​Each year, we pray and seek the Lord for His guidance, insights, and direction for the upcoming year. This teaching is an overview of some of the prophetic insights God is highlighting to the AeroNova spiritual family for the year 2024 and beyond.

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Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):




​All right, how's everybody doing this morning? Isn't it a beautiful day, man, God is good. Well, we are continuing on this is actually for me, it's the third installment. And then we're gonna get these published this month, we just uploaded them. And this forum for my portion of talking about spiritual insights for 2024. This is my third installment, but I say mine, because we've got other people sharing. And I want to get that on recording. So that that goes out. And people can listen to them again, and other people who aren't here, because there are many pieces of the puzzle God is putting together to prepare us for 2024. And to prepare us for the coming years that follow 2024. And so I want to be prepared. And I've used this illustration, there are certain things that are like a priority list. It used to be on a and God was saying this to us, and we were sharing it, and then it moved to number five, and then it moved to number four, and then it moved. And so now there are certain things that are at the top of the list. While there are other things we're sharing, that might be number six, that next year, we'll be moving up to number four, or number three on God's priority list. Now do we know exactly the mind of the Lord Of course not. But we seek the Lord, to hear what he is guiding us to do and focus on as a spiritual family, and a family of families and to the people, we minister to families of churches in the body of Christ. And this spiritual family is unique in that most of our ministry is outside of our spiritual family of families, it's a great deal of it is to other bodies, other pastors, other leaders, other people in various places in the world. And so we have a sacred trust, because of the people God's called us to. We have a sacred trust, to be prepared, and, and in clarity and in fullness to be ready to serve them, and to help bring them into what we see God doing and on God's agenda. And they do the same for us. We don't we're not the only ones we hear God together. And this is a kingdom enterprise, not an organizational enterprise. This is way bigger than us as a spiritual family. Somebody say amen to that. Yeah. So we're today I want to share one of the seven elements that I sensed is a focus area for this year and in the following years is Joel to Joel to repentance, and Joel to blessings. And I said it this way, Joel to repentance, brings Joel two blessings. Today, we're only going to just this is going to be kind of introductory part of Joel too, because it's there's no way I can get it all in today. So we'll continue that, of course, we're going on this on this mission this week. And we'll be doing some things with the churches and Micronesia churches and others. But I will continue this when I get back. In the meantime, we've got good teachers and leaders and pastors who will be sharing while I'm gone along the same lines of what God is saying in 2024. And those are very important. So in chapter two, Joel prophesies of a locust army that came against Judah, as a part of God's judgment, the day of the Lord it he talks about the day of the Lord, in Scripture in the Scriptures. And generally when you see the day of the Lord, this term, the day of the Lord described in Scripture, it's talking about a day of judgment, a day of reckoning, and a day of turning toward God. And ultimately, how many of you know the day of the Lord ultimately, is, is when the Lord returns? It's a day of great reckoning, because when the Lord returns, He will bring a reckoning in the nations of the earth of those who have lived in lawlessness, who have lived without abiding by the law, first the law of God. But how many of you know when people don't abide by the law of God? What do they start to do? They start to not abide by the laws of man or they seek to change the laws and legalize immorality. And so whenever the law returns the great day of the Lord is the day that God returns. And there's a day of great reckoning. But you'll see throughout the judgments that are prophesied in Scripture, that the day of the Lord will also be times of judgment that God brings a day of reckoning that God brings to certain nations and certain times does that make sense? So most of the time, when we see scripture, prophesied starts things prophesied in Scripture. Normally, there is a culminating event at the end of time, or not the end of time, the end of the age, that that's, that's ultimately fulfilled in that prophecy. But also, there are harmonics, I call them harmonics of times whence the parallels of those things happen. And this was the call of the day of the Lord in the history of Judah, when the Lord brought judgment, because Judah had turned their hearts away from God. So, these times occur throughout