Performance-Based Self Evaluation

Any amount of time working for somebody else who is in the role of your boss or your employer, chances are very good that you've had to sit down with that person at some point in time and undergo what is known as a performance evaluation. During these conversations, in most circumstances, your employer will evaluate your performance from their perspective based on the things that they see as your role, the job that you're supposed to be doing in that in that role that you hold, the tasks that you perform regularly, and how those tasks impact the vision and the goals of that company, that you are contributing in some way positively towards the vision and the goals of that company. Now, it used to be for a lot of years, for those of you that held jobs 20-30 years or more ago, that that was really the only component of the process. You sat down with your boss, they told you what they thought about you, they debated whether or not to give you a raise or not, and out the door you went. There wasn't a lot of back and forth, there wasn't a lot of conversation, there was often a, this is my perception of what you're doing, and thank you very much. For those of you that remember far enough back, that raise, that evaluation was largely in the hands of your supervisor, and there wasn't a lot of input, there wasn't a lot of discussion that takes place. But in recent years, many employers, many businesses, are adding an additional component to this process. They're adding a self-evaluation.

They provide you with a guided set of things to look at. You sit down, you kind of go back, you think about where you are, you think about what you're doing, and then ultimately, you and your employer sit down and you reflect on your personal experiences. You think about the successes that you've had, you think about the challenges that you face, and largely, you're provided a chance to discuss some of the things that you need to work on, some of the things that you need to improve, maybe where you see yourself in the coming months or years, and how you personally feel that you meet the needs of the company and that particular position. Now, the goal of these particular conversations are typically not punitive. You know, usually the self-evaluation aspect of things, the goal is not to, you know, kind of pull a gotcha and find a reason to fire you from what you've said. They're usually designed to be something where, you know, both you and your supervisor are focused on continuous growth, continuous improvement, and trying to ensure that both of you are working in the direction towards the vision and the goals of that particular company.

Now, maybe, depending on your role, depending on what you do, it's possible that your supervisor might ask you to provide some evidence, to bring some evidence of your performance, to bring some evidence of the things that you have done, to provide them with some sort of proof that what you say is actually true. And that evaluation, again, may be a little bit less focused on your own personal opinion of your merits, and a little more, you know, focused on the proof in the pudding, so to speak. But what that means is that means that that's a less subjective situation, it's a much more objective situation, and it's also something that requires a much more significant examination of your performance. Because now, not only do you get to go in there and say, listen, I'm awesome, okay, let me tell you how awesome I am, and why I should have a really big raise. Now you have to go in there armed with proof. You have to go in there armed with evidence of your performance. You have to go in there armed with some sort of metric of some kind that quantifies what it is that you've done. You know, brethren, as we enter the Spring Holy Day season, we're being asked to do something similar. Being asked to consider our own life, to be, you know, looking at where we are in our walk with God. And similar to self-assessment, similar to performance evaluations that you might have done in your employer, in the workplace, as we approach the Spring Holy Days, particularly the Passover, you've got to ask us to examine ourselves. He asks us to take a peek in the mirror, so to speak, and to really consider our lives in accordance with both the Spirit and the letter of His law. And to really analyze whether or not our life, whether or not our actions, our thoughts, our words, whether all of those aspects of our Christianity are in line with the standard that our God provides us. Today, I'd like to take some time to examine this concept in light of the upcoming Holy Day season, and really to take some time to kind of analyze several facets of this particular topic as we consider this next month's worth of reflection in our lives. The title of the message today is Performance-Based Self-Evaluation. Performance-Based Self-Evaluation. Because again, each of us, in the Spring of the Year, and quite frankly, we can do it a lot more than just the Spring of the Year, but in the Spring of the Year in particular, we're asked to undergo a self-evaluation. Let's go ahead and turn over to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11 is we kind of establish the importance of this particular thing.

