[0:00] Well, it's so good to see everybody here this morning. It's always a joy to come together with the family of God and worship together and sing the hymns and see your faces.
[0:12] ! We're going to continue with where we've been studying through the book of 2 Peter, and we're in the second chapter.
[0:36] And really the theme of this little short letter that Peter wrote to the churches was to stay faithful in a world that's false.
[0:48] Peter knew, in fact, in the last chapter, I think toward the end of chapter one, he said, God has revealed to me that I don't have much time left in this world. He knew he was close to dying.
[0:59] He was one of the few remaining eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ. And also in chapter one, you'll remember he referred to that. He talked about when he saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
[1:11] And so he had seen these things, and now he knows he doesn't have much time left. And he's given his whole life since he met Christ to serving the Lord. And so he's really urging people.
[1:23] He's pouring out his heart. It's like his last will and testament. And he's saying, listen, there's falsehood everywhere. But you stay true to what you've received.
[1:35] You stay true to God. You keep the faith no matter what. Hang in there because God's going to get you through this thing. And you are going to inherit a kingdom.
[1:46] Stay faithful. And I thought, boy, this really applies to our day. A time when, you know, seven or eight years ago, I had never even heard the term fake news.
[1:58] And now, you know, you listen to news, and it's like, yeah, well, what network was it? You know, who was behind that? You know, we used to just believe if Walter Cronkite said it, y'all don't know who that was, some of you, but I mean, he was like the news anchor for my whole life, it seemed like.
[2:17] And if he said it, you just took it to the bank, I mean, that's the news. But now it's like, yeah, but what are they trying to accomplish? What's their agenda? What's their, and so you just never know who you can believe or trust about anything.
[2:30] We live in a time with much falsehood, much fakiness. You can't even believe because of all this AI, artificial intelligence ability to change videos, to put words in people's mouths.
[2:50] You can't believe just because you see a video. You don't know if that person really said that or not. It's weird, isn't it? We just live in a time of extreme falsehood.
[3:02] And in a time like that, Peter says to us, but stay true to the faith that you received and to the Bible and the word of God, which is unchanged. Let's stop and pray.
[3:15] Heavenly Father, this week, as we come to your word, we need this message, Lord. We need to be reminded that there's a lot of, there's a lot of lies all around us.
[3:27] And we need to stay true to you. We want to stay faithful to the end. God, speak through your word, speak to all of us. We pray in Jesus' name.
[3:39] Amen. Well, last week, at the very beginning of 2 Peter chapter 2, Peter started off warning the people, look out for false prophets, false teachers.
[3:52] And then he went in a different direction a little bit that Glenn covered quite well. And now in the second half of the chapter, he returns to the theme of, let me finish telling you about those false teachers.
[4:05] So to really explain this, I'm going to first need to back up and hit a verse or two at the beginning of the chapter. So Mark, in the next slide, this takes us, that can't be the next slide, Mark.
[4:17] That's about the eighth slide down, I think. Keep going backwards, backwards, backwards. Keep going backwards, backwards, I'm not sure.
[4:31] That's the last slide. What is happening, Mark? Man. Those are all nine slides. That's weird. You know, you can't believe technology.
[4:44] Just because I copied it on this, it didn't get on there somehow. Who knows? I'll figure it out. It's almost, when you're dealing with your computer, lots of times it's human error.
[4:59] And so I messed up something. Okay, well, I'm just listening. I'm just going to tell you. Back in, and just leave it on this slide for a minute, Mark. Back in 1 Peter, I mean, sorry, 2 Peter, and in chapter 2, and in the first verse, he talks about, there were false prophets among the people back in those days.
[5:21] And he says, there will be false teachers among you. And then skipping down a little bit there into the second verse, he says, many people will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
[5:37] In other words, he is clearly saying, it's going to happen. There are going to be some false prophets among you, some false teachers among you.
[5:48] And he knew it was already happening. The churches he had worked with, the churches he had helped start, he was getting word back of strange things being taught. And so it really bothered him.
