Self Awareness

Transcript

i'm not much of giving any of my talks titles i know people always call me when i'm doing an excitation what's your excitation on i don't know

i don't know what to say um and you know i'm kind of old school i wouldn't have the slightest idea how to make a slide nor have i ever tried

i remember the era when bible classes and sundays adult sunday school used to be round table discussions rather than lectures so i'd like to kind of keep this more of a round table discussion i know we can't keep our mics open uh zoom wouldn't support full duplex but at any time you want to break in and say something if you have a thought please do so don't wait for me to stop just jump in anytime

um [Music]

i probably will also ask people to do uh some short readings during the course so if you could keep your uh cameras on so i can see who's here in person that would be very helpful

with that aside uh first thing i'm going to do is

have a reading from the book of the hebrews

as a source of encouragement uh when we are instructed to stir up uh one another uh to love and good works and not neglecting our meeting together so let's see brother bob davis you're the first one i see if you have your bible handy

oh bob seems to have

oh i guess he went to get his bible hey brother bob davis if you could if you would please read hebrews chapter 10 uh verses 24 and 25. i'll be happy to thank you

hebrews 10. and let us consider

how we may spur one another towards love and good deeds

not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing

but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching

thank you brother bob now we we hear these uh verses read quite frequently on sunday morning and i think they're very powerful words and i think they deserve a great deal of attention uh because um

we do need

to provoke one another unto loving good works this is a very precarious era that we live in some people are of the mind that we could very well be right at the brink of the return of christ and there's certainly good reason to uh think that now i know every generation has thought that the disciples asked jesus that very question will you now at this time restore

uh the kingdom to israel

and they had good reason to ask that i mean the world at that particular point

was uh

you know gotten to the point where the followers of christ were in a very precarious situation literally for their very lives

so i can certainly understand why that generation would have felt that way

and throughout the ages for the next two thousand years i think probably uh almost every generation of believers has had that concern

i um i think i've mentioned before i have the obituary of my great grandfather written by the recording brother here in boston i believe it was brother raleigh at the time you know saying how we're scanning the skies daily just waiting for that moment of price return because we know it's so near that was in the year 1912 hundred 110 years ago

and the brother and then didn't think any different in boston than we do right now

and with good reason i may add these are not foolish people these are people who had very good reason to believe the day is coming as do we

and sometimes those are not very pleasant

um signs of the time shall we say i'm you know it's very discouraging for example when we see people who have a desire to serve god who enter into the waters of baptism or have been raised in the truth who then decide to walk away and we see that so often and it's heartbreaking but it's not just in this generation you know i was thinking when i was in sunday school there were about a dozen people of my age now i was at the very bottom of the age list in my particular group so i was you know people who were a year younger than me such as brother dana adams they were in the next group uh down in age but everybody in my group was a little bit older a little more mature um you know certainly more sensitive to things like the uh the draft and the war in vietnam and things of that nature and out of those 12 to 13 uh uh young men and young ladies i believe i'm the only one who is still an active number and an ecclesia

and that's a sad thought and it's nobody's fault it's not that uh their parents did them a disservice it's not that the ecclesia failed them or their sunday school teachers i mean brother bill cadell jr was a marvelous sunday school teacher i don't think there's one person in boston that could think of one negative thing to say about our brother bill cadell jr i don't remember bill cadell senior that well but he was a good man too from what i remember but it wasn't their fault

you know we have we are adults when we enter into the waters of baptism we put on the name of christ it's an adult decision

and i think it's important that we need to provoke one another until love and good works because quite frankly i think it's the only way we have that we're going to keep our heads

above the ground and to be able to put up with all that we have to go through in our mortal daily lives we cannot forsake the assembling of ourselves together now we're very good at meeting together on sunday mornings even through this pandemic

and god bless your brother phil for having the technology that you're able to share that we were able to meet together even when there were only a couple of people at the building in stoughton

we were able to get together and we were able to meet online hundreds of people were able to get together and meet online

and we were very very fortunate here in boston that we were able to do so and i think we all really have to uh be appreciative that we've had this uh wonderful opportunity it serves as an example i think because indeed we see the day approaching

so that kind of leads me into the first topic of the stuff first of all anybody have anything they'd like to interject

