Samson Pt 2

It's good to see everybody. We welcome you to Calvary Chapel and invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, we thank you for the day. God, we just thank you for who you are, for how much you love us, God, and for what you've done for us. For all the ways that you take care of us, Lord, and provide for us. We ask you, ask your blessing upon this time, Lord. Help us to lift a joyful noise to you, God, and just prepare our hearts to receive the word that you've prepared for us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Despite our shortcomings, our failures, Lord God, you are always faithful. We thank you. And now, as Pastor Ryan comes, I pray that you would just overflow him with your gift of teaching. Give him the words to speak to our hearts and prepare our hearts to receive that word. We love you, Father. We praise you and we thank you in your precious and holy name. All God's people said, amen.

Let's have some fellowship. In the process of locating your seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements together. The Calvary Chapel, I'm glad that you've joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of in your bulletin. On the left-hand side are the things that go on throughout the week. So, as always, I encourage you to find one of those spots to get plugged into.

Over in the middle section of your bulletin, just a reminder that Grief Share begins in a little over a week. So, if you're interested in getting involved in that, all the info is right there. There is still one spot available for the missions trip, which I don't know if Jan has stuck around. Or not. She is out there. So, if you have questions, you can see Jana.

Also, I think I have three spots available for the Family Life Services Banquet, if anybody is still interested in that. It's March the 9th at, I think, doors open at 530. I think dinner actually starts at 6, but it should be a good time. So, if you are interested in that, you can see me afterwards. And then the new Hour Daily Bread Devotionals for the month of March, March, April, and May,

are all out there on the 10th. So, if you are interested in getting one of those, those are out there. So, and then just a reminder that the reading plan is right there on the inside flap of the bulletin. Hopefully, you're keeping up with that, or at least doing everything that you can. For our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 85.

Psalm 85. Looking at the New American Standard for this part, just so that we can sound the same. If you need a copy, it should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 85, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses, if you will follow along with Jared, and the even verses. Psalm 85, for the choir director, a psalm of the sons of Korah. O Lord, you showed favor to your land. You restored the captivity of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You cover all their sin. You withdrew all your fury. You restored all your fury. You restored all your fury.

You restored all your fury. You restored all your fury. You turned away from your burning anger. Restore us, O God, of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you yourself revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your loving kindness, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

I will hear what God the Lord will say, for he will speak peace, to his people, to his godly ones, but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Loving kindness and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.

Indeed, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce. And read, Read verse 13 with me. Righteousness will go before him, and will make his footsteps into a way. And Father, we do praise you for your faithfulness towards us. Lord, that you are the God who revives. And so, Lord, I pray that you would speak to us right now through your word.

I just ask that your Holy Spirit would do the work that only you can do in our hearts. Father, I pray that you would overflow me with your gift of teaching in order to bring forth your word in an understandable way. And Father, bless all of us as your congregation with the gift of, hearing, Lord, that we can take in what your word has to say. And Lord, may we apply it to our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Philippians, chapter 2.

Philippians, chapter 2.

Well, as we said, each chapter in the book of Philippians teaches us a little bit of a different lesson about joy. Chapter 1 taught us that joy comes from having the power of God. Having the proper perspective. Chapter 2 is teaching us that joy comes from having the right attitude. Because ultimately, attitude is everything. Your attitude determines so many things about who we are.

So, the first thing that we looked at in the first set of verses last week was that we looked at the fact that the right attitude is an attitude of humility. An attitude of humility. We said that because of that, we were to be unified. We were to do nothing from selfish ambition. We were to look out for the interesting. We were to look at the interests of others.

And we were to follow the example of Christ. And that last part is going to segue directly into what we talk about today, which is that the right attitude is an attitude of obedience. An attitude of obedience. And so, we pick up in chapter 2, verse 12, and this is what it says. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,

work out your heart. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world.

Holding fast to the word of light, or excuse me, the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain. The first portion of that verse is where I pulled this theme of this second set from. And that's what Paul tells them. He says, as you have obeyed in my presence, it's even more important to do so now in my absence.

We cannot miss the connection there between the end of the last section with the example of Christ in the beginning of this next section. Because if you remember, at the end of the last section, as we looked at the example of Christ, he said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, even though he was in the form of God, didn't consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but he humbled himself, made himself of no reputation and became obedient. Same word, addressing us and following this example of Christ who was obedient to the will of the father. We too are to be obedient.

We are to obey. Now, unfortunately, the word obedience or obey oftentimes strikes in our hearts a legalistic tone. We can think, but I've been set free. I don't need to obey anymore. But really, you've not been set free from obedience. You've been set free to obedience because the grace of God that brings salvation and has appeared to all men teaches us to deny ungodliness

and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age. It is his grace that teaches us and enables us to obey. Obedience ultimately is one of the, one of the greatest places of freedom that we live in because when we live in obedience, we no longer live under the fear of consequences. We no longer live under the shame of sin. We no longer live under the guilt of things done wrong.

