Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / While Laughing, Keep Your Balance! Msg 6 14

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While Laughing, Keep Your Balance! Msg 6 14 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: There are a lot of things that are tough in life,
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  Speaker 1: but the thought of trying to live up to someone
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  Speaker 1: else's impeccable example.
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  Speaker 2: Is overwhelming, to say the least. And we've all.
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  Speaker 1: Learned that our lives will be one frustration after another
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  Speaker 1: if we try to follow Christ's example through the hypocrisy
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  Speaker 1: of faking it, or the immaturity of hurrying it, or worse,
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  Speaker 1: the legalism of striving for it.
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  Speaker 2: We need balance, don't we.
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  Speaker 1: We need the balance that can only come through Christ's power,
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  Speaker 1: which enables us, working within us, to accomplish the impossible.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to read about that today, and we're going
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  Speaker 1: to learn about it in our time together. Turn with
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  Speaker 1: me to the Letter to the Philippians once again, chapter two,
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  Speaker 1: where we will learn how to lean on Christ alone,
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  Speaker 1: and in doing so discover that very truth. By following him,
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  Speaker 1: he will bring a joyful, satisfying balance to our lives
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  Speaker 1: when we do that. So, got your bible open. Here
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  Speaker 1: we are in the New Testament Book of Philippians, chapter two.
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  Speaker 1: I'll begin reading at verse twelve, and I'll read down
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  Speaker 1: to verse eighteen. Philippians two twelve. So, then, my beloved,
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  Speaker 1: just as you have always obeyed, not as in my
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  Speaker 1: presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work
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  Speaker 1: out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is
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  Speaker 1: God who is at work in you, both to will
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  Speaker 1: and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things
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  Speaker 1: without grumbling or disputing, so that you will prove yourselves
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  Speaker 1: to be blameless and innocent. Children of God. Above, reproach
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among
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  Speaker 1: whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast
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  Speaker 1: the word of life. So that in the day of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: I will have reason to glory because I did not
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  Speaker 1: run in vain, nor toil in vain. But even if
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  Speaker 1: I am being poured out as a drink offering upon
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  Speaker 1: the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and
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  Speaker 1: share my joy with you. All you two, I urge
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  Speaker 1: you rejoice in the same way and share your joy
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  Speaker 1: with me. Examples are wonderful things. People who have gone
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  Speaker 1: before us and have lived lives that are admirable and
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  Speaker 1: exemplary are so valuable to all of us. We who
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  Speaker 1: are students of biographies, have in our libraries a number
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  Speaker 1: of books about great men and great women who have lived.
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  Speaker 1: These exemplary lives and have set the stage or set
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  Speaker 1: the pace.
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  Speaker 2: For us to do the same sometime.
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  Speaker 1: However, their lives are so significant we feel frustrated rather
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  Speaker 1: than motivated when we read of them. I'm thinking of
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  Speaker 1: an article I read several years ago entitled Advice to
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  Speaker 1: a bored young Man. I want you to hear what
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  Speaker 1: this writer has to say. Died aged twenty buried age
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  Speaker 1: sixty The sad epitaph of too many Americans. Mummification sets
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  Speaker 1: in on too many young men at an age when
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  Speaker 1: they should be ripping the world wide open. For example,
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  Speaker 1: many people reading this page or doing so with the
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  Speaker 1: aid of bifocals. Inventor Ben Franklin, age seventy nine. The
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  Speaker 1: presses that printed this page were powered by electricity. One
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  Speaker 1: of the first harnessers, Ben Franklin, age forty Some of
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  Speaker 1: you are reading this on the campus of one of
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  Speaker 1: the Ivy League Universities. Founder Ben Franklin, age forty five.
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  Speaker 1: Others are in a library. Who founded the first library
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  Speaker 1: in America, Ben Franklin, age twenty five. Some got their
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  Speaker 1: copy through the US mail Its father Ben Franklin, age
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  Speaker 1: thirty one. Now think fire, who started the first fire? Department,
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  Speaker 1: Who invented the lightning rod, who designed and the heating
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  Speaker 1: stove still in use today. Ben Franklin ages thirty one
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  Speaker 1: forty three thirty six wit conversationalist, economist, philosopher, diplomat, printer, publisher, linguist,
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  Speaker 1: spoke and wrote five languages, advocate of paratroopers from balloons,
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  Speaker 1: a century before the airplane was invented. All this until
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  Speaker 1: age eighty four, and Ben Franklin had exactly two years
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  Speaker 1: of formal schooling. It's a good bet that you already
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  Speaker 1: have more sheer knowledge than Franklin ever had when he
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  Speaker 1: was your age. Perhaps you think there's no use trying
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  Speaker 1: to think of anything new, that everything's been done wrong.
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  Speaker 1: The simple agrarian America of Franklin day didn't begin to
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  Speaker 1: need the answers we need today.
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  Speaker 2: Go do something about it. Well, I'm trying to.