okay um the first subject of um the discussion i think the first topic under this heading i would like to think about integrity

um it's a word that gets thrown around a lot but you know what does it mean in scripture what examples do we think of of a person's integrity

and the first one i came across was uh i'd like to read as proverbs chapter 11. let's see who do i here see here kathy skroy

kathy would you please read proverbs 11 verse 3 you're muted kathy

okay

okay the integrity of the upright shall guide them but the

perverseness

of of transgressors shall destroy them

yeah

and i think that has a pretty uh important message you know it's important to have integrity it's important that our word means something that we be truthful i mean we're always gonna be sinners

we are always going to fall short there's no question about that

but i think our moral integrity is one of the few things in life that we have control over

um you know we make the decisions

how we live our lives

you know our moral choices are our own and when you give that up you're basically giving up the one thing you have any control over so i think the man's integrity his willingness to tell the truth

his desire to be kind one to another you know it's one of the few things we can control and one of the few things that we have power over and i think you know from what kathy just read that it's a very important thing that we keep this in mind

uh from progress right in the book of proverbs from chapter 12 12. brother jim boyco would you please read from proverbs chapter 12 verse 22. yeah i'm just uh finding the verse here proverbs 12 verse 22. the lord detests lying lips but he delights in people who are trustworthy

there you go

so i mean that's a that's really a a twofold

a statement yes on the one hand god despises lying

but on the other hand he tells us that he is delighted

by uh those that deal truthfully

so it's not just though you lied that's bad no you told the truth that's great

you know your honesty is appreciated by god and that's again that's not a difficult thing but it's something that god looks at with great favor

and i think a lot of times people you know try to see the negatives but it's i think it's even more important that we grow on the positives and that's something we can do every day

uh our integrity can um [Music]

can so you know please our heavenly father

and you know bob when you talk about integrity yeah i remember um

when my kids were young um social media was a a new thing you know and it was a real worry for a lot of parents and i think that one of the things that i discovered

is that for a lot of these children

their their true character comes through through you know their social media posts

and when i was growing up and when you were growing up you know it was easy to be a certain person on sunday

and to sometimes slip up and be a different person during the week as teenagers

and nobody would know except us

and it and it uh i think the point i'm trying to make is i think there's a difference between one's integrity in one's reputation

right we can manage our reputation reputation i think is how we're perceived by others

but integrity in my view is really who we are deep down

and um you know if we if we are who we say we are then that's what uh i think you know that's that's i think what what you're leading to would you say well i think our integrity uh you know makes us who we are

yeah you know that is what builds our reputation

right but but you can fake a reputation oh yes absolutely but you can't fake your integrity that's true yeah i think that's true yes and it's not just the social media thing it's a lot of things i know um you know i i'm still very active at the school where i used to work i go to a lot of sporting events yes you know and that i think is you know so important because that's the kind that nobody cares if a kid you know the team wins or loses the football game yeah it's always great when your team wins but i think what the kids get out of athletics you know the character it feels the self-discipline you know i think it helps in so many different walks of life it helps in their academics

i'm a very uh pro school uh athlete athletic department kind of a person you know i never used to be really i thought it was you know just fun and games but um you know as i've grown older and i've seen more first hand i've really come to the realization how much it strengthens a person's character when they're part of a team or be a team or band or theater or whatever they're part of a group that depends on them as individuals and how they conduct themselves i think is very important and i think that's the lesson that they learn that will carry them through life

and i think that what you're talking about tonight isn't so much just being a part of a a group at school we're talking about being united in christ oh absolutely yeah

you know puts it on steroids right i think it all comes down to that but that's what helps build character in whatever way shape or form it comes the bottom line as far as we're concerned is how our reputation christ is not only perceived but what it actually is

and i think those are very good points steve does anyone else have anything they'd like to interject

uh let's see here brother richard are you with us brother richard ferreira

yeah i am here hi richard would you be so kind to uh do a reading for me please uh hebrews chapter 13 certainly yeah hebrews 13 verse 18. pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience

in all things willing to live honestly thank you you know and um

i think it just goes back to what uh steve and i were just saying that integrity

um is something that carries us through on all things at school at home

uh at our jobs with our neighbors our friends through all sorts of activities and all sorts of relationships with other people because i mean obviously people look at us and decide whether or not they even want to be friends a lot of times based on that character and our integrity

