Good morning. Welcome. It's good to have all of you along with us. It's good to be able to see faces. I'm just really enjoying seeing faces as I go to town and go to the store and go into a restaurant, go into a fast food place, and especially here, especially here. Because as we sing and as we worship the Lord together, seeing you reacting to it, seeing your response to it, and how engaged you are, it's such a blessing and it helps me up here. Darlene is joining me as director, leader, facilitator. singer, singer, player today. Jennifer and John L are down in Newburgh visiting Marion and his second wife Donna and so they'll be back later today but it's good to have Darlene came to me I was I told her she said do I have to start leading right away and I said no She came to me this week and said, OK, I'm ready. And so really good to have her along. And so there's a couple of, well, there's at least one new song that we did not too long ago. Last week, I guess we did it. But it'll still be a little bit new to you. And so hopefully, you'll be able to catch more of it. I also want to pick up a song that we did a while back, Facing a Task Unfinished. The tune will be familiar. The tune is the church's one foundation. If I remember right, it's actually called foundation, the tune is. But the words are the ones that remind us that there's a task that we have to go and make disciples of all nations. And that task is not finished yet. And so it's just, it's a call to us to be thinking in terms of expanding the kingdom, taking the gospel, wherever we go, taking it with us and letting it be a part of our daily life. And then the reminder that it is for this time that God put us here. You know, oftentimes we think, I wish I could have been around when Jesus was here or during the Reformation. What exciting times those would have been. Or I wish I could have been here during the revolution. But God put us here for this time. And this task is our task now. And then, Jesus Loves Me, one of the foundation songs. I remember an old preacher as he was retiring, and they were interviewing him and saying, what's the most profound theological truth that you have found? And without hesitation, he said, Jesus loves me, this I know, or the Bible tells me so. We want to sing that, but we want to also add in some new words. And Dharm may say more about that as well in a little bit. And then what was the last one there? Trust and obey. And we're going to personalize the words a little bit today. When I'm trusting in your word. And so be watching for those slightly different words. Father in heaven, thank you so much for this day you've given to us. Thank you for bringing us together here. What a wonder it is that we can gather in the presence of our God, and that we who are individually members of the body of Christ are able to gather together with other members of the body of Christ and be an encouragement to one another. Lord, what a wonder it is that when Jesus ascended to you, that he and you sent to us your Holy Spirit. to lead us, to guide us, to indwell us, to empower us, to equip us. Lord, thank you. We ask that you would equip us to be able to worship you in spirit and in truth, and that you would empower us to worship you in spirit and in truth. For we know that's the kind of worshipers you were seeking. May it be so today. and every day this week. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. There's a song going through my head and and I can't for the life of me come up with more than one phrase. Maybe some of you who are in my generation might remember this. Who do you think you're fooling? That ring a bell to anybody? That's the only phrase I can remember and I'm not quite sure that the tune is right. But this message gave me that sensation as I was preparing. Let's see, can we go, can you hit it into the PowerPoint there and I can control here. I love control. I bet if you ever noticed that. yeah how come it's not coming up because i am not in control this is true uh for which i can give thanks that god is god and i am not yes and i am so grateful we darn and we're talking about that in relation to How do you judge someone who looks like they were a believer and then you find out about some hidden sin that was going on and are they saved and with a besetting sin or were they not saved and one whom Jesus will say on that day, depart from me, I never knew you. And so those kinds of questions, And we were thinking, we're so glad we're not God, that we don't have to worry about that. And then I was talking with Ron next door at Swim Holiness Fellowship, and he was talking about some situations going on in his church, and now it just escaped me. Oh yes, of how many people God is bringing across his path And the changes that are happening in their churches as one of the patriarchs is nearing death. And it is a it's a certain thing. He has maybe a week to live. They gave him two weeks ago. to live last week, and he has been a patriarch of this church for many years, and there are going to be a lot of changes there, and in the midst of that change that's happening, there are also changes in that some young men have started attending his church, and they're hungry, and they're saying, we want, can you give us more? We want to grow, and he said, and there's a potential for a gospel message to be shared in what's going on with the church and the new young guys. And I said, you know, one of the most freeing things for me was when I realized that in in John, when Jesus says the and he will send another comforter, he says he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and