Fan or Follower, Part 2

Well, thank you, Hanson family, that beautiful special music. You know, we, in our travels, we get a chance to see we really are very blessed in this area to have so much special music and to have so many opportunities to have special music. You know, a lot of the areas just don't have it, you know, and it's really nice. Sometimes I think we take it for granted, but it is definitely a blessing to have. Well, brethren, the last time that I was here, the last time that I spoke in Salem, we considered the concept of Christians, whether they were Sabbath-keeping or not, in the world today, falling onto this continuum that went from, on one end, enthusiastic admirers, what we termed fans, to, on the other end, what we would term followers. And we examined what defined someone as a fan. We concluded that a fan was an individual who was hesitant to make the necessary commitment to the way of life that Christ has called us to lead, that they were interested in the benefits provided, but maybe not willing to make the sacrifice necessary to obtain them. They professed to love God, they professed to love their neighbors, but the weightier matter of the law are truly lacking in their life.

On the other hand, the follower was the person whose life and actions truly reflected their belief.

Instead of putting on a mask once a week, going to church and going through the motions, the follower truly lives the way of life that they profess to believe in, not just in public, but behind closed doors when they are accountable to no one else but themselves and God.

Their beliefs are reflected in their actions. And we took a look at various examples within scripture of individuals that filled both of these camps. We looked at Abraham, we looked at Elisha, we looked at Nicodemus, we looked at Simon. And the overall purpose of the last message, the first in this series, was to simply introduce the topic and to get us thinking about it and allow us to kind of take a look at this continuum and try to make a diagnosis as to where we fall on it, wherever that happens to be. As the message progressed, we visited a number of passages that showed us time and time again that what Christ desires in His followers, His disciples, was that He wanted committed followers. He wanted people who were willing to let that self die each and every day and do the will of the Father. Not just when it's easy, not just when it's convenient, and most importantly, not on their own terms.

See, in this relationship, God gets to define the terms. And we don't get to see other people.

The final thing we left off with last time was the idea that we're all called from very different places, very different backgrounds, very different overall places. Some of us maybe get the ball on the 50-yard line, some of us get the ball on the 10-yard line. But we also said that regardless of where we got the ball, that we were expected to move that ball forward. Regardless of where we got the ball, we were expected to move that ball forward. And so where the focus on the last message was more the topic of diagnosing where we are. The focus of this message is moving the ball. Practical ways that we can move that ball forward. How do we pick ourselves up and how do we march up field through the attacks, through the struggles, and gain ground? During this message today, I'd like to dig a bit further into this topic. But this time, we're focused on examining the tangible things that we can do that will help us to make the spiritual gains that we need. The title of the message today, which is the second part in this series, is fan or follower moving the ball. Moving the ball. And so in the time we have remaining today, we'll take a look at three points. We'll examine three different ways to move the ball forward. Kind of ways for us to become and work more towards becoming a dedicated follower and just never looking back. Recognizing that even if we do find ourselves as we do our little self-diagnosis, maybe towards that follower side of things, recognizing there's always room for improvement. There's always room for spiritual growth because in this life we are expected to grow right up until our last dying breath. That kind of dedication requires us to do three things.

Those are the points of our message today. It requires us to be unencumbered. Unencumbered.

It requires us to be unmasked. And it requires us to be unified. Unencumbered, unmasked, and unified.

Now, we all recognize we're all called with a certain amount of baggage from our past.

We're all called with a certain amount of baggage from our past. Some may carry a carry-on. Others may have three suitcases to carry on and a personal item. But regardless of the amount of baggage that we're carrying around, no matter what, we all bring some degree of our previous life with us when we've been called. And this can be a strength. It can be a strength because we all have different experiences. We all have different education levels. We all have different job things that we've done in the past. If we're not careful, though, our past can be a detriment as well.

That past life and all of its continued encumbrances can crop up again and again and cause us to continue to struggle. Several years ago, there was a movie that came out with Will Smith. Many of you probably saw it. It's called The Pursuit of Happiness. Will Smith played the main character in the movie. And the movie told the real-life story of Chris Gardner. And Chris Gardner is a young African-American man whose early life was extremely difficult. His early life was extremely difficult. In fact, when he was eight years old, his mother tried to burn their home down in order to kill his stepfather. Obviously, she was discovered. She was arrested. She was sent to prison. And because she was the only stable force in his life, when she went to prison, things spun out of control for Chris. He did manage to graduate high school despite the chaos of bouncing from home to home to home during those four years. But he made it, I mean, despite all of the hardships and everything else. He married. He had a young child. He began his pursuit of the job as a stockbroker. He was interested in finance. And in the process of working on that job, trying to raise his young son, his wife left him. He became homeless. And while trying to take care of his son on the streets, he works to become a partner in a brokerage. Well, long story short, he passes his test. He's offered the position which he accepts. And now, today, he fast-forward to today, Chris Gardner owns his own brokerage firm. He overcame all of those things that were trying to hold him back, those encumbrances of his early life. He overcame those circumstances, and he didn't let his past define him. And brethren, we have two choices when it comes to our life as well. We can either continue to reflect on the difficulties of our past. In other words, we can drag that ball and chain around with us as we walk through life. Or with God's help, we can choose to move past those things, to literally walk away from our past and to keep our focus forward. We have to live a life that is unencumbered. We have to live a life that is unencumbered. We have to leave the past where it belongs in the past. Let's turn over to 2 Corinthians. We'll start in 2 Corinthians 5 today. So if you turn over to 2 Corinthians 5.

