Competing for the incorruptible — Luke 11-12

0:00 It'll be Luke 11. If you have your bibles. It's hard to come here and not sing. I try not to sing. It's hard.

0:15 Invite you to sing and the words are... And the music. I try not to. I'm deaf and... So I can never really carry a tune anymore.

0:24 Second of all, I need all the strength in my voice and I don't wanna waste the singing. Not that it would be wasted, but sometimes I get dry in my throat too fast. So... But I did sing. I try not to.

0:41 But he provoked me to sing. So there's, as you know, the Olympic games, interestingly not held in Olympia, where they were intended to be held. They changed countries now. I'm in the modern Olympics. 1896, perhaps the first one, modern called the modern.

1:16 And so this one is the thirty third as they've counted every four years. And the two hundred and third ancient Olympic was held in the year thirty three AD, quite a notable year for those of you who know, thirty three AD. Of course, theologians will tell you, I can't possibly be the year that Christ died. I'm okay with that. I really...

1:41 I am. I get that whole discussion. I enjoy it. In fact, I participate in it. But in the two hundred and third ancient Olympic games that were held in Olympia as a tribute to Zeus, which is what they were, There are three recorded winners, and they have winners going all the way back, by the way.

2:11 You can find it in Greek history. There was a boxing match. There was a mixed martial art match. And there was the course of race. Alright.

2:26 Those details you can find in history. It's the mixed martial arts wrestling match that's of particular interest to me, because of the number of times in the New Testament that the word wrestling is used, alright, in competition. Now, I find it extremely interesting to watch the Olympics and to think how old they really are despite all the all the mess that the human race has made out of them. But Paul is very clear in his letter to the church at Corinth. As you've been able to watch, no doubt, you've entered into some of the joy and the emotion of the winners and the pain and the agony of those who lose.

3:18 Those athletes do it for a corruptible crown, Paul says. First Corinthians chapter nine. We, and you look at the word we and you think, who's the we? It's always important to figure out who the we is. Well, he's writing to the church at Corinth, so he's speaking on behalf of all Christians.

3:44 All Christians. All Christians. In that generation, living in the city of Corinth, which is in Greece, up till now, and as long as the word of God last, all Christians, we, we compete for an incorruptible crown. And I know what you wanna say and I know how you wanna respond because the flesh always finds the natural path of least resistance and exclude yourself from that phrase. And this isn't Luke, by the way.

4:20 You know, I've already told you, it's first Corinthians nine. Has nothing to do with Luke other than the Olympics. Alright? Whether you're athletic or not, it's not the issue. You can't look in the mirror and say, well, it's not really about me.

4:36 The comparison was made that they, those athletes, they they compete for a very corruptible crown. We, every Christian, for an incorruptible. Now I don't know if you've sensed that you've been in Olympic event. I don't know if you have the sense that there is a major, well, in that particular passage, it's a race, That you're involved in a race? A marathon perhaps because of the longevity of your life, whatever it might be.

5:14 And I'm sorry if you don't. You're just non athletic people and that's okay to not be able to image yourself into that and imagine yourself as being called by God an athletic or an athlete, but you are. You're you're involved in a huge race. And here's the record that I read you from the two hundred and third, which is thirty three AD, and the winner of the race is named. I think what heaven's like.

5:54 Think about you at the podium. The bema, the judgment seat of Christ. Where the decisions are being made about your life and where you finished and how you finished. We all started the same. It's amazing.

6:26 If you haven't been that, well, then you're not really in the race shot. But if you're born again, we are born again all the same way, all different circumstances, different ages, no doubt, different languages maybe. But the reality is the same spirit of God brought us all to life and the Lord Jesus by receiving him the same way. Our testimony is varied. That's our description.

6:50 God's description is the same. My son saved him. My son saved them. Saved her. Saved him.

6:58 And that's why they're saved. That's the only reason why they're saved. We all started the same way, but we won't all finish the same. Sad to say and I'm not, I apologize. I'm the only one who ever told you that.

7:15 There are many followers of Christ who will leave the planet. Unfortunately, not probably the way they want. Not in the spiritual condition the way they want, and perhaps certainly not in the physical condition. Not in the spiritual condition. Not ready to stand before the beam of the...

