Rick & Bubba Bible Study Live - August 7, 2019

the podcasts channel however you're getting this and of course welcome to the guys that are here in the room you you can catch this every Wednesday we do it live on the YouTube channel at noon and then it's archived after that and then available on our podcast channel as well and then we put a link out on all the Rick and Bubba social media platforms on my personal social media platforms as well if you ever want to go back and catch up like if you're just joining this a pursuit of holiness we're now in session 14 so if you want to go back and pick up some of the ones you missed or any past Bible study you can do that by going to Burgess ministries.com and just click on listen if you click listen you'll see it there and you can go back over years of Bible studies and enjoy those as well thank you for being here with us a couple of announcements those you that are from Birmingham or you're in the Birmingham area are you attend Shades Mountain Baptist Church or you'd like to come you certainly can the next man church is August 25th happening this month that is free you don't need to take you to anything for that six o'clock at Shay's Mountain Baptist Church Greg Powers professional golfer will be with us and then the very next day on the 26 will be part of the challenge golf tournament this is an evangelical tool for you to find the man that may be Zhun Church or man who's on a journey but you think he'd love to play Greystone Country Club for free on Monday the 26 you can caddy for him you won't be carrying any clubs or anything like that you'll just be you know driving a cart alone with the cart that he is on and y'all can enjoy the day together and then there'll be a gospel presentation I'll be doing that on that Monday night so even if you can't caddy but you will have a caddy provided and you have somebody that you would love to this is not about you getting your friends together that already love Jesus and give them a free golf day this is about using this to give them an opportunity to hear the gospel Greg Powers will give his testimony and then I'll do a gospel presentation with him for the dinner that night so they'll get a lunch they'll get a dinner and they get to play gray stone for free and they get some cool prizes and all that but I need to know that person's name by the end of this week that would be helpful so if there's somebody that you have invited and have accepted you could just invite one person to tell them to bring a friend that'd be fine but just let me know that and I'll plug you in with Tommy Deramus who was set up that day for your guests and or for you and it'll be a great opportunity to spend some time together and hopefully see some men come to know Jesus y'all be sure and be praying about that on August 26 as well let's open in a word of Prayer and we'll jump right in to the pursuit of holiness session 14 today let's pray lord thank you for today thank you Lord for the opportunity to be here we joked around before the Bible study started but but in this room and I'm sure around the world are people listening who have been forgiven much and and we are so thankful for the grace of Mercy that you've shown us but as this Bible study has shown us there is a change that takes place in the redeemed and and there is power to help us to pursue the holiness that you call each and every one of us too and of course that power to do that is found only and you however there is action that we must take so help us today to apply this to our lives as we continue to be sanctified and mature in our faith in the name of Jesus we pray amen all right so thank you all for being with us today we we are in chapter 14 now this is a relatively short chapter and I thought about you know jumping out there and trying to do 14 and 15 but I just felt in my spirit that was the wrong thing to do we may end in our normal time we may not but I just felt like we needed to drive this point a home at this point home today no matter how long it takes whether it's a shorter time or not first thing if you have your Bible or something with your Bible on it we want to go to Romans chapter 6 where we're gonna be in verse 19 and and so I think the last three weeks for me was when it was all really coming together I'm kind of slow what we've gone through several sessions but the last three three have really hit me chapter 11 our session 11 talked about that we have to be holy in our body the next and we talked about being holy and the spirit and then last week we started kind of talking about which is going to continue today you know trying to to take these things and then get our wheel to be under the authority of a pursuit of holiness as well and today we're going to take on habits of holiness because just like Paul says and this really Romans chapter six it's kind of the the chapter that is the the foundation of this entire study because we know in Chapter six what Paul is teaching the Redeem and we've said this a lot but it's worth the O repetition as we'll talk about today works Paul is telling us that certainly we have been saved by grace and we have been freed from sin but we have not been freed to sin we don't become grace abusers let's show how gracious God can be by how horrible I still am but yet I'm still saved that is not what the Bible teaches and and that's bad theology what the Bible teaches and Paul says is no not only have you been forgiven of your sin your Spirit has now been made alive and you now have been freed from the reign of sin meaning you're no longer a slave or he uses the Greek word Doulos which is a bondservant meaning you were once a slave to sin remember that the bondservants had no rights whatsoever they were they were not indentured slaves they were they were they were bondservants meaning they they had no rights of their own and that used to be the way we belong to sin we were bondservants to see him we sinned uncontrolled because we couldn't break the reign of sin but Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit broke the the authority of sin over our lives in the reign of sin over our life now when we decide to sin after being redeemed sadly we choose to we sin as free people we no longer have an excuse and and so Paul makes that clear so now he goes on to talk about the how the two lives look versus before we were redeemed and after and he says I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations now there's a teacher that clarifies I'm gonna have to dumb this thing down for you so I'll try to and you know what I say to Paul thank you I needed that so he said for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification which is leading to holiness so what Paul saying is there's a change that's taking place now at one time your whole body and every member of your body was a slave to sin and so you took your body and you just you you poured it out to sin now you're gonna take the same body and the same spirit has