[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church, knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. That picture went out to everybody that was there.
[0:15] And if you think about it, the scripture says that you have to receive the Lord as a child, you know, because it's childlike faith that saves you.
[0:25] It's the faith that says, yes, I will believe that I'm a sinner, that I deserve to go to hell, but God loved me enough to send his son to die on the cross to pay for my sin.
[0:36] And if I believe in him, he will give me eternal life because he promised to. And they declared that. And they went further than that. They gave us a demonstration of what that means because they were buried in the likeness of his death, raised in the likeness of his resurrection, to walk in newness of life, the opportunity to live for the Lord Jesus Christ, not to be saved, but because you already are saved.
[0:59] And that was a tremendous testimony. Don't let the sun go down on your unbelief if you haven't trusted Jesus Christ as Savior yet. If you need to talk to somebody about that, do that.
[1:10] In a group like this, there's probably somebody. Maybe you just don't know for sure you have eternal life. There are people here who would be willing to talk to you. I'd be willing to talk to you. Don't go away without Jesus. Let's pray.
[1:23] Father, we thank you for the opportunity for us to get together and to look into your word. I thank you, Lord, for those four kids. They went forward and they were baptized and their testimony was clear.
[1:36] And they knew they had eternal life because of what Jesus did for them, not because of what they did for Jesus. And I pray, Lord, that as we look at your word today and think more about the eye gate and the ear gate, that we would put in place, Lord, gatekeepers that could help protect that inner sanctum where the Holy Spirit is, Lord, that no unclean thing could enter in.
[1:59] And we pray, Lord, that you would help us in our weakness because these are the places where we're the weakest is on those opening points, the eyes, the ears, the mouth.
[2:11] And I pray that you would give us strength in this battle, Lord, for it's a spiritual battle. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. Turn your Bibles to Psalm 119.
[2:28] So in Psalm 119, in verse 18, I could read it to you. It says, Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
[2:38] This is part of the eye gate is the positive things that we can do with our eyes that really, when you're looking at the Lord and you're looking to him for guidance, it's hard to be sinning at the same time.
[2:52] It just doesn't go together. And when you come to the word of God, remember that you can read a passage of scripture and not really take in what it means.
[3:03] And to pray and ask the Lord to open your eyes to behold wondrous things in the law. Normally, every time I pray at a meeting like this, I'll mention this verse because it's so important that we depend on the Lord to give us this understanding and that Holy Spirit that is within us.
[3:20] If we're believers, we have the Holy Spirit within us. And he's the one that leads us into all truth. And so we need to rely upon him. So I ask you to do that and think about it.
[3:31] But with the eye gate, the problem isn't so much what we see. Okay. It's what we focus on.
[3:43] Because there's a difference between seeing and focusing on something. Look at Matthew chapter 6 and verse 22. Matthew 6 verse 22.
[4:00] It says, So if we're focused on something other than the Lord, we're focused on something perhaps that might even be detrimental to our spiritual life.
[4:23] Maybe we're caught up in some kind of sin in our lives and we're focused on that. We're looking at that. That's blocking out all of the light that the Lord's sending our way. And we need to realize that we need to be focused on the right things.
[4:38] So focus is what's really important. So turn to your Bibles. I want to talk about how this works. Turn your Bibles to Judges chapter 14. Here we are. We're going to go into the Old Testament because the Old Testament has examples for us to learn from.
[4:52] And that's exactly what we want to do with this. Judges chapter 14. Okay. Judges number 14.
[5:06] I'm the only one that's not there yet. All right. Judges chapter 14. Okay. And we're going to look at verses 1 to 3 here. And it says in verse 14, I mean chapter 14.
[5:20] Now, already there's a little problem here because the Israelites were supposed to be the people of God and they were supposed to intermarry with the people of God and keep it that way.
[5:34] And so he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines and he came back and told his father and mother, I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.
[5:45] Now, therefore, get her for me as a wife. Now, he's already made up his mind here what he wants. And he says, get her for me for a wife.
[5:56] And verse 3, then his father and his mother said to him, is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives or among the people for you to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?