7:39 At the beam, at the judgment seat of Christ and have Christ say, oh, let's review how you ran the race. Let's find out what you really ran for or how you really did. And there are other illustrations in the New Testament, but that is not my point. My point is I hope you're enjoying the Olympics. Of your life, of your life, of your participation, we we run for an incorruptible crown.

8:14 The king, Jesus Christ, is coming. I can't tell you when. I'd like to tell you when. I think if I could tell you when, you'd change your mind about a lot of things. Your life would change if I could tell you when, I think.

8:30 Especially if I could say he's coming tomorrow. And the rest of today and tonight would be different. I can't say that. I won't say that. I hope he comes tomorrow.

8:41 In fact, I hope he comes before I have to drive back to Erie. But Luke eleven. I'm a pick up where we left off. Not really where we left off. Close to where we left off.

9:01 We being us, even though I wasn't here, but listen to Brian and the brothers who went before. We'll open in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your son, gathered now in his name. Members of his body, we come, Lord, acknowledging your headship, bowing before you, knowing without you, we can do nothing. Without your spirit at work, we can understand nothing.

9:28 Without you showing us and manifesting yourself to us, we will not be humbled, we will not be bowed, but when you do, Lord Jesus, we pray that our response would be worthy of being called your children. So we open our... Your word, asking you open our hearts and our minds to what you've written for all eternity. Commit our time to us into your hands in Christ's precious name. Amen.

9:56 So I wanna actually read one verse from last week, and that will be verse 28. And I'm gonna read 28, eleven twenty eight, where Brian left off. And I'm gonna read not knowing where I'm supposed to read to. I was never given an end by this verse, which I appreciate because I can really go as far as I want or stop anywhere I want. But I wanna read up to chapter 12 and verse one.

10:29 I know a lot of verses. Just relax. You just listen if you want. Verse 28, Matt... Luke 11.

10:55 We got a world full of believers, I guess. But we don't have a world full of people who obey it. And there's a big difference. There's a huge difference. Alright?

11:13 When you go to a baptism and you watch a baptism, usually a young person, sometimes they're old. I got baptized when I was 20, going on 21. But It's an amazing phenomenon when the person comes out of the water. It's like they had holy water poured on them. But you know it's not holy.

11:36 You know it's just Lake Erie water. I was baptized in a lake in Canada. And I know you use a pool. It's alright. Oh, I had a friend that had to be baptized now.

11:52 So, had to be in a hot tub. I mean, yeah, I get that. So, people get the urge. I gotta be baptized. I wanna be obedient to Christ.

12:00 That's obedience. It's it's when they come up. When they go in, they look all normal. When they come out, there's something amazing about them. It's like when Moses came down off the mount and there's a shine to his face.

12:13 You look at him and you look how joyful they are. I don't know if they're just happy they didn't drown. You know, the Egyptians were baptized in the Red Sea by drowning. Alright? First Corinthians 10 says, they were all baptized in the sea.

12:28 So I'm saying to you that when you look at this person and you have to stop and ask yourself, why do they look so angelic? Five minutes ago they looked normal. Now they look angelic. They look joyful. They look happy.

12:47 They look blessed. Well, know why. Obedience is the best place that you can be. The place of obedience is the most joyful place on the planet. The place where you're obeying.

13:07 The particulars in your life that God is asking from you to be obedient to. Not just to believe in, I believe in baptism. How many have not been baptized? And it's the same thing no matter where you go. Why can a 100 people go to the Lord's Supper?

13:26 And they're there. And they took the elements. And they sang songs. 75 come out glowing. 25 come out, what?

13:40 They were in attendance. They didn't participate with the lord. They participated with each other. We don't have any power to make other people's face shine like they can enjoy something. No.

13:55 No. It's the Lord. And how many people attend and therefore feel like they are obedience to the Lord, but because their heart's not engaged, they're not blessed by the Lord at that point of obedience. Obedience. You think breaking of bread is easy to do every week?

14:12 Well, for those who love it and enjoy it, they do so because they've obeyed it for so many years that it becomes that which they cannot not do. But why is the numbers increasingly dwindling? Because more and more people find a reason not to. And the more they find a reason not to, then they have to find that joy, that place of obedience somewhere else. I don't I don't I don't know where.

