Do you have what you need for this life? We can let experiences define things for us. The average person feels more than he thinks. He lives subjectively, not objectively. Lust patterns like materialism, sensuality, intellect can rule us. We need the engrafted Word and to be doers of that Word. (James 1:21–24; Jeremiah 31:31-33; 2 Peter 1:19)

Speaker: Thomas Schaller
Sermon: 12779
Date: 2024-09-01
Time: Sun 11:00am

 

P. Schaller –

Wow. What a beautiful morning here. Praise the Lord! Jesus Christ gathering us together in his name and for
his glory. What a blessing it is. I love the old hymns. Don’t they sound good? I love it. How great
thou art.

Turn in your Bibles. I’m going to introduce our message which we will hear later this morning,
but we’ll have 2 Peter 1. We have two words I need to teach you and I think you do know them.
They are the words “subjective” and then “objective.” These are words we’ll use this morning
to communicate two concepts. One is how you are feeling. How you interpret things. How you
look at life. Knowing your heart. Living by premonition, nuance, subjectivity, imagination. My
way of looking at reality often it is simply from my own experience. What occurs in my mind.
It’s a combination of things but my culture, my background, my education, experience, my
feelings.

So, the world is really filled with subjectivity meaning that I interpret reality my way. My life. I
look at it my way. And in some ways that’s okay but then we see where it can lead people into a
tremendous amount of trouble. Cuz we know in the Bible how many people do what they feel
they should do. There’s a proverb, Proverbs 14:12. There’s a way that seems right but he’s wrong.
It seems right but he’s wrong and the end thereof is death. That would be one way of looking at
this subject of how easy it is to live through ourselves and through our gifts and talents and our
premonitions and experiences, but also how easy it is to get in trouble. We get in trouble that
way.

There’s a proverb in Proverbs 28 where it says a man that obeys his own heart is a fool. If you
follow your heart – you see, we follow our heart. Why does a man or woman they fall in love
with someone else? They’re married but they fall in love with someone else. How did that
happen? It’s in the heart. And people follow their heart. The man that starts gambling and he
starts gambling and starts to enjoy it, he’s following his own feelings about it.

We could say feelings, in our Bible psychology class and by the way, Bible college is going on.
We started last week. You can sign up still. There are morning classes and evening classes and
you can learn the Bible, learn theology and be taught by men and women of God. Okay. So, let’s
see. Because we are sinners, then we follow our heart and what seems right and we find ourself
in trouble. And then we say how did I get here? I thought this would never happen to me. Why
God did you do this to me?

Another thing about subjective mindset. This is a mindset. This is your mind, the mindset is that
I blame God for it. That can happen but not everybody does that. They say why did this happen,
God? Why did you do this to me? The Lord says you were left to your own devices. You made
your decisions. You are now lying down in sorrow. You now have problems. But I came, I came
because I love you and I have something for you.

I gave you my Son. I gave you – I sent the Holy Spirit into the world. Are you living in the Spirit? Are you living by my mind? Are you making decisions in your heart based on me? Are you objective? Are you living with objective truth?
So, this is our theme and we have here in 2 Peter 1 we have an experience from Peter and he says
in vs. 16, “we have not followed cunningly devised fables.” That’s a memory verse for me. It
comes to my mind a lot. I say regarding believing in Jesus, I have not followed cunningly devised
fable. I’m not tricked. Somebody didn’t make it up. It’s not cleverly put together. We have not
followed that, but we have objective truth.

Historical resurrection of Christ. The evidences of witnesses. The testimony of the beginning of the church. We have not followed a story like aliens from outer space, you know. That kind of cunningly devised – some story line.
They stole the body of Jesus. The disciples stole the body. Are you a believer? Have you worked
through this? Are you grounded? Are you learning? Yeah, you are learning. You’re here this
morning. Praise the Lord! Thank you for coming. But I want to help you. I want to help you in
your thinking because there’s a difference between how you live as a Christian. You can be
subjective. Where’s that? Okay. This one. Be subjective and live by what happens to you and
what your feelings are and what you think in your own heart versus objective truth. What is
objective truth? Outside of me. Not me. Outside of me. What does God say? Objective truth.
What does God say?