And so ultimately living in obedience is living in freedom. Matter of fact, there's a pastor that I really like. His name is Wes Bentley. I've referenced him several times and I've probably referenced this quote several times. And his philosophy is this, obedience, is ultimately the safety net of the believer because it is the absolute safest place for us to be.

And if we have any other question, we can just hear the words of Jesus who said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments, right? And so this aspect of obedience is really important for us and it's important for us to pay attention to. And so he says, you need to obey so that joy can ultimately be produced through your obedience. And so as he gives us this directive to obey, not only in his presence, but also in his absence, he tells us exactly what that looks like.

And so in the next set of verses and for the rest of our time together, we're going to look at four things, four points on obedience, four points that teach us what it looks like to have an attitude of obedience. Number one, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. So work out your own salvation. Matter of fact, let me read this set of verses, verses 12 and 13 to us.

It says, So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And we need to understand something about verse 12, because if we took that out of context, if we built a theology just based on verse 12, then that would indicate that Christianity is a works-based religion. And so we are to work out, or as some might interpret it, work for your salvation.

However, that's not what it's saying. And so the first thing that I want to tell us is what it is not saying to us, because before we can land on what it says, we need to determine what it does not say. What this is not is a works-based theology. The reason why is because nowhere in scripture does it say that you are to work for your salvation. As a matter of fact,

it says the exact opposite. We are told that you are justified by faith, by faith, by faith alone. Justified means being declared innocent, being declared not guilty. And so the idea of you, when you came to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you might not have realized this, but judicially speaking, you were justified. You came to Jesus and you said, I'm a sinner.

I see the things that I've done wrong and I need the salvation of Jesus Christ in my life. And the moment that you confessed your sins and accepted what God did for you, you were justified, not because of anything that you'd done, not even anything that you had done to have that grace bestowed upon you, but simply, by believing that Jesus was who he said he was. He justified you by faith. Not only are you justified by faith, but you are also sanctified by faith.

You may not realize this, but positionally speaking, you are already sanctified. You are already set apart unto God. You are just now in the process of walking that out every day. I was thinking about this while I was sitting there because I want to make sure I present this in the best way that I possibly can. So I want to share with you what I always do at weddings, right?

Well, the entire section that has to do with the very first marriage ceremony there in the book of Genesis says this. It says, and the two shall become one flesh. You guys know that part? It says, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. We always like to talk to couples about the process of becoming, right?

Because become literally means to begin to be, right? And so this is what I share with them because this is absolutely true. I say, today, in front of God and in all of these witnesses, as far as the state of Kansas or whatever state I'm marrying someone in is concerned, you are now one. There is no longer two people. You are now one brand new person because you have been united together in marriage.

However, you will now spend the rest of your lives becoming one because you have begun a process. Well, that's the way it is with salvation. When you came to Jesus, you were declared righteous and you were declared set apart unto him. As a matter of fact, you have died to sin. Sin no longer has any power over you, but now we live this out every day because now we have responsibility.

And I would even use a word that I like a little bit better than responsibility. I call it respond ability because now you respond to what Jesus has done for you. You respond to who you are in Christ by living the way that he wants for you to live. And that's the idea that's being presented here is this responding to Christ. You see, I'll take this from a relationship perspective.

I had a conversation with somebody the other day about my relationship with my wife. And you know, before I found my wife or maybe before she found me or maybe before God brought us together, you say it however you want to say it. I'd been in a couple of relationships and they weren't very good because I was never really sure where I stood in those relationships. And I was always trying to earn my place in the relationship.

And I did not respond to acceptance. I was hoping to, to earn acceptance. And so I tried to do all the things to try to earn acceptance. And it didn't work out because I was always frustrated. I never felt like I did enough. And I never really felt like I measured up. And then I met my wife. My wife just loves me for me, right? There was a song in the late 90s.

She likes me for me, right? That's exactly how I felt about her. She just accepted me. And so I no longer tried to do things to try to earn her love because I already had it. Now I make decisions to do things because I already have her love. And because of who she is to me, I now make decisions. And if it hurts her, I don't want to do that because I'm responding to this wonderful person

who cares so much about me. And if I know that it makes her happy, I want to do that because I'm responding to everything that she is to me. And that's the way our relationship with Jesus Christ is. He says, work out your own salvation, not because you are trying to earn your place, but because you are trying to respond to who you are. So if this idea of working out our salvation

is not about a works-based theology, what is it? Well, let me read this to you in a couple of different things and define some things for you. The phrase work out means to carry to the goal or to carry to its ultimate conclusion. Actually, in ancient Greek literature, it was what was used of someone who was working out a problem in arithmetic is that they were working out the problem.

