Being Genuine And Sincere

Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be together and thank you for your word that speaks to our hearts and Let's pray that we would be sincere and able to receive with meekness that word that it would be planted and Would grow in Jesus name. Amen This morning I reached out to one of our managers and you know a manager is doing a good job When you don't hear often from him and there's no problems Doesn't mean he's not doing anything means he's doing things and he's doing everything and and And there's no drama And then I started reflecting on how many sewers have plugged up in the last recent months they used to plug up like every two weeks and in the frozen and Seems none have plugged up I'm sure they had plugged up, but I'm sure he dealt with them And so I just started to reflect on that and thinking on all the things. He's probably doing that.

He doesn't talk about and I just Shot him a text and I said, hey brother cuz he's a Christian brother. I said, you know, I Love you You know, he sent back a text to me and And he told me he was at an auction yesterday And he said they were selling black Angus bulls And he said, you know those bulls he said they went from between $6,500 and $8,000 for a bull and the highest one sold for fourteen thousand eight hundred dollars. I Said wow, that's that's crazy So these must be these must be good breeding stock You know these bulls and he said they were beautiful animals and I said, you know, I was thinking about it for a second I said, you know, I wonder if the Old Testament priests what bull they would buy When they would bring a bull for a sacrifice for sin And I asked him that question and he said well he said they were Jewish so he said probably They'd get the cheapest one But he says if people were watching probably the most expensive one You know, I led to a conversation where we were able to be honest Because you know when people are watching we we can put forward a really good appearance you know what, but when nobody's looking we cut corners like nothing else and This really speaks not just of our character, but it speaks of our heart We're our commitment to the Lord You know, we're walking down the road and you know And then you know some some people walk by and your eyes get away on us, you know If our wife's there, we're very careful.

But if our wife's not there we is careful But the Lord is always there You know, it's just an example of how We're very careless at times When people aren't watching but when people are watching become very concerned about our reputation You know Gerson you shared something interesting about lying and you know the Word of God says in Romans chapter 3 basically that all men are liars and that there's poison under their tongues God knows that But we need to see it Because how do we realize what kind of character we really have unless God expose it It says let God be true in every man a liar and so there's so many lies that Manifest throughout our speech and through the way that we conduct ourselves That even the people around us can see it and pick up on it, but we're blind like bats we're blind to it until it gets exposed I remember a time I was preaching about something I was talking about how this guy lied to me and Then I shared from the pulpit maybe 10 12 years ago. How you know, I don't lie right and Then similar thing happened to me. I got in a position where someone asked me a question.

I was gonna look bad And I and I I gave a better Appearance than what was truthful and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said you see you're a liar, too You're hypocrite Because being honest is gonna make you sometimes look bad in front of people But you know what the Lord is interested in sincerity We have to be sincere About where we're at and then God can work as soon as we come to a place where oh now I'm supposed to be something I'm leading the worship. I'm I'm preaching the word now we have to be be in a position where we're supposed to be far more mature and then when people see us we have to put on our Sunday best or we have to give an appearance of being better than we are and This is what the devil uses to hinder us from growing spiritually You know, I'm a parent I'm a dad and sometimes I fail in that And sharing with my children disciplining them and talking to them sometimes I fail in that I'm trying to get a point across and maybe I get angry But you know Just because I'm the parent and I have the final word and I'm right It doesn't mean that I shouldn't sometimes humble myself and ask for forgiveness Not for maybe what I said, but for the way I said it with the tone With the heart that was behind it and the Lord is continually showing us areas where we need to be genuine and sincere You know in the New Testament, we don't bring Bulls as preachers or pastors or deacons or elders But we have to bring a Sacrifice that is acceptable to God, which is our reasonable act of worship and not just us but all of us do To love the Lord with all our heart and to be honest Because he knows all things and to be sincere This week I I was trying to follow my kids about a month or month and a half ago and I went on some social Media so I could secretly see what they're up to and then I realized the thing I'm spending time on this thing And it's there's a waste of time and there's even uncleanness on it. And so I decided I'm just going to delete these apps So I've never had these apps and all of a sudden to try to Find out if my kids are getting into trouble or what they're up to or what they're posting I seem it's necessary so I can be informed but I'm praying for them.

Anyways, I don't need to know exactly everything they're doing God knows what I need to know is that I Trust the Lord's gonna take care of it And I said Lord, this is this not good. I just have to get get rid of this stuff. And so Sometimes we have to just be honest.

