There’s no other book in antiquity, or the world for that matter, like the bible. A collection of books in a single volume, written in three different languages on three different continents over the course of hundreds of years by dozens of different authors holding dozens of stations and under a plethora of different circumstances. Yet for all of that, based on both the external and internal evidence, it agrees with its self in every point.
It is the self revelation of God, the exposure of the Son of God and the disclosure of who the believer is in Christ. It convicts, afflicts, corrects, rebukes, encourages, edifies, leads and makes one wise. Through this book we learn who God is, why Jesus came, who we are, what we can do and who our enemy is and what he cannot do.
Despite the fact that the Bible is of the utmost of importance in the life of a believer there are many who have never read it through, others still that neglect it’s gems and glorious instructions through the week and reach only for it so that they might take it with them to Sunday service. Sadly others still that look upon its pages in an effort to find justification for wrong, revenge or personal gain.
If we’re to be a “Bible Believing Church” we should seek to encourage those around us to believe what they read rather than simply reading what they believe or neglecting the book entirely. It was R.C. Sproul that said;
“We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy."
Upon first hearing that quote, I was cut to the quick. I was guilty of neglecting my duty to both read and study the scriptures in a manner that was befitting to them. I thought back to “year one” of my actually preaching the word. There were many times that I would only read the Word of God as a minister. I would read it with a pitchfork rather than with a rake; always searching for something for someone else rather than for myself. Much has changed in the 13 years since then. Most notably a great change in the form of a challenge came to me in the month of May of this year.
It is said that the average American reads 250 words per minute. Taking that figure and applying it to your average sized bible and reading the scripture (not the commentary if there would be any) you would be able to ingest 10 pages in roughly an hour, possibly more. At 10 pages per day, no more than an hour’s reading, you would finish the entire Word from cover to cover in 178 days or roughly 26 weeks. Applying the figures, you would read through the entire bible twice in one year. If you so desired, at 10 pages per day you would finish the entire New Testament in only 28-30 days; meaning that you could read through it once a month for the entire year.
I didn’t believe it, so I tried it. I set out to read 10 pages a day. On some good days I would read further but I always stuck with at least 10 pages per day. As such, I finished in 73 days. I don’t say that to my boast, I say it to prove to you that it’s possible. I’m going to continue the habit.
Jesus condemned the Pharisees for not knowing the word or the power of the word. I don’t want to fall into that category. People have said that with reading and not taking notes or studying you won’t retain anything; that you’re reading just to be reading it. I would beg to differ because there has been much that I’ve retained. As such, I’ve learned to enjoy what I understand and then lean on the Spirit of God to light upon what I do not on the next time around.
I said all of that to encourage you to invest time in the Word of God. We waste so much time on things that do not matter, things that will yield no return on our time investment and things that spend more time that we intended to give and yet we neglect on of the most important thing of all. Reading will give you a fuller picture of God, magnify Jesus, enrich worship, yield powerful prayer and feed your spirit. So, you read all of this, these words of someone who is dust and air and will vanish like the flowers of the field, why not turn your attention and affection towards words that yield life and sanctify? Blessings!
Aug 20, 2011
Aug 19, 2011
We were made to be courageous.
I recently had the privilege of spending a week with some of the finest young men and women of this generation. A bunch of world changers they are! We sang and danced and preached and prayed all week long. It was marvelous! The fact that the week was going to end was something that none of us wanted to acknowledge. However, we knew that indeed the week would have to end and we would have to return to our daily grinds.
Some kids were going back into the same difficult situations that they had left. Others were going into situations that had gotten worse while they were away. Others still were getting ready to return to school. It was a hard thing to acknowledge, but it was the truth.
I was encouraged by Apostle Paul’s words in Acts 20:24, Paul was getting ready to make his own ‘Jerusalem Journey’ just as our savior did. He didn’t know what was going to happen for sure. He simply knew that he had been told by the spirit trouble was awaiting him. He wasn’t sure if he would see this group of leaders ever again, yet he was not moved. He knew trouble was waiting, yet he was not moved. I believe that he that he knew he was going to lose his life---yet he was not moved.
So then, I want to encourage all the students headed back to school as well as all the rest of those reading; don’t let circumstances, situations, stations or hardships move you. You have the greater one in you.
Psalms 139 reminds us that he has hedged us in. He goes before us, He has been behind us and his hand is upon us. Remember the words that he spoke to Joshua over and over again. Be strong and courageous. He never calls us to something that He won’t lead us through. He’s still in the fire; walking in the flames. Keep your head up and looking to the hills.
The world doesn’t like light because light definition invades and exposes darkness. This is the call. We are to suit up and march on. We really don’t care what the world likes because our hearts desire is to please our king. You can do it; you can make it; because you’re not doing it alone. He’s with you every step of the way. Go change your world with the Gospel, for we are not ashamed!
Some kids were going back into the same difficult situations that they had left. Others were going into situations that had gotten worse while they were away. Others still were getting ready to return to school. It was a hard thing to acknowledge, but it was the truth.
I was encouraged by Apostle Paul’s words in Acts 20:24, Paul was getting ready to make his own ‘Jerusalem Journey’ just as our savior did. He didn’t know what was going to happen for sure. He simply knew that he had been told by the spirit trouble was awaiting him. He wasn’t sure if he would see this group of leaders ever again, yet he was not moved. He knew trouble was waiting, yet he was not moved. I believe that he that he knew he was going to lose his life---yet he was not moved.
So then, I want to encourage all the students headed back to school as well as all the rest of those reading; don’t let circumstances, situations, stations or hardships move you. You have the greater one in you.
Psalms 139 reminds us that he has hedged us in. He goes before us, He has been behind us and his hand is upon us. Remember the words that he spoke to Joshua over and over again. Be strong and courageous. He never calls us to something that He won’t lead us through. He’s still in the fire; walking in the flames. Keep your head up and looking to the hills.
The world doesn’t like light because light definition invades and exposes darkness. This is the call. We are to suit up and march on. We really don’t care what the world likes because our hearts desire is to please our king. You can do it; you can make it; because you’re not doing it alone. He’s with you every step of the way. Go change your world with the Gospel, for we are not ashamed!
Aug 13, 2011
Immersion
I just got home from Immersion Camp in Vermillion,Ohio. It was hosted by ERCN. It was such an amazing time. It was an honor to serve such amazing kids and to do so along side the likes of such great friends and men of God like; Billy Whitt, Adam Letner, Todd Bird and of course the band Graceful Closure. It was really a bittersweet symphony when we left. i was sad to leave but excited to see my wife and kids.
Though I might not see some of those kids ever again they've left an imprint on my heart. We all wanted the same thing; we didn't want to leave saying 'my what a camp or my what speakers or even my what great services'. No, the hearts cry from the leadership team was for all of us to leave proclaiming--My What a God we serve. I can't speak for every single camper--but all the ones that I spoke to and have seen FB posts from have been saying just that; My what an Awesome God we serve. So, in my eyes, Immersion Camp 2011--was a huge success.
Though I might not see some of those kids ever again they've left an imprint on my heart. We all wanted the same thing; we didn't want to leave saying 'my what a camp or my what speakers or even my what great services'. No, the hearts cry from the leadership team was for all of us to leave proclaiming--My What a God we serve. I can't speak for every single camper--but all the ones that I spoke to and have seen FB posts from have been saying just that; My what an Awesome God we serve. So, in my eyes, Immersion Camp 2011--was a huge success.
