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Reflecting on the recent scandal involving Pastor Robert Morris, my heart has been heavy, compelling me to consider the vital importance of a renewed fear of God within the Christian community. This episode of the Jamie Luce Podcast addresses the sobering reality that while loving God is essential, fearing Him is equally crucial to our spiritual integrity. Through the poignant recollection of Jim Baker’s story, we illustrate how neglecting this fear can lead to devastating moral failings, urging believers to introspect deeply and prepare earnestly for the return of Jesus Christ.
Sin’s destructive power is a harsh reality that has dismantled ministries and shattered communities, as evidenced by the lives of fallen leaders. We delve into Deuteronomy 4:24, reflecting on God’s nature as a consuming fire and a jealous God. By examining examples like Moses and the prophets of Baal, we offer insights on how God’s purifying fire guides us to remain faithful and holy. This chapter emphasizes the urgent need for unwavering commitment to God, avoiding any form of spiritual compromise, and relying on the Holy Spirit for strength.
Understanding and embracing the fear of the Lord is paramount for living a righteous life. We explore key scriptures from Deuteronomy, Philippians, and Malachi to highlight the profound impact of fearing God on our spiritual journey. By renewing our minds and presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, as exhorted in Romans 12, we align ourselves with God’s perfect will. Drawing inspiration from King David’s story, we underscore the power of self-examination and repentance, reminding listeners that forgiveness and redemption are always accessible through Jesus Christ. This episode calls for a wholehearted commitment to living a surrendered life for Christ, recognizing that through Him, our past sins are forgiven and transformed into a testimony of grace.
Where to dive in:
(0:00:01) – The Fear of God in Christianity
Renewed fear of God needed in Christian community due to recent scandals, introspection and preparation for Jesus’ return.
(0:17:26) – The Destructive Power of Sin
God’s consuming fire purifies and protects, emphasizing faithfulness and avoiding spiritual compromise in ministry.
(0:26:03) – The Importance of Fearing God
Deuteronomy, Philippians, Malachi, and the Full Life Study Bible emphasize the importance of fearing the Lord for a blessed and wise life.
(0:41:01) – Living a Surrendered Life for Christ
Living a surrendered life to God, renewing our minds, avoiding conformity to worldly ways, and finding forgiveness and redemption through Jesus Christ.
About your host:
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Full Transcript
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0:00:01 – Jaime Luce
That’s what makes them eternal. That’s what makes them Holy Scripture. They are eternal truths, not only in my presence but now much more, in my absence. Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. With fear and trembling, work out your salvation. Work out how you are to serve God. With fear and trembling. What is he saying? Saying that you have to do this in face of knowing that you fear a God who will judge.
Welcome to the Jamie Luce Podcast. Thank you for joining me today. I am heavy in heart today and if you are watching this just kind of as a time stamp to know dates and what’s going on in the world, the Christian world, the news has come out of the actions of Pastor Robert Morris against a child, the abuse that took place, and the church world, and especially the church gateway itself in Southlake, texas, is going through tremendous pain. They’re going to be trying to figure out how to navigate forward, know what to do next. To be trying to figure out how to navigate forward, know what to do next, and because I have been digesting all of this since the news broke, I can only express, if you lay aside the horrific evil that took place and you also lay aside what’s taking place at the church itself right now and you maybe come up higher. Maybe come up higher to look at it from a different perspective, a larger perspective. I’m zooming out to look at the church as a whole and all I can feel and all that I can I don’t even have words for this, but what is coming to my heart is how we desperately need the fear of the Lord to be rekindled in a very powerful way in the body of Christ. This is not to say, of course, that there is no fire of God, and please don’t take offense. If you are somebody who is on fire for God and doing all that God has called you to do, please do not take offense of what I’m saying. But I’m even examining my own heart, my own life. My husband and I have talked almost nonstop about this and tried to use wisdom to say, lord, if this was me, what if this was me? And have some true introspection going on. And so that leads me into today and I hope you’ll bear with me. I have a lot that I want to give you and I’m going to try to keep it concise, but I really think that what we need as a church body is the fear of God.