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  Speaker 1: Hear those words through the years of a mother of
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  Speaker 1: three or four small children who does well to get
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  Speaker 1: dressed by eleven o'clock in the morning, or the busy
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  Speaker 1: husband and father of three or four who does well
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  Speaker 1: to keep his sanity, working six sometimes seven days a
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  Speaker 1: week just to put bread on the table. I'm trying
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  Speaker 1: to read a schedule into those words, like most of
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  Speaker 1: us live with with hardly enough time to even read
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  Speaker 1: about inventions, to say nothing of discovering them. Kind of
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  Speaker 1: makes me agree with Mark Twain who once said few
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  Speaker 1: things are harder to put up with than the annoyance
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  Speaker 1: of a good example. And so what do we do
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  Speaker 1: surrounded by these great examples, these exemplary people, how do
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  Speaker 1: we pull it off? Well, we have techniques nowadays. One
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  Speaker 1: is called faking it. And I'm thinking of the music
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  Speaker 1: industry right now. If you don't read in that area,
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  Speaker 1: you don't know about the scandal that's revolved around Milli Vanilli,
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  Speaker 1: who won the Grammy Award for the album Girl. You
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  Speaker 1: know It's true problem is it wasn't and they lip
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  Speaker 1: sync the entire musical piece, which resulted in the disgrace
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  Speaker 1: of having to give the award back, to which the
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  Speaker 1: president of Capitol Records Nashville, named Jimmy Bowen replied, you
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  Speaker 1: have to remember that music is a mirror of the times,
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  Speaker 1: and when the mirror is close to what's happening, that's
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  Speaker 1: what sells. The times we live in are very plastic.
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  Speaker 1: There are a lot of phony things happening in people's
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  Speaker 1: daily lives. So Milli Vanilli just is just playing the game,
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  Speaker 1: which says something about the times we live in and
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  Speaker 1: another in the same article rights. As technology allows music
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  Speaker 1: producers to use increasingly sophisticated electronic trickery to make albums
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  Speaker 1: and videos, the Milli Vanilli scandal will only repeat itself
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  Speaker 1: unless audiences stop valuing image more than content.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we can fake it.
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  Speaker 1: We get that great example, we hear those great voices,
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  Speaker 1: and we see those great images, and we can fake.
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  Speaker 2: A recording like we can fake a life.
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  Speaker 1: Another common technique when facing a great example is hurry
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  Speaker 1: it up. I find more and more in this generation,
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  Speaker 1: want more and more earlier and earlier. Don't slow me
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  Speaker 1: down by making me pay a price or go through
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  Speaker 1: the pain of process. Don't make me wait. I want
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  Speaker 1: it now. I want it now. Let me just hit
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  Speaker 1: the high spots, and ultimately I can look like you look,
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  Speaker 1: or sound like you sound, or in some cases have
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  Speaker 1: a ministry like you have. I just want it quicker.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to be in my fifties and sixties
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  Speaker 1: or seventies.
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  Speaker 2: I want it in my twenties. Whether you like him
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  Speaker 2: or not.
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  Speaker 1: You have to agree that the late pianist Liberachi was
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  Speaker 1: one of the most popular pianists of the latter half
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  Speaker 1: of the twentieth century. I was interested in reading his
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  Speaker 1: self confessed style. Recently, I quote, my whole trick is
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  Speaker 1: to keep the tune well out in front. If I
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  Speaker 1: played Tchaikovski, I play his melodies and skip his struggles. Naturally,
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  Speaker 1: I condense. I have to know just how many notes
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  Speaker 1: my audience will stand for. If there's time left over,
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  Speaker 1: I fill in with a lot of runs up and
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  Speaker 1: down the keyboard. It looks like it seems like Tchaikovsky,
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  Speaker 1: but we don't get too heavy with it, just to
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  Speaker 1: add a few runs. And the most common method used
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  Speaker 1: in Christian circles when we got an example that's laid
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  Speaker 1: before us and we can't live up to it.
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  Speaker 2: Is to strive for it, work harder. The familiar.
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  Speaker 1: Song living for Jesus, a life that is true also
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  Speaker 1: says striving to please Him.
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  Speaker 2: All that I do.
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  Speaker 1: Is that the Christian life, if it isn't faking it,
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  Speaker 1: and if it isn't hurrying it, is.
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  Speaker 2: That it.
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  Speaker 1: You want to live the rest of your life striving
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  Speaker 1: to please Him, and all that you do, some of
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  Speaker 1: you say I'm doing my best. I'm trying. I'm exhausted.
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  Speaker 1: What is true of all other examples is not true
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: I listen to this. All other great.
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  Speaker 1: Examples, whether they be some president or statesman, a woman,
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  Speaker 1: whether they be some inventor or novelist.
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  Speaker 2: Or athlete, whatever.
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  Speaker 1: All the other examples may inspire, but they cannot enable.
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  Speaker 1: They may motivate us, but they don't have any power
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  Speaker 1: to give us. There's nothing of Ben Franklin left over
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  Speaker 1: to make me the inventor he was.
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  Speaker 2: But when it comes to Christ, it's different. He says,
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  Speaker 2: you want to live my life, here's my power.
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  Speaker 1: You want to please my heavenly Father, here's the enablement.
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  Speaker 1: I don't leave you as orphans. I give you my
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, and I live on through you by His power.
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  Speaker 2: I find that very encouraging.
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  Speaker 1: Having failed far more than I've succeeded at most of
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  Speaker 1: my dreams, and I think you'd say the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: Having been plagued by sin all my life and struggling
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  Speaker 1: to find my.
