Eric Ludy – The Two Tenors (Sermon)

last week i sort of tread upon some dangerous territory uh with my message on hebrews 6 4 through 6 which the message was called the battle of liege because uh belgium and liege specifically always seem to be in the center of battles in the european landscape and the same is true with in the biblical landscape hebrews 6 4 through 6. it always seems to be the center of a battle and that's a very unique message and if you haven't heard it i would i would definitely encourage you to go back and grab that because many of us can trip over some uh aspects of scripture that are not meant to trip us but the devil seems to recognize when he does his survey of scriptures like i could use that and he tries to use the scriptures against us and it's ironic but here we have this god of all mercy and the very concept that the enemy tries to wield say no your god doesn't want any more to do with you look you sinned you messed up and it creates a a spiritual fallacy when we believe the devil's take on things instead of understanding god's take and it can actually lead to the destruction of the the soul and i you know i've watched it with many believers over the years that get stuck in this cyclical pattern of well i want god but god doesn't want me and we're like why why do you say that well because of and they have this scripture uh whether it's the uh blasphemy against the holy spirit or whether it's uh hebrews four through six uh that it is impossible for us to find repentance again uh if we have once known this great salvation and so uh and you see there's part truths in this there is a seriousness to the walk that we are called to walk and yet we serve a god who specializes in mercy and so as a result his first response to you when you stumble is mercy and if you will take the hand of mercy it is outstretched if you reject the hand of mercy you know what is next from god mercy and if you take that hand of mercy even though you rejected the first time guess what it's outstretched you know what the third thing is that god's gonna give us mercy god specializes in mercy mercy triumphs over judgment the concept is it wins out if you put them head to head his mercy is greater however if you reject that mercy you reject that mercy you reject that mercy you reject that mercy and then you part ways from this life you know you breathe your last judgment will come in other words mercy is the intent of god and that's very very important for us to understand and not allow the devil to twist that and that's last week okay but this is sort of a companion set and it's equally as challenging as last week some some might even argue this could be a harder message to give but you know that's the debatable one uh the two tenors so i have i covered this message uh this idea about six years ago and used this metaphor of the tenor and so you'll see even in the in the picture uh in the graphic on the screen it's immediately when you hear the word tenor you think of the singer okay uh luciano pavratti uh was a tenor right and so that's sort of what you think which isn't bad that's good because i'm going to use that but tenor has a has a double meaning there's there's another idea for the word tenor that i'm going to build on which is going to unpack a key idea i think that can be helpful in navigating forward in christianity and i'm going to give you the subtitle which sort of gives you a little insight into the delicate nature of where we're going discerning genuine salvation and if any of you have ever been plagued with the idea of i'm not really saved maybe i'm not really saved maybe this is all fake maybe this isn't true maybe it's true for everyone else but it's not true for me that's some challenging territory that many of us can get caught in and it's sort of like that quicksand i've never actually seen quicksand but when i was growing up quicksand was one of the most intriguing things it seems like every story line that was built for boys always had quicksand in it and you know some guy gets in he's like oh no hey whoa i'm going down and and you know and they they're holding on to tree limbs and trying to pull out it was always the coolest stuff uh but that's what the test test am i going in and out uh nathan or am i fine uh test test we're fine okay uh but this is this territory can be like quicksand all right so let's let's stick some good planks of the word of god down and walk over it and not sink in it so examining the christian life we're going to go to a pauline statement paul writes this to the church at corinth which by the way is not a very healthy church which actually could be helpful if you just knew that from the beginning paul is going to express the love of god to this church over and over again this is the second letter okay it's likely he probably even had more than this but the this is the second corinthians 13 5. examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith you know that it didn't say have your pastor examine you to see if you're in the faith isn't that just fascinating it's not like hey go to your priest and see if you're in the faith it says examine yourself which means this is something i can't do from the outside this is something you must do this is something you are acquainted with in the interior of your life and as a result it is set before you as a task examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith test yourselves do you not know yourselves that jesus christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified of course this scripture can be a little daunting too and it's not one that we gravitate towards and just stick on our refrigerator you know we don't usually frame it and stick it in our living room it's like the apostle john's test so it's sort of hard how do you test so i'm going to go to the book of first john and the book of first john i mean it's funny if i were to say who's your favorite writer in the new testament no that's that's sort of hard but there's something like you know you could like paul there's nothing i mean we all love paul right but john just sort of has a softness to him like even the book of john out of out of the up out of the gospel accounts is sort of hard not to call your favorite i mean that's just that's really good i mean even the way it starts in the beginning was the word i mean it's just so much better than a genealogy right and then first john i mean all of his his books and of course you throw in revelation this is a little rougher but they are so simple it's almost like he's writing to a little child when he's talking and he's coming down and he's speaking the truth but when you speak to a child it is so clear that you can't miss it and some of us sort of wish we could miss it because when first john is saying what it's saying it's like wow that's so clear i don't even know what to do with it and we stumble over the clarity isn't that an irony so let me read to you what we could call another sort of liege this is a territory of battle that the enemy has leveraged against the church even though ironically it is beautiful it's the test it's like okay so if you're gonna test yourself this is your test now i just wanna you to recognize that as we go through this this is somewhat rough okay this is this is challenging first john 3 1-24 behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of god therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him beloved now we are children of god and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be but we know that when he is revealed we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure so you have the first dimension of this and you're going to see these begin to come out if someone has this hope in him then there is a response that is obvious in every christian well that means they would purify themselves just as he is pure okay so that would be like part of the test the first john test whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him there is no sin here's another doozy for you guys you ready for this one whoever abides in him does not sin so if you're making your little list of testing yourself it's like oh thank you eric this is really helpful whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him little children let no one deceive you he who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous he who sins is of the devil for the devil is sin from the beginning for this purpose the son of god was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil whoever has been born of god does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of god in this the children of god and the children of the devil are manifest whoever does not practice righteousness is not of god nor is he who does not love his brother for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as cain