Looking to Jesus

Let's pray. Dear God, we come to you in the name of Jesus. We thank you, God, that you are still at work.

You're at work in Haiti. You're at work in Florida and Pennsylvania, everywhere where CAM is involved, Lord, with this crisis that has been averted. But Lord, we just pray right now for the guards, the other people left behind in Haiti, that your spirit would continue to push back the darkness, that souls would get saved.

I pray that the guards, that they would get saved, like this Philippian guard did, and like the Apostle Paul did, and so many others. Lord, I just pray for their salvation. And we praise you for this.

But right now, we pray for also deliverance, for autumn grace. Lord, whatever's going on in her life, we pray that you administer it in a powerful way. And Lord, we pray also for the Gussie family, and whatever the needs are there, just let your spirit move and work in their lives and heart.

And work, we pray, with this lady who used to be a witch there in Jefferson, who now has a manger scene in her yard. I pray, God, for her. And I thank you, God, for the work that you've already done.

Lord, I pray for us. I pray for my brother Jeremy as he shares. I pray that you would anoint him as he speaks and anoint us as we listen.

In Jesus' name, amen. Lord bless you. Maybe you have a conviction against Christmas lights, but when you hear that, all of a sudden, that conviction kind of just goes away, and you get real excited.

You know, that song Timothy just led, talking about trusting in the Lord and accepting situations that come into our lives. It reminds me of this verse I've been meditating on in Philippians chapter one. Paul says this, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ.

Listening to that testimony of the ones that were in captivity. You know, why do we accept persecutions and tribulations and things that come into our life? Paul says it right there, because he's talking about his bonds. He says, so that my bonds in Christ is manifest.

So here he is in prison somewhere, but he says, I know this will work out for something. What does he say it'll work out for? For my salvation and for the supply of the spirit. You know, sometimes we think, well, we're, you know, it's a nice doctrine to think we're supposed to rejoice in the Lord or rejoice in tribulation, you know, count it all joy when you fall in tribulation and these things.

And we think, you know, it'll make me a better person, which it will, if you have your eyes in the right place. But Paul says it will turn to the supply of the spirit. It will turn to, as we go through persecution and tribulation, if we are in the right place, it will turn to a place where we are closer to the Lord.

We will receive more of him. I think this is what makes us different than the non-Christian. You know, you see a lot of non-Christians.

They do good things. Gandhi, he did a lot of good things in India. He even loved his enemies, but where Christians are different than non-Christians is when persecutions and trials come into their life.

Now this, I'm talking about true Christians. See non-Christians when trials come into their lives, they tend to complain. They tend to get frustrated.

They tend to speak evil. Now Christians, this is where the light shines in their life, is when the Holy Spirit, the supply of the spirit comes into their heart because they are trusting in him. Now, the scary thing is if we claim to be Christians and we're not doing that, then what light are we giving off? We're actually marring the image of Christ because they expect more from you.

You know, when they hear you're a Christian, they expect more from you. But if you complain and you're not trusting God through it, you're actually showing that Christianity is just darkness too. This is the big difference of Christianity.

As Glenn would say, that was my little pre-sermon. But it goes right into what I want to talk about this morning. My question is this morning that I've been thinking about this week and last, the other night at the school program, I asked Will this too, Will Rodenhouse.

I want to ask you this question and then we'll go into the sermon. But who is your hero? Just maybe ask yourself that question right now. Who in your heart, you know, as you think about who comes to mind your hero, maybe a way of life, what is your passion? Who do you want to mimic? Who do you idolize? You know, we all have a passion.

You may not think you do, but we all have a passion. Sometimes it's kind of interesting how we might say what our passion is, but everybody around us might say, oh, that's not your passion. You know, we might want to say this is our passion, but everybody knows after just spending a little time with you that you have a passion about fill in the blank.

I remember we were in here in Halsey doing some garage sailing. Maybe some of that's some people's passion, right? But we were at this house and this guy had this couple buckets of Legos. Turns out he's actually a youth pastor here in town.

