Love Must Have an Object First B Jackson 2024-09-15 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- We're good to go. Alright. I'm gonna invite Scott Humphrey, if he would. Delbert. Come on forward, Delbert. Good to see you. Would you take that in hand? And we're gonna ask, would you stand with us and we're gonna sing some folks in from the barbecue line out there. I hope. We're all gonna sing. Yeah. Love. Let's sing one that we know. How about that? Love lifted me. We'll start off with that. Wherever you wanna be. Thank you for getting up here. I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore, very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry from the waters lifted me now safe am I. Love lifted me, love lifted me when nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted All my heart to him I give ever to him I'll play in his blessed presence live ever his praises sing Love so mighty and so true merits my soul's best songs. Faithful, loving service to to him belongs. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help. Love lifted me. Souls in danger look above. Jesus completely saves. He will lift you by his heart out of the angry ways. He's the master of the sea, billows his will obey. He, your savior, wants to be be saved today. Love lifted me. Love lifted me Amen. Amen. Let's do let's do another one. How about that? How great thou art? We know that one. How great thou art? Fantastic. There are hymnals up front if you want one. I think you probably know this. Oh Lord, my God, when I am awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout a universe display When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze, Cleansing my soul, my savior, God, to thee. Thou How great thou art. How great thou art. And when I think that God his son not sparing, send him to die, thy scarce can take and sings my soul, my savior God to thee. Heart, How great thou heart, how great thou when Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home or joy shall fill my heart Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Have a few announcements. First off is Awana is starting back up tomorrow night. So tomorrow night, 05:45 right here is the place to be. Kids club starting 05:45. We usually have supper ready for volunteers ahead of time. Volunteers, kids, starts off in this room and then spreads throughout the rest of the church. It's a good time. Look at those guys. That is crazy night. Crazy hair night. Brian McCooey and the moderator of this church, Steve Baldock. That's who that is right there. Children's church happens during the 09:00 service. There's a place for lower elementary, upper elementary, middle school, and high school downstairs in the lab downstairs, spread out downstairs. Next week, would you get here early next week? We're gonna have a small group jamboreeapalooza. That's what we're called. Small group jamboreeapalooza, Equipping and encouraging folks to get together in small groups. It's it's one thing to come together and worship and I actually have had one fellow that used to that had a house church over in Alta, and he came to me and he said, it's great to be together and we are the church when we're this little group of people, but it's really hard singing songs when it's just four or five people in the living room. He said, it's really great to come over here on Sundays and they just were the church, you know, for the rest of the time. Encouraging and equipping more small group participation in the fellowship hall next week between services. So during the connect hour, if you host a group, if you lead a group, if you attend a group, or even if you don't, and if we can convince you to get up and go down there during the 10:00 hour next week, we'd love for you to join the small group, Dramburiapalooza. That's a mouthful. There's a men's lunch study. I say this every week, please don't think that we're gonna feed you. It's just happening during the lunch hour. If you want to eat lunch, bring it with you. That's great. B y o s. Bring your own sandwich if you want to eat it. Men's lunch study, Thursdays at 11:55 in the Fellowship Hall. It will end sharply at 01:00. We will be out of there by one, so you can know it's kind of a businessman's lunch sort of thing. And we're studying second Peter together right now and it is so so good. The JH Women's Community Bible Study is jhwomen'sbiblestudy.com is the place that you can sign up, but you don't have to sign up to show up. This room will have tables and chairs in here and it was standing room only for the past couple of weeks in here on Wednesdays at 10AM, 10AM to noon, right in this room right here, and it's a great time. They also break out into small groups after teaching. So it's a really, really good time to be here. Ladies, community Bible study here 10AM to noon on Wednesdays. Youth group, middle school, and high school are meeting here from two to 4PM. This is the place to be if you're middle school or high school youth group, two to four at first b right here. Usually in the fellowship hall, Mike is really good about feeding feeding them both spiritually and physically. And I think we covered that. So I think that's the last one. If you would, stand with us. Anybody have anything to add? Anybody have anything you wish I hadn't said? No. Suggestions, you know. I'm just kidding. It wouldn't click forward. Now it has. What a day that will be. Scott, I'm glad you're up here with us. Thank you. I'm gonna make Judy sing a little louder. Okay. Good. That's why he's standing over by the piano. We had a three part harmony going on during practice. So we're gonna if you wanna sing your part, feel free. Please join us. Sing your part. There is coming a day when no heartache shall come. No more clouds in the sky. No more tears to dim the eye. All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore. What a day, glorious day that will be. Hand and leads me through the promised land, what a day glorious day that will be. Amen. That's good. Well done, Jew. How about we do another one? Until then. Until then, my heart will go on singing. Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna ask the ushers to come forward. And would you pray with me? God, thank you. Thank you for a time to gather. Thank you for a time to gather and share table fellowship outside. Thank you for a time to have such a glorious day gathered with believers and singing your praises, Lord. What a privilege that is. In Jesus name, Lord, we ask that you would do your will and your way among us this morning, that you would be moving in our hearts, directing us. Someone came up after the first service that I wanna know what it's like, what it means when it says quench in the spirit. Lord, will you teach us what it means to be directed and empowered by the spirit. May we not quench it, may we not brace ourselves against the wind of the spirit, but allow your spirit to blow wherever it will to use us as it will to be the evidence of your love, of your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness, of your longing for relationship. In Jesus name, I ask you to do what you will among us, Lord, so that we may be a shining light to people who are in darkness, to people who are without hope. May we be merciful, forgiving, winsome, joyous. Lord, may we be filled with your spirit. In Jesus name, I ask your blessing on this offering that we're taking up right now, that you would multiply it and do whatever it is that you want done with it, Lord. May we not stand in the way, but be a part of what you're doing here in this community and to the very uttermost part, some of the most difficult and dangerous places for the gospel. We want to be making an impact there just like here. In Jesus name, amen. Wow. Taken off for the gospel was with these people who were going through the 12 step programs. After the first service, I had somebody come forward and she said, you know, I've never been through these steps before. I've never heard about them. I've never read a page of what they all are. Didn't know anything about it until we started listening here. A few weeks ago and she said, really, it boils down to it if you if you think about it as a Christian, this is our testimony. We have had to pass through each of these steps somewhere in our testimony for the gospel to keep on going forward through us. We we need to to be considering this. And so it was that was an encouragement to me because as I said this morning, step eight for me is the hardest one to present. So this is where we are, but we're gonna do a brief recap on the first seven steps. I have been making a biblical been making a a kind of a presentation of these steps are biblical and they are and there's no doubt about it. Step eight needs to be included with step nine before I bring scripture with it. Okay? But I'll do that next week, but we're gonna work through this. Step one is where we admitted that we were powerless over our problem. Now, an Alcoholics Anonymous that say, we admitted that we're powerless over alcohol, but we all, just like we all are wired supernaturally wired with spiritual gifts that God has given. When you become a believer, he gives you a gift that is by his grace alone and it is for it's to be used for the body, for the upbuilding of the church. In the same way, we have the same kind of issue that the way that we are wired in our fallen state, we have proclivities towards sin and we don't all have the same one, right? So we admitted that we were powerless over whatever our problem is. It is a sin problem that particularly affects us. In Alcoholics Anonymous, this is one of the things that Christians sometimes have a problem with. They say it's a disease. It's a disease. It's a disease. And they say and it is. Sin is a disease. It is. And we not all not all of us have all of the sin issues, but we do have a proclivity towards one. Whatever that is for you, step one is admitting that you're powerless over that problem, that your life has become unmanageable. So that is me recognizing my need for something above me, deflation at depth. And I said during the first time I was preaching, I did steps one and two because if you get to step one and you just get deflated at depth and stay there for very long, you will be very depressed, you'll have a very hard problem. If you hit step one, it's important to move on to step two. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Could. It's possible that there is something above us that we don't quite understand and it could. And that says power with a capital b, capital p, that's a stand in for God, but that's okay. It is God that's doing this. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. This step in the early literature so this is a step of willingness, I can't. I figured out that I can't but I'm willing to believe and belief and seeking after. I believe that there is a power greater than myself that could restore me to sanity. Step three is where we get to the place of saying, I'm gonna let that power take over. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. This decision to surrender is no longer fighting and believing that we can do it ourselves, we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. It's beyond us. Our life is unmanageable, but there is someone who can restore us to sanity and we're gonna let God do that. Actually, says over to the care of God as we understood him. Now, as we understood him is not just make up your own God. This is a smorgasb ord, take a little from here and a little from there. It is saying, we as finite beings do not completely understand the infinite God. It's a statement of humility that says, I'm gonna turn over my will in my life to the care of God as I understand him to be. Now that is a statement of humility and God resists pride, but he gives grace to the humble. And so I can't, he can, I'm gonna let him step one, two, and three are best handled all at the same time. In fact, that meeting sometimes they'll say that those step one, two, and three, we're revisiting