14:43 That's just a phenomenon. That's a spiritual phenomenon. There, the place of obedience is the place of the richest and most joy with Christ because he's asking to do something. It's easy to say I believe. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.

15:16 Not tell me. Tell yourself. Admit to yourself. There's at least one area in your life right now you know categorically, you do not obey Jesus Christ inconsistently. And get all those words, that's qualifiers.

15:35 That you know you just don't obey consistently. You obey some, a little, often, Not consistently. You don't even obey. Some people don't even try to obey. That that request, Lord Jesus, is really beyond me at this point in my life.

15:53 I'm not going to be obedient to that. I can't. I can't find a way to obey that. Okay? As long as you can admit that to yourself.

16:02 Me, you asked me what one thing would be, I'm gonna just get out a list and make a number of things. Because I know myself. I know there's things that I just wrestle with him about it, just refuse to surrender and give in. Yeah. Obedience, don't pretend it's easy.

16:19 You can make up a song and sing it as the best thing. It's not easy. Once you use the word obey, it's not easy. That means somebody's in charge and you have to comply. Those words are hard words.

16:35 We don't like those words in America. We don't like them at all. We don't like those words among screen. We like invite. We invite you.

16:50 Blessed are those who hear and obey. If you have areas in your life right now that you know you're not obedient to, man, you gotta talk to the lord about it. Now, these people are talking to the lord about obedience. I want you to realize that. I want you to realize they're talking to the Lord.

17:09 He's making it very clear to them about something he wants them to obey. Right? And they have already said to him, you go back to verse 16 of the same chapter, they've already said, we want a sign. And that's how obedience is sometimes. All...

17:31 Not all the time, but a lot of times obedience is a negotiation. You want us to do that, we got our hand out, we want something in return. Well, here's the promise, you'll be blessed. No, no, we just don't want a blessing. We usually want something specific in return.

17:49 And so our spirit negotiates with the spirit of God. You want me to surrender there, you can give that. What am I getting in return? Alright. Well, what's to take its place?

17:59 What am I... And and and that negotiation breaks down usually then to things like this. We we wanna sign. We wanna sign. And hence it did.

18:12 Now, '29, we start our... My particular section. As the crowds increased, Jesus said, this is a wicked generation. It asked for a sign, but there were no sign be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites, so also the son of man to this generation.

18:33 The queen of the South will rise in judgment with the people of this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom and now something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And now someone, something greater than Jonah is here. These are hard words. As Gentiles, we might not enter into it, but you're talking about two very historical accounts of Gentiles having something from God that Jews didn't believe they should get.

19:12 Alright? The nation of Israel didn't believe number one that Nineveh should survive. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. It was built by Nimrod. He's the son of Kush.

19:24 Alright? And so, here's an empire of Assyrians that are torturing the North Of Israel. And here goes Jonah and tells them to repent, and you got all of Israel rooting that they don't repent. That god wipes them off the face of the earth. Jonah himself.

19:42 You know, Jonah got upset when they repented. Why? Because he was a good Jewish man and he didn't want Nineveh to survive. It was Sodom and Gomorrah, man. Call down the fire.

19:54 Get rid of them and our life would be easy if you get these Ninevites, these Assyrians, it was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. If you get them out of here. No. They repented. Jonah wanted to not go there so bad.

20:08 What did he do? Try to commit suicide. You got suicidal? Because you're so insistent that they they might repent. I don't want that.

20:21 I want the Ninevites dead. Your personal desire to see them removed and so, the storm and all the boat and you're going in the wrong direction, the whole account of Jonah. Because God was gonna use the Gentiles. And nation of Israel knew that. This is a hard message for Jews to hear at that time.

21:12 And so he gave them his resurrection. Here's the sign. You want a sign? Here's one sign. And it's the second time he told them that.

21:19 First was in the temple way back in John two. Right? When he cleared the temple and they said, what authority? Show us the sign that you have the authority to clear this temple. He said, destroy this temple.

21:31 In three days, I'll raise it up. Well, they thought that. You're talking about a building? You're gonna destroy a building? That bothered them.

21:39 They even brought that up to Pilate. Pilate said, what's he done? He said he was gonna destroy the temple. No. This is one sign.