judgment. And prior to that time, when I realized this, prior to that time, I was thinking that was my job. And Ron replied with, that is such a freeing concept. It lets me be free just to say, here's what God says. It's the Holy Spirit's job to be able to say, that one's on you. playing. That one's on me. As I'm thinking about this sermon series that I want to start us on, that song, Who Do You Think You're Fooling, keeps going through my mind. I've gone through several versions of the title. Finally, I think I've settled on Who Do You Think You Are? And you can take that as a negative thing. Who do you think you are? Or you can take it as a positive thing. Who do you think you are? Are you thinking correctly about yourself? Or are you thinking more highly of yourself than you want? Do you understand your relationship to God as an unbeliever? And then even, do you understand your relationship to God as a believer? There's a verse we'll look at a little bit later out of Proverbs A lot of times the question is raised, what does it mean to fear God? The Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Without the fear of the Lord, there is no wisdom. The fear of the Lord is where it begins. And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Okay, so the question naturally arises, and I've been asked many, many times. And for some reason, when I read it yesterday as I was putting the last touches on this, it jumped. In fact, I wasn't even going to include this in the sermon. And as I read back over this chapter that I was pulling it from, I realized this is an explicit answer to the question, what does it mean to fear the Lord? And the answer is to hate evil. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. in every form, whether it is in me or whether it is in someone else. To hate evil, to reject anything that is not glorifying to God, allows me to be able to recognize God as the source, the only source, of all that is good. And then if I hate evil, I will turn to Him because He is good. So in all of these things I was thinking about, I decided I want to take you on a series of messages here. And so I'm going to give you a table of contents as to where we will be going in the messages. And so you'll understand. Because I said we would come back to Luke. Last week I said that we would do that today, and we are, in a way, this is the laying the parameters, and then next week we'll lay a foundation, and then we'll jump into a series of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 teachings from Jesus, where I think all of these are bound together by a couple of common denominators. And so I want to establish that for us before we go on. So today we are setting the parameters for looking at these teachings of Jesus. Next week, or the next message, it won't be next week, but the next message, we're gonna talk about what does the Bible say about money, because that's where the next passage in Luke that we're going to go to is. It's going to talk about money, and our view of money, and how do we think, does money give us security? Is that our perspective? You know, when we are planning for later in our life? Is our security in money? It says that we ought to plan. And the Bible does talk about good things with money. And usually when it's talking about the bad things of money, it is the love of money. And so do we view this as a tool from God that is given to us? And that he has, for instance, I remember Juan Carlos Ortiz talking about a guy who worked for Ford Motor Company, and he was disappointed that he doesn't have a mission field. And he was saying, you know, I'm just working for Ford. I don't have a mission field where I can share the gospel. And Juan Carlos Ortiz replied to him, yes, you do. Ford Motor Company is your mission field. And God is supplying your support through Ford Motor Company. And sometimes we fail to understand that there is a there is a proper perspective of money. And we get tempted. Does anyone else check the balance in your investments or your 401k or any other thing like that? I do. I do. But as I do, Lord, thank you. And if this is how you're going to provide for me as I get to where I need to be provided for, wonderful, let it keep growing. And then as sometimes happens, there was one time not too long ago, about five years ago, five and a half years ago, where I lost, well, I lost, my portfolio dropped $70,000 in three weeks. Whoa, okay, Lord, if this is going to be how you provide for me, then you have to take care of it. And if you take it away, help me to keep trusting. How do we view money? What does the Bible say about how someone who trusts in God views money? And so we'll look at some scriptures that give us several different perspectives of that. And then the following week, We'll look in chapter 12 of Luke, verses 13 through 21, the story about the man whose harvest was bigger than he ever expected. And he said, oh, I'll make more bigger barns. And God's reminder, you fool, don't you know that this day your life is required of you? And we can't take it with us. But how do we view it? And if it is something that you have been trusting on in place of God, it's going to be a rebuke. Who do you think you are to think that you can provide for your future? But as a believer, who do you think you are? You are one who trusts in God to provide for you. And then that spills over into our anxieties about how long we'll live. Who do you think you are that you can make yourself live longer than God has decreed? That, if we understand ourselves in relation to God, the length of life