Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The-Value-of-Knowing-the-Scoop-Msg-4
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: You know, when you're a graduate of the seminary, you
- 0:03Speaker 1: often feel a sense of gratitude and pardonable significance that
- 0:11Speaker 1: goes with that. You're you're grateful that God saw you
- 0:14Speaker 1: through and the faculty was gracious enough to pass you,
- 0:18Speaker 1: and you learned a number of things that were helpful,
- 0:22Speaker 1: and and then you get out in the general public
- 0:25Speaker 1: and you start receiving responses, and that has a way
- 0:29Speaker 1: of putting things in perspective. Like last week, a lady
- 0:32Speaker 1: sent me something she was very proud of, and that
- 0:35Speaker 1: was that her dog never misses my broadcast. And she
- 0:40Speaker 1: showed me a picture behind the scenes of her dog
- 0:44Speaker 1: with years perked up looking at a televised presentation of
- 0:50Speaker 1: me and amazing. But then yesterday something else, This is
- 1:03Speaker 1: really incredible. Kyle got a hold of us and thanked
- 1:07Speaker 1: us for our ministry and insight for living. Kyle lives
- 1:11Speaker 1: in the Tennessee area, and he wanted me to know
- 1:15Speaker 1: that every morning he and Early quote unquote listen to
- 1:21Speaker 1: the broadcast head their headsets on and they faithfully are there,
- 1:26Speaker 1: and he set a picture. Kyle is a veterinarian and
- 1:31Speaker 1: Early is his horse, and both of them have on
- 1:34Speaker 1: headsets and they are listening to insight for living. So
- 1:41Speaker 1: when you're trained here, even horses act like they're interested that. Yeah,
- 1:53Speaker 1: it reminds me of of Clyde Cook's comment Clyde's gone now.
- 1:57Speaker 1: But when he was leading Biola, he and Annabel took
- 2:01Speaker 1: a little holiday two or three days and they went
- 2:06Speaker 1: down to San Diego and they were there for a
- 2:10Speaker 1: delightful little getaway. And he said, while we were there
- 2:14Speaker 1: on the boardwalk walking along we were we had just
- 2:19Speaker 1: been the sea world and you know all the stuff
- 2:22Speaker 1: that goes on, and coming toward us were a dozen
- 2:27Speaker 1: ducks and they were all on roller skates. They were
- 2:33Speaker 1: coming toward them. There was no escort, there was no
- 2:38Speaker 1: human guiding them. They just twelve ducks just coming toward him.
- 2:43Speaker 1: And Klat said, you know, the closer they got to us,
- 2:48Speaker 1: the more I realized they could do that. But they
- 2:51Speaker 1: don't have their hearts in it. That's the way this
- 2:56Speaker 1: horse is right now. He can do it, but he's
- 2:59Speaker 1: not really he doesn't have his heart in what's being said,
- 3:05Speaker 1: nor do many who hear us. But then there are
- 3:11Speaker 1: those who do, Like a lady I will not name
- 3:18Speaker 1: who writes and says, I lost my husband thirty one
- 3:21Speaker 1: year of thirty one years to ALS in twenty twelve.
- 3:26Speaker 1: ALS is the disease that finally takes everything but your eyelids,
- 3:34Speaker 1: and so she saw him to the end, and then
- 3:39Speaker 1: she said, since then, I've been trying to help encourage
- 3:43Speaker 1: my son through his recovery from heroin addiction for the
- 3:47Speaker 1: past twelve years, and this past year I was able
- 3:54Speaker 1: to help my youngest daughter break free from her abusive husband,
- 4:00Speaker 1: now in counseling along with her three children. One paragraph
- 4:06Speaker 1: of only a few words, covering a world that I
- 4:15Speaker 1: can only imagine, and she talks about. When I listen,
- 4:21Speaker 1: I just kind of hang on every word, and that
- 4:25Speaker 1: is a humbling thought. The last paragraph made me sad.
- 4:32Speaker 1: I've tried to attend three different churches in the past
- 4:35Speaker 1: three years, in the past six years, and have been
- 4:39Speaker 1: terribly hurt by the leadership and fellow Christian church members.