[6:00] And he was worried about them being misled. So he felt led by the Holy Spirit to write a whole chapter in his letter. Of course, when he wrote it, he didn't put it in chapters. That was added later.
[6:11] But he spent a lot of time writing about beware of these false teachers. And, you know, even Jesus warned about that. Remember the parable Jesus told, he said, a farmer went out and planted a field.
[6:25] And then during the night, his enemy came and planted weeds all in it. And then the weeds came up with the good crop, the good wheat.
[6:36] Well, in the same way, the word of God has been summoned in our hearts. And it's planted a lot of good seed. But the devil does work in the churches to try to plant false prophets to lead people astray.
[6:49] Jesus said it would happen. And so, as it happens, we have to be aware of it and be careful. And so that's our topic this morning because Peter spends this whole second half of this chapter talking about these things.
[7:03] Now, I want you to go to Matthew chapter 7. Since that slide didn't get in there. If you will flip with me to Matthew, the book of Matthew chapter 7.
[7:21] Take you a minute there to find that. Can't wait to get home and figure out what happened funny on this slide thing. But anyway.
[7:32] Say what? Ah, it is up. Matthew 7. Maybe only one slide. I've got to admit it. Praise the Lord. All right. Well, before we read this one, but leave it right there.
[7:44] I can imagine that Peter today, if he was getting this same message in America, a lot of Americans would quote their favorite verse. And it's not John 3.16.
[7:56] They would say, Peter, judge not that you be not judged. That's America's favorite verse because we don't want anybody to tell us what to do.
[8:07] And so we're fiercely independent and we like to make sure that we're always right and we know how to do everything and everybody else is wrong. So, but I think Peter would say, okay, you just quoted Jesus.
[8:19] And in that same sermon on the Mount, he said this. Jesus said, but watch out for false prophets. So, you see, Peter is not being judgmental.
[8:52] He would say he was being a fruit inspector. Okay. And he's not even going to call anybody out by name. Now, Paul did it in some of his letters.
[9:02] If you were really misleading people into total heresy, Paul would call them out by name. He'd say, stay away from so and so and so and so. They have turned from the faith.
[9:13] But Peter just says, stay away from people if you see these characteristics. And he leaves it up to the people to be careful and listen and pray and look for these kinds of characteristics.
[9:26] But here's Jesus saying, there are people among you that look like a sheep. But they're really a wolf. They've come in to destroy you in the church and take advantage of you.
[9:37] But they look like they're another sheep of God, like a believer. They're trying to do that. And he says, they are false prophets. Beware of them. Be careful.
[9:49] And so, it's a little bit of a tough thing as a pastor, preacher. I generally have made it a habit. I try to never call out another pastor or ministry by name and say that they are false.
[10:07] You know, they answer to God. I'm not their master. But at the same time, as a pastor or preacher, I have a responsibility like Peter had that if I know you are following a false teacher, I need to tell you that.
[10:26] You might not receive it, but I need to tell you that. And so, Peter decided not to call anybody by name, but he did decide to give some advice on who to look out for.
[10:38] And so, basically, he's going to be saying, is what they're teaching, does it line up with the truth that you've always heard? I think of Paul saying, if anybody adds to or takes away from this gospel, they should be cursed.
[10:53] And so, usually, people who begin to add to or subtract from the scripture, those would be false prophets. And Peter here is going to talk about three main characteristics of false teachers.
[11:08] In verse 1, he starts with the first characteristic when he says, they will introduce destructive heresies. Now, Mark, if you'll give me the next slide.
[11:19] Let's talk about heresy. That one right there. Let's talk about heresy. What is it? A heresy would be a belief that contradicts the core teachings of the Christian faith.
[11:37] We can disagree about a lot of things that are not the essentials of the Christian faith. For example, Teresa and I were talking a little bit just before church about translations of the Bible.
