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Life Tabernacle Church Podcast
Biblical preaching and passionate teaching from Life Tabernacle Church in Vinton, Virginia.
Pastor Dallas Herndon and guest ministers teach verse-by-verse through Scripture, exploring the teachings of Jesus Christ and applying them to everyday Christian life.
Topics include:
• Prayer
• Discipleship
• Faith and doubt
• Spiritual formation
• Biblical theology
• Living the Gospel
New sermons recorded live each week from Life Tabernacle Church.
Brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good. Wow. I wonder then how many people don't do what they ought to do simply because they have grown weary. They've grown weary.
Speaker 2:Hello, friends. Welcome to the Life Tabernacle Church podcast. It's an honor to be with you today. This podcast serves as our church's weekly sermon archive. Tune in each week to hear what God is speaking in our community.
Speaker 2:Be sure to follow and share with a friend. We hope you enjoy today's message.
Speaker 1:Place remind us of what we need to do. And over the past fourteen weeks, we've been encouraged to endure through trials. Been told that we should seek wisdom from above. We've been rebuked because we tend to listen to what God says more than actually doing what God says. We've been told our mouths are a problem.
Speaker 1:We've been informed that our faith requires us to humbly submit before God. It teaches us not to slander to others, to keep our eyes on the prize, and ultimately to be doers of God's word. And last week, brother Keaton ripped it up here. Great job. Can you give him a hand this morning?
Speaker 1:He did a great job last week. Pleasure to watch him from the beach with sand between my toes. He did a great job. Proud of him. He's a great communicator of God's word, and just thankful for his ministry.
Speaker 1:A few weeks ago, thank you, Sister Sullivan, for preaching and bringing God's word to. It's an honor to have a bunch of different people in the house that can bring the word. Amen? Amen. So, we're actually just gonna be looking at one verse a little bit different than what we have been doing, but it is in James.
Speaker 1:We're gonna be in James four seventeen. James four seventeen. I'm a read this in two different translations. I'm gonna read this in the NIV, as I usually do. But I'm also gonna read it in the KJV, which I usually don't read out of the KJV, which is fine, you know, but I really like how the KJV said it.
Speaker 1:So I'm gonna read both. So, let's start with James four seventeen in the NIV. My friends, this is the word of the Lord. If anyone Look at your neighbor and say, anyone. If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.
Speaker 1:KJV says, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Knoweth and doeth. If you don't doeth, it is sin. This, my friends, is God's word to us. Let us pray.
Speaker 1:Lord, we thank you for this beautiful day you've given us. The day that you have made. Lord, help us just to open our hearts and our ears and our minds to what the spirit is saying today. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Amen.
Speaker 1:Most of y'all probably know by now, last week, Emily and I and our family and my in laws got to go to the beach and that's why it looked so dark this morning, right? Brother Gary said, you look a little darker. Was wondering what was going on. And brother Glenn said, you wanna look like me, you gotta stay out there for a little bit longer, okay? I'll get there one day.
Speaker 1:And I will say, we had a wonderful time. We had like perfect weather, only rained a couple times. We ate some delicious food. And it was a really a time just to relax and kick back and get the sand between your toes. I think one of my, probably my favorite part though, is that our little twin boys are 10 old, watching them crawl around on the beach was impressive.
Speaker 1:John wasn't a big fan, but John ate lots of sand. So he liked the sand, but Iggy, we could not keep him in one place. We set him up during low tide, which a large portion of the beach is there's a lot of beach there. Right? We put him at up at the top near the dune.
Speaker 1:We'd look away from it, and he's already in the waves. He's he's getting a fishing pole and he's heading out to a boat. He's just doing his thing. They just loved the beast. They looked like two little cute sand crabs just crawling all over the place.
Speaker 1:And we really had a blast. And while we were at the beach, I don't know about you, like when you go on vacation, I it it's a good thing to be on vacation. Right? What I mean is sometimes we can go away, but we our minds stay back where our workplaces are, and we don't really rest. So, I tried my best to try to really disconnect and just enjoy the beach.
