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[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church. Knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. So there are many ways to spell Darrell.

[0:14] I was sharing with some of the guys back there that when I noticed it was spelled this way, or somebody else actually noticed it. But when I was a senior in high school, homecoming game, made a great tackle, open field tackle in front of everybody.

[0:31] And the announcer, who happened to be a friend of mine, and this wasn't on purpose, but he said, and on the tackle, Darley Lynn. Now, you don't want to be a football player named Darley Lynn, okay?

[0:45] So it's, but it stuck with me for the rest of the football season, so anyway. Anyway, excited to hear about the father-daughter campout.

[0:59] That's really cool. I'm waiting for the mother-son cooking class, I think, is coming shortly after that. It'll be good. That'll be a good time.

[1:10] Kids will look forward to that. Really glad to be here. Many friends here. A lot of memories here. I appreciate the opportunity to share with you what the Lord has laid on my heart, and if I can find my glasses.

[1:27] So let's open in a word of prayer. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have to look into your word, Lord. We say, open thou mine eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law.

[1:38] Lord, we come aside to take a little time. We notice that you did that often when you're here on earth, Lord, and you would go aside and spend time in prayer, go aside, and just be with the Lord and take some time.

[1:55] I pray, Lord, that this will be a very valuable weekend in our lives. I pray, Lord, that your word will speak to us and really bring forth fruit.

[2:06] And I thank you again for these friends, and I pray your blessing upon this assembly. And for today, we give thanks for it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So turn with me, if you will, to 2 Chronicles chapter 23.

[2:22] Now, I know that sounds kind of scary, 2 Chronicles chapter 23. I had a friend that he had come to the chapel of Valley Park for years, and then he had moved to a different location.

[2:34] He wasn't coming anymore. But I'd see him from time to time, and he'd say, Brother, have you discovered the New Testament yet? There is a reason why I love the passages in the Old Testament because they illustrate things for us.

[2:49] And in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 11, it says, Now these things have happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction upon whom the end of the ages have come.

[3:02] That means the Old Testament is for us. He's talking definitely about the Old Testament. These things happened to them as an example. And they were written for our instruction upon whom the end of the ages has come.

[3:15] And he was talking about the things that happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness at the time when they came out from Egypt. And so those things are written for us. Another passage says the same thing in Romans 15, 4.

[3:27] For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction. And that's definitely why the Old Testament is there. It's not just a book where you can get a Bible story for the kids, but there are really illustrations and important examples that we're supposed to pick up from the Old Testament.

[3:45] And I think there's one in this passage in 2 Chronicles chapter 23. And so I want to look into this a little bit. Look at chapter, we'll start in chapter 22, verses 2 to 4.

[3:59] Chapter 22. And so this is, this took place in Israel when the country was so divided that they were two countries. You had Judah and you had Israel. So you've got a divided country.

[4:12] You've got people that were into idolatry. You had people that weren't worshiping the Lord. They weren't following the instructions of the Scripture. They'd gotten away from the Lord. Does this sound familiar? Sure does.

[4:23] So this could speak to us, could be an example to us. And here's how bad it got. In chapter 22, verses 2 to 4, it says, And Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem.

[4:38] And his mother's name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri. Omri was a bad guy from the other so-called country. And he also walked in the ways of Ahab, who's another bad guy, for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly.

[4:55] That's how bad it got. His mother was counseling him to do wickedly. And some of you, if you know the history of Athaliah, you understand that that's really bad. And so it says here in verse 4, He did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, for they were his counselors after the death of his father and his destruction.

[5:18] So turn over to verses, we'll start in verse 10. So here's how bad things got. So that guy who is the son of Athaliah dies.

[5:32] Okay? He gets killed. And so the queen wants to come and comfort everybody. And so here's what she does. It says in verse 10, Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah.

[5:47] All her grandkids. Her son was the king, and now he's dead. So she kills all her grandkids. Why?

[5:58] She wants to take over. This is how evil it was. You know when you get surprised about how evil things are, sometimes in our own country? We have freedom, that's one thing. But there's a lot of evil going on these days.

[6:10] But what if it gets to this point? It could. And so it says here in verse 11, But Jehoshabim, the king's daughter, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons who were being put to death, and placed him and his nurse in the bedroom.

[6:27] So Jehoshabim, the daughter of King Joram, and the wife of Jehoiada, the priest, for she was the sister of Ahaziah, hid him from Athaliah so that she would not put him to death.

[6:42] He was hidden with them in the house of God. Six years while Athaliah reigned over the land. So here he is. They take this little baby. They hide him for six years in the temple.