1 Corinthians 11. We see the Apostle Paul here addressing those of the brethren in Corinth who were not treating the Passover as this solemn event that it is. You know, from what we can gather, at least in the historical context as we examine the the account, there were individuals present in that particular congregation that were taking the Passover without the proper reverence for what that Passover meant, what it entailed. And essentially, in that process, those individuals were making a mockery of the Passover itself and making a mockery by extension of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 11, and we'll pick it up in verse 27, says, Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord, referencing the emblems of Passover, drinks this cup of the Lord, in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Now, the concept here of unworthy in Greek is the Greek word anaxios. It's anaxios. And it means irreverently or unworthily in an unworthy manner. I don't know if unworthily is technically a word or not. We just made one. We're going to add that to Webster this year. But it means irreverently. It means to look at it irreverently. Now, that's not saying—we should be very clear—that's not saying that our sins and our struggles should in some way prevent us from taking the Passover. What it's saying is that we should recognize the solemnity of the day. We should recognize the seriousness of Christ's sacrifice, and we should treat it accordingly, not treating it disrespectfully, because it says if we do, then we'll be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Verse 28 says, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. So Paul admonishes him in verse 28 to examine themselves, to take that time, to take a look at themselves. And the word there is dokimatsu. It's G1381. G1381. And what dokimatsu is defined as in Greek is this idea of putting something to the test, proving something. And it's used in a context of like a saying metals. It's kind of used in that particular concept, this idea of a saying metal to prove whether or not the metal is genuine. You know, many of you have seen the old westerns where the person flips the gold coin into the bar to buy their drink or something and the bartender grabs it. What does he do with it? He bites it. I always thought that was so weird. It's got to be so hard on your teeth. But he bites it. Why is he doing that? Because gold is malleable. And he could make a mark in it. He knew that it was gold and it was pure gold. So that was one way of a saying or testing or proving that that was actually genuine gold.

You know, that it was something that wasn't counterfeit. It wasn't something corrupt.

And that's the way that Paul's using this word. That's the way he's using this word. That we should put ourselves to the test. That we should prove ourselves. We should assay ourselves to ensure that we're not counterfeit. That we're not corrupt. That we are taking the Passover in an appropriately relevant manner. Or a reverend, I should say, manner. Proving themselves not to be counterfeit. And notice his conclusion. I think this is important too. Notice his conclusion. It says, so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. You know, part of this yearly examination is taking the time to identify those areas where we fall short.

To recognize that we do sin. To recognize, you know, that really, in many ways, none of us are quote-unquote worthy in that sense. But we recognize that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, commemorated by those Passover emblems, provide us with grace and with forgiveness of our sins.

He talks a little bit about a similar point along the lines of examining ourselves in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5, if you want to flip over there. 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5, he talks in a similar way about examining ourselves. Uses the same word, dokimatsu.

2 Corinthians 13, and we'll pick it up in verse 5.

2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5 says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.

Test, dokimatsu. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified? It says verse 6, but I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. You know, interestingly, the word that's used here, examine in this particular passage, it's a different Greek word. It's a Greek word, piratso. It's a Greek word, piratso.

And it means to consider deeply. It means to really scrutinize, really test objectively. It's not a cursory examination. You know, it's not just a real quick superficial glance at our life and conclude, yeah, I'm all right. I'm probably fine. I'm probably okay. Everything's good. This is a real deep examination. It's a real deep examination. And when I was teaching, this is one of the skills we tried to teach kids. You know, one of the first things when you have kids, middle school in particular, coming in to do science, you're trying to get them to look at the world in a deeper way. You know, because we do as humans, we look very superficially at the world around us. You know, everything is outward appearance. Everything is that focus. And it's brief. It's fast. You know, we're designed to operate in 20, you know, 20 second little blips. And so we make a quick snap judgment and evaluation based on what we see. And we rarely take the time naturally to look deeper. And so we're trying to teach how to look beyond just the surface, how to observe beyond the surface, the basic characteristics of something. And so one of the first things we would do is we'd talk about the various characteristics that make up things. And then we'd have kids try to sit down and observe them. So you hand a kid a rock. And you get back the response, it's a rock. The rock is black. It's kind of rough. It's a rock. And you're like, okay, very good. Now let's go a little bit deeper. Let's see what else we can find out. And initially, that may be where it starts. They may start looking at the color. They may look at the shape. They may look at the texture. But once they understood the level of what we're looking for, now we start getting down into some of the different characteristics of the rock itself that might help aid in its classification. Maybe they do a little scratch test on it to find out, is it a rock that has a higher hardness than another rock? They'll go through and try and scratch it. Or they'll go through and do, you know, put it under a microscope, look at the texture, look at the structure. You know, maybe they run a little chemical experiment on it to determine, you know, does it react with certain chemical reactions to give some sort of an idea of what its makeup is. The point is, they move beyond the surface level of it's a rock to it's a rock that has a hardness of this, it goes here, it did, did, did, did, and on down the line it goes.