2 Corinthians 5. We'll pick it up in verse 17. But 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 says, God planned for our reconciliation to Him. He knows our past. He knows the things that we've dealt with. He knows we're not perfect. He knows that we may have come from very difficult circumstances, very rough backgrounds. But He called us anyway. Despite all of that, He called us anyway. And what He called us to do is to turn and walk away from that, to overcome it, and to become a new creation. You know, in the book we mentioned last time, not a fan, the author, Kyle Itelman, brought up a really interesting point about Matthew, one of the disciples. Because, you know, Matthew was offered an invitation as well, just like us. And he had some incredible circumstances to overcome. When we come across Matthew in Matthew 9, verse 9, we first see that Matthew was employed as a tax collector. That's how we are introduced to Matthew. He's sitting at his little tax booth, collecting taxes. And, you know, the tax collector in this time period was one of the most despised people in the land. They were despised, absolutely despised. They were viewed as traitors. They were viewed as Roman lackeys. And, in a way, they were both traitors and Roman lackeys. It was an interesting system. The Romans would levy a tax on a certain area, based on this formula, and conclude that this whole entire area owes X number of dollars in tax. Whatever that happened to be, based on the formula. Then what they would do is they would auction off the right to collect that tax to the highest bidder. So they would auction it off to the highest bidder to be able to have the privilege of collecting the tax. And because those tax rates weren't set in stone, tax collectors could arbitrarily change them. They could inspect goods passing through that area and decide to levy random tariffs on it as they were passing through. Anything you collected above the actual tax, you get to keep.

So an unscrupulous person could become very, very wealthy as a tax collector. But even if you were an honest tax collector, it didn't matter. You were still working for the Romans. And because these Romans required your collections at the end of the year, let's say you maybe were a little behind on collecting your tax for that year, and the deadline is, you know, a week, two weeks away.

Some of the tax collectors, according to the history, were known to use force. So they would really make sure that they got their tax out of the people by roughing them up a little bit to make sure that they got their money. As a result, tax collectors were not well-liked. They were considered to be living a life of sin, and those that were Jewish, in fact, were not allowed to attend services at the synagogue. They were actually blocked from attending services at the synagogue. They were really almost worse off than Gentiles at this point in time.

So here we have Matthew. We have the example of Matthew. And when we analyze the writings that are recorded, we learn a few things about Matthew. Matthew is an interesting case. There are more references to the Old Testament in the book of Matthew than in any other book of the Gospels. Matthew has more references to the Old Testament than any other book. He was well-educated. His Gospel is written in Greek, despite the prevailing language at that time being Aramaic.

We know also that he spoke and very probably wrote in Hebrew. There are certain details recorded by Matthew that are not recorded by other Gospel writers. In fact, one of them, for example, is the contract for Judas. He records the amount. He was a numbers guy. He picked up numbers and things like that, contract details, things like that.

His account is the only one that includes those. Just things that would be interesting to a numbers guy. Let's go over to... Keep your finger in Matthew. Let's go over to Mark 2. Let's go ahead and pop over to Mark 2 real quick. We learned something else about Matthew that's really interesting in the book of Mark. Mark 2. Mark 2 will pick it up in verse 14. Mark 2, verse 14. Basically, this is the same exact account as Matthew 9, except that it's Mark's account. So it says... Matthew...

I'm sorry. Mark 2, verse 14. It says, So we see that Matthew was his son of Alphaeus, and he had an original given name of Levi. Original given name of Levi. And this could explain the reason for his education, why he was so educated. If he was given the name Levi, given the significance of that name, it's very possible that Matthew's life was set aside from birth for service to God. Again, we don't know for absolute certain, but it could have been that he was to be a member of the priesthood. And if that were the case, he would have known the Torah from a very young age, which would explain why he had so many of the Old Testament references in his writing.