now been made alive now your body has a shot for you now to learn what we're gonna talk about today new habits where once your habits to lead to see and now new habits will actually lead the righteousness and your sanctification which means what action you know this is one of the things that that really are to inspire every man I just I just had a conversation about this yesterday and and this is something that I want you to never misunderstand and I want you to understand because this is something that I think the church at times especially in men's ministry has done a poor job with and that is telling a man what the truth is about following Jesus and what we said most of us aren't man enough to do it it is not easy and and and there's and you know why cuz Jesus says it wasn't easy I ran into the situation and I won't get into the details of it yesterday we're once again we had somebody who claimed to be redeemed but was doing something that was clearly in conflict with scripture clearly and so we got into this back-and-forth about it and I was talking to some people that were dealing with this person first of all the person was doing what everybody does until you if you know is it first of all what you start justifying what you're doing is not being as bad as it really is okay so so first we have to deal with the fact that what that you are sinning you know like I was talking my wife was talking to somebody who was having a problems like I had from chapter 11 problems with weight and gluttony and and and you know over indulging and food and and the person asked my wife she said when when did Rick make the change how did Rick finally lose the weight and get his eating and everything under control I'd like to know what he did and all I've said when he called it sin until he called his saying he didn't do anything about you know and until he started recognizing that scripturally the way he was living his life was sinful he didn't address it so so first of all is if we're not willing to deal with sin in our life and call it sin we'll never address it so what was happening in this situation was the same thing the person was basically saying the way I responding really isn't that bad and so the person that I was talking with that was kind of trying to deal with this too I said well see that's the problem I said here we go again here's what we got to understand is this is a person that is not under conviction over what's happening and then the reason why that's that's happening is the guy is doing things and I'll be honest with you what he was needing to do is difficult it was a situation that I had to deal with that was difficult but really everything we have to deal with in the following creation being a follower of Jesus is difficult it's filled with difficult decisions and so what happened here as I said what the person is doing is completely and this was first said this is a natural reaction I said I know that's why it's wrong it's naturally wrong I said what this person is doing is exactly what all human beings do and every lost human being would do in this situation everybody would respond the way this person is responding you're not he doesn't think it's a big deal because he sees everybody else respond this way but that don't mean it's right and so what I said was see that's the problem this person isn't listening to the spirit can I tell you this my flesh and my desires and my emotions will never convict me so as long as I'm listening to them I don't come under conviction and what do you hear all the time when somebody does something that is in conflict with what they believe well that was a perfectly natural reaction yeah it was naturally wrong we don't respond to things in the natural way not once we've been redeemed not once the Spirit has begun to grow because spiritually the Spirit begins to convict us and begins to shape us because we can't be comfortable in these situations again but today what the studies going to talk about is saying but this is not going to happen like Paul's talking about in Romans 6 if you don't develop some new habits I mean the way you live your life is not the way it once was this is not the urn salvation it's in response to salvation John Owen says it in a way that none of it most of us in here except from a few of you will you know like Cersei will probably understand the way he said it I'll have to come back and dumb it down for the rest of us ok but here's what John Owen said the great Puritan he said repeated acts of the consent of the will unto sin maybe get a disposition and inclinable 'no son to a proneness and a readiness to consent unto sin upon easy solicitation now I know bills old on when he got there and he knows exactly what we're talkin about let me dumb it down for you the more we sin the more we're inclined to see him now he said it a lot more beautiful than that but but but I didn't understand that I understand this every sin we commit reinforces the habit of sinning and then we'll continue to make it easier to continue to sin raise your hand if that ever happened in your life mines up high I can tell you something and this is the thing that we have to understand when I made a move I'll never forget and it could be anything but I'm just telling what it was for me what when I went when I was 19 years old 19 years old I had never drank a drop of alcohol my entire life until I was 19 years old because I had come up as a cultural Christian and I tried to be morally good mostly now there were still things in my life that were not under the authority of Christ and I and I was an intellectual believer from the time I thought told you that I was old enough to ever understand first time I heard about God and heard about Jesus I believed it I just I just didn't come into the authority of it but I certainly ibly believed it and so I was taking that cultural Christianity and kind of live in a life of trying to be a pretty decent teenager and and so I thought as long as you weren't a partying and you weren't drinking then you were a pretty good person I mean that that was the extent of holiness and I thought just don't be a drunk and don't party like everybody else now I had other areas of my life they were completely out of bounds involving girlfriends and women and things like that but or some reason I didn't think that was as bad as being a drunk and I would certainly married this person at some point anyway so it didn't really matter so so so anyway so then I go into a situation which I won't get too deep in this either because a lot of these men have gone on to be turning to great men of God praise the Lord but I got in a situation where I was with a group of men there for some reason or we were boys then 19 we did not like men where I decided for some reason that that it wouldn't go me a big deal in this moment to drink did wouldn't peer pressure it wouldn't anything other than then my own flesh said I think I'm done with not drinking but I'll be fine