March 24, 2025 • 59 mins
In this timely and convicting message, Pastor Edwin Perez unpacks what it truly means to train for godliness in a world that constantly pulls us away from truth. Through the words of Paul to Timothy, we’re reminded that godliness isn’t automatic—it’s the result of intentional diet, discipline, and discipleship.
Are you feeding your spirit or your flesh? Are you exercising your faith or walking aimlessly? This episode will challenge you to reject compromise, embrace holiness, and live a life that reflects the character of Christ.
💥 Discover how the fear of God, a strong foundation in the Word, and authentic discipleship can lead to overflow in your life and legacy.
👉 Sow into revival!!! https://donate.overflow.co/v1
🌐 Learn more: www.v1.church
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Episode Transcript
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Foreign.
So if you have your Bibles,turn with me to first Timothy, chapter
four, verses six to ten.
And we are continuing ourseries of overflow.
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And specifically today I wantto talk to you about training for
godliness.
Training for godliness.
So first Timothy, chapterfour, verse six to ten.
If you have your Bibles, youcan read along with me, but I'll
read it for you.
If you put these things beforethe brothers, you will be a good
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servant of Christ Jesus being trained.
Say that with me trained inthe words of the faith and of the
good doctrine.
Say good doctrine that youhave followed.
Have nothing to do withirreverent silly myths.
Rather train yourself.
Say, train yourself for godliness.
For while bodily training isof some value, Godliness is of value
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in every way as it holdspromise for the present life and
also for the life to come.
The saying is a trustworthyand deserving of full acceptance.
For to this end we toil andstrive because we have our hope set
on the living God, who is theSavior of all people, especially
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of those who believe.
Let's pray here together.
Heavenly Father, let yourwords go forth.
Let it not just be my words,but I pray here today, Lord, that
we will be able to understandthat through holiness we are made
whole.
And God, you will teach usyour ways.
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So let the words of my mouthand the meditations of my heart be
acceptable in your sight, OLord, my Redeemer.
So thank you, God, for whatyou're doing in this house.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Well, we're in our seriescalled Overflow.
And if you were here lastweek, I will tell you, go back to
those and watch those.
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It's very important.
And we talked about, we divedinto not just how God is more than
provisional, but God isactually providential in those times
in your life as a believer.
But here's the question that Iwant to pose to some of you that
are here today, maybe thosethat are watching online.
What happens when you become exhausted?
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You ever felt exhausted before?
How many of y'all you run andyou feel exhausted?
I just found out that there'ssomething called a runner's second
wind.
Now, I don't run, so I don't.
I don't know any about that.
But supposedly there's asecond wind.
But there are times when youare in a workout for your soul that
you just even spiritually feel exhausted.
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You ever had some midnightprayers that you had to just pray
through and you're fightingthis fight and you're unable to contend
with the realities of the world.
Maybe you get a diagnosis thatyou've been inflicted with cancer,
right?
Some serious things.
Maybe something in your lifehas happened.
Maybe that's why divorce ratesare so high.
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And there's this pull fromsocial media that says you have to
look like this, you have todress like this, you have to act
like this, you have to do thisTikTok dance, you have to do this,
right?
And there's this pull fromevery direction.
So here's my question.
How can the Christian live agodly life in a godless world?
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How can the Christian live agodly life in this godless world?
So today, what I want to do,if you will permit me, is I want
to exegetically walk inbetween the lines of Paul's words
to the young protege Timothy,and how you and I can be able to
endure when there is a worldthat is trying to derail us.
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And here's.
If you're taking notes, forthe note takers in the room or those
that are online, I want you tounderstand this.
A godly life is shaped by whatyou feed it, how you shape it and
who you walk with.
A godly life is shaped by whatyou feed it, how you shape it and
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who you walk with.
So let's go to 1 Timothy,chapter 4.
Let me give you some contextthere, because the Apostle Paul,
in this moment, he's beingreleased from his first imprisonment.
And what he wants to do is hewants to visit key churches that
where he ministered from.
And he's specifically focusingon the church of Ephesus and what
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they have been practicingbecause they haven't been living
up to the standards of Christ.
And Paul is really concernedwith the godlessness of the people
there because there have beenan uprise of false teachers and there
is a culture that is beingbent towards Greek counterparts and
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philosophy.
So there's false teachers,there's the influence of the culture,
right?
There's the influence of philosophies.
And what Paul is trying to dois he's writing to Timothy to help
the church to persevere in theface of teachings.
If you look at first Timothy4:1, it says there will be some that
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will depart from the faith bydevoting themselves to deceitful
spirits and teaching of demons.
Not much has changed intoday's world.
So what's Paul doing?
He's writing these, what theycall them pastoral letters, first
and second Timothy and Titus.
And he's writing this as his,like his last words.
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You know, I don't know aboutyou, but if I Knew this was the last
time I was going to talk to you.
I want to give you everythingof the Gospel, right?
I want to tell you everythingabout Jesus.
I don't want to tell you howgood I look or how great I smell
or whatever it is.
I want to tell you the Gospel saves.
And you need to get right.
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And this is what Paul's doing.
This is Paul's last letter.
And in these letters you see the.
The word for godliness,especially in first Timothy, is actually
found all throughout the letter.
But why does all this matter?
Church?
Can't we just all get along?
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Can we just all believe?
Can we just come to church onSunday and do life as regular, right?
Why do we have to train for godliness?
Why do I need to pursue thisin my life?
And I will tell you why.
Because we have a humancondition and we are a slave to sin
from the first Adam.
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And as a result, our heartshave become rebellious against God
because our flesh is wagingwar with our souls.
Now the question becomes, willyou diet?
Will you discipline, and willyou disciple your life in active
obedience?
So here today, if you'retaking notes, I want to give you
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three pillars, three pillarsthat I truly believe in order for
you to live a godly life in agodless world.
So here's the first pillar.
Number one is diet.
Feed on the Word.
Let's go back to firstTimothy, chapter four.
And let's go line by line,starting with verse six.
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If you put these things.
Let me stop right there.
Because when you say if it's acondition, what is Paul saying?
If you put these things, Paul,what are you talking about?
Well, you have to go into thefirst early chapters.
What is he saying there?
He says he's referring to thegospel message, right?
Christ came into the world tosave sinners in whom I am of the
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foremost.
In chapter 1, verse 15.
In chapter 3, he talks aboutthe qualifications of an overseer.
Self control, humility.
The end of that chapter, hetalks about the mystery of godliness,
which is Christ.
So what Paul is saying is ifyou put all of these things, Timothy,
if you put all of these thingsbefore the brothers, you will be
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a good servant.
That's where we get the worddeacon from Diakonos.
And it's the.
And it also means minister.
We all supposed to beministers of the gospel.
Can I say something?
It's not just the pastor.
It's not just the ministry leader.
You have a responsibilitybecause Christ lives inside of you
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to minister the Gospel.
You don't have to know allabout apologetics.
You don't have to know howwell to defend the faith.
Because here's the thing, theburden of proof is not on you.
The burden of proof is onother people.
They got to prove their casejust as much as you got to prove
yours.
But guess what?
You are a living proof.
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And no one can refute your testimony.
Now, what Paul says, he says,being trained in the words of faith
and of the good doctrine thatyou have followed.
So here's the point that Paulis saying.
Good Christians need a goodspiritual diet.
When you lack the spiritualdiet to sustain a godly life, what
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you are essentially doing iseating a lot of junk food.
Pick your pleasure.
Is it Oreos?
I was a big Oreo guy.
Still am.
I just heard my wife say shejust shared my sin to the whole world.
But that's all right.
Dulce de leche, tres leche, bustelo.
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There's a lot.
Name it.
But here's the thing, Church.
We are running to these guiltypleasures to accommodate a God.
We are running to these thingsbecause we say, oh, I find comfort
in this.
Oh, it soothes me.
Oh, it helps me.
It helped me to get throughthe day.
I sit and watch Netflix andeat a whole bunch of Haagen Dazs
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and I just sit there and itcomforts my soul.
Right?
And we do these thingsthinking that we are going to be
justified in what we do.
And sometimes as Christians,we're eating a poor diet.
We're not getting enough ofthe Word or we're getting too much
saturated fat and we'regetting a little bit heavy.
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Now look at nobody.
I'm covering my eyes, but whatI'm saying is sometimes we're eating
the wrong things in the Wordand we're just using it for our own
guilty pleasure instead ofdispensing it to people so that they
can understand it.
Come on, Church.
And we're lacking these things.
But what we have to do isreject bad doctrine.
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We have to begin to reject it.
Because doctrine, sometimesit's all over the place.
And we don't know what weshould practice and we don't know
what should we listen to andwhat YouTuber is saying this and
what seminary is saying this.
We have to reject the bad doctrine.
Anything that goes against thedeity of Christ, anything that contradicts
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the nature of who God is, wereject it.
And here Paul goes on todescribe it as this.
He says, this is Paul gettingfeisty now.
He says, godless myths and oldwives tales have nothing to do with
this.
And it is the silliness ofmyths that sometimes comes into our
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world.
And there are some saints thatare destroying one another.
And Satan is winning on all fronts.
He's watching us saying, well,look, they're just killing themselves.
They're just hurting themselves.
They're acting silly with themselves.
See, what Paul is dealing withhere is he's dealing with a certain
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demon inspired asceticism.
Asceticism is this doctrinethat says if I just deny all the
flesh and I renounce all myphysical pleasures, all my personal
desires, if I do all this andI just focus on the soul, I'm good.
Now they also believe this atthis point in the Ephesus, that they
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don't take part in any of thegifts that God has given them.
You ever talk to somebody whowas like really super spiritual,
you know what I'm talking about?
I know we probably do.
We have some in the room heretoday that we gotta acknowledge,
right?
And you ask them a simplequestion, brother, how you doing?
I am blessed, never stressed,highly favored by the Lord Jesus
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the Christ, so help me God.
And you're like, just comedown a little bit to planet Earth
so we can have a conversation here.
But here's the thing, right?
They're so heavily minded thatthey have no earthly good.
It's like, you know when yougo into the gym and you see someone
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that's all big on the top andguess what?
They never do leg day.
That's some of y'all Christians.
We're all up here, we're allup here and then we're just wobbling
around because we got twolegs, right?
