A Letter of Recommendation

That was absolutely beautiful. That was wonderful. I like to... I feel that music is such an important part of services, part of how we worship God. It's beautiful. Yes, Mr. Stiver went to Brick and Wood. That was the most interesting place. I think that it shaped our lives.

The River Vare actually was one of the borders of the campus. It was very, very close there. In fact, across the road from the campus, we used to go running past it. And it's a river. It's much smaller now than what it was back in Roman times, but Roman galleys actually sailed right up past the Ambassador College campus, you might say. The town of St. Albans was very allameum or something similar. I was just there for the funeral of John Ross Schroeder, one of my old classmates. I went for a walk all around the campus. They built a beautiful public park there by that river, River Vare, but it is very, very interesting.

And in the town of St. Albans, there are just Roman ruins galore. They have different places where they have things that go back to Roman times a couple thousand years ago. If you could just indulge me, please, for a moment. I do like to take a picture of a happy church. So if you would just kind of look happy, okay? Now, could you all wave? Okay, very good. I just like doing it. I was going to do that in Oklahoma City last week, but I got so excited about what I was talking about that I forgot.

So now I do have my picture of the combined services here. The first two letters of Paul to the Corinthians are very, very interesting. He wrote to a very competent church, a very interesting church that had a lot of abilities, and one of his great success stories in the Gentile world. The two letters to the book of, or to the churches in Corinthians, though, are very interesting because they speak to the dynamics of humanity and Christianity and what it is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

First of all, we know that the church in Corinth was a pretty good-sized church. We have no idea how many people there were. People guessed 300, 400, 500 people. We don't know. But it was a big church that had various groupings of people, had people who were very skilled.

It was a port city. There were a lot of Jews there because it was a city that a lot of commerce took place. And it was actually much of the port city for the city of Athens where there was nothing going on. Athens was the intellectual center of the Roman Empire, and Paul, all he did was argue with people there, and nothing much. We don't even have a record of any kind of a group there. But across the bay there, in Corinth, there was a lot of activity.

But the first letter to the Corinthians was one in which the Apostle Paul was unhappy with the church. The first chapter he was happy. He told them about their gifts and all the things that they had that were going for them. But then he talked to them about all the normal human things that had gone wrong in his absence. People were taking one another to court. People were becoming parts of little groupings and cliques. I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollo. I'm of this person. And people were divided among themselves. There was even a case of great immorality where a person had an affair with his mother-in-law.

With his stepmother, I should say. It was a terrible thing. What was even more terrible about it was that the church knew about it and did nothing about it. In fact, they were proud of the fact that they were liberal enough to be able to handle it locally. In the meantime, the person continued in sin. And the Apostle Paul said, How can these things be? We can't have this.

And so he wrote a rather strong book to the Corinthians, the first Corinthians, in which he chastised them with great feeling of wonder how this is going to go over with this new group. He didn't want to offend them, and yet he had to uphold Christian values. Well, what happened between first and second Corinthians is that there were great changes that took place. There's something about the Gentile mind. The Gentiles can do terrible things, but also the Gentiles can also repent in a hearty way. Because they read what the Apostle Paul wrote, and they put out the person who was committing the sexual immorality, and they also stopped some of the other things that take place.

Paul sent Titus to Corinth to find out just exactly what's going on to kind of set things in order. And he was very pleased with what had happened. He was greatly relieved that the people had come to repentance, even to the point of where the person who was put out of the church, this fellowship, that he said, let's bring this person back. We shouldn't have him out there and become discouraged. You know, he's seen what he's done wrong. The church has seen how they have tolerated it and shouldn't have bring this person back. But there were also other problems in the church at Corinth.

There were, as with, seems to be always the history of the church, there's always the people who cause trouble. There are people that want to take over. There likes to be people that like to teach their own thing, whether how God's name is pronounced, or what days they worship on, and they like to infiltrate people who already are ready to hear them.

False teachers always seem to creep into the church. And they had sent a message to the church that Paul, who started the church there, said he was fickle, he was proud, he was unimpressive in his appearance and speech, things that maybe he wasn't a very impressive person. We don't get the idea from the Apostle Paul that he was a great orator, or that he was a person of great physical stature.