who was the wicked one and murdered his brother and why did he murder him because his works were evil and his brothers righteous do not marvel my brethren if the world hates you we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren he who does not love his brother abides in death whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him by this we know love because he laid down his life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren but whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him how does the love of god abide in him my little children let us not love and word or in tongue but indeed and in truth and by this we know that we are of the truth and we shall and shall assure our hearts before him for if our heart condemns us god is greater than our heart and knows all things beloved if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence toward god and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son jesus christ and love one another as he gave us commandment now he who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us so i'm not sure how well you're doing already okay we're entering into some territory that to be honest some of us just try and avoid paul is going to give us the command in ii corinthians to test ourselves so john is saying oh guys i heard that you were wanting to test yourself so here's my chapter it's called first john chapter three once you test yourself and we're like thank you uh and all of us you know and then the teachers passed around the grade report and all of us are sort of concerned of looking at our our score it's like i don't know that i did very well on that test and that's obviously disconcerting and so i'm just going to invite you into a little more discomfort before we move on so let's get uncomfortable together and test ourselves everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure you know there's two ways of dealing with with truth one is you can hear it and the other is you can hear it and do something and when you are changed by god there is a profound thing that is going to take place and that is that you don't want to live as you once lived anymore in fact that's part of the beauty of salvation is that you can now leave and depart from a previous life and so as a result you desire to be pure as opposed to continuing to justify the fact that you're not whoever abides in him does not sin it'd be fun to get all our bubble thoughts and collect them on this one and then reveal them it's like here is a bubble thought on that whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him he whose sins is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning whoever has been born of god does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of god in this the children of god and the children of the devil are manifest whoever does not practice righteousness is not of god nor is he who does not love his brother we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren he who does not love his brother abides in death whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him but whoever has this world's good and seeds his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him how does the love of god abide in him so this is the word of god we just went through okay it is truth it is unchanging and it is good and ironically it is a representation of god's heart some of you might not be feeling his heart remember how i started out with mercy mercy mercy mercy some of you like i'm not feeling mercy here okay i'm questioning everything right now and that is precisely why a message like this can be important so the devil can't play us okay the word of god is to help establish us and to grow us stronger in our faith not to weaken us not to turn us inward which is what has a tendency to happen when you read first john 3 is you have a tendency to turn inward and get caught there as opposed to turn outward towards your salvation ironically the whole entire bible is meant to turn us outward to see jesus more clearly so here's a question that might be going through some of your heads if all are measured against this test is anyone actually saved or is it just me that feels like i don't quite measure up how do we uphold the clear word of scripture and yet not miss the intrinsic hope woven into it isn't scripture supposed to give us hope isn't scripture supposed to give us life isn't god's purpose to come in and through his son to give us life and that much more abundant how is this supplying us life i feel like it's just weighing down on me now it's truth and god doesn't mind just getting uncomfortable he really doesn't and i could prove that throughout the entire bible over and over and over again god's sort of like no you know i think it's okay that you're squirming a little right now and then he waits just a little longer lets lazarus linger in the grave for four days and then shows up at bethany it's like jesus we could have done this a little more streamlined if you're gonna raise him from the dead he dies and then you just raise him you don't need to have this passage of time which creates all sorts of angst and difficulty god is not against the working of challenge in our soul however there's a positive pain and a negative pain and i mentioned this to the students this last week when you're in a gym and you're you're working out with weights there's pain in the body but it's a positive pain it's a pain that grows you stronger and if someone comes up to you and you know sticks a knife in your side and twists it that's a negative pain that leads to death okay they're both pain but one is constructive the other is destructive the devil wants to bring destructive pain against us and harass our soul and to confuse us god is not the author of confusion god does not bring condemnation so what we have is the need to settle this god's way introducing the tenor okay so you can think of the singer and that's that's perfectly fine he has a beautiful singing voice so what is a tenor a tenor is a singing voice between baritone and alto or counter tender to counter-tender the highest of the ordinary adult male range i always wanted to sing tenor i did sing tenor but there were always tenors that i really wanted to sing like and i never could and they were just like way up there i was like oh i want to sing like that uh and so it's it's you know it's it's an attractive range if if you're a guy uh that which holds the melody the main thrust of a song okay and how about this one that which marks the central character of one's life or so if you were to say uh what is the tenor of eric's life that would be that which marks the central character of one's life or habits okay so there are certain things that mark each one of us have you ever noticed that like you could summarize each person like i did with dwight before the service when we were praying and i said he's a man of action that's a tenor in his life okay that's a good tenor to have right but you could have people in your life it's like they're always late never had that you know it's just like and that's part of their reputation it's the tenor of their life you know i don't know what that means that they're you know in danger of hell fire but it is a quality that is defined in their life the two tenors okay obviously that goes with the title of our our message so there are always two and if you've hung around eligible you've heard me say this many times there's a first and there's a second and this is all throughout scripture i mean look at scripture it's divided up into two two sections the old testament and the new testament and the first can't please god but the second pleases god and so you're going to see this all throughout the bible cain abel ishmael isaac esau jacob saul david all these times where there's a first and there's a second the first is going to be rejected it cannot please it cannot do it like the old testament the law is not bad but it cannot save moses joshua and you're going to see this constant throughout the scriptures and then in the new testament you're going to see paul unpack this at a whole nother level and you're going to see tares wheat you're going to see virgins without oil virgins with oil you're going to see goats sheep you're going to see these twos that are defined and of course the prominent one that paul is going to use to teach and to unpack the doctrine of jesus christ and how this christian life works is flesh and spirit one of the big ones throughout scripture is adam last adam which is really weird to call jesus the last adam and it's he's also called the second man he's like well there was 77 generations in between yeah but they're both in a sense the son of god if you want to say it that way adam is born supernaturally by god and there's one other guy that fits that pattern and that's jesus and