[6:55] And it says here in chapter 23, verse 1, Now in the seventh year, Jehoiada, the priest, strengthened himself and took captains of hundreds and go down to the bottom of that last line of that verse.

[7:08] They entered into a covenant with him, and they went throughout Judah and gathered all the Levites from the cities of Judah and the heads of the fathers' households of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

[7:19] These guys decided that they need to change things. This was not working. They've got this evil queen who will kill anybody. If you'll kill your own grandchildren, you'll kill anybody. I know I've got grandchildren.

[7:30] I've got grandchildren. They're not to the stage where you want to kill them yet, but they're super. I love being with my grandkids. So it says here in verse 3, it says, Then all the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God.

[7:48] And Jehoiada said to them, Behold, the king's son shall reign, as the Lord has spoken concerning the sons of David.

[7:58] So he's going back to the word of God right here. He says, you know, we're not doing the wrong thing. We've got to allow David's offspring to be the king. This is sustaining the line of Christ.

[8:08] That's what this is. And he's saying we need a descendant of David to be on the throne, not this crazy queen that wants to kill everybody. And it says in verse 4, This is the thing which you shall do.

[8:20] And a third of you of the priests and Levites who come on the Sabbath shall be gatekeepers. That was for security. That was for physical security. I'm the director of physical security at Merits.

[8:32] I know physical security. You've got to guard the doors. If you don't guard the doors, you're going to have problems. You might have today, back in those days, you might have a soldier there.

[8:43] These days, you might have a camera. You might have an alarm. And somebody who's going to respond to that problem. But they didn't have anything going. And he said, what we need is we're going to take one third of you and make you gatekeepers.

[8:55] That's how important this is. And so they do that. And they have a third of the people be gatekeepers just for security purposes. And then they make this plan.

[9:07] And so in verse 11, it says of chapter 23, Then they brought out the king's son and put a crown on him and gave him the testimony and made him king.

[9:17] And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him. And they said, long live the king. You wonder where that came from. Long live the king. And Athaliah hears all of this going on.

[9:29] And down in the bottom of verse 13, she yells out, trees and trees. And she comes out hoping that people are going to rally to her cry of treason and help her throw out the new government that's just been established.

[9:41] And, of course, nobody came to her aid and she was killed. So then something happened. Jehoiada really wanted to follow the Lord.

[9:53] And remember, it was his daughter that actually saved this little boy. And so he really wanted to follow the Lord. And he wanted to get this, the nation of Judah.

[10:04] Judah was the good one. Okay. Israel was the bad one. They're all Israelites. But Judah's the good one for the most part. They turned bad also at the end and going to get captivity.

[10:14] It's, you know, you think you'd learn from seeing what happened to your little brother or whatever. But that didn't happen. So in verse 16, it says here, then Jehoiada, they want to change things.

[10:27] And they're going to do four things that we're going to find in these next four verses. They decided, number one, they made a decision in number one. Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they would be the Lord's people.

[10:43] They decided, you know, I mean, they were supposed to be the Lord's people anyway, right? They're the chosen people. They're the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. They're supposed to be God's people, but they hadn't been living up to that.

[10:56] And he says, you know what? We need to go out. We need to realize. Let's make a covenant between ourselves and all the people and all the king that they would be the Lord's people. And it says over, just want to remind you of a verse that it says, talking about that in Leviticus chapter 11, I'll read it to you.

[11:13] It says in verse 44 and 45, he says, I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy because I am holy. You see, if you want the Lord to be your Lord in this situation, if he wanted, they wanted to be the Lord's people, he wanted them to set themselves apart.

[11:31] That was the whole purpose for him picking a people. And the Messiah would come down through that. And all the prophets would be there and all this testimony that went on and it would be teaching.

[11:43] It would be understanding for us in the future. And so he said, I want you to consecrate yourselves. Be holy as I am the holy because I'm the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

[11:53] Now, when you see the land of Egypt in scripture, it almost always refers to, it illustrates the world. Okay, because we fall into this same category. We were lost in the world, but God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that if we would believe in him, we would not perish but have everlasting life.

[12:11] And so Egypt usually represents the world. Remember, the Lord's always saying to the children of Israel, don't return to Egypt. Don't return to Egypt. That's what believers do a lot of time. They return to the world.

[12:22] They think, oh, well, you know, this isn't working out with the Lord. I mean, I know I'm going to heaven and everything, but, you know, I'd like to be involved in some of that stuff back there. And they look back.

[12:33] The children of Israel look back and they said, remember the melons we used to eat and the leeks and the garlic and we had so much food and everything? Yeah, but you were slaves and they were throwing your firstborn son into the Nile River.