[11:51] Now, I happen to know that Glenn Hawke loves the New American Standard. I happen to know that John Howard loves the New English Translation.
[12:02] In fact, he's given away about 780 copies. If you don't have your copy yet, see, John. And I don't know about now, but Steve Garrett used to really love to give away the New Living Translation.
[12:16] He just felt like it was so readable for a new... Simple guys like me. There you go. I know that Sandy there and Taberski back there, they love the good old King James Version.
[12:27] They grew up with it. They know it. I'm kind of big on the New International Version, but I kind of like all of them. I mean, I like to compare them. And so long as they were written by a team of Christian scholars and believers who looked at the original scriptures and really carefully worked at it, then it's probably pretty accurate and you can believe it and trust it.
[12:58] So we can disagree on what's the best translation of the Bible. And that's, you're not a heretic, even if you are a reader of the net Bible. You're not a heretic.
[13:09] And if you do the NIV or whatever, that's not heresy. It's also not heresy to disagree about what kind of music there ought to be. Or even, you know, the Methodists over there believe that baptism means putting some water on your head.
[13:25] We believe baptism means your whole body goes underwater. That's not a heresy. They still are teaching that Christ came. He died on the cross for your sins.
[13:36] He was sinless. He rose from the dead. He's coming back one day by faith in the cross of Christ and his crucifixion, his sacrifice. By faith in that, you can be forgiven.
[13:49] You can be born again. And then we're disagreeing on how to be baptized after that. But the core doctrine is the same. So that's what we mean by heresy. Heresies are when, well, I'll call one out by name, the Jehovah's Witnesses.
[14:07] They're a Bible. They only accept one Bible. And it was translated by one guy. I don't know how long ago, 150 years ago or something. And he went through the whole Bible.
[14:18] And anywhere that it said Jesus was divine, that he was indeed God. And they somehow, he somehow retranslated that part and took that out of there.
[14:30] That's a heresy. The Mormon church added a whole new entire book, the Book of Mormon, which they believed to be better than the Bible. And what did Paul say?
[14:42] If anybody adds to these words or takes from them, let him be cursed. And so the Mormon church is misled. Now, I'm not up here saying that Jehovah's Witnesses are bad people and we need to stone them.
[14:57] I'm not saying that Mormons are terrible people. The honest truth is, most Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses I've met are really good, nice, fine people.
[15:08] I have no anger with them. I just pray for them because they're misled. If they're really, really into what they're being taught, they're missing salvation.
[15:24] They're being misled to that extent. And that's the shame of a heresy, that you will miss out on knowing the kingdom of God. Well, those are what heresies are.
[15:36] And I put up a preacher here. I want to be careful not to put up a real preacher. Because you'd say, uh-huh, look who Matt put up. He called him a heretic. That happened to be my favorite preacher.
[15:48] And Matt put him up. There's a heretic. Well, what I did, in fact, I told my computer, I want a picture of a handsome young preacher who, but he's not really, I mean, he's not for real.
[16:01] And this was called a stock photo. So this guy's just an actor. But he looks like a good preacher. Wouldn't you like good in his church? So, anyway, if you are following social media, the internet, television, whatever, and some of your favorite preachers are beginning to teach and preach some things that you've never heard before, be careful.
[16:25] In 2,000 years of church history, if that's not really been taught before, be careful. Good chance it's a heresy.
[16:37] Well, Peter said, be careful. That was the worst part of all. Then, in verse 3, he said, in 2 Peter 2, verse 3, he says, in their greed, they will exploit you.
[16:51] And in verse 14, he said, they are experts in greed. So the next trait that Peter said to look out for, the next slide, was greed. Now, here's what I recommend.
[17:03] That favorite online preacher of yours, Google what his net worth is. I played around with that some this week.
[17:18] One, I'm not going to call him by name. There's one that's worth $718 million. Nobody knows how many jet planes he's got. He has his own airport.
