With this post I am now reducing the frequency of this blog. In lieu of it, I'd like to focus on connecting via Telegram, which allows for more social interaction and networking between members of microchurches, without requiring people to sign up with one of the social media platforms. On Telegram we are able to share teachings, updates, and prayer requests, and to discuss bible topics, recipes, and anything else related to being followers of Christ in a simpler church environment. Please email me for an invite!

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PREFACE
If I might preface this week's teaching with a comment that I made in response to someone on the YouTube forum (edited here for relevance):

There are generally two credible ways to read Revelation, but no consensus. That's why I try to say "I think" or "I'm speculating." I know that sounds like I haven't studied it, but I really just hope that by demonstrating a more conversational approach to these things, we can learn to stay away from the doctrinal certitude that divides the body of Christ around disputable matters. The helpful conversation allows for different views. So if I explain another view, please don't hear it as me shutting out yours.

Generally some people say that Revelation is to be read literally (although they would probably still say the beast and dragon are not literal, but symbolic). Others say it is to be read figuratively (although they would probably still say the angels and martyrs, etc. are literal). I land in the second camp.

In the first camp, people would say the prophets are literally two people. (Although they wouldn't say they're literally "two olive trees" and "two lampstands," which I find a bit ironic.) Of those who believe they're literally people, some would say they're two resurrected prophets of old. I think the best case for that is Moses and Elijah who Jesus talked to on the Mount of Transfiguration. Others would say that it's two new prophets that come onto the scene, like we see in the pop eschatology of Left Behind, etc.

In the second camp where I'm at, people would say the prophets are symbolic. Every time I study it, I'm most satisfied by the interpretation that the two witnesses are "the Old Covenant and the New Covenant." Embodied, we can speak of them as "Israel and the Church." But at the heart of it, it's the OC and NC. If you read the book of Revelation in sections, allowing the "sevens" to divide it (churches, seals, trumpets, plagues), you'll see the same story being told in parallels, and this will become more clear.

All that said, if two literal prophets show up on the scene, it won't frustrate my faith at all. And if they don't, I'll be ready for what comes. That's my prayer and my desire in bringing this teaching.

TRANSCRIPT
​If I could just piggyback off of my comments from last week when I was talking about Israel and Hamas or Gaza. I mentioned about Israel and the church being the two witnesses in the end time and in that I talked about Israel as the holy people of God. And someone asked me, how do I define Israel as the holy people of God? 

And I think that's worth clarifying.  

I do not believe that nationhood makes Israel God's holy people. In other words, what happened in 1948 or 1967 or whatever the dates are, the current nationhood of Israel doesn't secure their holy people status before God. Nor do I believe Zionism is the same thing as Israel, the holy people of God.  

I don't believe that them occupying a certain land with specific boundaries, even though I know that the promised land was given and the boundaries were marked out. It's clear in scripture. But even though there is a land element to it, I don't believe that them occupying a specific land is what makes them holy before God. 

I do believe that God choosing Abraham for himself and saying, " I am going to establish a covenant with you, not that you asked for it, but I am choosing you. You will be my people and I will be your God" -- that declares Israel, through Abraham's seed , the people of God.  

Now here's the difficulty. Here's the tension I have with the whole thing. I don't believe you can reject Jesus as Messiah and still be right with God. And by and large, the Jewish people reject Jesus as the Messiah. I don't believe they're right with God. I believe they have a call on their life, but I don't believe they're right with God. You can't reject God and be safe with God. You can't reject God's son and be safe with God's son. You can't reject the Lord and be safe with the Lord.  

And so I would stop short of saying that they are in God's favor. To the contrary, I believe that as long as they persist in rejecting the Holy Spirit's witness about Jesus; as long as they persist in the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, ascribing the witness of the Holy Spirit to the witness of demons; as long as they persist in rejecting the Holy Spirit's witness of Jesus, they are not safe with God. And they are not holy unto the Lord.  