[12:46] That's not something to look back at fondly. But that's how we are oftentimes and we think, well, you know, I'm trying to live the Christian life and it's a struggle sometimes. It would just be easier if I walked away from that.

[12:58] It's not easy and you can't do that. In the next verse, in verse 17, there's something else that they do. It says, all the people went up to the house of Baal and tore it down.

[13:11] And they broke it in pieces, his altars and his images. And they killed Matan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. Here, all this idolatry was going on all over the country.

[13:22] Nobody was in the temple except the little boy. Nobody was going to the temple. They were going out to worship Baal. And they wanted to put this back. Put it back to where it belonged.

[13:35] And so they went out and they destroyed these idols. And so they made a decision at first and then they took action against sin. So if you want to get a restart in your life, and that's what really this whole thing is about this weekend, that I want to talk about being gatekeepers, okay?

[13:57] Or guardians, as it's mentioned. So to be a gatekeeper, do you want to reset your life? Do you look at your life and say, well, you know, I'm right where I'm supposed to be with the Lord.

[14:07] Or if not, let's use this weekend to allow us to have a reset to our life. That we get back to the things that are important. Like the first thing there, you know, that you recognize the most important thing in your life is that you're one of God's people.

[14:22] You're not just a regular person there at work. You're a representative of Jesus Christ. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Are you doing that on the job?

[14:34] Are you doing that when you play sports? Are you doing that in your interactions with your neighbors? Are we doing that? The second thing, of course, getting rid of sin in our life.

[14:45] Like they threw out these things that were really dragging them down. Worshiping Baal instead of the Lord. The third thing they did in verse 18. Moreover, Jehoiada placed the office of the house of the Lord under authority of the Levitical priest whom David had assigned over the house of the Lord.

[15:03] This was hundreds of years before. To offer the burnt offerings to the Lord as it is written in the law of Moses. They weren't offering the offerings they were supposed to do. This was all written down.

[15:13] It was in the word of God. They finally are getting back to the word of God. So they made a decision. They wanted to live for the Lord. And then they go out and they search the land for the idols and get rid of them.

[15:31] Search your life for what shouldn't be there. The Holy Spirit will let you know what that is. And then deal with sin. And then make a decision. You want to get back into the word of God and start following what it has for you.

[15:44] And then the fourth thing is in verse 19. He stationed gatekeepers of the house of the Lord so that no one would enter who was in any way unclean. The way this little series that I'm going to do here on the weekend started was in my personal reading and reading this passage.

[16:03] And thinking about verse 19. He stationed gatekeepers of the house of the Lord so that no one would enter who was in any way unclean. And I thought that's so cool that they stopped the uncleanness from coming in.

[16:14] Now if you were a leper in those days you couldn't go in the temple. It was against the scripture. But if you don't have anybody by the door somebody will walk right in. So they put gatekeepers at the door to protect them.

[16:28] We need gatekeepers. Okay. So this seems like a pretty nice cool you know Old Testament story. But it's not just there as an accident and for us to get a nice story to read and say well those people really turned it around didn't they?

[16:42] No. I think there's more to it for us. And in reading after this I thought of this passage. Turn your Bibles over here. To 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

[16:57] 1 Corinthians chapter 6. So I'm reading this passage of scripture and I'm thinking about it.

[17:19] And then I realize that this passage of scripture is talking about something I've been talking about in the other passage. Okay. So in verse 19 he says. I always do the King James because that's how I memorize.

[17:31] What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit whom you have from God? And you are not your own but you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your spirit in your body and in your spirit which are God's.

[17:46] Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? And so I read that verse and I thought wait a minute. This could really tie in with what I'm looking at in the Old Testament here.

[18:00] You see. When I see things about the temple in the Old Testament I think well there's no temple around anymore. I've been to Israel and I've seen that big dome of the rock where the temple is supposed to be. And the temple is not there.

[18:12] And so when we think well it doesn't have any application to me because there's not even a temple. Well there is. This is the spiritual temple that God really wants us to think about. Your body.

[18:22] Once you've trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. Your body. Is the temple of the Holy Ghost. As the King James says. The Holy Spirit who is in you. Who you have from God.

[18:33] And you are not your own. You belong to him. You're his temple. You are bought with a price. Net price with Jesus Christ coming down to earth.

[18:43] Living a perfect life among people like us. Can you imagine? It'd be like going to a leper colony. Way worse than that for him. But he came here and lived among us and grew up and lived the life of a regular person.

[18:59] And then he. But he did no wrong. And then he died on the cross and he paid for our sin. So that we could have eternal life as a free gift. Now.

