath, right?
And he is against Christ, so he's against Christians because we are identified with him.
That's not going to change. That's not going to go away.
But you know, when we realize that we're being attacked in whatever way we are because we're
identified with Jesus, doesn't it inspire courage? I'd rather be his friend than yours, not you.
I mean, whoever has given us a problem. I'd rather be a friend of Jesus than a friend of my
world and its systems because this isn't your home, you know.
And I know I've been rebuked many times, many places by God.
I'll never forget when I had high places in my life, you know, and was definitely
money hungry, and financial security was an idol. And I kept reading in kings where
this king wouldn't tear down the high place. He wouldn't tear down the high. I kept reading it,
and the Lord told me exactly what it meant for me. You know, money was my high place,
you know, and I wouldn't tear it down. And guess what? The kingdom never ran well
when the high places weren't torn down.
Self-correction. I love that one because I do like trying to better myself, you know.
So I like that one, but that could become pride, or it can become self-righteousness.
It can become, I'm doing, I'm doing, look what I'm doing.
Instead of, you know, apart from me, you can do nothing. You know, we can't do anything apart
from Him. So even in self-correction, it's not us, it's Him. Remember Paul said to the church,
you know, I work harder than all the apostles. That sounds arrogant, but it's not me,
but God in me. Oh, okay. You know, we're finally church correction. You know, it's not a comfortable
thing, but I appreciate it when it's done in love, you know. When someone asks me a question and says,
you know, I noticed this. Now, like, if you don't mind, can you explain that a little bit to me?
You know, oh, oh, I get it. Or, yeah, I don't really agree with that. Okay, you know, let's,
let's talk it through, you know, and I really think they're saying the other thing. Okay, I'll,
I'll, I'll pray about it. Thanks for letting me know, you know. By the way, you know,
it doesn't go there because we're all flawed, you know. But the Lord loves us. That's why He
corrects us, right? Because He wants us to be more like Him.
Father God, we thank You, Lord, that You love us so much that You won't let up.
That You do chase in us, Lord God, because You're chasing us.
You want us to be more like You, Lord, and You're never going to let us go.
So, Lord, why do we fight You?
If anyone here has never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior
before we take communion, why not do it? Because technically, you know,
this communion is for believers. Become a believer. It's so, it's that simple. Just saying, yeah,
you know, I need a Savior. And if that's you, you could just pray, Father God, I'm a sinner.
I desperately need correction. I need to be right with You.
So today, I give You my life so that I can receive Yours. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
If you've done that, the Word says you're saved. You might not feel like it yet, but you are.
Feelings follow faith, you know. Feelings follow the decisions and words that You say.
Father God, we thank You for this bread. And as we eat it, Lord God, we remember that Your
body was nailed to the cross and became our sins, Lord God. And we don't want to take that
sin off the cross, Lord God. It died with You. We thank You that You became our sin on the cross.
So today, we eat this bread, remembering that it's Your body that was offered up for us.
And we thank You for it in Jesus' name. Let's eat.
And Father God,
thank You for Your precious Son and the blood that He spilled for us.
And when the Lord's blood was shed, Lord, the Word says it takes away our sins.
So Lord God, we drink this in remembrance that we are forgiven. We are forgiven forever.
So thank You for forgiveness, Lord God, that every day there's new hope and new mercies to have.
We thank You in Jesus' name, Amen.
So we're going to finish up with some worship, you know.
There's a seems.
I don't know if there's a heaviness in here, but it seems extra quiet. Did you notice that?
Father God, we ask Your Spirit, Lord, to really come upon each one of us like a dove, Lord,
and just rest on us, Lord God.
And Lord, if there's a place, Lord, that we need to be corrected, Lord.
We can't fix ourselves. Only You can do that.
So Lord, we ask You to help us to change, to become more like You.
We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Let's all stand up.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His Word.
Don't forget to join us for Worship Lives Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!