Last night, I told you that I don't like change, especially when it applies to me. And with a little investigation, I found out that I'm not alone. Listen to these quotes. In the late 1800s, the Duke of Cambridge expressed his concern in this way. Any change at any time for any reason is to be deplored. Now, thankfully we don't have to just listen to the Duke, not of Earl of Cambridge. We're going to listen to a scientist, Sir Isaac Newton. Not Fig, Isaac Newton. And he expressed our struggle with change scientifically with his first law of motion. Everything continues in the state of rest unless it's compelled to change by forces impressed upon it. I think that's kind of what the rod is used for in scripture. And as you might have guessed, other people, as someone else does not like the change, and surprisingly of all people, the writer of War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy says this, everybody thinks of changing humanity, but no one thinks of changing himself. And even Presbyterians get in on the act. Over 100 years ago, on the eastern side of this state, Pennsylvania, in the Abington Presbytery, just outside of Philadelphia, the clerk had prayed this prayer for the presbytery. Lord, help us to be right, for you know how hard it is to change. So let me pray that God might help us. Father, we pray for the right teaching, the right doctrine. But we know that is not enough unless your spirit works in us and we work to change to be like Jesus Christ. We know that this side of heaven there will always be hypocritical things about us where we're not like Christ. But we pray for the world as they watch us. They would see us changing and they would be amazed. They would ask what is different about us because indeed We don't act like the world, but we act like our Savior, Jesus. Would you be gracious to do that work in us, we pray, through Christ and for our sake. Amen. Well, the next two sessions, we'll be working through the four steps of biblical change that God uses as He speaks to us through His Word. Lord willing, in this section, steps one and two, and the next session, steps three and four, So let's look to 2 Timothy chapter 3 and I'll read it and I'll read actually verses 14 to 17 because in 14 and 15 we see the first stage of biblical change and coming to Christ and Timothy's life. And then, as Timothy is directed, how he as a pastor will help others to change and become like Jesus. So we'll read 14 to 17, and 16 and 17 is really what we're spending our time on. But as for you, that's Paul speaking to Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed Knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. So he said, Timothy, you've already done that. You have come to Christ. Now in your life and as a pastor, those you're working with, these are the steps and how you help people change to become like Jesus. And there are four of them as God uses his word, the Holy Spirit brings his word to empower us. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable. This is how we're to use the scripture in our lives. Profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God might be competent, equipped for every good work. And we knew the one that only has done all of his work. When Jesus died, he said, it's finished. And so what God is using the scriptures in our lives in these four steps are to make us like our Savior, Jesus Christ. So the first one is teaching. Teaching is the first step of biblical change that God has provided for you to become like Jesus. We've just read it, 2 Timothy 3.16. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching that the man of God, that the Christian may be complete, equipped for every good work. Now that work teaching more adequately is described by doctrine. Doctrine? Oh no! Are we going to be that? You know, we start thinking, oh, you're talking doctrine. Now you're getting really theological. Yeah. That's what the scriptures are. They're teaching. They're God's doctrine. He says to Timothy, Paul in 1st Timothy 4, 6, If you put these things, that is the teachings, before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Doctrine is not a bad thing. It's only a bad thing when it stops with teaching. And that's all you have. But without doctrine, you don't know how to become like Jesus. The first step was the doctrine that he talked about having faith in Jesus. That's the only way you can start biblical change and be saved. That's doctrine. A lot of people just said, I can go to heaven by being a good person. No, you can't. But they say, no, that's my teaching. No, you have to have right doctrine. Doctrine is good. Dr. John MacArthur says this, doctrine does not refer to the process or method of teaching, but to its content. It refers specifically and exclusively to divine instruction or doctrine given to believers through God's word. This includes not only the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, the teachings of Jesus during his incarnation, but also the inspired teaching of the apostles and the New Testament authors. But today, there are many people in many churches that don't like doctrine. Have you ever heard this said? Don't tell me any doctrine, just tell me about Jesus. You ever heard that from relatives or friends or in another church? It's clearly