and if we don't care about this uh particular aspect of our lives how's anybody ever gonna wanna you know be friends with us in the first place

and if you know we don't share that in our walk walking christ how's he gonna look at us

so i i think it's a very important uh thing that we keep in mind in identifying christ

both through

action and through example

and that our identity as uh new creatures in christ uh um you know doesn't mean that it has to be identified you know from a bump a sticker on our car or a slogan on a t-shirt or a tattoo on iran's

it's what's inside of us who we are you know what we help build ourselves to be and i think that comes through um constant reading of the word i think it goes right back to the very first uh reading that we did that we not forsake the assembling of ourselves together because we need each other and more so than ever do we need each other

and um i i just think that these are all the very important building blocks

that we uh develop what we are internally rather worrying about how we are perceived on the outside through material things you know wearing a t-shirt that says you know jesus is coming is fine but you know you have to live it you have to believe it you can't just display it i guess that's what i'm getting at

anybody thoughts comments

okay well i thought the first path we would explore under this heading um

would be in relationships

and this can include any kind of relationship whether it's dating or marriage or a child development

um

developing safe and happy friendships

how we get along with others again our siblings our parents uh children uh co-workers etc etc

and um [Music]

i think uh one of the things that we need to do when

we're

trying to build these relationships is to be able to recognize uh temptations

that may come along that we

are uh

that would be able to overcome

and one way to recognize temptation is by separating the commandments of the trust of faith which uh from god and temptations of the flesh

which is of man

so um

let's see here if we can look at james

uh chapter one

let's see who do we have on the list here david or andor roberta um could you do a reading please

if you could please read james chapter 1 verses 13 through 15. 13-15 yes brother james 1 let no man see when he is tempted i am tempted of god for god cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed then when he is conceived he bringeth for sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death

very good thank you

so what no man say when he is tempted i'm tempted of god well we know that god uh tests people

i mean i think you know obviously he tested adam in the garden and that didn't go very well

he tempted

or attempted abraham would he be willing to kill his son how on earth he was ever able to do that abraham must have been a remarkable man i can't imagine having to be in those shoes i mean we can tell the story of how he was about to sacrifice his son and god stopped him but how on earth that man was able to do such a thing and go through with it and have such amazing faith in god that god could raise his son from the dead i mean to me that says to me well he didn't he didn't believe abraham i don't think believed that god was going to stop him from killing him

abraham's faith laid in the fact that he believed that god could raise his son from the dead

and you know that's an even a greater level of faith it's one thing to say well okay well god will probably not make me actually do it but to believe that it's actually going to happen that you actually have to kill somebody your own son you're only

well not his only son but his only son through his uh through his wife

that he would be able to go through that with the assurance that god could raise him up from the dead

and i think that is a truly uh remarkable thing and i can't imagine what an incredible man of faith abraham truly must have been

and i can only hope that someday i'll have the pleasure of getting to meet him

um [Music]

let's see i kind of lost my train of thought i'm sorry um

but i guess my point is that by knowing

when temptation uh turns into sin

um and believing that god gives us the power to resist temptation [Music] that we can avoid getting in over our heads when problems

do come our way and we know that they certainly will

so what's the next step that we need to take and i would say it would probably uh hinge on being doers of the word uh james uh back to james chapter one let's save you who do we have

so bob before you go ahead and move on yeah you know in terms of the round table discussion you are hoping um you know when you think about temptation um

you know how is it that we overcome it right i mean i think uh sometimes it's it's through willpower

but willpower doesn't uh you know willpower comes and goes right absolutely and i think to me

it's having

you know a greater understanding of why

we are living a christ-like life

um

you know it's not so much about avoiding doing things it's about agreeing

to uh to live a certain way does that make sense

i i think so in general anyway yes yeah

um

you know so willpower goes to certain goes a certain distance but if you've got a real you know if there's a purpose behind why you're living a life of you know following jesus if it's because you know you truly desire to honor god maybe it makes it easier to to step up uh if you truly desire to

honor jesus life

maybe it makes it easier to live that way as opposed to simply trying to avoid doing something i think that's where i'm going

