James Jennings | Q&A Session

well let me pray and then we're going to look at some questions you guys gave to william that he gave to me that i was able to think about on the car right here all right let's pray father lord we need your help would i even think of the brethren in san antonio and just pray you would help them this morning lord here i've accidentally brought the sound equipment they needed down here to the laredo and they've got no sound but lord what a opportunity for you to come and make it memorable lord as they preach like preachers did for thousands of years lord they preached with nothing but their voice lord you you allowed george whitefield to preach and thousands could hear him and so lord i pray you'd use even this providence lord of me having that equipment in my van and ending up here lord that's not an accident lord we looked at that months ago when i was here or we looked at the fact that it's not a coincidence lord there's no such thing as a coincidence lord it's it's divine providence and action and we're grateful for that that we can trust you the lord we acknowledge we're weak lord things like this they remind me of my weakness lord my mental weakness lord why did i not remember yesterday to take that sound equipment to the building lord it slipped my mind lord that's how we are with what we've read lord so often we read we study and then we just can't remember some truth that we're struggling to bring it to our mind and so lord we're here today gathered as a bunch of weak people lord our only sufficiency is from you and lord we're actually told to boast in our weakness because then your power and strength is made manifest and so lord i'm asking for your help i pray you'd help me help my hearers or that you'd make our meeting sweet today that you would bless it that you'd encourage our hearts and christ lord we don't want to grow dull of hearing father we don't want to lose heart we want to be courageous we want to have it as our eager expectation and hope that we will not all be ashamed with full courage now as always you will be honored in our lives whether by life or by death lord to live for you that is life lord we're living for you that's what we've tried to do this last week lord whether at work whether mothering children whatever it is lord we're wanting to do everything to the glory of god we're wanting to work heartily for you because lord you have given your son for us lord we owe it all all to jesus everything to you lord help us in christ's name amen amen well we have four questions four questions first one let's think about i put these in a certain order the first one that someone asked was one how is one to balance nurture and admonition while raising children balance nurture and admonition first question would be what verse is that referring to what verse where would we go to find those terms in a verse is there any verse say again you've got the right book ephesians 6 turn to ephesians 6 ephesians 6 4 this is where paul says in verse 1 children obey your parents in the lord for this is right honor your father and mother this is the first commandment with the promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land then he says this father so he focuses in on the fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the lord now where in the esv is the word nurture what which one of these words because the question is how do you balance nurture and admonition right an admonition would be the word instruction but where in the english language right there is the word nurture not discipline anyone anyone have anything other than an esv i think the kjv has it differently the word bring them up that's the word nurture and it's the same greek word as 527 527 not 27 29 look at 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes you see that that word nourishes that i as a husband i'm called to nourish my wife that's the same greek word as the phrase but bring them up and i believe that is the only two places that greek word is in the entire new testament right and you do find it in psalm 22 when david says lead me in paths of righteousness that word lead is the word nourish in psalm 22 or 23 23 he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me besides still waters so if the question is how to balance nurture and admonition while raising children first we want to go to the verse that talks about it right and so we're there and he says bring them which is nourish them in the discipline and instruction of the lord now that's the positive command what's the negative command in the verse what's he telling us not to do don't provoke him with anger right then you have the word but which is contrasting right don't do this but do do this and that matters because if i as a parent and wanting to think about what's the balance between nurturing and admonition while raising children one way to think about it is this what am i not supposed to do right i could look and say well i need to be nurturing and you know admonishing my children and exhorting them and instructing them well if i want to find the right balance on that what am i actually not supposed to do and the text actually says do not provoke your children so i'm never going to find the right balance of discipline instruction admonition nourishing spanking them all of that i'm never going to find the right balance if i'm actually provoking my child to wrath what does it mean to provoke say again cause yeah lead you know provoke you'll lead someone to anger right now don't provoke your children to anger what type of anger is he talking about like your don't provoke your child to sinful