And he takes me into his garage and I step into the garage and there are drawers upon drawers upon drawers all the way across the garage of Legos. And this guy is in his 30s. Nice guy, but he loves Legos.

And I mean, he has a passion. I mean, the boys were talking, we want this little Indian. Oh, he went to the right drawer, found the Indian, brought it out and explained to us how this Indian was a special Indian.

It was worth $40 because it had a little nose on it, a little painted nose on the Lego. And he said, you know, when we got politically correct, we decided it was one of the only Legos that had painted noses. Not many of them had painted noses.

Well, it's kind of a big nose. And when we got politically correct, it got wrong to have noses. So they stopped printing the noses on the Legos.

So it became a collector's item. So this guy, he knew his stuff. You know, I'm sure he studies Legos.

And he told me he would go to garage sales and find these perfect sets and sell these things just to buy more Legos. He doesn't even put any money into it anymore. He just has this reoccurring money stream that comes in from selling these Legos.

I didn't have to spend about 30 minutes with him. And I could tell you what his passion was. It was Legos.

Or maybe you're with somebody and, you know, they just start into and it's like they're telling you these stories like about, you know, the Illuminati or, you know, the government. And they're just like putting these little, like little bait out there. And they just want you to say, really? Right.

And you just can tell that their passion is to talk about conspiracy theories like that's their passion. Or maybe it's trucks, you know, maybe, you know, every model of Peter built. And when it goes by, you know, just what that is and what size engine and, you know, what transmission is hooked to the engine and all of that.

Or maybe it's tractors. I mean, I hear a lot of this. I had it this morning.

RX, yeah, that one. And maybe, you know, all of those numbers and, you know, the serials and models and, you know, that's your passion. Or maybe it's technology, rockets and all of this.

We all have our passions, right? Or maybe it's sewing machines or sewing. Maybe I don't think any of you have certain model sewing machines you like, but but sewing. So I asked you this morning, what's your passion? What's your your what's that thing that drives you that you just enjoy? Find your I looked up the definition of passion.

It means an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. A thing arousing enthusiasm, strong and barely controllable emotion. What do you find yourself thinking about? What would others say your passion is? Maybe maybe you'd say, well, my passion is this, but others would go, no, it's really this.

If a conversation started up around who Jesus was and what it looks like to follow Jesus and another conversation started about fill in the blank, whatever yours is, which one would be more interesting to talk about? Which one would you feel more drawn to to go and to be a part of? Now, let me ask you this. What do you think Paul's passion was? If you spent an hour with Paul, what do you think he would have talked about? What about if you spent an hour with John or Peter or Stephen? Or James or for that matter, Jesus, what do you think his passion would have been? Here's a picture to think about in your mind. Let's imagine you love farming.

I love to talk about farming because we have a lot of farmers here. I talk about something else if we had a lot of something else, but let's imagine you love farming. So you saved up all your life and you bought this perfect piece of land and it's just the perfect life.

You put in your first seed, it's coming up, you got yourself a swather and a nice tractor to do all the work. Sorry if I get the terms wrong, guys. I'm trying to get here.

I've heard my boys talking about that alarm that rings in the summer. It just reminds them of all these memories of waking up and it's a perfect morning. You're out working in the field.

You're watching the sun come up, just beautiful. You see in the grass, it's in the perfect place and everything's just perfect. And you look over at your house and there's your wife and she's making breakfast, orange juice and all the stuff.

You see this man standing on the side of the field and you pull your swather over and you go up to him and he says, follow me. Yeah. That would be hard, I got to say.

What would be going through your mind? I want to remind each one of us that we heard that voice at some time in our life. Each one of us at some point heard Jesus say, follow me. And we had to say, yes, Lord.

And say all of these other things are like hate. You know, Jesus even said in comparison to our love for Jesus, that beautiful wife in the house making that breakfast should look like hate. That field and the tractors and all the trucks and all the things should look like hate.