those all over the place. When we realize we have a different problem we had not seen before, we have to go through these same steps again. Step four, we made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, if not of other people. Okay? We made a fearless and searching moral inventory of our nephews, of our nieces, of our aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, wife, husband. No. It's we made a I made a fearless and searching moral inventory of myself. And if you start to do that, where do you start? Now, you all came to church this morning, so either you were dragged here or you came here voluntarily, but the Bible usually has something to do with coming to church. Right? A good place to start in self examination, if I tend to think relative to other people because I'm see other people, I look around and think, well, I'm better than that guy. I hadn't done such and such. I think I'm alright. Looking around, I'm doing okay. No. Self examination is fearless and searching. Show me. Carl read Psalm 51 this morning before one of the songs. It's show me, Lord. Search me and see if there be any wicked way in me. Show me and cleanse me. I want for you to show me. So in self examination, I have brought this list forward. I I may just compile the list of all of the vice lists in the New Testament. So if the New Testament listed as sinful and wrong, actually, it's mostly Paul, Peter, and Hebrews and different places around the epistles mostly. Jesus amplifies the list. Where it says murder up here, he says hatred. So it's this is this is a good start. If you're gonna do a fearless and searching moral inventory, and I could read it. I've read it several times. Actually, read it so often that my daughter said, are you going to read that again? Out loud in front of everybody. I will give you the list. If you want it, I'll email it to you. I probably sent it to 15 or 20 people. I have a copy right here. If you want it, it's a good place to start the fearless and searching moral inventory. Lord, what is it that is my issue that it's a besetting sin? Show me the things. Show me the things, Lord. Now I wanna ask you one question. How do you know if you're self deceived? Think about it. How do you know if you're self deceived? This is an objective standard. Now, you might be able to look at it. As a believer, you got the Holy Spirit working in your life. One of the jobs of the Holy Spirit in John 15 is to illuminate scripture, to convict of sin, and to convince of righteousness. Those are three of his jobs. If you're looking into the word, God will, if you're humble, begin to show you the things. Now, that's an if you're humble. If you're proud, you're not going to see them. But this list is pretty powerful when taken seriously. So if you see yourself on that list and then you go to God with it, we admit it to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our own. That that the the group meetings of AA, it helps when you get together people who are struggling with the same thing because they know that and have experienced the same sort of stuff. We all have a sin problem, all of us. If we can find and link up with someone else that is going through the same type of problem, that's really helpful. Years ago, about six and a half years ago, a friend came to me and needed to get sober and that was the stated goal, knew that's what needed to happen. And I knew that I struggle with my own stuff, and so I said, yeah, I'll walk through those steps with you. I'd never really considered them before, but this has been the greatest advance spiritually speaking. And I'm exposed to the Bible all the time. I see them all over the place. I mention them up here a lot, but this is the reason we're going through this. Admitting it to God, to ourselves, and another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs is very very helpful in the process of being set free from those wrongs. It is confession. And we know from first John one nine that if we confess our sins, if we say the same thing as God, it's primarily about agreeing with God. He's faithful and he's just and he will forgive us of those sins and it goes beyond that. It says, and he'll purify us from all unrighteousness. He will keep on being present as we present as we humble ourselves before him and he will transform us. This I could put in a metal plug for the jamboree a palooza small group thing. It's easier to share this sort of stuff in a small group just like he said a little while ago, the fellow who's in a difficult place, it's easier to share more intimate details in a smaller group of people than in a bigger group of people that goes. James five sixteen says, be confessing your sins to each other and be praying for each other so that you might be healed or saved or made whole. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. If we get together in humility and share our stuff with each other, that is how God can heal it. Step six, this is just a review. Right? We were entirely ready to have God remove all of these defects of character. If we want to hold on to it, if we want to hold on to it, it stops the process. It stops the progress and it stops the program. The program works if you work it. You have to get to a place where you're entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character. Now, you might say, well, why would I even be going through the process at all if I didn't want that? But there are some things that we want to hold on to. There's some things that we feel like no one else knows or it's not hurting anybody else. I know it's wrong, but I want to hold on to it. I want to have just this little thing right here, Lord. This is this is alright. I'm sure it's alright. This is the way you made me and I'm fine with it. If you want to stop the process by not being ready, it'll stop the process. It'll be quenching the spirit because God wants for you to be made whole. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. I went back and preached from John five on this. The guy next to the Pool Of Bethesda when Jesus is there and able and ready to heal and he asked the guy, are you willing to be well? Or do you want to be made whole? Being entirely ready is part of the process. Conviction that I'm wrong and the readiness to change so I don't have to keep on walking in the same way that I've been walking. I wanna walk in victory over this. Yes. I'm ready for this not to be a part of my identity. Step six and step seven is we humbly ask for God to remove our shortcomings. We humbly ask for God to remove our shortcomings. I've already said it once, I'll say it and I'll keep on saying it that God resists pride, but he gives grace to the humble. This step is about humility and submission to God. It's really a restatement of step three that we had turned our will and our life over to God as we understood him. Step six is we humbly ask him to remove our shortcomings. I'm gonna go with your way. Humble submission is that, and two weeks ago, I presented on Jesus speaking to Nicodemus in John three. It's about rebirth. Unless you'd be born from above, the higher power God, unless you're born of God, born again, you're not gonna get free from these things. Humble submission rebirth. Now, we're up to where we're starting today, step eight. Step eight, This is the hardest one for me to present, I think. Because it is a place where I'm looking at all your faces. I've kept my eyes closed half the service, but I'm looking at all your faces. And I'm seeing y'all and I know that you're earnest about being here, you keep on showing up and you're sincere about looking over the list, and this is the place where we realize that our shortcomings, and our sins, and our faults, and our flaws, and our foibles, and our human frailty has consequences that land on people. Step eight is this, we made a list of all the persons we had harmed and we became willing to make amends to them all. The willingness part of this is what I'm going to focus on today because if you stay at step eight for very long, it's really hard place to stay before you get to step nine. Right? But I'm going to hold it over till next week, step nine, to really go into it. And I promise there'll be scripture to go with it next week. I want for you to, this week, humbly consider this. So this is a willingness to make amends. At this point, in step eight, it's a willingness. It's not actually making amends. It's not the restitution part. It's considering actually, it's considering this list again. Step four, you considered it and if you if you think about this, this the motto of this church and when Jesus was asked to simplify what's the most important commandment, he said, love God, right? And the second one is just like it that you love your neighbor as yourself, right? So, loving God, loving people. The motto of this church and has been for a long time is with all we are, loving God and loving people through Christ. So, if I look at the step one, step two, step three, that's about my relationship with God and that's really good. Step four, I'm taking God's word and I'm looking into it. I'm examining myself soberly as James says and I look and I see this. That's about my relationship with God. I'm confessing this. And step five, I'm confessing it to God. I'm admitting it to myself. When I tell the other person it's for greater accountability and for them to be praying with me that I would be able to get through this. That relational step of step five is where it starts to turn towards other people. Step six is squarely back my relationship with God. Are you ready to be made well? And step six I mean, step seven is that humility and rebirth. Well, step eight is where it starts to work itself out. I had a I said a friend who was a pastor. He was a pastor. He was my uncle's dad. He was a pastor of my uncle's whole life and he one of the things I remember him saying a lot was love must have an object. You don't just love, you love someone. You love your wife. You love your kids. You love your neighbors. You love your friends. Jesus says love. Your enemies, it has to have an object. Well, when it comes right down to it, this list actually usually has an object too. If you are at enmity, you're at enmity with someone. So if you are in in enemy mode, you're in enemy mode against somebody and it hurts you and that person. So if I'm willing to make amend, made a list of all the persons we'd harmed. So in step four, I figure out what my sins are aided by the Holy Spirit, aided by God's word, and then I go through and I might say, this is hypothetical. Right? Oh, Lord, I've been looking at this list. Ray's been just going on and on about it. I decided this week I'd look at it and I recognize something about myself. I recognize that I am at enmity. I have an us and them mentality that is so strong that I can't get away from it. And it's something that I've always felt fine with until now. But there's no doubt about it. I'm in enemy mode. It's us and them and they're wrong and we're right. That's enmity. And I get so mad about it that I just could spit. In fact, sometimes I do and I stomp on the ground and I yell fits of anger, abusive language, reviling. Oh, I just can't stand that person. They're just so dumb. They're just so awful. Abusive language. Conceited. Oh, conceit goes along with enmity so well. I think I'm better than them. Filled with morbid craving for controversy, Lord. Oh, the Internet. Oh, the Internet. We all want to be a part of something. Filled with a morbid craving for controversy, overtaken with stupid and senseless controversies and it makes me nothing but quarrelsome Lord. I just can't I just can't let a stupid thing stand on Twitter, I have to answer it. I've been heartless, I've been ruthless, and honestly, I've been so swollen with conceit that even within my family, I've been abusive. Lord, I've never seen this until now and I realize why I just have such a small little view of the world and people don't wanna be around me. I'm broken before you lord. My life is unmanageable. I