May 3, 2025 • 26 mins
Welcome to Moody Presents with Mark Jobe … president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Today in part 2 of a message called “Habits to Keep You Spiritually Healthy” , Mark’s going to address how to help you create and cultivate an atmosphere of thanksgiving. This message comes from our Defiance series … and if you’ve missed any of the previous messages in this series, you can catch up online when you go to … Moody Presents DOT o-r-g! Now, let’s turn our attention to today’s message …
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S1 (00:00):
How to create and cultivate an atmosphere of thanksgiving and joy.
That's next on Moody Presents with Mark Jobe.
S2 (00:08):
Let's be ready for the coming of Jesus. Let's clean
our slates. Let's have those conversations. Let's ask for forgiveness.
So if they don't forgive you, that's alright. You've asked
and you've cleaned your heart. They may want to hold
on to the grudge and you have no power over that.
But you release the grudge in your heart.
S1 (00:27):
Welcome to Moody Presents with doctor Mark Jobe. Mark is
president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New
Life Community Church in Chicago. Hey, how exactly do you
create and cultivate an atmosphere of Thanksgiving? What do you
say we spend some time finding practical answers? In part
two of a message, Pastor Marcus called habits to Keep
(00:49):
You Spiritually Healthy. We're about to open the Word of
God for answers to this challenge. Our message comes from
our Defiance Series, and if you've missed any of the
previous messages in the series, you can catch up anytime
online when you head to Moody Presents Dot. Moody presents dot.
Now let's turn our attention to today's message on Moody Presents.
S2 (01:11):
So pray for the pastors. Pray for spiritual leaders because
I believe that they get hit sometimes at the front
more than anybody else gets hit. And it says Hebrews
13 says, obey them so their work will be a joy,
not a burden for that, for that would be no
(01:31):
advantage to you. And here's what I always say. The
Bible never calls for blind obedience to leaders. Never. And
the church should never feel like some sort of sanctified
little dictatorship. It should never work that way. If the
church is just like a husband, you may be called
to lead your household. But if you're leading your household right,
(01:52):
you're not thumping your chest, calling yourself the head, and
barking out orders for everybody to submit. That's a household
out of control. If you have to as the as
the leader of the household, if you have to bang
your chest and say, I'm the head, I'm the head,
I'm the head. Everybody submit. Then there's something wrong there already.
(02:13):
Good leaders are servant leaders. They don't have to thump
their chest and say obey, but they lead with integrity
and love. So you want to follow them because you say,
I know they love me, and I know that they
want the best for me. And so I want to
follow after this man's leader. Every wife wants a man
like that. Amen. Wives. Amen. Amen. And spiritual leadership is
(02:39):
the same. And I always tell people. Listen, if you
lose confidence in the in the leadership of the church
that you're at and you can't follow and believe that
there's integrity there, and you drag your feet and want
to oppose everything that's there, and you say, I can't
trust them, then it's time for you to leave that church.
Because if there's no belief in Belief and integrity. What
(03:01):
you don't want is people to have to drag you
all that. No one wants to have to drag people
behind them all the time. And so Paul's talking to
this congregation about being ready for the coming of Christ,
and he's talking to them about the relationship with the
leaders that they have and their spiritual covering. And then
he goes on and the second thing that he tells
(03:22):
them is this live ready? So make peace with one another.
Verse 13, live in peace with one another. How many
of you know to live in peace is sometimes hard,
because people around you have their war paint on. You
show up at work and there's some people that just
want to fight you. There's people in your household. Sometimes
they just want to fight you. But but Jesus, through
(03:47):
Paul and the Holy Spirit says, live at peace with
one another. Romans 1419 says, says, let us therefore make
every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual Edification.
You can't control people's attitudes towards you, but you can
make right whatever you need to make right towards them.
(04:10):
You can't make them try to love you, but you
can sure clean out your heart towards any bitterness, resentment,
or anger you have towards them. You cannot control other people,
but you can control your response that you have towards
other people. And what it tells us is live at
peace with people. Do everything in your power to make peace.
(04:31):
And that's why Romans 14 says, let us therefore make
every effort to do what leads to peace. What leads
to peace. Honest conversations. What leads to peace? Hey, I'm
sorry if I've offended you or hurt you. Can we
talk about it? What leads to peace? Let me show
grace to them. Even though they're not showing grace back.
What leads to peace? Hey, can we just sit down
(04:53):
and chat? Maybe we got off to a wrong start.
What leads to peace? Hey, let me speak favorably towards you.
The Bible says that when you do good to those
that are against you, you heap ashes on their head.