Speaker 1:I didn't do a perfect job at it, but I did a pretty good job. But I think I did too much of a good job because I really set in my mind, I'm here to rest this week. Lord, you know, I love you so much. I I do a lot of work for you. I I give all my life to you.
Speaker 1:I just wanna rest. I don't wanna do any pastoring work this week. Okay? In my mind. Right?
Speaker 1:But the first night, you get to the beach, and I don't know about you. The first night you get to the beach, I love going to the grocery store to buy just a bunch of stuff to put in the condo, just get some snacks for the week. And me and the girls went to Publix, which is, you know, God's fourth favorite grocery store, and we're getting one in Roanoke. I'm very excited about it. We went to Publix, and I and I had a list of things I needed to get, and that's what I was gonna do.
Speaker 1:We're just there to get the list and go home. I've been driving all day. I'm tired. I'm ready to go home. And then I walked by this guy.
Speaker 1:Nothing that special about him. The only thing maybe special about the guy is that he was wearing a Texas longhorns hat. Okay, hook him. Alright? But that's all.
Speaker 1:That's all that I thought was special about the guy. And I was like, we just, you know, we did the weird guide nod. You know, guys walk by each other and you know, you've either It's either head down or head up. And we did a head down towards each other and just, hey, I'm sorry I'm in your way. And I was like, oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1:And then we passed each other again. And you know that can be awkward. Right? You know, you pass someone once, it's fine. The second time, you're like, this is getting a little awkward.
Speaker 1:And then we pass each other a third time, and we didn't nod this time. We just kinda looked at each other like, why are we seeing each other again. Right? And then I just began to think, perhaps the Lord is trying to get my attention. Perhaps there's a right thing that I'm supposed to do here, even though I don't wanna do it.
Speaker 1:I wanna get my chips and my cheese and my turkey back to the condo and go to bed and my ice cream, praise God. And I wanna get that back, and I don't really wanna have a conversation, but I was like, if I see this guy one more time, I gotta say something. So, I had forgot the avocados for the week. I'm sorry I'm giving you all these details. It just is what it is.
Speaker 1:And I was walking in the produce aisle, and there he was again. And I said, alright, fine. So I mustered up the strength and I said, are you a Longhorn fan? And he said, well, of course I am. And I was like, okay, the ice is broke.
Speaker 1:We're all good here. And we began to have a conversation. And he said he grew up in Texas, but moved to South Carolina. And then Semi butts into the conversation. And Semi just looks at the guy and says, do you believe in God?
Speaker 1:Do you believe in God? And the guy looks at him. The guy looks at her, and he smiles. He says, oh, yes, baby, I do. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of my sins.
Speaker 1:I believe in him. And the spirit came down in that avocado aisle. Right there, and I was like, whoosh. This man doesn't just know Jesus, he knows Jesus. He spent time with Jesus, and I could sense it.
Speaker 1:And Roland and I began to have a conversation and I told him I was a pastor, we were on vacation. He told me he was an elder at his church in South Carolina, been an elder for like thirteen years. He drives an hour and a half to church each Sunday. He lives way away, but God said, hey, I want you to go to this church and I'll provide all the means to get there. And the Lord has just blessed them because of their obedience.
Speaker 1:And we said goodbye, have a great time, all that stuff. And we check out and I'm heading out of the store and he's standing there waiting on me. And he's like, hey, I messed up. I need to pray for you. I need to pray for you that the Lord would bless you and give you a restful week.
Speaker 1:And I said, let's pray. And he began to pray, and again, the spirit popped down there right in front of Publix as he began to pray and he really began to prophesy over our family. And I got tears coming down my face. Marcella's like, what's going on? Like, well, I wanna go home and eat the ice cream.
Speaker 1:Know, why why are we still standing here with this random guy? And just a few hours previously, was standing on the beach watching the sunset and I just asked the Lord very simply, Lord, would you do something this week just to blow my mind? And there he did it. And we had a great week. The point is, I knew there was a right thing for me to do.