[17:29] Nobody knows how many mansions he's got. Now, are those things a sin in themselves? No. It's not sinful to be rich. I don't have to worry about that sin.
[17:43] It's not sinful to be rich. But my goodness, these preachers that are worth a $50 million, a mere $50 million, and then they're on TV or whatever, and they're saying, please send money.
[17:58] We're going to help the Jews. Or we're going to build a home for unwed mothers. Or we're going to help orphans. Please send money, please. And then you send your money, and they take 50% or 80% for administrative costs, which means they pay themselves and the staff.
[18:17] And then 10% of what you send, or 30% or whatever, goes to that cause. All I think to myself is, if you care that much about the unwed mothers or the homeless or whatever, why don't you take some of that $80 million of your net worth and go ahead and spend $2 or $3 million of that and do this project, instead of getting all of these people living on Social Security to send you $15, $20, $30 a month out of their check?
[18:51] Just check out the net worth of your favorite preacher and be careful. Be careful. And that's it. I'll say this. You can be a rich preacher.
[19:03] Again, I'm not one. I've got all I need. The Lord's provided well for me. But one that bothered me, I thought, you know, how about Billy Graham?
[19:15] He's like one of my favorites, okay? When he died, he was worth $25 million. So was he starting to get into this greed thing?
[19:27] Well, I did enough research on that to find out that every year, the last 15 or 20 years of his ministry, the ministry received over $600 million a year.
[19:42] For the last 10 or so years, I don't even know how hot it is. That's a lot of money. That's running into like $6 billion or something. And he ends his life, he's only worth $25 million.
[19:55] And most of it is in real estate that increased in value over time. So I think that kind of lets Billy Graham off the hook some, that he took the 98% of what people gave and used it in ministry.
[20:13] And then the Lord blessed him. So anyway, it doesn't mean you can't be wealthy and be a sincere pastor. But be careful if that seems to be such a major part of the person's ministry that they're constantly asking for money.
[20:31] Well, a third point that I'll read in verses 10 and 11, they are bold and arrogant. False teachers are very prideful.
[20:42] What's the next slide, Mark? Pride. They want to have their name and their picture on every book, on every video, on every DVD, on all this merchandise, on billboards all around the town, even on the church if it's possible.
[21:03] They want their name and lights over and over and over. They are full of this kind of pride. Be careful. Be careful. Those ministers that want to put their name on the Bible they're selling you.
[21:19] And they want to put their name on everything they do. Be careful. I'm not saying that they're all false prophets. I'm just saying be careful. Be careful. You know, somebody could say, Matt, I think you're jealous.
[21:41] And maybe you're right. Want this one. Okay. This does get under my skin a little bit. And it happens to me four or five times a year.
[21:51] There's this one guy in Sanford that happens to me every time I see him. So here's what it is. The person that says to me, have you heard about preacher so-and-so over at such-and-such church?
[22:07] Oh, my word. God is moving there. That man, I've never heard such a wonderful preacher. Matt, you have never heard such a preacher in your life. You have got to get over there.
[22:18] They are flocking in there by the thousands. They just finished a $10 million building it's already paid for. And they're getting ready to start a $20 million building. And their church services are so exciting.
[22:31] Their music is so incredible. You've never heard such good singers. You've never heard a man who can bring the word of God like him. Matt, you've just got to get... Really, there's a guy that says this to me over and over.
[22:42] And then I say, Well, I'm not usually free on your worship service time because I go to my own church. Well, you need to come sometime, he'll tell me. And all I can think about is if the ministers and the musicians, the preachers, are getting more glory than the Lord Jesus Christ, be careful.
[23:07] Be careful. If the people are praising you and your skills more than the God they represent is getting praise through their ministry, be careful.
[23:20] You might be dealing with somebody who's dealing with pride. Amen. And am I a little bit jealous of that? Yeah, maybe I am, that some of them have 10,000 members and I've worked hard too.
[23:32] I remember I went to a conference once, a bunch of preachers. I generally don't go to preacher conferences. The first question they ask is, How many people you got attending?