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  Speaker 2: Way to the top of the water to breathe, I
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  Speaker 2: find great hope that He gives me the ability to breathe, regardless.
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  Speaker 1: In Philippians chapter two. For example, I come across another example.
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  Speaker 1: I am told to do nothing by selfishness or empty
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  Speaker 1: conceit Philippians two three. We've looked at that, we've frowned
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  Speaker 1: our way through it, knowing how selfish and conceited most
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  Speaker 1: of us are at times. And we've also grown when
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  Speaker 1: we read with humility of mind. Let each one regard
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  Speaker 1: one another as more important than himself, And we've all
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  Speaker 1: been selfish, maybe as early as this morning, you've already
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  Speaker 1: evidenced selfishness. You wanted to be somewhere when you wanted
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  Speaker 1: to get there, and you didn't want to wait for anybody.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, look at the command verse five. Have this
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  Speaker 1: attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. There's
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  Speaker 1: no getting around it. He not only is the perfect example,
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  Speaker 1: he is the example of perfection. Think of it without
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  Speaker 1: a flaw, without one moment where he blew it, without
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  Speaker 1: a wayward thought, without a disobedient act.
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  Speaker 2: He pulled it off.
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  Speaker 1: And we're told to have the same attitude he had
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  Speaker 1: when he emptied him, when he gave up the adoration
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  Speaker 1: of angels and took upon himself the form of a
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  Speaker 1: little baby. In Bethlehem and grew up to be a
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  Speaker 1: man who was punched in the face and spit upon,
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  Speaker 1: and had roman spikes driven into his palms and into
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  Speaker 1: his ankles, and was left to die. Now you live
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  Speaker 1: like that, I can't, and you can't eat. All the
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  Speaker 1: striving in the world won't make me like him. I
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  Speaker 1: need help, and I cry out for it.
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  Speaker 2: In prayer every day of my life. And the good
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  Speaker 2: news is he gives it.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, he not only gives it, he enables me
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  Speaker 1: to keep some things in balance.
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  Speaker 2: That I could not otherwise do.
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  Speaker 1: Move through this wonderful second chapter to the center paragraph
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  Speaker 1: verses twelve through eighteen, and you will find encouragement, I think,
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  Speaker 1: for there is here not only instruction and command, there
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  Speaker 1: is hope that you can make it happen through His strength.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, I find three different areas to be kept
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  Speaker 1: in balance. Please notice verses twelve and thirteen. Purpose balanced
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  Speaker 1: with power fourteen through sixteen, Attitude balanced with actions seventeen
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  Speaker 1: and eighteen. There is seriousness, balance with joy, and it
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  Speaker 1: can happen on a regular basis through the enablement of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ and only through him, only through him.
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  Speaker 2: Now let's get into the particulars. I think.
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  Speaker 1: Until we do, it's all just generalized motivating talk. We
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  Speaker 1: need to see how it works out. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: purpose and power. Let me read for you these two
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  Speaker 1: verses twelve and thirteen. So, then, my beloved, just as
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  Speaker 1: you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only,
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  Speaker 1: but now much more in my absence, work out your
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  Speaker 1: own salvation. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
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  Speaker 1: For it is God who is at work in you,
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  Speaker 1: both to will and to work for.
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  Speaker 2: His good pleasure. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, just a minute.
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  Speaker 1: If I were sitting at the kitchen table with you,
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  Speaker 1: and you and I were reading these two verses, one
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  Speaker 1: of us would notice a conflict, probably both of us.
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  Speaker 1: You and I are told to work out our salvation,
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  Speaker 1: only to be told verse thirteen that it is God
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  Speaker 1: at work in you.
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  Speaker 2: Make up your mind, which is it? Who does it?
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  Speaker 1: That's a great question, that is, in fact a question
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  Speaker 1: that has caused some people to come up with a
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  Speaker 1: wrong answer because they've seen only one and not both.
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  Speaker 1: To begin with, understand, this is not a command directed
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  Speaker 1: to people to become saved. These people are already saved.
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  Speaker 1: I'll show you one verse one of Philippians. Paul and
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  Speaker 1: Timothy Bond, Servants of Christ Jesus, to all the Saints
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  Speaker 1: in Christ. This is a letter written to people already
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  Speaker 1: in Christ who are living in Philippi geographic They're in
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  Speaker 1: Philippi positionally and spiritually there in Christ. You and I
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  Speaker 1: are the same, regardless of the city we may live in.
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  Speaker 1: Because we have placed our faith in trust in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: We are set apart in Christ Jesus. Look at verse
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  Speaker 1: twelve or verse six Chapter one. I am confident of
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  Speaker 1: this very thing that he who began a good work
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  Speaker 1: in you, that's salvation, will perfect it until the day
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  Speaker 1: of Christ Jesus, that's sanctification. We are born again because
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  Speaker 1: the good work has begun, and we are being completed
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  Speaker 1: because the good work continues through the blessing and power
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. And he even refers to them as
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  Speaker 1: brethren chapter one, verse twelve, and beloved chapter two, verse twelve.