Have you ever done that? Done something good for someone
that's really out to get you? And they're like, well,
what do you want? What's the trick? What are you
(05:14):
luring me into? There's something about being gracious to people
that aren't gracious to you. It's the attitude of Jesus.
And listen, there may be some people in this congregation,
even here today that you say, I don't like that person.
So that's why I sit on that side over there,
because they sit on that side and I know where
they sit. And I'm going to tell you something about that. Listen,
(05:36):
I'm not afraid of conflicts in relationships because every relationship,
close relationship that I know will have conflict. I'm not
afraid that you have conflict in your marriage if you're
married and you have if you're dating and you haven't
had a conflict yet, well, just get ready because it's
going to come. You're not really close enough to people
(05:59):
yet if you haven't had some disagreement, because the closer
you get to people, you'll have some disagreement. So I'm
not afraid of conflict. It's the resolution of the conflict
that becomes the issue, not the conflict itself. Christians need
to be great at resolving conflicts. Why? Because Jesus has
called us to peace as much as possible. So we
(06:22):
need to be the most honest people around, the people
that talk about things, the people that deal with things,
the people that ask for forgiveness, the people that if
there's issues bottling up, we don't hold them. We're willing
to do what we can to make sure that we
have peace. Why? Because Paul says, when Jesus comes again,
do you want to say, God? I wish you would
(06:43):
wait a few minutes because I have about 20 people
that I have issues with, and I haven't talked to
them about it. You know how many funerals I've done
where people have gone up to bodies crying, weeping, broken
because they died and they were relatives, but they had
(07:07):
unsettled issues. And there's something deeply perturbing about conversations you
should have had, but you never did. There's something very
distressful about knowing that. You should have said, I'm sorry
and made things right, but you never did. And I
(07:27):
want to say, you may not have tomorrow to do it,
so let's do it quick. Let's be ready for the
coming of Jesus. Let's clean our slates. Let's have those conversations.
Let's ask for forgiveness. So if they don't forgive you,
that's alright. You've asked and you've cleaned your heart. They
may want to hold on to the grudge and you
have no power over that. But you release the grudge
in your heart. Hebrews 1214 says, pursue peace with all
(07:57):
people and holiness, Us, without which no one shall see
the Lord. Romans 1218 says, if it is possible as
much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
If it's possible, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. So therefore,
where Jesus is, the attitude of peace should prevail. And
(08:23):
then he goes on. And lastly, live. Ready? So challenge
one another to be prepared. Now he talks about our
relationship to those people that are struggling. Listen, there'll be
at least about 1500 people that will walk through these
doors this morning in one of our services. And I
(08:43):
can guarantee you, out of those 1500 people that come
through these doors, that there's probably a couple hundred that
are pretty seriously discouraged about something in life their marriage,
their kids, their spiritual walk, some temptation. I mean, there's
always something around us. And you don't know who walks
in these doors. That is on the brink. Of suicide.
(09:08):
Of a breakdown. Walking through these doors. Having just maybe
lost a loved one. Heard really bad news. Been fighting
with an issue in their life that they hope is
going to turn around and they're just walking in these doors.
You don't know how many people may be struggling. And
(09:31):
that's why part of the atmosphere, culture, the people of
God needs to be a culture of hope and encouragement.
And so Paul says in verse 14 through 15. Notice
what he says. He says, we urge you, brethren, to
admonish the unruly. The word admonish is the idea of exhorting.
(09:58):
It's a it's a warm exhortation. It's the unruly means.
People whose lives are out of order. Notice it doesn't
say chastise them. It says admonish the unruly. It's the
kind of the arm around the shoulder. Hey, bro, what's
(10:19):
going on with your life, man? Have you ever been
admonished by someone that loves you? And none of us
like to have things told to us that are hard,
but has. Has someone ever admonished you that you respected
and that did it in love? And you don't like
to hear it, but you know it's right? How many
(10:39):
of you know what I'm talking about? I mean, I've
had people that I knew loved me and put their
arm around me and said, hey, what about this? And
I think we need to be that kind of people.
We need to be the kind of people that put
our arm around people and say, hey, you know, I
just want to talk to you about this. I've noticed that,
(11:00):
you know, I see you kind of slipping in this area,
and I'm just kind of wondering, do you need help?
I need to pray for you. Hey, man, how you doing?
Because I ran into some old friends and they said,
you know, they were like you were back at the
old bar, like one of the boys. I thought you
(11:21):
left that behind. I thought, man, I thought the drunken,
carousing ways of the past, they were gone. That's not
who you are. You're becoming a man of God. Rise up.
There needs to be arms. Put around some men that says, hey, man, I.
