Motivated to Godliness by the Promises

In Acts chapter 2, verse 42, we read this of the early church. I'm going to turn there and read it to you. Acts chapter 2, verse 42. It says, and they, speaking of the believers, and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. The word where they were devoting themselves to could be translated, they committed themselves fervently to continue in. We're not talking about they were sitting, listening to the apostles give them information. No, no. The apostles' teaching were teaching them how to live. Where do you think I get the idea from, there should be no murmuring or complaining among us. That not an unwholesome word should ever come out of our mouth. That all of us should be completely humble, gentle, patient, kind-hearted, tender, loving one another. They're not my ideas. These are the teachings of the apostles. This is what the apostles taught how every Christian should live. The early church continued steadfastly in doing what the apostles were teaching. That's how we need to understand this. I'm saying this to you so you can understand my heart. I believe we must continue in what the apostles taught. Every single one of us need to be put murmuring and complaining behind us forever, to never allow an unwholesome word to come out of our mouth, to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, to put away the old man, put to death the old practices, and clothe ourselves with Jesus and put on tenderness, compassion, kindness, faithfulness, because this is the will of the Lord for every saint. But I want to make sure I convey something to you this morning. I don't want that to come across as these are simply God's commands and we had better stop doing those horrible things or else. No, that's not how I want to come across. There are reasons that I believe the apostles taught the early Christians these things, to do everything without murmuring and complaining, to not allow any unwholesome speech to come from your mouth, to stop quarreling, to not be argumentative, to be tender, compassionate, and patient. There are reasons because life is better without those things. There is a greater life and a richer joy and a greater freedom in putting those things away from us because those things are harmful to relationships. They hinder the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And where the brothers dwell together in unity, the psalm says, behold, how good and blessed it is where brothers dwell together in unity. It's like precious oil poured on the head of Aaron, running down his beard and the collar of his robes. It's like the dew falling on Mount Hermon. And it says in that place of unity, there the Lord commands his blessing, even life evermore. And I believe that the reason we should put these things away is because there are dynamic spiritual promises for us. A richer life, abundant life, fullness of joy, a depth of peace that guards our heart and mind. The ability with spiritual power to walk in self-control, where human passion and human weakness no longer unsettle us or cause us to do things that make the situations we're going to face worse. All of us are going to have difficulties. I'm not talking about promises where everything in your life becomes easy. It's like God is only throwing you softball pitches so you can hit everything out of the park. No, you can learn a way of life in the spirit that is so dynamic that you can stop reacting in ways you learn from our culture and the way men without God's spirit live. Deep and powerful promises of a rich spiritual life that are ours. And so my pursuit of this with you as this congregation is, let's pursue these promises. Let's experience life richer in Christ Jesus now than we have ever tasted before. There's promises for us. As a matter of fact, if you want to follow me, the theme that I'll be pursuing this morning is about these promises. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. And I'll read that very statement to you from the writer of Hebrews. In the sixth chapter, I'm going to read it from verses 11 and 12. Hebrews 6, 11 and 12. Of course, this is the writer of the Hebrews writing to the Hebrew Christians. And he says to them, we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope unto the end, so that you may not become dull, because there is a tendency in spiritual growth for believers to become dull and not progress and not enter into the depth and the riches that there are available for us in Christ. Not to become dull, but to become imitators of those who through faith and long-suffering inherit the promises. See, it's my desire that we together inherit the promises that God has made for us in Christ. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20, there's this verse from the apostle Paul. No matter how many promises God has made, in Christ Jesus, every one of those promises is, yes, and let it be. Yes, let it be in Christ. Perfect peace. Yes, let it be. Fullness of joy. Yes, let it be. I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Yes, and let it be. My power is made perfect in your weakness. Yes, and let it be. In Christ, promises of God, that his people could be full of his spirit, filled with his wisdom, led by him where he is our God, he is our father. Rich and precious promises. Exceedingly great and precious promises. Or in the way Peter put it, if you want to turn with me to 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 2. This is what Peter says. 2 Peter chapter 2. Verse, I'm sorry, 2 Peter chapter 1. I'll start with verse 2. