In today’s sermon, Khaleef Crumbley exhorts all who call themselves Christians to make their callings and elections sure. Khaleef explains from the Bible how certain actions demonstrate a person to be in the faith, such as:
- Love for God and His people
- Obedience to God’s revealed Word
- True repentance
- Spiritual fruit
Khaleef urges all Christians to examine themselves while they still can, for it will be too late when one dies and faces Jesus as Judge.
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well good morning everyone officially so if you look in your bulletins um I have only one verse listed but we’re going to be going all through the Bible so many times I’m just going to read the verse so if you can’t keep up see everyone don’t worry about it because I’m going to be going kind of fast through them so we’re not here until 2 o’ but before we go into God’s word Let’s uh go to the Lord in prayer God we ask right now that you would bless preaching of your lord I pray that you will make everyone here attentive to your word and I pray all of our hearts that it won’t just be a message that we hear and by the time we walk out the door so I pray God that you will speak through this of teach us so so you can actually turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 13 that’s where we’re going to spend the first few minutes okay I have to say that in all this time all the times I’ve been up here in the pul pit I just noticed that Pastor has a stash of water here I’m always in fact I left the the sanctuary looking for water because I knew I would I would need something he just has a stash of here so anyway now I know for the next time a little bit of the context here um because there are there are things that happen on both sides that I think you know a problem with this verse some people take this as almost to mean that you can never have Assurance of Salvation you know some go as far as to say until the day you die you have to because of this verse and then others take the context and they explain it away as if we as Believers Never Have to examine ourselves or as if the idea of a false convert is foreign to scripture and it’s not so both of those things go to the extreme and neither one of them are true we can have Assurance as Believers but only if we examine ourselves and we apply the text that we talk about today and if you really want to go through this just read the book of First John you read first John and and um what I did to First understand first John and this is the little tie in um is I read it the book every day for a month and I was just talking to someone recently like a week ago and they said that that’s how they got to know different books of the Bible as well is that they would you know if they were small enough they would read them every single day for a month if they were larg or you know like the Book of Matthew maybe you read seven chapters or something every day for a month and you go to the and four months you have read the entire book for at least 30 days straight you read you read this part and you really get to know what the book is about do that for first John and you really will begin to examine yourself um as a as a Christian we’re actually going to be first John a lot today so anyway in in 2 Corinthians 13 when second Corinthians why why we got to this point is that Paul was under attack by some uh false preachers in the um Corinthian Church and they wanted to undermine what Paul was doing and they wanted to bring in a false gospel and the way they did that was to try to bring down Paul you know he if if they spoke with Paul still being a revered leader and they spoke against what Paul said then the Corinthians would just say no that’s not what Paul told us Paul’s an apostle he’s speaking directly from God that’s not what he taught us so they had to attack his character and they had to that Paul is trying to take advantage of you he uh is going to use your money May maybe there’s not even a a offering in in Jerusalem and he was trying to collect for the Jerusalem Church maybe he’s not even really doing that maybe he’s trying to take your money and do something else with it you know and and he they they brought in all these things when you read especially the latter chapters of the book you really get to see Paul responding to a lot of different attacks that they threw at him and the main thing was he’s not an apost he was not sent by one of the ways that he combed that was by telling them to examine themselves look at and speaking with the authority of the office of apostle and then he says a simple you’re looking for that well in verse 5 he says well here’s how you can know test yourselves to see if you’re in the faith examine yourselves and and why he why does he say that because he says look I’m the one who brought you the gospel I’m the the one who brought you into the faith if I’m not a real Apostle then you’re not real Christians because you follow my message so you think you’re in Christ because the truth but you still and then he said in verse six but I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test you’ll understand that me and the ones who came with me to bring you the gospel we’re not going to fail this test that we’re True Believers but some of you may not be now we know from first Corin is especially that spiritual gifts existed there that they were considered to be spiritual men and women that he talked to them as Christians he called them saints he even said not only do these spiritual gifts exist but they exist in so much of an abundance I have to write to tell you guys how you should be using the this is the same church where he had to tell them about the Lord’s table and that some of them are sick and some of them even dead because they abuse the Lord’s table and they abuse each other through the on them this is the same church that