Speaker 1:Even though I didn't really wanna do it, I knew the right thing to do was to have a conversation with the guy, and I'm glad I did it. And you've been here. Right? God's asked you to do something. Perhaps you've been at a store.
Speaker 1:Perhaps you were at school. Perhaps you were at church. And the Lord said, hey, can you go pray for that person? Hey, can you share that a word with this person? Hey, would you give some money to that person?
Speaker 1:And we've and we've done it. We did the right thing even though it was uncomfortable. Right? But more often than not, I don't know about you, I miss it. God invites me to do something and I don't always do the thing that he's asking me to do.
Speaker 1:Right? It actually happened to me at the beach as well. It was the last night at the beach, there's this family we encountered a couple times, and we're fishing, having a good time, and I see this family walk by me for like the third time. And I just get this sense I'm supposed to have a conversation with them. I think something's going on in their life, they really need some encouragement, and I just need to have a conversation of faith.
Speaker 1:And there was no risk. I'm never gonna see these people again. They live in like Winston Salem. Like, why do I care if they think I'm a loser and I'm weird and I'm having a conversation about faith on the beach? There's nothing to lose, right?
Speaker 1:Yet, they they walk down, they walk by and I try to engage in a conversation with him. I really like, unboldly, very cowardly, I was like, do y'all do y'all go to church somewhere? He's like, yeah, we go to church back home. And I was like, that's awesome. Have a great night.
Speaker 1:As he walked away, I just I had that feeling in my stomach that you know what I'm talking about. It just dropped and I'm like, I missed it. Coolly goes to church. Awesome. There was something more the Lord was inviting me to do.
Speaker 1:Something that the Lord It was something that was good for me to do. Something that was right for me to do. And I knew the right thing to do, yet I did not do it. And I sinned before the Lord and before those people. And we've all been here.
Speaker 1:We've all missed it. I don't wanna ask you to raise your hands, because all of our hands would be raised. We have all missed it. We've all known the right thing to do and we've done the opposite. It's not just a me problem, it's a Us problem.
Speaker 1:And it's not just an Us problem, it's obviously a problem for James. See, last week, brother Keaton did a great job. Keaton was preaching out of James four verses 11 through 17, really. And last week, I'll read verses 13 through 16 to give you a reminder again. This is why in James one seven seventeen, the main verse we just read, this is why James says that, if anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.
Speaker 1:This is why he says it. Let's reread verses three thirteen through 16. It says, now listen, you who say, today or tomorrow we'll go into this city or that city and spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why? You do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
Speaker 1:What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes, all such boasting is evil. You have these businessmen or businesswomen, these merchants who are planning their lives without any thought of what the Lord wants for their lives.
Speaker 1:They're saying, hey, we're gonna go to this city, we're gonna make a bunch of money, it's gonna be great, we're gonna have so much fun. I am my own God, really. Like, I make my own destiny. I am the one who's gonna really control my fate. And they're really elevating themselves with this sense of pride before the Lord, not even taking into consideration what God wants for their lives.
Speaker 1:And we all know, as he says, we do not know what tomorrow holds. I didn't know what was held for me. When we got back from the beach on Monday night, we were all relaxed, had a great time, and all of a sudden, my one of these cute little twin boys reaches up, scratches my wife's cornea with his little nail. And we have to go to the ER the next day to get it looked at and fixed. Okay?
Speaker 1:I had no idea that was coming. And we have no idea what's coming tomorrow. We don't know if something great's gonna happen tomorrow or something bad's going to happen tomorrow. And we don't even know. We don't know.
Speaker 1:We don't even know when the Lord's coming back, but we know he's coming soon. It could be any day. Right? We don't know. And that's why James is giving these guys and girls such a rebuke.
Speaker 1:You're disregarding what God wants for you, thinking you can just make your own path, not even considering what he wants. And so then we go to verse 17. Verse 17 really is directed at them, but it's not just directed at them. It is actually a larger wisdom principle that applies not only to Christians, but to really anybody who lives in the world. And that's the interesting thing about James.