if you're in adam you die if you're a descendant of adam well you share in adam's heritage his descendancy which is sin which leads to death it's called the law of sin and death or you sin you die but jesus is going to start a new lineage and unless you transfer from the lineage of adam to the lineage of christ you remain in condemnation but if you will repent and put off the old man with his deeds and clothe yourself by faith in christ you live and now the death that is upon adam is no longer yours which is why jesus says unless a man be born again the way we could say it for our purposes unless he be born twice unless he is a second man he cannot have life and so as a result this becomes a very very significant and pertinent construct in scripture so the two tenors so we're gonna break it up into two first one tenor number one self you see this is the way that all of us are wired we're wired to sing the song ourself remember the tenor is the main melody line in a song and so whoever has the tenor usually is given the melody line and so we want to sing the melody line i don't want to be an accompanying voice i want to be the main feature i want to be the tenor and so as a result we'll call this the self singing tenor the essence of sin it's mine this is my life i want to do it my way okay this song if you will is a dead giveaway that something's wrong in your life but there's another tenor and that is going to be the tender number two jesus christ singing tenor the essence of righteousness you see you are going to be singing a song in your life and what john is bringing up and what paul was bringing up in second corinthians is this exact thing who's singing the song in your life test yourself to see who's singing the song is it still you singing about you is this life all about you because if you're in christ it can't be all about you that's basically what first john 3 is talking about however we stumble over the wording of it but that's what john's saying if you're if you're still a first tenor then you're going to be singing a song known as sin that's what your your life is going to be but if you're in christ your song changes and because you're no longer singing your melody line you're singing his so this is first corinthians 15 45 through 49 which sort of unpacks this idea of first and second tenor okay so you're go i'm this is going to just help you unpack it because i'm going to insert the words tenor number one and tender number two into the flow and so it is written the first man over here adam tenor number one became a living being the last adam tenor number two became a life-giving spirit however the spiritual or tenor number two is not first but the natural tenor number one and afterward the spiritual tenor number two the first man tender tender number one was of the earth made of dust the second man tenor number two is the lord from heaven as was the man of dust tenor number one so also are those who are made of dust and and as is the heavenly man tenor number two so also are those who are heavenly and as we have borne the image of the man of dust 100 number one so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man so self-fulfillment versus god fulfillment i think that's a good way of saying it uh there is a a term in scripture uh in the greek word which i'm going to unpack here in the upcoming uh slides called suke and this is like this part of our life that one of the definitions of it is the seat of fulfillment and i think that's pretty a pretty good description it's like no this is about me it's like you're sitting in your throne i want to i want this life to be about me for me and unto me i want all praise to be mine that is the essence of sin and so self-fulfillment is actually what we're being saved from isn't that an irony because it's like isn't that what we're all after well if you're after that that's your problem you see what you have to do is you have to give up your suke and unless a man gives up his suitcase gives up his seat of fulfillment which i'll go into in just a second he cannot follow christ he cannot have that life because unless you're denying that dimension of your life you can't live you have to change out that core of what you are about are you about you or you about him and when you're about him everything changes the song you now sing is a different song so matthew 16 25 and you're going to notice matthew 10 39 mark 8 35 luke 17 33 and john 12 25 all say the same thing for whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it so that term for life is suke so if you hold on to that seat of fulfillment and say it's my seat and you hold on to it you're gonna lose life but if you give it up for his sake and you bend your knee and say lord you take that seat this is about you now you find life and this is the mystery of the kingdom of heaven right there because everything about us is off we're wired you know we got off at the garden of eden something's twisted and god's saying i'm coming to set that right i'm set i've come to untwist what is twisted but for you to be untwisted you need to trust me you need to trust that i know how to do this can you give up that suitcase but my suitcase that's like what i'm about my life my my fulfillment yeah but can you give that up to me and trust me that i know what you're built for and if you hold on to it you die if you give it up you find it in a capital version capital l life you find what you are designed for you've never been so filled with life and purpose is when you give up your suitcase so here's our word suke obviously looks like psyche doesn't it isn't that interesting you begin to realize this is the center of how we are thinking and processing the breath of life the soul the center of feeling and longing the seat of fulfillment this unless a man gives this up he can't follow me this is where it starts this is the essence of the transaction of the kingdom of heaven right here it's right at the suitcase and if you find yourself like saul you remember saul saul was given the this isn't paul saul this is saul in the old testament the first king of israel he is given a kingdom he has a throne and then god says you've lost that throne i'm giving it to a better man. what should saul have done because he's saying the same thing to me and you you've blown it you've sinned and given that throne to someone who is better his name is jesus but what does saul do he holds on to his throne and throws javelins at the better man and that's what we oftentimes do as well we fight off the very one who wants to save us who wants to save israel this nation has a savior known as the son of david jesus christ but we need to relinquish our hold on that throne the change of song so when you transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the dear son there is a change of tenor and it's not just a change of who's singing and whose melody line you're saying it's a completely different song the first one i was trying to come up with something that sounded really dark and evil right so for those of you that are big fans of death metal i'm sure this is an offense right uh it's not much of a blow to me because i'm not a fan right but death metal lyrics and i'm not going to give you any death metal lyrics to give you an illustration i figured that probably wouldn't be the best idea but something that is celebrating darkness okay that is just not what we're about as christians that's not what we do and so it's as extreme when you change kingdoms from singing death metal lyrics to singing a sunday school round of jesus loves me no one's going to on the outside think that that's the same song they're completely different songs now here's what i want you to understand this is going to be a key that unlocks this message when you sing death metal lyrics as you know you can sing them in perfectly you can get the lyrics wrong you can pop your p's there's various things mistakes you can make in singing your song of darkness uh perfectly right same is true in the kingdom of heaven when you come into the kingdom of heaven you are singing a different song but you may do it imperfectly may pop your pee do you guys know what a pop in p is that's when you're in a microphone and you have your sounds and it's like it explodes sorry when i do that you guys get some saliva on you down here uh however and you could sing incorrectly you could be off-key but that doesn't mean you're still singing death metal lyrics you're actually singing a new song you're just singing it imperfectly and what i would like to say is welcome to the understanding of the kingdom see what what paul is saying and what john is saying is if you're still singing the death metal this is a serious issue we don't continue singing this song that celebrates darkness it celebrates selfishness that preserves life for you at all costs