They were carrying it to its final conclusion. The idea is something that you ultimately are going to complete. You are going to complete it. You are going to complete it. You are going to complete it. You are going to complete it. Bible knowledge commentary translated it like this, to put into practice in daily life. And then the Amplified Bible translates it this way,

to actively pursue spiritual maturity. Isn't that great? That's what we're supposed to do now. Now that you are who you are in Christ, we obey. And the way that we obey is we now live out and actively pursue spiritual maturity every day in our life. And that's what we're supposed to do. And that's what we're supposed to do. And that's what we're supposed to do.

It means that I am going to study God's word. It means that I am going to seek to obey him and obey what it has to say. It means that I am going to actively try to love God and love the people that are around me. It means that I will flee from the things that are evil and pursue the things that are good. But it now becomes the active pursuit of my life. In other words, live like you are.

If that's who you are, then let your life match it. He says, Work out. Work out your salvation. And how are we supposed to work it out? Interestingly enough, interesting set of words with fear and trembling, right? And you just said we weren't supposed to live in a place of fear and trembling with Jesus Christ. That's right. So let's talk about mature fear.

Do you know what the mature fear of the Lord is? The mature fear of the Lord is not that God will reject you, but that the actions that you commit will break the heart of God because of the great love that he has shown to us. That's the mature fear of the Lord. And as you grow in your relationship with God, you less and less want to say, I don't want to sin because I'm afraid God's going to be mad.

You say, I don't want to sin because I know it's going to hurt my relationship with him. And that aspect, that idea of fear and trembling is more of a distrust of myself than it is a fear of how God's going to react. Bible knowledge commentary, again, put it like this. It said, The idea is let he who stands take heed. Lest he fall. Fear that you will have so much self-confidence

that you will fall into sin. Work out your own salvation. Live out your salvation with fear and trembling. If there's any question about whether or not this is works-based or grace-based, we read verse 13. Under this same heading, notice what it says. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good. Pleasure. For it's God who is at work in you.

You know, the fun thing about becoming a Christian is you didn't see God at work in you before you came to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. He was. He was at work with you because he was the one who was convicting you of sin. He was the one who was pointing you towards the truth. He was the one that started giving you that inkling of a desire that, man, the things that I'm doing

just aren't bringing the fulfillment. That I thought that they were going to bring to me. I thought that there was more to life than this. That's God at work with you. And then the day that you invited Jesus into your heart to be your Savior, he began to work in you. And he began to change you. He began to change the way that you think. He began to change the desires of your heart.

He began to change the way that you live. He changed everything about you because God is at work in you. And he's at work in you doing two things, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Let's say, take those two words, the word will. The word will literally means the desire or the passion. In other words, God is the one at work in you, giving you the desire to do what he's called for you to do.

Because brothers and sisters, you don't even have that, right? We really, as human beings, don't have the desire towards anything good. We're told no one pursues anything good, not even one. We're told that in the book of Romans. And even after we come to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, even after we come to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, even though our spirit is awakened

because he has come and made his home inside of us, we still struggle with the desire to do what we're supposed to do. We still struggle with the desire to live as God has called for us to live because it's he who is at work in you to will. I had somebody come to me the other day and said, sometimes I just don't have the desire to read God's word anymore. What am I supposed to do?

And I said, we need to ask God for the desire. Well, shouldn't I have that as a Christian? I mean, maybe, but sometimes we just desire really evil things. Even as Christians, we still wear this, this flesh and this flesh that we wear still wants to do evil things. As a matter of fact, I would tell you that the best thing that you can do is you can go to God

and you can be really honest with him and say, you know what I really want to do right now? And be honest about what you really want to do. Ryan, I can't tell him that. He already knows. He sees it at work inside of you. Matter of fact, he knows better than you do because your flesh is lying to you. Your flesh is like, no, you're like only righteous things.

No, you don't. That's your flesh lying to you. And you need to go to God. And say, Lord, this is what my heart desires right now. And I know that's not a few. I know that's not a few, right? One of my favorite memes floating around right now is my problem is I know that I'm supposed to love people, but sometimes I just want to slap people, right? And that's kind of the thing

is we know what we're supposed to do, but we don't always want to do it. And so God produces that will inside of us. God produces that desire inside of us. And the best thing that we can do is say, Lord, I need you to give me the desire. I've shared it with you before and I'll keep sharing it because it's one of my favorite quotes ever because it has so borne my heart

and it comes out of absolute surrender. Again, if you don't have enough reading with the Bible right now and you're looking for a good book to read, you should read Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray. I try to read it every couple of years because it just keeps me grounded and it's a really good book. One of my favorite lines that I've almost destroyed in that book says this, Lord, make me willing to be willing to be surrendered to you.

Because sometimes that's all we can do because it's God who is at work in you both to will, to have the desire to do what he's called for you to do, but not only the desire, but he also is at work in you to do the work of obeying him. That word work or to do literally means energize. He gives you the energy. If you will, he's the Duracell that gets popped into your back and you're like, ha ha, now I can do it, right?

