Finishing Strong Pt. 2 - Men's Bible Study by Rick Burgess - Jan. 30, 2019

we're gonna go ahead and open them with prayer and get started lord thank you for today thank you for the message that you prepared for us Lord I pray that you'll continue to refine us and to grow us at Invictus and to the men that only you can make us in the name of Jesus we pray amen now for those you raise your hand if you were not here last week and you're new to the Bible study okay so not not many that's uphill you're not new but anyway so we're we're actually in you know usually in this Bible study most of you who have been to it some but somebody might be the first time we go through everything we go through books we go through books of the Bible matter of fact we just finished going through Acts and going through Romans and going through James and now we're kind of jumping over and now doing a bullet with a little more life application and we'd love for you to stay with us we do this year-round here at noon on and if you missed last week the first chapter of finishing strong by Steve Farrar I would encourage you I know I said before and I kind of got an my accountability group I kind of got held accountable did they disagreed with me and they said I think you're wrong telling people not to worry about getting the book because the book is so beneficial and I'm not gonna cover every aspect of the book and there's going to be a few tidbits that may be helpful to you that I may not cover that you're gonna miss if you don't have the book and if you can't find hard copies of finishing strong by Steve Farrar you can get it on the ebooks I know I think it's like $13 you can get it right to your phone or your tablet relatively easy so I would encourage you to get the book as I stand corrected for being a little more flippant about that and I should have been but but but get that so if you missed chapter one it really I can set it up and not not a big deal you can go back and listen to it anytime you miss a Bible study you can get it on the Ricky and Bubba podcast channel and that's free you can get in our You Tube channel that's free and you can go back and listen to that or you can see it on our social media platforms Adler and I'll put that out if you follow me on Twitter or the show on Twitter or Facebook page it'll be there as well if you ever want to go back to old series it that you may have missed and you'd love to go back and walk through some of those Burgess ministries.com click on media Burgess ministries com click on media and you can go back all the way back to a couple of years worth of Bible studies that are there and you can find a lot of those on the podcast channel too but I know they're all at Burgess ministries.com by clicking on media so if I was to sum up last week we're talking about that sadly very few men and really women for that matter human beings finish well or finish strong now if you don't think God wants this Bible study done this time with all of us any of you that are members of my home church and know what I'm about to say but those you that don't go to our church guess what our message was this past Sunday and we had a guest speaker it wasn't even our pastor as if you know maybe he grabbed it from here this was a guest speaker finishing up a crave weekend or some people call it D na weekend kind of thing and he'd been with our youth all weekend Brent Crowe who we interviewed right here when he first put out his book chasing elephants and in first time I met him and I loved that book and and and was impressed with him that day he's going on and his major league involved in student leadership leadership university and and it speaks everywhere all over the country all over the world and his message was finishing well and I thought well I looked at Sherrie I just wrote finishing well in circuit and I said you think God's trying to try to drive us drive this point home and he did here's that here's one right here guys and there's one right here there's one right back there and so I think this is important because it last week as Steve told us God is not looking for starters he's looking for finishers anybody can start but very few people finish as a matter of fact the surveys we're getting more of it in this chapter came to the conclusion that one out of ten men and when we talking about ministry we're not talking about just vocational ministry we're talking about everybody who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ will that person finish well now what does that look like that that doesn't necessarily mean we're talking about that your name is on some building or you had some great accomplishment for the kingdom or you went into some vocational ministry or you started an orphanage certainly all those things can be great what this whole book is about is every single person who claims the name of Jesus Christ do you die the way the Apostle Paul died one the few who finished well saying that I never compromise Jesus I had no giant moral failure I didn't leave the faith I didn't change the faith I was devoted to Jesus Christ after he justified me I was continued to be sanctified I was continued to be refined I was I was I was going you know I was committed to holiness and when I finished I was the husband he said I should be I was the father he said I should be I was the son he should I should be I was the disciple he said I should be and I was doing what he told me to do all the way to my earthly death or his return that's what finishing well and finishing strong is I don't want you to get in your mind it's a bunch of accomplishments or accolades certainly on earth if that comes fine but but that's not what we're doing it is I'm I devoted to Jesus Christ until my death or his return yes or no and and that's really what it's about and and and through the surveys in the first the question that we can now start this went on is Steve Farrar asked the question if it comes down to it that it's only one out of 10 or if you look at when God was trying to give the promised land it became 2 out of 12 of the leaders of all the tribes not just somebody that he grabbed happenstance out of the tribes he said send me your best men and of those 12 only to them said I'll finish I'll do what you said we're gonna do god I think you are who you said you are so based on those numbers he asked this question to kind of wrap up chapter 1 what makes you and me think that we're the one are the two why aren't we the 10 or the 9 what are we doing differently that would mean that we're gonna be the 1 or the 2 out of 12 or the 1i 10 that's going to finish strong why why do we think we're not gonna follow it so now he gets into some of the application in chapter 2 and he starts off with a quote from Charles Spurgeon he said beware of no man more are no more a man than yourself we carry our worst enemies within us and I have found that to be absolutely 100% true most of the problems that have it entered into my life were self-made and when I get up every day and I pray Lord protect me from my biggest enemy myself you know you think about this we've talked about the scene before we talked about in our study of the book of James for those you that were with us James says most of the sin has nothing to do with the devil at all has nothing to do with Satan has nothing do with demons it has to do with your own sinful desires your flesh is enticed by sin and that's why you fall we've said before Satan this is not Star Wars there's not yin and yang Satan is not the opposite of God Lucifer was created by God he's a very high-ranking angel and but he is created by God in the drop from God down to Satan as a gigantic drop certainly we don't want to battle Satan without Jesus if the Archangel Michael in the book of Jude said he would not go in battle Satan for Moses his body without Jesus we probably don't need to either but the fact remains Satan is not omniscient he's not omnipresent he's not on nipa tent God is Satan