Aug 2, 2011
How To Wreck Your Life 4 of 4
Well, here we are; we’re at the 4th week and we’re rounding to a close. For those who might not have been here for the entire series, or if you missed one, we’ve learned how to wreck eternal life and entry into heaven, we’ve learned how to wreck our marriages and other relationships and we’ve learned how to wreck our finances. This is a series that we could carry on for weeks to come, but I promised I’d cut it off at 4 weeks. So we’re going to go through several things and simply entitle it “How to Wreck the Rest.” For those that have been reading the notes, if you're interested PM on Facebook, we're offering the messages in an album for $15.00.
The first thing I want to touch on is something that should be, but sadly sometimes isn’t, a very important place in our lives. The local church. You might not realize it but people can and do wreck churches. Most, if not all, of us have witnessed, heard of or read about a church split. Most splits are created by discord. I don’t have time to go in depth into all of these issues so we’ll just tackle the main cause here. That can come in the form of gossip. Let me warn you, this is the first step to sowing discord and the first step to wrecking a church and just about everything else.
Rom 1:28-32
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Yikes! Hard to believe that gossip made it in that list huh? Well, suffice to say gossiping is a mark of someone that is degenerate and to listen to gossip is to approve. So we first get into the “sowing circle” and kick some stuff around. What we do when we gossip is we essentially go down to the satanic supply store, buy a big bag of discord and start sowing. Keep in mind that “sowing discord” according to the book of Proverbs is something that the Lord hates.
Furthermore,
Prov 17:9
Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.
Gal 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
As a church we’re a microcosm of what the universal body is to be. So then as it is written in the book of 1 Corinthians, we’re do be one body with many parts. Discord undoes this. So if you want to wreck a church the main ingredient is gossip and discord.
So what else does “the rest” cover? Well, glad you asked. How about your workplace and your job? Well, in short you follow the simple recipe for wrecking the church but there are a couple other things you can do to. The first is be undependable. While it is true the following verse is speaking of God, it’s also true that it applies to employers.
1 Cor 4:2
Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
The second one is a little simpler. Be lazy.
Eph 6:5-7
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.
Col 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Just throw all those verses out the window and gold brick all day. Only work when the boss is coming in. You’ll soon develop a horrible work ethic and get fired. As Christians we should be hard workers. We should set the bar, not shimmy under it. I know it sound weird but your work ethic can either hinder or help your witness.
So at this point we’ve wreck our all kinds of stuff! Relationships, finances, work, church and eternity! The last thing goes back to the very first night we stated. I want to close with telling you how to wreck your future.
Of course we know already how to wreck our eternal future and that is to reject the Gospel. Since the Gospel is relational it touches and affects every other area of our lives and becomes the fountain head of failure for everything else we have mentioned.
Wrecking the future is easy. Just cut God out of the equation. Make plans and don’t consult, make moves without praying, wreck everything by rejecting the gospel and simply leave a trail of wreckage as your past.
See in reality we’ve all wrecked before. We’ve all trashed at least one area of our lives that we’ve spoken about. However there is a difference between the one who is trusting Christ and the one who is not. A distinction between the one who has fallen on the mercy of the Gospel and one who has rejected it.
That difference is that when those who wreck, despite God’s warnings to us, do wreck we have someone to help us put everything back together again. It’s been a couple years now since Nicole and I went through a wreck. We lost everything we had. There was a 1-2-3 punch that put us on the floor financially. We wrecked and we wrecked it bad. As I look back, the depression, fear, anxiety, frustration and guilt were unbearable. I know without a doubt we’re the reason we wrecked. However God never left us. He didn’t let us wreck and then say “well, I guess that’s it.” No He was the only thing that was keeping me from losing my mind.
Ps 37:23-26
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, For the Lord upholds him with His hand. I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lends; And his descendants are blessed.
We’re not promised that in the future we won’t wreck but we are promised that in the event of a “wreck” God’s not going to leave us. Jesus Himself said the same, “I’ll never leave you or forsake you.” As well as “Lo, I am with thee always.” So consider this.
Ps 139:1-5
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.
You want to wreck your future? Cut God out of it. It’s a sure fire way. But bear in mind;
Isa 46:9-10
Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying,'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure
Which in turn causes us to remember what James said;
James 4:13-16
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
In other words James is warning against wrecking your future by cutting God out of it. We would all do well to remember that we are under His care and live to do His will. However, if you want to wreck your future be proud and obstinate and see how fast it all comes unraveled.
There have been common elements in all of these “wrecking” and I hope that you can see them. However pride is the trapping that holds them all together. It is pride that causes us to reject the Gospel; we’re too intelligent to believe something so simple or we’re good the way we are or even still we don’t have to listen God is a God of love. It will eventually ruin every relationship that you have because pride is selfish and wants only its needs met. Pride will ruin your finances because you’ll always be keeping up with the Joneses. Pride will ruin a church because no one will ever be good enough to enter in the house. Pride will ruin the work place because I’m a know it all or I could start my own business doing the same thing or still yet, I’m too good for this job.
So let’s kill pride and be humbly submitted to the Lord and to each other. If we do so, we can avoiding wrecking---and even if we don’t we’ve got a God above us and some godly people around us that will help us crawl from the twisted, burning wreckage and start over.
The first thing I want to touch on is something that should be, but sadly sometimes isn’t, a very important place in our lives. The local church. You might not realize it but people can and do wreck churches. Most, if not all, of us have witnessed, heard of or read about a church split. Most splits are created by discord. I don’t have time to go in depth into all of these issues so we’ll just tackle the main cause here. That can come in the form of gossip. Let me warn you, this is the first step to sowing discord and the first step to wrecking a church and just about everything else.
Rom 1:28-32
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Yikes! Hard to believe that gossip made it in that list huh? Well, suffice to say gossiping is a mark of someone that is degenerate and to listen to gossip is to approve. So we first get into the “sowing circle” and kick some stuff around. What we do when we gossip is we essentially go down to the satanic supply store, buy a big bag of discord and start sowing. Keep in mind that “sowing discord” according to the book of Proverbs is something that the Lord hates.
Furthermore,
Prov 17:9
Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.
Gal 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
As a church we’re a microcosm of what the universal body is to be. So then as it is written in the book of 1 Corinthians, we’re do be one body with many parts. Discord undoes this. So if you want to wreck a church the main ingredient is gossip and discord.
So what else does “the rest” cover? Well, glad you asked. How about your workplace and your job? Well, in short you follow the simple recipe for wrecking the church but there are a couple other things you can do to. The first is be undependable. While it is true the following verse is speaking of God, it’s also true that it applies to employers.
1 Cor 4:2
Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
The second one is a little simpler. Be lazy.
Eph 6:5-7
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.
Col 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Just throw all those verses out the window and gold brick all day. Only work when the boss is coming in. You’ll soon develop a horrible work ethic and get fired. As Christians we should be hard workers. We should set the bar, not shimmy under it. I know it sound weird but your work ethic can either hinder or help your witness.
So at this point we’ve wreck our all kinds of stuff! Relationships, finances, work, church and eternity! The last thing goes back to the very first night we stated. I want to close with telling you how to wreck your future.
Of course we know already how to wreck our eternal future and that is to reject the Gospel. Since the Gospel is relational it touches and affects every other area of our lives and becomes the fountain head of failure for everything else we have mentioned.