That's how much we should love Jesus. I remember years ago seeing this verse and this verse, if you'll turn with me first, John, I remember thinking to myself, you know, I was, I had a lot of doctrine that kind of did away with Jesus teachings, said that everything he taught was for a future time. And we here as a church are here to provoke Israel back to, to God.

And so we don't follow the Jesus teachings and the servant of the mount. That's for another time for the Jews when they finally get provoked back. And I remember reading this verse in first John.

And I think this was probably one of those like light moments, like aha, light bulb goes on. This can't be true what I've been taught. And it's in verse six, I'd say this is for years and years.

And to this day is still my theme verse, though I had some different interpretations at the time, but chapter two of first John, he says this, John says this, this is the one that walked with Jesus who did follow Jesus, who did leave everything behind. John says, he, that sayeth he abides in him ought himself also. So to walk, even as he walked, I thought I wrote it down here, but I remember reading it and I think it was the NIV and it says, whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus walked.

This word ought means to owe it's duty. It's debt. It's being bound.

If somebody paid off a massive debt for you, the rest of your life, you would be in a sense of duty to them. You would be in a sense of bound to them. You remember Abraham and he had a servant, right? That he found, I don't remember the exact story, but he had that, what's his name? Do you remember Stephanie? The one that then stayed with him the rest of his time.

But anyway, he had a duty to Abraham. And that's, that's the kind of thing that Jesus wants from us. He paid a debt that we can't pay, right? He forgave something in the story of the unforgiving servant.

The one that was forgiven was forgiven so much, so much so that he could never earn it in his lifetime. And so there's a bind. There's a, there's a, there's a, Oh, there's a debt.

And that is to live like Jesus. That's the debt of a Christian is to live or walk like Jesus walked. Now for years, I read that and I thought, well, how did Jesus walk? Well, he loved his enemies.

He forgave. He had joy. He had peace.

And I tried to mimic those things. I need to love my enemies. I need to be forgiving.

I need to be kind. I need to be like Jesus, right? And that's what we tend to want to do. We want to be like Jesus in that way.

But I want to think a little bit from another perspective. How did Jesus walk that way? How did Jesus even have the love for enemies? How did he even have the forgiveness? How did he even have these things? But this verse we must remember says, if you want to say, I'm a Christian, you are duty bound to walk like Jesus. You cannot expect someday to stand before him.

And if you haven't walked like him, you can't expect to hear that you are his brother, that you are God's son. If you would turn to John chapter six, Jesus should be our hero. Jesus should be the garage full of Legos.

Jesus should be our everything. But we're very, it's very easy. We are made of flesh and we're, it's very easy for us to forget and to get caught up in the cares of this life.

John chapter six, let's see how Jesus was. And I want to look in verse 38. Jesus is saying why he came to this earth.

He says, for I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. So one of the first things we have to realize, if we're going to walk like Jesus and where did Jesus get this strength and power was he came for the purpose to not to do his own will. The first thing we have to realize is that a Christian's duty bound to his master is that we seek not to do our own will.

And this is why Jesus said, if you want to be my disciple, you have to daily take up your cross. You have to daily die to yourself. In fact, in John four, and we don't need to turn there, but Jesus said, I came not even he's we just read.

He came not to his own will, but he said my meat or my food. This is when, um, the Samaritan woman, he met the Samaritan woman and the, and the disciples went into town to find food. And they came back and saw him talking to this woman, which he was prophesying to her.

He was speaking God's mind and they asked him if he wanted food. And he said, I believe this is the passage. He says, my meat or my food is to do the will of God.

Even for Jesus food was far less important than just doing the will of God. Turn to John chapter five, please. I'm trying to demonstrate to you here how Jesus walked, what his passion was, because we want to be like him.

We want to be like Paul. We want to be like Peter. We want to be like James and they wanted to be like Jesus.

So how was Jesus looking? Um, John chapter five, verse 19, then answered Jesus and said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do. For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise. For the father loves the son and shows him all things that himself doeth.