that he has given to us, we want to make it as good as possible. Who do you think you are? Are you one who can make your life longer by your efforts? Or are you one who knows that God has already set a limit to your days and you are going to trust him to help you fulfill all that he has asked you to do within those limitations? Oops, it jumped ahead on me. Let's see. There we go. Oh, that's right. Okay. I split the screen so that there wouldn't be so many words on one screen and forgot about it. And then, Jesus talks about the master who goes away and the servant. What does the servant do? Does he, the chief steward, does he beat the other servants while the master's away, thinking, I don't know when the master's gonna, in fact, is he ever going to come? I might as well exercise my authority as the one who is in charge. Or, do you think of yourself as one who is here to serve until the master returns. You think of yourself as one who is here to take what he's given you and pour it into the ministry, invest it into the lives of people and into growing God's kingdom and not just your own. Are you faithfully serving while you're waiting? And then the next one is, oh, you think you're a discerning person. How come you can tell the weather, but you can't tell what's going on around you? How come you can understand what the weather is going to do, but you don't understand the kingdom of God and what God is doing? If we are in proper relation to God, okay, I can discern the weather, Lord, Help me to be fearful of you. Help me to hate what is evil, so that I might gain wisdom and understanding. As we were coming to church this morning, we were talking about some things, and one of the interesting things that came up in the discussion was from Romans 1, where it says, God gave them over to, and then as they continued to sin, God gave them over, and as they continued, God gave them over. And at one point, at some point, we would get so used to the way that we are living that we cannot see something outside of that. or the one who is apart from God, they begin to live under deception so long that they can't see truth. Or when they see truth, it appears as darkness to them. And that which is dark appears as light to them. As a believer, sometimes we get so comfortable in our style of life and in those sins that are comfortable to us. that we can't see that it's sin. How discerning are you? How discerning am I? And then the last one in this series would be righteousness. Are we like the Pharisee I'm so glad I'm not like that guy over there. You know, sometimes we do that in our Christian life, don't we? Just glad I'm not like that person. I am so glad that I don't struggle with that because, you know, I've got control of that. That is a dangerous thing to say. A dangerous thing to think. Every time that I have spoken to you about something that God has been doing in my life, that week I come under attack in that area. Who do I think I am? Am I one who is mature in the faith and therefore they ought to listen to me? Or am I one who recognizes that my walk of faith is purely a gift of God? So who do you think you are? Let that be the backdrop for your thinking over the next few weeks. Today I want to take us to Psalm 49. As I was looking, this psalm laid out the foundation for our thinking about all things, especially with regard to eternity, to our future, to our perspective of the things that are going on around us. It's all encapsulated in this little area here. And so we're going to look at this. The psalm naturally divides itself into four areas. The call to listen. Say, listen to me. And then the central question, why should I fear in the days of adversity? Why should I fear in the days of adversity? And that's the core question for this psalm and for this series that we are going to begin with. And then the folly of self-sufficiency, the folly of thinking that there's anything I can do that is going to outlast me, and even anything that I can do that will allow me to have an influence beyond myself, and then the outcome of the self-made one, and my response to that. So let's begin. I'm going to put up some key verses for each section, but I'm going to read the entire Psalm for you, and then we'll highlight some of these things. Psalm 49, I'm beginning with verse one. Hear this, all peoples, give ear all inhabitants of the world, both high and low, and rich and poor together. My mouth will speak wisdom and the meditation of my heart will be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will express my riddle on the harp. Why should I fear in days of adversity when the iniquity of my foes surrounds me, even those who trust in their own wealth? who boast in the abundance of their riches? No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of his soul is costly. He should cease trying forever, that he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay. For he sees that even wise men die, the stupid and the senseless alike perish. and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses are forever and their dwelling places to all generations, that they have called their lands after their own names. But man in his pomp will not endure. He is like the beasts that perish. This is the way of those who are foolish and of those after them who approve of their words. As sheep they are appointed for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning, and their form shall be for Sheol to consume, so that they have no habitation. God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased, for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory will not descend after him, Though while he lives he congratulates himself, and though men praise you when you do well for yourself, he shall go to the generation of his fathers, and they will never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish." The verse here, here are all people's My mouth will speak wisdom. The meditation of my heart shall be understanding. God is not one who favors one person over another. All of us are alike in God's sight. You know, when you look at an ant colony, can you tell one ant from another? Somehow they do. But from our perspective, there's no difference. And even when, I don't remember, the Queen Ant comes out, it's still just like all the others. When you're flying over in Los Angeles, you're coming into land And you've been over the city and you're coming down to get ready to land at LAX or Burbank, either one of them. And you're still at 10,000 to 12,000 feet as you're just entering into the basin area there. And you look down and you can't tell any distinction between anybody from that height, can you? Hard enough to tell the semis from the bicycles. They're all small. But as we get closer and closer, we begin to see the difference. And we begin to place values that are different over everybody else. And we begin to look at people and say, oh, that guy's dressed really well. He must be important. That person's dressed really shabbily, and they have all of their possessions in a grocery cart. They must be not important. And we begin to distinguish among ourselves. Remember James talked about that in the New Testament? Who are you to think that way? You have the poor guy come and you tell him to sit in the back and the rich guy comes and you tell him to sit in the front in the favored seat? The poor guy comes in and you say, well, maybe you could sit at his feet. We make those distinctions, but God does not, and especially when he calls to us, he says, listen to me, I am going to talk to all of you because all of you are in the same boat. You know, if I were to have a swimming competition with Michael Phelps, who would win? Go ahead and answer, who would win? You don't know the rest of the question. Where are we going to swim? How long is the swim? It's from here to Australia. Who's going to win? The sharks. Yeah. It doesn't matter how good a swimmer he is. He is not making it to Australia. Neither am I. He may make it miles further than I do. But when you're 22,000 miles above the earth, can you tell that He made it any further than I did? You can't even see Him. God does not play favorites with us. We are all in the same boat in God's eyes. And so God says, He cries out to us, listen to me. And it's our task to listen. In that next section, why should I fear in the days of adversity when the iniquity of my foes surrounds me? And then it labels for us what iniquity it's talking about. Verse six, those who trust in their wealth, he calls that iniquity. Those who boast in the abundance of their riches, he calls that iniquity. And then he goes on and says, there's no man that can pay a ransom for another. And he's talking about the eternal ransom to life, to eternal life. And he says, the ransom of their life is costly. If I tried to pay for Craig's life, It's a costly payment, and in the New American Standard it says it this way, the redemption of his soul is costly, and so I should cease trying forever. Wait a minute. What does that mean? Well The ESV says it this way The redemption of his soul is costly and can never suffice There's nothing I can do that will ever be able to pay enough for him not to see decay Nothing Nothing that I can do I am not good enough for my own sins, let alone for anybody else. And so why should I think that I am any better than anybody else? Why should I think if only you would follow me? It's only as Paul said it, follow me as I follow Christ. And he said, if you've heard anything or seen anything good in me, do that and you will live. Remember the qualification for that that he gave us elsewhere? For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. And it is God who gives us the power both to will to do something and to do it. God is the one who gave the power to do that, not me. And so even when I am doing great, it is not me who is working, but is Christ in me who is working. And so there is nothing that I can do that is worth following unless it is pointing others to Christ as the sons of Korah are doing here. Not in me, it's in he. And then as we go on a little bit further here, oh, I jumped ahead on myself. The foolish man, the iniquitous man, verse 10, he understands that even wise men die. What is it that kings always want to do? They want to have a house that lasts forever. They want to have a thousand-year kingdom, but they're not going to get to see it. They may even be like Solomon, who built a kingdom that was so powerful and so rich and so highly respected that people came from all over the world to see it, and to listen to his wisdom, and yet within one generation it was broken apart, and its glory was greatly diminished. There's nothing that we can do that causes us to be able to go on, and even the wise, even the iniquitous man knows that. He sees, don't worry about him, he's gonna die, and if necessary, I'll see to it. But he's not going to live on. But I am, he says to himself. Their inner thought, verse 11, is that their houses are forever. They're not going to live forever, but I am. Their influence is going to die, but mine will not. The effect of their lives upon our culture and our society and our community is going to die. But mine