Living The Way

Thank you, ladies, for the beautiful special music. It's a wonderful arrangement of that song and such beautiful harmonies. You guys did a wonderful job. Thank you so much. It's very, very beautiful. I'd like to start today with a quick show of hands. How many of you have ever heard of Frank Abagnale, Jr.? Okay, a couple here and there, a few hands. Frank, some of you are at least probably familiar with his story, at least cursorily. A few months back, I came across a talk that Mr. Abagnale gave in Google, where he talked about his life story. He talked about kind of his own perspective on the events of his life and kind of the things that had happened and what brought him to these points. And his story has been told numerous times in a lot of different mediums. There's a book about his life, there's a movie about his life. He's given a number of talks in a variety of ways. But what was really interesting about this particular Google talk was that he was specifically asked by the folks that brought him in from Google not to speak on his career and his expertise in the fields of cybersecurity and fraud, but instead to talk about what brought him to that point in his life. What made him such an expert in cybersecurity and fraud? Well, Frank was born in Bronxville, New York, as the middle of four children. He was raised in a normal home. In fact, he will say that he had two parents that loved him very much. In fact, the way that he describes and considers his father, he would be in the running for father of the century. I mean, he absolutely loved his dad. And his dad loved him. You know, there was some wonderful relationship between the two of them. You know, he was raised in a basic, normal home. By the age of 16, though, Frank's parents decided to get a divorce, and Frank was called before a judge. In fact, he was picked up at school in a black sedan, driven to the courthouse, where he was ushered into the courthouse. There his two parents are. The judge says, well, here's the deal. Your parents have decided that they're going to get a divorce. I need you to decide who you're going to live with. And so here's this poor 16-year-old kid who's been put in this position of, I need to try to figure out how do you make that decision? How do you decide which one of your parents that you're going to go and live with? As many 16-year-old might do in that situation, Frank burst into tears. He raced out of the courtroom as the judge is banging the gavel, saying, 10 minute recess, you know, we'll pick this back up in 10 minutes. Frank hit the door running and he didn't stop. He just kept going. And when Frank's parents came out to look for him, he was gone. He was gone. He wasn't anywhere to be found. He wasn't in the lobby. He wasn't outside the courthouse. He hit the ground running, went right down those stairs, ran home, packed a few meager things, and hopped a train to New York City. He took off. He was gone.

He would be another seven years at that point in time before he saw or spoke to his mother. And unfortunately, very sadly, he wouldn't speak with his father or see him ever again. His father died in a freak accident in that time frame and never had an opportunity to reconnect with him again afterwards. Once Frank was in Manhattan, he attempted to make his way at the age of 16. So, as you might imagine, 16 years old, living in the Big Apple, trying to figure out how to make ends meet. He got himself a job making minimum wage, which for some of you guys that have been around a time, this will be familiar. It was a dollar fifty an hour. For those of us that are of the younger stat or some that are working maybe in minimum wage positions now, you hear that number and go, a buck fifty an hour? I mean, what do you do on less than 15? I mean, come on.

Of course, certainly, I mean, inflation and other things, obviously, have been in play here. But he was so certain that that low number, that dollar fifty, was because he was 16, he decided to commit his first forgery. He took his driver's license and he altered it to make himself appear older.

And he was old enough, he looked old enough, to pass it off. And so he altered his driver's license and made him appear older in hopes of getting a little bit better monetary amount at his job.

Well, as time went on, he was further frustrated at the lack of money that he received. And so Frank began to turn to a life of what we would term now white-collar crime. He turned to a life of white-collar crime to make his ends meet. He would go in at the time. The banks weren't communicating with each other like they do now. So he would go in and he'd open a bank account at a bank in his name and he'd run around and pass a bunch of bad checks. He'd just go out, write a ton of bad checks, you know, make as much money as he could make off of that, buy as many things as he needed, whatever. And then when they started getting close, he'd just disappear. Only to then go to another bank branch, open an account under his name, write a whole bunch more bad checks, and just continue the process of doing this over and, you know, lather, rinse, repeat, right? So he started to kind of have some success with this. He started to become, as you might imagine, 16, 17, nobody's caught me yet. He started to become emboldened. He started to think, well, I'm gonna step this up a little bit. I'm gonna take this to the next level. And so he was running out of locations at the time, though, where his name was any good. At some point in time, you run out of all the banks in New York and you have to try to figure out what you're going to do next. What Frank decided was, I can't keep doing this in New York. I gotta head out. I gotta go somewhere else. I gotta move cities. But there's a problem with that. Many of you remember in those days, there was a real hesitancy to cash out-of-state checks on an out-of-state license. In fact, I remember my mom did a lot of shopping back in Idaho. We lived right in Spokane, right near the state line. And Idaho had less sales tax than Washington did, and so she would go over and we would do our shopping and things right at the state line. Well, they don't like cashing out-of-state checks. There were a couple of times where they said, sorry, we can't accept an out-of-state check on an out-of-state license. So, oh, that's unfortunate, because sales tax is expensive over here. But what he ended up doing was, he decided, look, I gotta get out of here and realized that he needed an alias or he needed something that would allow him to be above reproach, that would allow him to be able to commit these crimes going forward with no one the wiser and no one asking any questions. And so what he was doing one day was walking down a street in New York, and he saw a group of pilots and stewardesses leave a hotel. And it clicked in his head. He said, there's somebody who travels constantly. There is somebody who no one's ever going to suspect. Not only that, in the mid-60s to kind of late 1960s, airline pilots were people who were admired and respected.