anger because didn't he just a chapter earlier mention be angry and do not sin so is he saying don't provoke my child to sinful anger or don't provoke them to righteous anger or is it both yeah i would agree i think it's both we tend to just think about the verse don't provoke your child to anger as in oh make them sinfully angry no no no if my child's a christian and i have hypocritical conduct as a parent my child should be angry at me for my hypocrisy if i act differently at home than i do among the brethren for example they should be righteously angry at dad's hypocrisy and i'm leading them to that anger by my own um you know hypocrisy and so so the first thing if i want to answer the question how do i balance nurturing admonition while raising children the first thing i've got to do from the text is i better not be provoking my children i better not be leading them to anger and when i fall into that how should i handle that if i just led my child to anger say for example i never give them a warning about when they should be done with something and i'm always telling them okay i need you to come do this i never give them any warning and they're constantly having to stop reading the book or stop building the castle out of legos because i constantly just right away say i need you to do this if i keep provoking them they get frustrated with me because i never give them any lead time to know how much time they have left what should i do about that should i say anything to the child or should i just hide that internally and just act like nothing wrong ever happened what do you think yeah humility right i mean whenever we provoke our children to wrath they're we are now actually able to admonish them and nourish them when we humble ourselves and go to our kids and apologize for what we what we did but how do you balance nurture the word the word nurture is basically this idea of nurturing care to raise them to full maturity to a point of stability and independence got a kid over there and needs some nourishing um the balance so here i've got a child they're getting older as they get older what should they be naturally earning more what freedom right one of the things that has aggravated me in my 13 years as a christian i get i ge i'm going to get righteously angry at the parents who are too loose with their kids right or the ones who are hyperly controlling them and micromanaging their lives to the point where even at 18 they have no sense of freedom and maybe they're not earning that and that's why the parents are still acting in that way but there's a point the nurturing process is i'm admonishing i'm teaching them they're growing they're becoming more and more independent and that's a good thing even think of this even if they're a christian they've got to come to their own conscious convictions about certain issues in the bible i can't take my conscience and impute that into my child's brain if they're a christian and say well these are all my convictions you better follow them exactly as i can if i want them to grow i actually want them to come to those conclusions themselves from studying the scripture so what is the how do you find the balance well every kid it's different every child is different i've got five kids and there's some they're harder than the others and they might get a lot more admonition a discipline rebuke but i better nurture those kids and the others who are easier i better not fail with them i mean we're constantly trying to avoid blind spots as parents you know i'm not going to nurture my child if i give away my authority right you know what's the balance between nurture and admonition or disciplining the child some parents they get this wrong idea that my kids don't have to do what i tell them to do they think that that's a loving thing to do that's actually not nourishing the child because you're now teaching them they don't actually have to obey authority they can just ignore whatever mommy and daddy says or they just have to obey the third time right if we don't require immediate obedience in the home when they go get a job they're not going to immediately obey their boss either because we've already instilled this carnal principle into them that they're going to get a third opportunity to come because i didn't deal with them when they didn't come the first time and someone says well that's harsh no that's actually nourishment because i'm spanking them and dealing with them and trying to see them grow i'm not just disciplining you know some people they they wrongly forget that the bible says with the rod and reproof gives wisdom but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother that's proverbs 29 the rod and what reproof what's for proof when we rebuke someone is correction think about a broken bone okay i see your limb is broken i don't just identify the limb is broken i actually help to get it to be shifted back into place right some people they just do drive-by uh uh analysis of people well your leg's broken and your arm's broken and they're just pointing all the issues out the loving parent is gonna come along and they're gonna work to straighten that thing out the same thing with christians in in our lives as a whole but yeah it's my admonition you know i i've got to step back as a parent and ask myself is it out of love proverbs 13 24 says whoever spares the rod hates his son but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him and just as the lord if he doesn't discipline me hebrews 12 says he hates me that i'm i'm not his child so same thing by not strongly enough admonishing my children i'm actually expressing hatred towards them yeah