It's been a while since I've been up here. Yeah, it takes, it's hard though. It takes work, it is laboring, you know, in between the nine to five and, you know, the normal challenges of life. I mean, really, it seems like every time you preach a message, you get bam, bam, bam. And I'm sure it's the same thing if you hear a message. We're under a refining process. God is taking us through and he's purging us and he's pruning us. And so there are a lot of difficulties. I mean, we're having to walk this thing out. And we talk about spiritual warfare and being in a war zone and and having to contend for the faith and all these different things. In real life, it can be challenging. You have to learn how to persevere. You can't be weak-minded or wimpy. You have to draw on the Lord for strength. And He's the one that gives you the spiritual stamina. But sometimes you feel like you're wore out. And you have to call on him and he gives you the strength to continue. But all that is good because it teaches you who to rely on. It teaches you dependence. It teaches you that he is the vine and we're but branches. Apart from him, we can do nothing. And so if we want to live for him, we want to serve him, and we want to represent him, we got to cling to him. And that's more than profession. It's practice. It's really, I have some discipline in my life, and I have to learn how to connect with him. And hopefully this message will convey that. You have to be intentional. You cannot be passive. It's an active pursuit, he's saying. He said, I'm a rewarder of them that diligently seek. So a half-hearted approach is not something that he's pleased with. Many things he said, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. If you're lukewarm, he said, I'll spit you out of my mouth. And what it is, is he's saying he wants a passionate, wholehearted pursuit. And if you're saved, if he called you to himself, you'll realize he wants the same passion and intensity that he pursued you. He wants you now to pursue him. You know what I'm saying? If you realize like Clemence was saying before we started here, what he really did, if you're, you know, if you're in Christ, the magnitude and the depth to which he paid for your eternal salvation, then that should cause you to reciprocate. You shouldn't trivialize it. You shouldn't demean it. You should really see it for what it is and pursue it with your whole heart. And so one of the things that the message that is given to me today is called a mirror for my motive. And so this is the word he gave me. And he gave me pieces, and this is how he does me with a message oftentimes. I'm praying, and it's like pieces of a puzzle. So I don't necessarily see the big picture. I may grasp it, but a lot of it's a moment-by-moment dependency, which is a weird way of going about things, but then it starts to come together. And then I, even like when I was sitting here, it was just all of a sudden, it was like, oh wow, there's a contrast between two things. I didn't even see it at all during the preparation process. So let me go right into the message. We're gonna start out with Romans 8, 28 through 30. And I'm just going to go ahead and read it. And we know that for those who love God. All things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called, and those he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. So one of the things that you can grasp from this is that salvation is of the Lord. He's the one that saves. So he's the one that went after us. He pursued us. And so he's the one that foreknew. He's the one that predestined. He's the one that called. He's the one that justified. He's the one that glorifies. And that term is a past tense term, but it has a future implication. And what does that mean? He already did it. He knows the end from the beginning, so he's not tripping every step of the way going, you know, what if it don't quite work out? No, whatever he begins, he completes. So he knows, I already called you, I saved you, I set you apart from myself. Sometimes we're just in the middle of the process. But he knows. And so one of the things that he does is he lets us know that there's going to be a future time. where we're gonna have a future glorification. It's called the beatific vision. It's called the blessed hope. What does that mean? When he comes back and those who are in him, those who are asleep and those who are still here are gonna be caught up to meet him. And then we're gonna go through a translation process and we're gonna take off this corruption and put on incorruption. That is our hope. And the more you're in your face, the more you're in the mirror of the word, the more you realize, dang, I need him to come back. Because for all that I've grown, I still come up short. And the more that you start to see yourself, the more you go like, dang, if I don't even, my conversation don't get kind of off or my conduct don't get kind of off. I know my thought life is off. And so I'm always having to rely on him to really feel in any way, shape or form justified. You know what I'm saying? He did it, but I need to be in his face to know the certainty of it. So the sanctification is an in-the-meantime, in-between-time process. While we're waiting on him to glorify us, in the meantime and in-between that time, he's sanctifying us. What does that mean? He's setting us apart. So as Myra says, we want to fit in and we want to blend in. We're actually called to be holy, different. A peculiar people, a holy nation. So we're called to be different. And most of us, we wanted to fit in so bad that even when he was calling us to himself, we were finding ourselves just doing what we do and it wouldn't work out. Time and time again, he kept hitting our head because he was pursuing us. He's like, look, you're mine, you're mine. And so every time you would try to do something, the bottom would fall out. You'd end up sick, broke, busted and disgusted. And there would be something that in you that knew, you know, come to me. Surrender to