it's just one moment and then I'll just take one drink and I don't know that I'll ever do it again but I'm gonna take a drink in this situation because I want to and I kind of like this group and this group drinks and I kind of want to you know be part of this too and so I did so when I took that first ring I can still remember the brand I can still remember the taste and I remember when I took that drink what I had no idea is I had stepped into 13 years of every kind of sin you could think of I never went back to church again it just started a habit that became another habit that became another habit that became another habit that became another habit and before I knew it conviction didn't even exist I went from thinking that I was capable of some things to being capable of anything and I can remember sitting in my car in the middle of a cornfield where I was not coherent enough to drive it all those years later and I thought to myself how in the world have I ended up here and I say you how because I started down a road that just got worse and worse and worse and worse but here's the good news when I was redeemed by Jesus Christ in 1996 I started new habits and what I have noticed is those habits have also got more powerful and more powerful and more powerful and more powerful not because I've developed some great self-control but because the holy spirit really is that strong and so so when I start feeding that habit but you know when you do things like I habitually go to worship I habitually get in prayer I habitually hang out with other men and women of God before I know it yes what else works in the positive way influence peer pressure and habits so that's what this chapter is about so in the previous chapters we discussed the importance of guarding our minds and emotions very important because these faculties are the channels through its various compelling forces reach to our wheels and remember we have to submit our wheel under the authority of Jesus but we need to understand how our habits will also influence our will habits matter don't they think about the things you do that they're just habitual and so what is a habit this is what the dictionary says prevailing disposition or character of a person's thoughts and feelings I love that word prevailing see there may be things that I kind of like but they're not prevailing they don't really have power over me but a habit does think about all of you anything you've ever done in your life when you got when you finally got some sort of expertise on it what it saw when it became habitual to you you know some of us in here that played athletics or whatever you remember once you kind of develop how you were supposed to do it you didn't think about it anymore I can remember one time a coach even said something happened which was rare for me that went pretty well and he says so so show the rest of the guys what you did I had no idea I said I can't show it he said well I said it just said just happened I don't know how happened I've done this so many times that it just happens you know I mean it I can remember that because when we used to play and it could plot anything your life but we used to play it's different now because the game has changed so much I couldn't coach football now because it's not the game out that's not a good or bad statement I just don't know the techniques of today but with the position I played you had to read the blocker in front of you and if you learn to read his body movement you knew what was happening you knew where to go well that had to become habitual I mean you couldn't every time think about oh he's moving this way so I guess I do that because it's over I mean now you're blocked it had to become to the point that you just as soon as you saw that you knew what that was I remember one time playing with with with my brother who was a defensive back and he made he made a play on the ball and I said wow man that was a great job he said would them wouldn't than to that's why he goes because I have done that so many times I knew exactly what this play was they couldn't fool me because I saw what was coming I mean every I've watched film on this over and over again I have done this but I've taken these steps over and over again these same drop steps this same break on the ball over and over again I didn't even know I had the ball - y'all were jumping up and down with me it's it's it's habitual and so this can look we've seen how this happens in our sin life believe it not this can happen in your holy life you can become stronger in your faith by the power provided only by Jesus but it can be worked on and developed just like sin did and that's what we have to understand habits are the thoughts and emotional patterns that are in ground or engraved as you say in our minds habits think about it I remember last week I had more week before last guys were talking about different things you believe it or not and I know I bring this up a lot because it's something that Satan defeats men with all the time did you know just as you can habitually look at a woman you can habitually not look at her do you believe it you absolutely can if you look at it now after you've been redeemed you're looking at just because you won't - you made a choice - are you saying Jesus just can't beat this I'd just say he's just Jesus is so inept he can't change my eyes from lusting after other women yes he can you just don't want to do you know the sins that I still struggle with our sins I still love more than Jesus I still think they're better then not doing them because I thought that if I thought not doing and we're better I wouldn't do them if I thought that this would keep me out of the proper relationship with Jesus I wouldn't do it I mean think about that would you do anything that you thought was gonna lead to the death of somebody you loved on purpose you I just can't help it so you couldn't stop doing something if it was gonna kill your children you couldn't stop doing something was gonna kill your wife yeah you'd stop doing it well see we don't think that the sin in our life isn't it's all that big a deal it's an incredibly big deal it's an incredibly big deal and this is the thing but here's the reason why it's a big deal because it may not even take your salvation okay we may not even affect your salvation it'll affect how you may affect how you're gonna live in heaven it may affect the rewards you get but let's say it doesn't affect your your salvation and that's your only motivation as long as I find out a way Rick that I'm gonna be once saved always saved I'm gonna walk that line you know these are these people that look to the Bible for what's allowed as opposed to looking for what's commanded I used to be that guy okay so I belong to Jesus what can I still do and and see that's the wrong way to look at the Word of God that's an immature person who's not going to be very effective for the kingdom is gonna be easily picked off by the adversary