You know, if Christ began to quote something from the Old Testament, he'd just go, Oh, yeah, there it is! Start writing it down by memory. He would have learned to read and write well. And in his teen years, he would have become a disciple to a rabbi somewhere along the line, learned the ropes, and become a member of the priesthood. But when we see Matthew in Matthew 9-9, that's not the case. When we see Matthew in Matthew 9, he's a tax collector. Something went wrong. Now, in the book that we mentioned last time, again, not a fan, it's the author's Kyle Eitelman.

He speculates that when it came time, possibly, for Matthew and his young life to join a rabbi right around his kind of teenage years, to become part of this Talmadim, which is a group of disciples that followed rabbis at that time, maybe he didn't make the cut. For whatever reason, he didn't make the cut. Couldn't get a rabbi to take him on. Maybe due to his Galilean descent. Maybe. We don't know. And we don't know for sure, and it is speculation, but it does offer an interesting possibility. If that were the case, if that were the case, and he was unable to get a rabbi to take him on, his options in life suddenly went from numerous to, what do I do now?

What do I do now? We do know that for somewhere along the line, Matthew began to serve himself rather than to serve God. He became a tax collector. You can imagine he became an incredible disappointment to his parents. You don't get to hear about, you know, Alfea so much in Scripture with this, but you can't imagine they were happy to hear that their son had become a tax collector. He joined a profession that was a byword, really, among his own people, hustling his own countrymen out of money.

But in Matthew 9.9, we see an incredible, incredible statement. Matthew 9, verse 9. I hear a lot of you didn't keep your finger there. I can hear it. I can hear the pages turning. That's all right. I didn't either. Mine are turning, too. Matthew 9, verse 9, again, just the same account that Mark had. Matthew 9.9 says, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.

And he said to him, Follow me. So he arose and he followed him. Now, Christ knew exactly who and what he was. He knew exactly who he was talking to. There was no question. He's sitting at a tax booth. You know exactly who the person is. But he called him anyway. Christ walks up to Matthew. Maybe Matthew's heard of him. Maybe he's seen him around town, seen all the amazing things that Christ has done. Maybe he's seen him walking the streets, healing the blind, healing the leper, taking care of the sick and the poor.

And he sees that this rabbi is doing something differently than before. And instead of having to seek him out, having to apply, having to go through this just rigorous selection process to become one of his tamadim, instead this rabbi comes right up to him at his tax booth and utters two simple words, follow me.

We see Matthew's response at the end of verse 9 and into verse 10. End of 9 says, so he arose and he followed him. No negotiation. Just leave that life behind. Stand and follow. Now we go into verse 10. It says, now as it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, it seems like quite a jump when you look at this. There's a little bit of context we can get from another passage.

But it says, now what happened is Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. So we see that not only did Matthew stand up, he left his table, he chose to follow God, and then he invited Christ to his house and threw a huge feast, threw a big dinner, and a celebration with a whole bunch of other tax collectors and sinners, which, if you're a tax collector in those days, may be your only friends. And so he throws this huge banquet. In fact, it's funny because Matthew is very humble, too.

You can see in here, he describes it, well, when he sat at the table in the house. You know, Luke 5 describes it as a huge feast and a banquet thrown in Christ's honor. You know, Matthew's like, ah, it's no big deal. It was just dinner. But Luke 5 describes it as a huge feast. But we see in verse 11, the Pharisees call him out on it. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, why did your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

When Jesus heard that, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Christ informs them when it comes to whom he is planning on calling, that he's planning on calling sinners, the spiritually broken, the ones in need of a doctor.

And brethren, that's us. That's us. We sometimes get this idea that we're so righteous, that God has called us. Take that world. I have the truth. I have all of these things. And we can get to a point where if we're not careful, we get ourselves up on this little pedestal. And we kind of look down our nose at the world around us. You know, because of the truth that we've been provided and the grace that we've been given. But we were called because we were broken. We were called because we were broken.

Because we're not the mighty of the world. So that God can do amazing things through our weakness.

Matthew was broken, and God put him back together. He walked away from his past. He left his tax-collecting days in the dust. And he went ahead and he undid that chain attached to his ankle from his past, that he was just dragging around. It most admit much of his adult life. But he left behind that baggage, his failures, his shortcomings. He became a new creation in Christ and he moved that ball forward.

But in addition to being unencumbered, it's also extremely important that we unmask. It's extremely important that we unmask. And sadly, religion and hypocrisy go hand in hand. It's been that way for a long time and it's nothing new. There's a very famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi that when asked why he didn't convert to Christianity, because much of the teachings that Gandhi had were very Christian in their approach. It was very peaceful, very loving others and helping the poor. He was very Christian in their approach.

And so a reporter once asked him, well, how come you're not a Christian? And his response is sobering. It was kind of thought-provoking. He said, I like your Christ. I don't like your Christians. They're nothing like your Christ. I like your Christ, but I don't like your Christians because your Christians are nothing like your Christ. Gandhi can see it, or could see it, and so can we.