out there. And many would say this, doctrine divides people. But Christ unites. We have no creed but Jesus. Right? And if Jesus is your only creed, that you come to faith in Him, you never grow. You never change. Because you say, I've got Jesus. It's all I need. Don't tell me about doctrine. Doctrine is good when it doesn't stay there. You don't know how to change and what to change into without doctrine. Otherwise, you make up what God wants you to do. And that's often our problem, right? Mark Twain said, in the beginning, God created us in the image of God, and since then, we've been returning the favor. We want God to be like us. And God says, you shouldn't be like you. You're sinners. You need to be conformed to the image of my son, Jesus. Way back in 1995, for some of you, that's before you were born. And I saw this in a newspaper ad for a congregational church. Our church is a church of independent thinkers. It's okay not to follow things to the letter of the law. We'd be the last to put words in your mouth. Congregationalists are bound together by faith and fellowship, not formal creeds. What's their faith in? Right? If you don't have a formal creed. When we were in New England in the Universalist church, they would take their teenagers when they got to high school and their Outings for Sunday school, they'd come to Sunday school and then they'd leave to go to a different church or faith group. So in our town, you would go to take their kids to the Christian scientists one Sunday, the next week Baha'i, the next week Swedeborgianism, the next week, United Church of Christ, which they said, we were really universalist considering Christ. And they'd go to all these different groups for their Sunday school. And then at the end of the year, the student would stand up before the church and whatever conglomeration of all those things from the Jewish synagogue, and all the different places they went, they would stand up and they would come out and say what their faith is. And so it was a mixture of everything they liked. They would grab a little bit here and grab a little bit there. And then when they've, because they're graduating from high school, they've arrived. Here it is. Here's my faith and here's my God. Oh, that's dangerous. It's a big problem when we want to conform God to our image. Now we could say, yeah, aren't those crazy examples? The trouble is we do that ourselves. However, such claims cannot bear biblical examination or definition. For every believer who says, as one must, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, is asserting the biblical doctrine of the deity of Christ, and is adopting a creed, which is, I believe. And this doctrine or teaching comes from the Bible. It's how you know someone is a Christian. As they testify, they believe in these things. As John chapter 20 verse 31 says, but these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name. The fact is that all believers in Christ have a doctrine or theology. That doctrine may not be homemade, but it has to come from the scriptures. Now you may think that, come on pastor, this is, Pretty basic. Yeah, it is. Because a lot of us don't even know that we need to have these teachings and that we have to base all that we believe in the scriptures. And even if we say we do that, that doesn't mean that we actually live it. Dr. D. James Kennedy was once talking with a woman and as he was, she was upset because of his preaching. Because in his preaching, he said this, God is loving and kind, but God is also just and holy. He has promised that he will visit our transgressions with a rod, and our iniquities with stripes, and he will punish our sins. And after church, she came up to him and said, Oh, no, no, no. Absolutely not. My God would never do anything like that. And have you gone to friends of yours and ever talked to them about how Christ is in the scriptures? You've brought them doctrine, and they'd say, God's not like that. My God's not like that. Have you ever experienced that? I have, right? You're bringing the truth in the scriptures. And Dr. Kennedy's response was, dear lady, please forgive me. But you're absolutely 100% right. Because your God doesn't exist. He's simply a figment of your imagination created in your own mind. You see, the God that she had developed and liked and wanted and worshipped was not the God of scriptures. And we have to be careful with that ourselves. Because we always are looking for rationalizations and excuses of why we don't behave like Jesus Christ. I'm too busy. Well, what did Jesus do? He got up early in the morning and spent time in scripture. He went off to pray. He left everybody and everything to go off to pray. I want to be like Jesus. You don't read scripture. You don't go off to pray. How are you going to become like Jesus? Right? We expect it to be osmosis. We all want to be zapped. I remember back when I was in college, the Pentecostal thing and the second blessing was really a big deal. And so we were at a conference and everybody was, you know, people were taken to somebody in another room and they were getting zapped by the Holy Spirit and, you know, and starting to speak in tongues or whatever they were making up and all that kind of stuff. And it was like, oh, I've got it. Do you have it? Right? And so many of those people that I've known that went through that are not walking with Christ today. because they were living by feelings. Feelings aren't bad. But if they dominate you, if you live by your feelings, what'll happen? You know you should get up, you know you should spend time alone with God, you know, but you don't, right? I don't feel like it, or life is tough. Yeah, it is for all of us. But if we're gonna be like Christ, we have to do what he did. You see, this lady was not following the teachings or doctrines of the Bible, but only the ones that fit her own personal wishes about God. So when she heard this in the Bible, John 3, 16, she was excited. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. How many of you like that? Right? I hope you all like it. Right? It's the gospel. But then in the same chapter, in John 3, 36, when it says, whoever believes in the Son has life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, but God's wrath remains on him. She said, oh, no, no, no. Who was she being like in history? Do you remember who it was? Thomas Jefferson, exactly. Thomas Jefferson took the Bible, and they still have it, it's called Jefferson's Bible. He went through and cut out everything he didn't like. It was a very small Bible. It really shrunk. And we do the same thing. There's lots of the scriptures we just, ah, that's either too hard or I don't like it, it doesn't fit the way I feel or what I want. Biblical teaching or doctrine teaches us what is right. We have to start there. Because if you're going to change, you have to know what to change into. Right? The TV will put up pictures of what you have to be. Maybe you're a guy, you know, Tom Brady. Supermodel wife, win all the Super Bowls. Yes, that's what I want to be. And a lady, I don't really know what that'd be. Maybe it used to be Madonna or somebody, I don't know. I'm talking about the world, of course, right? But they put these pictures before us of what we're supposed to be in because everybody else is wearing those clothes and getting their hair changed that way and acting like that thing. I mean, I don't even know, how did I know? I'm not up on culture, but when the guy dropped the mic last night, I said, hey, drop the mic! I don't even know what that means, but I know I see it all the time. Right? So I can be cool. I know that phrase, drop the mic. I could mean kill somebody. I don't have a clue. Right? Oh, drop it. But we just, we live in this culture, it just sucks us up, and we're like it. Right? But we have to say, no, I want to change. I mean, maybe there's nothing, I don't think there's anything wrong with dropping the mic as far as, except if you have to buy the new one. But we get that, and we like that. And I said it because, oh, I could be cool, right? I could drop that, faster, drop the mic. That's goofy, right? Instead of, I don't spend that same kind of time, a lot of times, wanting to be like Jesus, right? But we have to have doctrine teaching. The first step of becoming like Jesus is knowing what the right thing is. That's why we study Scripture, not that we have to say, oh, I've got to read the Word. Oh, yeah, I've got to be quick. Check. You know, especially in the Old Testament, right? Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Oh, and he began. But we don't just do that with that. We do that with a lot of the Scripture, right? It's familiar with us, but that's what we need. It's what our soul needs to change to become like Jesus. Beloved in Christ, in the 1800s, reformed Anglican pastor J.C. Ryle gave this charge to his church. And I want to give it to you in regards to the scriptures. Because the world will tell you if you tell them what is right by God's word, they'll say, no, no, no, that's that old book. No, no, no. You're just being a pure. In fact, if you're a girl and you say they probably put a bonnet on you. I've never watched this, but I know it. The Handmaid's Tale, right? That's a big thing right now, right? These women that are somehow being pushed down and beat up by their husbands or whatever. I don't know what it is. Puritan kind of a deal, right? But that's culture, right? You're being like that. You're being under. No. We have to know what the scripture says and we have to say, if I'm gonna be like what God wants to be, do I let the culture tell me what I'm supposed to be like or do I let God tell me what I'm supposed to be like to be like Jesus? Beloved, I hope you know it's God. And I hope the only way you know what God is speaking is by his word. Now, if you hear audible voices, don't listen to them unless they say what the Bible says. All right? The Bible is how we know. It's not how we feel, not how we'd like it to be, but the change to become like Jesus Christ starts with his scriptures. We can't start anywhere else. Doctrine is basic, the first step of changing to be like Christ. You can't be right to be like Jesus unless you know what is right. The Anglican pastor J.C. Ryle said this, For your own sake, dare to make up your mind that what you believe and dare to have a positive, distinct views of truth and error. If you don't have distinct views from God's Word, what's right and wrong, then you'll just go with the culture because no one wants to say, as people are saying today, shame on you. It used to