said if you don’t think the same as me about these kind of extra biblical issues then you’re not a Christian or you’re not a strong Christian I mean this church had a lot of problems but there were Believers there you know this is the same church that had a man who was um Sleeping with a stepmother and they were proud of that you know they probably considered themselves to be very Progressive you know they they were they were proud of the fact that they had someone in their church and they were so accepting of someone who was doing something that to even regular Society seemed to be a gross thing and they were accepting of that because they were so loving and Paul tells him to get get him out of the church so we see this mix here so Paul is saying hey many of you are believers I know you are and I’m so confident of that that I can use your faith in God as part of the proof that I’m a real Apostle but then again there may be some of you who may fail the test and I think we all need to take that very very seriously so what is the purpose of this of the examination that’s that’s kind of the context of why why he even uh brought this out they they should examine themselves um and we we don’t have time to look at but another verse is second Peter um 1: 10 so you can even write that down that’s another verse where an apostle calls for an examination he tells Christians to to examine themselves so uh second one so um ex said we don’t have time to go through that but um so the purpose of the examination though is to one determine if we’re in the faith and there should be two things that happens from this if we are then we gain Assurance leaving that they acted they looked they sounded like they smelt like Christians but they never really submitted to the gospel they never really submitted to Christ but they were around it for is there really something happening in your heart and that’s what this examination is for and so in Hebrews uh chapter 2 verse veres 1- 4 and you can try to eras the turn there but I’m going to um Compares him to the line of MDC and um so we see that since Christ is superior to all these things the message of the Gospel was superior to the message that we received in the law as far as bringing us to Salvation the the full message of the Gospel um so for this reason we must play Closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it for this is verse two for if the words spoken through Angels prove unalterable and every transgression every Disobedience receive the just penalty how will we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation after it was at first spoken through the Lord it was confirmed To Us by those who heard God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and by various Miracles and by gifts of the holy spirit according to his own will so look what he said if if disobeying the message that was spoken by Angels led to a you receiving a penalty collect so great a Salvation then he said it was spoken through the Lord and it was confirmed through us and our message was confirmed by all the gifts that you saw all the things that we did and after day as long as it is still called today so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for we have become partakers of Christ If We Hold Fast the beginning of our Assurance firm until the end and then uh withdraw themselves from it and apostasies so about this this test this examination what does it look like well here’s some things that may be true of Christians but they don’t prove salvation living by a moral St young ruler who comes to to Christ and many people are familiar with the story by just calling him that but he comes and he says what can I do to to gain eternal life and then you know Jesus basically goes through a summary of The Ten Commandments says this is what you should do and he says to the poor you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me so it’s a great message this is all you have have to do you came to Jesus and asked him what do I do to get eternal life Jesus gave you the answer all you have to do is just sell your about keeping you know most of the Ten Commandments he lived a very Pious life he lived a good life he seem to be a good man you know you hear that once at every funeral they were a good person you know and and this this idea of being good and we see Jesus just tears it down he says okay I know you’re a greedy person you love your possessions more than me let me expose that and then he had a chance and he walked away walked away sad from Jesus being active in church and actually turn to Matthew chapter 7 so being that people you know will look at and they’ll even listen to this they’ll say I don’t have need to examine myself look at all the things that I do I’m a deacon I’m an elder I sing I play I clean up the church I do thankless tasks and I I don’t need to listen to this message examine what what do I need to examine myself and and I I love Matthew uh chapters in all the Bible because it’s one of those that it really just like it it really takes your your your pride or your your your your self-righteousness and just just like just punches it right in the teeth just just drops it so in Matthew chapter 7: 21-23 Jesus says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who lawlessness listen to that this wasn’t just someone who said hey I go to church once in a while hey I help out in in the kitchen hey I help out by teaching the kids downstairs hey I do they active in church active in Ministry is not the test that you apply and say oh I’m active good because there are many people who stood in pull pit Sunday after Sunday who are probably in hell right now cuz they never knew Christ so another one so we’ve had first living by a moral standard then being active in church a third one making a decision for Christ turn to Luke chapter 8 I just want us to get a sense