believe you can help me out of it. I'm gonna let you show me how. You've already shown me this. I admit it. I told that preacher, I'm ready to change. I believe it's possible. And then, who did I hurt in this? Oh my goodness. Step eight, we became willing. It's a recognition that that our sin has had consequences that didn't just hurt our relationship with God where we felt disconnected or couldn't hear his voice or didn't know what he wanted from us. It did that but I feel like that's been cured and now step eight is about personal relationships that's Lord, show me who it is that I've hurt and how I might be able to change that. Now, I'll skip ahead right now to step nine, but I'm gonna go into step nine further next time that I preach which I think is next week. Step nine is we made a direct amends to such people whenever it was possible except when to do so would injure that person or someone else. Now, that is hard to tell. It's not a blanket just stamp. Oh, yeah. Just do it. Just pay for it. How do you pay back for kicking somebody's dog? Who knows? I don't know. It might not be possible and not might not be appropriate. Recognition of your own sin and becoming willing to amend your behavior going forward is what step eight is about. I've got something to read. I've got one other thing up here too that I use all the time. So this is a little just a handout. And every time I do a premarital session, which has been like 312 times in the last thirteen years, every time I go through this, it's about the past and the present and the future. And if you're going to live at the risk of sounding Buddhist in the present, like be very present in the present, you have to figure out how to deal with the past. That's the way people have sinned against you and the way you've sinned against them. And if you can handle the past and know that I have forgiven everyone and as far as I believe it to be true, nobody's holding anything against me. Now, you can't control that. You can't control whether somebody holds on to the way you've sinned against them. Jesus understands. I promise. He has made it available to people and there are still people who resist the forgiveness that God is offering and there may be people who resist it from you too. But to get the past in the past, it's best to start right here with sins that I have committed against God and against other people, taking a full account of it, grieving that hurt and that loss, asking God for forgiveness and confessing that to the other person where it's possible. If you do that, it'll put you in a very humble state to be able to deal with the way people have sinned against you. And how are we supposed to be forgiven? Just as God in Christ has forgiven us, Ephesians four. Just as God has forgiven us, Colossians three. How did God forgive us? Romans five eight. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He took the first step even though we might not accept it. He did his part. Step eight is being willing to amend our behavior. I'm gonna read something. This is so good. Honestly, the twelve and twelve is so so so good. I know it's not scripture but it's based on scripture. Okay. I'm gonna read the first couple paragraphs of step eight from the twelve and twelve. Steps eight and nine are concerned with personal relationships. In step eight, first of all, we take a look backward and we try to discover where we have been at fault. And next, we make a vigorous attempt in step nine, to repair the damage that we have done. And third, having thus cleaned away the debris of the past, we consider how with our newfound knowledge of ourselves, which we get from humble submission before God, we may develop the how we may develop the best possible relations with every human being that we know. And this is a very large order. It's a task which we may perform with increasing skill, but we never really finish. Learning how to live in the greatest peace, partnership, and brotherhood with all men and women of whatever description is a moving and fascinating adventure. Ain't that good? Step eight, this week, I've been I I even got put on ice because we had the missionary last week. I had two weeks to actually consider this one longer than I usually do. And step eight is where we realize actions have consequences and we need to come to the personal toll of that and be ready, willing. Next week, we'll talk about it and I'll give you what Jesus has to say about it next week. We're gonna sing another song. Judy, would you come forward? Scott, would you come forward? And we're gonna sing take my life, lead me, lord. Thank you. Would you stand with us? This is the altar is always open and invitation today is for all of us. In our pursuit of God, is to pursue peace with all people. May I pray real quickly and then we'll start the song. God almighty, I pray that you would move in our hearts and show us the ways that we have been off of your good old gospel way. May we be loving and winsome. I I I think we need to speak the truth lord in love. Would you show us your way and allow us the grace to walk in it as we go forward? Amen. Take my life lead me lord take my life Lead me, Lord. Make my life useful to thee. Take my life. Lead me, Lord. Take my life. Lead me, Lord. Make my life useful to thee. Take my life. Teach me, Lord. Take my life. Teach me, Lord. Make my life useful to thee. Take my life. Teach me, Lord. Take my life. Teach me, Lord. Make my life useful to thee. Here am I. Send me, Lord. Here am I. Send me, Lord. Make my Amen. And now, I just wanna pronounce a blessing on you, lord. As we go, I pray that you would make your face to shine upon us, that we would see your countenance as the scripture says, Lord. That we'd see your face so clearly and that we would reflect it on the world around us. In Jesus name, I ask that you would make your face to shine upon us and give us peace, lord. Peace that passes understanding and peace that we can pass on to those who do not yet know you. May we be useful to you. In Jesus name, amen.