Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what builds others up
29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks; good stored up brings good out
1 Now on the second Sabbath after the first, he was going through the grain fields. His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate, rubbing them in their hands.
2 But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?”
3 Jesus, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him;
4 how he entered into God’s house, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?”
5 He said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
6 It also happened on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. There was a man there, and his right hand was withered.
7 The scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him.
8 But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Rise up, and stand in the middle.” He arose and stood.
9 Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?”
10 He looked around at them all, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored as sound as the other.
11 But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.
12 In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God.
13 When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles:
14 Simon, whom he also named Peter; Andrew, his brother; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew;
15 Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called the Zealot;
16 Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor.
17 He came down with them, and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
18 as well as those who were troubled by unclean spirits, and they were being healed.
19 All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came out of him and healed them all.
20 He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said, “Blessed are you who are poor, God’s Kingdom is yours.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.
23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.
25 Woe to you, you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe, when men speak well of you, for their fathers did the same thing to the false prophets.
27 “But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.
29 To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don’t withhold your coat also.
30 Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.
31 “As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them.
32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive back as much.
35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.
36 “Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.
37 Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free.
38 “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.”
39 He spoke a parable to them. “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit?
40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
41 Why do you see the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?
42 Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck of chaff that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam that is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye.
43 For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.
44 For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.
45 The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things which I say?
47 Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words, and does them, I will show you who he is like.
48 He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock.
49 But he who hears, and doesn’t do, is like a man who built a house on the earth…
You did not choose me but I chose you to bear lasting fruit; love each other
16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
17 “I command these things to you, that you may love one another.
Anyone in Christ is a new creation; we are Christ's ambassadors of reconciliation
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
18 But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The Lamb will overcome because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, with his called and faithful followers
14 These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.”
The dead in Christ will rise first, then the living will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air
1 Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him, we ask you
2 not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come.
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,
4 he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
5 Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?
6 Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.
8 Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;
9 even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;
12 that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth;
14 to which he called you through our Good News, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 So then, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word, or by letter.
16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.
Scoffers will deny Christ's coming; God is patient wanting all to come to repentance; the day of the Lord will come like a thief
1 This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you;
2 that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior:
3 knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts,
4 and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”
5 For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;
6 by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
7 But the heavens that now exist, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8 But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
11 Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness,
12 looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
13 But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
He who has the Son has eternal life; written so you may know you have eternal life
11 The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life.
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Benediction: be joyful always, pray continually, may God sanctify you through and through
16 Rejoice always.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.
19 Don’t quench the Spirit.
20 Don’t despise prophesies.
21 Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.
22 Abstain from every form of evil.
23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray was away in Costa Rica, so Steve Landis, one of the elders at First Baptist Jackson, brought the message. He drew on something God had been working on in his own life over the previous months, a conviction about negative speech, and used it as the entry point for a practical look at how conviction moves a person toward repentance and, ultimately, toward reproducing faith in others.
What was said
Steve opened by describing how the Holy Spirit had gotten his attention about his own words. A long summer of tourists and traffic had left his heart negative, and he recognized that his speech had drifted from building people up to tearing them down. He framed the whole message around two connected ideas: the power of our words, and why a person should surrender to transformation rather than resist it.
The first move was to stop and listen, to the Holy Spirit, to Scripture, and to the people around us. Steve worked through passages on the tongue from James and Luke, showing that the tongue functions like a rudder or a spark, capable of corrupting a whole person, and that what comes out of a mouth reveals what has been deposited in the heart. The question he kept returning to was a simple one: are your words building up or tearing down?
From there he moved to remembering, which he described as the motivation for change. He walked through several passages that reminded the congregation of their position in Christ: chosen, adopted, redeemed, declared holy and blameless. His point was that repentance is not driven by guilt alone. God seasons conviction with promises, and remembering what Christ has done is what actually moves a person to want to change.
He paused to remember Joe Kravetsky by name, a friend and fellow Bible study member who had died suddenly not long before. Steve said Joe embodied what the Second Corinthians passage calls an ambassador, someone who knew what he had found in Jesus and couldn't stop pointing others toward it. The two of them had sparred over eschatology, debated rapture timing, and sharpened each other, and Steve held that up as a picture of the kind of accountable friendship every believer needs.
The eschatology itself was not a detour. Steve tied the return of Christ directly to the call to holy living. He read from Second Peter and Titus, arguing that it is the grace of God, not the threat of judgment, that teaches us to live upright lives, and that living those lives matters because people around us are lost. The hope of Christ's return is not an escape fantasy; it is a reason to be urgent about reaching others.
