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Series Code: AFDB
Program Code: AFDB000066S
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00:03 by the friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry. 00:09 Doug Batchelor: Ancient Scandinavian history tells of 00:11 a fearsome class of Norse warriors called Berserkers. 00:16 To appear more terrifying, these Berserkers would dress 00:19 themselves up in the skins of bears, wolves, 00:22 or other wild animals. 00:23 Before entering battle, Berserkers whipped themselves 00:26 into a crazed frenzy, biting their shields and howling like 00:29 animals, possibly aided by mind-altering drugs. 00:35 In this trance-like state, they were ferocious fighters 00:38 impervious to pain. 00:40 They attacked boulders and trees and sometimes even killed their 00:43 own people during the rampage. 00:45 Irrational and violent, they were totally out of control. 00:48 Of course, these frenzied Scandinavian fighters gave rise 00:52 to the English word berserk to describe somebody who's overcome 00:58 with uncontrolled rage. 00:59 Now, here's a question. 01:01 If Christians lose their temper and fly off the handle, 01:04 are they really Christians? 01:06 When professed believers act berserk, are we really 01:10 abiding in Christ? 01:12 Remember, one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. 01:17 Let's explore this subject together: 01:19 "Is my Christianity Real?" 01:26 Doug: And I saw online, they've got a test. 01:29 I knew it was there, but the National Council on Alcoholism 01:34 and Drug Dependency created a test after years of research and 01:39 looking at some of the characteristics, if a person is 01:42 drinking and they're wondering, "Am I an alcoholic?" 01:45 They've got a test with 26 questions that you go through. 01:50 I'll give you an example. 01:51 I'm not going to read them all to you, and you can 01:53 find this online. 01:54 You can take the test and then click results and it'll tell you 01:57 if you're an alcoholic or if you're a problem drinker, and 01:59 they can be different levels. 02:01 Do you avoid family or close friends while you're drinking? 02:05 Do you drink heavily when you're disappointed, under pressure? 02:08 Can you handle more alcohol than when you first started to drink? 02:12 Do you sometimes feel uncomfortable? 02:14 And each one of these has a yes or no next to it. 02:17 And if you say yes to a certain percentage of them, it means 02:21 that you've got problems with your drinking. 02:23 If you say--I think it's like, you know, 12 or more. 02:26 If you say yes, you are an alcoholic. 02:29 And so there's a test. 02:30 They've got the questions and you can look at this 02:32 and you can evaluate. 02:33 And you might be thinking, "Well, Pastor Doug, is that what 02:35 it's like to test and see if you're a Christian?" 02:38 Well, there are questions you can ask. 02:40 I was really happy when I looked at this 'cause I could say 02:43 no to all of them 'cause I don't drink. 02:48 And so the test can be positive and the test can be negative. 02:52 But the Bible tells us that there are guidelines that you 02:55 can go through to evaluate, "Am I a Christian? 02:59 Is my Christianity real?" 03:03 We're supposed to use good judgment. 03:04 Everyone says, "Don't judge." 03:06 Well, Jesus actually said, "When you judge, judge 03:08 a righteous judgment." 03:11 Not only does it say you should examine yourself. 03:14 Lamentations 3:40, "Let us search out 03:18 and examine our ways." 03:20 Again, Psalm 119, verse 59, "I thought about my ways, 03:24 and I turned my feet to your testimonies." 03:27 One of the things that often proceeds our turning back to God 03:30 is doing a little self-evaluation. 03:33 The Book of Haggai chapter 1, verse 5, "Now, therefore, 03:36 thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Consider your ways.'" 03:38 And so this is what we're doing in this two-part series. 03:42 We're looking at some of the Bible tests you might go through 03:45 to do a little healthy self-evaluation and say, 03:48 "Am I a real Christian?" 03:50 You know, this sermon bothers people who need it the most. 03:54 People who say, "I don't want to think about that." 03:57 "Why?" 03:59 "I'm afraid I might find something or I might discover 04:02 that maybe I'm not genuine." 