If Necessary

Liquicious. You know the word? Have you ever been described as liquicious?

Well, it's a word used for people who talk too much.

We hear about people who love to have small talk. I've never heard anybody talk about large talk. I know there used to be loud talkers. You may have seen them in a restaurant or seen them in some place, where you can hear them and hear their conversation.

In fact, in Seinfeld a few years ago or a decade ago, they did a show on close talkers. Anybody remember that? If you cannot relate to that, you haven't met somebody who will get this close to you and want to talk. They're in, invade your space. It makes you feel uncomfortable. Plus, you're probably praying that they go to their dentist every six months for teeth cleaning. I even heard there was a support group for people who talk too much called On and On Anonymous. I don't know if that really takes place, but I did see it on the internet.

I remember a woman telling me one time, the difference between a man and a parrot, is you can teach a parrot to shut up. Because she thought, man, just talk too much. We've all met people that way. How about you? Have you ever thought about it? Do I talk too much? Do I talk too little? Is there such a thing as that?

There was a quote attributed to Francis of Assisi later on. They took issue with that and said they didn't think it really came from him. Whether it came from him or someone else, doesn't matter to me, because I think the quote is very profound.

And I want to give you that quote now, because the quote is, preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.

Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words. Does that resonate with you? It is something we can understand. Are we living and talking the truth, like the religious of Christ's day, who talked it but did not walk it or lived it? Let's go there as Christ is talking about in Matthew 23. Read from the New Kingdom. Let's go up to verse 3. Verse 3 says, therefore, which tells us what? Any time you read, therefore, it's a continuation of what is said just before there.

So let's go up to verse 2, since it says, therefore. Verse 2, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever the Pharisees say, therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do. But do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do. They talk the game. Talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. That's why so many in Christianity today are called hypocrites. They may say one thing or heed one thing, but they don't live it.

I remember a movie 20 years ago, maybe even 30 years ago, Clint Eastwood, the outlaw, Josie Wells, as a chief, Indian chief, that come into the land, told him to leave, and he said, no, we're going to stay. He said, then you'll die. That which Clint Eastwood's character said, Chief, for men like you and me, living, I mean dying's not hard. It's living that's hard. We can relate to that, I believe, because for us talking the truth, quoting Bible verses, reading this book every day is not hard, but trying to live the truth is what is hard.

It is hard if you really try to live it 24-7. Trying to live righteously in an unrighteous world, that's us. That's what we strive to do. It's the tough part, trying to be a peacemaker in a volatile, violent, sometimes violent world that we live in. Trying to stay positive in a negative world also. Because we can look at the past, we know the present, and we can look into the future through this book. And it's very hard sometimes when you're going through things and we all go through things.

How are you doing? Living godly in an ungodly world, because that's us, isn't it? But it is what we have been called to do. Face it. It's what we've been called to do.

When we become Christians, which basically we should look at this book and realize a Christian is a Christ-like person. Living like Christ or having Christ live in us, as so many scriptures point to. We make an agreement when we become a Christian. We make a covenant. You might say even a pledge to God that He will be first in our lives. That His way of life now becomes our way of life.

That's the baptismal covenant. That's what we promise Him. So, how are we doing? Is it something that is a piece of cake? Or do you struggle sometimes? Maybe more than you want to. I do. I still struggle. But it's a struggle that I can overcome. The people in Freeport today, it's not a typical Sabbath. You've been there for the Sabbath. We've been there. Dwight's been there.

And it's nice to be able to come together on a Sabbath and have some peace. Not so for them today. It's tough. But if when we pledge and strive to live godly, with Christ in us, we say we are striving to live righteously. Do we fully comprehend that? Do people see that? Because you can talk about it, but do they really see that? One quote, someone said one time, if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

I hope so. I hope so. Evidence of things seen, not just words spoken. Because if we do do this, live righteously, strive for that. Go with me to Revelation 21. Revelation 21 verse 7 says, He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. Will inherit all things. Who owns all things? Only God. And we know that God will keep his word, if you believe this book, right? If you want to keep his word, then you're going to inherit all things, and we will be his children.

Numbers 23, Titus 1, both are witnesses to that fact, because they both say that God cannot lie. And to make sure there's a third witness, the inspire word of God in Hebrews 6 and verse 18, makes a statement that it is what? Impossible. Impossible for God to lie. Now, I had someone bring up to me one time because I quoted Malachi 3 and verse 6, that God does not change.