me. Give yourself to me. And that was his work, his calling, his doing. Now one of the things I want you to pay attention to is there is a goal in all of this to be conformed to the image of his son. This isn't just saved and now I just do me. And now I got a little help. I got some divine help to do me. That's not what this is, you know what I'm saying? Okay, I got Jesus now and all my dreams are gonna come through. I got Jesus now. He's the best hookup you can have to fulfill your dreams. I mean, who else but the divine creator, the master of all the universe. Now all my dreams, all my hopes, no. No, he has his goal and his goal is to make you serve his purpose. So when he said he saves you is to serve him. So a lot of times being in this word and that's what I hope you'll see by the time it's all said and done. This word will tell you how to view him. How do you view his will and how to view your purpose for your life? Amen. So let's go to the next scripture. We go to the next scripture. Bear with me. I'm a little bit older now. Even turning pages is a challenge. I'm kidding. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, your trust and confidence in turning to him. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of your work so that no one may boast. He didn't pick and choose us because we were good. He didn't pick us and choose us because we're worthy. He didn't pick and choose us because all of a sudden you got it together. Now I'm going to save you because this is one I need in my camp because he's going to make me look good. She going to make me look good. I need him on my Jesus camp because I'm networking. Jesus doesn't do that. He don't network. He don't need a camp. He don't need a posse. He don't need a group of people to make him look good. He picks and chooses people that are unworthy, undeserving. Nothing about him, nothing merits our salvation. He's like, I picked you and it's not because of you. And I'm going to show you that I love you and I pulled you to myself. And the whole thing is reciprocation. Amen. Now, one of the things that I want to say is for we are his work machine created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So it doesn't mean he saves you. Once again, he don't save you so you can do you. He saves you so you can serve him. And so one of the things about that is it requires an intentional participation. It's a relationship. He has a destination that you be conformed to his image, that you serve his work, his plan, his purpose. So we got to learn how to walk with him. We need to learn how to obey him, but you won't know all of that. If you're not in the word, if you're not in the words, you're going to you're going to perceive him incorrectly because his word shows you his character. His word shows you his his his will his kingdom practice. And so you got a whole lot of people talking about Jesus in a weird kind of way because you know that they're not in the word, you know, they talk about the Jesus that gives you the hookah. It's like that isn't the Jesus of the Bible. Hello. You know what I'm saying? Pick it up. Reading is fundamental. Break that book open. Okay, let's go to the second page. Okay, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now only, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his own good pleasure. I like the way this one commentary said it. He saves you, right? And he works in you the appetite to act right. But then he enables you to do it. But at the same time, that don't mean you sit back and go, well, you know, Jesus, let it happen. Let it happen. You give me the appetite and let it happen, Lord. But in the meantime, in between time, I'm about to get my party on. You know what I'm saying? It's like, no, no. It's walk out your salvation with a reverential fear and trembling. There's a realization that, look, the only reason why I live and breathe today is because he gave me the breath of life. And I don't care how young you are or how old you are. Somebody didn't wake up today. And nothing is promised to none of us. And so there's a different mindset when you realize the magnitude of who he is. We have to be intentional in our seeking him. Now. How do you mean? What do you mean seek him? You got to be in prayer. You have to you have to be in your word. You have to fellowship with like-minded believers. When we come together, the Bible says when we come together, there is a measure of grace that we get. We grow more because we're in each other's presence. So this, I'm in, you know, I'm in Jesus. I'm just, you know, but I got my own personal relationship. I don't need all that. I can't do people. Well, you're not going to grow. You're going to be alone and stagnated or alone. You may not even be saved, you know what I'm saying? You're going to be alone. There is going to be no maturity. The other thing about the community of believers is that we have a different value system. We have a different belief system. We have a different practice. So when we come together and we're encouraged by each other, it's like, look, I've been around a whole lot of crazy in the week. I come around and I'm hearing people that I'm like, okay, good. At least somebody thinks, you know what I'm saying? Somebody else is getting their same, you know, their cues from the same source. Amen. So one of the things he's, you know, and then the other thing too, we worship him. We praise him. We minister to each other. We care about each other. It's not dog-eat-dog competition. You know, you and me, we're competing to see who's going to be the best Jesus follower. You and me are going to compete to see who's going to be more Christ-like. No, it's each other provoking each other to mature and grow into Christ-likeness. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. And then the other thing that would do what is Christlike character look like with the fruit of the Spirit love peace joy gentleness kindness goodness faith temperance meekness. We learned to come under his control and then we get more control over stuff. We're not out of control. It's just not everything that I feel I say everything. I think I do everything I want to do. I do know there's restraint and the restraint because I'm learning more about him. I'm surrendering to him. He lets me know. No, you may want to do it, but I'm going to show you my constraining force. And the scripture tells us there's a way that seems right into the, uh, a man, but the end there leads to destruction. And a lot of us have tested out. You don't have to do it. There's been a lot of us. There's a lot of testimony in here where we thought we knew what we was doing and did what we wanted to do. And we saw the destruction and we saw people that didn't check. Some people checked in and didn't check out. I mean, we talk about it. Yes, he delivered us. Yes, he pulled us out. But don't over glamorize it to the point where we don't realize that some people didn't make it. I have a lot of grief in my timeline of people that did the same thing that I did and didn't come out. They ended up in the casket. They ended up in the casket, and it's a sad, cautionary tale of what not to do. But if we make it always, well, Jesus, do you, and don't worry, he gonna rescue you. No, that's not, you don't put him to a foolish test. You know what I'm saying? We revere him, we worship him, we put him in a place. No, no, he said, don't do it. Help me, Lord, because I wanna do it. Help me, Jesus. You know, let me do whatever it takes. because I did a lot of what I wanted to do. And one thing about an appetite, and I can tell you from experience, if you feed it, it grows. And sometimes walking back when you, you fed that. appetite over and over again. Yes, he delivered, but a lot of times it's like, boy, when you fed that thing and you say, okay, now I'm agree with you, Jesus, and you're coming back from that place. Oh, it's harder. The longer, repent as soon as you can. The sooner you can get the message. You know do it because the longer you sit in it the longer you stay in it the harder is to come back If you want a message on damage control, that's a good message to go with don't just feed everything don't fuel everything because what's going to happen is your appetite is going to grow and and it's gonna be harder to resolve. Yes, you will if he's working and you're willing to do. And oftentimes this is the story we don't like to hear. He has to break you off a lot of times to get you to that place of surrender. Most of us can tell you the story. We can talk about, well, I was doing this and then he changed me. Yeah, but how did he change you? It's usually he allows you to reap what you sow to the point you got sick of it. A lot of times he allows you to reap what you sow until you wanna vomit up the very thing that you once celebrated. You know, I mean, I had all kinds of things. I grew up in the 80s, and I was reading this book, and it was talking about the age of excess. And so in the 80s, we did things, and we thought this was to do, and we did it extra, extra, extra. And we got extra reaping. Let's go. So let's go to Romans 12, 1 through 13. Romans 12, 13, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. He's good. This is what you do. You present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. This is spirituality right here. Surrender yourself. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. I want to stop there and real quick. We're supposed to separate ourselves. We're not to take our cues from the world as we separate ourselves. Then, and we submit to God through the disciplines we're talking about, then you can know what right from wrong. But if you're not in that word, and you're not submitting to them, you think you know what's right, and you think you know what's wrong, but the fact of the matter is, you're off. You're off, because more than likely, you're gonna be taking your cues from the culture. And I'm about to step into that in a minute. So right now, you wanna learn how to discern right from wrong, which will help you make better choices, and have better outcomes. Learn how to submit to them in prayer, fellowship, worship. Reading the Word is premier in a time where the Word of God right now is constantly mocked, dismissed, dismantled. You put it on the proper place. It is the Word of God and it will show itself to be true each and every time. So we will grow into more Christ-like character. I want to put this last part in here. I didn't know why I was putting it here. I think I know why now. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Pastor Jamie taught it at the beginning. You have to have a right view of yourself. Your self-view can't be too high and it can't be too low. If you sit up here and loathing yourself, that's still too much of you. If you still looking down at yourself and saying, I'm inferior to everybody, that's still too much of you. But if you think of yourself more highly than you are, then you're going to come down because the Bible says, let a man exalt himself and he shall be abased. Let's go. So let's go to so we want to seek and surrender to him daily. We want to be intentional. We want to surrender to him oftentimes moment by moment. There have been a lot of times off on the job every place you go into where people will come at you foul people will come at you and disrespect you and you sit there go off. I got words. I got words that are coming up. They're formulating in my mind and the Holy Spirit says be quiet. And so I'm like, Lord, help me. I surrender this to you in the name of Jesus, because the words are there, and I'm going to learn how to be slow to speak, slow to wrath, quick to listen. Help me, Lord, with them words. I give you them words, Jesus. Help me with my thoughts. Help me with my words. Help me with my action. And that's what the secrets of the vine is. That's learning how to depend on the vine. So let's go to the next one. Okay, character definition. A person's character is the sum of these things, his disposition, his