04:05 What did the disciples say to Jesus? 04:07 "Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I?" 04:11 And we need to sometimes ask that question. 04:14 Luke chapter 13, "Then one said to him, 'Lord, are there 04:18 few who are saved?' 04:20 And he said to them, 'Strive to enter in through the 04:23 narrow gate, for I say to you that many will seek to 04:27 enter and not be able. 04:29 When once the master of the house has risen up and shut 04:32 the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock. 04:35 You say, 'Lord, Lord--'" They know the Lord's name. 04:37 They think they're his servants. 04:39 "'Lord, Lord, open for us.' 04:40 And he will answer and say, 'I do not 04:43 know where you are from.' And then you'll begin to say, 04:46 'We ate and drank in your presence, and you 04:48 taught in our streets.' 04:50 But he'll say, 'I tell you, I don't know you, 04:53 where you're from. 04:54 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.' 04:57 And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 04:59 Now, this is one of many parables that Jesus shares that 05:06 illustrates there are some who think they are saved 05:09 and they find out too late that they are not. 05:14 You got the parable of the ten virgins. 05:16 Five of them, they think they're going in. 05:18 They are stopped at the door. 05:20 "You got the sheep and the goats?" 05:22 They said, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty 05:25 or naked or stranger?" 05:27 They don't know. You get the wedding phase. 05:30 You get the parable of the talents. 05:31 There is several parables where Jesus said, "There's a danger 05:34 you need to be aware of. 05:36 While you're alive, while there's mercy, while there's 05:38 hope, the door is open. 05:39 Examine yourself. 05:41 Make sure that you have the real McCoy." 05:44 Now, don't you want to know? 05:46 Do you want to find out too late? 05:49 Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way that seems right to a man, 05:54 but in the end thereof they're the ways of death." 05:58 You know who's especially at risk if you don't mind 06:00 my saying so? 06:02 Those who have grown up in the church. 06:05 They think, "I've done this all my life. 06:09 It's--I know that I know the Lord because my father, my 06:13 mother, my grandparents, they just--yeah, of course. 06:16 Of course, he's going to know me. 06:18 He's going to let me in." 06:19 And they've almost had just enough religion over their lives 06:22 to inoculate them against catching the real thing. 06:27 It's like we had in our study earlier today. 06:29 The Apostle Paul, he was just so on fire for God and he didn't 06:33 realize he was on fire against God and he was fighting God 06:38 and he had that aha moment, but it was in time for him. 06:42 We want to examine ourselves and know now. 06:44 Let me give you one more verse, and Paul wrote this. 06:46 Galatians 6, verse 3, "For if anyone thinks himself to be 06:50 something, when he's nothing, he deceives himself. 06:54 But let each one examine his own work." 06:58 So if you've got a problem with this kind of message, 07:01 your problem is with the Bible. 07:02 The Bible is pretty clear that it is healthy for us 07:04 to periodically do some self-evaluation, to take an 07:08 inventory, take stock of ourselves and see, 07:13 "Am I genuinely a Christian?" 07:14 First of all, do I love the truth? 07:17 First of all, Jesus is the truth. 07:19 So I hope you love him. 07:20 He is the truth embodied. 07:22 2 Thessalonians 2:10, "With all unrighteous deception 07:27 among those who perish," why? 07:28 "Because they did not receive a love of the truth 07:31 that they might be saved. 07:33 And for this cause, God sends them strong delusion 07:36 that they should believe a lie." 07:38 God wants us to love the truth. 07:39 How many times have you met somebody, they grew up believing 07:42 something, and even though you show them the evidence 07:43 that is not true, they say, "I don't care. 07:45 It's what I've always done." 07:47 They don't love the truth. 07:48 A person who loves the truth will make difficult decisions to 07:51 bring their lives in harmony with the truth because 07:54 it's the truth. 