Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 8, 2017 | Men's Fraternity - Spring 2017, Session 5

Transcript

February 8, 2017 | Men's Fraternity - Spring 2017, Session 5 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_01: All right man, good morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_01: Good to see everybody this morning.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: Looks like our numbers are uh dwindling a little bit, but I'm always grateful for um for the faithful guys here.
0:10
SPEAKER_01: Hey, most of us uh desire to to be significant in some way.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: Um this week Gene Getz poses one of the questions about um you know, what if you got to the end of your life and the only written reference about you was your first name?
0:25
SPEAKER_01: And so kind of started me thinking about um, you know, what kind of you know, legacy or impact uh do I want to leave, do we want to leave?
0:35
SPEAKER_01: You know, most of us probably don't need fame and uh or name and lights or whatever, but um I do remember uh some years ago, I believe um TBC, I think it was on a Father's Day, and I think every man got two books written by Phil Downer.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: Um we got Eternal Impact, which is about investing in the lives of men, and then there was another one about your children.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: And so I actually got asked a question of sorts like that in one of the interviews that I had over the last number of months about um you know being significant or whatever, and I said I wanted to leave a legacy, you know, through my through my kids, you know.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: I wanted uh, you know, be the patriarch of the family and be remembered for uh for that.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, for those of you that that have families or uh thinking about going on missions trips or things like that, those are ways uh you know for us to to be significant and uh leave an impact.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I've I've Jeremiah 29, 11.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: I think you know most of you at least know that, and I obviously prayed that a lot over the last summer months.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, the Lord says, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope in a future, future in heaven and a future here on earth.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: So today we're gonna talk about uh three guys that are kind of obscure uh in terms of uh church history, so obscure that Gene had to put all three of them in one chapter.
1:50
SPEAKER_02: So um And then he had to make up a lot of stuff just to you know fluff it to get through.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, we're gonna learn about the other James, the other Judas, and uh and Simon and see what uh what we can glean from what a little of the Bible says.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, uh maybe somebody reminded them that, well, guys, you're on it, you're the team player.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: Be a team player, you know, you're on the team.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: Had one of those obscure positions.
2:11
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, guys, I'll let you talk to us about these three.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate that, Paul.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think that's pretty good.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, should we go to the small group questions?
2:23
SPEAKER_02: Actually, uh, Paul, we're only two down from last week, but uh the Brad Gentry and Kenny Hartzell and I decided we didn't like each other very much, so we'd abandoned that table and we went over to join Jason and Rob and the others over there.
2:39
SPEAKER_02: So by the way, uh uh I think you you were probably by the way, wasn't that a breakfast incredible?
2:45
SPEAKER_02: I woke up this morning panicking.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: I'd forgotten and Wes in here early, getting here at like 4 45 or something like that.
2:53
SPEAKER_02: I woke up wondering if I should bring donuts because I'd forgotten to contact Tim Tom like I told you I would.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: So thank goodness.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: It was good.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: These guys, I'm telling you, this is the breakfast I look forward to every single week.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Like this is by far the best breakfast.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Because every other breakfast is usually myself making cereal in about four minutes, and that's it.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Cold cereal.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the big deal is if you can get you know, if you can use whole milk instead of two percent on your on your cold cereal.
3:26
SPEAKER_02: So anyway, and great news about Paul.
3:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh in our elders' meeting last night, we prayed thanking God that Paul had gotten himself a job.
3:35
SPEAKER_02: Only, you know, it took about 10 months or something.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: But anyway, how are you doing?
3:40
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, ball games.
3:42
SPEAKER_02: I went to some of these ball games.
3:43
SPEAKER_02: One day.
3:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: And you guys go to the chili cook-off?
3:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
3:48
SPEAKER_02: We had some of that chili left over last night for board meeting.
3:52
SPEAKER_02: That was amazing, but my my gut is still burning.
3:55
SPEAKER_02: There was I mean, that was amazing chili.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: So, do you guys have some of that?
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Who ended up winning the winning the chili cook-off?
4:05
SPEAKER_02: Do we know Dennis Gonzalez?
4:07
SPEAKER_02: Dennis Gonzalez won the country.
4:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:09
SPEAKER_02: Man.
4:09
SPEAKER_02: He's determined.
4:10
SPEAKER_02: He's my daughter-in-law's father.
4:12
SPEAKER_02: He's always determined to.
4:15
unknown: Yeah.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: KU won the game.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I learned some new words.
4:19
SPEAKER_02: I was there.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: What what words did you learn?