Because God's at work in you because God is the one who's actually doing the work. You say, okay, I'm going to submit to you. I'm going to surrender to you. I'm going to give you my hands to do whatever you want me to do with my hands. And all of a sudden, he not only gives you the will, the picture of what you're supposed to do, but then gives you everything that you need to do it.

Isn't that great? You see, when he says, live out your salvation, he doesn't just dangle you out there and go, well, good luck. I hope you can do it. Peace out. No, he says, okay, live out your salvation. I'll give you all of the desires. I'll give you all of the energy. You just keep surrendering to me. You just keep coming. Come to me and let me give you everything that you need.

And you just respond to everything that I am to you. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Number two, if we're to have the attitude of obedience, we are to do all things without grumbling or disputing. I would read you verse 14, but I basically just did. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. You ever have a verse that's just so real, that's just so raw,

that just so deals with the emotions that we have, that you're like, can we just take that out? Right? Because it's like, there's nobody that can run from that verse. I don't really deal with grumbling and disputing. Really? Are you a human? Then you do, because I've heard you, right? It's just, it's such a real raw verse because it just hits us so hard. He says, do all things without grumbling or disputing.

The word grumbling means complaining or arguing. It's the same Greek word that he uses in second Corinthians chapter 10, when he's talking about the children of Israel. And he says that, Hey murmured, isn't that great? That word murmurs and onomatopoeia, which is a fun word to say no matter what, but it means that it sounds exactly like it's pronounced. So a murmur is like a murmur, murmur, murmur.

You ever been around a group of people that just complains all the time and you just sort of let it all meld together. You know what it sounds like? It's exactly what it sounds like. He says, we're to do everything without grumbling, complaining and arguing. But you know what? The second thing, well, we're supposed to do things without disputing. You know what the word disputing can also mean?

Going to court to settle arguments, going to court to settle arguments. Isn't it kind of interesting? This is now the second time that Paul and his epistles has told us not to go to court, not to sue each other. It's almost as if he says, that's a bad idea because you shouldn't drag your business in front of the rest of the world for all of the world to see because it kills your witness.

And I'm here to tell you right now, no one wins in a lawsuit. That's just all that there is to it. When I worked for a firearm construction, I got into an accident in a company vehicle, total accident, rear-ended a guy and my foot hit the, when I was pushing on the brake, the side of my work boot hit the gas pedal and I'm going, why can't I stop? And so I was creeping along and I rear-ended this guy and everything seemed great.

He was totally fine. But then I think, he watched too many commercials about Slapin' Howard or something like that when he was home at lunch and he decided he was going to sue us for an incredible amount of money. Well, I was laid off from them at the time and yet I still got named in the lawsuit. And so I was involved in this lawsuit and I had to give testimony and I'm here to tell you right now, a day of working construction or a day of sitting through a lawsuit, a day of sitting through a lawsuit is way more exhausting.

Like that was literally, it sucked every bit. I remember coming home that night and sitting down on the couch and just falling asleep because I was so, because you're stressed about what's going on. Well, we ended up winning and because the guy made a bunch of stuff up and so it wasn't true. But when we walked away, my lawyer shook my hand and said, we won.

And all I could think was, did we? I mean, I still had to sit through this. I mean, did anybody really win in this lawsuit? Because nobody really wins in lawsuits, right? Because you still had to go through the whole crazy thing. That's why Paul says, why not just accept the wrong? Or, why not just bring it to the church and let them decide? You're going to judge angels.

Why can't you solve small disputes? Right? And so he says, he says, don't go to court to settle disputes. And now I would venture to say, not very many of us in here are going to court to settle disputes, but you know where we are going to settle disputes? Social media. Oh, dang, right? No, he didn't. Yeah. Yeah. How many of us are blasting our business all over social media?

I don't care what the platform is. All these ambiguous, dramatic posts and everybody's like, what do they mean by that? Right? It's all DMU, right? Oh my gosh. And we put all this stuff out there. You know why? Because we want it settled in the court of public opinion, right? We had one of those take place in our city this week, right? So, okay. I'm not on whatever thing on Facebook

where the dispute was, but apparently, so if y'all don't know, there is a new coffee shop going up on the north end of town. Surely you all know that by now because of everything that took place. The bowling alley is getting torn down and they're putting in a Starbucks there to which I say, sweet, right? And some people are like, no, you've got to only shop local.

You've got to only drink in local coffee shops. I plan on it. Okay. I promise I will drink coffee at Steamy Joe's and then I will drink coffee at Scooters and then I will drink coffee at Starbucks. I have no problem. I am completely content to be as caffeinated as I can possibly be. You know how I know that? Because right now, I drink coffee at Steamy Joe's

and I drink coffee at Scooters and sometimes, I go down to Ponca and I drink coffee at Starbucks. Right? And everybody aired all of their stuff on the Facebook machine. And now, I'm not on there but my wife was reading some of the, I'm on Facebook but I'm not on that particular thing. I'm like, I don't see it. I kind of wanted to read the comments. See? I need to learn.