be, if people sinned, you may say, hopefully as you loved them and came beside them, shame, that's wrong. But when you're doing the right thing today, and you bring up Scripture, the world will say, shame, shame on you. And unless you know what is right, and look to the one who is right, you will change. And so doctrine in Scripture is the first step. Never, never be afraid to hold a decided doctrine and opinions. And let no fear of man, no morbid dread of being party-spirited, narrow, or controversial make you rest contented with a bloodless, boneless, tasteless, colorless, lukewarm Christianity. Christianity without distinct biblical teaching, doctrine is a powerless thing. You will not become like Jesus Christ. You will not stand for Jesus Christ unless you first know his word, to know doctrine and trust it. That's the first step of becoming like Jesus, knowing the scriptures. The second step of becoming like Jesus is in the scripture too, 2 Timothy 3.16, all scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for reproof, that the man of God, the Christian, may be complete, equipped for every good work. Reproof is not a word we generally use today, but reproof is a court term that speaks of prosecuting a case against someone so they're convicted of a crime of which the person is accused. So when you bring them reproof, you want to say, this is what should be done and you didn't do it. It's when the policeman says, you came to a stop sign and you didn't stop. But you said, well, no, no, of course I stopped. I slowed down. You saw my brake lights. They went on for one millimeter of a second. And then I went through. He said, no, no, no, you didn't stop. He said, well, of course I stopped. I didn't just run through there. I looked both ways and I slowed down. And he said, no, no, no, you did not stop, right? But we are that way with anything else. Somebody brings something to us and we need them to bring us reproof. They need to say, oh yeah, I'm really doing this. And you might come to some friend. Are you learning doctrine? Are you reading the scriptures? Yeah, man, I really love the Bible. I've got one. I really love scripture. Oh yeah, when's the last time you read it? Well, I make sure I read at least a verse every day. And that's not going to be it, is it? Not just to accuse someone, but to bring against him, the case against him, so that he stands and says, you're right, I am guilty. It is bringing someone to acknowledgement that they have failed to meet the standards set forth in the Word of God. So the first thing we have to teach people to change is this is right and how you're believing and what you're doing is not right. Boy, is that hard in our culture today, right? Who are you to say and tell? Right? And we all know how to use that on people, right? Especially our family, or when you try to help them. I mean, they're not Christians, right? Yeah? Why tell me about Jesus? I remember when you were 15 and a half, and you did this, and, right? They all, everybody's ready to do that. But we are called to bring, to help people change the Scripture of what is right, and then reprove Husbands and wives and church members and brothers and sisters. It's not a nasty word unless you're nasty with it, right? You want to help people do the right thing. So reproof is when you bring the doctrine, not your own ideas, right? Oh, I'd really like to my wife to behave like this. It's not biblical, you know, it's just what you like, right? I want my husband to be like this. I want my husband, Ralph, to be like Fred. Well, what does Fred do? Well, Fred brings home diamonds and furs, and they go out to dinner every night. Well, that's not biblical. You might like it. So when we bring reproof, it's God's doctrine, and we bring it in a way that they might believe in. The goal is to have them understand and repent change the direction of their life so they might change their sinful behavior and replace it with godly conduct. Sometimes you come to someone to convict them of their sin with a story that they might gain them. So when we're talking about reproof, we're not talking about, you know, you're now the spiritual Nazi of the church, right? I've got my doctrine and I'm watching. And I've got the gift of reproof. And so you're just waiting for someone to sin, you know, and you come up, you're wrong, this is how you be right, and I'm here to watch. We're not talking about that. Remember how Nathan came to David, who had sinned in killing Bathsheba's husband and had adultery with her. He didn't just come and say, David, you did it, but he tells him this story. He comes into his life. He knew he was a shepherd before. He tells him about these sheep. And a rich man stole one of the other guy's sheep, the shepherd sheep. It was his favorite sheep, like a pet to him. And he stole it and killed it and ate it. And he said, David, what do you think about that? He said, that's horrible. Let's kill that guy. All right? And then Nathan knew what he had done in stealing Uriah's wife. And he said, David, you're that man. It convicted him and you know one of the reasons that David is saved is because Nathan loved him enough to do that. Turn his life around. You love someone when you go to who's not doing right to help them become right. But it doesn't mean that you're