Many professing Christians today are nothing like Christ. That was the essence of the book, not a fan. When it comes to interactions with our fellow man, it's unnatural for us to turn the other cheek. It's unnatural for us not to seek revenge, for us to do good unto others. It's foreign to human nature.

Human nature is me, me, me, self, self, self. But we've been called to something else, and it's God's Holy Spirit in our life that allows us to begin to make gains in this area. But if we're not letting that spirit lead us, if we're not letting that spirit lead us, or we're ignoring it, maybe we hear the spirit talk it to us with, Shh, quiet, quiet, no, shh. We'll see a life that looks a lot like the rest of the world around us, only it'll be labeled Christian, and it'll be a terrible example for other people.

Christ had a word for these folks in Scripture. He called them hypocrites. It's not a nice word. You hear that word, and you go, hhuhuhuh. Not a nice word, but it is what it is. The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word hupokrisis.

Hupokrisis. It means to play a part or to be an actor. It means to play a part or to be an actor. And so a person who was in a Greek play was hupokrisis. They were playing a part. They were acting. And Greek plays were famous for their use of masks. In fact, that's the symbol for theater today, is the little happy mask and the sad mask. And that's the Greek for comedy and tragedy. And so that was the way they were able to tell when one character was being differentiated from another.

You'd put one mask on if you were one person, and then you'd put the next mask on if you were another. And so that was their way of seeing who was playing a part. Two different masks, two different characters, but underneath that mask was the actor. That was the person. And they were hupokrisis. They were playing a part. It's kind of the world in which we live today, if you really think about it.

I mean, people in the world today are playing a part. Many people walk around wearing masks all day long. They wear a mask to make themselves appear more well-off than they really are. You know, I see this all the time at the school that I teach at. We're in a low-income, real low-income area, and our kids put on a really good front. They don't want other people to know that they live in somewhat abject poverty. So they come to school, and they've got brand-new $100 beat headphones, and they've got a brand-new lid, and they've got these really nice jackets, and these $140 Jordan sneakers, and brand-new clothing, and brand-new this and brand-new that, and their parents drive up in a brand-new Escalade.

And all of it is to show that I'm not really poor. Look at all these things I have. It's a mask. It's a mask. They can't afford to eat half the time. They're wearing a mask. They're playing a part. Some people wear a mask to make themselves look better than they are. Oftentimes, maybe they're wearing a mask to make themselves appear more righteous than they really are.

On the outside, maybe people look real pious. They might appear to be living right, but behind closed doors, that mask comes off, and it's a facade. They're really just fans, but they've got a follower mask on. They're not truly following God. They just work really, really hard to make it look that way. And I've been there. I've been there. You know, there was a time in my life where my church attendance was mostly a facade.

I wasn't living really anywhere close to the life that God had called me to lead. Six days a week, I did what I wanted to do. Contrary to what God wanted me to do. But one day a week, one day a week, I put on my church mask, put on my suit, and I did for one day what God wanted me to do. I cleaned up my act. I made it look as though, you know, put on a great show, and then I went home and I promptly took off my mask.

You know, I think I don't know if I've mentioned this here or not. I don't know if I have. Well, you'll all know here in a minute. I once chose to attend the Feast of Tabernacles in Kelowna because the drinking age was 19. That was my sole decision for attending the Feast of Tabernacles in that place that year. Two years earlier than if I'd go in the U.S. I looked back on that time in my life and I just shake my head. What I was thinking, where I was, what I was trying to even do. I felt like I had everybody fooled. I felt like I had everybody fooled that I was doing such a great job of playing church that no one knew.

It turns out I was really wrong. I was baptized at the Feast of Tabernacles in Bend not long after that. This little older woman from the Spokane congregation came running up to me after it was announced at surfaces that day. She gave me this huge hug and just said, we thought you'd never make it. In retrospect, the math that I was wearing may not have been as good as I thought it was. From that moment forward, I have worked hard to eradicate those parts of my life that aren't in line with what God's instructions tell us.

That's a fight that I'm sure many of you can relate to. It hurts. The pruning process is not easy. You're lopping pieces of yourself, the old self, off. It's not easy, but it's got to happen. I've still got a lot of work to do. I'm sure some of you can probably relate to that as well. But the hypocrite is not just someone who doesn't do what they profess to do. Often, they're the ones that are professing to do something completely opposite of what they're actually doing. And again, this is nothing new.

Christ was very clear in Scripture as he spoke out about the hypocrisy of religious leaders at that time. The gospel accounts are full of his attacks on the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and he's very clear in these passages that hypocrisy is not tolerated. And whether it's that they're trying to make themselves appear more pious than they really are, or whether they're sounding the trumpet to announce their good deeds, you know, shouting all the good things they've done from the rooftops, or maybe they're focusing on man's traditions over God's, his point is the same.