- 4:46Speaker 1: There seems to be zero tolerance for anyone dealing with
- 4:52Speaker 1: a socially unacceptable family. I grew up in a family
- 4:57Speaker 1: with alcoholism and mental illness, and we were barely tolerated
- 5:02Speaker 1: in our community church. Thank you for not being afraid
- 5:07Speaker 1: to address the unacceptable issues of life in a gracious way,
- 5:13Speaker 1: and for having the courage to be real. She listens,
- 5:22Speaker 1: and it's people like that for whom you are in training.
- 5:29Speaker 1: Now I'm focusing on you who are students. I've just
- 5:35Speaker 1: come out of two weeks of a staff infection, and
- 5:39Speaker 1: I haven't had one of those in years. They're terrible.
- 5:44Speaker 1: First year think you're gonna die. Then you're afraid you won't.
- 5:48Speaker 1: It is so bad. Interesting thing happened. My whole scalp
- 5:53Speaker 1: where it got started turned red and apparently the germ
- 6:00Speaker 1: broke into my system from up there and I got
- 6:04Speaker 1: red all down my forehead and my eyelid began to close.
- 6:09Speaker 1: Have a doctor friend who still makes house calls. He
- 6:12Speaker 1: was in our home last Friday evening, I think it was,
- 6:16Speaker 1: and he looked at me and he said, come here,
- 6:19Speaker 1: come here. That's a staph infection. And he said, you're
- 6:24Speaker 1: gonna lose that eye if we don't treat this right now,
- 6:29Speaker 1: which was put a chill down your back when you
- 6:33Speaker 1: hear this. And today I'm on the downside of it.
- 6:40Speaker 1: And interesting, the skin is responding like sunburned skin after
- 6:46Speaker 1: you've had a bad sunburn, and it's gotten, you know,
- 6:49Speaker 1: really tender and red. And I'll later it begins to
- 6:53Speaker 1: die away and it starts to flake, and it's like
- 7:00Speaker 1: dandrum anyway. Uh I Uh, I realized in all of that,
- 7:08Speaker 1: and it's a good realization, uh, that I really dodged
- 7:14Speaker 1: a bullet. And uh. Life is so fragile, eyesight is
- 7:24Speaker 1: so fragile, the function of the brain is so fragile.
- 7:31Speaker 1: That the grace of God just a is applied all
- 7:36Speaker 1: the time to our lives. Don't ever forget that. I
- 7:41Speaker 1: don't care how bright you are. I don't coach your
- 7:43Speaker 1: gpa is. I don't care what your dreams are. Just
- 7:47Speaker 1: remember you are mortal, and the slightest thing can level you,
- 7:56Speaker 1: and it will remind you that that we are but dust,
- 8:02Speaker 1: all of us. Sarah Teasdale, the poet, has put it beautifully.
- 8:08Speaker 1: When I've ceased to break my wings against the faultiness
- 8:11Speaker 1: of things and learned that compromises weight behind each hardly
- 8:16Speaker 1: open gate, when I can look life in the eyes,
- 8:19Speaker 1: grown calm and very coldly wise, life will have given
- 8:23Speaker 1: me the truth and taken in exchange my youth. It's
- 8:31Speaker 1: a great trade off, getting truth and giving up youth.
- 8:38Speaker 1: I'll take that anytime. I wouldn't be any other age
- 8:42Speaker 1: if I had a choice, Because with this age come
- 8:50Speaker 1: certain things I never knew when I was younger, and
- 8:54Speaker 1: could not have known, would not have known, from losing
- 8:59Speaker 1: to children in in uh, miscarriages, from rearing four children,
- 9:09Speaker 1: and going through all that that includes just like you
- 9:12Speaker 1: when you're rearing your children, and the same things that
- 9:15Speaker 1: happened to you happen to swind Off family as well.
- 9:19Speaker 1: And and you go through all of this, and you realize,
- 9:24Speaker 1: ministry goes on. You still are in touch with people,
- 9:28Speaker 1: you still are pouring into the scriptures, you still loving
- 9:32Speaker 1: God's word and and uh and then you hit, You
- 9:36Speaker 1: get hit blind side unexpectedly, and you realize, oh God,
- 9:45Speaker 1: just hold me together, just use me any way you choose. Uh.