No grumbling or disputing. Anyway, so my wife is just reading the comments to me. I'm like, oh, dang. No, they did. Oh my gosh, right? It's just wild. Why do we do that? We're to do all things without grumbling. We're to do all things without grumbling or disputing. Now, interestingly enough, I found this kind of ironic. When it says, do nothing without grumbling

or disputing, do you know that there's a debate amongst commentators about who he's talking about there? If you will, there's disputing over who he told not to be disputing about, right? And so, C.H. Spurgeon wrote this, wrote this sermon. It was great because some people are like, oh, he's telling them not to grumble or dispute with God. Some people are like,

oh, he's telling them not to grumble or dispute with each other. And C.H. Spurgeon is like, yes, he actually said there's three things and it's great. Three points that he had to this sermon where we need to learn to not grumble and dispute. I'm going to tell you these three points. I'm going to give you my own words, but I stole the outline from Spurgeon. Number one,

we should not grumble and dispute with God. We should not grumble and dispute with God. Too many times, things happen in our lives and we find ourselves in that familiar position of saying, why would God allow this to happen to me? Lord, I don't understand why you would cause this. I don't understand why you would allow this. Are you still good because of this?

And sometimes we can find ourselves getting very bitter with God because of things that have taken place in our lives. You know, there's a story a lot like this in the Old Testament where we'll get there pretty soon on Wednesday nights because it's the book of Ruth. In the book of Ruth, there's a family. The mom's name is Naomi. I can't remember all the boys' names,

but it was during the time of the judges and things weren't going very well in Israel. So Naomi and her entire family, they moved to the land of Moab. And while they're in the land of Moab, Naomi's two sons marry two girls, right? And so while they're living there, her husband dies and then both of her sons die. And now it's just her and her two daughters-in-law.

Well, she finds out that the famine is over in the land of Israel and so she decides to go back to the land of Israel. And on her way back, her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, decide that they're going to go with her. And she says, no, no, no. Go back home and marry someone. I can't provide you another son to marry. And Ruth says, no, I'm going with you. Your God will be my God.

Your people will be my people. And so when they come back, everybody sees Naomi and they're like, Naomi, you're back. Now, you have to understand something. Biblical names meant something, right? The name Naomi means pleasant. And so, if you will, she comes back into the land like, pleasant, you're back. And you know what the first thing Naomi says was? Don't call me pleasant.

Call me Mara. Call me bitter. Because God has dealt bitterly with me. And you know, sometimes, that's exactly what we do with God. Is we grumble and we dispute because we say, because God has dealt bitterly with me. The great thing about Ruth is it has a really happy ending and you'll have to come here in a few weeks on Wednesday night to hear it. Or you could read it yourself.

God does work all these things out, but we have to beware of not grumbling and disputing against God because he says, do all things without. That's grumbling and disputing. The second thing that we grumble and dispute with is each other. Each other. Other people. Especially in the church. Right? We don't like the way that they dress. We don't like the way that they look.

We don't like the way that they smack their gum when they sit behind us in church. We don't like that they always have coffee with them in church. There's something we don't like. And we grumble and we dispute about each other. Right? And then we air all that business on some sort of social media or we take each other to court over it or there's something that we don't like

and we grumble and we dispute with each other. Only here's the problem, kids. We're all family. Right? And as family, we need to make sure that we act like family. Which is why we are told not to argue and dispute with each other. Because we're supposed to get over those kinds of things. Because if we are to live in obedience, it means we live in love and if we live in love,

then we have to forgive. Because if you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. Not my words, Jesus' words. But friends, we're, we're family. And unfortunately, as my good friend Jerry Horton used to always say, you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family. Right? We're one weird tribe. And so he says, don't grumble and dispute with each other.

But the third thing, and I think that this is really going to get all of us, it did me, is we should not grumble and dispute with the world. With the world. Isn't it great how all of us as Christians love to complain about how bad the world is? Have you ever noticed that? Get together with any group of Christians for any amount of time and you know what you'll start hearing?

Just how bad the world is. They will tell you just how bad all of the new transgender movement is, all of the new LGBTQ movement is, how bad the president is, if only he could finish his sentence. I don't think he's probably all that bad. I don't know that he does anything. Anyway, they tell you how bad all of those kinds of things are. How bad the economy is,

how bad the world, just everything. My gosh, even TV's not what it used to be. Right? BTWs, sidebar, we've been watching Who's the Boss? Oh my gosh. Talk about going back to just classic. I grew up in the golden era. That's all that I know. Anyway, we grumble about those kinds of things, right? And you know what the world starts thinking when they think of the church?