(11:44):
I didn't want to say anything, but I. I heard
how you were talking to your wife, bro. You may
have difficulties, but, man, she's the woman that God has
given to you. Clean it up. You need to talk
to her as the queen of the house. Not the
(12:06):
she devil. I mean, we need exhortation, that warm encouragement,
but the truth. Ephesians says, speak the truth in love. Man,
we need truth. We don't need it whitewashed. We need
the truth, but we need it in love. The truth
(12:29):
needs to be presented with the strong bridge of love.
And the stronger the love, the greater the tank that
can cover that bridge. The artillery. We all need people
in our life that are not going to whitewash the message.
They're going to speak to us straight, but they're going
to do it in love. And when we know they
love us, it has a powerful effect on our life.
(12:51):
As a pastor, I've had to do a lot of
rebuking over the years. I've had to be the one
sometimes that goes in. And I've had people get mad
at me. I have people. But I've never regretted speaking
the truth. If I speak it in love. And I've
(13:12):
had people get mad at me and storm out and
then come back and say thank you, pastor, because no
one else was willing to tell me. I used to
avoid confrontation because no one likes to confront unless you
have issues, and there's therapy classes for that. But most
of us don't like to confront. But I believe there's
a place for godly, healthy, good confrontation in the body
(13:34):
of Christ where we challenge people to move forward in
a good way, in their walk with God.
S1 (13:42):
You're listening to Moody Presents with pastor Mark Jobe. Today's
message is titled Habits that Keep You Spiritually Healthy. And
if you've been encouraged by Mark's teaching, let me suggest
you go online and learn more about this ministry. Or
you could even share this message with a friend who
might like to hear it. You'll find us online at
Moody Presents. Moody presents.org. Hey, there's more to explore in
(14:05):
our study about cultivating an attitude of thanksgiving and joy.
What do you say we jump back into the second
half of today's message with Mark Jobe?
S2 (14:18):
So, he says, admonish the unruly, unruly people whose life
somewhere is out of control. It's the idea of soldiers
that literally, the word used here is of soldiers who
are not remaining in the ranks. The Roman army used
to used to march forward together like this in ranks.
And if people got discouraged or afraid, they would drop out.
(14:41):
And basically he's saying, hey, keep in rank, stay in
the place where God wants you to be. Hey, keep
loving your husband, even though it may be hard. Hey,
keeping the word even though it may be difficult. Keep
obeying even though you're struggling. Stay in the rank. Don't
get out of order. Secondly, he says, not only does
(15:03):
he say admonish the unruly, he says, see to it
that no one repays evil for evil. Admonish the unruly.
See to it that no one pays evil for evil,
but always seek after that which is good for one
(15:24):
another and for all people. Make sure that you don't
create a culture of vengeance or eye for eye and
a tooth for tooth. Let me tell you, I want
you to look up at me. This is really important,
and you may not think that you live in that world,
but I see a lot of people that live in
that world. I've done way too many funerals of. Teenagers
(15:49):
and young 20 year olds. Who have died in gang violence.
And I look out in the crowd and when I can,
I like to do those. Let me tell you why
I like to do those funerals. They're heart wrenching because
it's just it's just ah, man, I know some of
(16:10):
the parents I've known some of the kids. I mean,
I've known some of the kids when they were young.
And to see them end up with some bullet in
their head or drive by shooting to end their life
just makes my stomach turn. But I'll do the funeral
because I know that a whole bunch of other people
show up with vengeance in their eyes. And they have
(16:34):
one thing in their mind I'm going to make someone
pay for the death of this one. And funerals are
characterized by that where people go out and they try
at one funeral leads to another funeral and to another funeral.
And we've had funerals here in this place, and sometimes
we've had to ask police to show up and come.
And you say, why do we do what? We do
it because we want to try to offset violence as
(16:56):
much as possible. But if I have a chance to speak,
I'll let him know, man. This death will lead to
another death unless someone stops the cycle here. And there is.
When you get in a conflict with an individual, you
want that person to pay. And it's not always just
(17:18):
about bullets and gang violence. Sometimes it's just about your
spouse that you feel has hurt you. And so you
shut off emotionally and you've had that. You've had your
husband for months away from you emotionally because you feel
he's gotta pay and he needs to feel the pain.
And so you withdraw from him and you're making him
pay the price of not really dealing with those things.
(17:42):
And the Bible says, listen, do not repay evil for evil,
but always seek that which is good for one another.
And then he goes on and listen to what he says.
He closes up this passage and he says, he reminds
us that we are not to keep a a record
(18:04):
of evil. He says, urge the brethren, admonish the unruly,
encourage the fainthearted. You know what a faint hearted person is?
Someone who their energy has gone away and they're giving up.