is going to keep going forever. That's just the way we think. We talk about teenagers having a immortality complex and how it drives and maybe it's an immortality complex. Maybe it's just like Lisa told us a while ago. What is it? One boy has half a brain? Is that how it goes? One boy has a brain, two boys have half a brain. Three boys have no brain. Yeah. And sometimes we blame that on that immortality complex. You know, they just don't see the consequences. I look back at some of the things that I did as a young person that were just innocent pranks and innocent things that we just, everybody did. Now today, If some of those things we were doing, if we got caught doing those things today, it would be jail time. Probably as an adult. And yet they were... We weren't... I don't think we were hurting anybody. We weren't stealing anything. We were just being stupid. And there was something in us that just said, Nothing can happen As I'm sitting in the back seat of a Plymouth Fury 3 whose driver is driving along at 60 miles an hour on a canal bank road Dirt road that's right beside the canal bank at night With no headlights and racing around trying to hit each other's cars with eggs, racing around at 60, 80 miles an hour through the farm country and no headlights because we wanted to sneak up on them. And we were just plain stupid. But we thought we would live forever. Their inner thought is that their houses are forever and they're dwelling places to all generations, so much so that they even call their lands after their own names. How many of you have noticed up O'Brien Road? For years and years, there was a small little property, maybe five or 10 acres, and the sign over the doorway was Rancho Costa Plenty. Somebody else owns it now. That name is gone. And that's just in my 30 years of being here. We think we're going to last forever, but verse 12, man in his pomp will not endure. He is like the beasts that perish. You know what I just realized? I have notes. Sure enough, there they are. And then in the next section, key verse, their inner thought is that their houses are forever in his pampas. He will not remain. He's like the beasts of the field. Because of their foolishness, they will not remain. This is the path of those who have a foolish confidence, verse 13 says, and of those after them who approve of their words. Not only is that person foolish, there are others who follow after them. Yep, that's the way I want to be too. It's the same malady that everybody who is apart from the Lord has. Everybody who is apart from the Lord thinks, I'm sufficient, that what I do, my good will outweigh my bad. Even the people who we would look at, say Hitler, we would look at him and say, how in the world could he think about that way? And yet in his own mind, what he was doing was to accomplish what he thought was good. To wipe out all the inferior peoples and all the inferior races, quote-unquote. And all of those who had maladies or all of those who had disabilities or all of those who used God for a crutch and especially those who thought of themselves as God's chosen people. And in his mind, He was doing good and thinking, I will, my mind, if there's a God, he's going to look at me and say, good job. We all think that way. All of us think that there's something about us that will qualify us for life if there's life after death. It's only through Jesus that we start to realize, no, I am not good enough. There's nothing in me that's good enough. And when we come to him and say, Lord, forgive me for thinking that I am as good as you, because that's the standard for eternal life, that we'd be as good as God. perfect in righteousness. I can't think of anyone, apart from one, who's fulfilled that. Apart from that, it's foolish confidence to think that my life, I can build my life the way I want it to, that I can make it so that I can sustain myself, and that I'm even good enough to bring others along with me. This foolishness. As sheep they are appointed for Sheol, death shall be their shepherd, not life. Death shall be their shepherd, and the upright will rule over them in the morning, and their form shall be for Sheol to consume, so that they have no habitation. The outcome Be not afraid when a man's glory increases, for he dies. When he dies, his glory will not go down after him. Verse 16. Don't be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased, for when he dies. Did Tutankhamen's wealth go with him? Did the Vikings Kings wealth go with them? We still find those ships every once in a while that they buried them in. All the gold and the weapons and the shields and wives. We could extend that through any culture. While he lives, he congratulates himself, and the sons of Korah write under God's inspiration that that's the way it is for all of us. That when we do well for ourselves, other men praise us. That's just the way it is. But it doesn't mean that that goes on beyond when we die. What happens when we die is we go to the generations of our fathers who will never see the light. This is apart from Christ. And then it says that again, man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish. Without understanding. There's an aspect of Proverbs that grew in my understanding as I was preparing for this. Remember the struggle to translate John 1, verse 1, the logos? You hear wisdom, understanding, word. And the translators all say, we're not quite sure how to translate this because it carries, it has so many connotations of what it's talking about. One of the things I'm convinced it is talking about is wisdom. When you look in Proverbs, look in chapter eight for just a moment. Remember those things about Jesus that helped affirm to us his identity as God the Son in the flesh? Listen to some of these verses that I'll read for you and see if that doesn't sound like Jesus. Verse 12, I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance, to hate pride and arrogance and the evil way. To hate the perverted mouth. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. Power is mine. By me, kings reign and rulers decree justice. And remember, those of us who have been studying in Daniel, Who is it that sets the kings up and puts them down? God. I love those who love me. Those who diligently seek me will find me. Jesus' statements, if you are not for me, you are against me. There's no fence sitting. It's either one or the other. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice, because the Father has committed all judgment to the Son. The Lord, verse 22, the Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old, from everlasting I was established. In other words, from all eternity past, I was already there. From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth, when there were no depths, I was brought forth. And when there were no springs abounding in water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth. While he had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world, when he established the heavens, I was there. When he inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when the springs of the deep became fixed, when he set for the sea its boundary so that the water would not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him as a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the world, his earth, and having my delight in the sons of men. So, O sons, listen to me, for how blessed are those who keep my ways, who heed instruction and be wise and do not neglect it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts, for he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. But he who sins against me injures himself, and all those who hate me Love death John 1 1 and following In the beginning was the Word The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God All things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being in Him was life Come to me and have life. And that life is the light of men. It shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. The darkness could not understand it. The darkness could not overcome it. Another one of those ones. How do we translate that the best? Hear this, all my peoples. My mouth shall speak wisdom. The meditation of my heart shall be understanding. The Holy Spirit reminded us through Paul that we ought not to think of ourselves more highly than we should. That's true for the unbeliever as well as a believer. The unbeliever thinking that he can be like God, that he can know when he's done enough good stuff to live forever. the believer, thinking that, I've got my fire insurance. Or you know what, one of the reasons why Quakerism was founded, why the message of the Friends was so heard and welcomed, was that part of the preaching was, God cares about what happens between the times you go for confession and to take communion. Your relationship with God is not just during those services, during those ordinances. Your relationship with God is a thing that is moment by moment, day by day. That's what this is talking about. That's what these next passages that we'll be studying together talk about. Do we recognize the moment by moment-ness of our dependence upon God? Or do we act foolishly? And in our foolishness, put ourselves in the position of wondering, is God going to look at me and say, yes, your sins were forgiven in Christ. And if we are in the faith and in the book of life that was given before the world was created, then yes, it's a besetting sin. But still, we're commanded in Scripture to lay aside all those sins that so easily entangle. And what we run the risk of is deceiving ourselves. And then coming up to the judgment seat of Christ and having Him say, Who are you? Do you have any identification? Because I sure don't recognize you. Your name's not here. Yes, I never knew you. Depart from me. The challenge for us as believers, God says that He will complete the work He's done in us, that He's begun in us. But He also says that we are to strive to finish the race. He also says that when we are striving to finish the race, it is He who is working in us to help us to want to finish the race well, and to help us to run the race well, so that it is He who finishes what He's begun in us. That's the challenge for us. And so I just invite you over the next few weeks to spend some time parked in Luke 12 and 13. Read it a few times. Let it get into your heart and your mind so that you start to think about it. And without thinking about it, it comes back up and you start to chew on it. That's what biblical meditation is. We put the word in. And then we consider it. What does it mean? We chew on it. And as you do, ask the Lord as I... Preaching is a terrible privilege. Such a privilege to bring the Word of God to you. It's such a terrible privilege, because if you think God is stepping on your toes once in a while, he's cutting me off at the knees frequently. And what I find is that there are so many times that I don't measure up to what I've preached. Appreciated how Craig said it a few weeks ago in Sunday school, that it's a lot easier to live it here right here as I'm sharing it with you, than it is this afternoon when somebody cuts me off in line at Costco. Or somebody driving behind