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  Speaker 1: These are Christians. This section is written to people who
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  Speaker 1: are already in the family, but we are in need
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  Speaker 1: of working out our salvation. Please observe it does not
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  Speaker 1: say work toward or work for. He's saying work it out.
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  Speaker 1: Three illustrations come to mind, one a musician to a
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  Speaker 1: person who is ill a patient, and three an athlete.
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  Speaker 1: See if this doesn't make it clear. A musician sits
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  Speaker 1: in a chair and has music placed on a stand
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  Speaker 1: in front of him or her.
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  Speaker 2: The music is composed.
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  Speaker 1: By the genius who puts notes on the page and
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  Speaker 1: mixes it with rhythm and with style, and composes the
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  Speaker 1: sheet of music.
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  Speaker 2: But it's incomplete.
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  Speaker 1: Unless it is played out by the musician by the
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  Speaker 1: soloist who takes the music and interprets it with voice
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  Speaker 1: and style. The composer doesn't have a complete work until
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  Speaker 1: the music is sawn out or played out.
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  Speaker 2: You and I are normally healthy.
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  Speaker 1: We go to a physician because we get sick and
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  Speaker 1: the normal routine doesn't get us well. The physician, through training,
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  Speaker 1: skill and gift, discovers by diagnosis that we have a
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  Speaker 1: certain disease that must take medication for us to get over.
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  Speaker 1: He writes out a prescription, and he gives you the prescription.
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  Speaker 1: You take the prescription.
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  Speaker 2: You didn't write it. You're given the prescription, but it's.
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  Speaker 1: Up to you now how to go and have it
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  Speaker 1: filled by the pharmacist and to carry out the instructions
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  Speaker 1: of the prescription or you won't get better, and.
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  Speaker 2: His work is in vain. It takes both.
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  Speaker 1: No physician can heal, but he can prescribe medicine that
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  Speaker 1: can be taken, and with the proper dosage, in the
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  Speaker 1: proper period of time, health can reach turn. The athlete
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  Speaker 1: is the third that comes to my mind. It's a
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  Speaker 1: football game. You're the quarterback. You're at the ten yard line.
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  Speaker 1: The score is tied, four seconds left. Your kicker just
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  Speaker 1: broke his leg. Nobody can kick it. You got to
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  Speaker 1: run a play.
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  Speaker 2: The coach sends in the play. You didn't create the play.
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  Speaker 2: You didn't design the play. You receive the play.
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  Speaker 1: And now you and your team must work it out
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  Speaker 1: in order to score. The coach is helpless without the team,
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  Speaker 1: and the team needs the coach with all of his objectivity,
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  Speaker 1: to make the thing work. You win the game because
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  Speaker 1: you run the play successfully. That's what this passage is about.
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  Speaker 1: You have been given salivation, just as the musician is
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  Speaker 1: given a piece of music, just as you have been
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  Speaker 1: just as placed into your hands as a prescription, just
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  Speaker 1: as a play is running from the sideline.
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  Speaker 2: Salvation is yours.
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  Speaker 1: Now it is our job to work it out to
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  Speaker 1: run the place, to sing the music, to carry out
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  Speaker 1: the responsibilities that the physician has designed for us. And
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  Speaker 1: that's what this verse is about. Notice there's pain in it.
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  Speaker 1: You do it with fear, you do it with trembling.
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  Speaker 1: You don't hurry it up. You can't short circuit, you
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  Speaker 1: can't shortcut growth. It's done through fear, and it's done
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  Speaker 1: through trembling, through trusting, through respecting, through waiting on God,
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  Speaker 1: through his presence. Because verse thirteen brings relief, it is
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  Speaker 1: God really at work in you, not only in the willing,
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  Speaker 1: but in the working of his good pleasure. If you
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  Speaker 1: and I could see the working of God with our
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  Speaker 1: visible with our eyes, if we could see it in
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  Speaker 1: tangible form, would take our breath away. He is the
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  Speaker 1: one who is striving. He is the one who is
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  Speaker 1: at work. He is the one.
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  Speaker 2: Who is empowering.
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  Speaker 1: No spirit of Ben Franklin lingers to make you the
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  Speaker 1: man he was, But the spirit of Jesus Christ is
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  Speaker 1: ours to make us the man he was, our sin notwithstanding,
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  Speaker 1: and notice the ultimate goal, the purpose of it all,
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  Speaker 1: is to will and to work for His good pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: We are in a day where we want our pleasure,
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  Speaker 1: We want our comfort. We don't want God's will nearly
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  Speaker 1: as much as we want to be satisfied doing what
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  Speaker 1: we would prefer to do. It's an ultimate plan where
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  Speaker 1: he does his work and it results in his good pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: You know what that checks A checks your attitude. It's
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  Speaker 1: an attitude checkpoint virtually every day of our lives. That's
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  Speaker 1: why verse fourteen follows verse thirteen. Do nothing without do
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  Speaker 1: all things without grumbling or disputing. Now we move into
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the realm of attitudes as opposed to actions.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Look at those two words.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Some of you may have cut verse fourteen out of
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: your Bible, and so I want to read it for
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: you again. Do all things without grumbling or disputing.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Great words.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Sometime these old Greek words are worth a little stop.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: And I think this is a case in point, go
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: goodso is the word grumbling.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: It sounds like grumble go goods, go good, so good.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: So listen to the meaning of the word low toned,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: low toned, discontented mutterings that good, low toned discontented mutterings,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: not loud public statements, but grousing.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Complaining. Some of you have that gift. JB.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Priestley, a British novelist wrote, I've always been a grumbler.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: I'm designed for the part. Sagging face, weighty underlip, rumbling,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: resonant voice. Why money couldn't buy a better grumbling outfit.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Than mine?