and what happens is when you get to the point that you take it serious everything changes and I use the example all the time a lot in the Bible look apparently based on the writer of Hebrews we're gonna see a lot we're gonna see the man locked in eternity but based on what I watched while he acted was Sodom and Gomorrah I'm not gonna see his wife in heaven I'm not gonna see his son in laws in heaven I'm probably not gonna see his daughters in heaven so the way Lotte acted didn't affect him eternally but it sure did affect everybody that he influenced because they bought into I guess it ain't no big deal what we do remember remember this you gotta remember this as some of you had leaders of family what was the big issue when lot said hey we got to get out of here we got to get out of sight gomora said his son-in-law is laughed at him why did they laugh at him he didn't have any credibility what do you mean we're leaving you're the one that brought us here you love Sodom and Gomorrah you've lived in this culture and we couldn't tell the difference when you in the culture and now you want to leave we don't buy it okay so why did his wife look back at Sodom and Gomorrah don't look back tell your wife not to look back I'll kill her if she looks back because I'm about to lay that place to waste why do you think the Lot's wife looked back because her husband taught her to love Sodom and Gomorrah he didn't have any credibility with her either honey don't look back what do you mean dad see it and then the stuff that went on with his daughters we won't even get into so how did all that happen when we see undoubtedly lots going to heaven but it's family ain't going with him because the way he lived was a really big deal how affected everybody else who did not have the relationship with God that he did you see how dangerous grace abuse can be to people that you love or maybe people you don't even love but God loves that came in contact with you and you didn't show them anything that that that pointed them to Jesus they saw you and said and say that's the situation that happened that I was all about yesterday we got people out there they claimed to be part of the church they claim to be followers of Jesus and and and and they're living a life that looks just like the world and what they're saying is - Jesus is this and I saw it just yesterday what they're saying is you and I used to be this person something this is not me being self righteous but I'm not gonna be this person anymore you know what you know what their real attitude is if they were honest hey Jesus save me from hell but don't ask it to cost me anything I give up nothing but please don't send me to hell and if you do I'm gonna be mad about it I'm honest I'm gonna think you're unreasonable hey listen God didn't send anybody to hell we sent ourselves to hell you crawl across the cross and you'll say I reject this Redemption and I reject deliverance from sin I love sodom and gomorrah and when you're sitting there going across you'll have to step across God's Redemption to throw yourself in hell I was a good conversation I had with the atheists when I was in Nicaragua he was from England he says I just can't serve a God that would send people to hell if I don't believe what he wants to believe I said we'll see you don't understand God I said the guy God I serve is delivering people from hell we all going to hell if he didn't deliver us from it we sent ourselves to hell and with the god I serve did it says how about I deliver you from hell and how dare we how dare we take that grace and turn around and say please don't ask anything of me don't expect any return on that please please don't mess up my life now let me do what I want to do but then when I die now I still get to come to be with you right I got news for you if you're playing that kind of game you don't know Jesus you don't know Jesus he's too wonderful for you to be that apathetic about it look I know I've been there that is not salvation that's cultural Christianity and you'll go right to hell with everybody else and hell is real and people are really going there and it's gravely important it's gravely important the these internal habit patterns play just as forceful a role as the external influences on our actions so you're saying what does that mean well obviously we see the things that we do and we act on but the things were thinking and the things that were processing and the things that we allow to go on inside are just as important than any action we do outside because they all work together John oh and again every lust is a depraved habit our disposition continually inclining our hearts to do evil I see that when I understand from John what he's saying is you may say the right things you may do the right things and your actions look pretty good but if inside you still have any kind of lust any kind of despise any kind of internal sin that you're not dealing with it is so depraved and it'll be such a bad habit it will then continually incline your heart to do evil you know why I did evil for so long because it didn't bother me I was inclined to evil I wasn't inclined to holiness holiness made me uncomfortable evil I was perfectly comfortable with I remember thinking if you could get me into and two into a bar and around a bunch of women around a bunch of alcohol that was who I'm home I'm home man I if I'm having a really good night I end up getting punched by somebody this is gonna be great you know what I mean and and so and so what what would I but see what happens is when the Holy Spirit redeems you when you return to that place it doesn't feel that way anymore now the discomfort comes from sin not from holiness now being in the right place with God is what feels at home and being in conflict with him is what feels wrong and that's that's done by the holy spirit that's why you can't follow your emotions you can't follow your desires you can't follow your flesh because it's all those three things are always wrong and if they don't come into the authority of the spirit you can't trust them look at what Paul's saying in this verse I just read to you in 6:19 he's saying that we had an ever-increasing wickedness before we knew Jesus in the past we gave ourselves up to developing habits habits of unholiness every time we sin these sins became habitual until we in fact became enslaved by sin I remember how strong these habits were I can remember when I became redeemed I honestly thought to myself on that day one there's certain things in my life that have become so habitual I'll never get out of it I've talked to people for they're saying I just can't imagine there's just too much to change yeah and but but but see you can't ever get the point to say that Jesus do it you can't but he can but you got to move you you got to make decisions now that you that you're gonna pursue him and not pursued the satisfaction of your flesh Paul says now what has to happen just as we formerly gave ourselves