- 9:53Speaker 1: So I'm here today by the grace of God, so grateful.
- 9:57Speaker 1: Thank you for listening when I speak, I always I'm
- 10:00Speaker 1: so grateful for that. And thank you for studying here
- 10:10Speaker 1: you could study anywhere. And let me say, before the fact,
- 10:14Speaker 1: thank you for finishing, finish what you started. One of
- 10:22Speaker 1: the themes of my life is that you finish what you start.
- 10:27Speaker 1: I'm so glad that my physician finished medical school. Seriously,
- 10:38Speaker 1: I'm so glad that my dentist who did a root
- 10:41Speaker 1: canal finished his work at school. Not one of us
- 10:49Speaker 1: would would have our lifelong mate in life under the
- 10:55Speaker 1: knife of a physician or a surgeon who didn't finish
- 10:59Speaker 1: medical school. Not one of us unless it was absolutely essential.
- 11:07Speaker 1: So finish, give it the very best you have. Some
- 11:13Speaker 1: of you are not a students. It's okay. They'll never
- 11:17Speaker 1: ask you what your GPA is. They won't, And even
- 11:25Speaker 1: elders that are looking for pastors will care very little
- 11:29Speaker 1: about your academic ability. They'll care about your heart. They'll
- 11:35Speaker 1: care about your attitude. They'll care about your thoughtfulness and
- 11:42Speaker 1: the way you treat your partner in life, your spouse
- 11:47Speaker 1: and your children. They'll care about your responses to life's contingencies.
- 11:56Speaker 1: They'll care about your character. Now, they want you to
- 11:59Speaker 1: do homework, and you should. That's why you're coming to school. Here.
- 12:04Speaker 1: Here you learn what good homework is all about, and
- 12:08Speaker 1: you pick up habits, and hopefully you'll carry them with
- 12:11Speaker 1: you and all the discipline that goes with you from
- 12:14Speaker 1: here on out. All this semester. When I get to
- 12:18Speaker 1: speak from time to time, I want to talk to
- 12:20Speaker 1: you about about the way your training here equips you
- 12:27Speaker 1: for what is going to go on later. You'll never
- 12:31Speaker 1: regret your training at the school. Ever. You'll look back
- 12:37Speaker 1: and you'll think, I'm so glad my prof rove that home.
- 12:43Speaker 1: I'm so glad that I had one of those classes.
- 12:47Speaker 1: They didn't just skim the surface, and we dug in deeply,
- 12:53Speaker 1: and I'm so glad I stayed at it, because here
- 12:59Speaker 1: the testing begins. Really in life, you'll experience the unexpected
- 13:05Speaker 1: things that a company ministry starting here right here, and
- 13:12Speaker 1: there may be sickness, and there will be financial strain,
- 13:17Speaker 1: there will be times of doubt, there will be domestic disharmony,
- 13:24Speaker 1: there will be feelings of loneliness and brokenness and even
- 13:31Speaker 1: sense of displacement at times. It's all part of your training,
- 13:38Speaker 1: and it's hard on purpose. Those bright minds that shape
- 13:44Speaker 1: the curriculum and put the plan together for an education
- 13:49Speaker 1: to Dallas Seminary knew what they were doing and they
- 13:54Speaker 1: planned it carefully, and as a result, you and I
- 13:59Speaker 1: have the joy of stepping into it and moving through
- 14:03Speaker 1: our three four or five or more years here to
- 14:07Speaker 1: get our training, and then we're on our way, you'll
- 14:11Speaker 1: never regret it. Now my Bible is open to First Peter.
- 14:18Speaker 1: I'm not going to preach. I'm going to talk with
- 14:20Speaker 1: you out of First Peter three today, which is a
- 14:26Speaker 1: section that begins and then builds toward a climax. If
- 14:30Speaker 1: you love music, it's called a crescendo. It looks like
- 14:34Speaker 1: a long arrowhead that gets larger as it moves toward
- 14:39Speaker 1: a greater volume. And that seems to be the feeling
- 14:43Speaker 1: that starts around verse eight of this third chapter. To
- 14:48Speaker 1: sum up, when you read that obviously means he's bringing
- 14:53Speaker 1: his thoughts together all of you. So that's every one
- 14:58Speaker 1: of us. All of you. Look at the list, be harmonious, sympathetic.