my current understanding is anywhere the rod is mentioned that i mean that is referring to spanking right there there's a look it's still legal to spank in texas other states it's not even in christian circles there's this ongoing idea about don't do any type of physical discipline and they will take verses from the proverbs and they'll twist it and try to rip out that meaning there and you know what you can't do as a parent is overreact because of abuses right are there people who literally abuse their children yeah there are and and you know i've even seen some people they get converted they have children but because their parents abusively spanked them and never instructed them it was basically drive-by discipline there was no sitting down and talking through things and and praying with them and cuddling with them when it's all been said and done they end up ignoring the bible because they had a bad experience and the same thing happens with the church right people have a bad experience with churches and then they throw the baby out the bathwater well that church had a pastor in immorality and that one had a pastor and immorality so i'm not even going to go to church anymore well we can't throw out god's word just because some abuse just like if people give me counterfeit money i don't stop using any currency at all just because i had a bad experience with counterfeit money but all the proverbs they constantly balance it out with the rod and reproof right i mean i hate it you know it when you observe the parent you just get this sense it's all about the rod but then you've got others where it's all about the instruction well the proverbs say you've got to have both and then we've got to have both according to ephesians 6 4 without provoking them to anger and so there's this balance of all these factors am i am i leading in a way that's provoking my children like we're trying to get out the door to get to laredo my am i too aggressively with them to get in the car where there's just this feeling of stress and then some of them get angry and that was my fault because my leadership failure i mean instruction think about you know zeke manages the chick-fil-a imagine if the new workers come in and you hire them and he never instructs them right it's just you go make a chicken sandwich i mean that would provoke them to anger and in some way they'd be frustrated why is no one helping guide me so the same thing with our kids right it's so easy to tell them go do this or that but am i going to sit there and work with them for hours to instruct them their parents they have spent three to four hours over one issue with their kid where they allow their life to pause in order to deal with that issue in that child's life and to me that's seeking to nourish them that's seeking to get that arm back in place not just point it out that it's broken and and move on and then you know with all this we have to be diligent right proverbs 13 24 says diligent to discipline diligent meaning consistent right consistency i mean same thing you go you go to the work environment if for a few days i'm working really hard and i'm setting an example and then the next month i'm lazy i'm declaring to the workers that they don't really have to work hard the whole time it's just quick little spurts of it it's the same thing with parenting one of the greatest difficulties of parenting that doesn't get the right balance of nurture and admonition is when the diet's changing so much it's like well this week we'll discipline you for this but now let's wait two more weeks we won't even touch it oh well now we'll start disciplining again and so the kids become insecure you know it's like well one week this law applies and this week this law applies well what is it and then the children start losing respect for the parents rabbit bradley made the comment most parents are afraid of exasperating their children by being too firm but most children are exasperated by parents who are not firm consistently then lou priolo said if the boundaries are unclear then you provoke your children by tempting them to violate because you don't always deal with it make and enforce rules or else you provoke the child to be angry at your leadership so there's a lot of ways you could provoke a child to wrath and if you do that you're going to not be able to do the second half of the verse you see my point fathers do not provoke your children to anger it's amazing he says fathers because we're the leaders the pressure's on us right i've got to leave my house and i've got to help lead my wife in a way by which we're not leading our children to be angry because of some hypocrisy and then on the positive i need to be nourishing them in discipline which that does deal with physical discipline and instruction not just discipline but bringing them up discipline and instruction it's all going together right you got to have every piece to get the machine to work correctly you don't want to be in balanced and over here or over there and then you know so much is circumstantial in parenting because different things happen and you have to respond differently because of the seriousness of it and you know there's so much more that could be said um i'm i am thankful that my wife was able to go to college at 16 and work a job at a taco bell and that her dad was not like the family integrated movement that says that the daughters need to stay at home their whole life until they get married that built character my wife's life where she could come home from work while still living with her parents and talk through things with her parents because they had enough respect in that