They said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you said he doesn't change, but he changed from the old covenant to the new covenant. He, wait a minute, he changed circumcision from physical to a circumcision of the heart. So he does change. There's one thing that is important as you read the context, because it's clear God can change his mind. He was going to wipe Israel, fice them up, and start with just Moses, but Moses talked to him and he changed his mind. Well, see, it just shows a lot. No, Malachi 3 and verse 6, it's talking about his character. God's character does not change. He is righteous. He doesn't decide the next morning to get up and I'm going to go do evil.

It's not who he is. He cannot change his character, unlike us. But thankfully, we will not always be like we are today. That's a promise. That's a promise. 1 John 3 and verse 2. It says, when Christ comes back, we will then see him as he is and we will be like him.

We will have a character that cannot change. But till then, we have to live this human life. We have to live this human life the best we can with our flaws, with our issues, but with God's Holy Spirit. He kind of gets to see us to the point that we come to realize that we can't do everything ourselves and we need his help. How many fathers have done that with your children? Yes, well, you saw a little kid, and they come back an hour later and they've got tools scattered out and they've tried to put something together and you can't even tell what it looks like.

That's kind of, in a way, like God does us sometimes. He lets us think we can try to do some things on our own and then we usually come around to say, I can't do this. I need help. But the good part is, now we live, we model, we mirror, without words, a certain way of life. Have you thought about that? We live this way of life, we model this way of life for other people, and we also mirror, supposedly, Jesus Christ. Without words, we do that. It's a way of life. It's not just a way of life, but the way of life.

Such a way of life that God proclaims in His Word, there is no other way for us. There's no other way. So I'd like you to go with me, as I think back to when I was a young man of 8 or 9 or 10. My parents and I would go to various churches. I went to a Baptist church, but my father said they were too long. I went to Church of Christ, but they didn't have music and it sounded strange.

We went to a Christian church, which I really liked because, man, they had a large children's class. But my father found issues with some of the things. My mother did too. I wasn't listening. And then there was a couple other Presbyterians. I can't remember all the churches. We went to. But I do remember one minister. I liked it because at age 10, his messages were short. Services started at 11.

We were out by 11.45. And they sang four or five songs. And I was like, man, this isn't so bad. But I do remember the one thing that the minister would say. The text for today is... So, brethren, the text for today is 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 11. 2 Timothy 2. See? You're on the ball. 2 Timothy 2. Yeah, I've never read 2 Timothy 11. That would be a long book. What version do you have? 2 Timothy 2. I guess reading it all week has changed me.

2 Timothy 2 and verse 11. I'll read from the New King James. Did you realize that this is one of the most misquoted and misinterpreted scriptures used today in modern Christianity? You'll find this point brought up many times as they argue the one saved always saved. And they will bring up various parts of this. And so, let's read it and then we'll reread it. 2 Timothy 2 verse 11. It says, this is a faithful saying. What kind of faithful saying is that? What is Paul telling Timothy?

I think we have Miami Heat practicing up above our thing in the room above us, I guess, dribbling a ball or something. But we'll go on. This is a faithful saying. 3 For if we died with him, we shall also live with him. You remember your baptismal covenant? Remember how you went down into the watery grave and you died with Christ? And then as Christ was resurrected out of there, you come up out of the water a new creation, as it's called. Right? So if we do that, we're to live like him. But it says, if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, what?

Endure what? Tural. Tural. Christ had them every day almost. Something came up where he was looked down upon, frowned upon, mocked, made fun of, called a liar, and worse. It says, if we endure, we shall also reign with him. You get that, reign? That's what we're going to be talking about at the Holy Days, as it talks about reigning with Christ for a thousand years. But it says, if we endure, we shall also reign with him.

But then it takes a turn. And it says, if we deny him, he will also deny us. Oh, wait a minute! I thought once I gave my heart to Jesus, then I could not lose. That's not what the Scripture's saying. If we deny him, he will also deny us. Then we come to verse 13.

If we are faithless, we are faithless. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. So many people interpret this as, Oh, if we lose our faith, it doesn't matter. I have the faith of Christ. That's not what it says. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. So they say, wait a minute. So he's going to see us through. If we are faithless. I like how the New Living Translation puts this last verse. It says that he cannot deny who he is.

If we are faithless, he's going to remain faithful. He doesn't change. We've changed. And so he can't deny who he is. He can't decide, Okay, well, that's okay, even though those who are faithful. I love them so much. But I also love these faithless people. They're all going to get the same reward. No. God cannot deny who he is. He is righteous. His judgment is righteous. He's fair.