21:49 I'm gonna walk out of that grave. I'm gonna walk out of that grave. You're gonna put me in and I'm gonna walk out. You're gonna have me put on a cross. You're gonna and you're gonna try to and I'm gonna but I'm gonna walk out.

22:03 That's the sign. That's the sign. There's no other sign. Right? It's very, very powerful comments from Christ here and then he...

22:14 What? The queen of Sheba? Yemen? She's the queen of Yemen. That's where Yemen is now, Sheba.

22:22 Right? She come up to Jerusalem to see all of Solomon's glory. Yeah. It's a fantastic story. But she's a Gentile also.

22:32 She don't belong now. One great thing about Solomon, when he dedicated the temple and and that story is by the way in first Kings 10, but when he prayed at the dedication of the temple, in the eighth chapter, starting at verse 41, I believe. He said, and almighty god, if there's any foreigner who hears how great you are and comes to Jerusalem to see your magnificence, Hear their prayer. He prayed for Gentiles to be accepted in Jerusalem when he's praying. And and this is the Lord Jesus Christ.

23:17 He's telling this nation of Israel, these ones who are looking for ways to hate them. They just want to do them in. Listen, you've got two huge Gentile factors that are gonna accuse you on the day of judgement. One of the Ninevites and one of the Yemenites. One of those from the the queen of the South.

23:39 And those are very, very powerful issues. But where does it boil down to? You obey or you reject? You obey or you reject? In your rejection, you grow worse.

23:54 You get worse. You get hateful. You get anti Christ. You get against Christ. You get against Christ's purposes.

24:03 Right? And so this is the atmosphere in which this conversation has taken place. Not an easy conversation, but I'm happy to do it. I mean, if you ask me to come here and speak, I wouldn't have picked this chapter. But since you picked it for me.

24:18 Alright? And you gotta get it all. You just can't get one glimpse. Alright? So we'll leave that for a second.

24:25 Just keeping in mind that the whole world, first king 10 says, came to seek out the wisdom that God gave Solomon. And Jesus said, and a greater than Solomon is standing in front of you. You should be listening to every word I say for the sake of obeying it, not just believing it, not just believing. No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden or under a bowl. Instead, verse 33 says, you put it on a stand so that those who come in may see the light.

25:06 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body is full of light. When your when your eyes are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it then that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light and no part of it is dark, it will be just as full of light as when the lamp shines its light on you.

25:30 Easy illustration. We've heard it before. He's mentioned this illustration several times. You light a light, you put it up high. See these lights?

25:42 Where are they at in the room? The highest point they can be. And now, you got any lights on the floor? No. No.

25:56 Because your feet don't look. Your feet don't see. Your feet do what the eyes tell it to do. And the eyes see things and registers to the brain and the brain tell, yeah, because the eyes. But when the eyes fail, minor failing, when they fail, you're in trouble.

26:14 So how much more soul to soul? The eyes, the the the word of God being light for your soul. Help your whole being to see. So you can make good decisions in life. Decisions made outside the word of God are deadly.

26:43 A Pharisee invited him to eat with him. So, they he went in and reclined at the table. Wow. It seemed like a warm, friendly atmosphere. Invitation.

26:55 We want you to eat with us. We want you to come to our home. We want you to spend that rest of the day with us. Yeah. That's great.

27:05 The Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal. Paying attention to that. Why would you pay attention to that about Jesus? Well, let's just assume that that's because that's what's important to them. Usually, what's important to you, you try to find some solution in in Christ.

27:30 The Lord said to him, now, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you're full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people, did not the one who make the outside make the inside also? But now, as for that which is inside you, you should be generous to the poor and everything else will be clean. A woe unto you Pharisees because you give god a tenth of your mint, your rue, and all your other kinds of garden herbs. But you neglect justice and the love of God, which you should have practiced, the latter, without leaving the former undone.

28:10 Woe to you, Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogue and respectful greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you because you are all like unmarked graves, which people walk on and walk over without knowing it. And then one of the experts in the law answered him and said, teacher, when you say these things, it's insulting us. Gotta love it. You gotta love when people put their hand up and say, oh, that hurts.

28:38 That's very insulting. Jesus replied, you are experts in the law. Woe to you because you load down people with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. You build the tombs for the prophets, not actually build them. You beautify the tombs for the prophets.

