Purity in Leadership

We just thank you for brother Roger and his willingness to share this morning and be asked to Preach and share over in Idaho. Lord. I just pray for anointing upon him.

I thank you for his willingness Lord. I pray for every Your spirit to be with him bind every spirit that's not of yours Lord that you would Find the raven of hell so to speak Lord that wants to take away Lord I just pray that he would just feel the love of the brotherhood back here behind him And supporting him in prayer and their thoughts Lord bless him Lord and keep him in your care Surrounding Lord by your spirit and your angels as they drive these many hours these many miles Lord Lord, we just Asked that your Spirit would come and meet with us this morning Whatever is shared Lord that we could apply it to our lives and put it in our hearts and Lord Just try to live a deeper meaningful life with you in Jesus name. We pray.

Amen Thank you Well, thank you for coming this morning, thank you for those prayers that means a lot because I Need I'd like you we heard about a shipwreck this morning If I was to ask you what the most famous shipwreck in history is I suppose many of you probably say the Titanic imagine with Me a moment that you have this picture of the Titanic. It's late at night There's a big crunch. They've hit an iceberg After a little while they start to feel this ship is beginning to sink.

There's a girl on that ship She's 13 years old or so She came with her mistress her mistress was a very rich lady and then with with her husband They were there on this boat. That's how this girl got a ride on the ship was because of her rich employers and They go out on the deck and they realize this thing's going down and so they start to fill the lifeboats and the See, there's not going to be enough lifeboat. So they start to make some decisions.

They say women and children get to go first and So a few of the lifeboats go and we're not you know, the girls there with with with Her the you know, this man and the woman and the man figures he's probably not going to get to go After a while they get the notice Hey you you get to go next the next lifeboat is going to be in about five minutes here and and and the the lady her employer says to this girl says go back to my room and And get for me a couple things. There's a there's a water flask. We might need that bring that bring There's also one extra life Life jacket bring that along too and in while you're at it grab my jewelry box Okay, quickly go back to the room and get these things We're going to get on the lifeboat here in five minutes And so this girl she goes back through the Titanic the most luxurious ship of its time and she goes through an area She hadn't been in before it's this big stateroom this ballroom where you know They it has a dining room part of it there where there's just she's never seen such luxury before If she's walking through this room She sees the leftover supper still sitting there and she said wow that looks good.

She looks at the chandeliers well by now They're kind of hanging look crooked But you know these fancy fixtures and she's just amazed and she stops and she looks she looks at the chairs sitting along the side she said wow that would be nice to maybe sit in one of those chairs and She's tempted and and she's looking around at this this and she hasn't made it back to the The cabin yet to get the the stuff that she's supposed to get and she's just mesmerized by the luxury around her But then all the century members The most important thing that he ought to remember. I'm on a sinking boat right now This thing's going down and many people are going to perish. I May escape I may not but I might But the boats going down and many will die sometimes we're going through life, especially got a nice day like today We got you know, good smelling food in the kitchen and coffee brewing and you know, we forget we're on a sinking ship But we are This world we're in is going down this world We heard already is going to melt with fervent heat and many will perish and we could be among the people who have sat here before who were once in the lifeboat are no longer in the lifeboat and That's These are some of the thoughts going through my mind as I was asked to speak over in Idaho on this on his men's weekend the purity weekend how many have perished and are perishing because of this Because of not dealing with the subject that we're going to be talking about seriously and many other subjects, too It's not the only one but this is one that that we're going to talk about.

I know we've prayed you've prayed for me Let's pray again. Let's just bow where we are father we come to you once again in the name of Jesus and I'm asking you God for Your anointing and your protection and your power knowing the stakes that that we have here we have souls eternal souls and We're on a sinking ship this world Lord, but there is Praise the Lord a lifeboat. There is eternal life in Jesus Christ who is not willing that any of us should perish but all that should come to repentance and so Lord we Come to you and we lay ourselves before you and we ask you for your help.

