Tackling Ten Timeless Truths, Part 4

Hebrews chapter 13, we're tackling 10 timeless truths that will transform our lives My son Cade came to me last week and said, Dad, I think you need to change the title. I said, really? He said, yeah, I think you ought to say, it's time to tackle and treasure 10 timeless truths that will transform your temple today, tomorrow, until the end of time And I told him that was too many Ts It was too tedious And then I told him he needed to stay in his lane You coach, I'll preach But no matter what the title is, it's irrelevant

The important thing is, what does the Word of God say about how we should live our lives in light of who Christ is? The very fact that He is all sufficient, He is supreme, He rules and reigns over all How is it we live our lives in light of that? So we began by telling you in the verse three verses, we need to respond with love toward the needs of others That's principle number one Number two, reaffirm your loyalty to marriage That's verse number four Verse number five and six was to resist the love of money

Today, we're going to give you that fourth truth that will help you understand what it is God has for you So let me introduce it to you this way. I've been involved in ministry for over 40 years It's a long time. I've loved every minute of it Never have I been discouraged in those 40 years Never have I been disappointed Never have I been depressed In all those years, they've been the absolute joy of my life And during those 40 years, I've been asked a question many times over

And that question was simply, if I want to grow, I want to become mature in my walk with the Lord, can you sum that up for me and tell me how that happens? I don't know how many times over those four decades people have asked me that question. A lot of it was asked by college students when I was a college pastor But it's always asked by people in the church as well So I've always said the same thing And I said, first of all, if you want to grow in your walk with the Lord, you need to find a glorious church You don't have to find a good church You don't have to find a great church

But you must find a glorious church. A church that gives glory to God. A church that understands that God's glory is to be put on display. A church that understands its purpose If you want to grow, you need to find that kind of church The church is not here for the purpose of worship, although that's what we do It's not here for the purpose of sharing our faith, although that's what we do The purpose of the church is not to even equip the saints for the work of ministry, although that's what we do The primary purpose of the church is to honor and glorify the name of Jesus Christ our Lord

That's the purpose of the church So you must find a church that has God's glory on display It's all about the deity of Christ It's not about a personality It's not about a celebrity It's all about deity Who is Christ? Is He put on display all the time? If the church is centered around a celebrity or a personality, and that person dies, that church struggles But if it's centered around the glory of God and the honor of God, and the people are committed to that, that's what's important Paul would say these words in the book of Ephesians, the third chapter, the 21st verse

He said, To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever Amen To Him be the glory To Him be the glory individually, corporately, and perpetually through all eternity Because everything is about the glory of the Lord When you get to heaven, it's all about worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive glory and honor and praise We're going to offer and magnify the name of the Lamb all throughout eternity Well, the same is true even today There needs to be glory individually in and through our lives

The Bible says, Isaiah 43, 7, I have created you for my glory That's why God created us, for His glory That's why Romans 3 is so important Because what happens in Romans chapter 1 is so important because it says in verse number 18, That the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them

For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, said they are without excuse For even though they knew God, they did not glorify God or give thanks But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures Man's problem is he refuses to give glory to God

So the church is all about God's glory It's all about His beauty It's all about His righteousness It's all about His holiness It's all about God So if you want to grow, you find a glorious church, a church that's committed to the glory of God individually, corporately, perpetually, because throughout all eternity, that's what we're going to be doing anyway So you find a church that wants to put God on display Don't find a church that puts somebody else on display, but puts God on display

Because if we are to give glory to God, we as the redeemed are going to reflect the righteous radiance of our Redeemer That's what it means to give glory to God You reflect the righteous radiance of your Redeemer, because the glory of God is the presence of God manifested in brilliant light And so we reflect that That's what we are to do And our God is a holy God, right? Holy, holy, holy is our God And because He is so holy that the very first instruction that God gives to the church is in Matthew 18, not in Acts 2 and following

Before the church is ever born, God gives instruction about the church itself Because He's so concerned about the purity and the holiness of the church that when you see your brother sin, you go to that brother Try to win your brother If he doesn't repent, two or three of you go Try to win your brother If he doesn't repent, you tell it to the church Why? Because the purity of the church is at stake And the church isn't committed to purity It's really not committed to the glory of God who is holy