07:55 You know, when I first discovered this message, 07:59 I didn't know--I never met Seventh Day Adventists before. 08:03 I was just saying, "I don't care. 08:06 I just want to know what is the truth. 08:08 What is the truth about life? 08:10 What's God's purpose?" 08:12 Because who are we going to answer to in the last days, 08:16 people's opinions? 08:17 We're going to answer to the truth, a love of truth. 08:21 The truth will set you free. 08:24 So if you're satisfied believing in lies, if you don't cherish 08:27 truth, if you don't have a desire to share truth-- 08:29 1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light 08:34 as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, 08:37 and the blood of Jesus Christ his son 08:39 cleanses us from all sin." 08:41 This is what it means to walk in the truth. 08:45 The truth will set you free. 08:47 You can't just call something the truth. 08:49 There is absolute truth. 08:51 It's like these reporters were giving Lincoln a hard time, 08:56 arguing and parsing his words, and there's lot of dishonesty 09:01 in politics. 09:02 And so Lincoln, he used to love to tell stories. 09:04 And he said, "How many legs does a dog have?" 09:10 And they said, "Four." 09:11 And Lincoln said, "Now, suppose you call the tail a leg, 09:15 then how many legs would the dog have?" 09:18 They said, "Five." 09:19 He said," No, the dog still is only got four legs." 09:22 He said, "Just 'cause you call the tail a leg, 09:24 he can't walk on it." 09:25 And sometimes we think we can just believe something, 09:28 and because we believe it we'll just make our own truth. 09:31 And you've got your truth and I've got my truth. 09:32 Now, there is a truth and we need to know what that truth is. 09:38 So one of the characteristics of Christianity--a real Christian 09:41 is you love the truth and you want to know what it is 09:45 and you dig for it in his Word. 09:48 Do I have regular devotions? 09:52 Are you spending time in Bible study and prayer? 09:55 That I think is a good question to ask. 09:59 If you love the Lord and you want to please him, you should 10:03 have a hunger, Jesus said, and a thirst for righteousness. 10:07 Who's going to be filled? 10:09 The ones who do search, the ones who do hunger and thirst 10:12 for righteousness. 10:13 They will be filled. 10:15 You know, a doctor, when you go for a test, one of the things 10:18 he might ask you is he'll say, "How is your appetite? 10:22 You say, "You know, I've got no appetite." 10:25 Isn't that sometimes a sign there's something wrong? 10:28 If you have no appetite for the Word of God, if you have no 10:31 appetite for the presence of God in prayer, if you don't have any 10:36 hunger for his righteousness, if you're not seeking for his Word, 10:41 that's not a good sign of spiritual health. 10:44 Job 23, verse 12, "I have not departed from 10:48 the commandment of his lips. 10:49 I have treasured the words of his mouth more than 10:52 my necessary food." 10:54 Bible calls it a hunger. 10:56 Do you have a hunger for the Word of God? 10:58 Jesus said, "I'm that bread that came down from heaven." 11:01 Are you hungry for that bread? 11:03 Jeremiah 15:16. 11:05 "Thy words were found, and I did eat them. 11:08 And thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." 11:12 You know, the Bible tells us that Martha who was a good 11:16 believer, a follower of Jesus, she was a servant. 11:20 And there was a supper in Jesus's honor. 11:22 It's a good purpose. 11:24 And she was just busy cooking and storming 11:27 through the kitchen. 11:28 And, you know, every church wants to have Marthas 11:31 in the church because, boy, they make things happen. 11:34 And if you want something done, give it to Martha. 11:37 And one day she was preparing for a dinner. 11:40 She had to keep stepping over Mary, her sister, 11:43 who was sitting at Jesus's feet listening to Jesus as he was 11:46 teaching there. 11:47 Maybe some of the disciples and apostles were in 11:49 the room with them. 11:50 And she's looking wistfully into his face and listening to 11:53 every word, and Martha became a little perturbed. 11:57 And every time she went through the room, she kind of glare at 11:59 her sister and Mary ignored her and she kept listening to Jesus. 