Speaker 1:I've told you that James is like the Proverbs of the New Testament. It's a beautiful book of wisdom with all these one liners that just blow your mind as you meditate on them. You're like, wow, this is really rich stuff. So after verses 13 through 16, I'll read our key verse again today. It says, if anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.
Speaker 1:It really, in a way, feels like its own stand alone verse. Because he's kind of got done rebuking them, and then he says verse 17, and then next week he's gonna move into another section. So verse 17 is very interesting, and that's why we're taking some extra time on it. And more likely than not, this phrase probably directly comes from Jesus somewhere. We look in the gospels and we see some stuff similar to this language.
Speaker 1:We don't see this exact phrase. But nevertheless, this thing that James is saying, if anyone knows then the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. That is a very Jesus thing to say. And look, like I said, as we dissect this, it's not just for those merchants, it's not just for us. This is really for anyone who has ears to hear in the world.
Speaker 1:So let's kinda walk slowly together and dissect this almost word by word. Are you ready? Let's start. Beginning at verse 17. If anyone, look at your neighbor and say anyone, The merchants, you, me, Christians down the street, Christians in another nation, Christians all over the world.
Speaker 1:This all applies to us. He says, if anyone. Anyone means, well, anyone. Right? Not only is it just us, but he's speaking in a sense to the world.
Speaker 1:And and I wanna make a point of that. Because I I don't know about you, and I know this is a touchy subject, but I don't really care. There's been a there's been a really weird lawsuit trial going on up north with a young lady named Lindsey Clancy. Are you familiar? Lindsey Clancy, a few years ago, murdered a few of her kids.
Speaker 1:And there's this been this trial going on to see, you know, what you know, what really happened. And here's the thing. This is what Romans one twenty says. I don't know if Lindsay Clancy's a Christian or not. I'm assuming she's not, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:This is what Romans one twenty says. It says, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and his divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. My friends, all of us have been made in God's image. Every single human being on the earth. God put his spirit in us.
Speaker 1:His ruach. Remember, I'm talking about God's put his ruach, his spirit, in every single human being, even if they believe in him or not. And because God has done that, and because God has created this world, and everybody has eyes to see and ears to hear what God's created around them, it the Bible says everybody's without excuse. This is why when you get into the conversation, hey, you know, is God gonna send this person in this random tribe, in this random place in the world to hell because they never heard about Jesus? No.
Speaker 1:Everybody in the world, even if they never directly hear the name of Jesus, can look around them and clearly see there is a God who made all this. Not only is there a God who made all this, we know deep down in our hearts, even if we push it away, we know right from wrong. Because I can ask an unbeliever, I can ask some of the worst people in the world. You begin to ask questions like, hey, is murder wrong? What are people gonna say?
Speaker 1:Well, yes. Murder's wrong. You know? Why is it wrong? They might not have a good reason for it, but God's law has been written on their hearts.
Speaker 1:What God desires been written on all of us, and we truly all deep down know right from wrong. That's why he says, if anyone Look at your neighbor again and say anyone. Anyone. All of us, all under all sin, God's law is written upon all of us. We intrinsically know right from wrong even if we ignored it so much.
Speaker 1:Let's move to the next word that's important in this verse. If anyone then knows the good they ought to do. Look at your neighbor and say, the good. The good. What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?
Speaker 1:Colorado Rockies? Your wife? Extra points for you, brother David. Good job. Well done.
Speaker 1:Children being born. The children being born. Which one? All right. All right.
Speaker 1:That's so funny. There's so much good and beautiful things in the world. I was reminded that at the beach, watching the sunset, my father-in-law catching a baby shark, seeing all these little turtle nests on the beach. You can't look around you and not see God's goodness and beauty everywhere. It is everywhere.
Speaker 1:This word good means beautiful, good, or desirable, and it indicates an object that is intrinsically sound or in moral and ethical sense. The good and right things. In this passage, James say, if anyone then knows the good that they ought to do. Now James is not just speaking about the good in the world and the beautiful things God has made. He's speaking about the good or right things to do.