We may not always look at it like, is this fair? Now, wait a minute. If that storm had come to Boca Raton, why didn't the storm go over there and lay for two or three days? Because they have more money. They have more resources. They have this. Wait a minute. God, that isn't fair. You sent it to the poor nation of Bahamas. You go there, you're putting yourself in God's place.

And we're not either wise enough or close enough to God to even try to do that. He knows what he's doing. He's still sovereign. He knows what he is doing.

Verse 13, if we are faithless, I've been faithless before. Any of you? No? Everybody's faithful except for your pastor. Right? I've been faithless. I have not had the faith where I should have had the faith before. I still struggle with that, but I do have faith in him. It's this 5'11", 215 pound man that's a problem. I don't always have faith in him. And I should. How about you? You know, it's interesting because God cannot lie. He cannot die, and he cannot change his character.

But we can lie, we can die, and we can become carnal. We can become carnal like that. Can't we? Without Christ in us, living within us, and we go to that source through his Holy Spirit daily, we're going to find out we're carnal more than we're Christian. And that's where the struggle. And carnal is the opposite of righteousness. See, God keeps his word. It starts at the front and goes all the way through. He keeps his word and expects us to keep ours.

Two big expectations? God doesn't think so. He expects us to keep our word to him that was made that day that we were baptized. And we said at that time, we're going to keep the first commandment. And we're going to have no other gods before. As Christ put it, you shall love the Lord your God with what? All your heart, your soul, your might, your being. We said we'd do that. That we're going to follow God's way.

Even when his heart. But part of that following him is what? The Sabbath? That's part of that agreement. Because God's, he gives us instructions. They're not too hard. They're not hard instructions at all. Doing them is a hard part. Making sure that we want to do them is another hard part about it. But we're going to not only keep that commandment, because basically if you kept the first commandment, you would keep the rest of the nine.

You put him first and you look at all the others. Nine is just a piece of cake. No problem. We should want because he's first. But then all he says is, okay, I want you to love me and put me first. As one writer I read the other day called him the most narcissistic God of them all. He hasn't studied mythology very much, obviously. But God just said, here's what?

Here I am. I want you to worship me because I give you life, but I'm going to give you so much more. All I'm asking is you follow me that I'm yours and you're mine. And you're going to show up every seven days for family reunion where I can come be with all my kids because we all are his kids. One out of seven. Not bad. And he says, I don't want you to enjoy it and rest.

I don't want you to work. I used to love it when we were out on the farm because my father, mother, would always want to have all the kids over. Usually once a week. They'd go, oh, you're doing anything Sunday afternoon? Come on. You know, we're going to put on some grill, some stuff, and all the kids would come over and grandkids are playing and my dad just loved it. And I look at that as God. God wants to see us come together.

And he just asks, you know, what? Not even two hours out of the week. Come together. And then he says, okay, I want you to do that. But there are these great days and there are seven of them that I want you to keep. And they're special to me and they're holy days. That's what I really want you to do.

So you keep him first. You keep every seventh day. You come together and then seven days out of the entire year. I want you to come together for a party. Party that I'm throwing. And it's a spiritual party. And we're going to be there. And I wanted to mean something. And that really struck home to me this week, as I was thinking, being from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We had 20 years ago when I was involved, I employed some MTSU football players during the summer.

And I really enjoyed them because they worked hard. Coach knew they were hard workers. That's why I got them during the summer. And he loved for them to work construction work. And Middle Tennessee State University sent a lot of guys to the pros. More than a handful. And they were a good football team. And the amazing part was because Vanderbilt University was 30 miles away and University of Tennessee football team was an hour and a half, two hours away. They were the big dogs.

So that if you went to an MTSU football game, which I didn't go on Saturday afternoon, I went to one on Thursday night, one on Saturday night, whatever. There was hardly anybody there. You had a football stadium that would hold 15,000-20,000 people. There might have been 500 people at one of the games I went to. Where they were scattered out so far out there. And because I knew some of these guys that worked for me, and here they were the best high school players around. And so then they went to college and this was their big thing. And so here, they would have the music in this big stadium and you'd look out and there's 500 people. And there might be another 500 people all for the other people who travel for the other team. And it was a pathetic sight. I really felt bad for MTSU football at that time. And they actually went to some finals and bowl games and various things.

You know what made me think of that? Was I was thinking today. Think about it. 7.2 billion people on earth. And how many have come home to see Dad today? How many have come to be with their family? Their father, their older brother?