Get this picture. Jesus, when he would wake up in the morning, he was thinking about his father. What is his will? What would he want me to do? When he would go through his day, he would be acknowledging the father all the way through.

And when he went to bed at night, he was thinking about the father. In fact, it says here, he can do nothing of himself. And we think of Jesus as this mighty, amazing apostle prophet that was such an amazing gift to mankind and was so holy and set apart.

And yet he says, I can do nothing of my own self, nothing, zero. He could do nothing, but only what the father revealed to him, he was able to do. He said, he says only what the father does, the son does likewise and showeth him all things.

Even to the point, looking a little bit later, verse 30, he says, just to make sure we get this picture clear, I can of my own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge and my judgment is just because why I seek not my own will, but the will of the father who has sent me. And for the sake of time, I could show you many passages where Jesus did just this, that Jesus only did and operated through the things he saw his father doing.

He even says that one, another point in John eight, I can do nothing of myself, but as my father has taught me, I speak these things. It speaks in Luke that he wax strong, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. Jesus was a man who was, it says in another place being full of the Holy ghost and returned with power of the Holy ghost.

Jesus was a man who operated his entire life from, from the time he knew the difference between good and evil all the way to his death, always walking in the father's will and always doing only what the father was showing him. This is how we need to be at least striving for. He is our example.

He is, he is the perfect example of what we should be in everything. If you have any question, what should I do in life? How should I be? Jesus is like the dictionary. He's like the encyclopedia that you go to to find out how we should react in anything.

So if Jesus walked like this, does he not expect us to walk like this? If you say you abide in him, you must, you ought to walk like Jesus did. Did Jesus not tell us that without me, you can do nothing. Is it not the same thing? He could do nothing of his own father and we can do nothing without him.

Is it not the same relationship? Does Jesus not want us to have the same relationship that he had with his father? I do think that we are frail. It says about Jesus that the spirit was never given without measure. He was given the fullness of the spirit.

And in us humans that follow Jesus, we have times of being filled just like him. And we have times when we're not, not saying that's an excuse, but we are striving to be like him. We are laboring to enter into his rest.

But I don't know if you remember this. You've seen it in little children. You know, they're learning to climb a tree.

They're learning to ride a bike. They're learning to walk and you go to help them. And they say, I can do it.

Right. We all feel like that. I don't need help.

It's just ingrained in us. I can do it. And so we let them get on the bike and fall over and get a skinned up knee.

And you know, they try and they try and we let them make mistakes because they have to learn it their way. And that's what the Lord does. He says to us, come and learn of me for I am meek and I am lowly.

Think about those words. I am meek. That means I am submitted always to do the father's will.

And I am lowly. I'm humble. I'm under him.

And you will find rest for your souls. Jesus is not an add-on. If he is an add-on in your life, then I'm sorry to say it.

You're not really a Christian. He's not a side dish. He's not the cherry on the top.

You know, he's not when you go to McDonald's and you're like wanting that big burger and you're like, oh, yeah, I get some fries and a drink, too. He's not the fries and the drink. He's not an accessory.

He's not insurance. He's not a get out of health free card. Now, you know, we are all growing.

We are all progressing and we start somewhere. And sometimes we do start with Jesus as a get out of health free card or an insurance plan. But you can't stay there.

Jesus has to become the burger, you know. He has to become the ice cream and not the cherry on the top. It's the truth.

So how do we become like Jesus? Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter three. This is talking about the Old Testament and the Ten Commandments and the deception that was on the people's minds. They weren't accepting Christ.

And he's talking about a veil that's over their hearts and they can't see. They can't understand. Their minds are darkened.

And but then he turns to the Christians, the ones who have been changed and who do see Jesus. And he says this in verse 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed from the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the same spirit of the Lord.

I know those are some old English words and it's hard to understand, but let me read it to you in the ESV. And we all with unveiled face, that open face is an ideal that we can see now. We don't have a veil.