A bunch of complainers. That's exactly what the world views us as right now. Do we know that? Do we know that the world only looks at the church and says that they're a bunch of stuck up complainers who don't like anything? You know why? Because sometimes we're a bunch of stuck up complainers who don't like anything. He says, don't be that way. Do all things

without grumbling or complaining. I would say this. Stop complaining. Start praying. Stop complaining. Start giving out the truth. Right? And so, if we're to have an attitude of obedience, the first attitude is that we're to work out our salvation. The second attitude is that we're to do all things without grumbling or disputing. Number three, we are to live

above reproach. Live above reproach. Notice what it says in verse 15. Directly following the doing all without grumbling or disputing so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world. He says, live above reproach. He tells us

three ways to do it. Number one, we are to be blameless. The word blameless literally means to be blameless to be pure, pure or sincere. It's actually a metal term to be without alloy, a pure type of metal. And that's what we're to be. There is to be a purity or a sincerity about who we are. When the world looks at you, you should be what you see is what you get.

You shouldn't have some admixture that nobody really knows about until you're held up to the light. There should be a sincerity about us. Number two, we are to be innocent. We are to be innocent. The word innocent means no charge can be sustained until we are sustained against. No charge can be sustained against. Now, that's really hard because none of us are perfect, right?

So if we're to be innocent, in other words, no charges sustained against us, how are we to live innocent lives? Well, it's kind of twofold. Number one, you're to keep your accounts short with men and with God. If you have wronged someone, you need to own up to the wrong that you've done. If you have sinned against God, then you need to own up to the sin that you've committed

against God because that keeps our account short and they say, I can't hold that against them anymore because they have confessed their sin and I have forgiven them. That's what it means to be innocent, right? That's the idea and I'm here to tell you right now, as believers in Jesus Christ, we can never remain perfect, but we can remain innocent because the world knows that we make mistakes, but when we own up to those mistakes, our sincerity shines forth like nothing else in the world. And so, we are to be blameless, we're to be innocent.

Oh, sorry, the second part of being innocent, not only to keep our accounts short, but do you remember what we're told in Psalm 119? How can a young man keep his way pure or innocent by taking heed to your word, the Lord, right? And so, number one, we're to be blameless. Number two, we're to be innocent. Number three, we are literally to be above reproach. The word above reproach

means without blemish or without spot, kind of carries with it the same idea of those first two words. And then the fourth thing is that we are to be lights in the world. We are to be lights in the world. And let me say it to you this way. He doesn't say you should be lights in the world. He says you are lights in the world. In other words, you don't have to try to be,

you just are. Because we're in a very dark world. He calls it a crooked and perverse generation. And the darker that the generation gets, the brighter that your light is going to shine. But I always have one question for people. What kind of light are you? Because you can either be the light you want that illuminates or you can be the light that blinds. As a runner,

I learned that there's two different types of lights. There are street lights and there are headlights. Street lights guide, headlights blind. Right? We want to be street lights. We want to be those that illuminate in a very dark world. So what does all of that mean? It means that we should be sincere followers of Jesus Christ. We should be sincere followers

of Jesus Christ. Our lives should be lived in such a way that we can be that the only thing that can be held against us is our faith. Right? Another great Old Testament story is a story about Daniel. Daniel was one of the great prophets of the Old Testament and he lived in a wicked and perverse generation as he was there in Babylon. Because as he was there in this evil kingdom

that was completely wrapped up in all of the idolatry of the world, he shined as a light. As a matter of fact, God blessed him so much that he became number two in command in all of, or one of the top commanders in all of the Babylonian empire. And it upset the other guys because they came and they said, we don't like Daniel because, well, I think the VeggieTales put it best when they said, the king likes Daniel more than me and you, right? It's exactly what it is.

He was put into a position and so they said, let's find something that we can accuse Daniel of. So they scrolled his social media, they scrolled his internet history, they did everything that they could, they checked his financials, they did all the things that they could, and they couldn't find anything wrong with him. They said, the only thing that we can find wrong with Daniel is that he worships God too much. That was the only thing that they could find wrong with him.

See, that's sincerity. You just live as you really are, following Jesus with all of your heart. And that's what the world needs to see right now. And that's what we are to be right now, living above reproach. So, number one, work out your own salvation. Number two, do all things, do all things without grumbling or disputing. Number three, live above reproach.

And then number four, hold fast to the word. Here's what it says in verse 16. Holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. That phrase hold fast can be interpreted two different ways. But I think both of them carry some thoughts for us to pay attention to. The first way that that phrase

can be interpreted, hold fast, carries with it the idea of paying attention to, taking heed to, or keeping a tight grip on. That's one way that that can be interpreted. Pay attention to, take heed to, or retain a tight grip on. The second way that it can be interpreted is actually instead of holding fast to hold forth. It's an ancient word that was used among the people of Israel.

It was used among the pagans for one who would hold forth for a butler that would hold forth a glass of wine for the royalty. That's how the word was used in ancient pagan Greek. And so the idea is to hold out for someone to take or to give out to others. And so to hold out. Well, I think both of those have really good application for us as far as being obedient.

So number one, if we are to hold fast to the word, we literally need to do that. We need to hold fast to the word. We need to pay attention to it. We need to hang on to it. We need to take heed to it and retain a tight grip on it. Because the word right now is being challenged in just about every circle possible. It's being challenged by false doctrine within the church.