to these wicked habits we are tuned out to give ourselves to developing habits of holiness putting off the old self sinful disposition and habits and to put on a new self with its character and now habits of holiness holding this can be just as habitual as sin you know and what I do I go as far as to even say this I was kidding around the other day with with a guy who's helping me with parts of my life that I needed to get under the authority of Christ my physical health of my physical appearance and my fight against and gluttony and things that I justified for far too long and and I told you some of you guys this before and I said it in here we literally talked about old Rick vs. new Rick they'll even have fun with it you know I got out there and come in there so how did you do today I said I did this this and that they get a little older it could have done that old Rick would have quit about halfway said that's good Oh Rick would have called said hey I got a lot going on now kid I can't get by their day they said it's glad we're glad old Rick didn't run it today see I don't let over it run things anymore he'll creep up every now and then and I have to deal with it but what I've done now is I've strengthened new rigs so much sake I keep I don't I don't spend time watering old Rick where he'll grow what I want to do is continue to feed new Rick that's that's the new self I'm if you know what it says when it says put off the old self you know what that means get rid of it I mean can you imagine me walking around and I said how I got this old jacket it stinks it's messed up it's got holes in it and I'm in this winter and I'm freezing and and and I said I'm gonna get a new jacket and you see me and I'm standing on cement I'm freezing and they said you still got the same old jacket on yeah I'm just gonna keep wearing it and expect a different result you already know it doesn't keep you warm you said you needed a new jacket yeah I do I do need a new one are you ever gonna take this but the new an don't see until you do you still got the same problems you know you gotta throw off the old self it's got to be going and I like this and this is the thing that I think that we need to talk to me and more about about it not being easy you do realize what Jesus said right you know he said let me tell you what's easy it's a wide easy road and it leads to destruction and many are going there Matthew 7 he says but my mountain he didn't even say Road mine is a narrow gate he said and to follow me is gonna be hard and only a few of you make it so but but see we keep going easy and wide now not anything else in life and everything else in life we're tough guys that's hard let's go get it let's make it I can do it I can make that go I can accomplish that I can whip anybody okay nobody coming past me what about spiritually now spiritually I'm kind of a loser what does the man want to be a loser spiritually I want the standards high and everything in life except this oh the only thing that's gonna have any that's gonna mean anything in eternity and you know what it says listen what Paul says to young Timothy I love this one he says have nothing to do with the irreverent silly missus by the way 2nd Timothy 4 and I'm in verse 7 have nothing to do with with irreverent silly myths rather train yourself for godliness train yourself for godliness does that mean it just happens no he says train hey get rid of who you used to be give her that silly stuff you used to be now train yourself for godliness for while bodily training is of some value meaning it's something it's important to do that but this is but godliness is a value in every way as it holds the promise not only for the present life as bodily you know Bible you go in presently this will help me but he says you work on godliness it doesn't just hold a promise for the present life but also for the life to come somebody say amen to that so why would we spend more time training ourselves for eternity fraternity train yourself for godliness it doesn't just happen and he says discipline and structure in our lives that's what we have to do to develop godly habits and one of the things is what resolve resolve I mean I talk about this all the time we cannot have an attitude toward godliness that is an attitude of what we'll see can you imagine can you imagine if you were talking to me and you you invested in me let's say you say hey I'm invested in the Rick and Bubba show I want to get a return on my investment okay hey Rick tell us what you're doing I really have no plan what am I going to get a return on my investment we'll see what will tell me I understand there's always risks with investment but what's your plan to return a profit to me I don't have one you have no plan know what's going to happen I don't know would you invest in something that unstable and it's always a risk but you'd like to see a plan with you I mean you you've got to see a plan well what what what what what Jerry is telling us and what what Paul is telling Timothy and what he's telling us in Romans 6 if you want to develop godly habits you got to have discipline you got to have structure what is the plan do you even have a plan for this because most men have a plan for everything do you have a plan for this well I got this way if you don't if you don't plan it and you're not having some sort of intentional direction on this it's not gonna happen you said well Rick you told me that if I'm fully righteous I'm made in Christ yes you are but for you to become godly and to be sanctified if you've been redeemed for you to actually be effective and begin to grow you have to access the power that's now been provided you and me putting off these sinful habits is what Paul calls mortifying our putting to death the deeds of the body mortified look that one of the things that I learned through going through the suffering and suffering is a terrible thing I wouldn't wish it on anybody but I will tell you this Paul says and Corinthians 12 he starts talking about this thorn in his side and he starts talking bout this thorn in his flesh I mean and that he says I've even got a demon that is mocking me harassing me and I keep going to the Lord and saying hey take this away from me look take the difficulty of it away from me and he says but I heard from the Lord no my grace is sufficient I am keeping this on you for your good I'm reminding that you won't release me from this because it keeps me humble and I reminded that I'm really nothing other than what you make me so listen so I have are you ready for this man you talk about counterculture to me and so I have learned to celebrate my weakness because when I'm weak that's when I'm actually strong because you know what I'm dead I'm dead I mean are you willing to say to the Lord do whatever you got to do to kill me you what have you gotta do to kill me I will tell you this when I got to the point that I had to use the Lord to tie my shoes I didn't doubt my salvation I was