you Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's focus for Saturday, April the 22nd, 2023, at 10.04 a.m. Central Time. Today's focus, a life of obedience. Today's focus, a life of obedience. Now, when you die, What do you want people to say about you? When you die, what do you want people to say about you? Like, let's say you die today. Let's say Tuesday, Wednesday, there's a funeral and everyone gathers together. What do you want them to be saying about you? How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered and be spoken of like it typically happens at a funeral? Because you know, whenever someone dies, all of a sudden they become the greatest husband, the greatest father, they become the best. Now during life, they may not be viewed that way. It's amazing. And there's a little bit of truth to this. I know it's kind of just a more of a kind of a saying, but if you want to improve your reputation, die. Like the best way to improve one's reputation is simply to die. And then all of a sudden you become the greatest everything. greatest wife, the greatest sister, the greatest brother, the greatest father, the greatest husband, the greatest employee, the greatest employer, the greatest citizen, the greatest pastor. All you have to do is die and then your reputation, in many cases, is improved dramatically. There's always exceptions to that rule, but it almost seems like the number one way to improve one's reputation is to die. Now, so when you die, do you want people to speak of you through the lens of an improved reputation because you're dead, or would you want people to speak of you in a way that is more real and more honest? Now, you have no control over it. I have no control over it. I don't know how people are going to speak about me. I don't know how people are going to speak about you, but I've watched it happen too many times where I've been at a funeral. I'm like, I don't know who they're talking about, but that's clearly not the person who died because I knew that person really, really, really well. Okay. So I've watched that take place. Now, in theory, or at least I think, theoretically, I don't want to be remembered that way. I don't want to be remembered in this exaggerated, not realistic way. I want to be remembered in a more realistic way, or at least I think I do. I think I do. I don't know. Do I want people to get around going, you know what? He was a jerk. And you know what? He really wasn't very smart. And that podcast was absolute trash. And, you know, he made nine million mistakes per week. And oh, man, a sinner. Yeah, he was the chief of sinners. Do I really want people to say that? I think there's a part of me that says, yes, I want to be remembered in the most realistic way possible. But if I'm honest, there's probably a part of me goes, man, I hope that when I'm dead, people will be like, wow, he worked really, really hard. He tried, you know, like there would be some positives that would be there, but how do you want to be remembered? And what does that have to do with a life of obedience? Well, if you are a Christian, if you are a Christian, Do you want, when you're dead, people to look back and say, that person lived a life of obedience? Do you want people to say that of you? Oh, here's another question. Would that even be accurate? If I was to die and people were like, he lived a life of obedience to Christ, would that even be remotely accurate in any way, shape, or form? Could we even come close to saying that? Now I'm asking all of these questions, I'm thinking out loud for this Today's Focus episode, because yesterday I get a notification that the InTouch Ministries app has been updated, and I needed to update it and then restart the app. So I updated the app, I restarted it, and as soon as I opened it up, there it is at the very top. In fact, download the InTouch Ministries app today. InTouch Ministries, download the app. As soon as I downloaded the app, right there at the top, it has Dr. Charles F. Stanley celebrating a life of obedience, 1932, 2023, explore his legacy. And then you click on explore his legacy. It has all of these things from his life. There's pictures, there's all of this stuff. But they call it celebrating a life of obedience. Now, I'm not here to talk about Dr. Charles Stanley. I'm not here to talk about what he did, what he didn't do, because people can sit around and debate that and judge him, because a lot of people are already criticizing him and judging him, right? He just passed away. Look, I have no desire to do that, right? He passed away. I have no desire to judge. I have no desire to judge anyone. But when I saw that it said celebrating a life of obedience, I didn't really worry about Charles Stanley. I started worrying about myself, and I started thinking about how Christians perceive things. Because I think Christians have this real weird way of convincing ourselves that we're more obedient, that we're more godly, that we're more righteous than we really are. I think that maybe that is today's focus. What is wrong with the Christian's ability to be, like, what is it about Christianity that seems to lead to, no matter how much we condemn this, we say we don't want this attitude, but there's something about Christianity that seems to lead to the attitude of, I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like