And so it's a deeper examination. That's what Purozzo's talking about. Purozzo is talking about a deeper examination than just surface level, beyond that surface level. And that's the same sort of thing we should be looking at in our spiritual examination this time of year. In fact, verse 5, if we read it with the Greek words in place, and we kind of read the gist of it, it says, examine yourselves, consider deeply, scrutinize, test objectively as to whether you are in the faith. Then it says test, prove, test, or assay yourselves, and for what purpose? To be able to prove that you are genuine, that you are not counterfeit. He says, do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified, but I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. Again, his conclusion being that Christ is in us, that we are fighting against these sins, we are fighting against these issues that we experience in our lives.

And it is through his grace and it's through his forgiveness that we are able to do that, by what the Passover represents. He goes on in verse 7, he says, now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, not that we should look good on the outside, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem, he says, disqualified.

Let's see, Apostle Paul's instructions here to those in Corinth, maybe a reminder here in this second epistle is to put themselves to the test, to really examine themselves, to test themselves, to prove like they would a coin, you know, kind of biting on that gold coin like that prospector does in those old movies, to be able to prove that it's genuine. This period of time leading up to the spring holidays for us to be able to go through this process is important. We're to examine ourselves in comparison to the standard, we're to examine ourselves in comparison to the life that we've built in comparison to what God has provided us. Again, determining whether we don't just appear approved, that we don't just look good to the outside observer, but that we are the genuine article. When you peel back the layers, when you rub off the ink, so to speak, we aren't found to be counterfeit. Because we can absolutely deceive even ourselves, if we're not careful. We can deceive even ourselves. Let's go over to the book of James.

Book of James. Book of James.

You know, we examine ourselves and we take this time to go through this process.

We need to do everything that we can to make sure that that self-examination is as honest and as open as possible. You know, that we lay bare the shortcomings that we have, we shine lights into the corners of the room. You know, we make certain that we take a look at our lives and we try to find those things that we desperately need to continue working on. And in the book of James, he really kind of gets into the nuts and bolts of what this really looks like. James 1. James 1, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 22. Kind of in 21, as he brings this concept to bear, he says, therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Verse 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. 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. You ever done this before? Looked at something and tried to kind of commit it to memory and then walked away only to realize you didn't get in there. You gotta walk back. I do this sometimes with car mileage. I found for whatever reason I can memorize six digit numbers perfectly. Like just it's so easy. Six digit number, it's like in there forever. But you add one more digit. I don't know why, but it's gone. And so I'll you know get the mileage and I'll go into the house to type it in and I'll... fine. Walk back out to the car. And I've sometimes had to resort to actually putting it in my phone. I shouldn't admit that out loud, but I have. You know, I've had times where it was like it didn't work so good, ultimately. So have you ever done that? Have you managed to forget something along those lines? Or have you managed to look at something and think, oh, I need to make sure I remember that? And then just completely and totally forgot about it.

That's what it's talking about here. Someone who goes, looks at their reflection in the mirror, and the second they turn away, they have forgotten what they've seen. It didn't stick. It didn't stick.

God wants us to make sure it sticks. He wants us to make sure that we recognize so that we don't end up ultimately deceiving ourselves. How do we deceive ourselves? It says it right here in James, by only hearing and not following through. Listening to wisdom that is provided. Reading God's Word. Listening to the promptings of His Spirit and not following through on those things. That results in us ultimately deceiving ourselves. You know, we want to make sure, too, that we recognize this isn't just doing for the sake of doing. This isn't like going through the motions just for the sake of action. Again, if we don't allow God's Word to settle into our lives and to change us at our core, then we're deceiving ourselves to say we're of God. Again, if we look in that mirror and we don't act on what we see, again, we deceive even ourselves. Verse 25, he goes on in James 1 verse 25, he says, 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. Note, he says, looking into the perfect law of liberty, not into the mirror, so to speak, for that standard, that we are looking to the standard that is provided by God, to the standard that He gives us in His law, both the Spirit and the letter. And we're not just looking into the mirror, seeing our own reflection, not just looking into the mirror and drawing conclusions, based on what we see on the surface, that we are taking what we see and comparing it to the standard that God has provided us, that He is expecting us to become. That standard includes three big aspects of our life. It includes three big aspects of our life, and most of you probably have never heard of Lao Tzu. Most of you have heard of Sun Tzu, which as far as I know is not a relation. Sun Tzu is the guy who wrote The Art of War. But no, Lao Tzu, you may not know who he is, but you're familiar with this quote. Lao Tzu said, watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Watch your words, for they become your actions. Watch your actions, for they become your habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character, and watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. Now, those things may not seem like very serious things at first glance, you know, especially earlier in that thing. You start talking about your destiny, and you start talking about your character. Yeah, that's a pretty big deal. But at first, you're going, come on, you've got these little things that are going to lead to that. I'd like to look at that a little bit today as we kind of go through this, because again, they may not seem serious up front, but these things snowball, and they build as our thoughts are out of line with God, then our words will be out of line with God. And that snowball gets a little bit bigger. If our words are out of line with God's standard, well, then our actions will become out of line with that standard.