As a matter of fact, I don't remember who it was. I saw it posted by two or three different people. They posted a picture of this little kid's book. It's like my first Jesus book or something like that. And on the outside, it looks really innocent. It's like, oh, sweet. My first little Jesus book. And so you turn to the page that talks about it. It talks about Jesus's baptism.

And do you know what it says on the page about Jesus's baptism? It says, it has Jesus being quoted saying, I had to be baptized to wash away my sins. Yeah, we call that false doctrine. Right? But if you want to spread false doctrine, you start with an innocent line like that in a kid's book. That if we as parents are not retaining, holding tight to, maintaining a tight grip

on the word of God, our kids can be led astray. The same is true with a whole lot of other things in the world. And so there's lots of false doctrine within the world that we have to pay attention to or within the church that we have to pay attention to. But there's also evil things outside of the world where people can't seem to decide what the truth is on things anymore.

Matter of fact, I even heard a pastor say one time, he said, you know, there's so many different interpretations. It's hard to decide what's really right. It's hard to decide what's really true. And I was like, please don't be a pastor anymore. Like you're clearly not called to this. Either one, because you don't know yourself or two, because you don't have

the backbone to stand up and say what's true. Because you can absolutely know what's true. Because the word of God is incredibly clear on what's true. There's not multiple interpretations. There's an interpretation. There's lots of different ideas, but there's a main interpretation of scripture and it's always filtered through the truth of Jesus Christ, right?

And so we have to hold on to what is true because the world is continuing to try to strip away what's true. So you have to hold tight to it. That's why it was my heart's desire to see us go through the word this year, to see us go all the way through God's word together this year and do as much as you can in God's word, right? Like right now, we're in a little bit of the rough section of the OT, right?

I mean, I know not everybody likes the Old Testament. I love the Old Testament. I love the book of Leviticus, right? I struggled with it more this year for whatever reason, I think, because I've read through it quite a few times. But you know what actually stuck out to me? Sidebar. You know what stuck out to me the most in the book of Leviticus was the leprosy chapter, right?

Like, you read leprosy and you're like, oh, skin disease. This is terrible. Why are we reading about this? This is so stupid. Because it has to do with sin. Leprosy is always a picture of sin in the Old Testament. Did you notice there were three things you were supposed to do? Examination, identification, and restoration. Did you pick up on that? The first thing

you were supposed to do is examine yourself on, I'm guessing, a somewhat consistent basis with as much time as dedicated to leprosy in the Bible. You were to examine yourself. And as you examine yourself, the second thing that you were to do is to identify what you saw. Is that leprosy? Or, you know, do I just have a pimple? Right? Basically. Or do I just have

kind of a skin issue right now? Is it eczema or something like that? You were to identify. But then once you identified, if you were healed, there was restoration. And the restoration involved a sacrifice to where you could come back into worshiping with the rest of the community. And I thought, isn't that just like us? We examine our lives. Well, as we examine our lives,

sometimes we have to identify, is that sin in my life? And if it's sin in my life, I have to deal with it. But once I deal with it, I can be welcomed back into the fellowship, back into the community. See, sometimes you got to take a little time to think and pray through God's word. And right now, we're in the book of Numbers. I'm working on it, okay? There's a reason

they call that thing Numbers, right? It's because literally, there's that numbering of the people. And so-and-so big at so-and-so, right? At any rate, that's why we're going through the word because we got to hold tight to it. And I want you to know it for yourself, not just because I told you. Hold fast to the word. But not only are we supposed to pay attention to it

and take heed to it, we are to give it out to others. We're to give it out to others. And I have a question for you. Are you giving out God's word to other people? Ron, I don't know how to do that. Sure you do. Sure you do. If you were a Chiefs fan and when they won the Super Bowl, you were willing to tell everybody how excited you were that they won the Super Bowl, right?

I was. I was like, yeah, we won the Super Bowl. We're going for three next year, right? I mean, that's what I was excited about it. So I didn't have any problem telling anybody about it. It didn't matter if I knew all the stats. It didn't matter if I knew all the stuff. I just said that I liked it, right? And so I shared what I thought was kind of exciting.

And it's the same with God's word. When you're excited about something, you can give it out to anybody. And you go, well, what if they ask me questions I can't answer? They're going to. Deal with it, okay? It's all that there is to it. Come to me. Learn to look it up for yourself, but give out God's word. I told first service, you know the best ways that you can learn

to give out God's word to other people is start teaching it to kids, right? Maybe you should go start teaching a Sunday school class here. Like we got all kinds of kids here, right? We're just flowing with them. Just like it's going out of style. Like maybe we'll never be able to have kids again. Just do them all right now. So we got all kinds of kids back there

and they would love to have people come along who would teach these kids. And you say, well, I don't know how to teach kids. I only know a little bit. So do they. You probably know more than they do, right? Well, I only know that Jesus loves me. That's what they need to hear, right? And so start teaching kids. You say, well, I don't know if I can handle the whole Sunday school class.