[6:09] Then Samson said to his father, get her for me for she looks good to me. Now, what was he focused on? Was he focused on what a great mother this girl would be to his kids?
[6:21] Was he focused on what a great wife she would be? No, he was focused on one thing. And this is very common, as we know. He was focused on one thing. She looks good to me, so get her for me.
[6:33] And that's the problem is we tend to focus on things. There are a lot of examples in the scripture of people where they see something and it's not a problem, but then they get focused in on about it.
[6:47] So turn right over here to Joshua chapter 8. Joshua chapter 8. I'm sorry.
[6:58] Joshua chapter 7. And we'll look at verse 19. Joshua had a big victory in Jericho and then there was a problem there.
[7:10] Nobody knew about the problem but one guy. And then they went to this little town of Ai and they said, well, let's just send a few guys up there. And they got defeated by the people from Ai. And so they started crying out and blaming God and all this kind of stuff.
[7:24] How could he let this happen? And finally God said, hey, that's not the problem. The problem is one of your people did what I specifically ordered you not to do. That was to take anything that's under the ban.
[7:35] And you were banned from taking anything for your own profit from the city of Jericho. And so one guy had done that. And his name was Achan. And his name means trouble, by the way.
[7:51] And he was a big troublemaker for these guys. So down here in verse 19 it says, Then Joshua said to Achan, My son, I implore you and give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to him and tell me what you have done.
[8:06] Okay, just as a side note, if you've ever wondered what confession of sin is, okay, what does it mean to confess my sins? Here's what it's not. It's not in your prayer saying, Lord, I confess all my sins to you.
[8:19] Thank you. Bye. You know, that's not confession of sins. And we should all know that. This verse really is the clearest verse that I find in all of scripture tells you what confession of sin is.
[8:29] Because Joshua says to Achan, My son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.
[8:39] So he's saying you're going to praise God by telling me exactly what you have done. That's what confession is. When you pray to God, you don't pray to God and say, Lord, I confess my sins today. No. You say, Lord, here's what I did today.
[8:51] I sinned and this is what I did. And I'm confessing that to you as a sin. And then we're clear about where our problems are with the Lord. So when we go back the next day and we come back the next day and we say the same thing to him, we realize how hypocritical we are.
[9:05] We're under conviction by the Holy Spirit. And hopefully we'll take that to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm confessing this and I'm admitting that I sinned here. And give me strength to deal with this. And perhaps go out and memorize yourself a couple of gatekeepers that can help you with that.
[9:21] Because this is something that we do all the time. And we kind of brush it aside and say, well, I'm confessing all my sins. You're not confessing your sins until you're naming the sin. That's what it means to confess the sin.
[9:32] And it's here. And what does he say happens? Give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel. Give praise to him and tell me what you have done. When you confess your sins, you're praising, glorifying the Lord.
[9:45] So it says in verse 20. So Achan answered Joshua and said, truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. And this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle of Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold, 50 shekels in weight.
[10:01] Then I coveted them and took them. And behold, they are concealed in the earth under my tent with the silver underneath. So he says, here's, I mean, he tells you exactly what he did.
[10:14] And even the sequence. Look what he says here. I sinned against the Lord when I, in verse 21, when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold, 50 shekels in weight.
[10:30] Had he sinned yet when he saw that? No, God gave him his two eyes. There's nothing wrong with him seeing that. He's supposed to see it because that's how we're made. We see things around us.
[10:40] But the next part is the problem. He coveted them. He started thinking about, he knew there's a rule against you taking it. We know that he knew there's a rule because he hid it under his tent. So he knows that there's a rule from the Lord that you're not supposed to take anything.
[10:54] And he sees this thing and he starts thinking about it. And that's the real problem. Is not when you see something wrong, but when you start to focus in on it. And that's what happened to Achan.
[11:06] He focused in on this. He ended up taking it. And he ended up dying because of that, because he had brought this destruction down on the nation of Israel. He coveted it. He said, I felt like I want it.
[11:18] Started thinking about how he could get it. How he could conceal it. How he could not let anybody know that he'd taken it. Because everybody knew that was against the rules. That was against the law of Israel there.