Wrecking the future is easy. Just cut God out of the equation. Make plans and don’t consult, make moves without praying, wreck everything by rejecting the gospel and simply leave a trail of wreckage as your past.
See in reality we’ve all wrecked before. We’ve all trashed at least one area of our lives that we’ve spoken about. However there is a difference between the one who is trusting Christ and the one who is not. A distinction between the one who has fallen on the mercy of the Gospel and one who has rejected it.
That difference is that when those who wreck, despite God’s warnings to us, do wreck we have someone to help us put everything back together again. It’s been a couple years now since Nicole and I went through a wreck. We lost everything we had. There was a 1-2-3 punch that put us on the floor financially. We wrecked and we wrecked it bad. As I look back, the depression, fear, anxiety, frustration and guilt were unbearable. I know without a doubt we’re the reason we wrecked. However God never left us. He didn’t let us wreck and then say “well, I guess that’s it.” No He was the only thing that was keeping me from losing my mind.
Ps 37:23-26
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, For the Lord upholds him with His hand. I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lends; And his descendants are blessed.
We’re not promised that in the future we won’t wreck but we are promised that in the event of a “wreck” God’s not going to leave us. Jesus Himself said the same, “I’ll never leave you or forsake you.” As well as “Lo, I am with thee always.” So consider this.
Ps 139:1-5
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.
You want to wreck your future? Cut God out of it. It’s a sure fire way. But bear in mind;
Isa 46:9-10
Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying,'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure
Which in turn causes us to remember what James said;
James 4:13-16
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
In other words James is warning against wrecking your future by cutting God out of it. We would all do well to remember that we are under His care and live to do His will. However, if you want to wreck your future be proud and obstinate and see how fast it all comes unraveled.
There have been common elements in all of these “wrecking” and I hope that you can see them. However pride is the trapping that holds them all together. It is pride that causes us to reject the Gospel; we’re too intelligent to believe something so simple or we’re good the way we are or even still we don’t have to listen God is a God of love. It will eventually ruin every relationship that you have because pride is selfish and wants only its needs met. Pride will ruin your finances because you’ll always be keeping up with the Joneses. Pride will ruin a church because no one will ever be good enough to enter in the house. Pride will ruin the work place because I’m a know it all or I could start my own business doing the same thing or still yet, I’m too good for this job.
So let’s kill pride and be humbly submitted to the Lord and to each other. If we do so, we can avoiding wrecking---and even if we don’t we’ve got a God above us and some godly people around us that will help us crawl from the twisted, burning wreckage and start over.
How To Wreck Your Life 3 of 4
Hey gang, thanks for reading! I know the notes on this sereis have been pretty long and I appreciate you taking the time and pray that you recieve from what you're reading.
Before we get right in the mix, I want you to preface today with the fact that I’ve been on both sides of every lesson that I’ve taught thus far and tonight’s no exception. I lived life where I rejected the Gospel; I did everything that the church told me not to and mocked God with my foolish choices. When I got married to my beautiful and darling wife 12 years ago, I didn’t know how to be a husband and though hurtful words, selfish motives and feeding my weakness and hers I was poisoning my marriage. However thanks to God things are better now than they ever been! Even though it still hurts to say it, I’ve shipwrecked my finances. I “had it all” and then lost it.
So I don’t teach these things tonight with an arrogant attitude. On the contrary, I want you to be able to avoid the catastrophes that I’ve had to deal with. However, the converse of that is since I have indeed wrecked my life in more ways than one I can assure through empirically evidence that if you seriously want to wreck your life just follow the plans laid out in these lessons.
I'm going to wade into another area that is somewhat sticky. Many moons ago when someone mentioned the church people thought of helping hands, walking the saw dust trail and robes of white by the watering hole. Sadly thanks to the likes of Christian TV, granted not everyone is bad, the first thing people think about when you mention the church is, you guessed it, they just want you money. Don’t worry though; this isn’t about “wanting your money” tonight. It’s about wrecking your life. So here go.
When it comes to finances people get fickle. I can remember my pastor sharing a story about a guy who said the church should just use old saw logs for pew and didn’t that they didn’t need “nothing fancy”—yet his home was very posh, full of overstuffed furniture and antiques. People will pay 50 dollars for a ticket to a concert or ballgame, 20 on a meal or 400 for a gadget but 20 bucks in the offering is way too much. Just think when you’ve only got 20 bucks for groceries it’s considered a meager amount; but when the plate is passed 20 might as well be a C-note. Sadly money is at the root of divorce, bigotry, pride, selfishness, envy, covetousness, strife, disappointment and a host of other maladies.
As such the bible has quite a bit to say about money so let’s go straight to the source and set the stage.
1 Tim 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Now, I understand that the word says the “love of money” and not money and I have no qualms with that. Possessing money is not the problem; money possessing you is a whole other ball of wax. Thankfully Jesus makes a statement that really nails the issue down and sort of confronts those that money has possessed.
Matt 19:24
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Now, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings tonight, and I do believe that God blesses us and enables us to finance ministry and even gives us things to freely enjoy for His glory. However, I’ve often heard this explained away as Jesus speaking of a gate that was called the “needle gate” it was so tiny that the camel had to strip to nothing to get through. I’ve searched and searched and can’t find a single commentator that confirms this and there a numerous accounts of people going to Israel and inquiring about the needle gate. The guides just laugh and shake their heads and tell them the same thing, “there isn’t one.”
Now it’s not my goal to upset so please don’t hear what I’m not saying. A camel is not going to fit through the eye of a needle no matter what angle you try to squeeze it through. It was used to illustrate the fact that more people wreck their eternity and their natural lives on account of money and the pursuit thereof than just about any other thing. However, if we read on Jesus reminds us that it’s not impossible to the God of the universe. Money can be an amazing tool in the hands of a wise man and the path to ruin in the hands of fool.
So, to really just wreck our lives we first reject the Gospel; making the word of God just another book, the church another club and the tenets of the faith just nice suggestions. Then we start destroying our relationships by making it all about us, feeding the others weakness and letting them feed ours and finally by being too proud to ever admit wrong. Then what do we do?
Glad you asked, the first step to wrecking you financial life is to think of it as YOUR money. Jesus isn’t the one working at the Claire or the DC; sweating and dealing with cranky people. It’s my money. I was the one who earned it. It belongs to me. Adopting this attitude is the fast track to ruin.
Just in case you need some confirmation that it is indeed not YOUR money, YOUR house, YOUR car, YOUR spouse or really, YOUR anything; let me nail it down for you.
Ps 24:1
The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness,The world and those who dwell therein.
Hag 2:8
The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,' says the Lord of hosts.
Acts 17:25-26
Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
Wowsers! Whose money is it? Well. Simply put, it’s God’s. He owns the worker, the building, the foreman and the wages. It’s all His. We’re just stewards and must serve faithfully as such!
1 Cor 4:2
Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful
In short we really don’t “own” anything and in reality we never will. So the first step to wrecking your finances is to brush those verses to the side be obstinate and consider it your money. Since rejecting the Gospel is relational and affects every area, we can see where this attitude has its genesis. As such it makes it easier to step into the second snare of wrecking your financial life.
Be stingy. If it’s your money and you worked for it, it would make sense that you’re going to get all you can and can all you get. You’ll disregard integrity and ethics in a pursuit to “have it all”. Being stingy can come in 2 forms. The first is simply never giving. Be like Scrooge or Mr.Crabbs or a whole host of fictional characters that are the embodiment of stinginess. “Donate to the children’s fund? What have the children ever done for me?” We often fail to realize that when we are stingy and never give we’re only hurting ourselves.