I thought, just like that game, what must God and Christ do as they look down? And there's no one in the stadium.

So many didn't care. So many didn't care.

And yet He said the Sabbath was made for man. And man says, don't need it, don't want it. I don't really need it. I got my own stuff going on.

It's a gift.

The Sabbath is a gift. God's given to mankind. He gave it to the earth, too.

He even gave it to your animals.

And yet man says He didn't want it.

Very few want it.

And you take the Sabbath. There's people who keep the Sabbath, but they don't know anything, don't want to know anything, won't listen to it, don't care anything about the Holy Days.

And you've got the largest group of Sabbath keepers on the earth today.

They won't even accept the Messiah. They won't even accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. They're waiting for Him to come. He already came.

What must that do? What must that do to a being whose heart is a tree in times the size of ours?

Who really cares that deeply?

If we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself.

This verse proclaims that there's a godly standard.

It's His standard, and we must live up to it.

Think about it. I was studying some research by, I suppose, experts this week, and one of those made the statement that at the time of the Flood, the first after 1600 years of Adam and Eve, and then 1600 years later, roughly, they say the Flood came. Well, these so-called experts, I don't know, might be correct. I don't have any way of knowing, but they put all their things in a computer, come up with the numbers. And their estimate is that when the Flood hit, there were between one and three million people on earth. Between one and three million. That's a pretty big... So let's just stick one million. There was one million people.

One million people.

And one man. It's all the Bible says there was one man following God. Now, we know later that Shem did. Bible points out. But at that time, one million. One man. Wasn't there a song? I think we had it played at our wedding 80 years ago. One in a million, you remember? I don't know who sang that. Larry Graham. Okay, I knew somebody would know. Larry Graham. I just love that. I wish I had that boy. One... Yeah, but I won't do that.

But only one person out of a million following God. Then...

Centuries later, God took three million people out of slavery. A miserable way of life. He took them out of slavery and brought them in. And 40 years later, you had a handful.

Joshua, Caleb, LAAs are maybe their family. Wow! It's a history of repeating itself. And now we're up to seven billion people.

How big is the handful?

And that's all he's asked.

That's all he's asked.

I'd like you to go down to the verses of Timothy 2. We did 13. Let's go to 14.

He's telling Timothy his disciple, Remind them! Who's them? Us. Remind them! And then he talks about there. And he comes down to 15 and he says, Be diligent. This is what he's reminding us. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

But shun profane and vain babbling, for they will increase to more ungodliness, and their message will spread like cancer. I'm an A.S. and Felidus are of that sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection's already passed. And they overthrow the faith of some, and then that word, Nevertheless. So no matter what's said, Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal. We have a seal here.

That's a seal, saying we're the United Church of God. God has this seal, it says, that says, The Lord knows those who are His. You don't have to worry that somebody doesn't know that you're God's.

You don't have to walk down the street. Right, Courtney? You don't have to walk down your street, saying, I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. Or Jesus saves, or any of these things that you see. Because God knows who are His.

Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. What's it doing here? It's setting the context. It's saying, you need to be striving to overcome iniquity, which is what? See it. So it's not like, oh, if you're faithless, He's faithful for you. No! The context here is saying, if you're faithless, you need to be better than that.

And we do, don't we? I need to be better. Next week than I am this week. That should be my goal. Now, I may not achieve it, but I need to try. I need to work at that.

But then He goes to say, but in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Well, there is, and we should be there for God's honor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, what? Wood and clay. He will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful, for the Master, prepared for every good work. That's what He's talking about us, doing good works. You know, even when you came here today, you got in your car, as you do every Sabbath, you have proclaimed God.

It's the way it is. When you keep the Holy Days, you proclaim God. It's obvious. People say, well, I don't know, they get dressed up and they go somewhere. They stay gone half the day.

That is good. That's good.

People need to see.

We're God's people.

God knows who we are. See, God cannot be unfaithful to His Word. He can't. He's always fair. He's judicious. And He's always right. That's why He even gives people, not past, now, blessings and cursings. Doesn't it? He said, I set before you life and death, choose life. Same way, He sets before us blessings and cursings. Do you want blessings? Do this. You want cursings? Okay. All you have to do is not do this. You'll get cursings. He's fair. More than fair. So does it matter how we live? What people see in our lives? And I just say, well, God knows who is His. Yes, He does. And that's the most important thing. But do you not think that God wants people to see His sons? Not see an example? Not see a way of life?