12:02 Finally, Martha had all she could stand and she stopped 12:05 and she folded her arms and tapped her foot and said, 12:07 "Lord, don't you see I'm doing all of this serving? 12:10 I'm making your dinner. 12:12 Can you tell my sister, younger sister, come and help me." 12:17 And what did Jesus say? 12:19 "Martha, Martha, you are weary, worried, and troubled about many 12:22 things, and one thing is needful and Mary has chosen 12:28 that better part." 12:29 That one thing is to seek first God's kingdom. 12:32 She was sitting at Jesus's feet. 12:34 We need to spend time at Jesus's feet every day--several times a 12:38 day in prayer, but at least once a day we should sit down 12:42 and open the Word. 12:44 Am I regular in my church attendance and fellowship 12:47 with others? 12:49 Well, I'm probably preaching to the choir right now because 12:51 you're here, but are you here faithfully? 12:55 And does that matter? 12:57 If a person is sporadic and erratic in their regular 13:04 attendance in worship, these times that God's appointed we 13:07 should come before him and worship, that is not 13:10 a good indicator of our spiritual health. 13:12 The Bible says in Acts chapter 2:46 when God poured out the 13:15 spirit, "So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, 13:20 and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their 13:23 food with gladness." 13:25 They came together house to house. 13:26 They were meeting together all the time to worship God, 13:29 to study his Word. 13:32 If you don't have enough faith to get you to church once a 13:35 week, you probably don't have enough to get you to heaven. 13:37 That's a pretty safe guess. 13:39 And, you know, I've heard some just very spiritual 13:43 sophisticated excuses, it's what they are, 13:46 for not going to church. 13:48 They say, "Well, I keep the Sabbath at home. 13:51 I've had a rough week." 13:52 Tell your boss you had a rough week and you're 13:54 just not coming in. 13:55 Say, "I had a rough week at church. 13:57 I'm not coming to work." 13:58 Reverse that. 14:00 See if you put God ahead of your boss, how that's going to work? 14:05 I suspect it won't work very well. 14:08 Or they say, "Well, it's the Sabbath and God's the creator 14:10 so I just--I kept the Sabbath in nature." 14:13 Well, that's lovely after church, but, you know, 14:16 the Bible calls the Sabbath a holy convocation. 14:20 That's Leviticus chapter 23. 14:22 And what does convocation mean? 14:26 A convening, a coming together. 14:28 "Six days you shall work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath 14:32 of solemn rest, a holy convocation." 14:36 The word convocation means assembly. 14:37 The Sabbath is called a holy solemn assembly. 14:42 We are to come together. 14:44 There's something that happens when we corporately worship God, 14:47 and this is not a suggestion. 14:49 Doug: Don't go anywhere, friends. 14:52 In just a moment, we'll continue with the rest 14:54 of today's presentation. 14:57 Have you ever thought that life sometimes seems to be 14:59 a relentless battle just to stay ahead? 15:03 You wash the car and then it rains. 15:05 You have to wash it again. 15:07 You weed the garden and 2 weeks later, there's a whole new 15:10 crop of weeds. 15:12 Well, it's the same way in a Christian's life. 15:15 Sometimes it seems like when you successfully resist one 15:18 temptation then another one surprises you from left field. 15:22 So you might be wondering, how do you stay ahead in the battle 15:26 with temptation? 15:28 Does God really expect us to experience consistent victory? 15:32 Absolutely yes. 15:33 The Lord wants you to experience a life of joyful victory 15:36 and triumph. 15:38 Amazing Facts would like to send you a special book that's called 15:41 "The Surrender of Self." 15:43 This short but encouraging book will reveal how to overcome your 15:47 biggest enemy and experience a consistent life of victory. 15:51 You'll be amazed by the real changes in your life. 15:55 To get your free copy, call the number on your screen and ask 15:58 for offer number 153, or visit the web address. 16:02 And after you read this incredible resource, make sure 16:05 and share it with a friend. 