28:57 And it was your ancestors who killed them, so you testify that you approve what your ancestor did. They killed the prophets and you beautify their tombs. Because of this, God in his wisdom said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute. Therefore, this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that have been shed since the beginning of the world, from blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it.

29:30 Woe to you experts in the law because you've taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who are in it. And when Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say. Meanwhile, verse one of chapter 12, crowd of many thousands had gathered so that they were trampling on one another. Jesus began to speak first to his disciples saying, be on your guard against the yeast of the pharisees which is hypocrisy.

30:16 Hypocrisy. That's really this whole passage about hypocrisy. I don't feel insulted by it, like the lawyers felt insulted. Just allow this, the issue to be real to you as an individual. Alright?

30:35 We're talking originally about people who say, I believe but don't obey. Well, that's where hypocrisy starts. That you can boast about the things you believe that you've never done anything about. You've never obeyed. Right?

30:58 You you don't have a way to manifest what you believe only through your words because you can't find a way to obey certain things. Right? Hypocrisy is the issue of this of this chapter, this portion. And hypocrisy begins with what? How it started with the Pharisee.

31:21 Outside, we want you to wash your hands. We don't really care what's inside. It's outside. And unfortunately, the church has got a huge terrible reputation for being occupied with the outside. The things outside of us, our physical world.

31:43 Alright? And not the inner person. And it's hard to detect. It's nearly impossible. You keep in mind what John wrote in his third epistle.

31:55 Second verse, third epistle. He says, I'm praying that you're physically healthy, that your body is doing well, like your soul is doing well. And he draws a comparison between a condition of a person's body and a condition of their soul. Yeah. And that's invisible by the way.

32:16 You can't see it. You can't see a person's soul. You can see how they're managing in their body because the soul would be in it, but you can't see the soul. It's invisible because it's eternal. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and said, everything you've ever seen is temporary.

32:36 The things that are eternal are invisible. They're invisible. Your soul's invisible at this point. We can see it manifested in the activity of your body. We can see what your soul is going through sometimes.

32:51 Now, you can mask that. You can cover that up. You can occupy it. You can ingest things. You can do anything you can to cover up the pain that's in your soul, but the soul is the matter, not the visible.

33:06 The visible is temporary. If by reason of strength, four score. If by reason of strength, four score. 80. Three score and 10 has been given to man.

33:17 If by reason of strength, four score. That's the body, but the soul is eternal. And you all have one. And it's eternal. It didn't become eternal when you believed.

33:28 It became eternal when God put your soul in the body that your mom and dad made. Your mom and dad made a body. God breathe the soul into it. Alright? And he made it capable of receiving a spirit.

33:42 His spirit. So, you could be born twice, born a second way. You've been born physically or else you wouldn't be in this room. Now, he wants you to be born spiritually because he wants your soul to be healthy. It's not healthy because we sing.

33:57 It's well with my soul. We sing as well with my soul because our souls are filled with the wonder of the bread of life. That he alone can nourish us. Christ himself, man shall not live by bread alone, but by the words that proceed out of the mouth of God. Exercise yourself to godliness.

34:49 Because since you came to Christ, the nourishment of your soul has been largely your responsibility to maintain, to be aware of, to know when you're starving, to know when you're crying out to him, to go into his presence. Now, if you're saved, then you can say, yes, I'm saved eternally. I'm talking about your soul now. I'm not talking about your soul then. Now, what's condition of your soul?

35:17 Now, what are you nourished by? Now, what satisfies you? Now, do you genuinely sing all that thrills my soul is Jesus? You see, many Christians don't. And you wonder why Christians so get caught up.

35:33 Suddenly, they're gone in the world. They're off doing things. They're following that lie, that lie, that cult, that group, that whatever. Because their souls never really been growing in the grace of God and the knowledge of his son, in that relationship where he and he alone is consumed because he's digestible, because he is the bread of life, and he alone is the bread of life. And he alone is intended to satisfy your soul, and there is no substitute in that diet.

36:04 There is no list of things that you can substitute when your recipe calls for Christ. There's no list of substitute. You can make a list. Well, if I go join the youth, if I go to camp, if I go there, I will be... No.

36:17 Sorry. Your soul will eventually will eventually. Feel like it's Christless when it's not. It's just you've ignored him. You haven't spent time with him.