We ask you for your mercy We ask you for your guidance. We ask you for Protection from the enemy once again and Lord, I prayed this protection would follow us all through this service all through this afternoon this coming week this coming weekend Everyone who goes everyone who stays We pray that you'd be over us now Thank you Lord for your promises Please help us in Jesus name Amen You are many of you have taken part with us in the purity meetings that we have here every couple months or so one of the last ones Was it was it was a teaching by Robbie Zacharias. Some of you were here ladies.

You weren't here So we'll tell you about it, but it was it was a good teaching. He's a he was a powerful speaker and he talked about some of these issues of purity In in very meaningful ways it spoke to people's heart he talked about integrity That was one of his the things he was known for was integrity, you know He would he would he would quote, you know, he says, you know, you don't know me in my private life But God does and so live your life in such a way so that that you know When you get to judgment, you'll hear the words well done good and faithful servant These were some of the things that he would say in his teaching on Integrity and purity and so forth. He would counsel people who were caught in immoral sin Well this past year he died got cancer just a few months to live and Sure enough within just those few months.

He did pass away And you know of all the shocking things That happened in 2020 There were things in politics. There were things with pandemics, but I think probably the most shocking thing was when I heard That Ravi was not the man that I thought he was There was an investigation There were things that came to light after his funeral that he was involved in immorality himself deeply involved in immorality He had a he had a phone that was the ministry's phone He took phone calls on but he had a separate phone and on this separate phone. He had Lots of pictures illicit pictures women and There was testimonies of various women who had been abused by him He had even silenced the few who had confronted him during his life.

But now these things are coming out after his death and I listened to those as I heard that and as I read it is just it kind of it I'm still numb about I not sure what to do with it. It's it's it's it's it's shocking and The subject that I was assigned was this thing of purity and leadership there are two subjects that we're gonna be talking about over there purity and leadership purity and In in adversity and you know as I started thinking about these leaders. I looked at Ravi's life He wasn't the only one I remember going to or maybe we had some videos here of Bill Gothard seminars years ago very helpful seminars talking about Strongholds including things of lust but including things of bitterness including issues of rebellion and speaking to youth and just powerful Teaching and then to find out he wasn't living a pure life either.

He was doing some wrong things I remember, you know, we get newsletters from another organization voice of the martyrs and It was scary what they would talk about as they go into these other Countries where there's persecution and the government is after him and then I heard that the voice of the martyrs President Tom White had died and immediately what goes to my mind is some Chinese communist North Korean somebody bumped him off because they were mad at what they were doing with Christians turned out That wasn't the case. That wasn't what happened. He wasn't killed by someone else.

He was killed by himself He was caught in sin It was with an underage, you know abusing somebody underage And so there were legal issues involved and he rather than face those legal charges He just chose to kill himself right there on voice of the martyrs property it shook the organization like like like nothing else could have and Various other leaders. There's you know, Doug Phillips of vision forms bill high bulls Willow Creek Community Church and and and they're you know, big church big organizations big powerful preachers in fact even powerful in the way they could counsel other people and Yet they fell into sin leaders and Of course that's in the Non-catholic world you get over into the Catholic world. Then you have all these stories of the priests abusing children and there's still Ongoing, you know problems with that.

And so you you have you have this this epidemic of sin There was a Seminar a big a big gathering of preachers. I'm not sure if it was from one denomination It seems like it was interdenominational many denominations It came together to this pastors conference and in some city that wasn't overly large So that when these pastors came in it really swelled the population of this city They stayed in various motels and so forth as they were as they were attending the seminar and somebody did some tracking on the internet use drain the time of this conference and the Visitation of pornography sites just skyrocketed right drain this weekend No other reason other than a whole bunch of pastors should come into town this is the Epidemic that we're living in This is the sin that we're living the name of Christ is being blasphemed as a result of these sins And so, you know when I think about the this problem of leadership and and purity It's um, I Think of well, I'm gonna be talking to a group of men over there. Not all of them are gonna be preachers some of you will be going hopefully and Yet, I want to say this.