that cannot be a part however in this zone when you are singing a new song we don't sing it perfectly but what we desire is to sing it perfectly so the one who was born of god desires to grow up unto a full maturity to sing this sunday school round of jesus loves me with perfection however we are being sanctified you start out as a little baby in this kingdom you're a newborn and as a newborn you recognize that that newborn is designed to scale cliffs and to run marathons but guess what you recognize that a newborn isn't going to do that just yet but the newborn is going to develop physiologically and as a result the evidence that they are a newborn is they are actually growing in a new kingdom they're growing in a new manner they're growing in a new life when they are physiologically developing they're imperfect they're not the perfect expression of what a grown-up mature adult could do physically however when they're toddling a father a good father is not going to kick them and say get rid of that toddle a good father recognizes that a toddle is par part of the growth and so as a result in the kingdom of heaven we need to recognize we need to at first discover which song is being sung test yourselves to see if you are in the faith what song are you singing are you still holding on to your suitcase saying no god this life is about me and i refuse to trust it to you or have you trusted your life to god and you are a toddler you're singing a new song but you're doing it imperfectly and as a result when you read 1st john chapter 3 the devil's like pokken as you're saying see see look at that fault and yet it's a flaw in how you're singing the right song and that's a big difference so the tenor changes when you make this shift of kingdoms the tenor changes the lyrics change the entire song is different you know eric ludy doesn't read through 1st john chapter 3 and stumble and start questioning my salvation because how could you make it through eric without doing that because i know that the tenor of my life is transformed if you saw old eric you would see the difference too i was about me my thoughts were about me it's what i looked like it's what i was coming across like it's like hey this is my life these are my dreams these are my ambitions don't touch them don't mess with them i want to see them fulfilled i have one shot at this thing called life and i want to live it for me now it's completely different i want jesus to be glorified i want you to know jesus i want my life to be spent correctly while i'm here on earth i have one shot at this thing called life and i want him to be seen i want him to maximize his purpose in and through me and yet if you were to watch eric ludy's life over here you're gonna notice that eric doesn't do that perfectly should i question everything because i'm fumbling and stumbling in the way i do this new mission which is all about jesus well that would be a disaster wouldn't it if i started questioning everything every time i was imperfect because then wouldn't we spend our entire life questioning instead of believing and so as a result that's why this message is important you need to know where you are which song you're singing if you are singing this song it's important that you stop singing this song and that you forsake this first song of self but if you are singing the second song praise god now you need to receive that mercy that grace for help in time of need so as you're navigating through this journey you rise up in the mercy of god in the grace of god and that when you fall short you immediately say lord thank you for your shed blood and you keep growing you keep purifying you keep being sanctified but it's the sunday school round of jesus loved me perfect so both can hit off notes both can be too loud both can involve spittle and splatter and p-pops both can have broken guitar strings both can be sung wrongly but they're two different songs so what i want you to do i don't mind a little discomfort in you but what i don't want is the wrong sort of discomfort i don't want you questioning solid foundation of faith in christ if you've believed in christ if you've put your confidence in christ praise god stand strong upon that if you are still holding on going i don't know that i really want to be saved i don't know that i really want a savior i don't know that he can really do it well those are different issues completely different issues that need to be addressed but when the song is changed it is obvious to the singer into the audience though it be an imperfect version of jesus loves me the song is entirely different the tenor has changed though the song is not yet being sung the way ten or two fully intends ten or two can sing it perfectly when he came in this body he sang the song of ten or two perfectly now this ten or two has moved in and he's like warming up his voice and we're like what was that in other words he's working inside of us to get his song out but it's going to come out very imperfectly why we've never sung it before this morning leslie and i were not feeling vocally very sharp i'll just put it that way and uh so we went to the piano and started singing our songs because we're gonna be doing some low-level worship leading uh here after this message and my voice was not quite doing what it was supposed to right and so we've been probably both panicking a little throughout this message you know thinking that that's following especially a message about the two tenors it's like can you believe the timing for that and yet you know why would my voice not be perfect uh in the early morning hours well i've had a lot of allergies and i just woke up you know those are pretty good reasons right and the same is true with the kingdom of heaven if you are new at this if you are just beginning to sing something like turning outward and showing mercy instead of being harsh and critical towards people it's like god convicts you about this critical thing he's like yeah that's not how the song goes you're like oh well i guess i'm supposed to forgive i'm supposed to show mercy when you're first doing it it's not your normal habit if you ever had it where you're sending a a and this is maybe maybe times have changed where digitally this is different but this is a classic issue you buy a new printer and you attach the new printer now they're all bluetooth but you know you you attach the old the new printer and you go to print and nothing happens you're like what in the world and then you work on it for an hour and then finally realize that you're sending it to the old printer you ever done that where it's just like what no why isn't this printing well you're sending it to the wrong printer you have a new printer but you need to deliberately choose and select it same is true in your christian life you are so used to defaulting to old ways you have a new song that is warming up inside of you but you need to deliberately choose to sing it you need to agree with it at every turn the fact that you will fumble and return and sing the wrong song again you're like wait what was i doing that no no no is a definite sign that you don't want to you're like okay i don't want to do that i want to sing his song you feel conviction you desire to sing his song you're not rebelling and saying i don't want to sing that ridiculous sunday school song no more of that that's a whole different problem but if you're like uh god i just sort of blew one of the notes there i just popped a huge p my guitar string just blew off on that one it didn't sound very good what is he gonna say get out of my kingdom no he says so let's try it again let's try it again get here's a new guitar string let's stick that on let's get this right okay he's constantly training us he has a song he wants to get out but his response is mercy then his next response is mercy then his next response is mercy his holy spirit has been given us so that we would be sanctified which means we're not made perfect instantaneously we're in the process of being trained remodeled remade by god it's okay to grow up first john 3 10 in this the children of god and the children of the devil are manifest whoever does not practice righteousness is not of god nor is he who does not love his brother so there's certain behaviors over here in other words practicing righteousness now most of us when we hear that we're thinking are perfectly righteous okay no we're practicing righteousness we're like now how does that song go again and our guitar string goes and we're like oh so sorry in other words what are we doing we're actually we want to sing the right song that's what we're doing we're practicing righteousness if you want to say it that way we're singing a song but it might sound a little like eric's uh holy holy holy this morning when he was warming up and it was like wow this is high key for