Help the weak. Helping the weak means that you. There's
(18:26):
someone around you always that is weaker than you. Oh,
you may feel like you're weak, but I'm going to
tell you there's always someone that's a little weaker than
you are. How about it? And you need to come
in this church. Sometimes you may have problems, but I'm
going to tell you there's someone's problems. Is bigger than
yours or more recent than yours. And I think if
you wallow in self-pity, then you go further down into
(18:47):
the hole of self-pity. Some of us need to be
asking ourselves in the middle of our issues, is there
someone that I can help? Because there's something that happens
in the middle of your difficulty when you realize, I
have something to give that empowers you to start getting
out of your hole. So, he says, we admonish the unruly,
encourage the faint hearted, help the weak. Be patient. With who? Everyone.
(19:13):
Patient means that we give them room. Listen to me. Well,
if you come here and you come straight out of
the world and your life is a mess, we want
to be patient with you. We really do. But I
expect progress. Hello. Let me say that again. I'm most
(19:36):
patient with you when you're straight out of don't know Jesus,
the Bible, God. And you come with all of your messes.
But as you start to grow, I expect you to change. Hey,
you come here with all your messes. And that's okay, man.
No one's going to kick you out of this church
for your messes, and no one's going to shoo you
(19:59):
at the doorway for not having your life in order? Man,
you come the way you are with your baggage, your
garbage and anything that you come with and listen. We're
going to try to love you, hug you, bless you,
encourage you as much as we can. But as you
start to grow, I want to see progress. Amen. And hey,
(20:24):
we have so many couples that come here that are
living together. They've been shacked up together for 6 or
7 years. And they come and they they start hearing
the word and and then they come to Christ and
we love them and hug them and bless on them.
After they come to Jesus, hopefully someone's going to put
their arm around you and say, so how about it, man?
You still live with that girl. You going to marry
(20:46):
her or what? Oh no. No, I don't think I'm
ready for that. Then I think you need to move out, bro. Hey,
we're not being mean. I just. If you know Jesus,
I want you to grow. And the more you're around,
(21:07):
the higher expectation that we have. Oh, we'll give you room.
We want to be patient. But the more you're around,
the more expectation I have you to grow. I wouldn't
be a good pastor and this wouldn't be a good
church if there's not people getting in your face a
little bit and challenging you to go to the next level.
I'm okay that you're in kindergarten spiritually. But you know what?
When kindergarten is over, I want you to go to
(21:29):
first grade and it's not okay that you repeat kindergarten
for five years. No, it's not okay. I want you
to go beyond that. I want you to grow. I mean,
we're patient. So the newer people are, the younger they are,
the more patient we need to be. But the longer
you're in God, the higher expectation we have of your life.
Because you know more, you have more power and you
(21:53):
should be growing. And that's the atmosphere that we want
to have huge patience for people. But expectation that as
they grow in God, they go to the next level
in God. Amen.
S1 (22:12):
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Mark Jobe. You can find us right here on your
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(22:36):
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(22:57):
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(23:18):
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(24:20):
Just go to Moody presents.org or call us at 804 07022.
Right now we're glad to sit down for a moment
with our teacher, pastor Mark Jobe. Good to have you
with us, Mark. And you say that the four habits
that will keep us spiritually healthy include rejoicing, always praying
without ceasing, giving thanks, and most importantly, not quenching the spirit.
(24:44):
And as we spend the next few weeks wrapping up
this defiant series, what then should we be expecting? Mark.
S3 (24:49):
Yeah, this is a powerful, powerful passage in First Thessalonians
chapter five because it talks about God sanctifying our whole person. Right, right.
Sometimes we think about our spirit, but we can't quite
define it. But in this passage, it tells us we're body,
soul and spirit. And I believe that God cares about
(25:10):
the trichotomy of who we are as he works in
our lives.
S1 (25:14):
Thank you, pastor Mark. Appreciate you stopping by and appreciate
that preview as well. Next week, as Mark just mentioned,
we're going to be looking at a whole body approach
to our faith. You don't want to miss that message.
I'm John Geiger inviting you to join us again next
week for Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. Moody presents is
a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
How to create and cultivate an atmosphere of thanksgiving and joy.
That's next on Moody Presents with Mark Jobe.
S2 (00:08):
Let's be ready for the coming of Jesus. Let's clean
our slates. Let's have those conversations. Let's ask for forgiveness.
So if they don't forgive you, that's alright. You've asked
and you've cleaned your heart. They may want to hold
on to the grudge and you have no power over that.
But you release the grudge in your heart.