In fact, we might be very surprised as to how the Apostle Paul himself looked, but people were holding that against him. Also, they alleged that he was dishonest and unqualified to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ. So Paul writes this letter of 2 Timothy now that I'll focus on with a few verses here, to express his thanksgiving for the repentance that took place. Because truly the church had read what Paul said, they kind of came to themselves as to how they had drifted from truth and from true values, and how they had slacked off.

And now that they turned around, the Apostle Paul thanks them for that. But he also, in this letter, defends his apostleship, and while he thanks the majority who had repented, he also defends his conduct, character, and his calling as an Apostle of Jesus Christ. One question that was asked of the people was this in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 1. Second Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 1. And judging by how he asks the question, this was something obviously on people's minds. Are we beginning to praise ourselves again?

Verse 1. Are we like others who need to bring you letters of recommendation? Bring you letters of recommendation. Or who ask you to write such letters on your behalf? He said there are some people now who are beginning to question Paul so much that they say, look, if you come and speak to us again, we want to have your ordination certificate. We want to see that you truly are an Apostle.

How did you get to be an Apostle? We want to have, if you don't have that Paul, we want to have some letters of recommendation from the other Apostles that may have you qualified in our eyes. So people were questioning his Apostleship. He says, I'm not going to give those letters to you. He said, I don't carry letters of recommendation with me to introduce myself to you. I was here. I started this church. And you know it. He was already known, and he was very, very well known.

Verse 2, he says, the only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts. Your example, the fruits of your life, is the only recommendation letter that I need. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts. Everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. The Apostle Paul, of course, was feeling on a high because the church had really made great strides. He had gone now with his ministry, with evangelism, into Greece from Asia Minor. This is a great advancement that took place in the work of God.

Of course, he ran into some difficulties, but he saw that it was successful. And he said, you, your life, your example, is our letter of recommendation. Clearly, verse 3, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This letter is written not with pen and ink. It's not something with a stamp, with nice gold leaf letters and a certificate of some sort. But it's written with the spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, and maybe their certificates or what the credentials they carried may have been on some kind of stone, maybe not parchment, but he says it's not written on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

So he says, it's something which is written by the Holy Spirit, the power of God. It's the word of God, which is the ink, and it's written on the heart. That is our result. Can we say that the work of the ministry of the church, the work of Mr. Stiver, the elders here, all of our efforts, that your lives represent the fruits of the work that's been done, the sermons that you have heard that you have applied, the knowledge that you have put into your life and applied, that that is something which represents a recommendation, really, of those who have been the ones delivering that message.

And is it written on your heart? That's where it really matters. You know, we can preach ourselves blue. We can say the most clever things. We can say them in the most organized way that can sound oratorically fabulous. But unless it actually is written on your heart to where it is something which you believe as a result of what you had heard with God's help, what's the point? What's the benefit of it?