Objective truth is what – the world that we live in does not believe in that. They do not believe
there is objective truth or they struggle with it philosophically. But if there’s an accident out
here on the highway, it happened let’s say October 14, 1967. It’s recorded in the police. It’s
there. Did it happen? Are there witnesses? What happened? Okay. What happened
objectively? Not what I feel or what I think but what happened? That’s history and there are
people that invent it too and they lie about it. You got to find, you got to find the truth.
It's the same in medicine. Medicine or science if they are objective and they give the evidences
and the work so that we would find what is true outside of us. Not us. Not what we feel or what
we think but what is actually true.

Okay. Go to the text again. Chapter 1:16. Eyewitnesses of his majesty. When did you see that,
Peter? When did you see him, his majesty? We saw it when we were on the mountain when he
prayed and he turned white and there was Elijah and Moses standing with him. We were there.
We saw that.

Look at vs. 17. We heard that voice come from heaven. Vs. 18. What’s the holy mount? That’s
where they were when he was transfigured. We saw that. We had the experience. We heard
the voice. But then he said but we have a more, sure word. Look at vs. 19. What is that? Look in
your Bible. Watch. Where’s the prophets? All of these are prophets. We have the prophets.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah. We have Malachi. Are these sure words? Wait a minute.

Isn’t Moses a prophet? Moses is a prophet. He’s back here. Abraham was a prophet. Yes, he was.
Abraham was a prophet. We have a sure word of prophecy. We have something – not only was
I on the holy mountain and I saw him changed and we heard a voice say, this is my Son. Hear
him. But we have also the rest of the Bible. The sure word of prophecy. That’s what you are
grounded and you have to learn, you have to learn to think a different way. And the Holy Spirit
will help us to think with this sure word of prophecy. This is the Word of God that we live by
that comes, is engrafted in us.

James 1:21, could we put that up on the screen? James 1:21, that’s King James for this
overabundance of wickedness that comes out of our hearts. These are Christians. That comes
out of our hearts. It’s an overabundance of stuff that comes out. Just lay it aside and start to
think and think with the objective Word. Think and receive with meekness – that’s another
word for humility. It’s a different word but it’s similar. Meekness. Submission. And receive with
meekness. God, what do you say? And receive the engrafted Word. Engrafted means
implanted. It’s implanted. It’s this Word that goes into you as you mix faith with it and it’s
planted in you.

Do you have a tooth implant? Maybe somebody does. How about some body part implanted.
How about a hip replacement? Implanted. How about an organ transplant? Implanted. What
about in our body? What about in our soul? Engrafted Word. Word. What do you mean Word? I
mean these words. Yeah, but they’re only words. Yeah, they are words but they come from the
mouth of God. And that’s how man must live. Not by bread only but by the Word.

What is this objective truth? It is the Word that we are told so many times in the Scripture,
“now you are clean through the Word spoken unto you,” (John 15:3). Now you are clean
through the Word I have spoken to you. That’s Jesus speaking. That’s what happens with the
Bible and that’s what’s going on in your heart right now. You are great listeners. I appreciate it a
lot because you come to listen and receive with meekness the engrafted Word and that Word is
the Word of life. Paul called it holding forth the Word of life. Okay.

So, that will be our subject this morning and our message that comes a little later. I gave you
the seed thought of it. I want you to process it this way. We’re going to look at some Scripture
and we will compare what happens when you are subjective, when we are subjective, what
that means. And then, we will show also by God’s grace what the blessing of having objective
truth in your heart and mind. You begin to be occupied with objective truth. What does the
Lord say? And to be relating to him in faith.

Right now, I asked Anu – in the beginning of the summer, we started in February. We started in
February with our missions week of prayer for the summer of 2024. That just ended. That’s the
week we started the planning and prayer for it last winter and then it May it was coming
together. And we went to many different places in the world from here, you know. And Fed Hill and some other of our churches. But we went to many different places, so I asked Anu to put
together a little video and show where we were this past summer just to glorify God and thank
God for what God does when we live by faith in his Word. So, can we play the video, please?