that adulterer, that extortioner, that person who covets. I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like all of these people. And we say, no, no, no. We say that that's condemned. No, no, we don't want to be like that. But we're very much like that. because we constantly claim that when you become a Christian now you have power and you can stop sinning and you can do this and you can do this and you can and we and then we convince ourselves that we're doing this that we give these tests how to know you're a christian well you'll do these 10 things and we convince ourselves that we're somehow actually passing the test it's like christians have a hard time acknowledging still sinning, still sinning, still have wrong desires, still selfish, still unholy. There's these things that we don't want to admit about ourselves. So it's almost like there's something about Christianity that creates in our mind, oh, I'm living a life of obedience. Are you? That I'm godly. And I think we wrap ourself in a robe of self-righteousness. We wrap ourselves in some fig leaves pretending to be that which we are not, when clearly before God we are exposed. The law of God exposes us, but we cover ourselves up with almost a pretense of righteousness, instead of just being open and honest. So I was thinking about, if I look back at my life, could I say I lived a life of obedience? I really was thinking about this. Now it depends on how I look at it, right? I could look at some sins, I've never committed those sins. There's plenty of sins I never committed external or internally. And I could be like, wow. I lived a life of obedience. But that would be narrowing my definition of a life of obedience, right? Now you could say, well, if I take the totality of my life, a lot of people love to do this, the totality of my life, the overall direction was towards obedience versus disobedience. But even that, how am I defining that? The overall trajectory of my life was a life of obedience. Well, wait a minute. Am I speaking externally or internally? Because externally, maybe you could say the totality of my life was a life of obedience, but I would be hard-pressed to say that is true internally. Internally, I have a sinful nature. Internally, my mind is filled with thoughts and desires that are wrong. Like, I can go on and on and on with all the things that would be wrong with me internally. And don't sit there in judgment going, as you drive your car, going, kids, I told you this guy's messed up. Okay, just, no, no. How about you just look in the mirror at yourself? I mean, come on. Let's say tomorrow we all walked into church, right? And they said, hey, we have this new technology. this new technology, and we're gonna come over and we're gonna place the technology, we're gonna put these little things on your head, and it's going to immediately project on the screen for everyone to see all of your internal desires, your thoughts, we're gonna see how godly you are on the inside. How many would wanna sign up for that? How many would wanna sign up for that? I sure, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I would not, I would be like, people would be like, oh, I can't believe it. And come on, you have to admit the same would be true of you, right? Nobody would want to see that. So then how do we say a life of obedience? Now, I know Charles Stanley did not write that. I know he did not create that section. He passed away. His ministry staff, whoever it is, they created that, celebrating a life of obedience. Now at the same time, I would hope that as Christians we don't view people and only remember them for their mistakes. Sometimes as Christians we see people and we only see the mistake that they made, we don't see anything else. But I just know this, if you take the totality of my life and we look at it from a truly biblical perspective, which would be external and internal, I did not live a life of obedience. I lived a life of disobedience. You know what I'm getting ready to say because I say it all the time. I can give you some very specific commands in scripture. Love the Lord, that God, with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. It's the totality of my life, a life that demonstrates that I loved God with all of my heart, mind, body, and soul. Give me a break. I don't think I have ever loved God with such a total Love a a totality of all of me from from my mind to my body. I know there's a way present yourselves a living sacrifice I don't know if I've ever truly done that love my neighbor as myself I don't think I've truly ever doing that be holy as God is holy if you just take those scriptures those commands I have failed, failed, failed, failed, which is exactly what those commands are designed to do because they are law and law only reveals our inability to keep it. It reveals our guilt of it and therefore we are driven to Christ who did it for us. Right? Christ was like, not my will, but your will. Christ loved the father. Christ loved his neighbor. Christ was holy as God is. Christ obeyed all of that for me. So in Christ, this is the beauty of it. In Christ, I did live a life. I have lived, I am living, and will live a life of obedience in Christ. perfect obedience, because his passive and active obedience is imputed to me by faith. So