Because we don't focus on, weonly focus on what's the spirit and
what's the soul.
But not the body, not the diet.
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We got to focus on the diet.
So this diet from falseteachers, what they did, they didn't
hold fast to the person of Christ.
And you are going to have somediets that maybe some people tell
you that it appears likewisdom, appears like wisdom, but
it doesn't stop yourindulgence of the flesh if it doesn't
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glorify Christ or if itdoesn't defeat flesh church, I don't
want any part of it.
Now listen, not all selfdenial is bad, I want to say that.
But if it doesn't point backto Christ, it's false and it's silly.
What Paul is saying here,silly is actually like two people
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going back and forth gossipingwith one another because they have
nothing else better to do.
That's what it means by silly here.
Let's go a little bit further.
Let's go a little bit deeper.
Is that okay?
Can we go a little bit deeper today?
All right.
The word train here isunderstood as an actual workout,
right?
An actual workout is beingnourished with the words and faith.
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And what's on the menu is good teaching.
I love the fact that we havesome good teaching in this house.
Amen.
Right?
How many of y'all doing yourdaily growth journals?
That's some good teachingright there.
That's some good diet right there.
That we are growing togetheras a community.
And if you haven't got a dailygrowth journal, we still have some
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more available for you.
But here's the thing.
We don't pick and choose whatwe want to eat.
Aw.
Some of y'all just got realangry right now with me, but that's
okay.
Let me just kind of simmer youdown a little bit.
I remember when I was youngerand my abuela, when we used to eat,
she used to put everything so good.
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Rice, beans, chicken, and then broccoli.
And I'm like, grandma, don'tyou know I'm Puerto Rican?
I don't eat this.
And I'm like, broccoli?
Why?
I didn't know the purpose of it.
It's green.
It smells.
I don't want it.
Why would I want to eat this?
What is the benefit?
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But she saw something that Icould not see.
Oh, come on, Church.
Sometimes God's gonna give yousomething that you may like at the
moment.
It don't taste good, but it'sgood for you.
And you're like, oh, okay, Lord.
All right, I'll eat it.
I guess.
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So like Israel wanderingaround for 40 years.
You know, sometimes we're justwandering around saying, God, when's
the next best thing?
When's the next thing?
God is saying, no, this is thenext thing right here.
What I'm giving you is thenext thing.
This diet is the next thing.
And a good diet makes a goodminister of the gospel.
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Now, look, Paul continues tosay that.
2 Timothy 2:15, he says,Present yourself to God as one approved.
A workman who does not need tobe ashamed, who handles the word
of truth.
2 Timothy 4.
2.
Preach the word, be preparedin and out of season.
Correct.
Rebuke.
Oh, sure about that.
Yeah.
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Correct, rebuke, and encouragewith great patience.
So that's what I love aboutour house, is, you know what?
It's okay to correct when youdo it in love, because it's for the
benefit of Your soul.
You can't just look at thecorrection or the rebuke.
Because now, if there's noencouragement that goes along with
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that.
Yeah.
Then whoever that person ishas to learn.
But what I'm saying is that ahealthy church rebukes.
A healthy church corrects.
A healthy brother corrects me.
A helpy sister should correct you.
Whatever the case is, it's healthy.
Because here's the thing, Church.
And I want to say this.
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I want to be confronted withmy sin.
Confront me with my sin.
I want to be confronted.
Now, my wife, she does this sowell with me.
I don't know.
She has a gift for confronting me.
Yeah, I got you too, girl.
But that's what it means tolove one another.
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I'm going to confront you withyour sin whether you like it or not.
That's what love is.
And we need a diet that isfueled by the word of God.
And let me just say this out loud.
You either kill sin or youfeed it.
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You either kill sin or youfeed it.
And here's the thing.
Sometimes we become habitual sinners.
I don't know how to kill it.
I just keep feeding it andfeeding it and feeding it.
I keep eating haagen Dazs at12 o'clock at night.
And I know it's not good.
I know that's my struggle, y'all.
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Sorry.
I just let everybody know, man.
But I keep feeding it andfeeding it and I don't work out.
And guess what happens?
I get lethargic.
I get tired and I don'texercise and I don't work out and
I don't diet.
I let sin eat me.
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But what does true godliness do?
True godliness is cultivatedonly through the most godliest book
ever written.
The word of God.
Feed on this.
That's why, again, I love ourdaily devotional because we are continuously
feeding.
When you open it up, all it isis scripture and is some reflection
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to help you reflect back onthe word of God.
A spiritual diet that is malnourished.
If your spiritual diet heretoday is malnourished, it will produce
unhealthy and unfruitfulChristians that lack deep roots.
That's why I'm a big proponentof the local church.
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I don't know what happened.
20, 30 years ago, the localchurch was it.
Now it's like, I don't needthe local church.
I don't understand where insociety and culture we got here,
but the local church is so needed.
If your church is preachingthe right gospel and sound Doctrine.
It shouldn't be a church thatis comfortable.
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It should be a church thatmakes you uncomfortable in your sin.
That's why I love our house.
We come here.
Rebuke me, correct me.
I'm not just coming here tocoddle your sin.
Oh, it's going to be okay.
Don't worry.
No, get rid of that sin, killit, and then move on.
Because what the enemy wantsto do is get you stuck in your sin.
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Oh, he wants you to stay there.
He don't want you to move.
Why?
Because then you become athreat to his kingdom.
Now we know.
For all have sinned and fallenshort of the glory of God.
For the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternallife in Christ Jesus.
And what Paul is tellingTimothy, he says in 1 Timothy 3:15,
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if I delay, you may know howone ought to behave in the household
of God, which is the church ofthe living God, a pillar and a buttress
of the truth.
The church is God's.
It's not a static institution,everyone, like some have claimed,
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but it is the representationof a living God.
Let's go to number two.
Discipline.
Fight the flesh.
Fight the flesh.
Let's go to the second half ofverse seven.
There rather, train yourselffor godliness.
For while bodily training isof some value, godliness is of value
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in every way.
Train rather yourself forgodliness in the Greek is gumnazi
de saeuton pros eusebia.
I know that's a long Greekword, but it's train rather yourself
for godliness.
There is a call to exerciseyourself, but it's not all external.
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Because some of us, we sufferfrom what I call counterfeit godliness.
It's when we imitate without intimacy.
Oh, I just want to look.
I want to look like a Christian.
You know what Christians looklike, right?
Some of y'all say yes.
Some of you have no idea whatI'm talking about.
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You know the Christians thatwear the suits and the ties and.
No, no, no.
What does a Christian look like?
A Christian looks like Christimitates Christ, but sometimes, and
that's what Jesus had toconfront the Pharisees and say, yo,
y'all some whitewashed tombs.
Inwardly, when you go back toancient Greece, the athletes there,
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they used to compete without clothing.
Now, thank God that we movedalong from that.
And none of our gyms do that.
But they did that because,guess what?
The clothing was a hindranceto them in competition.
And that's where we get thatGreek word there.
Gum.
Nazi is where we get The Greekword for gymnasium.
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Your gym should smell like sweat.
How many of your gyms smelllike sweat?
I'm concerned that if your gymdoesn't smell like sweat, I don't
know what kind of gym it is.
But, right, you go in thereand it's like, oh, wow, I get to
eat pizza here in the gym.
I don't know what this is,this is weird.
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But sweat is sweat and itdoesn't smell good, but it has a
purpose.
Oh, come on.
Sweat don't smell good, but ithas a purpose.
And some of us need to put onsome spiritual deodorant that I call
discipline, so that we couldsay, okay, you know what, let me
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do you a favor, let me covermyself in the word.
Let me cover myself in prayer,Let me cover myself in some of these
disciplines that I know that Ihave in you.
So you should be sweating also.
Let me say this, your sweat isattached to your godliness.
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It's this inner devotion thatnobody could deny the power because
it's not built on you, it'snot built on your looks.
Right?
Because sometimes when we goto the gym, we love to look in the
mirror.
I know I'm hitting some nerves here.
Good.
We look in the mirror and wesay, wow, man, that's a good looking
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guy.
Or we say, hey, I need to workon this muscle group.
Or, hey, I need to work on this.
But it's not about your looks,it's about his likeness.
Do I look like Christ?
Am I loving people?
Am I showing them the validityof your truth?
Am I demonstrating the gospelmessage to them?
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That's how people get to know Christ.
God isn't impressed with our piety.
God isn't impressed by our performance.
And true godliness is not automatic.
It is a response to his revelation.
You know, I remember a fewyears ago, I actually competed on
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stage and, you know, it wasfor bodybuilding.
And it was one of the worstyears of my life because I had to
diet and discipline myself foran entire year.
And if you know anythingabout, you know, going on stage and
that commitment.
And I had a coach and he wouldtell me, well, you gotta eat X amount
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of proteins a day, X amount of carbs.
X amount of fat.
You have to work out this.
It was a whole blueprint thathe gave me.
And I did this for an entire year.
My wife hated me because wecouldn't eat anything that she wanted
to eat.
And the egg whites was aproblem too.
I actually used to just drinkthe egg whites.
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Just drink it.
I ain't got no time for that.
We got a show to win.
We got to do some hard things here.
But are we willing to do thehard things?
Are you willing to do the hard things?
Because even for a year, Ionly went on stage for 10 glorious
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minutes.
Don't laugh.
But only 10 minutes I went onstage and I'm like, wait a minute.
That's it.
That's it.
But it reminded me of ascripture in Psalms 84, where it
says, for a day in your courtsis better than a thousand elsewhere.
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I don't know about you, but Iwant a discipline.
I will take every moment ofevery day.
God, show me your way.
Show me your glory.
Discipline myself.
Because even if I'm in thepresence of God for one iota, for
one moment, it was well worth it.
Well worth it.
Come on.
You're not just doing this for you.
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You're doing this so that youunderstand and see.
See the glory of who he is.
But, Pastor, when it comes tothe things of the Spirit, we struggle
with this discipline becauseit sounds a lot like legalism.
I want to talk about legalism.
Is that okay?
Can I talk a little bit about legalism?
But in order for us tounderstand how you and I are supposed
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to embody Christ and live thisbiblical spiritual life, we have
to go back to our human condition.