I want to say that men if we're What God wants us to be we're all leaders at some level or we will be probably all are all already But for sure, we're gonna be leaders in our home will be leaders in our workplaces We'll be leaders in our youth group, maybe even just of our siblings maybe a future home, but we are all leaders and so as we think of what is God's will for us as men and Especially whatever capacity of leadership that we are in listen to these verses You can turn to this if you want first Thessalonians 4 3 to 8. I'll be reading here. I think this is a new King James I'm reading from it says this if he again It's first Thessalonians 4 verses 3 through 8 for this is the will of God your sanctification That you should abstain from sexual immorality that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification and honor not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter because the Lord is the Avenger of all such as we also forewarned and testified For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God who has also given us his Holy Spirit. I appreciated whoever organized these meetings next week in acknowledging that there are special situations that are difficult to deal with when it comes to purity There's the the normal challenges that you could say every man faces and I've never been a woman But I'm sure women face as well This is a men's conference.

So we're gonna be especially talking to the man about the man for the man But even within the groups of men there are some special situations some of them I've experienced but many of them I have not I Have experienced singlehood. That's I've been through I know what that's like. I know it's difficult I've also been through young married life There's special needs in young married life, you know with young children so forth now, I'm in another stage I guess middle-aged they tell me Not sure.

They say I don't know maybe the gray in my beard People who can see the back of my head say I'm going bald. I don't know that for sure. I've never seen it but maybe Anyways, I guess middle-aged whatever challenges are there I can relate to I've been there But I don't think I quite qualify to say I know what it's like to be in the challenges of old age At least I hope not But I'm sure there but I know there's challenges there There's challenges if if I would ever be hit with widowhood, I haven't thankfully but some have and There I know there has to be challenges there that I I don't know I can't quite imagine the challenges, you know, especially in this area including I should say this area of purity What about health problems me having health problems or my wife having health problems that would have some special challenge What about marriage problems? There's conflict.

You're just not getting along in your marriage that would have some special challenges Adversity this is one that was assigned next week the other speaker a man from back in Michigan. He's going to be talking about adversity Adversity presents some special challenges people go through painful circumstances Including some we've talked about but maybe some other maybe financial issues maybe Rejection, maybe there's pain in their life and they're not getting along with maybe there's church problems that's adversity and People become susceptible to temptation when adversity comes more susceptible more susceptible Then perhaps even somebody who's just that you know, they just live in a normal life You know just everything's going the same as it has for the last ten years I got a call from a young man On the on the billboard line the other week call him Oscar Oscar grew up in a Christian home. He was He wanted to be a godly man his parents and his siblings.

They were godly. He wanted to be godly He he grew this church. He was in he met he had a girlfriend.

They they courted for over a year They had high hope he had high hopes of getting married to her But for whatever reason she decided to call off the courtship and this just devastated him and He didn't know how to handle it. He didn't take it. Well, obviously because soon he felt any of his people around him didn't know this but he fell into pornography and Whatever else he was into but he says I've been living an ungodly life For quite a while and he admitted that he knew what he knew what godliness was He knew what ungodliness wasn't he admitted? I've been living in ungodliness, but by the time he called me He said I want he wanted to come back to God.

He wanted to be free and he was He was he was reaching out for help and I encouraged him don't don't stop with me Be sure to go to your own pastors your own preachers and and talk to them You know get this out in the open and but I just gave him two truths. I said Oscar There's two things you need to know if you're going to Get free if you're going to achieve victory, there's two truths. I want you to be absolutely sure, you know Before we hang up this phone number one It is possible for you to be free Many others have been where you are right now and today they're free.

You can be too. It is possible truth number two, it will not be easy and Again that's also testimony of others. It will not be easy it is possible, but it will not be easy.

Those are the two truths you need to know and Maybe that sounds hard. Maybe that's not well, that's that's too bad. But actually I as I've You know read other counselors and their Their writings that you know, they're as they help other people They say it's actually a good thing that it's not easy because what you fight for the hardest is what you're going to value the most and so You know There could be some people and there have been God has set him free immediately from temptation not just sin Set him free from temptation in certain areas temptation in alcohol temptation in You know drugs of some sort God is you know when they get born again there immediately there's no temptation They don't even want to go do those things but usually There's some areas at least the temptation is still there and the temptation is still strong and there's still a battle There's still a fight and often this will be one of them this thing of immorality So we're talking about these special situations, you know, singlehood widowhood adversity Health problems, but here's the one we're talking about this morning the thing of leadership so what special challenges are there in leadership and By the way, I am assigned two messages over there and I'm only going to give one message here So we won't cover everything.