now the spiritual Nazi that does that with a gift of reproof. But sometimes it has to be like that. You know, sometimes it's so obvious that you have to yell at people almost because they're in danger. If your child is in the street, right, and your little child and a two-year-old, you're in your yard and the road's out there, cars are going by, and your child's going towards the road and, you know, your child's saying, Freddy, Freddy, now don't go to the road. Freddy, you're almost to the road. You're going to get time out if you go into that road. Freddy is going to be roadkill, right? When Freddy is going to the road, what do you do? Freddy, get out of the road! You're running towards Freddy and you grab him because you don't want Freddy to become smashed, right? So, sometimes you use a story. But sometimes you go to the person, you grab him and say, what are you doing? You're gonna get, this is dangerous. You're gonna lose it all. So it's all, you ask God for wisdom and help to know where in between those two places you go. But if the Holy Spirit brings God's word to people that they change, does it in preaching? publicly and it does it privately when brothers and sisters, pastors and elders go to someone who's in danger of death and dying because of their sin and is willing to bring them reproof. loving them enough to do that. And at one time, I mean, you read in the Scriptures of a really rough time when Peter, who worked and was eating with the Gentiles, the Jews came into town, and Peter all of a sudden says, better not eat with the Gentiles anymore. I'm going to go back and get that kosher food. And so he was eating with them, not paying attention to the Gentiles anymore. And listen how Paul speaks to Peter. He was like, what? This is so rough. but it was necessary that he wouldn't destroy the faith of the Gentiles. Galatians 2, 11-13, But when Cephas, that is Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him face to face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men, when he came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy." It wasn't just that Peter was going away. He was leading others away. And Paul didn't say, oh, I hope I can get some time when I might talk to Peter. He went up to them, the group, face to face. We hate that, right? But it was dangerous. He was leading others in the wrong direction. And he said, Peter, you're wrong. You've got to stop this. Why are you doing this? Understand? So there is this. Two ways that we rebuke, sometimes very gently and carefully, quietly, no one else knows about it. We bring a story, we bring a way, and sometimes, because it's so dangerous, we just go and speak to them and say, you know, we know people that are ready with unbiblical reasons to leave a family. I've had people come in, counseling, and husband and wife, and it's usually the very last stage. You know, they've done everything else they can think of. They come into counseling, and pastors say, we're going to get a divorce. We've already each talked to our lawyers. We're ready. Now what can you tell me? And I'm going to say, well, you know, without biblical reasons, I ask them what their reasons are, and they say, eh, we don't love each other anymore. We've been around 15, 20 years. We got the kids raised. Things are tough now. We're not sure we're going to be able to continue with each other. We don't like the same stuff anymore. We've developed separate lives. We don't love each other. I say, is there any biblical reason? No, we just don't love each other. But you pastor have to change us. I'm going to say, well, Jesus says, but two men have join together, you shouldn't ever separate. See ya. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna say, I'm gonna say, Sally, you said, I know that you've taught Sunday school and the women of the church, you love Jesus. And Fred, you're an elder. And you've been teaching other people about this your whole life. What's it going to do to your own soul when you reject what God says to you? When you said, God, I know what you said, but I'm not doing it. I am not going to bring that case lightly. I'm not going to bring it easily. I'm going to bring them biblical reproof. Say, I know it's going to be hard. You have habits that are different. But God has said that you can change. Right? And so there's that whole range, but we are called with one another to bring each other biblical reproof. Steve Vires, the pastor of the Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, Indiana, brings a biblical challenge to all of us to be willing to give biblical reproof, conviction to those inside and out of the church. He says this, too often when we talk about sin, we have an oops view of sin. Oh, I did that, whoops, I guess, you know. My little granddaughter is great at saying sorry, you know. And I'm glad she says sorry when, you know, she's sitting in our lap and she turns around and hits us with something or sometimes she'll just think, oh, it's fun to hit you in the face, right. I'm glad she says sorry. But sometimes she'll, just walking around with a little water bottle, milk bar, she's going, sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm saying, you don't have to say you're sorry, you didn't do anything wrong, you just dropped your milk, right. But we