S1 (00:27):
Welcome to Moody Presents with doctor Mark Jobe. Mark is
president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New
Life Community Church in Chicago. Hey, how exactly do you
create and cultivate an atmosphere of Thanksgiving? What do you
say we spend some time finding practical answers? In part
two of a message, Pastor Marcus called habits to Keep
(00:49):
You Spiritually Healthy. We're about to open the Word of
God for answers to this challenge. Our message comes from
our Defiance Series, and if you've missed any of the
previous messages in the series, you can catch up anytime
online when you head to Moody Presents Dot. Moody presents dot.
Now let's turn our attention to today's message on Moody Presents.
S2 (01:11):
So pray for the pastors. Pray for spiritual leaders because
I believe that they get hit sometimes at the front
more than anybody else gets hit. And it says Hebrews
13 says, obey them so their work will be a joy,
not a burden for that, for that would be no
(01:31):
advantage to you. And here's what I always say. The
Bible never calls for blind obedience to leaders. Never. And
the church should never feel like some sort of sanctified
little dictatorship. It should never work that way. If the
church is just like a husband, you may be called
to lead your household. But if you're leading your household right,
(01:52):
you're not thumping your chest, calling yourself the head, and
barking out orders for everybody to submit. That's a household
out of control. If you have to as the as
the leader of the household, if you have to bang
your chest and say, I'm the head, I'm the head,
I'm the head. Everybody submit. Then there's something wrong there already.
(02:13):
Good leaders are servant leaders. They don't have to thump
their chest and say obey, but they lead with integrity
and love. So you want to follow them because you say,
I know they love me, and I know that they
want the best for me. And so I want to
follow after this man's leader. Every wife wants a man
like that. Amen. Wives. Amen. Amen. And spiritual leadership is
(02:39):
the same. And I always tell people. Listen, if you
lose confidence in the in the leadership of the church
that you're at and you can't follow and believe that
there's integrity there, and you drag your feet and want
to oppose everything that's there, and you say, I can't
trust them, then it's time for you to leave that church.
Because if there's no belief in Belief and integrity. What
(03:01):
you don't want is people to have to drag you
all that. No one wants to have to drag people
behind them all the time. And so Paul's talking to
this congregation about being ready for the coming of Christ,
and he's talking to them about the relationship with the
leaders that they have and their spiritual covering. And then
he goes on and the second thing that he tells
(03:22):
them is this live ready? So make peace with one another.
Verse 13, live in peace with one another. How many
of you know to live in peace is sometimes hard,
because people around you have their war paint on. You
show up at work and there's some people that just
want to fight you. There's people in your household. Sometimes
they just want to fight you. But but Jesus, through
(03:47):
Paul and the Holy Spirit says, live at peace with
one another. Romans 1419 says, says, let us therefore make
every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual Edification.
You can't control people's attitudes towards you, but you can
make right whatever you need to make right towards them.
(04:10):
You can't make them try to love you, but you
can sure clean out your heart towards any bitterness, resentment,
or anger you have towards them. You cannot control other people,
but you can control your response that you have towards
other people. And what it tells us is live at
peace with people. Do everything in your power to make peace.
(04:31):
And that's why Romans 14 says, let us therefore make
every effort to do what leads to peace. What leads
to peace. Honest conversations. What leads to peace? Hey, I'm
sorry if I've offended you or hurt you. Can we
talk about it? What leads to peace? Let me show
grace to them. Even though they're not showing grace back.
What leads to peace? Hey, can we just sit down
(04:53):
and chat? Maybe we got off to a wrong start.
What leads to peace? Hey, let me speak favorably towards you.
The Bible says that when you do good to those
that are against you, you heap ashes on their head.
Have you ever done that? Done something good for someone
that's really out to get you? And they're like, well,
what do you want? What's the trick? What are you
(05:14):
luring me into? There's something about being gracious to people
that aren't gracious to you. It's the attitude of Jesus.
And listen, there may be some people in this congregation,
even here today that you say, I don't like that person.