You know, from a long time before, in the Old Testament, God has been looking for a change in people's hearts. Right from the time when he gave the commandments again in Deuteronomy about giving the Ten Commandments for the second time, it is all that they had a heart that they would obey me. But because of the hardness of your heart, you don't obey the commandments. And God's desire has always been to have a softened human heart that would really want to apply these laws because they wanted to. They saw the benefit to it. They saw that having faith in doing things the way God has said will produce the best and the proper good. In Proverbs chapter 7, just there are a number of places, speak about God's commands and about the truth that comes from God. Proverbs chapter 7, bind them on your fingers. I'd like to read this. Proverbs chapter 7. My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you. Keep my commands and live as my law, as the apple of your eye. We can teach our children. We could motivate them in our minds as much as we can. But really what we want and what God wants is this. Bind them on your fingers. Have at something which is part of the way you do things and write. Write them on a tablet of your heart. Make them something which comes from deep within. That is something which is an automatic response to God's teachings. That is what God wants. And the basis of the New Covenant, the basis of the New Covenant actually is spoken of in Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah 31, verse 31, which is the very famous chapter dealing with a prophecy of a New Covenant coming, which is based on a law of God but based on something greater, in addition to just giving that law of God and just uttering the words. Jeremiah chapter 31, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. I'll make a new contract with them. Verse 32, Not according to the covenant which I made with the fathers in the day that I took them out by the hand to lead them out of the hand of Egypt. That was a contract, too. But the people were not prepared for it whatsoever in their hearts. Of course, God knew that. He knew that there was a missing ingredient of the Holy Spirit not being there in doing those things that the Holy Spirit did when it came in the time of Jesus Christ. My covenant which they broke, even though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. Here's what I'm going to do. I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts. They'll have a cognitive understanding of what my will is, what my law is, but also write it in the very deepest aspects of their conscience and their heart. And they will obey my law because they want to, because it's automatic. It is something which is part of what they are. And you never guess, is this person doing it because they want to? Are they forced into it? Are they just on a spelf of keeping it now but could fall back? You know that this is something which they will do because it is them. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. You know, a minister, when he does his work, to all of us we can take a look at the things that we have done and preached over time. Paul speaks about that in the first book of Corinthians, the first letter to the Corinthians, about the foundation that is built.

You know, all of us are building something. We're building something when the weather is fair. When you are out constructing a building, when the rain comes, you know, and when it's bad weather, wintertime construction comes to a halt and so forth, but you build it when the sun is shining. And the sun right now is shining in the church. I do believe that we're in some of our better days in the church as far as environment for teaching the truth and for peace. We have that right now in the church. But in this environment that we're building, on what types of materials are we using to build what building temple God wants? In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 12, Oh, they'll work. We can give some soft messages. We can talk about things that really have not as much to do with commitment as God would want us to have. But on the Judgment Day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. There will come a time when a fire sweeps through the church, which we have seen that happen. And you know when those things have happened, when we've had our troubles in the church. And we see where there's been a foundation that was built with valuable and precious materials that survived the fire. And we have seen the whole church is washed away because there was not the strength that was preached. It didn't come from a minister who really did the job the way he should have. If that work survives, that builder, the fire will show a person's work if it has value. If the work survives, verse 14, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. And we've had that. And so one thing we talked to our ministers about is, are you building with solid materials that will withstand a 7.0, 8.0 earthquake? Are you building with materials that will survive a fire? Or is what you're building something that will come to collapse? Many buildings in very poor countries, the reason they have such high-death tolls from earthquakes is because they're not earthquake-proof, so to speak. You've had far greater earthquakes in San Francisco and Los Angeles than in many of these poor countries, but you don't have the deaths that you do in Haiti or in other places in the world where we've seen massive loss of life because the building was not sound. We're building a sound building. How would you recommend your church, or how would anybody recommend your church? Does our church have a 5-star 4.5 rating? You know how you see on the Internet and find out if we should go eat at some particular place, and you see some restaurant that has 2 stars, or you see a restaurant that has only one car in front of it, or it's wide open, nobody's in it. You want to go someplace where there's activity, life, good food, good ratings, and so forth. And we want people to talk up our church and what we have in good times, and also a church that's able to withstand shock and fire. We are all to be known as Christians, not by identity badge, saying, I am a member of this church, of the United Church of God, here's my pin number. Now, we want to be identified by the love that we show one to another, by the way we treat one another, the way we conduct ourselves. And people will give us a high rating. And Paul said, going back to 2 Corinthians 3, he says, You are my letter of recommendation. The work that's been put into establishing this church on the solid values of not only truth, but commitment and belief and repentance, and a life of doing the work of God, is what's going to come through and sail through.