that uh and now we're stuck in it because we didn't have any more time to change it so it's like well there's a little high and that's the way the christian life can feel at times too and what do you need to do you need to train your voice if any of you are singers you understand that that you might start with a note that's like oh that's that's a little high for me what do you do you train you practice righteousness see my desire is to sing that note well the fact that i haven't sung it well up to this point does not mean i'm not a christian it means i'm a christian in training i am being built to perfectly reflect him right now it's an imperfect reflection of his perfection welcome to christianity but the test of you being in the faith is that you're singing a different song you're no longer practicing self saying hey this is for me i don't care about you god i don't care about your conviction i don't want to hear it i want to sing my death metal lyrics instead you're saying no god i've given that up i want to sing your song i just don't know how to do it yet could you train me i want to practice righteousness i don't want to think about myself anymore selfishness is the opposite of love it's the opposite of loving your brother when you have jesus move in and the tenor number two moves in you know what he's gonna say now it's about others i want you to love them and so this is part of the most basic package that is going to take place in us as believers changing the tenor how does one know when the tenor has changed so let's use a house as an illustration jesus uses houses as illustrations so i think it's a good one uh for us let's look at matthew 7 24-27 therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them i will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock so you hear the word of god and you believe it you enter into a different realm so we're calling that tenor number two right but it's a house built on a rock and the rain descended the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock uh-oh we have another house here to compare it to and contrast it to but everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended in the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall so we seem to have two foundations one that is solid it's based on faith in his word trusting him the second one obviously seems to be a different sort of foundation i always you know say sand is merely crushed up rock so it's sort of like it's your own belief system it's taking what you want uh from god it's like i'll take that little truth maybe over here and we'll sort of blend it together be a little sand beneath this hey this is good this is my foundation this is the way i think it should be well let's test it with some winds and rains the whole thing's going to collapse ultimately the house built incorrectly shows itself and we're able to see that it's missing something now i if i had a good picture up on the screen it would be a picture of a house that's been burnt to the ground and so maybe you still have a slab of concrete there and you have like the door frame and you have this chimney back there but the rest of it's just burnt down it's it's charred and you see outside of christ that's what we are we were designed as a house as a dwelling place for god but something's gone terribly wrong and as a result if you are you know someone could say uh do you have the house are you in christ oh look at this i have a con i have a foundation here i have a charred doorway and i have a chimney yeah but what are the what's the storm going to prove the storm that's coming is going to prove that that is not a house it is going to actually showcase a incorrect foundation whereas a house built correctly proves in and through different trials when the storms come that it has something even if it's imperfect it still has something so we'll give five tests we'll call it the rain test the cold test the heat test the wind test and the winter test so remember we're testing ourselves to see if we're in the faith so here's the way we could say we're testing ourselves to see if we have a bona fide house are we in christ is he our house have we moved into christ and are we secure in that because if we're still just our charred fountain charred house with you know the door frame and the uh and the fireplace you know the chimney that's sitting there it's like okay when these things happen you have the rain guess what rain is a dead giveaway that you don't really have a house why because you're soaked if you don't have a house you're like i have a house and then you have a flood in the middle of your your living room and you know you're drenched your couch is sitting there totally soaked it's like huh okay maybe something's off here that's exactly right if you are getting drenched when the rain comes you have to at least pause and question it now i'm going to contrast two things there has to be some gentleness and some sensitivity in how i do this but there is a very real thing that we need to discover in our soul if it's true and that is i'm not in the house you need to know if you're not in the house that's a very very important thing to do i'm not presuming that you're not in the house i'm just saying there's a reason why it's brought up in scripture you don't want to presume upon god you want to know faith is knowing the holy spirit brings assurance you're not supposed to be wobbly need on this however let's imagine that it rains it's pretty obvious when you don't have a roof and you don't have walls when it rains it's sort of a dead giveaway however some of us have a panic we're genuine homes but we have a puddle in our kitchen when it rains but ah i got a puddle does that mean it's not a real house no it actually could be a real house with a leak problem okay you're you have a hole in the roof that hole is not good to have so it's not like i'm going to support the hole and i'm going to say go whole no i'm not cheering on the hole in your roof but there's a big difference between not having a roof and not even having a home and having a home but having some problems with your home because you have not maintained it well you have not understood that you're supposed to install this or you're supposed to close the windows here during winter storms in other words you have not been groomed and discipled and how to care for your home well which is then a different sort of rebuke to the soul it's a different form of encouragement it's not hey get yourself a home it's like no shut the window there's a winter storm if you want it to be nice and toasty warm in the middle of winter that window needs to be closed so the homeless and the housed there's a difference between the two okay a homeless person which is what we don't want to be in this story is someone who does not have the protection of christ it's sort of like the arcless and the arked those that are in the ark of noah and those that are on the outside you know you shouldn't be confused of like where am i which position am i in am i in the ark am i not in the ark you need to know where you stand and it's very very critical for you to have the confidence that you are in christ you don't want to be wobbly on that the homeless and the housed so the signs of homelessness the proofs that your home is indeed no home at all when it rains you get wet when it gets cold you freeze if you didn't have any walls could you imagine i mean if it got cold you're going to be cold when it gets warm you roast middle of july colorado or how about middle of july phoenix arizona i had someone from phoenix here last week said 116 degrees yeah so what's it going to be if you're homeless what's the temperature 116 degrees if you have a home with a good ac unit uh i mean you could get that puppy down to 70 69 you know that's a really high heating bill but you know you can do it uh when the wind blows your hair gets rustled if you're in a home and there's gusty winds outside you'll notice your hair will stay exactly as it ought to be but when you don't have a home your hair dude just got blown away right the season of autumn pleasure and beauty is followed by winter chill you know sin is pleasurable for a season and the same is true you could say hey i don't need a home i'm totally fine yeah through the summer and uh you know late fall you know you might be able to pull that off but then winter chill comes and the pleasure of sin just suddenly disappeared the qualities of a genuine house the proofs that your home is indeed a genuine home when it rains you remain dry when it gets cold you stay warm when it gets warm you stay temperate when the wind blows you do not feel it upon your skin when autumn closes and winter comes the temperature and character of your house remains the same in a sense i just read to you first john chapter 3 right