I have this neighbor who lives a couple of doors down from me. He's a rough old guy. And he's got leukemia really bad. He's a big old guy. And I just realized he was... I gave him some help doing something. I don't remember how it even began. Maybe Mary remembers. I don't even remember how a relationship started. But he gave him some help and did this. And then next thing you know, he returned as a favor. We left the door unlocked when we took off going somewhere on a trip. And our door, we were going to be gone for like four or five days. And our door was open. And he was up in the middle of the night because he couldn't sleep because of all the treatments he's been getting. And he looked out there and he saw a coyote. And he says, headed to go in our front door, which would have made a mess. So he got up and went and called the police and then told them, you know, they met him there and he closed the door. And then I thanked him for this. I did something for him, brought him something. And then he started just giving us... And he told me, he said, well, what do you do for a living? I said, I'm a pastor. He said, well, that's surprising because I've never met a pastor I liked. I said, well, longer around, you may find that true, too.

And he said, I don't do religion.

But he said, something about you is okay.

You know, wasn't doing it because I was a pastor. Wasn't doing it because I'm a man of God.

But he sees. He doesn't agree. He's not. He's not going to come to an altar call. I'm not going to say, let me baptize you down into the river. No, he'll never. He's but...

He's seen so many bad examples in his life, and he's 70 years old, of people portraying Christians. And he told me about them.

See, there's people out there who need to see, don't they? They need to see what a Christ-like person is like. The sad part is, I'm not the best example. There's many of you who would be better examples than I am about that.

So does it matter how we live, what people see in our lives? Yes. Yes, it matters to God. It matters to God. Your example influence anyone? Well, your example really influence anyone. Do you know the Italian word for influence? Influenza. Influenza. And it was used, or being used in this country in around 1700. Influence. Influenza. And it means to be contagious. It's what the root word is. Isn't that great? If Christianity could be contagious? That people could see how some people live and go, you know, what I've been trying hasn't been working. Why don't I try this?

Do our actions influence people in the right way? Oh, and I'm talking about knowing all the scriptures. We're including scripture all the time. That's how we act. You know what this world needs? Really, really, really, really, really, really bad. One of the fruits of God's spirit is self-control. Maybe listed the last one, but boy, is it ever needed. And I have to practice that. And whenever I seem to have an example or a story, it starts at Dollar Tree. I go to Dollar Tree, pick stuff up. You know? And I'm usually in a hurry, just running out somewhere and picking this up. And I go to Dollar Tree this week. And it's Tuesday when this Monday wasn't closed, but I was picking up some stuff just in case I needed to go to Haiti. I could get to Haiti, so I picked up a few things. Went in there. And, of course, I don't know how your Dollar Tree is, but ours usually only has one checkout lady. There's three other counters, but they only have one. Right? Is mine different? No. Okay. And so you have this line backed up. And people are kind of... there's this thing about the storm, and you could see there was a tense in people's faces. And so this woman's in front of me in line, and she's got this little basket, and she carries it up. And I've got eight people behind me, and they're kind of like some of them on their lunch hour, some of them doing this. And this older lady, she gets there, and she does the one thing that will make most people run right up the wall. She pulls this out of her basket, and she said, how much is this? She said a dollar. She puts it on the counter. How much is this? She's doing this. She has 10 to 12 items, and she's asking every time, how much is this? And I'm going, come on. I say that to myself. Because that's the nicest thing being said than anybody behind me. Right? Because they're going. Because she does it for every item. The woman even broke up in the middle of it when there was 5 or 7, and said, everything's 99 cents. I know, but how much is this? And then she tells her. And then what does she do? She pulls out a coin purse, and she starts counting out quarters, dimes, nickels, and down to pennies, to where they're finally out on the counter, everything she has, and then she lost count, and she has to count these again. By this time, I'm going, this has got to be in my sermon about self-control. I know, I wanted to. But you know the sad part was? She didn't have enough money. She had to put two of the items back. Two of the items are set aside, which made me just, what in the world are you? You know. And I knew, I said, well, you know, I had a couple of dollars. I could have done that, but I'd have been killed by the mob behind me, because they just wanted her out. So they counted all this up. Sometimes, the old saying, silence is golden, is golden. And that's what we need to say. Brethren, some of the best sermons ever given were seen and not heard. Some of the best sermons ever given were seen and not heard. Have you preached one of those lately? Will you preach one this week? I hope you do, because we must remember to preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.