thoughts, his intentions, his desires and actions. It is good to remember that character is gauged by general tendencies, not on the basis of a few isolated actions. We must look at the whole life. So your character should be developing and growing to be more consistently Christ-like. Not like I have a Christ-like moment. You know what I'm saying? Every now and then I act like Jesus, but more than time, I'm the devil. You know what I'm saying? No, it's becoming more and more reflecting his character. So the believer's life is going to be changed inside, his motives, his intentions, his desire. and then it will reflect outside, his actions, his conversation, and his conduct. The major obstacles in the process is the world, the world system, the culture, the things that speak, things that run contrary to the word of God, and the mind of God, and the heart of God, and then your own flesh. Because even when you're saved, Now, the default that I have now is just to do everything right and holy and pure. You know, there is a war now that happens inside. And you have a desire to do right, but you have a desire to do wrong. And you can choose either path. You know, Galatians talks about the war of the flesh against the spirit. And so, you have to learn how to crucify the flesh and its passions. So that part of us, you know, that riles up, you know, and wants to go and get caught up in whatever, that thing, that thing, I have to take it to the Lord. And sometimes labor in prayer, we like quick hit prayers. We like quick hit prayers. You know, we want everything microwaved. Oh, I took it to Jesus. Yeah, Jesus, here. Now you, why didn't it change? Well, sometimes you got to pray Pray, you got to labor in prayer. There was a time when the saints of old would labor in prayer. Now we're in the microwave mentality. We've kind of been influenced by the whole culture and how everything is just quick, fast, and hurly. Technology makes our patience level that big. And so now we don't want to spend any more time on anything than we think that we really have to. And so we're always looking for a more quicker and more efficient way to do something. And that doesn't apply to prayer. You got to take that before the Lord and sometimes you got to labor with it. It's like and then sometimes you fall you get back up and you forgive me Lord help me and that persistence. I am determined to serve you and to surrender you because you've been good to me because you saved me. Okay, the flesh still has its appetites and drives that are selfish and self-centered, self-seeking and self-promoting. Christ told us to deny ourselves and live for him. This requires intentionality, especially the Bible warns that the culture will wax worse and become increasingly hostile toward him and his will. So the only way that you don't get caught up in the culture is you put him first. And as you see, let's go to the next slide. I was reading a book, Narcissism. Okay, two sociologists. These are not even people calling themselves Christians. Gene M. Twangy and W. Keith Campbell co-authored a book called The Narcissistic Epidemic. And there's another book that one of them co-authored called Generation Me. But with the narcissism, they're saying there's an epidemic of narcissistic traits showing up in the people. And some of those things they're doing is really doing, they have a standardized test called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. And so they give these people, they send out to these broad demographics, and they ask people certain things that will show whether or not, you know, they're questions to try to find out where you think, how you think, your attitudes, your perspective, and your behavior, to see how narcissistic you are. And so they were finding high rates of narcissism in the people. Now, most of us who are spiritual, we say, well, I already knew that. You know what I'm saying? You can look around and you don't even need to be spiritual to figure it out. But the fact of the matter is that they actually did the research and got the hard data to prove it. Now, one of the things I wanted to say, too, is I was reading one particular article, and they were talking about in the 17th through the 19th century, it was a culture of character in the United States. People looked at character as something of worthwhile. So having loyalty, hardworking, generosity, integrity, respectability was something that the culture promoted. Now remember the Judeo-Christian influence on the culture meant that a lot of the values and the attitudes and the perspectives that were biblical were actually permeated into the culture. Now everyone wants to you know, retreat from that. They want to get rid of anything that has any sign of Christianity associated with it, patriarchal, oppressive, or whatever. And so now we have a different set of values as a result of that move. One of the things in the 20th century, they moved from culture to personality. That became the thing. Instead of being a thing about me becoming self-sacrificing and living a life of integrity, now it's about self-realization. Me being all that I, you know, me being happy and me living out my whole self. So we go to the next slide. And so there were some symptoms of the narcissistic epidemic. There was vanity, materialism, uniqueness, relationship troubles, entitlement, and religion that were all influenced, that they gauged on. So vanity, I'm not gonna be exhaustive. I know we don't have that much time, and I'm not gonna give you percentages. You can check out the book yourself. But I'm gonna tell you, this is one of the things they talked about was the amount of selfies people are taking. You can monitor that. We are a selfie-obsessed culture. I mean the idea of selfies was not even a thing when most of us were growing up. The idea of me taking a picture of me and sharing with you, that was not even on the radar. Now I might have a picture of me that someone took of me and I shared it with you, with the whole idea of me taking a picture of me to share with you. And then I got to take it all the time because I want you to see me in this. Oh, I'm here. Look at me. Look, you know, it's this whole thing of look at me. And as a result of the selfie thing, it's not limited to the selfie thing, though, that there is an epidemic of, I mean, a high rise in plastic surgery. And I saw in this one video that this plastic surgeon was saying that one of the main things that people come and say, the reason why they get plastic surgery is because they don't like the way they look in a selfie. I looked at my selfie and I saw You know, I got too much of this or too little of this. And so that even young people. 