[19:09] Now. If. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And I'm supposed to glorify God in my body. Are there any gatekeepers for me?

[19:20] What about me? Can I hire a guy to help out? No. This is. This is just you. This is just me. My body. Is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Is everybody's body the temple of the Holy Spirit?

[19:33] No. No. You have to be. You have to know you have eternal life. You have to put your trust in Jesus Christ. Well when does that happen? Turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1.

[19:46] It's one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It's very powerful. Ephesians chapter 1. So when and how do we get the Holy Spirit?

[19:59] Okay. It says in Ephesians chapter 1. And starting in verse 13.

[20:11] In him you also. After listening to the message of the truth. Okay. The gospel of your salvation. So let somebody comes up to you. And they share with you the gospel. And the gospel is.

[20:24] Number one. That all have sinned. And fallen short of the glory of God. Every one of us is a sinner. And we. We deserve to spend eternity separated from God. God doesn't dwell where sin is.

[20:35] Psalm 5.4. There's. The Lord. Wants us to be with him. But we're sinners. And we were separated from God by our sin.

[20:47] And that's why the Father sent the Son. To be the Savior of the world. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Some of you might be better than others.

[20:59] Some of you might be worse than others. I won't mention any names. Except Kevin. You know. I'll mention him. But. Somebody might be better. Somebody might be worse. But we're all sinners.

[21:09] And we've fallen short of the glory of God. In order to go to heaven. Heaven is a perfect place. You cannot go there unless you're perfect. How many of us are perfect? It's obvious. None of us are perfect.

[21:20] The only thing we can do is point at other people. And say I'm better than that guy. That doesn't help you. We're all. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. We've all fallen short of being eligible to go to heaven.

[21:33] And that's why God sent his Son to die on the cross. Now it's like this. Somebody wanted me to share this. So I'll do it. I'm not using my wallet. Alright. So. Let this hand represent you and me and the whole world.

[21:44] Okay. Now what is this? It's a hand. Yeah. Some of you got it right. So it represents you and me and the whole world. We'll let this hand represent God.

[21:55] Okay. We'll let this represent sin. Because these phones sometimes. We'll let this represent sin. Okay. So we all have sin on us. You and me and the whole world are sin.

[22:06] Some of us, like I say. You know. They've got a big pile of sin. Some of them have a little bit of sin. Um. Probably none of us have a little bit of sin. But we have different amounts of sin. That doesn't matter.

[22:16] We all have sin. Sin separates us from God. God has no sin. But he wants us to be with him. Something's got to happen to take care of the sin problem. So the Father sends the Son to be the Savior of the world.

[22:28] For God so loved the world. That's you and me. That he gave his only begotten Son. That whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Because it tells us that he, God, sent him, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin.

[22:45] To become sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God in him. You see how he took our sin upon himself? And when we put our trust in Jesus Christ, our sin is all put upon Jesus Christ.

[22:57] He's already paid for it. But we receive the righteousness of God because we put our trust in him. It's not a long, drawn-out process. It's a momentary thing when you make a decision recognizing that you've offended a holy and righteous God and deciding to believe that he died on the cross and paid for your sin and will give you eternal life if you trust in him.

[23:18] And when you make that decision, it's that fast. That's how it happened for me. I wasn't in this building, but I was in a building, right, that was similar to this. I mean, most churches are similar to this.

[23:28] Same building I go to at Valley Park, and I was sitting in the second row, right about where this gentleman's sitting. And some guy came in, started sharing the gospel. He was a missionary. I don't know where he was from.

[23:40] I was less than 10 years old. I didn't remember those kind of things. I did sit almost on the front row. I usually sat in the back, but I almost sat on the front row because if there's a missionary, there could be like people eating rats and people with spears and things like that, and I wanted to see that.

[23:58] But he started talking about the gospel, and all of a sudden, I started getting nervous because it sounded like he was talking about me, that I was a sinner, and I realized I was. I knew I was all along. But he also talked about how, you know, we might be lost and go to hell, and I didn't want to do that.

[24:14] And then he shared the fact that Jesus had paid the price for all of my sin, and the only thing I could do. Notice I never say, it's all that you can do, because that doesn't, that sounds, you know, this is all you can do is, you know, put your trust in Jesus.

[24:27] It's the only thing you can do is put your trust in Jesus Christ, because he's the only place where you can receive salvation.

[24:38] Remember, he gave him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He didn't stay dead. He rose from the dead, got rid of that sin.

[24:50] Now we can have fellowship with God because our sin is gone. So when do we receive the Holy Spirit? Right when you made that decision to put your trust in Jesus Christ, your Savior. And I know that's true because it's right here.