Hey, you know what? I made a mistake here This thing was not good. It just filled my life with more distractions and uncleanness. I Need to just separate myself from it The Lord needs honesty he needs sincerity and we have to course-correct if we make bad choices You know just because you can it doesn't mean that you should just because there's Liberty It doesn't mean that it's the best thing in it and the decisions that we take are going to lead to consequences What we sow we're gonna reap and you might not reap it now, but in five ten years you're gonna reap when the Lord spoke to Solomon and told him that you need to stay away from marrying foreign women with other gods in their backgrounds and in their families and from those nations Solomon thought he He knew better and he didn't obey what God said and it didn't affect him right away the nation of Israel enjoyed time of peace He enjoyed the wisdom that God provided he enjoyed the prosperity that God added But it says when he was old all those women it wasn't just one or two women foreign women He married the guy just married 700 of them and had girlfriends and whatnot all it got the best of him When he was old he worshipped other gods and the Lord You say how could the guy get there? It was from progressively and consistently Doing his own thing and neglecting what God had said and You find yourself way out in the bush somewhere with no navigation and no compass, even though you're the smartest guy How can that happen? It's a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and just follow your heart You know what Jeremiah 17 says the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked who can know it You cannot follow your heart.

You can't trust your heart. Your heart will lead you astray The word says we're to love the Lord with all our heart and not just with all our heart with all of our souls there's a battle for your soul and Where does the battle begin that battle that begins in the mind we need to love the Lord with all of our mind Need to kick out thoughts that the devil plants that we know are not from him And it says we need to walk in love with all of our strength that means our bodies offering our hands and our feet our Tongues and our ears and our eyes as a pure sacrifice to the Lord, which is our reasonable act of worship To surrender these things Gerson you mentioned something about how Jesus picked up his cross and went to go gothish Hill You mentioned that he didn't carry his cross, but he carried our cross. Well, that's not accurate What is accurate is that we have to pick up our cross and follow him He needed help carrying his cross and we need help carrying ours There was a man who helped Jesus carry his and Jesus is there to help us carry ours But it says if anyone wants to come after me he has to deny himself Deny yourself what? Whatever it is.

That's enticing you on your phone. Whatever it is. That's out there.

That's distracting you from the course Whatever is that's keeping you from running a straight race Whatever is causing you to become spiritually blind deaf and crippled Those are the things that we need to clear out of our life and even if they're just weights Yesterday Josh and Diana were here helping us and I saw Diana put a backpack on and Josh loading that thing up with books and stuff and just loading on that man That's getting heavy on that lady's back Obviously must be necessary to carry those weights But when we're spiritually running in a journey Man, you don't want to carry any more weight since necessary because you were not going to accomplish What God enlisted you to accomplish Sometimes we have to carry weights and he gives us compensating grace, but you know what as we see stuff that's slowing us down We need to just clear some of it out Make room for him You know enlarge your hearts Paul was preaching to many of the people in the church and he said our hearts are wide open You also be open, you know this prayer of Jabez talks about extending your tent pegs Extending your borders and extending your tent pegs. Well our hearts sometimes they can be very small We just let into our hearts only a small amount of people in a small amount of things that are important to us but you know what if you want to love the Lord with all your heart and you want to Love people your neighbor as yourself. Then you need to say Lord extend my borders And expand the tent pegs of my heart open the eyes of my heart so I can see the way you see I can love The way you love I can walk the way you walk We need to take time for others We can't just think of our own interests.

We have to also think of the interests of others Selfishness pride and greed. These are the things that people will be moaning about in hell. I Think there's just be a video reel showing us how selfish we were in this life How proud we were in this life and how greedy we were? These are the things that keep us from loving the Lord Loving the Lord has to do with selflessness He who was in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but he humbled himself Being found in the likeness as a man Became obedient to death even the death on a cross Therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him the name above every name that at the name of Jesus Every knee shall bow Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father You know, we also have to humble ourselves if we want him to lift us up But if we lift ourselves up We're gonna get humbled Because he doesn't humble the humble He only humbles the proud and if you get humbled Like sometimes when we get exposed we get humbled Then it's good that we humble ourselves and say, you know what? It's good that I was afflicted Because before I was afflicted I was going astray, but now I keep your word to keep his word is Really what it looks like to love him and the more we love him The more we will be loved by him and the love of God will be shed abroad out of our hearts We cannot go by how we feel we cannot go by how others treat us What if the Lord treated us the way we've treated him What hope would we have? What if the Lord was waiting for us to get every eye dotted and every t-cross before he would be ready to have fellowship with us Yes, we have to take a step forward in faith and he meets us there You know what if the Lord were to count iniquities in your life and mine how selfish how many stuff we do Who could stand There's none who are righteous not one And even our best attempt at religion is like filthy rags before him.