18 to 24 are having a high amounts of plastic surgery. They're getting, you know, breast augmentation, butt lifts, all kinds of things. And it's even translating into ethnic minorities. Chinese and black folks sitting up there getting eyes opened. We can't have our natural ethnicity. We're identifying with a more European standard of beauty. So we're changing up ourselves to look like what is being epitomized as the standard of beauty across the board. We're an image-obsessed culture. No dignity, no shame to your game. You show your body, if you got it, flaunt it. Even if you pregnant. Nine months pregnant, I got to take a naked picture of myself. Look at me. Look at me. Pregnant and glowing and naked. There was a point, I mean, it's like, why do you have to do that? Pregnant and naked. And then also too, raunchy is becoming more mainstream. People were even taking cues from porn stars. Porn stars that used to be considered, you know, on the fringes were all of a sudden now being celebrated. And you guys remember the craze where everyone wanted a stripper pole in their, you know, in their bedrooms to, you know, this, okay, we've got to get a stripper pole. What does that say about what our values are? What does it say about our perspective? What does it say about the culture at large? You got stripper skills. Anyway, the next thing we have is materialism. And one of the things they talked about was buying and using products to confer status, power, and sophistication. I gotta have things because it makes me look like I'm about something. I gotta have some things because it gives me a sphere of power and makes me look like I'm about something. And sometimes most of us, we're keeping up with the Joneses while going more and more progressively into debt. And the Joneses is broke too. You and the Joneses is broke. You and the broke Joneses in bankruptcy court. But you looking like the Joneses. Then the next thing is the luxury revolution. We can't just buy regular products no more. All our food, all our products, we got to buy products. It's got to be the high-end stuff, because you worth it. You are worth it. You got to buy, you got to have specialty, specialty things. Jergens ain't no good no more. You know what I'm saying? Ivory soap. I can't do ivory. Ivory worked for me when I was a... You know what I'm saying? We got to take it to a whole other level. Everything got to be extra. What is that? Just everything got to be specialty. Everything got to be luxury. But you're going broke every step of the way with your non-ivory-using self. better get you some Jergens and some ice. Save that money. Pay off them bills. So then you got reality TV shows that convey extravagant lifestyles, which people admire and try to emulate. Most of us know that there was a point in time where you didn't turn on the TV. We remember, you know, MTV Cribs was one thing, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, you know, at one point. But those were novelty at one point. All of a sudden you were peering into the lifestyles of the celebrities that once were not accessible to us. Now we got 24 seven access because with video logs now you can go into your favorite celebrity and you can look at their, you know, their YouTube videos and look at all the luxury that they're, you know, and they're very ostentatious and I want to show you all that I'm doing. And what does that say, make us think? about our lives when we compare ourselves to somebody who's got so much more. You know, there was a point in time with third world countries, people were, their expectation wasn't as high, but once that internet opened up and they started seeing their state compared to other people's states, then all of a sudden it was like a dissatisfaction came over you. So we can easily start to admire people that have got way more than us, And we're like, no, you ain't even in that league. It's all right. It's all right to not be in that league. And if anything, you learn how to find contentment with God. Don't be feeding. The Bible says godliness with contentment brings great gain. And one of the things that they have found is that people that despite the fact that materialistic people on average are less happy and more depressed. They got more, but they ain't happy. How many people you've seen on these reality TV shows or, you know, celebrity, we're a celebrity obsessed culture. How many celebrities do you read up? They got everything, money, fame, status, wealth, materialism, and they're a train wreck. And we like to look at it. Oh, it's about to hit now. Look at that. I see the train is going off the tracks. Y'all look at this. Look at this. And we all obsessed with it, but they got everything, but they ain't got everything. And people want to be special. We're going to talk about uniqueness, wanting to be special, not ordinary. Now, this is the thing I want to kind of walk a little bit on this. There was a self-esteem movement in the seventies where they started to teach kids. You're special. And you're not just special because of what you did, you're just special because you're you. Right? And that no matter what you want to do, you can do anything you want to do. You can do anything, you can be everything you want to be. And no matter what you're going to, you know, and so it set a high expectation with the kids. And while I