They're acting. They're playing the part that that's not their true character. He says, flat out, they are hypocrites. Let's go to Revelation 2. Revelation 2. And as soon as I said that in hypocrite in the same sentence, you know exactly where we're going. Revelation 2. Actually, I'm sorry. Revelation 3.

After all of that, I was wrong. Revelation 3.

And we're going to pick it up in verse 14. Revelation 3 verse 14.

Another word that we don't like to see thrown around and bantied about. One that we don't, we like to say, no, no, no, no, no. You're Laodicean. I'm not Laodicean. You're Laodicean. Revelation 3 verse 14 says, To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. And I could wish that you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you or spew you, spit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich. Got the rich mask on.

I'm rich. I've become wealthy and have need of nothing. And don't know that underneath that mask, that's my words added, you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesave that you may see. In other words, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, you may make me sick. I will vomit you out of my mouth. And the level of disgust that God views this particular church with is palpable.

Notice too, if you go through this section of Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, this is the only church in the entirety of these two sections that God has nothing good to say about. Others it's like, I commend you on this, but here's what's wrong. There's no commending. This is what's wrong. Fix it. You know, the people of Laodicea thought they were something pretty special. They were wealthy. I mean, they were wealthy. They had a lot of money. In fact, there's a story in the histories. The city was leveled by an earthquake in around 60 AD, and Rome offered to help them rebuild, offered to help give them money from the coffers of Rome in order to bring the city back, and they told Rome, forget it.

We have our own money. We'll build it ourselves. We don't need you. We don't need anybody. We're good. Thank you for thinking of us, but we got it. And that idea, that attitude, you can imagine, if that's the attitude of the city, that attitude's going to creep into the church. And so that's much of what they're confronting here. So despite their perceived awesomeness, despite how wonderful and how great they thought they were, they did have a slight problem with their city. Its location was a horrible spot to build a city.

Kind of like New Orleans today. You know? One of those places legitimately should not be a city in New Orleans. It's bad news to build a city under sea level, just generally. Sorry, I'm not a structural engineer, but I mean, come on. So the thing with Laodicea, there was no water sources, like decent water sources really anywhere close to them. And so all of their water had to be piped in by an aqueduct.

So they piped it in from one location. They had hot springs, you know, several miles away. And Rome was famous for their aqueducts. They built these above-air, you know, transportation things. But the problem is, as it's going, and it's piping hot at the beginning, and as it's going down the pipes, though, it's slowly cooling off, and slowly cooling off. And by the time it gets to the city, it's this kind of nauseating tepidness.

What was the same problem with the cold water? The cold water was located in a different area, and again, open air in the desert. By the time you're going along, by the time it gets to you, you have this kind of nauseating tepidness as well.

And you can imagine, for a city that prided itself on its wealth, this would have been a point of contention, a big point of contention, especially when notable people from Rome and notable people from other areas came to visit, and they couldn't even take a hot bath. You know, something Rome was... that the Romans were just extremely famous for. But God gave it to them on all their fronts. He attacked their pride via their water sources, their wealth, and their ISAF. He attacked their notable black wool. It was a very famous wool.

He takes them down a peg or two, and the whole entire time, the message to the Church of Laodicea is this. You're not as good as you think you are. You're not as good as you think you are. The mask that you are wearing, I can see right through, God tells Laodicea. I can see the person underneath. God's telling his people in this age through this passage.

I'm not one who believes that any specific church is Laodicea. Let's throw that out there. I think it's an era of the church. I think that there are, you know, as mixtures in and around. But the message to the Church of Laodicea is the same message that God's giving us today. He's telling his people in this age through this passage, Get off the fence.

Get off the fence. Make the call, either you're in or you're out. But stop playing the part. Quit acting. Take the mask off. Be real. Make the call who you're going to be and what you're going to do. Carry on in Revelation 3, 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and I chase him. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, verse 20, and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. God chastens those whom he loves, and he clearly desires for his people to be zealous and repent.

He's standing at the door. He's knocking. He's putting out that invitation to us, just like he invited Matthew, just like he invited the other disciples.

And he desires it just like Matthew, we accept it. He doesn't want us to leave, but he also doesn't want us playing games. The choice is before us. He wants us to choose. Either be a follower or be done. But being a fan isn't going to work. Saying one thing and doing another, not going to work. You're making it, you're wearing a mask, you're not living that life that you profess to live. You're being lukewarm. Take off the mask. Take the call. But be real. Whatever that call happens to be, be real. And really, until we're real, until we're honest with ourselves, until we're honest with God, we can't expect to move the ball. If we're wearing one thing and we're doing it, you know, if we're saying one thing and we're doing another, all we're doing is running ball sideways. We're not making any progress whatsoever. In either direction. I mean, one of the things about taking the mask off, whatever the decision happens to be, you're going to move the ball either one way or the other. You're either going to move that ball forward or it's going to go backward. But the ball moves. We've got to quit running sideways. We've got to be honest. Being real moves that ball. The last thing that's really important for us to look at is to become unified. It is important for us to become unified, and not just with men. Our unity with one another is important. Don't get me wrong. But our individual unity with God is far more important than being unified with one another.