get to do that with sin. It gets like every day. Oops, sorry, guess I sinned. I'm a Christian, I'm not perfect, Jesus died for me. Oops, oops, oops, oops. And it goes from little things to bigger things. We have this oops view of sin rather than oh my. Jesus died for me in my heart and I just ignore it. I just expect him to cover these things that I'm doing. The one convicted of a sin must not say, I may have done that, but, but you don't understand, yes, I'm ready to do this, but, but I'm so stressed out. But you don't understand all the pressures I have. You don't understand how I was raised. You don't understand what my mommy did to me. You don't understand what my boss is like. There isn't any buts in this. Instead, if you understand that you have sinned against the standards of your holy God, then you're under conviction, ready for real biblical change from your heart. I want to take you to the book of Revelation, chapter three. Most of you are familiar with this chapter, and you've heard it once or twice. Revelation chapter 3. We'll start with verse 20. Tell me if you've heard this and heard it used in evangelism. Behold, and this is Jesus speaking, behold I stand at the door and knock and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I'll come in and eat with him and he'll be the one who conquers and I'll grant with him to sit with me on my throne also as I've conquered and sat down with my father who's on his throne. Have you ever heard that in evangelism? Anybody? Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Right? Yeah. Well, in God's grace, I think that verse has been used by many people to come to Christ. But it's actually the wrong context! What's happening here is God is speaking to the church that has gotten cold towards God, that isn't doing the things of God, and He's sending His Holy Spirit to speak to the church. He's knocking on the doors of the hearts of the church people, people like you and me. He's disciplining them. because of they become sinful and cold towards him. Let's look at verse 19 so we see the context of this. He's writing to the church of Laodicea and he could be writing to the church of Christ Reformed Presbyterian Church in Laurel, Maryland. Verse 19, those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. You see, Jesus is coming to the church of Laodicea and saying, you're not acting like a church anymore. You're not acting like Christians. So I'm pounding on your door to get your attention. He's disciplining them. Why is he disciplining them and bringing reproof? Because he hates the Laodiceans, right? No. If you are going to take the trouble to go and love someone enough, when they know what is right, and they're doing wrong, and you want them to be right, to convict them of what is not right, you're willing to go and reprove. And this is what Jesus is doing to His church because He loves them. We need to go and love, but it is the loving thing to do not to allow people to continue in their sin. You love them. It might not feel like them at first, right? I don't like when people reprove me. Now if you come to me and say, Pastor, I noticed, and people do from time to time, I always smile. They say, I disagree with you. I'm always going, yes, I know how to act like a pastor. I'm very good at it. Yes, thank you very much. Oh yes, oh yes. Inside I'm going, how dare they say that? Oh, could that possibly be right? I can't believe they have enough gall. Don't they understand that I'm a pastor? Right, I'm going through all that. But when it's really true, thankfully the Holy Spirit, and as they bring God's word to me, later on when I calm down, I know how to act on the outside, even though I'm burning on the inside. And I go back and think about it and pray about it. I say, Lord, they're right. And they didn't do that because they love me, hated me, but because they love me. Now, some people do it because they just don't like me, right? But even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? And I still have to go back and listen to it and say, man, what do I need to hear from this? But that's not our natural reaction. But Jesus says, when He does this with His church, He loves them. And I want to tell you, when God loves you enough to bring a brother, a sister, an elder, a deacon to your life, to speak into it, a husband or a wife, a child or a parent, it's because He loves you. Because He wants you. You know what's right, but He wants you to be right because you're wrong. And we hate hearing that we're wrong. When God by His Spirit, Word, or people brings you His reproof to convict you of your sin, He's calling you to recognize that you must change. This is not simply good advice, but it's imperative that you change your life, actions, and attitudes to conform to His holy will as described in His holy Word. He is telling you that when you fail to follow His Word, that it's not merely inconvenient, Counterproductive or undesirable, but it's flat wrong and you must be changed. When God bothers to send someone to bring conviction in your life, it's because he hates having your fellowship with him broken. Now if you look at after 320 where Jesus pounds down the door of our hearts with reproof, everybody says, Jesus is a gentleman. I don't think so. Maybe to you, but Jesus takes a two by