relationship and so much of that got exposed by working at taco bell going to college you know because she grew up homeschooled it just allowed the parents to work through it with the child as the child's having more and more freedom the parent is able to still admonish them and struck them you know at that point in their life and that's that's a blessing for them any other questions on this did i i mean how to balance you know it's it's like it depends where you're imbalanced right now i mean i'm imbalanced right now in my parenting where i don't know maybe if you guys spot it today let me know but no parent is perfectly balanced i mean i might one day you know be a little this way and then the next i over correct and i'm there maybe for a millisecond i'm perfect right but then it's like oh you know you're constantly trying to keep the right balance and that's where humility i i mean i can't tell you how much my wife's father was a pastor died of cancer years ago but when he was he said something at lunch that he realized was a little gossipy at that night at dinner he apologized to all of us like he owned up to whatever fault he did that the children witnessed and that spoke to me that is something to imitate any time i have sinned against my kids or they're aware of any sin in my life i owe them a direct specific apology and you know how parents can be frustrated when their kids just make a general statement like i'm sorry well some of them learn that from their parents they just say i'm sorry because that's what daddy does i'm sorry about that no no no i am sorry for being impatient right there because you didn't get the flashlight quick enough and that impatience is anger in my heart will you forgive me i mean if i lead my kids in being that specific to apologize guess what they're going to do that too i'm setting the example but the parents i'm sorry it's all this general stuff general acknowledgement of sin is not helpful right specific acknowledgement of it is huge okay we'll move on from that so the next question turn them well let's see if you guys know where this is at the question is this what did jesus mean when he said the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force who knows where that's at not mark but matthew 11. matthew 11. so turn to matthew 11 12 matthew 11 12 is the exact verse and in context here you know he's dealing with john the baptist matthew 11 12. we'll start in verse 11. truly i say to you amongst those born of a woman there has arisen no one greater than john the baptist yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he from the days of john the baptist until now so from so something started at the days of john the baptist john came on the scene he's preaching from the days of john the baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence or has been coming violently and then he says and the violent take it that it is describing the kingdom of heaven they take it by force for and then there's a conjunction four all the prophets in the law prophesied until john meaning these guys are prophesying and then the kingdom of god has is coming because john is ushering it in and he's preaching and if you're willing to accept it he is elijah who is to come he who has ears to hear let him hear we'll stop right there so what does that mean what does it mean matthew 11 12. first maybe one of the first questions we should ask is this is this a positive or a negative statement what do i mean by that is this something that is actually good like you want to be one of the violent people taking it by force or is this something where it's talking about others doing violence to the christians who are trying to enter the kingdom of heaven if you could choose between one of those two which one would it seem like he's saying because the violent who are the violent the violent is describing some sort of some sort of people group and they're taking what the kingdom of heaven by force now if that's negative and it's talking about like unbelievers trying to come in to kill us and take us would that make sense they're trying to take the kingdom of heaven by by for well they're not taking the kingdom of heaven by coming and ending our lives right we're entering into heaven if we're in christ if they come and they take our lives the kingdom of heaven isn't something unbelievers can take right it's only something that you and i can partake of so i'd say that's one of the first things here if we're going to interpret this you don't have the violent whoever the violent are they're taking the kingdom of heaven by force but does the bible describe violent people coming and killing christians and that is likened to taking the kingdom of heaven go ahead um the term suffering means something let me look at the other version for the footnote four yeah or has been coming violently right has suffered violence but whoever whatever to have suffered violence whatever that is he then says and the violent take it the kingdom of heaven by force so both of them together there's some group of people who are violently taking the kingdom of heaven is that us or is it the unbelievers coming against us is it us or is it the unbelievers coming against us and you have in luke 16 keep your hand in matthew 11. but in luke 16 you do have a parallel which is worded a little differently luke 16 16 the law and the prophets were until john it's a similar idea right since then since then the then being john the good news of the kingdom of god is preached and everyone forces his way into it or everyone is forcefully urged into it okay if i interpret scripture with scripture right if i look i which