They were men of means. They could be trusted. And so he decided, all I have to do is impersonate an airline pilot. And I can write as many bad checks as I want to write, because I have the means. I have the, I mean, no one's going to suspect an airline pilot of writing bad checks. So Pan Am at the time was one of the largest airlines in the world, and he decided to bank on the size of that airline in the hopes that the right hand and the left hand were not talking to each other, in the hopes that he could pull one over on somebody and that the other side wouldn't notice. So what he did was he cold called Pan Am. He cold called them and he said, hey, I'm an airline pilot. I'm out here on a on a trip out from San Francisco, and I've misplaced my uniform. I don't have a uniform. And they said, well, use your spare. Well, see, here's the thing. I didn't think I was going to be out here. I didn't pack my spare. Oh, well, what are you going to do? I need a new uniform.

Where do I get a uniform at? And so she told him, go down to this uniform company. This is who we contract with. Go down and get a uniform. Just bill it on your, you know, bill it to your employee account. He said, perfect. Here's my employee number. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he went down. He got his thing. Of course, by the time he got down there, they weren't able to check and balance as well in the days of the Internet. So he was able to get the uniform. Problem was, at that point, he didn't have an identification badge. And so he posed as an auditor and someone who was going into the company that made these identification badges and demanded to see the process of making the badge. Only he told the guy, well, why don't you, I mean, just for fun, why don't you make one with my face and name on it? Well, sir, I can't do that. That's wildly illegal.

I'm an auditor. Yes, sir. Here's an identification badge with your name on it. Well, I'll take this back. We'll check it out when we get there. So he has now a false uniform. He has a false identification badge. Mostly, it's missing a couple of little things. He realized he needed something that identified him as Pan Am. So on the way home, he decided to stop into a hobby shop, a little RC hobby shop, and buy a small model of a Pan Am airplane. Threw the model away, grabbed the decals out of the bottom of the box and put those on the identification badge very carefully, such that it looked like a legitimate Pan Am identification badge. Airlines in those days had a number of pilots, or perks, I should say, for pilots. One of them included deadheading on flights. So what they were able to do in those days was there were four seats in the cockpit of a plane. You had a pilot, you had the co-pilot, a flight engineer, and then there was one extra little seat called a jump seat that folded up typically. It wasn't usually down, but in the event they needed a seat for somebody, any other pilot from any other airline could deadhead on any other airline's flights. It was before deregulation. So he would go in and he would deadhead on that flight, sit in that jump seat, talk the jargon, talk the talk with the pilots. He'd land and he'd go and write a bunch of bad checks and do his thing. One of the other perks that airlines had at that time was that every airline would cash any other airline pilot's checks with no question. And so he would arrive at his new airport. He'd start writing bad checks on one end of the airport, all the way down, every kiosk, every airline along the way. He said usually at the bigger airports, instead of taking about eight hours to do that. And what happens after eight hours? Shift change, new personnel, go right back through and do it again. Oops, hit the mic. Go right back through and do it again. And sure enough, by the time he was done, he'd written a whole mess of bad checks, had a whole bunch of money, and off he goes to do his next thing. As time went on, Frank's con continued to grow. He didn't stop at impersonating a pilot. He actually at one point posed as a pediatrician for a time. However, he did have a certain set of internal morals where he would not, under any circumstances, perform medical procedures because he's like, I'm not a doctor, but I'm playing one on TV, so to speak. So he did that. He posed as a sociology professor for a time, taught a couple of college classes in sociology. No one noticed. I don't know what that says about sociology professors, but no one noticed. And then Frank actually passed the Louisiana bar at the age of 1819 and posed for a time as a lawyer in Louisiana and actually practiced law. Every time his scheme is discovered, every time somebody figures out he's not who he is, he'd take off, he'd flee, start over in some new location. Over a period of five years, Frank impersonated a number of individuals, passed two and a half million dollars worth of bad checks, and by the age of 20 was on the FBI's most wanted list in the United States. In 1969, he was wanted in every single, all 50, U.S. states for white-collar crimes such as forgery, fraud, and counterfeit.