Right now, at our last conference, we started a new series of ministerial conferences, starting with Atlanta, then the next one will be here in July, it'll be up here in Youngstown, we don't have an exact place for it. And the third one will be Minnesota, we have 6 regional conferences for our ministers, and the subject and the material that we have is disciples making other disciples. And as the great deal said about what types of qualities are we building into the people that we are working with. And one interesting observation has been made, is when you take a look at the qualifications that comprise what a minister should be, or a deacon for that matter, and actually the qualifications of a minister ought to be the qualifications of everybody, as far as what you read as to what a person is to become. I'll quickly read through what's in 1 Timothy chapter 3. And you see here that you have a lot being said here about the character of the person, about the integrity of the individual, as being most important, as what the Apostle Paul was telling the people in Corinth, you are my letter of recommendation because of what has come from you, because of the character that has been built in you, the commitment that you have put forth, the love that you have shown. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, again, this is not something which is exclusive to what ministers are to be. This list of qualifications is something for everybody, every man and woman in the church. 1 Timothy chapter 3, this is a faithful saying, if a man desires a position of a bishop, he desires a good work. And there are people that say, I want to be part of that group, the ministry. Nothing wrong about having that desire. But take a look as to what the requirements are. Are there requirements? He must have four years of theological training. He must have a degree in divinity in these studies. Is he to study so many hours under this particular professor or in this particular school? No, the first things that are mentioned have to do with character. They have to do with the inside of the person. This is a faithful saying, a bishop, overseer, an elder, must be blameless. He must be a person that there aren't a lot of bad things that are always circulating about his name. Above reproach, the husband of one wife, a person who has a good marriage. A person who is temperate and serious-minded. Of good behavior. You always know that that person's conduct and his speech is going to be serious. Not that he can't have levity or she can't have levity or that you can't joke about things, but that you have a person who is devoid of sarcasm and cutting people down and verbalizing or terrorizing people with his words. A person who is hospitable, who is always open to have people come to his home and visit with people, is also a person that wants to be around people and to visit with them as part of his job. Then it comes here to be able to teach. And this is about the only qualification here that has to do with being trained in some methodology of teaching, because everything else has to do with character, has to do with integrity.

Not given to... Then it will go back to these other qualifications. Not given to wine.

Not violent. Not a person that, when he hears things, he just reacts very, very strongly. Not greedy for money. And a minister needs to be very, very careful about involving himself with others in the congregation, because of his role and position of taking advantage of people. A person who is gentle, not quarrelsome. There are people that just love to argue. They just love to get into a discussion, but they like to argue the point. They like to drive... They like to debate and they like to put people down and show others how smart they are.

I get a newsletter from another group of churches. They talk about the most dangerous person in your congregation. Who is the most dangerous person in your congregation? They define them as the rabbi. The guy that wants to teach others. The guy that wants to bring his stuff and talk to other people to get them convinced, to have people around him about some new truth or some new way that he has to explain things. Who revels in the ability to be able to engage in argument and to convince people of the same. A man who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. He sets a good example at home with his wife, his children. This man does not know how to rule his own house. How will he take care of the church of God? Also, not a novice, not a person that is just brand new. Less being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside. Once again, character, reference, a letter of recommendation from his personal life being reflected back from others as a person of good character.

Lest he fall into the reproach and the snare of the devil. Do you know what word is used to define who you are biblically? We call ourselves Christians, and that's totally true. But the word Christian is only used three times in the New Testament. Three times. The first time is when Paul went up to Antioch, which was the third most prominent city in the Roman Empire. Number one was Rome, number two was Alexandria, and number three was Antioch. It was a coastal city in the Mediterranean. It was kind of a nexus of trade routes that went to the Middle East, that went south, that went to the Roman Empire. A lot of activity going on there, and that's a place where a lot of Christian activity took place after the death of Stephen. When Stephen was martyred, the disciples were scattered. And one place that a group of them went to was up to Antioch, and many converts were made there. And in the 11th chapter of the Book of Acts, Christians are identified for the very first time, but it's not by Christians. It's by the people outside. It's the way they say, hey, these are Christians. They call them Christians. The second time the word Christian is used is in the 26th chapter of the Book of Acts, when Agrippa, in talking with the Apostle Paul, says, he almost persuaded me to be a Christian. It came from Agrippa himself, as kind of a way that these people who followed Christ were called. The only time that Christian actually is owned by an Apostle who calls ourselves Christians is Peter, he who suffers as a Christian in the Book of Peter. But the word that is most used to define what we are is the word disciple, and that word is used 299 times. 200 times, 300 times, 100 times more than the term Christian. And Christ himself is the one who defines what a disciple is. It isn't something that we have to have, you know, a committee decide, you know, what is the definition of a disciple. Christ defines it quite directly. In Luke chapter 14, in verse 25, this is a section of scripture that all ministers cover with people who come to them saying, I want to be a part of this congregation. I am ready to make this kind of commitment. And a minister will go through these points in this section because they are direct words from Christ who defines what a disciple is. Our question is, are we these kinds of disciples still to this very, very day from what we were when we made this commitment? And are we a way that reflects God's way of life, a letter of recommendation of the church by the way we live our lives? As Paul said, you are my letter of recommendation. What is it that we're looking for in people? Somebody who makes it to church, you know, four times a year. Somebody who's sort of, you know, a good person most of the time. A person who's maybe exploring other ways, other things he's still kind of thinking about things. Whether it be Christian or maybe he should do things a little bit differently in the way he lives his life. No, you take a look as to what Christ meant by disciple. Jesus Christ was very popular as a teacher. He was charismatic, if you will.