Now when we talk about "holy," we think about it a couple different ways. Holy unto God is to be dedicated to God, to be set apart for a sacred purpose, to be devoted to him. And in some sense God declares us holy. He declared the Israelite people holy. He called them out of and set them apart for himself.  

And for the Christians, he calls us out of and sets us apart for himself. He declares us holy by his own declaration, and it doesn't always line up with the decisions we make in life or how we act, but we're still declared holy. 

And yet there's another way to look at holiness where, if I am living my life devoted to the Lord, I can be described as living a holy life, a life set apart for the Lord. And the same would be true for those in Israel, the Jews, the Israelites. 

As I'm recording this, the conflict in Israel between Israel and Hamas or Gaza or the Palestinian people, however you want to frame it, is still something that's ongoing, and as I listen to what everyone is saying, there is this outcry against the Jews.  

I was surprised at how quickly people jumped on the Jews in favor of the Palestinians. I'm not going to attempt to dissect why that is here, but I was surprised at how quickly hatred for the Jews comes up. I'm not saying that everyone who has compassion for the Palestinians has hatred for the Jews. I'm talking about hatred for the Jews.  

And I was surprised to hear of the hatred for the Jews. And I started to ask, why is it? Why do people hate the Jews so much? They're not that different from an awful lot of people in the world that the world doesn't hate. Why is it that they have hatred for the Jews?  

I believe it's because they live and exist as a witness of God's selection. God selected them out of the world as a people for himself. And historically that meant sending them in to take land from enemy nations, meaning not enemies just of the Jewish people, but enemies of God -- people who had made themselves a stench to God, who had defied God, who had defiled the land. And he sent his people in to rid the land of them. Through violence. And that's enough to register some bitterness. I wonder if that's a part of why the world hates the Jews so much. 

And yet behind that would be why does the world hate God so much?  

I don't think that every time the Israelites or every time the Jews kill their enemies that that's of God. But I have to admit that there's times in scripture where God sent them in to do things that I actually find objectionable. And yet I believe that God, because He's God, I believe that anything God does is righteous. It is good. It is right. It is wise. It is true. Like, I don't question anything God does because He gets to decide these things. If God asks someone to do something, it's good. It's good. I don't question that.  

I wonder if that's why the world hates the Jews so much. Because God used them to exact his vengeance on people who had done really bad things. I'm talking a long time ago. A long time ago.  

I think also the Jews live as this ongoing witness of God selecting people and that in itself is kind of incriminating for people. It's insulting that God would pick these people and not those people. And so those people could easily, legitimately, justifiably be offended that God would pick the Jews and not them. And that could settle in as this grudge that gets nursed over generations and generations. It could be that. 

When I heard last week that there was a call for a global day of jihad, which was turned into a global day of rage, however people talked about it -- I'm just being transparent about my thought process -- my first thought was a bit of fear. Like just doing the assessment of what do I need to do to protect my family and all that. Just doing that assessment, I quickly said, "Well, yes, looking at me, I could pass for a Jew, but I'm not Jewish. I'm probably safe. I probably don't need to worry about global jihad." 

And then I realized Israel lives as this witness of God hated by the world. And the church lives as this witness of God hated by the world. If the Jews are chased down, it's reasonable to expect that the Christians too will be chased down, especially by people who have declared their hatred for both groups. And that's pretty sobering. 

Now, I'm not saying the sky is falling, I'm not a doomsayer, like, that's not my thing. And yet, I think hardship is coming. And so when I read Revelation 11... This morning, I was studying Revelation 11 and it took me back into Ezekiel. (I'll put this in the description below so you can press pause, read it, whatever you want.) It took me back to Ezekiel. And then to Daniel chapter seven and chapter 12. And then Revelation 11 and then Revelation 13. And as I was reading through all this, there is a consistent, profound, explicit witness that God's people will be defeated for a time. 

An explicit witness, prophetic witness that God's people will be defeated for a time, and then they will possess the kingdom. Then they will be given their reward. This is consistent.  

When I read Revelation 11 about the witnesses prophesying for forty two months or twelve hundred and sixty days, which is three and a half years. And when I read Daniel and see the same numbers, and that God's people are going to be defeated for a time. 