[11:29] But he took it and he hid it under his tent. When I read this verse, I can't think of this verse without having a Lord, you know, the conviction of the Lord to say, Darrell, what's under your tent?
[11:42] And you might think about that today. Maybe there's been something that's convicting you in your life. And it's been under your tent. And you're not, you don't know why. Things just don't seem to be right between your relationship with the Lord right now.
[11:53] Well, if there's something under your tent, and I don't mean literally, but if there's something that falls into that category that you've got hidden away, nobody knows about. We talked about pornography earlier today.
[12:04] But there are lots of other things that you may have involved in. This guy's involved in coveting. We're not just talking about sexual sins. It's wrong for you to covet things that belong to your neighbor. Because the problem is, the more you dwell on it, the more you're going to think, how can I get that from my neighbor?
[12:19] Or mistreat him because he has something that you want. And so, this is another example of the fact that you, it's okay to see things, but it's wrong to focus on things.
[12:33] Let's look at a couple of examples. Now, of course, when we looked at the example of Samson, he's a single guy, and he sees this gal, and he decides he wants to marry her.
[12:44] Let's move on from that. So, it didn't work out, by the way. But in 2 Samuel chapter 11, turn there. 2 Samuel chapter 11. Now, remember, the scripture we read this morning said, these things are written for our instruction.
[12:59] These things are written as examples to us. We're supposed to learn from them. A lot of the New Testament is about Jesus. How he was proving to be the Son of God, and how he was fulfilling all the prophecies, and how he was teaching his disciples for the future.
[13:12] But it's not a lot telling us how to live our lives. Later on, you get some of that in the letters. But we're given the Old Testament. Look back and see how God deals with people in specific situations and learn from them.
[13:26] This is another one of those. So, in 2 Samuel chapter 11. Sorry, I'm not there. 2 Samuel chapter 11.
[13:37] It says here. Now, this is an example. It's a married man. Okay? So, that's important to acknowledge. A married man here. And in chapter 11, verse 1, it says, Now, it happened in the springtime, at the time when kings go to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel.
[13:57] And they destroyed the sons of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. Now, that should be a tip-off to you that there's a problem there. Because it says, this is the time when kings go to battle.
[14:09] Why isn't he going to battle? Isn't he the king? Yeah, he's probably the most famous king in the world right then. But he's not going to battle. I don't know what his reason is. It doesn't tell you. And is there a good enough reason?
[14:21] Obviously, this passage isn't meant to defend David. It kind of lays it bare for you to draw your own idea about what went on there. He's not doing what he's supposed to be doing. I don't know why.
[14:33] But he decides to send Joab to do his work. And it says here in verse 2. Now, when evening came, David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house.
[14:44] And from the roof he saw a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful in appearance. Let me ask you. Has David sinned yet? No. He walked up on top of the house.
[14:55] He looked around and he saw this woman bathing. He has not sinned yet. He doesn't know she's out there. He walks up there. He may have gone out. He talks about praying during the night watches.
[15:06] And I believe him because the psalmist, he talks about it all the time. And we're told he's a man after God's own heart. But in this particular situation, he didn't follow after God's own heart here.
[15:18] But he's up there. So he sees that woman. He has not sinned. You see, even though he saw her. But then what happens? It says here in verse 2.
[15:28] When evening came, David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman.
[15:42] That's where he sinned. He focused in on her. He's a married man. He has no business being interested in this woman or even seeing her again. But he inquires about her.
[15:55] And that's what happens to us. You see, we get caught up in these things. Well, I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just trying to find out who she is. There's this good looking gal in the office. I just kind of want to know what her name is.
[16:06] And, you know, maybe I'll run her into her in the hallway and see how she's doing and all that kind of stuff. You need to go the other direction. Because if you're a married man and you're interested in this other person, you need to realize that that's something that's wrong.
[16:18] You need to deal with it right now. Or it's going to go into this area where you're focusing on something that's wrong. And you're going to get yourself in big trouble. Can't get in any bigger trouble than David did.
[16:29] He had to kill somebody to try to get out of this. And it didn't get him out of it. And he killed more people than just his right-hand man, Uriah the Hittite. He killed more people than him.