His sermons caused thousands of people to follow him. They gave him no rest. They followed him as he walked down the shores of the Sea of Galilee. And they wanted to hear more, more, more. They were excited about his teachings. He was the rage. And some people said, you know, I want to be part of that group. I really want to be part of this movement. They didn't fully understand everything about the movement because there were other underscoring, there were underlying things that were going on in Judea. People were getting tired of Roman rule. People were looking to some type of emancipation.

Although other people were looking for what Christ really taught in the Sermon on the Mount, about humility, about being poor in spirits, about being merciful, about being a peacemaker. Anyway, a question was posed to Christ. And Christ is answering that question in Luke chapter 14 and verse 25. Great multitudes went with him. And he turned to them and said, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. That's pretty strong. He says, if you're not willing to go to that length, to that extreme, you cannot be my disciple. Now, the hatred part of hating your mother and father is hyperbole. It's like us saying, I've told you a million times. Well, did you really tell somebody a million times? No, you told them four or five times, but it sounds like a million times. Well, Christ is making the point here that you have to put him above any relationship, even using the extreme words of hatred of those who are closer to you, to underlie the point of how important Christ is to be the center of your life.

He cannot be my disciple if he doesn't put every other relationship. Marriage, children, parents, friendship, any relationship, any other clubs, societies, that he might be a part of, as to all be under the relationship of Christ.

He goes further to define what a disciple is. Verse 27, He whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

All of us, as a Christian, will bear some cross. I guarantee it. We never tell people that once you become a Christian, you are freed of pain. Now, we'll tell you that God will help you with your pain. We don't say that you will not have trials. We say that Christ will be with you in your trials. So he says, can you bear his cross? Can you bear your cross, your trial? Or are you going to be a person that's going to live in denial and leave because of trial? When I was baptized, I was baptized with a group of young students at Ambassador College. There was this young Jewish girl who was baptized. She was really a sweetheart in our class. And she was baptized. And then a day or two later, she found that her mother, her grandmother in New York died.

She left. She was absolutely devastated. This was horrible because she was close to her grandmother. But we never, ever heard from her again. Never. Are we prepared to deal with trial? Are we prepared to take the way that is not easy, the way that everybody else goes through in life, but know that God is with us and helping us? You know that there are two things that really are the biggest objections to Christianity by the outsiders. And one is that how could Christianity be the only way to God? Or even within Christianity, how can you say that you have the only truth and the only way to Christ? How could that be?