And I read Ezekiel, and Ezekiel is given a measuring rod and told to go measure the temple. And when I read Revelation 11, John sees an angel who has a measuring rod, and is told to go and measure the temple. And I read the outer courts has been given to the Gentiles to be trampled on for a time.  

I believe Revelation 11 is saying that the two witnesses -- and I could be wrong. This is speculating. It doesn't say the two witnesses are this. I'm saying I think the two witnesses are this: Israel and the church. I believe it's the two witnesses who for three and a half millennia, have been a witness of God.  

Israel and the church. It just might be that where Revelation 11 says that they're prophesying for the 42 months, the 1,260 days. It might be that this is the time that Israel and the church are going to be defeated, overthrown, for a time, for three and a half days, whatever that means. 

And then after that, the breath of God enters them and they stand to their feet and they rise up to meet God in the air, to meet the Lord in the air. 

It might be that that's what this is. It might be that we are facing that time. 

Here's my concern. Many say that this is a time where the church is supposed to take over the kingdom and we're supposed to establish the kingdom on the earth and God wants to prosper us and all that. If that's this, and for some reason God allows, as he's decreed, he allows for the witnesses to be defeated and to lie dead in the streets where the enemies refuse them a decent burial, and they come from all over to gloat over them and give each other gifts and high fives. If this is the time for that, and we're prepared only for prosperity, we will be defeated in our souls, in our spirits. On the other hand, if we understand that, yes, there is a time that God has sovereignly decreed that his people will be defeated for a time, and then after that receive the kingdom; if we believe that there is a time we can be prepared for that. And if for some reason God chooses to give us favor and prosperity, man, so be it. Amen.  

My challenge, my encouragement to you is be strong in the Lord. Be strong in the faith. Choose faithfulness, no matter what. Pray for peace. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for peace in Israel, pray for peace in the church. Pray that our witness would be complete. That it would be of grace. That it would be of Jesus. Pray that God's sovereign plan would be fulfilled, even in our lifetime. 

Many of us live with this sense of, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. What if this was it? What if it was time? That's my prayer. That it would be time. I leave you with that.  

If you have any other thoughts on this, please leave a comment below. I would love to interact with you. We're figuring this out prayerfully, asking God for wisdom and discernment.

​Amen.

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Anything I say about the Israel/Hamas/Gaza conflict has the danger of having a short shelf life--if I speak too much to the current state of affairs. Today what I have to say is a long shelf life comment about it all. 

I'm speaking to Christians here and I'm specifically imagining those who are in my network of microchurches or who are gathering together with other believers.  

Like you, when I saw the atrocities, I cried out for vengeance, just at a guttural level. And then when I saw how divided the world is, I realized this is not just an easy thing to address.  

 As you have conversations with others, like, we're all going to be bringing our political biases and the things that we saw on the news that we thought were true and someone else said it wasn't true, and we believed them, or we didn't believe them, and we're going to argue about all sorts of things that the world argues about. What I would suggest, what I think is helpful: Focus on Justice, Witness, and Promise.  

As you talk about Justice, yes, we should rescue the oppressed. And God says, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And historically, he has called his people to exact vengeance for him. We have to be slow to that. And so I think the best word is Justice. Be ready to rescue. If it's in your power to rescue the oppressed, rescue the oppressed.  

The second word is Witness. We need to be ready to preach. Anything we do has to be consistent with this gospel. It's tempting to imagine, if it comes down to a fight, going down in this hailstorm of bullets with a "yippee ki yay" kind of mindset. That's an ugly way. For the church I'm talking. I'm not saying there's not a place for nations to war. I'm not saying that.  

But if we think of the church's witness, we could go down fighting for our rights, fighting for our freedom, fighting for this and that. Or go down with a witness of: "Repent, the kingdom is near. Repent while there's still time." Because for us, the gospel is you can repent from all this evil. the gospel is preached across enemy lines. It hurls not grenades across the line. It hurls this promise across the line, that you can be free from this sin, from this evil. You can be restored to God. You can be reconciled. You can be renewed. It's a gospel that preaches across the enemy lines, "Come here. We will receive you. We will give you life. Come here. Jesus loves you. He died for you. He wants to give you life."  