of this I don’t want us to spend too much time on what the test isn’t because we need to figure out what it is is but you know we need to look at some of these things so we don’t get a false Assurance making a decision for Christ Luke chapter 8 um starting at um and this is the parable about the sewer who is sewing seed and it’s a you know um analogous to the word of God being spread in the soil is the hearts of of men a different type of men so verse five the sewer went out to sew his seed and as he now listen to that this is Jesus talking he’s saying there are people who hear the word they receive it with joy I we love those people right I gave them the gospel they accepted the gospel then they start coming to prayer meeting they joined the praise team and they did this they start working with our kids they did all these things and as soon as any pressure was apply in telling people that once you do this thing in this moment in this instant you’re a Christian no one can ever take that away from you there’s a real danger in doing that there’s a danger in saying if you just signed a card or if you walked up to the front of a church when you were young or if somebody stirred up your emotions enough during a concert and said everybody wants to accept Christ now raise your hand and you raise your hand and that means that you’re that you’re a Christian there real danger in telling people that and not really discipling them and seeing the fruit and seeing Christ in them and seeing them put off sin and all these other things so that’s not something that we can look to and and I I knew someone who used to say um he used to tell people in the service who stepped up he said okay you he would give them a Bible if they didn’t have one if they had one he would say write this date in your Bible because this is the day that you became a Christian this is your new birthday and those things aren’t terrible in and of themselves just thinking about that I’ve been born again but the idea that you don’t know anything about this person and they made a response that could have been driven by emotion means that it’s it’s difficult for us to give them some type of confirmation you know it’s not our job to give them Assurance after knowing them for five minutes that they’re a Christian but if you’re banking on that to say oh I know I was aing myself I pass because I remember that date look look you want to see it’s in my Bible then that’s that’s not that’s not what what uh the Bible was calling for feeling bad about our sin oh this is a big one feeling bad about 2 Corinthians chapter 7 2 Corinthians 7 and uh verses 8-1 and I’m just going to start reading uh for though I caus you Sorrow by my letter I do not regret it though I did regret it for I see that so I see that that letter caused you sorrow though only for a while verse 9 of first 2 Corinthians 7 I now Rejoice not that you were made sorrowful but that you were made sorrowful to the point of the will of God so that you might not suffer loss and anything through us then in verse 10 for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation but the sorrow of the world produces death just feeling sorry for your sin or apologizing to God without repentance without real change we’ll look at what repentance means in a minute that is not a sign that you are a Believer many people feel sorry or feel guilty many people hate that they got caught you know back in my early days I yeah I don’t think I was a Christian then um I I was working somewhere and something from the job that didn’t belong to me may have fell into my pocket somehow and um actually it happened often but one of the times I got caught with this thing in my pocket that wasn’t purchased and so I got fired and I didn’t feel bad that I did it because I just said oh they’re big company they’re not going to miss this it was a little tiny thing they write the stuff off I just feel bad felt bad that I got caught and that I that like I just lost my job now I have to on top of this now I have to go make up a lie to go tell my parents why just lost my job cuz I’m not going to tell him I lost my job cuz something fell into my pocket you know I’m going to tell him something else I don’t even know what I made up what I said to them you know it was it was this was like 20 something years ago but you know it it was it was still something that that happened and I’m saying oh okay now I have to make up this story too I felt bad but it wasn’t I didn’t feel bad for any Godly reason and so this is what Paul is warning the Corinthians about here just feeling bad feeling sorry regretting it you may even regret that you hurt someone it didn’t have to be that oh I just was upset at what happened to me you could be upset that you hurt someone else but that is not God Godly sorrow leads to repentance if it’s not godly sorrow says the world sorrow leads to death people feel bad people feel guilty about what they do that doesn’t make you a Believer something else knowledge of God and the gospel and that’s what I’m just going through Romans uh 121 says for even though they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks but they became feudal in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened then James 2:19 says you believe that God is one you do well the demons also believe and shudder listen we can we can know that there is a God we can acknowledge that that there is a Creator in the universe doesn’t mean that we can say I believe that there was a man named Jesus Christ who walked the Earth 2,000 years ago and he did some great things that doesn’t make us a Christian Hebrews 10: 26-31 it says for if we go on sinning willfully after receiv go on sinning willfully unclean the blood of the Covenant and later in verse 29 says he has insulted the spirit of Grace listen this people get so close to God and and then in the end rejected