There was an interview that I watched where Jim Baker was in prison, or maybe he had gotten out with the conversation. I think the conversation took place in prison. It could have been when he came out. I could have my facts wrong there, so you feel free to fact check me. But he was asked by John Bevere to come in and speak to him because of some of the books that John had written that had profoundly affected Jim’s life while he was in prison, and he wanted to talk to him. And John Bevere asked Jim Baker this question and said Jim, how did this happen? How did you get to that place that you let this sin take place? How did this happen? Did you not love the Lord? And Jim Baker’s response was that, oh, I’ve always loved Jesus. That wasn’t the problem. I loved him, but I didn’t fear him.
And there is a lot of controversy over what is the fear of God, and we have had so many ministers come out on large platforms and talk about how we should never fear God, that you can’t love God if you fear him, and I’m sorry, but that is absolutely false. When a child is growing up, they absolutely love their parents, but they also fear that their parents could punish them and that their parents are in control, and there is a fear element that is there. Now it’s not so much anymore the generations that grow up. Now we want to apologize to our kids about everything and make them the leaders and we want to not put any parameters on them, which is crazy. But back when I was growing up, you had a healthy fear of your parents. The old adage of my parents are going to kill me. Not that you feared they would actually murder you, but you knew there were severe consequences that you would have to face. And I would venture to say that almost every Christian who is falling into sin actually doesn’t fear God at the level that would save them from acting out in that behavior. Hear me out on this, please. Let’s be wise and let’s look at ourselves.
Right now the temptation is to point our fingers and trust me me, you don’t, don’t trust me. Look at human nature and I am not pointing my finger. I feel anger and frustration and and I feel appalled and I feel mercy and I feel sorrow and I so many emotions about what’s going on, and it’s not wrong to feel all those emotions, but the temptation is to polarize and to go okay, you’re the only one who’s a victim and because you’re the victim, I only care about you and I want to crucify the other. And the other deserves consequences, severe consequences, and yet Jesus always has open arms to forgive and show ultimate mercy. Now, ultimate mercy is talking about the spirit, your spirit, your soul. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay earthly consequences. I am not dismissing in any way shape or form earthly consequences in any way, shape or form earthly consequences. But, folks, if we want to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ, we have to have the fear of God or we won’t make it. We just won’t make it.
If you will be willing with me to grab something to write with and maybe grab a cup of coffee, maybe grab a tissue box and let’s get serious about God for a few moments. If you’ll spend the next few minutes with me, getting really serious about your life with God, about being a Christian, pain and suffering, every emotion, every confusing thought, everything, bring it all to the table. Let’s bring it all to the table and let’s look at this for a moment, and I promise you because what I have for you, I’ve got the good news and the bad news, and I’m going to give you the bad news first and then we’re going to sweeten it with the good news. Okay, so just hang with me for a moment. I don’t want to add pain or burden or sorrow to you. I want to help bring the love of the Lord and lighten your load a little bit today. So if you’ll do this with me, we can get through this.
So I want to start with looking at the book of Matthew, chapter 10, verse 28. I need my thoughts to come together too. Matthew 10, 28 says don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body. They cannot touch your soul, only God who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Now that is a.
If you’re someone who thinks that there’s nothing but roses type verses in the Bible, this is shocking to you. This is shocking, but we need to take the whole counsel of God. Does God love us? Yes. Does he forgive and pardon? Yes. Does he show mercy? Yes. Nor can I truly live my life with the severity and zeal ofa living sacrifice that I need to live if I do not understand the weight the sin is in my life, in our lives, in the world. If we don’t understand sin, you can’t possibly understand salvation.
So we have to start with the bad news first, and what we know is that God is holy. He’s holy. The reason we fear God is because he is so holy. We can’t dare attempt to come into that holiness with sin covering us. The whole reason that sacrifice was instituted was so that blood was shed, because that’s how powerful sin is. Sin needs to be put to death. It has to die. Blood has to flow to show that that sin has died.