[16:40] Because when they went up there, when they put on this fake charge and then they withdrew everybody, a lot of others were killed too. It mentions others were killed. David was responsible for that.
[16:51] He was trying to cover his own sin. Sin. There's no way to cover your own sin. You need to go to the Lord when you find yourself in a sinful situation. But what I'm trying to get across to you here is he didn't sin when he saw it.
[17:05] He sinned when he focused in on it. He should have said, oh, boy, that's not a good look. I need to get out of here. Get off the roof. Maybe send a servant and say, hey, tell that lady to be more careful.
[17:16] Or whatever it is, I don't know. But it couldn't be inquiring about her. That's where the sin came in. You see, we have to respond early when there's sin in our life.
[17:27] So when your eyes give you something to see that you shouldn't necessarily, wouldn't be good for you to continue seeing, you need to look away. You need to turn away. Avoid it. Do not pass by it.
[17:38] Turn away from it and pass on. One of those, turn away from it, does involve the eyes for sure. And so that's what he should have done, but he didn't do that. Let's look over at Job chapter 31.
[17:51] I know I'm kind of running you through the Bible, but... Job 31. Now, he's a married man.
[18:02] And it says here in Job 31. He said, I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze on a virgin?
[18:14] Other translations say, think on a virgin or lust after a virgin or whatever. Or a maid. So he's saying that he made a covenant. He's saying right here, he's declaring that he has not been doing that because he made a covenant with his eyes because he wanted to make sure that he wouldn't do that because he knew it was wrong.
[18:32] In other words, he's at the front end trying to set up his own gatekeeper, as it were, to say, I've made a covenant with the Lord and I'm not going to go and gaze at a woman.
[18:44] That's focusing in on a woman. Guys, you know what it's all about. Girls, you know what it's all about. Girls, you felt it. Guys, you've done it. You know, we need to be careful about this.
[18:55] We need to make a covenant with our eyes. This would be a good verse to memorize and keep in mind when you're other places and you see things that you probably shouldn't have seen or they create thoughts in your mind.
[19:09] You need to get away from that situation and not dwell on it, especially not inquire about the person. It went first from his eyes to his mind.
[19:20] And that's where the thoughts come in. And that's where the danger comes in that we start thinking about someone that we shouldn't be thinking about or something we shouldn't be thinking about.
[19:32] The same thing with Achan. It could be a situation where you could get a business plan that you could get more money by deceiving someone that's involved in that situation. You know how to do it.
[19:43] But when you start thinking that way, you need to turn aside from it because you know that that's wrong and you shouldn't be doing it. And so what happens is the eyes see it and then you start to think about it and then you take action.
[19:57] Look over at 2 Corinthians. We'll go to the New Testament for you guys. So New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. This has become years ago became a very powerful gatekeeper verse for me that really helped me and in my thought life.
[20:22] Okay. And it says down here in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, starting in verse 4, Man, that jumped off the page to me one day.
[20:44] Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Isn't that what we're supposed to do as believers? When a thought comes in, that's when to take it captive. He sees this woman.
[20:55] The thought comes in, wow, you know, no clothes. He needs to take that thought captive at that point. Say, Lord, you know, I didn't mean to see that. I'm just going to go to bed now.
[21:06] Help me not to think on it. Bring it captive to the obedience of Christ. When you see yourself starting to think about something that's wrong, you need to take that thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
[21:17] The Holy Spirit will help you in that. The Holy Spirit's right there. You can talk to him continuously, by the way. He's right there. And say, Lord, you know, help me to be strong enough to turn away from this because I know it's wrong.
[21:31] And you're convicting me that it's wrong. And I'm not going to do that. And it's interesting because verse 4, it is a pandemic in the country of pornography.
[21:44] Especially among young men. Actually among pastors. Among almost all of society, there's a pandemic of pornography. That can be what we would call here, he says here in verse 4, For our weapons, for our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
[22:07] Don't allow Satan to build a fortress in your thought life with pornography. Because that's going to take you away from your spiritual walk with the Lord. You put that alongside the Holy Spirit and you've got a battle that's going on all day long.