my father who was actually supposed to be here so I can talk about him cuz he’s not here he was supposed to be but he he’s not a Christian but he said to me once yeah I when I gave him the gospel I believe that Jesus died for my sins and then when you talk to him a little further he still believes that Muhammad was a messenger and Muhammad was a prophet that came after Jesus that just just used to speak to a different group of people so that’s why his message sounded a little different like then obviously you don’t believe that cuz Muhammad said that I had no son because they believe that it meant that God came down and actually had sex with a woman and so they said that’s disgusting so how can you tell me you’re a Christian and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God but you also believe the words of a man who wrote or is allegedly wrote that Allah had no son say not that Allah beg got a son so which one is it you can’t have both but if somebody walked up to him and just said are you a Christian do you believe Jesus died for your sins say yes and they will be rejoicing and praying with him and and we have to be very careful we can’t say knowledge of the Gospel knowledge of God even some type of intellectual uh curiosity of the things of Christ means that you’re a Believer all right all right so we talked a lot about what doesn’t make you a Believer and understand these things can be true these things should be true of all of us right and General like we we should feel bad when we sin right these these things should be true we should know the gospel but these things can be true of people who aren’t Believers so they can’t be the thing that gives us Assurance so there’s five there’s a lot more but I kind of grouped it into five attributes or characteristics that we see of genuine Faith um throughout God’s word so the first is a love for God and his people and every other one really can flow out of that one so I really could have just said one but anyway I I said five I like five um in Psalm 73: 25 and 26 it says whom have I in heaven but you and besides you I desire nothing on Earth My Flesh in my heart May Fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever that that is what all of us should be saying in our hearts I don’t care about anything else on Earth I just want God I just want more of God that’s it I desire nothing on Earth Listen My Flesh and my heart May Fail and I know many people sickness sickness will let you know where you stand with God when you are sick when you are ill you will know where you stand with god with every day and you wake up in pain or just illness I’m not not getting graphic but that that will let you know where you stand there there are many especially in the Psalms there are many verses where the the psalmist writes and talks about what was going on in their flesh and the same thing in job and we see that but they still praise God through it we should have a love for God and this is a love that’s for God that’s impossible for us to develop on our own so this is why this is a great uh attribute but love of God means uh a few things in Matthew 22: 35-38 one of them a lawyer asked him Jesus a question testing him verse 36 teacher which is the Great commandment in the law and Jesus said to him you shall love the Lord your God with everything that you are everything that makes up you should be part of your love for God and if that doesn’t happen then that should give us a a cause for concern nobody can love God apart from Christ Romans 87 says because the Mind Set On the flesh is hostile toward God for it does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so so the first thing we need to do when we examine ourselves to see if we’re in the faith is to look for a love for God that is unnatural that is something that we can’t develop then we’re deceiving ourselves and we have to understand we don’t get to decide what this love looks like we don’t get to decide what following God looks like we don’t get to decide what worship looks like it’s not like how I say John is my favorite old black and white and I love that type I I just I love that I don’t like the flowery stuff I mean you know starting in verse 7 and we skip around a little beloved 1 John 4:7 let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God verse eight the one who does not love does not know God for God is love now go down to verse 11 beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another no one has seen God at any time if we love one another God’s AB abides in us and his love is perfected in us now down to verse verse 20 this is John if someone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen verse 21 and this commandment we have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother also look if if you don’t love God’s people next point you don’t have a supernatural love for the people of God then you don’t love God you don’t know God and you are not a Christian John just said that he made it as plain as possible and if you claim first time I read this I’m was saying wow this could be me let me look at my relationship with other people let me see how I really treat other people let me see how I view other people and not just the ones that I like I mean that’s easy right I mean it’s easy to go and just say oh he’s likable she’s likable I can hang around them yeah I love my brothers and sisters I love them cuz I get to pick and choose the ones that I’m around but when we start really investing in God’s people and the ones who aren’t the easiest to get along with the ones who are a little stubborn the ones who if you weren’t a Christian you know you may be in jail for what you do to them the ones who really irritate you the ones who annoy you the ones who question what what you do you know the ones who every time you had you do something how about this why didn’t you