4:23
SPEAKER_02: Actually, I'd heard those words before, but not repeatedly throughout the whole game in chance.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I I gotta admit, I mean, I was I love KSU.
4:34
SPEAKER_02: And they've got, I'm sure they have at last ten times as many Christian kids on campus as KU does, but no, maybe not that many.
4:43
SPEAKER_02: But I mean, I it really bothered me to hear FKU constantly throughout the game and long chance.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: I thought, you know, if I was raising kids, I'd love to take my kids and now my grandkids to uh to these ball games, but I I couldn't take them to a game like this where you got a thousand, really, you know, thousands of cool college kids shouting that repeatedly and shouting BS every time there's a call they don't like.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: I thought, you know, you anyway, it bothered me.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's kind of in that same vein.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Did any of you guys watch the Super Bowl post-game show?
5:17
SPEAKER_00: Like right right after the Super Bowl.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: There was just like F-bomb after F bomb, and I was like, oh my goodness.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's no half of, if not all, of America is watching this game from little kids, you know, on up, and obviously it's live, it's unfiltered, they're in that in the moment.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Cameramen have no clue what these guys are gonna say, but it was just astounding to me, kind of that same thing.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Just after the game, players and coaches and funny funny side story.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: I actually, since there's nothing in the Bible on these apostles, we can do whatever we want.
5:55
SPEAKER_02: So Melanie comes back in the house at 11:30 Saturday night.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: I'm working on my sermon.
6:00
SPEAKER_02: She'd come home from the play at school at about 10, 10:30, and said, and we had cars in our driveway because our next door neighbor was having his 70th uh birthday party, Web Garlinghouse, not Christian.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: And um, so she said, Why don't I go on over there?
6:15
SPEAKER_02: I said, That'd be great.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: So she comes back and she says, That was the weirdest time.
6:19
SPEAKER_02: She says, I went over there and there's a bunch of drunk people, and they're just totally sloshed.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: And she says, So I'm hanging with Julie Garlinghouse and some of the others, they're high society people.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: And um, but she says they they get on the topic of your radio program.
6:35
SPEAKER_02: I have this little radio spot that runs about one minute, four times a day on a country station.
6:40
SPEAKER_02: And she says, a couple of these high society people love it and they listen to it.
6:45
SPEAKER_02: But she says they were drunk at the same time.
6:48
SPEAKER_02: And to hear them say, I love that F and program by your husband, and to hear the F and SH words in in every sentence as they're talking about your program, she says it just was really kind of funny.
7:02
SPEAKER_02: I had to leave to go laugh.
7:04
SPEAKER_02: So that was really crazy.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: So the game was good though.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: The Super Bowl was good.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was rooting for Atlanta.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Kenny, I'm a big, big Patriots fan.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Who's a big excited?
7:19
SPEAKER_02: Don had to be, yeah.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: Don was excited.
7:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Don believes that Christ can come back now.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: Gotcha.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: The world is good.
7:26
SPEAKER_02: I was upset.
7:27
SPEAKER_02: But weren't you how many of you were rooting against New England like I was?
7:32
SPEAKER_02: You know, yeah, a bunch of cheaters.
7:34
SPEAKER_02: But then afterwards, wasn't it funny to hear all the Hollywood people and so forth tweeting, you know, I can't believe that Brady and Belichick are Trump, you know, like Trump.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: And so that's I thought it turned political real quick.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay, maybe it was worth them winning just to tweak those people.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Good game though.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: Brady has five Super Bowls.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Belichick has five Super Bowls.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: First Super Bowl to ever go into overtime.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Pretty interesting stat.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: And Matt Ryan, hopefully they try again next year for the NFL's MVP.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: If you were getting Kyle Shanahan as your new coach, I forget, I think it's San Francisco's getting him.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: Wouldn't you come wouldn't you go?
8:20
SPEAKER_02: You need to explain the play calls when you had the game in the bag in the last six minutes, and and you call some pass plays when all you had to do was kick a field goal to win it.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: So anyway.
8:32
SPEAKER_02: Whatever.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: So we got these guys.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, you got them in their bathroom.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: James, I got them.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: These they're not their bathrobes.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: These are their Sunday best.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're Saturday best.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: We got James, we've got Judas, and we've got Simon.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: But it's not the Judas that we hate, right?
8:53
SPEAKER_00: Not that Judas.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: This is a different Judas, son of James, which we know a lot about.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: A lot about.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna tell you everything that we know about these guys.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: Everything.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Everything.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: 100%.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: James, the son of Alpheus.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: And Simon called the zealot.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Judas, the son of James, Luke 6.