So if you have your Bibles,turn with me to Romans chapter 7.
I'm just going to read oneverse here.
But in Romans chapter seven,and I'm just going to read verses
14 to 15.
We see Paul's language.
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And Paul is dealing with lawand sin and our human depravity.
And starting verse 14, hesays, for we know that the law is
spiritual, but I am of theflesh and I'm sold under sin.
And verse 15.
For I do not understand my ownactions, for I do not do what I want,
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but I do the very thing that I hate.
How many of you can say that, man?
There's just some things thatI just continuously do.
I have no idea why I do it.
Why do I struggle with this?
Why do I do this?
It's because we fell in loveand we made that thing idolatrous
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to us.
It became sin.
It became our own littlegolden calf.
And we love it so much.
Nice little calf, nice.
Nice little pride, nice littleanger, nice little adultery, nice
little porn, nice little this,nice little that.
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And we've made it into that.
But the law and God sets thisspiritual standard on how we are
to live.
The law just tells me andrecognizes me and shows Me, my sinful
condition.
That's what the law is.
And it happened through theseed of Adam, because Adam, the seed
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of Adam, lives in us.
And now sin, what sin has doneis caused the death inside of us
that we always continuouslywant to rebel against God.
But we are to imitate his character.
We are to imitate his conduct.
Right?
He says it in Leviticus 19, be holy.
Because I, the Lord your God,am holy.
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Well, that's just OldTestament, New Testament.
Jesus tells his disciples tobe perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect.
And this is only possiblethrough a renewal in the image of
Christ.
And how do we imitate God?
Church?
We come up with so many wayson how we imitate God and what we
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need to do and what mode weneed to go into.
This is how you imitate God.
Love one another.
Oh, I know that wasn'trevolutionary, but that's what it
is.
You imitate God.
When I love you, when I loveyou despite of you, when I'm able
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to love my Judas, when I'mable to love that person that backstabbed
me, when I'm able to love thatperson that hurt me, when I'm able
to love that person thatbetrayed me, when I'm able to love
that person that still owes mesome money.
Don't turn to the person.
I see some of y'all turningsome of y'all in the chat right now.
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Mm.
Johnny, I'm coming for you.
Johnny, no.
And we do that by loving oneanother as Christ has loved us.
That is how we love one another.
But we live in a culture thathas forgotten love or they have misplaced
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it.
And I truly believe, as thechurch of the living God, as us as
believers, we have lost whatit was to fear God.
We love our sin, but we haveto hate it because God does not approve
of it.
We have to fear the Lord.
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Ecclesiastes 12:13.
Fear God and keep his what?
His commandments.
For this is the whole duty of man.
Keep his commandments.
We're still obligated underthe moral law.
And I remember my son Ethan,we put the Ten Commandments there
and on his wall.
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And he went to the store, andby accident, he took something.
Now, this was.
This is young Ethan.
He was four.
Okay?
He was four.
And then we say, hey, youcan't do that.
You can't do that.
And then we go back later onand we're trying to, you know, discipline
him and not to steal.
Right?
That's a good thing.
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And then we noticed that oneof the commandments that's erased
on his.
On his board.
Do not steal is gone.
And I'm like, I'm pretty surein Exodus there are ten commandments
and not just nine, but some ofus, we do that with God.
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Come on, let me.
Some of y'all are Ethans.
Well, I was an Ethan.
Oh, God, I don't like this.
But let me say something aboutthe fear of God, because it goes
back to that.
The fear of God is necessaryfor godliness.
It's necessary.
There should be a trauma ofgodliness when you come into contact
with the presence of theliving God.
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Moses experienced it on Mount Sinai.
Adam became afraid when heheard the voice in the garden.
But there was no fear prior tosin, only after.
And there's this working outof our salvation with what?
Fear and trembling.
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The fear of the Lord is notjust isolated to the Old Testament,
but Jesus actually contrastsit in the New Testament when he says,
do not fear those who kill thebody but cannot kill the soul.
Rather, fear him who.
Who can destroy both soul andbody in hell.
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But there are some of us,we've lacked that fear.
We've lost it.
We've lost the fear of Godbecause we are still sinning.
We are still doing the samething over and over and over again.
And there comes this lack of fear.
So what Paul is saying.
You know what thoseindividuals are, Timothy?
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Those that lack the fear of God.
They hold to a form ofgodliness, but they deny the power
thereof.
Church, we are at war with our flesh.
You are at war with your flesh.
Don't concede to it.
The flesh is the enemy.
(34:22):
Don't concede to it.
And what sin wants to do, itwants an opportunity to not only
strike you, but sin wants anopportunity to strike your generations
as well.
It wants to go after your kids.
That's how serious we have toget back to the holiness of God and
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the fear of God.
Sin you will not have my child.
Sin you will not have my son.
You will not have my generation.
I need some people to act likeyou're in war.
This is wartime here.
And sin will not seduce me.
I will not be seduced by sin.
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And it's a struggle.
I get it.
Church It's a struggle until glorification.
We're not there yet.
We're just.
We're in the middle of theorder of salvation.
In sanctification, we're inthe middle.
We're just trying tounderstand this walk.
But what we have done is wehave created our own classism or
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classification of righteousness.
Well, this is what holinesslooks like.
Let me show you what holinesslooks like.
You got to wear this.
You got to dress a certainway, you got to talk a certain way,
you got to look a certain way.
Where did we get that theology from?
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When Christ is just comingjust as you are, let him do the rest.
And what we have done is wehave become for other people these
self righteous puppeteers.
And we're dangling their livesover the flames of hell.
When we act self righteous,oh, you got to do it like this.
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Because if you don't fire andbrimstone, sin will seduce you until
it owns you.
It wants to own every facet ofyour being.
It wants to own every part ofyour life.
It wants to control your finances.
(36:29):
That's why I love that for thelast two weeks we've been talking
about finances because that isa struggle for so many.
It's a mindset.
Something has to break becausethere's a sinful pattern that says,
I don't want to be in apoverty situation.
But you act like it becauseyou don't give to the local church.
You don't give to the house of God.
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So in some ways you're stillacting poverish because it's a mindset.
If I give, I'm going to lose.
God's saying, no, if you give,you'll get.
More will be added unto you.
It's abundance is multiplication.
In First Corinthians 9.
(37:11):
It says every athleteexercises self control.
So I do not run aimlessly.
Some of us, we're just runningthis race blindfolded and we don't
know.
You ever been on the treadmill blindfolded?
We don't.
Right, try it next time.
Go ahead, do it.
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Do it.
Try it.
Don't tell them that yourpastor said it, but just go do it.
Video record it for me andthen send it to me because it would
be hilarious.
But sometimes we do that withour walk with God when we don't have
the disciplines in our life.
When you don't have thedisciplines, guess what's happened?
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It's an aimless walk.
You know a Christian by howthey pray on their knees.
I want to see you.
I want to see that you'repraying on your knees.
You know someone that's intheir word because it just comes
out of them.
You know someone thatunderstands solitude and silence
because they've been in thepresence of God.
The disciplines are there sothat you do not walk aimless to keep
(38:18):
you on it.
And Paul says his I do not boxas one beating the air.
And verse 27.
But I discipline my body and Ikeep it under control.
It's time to keep it under control.
Saints, we've been out ofcontrol for too long, and the only
way to get back in control isto bring back the fear of God and
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to bring it back now.
I love the word disciplinethere because it actually has the
sense of giving somebody ablack eye.
Who here gave somebody a blackeye before?
Someone now, don't raise your hand.
You raise your hand.
Yeah, the hands are all raisedin Brooklyn right here.
But it has that sense ofgiving a black eye or to treat roughly.
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And Paul is hard on his bodybecause he doesn't want to be enslaved
or dominated by the flesh.
Let me give you four wordsthat I want you to write down.
Stay disciplined, you stay dedicated.
You stay disciplined.
You stay dedicated.
You stay disciplined, you stay dedicated.
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Obedience and disobedience.
They're opposed to one anotherand they want to fight for your soul.
Let's go back to legalism,because legalism is man's burden.
Discipline is God's calling.
When you have that legalisticmindset, you're saying, well, I want
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to show you how I do it,because that's your burden to carry.
All you're doing is you'regiving somebody your burden.
But when you focus on thediscipline, it's like, no, the disciplines.
God has called me to live this life.
God has called me to praywithout ceasing.
God has called me to read my word.
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God has called me to thedisciplines of my life.
And that's what spiritualdisciplines are.
They're a means of grace.
They are the practices thatactually position us to receive and
to respond to God's work inour lives.
Now, let me say this aboutdisciplines, because we got to get
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the legalistic mindset out of us.
But they are not ways that weearn grace, but they are ways that
you and I engage with thegrace that God has freely given us.
Now, lastly, Paul states, thisis a trustworthy statement, that
(40:55):
godliness is of value in every way.
Here's number three.
Discipleship.
Discipleship, follow Jesus,verse 10.
For to this end we toil andstrive because we have our hope set
on the living God, who is theSavior of all people, especially
of those who believe.
(41:17):
Now let me say something about discipleship.
It requires more than usfollowing a whole bunch of practices,
but becoming the disciplinethrough incarnational discipleship.
Let me explain incarnational discipleship.
It's not just discipleship,because you could just have discipleship
at your home, but it doesn'tgo anywhere.
You could have discipleshipeven here at this church.
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But if it's not incarnational,if it doesn't touch with people,
if it doesn't have sometangibles that are attached to it,
it's not just teaching aboutthe gospel, but is actively demonstrating
it through our lives and inour relationships.
Discipleship cannot happenwithout incarnation.
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I want to be in closeproximity to your pain.
That's what we all should besaying with one another.
When you hurt, I hurt.
You know, even as a pastor,you know, we do pastoral care and
sometimes we just hear thesestories and we're like, man, I wish
they would have just told meabout it so I could just pray with
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them.
They didn't give me anopportunity to put my finger on their
side and to feel like Thomasthe Doubter and say, no, no, I'm
real, I'm here, allow me tominister to you.
I want to stay in thatproximity because I want a thicker
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sense of Jesus.
A thicker sense.
Don't give me the shallowsense of Jesus.
I want something heavy.
Give me the thicker sense ofJesus that embodies the gospel in
a way that I'm able to see,to, to and to experience Jesus.