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. That's another thing I desire you to experience. There's one thing to have things added to your life. It's another thing to have things multiplied. Do you know I do believe that grace can be multiplied to us? That you can have a whole lot more grace through Christ than you have right now? That peace can be multiplied to you? You can have much more peace than you're currently experiencing. A peace so profound and so deep that things that when life gets crazy around you, it doesn't unsettle you. That kind of peace. Grace and peace multiplied to you through the full knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. For by these, by his own glory and goodness, he has granted to us his exceedingly great and precious promises so that through them, through these promises and through the things he's provided, we may partake of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through desires. See, what corrupts the world is the desires that are caused by sin living in the flesh. Sin in the flesh produces all kinds of desires and it's the desires, the Bible says, and the apostle James in his letter said, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your own desires that battle within you? You long for something, you covet it, and you fight over it. You fight because you don't get what you want. It's those desires that have caused the corruption in the world. And look at our own country now. A big war is going on because one group wants one thing and another group wants another. And it's war because they are the enemies because they want something different than we want. We can escape that. We don't have to live that way. We can escape the corruption that is in the world through lust by one thing, partaking of the divine nature. Where God's Spirit dwelling in us guides us, leads us, governs us, so that if we walk by the Spirit like Paul said, we will not fulfill these desires of the flesh. But this is a learning process for believers. We can learn to do this, but it takes some training. And this is one of the reasons the Lord gives teachers and pastors to help you enter this training, training for the purposes of fully partaking of the divine nature and fully putting away those lusts and the practices of the old man. Let's go back to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 5, I believe it is. Hebrews chapter 5. And I'll explain to you this training process. Remember, when I'm saying training, it's training in order that we can fully experience the beauty of the promises of God. Okay. Hebrews chapter 5. I'm going to start with verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, this means that not everyone progresses like they should. You have need, again, for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the word of God. You need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is an infant. He's not accustomed to the word of righteousness. He's just a babe. Excuse me. But solid food is for the mature who because of practice have trained their senses. Have trained their senses to discern good and evil. The Greek word for training is gumnadzo. It's where we get the English word for gymnasium. Gumnadzo, gymnasium in English. So you know what I'm inviting you to? Did you realize you came to the gym this morning? Yeah, you're in the gym. I fully intend for you to be in the spiritual gym. Everyone knows about the physical gym. You can see when a person's been in the gym. You can see it in their physique. It changes. They lose certain things and they gain certain things. Right? You can tell. They don't have to tell you they've been to the gym. If they do it consistently, you see it. And when you have been in the spiritual gym, training your senses, people see it. They see kindness. They see patience. They see lowliness. They see compassion. They see self-control. They see a change, a transformation taking place. They see someone not living as a victim to their own desires, but walking in the power of the Holy Spirit and in self-control, guarding their speech, never murmuring or complaining, in everything giving thanks. They see a radically different person than the people of the world normally live. Because they've been trained. They're learning the way of the Spirit. They've trained their senses to discern good and evil. As a matter of fact, listen to what Paul, read with me if you want to turn there. Paul wrote to his son in the faith, Timothy, in his letter to Timothy, chapter 4. 1 Timothy. His first letter to Timothy. 1 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 8, I believe it is. I'll read verse 7 just to set the context. He tells Timothy, Refuse godless myths fit only for old women. On the other hand, train yourself. Listen, you hear that? Train yourself for the purpose of godliness. So that's part of what we're training. We want to live a godly life. So we are in a training. This is our spiritual gymnasium to train us to live a godly life. And look what he goes on to say. Because remember, this is about promises. This is not just about trying to keep some law. This is about, we're training ourselves for godliness to obtain the promises it holds. Read with me, verse 8. For bodily training has some profit, some little profit. But godliness is profitable for all things. Holding promise both in this life and the life to come. What kind of promise does godliness withhold? And what is the idea of godliness in the first place? The Greek word for godliness is sebomai. It means to be properly reverent of God. Oh, that every one of us could have this godliness before us at all times. That God is watching and listening to every single response. God can read our thoughts. And God records our words. Isn't that what Jesus said? I tell you, on the day of judgment, men are going to give an account for every single word they've spoken. It's a godly thing. In other words, if you revere that. If you regard that, you just don't lay that to the side and you think before everything you say, God is going to hold me accountable for this. It would change your life. That would change your