I'm giving you kind of a An overview But there'll be more I share over there because it's gonna be two messages instead of one But what are the special challenges of leadership? Well, I thought of a few of them number one is just the extra interaction that leaders have with other people especially people could be specially people of the opposite gender there could be this issue of admiration, you know, wow, you uh, you know, you're the preacher and You know, they lift you up put you on a pedestal and you know that admiration can can be well, it presents a snare presents a Temptation. How's the there's a person problems the praise of man brings a snare something like that the issue of trust Robbie Zacharias They trusted him people trusted him after everything he had said like No one else and trust feels good. Sometimes trust if you don't have much trust maybe it can even be a motivation for righteousness but often it can also be a trap if People trust you and you feel like they're trusted and they allowed him to go travel into far you know countries and get a motel all by himself and and They trusted him it Presented a temptation and at some point he fell and again, I don't know the whole story I don't know what exactly was the first step but but that's an issue added stresses Leadership people who are in especially I think we you know, we think of leaders in churches But it could be leaders of organizations can be leaders in your workplace could be leaders of whatever, you know Whatever arena you're in but there's stress that goes with it a lot of times and that stress can open up doors for temptation There's the challenges of you know Just once a person does fail to open yourself up if you're a leader You say wow people are trusting me and if I would confess that I've done something wrong Who was I gonna hurt? In fact, that was another thing that Robbie brought up to two women that he was involved with he'd tell him you don't dare Tell anybody what happened because people will lose their souls because I'm a preacher that talks to you know I'm a preacher that tells other people to get right with God And so they'd find out that I did this it would maybe send them to hell you don't want to be responsible for that and so they they didn't talk and So he knew that this was an issue And then on top of all of that we have just the added attack by Satan Satan himself knows if he can bring down a leader he's gonna affect a lot more people and if he brings down some nobody somebody who isn't a leader and So all of that put together Means there are special challenges and I would love to be able to stand before you right now and say you know what? I'm here to tell you how to deal with this because I've dealt with it now and I I've overcome and I'm I'm victorious and and therefore I'm gonna tell you how to do this I'm through the battle and so I'm gonna tell you guys how to win the battle I wish that was the case, but it's not the case.

I Really can you know relate to those words of that we sing that song last, you know up in Albany last week Come now fount of every blessing but prone to wonder Lord, I feel it, you know, and I feel that in myself I feel that the temptations the drawing power of of sin and you know, of course people have changed that song I think in our purple books here. It says sore temptation Lord. I feel it pass passion seeks to steal my love and So this is a battle that I come here and I say we're in this together This is a this is a this is a challenge that that I'm here with you in this temptation Let's turn if you would in your Bibles Proverbs chapter 7 there is a word picture here written by Solomon of this issue of Sexual temptation and the warnings.

I remember When My friend Steve Steve's there was running a warehouse and one of his employees had made a commitment to Christ it was it was kind of an amazing thing, but he had friends that were not godly and one of these was a Was it was a girl and he really felt one time that after he'd made a commitment to Christ He had to go take this girl somewhere take her to the airport or take her to I don't know But it was a temptation obviously Steve. He warned the guy says I don't think it's a good idea Oh, I have to I can't get out. Well, okay.

He says if you have to here's my counsel Go read Proverbs 6 and 7 immediately before you get in the car with her And so we're not going to read Proverbs 6 you can if you want to it'd be good, but let's read Proverbs 7 My son keep my words and lay up my commandments with thee keep my commandments and live and my law as an apple of thine eye Bind them upon my fingers write them upon the table of thine heart say to wisdom now are my sister and call Understanding thy kinswoman that they may keep thee from the strange woman and from the stranger which flattereth with her words for at the window of My house I looked through my casement and behold among the simple ones that is earned among the use a young man void of Understanding passing through the street near her corner and he went hurt the way to her house in the twilight in the evening in the Black of dark at night and behold there met him a woman with the attire of an harlotness and subtle of heart She is loud and stubborn her feet abide not in her house now She's without now in the streets and lithe waited every corner So she caught him and kissed him in with an impudent face said unto him. I have peace offerings with me this day I've paid my vows therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently seek Diligently to seek thy face and I found it I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry and with carved works and with fine linen of Egypt I have perfumed my bed with myrrh and aloes and cinnamon come Let us take her fill of love in till the morning and let us solace ourselves with loves for the good men of the house is Not a home. He has gone on a long journey He has taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the day appointed with her much fair speech She caused him to yield with the flattering of her lips.