He closed by tying the threads together. Listening leads to remembering, remembering leads to repenting, and repentance leads to reproduction, making disciples and speaking life into people rather than tearing them down. He noted that the Hebrew word for male carries the idea of being remembered or branded, and called the men in the room specifically to be the ones who keep remembering and reminding those around them of what God's word says.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Steve said the Holy Spirit convicted him that his words had become negative and were tearing down rather than building up. Have you ever had a moment where God got your attention about something that had slowly slipped in your life? What did that look like?
Steve drew a distinction between conviction that punishes and conviction that comes from love, saying we should embrace it as evidence that the Holy Spirit is in us. How does thinking about conviction that way change how you respond to it?
Speaker 2Good morning, everyone. How are you? Good. You're probably wondering, where is that pastor Ray? So Ray is in Costa Rica.
He'll be in Costa Rica this week and next. I'm gonna do my very best to to lead through songs here, but Radeleaves, if you haven't noticed, some pretty big shoes to fill, doesn't he? Yeah. You've also noticed it's a little bit chilly in here. The heat is not working.
I think there's a blower motor that's out, and it doesn't come until tomorrow. Yeah. Judy's going, oh, that's it. So if you, you know, keep your jacket on if if if you feel more comfortable. But what do you say we sing together?
We'll we'll kick this out by worshiping in song. Since Jesus came into my heart, if anyone is in a new isn't if anyone's in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. Let's sing of it. Since Jesus came into my heart, we can stand and sing.
What a wonderful change in my life and love since Jesus came into my heart. I have light in my soul for which long I had sat since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. I'm so thankful for you all because you can carry these songs through even when I can't. So thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Make me a blessing. You can have a seat here for a moment. We've got a few announcements we wanna share.
And Blake, from the back in the sound booth, will share some of those.
Speaker 3Good morning, church. Glad that you are joining us this morning for our traditional service. And just a couple of announcements, the first of which is Monday nights at First Be. We have Sunday, we have our contemporary service, and then this 11AM traditional service. But we also have Monday nights at first b, where it's just a meal, music, and a message.
Pastor Carl usually preaches on that. And then after his sermon, we have a little bit of a gospel conversation. Carl, what are we gonna be talking about tomorrow?
Speaker 2Yep. So tomorrow is John 16. Jesus has promised the Holy Spirit. And then next, he goes on to say, ask anything in my name, and it will be given to you. Asking his name in prayer.
So that's where we're at. John 16, the conversations have been great. Meal, music message, 06:00. No. It's a worship gathering that's available.
It is you're always invited, and that's tomorrow.
Speaker 3So please join us tomorrow whether in person for the meal or online. We will be broadcasting that online as well on our YouTube channel. And at the same time, Awana, because kids matter to God here in this sanctuary. You can see the tape on the floor. This is where the games are played.
But throughout the whole church other than the fellowship hall, Awana, there's on Monday nights and we're sowing seeds of Jesus into the young minds and hearts of children. So if you want to drop your kids off, I believe it's kindergarten through fifth grade, three three years old through fifth grade for Awana. And in the past years ago, we would hand out paper bulletins, we no longer do, but if you're interested in getting a weekly bulletin, can go to our website which is firstbjackson.org and sign up for those. On those there'll be prayer requests, groups that are happening, young groups, small groups, and also the scripture coming up for this week if you want to read ahead. So go to our website for those weekly bulletins sent out by email.
Also digitally, we are working on our church directory and getting our tax info updates. Out in the lobby, you'll see Nick Stern. He's out there with his computers. If you haven't already in between services, please stop by there, get your picture taken and just give us the latest info so we can put that in our church directory and also so we can get any tax information that you may need for this upcoming tax year.
Speaker 2And please take us up on that offer, really. We want your picture. We we really do. So if you would stop in the back after church.
Speaker 3Every Thursday, there's a small group, Sisters Saved by Grace, meeting in the fellowship hall. They have dinner. They sit and have a small group about just reading in the Bible. And I believe one of the young ladies that goes there is a pastry chef, so the food is good. And also between services there was women women's ministry meeting down in the library.
If you're interested in that, you can get a hold of Nancy Baxter. She was also a part of that Sisters Saved by Grace. And now that we are streaming on YouTube instead of Facebook, Facebook would usually give you notifications that we were up and live and church service was going. We can also get that on YouTube if you go to your YouTube page and click that little bell on the top right hand corner. It'll let you know how to get notifications whenever church is up and running either with a gospel conversation, with Monday nights at first b, or with one of these Sunday services.
And that's all that we have. Carl, what do we say we sing some more?
Speaker 2I'd love to. Thank you, Blake, for sharing those announcements. I said in the first service, it's like he has a voice for radio, doesn't he? Because he does. Alright.
Would you would you stand? We'll sing together. Let's sing that again. Isn't that so good? And that it's so true.