history. And they culminate at the end of the age. So this concept the day of the Lord is talked about in Joel too. So how does this relate to us? I believe there are times in life when we do Joel to we do the repentance of Joel to now we like to teach to have a lifestyle of repentance. In other words, we're always seeking the Lord going, Lord, every day, I want to have a repentant heart and say, Lord, what is what is not pleasing to you in this and how can I turn toward you? But Joel, two seasons are when we are focused as a spiritual body of people and say, Lord, I really want to do a special examination. Now, I said this last week, either in per counselor here or both. But when I went back and check the recording, I did not say it on the recording. So I want to say it now. It's very easy to to be living a lifestyle where we were repenting, we're seeking the Lord and, and so whenever God says, Well, I want you to engage in time of Joel to clean house. And we talked about cleaning your house and sit in your house into order. And you're like, Well, Lord, we clean house every week. How many of you clean house every week? Don't raise your hand, if you don't know. See where I got you there. So if you clean house every week, though, generally your house was clean, right? And then we go, Well, God, my house is clean. We don't need Joel to and then God walks in, walks over to the kitchen and pulls the refrigerator out. You ever had God pull the refrigerator out on you? And you're like, oh, yeah, I don't know how it it's your house. But that's one of my wife's nightmares is for you to go over and pull the refrigerator out. And you know what, it wouldn't be embarrassing for her. If it wasn't true for everybody else. Nobody wants you to pull their refrigerator out. So it's not embarrassing, because we're all in the same boat. And there are times when God says, hey, I want to come over here and pull the refrigerator out. And when he does, our house may be clean. And then he shows us we're like, oh, Lord, I've got some house cleaning to do here. And so God begins to do, of course, you know, I'm speaking metaphorically of our lives spiritually, in our hearts spiritually. So as a body of people, we are people who do deep cleaning, God calls us to times of deep cleaning in our household and our spiritual household. I believe there are times in life when we do Joel to and one of those times is when I see God bringing discipline or judgment in his church, even if we believe we're walking in full obedience. I don't think it's a healthy attitude for us to say to ourselves, Oh, I'm glad we didn't do those sins and suffer the judgment we're seeing in them. Now, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands. How many of you have done that? But I'll bet you every person in this room has done it. I'll bet you they have boy, it's quiet in here. I believe it's much healthier, to search our hearts to weep for the body of Christ and the injuries and the insults that people have brought to the name of Jesus, and to see if there's any needed repentance in any area of our lives. So even when I know when I know of no sin in my life, if I'm not perfect, and I'm pretty sure none of us are perfect here. I'm guaranteed that there will be needed areas of repentance. Did you just catch that? I can guarantee you if you search hard enough and you ask the Lord to search your heart, I guarantee you there's needed areas repentance now I realize this is a not tickle your ears motivational speech, like we like to hear in church these days.


But I'll tell you, What, did you ever let me say it this way? Did you ever grow up with a family? Not in your family, but families you knew, and they just weren't clean? I can tell you some stories, but I cannot tell you. Yeah, I can tell you some stories. But I cannot tell you on microphone. I'll tell them to you afterwards. But you'll you'll cringe. I can tell you some stories of families that did not they weren't clean. They didn't re they didn't teach their kids to be clean. And what happens to kids that are raised in they're not taught to be clean. Most of them will now some of them will go oh my gosh, oh, we're gonna be clean. And they'll respond the opposite way. But most of them will not live clean. So the reason why I'm saying this is, it may not be the highly motivational speech you want to hear this morning. But I promise you that down the road, maybe it'll be all the way to heaven. You'll thank me. You'll go rod, you know, or someone else in our body who said this, you'll be like, praise God. Thank You, Lord, that you did that. Because because of that our lives were blessed, and they were clean, and God did wonderful things. And there's great joy in that in that cleanliness. I know it's not a scripture. Some people think it is says cleanliness is next to godliness. But it is true. Especially when you're talking about spiritual things, isn't it? Because spiritually, cleanliness is godliness. It is God's likeness. We're not going to get to heaven, the place is gonna be dirty. It's just not gonna happen. I hear it spick and span.