Okay, find a couple of kids and start pouring into them. And then once you've started pouring into some kids, maybe your own, maybe your grandkids, nieces and nephews, you name it, then start working on the people at work. And everybody says the same thing. Well, how do you start just talking? You're not supposed to talk about the Bible at work. Well, if it's a part of my life,

I'm going to have to talk about it, right? Here's what I used to do when I worked construction. I'd be talking to the guys that I knew and I'd say, you know what I read in the Bible this morning? And sometimes they'd say, we don't care. And I'd say, okay. But usually they'd say, what, what did you read in the Bible this morning, Ryan? And I'd tell them. I'd tell them about

what I read in the Bible. And then sometimes they'd ask me some questions about it. There was a guy one time I had a Bible college sweatshirt that I'd always wear. And on the back it says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And I'll never, every time I wore that sweatshirt,

somebody on a job site said, and I didn't, right? In any way, shape or form, I didn't fit in. And he goes, did you go to a Bible college? I'm like, yep. He goes, why are you here? I'm like, well, cause they don't pay me to be a pastor just yet. So I work here so that I can pay the bills. Okay, well, I got a question for you. That's always how it went. Well, I got a question for you, right?

Cause people have questions. And every day, I'm just one drywaller. We were working down at UMKC in the basement of UMKC medical center where they're doing all, where they do all these experiments and stuff. We're working in the basement down there and this drywaller's down there mud. And he goes, I got a question for you. And he starts asking me questions.

And I, sometimes I'd say, well, this is what it means. And sometimes I'd have to say, you know what? I'm gonna have to go back and find that out for you. And I'd come back the next morning and I'd say, hey man, I figured out your question. Let's talk about it for a minute. So he'd be mixing up his mud and I'm getting myself ready for whatever I'm doing. And I'd answer his question.

He'd say, hmm, I'm gonna have to think about that. And then he'd come back to me later in the afternoon before we were supposed to quit while he was cleaning up his mud knives and he'd ask me another question. And that kind of continued, right? Not because I tried so hard to give out God's word, but because I wore a Bible college sweatshirt, right? Because that's what God does.

When we have that heart that's willing to give out God's word, he's willing to give us opportunities. So we need to give out what God's word has to say. There's actually a beautiful picture of this in the Old Testament. I want you to turn here. We'll wrap up with this. Go to the book of Ezra, chapter seven. Verse 10.

Ezra is right before Nehemiah and Job, kind of that whole area. It's right after 2 Chronicles. The end of 2 Chronicles, the children of Israel are taken captive by the Babylonians because of their sin. But then the very last thing that happens in the book of 2 Chronicles is they come back and they rebuild the temple. Well, when they came back and rebuilt the temple,

they sent a priest that was supposed to teach them. He was gonna teach them all of the things that they need to know. And that priest's name was Ezra. And so this is Ezra. Ezra's testimony. And this was Ezra's mission in life. And I've always appreciated it. It says in Ezra, chapter seven, verse 10. It says this. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of God

and to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. Doesn't that sound a lot like what we just said we're supposed to do? Ezra just kind of lived that out, right? Ezra set his heart to first of all, know God's word for himself, to live out, know what God's word has to say, and then to take God's word and give it to other people. And I think that if I could encapsulate

everything of this attitude of obedience into one verse, it would be that. You should get to know what God's word has to say. You should, by the grace of God, live out what God's word has to say. And then you should take that word and give it to anybody that is willing to accept it. Anybody that's willing to listen to you talk about it. Because that's how we become a witness

in a very dark and dying world. Amen. Brothers and sisters, obedience sounds bad, but it's the greatest place of freedom and joy that we live in. Because when we live in that obedience, we live in the freedom of Christ. Would y'all stand?

Just so you are aware of my schedule over the next week or so, I will be here for Wednesday night. But next Saturday, myself and some of the guys from the board are going out to the pastor's conference down in Tucson. So I will not be here next Sunday. Dad will be giving the message next Sunday. So I'll be looking forward to getting back to you guys after that.

But that's kind of my schedule just so that you are aware. Would you bow with me? Father, we come to you. And Lord, I thank you for who you are. Lord, I thank you for the great love that you have for us. Lord, I thank you for your word that lays out everything that we need. And I thank you that you have blessed us with your Holy Spirit that empowers us to live

as you've called for us to live. And so Father, as we go out from here, may we know your word, live your word, and give it out to the people around us. We just thank you and praise you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Holy God, we lift praise to you this morning because you are worthy of all of our praise. Lord, you are King of kings, Lord of lords, and name above all names. You are worthy of all of our praise, Lord God. We lift praise to you. And as we leave here today, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit go with us and continue to minister, to us, to our hearts, to our lives, Lord,

to our families, and to our communities. We love you, Lord. We praise you and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you guys. Have a wonderful week.