Heartaches and broken pieces and we're all broken. That's why he came. That is why Jesus came and died on Calvary to bring life. I've come to give life and life to the full measure, John ten. He says, it's one of my favorite verses, but it's because it is true.
In him is life. Steve's gonna share that this this morning as well. But before he does, let's sing The Greatest Thing. What a sweet, sweet song. You can have a seat here for a moment.
The greatest thing all my life, to know you is to know him is to love him. To love him is to serve him. I'm gonna hand the mic over here to Claire. Claire's gonna sing special music. I'm gonna move to this mic here just for a moment.
This is the worship through giving part of the service, and I had a verse here I wanted to share from first Thessalonians. It's about God's will for our lives. If you wonder, God, what is your will for my life? Here he he he says, to rejoice always and to pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for us in Christ Jesus. Shall we pray together?
Oh, Lord, we do rejoice this morning, truly. And we can rejoice because of the grace that you've always extended in our direction, the favor that you have always extended toward us, that you're extending right now at this very moment. This is what causes us to rejoice, grace recognized. God, we acknowledge your grace, we recognize your grace, and it causes us to rejoice in you. God, thank you for the unbroken fellowship that we can have with you all day, every day, no matter where we are, no matter what we do.
We can pray continually. There there doesn't have to be a break in the day. As we think of you, as we are going, we can bring absolutely everything to you in prayer. And that's what you desire for us to do. And, God, we're thankful for the ways that you provide.
Oh, Lord, you've brought us this far. You're gonna take us the rest of the way. We're we trust in that. We're confident in that. God, would you receive these gifts, these offerings, and not just the things that we put in the plates, God, but what we have stored up and treasured in our hearts that we would be pouring out.
Would you receive those, God? And may they may they advance your kingdom. May they pour out on others just as you poured in to us. Use these gifts, God. Your your will done your way truly will not lack your supply.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Steve LandisGood morning. How is everybody? Doing good? Well, good morning. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Steve Landis, one of the elders here at First Baptist, and I'm filling in for Ray today.
Glad Ray could be down there with one of our missionaries down in Costa Rica and visiting and preaching, teaching, whatever he's doing there. I'm sure he'll come back with some stories and have fun. But in preparation of Ray going away oh, first off, what else do I need? There's my bride there, my girlfriend of 40 my goodness. 45, almost 40 no.
Wife of 40. Girlfriend of 45. 46 ish. We met high school sweethearts. And matter of fact, it was almost forty six years ago, but I think within the next month or two, she walked into our little midnight church and took my breath away.
And so she has, she's my compass and my friend and some of the things we're talking about today about accountability and that, definitely, she's a huge player in that in my life. So but, anyway, as as Carl as Ray was planning on going away, Carl asked us in an elder meeting, he challenged us and said, you know, as elders, you should have a a message in your pocket so that we can fill in if somebody's sick. If Ray goes away, Ray goes away. So, unfortunately, I'm the first one that volunteered for that this year. And I think next week, Lord willing, you'll have mister Baldock.
And, hopefully, through the year, maybe, for two years, you'll get to see all the elders up here. But, I ask for your grace because it's it doesn't come natural to me as far as all the technology and thing. But one of Carl's request, you know, when somebody asks, what's the Lord been saying to you? Do you have something you wanna share with the congregation? I kinda put you on the spot.
And the next morning, the Lord what I call funked me. The Holy Spirit funked me and got my attention, kinda, you know, smacked me upside the head. They got my attention as as on something that was, you know, going on in my life. I was sliding. I had to deal with the tongue.
I was getting negative, you know, through a summer of lots of, you know, tourists and traffic and things. You know, my heart just kinda slid and got pretty negative. And so that's what the Lord kinda started thumping me with, but I kinda remembered I kinda remember when I was a little kid in church, in a little Mennonite church, we'd sit there, a family of five and three kids. And, you know, if we got a little bit rowdy or whatever, he'd lean over and put his arm out and flick my ear and, you know, and get my attention and, you know, embarrass me a little bit and tell us to settle down. And so it's a gracious thing to do.
The Holy Spirit does that for us. Matter of fact, I found there's the Holy Spirit, there's the holy scriptures, and then there's a little h holy friends that come to us and and correct us and and instruct us. So it's actually two two two messages in one, and I promise I won't I've got more time already now than I did in the first, so we'll be okay. But the first one is that God was teaching me. God what God started to say to me is your words have power, have the power of life and death to build up or to tear down.
And then the second part of that is why should I surrender to transformation, or that's a fancy way of saying repentance. Why should I repent? How do we repent? What what are the you know? So it's a bit of a practical study on conviction moving towards repentance.