which passage seems clear matthew 11 or luke 16. yeah luke 16 seems you get a clear idea oh this is talking about those who want to be saved just talk about the christian right when you go to matthew 11 yeah it's not as clear but we interpret scripture scripture and luke's account it makes it clear that the violent are those wandering to not persecute christians but those who are wanting to get in and those who are wanting to get all the way to the end so i think he is indeed just giving a description of the type of person that enters heaven that's what's happening here he's giving this graphic picture um through an illustration right because we clearly are not violent in a violent way that we're physical but if you remember years ago i preached on matthew 5 30 when i was here what's matthew 5 30 say if your yeah if your eye caused you to sin rip it out if your hand caused you to sin cut it off and do what with it throw it away why it gives a conjunction because it is better you lose one of your members you lose something that you idolize more than christ you lose that then your whole body be thrown into hell that sounds very what violent that's violent language is it literal no no it's not literal i have both my hands here it's figurative right it's a hyperbole it's an exaggerated statement to drive home a point i mean think about the friends who rip the roof off to lower their friend before christ and i don't get the idea from historical accounts that that roof was made of a bunch of straw right they say it was made of a tile type of of material right this wasn't just getting on a roof and had these wood rafters and maybe some cross members and they just ripped up some straw anyone could do that no they were actually taking off some tile type roofing from the building lowering their friend before christ and what happened to their friend he was healed what what about the other people are outside the door were they violent enough what about the woman who had the issue of blood and mark and she touched christ were there not many other people there who were sick but one determined to break through the crowd and to touch christ and she was healed you know there's this there's this violence that is is taking place there even you know you think about when when remember when jesus disciples said to him lord will there be few who are saved what a question what was jesus's response lord will there be few who are saved luke 13 24 jesus answers the question by saying strive to enter in through the narrow door for many i tell you will seek to enter and will not be able strive what's striving agonizing right there's this sense of violence to hear the truth to be around the truth to embrace the truth and to follow and obey jesus's teachings and and what happened when john got on the scene did john have like five people listening to him no he had he had crowds i mean there were there was a group of people that was becoming very interested in the messiah that had not happened for hundreds i mean that never had happened right the jews had hardened their hearts and here you've got john coming on the scene and he's preparing the way of the lord and all of a sudden you've got all these people who are wanting christ remember they went away for a little while and what happened did they get to have a vacation no it says and it says in mark jesus said go away and rest a while if you keep reading in the passage they never even got to rest because the crowds followed them violence taking it seriously what are some other verses from the bible that have that violent reality go ahead ashley you're saying in luke 13. luke 13 24 22 he went on his way through the towns and villages teaching and journeying towards jerusalem and someone said to him lord will thou will those who are saved be few now saved biblically you have three ways to view salvation right you are saved you are being saved and you will be saved the bible talks like that right it doesn't just talk about initial conversion matthew 10 22 those who endure to the end will be saved ephesians 2 by grace you have been saved that's past tense future so here he says and someone said to him lord will those who are saved be few so we've got to interpret is he talking about the final outcome and he said to them strive to enter through the narrow door okay the door language we where else do we find the door language find it in john where christ says he is the door you find it in matthew's account narrows the door that leads to life and few there be that find it well matthew's account the door is talking about what the end of conversion or the beginning the beginning right at the beginning and he said to them strive to enter through the narrow door for many i tell you will seek to enter and will not be able so up as at this point you could say it sounds like he's saying the initial entering of the door but let's keep reading verse 25 when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying lord open to us then he will answer you i do not know where you come from then you'll begin to say we ate etc and then he says in verse 28 depart from me all you workers of evil so based on verse 25 26-27 now what does it sound like he's really saying in context what's he talking about initially being converted or is he giving a picture of the end a picture of the end right so that would make us interpret 11 24 when they said someone said to him lord will those who are saved be few they're talking about final salvation and he said to them strive meaning right now don't just say oh you know i already did that i got the ticket punched no he's saying you strive and then he goes