And the other is, why does God allow suffering? Why does God allow a tsunami that destroys cities and a half a million people drowning? How can a loving God do that? How could a loving God allow certain trials that we have in our lives? Those are the two big questions. And believe me, the one about trials is not one that's just asked of Christianity. It's asked by everybody. And even philosophers like Aristotle and Plato have weighed in on that. But Jesus Christ says, you must be able to bear your cross and follow me. And I had, when talking to people of baptism, say, things will happen in your life. And God is going to see how you rely upon Him to get you through whatever trial it is that you have. I could take a look at my life and the trauma that I've gone through, certain things, what the church has gone through. But things have gone personally. Things that could have upended me and did almost. And I'm sure that with all of you, you know certain things that were so painful, they hurt so badly. But you were able to survive. And you were able to get through it. Whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. As a disciple, you must be able to bear your cross, your trial. Then, He asks in addition, these are some of the things that really make us a letter of recommendation. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether He has enough to finish it? Lest after He has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock Him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. A person who was not able to meet this commitment. A person who never could think ahead of what it's going to require to be a Christian. Namely, going back to the first two things. Of putting Christ first, being able to bear your cross, your trials. And also, the long term. Are you willing for the rest of your life? We tell people, this is not a commitment just for now, for this year. Then it will get easier.

This is a commitment that is the most important decision that you will make in your life. This is a commitment that goes beyond marriage, beyond buying a home, building a family. Its effects are eternal. They go on forever. So is eternal life worth it? A relationship with God forever? And trusting Him to get through your trials. Can you calculate that? Seeing pros and cons as when we make decisions about whether we buy an Apple or an Android phone. You know, what are the benefits here and there? Or whether we buy this kind of a car or that kind of a car? And we have to make a choice. Well, can you take a look at Christianity and being a disciple of Jesus Christ and say, yes, these things may have to be true. I know one thing that probably hurts me more than anything. Family wants to really get to me is to destroy relationships. I hate that. I'll say that church trials have swept away one relationship after another. With hundreds of ministers that I knew from before 95. And other forays into relationships and close friendships and family.

But you know, there was a point a long time ago where a decision was made. And I'm thankful that I made it that I really would put Christ first.

I had my parents both die at a very young age. Very, very distressing. And had other things that have happened in my life as well. But I'm thankful that for the grace of God, I was able to do the math. And I hope that all of us have been able to do the math as far as to have we counted the cost for the long term. Or we have somebody who can come here and talk us out of being on the path that we should be on as Christians. Can somebody else say, come with me? Or come and celebrate Passover three days early or five days late? Or somebody who says, we've got to pronounce God's name this way? Or follow me? Or just whatever? Those things will come. There will be deception. There will be hurt. And will we have what it takes to commit ourselves to not just this life, but life forever? What God is really looking for when I see the requirements of being a disciple is somebody who will voluntarily, by God's commands, be put on our hearts and written with the Holy Spirit using the Word of God on the tables of our heart to make an everlasting commitment to be with Him no matter what. That's what it's about. And you know, at the same time, God's Jesus Christ says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. How can that be? How can it be that Christ says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light? You know what's harder than being a Christian? Not being a Christian. And being a person who's lost and doesn't know who He is and where He's going. When we did our public appearance campaign, when we did our public appearance campaign, the very first one in Cincinnati back in the year 2014, getting over two and a half years now, we went on the street. Steve Myers went on the street in Cincinnati and asked the question, do you know why you were born? What is the purpose of life? We were appalled when we saw the footage of people who had no idea where they came from, had no, they had absolutely no understanding why they were here. They had no understanding about God's purpose or plan and they were hopeless. Some seemed to be agitated by the fact that the question was even asked or irritated because it made them think there for a moment. But they're in denial. They just don't think, the world's coming to an end? Well, I guess it is. They just don't care. We do care. We care about all these things. We have a plan. We have a way that we work through this towards eternity. We've thought this through. We've counted the cost. I thought to myself, you know, I am so thankful that I have Jesus Christ as the center of my life who's revealed all this material to me, who has given me the help of the Holy Spirit to live this way, who's shown me a way of life that is the best way, the way that guarantees freedom so that whenever I speak I don't have to be saying, well, what did I say to that guy yesterday because I've got to make sure my story fits this week. When you tell the truth, whatever you say always fits. If you're a liar, you're always wondering. If you're a thief, you're always wondering if they're going to come and catch you. If you're a murderer, you will be caught.