That sin is ugly. Sin is ugly and the longer we go in this culture, the more we soften and whitewash it. And that was exactly what Jesus said when he talked to the Pharisees and he called them whitewashed coffins. That on the outside you just wash it all up, on the outside you make it look good. We do this with holiness. We think holiness is all about the way it looks on the outside. And Jesus continually said it’s what’s inside that kills you, it’s what’s inside you that I see he could read the thoughts of men and constantly said that he knew their thoughts, and then he would address them and talk to them and he would say he knew what was in their heart. God knows what is in the heart of a heart. God knows what is in the heart of a man. He knows what is in the mind of a man, and whatever is in our mind will eventually be what is acted out in our life. So let’s read this scripture in Matthew again Don’t be afraid of those, because we have a fear of man.
We don’t want to be exposed by man. We don’t want to pay consequence by man. We don’t want to lower ourself and humble ourself before man. We want our images to be all made up. Everything in the social media world and all the pictures and images that you see that have been so doctored, every filter that’s available on our phones. We put these filters out there so that we present a false image and we soften all the hard edges and we make everything that’s discolored smooth and beautiful and we take away what’s really there and we lie to the public and we lie to one another and say this is what this looks like and this is who I am and it’s not the truth. And we’ve done it with sin and we’ve said it’s not that bad. We don’t call a lie a lie anymore. We call it a little white lie, as if there’s a difference A lie is a lie. A little white lie, as if there’s a difference. A lie is a lie. A lie is a lie, and the word tells us that liars will not find themselves in heaven. They find their place in hell, a liar, and people live their lives lying all the time. We have to take seriously that.
If you think there’s a fear like why don’t people, for instance here’s an example why don’t people want to share their faith? Why are they intimidated to share their faith? Well, one right now if you’re doing it on social media, you can get canceled. If you’re trying to reach an audience, if you’re telling the truth of what the word says, you can get canceled. In our church service, we found out that the previous week, because we talked about real issues that were going on in the world, we were highly censored because of it, and the world doesn’t want you to hear truth. They want to hear the message that they want you to hear. They want you to live according to the message they want you to live by, which is that there is no God and it doesn’t matter and sin doesn’t matter and you don’t have to have regard for one another If I don’t have to love my neighbor as myself.
I go around killing, maiming, destroying, stealing, pillaging, doing whatever I do. As a nation, we do this to other nations and we do it all so that these people can heap money to themselves and fame to themselves and power to control to themselves, and there is no fear of God and they have no fear of man. And the only ones who seem to have fear of man anymore are those who call themselves Christians and they’re afraid of what man can do to them. And Jesus has to bring a correction and he says don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body. They cannot touch your soul, they can’t really do damage to you.
If I have the understanding that I have died to myself, died to my old nature, died, and that the only life I live now is to Jesus Christ, then I am not afraid of death, then I am not afraid what man can do to me, because if I am absent from this world, I will be present with the Lord. If I don’t really, if I don’t really live my life to that measure, to that truth, I’m fooling myself. I’m fooling myself. Then I’m not living surrendered, I’m living for myself, I’m living for this world. I’m living to maintain a carnal life. Guy, I know that sounds hard, but please hear my heart. Without the fear of God, we won’t see him. Without holiness we won’t see God. That’s what scripture says. And without the fear of God I won’t live a holy life.
It saddens me so much to know that someone could live their life thinking, deceiving people. Of course I’m not negating that. Forget for a moment the abuse that took place that we were talking about but that someone can live their whole life, build something for 40 years and make something of it for themselves and for their family. And something come up, sin pop its head up and when it does, what happens? Everything that was built was destroyed. Everything that was built was destroyed. I don’t want you listening to this today to be building and building and building and giving sweat, blood and tears, hours of sleepless nights, all your effort, all your energy, all your emotion to build something and that could be building your family, building business, building ministry, it doesn’t matter. And sin pop its head up and it’s all gone. It’s all gone. Dr Tony Evans, highly respected.