If we are truly unified with God, we will be spiritually unified with other men. The definition of unify means to make or to become united. To make or to become unified, uniform, or whole. And some synonyms for the verb unify are marry, merge, fuse, integrate, bind. It's a bringing together. And God has invited us to be a part of a long-term relationship with Him. And as we mentioned earlier, God gets to dictate the terms. We don't get to tell God what we think this relationship should be like. We don't get to set our own terms. We don't get to say, well, I love this part right here. Yeah, I'm not so good at this part. I don't know about that. Can we maybe change that and find something else to do there? We don't get to set the terms. God invited us, and He said to us when He invited us, here's my terms. This is what you're getting yourself into. Yes or no? Check the box. You know, are you going to do it or not? It's kind of like... How did you sing that country song? Was it George Strait? I think it was George Strait. Do you love me? Check yes or no? It's kind of that question. Here's my terms. Do you love me? Yes or no? Check the box. You know, yes or no. In other words, really, are you in or are you out? And let's go to Deuteronomy 30. I've been going through this section recently in our chronological reading that we're going through. And we just got out of Deuteronomy. We're into Joshua now. But Deuteronomy 30, in this passage, obviously the context is ancient Israel, but the message is as important to us today under the New Covenant as it was to them under the Old. Deuteronomy 30, and we'll pick it up in verse 15.

Deuteronomy 30, verse 15, says, See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. In other words, here's my terms. One road, one choice leads to life and good. The other choice, the other road leads to death and evil. Make your choice. Red pill, blue pill. What's it going to be? Okay. These are my terms. Verse 16. In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.

But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. The choice that God wanted His people to make was to follow Him. He's telling him, I want you to be my people, but the choice is up to you.

If you choose rightly, I will bless you exceedingly, and you will be my people. But if your heart turns away, in other words, if you choose to see other people, I will denounce you and you will perish. Verse 19. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death and blessing and cursing.

Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. Here's the terms. Here's your choices. Yes? No. Choose life. That's the call that we're to make. Verse 20. That you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling or cleave in some translations to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, Adam, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.

Choose to love God, to obey Him, and to cling or cleave unto Him. The word cleave is the Hebrew word dawbak, and it's rendered specifically to cling in a lot of these passages to kind of hold faster to join with. It's a utility word, so it gets used in a lot of different circumstances. One of them is found in 2 Samuel 23, when Eleazar gets done slaying all the Philistines, and the sword sticks to his hand, cleaves to his hand, and Ruth to Naomi in Ruth 1, when Ruth is like, no, I'm not leaving, she grabs ahold of Naomi and won't let go.

Or there's a few isolated examples where it's used in an intimacy of a relationship, as we find in Genesis 2. Let's go over to Genesis 2 and pick it up in verse 24. Genesis 2, verse 24. This is read at every single church wedding you've probably ever been to. It's included in that section. Genesis 2, verse 24. In fact, it is that section. It's not included. It is. Genesis 2, verse 24, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, Dabak, and they shall become one flesh.

In this case, they shall, in the King James, I have the new King James, that's what I'm reading from. In the King James, it says, And shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. Cleave, cling, Dabak. Same word. So between two individuals, it seems to signify a unifying or a binding, a closeness of relationship. God desires that we cleave unto him, that we cling to him, that we unify with, we establish an intimate, close relationship with him.

The kind of relationship that can only come through love, obedience, and service. It's an intimate marriage-type relationship. So in my marriage, if I completely ignore Shannon, from the moment I wake up until the time that I go to bed, you know, she's talking to me and doing this, and trying to tell me about her day, and I'm just like, uh-huh, yep, sure, no, I got it, uh-huh, yep, oh, I'm sorry to hear that, uh-huh, uh-huh.

If she asks me to help out in some way around the house, and I basically just tell her, forget it, I got stuff to do, no, you're on it, you got it, right? Cool, okay, cool. She needs me to cut the lawn, for example, and I just let it go, I don't do it. Grass in the backyard gets three feet high, it does, it will, if it does, I can tell you this from experience, it'll get huge, tall.

I, with the chickens now, they may keep it down a little bit, which would be good, but, um, yeah, really tall. But if she's asking me to go and cut that, and I just go, look, I got, I got stuff to do, I can't, I can't do this right now. I've got other things that are more important, and I blow it off, and she keeps telling me, hey, when can we go hang out, when can we go do this, when can we, and I just go, look, no, I, I, what does that tell her about the level of commitment to our relationship that I have?