I mentioned this too, but it wasn't on recording, I want to say it for those that didn't hear it. Last year, my mom moved into a new house. And my mom's lived there since I was I mean, they lived there for 40 some years. And so what and so they had furniture on the indoor back porch. And they're always cleaning, you know, the cleaning house periodically and all these things. But all of a sudden, she said when they started pulling some of that furniture out that hadn't been pulled out in years, there was black mold back there. Now you guys know you get black mold in your house, people can get sick, a lot of problems can happen from it. There are times when our house might be clean. But there is something to the spiritual equivalent of black mold, we don't know about it. And it's infecting our lungs, it's infecting our spiritual lungs, and we're not even aware of it. So whenever God sends us people to speak into our lives, and they may have a challenging word like this, don't be offended at all. God's trying to keep you healthy. He's trying to keep us strong. He's seeking to keep us well as a spiritual family. And by the way, if you are well as a family and as a spiritual family, and we minister you guys know, we ministered to many spiritual families. God expects us he has very high standards for us, so that we don't contaminate the rest of the body of Christ. Are you tracking with me? Listen, you know, have you ever noticed how easy it is to transfer sin, or bad habits? Or, you know, you, you fill in the blank, there's all these things, it's easy to transfer. Because it's just in our nature, who we are we reproduce after like kind. That's what the scripture says. And so whenever we are ministering to other bodies, other leaders, other people in the body of Christ, it is essential for us to have done business with God. And so here we are in this job to season as a spiritual family. And I believe there are other spiritual families in this season. And I've talked about some of the reasons for this. But it's very important for us to take it seriously. And I just encourage you to do that. Now. One of the things that that comes to my mind is the the words of Jesus in Luke 18. And I've mentioned this to a few. But I'd like you to turn there with me. I want to look at Luke 18 for a moment. Because I think Jesus gives us a caution. Now one of the reasons why we've entered into this time of have Joel too, is because of some of the discipline. Some of the troubles may be some of the judgment that God currently is operating and dealing with some people in the church and spiritual families in the church. And whenever this happens, I mentioned this last week. And I use this illustration, I'll say it again, for those that weren't here or didn't hear it on the on the teaching library. But when I was a kid, one of the things that we were taught by my parents was, hey, if one of your siblings is in trouble, you need to immediately start checking yourself and make sure things are squared away. And I want to do that I also want to pray for our brothers and sisters, who are going through trials right now, because of sin because of troubles in their leaders a different things. However, I think it's very important for us that we enter into hearts of intercession. And we intercede for those that are going through these things, suffering from the sins of leaders, as well as leaders who are suffering because of their sins. But we need to be careful not to be like the Pharisees in Luke chapter 18, that Jesus described this Pharisee he describes. So I want to read verses nine through 14. So he Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray. one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector, the Pharisee, stood and prayed Thecus with himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortion errs, unjust, adulterers, or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. You see what's happening here. He's talking about how much he prays. He's talking about how much he's done for God. He says in the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raised his eyes to heaven. But he beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself, will be exalted. Now, it's not so much the exact actions of a person whose heart is like the Pharisee, or the exact actions of a part, whose heart of a man whose heart is like the man, that was the tax collector. But what matters is what is in the heart. And the actions that come from that are the automatic result. So you see, it's very important for us to have a heart like this tax collector. Now, I've heard people use this almost to the point where it's like, Well, God approves you more if you're a senator than if you're a religious leader. That is not what Jesus said.


He's talking about heart condition. He's talking about people who are broken over their sin, and they come to God, to be forgiven, and to be cleansed and to turn from it. This was an actual repentance, this man wasn't leaving, so he could just continue cheating people. He was asking God's forgiveness, so that he could turn and no longer be that man anymore. Whereas the Pharisee his problem was his External Works and talk about how much he prayed and how much he did this and how much of that it lacked a heart of repentance and turning toward the Lord. So it's interesting, the scripture here Luke tells us that Jesus spoke this to some words, some who trusted in their own righteousness, and they despised other people. Now I'm going to clarify some, this despising was not a hatred of sin. This was not a hatred of evil, as described in God's heart, or as described in Jesus in Hebrews one, this is not this. This was not a despising of evil going, Man, I don't like evil. I don't like sin. It is the heart attitude of pride in one's own righteousness instead of gratefulness for the righteousness of God. He was comparing himself to that man, you see the difference? He was saying, Lord, I thank you that I haven't been like this guy. Well, man, if you start off as comparing yourself to others, well, you know what Paul said? He goes, those those who compare themselves among themselves are not wise, because there is only one standard and his name is Jesus. And so know, you guys that were spent years in the military, you know, if you got corrected by somebody of superior rank, you didn't go, Well, hey, I'm doing a better job and this guy over here No, if you didn't meet the standard didn't meet the standard, right. And so this man was heartbreaking this this tax collector