9:20
SPEAKER_02: Let's hear it for those guys.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
9:23
SPEAKER_02: Alright.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: All right.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Everything we know for sure from scripture about these guys.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: That's three out of the twelve disciples right there.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: That's a third of the team.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's it.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: The fourth of the team.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Fourth of the team.
9:34
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
9:35
SPEAKER_02: That's the probably the offensive line.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: So Getz actually made a great point in his writing.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: I think it's maybe the fourth or fifth paragraph in, and he says, basically everything we can know about these three disciples can be summed up in one paragraph, which I would argue we can actually sum it up in one sentence.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Because this is it.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: However, we did think that the principles were very, very good, and there's some things that Paul actually alluded to as he was giving the introduction that we can learn from these guys from the fact that we don't know a lot about them.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: And so the very first principle, you guys can see this, is that God will not forget what we do to build his kingdom, even though a few, even though few people know who we are.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 6 10 says, God is not unjust.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: He will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: And we see the 12 disciples, we see people like Peter, we see people like Matthew, you know, even Thomas, we know a decent amount, not you know a ton about them, but as much as Scripture reveals to us.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: But then we get to these three guys and we just see their names, and that's pretty much it.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: And so the the first principle that gets points out is that God knows each of us individually.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: He knows our hearts, he knows what we do, he knows what we like, he knows what we don't like, he counts the hairs on our head.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have to be concerned that God is gonna somehow miss what we've done for him.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: That God is somehow maybe gonna forget or overlook maybe the sacrifices that we've made, maybe the ways that we've served.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: And I think about this first point in that there's a lot of people, probably the majority people in the world who somehow fall into the category of maybe being overlooked and maybe not being recognized for all the things that they've done.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: I think about even like tech team here on Sunday mornings, I mean a lot of a lot of us, yeah, Sam, perked your ear up, huh?
12:06
SPEAKER_00: You heard tech, now you're paying attention.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: But probably a lot of people can't name all the people who serve on the tech team on a weekly basis.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't know, for whatever reason, we just it's just a given or it's assumed that it's just going to happen.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: Or I think about you know, a guy like Frank.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you guys know Frank, but he's on the housekeeping team and he you know sets up a lot of the tables, he'll go downstairs and and um set up some of the rooms and bathrooms and things like that.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: And you guys have these people in in your work, um, in your jobs, on the teams that you're on, the different boards, people who are very integral to making the mission happen, to to helping the team succeed in whatever capacity, but maybe they're not the name that's in lights.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're not the most famous, maybe they're not the most well known, but they serve a tremendous purpose.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: And as I was preparing for this, I think of one specific category which many of us can relate to, and that's our wives.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Our wives play huge roles in our lives, but a lot of times you hear about the husband and how maybe how great the husband is or how accomplished the husband is.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Um you think of, you know, even some of the famous preachers, you know, you hear Andy Stanley, or you hear Tony Evans, or you hear Donald Trump, or, you know, all of these famous figures that a lot of people know and can recognize them, but they also have wives who are who are supporting, who are encouraging, who are doing all these things.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: And maybe they a lot of times they don't get the recognition for it.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: And so God's not going to overlook those things that we do for him because he knows each of us individually, and that's a pretty cool thing about the God that we serve.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um so I don't care about the second principle because it has nothing to do with the chapter.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna talk about the first one some more.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: God wants to use our unique personalities, and so and and his point here is valid, which is that Simon the Zealot.
14:22
SPEAKER_02: Zealots, you know, were really political animals.
14:25
SPEAKER_02: They're like, you know, right-wing conservatives, and so Simon the Zealot was probably different than the other two, James and so they were different personalities, but that's been a theme all along.
14:36
SPEAKER_02: So I'm interested in this whole recognition thing.
14:39
SPEAKER_02: Hey, buddy.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: Hi, Bob.
14:41
SPEAKER_02: Um so I've given some thought, uh, you know, since you and I talked um 30 hours ago, you know, to this whole recognition thing.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh and uh and here's my here's my take on it.
14:55
SPEAKER_02: I I've I think I've I have two principles and each of them has a corollary.
15:00
SPEAKER_02: And the first principle is that I really believe, and I think they come from the Bible and common sense.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: God has created each of us with a built-in need for recognition.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: God is created, he's made us with a need for recognition and reward.