four to my head a lot of times. There was a reason my dad called me cement head growing up. And he has to do hard things in our lives sometimes, things that seem like the world is almost ending to get our attention. But look at after he works and breaks down the doors of our hearts to become hardened in our sin. In 21, he says this, excuse me, in the 20, I will come in with him and eat with him and him with me. Your fellowship will be restored when you repent of your sin. and the one who conquers I will grant with him to sit with me. You'll be conquered when you listen to your father and seek to obey him. Proverbs 28, 13 says this, he who conceals his sins does not prosper, but he who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Over the years, I've developed a habit. I'll get a call a lot of time for people and say, Pastor, I wanna meet with you. And I'm never sure what that means, right? Hey, I've got a program that would be great for the church. Pastor, I just wanna tell you that you're the best thing since sliced bread. I'm so glad we're here. Pastor, I think you stink. And it's probably time that you leave. Pastor, I noticed that you've been doing this, and I don't like it. So I have this habit now, because I'm never quite sure. I ask, you know, people say, when I meet them, I say, oh, if you don't mind, so I can prepare, could you tell me what this is about? Right? I don't want to go into that blindly, because it's not easy. But, beloved, if you believe God's Word, He said for you to change and become complete like your Savior, Jesus Christ, it's not only that you learn doctrine in the Bible, and you can raise your finger at some question and say, oh, yeah, Jesus, you know, you've got some scriptures and you've got that down. But He wants to make you like Jesus, and we need to change from what we used to be. Right? We have old habits and ways of thinking that need to be changed and we don't change them ourselves. And one of the things that he brings is rebuke. Be thankful that you have pastors when they bring you God's Word. That is such a gift because in so many pulpits across America, they just read the newest thing on the newspaper and then talk about it and never mention what Jesus would have you do or how to respond. Be thankful when you have that. Be thankful if you have elders that'll come and speak to you in your life about difficulties and hurts and struggles. They want you to be like Jesus and have a blessing of being his son. And be thankful if you have brothers and sisters in your small group or you've known over the years that are willing to love you and bring you reproof. It is not because they hate you, unless they're just, you know, that spiritual Nazi, then we need to report them and all take care of it, right? We don't want spiritual Nazis. But we desperately need brothers and sisters in Christ that know us and will speak into us life, that we not just know about Jesus, but that we become Jesus. Not that we just know what's right, but we have to be convicted of what's wrong. Titus 1 says this about the ruling elder. And I want to encourage you as ruling elders that are here today, because that's one of the hardest things that you have to do, because you know how many areas in your own life you haven't changed to become like Jesus, right? And you say, how can I come? Because I'm struggling with this. I'm playing whack-a-mole in my life, and this is just bapped up, and I'm dealing with this, right? But it says this in Titus 1, he, they're talking about the ruling elder, must hold firmly to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he might be able to give instructions and sound doctrine, and also rebuke or reprove those who contradict it." Well, let me just ask you, maybe you didn't even know that this was part of the Christian life of all Christians. Not just Timothy, who would be a pastor, and the ruling elders. This is our work with one another. as in the body of Christ, how do you respond if someone would come to you? Are you thankful? Well, maybe not at first. Are you defensive, hurt, mad, bitter, or vindictive? Let me end with this. Well, let me end, first of all, just to remind you, what did Jesus say in Revelation 3, 19, why he's gonna come and break down the door of our hardened hearts? He says, those whom I love, I discipline, right? And if we're gonna love one another, this won't be our full-time job, but it's be a part of our calling. So that when we know it's right with a doctrine, we're convicted when we're not right. And we'll see later how to become right. Proverbs 15, 10 and 31 says this, stern discipline awaits him who leaves the path. He who hates correction will die, but he who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise. Let us pray. Our Father, I pray for our own lives that we would love your word, that we would want to know what it is to be right and to be like Jesus. And to become right, we have to know what's wrong in our lives. And that is when we hear your word preached and people come to us that we will become right. Give us ones who are willing to be reproved. And Lord, would you cause us to be like Jesus who loved loves His saints, to come to us when we're wrong, to make us right, like Him, our older brother. We pray for this work in our life. For Jesus' sake, amen.