is which means he can't be everywhere at all times he has a third of the Angels I don't know that number it still may be a big number but it's still only a third two thirds are still with God and you know what they're not around us all the time what usually is our problem is just ourselves because I Got News for you that army is spending time on the front lines if you ever want to find out where they are just go stand right in the middle of O Jerusalem and you can feel them everywhere but but most of us the problem that we run into is our own problem so he said so there was a research that was being done on leaders and of course when you talk about leaders we're talking about everybody in here okay and you say well I'm not a leader at my workplace we're not talking about that you may be but are you a leader in your home yes so everybody in here who has a family you're a leader everybody in here who is in a group of people and maybe you don't have a family yet but you desire to have a family you're preparing to be a leader or if you claim you but the name of Jesus Christ you may be a leader within that group but this room and everybody listening and watching this in some way shape or form most everybody in here is a leader of some type and we'll get into the definition of a leader later in the book so the Bible mention I didn't know this over a thousand leaders some well-known some barely a mention but in 1982 dr. Robert Robert Clinton said he was going to devote his entire ministry to the study of the leadership and he studied 900 leaders over 13 years now these were leaders in Scripture theirs were leaders of our church history some of them just contemporary leaders and then he had to reduce the nine-hundred down to a hundred prominent leaders and of the hundred of 100 leaders then Clinton found that Scripture really only provided enough information to make a call on how they finished 249 so he said there were 49 people after all this deduction that he got down to and he said he noticed of the 49 that he could document enough scripture to see how they finished he found there were four kinds of finishes that are relevant to our study he said it really goes into there's there's four ways that this thing happens for all of us and then he says there is of course they cut off early that means something tragic happened the person's life was not very long they were they died in some way they were destroyed in some way and we never saw really how they finished that's cut off early never really got out of the gate the other he said were those that were easy to understand those who finish poorly and then he said the other category was finished so so they did all right they weren't great but they did all right and then of course the goal finished well so he said names really don't matter he said if you don't know all the names that are mentioned in these different categories that's not important what's important is the category and what that category means to us so let's look first about cutoff early that means they were taken out of leadership this would include assassinations killed in battle they were denounced by prophecy they were overthrown some examples of these cut off early include Samson Absalom a hab Josiah John the Baptist's James John and James some of these men were good leaders but most of them were bad and it says but they were cut off early and he says if you know somebody your mind that's come to your mind right now and you think this person meets that category it's likely that there's a tragic story that explains they're finished so this is we just didn't get a lot of we don't have a big sample and what they did you know all these things happen we didn't know that much about them so he said the next there's finished poorly this means they were going downhill in the latter part of their lives this might mean in terms their personal relationship with God or in terms of competency for the kingdom or both some who are typical examples of finishing poorly include Gideon that may surprise you Eli Saul Solomon that's one of the scariest things I heard a guy say to me who was a follower crisis of the day that he says well I see Donald Trump like it's our saul and I said oh I wish wouldn't say that that was actually what God didn't want them to do and and then he let them experience a little success for a little while then they regretted that decision when Saul became a disaster but anyway I even questioned him I said certainly you mean something else Solomon finished poorly in other words these are guys who were barely able to crawl across the finish line either that or they were carried across the line and this is of course the category that we want to what avoid now once you think about that so what we just heard is we don't want to be like as far as the way they finished Gideon Eli Saul not not so became Paul King Saul and Solomon I think about those names prominent Bible we don't be like that because they finished poorly and and so that they had some great moments but they they didn't they didn't come all the way to the line then there's finishing so so that means they did not do what they could have done or should have done now what you think about that so finishing so so means you finished okay but you know what you did you underperformed you didn't finish as well as with everything you'd been given you should have you ever have that is there anything that sadder than people that don't live up to expectations people have all these great accolades about them they think they're going to do so great they have so much potential and we'll get to this in a minute there's a great great word on that in this this chapter and everybody sits around and says here you ever watched the thirty four thirty or Marcus Allen not Marcus Allen Marcus Dupree a mark is a very really sad story probably the greatest running back ability wise that college football and professional football has ever seen as far as talent but he he got into trouble he had issues he he couldn't overcome him and he he is a sad story of someone who really under form never really showed us their potential there were flashes of it flashes of it freshman year even some of the things that happened that I didn't remember he didn't professional football in the USFL flashes of greatness but but they they did not they finished kind of soso they kind of underperformed and he said now the list that includes that he says these are people that did not complete what God had for them to do this might mean they were some negative ramifications maybe from their past that lingered on even though they were talking with or walking with God personally at the end of their lives there were examples of those that finish soso and this may surprise you but we're gonna talk more about David later in the book and it won't surprise you so much he puts David in the category of someone who finished soso and I hear men try to go to David a lot and they usually go to David because they wanted for somehow say even though they've done something horrible and there they've done some terrible sin that David was forgiven to that so they you know look what happen with David well I Got News for you David is in the finished soso category so if David is your goal of the kind of man you want to be you're shooting low on the way he finished he did not finish well are strong he finished so so how about the finish well not tell me if there's moments where he was certainly great and and then his repentant heart is something that we should look at as an example when he finally came to the conclusion that he's sinned against God not just against Uriah and not just against Sheba that he'd actually sinned against God but if you look at his life he started taking multiple wives and concubines long before he ever got to Bathsheba so he was being away from God long before that happened and even in the latter part of his life were terrible ramifications for what he did so I want to tell