think it's good to counter messages of inferiority or messages of self-loathing, It was it what they're finding that it went to the opposite extreme and people were starting to become arrogant. It's like I'm special. How are you going to try to correct me? I'm special. Don't you know who I am special means out of not ordinary not regular. You know, you special. Well, the thing is you have to be careful about leaving that message because the scripture tells us that the flesh is nothing to be exalted. Self needs to be put in check. And so we got a lot of special people around us now. And it's translating into, it's spilling over into a lot of areas in the culture. Special people often think they are better than others and are more prone to mistreat, abuse, and use others who they think are inferior. And then it's showing up even in the classrooms. Professors are saying they're having a hard time even correcting a child. If I try to tell you, this one kid told him, I pay your salary. And in college. And then they say, well, if I go on vacation, should the professor adjust the exam because of the fact I go on, and a lot of them were saying yes, they should. And so there's a message of entitlement. that is coming across the board. So, you know, you ain't special. It's all right, you good, but you ain't special. Okay, and it fosters arrogance. They say that it translates even to the way names, they were studying names across the board and they said that names now, everyone has to be unique because we can't have just a common name and so that's one of the areas they looked into. There's a lot of antisocial behavior, weakening social bonds and antisocial behavior. They said that while the violence rate has gone down generally since the 1990s, They're saying that a different kind of violence started to show up school shootings mass shootings where people not only did these atrocious things, but they wanted to even they would even post videos. This is the way isn't why I did. I'm gonna be famous if I kill all these people me famous. So there's almost like they were making their press release. And so there's obsession with fame in this culture. And they even tested young people, and they said, if you prioritize, and I think it was like fame, good looks, God, God was on the bottom of the list, and fame was at the top. Fame, beauty, and fortune, they prioritized those things. So it's becoming more of a superficial, shallow kind of perspective. Okay, so school shootings, there's an increased civility, people cussing each other out. You read them video logs and comments, and talking to each other crazy online. People don't have a certain level of respectability. Now, some of that's the anonymity. I can sit up and say everything I want because you can't see me. You know what I'm saying? But the fact of the matter is that people are generally becoming more rude and abrasive. There's a decrease in empathy, increased cheating. I watched several things, and this is one of the reasons why narcissism is bad, becoming more self-absorbed. I watched a documentary, it's an old documentary, on the M-Wrong failure, and even the mortgage crisis. And they were interviewing people, and people were like, well, everyone else was doing it. I knew something wasn't right, but we had a lot to gain to doing it. So there's no general concern about the overall overarching effect that it's gonna have on people. And as a result, most of us are now paying taxes on that mortgage crisis bailout. It's got to come somewhere. That money got to come somewhere, and so it's going to come out of our pocket. So there is no victimless crime here. And even with cheating, a lot of students are plagiarizing, they said, and admitting to cheating in order to accomplish the end. But they're like, it doesn't matter. The means to the end doesn't matter. It's the end that matters. Now, if you're a Christian, you know that motive means everything. Bless the Lord. Relationship troubles. People got to find the one. My soulmate. I got married, but that wasn't my soulmate. I got this crazy one next to me. I need my soulmate. And the soulmate, and they called it the sizzle versus substance factor. My soulmate is the one that makes me feel good in the whole, you know, there's no substance to it. So people are finding it hard to find relationships because they have such a high expectation that they think that if they get involved with somebody that they'll be settling or missing out on the magic. And then they were talking to a bunch of young people and some of the things they said they desired no personal sacrifice. They wanted fun and easy on their schedules on their time. And there's another thing that showing up with a hookup culture and the hookup culture is you just have sex with people. No emotional attachment is easy. Feel good. You can jump from one person to the next person to the next person. There's no demand in a hookup situation. If I sleep with you and I sleep with so-and-so, there's no expectation. Commitment requires work. Commitment requires commitment. Okay, then the last thing is entitlement. No, two more things and then I'm gonna move on. But entitlement, I told you about students' grades, kids thinking that they should just get grades for showing up. And they viewing, sometimes their teacher's feedback is, that's just your opinion. Your opinion is just as, my opinion is just as much as your opinion. And it's just a different mindset. Employees are complaining that they are getting less work and wanting, employers wanting less work and more play, more flexible hours, higher expectation for upward movement and gratification. They don't want to pay dues. It's an exceeding praise for showing up. I just want to do a couple of things. There's also a sense of informality. This one girl, now I'm not saying this is across the board. So if you're young, don't think I'm saying everybody in the younger generation is this way or everyone in the culture is this way. It's just that they're finding a pervasive influence