[25:01] Look at this, verse 13. In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, and that's the aorist tense in the Greek, it's like at that moment of belief, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession.

[25:25] To the praise of his glory. At the moment you believe, after listening to the message of the truth, you got to have the truth. The gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you're sealed with him, in him with the Holy Spirit of promise.

[25:40] The Holy Spirit came in right then. Now, people used to be filled with the Holy Spirit from time to time in the Old Testament. When Jesus talked to his disciples one day, and he said, things are going to change.

[25:55] And it's in John, and he says to him, God is with you, and the Holy Spirit is with you, and will be in you.

[26:06] That's the thing. Back in the Old Testament, you'd be filled with the Spirit from time to time. David said, please don't take your Spirit from me. That can't happen to us, because he's given us the promise in Hebrews, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

[26:18] He's inside. You have the Holy Spirit inside. If you've trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. What's that seal for? Well, it gives identification. You belong to the Lord. It also gives security, because nobody can break that seal.

[26:32] You can break Pilate's seal, apparently, if you're the Lord. So he broke Pilate's seal, but you can't break the Lord's seal. You're sealed in him. You know what it is? It's a down payment.

[26:42] That's what it says in this verse. It says, you are sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession.

[26:57] I love the fact that the King James used earnest for that, for a pledge, earnest, because I bought a lot of cars. I buy used cars. Gary keeps them running somehow. But anyway, I bought a lot of cars, and when you go to see a used car, you go and you look at the car, you see how much you think it's worth, and then you offer something a lot less.

[27:19] And then, let's say the guy says, okay, I'll sell you the car, and now you're beginning to doubt yourself. Then you say, okay, I'm going to give you some earnest money. That means that I plan on buying this car.

[27:30] This is an agreement. Well, what happens if I don't buy the car? I just go back and get my earnest money, right? No, that's never happened. I keep going back, they won't give it to me.

[27:40] No, I never went back. But if you renege on that promise, you forfeit your earnest.

[27:51] And that's what God would have to do. If I went to hell, the Holy Spirit would have to go with me. Because it's a promise. It's a pledge. It's a seal.

[28:02] And God's seal can't be broken. One thing that's taught out of that little idea is that you can never lose the salvation that you have. After all, when Jesus said, he who believes in me has everlasting life, when did he mean?

[28:16] He meant right now, you have everlasting life. That's what he said. You have everlasting life. If you have everlasting life, how long does it last? When does it end? Can you ever lose it?

[28:28] Because it's what kind of life? That's right. I get the kids at camp screaming that out. I keep going with it, keep going with it. They finally get the point, you know. It's everlasting life.

[28:38] You can't lose it. So we're sealed with the Spirit right at that time. And then that's when the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. You've seen vans driving.

[28:49] Some of you probably have it on your car, baby on board. Some of you probably have three babies on board, something like that. But you ought to have a sticker on your back, Holy Spirit on board, because he's with you. Now, he's with you all the time.

[29:02] He's with you when you're lying, and he hates lying. He's with you when you do something wrong, when you hurt someone. He's with you when you're praising God.

[29:15] He's with you when you're forgetting about the Lord. He's always with you. And that's the thing. So I was thinking, well, you know, a lot of times that verse, that main gatekeeper's verse, says he stationed gatekeepers of the house of the Lord so that no one should enter who was in any way unclean.

[29:36] So if I'm the temple of the Holy Spirit, what are the gates? Well, I can think of the gates. There's the eye gate, there's the ear gate, and there's the mouth gate.

[29:52] And the eye gate, the ear gate, and the mouth gate, those are accesses into our body. All right? And those things need to have gatekeepers. I was thinking about, what about us?

[30:04] Are we going to have some gatekeepers? Well, you've got an advantage over what they had back then. They had the little king inside. We've got the Holy Spirit inside. Okay?

[30:14] So our gatekeepers can become the promises of God. And that's why I want to talk about this weekend because this sheet that they're giving out, you don't need to look at that now or go over it now, but I'm trying to explain what it's all about.

[30:27] So one of the most powerful things that the Holy Spirit does for us, the Holy Spirit is the one that leads us into all truth. He teaches us. He convicts us of sin and righteousness and judgment.

[30:40] And he's there for us. He will let you know. You'll hear that still small voice behind you saying, this is the way. Walk ye in it. It's going to be up to you to choose to follow that or to follow the old man because he's still there.

[30:54] Inside, once we trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, we have the new man, but we also have the old man. Remember those verses in Egypt says, put off lying and speak truth. Remember those verses over in 1 Colossians, same thing.