every man listening this watching this in this room be real careful screaming you're a lot like David you don't want to be like David now if you want to be like the Apostle Paul that'd be a great but I wouldn't make my goal David okay so anyway and I think a lot of times we do because it's a much lower standard than the Apostle Paul and others that get into the finish well category so what so the piece said this is David Jehoshaphat Hezekiah he said to put another spin on this these were pretty good guys he said after all as I mentioned David was a man who was after God's own heart because of his repentance there in his moment of sin and the Psalms where he's lamenting and he's humbled and he's crying out to God all that's wonderful but David really didn't finish strong David actually finished somewhere in the middle of the pack I don't know I don't know a man worth anything that their goal is middle of the pack is it really is anybody set that go can you imagine sitting across from your son or daughter and you said well what how do you think you're gonna do for the kingdom yeah middle of pack is that our go really middle the pack but if it is that's probably what you'll achieve but anyways so then finish well that means that they were walking with God and this is the key to what finish well means they were walking with God personally at the end of their lives they were strong in their faith and they were close to God all the way home okay and that's what finishing well he says some of those men who finished well he said would be men like Abraham Jobe Joseph we talked about Joshua and Caleb last week Samuel Elisha Jeremiah Daniel John Paul Peter that's where we want to be so if I were you guys and here in ladies who may be watching and listening because you know the gender here doesn't matter it what matters is the way they lived their lives out there certainly women in the Bible who also finished well but what I would do and this is what I'm gonna do okay I would take everything before finish well and I would take all those names and I would remove them from my goal of how I want to finish and I would just look at the all-star list of Abraham Jobe Joseph Joshua Caleb Samuel Elisha Jeremiah Daniel John Paul and Peter and say you know what that's where I'm gonna concentrate on how to finish the all these other people offers great things about life lessons but we're talking about finishing we're talking about how you finish strong and that's what this study is about if you want to get that part of your life right these are the examples not the others finishing so we go on so then he said all of these every name we mentioned were gifted and had very impressive strengths but why didn't all of them finish strong because they did not survive ambushes getting through an ambush is what separates the men from the boys and I say that figuratively I mean that's that separates the finishing strong from the finishing poorly or the finishing so-so or the cut off early and sometimes they cut off early is that that that is not as negative as it sounds it means their life just wasn't very long so when we look at the ambushers he says now if you want to survive an ambush and all of us know this you got to anticipate the ambush you got to be smart enough and you've got to be wise enough to know what is coming and you go I can see a long way off that's a problem and so I'm not gonna go anywhere near that I'm not gonna be pulled into that now these ambushes will not surprise anybody because it and we've said this in many Bible studies one of you've already mentioned it to me was that you mean you at lunch some of this is that the adversary and our flesh has been giving the adversary has been throwing up these same problems since the fall of mankind our flesh has been drawn to the same things since the fall there's nothing new Under the Sun if you if you love sports analogies and I certainly like them it's like you're sitting there and and and I think we've all been there before if you ever were part of a team or you pull for a team and you see pretty soon in the game and I've been on defense on this too which is a terrible feeling that I know there's certain things that the offense does that we can't defend it and I just hope they won't do it I remember one time when I was even coaching a little league team and lily's I think sometimes these coaches trying to be you know Nick Saban or whatever that are now Dabo Swinney but whatever they're trying to be is well I mean let's face it those are the two names the two names those are the two names of the top of college football okay they are there the standard okay both of them are but but anyway what I'm saying is this that would outsmart themselves literally football's not that complicated and so we were playing a team that had a running back that we could stop no way it wasn't complicated he would get the ball run over our whole defense and he'd score so so we would score to their defense wasn't any good either so it gets down to the end of the game it is 4th and 1 from the 1 and I say if they give it to this guy they win they tried to trick us and give it to the full-back well guess what our little young Davis did oh thank goodness enough the guy we caked a con hole and they covered up the full-back we won the game all they had to do was just give it to the guy that we couldn't tackle but they they start doing strategy which might work in big-time football but in Little League just give it to the guy we can tackle so Satan knows and adversary knows there are certain things I've always done that every man always falls for and I get them the same way and I've been getting in the same way since the fall and guess what the first one is the ambush of another woman the second one the ambush of money the third one the ambush of the neglected family all of these things have destroyed men for as long as any of us can remember and if you'll think in your mind either about yourself or about somebody you've seen fall it's one of these three categories just about every single time so and some of you said we're it what about pride and arrogance well all these it's a it's still the same problem is just the specific pride and arrogance so first of all one of the things you have to think about I love the analogy for our users in this chapter about risk insurance risk management y'all know insurance is nothing but them running the numbers that they're you're gonna give them more money than they have to give you so what are you looking with a lot preferred risk what will never have to give this guy money so what is it what is it think about what insurance is here's car insurance you know what you're saying I'll bet I wrecked my car you know what they're saying we bet you want all right you know what you know what medical insurance is but I'm gonna be really sick you know they say we bet you want you know what life insurance is you say I bet you I'm gonna die young and they go we bet you won't ha ha ha so really it's all numbers so and they're playing that's nothing wrong with that I mean it's a necessary evil evil and they got to make a living and they're saying what we don't take bad risk you know why because we're going to write a lot of checks so what he said is first of all let's say for everybody in this room everybody listening or watching let's say my insurance company we want to protect against adultery are you high risk too preferred risk somebody comes under says look you don't insure this guy I can tell you you'll be paying that one or would he look it or would the insurance company look at your life in my life and say preferred risk preferred risk they'll be paying us all we'll never never have to pay them he's not he'll never cheat him as well and so that's really what he's talking about are you living a life in these three areas where you'd be high risk a preferred risk and and with the insurance company won't you and me as a client or would they stay as far away from us