She forced him He goeth after her straightway as an ox goeth to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart Strike through his liver and as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life Harkening to me now therefore you children and attend to the words of my mouth Let not thine heart decline to her ways go not astray in her paths for she has cast down many wounded Yea, many strong men have been slain by her her house is the way to hell Going down in the chambers of death. I wonder if you would pick out of this passage the two key words That are the sum up the entire passage Oh, I wonder what it would be I could go around the room and get but here's as you're thinking about what two key words Sum up this entire passage. Here's the two that I picked out verse 23 knoweth not I Think the entire passage is summed up in those two words knoweth not this man did not know the cost of what he was getting into and That's how these kind of sins are.

That's how the devil is now Solomon who wrote this He had seen a little bit of the effects of this because his own father David had fallen into adultery And he knew some of the cost That it cost David his family the kingdom So many people were affected Uriah Bathsheba her children It was there were so many people that were affected by David's sin. And so Solomon he warned strongly about these these these types of sins You know what the sad thing is Just like Robbie Zacharias preaching to others and later fell away What happened to Solomon? He also fell away and it was also temptation presented by women now He probably knew in his mind whatever happens. I'm never gonna commit adultery with another man's wife.

What did he do then? He just took wife after wife after wife till he had what I don't know big number with lots of zeros he had a lot of wives and They let him into idolatry and Also It also cost him apparently his soul unless he repented at the end, you know, we can hope so but we don't have a record of that for sure and So here's Solomon of the very preacher warning against sin and yet he himself Falls away how much warning can we take from this story of Solomon Paul? The Apostle he said in 1st Corinthians 9 27 He says he says I do some things because there's a danger I The greatest we call him this he didn't call himself this I don't think the greatest Apostle or one of the greatest Apostles ever one of the greatest missionaries ever He said there's a danger. I could fall away Here's what he says But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection Less by less that by any means when I've preached to others. I myself should be a castaway Or I'll read it again in the ESV, but I discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others I must myself Should be disqualified.

How did Paul know that this was even a possibility? I think he knew because he read the story of Solomon. I think he knew because he read the story of David I think he knew because he read the story of Samson and other people that were even heroes of the faith fell into sin and A lot of times it was sexual sin. He felt he read about all these Kings that lived good lives You read through the books of Kings and they lived good solid lives, you know honoring God for three quarters of their life or more and Then at the end they got lifted up in pride and they fell away and then they're even rebuked by someone someone came to warn Them.

Hey, don't do this. This is dangerous and they didn't take the warning and Paul knew this and so he said I better watch out The devil has this bull he's got his crosshairs on me. I need to watch out because You know, I myself could be a caster.

I myself could be Disqualified he knew these stories from the Old Testament so much of our lives are today are about choices We make trades we have this thing and we trade it for that Just in the last month. There was some big news about in the stock market this this Company called GameStop they had made some changes and they they weren't doing so well financially, but they they started to um they started to grow in their value because they've changed leadership structures in this and that and a Lot of people were buying them. So wow, this is great There were other people are looking at the whole thing and said no that they're not going to do good at all In fact with the stock price going up these other guys these hedge fund managers Said I think we could make some money off of GameStop By doing what they call short selling we're gonna borrow stocks from someone else who has GameStop Stocks and we're going to sell it at the current price, which whatever it's 50 bucks.

That's way too high it's not worth 50 bucks and So they did and they borrowed and they sold and they borrowed and they sold and they just they way They sold more stock than what actually even existed. So they're borrowing it twice some of the same Stocks. Well now what they're doing is they're promising We're gonna buy this thing back when the price goes down and we'll make money.