As you think about the church's response, let it be a witness that we believe God wants to reconcile all who have alienated themselves through sin. And that includes our enemies.  

And then third: Promise. Promise. We live with a promise of eternal life. We believe in this, and it affects everything we do. Even if we have to lay down our lives right now, we believe that we will be raised up.  

In my reading right now, it just so happens that I'm reading in Psalms, Judges, Matthew, and Revelation. And it affects my perspective on this whole thing. And I would suggest that you read Psalms, Judges, Matthew, Revelation. Start today with Chapter 1 of each book, and then tomorrow Psalm 2, Judges 2, Matthew 2, Revelation 2. Psalm 3, Judges 3, Matthew 3. Revelation 3. Just start reading and let it affect your perspective more than what news channel you listen to. Sure, stay current on the news, that's fine. But let your perspective be influenced by scripture.  

The reality is that this conflict goes back millennia. In Judges 1, you will read "Gaza," when Judah overthrows Gaza, 3500 years ago or whatever. It's not a current thing. We think in terms of 20 years, 60 years, 80 years. It's millennia. And so let that affect you.  

And when you read Revelation, there are two witnesses of God. Revelation 11 says that these two witnesses will be defeated and will lie dead in the streets three and a half days. And their enemies will refuse them burial, they'll come and gloat over them and they'll give each other gifts and the whole world will celebrate over it. And then after three and a half days the breath of God will enter those two witnesses and they'll rise to their feet and they'll be taken up into heaven. There's different ways you can read it. I believe those witnesses are Israel and the Church, what God has put on this earth as prophetic witnesses . Even if Israel and the Church don't do it well, still God's prophetic desire is that Israel and the Church live as a witness against evil and for good. I believe this is God's holy people. I believe Israel and the Church represent that. 

As we interact with this, we need to focus on justice, witness, and promise. And so my appeal is this: as you're around the table with other people. Talking about this. Don't fight politics. Discuss justice, witness, and promise. And let our prayer be for those things, and for peace.

​Amen. 

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Have you ever been in a church service where they gave the altar call and you felt just compelled to go down, but you were already right with God? You felt guilt, like if you don't answer this altar call to go get right with God, that somehow you are confessing that you don't love the Lord?  

And yet everything about your life is that you do love the Lord. You do live for Him.  

I've experienced that. I would say I experience that every time. I've learned to overcome that, but I experience it every time.  

There's something about the heart that is tender before God that wants to respond to any appeal. Like, of course I'm a sinner. Do I need to repent again? Sure, I'll repent quickly. But then I also live a life with a very, very short confession scope. Like if I sin, I confess. That's just how I live.  

And so if I'm in a situation where someone is making me feel like, if I don't come down front or raise my hand or whatever to demonstrate that repentance, that somehow I haven't, if I'm in that situation, I have learned to just resist it. And I've learned to go inward and decide whether I am in the faith or not. And that's as someone who is in the faith. And that maybe is where you are.  

But I think there's also another resistance: people who confess Jesus, but they live like the devil and they have learned to resist that call, too. And I think that resistance can look the same but it's totally different.  

And so my messages recently have spoken to the latter. 

That's my preacher's burden that I'm carrying these days. There are many who say, "Lord! Lord!" But they live like " The Devil! The Devil!" And honestly, they live like " Me! Me! I am my own Lord." And I just want to say that's a scary position to be in. 

I want to be clear. I do not believe that if you sin, you have to get right with God again. On the other hand, I do believe that if you sin willfully, you do need to get right with God again. Let me explain what I mean.  

"All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved!" When you put your faith in the Lord, when you call out to him, "Save me from my sins," when we put our faith in Jesus, he frees us from our sins. He does. You receive eternal life when you put your faith in Jesus.  