as they possibly could so the ambush of another woman y'all might remember from chapter 1 dr. Howard Hendricks he interviewed two hundred and forty six men who had had moral failure within a two-year period of time all 246 it had a moral failure within a two year period of time all 246 just shy of 250 all got involved in sexual immorality involving another woman every single one of them so when he looked at these men he said well I guess I can do a study on sexual morality and adultery because all 246 of them in ministry that's why they failed it was another woman and he said he found that when he studied all of them he saw four correlations and this is important not if you have something to write on write it down or forget the book and they'll be in there to listen to this of 246 that committed adultery against their their spouse and single guys what I would say to you is committed fornication outside of marriage saint we apply to you okay so I want you listen this nun nun these are guys in ministry vocational ministry none of them were involved in any kind of personal accountability group not one so you know why the high-risk guys don't get in personal accountability groups because they know what's going to happen there I've said it about this men's ministry that y'all you guys are all participating in and I and I applaud you for that and I had some things to say at man Church for some of the guys that had showed back up because they like the speaker and our speaker did a great job and couldn't have done better it was a great night I say nothing negative about the night however I've had people tell me you know because we're talking we should do this but we should do this people say we need to do a better job marketing the men's ministry let's get our ambassadors in the classes be shirtless fine but we don't have ambassadors and we do need to do all that don't misunderstand me but I told the the men's group leadership I said but if I could just be the cold shower in the room I don't think the problem that a lot of these men aren't coming is they don't know about it they know about it they won't know part of it because they know exactly what it's going to be by and they don't desire to hear that they don't they're not ready to hear you know what they know they're gonna hear things that are convict them and things that are gonna force them to change you know what they've decided I don't want to go there I've had people say that people in their sin suits I said I don't want gonna get beat up what yeah those are the main part of what we're doing in here and part of what we do at our church if you go there does it feel like you're getting beat up or is it feel like you're being challenged it feel like you've been confirmed sometimes convicted sometimes I don't know about you but it has completely changed my whole walk with Jesus you know I mean doing what I'm doing in here on Wednesdays has changed I mean I've gone to another place in my relationship with Jesus you know why because I'm more devoted to him I'm spending more time with him I'm preparing I mean his word and we're all getting in here and I'm packing it on a regular basis and that's paying dividends you know why that's same thing about us it says everything about him so most of these guys drifted off to another woman and they were not hey I'm in a severe accountability group I mean I'm talking about I can barely breathe after what I just went through this weekend first of all in a day and a half of rich Wingo and I don't even like the duck-hunting he made me he said we worried about Duncan we probably even see a duck ducks are named flying we're gonna sit there for three hours in that duck blind and we're gonna hash it out I kept hoping ducks would come there's something something to get me out of here man I'm backed into a corner you know so I had that then I leave that I come home get up Brent Crowe comes in and he hammers us on finishing well then I go here Patrick Nick's on Sunday night guys let me tell you something I'm good but you know what it was all wonderful it wasn't something I hated it was something I enjoyed and I like knowing that if I'm going to be unfaithful to my wife or I'm gonna do anything that steps me outside of the authority of Christ I got man standards so get your butt back under the authority of Jesus what are you doing you idiot and they asked me very hard questions but see these people don't have that you know why likely they didn't want it and what did it lead to so here's the next thing they didn't have if you don't have severe accountability in your life hey you are high risk you're high risk I'm just gonna tell you so severe accountability is one of them and I'm not talking about somebody who who beats up on you all the time telling somebody hold you accountable the next one he said each had ceased to invest in a daily personal time of prayer scripture reading and worship these were guys who probably I remember vividly and and I get to go a lot of places so this will be fair cuz nobody know what I'm talking about it's been so long ago I don't remember really where it was either I remember walking in to a pastor's of office who invited me to come speak to his church and foolishly in my arrogance I thought he invited me because he was excited about me coming not that he just didn't want to preach okay so I sit in his office the guy literally sits there and he's like I thought we don't talk I thought we're gonna talk about the Bible talk about the message he goes getting his watch I'm looking at my watch for those you there listening all right you ready to go in there hit pray with me he didn't talk about what we're gonna be talking about we didn't talk about how each other we're doing our families were doing which is struggling with what's the state of the church I never he said three four words to me and I walked in and when I stepped in that pulpit it was this I see in that place as it is outside right now I'm cold I don't want say I asked James ban if you're listening sorry about that the guys it was frigid those people were checked out he had checked out so you're thinking how Rick can a person in full-time ministry which we're all in full-time ministry not have quiet time not have prayer time and not have time where they're worshiping the Lord and just celebrate now I can tell you how it's real easy they just decide they don't do it anymore I Got News for you there's a lot of people that can take their faith in Jesus in phoning in especially this becomes just some culture experience to them our our tradition are really their vocation I mean do you really think there's not people out there that are in ministry to get paid did that decide to start into a job - how many more got to fall before y'all realize that that's really going on so let me ask you a question ask me a question do you have that time I understand the busyness especially you small children people my time of having small children is the most exhausting it is trying to get that under control and try to find time to do stuff I certainly get it you try to take care of your wife you're trying to work you try and take care of your kids by the time they go to bed at night you are out cause you're trying to be a good dad you're trying to be a good husband if you want to try to be a good husband a good dad you will be exhausted okay but that's not right but it doesn't have to be anything that's gonna require all this you know sucking of time don't use that as an excuse I'm telling you right now if you will take Oswald Chambers my utmost for his highest and you'll read that one page at some point before you go to bed as you get up I prefer as you get up but sometimes we're running or sometimes during the day you set aside time you're gonna read that one page I mean I've had Oswald Chambers convinced me by June when I started in January that I was completely lost and I needed to get to know Jesus I mean it is the most convicting those deep straightforward