there which is one of the challenges is john is talking about how a home is supposed to function if you have a home this is what it's like and for all people for all of us in here that have a home we could say yeah that's what it's like but in your spiritual life when it rains in other words you have a trial on your life uh did you stay dry because some of you are like i feel like i got a little wet through that one uh what does that mean to my soul and when it gets cold you know you have false accusation that comes against you you have uh so you're low in the finances and you started to panic and gave way to anxiety right it's like oh no does that mean i'm not in the faith and so these are facts about a home this is what john is saying in 1st john chapter 3. so the inspector is going to come in and we're going to say test yourselves to see if you are in the faith so let's walk through this when it rains you experience a flood a dripping any puddling or perfect dryness so it would be great and all of us want to say perfect dryness right but what i want you to remember i can't test you you have to test yourself so when these trials come against you do you find yourself in flood conditions totally drenched i mean you're missing a roof you don't even have a roof or are you actually still having havoc from the devil maybe that you shouldn't have you see if i'm in a home like let's say i visit your home and i'm an inspector and i'm like nice home and yet you have all your windows open on this side and it's like a gusting storm and you're like i can't figure out why my lamp keeps blowing over and the bulb keeps breaking it's like well sir uh that window right there is actually uh receiving a lot of wind and since it's open instead of closed that's the results broken lamps okay so you may have broken lands that doesn't mean you don't have a home it means you have a point of disobedience in your life god says in his word keep the windows closed and what are you doing you keep opening it and so as the holy spirit convicts you and corrects you what are you going to do now you see are you going to purify yourself as he is pure or are you going to rebel and say i don't care you see when you start saying i don't care you are in a dangerous place but if you start saying lord i need grace for this i recognize that i'm having handled this home you've given me well and lord i'm so sorry you see that humility and that repentance is actually critical it's a it's a beautiful sign of how a man or woman runs their home when the temperature descends below 45 degrees uh-oh does your thermometer inside the home read the same as the outdoor temperature that's not good say it's 30 degrees outside is your home 30 degrees that's not a good sign that means you might be missing some walls is it lower than 70 degrees because some of you it's like it's getting cold and your furnace isn't quite working very well have you ever had those panic points like my furnace isn't working well doesn't mean you don't have a home and it doesn't mean you don't have a furnace it might mean you need to clean your furnace it might mean there's things that have entered into your furnace that need to actually be cleaned your maintenance of your home which is very real your home is real but it hasn't been maintained as god intended which still matters but it's a different sort of emphasis to see if you're in the faith or does it read 70 degrees indoors well that would be nice when the temperature rises above 90 degrees does your thermometer inside your home read the same as the outdoor temperature higher than 70 degrees or does it read 70 degrees indoors are you maintaining a temperate environment when the wind blows does it force you to rebuild walls re-hang curtains and drapes reset decorations and bring in a backhoe to remove the wind stream debris wouldn't that be a rough thing every time a difficulty comes into your life it just totally destroys your home that wouldn't be a good sign you see we are supposed to be marked by peace the peace of god rules in our hearts and so as a result one of my best mental pictures for that is like one of those ancient like artifacts that you dig up in a you know a in some kind of excavation and it's like some insect some dinosaur you know time period insect that's like stuck in a block of resin so you can see him he's in a block of resin and so here's what peace is it's like that's us and we're in christ and this big sledgehammer comes out and hits the block of resin the block of resin bounces around the room and you pick it back up and the insect hasn't moved still and that's what we're supposed to be it doesn't matter what hits us we're stable however some of us haven't proven to be stable we move around way too much you see we have all that we need in christ but we have not been exercising that grace when the autumn season concludes and winter begins does the atmosphere of your indoor life look like winter too when it snows is your sofa covered with snow when it sleets is your kitchen floor lacquered with sleet when it freezes do your pipes freeze do you have any drafts do you have any sicknesses do you have any busted pipes or is winter just like summer inside your home the difference between the homeless and the housed both have difficulties but the homeless have difficulties that lead to death whereas the house have difficulties that lead to frustrations hindrances and inconveniences for those of you that are homeowners you know what i mean by that you know you have a home but things will break and you know you have to get a new ac unit you have to do this you have to constantly maintain it it's a real frustrating thing it'd be really nice if they invented a home someday that maintained itself right but you have to maintain it it's the same thing with the christian life however your frustrations are very different than a homeless person when it's negative 30 outside and you're a homeless person it's very different than if you have a home same temperature but it doesn't threaten your life it might bust a pipe but it isn't going to bust your life see if you're homeless those trials kill you whereas if you're in a house you have a preservation it's known as jesus christ in the spiritual sense the tenor of the problems of the homeless and the housed is totally is wholly different they have a different tenor to their life and their problems have a different tenor the homeless have a tenor and that is simple things can actually lead to their death changes of leather can lead to death whereas for us it doesn't matter what happens we're going to live forever in christ but we still have a lot of embattlements along the way because we have house maintenance and we have an enemy who loves to come against our house and try and beat it down however it's not going to fall so let's use an example of rain so the homeless this is the proof the proofs there is no real roof and no real walls so this is for the the homeless the proof that there is no real roof and no rear walls is that they're miserable cold there's dampness mold fungus sickness and death okay that's just miserable okay that's what we don't want now how about the house the evidence that the upkeep of the house is improper there's leaks puddling repairs frustrations hindrances and inconveniences the tenor of their problems are very different you still have problems being a homeowner or being in in christ you still have challenges but your issues are different than someone who is outside of christ spiritual winds and reigns a quick list of critical sins evidence that there is indeed a problem on the property now i want you to look at these what i seven i'm calling them critical sins these are what i'm going to call doorway sins these are dead giveaways that something is wrong it does not mean you don't have jesus it just means that you have not been maintaining potentially however these are big issues and so let's start exercising this unforgiveness lying disobedience self-pity disrespect frustration anxiety so the key question what is the tenor of the problem so let's start with an example of unforgiveness is this a problem of homelessness or home maintenance because it's very clear in scripture that you are to forgive and in fact it's one of the most clear things you can get out of scripture other than jesus is your one and only savior is when you come to him as he is forgiving you you need to forgive and so it's not an optional bonus package to the christian life it's part and parcel and so however is this a problem of homelessness or home maintenance because that doesn't mean if you're in christ you're not struggling with forgive unforgiveness and that's why i'm going to walk through this there's there's two different there's a homeless response to unforgiveness and there's a home with need of repair uh response