Frank was eventually captured in France on an Interpol warrant after he was recognized by an ex-girlfriend stewardess who saw him in the town of Montpelier and said, hey, you're Frank Abagnale, and then called it in. And so he was arrested in Montpelier, served a very difficult year in a French prison. He said he went into that prison at 198 pounds, came out after a year at 109. He spent most of that year in solitary confinement. He was transferred to Sweden, where he was eventually deported, and returned to the U.S., where he was sentenced to 12 years in a federal prison for his crimes. He only served five of those 12 years before being released on the condition that he worked for the FBI, helping them to actually go through and fix these sorts of things to where people can't do what he managed to do. He has continued to work as a consultant for the FBI. He's been there now more than 40 years. He's married. He has a family. He has three sons. And he said very specifically in this Google Talk, I don't want to necessarily be remembered for what I did. I want to be remembered for what I have done. And he has turned his life around. In fact, one of the things that kind of endeared me to his story a little bit, when he was released from prison, despite it not being a condition of his sentence, he chose to pay back the two and a half million dollars that he swindled people out of, even though he didn't have to. So he chose to pay back the two and a half million and made everything right. He did everything that he could to make it all right. His life story was made into a movie starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. It was entitled, Catch Me If You Can. Some of you may have seen that. The book is of the same title. The movie was released in the early 2000s. I admittedly haven't seen it. I've seen the Google Talk that he gave. Frank Abagnale, Jr. was a master of deception. He was a con man. He was a master of wearing a mask. He was a master at assuming a different identity and passing himself off at someone whom he was not. He led a double life. On one hand, there was Frank Abagnale, the son of two divorced parents from New York City who had a 10th grade education and a chip on his shoulder. On the other hand, a little bit of work and creativity and a whole bunch of deception. He could become anybody he wanted to be. He had that gift of glib tongue to where he could talk his way into conning someone over and over and over again. All it took in his situation was a little bit of acting, just a little bit of a put-on mask to hide. Let's go over to Matthew 23. Start heading in the direction we're going to be going here. Matthew 23.

If you've read through the Gospel accounts before, which I'm sure all of you have, you take a look at and understand this very tenuous relationship that Jesus Christ had with the scribes and the Pharisees. Very tenuous relationship that he had with the scribes and the Pharisees. And in this particular, these four books, Christ took them to task on a number of occasions. And frankly, for good reason. Frankly, for good reason. They were very much missing the point in the life that they were to be leading.

And in some ways, they were putting on a show and not following through on other aspects of things that were just as important. Matthew 23, we'll pick it up in verse 13. We're going to read this section here, just to kind of see the different ways that he's coming at the attack in this particular discourse.

Matthew 23 in verse 13, he says, But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.

Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, whoever swears by the temple it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple he's obliged to perform it.

Fool's and blind, which is greater, the gold of the temple that sanctifies the gold? Whoever swears by the altar, it's nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that's on it he's obliged to perform it. Fool's and blind, for which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things on it.

He who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. He who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe on mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Verse 24, blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they're full of extortion and self-indulgence.

Blind Pharisees first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, verse 27, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, verse 28, this is the point, this is the drive-home point he's making here. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Christ makes the point to the Pharisees, much of what Mr. Buchanan was talking about here in the Sermonet, the importance of being action-oriented Christians, saying, look, you talk a good game. He says, you talk a great game. You dress the part, you look the part, you know the right things to say, you can talk a good game. But he says, you're not internalizing it, you're not really living it in its entirety. Yeah, you're tithing, and that's great, he says to him. You're tithing, and that's wonderful. But you're leaving these really important things out.

You should be doing both. It's not one or the other, it's both that should be being done. And so they're not entirely living the way that they're living. They're not entirely who they are professing to be. He calls them hypocrites, the word that's used, and we kind of recoil at that word. It's a powerful word in the English language. You know, it kind of brings maybe a visceral reaction when we think about that. But he calls them hypocrites not just once, but repeatedly. And then he provides very specific instances as to that hypocrisy and why they deserve really every bit of that nomenclature.

He said they closed off the kingdom men through their teachings, that they would actually prevent people from coming to the kingdom through what they taught and what they expected of other people. So they devoured widows' houses. They devoured widows' houses. Then in order to look good in front of other people, they would make pretentiously long prayers.

You know, we also see in other places where it talks about how, you know, they would do something, a good deed of some variety, and then pull out the trumpet and look at me! Look what I did! Anybody? Anybody? Look over here, right?