People are craving that.
There was actually a Barnapoll that actually said 7 out of
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10 Gen Z's who are practicingChristians say that they actually
prefer face to faceinteractions than digital ones.
We're getting to that point.
Church, even the Gen Z's wantto hang out.
Maybe not with the Gen Xers,but they still want to hang out.
And I'm okay with that.
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Some Gen Xers are fun, butpeople need people.
That's what it means to be incarnational.
Because we gotta fight thisfight of faith together.
Church Discipleship withoutgrace is distorted.
Discipleship without the graceis distorted.
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Because this is what happenswith the legalism.
It comes back into discipleship.
Sometimes legalism can makeits way back into discipleship and
then what ends up happening isit turns into a whole bunch of rigid
rules and regulations andobligations without any spirit filled
real relationships.
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And without grace, this trueessence of discipleship becomes replaced
by this outward compliance andbehavior modification.
Oh, let me just, let meexplain that a little bit to you.
It's just, I'm just doingbreaker one just for the simple fact
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of just doing it.
Because I like somebody in thechurch and I want to get close to
them.
Oh, I'm, I'm just doing ourbreaker one class because, you know,
I one day want to be, I wantto take over Pastor Eddie's job one
day.
I want to be the next pastor.
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I want to be this, I want tobe that, or I'm going to look the
part.
So what I'm saying is there'sthis outward compliance that we just
are doing it not for the sakeof grace, not for the sake of incarnation.
We're doing it for the simplefact of just complying with the rules,
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and we're just imitating.
You ever look at an ingredientgoing back to the diet, you ever
look at the ingredient and itsays artificial ingredients.
Y'all know what that means, right?
It's artificial.
It's not that hard.
They actually put it in therefor you, and it says it right there.
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Artificial ingredients.
It's not real.
It looks like may taste likeit, but it's not it.
And a lot of us are livingartificial ingredient lives in our
discipleship that we look likeit, we taste like a Christian, I
look like it, but, oh, God, Iwant the real thing.
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I want the real thing.
I want.
When people see me, they seethe realness.
The real vitamins come out,the real, real amino acids come out.
That's what real biblicaldiscipleship is about.
Now, Paul here is saying inthat last.
(46:21):
If you go back to firstTimothy, chapter four, he says, who
is the savior of all people,especially of those who believe,
especially of those.
I want you to underline that,highlight that, and then I want to
talk real quickly.
Matter of fact, you couldstand to your feet, and maybe those
that.
That are watching you couldcome up.
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I know some of y'all aretaking some notes.
You can take notes standing.
That's okay.
But he says this.
There.
There's a confidence in yoursalvation that is for the possession
of the believer, a possessionfor you.
And it's those Christians whohave placed their hope in the living
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God, and they.
Those Christians that pursuegodliness, you will not be disappointed.
Can I say that to you all?
You will never be disappointedwhen you follow and you pursue godliness.
It's not.
It's against his nature to do it.
Oh, but I'm struggling.
But why don't you?
In your struggle, maybethere's something God wants to reveal
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to you.
And sometimes you have to lookat it like Job looked at it.
Now, sometimes having friendslike Job is a different story.
But that's a whole nother sermon.
Matthew 10:32 says this.
So everyone who acknowledgesme before man, I will also acknowledge
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before my Father who is in heaven.
But whoever denies me beforeman, I will also deny before my Father,
who is heaven.
Now, don't just stop readingthere, but if you continue, it does
more than just denial.
But there's division as wellin verse 34.
Do you not think I come tobring peace on the earth?
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Jesus said, I didn't come tobring peace.
I came to bring a sword.
The sword is the metaphoricalway of saying it signifies this kind
of separation between thosewho believe in Christ and those who
are on the fringe looking in.
And here today we've beenlooking in.
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A godly life is shaped by whatyou feed it, how you shape it, and
who you walk with.
And it is through godlinessthat we will make the living God
more attractive to others.
I want you to see this imagehere that we have.
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I took this image, I went awayfor my doctoral residency in South
Carolina.
And you know, there in theback of the seminary, there's a place
where they could do prayerwalks and stuff like that, which
I thought was really cool.
I was so nervous, I thought abear or something was going to come
(49:17):
out and just jump me, youknow, so.
But I look at this picture andI stopped here and I began to weep.
And I began to weep and weepand weep.
And I put myself right in themiddle, and I said, well, if I go
this way, the road is alreadypaved for me.
It already looks like, oh,this is a nice road to travel.
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And there's light at the end,and I can see what's happening over.
But then I looked at theright, and then I said, why would
I ever want to go down this path?
There's no delineation betweenwhere you're going in life.
There's no view, and there'sjust trees that are covering.
(50:03):
There's a clear path, and Ihave to go through this, Lord.
I have to go through this.
But what some of us have doneis instead of choosing two paths,
we've created a middle onecalled compromise.
I'm not going to take either, God.
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I'm going to make my own path,and I'm going to call it compromise.
And now Jesus warns us in theSermon on the Mount about these roads
here.
And he says this in Matthew,chapter 7.
Enter through the narrow gate.
For wide is the gate and broadis the road that leads to destruction,
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and many entered through it.
But small is the gate andnarrow the road that leads to life,
and only few find it.
Can you put that picture back up?
When I look at this, I seesome narrow gate, women.
Amen.
But when I see this, I seesome narrow gate men as well.
(51:11):
They're about to Rise up andsay, I'm going to do the hard things.
I'm going to do the hardthings even when society says to
me, oh, you got to do it likethis, man.
And there's toxic masculinity.
No, I want to be a narrow gateman that actually says no, I'm going
to be different from the restof the world.
I'm not just going to be ababy daddy.
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I'm going to care for somethings and love on some children
and build a legacy for a lifetime.
Come on.
Narrow gate men, narrow gate women.
There's only few that willfind it.
And maybe you're here todayand maybe you're watching and you
say, well, I thought I was aChristian until after this sermon.
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And you know what?
I rather you say that.
I rather you say that thanleave here the same.
The wide gate is self centered.
The narrow gate is God centered.
The wide gate wants the crowdsand the applause of people.
(52:20):
The narrow gate just desires commitment.
The wide gate is concernedwith the comfort of this world.
The narrow gate is notconcerned with the comfort, but just
looks to the cross.
The wide gate is temporary.
The narrow gate is eternal.
(52:40):
The wide gate wants theworld's approval.
The narrow gate, all that theperson wants to hear is, well done,
good and faithful servant.
The wide gate goes after theease of religion.
The narrow gate craves true discipleship.
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I want you to pray with mehere today and do an altar call in
your heart right now.
Because this is a moment Ibelieve and maybe for those that
are watching right now thatyou said, I want to walk, I've been
walking a compromised life.
I want to go in the narrow way.
(53:28):
I don't know.
I thought I knew what itlooked like.
I thought I understood good doctrine.
I didn't have a proper diet.
I wasn't disciplined enough.
I wasn't discipled enough.
Well, now is your time to say,God, I'm getting back on the narrow
road.
Because in Revelation, whenyou're lukewarm, there's a price
(53:51):
to that consequence of sin.
Let's pray.
Lord, I pray God that theholiness of God makes us whole.
(54:18):
The holiness of who you are.
Lord, we haven't been trainingthe way that you have given us the
plan for.
You haven't.
You've given us a blueprintright here in your word.
And we have compromised it.
And we have not looked at itthe way.
The way with spiritual eyes.
(54:38):
God, we have not seen it, butwe have been inclined to do it our
own way and put thepreferences before the person of
Jesus.
But here today, God, we wantto stand in your presence, show us
your glory.
Same way Moses wanted to.
Just see.
(54:59):
Just show me the back part ofwho you are.
Oh God, that's all my heart's desire.
Better is one day in yourcourts than a thousand elsewhere.
God, I will do this everysecond, every minute of every day.
Oh God, if it just says I justget a glimpse of who you are, the
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glorification that is to come.
But God, if I have constructeda middle road of some sorts, whether
I call it whatever sin orwhatever pleasure, Heavenly Father,
I just pray right now that weleave here repented and changed.
(55:42):
Where grace, where sinabounds, grace abounds so much more.
So, God, I pray for each andevery one that is here and watching
online that this day, Lord, webring holiness back to where it should
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be.
We don't compromise it.
We don't make it artificial.
We make it real, incarnational.
So that when people see us,they see and they see Christ in us,
the hope of glory.
So thank you, Lord, for whatyou're about to do.
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Come on.
Every hand just lifted right now.
I want you to just maybe takethis moment.
Just take a few moments.
I even believe this is a holymoment for some of you and just start
to just cry out to God.
Just take some time.
Right now, I want to take afew moments to just get this right.
This is not just me justgiving you another sermon so that
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you could just take home andlisten to later.
This has to be life to you.
So come on, lift up your hand.
Say God.
Greater is he that is in methan him of the world, Lord.
Come on, let's just praise himright now.
Just give him some praise.
Just acknowledge his presencein your life.
Say, God, I want more of you.
I want more of you.
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I want more of you, Lord.
More of you.
Lord, forgive me, o wretchedman that I am.
Deal with my sin, oh God.
Deal with my complacency, oh God.
Deal with the sinful clutterthat is in my soul, oh God, I've
(57:31):
cluttered it, God, I filled itand it's overflowing now with goodness.
And mercy is flowing with sin.
It's flowing with hate.
It's flowing with pain, ohGod, I'm in pain.
But there is purpose in my pain.
There's purpose in my pain.
God, God, you have not givenus that which we are not able to
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bear, but you provide a way of escape.
But Lord, if we've beenescaping into the world's arms, forgive
us if we've been escaping intothe narrative that we have to be
a morally good person.
Forgive us if we havecompromised the way we do discipleship
(58:19):
and discipline and diet.
Forgive us, God.
Today we want to train forgodliness because as a good soldier,
we don't entangle ourselveswith the affairs of this world.
But we are going to fight thisfight of faith to the very end.
(58:39):
Lord.
No Christian left behind.
No true believer left behind.
So, Father, thank you that youare all powerful for such a time
as this.
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In Jesus name we pray.
Come on.
Amen and amen.
Come on.
Put your hands together.
Come on.
Just praise the Lord what you are.
Foreign.