on one hand, I did live a life. When I get to the end of my life, someone can say, he lived a life of complete obedience. He obeyed every law. He kept every commandment. He was without sin in Christ. In Christ, he was a new creature in Christ. The old was gone. Everything was new in Christ. Oh, but you come on, guys. We know we knew him, right? Oh, I don't know how many people actually really know me. But if anyone was to stand to go, I really knew him. They would be like, he was a he was a mess. He was a sinner. He was selfish. He was ungodly. He was unrighteous with wrong desires, wrong motivations. He had an ego, he had pride. Yeah, I mean, it would be a list of things. So in Christ, Charles Stanley lived a life of obedience. I don't know about in practice, and I definitely don't know what he was doing internally. I have no way, I'm not gonna say that, because I don't wanna make this about Charles Stanley, but I know about me. What I've always said is first, I would prefer when I die, we'll not have a funeral, that's number one, no funeral. Number two, I don't want anyone to say a word. Number three, I don't, if it was up to me, I would have no grave marker. I would have no, I would just throw me in a hole and cover it up with dirt. I don't want even anyone to know where I'm buried. I don't even want to be remembered. I want to be just gone. And it's not because I'm godly. It's because I know I'm ungodly. I don't want anything to be remembered. That's one of the things I've tried my best, like even on my podcast, I don't try to give my name. I don't ever try to mention my name because I don't want it to be about, I don't want it. The Theology Central podcast hosted by, that's what almost all podcasters do. And then you become the brand. You become, you know, I don't ever want a Bible that the, my name is studied by. I don't know how anybody would even do that. That to me is insane. Because you're selling yourself. You become the brand, not scripture, not God. Theology Central Podcast, I don't want to be the brand. The Theology Central Podcast is about me trying, a sinner sitting in front of a microphone, trying to get you to study the Bible and pursuing theological discussion. It's not about me. If it becomes about me, I've lost the plot. Now, but I don't do that because I'm godly. When I first became a pastor and they were going to create the church sign, they were like, okay, so do you want your academic achievements to put there, you know, like your bachelors and master? And no, I don't even want my name on it. And they were like, what? I don't want my name on anything ever associated with this church. I'm not, any, if we send out a flyer, my name's not gonna be on it. If we put a church sign, my name's not gonna be on it. I don't want my name associated. The church is not about me. If the church becomes about me, then the church, and many churches are known more for the pastor who pastors it than the Christ. of the church. In other words, it becomes more about the—it always becomes about us. So for me, I don't want anything. Not because I'm godly, but because I know I'm ungodly, and I know that if I make it about me—because in some ways, I want it to be about me. In some ways, I want it to be about me. I'm not going to lie. There's been once or twice, I've been somewhere, and someone recognized my voice, and I'm like, oh, that's really cool. But then I'm like, wait, that's not really cool. That's not really cool. That's not really cool. because I don't want it to be about me. Only because, not because I'm godly, but because I know how ungodly I am. So I just know that when I die, there's all these things I want to avoid. I definitely don't want someone to say he lived a life of obedience unless they were referring to the imputed righteousness of Christ. Then it wouldn't be about me, it would be about the perfection of Christ. Then the perfection of Christ would be magnified and I would be gone. That would be good. But I've often said that if someone was to create a tombstone, headstone, and put some kind of something on there, they want something to describe me, some kind of inscription to place there, I would just want to put, here lies a great sinner. who trusted in a greater Savior. That's it. Here lies a great sinner who trusted in a greater Savior. That's it. I don't want my name. Like if someone sees it, okay, whoever died here, he was a great sinner because I am a great sinner. There's no, I don't make any, I try to never act like that, that I'm anything other than a sinner. I try not to, right? I try not to. I probably fail, but I try not to, because I'm painfully aware of it. Because anytime I open the Bible, I see law, law, law, law, law. And you know what I see every time I see that law? Failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure. I don't see a life of obedience. I see a life of disobedience somehow, because I violate God's law in thought, word, desire, feeling, and action pretty much 24 hours a day, seven days a week. and you can say you don't, well, congrats, I just don't think we live a life of obedience. I'm a great sinner who trusts in a greater Savior, and the Savior has to be greater than my sin, or I'm in a whole lot of trouble. So, I understand that people will open up the InTouch Ministry app, and they're gonna see