What does that tell her? Likewise, if God's given us our terms of that relationship, and He said, here are the things that you have to do, our obedience to those things show our willingness to cling to Him and to cleave to Him, to love Him. Our willingness shows our love for Him, and our level of service to His way of life shows Him that we're in, that this is the choice we've made.

Look how I'm living my life. It's a proof of what I've chosen. But on the other hand, if we just blow Him off, and we say, nah, I'm not going to mess with that. The Sabbath, yeah, I'm not going to keep that holy.

I know it's special time. I know it's, you know, a big thing for you, but I'm just not going to really mess with it.

If we tell Him that, you know, I'm not going to really worry too much about telling little white lies, especially, you know, when nobody's going to get hurt. I mean, seriously, everybody gets little white lies. Love my neighbor. I can't stand that guy. I'm just, I'm going to throw eggs at his house. You know, turn the other cheek. Nah, forget that, you know, that guy's going to get knocked out. Study. Who's got time? Prayer. Eh, I could do with... If that's the message that we're sending God.

After a while of observing those actions and those attitudes, God's got to start wondering kind of where our relationship actually lies.

Let's go over to Matthew 25. Matthew 25.

We've been through this passage a couple times before, and I'm going to bring out a little bit of a different point on this one than maybe what we oftentimes pull from this. So, Matthew 25, Parable of the Virgins.

Matthew 25. I'm in Luke. That doesn't give me any good.

Matthew 25.

Matthew 25, and we'll go ahead and start just in verse 1. We'll pick it up at the beginning of the parable. It says, Now, again, connection between a marriage relationship here in this particular parable.

Now, five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. They hadn't really prepared spiritually. They weren't ready to go. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamp. They were prepared. They were ready.

But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight a cry was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming, so go out to meet Him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. Hell could do that. They had wigs.

And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil for our lamps. They're going out.

But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and you. Rather instead, go to those who sell and buy some for yourselves. It's midnight. Go to the market. Go pick some up. We're not giving you ours.

While they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding, and the door was shut.

Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open, open to us.

But He answered, and He said, Assuredly I say to you, I do not know you.

I had an interesting experience happen several years ago, in the middle of the night.

We were living in a house that at that time was in a fairly rough neighborhood over near the school that I teach at. Not so bad now. Both the neighborhoods that we're in now have changed. But at two o'clock in the morning, there was a banging on our front door.

I came to the door and looked through the peephole, and I saw a woman standing on the front steps. I kind of quickly assessed the situation. I didn't really see any obvious weapons or anything. Though, in retrospect, if you're going to knock on a door at two o'clock in the morning, you probably aren't going to wave a pistol. I mean, just throwing that out there.

But we had a security chain on the door. So it would open about this far, and I could actually talk through the door, which was fine. So I opened up the door, and I positioned my foot on the bottom of the door so it wasn't going to go anywhere.

I tried to see what was going on at that point in time. And the person was looking for money for gas. At least, that was the story we were told. Do you have any gas money? We broke down. We need gas money.

And there were two other people with her, and they weren't right at the porch. They were off just in the edge of the light of the porch light. And I couldn't really see them very well. I couldn't see kind of what was going on. You know, the hackles on our neck that are really, really good things to tell us when a situation is good or bad were fully up. I mean, at this point in time, this is just not looking like a great situation. I told her I didn't have any cash to give her, which was true. I didn't have anything on me at all, you know. Wallet was drained. This was when I was in grad school. You know, there's not a lot of money anywhere. But I told her, look, I'm really sorry. I don't have anything to give you. I can't help you. I'm sorry.

So then she asked if she could come inside to use our phone. Two o'clock in the morning in a rough area of town. And I told her absolutely not. Told her absolutely not. And I had no idea who these people were. I had no idea what their intentions were. I didn't know that if once she got inside the door, she was going to pull a knife or a gun, and all of a sudden my attempt at helping turned into an armed robbery. I didn't, in short, I didn't know these people. And they were not coming into my home with my family inside at that point in time.

Now, I told her I couldn't help her. At that point, my roommates had woke up. We had some folks living with us at the time. And we managed to turn the couch cushions and raid whatever we could find to scrape together five bucks between the three of us. And so we gave them five bucks and sent them on their way. But there was no way we were opening that door. We didn't know who they were, and we didn't know their intentions. And so the unwise virgins in this parable, those who didn't prepare themselves properly, who had no oil in their lamps, here they are banging on the door at two o'clock in the morning. Really, it's midnight, Scripture says. But banging on the door, demanding to be let in, saying, Lord, Lord, please open the door for us too! And Christ responds to sobering. He tells them very simply, I don't know you. I don't know you. You haven't done anything to establish a relationship with me to this point.