question number one is the for is the unforgiveness a decided unwillingness to forgive like i will not forgive that person okay that's dangerous an unbarred hatred and hot anger a growing resentment and a poisonous bitterness of soul refusing to yield its ground no in fact you're fostering hatred you're fostering an animosity you are allowing the bitterness to literally take over your soul not good guys okay that's dangerous it is not something that can actually remain in the kingdom of heaven no someone who is born of christ cannot participate in that that's what you're seeing in first john 3 no we don't participate in that now look at this one question number two or is the unforgiveness in other words in both of these situations there's a problem there's something known as unforgiveness because as a believer we should just forgive first thing it's not even an option we don't even need to consider it no i'm forgiving because christ forgave me however some of you have been hurt at a very very deep level in the and it's hard and i that's where the need for gentleness in this message is real it does not mean that i'm going to encourage your unforgiveness any longer but you do need to know the difference of tenor of these two problems is the unforgiveness a struggle to forgive there's a difference between being defiant about forgiving saying no i refuse to participate in the christ behavior i i want to cultivate hatred inside of me and saying god i am really struggling here this this hurts so deep i want to but i don't know how to or how about this a slowness to obey you ever had it where god's talking to you and you're like trying to act like you're not hearing him you're like oh yeah so you know what's the temperature today let me get my phone out really quick and get some dings and you know bleeps on it as quickly as i can before i actually hear god you see god's saying something to you but you don't know if you want to hear it okay by the way this doesn't mean you don't have a house it might mean very it might be even a greater evidence that you have a house the holy spirit is all over you right he's speaking to you however you're struggling and or a rationalization of why unforgiveness in this case might be permissible well i know jesus says that i i need to always forgive but in this case i think he would understand now that second option is not good okay let me let me give this summary note both options just mentioned are disastrous to the soul but one shows signs of homelessness while the other indicates a serious leak inside what could be a genuine home okay that's why i'm trying to show you the difference in tenor if you understand tenor you can rest in this area of your life and recognize no i am in the faith but the holy spirit is really working me over saying okay then let me do what i need to do in your life you want to know why you have that leak that resentment shouldn't be in your kitchen floor that puddle there that shouldn't be there and you're feeling conviction over that puddle don't just clean up the puddle and let it continue to drip fix the roof and that roof is going to be fixed by forgiving in other words we need to walk in agreement with god it does not mean we don't have a home it just means we need to allow the conviction of the holy spirit to bring about a fix what is the tenor is unforgiveness hatred and hot anger resentment and bitterness the tenor of your life of the life in question is this the key to finding melody being sung within the life under scrutiny you know if you hang around someone you can answer the question about the tenor of their life you know if you've ever seen someone with such bitterness and such hatred that becomes a tenor of their life where you could say oh you know that that's about the summary they are really an angry person however there's some of us that aren't angry people as a tenor but we've had some anger and we've had some difficulty in this area it does not mean you don't have a a house does not mean you're not in christ it just means the devil is playing you and you need to allow the holy spirit to correct that the tenor of a life with christ cannot be one of sin and of self and that's what first john chapter three is saying you cannot just live over here okay when you are convicted you need to respond and god has given you this opportunity to be in christ and he's given you his holy spirit and he desires you to grow up but you cannot continue to live for self and for self-fulfillment if you want to grow in christ you need to let that go so if there's any question on that i mean the key today is to let go of that seed of fulfillment and to say god i just want you i want your agenda in my life my life is yours take it however some of us we're already in that but we are being convicted even as we touch on some of these things and we're like god i feel so feeble i feel i feel weak i feel immature in this growth well that's not that unusual however allow his grace to enter in to not just supply mercy and forgiveness but grace to help so that you can close doors of unforgiveness though the life may have leaks puddles and some damp corners its tenors should demonstrate the melody of the line of the song jesus loves me though the song be sung imperfectly and the life should also demonstrate that leaks are fixed puddles are mopped up and damp corners are solved by the power of the shed blood of jesus christ so if you were to look at the life of eric i would love to be able to say that there were never any leaks never any lamps that got tipped over in the bulb you know that shattered it would sound so much more impressive wouldn't it however one of the things i could say is that i'm very malleable to correction and that's something i know in my own soul when the spirit of god corrects me i might try and come up with an excuse don't get me wrong i might come up with a justification however it can't stand and ultimately it will melt away all right i need to make that right um wow yes lord okay and that's been the tenor of my life and so as a result i have a resting place in christ because i know that i desire to pure my purify myself as he is pure but that's not because i am without any sinful propensity nor is it that i've not made any mistakes i know exactly where to go when i do and it is a sure sign to me that i am intimately tied to christ jesus a life in need of christ one in which the roof and walls are missing so let's talk about the dangerous doors unforgiveness this is a door it opens the door to hatred and hot anger resentment and bitterness is this the tenor of your soul would those closest to you say that this is a behavior that defines you let's look at lying or falsehood and exaggeration this opens the door to a life of deception con duplicity and hypocrisy is this the tenor of your soul would those closest to you say that this is a behavior that defines you you see if you're defined by these behaviors that should strike something in you to say lord i need an encounter with you i do not want to remain this way disobedience it opens the door to rebellion and blasphemy of god is this the tenor of your soul would those closest to you say that this is a behavior that defines you self-pity this opens the door to complaining grumbling a critical fault-finding nature accusation and the self-absorbed victim mentality one of the most dangerous things on earth is the victim mentality don't touch it is this the tenor of your soul would those closest to you say that this is a behavior that defines you pride and disrespect this opens the door to lust sexual deviancy and sexual addiction is this the tenor of your soul would those closest to you say that this is a behavior that defines you irritation and frustration this opens the door to untempered anger rage abuse and murder is this the tenor of your soul with those closest to you say that this is a behavior that defines you anxiety this opens the door to fear foreboding fretting paranoia and paralysis is this the tenor of your soul with those closest to you say that this is a behavior that defines you what does the door of christ open up to so when we are going to depart from this first way of living and enter into christ what are we entering into jesus says i am the door if anyone enters by me he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture the heavenly door when unforgiveness beckons christ offers access to the power of forgiveness so this is amazing guys when you put off adam when you give up that seat of fulfillment and you say lord you are deserving of my life i don't want to be in control of my life i want you to have it and you transfer from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the dear son and now he holds that seat in your life you have access to the heavenly throne room of grace and everything you need for life and