was heartbroken, because he had failed God, because he had been, he had failed in many tax collectors were known because of their theft, because they stole they would tax people. And that's why they were not liked by society, because they would tax people real heavily with Roman taxes, but then they skim a certain percentage off the top for themselves. Man, that's not cool, right? And that's why Jesus uses the tax collector as the example. But notice, this Pharisees prayer was more about comparing himself to someone else than it was a true prayer, have great of gratefulness, or repentance or intercession, or even justice. So, what the reason why I bring this up, is because it'd be different if the Pharisee was just like, Lord, thank you, because I used to be like this, and you delivered me. His prayer was more about I'm better than this guy, not Lord, you truly have delivered me or or saved me or I was on the same road and I would have been there God is only by Your mercy. So the difference is, he's comparing himself where the other guy is not. And so what happened was, he started exalting himself in his own mind. Why am I bringing this up? Because when we enter into prayer, when God brings discipline or judgment in different places in his body, when this happens, we want to respond to the Lord and say, God, we want to check ourselves, we want to pray for them. We want to pray for ourselves. We want the whole body of Christ to be healthy, and pure. We want God's people to be strong and robust in the Lord and healthy. But in order to do that, we have to identify the sin that will invade lives and become perversion if it's not dealt with. Because listen, any sin, if it matures, what happens? The Bible tells us, I think, James, it eventually matures to a worse and worse and worse and until it produces what you Bible scholars out there, what's the end, what is the End production of sin was death, ultimately, death, ultimately, physical and spiritual death. And so we want to be people who are who are entering into repentance. But when we do it, we want to be careful not to be like the Pharisee of Luke chapter 18. So I say this to say there's nothing wrong with genuine thankfulness for the righteousness of God in your life. There's nothing wrong with that. There's a difference between what the Pharisee prayed and just be thanking God going, man, Lord, thank you, you brought this into my life. But it doesn't mean that I don't have dirt between behind my refrigerator. Or it doesn't mean like the kitchen of my life doesn't need to be cleaned. It doesn't mean that the basement needs a new look, because I got a lot of, I got some mess down there needs to be dealt with, right? And I'm pretty sure no one here has a perfectly clean house spiritually, right. I know some of you have perfectly clean houses physically. Well, I didn't even get an amen. So it must not. At its core, Jesus teaching is about hard attitude. It's about genuine repentance. It's about true, divine righteousness. Now, I'm not going to teach on this this morning. But I do want to say something for a moment about righteousness. Have you ever heard anybody go? Well, they'll say there's no righteousness in them, and they'll quote, I think it was Jeremiah, Isaiah, who said the Prophet who said, our righteousness is as filthy rags. There's nothing good in me. Okay. What about the scripture that says He became sin, who knew no sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God? That theology they're saying is problematic when you talk to Paul? Because Paul says that we are becoming the righteousness of God. Here's the difference. The righteousness of filthy rags is my righteousness. The righteousness that's beautiful in my life did not come from Me It came from God. And so God plants righteousness in our lives like seeds. And if we cultivate those seeds that righteousness will grow. And I'll tell you I'd, I mean, some of you You guys and people I know righteousness grows in their lives like beautiful full gardens. It's the righteousness of God and not their righteousness. And I don't want to call the righteousness of God filthy rags. So it's a it is a key discernment to see the difference between self righteousness and the righteousness of God in our lives. Because if you don't, the enemy will have a heyday with you, he will accuse you. And then when God does something beautiful in your life, and he brings righteousness into your life, the enemy will come along and accuse you, oh, your righteousness is as filthy rags and you end up calling God's righteousness filthy rags. And then it's a problem, because then we live under condemnation, and we don't have confidence in the Lord's righteousness in our lives. You guys tracking with me right? Now, it's important that that righteousness does not create pride or arrogance, because it did not come from us. So there's a humility that comes from knowing that we are not the authors of this righteousness in our lives. He is the author, but give glory to God for it. That is not what the Pharisee was doing. The Pharisee was in the business of comparing himself. I hope we've driven that point home. Now, something else I want to talk about for a moment, this is something I probably wouldn't have even taught on 2030 years ago. But we'll talk for a moment about role reversals in this parable. In our current day, listen close. Many despise righteousness and thy love wickedness, you tracking. There are many people who despise righteousness in our day. In fact, they even call it wickedness, they switch it. And therefore they glorify sin and the sinner. And they suggest that Jesus does the same thing and passages like this, you watch close. They despise Christians, as if they're all hypocrites. And they love sinners or sin, as if they're all superior in their righteousness. Because they are so open and authentic about their love of certain kinds of sin. See what happens. These are people who call good evil and evil good. Now it's happening big time in our day. This didn't happen 20 years ago, 30 years ago, in our day and time, I mean, it happened, but nothing like it is now. Now these days. They're glorifying certain kinds of sin. And they're calling it good. And if you don't agree with that, they're denigrating you as immoral and despicable. I've heard that word actually used multiple times despicable, because you hold biblical values of what God says about morality. So in this context, guys, there's a role reversal. Many who loves sin, have become the modern day Pharisee.