(Video)

There’s a story about a man from Italy that came here as an immigrant and he was a gifted
entertainer. He was a juggler. He could juggle things. And he lived here for a long time and
made a lot of money as an entertainer. And he decided that he would – he was getting old and
he wanted to move back to Italy. So, he decided to take his money and but a diamond that was
equivalent to the value of his cash.

So, he bought a diamond and was on a ship going back to Italy and he got a bunch of young
boys together. I have the story here. Maybe it would be good to read part of it. “While aboard
ship, he was showing the boy how he could juggle a bunch of apples. Soon, a crowd gathered.
The pride of the moment went to his head. He ran to his room and got the diamond. He
explained to the crowd that it represented his entire life’s savings. He started juggling the
diamond. Soon he was taking more and more chances. At one point, he threw the diamond
high into the air and the crowd gasped. Knowing what the diamond meant, they begged him
not to do it again.

But moved by the excitement of the moment, he threw the diamond even higher. Again, the
crowd gasped and then a sigh of relief when he caught the diamond. Having total confidence in
himself and his ability, he told the crowd he would throw it up one more time. This time it
would be so high that he couldn’t see it. They begged him not to do it. But with the confidence
of all of his years, he threw the diamond high. It actually did disappear for a moment, and then
the diamond returned in view sparkling in the sunlight. At that moment, the ship lurched. The
diamond dropped into the sea and was lost forever.”

Billy Graham told that story and maybe there’s a lot of meaning in there about many things. But
I want to use it for this subjective mindset that we have as people. What happened in his
thinking and why did he do that and run such a risk? And doesn’t it parallel what people are
doing generally in life anyway? You have eternal life.

No, I don’t believe in that. Do you believe in God? Maybe. Have you ever read the Bible? No. Have you been to a church? No. Are you running a risk? You have something very valuable that you are playing with in life. No. Yes.
Jesus said, what would a man give in exchange for his soul? It’s worth the entire world. Your
life. And yet, it is easy to do what he did. In different ways. Maybe I don’t pay attention. Maybe
I don’t want it or I don’t feel this way or that. Or I’m excited. I got an adrenaline rush. I got a
whole group of people entertaining them but I’m running a great risk. Cuz I could be wrong in
how I am thinking and the decisions I am making.

So, there are here in the subjective part of your soul or in your mindset, you have feelings and
you have decisions. And we have our sin nature of course behind it all. We call it o.s.n. – old sin
nature. And live with our mind, our decisions, our feelings and of course that’s sin. That’s the
problem with us is that we are sinners.

So, there’s a few points here I’d like to bring your attention to in the Scripture. Turn to Matthew
25:1-2. That’s really all you have to know about this text. Five were wise and five were foolish.
Why would we say five were foolish but because they had – they that were foolish took their
lamps and took no oil with them. Where was the oil? Well, they didn’t have it or they didn’t
have enough. They had enough for a little but no extra oil. If there was a delay, their lamps
would go out. They didn’t have what they needed. And that’s like us.

I don’t believe I have what I need for this life. If you leave me to myself, I will find myself in
many different scenarios and reading the Bible we see many different scenarios by different
people. I could put down three names that are pretty famous. This is in Jude 11. You have the
name Cain. You have Balaam and you have Korah. We don’t have time to go through their
biographies, but I want to suggest to you they each had a lust pattern in their soul that they
could not manage. They each had something in their heart that controlled them that really
couldn’t give them God.

‘Cause really what you want in your life is not so much like a successful life or a good life or smart,
being smart, or qualified to have a lot of money maybe or career or family or something. What
you actually want is God and that’s what he's given you. Himself.