life, literally. You would put a guard. You'd pray like David did. Lord, put a guard on my mouth. Keep the door of my lips that I may not sin with my mouth. You'll see why there is so much in the New Testament about guarding your speech. Matter of fact, the apostle James says, if any man considers himself religious, but he's not very guarded with a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Of course it would be. You can't know that you're going to give an account to God and then just run off at the mouth and just say whatever you think and just speak out. No, that's irreverence. If you know God is listening, if you know God is recording your speech, you are extremely careful and guarded to not allow any unwholesome word to come out of your mouth. Only what is good for building others up according to their need and administers grace to those who hear. And you know what you learn? There's a promise in that. There's a promise for you. You know what you learn as you begin to deal with some of the habits of letting you run at the mouth. Now, let me caution some of you. Some of you, I think, are already struggling because I've been sharing on this for several weeks now, but you may not have finished putting some of those old habits to death. So now and then you may find some of the old thoughts and ideas coming out of your mouth and it catches you, especially if I'm right there saying, that's what I've been talking about. And that's what I'm asking for your help. I am asking for his help. We come to the gym. If someone lets something unwholesome come out of their mouth, let's help each other. Hey, brother, let me help you with that. That's a little heavy. That's not the right word. Let's help each other this way. Help each other be guarded. Don't listen to it. Not only don't say it, don't listen to it. Don't listen to murmuring and complaining. Don't do it yourself. And don't listen to it. But here's what you learn. If you begin to wrestle, to put to death, and to guard your mouth, you know what it leads you to? It leads you to being aware of the thought before. And as you become aware of the thought, you'll learn to take the thought captive before the thought becomes a word. And you know what James said? This promise. He said, Brothers, let not many assume to be teachers, because teachers like myself are going to incur an even stricter judgment. And he said, We all stumble in many ways. He says that. But if any man is never at fault in what he says, Now think about that. That's what we're talking about. That's the goal, isn't it? To never being at fault in what we say. If any man is never at fault in what he says, he is a complete man. He's mature. The Greek word is for perfect, means he's complete. If any man is never at fault in what he says, he is a complete man, able to keep his whole body in check. Oh, my wife hopes that I can keep my whole body in check. And wouldn't every single one of us like to be able to keep our whole body in check? Even when the hormones are there? Even when it's our time of the month? Or even when we're missing our medication? Or even when we haven't had as much sleep as we wanted? Aren't we tired of giving in to our bodies? If we're never at fault in what we say, we're that guarded. That awareness leads to us training, exercising ourselves, going to the spiritual gym, and learning with God's help to discern good thoughts from evil thoughts. And when you discern that a thought is not good, and that it's evil, that it's not full of grace, that it's not full of mercy, that it didn't come from the heart of God, you can take the thought captive. Rather than the thought taking your mouth captive and turning your mouth into a weapon. Because the Bible says, there is a speaking that's like the swinging of a sword. You know the old saying, stones may break my bones, but words will what? That's not true. The Bible says life and death are in the power of the tongue. Relationships are slaughtered by speech. Homes are divided by speech. Churches are split by speech. Divorces happen by speech. By ugly, unkind, harmful, deadly words. And here's the promise, the tongue of the wise commands healing. Life and death is in the power of the tongue. Not only can we destroy people's lives by the tongue, with God's wisdom and guarded speech, and only speaking what is gracious, and only speaking what builds others up. Our tongue becomes the instrument of healing. And a healing tongue, the Bible says, is like a tree of life. We can live this way as believers, as we learn to put to death old practices. Train our senses to discern good and evil. Guard our speech. If a thought is not coming from God, take it captive. Because things happen, and I don't think we realize what happens when we allow something that comes from our heart to come out of our mouth. If you're following me and you're reading with me, turn to Matthew. I'm gonna head to Matthew chapter 15. We know that Jesus said that it's out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. So it kind of makes it difficult for us to say, I really didn't mean what I said. Well, you said it because it was in your heart. Now, you're probably ashamed that that was in your heart, but something was there that came out of your mouth. How do I know what's in your heart? I just simply listen to what you say. That tells me what's in your heart. I just listen carefully. A divisive person has a lot of division in their heart. A critical person, inside, he's criticizing people all the time. What pops out now and then, he may be able to keep a lid on it, but it's always going on. A fault finder is always looking. He may not say anything all the time, but if it's in his heart, it's gonna come out of his mouth. And this is what Jesus said. Now, in Matthew chapter 15, Jesus had a tendency to find himself in controversy with the Jewish religious leaders. One time, this was happening, his disciples were passing through the fields, and they were eating. They didn't stop, and they didn't go by stream and ceremonially wash their hands. They were eating with dirty, unclean, ceremonially unclean hands. And the Jewish leaders kind of got into an argument with him about it, and he has to correct them kindly. He corrects them in verse 11 of Matthew 15. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this is what defiles the man. Then the disciples came to him and they said, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement? And he answered them, every plant which my heavenly father did not plant shall be uprooted. Isn't that interesting? They were the top religious leaders, and Jesus said, my father hadn't even planted them. Then he tells his disciples, let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. Well, that makes sense. If a guy can't see, he's leading another guy who can't see, they're both in trouble. But he's talking about the leaders of the day. And here's what he was saying they were blind to. He was saying, they don't even know what really makes people unclean. They don't really know what the problem is. They think somehow some ceremony of washing your hands is going to make someone clean. They're blind. And then he explains, no, this is what makes you unclean. And I want us to listen because you know what some of us have been doing? Some of us have been making ourselves unclean. And it's not because we don't wash our hands or wear our masks or have our boosters and all that stuff. We're unclean because we can't keep our mouth shut. And we allow things in our heart to come out and corrupt us because that's what Jesus said. That's what's making people unclean. Verse 15. Now Peter answered and said to him, explain what you meant to us. And Jesus said, are you still lacking understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and then goes out into the sewer eventually? But the things that come out of the mouth, those things come from the heart. Those are the things that make a man unclean. The things that come out of his mouth from his heart. Then he says for out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false witnesses, and slanders. Actually, it's the Greek word blasphemy. Injuring others with your words. These are the things which make a man unclean. But to eat with unwashed hands does not make a man unclean. I think you know what sexual immorality is or evil thoughts are. Murders. Remember what Jesus said about murder? If any man hates another person in their heart, he's guilty of murder already. Intent is there. Adultery, sexual immorality, thefts, false witness. I want to concentrate on one word, evil thoughts. The Greek word is dialogism. The idea is a logical process is back and forth. Back and forth. It's interesting that that process can make a person unclean. Now follow me. I had to think about this. Evil thoughts. Dialogism. Thinking something back and through. Thinking something back and through. You know what it is? It's the danger of working through things only in our own natural reasoning. Back and forth. Well, he should have done that. She shouldn't have done that. Well, that's wrong to do that. Well, if they would have done this, completely natural reasoning. But you know where that natural reasoning takes place? That natural reasoning takes place only in your mind. It's not from God. It's not from his heart. It's not wisdom from above. Because wisdom from above is pure. It's peaceable. It's considerate. It's submissive. It's full of mercy and good fruit. And oftentimes when we're stirred up in our thinking, something irritates us, something bothers us. We observe something in someone else, and we're thinking it through. We're not adding mercy. We're not. It's not pure. It's not full of compassion. It's not from the heart of God. It's simply coming from our own mind. And if we let it come from ourself, from our heart, and come out of our mouth, it defiles us and others. Now let me explain the word defile. What does the Bible mean by the word defile? It's actually the word koinos. A coin. It's where we get the English word coin. You know what a coin is? A coin is that common thing you exchange. It has the idea of common. Koinos is common. Just what's commonly exchanged back and forth. And you know what's the most common thing that's exchanged back and forth in our culture? Ideas. Opinions. Perspectives. Arguments. Just common. Men love to do it. Women love to do it. It's just a common exchange among us. And it makes us common. Just not ordinary. Unclean. You know why it's a sense of unclean? Because koinos is the opposite of agios, which is the word for holy. The idea of holy means set apart. Uncommon. You see what happens when you start letting these things in your heart happen that you've learned from the world or you mix with the culture, what happens is you just mingle and mix with them. And sadly, the church leadership, I'll take responsibility because I am one of them, church leadership is accountable for allowing the saints to mingle and mix with the world. They talk like the world. They watch what the world entertains. They think like the world and they act like the world. And they are not set apart, especially in their character and their conduct. They're living common lives rather than extraordinarily set apart lives. And here's what happens when that happens, is you lose something. You're not even aware that it happens. You kind of mingle. It's like mingling with the crowd. You fit in. Nope. No persecution. Is it? Is it that strange that there's so little persecution in the world today for Christians? Because we are so much like the world. We're not too much of a bother. I know these hot button topics that are in our culture right now. Abortion. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about someone who never, never uses his mouth to say anything inappropriate. His heart and his mouth are pure towards women, towards men, towards every color, towards every race, towards everyone. Nothing unharmful ever comes from them. A person that the world quickly gets a sense of, you're too good for us. You're Mr. Goody two shoes over there. You're Mr. Better than that. If we're not careful, we can, it can be our attitude. But even if it's not our attitude, The world gives us flack for not, not joining in participating in what they consider their sport, arguing, criticizing, opinionated, and their things. That's a sport. We don't want to become common and mingle with them. Let me take you to a place that you can see this a little clearer about what, what it may cost us. If this is what happens. Second Corinthians chapter six. Turn with me to second Corinthians chapter six. I'll start in verse 13. Now in like exchange, I speak to you as, as if you were my children, open wide your hearts to us. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony is Christ with Belial or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has, has a sanctuary of, of God with idols. For we are Christians. Believers in Christ. We are the sanctuary of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. And they, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from their midst and be separate. Says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean and what will happen. Right. I will receive you in such a way. I'll be your father and you'll be my children. Let's back up a little bit. You have to come out from the way they talk. You have to come out from the way they act. You have to separate yourself from the way they, their attitudes that they carry. Come out, leave that behind. And then what happens? I will receive. Touch no unclean thing. What makes a man unclean? The things that you allow in your heart that are unkind to others and unwholesome. Those are the things that make a person unclean. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. So what is it? What happens? What's the consequence then? If we're not careful with our mouth, if we allow the things that are stirring in our hearts to come out of our mouth, what's the consequence? God will not receive. So, you know what? We're costing ourselves when we're running at the mouth and we're not taking every thought captive. And when we're murmuring and we're complaining, we're costing ourselves fellowship with God. We're grieving the spirit of God. That's why Paul said in Ephesians chapter four, verses 29 do not let any unwholesome talk proceed forth out of your mouth, but only that which is good for building others up according to their need and that ministers grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption, get rid of all bitterness, clamor, anger, murmuring, get rid of it all. Because if you don't, you'll grieve the spirit of God. And when you grieve the spirit of God, it's like you make a break in the flow of his life in your heart. It's not like you kill it, but you crimp it. What happens, maybe happening some of you right now, what happens if you sit in such a way that you cut off circulation from your foot or your leg? What happens? You go, no. You lose the ability to use it until you restore the circulation. You go now. You get weak. And you got to go to stand up and you might almost fall down because suddenly you realize there's no, there's no feeling, there's no strength in it. So you have to, you have to get the circulation back going and the cells receive the nutrients of the blood again and the energy comes back. Some of us are so weak spiritually because we are grieving the spirit of God with our mouth and by our actions. He's with us, but he's not flowing in this. We're not being filled with the spirit. We're hindering him. We're grieving him. Another way to describe the word is, you know what you do when you, when you, when you want the water to stop flowing from a hose, but you're too far away from the spigot to turn it off. What do you do? You crimp it. You crimp it. The water's in the hose. There's plenty of power, but you're holding it back. You're crimping it. You stop the flow. That's what not exercising your senses to discern good and evil. That's what not being careful with your mouth and allowing unclean thoughts, unwholesome thoughts, un-Christ-like, unloving, non-compassionate, non-merciful, impatient, irritated thoughts. It all comes from your own natural reasonings. They're crimping the life of God through his spirit inside you. And you know what the spirit desires to fill you with? Jesus says, these things I have spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. So you know what you're crimping? You know what you're crimping when you're doing these things? You're, you're venting your natural, carnal, humanistic thoughts, and you're crimping away the joy of the Lord. What a sad thing. Why do this to yourself? Is it any wonder there is so little spiritual strength and vitality in Christians? All of this can be restored. When your legs numb, right? You can get up and carefully move around, get the circulation back, and you can feel the feeling and the strength come back. And when you breathe the Holy Spirit, you can let go and stop that and he will flow back in your life again. You are the sanctuary of God. Paul said this, there's a warning. There's a warning that even beyond, not only is it possible that you and I can be affecting in a negative way, the joy and the peace and the abundant life that we can have in the Holy Spirit. Now, in this life in Christ. If we continue in that way, the same word for corrupt, corrupt, or to ruin, or to mar, was used by Paul in his letter to the church of Corinth when he said, do you not know that all of you, because