And so you want to find a glorious church. A glorious church is the kind of church that puts God on display The kind of church that hates sin enough to confront it, to deal with it That's important That's why in Acts 5 when Ananias and Sapphira were killed in the church, great fear came upon those in the church and those in Jerusalem Because they knew that God was serious about sin. I wonder if the church that people go to know that church is serious about sin That's important You find a glorious church That's where it begins

If you want to grow, you must be a part of a glorious church. I had the privilege of being raised by my mom and dad who loved the Lord They came to know the Lord later in life My father was in Thailand at the time during the Vietnam War And that's where he came to Christ And my mom was in the States And that's how she came to Christ When they were both separated from one another And my father came to know the Lord through two lady charismatic pastors Believe it or not That's how he came to know the Lord And my mom came to know the Lord through a Baptist minister here in the States

But in 1970 we moved to Delaware And the very first objective for my mom and dad was to find a church in Dover, Delaware Dover is not a very big place Delaware is not a very big state So they set out to find a church And they found one Church still there today Faith Community Church There in Camden, Delaware And they came to the church And they met people in the church And that's where they put their roots down My mom and dad were in that church for 45 years. 45 years We've had people in this church that have been here since its inception. 28 years That's a long time for anybody

That's an anomaly for most people My parents were in the church for 45 years Before my mom ended up leaving after my dad died and moving in with my sister They went through two church splits Seven pastors in those 45 years And they never left And one day, one of those splits happened when I was in high school And when the church split I lost all my friends Because my friends were a part of the, were the children of the parents who didn't agree with where the church was going And so I lost all my friends. I didn't have very many friends anyway But the ones I did have, I lost

And so they were gone My parents lost all their friends And then years later there was another split And they lost more friends But they never left They stayed So one day I asked my dad, You know, dad, you've been here for 45 years. I guess at that time it was about 35 years So you've been here a long time Why do you stay? He said to me something I'll never forget He said, son, I raised you to be a committed person. I am a committed person. I'm committed to your mother

They were married for 59, almost 60 years. I'm committed to your mother till death. I'm committed to raising you in the nurtured eminence of the Lord, both you and your sister But my commitment is also to my God And also to His church My commitment is strong to the church of Jesus Christ our Lord And when I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do that No matter what happens, I'm going to work it through Because this is my spiritual family And I'm going to work it through Because that's what you do in family You work it through You don't run You work it through That's what you do

Do you know after those two church splits, the majority of those people all came back And you want to know why they came back? Their testimony is to this very day Because my mom and dad and a few others who never left, valued truth over those relationships And they realized the value of truth And they came back Some of them 15 years later Others 20 years later But they came back And when you find a church that's committed to truth, because our God is a God of truth, that wants to stand on that truth, that's a glorious church That's where you want to be And that's where you begin to grow

And once you find a glorious church, number two, you follow the godly leadership in that church You follow the godly leadership in that church Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 11, Imitate me as I imitate Christ Follow me as I follow Christ Don't wait for someone to have you come alongside of them You attach yourself to godly people in the church Find them Find those seasoned saints that have been around a long time You want to know about marriage? Don't talk to somebody who's just newly married or been married for 5 or 10 years What do they know about marriage? Not that much

Attach yourself to somebody who's been married for 40 and 50 and 60 years How do they make it through the hard times, the difficult times, the rough times? How do they come out the other side? How do they stay together and work through all those things? Those are the people you need to attach yourself to and work things through Attach yourselves to those who have raised their children in the nurtured admonition of the Lord, and those children now are serving the Lord

We want to attach ourselves to our young friends who are in the same process that we are, who are raised in our kids. I mean, they're shooting in the dark like you are Find yourself a godly man, a godly woman Attach yourself to them, and you know what? You'll begin to grow and learn How many times have I brought over the years those small little chairs that we have in the back room where our kids sit on, the twos and threes, and tell you that's how I learned to pray in prayer meeting when I was 14 and 15 and 16 years of age, praying with all these older men in the church