[31:06] Put off the old man, put off the old man, put on the new, which is being renewed in the spirit. Allow the spirit to fill your life. Allow the spirit to help you. And so I want to specifically this weekend talk about some of these areas, these gates and how we can set up some gatekeepers for them.

[31:25] Let's look over at Ephesians chapter 5. Okay, he says here in Ephesians chapter 5, this is an important aspect of our life here, he says.

[31:59] He says in verse 18, Do not be drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. Okay, so actually, this could involve one of the gates right here.

[32:09] Okay, if you're getting drunk with wine, you're disobeying the scripture. But be filled with the spirit. What do we say when somebody's drunk? We say they're under the influence, right? Well, that's what being filled with the spirit is about.

[32:21] Are you under the influence of wine? Are you under the influence of the Holy Spirit? If you're under the influence of the Holy Spirit, you're going to act significantly different than if you're drunk, right? So what he's using that for is an illustration to let us know that we should allow ourselves to be influenced by the Holy Spirit.

[32:40] And then he says, So you're being filled with the spirit right there.

[32:51] Now I want you to turn over to Colossians, okay? Colossians is, It's almost like in the, When you look at, When you look at the gospels, I'm sorry, I better find this thing first.

[33:10] Okay. So, Forgot my train of thought there.

[33:24] So, He's saying to be filled with the spirit, okay? Don't be drunk with wine, But be filled with the spirit. Now, Now what I want to say about Colossians and Ephesians, They're, It's almost like they're parallels also, Just like the gospels are.

[33:37] And you get some really good comparisons on them. There's one really powerful one here that's really meant a lot to me. And I think we, We need to know it. And it's this verse that almost is exactly like the verse we just read over in Ephesians that we're more familiar with because we spend more time in Ephesians because chapter two just is all world, right?

[33:54] So anyway, Verse 15, It says here in chapter three of Colossians, He says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, To which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

[34:08] Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, Teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

[34:21] In the other passage, He said, Be filled with the spirit and teaching, Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

[34:34] And in the other passage over there, It's about the Holy Spirit. And in this passage, It's talking about being richly filled with the Holy Spirit. It says, Let the word of Christ richly dwell in you.

[34:47] The other one's talking about the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. And you think, Well, How can I be filled with the spirit? The other one said, Be filled with the spirit. I've already got the spirit, Right? But to allow him to make more influence and to fill my life.

[35:00] How do I do that? This verse will help you because this will help to accomplish that because they're the same thing. The Holy Spirit is the one who's the handler of the word of God. Brother Dave mentioned that, I think, right before we got started.

[35:13] But he's the handler of the word of God. And here it is. He's saying, Be filled with the spirit. In Ephesians and Colossians, He's saying, Be filled richly with the word of God.

[35:25] So as you take the word of God, The word of God can work on you to fill you with the Holy Spirit, To allow the Holy Spirit to fill your life. He's there. He's in there. But look what you can do to the Holy Spirit.

[35:37] You know, We can lie to the Holy Spirit, The scripture says. We can resist the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 7. We can grieve the Holy Spirit in Ephesians chapter 4.

[35:48] And we often do. We can quench the Holy Spirit. Cold water. Pour cold water on that fire. We can quench the Holy Spirit. All of these things we can do to the Holy Spirit. So we need to follow the instructions of the word of God.

[36:00] Instead of quenching the spirit, Instead of, You know, Grieving the spirit, Be filled with the spirit. How do you do that? Take the word of God and put it in there. So what, What I realized, And I started doing for myself, Is to, And I've actually done some of this for years, When I realized that I had problems in certain areas of sin.

[36:19] If you have a problem in a certain area of sin, The best thing to do is to memorize scriptures about it. Memorize them. And don't get scared about it. You know, It doesn't take that much. But to memorize the scripture, Not the whole Bible.

[36:34] I'm talking about memorizing certain verses that you need to memorize, Because you're following something that shouldn't be there. Let's say, Now my wife told me, That when she was very young, She had a problem with lying.

[36:45] I don't know if she's telling the truth about that or not. But, She, She did tell me that, I can't think of any time she's ever lied to me since then. But she wasn't saved at the time. But she said, She had a problem with lying.

[36:57] And then when she got saved, She realized she needed to get rid of that lying. Well, The best way to do it, Is to memorize verses that would help. And the same thing for me. When I was younger, I had a problem with anger. And, So, Don't make any complaints about this message afterwards.

[37:11] But anyway, I, I had a problem with anger. So, I memorized verses about anger. The anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. Anger resides in the bosom of a fool.