Within days of getting the news of Tony Evans, we hear of Robert Morrison Gateway Church. There are allegations about all kinds of ministers. Over the last five years we have had so many ministers be exposed. And what was exposed? That sin was present, active, having an effect, and now these people no longer are being used by the Lord to minister. What they built is now gone.
And there are people the scripture tells us that you smote the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. The enemy knows the strategies and the strategy never changes. It is to sin. The strategy is to get those who think they are above sin, those who have been forgiven of their sin, get them to sin, because if you get them to sin, everybody else who’s watching and following along gets affected by that sin. The people of Gateway Church were not committing that sin, but they are now affected by it. Robert Morris’s family is now affected by this. People who thought they had normal friendships and thought they could trust a friend have found out they’ve been lied to.
Sin is a cancer that kills. It destroys, absolutely destroys. And why does it have to be destroyed? Why does it come tumbling down? Why does it fall flat?
I want you to go to Deuteronomy, chapter 4, verse 24. There is an aspect of God that we need to understand, because God expects that if I stand and I say that I am a representative of his, if I represent him and my life is now living a lie, if I am now sinning while I say that, say that then I am misappropriating who God is to whoever’s listening and I am showing them a false God. I am not representing God as he is. He takes that role extremely seriously. It’s why Moses in the desert did not get to go into the promised land. God’s indictment to him was I told you to speak to the children of Israel this way and I was not angry with them. And you got angry with them and made them think I was angry with them. You misrepresented me, which means you don’t get to walk into the promise. So let’s go to Deuteronomy 4.24. This aspect of God is so important.
Fear, or it says, for the Lord, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God, a jealous God. What is he jealous for? He is jealous for your pure affection, that you do not give yourself to spiritual prostitution, that you have committed yourself in covenant and that you remain faithful to him. How do I remain faithful to God? I shun evil, I shun sin. I live a life straining for holiness with God. Now, it is that straining that I do towards him that his grace and his power come and meet me on my own. Can I do it? No, not at all. I cannot do it in my flesh. I have nothing. I can do nothing. I can accomplish nothing in my flesh. But it is by the work of the Holy Spirit, it is by me remaining in him. The whole book of John. You can read it over and over again. If you love me, you follow my commandments and you remain in me, I remain in you. None of this.
Go to church on Sunday. Go put my toe in the water and then run out because it’s cold. Sunday, go put my toe in the water and then run out because it’s cold. No, going, you know, and having a bite to eat with Jesus and then leaving and going to the world. I don’t get to walk a fence, I don’t get to toe just this little you know line back and forth. I don’t get to play hopscotch back and forth. I have to choose Jesus.
The word there consuming fire. What that means is that it is a fire that destroys or utterly consumes. It leaves nothing. When Elijah was destroying the 400 prophets of Baal was destroying the 400 prophets of Baal, he came down and consumed the sacrifice, licked up every bit of the sacrifice to the point that it was gone. The water that was in the trench all around the sacrifice was completely evaporated and gone. The fire of God comes and consumes. God comes and consumes. It burns everything up. The beauty of that consuming fire is that the children of Israel, when they faced darkness, when it was night, when the enemy was pursuing them to overtake them, god appears in a pillar of consuming fire, keeping the enemy away, that consuming fire. If we will allow the fire of God in our souls and remain on fire, it will keep the enemy away. It will keep him away. It will keep sin from us. It also gave light and warmth. So when it’s dark and we don’t know how to navigate, it is the fire of God that brings light to where we need to see. It warms us when it is hard and cold and we need the warmth of the Holy Spirit to embrace us. And we need the warmth of the Holy Spirit to embrace us In the next chapter of Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy, chapter 5, after this explanation of God being a consuming fire, it is reiterated that God gives Moses the Ten Commandments and he explains the Ten Commandments.