Many who love sin and switch the roles switch reverse, they switched righteousness and wickedness. They have become the modern day Pharisee you see it all over social media? Boy, they're quick to come on and condemn people. And they'll come on and man if you said this the wrong way. Or if you just if you had any kind of statement that you didn't, you know, that doesn't exalt the sin, and the identities that they equate to sin. They're like the Pharisees, man, they're better than you and they're putting it on social media. So listen, close, watched close, because the enemy is very sly, and how he does this, and there's a role reversal. And they don't realize they're being like the Pharisee. They think that they're being they're like the tax collector, because they've glorified sin, so they'll call it evil, good and good, evil and exalt themselves in their sin, their pride. In so doing, they despise those who seek true, godly righteousness. And they consider themselves to be superior in morality, but it is a morality they have created in their own minds and in their own sinfulness and in their own love of evil. But it's a false morality that is a deadly evil. This is dangerous. If we do not repent, if they do not repent, it will kill them, because they're glorifying sin. Now, this this is just a side note, I wanted to say and the reason why I wanted to say it is it's real easy in today's society, to misinterpret Luke 18, or misapply, I should say misapply Luke chapter 18, and somehow denigrate those who are Christians as being like the Pharisee. Now, yes, there are Christians like Pharisees, but there are many who are heartbroken who are repent eatin in God's house much like the tax collector was in this parable, God, let me say this to God does not want us to become so merciful, that we do not discern good and evil that is not mercy and identify good and evil. This is not mercy. Hebrews 514 says, solid food belongs to those who are full age, that is those who by reason of use taught out of the Word of God, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Now, it is not if you have so much mercy, quote, mercy, because it's not really mercy. If you have so much mercy, quote, mercy, that everything is mercy, and there's no discernment of good and evil, and there's no discussion of what is good and what is evil. That is not mercy. In other words, if you went to the doctor, and the doctor realized you have cancer, but the doctor didn't want to tell you you have cancer because he didn't want to offend you or make you feel bad. How would you feel about that, doctor? Oh, man. Just imagine a doctor who goes oh, I don't want to make them feel bad. I don't want to give them any bad news about something bad going on inside their body. So I'm not going to say anything. Would you consider that Doc, Doctor merciful. But that's what's happening today. People won't call out sin won't count, call out cancerous things that will destroy the spiritual body, if you will, will destroy the soul. Because they're afraid they might offend somebody. So they're, quote, merciful that is not mercy. God calls us to identify good and evil. Listen, if the church is not like who will be light, what is light mean? Light means you shine the light, and it clarifies what is good and evil. It clarifies what is true, it clarifies what is happening and what is not happening. And we are living right now you ever been to the carnival, and they have a house of mirrors, and you go in and there's mirrors everywhere, and you can't tell what's real, and what's a mirror. That's what society is today. There's all these people who were in a house of mirrors, and the enemy is saying things that aren't true and people are confused. And so it's up to God's people to be salt in light and to speak truth in love, so that people understand what's going on. thought for sure we get an amen out of that one.