page and you'll be surprised how many times the Lord has used that man really his wife because he died young and his wife found all of his sermons just somebody needs to hear these and she's the one that made the devotion and it's been going on it's the best one-day devotion I've ever read and it lasts the test of time and something like that or you know what you don't have to get in some long drawn out you know prayer you'll hear people talking about probably they pray for three hours or whatever look how about this just get up there get on your face and said lord i love you lord i need you protect me from my biggest enemy myself help me to be the husband i need to be help me to be the father i need to be - I take and I take my wife and I just let I just didn't long and I'll take my wife and I say Lord here's the needs of my wife here's the things I pray over her today then I take my daughter and I say here's the need she has here's the things going on or please this this and this and I take my oldest son then I take the next son then I take the next son and then you know I you just say I don't do it every single time I don't know what situation is with my younger son he's with you I didn't know how that works but if there's a message back to him tell him we love Him tell them what's going on with what happened to him is still going and we'll be together soon and now Lord just put your hand on me and don't take it away from me let's go another day it ain't kind of anything complicated you know and and then of course you have this which is good you know that you guys are attending every week which I can't say enough about that but these men all who be committed adultery did not have that how about this eighty percent eighty eighty percent failed and this won't surprise any of you in the room due to the results of counseling a woman 80% of the adultery they've had a woman that they didn't have anybody in there with them or they didn't leave the door open they didn't bring they didn't bring somebody as I said they didn't meet with with the husband and wife together if it's a woman who was married and what happened is they started spending significant time with a woman other than their wives now now let me let me caution you in here guys let me caution you there's not many people in here that in vocational ministry but there's a lot of people in here that work with other women who aren't your wives the a lot of you that have couples that you may be friends with and I'm gonna tell you loud and I'm gonna tell you clear I know there's certain things that come with your job that you can't get around I certainly understand that but I want you to ask yourself a very serious question are you spending additional time with a woman who's not your wife unnecessarily if you want to have a close intimate friend other than your wife a guy will do just fine okay I don't know I don't know a man I don't know one if they were honest that is spending time with another woman other than his wife that they're not somewhere attracted to her and they have ulterior motives and women love for a man to want to hear about their problems my husband won't talk to me about this all that garbage stop it now I'm telling you it's gonna have a really bad ending and you know why I know that because it has a bad ending 100% of the time and some of you know you need to stop it and you stop it right now okay there's certainly some things very rare I'm fortunate at this time and I but they hadn't always been this way there are sales people that sell us locally and nationally that maybe female and there's times they certainly need to meet with me but they don't ever meet with me alone never I will not go have lunch with them we if they want to have a meeting they can come this conference room and all the guys from the show will sit in there with me and I'll sit with them they can bring other sales people sales manager but never under any circumstance know how no way do I ever spend time with a female salesperson alone never and you don't need to either you don't need to do it I don't know who this woman is you know don't start talking to your neighbors and the husband's gone and she's at home and you're home from the office you have a home office you know out there in the yard kicking around I'm telling you I'm talking there's there's men some who have ceased to come here that that I knew that there was a problem and the guy said something and just and just like that I heard him mention how attractive this new neighbor was I said just go back to that why are you talking about how she looks oh well I mean she's just pretty woman I said you doing it again I know what you do it that that's a telltale sign that you do not tell me that I don't care what she looks like why would you tell me that you know and then you have the big eyes he'll do this kind of stuff where they get theirselves in trouble and you and and and I've seen this happening in front of the wife that that has been has been compromised and actually say things like well I mean if you saw her you wouldn't blame me what you know and so this is the kind of garbage now by the way everybody I've mentioned which I either a Christian just so you know okay that's gonna lead to trouble every single time you know he said without exception each of the 246 men in a two-year period that betrayed their wives in ministry every single one of them said it will never happen to me I can handle that that kind of goes back to the thing I had to be convicted of when I start saying things that were obviously not defined what Paul said on the kind of things we should think on we've that should think of the things that are good and all and I remember saying like an idiot well I mean that movies a little rough or whatever but I mean they don't bother me and I could handle it and I heard and Jesus is like but it should bother you you you're you're ushered me into this garbage they don't bother you well I guess you and are as close as we need to be it should bother you and if your attitude to not committing adultery and your wife is we'll see like we talked about last week or I can handle it you're doomed the adversary is laughing his head off at you and you're gonna fail I promise you so that is the ambush of one you got to know what's going on you got to know what situation not to put yourself in and said all these men were high risk because of these things that they were not doing everything that everything they did was to ensure that they would get involved with a woman they weren't doing anything to ensure that would they were doing everything to ensure that they would and I thought it was kind of cool when it says you know we've heard the great things about Billy Graham and how his staff handled this but it's one of the things I want to hit before we get to that here's the things I want you to to think about with it with the ambushes that we just said do you spend personal time with the Lord in prayer reading scriptures at least three times a week are there at least two one or two men in your life to whom you've you built a friendship based on trust you have your have them in confidence and accountability in other words you have somebody close enough that means you can't con them that loves you enough to get in your face if they need to are you spending significant time with any attractive woman other than your wife a woman you work with a woman you counsel etcetera are you absolutely sure that you will finish strong so he says if you go back and you do this list again he said the simple answer that is necessary is to be on the preferred list if you can answer those questions in the right way he says so here's what we do you should have a yes to time with the Lord you just have a yes I'll have that accountability brother you should have a no on spending significant time with any attractive woman other than your wife and are you absolutely sure you'll finish strong the correct answer to that