on and he gives a picture of the end where there's people thinking they're going to enter heaven and just like matthew 7 they find out they did not know the lord and they're cast into hell so lord will those who are saved finally be few and he said to them strive to enter through the narrow door the bible talks about the door at conversion and then it also pictures it at the end you got both those realities there so i don't i don't think you should look at luke 13 24 and just think oh this must be like the start because of salvation because at the end here he gives a picture of the end he's not talking about the beginning he's speaking to individuals who are wondering what's the final outcome going to be does that make sense ashley yeah it's a good question though and if we just stop at verse 24 and we don't go to 25 and 26 it could be easy to take that teaching is primarily talking about entering in initially but the real context you know it he says verse 26 you'll begin to say we ate we drank we went to church and he will tell you i do not know you where you come from depart from me all you workers of evil that's matthew 7 23 in luke's account right that's how he records it so on on the second question the first one was balance nurturing ammunition with raising children the second one what does he mean by the violent take it by force any other questions on that one nope okay let's go to third question you know let me go to the fourth one that was texted later so the fourth or the third question is this how do we stand against the propaganda and false information that is being spread without being caught up in divisiveness and conflict or how to pick the battles to fight okay where should we turn to answer this question would be a good place to go how do we stand against the propaganda now i don't know what the person means by propaganda false information clearly they're talking about a topic that is not spiritual not that everything isn't spiritual but another way there are things that are not primarily this is not a doctrinal issue is my point it's being spread so this could be them thinking about say someone's view on uh you know should i get vaccinated or not with the coveted vaccine for example i imagine that might be part of what's on their mind without being caught up in divisiveness and conflict or how to pick the battles to fight it's a good question so how do you answer that turn to romans 14. a verse hmm i thought it was verse 8 it is not you just read the chapter we'll find it verse one is for the one who's weak in faith welcome him but not to quarrel over opinions one person believes he may eat anything well the weak person eats only vegetables but not the one who each despise the one who abstains and let not the one who abstains past judgment on the one who eats for god has welcomed him who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another it is before your own master that he stands or falls and he will be upheld for the lord is able to make him stand one person they esteem one day is better than another while another esteems all days alike each one should be fully convinced in his own mind the one who observes today observes it in honor of the lord the one who eats eats in honor of the lord since he gives thanks to god while the one who abstains abstains in honor of the lord and gives thanks to god for none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself for if we live we live to the lord if we die we die to the lord so then whether we live or whether we die we are the lords for to this end christ died and lived again that he might be lord both of the dead and the living why do you pass judgment on your brother or why do you despise your brother if we all stand before the judgment seat of god for it is written as i live says the lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess so then each of us will give an account of himself to god therefore let not let us not pass judgment on one another any longer but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother i know and i am persuaded in the lord jesus that nothing is unclean in itself but if it is unclean for anyone who thinks it's unclean for if your brother is griefed by what you eat you're no longer walking in love by what you eat do not destroy the one from christ died so do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil for the kingdom of god now listen to this the kingdom of god is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness peace and joy in the holy spirit now that what is the church about what is what is it our churches what are we even living for he's saying here it's not about what you eat it's not about what you drink and in context here it goes beyond food right this is the issue of it's not about all of these gray external areas of conscience right that's not the issue he says whoever thus serves christ is acceptable by to god and approved by men so then let's pursue so whatever i'm going to do whatever i'm going to converse about pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding uh interesting am i pursuing peace and mutual upbuilding do not for the sake of food or you do not for the sake of vaccines or do not for the sake of a you know a certain type of diet or whatever destroy the work of god everything is indeed clean but it's wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats it is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble look at verse 22. this is incredible verse the faith that you have keep between yourself in god i'm telling you that you do not want to miss this principle right people in my chur no one knows whether i hardly