- 15:12Speaker 1: But when you get to a list, don't hurry through
- 15:14Speaker 1: the list. Ponder it and ask am I does that
- 15:23Speaker 1: mark my life? Am I given to harmony? Because in
- 15:28Speaker 1: any staff, harmony is invaluable. I missed an elders meeting yesterday,
- 15:33Speaker 1: so the guys that represented me sent me an email
- 15:37Speaker 1: and they talked about the elders meeting, and one of
- 15:39Speaker 1: the first things each of them said was a spirit
- 15:42Speaker 1: of harmony was magnificent among us. Hot Dog, that was
- 15:47Speaker 1: so good to hear. It doesn't take my presence, but
- 15:52Speaker 1: it's been cultivated. A spirit of harmony was obvious among us.
- 15:58Speaker 1: So to sum up, be harmonious, be sympathetic. Each word
- 16:07Speaker 1: is just pregnant with meaning. Sympathetic. In fact, be brotherly
- 16:14Speaker 1: and kind hearted. This is especially true if you are
- 16:21Speaker 1: well equipped theologically, if you're brainy, if you know more
- 16:27Speaker 1: than most in the group, and when you get out
- 16:30Speaker 1: of here, in most groups, you will don't say that
- 16:34Speaker 1: out of pride, it's just the fact you've been exposed
- 16:37Speaker 1: to more truth than most will be in a lifetime.
- 16:42Speaker 1: But you'll still need to be kind. Don't ever forget that.
- 16:48Speaker 1: Your kindness will speak volumes to those you're with. Brotherly,
- 16:56Speaker 1: kind hearted, humble in spirit. And then he gets to
- 17:02Speaker 1: relationships even deeper, not returning evil for evil. So easy
- 17:07Speaker 1: to do that in ministry, So easy to use the
- 17:12Speaker 1: pulpit as a hammer in ministry. You gone out to
- 17:17Speaker 1: take it. And the guy called me and he said,
- 17:20Speaker 1: I want to tell you my situation, and he described
- 17:22Speaker 1: it and it was terrible, and he said, uh, what
- 17:28Speaker 1: should I do? And I said, yeah, I don't know
- 17:30Speaker 1: enough about it. I don't even know the name of
- 17:32Speaker 1: your of your church, and I said, describe to me
- 17:38Speaker 1: what's going on. He said, well, there's an older man
- 17:40Speaker 1: in our church, about eighty, and he's run off two
- 17:43Speaker 1: other pastors and he told several of his friends I'm
- 17:45Speaker 1: going to be the third one. So I said, shoot him. No, no,
- 17:50Speaker 1: I didn't say I did. I didn't say it. I said,
- 17:57Speaker 1: I said to him, have you conf fronted him? And
- 18:03Speaker 1: he said, actually, he's so much older than I and
- 18:10Speaker 1: he's got a team of people around him. They always do.
- 18:13Speaker 1: He said, I've not done that. I said, well I
- 18:16Speaker 1: can continue. He's a diotrophies. The man knows his Bible,
- 18:22Speaker 1: knew exactly what I was referring to. I said, he's
- 18:25Speaker 1: a Alexander, the complishman. He's another one of those, and
- 18:31Speaker 1: your church will not move ahead as long as the
- 18:33Speaker 1: man is in the midst stirring the pot. He said, well,
- 18:38Speaker 1: what should I do? I said, well, you got to
- 18:40Speaker 1: have your elders with you, and you got to have
- 18:43Speaker 1: Is he an elder? He said, well not right now.
- 18:45Speaker 1: He has been, but he's off right now. And I said,
- 18:48Speaker 1: well that's good, so you could talk with the elders
- 18:50Speaker 1: about it. He said, but they're kind of medium Mouth
- 18:53Speaker 1: and they don't want to confront And I said, well,
- 18:58Speaker 1: they want a great church. Well, yeah, I think they do.
- 19:02Speaker 1: You need to help them know that the secret of
- 19:04Speaker 1: a great church is dealing with individuals that are keeping
- 19:08Speaker 1: it from being great. But you've got to handle it wisely.