across the board. So it's hitting a large enough and significant enough amount of people to warrant some concern. And so, you know, one lady, one young girl, this is one of the stories, showed up to her interview and brought her cat with her. So she put the cat thing up on the thing, and while the interviewer was talking to her, she's talking to the cat and playing with it. I'm like, you ain't got good sense, that's the problem. You ain't got good sense, I'm sorry. No, but there were a couple of other instances about that. Even like the CEO walked in and started talking to one person and said, you know, what is it, where would you like to see her in five years? And he said, your job. And so now you can read the book for yourself because I'm just putting out little bits and pieces and they're saying it's much more prevalent so that it warrants some attention. Now, of course, if it's an isolated incident, it wouldn't make the book, but they're actually searching it to the point instead of trying to find the mindset that is prevailing in the culture. The last thing is religion. Focusing on people are gravitating toward religion that have focused on individual needs focused on wealth and material success That's why the prosperity gospel You're going to a church that doesn't confront you, but rather comforts you in your craziness, your materialism. That's where the attendance is. People want to go somewhere. Don't tell me anything about my sin. Don't tell me anything about my having to conform to anything. Don't tell me about my character. I'm good. What I want you to do is speak to what I want and help me to get to that end. And it coincides with the God didn't create you an average message. You're special. Anyways, it fosters a carnal appetite, not character transformation, Christ-likeness. And then there's that cafeteria religion Pastor Jimmy's talked about. People are missing things. They're finding like people believing that, you know, in mysticism, talking to the dead, astrology, consulting a psychic, spiritual energy and trees, yoga as a spiritual practice and evil eye that were things that they listed out in addition to their beliefs. Okay, let's jump to the next one. 2 Timothy 3 and 1 through 5 says, but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulties for people will be lovers of self. Lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, Brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power, avoids such people. And you can see narcissism all wrapped up in there. So the question is, what is your motivation? Are we swept up in the tide a little? Are we swept up in the tide a lot? Are we swept up in the tide entirely? We're looking at the man in the mirror. Proverbs 16 and two says, all the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. So while you ask that question, You got to ask the Lord. You got to be in that word and you got to ask because a lot of times I'll appraise myself better off than I really am. I go into my prayer closet and I think I'm good. Oh, this is gonna be a good prayer day. I ain't got nothing. I'm just kidding. I don't think that way but you know, you get you start praying and then the Holy Spirit starts convicting you about your attitude in one area and it's a blessing. He, when you praying and he starts convicting, that means he's going to cleanse you and align him. So surrendering to that's a blessing. It's like, look, I don't have to stay stuck in my character craziness. So he's the one that we have to rely on to properly diagnose. You can't self-diagnose. King Solomon with all his wisdom, and he had all kinds of wisdom. He was one of the wisest men. Proverbs 16, he wrote the book of Proverbs. He had enough insight to know that man is unable to properly diagnose his true character and motives without the Lord. Bless God, I'm gonna go Psalms 139, 23, two through 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. King David, his father, echoed the same sentiments in the Psalms. We need to pray and seek the Lord, for I call them regular heart checkups, to see what is truly motivating us, daily and sometimes more. Because otherwise we're being influenced by the culture rather than Christ. So that's why a disciplined life is good. and learning how to be sensitive to the Spirit of God. Let's go to Hebrews 4, 12 through 13. For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing center of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. So he will reveal your motives and intentions. And don't feel bad if you don't have noble motive intentions. That's how you get there. Is you let him show you you, you surrender you, and then he starts to purify you and make your motives and intentions. That's how you mature and grow. So his word reveals true motives and intentions. Let's go to the next one. This is going to kind of echo this. About this time we have much to say and it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he's a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Now if your baby milk is good, If you're a new convert, you gonna act like a baby and it's all right. Feed on the milk, let it nurse you and mature you. But if you 20 and you still wearing diapers and drinking milk, we got a problem. We got a serious problem. Amen. There is a proper maturation that occurred, and we should be developing. And so the word of God is the food by which we grow and mature. OK, I'm actually coming down to the last two, y'all. OK, James 1, 22 to 25. But be doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving yourself. For anyone who is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intentionally at his natural face in the mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forget what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his deed. So it's not just enough to look at it. There's a look of it, look at it and pray and make the necessary adjustments. Because otherwise you're looking at the mirror, you see your hair is jacked, you look your face and your face is toe