[23:43] You know, so I was at this conference and somebody said, just meet me for the first time. Tell me about your church. I said, well, when I first went there, about 20 some years ago, we had 12 people.
[23:57] But God has blessed us so much, 20 some years later, we are up to a solid 45. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And they were kind of like, this guy's a little weird.
[24:13] You know, I just trust the Lord to bring who he's going to bring. And then my part is to do my part. It is, anyway. Well, I think about what Paul warned Timothy about as far as people that flock to the church with 30,000 people.
[24:31] Am I putting down every church with 30,000 people? No. A lot of them are really good churches. Okay. But Paul did say this. Next slide.
[24:45] Where is the next slide? Whew. That one. There it is. 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verses 1 through 4. There will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching.
[24:59] Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. And they will turn away from hearing the truth.
[25:12] But on the other hand, they will turn to myths. People today love to go to a church where all they're going to hear is how much God wants to bless them and how he's going to make them rich and how they're going to do nothing but just prosper and just be wonderful lives.
[25:32] You're never going to have a problem. Just follow this book and put some money in the offering plate. And we've got, everything's going to be beautiful. And, but we're all a little bit like this.
[25:43] We're all tempted to go find the preacher who preaches the message that backs up what we're doing and what we're thinking. If we love XYZ politician, we're going to try to find a preacher that likes that politician.
[25:59] If we, whenever it is, you know, if we, we will try to find preachers that soothe our own, as the King James says, our itching ears.
[26:11] We want to hear certain kinds of things. Well, God help us. God help us in this. So, Peter says, look out for three things.
[26:21] If they're doing heresy, if they're greedy, if they're full of pride, be careful. You may be dealing with a false teacher who looks like a sheep, but he's really a wolf.
[26:33] And you've got to look out for that kind of person. Beware of it. Well, somebody might say, well, Matt, who, what kind of minister can you recommend?
[26:48] Well, I don't know if I should do this, or not, but I'm going to recommend the minister to you. Next slide, please. That's not it. Next Sunday, we're going to have the Adams family here.
[27:03] I've known them. They are missionaries to Haiti. They were. They're in retirement now. And this is a slide. Let me, for those of you who are not familiar with them, I'll back up and tell you a little bit more about them.
[27:15] These pictures where it says, Young Dana and Young Pritt, his name is Pritchard, his friends all called him Pritt, that is when I first knew them. And Becky and I knew them way back.
[27:26] We were newlyweds. They had just gotten married. and God called them to go to Haiti, the poorest country in the whole western half of the world. Not where you want to go to start a church and get rich.
[27:39] Okay? So, he called them to go there. And so there they were, that young. And those pictures, I found it on a website. That was their picture the first time they entered Haiti.
[27:49] And it got stamped like on an old passport or something. That's them. That's what they looked like. Now, you say, well, maybe that was the best they could do. Pritchard was accepted and attended West Point.
[28:03] It's not easy to get into West Point. The guy's brilliant. He speaks and writes four languages. He's almost up with John on languages. And like John, he also really knew math.
[28:18] I mean, he had a lot of skills. And she was so talented. She could play piano. She could sing. She could teach. She reminded me of Brenda. She could teach school.
[28:28] She had, you know, everything. And so, you know, they could have started a church here in America. Probably could have had a 10,000 member church. But they said, no, God's called us to go to Haiti, poorest country in this half of the world, to go down there and try to help the people.
[28:45] And they left everything behind and went and spent 41 years in Haiti until their health was completely gone. So, what else will I say then?
[28:57] Let's look at the three characteristics. Did they teach any heresy? When they got to Haiti and it still is a place full of heresy. In Haiti, somehow, the Catholic church, which is the main church, has blended with the local voodoo because voodoo was the culture of Haiti so that you can actually find priests who will, for a fee, help you cast a spell on an enemy or whatever.