it's a plural, all of you are the temple of God. This is not the temple. This is a building. That's all this is. God does not live in this room. God lives in his people. We are the people, the temple of God. And if any man corrupts God's temple, him, God will corrupt. Same word. You know how you can corrupt God's temple? Just go speak your un-Christlike, natural, opinionated thoughts. You're corrupting yourself and you're corrupting those who hear it. They pick up on it. This is, and this is why we, as believers, we do not dynamically experience the fullness of joy and the fullness of peace in Christ, because when we exercise our senses, like Paul said, train yourself to be godly. It's funny. In the Greek language, it literally means train in the nude, because that's how the Greeks train. When they trained for the Olympics, they wore no clothes. And so that's just the idea, but it's literally training like you're entering the Olympics because there's something better than a gold medal. It's the blessing of God we're training for. We're training to have the favor of God. We're training so that these exceedingly great and precious promises can be ours. Like Paul said, he goes on to say this in second Corinthians chapter seven. Therefore, since we have such great and precious promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that corrupts body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Wow. Perfecting holiness. Remember, God is holy. What's the opposite of holy? Let's see if we can remember. I don't want you to forget this. What's the opposite of holy? Common. God is set apart. He said, come out from them and be separate. Do not touch unclean things. Don't mingle. Don't mix. Be separate. Come to me. Live apart like I am. Live in my goodness. Live in my righteousness. Live in my purity. Live in my lowliness. Live in my meekness. Live in the goodness that I am. And I'll be your father. And you'll be my son and daughter. Do not live like them. And I'll be your father. You'll be my children. We'll be a family. And that's supposed to be the church. That's supposed to be us. How is it that that's not what we've experienced? How is it? You see, back to where I began. And we'll end early today. What did the early church do? They devoted themselves to this. This is what the apostles were teaching. I'm just going back to what the very beginning. You know, when a team or a sports team or a business or there's other continuing problems that someone's trying to work out, when they start analyzing it, you know what they usually figure out? You haven't been doing the basics. You need to go back and review the fundamentals again. And that's what the writer of Hebrews said. Although you ought to be teachers by now, what you actually need is someone to go back over the very basic principles again. And here's the very basic principles for the early church. They devoted themselves to what the apostles said you were to live like. And the apostles taught believers that they were to be blameless in character and conduct, that their speech was to be excellent, that they were to never murmur and complain. Remember that in Philippians chapter two, do all things without murmuring and complaining, that ye may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in whom you shine like stars in the universe, holding forth the word of life. You know what makes you stand out like a star surrounded by darkness? That you do everything without murmuring and complaining. You're blameless. You're pure. You don't complain about your job. You don't complain about your supervisor. You don't complain about your wife. You don't complain about your husband. You don't complain about your neighbor. Well, I'm not saying you're not bothered by them. But instead of complaining about, you pray for. You bless those that curse you. You do good to those that hate you. And you pray for those who despitefully use you. That you may become sons of your father in heaven because he's kind to the wicked and the ungrateful. And then Jesus said, then you'd be perfect like your father in heaven is perfect. That's our calling. That's what the apostles taught. And as your pastor, that's what I feel we should devote ourselves to. That's why it's a constant theme of mine. As I'm in the process, and I want to invite you to join me. Come to the gym. All right. When you come in here, expect what you're going to hear. Expect you're going to hear. Come on, let's finish putting off these old men. Put to death that old man with his practices. Put on the new man. Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ. And don't make any provision for the flesh. To obey its lust. Train your senses to discern good and evil. Sow to the Holy Spirit. God is not mocked, is he? Whoever sows to the flesh, what are they going to reap from the flesh? Whoever sows to the flesh from the flesh reaps corruption. You know, the very idea of the word corruption is rottenness. You rot from the inside out. From the inside out. Have you ever seen those trees? You probably have in your lifetime. What looked like a healthy tree, suddenly you pass by one day, and it's fallen over in the front yard. Maybe there was a little bit of extra of a wind or a storm came along. And suddenly this beautiful tree is blown over. And where it's blown over, you can walk over and see, and suddenly on the inside, you know what it was? All rotten. That's what sowing to the flesh does. It rots you away from the inside. And God's not mocked. If you want to sow that way, and pacify your flesh, and let it do, follow its impulses and its urges, and you don't want to go to the gym, you don't want to fight it, that's what you'll reap. God's not mocked. But whoever sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap everlasting life. Okay? We're going to have a time. My deacons have asked me.