[22:22] We need to bring that thought captive. We need to break down that fortress and bring that thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Here's the problem. A thought becomes an action.
[22:33] And then an action becomes a habit. And then a habit becomes a way of life. We need to be careful about that because that's what can happen to us when we allow things to go.
[22:44] You see something, deal with it. You know what they say when you see something, say something. Say something to yourself through one of the gatekeepers that you've memorized hopefully. So that it will help you in this situation to make the right choice.
[22:58] So I'm not here wanting to talk about pornography and all that kind of thing all of our time. Because that's not what I want to accomplish. But it needs to be said and it needs to be put into our lives.
[23:14] Because it's destroying a lot of people's walk with the Lord. You can't walk with the Lord. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. But what if we're walking in darkness?
[23:26] We're not with Him. We can't allow these things. That's the passage of Scripture that tells us if we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and bring us back into fellowship.
[23:38] He promised that. And if He does that, don't allow that other thing to come in again and take away that fellowship and make you feel distant from God again. Because you need to bring that thought captive to the obedience of Christ or you're going to go through this yo-yo thing.
[23:53] It's going round and round. You don't want that to happen in your heart. You don't want that to happen in your mind. Let's look over at another thing. This is another thing that I think is really important.
[24:05] When you see a problem in your life, let's say, and this happens all the time, okay? Let's say you're a professional person, you have a job somewhere.
[24:19] You're on this job, you meet somebody who's also on the job. You kind of click your personality. You have fun together, all that kind of stuff. And all of a sudden you realize that you're kind of attracted to this person.
[24:30] All of a sudden you're fantasizing about the fact that maybe, hey, when we take this conference down in San Francisco, maybe we'll hang out a little bit or whatever it is. You find yourself going down that track.
[24:42] You need to immediately cut off that situation completely, bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. You say, well, I've struggled to do that before. Nothing's happened, but you know, we're friends and everything. You say, here's what, if you can't deal with it, if you can't deal with it right away, then you ought to quit your job.
[25:03] You say, oh, that's easy for you to say. No, I'm telling you, would it be better to lose your job or lose your marriage? Would it be better to lose your job or lose the relationship you'll have with the Lord Jesus Christ?
[25:14] I know you won't lose it permanently, but believe me, your life will be messed up and you'll be sorry that you ever got involved in it. So, what I'm saying is, we need to be proactive in these areas.
[25:26] Always be on the lookout for that. I've been in business for 42 years. I've been around people that have been attractive to me. Try to avoid that situation. Try to avoid that situation because it can happen to anybody.
[25:40] Don't think, well, I'm the Iron Man. I go to church all the time and I always follow the scripture and I can be close friends with her and it won't bother me. You're kidding yourself. You're lying to yourself.
[25:51] You're making excuses. Break off that relationship. It doesn't have to be at work. Could be anything like that, but get away from that relationship. If it's tempting you and it's in your thoughts, and you know when that happens.
[26:05] And when it's in your thoughts, you need to take steps right away. If those steps aren't working, it'd be better to quit your job than to stay there and let something happen. That's going to hurt your family for the rest of their lives.
[26:16] Let's look over at Proverbs chapter 6. I want to talk about another thing. I'm almost done with the eyes, okay? Then we're going to get on to the ears. Proverbs chapter 6.
[26:27] Proverbs chapter 6.
[26:42] Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6. And look up here in verse 16. It says here, there are six things that the Lord hates.