redeemed in 1996 but the biggest step I took toward godliness was a 2008 when that when I couldn't function without complete dependence on the Lord and I and I do find myself at times saying I celebrate that I celebrate it I'm glad that you did whatever you had to do and I believe that you are right it's not what you think about you think about job and we talk about this a lot it says blameless and upright at the beginning but blameless and upright at the beginning as you find at the end was only comparing job to the other evil people he was blameless and upright compared to everybody else but when he went through his suffering and he gets to chapter 42 and it's a long hard ride and he's now repenting but what his joke doing repenting he said before I had I had heard of you my ears I knew you were somewhat but through this grind we've been on I now see you I see you more intimately in a way I'd never seen you before and what's the next line so I despise myself and I repent and ashes and dust I thought he was blameless and upright but through the suffering he became so aware of the holiness of God he realized how sinful he still was so so really job was taking what to another level through what a grind discipline so can I just tell you God loves you enough to do whatever he's got to do to get you there just do it why don't you just say today I submit you don't have to take me through all that I submit to you today I bought I buy it you don't have to do that to me Rick was hard-headed you had to crush him look I'm gonna I'm gonna listen today and I'm gonna say I'm ready to start to step toward godliness I'm under your authority right now I'm in and you'll see me making changes in my life Rick what kind of changes here's one whatever you're doing that sinning stop it stop doing it if you got people in your life they keep causing you to stumble apparently you're not strong enough to have impacted them their impact and you get rid of them now you can still have a relationship with them and try to minister to them but they don't belong in your influential circle anymore if they're if you're if you find that there's people that you hang around and when you hang around them your spiritual life goes down not up they don't belong in your inner circle they can certainly still be in acquaintance they can even be someone that maybe was once a friend and there's somebody you need to check on you need to care for you need to love but they got to get out of your circle of influence you got you got to make drastic changes as if your eternity depends on it what did you pulse it I'm working out my salvation with fear and trembling I'm not taking anything lightly and anything that doesn't belong in our life that last things god get rid of it I had to say this again yesterday this person was taking this situation and they were taking one of God's standards and they were playing games with it and you know when the person the person finally you could see a pause I said this is blasphemy this is not a mild thing you're thumbing your nose at God's standard it's blasphemy well see that's a whole different game now that's a different game now you know we got to get to the point where we fear being on the wrong side of God more than we fear being on the wrong side of any person including your own family let me say that again including your own family if you have to compromise God to be in good standing with any human don't don't that's the reason why he says if you'll if you'll put me where I belong then you can actually be what you need to be for there's other people anyway and some people don't understand that part of the Bible what he's talking about is everything flows for me if you don't have it flowing for me you're no good to your family anyway so the way that you love your family is to just justify their sin now you don't have to be a jerk but you certainly don't condone it and then say things like you know let's celebrate it unless all let's all pretend this okay so we can have a good day no you're you're just you're just delaying a terrible problem let everybody know where you stand and that you stand with God and and all you're doing is standing where you need them to stand because that's what's gonna be best for them right again now you don't have to be mean you don't have to be self-righteous you don't have to be sanctimonious but you don't love anybody when you just pretend they're not in sin it may make for a better family gathering it might be a smoother day for a moment but it is it has done damage to the kingdom of God how can you have a smooth day if you ended up on the wrong side of God that day who glad I got through that listen that shows me you don't you don't hold God in the proper place maybe you called him the big man upstairs maybe it's one of those things hey I'm going to talk to the people you told me to go talk to Moses talking to God who should I say you are what is your name I am I am the Alpha and the Omega I am the beginning in the end I'm it and I have always been and we're going to take that and that's going to be the last person we're concerned about being on the wrong side of we're gonna cater to the world and cater to people more than we're going to cater to God well that that has to mean that we really don't see him for who he really ours it can't mean anything else and believe it or not you can get to the place where you're so aware of him that it changes everything but it takes habits Romans 8:13 when the greatest chapters of the entire Bible for if you live according to the flesh you will die hey everybody here that you may be having a good time pleasing the flesh for today but the flesh is going to kill you that'd be like saying I'm having a good day today with a cottonmouth a water moccasin we're having a great day but sooner or later that snake is gonna bite you and if you don't get help you're gonna die it's just like we all live just like I talked about I was having fun and I was spending time and I say my flesh is having such a good time and God stepped in but it's gonna kill you Rick your flesh is bent on death your spirit is bent on life you've got to start living a life that feeds the Spirit you have fed the flesh enough and if you don't change this it's going to kill you that's how that's how important this is but I love Rome 8:13 if you live by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body and you will live what what if i I love this it made me think about Jeremiah God love Jeremiah with all he went through man you talk about a tough ministry and you've heard we talk about it's for Jeremiah how things are going not well everybody hates me I don't have anybody listening everything you tell me to tell them you're mad they're not responding they don't fear you they and he says what do you say they're not rejecting you Jeremiah Wright they rejected me they rejected me if you're right with me then you don't worry about how they're treating you and Jeremiah Mintz what he