Speaker 1:More specifically, he's talking really about this. He's talking about God's word. He's talking about God's commands that are written and spoken. He's saying, in this book, we know how to determine right from wrong. You pick up, you eat this word, you meditate on this word, you're going to begin to develop very quickly what God wants.
Speaker 1:Intrinsically, we know certain things, but as we pick up God's word, we begin to discern and understand and know, have the knowledge, the things that are good and right for us to do for God and his kingdom. And this is the importance of reading God's word. Right? We live in a time where we have more access to technology than ever before, but we also live in a time where people are more Biblically illiterate than ever before. We have more Bible resources than anybody could ever want, yet people know less Scripture than ever before.
Speaker 1:It's a really odd time we live in. And so just as a brief reminder within this text, just read your word. Just read it and study as much as you can. Even if you don't understand everything you read, just eat God's word. Meditate on it.
Speaker 1:Read on it day and night, and it will actually do something deep down inside you. But specifically, what we're looking at in this verse is all the good and right things that God asks us to do. His commands, his laws. And it's important that we know the difference between God things and good things. Y'all know there's a difference.
Speaker 1:Right? Because there's something that can be good, but it might not be God. Right? It reminds me of a story in first Samuel 15. Remember this story probably.
Speaker 1:This is right before David's anointed as the new king of Israel. The king of Israel before David was king Saul. And king Saul started off great, doing strong, doing great things for God, and all of a sudden, he begins to not do the good things that God's asked him to do. Let me read this passage to you. Verse Samuel fifteen seven through nine says, then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way to Havilah to Shur near the eastern border of Egypt.
Speaker 1:He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and the lambs, everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything was desp but everything that was despised and weak, they totally destroyed. First Samuel 13 through 16. When Samuel reached him, Saul said, the Lord bless you.
Speaker 1:I've carried out the Lord's instructions. And the Lord's instructions to King Saul was to kill everything. You kill all the animals. You kill all the people. You kill the king.
Speaker 1:You kill everything. Nothing should be left alive. Yet as I just read to you, he kept what he deemed to be the good things alive. And as a result, Samuel said, what then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle I hear?
Speaker 1:Saul answered. The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites. They spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest. Enough, Samuel said to Saul. Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.
Speaker 1:Tell me, Saul replied. And right after then, the anointing, the spirit that rested on Saul, the kingdom is ripped from his hands. Because the good thing for him to do, the right thing for him to do, the God thing for him to do was to kill everything. That's what God asked him to do. That was the right thing to do.
Speaker 1:Yet in his own eyes, he said, I'm gonna keep the good for me. And as a result, he loses the kingdom because of his pride and his disobedience. We have to understand the difference between good and God things. And so, if anyone then knows the good that they ought to do, let's look at the word ought. Look at your neighbor and say, ought.
Speaker 1:Keaton hit on this last week. Odd is one of the key motifs or words in the book of James. Ought is everywhere. You ought to do this, you ought to do this, you ought not do that. It's everywhere.
Speaker 1:Because James is encouraging us not just to be hearers of God's word, but to be doers of God's word. And these are things that we ought to do. So he's saying, if anyone then, anyone knows the good or the right thing that they ought to do and doesn't do it, doesn't do it. I think we understand that pretty clear clearly. Right?
Speaker 1:Stephanie, if you ask your kids to put away the dishes, that's the thing that they ought to do, the good and right things to do, and they don't do it, right? It is sin for them. Children, you have sinned if you've ever done that. Now you know, okay? It's simple.
Speaker 1:He's saying, if you don't do it, if you're not a doer of what the thing that is good, if you don't do what God's asked you to do, if you don't put into practice God's words that he's put into his word, into your heart, then he gets to the end and he says, it is sin for them. Look at your neighbor and say, sin. One of the most important words in the bible. Sin. Sin.