Prov 28:22
A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him.
Isa 58:10
If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday
Prov 11:25
The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.
Deut 16:17
Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.
One of the ear marks of a Christian is that they are a giver. Some of you are wondering when I’m gonna drop Mal. 3:10, I suppose we’ll get there. I want you to see though, that there are other places where scripture makes this point. At this point we’re talking about being stingy . The bible is replete with many more examples than the ones that I’ve given you. Bottom line, we’re to be givers.
Freely (Mat. 10:28)
Regularly (1 Cor. 16:2)
Cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7)
That stingy attitude leads to greed and covetousness and God is pretty explicit in Exodus 20 that we’re not to be marked by that kind of heart. Jesus himself warned His disciples against the dangers of greed. As does Paul.
Luke 12:15
"Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses."
Col 3:5
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Put them to death? How do you kill covetousness, greed and stinginess? Well, by giving. Again though this is a series on how to wreck your life, so, you would want to withhold rather than give. It’s hard to draw a real clear line between greed and stinginess and that’s why I’ve overlapped them. The end result of the attitude of “it’s my money and I need it now” is greed and stinginess and since it’s relational it ends up being affecting more than you think.
According to scripture greed results in:
Family Troubles (Pro.15:27)
Disappointment (Ecc. 5:10)
Folly (Jer. 17:11)
Apostasy (1 Tim. 6:10)
Misery (Ja. 5:3)
In the end the “my money” idea is a rejection of God’s sovereignty, He owns it all. What difference does it make if you’ve got all Bill Gate’s cash but lose your soul? However, if you want to wreck your life maintain that attitude and develop a reputation of being greedy and stingy.
For those who want to avoid such catastrophes I leave you with this;
Heb 13:5
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
You want to safeguard your financial life? Remember we’re stewards. Give cheerfully and regularly as you’re able. Seek to find your fullest satisfaction in the fact that Jesus is your Savior and that the things of this world are all temporal.
Before we get right in the mix, I want you to preface today with the fact that I’ve been on both sides of every lesson that I’ve taught thus far and tonight’s no exception. I lived life where I rejected the Gospel; I did everything that the church told me not to and mocked God with my foolish choices. When I got married to my beautiful and darling wife 12 years ago, I didn’t know how to be a husband and though hurtful words, selfish motives and feeding my weakness and hers I was poisoning my marriage. However thanks to God things are better now than they ever been! Even though it still hurts to say it, I’ve shipwrecked my finances. I “had it all” and then lost it.
So I don’t teach these things tonight with an arrogant attitude. On the contrary, I want you to be able to avoid the catastrophes that I’ve had to deal with. However, the converse of that is since I have indeed wrecked my life in more ways than one I can assure through empirically evidence that if you seriously want to wreck your life just follow the plans laid out in these lessons.
I'm going to wade into another area that is somewhat sticky. Many moons ago when someone mentioned the church people thought of helping hands, walking the saw dust trail and robes of white by the watering hole. Sadly thanks to the likes of Christian TV, granted not everyone is bad, the first thing people think about when you mention the church is, you guessed it, they just want you money. Don’t worry though; this isn’t about “wanting your money” tonight. It’s about wrecking your life. So here go.
When it comes to finances people get fickle. I can remember my pastor sharing a story about a guy who said the church should just use old saw logs for pew and didn’t that they didn’t need “nothing fancy”—yet his home was very posh, full of overstuffed furniture and antiques. People will pay 50 dollars for a ticket to a concert or ballgame, 20 on a meal or 400 for a gadget but 20 bucks in the offering is way too much. Just think when you’ve only got 20 bucks for groceries it’s considered a meager amount; but when the plate is passed 20 might as well be a C-note. Sadly money is at the root of divorce, bigotry, pride, selfishness, envy, covetousness, strife, disappointment and a host of other maladies.
As such the bible has quite a bit to say about money so let’s go straight to the source and set the stage.
1 Tim 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Now, I understand that the word says the “love of money” and not money and I have no qualms with that. Possessing money is not the problem; money possessing you is a whole other ball of wax. Thankfully Jesus makes a statement that really nails the issue down and sort of confronts those that money has possessed.
Matt 19:24
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Now, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings tonight, and I do believe that God blesses us and enables us to finance ministry and even gives us things to freely enjoy for His glory. However, I’ve often heard this explained away as Jesus speaking of a gate that was called the “needle gate” it was so tiny that the camel had to strip to nothing to get through. I’ve searched and searched and can’t find a single commentator that confirms this and there a numerous accounts of people going to Israel and inquiring about the needle gate. The guides just laugh and shake their heads and tell them the same thing, “there isn’t one.”
Now it’s not my goal to upset so please don’t hear what I’m not saying. A camel is not going to fit through the eye of a needle no matter what angle you try to squeeze it through. It was used to illustrate the fact that more people wreck their eternity and their natural lives on account of money and the pursuit thereof than just about any other thing. However, if we read on Jesus reminds us that it’s not impossible to the God of the universe. Money can be an amazing tool in the hands of a wise man and the path to ruin in the hands of fool.
So, to really just wreck our lives we first reject the Gospel; making the word of God just another book, the church another club and the tenets of the faith just nice suggestions. Then we start destroying our relationships by making it all about us, feeding the others weakness and letting them feed ours and finally by being too proud to ever admit wrong. Then what do we do?
Glad you asked, the first step to wrecking you financial life is to think of it as YOUR money. Jesus isn’t the one working at the Claire or the DC; sweating and dealing with cranky people. It’s my money. I was the one who earned it. It belongs to me. Adopting this attitude is the fast track to ruin.
Just in case you need some confirmation that it is indeed not YOUR money, YOUR house, YOUR car, YOUR spouse or really, YOUR anything; let me nail it down for you.
Ps 24:1
The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness,The world and those who dwell therein.
Hag 2:8
The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,' says the Lord of hosts.
Acts 17:25-26
Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
Wowsers! Whose money is it? Well. Simply put, it’s God’s. He owns the worker, the building, the foreman and the wages. It’s all His. We’re just stewards and must serve faithfully as such!
1 Cor 4:2
Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful
In short we really don’t “own” anything and in reality we never will. So the first step to wrecking your finances is to brush those verses to the side be obstinate and consider it your money. Since rejecting the Gospel is relational and affects every area, we can see where this attitude has its genesis. As such it makes it easier to step into the second snare of wrecking your financial life.
Be stingy. If it’s your money and you worked for it, it would make sense that you’re going to get all you can and can all you get. You’ll disregard integrity and ethics in a pursuit to “have it all”. Being stingy can come in 2 forms. The first is simply never giving. Be like Scrooge or Mr.Crabbs or a whole host of fictional characters that are the embodiment of stinginess. “Donate to the children’s fund? What have the children ever done for me?” We often fail to realize that when we are stingy and never give we’re only hurting ourselves.
Prov 28:22
A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him.
Isa 58:10
If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday
Prov 11:25
The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.
Deut 16:17
Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.
One of the ear marks of a Christian is that they are a giver. Some of you are wondering when I’m gonna drop Mal. 3:10, I suppose we’ll get there. I want you to see though, that there are other places where scripture makes this point. At this point we’re talking about being stingy . The bible is replete with many more examples than the ones that I’ve given you. Bottom line, we’re to be givers.