Said they traveled land and sea to make proselytes, to make believers, and when they were successful in doing so, that individual was worse off spiritually than they were before. There's a big long section in there that talks about swearing on this or that or whatever else. There was a there was kind of a thing at that point in time in which they were working on ways to get out of upholding an oath by swearing on some lesser aspect of the temple. The point is, look, if you're going to swear on what's on the altar, guess what? You're swearing on the altar, too, because that's what sanctifies it. You're going to swear on this part of the temple, guess what? You're swearing on the temple itself, which houses, you know, all of this. So making the point that they looked really good on the outside, but internally they were a tomb full of whitewashed bones and rot. Said you just aren't living fully with fidelity what you believe. Instead, they were putting on a show. They were professing outwardly to be godly. They were professing outwardly to be righteous when, in fact, they were not. The word that's used here, hypocrite and Greek, has a really interesting etymology, kind of a word nerd. I like how word origins and how words have developed over time. The English word hypocrite comes from the Greek word hypocritus, and it's pretty almost a direct transliteration in English, but it's the term that was used to describe an actor in Greek theater. So you're all familiar with Greek theater. You're all familiar with the theater symbols we have today. We have the happy face, the happy mask, and the sad mask, right, to represent comedy and tragedy. Well, that's from Greece. That's what that was, because in those days during Greek theater, a mask would be worn by an actor to indicate they were a specific character. When they would run off of the stage or off to exit stage left or whatever, they brought that mask, put on another mask, and come back out, and, ta-da, I'm somebody else. And back and forth it goes. I mean, our acting is not much different today with prosthetics and other things. You put on, you know, a prosthetic, and you don't look like who you are before. You're somebody different now. You're acting. You're putting on a show. And so Christ makes the point here to the Pharisees, you're putting on a show. You're pretending to be one thing when in reality you're somebody very different. You're something very different. The word itself directly translates as an interpretation from beneath because, again, that actor interpreted the story from underneath the mask. Now, Christ wasn't speaking Greek in these passages. He was likely speaking Aramaic, but it was recorded for us in Greek, and the word choice here is not accidental. It's very purposeful.

Christ is telling the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 13, stop pretending. Stop pretending. Stop wearing the mask. Stop saying one thing and doing another. Stop being the actor who hides behind the mask, whose true identity is veiled by the facade that's on the outside. It says, stop doing that. Quit pretending to be one thing when you are actually another. Truly live what you say you believe. Let's go over to the book of James, thankfully to a location that Mr. Buchanan didn't go. This morning I heard James, and I went, uh-oh. He went to a different spot. It's an equally solid point, even in this message, but we're going to go to James 1, and we're going to pick it up in verse 22. The theme of camp this year, as you're turning over there, was the theme was live God's way today. Was live God's way today. And the whole principle and the whole basis behind this particular theme is that the world around us is not living God's way today. I think we can all agree on that. You look at society, you look at kind of the way that the world is today, it is not God's way that is being lived each and every day by the vast majority of society. And so the idea is to help our youth understand that, one, it hasn't always been like this.

You know, when you're 12, 13, 14, 15, this is the only world you have ever grown up in.

This is it! You know, it's like the old joke with the two fish that are swimming along in the water one morning, and an older fish stops them and says, hey, the water's really nice this morning, isn't it? And the two fish go, what's water? Two younger fish, they have no idea this is what you've lived in your entire life. But even 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago, this was a very different society.

Even then, though, it was not a society that God intended it to be. And so this recognition that this is not the way that it always has been. And so, as a result, we have to learn to discern what is right and what is wrong. Or, as Mr. Spurgeon, Carl Spurgeon once said, between what is right and what is almost right. Right? Because sometimes that delineation is not as obvious as we think it might be. One of the themes that we're looking at, the sub-themes, is that God's way works. Looking at this idea that, yeah, this is a world that operates in Satan's domain and operates as Satan has designed it. But God's way, what we try to do at camp, what we try to build at camp, is a way that works. And as a result of that, we're expected to transform ourselves, not conform to the world around us, and go forward and be a light. That's kind of our, in essence, what we're looking at in the camp programs this year. So, when it comes to us considering our lives, when we consider kind of what God desires of us all, I mean, in light of that theme in particular, God desires that we truly live what we profess to believe. That we truly live what we say we believe.

Not just hear it, but do it. James 1 and verse 22 says, Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, so we can deceive ourselves if we are hearers only. We can deceive ourselves if we are not also doers. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. Verse 25, But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one, will be blessed in what he does.

Continuing again in that perfect law of liberty in the commandments of God. Not hearing, not forgetting, but hearing and following through on what we know to be true. Again, acting upon what we hear. Performing it. Really conforming ourselves to the standard that is set for us in Scripture, rather than spending all this energy and time on figuring out how we can somehow rebel against the standard. Focusing on really conforming ourselves to what God has asked us to do. And it says, when that happens, as we see in James, blessed that that person will be for doing it. Now, realistically, there are different blessings in just physical. Okay, so one of those situations where if things aren't going well financially, or if things are struggle in other ways, doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. Blessings can be more than just physical.

But what James is really saying here is that we should be identifiable to those in the world around us as a Christian, based 100% on our actions. That by the way that we live our life, in every situation, in every situation, whether it's work, school, you know, out in traffic, or whatever it might be, that we should be recognizable as a Christian based on our actions, on what we actually do. Not who we say we are, not who we claim we are, not the definition that we provide to people if they ask us who we happen to be, but through our actions and through our life. By the law of God that we govern ourselves by, and by the consideration and respect and love that we show for other people, the faith that we exhibit, the joy that we exhibit, we should shine like a light in the darkness around us. So I guess tough question time, are we? Are we? Are we lighting up the darkness around us, or do we look just like everybody else? Do we light up that darkness?