Because nobody my age went to church on prayer meeting night, but my parents made me go to church on prayer meeting night And there they would pray on those little chairs, and there we were trying to get our elbows on those chairs, and everybody had to kneel These were old guys bending over and kneeling, and I'm a young guy, and I don't want to kneel for an hour in prayer, but they did And they sat there, and they prayed for the people of the church

They labored in prayer for the ministries of our church and for the missionaries of our church, and I learned how to pray by listening to godly men pray. I learned the importance of prayer. I didn't learn it from my dad necessarily, although he's a man of prayer. I learned it from all those godly men of the church who prayed That's why Paul in the book of Titus tells that older women are to teach younger women, right, how to love their husbands, how to love God And older men are to teach younger men how to follow the Lord and be sensible men

When you find a glorious church, you follow the godly leadership in that church, women following women, men following men, and you attach yourself to them and just imitate them, follow them, walk around, do what they do, go where they go, hear what they say And all of a sudden, you begin to grow Find a glorious church, follow the godly leaders in that church, and then number three, foster your growth spiritually by attending faithfully, praying fervently, giving financially, living fruitfully, studying fastidiously, and serving fearlessly All those things You want to grow, you got to serve

You can't grow spiritually if you don't serve in the church You can't Because service in the church motivates, instigates, moves you, stimulates your growth You got to serve You got to be there You can't attend infrequently You can't even attend frequently You got to attend faithfully You got to be there You got to give financially, right? You got to live fruitfully All of those things Then number four, you got to fulfill the Great Commission Fulfill the Great Commission by going to all the world and preaching the gospel Right? You're going to grow, share your faith Talk to people about Christ

We're going to all the world, and we're to make disciples We're to preach the word in season and out of season We're to make sure that those in our surrounding arena, our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, and ultimately the other most parts of the world But you want to fulfill the Great Commission And then lastly, once you find a glorious church, follow the godly men and women in that church, foster your growth spiritually, fulfill the Great Commission, you simply need to fear God and keep His commandments That's what Solomon said Fear God and keep His commandments

After he wrote Proverbs, some believe he wrote the book of Job Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, we don't know Before he died, he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes to let you know that most of the things in life are vain So he sums it up by saying, let me just sum everything up for you in just one phrase Fear God and keep His commandments That's it In fact, Isaiah said it this way, in Isaiah chapter 8, is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy and He shall be your fear, He shall be your dread, and then He'll become your sanctuary

But until He's your fear and your dread, He's not your sanctuary, He's not your hiding place Isaiah had a hiding place, a holy place, in the presence of his God because he feared his God And kept the commandments of God Spiritual growth is not rocket science God has not made it hard for you to find out how to grow spiritually He's made it very simple for you But those five principles, I've seen over and over and over again in people's lives And those who stop growing, who become dull of hearing, who become stagnant in their walk with the Lord, one of those five principles is missing

Or more than one of those five principles is missing But those who are energetic for the Lord, and are on fire for the Lord, those five principles are a reality in their lives All that introduces us to our fourth truth in Hebrews 13 And that fourth truth is simply this Remember your leaders and follow their example That was principle number two in the five points I gave you Principle number four in Hebrews chapter 13 says these words, verse seven Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith

This is a truth that needs to be tackled by all of us Now maybe the writer of Hebrews is talking about those who have already passed and died Remember those who led you So maybe they had led and have died and moved on to eternity Or they could be those who are leading because in verse 17 it will say, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who are given account Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable, not for them, but for you

If you don't follow your leaders, the one that God's placed in leadership, and listen to their instruction, and you cause them grief, it's unprofitable for you, not for them This will work out well for you In fact, over in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, Paul would say these words, verse 12, But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly and love because of their work Live in peace with one another

In other words, you can't live in peace with one another unless you are actively involved in esteeming those who have been given to you by God to lead you in the ways of righteousness Very important God is serious about leadership in the church He really is And over the years, we preached many sermons on why leadership in the church is so important God wants us to follow leadership So when you're involved in the church ministry, remember those, consider those, imitate those, he says Remember those who led you Consider their conduct, okay? Imitate their faith They trusted, they obeyed

They followed God They served God They honored God Attach yourself to them Follow those people Mimic them because they have been set before you as examples So important You know, the Bible is replete with exhortations about who you follow Did you know that? In fact, I know more about you by who you follow than if I ever talked to you because who you keep company with and who you follow speaks volumes And the same is true of me All of us Who do we hang out with? Who do we follow? Because everybody's following somebody. 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that bad company corrupts good morals