The Scripture says in verse, Hebrews, chapter four, verse 12, the word of God is living and powerful. It's sharper than a two edged sword. And it pierces even to the division of soul and spirit and the joints and marrow. And it's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart, who the Word of God will not only discern between good and evil, like the other passage we just read, but it will also bring discernment between which that which is soulcal, and that which is spiritual, between that which is natural, and between that which is spiritual between that which is which is ungodly, and that which is godly. But without the word of God, society gets lost in their own moral relativism. They get lost in their own ethos, they create their own morality and immorality. Without it now, why am I saying this? Because you're like, right away. You know what, we're in this, we're in this fast we're seeking the Lord, we're Joel to, because it's easy for any of us to fall into this trap. The reason why we see leaders in the church who go so far from morality, and we go, oh, my gosh, how did this happen? The reason why was because at some place, there was a lack of discernment of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, good and evil. And there's a lack of spiritual community to identify it, and help calibrate it so they never get into that place in the first place. What am I saying? I need you and you need me. We need each other to check each other. You know, I'll tell you. After I got married, it was very valuable before I went out in public somewhere because I wasn't the best. I'm not the greatest dresser now, but when we got married, it was pretty interesting. And my wife would say, are you aware that and I'd be like, Yeah, I'm gonna wear this. You got to know where I came from. So what am I saying is where I came from. I didn't have always have the best judgment and things and my wife. She loved because Oh, she loves me she'd say, are you gonna wear that? You know, or even worse, you know, if your flies on zipped or something like that Is that inappropriate to say? But you guys know this is life. This is life when something doesn't look right, the people in your life who love you will say something. And Shame on those people who don't write, we check each other, we help each other. If we do not live in spiritual community, we are very vulnerable to getting off track. Have you ever met anyone we used to meet people like this when we lived in interior Alaska all the time, you ever meet someone and they're just weird. And then when you start talking to them, you realize, man, they've been living alone away from society for years, you know, go up to Alaska. And if anybody listens to this, don't get offended, because it's the truth. But if go to Alaska, right when the PFD comes in the PFD check comes in and go to Walmart. And all these people who've been living out by themselves away from society for each year for by themselves come into town, and you're like, I've never seen by like this before. Because it's real easy to become very different. Now, I'm not saying that's morally wrong or anything like that. But I'm saying it's a good illustration. For spiritually, it's easy to get off track. And we see right now we're watching where significant leaders in the body of Christ got so far off track and into sin. Not because there weren't people around them, but because they weren't in deep heart to heart relationships, and transparency that protects us from this. It's not enough to be in the same organization with people. You got to be in a spiritual family. And you can call it spiritual family all day long. But if it's not, if you don't relate to one another in the closeness like families do spend time together, break bread together, talk about life together, do life together, learn together, hear from one another, not just have me up here as the only teacher or minister, we hear and minister to one another. And there's a divine calibration that happens. So as we are in this time of Joel, too. It is a family effort, not just an individual effort. I didn't say to you guys, I didn't go well. I don't know about you guys, but I'm doing Joel to you guys, go do your own thing. I didn't say that to you. I said let's do this together. Now. We're doing Joel to longer than the 10 day fast that we're in. Because I feel like we need to be here for a while and do some deep cleaning. I pray that you are doing this. I'm not twisting your arm because hey, if you don't do it out of a heart of free will, because you want to do it, it probably isn't going to have a lot of effect. Because it's not it's not enough to twist each other's arm to do the right thing. Amen to that. So Paul commands Timothy to call out sin when people are unrepentant, and refusing to obey God. Now when's the last time you heard a sermon on this one? When's the last time you heard a teaching from a pastor in a church on First Timothy five and about calling out sin? Probably not very much. Because it makes us all nervous. Partly because we misinterpret it. And we think of we you know, our minds always go to the extreme. The scripture says all crutch in James's tells us all correction is to be done a gentleness How many of you like that? Boy, I do. I like gentleness. But it says you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness lest you also be tempted. One of the main reasons why James tells us to I'm sorry, it was Paul, I'm sorry. I'm misquoting it's Galatians six. He says, You who are who are spiritual restore such a one the spirit of meekness or spirit of gentleness, it says, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. It's not just for the person being corrected. He's saying, when you bring that correction, do it in gentleness. Just in case you're also tempted, in other words, to protect yourself from gentle or from sin, through pride. We all like that normally. But first Timothy five is for when Matthew 18 and Galatians. Six have been applied. And full repentance is not present. Now I'm talking about this because this is happening in some places in the body right now. Or it should be or it's going to, we'll see. So I want to point this out. I'm going to read First Timothy five. He says to Timothy, Paul says to Timothy, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and teaching. For the scripture says You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. And the laborer is worthy of his wages.