Freely (Mat. 10:28)
Regularly (1 Cor. 16:2)
Cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7)
That stingy attitude leads to greed and covetousness and God is pretty explicit in Exodus 20 that we’re not to be marked by that kind of heart. Jesus himself warned His disciples against the dangers of greed. As does Paul.
Luke 12:15
"Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses."
Col 3:5
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Put them to death? How do you kill covetousness, greed and stinginess? Well, by giving. Again though this is a series on how to wreck your life, so, you would want to withhold rather than give. It’s hard to draw a real clear line between greed and stinginess and that’s why I’ve overlapped them. The end result of the attitude of “it’s my money and I need it now” is greed and stinginess and since it’s relational it ends up being affecting more than you think.
According to scripture greed results in:
Family Troubles (Pro.15:27)
Disappointment (Ecc. 5:10)
Folly (Jer. 17:11)
Apostasy (1 Tim. 6:10)
Misery (Ja. 5:3)
In the end the “my money” idea is a rejection of God’s sovereignty, He owns it all. What difference does it make if you’ve got all Bill Gate’s cash but lose your soul? However, if you want to wreck your life maintain that attitude and develop a reputation of being greedy and stingy.
For those who want to avoid such catastrophes I leave you with this;
Heb 13:5
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
You want to safeguard your financial life? Remember we’re stewards. Give cheerfully and regularly as you’re able. Seek to find your fullest satisfaction in the fact that Jesus is your Savior and that the things of this world are all temporal.
How To Wreck Your Life 2 of 4
Hey gang, thanks for coming back to read the second instalment. This series will run until the end of the month and there is a certain dynamic present in the services that is lost here in print, however, we will continue to run the notes!
We learned last week that the Gospel is relational and not merely positional we also learned that the first step to wrecking our lives is to reject the Gospel. In doing so we no longer see sin as sin, ourselves as sinners or Jesus as the savior and I’m sure I don’t have to tell the lot of you in here what kind of havoc that reeks in a life.
So then,I want to talk to you about wrecking your relationships with others, I had intended on focusing solely on marriage, but there are several people I’m addressing that are past that season or not quite into that season in their lives—but to be sure all of the overall principals set forth here apply to marriage as well as any other relationships.
However, let’s glance quickly at institute of marriage and lay some ground work to consider and discuss briefly how to wreck a marriage and then we’ll move onto relationships in general. Your marriage is the most important relationship besides your relationship with Jesus Christ. So then it is something to be worked, something to be celebrated, something to be cherished and something to be nurtured. A good solid marriage is a gospel grounded marriage .Look at
Eph 5:22-33 (not all of it is posted here for the sake of space)
"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word"
Now most men leap when that first verse is read and most women cringe. However, if you keep reading you see the gravity of the passage as a whole. Thinking back to the first lesson we said, and will continue to stress, that the Gospel is relational and influences and touches every single area of our lives.
When it comes to marriage the Lord has saw fit to make it a cosmic drama that illustrates Christ’s love for His church. Man, you get the honor of playing the part of Jesus in this drama. The woman plays the part of the church and as such we should act accordingly. When we remember that our married life is playing out the drama of Christ and the church we’ll be more aware of the Gospel as well as the mandates of how we ought to treat one another. A few weeks back I mentioned that the man is like a cast iron skillet and the women is like fenton glass. Peter reminds us that if we’re not walking right with the wife God has given us then it will hinder our prayers. So, keep that in mind.
The whole of the law of God hangs on 2 hinges, this is what Jesus told us. Love the Lord and love your neighbor as yourself. Needless to say relationships are important. The bible has many illustrations of how relationships are supposed to work—and we don’t really have the time to get into a whole lot of them, however we can see it exemplified in David and Jonathan, Elijah and Elisha, Jesus and his disciple and Paul and Timothy and Titus.
The first step to wrecking your life is to reject the Gospel—the first step to wrecking relationships is to make it all about you. Be someone who doesn’t listen, someone who is inconsiderate, unforgivning, bitter and full of complaining. Make sure the only reason that the relationship exists is so that rather than giving and gaining you simply “get”. Remember Love lives to give and lust lives to get. There are essentially 3 types of relationships;
Those who enjoy your passion.
Those who drain your passion
Those who feed your passion.
So what we need to do first is simply make the whole relationship about what we can get from the other person. Be fake, superficial, and disingenuous. Get your sense of personal identity through your material possessions rather than from Christ. Simply forsake biblical principles of friendship and the process of building relational equity and make the entire relationship about you.
Prov 19:4
Wealth makes many friends,
But the poor is separated from his friend.
This of course can play out in a variety of ways from never listening or supporting to ditching them when they hit the skids. I know it sounds silly but I have seen that particular proverb play out in all kinds of everyday situations.
Another quick way to wreck relationships is to feed your friends weakness or find someone to feed yours.
Prov 27:17
As iron sharpens iron,
So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Eph 4:29-31
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Rather than spending your time discussing the word of God, His faithfulness, their future, God’s ability to bring them through anything etc. Take time and encourage them to do the opposite of all these things. Let conversations focus around the past, what type of person they used to be and basically just lament over the fact that you wish that you could go back to “the good old days”. What this does is acts as a repellent to those that are truly following Christ. Discussing the past in a favorable way, complaining, being critical, justifying sin---all of this is something that will feed weakness and in the end destroy the friend and eventually the friendship.
How so? Well, the influence that you have with them, the relational equity, will be seized upon and rather than God molding them you being to mold them. I’ve seen this several times in marriages where the husband or vice versa complains that the spouse is not the person they married. Case in point they are not and it is sometimes due to the steady diet that the other one feeds them—if they were to look close they would see their own finger prints all over their mate.
To feed your weakness hook yourself to unbelievers, hypocrites or “religious” folks all the time. Now I know this one tends to get a little dicey. There is of course nothing wrong with having unbelievers as friends how else would we ever win them. The problem comes when your only friends are nonbelievers.
2 Cor 6:14-16
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.
Notice here that it is not simply talking about marriage. It is relationships in general. I’ve found more often than not this ploy is not meant to ruin relationships between people exclusively but rather to wreck your relationship with God. This is someone feeding YOUR weakness.
It’s something that needs to be prayfully considered. I’m not suggesting that we cut off all relationships with unbelievers, as Paul said, to do so means that we would have to leave the world. What I am suggesting is that you keep your relationship with God at the forefront and keep in mind that the Gospel is relational and then ask how it is affecting the other person. Because if I am not influencing them—they are influencing me.
1 Cor 15:33-34
Do not be decieved: "Bad company corrupts good character." Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God — I say this to your shame.
Your relationship with God is the most important thing in the world. The Gospel has saved your life, you need to be cautious about spending all your time with those that mock what you cherish by the way they live. It’s important to note that this can also lead to compromise. It might start small like a word or a song or a movie etc. Yet it has the capacity to build to something greater. Since they are a friend they will most often cover such offenses but they will do more harm than you realize.
However it is often the claim of someone, especially in the area of dating, that the reason they’re hooked is so that they can win them. More often than not though you get sucked into a life of compromise to get them “won”---if indeed they do get won through compromise then we have won them to a compromised Gospel. A compromised Gospel is no gospel at all. To all my single friends, if Jesus can take the cross, defeat death and conquer the grave I believe he is well able to bring a good, Godly mate into your life—wait on Him.