We sold it at 53 weeks ago We're gonna buy it at 30 and we'll make $20 a share That was their strategy Perfectly legal, but it's very risky. So a Bunch of people on some social media platform got wind of this that a whole bunch of people had sold this Sold this stock without owning it. They said they're gonna have to buy it back someday Let's force them to buy it back right away by running the price up So all of their buddies and you know how much social media is Everybody gets together and you know If you got a million people each of them with 300 bucks all of a sudden you got You know some money to make a difference and so let's all bid this thing up and instead of 50 it was you know 60-70 a hundred two hundred three.

I don't know It was way up there three four hundred dollars and all of a sudden these hedge fund managers that were forced They they had promised they're gonna buy this thing. Hopefully at thirty thirty bucks now they're forced to buy it at three hundred bucks and they're just losing money hand over fist and Meanwhile these guys in social media. They're just having a delightful time making money off of these big hedge fund managers and You know as those people Here's a question.

I'm guessing that those managers It was going through their mind as they were losing money one one one hedge fund I think lost 73 I want to say billion Billion and million sound the same. I think it's billion though. They lost a bunch and They they lost a lot of money on this This this stock, but I'm guessing here's the thing going through their mind.

Why did I ever sell at such a price? Why did I ever sell at such a price and I wonder if that same Question goes through the mind of people who make bad decisions not in the financial market, but in their spiritual lives Why did I ever sell at such a price Esau with his birthright? Why did I ever sell my birthright for a bowl of soup? That's silly, but he did David with Bathsheba, why did I ever sell at that price? That was a foolish decision Judas 30 pieces of silver betrayed Jesus, why did I sell at such a price and It's the same way Sometime with us men imagine this Walking through a fair, you know what fair is they have all these booths or you know If you go through the fairgrounds sometimes you have a some kind of a show and all these different booths lined up and all there They're offering their wares and you can walk through and you can look at everything that's available for sale Well, here comes a young man walking through this fair and he sees a booth That says sexual pleasure And he immediately is drawn to it. Wow, that's you know He's tempted and he he goes up to this booth after contemplating a while and finally asked how much does it cost? he pulls out his wallet and Well the person behind the counter the world the flesh of the devil whoever that is offering this to him Says, oh, you know what? I'll tell you what, just your clear conscience. That's all just just hand that over and you can have it Here's a here's a bottle of as much as you want And well, he's never really missed his clear conscience before so he pulls out his wallet and okay fine I'm not sure what this is Anyway, he pulls this card out or a bill or whatever it is and lays it on the counter and he walks away with this sexual pleasure Illicit sexual pleasure.

Maybe it's pornography. Maybe it's Everything else that's out there fornication. It's prostitution or whatever Homosexuality to some He leaves his clear conscience behind And sure enough it does bring pleasure.

But then after the pleasure, there's this conscience That's that's bugging him and it's making him miserable And if you don't think this can make a person miserable You ought to hear some of the you know some of the phone calls I get from people who have given up their clear conscience for some form of pleasure and And they're miserable it drives people insane it drives people even to Suicide sometimes and you'd think if if there's anybody that If the devil's lies would be true if there's anybody that would be happy It would be those people who are just filling their lives with all the pleasures of sin But you know what so many of them are not and the least bit happy They're the most miserable people they get look they get a high but then they go right back to it and you know The misery of the clear conscience they try to drown it with more sin and finally in desperation this young man says I've had enough and Why did I ever take the first taste of this? Why did I ever sell my conscience at such a price? And so he goes stumbling Late in the evening back through this fair to that same booth and he says This wasn't worth it. I want my clear conscience back Well, the answer comes You have to give back the pleasure and he well, that's hard by now he's addicted to it, but he finally decides Okay, here it is. He lays on the counter and They say okay, but sorry we can't give it back yet.

There's something else. You need to give up to you Need to give up your reputation What's that? Well look in your wallet he pulls out as well reputation you mean everybody's gonna know about this. Yeah It's going to It's gonna cost you any respect that you had with your friends church members and whatever Oh, he didn't know it was gonna cost him that but he finally decides Okay, you know and maybe it's even more than that.