That's worse than being a Christian who has a way, God's way, for that freedom that comes your way. When you become a disciple of Christ, one of the things that is a very clear message that's spoken throughout the words of the Bible is the fact that you are not to conform to this world. One thing I am concerned about sometimes in a church is that the world gets to be looking a little bit better than it used to be. We may have distanced ourselves from it, but we find ourselves creeping to the ugly values of this world.

Where morals have deteriorated, where lifestyles have deteriorated, where even the hope of political parties is that there may be hope now, as many churches are saying in Donald Trump. Do you have hope in Donald Trump?

I don't. I'd less hope in Hillary. I don't have hope in any of those people. None of those people. We have to be very, very, very careful about getting ourselves involved with the world or its values. One time a person said, there's a good movie that you need to see. It's a very, kind of ignore a few things, you know, but it's a great movie about Jimmy Carter and conspiracy and something to do with kind of historical politics. So this is back in the days of VHS, if anybody can remember that far back.

He went to Blockbuster and got the movie. In the first 30 seconds, there was nudity. There was the F-word said, you know, any number of times, and violence. Somebody got killed. I was like, okay, what? This is horrible! This is horrible. Should we be all watching that type of thing? My question is, how much do we tolerate of the world again?

You know, right now there are more women that use the F-word than men. It's horrible. It used to be where movies were nice and clean. You know, I just found some YouTube. I went back to some old YouTubes of Father Knows Best. Sounds so simple and so pure. But, you know, it was very, it was just really refreshing to see something simple. It was in black and white. Just, you know, the thing was, it was black and white because it was black and white, you know.

But now we have so many things that twist your mind so many twists to stories of what is right and what's, you know, you know, moral, immoral. You can't even talk to anybody outside because everybody has their ideas that have gone so far from what's right and true to what is pragmatic.

I went to my 50th high school reunion last June and met up with some of my old friends and with about 15 of them or so, I became Facebook friends after not seeing them for 40 years. It was nice. It was very wonderful. Some of them I remember we campaigned together for Barry Goldwater. This is how far back it goes. And a couple of them we had a couple of discussions and then the next week I came back to the home office and the next Friday the Supreme Court made its ruling on same-sex marriage. And I told our people to home office, look, we've got to make a statement from the church right up front, just like focus on the family.

We can't hide behind it. We can't just, a month later, say, yeah, we don't think that's a good thing. We need to state exactly where we stand on LGBT. And I got the council, you know, to help come up with a statement and our legal director also made a statement and I had a statement. We put it together into about a minute and a half, two-minute spot that we made a little video of and I did it. So that was on there. It was pretty strong. I had people from my old Rotary Club say, hey, wow, that's quite a statement from your church on LGBT.

But I had my classmates who saw it on Facebook tell me, come on Vic, that thing about Sodom and Gomorrah, that is so old. That was true, but back then. So we've come a long way right now from that. We know who you are. We know that you're the church. And of course, many churches accept that because they've gone so far away that the Bible is no longer relevant. But to us, the Bible, the Word of God is timeless in what was true back in the times of Rome, what was true back in the times of Sodom and Gomorrah, or all the way through the Bible is still true today about how God feels about these things.

Well, so much more can be said about that, but the thing is that our value is still sparkling in a world that is overwhelming us with confusion, with the destruction of values. Are we still disciples of Jesus Christ? And one of our crosses to bear may be that we stand up as a light among people that have drifted so far away, even people close to us, even people who call themselves Christian.

A Christian does not conform himself to the world. You know, from the very beginnings of God's relationship with Israel, he told him to be non-conformists. The whole point of Israel coming out of Egypt and being given a new land was not just an escape from Egypt. That was a big benefit.

But the greater mission of that was to be an example and a light of God's way to the nations around. And here's what God told the Israelites from the very first books of the Bible about what he wanted them to become. Leviticus chapter 18. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. This is Leviticus 18, verse 1. Verse 3, According to the doings of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, you shall not do.

And according to the doings of the land of Canaan where I am bringing you, you shall not do. Don't do the things that you saw where you came from, or do the things that you'll be seeing in the land where you're going to.

He made that very, very clear. Nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall observe my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. I am the Lord. Very, very clear from the very outset that Israel was to be a non-conformist as far as their place in human civilization.