Now some of you might have balked at that. That’s okay, I didn’t say it the word says it. So you want to make the whole relationship about you, you want to feed weaknesses and have weaknesses fed and compromise.
The last way to wreck relationships I want to touch on is pride. Yup! Satan’s great sin will wreck relationships. Make everything about you, feed each other’s weaknesses and be proud. Pride takes on many forms. Being arrogant, being haughty, begin stiff necked and many other ways. The word of God is clear here. Submission is the order of the day and really the grounds for all good relationships.
You see Love in its lowest form is submission. You can submit to someone without loving them---people do it all day at work. However you will never truly love someone until you let pride die and submit to them.
Eph 5:20-21
giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Concerning this verse Wuest states:
“The Spirit-filled life should express itself by “submitting" The simple verb “tassœ” had a military meaning behind it basically, "to draw up in order of battle, to form, array, marshall" both troops or ships. It speaks of soldiers marshalled in military order under a commanding officer. Thus, it speaks of the subjection of one individual under or to another. The prefixed preposition hupo means "under." Hupotassœ in classical Greek meant, "to subject, make subject." In N.T. Greek, it means, "to arrange under, to subordinate, put in subjection or "to subject one's self to, to obey."
Subjecting one's self to another is the opposite of self assertion, the opposite of an independent, despotic spirit. It is the desire to get along with one another, being satisfied with less than one's due, a sweet reasonableness of attitude.
Husbands submit to the Lord.
Wives submit to husbands.
Children submit to the parents.
Younger submit yourselves to the older.
Everyone submit to the ordnances of the land.
Workers submit to bosses
Church submit to spiritual authority.
In short we are to maintain a humility that considers others. An attitude of loving concern for one another essentially strips authority of its "rights" and also strips submission of its humiliation. When talking about “submission” as the antithesis of pride it boils down to humility.
True friendship and true marriage comes under the person and lifts them up so that they might be the best that they can be. True humility comes in knowing that God would have no problem doing anything without me, but I would not be able to do anything without God. As such if we truly want to wreck a relationship be proud.
Demand your rights.
Be unforgiving
Refuse to take responsibility for your actions
Disreguard personal integrity
Be bitter
Follow these steps and I can assure you you’ll be someone even you don’t like. So if you wanna wreck your relationships; reject the gospel, make it all about you, feed your weaknesses, compromise and be proud.
Join us next week we’re going to talk about that oh so sticky subject of money.
We learned last week that the Gospel is relational and not merely positional we also learned that the first step to wrecking our lives is to reject the Gospel. In doing so we no longer see sin as sin, ourselves as sinners or Jesus as the savior and I’m sure I don’t have to tell the lot of you in here what kind of havoc that reeks in a life.
So then,I want to talk to you about wrecking your relationships with others, I had intended on focusing solely on marriage, but there are several people I’m addressing that are past that season or not quite into that season in their lives—but to be sure all of the overall principals set forth here apply to marriage as well as any other relationships.
However, let’s glance quickly at institute of marriage and lay some ground work to consider and discuss briefly how to wreck a marriage and then we’ll move onto relationships in general. Your marriage is the most important relationship besides your relationship with Jesus Christ. So then it is something to be worked, something to be celebrated, something to be cherished and something to be nurtured. A good solid marriage is a gospel grounded marriage .Look at
Eph 5:22-33 (not all of it is posted here for the sake of space)
"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word"
Now most men leap when that first verse is read and most women cringe. However, if you keep reading you see the gravity of the passage as a whole. Thinking back to the first lesson we said, and will continue to stress, that the Gospel is relational and influences and touches every single area of our lives.
When it comes to marriage the Lord has saw fit to make it a cosmic drama that illustrates Christ’s love for His church. Man, you get the honor of playing the part of Jesus in this drama. The woman plays the part of the church and as such we should act accordingly. When we remember that our married life is playing out the drama of Christ and the church we’ll be more aware of the Gospel as well as the mandates of how we ought to treat one another. A few weeks back I mentioned that the man is like a cast iron skillet and the women is like fenton glass. Peter reminds us that if we’re not walking right with the wife God has given us then it will hinder our prayers. So, keep that in mind.
The whole of the law of God hangs on 2 hinges, this is what Jesus told us. Love the Lord and love your neighbor as yourself. Needless to say relationships are important. The bible has many illustrations of how relationships are supposed to work—and we don’t really have the time to get into a whole lot of them, however we can see it exemplified in David and Jonathan, Elijah and Elisha, Jesus and his disciple and Paul and Timothy and Titus.
The first step to wrecking your life is to reject the Gospel—the first step to wrecking relationships is to make it all about you. Be someone who doesn’t listen, someone who is inconsiderate, unforgivning, bitter and full of complaining. Make sure the only reason that the relationship exists is so that rather than giving and gaining you simply “get”. Remember Love lives to give and lust lives to get. There are essentially 3 types of relationships;
Those who enjoy your passion.
Those who drain your passion
Those who feed your passion.
So what we need to do first is simply make the whole relationship about what we can get from the other person. Be fake, superficial, and disingenuous. Get your sense of personal identity through your material possessions rather than from Christ. Simply forsake biblical principles of friendship and the process of building relational equity and make the entire relationship about you.
Prov 19:4
Wealth makes many friends,
But the poor is separated from his friend.
This of course can play out in a variety of ways from never listening or supporting to ditching them when they hit the skids. I know it sounds silly but I have seen that particular proverb play out in all kinds of everyday situations.
Another quick way to wreck relationships is to feed your friends weakness or find someone to feed yours.
Prov 27:17
As iron sharpens iron,
So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Eph 4:29-31
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Rather than spending your time discussing the word of God, His faithfulness, their future, God’s ability to bring them through anything etc. Take time and encourage them to do the opposite of all these things. Let conversations focus around the past, what type of person they used to be and basically just lament over the fact that you wish that you could go back to “the good old days”. What this does is acts as a repellent to those that are truly following Christ. Discussing the past in a favorable way, complaining, being critical, justifying sin---all of this is something that will feed weakness and in the end destroy the friend and eventually the friendship.
How so? Well, the influence that you have with them, the relational equity, will be seized upon and rather than God molding them you being to mold them. I’ve seen this several times in marriages where the husband or vice versa complains that the spouse is not the person they married. Case in point they are not and it is sometimes due to the steady diet that the other one feeds them—if they were to look close they would see their own finger prints all over their mate.
To feed your weakness hook yourself to unbelievers, hypocrites or “religious” folks all the time. Now I know this one tends to get a little dicey. There is of course nothing wrong with having unbelievers as friends how else would we ever win them. The problem comes when your only friends are nonbelievers.
2 Cor 6:14-16
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.
Notice here that it is not simply talking about marriage. It is relationships in general. I’ve found more often than not this ploy is not meant to ruin relationships between people exclusively but rather to wreck your relationship with God. This is someone feeding YOUR weakness.
It’s something that needs to be prayfully considered. I’m not suggesting that we cut off all relationships with unbelievers, as Paul said, to do so means that we would have to leave the world. What I am suggesting is that you keep your relationship with God at the forefront and keep in mind that the Gospel is relational and then ask how it is affecting the other person. Because if I am not influencing them—they are influencing me.
1 Cor 15:33-34
Do not be decieved: "Bad company corrupts good character." Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God — I say this to your shame.