But we get side tracked by our sin nature and the patterns of thoughts that we grow up
developing in our hearts in life. And these three men had three different lust patterns in their
soul. Cain was self-righteous. He was religious. We can put here self-righteous. Unsatisfied by
the way. Offered up offerings. They didn’t work. They didn’t make him clean. They didn’t save
him. They didn’t change his heart. They didn’t change his life. This is – he’s left to himself. So,
he is afraid the rest of his life.

Did you know that? That Cain murdered his brother and the rest of his life he’s afraid that
somebody’s going to murder him? That’s like subjective. That’s my experience is controlling my
life. That’s what it means that I have done something and what I did, I murdered my brother.
That’s defining for me the future of my life. My life is defined by what I did and the effect of it in
my heart. That’s the definition for my life.

And when Christ came into the world, he came so that wouldn’t happen. That your sin would
not define your life. Wow! Can you believe that I just said that? Can you believe that’s what the
Bible says? Christ came so we would be a new creation. And the old things would be passed
away and the new things would be here, now. We would have a life that comes from God.

Paul said it his way, I am crucified with Christ but I live but not I. Not I but Christ lives within me.
And the life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me.
Now, the second person in the list is Balaam and his subjective self was materialistic. He was all
about the money and also sensuality. Sex. Fornication. He taught the Jewish people to live that
way. Just like in our culture it’s being taught all the time to live that way. You fall in love with
somebody, go for it. You’re free to do whatever. Two years later, go for it. You got another one,
go for it. One year later, go for it.

You got it. You can live like that. That’s Balaam. That’s subjective. That’s when my own heart controls me. That’s when my feelings are governing my life and I’m not thinking. I’m not thinking because I don’t have much thought.
If you leave us to ourselves – I mean the average person isn’t so much thinking as he is feeling.
He lives by his intuition, impulses, feelings, premonitions, nuances. Maybe you could say
abstract notions. Feelings about things that govern life. You cannot do that. Don’t do that. I’m
going to tell you but I’m not just going to tell you. I want to inspire you. I want to help you
because it is life-changing. It’s so fantastic when you learn this and this is the lesson today.
There’s another way. There’s another way.

So, Korah is intellectual and rebellious. He’s against Moses and he wants another captain. I’ll
put here “captain.” That’s the word they used. They want another leader for the people. Moses
has failed us. He brought us out of Egypt. Now, we’re in the wilderness and Moses has failed us.
And by the way, he got 250 men of notoriety. Princes they are called in the nation of Israel to
agree with him. So, it was a conspiracy with Korah against Moses and it’s called Korah’s
rebellion. That’s in the book of Numbers in chapters 16 and 17.

So, that’s for your study. I love it. You come to church and you can learn the Bible. I’m telling you. You come here a
couple years and you’re going to learn your Bible pretty good. It’s going to take time but little
by little you’re going to get it. Listen to messages and grow in faith.

Okay. Do you see this? I don’t know. Because of time I don’t want to keep you. It’s great here
we are but I want to say to you that we also have these tendencies, these three that are
mentioned here. Some stronger than others. One may be stronger than another one. You might
be more self-righteous. Somebody might be very much feeling maybe they’re a victim of their
bad decisions and they have habits that they cannot break. And they just say what can I do? I’d
like to clean up my life. I’d like my life to change but how does it happen?

Here’s the short list for you. We got the subjective list over here. One, two, three. Cain, Balaam,
Korah. Left to myself. My feelings. My way of thinking. Then, you submit yourself to God. You
submit to God and you are willing to listen and embrace objective truth. What does that mean?
That’s the Bible. The truth outside of me. Not my experience but what does God say. You are free. If you continue in my Word then you are my disciples.

I will set you free and if you are
free, you are free indeed. This is a new freedom. You don’t wrestle with your stuff. You are free.
The Spirit of God and the mind of God, mind renewal, a change that happens in your heart.
That’s Jeremiah 31, 31 to 33. Your heart. I will write into your heart my law. I will put it in your
heart.