So and as the flesh, I don't know if your flesh is like mine, but when I'm when I am, faced with something or someone points something out, there's usually an initial phase of no. That's you know, it's not that bad. It's you know, there's denial. There's resistance. You know, the the the flesh and sin in our lives, it's like the little foxes in the vine.
It's like the toe, you know, the the camel's toe in the or the nose, I guess, in the tent or whatever they say. You know, it starts slow. It might be it might might be little, but eventually, it it typically, if you don't nip it in the bud, it turns it turns bigger. And so it builds. And but our flesh likes to deny things.
And one of the first things the first steps we can take is just stop and listen. And that's very important because number one, we need to listen to the Holy Spirit. We may need to listen to our friends, and, ultimately, we need to listen to the word of God. And we all know these verses that are very, very, especially the second one, second Timothy there, but we'll do the first one first. John sixteen eight, these are, he, the counselor, the Holy Spirit, will convict the world of sin or or of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.
So conviction there is irrefutable evidence or to convince that you will be it's his job. It's not my job to convict somebody of sin. It's his job. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict us of sin. But I wanna encourage you to understand that if you are in Christ, if you have accepted Christ, then you have the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit lives in you, and his job is to do this. So when we are convicted, embrace the conviction that it's evidence that the Holy Spirit is in you and you are God's child. That will help you receive what he's trying to tell you, that it's out of love, it's out of compassion, it's out of mercy, it's out of his grace that he's trying to get you to wake up. It's for your your own good. Second Timothy two I'm sorry.
Second Timothy three sixteen says, all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. So it's not fun. Those things may not be fun. They may not feel good at the time, but they're important, and they're profitable. And and they're moving us in this path, this journey of sanctification.
So embrace embrace the conviction. Embrace the conviction with thanksgiving because it is truth. It is it is God working in us. So for me, what was I being convicted of? What exactly was the Bible saying?
What was he saying to me about my attitudes, my words? So we for me, and this was a couple of months ago, and he's still working on it with me. But first Peter three nine and ten says, do not repay evil for evil or insult for insult, but with blessing or with speaking well of because to this you are called so that you may inherit a blessing. For whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil, must keep his tongue from being injurious or harmful, and he must keep his lips from speaking lies. And Ephesians four twenty nine says, do not let any unwholesome talk, where literally it means rotten expression.
Don't let any rotten expression come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their need that it may benefit those who listen. So when we go to God's word, we get his perspective. We get his, yes, a lot of times there's commands. A lot of times there's rebukes. Don't do this.
Don't do that. K? But what I love about this first one in Peter there, it is a conviction that's mixed with truth of position. Okay? Linked to the why.
Okay? Let me explain that. So basically, he says, don't let any evil you know, don't don't repay evil for evil or insult for insult. Why? Because you're called.
And what are we called to? Well, so that you may inherit a blessing. We've we need to remind ourselves. Okay? So God, though he convicts us, he also offers us the invite of remember.
Remember why. Remember what I've done for you. Remember why you should not repay evil for evil. And so I had to ask myself, Steve, are these are your words building up, or are they tearing down? James three, nine, and 10.
This is a little bit long, but it's good. And says we stumble in many ways. Oh, boy. That's true. We all stumble in many ways.
And if anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man able to keep his whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses, we make them obey us. We can turn the whole animal. Or take a ship as an example. Although they are so large and driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.
Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, and it makes great boasts. Consider what great a forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of its life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. With the tongue, we praise our our lord and our father, and with it, we curse men who are made have been made in God's likeness.
Out of the same mouth come praise and cursings. My brother, this should not be. So here, these become strong words. If you sit there and contemplate this, now Jesus takes well, in this case, it's James. Jesus through James.
Okay? The Holy Spirit through James is giving a lot of time to our tongue and how important it is, what we say. Are we are we speaking life? Are we speaking death? Are we building up?
Are we tearing down? The word edification means to build up. Okay? The word slander means to tear down. So are we are we being negative?
Are we being you know, are we again, are we speaking life, building, constructing, or are we taking and tearing down? But here, we look at the tongue. It's a bridle. It's a bit. He refers to it as a rudder, a spark, and a fire.
And what I love about verse six there well, I don't know that I love about it, but it's, it's just brutally honest. It's a the fire, the world of evil, and it corrupts the whole body. So the world of evil there is iniquity or injustice. Okay? So our tongue he's telling us, I think, very honestly, look.
Pay attention because your tongue can be used for to pull things to pull things down and to corrupt, and it can corrupt the whole person. It can stain or soil or defile the whole person. So he he gives us some insight into how important this little this little instrument of our body is. Next one is in Luke six. And Luke six is the one it's the verse where he talks about the beam versus the speck in your brother's eye.