says I would like to not be keep talking about you I would love to stop because it's not a lot of fun and it causes problems but there is a fire that is shut up in my bones I'm so connected to you that I can't help but talk about you is that who you are if somebody got around you and I said and I said I want you to go spend time with anybody in this room feel put your name there and now and I and I loved you enough I said I'm gonna ask them when I see them after they spent today with you I'm gonna ask them what you care about will they say Jesus will they say God will they say their faith because I'm Alaska because you know what anytime so much means anytime with you they know what you care about because you can't stop talking about it and see we got to get to the point where as men we're so comfortable we're talking about Jesus we're so comfortable we're talking about God we're so comfortable we're talking about the Holy Spirit and sanctification in our life and how it's been changed and how wonderful he is that's the conversation that we drift to for comfort not everything else and I know some of you in this room if I hang out with you that's what we're gonna talk about and it's not going to be because we think we're supposed to we're gonna talk about it because there's what we truly care about now some of y'all I don't know I don't know what we're going to talk about if but but but I'm telling you that really does happen you know why because talking about just becomes habitual wow that's just what I could love that's what I care about we all talk about what we love and care about and so if I got up to you and said what Jeremiah was told I believe it's in Jeremiah somewhere around chapter 20 I may be 21 there comes a point just like Romans 8:13 when God says Jeremiah go tell my people listen to this this is important especially those you that are watching this and listening and you don't know Jesus yet this is a message Jeremiah was told but from God Almighty Jeremiah tell them this is a message of life or death got anybody's attention hey Rick what are you gonna talk about today this message I got today please don't start peddling around and doodling it's a message of life or death have I got your attention at that point he says you tell those people of mine that have been rebellious they better come out of that city a city of sin and they need to go out to the Babylonians and they need to submit to them and they'll be taken prisoner but I'm gonna deliver you later and you'll live if you stay in this city I'm going to smite this city and I'm gonna wipe out this city of sin and you're gonna die with it come out of your sin and submit to me if not you're gonna die and so Paul is really taking this message and saying the same thing if you live according to the flesh you will die but if you live by the spirit you will put - the spirit wins puts to death the deeds of the body and you will live this of course cannot be done by ourselves our strength our strength breaking habits have to be done in cooperation with the power provided by the Holy Spirit and and dependence on him it is not one of these 12-step programs it's not a three-step program but how about this there are practical principles that we can follow to train ourselves and godliness number one write this to have frequent repetition everything we've ever done that we that we got good at what reps I can remember when I coached football everybody hated something I've learned from a friend of mine called the perfect play and they all hated it and what we would do is we would run the same play over and over until it was perfect if you ran it perfect I moved the ball up five yards if you rent it imperfect we backed up five yards and we would not stop - you're in the end zone which means sometimes we ended up on another practice field we ran out of room but every time it wasn't done right we backed up and we're gonna stay here until we end up in that other endzone we're gonna run it - everybody does what they do perfectly and then we'll stop and then we'll go no flee this is what he's talking about habits habit is a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition just as the more we say yes to sin the more we say no is also true Oh write that down just as the moment when we used to say yes to sin and it turned into a habit the converse of that is also true if you get in a habit of saying no to sin that also becomes a habit reps the more we say no the more we're inclined to continue to say no that becomes the new the new norm takes in takes in first like somebody say Rick where do I start just like me who when I first got redeemed we had so much to fix we had to start somewhere you know what we're gonna do the opposite of Dave Ramsey Dave Ramsey says take the lowest debt you have pay it first and then work to the biggest one this is the opposite if you want to start this to fixing sending your life taking on the big one first what is the sin that you seem to fill out the most what is your weak spot you take that on you give it to the Lord and he'll lead us after we get that under his power when we get that right then the Lord show us the other sins we need to work on some that we may not to be aware of but that's way on down the road of sanctification and then the easier it becomes to say no but start with the stuff that is just blatant in your life start there I had a friend of mine he went to his church leadership and he said we don't have church discipline here and he says they said well it's been so long we're would you suggest we start he said how about the most heinous lists throw the people out that are the most heinous and then we'll work our way down the other stuff guys start somewhere so the the second one develop habits of prayer and meditation on scriptures that's got to be part of it yet wrap that scripture in like a brother and I were talking about before this if you're somebody that needs to get in the habit of reading and you haven't got there yet listen to it there's Audio Bibles there's audio studies whatever it takes whatever garbage you've been listening to listen to something that matters number two so reps is first number two never let an exception occur what I'm going to do this and then I make an exception here there can be no exceptions in your life there's none of this stuff that Jesus has access to everything so few things I hide over here you can't have that so there's no exceptions but you cannot get into this mode of just this once well down to just this once I'm gonna look at polling just one more time because it never ends that way does it no exceptions resolve says this is a subtle problem and it's a trap usually when we are willing to pay the price of saying no that's when you'll see that indulgent go away we want to indulge ourselves and we think to ourselves I went through this trying to do better about my eating well I went off the today I see this food in front of me I'm gonna eat to the point of sin I'm