So, let’s say the law says you shall not commit adultery. Now, it’s written in my heart. I won’t
commit adultery. But the culture says you can commit adultery. What’s the big deal? You can
do that. But I say that’s – their message connects with my sin nature. And they could counsel
me and lead me. My friend or not my friends but a person could have friends. Be in a bar room.
Have relatives. They are talking and counseling you and you could do that. Yeah, you could do
that. You fell in love. And this is a real thing. That person you’re married to that doesn’t work
out and so on and there’s a whole story line.

But what happens to you? What do you think? What do you think about it? I have two things. I
have objective truth that says you shall not commit adultery. And I have God who wrote it in my
heart. Which heart? My new heart. Where did you get a new heart? I got it from salvation. I will
make a new covenant with you. Not the covenant I made with the Jewish people when I
brought them out of Egypt to Sinai. Then it was on tables of stone. But I make a new covenant. I
will write it in your heart. You shall not do that.

So, I have the Bible telling me not to do it, and then the Holy Spirit has written it in our hearts
and I just say to those people that are talking to me this way, I’m saying to them they are not
my friend. I’m not hearing them. I’m not hearing them. That’s Psalm 1. You are to be not walking in
the counsel of the ungodly but meditating on my Word day and night. What will happen if you
meditate on the Word? It will be engrafted. The Word will be engrafted.

Listen. I heard a teaching on the book of Ruth my first semester in Bible school. That was 52
years ago. I know that today. I know that first chapter of Ruth from then. How can you know
that? Cuz the Lord said I will bring back into your memory the things that I have spoken to you.
Well, how could that happen? Cause it’s engrafted. You receive with meekness the engrafted,
the implant that’s implanted.

So, that Word is outside of me. The book of Ruth I didn’t write it. I didn’t experience it and I
don’t feel it. And it’s not my life that way, but I am – you and I are submitted to God in
meekness and we are able to receive the Word that’s engrafted in your spirit and in your heart
and you say amen to God. Now, you’re living a different way. You actually end up living a
different way. And God kind of cleans up your life.

The lust patterns from Cain are replaced with the peace that comes from Christ. The lust
patterns from Balaam, the sin nature that you have and I have and the rebellion of Korah, they kind of disappear. They are there. They may be dormant we could say or the potential for me to
live in them is there but I refuse to live in them ’cause that’s not my life. We are able to meditate
and receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save your soul.

Let’s pull up James 1:21, please. Just put it aside. Right now, I’m thinking like Balaam. Well,
don’t. Just put it aside and receive with meekness the engrafted Word and what will it do? Save
your soul. That phrase “save your soul” should be taken apart a little bit. The word “save” is not
always about eternal salvation. It’s not always in the Scripture that way. You can be saved from
a burning house. Saved from drowning. And actual salvation, physical salvation.

When it says save your soul, if you leave your soul to yourself to your subjective self, you don’t
know where you’re going to end up ’cause it’s not in mind to direct his footsteps, Jeremiah 10:13. I
cannot direct my life. My sin will govern my life. That’s how it starts out. You might say when
you’re 20 years old, I just heard about that thing. That will never happen to me. I’m never going
to allow that to happen. When you’re 40 years old you say, how did this happen to me? How
did this happen to me? How did I get here? What happened to me?

I’m telling you. You know how? By being subjective. By letting you govern. You don’t have any
authority to govern your life outside of being submitted to God, and God is a talking God. God is
a speaking God. What does he talk? He talks this, right? These are his words. Why not put them
in your heart. Why not meditate on them. Why not speak to them. Why not speak them into
the air. Do it this week. Just speak when you’re driving the car. Just speak the Word into the air.
What part of the Word? Any part of it. Just speak it.

When I was in Bible school, P. Stevens taught us when you get up in the morning, just quote
John 3:16 and take your time with it. John 3:16 is “for God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten Son.” And you can walk back and forth in your bedroom and you can say, God,
you love the world. You can dramatize it. God, God, O God, did you give your Son? You gave
your Son. Why? That whoever believes. I believe. “Whoever believes will not perish and have
eternal life.” Are you kidding me, Lord. Do I have eternal life? Yes. These things are written so
that you might know, 1 John 5:13, that you have eternal life.