[37:24] I don't want to be a fool. So, The Holy Spirit would bring that verse to my mind. I'm thinking, I don't want to be a fool today. I'm going to stop being angry about this. The Holy Spirit hates lying.

[37:35] You know, Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. Memorize that verse. And the Holy Spirit will speak it to you in your ear when you know you're lying. And what I'm saying is that these verses that you can get and find in the scripture, And you need to find your own.

[37:49] I mean, I put some in there that are pretty good. Okay? They would be helpful. And when you get that sheet, You'll see in some different areas where they could be pretty good for you. But the best thing is for you to find out, Just take a little time in your mind.

[38:03] And maybe this happens at the breaking of bread where you come to mind and you think, Man, I did that again. Or I shouldn't be involved in this. I know that. You know, Confess it to the Lord. You know what?

[38:14] Confess it. And then start looking for a verse. And memorize that verse. Memorization isn't that hard. You can memorize a verse a little at a time.

[38:25] Okay? So, Figure out some way to do it. Now, We invite anybody at the chapel who wants to come over to our house every Sunday to play volleyball at our house because we have a big yard and everything.

[38:37] So, They come over about four o'clock. Before you can serve, You have to say a verse. And we pick the verse. Now, What we'll usually do is pick the verse, A verse that stands out from the message that morning.

[38:48] That way, We're reinforcing that. And if you say it over, We usually play for three hours. If you say that verse every time you serve, By the time it's over with, You've got that verse memorized.

[39:00] And sometimes they'll bring new people. We have unsaved people come. You know, They come in. That's fine. That's great. That's what the word of God's for. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Or God so loved the world, He gave us something.

[39:12] We'll do it. But we'll have a verse. And we'll break up some of the bigger verses. And maybe for the first hour, We'll say the first line of that verse. For the second hour, We'll say the second line of that verse Till everybody gets it down.

[39:24] And some of these verses that are on that list that I gave you, We've used in that way. But find some creative way in which, You know, Before you get to eat that ice cream, You have to say that verse again, Or something, You know, That'll motivate you To not forget to memorize.

[39:38] Because when you memorize, Believe me, The Holy Spirit will not forget To bring it into your mind. It's happened to me so often, It's sickening. But it's the best thing for me, Because then I know I have a decision to make.

[39:50] Instead of going on ahead And not thinking about things, I've got to make a decision. Am I going to disobey the convictions of the Holy Spirit? Or am I going to take action And not do this thing?

[40:02] All right, So, In that handout I gave you, I was giving these different verses and everything. I also have a verse at the bottom Of some of those handouts.

[40:13] Well, In this one, The eye gate, Ear gate, Mouth gate, The bottom verse there, I put in there because this is, This is not about a gate, Okay?

[40:26] Because he's saying here, Do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, Do not pass by it, Turn away from it, And pass on. That is one of my favorite verses. The Holy Spirit brings that verse to me all the time.

[40:38] I put that verse on my computer screen. I put that verse around. I've used that verse, The Holy Spirit uses that verse for me. It's a great verse. And, But it's, It's not about a gate.

[40:49] So I put it at the bottom because, We've got something that's different, From what the temple had. We've got a mobile temple. Okay? So, We're a mobile temple, And we sure shouldn't take, The temple of the Holy Spirit, And take it, And proceed in the way of evil men.

[41:05] And so, This is a great four point sermon, By the way, For any of you young preachers, Who'd like to do that. Avoid it, Do not pass by it, Turn away from it, And pass on. And you'd say that over, And over again, And you'll learn it.

[41:17] We, If, If, Every once in a while, We bring this out, Because it's one of my favorites. We'll bring it out to volleyball, And they'll just say it over, And over, And over, And over, And over again, Because you want it to be in there.

[41:27] You want it to be solidly in there, So the Holy Spirit can bring it to your remembrance. It can really change the way you live. That you'll look before you leap. You'll think before you act.

[41:39] You'll be convicted before you are convicted. You'll find that you're using the word of God to help you. So when you find a verse that really convicts you, Don't turn to the next page.

[41:50] Write it down. And add it to the list. And start developing a list of gatekeepers. And we're going to talk about that during this time.

[42:02] Gatekeepers. The eye gate, The ear gate, And the mouth gate. And we're going to talk about some verses there, And some things that we can find out on that. How I can fit that into two more messages, I don't know.

[42:20] But I'm going to give it a try. And I just want to talk a little bit about the eye gate. Because the eye gate, I want to get started in it because I won't have time if I don't get some of this in it today.

[42:32] So I want to talk about the eye gate. One of the things about the eye gate, We do, Most guys have certain verses memorized that can help them. In the eye gate area.