You're trying to take a speck out when you got a beam in yours and the good tree and the bad tree and the good good fruit and bad fruit. And it says this, the the good or the beneficial man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil or harmful things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if you wanna know what's in your heart, listen to your words. Ask somebody else.
How how's my speech? How are my words affecting you? What kind of impact am I having on you? What kind of impact do my words have? Are they encouraging?
Are they discouraging? Do they tear down? And the very interesting thing in that, the it's several words in in English. It says, stored up in your heart. That word is actually actually in some translations, treasure or treasury, a deposit or a depository.
So out of our heart, you know, we've I'm 61 years old. I've lived life. There's been a lot of deposits in my heart, good experiences, bad experiences. And out of those experiences, out of those things that have been deposited into my heart, it says here, you speak. As the overflow of a heart, the man speaks.
So if you've got a lot of bad stuff that's been deposited in your heart, bad's gonna come out. K? If a lot and it's our job to allow the Holy Spirit, but we're to feed on Jesus. Jesus said, feed on me when we take communion. It says, feed on my flesh.
Drink my blood. He wasn't talking literally. He was saying, ingest my words. Replace what is in your heart with what's in God's heart. And, again, we have the Holy Spirit.
We should be encouraged by that, and we should embrace that that he's going to encourage us with that. So if you listen to the words, your words, it will reveal what's in your heart. Way back in Pennsylvania as a youth leader, I remember one of one of the better things and stuck in my head, we went to a winter youth retreat, and and I I did the the what's the word I'm looking for? Title or whatever. The theme that weekend was GI Joe.
Garbage in, garbage out. Okay? Trying to teach young people that where you spend your time, what you put in your brain, what you put in your heart is gonna come out. So if you have bad friends, bad music, bad literature, you're gonna have garbage come out. If you put garbage in, it's gonna come out.
If you put good stuff in, it's gonna come out. That will come out. So it was for me, as a teacher, that was very impactful as well. The question is, what are we feeding? Are we feeding the flesh?
Are we feeding the spirit? What was what was God convicting me of? He was the that my words were tearing down. They were being negative. They weren't being they weren't edifying.
They weren't building up. So the next step after we find out what God's perspective is and and we practice listening, the next step is to remember. We need to encourage ourselves. We need to know enough of God's word that we remember and we ask ourselves, okay. Why should I surrender to transformation?
Why should I repent? Why should I turn a 180 degrees? And we have to remember that sin is never committed in a vacuum. Sin is committed against each other. Ultimately, every sin is against God, but we sin against each other.
And, ultimately, again, we sin against God. So the next one, we're gonna we're gonna remember and remember what God's word says of what is true. Okay? Why should we change? Okay.
These rememberings are why should we surrender to transformation. John fifteen sixteen and seventeen says, you did not choose me, but I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command, love each other. We also should remember, and this this is just a short this is just a short list.
You can go find a longer list of things to remember. And depending on what sin you're struggling with, do the word study and then find out what his because God will season things with the promises, with the rebuke. Ephesians one three. Praise be to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realm with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him, as Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the rights of Jesus or I'm sorry, of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. So when we accept Christ's penal or his payment for our sin, and he took the penalty for our sin. Through his blood, we have been chosen in him. We have been adopted as his sons.
So these are all the things, the positions that we need to remember, and and they motivate us to change. We have been redeemed. We have been forgiven from sin. Verse, in the middle of that one, I think it's verse four there, it says, holy and blameless. And we need to remember that because I don't feel holy and blameless.
I don't that's you know, I go through my day. I feel dirty and frustrated and defeated most of the time. But this is positionally, and so we again, we need to remember positionally where we are. And sanctification or holiness is a journey while we're on this life. But Hebrews ten fourteen gives us a glimpse that there's two parts of that sanctification.
And Hebrews ten fourteen says, he has made perfect forever. Actually, it says through one sacrifice, that's his sacrifice on the cross. He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. So perfect forever means that's our position. God looks at us.
He sees the righteousness of Christ. Okay? He does not see our sin any longer. And yet he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. That's the walk in this life on this earth.
So it's the walking out. It's the practical sense that we haven't arrived. Okay? We're all just beggars looking for food, telling other people this is where we found food. We're all a mess.
We we we need to but we need to realize that he's called us to holiness and to and to be blameless in his sight. So this journey of sanctification, this is where, for me, you've got the Holy Spirit, you've got the holy scriptures, and little h holy people. And people are important because we need we need each other. We need accountability partners. One of those I'm gonna I'm gonna pick on well, the Lord has blessed me with with many handful of people who I can turn to, and I can ask for prayer.