In fact, let me go there. And after he explains these Ten Commandments, he says in verse 32, you shall be careful, therefore, to do as the Lord, your God, has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord, your God, has commanded you. Why? That you may live and that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
We really get the fear of God messed up. God is not trying to put a fear on you so that you live fearful and don’t know his love. It’s that you understand the beauty of the fear of the Lord, because he’s saying I have given you all of these warnings and there will be people who look at it and say those are just rules I have to live by, and they don’t understand that God has given protective borders, protective places that say if you live within these borders, the enemy cannot hurt you and you will be cared for and it will go well with you and you will live a blessed life. And if we want that blessing, we can’t have the blessing and then live outside the borders. We must live within the borders.
Then we go to Deuteronomy 6, and I’m going to read you the first two verses. It says now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord, your God, commanded me to teach you. This is Moses speaking, and your son’s son. By keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long, he’s wanting them to live a fruitful, abundant, wonderful plan of God in the promise of God that God has promised them. But to do so, he keeps them in a place of warning that you may fear the Lord, your God. It’s the fear of God that is the beginning of wisdom. If I can’t fear God, if I don’t understand fearing God, I can’t possibly have the wisdom to navigate this life that will lead to my blessing and not my cursing. It is imperative that we understand the fear of God. It’s if I fear that he is the one, it’s if I fear that he is the one, according to Matthew 10, 28, that can destroy both soul and body in hell, I will understand the necessity to live the way that God has told me to live and to shun evil, to run from sin.
I wrote down. I’ve got them on my phone. A couple of other verses I wanted to give you, philippians 2.12,. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence this is Paul speaking but now, much more in my absence. Now think about that, because if you were a disciple back in the day, this would have even have been true of Jesus. Like you, obey me in my presence, but do it now much more when you don’t see me. So, folks, we don’t have Jesus walking amongst us. We don’t have Paul walking amongst us, writing new letters to our churches to tell us what in the world is wrong with what we’re doing. The letters that they wrote, that he wrote to the churches then, should be sufficient for us to be self-checking. Are we doing these things now? That’s what makes them eternal, that’s what makes them holy scripture. They are eternal truths, not only in my presence, but now, much more, in my absence.
Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. With fear and trembling, work out your salvation, work out how you are to serve God. With fear and trembling. What is he saying? Saying that, with you have to do this in face of knowing that you fear a God who will judge his holiness. I’m going to read for you in a moment some words from a commentary in a Bible that help you understand this. But it is imperative that we understand the holiness of God. God is holy, and a holy God cannot allow sin in his presence. He cannot allow sin. That is what makes him holy, which means that his holiness demands justice. It demands justice for sin. It’s why he had to send his son. The sin has to be paid for, consequences must be met, justice must be served. I would not call and consider God to be a just God if he does not judge evil. If I had evil done to me, what’s the first thing I want God to do? Take vengeance for me. Well, I have to understand. That applies to me too, that applies to my decisions, that applies to us as Christians individually. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
The next verse I want you to look at is Malachi 3.2. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire Speaking of how they purify gold and silver, or a launderer’s soap, the New Living Translation says. But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal. The picture that comes to my mind is of a melting. For those who remember 9-11, and we saw fire consume and melt, it’s to understand a consuming fire and a launderer soap, which means it is or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes bleaches. Bleach can remove stain, yes, but it is strong and it can eat right through. We have to understand who our God is. I want us to go to Hebrews 12, but before I go there, I want you to hear the words.