[26:54] Yes, seven that are an abomination to Him. Haughty eyes is number one on the list. Haughty eyes. now if there was something that God hated would it be important maybe that you know what that is and wouldn't it be important not to have haughty eyes if God hated haughty eyes and if haughty eyes are an abomination to the Lord I mean that's like the most powerful word they've got for you know the fact he's totally disgusted with the fact that you're acting like this haughty eyes is an abomination to the Lord he absolutely it's saying here he hates it it's an abomination so ask yourself and try to try to monitor yourself the way you treat other people and make sure that you don't look down on other people it's easy to do that it's easy I mean you know you have the example in in James where he says you know somebody comes in he's all rich dressed up you say hey come over here and sit at this really nice place over here and another guy comes in he looks like a bum he smells like a bum you say hey why don't you sit here at our footstool we don't have any other place for you you see you're looking down upon him okay you've got haughty eyes you think you're special on God's side are you any cleaner than he is we had a gentleman come to our chapel uh about five or six years ago and um his name was Spencer and he walked in one Sunday morning and I mean this guy was rough I mean his he hadn't shaved he hadn't washed he was wearing you know these dirty uh pants and it just he was there he was there because the lady across the street he liked this lady and and he had met her and he knew that she was coming to our church so he decided that he would come to the church now he wasn't you know he wasn't belligerent or anything like that but he came in the church and sat in the back of course we have our breaking of bread first thing in the morning he didn't have any part of that or anything like that but he comes in and and he's there every Sunday and he comes out the first day comes out we walk outside and I say hey how you doing you know what's your name and all that kind of stuff tells me his name's Spencer and and he says
[29:14] I don't believe in God he says I I if there is a God I hate God you know what God is God's dog spelled backwards I mean this guy was hardcore against God but he came out every week and sat in the back because he knew this lady that came and he liked this lady and so we have this meet and greet time you know and the music goes on and all everybody comes around shakes everybody's hand and the little kids went back there and they shook his hand and all this stuff they were back there week after week and I'm thinking man these little kids are they it's like they don't see what he looks like it's not turning them up it's more the adults are kind of shying away from this guy and he's rough I mean you know um so he's he's there every week and this is going on for months and months and uh then one Sunday I was there early and he came walking in same outfit by this time we had some of us had taken him to to the hospital we'd gotten groceries for him we'd helped him out and some things that he had some problems and um so he came in that Sunday morning and he said he said
[30:19] Daryl he said uh I want to talk to you about something he never talked like that before and I said what's going on friend sir and he said well he said today I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior and I I couldn't argue but I said well tell me how it happened he said well I turned on James Kennedy in the morning he was talking about trusting Christ as Savior and I decided to make a decision to trust Jesus Christ as Savior and you think well that's that's cool story you know he just wants to hang out to see that old lady no after that you know what he said to me he said he said Daryl when that bread and the cup that thing comes around could I take it and I said if you trusted Christ as Savior you're you're qualified to take it as anybody here and so he was there he was still a gruff old man but uh he really he started asking questions in Sunday school and everything and uh he died I don't know about two years later but what what it was is we weren't looking down on him these little kids would go up and shake his hand even though he was and and later on we found out the reason he was wearing these sweatpants and these and a sweatshirt is because his arms and legs were covered with sores because he was on kidney failure I mean you know even though he moved back to uh to this place that was a um a center to take care of older people and when he got there he was real rough with them and they found out he had a had a gun and they so he called me and and um I came in and took the gun it was an old black powder pistol that he had it was rusted wouldn't shoot nothing but um it was pretty scary for those people in the home to find it in his freezer so um but he got to be you know a regular part of the assembly and everything and it's it's because nobody looked down on him and I'm not accusing you guys of that I haven't seen that here I'm just saying it's an important thing to know and to teach and sometimes we do it by accident we look down at somebody we see somebody and they're in a lot of trouble and you think to yourself you know I'd be in a lot of trouble too if I went out and took a lot of drugs like you do you know and that type that's not our place our place is to say you know what I'm a sinner deserves to go to hell Jesus saved me and he can do the same thing for you give that testimony just like those little kids did down there today and people can get saved people can get saved and and the