15:16
SPEAKER_02: And I and I know that from the fact that um maybe the most common or second most common motivation that God gives us in scripture as Christians for for working for Him is He constantly is talking about rewards.
15:33
SPEAKER_02: Constantly.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: And you'll find people who are holier than God who'll say, Well, I just want to get to heaven, you know, I don't I don't need any rewards in heaven, but God's constantly talking about, you know, I'll give you a well done, thou good and faithful servant, you know, I'll I'll I'll give you, you know, if you if you use your talents well done here, I'll give you a lot more talents in heaven.
15:55
SPEAKER_02: I'll let you have a special, you know, role in heaven as leaders.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: You can sit on a throne and so forth.
16:00
SPEAKER_02: So uh God apparently has made us.
16:03
SPEAKER_02: And the thing is, I you and I know that's true, because you never sit down with a young person, talk to them about the future and hear them say, you know, and you say, What do you want to do for your life?
16:12
SPEAKER_02: Well, I just want to work in utter obscurity my entire life doing noble things without anybody ever knowing.
16:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, that that doesn't happen.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: And if you think back in your life, I think back um how much I longed for my father's, you know, recognition or a little word of praise.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: My mother gave them regularly.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: My father, you know, he gave one every 20 years or so.
16:34
SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, you'd you'd you really worked for it.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: I remember when I was going door to door selling to work my way through college, selling Bible story books.
16:42
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I was working 80 hours a week during the summers, five summers in a row, four in Pennsylvania, one in Florida.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: And on Sunday, it was the one day we didn't go door to door.
16:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, you drive I drive two hours with my two roommates to get to the capital city of uh Pennsylvania, Harrisburg.
17:01
SPEAKER_02: There'd be 50 other salesmen, and I, you know, you'd I didn't care how much money I was making.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: I just dreamed of the day when I would get to stand up as one of the top three or four salesmen of the previous week, which almost my first couple summers never happened.
17:19
SPEAKER_02: And um and I just thought, you know, that record, or for instance, when when I've been asked what's the greatest thrills in your life, one of them remains the time when, to my surprise, and Mark Davidson will know about this, to my surprise, when I was a graduating senior Dallas, I was named as a recipient of what's of an old the Old Testament award, which is nothing to anybody else, but to me it was a really prestigious award.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, I think you and I are that way, and my corollary of that first point, which the first point just to remind you is that God's created us with this need for recognition.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: Corollary is that wise fathers and wise bosses will try to think of ways to recognize and reward their employees.
18:09
SPEAKER_02: I went online yesterday and I couldn't believe how many articles in Forbes magazine and others there were about the importance of CEOs and so forth finding ways to recognize employees, finding creative ways, because employees who don't get recognized or appreciated or praised, you know, will stop enjoying coming to work.
18:31
SPEAKER_02: So if you have if you have a leadership role or if you still have children at home, you know, with your wife, maybe, you know, I'm thinking I oftentimes fall down on Valentine's Day.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: I have a little resolution, you know, not not this year, you know.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: So that that's the first principle.
18:49
SPEAKER_02: God's created us with a need, and in our role, we ought to think of ways to recognize our children and our employees.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: And the other thing is that is that uh the more mature a Christian you are, the less your need becomes for earthly recognition.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: And maybe the more you're willing to wait for heavenly recognition.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
19:13
SPEAKER_02: The the more godly or the more mature a Christian you are, the less your need.
19:17
SPEAKER_02: The more and the reason I know that is Colossians 3.23, for example, says, work for the Lord heartily, not for men, knowing that the Lord will give you a reward.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: Basically, that's a short, shortened view, short, shortened summary.
19:30
SPEAKER_02: And and so I think that uh though you and I need earthly recognition, I think that the more mature a Christian you find, the less they really have to have that earthly recognition.
19:41
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't that make sense to you?
19:43
SPEAKER_02: And and the corollary there, I think, is that is that famous statement by who knows who said it first, but it's been attributed to Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan and a number of other people.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: And that is uh that is the world, you know, it's amazing how much you can get done if you don't care who gets the credit.
20:03
SPEAKER_02: You've heard that, haven't you?
20:04
SPEAKER_02: It's something like that.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: It's it's a m everybody says it differently.
20:08
SPEAKER_02: And so that I think is the corollary.
20:10
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing how much you can get done for God if you don't care who's in the limelight.
20:17
SPEAKER_02: So um that's that principle.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: We need to and and these three, so that ties in, I think, I think Derek with these three dudes.
20:25
SPEAKER_02: So they got no recognition on earth.