by the way is no if you're absolutely sure without any efforts you're gonna finish strong you're already dead because you know what all these men said this won't happen to me so anyway this was something that Mille dinar tardar net that worked with Billy Graham for 40 years here's what she said on the ethics of mr. Graham the cliff barrows and George Beverly Shea and the rest of the male members of the Billy Graham team she said I've always appreciated from a moral point of view how the men have been in their attitude toward the secretaries the doors are always left open they are and there is a high regard for the lack of any kind of privacy where a boss and his secretary involved at times I thought they were going a little too far that it wasn't necessary but I'm glad they did it especially today they have kept everything above reproach when you're working on learn long-term basis with the same person constantly in hotels where the wife is not there and the secretary is that is a highly explosive situation you have to take precautions I've always respected the way they've handled it it has always been beautifully done and that's from a woman who was watching these men they were above reproach and at times she said I thought they were going a little far but you know that used to means if you're willing to go a little far with you you probably won't fail an extreme opponent requires an extreme defense strategy and women are a strong opponent and they always have me okay I don't think I have to tell you all that the next ambush is the ambush of money now the ambush of money that this I really laughed out loud because we were talking about people who don't have their money and in the right place and he does the funny joke about the hurricane but I won't get into all that but that's him there's pretty funny but there he said he said I know a guy with a PhD in theology from one of the leading theological institutions in the world he's also a convicted felon who is currently sitting in a federal prison for ripping off a number of savings and loans and are in a real estate scam he said the interesting thing about this guy is that he has systematic theology wired and he can explain to you all the nuances of biblical passages either in Hebrew or Greek but he currently sits in prison because he had a love for money that was his weakness he said he didn't start out scamming money in real estate deals he started fooling around with the Dutchman's on his income tax return hello he started fooling around on deductions that were not legal or not truthful on his income tax return that they're making by uncomfortable we do we we don't claim anything that's not true we pay what we're supposed to pay and so he started off saying I'll compromise my finances in a little place and before you do it he's nothing big few hundred dollars here there he never had a problem with cutting just a few corners on his return and when he got his real estate license he never found a deal that he couldn't fix with a little creative financing so how many of you are in lines of work where people ask you to compromise things and sales you know hey we got this product we all know what we got in it and this guy's just that you know we know this and but if I take if I can get them to buy for this I may put a little bit over here to me and I still turning my profit yeah I'm gonna claim this on tax is not really true but no harm the government's evil and you know that they're gonna get over money and I certainly you know III have no joy and the tax rate that I've tax that I think it's immoral and it's wrong but it hadn't changed so that's what I have to pay and I pay what I'm supposed to pay and you know as long as I'm in Babylon I'm a good citizen of law-abiding citizens unless they ask me to you know reject God then then I'm gonna get in trouble but I'm not gonna look for trouble wise as the serpent gentle as the Dove so he talks about Ananias and Sapphira and we talked about that all of you that were here in the book of Acts there studied that but some of you weren't here for that so I'll give you a little run I laughed really hard after this because he said I hear people talking all the time that we got to get back to the church acts and in staffer R says there's certainly some truth to that he goes but I noticed they never mention Ananias and Sapphira on getting back to the book of Acts I don't think you'd be careful asking to get back to the book of Acts how about this if you said you give something boy you better give it so Ananias what it was with what it was a love of money and I'll try to put he comes in and he tells the church that he and his wife sapphire him had sold a piece of property and they they didn't keep anybody for themselves and they gave it to the church every bit of it and laid it at the Apostles feet but Peter says Ananias why has Satan filled your hearts and lights at the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the price of the land now be clear there was no demand that Ananias and Sapphira give 100% of what they sold to the church the issue was they said that's what they were going to do now I'm gonna make a longer story short now the reason why they did that also showed a flaw and they're in their condo they were jealous a Barnabas because Barnabas had sold some land and he had actually given every bit of it and everybody made a fuss about it about how great Barnabas was and we all need to be like Barnabas now this is typical they loved money so much they wanted to get the accolade that Barnabas got but not actually give what Barnabas gave and when that happened God struck them dead back to going back to the Church of ethics how would you like that if you told the church that you were tied than 10% of everything you made and you maybe were ties than 8% and God killed you y'all want to get on that y'all want to get back under that authority huh will you be get your numbers right are you tithing yes 10% yes grocer net and so so I mean you know you don't you don't fool around with this kind of stuff and but they were deceivingly I mean that this was this was deception from the beginning they intended this all along and you hear Peter say why be allowed Satan to tricky like this and come here and tell us this lie he's giving him an out he said now I ask you again about this land absolutely we gave every bit of it dead so then his wife shows up no surprise three hours later and so so she comes she comes in she comes in and Peter says don't you wish somebody would have don't you know she wished somebody would've said hey Ethel hi if they ask you about the land in a minute you're gonna say where's my husband and it's not good and so so she comes in say hey it's what your husband told us is this the deal yes dead dead and and all of this was not because they had money not because they should have given a hundred percent of what they had because they pretended to be more sacrificial than they really were and the reason why they didn't want to be as sacrificial as they were is because they had been scamming people and they wanted to keep it and spend it on themselves and there's certainly nothing wrong with them keeping some money for themselves what was wrong is that they were more interested in looking good than actually doing do you think this event was the first time for our ask this that this couple had ever lied about something related to their finances probably not now we don't know the whole story but you just look at their character how many of you know anybody or you remember yourself and I certainly remember myself I mean we talked about this this week and it's a sad truth everybody was talking about you know 33 years ago the Challenger crash happens horrible and everybody in here is going they know it's one of those things you remember exactly where you were when the Challenger crashed I have no idea where I was it was 1986 I remember 1986 and so what I'm saying is I don't recall ever when I was