Maybe it's marriage. Maybe it's finances miss for some even a prison sentence But whatever it is, it's for sure, you know, he put this man's case it took it cost him his reputation, but he finally Decided okay. It's I have to do this.

I have to have my conscience back and he lays that on the counter He walks away. He's got a long road a long hard road ahead of him, but finally he has his clear conscience back It was a good trade But as he leaves that booth he looks behind him and he sees More men lined up Also there for the same reason the next guy in line is a preacher Suit tie big reputation big ministry. He's also back there wanting his clear conscience back And they said the same thing to him.

You've got to give up your sin Well, it's a struggle, but he says okay, and then the same answer comes you also have to give up your reputation and That preacher pulls out his wallet. He looks in there. It's a big fat stack of bills What how much of this do you want all of it? and That preacher looks at that.

He says sorry that's too valuable He says there's no way I can give this up, you know, how many people would be here do you know what this scandal this would be if I give up this repute if people would find out what what I've done and He shakes his head he puts everything back in his wallet He picks up his sin and he starts to walk away and the people in the booths a hell of a sir. Hold it There's the price has just gone up now It's gonna now cost you your soul you know Mark 8 says 36 for what shall a profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul But you know many people are making that exact choice. They're saying sorry, I can't Give up what you're asking me to give up.

I have to keep my reputation Another shocking thing that happened within the last year Was a conversion of my brother-in-law James For years. He had been living in Sexual sin Girlfriends apart from his wife pornography You know just this past Month maybe a couple months ago he He had said earlier He says I need to get right with God and finally he did and he Confessed his sin and he repented and he laid it all in the altar and today he is Overflowing With the love of God and the joy of God the peace of God he can speak clearly now He had a it was it was he always had You know, it was hard to talk to him. No kind of shifty eyes and just couldn't look at you straight and People look down on him.

He wasn't a popular guy in his circles. You know what? he didn't have much of a reputation to give up and he laid it on the altar and He walked away and you know, I never thought a year ago if he would have told me by the end of this year by the end of 12 months Your brother-in-law James is gonna be saved walking with the Lord and Robbie Zacharias is gonna be in hell. I Would have never believed you But that's I don't know.

I'm following the evidence Robbie had a reputation My brother-in-law didn't but today he's walking with the Lord He died with his reputation pretty much intact Robbie did at his funeral were all the famous Christians Mike Pence the vice president was there Tim Tebow the football player was there other famous people they spoke glowingly of Robbie How what a wonderful testimony he had but someone else was listening one of the women that he had abused She said I can't believe they're saying this about I can't believe this is what they really believe and she took it public And It was even atheists that were helping her take it public and at first people refused to believe it, but eventually They had to realize this was true. This was these are true allegations There's an article in Christianity Today and in there is a quote by a man Dan Patterson who knew Robbie he was the head of one of the of Robbie's ministry Divisions and here's what he said. He put this on Facebook.

He says I feel a profound sense of the fear of the Lord Knowing that one day I too will give an account Where like the Robbie Zacharias report everything done under the shroud of darkness will be made known Jesus comes to restore justice through judgment. Oh I wish Robbie had repented here Will that ever be said about any of us? Oh how I wish that Robbie had repented here how I wish that we had repented here Luke 12 Jesus speaks to this he says there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be known be not afraid Of them that killed the body and after that have no more they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him which after he has killed hath power to cast into hell. Yay I say unto you fear him Let's bow for prayer father we come to you in the name of Jesus and Lord we Ask you for that gift of the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom I pray God that you would instill us with that fear and let that fear guide our lives Lord let it be a healthy fear a fear that motivates us that brings us into your love and mercy That brings us to repentance That sends our sins ahead to judgment so that we would not be like those who follow after Father have mercy on us Guide us we pray through this This day this afternoon the fellowship meal guide us Lord Just guide us into the fear of God knowing Lord that what has happened to others could happen to us What has sins that have brought other people down can bring us down? But Lord help us also to know that when we humble ourselves your mercy is everlasting to those who fear you and we thank you for that Lord and So we ask you for your mercy Help us today Lord in Jesus name.

Amen God bless