okay um i'm curious uh you know so that's that's that's part of uh resisting you know temptation i would think but i think that we all play a part in helping each other right you know the community that you talk about is one where we can draw strength from others examples we can draw strength from um you know just um comfort that we might have and confiding in someone or that sort of thing

this is sandy i'm sorry i was thinking also steve that you know we also can to our strength from someone's experience whether it's negative or it's a failure or or someone sharing their trials and troubles with somebody that yes i i was able to conquer this mountain i was able to get through this it was hard it was miserable it was wrong but i was able to do it and um you know even though we could learn from other people's mistakes though i always feel like i have to make my own to learn

yeah not necessarily you know i think that you you know with that experience you're able to help somebody along the way and um and we can learn from our own fakes as well you know um yeah

yeah

i think we can learn from other people's mistakes as well as for my wrong yeah the important things that we learn

and i think there's probably different temptations different people have yeah what makes one person may not tempt another uh for example you know they the scriptures talk about how people are tempted by money and riches well i've never had a lot of money in riches but i've always had enough money to pay my bills

i've always had enough uh

you know to to get what i you know to what i basically need and i've always been content with what i have i don't have a big fancy house but i have a nice house i don't have a big fancy cat but i got a car i enjoy

i'd like to have another van if i could afford to put the gasoline in it

but you know those those are material things that for some reason i've never really been that personally tempted by but i can understand why some people may be

so maybe simple for me to say well you know a 2005 crown vic is you know my idea of a nice car i'm perfectly satisfied somebody else may lament the fact that they can't afford a corvette

i don't want a corvette i can't fit in a corvette

so i haven't but maybe if i could i'd be tempted by it there's nothing wrong with having one but there is something wrong if you put um wealth ahead of

uh makes that your priority in life

and again back to abraham one of our wealthiest men in scripture and he never put that as a priority in his life that was not the most important thing in his life

hey i saw david hill had his hand up david hill say that

we sometimes question why we have temptations

or trials

and uh and then i think this is the answer in this first chapter of james says that we're at accounted all joy and why will we be joyful when we fall into temptation well i think the answer is is that it's an opportunity for us to grow it's an opportunity for us to learn and then he goes on in verse three knowing that this is the testing of your faith and so the trials that we have to uh go through eventually if we respond in the way that are expected to our faith is increased

and so we you know and then we present if we can do that i think we present a better example to those around us

excellent anybody else

okay i think i was just starting to speak about you know how we can be doers of the word and why we would want to be um back in james chapter one i'll read this one um

james chapter 1 verses 22 to 23 but be you doers of the word and not here is only

deceiving your own selves

for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass

and um [Music]

again i can see where it is it is so easy to just simply go to church on sunday or read from the bible or

you know whatever and and hear the word but not be doers so how do we separate those those two activities we need to obviously we need to read and obviously we need to spend time one with another

but how do we take that and turn that into action

any thoughts on that

stephen court

i think

how we do that is um

starting out

to do the simple things

that we like um would we like somebody to open up a door for us while we're going into a store or or whatever or um you know the simple little things that we like and i think that's how we can start doing things that god wants us to do is to think about well one of the things that we like when people do things for us and and we can kind of keep that in mind as we go through our lives through the week

and and be attuned uh to uh helping people out

very good and we certainly all have opportunities to do that um

we we all have uh families or friends that we associate with even if we don't get out of the house as much as we'd like to uh we are still in touch with people and i think there's a lot of ways that you know just that behavior alone

um can be seen by other people even if they don't understand why or know why we act or behave a certain way

i think it is appreciated when people do things for other people now just go back to my example at the school you know i said i went to a lot of sporting events

now i don't get to too many professional sporting events anymore um i used to like to go into red sox games and even the occasional uh patriots game but it's just gotten so uh priced out of uh reality but i just don't bother anymore once in a while i used to go to a paw sox game

but even that now that they've moved out to worcester i don't know if i'm going to be doing that anymore or not

but um you know for all the times i did go i never once had a professional ball player come up to the stands and say bob thanks for being here

but you know what i go to a high school game and the vast majority of the kids will thank me for having come to their game because they realize i'm not a resident of the town they live in i'm now retired i no longer work at the school and yet of my own desire i'm there to try to support their activities and they appreciate that