I pulled out one of my other Bibles, and this Bible is edited by let me pull up his name, I don’t want to say it wrong. This is the Full Life Study Bible that I’m reading, and the author is Donald C Stamps, and he was a minister, but he would put notes into this Bible and I want to read you his words on the fear of the Lord, based off of Deuteronomy 6, 1 and 2, which is what I had just read you, and this is he’s saying the meaning of the fear of the Lord, and he says the comprehensive command to fear the Lord includes a variety of different aspects of the believer’s relationship with God. One essential to fearing God is a recognition of his holiness, justice and righteousness as a counterpart to his love and mercy, ie knowing him and understanding fully who he is. Such fear is based on the acknowledgement that God is a holy God, whose very nature causes him to judge sin. If he didn’t judge sin, he wouldn’t be holy, and if he wasn’t holy, he couldn’t have sent his son to remove our guilt and our shame, to pay the penalty that we deserved. We wouldn’t have a Savior.
Number two the fear of the Lord is to regard him with holy awe and reverence and to honor God as God because of his great glory, holiness, majesty and power. For example, when the Israelites at Mount Sinai saw God manifest himself through thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount and the voice of the trumpet exceedingly loud, they all trembled and that’s in quotes in fear, according to Exodus 19, 16, and begged Moses to speak to them rather than the Lord, god himself. Again, the psalmist in Psalm 33, in his reflections on God as creator, states explicitly let all the earth. Fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.
And number three true fear of the Lord causes believers to place their faith and trust in him alone for salvation. For example, after the Israelites crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground and saw the enormous destruction of the Egyptian army, they feared the Lord and believed the Lord army. They feared the Lord and believed the Lord. See, if you don’t fear his power, you won’t believe in his power to save you. You won’t believe there’s anything he can do for you now. Similarly, the psalmist calls upon all those who fear the Lord to trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield Psalm 115, 11. In other words, the fear of the Lord produces in God’s people a confident hope and trust in him. It is little wonder, then, that such people are saved and receive his forgiving, love and mercy.
And number four, finally the fear of God involves recognizing that he is a God who is angry about sin and has the power to punish those who transgress his righteous laws, both in time and in eternity. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden. They were afraid of the Lord and tried to hide from his presence. Moses experienced this aspect of the fear of God when he spent 40 days and nights in prayer on behalf of the sinful Israelites. I was afraid this is in quotes I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. That’s Deuteronomy 9.19. Similarly in the New Testament, immediately after acknowledging the coming vengeance and judgment of God, the author of Hebrews wrote it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10, 31.
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I know that that’s really heavy, but it is a heavy truth. It is a powerful truth and it will keep us from sin. It will give us strength. It will enable us the fear of God, the understanding of his consuming holy fire, how we need him today, how the world needs him, how the church. The church needs it to live and the world needs to see us live it, so that we have a witness for the body outside of us. We live in this world. We’re not of this world, but we live in this world. We’re affected by this world and we want to save souls. But if we’re not living the true life of God, we have nothing to offer them. There is nothing worth them giving up their power, their fame. Even though it is temporary, they don’t understand. It’s but a vapor and it will be gone and eternity is forever.
My mother made this statement over the weekend, and boy is it a sobering thought. One moment, your first moment in eternity, just one moment in eternity. What will all of your life have meant? What did it mean of your life have meant? What did it mean? Was it worth it? Was anything you did worth it? What did you waste your time on? Just that first moment in eternity will tell you Anything that is not of God, that is just here and now, will be burned up, completely consumed, and I don’t want it to be wood, hay and stubble Gone. I want it to be more precious than gold, that it survives the fire and makes it the fire, and makes it that I have it in eternity. And trust me, saints, you want it too. You want it too.
We will finish by going through Hebrews 12. And let me give you the good news. Before I read this, let me give you the good news. The good news is that, no matter what you’ve done, no matter what sin you’ve committed, no matter what your personal struggle is right now, Jesus has already paid your penalty. He has taken your sin and nailed it to the cross. Jesus took your place and suffered your punishment for you. He has covered your sin with his own blood and he has removed it as far as the east is from the west, and it is thrown into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered against you anymore. If, if you have put your trust in him and laid your life down now for him, if you will give him your life not your Sunday morning, not a few minutes every day when you talk to another Christian, not a few moments in prayer your life, if you will give him your life, every part of your life, your passions, your dreams, your past. Give it to him Because you want it gone. Give him your past, give him your future. Give him your hours, Give him your breath. Give him your hours, give him your breath, give him the opportunity in your life now, because it is that that he can take and use. It is that that will bring glory to God.