20:27
SPEAKER_02: They're like those soldiers that you hear about later.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: Nobody ever recognized them and they died overseas, and you feel for them, or they're like they're like people who die, and then um yesterday I did a funeral for a woman I I didn't know, even though she said she'd come to TBC.
20:42
SPEAKER_02: But uh, but boy, the more I found out about this woman, the more I thought, wow, she was an amazing woman who never really got recognized or noticed.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: And I think there's probably a lot of people like that.
20:55
SPEAKER_02: Some of us have maybe moms like that.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: And uh, I want to be the kind of a godly person who is uh let me make a confession.
21:05
SPEAKER_02: I didn't plan on this.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: One thing that troubled me about my dad, my dad had been pretty well known in the Pacific Northwest as a Christian leader.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: He was a professor at a Bible college.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: He got asked a lot to travel around and speak at camps and other things.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: The last 20 years of his life, when he was out of the school because of his age and other things, I was stunned to see his actual growing need, it seemed, for recognition.
21:31
SPEAKER_02: But of course, nobody wants nobody cares about an 80 or 82 or 85, 78, 91 year old man anymore.
21:40
SPEAKER_02: And and we kids were going, You had your day in the sun, you did a great thing, everybody appreciates you.
21:45
SPEAKER_02: Why do you still need recognition today?
21:48
SPEAKER_02: Why do you still want to come to my pulpit and speak?
21:51
SPEAKER_02: Why do you and and I thought it was really sad, and I thought, you know, as I get older, I need to really I need to realize the more mature and god I am, the less need I should have for credit and recognition.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: Does that make any sense?
22:08
SPEAKER_02: That didn't apply to you, because you're like 70 years away from that.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: But anyway.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: So that was long.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: Sorry I went so long on that, but those are just my thoughts.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: I think that's good.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: And that rolls kind of into principle three in that no matter what people call us, what we are in our hearts is what counts with God.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: And in the book, Gets kind of talks about these name changes that people have.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: Who is it?
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Thaddeus.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: And sort of his is that his nickname kind of or his other name?
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Kind of his nickname in there.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: We see these some of these name changes.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: See it, Paul.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Some of these name changes, and basically saying, look, the name that you have, what other people call you, what other people say about you, is not the most important thing.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: It matters to us.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: I think it very much matters to us what people say and what people think.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: And we know that because it affects us.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: If somebody says something negative about us, sometimes our our guard goes up.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: I know when somebody says something negative about me, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on?
23:25
SPEAKER_00: This isn't right.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't like this.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: But his point is that God looks at our hearts.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: And the one of the verses that he gives is 1 Samuel 16, 7.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, the Lord does not look at the things that man looks at.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: And I think kind of at the heart of this principle is our motivation to serving God.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, is our is our motivation for serving God to look good?
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Is our motivation simply for other people to say, oh, Derek, you're doing a great job?
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Derek, that's awesome.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Or is our motivation for serving God to serve God because of his love for us?
24:18
SPEAKER_00: Because he allows us to know him personally and to be inside that relationship with him.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: And I, a few weeks ago, we were uh going through the book of James in the student ministry, and in James he talks about being a hearer and being a doer of the word.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: Being a hearer and being a doer of the word.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: And something that I think is practical for the students, but I think also something that's practical for all of us.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: And as we were talking, one of the one of the main points that we made was look, you can you can do all the religious activities.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: You can continually come to church on Sundays, you can go to church in the midweek, you can give money, you can pray before your meals, you can you can do all of these religious things, which are good things, and God wants us to do all these things.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: But if we're doing that thing without an attitude of serving Christ, and it's simply something that's self-centered, you know, how much how much good is doing that activity?
25:26
SPEAKER_00: And then kind of we kind of took it a step further in saying, um, as we're relating it to the doers and the hears, how a lot of times we can we can come to Sunday and we can listen to a sermon and we can listen to a message.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Or they can come on a Wednesday or come on a Thursday, listen to a message, discuss it in their small group, walk away from that time, and then it never gets put into practice.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: It never gets, it never gets implemented into our lives.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where the heart change and really the telling of our heart is.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: And nobody else is gonna be able to know our hearts for sure except, you know, for God.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: But for me, I know it's convicting because like, man, yeah, this Christian thing, it's not just about being seen and being in a pew or being in a chair and listening to a sermon or in a Bible study or even discussing these things.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: That's part of it, but it's also about allowing God to work that message, work his truth out in our lives.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's something that that we can take away and a principle that we can really focus on every single week is really that that application, whether it's praying or whether it's serving, but doing that thing with a spirit, like you said, working heartily as for the Lord and not for men, and not for kind of for our own recognition.