up, but you walk away and you just forget. Wait, hold on a minute. Maybe I shouldn't walk outside right now. Maybe I should take a comb to my head. Maybe I should wash my face, do something. You know what I'm saying? So that's the same thing with the word. So the one thing that didn't dawn on me while this was coming together in this This is gonna sound simple, but this is how it's been. It's been a lot of pressure. But I felt like the Lord was giving me a contrast between the narcissistic view, and if anyone knows about narcissism, the myth of narcissist was that he was so in love with himself that he loved the look of himself in his own mirror, his own reflection. So that's where you get narcissism from. So it's the difference between being in love with yourself and being in love with Christ. looking in the mirror of his word and being conformed into his image. So there's a contrast there between narcissism and actually the word of God actually changing your character to look like Christ. I'm on the last slide, slide number 15, with which Aaron and his son shall wash their hands and their feet when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water so they may not die. Okay, in the Old Testament, when he called Moses and all of them out of the tabernacle, before he gave the law, he gave them the instructions on how to build a tabernacle. And that tabernacle had to be built according to spec, the exact measurements, exact resources. And the reason why is it spoke of heaven realities that were going to come on the earth. and it spoke to the coming of Christ. He gave the law, but he knew people were gonna come short of the law and they're gonna need a savior. If you read about the tabernacle, the tabernacle is saying, God is saying, look, I know they gonna mess up. I know they gonna mess up. And I've already made a provision. So the tabernacle was already gonna be a place where there was gonna be sacrifice. The tabernacle was gonna be a place where man can meet God, but only can come by way of a sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice. But the one thing about the brazen labor, When you came into the tabernacle, there was a white linen fence that kept you from coming in. You had to come in and a sacrifice had to be made. That sacrifice, blood sacrifice, was the only way you can get in. So you had to have a blood sacrifice, perfect, without spot or blemish, and that thing had to be killed, and then the priest could enter in. Once they were in there, there was the tabernacle itself. That was just coming into the linen fence, into what was called the outer court. And there was actual building, and you couldn't go in the building until you first washed in the brazen labor. Now, one of the things about the brazen labor was the resources that were used to build that was the vanity, the compacts that the women used to look at themselves. So back in the day, they didn't have these kind of compacts. They had brass and it was shined so they could see their reflection. So there is even a suggestion of forsaking vanity. in the building of that brazen labor. And so they built this brazen labor, filled it up with water, and they had to look at themselves before they went in to serve in the holy place and the holy of holies. So here you are, you're in this outer court, you're coming in, the sacrifice has already been made, but if they had to be diligent about making sure they were washing, well, what does that symbolize? It's first of everything points to Christ. This don't even mean nothing if we don't have Jesus in the mix. So Jesus is the only reason why we can have any kind of relationship with God. But then there's also this other idea of walking with God, and walking with God. So every time they came down to that outer court, they were exposed to all the elements, there was no ground, they were wearing sandals. So that means they constantly picked up dirt just by virtue of being in that outer court. That's the same thing with us. When we're walking with the Lord, we're in the Lord, we're surrounded by this culture. We're surrounded with people that have contrasting ideas, opinions, and beliefs to the word of God. And so we're constantly picking up defilement, dirt. But God has already made a provision. And the provision is to wash in his word. The provision is, of course, first and foremost, with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But the daily maintenance is to be in the word of God and confession. Confessions don't work for a narcissist, because the narcissists think they're superior to everybody. So we got to humble ourselves and say, look, I need Jesus. I need an attitude adjustment. I need fixing. I need my conversation to change. I have to constantly rely and depend on him. And then there's the other implication, I'm gonna say this and be quiet, but the foot washing, I think Scofield was kind of suggesting that the foot washing was even indicative of the fact that we wash each other's feet. You know what I'm saying? Because we pick up dirt. And so that means sometimes we even have to confront each other in love. The Bible says, if you see your brother overtaking a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you be tempted. The whole goal is restoration. And it's also about doing it in the spirit of meekness. My motive has to be right. I'm not coming here just to rip you apart and show you how I'm better than you and I got to tell you about yourself. And I, you know, I love telling people about themselves. No, it's not that kind of thing. It's I'm looking out for you. I care about you. I'm going to tell you something because I see you going into dangerous territory. Bless God. So that is it. Bless God. He wants to be in the mirror of His Word. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. So let me go ahead and pray. Bless the Lord. So if anyone, we're going to go ahead and pray. If any of you are uncertain of your relationship with the Lord, come down and we're going to talk to you and pray with you.