I can tell them. I can share with them that I'm struggling, and that's a that's a blessing. And if you don't have one, you need to find one. And, but when I when I I'm gonna read these verses here that I just turned to, and this reminded me of one person in particular, and his name is Joe Kravetsky. And as if you know Joe, you know he recently died suddenly, left his, wife Janet and son Joe little Joe and and Jake and some brothers and sisters that are here in town.
And so I just wanna take the time to ask you to pray for them. But I in the last year, I've gotten to know Joe, and Joe just was what these verses when I read these verses about being an ambassador, it reminded me so much of Joe. And I was so, grateful for Joe because he would just tell it like it was, and yet he loved the word of God and he loved people. And it says in second Corinthians, therefore, if anyone was in anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.
All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors. As though God were making his appeal through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God. God made him who has no sin to be sin for us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.
The him there in '21 is Jesus, obviously. But this this just and when I read this and knowing getting to know Joe in the last year, he was an ambassador. He was, what I loved about Joe is he was honest, sometimes brutally honest, but he was compassionate. He knew what he had found in Jesus, and he wanted to share that with other people. And he had a heart for other people to come to know Jesus.
And I I kind of labeled him as the bus barn evangelist or the ambassador because he was constantly stirring the pot. He was constantly asking me about God. He was constantly asking, and he just had that passion. And, so he, as it says, iron sharpens iron, we need people like that in our lives. When we'd come together for Bible study, Sandy and I and Janet and Joe had a Bible study in revelation the same time Ray was going through revelation.
Was rather interesting. And, and we just spar and we talk. And and, you know, with him, it was just a natural iron sharpening iron. And he challenged me. And, so I'm very grateful to have gotten to know Joe.
So we have been reconciled to God. Therefore, because we have been reconciled, we know what that means, we now have the ministry. We now need to invite other people to be reconciled to God. And whether we like it or not, we're his ambassadors. We represent God to the world around us.
And so people are watching, and we need to we need to remember that, and we need to understand it. Next thing to remember is we are overcomers. They, the they there is the beast and the world rulers during the great tribulation, they will make war against the lamb. But the lamb will overcome them because he is the Lord of lords and the king of kings. And with him will be his called, his chosen, and faithful followers.
In the end, we need to remember that we're on the winning side. We are more than conquerors, and we are already victorious. The victory is secure. We also need to remember that Jesus is coming back for his church. Titus two eleven to 14 says, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
It, meaning the grace of God, is what teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own eager to do what is good. So several things here. It's the grace of God that leads us to to live upright, godly, and holy lives. It's not the the judgment of God. The judgment punishes you for what you've already done, but it's the grace of God that calls us into the godliness and holiness because that's in Christ.
The other thing is here, it's the blessed hope, the glorious appearing. This world is not our home. We were not built for a sinful world. We were built for communion and union with a with a holy God apart from sin, but we messed that up. But he is coming.
Our blessed hope is that he is going to appear. He's one day going to come for his church. And also to remember that he's his desire is not to leave us in our sinful state. His desire is to purify us and and to make us holy. I can't imagine what I mean, who wants to go to a an eternity where there's sin?
I don't. So the next one is remembering that Jesus, again, is coming for his church in in second Thessalonians. This one gives us a little bit more information. According to the Lord's own words, we tell you that we who are still alive and who are left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep or who are dead. So Joe gets to go up first.
The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage each other with these words. One of the things I remember about our study is Joe and I were wrestling with, well, you believe in pre trib, mid trib, post trib, no trib, blah blah blah.
You know? Any rapture, no rapture, all that. And we we wrestled with it. But, Joe, I had to appreciate his heart because he had such a heart for people. He's like, we need to be here.
We need to be telling people about Jesus. Jesus. We need to be we need to be here. I don't I don't think we're getting out of here that easy. You know?
And so we we I said, well, it says, Joe, that we are caught up, and we wrestle with it. And it was and it was it was a good sparring. But I believe that the the word that these verses teach that the day of the Lord is our blessed hope. The day of the Lord is his returning for the church. It's not when he comes to squash in Armageddon, but he comes to snatch or catch up.
It says here catch up. That word in in the Greek is harpazo. In the Latin, people say, well, rapture is not in the church. Well, they're not in the Bible. It is in Latin because that word in the Greek is harpazo.
In Latin, it's rapturos, and it means to snatch away or to pluck out or to catch up. And it says here that he will come and snatch us out, and he's gonna meet us in the clouds. Not when he touches down on the Mount Of Olives, he's meeting us in the clouds in the air. And so and this is the part that this is this is my this is what I look forward to. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
At after this event, we will never be separated from our Lord. We will always be with him. And it says, encourage one another with these words. That encourages me. That make gives me hope.