We can see beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed. OK, so Jesus was a perfect example of us and he was transformed, right? He walked like his father says he learned obedience. Guess what? He wants you to do the same thing.

He wants you to be transformed into what? Into the same image. Did you know that God's desire for every one of us is to become more and more like Jesus Christ every day? Can you say from a year ago that I am more like Jesus than I was last year? That's his desire as we are. It says the same image from one degree of glory to another glory to glory.

You're it's growing. It's growing. It's growing.

He's showing you more and more things. He's he's opening the eyes of your understanding. He's he's filling more rooms in your house with his light and you are dying to sell from those areas.

And then what is the first the next part say for this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. Notice it's not you looking like this and saying, yuck, I see I see unthankfulness. Yuck, I see lust.

Yuck, I see anger. I need to fix that. I need to fix that.

And you're walking. This is how I walked around for the first. Seven years after I saw this first, I need to be like Jesus, so I'm going to go try to be like Jesus, you know, and effectively was trying to take fruit on the tree, right? Put the fruit on, just tape it on.

But where are the in this verse? Where are our eyes? Are they looking at here? They're looking at Jesus. Where was Jesus eyes? We're trying to be like him, right? Where was his eyes all the time? The father, he was always looking at the father, whatever he sees the father do, he does. That's why I would love to sit down with these people who just come out of captivity.

You know why? Because they've experienced this to such a degree now that it's them, you know, that they received that as I open that verse. I know this will work out to the supply of the spirit. They saw God working.

And I could just tell by the way the man opened his testimony, like he was ready to preach. He was overflowing with the spirit of God, because why? Because he and they had finally died to self. It took them a month at that month marker.

He was ready to leave. He told him, you know, I'm out of here. You know, but he finally got to a place where they were unified and they prayed and they said they had no scripture, but they just quoted scripture and they sang songs and they prayed.

And you know, by the, I'm guessing by the end of that month, they were changed individuals. What's scary is we haven't gone through that. And so how are we going to become changed? We live in a pretty comfortable life.

It's almost harder in some ways to become changed because, you know, what conflict do we have to come against us to make us want God? So, but this is what Jesus wants. He wants us to be beholding him as in a glass or like in a mirror. We're looking at Jesus.

We're being, wow, look at that about Jesus. Look at this about Jesus. Jesus is showing you things in your life, how your thoughts and your intentions don't line up to who he is.

And he's, and he's, he's, uh, he's giving you the power to do it. He's showing your motivations. And pretty soon you're like, you know what I am growing in last year compared to this year, I'm more like Jesus.

You know, it's like school every year you want to be advancing. You get to the end of the school year, you take your test and hopefully you pass and you move to the next year. I think these guys who are down in Haiti, they must now be in college.

Probably think about the tests they just went through and they passed. It sounds like they are giving glory to the Lord and they found their peace in God. How are we doing in that test? Where are we from first grade to college? Are we pressing? Are we trying to be looking at Jesus, trying to be through him more like him or are we just plateaued back here in third grade? And we're just content to stay there play with the toys, you know, stay in the merry-go-round or do we want to get up to algebra and learn trigonometry and be like Jesus.

In Proverbs, it says this, the path of the just is like a shining light. And it says it shines more and more and more until the perfect day. So think about the sun as it comes up in the morning, comes up over the horizon and it's kind of dark.

It's mixed with light. You can't really see things so well. It's hard to make out a shape of a deer if you're hunting.

Is that a buck? Is that a doe? I can't tell. And it comes up a little bit more and now you can make some things out, but there's still shadows. It's still a little hazy, comes up a little bit more until finally when it's all the way at the midday, there's no more shadows.

I mean, the shadows are straight down, right? There's no shadows coming out in the field from a tree. That's what it is for the path of the righteous man. You know, when we start out our Christian walk, it's, you know, it's mixed.

We can just honestly say, look, Jesus isn't the burger. He's more the cherry or the fries on the side. But is your life doing this? Is the sun rising in your heart? Is he becoming more and more your righteousness? Are you depending more and more on him like he did on his father? If you don't today, if you don't see that in your life, at least say in your heart, that's what I want.