In Romans 12, verse 1, this is what we tell our people who come to conversion. Romans 12, verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable or spiritual service. And do not be conformed to this world. Don't look like them. Don't have their standards as your standards.

But be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is at good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We are very special people, not because of just being called special people, but because of the way we live and because of what people see. They don't see people who are nestling up to the world. We don't see people who are excited about the values of this world. I'm not going to give you a list of things, of do's and don'ts of what you can watch or what you can't watch. But there are things that my wife and I said, we just can't watch this. We can't go there. This is below, not our standard, but Christ's standard. Could I say Jesus Christ, would you please come with us to this movie? I don't want to embarrass titles of movies. Would you have Christ come and sit between you, give him a bag of popcorn, and just watch a movie together with him? Or would you be embarrassed? I hope that our values are higher than that.

The New Testament is full of statements, and I can't cover them all. Now we're coming to the end of the sermon here. Philippians 2, verse 5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bondservant. Let this mind that was in Christ be in you. Are we imitating the mind of Christ in the way that he treated people, in the way that he related to men and women, in the way that he upheld God's commandments and laws? Do we have that mind?

2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. This is the same chapter that speaks about being a person that is a living letter of Christ's way of life. But we will with unveiled face, beholding as a mirror the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We, as a Christian, have the Holy Spirit that has flowed into our lives as a result of our repentance. Repent and be baptized and you shall receive the Holy Spirit. Then what? Do we bottle it up and just store it? Or is the Holy Spirit going to do something from our life? Will the Holy Spirit be ejected from our life to go outside of us? Jesus said, the Holy Spirit needs to come forth from us and do its work.

Jesus said in John 7, verse 38.

This is in context of Feaster Tabernacle's last great day period. He who believes in me out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. There'll be a flowing process. A disciple has the responsibility of making other disciples by the flowing of water that has come from the Holy Spirit, not bottled up, but that flows out from that person.

Verse 38 in the New Living Translation, it's translated, anyone who believes in me, may come and drink, for the Scriptures declare, rivers of living water will flow from his heart. And when he said, living water, he was speaking of the Spirit of God. Is the Holy Spirit flowing out from us like a river?

One of the Holy Spirit's ways of identification is, it's life. Life is not possible without water. The Holy Spirit is symbolic of water. And this river that pours out from us is a river that flows downstream and irrigates. It heals. It brings about good. As it flows from us, the streams that flow from us, they go around obstacles and they do their work. Is the Holy Spirit that way in your life? One thing that you cannot do, we don't have the power to do, is to convert somebody. But certainly with the power of God that flows from us, who knows what good will come from the good that you do? From the example that you set, those whom you mentor, and those who remember you, those who know who you are, they become disciples themselves and come to conversion, and come to receive the Holy Spirit and be also those fountains of water that pour out and bring about good in other people's lives. The Holy Spirit is persistent as water flows downhill. It moves around things and does things, things that you don't even know that are done. Do you know that every single one of you who's here, myself included, are here because of the flowing of water from the Spirit of God, from a generation or two previous to us? From people's sacrifices, people's examples, people's financing, people giving, people educating and bringing ministers, bringing Mr. Stiver, bringing elders here to teach you that was the flowing of the Spirit from those people as it flows to you. Hopefully as it flows to you, how it flows out to your neighbors, to the people at work, and the example that is set. What is the Holy Spirit doing in your life as it flows out from you and does its work? I do hope that we can take a look at our discipleship. I do feel like it's good to do an inventory. Every so often, am I truly the disciple of Jesus Christ that He defined, not some dictionary or not some book that says, you know, defines it in whichever way it wants to. The disciple of Jesus Christ is pretty specific, of a committed person not conformed to this world, a person that can withstand heat, a person that has counted the cost, a person that has put Jesus Christ above every other relationship in life. It may sound hard, but Christ said that this is the easy way. This is the way that is the easy yoke, the yoke that is easy, and the burden that is light. Well, it's certainly been very wonderful for Bev and me to be here. We've really enjoyed being here. A nice big crowd. I look forward to talking to you more after service. After services are over.