Ecclesiastes 9.18, it says, one sinner destroys much good, right? A root of bitterness, Hebrews 12.15, when it rises up, defiles many around you And so if you're following someone who's bitter, you become bitter You're defiled with that bitterness So who do you follow? Who do you hang out with? Listen to the book of Proverbs Proverbs chapter 13, verse number 20 He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm Do you walk with wise men or do you walk with fools? Proverbs chapter 22

Chapter 22, verse number 24 says, do not associate with a man who's given to anger or go with a hot-tempered man or you will learn his ways and find a snare for yourself If you follow a hot-tempered man, if you follow an angry man, if you follow people who like to blow their stack, you're going to bring harm to yourself It goes on and says in Proverbs 24, verse number 21, my son, fear the Lord and the King Do not associate with those who are given to change, for their calamity will rise suddenly and who knows the ruin that comes from them

Do you associate with those people who are always given to change, that cannot make up their minds? James talks about a double-minded man who's unstable in all his ways. A double-minded man is not unstable in some of his ways. A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways Why? Because he can't make up his mind He can't make a decision So he's always given to change Those are just a few examples in the Scripture So the Bible wants us to follow those who are godly men, godly women, who have a life of faith and they trust the Lord and honor the Lord

Are they perfect people? No, they're not perfect people Nobody's perfect It doesn't say follow the perfect people Okay? Or follow the sinless people Just follow your leaders, those who've led you Consider the conduct of their lives Imitate their faith Those are the people you need to remember Paul said these words in 2 Timothy, knowing that difficult times are going to come, perilous times are going to come. 2 Timothy 3, verse number 1, But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come

Boy, that's an understatement, right? But if you understand difficult times, it's really perilous times And perilous times is the same word used for the man who was demon-possessed In Mark's Gospel, the man who was demon-possessed in the land of Gennesaret In other words, in the last days, the world would become Satan's graveyard

So he says this, How does that manifest itself? They will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God And Paul is concerned for Timothy's sake that these times are coming in the latter days So let me tell you the first thing you need to do, Timothy, to make it through difficult days, hard days, treacherous days, days where Satan's influence is everywhere

It says, follow the pattern of the saints Verse 10, Now you follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me Timothy, if you want to make it through difficult times, follow my example Follow me. I was persecuted. I was hated. I had to deal with hard times But guess what the Lord did? He rescued me Because there's going to come a time where you need rescuing

So when you understand about my persecutions, my patience, my endurance, how I was able to bear up under all that pressure, all that criticism, follow my example When Paul would write in 1 Corinthians 4, verse number 16, he said to those in Corinth, therefore I exhort you to be imitators of me. I want you to follow me So he says this, for this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways, which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church So Paul says I can't come to you, but I want you to mimic me

And the best way for you to mimic me is to mimic Timothy, who is a child of mine Because Timothy is just like me And so I can't be there, but Timothy can And because Timothy can, you follow his example Because Timothy learned to mimic the Apostle Paul He learned to follow those who are in leadership And that's exactly what he did

And then you go over to 1 Thessalonians, and Paul says in verse number 6, to those in Thessalonica, you also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia You were such mimics of us, you became the perfect pattern for those in Macedonia and Achaia to follow, because you correctly followed the example that was placed in front of you Every one of us in the room follows somebody We all do We all have heroes We all have examples

Could be a parent, could be a coach, could be a teacher, could be a pastor, could be an elder, okay? A good friend But there's always somebody that we're following, that we're mimicking our lives after, that we're patterning our lives after Who do you pattern your life after? The Bible of Hebrews says, remember, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, who taught you, who instructed you Consider the result of their conduct and imitate their faith

How about you? Who do you follow? God places in your presence, in the church, godly men and godly women that He wants you to pattern your life after Are they perfect people? No, they're not Are they sinless people? No, not at all But they do model biblical responses to imperfections That's what makes them godly examples As a father, don't you want your sons to follow your example? I want my sons to follow my example, I do And so I teach them, I train them, lead them, so they'll follow my example. I want my sons to train their sons and their daughters to follow their example as well