And if both of those things are out of line with that standard, pretty soon, we have habitual issues that begin to creep in. They have habitual sin. We have struggles. We have issues. That becomes a character issue. And these things just keep rolling and collecting snow and getting bigger and bigger and bigger as they go down the hill. And so catching those things early, catching those things before they become these things is critical. Absolutely critical, because it all begins up here. Let's go to Romans 12. Romans 12. A very familiar scripture. In fact, I could probably call on any one of our teens at this point, and they could spit it at me, because it's been one of our memory scriptures at camp for...it feels like the last four years in a row. It just keeps coming back. And we'll have our camp meetings, and we'll suggest it again. It's like, oh, we've done that one quite a bit. It's good. Let's find some other ones. Let's not have the same ones over and over and over again. But Romans 12, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 12 these foundational aspects of this concept. Really, the role of our mind in this process, in this process that we consider to be conversion. And he also talks a little bit about the issues that come from a mind that's not in line with God, but is instead in line with the world. Romans 12 and verse 1, he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren...beseech is a strong word.

Strongly exhort, we might say, but beseech is a pretty strong word. It's not a kind of word, you know, it's a pretty strong word. He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Verse 2, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So Paul is really strongly exhorting the brethren to present themselves, to present their bodies, might say, to God as a living sacrifice. One that is holy, one that is set apart, one that's acceptable to God. And the method that he lays out for them to do that, the way he says they should go about that, is to not be conformed to the world. Some other passages that we'll see, or that you can that you can look at translation-wise, say don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.

Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. Don't be conformed to the world. He says you don't want to come out looking and acting and talking like everyone else.

But instead, he says be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The Greek word there for transform is metamorphu. Many of you are very familiar with a word in the English language that is connected to that word. It's where we get the English word metamorphosis. Meta meaning beyond, after, or behind. Morphae meaning shape or form. And so metamorphosis, you combine the two together, it is talking about what comes after, ultimately, the change in the shape or the form. It's talking about the end result in some ways. So the transformation of a metamorphosis is less, at least in the Greek word, in the way that it's set, less focused on the process and more focused on the end result. The shape in the form afterwards, what we might call the new creation.

And if you think about that, part of that's due to the fact that when that caterpillar enters that chrysalis, you don't get to see what goes on inside that chrysalis. You don't get to witness every little itty-bitty change. You don't get to see a little wormy thing start sprouting wings and start sprouting multiple legs and start changing its complete and total form because it's hidden behind the wall of the chrysalis. What you see is on the other end, when that chrysalis pops open and you go, that does not look anything like that! Totally different! It went in a worm, it came out something that flies. That's pretty, as you'll remember from a bug's life. A pretty, pretty butterfly, right? As he was so very excited that he could now fly.

But the reality is, we don't get to see that change in others. But I think what makes it really challenging sometimes, as we consider that final form, that new creation, you know, the final result, again, not looking anything like the initial result, as we let God's Spirit innervate with our mind, as we let God yield to God, we let him lead us, we change.

But that process of changing can be discouraging sometimes. And the reason it can be discouraging sometimes is because we get to see what's behind the chrysalis. We get to see the missteps. We get to see the things that we've said that we shouldn't have said. We're acutely aware of our mistakes.

We're acutely aware of the errors in our thinking. In fact, the Apostle Paul, just a few chapters before what he wrote right here, right here in Romans 7, he said, For what I will to do, that I do not practice. For what I hate, that I do. The Apostle Paul acknowledges there are times in which our thinking, you know, moves into words and actions. And he talked about it in his own life, that he had not managed to take those things captive, that he had managed to do something, or say something, or, you know, sin in such a way that he didn't want to do those things.

Again, I want you to keep this in mind. I talk when we talk about, when I counsel people for baptism, we talk about this. Because Romans, as a book, was likely written 56 to 57 AD.