[32:50] Lord can make changes but think about that our eyes are supposed to be facts uh focused on the Lord not on ourselves and making ourselves look good don't look down at others in Isaiah 65 6 you ever heard that you don't have to look this up you ever heard of the term holier than thou yeah well it's over here in Isaiah chapter 65 and verse 5 where he says you know you people say that you're holier than thou to other people and it says that's a stench in my nostrils that's the way the Lord feels about it when we're we're acting like we're holier than somebody else and that includes the most rundown most rough person in your neighborhood or in your school class or anywhere else if you're looking down on that person you're disobeying the Lord and the Lord hates that the only way you can be come holy is by putting your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior receiving the Holy Spirit and then cultivating hope holiness where he says because I am holy I want you to be holy you can't get it by acting like you're important or or that you know you're looking down at others because you're better than they are we need to be careful about that know what we should be looking at in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 to 3 we are fixing our eyes upon Jesus the author and finisher of our faith think about that fix your eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith the author doesn't mean he wrote it it means that what he made it the one who made it for us the author the one who made the possibility that we could go to heaven and the one who finished it when he said it is finished on the cross and paid the price for our sin that's the person we're dealing with that's the person we should focus unto and so I don't have time for more with the eyes so we'll go to the to the ears hold on here a second so I don't know if you got those uh little sheets yet but uh I'm handing those out because they're just kind of to uh give you a little extra something that you could look at and um maybe here we go all right and I'm not going to take too much time when am I supposed to be over by the way am I supposed to be already over probably um so I'll just uh give you one or two of these anyway um in Mark chapter 4 verse 24 it says be careful what you listen to okay that's one of the verses that you might want to memorize about and some of the translations say be careful who you listen to or be careful what you listen to either one's good enough I mean either one is a good uh thing to have memorized in the back of your mind because you need to be careful about the things that you listen to and in Psalm chapter 1 if you want to turn over there Psalm 1 there's another one for the ear the the gate that's the ear he says here in verse 1 of Psalm chapter 1 how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel on the ungodly or the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scoffers now notice the how this proceeds you know it starts out walking in the counsel of the ungodly and then it moves on the standing in the way of sinners now you've stopped you're not still walking you've stopped and the third one is now you're sitting in the seat of the scoffers you see what's happened it slowly happened it's kind of like the frog and they put it into water and they slowly bring it to a boil and the frog thinks he's okay until somebody eats him for frog legs and it's the same thing here you follow the counsel of the ungodly and the next step is all of a sudden you're kind of hanging around and listening to what the guy's saying and and you're walking in the path of sinners and then all of a sudden that's where you feel comfortable when you sit down in the seat of the scoffers you want to an example of that it's in the old testament
[36:50] another example right there in the old testament it's lot lot sees the valley so he he wants to go down to the valley and he because it's beautiful but sodom's there then he pitches his tent towards sodom and then the next thing you see he's in sodom and the next thing you see he's in the gate at sodom that means he's sat down with the sea in the seat of the scornful he's there now he's an important person in sodom except you know he can't save a couple of missionaries they're supposed to be coming through you know these angels but uh the fact is that sodom you know is a place that he should never have gone to he's part of the people of god but he turned away from that so we need to listen to good counsel um another thing that we need to listen uh not listen to is the the voice of false science science okay um it's falsely called science in in first timothy chapter 6 verses 20 and 21 and colossians chapter 2 to verses 6 to 8 we don't have time to do all those today um so the other false teachers um these this is a good one i think it's very important that we look at look at at chapter 3 i'm sorry look at second timothy chapter 4 i'm looking at my numbers on there second timothy chapter 4 seriously when am i supposed to be done with that all right all right um okay so one of the things we shouldn't do is listen to um people who teach false false science um and also number three uh false teachers who tell people what they want to hear look at second timothy chapter 4 verses 3 and 4 second timothy chapter 4 um verses 3 and 4 it says here for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to myths this is this is your ear gate right here you start listening to these guys you're going to turn away from the lord it says be sober in all these things and endure hardship um do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry stop listening to these people who are coming along and they're preaching you what you want to hear and i i would include in that bunch the universal salvation people the universal healing people if people always get healed why aren't the first century christians around here what happened to them well they died must admit but also the prosperity message okay the prosperity message i mean really paul the only stocks and bonds he had were the stocks on his hands and the bonds on his feet you're not going to be rich in god's that's not god's plan for you if it is if you're thinking that's that's what i want from god that's my focus that's what i want to look for to be rich let me give you one piece of advice okay indisputable the american dream it's awesome right the american dream ends up in the old folks home and it's not very pretty there and i visit a lot of people there and no one ever told me about his boat and no one in the old folks home told me about his car and no one in the old folks told me about all the great things he did they find they usually said where's my where are my kids or where are my grandkids why doesn't anybody come to see me anymore that's the american dream we don't have any part in the american dream we're supposed to be living for the lord jesus christ look what it says in verse 5 but you be sober in all things endure hardship do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry we need to be reaching out with the gospel while we have time don't get yourself sidetracked following