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: I love Abraham Lincoln's words. Every man after age forty
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: is responsible for his own face.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Isn't that good? You can usually spot grumblers. They look
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: like grumblers do nothing with grumbling. Oh that's so tough.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Long line in the freeway. Hurry up to get to
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: the show. It's a sellout.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Preparing this wonderful meal, you burn it. Great plans for
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the weekend, you have to work. This isn't deeply theological, folks,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: This is every day living.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: And you know what happens when we grumble? We poison
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: the other.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Mind, including our own. One man put it very well.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: We have no more right.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: To put our discordant states of mind into the lives
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: of those around us.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: And rob them of their sunshine and brightness than we
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: have to enter.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Their houses and steal their silverware.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: You're grumbling steals my silverware. You're down in the mouth.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Comments hurt my desire to be up and about my
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: grousing makes you negative?
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Now? This leads to disputing.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: See the other word, grumbling is something more to ourselves,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: low tone, discontented mutterings. But disputing this word means vocal,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: ill natured argumentation, disagreeing, undermining, stirring up feelings of a
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: negative nature. I thought this was especially interesting. Those who
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: dispute arouse suspicion and doubt.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: You do that. You don't do that, do you. It's
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: not from the spirit.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: It's from the flesh, my friend, Arousing a spirit of
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: suspicion and doubt. Those are the things Jesus never did.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Some of you know the ongoing debate that Cynthia and
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I have with the bougainvilla.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Years ago.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: She really wanted us to plant bougainvilla. It's a wonderful
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: plant if you look at just the blossoms, But hidden within.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: The plant are thorns. This long.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: When I look at the bougainvilla, I see thorns.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: When she looks at the bugainvilla, she sees blossoms.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: And there is a house not far from our home
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: where we turn regularly to make it to the main drag,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: and she regularly likes to drive a little slower and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: enjoy the blossoms.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: I usually speed up to stay away.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: From the thorns. She will point out at certain times
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: of the year. Look how that bog me is blooming,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: I will say, do you realize it has thorns regularly
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: all over there? If you walk by there, you may
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: never get free. It catches you and holds you for
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: half of the morning.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: She said to me on one occasion, do you.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Realize, honey, that every time I mention bougainvilla, you grouse
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: about the thorns, which led to disputing among us. I
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: gave this illustration several years ago, and much to my chagrin,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: some dear saint in the church sent me ten five
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: gallon containers of bougainvilla, which I never told my wife about.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: We still haven't planted bougainvilla. It is in God's will
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: that we have bog and villa. You see how it
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: can happen. You you fall into a slump.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: You have your own little thing, just like I have
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: my little things, and we wind up saying.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Well, that's just our little thing.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: It's just kind of the way we're made. No person
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: is made to be a grumbler. We cultivate it, we
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: develop it, and it leads to a life of disputing. Lincoln,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: whom I quoted earlier, was known to have said, when
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: I'm getting ready to reason with a man, I spend
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: one third of my time thinking about myself and what
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going to say, and two thirds thinking about him.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: And what he is going to say. Very wise, counsel.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: You do that, most of your disputes will stop. It's
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: a matter of attitude. Now, now, why don't we live
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: a life free of grumbling and disputing? Why is that
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: our goal? Well, next verse. By doing that, we prove
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: ourselves to be different, blameless and innocent children of God above,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: reproach in the midst of a grumbling and complaining world,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: crooked and perverted generation. My friend Ray Stedman translates this
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: living above reproach in the midst of a world of
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: crooks and perverts puts it well, doesn't it? Surrounded by
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: crooks and perverts, surrounded.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: By the audacity of depravity.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: We are to live lives that are different. You don't
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: have to shout a good attitude. It stands out all
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: over the shop, It's.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Known all over the office. It's the talk in bedrooms
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: of a home.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: A parent with a great attitude is in much greater
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: demand than one with a negative attitude. The kids naturally
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: gravity tape toward that one. And so it is in life,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: and so it is in the world. Look again at
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: verse fifteen. I find four startling differences between the believer
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: in the world and the worlding in the world. First
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: of all, blameless. The word means a purity of life
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: that is undeniable and inescapable.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: There is a purity of life.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: There is an honesty of character that the world can't deny.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: There is an unwillingness to compromise in the realm of
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: right or wrong.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Blameless.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Second, innocent, it means unmixed and unadulterated.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: I love this one.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: It means inexperienced in evil. Hey, listen to me. When
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: is the last time you met someone inexperienced in evil?