Going through the tribulation, I told Joe, Joe, if I'm going through the tribulation, I'm dead within the first year. I mean, I'm gone. I I'm sorry. I don't have that much fight in me, I don't think. I don't know.
Bless the Lord. But, anyway, it's good to spar. Iron sharpens iron. And, anyway, we are to encourage one another with these words. I also believe that he's coming for his church because of these verses.
And, again, this is all to remember, remind ourselves, this world's not our home. He's gonna come for us. He's coming back. We, the church, will escape the wrath of God. In first Thessalonians five, it says, for God did not appoint us, and we are the in us as the in Christ ones.
We did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's another verse. There's other verses. First Thessalonians one ten says Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath. And, also, Romans five nine says, since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him?
So over and over again in the Bible, he says, the wrath that's to come that's talked about and we can debate when that is, where that is, but it's God's wrath coming on ungodly men. That is not for us. We have already been judged. We have passed, as the Bible says, from death to life. And we should remember that, and we should be grateful, and that should motivate us to live godly lives.
Why? Because there are people who are lost. Next one is I'm just gonna I'm gonna read through this without too much comment. It's two slides, but it it's so good. Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you, and I have written both of them as reminders.
There's remembering to stimulate you to what? Wholesome thinking. Wholesome thinking produces wholesome actions because
Speaker 2out of
Steve Landisa man's heart, so he speaks. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our lord and savior through your apostles. First of all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires, and they will say, where's this coming he promised? Because ever since our fathers died, everything goes on it has as it has since the beginning of creation. But they deliberately forgot that long ago, by God's word, the heavens existed, and the earth was formed out of water and and with water.
And the water so isn't that interesting that they deliberately forgot create the creator? They deliberately deny creation, and we're seeing that today. Verse six, by water also the world of that time was flooded or deluged and destroyed. By the same word, the present heavens and earth are received by for fire I'm sorry. Reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Do not forget this one thing, dear friends, that the that the Lord with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. Rather, he is patient with you wanting not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar.
The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way that's a good question or actually a good statement. What kind of people ought we to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of the Lord, day of God, and you speed his coming or his appearing. Why should we live holy lives?
Because by living holy lives by God's grace, more people are saved. When more people are saved, we will speed his coming. We need to bring people to salvation. After we listen and remember, we repent. So there's judgment.
We need to remember our time is not guaranteed. Our time is short. Joe died suddenly. He didn't I mean, he he was ready to go. He knew his savior, but he died suddenly.
He wasn't we're not guaranteed the next day. The Lord could come back tomorrow. We're not guaranteed the next day. People are lost. We need to get people to Jesus.
So the next one is repenting. So now we move from listening, understanding where God's what God's view is, and then moving towards repentance. In Jude one, it says, but you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourself in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt and snatch others from the fire and save them.
As we surrender to the Holy Spirit, we surrender to his transformation. We reconnect with the vine. Remembering our, remembering motivates us to love and good deeds and to produce fruit. So the fruit we're to producing is save souls. That's that's the fruit.
It is the fruit of the spirits, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, all those things. That should exude from us as we are in the word and as we are connected to the vine. If you're not in Christ so my question is, are you in Christ? If you're in Christ, these things are true about you. Through the blood of Jesus, in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit.
We have been chosen. We have been adopted into his family. We are coheirs with Jesus. You could spend a day just meditating, word search on that. Coheirs.
What is Jesus' is ours through the blood of Jesus Christ. It has been appropriated. It has it has been deposited into our bank account. Okay? And if we go back to that verse in in I think it was in Ephesians, it talked about having every spiritual blessing.
That means God has deposited into your depository, into your bank account everything you need for godliness and goodness and holiness. Are we accessing it? If someone were to come up to you and put a trillion dollars into your bank account, would you begin using it? Would you begin giving it away? And I think sometimes I use that analogy for myself because I forget.
I feel I grew up on a dairy farm. We were poor. We didn't have much, and so we lived like paupers. Somehow, God provided and he sustained, but sometimes sometimes I still think that way, and I real I have to realize, God no. God has blessed me, and I need to bless others.
I need to have open hand, and I need to give to someone who's hurting. I need to give to someone who's in need. And so, spiritually, you have been you have been deposited. It has been it has been deposited into your account everything you need to live a godly holy life because Jesus has purchased it and has done it for you. Okay?
We should not be living like paupers. But because of that, when we remember that and we begin to live, then we need we also need to reach out to other people and show them that grace, that mercy. We have the Holy Spirit, because we have been chosen, because we are ambassadors, because we will escape the wrath of God, we should be reaching out and being those ambassadors to those around us. And if we believe this, then we will gladly and joyfully want to obey him, to please him, and save others from the fire in the time that we have left. If I am abiding in the vine and I'm depositing good new then good nutrients are being deposited into my heart, remembering truth, then I will produce good fruit.