He says, do not receive an accusation against an elder, except from two or three witnesses, which was the Old Testament standard. But then verse 20, he he, this is what he says. Those who are sinning, rebuke in the presence of all the rest may also fear. Oops, that's scary. I don't know about you, but I've never had a pastor call me up front and rebuke me rebuke my sin in front of everybody. Man, wouldn't that be scary? That would be scary to me. He's not saying okay, just do this as a normal practice. That's not what he's saying. Paul knows Matthew 18. Paul knows what he told the church in Galatians chapter six. This is for people he says, who are sinning that is practicing sin, and there's no repentance. They're not repentant. They're not confessing their sin. They're not dealing with it. Instead, they're just going all out. We see how Paul dealt with this in the Corinthian church. Boy, he was tough on them in this respect. Now, why was he why was he tough? Why is he saying this? Because these things left unchecked can hurt a lot of people. Why am I talking about this? Because we're seeing this in the body right now we're going to watch this play out in some places in the body of Christ, right now. And as it does, it's important to understand why it's playing out that we're not in a place as a spiritual body, we're not in a place where it's like, oh, you know, I'm getting ready to talk to you about the sin, and we're going to publicize it and put it on the teaching library. And that's not what it's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is that we will see, whenever sin is not dealt with properly in a body, we're going to watch all the problems we're watching right now, and some of our favorite spiritual families on the earth. We're watching this happen, especially in one right now. And it's going to be trouble for a while, I'm just telling you, there's going to be trouble. Ultimately, this is what I think will happen. I think that first Timothy five will probably be what takes place. And that's why I mentioned in here, because, and we can have a conversation off the recorder when we do our our conversational time and sharing that we always do because some of this is not worthy of being recorded on teaching, for the sake of privacy for some people, but it's very important that we are able to talk about these things. Please hear me sometimes when troubles come and serious sin happens in the body of Christ. There's a lot of people who just want to not talk about it not not not learn from it. It's like, oh, no, no, it's too bad. You know, and so they just kind of go silent. And it's like, no, I don't think that's exactly the right approach. Now, I don't think I don't want to pop in on social media, and start throwing in my two cents. There's all these people that are throwing stuff at social media, and social media just turns into a food fight. I'm not talking about sharing like that. I'm talking about sharing as a family going, what can we learn from this? Are you guys with me, we have to learn. You know, the old saying, when you much rather learn from other people's mistakes than your own, it's a lot cheaper. It's very important that we learn. But it's also important that we intercede with compassion, and that we intercede with mercy and that we intercede for God's people. Many of us have been richly blessed by some of these places and ministries in the body of Christ. It is not right that we just take all the good but whenever trouble comes, we don't enter into prayer for them, that we don't enter into compassion and mercy for them. And so but it's also important for us to learn and to grow. It's important for us to enter into Joel to and to be repentant ourselves. And to be like that tax collector who goes to the altar and says, God, forgive me. And Lord, if I don't see anything, I'm pretty sure you could pull the refrigerator out and show me something. Because nobody's house is perfect. All of us need work. I'll tell you this week. I was praying this prayer. And you guys know I shared this since the men's sabbatical in December and Dick Duncan had challenged us to pray a prayer that's very hard to pray, to pray it with earnest. Lord, place your finger on the things in my life that are not pleasing to you. It's not an easy prayer to pray. The only way I can pray that prayer is if I trust him. Because man that's that's kind of scary. Is that scary to you? You know, I don't want to ask for a show of hands. But this is a rhetorical question to get you think about How many of you have prayed that prayer? Since I mentioned that a week or two ago? A scary is scary. Because you're like, Oh, God might do it, you know, it's like, and I'm pretty sure he's going to find something. Well, lo and behold, this week, God was finding stuff in my life. And I was just heartbroken over and I'm like, Oh, my God, Lord Jesus, I, I could have things could have gone much different over here in these people's lives, if I just would have not been so dull and, and certain things transpired that I just wasn't paying attention spiritually. You see, we always are, sometimes we think we're okay if we don't just have known intentional sin in our hearts and lives. Now, if you have that man, deal with it, don't let it grow, deal with it, get somebody to pray with you over that. But this, the unknown stuff is just as dangerous. If you're eating poison, and you know it, it's dangerous. But if you're eating poison, and you don't know it, it's just as dangerous as if you knew it. Right. And so it's very important for us to really be able to