anyone maybe someone knows but people don't know whether i drink wine or i don't drink wine i don't know whether jeff or craig drink wine or they don't drink wine you keep it between yourself and god whether you get vaccinated or not vaccinated whether you do this or you do that there is a principle there of i'm keeping it between me and god because there is the ability if i express what i might have liberty to do or or not to do it could then put something on someone else in a way that causes them to stumble and someone then comes along and they say well that's hypocrisy no if someone asked me outright and i feel it's right to tell them what my conviction is on a certain matter i will do that unless i discern their question is not one that will ultimately lead to peace into mutual upbuilding because whatever i'm going to express is it the main matter of the kingdom of god the kingdom of god is not a matter of eating and drinking right my main conversations are about righteousness peace and joy in the holy spirit that's the main thrust kathleen you had a question yeah well jeff jeff peterson did a we did a video on that uh son i'll be honest a couple weeks ago but that that with that if if someone says the vaccine's the mark of the beast it shows they don't even understand what salvation is i'm not saying they're not saved but and jeff deals with that in the audio video it's like i'm not gonna you know i think jeff even said you could you guys could all come up here and strap me on the ground and tattoo me and vaccinate me and all of that and you're not gonna i'm not going to hell like if my view of salvation is that you all could overpower me and inject me with stuff and put chips in my body and tattoo six six six on my head that i've lost my salvation what does that indicate my view of salvation is it's a pretty pathetic salvation that i'm gonna i gotta obtain it by hiding and avoiding needles and chips and all of that no that that's that reveals someone who has no real security in the precious blood of christ um so that's how i would deal with that's an opportunity to talk about the gospel you right away move from whatever it is but titus 3 you know there's another verse we have to remember um titus 3 15 not 15. uh yeah verse eight paul you know he just talked about be careful to devote yourselves to good works these things are profitable and excellent right we all want to be doing what is most excellent i hope i hope you all are praying philippians 1 lord give me the knowledge and the love abounding that i might discern and approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of christ so he just makes that statement then look what he says in verse 9 he makes a contrast these things are profitable and excellent these things meaning the gospel he just talked about then look at verse 9 but avoid oh there are things i need to avoid in a conversation avoid foolish controversies genealogy wait you're saying i should avoid splitting hairs over old testament genealogies but that isn't that in the bible shouldn't we be talking about genealogies the bible talks about matthew 1 talks about it luke 1 talks about it he doesn't mean don't consider what's in luke 1 or 2 but there are people who make too much out of genealogy avoid controversies genealogies sorry he doesn't say avoid controversies he says what avoid foolish so there are good controversies that you need to deal with like essential issues of doctrine and there are controversies that are foolish he says avoid foolish controversies genealogies dissensions and corals about the law why because they are unprofitable and worthless and he doesn't stop there as for a person who stirs up the vision in the church over whether you should get vaccinated or you shouldn't get vaccinated after warning him once and then twice you have nothing more to do with that person knowing that such a person is warped and sinful he is self-condemned he is not putting his mind on the most essential things he is not making the main matter the kingdom of god and peace and joy and the holy spirit he has an inability to restrain his mouth from speaking about something that he's so opinionated about or she is opinionated about that they just want to forfeit on everyone else i mean i found the new documentary that proves this is all a conspiracy i'm going to spam my facebook with that i'm going to email the whole church with it i am so convinced because all the lower thirds in the video it said that person is a phd of this their doctor their doctor their doctor their doctor and i'm gonna send it out that's not what our church is about we've had three uh brethren sisters who went through breast cancer recently you know what happens when someone in the church gets breast cancer everyone sends them their opinion on what they should do you should go the one you should go whether you should or you shouldn't i'm not condemning it but should i should i go to tijuana mexico and go to the clinic should i go when i get um chemotherapy you know should i do this should i do that well here this video proves this and that all of a sudden the relationship becomes not about the primary things as much as i want to help them can i help them in a way where my opinion does not become dogmatic law where i don't judge them based upon what their take is and you know the same thing with the whole with the mask should i wear a mask should i not wear a mask you know at the end of the day that's not that's not what the kingdom of god is about people got to make their decisions and we can't condemn them for whatever their decision is or it isn't so yeah so the question was how do we stand