So that's why I sit on that side over there,
because they sit on that side and I know where
they sit. And I'm going to tell you something about that. Listen,
(05:36):
I'm not afraid of conflicts in relationships because every relationship,
close relationship that I know will have conflict. I'm not
afraid that you have conflict in your marriage if you're
married and you have if you're dating and you haven't
had a conflict yet, well, just get ready because it's
going to come. You're not really close enough to people
(05:59):
yet if you haven't had some disagreement, because the closer
you get to people, you'll have some disagreement. So I'm
not afraid of conflict. It's the resolution of the conflict
that becomes the issue, not the conflict itself. Christians need
to be great at resolving conflicts. Why? Because Jesus has
called us to peace as much as possible. So we
(06:22):
need to be the most honest people around, the people
that talk about things, the people that deal with things,
the people that ask for forgiveness, the people that if
there's issues bottling up, we don't hold them. We're willing
to do what we can to make sure that we
have peace. Why? Because Paul says, when Jesus comes again,
do you want to say, God? I wish you would
(06:43):
wait a few minutes because I have about 20 people
that I have issues with, and I haven't talked to
them about it. You know how many funerals I've done
where people have gone up to bodies crying, weeping, broken
because they died and they were relatives, but they had
(07:07):
unsettled issues. And there's something deeply perturbing about conversations you
should have had, but you never did. There's something very
distressful about knowing that. You should have said, I'm sorry
and made things right, but you never did. And I
(07:27):
want to say, you may not have tomorrow to do it,
so let's do it quick. Let's be ready for the
coming of Jesus. Let's clean our slates. Let's have those conversations.
Let's ask for forgiveness. So if they don't forgive you,
that's alright. You've asked and you've cleaned your heart. They
may want to hold on to the grudge and you
have no power over that. But you release the grudge
in your heart. Hebrews 1214 says, pursue peace with all
(07:57):
people and holiness, Us, without which no one shall see
the Lord. Romans 1218 says, if it is possible as
much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
If it's possible, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. So therefore,
where Jesus is, the attitude of peace should prevail. And
(08:23):
then he goes on. And lastly, live. Ready? So challenge
one another to be prepared. Now he talks about our
relationship to those people that are struggling. Listen, there'll be
at least about 1500 people that will walk through these
doors this morning in one of our services. And I
(08:43):
can guarantee you, out of those 1500 people that come
through these doors, that there's probably a couple hundred that
are pretty seriously discouraged about something in life their marriage,
their kids, their spiritual walk, some temptation. I mean, there's
always something around us. And you don't know who walks
in these doors. That is on the brink. Of suicide.
(09:08):
Of a breakdown. Walking through these doors. Having just maybe
lost a loved one. Heard really bad news. Been fighting
with an issue in their life that they hope is
going to turn around and they're just walking in these doors.
You don't know how many people may be struggling. And
(09:31):
that's why part of the atmosphere, culture, the people of
God needs to be a culture of hope and encouragement.
And so Paul says in verse 14 through 15. Notice
what he says. He says, we urge you, brethren, to
admonish the unruly. The word admonish is the idea of exhorting.
(09:58):
It's a it's a warm exhortation. It's the unruly means.
People whose lives are out of order. Notice it doesn't
say chastise them. It says admonish the unruly. It's the
kind of the arm around the shoulder. Hey, bro, what's
(10:19):
going on with your life, man? Have you ever been
admonished by someone that loves you? And none of us
like to have things told to us that are hard,
but has. Has someone ever admonished you that you respected
and that did it in love? And you don't like
to hear it, but you know it's right? How many
(10:39):
of you know what I'm talking about? I mean, I've
had people that I knew loved me and put their
arm around me and said, hey, what about this? And
I think we need to be that kind of people.
We need to be the kind of people that put
our arm around people and say, hey, you know, I
just want to talk to you about this. I've noticed that,
(11:00):
you know, I see you kind of slipping in this area,
and I'm just kind of wondering, do you need help?
I need to pray for you. Hey, man, how you doing?
Because I ran into some old friends and they said,
you know, they were like you were back at the
old bar, like one of the boys. I thought you
(11:21):
left that behind. I thought, man, I thought the drunken,
carousing ways of the past, they were gone. That's not
who you are. You're becoming a man of God. Rise up.
There needs to be arms. Put around some men that says, hey, man, I.
(11:44):
I didn't want to say anything, but I. I heard
how you were talking to your wife, bro. You may
have difficulties, but, man, she's the woman that God has
given to you. Clean it up. You need to talk
to her as the queen of the house. Not the
(12:06):
she devil. I mean, we need exhortation, that warm encouragement,
but the truth. Ephesians says, speak the truth in love. Man,
we need truth. We don't need it whitewashed. We need
the truth, but we need it in love. The truth
(12:29):
needs to be presented with the strong bridge of love.
And the stronger the love, the greater the tank that
can cover that bridge. The artillery. We all need people
in our life that are not going to whitewash the message.
They're going to speak to us straight, but they're going
to do it in love. And when we know they
love us, it has a powerful effect on our life.
(12:51):
As a pastor, I've had to do a lot of
rebuking over the years. I've had to be the one
sometimes that goes in. And I've had people get mad
at me. I have people. But I've never regretted speaking
the truth. If I speak it in love. And I've
(13:12):
had people get mad at me and storm out and
then come back and say thank you, pastor, because no
one else was willing to tell me. I used to
avoid confrontation because no one likes to confront unless you
have issues, and there's therapy classes for that. But most
of us don't like to confront. But I believe there's
a place for godly, healthy, good confrontation in the body
(13:34):
of Christ where we challenge people to move forward in
a good way, in their walk with God.