Let’s look at what it looks like to live a life of surrendered laid down for Jesus Christ. What does it look like? Go to Hebrews I mean sorry, not Hebrews Romans 12, romans 12. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For, by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you and I’m reading this scripture because right now, with what we’re dealing with, this is how we need to approach this individually. What we’re dealing with with the whole scandal of Robert Morris with Dr Tony Evans, dealing with with the whole scandal of Robert Morris with Dr Tony Evans, we need this scripture by the grace. For, by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. We need to live sober-minded, a sober Christian life, examining ourselves.
Where, lord, can I resubmit my life if I’ve pulled it back? Where have I picked it back up and made it mine again? Where have I gone back into an old pattern or an old way? Where have I gone back to the old way I used to do things? Where the old things I used to think? Where you corrected me and I walked in it for a time, but I’ve allowed myself to slip back. Where have I backslid, oh God? Show me me.
What did David say? The man who needed this searchlight on his heart? Because he committed grave sin, grave sin. He committed murder of an innocent man, a man who was dedicated to him. It was not only murder, it was betrayal of the worst kind and took his wife and committed adultery with her. He paid a severe price the child that was to be born to him through that relationship and that pregnancy was killed as an infant. And from that point on, david dealt with difficult things in his life, dealing with his children and the consequences of sin. God forgave him, but the consequences remained.
And David’s the one who said search me and see, oh God, if there is any wicked way in me. Folks, we need to be looking, we need to be proactive and saying what’s in me really, what are the kind of thoughts I have? Do I walk in mercy? Do I walk with wrong motives? Do I constantly say I’m doing good but my motives are for self-promotion and my motives are wrong? To make me look good and somebody else look bad, to promote myself, to lift myself up? What’s going on in my heart? And then, if I am honest and I pour myself out. I am able then to receive the blessing and the love and the forgiveness and the warmth of his presence, his guiding hand and his eye to show me where I should go, that I might live in the richness of his love, the richness of his blessings, the richness of the plan he has for my life.
There are in chapter 12, there are what my Bible calls the marks of a true Christian, and I’ll end with these, and it’s verse 9 through 21. And it says Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you I mean these are hard folks, a lot of these are hard. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
Repay no one, evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all, if possible, so far as it depends on you. Live peaceably with all Beloved. Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let’s not let the sin of a man overcome us. Don’t let the evil around you overcome you. Overcome evil with good.
Let me pray for you, father. I thank you that you are a holy God worthy of our praise. All powerful, all knowing, all-knowing, omnipresent, omnipotent God. There is nothing that you cannot do. There is nothing done outside of the knowledge that you contain. There is nothing we can know outside of you. All wisdom is found in you. Father, I ask right now for a blessing on your people who are hurting, that your love and consuming fire would come and warm them, warm their wounds, warm their heart, cauterize where they are bleeding, o God, with the warmth of your fire. And Lord, where we are sinning, where there is residue that does not belong in us as your saints consume it. Remove it completely, dry it up and make us worthy, oh God, before you, to worship you in spirit and in truth. Give us strength for the fight. May we desire purity and holiness above all things, and give us the tools necessary, o God, during this time, to strengthen ourselves as your bride and to overcome every evil with good. In Jesus’ name, we pray Amen. Thank you for joining me today.
This is a hard message, I know, but it’s necessary. We don’t have to live with yesterday. We can live a brand new life. He said that that was old, has been buried. He makes us new creatures in him, with a brand new life ahead of us. Let’s live that brand new resurrection life and let’s walk away from sin and the old ways and the old patterns, the old cycles. Let’s live our lives in the fear of the Lord and let’s overcome every temptation by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. I’ll see you next time, bye-bye.