If it takes me 10 years to get it, that's what I want. I want to be like Jesus in this way where he has shown me that I'm not like Jesus. Peter, after he ended his epistle, after all this time, you know, he writes two books.

He gets all the way to the last words of his epistle. What would he want to say to his last parting words? He says this, but grow in grace. This is something we need to learn.

It's like sap on a tree. What is the job of a branch on a tree? Is the job of the branch to try to construe up all the power to make the fruit? What does he do? What does the, if I'm a branch, what's my job? Be a channel. Okay.

Exactly. Stay attached, right? Don't leave. This is, I'm, I, the sap's coming through, the fruit's coming.

Why, why should I leave? My job is to just stay abiding, to stay attaching. That's why Jesus says in John 15, abide in me. If a man abide not on me, he has cast forth as a branch and has withered and then gather them and burn them, cast them into a fire.

Our job is to abide. Our job, another way to say that is our job is to depend on God. This whole life we walk is about learning.

I call it a fun game in a sense, learning to depend on God. And so when the tribulations come and we say like, oh, I don't like tribulations, but it's going to give us an opportunity to experience that sap flowing through and see the fruit come out and experience God. And so though we don't like it, you know, we, we, we kind of, I can almost guarantee you some of those, those people who just went through this will look back and say, we wouldn't want to go back and do that again, but we wouldn't trade it for anything.

And in some ways, I remember hearing about these people who were kidnapped in Korea, North Korea, they had a reunion and they said, you know, we've had our lives for the last 10 years, but in some ways we'd rather be back in that prison. Why? Because that's where they were abiding and continuing. God, we come out and it's like, we come out of a trial and we get caught up in the goodness of life and the tractor and the grass and the beautiful and our wife in there.

And we kind of lose focus. Sometimes we lose focus of what really matters. We were looking at that verse.

It said, looking at Jesus, beholding as in a glass. That's our job. We have to say focus to Jesus.

Look at this verse in Hebrews. It says you can turn there. Hebrews chapter 12 verse two.

You know, he just got done telling all these great mighty men in the old Testament, all the amazing things they did. And then verse two, looking to Jesus, you want to be a man full of faith, faith. You want them to be a man that does whatever the father's will is looking to Jesus, the author, the source, the beginner and the finisher of our faith.

Sometimes we think we're the ones doing all this. Sometimes we think I can do it just like the little boy. But you know, the one, as soon as we start thinking that we are getting into the mindset with apart from Jesus, we can do something.

Our mindset needs to be. No, I can't. I must depend on Jesus.

I must depend on him for righteousness. I must depend on him for holiness. I must depend on him for the fruit of the spirit.

That's what sanctified means. That's what holy means. That's what saint means.

It means set apart. It means I'm yours, God, for whatever you want. I want to depend on you for everything.

I'm looking to you. I'm a saint. I'm set apart.

I'm sanctified. And first, John, it says this. As he is Jesus, so are we in this world.

You see that concept. Jesus is not just somebody we look at to say he did these amazing things. So we need to do these amazing things.

He is somebody we look at to say this is how he abided in his father. So this is how we abide in our father. There is such a danger.

We have this side of the world that says of the worldly church that says to us, that's not about your words. It's just about. It's just about believing a fact that Jesus died.

You know, he is the son of God. And that's it. I get to go to heaven.

I'm going to sin the rest of my life. I should try to do some good things because I would get rewards. False.

But then we can react to this side, which says it isn't about our works to get saved, but you better do a lot of good things to stay saved. That's dangerous, too, because Jesus said he couldn't do anything of himself. We need to be here that says, I can't do anything unless I abide in Jesus.

I can only perform anything good out there is if I am staying connected to Jesus and depending on him for everything. And when I don't feel like forgiving, I cry out to him and I look to him and say, how do I forgive when I don't feel like being joyful? I cry out to him and say, how do I? That's the thing we have to stay in. These two things are false dichotomies and they're both deceptions from the devil and they will end you up in the same place because you can't do anything apart from God.