27:00
SPEAKER_02: Uh let's go to the last principle and sort of wrap this up.
27:03
SPEAKER_02: The most important recognition we can ever have is when our names appear in the book of life.
27:07
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's not the way I'd have written it.
27:09
SPEAKER_02: Though, in a way that's true.
27:11
SPEAKER_02: If your name's written in the book of life, that means you've trusted Christ as your Savior.
27:14
SPEAKER_02: Name was written in the book of life, and on the final day, according to Revelation 20, you know, the books will be opened, the books of works, and uh and nobody'll be found that nobody has worked hard enough to get into heaven.
27:26
SPEAKER_02: And then will be opened the book of life, it says at the end of Revelation 20.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: And those whose names are found written in the book of life will go into heaven, but that just means you trusted Christ and and so forth.
27:37
SPEAKER_02: So recognition, I'm not sure that's recognition, that's entry.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: So I think uh the most important recognition we can ever have is God saying, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
27:47
SPEAKER_02: That's Matthew 25.
27:49
SPEAKER_02: And we're to long for that.
27:50
SPEAKER_02: In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 6, remember in the Sermon on the Mount, don't pray publicly for recognition like some do.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: Don't give publicly for recognition like some do.
28:01
SPEAKER_02: You know, I've had people, I had a guy once tell me that he wanted to give 3,000 to the church, but he would only do it if we somehow announced it publicly or put his name on something.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: I'm thinking, yeah, 3,000 would be nice, but you know, we have people that give 10,000 and don't say.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, I said, I'm sorry, and then the next week his name was in the paper, he'd given 3,000, you know, to a children's thing or something.
28:24
SPEAKER_02: So he wanted recognition.
28:26
SPEAKER_02: So um, so I I I think the point is give secretly, pray secretly, knowing that in the future you will be recognized by the Father who says, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: And that's the most important recognition we can ever have.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Let's say this memory verse together.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: God is not unjust.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: He will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 6 10.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: That is really a good verse.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: We continue to love God and we continue to help people.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: And as we help people, we are loving God.
29:10
SPEAKER_02: And those three dudes, those disciples, we know they were martyred.
29:13
SPEAKER_02: We know they they were cool.
29:15
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we know they died on the front lines.
29:18
SPEAKER_02: And so after as a result of this, I suppose I'm gonna look those guys up because they they probably are pretty cool, right?
29:25
SPEAKER_02: And I'd like to know what they really did.
29:27
SPEAKER_02: I want to hear their stories.
29:28
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna sit with them.
29:29
SPEAKER_02: If we can get Wes and Keith to do a breakfast in heaven, then then I'll sit down at a table with them and I want to find out their stories because they they probably were really cool.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: They probably did a lot of cool things.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: Um few small group questions.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to pray for us, Jim?
29:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let's read over these.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: What so go over these?
29:50
SPEAKER_02: What is something God's been teaching you this year?
29:52
SPEAKER_02: Why is it sometimes this is good.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: Why is it sometimes difficult to be faithful when we receive little recognition?
30:00
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
30:02
SPEAKER_02: That is so good.
30:03
SPEAKER_02: You know, I was reading, you know, as a as sort of a boss, I remember being shocked here hearing one day, your staff, your the people who work for you will not quit because um uh they don't oh was it they do not work they will not work for money or or recognition, but they will quit if you don't if you if you um humiliate them by not paying them what they're worth or not giving them recognition.
30:37
SPEAKER_02: Because it's just difficult to keep coming to work when you're overlooked.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: What's one area or task that can be easy to neglect in serving God?
30:44
SPEAKER_02: What talents and abilities, etc.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: So anyway, Lord, we thank you for this morning.
30:49
SPEAKER_02: Um It's interesting to have a lesson about three guys whose first names are the only thing we know from the Bible.
30:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh we know they had to be pretty special.
31:00
SPEAKER_02: And uh I pray for these guys.
31:02
SPEAKER_02: All of us at times would like to have more recognition.
31:05
SPEAKER_02: All of us need to give more recognition to maybe our spouses, our children, and and I pray that we'll be godly, we'll be mature, we'll look for uh not just for earthly recognition, but primarily for heavenly recognition, that we will um we'll not really need credit down here, but we'll make sure that we give credit to younger and less mature Christians.
31:26
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
31:27
SPEAKER_02: Amen.