Do people notice the difference? Would you say that you're identifiable as a follower of Jesus Christ based solely upon the actions of your life? That someone would observe your life and say, that person's a Christian. I put my money on it. Without us wearing a shirt that says, Jesus loves me or something along those lines that would identify us in another way.

If you could step outside of your own life and observe yourself for a day's time, what would you see? What does God see? God sees it all, every day. Our good times, our bad times, times we say something stupid, guilty. Right? Let's turn over to Acts. Let's turn over to the book of Acts. I want to establish a concept here. We're going to go to Acts 9, and we're going to actually establish a concept that we don't always establish when we come to this section. This particular section is the section in Scripture where the fall of Tarsus is converted along the road to Damascus, where he's called. Very dramatic fashion, being struck blind. Often when we come to this section, that's what we focus on, that's what we look at. I want to take a look at one other aspect here today.

We know the story that Saul, early on in particular, was definitely a persecutor of the brethren.

He, in this particular section in verse 1, it says, Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Now, I want to stop there for a second. Picture a person who is breathing threats and murder. Just in your head for a minute. Is this somebody who's a calm demeanor? Is this somebody who's... this is someone who is practically rabid at this point in front of the high priest. It says he went into the high priest and he asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus. So not only is he asking to go and get people, he's asking to travel to go and get people.

It says he asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. So Saul, at this point, his plan is, I got the paperwork that says I can go to Damascus and I can round up every single one of those people who believe in that Jesus Christ, bind them, bring them back to Jerusalem for trial, and likely put them to death. Perhaps imprison them for an incredibly long time. Notice men and women. There was no difference with regards to that. But how did he describe them? This is what I want to focus on. How did he describe those individuals?

He said he wanted papers to track down any individuals who were of the way.

Saul was looking for people that lived a lifestyle that a follower of Christ would live.

I'm going to venture a guess these guys weren't running around with a shirt that said, the way on it. Members Club Jackets, the way. Those were cool in the 80s for those of you that weren't born then. These guys were not running around identifying themselves in this way.

They didn't have fish on their bumpers. They didn't wear a cross around their neck.

They were identifiable because of the way of life that they led, because of the things that they did, because of the way that they followed their Lord and Savior. Saul was seeking those who followed Christ based upon the fruits of their lives, based upon their actions and what they did.

Those who were living what we might say, the way. That was how they were identified. The word way here in Acts 9 is the Greek word hodos. It's a word that was used primarily in Scripture to describe a way, or a road, or a path. Sometimes it's occasionally translated as journey.

So we might say that Saul was seeking those individuals who were on the path, who were walking the path, who were, again, living their lives in accordance with Scripture and whose actions showed it. Now, is this a common path? Is this a big path? Is this a real wide and open path for anybody and everybody? No, no it's not. Let's go to Matthew 7. Let's go to Matthew 7.

You know, we look at how many people in the world are on this path. We have a population of about seven and a half billion. We certainly don't have seven and a half billion people that are following God's way in this regard. Are we on the path? Are we on that path? Matthew 7. In the book of Matthew, we have Christ's first sermon really recorded. He sent us the slopes of what we believe it to be, the Corzine Plateau, and he spoke to the multitude that were gathered there. And in this particular sermon on the Mount, he worked to deconstruct a number of teachings at that point in time and really teach people what God desired of them. And so you'll see a lot of, you've heard it said of old, dot, dot, dot, well, I'm here to tell you that, dot, dot, dot. So he's really expounding on these things. He's helping them to better understand, yeah, that's what it said down here, this is what it meant. So he's kind of going through this process of helping people really understand what's there. And there's so many good things in this section of Matthew 5 through 7. In Matthew 7 and verse 13, he says the following, he says, Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life.

And there are few who find it. The way, the narrow way, is a narrow gate.

It's not something broad, it's not something wide, it's not something, you know, some huge highway.

It's a narrow, difficult path that is fraught with difficult things. It's a tough life. He says the wide gate, the wide way, it leads to destruction. It leads to destruction. And there's plenty to go in that way. And I think if you look at the world around us today, the society that we're living in now, this world around us is marching toward destruction along that path, not even thinking about it. And all of us, frankly, at some point in time, we're on that path too, until somebody went, hey, come here, open up the bushes. Look, here's a different path.

It's a little trail here that kind of goes off to the side a little bit, called us out of that world, gave us an opportunity. But we have a world around us that calls evil good and good evil. We have a world that operates on situational ethics, that the ethics and the morality of the situation is determined by what the situation requires. My family is starving, of course I can steal to feed my family. Why not? Why not? After all, it's my family. I've got to take care of my family. Situational ethics reigns. Sometimes, and I think, you know, Mr. Buchanan mentioned it with an example this morning, individuals can go as far as—or this morning, I guess it wasn't this morning, it was still this afternoon—but people can go as far as creating God in their own image.