Speaker 1:What is sin? If you want a definition, here's a definition. Sin is an act or feeling that transgresses something forbidden or ignores something required by God's law or character, whether in thought, feeling, speech, or action. A sinful act is a moral violation or transgression of divine command or the state of guilt that results from sin and wrongdoing. The scriptures say, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1:Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, were living in paradise with God in the garden. They were being obedient to him, Yet they sinned against God because they rejected his command, and they were persuaded to listen to the command of the sneaky snake. And as I've said before, and I'll say it again, since that day, sin entered into all of humanity. All of us. It was funny this past week, I don't know about you but sometimes my kids don't always listen.
Speaker 1:And Emily's like, I don't get it. Like where did she learn that from? And I'm sitting there like, it's definitely from your side of the family. Right? Probably your father-in-law.
Speaker 1:Love, my my father-in-law. Right? No. No. No.
Speaker 1:I She said, I don't I don't get it. I don't get why she acts like that. I said, Emily, I love her and she's so cute, but she's a little sinner. Because we impute our sin nature down to our kids. Sin gets passed from generation That nature to not listen to God.
Speaker 1:That thing that's written on our We don't wanna do that because we have a sin nature. And the reason why sweet Semi doesn't always listen and she's not fully obedient to whatever I say is because of sin. And that's why all of us need to respond to the gospel and to what Jesus offers for us. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And in that subject of sin, everybody has sinned, and the result is everybody's sin.
Speaker 1:Everybody's really destined for hell and death. And that's why Jesus is laying down his life for us and paying the penalty for our sin is such a beautiful thing. We all are destined to die and be separated from God, yet in God's grace he sent his son to die for our sin. It's beautiful. When it comes to sin though, there's two really main categories of sin.
Speaker 1:There's sins of commission, and there's sins of omission. If you've never heard this, let me explain it real quick. Sins of commission. Comment. Look at your neighbor and say, commit.
Speaker 1:Commit. Sins of commission. Here's an assent of commission. You murder someone. Okay?
Speaker 1:We know by God's law, through his word, that we not we shouldn't murder others. Right? But when people do that, they commit, they commission, they commit the sin. It is sin. They've committed a crime.
Speaker 1:They've committed a penalty against God. And this is the sin most of us focus on in our lives. This is the sin we confess most to God. Lord, I messed up. Lord, I did this.
Speaker 1:Lord, I did that. I talked bad about this person. Lord, I stole money from here. Whatever whatever the sin is, we usually are confessing to God about sins we've committed. Right?
Speaker 1:But there's also sins of omission. Look at your neighbor and say, omission. This is when you sin by not doing the right thing. God asks you to give money to that person. God asks you to feed the poor.
Speaker 1:God asks you to give clothe the hungry, as Jesus tells us to, and you don't do it, you are equally guilty of sin. You didn't commit the sin, but you committed sin by not doing anything. And both those things are sin. I didn't do it. That's the point.
Speaker 1:You were supposed to. So we have sins of commission and sins of omission. And as a result, when we don't do the right and good thing that we know we're supposed to do, James says it is sin. And it is not supposed to be that among us, my friends. We are not sinners anymore.
Speaker 1:We are called saints. Judy, you're a saint. You're not going to be a saint, you are called saint by God. You used to be a sinner, you're not a sinner no more. You're a saint.
Speaker 1:You're a saint. You're a saint. We are called saints. And sometimes we do sin, yes. Right?
Speaker 1:But we are called saints. But James is really concerned. He says, if you do this, it is sin and he doesn't want us to sin. He wants to be us He wants us to be obedient doers of God's word. And there's a lot of reasons.
Speaker 1:And honestly, for the past fourteen weeks, I've really harped on all this. Like, why don't we do what we ought to do? Well, because well, maybe because we're lazy spiritually, and we really just don't want to do what God said. Perhaps we're prideful and we don't wanna listen to God, we wanna listen to ourselves. And there's tons of reasons why we don't do what we ought to do.
Speaker 1:But as I was praying and thinking through the sermon, I think there's actually another main culprit of why we don't do the good that we ought to do often. And that answer is found in Galatians six nine. Let me read it to you. Why don't we do the good that we ought to do? Galatians six nine, the apostle Paul says this.