16:07 Well, now let's get back to the rest of today's presentation and 16:10 learn some more amazing facts from the Word of God. 16:15 Doug: Not only where are we to be doing this on earth, 16:18 the Bible says we're going to do it in heaven. 16:20 "From one Sabbath to another will all flesh come 16:23 and worship before me." 16:26 Those are coming together to worship before God--how many of 16:29 you want to be in heaven to come together and worship 16:31 before him there? 16:33 Do you think it'd be a good idea to practice coming together and 16:35 worship before him here first? 16:38 Yeah. 16:39 You read in Hebrews chapter 10, "Let us consider one another in 16:43 order to stir up love and good works," that's what I'm trying 16:45 to do, friends, "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves 16:50 together, as is the manner of some is--" 16:52 they had that problem way back in Paul's day. 16:55 "But exhorting one another." 16:56 This is called exhortation, what's happening right now. 16:58 To encourage you, to admonish you, we need to come together. 17:03 Why? 17:04 "All the more as you see the day approaching." 17:08 If you want to look that one up, that's 17:09 Hebrews chapter 10:24 and 25. 17:11 And you know what it says in the next verse? 17:13 "If we continue to sin willfully after we've received the 17:18 knowledge of the truth--" it calls it willful sin after it 17:22 talks about coming together to worship him. 17:24 Says, "If we continue to sin willfully after we've received 17:27 the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice 17:30 for sin but a certain fearful looking forward to have judgment 17:33 and fiery indignation." 17:36 So you think, you know, Christianity 101 17:39 is we go to church. 17:41 But we're living in the age of American independence and 17:44 spirituality and they go, "But I'm spiritual. 17:47 I just going to be spiritual at home." 17:48 It's often a cop out. 17:50 People are doing what they want to do. 17:51 We need to go to church, whether we feel like it or not. 17:55 Not, I mean, if you're sick, and some people are shut in. 17:58 Don't misunderstand. 17:59 A lot of people watch this program at home. 18:01 They can't go. We understand that. 18:02 God understands that. 18:04 But it's when you can and you just don't feel like it or you 18:07 say, "It looks like it might rain." 18:09 That never stops people from going to a football game, right? 18:14 Is your speech Christ-like? 18:17 What about your words? 18:19 That's a gauge where the heart is. 18:20 Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart 18:22 the mouth speaks." 18:23 Let me read this to you. 18:25 Matthew 12:34, he said, "Brood of vipers. 18:28 How can you, being evil, speak good things?" 18:30 He's basically saying there needs to be change in our heart. 18:33 "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 18:36 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings 18:39 forth good things, an evil man out of the evil treasure of his 18:42 heart brings forth evil things. 18:45 But I say to you, for every idle word men may speak, they will 18:50 give an account thereof in the day of judgment--" 18:53 Does that make you shutter like it does me? 18:56 "For by your words, you will be justified and by your words 18:59 you will be condemned." 19:01 One of the chief editors of Christianity Today shared a 19:04 story that they were traveling with a friend from San Francisco 19:08 to Chicago, and his friend got pulled out of line for one of 19:13 these random security checks and he ended up getting 19:15 on the plane last. 19:17 As he's getting on the plane, he's sitting down 19:19 next to the editor. 19:20 The editor says to him, just loud enough for others to hear, 19:22 "So why did they pull you out of line? 19:25 Was it your beady eyes or the explosives?" 19:28 He's just kidding. 19:29 One of the other passengers heard that. 19:31 They said something to the flight attendant. 19:33 The flight attendant put him off the plane. 19:35 They called airport security and in the process of interrogating 19:39 him, doing all this research on him, the plane left without him, 19:44 and finally they realized he was joking, even though it's a real 19:48 bad idea these days to joke about that. 19:51 Had to wait in the airport. He said, "It was just a few--" 19:55 This is a Christian. 