And they create a God that agrees with them on every single point. And they vigorously defend that God at the expense of actually looking at and understanding what it is that God says, refusing instead to conform themselves to what God actually teaches. They will prop up this effigy of self, so to speak, and that becomes God to them. This happens in the world around us today quite a bit. He goes on in verse 15. It's so important for us to be teachable, to have a heart that's malleable, to have a heart that is able to be shaped and formed by God, that is able to work with us. He goes on in verse 15, Matthew 7 and verse 15, to say, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. It says, Therefore, by their fruits you shall know them. By the product of their lives you shall know them. How do we know a false prophet? How do we know someone who isn't genuine?

We talked about with Frank Abagnale. How do you spot a con? How do you spot a con? By their fruits.

By their fruits. An apple tree makes apples, peach trees make peaches. It's basic biology, right?

You would not expect to see an apple tree growing on a peach tree, nor would you expect to see a peach growing on an apple tree. You know, that's not what you would expect to see. You would be surprised to have grapes growing on blackberry vines. That would be awesome, given how many blackberries we have around here. That'd be really great. Huge vineyards everywhere. It's right on the side of the road. It says, A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruits. In other words, you will know people based upon their actions, what they actually do, not what they say, not what they claim to be, but by what they do, how they actually implement what it is that they believe. And frankly, this goes for all of us as well. If you turn over to 1 Timothy real quick, 1 Timothy, we're going to pick it up in 1 Timothy 4.

1 Timothy 4, and you kind of consider the relationship that the Apostle Paul had with Timothy. It was a very strong, almost father-son mentor-style relationship. It wasn't just Timothy that Paul had this relationship with. He was like this with Titus as well. Titus was a younger pastor, as was Timothy. Timothy over Ephesus for a time and Titus over Crete. But when you take a look at this particular section—this is a scripture that we come to quite often—but I want to look at why this particular example was given. So in 1 Timothy, we'll pick it up in chapter 4. 1 Timothy 4, and we'll grab it in verse 12. It says, let no one despise your youth. And we tend to want to stop there, and we tend to go, ah, see, take that! Can't get on mute because I'm young. Well, let no one despise your youth. But what does he keep saying? He says, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity. In other words, don't give them any reason to despise your youth. Have the example. Live the way you should live. Till I come, verse 13, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and also those who hear you. You know, this particular section talking about the type of life that we should leave, the characteristics in which we should have. You know, this is one of those things where, as an example to one another, it's really a stunning example when you see someone living the life that they should be living. You know, many of you in this room have been living this way of life for so many years, and it is a stunning example to those of us who are a little younger. I say a little younger. I'm not technically younger anymore, but I'm getting, you know, to those of us that are a little bit younger, your examples of faith are huge. They are huge, and the stories about how you've gotten through this and gotten through that and lived this way of life for the number of years that you had, it's inspiring. It's truly inspiring. He has the same sort of message to Titus. Let's turn over to Titus real quick. Titus 2, and we'll pick it up in verse 1, because again, same message, different person. He says it slightly differently. I mean, it's essentially the same thing, but a little bit different. Titus 2, and we'll pick it up in verse 1, says, But as for you, speaking to Titus, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.

Notice in both of these situations, doctrine was a strong emphasis, a strong emphasis. Ensure that what you're teaching is sound, that it is complete, that the older men be sober and reverent and temperate, sound in faith, in love and in patience. He's telling him these are the things that you should encourage people to be doing. Older men sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love and in patience. Older women, likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet and chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. This is likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, and incorruptibility. Sound speech that cannot be condemned. And look at what it says here in verse 8, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to save you. In other words, you should live your life in such a way that when someone is like, that's dead, I'm going to speak out against that person, they stop for a second and they go, I can't do that.

The person's a really good person. They're loving, they're kind. I can't. But that's the kind of life that we should lead to where when they're ready to attack, there's that momentary kind of punch in the gut of, oh, I can't do that. I can't speak out in that way against this person. It says, who is an opponent or that an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to save you, that you live your life in such a way that they have nothing evil or bad to say about you.

It says, exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Throughout Paul's epistles, the latter chapters of the New Testament, as the Word was going out and his disciples were entering the fold, the focus of these epistles was really helping the church in the Greek world to really understand how to live this way, to change their lives and to become what Christ had called them to be.