doing things that were sinful that I only did it once you know it not was who I was you know if you caught me doing one thing I'd done it more times than that so I think it's pretty safe to say since he killed them that Ananias and Sapphira had an issue with not being completely upfront about their money and and this was a final straw and then of course so the deal about money is this but we said before currency ended of itself is neutral but our love of money is what is evil and look just get they had it you'd write I've even heard idiots say well that's my money I earned that money with what the abilities that God gave you do you really think God is sitting up there going I tell you Bert just don't get his 10% in this month I don't know what we're gonna do and then an angel said well you know let's seize money it's not my money it's not your money and there's nothing wrong with having money as long as you don't care about it that's one of the young rich ruler Jesus said I'm dealing with your problem he wasn't that mean we talked about this wealthy man of the Bible one of them just made the fender I mean a couple of just made the finishing strong list Jobe and Abraham were not poppers okay but they were solid and they finished strong they make they make the preferred list okay but it's the way that they handled their money and that the way they felt about their money and the way they made their money money is evil if you make it at the expense of somebody else or you're cutting corners you're sending to do it money's evil if you're hoarding it you're not willing to give it money's evil if it means so much to you that you're consumed with it and I'm going to tell you this when we get to the neglect your family is our final thing your family right now would take less money and more of you and I know a lot of guys that think their sole purpose in life for their family for their wife is to make money and I can already tell you that your wife and your children are neglected it unhappen if that's what you think your sole role is it's certainly part of it so the next one is the ambush is the ambush of a neglected family how about this he this is when Steve Farrar was still single this is why this is so profound he was asked about going into full-time ministry he said what is your greatest fear about going into ministry and he said this is my greatest fear and he was not married at the time being successful in ministry and losing my family that's Steve for I'll talk about that as a single guy because you know why he said I'd seen it over and over again he said every pastor I knew he says at the point at the point I had seen their kids every pastor he knew every one of their kids had left the faith when they left the house and he said look there's a difference it being spiritual and being weird he said sometimes I look at something here some people think being weird as being spiritual I love that I can hear him saying if you've ever heard Steve before and he talks about this guy named James CT stud and he said he left his family and left his wife for like 16 years I forget the number of years and went to China and he certainly you know did some work in China but but he lost his family and he was and I can hear some of y'all out there thinking and I certainly can understand he says that this was more important than his family he said I'm sorry that's not spiritual that's just weird he said it's better he said there's a lot of people say it's also dangerous to go on mission and all that he said but if you look at the Bible he said first of all you see that all of the the apostles who were married they they took their wives with them you also saw that Jesus the family he had were the disciples and he never did ministry without them he took them with him he says so look if you're feel called to the mission field you feel called to go to some corner of the earth take your family with you he said because it's better to face adversity together as a family then it's a galette to neglect to one another through a distorted understanding of Christ demands on the family he said we must get this right now an example of what he's talking about we know if you have your Bible or something with your Bible on it let's go to Luke 14:6 Luke 14:6 and this is a very popular and controversial discussion from from Jesus and I can remember my own father struggling with this when it was taught not fully understanding this and Jesus says this if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters yes even his own life he cannot be my disciple he said that some people take that and it's distorted some people he said but I would take you and also and point you to Genesis 22 with Abraham and Isaac and he says what what but both of these stories are teaching us is that your family cannot be an idol your children can't be an idol your wife can't be an idol they don't learn they're not ahead of God in your life and if you want to be a great husband and a great father put God where he's supposed to be you actually become a husband and a father like he's called you to do through his power anybody that puts their family ahead of God is really not a good husband they're really not a good father but here's the problem that doesn't mean you abandon your wife and you abandon your family in order to say well I got to serve the Lord he's never required that he was he wants to know is our is your family and idle ahead of me he wanted know Abraham is Isaac your idol and he wasn't he was willing to do and have faith that whatever God called Envy he's a children's and what children and wives are not idols but they should be in the right place dl Moody there's anybody prepared to say that DL Moody didn't know how to do ministry deal moody said I believe the family was established long before the church and that my duty is to my family first I am NOT to neglect my family and that you think about this Malachi 4:6 the last thing that said when the Lord goes silent for 400 years in Malachi 4:6 he said he will restore the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and smite the land with a curse so the last thing that God says for 400 years before we get John the Baptist's in Zachariah he says he's gonna restore the hearts of the children to their fathers and you think wow what are we talking about so John the Baptist thing comes on the scene and he was not only the forerunner of Jesus Christ but he preached a message that our restored the hearts of the fathers to their children you're saying Rick what are you talking about look at Luke chapter 1 Luke chapter 1 verses 13 through 17 this is really cool so we know that Zechariah Theresa the angel said do not be afraid Zechariah for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John and you have joy and gladness and many ruin his birth now this is the first time God spoke in 400 years for he will be great before the Lord he must not drink wine or strong drink he'll be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb now listen to this and he will turn the many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for for the Lord a people prepared part of what John's gonna do is get the father's back in the right relationship with their children and they get the children of God back in the right relationship with their Heavenly Father so so what Malachi says at the end he's still my John the Baptist the misses the message you're gonna hear next is gonna feature this thing and it did now we certainly know that also the Bible is clear about this first Timothy look at first Timothy or write this down if you don't have it 5:8 and this is really straightforward this is Paul writing to young Timothy we heard about this a little bit this weekend too which was great but if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for the members of his household he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever so here's the Bible saying let me take some about your family now they better be