Charles Stanley, and they're gonna celebrate his life of obedience. And that ministry, that family, They can do whatever they want. I'm not here to criticize it. I'm not here to judge it. I just know that if I die and there was an app and someone was going to just put a great sinner died today who trusted in a greater Savior, his legacy is one of failure and sin. That's it. The end. because anything else said would not be true. Anything else, and you can say, well, you did this, and you did that, and look at all the sermons you preached, and look at all the podcasts you did, and all of them was done by a sinful human being. And sometimes you could hear my frustration and my sermons or my podcast. Sometimes you heard my anger and my frustration and my podcast. Sometimes you heard me make my own mistakes. I mean, you know that there's never been a perfect podcast episode. There's never been a perfect sermon because they've all been delivered by an imperfect person. And even if you think that I sound godly in front of the microphone, you have no idea what's going on. I could be sitting here speaking godly things in a microphone, but internally I'm filled with ungodly desires. And you can be sitting there listening, looking as godly and as, you know, sanctified as you can look, but you're a listener who's filled with ungodly desires and your bitterness and unforgiveness and hatefulness and whatever issue you're struggling with. We all got our issues. So, it just struck me today, or yesterday when I saw it. I think it was yesterday when I saw it. It may have been last night. I don't remember exactly what time it was, but as soon as I opened up the Untouched Ministry app after it updated, there it was, celebrating a life of obedience. Now, I wish it was true. I do. Oh, you don't know how much I wish it was true. I wish I could look back on my life when I was sitting in the pew, First Baptist Church, Tuscola, Texas. All of a sudden, I was overwhelmed with the sense that I was a sinner and I knew I needed Christ. And there I was laying in that pew, just weeping, sobbing uncontrollably, so bad, so loud, I had to literally stop the service. It was like I was having an emotional breakdown. I wish I could go back to that moment. And from the moment I trusted in Christ, that I could look back and go, it was a life of obedience. Maybe some small deviations, but it's been obey, obey, obey, godliness, holiness, righteousness, desire God, trust God, never have doubts, never have fears, never have anxiety, never worry, never depression, never discouragement, never anger, never bitterness, never unforgiveness, never lust, like it's just been godly, godly, but you know what? As much as I wish, as much as I long for it, it's just not true. It hasn't been true. And I could go from, you know, from this moment, April 22nd, 2023, that I could live a life of obedience. But no matter how many things I would try to get rid of or stop doing, there would still be disobedience. Now that doesn't excuse anything that I'm doing wrong. It just makes you wish that you had a life of obedience. And speaking of obedience, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Speaking of obedience. I'm not to take away the seriousness of this. I don't know if you heard that. I had to toss my devotional notebook over at my cat because my cat was chewing through the wires to my microphone system that I have for church that's being currently plugged in the wall and being charged. And my cat was deciding to be disobedient and try to, but the cat can't really, is that disobedience? Does an animal know obedience or disobedience? We speak of a disobedient dog or an obedient dog, but can an animal actually know obedience? Like, what are they obeying? Just my demands? But like, is it disobedience for an animal not to listen to me? Okay, well, all right. We can get into a whole discussion about that. But the point is, sorry to be distracted by that, but I can't let him chew that through because, well, then I won't have a microphone come tomorrow. But the point is, just like that cat was being disobedient, have a nature, right? That animal many times is just acting according to its nature, and we come along and say, you can't do that! But it's the animal's nature, right? Well, guess what? I have a nature, and it's a sinful nature, and that sinful nature is in constant conflict with the law of God. It never desires the law of God. It desires its own self-exaltation, gratification. That's what it desires. Now, for me, it is a sin to go according to that nature. It is wrong. It is wrong, because I'm obviously morally responsible before a holy God. But in a roundabout way, that's the problem, is as long as I have a nature inside of me, then will I ever have a life of obedience when it's a nature inside of me that's in a perpetual state of disobedience? My hope cannot be in living a life of obedience, listen, In practice, my hope is that I have lived a life of perfect obedience in my position in Jesus Christ because of His imputed righteousness and His imputed obedience. I wish I was more obedient in practice, but I am so thankful of the perfect obedience of Christ because that guarantees my salvation. What do you think about a life of obedience? That is your Today's Focus for Saturday, April the 22nd, 2023. Thanks for listening.