19:56 A few idle words, but the airport's--the airline 20:01 companies, they don't take any risk with who they let through 20:05 the gates of a plane because it could endanger everybody else. 20:10 Is God less careful about what happens in heaven and getting 20:13 through his gates? 20:14 And so you've got to be careful what we say. 20:17 Bible has a lot to share about this. 20:18 Ephesians 4:29, "Let no corrupt word proceed from your mouth, 20:24 but what is good and necessary for edification that you might 20:28 impart grace to your hearers." 20:31 Is our speech imparting grace? 20:33 Or do we say a lot of negative critical things? 20:37 Someone said, "Be careful with what you do with the tongue. 20:39 It's a slippery place." 20:41 James chapter 3, verse 2, "For we all stumble in many things." 20:45 So don't get discouraged when you go through the tests and you 20:48 find there's areas where you stumble. 20:49 Even James said we all stumble in many things. 20:52 But he said, "If anyone does not stumble in Word, 20:55 he is a perfect man." 20:56 So I probably should have put this further up 20:58 on the list, huh? 21:00 If you can control what you say, if you don't engage in gossip or 21:08 exaggeration--that sometimes is another way of saying lying. 21:12 If you're honest, if your speech is always calculated to bring 21:18 glory to God. 21:20 Colossians 4, verse 6. 21:21 "Let your speech always be seasoned with grace, seasoned 21:26 with salt, that you might know how you ought to 21:29 answer each one." 21:31 And so Bible says one of the ways that we can decide, 21:35 one of the criteria if you're doing your list of evaluating 21:39 yourself, how do I talk? 21:41 Now, let's suppose you got a problem with 21:42 what you talk about. 21:44 Where do the words come from? 21:47 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 21:50 So what do you do, muzzle yourself or do you pray that God 21:54 will give you his spirit and change your heart? 21:57 And the change of heart will change the words, but words 21:59 are pretty good criteria. 22:01 Do I have peace and joy? 22:04 Is a Christian supposed to be happy? 22:06 Shouldn't it be--it doesn't mean you're giddy and joking all 22:08 the time, but it means that there is an abiding peace. 22:11 There's a depth. 22:13 This is one of the most sublime evidences of the spirit 22:16 is peace. 22:18 Psalm 119, verse 165, "Great peace have they who love thy 22:23 law, and nothing will offend them." 22:26 John chapter 14, Jesus said, "My peace I give you, not as the 22:30 world gives do I give to you. 22:32 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 22:35 If you're living in constant fear--and I know some people 22:38 struggle with anxiety, and there might be medical 22:40 reasons for that. 22:43 And I've got some friends that they want to have this biblical 22:45 peace but they just--they are anxious. 22:47 They are panicking. 22:48 But I'll tell you what the Bible says. 22:50 "Perfect love casts out fear." 22:53 The Bible says, "The fearful and unbelieving are cast 22:56 into the lake of fire." 22:57 Christians ought to have a peace and a joy. 23:00 The gospel is not sad news, it's not bad news. 23:04 It's good news. 23:06 And if we always go around looking like we've been baptized 23:09 in lemon juice, then nobody's going to want your religion. 23:14 Someone said, "If your religions made you happy, then you 23:18 should notify your face." 23:20 F.B. Meyer said, "Joy is peace dancing, and peace 23:25 is joy at rest." 23:27 "The things which you have learned and received and heard 23:29 and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you." 23:36 You know, one of the things that's beautiful about the peace 23:40 of God is that, it's not--the joy of God and the peace of God 23:44 is not dictated by circumstances. 23:47 In other words, your circumstances and even your 23:49 level of, you know, contentment or happiness in that respect may 23:56 go up and down, but when you know the Lord, you've got an 23:59 abiding peace and a joy. 24:02 The circumstances don't change it. 24:04 The only thing that changes it is when you take your 24:06 eyes off the Lord. 24:08 You start to sink. 24:11 And so we can have that peace. 24:13 It's God's desire for us to have that peace. 