Let's look in Isaiah and 65 Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Isaiah 65, you know the greatest enemy to the cross of Christ is religion Religion is the enemy of the cross Religion is surrounded enshrouded in pride The cross is a symbol of love Sacrifice selflessness How many times mothers you get up in the morning your kids are knocking on the door banging on so they want something This morning. My son John is 45 minutes till church time. He's got a big bowl of flour.

He's banging on the door. Hey mama Can I make pancakes? No, no, you can't make pancakes not 45 minutes to go Selflessness sacrifice Can you help can you do can you this can you that Our life is not our own when you have a family when you have children when you have a fellowship when You have a business when you're serving when you're laying your life down. What's in it for you? For God so loved the world that he gave He gave his son We want to give not take we want to give so this is what we need to learn Lord, how can I give today? What can I give? You know the easiest thing for me to do to prove your love Would be to pass a hat around and watch every one of you We do this in churches you watch everyone how much they're going to put into that hat That bag that thing with the two sticks on the end.

That's the easiest giving you're gonna do today Sometimes we ease our conscience by throwing a five bucks in the hat The Lord doesn't want your five bucks. What's your heart? If he has your heart, he doesn't have five bucks. He has your wallet.

He has your time And he has everything about you To surrender your will to him. That's the greatest sacrifice and it's a daily sacrifice But religion is the enemy of the cross Isaiah 1 Isaiah 65 verse 1 I was sought by those who did not ask for me This almost sounds like election. I Was found by those who did not seek me You know what I have written here This is my testimony I Don't know how many of you were seeking for God when God found you I remember Sean sitting in the hospital Recovering from rough things He wasn't seeking for God Yet he found the Lord I Went to a meeting because a friend of mine's wife was leaving him.

I Wasn't seeking for God But I was found by him You know sure we have some convictions But those convictions never translated into change until God met with us It took a mustard seed of faith and God met with us The Lord said here I am here I am to a nation that was not called by my name The Gentile nation and then he says in verse 2 I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people Who walk in a way that is not good According to their own thoughts at people who will provoke me to anger continually to my face So here you see two types of people he said I Was found by those who didn't seek for me Another version of the New Testament is this Those who are blind might see He came to those who are blind so that the blind might see he came to those who are deaf that the deaf might hear but then he said he came also that seeing you might become blind and Hearing you might become deaf not here because the heart of the people Has become dull So we were in a way That was evil and not good and God opened our hearing and he opened our understanding and he called us by name and we responded But then we get in on the way we start to get some knowledge and we start to become the people of God we get some religion in us and Then God's calling us forward He's calling us to take more ground. He's calling us into a land flowing with milk and honey and we come into unbelief and we get content with what we have and We just grumble and complain our way into a 40-year bit in the desert All day long. He stretched out his hands to rebellious people.

You know what? these are once the people who were blind and now they see and Quite often the people that see After he's stretched out his hands many times and we don't humble ourselves and respond then we become dull of hearing Says by now you ought to be teachers In Hebrew 6 and you've come to need someone to give you milk again and not solid food We've backslidden to a point of being mere infants where we go back to where Corinthians 3 where we're just arguing about who this and what that and who we're following and Bitter envy and self-seeking in our hearts and we lie against the truth And then we get to the bottom of the matter why has this happened We started well like the Galatians But something hindered us from obeying the truth and now we observe days and months and seasons in years right, we've become religious again and Paul says I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. I'm worried for you. I'm concerned for you Religion is the enemy of the cross of Christ In verse 3 it says a people who provoke me to anger Who sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on altars of brick? They are now spending their time worshiping idols They're finding beautiful places to offer sacrifice to idols You say well what idols we don't have a Buddha in our house No, but we go with a diaper and some some Armor all and some wax and we sit there and polish our our shiny idols We sit on our phones and we we have whether it be our stocks or whether it be our bonds or whether it be Our social media or wherever we find our identity in our joy This is where we spend our time and our focus and our love for the Lord waxes cold And The Lord stretching out his arm every day saying hey, you know, will you spend an hour with me? Will you spend some time with me? Will you walk with me in the cool of the day? Will you set yourself apart to hear me speak to you to whisper in the cool of the breeze in the evening? or in the morning I'll come Lord, but just not now.

I Got to get back on social media check out what's going on. I got to go and check out If my stocks are up or down It says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It says money is Idolatry if we serve money we are idol worshipers You cannot serve God and money You're gonna love one hate the other and we need to keep this in perspective and keep checking if this is an area where you find Your identity and your successes and if the things are going up or you know you're finding your success in in Something other than Christ And it's good for us and it's necessary for us to hear this because we are easily distracted It says we are those you are those who sit among the graves and spend the night in the tombs You know what Jesus called the Pharisees whitewashed sepulchers dead men's bones We can become those who are religious who say oh, you know, it's Sunday.