But the way you do that is by modeling to them a biblical response to all of our imperfections That's what modeling is Paul would be able to do that with Timothy and did it very effectively But he also told Timothy, you follow my persecutions, my teachings, my faith, my trusting, my faithfulness, my commitment Follow my patience and endurance And remember, how the Lord rescued me Because you're going to need to know that, Timothy Interesting, the very next verse says this, verse number 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever Why is that there? The immutability of Christ

Why there? Because the same Christ that those who led and followed is the same Christ for you today, tomorrow, and forever Oh, your leaders might change, but your Christ will never change Your leaders may vary, but your Messiah will never change And the one who was there for them will be there for you as well He's the same yesterday, today, and forever The way he rescued them, he will rescue you The way he taught them, he will teach you The way he encouraged them, he will encourage you The way he motivated them, he will motivate you, because he's the same yesterday, today, and forever

Way back in the book of Numbers, Miriam, who was the older of the three, of Aaron and Moses, was a little upset that Moses had married a Cushite woman She wasn't pleased with that She wasn't pleased with who her younger brother married Not a good idea So she began to speak against that And then she got Aaron in on the conversation, because he's the middle one, and says, Is it true that only God can speak through Moses, and not us? Why is Moses so high and mighty, that God only speaks through him? The Bible says in Numbers chapter 12 that God heard that

That's good to know, because God hears all your complaining, right? All your murmuring And God said to Moses, I'm coming down. I'm going to meet you, your sister, and your brother in the tent of meeting Be there So they did And God came down And when God spoke, he spoke about his leader Moses He speaks to him face to face And God was angry with Miriam He was angry with Aaron Why? When God puts someone in leadership over his people, and you speak against them, God comes down And God's going to deal with them And sure enough, what happened? When the glory of the Lord lifted, Miriam was leprous

All over Why Miriam and not Aaron? Why was Miriam filled with leprosy and not Aaron? Because she was the instigator She was the leader She was the older one And she wrapped Aaron into that And they began to criticize Moses in the leadership When Aaron saw his sister filled with leprosy, he pled with Moses to plead on behalf of his sister before God And he did And the Lord said if a father would spit in his daughter's face, it would be shame to her and she would be out of the tent for seven days Miriam will be out of the tent for seven days She'd be outside the camp for seven days

So they waited for those seven days until she was healed She came back in Israel moved on You know what the most fascinating thing about that story is? You never hear anything about Miriam again God was done with her Why? You can't develop bitterness, anger, resentment Toward those in your family Moses was her brother She protected him Remember that? She made the basket Put him in the basket in the water Waited to see what Pharaoh's daughter would do Offered up her mother to nurse the Hebrew child She was a protector of Moses

But now Moses is getting all this fame and glory and she's not getting anything She's a little bitter, angry Well, why can't God speak to us, to the people as well? He's no more holier than we are Ah yeah, but God had chosen him Didn't choose you God chose Moses And Moses, as the Bible says in Numbers chapter 11 or 12, he was the meekest man on the face of the earth But Miriam was never heard of again She was the one who led the praise after they crossed the Red Sea

Remember that? People follow her leadership as they sing praises to God, the God most high who took them through the river on dry land and the horse and rider he threw into the sea and killed all the pharaohs on it She was used in a mighty way within the women of the church, women of the assembly, Israel But after the incident in Numbers chapter 12, no more You see, when God says, remember those who led you Consider their conduct Imitate their faith He's serious It's a timeless truth Whether it's Numbers chapter 12 with Moses, Aaron and Miriam

Whether it's Hebrews chapter 13 with a bunch of Jewish people who were given their life to the Messiah 2,000 years ago Or whether it's today It's a timeless truth that needs to be tackled, as my son says, treasured And he's right Let's pray Father, we thank You for today and all that You do and the glory of Your name Our prayer is that Christ Community Church would be a church committed to Your glory, committed to Your honor, to magnifying You and You alone For You are King You're the only one that matters We just follow You

And pray, Lord, that we would all understand the truth of Your Word, apply it to our lives, and live to the glory and honor of our King Until You come again, as You most surely will, in Jesus' name, amen.