24:16 Matthew chapter 13:44, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like 24:19 a treasure hidden in the field, when a man finds it and he hides 24:24 it, and for joy over it he goes and he sells all that he has." 24:30 Why? 'Cause he got that inner joy. 24:31 He knows, "Man, I've got a treasure. 24:33 Nobody knows about the treasure I've got. 24:35 I've found something that is so valuable." 24:37 That you're just excited about it. 24:41 Jesus--John 15:11, "These things I've spoken to you that your joy 24:45 might remain in you and that your joy might be full." 24:50 Billy Sunday said, "If you've got no joy, there's a leak in 24:53 your Christianity." 24:55 We need to have that happiness. 24:57 So Bible says let everyone examine himself whether 25:00 he's in the faith. 25:02 How did you do? 25:04 If you found that there were some areas where there's room 25:06 for improvement, don't let that trouble you. 25:09 That is the biggest room in the world, the room for improvement. 25:13 God wants us to do that because, as I mentioned earlier, being 25:17 a Christian it's not a sprint. 25:20 It's a marathon and it's like running a farm. 25:24 You need to start over every day. 25:28 Have you ever driven by a house of somebody and they got just a 25:30 beautiful garden and their house and the yard 25:32 is always beautiful? 25:34 And you think, "How do they keep their house 25:36 and the yard so beautiful?" 25:38 It's because they are constantly weeding. 25:41 They're constantly out there. They are pruning. 25:44 They are weeding. They're investigating. 25:48 They're evaluating. 25:50 This is what it's like to be a Christian. 25:52 There is maintenance involved. 25:53 The Bible says, on a regular basis, you need to evaluate, 25:57 you need to examine yourself. 25:59 It doesn't say examine your beliefs 'cause you say, 26:01 "I got good beliefs." 26:02 No, he said examine yourself. 26:04 That means, are you walking the walk of a Christian? 26:08 Because the worst thing that could happen is for you 26:13 to neglect that healthy self-examination and come to the 26:17 great judgment day, Jesus has given us so many parables to 26:20 warn us against waiting until it's too late, and to hear 26:24 him say, "I don't know you." 26:26 I want to hear him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. 26:30 Enter into the joy of the Lord." 26:31 Christians can have assurance about the relationship with the 26:34 Lord if they do the regular maintenance, if they will take 26:40 stock, if they will do inventory with the Holy Spirit and then 26:44 make the adjustments as God shows it to them. 26:47 They can have peace. 26:49 They can have assurance based on the promise of God and the power 26:51 of God, but we also need to be faithful with ourselves. 27:00 announcer: Don't forget to request today's life-changing 27:02 free resource. 27:03 Not only can you receive this free gift in the mail, you can 27:06 download a digital copy straight to your computer 27:08 or mobile device. 27:10 To get your digital copy of today's free gift, simply text 27:12 the keyword on your screen to 40544 or visit the web address 27:17 shown on your screen, and be sure to select that digital 27:20 download option on the request page. 27:22 It's now easier than ever for you to study God's Word with 27:26 Amazing Facts wherever and whenever you want, 27:29 and most important to share it with others. 27:32 announcer: What if you could know the future? 27:37 What would you do? 27:39 What would you change? 27:41 To see the future, you must understand the past. 27:46 This intriguing documentary hosted by Pastor Doug Batchelor 27:49 explores the most striking Bible prophecies that have 27:53 been dramatically fulfilled throughout history: 27:56 "Kingdoms in Time." 27:58 For more information, visit kingdomsintime.com. 28:07 announcer: Don't forget to request today's free offer. 28:09 It's sure to be a blessing, and thank you for your continued 28:11 support as we take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. 28:16 We hope you'll join us next week as we delve deep into the Word 28:19 of God to explore more amazing facts. 28:25 announcer: This presentation was brought to you by 28:26 the friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry. |
Revised 2022-06-21