[29:27] I mean, they've blended their Catholic faith with voodoo in Haiti. I'm not saying Catholics everywhere. I'm not talking about the American Catholic Church or the Catholic Church.
[29:38] I'm talking about Haiti. So, there was a lot of heresy. What did they do? They started five different churches over time. They started three schools to teach children the Bible.
[29:51] I'm talking, it was a regular full school. They had 1,400 children in those schools over time. They started a Bible college. They went into the second largest city in Haiti and started a church with a tent.
[30:07] They had nothing. They set up a tent and started a church. But over time, very slowly, the Lord used them. They led hundreds to Christ. And they put a lot of emphasis on this is what the Bible says.
[30:25] As far as greed goes, I've been on their board for a long, long time. And in their 40-some years in Haiti, they received in total donations somewhere in the neighborhood of about $10 million over 40 years.
[30:44] And the only thing they ever kept for themselves was enough to just meet their own needs. Now, during that time, they amassed a lot of property, acres of property, in the second largest city in Haiti.
[30:58] And on that property, they developed it. They built buildings. They started agricultural products. They dug wells. They had fruit trees. They built church buildings and schools and Bible colleges.
[31:11] And it's wonderful. And so, they had something that was worth a lot. And frankly, it was in their name. They got the deed in their name.
[31:22] So when they're ready to retire and needing to because their health was kind of broken, they could have put that up for sale. You say, yeah, but Haiti's too poor.
[31:33] Every corrupt country has rich people who have robbed everybody else. The rich people could have come in and given them two, three, four million dollars for their properties.
[31:45] They could have been on easy street. Instead, they've turned the ministry over to their son, John, with the instructions, return everything to the people there.
[31:58] Slowly, let's turn over all the properties, all the churches, the Bible college, the land, turn it all over to the church leaders that are there. Get our names off of the deeds, work with the lawyers, get it all in the names of the ministry there and we'll have nothing to do with it.
[32:15] And they have no nest egg. I've been to their house. They bought a house in Jacksonville. It's about 1,400 square feet, three bedrooms, two baths.
[32:26] They have one car. They have no nest egg at all to live on. And if somebody says to them, how are you going to live here in your old age? And they'll say, well, it'll be just like before.
[32:39] The Lord always provided and we'll just trust him. He'll provide. Meanwhile, their son, John, this is a picture in the middle of him and he will be preaching next Sunday here and his parents are supposed to come with him.
[32:54] That's his most recent trip to Haiti where he went down and met with the pastors of the churches, people that they led to Christ years ago and baptized and they led them through Bible college and they trained them and they placed them in the churches.
[33:12] He went back to meet with them and talk with them about, you know, we're backing out now and we're turning things over to you and it's in your hands and we're trusting you to do this and we're here to advise and I'll come down if you need me.
[33:27] and meanwhile, John's not drawing any salary for himself from Rehoboth Ministries. He went and got a job at a factory in Warsaw, North Carolina and works in the HR department in a factory and that's how he's making a living.
[33:45] So, greed has never been a problem with them and as far as pride, they never put their name on anything they ever did. There's nothing down there with the name Adams on it.
[33:59] They just did it all for the Lord and they never sought any fame or glory from it and you'll see that humility in them. Their fruit is good.
[34:10] Their fruit is good. Be a good fruit inspector and they'll go down in no history book but they're in heaven's history.
[34:23] They're in heaven's history. The Lord knows what they've done. They will be rewarded. Well, I've got a closing thought for us that's going to take about five minutes or more.
[34:36] We're doing pretty well. I've been sitting here hammering these false prophets but really what good is a sermon if we don't say how does this apply to my life, Lord?
[34:52] Don't you just love I know our human nature. We love to hear a scripture and say if only my brother could hear that one. I wish my daddy heard that. My next door neighbor, my boss, my whoever, they need to hear this.
[35:07] That person in my Sunday school class, I hope they're listening but we seldom like to say Lord, how does this scripture apply to me? So now on the next slide which is my last slide, the question is what about you and what about me?