Is your name in the book of life, Luke 10:20? Is it in the book of life? Why not say it is in the
book of life. The Lord has chosen us. Where’s that? John 15. “You have not chosen me; I have
chosen you.” You don’t have to try to explain it. Just enjoy it. I don’t need to explain it. I don’t
need to explain it. I just want to hear it. Jesus said to them. You have not chosen me; I have
chosen you. “And of all the Father has given me I have lost none,” John 6:37. What? None.
What about Judas? That’s already decided. That was already done. I never owned him. He was
never part of me. He never became a believer. He was with us but he was not of us, 1 John. 2:19.

What are we talking about? We’re talking about a new way of life. ‘Cause Jesus saved you and
Christ is in you and the Spirit is your teacher and this book has got to get in you. And I got to
say, I’ve been going to church three times or many times more now because of what I do.
Maybe I’m not the best example for you. But there are people here that have been going to
church three times a week for 40 years and they have benefited a lot. Benefited a lot from it.
Church attendance is part of this process. Processing the objective mind. ‘Cause there I might hear
something that I don’t like but it’s written.

There I might here something. What about hell? What about heaven? What about the city of Jerusalem? What about sin and the nature of it? What about the sins that we read in the Bible that people don’t want to preach about?
I remember hearing about a pastor who said I’m never going to preach about sin. I want you to
come here and be happy people. I want you to come here and be encouraged. I want you to
have a smile on your face. I want you to be good people. I want you – and what is that? That is
not the Word of God. No, God is not saying – he’s saying I am God. I am a holy God. I paid for
your sins, so that you could be free and set me before your face. John 16:8, seek me and you
will find me.

But I’m not like you. You are like me made in my image but I am not a man that I would repent.
I am God. I am the holy God. I am the Almighty God. You come before me, you come before me
by my grace I call you. I have chosen you. I have saved you. I paid a great price. I bought you
with my blood. 1 Corinthians 6:20. I put my Spirit in you and it is the Holy Spirit. When you come to the
assembly, you come by faith and I anoint you. Yes, you have joy because of holiness. Yes, you
have truth in your heart and you want to hear about my reality not your reality. That’s what I’m
trying to say.

That’s like this one. Where are we? Like this one. Subjective mind. This one. This is what I want.
That’s what I want. The world is all about that to get what you want. Kind of change that.
Change that. Not what you want. Change it. There are two Adams in the Bible. First Adam is my
will. My will be done. Don’t eat of the tree. I’m eating of it. Eve gave me the fruit. She ate of it.
I’m eating of it. This is my will my way. That’s the first Adam.

The last Adam, Christ, is not my will. Your will be done. Father, your will. That’s what I want.
See. See. You can’t have it your way and end up well in the sense of your eternal purpose. But
you have it God’s way and God will carry you. God will help you. God will give grace to the
humble but he resists the proud. No wonder people lie down in sorrow.

I heard some program about pharmaceuticals being sold in America, and how American people
have problems with anxiety and fears and so on and so they go to get the medication. There’s
another way. What we are teaching right now. There’s another way. Objective truth. That’s
what I need. I don’t need my way. My way I’ll end up that way and it says it will – could you put the verse again, James 1:21. Able to save your soul from depression. I mean there is bonified
depression in the Christian life but to park there and live in loneliness and depression is not
God. God baptizes you into the Body.

God is fulness of joy. God is the way of freedom and liberty. God is a way of life and power. God is a living God. God is our Father. He sent Christ to buy us so that we could actually live a sensible living reality that comes from him if I mix faith with what he says. That’s objective truth. I need objective truth in my life and that comes from
preaching and teaching. It comes from reading and studying and being quiet, obeying and
honoring.

Go to James 1:22. We’ll finish up here. There’s a lot to say. But be ye doers of the Word. Mix
faith with it and do it. Not hearers only deceiving your own selves. It’s like my wife and I. She’s
talking to me but I’m not listening. And then later, a little test comes. Did you hear what I said
about Friday?