We've mentioned this before, and this isn't something new, but we think of Greek culture, and we tend to think of philosophizing all day, people in white togas and green laurels on their heads. We think of fantastic architecture, and we think of civilized thought, advanced mathematics, science, philosophy, and kind of all that goes along with that. But as we've mentioned before, there was a dark underbelly to Greco-Roman culture, too. And I think sometimes that's overshadowed by the togas and the laurels, and we don't tend to think of kind of this dark underbelly to this Greco-Roman culture. The Romans who conquered areas obviously came in, and they conquered the area, and they kept what they liked. They were borrowers. So they came in, they conquered an area, and if they liked something, they hung on to it. Well, when they conquered Greece, Greece had a culture of debauchery at times. They had a culture of idolatry, a culture of drunkenness, sexual immorality, and the Romans liked that. It was fun. They didn't want to get rid of that. And so they just attributed their own gods instead of Bacchus and Aphrodite and all these other things. They attributed their own gods to these things, and then they went ahead and worshipped in the same way that the Greeks did. They kept what they liked, and they Romanized the rest. Kind of mentioned that there was a word at one point in time that was used called Corinthian as the line. It was to be Corinthianized. It was somebody who was sexually immoral. If that person was sexually immoral, they had been Corinthianized. Corinth was kind of the Las Vegas of Asia Minor. What happened in Corinth stayed in Corinth. And all the brethren that are being called out of these various places, whether it was Corinth or Ephesus or Galatia or Colossae or whatever, were being called out of a similar culture. They were being pulled from this culture.

But they developed in that society. They stewed in it. They developed in it.

Until God called them out of it, until he called them out of that culture and called them to something different, until he said, no, no, no, this is the way. This is the path. This is the small narrow path. You're wanting to run down the big highway with everybody else. This is the narrow path. Let's walk on this path and give the individual the opportunity to change their life.

We'll reference it. We've gone there a number of times in the last few months. But 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9, Paul makes the point to those in Corinth, as such were some of you. In other words, some of you had lived this way of life before being called out, before being pulled out of this culture and given this opportunity to live in a different way, told the brethren in Corinth and in Ephesus and Galatia that the old ways of living weren't okay. I think sometimes in the church of God, many of us have grown up in this church. You know, I was born into this faith, you know. A number of you had to come into it from outside of the church. But we tend to think that, well, I'm in, I'm keeping this apathy, I'm doing all these things. What I want you to think about when we talk about this is the fine-tuning aspect of our Christianity. Because a person who has an anger problem is as equally unchristian as a person who doesn't keep the Sabbath.

When that person's in a restaurant bawling out their waiter because they got the order wrong, is that shining a light? Of course not. Of course not. And we can go down a list of things. It's the fine-tuning aspects of our faith that we need to ask ourselves and consider with ourselves. Because, yes, we're all here gathered on the Sabbath. We're all here keeping the Sabbath. We keep the annual holy days. You know, chances are good you didn't have a pepperoni pizza for dinner last night. Chances better be good you didn't have a pepperoni pizza for dinner last night.

But the idea that, you know, the big ticket items, yeah, we can check those boxes.

But it's the small things like gossip and slander, anger, you know, the lack of forgiveness of others.

Those are the things that we need to start asking ourselves, are we living what we profess to believe, or do we hold grudges? Do we chew out the wager? You know, do we refuse to forgive people?

That's the questions we really need to ask. I'd like to take a look at a couple of passages here, because for Timothy, who was in Ephesus, or Titus, and Crete, or any of the messages that Paul sent to the churches in Asia Minor during his time, any of these epistles, one thing he kind of keeps coming back to. He keeps coming back to this idea that we have to become like Jesus Christ, that we have to become like Jesus Christ. But that's our example, and I think sometimes we like to look at the world, you know, we like to look at the world and look at ourselves and realize, ha! I'm nowhere near it! I'm doing great! But if you step back on the grass sometimes, as the world's dropping, maybe so are we, because our standards have gone down, as the world's standards have gone down. Instead, we have a perfect standard here that does not change, that does not drop. Are we looking at that standard, or are we looking at the world and saying, I'm okay? We need to be looking at this standard, the upper line that doesn't move, not the two lines that may go up and down with one another as time goes on. Philippians 2 in verse 5. Let's go ahead and start there. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Philippians 2 and verse 5, and we'll read, we'll pick it up in verse 3. Again, considering this idea of becoming like Jesus Christ, because that is really a focal point of Paul's writings. As you go through his writings over and over again, he comes back to this idea of becoming like Jesus Christ. And like I said, fine tuning, or maybe a little more spackle than just fine tuning. Maybe it takes a little more mud. My wife and I, as we've done our remodel, you know, we're working on bits and pieces of drywall, and our mantra has been, well, mud covers a multitude of sins. And then you get it done, and you mud it, and you go, texture covers a multitude of sins. You hit it with the texture, and you go, paint covers a multitude of sins. So, where it turns out, we're not good at remodeling, just in case anybody's... So don't ask us to come remodel your house. That's not our strong point. But it might take a little more than fine tuning. It might take a little more than texture and paint. Sometimes maybe you need one of those cool board walls. You just put up over the wall that you've already messed up and call it an accident feature. All right, Philippians 2, verse 3, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Fine-tuning question. Do you, do we, do I, esteem others better than myself?