You haven't even made an effort. But now that the time is at hand, now that it's the eleventh hour, you're trying to worm your way in, I'm not opening the door.

The relationship that we establish with God regularly through prayer, study, meditation, service, love, and obedience is absolutely critical. That is how you get to know God and how God gets to know you. How you establish a relationship. Because, brethren, those are four words that we do not want to hear when it comes time. That I don't know you. So we can see on one hand the unwise virgins didn't prepare properly. They didn't do what they were supposed to do. They hoped at the eleventh hour to find a way in somehow despite their lack of preparation. But on the other hand, we see the opposite side of that in Matthew 7. Others trying to rely on their actions to get them in, yet their heart was nowhere near where it should be. Let's go to Matthew 7. Let's back just a little bit in the tax collector's account. Matthew 7.

Matthew 7, and we'll pick it up in verse 21.

Good timing. Matthew 7, verse 21, says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in your name? Haven't we cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me those of you who practice lawlessness. You'll hear these people crying out, but didn't we do all these fantastic and wonderful things in your name? You know, we did this, we did this, we did this, like a checklist. Look at all the things we did!

Don't our actions and our works assure us a place in your kingdom. In Christ's response in verse 23, I never knew you. I never knew you. Depart from me you who practice lawlessness.

Christ informs them, despite all of your works, despite all those things that you did in my name, I never knew you. We didn't have a relationship at all. You know, our heart is so important because it's by that heart that we do our actions. And we do our actions for the right reasons. We do them for the right reasons. You know, if we're doing things just to be seen, or if we're doing things just to be considered righteous, we're in serious danger of getting it wrong. Now, our salvation and our eternal life is a gift that we can't earn.

It's freely given by God to those whom He chooses. You know, James tells us, though, that faith without works is dead. So what we do is essential. We have to have works, but we don't earn it through our works. When we have a strong enough relationship with God, when we love Him, when we obey Him, and when we serve Him, our works will follow. You know, in my marriage, there's nothing I wouldn't do for my wife. You know?

And it's not like I'm trying to do that in order to be seen, and I'm trying to do it. It's because we're at that point in our relationship. Things will come. Our works will come as a result of that relationship, as the point. And that relationship has to be purposeful. All relationships take work. Human relationships and our relationship with God is no different. God's given us the invitation. He's put it out there, and He's said to us, look, are you in or are you out?

Are you in or out? And, brethren, that's the question that has been offered to each and every one of us. Wherever we're at on that continuum, whether we find ourselves maybe a little close to the fan-and, or maybe we find ourselves, you know, more up on the follower end of things, wherever we diagnose ourselves as being, that's the question that all of us have gotten. Whether we're on the 10-yard line or on the 50, God's asking all of us, are you mine or not?

Are you mine or not? Will you work to move that ball forward? Will you put in the purposeful work to move that ball forward? Will the actions of your life reflect your belief? Will the actions of your life reflect your belief? And will you show the world through your life whom you serve?

Will your life be the illustration for the people of this world who your God is? And that's the core of this concept of fan or follower. That's the whole core of this concept. The fan has a lot of knowledge.

They do. They've got a lot of head knowledge. They have a lot of understanding on some of the things of God. They may know scriptures. They may know concepts. But the application is limited or non-existent. They can rattle off, quote, scriptural locations, concepts. But at their core, they're not living what they know to be true. Christ said at one point, you know, paraphrasing basically, that even the demons fear God.

Even demons can, quote, scripture. You know? James 1, verse 22. Let's go over there to finish up today. Last scripture. James 1, verse 22. Oops. James 1, verse 22. Okay, we'll read 21 too. James 1, verse 21. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls, but be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Deceiving ourselves. You know, the follower, on the other hand, the fan, the fan, again, has all this head knowledge, has all these things. They know these concepts, but the application just isn't there. The follower, on the other hand, lives the life. They live what they know to be true. They walk the walk, so to speak, instead of just talking the talk. Only through walking the walk will we move that ball forward. Talk doesn't move the ball. Talk doesn't move the ball. There's a saying in basketball. All right, I'll say it. There's a saying in basketball, put up or shut up.

Basically, either show us what you say you can do on the court. Either show us what you say you can do on the court, or stop talking. Because a lot of people like to talk a big game. They like to stand on the sidelines, Oh yeah, I can do that, I can do this, I can do...

Well, God says, look, walk the walk. If you say you love your neighbor, prove it. If you say you love me, prove it. Walk the walk. Actions move the ball. Hard work moves the ball. Obeying God moves the ball. Loving God. Loving our fellow man. Denying the self. Serving God. Turning the other cheek. Forgiving. Not repaying evil for evil. Giving unto others. Reconciling between ourselves and God. All of those things move the ball.