Speaker 1:Let us not become weary in doing good. For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Second Thessalonians three thirteen, in a similar way says, and as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good. Wow. I wonder then how many people don't do what they ought to do simply because they have grown weary.
Speaker 1:They've grown weary. Let me ask you this. Is there someone in your life you've been praying for to come to salvation for a long time and it hasn't happened yet? I don't know about you. When you pray that prayer over and over and over for years and it doesn't happen, if you're not careful, you grow weary.
Speaker 1:And the good and right thing to do is what? To continue to pray. To present them for the before the Lord and ask that the kingdom would come in their lives. But sometimes we simply just grow weary in what we're doing. Perhaps you've served at church for a long time, or at a school for a long time, or whatever you're doing for a long time.
Speaker 1:If you do it for a long time and you're not careful, you will just grow weary. And when you grow weary, you don't really do the things that you ought to do simply because you are wore out and you are tired in need of rest. This is what is interesting in connection with the gospels. Luke twelve forty seven says, the servant who knows the master's will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten by many blows. Matthew twenty five forty one through 43 says, then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Speaker 1:For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in. I needed clothes, and you did not clothe me. I was sick and imprisoned, and you did not look after me.
Speaker 1:My friends, I don't want that. I don't want that to be the thing the Lord says to me, simply because I've grown weary in doing good. The testimony of this scripture, of the New Testament, of the book of Revelation, of everything really we've been talking about the past fourteen weeks, is to persevere to the end. Continuing to do the things God asks us to do until he takes us home. The prosperity gospels convince us that we are going to reap all the good things God's gonna give us in our lives in this lifetime.
Speaker 1:My friends, the time of sowing is now. The time of reaping is later. When I get to heaven, that's my reward. I get to be with him in all the righteous things I do for him, all the acts of obedience to do, I will be rewarded later on. But right now is the time to work.
Speaker 1:Right now is the time to do the things God's asked us to do. But my friends, when you grow weary, it's really hard to keep doing them. And so before you leave today, I wanna give you a few recommendations on how to get out of that weariness. Because we've all been there. You will be there again.
Speaker 1:So let's try to avoid it. Few quick things, few quick thoughts. Number one, come away. Look at your neighbor and say, come away. Come away.
Speaker 1:Matthew six thirty one says this, then, because so many people were coming and going, and that they did not even have a chance to eat, Jesus said to them, come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. Look at your neighbor and say, get some rest. This is what my family and I did last week. We we came away to a beautiful place just to rest. We live in a very busy, loud world that frightens us.
Speaker 1:And my friends, we simply need time during our week, and then times annually where we just go away and we just rest. Jesus took his disciples to the side and said, hey, we've been really busy. Let's go rest. We have to come away. I love how another preacher put it.
Speaker 1:He said, you have to come away before you come apart. And we've all come apart before. We've all become so weary that we begin to be really impatient with our friends, with our kids, with our spouses, with our coworkers. We're not doing a good job and doing the things that we ought to do simply because we haven't come away. So number one, if you want to combat this this thing, not doing what we ought to do, you have to come away.
Speaker 1:And so whatever that looks like for you in your season of life. If you need to go on a vacation, go on a vacation. If you just need to get off your phone for a day and just go have a walk in the wilderness or sit on a bench at a pretty place, do that. If you need to go on a Blue Parkway and just look at the mountains in the fall time, do that. Whatever you need to do to just find some rest and get away, and to come away, you gotta do that.
Speaker 1:Number one, come away. Number two is once you come away, you need to kneel to pray. Look at your neighbor and say, kneel to pray. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is quoted often. The Bible says that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray.
Speaker 1:Jesus had this habit of doing great ministry work with his disciples, and then he would disappear into the wilderness to rest. He would come away to be with the Father alone, to rest his body, and to pray. And sometimes when we think of prayer, we think of prayer as something that wears us out. And sometimes when you're performing intercessory prayer, when you're interceding for somebody, it can wear you out. Feels like spiritual warfare.