the same with the parents i hear from numerous parents oh thank you so much for coming out to the game

no professional ever thanked me but the kids do

and you know it's just an example of how your simple actions your daily actions can be seen and appreciated by other people

so i think it's important that we always try to show a level of concern

and good will towards all men

because you just never know how somebody's going to react brother stephen yeah um i had an example happen to me i went and uh

was doing something for somebody and this person said well why did you do that why did you do that for me and i said because christ told me to

and for this person he just couldn't understand why i was doing it

and so there was an example of testifying to somebody but by saying well because christ tells me to and so maybe he'll get interested and maybe read his bible

you never know what's going to affect somebody

you you really don't and to you know let opportunities slide by

i think is a is a dreadful thing it's a sad thing

and i'm not just exhorting on um you know what we can do for people outside the community but also for people inside the community

for our young people for our elders for our friends our contemporaries there's all sorts of situations that will pop up in life

where you can do simple acts of kindness and it doesn't take a lot

you know when i heard katie had um

contracted coven i picked up the phone and gave her a call no big deal i don't need a pat on the back but you know it just seemed to me to be the right thing to do

but i can't cure her i don't have the the ability to say okay you are cured

i can't do that i can't help her to the degree that she needs to be helped but at least i can pick up the phone and say hi i'm thinking of you

and you know it's a lot of times it is those little things i can't raise a man from the dead

but i can direct you to the scriptures that talk about the man who can

and if you know if that opportunity should present itself

then i think we need to be doers and be able to take advantage of those situations

because it's a lot of times it's the little things in life

bob can i jump in with a comment i think you just did yeah um i think i think stephen brought up a great point and i think he sort of piggybacked on it in a way and that is um you know stephen made the comment that

why is he doing this he's doing this you know i i can't remember exactly how you worded it uh stephen but you know it was because of jesus and in the scriptures it talks about you know giving a cup of water in my name right there are a lot of people who are kind people there are a lot of people who do good works

and i think the distinction that we might consider making is not only doing those good works but explaining as you sort of talked i can't raise the dead but i can point you to the man who can

and if we're simply doing good works and the accolades are flowing back on us well that's you know that's not the intent right the intent is that we do these things so that god would be glorified you know let your light so shine that others may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven

absolutely

and by doing so

uh

god is pleased with us

sure yeah yeah can i say something this is sandy hi

hi where's your videos

my video's not working right now

um i think of the parable about the wise man building his house on the rock and it's all it's knowledge and understanding but it's also

um [Music] i don't have it in front of me but also the one that does it acts on it you know so it really goes hand in hand you know being a wise man is knowing

our

knowing god's word and also doing for others and um i think that's they have to go together you know um they both hurt yeah yeah only one right

okay that's it

thank you sandy the end

is that somebody else

i'm like uh stuart

stewart did you have your hand up yeah hi brothers and sisters how you going um

yeah appreciate the discussion hey um i i was just thinking about this uh kind of connection between

um doctrine and practice you know it's like

um brother stephen talked about the you know the why and the kind of reason the rationale behind why we do things and um just reminded me of this discussion we're having back home where i come from um with our summer school class and it's all about you know the the giving kids the the reason why they should you know buy into christ and um you know the reason why they should be motivated the reason why they choose to give their lives to christ and you know this kind of fundamental premise about who god is and understanding that we act in a pure way because god is pure because you know we shine our lights because god is light and um you know we've got no greater reason than that apart you know from um jesus christ his son to do what we do or to act how we act um and this this idea of you know hearing the word uh understanding why we believe something and understanding what we believe in and then having you know that doctrine impact our life

um is what god wants us like it's it's not just listening and it flicking through our heads and you know disappearing it's it's impacting our lives and if we really understand who god is and the fact that he is pure then why wouldn't we act in a pure way and so on and so forth um as you look at his character and how awesome it is it's every reason for us to act the same way because you know he's so great he's so good um and you know connect those two and without that it's it's yeah our lives are a bit of a sham so yeah appreciate the discussion

thank you

and uh yeah i mean it just boils down to the fact that we're here for a very short time

nobody's gonna remember most of us when we're gone maybe they won't remember any of us

i mean i could pull out a list right now with the christadelphian athleisure i think i got a list here from 1918 or something like that there's very few names you would recognize on the list

there's a couple of hamptons and atoms and there's an eagles um i'm trying to think but that's about it most of the names and names completely foreign to me maybe some of us older ones might might recognize names that i don't but

it's a very short list who was that person i never heard of that person in my life and that was only 100 years ago and yet every believer is known to god

you know i can you imagine being uh being in the kingdom and introducing yourself and i'm just using this as an example but introduce yourself to somebody else i'm so-and-so i was lived in boston massachusetts whoa so did i