So if you have your Bibles,turn with me to first Timothy, chapter
four, verses six to ten.
And we are continuing ourseries of overflow.
(00:20):
And specifically today I wantto talk to you about training for
godliness.
Training for godliness.
So first Timothy, chapterfour, verse six to ten.
If you have your Bibles, youcan read along with me, but I'll
read it for you.
If you put these things beforethe brothers, you will be a good
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servant of Christ Jesus being trained.
Say that with me trained inthe words of the faith and of the
good doctrine.
Say good doctrine that youhave followed.
Have nothing to do withirreverent silly myths.
Rather train yourself.
Say, train yourself for godliness.
For while bodily training isof some value, Godliness is of value
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in every way as it holdspromise for the present life and
also for the life to come.
The saying is a trustworthyand deserving of full acceptance.
For to this end we toil andstrive because we have our hope set
on the living God, who is theSavior of all people, especially
(01:30):
of those who believe.
Let's pray here together.
Heavenly Father, let yourwords go forth.
Let it not just be my words,but I pray here today, Lord, that
we will be able to understandthat through holiness we are made
whole.
And God, you will teach usyour ways.
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So let the words of my mouthand the meditations of my heart be
acceptable in your sight, OLord, my Redeemer.
So thank you, God, for whatyou're doing in this house.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Well, we're in our seriescalled Overflow.
And if you were here lastweek, I will tell you, go back to
those and watch those.
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It's very important.
And we talked about, we divedinto not just how God is more than
provisional, but God isactually providential in those times
in your life as a believer.
But here's the question that Iwant to pose to some of you that
are here today, maybe thosethat are watching online.
What happens when you become exhausted?
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You ever felt exhausted before?
How many of y'all you run andyou feel exhausted?
I just found out that there'ssomething called a runner's second
wind.
Now, I don't run, so I don't.
I don't know any about that.
But supposedly there's asecond wind.
But there are times when youare in a workout for your soul that
you just even spiritually feel exhausted.
(02:54):
You ever had some midnightprayers that you had to just pray
through and you're fightingthis fight and you're unable to contend
with the realities of the world.
Maybe you get a diagnosis thatyou've been inflicted with cancer,
right?
Some serious things.
Maybe something in your lifehas happened.
Maybe that's why divorce ratesare so high.
(03:15):
And there's this pull fromsocial media that says you have to
look like this, you have todress like this, you have to act
like this, you have to do thisTikTok dance, you have to do this,
right?
And there's this pull fromevery direction.
So here's my question.
How can the Christian live agodly life in a godless world?
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How can the Christian live agodly life in this godless world?
So today, what I want to do,if you will permit me, is I want
to exegetically walk inbetween the lines of Paul's words
to the young protege Timothy,and how you and I can be able to
endure when there is a worldthat is trying to derail us.
(04:01):
And here's.
If you're taking notes, forthe note takers in the room or those
that are online, I want you tounderstand this.
A godly life is shaped by whatyou feed it, how you shape it and
who you walk with.
A godly life is shaped by whatyou feed it, how you shape it and
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who you walk with.
So let's go to 1 Timothy,chapter 4.
Let me give you some contextthere, because the Apostle Paul,
in this moment, he's beingreleased from his first imprisonment.
And what he wants to do is hewants to visit key churches that
where he ministered from.
And he's specifically focusingon the church of Ephesus and what
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they have been practicingbecause they haven't been living
up to the standards of Christ.
And Paul is really concernedwith the godlessness of the people
there because there have beenan uprise of false teachers and there
is a culture that is beingbent towards Greek counterparts and
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philosophy.
So there's false teachers,there's the influence of the culture,
right?
There's the influence of philosophies.
And what Paul is trying to dois he's writing to Timothy to help
the church to persevere in theface of teachings.
If you look at first Timothy4:1, it says there will be some that
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will depart from the faith bydevoting themselves to deceitful
spirits and teaching of demons.
Not much has changed intoday's world.
So what's Paul doing?
He's writing these, what theycall them pastoral letters, first
and second Timothy and Titus.
And he's writing this as his,like his last words.
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You know, I don't know aboutyou, but if I Knew this was the last
time I was going to talk to you.
I want to give you everythingof the Gospel, right?
I want to tell you everythingabout Jesus.
I don't want to tell you howgood I look or how great I smell
or whatever it is.
I want to tell you the Gospel saves.
And you need to get right.
(06:10):
And this is what Paul's doing.
This is Paul's last letter.
And in these letters you see the.
The word for godliness,especially in first Timothy, is actually
found all throughout the letter.
But why does all this matter?
Church?
Can't we just all get along?
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Can we just all believe?
Can we just come to church onSunday and do life as regular, right?
Why do we have to train for godliness?
Why do I need to pursue thisin my life?
And I will tell you why.
Because we have a humancondition and we are a slave to sin
from the first Adam.
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And as a result, our heartshave become rebellious against God
because our flesh is wagingwar with our souls.
Now the question becomes, willyou diet?
Will you discipline, and willyou disciple your life in active
obedience?
So here today, if you'retaking notes, I want to give you
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three pillars, three pillarsthat I truly believe in order for
you to live a godly life in agodless world.
So here's the first pillar.
Number one is diet.
Feed on the Word.
Let's go back to firstTimothy, chapter four.
And let's go line by line,starting with verse six.
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If you put these things.
Let me stop right there.
Because when you say if it's acondition, what is Paul saying?
If you put these things, Paul,what are you talking about?
Well, you have to go into thefirst early chapters.
What is he saying there?
He says he's referring to thegospel message, right?
Christ came into the world tosave sinners in whom I am of the
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foremost.
In chapter 1, verse 15.
In chapter 3, he talks aboutthe qualifications of an overseer.
Self control, humility.
The end of that chapter, hetalks about the mystery of godliness,
which is Christ.
So what Paul is saying is ifyou put all of these things, Timothy,
if you put all of these thingsbefore the brothers, you will be
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a good servant.
That's where we get the worddeacon from Diakonos.
And it's the.
And it also means minister.
We all supposed to beministers of the gospel.
Can I say something?
It's not just the pastor.
It's not just the ministry leader.
You have a responsibilitybecause Christ lives inside of you
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to minister the Gospel.
You don't have to know allabout apologetics.
You don't have to know howwell to defend the faith.
Because here's the thing, theburden of proof is not on you.
The burden of proof is onother people.
They got to prove their casejust as much as you got to prove
yours.
But guess what?
You are a living proof.
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And no one can refute your testimony.
Now, what Paul says, he says,being trained in the words of faith
and of the good doctrine thatyou have followed.
So here's the point that Paulis saying.
Good Christians need a goodspiritual diet.
When you lack the spiritualdiet to sustain a godly life, what
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you are essentially doing iseating a lot of junk food.
Pick your pleasure.
Is it Oreos?
I was a big Oreo guy.
Still am.
I just heard my wife say shejust shared my sin to the whole world.
But that's all right.
Dulce de leche, tres leche, bustelo.
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There's a lot.
Name it.
But here's the thing, Church.
We are running to these guiltypleasures to accommodate a God.
We are running to these thingsbecause we say, oh, I find comfort
in this.
Oh, it soothes me.
Oh, it helps me.
It helped me to get throughthe day.
I sit and watch Netflix andeat a whole bunch of Haagen Dazs
(10:12):
and I just sit there and itcomforts my soul.
Right?
And we do these thingsthinking that we are going to be
justified in what we do.
And sometimes as Christians,we're eating a poor diet.
We're not getting enough ofthe Word or we're getting too much
saturated fat and we'regetting a little bit heavy.
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Now look at nobody.
I'm covering my eyes, but whatI'm saying is sometimes we're eating
the wrong things in the Wordand we're just using it for our own
guilty pleasure instead ofdispensing it to people so that they
can understand it.
Come on, Church.
And we're lacking these things.
But what we have to do isreject bad doctrine.
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We have to begin to reject it.
Because doctrine, sometimesit's all over the place.
And we don't know what weshould practice and we don't know
what should we listen to andwhat YouTuber is saying this and
what seminary is saying this.
We have to reject the bad doctrine.
Anything that goes against thedeity of Christ, anything that contradicts
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the nature of who God is, wereject it.
And here Paul goes on todescribe it as this.
He says, this is Paul gettingfeisty now.
He says, godless myths and oldwives tales have nothing to do with
this.
And it is the silliness ofmyths that sometimes comes into our
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world.
And there are some saints thatare destroying one another.
And Satan is winning on all fronts.
He's watching us saying, well,look, they're just killing themselves.
They're just hurting themselves.
They're acting silly with themselves.
See, what Paul is dealing withhere is he's dealing with a certain
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demon inspired asceticism.
Asceticism is this doctrinethat says if I just deny all the
flesh and I renounce all myphysical pleasures, all my personal
desires, if I do all this andI just focus on the soul, I'm good.
Now they also believe this atthis point in the Ephesus, that they
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don't take part in any of thegifts that God has given them.
You ever talk to somebody whowas like really super spiritual,
you know what I'm talking about?
I know we probably do.
We have some in the room heretoday that we gotta acknowledge,
right?
And you ask them a simplequestion, brother, how you doing?
I am blessed, never stressed,highly favored by the Lord Jesus
(12:55):
the Christ, so help me God.
And you're like, just comedown a little bit to planet Earth
so we can have a conversation here.
But here's the thing, right?
They're so heavily minded thatthey have no earthly good.
It's like, you know when yougo into the gym and you see someone
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that's all big on the top andguess what?
They never do leg day.
That's some of y'all Christians.
We're all up here, we're allup here and then we're just wobbling
around because we got twolegs, right?
Because we don't focus on, weonly focus on what's the spirit and
what's the soul.
But not the body, not the diet.
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We got to focus on the diet.
So this diet from falseteachers, what they did, they didn't
hold fast to the person of Christ.
And you are going to have somediets that maybe some people tell
you that it appears likewisdom, appears like wisdom, but
it doesn't stop yourindulgence of the flesh if it doesn't
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glorify Christ or if itdoesn't defeat flesh church, I don't
want any part of it.
Now listen, not all selfdenial is bad, I want to say that.
But if it doesn't point backto Christ, it's false and it's silly.
What Paul is saying here,silly is actually like two people
(14:24):
going back and forth gossipingwith one another because they have
nothing else better to do.