Without holiness, you will never see the Lord. And without me, you can do nothing. We have to keep these two things in place and we have to look to Jesus.

Listen, OK, I know you guys are going to think I'm crazy, but I'm going to read from you from the message. I read this and I thought, wow, this is this, you know, sometimes we just need a little slap across the face after hearing the Bible five times and thinking like, oh, I know that verse now. You can guess where this is from.

Knowing the correct password, saying, master, master, for instance, isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience, doing what my father wills. Now, remember, you're never going to even know what the father's will is if you don't abide in him.

Those people had to abide in him to know the day and the things they said, Lord, we don't know when the day is. We don't know the situation. They had to abide in him to know when to get out in Haiti.

We just talked about in the Bible study. Why didn't he leave when the things were open? Because they were abiding in the Lord and they knew this. They must have known somehow not to leave.

We need to be abiding in Jesus to know his will. OK, let me get I'm getting on a rabbit trail. What required is serious obedience, doing my father's will.

I can see it now at the final judgment, strutting up to me saying, master, we preach the message. We bash the demons. Our super spiritual projects had everyone talking.

And you know what I'm going to say? You missed the boat. All you did now listen to this. I know that's funny, but listen to this.

This is serious. All you did was use me to make yourself important. How much of church life can be that we just use Jesus to make ourselves important? You know, this is a society.

This is a group. This is a club. And we can fall into that.

We just use Jesus to make ourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. Then he goes on.

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life. Remember, we talked about the cherry on the side that these are not just interesting little things you add to your life and say, good, I'm a Christian now. Homeowner, homeowner improvements to your standard of living.

They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, that means they come out of this book and they come into your life. They become part of you.

Out of your inner man will flow rivers of living water, Jesus said. This he spoke of the Holy Spirit who had not yet been given because he had not yet been glorified. This should be the reality of the Christian life.

Inner man, living water coming out. Sorry, another little rabbit trip. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on a solid rock.

Rain poured down, the rivers flooded, tornadoes hit, but nothing moved the house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you're like a stupid carpenter who built his house on a sandy beach.

And when the storms rolled and waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards. Wow. You know, I wouldn't recommend studying that version for like any serious study, but I will say that it's convicting because that's what Jesus meant.

Are we using him to, to, as it said, make ourselves more important or are these words becoming part of us? Are we looking to Jesus? He was the word of God. Are they, is he becoming part of us and in us and directing us? That's what the Christian life is. I want to end this with a little thought here.

We've all seen good marriages and we've all seen bad marriages. You can think of some good marriages. I can think of Mark and Ann have a great marriage.

You know, they come around, they're all over hugging and like holding hands and like she's always up next to him. I hear that Spence and Maria, I hear they have got this amazing marriage. Do you guys agree? Those of you who work for them? I don't know how long they've been married, maybe 10 years.

And I mean, they're looking for every opportunity to ride with each other in the sprayer. And I guess, you know, she'll come out to bring something to him. And man, they look for that opportunity to show some affection.

And yeah, they love to be with each other. And then you've heard of other marriages. It's like, there's a lot of coldness.

Have you ever heard the term they're living a divorce? I want to ask you this. What is your relationship like with Jesus? You know, think about this. We are compared to a marriage with Jesus.

If you had a scale of one to 10, 10 being the best marriage you ever did see, you know, they're looking for every chance to hug and kiss and hold hands and ride together somewhere. And he's always telling her she's beautiful. And she's always telling him handsome.

And you know, they wake up and have coffee together and go and walk together and all that versus the other living a divorce. Yeah, you're together, but you're living a divorce. What's your relationship on that scale? I should put it up here.

Living a divorce or I'll just call it a joyous, fulfilling marriage. This being a 10 and this being a one, where are you? Where's your relationship at with Jesus? Do you enjoy spending time with him? Do you look for him? Do you, do you think he's beautiful? Kind of weird. I know, but, but there's a side of that.