S1 (13:42):
You're listening to Moody Presents with pastor Mark Jobe. Today's
message is titled Habits that Keep You Spiritually Healthy. And
if you've been encouraged by Mark's teaching, let me suggest
you go online and learn more about this ministry. Or
you could even share this message with a friend who
might like to hear it. You'll find us online at
Moody Presents. Moody presents.org. Hey, there's more to explore in
(14:05):
our study about cultivating an attitude of thanksgiving and joy.
What do you say we jump back into the second
half of today's message with Mark Jobe?
S2 (14:18):
So, he says, admonish the unruly, unruly people whose life
somewhere is out of control. It's the idea of soldiers
that literally, the word used here is of soldiers who
are not remaining in the ranks. The Roman army used
to used to march forward together like this in ranks.
And if people got discouraged or afraid, they would drop out.
(14:41):
And basically he's saying, hey, keep in rank, stay in
the place where God wants you to be. Hey, keep
loving your husband, even though it may be hard. Hey,
keeping the word even though it may be difficult. Keep
obeying even though you're struggling. Stay in the rank. Don't
get out of order. Secondly, he says, not only does
(15:03):
he say admonish the unruly, he says, see to it
that no one repays evil for evil. Admonish the unruly.
See to it that no one pays evil for evil,
but always seek after that which is good for one
(15:24):
another and for all people. Make sure that you don't
create a culture of vengeance or eye for eye and
a tooth for tooth. Let me tell you, I want
you to look up at me. This is really important,
and you may not think that you live in that world,
but I see a lot of people that live in
that world. I've done way too many funerals of. Teenagers
(15:49):
and young 20 year olds. Who have died in gang violence.
And I look out in the crowd and when I can,
I like to do those. Let me tell you why
I like to do those funerals. They're heart wrenching because
it's just it's just ah, man, I know some of
(16:10):
the parents I've known some of the kids. I mean,
I've known some of the kids when they were young.
And to see them end up with some bullet in
their head or drive by shooting to end their life
just makes my stomach turn. But I'll do the funeral
because I know that a whole bunch of other people
show up with vengeance in their eyes. And they have
(16:34):
one thing in their mind I'm going to make someone
pay for the death of this one. And funerals are
characterized by that where people go out and they try
at one funeral leads to another funeral and to another funeral.
And we've had funerals here in this place, and sometimes
we've had to ask police to show up and come.
And you say, why do we do what? We do
it because we want to try to offset violence as
(16:56):
much as possible. But if I have a chance to speak,
I'll let him know, man. This death will lead to
another death unless someone stops the cycle here. And there is.
When you get in a conflict with an individual, you
want that person to pay. And it's not always just
(17:18):
about bullets and gang violence. Sometimes it's just about your
spouse that you feel has hurt you. And so you
shut off emotionally and you've had that. You've had your
husband for months away from you emotionally because you feel
he's gotta pay and he needs to feel the pain.
And so you withdraw from him and you're making him
pay the price of not really dealing with those things.
(17:42):
And the Bible says, listen, do not repay evil for evil,
but always seek that which is good for one another.
And then he goes on and listen to what he says.
He closes up this passage and he says, he reminds
us that we are not to keep a a record
(18:04):
of evil. He says, urge the brethren, admonish the unruly,
encourage the fainthearted. You know what a faint hearted person is?
Someone who their energy has gone away and they're giving up.
Help the weak. Helping the weak means that you. There's
(18:26):
someone around you always that is weaker than you. Oh,
you may feel like you're weak, but I'm going to
tell you there's always someone that's a little weaker than
you are. How about it? And you need to come
in this church. Sometimes you may have problems, but I'm
going to tell you there's someone's problems. Is bigger than
yours or more recent than yours. And I think if
you wallow in self-pity, then you go further down into
(18:47):
the hole of self-pity. Some of us need to be
asking ourselves in the middle of our issues, is there
someone that I can help? Because there's something that happens
in the middle of your difficulty when you realize, I
have something to give that empowers you to start getting
out of your hole. So, he says, we admonish the unruly,
encourage the faint hearted, help the weak. Be patient. With who? Everyone.
(19:13):
Patient means that we give them room. Listen to me. Well,
if you come here and you come straight out of
the world and your life is a mess, we want
to be patient with you. We really do. But I
expect progress. Hello. Let me say that again. I'm most
(19:36):
patient with you when you're straight out of don't know Jesus,
the Bible, God. And you come with all of your messes.