against the propaganda and false information that is being spread you have to recognize that your own understanding of what is false might be wrong who says you're on the right side with the right information right well i read it on the internet really the internet is full of stuff that looks legitimate that could be outright lies so i don't i don't read something about covet and go away and thinking wow that that is pure gold and it's 100 truth and all the brethren need to know about it um how do we stand against the propaganda and false information i mean look if something's clearly false and someone's really deceived about something that's not like it's not gray it's really really clear you know the example in the spiritual realm would be someone's listening to a heretic well i can prove to them the guy is a heretic you know say take td jakes i was talking to a lady not too long ago she listens to td jakes so i went right to the issue that td jakes denies who god is he believes in a god that is a modalist type of god that the god changes from the son to the spirit back to the father and he only believes there's one god not that there's three distinct persons in the godhead that's heresy that's believing in a different god that's not a foolish controversy that's a controversy that that person's soul is going to hang on if they're going to listen to that heretic and so i'm going to fight against those lies and propaganda so yeah am i picking the right hill to die on am i picking the right battle i mean we you know paul wants us opinionated right romans 14 he wants you to have strong opinions but do you have the wisdom to not go around propagating them as biblical dogmatic law and i'm telling you you know you can spend one night on the internet and you get so convinced about something and you just want to go tell everyone that might actually hinder your ability to fellowship with that brother or sister in the church because you start talking and find out they got the opposite view and now when you see them on sunday it's harder to fellowship because you've got this elephant in the room and you're both digging your heels and thinking the other one's right and they're wrong and blah blah blah and then you know the mission of the church isn't being fulfilled right so there's a lot of dangers well it's 1101. so the last question was to read it shortly what are some practical tips for a christian to make the most out of their prayer life how should we prioritize our prayers with the never-ending things to pray about the short answer for that is take every prayer in the new you can read the whole new testament uh the whole bible takes 72 hours to read so the new testament's got to be what i don't know you could read it all in a month easy enough you could just read the whole new testament a month record every prayer there and make a list and then categorize them and you're going to find you know you're finding romans 10 1 paul's saying my heart's desire and prayer to god for them is that they might be saved paul is constantly praying for people to be converted and then he's constantly praying in ephesians what does he pray that the eyes of our heart might be opened that we'd be enlightened to behold the glory i don't have it memorized but of christ and so yeah i think tim conway did a message on that and he just challenged us in ephesians how many people actually pray that i mean i pray i did a sermon years ago on philippians 1 9-11 so i pray that a lot it is my prayer this is paul it is my prayer okay paul what are you going to pray that the saints in gcc laredo their love would abound more and more with knowledge and discernment in order that they might approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through jesus christ to the glory and praise of god the father so you want to pray something pray that others love would have bound more and more notice he doesn't say that your knowledge would abound more and more notice he doesn't say that your discernment would have bound more and more what was his emphasis love love really is the big thing let's pray father lord we do need your help lord to love each other to maintain unity lord help us i pray you'd help the parents lord as they seek to nurture their children and admonish them and discipline them and be consistent lord do help us to have the right balance every day lord this isn't some something we calibrate and we get the tool correct perfectly and we never have to calibrate it again lord it feels like i have to calibrate my parenting every hour and get it balanced and lord we need your help and father we do pray for the lost that they would be saved lord we do want to pray more like the bible and lord you you pray in your high priestly prayer lord jesus you pray that by our love all would see lord that we are of you and lord we we won't be able to do that if we fail in the second question and we make our third question we become too divisive on things or we share our opinions too much and we can't hold them within lord give us self-control over our mouths and lord help us to be violent men and women who are violently killing sin and seeking to enter the kingdom because lord we do want to strive and we want to get to the end and lord we don't want to have that door shut lord we don't want to hear i never knew you and so lord we want to know you now more than ever we want to have more intimacy with you please help us in jesus name amen

Channel: Grace Community Church Laredo

Views: 149

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: HKvTx_m_Xu0

Length: 57min 30sec (3450 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021