That's what it means by silly here.
Let's go a little bit further.
Let's go a little bit deeper.
Is that okay?
Can we go a little bit deeper today?
All right.
The word train here isunderstood as an actual workout,
right?
An actual workout is beingnourished with the words and faith.
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And what's on the menu is good teaching.
I love the fact that we havesome good teaching in this house.
Amen.
Right?
How many of y'all doing yourdaily growth journals?
That's some good teachingright there.
That's some good diet right there.
That we are growing togetheras a community.
And if you haven't got a dailygrowth journal, we still have some
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more available for you.
But here's the thing.
We don't pick and choose whatwe want to eat.
Aw.
Some of y'all just got realangry right now with me, but that's
okay.
Let me just kind of simmer youdown a little bit.
I remember when I was youngerand my abuela, when we used to eat,
she used to put everything so good.
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Rice, beans, chicken, and then broccoli.
And I'm like, grandma, don'tyou know I'm Puerto Rican?
I don't eat this.
And I'm like, broccoli?
Why?
I didn't know the purpose of it.
It's green.
It smells.
I don't want it.
Why would I want to eat this?
What is the benefit?
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But she saw something that Icould not see.
Oh, come on, Church.
Sometimes God's gonna give yousomething that you may like at the
moment.
It don't taste good, but it'sgood for you.
And you're like, oh, okay, Lord.
All right, I'll eat it.
I guess.
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So like Israel wanderingaround for 40 years.
You know, sometimes we're justwandering around saying, God, when's
the next best thing?
When's the next thing?
God is saying, no, this is thenext thing right here.
What I'm giving you is thenext thing.
This diet is the next thing.
And a good diet makes a goodminister of the gospel.
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Now, look, Paul continues tosay that.
2 Timothy 2:15, he says,Present yourself to God as one approved.
A workman who does not need tobe ashamed, who handles the word
of truth.
2 Timothy 4.
2.
Preach the word, be preparedin and out of season.
Correct.
Rebuke.
Oh, sure about that.
Yeah.
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Correct, rebuke, and encouragewith great patience.
So that's what I love aboutour house, is, you know what?
It's okay to correct when youdo it in love, because it's for the
benefit of Your soul.
You can't just look at thecorrection or the rebuke.
Because now, if there's noencouragement that goes along with
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that.
Yeah.
Then whoever that person ishas to learn.
But what I'm saying is that ahealthy church rebukes.
A healthy church corrects.
A healthy brother corrects me.
A helpy sister should correct you.
Whatever the case is, it's healthy.
Because here's the thing, Church.
And I want to say this.
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I want to be confronted withmy sin.
Confront me with my sin.
I want to be confronted.
Now, my wife, she does this sowell with me.
I don't know.
She has a gift for confronting me.
Yeah, I got you too, girl.
But that's what it means tolove one another.
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I'm going to confront you withyour sin whether you like it or not.
That's what love is.
And we need a diet that isfueled by the word of God.
And let me just say this out loud.
You either kill sin or youfeed it.
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You either kill sin or youfeed it.
And here's the thing.
Sometimes we become habitual sinners.
I don't know how to kill it.
I just keep feeding it andfeeding it and feeding it.
I keep eating haagen Dazs at12 o'clock at night.
And I know it's not good.
I know that's my struggle, y'all.
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Sorry.
I just let everybody know, man.
But I keep feeding it andfeeding it and I don't work out.
And guess what happens?
I get lethargic.
I get tired and I don'texercise and I don't work out and
I don't diet.
I let sin eat me.
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But what does true godliness do?
True godliness is cultivatedonly through the most godliest book
ever written.
The word of God.
Feed on this.
That's why, again, I love ourdaily devotional because we are continuously
feeding.
When you open it up, all it isis scripture and is some reflection
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to help you reflect back onthe word of God.
A spiritual diet that is malnourished.
If your spiritual diet heretoday is malnourished, it will produce
unhealthy and unfruitfulChristians that lack deep roots.
That's why I'm a big proponentof the local church.
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I don't know what happened.
20, 30 years ago, the localchurch was it.
Now it's like, I don't needthe local church.
I don't understand where insociety and culture we got here,
but the local church is so needed.
If your church is preachingthe right gospel and sound Doctrine.
It shouldn't be a church thatis comfortable.
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It should be a church thatmakes you uncomfortable in your sin.
That's why I love our house.
We come here.
Rebuke me, correct me.
I'm not just coming here tocoddle your sin.
Oh, it's going to be okay.
Don't worry.
No, get rid of that sin, killit, and then move on.
Because what the enemy wantsto do is get you stuck in your sin.
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Oh, he wants you to stay there.
He don't want you to move.
Why?
Because then you become athreat to his kingdom.
Now we know.
For all have sinned and fallenshort of the glory of God.
For the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternallife in Christ Jesus.
And what Paul is tellingTimothy, he says in 1 Timothy 3:15,
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if I delay, you may know howone ought to behave in the household
of God, which is the church ofthe living God, a pillar and a buttress
of the truth.
The church is God's.
It's not a static institution,everyone, like some have claimed,
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but it is the representationof a living God.
Let's go to number two.
Discipline.
Fight the flesh.
Fight the flesh.
Let's go to the second half ofverse seven.
There rather, train yourselffor godliness.
For while bodily training isof some value, godliness is of value
(21:33):
in every way.
Train rather yourself forgodliness in the Greek is gumnazi
de saeuton pros eusebia.
I know that's a long Greekword, but it's train rather yourself
for godliness.
There is a call to exerciseyourself, but it's not all external.
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Because some of us, we sufferfrom what I call counterfeit godliness.
It's when we imitate without intimacy.
Oh, I just want to look.
I want to look like a Christian.
You know what Christians looklike, right?
Some of y'all say yes.
Some of you have no idea whatI'm talking about.
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You know the Christians thatwear the suits and the ties and.
No, no, no.
What does a Christian look like?
A Christian looks like Christimitates Christ, but sometimes, and
that's what Jesus had toconfront the Pharisees and say, yo,
y'all some whitewashed tombs.
Inwardly, when you go back toancient Greece, the athletes there,
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they used to compete without clothing.
Now, thank God that we movedalong from that.
And none of our gyms do that.
But they did that because,guess what?
The clothing was a hindranceto them in competition.
And that's where we get thatGreek word there.
Gum.
Nazi is where we get The Greekword for gymnasium.
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Your gym should smell like sweat.
How many of your gyms smelllike sweat?
I'm concerned that if your gymdoesn't smell like sweat, I don't
know what kind of gym it is.
But, right, you go in thereand it's like, oh, wow, I get to
eat pizza here in the gym.
I don't know what this is,this is weird.
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But sweat is sweat and itdoesn't smell good, but it has a
purpose.
Oh, come on.
Sweat don't smell good, but ithas a purpose.
And some of us need to put onsome spiritual deodorant that I call
discipline, so that we couldsay, okay, you know what, let me
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do you a favor, let me covermyself in the word.
Let me cover myself in prayer,Let me cover myself in some of these
disciplines that I know that Ihave in you.
So you should be sweating also.
Let me say this, your sweat isattached to your godliness.
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It's this inner devotion thatnobody could deny the power because
it's not built on you, it'snot built on your looks.
Right?
Because sometimes when we goto the gym, we love to look in the
mirror.
I know I'm hitting some nerves here.
Good.
We look in the mirror and wesay, wow, man, that's a good looking
(24:40):
guy.
Or we say, hey, I need to workon this muscle group.
Or, hey, I need to work on this.
But it's not about your looks,it's about his likeness.
Do I look like Christ?
Am I loving people?
Am I showing them the validityof your truth?
Am I demonstrating the gospelmessage to them?
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That's how people get to know Christ.
God isn't impressed with our piety.
God isn't impressed by our performance.
And true godliness is not automatic.
It is a response to his revelation.
You know, I remember a fewyears ago, I actually competed on
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stage and, you know, it wasfor bodybuilding.
And it was one of the worstyears of my life because I had to
diet and discipline myself foran entire year.
And if you know anythingabout, you know, going on stage and
that commitment.
And I had a coach and he wouldtell me, well, you gotta eat X amount
(25:45):
of proteins a day, X amount of carbs.
X amount of fat.
You have to work out this.
It was a whole blueprint thathe gave me.
And I did this for an entire year.
My wife hated me because wecouldn't eat anything that she wanted
to eat.
And the egg whites was aproblem too.
I actually used to just drinkthe egg whites.
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Just drink it.
I ain't got no time for that.
We got a show to win.
We got to do some hard things here.
But are we willing to do thehard things?
Are you willing to do the hard things?
Because even for a year, Ionly went on stage for 10 glorious
(26:27):
minutes.
Don't laugh.
But only 10 minutes I went onstage and I'm like, wait a minute.
That's it.
That's it.
But it reminded me of ascripture in Psalms 84, where it
says, for a day in your courtsis better than a thousand elsewhere.
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I don't know about you, but Iwant a discipline.
I will take every moment ofevery day.
God, show me your way.
Show me your glory.
Discipline myself.
Because even if I'm in thepresence of God for one iota, for
one moment, it was well worth it.
Well worth it.
Come on.
You're not just doing this for you.
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You're doing this so that youunderstand and see.
See the glory of who he is.
But, Pastor, when it comes tothe things of the Spirit, we struggle
with this discipline becauseit sounds a lot like legalism.
I want to talk about legalism.
Is that okay?
Can I talk a little bit about legalism?
But in order for us tounderstand how you and I are supposed
(27:36):
to embody Christ and live thisbiblical spiritual life, we have
to go back to our human condition.
So if you have your Bibles,turn with me to Romans chapter 7.
I'm just going to read oneverse here.
But in Romans chapter seven,and I'm just going to read verses
14 to 15.
We see Paul's language.
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And Paul is dealing with lawand sin and our human depravity.
And starting verse 14, hesays, for we know that the law is
spiritual, but I am of theflesh and I'm sold under sin.
And verse 15.
For I do not understand my ownactions, for I do not do what I want,
(28:20):
but I do the very thing that I hate.
How many of you can say that, man?
There's just some things thatI just continuously do.
I have no idea why I do it.
Why do I struggle with this?
Why do I do this?