try this what about this you know have have you thought about this you know or what’s worse and I know all the parents know you’re sending your kid to a public school Satan is the principal of all public schools how dare you do something like that you don’t love your kids how about that I me I mean you have to love that person do you love that person I mean this this gets real it’s not just picking and choosing hey it’s just it’s nice to see you right and someone else who looks like they really need you you say I don’t have time for them I got to go cuz this is going to be an hour conversation and I just I just don’t have time for them this week I can’t do it you know are we being loving to them yeah and again I mean we see in the Bible is not just being nice this is a unconditional love Selfless Love that puts them first it’s a supernatural love which is why it can be a test because you can’t do this on your own you can’t develop this type of love all the different backgrounds all things that people ask you to do or responding to emails or if you sign up for a certain Ministry but you actually don’t sign up and just put your name down but you don’t actually serve how that’s being very unloving toward the leaders of the ministry but I won’t I won’t go into all that stuff but there are very practical ways that we can show this love it’s not always a deep thing which says I’m I’m going to let you stay at my house for a year that’s not the only way we get to show love doesn’t have to be in these big deep Grand ways it can be in very simple things we consider someone else’s time important we consider them important we consider their feelings we don’t think about ours more you know one of the things and I love using myself as an example because I can’t get in trouble that way you know if I use somebody else they may come looking for me after the service but you know when when I was growing up and I don’t just mean love to lie to get out of trouble like it was like a sport for us like really like I was like I was like the Kobe of lying like I was I mean I was so skilled at it I mean she was she was just a little bit she was like she was like Kareem like she was a little bit better than me she always was she had she just had it but we would always like compete to S so she really wanted my parents to not ask her question a line of questioning that would make her lie because she just had this compulsion in her but you know like cuz I heard her from the next room but I I knew I knew what it was I knew what she felt like because it’s like when I’m so I want to go to more but as a Christian though we say the fear of me being honest has to be overwhelmed by the love that I have for other people and so even if I bring something to you and I know you’re going to be upset of what my honesty is going to do cuz it may be something big that fear has to be overcome by the spirit of God and then we have to trust God that by doing what he wants us to do which is always being honest that he will bring lead us into a way that glorifies himself and that sanctifies us and so that was something that I had to learn again my I mean My Lying was was fun but it was also sometimes hey if I did something wrong at work I’ll just make up a story and I was able to do it on the Fly you know just think through it and I really I hate conflict I’m sure most people hate conflict if you don’t something’s wrong you should all mean everyone should hate kind some people who love it and just like oh you say something I wish you would that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not burdensome why because we have the spirit of God energizing us to be able to follow his Commandments and Obey them so this is one of the the basic marks of a Believer is obedience and it was something that we couldn’t do before you can’t I I mean and this is one of the things when we look at people in the world and we just shake our head at what they do but we understand they have no choice we had no choice until we came to Christ and if we still act as if we have no choice maybe we never did come to Christ maybe you know or no one abides in him sins in verse 6 you’re talking about practice ing sin so that just means a continual you know willful sinning if you constantly sin or if your your character if your life is marked by this sin if one characteristic of you is this sin and I can attach it to you and you can’t defend yourself against that accusation and you’re you’re not growing in that to where you’re putting this sin to death and and and then you have to question whether you belong to him because John was very clear that no one practices sin Who belongs to God no one continues down this path of sin so he says also in 1 John chap 2: 3 and 4 does not keep his Commandments is what is a liar and the truth is not in him again so he said look if you don’t love your brother and you claim to love God you’re a liar that uh position in a church if you are not in Christ you want to know now you want to take this seriously because you don’t want to find out when Jesus says depart from me I never knew you what’s another thing so love for God and his people is is one obedience to sin so there’s three things I kind of split it up repentance from sin hatred of sin and victory over sin so basically how how our relation to sin 2 Corinthians 7:10 we already read that earlier um says for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to Salvation now repentance um well in the Greek and Hebrew it kind of has different a little bit different connotations um in the Greek Lally means to have a change of mind it it’s it’s not just Oh I thought this now I think this it’s a radical change that impacts every part of your life it’s it comes from a new understanding of who God is who we are who’s our sin and of who he is understanding the only way I can actually come to him and in