But, I've noticed that some believe that if they've simply prayed the prayer, they can go on living however they want to, and they have a get out of jail free card, a get into heaven free pass. 

 If you are someone who prayed the sinner's prayer, "Lord, save me, I'm a sinner." And you believe that that has secured your position in heaven. And so now you are living after sin. With no gut check, with no self discipline, you are simply living a flesh driven life. A worldly life. Then you need to tremble. Not because God is paying attention to all your little sins and saying, "Yep, he did another one; she did another one. I don't think I can save her now." It's not about that. He forgives you when you seek him. He forgives you when you call out to him. But he also calls your bluff when you're not sincere in it.  

And so we read where Jesus said, in Matthew 7, he says, " Not everyone who says to me, ' Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven. But only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." He says, " Many will say to me on that day, ' Lord Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?'" And he says, "Then I will tell them plainly, ' I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.'" 

It's possible to be one who calls out, "Lord! Lord! Jesus, you are my Lord," and to even demonstrate faith by casting out demons and prophesying, and even demonstrate faith in ways that we might look and the world might look and say, "Ah, it's signs and wonders." It's possible to be one who does those things, who demonstrates their faith -- and I'm not saying this to upset you. I'm saying this to encourage you to lean in and to get rooted -- it's possible for those who say, "Lord, Lord," to also be those who do not do the will of the Father.  

Now I'm not talking about God's will for your life, whether you become an accountant or a carpenter. That's not what this is. The will of God is to put your faith in Jesus, to follow after him, to live for him, to open your heart to the Holy Spirit, to let the Holy Spirit lead you, to know him intimately like that. 

And so recently I read in Hebrews 10, where it says, " If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment, and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." It says, "For we know him [God] who said, ' It is mine to avenge. I will repay.'" And again, "The Lord will judge his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."  

And we read on down, it says, "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. We do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved."  

Yes, that passage is not about whether you accidentally give in to that sin that trips you up. It's not about that. That passage is not about whether you give in to anger or give in to lust or give in to greed . That passage is about whether you call out "Lord, Lord," and then you don't do the will of God; you call out "Lord, Lord," and then you turn your back on Him; whether you call out "Lord, Lord," and then you deny Him. 

Everything in me wants to make it easy for you to have assurance that you are in the faith. But when I read scripture, it tells me that I can't give assurance to someone who isn't living a faithful life. That's not to say that you earn your salvation by ticks of faithfulness. That's not at all to say that you earn God's salvation through accumulated righteousness. It's not that at all. It's not to say that if you do God's will exactly, you will get into heaven. It's not saying that at all. 

It's saying if you cast yourself on God's mercy and then live independent of his mercy, you should not feel assured that you've really cast yourself on his mercy.  

And so I have this pastor's burden. And if you are the one who is tender toward God, as some friends of mine -- and I love that people have asked questions on this -- if you are someone who is tender before God, you called out "Jesus," and you live your life in dependence on him, and in fellowship with him, in intimacy with him -- and yet you also live for a time in this flesh and you do things that you had decided you weren't gonna do, and you don't do things that you had decided you were going to do, and you screw up, you sin, I don't want you at all to think that you have to go back to God and plead to be saved. His righteousness covers you, His mercy covers you, His grace covers you. If your heart is bowed down before the Lord, if you are that tender person, wow, receive it. Be encouraged, be encouraged.  

His salvation is secure for you. God is not fickle. He's not yes and then no. And God is not easily offended. He doesn't see you make a mistake and say, "Well, okay, I don't know if I'm on his side anymore. I don't know if I really love her anymore." That's not God. God loves you completely.  

Everything about my message, if you listen long enough, is that forgiveness is complete. He doesn't forgive just this sin, and then that sin, and then that sin. And, oh, you gotta repent of that sin, and ask forgiveness for that sin, or else God won't forgive you. That's not how God does it. He says, "I forgive you. I forgive you all of your sins. I forgive everything you've ever done. I bestow forgiveness on you so that we can be in relationship again."  