[35:21] Let's examine ourselves in light of this scripture. What kind of fruit is in your life? Is it good fruit or is it bad fruit? Heresies.
[35:33] Are you being careful to stick with the core truth of the scripture? When you are sharing your faith, are you focusing on Jesus Christ and his crucifixion, his resurrection and the need for salvation or is it more important to you to talk about some strange, bit of doctrine?
[35:59] We need to be careful that we've not gotten caught up in heresy. And I've said, I've talked about how greedy these false prophets are.
[36:13] How greedy am I? How greedy are you? What part of our house or houses, what part of our money, what part of our time have we been willing to share with others?
[36:29] It's real easy for me to say that that guy that's got 700 million sure is a lousy false prophet. But what part of what the Lord has given me am I sharing?
[36:42] And what part are you sharing? We will have to stand before God for what we've done, not for what the false prophet did. We'll have to say, what did we do with the resources he gave us?
[36:53] Were we faithful? Did we put this to good work? Did we produce good fruit? Didn't Jesus say, wherever you store your treasure, if you store your treasure on earth, your heart will be on the earth.
[37:07] If you store your treasure in heaven, your heart will be in heaven. So store up treasures in heaven. Are we doing that? And then on the pride thing, oh my goodness, guilty as charged on this one.
[37:21] I'm talking about myself. As I examine this scripture and turn that searchlight of the Bible on my own heart. And I begin to ask, I'm asking you the questions I ask myself. Talking about pride and arrogance, am I a know-it-all?
[37:39] Do I always like to be right? Am I really, does it bug me when people don't think my idea is the best idea in the room? Do I like to find fault with how other people do things?
[37:54] I forget where I saw this, somewhere a plaque or something said, I'm not a control freak, but you're doing that wrong. Do I get really upset if somebody doesn't show me the kind of respect that I think they should?
[38:12] Does it make me angry? Does it hurt my feelings if I don't get invited to your party because I'm not part of the in crowd? Do I like to see my name on top, on the list of names?
[38:24] I want mine up there first. Do I want the best title, the best everything? Do I want the best parking space? Do I want to be the first in the line? Do I want the biggest piece of chocolate cake?
[38:35] Do I want guilty as charged? And one day all of us will have to stand before our creator and give an account for our attitudes, for what we said and did.
[38:50] And I feel like Isaiah who said, woe is me for I am undone. I'm a sinful man. I live among sinful people.
[39:02] But praise God, that's what the gospel message is. That Jesus died for those sins. He died because I was greedy and because I was too proud.
[39:14] And now he says, just come to me and say, Lord, I confess that sin. Forgive me. Covered under the blood. Change me. Work in my heart, Lord. Work in my heart.
[39:26] And so he uses the scripture to show us where we're wrong so that we will repent and say, God, help me to do more like Jesus. More and more like you, Lord. So praise God that even in this word of a warning about false prophets that we can say, Lord, let me not be a false teacher and let me not follow false teachers, but let me be true and pure and sincere.
[39:51] And where I am not, forgive me by the blood of Jesus and the cross of Christ. Gretchen, I'm going to invite you to come and lead us in a last song.
[40:03] If the Lord's touched your heart in any way, or maybe you'd like to join our church, or maybe you just have a prayer need, I'll be down front, I'll be glad to pray with you. Let's have a prayer as they come.
[40:15] Lord, thank you for your word. Help us to live following the path of Christ always. Forgive our sins. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
[40:26] You'll stand with us. You gave a life for mine, and to the cross you crucified, all my sin and shame, you lost my mercy.
[40:59] you are the treasure I find. You are the treasure I find, that I'm rated for living, so let my life become an offering to the Lord who is worthy.
[41:22] all praise to you. all praise to the Lord who's won all all praise to the Lord who saved my life.
[41:35] all praise to Jesus Christ, Christ, my King of heaven, my King forever. You saw the case of my heart.