It's because we fell in loveand we made that thing idolatrous
(28:41):
to us.
It became sin.
It became our own littlegolden calf.
And we love it so much.
Nice little calf, nice.
Nice little pride, nice littleanger, nice little adultery, nice
little porn, nice little this,nice little that.
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And we've made it into that.
But the law and God sets thisspiritual standard on how we are
to live.
The law just tells me andrecognizes me and shows Me, my sinful
condition.
That's what the law is.
And it happened through theseed of Adam, because Adam, the seed
(29:25):
of Adam, lives in us.
And now sin, what sin has doneis caused the death inside of us
that we always continuouslywant to rebel against God.
But we are to imitate his character.
We are to imitate his conduct.
Right?
He says it in Leviticus 19, be holy.
Because I, the Lord your God,am holy.
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Well, that's just OldTestament, New Testament.
Jesus tells his disciples tobe perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect.
And this is only possiblethrough a renewal in the image of
Christ.
And how do we imitate God?
Church?
We come up with so many wayson how we imitate God and what we
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need to do and what mode weneed to go into.
This is how you imitate God.
Love one another.
Oh, I know that wasn'trevolutionary, but that's what it
is.
You imitate God.
When I love you, when I loveyou despite of you, when I'm able
(30:29):
to love my Judas, when I'mable to love that person that backstabbed
me, when I'm able to love thatperson that hurt me, when I'm able
to love that person thatbetrayed me, when I'm able to love
that person that still owes mesome money.
Don't turn to the person.
I see some of y'all turningsome of y'all in the chat right now.
(30:50):
Mm.
Johnny, I'm coming for you.
Johnny, no.
And we do that by loving oneanother as Christ has loved us.
That is how we love one another.
But we live in a culture thathas forgotten love or they have misplaced
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it.
And I truly believe, as thechurch of the living God, as us as
believers, we have lost whatit was to fear God.
We love our sin, but we haveto hate it because God does not approve
of it.
We have to fear the Lord.
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Ecclesiastes 12:13.
Fear God and keep his what?
His commandments.
For this is the whole duty of man.
Keep his commandments.
We're still obligated underthe moral law.
And I remember my son Ethan,we put the Ten Commandments there
and on his wall.
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And he went to the store, andby accident, he took something.
Now, this was.
This is young Ethan.
He was four.
Okay?
He was four.
And then we say, hey, youcan't do that.
You can't do that.
And then we go back later onand we're trying to, you know, discipline
him and not to steal.
Right?
That's a good thing.
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And then we noticed that oneof the commandments that's erased
on his.
On his board.
Do not steal is gone.
And I'm like, I'm pretty surein Exodus there are ten commandments
and not just nine, but some ofus, we do that with God.
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Come on, let me.
Some of y'all are Ethans.
Well, I was an Ethan.
Oh, God, I don't like this.
But let me say something aboutthe fear of God, because it goes
back to that.
The fear of God is necessaryfor godliness.
It's necessary.
There should be a trauma ofgodliness when you come into contact
with the presence of theliving God.
(32:59):
Moses experienced it on Mount Sinai.
Adam became afraid when heheard the voice in the garden.
But there was no fear prior tosin, only after.
And there's this working outof our salvation with what?
Fear and trembling.
(33:19):
The fear of the Lord is notjust isolated to the Old Testament,
but Jesus actually contrastsit in the New Testament when he says,
do not fear those who kill thebody but cannot kill the soul.
Rather, fear him who.
Who can destroy both soul andbody in hell.
(33:39):
But there are some of us,we've lacked that fear.
We've lost it.
We've lost the fear of Godbecause we are still sinning.
We are still doing the samething over and over and over again.
And there comes this lack of fear.
So what Paul is saying.
You know what thoseindividuals are, Timothy?
(34:00):
Those that lack the fear of God.
They hold to a form ofgodliness, but they deny the power
thereof.
Church, we are at war with our flesh.
You are at war with your flesh.
Don't concede to it.
The flesh is the enemy.
(34:22):
Don't concede to it.
And what sin wants to do, itwants an opportunity to not only
strike you, but sin wants anopportunity to strike your generations
as well.
It wants to go after your kids.
That's how serious we have toget back to the holiness of God and
(34:44):
the fear of God.
Sin you will not have my child.
Sin you will not have my son.
You will not have my generation.
I need some people to act likeyou're in war.
This is wartime here.
And sin will not seduce me.
I will not be seduced by sin.
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And it's a struggle.
I get it.
Church It's a struggle until glorification.
We're not there yet.
We're just.
We're in the middle of theorder of salvation.
In sanctification, we're inthe middle.
We're just trying tounderstand this walk.
But what we have done is wehave created our own classism or
(35:25):
classification of righteousness.
Well, this is what holinesslooks like.
Let me show you what holinesslooks like.
You got to wear this.
You got to dress a certainway, you got to talk a certain way,
you got to look a certain way.
Where did we get that theology from?
(35:45):
When Christ is just comingjust as you are, let him do the rest.
And what we have done is wehave become for other people these
self righteous puppeteers.
And we're dangling their livesover the flames of hell.
When we act self righteous,oh, you got to do it like this.
(36:07):
Because if you don't fire andbrimstone, sin will seduce you until
it owns you.
It wants to own every facet ofyour being.
It wants to own every part ofyour life.
It wants to control your finances.
(36:29):
That's why I love that for thelast two weeks we've been talking
about finances because that isa struggle for so many.
It's a mindset.
Something has to break becausethere's a sinful pattern that says,
I don't want to be in apoverty situation.
But you act like it becauseyou don't give to the local church.
You don't give to the house of God.
(36:49):
So in some ways you're stillacting poverish because it's a mindset.
If I give, I'm going to lose.
God's saying, no, if you give,you'll get.
More will be added unto you.
It's abundance is multiplication.
In First Corinthians 9.
(37:11):
It says every athleteexercises self control.
So I do not run aimlessly.
Some of us, we're just runningthis race blindfolded and we don't
know.
You ever been on the treadmill blindfolded?
We don't.
Right, try it next time.
Go ahead, do it.
(37:31):
Do it.
Try it.
Don't tell them that yourpastor said it, but just go do it.
Video record it for me andthen send it to me because it would
be hilarious.
But sometimes we do that withour walk with God when we don't have
the disciplines in our life.
When you don't have thedisciplines, guess what's happened?
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It's an aimless walk.
You know a Christian by howthey pray on their knees.
I want to see you.
I want to see that you'repraying on your knees.
You know someone that's intheir word because it just comes
out of them.
You know someone thatunderstands solitude and silence
because they've been in thepresence of God.
The disciplines are there sothat you do not walk aimless to keep
(38:18):
you on it.
And Paul says his I do not boxas one beating the air.
And verse 27.
But I discipline my body and Ikeep it under control.
It's time to keep it under control.
Saints, we've been out ofcontrol for too long, and the only
way to get back in control isto bring back the fear of God and
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to bring it back now.
I love the word disciplinethere because it actually has the
sense of giving somebody ablack eye.
Who here gave somebody a blackeye before?
Someone now, don't raise your hand.
You raise your hand.
Yeah, the hands are all raisedin Brooklyn right here.
But it has that sense ofgiving a black eye or to treat roughly.
(39:06):
And Paul is hard on his bodybecause he doesn't want to be enslaved
or dominated by the flesh.
Let me give you four wordsthat I want you to write down.
Stay disciplined, you stay dedicated.
You stay disciplined.
You stay dedicated.
You stay disciplined, you stay dedicated.
(39:28):
Obedience and disobedience.
They're opposed to one anotherand they want to fight for your soul.
Let's go back to legalism,because legalism is man's burden.
Discipline is God's calling.
When you have that legalisticmindset, you're saying, well, I want
(39:52):
to show you how I do it,because that's your burden to carry.
All you're doing is you'regiving somebody your burden.
But when you focus on thediscipline, it's like, no, the disciplines.
God has called me to live this life.
God has called me to praywithout ceasing.
God has called me to read my word.
(40:12):
God has called me to thedisciplines of my life.
And that's what spiritualdisciplines are.
They're a means of grace.
They are the practices thatactually position us to receive and
to respond to God's work inour lives.
Now, let me say this aboutdisciplines, because we got to get
(40:34):
the legalistic mindset out of us.
But they are not ways that weearn grace, but they are ways that
you and I engage with thegrace that God has freely given us.
Now, lastly, Paul states, thisis a trustworthy statement, that
(40:55):
godliness is of value in every way.
Here's number three.
Discipleship.
Discipleship, follow Jesus,verse 10.
For to this end we toil andstrive because we have our hope set
on the living God, who is theSavior of all people, especially
of those who believe.
(41:17):
Now let me say something about discipleship.
It requires more than usfollowing a whole bunch of practices,
but becoming the disciplinethrough incarnational discipleship.
Let me explain incarnational discipleship.
It's not just discipleship,because you could just have discipleship
at your home, but it doesn'tgo anywhere.
You could have discipleshipeven here at this church.
(41:40):
But if it's not incarnational,if it doesn't touch with people,
if it doesn't have sometangibles that are attached to it,
it's not just teaching aboutthe gospel, but is actively demonstrating
it through our lives and inour relationships.
Discipleship cannot happenwithout incarnation.
(42:04):
I want to be in closeproximity to your pain.
That's what we all should besaying with one another.
When you hurt, I hurt.
You know, even as a pastor,you know, we do pastoral care and
sometimes we just hear thesestories and we're like, man, I wish
they would have just told meabout it so I could just pray with
(42:25):
them.
They didn't give me anopportunity to put my finger on their
side and to feel like Thomasthe Doubter and say, no, no, I'm
real, I'm here, allow me tominister to you.
I want to stay in thatproximity because I want a thicker
(42:46):
sense of Jesus.
A thicker sense.
Don't give me the shallowsense of Jesus.
I want something heavy.
Give me the thicker sense ofJesus that embodies the gospel in
a way that I'm able to see,to, to and to experience Jesus.
People are craving that.
There was actually a Barnapoll that actually said 7 out of
(43:08):
10 Gen Z's who are practicingChristians say that they actually
prefer face to faceinteractions than digital ones.
We're getting to that point.
Church, even the Gen Z's wantto hang out.
Maybe not with the Gen Xers,but they still want to hang out.