- 19:13Speaker 1: And well, we talked at link about it. So he decided.
- 19:17Speaker 1: I didn't decide for him. He decided and he would
- 19:20Speaker 1: have a meeting with the elders. They would talk about
- 19:22Speaker 1: a plan and they would confront this individual and they
- 19:28Speaker 1: would do it, not just the pastor, but to do
- 19:31Speaker 1: it with several And I said, tomorrow, from Luther's words,
- 19:36Speaker 1: he's a bore in God's vineyard. He said, well, I
- 19:39Speaker 1: want to write that down. I said, well, you know
- 19:42Speaker 1: it's not biblical, but you can write it down. And
- 19:45Speaker 1: he said, well, that's exactly what it's like. He's a
- 19:48Speaker 1: bore in God's vineyard. I said, okay, then you got
- 19:53Speaker 1: to deal with a bore in the vineyard. You can't
- 19:58Speaker 1: run from it. It was interesting. I never had one
- 20:02Speaker 1: moment a Dallas seminary on dealing with bores in God's vineyard,
- 20:07Speaker 1: not one session on it. It's great school. It just
- 20:12Speaker 1: back when I got schooling here, we didn't address those things,
- 20:16Speaker 1: and we have dealt very little bit with criticism, though
- 20:20Speaker 1: it's a constant diet of everyone in ministry, and some
- 20:24Speaker 1: of it is deserved, and knowing how to handle it
- 20:27Speaker 1: when it's deserved is one thing. Knowing how to handle
- 20:30Speaker 1: it when it's not deserved is something else. Takes wisdom
- 20:34Speaker 1: to decipher, and it takes a really good spouse to
- 20:40Speaker 1: help you work through all of that. Anyway, my friend
- 20:43Speaker 1: listened and Steve said to me, I'm going to call
- 20:48Speaker 1: you and let you know what happened. I said, great,
- 20:51Speaker 1: I'm going to be praying. We prayed on the phone briefly,
- 20:54Speaker 1: and then I got an email from him and he said, BINGO.
- 21:03Speaker 1: We had our meeting. And the man said, well, if
- 21:07Speaker 1: that's the way I all of me feel, I'll just leave.
- 21:09Speaker 1: And I thought, praise God, that is so great. I said,
- 21:13Speaker 1: that's an answer, because often they'll stay and just dig
- 21:18Speaker 1: in make it worse. And he said, I want you
- 21:22Speaker 1: to know. It feels like a weight is lifted off
- 21:26Speaker 1: my shoulders. He said, can I just ask one thing?
- 21:31Speaker 1: How'd you know to tell me what to do? I said,
- 21:33Speaker 1: I you know, Steve because I've had to deal with it,
- 21:40Speaker 1: and I've dealt with it wrongly, and I've also dealt
- 21:44Speaker 1: with it correctly. So I've learned the hard way what
- 21:48Speaker 1: works and what doesn't work. So I kind of shared
- 21:50Speaker 1: with you from the overfloor. But I thought back, I
- 21:54Speaker 1: gained a lot of the confidence I needed, which I
- 21:57Speaker 1: wasn't born with from dallasonry training. Because when you learned
- 22:03Speaker 1: the truths of the scriptures, it does something to your
- 22:06Speaker 1: inner constitution. It gives you internal emotional guts, so you're
- 22:13Speaker 1: not afraid to trust God and to walk through these
- 22:18Speaker 1: kind of situations. Hopefully you'll do it wisely, but to
- 22:22Speaker 1: walk through them with confidence. And that's what Steve did.
- 22:26Speaker 1: He sens then another one and he said, I can't
- 22:29Speaker 1: tell you the difference. As a matter of fact, he said,
- 22:33Speaker 1: I preached a sermon. I thought, oh boy, I didn't
- 22:37Speaker 1: mention preaching a sermon to everybody about this, But he said,
- 22:40Speaker 1: I just felt peace about this, so I just preached it.
- 22:44Speaker 1: I said, was the old guy there? And he said
- 22:47Speaker 1: he was, and he got up and left, but he
- 22:51Speaker 1: was there. And I said, so, what was the congregation's response?