Your relationship with God is the most important thing in the world. The Gospel has saved your life, you need to be cautious about spending all your time with those that mock what you cherish by the way they live. It’s important to note that this can also lead to compromise. It might start small like a word or a song or a movie etc. Yet it has the capacity to build to something greater. Since they are a friend they will most often cover such offenses but they will do more harm than you realize.
However it is often the claim of someone, especially in the area of dating, that the reason they’re hooked is so that they can win them. More often than not though you get sucked into a life of compromise to get them “won”---if indeed they do get won through compromise then we have won them to a compromised Gospel. A compromised Gospel is no gospel at all. To all my single friends, if Jesus can take the cross, defeat death and conquer the grave I believe he is well able to bring a good, Godly mate into your life—wait on Him.
Now some of you might have balked at that. That’s okay, I didn’t say it the word says it. So you want to make the whole relationship about you, you want to feed weaknesses and have weaknesses fed and compromise.
The last way to wreck relationships I want to touch on is pride. Yup! Satan’s great sin will wreck relationships. Make everything about you, feed each other’s weaknesses and be proud. Pride takes on many forms. Being arrogant, being haughty, begin stiff necked and many other ways. The word of God is clear here. Submission is the order of the day and really the grounds for all good relationships.
You see Love in its lowest form is submission. You can submit to someone without loving them---people do it all day at work. However you will never truly love someone until you let pride die and submit to them.
Eph 5:20-21
giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Concerning this verse Wuest states:
“The Spirit-filled life should express itself by “submitting" The simple verb “tassœ” had a military meaning behind it basically, "to draw up in order of battle, to form, array, marshall" both troops or ships. It speaks of soldiers marshalled in military order under a commanding officer. Thus, it speaks of the subjection of one individual under or to another. The prefixed preposition hupo means "under." Hupotassœ in classical Greek meant, "to subject, make subject." In N.T. Greek, it means, "to arrange under, to subordinate, put in subjection or "to subject one's self to, to obey."
Subjecting one's self to another is the opposite of self assertion, the opposite of an independent, despotic spirit. It is the desire to get along with one another, being satisfied with less than one's due, a sweet reasonableness of attitude.
Husbands submit to the Lord.
Wives submit to husbands.
Children submit to the parents.
Younger submit yourselves to the older.
Everyone submit to the ordnances of the land.
Workers submit to bosses
Church submit to spiritual authority.
In short we are to maintain a humility that considers others. An attitude of loving concern for one another essentially strips authority of its "rights" and also strips submission of its humiliation. When talking about “submission” as the antithesis of pride it boils down to humility.
True friendship and true marriage comes under the person and lifts them up so that they might be the best that they can be. True humility comes in knowing that God would have no problem doing anything without me, but I would not be able to do anything without God. As such if we truly want to wreck a relationship be proud.
Demand your rights.
Be unforgiving
Refuse to take responsibility for your actions
Disreguard personal integrity
Be bitter
Follow these steps and I can assure you you’ll be someone even you don’t like. So if you wanna wreck your relationships; reject the gospel, make it all about you, feed your weaknesses, compromise and be proud.
Join us next week we’re going to talk about that oh so sticky subject of money.
How To Wreck Your Life 1 of 4
Well, we’re here on the first installment of a new series. I’ve seen tons of books on success and how to make it in the world. I’ve seen dozens of sermons and listened to several on how to be the best you can be—but I’ve never heard anyone talk about the opposite of that. I’ve never heard anyone say “anyone who wants to be an utter failure, then listen to this sermon.”
Thus, “How to Wreck Your Life” was born. This will probably be the only time I that I truly hope you won’t heed the advice of I’m saying. The series at the church is going run the length of July and I’ll try to post the notes after the service. We’re gonna talk about how to wreck your marriage, relationships, finances and life in general
The question that I’m anticipating is why do a series on something like this? The short answer is because I need to. People all around us are wrecking their lives on the daily and we need to know what to look for so we can help them. The second answer is that sometimes the best way to determine what something is; is to first define what it isn’t. Sort of like the game animal, vegetable or mineral. As such we’re going to journey through a few shipwrecks and survey the damage and in doing so learn how to avoid the same. Or if you’re just really hankering to have your life ruined then you can follow this step by step guide and end up ship wrecked yourself.
So let’s open up the word.
Acts 4:10-12
Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
1 Peter 4:17-18
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Heb 9:27-28
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Rom 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now there are just a few verses that show the foundation of where we are going tonight. The Gospel is the power of God. It doesn’t make power available it is the power itself. Powerful preaching is gospel preaching. The gospel is foundational to our lives. Every aspect of the gospel is. Imagine a pie (believe it or not I actually brought a pie to illustrate this). You cut it into slices and then place Coolwhip ® on one slice. We’ll call that one our ‘Jesus’ slice. We tend to think of things like the Gospel or putting God first in a positional kind of way. We move the Jesus slice to the 12 o clock hand—and it’s first. However, life happens and we eventually find it t the 6 o clock hand. Then someone preaches a red hot sermon and we shift it to the top once again. Sadly this is a process that is repeated often in the life of a believer.
The Gospel is not positional—it’s relational. The Coolwhip ® should be a huge gob in the center and touch everything. Just as that wonderful whipped topping changes the flavor of every slice so should the Gospel influence every area of our lives.
The gospel is our foundation and relational. We see in the book of Ephesians (for a fuller treatment of this message me, I can’t go into here) that Jesus is the embodiment of the gospel. He is the procurer of salvation, the power of salvation and the path to salvation. As such we need to remember that the Gospel is not something that we learn and then move onto better things—it is the foundation.
Christ FOR us the atoning sacrifice.
Christ IN us the power for living.
Christ UNDER us our sure foundation.
Christ AROUND us our wall of fire
Christ BESIDE us our perfect pattern
Christ OVER us our blessed master
Christ BEFORE us everlasting heritage.
As such, there are 2 words that sum up the process of action and the fruit of the gospel
Walk; character; holiness
Work; conduct, service
Again the gospel touches every area in our lives. It is 3 fold eternal; our relationship, internal; our relationship with ourselves and external; our relationship with others. So it’s important. Our walk and our work will reflect the place of the Gospel in our hearts and lives.
So, if you want to wreck your life the first step is to reject the Gospel. It’s as simple as that. Jesus said you hear the words and don’t do them your house is gonna fall. Wanna wreck your life? Be a sandperson, refuse to surrender to the power of Christ and try to find your own way into heaven.
How to Make Your own God.
Once you reject the gospel it’s all downhill from there. You never truly escape the fact that we are hardwired to worship and everyone is worshipping something. You might be laughing at the idea of worshipping an idol made of wood or stone—however there are many that add doors and marble floors and in turn worship those “idols of wood” and we never seem to notice.
Rom 1:18-25
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
There are actually several ways to make your own God. The first is to use the biblical model but out of context. Focus solely on the wrath of God as reveled in the OT and you will produce a God who is judgmental and an ogre that you don’t want to approach or that you can more easily reject. The converse of that is to ignore the judgment and focus solely on the God His mercy and grace.
Of course you could leave the bible all together and just build your own from various elements of other religions. Bahia’, Rasta, Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, JW, Judaism etc. and just make sort of an amalgam of a god that meets your criteria .
I know that sounds silly—but this what some people do. So the first step to wrecking your life is rejecting the gospel.