But as you start to grow, I expect you to change. Hey,
you come here with all your messes. And that's okay, man.
No one's going to kick you out of this church
for your messes, and no one's going to shoo you
(19:59):
at the doorway for not having your life in order? Man,
you come the way you are with your baggage, your
garbage and anything that you come with and listen. We're
going to try to love you, hug you, bless you,
encourage you as much as we can. But as you
start to grow, I want to see progress. Amen. And hey,
(20:24):
we have so many couples that come here that are
living together. They've been shacked up together for 6 or
7 years. And they come and they they start hearing
the word and and then they come to Christ and
we love them and hug them and bless on them.
After they come to Jesus, hopefully someone's going to put
their arm around you and say, so how about it, man?
You still live with that girl. You going to marry
(20:46):
her or what? Oh no. No, I don't think I'm
ready for that. Then I think you need to move out, bro. Hey,
we're not being mean. I just. If you know Jesus,
I want you to grow. And the more you're around,
(21:07):
the higher expectation that we have. Oh, we'll give you room.
We want to be patient. But the more you're around,
the more expectation I have you to grow. I wouldn't
be a good pastor and this wouldn't be a good
church if there's not people getting in your face a
little bit and challenging you to go to the next level.
I'm okay that you're in kindergarten spiritually. But you know what?
When kindergarten is over, I want you to go to
(21:29):
first grade and it's not okay that you repeat kindergarten
for five years. No, it's not okay. I want you
to go beyond that. I want you to grow. I mean,
we're patient. So the newer people are, the younger they are,
the more patient we need to be. But the longer
you're in God, the higher expectation we have of your life.
Because you know more, you have more power and you
(21:53):
should be growing. And that's the atmosphere that we want
to have huge patience for people. But expectation that as
they grow in God, they go to the next level
in God. Amen.
S1 (22:12):
This is Moody Presents, and you've been listening to pastor
Mark Jobe. You can find us right here on your
local radio station and online every week. You can even
listen to this weekly broadcast through your smart speaker at home,
or maybe at the office, to learn more about what's
available and how you can hear this program. Wherever you are,
just head to Moody Presents. Moody presents dot. You know,
(22:36):
these messages are made available because of our partnership with listeners.
Just like you see, when you commit to becoming a
part of our Moody Presents Advance team, you're not simply
giving a monthly gift. You're learning and growing closer to Christ,
and you're helping others do the same. Like this listener
who said, you know, I give to Moody Presents because
this program has truly encouraged me and taught me a
(22:57):
lot about what I needed to know in my walk
with God. It's effective in terms of giving back to
the things of God and not holding all our money
for ourselves. So I hope that God continues to bless
this ministry because it's amazing. Well, thank you for those
kind words. We couldn't agree more. Hey, why not partner
with us today by giving a gift of any amount?
(23:18):
Just go to Moody Presents. Moody presents.org or call us
at 804 07022. That's 800 407,022. And as our way
of saying thank you for your financial support, we'll send
you a copy of RA Torrey's powerful book, How to Pray.
(23:38):
This is a world renowned classic which has already shown
millions that God's answers come to those who know how
to ask. Most of us know we ought to pray, right?
But many seem uncertain as to how and when and
where to pray. Well, this little book, How to Pray,
addresses these vital questions and more. Torrey offers an outline
(23:59):
for effective praying that is as positive as it is
beautiful and inspirational. The gentle art of prayer. That's what
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And again, it's yours for a gift of any amount.
(24:20):
Just go to Moody presents.org or call us at 804 07022.
Right now we're glad to sit down for a moment
with our teacher, pastor Mark Jobe. Good to have you
with us, Mark. And you say that the four habits
that will keep us spiritually healthy include rejoicing, always praying
without ceasing, giving thanks, and most importantly, not quenching the spirit.
(24:44):
And as we spend the next few weeks wrapping up
this defiant series, what then should we be expecting? Mark.
S3 (24:49):
Yeah, this is a powerful, powerful passage in First Thessalonians
chapter five because it talks about God sanctifying our whole person. Right, right.
Sometimes we think about our spirit, but we can't quite
define it. But in this passage, it tells us we're body,
soul and spirit. And I believe that God cares about
(25:10):
the trichotomy of who we are as he works in
our lives.
S1 (25:14):
Thank you, pastor Mark. Appreciate you stopping by and appreciate
that preview as well. Next week, as Mark just mentioned,
we're going to be looking at a whole body approach
to our faith. You don't want to miss that message.
I'm John Geiger inviting you to join us again next
week for Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. Moody presents is
a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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