[42:43] But you need to expand that, Especially if you're not having victory in that. Because one verse may speak stronger to you than another. And for the eye gate, I really like this Psalm 101.

[42:55] So turn your Bibles over there to Psalm 101. Okay, you don't have to memorize verse 2 but it would really be good if you did you don't have to memorize any of them but I would advise you to memorize these verses right here I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart that's an important verse it kind of reminds me of David walking on the roof one night I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart verse 3 though powerful guys have a lot of trouble with pornography things like that very powerful verse here a lot of temptations in your life you may have problems with you say well I don't feel like talking about that that's hey we're talking about your relationship with the Lord we're talking about grieving the Holy Spirit we're talking about the Holy Spirit on board for everything that you see it says here in verse 3

[44:12] I will set no worthless thing before my eyes I hate the work of those who fall away it shall not fasten its grip on me that's the verse the three part verse that we're doing in volleyball the other day I will set no worthless thing before my eyes that doesn't have to be pornography it could be a lot of different things it could be just setting worthless things before your eyes for three or four hours a day always being on the phone always doing this and that how much of it is valuable how much it is worthless I could be guilty of that too I will set no worthless thing before my eyes I hate the work of those who fall away those who you know they tell you they're believers they tell you they're interested they tell you they want to live for Christ and then they kind of you know three weeks later they leave and you don't see them come back and it's because they've gotten away from the Lord they've allowed these things to happen I hate the work of those who fall away it shall not fasten its grip on me you know why some people don't come to church because all week long they do things that make them feel like they can't come to church now we do break bread and the Lord does bring forgiveness and he wants us to be in fellowship with him and that's an important aspect of our faith but don't allow what's happening in your life to keep you from taking in the word to keep you from fellowship with other believers but take action on the things that are hurting you in your life because it's very important that we follow the instruction of the scripture and we start to put gatekeepers at the gates and I'll be talking about more gatekeepers during this time so hold on to this sheet we'll talk about now on the back of the sheet is watching the eye gate so what I did here is for each one of the gates

[46:09] I've got another sheet I'm going to hand out so every this is on both sides you've got the gates listed on the front and you've got you've got specific verses that I picked out that are really helpful for me and I think they might be helpful for you in the ear gate I've got listening to advice I've got music too and then for the mouth gate you know I've got verses that for that you can find other ones to add to that list of the things that are it's a different direction usually this is stuff coming out yes being drunk with wine or taking drugs or whatever yeah that could be a problem for the mouth gate but it's mostly what's coming out it's not what goes in that defiles a man Jesus said but what comes out of his heart and so that's what you really want to get to when you're doing mouth gate verses but so in the back I just put up a little sheet that I made about the eye gate this would take you about maybe 20 minutes to do and I just thought it might be nice if we if everybody got a copy of that and then sometime during the day today you could go over that see if you find some cool things in that it's just like a little study kind of reinforce some of the things that I was saying and then tonight I'll hand out another one and it'll have one of those little studies on each side for the ear gate and then one for the mouth gate and and you can do that sometime later tonight or tomorrow

[47:30] I'm not asking you to do anything with it it's just this will reinforce it a little bit in your mind so if you'd like to do that I think it would give you a little bit more out of the message of what what we're speaking to tonight because you'll have to you're looking in scripture and it may deal with some other passages I'm not dealing with but you're looking at it and you're thinking about it and you're putting down your answers instead of just hearing me drone on you know so I hope that you'll take advantage of that as an opportunity I'm not trying to make it so your whole retreat you're in your room you know digging in your bible trying to get all the answers that's not what this is about it's about effective preaching so that you know it can really touch your heart because these are the things that touched my heart in this area and it came from just reading the word and I was reading about the gatekeepers and then and I thought to myself you know that's something that I should be using in my life gatekeepers and I've been memorizing scripture to do that which is very helpful for me not always victorious but more and more so think about that and consider what I say and the Lord will give you understanding in everything let's pray

[48:42] Father we thank you for this opportunity we had to look at your word and Lord as we look at these these different access points to our mind the eye the ear the mouth I pray Lord that we might get serious about this that as we look at what was taking place in Israel at the time when they just needed to make a change so they did they they decided they would take a stand and they tried decided that they would be your people they would get rid of sin in their lives they'd try to start following the word again and they'd set up gatekeepers to protect that which is precious to protect that which is holy and that which is holy today isn't a building somewhere that which is holy is our hearts because that's where your spirit is thank you Lord for sending your son to die on the cross for us thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to come to live to within to be our guarantee of our salvation to be our comfort to be our convictor to be our encourager we pray these things

[49:49]  Lord for us in Jesus name we pray amen