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: When is the last time you were seeing a film
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: with someone who had to cover their eyes because the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: scene was too vile to watch? Innocent, untainted motives, untainted integrity,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: And while we're at it, we're children of God who
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: are above reproach.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: This means free of.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Blemish, and it's used often in the New Testament for
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: animals that were brought to sacrifice that were free of
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: any spot or blemish, free of scars, free of wounds,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: free of scabs, free of filth.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: It means above reproach in the midst of I like that.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: It's never God's desire that his children retreat behind monastery
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: walls and live our lives apart from the world. We
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: are not to go into spiritual isolation wards and carry
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: on like monks, mumbling songs and verses of scripture to
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: one another. As much as we may admire such discipline living,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: that is not God's ultimate plan for his children. He
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: puts a smack dab in an ungodly world and says, now,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: rather than isolating.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: You, I insulate you. You be different.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Let your attitude be different, let your actions be different, because.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: You are shining. Look at this. You appear as lights in.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: The world, holding forth the word of light, holding fast
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: the word of life.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: I love that you appear as lights. Did you know
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: that we are.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Not to hide our message of Christ in this day
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: of reluctance and resistance to speak openly of Christ.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: This says we are to appear as lights in the world.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: You know what that means?
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Luminaries, stars, stars, where'd we get the idea of this
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: little light of mine? I'm gonna let it shine?
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: Where is it? Little like? It's in a little flickering flame.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Watch it.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: You're gonna blow that sucker out. Don't get near my light.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: I gotta hide that thing under a butt. No, you
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: can't put a star under a bushel. It's never meant
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: to be sung. This bold and pleasing light of mine,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: I'm going to let it shine. The Christian living a
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: life like this is describing through the power of the
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, is.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: The talk of the time.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: He's the contagious spirit of the office. He's the change
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: element in a school. And stars don't talk, they just shine.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: He's not the one that buttonholds everybody and gives them
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: a tract and embarrasses people with the good news of Christ.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: He or she lives a life that.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Is absolutely inescapable, and you've got to know the source.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: That's when he has the privilege of telling you, I'm
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: going to show you something. Hold your place here and
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: go back to Matthew five. Matthew chapter five. This is
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: the great sermon of the Mount. Jesus spoke it. If
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: you carry a red letter edition of your Bible. This
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: is all in red. These are the words of Christ.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: And I want you to notice something here Verse fourteen.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: You are the light of the world. There's no little light.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: You are the light that shines, that floods this world
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: with shining light. You are the light of the world. Now,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: But in the our bushel masure peck, measure, but on
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: are in the house. You light a candle when the
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: electricity goes out, you hold it up so you can
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: see your way through the house. You have a flash
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: light in a dark night to work on your car.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: You shine it right down to where you're working. You
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: want to flood the thing with light. Now look at sixteen.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Let your light shine before others in such a way
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: that they may see your good works and glorify your
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: father who.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: Was in heaven. That's it.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: They see your works. They know it can't come from you.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: They know you're only human. And when they probe enough
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: to discover, they find out you've got a power they lack,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: and they want to tap into it. Greatest witness in
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: the world is the magnet of a life lived above
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: reproach can't stay away.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: That's what attracted you, and that's what attracted me to
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: the good news of the Savior.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Back to Philippians too. I want you to see this
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: thought of stars one more time, among whom you appear
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: as stars or luminaries in the world. Stars are different
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: from planets. Stars generate light. You know that this Earth
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: isn't a star, It's a planet, doesn't generate its own light.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: All of our lights borrowed light bar it from the Sun.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: The Moon's a planet.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: All of its light is a borrowed light. Moonlight isn't
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: there light, it's sunlight reflected off the moon. Stars are
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: light giving planetary objects. And think how far away they are.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: And yet on the darkest night, when there is no
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: moon at all, a well lit sky will give you
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: enough light to make your way down the path. I
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: know I've been there. I was looking out the window
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: this morning, a sentini, having coffee.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: Real early you could still see the moon.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: If you looked out there this morning, you saw it
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: bright clear moon on a on a smog free early morning.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Was great and as I looked at the Moon. I thought,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: if I could travel the speed of light one hundred
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: and eighty six thousand miles a second.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: First of all, I want to take her with me.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: But if I could travel the speed of light, I
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: could be at the moon if we took a direct
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: shot in one of the third seconds. You know how
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: long it takes you to get to the first star
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: closest star?
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: Four years. Gotta take your lunch for that.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: I mean four years, only six thousand miles a second,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: and you finally get to the first star, and that's
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: the closest. And this galaxy is, according to some astronomers,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: only one among thousands.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: Is that great? Or what? All of these things shining light?