And so, if that's you, if you're tender before God, don't receive condemnation by this word.  

But if you're someone who, you believe that, because your parents were Christians, or because you simply call yourself a Christian, that somehow you love God, and yet you live in a way that doesn't love God? You may have affection for God, but you live in a way that loves the world, that loves the flesh. You give into whatever comes along and you're just kind of cherry picking your way through life and you're not living a life that's bowed down before the Lord, I can't tell you to be assured of your salvation.  

I can tell you, look at your life and if your life is not producing fruit in keeping with repentance, then my call to you is just as gentle, but it trembles a bit. My call to you is: repent. open your eyes. Turn toward the light of Jesus, away from the darkness. Turn away from the power of the Accuser, the Tempter; turn away from the power of Satan and turn to the power of God. Let Him fill you, let Him renew you, and He will. Bow, not just your head, but your shoulders. Bow your life completely to God and allow Him to renew you. Make sure -- when you test yourself -- make sure that you are truly in the faith.  

This isn't a message of condemnation. It's a message of encouragement. And it's in keeping with the same message that the Lord charged Paul with when he sent him as an apostle to the Jews and to the Gentiles. And Paul explains it this way in Acts 26. 

He's talking about when he was called by God and God told him, "I am sending you to your own people, the Jews, and to the Gentiles, to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me," Jesus says.  

And so Paul goes on and he says, that's what I did: "I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds."  

And this is simply my message to you, of encouragement, of rebuke if you need it. 

If you are tender before God, don't receive the rebuke, receive the encouragement.  

And if you are hardened toward God, the Lord rebukes you, not me. The Lord rebukes you. But he does not come to bring condemnation. He comes to bring conviction and salvation. He wants to restore you. 

Stop being distracted by the things of this world. Turn your heart to the Lord. And give your full attention to the Lord. Today. Even if you can look on your life and see times that you rebuked demons, or times that you spoke for God, or times that you demonstrated this sign or this wonder, even if you can see things like that, even if you know that you prayed the sinner's prayer when you were eight or whatever it is, that you were baptized, today, simply give your heart to the Lord anew.  

If you are tender before God, you say, "Amen!"  

If there's anything in you that resists that and says, "But I already did!" Ask yourself why you would resist an appeal to renew your devotion to the Lord. 

And so, today, may the Lord open your eyes, and turn you from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God and forgive your sins and give you a place among all who are sanctified by faith in Jesus. And there, may you demonstrate your repentance by your deeds. And I believe that when you see that in your life, you will receive that assurance that, Yes, I am in Christ.  

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I told my wife recently that I'm falling more and more out of love.

​With myself.  

We live full time in this RV and we have a travel channel and the nature of that travel channel is that we take video of sometimes candid moments and I get to edit it. 

And so I watch myself and I don't like myself. I told her I'm falling more and more out of love with myself all the time.  

I don't like how I talk to her. I don't like how condescending I am. I don't like how passive aggressive I am. And these are things that, if I didn't have to look at myself, I wouldn't know it. I would insist that my heart is kind and patient and I would never be passive aggressive with my wife. I would never be condescending and yet when I watch the footage, man, I don't like me. I'm falling more and more out of love with myself all the time.  

I'm condescending. I'm a know it all. I am impatient. I'm irritable. I can be angry. I'm fearful and that comes out in anger. I don't like me.  

And I can be defensive about it. And that's one of the things I see is that I'm defensive. I could be defensive about this and say, "That's not what I'm like. I'm not like that at all!" But the Lord said "Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." And you could say out of the overflow of the heart, the life is. So I can be defensive about it, or I could just say, "Nah, I just learned something about myself, and I don't like that about me."  

And so I'm working on it. I'm making it a part of my contemplative moments in the morning. I'm making it a part of my confessions during the day. If I respond to her poorly, I tell her right away, "I'm sorry, that's not who I want to be. I'm sorry." And I name what it is. " I'm sorry I'm irritable." "I'm sorry that sounded so condescending."  