No, what was it that you said? You were talking about Jim? No, I was talking
about David. Were you listening to me? No, I wasn’t actually. I just heard sounds. But I wasn’t
listening.

How about obeying? Okay. I heard you but I’m not doing it. I heard you but I’m not doing it.
Yes, yes, yes. Remember Jesus told the parable about the man that had two sons? The father
said would you work in my garden? He said, yes, papa. Yes. And then he didn’t. The other son
said, no and he did. Why did he do it? He said no I won’t but he had a change of heart and he
did it. It’s fun when you start to obey God.

I don’t want to sometimes. Sometimes, I don’t. I’m stubborn. I hesitate. I’m slow to get off the
couch. I’m slow to get out in my car. I’m slow to pick up the phone. I’m slow to do what I’m
supposed to do. I’m slow to the study even though I love it. If there’s anything, I’d love to do
that all day. I love to do that. It’s a joy and prayer and so on. But I’m saying like there are times,
all of us, we, it’s like look at your watch. What time is it? What time is it? Didn’t you look at it?
Yeah, I looked but I didn’t really see it. I listened but I really didn’t hear it. I’ve got a Bible but
I’m not really into it. I got it but I’m really not mixing faith with it.

That’s what I’m saying today. I want you to have that in your life. Your life will change. If you
start mixing this Word and memorizing or meditating or putting your trust, believing, and
saying Lord you got me. With all my heart, you’re the answer for my life. You’re going to do it.
You’re going to carry me and it’s not going to be something I figure out. It’s not going to be
something I am doing. It’s going to be something that you do by your grace.

And at the end of the day, someone is going to say, how did you do it? And you’ll say, the Lord
did that. How did you stay off of drugs? God did that. How did you keep your marriage
together? I’ve been married once. Thank you, Lord. Not everybody has that but maybe I could
say I am a man of one woman. I had one wife and she passed away – I’m making this up.
Somebody could say I had one woman. I had one woman. How did you do that? How did you have one woman? How? I married again and I have one woman. I’m a man of one woman. How
did you do that? God did that. God does that. That’s God.

How do you be honest? God does that? How do you tell the truth? How are you humble before
God? God does that. How do you do it? You have the Spirit of God and you mix this book with
in your heart and it won’t all come all at once. It will be little by little. One stone at a time. One
brick at a time. There’s 31,000 verses. That’s fine. Just one brick at a time. One day at a time.
One session at a time. One service at a time.

You’re redeeming the time by coming to church. You’re redeeming the time. What are you
missing. A TV program? A round of golf? An extra donut? What are you missing right now?
Surfing on your phone for an hour, two hours. What are you missing listening to this right now?
Nothing compared to what you need. What you need.

And you know what? Our young people, our young people might be on a soccer field
somewhere and the parents are there on the sidelines. I’ve been there. I know about it. The
kids are 12 years old. Fourteen years old. You know what? They’re not getting what they need.
They’re not getting an education. They’re not getting the Bible. They’re not getting their mom
and dad. When they’re 25 years old, are you a believer? No, my mom and dad were not
religious. We went to the soccer field and the rec for sports and everything. And that’s how you
live.

How are you going to handle yourself? What are you going to do? How are you going to play
the game? You’re a juggler, right? You’re going to take a diamond. Why do that? Why do that?
You might lose it. You’re playing a game with life. And you lose it. You lost. You lost. Do you
want to live like that? Are you wanting to lose something so precious as your life by putting
your trust in yourself or are you willing to be submitted to the living God that will give you grace
and help you live your life meaningfully.

And we cannot explain how life goes. Will you die tomorrow? Maybe I die tomorrow. Will you
succeed? I do not know. We do not know but this day I can pay attention to what he’s saying
and be submitted to him and he will take care of us. He will. He will take care of us. He’s your
Father. And he’ll take care of you. Life and death is in his hand and he will carry you. You’ll be
surprised what God will do for you if you leave the subjective self, thought life, and be
submitted to his. Okay. That is the end.

 

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.