[Laughter]

you know in 2018 well i was there in 1918. never heard of them but god certainly has heard of them and that's the important thing we can't put our faith in ourselves

because our legacy is virtually non-existent

but to god better comment sure

audrey oh okay um i was just thinking examples of our thinking about our lord at the

you know the day before he was

to be um arrested how you know the disciples were arguing about who's going to be the greatest and here's the son of god and he's showing humility and he takes off his garment and he washes the disciples feet so that that is definitely teaching a principle in action and that's what we need to do for each other you know we say that we're humble and stuff but our actions need to show it

yeah i think that's wonderful you know one of the things i know you're just in the book of james one of the things that james speaks about is uh how the tongue is a fire

um i think it's james it says that um

i think i got that one on the line here

yeah james chapter three

and the tongue is a fire a word of iniquity so is the tongue among our members that it defile up the whole body and set up on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell for every kind of beast and bird and serpent and all things in the sea is tamed and has been tamed of mankind but the tongue can no man tame

it is an unruly evil it is full of deadly poison

and that's what we have to come back

we really have to take a moment and think about what we say

because you can say just one thing to one person the wrong way

and it can undo years of good work

um

you know and and we are the the creatures on this earth that that have a tongue in order to speak no other animal on earth can speak well at least not speak intelligently yeah i know i i've heard parrots ask for crackers and things like that but they're just mimicking they're not talking intelligently man is the only creature on earth that has this gift

and we can use it wisely and be doers of the word

we can use it wisely

and with integrity

we can use it wisely and develop healthy good lasting relationships

and not just with our boyfriend girlfriend spouse

um whatever but also with friends neighbors people we come in contact with so much good can come from the time you know and steve was talking earlier about the impact of social media and you can use that with just about anything but the tongue the tongue can have more impact than anything

it's something that we

need to control it's something that we need to

use for good

and we can do marvelous things with our tongues oh there are people out there that can speak so well you know i have a difficult time speaking on on the computer like this i'm not so bad when it comes to talking face-to-face but an environment like this i'm not very comfortable but nevertheless um

i i think it's important to realize that as much evil can come forth from the tongue as good and vice versa and that's what we need to concentrate on is we know we're going to make mistakes but we still need to try and concentrate on using our tongue for good for matters of integrity for building relationships and for praising our creator in heaven

anybody

i see a hand i'm so i can only see a few screens here at a time

ellen were you gonna say something you look like you're smiling

no sorry go ahead

i was just going to say like sort of to

put a point on what you're saying um

it's only the word of god that can discipline the tongue

and in that chapter that you're looking at my eye was drawn to verse 17 and 18 where it talks about the wisdom that is from above and it says that it is peaceful gentle and easy to be entreated full of mercy good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy

and here's the here's the slammer and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace

so if you know if we follow those directions the tongue can be tamed

oh yes

what first was that david uh verse 17 and 18 chapter three

i think the point is it's something that we have to work at it's something we have to make happen

as living creatures it's just not going to come naturally i don't think ordinarily

it's something that needs to be developed with a good positive frame of mind

and i think to develop that frame of mind the first thing we have to do is search the scriptures daily and we have to learn and practice kindness one towards another

it's it's all it all grows it all uh very much

spreads itself out

ellen you keep looking like you're about to say something

there was a couple times but um

it just makes me think

like like an overall

picture like

somebody said to me once

like you need to live your life so that when people

like you're an example

so that when people see you

they say i want what she has

like like that you you're joyful and the way you live your life is

you know christ-like and but not christ-like in a way that

i know i feel like sometimes it's like fire and brimstone

with some people

and

it should be more the the joy and

when you think about being christ-like

people thronged christ

like they wanted to be around him they wanted to hear what he had to say

they

they were

and he

he enthralls people they they

just couldn't get enough

so to be christ-like

you have to make it so that people want what you have to offer

very good

i see we're getting close to the end of that time does anybody else have anything they'd like to say