Speaker 1:Right? But what I'm simply talking about is once we come away, we need to just find time to kneel to just pray. We did our prayer series at the beginning of this year, and we learned that prayer is simply just communion with God. We come away just to speak with Him. Just to spend time with Him.
Speaker 1:Just to hear His voice and for Him to hear ours. And my friends, I I I can't tell you how many times I felt weary, and I've just taken a time just to pray, and all of sudden I feel renewed. His spirit comes, fix my eyes on him in prayer, and he meets me right there. We have to come away. Once we come away, we have to find a place to kneel and pray.
Speaker 1:And lastly, if we want to do the good things that we ought to do, so we don't sin against God, so that we can be obedient doers of God's word, you need to do the third thing. You need to go play. Look at your neighbor and say, go play. It's what I say to my kids when I need to get something done, go play. Right?
Speaker 1:This is what I did growing up. I used to play a lot of video games, and there's this one video game I play called Madden. It's a football game. And at the beginning of everything, it was done by EA Sports, and there was this guy with this deep voice, and he always say, EA Sports. It's in the game.
Speaker 1:And I think that was just so cool. It really did something in my heart to the point that I'm sharing with you now. But the point is this, we need to go play and we need to get in the game. Because a lot of Christians are good at coming away and praying. A lot of Christians are good at just taking their me time, go to a conference and get filled with the Holy Ghost and get a word from God, and then they don't do nothing with it.
Speaker 1:They get touched by God and they shake around like that, but then they just come back the next week for another shake around. And they didn't go shake things up in their community. So once we come away, once we find some time to pray, it's time to go play. I tell you what, I came back from vacation. I'm ready to mess up some demons in Roanoke.
Speaker 1:I'm ready to go. I'm ready to play. Alright? Because we have to get back to the work that we we have to get back to the work we've rested from. And where I find this is in Luke four fourteen through 15.
Speaker 1:I love this. Jesus has just been in the wilderness being tested by the devil. And after he doesn't succumb to the temptation, he emerges in power. This is what it says. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the spirit, and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside.
Speaker 1:He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. My friends, after you find some time to rest, and you hear what God says, it's time to get back in the game. Go play. Go have some fun. Go do the things, the good and right things God asked you to do.
Speaker 1:Would you stand with me if you can this morning, as the worship team begins to just back back me up and as we close out this service. If anyone then knows the good that they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. My friends, as I testified, I've sinned before the Lord. Even last week, I didn't do the good thing that he asked me to do. And I've since repented for that sin.
Speaker 1:And perhaps that's you today. Perhaps there's been some good or right thing God's asked you to do, and you haven't done it. It's not because you don't love him. It's not because you don't know God's word. It's because you've just grown weary in doing good.
Speaker 1:And my encouragement and exhortation to you today is to not grow weary in doing good. Don't grow weary in doing good. My friends, this is the hour, this is the time for us to be about our kingdom business. We do not know what tomorrow holds. We do not know what tomorrow holds for our neighbors and our friends and our community.
Speaker 1:So right now, today is the day of salvation. Today is the day that we've been given to do the things God has asked us to do. Heads bowed and eyes closed. Holy Spirit, we thank you for this day. Lord, I just simply ask, Lord, if there's anyone here that just feels weary from doing good, I pray, Lord, you would just meet them right there.
Speaker 1:Or meet us right there in our tiredness, in our frustration, in our stagnicity, that you would just meet us right here. That we'd have a moment to just come away with you. A moment to hear your voice so that we can have urgent power to live the lives that you have given us to live. Lord, we wanna be doers of the word, not just hearers. We want to display the kingdom of God, not just talk about the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:We want to be participants, active participants in what you're doing here on the earth. Lord, I pray you would just give us supernatural rest. And Lord, pray, Lord, you would give us the boldness and the strength and the spirit to do the things you've asked us to do. My friends, I'm reminded of that beautiful verse in Isaiah. Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.
Speaker 1:If you've grown weary today in doing good, let him renew your strength today.