So 56, 57, 80, roughly, in the book of Romans. It's thought that Paul was called on the road to Damascus in the late 30s AD. Late 30s AD, they think Paul was called on the road to Damascus. So we could be talking, when he writes these things that he wrote in Romans 7, he could be 20 years after that calling, that miraculous calling that we see along the road to Damascus, 20 years down the road, Paul's saying, there are still times where I'm conflicted and I'm fighting these things. But the point is, he's fighting them. He hasn't accepted them.

He hasn't just laid down. He's fighting them. Am I hearing an alarm? Somebody want to check that out?

Just make sure it's not something that we've opened or done or whatever.

But Paul, just like we are sometimes, was acutely aware of the changes that were taking place, the things behind the chrysalis, so to speak. 2 Corinthians 10, he kind of talks about this battle.

2 Corinthians 10, he talks about the things that he fights, the things that he does in his mind. Again, this is a battle of the mind. And if it can be fought and won in the mind, then it's not a battle of the words and a battle of the actions. If it can be fought and won in the mind, that's all the farther it goes. 2 Corinthians 10, and we'll begin in verse 3.

Apostle Paul says, For though we walk in the flesh, he says, We do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're not normal standard weaponry. He says, They are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And then he goes on in verse 6, being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Paul tells us the weapons of our warfare, they're not carnal, they're spiritual. He says, They are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. What that means is conquering fortresses, conquering these places that are ingrained, these places that are dug in, that are fortified, you might say, in our brains and in our lives, casting down the arguments and all the different things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Brethren, the weapons that you've been provided, they're mighty. You're not outgunned in this fight. You didn't bring a knife to a gunfight, as they say. You have these latest, you know, and greatest weaponry to be able to fight this spiritual battle that we fight. You have the word of God, you have the Spirit of God, you have each other. You have God in your life and you have one another. And we are admonished to take captive the thoughts that we experience that are contrary to the standard that God provides us, to bring them into captivity in the obedience of Christ. Meaning that what we do is we take the thoughts we have, we compare them with His Spirit, we compare them with His Word, we compare them to the two convicting agents that we've been provided by God, and we're able to discern whether they meet His standard or not. And quite frankly, if not, that's where we take it captive and we restrain it before it has the ability to be acted upon in word or in deed. You know, what does it mean if someone is captive? What does that mean if a person is captive or if somebody has become captive? A captive is someone who is under the control of someone else. That's what a captive is, someone who's under control of someone else. They don't get to call their own shots, they're captive. They don't have a say in what they eat, what they drink, what they wear. They don't have, you know, the ability to, you know, call their own shots in that sense. They are a captive.

We recognize God doesn't take control of us, He leads us with His Spirit, but Philippians 2 brings out this concept of the mind of God that dwells in us and the ability that we have to yield ourselves to that mind and take those thoughts captive, utilizing that mind that God has provided us. You want to turn over to Philippians 2? Philippians 2. We'll see again the Apostle Paul's view here as he writes this to those in Philippi. Philippians 2, we'll pick it up in verse 5. He says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, speaking here of verse 3 and 4, where let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in the lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others. And then he says, 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 the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

Verse 8 says, in being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, he became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Brethren, we must allow this mind to be in us, the humble, the obedient mind of Christ, and quite frankly it's up to us whether we'll allow it to be or not. Again, God doesn't force us.

God doesn't possess people. He doesn't take control. He is that still, small voice that leads.

He is that voice who beckons and calls. And again, it's up to us as to whether or not we will yield ourselves to it or not, whether we will yield ourselves to that humble and obedient mind that we see in that example. And if we have yielded to that mind, if we allow that mind to dwell in us, allowing it to operate in us, it is going to be that mind that takes captive, thoughts that are contrary to God's law, contrary to His Spirit.

And if that mind is in place and we are taking captive those things, then brethren, we will speak words of edification. It follows that if that is the mind that we are operating with, and if we are yielding ourselves to that mind, then the words that will come out of our mouth are words that build up. They are words that edify. They are words that are seasoned and that are worth speaking.

Let's go over to the book of James. Back over to the book of James here. James is one of those books that is incredibly practical knowledge. You know, I love the book of James because it's very much rubber meets the road Christianity in that sense. And it's very practical, for lack of a better term. It's very practical. It provides very actionable things that we can look at and that we can do in our own lives very easily.

But in James 3, he's talking about the challenges that people have in taming the tongue, in taming the tongue, and being able to, you know, be able to kind of bridle that tongue. And he talks about how much damage can be done by such a small part of the body. You know, your tongue is, what, one, like half of one percent of the overall geography of your body. But how much damage can be done by the words that we say? How much damage can be done by the things that we ultimately communicate to other people?