Says, Let each one of you look out not only for his own interest. So obviously, we do have to take care of ourselves. There's that aspect, but also for the interests of others. How are we doing on that? How are we doing on that? Are we living with esteem for others? Says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, and we could stop there, but it goes on to explain it, 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, and coming in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Fine-tuning question. Are we obedient to the point of death?

Are we obedient to the point of death? Are we willing to listen to God, even though it might result in our death? Another section, 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2, we're going to bounce around to a couple of these epistles today, so be fleet of finger. Let's sit there and exercise them.

2 Timothy 2, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 22. Again, looking at characteristics, looking at the things that we're expected to put on to become more like Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 2, verse 22, says, flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Verse 23, but avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. If this were written in the 21st century, Paul would have said, don't get into arguments on the Internet. That's what he's saying. Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes. Don't get into arguments on the Internet. No one wins in an argument on the Internet. No one wins. There's no winners when it's all said and done.

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel. In other words, we shouldn't be out looking for a fight. We shouldn't be out picking a fight, but we should be gentle to all, able to teach, patient.

We should in humility correct those who are in opposition. What does a humble correction look like? Is it public? No way. It's not in front of other people, typically. A humble correction is typically done one-on-one with that individual, with the goal of coming out of that end and having gained your brother. If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will. So we see characteristics like righteousness and faith and love and peace that we should be looking at. Gentleness, humility, not quarrelsome, not fighting, in humility correcting if need be. Ephesians 4, just again, looking at the fact that Paul keeps coming back to this idea of become like Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4, verse 22 reads as follows, says that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and in holiness. So not going back to those old things, living that new life that's come in. The final passage we'll look at is in Colossians. Colossians 3, verse 12. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Colossians 3, verse 12. And we'll read through verse 17 because this is directly to us. This particular writing, this piece right here, is directly to us. Colossians 3, we'll pick it up in verse 12, says, Therefore, as the elect of God, as those whom God has called out, or we might say the ecclesia, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, set apart and loved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

So, recognition that because we've been forgiven, we must extend forgiveness.

But verse 14, But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Verse 16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and in hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of Jesus Christ, or the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Over and over again in the New Testament, Paul emphasizes the importance of us living what we believe is true, maintaining those characteristics and having the byproduct and the product of our faith be the fruits of our life. He advocates putting on the mind of Christ, putting on the character of a servant, fleeing the things which pull us away from God and instead pursuing or chasing righteousness, chasing faith, love, and peace. He says, Put off your former conduct. Don't be like you were. Probably the best compliment anybody could ever give you is you are not the way you used to be. Yes, good, thank you! Progress is evident. Yay! That's fantastic. But putting off our former conduct, not being the same person that we were, the same person, the angry, the lack of forgiveness, whatever it is that we might have been dealing with, but putting that away and living a new life, living a new characteristic, a set of characteristics, putting on kindness and humility and meekness and long suffering, bearing and forgiving one another, and really letting the word of Christ dwell in us. And what that looks like is not claiming one thing and living another.

You know, one of the worst things that we can do for God is misbehave when somebody knows we're a Christian, because it's common knowledge all Christians are hypocrites, right? I mean, that's what the world thinks. And so far, as Christians, this track record hasn't been great.

We do a severe disservice to God when we claim to be a Christian and then don't act like it, when we do something different or when we end up living our life in a different way. But what God desires is we live it all the time, not just one day a week, not putting on the mask and coming to church, but living it 24-7, 365 days a year, all the time. Frankly, even when people aren't looking, even when no one's looking, because that's the truest definition of integrity, that we live this way of life, even when nobody's looking. A person who does these things will be a light. A person who lives in this way will be a light. And this dark world will see that individual, and when they see them, they will see Christ reflected in them. And that is an incredible responsibility, as Uncle Ben said to Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility. And it is a great responsibility that we have. Frank Abagnale Jr. spent five years deceiving and conning others into falling for his counterfeit and forgery schemes. During that time, he wore a variety of masks. He pretended to be people that he wasn't, put on a number of identities. He lived an extravagant life. He jet-setted around the world. He spent two and a half million dollars that was not his. And in the end, when he was finally captured and sentenced, he was just Frank. He was a 22-year-old man who grew up in Bronxville, New York, from a broken home, who'd committed crimes around the world, stolen two and a half million dollars, and had been on the run for five years. And in the end, when he was captured, he was rotting in solitary confinement in a French prison. The mask was gone. Now it was just Frank. The truth was out, and he was not who he seemed to be. Brethren, let's not let this happen to us. Let's not let this happen to us. Let's not allow ourselves to buy Satan's lies. Let's not allow ourselves to be deceived, to become complacent in our faith, and to lead a double life, even if that's a fine-tuning situation. But to ensure that we are living what we profess to believe. Let's recognize the condition of the state of the world. Let's learn to discern. Let's learn to focus on things going forward, putting on those characteristics, putting on those attributes of Jesus Christ. Let's transform our minds. Let's live to become more like our elder brother, and let's firmly plan ourselves on that path. Along that way, become a light to all around us and live God's way today.