36:35 You see? The concentration on the physical rather than the spiritual is one of the first marks of hypocrisy. Because we can convince people that we're We got all this body language ability. And we can convince people that we're healthy and our soul's not. And our soul should be, especially those who know Christ.

37:04 You should be constantly well on your soul because you feed on him. And you're not occupied with the things of the flesh thinking, well, I do that and suddenly you're engaged in some fleshly activity that only only will ever produce something for the body and not for the soul? And that's your occupation? And you wonder why you're in a condition that you're in? No.

37:28 Beloved, please don't be so neglecting to your soul. Don't neglect your soul. Alright? Don't get caught up in the looks. And and I gotta be honest, I've been in a I've been a Christian since '72.

37:47 That's fifty two years. I've been in a meeting since maybe '51. And I wasn't born in it, but I I... Listen, there are so many things like in this passage. When Christ told us, listen, why are you worried about outside the cup?

38:02 That's a tradition. That wasn't even a law. That was tradition. You've taken the word of God and you replace it with tradition. And I ask my soul when I know that my soul is weary and I know that my soul is weak and it's not as healthy as it was once, I look at it and I realize I'm caught up with traditions.

38:19 I think that my life lies in traditions, keeping traditions, keeping man made, man made issues rather than the very person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone nourishes my soul. That's hypocrisy. And I guess what? I can't let anybody know that.

38:39 I can't let anybody know that. Suddenly my soul feels atrophied. It feels weak. It feels empty. Out of breath.

38:45 I'm out of breath spiritually. I had the wind knocked out of me. You can't let people know that. They wanna huddle around you and make you a casserole and bring it to you and talk to and then and hug you and all. And that's all good stuff and that's not wrong but it doesn't touch the soul.

39:01 Doesn't touch the soul. Only Jesus Christ can do that. That was a nice to have a warm, friendly atmosphere in which people love each other and have that family hug and all that. Yeah. That's great.

39:13 That's great. But it's not the soul. And don't be confused that if you have one, you have the other. Jesus Christ alone is for your soul. He said, I am the bread of life unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, and he didn't mean communion, you have no life in you.

39:38 You can still be alive, but no life in you because you don't partake of him. Alright? That's hypocrisy. And unfortunately, any given day, most of us are in some way, form or shape, hypocritical to that point. Alright?

40:16 Not just, well, you know, do you have the black book? Or we got a new we got a new book. That's why I had to videotape the singing. I could show people an earring. They ain't using notebook.

40:35 There's kids up front. I'm sorry for young people. There's there's two things I really, really love. The young people leading the music and the young people handing out the emblems. It's not the oldest, wisest, most senior member of the local assembly.

40:55 You got the young kids doing it. Yeah. See? Don't minor on the minors. They're important.

41:08 But we have a major, don't we? We have a major presentation every week. We start the week with showing the Lord's death. That is a major presentation to proclaim the Lord's death. And we drift into minors in between meetings.

41:24 That that that's hypocrisy. Sorry. Hypocrisy. Beautifying the sepulchers of the prophets that your fathers killed? I mean, it's just absolute hypocrisy.

41:39 You not only shut the door so people can't go in, you hide the key so they can't open it. Hypocrisy is you don't want any other Christian to be doing good, better than you because they will make you look bad. Are you hoping every Christian just gets to your level? So you can say leader. Men love that.

42:03 Men love being the leaders. So we like to keep everybody below us. That's hypocrisy. That's pure and simply hypocrisy. This was the issue that Christ brought to their attention.

42:38 Beware of it. Alright? It sneaks in. We're great pretenders. Anyway, like I said, I would have never chosen that passage.

42:55 I'm sure I didn't do it justice. But it is in passage that you're reading. So I'm happy to have done it. And trust, I didn't confuse you. I didn't lead you astray.

43:12 Jesus Christ is the bread of life. Partake of him. Sing with gusto. It's well with my soul. It's closing prayer.

43:22 Father, we thank you for your son. We thank you for an opportunity to be gathered to hear what you've written down about him and pray that what we have heard from your word separate, Lord, by your spirit, the words of men. From your word and breathe into us life, Lord, that only you only you can be credited for. Only you can get the glory for. Commit ourselves to you in Christ's name.

43:48 Amen.