gonna be gluttonous now tomorrow I'm gonna be all right I used to have which was very symbolic of how I was at one time my life even when I was younger I used to have a picture of Snoopy on my door of my room and Snoopy was acting like an idiot doing one these goofy dances and it says I've got to start acting more sensible tomorrow and and and and see that's always it in it I hey man I got to get on this tomorrow not today not now and what would say we got to have repetition and we also got to stop with the exceptions there's no more exceptions nothing is an exception number three diligence in all areas is required to ensure success in any area you must be diligent in every area without a sincere and diligent effort in every area of obedience there will be no successful mortification of anyone be getting sin so you can't say now I'm gonna be very diligent over here in this area my life now there's other areas that are gonna stay the way they always have been you know if that's going to lead to collapse them all of it collapse of all of it I've noticed something about sin sin sin this seems to be gets in every time you know sins contagious but you know what else is to holiness and never get the attitude when you're dealing with anything in your life this isn't so bad this is not big deal this is not big deal if there's anything in if you until you'd call sense and as we said at the beginning of today you'll never you'll never do with it and and Adrian Rogers said any sin that the adversary are your flesh can get you to laugh at you'll never take serious again and I've certainly been guilty of that so we have to give in we have to address every area in our life if we give in in any area of our life it opens up a deficit in any area if not all areas you know why I mean think about that could you imagine you giving responsibility to somebody with your family and you said okay he's innocent look now you gonna watch my family right well mostly what ya are mostly pitch you heart an employee now you know I want you to do this is what we got to have here like it our business we have things that shouldn't happen and things that can't happen okay the cain't happens our fireable offenses the things that shouldn't happen are just in imperfection in people okay but what if you went over to the things it could not happen at your business and I said now these five things if any of these happen and the person who says I'm excited about working with you one one you can count on me for that - yeah three three yes four maybe and five probably not would you would you take that person on well because you couldn't depend on them right because if they're going to compromise any area in the things you can't have compromise in there probably compromising all of it so why why would we treat sin that way that's once again not taking sin serious hey sin always matters it always matters and then this one this is where Jerry and the Bible this is off the hook a little bit on the fourth one don't be discouraged by failure okay everybody breathe a little bit failing and being a failure are vastly different you all make mistakes as long as we're here now we want to get out of a lifestyle of sin that's not biblical but a mistake in a stumble we see the greatest men of the Bible and the greatest women of the Bible they never reached perfection in everything all the time as long as they were in the flesh but there is a perfection and a defeat of sins that take place the difference is is that a stumble or is this now become a lot is it a lifestyle that I've never fixed so look if you make a mistake you repent hopefully you'll know the Spirit is growing if you come into conviction you repent and say Lord forgive me for that but you know what you don't habitually say well Rick I do fail but I keep failing it the same thing that's not what this talking about this talking about I made a mistake in my growth that I fixed it because what does the devil want you to do we talked about this earlier you not even say you not even say I look at you today you made youto God you wouldn't gonna fail in this area you didn't fail he's done with you it's over no we serve a gracious God because he know the sincerity of our heart if the sincerity of your heart is you just messed up you just made a mistake you had a moment of weakness and you sincerely repented of it and you corrected it they keep moving but I mean you're a failure did I mean God's abandon you you keep moving he said it's it is in vain to guard our minds and our emotions against that which comes from without if we do not at the same time deal with the habits of sin which are within the battle is on these two fronts within and without only when we are willing to address both of these things Gerry Bridget says that's when will progress toward holiness take these things apply them today assess where you are just like I have had to do studying this over the weekend it again today hearing it again and make the corrections where they need to be made and if you're sitting here today and you're thinking yourself you know I I don't see any victory in any sin in my life that's a that's problematic something's wrong because that's not saying much about the Holy Spirit it's one thing to make a mistake it's another thing to make a mistake and feel no conviction about it and if there's anything you're not sure about it there's do you think about this process you're not sure about you come see me any of you that are watching and listening this Rick at Rick and Bubba calm I'm happy to walk through with you to renew this we're getting toward the end of this study and and I know the last four weeks have been getting heavier and heavier but you know whenever you get to where you can endure is usually when you've gotten to your point where you've been through something difficult made you stronger and these last four lessons have definitely convicted me and made me stronger I hope it has for you let's pray lord thank you for today as these men go their separate ways I pray Lord that you as they step out their flesh or the adversary or demonic forces are always in play because the adversary wants to destroy men because he knows if he does he has destroyed their life but whether its men are women that are watching or listening to this outside of the room today Lord I pray the conviction the Holy Spirit refines us and I pray if there's anything in our life today that you've convicted us of we will not say to ourselves this isn't a big deal sin is always a big deal and you have given us the power for it to be removed from our lives and I pray Lord this will submit completely to you and everything and say Lord this is me change me because you certainly have the ability to do so and I pray this sword in the name of Jesus amen thank you guys

Channel: Rick & Bubba

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Id: TaQXaEA-usY

Length: 60min 14sec (3614 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 07 2019