Hebrew there’s not really a onetoone translation there’s not one word in tearing your clothing wearing sackcloth Mourning publicly over your sin the word that comes closest to representing repentance in in the Hebrew would be translated return in the English and the idea is that you turn from your sin to return to God and as we saw early repenting from sin doesn’t mean saying I’m sorry to God it doesn’t mean just sinning and saying God I didn’t mean it I’m sorry and you do it again I’m sorry I mean could you could you imagine that could you imagine if if even your kids did that you know and the older one just punches the younger one and say I’m sorry I’m sorry oh I’m sorry I didn’t mean I’m sorry I’m sorry at some point you’re going to say you’re not sorry you may be sorry you got CAU but you’re not sorry you keep doing it and if your life is categorized by that sin and and and and this is where you are and when I you’re an adulterer and this is this is what I see in your life as this pattern you’re in user you’re an angry person and these things when someone thinks of you that’s what they think then not after being caught an adultery with basba he gives us a great model on how I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin therefore let everyone who is Godly pray to you in a time where you may be found so I love that because first he prays for himself and and one thing he does is he acknowledges that what he did was sin you know we have all these different words to try to sugarcoat our sins you know our society has done a great job of that of not calling Sin Sin and yet he calls it sin iniquity transgressions he does this throughout of that PSAL and he keeps he he identifies it look I sin against God any understood in other places we see that he sinned against others as well I mean there was hundreds of people that he sinned against in this one instance so we see that then we also see that he encourages us to make immediate confession not just to kind of sit and think we can you know kind of let our sin linger but as once we sin the holy spirit moves in us and drives us back to God to get it right right with him to make sure our fellowship is restored and complete with God and that’s what David says let everyone who is Godly pray to you in a time when you may be found surely in a great in a flood of Great Waters they will not reach him and part of that lets me know that there are people who if you’re not driven to that you have to just question in your heart is your heart dead we all have to do that we all have to question how are we react to sin Colossians 3:5 says therefore consider the members of your Earthly body as dead to immorality impurity passion evil desire greed which amounts to idolatry look consider your members dead to sin you are dead to sin and the Bible says that all over the place that you are dead to sin Romans 8 10-13 it shows us how were’re able to put sin to death and have power over something that once had us enslaved Romans 8:10 to13 it says if Christ is in you though the body is dead because of sin yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you that was a lot of words but what he said there is look your body is dead because of sin your spirit is alive in Christ right Christ is in you that’s how he started this out then he says that the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells is in us to allow us to overcome sin verse 12 says so then brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you are living according to the flesh you must die sin to death if you’re consistently having victory over sin then that’s a real good sign that you’re a Believer and understand that we’re looking at the kind of the negative part of this be and I think that’s because we rarely earlier to tell us that we’re saved and to give us Assurance 1 John 5:4 explains like this for you know do create doing one thing you know sinning in one way doesn’t automatically mean oh you’re not a Believer now and I’ve been in many churches with the same people would walk up to the altar every Sunday getting saved again because they felt like I lost my salvation during the week and the Bible doesn’t doesn’t want us to live in that type of fear that every time we sin we don’t know God but it’s our reaction to that sin first are we overcoming it is it becoming less and less frequent but also when we sin do we have the to hide it another uh characteristics is sanctification or spiritual growth and these we have to go through a little quickly um but there are two sides to our spiritual growth so they’re avoiding the things of the world and then is also growing in the things of God first joh John but if you’re not then you’re not because that’s a characteristic of a believer that they’re Overcomers that we’re conquerors and that word that we looked at in Romans 8:37 it it means that we are like super conquerors that we abundantly conquer that we overwhelmingly conquer as I think the nasb translated it 1 John 5:5 says who is the one who overcomes the world you know we just talked about that that they’ll overcome the world and this is they the victory their faith who is the one who overcome the world the very next verse he who believes that Jesus is the son of God I love this because it clears up two misconceptions first that one misconception is that no longer doing things that the world considers to be bad or wrong is a way to please God you know cleaning up your act uh Hebrews 11:6 the beginning of it says without faith it is impossible to please him so it’s not just about saying hey I was on drugs and I don’t do drugs anymore so I know that I cleaned up I came to God you know I think I told some people about you know a person preaching a sermon and talking about how these these 12 step Pro that you know I don’t need to take 12 steps just take one step just step to Jesus and you know I