pray that prayer. And so I'm sharing these things. Because I believe that when God is moving in his body, it's not just the conversations we have when he's blessing his body. It's also the conversations we have when he's disciplining his body, or when he's bringing judgment in his body or the world or anything. I believe that it's very important that we're having conversations, and I shared this illustration. And I think I sent this out on the streams here a while back. But years ago, when I was reading Proverbs, Where I think if Solomon said, wisdom cries out in the streets, I was a young man, newly newly married young, and I was reading wisdom cries out in the streets. And the Lord spoke to me and he said, This is how you're going to teach your children. And I was like, whoa. And the Lord says, you're going to see that wisdom is crying out in the streets, in the newspaper, in the news in your life, and your kids, what's going on in the neighborhood and your work life. And so what we did was we said, Okay, Lord, that's what we'll do. And you can ask my kids, but that's how we taught them. We talked about current events constantly. at the breakfast table at the dinner table around the fire outside, there, dad was talking about things going on, things going on at work, things going on in leadership, things going on in the government, things going on in the news, things going on in the streets, things going on overseas, things going on in the church, we're talking about all those things all the time, and teaching what God says about these things. What does the Bible say? What's God's say? What's God feel? What are his thoughts? What's the problem? What's the solution? And constantly engaging with them? You ask them about that. Ask them how that went. But I'll tell you, I'm still the same person, the father of their kids, but I'm also a shepherd in this house, I'm gonna do the same thing. Because I'm telling you, it works. Now, we don't always agree with each other. That's okay. Don't get offended when people don't agree with you. Let's learn together and grow. Amen, amen. So in this season of Joel to repentance, it is a season of self reflection. And that's what brought the the conviction of the Holy Spirit from self reflection. And looking in the mirror is what brought the tax collector to where he was. It was the lack of self awareness, and the lack of self reflection, that caused the Pharisee to be where he was also. Now, maybe it wasn't the only factor, but it was definitely something big in his life. And sometimes, we don't look what's in our own hearts, because we're afraid of what we might see. That's okay. There's nobody in this room in this family, in the spiritual family, families, or in this world who's perfect. It's okay. But it's important that as family we provide a safe environment for people to be able to learn and to grow and to be like the tax collector was self reflective, self aware, spiritually, we're talking about spiritual awareness, not just good old fashioned self awareness, even though that's good too, but a spiritual self awareness as well. That's a blessing of Joel too. Now, I know we didn't actually go read Joel to I told you this would be just an intro. But what we said today is going to be very important as we enter into what God says about repentance and what he says about what he wants to do. Now one of the cool things about Joel too, is over half the versus this kind of there's 32 verses in Joel to and I know this this may sound like the math doesn't add up but there's a about 17 or 18 verses that are about God's blessing.


And there's also about 17 or 18 verses that are about judgment and repentance. And you go, Well, how could that be? That's 34 verses and there's only 32. Well, there's a couple of verses that have both in them. So it's almost split down the middle of there slightly more verses talking about God's blessings. But that's pretty cool when you think about it, because God, he's, he's calling people to repentance. He's calling people to righteousness. He's calling Israel in this time. And now, and I believe it's applicable to us in our generation. He's calling us to turn toward the Lord. But God wants to spend half the chapter just talking about the blessings he'll put upon his people. When we enter into it, Joel to repentance brings Joe to blessings. Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank You, Lord, that You love us too much to just leave us to our own devices, to leave us to ourselves, you have entered in and you you want to be an active, interactive part of our lives. And so today as we are engaging in this fast and in this Joel to repentance, Lord, this time and season of seeking you and seeking for your fingers to be placed on the things in our lives that are not pleasing to you. We ask You, Lord, that you will help us to have the trust in you to pray that prayer, to be able to trust you trust your goodness, trust your kindness, trust your gentleness, so that our lives may be truly in the center of your will and in your ways. And we pray for our brothers and sisters who are suffering in the body of Christ, some because of sin, some because of the sins of others, some because of many troubles that have come upon them. And we pray, Lord, that you will unjust gird them up, strengthen them in this and Lord help them to enter into Joel to and to walk in this repentance Lord, and cleansing, that your body may be healed, that sin may be dealt with and that righteousness of Jesus may prevail in Jesus name. Amen.


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