godliness has given you and so say you are harmed say that there is a grievance that is brought against you which is not an abnormal thing to happen in life this could happen daily for some of us however you have something just sort of like a house may have an ac unit and the heat is coming up but guess what what does that house have an ac unit what do you need to do turn on the ac unit and that's the same thing we do in our spiritual life turn on the unforgiveness we have the capacity in christ to actually forgive we have power to do it but we must agree with that and so as a result my exhortation to you is to not allow the devil to cloud your position if you're in christ stand in christ by faith the fact that you're imperfect in that position that's actually part of the entire journey for all of us you see he is perfect underneath this clothing of perfection is a work in process known as us but we are aimed towards being perfected and that's what gives us that sense of knowing i'm in christ my song is different i'm no i'm no longer like what i used to be i still have propensities towards behaving like that but that no longer defines me it's no longer the tenor of my life and so now if you have unforgiveness or the bait of it what do you do christ offers access to the power of forgiveness use it turn on the ac unit when lying beckons christ offers access to the power of boldness and the confession of sin you ever had it where you're like no towards the bait to use your tongue wrongly i mean if you just say that lie it in your mind it's going to make your life easier because it's not going to make you look bad it's going to sort of cover up what you did and yet when you choose to agree with the lie it it cancels out so much of the strength of your life it nullifies the work of grace don't participate in it's like carving a hole in your roof and saying oh that won't matter well the next rain you're going to get a whole bunch of that rain inside of your house why because you misused this tongue you spoke a lie instead of the truth it does not mean that you are not in christ it doesn't mean that you're homeless it just means that you're mishandling this gift of grace that you've been given so what should you do tell the truth correct that lie repair that roof when disobedience beckons christ offers access to the power to obey and to do that which is right and godly when self-pity beckons christ offers access to the power to praise him and give thanks in all things when pride and disrespect beckon christ offers access to the power to be humble to love and to honor edify and encourage others when irritation frustration beckons christ offers access to the power of heavenly patients and the grace to rejoice always and in every circumstance when anxiety beckons christ offers access to soundness of mind faith and immovable confidence in the sureness of his promise so here's how i want to finish you don't have this scripture in your notes sorry about that guys but just think about this you know here we are in 1st john chapter 3 and we all feel so smallish it's like wow is any of us even a believer you see there's a tenor to your life and your tenors should not be sin if your tenor is selfishness and you are seated seated in that seat that should cause you to have a red flag in your soul to say is do i even have a genuine relationship with christ everything in my life is about me i don't even think about christ i don't care about christ that's not a good sign guys so what should you do especially if you desire to be saved you should say lord what must i do to be saved here's a good answer for that repent of this life give up that seed of fulfillment let it go bend your knee and give me the seat let me have your life and as you do that you genuinely enter into the house known as christ he clothes you and you didn't have to do anything brilliant anything magnificent to do it he did the magnificent thing it was his working your job is to believe most of us in here already have a house we have the house don't question that now begin to function in that house don't take it lightly that you have the house don't flirt with homeless like behavior when you have a house don't flirt with gusting windstorms and snow drifts on your sofa don't flirt with these things don't mess with them you have been given an opportunity to live a life wholly different than this world take advantage of it so the same writer john is going to start out this entire epistle this letter with this statement this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth that sounds sort of like first john chapter three doesn't it you know if we're saying oh i'm in fellowship with him but we live as if you know singing the the death metal lyrics ah something doesn't match but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus christ his son cleanses us from all sin so when we live over here we have this cleansing that is constant it is a reality to this side and it cleanses us from all sin when we walk in the faith we have a cleansing flood listen to how he finishes here if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us so when you read 1st john chapter three and we're like okay guys we're gonna do the test you're like well i'm fine i have no issues it's like hmm really it's it's the irony of it if you say that you have no problems well then you're deceiving yourself and the truth is not in you if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness what a hope that we have in jesus so at every turn in this journey we are unfinished his work is finished we are clothed in his finished work which is why we have boldness to enter into the throne of grace when i arrive at eternity and say i stand before that great white throne of judgment and say the question is by what merit eric ludi can you enter into the kingdom of heaven what's my answer well i did all these good deeds i helped this old lady across the street you know you know this happened i did this great deed here am i appealing to my good works no what's my answer i'm in christ that's my pleasure my confidence is in him and for you right now i want you to freshly place that confidence in him not in your own perfection in him and that is the essence of righteousness that's how you practice righteousness that's how you do it as a christian you believe you don't have to muster the perfect life that's something he is building in you via his holy spirit he is correcting and when he corrects you agree and as you agree with his holy spirit's work when he says do this speak this repent of this confess this as you do that you cultivate a healthy home you get rid of leaks you get rid of lamps that keep toppling over and shattering the light bulbs all of those things begin to disappear when you first enter into the kingdom of heaven you could have a foul mouth you could be addicted to drugs there's all sorts of things but as you continue in christ those things are going to melt away you don't continue in those things that's what john is saying why would you continue in those things when you have all of the equipment to actually move out of those things the fact that you're still in some of those and stepping out is actually part of the process of sanctification so don't mix up the two he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness father here we are your children in need of your shed blood lord we desire to live lives that shine the kingdom of heaven but lord we are feeble we're made of dust we have need of our god to not just save us in an eternal sense but to save us right now today from our selfishness to save us from our inclinations to save us from temptations that are just around the bend today that we would keep our eyes from focusing on the wrong things we would keep our tongues from speaking words that are selfish instead our tongues would be wielded to speak words of life that we would keep our ears from hearing words that would nullify the truth in our soul but that we would utilize our ears to hear the truth of your word lord may we meditate upon these things the things that set apart our life to truly triumph lord and where we fall short i pray that your holy spirit would convict us afresh we desire to serve you and to walk in the light as you were in the light it's in the precious name of jesus that we pray this amen leslie and i are just going to lead us in a few songs

Channel: Ellerslie Discipleship Training

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Keywords: Eric Ludy, The Gospel, Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Cross, Cross of Christ, Ellerslie Discipleship, Ellerslie Discipleship Training, Ellerslie, sermon, Bible, Bible study, sermon message, tenor of life, sin, salvation, gospel

Id: mtY9qSYM-ok

Length: 76min 47sec (4607 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 28 2021