[40:55] the american dream because as i said it ends up in the old folks home also the fourth thing here we need to avoid is people who when they talk to us don't listen to people who are seeking to tempt you turn your bibles to genesis chapter 39 genesis chapter 39 so in this situation this woman is being is pursuing joseph remember joseph so he's an unmarried man he's a slave foreign country this woman is starting to pursue him he can't just leave he can't quit his job you know he's a slave he might try i'm giving my resignation it probably wouldn't go over too well so he tries to talk to this gal he says look she's saying she's saying in verse 7 come lie with me but he refused and said to his master's wife behold with me here the master does not concern himself about anything in the house and has put all that he owns in my charge there's no one greater in this house than i and he had and he has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife how then could i do this great evil and sin against god he knows his stuff he's a slave how many excuses could this guy make well what could i do she ordered me to you know he could have all kinds of excuses here i am i hardly speak the language i'm from a foreign country i don't have anything in my future i'm just a slave but what does he do instead it says in verse 10 this is this is very impressive as she spoke to joseph day after day he did not listen to her he did not listen to her most people would hang around and say well what do you got in mind you know i don't think this is going to work out but what are you talking about what is going to happen he didn't do that he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her he tried to make it that he would be out of there whenever she was in the house he'd be out of the house that's hard to do when you're in charge of the house and the woman who owns the house is pursuing you but he did his best finally one day she catches him in the house nobody else is there she grabs him by his garment says come lie with me and he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out i memorized that verse early he he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out because he's saying i'm not going to do that i am not going to do that i'm going to turn away from that avoid it do not pass by it turn away from it and pass on and leave your garment behind if you have to you see though this is a situation where he's responding to someone who's trying to tempt him and he explains it don't listen to people who are trying to tempt you he did the right thing guess what you aren't talking about these gatekeepers and these verses that can be a gatekeepers for you what did jesus do when he was tempted you know hey make these you're hungry make these stones become bread you're the son of god man will not live it is written he says man will not live bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of god he answered that temptation with scripture then he gets tempted again he answered it it is written answer that temptation with scripture and the third temptation he answered that with scripture and then satan came back with another scripture and said hey you know why don't you jump off here because he said why don't you jump off here because the bible says the angels will bear you up he got a he got a prophecy from the old testament about the messiah and used it on jesus he knew jesus was the messiah and so what did jesus do jesus said yes that's true but it says don't tempt the lord your god and that's what you're asking me to do and i'm not going to do that and so he answered him once again with scripture so when you get a temptation in your life answer it with scripture memorize scriptures
[45:00] in the area of your temptation if you have a problem with lying you need to memorize the verse that says lying lips are an abomination to the lord if you have a problem with being angry you need to memorize that verse that anger resides in the bosom of a fool whatever your problem is whatever area you're weak in and i'm not looking down on you i have weaknesses too i need to memorize my verses for my weaknesses you need to memorize your verses for your weaknesses because we don't want those weak points the gates to allow in anything that's unclean because the holy spirit's in there and the last thing we'd like to do is to grieve the holy spirit and the last one is the mouth gate we'll talk about that tomorrow morning so consider what i say and the lord will give you understanding in everything let's pray father i thank you for the opportunity we have to look at your word and i pray that you'll speak to us through it help us to use your word as you'd like it to be used you gave us all these examples so we could see them and we could use them so we could see your faithfulness when people obeyed thank you for the picture of joseph but thank you for the reminder of david thank you lord for your faithfulness down through the years for believers who have sought to follow your word and and to do those things which are pleasing in your sight i pray lord for all of us that when we go home we'll seek to to have a have a restart just like the people did in second chronicles lord where they decided they were gonna they were gonna turn back to the lord be his people be holy as he was holy and try to serve him get rid of the sin that was in their lives and to just trust you and and follow your directions and get back into the word lord i pray that we might do the same thing we pray these things in jesus name amen