- 22:56Speaker 1: And he said, they surrounded me and prayed with me
- 23:01Speaker 1: and said, we want a church, and we're tired of
- 23:04Speaker 1: what we've been dealing with all these years. In that
- 23:08Speaker 1: great one of the things I got off on that
- 23:12Speaker 1: because I all the way through was encouraging not to
- 23:16Speaker 1: return evil for evil, because the great tendency is to
- 23:22Speaker 1: be ugly in return. But you just disarm him with
- 23:26Speaker 1: kindness and biblical truth. And Steve really knows the scriptures.
- 23:33Speaker 1: I'm glad to say, trained it masters. And he doesn't
- 23:36Speaker 1: have a lot of experience in pastoral work, but he
- 23:39Speaker 1: has enough in the work to know when he's on
- 23:43Speaker 1: biblical grounds. And it was beautiful to watch. And God
- 23:48Speaker 1: will use you like that. Some of you have never
- 23:52Speaker 1: been in the situation like you will be. You will be,
- 23:58Speaker 1: and it will be yours to answer. When a friend
- 24:02Speaker 1: calls or emails you and says what should I do?
- 24:06Speaker 1: It says, not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult,
- 24:10Speaker 1: but giving a blessing instead for you. We called for
- 24:13Speaker 1: the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. Paul
- 24:18Speaker 1: Timothy Peter is writing. Peter is writing to a group
- 24:25Speaker 1: of disbursed people, and they feel displaced and they are
- 24:30Speaker 1: under the gun and testing is his theme, and so
- 24:34Speaker 1: we're not surprised when he gets to a passage like this.
- 24:37Speaker 1: He's dealing with people that are being tested, and you're
- 24:40Speaker 1: already edgy when you're being tested. So he's got to
- 24:44Speaker 1: be careful how he goes about this. And he reminds
- 24:47Speaker 1: them in verse twelve the eyes of the Lord are
- 24:50Speaker 1: toward the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayers.
- 24:55Speaker 1: Love that love that always appropriate. It is always the
- 25:05Speaker 1: right thing to turn to. And I urged Steve to
- 25:10Speaker 1: to do what Jim Elliot talked about doing. He says,
- 25:13Speaker 1: the saint who advances on his knees never retreats. God's
- 25:18Speaker 1: on his throne and wear at his footstool, and there's
- 25:21Speaker 1: only a knees distance between Rhode Elliot. Stay in your knees, Steve,
- 25:28Speaker 1: and as God clears the air and gives you freedom
- 25:32Speaker 1: and growth. He talked about how the young people are
- 25:35Speaker 1: now wanting to come back, and it's encouraging, and I said,
- 25:38Speaker 1: just walk in humility, Just give God the praise. And
- 25:43Speaker 1: if the old man shows up and he wants to
- 25:45Speaker 1: talk with you and he has a repentant heart, listen.
- 25:49Speaker 1: It may have taken that to turn him, be open
- 25:53Speaker 1: to it. Don't put him on a a in a
- 25:57Speaker 1: book that marks him off forever. Stay open. Who is
- 26:03Speaker 1: there to harm you? If you prove zealous for what
- 26:05Speaker 1: is good? Fourteen But even if you should suffer for
- 26:10Speaker 1: the sake of righteousness, you're blessed. And don't fear their intimidation,
- 26:16Speaker 1: and do not be troubled. And then the verse, I've
- 26:20Speaker 1: got it marked in a bold orange in my Bible.
- 26:25Speaker 1: Set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts. That's invaluable.
- 26:35Speaker 1: Set apart Christ as Lord. You're my Lord. You're the
- 26:42Speaker 1: one I want to please. You're my master. I'm just
- 26:47Speaker 1: a shepherd, I'm just a voice. You're the Word. So
- 26:54Speaker 1: I bow before you, Lord, and I wait upon you
- 26:58Speaker 1: to guide me in this situation. And then it says
- 27:03Speaker 1: always being ready to make a defense apologia. You know
- 27:08Speaker 1: that's what the word is. It has in mind the
- 27:11Speaker 1: whole idea of standing in defense. And you do that
- 27:21Speaker 1: based on biblical truth, which you are learning every day,
- 27:27Speaker 1: every week, every month at this school. You will sit
- 27:31Speaker 1: in classrooms and you will think, well, I ever use
- 27:34Speaker 1: this Chances are good The answer is yes, Yes, you
- 27:41Speaker 1: will use something from this course. Yes, in the years ahead,
- 27:45Speaker 1: and you'll be so grateful that you took that course.