And I'm okay with that.
(43:28):
Some Gen Xers are fun, butpeople need people.
That's what it means to be incarnational.
Because we gotta fight thisfight of faith together.
Church Discipleship withoutgrace is distorted.
Discipleship without the graceis distorted.
(43:51):
Because this is what happenswith the legalism.
It comes back into discipleship.
Sometimes legalism can makeits way back into discipleship and
then what ends up happening isit turns into a whole bunch of rigid
rules and regulations andobligations without any spirit filled
real relationships.
(44:11):
And without grace, this trueessence of discipleship becomes replaced
by this outward compliance andbehavior modification.
Oh, let me just, let meexplain that a little bit to you.
It's just, I'm just doingbreaker one just for the simple fact
(44:32):
of just doing it.
Because I like somebody in thechurch and I want to get close to
them.
Oh, I'm, I'm just doing ourbreaker one class because, you know,
I one day want to be, I wantto take over Pastor Eddie's job one
day.
I want to be the next pastor.
(44:53):
I want to be this, I want tobe that, or I'm going to look the
part.
So what I'm saying is there'sthis outward compliance that we just
are doing it not for the sakeof grace, not for the sake of incarnation.
We're doing it for the simplefact of just complying with the rules,
(45:15):
and we're just imitating.
You ever look at an ingredientgoing back to the diet, you ever
look at the ingredient and itsays artificial ingredients.
Y'all know what that means, right?
It's artificial.
It's not that hard.
They actually put it in therefor you, and it says it right there.
(45:36):
Artificial ingredients.
It's not real.
It looks like may taste likeit, but it's not it.
And a lot of us are livingartificial ingredient lives in our
discipleship that we look likeit, we taste like a Christian, I
look like it, but, oh, God, Iwant the real thing.
(45:57):
I want the real thing.
I want.
When people see me, they seethe realness.
The real vitamins come out,the real, real amino acids come out.
That's what real biblicaldiscipleship is about.
Now, Paul here is saying inthat last.
(46:21):
If you go back to firstTimothy, chapter four, he says, who
is the savior of all people,especially of those who believe,
especially of those.
I want you to underline that,highlight that, and then I want to
talk real quickly.
Matter of fact, you couldstand to your feet, and maybe those
that.
That are watching you couldcome up.
(46:42):
I know some of y'all aretaking some notes.
You can take notes standing.
That's okay.
But he says this.
There.
There's a confidence in yoursalvation that is for the possession
of the believer, a possessionfor you.
And it's those Christians whohave placed their hope in the living
(47:03):
God, and they.
Those Christians that pursuegodliness, you will not be disappointed.
Can I say that to you all?
You will never be disappointedwhen you follow and you pursue godliness.
It's not.
It's against his nature to do it.
Oh, but I'm struggling.
But why don't you?
In your struggle, maybethere's something God wants to reveal
(47:25):
to you.
And sometimes you have to lookat it like Job looked at it.
Now, sometimes having friendslike Job is a different story.
But that's a whole nother sermon.
Matthew 10:32 says this.
So everyone who acknowledgesme before man, I will also acknowledge
(47:47):
before my Father who is in heaven.
But whoever denies me beforeman, I will also deny before my Father,
who is heaven.
Now, don't just stop readingthere, but if you continue, it does
more than just denial.
But there's division as wellin verse 34.
Do you not think I come tobring peace on the earth?
(48:07):
Jesus said, I didn't come tobring peace.
I came to bring a sword.
The sword is the metaphoricalway of saying it signifies this kind
of separation between thosewho believe in Christ and those who
are on the fringe looking in.
And here today we've beenlooking in.
(48:30):
A godly life is shaped by whatyou feed it, how you shape it, and
who you walk with.
And it is through godlinessthat we will make the living God
more attractive to others.
I want you to see this imagehere that we have.
(48:56):
I took this image, I went awayfor my doctoral residency in South
Carolina.
And you know, there in theback of the seminary, there's a place
where they could do prayerwalks and stuff like that, which
I thought was really cool.
I was so nervous, I thought abear or something was going to come
(49:17):
out and just jump me, youknow, so.
But I look at this picture andI stopped here and I began to weep.
And I began to weep and weepand weep.
And I put myself right in themiddle, and I said, well, if I go
this way, the road is alreadypaved for me.
It already looks like, oh,this is a nice road to travel.
(49:40):
And there's light at the end,and I can see what's happening over.
But then I looked at theright, and then I said, why would
I ever want to go down this path?
There's no delineation betweenwhere you're going in life.
There's no view, and there'sjust trees that are covering.
(50:03):
There's a clear path, and Ihave to go through this, Lord.
I have to go through this.
But what some of us have doneis instead of choosing two paths,
we've created a middle onecalled compromise.
I'm not going to take either, God.
(50:24):
I'm going to make my own path,and I'm going to call it compromise.
And now Jesus warns us in theSermon on the Mount about these roads
here.
And he says this in Matthew,chapter 7.
Enter through the narrow gate.
For wide is the gate and broadis the road that leads to destruction,
(50:47):
and many entered through it.
But small is the gate andnarrow the road that leads to life,
and only few find it.
Can you put that picture back up?
When I look at this, I seesome narrow gate, women.
Amen.
But when I see this, I seesome narrow gate men as well.
(51:11):
They're about to Rise up andsay, I'm going to do the hard things.
I'm going to do the hardthings even when society says to
me, oh, you got to do it likethis, man.
And there's toxic masculinity.
No, I want to be a narrow gateman that actually says no, I'm going
to be different from the restof the world.
I'm not just going to be ababy daddy.
(51:32):
I'm going to care for somethings and love on some children
and build a legacy for a lifetime.
Come on.
Narrow gate men, narrow gate women.
There's only few that willfind it.
And maybe you're here todayand maybe you're watching and you
say, well, I thought I was aChristian until after this sermon.
(51:55):
And you know what?
I rather you say that.
I rather you say that thanleave here the same.
The wide gate is self centered.
The narrow gate is God centered.
The wide gate wants the crowdsand the applause of people.
(52:20):
The narrow gate just desires commitment.
The wide gate is concernedwith the comfort of this world.
The narrow gate is notconcerned with the comfort, but just
looks to the cross.
The wide gate is temporary.
The narrow gate is eternal.
(52:40):
The wide gate wants theworld's approval.
The narrow gate, all that theperson wants to hear is, well done,
good and faithful servant.
The wide gate goes after theease of religion.
The narrow gate craves true discipleship.
(53:05):
I want you to pray with mehere today and do an altar call in
your heart right now.
Because this is a moment Ibelieve and maybe for those that
are watching right now thatyou said, I want to walk, I've been
walking a compromised life.
I want to go in the narrow way.
(53:28):
I don't know.
I thought I knew what itlooked like.
I thought I understood good doctrine.
I didn't have a proper diet.
I wasn't disciplined enough.
I wasn't discipled enough.
Well, now is your time to say,God, I'm getting back on the narrow
road.
Because in Revelation, whenyou're lukewarm, there's a price
(53:51):
to that consequence of sin.
Let's pray.
Lord, I pray God that theholiness of God makes us whole.
(54:18):
The holiness of who you are.
Lord, we haven't been trainingthe way that you have given us the
plan for.
You haven't.
You've given us a blueprintright here in your word.
And we have compromised it.
And we have not looked at itthe way.
The way with spiritual eyes.
(54:38):
God, we have not seen it, butwe have been inclined to do it our
own way and put thepreferences before the person of
Jesus.
But here today, God, we wantto stand in your presence, show us
your glory.
Same way Moses wanted to.
Just see.
(54:59):
Just show me the back part ofwho you are.
Oh God, that's all my heart's desire.
Better is one day in yourcourts than a thousand elsewhere.
God, I will do this everysecond, every minute of every day.
Oh God, if it just says I justget a glimpse of who you are, the
(55:22):
glorification that is to come.
But God, if I have constructeda middle road of some sorts, whether
I call it whatever sin orwhatever pleasure, Heavenly Father,
I just pray right now that weleave here repented and changed.
(55:42):
Where grace, where sinabounds, grace abounds so much more.
So, God, I pray for each andevery one that is here and watching
online that this day, Lord, webring holiness back to where it should
(56:02):
be.
We don't compromise it.
We don't make it artificial.
We make it real, incarnational.
So that when people see us,they see and they see Christ in us,
the hope of glory.
So thank you, Lord, for whatyou're about to do.
(56:24):
Come on.
Every hand just lifted right now.
I want you to just maybe takethis moment.
Just take a few moments.
I even believe this is a holymoment for some of you and just start
to just cry out to God.
Just take some time.
Right now, I want to take afew moments to just get this right.
This is not just me justgiving you another sermon so that
(56:45):
you could just take home andlisten to later.
This has to be life to you.
So come on, lift up your hand.
Say God.
Greater is he that is in methan him of the world, Lord.
Come on, let's just praise himright now.
Just give him some praise.
Just acknowledge his presencein your life.
Say, God, I want more of you.
I want more of you.
(57:06):
I want more of you, Lord.
More of you.
Lord, forgive me, o wretchedman that I am.
Deal with my sin, oh God.
Deal with my complacency, oh God.
Deal with the sinful clutterthat is in my soul, oh God, I've
(57:31):
cluttered it, God, I filled itand it's overflowing now with goodness.
And mercy is flowing with sin.
It's flowing with hate.
It's flowing with pain, ohGod, I'm in pain.
But there is purpose in my pain.
There's purpose in my pain.
God, God, you have not givenus that which we are not able to
(57:58):
bear, but you provide a way of escape.
But Lord, if we've beenescaping into the world's arms, forgive
us if we've been escaping intothe narrative that we have to be
a morally good person.
Forgive us if we havecompromised the way we do discipleship
(58:19):
and discipline and diet.
Forgive us, God.
Today we want to train forgodliness because as a good soldier,
we don't entangle ourselveswith the affairs of this world.
But we are going to fight thisfight of faith to the very end.
(58:39):
Lord.
No Christian left behind.
No true believer left behind.
So, Father, thank you that youare all powerful for such a time
as this.
(59:00):
In Jesus name we pray.
Come on.
Amen and amen.
Come on.
Put your hands together.
Come on.
Just praise the Lord what you are.
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