That's true. Do you, uh, communicate with him? Like, you know, they say a good marriage, anybody that's in this kind of marriage, I will guarantee you they have to have communication. They have to talk about things on a regular basis.

They have to, they have to talk about their heart. They have to hear and talk. Do you do that with Jesus? Where's your, where's your relationship with him? I'm not trying to preach down at any one of us.

I'm trying to call us up to something higher as it says in Hebrews, pressing on to perfection, laying aside all these other doctrines, you know, the doctrines of, um, well, I think it's chapter six, leaving the principles of, uh, repentance from dead works. We could talk about that, repenting from sin. Uh, we could talk about faith to God.

We could talk about, um, baptism. We could talk about laying on of hands. What does that look like? We could talk about dying and resurrecting, and we could talk about eternal judgment.

We talk about hell. Those are some really neat doctrines, but you know, those are the foundational doctrines. What is important is as the book, as the chapter starts on leaving the principle of the doctrines of Christ, let us go on to perfection.

Is that what we're doing? Are we doing this with our relationship with Jesus? Is the sun rising and becoming more and more? Are we looking at the glory and being changed from glory to glory into the image of Christ? Isn't that an amazing thought? Would you be changing the image of Christ? Um, let's quickly look at this verse and then I'll close. Second Corinthians, um, chapter 11, verse two. He says, for I am jealous over you, talking to the Corinthians with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband.

We just talked about that, that I may present you as a chaste or a pure, uh, holy set apart, virgin to Christ. But I fear he has a fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled or deceived Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity, the singleness, the focus of Christ, the devotion.

I think the ESV says he has beguiled you that you would be a letterweight to the simple devotion or undivided. I looked at the Greek word. It's the word like plating of hair, like mingle, like, is your life mingle? Is it like some of the world and some of Jesus? Is it some of your will and some of his will? Or is it devotion to Christ? Is it looking to Jesus? Is it beholding in a glass? We have to constantly check our hearts on this because we constantly want to fall back.

This is the default position. Everybody is right here. The only way to get here is a lot of looking and dividing in him a lot of denial of self and saying, not my world, but your world.

So is Jesus more like your maid when you're all done living your pleasures in life and your will and following everything? You know, he's going to say, Hey, I've made this great place for you. Those streets of gold and mansions. Come on in.

Is he more like that? Because I think if he is, there's going to be a sad reality check. Or is he more like your honey? This is the main. This is the honey.

Is he more like their honey? Like when you think about someday when you die, I get to be with Jesus. Is that what the excitement is? Is he? Is he more your honey? Or is he more your maid? Do you wake up wanting to do his will? Listen for his voice, wanting to be like him, excited to serve him. And when you die, you'll get to be with him.

Which one is it? Just like a true marriage, you know, that thinks the same thoughts about his wife. You know, what can I bring? Can I bring her flowers? Can I bring her home? Can I bring her home some of my lunch? I went out to lunch. Let me, let's, I'm thinking about her.

Let's take her home some of this. I think she'll enjoy that. Oh, and she brings a cup of water and oh, you need some coffee and you know, they serve each other.

Is that your relationship with Jesus? Or is it more like I'm doing my duty. Here's my 15 minutes. Okay.

I'm going to get back on with the rest of my life. That's living a divorce. Let's press on to perfection.

Let's allow our hearts and our souls to become more and more like him. The image of him. How do we do that? By looking at him.

By all the time, every day. Do you think the verse that says, um, do everything without complaining and disputing is possible? If I told Matthew, go pick up a thousand pounds, what kind of father would I be? If that wasn't possible, it's a real thing that we can do everything without complaining or disputing, but it takes this. It takes a bite.

So let's, let's look at those promises and see what Jesus has for us and let's look to him and, um, believe that his promise will come true in our lives. If we just continually walk with him day after day. Thank you.

God bless you.