So the last part is reproduction. We're we are to be spiritually reproducing. We are to be making disciples and sending out and replicating, re replicating the faith that Jesus has given us, reconciling others. We don't do this by tearing down people. So this is what God was showing me.
No. You need to speak life. You need to speak blessing. You need to build up, construct versus demolish. Okay?
Need to look at our our words in our life in that respect. And in first John, five eleven and twelve, whenever somebody asks me, how do I know I can go to heaven? This verse has become very precious to me in my younger years when I was my faith was shaken. I came upon this verse, and it's this. And this is the testimony God has given us eternal life.
This life is in his son. He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son of God does not have life. The next verse is just as precious because he said, I tell you these things so that you may know that you have eternal life. But first John five eleven says this, you have Jesus, you have eternal life.
You don't have Jesus, you don't have eternal life. So my prayer is for all of us who are in Christ that we would remember. And let me just let me just go back a little bit on the remembering one. If you go all way back to Genesis five somewhere I missed it. Did I skip a page?
Guess. All the way back in Genesis five, here it is. When God said I created man, I created him male and female. K? The the Hebrew word for male is zakar, which means the one remembered or to mark or to highlight.
I like to use the word branded. God branded us. He put his brand on man, and he said, you're remembered. I kinda think I don't if you guys know Toy Story, but Toy Story had a little doll named Woody. He was a cowboy.
And Andy, the human, turned him upside down and wrote his name Andy on his foot on the bottom of his boot. Okay? It was a kind of a special part in the movie when he lifts up his foot and remembers because he thought Andy has forgotten about him, but he remembered he was Andy's toy. And that's the picture here that God has branded us. We are his as men.
Men, we need to. Men in the room, you are uniquely called to remember because you are the one who is remembered. Okay? So as men, we are the ones who need to remind those around us. We need to remind ourselves.
We need to remind our spouses. We need to remind our children and our people around us of what God's word says. And if we don't know it, we can't remind them. It's important. All through scripture, says, remember.
James says, go back and do the things if you've lost your first love. Or that's in Revelation. If you lost your first love, go back and do the things you did at first. Requires remembering. Remembering is a very important part of our Christian walk, and God calls us to that.
So those of you who are in Christ, that's our motivation. Our motivation is what Christ has done for us, and we should go out now with open hands and open hearts and share that. If you don't know Christ today and you don't have peace with God, then I urge you to consider his invitation to be reconciled to him today. His patience, his long suffering, his delay in coming back is an open hand of grace to you for salvation. And today, Jesus is patiently offering you that forgiveness and salvation.
And we don't know we don't know when our last breath is. We don't know if Jesus will come back tomorrow and take us to meet him in the air. But the Bible says and that's I believe that's why the Bible says that today is the day of salvation because we are not guaranteed tomorrow. And I think a lot of times we think, oh, you know, we just kinda get in this rut that it's just gonna continue on like this. And one day, we're either gonna die, we're gonna leave this earth, we're gonna be caught up to meet him in the air, in the clouds, or judgment's gonna come.
So I plead with you that if you talk to anybody around you, if you don't know the Lord today, if you're not sure, you don't have peace with God, if you're not reconciled with God, talk to anybody around you today, and we'll be glad to point you to him. Let us pray. Heavenly father, we are so grateful for your plan of salvation. Thank you for being patient with us. Thank you for being long suffering with us.
You have you have died on the cross, paid the penalty for our sin. You have removed it as far as the East is from the West. You have taken this dead person, and you've made him alive. And you promised that to anyone who comes to you. Lord, I pray that you would help us to live lives that are walking with you, that are sensitive to your Holy Spirit, that are feeding on your word, Lord, that are surrounding ourselves with people, who are pointing us in the same direction.
Lord, forgive us for our sins. I I need to ask you for forgiveness for my words and my attitudes. And I pray that you will continue to transform me, continue to transform us, Lord, to make us holy and blameless in your sight so that we would draw all men to yourself. Lord, as as we lift you up, you will draw men to yourself. It's not us.
It's you. I'm grateful for this church, grateful for these folks. I pray that these words will challenge us and encourage us at the same time. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 2Thank you, Steve. And will you say we stand and and we'll sing one closing song? Have Thine Own Way, a very, very appropriate closer, I think, Amen. And for the benediction, Blake, would you share that benediction from first Thessalonians for us?
Speaker 3My pleasure. First Thessalonians chapter five sixteen through 24. Be joyous always. Be joyful always. Pray continually.
Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the spirit's fire, test everything, hold on to the good, avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who called you is faithful, and he will do