- 27:53Speaker 1: Back to my staff infection, I said to my doctors
- 27:57Speaker 1: were standing in the kitchen. He's one of the few
- 27:59Speaker 1: doctors that still makes house calls. And I said to him,
- 28:06Speaker 1: how'd you know that? How'd you know that was stabb infection?
- 28:12Speaker 1: And he kind of blushed and said, well, I went
- 28:16Speaker 1: to medical school. He said, uh. Furthermore, I've seen it
- 28:22Speaker 1: so many times. I know what I'm looking at. You
- 28:27Speaker 1: rarely see it, but I could spot it. Did you
- 28:31Speaker 1: know your eyelid was drooping? I said no, I didn't.
- 28:34Speaker 1: And I look at my face in a mirror every
- 28:37Speaker 1: morning and deal with this thing and I and I
- 28:43Speaker 1: never noticed the eye was And I said look, and
- 28:46Speaker 1: he said look, and I got a mirror and I looked.
- 28:48Speaker 1: He said, if this continues, it's going to go right
- 28:50Speaker 1: on clothes on you and you're not gonna be able
- 28:53Speaker 1: to get it open. It's going to be serious at
- 28:56Speaker 1: that point. Furthermore, you're can take the staff infection. And
- 29:07Speaker 1: my whole purpose in milking this story is that he's
- 29:11Speaker 1: got training that I don't have. You have training most
- 29:20Speaker 1: won't have handle it wisely use it often fall back
- 29:28Speaker 1: on it. Live like it. The tests that come respond
- 29:36Speaker 1: in a way that reveals you know the truth. You
- 29:43Speaker 1: have to be perfect by any means, but you need
- 29:47Speaker 1: to be consistent. You're making an offense to everyone who
- 29:53Speaker 1: asks you to give an account of the hope that
- 29:55Speaker 1: is in you. And please notice it's done with gentleness
- 29:58Speaker 1: and reverence. I love that, not arrogance and pride. I
- 30:06Speaker 1: got to wrap this up. My time is up. I
- 30:09Speaker 1: got enough material here to go a day and a half.
- 30:13Speaker 1: Let me Yeah, I can't keep going. Yeah, there's a
- 30:23Speaker 1: guy that doesn't want to go to class or anything. Here.
- 30:32Speaker 1: Here's what I wanted. Be careful with knowledge. A few warnings.
- 30:40Speaker 1: I have four that i've written down. M Be careful
- 30:44Speaker 1: with the knowledge you're going to be. You've already gained
- 30:47Speaker 1: and you'll gain more. Be careful than knowledge that you're gaining.
- 30:53Speaker 1: Knowledge can be dangerous when it lacks scriptural support. Always
- 30:57Speaker 1: be sure you have biblical support for the truth. Just
- 31:01Speaker 1: because you know about this doesn't mean you know about all.
- 31:06Speaker 1: Your knowledge is limited. Learn to say it and learn
- 31:10Speaker 1: to repeat it. I don't know. I've never been criticized
- 31:15Speaker 1: for saying that I don't know and leave it at that. Second,
- 31:22Speaker 1: knowledge could be dangerous when it becomes an end in itself. Third,
- 31:28Speaker 1: knowledge can be dangerous when it isn't balanced with love
- 31:30Speaker 1: and grace. We've talked about that. Knowledge can be dangerous
- 31:37Speaker 1: when it remains theoretical, when it isn't mixed with discernment.