Yeah, we should you know We are the people who go to church But our hearts are not there our hearts are not for the Lord And so what happens is many people's hearts grow dull and you can have a place of thousands And the thing can be just like when you look at the Catholics They're the people they showed up there for the funeral of the Pope and you see people dressed all fancy there to network and to be seen To go there where there's a dead man to respect a dead man He said let the dead bury the dead you follow me There's no revival there We need to be careful that our hearts do not become like that Well, we just look at our watches and can't wait for it to be done So we can get back to what's really gets us going what really gets site and gets us excited We're to worship the Lord our God and him only should we serve we don't want to serve other gods thou shalt not serve other gods to worship them Look what it says here who eat swine's flesh and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels You know what? That's like I can tell you what it's like Sitting on social media and enjoying unclean things To God it's like eating swine's flesh because the Old Testament people They're not to have anything to do with swine's flesh. It was an unclean animal and drinking the broth of abominable things If we're careful What our eyes see and what our ears hear? You know what our hunger for the Lord is going to come more and more We're careful What these little eyes see and what these little ears here? We're going to be doing much better spiritually and then this is the other thing they say Who say keep to yourselves do not come near us for I am holier than thee then thou We have a self-righteousness about us Yet inwardly there's impurity there. There's secrets there, but outwardly there's a self-righteousness about us We clean the outside of the cup and dish but the inside is full of greed and self-indulgence and lust And pride and everything else is there But why not get the inside of the cup clean and the outside will be clean also Let's be more concerned about the inner man He said these are smoke in my nostrils a fire that burns all day Now look at this in verse 6 behold.

It is written. I will not keep silent, but I will repay God repaid Solomon It affected his son and the nation of Israel the nation was split Judah Israel separated It affected because of decisions that he took in his lifetime it affected the coming generations and his son became more more compromising and more evil and Subsequent kings for the most part did the same with the exception of a few in the return to the Lord Even repay into their bosom Your iniquities and the iniquities of your father together says the Lord who burned incense on the mountains They loved other gods Which were not gods and they blaspheme me on the hills therefore. I will measure their former work into their bosom But the good news is that the Lord says in verse 8 the new wine is in the cluster there are some who are not compromising of the bunch and He says do not destroy it for there's a blessing in it So I will do for my servants sake That I may not destroy them all and I will bring forth descendants from Jacob and from Judah an heir of My mountains my elect shall inherit it My servants shall dwell there The Lord has a remnant you know if you wanted to make a dress or a suit or a pair of pants or a blouse or something you go to the store, and you can find yourself a nice fabric and Then you would trace out that fabric if you were a seamstress, and you could make that garment But there would be a remnant a piece left over That beautiful garment wonderful garment But the Lord is concerned about the one the piece that's left over that the seamstress discards That's the one that the Lord looks to the one that the world sees as being worthless That they would just disregard as nothing the Lord says don't throw it away.

I have a purpose for it There's a remnant amongst the cluster and so he's not going to completely destroy even though the days in which we live are evil Will you be that part of that remnant The one who says Lord seems like my life doesn't count for much Seems as though there's no big use for me. See there's no real ministry for me But you know what I want to be I want to be a blessing to your heart I Want to be faithful to your word And I want to walk with you in the cool of the day Help me to be a man of integrity to walk in with love and sincerity, and you know what? Be a blessing where you are Be a fragrance of life to a perishing people Allow the richness of Christ that's in you to be diffused Among you you know we have a diffusers We put in the car because you know our fries are on the back seat that the kids and everything and there's Some plum sauce that's on the carpet in the back there, and there's an order in there We only get a diffuser in a stinky world in which we live Be a one who diffuses the fragrance of Christ in every place That it's recognizable that you love the Lord It's in the secret places, that's where your character changes Doesn't change in church doesn't change At the job site it doesn't change here doesn't change there. We're to work out our salvation, but it happens when no one's looking Between you and the Lord you say Lord If I have to be honest, I'm a liar If I have to be honest, I'm a thief.

I rob you of your glory when I get up to preach or something I want men to recognize me Lord I'm greedy. I'm selfish I need you to change my character and you cry out to him and you seek him diligently You're gonna find him when you search for him with all your heart Asking you shall receive we need the power of the Holy Spirit to do it. We can't do it on our own strength We need to humble ourselves and we need the power to change When the power of the Holy Spirit comes then we're gonna start to become new men and women in Christ Be able to lead our families Beside the still waters and he's going to restore our soul May the Lord help us to become men and women of a remnant of another sort where people can see Jesus Where they know that we're Christians because the love that we have for each other The sacrifice is willing to make for each other The care that we have for one another you know quite often in the We neglect that But we need the Lord to help us so we reach out to those who are hurting especially among our brothers In Jesus name