me gets right up on my bumper. Or somebody looks at me and says, what makes you think that you're righteous? Or whatever else it is. The task is not for you alone, it's for me too. And so let's spend some time parked here. Just say, Lord, wash me. Wash me with your word. Father in heaven, thank you for this psalm that you inspired the sons of Korah to write. For the Jewish hymnal, for us to be able to read as a part of the Old Testament. And to be reminded that we do not need to fear when things that should cause anxiety rise around us. We do not need to fear when people who live in iniquity aim to grow more and more prominent and dominant. What we need to fear is you, and to do that is to hate evil. Lord, work in our hearts to show us any offending way, so that you might produce in us the meditations of our heart that are pleasing to you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Coming back to that little bit of stuff that we're looking at here in Luke 12 and 13. Let me pull open my Bible. One of the things that I did as I was preparing for this And I hadn't done this previously. If you look at my Bible, you can tell where I've spent the most time reading, because there's a lot of marks. But I added a new kind of mark, orange. I've never used orange before. And I put it on the verses that sum up the important statements out of the stories that Jesus was giving us. In Luke 12, 21, there's one of those statements. It follows after God says to the rich man who has stored up wealth for himself and continuing to store it up for himself, God says to him, you fool, this very night your soul is required of you. And now who will own what you have prepared? And here's the key verse. So it is, so is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So as I look at that, is that me? Lord, help me to be rich toward you. In the next one, talking about the anxieties of our life, making our life longer and better, end of that in verse 34, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And then looking at being ready for when the Master returns, a couple of verses there. Verse 40, you too be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. And verse 42, the Lord said, who then is the faithful and sensible steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. And then a little bit later in verse 55, you hypocrites talking about the Pharisees and those who can't seem to understand that if righteousness comes into the world, righteousness is going to be so clearly seen that it divides. Christ says, I've come to divide. Even within households, He says, I will divide because righteousness is here. And as we live our lives as Christians, the more righteousness of Christ is seen in us, the more division it's going to cause around us. There will be those who will react against it. Those who will turn toward God because of it. You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky. Why do you not analyze this present time? We are moving into a time where more and more people think of God in a way that is less and less like God. So are we discerning that? Do we understand that that's what's happening? Are we being a part of being an ambassador of reconciliation? God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself and we have been made ambassadors of that reconciliation. Is that how we're acting? Are we discerning of the times? And then the last one, The fig tree that's been growing in the man's vineyard for three years should be producing fruit, not producing fruit. The master says to his gardener, cut the thing down. Why is it even taking up, using up the ground, the nutrients of the ground if it's not going to produce fruit? And the servant answers and says, let it alone, sir. One more year. Let me dig around it and put some more fertilizer on it. And if it bears fruit, wonderful. But if not, cut it down then. That's the time we're living in. We talked in the last section about discerning the time. Now this one, I want you to think of it in terms of us as believers. God has planted us to grow and bear fruit in this generation that we live in. We are here for such a time as this. And the task is yet unfinished. God has put us here for this time. Are we bearing fruit where we're planted? It's one of the things that's wonderful about Jesus. First John 1, 9 tells us if we confess our sins, He, God, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Verses 8 and 10 tell us that if we think we are without sin, we're calling God a liar. And if we think we're without sin, we're just self-deceived. But then he goes on in chapter two and says, my little children, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father. This is Christ the righteous. If we're that fig tree that's not bearing good fruit, we recognize it. Lord, what is there that is within me that needs to be yielded to you so that that can become A non-factor no longer hinders my testimony. What is there that needs to be done? Is it sin? Is it lethargy? Is it that I just don't care? Apathy? What is it that is preventing me from bearing the kind of fruit you want me to bear? And as he points that out to your heart and mind, we confess it, we yield it to the Lord, and Jesus himself takes it to the Father. Lord, look at this one of yours. He's trusting in you. She's trusting in you. And in the words of that servant the following year, look at the fruit. Look at the fruit, Father. Your word did not go out in vain. Look at the fruit. Father in heaven, may it be so in our lives. Work in us and produce the kind of fruit that you desire. It's in Jesus' name that we ask. Amen.