He gets at this idea that if a man can control the tongue, he can control the whole body. But he goes on to conclude beginning in verse 7. He says, verse 7 of James 3, sorry, I'm in 4, he says, For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. He says, Look, we can tame and have tamed anything out there from a standpoint of animals, from a standpoint of, you know, the dominion that God provided us over creation.

We've done that. But he says, verse 8, No man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Verse 9, With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness or similitude of God. Out of the same mouth, verse 10, blessing or proceed blessing and cursing, he says, My brethren, these things ought not be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?

Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water. Out of the same mouth, men will bless their God and then turn around and curse their fellow man. James says, It ought not be so. And he goes on and he describes, as he's going down through verse 13, he talks about the effect of relying upon the wisdom of this earth.

He goes on to... definitely hearing that, right? Okay. Not sure what it is, but I'm going to ignore it at this point until we figure out that it's something that we should be messing with. But in this process, he talks about this earthly wisdom, and he talks about its sensuality. He talks about how it's demonic, and it's a place where there's envy and self-seeking, where there's confusion and evil that exists. But then he takes and he contrasts that earthly wisdom that demonic wisdom with the wisdom that comes from above.

The wisdom that is a result of his spirit, and that is a wisdom that is pure, that is peaceable, that is gentle, that's willing to yield.

A wisdom that's full of mercy and produces good fruits, that acts without partiality and without hypocrisy. That's the wisdom that comes from us yielding to the mind of God in our lives. Those are the actions, those are the words that come from us yielding to the mind of God. And to be quite frank, brethren, if we're not seeing the effects of those latter things in our lives and our interactions with one another, with those that are on the outside, then I submit we have some work to do in yielding ourselves in that sense. Because the words and the actions that we have should be pure, they should be peaceable, they should be gentle, they should be willing to yield, they should be full of mercy, full of good fruits, they should be without partiality and without hypocrisy. It's cool over the book of Ephesians, the book of Ephesians.

It's unfortunate that Paul put all these things in so many different books.

It would be nice if it was all just in one spot. So we build the concept here, but he sprinkles it through numerous epistles that he wrote in the New Testament to each of these congregations. And Ephesians, we'll pick it up here in Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. So we talk about this wisdom, which is from above. What should we see in our life if we're yielding ourselves and submitting ourselves to that godly wisdom through God's Spirit in our mind, changing and transforming the way that we think? What should we see? Ephesians 4 and verse 29 says, Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Verse 30, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Verse 31 says, Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. The word here in Greek for corrupt means rotten, means worthless, means something that is decayed and has no additional value. It's gone. It is done. There's no bringing it back. It is rotting. So, brethren, have you ever said something to someone in bitterness? Have you ever said something to someone in bitterness, in wrath, in anger, shouted at someone, or maybe said something that slandered someone else? I think if we're honest with ourselves, all of us have at one point in time. Hopefully not frequently, but all of us have at one point in time. And this section in Ephesians is describing the conduct of the new man. It's describing the conduct of the butterfly that comes out of that chrysalis. And the process that we're all in right now, in that transformative period, as we're making those changes, as we're working through the challenges that we experience, instead of corrupt speech, Paul is exhorting them to focus on speech that edifies. The words that come out of our mouth should build one another up. They should provide grace to those who hear it. And we talk about how many times we've messed up and said something to somebody in anger or shouting or, you know, bitterness or something along those lines. Have you ever said something to someone and saw them noticeably blossom after you've said it?

You ever have one of those? The opposite side of the coin? I actually came across a really cool photo series recently that was online. And it was a photographer that was just choosing random subjects to do portraits. They said, I just want to do a portrait. Would you please pose for this portrait? And there's probably 15 pictures in the process. And you know how photographers are.

You know, take that was that was the beauty of digital cameras. Take a million pictures, get one good one. Back in the film day, man, you had to go through roles and roles and roles of film. But this person taking these pictures, and they posted the very first picture that they took. And in almost every single picture, the person was just sullen. They weren't smiling. You know, I don't know, maybe they were trying to do the like, the the pensive, like, broody portrait. I don't know. I don't know what the idea was. I don't know. But what was really cool was, as they're taking the pictures, the photographer says, you are beautiful. And then shot the picture immediately after they said it. And you can see this sullen person that was just withdrawn and not there and barely present in that moment, just suddenly, they're smiling, their eyes lit up, their eyes lit up completely, like with new life. All that happened was one word. Okay, two words, you're beautiful. Two words, a kind word. That's the only difference. That's the only difference.