provided for and they make better be taken care of and if you're not doing that you know if some guy says well I've got to go up to the mountaintop and I got to go talk to the Lord and your children are starving and your wife has no clothing and they don't what they're supposed to have you're worse than a pagan because you don't have this in the proper order to worship me is to take care of your wife it is to take care of your children and if you don't do that you're worse than a pagan and then look at this - and this is this is gonna be rough but we're gonna wind on it first Timothy three four and five now this is talking about people who will be qualified to be overseers or in church leadership look at one of the things that says he must manage his own household well with all dignity keeping his children submissive look at verse 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household how will he care for God's church and Steve Farrar says something on this verse which I agree with him he said he believes in the Western Church that this is the most abused and ignored commandment in the Bible he says Amen not meeting the needs of his family is disqualified from ministry and he said and a man is only given a public ministry after his first proven his leadership abilities within his own family he said this is one the single most violated principles in the church how many times you've seen it and I think sometimes in and of course being a person who is I had the Senate divorce in my life and I certainly understand I've been redeemed and reconciled and I'm certainly not the man of two wives it's very disrespectful to my wife or anybody say that you know and and so but but the but this is a situation if the church interprets that it's a man of one wife and clue disqualifies me I'm good with that but let me tell you what I don't like is when we also get a bunch of guys who don't manage their household well and don't have their house in order they get to serve now I got a problem with that if we're going to adhere to all the standards whether we agree that interpretation is right or not that's not for me to say if I don't want to be in that situation I should never committed the sin of divorce and I'll take responsibility for that and I repent of that that I that I something that God calls holy I treated poorly when I was lost however and if that if that's an earthly repercussion that's fine I've got other things I can do for the church that's fine but what we can't do as a church is to say we won't let that happened but we'll let a guy go ahead and serve whose house is completely out of control who neglects his family who doesn't take care of his wife his children a bunch of idiots and suddenly this guy and suddenly this guy gets to being leadership but the guy who was divorced one time will be sure we won't let him in if we're gonna stick to all of it let's get it all and we got people in leadership in churches that violate what Paul said to Timothy and we let it go and then when they leave their family for another woman or for another man we all stand around look stupid you know what most people come assist you knew that guy should never been in that position you knew he wasn't solid you knew his her marriage is in trouble you knew his relationship his children was in trouble you knew neglected his family and you let him lead anyway and the damage that kind of stuff does when it rears its ugly head its paramount and so and see the reason why people get away with that sometimes that's something that you can hide and I love this the qualifications for having a public ministry is not giftedness there comes conviction on me right here big time the qualification for ministry is not giftedness it's proven character there's a lot of gifted people that aren't don't have good character we ever seen those raise your hands have been around those yeah I could be that guy I remember a guy from the Billy Graham ministry and he told me something I'll never forget he said hey I heard you teach and whatever you're certainly wrong but obviously God's give me some communication skills obviously look what you do for a living he said but I'm gonna give you some call [ __ ] now I want you to speak less and pray more I said we talked about he said because let me tell people like you you can pull it off ill-prepared doing god-knows-what and if we put you up in a pulp here to give you a microphone you'll do something that'll be okay because you'll lean on the gift you won't lean on God he says so here's what I want you to do don't abuse the gift don't lean on the gift be prepared have a sick work ethic get in the Word of God being on your face before the Lord and if you got so many speaking engagements you can't do that then you cancel some of them pray more speak less because if not you lean on the gift not on God and that those are terrifying words and I'll be honest with you there's been times in my life where I was up there leading on the gift and I was not prepared to had not spent proper time with the Lord but that's not gonna happen again Jesus took many speaking opportunities but he always took his disciples with him he said if you want to be part of the Great Commission and will leave on this it's got to start at home if you can't disciple your own family how in the world can you disciple somebody else how about this he said don't be intimidated by stupid expectations from your work from your job or even your ministry your family doesn't need more things they need you your family doesn't need more things your family my family needs me go back to chapter 4 in my wife's book and when the darkest days our families ever seen not the only Darr day but the darkest she said when that happened nobody could replace my husband and nobody could replace the children's father and I was away but I got back because you know why I couldn't just call us a hey man somebody go over and check on them I that's rough I got to finish this out or I'll get home when I can you know and I got this and people respected me to do that and whatever got this what we got to do is we prioritize our family and if our work asked us to to be sinful in our detect of our family if our ministry asked us to be sinful and neglect our family I remember laughing one time when a guy told me he said I remember literally saying that I needed to get back up to church to learn how to be a good father as my kids were wondering where I was going sometimes the best way to be good fathers be with your kids you know sometimes best will be good husbands be with your wife you don't always have to go off to learn how to do it just do it nothing replaces time you know people say it's not quality quantity of time it's quality that is the life of some guy feels guilty because he'll never see his kids no quantities big quantities big from a man who hadn't always got that right it's big so as we close in prayer these are the ambushes that we first must navigate around to even have a chance of finishing strong take these ambushes into poop a forest I want you to look at your life and see one where you may be struggling let's get on her face before the Lord let's prepare so there because under his authority we are aware when the ambush is coming we have a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and because of his word and what he's called us to do we know how to combat it and not be destroyed by it let's pray lord thank you for today thank you for these convicting words from you through Steve and thank you for us having access to this and grinding it out as men of God and our pray Lord that we take these things and we're not afraid to assess where we're doing well and then fix where we're doing poorly in the name of Jesus we pray amen thanks guys you

Channel: Rick & Bubba

Views: 3,129

Rating: 4.9000001 out of 5

Keywords: burgess, bussey, bible, study

Id: Gin6e2NBVlo

Length: 63min 10sec (3790 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 30 2019