all right well then i uh i guess that's about it

i um

thank everybody for your attention and i love i

it's sort of uh frightening

to think that all of our good works

can be destroyed so easily

by our tongue

yes

this all arguments usually are started by

something that we say

rather than something that we do

we can

we can make people angry

by what we say

and i think that is so critical that we have to do something to

make our tongues behave

and the only way we can do that i think

is by reading the word

having the word of god implanted in our mind so that we have an attitude we have a desire

to smooth things out

rather than to be confrontational

jesus very seldom was confrontational

but as ellen said he had a lifestyle that people were attracted to him not only by what he did but what he said

because he had

god's purpose

in his mind

so i think that we've got a big job to do i know i do a big job to do is to clear our mind and sort of have an implant

of the word of god and the attitude of jesus

so that we can replicate that

not replicate it but become part of it you know what i mean yeah

and i think likewise it's important to remember i mean not everybody did love jesus i mean there are people that hated him so much that they ended up crucifying him because they just hated everything he did and the threat that he posed to their way of livelihood and everything else and it's possible people will meet us and hate us too

but you know we live in a society where everything is supposed to be so politically correct you can't say this you can't say that you can't belong

if god instructs us to do something then that's what we do we don't have to you know always feel like we're on god that somebody's going to be offended by the fact that we believe the things concerning the kingdom of god in the name of jesus christ that's the priority it's great if we could get everybody to feel good about christ

but the bottom line is it's not going to happen it didn't happen when jesus was walking the earth it's certainly not happening today

but we have to concentrate ourselves to do the best possible job we can do for ourselves for our brothers and sisters our young people our elderly people we come in contact with love our neighbors as ourselves

and you know people aren't always going to like us and they're not always going to appreciate everything that we say

so i suppose if you got to make anybody happy i guess you have to make god happy first

and i guess that's the bottom line excuse me brother bob sister audrey how are you hi so i was just to go along with that james 1 19 know this my beloved brothers let every person be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger so that's something that's a prayer that i pray every day several times a day people are drawn to somebody that listens i mean you you are you're drawn to somebody that listens and i think that's that it's just a really good guide

be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to anger

good words to live by

one one last comment from brother richardson

good i there's so many wonderful pers way the bible provides so many wonderful ways to look at christ and i'm quite a few have been brought out that are all very helpful and i just want to add one more to that and um

we read in galatians 3 this phrase you know we we if you be christ you know we put on christ and then we're therefore we're heirs

to the uh as as a seed of abraham which is which is through faith because abraham was a man of faith

and um we often think of the galatians 3 putting on of christ in association with that sort of one initial event of baptism that's very much the context of those passages

but the faith of abraham was a lifelong faith and he for example uh waited a very long time for his son has promised seed to be born and then of course you mentioned

uh he was asked to sacrifice

him and uh and and which would have been a huge trial and test and um

so when we put on christ it's not us a single moment in time putting on christ and the faith that goes along with that

is if it is the faith of abraham then that's a lifelong faith and um

and we we and what we're trying to do is not uh

uh be the you know we're we're we're not trying to we're trying to emulate christ in our character not you know just develop our own wonderful

characters but specifically in particularly the character of christ and and i think that that gives us a different an additional way to think of putting on christ is not just associated with that moment in time that we were baptized but we put on christ you know daily uh for our whole life

it's a lifetime commitment and so wonderful that it is because it makes us it forces us to make it a part of our daily lives if baptism was just a one-day one-shot deal

what would the advantage of that be it's something that you have to make a lifelong commitment

and bob i always remember talking about the breaking of bread and uh the fact that you know jesus commanded us to uh to do this in his in his memory and uh you know that's a weekly thing at least for us [Music]

you know we're to examine ourselves where to sort of make sure that it is a lifelong thing pray without ceasing well i think that means pray often but yeah i don't think you can pray every second of every day obviously but pray often and i would say certainly at least daily yeah read the scriptures daily

you know keep in touch with people try to do so daily

you know it's not that tough we live in a world of tremendous communication