Prov 16:25
There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
This of course leads not only to death but to eternal damnation. Paul states;
Gal 1:8
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
The word “anathema” means “reserved for destruction or devoted to evil”. In short rejection of the gospel will lead to anathema.
1 Cor 16:22
If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
That destruction is not annihilaism. It’s not a “poof” then you’re gone---it’s an eternal, constant destruction. All because you rejected the gospel, wanna wreck your life, this is the first step.
Rejection of the gospel plays out in other areas of our lives as well. There are dozens of people sitting the pews that are practical atheist. They make mental ascent to the gospel but with their lifestyle deny the truth they say they believe. (Remember walk and work reflect what we believe)
Again, since the gospel is relational to every area of our lives—rejection of it will give way to adverse conditions in every of our lives. Apart from Christ we have no salvation, safety, strength, satisfaction or serenity.
The first progression is that we reject the word of God. The bible becomes just another book. We can do like Jefferson did and cut out the parts that we don’t believe. If we treat it like another book then we won’t heed anything else that is in it.
As such, we then treat the church like a social club. We can leave or stay or take it or leave it. Not cool. When we do that we eventually end up leaving the church and eventually the tenants of faith and our lifestyles and the end result is a life that is dashed against the rocks.
How many times I have seen people leave the church and the first thing that they do is everything that the pastor preached against. So, if you really want to fail at life, then what you need to first is reject the Gospel.
Convince yourself that you’re a good person and that Jesus stuff is only for sinner—which you are not. Lie to yourself until you believe that life is all about you being happy and fulfilled. Then bolster yourself by staying convinced that you and God have a “special” relationship and that “Jesus drank wine and we’d get along fine” and that you don’t have to come on His terms but on term that you have set. Sure fire way to wreck your life. Hope you stop by next week for “How to wreck your marriage”—and really any other relationships.
Thus, “How to Wreck Your Life” was born. This will probably be the only time I that I truly hope you won’t heed the advice of I’m saying. The series at the church is going run the length of July and I’ll try to post the notes after the service. We’re gonna talk about how to wreck your marriage, relationships, finances and life in general
The question that I’m anticipating is why do a series on something like this? The short answer is because I need to. People all around us are wrecking their lives on the daily and we need to know what to look for so we can help them. The second answer is that sometimes the best way to determine what something is; is to first define what it isn’t. Sort of like the game animal, vegetable or mineral. As such we’re going to journey through a few shipwrecks and survey the damage and in doing so learn how to avoid the same. Or if you’re just really hankering to have your life ruined then you can follow this step by step guide and end up ship wrecked yourself.
So let’s open up the word.
Acts 4:10-12
Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
1 Peter 4:17-18
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Heb 9:27-28
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Rom 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now there are just a few verses that show the foundation of where we are going tonight. The Gospel is the power of God. It doesn’t make power available it is the power itself. Powerful preaching is gospel preaching. The gospel is foundational to our lives. Every aspect of the gospel is. Imagine a pie (believe it or not I actually brought a pie to illustrate this). You cut it into slices and then place Coolwhip ® on one slice. We’ll call that one our ‘Jesus’ slice. We tend to think of things like the Gospel or putting God first in a positional kind of way. We move the Jesus slice to the 12 o clock hand—and it’s first. However, life happens and we eventually find it t the 6 o clock hand. Then someone preaches a red hot sermon and we shift it to the top once again. Sadly this is a process that is repeated often in the life of a believer.
The Gospel is not positional—it’s relational. The Coolwhip ® should be a huge gob in the center and touch everything. Just as that wonderful whipped topping changes the flavor of every slice so should the Gospel influence every area of our lives.
The gospel is our foundation and relational. We see in the book of Ephesians (for a fuller treatment of this message me, I can’t go into here) that Jesus is the embodiment of the gospel. He is the procurer of salvation, the power of salvation and the path to salvation. As such we need to remember that the Gospel is not something that we learn and then move onto better things—it is the foundation.
Christ FOR us the atoning sacrifice.
Christ IN us the power for living.
Christ UNDER us our sure foundation.
Christ AROUND us our wall of fire
Christ BESIDE us our perfect pattern
Christ OVER us our blessed master
Christ BEFORE us everlasting heritage.
As such, there are 2 words that sum up the process of action and the fruit of the gospel
Walk; character; holiness
Work; conduct, service
Again the gospel touches every area in our lives. It is 3 fold eternal; our relationship, internal; our relationship with ourselves and external; our relationship with others. So it’s important. Our walk and our work will reflect the place of the Gospel in our hearts and lives.
So, if you want to wreck your life the first step is to reject the Gospel. It’s as simple as that. Jesus said you hear the words and don’t do them your house is gonna fall. Wanna wreck your life? Be a sandperson, refuse to surrender to the power of Christ and try to find your own way into heaven.
How to Make Your own God.
Once you reject the gospel it’s all downhill from there. You never truly escape the fact that we are hardwired to worship and everyone is worshipping something. You might be laughing at the idea of worshipping an idol made of wood or stone—however there are many that add doors and marble floors and in turn worship those “idols of wood” and we never seem to notice.
Rom 1:18-25
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
There are actually several ways to make your own God. The first is to use the biblical model but out of context. Focus solely on the wrath of God as reveled in the OT and you will produce a God who is judgmental and an ogre that you don’t want to approach or that you can more easily reject. The converse of that is to ignore the judgment and focus solely on the God His mercy and grace.
Of course you could leave the bible all together and just build your own from various elements of other religions. Bahia’, Rasta, Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, JW, Judaism etc. and just make sort of an amalgam of a god that meets your criteria .
I know that sounds silly—but this what some people do. So the first step to wrecking your life is rejecting the gospel.
Prov 16:25
There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
This of course leads not only to death but to eternal damnation. Paul states;
Gal 1:8
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
The word “anathema” means “reserved for destruction or devoted to evil”. In short rejection of the gospel will lead to anathema.
1 Cor 16:22
If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
That destruction is not annihilaism. It’s not a “poof” then you’re gone---it’s an eternal, constant destruction. All because you rejected the gospel, wanna wreck your life, this is the first step.
Rejection of the gospel plays out in other areas of our lives as well. There are dozens of people sitting the pews that are practical atheist. They make mental ascent to the gospel but with their lifestyle deny the truth they say they believe. (Remember walk and work reflect what we believe)
Again, since the gospel is relational to every area of our lives—rejection of it will give way to adverse conditions in every of our lives. Apart from Christ we have no salvation, safety, strength, satisfaction or serenity.
The first progression is that we reject the word of God. The bible becomes just another book. We can do like Jefferson did and cut out the parts that we don’t believe. If we treat it like another book then we won’t heed anything else that is in it.
As such, we then treat the church like a social club. We can leave or stay or take it or leave it. Not cool. When we do that we eventually end up leaving the church and eventually the tenants of faith and our lifestyles and the end result is a life that is dashed against the rocks.
How many times I have seen people leave the church and the first thing that they do is everything that the pastor preached against. So, if you really want to fail at life, then what you need to first is reject the Gospel.
Convince yourself that you’re a good person and that Jesus stuff is only for sinner—which you are not. Lie to yourself until you believe that life is all about you being happy and fulfilled. Then bolster yourself by staying convinced that you and God have a “special” relationship and that “Jesus drank wine and we’d get along fine” and that you don’t have to come on His terms but on term that you have set. Sure fire way to wreck your life. Hope you stop by next week for “How to wreck your marriage”—and really any other relationships.
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