I'm falling more and more out of love with myself every day.  

Now, when I turn to scripture, it's a lot like looking at that video content. If I allow it to be. If I read scripture and it tells me that I'm a sinner, I can say, "No, I'm not! You should see my heart!" Or I can say, "Ah, yeah, this is the mirror. This tells me the things about myself that I don't yet understand." I can be defensive about it, or I can say, "Okay. Okay. I'll deal with the reality of this." 

I wonder how often you open the scripture as a mirror, as video footage of yourself. Not to defend yourself against it; not to sit in judgment on scripture; not to sit in judgment on God for claiming that you are a sinner, that you have erred and that you are still inclined to err. I wonder how often you open up scripture, not to argue with it, but to let it show you you yourself; to let it hold up a mirror for you to see, "Oh, that's why I need Jesus. That's why I need a savior. That's why I need to learn over and over and over again, through and through and through to make this private and public confession that Jesus, you are my Lord. You are my Lord. I am not my Lord. I die to that. Lord, you are my Lord. I live to you."  

So I want to ask you, how often do you open up the scriptures to let it sit as a mirror for you? 

In 2nd Corinthians 13, Paul writes, " Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves."  

And I'm saying use this to test yourself.  

In Ephesians, Paul says that " Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers..."-- and when we open up scripture, we are devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching and the prophecies, and the euangelion: the gospel, the evangel, the evangelists. "Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people and their deceitful scheming." (And we will even name our own deceitful scheming, how we deceive ourselves into doing the things that we've already decided we won't do again.) 

And then he says, "So I tell you this, and I insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do," meaning those who don't know the Lord. You must no longer live as those who don't know the Lord " in the futility of their thinking." Don't live like they do. "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over..." Now let this be a mirror for you. "Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life that you learned." I'm reminding you, don't live the way you're inclined to live. That's not the new way of life. He says "that, however, is not the way of life that you learned" -- the new way. "... you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by his deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."  

See whether this, like myself, where I say I'm just falling more and more out of love with myself every day, meaning I'm learning to love holiness and righteousness and to pursue something that I'm not inclined to be in the flesh.  

"Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood..." says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you... Walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 

But among you, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking which are out of place, but rather let there be thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure, no immoral, impure, or greedy person, such a person as an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Let no one deceive you..."  

You can read the rest yourself.  

I wonder if you've bought into this lie that we're supposed to love ourselves, that we're supposed to learn to more and more love ourselves, that we're supposed to become in love with ourselves? It's a lie. It's a lie. Become more and more in love with Jesus. 

Colossians 3: " Set your minds on things above." Set your hearts on Christ. Revere Christ and worship Him. Bow your life in His honor.  

Stop looking into the mirror to gaze upon your loveliness. Paul says elsewhere that "those who judge themselves by themselves are not wise." It's foolish. Stop gazing at yourself to reawaken love for yourself. That is not where the strength is, that is where the weakness is. 

Rather, stare into scripture. Let it be the mirror that shows you yourself. If you object to it, don't argue with it. Accept it. Accept it. 

Are you falling more and more out of love with yourself every day? You should be. And that's not saying you need to walk around mopey and everything. That's saying that, until you learn that this life is not about you, but that your life is all about him, you will continue to live in this self absorbed misery about how much you hate yourself and you just need to learn to love yourself and all that. 

But when you die to self, and when you prefer Christ's honor above your own, and when you are quick to confess your failings and your needs, and you are quick to, every day, say, "I'm a sinner, Lord, in need of mercy. Thank you for your mercy." When you learn to do that, then you can live with gratitude that's rooted in reality, not in just what you wish things could be. 

I think it's a hard message these days. It used to be the norm. I think it's a hard message these days for people to hear because we have been so inundated with this false teaching that we just need to love ourselves. Love God. Love your neighbor. Do that, and it'll go well with you. 

So, more and more out of love with myself every day, and it's good. There is peace there, and there is joy there, and there is a "speaking the truth in love" there. And that's what I do to you today. I hope you receive it. Amen.