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: And that's us in this world, each one of us
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: stars shining his light wherever we go. How do I
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: do that? Verse sixteen? Holding fast the Word of life.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: You live this book, you walk this talk, You fulfill
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: his word by his power.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you won't.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Have enough time to answer the questions people will be
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: asking you. They can't stay away. The intrigue will drive
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: them nuts. They'll have to know how you live it.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Holding fast the Word of life so that in the
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: day of Christ. I may have cause to glory because
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: I did not run in vain. That's an athletic term.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Or I did not labor in vain. That's a workman's term.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Paul loved word pictures. By the way, now that we're
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: moving into this third balance, the first was a balanced
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: in verses twelve and thirteen. The next was a balance
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: between fourteen and sixteen lence of attitude and action. And
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: now this is a balance between seriousness and joy. Paul
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: was haunted, I think with the possibility of a wasted life.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: I get that when I read his writings, such as
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: First Corinthians nine twenty seven, lest after I had preached
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: to whether as I myself should be a shipwreck.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: I think he was haunted by that.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: He wanted so much to be a man of authenticity
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: that the thought of his being inauthentic made him grown.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: It's like it does anybody who's authentic. Here's an example.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: I may have caused a glory because I didn't run
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: in vain or work in vain.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: See those words repeated in vain. It means empty, wasted effort.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: I don't want to look back over my life and
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: look back over those years and say that was in vain,
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: it was worthless.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: He didn't want to be like the runner who ran
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: a race for no reason, or like the workman who
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: did work that.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Was busy work for no purpose.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: My good friend Dave Roper, pastor now up in Boise, Idaho,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: was for many years associate pastored a Race Deadmond at
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Palo Alto Peninsula Bible Church. Some of you know and
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: appreciate the ministry and writings of Dave. I'm one of them,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: I can assure you. Dave says in one of his
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: messages he was ministering on a campus of Stanford when
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: he was up in Palo Alto years ago. He came
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: early before the Bible study gathered, and he was standing
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: there sort of looking around that little courtyard, and he
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: noticed an overgrown area and a stone work sort of
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: tucked away beneath the vines and overgrown brush. He was
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: intrigued by what it was, and he went over and
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: he pulled some vines away and cut back some of
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: the overgrowth, and he saw this bird bath, this sculptured
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: apparently hand sculptured out of stone.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: This bird bath.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: No longer being used, no longer being seen, no longer
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: even enjoyed by the little birds that once bathed in
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: it and sat on its side. And he said, with
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: great insight, Lord, keep me from building bird.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: Baths with my life. I think that's the kind of
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: prayer that was often on Paul's lips. Very healthy prayer.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Lord, I realize I'm not able to pull off a
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: life like a Ben Franklin. I'm not made like that.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: That's not my calling. I realize that I'm not gifted
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: in areas many are that on whom I respect, Lord,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: I don't want to run in vain, and I don't
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: want to work in vain.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: Serious thought.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: In fact, the Apostle goes on to say that even
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: if I'm being poured out as a drink offering.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: Upon the sacrifice and service of your faith. Word picture again.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: It's the picture of a chalice of wine that Pagans
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: poured out before or after many of their meals. Some
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: of the families more devoted to the gods than others
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: would do it after or before every meal. It was
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: called a libation, pouring out the wine to the gods to.
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: Gain their favor or to squelch their anger.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Paul applies it to the Christian life he says, I
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: I may never get out of this prison. I may
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: never get past this turn in my life. I may
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: die in roman imprisonment. My life may be poured out
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: as a libation upon the sacrifice and service of your faith.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Even though that's true, look at the balance. Verse seventeen closes,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I'm depressed, and I share my depression with you all. No,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: that's not what it says. Even if I'm being poured
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: out as a drink offering, I rejoice and I share
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: my joy with you all. In fact, he says in
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: verse eighteen, you do the same thing. I urge you
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: I've had enough bad news. I've had enough negative information.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I've had enough things told me that deal with depression
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: and discouragement and this morally warped world of ours. I've
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: heard enough dirty stories. Share your joy with me. And
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: so he balances out the seriousness of his walk, the
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: seriousness of his walk, with a plea for joy.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: I love this letter for that reason.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: You can't get through one of the four chapters without smiling.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Again and again. The man smiles.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: He doesn't laugh with but he laughs at life.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Because life isn't funny, but seen through the perspective of
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: God's lenses, he sees the end as a finishing where
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: God gets the glory, and that makes him smile. One
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: of life's special pleasures is meeting up with veteran Christians
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: who still have a sense of humor.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it great to.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Be around some of God's best men and women getting
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: up in years. They've walked with the Lord long enough
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: to worry less and less about how they appear externally,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: and more and more how they live internally. And one
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: thing I notice about them, Those that really reach me
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: are those that are able.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: To laugh at life.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: Those who to you'll find joy even in the sacrifice
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: of the service for the King. Now, having said all
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: of this great information from this paragraph.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: We got a problem.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: We've got a real problem self. My mouth wants all
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: of these things to be true? Really does my mind
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: really wants these things to be true. I really believe them.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: I really want to live a balance life. I really
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: want Christ to control me. My problem is I'm shackled
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: in this bag of bones that doesn't want that. There's
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: a self inside me, just as there wasn't There is
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: inside you that says, I vote no. I'd rather grumble,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: I'd rather argue. I'd rather have my way. I don't
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: want to be joyful. I want to be serious. I
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: don't want to have my light shine before men. I
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: don't want their light to shine on me. I want
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: to make out like a bandit in this life. I
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: don't want to give up anything I want to get
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: that's inside ourselves, and it screams to get out. It
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: screams to take control, streams to get out of control.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: So I can't address these things without addressing a self.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: And doing so. Let me give you a couple of
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: things that might help you.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: These things have helped me, and I'm trying to keep
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: it in mind these days so I can live this
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: kind of life because there's something inside me.