mean it was kind of comical but they ended up being really silly um and show that he doesn’t understand how a lot of the stuff works but the idea behind this James chapter 4 tells us that we can resist the devil and he’ll flee and and that’s in verse 7 in verse 8 says draw near to God and He will draw near to you and he says cleanse your hands you Sinners and purify your heart you double-minded that’s not how we want to be described as those who seem to be going after God but are living these du lives and in front of some people we have this mask on and then other people we take off the mask and we become a totally different person we don’t want to do that we want our lives to be pure we want our hearts to be pure we want our hands to be cleansed we can only do that through Christ in uh Luke chapter 8 when we looked at the parable of the of the soils um I didn’t read verse 15 which said but the seed in the good soil these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance we will bear fruit if we’re Believers we don’t have time to look at it now but John 15 1-6 Jesus gives an analogy of a Vine he says I’m a Vine a father is the vine dresser and all you all are branches you know he basically says that the branches that don’t bear fruit will be taken away and that brings back the image to me of Matthew 7 where he says depart from me cuz I never knew you you were a branch and you thought you were thriving you thought you were connected to me through the church and you weren’t and if you’re not bearing fruit as a branch that that’s supposedly connected to the vine then you’re just going to be cut away you’re going to be taken away by the father and those who do will be pruned to Bear even more fruit which should be something that gives us uh Joy if you’re not bearing fruit you need to listen to this warning and obey the call of the gospel and if you want to see kind of what that looks like Paul lays that out in in Galatians 5 um vers we’re not looking at it but verses 16- 26 if you want to look at that um he starts off in verse 19 with the Deeds of the Flesh and then verse 22 he talks about the fruit of the spirit and talks about things that characterize unbelievers Living In the Flesh and Believers living in Christ and these List have nothing to do with each other and he says in verse uh 21 those who practice such things you know the these of the flesh those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God this warning is serious the last thing that we see is prayer and Devotion to God’s glory in Luke 8 the judge the purpose of the parable is to show them that they should be and this is according to verse one to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart at the end of the book of Ephesians Paul them with this command with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit 1 Timothy chap 2: 1-4 says that instead of complaining about our are you praying for them that’s the first thing before complaining you should be praying especially for those Elders man theyo first Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing that way or do we we just pray to check off a box do we just pray before we eat or something really big happens in our lives or if we want to have a a cute exercise with our kids and we just like pray once in a while because we like the way a cute little voice says amen you know it is cute though right do we look forward to our times of communion with the Lord do we make prayer a priority in our home and even in church life you know if you’re able to do you come to prayer meeting you know and if somebody wants to serve the people with kids maybe you can go up to the nursery directors and say hey is there a chance that I can come on Wednesday and provide child care so that parents can actually come rather than saying they should have nursery on Wednesday what’s wrong with them for not having it you know have you have you thought about that as as a way to serve just thr it out there so as Believers Our Lives ultimately should be devoted to making God’s glory known and that’s kind of where where we want to leave it uh in Jeremiah 9:23 and 24 um God basically he lists you know different men let a wise man not boast in his wisdom uh let not the mighty boast in his his strength or his might let not a rich man boasting his riches and he said this is what when people should boast let him who boasts boast of this that he understands and knows me that’s what we should be boasting about that’s what we should be proud of in a sense that’s what we should be talking about more than anything you know back when before I broke my back when I was powerlifting um I don’t know if anybody can have a conversation with me without me talking about you know my new Total or how much I could deadlift now or all the things you know cuz that’s what I was consumed with and that’s what I loved we should be like that about Christ I should be like that about Christ we should be like that about making God’s uh Glory known I’m going to leave you two verses and then stop talking so then we can hear Greg singing um Psalm 34 1-3 declares I Will Bless The Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth my soul will make its boast in the Lord The Humble will hear it and rejoice verse three oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his ey of our hearts is that what’s on our lips constantly Psalm 1151 says says not to us oh Lord not to us but to your name give Glory because of your loving kindness because of your truth our great God we just ask you to move in our hearts God help us to examine ourselves every one of us I pray Lord that we examine in their hearts even right now and walk out of this place knowing you and Lord As we sing this last song Let Us focus on your glory and making your glory known across this world starting in our hearts and our homes we ask this in Christ’s name amen