The power of our words cannot be overstated. Our words contain the ability to build up. They contain the ability to completely destroy and tear down. And the trick is we have to ensure that we are wielding it appropriately, that we are doing everything that we can to build up and not tear down. Because again, the words choice that we use, the things that we say, those are dependent upon the thoughts that we have prior to saying those things. We need to ensure that we're yielding ourselves to the Spirit behind those words and making sure that we are building up and not tearing down. Mark 15, if you want to turn over there just for a real quick example, Mark 15.

We see Christ here rebuke the Pharisees.

Mark 15. As the Pharisees were coming to Christ and questioning Him on His disciples, unwillingness to wash their hands, and getting upset about their transgression of the tradition of the elders. Christ rebukes Him for transgressing the commandment of God as a result of their traditions. He says, you're not caring for your father and mother like you should, based on your tradition. Mark 15. He says in verse 1, He says, immediately in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus, and they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate. I'm in the wrong spot. I think in Matthew 15.

I think I'm thinking Matthew 15. This feels like what they've what He said has already happened by that one. Sorry about that. Yep, Matthew 15 it is. So Matthew 15 in verse 1, that's what I'm looking for. Then the scribes and the... see it had scribes and Pharisees in the first... scribes and the Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. And He answered Him, and He said to them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and your mother, and he who curses father and mother, let him be put to death. But you say, Whoever says to his father and mother, whatever prophet you might have received from me is a gift to God. In other words, these guys are not caring for their father and their mother, caring for them financially in this case, because they're taking those funds and they're donating them. He says, Then he need not honor his father or mother, thus you've made the commandment of God of no effect by your traditions. He says, Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying, These people draw near to me with their mouth, Honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching his doctrines the commandments of men. And notice what he says in verse 10. When he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, Hear and understand. Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth. This defiles a man. Christ makes the point to the multitudes. He says, It's not what goes in that's, you know, the dirt that might be on their hands, so to speak, that's going to cause defile them. And he says, It's what comes out. It's what comes out of their mouth. What comes from the thoughts and intents of their heart. What comes from the mind. He says in verse 17, kind of clarifies a little bit, he says, Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach is eliminated. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands, he says, does not defile a man. You know, the things that proceed from the heart, the thoughts which are evil, the things that are communicated, either in word or deed, murders and adulteries and fornication and theft, these are the things that defile a man. We need to be very careful with our words. We need to be very careful with the actions that result from those thoughts and those words becoming manifested in our lives.

Because those thoughts and those words ultimately become our deeds. Those thoughts and words become our deeds. And the Bible talks about our deeds in a number of different places. It talks about our actions. In fact, Revelation 2 and 3, we've been going through the Bible studies, the congregational studies on the message to the churches of Revelation. And in repeated places in that section, Jesus Christ says to those churches, I know your works. I know your deeds. I know what you've done. I know what you've said. Christ makes it very clear that He is fully aware of their actions, that He's fully aware of the follow-through that they have from their thoughts and their words. And in some cases, those churches in that section are praised for their works, where in other circumstances they're rebuked for the things that they had done. But regardless of Christ's response, He knew. He was fully aware. And that's a pattern that's established in Scripture. Jonah, if you want to turn over to Jonah 3. Jonah 3 is one place that we see this pattern.

Jonah 3. You know, God sent Moses, we know... or Moses, it's Jonah rather, with a burden to the people of Nineveh. And we know Jonah didn't really want them to repent. He was not particularly interested in that. And he kind of had this idea that maybe if I run, and I don't actually take this message to them, maybe God won't relent and He'll destroy them. You know, after we see the situation on the open ocean, He gets chucked in the ocean and then ultimately spends some time in a fish.

God sends him to Nineveh to preach this message of repentance. And we know Nineveh listened, that they listened and they repented of their sins. Verse 5 of Jonah 3 says, So the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, they put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. And then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne. He laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and in ashes. The irony being that the people of Israel wouldn't even do this. You know, their own prophets had come and they'd kill them. They'd run them out of town. And here's these Gentiles that actually responded. You know, here's these Gentiles that did it the way that God intended them to. Verse 7, And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by decree of the king and the noble, saying, Let neither a man nor beast heard, nor flock taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Cry mightily to God, yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? What does it say in verse 10?