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: That says, look, just trust me, I can pull it off.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: You got the training, you got the charisma, you got
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: the skills, and you can make it happen.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: That's self talk. I want Christ to talk and self
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: to be subjugated put on hold. So first thought is this.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: Regarding self control, its urges to take the credit, control,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: its urges to take the credit. Self is always ready
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: to smile for the camera. Self is always ready to
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: drop its name to get the credit. John Wooden, former
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: coach of the basketball team Westwood UCLA Bruins, in a
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: book called They Call Me Coach, gives this three statement
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: piece of advice chapter twenty eight.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: Talent is God given. Be humble.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: Fame is man given. Be thankful, conceit is self given.
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: Be careful. Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: man given. Be thankful, conceit is self given. Be careful.
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: You may be a terribly gifted, capable.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Young man, a woman. The sky may literally be the
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: limit for you. That's good counsel to remember. Control self
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: surges to take the credit. Second, conquer its tendency to
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: take charge. Conquer its tendency to take charge. You need Christ,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: You and I need the Savior. This isn't just a
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: want to, It's a need. And our need isn't partial,
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: it's total. In my travels in the fall of nineteen
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: ninety early fall, I had the privilege with a couple
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: of our colleagues from Fullerton Church to be in Germany.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: One of my great delights, along with ministering there to
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: the service men and women, was a chance to see
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: the old haunts and paths of Martin Luther, the German reformer.
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: It's great being there.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: It's great touching stones he touched. It's great looking out
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: windows he looked out of, and sitting at at the
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: table where he wrote, and hearing his voice in the woodwork.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: I stood at the place where he stood at the
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: diet of Burns. I have a picture in my study now.
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: That's a picture of the great Cathedral.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: At Burns, stones black with age, the same stones he
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: saw in the same building he stood. And the most
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: significant gathering in the history of the church, the Roman
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: Church gathered there to watch this maverick and hopefully to
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: bring him to his knees and to have him recant
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: in his position and his doctrinal stand for salvation by
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: grace through faith alone sola fide, which he did not do.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, prelates and cardinals and pope and emperor alike.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: It's the most significant gathering that had ever gathered, right
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: there in the heart of Germany. And here stood one
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: lone man, like a steer in a blizzard, against the
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: wishes of the of the church.
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: One of his friends pulled on his robe just before.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: The the debate began and said, brother Martin, aren't you afraid?
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Got a wonderful answer, he said, greater than the Pope
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: and all his cardinals. I fear most that great Pope.
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: Self. Quite a way to.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Live, Not to walk into life as though self can
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: carry me through, like I pull up my own boots
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: and I step on my own way, and I pursue
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: my own course. But I say, through the power of
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, I will accomplish what you wish for me.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: I will work out my salvation with fear and trembling,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: and I will remember it as you who is at work,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: and me, including those pitstops in the journey, including the handicaps,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: including the heartaches, including the disappointments. And I will not
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: fake it, I will not hurry it, and I will
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: not do it.
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: On my own.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: For greater than the Pope and all his cardinals, I
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: fear most that great Pope.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: Self.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: This is a lonely message in a day of self
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: help for your being told you can do it, just
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: set your mind on it. It's a twisted understanding of
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: a life worth living.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: The Christian can do it only because God is in it,
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: and the Christian wants to do it only.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: Because Christ is empowering it. That's why we must walk
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: so sensitively.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: With our God.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: Let's bow for a few moments of thought on this.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: This is one of those difficult messages where you try
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: to communicate the importance of reaching the stars, but in
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: fact the.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: Motivation for that has to come from the spirit of God.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: Where we talk about the value of living a life
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: that is above the level of just getting by or
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: mediocre living, but in fact the spirit of God has
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: to empower it. There is no shortcut the life of godliness.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: It takes time to be holy.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: It takes the pain of disappointment and the heartache of loss,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: and even.
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: Ill health at times.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: Takes the reminder that you are very limited in your strength,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: and when you are weak, He is strong. I invite
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: you to Jesus Christ today, who has the power you need.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: Without him, there's no hope.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: Please come today.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: There will come a time when the mouth will declare
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: and the heart will make known the work of God
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: in your life. But this is much too intimate, much
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: too significant a decision. Lest anyone be given to believe
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: that salvation is a matter of simply public declaration.
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: You deal with it in your heart. First, if you
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: in your heart that God is raised him from the dead,
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: you will be saved. I invite you to Jesus Christ today,
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: who has the power you need. Without him, there's no hope. Lord,
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: in a world of fakery and hurry, in the world
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: of great striving and self help methods, we find ourselves abandoned.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: To You.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: It's the only way to live. And we bring ourselves
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: at this moment to an acknowledgment that our trust in
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: You is total, not partial.
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: I pray for those today who have lived lives that
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: have been marked by image rather than substance, who have
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: been in a hurry, unwilling to wait. Lord, do a
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: work in that youthful heart. Quiet our spirits. Remind us
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: that you're in charge. Not only do you have a
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: plan in mind that includes link, but it includes depth.
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: And give us the cooperative spirit to work within your
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: power to do your will. Thank you for those this
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: very day who give their lives to your son Jesus Christ.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: Encourage them and strengthen them as they begin their walk
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: with you. We pray in the Great name of Jesus
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: our Lord Amen.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: The preceding message while laughing keep your Balance was copyrighted
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety and the sound recording was copyrighted in
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: two thousand and eight by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: rights are reserved worldwide