- 31:46Speaker 1: There is one thing you cannot buy. You can only
- 31:51Speaker 1: earn it, and you earn it slowly, and you earn
- 31:57Speaker 1: it tediously, and that's respect. You can't demand it. In
- 32:06Speaker 1: the military, you can because the rank on your shoulder
- 32:10Speaker 1: requires submission. Not in ministry. There's no rank, regardless of
- 32:19Speaker 1: your ultimate degree. And I admire you. If you go
- 32:22Speaker 1: all the way and get it, that's fine. Just get
- 32:26Speaker 1: over it. But never stop studying. Make certain that you
- 32:35Speaker 1: have that Bible open and you have your heart set
- 32:39Speaker 1: on gleaning from it truth to live by truth, to
- 32:45Speaker 1: guide your ministry. I'm in between sermons right now. I've
- 32:49Speaker 1: finished one series. I'm getting ready to step into another one.
- 32:53Speaker 1: We're going to do the Book of James. I haven't
- 32:54Speaker 1: done that since the seventies, looking forward to it, all
- 32:58Speaker 1: excited about it. Body of truth I can dig into,
- 33:03Speaker 1: and here I am after all these years, looking forward
- 33:08Speaker 1: to getting into the Letter of James that we'll be
- 33:12Speaker 1: doing at our church because I love God's word and
- 33:22Speaker 1: I want to be better at it this year than
- 33:24Speaker 1: I was last year, and I want to be able
- 33:27Speaker 1: to handle it in a way that is accurate, clear
- 33:34Speaker 1: and practical. I love the way C. S. Lewis put it,
- 33:40Speaker 1: and I close with his words. Listen to C. S. Lewis.
- 33:45Speaker 1: If all the world were Christian, it might not matter
- 33:50Speaker 1: if all the world were uneducated. But as it is,
- 33:56Speaker 1: a cultural life will exist outside the Church, whether it
- 34:00Speaker 1: exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now,
- 34:06Speaker 1: not to be able to meet the enemies on their
- 34:09Speaker 1: own ground, would be to throw down our weapons and
- 34:14Speaker 1: to betray our uneducated brethren, who under God have no
- 34:20Speaker 1: defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.
- 34:26Speaker 1: Listen to these words. They have no one but us.
- 34:33Speaker 1: I have no one but my medical doctor to keep
- 34:37Speaker 1: me from losing an eye. And there he was to
- 34:44Speaker 1: call that disease what it is. And those many people
- 34:48Speaker 1: you're in touch with will have no one but you
- 34:52Speaker 1: to stand against the intellectual attacks. And then he concludes,
- 34:57Speaker 1: good philosophy must exist if for no other reason because
- 35:03Speaker 1: bad philosophy needs to be answered. The cool intellect must
- 35:10Speaker 1: work not only against cool intellect on the other side,
- 35:15Speaker 1: but against the muddy heathen mysticisms which deny intellect altogether.
- 35:23Speaker 1: Most of all, perhaps we need intimate knowledge of the past.
- 35:30Speaker 1: The learned life, then, is for some a duty. That's
- 35:38Speaker 1: for us. You and I have a duty to live
- 35:45Speaker 1: out the learned life, learned from the truth, honed through
- 35:55Speaker 1: the dailiness of tests and trials, shaped by discernment, characterized
- 36:07Speaker 1: by a sensitive spirit and a humble heart. Keep it up,
- 36:17Speaker 1: stay at it. Let's pray, Lord, all of us are just.
- 36:24Speaker 1: We're just. We're just human, and we're given to all
- 36:31Speaker 1: the stuff that characterizes humanity. So I pray to help
- 36:37Speaker 1: us in the journey, especially during these significant years at
- 36:47Speaker 1: this school. May we glean from time with these fine
- 36:53Speaker 1: faculty members truth to live by. May we learn from
- 37:00Speaker 1: their model. But may we never forget to set apart
- 37:05Speaker 1: your son as Lord in our hearts. Keep us faithful
- 37:13Speaker 1: to our duty, not only while we're here, but beyond,
- 37:18Speaker 1: certainly beyond. We love you, Father, and we worship your son,
- 37:27Speaker 1: and we rely on your spirit to continue the minister
- 37:33Speaker 1: to us. And then through us in the dear name
- 37:38Speaker 1: of Jesus. We pray everybody said Amen. The preceding message
- 37:47Speaker 1: the value of knowing, the scoop and the sound recording.
- 37:50Speaker 1: We're copyrighted in twenty nineteen by Charles Rswindall INK. All
- 37:55Speaker 1: rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial
- 37:59Speaker 1: use histrictly prohibited