Then God saw their works. He saw their works. He saw their deeds. He saw that they turned from their evil ways. That their thought became action. It became follow through. And ultimately, God relented from the disaster that he said he would bring on them and he would not or did not do it. God saw in Nineveh's repentance. God saw their actions. He ultimately acted to save the people from destruction. There's other examples. There's a number of other places in Scripture where we see this same thing again. We see his anger was kindled against Israel as a result of their deeds and their actions. Proverbs 20 verse 11, if you want to jot it down in your notes, you can. We won't turn there. It states that a child is known by his deeds. Proverbs 2011, a child is known by his deeds. Whether what he does is pure and right. And so we see admonitions in Scripture based on that, that God knows these things and a child is known by his deeds. We see things like Colossians 3. Let's go ahead and turn over to Colossians 3.

Colossians 3 verse 12.

Colossians 3 verse 12, we see things like this. Again, children are known by their deeds. We are all God's children. We are known by our deeds. We are known by our actions, the things that actually come out of our thoughts and out of our words. Colossians 3, and we'll pick it up in verse 12, says, Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, put on kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, verse 13, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against you, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

He says, But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. And then notice verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, and whatever you do, verse 17, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. You know, he concludes this thought, this concept in verse 17, whatever you do in word and deed, the follow through which comes from those thoughts, the interfacing of his spirit in our mind.

And in Greek, in this case, all means all. You know, this is an all-encompassing all in the way the word is used in Greek. It means everything. It's the same usage we have today in English, do all in the name of Christ, meaning that our thoughts, again, that lead to our words and to our actions, they have to fall to obedience to Christ as well. I have a couple of volunteers here. I'm going to pass something out here in a moment, a little handout here to take away today as we begin to conclude. You know, Lao Tzu stated that our thoughts become our words, our words become action, you know, ultimately our action become habits, and our habits become character, which becomes our destiny. Go ahead and pass them out. That requires us to be able to head off those habits and those character flaws by really analyzing where we are in the other aspects of things, taking the time to really look at our thoughts, taking the time to look at our words, taking the time to look at our deeds and the things that follow as a result of the thoughts that we do have. For us to be able to head those things off, it requires us to really take the time to dig into those things in self-examination and to take stock, we might say, of where we are.

As we're instructed at this time of year, we are given an admonition to take the time to self-examine, to take the time to consider where we are, where our performance is, you know, where we are from a standpoint of our actual actions and the words and the deeds that we go through, the thoughts that we have, and to take that time to really examine ourselves as God intends. To that end, I don't know if this is something that will help you or if it's something that is beneficial or not. It's a tool for you to use should you choose to use it. But putting this handout together with these questions to kind of help aid the examination process, I wanted to try to find something that would break it down into these kinds of categories, to break it down into the things that we think, the things that we say, and ultimately the things that we do. And so, looking at it from a standpoint of what that mind of Christ living in us looks like, the commandments that were provided by God in that process, and ultimately kind of really analyzing these things as we dig in. So, looking at, you know, is there someone that you need to extend forgiveness to? Is there someone who you need to seek forgiveness from? You know, does our daily talk and our actions, does that kind of how we carry ourselves and how we present ourselves to the world, do those things reflect godliness? Do those things reflect godliness or are we living a double life? Do we have hidden sins in our life which need to be repented of?

And you'll notice each of those have like a little secondary question of what are you going to do about that? How do you plan to deal with this particular thing? You know, there are things in your life that you find you need to surrender. Three big lessons that God has taught you over the past year. What do you need to stop doing, start doing, to continue doing? What's one excuse that you're ready to stop using in your life? What's one lie that you're ready to stop believing?

What's one area of your life that you feel you're most vulnerable to Satan's attack?

And then what's one of the first steps that needs to be taken to implement the things that you've identified above? What's the next step? And then what's the next? You know, brethren, our thoughts become our words, become our actions. On down the line, they become our habits, they become our character, and that can affect very much the calling which God has provided us to be a part of His family. We're given an opportunity once a year, you know, and it should be more than once a year, but we're definitely given this opportunity once a year to take that opportunity to really examine and see where we're at. But it's more than just looking in the mirror and saying, that's probably fine. We need to dig deep. We need to shine the light in the corners. We need to really take the time to find out if we're doing the things that God expects us to do. So I hope that you all have a very fruitful examination period as we all take stock of our performance as far as our thoughts and our speech and our actions go. I hope you have a wonderful Sabbath. Look forward to connecting with some of the visitors and having an opportunity to visit a little bit with all of you as well.